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It's a snowy day over Vale City during the evening of the day before Christmas. Yang is all alone at home. While her father is out doing mechanic work, and Ruby is out with her friends, Yang sits alone at home, polishing her prosthetic.
All alone. That wasn't an uncommon occurrence in the house. Blake had just moved back to Menagerie to reconcile with her parents, and Weiss was busy with SDC crap after her father died due to ... external forces. Needless to say, Yang certainly had a hand in it.
But now? Alone. Her friends from school had outcasted her for reasons she didn't understand, and she didn't want to but into Ruby's time with her friends, so she just sat at home, polishing and reading whatever she could find to keep her company.
Suddenly, she gets a message from Ruby. 'Guess she needs me to pick her up.', she thinks. To her surprise, it isn't. Ruby asked her to come down to the city centre. When Yang asked why, Ruby said it was a secret. Thus, she puts on her prosthetic and gets ready to go out.
Winter is standing with Ruby and Weiss in Vale's city centre. What they were doing there was clear — to try and clear Weiss' mind from the struggles of being the SDC's new CEO. And they were also waiting for someone.
She jumped when Ruby, out of the blue, called out for someone. She heard the words 'Yang' and 'Over here', so she assumed it was whoever they were waiting for.
"Have you ever met Yang?", Weiss asked. Winter shook her head as she corrected Weiss' beanie that Ruby had bought her today. "I think once during ... then.". Weiss nodded and gave her a thumbs up. "You'll love her. She's amazing.".
What's this? There was something off, and Winter knew it. She decided to let it slide, however, as she saw the blonde approach. While Winter was wearing a white coat with black buttons — which were unbuttoned to reveal a white t-shirt — and black pants, Yang was wearing a leather jacket with an orange under shirt, along with a pants of slightly less saturated hue. She even had earmuffs.
"Hey, guys.", Yang greeted. Weiss waved her hand and Winter walked forward and extended her arm. "Pleasure to — formally — meet you. I assume you know me?", Winter asked. Yang nodded and accepted her hand. Yang's hand was warm, while Winter's hand was shockingly very cold.
"The pleasure is mine. And yes, Winter, I do know you.", Yang said. Winter smiled and let go of her hand. "I suppose you're Yang?", Winter askes. Yang nods. Now, an uncomfortable silence falls upon them. It's broken, however, when Winter realizes that Ruby and Weiss were missing.
"Er, where are our sisters?", Winter askes. Yang's head snaps around her and finds no trace of them. "We should give them a call. It isn't like Ruby to leave someone unannounced.", Yang says. "Neither for Weiss.".
They attempted calling their sisters, to no avail.
"Where the heck could they have gone?", Yang asks. Winter shrugs. She also starts getting cold and rubs her shoulders with her hands.
"Say, how about you and I get a drink somewhere warm. It's starting to get chilly.", Winter suggests. Yang nods as she shivers. "Yeah, I guess we should. I thought you would like the cold?", Yang asked. Winter looked confused, but remembered her name. Winter sighed, and Yang laughed at her own joke.
Hmm, what a comforting laugh.
Yang brought Winter over to a café close to the beach. After a few minutes of just warming up, the two began to fall into a rhythm where they kept discovering things that they had in common with each other.
"I know! Gosh, it's annoying when they reuse the same plots over and over!", Winter exclaims, taking a gulp, which might as well have been a shot, of her tea. Some end-of-year promotion the were doing to have cups of iced tea in beer mugs.
"Go easy, Ice Queen. Or, should I call you Ice Queen the first?", Yang teased. Winter — now comfy with the blonde — playfully punched Yang's arm. "I think I'll pass.". The two shared a light laugh as Winter stared out of the window, followed by a sigh.
"It's a shame, really. I find it so welcoming and peaceful here in Vale, but my work prevents me from staying here. I have to go back to Atlas tomorrow, and Weiss ... actually, I don't know about Weiss. I'll be all alone back in Atlas.".
Alone. Oh, Yang knew what that felt like.
"You don't have any friends up there?", Yang asked. Winter scoffed. "There was this one kid. Around you guys' age. Penny. Me and I were ... no, to say friends would be over selling it. We were colleagues. And she was starting to grow on me, until ...", she said, trailing off to stabilize her breathing. Yang reached for her hand and gripped it. When Winter looked up, Yang had a beaming smile on her face. That was enough to calm her down.
