#blake glances at yang. looks forward. then yang glances at blake and blake looks back at hurt and they just look at each other for a sec

[pictures-of-yxl]

[pilot-boi]

Could you see Jaune having trouble with meat going forward because he just spent decades where everything was potentially human levels of sentience.

Jaune is poking at his food.

Which Yang knows isn’t THAT strange, he’s never been good at feeding himself when he’s down (a certain week at Beacon with a certain asshole who shall remain unnamed comes to mind) and Jaune certainly has more than enough reason to be out of sorts these days. Being young then old then young again would do that to a guy.

But this is different than his normal lack of appetite. He’s not just pushing his food around; he’s actively picking over pieces of it, almost putting them in his mouth, and then putting the food back on the plate. There’s a certain green around the gills look on her friend’s face that Yang’s come to associate with airship travel.

Not that she can blame him. The food in Vacuo isn’t what she’d call normal or appetizing, but with supplies limited they can’t turn up their noses, especially since they didn’t exactly give Vacuo time to prepare for an influx of refuges.

Still, eating worms, bats, and lizards has taken some getting used to.

“Are you gonna invite me to sit down, or do I have to keep lurking?” Yang quips, plopping down next to her fellow blonde. He jumps, predictably, but his startle instinct is less than it was a week ago. Baby steps.

“Oh! Yeah uh… hey.” He smiles sideways at her. “Did you need something?”

“Nah, not really,” she shrugs. “Just saw you sitting all by your lonesome and thought I’d join you.” She pokes at his food. “You gonna eat that?”

Jaune drops his gaze back to his plate, and once again his expression turns queasy. Like a toddler faced with a plate full of vegetables. Strange, Yang never took Jaune for a picky eater, but then again he did eat almost exclusively dinosaur chicken nuggets back at Beacon.

“It’s looking at me,” he groans, poking at the side of a roasted lizard. It flops over and he shudders.

“So do fish,” Yang says bluntly, dropping an arm around his shoulders. “And I’ve seen Blake eat those heads and all.”

“You know shockingly you’re not helping.”

“Come on, this can’t be the weirdest thing you’ve eaten.” She leans in conspiratorially, lowers her voice. “I mean I was only in the Ever After for a day or two but that parfait-” Yang is fully about to launch into a tirade on the pros and cons of growgurt parfait, but something makes her pause.

The fork is rattling in his grip. Her eyes narrow. That’s not just nausea. A glass dropped in a kitchen miles away comes to mind.

“Jaune…” Yang trails off. Are you alright? What’s wrong? Do you need to talk? She can probably guess the answers to all three questions, but none really feel appropriate in the middle of a cafeteria.

So she draws on the only other well of experience she has. Being a big sister to a very picky eater.

“What’s wrong with the food?” Blunt, but sometimes it’s best to cut to the heart of the issue. “Is there something else you’d rather have?”

“Not meat,” Jaune replies without hesitation, and Yang is admittedly taken aback. He’s never been a carnivore by any means, but his aforementioned love of dino nuggets barred him from vegetarianism.

Yang looks back down at his plate. The lizard is still looking at them, and Jaune is very determinately not making eye contact. “If this is still about the eyes, I’m sure that-”

“No. No it’s not,” Jaune cuts her off, shaking his head. “Well I mean, a little bit, but.” He plops his head down in his hand. Glances sideways at her, and then away again. “Promise you won’t laugh?”

Yang is almost offended that he thinks SHE of all people might laugh at him for what is obviously a trauma response. Friendly negging, sure, but never laughter. She wouldn’t do that to anyone, let alone him. But then a certain magenta and cyan cat with a wicked grin and sharp tongue comes to mind, and she’s reminded that laughter in the face of pain is probably all he’s known for years.

She hates that fucking cat.

“I promise, Jaune. I won’t laugh.”

He studies her for more than a moment, searching her face for any hint of insincerity. Of course finding none, he sighs. “You remember Little?”

Yang blinks. Not where she thought this was going. Roll with the punches. “Yeah. Kinda hard to forget a talking mouse.”

“Right. Yeah, of course.” Jaune laughs weakly, running a hand through his hair. He scratches at the back of his neck, reaching for a ponytail that isn’t there. “Stupid of me.”

Yang grabs his hand, and he starts. “Hey. None of that,” she reprimands, stopping his downward spiral before it has time to start. Her thumb rubs a circle in his palm, and she can feel him untense. “What about Little?”

“They’re why I don’t wanna eat meat,” he admits. He's speaking quickly, like the words are being drawn out of him.

No laughing, not now, but Yang can’t help her skeptical look. Little, by their own admission, had never been away from home. And sure, Jaune was there for decades, but he didn’t seem to know the mouse.

Jaune sees her look and clarifies. “Well not them specifically, but like… the Afterans. Everything there was so… alive, they could talk, think for themselves. Everything. The mice, rabbits, deer, birds…”

His grip tightens on her hand. “I didn’t have a choice in the beginning. It wasn’t fun, but what else could I do? I had to eat, and after the clock fruit I didn’t trust the plants, so the animals…” Jaune swallows thickly. “The animals seemed like the safest bet.”

If her hand was flesh, she’s sure his nails would be biting into her skin. As it is, she can feel the way his hand is gripping hers like it’s the only thing keeping him from running. And it’s horrible, because Yang thinks she can see the end of the tunnel, the destination this story is going to.

“I knew how to do it. Hunt animals, I mean,” he says, his voice horribly detached. “I used to go hunting with my mom when the food stores were low. And in Mistral, with Ruby and Ren and Nora. So I knew how to catch an animal and skin it and cook it.”

Jaune laughs again. “It wasn’t pretty, Ren could definitely do a better job. So cooking and cleaning it wasn’t the worst part. The worst part…” He swallows thickly. “The worst part was killing it. It was alive, Yang. It was alive, and it was staring at me, and it didn’t want to die.” He stares down at the lizard on his plate. It stares back at him, accusing almost.

“How… how do you know it didn’t want to die?” Yang asks tentatively, even though she’s pretty sure she knows the answer.

“It told me.” His voice is horrible, wretched. The green is back in his cheeks and Yang hates that she now knows the reason why. “It told me! And I still killed it, and cooked it, and ate-” Jaune’s voice chokes off. The words seem to catch in his throat. “It was like… it was like eating…”

“Like eating a person,” Yang finishes, the train now having reached the horrible station. Jaune nods, horror stricken, and Yang trades which hand is holding his so she can rub circles into his back. He’s still just staring at his food. “Gods Jaune I… That’s so fucked, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“I had to eat, or I’d die. And I couldn’t die because I had to wait for you all to arrive. So I had to eat.” The way he says it, so matter-of-fact, Yang can’t help but wonder what else he’s internalized as being what he had to do, no matter the harm it caused him.

She doesn’t know what to say. Picky eating, she could handle. Trauma, she could handle that, too. At least, to an extent. But sometimes it was just too much.

“How long?” Yang asks eventually. “You weren’t eating meat while we were there, how long did you have to do that?”

“A week. I think,” he responds. “Time was difficult.” And isn’t that the understatement of a century. “Once I found the Hunter Mice they showed me which plants were safe to eat. Some of them were hit and miss, but I was good from then on. Especially when I made it to the Market.”

The lizard stares up at them both. Yang glares back at it, as if the dead desert dweller was the one who sent Jaune back in time and made him so desperate to live that he was forced to… do that.

“So… no meat?”

“No meat,” Jaune confirms. “I could probably choke it down if needs must, but…”

“Not even dino nuggies?” she grins.

He barks out a laugh. “My only weakness. No, not yet.” Not yet. That was better than she was expecting. His cheeks are still a little green, but he’s not shaking anymore at least. “Maybe at some point, but not now. No meat.” He grimaces, poking at the lizard. “And especially none with eyes.”

“Well in that case, come on.” Yang stands. He finally pulls his eyes away from the plate, and blinks up at her. “Let’s go!”

“Go where?”

“To find you something to eat!” Hand still firmly clasped around his, she hauls him up and scoops the unwanted plate up in the other. “I’m sure Sun knows someplace around here that serves vegetarian options.”

“Oh you don’t have to do that,” Jaune protests. “I already ruined your whole lunch with this.” He gestures vaguely between himself and the plate.

“No way, you didn’t do anything.” Yang jabs a finger in his chest. “If you need an ear to listen, I’m happy to be there. You’re not imposing, you’re not too much, I’ve got you.” She doesn’t tell people that enough. A tea cup and a wooden tomb. She needs to tell people that more. “I’m buying you lunch. Veggies. Fruits. You name it, you get it.”

“You really don’t have to do that.”

“Oh, I really think I do.”

“I’m not going to change your mind about this, am I?” he smiled, allowing Yang to drag him from the cafeteria.

“No-sir-ee bob,” she said, swinging his hand back and forth. “You are not leaving my side until we get some desert fresh veggies in your stomach.” She passed the uneaten plate to a volunteer by the door. “My treat.”

[howlingday]

Hello Hollowing, my prompt is this: After team RWBY finds themselves in the Ever After, they are met by a small child happily waving and guiding them towards the Tree instead of a certain Cheshire cat. Soon they were guided to the tree, with a mansion carved within. With children that looked like recoloured versions of their guide happily waving toward RWBY. They meet Neo, and Jaune, the small older woman clealry pregnant, along with Mint, and Trivia, and a woman similar to neo called CC... basically I want Jaune to explain why he has a harem of Neos with constant flashbacks of each neo having babymaking sex with him. With CC requires everyone else to overcome her instability. Blame Fatally Obsessed. I do not know why I make statements instead of questions.

Ah, okay.

This is way less terrible than I thought it would be.

---------------------------------------------------

This world is weird. Like, super weird. No, but like, SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER weird! Like, think of the weirdest thing you could think of, and it wouldn't be half as weird as what this was.

Okay, maybe not THAT weird, but it was weirder than Remnant, at least. Game pieces moved around, walking and talking like all the faunus and humans did back home. Not only that, but there were also talking animals, too! So yeah, this fairy tale world was weird.

But not as weird as what happened next.

"Hey! Over here!"

Team RWBY looked behind them and found a little girl waving at them. She had short, blonde hair, pale skin, and, as they got closer, blue eyes. Her dress was pink with a black sash wrapped around her belly.

"Um, hi?" Ruby awkwardly waved.

"Are you a Huntress?"

The question shocked the group. This was the first person they met in the Ever After, and she KNEW what a huntress is! Who was she?

"Um, ye-"

"Nilly!" A girl with long, brown hair ran up to the other girl and grabbed her wrist. Her dress was white with a pink sash wrapped around her belly, similar to the other girl. "We're not supposed to talk to strangers!"

"It's okay, Gats!" Nilly replied. "They don't look bad!"

"Don't you remember what Dad said?" Gats wagged her finger. "Looks can be decieving!"

"Um," Ruby stuttered, "we're not bad. Uh, y'know, if you wanted our opinion."

"She's right." Weiss added. "We're just trying to get to the tree."

"Oh! That's easy!" Nilly yanked her hand away. "Daddy can take you!"

"Daddy?" Yang asked.

"Mhm!" Nilly nodded. "Daddy is, like the best person to take you to the tree! He was up there before, y'know?"

"Nilly!" Gats chided. "They're bad guys!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

As the girls bickered, Team RWBY gave each other glances. This was very uncomfortable.

"Were we..." Ruby looked to her sister. "This bad?"

"Eh...." Yang shrugged. "Kinda?"

"Well, none of my siblings were like this." Weiss said with an unamused look.

"Pretty sure you're not as close with your siblings as Ruby and Yang were." Blake added. "It kind of makes me wonder what it's like."

"It's not great."

Suddenly, in the center of Team RWBY, stood a small girl with pink hair done in a ponytail, wearing a black dress with a white sash. She was so quiet, none of them heard her! As she walked to the other girls, they noticed she had a pink tail sway from under her dress.

"Nilla. Gats." She addressed the girls. "Mother's waiting for us." At this, the two girls stopped bickering. The leader looked at Team RWBY. "You come, too."

The little girl in the pink dress then walked forward, followed closely by the other two. Following the trio was Team RWBY. From a distance, a pair of eyes watched the seven girls curiously.

---------------------------------------------------

Neo sipped her tea, enjoying the quiet of the house. Her girls were out playing while her husband had left to run errands. They would all return before supper, as they always did. She looked down, admiring the one change to her otherwise routine life she'd made in the Ever After.

Every morning, she woke up, had breakfast, woke up her daughters, and then spent the rest of the day planning dinner. Tonight's dinner would be stewed vegetables.

