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“You remember back on the first night at Beacon, when me and Ruby went up to you?” Yang inquired, one hand gently messing with the trim of my discarded bow, which she had settled in her lap. I glanced over at her, a sense of curiosity filling me to the brim.
“You were really annoying.” I finally said, earning a snort from the blonde. Even after four years of working with her, I couldn’t help but marvel at her. Her long golden hair cascaded down her shoulders, covering her black blazer. She always filled out the Beacon uniform well. For a girl that was rather unorthodox and in your face with fighting, she was just one of those people who looked nice when they were put together.
“Yeah, I suppose. But your were still doing that whole anti-social woe-is-me phase back then.” A mischievous smile crossed her face and lit up her twinkling lilac eyes. It was my turn to snort. “But I guess you warmed up pretty quick.”
“It’s hard to stay distant from you. You just kind of warm people up, I guess.” I glanced down at my feet, clad in the standard school uniform shoes. I’d used the same ones for four years. Yang and Ruby both tended to burn through their shoes due to their rigorous training they put themselves through, and more often then not they’d forget about switching their shoes when they put on their civilian clothes for missions. “Why do you bring up the first night?”
“Huh? Oh, right. Well, it’s something you said that first night. And it’s dumb, but it’s stuck in my head all these years.” She went quiet and raised her head so she was gazing at the night sky, chin pointed forward. We were sitting on the one stable piece of ancient wall that was left in the old ruins. It was where we first started to know each other. The initiation had been hard, maybe the hardest of all our missions we took on at Beacon. Not because of the enemy. No, we’d faced a lot worse over the years than the Nevermore. It was the hardest because we didn’t know each other. We were an odd team. Still were, I suppose. But when we started working together, it’s like everything clicked into place like pieces of a puzzle. We were a team, and we were meant for each other, right down to the complementary fighting styles.
“You said, uh,” She paused as if trying to push herself back to that night from four years ago, head still pointed up. “You said something like ‘the real world isn’t a fairytale’ and ‘do you think you’re going to live happily ever after?’ So…”
Yang shifted uncomfortably next to me, and once again I worried about the wall collapsing under us. I still didn’t know where she was going. When she didn’t answer, I prompted, “So?”
“So, tell me, did you get a happy ending, Belladonna? One worthy of a fairytale?” The question surprised me. I supposed I was always a bit of a pessimist. Although I’d like to say I was a realist, I did tend to be rather negative. I did remember saying something like that back then. I made it clear from the start that I didn’t expect any kind of happily ever after. It threw me off that Yang remembered this when I vaguely did.
“I--”
“So after we graduate,” Yang continued, not bothering to stop and hear my answer. There was something off about her. She was one of the few people that would actually stop and listen to what I had to say. “We’re all supposed to go our own ways. Like I know teams that are going off to different regions entirely. And to explore by yourself? That seems really cool. But…”
“But?”
“I don’t know. This thing the four of us have, it’s more than a partnership. We’re like… No, there’s no like about it. We’re a family. And family sticks together.” Yang turned her head to look me dead in the eye for the first time since she started talking. “You, me, Ruby, and Weiss. We’re a family. I don’t want us to all break up. Like, going on adventures by yourself is cool, but can you imagine road tripping around the world , all four of us, fighting off Grimm and whatever baddies pop up?”
“We’d rip each other’s heads off!” I exclaimed in dismay. I could already picture Weiss and Ruby at each other’s throats. They’d gotten better over the years, I mean they had to in order to be partners, but some things never changed.
“No, Blake, you’re focusing on the wrong thing!” Yang sounded exasperated now. “If we stick as a team, we’ll only get better! We know each other already! And we already have a reputation in Vale. Imagine what the four of us can accomplish if we travel around all of Remnant. And--” She surprised me by grabbing my hand. My initial instinct was to tug my hand away, but I let her hold it in her own. Her warm, thin fingers laced between mine. Yang had always been a bit rough around the edges, but she had the hands of a pianist, despite her occupation. If only she had the musical talent to match. “--we’ll get to be together.”
I was startled by her words, but it was nothing to how I felt when her arms wrapped around the back of my neck and pull me into the crook of her neck. I could hear my heart beating loudly. God, could she hear it? Could everyone back at Beacon hear it? It didn’t matter if they could, because all Yang did was bury her own face in my hair.
