AYangThang: Hey everyone, you may not have noticed, but this fiction received several edits from chapters 1-6 recently, adding quite a bit of content and changing some around to better suit this story. That's why there was such a long delay, I wanted to sit on my chapters, and really make sure it was going in the direction that I really wanted it to. Anyway, enjoy this chapter, and I'll be back with another update soon.

Chapter 7

Ruby Rose isn't the only human you'll come to trust in your lives, although I'm sure you'll grow closer to her purely because she resides under the same roof as we do. However, if I am truly transparent and honest with the lot of you, should anything happen to Weiss and myself, your wellbeing has been bequeathed to Ruby's older sister, Yang Xiao Long.

That bombastic blond woman is your god-mother, for better and for worse.

It wasn't a decision we made lightly, and it wasn't something we chose out of convenience. Actually, frankly speaking, it's a promise Yang made that would be burdensome in the long run for her. She never said that, but, it doesn't need to be said.

While it's true she's been absorbed into Velvet's household, and you will come to understand Yang as an extension of their family because of that, you should know, she belonged to ours first. She will always, always be my kin. Yours too. Yang was a solid foundation, a bedrock of stability in our house and home. Without her, I doubt this future would have even come into existence.

At the very least, I promise that it wouldn't be the same. Very likely, you wouldn't have been born. Without Yang in our lives, Weiss and I wouldn't have fallen in love. That's a fact. Likely, we'd still be enemies, unwilling to give each-other the time of day.

Yang and Ruby both worked very hard to see the success of our team at first. I can't say that Weiss, or myself, put in half of the effort to better our team than they did.

In our earliest years together, team RWBY suffered from a lack of direction. We were tumbleweeds, rolling to our own drum. It came at a cost, especially during our first year at Beacon Academy. Yang was Ruby's protective older sister, and my reckless goofball of a partner. She was blunt and to the point, lacking several social graces that came natural to me. At first, I presumed it was due to my Faunus heritage, but, as Weiss proved later, it was merely that Yang lacked decorum at all.

I'd like to say she was a refreshing breath of air, but, Beacon was full of questionable people.

Yang was no acceptation. In fact, she was quite unremarkable compared to Ruby. Although, it was equally argued that Yang had a level of maturity that many in Beacon could only hope for. She also had a genuine desire to soften that darker truths of the world with her unending levity. That didn't mean that Yang was always smiling, however.

Her temper promised otherwise more often than not. Yang had to put a great deal of effort into training her temperament, and that was no easy task.

Weiss and Yang didn't get along well at first, either.

If you were to ask either one of them the details, they would gloss over a great many stories. The truth is, yelling governed our dorm. At the time, Atlesian ideology reigned supreme for Weiss. Yang had no idea how to cope with that. I, as the token Faunus of the group, failed in my early duties, denying my heritage for a more human insight. I felt it would be best that way, hiding my ears, and my habitual Faunus customs.

I was wrong, I know that now.

I won't say that we should have chosen to handle ourselves better. Honestly, anything would have been more productive than the shouting matches. The discord that resulted from our bickering lasted days at a time on occasion. From the ashes of those fights, however, team RWBY emerged.

In our prime, we were fighting force that garnered a somewhat questionable, yet respected, reputation. We weren't quite a household name, but, we had the attention of our superiors, and that alone was enough for us. I'd like to say that such a reputation carried over to our adult lives, but sadly, we had our moment of fame fade away from us more quickly than we would like.

Harsh reality replaced it, scandal and paparazzi followed. We all handled that in our own way, some of us better than others.

Yang became what you would call a jaded adult, and, much to my displeasure, that chord of cynicism runs through her entire being. She tries hard not to let it show. She does her best to be that supportive and uplifting person that we all know and love. Sadly, like all of us, Yang's been changed by time.

Leaving was the best thing that could have happened to her, it was her time to venture from my influence…I would have been remiss not to notice that.

