Work Text:
A cry of terror ripped through the air of Beacon Academy, echoing throughout every hallway and all the way down to the school grounds.
“Nooo! Let go of me!”
Blake’s eyes slowly moved up from the book in her hands as she watched Ruby flail frantically in Weiss’s iron grip, but all three present knew that she wasn’t going anywhere. She arched an eyebrow at the scene, but made no move to help her.
Weiss’s voice was seething with fury. “You ate. Every one. Of my. Chocolates.”
“Look, I already said I was sorry! I’ll give you my snacks to make up for it! That’s fair, right?”
“Those chocolates were gourmet! Each individual one was probably worth more than all the items in your luggage combined!”
Ruby snorted at that, clearly doubting it. “It wasn’t just me that ate them, you know! I didn’t even mean to—”
“No! I don’t care!” Weiss put a hand up, stopping any lengthy objections. “I found the majority of the wrappers tangled in your sheets and so, you’re coming with me. To get replacements. All your favorites and you don’t get a single one.”
“Hey—!”
“Just…grab your things! We’re going out! Now. Meet me by the gate.”
Blake suppressed a chuckle as Ruby was dumped onto the floor by the furious Weiss, who turned on her heel and stormed out of the room without so much as a backwards glance. Picking herself up off the ground, Ruby dusted herself off and muttered a few choice words underneath her breath as she cast a glance at Blake.
“You should know better.” She turned a page. “Princess gets what princess wants.”
“Yeah, yeah, but I still can’t believe this…” Ruby rubbed the back of her neck. “I guess she’s right, I shouldn’t have eaten her chocolates. I mean I only meant to eat one but then they just tastedso good—“ A shake of her head. “So anyway…where’s Yang?”
Blake tilted her head towards the door, still reading. “Taking a shower.”
“Well, could you tell her that I’m going ‘shopping’ with Weiss?” she asked in a sour tone. At her nod, Ruby sighed and darted out the room soon after, but poked her head around the doorframe for a moment to quickly add, “Oh! And enjoy your book!”
Then, she was gone.
Peace at last. Blake smiled wryly at it all and simply flipped to the next page.
At some point or other she had become completely absorbed in the dashing, courageous, darktale that was unfolding before her eyes. (Unusual) magic spells, daring swordfights, far-off places, a prince in disguise…! She tended to get a bit disgruntled by traditional fairy tales butthis one was rather interesting, she had to admit. The older ones did tend to be grittier than the revamped, sugary retellings that were commonplace nowadays.
In fact, it was so intriguing that it took her a long while to notice that someone was staring at her.
When Blake looked up, she was expecting to see Yang making a goofy face or something. It was a little game that Ruby also participated in, where they’d wait to see the lengths they had to go to before her attention would be torn away from whatever novel her nose was buried in.
This was not the case.
Yang was leaning against the wall, her hair slick and shining and obviously very well cared for after the shower. Her lilac eyes were fixated on hers with an intensity that startled her—it was akin to being pinned beneath the glare of a predator.
This wasn’t the first time this had happened.
Blake recovered quickly, though she was perplexed to find that her heartbeat was a little uneven. Also not for the first time. “…What? Is there something on my face?” The sarcasm drenching her words could have drowned an entire city.
Yang blinked. And then blinked again. A little jolt passed through her and she hurriedly unfolded her arms, looking as if she had just woken up from a dream. “Huh? What? Sorry, I had just been—thinking!”
“Thinking.”
“Yeah!” Punching her fist into her palm, she cast her gaze about curiously, switching subjects with zero tact. “Where’s Ruby and the ice queen?”
Blake’s eyes settled back onto the book, but she wasn’t really taking any of it in. She shifted a bit where she sat, lounging on her bed in the dorm. “…They went out shopping together.”
Yang let out a great, gusty sigh that Blake found very amusing. “Something tells me it’s not a bonding activity,” she muttered. She brightened up again swiftly though, clearly not worrying too much about it. “So, what now?”
