Chapter Text
The first time Yang meets Blake Belladonna they are in space.
She roams the empty corridors running her hand through the metal walls, feeling the constant humming of the systems behind them, working non stop to keep everyone inside the ship alive. Being in space is terrifying, but it’s also a bit of the same thrill she felt when she was young and explored an abandoned building with her friends, the dim light of her flashlight illuminating walls long bare and full of fungus growing in the corners and vines breaking through the cracks.
Just like back then, there’s no sense of time, everything's dark all the time and the only thing anchoring her to the rest of the world is the beaten clock she keeps in her shirt pocket. There’s no time in space, but the clock marks past midnight, and everyone on board has retreated to their rooms, leaving the corridors bare and quiet, her steps echoing just like they would in the abandoned building.
She is aware of the many rules the ship has, knows them by heart, but she is also known to break them every now and then, so by the end of the corridor she turns left instead of right, entering the passengers' quarters, and keeps going, her feet a little more quiet as they hit the floor. This part of the ship is usually better kept, the walls quieter and the air fresher, someone even bothering to install carpet on the floor, way more homier than the cold metal everywhere else. She has been here before to do some maintenance work and navigates the turns and corners with ease, keeping her ears open to any sound coming from the closed doors.
After barely a minute, she reaches the main room and the stars dance in front of her eyes. The windows here are there to impress, easily the best view on the ship, going from ceiling to floor. The entire universe is a glass panel away from her hand and she feels like she can thread her arm through it, feeling space dust trickle her skin. Yang crosses the room, stopping a step away from the window.
Being in space is terrifying, it's holding out a breath that burns your lungs, it’s standing on a cliff and looking down, wanting to open your arms in the wind but feeling your insides turning around at the sight. Before her, countless diplomatic meetings happened in this room, the most important people in the galaxy gathered here to talk about the future of everyone else. Today it’s only her, the empty chairs, and the whole wide world.
Big chunks of asteroid pass through the window as the ship accelerates through them, and if she looks at the right place, she can see Vale. It’s the closest she’s been from home in a long time, but it's far enough for it to be almost indistinguishable from the stars.
She takes out a candy from her pocket to chew while she watches the stars, finding the constellations and naming them. The Two Brothers, the Major Ursa.. those are the only ones she can remember, really.
Ruby used to sit with her on the porch and name every single one of them, and Yang nodded along, asking their stories and trying to remember their shapes. She sees another pair that could also be the Two Brothers and chuckles. For someone who is so much in space, she is terrible at remembering these small things.
She makes herself comfortable on the floor. That’s the benefit of working for important people, she guesses. In her spare time she can come here and watch everything from a window, and who needs to name mere constellations when you have the entire universe before your eyes.
She’s lost in these thoughts when it happens, when someone clears their throat behind her. Yang’s blood freezes under her skin and she turns back, fully expecting to be scolded and escorted back to her quarters, but instead she finds a person standing right by the door, arms crossed and leaning against the wall, a smirk on her face. It's a girl around her age and Yang knows her.
“You shouldn’t be here,” the very princess of Menagerie says, voice softer than Yang though she'd have.
Blake Belladonna has royalty imprinted in the way she stands, tall and confident and imposing. Yang has been working for the royal family for almost a year now, and this is the first time she shares a room with any of them, and it feels like having the air sucked out of her lungs until she curls and chokes on herself.
Yang has seen her before, on newspapers and ship corridors, but she has never heard her.
She stands like she means danger, but her voice is soft it's a gentle whisper breathed against skin, an invitation.
Feeling bold, Yang says “I wasn’t expecting company.”
The princess immediately curls her lips in a bigger smile, and Yang forgets the stars for a bit to focus on the mischievous glint in her eyes.
“Why is that?”
There's curiosity now in her voice, and Yang almost gets lost in the way it rolls out of her tongue.
“It’s late,” she says, doing her best to make her voice not tremble, “by this time the passengers are usually asleep.”
And here is what happens, what makes Yang reconsider if racing through asteroids is the most dangerous thing in the universe: Blake Belladonna snorts in front of her, and takes step after step after step until she’s standing by her side, and Yang never stood up so fast in her life. Her head barely hits Yang' shoulder and she wonders if the vertigo she feels is because of that or because she moved too fast.
“Well,” Blake Belladonna, the princess of Menagerie, says to Yang, just somebody on the crew, “I would be, if you were better at stealth.”
Yang can feel her ears burning, but she's so caught up in the absurdity of this that she can't bring herself to feel embarrassed. She smirks too, and asks, even though she already suspects the answer. “Would you like me to leave?”
Yang is watching the stars again, this time sprinkled in amber eyes.
"I'd like for you to stay."
Yang nods, now noticing smaller things. How many people know that Blake Belladonna has a small scar on the bridge of her nose?
She is aware of every inch of her own body, the small stain on her uniform, the scars of what is left of her right arm red and angry against her skin, her heart hammering against her chest. And she wonders, oh she wonders, if the princess can hear it with her ears.
