An Unkindness of Nevermores. Nora knew Yang wanted- no, needed that card. And here she was just flaunting it in her face. To add insult to injury, it was lunchtime too. Usually Yang and Nora talked about Remnant Conquest, an RPG card game, after school because at school there was always the chance of some jerk deciding to try and ruin their cards. Yang and Nora would always give them trouble for it, but with Nora being one of the shortest girls in school and Yang's pigtails and square glasses, neither of them looked intimidating.
It wasn't as much of a problem when Pyrrha was around though. She loves this game, and no one would ever mess with her.
"This card can be yours Xiao Long. If you give me your dessert." Nora offered.
It definitely was a tempting deal. Her dad always made something from scratch for her lunch, and he never did disappoint. Nora asked almost every day for her dessert, but most of the time Yang said no. This time however, with the given incentive, Yang relented.
Nora pumped her fist as she handed her the card and thanked her. This whole situation kind of reminded Yang of a pun.
"Hey, I won't yell at you on weekdays if you eat my dessert, but I scream Sunday." Yang smirked.
Nora just looked confused, but that didn't matter to Yang. Because at that moment, she heard a giggle.
Yang looked behind herself to see who it was. Sitting at the table next to her was Weiss Schnee. Beacon's own troublemaker. She wore black skinny jeans, and a white tank top with a skull design on it, and on her left hand she had a black leather bracelet with spikes on it. Yang didn't know her much past by her reputation. Her bad reputation. Weiss was known for not following the rules too well. She got into fights, hardly ever showed up to class on time, and some people said she'd smoke behind the school.
Despite all that, Yang saw her cute giggling face and fell in love.
///
"So do you like her?" Blake asked taking a drag from her cigarette.
Weiss didn't immediately answer. She took a drag from her own cigarette. She felt herself thinking back on the girl from earlier. Her glasses made her face look small, her gym clothes made her look lanky, and her pigtails… Well Weiss actually couldn't think up a complaint about the pigtails. Those were really cute. She seemed nice, and for Weiss that was the problem. She huffed out a puff of smoke.
"She seems like someone my parents would love. I would much rather see myself dating someone my parents would hate. Someone like you." Weiss winked.
"Why?" Blake said unamusedly, "Because I'm a punk like you, or because I'm a faunus?"
"I- no, that's… I mean- yes. To the first thing." Weiss said, suddenly flustered.
"I won't be your revenge girlfriend, Weiss. No matter how racist your parents are." Blake said.
"Sorry."
Blake just shrugged.
"You never answered my question. Do you like her?" Blake asked.
"Why do you care?"
"Because, just as it's not punk to be racist. It's also not punk to not help your friends with their hopeless romantic life."
"I- I… ugh. I think you just enjoy this." Weiss accused.
Blake just looked at her discerningly, and Weiss went quiet. She took a long drag from her cigarette and closed her eyes.
"Kinda. Maybe."
///
"You like her!" Nora said ecstatically. "You like-like her!"
Yang held her red face in her hands.
"A little louder, Nora. I'm not sure everyone heard you yet." Yang muttered. But Nora ignored it.
"This is great! Oh my gosh. You two will be so cute together!" Nora suddenly gasped, "Since I'm gonna help you two get together, can I be your Maid of Honor at your wedding?" she asked.
"You can be quiet. She probably wouldn't even date a girl like me. I'm too... nerdy." Yang said.
"Nonsense! A girl like that would be lucky to be allowed to date a girl like you. Just talk to her! I know you can do it." Nora encouraged.
Yang suddenly got an idea.
"Okay, I'll talk to her. But. You have to talk to Pyrrha." Yang dared.
Nora blushed, but her smile didn't leave her face.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Nora sing-songed.
"Okay chicken. I guess I won't be talking to that girl."
Yang knew that'd push her buttons. She took a couple steps ahead expecting Nora to stop her. Nora would concede and come up with some crazy plan, and Yang would begrudgingly go along with it. But at least this way, Nora had to go through something just as embarrassing as well. When Nora didn't stop her after a few seconds, Yang turned around to see what Nora was doing. Nora had her phone up to her ear. Her free hand held onto her elbow, while she tapped her foot impatiently.