There were times in my life where I thought I’d never have anyone. I’d damn well accepted that I was going to be alone. And then three dumb girls with fully automated weapons and give-em-hell attitudes barged into my little glass case of solitude and shattered the walls. It wasn’t until the nights where I did lone assignments that I realized that before I knew them, I’d been alone. Alone, but never lonely. When they waltzed into my life, they brought with them all sorts of emotions I didn’t even know I could feel.
So there we were. Two girls embracing on a crumbling wall in the middle of a forest with one week of school left before we were unceremoniously tossed into the outside world. Not that we hadn’t gotten a taste of it before. A little too much in my case. Maybe having a family would make it easier. Better. Happier.
I was done being lonely.
“Yes.”
“What?” Yang pulled away, startled at my voice. Was it the light, or were their tears in her eyes?
“You didn’t let me answer you first question. Did I get a happy ending?” I cleared my throat. “I think-- well, I actually don’t know. Not yet. I think it’s too early to judge. But I think the way the four of us are going, I think I might get my happy ending after all.”
“Is that a yes to the sticking together thing, too?”
“Why not? Somebody has to make sure Weiss doesn’t upset every person she talks t--”
She was crying. I could feel it as she yanked me back into her arms. Her cheek brushed mine, and there was a salty sweet wetness to it. Slowly, my hand rose so it was gently resting against her back. I could only assume it was calming. I still wasn’t that good at the whole comforting thing.
Family sticks together. I moved my hand up so it was tangled in her golden curls. Above us, the stars glittered like little lanterns. A streak of white crossed the sky. Four years ago, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. Four years ago I wouldn’t be hugging another person like this. Things were so different.
I wished we’d stick together for a long time.
-
Blake sat silently in the darkness, the only light coming from the computer screen. It washed over her face and highlighted the dark circles beneath her eyes. She sighed and tenderly moved the mouse up to the upper left corner of the word document. She clicked File and when the long list of options came up she moved down to Save.
She raked her fingers through her dark hair. When they met a tangled knot she gave up in frustration and reached for a hair band instead, pulling it back into a loose bun. Anything to keep it off her neck. With a frustrated sigh she leaned back in her computer chair and regarded the document critically.
So it was finally done. At the bottom of the document it told her to length. It totaled up to a whopping 307 pages. She wasn’t exactly sure what the math was to convert that into paperback size pages, but it was a lot. On top of that, it wasn’t even the longest.
Book one was the longest, at 534 paperback pages. She had someone do the math for her. The first book detailed Team RWBY’s initial meeting and their adventures throughout their first year at the prestigious academy of Beacon. She had the manuscripts for all four written up now. The first two had been professionally edited, and she’d gone over the third by herself. Book four was raw and all over the place.
It didn’t stop her from printing out those last dozen pages though.
She clipped them together with the rest of the book and picked up the other three manuscripts. Picking up her phone and putting it between her shoulder and ear, she called the number she used most. As she paced the length of her tiny New York apartment, her tabby, Adam, watched her curiously from his perch on top of the TV. He was responsible for a lot of broken things over the years. He also tended to bring in mice and bats and leave them for her to find around the apartment.
“Adam, down!” She snapped, not wanting to buy another damn TV. The feline watched her, unmoving. They stared at each other for a moment before the tabby tucked his nose under his paws and went to sleep. For a moment she considered moving him, but Adam had a bit of a temper. He was a mean thing most of the time, but he really did have a nice side. Only around her though.
“Blake?” The voice echoed from the phone, startling her.
“Ruby!” Blake moved back to her tiny kitchen and set the manuscripts on the counter. “Hey, I have something I’d like you to see. Do you mind if we meet up at Yang’s?”
There was silence from the other end of the phone, and then finally, “Sure. When?”
“In like an hour, if that’s okay.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. See you then.”
“See you.”
-
The drive wasn’t that bad, considering. She was a New Yorker, she’d had worst. With the manuscripts in her hands and her car parked at the side of the long winding road, she bumped the door shut with her rear. Really, she had to remember to get gas.
The day was muggy and gray. The weeping willow nestled between the lines of gray stones seemed even sadder than usual, as if weighed down by the soil beneath it and the people left up above. It was in alphabetical order by last name.
When the rest of them grew up and got homes of their own, Yang stayed young and got her own kind of home.
“Ruby!” Blake called as she walked up the hill, papers in her arms. The other girl turned to look at Blake, and reached up the pull her red hoodie tighter around her.