If the way they twitch on top of her head and her smile grows bigger is anything to go by, yes she does.
“Aren’t you too young to be working here?” she asks.
And the thing is that yes, Yang is, and usually when she is back at her home system she regrets ever leaving, but right now, with the way the princess is looking at her, she thinks that sometimes when you jump off a cliff the wind takes you higher instead of sinking you.
"It's just an internship," she settles for an answer.
The princess nods and her eyes sparkle, and Yang wonders if it's a royal skill making people feel like the most mundane things about them are also the most interesting.
“Are you studying to be a pilot?”
“I already know how to fly,” Yang says, and when the princess raises her eyebrows she smiles.
“You can fly?”
“I do,” she says, pointing to the asteroid field outside and feeling no small amount of nostalgia. “I used to race here with my uncle.”
The princess watches the asteroids in wonder for a moment, and touches the glass in reverence, as if it could break if pressed with enough force.
“Why did you stop?”
“I crashed.”
It’s easier to say it now, a good year and a half later, but Yang still holds her breath expecting the princess to turn towards her and scrutinize all the marks the accident left in her body. But she doesn’t, she nods in understanding and watches as a big chunk of rock passes impossibly closer to the window.
“That sucks.”
Yang releases a breath she didn’t know she was holding and chuckles. The princess joins her and their small laughs feel good in her ears, a levity she wasn't expecting but is very welcome. Yang stares at the girl by her side, eyes lost to the movement outside, and waits. Waits for her to say something else, to turn around, anything. And while she waits she watches the way the princess’ hands rest on her back and how straight she stands, but her fingers still fiddle with the sleeve of her jacket.
“So?” she finally asks and turns towards Yang, eyes still curious and sparking.
Then Yang remembers their conversation.
“Oh! Sorry, I’m studying to be a mechanic,” she says, running her hand through her neck, almost looking away but not daring to. “My dad is friends with some people on the crew here and they got me an internship after..” she pauses, considering how much more she wants to say right now, and figures it’s nothing at all. “After all the mess back home.”
Blake leans against the window and the sight of someone standing so close to the abyss and being this fearless makes Yang’s insides turn. “A mechanic? That’s quite interesting.”
“You think so?”
“Of course.”
And here is the thing, Yang Xiao Long, a nobody, is standing in the same room as Blake Belladonna, talking to her, being told she’s interesting. And while this might be some boring pastime to her, Yang can’t stop looking at the way the princess stands, the way she talks, the way she breathes, and how all of that is exactly what she expected of a princess, and yet completely different. And she wants to know everything she can about her.
“But what about you?” she asks. “What do you do besides being a princess?”
And the princess frowns, opening her mouth to say something but immediately closing it, as if she can’t trust what her heart wants her to say. But Yang is calm, it doesn’t feel like she overstepped, the princess is still hanging her body way too casually on the window to be something like that, it simply looks like she was caught off guard.
As if she expected the banter and the thrill, but not the intimacy.
Eventually, she releases a breath Yang didn’t even know she was holding, and smiles. This time soft and open. “Oh, I don’t know.” She steps away from the window to look outside, her hands hanging limp by her sides. “I guess I don’t do much these days, I read a lot, hang out in the gardens with my mom, sometimes walk around the castle with a friend…”
“I guess you can’t walk around as you used too,” Yang says in a low voice, fearing she was crossing a line. But the princess only sighs and nods.
“Yeah, something like that.”
Yang takes a second bubblegum from her pocket and offers it to the princess, who takes it with a frown. She turns the package in her hands before opening it and chewing. She makes a face.
Yang laughs, and the princess says under her breath why is it so bitter, and Yang laughs harder. She covers her mouth with her hand and looks back, just to make sure no one heard them, then back at her company, who is not amused at all. The way her nose scrunches makes the small scar on her nose more visible and Yang wonders where she got that.
“Come on, you and your friends never ate those? See who can chew it without making a face?”
The princess shrugs, face still in a frown, and Yang suspects she’s not walking towards a trash can and spitting the gun right this second out of politeness.
“I don’t know that many people my age,” she says. And Blake Belladonna stands tall like royalty, but right now her shoulders sag and Yang thinks she finally looks her size. She doesn’t like it.
Yang turns her eyes back to the stars to give her some privacy. They fall silent for a while, and Yang remembers when she was younger and in Patch, where she knew everybody. Then she thinks of her new place back in Menagerie, how she can count the people she genuinely knows in her hand, and wonders if the princess feels lonely back there too.
“Well,” Yang whispers, just for the two of them, “now you know me.”
The princess turns to her and maybe it’s just a royal skill, making people feel important, but the entire universe is laid before them and Blake Belladonna still is looking at her eyes.
As soon as they land, reality comes crashing again and Yang rationalizes that there’s no way they are going to see each other again. An entire week by herself after that, Yang is certain.
She walks through Kuo Kuana with the familiarity of someone who has spent months there already, waving good morning to a neighbor, to the lady with the food cart on the corner street, to an acquaintance she talked once in the food stand.