"Ugh... Couldn't we have something with more meat?"

Neo cast a glare at the whining voice. The voice belonged to another Neo, though the voice was not quite her own. Instead, an annoying creature had taken residence in her body, wearing it like a coat, doing with it as they pleased.

"Oh, don't give me that look." The being replied with a roll of their neon-blue eyes. "Even Trivia is sick and tired of it!"

The woman in question, hanging clothes to dry outside, flinched. She shivered as Neo quirked a brow at her former self. She hid herself behind a wet sheet.

"Ow!" Mint, a disguise of herself used to infiltrate Beacon during the Vytal Festival with Cinder, flicked the being in Neo's ear. "Oh, I was not being mean to her!"

Neo hefted herself to her feet, hands to her back for support. Soon, it would be her turn to bring life into this world. She couldn't help but wonder what her child would look like. What mother didn't?

"Oh, and before you set the table," the being said, "we're going to have guests tonight. Four of them."

Neo eyed the being, unsure of what they meant. For all their schemes and plots, the creature wasn't a liar and often made use of their ability to see and hear things outside their home. If there were guests coming to visit, then there would be guests coming to visit. Neo would need more vegetables, and hands to pick said vegetables.

"Speak of the Grimm, as you say."

Neo looked to the door, and a tiny knock came from the other side. She opened the door, finding eight familiar faces.

"Mother." Greeted Berry with stoicism.

"Mommy!" Squealed Vanilla joyfully.

"Mom?" Called Gateau in concern.

Neo glared past her daughters to the four huntresses behind them. They swiftly reached for their weapons.

"Neopolitan?!" Litte Red exclaimed in her surprise.

"Of course she'd be here!" The Ice Queen growled.

"Is she pregnant?" The Kitty Cat asked.

"Guess she found someone dumb enough to knock her up." The Blonde Bimbo rudely remarked.

"Now that's just rude." All eyes focused on the timbre voice in the distance. A figure in rusted armor dismounted a large jackalope, named Juniper, and removed his helmet. Beneath was a ruggedly handsome bearded face with tired, blue eyes. He gave a chuckle. "Rude girls don't get dessert."

[madozzy]

Beacon Cafeteria - Lunchtime

The cafeteria hummed with its usual lunchtime energy. Team RWBY and Team JNPR were seated at their usual table, chatting and eating. Suddenly, the cafeteria doors creaked open, and everyone turned to see a disheveled figure stumble inside.

It was Cardin Winchester.

Covered in mud, his clothes torn and his face streaked with dirt, he limped toward the table. The room fell silent, all eyes on him as he staggered forward and dropped to his knees in front of Blake.

"Belladonna," he croaked, his voice trembling. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for what I said. Please forgive me! I'll never—never say anything like that again!"

Blake raised an eyebrow, her ears twitching slightly in curiosity. She glanced at Jaune and Yang, who both sat frozen, their faces unreadable.

Yang leaned back in her chair, a smug grin spreading across her face. "Cardin, you're alive?" she asked, mock surprise dripping from her voice.

Jaune crossed his arms, frowning. "Wait a second. How is that possible? It's been three weeks.

At Jaune's words, Cardin's eyes darted toward him and Yang. The moment he saw their faces, a blood-curdling scream escaped his lips. Without another word, he scrambled to his feet and bolted out of the cafeteria, leaving a trail of mud and confusion in his wake.

Blake slowly turned to her boyfriend and girlfriend, her expression skeptical. "Three weeks, huh? You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Yang chuckled nervously, scratching the back of her head. "Uh, nope. Not a clue."

"Not a thing," Jaune added, looking away as if suddenly interested in his sandwich.

Blake sighed, clearly unconvinced, but decided it wasn’t worth pressing—yet. Instead, she picked up her tea and muttered, "I don’t even want to know."

[greatkittydream]

Rwby slasher AU

The fall of becon

Everything was on fire, body's Coverd the ground and jaune is runing as fast as he can.

His heart was pounding. He was rushing past corpses, giving them passery glances to see if they're at his teammates or Acquaintances.

"Dame it, why did this happen now! My team and rwby's were about to head out on a joint mission together, four "bonding".

Despite his cheery persona, jaune can not care less about the people he met. Indifference and annoyance was all he felt to others outside of his family.

Even that was a miracle onto itself, for jaune was a slasher. According to myth, when humanity rebelled, the gods cursed humanity with not only the grimm but slashers, immortal supernatural beings with a bloodlust to kill their fellow man. Unfeeling for others.

Wether that was true. He did not know what he did know was that he was one of these fabled slasher's.

The protocol for a slasher being born is to be killed if possible if not given up to atlas, to be put into a high security prison. He heard stories of what happened in there, spikes stabbed into joints to stop movement, mind numbing sensations, and forced sleep. The list just goes on and on.

Spotting a blonde corpse, he quickly ran to it, moving the hair out of the face before saying it wasn't yang. breath. He didn't know he was holding was released.

His breathing was erratic. And his chest hurt with how much it ached, and he didn't know why. He was not Hurt. There is no stable, no gunshot, nothing to harm him. And yet every corpse he found that looked vaguely like team rwby or his Caused him a pulse of pain. Or what he thought was pain. He'd never experienced any pain like this, though.

Pain was not something slashers experienced like regular people. There were all types. Biteng pains, aching pains, shocking pains, quick pains, and long pains. But not once did one linger after it went away. This one, though it hurt more than any of those. It was almost unbearable. He grit his teeth.

The only dame reason he went to this school was to take heat off his family. Wearing contacts to change his eye color from Purple to blue. An expensive illegality. His family burdened themselves with for his expenses. Just because some damed bandits decided to try and rob his home. He ended up butchering them, taking joy in their suffering.

One of the easiest ways to identify slashers, their eyes, a deep purple, almost black. Some of the stronger ones could change their eye color naturally, but most couldn't at a certain point. They stopped caring as well.

An explosion rocked the school. By this point, he was at a full sprint. He remembered that the cafeteria was a meeting place in case of a grimm horde attack, he hoped the other were there.

Memories flash through his mind Bringing a sense of ease to the pain he was feeling. Weiss would probably argue with Ruby about how they should stay in the cafeteria. Whereas Ruby would wanna go out and help the people.

And then he thought of why he was even here. He could just as easily leave. This was a perfect excuse to leave. Traumatized by the fall, heading back to his family would make perfect sense.

But some part of him argued that he didn't want. It would also be unlike his persona, kind and cheery and selfless. He was smashing open the cafeteria doors. He did not see every room full of students but blake Yang and two white Fang mongrols.

She launched forward. Her lilac eyes turned red. Mane of hair caught on fire.

Slice...

Yang fell into the road, besides blake screaming out in a pain as her arm fell to the floor.

"You see this blake, this is what happens when you betray your family. I'm going to give you one chance to make this right, kill her" Adams said as emotioned towards yang on the floor.

Jaune did not know what happened Adam made him annoyed, really annoyed. Jaune doesn't think there's been a time. He's been more annoyed in his entire life. His teeth cracked under his own jaw strength.

Everything in the world became defined to him. The only thing he could hear was a ringing. Shadow stepping behind Adam form the far end of the cafeteria directly behind him.

Blake had been trying to hold the recent wound not only hers but yang as well. Adam was definitely a tall imposing man 6'2. She had begged him to let her friend go. She'd do anything, just not kill her friends.

All it took was a blink, and then suddenly jaune was behind him. She took a sharp deep breath. Jaune is 6'6 Standing directly behind Adam. She didn't even know how he got hit there. But that's not what caught her breath. It was the DEAP purple eyes. he had Shards of glass that could be seen sticking out of his eyelids. He had clenched them so hard that he shattered his contacts, stabbing him into his eyes and eyelids. He didn't seem to care or notice. Maby both.

Jaune Grabed Adam by his hair and threw him into a pillar. The sound it made was deafening. A large crater formed as the boom was heard all around the cafeteria.

The other white fang member Whipped her whip out around jaune's throat, digging needles deep into it, injecting poisons that would paralyze a normal man.

Jaune was not a normal He marched over to Adam, he did not revel In his suffering, he was to "Annoyed" llia Was being dragged Her legs were firmly pointed in place. but she was still being dragged across the floor. Pulling with all her might, eventually the needle sunk into his neck further with a sickening squilch.

This didn't stop him. Blood run down his chest, and she twisted her hips even harder to try and stop him. The neck flesh around The neck gave way as the entire jugular and throat was ripped out. You could visibly see his spine. And yet, just like all slashers had healed. Muscle shot out like a web connecting and weaving itself back together. skin covered it up like some sort of sick tarp.

Adam had gotten back up to his knees and assessed the situation. Leaping to the side quickly to get out of the way of a hand pain for his throat. Only for a second one be caught around his dominant harm.

For all his natural strength, jaune was not skilled at all in fighting. Adam grabbed onto his sword and Sabed join the throat. Barely missing his spine due to luck.

Jaune Clinched his arm firmly wrapped around the elbow crunched. It it made a sickening sound like that of cereal being stomped on. In a blink, adam had cut off jaune's arm connected to his ruined limb. Next, he sliced open his eyes, leaving a four inch deep gash across his face and finally Spun and stabbed into his back directly into the spine, paralyzing jaune for short, while. Jonas slammed into the ground while adam quickly retreated llia hot on his tail.

Wounds, that would be impossible to recover from for a normal man. Were shrugged off mir seconds later all that damage and skill bought him thirty seconds. A normal slasher would have hunted him down. Fortunately for him, jaune had other concerns.

Step..step..step.

Blake Turned around and instinctual, fear have popped up. Purplize set off alarms and her brain after generations of being hunted by them, instinct took over. Shielding yang's body with her own.She was tense, waiting for something that happene.

Jaune crouched down "are you okay" Blake did not know how to respond "no but yang is worse...please help her." Tears build up in her eyes, Weeping them away. She was not going to show weakness in front of a slasher of all things.

She turned to confront her... associate. Jaune face was stone and very stern he had not moved even an eyebrow after his initial "annoyance". You would be forgiven for thinking he was completely emotionless to the suffering in front of him or even taking enjoyment in it. If it weren't for the tears, rolling down his face, blake really couldn't understand what was happening, right nore wanted to yang had long since passed out from blood loss.

Taking a deep breath and taking off his ruined shirt, he tied a tourniquet around what was left of her arm "there is a medkit in the hall I came from use it to stop the bleeding" He said in a low gruff voice Unlike his usual happy one or what she guessed, he faked.

"Were are you going?" "to find my team"

---------------------------------------------

Jaune finally made it to the top of the stairs. pyrrha is laing on the floor along with another woman. Jaune was about to run over before a large stinger place. Itself on his shoulder.

A maniac giggling could be hear.

"Hold on just one moment pale"

Turning around, he met deep, purple eyes of a scorpion fanuse. He wanted to put his fist through that face.

"Before we get all punchy, stabby on each other haha I'd like to clarify.I did you a little ah.. Favor your little girlfriend over there is just fine.A little paralyzed but, Ah..., well, you can probably take a guess from what." The man's tail swung in front of his own face.

"What do you want"

"Nothing nothing. Is there something wrong to wanting to help out a Fellow bless one"

"Tell me what you want, Or i'm going to Use your guts as a rope to hang you"

"HA That one's a classic, but you're not wrong. Our goddess, Could always use more And when I laid my eyes on you, I knew exactly what you were, but we Can save your initiation for later for now.I have to take this Very angry witch back to our goddess".

Jaune watched as the man grabbed the black haired woman and jumped off the side of the building. An never more carrying them off to gods knows where. The only thing he could think of is how he got into this situation.

---------------------------------------------

Well, there's part one of a potential series, our lovable jaune is basically autistic version of jason voorhees.

Watch as the precious little murder himBo. Discovers emotions such as anger, possibly, even hatred and love.

[softly-potter]

so you're dating a memeber of the band

Summary: Weiss goes to see her girlfriend before they preform their set.

Pairing: Weiss x Ruby

Word Count: 1,513

Warning: smoking

N/A: inspired by a scene from 'Haunting Adeline' by H.D. Carlton

-

Upon walking into the bar, Weiss has the quickest realization as to why she hates them.

They’re overstimulating as hell.

Between the chatter of patrons and the buzz of the music, it makes her nerves stand on high alert, causing her chest to constrict. She had momentarily considered telling Ruby that she couldn't make it to tonight's show but with a begrudging sigh she hadn't. Weiss rarely attends any of Ruby’s gigs due to her own busy schedule as a nursing major but given that the semester had nearly finished, she is low on homework as well as excuses.