“Hey!” She raised a hand to greet her as the dark haired girl finally reached her. She paused, gray eyes directed at the things Blake was holding. “Whoa, what’s all that?”
“It’s why I asked you to come.” With a groan of relief, she set it down on the stone in front of them. It was heavy enough that the light breeze couldn’t blow it away.
“Go on. I’d like to hear why you chose to show me,” Ruby gestured around them. “here.”
“You remember how in the hospital, right after Yang…” Blake paused, aching at the thought of finishing that sentence.
“Got sick.” Ruby finished for her, and Blake looked at her thankfully.
“Right. Uh, we were talking. And she was telling me all this stuff about things she wanted to do. She had me write everything down for her. She said in another world she’d do all of it.”
“Did she ever do any of it?” Ruby inquired, a strange look crossing her face.
“Well, the first thing on the list was ‘fight monsters’, so considering the content of the list, no. Not really.” Ruby laughed at that, but her voice cracked.
“After she…” Blake didn’t have to finish that sentence, and neither did the girl in the red hoodie. “Well, I thought she deserved that other world.”
For the first time, Ruby touched the manuscript. She studied the first page of the first book. Then she flipped it to the second and made a noise that hurt Blake’s heart. Ruby pressed her crimson sleeve against her mouth to stifle the sound. Blake knew what she was looking at. The poem in the beginning.
“This was the thing you’ve been working on for the past five years? Jesus, I knew you were writing something. But I didn’t know you were…”
“I call it The RWBY Quartet.” Blake felt her own tears filling her golden brown eyes. She’d done quite a bit of exaggerating. So her eyes were closer to brown. Yang’s were more blue than anything. Weiss was still damn close to being white-haired though. Palest blonde she’d ever seen in her life. “I switched names around of course. Last names, specifically. But you should be able to recognize people from growing up.”
“RWBY, huh?” Ruby was actually crying now.
“Red, White, Black, Yellow. Or Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang. Either way.” Blake was crying too. “I based it on that list of hers. It’s a fairytale world, I guess. She does a lot of monster killing in it.”
“You wrote all this?”
“It was only supposed to be a short story. But it… got out of hand and turned into something bigger than life.”
“She’d love this, Blake.”
“You think so?”
“I do. I really do.”
“You sure I can take these with me?” Ruby asked, gently picking the manuscripts up.
“I trust you to keep them nice. I think… well, if you're okay with it I might try to get them published.”
“You should. If having these out in the world makes you happy, then that’s what I want. That’s what Yang would want.” Ruby smiled at her through the tears. Blake offered back the best she could do with trembling lips. The younger girl embraced her, the papers smothered between them.
Blake froze for a minute. And then she let it go. She pulled the shorter girl in and held her tight. Her little family was a little shattered from Yang, but it was still her family. They stood in each other’s embrace for a couple minutes, unsure of whose tears were whose. Finally, they let each other go.
“I gotta go meet Weiss for coffee.” Ruby sniffled. “It’s the Sunday tradition.”
“Right.” Blake’s voice was hoarse. “Don’t go spilling coffee on my novels.”
“I won’t.” Ruby chuckled, tears staining her face.
As the shorter girl walked away with the papers she spent the last five years of her life devoted to, Blake turned to the gray stone in front of her. The name carved into it was one she’d known since kindergarten. The numbers beneath it were the reminders of a short life that such a lively person didn’t deserve. Seventeen. She was seventeen when she got sick.
“Summer rose, thus kindly I scatter.” She recited the words on the grave. They matched the poem on the second page of the first book of The RWBY Quartet. Ruby picked it out. It was from a poem their parents used to read to the siblings when they were younger.
She placed a hand on the stone. It was cold to the touch. Sometimes she wondered why she’d talk to the damn stone. It’s not like Yang could hear her. But it felt… good. Maybe it was wishful thinking.
“I miss you.” She said finally, after a good five minutes of silence. “I miss you a lot.”
It’s funny. In five years, it was was the first time she’d said those words to the stone. Actually, the first time she ever visited since the funeral, where the only words she could muster up after everyone else left were ‘How dare you? How dare you leave me?’
Writing had helped her come to terms. It was still hard, knowing her best friend was gone, but she didn’t think she’d ever get over that. But it made it easier. Helped her accept it to the best of her abilities.
Gently taking her hand off, she shoved her hand into her coat pocket and cast one more look at the headstone before walking back to her car, revving up the engine, and driving out of the gated cemetery.
I wished we’d stick together for a long time.