Yatsuhashi is a placid man, quiet, but well meaning. That she's chosen to live at his side provides a valuable insight to the obvious emptiness our own social group offered her. Deep down, I wish she would have stayed. Selfishly, I think we all hoped she would have found meaning within these walls, and comfort in this household. I wanted her help me raise you. Deep down, I think her experiences would have been priceless to me in these trying times. Failing that, at least she would have instilled confidence in me where I have none.

Yang has always been good at that.

I hope the bonds you share with her will reflect the station she holds in all of our lives. I realize that might not be fair to ask. Not from her, and never from you. Still, I selfishly want that to be the case, all the same.

From your mother with love,
Blake Belladonna.

The roar of the stadium filled her ears as she hobbled out of the massive metal doors and into her private area. Her arm was bloody, her aura having been shattered in a crushing defeat that would be talked about for months to come. Even so, her job was not to win, but to provide solid opening entertainment for the aspiring talent about to enter the ring. She smirked as Yatsuhashi was dragged in behind her by the medics, the man unable to walk on his own due to an injured ankle.

The non-lethal blows traded in the arena provided a level of skill and challenge that Yang hadn't experienced since her days in Beacon Academy, and she thrived off of the attention given to her by the shouting fans who followed every success and failure in the arena.

Although this match was lost, as the blood was rinsed off of the floor, the commentators were already showing the eager students about to partake on the Atlesian championships required to qualify for the much larger torments that would take place later that year. Wetting a towel, she pressed it to her injured arm, sopping away the blood, watching as it colored the towel irreparably.

"How bad is the sprain?" She asked, looking over her shoulder at the large man.

"It'll heal shortly." He said, already knowing his aura was hard at work. It was Yang's aura, or current lack of it, that concerned him. "You should bandage your arm properly, or it might scar."

At this Yang grinned. "This little thing? Nah, it's only a scratch."

The man rolls his eyes only slightly. "Stubborn." The murmured retort was enough for him to voice his annoyance. He didn't have nearly the explosive temperament that Yang had, but, she knew him well, and realized there were a great many complaints rolling around in his head.

"It's really not all that bad." She replied, lifting the towel and blotting away the last of the red trickles. "Never mind that, I forgot how hot it was under all of that lighting. I need a shower like you wouldn't believe."

Yatsuhashi gave her a long look of disbelief before flopping down the rest of the way onto the sofa like an exhausted fish. Yawning, he stared longingly at the bathroom, the shower simply too far away for his liking. When he glanced back to Yang, he was unsurprised to see her shucking off her clothes and tossing the sweaty garbs in the hamper. "I hope you do not expect me to stand on my own." He replied simply, flexing his swollen foot in attempt to make his aura work its magic faster.

Yang took one look at him and shook her head. "Well, no, but the bath is so damn small." Yang complained, realizing for not the first time that her boyfriend's massive size made it difficult to fit in most standard sizes of anything together. Sometimes, it was just impossible. "We're not going to both fit in that thing, but I agree, there's no way you're standing on slippery shower tiles right now."

"Or anything for that matter." He replied morosely.

Yang propped the bathroom door open with a chair, waking inside to run the bath, only to enter back into the room a moment later to help undressed and soak in the tub.

Also he never said it out loud, he sorely missed these moments of simple contact, the kind that often came before and after lovemaking, but never during it. He could count the number of times they had done it on one hand. Yet, now that they had crossed that line in their romantic life, he was quickly learning that Yang had an even greater sexual appetite than he first assumed. He wished he could say he felt the same, but, he would never feel quite the same hunger for lust as Yang would.

Although he could never make himself completely immune to her beauty, her body was not what he was most attracted to. Instead, it was her personality, her prowess in battle, and the dutiful way she always looked after others before herself. All in all, he found daily life wholly more enjoyable for Yang's presence in his life. He wished he could come up with more ways to repay Yang for that gift, often times coming up short.

However, there was one way he could indulge her, and he fully intended to do so.