It’s easy to feel lonely so far away from home, but there’s barely any time on her day to be alone, mainly because the overcrowded streets and the ship terminal are always buzzing with life.
The Menagerie system is a bit of a tragedy, a tight knit community of three planets that one day woke up with one of them on an asteroid route and had to relocate everyone to the two remaining. It shows in the way the older buildings have a matching architecture to them, but the new ones sprinkle different colors and shapes through the streets, a bit of the dying planet that came with the new habitants.
Yang was not even born the day the news broke to the other systems, and she was but a toddler when Sanus and Menagerie signed a treaty and people began circulating through the systems. The world like this has been her entire life, but sometimes when she dines out she overhears people talking about the dead planet as if they lived there just yesterday.
On her way to the terminal she passes through the royal palace like she always does, but today she stops. She stops like she did yesterday, and the day before that, and every day for the entire week since she has been back.
She never noticed before how busy everything is back there, guards and employees walking around in their soft grey and black uniforms, the noise of construction coming from the site nearby, where soon will be the royal terminal. Where soon she will be working. Closer to the royal family, closer to the princess.
It still feels dreamlike, almost an hallucination, everything that happened in her last trip. She remembers the flavor the words had when they came out of her mouth, an invitation coated in honey and hope. Now you know me . And she tries to shake away the feeling of being turned down, ignored. She reasons that someone as busy as royalty probably doesn’t have time to sneak around with someone like her, but still.
She thinks of sparkling eyes and gentle words, but also of fidgeting hands and nose scars.
Someone bumps on her and that’s her cue to keep walking. Staring at a building won’t make Blake Belladonna come out of it and take interest in her, so she takes one last look and moves on with her life.
She gets to the terminal, greets her coworkers, puts her working overalls on and moves on. Her day goes the same as always, her hand busy and her mind going back to the ship and the words she shared with the princess.
It’s perhaps the middle of the day, the moment the terminal is most packed and the hottest, the suffocating fumes from the engines mixing with the already warm climate of that planet, that her boss approaches her, looking a bit surprised and apprehensive.
Yang is holding a big piece of engine up while one of her coworkers connects some wires and explains to her in detail what he’s doing, but as he sees the commander approaching he and Yang lower the engine back to the ground, careful not to mess up the wirework in progress.
They both stand, expecting to be redirected somewhere else, but surprisingly her boss looks only in Yang’s direction, barely acknowledging her coworker.
“There’s someone here to see you,” her superior says, nodding in the direction of his office. For a second Yang worries she screwed up super bad, but then again it’s not like she did anything that terrible to grant a visit from someone higher ranking then her own boss.
She nods, feeling the sweat on her forehead run cold, and wipes her hand on her overalls, trying to get out as much grease as possible.
It’s barely ten steps from where she stands to the office, and yet every single one of them feels like a whole mile, her mind jumping from a possibility to another as to what this might be about. Her whole stay here she has been exemplary at her best and unremarkable at her worst, and the single thing she can think about that might cause some sort of repercussion is meeting with the princess.
The blinds in the office are closed, but she can catch a glimpse of gray from one of the two people standing inside, the exact shade the royal guard wears.
She reasons that she didn’t do anything terribly wrong, that yes, she trespassed, but that was about it. But then again things weren’t exactly quiet in Menagerie these days, and perhaps talking to the princess is more accusatory than she thinks.
She takes a breath to calm herself and opens the door, and finds inside exactly what she was expecting, a royal guard, standing in the stiff posture they usually do, but also..
Blake Belladonna herself, biting her nails.
If Yang wasn’t so on edge, she would have smiled. Is this what she looks like when she’s not worried about her public image?
The two of them seem to notice Yang’s presence in the room and the air immediately changes. It’s the first drop of rain in the asphalt followed by the suffocating smell of it. It’s the princess resting both hands on her back like she usually does - as if Yang knew her long enough to know what usually is like - and it’s the guard standing next to her looking Yang up and down frowning at what she sees.
“Hi,” Yang says and hopes that’s greeting enough to address a princess she barely knows but wants to believe is her friend.
Then Blake Belladonna relaxes her shoulders, smiles, and it’s like Yang steps on grass, her lungs welcoming air back on them with the sweet smell of a wet day.
“Hello.”
Yang allows herself the smile she was holding back since she opened the door and for a moment it’s just the two of them in the room, until the guard clears her throat and all eyes are on her.
“This is embarrassing, I’m waiting outside,” she says and gets out, the heavy freckles on her face a bit redder as she does.
As soon as she closes the door, the princess covers her mouth with a hand and chuckles. “Don’t mind her, she’s just upset she had to help me sneak out.”
Yang thinks it’s adorable. She joins her.
“Why are you here?” she says, a big, goofy smile on her face. Did you come just to see me? is what she means.
And so far Blake Belladonna has shown her many things. She is powerful and gracious, but also funny and approachable. She will inherit the leadership of two planets in the next few decades and her voice is so smooth and certain that Yang has no doubt she’ll have no problem getting her point across.