“’What now’?” She echoed.
“You’re not gonna just stay in here the whole day, are you? It’s beautiful out, we’ve got the day off, so how about we go do something?”
She lifted the book up for Yang to see, drumming her fingers along the tome. “I am doing something.”
Yang rolled her eyes, but it was all in good humor. Hands on her hips, she leaned closer, examining the black cover for a moment before returning her focus to Blake’s face. “Wanna meet me in the middle?”
Her only reply was an inquisitive stare.
“Come outside, we’ll read on some spot in the grounds then!”
Blake was about to ask just what she meant by “we” when a loud thud reverberated throughout the whole of the hallway. Without relinquishing her book, both Blake and Yang raced out of the room in order to locate the source of the disturbance.
Sitting in the corridor with an air of perfect tranquility was Ren. The young man was finishing up what appeared to be the tail end of an essay, not even blinking as another rumble emerged from the depths of his shared room.
“Uh…” Yang tilted her head, listening to the cacophony from within. “Do I want to know what’s going on in there?”
Ren blinked. “Jaune was complaining of muscle cramps. Nora said she’d help—“ Yet another crash. “…Straighten him out.”
Blake could make out Jaune’s wavering voice attempting to convince his assaulter that he was “feeling all better now” but Nora was having none of it. “It sounds like a war zone in there,” she remarked.
“Pyrrha’s gone to get bandages. The acupuncture part could get…” Ren paused once more. “Messy.”
“…Aaand that’s our cue. Come on, Yang.” Blake decided she had heard enough. Nodding at Ren in farewell, she headed for the stairs that would twist and twine their way to the ground floor, and by extension, the exit.
Yang jogged the short distance to catch up with her quick, silent strides. “Decided to go outside after all?” She teased, grinning.
“As if it’d be possible to read in here with that going on next door.” She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder, and as if on cue, a great bang went off that drew more than one curious student outside the safety of their living quarters. She had no idea what Nora was doing to poor Jaune, but she had a feeling he was going to need more than bandages when it was over.
As did any great, fancy, needlessly elaborate campus, Beacon had “nature-y” spots. Small stretches of green grass and tall trees existed here and there, along with benches that absorbed the warmth of the sunlight; it all felt pleasant and alive. That coupled with the flawlessly blue sky overhead, and…well…
Blake supposed she could see why Yang had wanted to coax her out of the room. She wasn’t completely against hanging out but she did still want her time to read.
“Hmm…How ‘bout…” Yang tapped her chin and scrutinized their surroundings. “Over there!”
She didn’t need to be told twice. Without a word, she just walked over to where the other girl was indicating and sat down with her back to a tree. Its broad branches created ample shade and dappled the grass with glowing golden spots, filtering sunrays from above.
At this angle, no one from the Academy would be able to see her from their windows. Just the tree. Perfect.
Yang completely ignored the notion of personal space and dropped right down beside her. Blake lifted her eyebrow again but didn’t comment, opening her book to her place. As she tried to get back into the story, she couldn’t help but be distinctly aware of Yang’s presence.
With their shoulders touching, she felt strong and rigid and rather hot—as if there was a fire burning within her that exuded all the heat it could through her skin. What with the temperature outside already being mild, it was almost…uncomfortable.
Nonetheless, she didn’t pull away.
Blake flipped a single page over and was met with a groan. She shot a scorching glare at her. “Problem?”
Yang put her hands up in surrender, only speaking when Blake relaxed. “It’s not a problem, just—“ Leaning forward, she attempted to look at a particular paragraph. “Jeez, you read so fast it’s impossible to keep up.”
