Ch 57: Bumblebee

A vow that became a lot harder to keep the very next morning. Keeping secrets had consequences. Ray had kept a big secret and, in doing so, had hurt his family. Now he had to pay the price for it. Ruby was mad at him. In the heat of the moment, learning that her mother was alive, Ruby had pushed aside the hurt of her twin's betrayal so that she could focus on enjoying the time she had with her. Now, however, the moment was past, and his sister was mad. Madder than she had ever been at her brother.

"Come on, Ruby. Talk to me. I'm sorry." Ray was following behind Ruby as they walked through Beacon Academy's courtyards between classes, begging for his sister's forgiveness.

"Weiss, did you hear something? I could have sworn I heard someone calling my name." Ruby looked around, pointedly ignoring her brother.

"Must have just been the wind in the trees." Ruby concluded with a shrug. Next to her, Weiss looked decidedly awkward. Ruby had been acting like Ray didn't exist for almost a week now.

Ray had known Ruby was going to be mad at him, but he hadn't realized it would be this bad. When he tried to talk to her, she walked away. When he made her favorite cookies, she fed them to the birds. When he offered to help her with her homework, she asked Weiss. When he tried to tell her he was sorry again, she ignored him. When he brought her chilled water during practice, she gave it to Jaune. When he offered to be her practice partner so that she could beat him up under the excuse of training, she trained with Yang. The only time she ever even acknowledged his existence was when he was acting as a teacher.

However, the person most stressed out by this wasn't the twins but their older sister. Yang had no idea what had caused this massive rift to suddenly form between her younger siblings that had practically been attached at the hip since birth, and it worried her constantly. She was confident that once Ray groveled enough, Ruby would forgive him. They were too close for her not to eventually. Right? But, as the days passed and Ruby continued to act like she didn't have a brother, her concern and bewilderment over what had caused all this only grew.

When she asked Ruby, her sister would only get mad and start ranting about how Ray was a liar and a coward and didn't love her and how she didn't have such a brother before storming away in a huff. When she asked Ray, he would simply groan and say, "I did something selfish that I thought was right at the time, and now I'm paying for it." He would then sigh and promise he would tell her after he made up with Ruby before running off to find his estranged twin and try to apologize again. Ray wasn't sure Yang would take the news any better than Ruby had, and he already had his hands full trying to pacify one enraged sister. He wasn't prepared to deal with two.

And so things continued to get more stressful for Yang and more awkward and tense for Weiss, Blake, and the rest of their friends as Ray continued to try everything he could think of to apologize, and Ruby continued to rebuff him.

Honestly, Ray was starting to get a little annoyed at his sister's stubbornness. Couldn't she understand that he had kept the secret to protect her!? To protect their mother! Their father! Their sister! Couldn't she understand that he did the only thing he could do while they were all still too weak to protect themselves?! Why couldn't she understand!?! He hadn't done anything wrong! But he was the mature twin. He was on his second life and had already lived for over 100 years. He would be a patient and mature adult and wait for his childish sister to get over it and come to her senses. He was an adult, even if he was in a teenager's body, and he knew best.

######

*UUugh* "Those TWO!!" Yang screamed as she stormed into Team RWBY's room. Blake didn't even glance up from her book that she was reading on her bed. She knew what Yang was talking about. Her siblings had been fighting for who knows what reason for over a week already and, while she and Weiss had just about given up trying to broker peace between the two thorny roses, Yang was still trying. Or at least she had been.

[Sounds like Yang has finally thrown in the towel too.] Blake thought as she turned a page in her book. However, she wasn't given a chance to find out what happened next as her partner's hand suddenly clamped down on her wrist without warning.

"We are going out." Yang announced as she hauled the startled girl up off her bed and out of their room.

"Wait! Yang! Where are we going?" Blake asked as she struggled to maintain her balance while Yang dragged her along behind her. Her book falling to the ground as its false cover slipped, causing her to lose her grip.

"I can't stand another minute of those two fighting. I need a drink, and we haven't gotten the chance to spend time together, just the two of us, as partners. So, tonight we are going clubbing. Don't worry. I know just the spot." Yang threw one of her signature sunny smiles over her shoulder at the flabbergasted girl as she answered.