Trying to compact herself she makes her way slowly through the crowd, trying to find Yang in the sea of people. She nibbles at the corner of her mouth as she ducks to avoid the arm of a beefy man with a cup of beer in his thick fingers. The amber liquid spills over the lip of the glass and splashes on her shoes, dampening the fabric. She glares at him, grinding her jaw but the man shrugs, swaying on his feet. 

With swift movement Weiss continues forward, relief washing over her when she spots a head full of thick, blonde curls.

“You made it!” Yang squeals, her smile strong but her arms stronger as she gives Weiss a hug. Weiss grins when they separate and slips onto the seat beside her.

“Yeah, figured I'd finally make an appearance,” She hums as she glances around the dimly lit bar. “It’s not every day your girlfriend invites you to see her perform.”

Yang gives her an incredulous look. “Rubes has been begging you to come for nearly the entire semester.”

“I know, I know,” Weiss says sheepishly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I should've come sooner.”

Reaching for her beer, Yang gives her a good-natured shrug. “Don't sweat it! You're here now. Ruby’s gonna be pumped.”

Before she can answer Weiss takes in the slender form of Blake gliding into the seat across from her, her dark hair braided over one shoulder. Yang grins and leans to the side, pressing her lips to Blakes cheek in a quick peck.

“Weiss!” Blake says happily, her cheeks flushed. “You’re finally here! Oh gosh Ruby’s gonna go wild.”

“So I've heard.” Weiss says, leaning into her palm and she can’t help but feel the slightest twinge of pride.

Ruby and Weiss had been, what Yang affectionately liked to call ‘dancing’, around one another for months. There had always been a chemistry, a pulling of strings, but it wasn’t until Yang had had enough of them undressing one another with their eyes that they finally put a label on it. She prides herself on being the reason they finally admitted their attraction, and then their affections, towards one another, and Weiss credited her for causing some of the happiest months of her life with her favorite person.

“Our sets about to start in the next twenty minutes or so,” Blake says, taking Yang's beer and slurping. She holds it out to Weiss, and the girl takes it with graduated, taking two large gulps. “Ruby’s probably out by the back if you want to say hello before we get started.”

Weiss doesn't miss the way Yang wiggles her eyebrows suggestively as she stands from the table, pressing down her rising skirt as she makes her way down the familiar hallway that leads to the back alley where the band members tended to smoke or pregame before performances. While Weiss wasn't a bar girl, she had gone out a handful of times, disliking it more with each attempt. But watching Ruby shred a guitar while wearing dark liner and a muscle tee was worth it to her.

Pushing on the metal handlebar Weiss enters the backend of the bar, glancing around for her favorite brunette. She does a double take at the girl leaning against the brick wall and swallows hard.

Ruby is dressed in her favorite ripped skinny jeans, the ones that are cuffed at the ankles, and a gray muscle tee, her black sports bra visible through the large, homemade cuts of her shirt. Her hairs cropped short but loose, the ends spiked and her eyes were smokey, silver iris’s piercing though the eyeshadow. Several chains hang on the loops of her jeans and Weiss can spot a cigarette carton peeking from her back pocket. The sight of her girlfriend in full rocker-mode makes Weiss’s stomach flip but then Ruby raises a cigarette to her mouth, takes a slow drag before letting out the smoke and Weiss is nearly panting.

Standing directly in front of her is Ruby’s drummer Oscar, a sweet boy from a small town that had just transferred to Beacon Community. With his fluffy curls and adolescent freckles, Oscar looks like the opposite of what he is, and that is a confident member of the band. A pair of drumsticks poke out from his back pocket as he laughs at something Ruby says, his eyes closed in humor. When he opens them, he notices Weiss standing stiffly by the back door and he grins.

“Weiss!” he cheers, and his words make Ruby stand straight, her head wiping towards the door, a grin already spreading over her face.

Weiss smiles and feels her cheeks heat as she moves towards them, lacing her hands together behind her back. She doesn't know why but with both of them staring at her she feels self conscious, like she’s cornered.

“Damn,” Ruby says in a low tone, her cigarette simingling forgotten in between her fingers. Her eyes rake up and down Weiss’ form, and she shakes her head as if to clear it. “Damn.”

Oscar laughs, the freckles on his face moving with his snickering. “Well I'm going to make myself scarce and give you two some… time, before the show.” He snickers, stubbing out his cigarette. “Ruby, ten minutes til curtains. Don't be late.”

Ruby flicks her hand dismissively and Oscar rolls his eyes. “I mean it.”

“Yeah yeah,” she says lightly, giving him a lopsided smile and he gives a little sigh of defeat. Shoving one of his hands in his jean pocket he pulls the backdoor open and disappears inside. 

Feeling suddenly exposed now that they're alone, Weiss licks her lips before rocking in her heels. “You nervous for tonight?”

“Nah,” Ruby replies with confidence. She presses her back to the wall, one leg propped up by her boot-cladded foot pressing into the brick and she cocks her head to the side as the pitch of her voice dips. “Come’re, princess.”

Weiss’s blood warms and moving two steps forward she's standing with her feet between Ruby's legs, arms laced around the guitarist's neck as she leans close. Ruby grins and it’s coquettish, lively, tendrils of gray smoke escaping the corners of her mouth. Weiss wrinkles her nose, moves her waist back but Ruby loops an arm around her and drags her closer

“You know I hate kissing when you smoke.” Weiss complains, and Ruby nods once, her hand that's not holding the cigarette drops to Weiss’ backside and gives her ass a light squeeze.

“Yeah but I know you think it looks hot, even if it doesn't taste great.” Ruby counters and Weiss scoffs, rolling her eyes and ignoring the twisting in her gut. With a light sigh she leans forward and slots her mouth over Ruby’s. She can feel Ruby's hand palm over the material of her skirt before sliding beneath it, her fingers so hot Weiss can feel the heat through the thin cotton of her panties.

Closing her eyes, Weiss relishes in the warmth of her breath and slips her tongue inside Ruby's mouth, swirling around hers as the kisses grow frantic. She tugs on the fabric of Ruby’s muscle tee, pulling her closer and feels Ruby's hand tighten on her ass. The red head drops the cigarette from between her fingers and grips Weiss by the back of her neck, controlling the kiss. It makes Weiss weak in the knees, her head fuzzy from the smoke and beer and Ruby's skin against her own.

“Mmm,” Ruby hums, leans her forehead against Weiss’ and takes a sharp breath. Weiss smiles, breathing out through her nose and looks down. The discarded cigarette glows dimly against the dark cement of the alley and she glances up.

“Your cigarette is still lit,” she whispers, trying to catch her breath. For a brief moment Ruby looks confused but when she spots the limp tube her face clears to one of recognition. She lifts her foot and stomps it out before looking up at Weiss through hooded eyes.

“Better?” Ruby asks, and her tone is like liquid heat. Weiss swallows, her chest warm as she feels Ruby's hand massaging the skin of her neck, thumb pressing lightly to her pulse point.

“You shouldn't litter.” she says hoarsely, earning a grin in return. Dropping her hands, Ruby bends and picks the cigarette up before depositing it in her empty back pocket.

“Sorry, baby,” she rasps. “Won’t happen again.”

[vecnawrites]

Patreon Reward: A Pure Support Group, Chapter 15: Fiona Thyme

Another meeting of FABJA, another incident to speak of...this time, it's Fiona's turn to speak of her issues...

“Hello again, everyone! Welcome to another meeting of FABJA!” Pyrrha said cheerfully, even though generally, the meetings of which were stressful for everyone involved.

Currently, Joan was with Lian in the dorm room, deeply asleep and clinging to the svelte girl like a limpet, much to Nora’s jealousy...though that was mainly due to the fact that Joan had practically shoved Lian’s head into her cleavage as she slept.

...not that Pyrrha could blame her for being jealous.

But that wasn’t the point at the moment.

The usual suspects were all there. Velvet, May, and Ruby were all sitting in their usual seats, looking somewhat haunted, making Pyrrha wonder just how bad the ‘sleepover’ they had with Joan had gone in terms of keeping their sanity.

Coco was near them, looking torn between amusement and understanding.

Weiss, Blake, and Yang were by Ruby’s side, looking amused and jealous in different measures, Yang being the most amused, Weiss and Blake being more jealous.

Cinder, Emerald, Neo, and the Twins were huddled up and chatting, each of them looking pensive and somewhat stressed.

Reese and Arslan were chatting about their day, both looking less stressed than the others, but then, they had been away from Beacon all day.

Neon and Ciel were talking to the reason that this meeting was called, Fiona Thyme, the sheep faunus looking mortified and shrinking into herself, her pants showing an ice pack held to the groin.

“Tonight we have Fiona Thyme, who needs to speak of her own experience. Fiona, you have the floor, and take your time.” Pyrrha could see that the poor girl was mortified, but she nodded.

“I...it happened earlier today…” the white haired faunus said, her floppy ears twitching, wincing as she shifted.

~

Fiona rushed through the halls, needing to get to the Heat Room yesterday, her balls overstuffed with thick cum, needing to be free. She needed to get to there before she embarrassed herself!

Rushing forwards, she slapped the Elevator button and tapped her foot impatiently as she watched the light slowly move towards her, feeling antsy and nervous as her balls groaned in her pants. While she wasn’t in heat, she was certainly backed up due to lack to time to tend to her needs.

Thankfully, Doctor Mercy was very lenient about girls using the machines if they got backed up uncomfortably.

“Can’t you get here any faster!?” she hissed under her breath, her ears flopping in agitation as she found her nerves being frayed hard.

Ding! “Finally!” she hissed, darting into the elevator and slapping the button to send her to the Infirmary.

The doors started to close, allowing her to finally start relaxing…

“Wait for me!” a faint cry reached her ears as an arm stuck between the doors of the elevator, making them open back up fully. “Whew, caught it in time.”

Fiona’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull as she realized that it was Joan, the girl who had shoved her head into her cleavage and stroked her ears, making her cum like crazy on the dance floor.

That had been so embarrassing...thankfully, she wasn’t the only victim that night.

But she had cum harder than she ever remembered due to that, and any orgasm that she had since that New Year’s Party had felt shallow.

But she also quivered in terror as the girl entered the elevator, her balls churning eagerly as her mind went back to that heavenly feeling. As Joan slipped into the elevator with her, Fiona froze as the doors closed, the air blowing inwards and…

carrying the most delicious smell with it.

Her cock throbbed, precum squirting into her panties, making her quiver in her spot as her nostrils flared, her lungs working hard to draw in more of the delicious scent as she stared at the beautiful girl as she glanced at the control panel, nodding in satisfaction as she saw which button was lit up.

As they began to move again, the scent coming up again in another powerful wave, Fiona knew that this was going to be har-DIFFICULT! NOT HARD! DON’T THINK HARD!

It was going to be difficult to remain calm until they reached the top level.

Desperately trying to breathe shallowly as the elevator began to rise, Fiona willed the cramped box they were in to move.

Which was difficult as she watched the blonde girl hum a sweet tune to herself as she moved her hair, bringing attention to the fact that she as glistening with sweat, and finally bringing attention to the Fiona that she was dressed in a sweatsuit.

Despite everything telling her to keep breathing slowly and shallowly, and to not do anything beyond that, Fiona found her mouth moving. “J-Just finished working out?” she asked, cursing as her cock throbbed as she got another lungful of the sharp, but delicious scent.

She threw her hands over her lap to hide the embarrassing bulge as she saw Joan start turning, a smile as bright as the sun on her face. “In a matter of speaking, yes! I had a nice long run, but remembered I needed to speak to A-Doctor Mercy before I went for a shower!” Fiona nodded silently, her hips jerking into her hands as she found herself inhaling another wave of the sweet and sharp scent of her natural sweat.

She could already feel her cock drooling cum into her underwear...and she couldn’t stop it.

As the blonde opened her mouth the speak, Fiona realizing with dread it was likely going be asking why she was going to be going up to see Mercy, but she was thankfully (?) stopped as the elevator jerked in place, stopping movement, making both of them stumble, Fiona crashing into the back wall-

-olive green eyes widened as she saw Joan lose her balance, falling forwards, her head being covered in a shadow of Joan’s chest-

-SMOOOSH! Fiona’s squeal was lost, smothered in the soft, sweaty cavern of Joan’s cleavage. Her cock and balls throbbed angrily, cum oozing out despite the tight clench her hands had over her shaft.