"... Until a few days before Jacques died. She was on a reconnaissance mission in Mantle, I was here with Weiss, planning you know what. I got confirmation 3 or so days before the plan, stating Penny was KIA. This is actually my first time out of the safe house since the operation.", Winter confesses. Yang nodded, never for a second letting her smile be wiped off.
"There wasn't anything you could do. Things happen and we just have to accept some of them. Like my arm. I couldn't do nothing to save it after it all happened, so I accepted it.
"Of course, it took a while. I lost it around a year ago, the anniversary of me losing it was actually just a few months ago. But I got around, and once I got this new thing, I forgot about the fact I lost an arm.". Was Yang suggesting Winter just forget about Penny? Winter was about to accuse when Yang butted in.
"I'm not saying to forget about Penny. Rather, be happy you met her in the first place and not let it destroy you inside out. She sounds real nice. What was she like?", Yang asked, trying to distract Winter from all the sadness. She wiped a tear, and decided to follow on with Yang's game.
"She was energetic, quirky, and a little annoying. Of course, there was also her good side. She was also optimistic, smart and over all just easy to get along with. She resembles Ruby quite a lot.", Winter says.
"Like Ruby? Well, I'm sure those two would surely get along.". Winter laughed at that and took another swig of this enormous mug of iced tea on her table.
"Yeah, I'm sure they would."
After Yang payed — she insisted — the two decided to message their sisters, telling them where they would be, that being a bench looking over to the ocean, with the sun setting, signalling the looming start of Christmas.
The two were engulfed in silence as they watched the sun set over the horizon. And sooner or later, the sun was gone, and it had gone dark.
"Gosh, I wonder where Weiss is. This is just absurd, how long the two of them have been gone.", Winter remarks. Yang shrugs. "Yeah, I wonder what they're up to.", she said. Winter looks to her and Yang has a mischievous smirk on her face.
"You- Don't make me think of what they could be doing!", Winter said as she playfully slapped Yang several times. If Weiss were here, she'd say something about the fact that this isn't the Winter she knows, when in reality, this was just Winter before all the SDC crap.
She's more like Yang now.
As the two resettled into a comfy silence, Yang hears a song she knows in the distance. "Ooh, this is a bop! C'mon, Winter!". Without hesitation, Yang pulls Winter up from the bench and leads her to the source of the music.
In the middle of Vale's City Centre, a little dance sort of thing was happening, as it was Christmas in about 9 hours. Vale was known for their extravagant celebrations for Christmas.
"Y-Yang, wait!", Winter pleaded. And for once, Yang listened. She saw the look in Winter's face. Exhausted and a little scared. Had she gone overboard again?
Immediately, Yang's expression drooped. She let go of Winter's hand, and she ran for the hills. It was literally in a blink of an eye. Winter's head snapped in every direction, looking for the blonde, to no avail.
Yang had ran away.
Yang sat on a bench, alone, in a secluded alleyway. Way to go, Xiao Long. You've chased your friends away. Again. 'To think that you learned your lesson not to be pushy. Yet here you are.', she thought to herself. And while it was extremely self deflating, it was kind of true. Let’s rewind, shall we?
===
(Yang's POV.)
I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was just minding my own business after a particularly boring class.
While I was settling my books, I was tapped on the shoulder by my — not so dear anymore — dear friends, Emerald and Mercury. Whenever Ruby or Blake were not there, I'd hang out with them. Although, I did sense a strange atmosphere that day.
"Hey, Em! Merc, fancy seeing you here!", I say, cheery as ever.
Emerald responds. "H-Hi, Yang. Listen, both of us want to ta-". I didn't let her finish, instead I yank her by the hand and into a hug. This is where I sealed my fate, to be abandoned by my friends.
"Y-Yang, wait-". She didn't finish before Mercury got between us and pried me away from her.
"What's your problem?", I ask, confused by the sudden action. Mercury's eyes stare daggers into me, full of anger. What did I do? Looking back, it was a little obvious.
"My problem? You're asking my problem? What's yours!?", he says, pushing me into the lockers. Me, still in shock, don't react in time and Mercury corners me.