She exhales confidence and wit, and yet, when Yang asks, she turns her gaze away and her ears lower, and she looks shy.
"I didn’t ask your name," she says, and it’s just like someone set fire inside Yang’s body and left her with only a fan to cool down, every swipe of it giving more fuel to the flames.
"Oh,” Yang says and that is the smartest she can be right now. She remembers coming back to her own room that day and thinking that they never properly introduced themselves, but she also thought there’d be a second meeting to clear that up. She practiced, but then she waited a week. “Right. I’m Yang.”
She raises her hand then notices how dirty it is right now, and immediately lowers it. She didn’t think this through, and she can’t get out of her head that if the princess doesn’t know her name it must mean that she had to walk around the whole terminal until she found out in which station she worked on.
It’s almost too much.
But then the princess chuckles again , and raises her hand. “It's alright”, she says, waving it and waiting a little bit for Yang to raise hers again.
She does, and they touch for the first time, and her hand is soft and small on Yang’s, a bit cold too.
“Nice to meet you properly, Yang.”
And oh, that sounds nice in her voice.
“Can I call you Blake?”
"I'd like that.”
“It really is nice, Blake.”
They finally let go and Blake rests her hand in her back without batting an eye to check if it was smudged. The smile on her face grows a bit, and Yang hopes it’s because she said her name too.
“That said please don’t tell anyone I’m here, I will get in a lot of trouble if word gets out that I’m sneaking around.”
Yang chuckles, feels a thrill consume her whole heart. “Oh, sure, no problem.”
“Only you and your boss know I’m here.”
“And we’ll keep it that way.”
“You know how things are.”
“Of course, of course.”
Once again is just the two of them, caught in their own little world, and Yang smiles at the easy banter that flows between them. It’s been such a long time since she had someone to talk like this, she almost gets lost in the moment.
But Blake clears her throat and then rests her weight on the table besides her, palms firm against the surface. She is always so elegant when she moves.
“Did you mean it?” she asks in a low voice, and Yang remembers her shoulders down in the ship.
“Hmm?”
“The other day on the ship. Did you mean it, what you told me?”
Now you know me.
Yang smiles and nods. Blake is always so confident, but Yang notices the calculated exhale that leaves her lungs.
“I’m sorry these circumstances are not.. ideal,” she says, then flinches when something loud hits the floor outside and someone curses. Yang waves a dismissive hand, already used to it. If Blake stays for a few more minutes she’ll hear another two or three of those. “That’s why I want to know if you are familiar with the beach a few kilometers south from here? The one no one ever goes to?”
Yang has heard of it before, a small corner of Kuo Kuana that is too agitated for swimming, too rocky to walk, hard enough to reach that no fishing boat thinks it’s worth their time to fish there.
“I do.”
Blake’s lips curl slightly to one side, and there’s mischief all over her face. If she held Yang’s hand on a cliff and asked her to jump on the sea, she would.
“Good. Can you meet me there after ten tonight?”
Yang thinks she could meet her anywhere in the galaxy.
There’s a small trail that leads to the beach, badly kept, it’s entrance mostly hidden by untrimmed bushes, and when Yang gets there Blake is already waiting for her.
This part of town is usually quiet, and this late at night the two of them are the only people on sight for a few blocks. It’s mostly a residential area, with a few people talking on their porches a couple blocks back, barely giving her attention as she passes them.
The only thing that gives Blake away is the way she spreads her arms in the same way she did earlier in her boss’ office, because she did try a little too hard to mask herself. She’s wearing all black, and a hoodie rests on top of her head, little triangle shapes poking the night sky.
“What’s with the look?” Yang asks when she’s close enough, chuckling. She thinks being all.. dark like this is not doing anything but making her stand out in the crowd that usually wear a bit more of color, but she's not complaining. She looks good in black.
When Blake spots her she jumps from the rock she’s sitting at, her boots making a soft sound on the sand.
“I’m a princess, I’m supposed to have good manners,” she says in a low voice, as if the closest person isn’t two minutes away. “Those do not include sneaking out at night or sitting my ass in wet grass.”
Yang raises an eyebrow, intrigued. But she goes with it, whispering too. “I’m guessing we’re not going to the beach then.”
“Not at all.”
“Good, I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”
Blake chuckles, then turns her back to Yang and walks to the trail, pushing brushes as she goes. So far Yang has only seen her in purple and linen and embroidered clothes, but there’s something endearing about her dressed like this, almost blending in with the shadows at night. She looks comfortable in them too, like it’s not her first time wearing them to sneak out, and Yang’s heart runs a lap thinking about what that means.
Blake notices her standing at the same spot like a dumbass and gestures her closer.
“Come on, I want to show you something,” she says, and Yang follows.
They walk through the path for minutes in silence, avoiding the big leaves in their way and stepping on soft soil. Yang can hear the ocean hitting rocks in the distance, and a few bugs sing in the night, making sounds she never heard before.