Thankfully, the pleasurable hell was only for a few moments, though her lungs still got a nice fill of the pure sharp scent, the sweetness enhanced from the salt and pheromones going straight down into her balls, the stuffed balls rumbling from the intense increase of her own arousal.

“Eeep~!” that was a cute sound, Fiona thought, wondering what it would be like to hear it again, though in a much different, more intimate manner. “S-Sorry, Fiona!”

Fiona found her mouth moving before her brain engaged. “N-No need. It was an accident, after all.” thankfully the words were truthful, and she could breathe a sigh of relief as Joan calmed down, though she swallowed hard as the blonde turned towards the control panel and bent over, pushing her ass out as she opened the little box holding the communication device for moments like this.

Fiona’s teeth sank into her lower lip as she watched the woman’s rear end sway side to side, knowing that the blonde was talking, but unable to tell what she was saying, focusing on keeping herself from humping the air as she stared helplessly at the rear end before her.

This was torturous; she was going to cum, humiliate herself, expose herself as a shameful girl who couldn’t control her own erections or orgasm-

“-ahhh, they’re working on it now? Any time now? Thank you, I’ll let Fiona know!...yes, I’m trapped with her right now, why? Is there something wrong?...okay, I’ll talk to you later, bye.” Fiona jerked out of her thoughts and forced her hips to still as Joan stood straight and began to turn, looking back at her with a warm smile. “We should be moving again soon, if what Professor Goodwitch says is true!”

A cold sweat broke out on Fiona’s forehead, knowing how protective the woman was over the blonde in the elevator with her. Joan may have just signed her death warrant from that...though she couldn’t really blame the innocent blonde for not knowing.

“Here, come on, there’s no need to stay on the floor! That can’t be comfortable!” Fiona swallowed in horror as Joan made her way over, reaching out, her mind going wild to try and figure out a way to say ‘no’ in order to not the obscene bulge in her pants.

Someone or something seemed to be listening to her, as the elevator jerked in place, starting back up-

“Eeep~!” olive green eyes widened as Fiona watched Joan lose her balance again, falling forwards towards her-

-FWUMP!

Fiona’s eyes rolled up in their sockets as Joan fell on her face, her nose slotted against the groin of the blonde’s sweatpants, her nose and lungs saturated in the sweet milky, sugary, honeyed scent of sweat and musk that promised her to be the most delicious thing imaginable as she breathed deep, her mouth flooding with saliva in moments.

Her cock surged, balls erupting and cum spraying out into her slacks, oozing down underneath her, soaking into her ass and leaking through her pants as her balls emptied out everything inside them, black spots dancing around her vision as she found herself blacking out, barely hearing Joan saying something as she took another deep, greedy breath, filling her lungs and memorizing her scent, her balls practically inverting themselves as they forced out more and more cum.

Blackness took her as she continued to breathe Joan’s wonderful scent, one she wanted to spend the rest of her time basking in.

~

“...I later found out that Doctor Mercy was the one who found us. And thankfully Joan didn’t seem to notice that my lower half was in a lake of cum…” Fiona said, burying her face into her hands, which did next to nothing to hide her burning cheeks.

Everyone was shifting uncomfortably, both in arousal and jealousy, though Velvet gave a long, almost saddened nod. “Be ready to smell her for weeks. It’s wonderful, but you’re going to be hard so many times you shouldn’t due to it…” she murmured.

The room was filled with whimpers at the thought, Neon wringing her own tail, Blake squirming heavily on her chair, her cheeks a dark red, Cinder’s face burning bright and her hands pressed firmly onto her lap, and Arslan licking her lips, her pupils dilated.

Pyrrha, red faced and pajama bottoms bulging from how hot that was, and part of her mind cursed the fact that it wasn’t her that it happened to, though she knew that wasn’t fair to Joan or any of them. She could tell from the ice pack that Fiona’s poor balls had been incredibly overworked, possibly popped from how intense it had been. “Thank you for your story, Fiona...now, that is all the time that we have for the night, so please head back to your dorms safely…”

Sharing a glance with Nora, she knew that her teammate was going to be going to be emptying her balls in the locker room showers before heading back to the dorms, and glancing around at the others, she had a feeling that they were going to be doing the same in some manner or another before heading back to their dorm rooms.

Hopefully none of them got caught on the way back...but that was a problem for them if it happened.

[bridgyrose]

White Rose "risky" hanky panky? (whatever you feel risky means.)

Ruby’s breath hitched as she moved closer to Weiss, her eyes already stripping her partner in anticipation of finally being with her. Fingers trembled as they grabbed the soft fabric of Weiss’s shirt, a blush crossed her cheeks as she slowly lifted. 

“Dont take too long,” Weiss said, half annoyed. “We dont have time to dawdle. We have ten minutes until Blake gets back-” 

“This is going to take longer than ten minutes with the way you dress,” Ruby retorted back as she started to undo buttons as she lifted Weiss’s shirt. “Couldnt you have dressed a bit simpler?” 

“I still have an image to keep up. Besides, you’re no better with that corset of yours.” 

“All you have to do is untie it.” 

“And then wait as you take too long to put it back on.” 

Ruby rolled her eyes as she finished unbuttoning Weiss’s shirt and pulled it off. She froze as she heard footsteps walk past the door of Weiss’s office, letting out a breath she didnt realize she had been holding once she was sure everything was clear. “Maybe now is a bad idea-” 

“Its not like we have other options,” Weiss half growled as she pulled Ruby close to her by the collar, their lips nearly touching. “So we either do this now or-” 

Ruby froze again as she heard the doorknob start to jiggle as someone tried to open the door. “We’ll talk later,” she said in a hushed whisper as she buttoned up Weiss’s shirt again, before calling out. “Just a minute!” 

“You’re both going to be late!” Yang called through the door. “Do you really want to miss our flight again?” 

Ruby rushed to the door and opened it a bit with a smile to Yang. “Weiss and I just had a little business to finish before leaving.” 

“Exactly,” Weiss agreed as she finished straightening her shirt. “Need to make sure emails are forwarded to the board, making sure shipments are correct, and to have a replacement hunter on standby in case anything happens while we’re away.” 

Yang peeked into the room. “Right. Come on you two, you’re the last ones to be ready.” 

Ruby nodded and held the door open for Weiss before following the two out towards the airship. The blush finally faded from her cheeks as she made her way to Weiss’s side, fingers slowly glancing against hers. “Maybe we’ll get some time alone after we land,” she said in a hushed whisper. 

“Cant you just tell her that you like girls?” Weiss whispered back. “Or at least that you like me? Then we dont have to keep hiding this.” 

“And what exactly am I supposed to say? What if she doesnt accept this?” 

“She’s dating Nora. I’m sure she’ll be fine if you tell her you love me.” 

“You two done whispering back there?” Yang asked as she slowed down a bit. “I swear you both still act like we’re in Beacon.” 

Weiss scoffed and rolled her eyes. “We do not. Besides, its not like you’re any better. You’re still just as reckless now as you were then.” 

“I’ve gotten better. Besides, I know what I want to do with my life now.” 

“Whatever you say.” 

Ruby sighed and gently reached for Weiss’s side, slowly letting her fingers drag against the soft fabric of Weiss’s shirt as she made her way up. She gently squeezed Weiss’s breast and blushed for a bit as she pulled away when she heard a soft moan leave Weiss’s lips. 

Yang paused and looked behind her. “You okay?” 

“I-I’m fine,” Weiss said as her voice cracked a bit. “Just thought about something my mother told me.” 

“Just keep it to yourself.” 

Ruby sighed and started to fall behind a bit. This was going to be a long trip.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Be careful you dolt!” Weiss said in a hushed whisper. “You’re going to wake them.” 

“I am being careful!” Ruby tried to adjust herself, wincing as she hit her elbow against the wall. “Why did you choose the lavatory to do this in?” 

“Because you’re still too scared to tell them that we’re dating!” 

Ruby sighed and looked down Weiss’s shirt. “Its not that simple-” 

“Its always that simple! Just tell them!” 

“It’ll ruin both of us!” Ruby pulled away from Weiss and started to get dressed again. “If I tell Yang, then it wont be long before others find out. You’re still head of the SDC, if anyone finds out that you and I are… you know… it’ll put us both in jeopardy.” 

“Ruby-” 

“We both have images we have to keep up. And we cant let yours get ruined. Not now.” 

Weiss sighed and finished buttoning up her shirt. “We cant keep being scared of that.” 

“Isnt that why you wanted us to start in secret to begin with?” 

“Yes but… things are different now.” 

“Give me time. A-a week.” 

“Fine, but you still owe me a night I wont forget.” 

Ruby smiled a bit and opened the door to the lavatory. “Dont worry, I’ll make it up to you.”

[outcasts-redeemer]

The florescent lights hummed as they came on one row after the next, illuminating the white room with a hard glow. The girls of RWBY and Sun and Neptune cringed as the light momentarily blinded them.

Ruby, after blinking a few times to adjust her eyes, looked around the room spying several cabinets and a large metal door to the side only to stop as her eyes landed on Headmaster Ozpin who standing in front of a table located in the center of the room.

Ozpin gazed at them coolly, his eyes withholding any warmth that the girls were used to. “Do you know where we are?” He asked them, his hands tightening on his cane.

Neptune fidgeted as he answered. “The sign outside said this was the morgue?”

Ozpin glanced at the blue haired young adult and nodded. “Yes.” He said, “This is the Vale City Morgue Station A-12. It was built forty years ago to answer the ongoing logistical issues of dealing with fatalities on newly built trans-city highway. Unlike its older siblings this facility was designed to hold ten times the number of fatalities a normal morgue would hold.” The white haired professor motioned to the room they were in. “This room is one of ten autopsy rooms connected to the main cadaver storage room.”

Ruby swallowed and stepped forward. “Why are we here?”

Ozpin leveled his eyes upon her own silver ones and stepped to the side waving her over in the process. “You are here because I convinced the Council that what happened on the Highway was not your doing.”

Ruby took a step forwards but froze as she saw the small shape hidden under the white cloth

Ozpin noticed her gaze and spoke again, “However, as hunters any choice you make holds the lives of countless others. This is the price of making the wrong choice.” With that statement the white haired headmaster pulled back the white cloth showing the body of a six year old girl, her face a mask of peace that was contrasted by the broken and torn form that was her lower body and legs.

The results were instant. Weiss and Yang both gasped in horror covering their mouths in an attempt to keep from crying out. Blake and Sun paled and took a step back while Neptune turned a shade of green and ran towards the nearest trash bin and threw up the noodles he and Sun had eaten.

The most affect however was Ruby herself. Standing still, her face ashen with understanding and her eyes focused on the immobile form of the young girl, Ruby asked a simple question. “How many?“

Ozpin hated hearing the brokenness of one of his most talented students but this needed to happen. She and the other students needed to know their actions have consequences. “There were one hundred thirty six fatalities as of last count with an additional twenty four injured.”

Yang tore her eyes from the young girl and looked at her headmaster with a look of growing horror. “W-what?”

Ozpin gave her an unimpressed glance before turning back to look at Ruby. “I will be frank with you. What happened tonight should not have happened. Not only did you break regulations, engage in vigilantism, and break restrictions put on you for your previous stunt.  You fundamentally failed as a team on multiple levels. Miss Rose. Tell me. Why are you the Team Leader?”

Ruby swallowed her shame and guilt and answered, “I showed exceptional skill when working under hazardous conditions to both organize and communicate with several other Hunters to both utilize their strengths and limit their weaknesses.”

Ozpin slammed his cane to the ground as he raised his voice. “Then why did you allow members of your team, as well as members not apart of your team to organize this one!?” He reached over to the girls still attached leg and read the tag connected to her toe.”Susan Brianne Grace, age six, cause of death: blood loss due to numerous Crush and Avulsion injuries along the lower extremities and torso.” He stopped reading and gazed at the six of them. “She died shoving her four year old younger brother out of the way of a falling four ton advertisement billboard for Hunters. She loved horses and liked to draw...”

Ruby was silent as tears pooled in her eyes. Everything had happened so fast all she could remember feeling was the rush of the chase and the determination to capture Torchwick. She never even stopped to consider anything else. And because of that. So many...

Ozpin sighed and lifted a stack of clipboards. “This lesson was supposed to be learnt during your second year, before going off on your first unchaperoned mission. But now I have no choice. Each of you will take a clipboard and work alongside the city morticians, recording everything there is about those lost to us due to the failures of their protectors. You will be here all night and in the morning you will report to Miss Goodwitch for aditional disaplinary action.” 

