140

Chapter 140Notes:

G-Witch is seared into my brain right now and SuleMio is all I can think about

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"I still feel like I don't deserve this, you know," Weiss muttered quietly, worrying her lip as she and Blake sat out on one of the many rocky outcroppings surrounding the wilder parts of Menagerie outside of Kuo Kuana, high above the ocean below- the outcropping itself terminated in a sharp cliff, and the waters below were such a beautiful, placid blue thanks to the lagoon they were in that it was just… breathtaking to just stare out over the ocean and let the sun warm her body. And yet… and yet. 

"Deserve what? Time and space to heal from your family's bullshit where they'll never try and find you? Snowflake, you deserve to be happy ," Blake huffed quietly, the long strands of her hair blowing in the warm breeze- so long now that it nearly reached her ankles and the amount of product she used in the shower was starting to verge on truly ridiculous. As in- not even Yang used up shampoo and conditioner like Blake did.

How it remained light and billowy enough to flutter on the mildest of breezes was a mystery, but Weiss suspected in the back of her mind that Blake was subtly using her Aura to make her hair act like it was an ephemeral, inky shadow instead of a several pound mass that got really hot in the sunlight.

"I know… you keep saying it and it's just… I guess with how long we've been away, and with that meeting you scheduled with Sienna Khan coming up… I just… I'm starting to wonder if maybe everything I've got going on isn't just making things harder for you. If… maybe I should still be back in Vale, working with Winter, fixing the city and trying to make sure the people there aren't suffering anymore," Weiss sighed, grimacing as she clenched her fist and tried not to think about the fact that her father had tried to threaten her into coming home some months ago by sending her messages promising to remove her claim to the SDC, and to freeze her accounts and family owned holdings.

It had taken more than a few sleepless nights of reassurances and tears to keep her resolve- what was she, Weiss Schnee, if she didn't have her name or her money to throw around? Who was she? Some jumped up prissy bitch with a sword who thought she was worth something, who thought she was more important than she was?

It still picked away at her, even with Blake and Yang both helping her along, reassuring her that she was more than her family name and her money, that she was worthy of being helped , not just endlessly giving her help to others in a misguided attempt to atone for sins that she hadn't committed.

"Hey. Snowflake- Weiss. Look at me. Listen to me," Blake murmured, taking hold of Weiss' cheek with a gentle hand, guiding her girlfriend's gaze to her own amber eyes and staring Weiss down with as much love and care as she could project. Her Aura flared slightly, a dark shadow of her presence mingling against Weiss' skin and letting her know exactly what Blake was feeling at the moment. "You're more than just what you can give. You're more than a name, a legacy, a family. You're you . You don't have to make yourself miserable because you want to make people happy. You don't have to put other people above yourself. Hell, you can be selfish and do things for yourself. You're allowed to be selfish. You've gone through a lot and I want you to know that you deserve to be here. You are loved and we love you and we want you here. You aren't making things harder for us. You aren't doing anything bad. Mom and dad love you. Yang and I love you. So… let's just enjoy our time here while we can, alright? I know we have to go back to Vale sooner or later, but let's make the most of our time here. Relax. Have fun. Let yourself have nice things, okay?"

"... I suppose you're right. I'll… try to keep a level head about it, even if I still don't know if I… really feel like I deserve any of this…. That said… do you think Yang is doing okay? She was supposed to meet us here almost ten minutes ago," Weiss mentioned idly, looking around at the outcropping and frowning as she looked around and tried to figure out where her and Blake's mutual girlfriend was. The area they were in wasn't that far off of Kuo Kuana's public beaches (she could even see where the jetty wall and fence separated them from the public beach on the other side), and although it was closer to the forest's edge than most would go, they were on top of a massive pile of rock that was only theoretically climbable by a determined civilian, and even for the average rock climber, it still wasn't a great choice because of the fact that they were also entirely surrounded by water. If Weiss remembered Professor Hematite correctly, the formation was technically just a remarkably flat topped sea stack.

It went without saying that it was easy to hop across the gaps between the stones leading from the beach's edge to the stack if one was a Huntress, and running up the sheer wall was merely the effort of a few seconds. 

That all said… where was Yang?