[At least ask for my opinion!] Blake complained to herself but followed along with her overeager partner. She wasn't wrong after all. They should spend some time together as partners even if Blake's preferred method of spending time together had more to do with books and sharing stories and less with blaring music and bright lights. But it was her responsibility as Yang's partner to take care of her, and she did need some stress relief after what her siblings had been putting her through. And if that meant clubbing, then clubbing it was. She could put up with it for one night.

######

Booming music assaulted Blake's sensitive ears as soon as Yang pushed open the door to Dranky's Saloon, causing her bow to twitch irritably atop her head, though in the strobing multicolored lights of the club, no one seemed to notice. Teen in punk black and flashy neon pack the dance floor in front of a wooden stage with standing tables and circle couches lining the edges and in front of a long bar covering the back wall.

"Two Sunflower Pops, please!" Yang shouted over the music to the bartender after pushing her way unapologetically through the crowd, with Blake slipping through unobtrusively after her.

"Hey, watch this." Yang grinned at Blake as she arrived at the bar next to her. Holding her pop bottle in one hand, she punched at it with the other. *Whish* *pop* Stopping her fist just before impact, Yang popped the metal cap off the bottle with the wind pressure of her fist alone.

"To your health." Yang said as she handed the now open bottle to Blake with a smug grin causing Blake to giggle at her partner's antics. It still surprised her how relaxed she felt around the bombacious blond. She usually preferred quieter, more private places and activities, but, around Yang, everything seemed to be loud, fast, and exciting. And she enjoyed it. Blake pondered a bit over her change in tastes as she followed Yang to a back circle couch where the loud music wouldn't be so oppressive.

[It's not my preferences that have changed. It's Yang. Everything just seems brighter and more enjoyable around her.] Blake realized as she sat down next to the grinning incarnation of sunshine, not realizing the happy grin that was dancing across her own lips.

"I started reading the book you lent me! It's so Dark!" Yang said, naturally talking over the ripping guitar.

"Hey, if you think that's spooky, you should try The Corpse Doctor or The Vampire Count!" Blake replied, having to struggle a bit more to be heard.

"Do you just like horror books?" Yang asked her dark friend.

"I like all kinds of books, but scary stories like that. They make my heart race, thrill me, exhilarate me. But I always know I'm safe." [and they give me perspective on my own life.] Blake added silently to herself.

"Wow." Yang muttered, impressed to see her partner so animated about the topic.

"And you learn so much by reading them." Blake continued without rest. "The Corpse Doctor is really about the horror and responsibility of creation. The Undead is ultimately about your fear of other people. The Vampire Count is the fear of the others, contamination, and the loss of control over women."

"You are… so smart! You know that!? I could listen to you all day." Yang praised as her eyes drifted over Blake's shoulder to some unusual movements in the crowd behind her. People seemed to be very eager to move out of the way of something big. And it appeared to be heading their way.

*Heh* "Well, it's fun to analyze. You might like it, too. Scary stories, they all represent different things." Blake said, picking up on the shift in Yang's gaze and intensity and shifting slightly in her seat to lower her center of gravity and prepare to move.

"And The Man with Two Souls?" Yang asked, prioritizing her conversation with her partner over the pack of burly bear Faunus she could now see making their way towards them.

"Represents something you didn't know you had inside you." Blake answered, trusting her partner to watch her back. "But unlike the book, it isn't always bad. Sometimes… It's exciting!" Blake flashed Yang the brightest smile Yang had ever seen on her face as they clinked their glass pop bottles together. Yang's movements slowed as she pulled her drink back. She was lost in the radiance of that smile.

"Really exciting." Blake said, drawing out the words. Yang blinked and looked around. [Sh*t] she thought. They were surrounded by five huge bear Faunus dressed in dress shirts, ties, pants, belts, and shoes that were taut across their muscular frames under thick fur vests. Blake's smile was so radiant and unexpected that it had made her absent-minded, and it wasn't until she heard the intonation in Blake's voice that she broke out of her stupor and noticed how close they had gotten.

