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It had been a really long hour. Yang trudged back into the dorm room, ignoring Ruby following behind her, and went straight for her bed. With a quick leap, she faceplanted onto the top bunk and let out a dramatic groan . Then she spoke straight into the pillow, "No-one should be that bad at punching things."
A familiar voice came from the bunk below, dry and filled with a touch of sarcasm. “Training session went well, I take it,” Blake said.
Yang rolled over to gesture at the ceiling, “I swear, it’s like Ruby is actively trying not to learn how to throw a punch!”
“Hey now!” Ruby objected, coming through the door behind her, “I’m trying, I promise! It’s just really hard to focus with basically the entire gym watching us.”
“That would be quite stressful,” Weiss said from across the room and Yang could practically picture her attempt at a sympathetic face.
“Come on,” Yang sat up just enough to give Ruby her best big sister look, “there were maybe a couple of people watching us from the bleachers.”
“And the ones in the weight room who were actually just sitting and the ones who were ‘running’ on the track and the ones on the cardio equipment that literally just lets them stare and probably someone behind that glass the professors use to evaluate us!” Ruby’s voice got higher with every example, “It took twenty minutes for us to get out of there because people kept stopping you to talk. It’s just my luck. Having a sister that the whole school is basically drooling over. I had to endure small talk! And flirting. Gah. So much flirting.”
Yang sat up and smirked, “I can’t help that I’m hot. Literally.”
She got three groans and a pillow thrown at her head.
“It’s weird, Yang,” Ruby whined, “Can’t you just get them to stop?”
Yang threw the pillow back, hitting Ruby smack in the face, “You remember Tommy Hart? You know that asking them to stop doesn’t work. It just makes them either creepy or persistent.”
“Oh yeah,” Ruby frowned, tapping her chin, “Yeah. That was weird.”
“Okay,” Weiss put down her pen looked at the sisters, “I know that I’m going to regret asking but what happened with Tommy Hart?”
“He asked Yang out at Signal,” Ruby said, “And she told him that she wasn’t interested in dating and then he got persistent so she told him that she didn’t want to date anyone and then it became like a thing where everyone tried to get Yang on a date and the flirting increased like a total thousand percent which was super weird to have to watch because people kept asking me if my sister had like a secret crush or a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever because if she was taken then at least it made sense and oh!” The sentence ended in a gasp. There was just enough time to see Ruby’s eyes go wide, “oh yes I know how we’re going to fix the staring thing!”
“This’ll be good,” Yang said, “Lay it on me sis.”
Except, instead of looking towards Yang, Ruby practically leapt towards Blake’s bed and the girl reading in the shadows of the lower bunk, “Blake,” Ruby shouted, “I need you to marry Yang!”
Yang’s heart flipped over in her chest. Her cheeks lit themselves on fire and her brain stuttered to an absolute stop. Her. Marry Blake.
There was a moment of silence before both Yang and Weiss erupted, “What!?!” “Ruby?”
Blake herself remained silent as Ruby continued, “It’s perfect! If Yang’s taken then people will stop staring and flirting with her and I can finally have some peace and quiet instead of people trying to use me to get into my big sisters pants!” Her nose scrunched again, “Because ew.”
Then, finally, Blake’s voice, “Don’t you think that seems a little extreme?”
“Extreme problems call for extreme measures!” Ruby said, “Blake, you and only you can prevent a second Tommy Hart situation.”
Moving quickly, Yang leaned off the side of the bed and hung upside down with her hair a waterfall almost brushing the edge of Blake’s bed. She was treated to the sight of Ruby dramatically on her knees with her hands clasped, Blake curled up with a book and, to Yang’s relief, a small curl of amusement on her lips.
So Yang went light, “Do I get a say in this?”
“Nope,” Ruby didn’t even look at her, “Besides, you’d be lucky to marry Blake. I could have asked Weiss.”
“Hey!” Weiss objected.
Yang couldn’t help but nod, “That’s true. Dark, beautiful, and mysterious is exactly how I like my ladies,” she finally met Blake’s gaze and shot her a wink, “Okay, fine, I’ll marry her. If I have to. For the team.”
Blake’s golden eyes stayed on her own, a fuller smile twitching as she fought it down, “I don’t know,” Blake addressed Ruby but kept her gaze on Yang, “If I’m such a catch, I’m not sure that I should marry just anyone.”
Yang fake gasped, “Belladonna, I’ll have you know that I am prime wife material. Strong, romantic, a good cook and, of course, smoking hot.”
“This is ridiculous,” Weiss cut in, “and it’s going to make us late for class.” There was a strangled noise as Weiss grabbed Ruby by the back of her cape, “Come on.”
Blake ignored them. She leaned forward, the shadows of the bunk bed somehow making her seem ethereal, Yang’s stomach flipping even as she hung upside down, “I give you three of those.”
“Which three?”
Blake shrugged, “I can’t believe that you’re romantic.”
“I’m incredibly romantic,” Yang said, “I’d be a great romantic wife. Buy you um like flowers and chocolate and all that stuff from your books. Look I’ll even,” she paused, “Hold on one second.” Yang used her abs to lean up just enough to grab Ember Ceclia. Flipping open the bullet cache, she popped one out and opened it up to spill the dust out. Then she snapped the casing in half so that a small yellow metal ring sat in her hand.
Yang grinned and held it out to Blake, whose cheeks seemed just a little bit pinker in the dark, “Tada. Made it myself from a piece of my weapon which, as Ruby keeps pointing out, is like a literal piece of my soul or whatever. So that has to be super romantic, right? I win. But be careful. It’s kinda sharp.”
“You win?” There was a laugh in Blake’s throat even as she took the ring, “I don’t think that’s how this works.”
“I win if I get to marry you, babe.” Yang drawled the endearment, throwing in a wink to push it over the top.
“Be still my beating heart.” Blake deadpanned. Still she turned the ring over in her fingers.
“So,” Yang said, “Whatdya say? Wanna be the new Mrs Xiao Long solely so that Ruby can avoid the throngs of people trying to get what you could have?”
Blake shook her head, “I don’t know if I can do that.” She put a finger on Yang’s lips before the protest could fall out. Her touch was soft, featherlight. Finger cool. If Yang’s blood hadn’t pooled to her head from hanging upside down, this simple touch alone would have been enough to make her face a blistering red. “After all, how romantic can you really be if your sister is proposing for you?”
Then she was gone. The shadow clone vanishing in front of Yang’s eyes as Blake headed out the door for class.
Yang toppled down over the side after her, barely catching her feet. She sprinted after Blake, grabbing their forgotten backpacks and shouting, “Don’t think I didn’t notice that you didn’t say no, Blake!”