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flipomatic · 1 year

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Say It - Chapter 2: I Burn

First Chapter

Author Note: I made a slight change to the framing device in the first chapter and realized what I want the titles for the chapters to be.

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Combat training had been a part of Yang’s life as long as she could remember. One of her earliest memories involved her jovially imitating Summer’s fighting stance, using a stick to take aim at the tree in front of their house. Even before enrolling in a combat academy, she had always been learning to fight and honing her skills. That hadn’t changed here at Beacon. If anything, she trained even more than she did before.

The main change was who she spent her time training with. It used to be her dad or uncle Qrow, and then sometimes Ruby before Yang started at Signal Academy. After building her weapons, she spent more of her time training alone. Many a training session over the last couple years had been spent solely with her punching bag, a trusty companion that didn’t mind being burned or toppled over by Ember Celica.

Now that Yang was part of team RWBY, she trained almost exclusively with them. Much of her time became dedicated to learning to fight both against and alongside her teammates. To say it hadn’t taken some adjustment would’ve been a lie; her usual style of charging headfirst into battle didn’t quite align with the rest of the team.

They had ways of reminding her to stay with the group, between Ruby’s calls for her to pull back or Weiss’ exaggerated eye rolls. The most effective way though was when Gambol Shroud appeared by her hand, its line outstretched from a long throw, beckoning her to join its wielder in her attack.

That was what Yang and Blake were working on today, the move that Ruby affectionately named bumblebee. They occupied one of the indoor training halls, which resembled a small gymnasium. It was well lit with lights across the ceiling and, most importantly, there was plenty of space for the two of them to practice without interruption. They needed to get ready for the Vytal festival, and what better way to do so than by improving their team attack. When they used this move in the past Yang executed it from a regular running speed, but she wanted to go faster and hit harder.

The pair’s last attempt hadn’t gone well at all. Blake stood ready in the center of the room, bow on her head twitching as she listened for Yang’s position. She threw Gambol Shroud to her right, while Yang fired Ember Celica behind her own back to gain speed along the wall. At the center she reached out with one arm extended to grab the weapon. If the pieces aligned, it would’ve fallen right into her hand. This was not the case as it landed just behind her reach, forcing Yang to skid to a halt and just barely avoid hitting the back wall.

“Too fast again…” She muttered, grimacing as she looked down at the weapons on her arms for a moment before turning her attention to Blake. Her partner was frowning, which was not an unusual expression for her. “I didn’t realize this would involve so much math!” Yang called over to her, following the statement with a loud forced chuckle. Blake, also in a very expected manner, did not laugh.

“I can throw it a little earlier.” Blake’s reply was blunt and to the point. Gambol Shroud still lied on the floor, and she pulled it back to her in a single smooth motion.

Yang knew what that meant, so she nodded in reply and turned to walk back to her starting position. They were doing this again. Once she reached the corner of the room, she called over to Blake, “Ready?”

“Yes.”

Once again Yang began running and firing her weapon behind her. She counted the number of seconds between each shot, making sure to hold the last one half a second longer than before. This time, she was in luck. Blake threw the weapon perfectly in time and when Yang reached her left arm out to grab it, Gambol Shroud fell right within her grasp.

Unfortunately, that was where her good luck ended. After Yang closed her hand around the hilt of the blade, she moved to fire her right arm weapon one more time to solidify her momentum.

This turned out to be the biggest mistake of all.

As the string snapped tight, with Blake still holding on to her end of the weapon, it almost slipped right out of Yang’s grasp. It yanked her left arm hard, much harder than it had before. Yang could feel the moment her balance shifted, the trill of panic as her whole body extended left to follow the blade and forced her right arm to lift out of its proper position. Just because she knew it was going wrong, that didn’t mean she could prevent it from happening. The process had already begun.

When Ember Celica fired, it blasted the wall to her right. Her momentum suddenly shifted, being pulled inward by Gambol Shroud and propelled away from the wall by the blast. This new trajectory was headed, well, straight towards the center of the room.

She barely had a moment to call out, “Bla-“ before smashing directly into her partner’s side. She just barely saw Blake’s wide eyes before she hit, as she had turned her head towards the sound of her shout. The pair both fell to the round, rolling from the impact.

Yang’s aura protected her from the brunt of the collision, first from crashing into her partner and then from the hardness of the floor. She bounced once before settling, though she didn’t stay down for long.

Even though her inner ear wasn’t quite ready to rise, Yang forced herself to her feet with a stumble. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.” She hurried to where Blake laid stunned on the ground. Her eyes were open, blinking a few times towards the ceiling, and she didn’t appear to have any injuries. “Are you hurt?”

