Tin Man

i.





Depression, Yang had come to learn, was something of a sinkhole. A vicious cycle. The more she tried to fight it, to find some way to bounce back, the deeper she fell in. At first Yang thought that she’d start to feel better if she could get a hold of one of those prosthetic limbs. Unfortunately global communications via the CCT had been down for months, and with no clear window as to when it might come back online, Yang was cut off from any access to the Atlesian technology she’d need to rebuild her right arm.

So Yang thought about training at her father’s old dojo and try to adjust to only using her left arm. The problem there was that her old man went off in high pursuit after Ruby ran away. Yang got it. Yang understood why , but that latest departure from her life gave the dojo a rather sour taste for her.

Now the only thing Yang had left in Patch was a tombstone over a snow-blanketed cliff with the phrase ‘ Thus kindly I scatter ’ engraved into it. A SuperMom blockaded by the void of death from ever speaking to her. From comforting her or giving her any wisdom on to pick up the pieces. Not until the day Yang herself would pass through the golden curtains and join the Choir Invisible.

Once upon a time, Yang would have fought against that fate every breath in her body. Now the blonde couldn’t be sure just how much longer it would be until that day arrived at her feet. Was she just around the bend?

“How’s Pyrrha, mom?” Yang sat there by her step-mother’s marker and stared out into the sunset. Her right arm always had a slow, hellish ache whenever she went out in the snow. “If you see her around, tell her that Ruby ran off with her team. They’re doing something crazy.”

A chilled breeze was the only reply Yang received.

“Or maybe I could just tell her myself, huh?” Yang gave a bitter chuckle at the thought. “I could just… fade away. Die right here. No one would find me for months. They all ran away. All of them . Fuck, it’d probably take me biting it for any of ‘em to come back. Except for Bl-”

Except for Blake.

The blonde’s lips drew to a thin line. Blake . The ache in her arm blazed at the memory of its origin. Yang’s sinkhole cracked open- wider and deeper. The thought of her faunus had a nasty habit of opening up the floodgates. Hot tears caked across Yang’s chilled face as she fought against a broken sob. “What do I do, Mom?”

No response.

“Y’know, something, Mom?” Yang looked down at the marker beside her. “That’s what hurt me the most. Not the arm. Not Dad or Ruby running off. Not all that bullshit at the Festival. Not… Raven’s message. Her leaving.”

The blonde looked at her sore, maligned stub.

“I- I’d thought that I had finally found something worth fighting for. Hell, I think I’d be willing to lose the other arm if I knew it meant keeping her safe,” Yang used her one hand to touch the tip of her stub. “But she ran . Blake ran away without saying anything to me. And now I’m here , babbling on and on to you, Mom. So what do I do?”

Suddenly Yang felt the winds change. It started slow and gentle, as the breeze began to turn another direction, but grew stronger and stronger by the moment. Summer had finally spoken up. The blonde glanced at her step-mother’s grave and rose to her feet. With a bit of effort, Yang wiped off the tears from her face and looked into the horizon.

There’d been a spark. It was small, fragile and weak- but it was a spark just the same.

ii.





In the months following the Vytal Tournament, Vale had become something of a ghost town. Few souls dared to walk the streets at night, with the Grimm being so close to the city now. Many others upped and left Vale altogether, venturing out to one of the other three countries for the promise of a safer home. Despite the best attempts of a certain Ms. Goodwitch, Vale was also far behind on the reconstruction of its property damage. With all of the damage and danger looming over the city, there would be no one in their right mind who would even consider going there now.

In other words, it was the perfect hiding spot.

While her home in Patch wasn’t particularly far away from Vale, the trip had been considerably more difficult for Yang this time around. The loss of her arm prevented the blonde from simply driving to the city on her Bumblebee. Being an amputee also robbed Yang of her main hand. Her handwriting was now completely unreadable. Even worse, it also crippled Yang’s ability to defend herself in a fight. Still, Yang brought her remaining Ember Celica with her just the same. If nothing else, it made for a decent bluff.