"Hey Pyrrha!" Nora said, sounding more excited than she looked. "I'm good. I was just wondering if you wanted to come over to my place later for a movie night... No, Yang's not gonna be there. I was thinking this could be like a date... you there?... yeah..." Yang was starting to regret pushing Nora to do this. Nora looked miserable, and Yang hated that. She wished she could hear what Pyrrha was saying, or at least have something to help out Nora. But then Nora perked up. Her smile was brighter than ever. "Yes! Awesome! I'll see you then... okay, See ya!".
Nora turned to face Yang.
"See? If I can get a date then so can you!"
Yang patted Nora on the back and then rested her hand around her shoulders.
"You want some ice cream? I gotta get you something for finally asking out Pyrrha." Yang offered.
"Yeah, yeah. That sounds good. I'm just gonna… lay down for a second first." Nora laid down on the bench and groaned. "Sorry, I'm tired. That took so much effort."
///
Weiss was thinking about her talk with Blake from a couple days ago, when she saw Yang again. She was at the library to return a book she had taken out. Yang was at one of the tables with that same girl she saw her with the other day.
They were playing some card game with a board set out in between them. The board was covered in tiny figures. Some of the pieces were knights, others were monsters. Weiss thinks she might have seen it before, but she had never played it.
Figuring she had nothing to lose she walked right over to them.
"Hey, what are you guys playing?" She asked.
Yang flinched, which was weird to Weiss. It wasn't like she snuck over here. That other girl on the other hand, the one with the short orange hair, smiled brightly when she saw her.
"Sit. Join us. Have you met my friend, Yang?" She asked in a single breath.
"Uh sure…" Weiss said, "And no I haven't. It's nice to meet you, Yang. I'm Weiss."
Yang looked a little lost for words. Her face was red.
"Uhhh… We were just setting up a game of Remnant Conquest. We usually play it here in the library cause people that would bother us don't bother us here. We can give you some cards so you can join in. Or not if you don't want to play. I mean like... it's your choice you know?"
Weiss sat down looking it over. She was sure this game made sense in some manner. She looked over the board again. At first glance, it reminded her of Risk, but the cards looked like they were for Magic the Gathering. Combining the two games wasn't something would think up herself, but good on whoever did. She could see why it's fun.
Yang gave her a deck's worth of cards and the Atlas pieces. She frowned at that. She moved here a couple years back from Atlas. Without her family.
They just left her alone at their family house in Vale because they had too much business to take care of back home. She didn't care though, she got by fine, she didn't need them. Besides, the house workers were enough company for her. She did sometimes miss her sister, but that didn't matter. She was sure Winter didn't miss her.
"Why do I get Atlas?" Weiss said bitterly.
"Uhh, you were just closest to Atlas… Uhm… We can trade spots if you want, but you'll have hordes of Grimm then instead of robots."
"Grimm? That'll suffice."
///
Yang was feeling good. Mostly because she didn't scare Weiss off with Remnant Conquest. That game wasn't really known for being cool, but it's so much fun. And it seemed like Weiss had fun too. She had a bit of difficulty at first, but she eventually got better. It was actually pretty impressive how quickly Weiss caught on. She's smart, and Yang didn't know why she'd hide that. Or maybe she didn't, and people just judged her before really getting to know her. Yang didn't entirely know, but she wanted to.
She wanted to know Weiss.
Caught in her thoughts she almost ran into someone. Before she could though they put their hands on her hips to stop her. Shocked, Yang looked up. And then back down. The person that had stopped her was Neo. Neo for some reason had a crush on her. Or maybe she just liked toying with her. Yang didn't know.
Neo smirked up at her and took a step in closer. A little too close for comfort, but Neo just smirked. Yang shook her off and pushed past her. Yang wasn't in the mood to deal with this right now. The pair of footsteps behind her told her though that Neo wasn't leaving her alone just yet. Yang sighed as she kept walking. She had things she needed to grab out of her locker and then she could leave.
As soon as she could open her locker though, it was slammed shut. Yang was turned around and pushed against her locker. Neo had both her hands on either side of Yang. Neo had a smirk on her face while she just glared at her harder. She pushed Neo away.
"I'm gonna rearrange your face if you don't leave me alone Neo." Yang said, stiffening her stance.