The grey haired headmaster began walking towards the exit but stopped before speaking one last time. “There is nothing you can do now to change their fates. All you can do, is learn from this and strive to be better.” He looked down at his feet lost in thought for a moment before whispering  Fore that is all we can do.” With those final words he shoved open the exit and left them to their new task

[goldenamaranthe-blog]

Toddler and the Bees: Making Memories

Fast forward roughly three years after Yang and Ruby find and save the little tiger Faunus from the desert. The war is over. Blake and Yang are married and living on Kuo Kuana. The small family is sitting on a dock fishing. The little one is going ballistic because there’s a fish on their line. Cubby is their nickname.

Cubby: (squealing) Mama! Mama! Look! I got one!

Blake: Good job, Cubby! Reel it in!

Cubby: (struggling) I’m trying!

Yang: You got it, Cubby! Just one more pull!

Cubby: (yanks on the rod and the line snaps) Oh, no!

Fish: (swimming just under the surface of the water mockingly)

Blake: Aw, it’s okay, Cub. (rubs toddler’s back) Sometimes this happens.

Yang: Oh, no you don’t! (rips off obnoxious, red, orange, and yellow button up and dives into the water) Get back here!

Cubby: (squeals with excitement and nearly dives in but Blake grabs them)

Yang: (resurfaces and holds the fish overhead with both hands) Got it!

Everyone on the docks watch as Yang tosses the fish onto the dock before pulling herself out of the water. Cubby is poking the fish and tapping their feet excitedly. Kali is taking pictures while Ghira tries to get Cubby to hold the fish.

Blake: (holds Yang’s eyesore of a shirt out to her and laughs) What was that all about?

Yang: That? (glances at Cubby holding the fish with help) Just making a memory Cubby won’t soon forget.

[darksaiyangoku]

RWBY Versus XV: Mistral Training Scene

The clanging of metal rung through the air as Noctis and Jaune's swords clashed. Even though this was training, they were acting as if it were a real fight, as per Ozpin's intructions. They had three weeks to prepare for the Battle of Haven and nothing would be slowing them down. By the patio of the house, Teams RWBY and Nora were staring, all of their faces red. What caught their attention wasn't the fight itself, but the fact that both boys were shirtless. Yang and Ruby were especially surprised. Both Noctis and Jaune had changed a lot since Beacon, looking slightly bulkier and toned, no longer the skinny, scraggly boys they used to know. For a split second, Ruby heard Blake purring.

"Stop that!" she hissed.

"What?" Blake asked.

"Purring at Noctis? He's your best friend! Besides, aren't you and Sun dating?"

"We are. But that doesn't mean I can't admire Noct's improvements," Blake smirked at her leader, "You're not jealous, are you?"

"Gah!" Ruby gasped, blushing, "N-no!" She folded her arms to try and maintain her composure as Blake giggled under her breath. Noctis and Jaune charged forward. As soon as their blades hit, Crocea Mors went flying and Noctis drew Azrael towards Jaune's neck.

"Yield," said Noctis. Jaune glared at his opponent and furrowed his brows in anger. Instead of surrendering, he grabbed Noctis by the wrist. "Woah! Dude, what the hell?!"

POW!

Instantly, Jaune punched Noctis square in the face, making him drop his sword. The girls collectively gasped in shock. Jaune yelled out and tried to go for another punch, only for it to be blocked by Noctis. Noctis swiped Jaune's arm aside and punched him in the chest, sending him to his knees. Jaune looked up at Noctis and yelled. Suddenly, the training session devolved into a fist fight. Jaune punched Noctis several times in his jaw, while Noctis made sure to aim for Jaune's pressure points. Because both of their Auras had broke, neither were able to depend on their Semblances.

WHAM!

Noctis punched Jaune in his stomach, making him cough up a mound of spit. Clutching to himself and trying to recover, Jaune ran towards Noctis with one fist raised. However, Noctis easily sweeped him to the floor. Noctis kneeled on top of him and punched him the face. Both boys were bruised and beaten, gasping and panting for air.

"I... suggested you... cool off," wheezed Noctis.

"Screw.... you..." Jaune wheezed back. At that moment, Ozpin decided to intervene.

"I think that's enough for today!" He said in a loud, stern voice, "I appreciate the two of you talking this training seriously, but that does not excuse this dreadful display of rough-housing. The idea is to work together, not to kill each other."

"Whatever," Jaune muttered, shoving off Noctis as he helped himself up. Before anyone could say anything, he stormed off. Noctis winced as he felt the pain on his cheek. As soon as he stood up, he was wrapped in a hug from Ruby.

"Agh!" he grunted, "R-Ruby?"

"Noct! Are you okay?!" she shrieked, burying her face in his chest. Noctis tried his best to hide himself blushing. Suddenly, Ruby realised what she was doing and her face turned bright red. She pushed Noctis off and put her face in her hands. "I'm sorry!" she squeaked and disappeared in a flash of petals. Noctis glanced over and saw Nora, Blake, Weiss and Yang trying to hold in their laughter.

"What?" he asked.

[dalek-ix-writes-stuff]

Red Ruin - INTERVAL 02: FIRST ENCOUNTER (Part VI)

The Nevermore's scream brought joy to Ruby's heart.

The reaper ran towards the pillars, her soul singing as things began to click into place. She had to swallow the laugh that threatened to burst out of her throat, but no amount of self-control could hide the grin that cut across her face from ear to ear.

They deserve to die. They ALL deserve to die.

She pulled ahead, terribly aware that it was Yang who was literally riding the Nevermore for her. Some part of her wanted to scream at Blake and Weiss to be faster, but she clamped down on those impulses; the plan, she reminded herself, depended on timing, not speed.

"Come on!"

… That didn't mean a little encouragement wouldn't hurt.

----------

Ruby, Blake realized, was fast, even without her semblance, and even with the weight of her monstrously oversized weapon weighing her down.

How much does that thing weigh? How can she move this fast with it?

She didn't look as strong as her sister did, but-

… she can hear everything I'm thinking, can she?

Blake shook herself. Focus. Move.

She heard Weiss call out. "Casting haste!"

Blake almost asked what her partner had meant, but then the ground underneath her next step glowed, and time

slowed

down, and she understood what Weiss had meant.

Sounds became distorted. The world seemed strange and dreamlike, and Blake felt as if she were running through syrup and she found, to her surprise, that she was catching up to Ruby.

(The predatory, almost wolfish smile she glanced on Ruby Rose's face made her shudder.)

She scrambled up the stone pillar. The Haste Glyph wore off halfway up, but Blake's semblance brought her up the rest of the way with a single moment of discontinuity. Her fingers dug into cracks in the rock, and she hurled Gambol at the pillar on the opposite side of the stone bridge, propelling it forwards with a burst from the gun component.

----------

The wind screamed. Her heart was beating like a drum. Her body burned, aura flaring around her and tongues of flame licking at her wild mane.

Kr-shnk.

"Still hungry?! How about a knuckle sandwich!!"

Boom.

In other words: Yang was having the time of her life.

Kr-shnk.

Boom.

Yang was also possibly in the most danger she'd ever been in in her entire life, barring a couple prominent incidents she was not going to think about.

When people talk about "Riding the Nevermore", they're not usually being literal.

Despite never taking any lessons in Nevermore Wrangling –not that any existed, she suspected–, in Yang's humble opinion she was doing pretty well for herself. She'd managed to hold on to the bony mask in spite of the monster doing its best to shake her off, and she'd also discovered that she could kinda force it to go in one direction or another by punching and kicking it in its face.

Bumblebee this guy ain't.

A

pulse

in the back of her head told her Ruby was ready, and her grin turned feral.

Well, time to ditch this ride! Your turn, Ruby!

Grabbing hold of the Nevermore's mask's bony horn with both hands, she pushed off with her feet, and then kicked the monster's uppermost eyes, making it screech with pain and go into a dive.

----------

Weiss knew that, had she presented this plan to any of her tutors, Father would've called her to his office before the day was out. Even beyond that… it had far too many moving parts, too much risk; it relied on Yang not being thrown off and crashing the Nevermore into a cliff, on the ribbon that unspooled from Blake's weapon being long enough and not snapping under the stress, on Ruby –that strange, strange girl who had done

something

in the forest (why couldn't she remember?) timing everything right…

(Weiss refused to entertain the thought that she wouldn't play her part in this correctly. Failure on her part was not an option.)

And yet…

The gun-sickle spun through the air, black ribbon trailing behind. For one brief second, Weiss was afraid that it would fall short, but then the gun part fired a burst at just the right moment to send it across, and then around the pillar on the far side, wrapping the ribbon around it several times over before embedding itself into the stone. Blake pulled the ribbon taut, and then spun herself around the pillar she'd climbed, anchoring the slingshot on her end.

The Giant Nevermore which had given them so much grief crashed into the cliffs in front of them, Yang jumping away with only a moment to spare, carried by blazing buckshot from her gauntlets.

Not a moment later, Ruby swung her scythe behind herself, blade down, and leapt at the same time as the –to Weiss's eye– monstrously oversized not-a-rifle component fired, propelling the odd girl up into the air. She sailed under the ribbon and the scythe's hook caught on it. The slingshot stretched one way, and then came back, Ruby flipping herself and her scythe around it and then firing it to propel herself further back.

Myrtenaster's cylinder spun.

Left foot forwards, right back, swing up and squeeze…!

A gravity glyph burst into being right underneath Ruby's feet. Her cloaked dropped as if it were made of lead, and Ruby's knees briefly buckled under her own weight before her aura flared and she stood back up, scythe held tight in both hands.

Forwards, swing down, up and squeeze…!

Myrtenaster fired again, creating an array of haste glyphs in front of Ruby. Again, and ice pinned the Nevermore's tail as it tried to lift up again.

And then Weiss was standing at Ruby's side.

When she first met her, Weiss had gotten the impression of someone… excitable, but awkward and painfully shy. When they'd met again, she'd learned more. Ruby had a sister. Ruby had a hatred for the Creatures of Grimm so absolute it verged on the fanatical.

Ruby had a condition.

Now, Weiss got to learn more about Ruby Rose. The grin on red-cloaked girl's face was wolfish enough to give Weiss pause and send a trail of ice water down her spine, but her eyes… Ruby's eyes had a light to them that Weiss hadn't seen on the girl before.

Those silver eyes looked at her. "Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked, almost playfully.

Weiss almost rolled her eyes on impulse. "Can I?" she scoffed, "Of course I can."

Foot forwards, breathe in…

----------

Crescent Rose's bolt cycled.

Myrtenaster's cylinder clicked into place.

Gambol Shroud's ribbon strained, it's owner's Aura holding it together.

Ember and Celica roared, buckshot making the Nevermore flinch as the pellets skid across its mask.

----------

Myrtenaster's blade weaved a pattern into the air.

The gravity glyph inverted, and Ruby flew. Crescent Rose sung in her hands as she passed through the haste glyphs, muzzle break shifting to direct her forwards even as she swung it back and rotated the blade to be almost in line with the barrel. Her semblance flickered, and Ruby flew even faster. Faster!

The Nevermore had broken free. It was trying to fly, trying to get away, trying to escape.

Red flickered around Ruby Rose.

It would not. There was no escape. There was only death.

Ruby flew. A comet of steel, fire, flesh and hate that tore across the air, curving up towards her prey.

OH, WHAT A BIG SCYTHE I HAVE!

Crescent Rose's blade sank into the Grimm's flesh

ALL THE BETTER TO CUT YOU WITH!

and this time, Ruby's pride and joy cut through.

It was generally accepted that the Creatures of Grimm were incapable of feeling fear. Ruby had discovered (or, maybe, she'd always known) otherwise; they could feel fear. You just had to force them to.

And as red-wreathed Ruby Rose propelled herself up the Nevermore's body, and as Crescent Rose kept cutting and cutting, splitting the beast in two from tail to head, she made sure that the Nevermore felt nothing else, right up until the moment Crescent Rose cut through the last if its flesh, and it finally, finally died, its bisected body falling down, trailing black smoke as it began to vanish.

Ruby fell, flipping onto the edge of the cliff, landing with a crouch with Crescent Rose laid across her shoulders.

She stood back up and turned to face everyone else with a little wobble to her knees, and for the first time in a long, long while, it was quiet inside her mind.

It hurt to smile this much. Ruby didn't mind; this pain, she'd be happy to take. She took the deepest breath her burning lungs could take and let out a cheer loud enough to echo.

----------

"Wow…"

Cree- er, Ruby Rose was screaming as if she'd scored the last goal in the tournament. Jaune couldn't blame her –she'd cut that giant monster in two!– but frankly he was too exhausted to celebrate his own victory, let alone someone else's.