Despite her relatively newfound bad reputation, the huntress still had a couple of good sources for intelligence available to her. It wasn’t much, but Yang hoped with what little she had left in her that it would be enough.

Yang was out of shape. She’d been bedridden for months, unable and unwilling to try and take proper care of herself. Her depression sapped away any desire to even go outside for any walk longer than her step-mother’s grave. Unfortunately the consequences of that didn’t come to Yang’s mind until she had already arrived at the city.

She was exhausted. The phantom of her right arm pulsated with a prickling numbness, as though it had fallen asleep. The rest of her just felt like shit. She looked like shit too. Yang hadn’t had a decent shower in almost a whole week.

Yang continued her search.

iii.

After three excruciatingly long days, Yang managed to track her down. Blake had been hiding out in a small apartment complex that had been abandoned after the invasion. According to Yang’s source, the faunus girl had a routine schedule of leaving and returning to the apartment at intervals of three hours. Yang had frowned at that information, realizing that her partner probably hadn’t been taking care of herself very well either.

The informant also provided Yang with another valuable nugget: Blake always took a ten minute long shower in her apartment at ten o’clock every night. There were reports of awful singing happening every night at that time. That was her best option. Yang only had one shot left; if Blake slipped through her four remaining fingers and thumb now, the blonde doubted that she’d be able to handle searching for Blake a second time.

It was all or nothing.

Shortly after Blake had started her shower, Yang snuck into the apartment. She could hear the raven-haired faunus singing her off-key melody, muffled through the worn out walls. The apartment was small. It had a refrigerator and a radio off to the left-hand side of the front door, with a plain mattress and blanket lying on the floor over to the far back of the room. It wasn’t much, but Yang was relieved to see that Blake was at least getting some rest.

There was one detail of the apartment that concerned Yang though.

Her partner had pinned-up photos and sticky notes of various White Fang members scattered across the walls of her apartment. Including an all-too familiar face, labeled ‘Adam,’ right in the center of Blake’s “map.” Yang grasped her maligned stub on instinct.

The blonde approached the mattress. Another familiar item rested on it. Yang felt her lips curve upward for a moment as she picked up Blake’s book. “ Ninjas of Love . Goddamnit, Blake. Really?”

Yang frowned when she saw the tip of an old photograph protrude out of the book. She opened the book up to the page that the photo was used as a marker for. It was the two of them, working on some homework assignment together in the old dorm room of Team RWBY. Yang’s eyebrows narrowed, her one hand flipping to the front of the smut novel. There was a message that Yang had written in there almost a whole year ago: Hey Blakey! I didn’t know you were a fan of this sort of literature! Just so’s ya know, there are better hiding spots for this sort of book than the bookshelf. Try and ‘shelf’ it underneath your mattress. - Yang

Blake’s awful singing came to a halt as the drone of the shower subsided. Yang’s throat suddenly fell incredibly dry. Her heart was racing. The blonde’s eyes were fixed on the bathroom door, waiting for it to open. It began to creak.

The faunus girl was wearing an oversized black t-shirt and basic underwear. Blake also had a towel that she was drying her hair with. At least until she saw Yang. They froze.

Lilac collided with amber.

“Hey… Blake,” Yang gave a wobbly, fragile smile. Blake started to move. Yang could feel a dash of her old fiery Semblance ignite in her eyes. “Don’t run, Blake.”

Blake stopped and looked at her again.

“If I ever meant anything to you… Please. Don’t run ,” Yang croaked. Burning tears trickled down the blonde’s cheeks. “I- no, we need to talk. Badly.”

The faunus girl was trembling as she continued to look at Yang. Slowly, she nodded. Blake sat down on the mattress and looked up at Yang. “You more than deserve it.”

“I more than deserve it?” Yang’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’ve been wondering for months now what the first words you’d say to me would be. Didn’t think it would be that.”