It’s a bit similar to Patch, the way the air feels humid against her skin here, but it’s also distinctively its own thing. Kuo Kuana is hotter, even this late at night. Blake walks a few steps ahead of her with her hands tucked inside her pockets, head deep in the hood, and Yang almost chuckles thinking of the sweat beginning to stick in her bare shoulders.
“You know, it’s refreshing, not having people escort me everywhere I go," Blake says after a while.
“You seemed friendly with the bodyguard earlier.”
Blake turns to her and walks backwards, as if she owns this trail, and Yang supposes she does, in some way. The entire system, in fact. Yang has only known her for a very short while, but it always comes as a surprise, what she is and how she acts when there's no one looking. Or, well, what she is when only Yang is looking.
“Ilia. We've been friends for years now."
"Did you teach her the bubblegum trick?"
"Not yet," she says, then smirks. "In fact I think the two of you would get along well. You should be there to watch her lose, she’s very bad at hiding emotions. And a sore loser."
Yang chuckles, remembering her red face, then kicks a rock out of her way, looking down. The ground that just a few minutes ago was flat is now begging to curve a little, if she wasn’t moving and exercising all the time she’d probably be feeling it in her legs by now. What surprises her though is that Blake is not even breaking a sweat yet.
"We could invite her next time then, for midnight hiking," Yang says.
Blake smiles, and her back is back to Yang again, eyes on the path as she maneuvers through rocks and foliage.
"Maybe somewhere else," she says, her voice losing the playful pitch it had just a few seconds ago.
They walk for a while, their steps making wet sounds on the ground. It's as if Blake is holding the entire atmosphere in her lungs.
"This is where I come when I want to be just me,” she says, then sighs. “I take my responsibilities seriously, but sometimes I just need some time for myself. And Ilia.."
"Is still part of it."
Blake shoots her a look, her eyes shining in the dark, grateful. "Exactly."
They keep walking in silence, the atmosphere not exactly heavy but lingering. It’s hard to read Blake like this, with her entire body hidden inside her hoodie and so far ahead of her. Yang quickens her pace until they are almost level and says, almost in a whisper as not to disturb.
“Well, I won’t say I understand, but it’s a bit like having siblings, isn’t it?” she says. Blake notices her trying to keep up and slows her step. “You love them to death but sometimes you just wanna hang with your other friends."
She knows Blake is an only child, but she can only hope she understands what she’s trying to say. When she shakes her head and smiles, she thinks she does.
"So, you have siblings," she says and Yang nods, already fishing her phone for her pocket and ready to change subjects.
“Yeah, wait a minute,” she says and stops completely to sort through her pictures, looking for one of her and Ruby together. It’s harder to find it than she'd like, already so far back in her gallery, and she’s reminded of the six months and counting since her last visit. She finds it eventually, it’s one where she’s holding Ruby on her back, the tips of her hair freshly painted red, something she wanted to try before Yang left. She smiles at the picture before turning it to Blake. “This is Ruby.”
Blake takes the phone on her hands and Yang scans her face for a reaction. At first she's smiling, but then she frowns and zooms in in the picture, and Yang smiles in anticipation, already knowing what’s coming.
"You look nothing alike," Blake says, handing her phone back.
And Yang laughs, then laughs harder at the small, confused smile blossoming on Blake's lips. She pockets her phone and watches the way Blake’s ears twitch at all the noise she’s making.
“We get that a lot, we have different moms.”
Blake opens her mouth in a small oh and nods, and Yang almost feels comfortable enough to explain everything to her. But it’s a nice night, and a nice walk, and they don’t know each other that well yet, so she nods in the direction of the trail and resumes her walking. Maybe some other time.
She’s about three steps in when Blake taps her shoulder and points to her side. She doesn’t wait for Yang to catch up and is already at the edge of the trail, pushing some leaves aside and making space for her body.
“We are going off road now,” she says as she climbs, grabbing at roots and resting her weight against anything that she can find, and Yang watches as her body moves with efficiency. Only Blake can make climbing in the dirt look graceful like this.
After a few steps, her ears twitch and she looks back, noticing Yang still standing by the trail. They flatten against her skull
“Can you climb here?”
Blake’s eyes glow in the moonlight like a lighthouse, and Yang doesn’t have it in her to admit that she was just staring.
“Yeah, I think so,” she says and gets moving before Blake can notice. Her socks are getting wet and her nails find purchase where they can, but she is noticeably slower. Blake moves like she was made to be out here, exploring the world, and Yang wonders what kind of person Blake would be if she was allowed to let go.
Wonders what it would be like to get on a ship just the two of them and travel around for a bit, just watching the world and getting to know each other.
And she stops there, before she gets ahead of herself.
“If you go too fast you won’t even notice me rolling down the hill,” she says, hoping she can distract herself with something else, something tangible. Like the way her knees sink into the dirt and her feet begin to slip in the wetness.
Blake looks back and smirks, always so confident. “Don’t worry, if you slip I’ll catch you.”