"This the buttercup who roughed up your brothers." The biggest one said in a deep gravelly voice.

"Junior told me we were square." Yang answered for them, recognizing the uniform under their fur vests.

*snort* "Junior's their employer… I'm their MOM!" She shouted as she lunged at Yang. Only to be met with a glass bottle to the face as Yang swung and shattered it against her ugly mug as she leapt to her feet. Simultaneously, one of her sons tried to grab Yang from behind but was intercepted by a sharp kick to the chin as Blake used the back of the couch to vault herself up into the air.

*Boom* *Bang* *Crash* *Bam* *Bash* Their brawl soon spilled over to engulf the entire saloon. Filling the whole building with flying dust, bottles, curses, and bodies. A few broken bottles, bones, and bears later. Yang and Blake dashed out of the free-for-all melee and into the dark, quiet street outside.

*Ha* *Huff* *Ha* "That was insane! *Ha Ha* That fight was insane! *Huff*" Yang said around her laughter and panting for breath after they had taken some distance.

"How is that saloon still standin-" As Yang glanced over her shoulder *FWOOOOM* The building imploded.

*Hmph* [Not again] Yang humphed in annoyance as Blake stood beside her with an incredulous look on her face as she looked at the damage they had caused.

######

"And then we made like hay and bailed, and I walked Blake back, and she just… Went To Bed!" Yang complained to her sister with her head on her desk as she told Ruby about her disastrous date with Blake.

"Wait, was Blake even upset?" Ruby asked as she patted her older sister's head.

"She says she's fine!" Yang shouted back in frustration, knowing that when someone said they're fine, it usually means they aren't.

"Then maybe you should believe her!" Ruby advised raising her voice in turn.

"I feel like it's NOT fine!" Yang argued.

"Then you should ASK her!" Ruby shouted back.

*BANG* "Why are you both yelling!? Don't we have enough of this with the nonsense between you and Ray!?" Weiss slammed open the door to their room and yelled at her team leader. Weiss had been on edge ever since the two had started fighting, torn between the two roses by her unnamed feeling for them both.

"It's NOT my fault! It's Ray's!" Ruby protested.

[Yeah, I think I will just go ask Blake] Yang made an excuse to herself as she beat a hasty retreat from the brewing storm. [Ray and Ruby's fighting has already torn us apart this much. I refuse to let my lousy outing with Blake turn into the same thing!]

Yang quickly found her partner in her usual spot. She was sitting on a bench in an isolated corner of one of the garden plazas, reading a book.

"Blake! Oh, Blake~" Yang called to get the girl's attention, trying not to admire the pale, toned pair of legs drawn up beside her. "I'm sorry. I should have asked what it was you wanted to do instead of just dragging you off to do what I wanted. And it won't happen again. From now on, I'll listen to you, and I'll meet you on your own terms. I just… just tell me how to make it right and-"

*Mhm hm* Yang's rant was cut off by Blake's giggling. "Uhhh… What's so funny?" she asked.

"Oh, Yang," Blake answered, her voice sounding slightly melodic from the giggling that was still reverberating behind it. "Thank you. I appreciate everything you've been doing. But sit." She said, patting the seat beside her. "You can't fix everything, help everything, control how everything goes. Not even with the best of intentions. That's horror, not comedy. So how about instead of you worrying about Ray and Ruby's and our relationship so much, let's try this. Why don't you tell me your favorite book. Funny, scary, whatever you like. Tell it to me like a story. It'll be like you're reading to me."

"Uh, ok." Yang said, surprised. For the rest of the afternoon, Yang put down the burden of being the big sister to two warring siblings and just enjoyed the day with her partner. Not trying to force her assumptions and opinions on the situation, just enjoying it.

"Now, if we could just solve the problem between Ruby and Ray this easily." Yang grumbled as she walked back to their dorm with Blake after the sun started to set on a thoroughly enjoyable day.

"I'm sure you'll find a way." Blake said, smiling slightly at her new trustworthy partner.