Neo's smirk suddenly dropped. Yang wasn't quite sure what she was gonna do. Neo almost never wasn't smirking. It was just natural for her to look smug. The sight of Neo angry made Yang a little uneasy. Enough so to freeze Yang in place long enough for Neo to walk up to her and backhand her. The stinging slap sent Yang to the floor and her glasses sliding off her face. She tried to get up, but was kicked in the gut. Yang groaned.
Before anything else could happen, Yang heard a crunching noise. She looked up and saw two blurs. One blur was pink-ish and hunched over slightly. Yang knew that was Neo. The other was a mix of a white-ish, and black-ish blur. Wait, was that Weiss?
"Don't touch her you fuckin' creep!" The person shouted.
It was Weiss.
Yang quickly found her glasses and got back up. By that time Neo tried kicking Weiss, but Weiss caught her leg and kicked at the other. Neo fell to the floor with a thud, with Weiss lowering herself down so that she could quickly deliver some more punches.
She was suddenly stopped by a shrill voice.
"Miss Schnee!" A voice shrieked.
The three girls were surprised by the sudden noise. They looked to the end of the hall to see who it was. And there stood Ms. Goodwitch. Neo was the quickest to react. She ran over to the teacher with her eyes brimming with tears. She held onto Ms. Goodwitch's arm and let out a few quiet sobs of crocodile tears.
"There, there, Miss Politan." She said comfortingly, not noticing the small ever-growing smirk on Neo's face. "Miss Schnee, and Miss Xiao Long. I need to see the two of you in my office now."
///
"Miss Schnee, it has been apparent since you've enrolled here that you're nothing but trouble. This hasn't been the first time you've gotten into a fight, and don't even get me started on the list of your other misdemeanors. But this has been too much. This is grounds for suspension." Ms. Goodwitch scolded.
"I started the fight!" Yang intervened.
The room got quiet. Looks of confusion were directed at Yang.
"I started the fight, and Weiss was just protecting me because she didn't know that I was the aggressor. She was just trying to help out a friend." Yang said.
After another moments silence. Glynda came to her senses.
"Well, Miss Xiao Long. I wouldn't have expected that from you. I thought you were better than this. You and Miss Schnee will both serve detention time. You'll be alerted when we have it scheduled. But for now you're free to go."
///
"I didn't need your help back there." Weiss said angrily.
"Sure you didn't. I just got you out of being suspended but you know, no thanks necessary for that." Yang said sarcastically.
"I would have been fine even if I got suspended."
Yang was angry too. She had a million thoughts racing through her head, but one thought was clearer than the others.
"What were you even doing when you showed up at my locker? Cause it was weird enough when one person started following me." Yang accused.
"I wanted to return those cards you loaned me." Weiss said pulling them out of her pocket. "You forgot them cause you were in such a rush to get away from me. And yes, I know you were trying to get away from me. Don't even try lying. I noticed how you tried to keep as much distance from me when we were playing. But now you're trying to help me? Do you hate me or do you like me? Decide. Because I really hate being lied to." Weiss said through gritted teeth.
Yang hadn't realized she had been leading Weiss on. She thought keeping her distance from her would just make things easier. She'd be less likely to embarrass herself, and less likely to ruin her chances. But that apparently didn't work.
"Ok… Ok… Here I go. The truth is Weiss. I do like you. I like you a lot." She said trying to look at anything but Weiss, "I'm just really awkward, and thought that'd push you away."
Weiss looked at Yang with a surprised look on her face. Weiss sighed. She hadn't realized that Yang was doing this because she liked her. She always expected people to be straight-forward with her, but not everyone is always able to do that. Making Yang tell her that was kind of shitty of her to do wasn't it? And while she was happy about knowing Yang liked her too, she wanted to make up for it.
"Then let me take you on a date. I'll pay for everything to make up for how I've been acting." Weiss said.
Yang didn't know why, but she giggled. She giggled a lot. Weiss frowned and crossed her arms. Before Weiss could say anything though, Yang stopped.
"You're always so serious. Yes, I'll go on a date with you."
Realizing that's why Yang was laughing got Weiss to laugh too.
"Yeah, I guess I am."
Weiss hadn't thought she'd end up with a person like Yang. She was too nice, too nerdy, too perfect. And while Yang could say the same about Weiss, neither needed too. They were opposites in a way, but what had surprised Weiss was how much they were alike. They were opposite sides of the same coin. Weiss smiled, allowing herself this for once. Not doing something out of spite, but because it made her happy.
Yang makes her happy.