She thinks of slipping on purpose just to feel Blake’s hand on hers again.
But she doesn’t, and before she can get tired or slip for real and hit her face directly in the mud, Blake reaches level ground again and looks down, offering her hand in the last bit. Yang almost laughs at how kind the world is being to her right now. She doesn’t need it , but she’s not losing this opportunity either. Maybe Blake was thinking of ways to hold her hand too.
Blake pulls her up, and Yang can feel the slight roughness in the tip of her fingers when she grabs her hand like this.
They find themselves standing before a cliff, the sound of the sea hitting rocks filling their ears. Blake releases her hand, walks to the edge and sits there, feet hanging in the air. Yang stays behind, watching Blake’s hair in the wind, the waves crashing, the stars and the moon that never looked bigger in the sky.
“This place is beautiful,” Yang says, breathless. The wind blows salt on their faces and it’s the hottest she’s ever felt, but a chill runs down her spine anyway.
She steps closer, tentatively, as if the ground will crumble beneath her feet at any moment and she’ll fall into the sea. She can see the water hitting the rocks from where she stands, and thinks that their force could tear a person in half.
“It’s hard to get here, but it’s worth it, don’t you think?” Blake says, barely looking around her, eyes glued to Yang’s face. She supposes this is the fun of taking someone new to a place you are familiar with, watching the way they react to something that is almost second nature to you.
Yang nods, taking everything before her. Blake lets her. This is what she imagines the wind getting her higher feels like.
She has visited many systems, but no place has a moon as beautiful as Kuo Kuana. She watches it every night, shattered across the sky like this, but standing here in the cliff with Blake she feels like she can touch it if she raises her hand high enough.
She thinks of home, thinks of Ruby, and how she’d love being here.
“Do you know the constellations?” she asks.
Blake nods, pats besides her on the cliff. Yang swallows, but takes the steps and sits down, a feeling of dread burning through her stomach when her feet hang so high above the ground. Blake notices and squeezes her shoulder, but lets go of it too soon.
“So, which one do you want to know about?”
Yang looks up but she can still feel Blake’s gaze on her. She almost forgets the sky to look back at her, but she keeps searching, trying to find the brightest star.
“Any of them really,” she says, still looking. “I don’t know any constellations in Menagerie.”
“Where are you from?”
“Patch,” she says and doesn’t elaborate, but the silence stretches too long and she peaks at Blake only to find her picking at her pants. “You don’t know where that is.”
Blake shrugs. “I’m still very young and learning my planets.”
Yang laughs, and Blake crosses her arms in mock offense.
“Well, it’s one of the moons in Vale. The small one.”
Then her eyes widen. “The moons have an atmosphere?”
Yang whistles, trying to fight the smile out of her face. “Wow, you wanna keep all that ignorance to yourself when you go around the planets being.. diplomatic and all that.”
Blake rolls her eyes, pokes her lightly with her elbow. Yang almost feels scared of being pushed so close to a cliff, but Blake is gentle, it’s more of a touch than a push.
“Shut up, don’t be mean!”
But Yang laughs, and soon Blake is joining her too, and they stay like that for a while.
After they catch their breaths Blake lies down on the floor, her feet still hanging. She points to a random star cluster in the sky and Yang lies down too to see what she’s talking about.
“Do you see that star over there, very bright, a bit distant to the others?”
Yang looks at the general direction of her finger and searches for a while, settling for a star she thinks is the right one. She nods.
“That’s the tip,” Blake says, then moves her finger to various different spots, forming a line, then closing the last three in a small triangle, “of the Dragon.”
Yang nods, trying to recreate the shape with her eyes. She can see it. Very abstractly.
“What is it about?”
“It’s a story of a real dragon, a protector,” she says, smiling. Yang looks at her and waits until Blake turns her head too and their eyes meet. Yang smiles back at her and they stay like that for a while. Then Blake turns back to the sky and clears her throat. Yang looks up too.
“It was chosen to guard a garden. Everything inside it was very precious, and no person was allowed to get anything from it. But one day an ambitious man was tasked to steal a golden apple from it, and to do that he had to go through the dragon.”
Blake’s hand flops back to her lap, and she stays silent for a moment, watching the single firefly flying above them, waiting for it to go away. Yang wants to look back at her again, but she keeps her eyes on the stars so she doesn’t forget them.
“Then what?” she prompts in a silent voice.
“Then they fought. The man was very skilled and hurt the dragon badly, but it fought until the end. It’s said that the dragon was very respected by everyone, even feared. But in the stories...” she pauses, frowning, shifting her weight. Yang’s back is completely wet at this point, and she feels the cold of the wind hitting her skin. “The man doesn’t care about it. He slays it violently, doesn’t pay his respects upon his death. He kills the dragon, steals the apple and walks away.”
The waves hit the rocks and Yang swears the sounds get louder. They stay in silence for a while, listening to the violence down there and feeling the cold wind push their hair around their faces. The silence is so thick Yang is afraid of breaking it.