"I'm not sure… if she ran into trouble along the way, she's got her…" Blake motioned vaguely in sort of an incredulous motion, because for all that Yang insisted that Ruby was the weapon nut in the Xiao Long/Rose/Branwen family, it wasn't like Yang ever went out without some kind of weapon… or Cinder. Or even their crazy person of an uncle. Or even their dad. Or Mercury. Or Neo. Or Emerald. "... Y'know."

"Her 'Vacation Weapons', right… I still can't believe she considers a pair of twelve gauge shot-gauntlets to be light weaponry," Weiss sighed, shaking her head and looking around again. Hm… Yang said that she'd be picking up some extra stuff from the Duskway in town using Bumblebee, which she'd somehow managed to bring over despite the exorbitant vehicle transport costs associated with bringing a motorcycle across the ocean , and that she'd be there for their picnic… ten minutes ago.

"Oh, nevermind. She just answered the text I sent. Said she got held up in traffic… and also that the cashier was kinda racist to her. Ugh. Seriously?" Blake sighed, groaning as she flopped back onto their picnic blanket and just heaved a heavy sigh. What was wrong with people, honestly. If it wasn't humans being racist to faunus in the Kingdoms, it was faunus still being racist to humans in Kuo Kuana- and sure, a lot of them had reasons to be afraid of certain groups… but Yang and Weiss had been there for months with Blake, and they were still being shitty? "Gods, you'd think faunus would be less racist than humans considering what we go through in the Kingdoms, but noooo… fucking… ugh."

"People are people, it seems," Weiss muttered, then sighed as she heard the distant sound of Bumblebee roaring in the distance… up until the entire yellow and orange motorcycle roared out of the forest on a jet of flames, spun in a circle as a pair of heavy shots rang out and obliterated a pair of horrific spider grimm that were chasing said bike, before the exhaust pipes erupted in flames and helped Yang skip across the rock platforms leading to the sea stack… at which point Yang bailed off of her bike, jumped into the air, ran up the side of the rock face, and slid to a halt with such grace that Weiss couldn't look away.

Because the motion did amazing things to Yang's chest, and her girlfriend was only wearing a bikini beneath a black leather jacket and a white sarong tied loosely around her hips. Also, cute flip flops, but Weiss wasn't looking below Yang's knees.

Also, she was carrying several cases of expensive beer and local bottled drinks.

And, as Weiss looked over the edge of the stack again, she found that, somehow, Yang's ridiculously reckless maneuver with her bike's integrated jump jets allowed her to perfectly park the thing in the shaded platform at the base of their rocky picnic location.

She sighed.

"Yang… you truly are the most ridiculous person in the world," Weiss muttered, rolling her eyes at Yang as she took one of the cases and set it down, Blake helping with the other before they got to work setting the individual bottles into their drinks cooler that Weiss had filled via a mix of Water Dust, Ice Dust, and a heaping pile of salt.

"Yeah, I know. I'm awesome like that," Yang preened, flicking her hair dramatically as she tossed aside her jacket- leaving her "trimmed down" Celica Blooms on her wrists still- and sat down with a huff. "Sorry I kept you waiting by the way. Cashier was such an asshole, nearly punched him cuz he called me human scum or whatever, but I ignored him instead cuz like… what the fuck was he actually gonna do to me, huh?"

"I think that would have killed him, even with Celica Bloom's low pressure rounds," Blake deadpanned, rolling her eyes as she pulled their lunch from the depths of the larger container she'd brought, sandwiches and bags of chips and diced fruit and a truly ungodly amount of assorted sashimi covering the blanket soon after. "I'm glad that you aren't upset, though. I'm… sorry about his behavior."

"Eh. nothing to worry about. Shit happens. Honestly I'm more mad that I had to fight grimm on the way here- that can't have been good for our drinks," Yang snorted, flopping down with a quiet groan of relief before leaning against Weiss with a loud hiss of steam as their Auras collided. "Ahhhhh…. That's better."

Weiss sighed again, picking up a bottle of something fruity and nonalcoholic before popping the top and raising it in a toast. "Well. Now that Yang's here… to another good day in Kuo Kuana. Let's hope it continues. To… us."

"To us!"

"To us!"

Notes:

Yes, Celica Bloom is just canon Ember Celica. Yang is built fucking different