As the blonde stepped behind the glass shower door to cleanse herself of her own sweat and grime, his eyes were glued to her. He didn't miss the small smirk on Yang's lips, or the obvious vanity she took in putting her body on display. Preening over the simple fact that she had managed to catch his eye. Yatsuhashi rarely stared at her for the sake of it, though in the moments he did, he couldn't deny that she was incredibly attractive. That Yang seemed to love his rare moments of truly gawking made her happiness all the sweeter.

Momentarily, he locked his eyes with her. Tilting his head and showing off a slight smile before reaching for his own bar of soap to wash away the grime of the arena.

"Damn it." Weiss muttered as she watched Yatsuhashi hobble off the arena floor with assistance. She knew that putting Yang into the arena would come with costs during the first few rotations. After all, she was no Pyrrha Nikos, who had been raised to be an arena spectacle. Yang was no showpiece, and like it or not, the blonde was an entirely offensive fighter. It would take years to cultivate a Yang's capabilities and brand appeal.

That wasn't to say that Weiss regretted her decision. No, in fact, she was quite sure she had made the correct one, even as Pyrrha winced at the footage.

"Well, it was quite a display." The redheaded woman replied diplomatically as she stood with her hands behind her back.

"At ease, Pyrrha." Weiss muttered for what seemed to be the thousandth time.

Pyrrha only slightly relaxed her stance, but it seemed near impossible to get her to do it completely.

Where Yang had been almost too lax at her job at times, and enjoyed taunting Weiss with reckless abandon at least weekly - if not daily - Pyrrha took to her new assignment with all of the severity of her huntress license. While the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company couldn't deny Pyrrha's effectiveness at running a tight and strict security force, she lacked the jovial idiocy the greased the tedium in the office. Without Yang around, the entire security force seemed stale, not to mention unenthusiastic.

It wasn't that they didn't like Pyrrha, but, that they weren't quite sure how to handle the orders she directed at them.

Weiss licked her lips, trying to think of some way to loosen Pyrrha up around the confines of the household. "Pyrrha…" Weiss said again as she turned off the television. "If I wanted a militant security staff, I would have asked Winter to come home…" Weiss hated to know that if she'd only ask, Winter would have walked away from the military without a second thought. "I asked you to take over for Yang, because I honestly feel that you can balance the idea of work and pleasure. I know it's difficult, but you have to find the moderation somewhere."

"To be honest, the security force, at least in my personal opinion, seem a little lethargic. Lacking in training, and quite frankly, in protocol."

"That's because Yang's protocol included faffing about until trouble came rearing its ugly head." Weiss explained, realizing the merit in Pyrrha's concerns. She had to agree, but had never once needed to doubt Yang's ability to take care of matters when she needed to. "You're right that my security team tends to be questionable. I won't argue that most of them would be fired for their conduct at other establishments, but Yang hired them for her own reasons. If you find particular members unsuitable to your needs, you can choose to terminate their contracts at any time. It's within your power to do so."

"Isn't that a bit extreme?"

"Perhaps, if I thought you were some sort of tyrant." Weiss replied. "However, I know you aren't. You wouldn't say anything at all, unless it truly bothered you. I run a business, not a charity. You're their immediate supervisor. If they fail to meet your expectations, for whatever reason, then you should find people who do."

"They're lazy, yes, but not incompetent." Pyrrha sighed. "Although I do wish they would stop ordering fast food from shady establishments down town."

"Blame Yang on that, she's instilled so many bad habits, I often question how that team could be any good at all." Weiss said offhandedly before she put down her paperwork to regard Pyrrha with an earnest expression. Folding her hands, and resting her elbows on the desk. "If it's any consolation, Yang wasn't really fit for the position. She had to grow into it, and even then, sometimes the results were not to my liking. However, if I didn't trust her completely, I would have never put her in charge of my safety, or the safety of my family. It's a challenge, and one I didn't hand down to you idly.