“And that’s it?” she asks anyway, in a small voice.
“That’s it,” Blake answers, so very soft. “Because the dragon fought bravely a constellation was made in its memory. But that’s the story.”
They stay in silence again, until Yang rests her elbows on the floor and looks down on Blake.
“But what did the man even want with the apple?”
Blake shrugs. “He made a mistake before that, and stealing the apple was the way to atone for it. He also wanted power, I guess.” She points to the sky again, tracing a pattern that Yang can’t keep up, but she supposes Blake doesn’t want her too. “He has a constellation right next to the dragon, but I don’t like his story as much.”
Yang chuckles, breaking the tension between them, and drops to the floor again. “Yeah, fuck that guy. Killed a perfectly fine dude for what, some apples?”
Blake chuckles, too, and just like that it’s almost as nothing bad ever happened in the first place. Yang can feel Blake slightly shivering next to her, and she wishes she had a jacket to offer.
“Tell you what,” she says, sliding her body a bit closer. Blake understands what she’s doing and allows it. “My sister likes these stories too, if you go to Vale someday you guys should hang out.” Blake hums. “Know the stars back in Sanus too, you know?”
Blake sighs, and Yang steals a glance at her, catching the corner of her smile as she stares up and hugs her body tighter. “I think I’d like that.”
Yang smiles too, staring for a second too long, then looks up again. “But come on, tell me another one.”
Much later, when the first rays of sun are already mixing with the light from the street poles, when her skin is cold and moist from all the time out, Yang arrives home.
She closes the door behind her, muffling the first noises of the morning, and lets her body fall into her bed. The small clock she keeps over her stove marks ten past five, and she sighs. She glances at the picture frames on her wall and grabs her phone, typing a quick message to Ruby.
Yang: wanna chat?
She has to be up and by the terminal at eight, but she knows that if she closes her eyes she won't be opening them up anytime soon. The bags under them weight, but she has a smile on face nonetheless.
While she waits for Ruby’s response she opens her contact list and stares at the new number hanging there on the top of the list.
Blake’s number.
They left before the sunrise, before enough people could gather in the streets to notice the princess walking around, and when they reached the beginning of the trail Blake rested her hand on her shoulder and asked for her scroll.
Yang watched as she typed her number and saved the contact with only the letter B, smiling as she did so. “We don’t want to get caught because you have my number on your contact list.”
Before Yang could raise her hand to get her scroll back, Blake slipped it on her shirt pocket and gave it a light tap before stepping away from her.
“I’m usually busy, but if you ever want to hang out send me a message,” she says, hands deep in her pockets. She’s kicking pebbles, looking anywhere besides Yang’s face. She shrugs.” Or if you just want to talk.”
Yang thinks of sending her a message the moment she steps home a few minutes from now. Then she decides she doesn’t want to wait that long and gets her scroll back with a smirk on her face, watching with the corner of her eyes the curious look on Blake’s face.
Yang: hi
A soft noise comes from Blake’s pocket, and it takes her a few moments to catch up, but when she does she flashes Yang a smile and quickly types a message back.
B: hi :)
And after that she’s gone, slipping through the alleyways and returning to her place, leaving Yang grounded to the same place until a woman sits outside her porch, pipe in hand, and waves her good morning.
She’s staring at their small combo when her scroll vibrates with Ruby’s answer.
Rubes: why r u awake
Rubes: isnt it like 3am over there
Yang: i have some hot gossip
Rubes: im listening
Yang: can i call? i miss ur ugly face
Yang: also i gotta tell u this on person
Rubes: >:(
Rubes: ur jealous im the pretty one >:((((((((((((
Rubes: also hope that by on person u mean ur flying here right this second
Yang: can i call or not
Yang chuckles and soon enough Ruby’s contact picture is lighting up her screen. It’s still a picture from when she was a kid, her front tooth missing. She put it as a joke, but since Ruby was always so eager to try to delete it she decided to keep it. She hits the answer button and instead of Ruby she sees Zwei’s butt running on the grass, the phone shaking as Ruby runs after him.
“Wow, you’re uglier than I remembered.”
“Yang!” Ruby pants on the other side. “I’m so glad you decided to call right now, Zwei stole a chicken thigh right this second!”
She hears her dad mumbling something and soon he's on the screen too, throwing his body on the grass and holding Zwei to his chest. Ruby is laughing, the phone barely focusing on anything as her shoulders shake.
"Let it go, Zwei!" She yells, but Yang can tell by her voice that she wants him to eat the whole thing.
Tai is still on the floor trying to snap his mouth open and suddenly Yang's heart feels too big for her chest.
"Let him have his lunch, dad!" She yells too, fighting the waver on her voice.
It's so sunny in Patch this time of the day, and her skin is still so cold from the sea. Soon the sun will begin to sweep through her curtains and if it weren't from the loud streets she could close her eyes for a while and pretend she’s still in her bedroom back home.
