Pretty lesbian of Rebecca to tell every man involved in the coup that they're not allowed to hit on her and then to rush to Hawkeye's side as soon as the battle is over.
Also pretty lesbian for Hawkeye to lie to Envy to make them think she and Roy Mustang are in a relationship by saying "The Colonel always calls me Riza when we're alone" when the only person who actually does just call her Riza is Rebecca.
A bird is known by its song, a woman by her words.
Team RWBY and their allies have finally arrived in Atlas—or Mantle, at least—but Yang has been keeping a secret since Haven. Hiding Raven's identity as the Spring Maiden is burning her up inside, and Blake doesn't even know she finally found Raven after her years of searching. Might as well tell two stories about one bird, right?
On AO3 here.
Rating: General Audiences
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen & Yang Xiao Long
Words: 1461
It was the first moment Blake and Yang had had to themselves since the hectic arrival in Atlas. Qrow had gone to try and get through to General Ironwood again, Weiss was trying to track down her sister Winter and Ruby had gone with her, Oscar said he was going to rest in one of the other rooms of the apartment they were renting, and Jaune, Nora, and Ren had volunteered to go grocery shopping. Yang had briefly thought of asking Blake if she wanted to go explore more of Mantle, the apartment was much smaller than the house they'd been staying in in Mistral and they'd barely gotten off the cramped Manta. But Blake had tensed up as soon as they disembarked, and the soldiers who finally cleared them to enter the under-city had been not at all subtle about what they thought of Faunus. So instead, Yang had grabbed Blake's hand and said she wanted to tell her something important.
Now they were sitting next to each other on one of the beds in the room Ruby had claimed for their team. Best to just rip the bandage off, so Yang started talking with no preamble. "Back at Beacon, I told you about my mother, and how I was still looking for her. Well… I found her. It wasn't exactly a heartwarming reunion. But now I know why she left me, at least."
Blake put her hand on Yang's shoulder. "Yang, I'm sorry."
Yang shook her head firmly, but reached across her body with her left hand to place it on top of Blake's, then dropped their joined hands into her lap. "Not your fault. But there's more. It turns out she's been watching me for a long time. Maybe all my life? She didn't reveal herself until Mountain Glenn, though. I lost that fight against Torchwick's lackey. Really badly, actually. But I regained consciousness just in time to see her. Leaving again. Her Semblance is that she can make portals to people she's bonded with. I don't know how she knew I was in danger, but she told Qrow that it was her one kindness, and I shouldn't expect her to save me again."
"That's… not very kind."
"Yeah, she's got some unusual ideas on the subject. Anyway, when I was back home in Patch, and… recovering…" Blake's eyes flicked down to Yang's prosthetic, and Yang squeezed her hand in a way she hoped conveyed blamelessness before continuing, "my dad explained how her Semblance worked, and Qrow had given me some tips on how to track her down in Anima. So I figured that if I found her, I could get her to open a portal to Qrow, and that would lead me to Ruby. Finding her, uh, didn't go well. She'd kidnapped Weiss, she leads a tribe of murderous bandits, and she tried to get me to stay with the tribe. By the way? Qrow definitely never told me and Ruby that he originally went to Beacon to learn how to kill Hunters. Would have been nice to learn that before my asshole mom dropped it on me! Anyway, she also told me and Weiss about Salem and magic and how she and Qrow were turned into birds by Oz. I do trust Qrow's version, that they chose that, over hers, but it's another thing I wish I'd learned from him first. It sounds like he didn't even tell Ruby until he had to, and she's always been closer to him than me." Yang frowned. Qrow taking after Ozpin was a whole other issue, and she really couldn't deal with that and Raven all at once. But Blake was listening intently to her for this, so maybe she could talk about Qrow with her later. She shook her head slightly and continued. "Finally she gave up on trying to convince me to stay and opened a portal to Qrow and Ruby. The only things I got out of the conversation was her advice to question everything, and the reason why she left me: she's scared. She's terrified of Salem, and she's selfish. She'd rather keep herself safe and tell herself it's about survival and strength, no matter how many other people she harms in the process. I don't trust Ozpin very much anymore, especially after what Jinn showed us. But I trust Ruby, so I'm in this until the end. And I finally got my answers." Yang's prosthetic arm was shaking again, but with Blake she didn't feel like she had to hide it.
"I'm so sorry Yang. That sounds like it was awful."
"Oh, I haven't even gotten to the good part yet." Yang hesitated. But this was what she'd wanted to tell Blake this whole conversation, and carrying the truth alone was eating her up inside. "I haven't told anyone about this. I'm not even sure exactly why. But I don't want to tell Uncle Qrow, and Ruby won't get it and she'll tell him. But I can't hold this on my own anymore, and I want you to know." Her hand was shaking harder now.
Blake reached over with her free hand to grab both of Yang's, and Yang felt the shaking begin to cease.
Yang took a deep breath, and finally began. "Okay. When I came back from the vault under Haven, with the relic, Qrow asked me what happened. And I said that Cinder was gone, Vernal— Raven's protégé, I think? Second-in-command? Daughter more than me? Anyway, she was dead. And that was true. But then when he asked about Raven, I said she was gone. I think he and Oz and everyone assumed that Vernal was the Spring Maiden, and so now the powers have moved on. I let them think that. But Vernal wasn't the Spring Maiden. Raven was."
Blake gasped, but Yang hurried on with her story. If she didn't say this now she'd never be able to. "I couldn't have fought her. I didn't even have my prosthetic, I had to leave it upstairs. She let me take the relic, because I told her that if she had it, Salem would never stop hunting her. But she could let Salem hunt me instead. I calculated that she was cowardly enough to let me put myself in danger rather than risk herself, and I was right. And I figured out how she became the Spring Maiden, too. Vernal was never Spring, but another girl was, and she ran away to the Branwen tribe overwhelmed and terrified, and my mother murdered her. She must have loved and trusted Raven a lot, I think. And Raven tried to kill the person she used to be, too. It would almost be easier if she'd succeeded, if she was just… unrepentantly evil. But she's not! I could see it all over her face! She knows she's wrong and she keeps doing this anyway and I don't understand why! And I made my mom cry and apologize but that doesn't fix anything. And then she left, and I was alone in the vault." Yang flung herself back on the bed, pulling her left arm free to cover her eyes. "She just keeps leaving me."
Blake carefully lay back on the bed with her, gently guiding Yang into turning around so that their heads were next to each other on the pillow instead of almost dangling off the side of the bed, and she didn't let go of Yang's right hand for a second. And for a moment Yang was overwhelmed with the thought that she'd never love anyone else the way she did Blake. She'd been feeling like that a lot lately.
"Raven doesn't deserve to have you as her daughter. You don’t have to call her your mom if you don’t want to. You had a mom already. I'm sorry that Summer isn't still here for you, and I wish I could have met her, but I'm glad she was your mom. But... I also know how important your search for Raven has been to you for most of your life, and I can tell how important she still is, and if you want to keep trying with her despite everything I promise I'll be there for you.” Blake was staring into Yang's eyes, and Yang could feel the sincerity and… love? that Blake was clearly intentionally projecting.
That was the final straw. Yang could feel her face heating up and her eyes getting wet, and she didn't even try to hold it back, instead curling up to bury her face in Blake's side and let herself cry. Finally being able to talk about this had been exhausting, and the last thing she felt before falling asleep was Blake gently stroking her hair.