(Naturally, Nora still had plenty of energy for that. Hence why she was spinning an almost-comatose Ren around and around.)

"That was pretty impressive," Pyrrha agreed, sitting next to where Jaune had chosen to lay down, left knee bent up so she could rest her arms on it. "Same goes for you, Jaune." The smile on her face was faint. "Thank you."

Jaune almost choked. "M-me!?" he spluttered, "I should be thanking you! And Ren! And Nora! I just-"

"-kept all four of us alive until the others came," Pyrrha gently corrected him, "by realizing we could take advantage of the ruins to keep the Grimm from working together."

"… It didn't work," Jaune mumbled, remembering the sheer panic at the end.

Pyrrha shrugged. "It worked long enough, and that's what matters," she told him. "And then you got the Deathstalker to sting itself."

"Nora had to hammer that stinger in for that to work," Jaune shot back, although without much heat.

"Which she couldn't've done without everyone else keeping it in place," Pyrrha added. "It might not have been as showy as… well." She gestured at the other four –Ruby had gotten down from the cliff and was in danger of being hugged to death by the blonde whose name Jaune hadn't learned yet–, "But a victory is a victory. Besides…"

She glanced away. "… this was hardly my best performance."

Jaune stared. What.

"… What?"

Pyrrha looked genuinely embarrassed. "Fighting Grimm isn't my… strongest point. I'm more used to fighting… well, humans." A blink. "And faunus, I guess…? Comes with being a tournament fighter."

Jaune stared some more. That was… er…

Green eyes looked at him in concern. "… Jaune?"

He raised one hand. "Sorry, I'm… trying to process that this isn't your best," he said. "Also there's parts of me that are sore that I didn't know could get sore."

"Ah…"

A slightly awkward silence fell upon them. Jaune began to wonder how they'd be getting back to Beacon. And when they'd be getting back to Beacon.

I mean, we beat the big bad monsters! Shouldn't they have sent… something? A Bullhead?

… wait.

He sat up.

"We forgot to get the relics."

----------

Another year.

Another initiation.

Another group of students. Another generation of heroes.

… and another set of teams to make. After doing this for as long as he had, Ozpin had found himself becoming… fond of this part of the process. Seeing where the pieces laid at the end of the day: which partnerships formed, and what nature they had. Who showed promise, who rose, who… didn't, and would require more work be done.

Ozpin believed that it was possible to teach someone to be a hero; to find and nurture the best parts of the human soul and create Huntsmen who would put themselves on the line and hold back the darkness that preyed upon mankind. It was, perhaps-

He sighed.

… It was, perhaps, one of a few things in which Stachys Vera and he could agree on.

"Something wrong?"

Trust Glynda to read his mood like a book. "No, my mind merely went to… unpleasant places," he told his closest friend. "Ones unfortunately close to home; the Vale Defence Forces."

He glanced up from the scroll laying flat on his desk. Glynda was sat across from him. The mention of the VDF made her raise an eyebrow.

"Really?" she asked, curious, "What made you think of them?"

Ozpin leaned back in his seat. "The Academies were founded under the principle that it was possible to teach people to be heroes; be they the ones who came to it naturally… or those who needed some tutoring to get there. In a way, the VDF works under the same principle; to turn ordinary people into a sword and shield against the darkness. And yet…"

He trailed off, but Glynda knew him well enough to know what he meant. And even if she didn't… the friction between both of Vale's most prestigious institutions was common knowledge.

"And yet," Glynda repeated, setting down her own tablet-sized scroll for a moment. She frowned. "It wouldn't be nearly so bad if not for the glory-hog they've put in charge."

"If only things were so simple…"

Ozpin paused. Above, the gears dutifully continued to turn.

"I fear General Stachys Vera's motivations are far less selfish, but all the worse for it," he spoke, "The VDF was as much her grandfather's child as her own father was; it was Zeleno Vera who fought for its creation and moulded it into what it is now. And the VDF has not –and might never– forget what he did for them, especially considering the way he passed away. Were we in Mistral, there would be a shrine dedicated to him in every barracks room."

He paused again. "No, Stachys Vera does not seek glory for the sake of glory. She seeks to prove to her grandfather's living legacy that she's worthy of it."

Glynda scoffed. "That woman is hardly a worthy successor to Zeleno," she pointed out, "a man you trusted enough to bring into to your inner circle. Twice."

Ozpin felt a smile creep in. "Zeleno was hardly the soldier he became when I first met him," he told Glynda, making the woman blink. His expression grew somber. "I can only hope his granddaughter follows his footsteps."

He shook his head. "Anyways… before we lose ourselves in the past, what do you think of the teams, Glynda?"

Glynda's eyes went back to the scroll she'd been working on. "Team Cardinal are perfect for one another," she noted dryly, "for all the worst reasons. Juniper has potential if they work on their… weakness and take advantage of their strengths. Ruby…"

Glynda sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "On one hand, the sisters get along fine and are clearly used to working together, even if Ruby Rose is… herself. On the other, Weiss Schnee and a disguised Blake Belladona."

"A most interesting partnership if there ever was one," Ozpin quipped. More seriously, he added, "And one with the potential to cross bridges that sorely need to be crossed."

"And with just as much potential to crash and burn," Glynda shot back, "How long can Blake keep her identity hidden? What will happen if Weiss discovers who and what she is before they can build trust?"

"We can hardly out Miss Belladona –or Beatica, as she's chosen to be known– to her own teammates," Ozpin pointed out, "we'll intervene if things get too out of hand, and help where we can, but… ultimately, this is a problem they'll have to resolve themselves."

Glynda huffed. "Which brings me to the other problem… your choice of leaders."

Ah. Yes, Ozpin imagined that Glynda would have… questions about that.

Best to push forwards. "Go on."

Glynda crossed her arms. "Cardin Winchester."

"Successfully led his team through the Emerald Forest and recovered their relics." At Glynda's raised eyebrow, Ozpin added, "More through luck and stubbornness than skill, I'll admit, and his leadership style can certainly use some work. Dove Bronzewing might've been a better choice, but…" A sigh. "Unfortunately, Mister Winchester's main weakness is that he'll never follow a plan not his own."

Ozpin sat back, looking up at the moving clockwork. "It was a choice between making a weak but functional team that we can hopefully teach to be better, or a dysfunctional team that might end up stronger."

"We'll have to focus on breaking them out of their bad habits, then," Glynda grumbled. She seemed to accept Ozpin's reasoning, however, as she then moved on to the next leader.

"Jaune Arc. He of the suspicious grades."

Ozpin suppressed a wince at Glynda's tone, his eyes still watching the clockwork move overhead. "Ah. Yes. Him."

Glynda's glare bored into Ozpin's skull. "I hope you don't expect me to believe that his papers are legitimate."

"…No." His lips quirked up into a smile. "That being said, Mister Arc's hardly the first student of dubious origin we have; Miss Baetica is here under a false identity, and Miss Valkyrie's and Mister Ren's skills are, as far as I can tell, entirely self-taught and their examination certificates come from a Huntsman in Mistral I've been unable to contact."

"And even disregarding our current class…" The smile widened minutely, and he shrugged. "The Branwens came to us from outside the Kingdoms, and for all his faults, even you can't call Qrow a bad Huntsman."

"Unlike his sister," Glynda pointed out.

Ozpin nodded, "Indeed. My point, however, remains: despite the laws, despite procedures, despite my own attempts at formalizing and organizing the process… we must accept the fact that the heroes we seek –that the people meant to become Huntsmen and Huntresses– can come from anywhere; from official schools, from the untamed wilds, from the Tournament arena, or from the meanest street in their Kingdom."

"The paperwork," he told Glynda, waving his hand over his desk as if to swipe something off, "is, and always has been, more for the sake of formality. Initiation is the true test, and Mister Arc kept his team intact and alive, despite being surrounded, and despite his own inexperience."

Glynda frowned; clearly unhappy at how Ozpin's reasoning clashed with her own idea of how the Academy should work. Thankfully, she kept her opinions quiet… for now, at least.

"Ruby Rose."

Quiet fell over the room.

Ozpin closed his eyes, and a familiar weight settled on his soul.

"Ruby Rose," he said, his voice almost a whisper, "the girl with silver eyes."

"'Silver eyes'," Glynda repeated, "You mentioned that before, when you convinced me that she could skip two years ahead to be here." Her tone lowered. "I tried looking it up on the CCTSNet. I tried looking for it in our own archives. Gods, I looked it up in Port's collection."

Ozpin's voice would've barely reached her ears. "And what did you find?"

"Nothing." Glynda's frustration was audible; Ozpin imagined a pout on her face. "Nothing at all. Not one record, not one story, not one myth… not even a rumour. Nothing." She paused. Uncertainty entered her voice. "Why?"

The weight that had settled over Ozpin's soul came crashing down upon him with a vengeance. Memory came with it; a host of people cloaked in every colour of the rainbow, unbound by the borders of kingdoms. Wielding powers not born from the soul, but from their blood and their minds.

A power which could heal the most damaged mind, bring the most disparate bands together, guide caravans across even the most inhospitable of wastelands, and spark hope within the bleakest, blackest pit of despair. A power which could even forge the darkness within mankind's heart into a weapon.

A power which was also a curse.

A people, secretive and insular, who were all too easy to blame when things went wrong.

Ozpin remembered more. Smoke towering into the sky. Flames that almost seemed to hunger for flesh. Mobs brought to hysterical fury.

He remembered the screams.

He remembered a host of people, cloaked in every colour of the rainbow, fleeing from those who had once been their friends and their neighbours, never to meet again.

"Because all that there once was, was destroyed," he told Glynda. "Some of it by others… and some by me."

Guilt came, and he greeted it like the old friend it was.

After a moment, he opened his eyes once more.

"Miss Rose took charge of her team during Initiation, despite her youth," he began, the change of subject so abrupt he saw Glynda blink. "She was able to capitalize on their abilities to save Juniper, and then devised a plan that killed a Giant Nevermore." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Furthermore… Putting either Miss Schnee or Miss Baetica in charge would only cause the friction between them to escalate at this point –their enmity might've been buried, but it's still there."

A sigh. "And while Miss Xiao-Long certainly has the maturity to lead, I suspect that most of her focus is on her sister's well-being, and I've seen that path play out before. She might neglect the other half of her team. She might coddle or dote on her sister enough to stifle her growth." Ozpin shook his head. "Miss Rose isn't without faults –I fully expect her to struggle the most with her responsibility, to make the most mistakes, and to bemoan the burden of leadership hardest of them all–… but Miss Schnee and Miss Baetica will listen to what she has to say without thinking it's some barb against them, and Miss Xiao-Long can support her without there being any fear of preventing her growth –and Ruby Rose might have the greatest potential for growth amongst our students."

Growth which, Ozpin feared, young Ruby Rose would need.

Glynda's silence was pointed. After a few moments, Ozpin accepted that his most loyal friend wasn't going to let him off that easily.

"A few words of advice, when teaching Miss Rose," Opzin began, now turning to look at Glynda. His words were almost mournful. "Against Grimm, she'll be unmatched. During combat practice against her peers, she'll excel, or flounder, or more likely both, from one moment to the next. Crowds of people will overwhelm her." Another sigh, and this time Ozpin let the regret enter his voice. "I'm sorry Glynda, but as much as I wish I could tell you more… I'm afraid I cannot. Some secrets only become more dangerous when you learn of them at the wrong time, and the story of the Silver Eyed is one of them."

Unsaid was that there were also some practical reasons against telling Glynda more… And another, less practical, but still important reason to do so. Ozpin's true curse was that, sometimes, the only thing he could do was keep a promise to people long, long dead.

Glynda Goodwitch held his gaze for a moment. Then another.

Her eyes closed. "This is not the first time you've had me work in the dark," she noted, not quite an accusation, "And it won't be the last."

"Unfortunately." Ozpin agreed, regretfully.

"Now, where were we…?"

----------

Ruby huddled underneath her cloak.

She hated crowds. Hate. Hate hate hate. So much hate. It wouldn't've been nearly as bad with medication, but the greasy, gummy tablets that deadened her sensitivity and made her feel like her brain had been stuffed with cotton took a little longer to take effect than all the rest of her medication and… and they'd been tired after a whole day in the Emerald Forest. That there'd be a ceremony after coming back to Beacon had entirely skipped Yang's mind and hers.

She tugged the hood around her ears to quiet the whispers and pretended not to notice the abstract nightmare bathed in crimson around her; deformed homunculi that spoke of insecurity, chained wrath looking to escape, grinning mouths with far too many teeth.