Ruby turns the camera to her face and seeing her sister brings her back from the spiral she was getting herself into, her smile almost too big for her face.
"So," Ruby says, out of breath, "while the boys fight."
Yang turns on her bed and grins, letting the sounds of labored breathing fill her home.
"While they fight," she stalls.
Ruby rolls her eyes, waves Yang in dismissal. "Come on, the gossip! It must be some big deal for you to call like this."
She hears the door to her old house opening, still creaking too loud, and then the sound of the couch cushions giving in under Ruby's weight. She wonders for a second if she is not calling enough, but pushes the worry away for now. She smiles instead.
"So, you know the royal family?"
Ruby nods. “Yeah, the Belladonnas, right?”
“Yeah, exactly.” Yang turns in the bed, suddenly feeling overwhelmed just by hearing the name, and plays with the ends of the sheet. She thinks of Blake last night, laying next to her and whispering stories, holding her elbow when she got to a heated part. She drops her scroll to her side, camera catching only her wild hair.
"Nice ceiling," Ruby says, "but are you gonna say something here or was it just a pop quiz?”
Yang laughs and hides her smile in the pillow, as if Ruby can still see her. “Well,” she says, her voice muffled. “I might have met the princess. Personally.”
"You did what? " She can hear a loud metal sound on the other end of the line, probably something Ruby knocked over while she stood up. Yang chuckles, glad that the phone is not on her ear and nibs the end of the pillow, trying to find something to do with her mouth besides smiling. She can hear Ruby’s socks hitting the wooden boards. “Dad, you won’t believe what Yang just told me!”
“Ruby, shut up!” Yang laughs. “Don’t tell him that, he’ll make fun of me.”
She hears the socks again and her dad complaining, Ruby probably getting back to the couch. Her suspicions are confirmed when she hears Ruby sinking into it. “But what do you mean , did you see her in a crowd and she waved at you specifically? Or are we talking friendship here?”
Yang sucks in a breath, her smile wavering a bit. They were right? Talking friendship. Realistically, she basically worked for Blake’s family and she’s sure she has better things to do then hang out with her all the time. But she also showed Yang her hideout and gave her her phone number. Yang thinks of her hi :) , thinks of sending her a couple funny pictures later that day.
"Oh, we're definitely talking friendship here. I have her phone number."
"YOU DON'T!"
Yang is full on laughing now, and she grabs her scroll again, pointing at her face.
"Do I look like I'm lying, Rubes?"
"You-" she’s covering her mouth with her hand, but it’s hanging so wide Yang can see between her fingers. She wiggles her eyebrows for good measure and an outraged breath leaves Ruby’s nostrils. "Oh gods, you look so smug, I can't believe this! Listen, you have to tell me what she's like."
Yang hums, pretending she’s considering. Ruby is exasperated on the other end of the line, screaming her excitement in Zwei’s little ears. "Maybe later, don't wanna run out of gossip so soon. But I think you'd like her, she's a big nerd too, knows all the constellations and stuff."
Ruby is quiet all of a sudden, her grin turning into a softer, delicate smile. Yang decides her eyes are too heavy to keep going and heads to the stove, boiling some water to make her a big, steamy cup of coffee.
"Well," Ruby says, voice low and so full of love Yang could fly home right now to hug her, "I'm glad you are making friends over there."
Yang gets the box of coffee powder out of her cabinet and wonders what Blake likes to drink. "Yeah, me too."
"But you won't get in trouble, right? Dad and I have been hearing the news about you guys and Mistral and.. we're worried."
Yang sighs, disappointed that she can't just gush about Blake in peace. “I think everything is under control for now, Rubes.”
She might not be the most well informed person in the world, but she does work at the ship terminal, probably the place where the most gossip runs around. It’s not like anything big is happening right now, but she has been watching a couple of scrapper ships lurking around the empty corners of the terminal, has seen a gun or two passing around, but that’s about it.
“I mean,” she says, fiddling with a spoon, trying to be casual about it but not hiding too much from Ruby. “I think some guys want to get back at Mistral? But it’s small fish anyway, not the royal family or anything. I doubt it's gonna work.”
Ruby has a frown on her face, and is too quiet for Yang’s liking. So she digs a hole in the coffee powder with her spoon to distract herself and smiles big. “If you are worried about it, no one is coming for me because I work for the royal family. And nobody knows Blake and I are hanging out.”
Ruby widens her eyes at that, the heaviness suddenly behind her. “You call her by her first name? And you are meeting in secret ?”
Yang chuckles, pouring water over the powder. This is something she can talk about until her shift, she's tired of worrying about things she can do nothing about. She leans her weight against the kitchen counter and waits until Ruby finishes her rambling to taste her coffee. It's strong and not as good as her dad's, but it will do.
"Anyways, as I was saying," she says, Ruby's full attention back at her, and she drags another sip to see how far she can make Ruby wait. "I'm not telling you that much about her, you'll have to wait a bit. Since I kind of invited her to hang out with us next time we stop on Vale."
Ruby screams, and Yang laughs.