Blake sat up slowly, with both of her hands on the ground to steady her. After a moment she looked up at Yang. “Just a little dazed but I’ll be alright, are you?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Yang reached down with one hand to offer to help Blake up, which she accepted. Once Blake was on her feet, Yang watched as she fetched Gambol Shroud from the corner it had flown to. Her steps appeared slow and steady, as they usually were.

The blade at the end of the long cord also seemed unharmed by the incident, which Yang was happy to see; she wouldn’t have been able to forgive herself if she hurt her partner or her weapon in training like this. She couldn’t help a cold chill running down her spine though, as she watched Blake wind the weapon back up.

This had happened before, not exactly this of course but other events like it. Training accidents, damaged equipment, scrapes and bruises, these all came with the territory of fighting with Yang. The others would get this look in their eyes, one that Yang couldn’t define but knew exactly what it meant. The excuses to leave would come next.

She watched Blake carefully for any sign of it, any hint that her trust in Yang had shifted.

There was nothing of the sort in her gaze, instead she almost looked bemused as she walked over to where Yang stood. “We might’ve gone too fast.”

“Just a bit.” Yang couldn’t help but smile, a wave of relief washing over her. “Half as many shots should do the trick.” She lifted her arms and cocked Ember Celica.

Blake nodded back at her, determination steeling her gaze. One of her hands came up to the top of her head, tugging at the piece of fabric tied there. It came away in only a moment and revealed a pair of small cat ears. Even though Yang had seen them before, back after Blake and Weiss had their big fight, that had been the only time. Blake usually kept them covered since most of the school didn’t know, even in their dorm room.

Back then, Yang hadn’t gotten that good of a look at them. It was dark at the docks and she’d been far more worried about her teammates making up. Now though, in the well lit space of the training hall, she could see them clearly.

Cute wasn’t a word that she often associated with Blake, cool and moody were usually her go to choices, but it was the only one coming to mind about her ears. The words easily rose to Yang’s lips before she could fully process them, ready to casually flirt and compliment as she so often did. Something stopped her, a spiking feeling in her chest. Even though the words were there, she didn’t let them out. They felt different, burning the back of her throat as she considered speaking them.

Blake’s ears stood upright at first, in what must’ve been their usual position, before one flicked in Yang’s direction.

“No offense, but I need to be able to hear your position better.” Blake commented dryly, answering a different question than the one Yang grappled with. “Let’s try again.” Without hesitation, Blake turned to return to the center of the training hall.

That was Yang’s cue to return to her starting position as well, back in the corner of the room. She let the words she’d been holding in fade away, pushing them to the back of her mind for another time. For now, she needed to focus all of her energy on perfecting this move.

She counted the number of shots she would need, and then took off again down the wall. The interval was twice as long between them now and her speed was slower as a result. When Yang reached the center, Gambol Shroud was right there waiting for her.

This time when she grabbed it, the pull against her was perfect. She held back her next shot and swung around the edge of the room, making a full circle before her feet hit the ground again.

When she looked over at Blake, her partner raised one fist in the air in a celebratory gesture. Her ears were perked up as she smiled, an expression that for once reached her eyes.

Yang’s chest felt warm as she returned the gesture, letting out a whoop of excitement. The line of Gambol Shroud connected them across the open space, spreading the feeling like electricity.

They continued to train after that, carefully adding in more bullets to the second half of the move. Soon it would be perfect, ready to use in the upcoming combat tournament. Yang enjoyed every minute of it, even when she crashed straight into the opposite wall on their next attempt.

Blake was right there in an instant, helping her back to her feet.

Yang could get used to this, the feeling of having a partner by her side.

Next Chapter

#rwby #bumbleby #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #bumbleby fic #rwby fic #flip writes #we are pretending the episode today didn't happen #let's just #not think about it #and enjoy the bees instead

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inkskinned · 9 months

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because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

#almost wrote the champagne line as ''effervescent'' but legit could not write it without saying ''effervescent like a snail''#ah tumblr...#writeblr #warm up #idk . having trouble writing rn #ps i don't like to talk about it . it is my medical information. but before you ask. yes this is about being on the spectrum #i really don't like when ppl make my writing about how im [whatever ID]. i want it to ring true for the people who it rings true for #i don't want it to be like ''awwwww look at this person!!! she's the EXCEPTION!!! :)" .....#no.... not really.....#idk something gross happens whenever i admit to certain conditions and i turn into like inspiration p*rnography #like yes they actually let us use keyboards these days #furthermore i just... dont feel comfortable talking about this part of me. i had too bad of a childhood. adhd is one thing...#this one im like. still coming to terms with. which is like. my own journey.#idk. just please be kind. some things are more private than others. this one feels private to me.#i do not know how to help others w/this . and i do not know how to help myself. i will talk about it if im ever ready. idk if that will #actually ever happen #ty in advance i love u im kissing you we are kissing somewhere on the spectrum

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