Chapter Text
She was fourteen when it first happened. The first night she woke up from a horrible nightmare to find a softly glowing belladonna blossom resting on her bedside nightstand. She didn’t understand it at first. She thought she was crazy, even, as the delicate flower had faded to purple dust when she touched it. Over time, Yang Xiao Long had become used to seeing these odd, fading items that would show up nearby whenever she needed comfort the most.
Tonight was one of those nights, her nineteenth birthday. While she had spent the daylight hours hanging out with her closest friends and baby sister, it was when she was left alone that the unwanted thoughts crept into her mind. Unfortunately for Yang, her birthday had been an ugly reminder for as long as she could remember that her birth mother didn’t want her. The young blonde had been curled up on her bed, hugging her pillow to her chest when the item appeared. It was a bookmark, crinkled and obviously well used, with a cartoon dragon on it.
“You again, huh?” Yang murmured, the tightness already beginning to uncoil itself in her chest as she shifted to lay on her stomach, resting her folded arms on the foot of her bed where the bookmark had made itself manifest. Touching these objects always made them disappear so Yang had learned to take moments to simply bask in the calming presence they offered.
“You know, it was a teacup last time. It had a chip in the rim. It was really cute, actually.” Maybe talking to a purple glowing bookmark would have been considered crazy to a lot of people, but Yang didn’t care. She had done research over the years, trying to find the answer to what these mysterious objects were. She had only gotten her answer the night of what should have been a fatal car wreck that she walked away from with only a few scratches. More specifically, when a professor from the local University came to speak with her in the hospital. Yang remembered that conversation too well…
“Evening, Ms. Xiao Long.” The older man in the green suit smiled at her warmly. “I’m sure you already know why I’m here.”
“Probably because I should be dead right now?” Yang hissed out, gritting her teeth as the nurse applied antiseptic to the jagged gash going down her right forearm. The sixteen year old was really regretting taking on the dare from her friend Nora to try and race their motorcycles through the city of Vale. She had just gotten her license the week before and she was already nearly getting her limbs ripped off for being stupid.
“Well, that’s one way to put it.” The older man chuckled quietly, pausing to take a sip from his travel thermos. “Do you know why you are still alive, Ms. Xiao Long?” He peered at her over the tops of his glasses, folding his hands on the top of his cane.
“Dumb luck?”
“Not quite. Let me ask you this; do you know who I am?” His expectant stare just made Yang more uncomfortable than she already was. Silence hung between them for a long moment as Yang tried to place where she had seen his face before, but nothing was coming to mind. He wasn’t a celebrity or something of the sort, she knew that for sure. It was then that her younger sister burst into the emergency room.
“Oh my Brothers, Yang, are you ok?!” The brunette nearly tackled into her on sight, but managed to skid to a halt when she saw the damages. Her gunmetal silver eyes welled up with tears and she burrowed herself into Yang’s less injured side. “What were you thinking Yang? The police said your bike got pinned between a pick up truck and the side of a building!” Yang’s heart clinched at the sound of her sister’s sobbing voice.
“I know Ruby. It won’t happen again, I promise.” She wrapped her arm around Ruby’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “Where’s dad?” Yang already knew the answer, but had to ask anyway. Some small sliver of hope still held strong that he’d show up.
“I don’t know. He didn’t pick up his phone again. Ren drove me here.” Ruby slowly pulled away from clutching onto what was left of Yang’s leather jacket to scrub at her eyes. She tilted her head in confusion up at the man in the suit. “Professor Ozpin? What are you doing here?”
“Wait, you're the famous Professor Ozpin?” Yang felt herself go pale. Not in fear, but rather in the stark realization of just who she had been talking to. “Like, the headmaster of the school for the gifted Beacon University type Professor Ozpin?”
“That would be correct.” The professor chuckled again, apparently finding the whole situation rather amusing. “It seems that you are someone who is qualified to go to my school.”
“Uh, you sure? I mean, I don’t have any special powers or talents or anything like that at all.” Yang scratched at the back of her head, confusion riddling her thoughts. The people that went to Beacon University were infamous for becoming powerful icons that could fly or control the elements or plenty of other things.
“Of course, Ms. Xiao Long. How do you think you survived the accident?”
Yang traced her finger tip over the scar on her arm, remembering how he explained to her the next day how it all worked. Her lilac gaze shifted over to the bookmark and she gave a small huff of a laugh. “I’m excited to finally meet who you belong to. My Soulmate, huh? I wonder why no one ever really talks about having soulmates. I know Ozpin said that the potential for ever having a soulmate is like, one in a hundred thousand or something like that. And that the powers that manifest from meeting your soulmate is even more rare. Some soulmates never meet.” She frowned, rolling onto her side and resting her head on her propped up elbow. “He said mine must be somewhere here in the city, and that going to Beacon was my best possible chance of ever finding them. I just… I couldn’t leave Ruby behind. Not yet.”
Yang let herself flop onto her back, hands on her stomach as she stared at the ceiling, her thoughts trailing off to wonder about how much her soulmate must hate her for not going to Beacon almost three years ago. They must have been disappointed, or worse, glad she hadn’t shown up. Of course they would have been glad she hadn’t shown up. Who would want a scarred up dumbass as their soulmate? Yang squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the dark invading thoughts from taking over her mind again.
“Yang!” Ruby’s voice shouting from down the hallway had Yang sitting bolt upright. What was Ruby shouting about at two in the morning? Yang hopped out of her bed and padded her way as quickly and as silently to her baby sister’s room as she could. She really didn’t want to wake their father up in the middle of the night, not that she had seen him all day.
“What is it Ru- holy shit.” Yang’s jaw went slack as she stepped into the room. There, floating a few inches above Ruby’s laptop was a softly glowing, white snowflake. Slowly, a huge smile broke out over Yang’s face and she walked over to the brunette’s bed. “Awww, my little baby sister has a soulmate!”
“I- huh? What? Yang what is that thing?” Ruby flailed, hopelessly trying to wiggle her way out from being caught in a headlock. Yang laughed, only letting go once she had made sure to thoroughly mess up Ruby’s hair with ruffling it up.
“That, my little baby sister, is called a SoulCharm. It’s from your soulmate. They must be nearby somewhere.” Yang watched as Ruby climbed out her bed and slowly crept over to the snowflake.
“It’s really pretty,” Ruby cooed as she bent over to get a closer look at it. “Wait,” she turned around to face Yang, pointing an accusing finger at Yang. “How do you know what it is? Do you have a soulmate too?! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Heh, well…” Yang pulled some of her hair over her shoulder and methodically ran her fingers through the golden curls. She had always hated keeping the secret from Ruby. There wasn’t a whole lot the two kept from each other. “Professor Ozpin asked me not to tell you when I turned down his offer to go to Beacon.”
“Oh…” Ruby frowned. She knew Yang had turned down the offer before, though it was never explained to her why. Ruby wasn’t stupid. She probably had figured it out by herself why Yang stayed.
“But,” Yang stood up, an excited grin on her face as she grabbed Ruby’s hand and the two made their way back to Yang’s room. Yang could feel Ruby staring at the bookmark as she dug through the drawer of her nightstand. “Ah hah! Got it.” She spun around holding up a small business card out. “Professor Ozpin gave me his contact information if I ever changed my mind. I’m thinking we will give him a call in the morning.”
“Wait, you mean…” Ruby didn’t dare finish her sentence, but the sparkling light in her eyes spoke magnitudes.
“We’re going to Beacon!”