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“You were you,
and I was I;
we were two,
before our time.
I was yours,
before I knew;
and you have always
been mine too. ”
— Always, Lang Leav
It’s funny how, in a world where monsters do exist and people do have their Aura and Semblances, words still turn out to be everybody’s most dangerous power in the end.
For what is our entire History if not a compilation, a recollection, of the dominant stories, which its storyteller — always the victors — would spread throughout every land beneath our skies to every being above our waters?
Oh, but being an avid reader prepared Blake well enough for this putrid truth. After all, she was nothing if well versed in the ways of power, manipulation, and control; words being always their main conductor.
She was not prepared, however, for this kind of, sort of, somewhat new effects they evoked in her. Such simple, trivial words put together to form an infinitesimal sentence that still held the unmeasurable capacity to break her and put her together in the blink of an eye. And every time Yang would do that, because, yeah, it looked now like it became her personal, favorite hobby — doing this to her with a disturbingly high frequency —, she would become just the tiniest little bit less haunted.
Not just for you, but for the people you care about.
Sure, she knew how every word played its part in the full extent of every vernacular, had its magnitude and significance to bring the universe inside and outside each of us come to life, when expressing yourself to someone else and only then making it possible to share, thus exist in collective. That’s how important they were. That’s also why it was important to read every action with caution, within its context, or else, let’s just say, a stanza in a poem, for an example, might end up meaning something that it doesn’t when you take a glance at the whole painted canvas. Or why it was of immeasurable importance to give an object its proper name, its very own word.
Or else you might end up just like Blake: dumbfounded, dazedly staring at the retreating figure of her best friend while Yang made a show out of climbing the stairs.
Look at her go, she just… adored her so much. She was just so grateful for everything she’s learned and has been shown to in these months she’s been here at Beacon. If only Yang knew that...
... If only she knew what made her so special in the eyes of her friend, so deserving of this ever unflickering wildfire that was Yang’s love… then Blake could begin to be half of what Yang thinks of her. She would be able to do just about anything, maybe even learn how to love her own shattered self again, just like Yang did.
No, but seriously now, how could someone make a simple movement such as that an affair of such marvelous allurement? Those hips slowly, subtly moving up and down until they no longer could be seen by enraptured, charmed eyes.
Blake swore to herself that she would give anything, anything, right about now to have even the slightest glimpse in her partner’s mind if it would help enlighten her as to what it was Yang was currently feeling. Because she was sure she couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out what she, herself, was experiencing at this moment.
For the first time in days — no, scratch that, in months (maybe even years) — she felt a warmth so… pure inside her. At first, it was like her heart was being squeezed, but then like the pressure was gone and suddenly a wave of the most delicious current of electric heat was dispersed throughout her entire body, leaving shivers in its wake. Blake felt that she was being ignited back to a clear state of mind.
So right after this otherworldly burst of exquisite feelings, it immediately came to her attention how she had spent the last several, previous days.
The regret that surfaced in face of these memories gnawed at her — all the crude remarks, alienation and misguided sense of responsibility, along with the disappointing reality of a broken promise dancing at the forefront of her mind.
Because now, truly seeing the way Yang just acted — asking her, and probably inwardly wondering as well when Blake would come back to them after their last encounter with Torchwick —, going as far as revealing such personal, undoubtedly painful remembrances of her past just to try and get her to see reason when Blake herself wouldn’t disclose a single thing about her past just last semester…
Blake always thought she might be bad, but now? Now she was sure that it was, indeed, true. Yang, to her, was just so good, and… she’s nothing like her. But the remorse weighing her shoulders faded away as soon as she realized she could and would immediately work on remedying the situation, an idea coming to her mind right then.
If she could even begin to do something that does right by her, oh how she would grab and hold on to this opportunity (just as she intended to do) as if it was her lifeline.
And for all she knew right now, it might as well be. After all, she didn’t know how to properly name these peculiar feelings, therefore not knowing how to accurately identify and subsequently understand them.
Well, first of all, she would need to get a decent sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~
And when she saw her friend that night, how seemingly no lone word would, or ever could be able to describe the way she looked, especially appearing as shook as she did by how (little) long it took, Blake short-circuited right then and there, vowing that she could do about anything.
Even learn how to love as Yang did.
And maybe, someday, equally love herself like her.