Blood-stained shadows that seethed at the mass of humanity around them with barely concealed disdain.

Icy blades that sprouted needles that threatened to skewer all around her.

A huddled, trembling knight, paper armour covered in hollow fantasies and dreams, bound by lies that were already frayed.

A towering idol of bronze. Invincible. Untouchable. Unreachable. Yearning. Yearning. Yearning.

A quiet. A silence. A calm. A stillness, waiting for the right moment. A vengeance long, long overdue.

A loud, sparking, thunderous storm, roaring and laughing as loud as she can to drown out the screams.

Ruby shuddered. She squeezed her eyes shut; breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out…

Ruby opened her eyes again, and the nightmare receded… in all places but one.

The man behind the curtain spoke.

Don'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlook.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie… The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forwards, you will work together as… Team Juniper."

Applause. Nora whooped and embraced Lie.

"Led by… Jaune Arc!"

Jaune gawked and stammered. Pyrrha tried to give her partner an encouraging punch on the shoulder… and knocked him over.

"Sorry!" Pyrrha hissed, the smile on her face painful as she shuffled over to pull Jaune back onto his feet.

The man behind the curtain cleared his throat. "And finally…"

Don'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlook.

The screen changed, and Ruby's heart began beating like a drum in her chest as she walked onto the stage with Yang, Weiss and Blake, pulling her cloak around her. Crimson flickered in and out of her vision, but the roaring fire of her sister was right beside her, and Ruby leaned into that presence, letting the flames lick at her. She was safe with Yang, always.

Yang had promised, Ruby trusted her, and that made it true.

"Blake Belladona, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao-Long… The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forwards, you'll work together as… Team Ruby."

Ruby kept her gaze fixed forwards. The man behind the curtain was right there.

Don'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlookdon'tlook!

"Led by… Ruby Rose."

The world stopped. Ruby was dimly aware of Yang pulling her in against her side. In her head, a single thought emerged.

Fuck me.

----------

The clock ticked, and Velvet Scarlatina smoothed her skirt, fussed over her blouse, and tried her best not to fidget in her seat.

It's just an internship, she told herself, for the third time in an hour.

She made the mistake of glancing up. The lobby was large, but also intensely plain and generic in a way that could only be a deliberate statement. White, beige and silver dominated everything from the walls to the ceiling, to the minimalist decor, to the benches built around the four pillars that held up the floors above. The only splashes of colour were posters advertising military hardware; a Bullhead soaring over downtown vale, automated turrets standing sentinel on a fortified wall, and another –the biggest of them all– showing a Raptor fighter flying across beautiful blue sky.

The three linked diamonds of the Armacham Technology Corporation dominated the wall to Velvet's left, their slogan emblazed just below, Working for the future.

Velvet swallowed.

An internship with the biggest company in Vale. God's horns…

"Miss Scarlatina?"

Velvet straightened. The secretary at the desk –a young and pretty woman whose green hair had been tied into a bun– gestured at another human. Also young, wearing clothes that he must've thought made him look approachable –a creamy blue polo and slacks– but made him look like a civilian college student. The ID card he wore on a lanyard said he was from the HR department.

Velvet was suddenly very glad that she'd stopped Coco from accompanying her.

He smiled, but the expression lacked any real warmth. "If you could follow me, I'll get you to your interview."

----------

The clock ticked relentlessly, and Velvet Scarlatina tried her best not to squirm in the plush wing chair.

She'd been led by the polite and pleasant, but professionally distant man into the headquarters of the Armacham technology corporation. Past offices, down corridors, and through an atrium that had a replica of a big… device hanging from the ceiling. An octagonal prism with what looked like square glass wings extending from opposite sides, and a parabolic antenna on one end.

"Hannibal One," the HR man had told her when he caught her staring at it, and her eyes widened in recognition of the name, "Or, well, a model. The real one's probably still floating out there."

He didn't mention that the device –the artificial satellite– had also completely failed after leaving atmosphere. He'd led her to another waiting room deeper in the facility and just as bland as the first, assured her that her interviewer would arrive soon, and just… left her there.

It's just an internship, Velvet reminded herself, staring at the carpet, And ATC is the biggest company in Vale.

"Miss?"

Velvet looked up to see who had spoken. She'd expected the HR guy again, or maybe the person who would be the doing the actual interview.

Instead, she found herself gazing up at the mirrored surface of a pair of aviator sunglasses, and the security guard who wore them. He wore a flat-topped cap, a blue shirt with rolled up sleeves and the ATC logo on the shoulder, a heavy ballistics vest over that with some extra bits of armour, black pants tucked into shin-length boots, and knee pads.

For a brief moment, a pit opened up in Velvet's stomach, while the corner of her mind she tried the hardest to ignore began to protest at the unfairness of it all; wasn't ATC supposed to be the nice corporate giant? Had they also brought her all the way in her just so they could-?

"I'm here to escort you further inside."

The moment passed. Velvet tried her best not to sag with relief.

"S-sure," she said, standing up and hating how her voice stammered. Why couldn't she be as confident as she was around her team?

It was only after she'd begun following the security guard that she wondered why she'd need an escort.

----------

The clock ticked forwards mercilessly, and Velvet Scarlatina tried her best not to disappear into the sofa.

She'd been led deeper and deeper still into Armacham HQ. First, she'd gone through a security checkpoint –a metal detector and then something which looked disturbingly like an armoured box meant to contain an explosion. The guards manning it had made a brief show of inspecting Anesidora before the one escorting her had rolled his eyes and told them to give it back to her.

"There's enough automated turrets past here to hold a battalion off," he'd explained, when he'd given him a questioning look. More quietly, he'd added, "Plus, the doc might want to give it a look. Every little bit helps."

After that, an elevator that went down for a lot longer than Velvet was comfortable. Then there was a long, winding corridor through what Velvet suspected was where the real work of ATC was done; mostly closed offices hosting quiet conversations she dared not listen too hard to, but she also heard the distant sounds of machine shops and firing ranges. The decor was still aggressively bland, but there was a change in the atmosphere that sent ice down her spine.

I-it's an internship, she'd told herself, an internship with the biggest weapons manufacturer in Remnant. God's Horns where am I even going!?

Past the corridor, another checkpoint. This one had several armed and armoured guards protecting it on top of a metal detector and another of those armoured bomb-proof boxes (which was when the guards cheerfully told her that they were meant to detonate any explosives she might have hidden on her through inductive current) and beyond that, a thick, vault-like door made of dull matte steel. Hydraulics hissed as it opened, and Velvet was led through, and down another elevator, headed even deeper underground.

And now, here she was, Gods knew how many feet underground, sitting at a waiting area while someone was being verbally torn apart within the office she was presumably going to enter next.

The first voice spoke with such seething disdain Velvet wondered how Grimm didn't spontaneously manifest. "You fucking toad."

The second voice simpered. "N-now now, Harlan-."

"Quiet. I'm going to use small words so that you can understand. Terry found that our monitoring equipment was getting pretty chatty strange times. Kept trying to connect to places it couldn't reach. Wasn't even hard to catch and put a stop to it. Then we traced them back to one computer, and one login. Oh, you wiped the logs, but you didn't get rid of the greasy fingerprints you left all over the place when you did."

The other voice was trembling. "P-Please, Doctor Wade, you're mistaken. After all, you know that monitoring systems are required at all ATC-."

"Don't you dare come to me with that bullshit. I know the regs –I wrote them you dumb fucking bastard– and they say that nothing that happens here is to ever, ever, see daylight. If and when this building ever shuts down, we're to seal every room below ground level in fucking concrete. Do you understand that, Norton, or do I need to get the crayons and hand puppets?"

A defensive tone entered the second voice. "… You have no proof. Nothing about what you said points to me. Are you sure you don't have a leak in your department?"

"I am. I'm talking to that lard-brained whale right now. And if you want proof…"

The first voice lowered to a growl.

"Ruby's coming this weekend. Want me to ask her to get proof? You know she'd be happy to."

The silence was deafening. Then, a snort fill with more derision than Velvet had ever experienced, which was… something.

"Thought so. Get out of my sight."

The door flew open, and the single fattest man, human or faunus, that Velvet had ever seen came stumbling out; flabby and disgusting, with red hair and too much chin under his mouth, wearing jeans and an incredibly loud shirt. He paused when seeing Velvet and seemed almost about to say something when the owner of the over voice roared from inside the office.

"Maple, why can I still see your obese ass outside my door!? Out. Of. My. Sight!"

Norton Maple scurried away a lot faster than Velvet would've expected for someone so corpulent. For a moment, she just sat there, uncertainty gnawing at her chest. What had just happened? Was she supposed to hear all that?

Her ears twitched. She heard a chair being wheeled back inside the office. Footsteps on worn carpet. Grumbling. A human man stepped into the doorway; old enough that his hair was snow white. A faded blue sweater –worn over a long-sleeved white shirt– and a pair of black slacks hung from his thin frame. A moustache emphasized the downwards curl of his lips, and his eyes hid behind thick-framed, square glasses that glinted in the cold blue light.

Velvet recognized him, to her shock; the Harlan Wade who'd smiled in her parents wedding photos was almost unrecognizable.

He stared at Velvet, as if expecting her to bolt as well. Her pointed behind himself.

"In," he ground out.

Velvet hurried into his office, brushing past the man as she did. It was a big office, with enough room to have a pair of armchairs and coffee table to one side. A large, square scroll with a black, square frame was propped up on his desk, screen blanked out, and the walls were lined with bookshelves, filing cabinets and lockers. A long, tan trench coat and a gun belt with a massive handgun in its holster hung from a coat hanger, placed just close enough to be reached without moving from behind the desk

Velvet sat herself on one of the two chairs in front of the desk. Something about the room struck her as odd.

Harlan Wade shut the door, and slowly walked behind the desk to take the high-backed office chair there. He moved slowly and took a moment to get himself comfortable, leaning back in the office chair with his elbows on the armrests, fingers clasped together. All the while, he stared at her with an utterly blank expression.

Velvet swallowed. She did her best to smile.

"H-hello, my name is Velvet Scarlatina," she managed to force out, "I-It's…" Terrifying. "… Good to see you, Doctor Wade."

Harlan said nothing. The clock ticked forwards implacably. Velvet tried not to squirm.

She'd practiced interviews with the rest of CFVY all night yesterday, and even the most uncomfortable scenarios her team had thrown at her had nothing on this.

"Do you know why you're here, Velvet?"

The question came after what felt like an eternity. It almost seemed to come from nowhere; Harlan's blank expression didn't change a millimetre when he made it.

"I'm here for an interview," Velvet answered, "With… you." Apparently? "I'm a student at Beacon, so I've been looking for something part-time to-."

"Stop."

Velvet bit her lip. She felt a brief flash of anger at the interruption before she buried it.

Harlan took his time to speak again. His eyes left her for the first time since she'd arrived, focusing on the open scroll. Reaching out with his right hand, he pressed his thumb on the edge, and the screen lit up again. Velvet couldn't see what he was doing –the screen was opaque– but he seemed to be browsing something. He moved slowly and deliberately.

"Velvet Scarlatina," he began, "You sent an application for part-time work to ATC's CCTSNet address two weeks ago. The mail server caught it, scanned it, took it apart, ignored everything it was programmed to ignore, and then built a file for processing. A sorting algorithm picked up your file, read 'internship', 'part-time', and 'faunus', and kicked it over to the Company Inclusivity Program's server. That server looked at the file, stored it, set a timer to delete it in about a month, and went back to doing…" He shrugged. "Whatever else it was doing."

Harlan Wade paused. His fingers tapped a few keys in the holographic keyboard.

"At no point did anyone read your application," he noted, "It would've stayed buried until the timer ran out, or the CIP manager was told that we need to score some moral brownie points. Maybe someone on the board got drunk and called you lot a pack of animals."

The words were delivered with all the casualness of someone discussing the weather. "She'd dig around the files for a while and come up with yours. Photogenic, she'd think. Your file gets passed on to HR. They call you and offer you a part time job doing almost nothing in one of the offices." He leaned back. "Fetching documents and coffee for puffed-up pencil pushers, who may or may not try their luck with the faunus intern, unlocked aura or not. Just enough to say you're employed, but never enough for you to move up; heaven forbid you get a chance to do anything actually important here. At most… maybe they'd pick you out to put your face on a poster about how fucking inclusive this place is."

Harlan stopped. The flash of anger from before had come back, and Velvet had to work to push it down.