She was too close. Way too close. She could smell the shampoo in her hair and see every single one of her long eyelashes and some blonde strands were trailing across her nose—
“Why are you reading my book?” Blake asked, more stiffly than she intended. She was just so…so…(God her heartbeat just wasn’t calming down!) Flustered. That was the word for it. She realized with a bit of alarm that she was feeling oddly flustered by the proximity. She did her best to keep that off her face, but when Yang turned to look at her without sitting back and smiled, she couldn’t stop a sharp twitch.
“Well, I wanted to spend time with you. And you like reading, sooo…”
Blake searched her face, investigating that almost-nervous grin and those pale purple eyes for some sign of what she was really after. Wanting to spend time with her? It wasn’t unbelievable, but why didn’t she just do what Ruby (and sometimes Weiss) did, and sit with her doing something? Get a book of her own, drawing, working, whatever it may have been.
And why was she sitting so close?
Her heart felt as if it was running a marathon and it apparently was also outracing her thoughts, because she heard herself say, “Then I’ll read it to you.”
Yang looked shocked, but right after, a great big ear-to-ear grin stretched across her face. “Hah,really?!” She at last sat back so that she was reclining against the tree, arms folded behind her head. “Well then if you don’t mind, go for it! I’m all ears.”
Blake regarded her suspiciously, but when she saw that the other was behaving herself, she nodded and redirected her attention onto the novel. Taking in a slow and deep breath, she began to read aloud.
Her voice was calm and any words were uttered in a low tone. Though at first she read it almost monotonously, bits of emotion began working its way in, so that the narration sounded more…alive.
At one point, she noticed that Yang had closed her eyes and she stopped. Hardly ten seconds had passed before Yang requested that she continue. Something about the gentleness she heard in that wish made her too afraid to look at her face and see what expression could possibly be there.
There was no way that she could have known about the full extent of the plot—coming in halfway like this—but at no point did Yang stop her or even ask questions. Blake found that she was unable to look away from the text, just…something about the feeling she was getting from Yang…It was breeding an inexplicable nervousness that kept her heart pounding as fast as a bird’s.
Over the course of a truly epic fight scene that just had to be the climax of the tale, Blake heard Yang move. She turned to regard her, expecting the other girl to have finally had her fill of “story-time”—or perhaps she was just stretching—momentarily forgetting the strange shyness that had been lingering about.
She was just in time to catch another smoldering stare.
This time her heart completely froze in its drumming, and a little sound may or may not have escaped her. Yang had only straightened up in her spot, and they were more or less on eye level. The way she was gazing at her…it felt as if the world had been reduced to the shadows of the tree they were sitting under, along with her. The girl who burned like the sun.
Blake opened her mouth to say something, but it seems that it was the straw to break the camel’s back.
Before she knew what was happening, she felt her back pushed hard against the tree, and the book fell from her startled grasp as warm fingers caught her wrist and held it. She didn’t even have time to react before Yang was kissing her, really kissing her, with a fierceness that left her unable to catch her breath.
The other girl’s fiery touch seared away whatever had caused her heart to freeze earlier. Now it was stampeding again, and each pound was so hard that Blake wondered if Yang could hear or feel it. Distantly, she was reminded of romance novels she had read, having difficulties comprehending the sudden rush of passion happening. Sure she might have…er…entertained some thoughts, but this actually happening to her? Impossible.
The astonishment was likely the only reason she didn’t reciprocate.
That must have worried Yang, because after a moment, she pulled back with nothing but unease and apologies on her face. It was a strange sight to behold.
“I…oh my God, uh…” Her eyes darted from side to side as she worked her jaw nervously. “Crap, I’m sorry Blake, you probably want to murder me—“
She lifted a single finger and placed it on her lips. Yang silenced herself immediately, and when Blake met her eyes, she saw the glimmer of hope in them.
Hope. To be with…her? Though she was honestly baffled, the questioning part could come later, because there was one thing she knew she wanted with the utmost certainty.
“You talk too much,” she murmured before she laced her fingers through blonde hair and pulled Yang back in for another kiss.
The book lay forgotten for now.