“What were you expecting?” There was a small crack in Blake’s voice that gave her away.

“I’m not really sure. I was hoping to hear my name though.”

“ Yang, I -”

“That’s more like it,” the huntress grinned. “I… I missed that.”

“ Yang , why are you here?” Blake blurted out. “How did you even find me? How the hell did you get here like this?”

The blonde cringed and looked at her stub of an arm. Yang felt exhausted and was sore everywhere. She brought her gaze back to Blake. “Because I want to live, Blake.”

“That’s why I’ve been running away, Yang. So you can live.”

“Bullsh-”

“ You don’t und -”

“I don’t understand?!” Yang snapped . For the first time in months, her lilac eyes blazed into a fiery crimson. She stood still and stared straight into Blake’s amber irises. “ I don’t understand ?! Blake, you haven’t seen me in months! You broke me!”

“I-I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“Sorry? Sorry for what ? For this ?!” Yang wiggled her stub around. “Do you think I hate you just because I lost an arm?”

“What do you mea-”

“Blake, I’ve never blamed you for what happened that night.” Yang marched over to Blake’s chart of the White Fang and ripped off the center photo. “It was this fucker’s fault! This… Adam guy. He did that, not you .”

“But he only did that because of me ,” Blake fought a small sob. “H-he… Adam said he’d destroy everything I loved. Starting with you .”

Ah. There it was. Yang gave a short, bitter chuckle. She sat down on the mattress, next to Blake. She reached over and took the faunus’ hands into her one hand. The blonde took a slow, deep breath.

“So that’s why you ran? What - did you think that you’d be keeping me safe by shutting me away?” Yang felt more tears burn down her face. “Did you think that the only way out was to hunt him down on your own?”

“ Both ,” Blake answered, trembling. “And I- I thought you’d never forgive me for what happened.”

“I am mad,” Yang admitted. “But not because of the arm… like I said, you broke me, Blake.”

Blake remained silent and leaned into Yang’s left arm. “H-how?”

“Because you ran , Blake. I-I… needed you more than ever. And you weren’t there for me ,” the blonde hiccuped. “I gave up my arm just to try and save you, only- only to wake up and be told by the guy who I spent months being jealous of that you’d ran off while I was out. You ran away, without ever letting me talk to you or even to just tell me goodbye.”

Blake’s amber eyes widened at her words. “Yang, I-”

“ Blake … I’ve been through alot this past year; I got framed on global broadcast, my mom basically told me off by proxy of Uncle Qrow, Penny and Pyrrha died and I lost my arm. Ruby ran away from home a few weeks back too- my dad went off after her. I’ve been alone . But none of that hurt as much as waking up to find out that you weren’t there.”

“Yang.” There was a shiver in Blake’s voice. “If I hurt you that badly- then why did you come back? Why would you be so stupid to try and come here like this?”

Yang squeezed her left hand as she held Blake’s hands in it. The blonde felt like hell, and they both knew she looked it too. The blonde found herself panting. This little reunion was taking a lot out of her. “ Because … I think I’m in love with you, Blake.”

Yang turned and looked into Blake’s eyes. “And I think you might be in love with me too.”

They stayed there, perfectly still, for a few moments. Blake looked Yang over and ran her fingers through her golden tresses. For the first time in almost six months, Yang saw Blake’s small, wry grin. “You came all this way to find me, letting your hair get all oily and messy in the process. I guess… I guess you really do love me then. Heh.”

“And how do you feel then?” Yang felt all too fragile as she whispered those words.

“Like a fool,” Blake deadpanned. She paused and gave a soft laugh. “I should have trusted you right from the start. I keep… making all these mistakes, Yang. We both do, I suppose. And I love you for it.”

Yang lowered her head down and brushed her lips with Blake’s. They were hungry.

It would be a long journey before either of them could ever really say they recovered. Their whole world had been turned upside-down in the span of a few hellish hours. However for the first time since the Tournament, Yang felt happy .

For now, that was enough.