What was that!? Why are you telling me this you…!

Velvet stopped that line of thought. Why was Harlan Wade telling her this?

Is this some… some sort of test, to see if I'll blow up? But that doesn't make any sense; he wasn't explicitly racist, at worst he implied that others would've been in that scenario he laid out, but why…?

Velvet's ears twitched. She was going about this the wrong way.

If what he said is true…

"Then why am I here, Doctor Wade?" she asked.

A flicker of what might've been grudging approval crossed Harlan's face. "Because I stole your application from the server, and decided you might…" A pause. "Be useful, for something I have in mind. First reason: You're a Huntress," he said, bluntly, "in training, sure, but…"

His lips twitched. "Four Huntsmen in the world have any experience with what we're dealing with. One's a dusty bird-brained drunkard who's too fucking busy to pick up his scroll, the second is dead, the third's already had enough bullshit thrown at him for two lifetimes, and the fourth…" Harlan growled. "If she ever shows her face, she is only leaving this building as a corpse." He straightened out. "And none of them can go where you'll be headed."

Velvet swallowed. That had been… Um. Illuminating…?

"Aren't you a Huntsman?" she then blurted out; maybe she was pushing her luck, but… what if Harlan wanted her to ask questions?

"I'm old, my aura's shit, and after not discovering my Semblance over the past fifty years, I can say it's because I won't," Harlan shot back. "And, again, I can't go where I need someone to go. Which brings me to the second reason… that you're a Huntress in training."

Another twitch from Velvet's ears. Huh…?

Harlan stared into her eyes. "Beacon had their initiation today, and one of their new students is…"

A strange look came across the man.

"… Of interest." His hands flew across the keyboard, and he turned his scroll around, showing the very first frame of video. A steel room, with a metal table in the middle. A figure cloaked in red sat in front of it, a hood covering their face.

Sat opposite, was a woman in a lab coat.

"It's simpler to just show you."

The video played.

----------

Velvet would be getting no sleep that night.

In the morning, she'd be headed to ATC HQ once more.

[howlingday]

Can we happen to see more of that SilentKnight bit with them in the Ever After? I'd love to dive down into that rabbit hole and see how the rest of the cast take the new discovery that is Jaune, Neo, and...whatever the deal is with CC.

PS: Hope your day is going well and I continue to look forward to your works.

First

I've been better, but I just gotta keep trucking along. Anywho, here's part two.

------------------------------------------

"So... You and Neo, huh?" Blake said, ending an especially long silence held between the adults. Meanwhile, the children helped their mother with the chores outside, moving from laundry to preparing dinner. "How exactly did that happen?"

"It's kind of a weird story." Jaune said, scratching the back of his head. "First day I dropped in here, I aged about twenty or so years, and the week after, I'm saving a little girl and helping her get back to Remnant."

"A little girl?" Weiss thought for a moment. "You mean Alyx?"

Jaune gave a nod. The Rusted Knight, a hero of many a fairy tale, sat across from the team, with their former mortal enemy leaning onto him, the two looking like an aged married couple. To his credit, though, it was mostly the magic of this world that had done that to him. He took a drink from his tea, giving a satisfied sigh.

"Yup." He glanced past them to a figure in the doorway. "She almost died to because of a certain someone."

"I said I was sorry." The entity said with a purr. "What more could I say?"

"And you banged the Curious Cat." Yang gave a chuckle. "Guess that's out of the bag now, too, isn't it?"

"Har dee har har, Yang." Jaune said, clearly unamused. "Then I ran into Neo down here, and we just... kept fighting each other, every chance we got until..." Neo rubbed a hand over her swollen belly. "We stopped."

"So, what now?" Ruby asked.

"Well, I'm thinking we'll have dinner and then I'll take you up to the tree tomorrow morning after a good night rest."

"And then what?" Ruby asked. "Are you going to leave for Remnant with us, or are you going to stay here with... her." Neo gave a glare back at Ruby.

"I know there's a lot of tension between you two, but we should work together, don't you think?" Jaune asked, unnerved by the building tension.

"Why?" Ruby nearly barked. "Do you know how much pain she's caused us, or were you too busy thinking with your di-"

"DINNER~!" The girls called with glee.

"Well, I think we should all eat." Jaune stood up, turning to help his wife to her feet. He then looked to his guests with a smile on his face. "We'd be delighted for you to join us." His smile fell a little as he looked at Ruby directly. "And we can talk about this later."

[madozzy]

Scene: Beacon Cafeteria

Cardin is pulling Velvet's ear, and the Faunus girl is clearly distressed. Yang starts to rise from her seat, anger flashing in her eyes, but pauses when she notices Jaune casually walking toward Cardin with a baseball bat resting on his shoulder.

Yang: "Uh... never mind. This is gonna be good."

Jaune stops a few steps away from Cardin, taking a couple of practice swings with the bat. The sound of the swings cutting through the air catches everyone’s attention, and the cafeteria goes quiet.

Jaune: (calmly) "Cardin."

Cardin turns around, sneering. "What do you wa

CRACK! The bat connects squarely with Cardin's nose, sending him sprawling to the floor, unconscious.

Jaune drops the bat, glances at Velvet, and gives her a respectful nod before walking back to his team's table sits, and casually picks up his lunch like nothing happened.

The cafeteria is dead silent. Everyone stares at Jaune in shock.

Blake snorts, trying to suppress her laughter, but it quickly becomes a giggle. Yang, Ruby, and Nora follow suit until the entire table is laughing. The laughter spreads throughout the cafeteria until even Velvet, still rubbing her ear, is chuckling.

Glynda storms into the cafeteria, her heels clicking loudly against the floor.

Glynda: "What is the meaning of this? Who assaulted Cardin?"

The cafeteria falls silent again, but nobody says a word. Everyone avoids Glynda's sharp gaze, refusing to snitch.

Jaune takes a bite of his sandwich, casually looking at Glynda. He doesn’t say a word, but the faintest smirk tugs at the corner of his mouth.

Glynda narrows her eyes, clearly suspicious, but with no witnesses willing to speak up, she sighs in frustration.

Glynda: "Fine. Cardin, get yourself to the infirmary. And the rest of you—back to your meals!"

As Glynda leaves, Jaune leans back in his chair,

The table erupts in laughter again as Cardin is dragged out of the cafeteria by his team. Velvet, now smiling, approaches Jaune's table.

Velvet: "Thank you, Jaune."

Jaune: (nodding) "Anytime."

Ruby leans toward Yang, whispering.

Ruby: "I think Jaune might be my new favorite person."

Yang: "I think he's everyone's favorite person right now."

---

From that day forward, the students at Beacon knew two things: don't mess with Jaune, and don't mess with Velvet

[thghtcntrl]

Ladybug Week Day 3

The First One Blake and Ruby walk through the central park of the small city that the team have stopped at. The mission was a simple two person patrol that took place at night. With Yang and Weiss exhausted from their last mission it meant the only two who can take the mission was Blake and Ruby, which upon instant realization, sounded like a date. The two walk through the quiet lamp light path of the park, each step they took made it feel even more of a date then a mission. Ruby then thought to herself that she shouldn’t be so nervous, the two had already confessed and accepted each other's feelings so it's fine. Besides they have been wanting to plan a date for awhile but never got to it as they traveled from town to town as huntresses. “Sooo… seems pretty quiet, right?” Ruby said in an attempt to break the ice. Blake giggled “yep… really quiet… and romantic, don’t you think?” Ruby blushed. “Yeah it really” she paused and looked at the shattered moon “It really is!” She looked in Blake’s eyes as they shined gold in the night. She took her hand and the two laced their fingers together and continued their walk. They kept an eye out for any Grimm activity as they walked side by side in comfortable silence but it soon seemed like everything was truly quiet. Blake glanced at Ruby and smiled. “We've been through alot haven’t we?” Ruby nodded as she hopped on a short concrete barrier that slowly inclined, walking toe to heel. “We have… Salem, the… everafter” Blake bit her inner cheek when Ruby mentioned the Everafter. She felt regret for everything that happened in that dimension. “I’m sorry” “For what?” Ruby gave Blake a curious face. “You were going through alot in the everafter… I should have done something… I should have stood by you… instead I…” “Nope” Blake looked up at Ruby. “It’s fine Blake, Yeah it was hard but I learned a lot. I learned that there are some things that are beyond anyone's control, but it's okay. When you have friends and family and of course…” Ruby turned and let herself fall back, letting Blake catch her.

“Someone who truly loves you!”

Blake blushed.

“Still… I feel I need to make it up to you… in any way I can”

“Nope” Ruby replied as she jumped and balanced herself on a log “You don’t have to do anything for me. You being you is enough!”

“Ruby…”Blake said, but her eyes went wide when Ruby slipped.

“Ruby!” Blake grabbed Ruby’s hand but was pulled down with her. The two braced each other and rolled down the small hill stopping at the bottom with Blake on top of the red reaper. Ruby arms were around Blake’s neck while Blake’s hands were on Ruby’s hips. The two girls blushed red as they stared into each other's eyes. That's when Ruby closed her eyes and puckered her lips, Blake gulped and leaned in but stopped.

“No… wait” Ruby opened her eyes, regretting feeling her wondering if it was too forward for Blake and ruined everything for her.

Blake got up and helped Ruby as well.

“Sorry Ruby but I don’t think our first kiss should be on the floor like that”

Ruby blushed even redder at the situation they were in earlier. She had to admit Blake kind of had a point.

“I guess you’re right hehe” Ruby said as she looked into Blake’s eyes.

The two stood once again staring into each other's eyes in silence for a short while until Ruby broke the silence.

“But I still…”

“I know… I do to”

The two stepped closer to each other and gently pressed their lips together. While it was a short and a simple kiss, it felt amazing for the both of them, sending the electricity of blessing through them. The two separated and giggled. The two then once again took each other's hands.

“I think we should head back now seeing there was uhh nothing to report!” Ruby said.

Blake nodded and the two lovers walked back to report back in, but still keeping an eye out. While no Grim was sighted there was still excitement for them as they shared their first kiss. Their first kiss of many.

[softly-potter]

these heavy lungs we breath with

Summary: It’s always been her, and they’ll hide for as long as it takes.

Pairing: Blake x Yang

Word Count: 475

Warning: none

A/N: inspire by a section from 'these heavy lungs we breath with' by

-

“What is this place?” 

Yang glances over her shoulder, meets Blakes eyes. The girl has her knees pulled to her chest, translucent wings dipped behind her back and her face is lined in worry. The mattress dips where she sits and she glances around the tiny room, taking in the small details Yang knew she'd like. The spider web-woven dreamcatcher, the melted candle sticks and painted walls. While Yang had designed it all, she had had a special person in mind.

Yang lets the curtain fall over the makeshift door and it descends them into a dimmer light before she slips beside Blake, their knees bumping as the mattress dips.

“I made it,” Yang whispers with childlike glee. “For us. A hideaway.”

“For us?” Blake says and her eyes grow wide as Yang nods. She smiles, releases her arms so that her legs fall away from her torso. Her smile falters and her gaze drops to her feet. “Adam will come looking.”

“Let him,” Yang challenges. “I’d like to see him try. This place is so hidden, no one knows we’re here. Well, besides my dad but…he helped me build it.”

Blake seems so far away that Yang is tempted to reach out and touch her but she doesn't dare, not yet. She knows just how skittish the dark-haired fairy can be, but she’s more than willing to wait.

“No one can find us here?” Blake asks in a small voice. Her fingers flex over her thighs in worry, the silk material of her dress like water.

“No one can find us here.” Yang says, sitting up on her knees on the bed. She places her hand feather light on Blakes cheek, and the girl smiles, kissing the side of Yang’s palm.

“We’ll be together, always?”

Yang knows Blake asks these questions in muted tandem because she seldom believes them to be true. The repetition makes it easier for her to understand, but it still makes Yang’s heart pang with compassion for her.

“Always.” Yang says, and she crawls forward slowly, into Blake’s space. Blake’s eyes grow wide but she lets her, and Yang bends to kiss her in reassurance. Blake kisses her back fervently, her shaking hands on either side of Yang's neck. Laying on her back, Blake spreads her legs, her dress pooling by her thighs as Yang's hips settle between them and she kisses her again, harder and deeper.

Blake licks at her lip shyly and it takes everything in Yang not to ruck her clothing up. She grins, swallows the sounds emanating from the other girl's throat. With Blake's tongue in her mouth, she nearly says it, nearly says it all. I love you, I'd die for you, I'd die over and over. Let me be a part of you, and you a part of me, the love of my life.