"We know you're a lonely person. Thus we started hanging out together. No big deal, we thought. That's why we wanted to talk things out first. But I guess you don't.", he starts. He moves his hands away from the lockers to go to Emerald's side.
"But we can see why you've been left like this. You're so ... aggressive, so abrasive. You think everyone can handle you? I sure can, but Emerald isn't that tough!", he says as he grabs Emerald's hand. I guess the ace of the volleyball team wasn't as tough as I thought ...
"When I met her parents, they said to protect her at all times. You've forced this on yourself.", he says, cutting me off before I could respond. I look down to the ground in realization of both my attitude and my abrasiveness. When I looked up, they had already gone.
===
(Narrator's POV)
While that was around 2 years ago, the memory still lingered in her mind everyday until now and possibly into the future. Yang thought that she had learned something in those 2 years, but she thinks she hadn't.
Just then, she catches a glimpse of Winter in the corner of her eye. Winter's face looks somewhat annoyed, but relieved at finding her.
"Yang?", Winter called. Yang moved slightly to her right, allowing Winter to sit next to her. "What's wrong? You seem down. Was it something I did?".
She thinks she did something wrong? No, that wasn't true! Yang had pushed her. If anyone did something, it was her.
"Sorry if I did.". Winter grabs Yang's hand and grips it. Yang's true emotions over the incident finally break dree from Yang's constraints as she lets it out on Winter's shoulder.
While Winter didn't know this, but Yang had never been this vulnerable nor open with anybody in her life. This was as much of a first time for Yang as it was for Winter.
"Do you want to talk about it?", Winter asks. Yang sits back up from Winter's shoulder and nods. She then proceeds to tell the whole story to Winter.
After she was done, Winter leaps to Yang to give her a hug. Yang was surprised, but accepted and returned the hug.
"While I don't know you very well, the past day shows that you're more than an abrasive and aggressive person.", Winter said, breaking the silence.
"You're kind, sweet, caring, funny and honestly a great person.", Winter finishes. She pulls herself away from Yang and looks into her eyes. Yang stares back, but her focus is pulled away by the tear that was in Winter's eye.
She reached for it and brushed it off. Her hand still on Winter's face, she caresses Winter's cheek and the two smile. Yang retracts her hand and the two are left to stare into each other's eyes.
Slowly but surely, their heads moved closer and closer towards each other, and Yang closed her eyes.
Bliss. The only word that was worthy of describing the feeling she felt. As Winter's lips touched Yang's. And while it was only for a second, it felt like an eternity for the both of them.
As they pulled away, lilac met blue as they both realised what they had done. Winter, however, knew the words she was about to say.
"I ... think I love you, Yang.". Yang's face turned red — it goes to mention that their faces were already red, Yang's becoming even more red — and she had a shy smile.
"I ... I think I do too.", she says. Both of them had the same thought in their head.
'Now what?'
Winter stands up and offers a hand to Yang. Despite looking confident, her face showed otherwise. "Er ... want to dance?", Winter sheepishly asked. Yang laughs and accepts her hand, then proceeding to walk to Vale square where this whole thing had started.
Behind a box, Weiss and Ruby both watch as their sisters went dancing in the middle of Vale square. They high five.
"Your sister won't be too mad, right?", Ruby asked. Weiss rolled her eyes.
"Nah, knowing her, she'll be so happy that she won't be too angry at me. And you?", Weiss answers and asks at the same time. Ruby rubs the back of her neck.
"I don't know. I've never done this before. But at least our plan went as we did.". Weiss nodded and reached up to Ruby's hair and messed it all up.
"Hey!". Weiss giggled. It was at that moment that the two elder sisters saw them, both with eyes of fury, and they knew they were cooked.
"Ruby?"
"Yeah, Weiss?"
"Run. Now!"
Weiss leapt up and ran down the alley that they were hiding in, Ruby following suit. Quite idiotically of them, it was a dead end.
"So that's what they were doing!", Yang said. Winter and her both had their hands on their hips, and they were staring at the two culprits down the alleyway.
"What do you want to do with us?", Ruby asks, obviously a little afraid of the new couple.
Winter sends a smirk Yang's way.
This was the start of one of their many adventures together. Many of them they would've considered impossible for them to do by themselves. But, together, they managed to overcome all of them.
Merry Nuclear Christmas!