Raven Branwen (strengthwins) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-07-04 19:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, raven branwen, yang xiao long |
Who: Raven Branwen and Yang Xiao Long
What: An encounter over burgers
When: Today
Where: A restaurant in Barstow, CA
Rating/Warnings Low, some family stuff and angst
Status: Complete!
There were days when everything was fine. In fact, that was most days. But then there were days where she accidentally saw Blake’s picture, or her mind wandered to her mother, or she got a call from UCI about signing up for classes again and then she could feel soul sucking depression threatening to swallow her up.
What she needed was a job, but she knew that wouldn’t be some magical fix all. Just like Blake coming back into her life wouldn’t be a magical fix all.
Usually a drive to clear her head helped, or a trip to the beach or even looking for some fight club or something. Before long she found herself in Barstow,without even realizing the direction she was going in.
Pulling into a gas station, she shook her hair out once she’d removed her helmet. Her eyes followed the road that led to Nevada, and she sighed. Guess she should gas up, grab a burger and go home. She knew the only thing that waited for her in Nevada was nothing. Even if she really wanted to yell at her mom again.
Yang was right. Raven and her underlings had left Pahrump, Nevada, shortly after her daughter and brother had. In fact, they had hit the road about the same time as Yang and Qrow, going in the opposite direction. The entire thing had been such a pain. The Odin Syndicate had been looking to set up there as a kind of safe haven for when the heat got a little unbearable for someone in one of the major cities it controlled. Qrow’s arrival meant that entire idea along with months of work ingratiating themselves into the town had to be scrapped. There were plenty of little rural towns in Nevada -- or Arizona to the east -- in which palms could easily be greased in one way or another. However, Raven’s boss, Odin’s own Right Hand Man, hadn’t exactly been thrilled when Raven had reported they’d been compromised and even less thrilled that Odin’s own wayward son had been allowed to leave. Now Raven had been tasked to fix the oversight.
Raven had arrived in Orange County earlier in that morning and immediately went about settling in to the booji hotel suite that had been reserved for her. The rest of the morning hours had been spent trolling the piers and boardwalks, relieving oblivious tourists of their wallets, cell phones, shopping bags and anything else that could be easily pawned. Old habits, one might say. There was still something vindicating about a successful pickpocket. Something that made Raven feel good.
At some point the sight of blonde hair astride a motorcycle had caught her attention. For reasons Raven couldn’t explain (or preferred to ignore), she followed. At first it seemed as though Yang was just out for a ride. One of those meandering trips Raven had been told she would take from time to time. However, a short time after Raven started following her in her own little sporty car, the meandering drive started showing signs of a clear northerly direction. Curious, Raven continued following at a safe distance until Yang pulled over in Barstow.
Raven sat in her car and watched Yang get off her bike and head for the little restaurant. She wondered where Yang thought she was going. She had no real business this far north of Orange County. Unless she planned on going to Nevada again. Raven grunted at the thought and then got out of her car. She made her way towards the restaurant. She hesitated just outside the door. She knew she wasn’t apt to receive a warm welcome. Then again, if Yang really was intending on going to Nevada…
Raven took a breath and steeled herself before going inside. She spotted Yang easily and made her way towards her. “You’re an awful long way from home, aren’t you?” She asked as came up alongside Yang’s table.
To be entirely fair, Raven was lucky that Yang didn’t try to hit her right there. Despite the fact that she’d almost decided to go looking for her again, she’d discovered that, actually, she didn’t want to see her as much as she thought she had.
Dreaming of the battle for Haven hadn’t really helped that matter. In other words, Yang had Regrets. She looked up, scowling, “Shouldn’t you be somewhere in Utah by now?”
“Nobody wants to go to Utah,” Raven answered with a casual dismissive shrug. “If I had my choice, I’d be living comfortably in a penthouse suite in Miami, but unfortunately that’s not the case. I have your uncle to thank for that.” She leaned her hands against the table. “What are you doing this far north? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were on your way to Nevada.”
Yang couldn’t help the sarcastic grin on her face, “I think Qrow would be really happy to hear that.”
At her next question, Yang took on a defensive posture, leaning back in her booth. “I thought I’d try my luck in Vegas.”
Raven’s expression darkened a moment, but only for a moment. Then she was smiling again, a cold confident kind of smile. “Yes, I’m sure he would be.” A brow raised at Yang’s shift in posture. Closed off, defensive. Smart girl. The smile on Raven’s features turned just a hint more genuine. “Is that right?”
She’d gotten a reaction out of her, that was good. Yang was going to treasure those moments. File them away for later. “That’s right. Been feeling lucky lately. What’s it to you?”
Yang’s flippant response was annoying, though Raven found herself also slightly amused. There was a lot she could see of herself in her daughter. More than she would have thought given that Yang had spent her entire life with Taiyang.
“I see,” she removed her hands from the table. “Well then I won’t waste the time wishing you luck. Though, fair warning: the odds are always in favor of the house in Vegas. Of course, if you’re looking to get away for a while, my previous offer still stands. And it would be far more lucrative than any table in Vegas.”
“Considering what it is you do on the side, my answer is still going to be no.” Yang leaned on the table, dexterously picking up a fork with her mechanical hand and pointing it at Raven. “Thanks for reminding me, though, of why you’re a bad idea.”
Of course, there were things Yang knew that Raven wasn’t privy to, and right now she wasn’t above using it, “Isn’t getting away all you do, anyway? Run away from your problems.”
The flippant attitude may have been endearing at first, but it was quickly losing its shine. Her eyes narrowed at the girl. “You’re one to talk,” she said. “Look at where you are, Yang. Halfway between home and Las Vegas. I know more than you think. I know this isn’t the first time you’ve pointed your bike in this direction. Are you running from your problems? Or are you simply looking for something else?” She folded her arms. “Life has dealt you a raw deal. There isn’t anything wrong in taking what you’re owed.”
“I’m not running,” Yang said, spinning the fork around in her fingers with impossible speed. “Sometimes I just like to see where I end up. And I’m learning that It’s not a place I want to be.”
She fixed her mother with red eyes, “It’s not like you have any right to ask me that.”
Raven raised a brow slightly. Red eyes. Well, wasn’t that a familiar feature. “Answer my question or don’t, it doesn’t make any difference to me. I offered you an option. You refused. Our business is over.” She turned to walk out, but paused and looked back over her shoulder. “I’m headed to Irvine,” she said. “If you’ve decided the place you’ve ended up now isn’t where you want to be, you may want to rethink where you go next.”
Yang’s eyes returned to their usual lavender as she exercised everything she’d learned and been taught about controlling her temper. “Are you actually going to see dad? Might be nice if you paid him a visit.”
Raven wouldn’t admit it, but the temptation to visit Tai was definitely there. A temptation she had told herself she would resist. “I might,” she said with a shrug.
Holding up her phone, Yang snapped a picture to send to Qrow and Tai. Hey, if she couldn’t be a vindictive bitch now, when could she be? “Well, now they’re gonna be expecting you, Raven.”
Raven had hoped to at least get to Qrow before anyone else knew she was even in the state. She cursed herself for her own curiosity. Oh well. What was the real harm? It wasn’t as if Raven thought a simple picture of her would send her brother packing. As for Tai, well, a forewarning of her arrival may actually work out in her favor.
She let out a short breathy laugh. “Aren’t you clever. I suppose it would be rude of me not to pay your father a visit now.”
Well, Raven should. She hadn’t just left Yang, she’d left Tai too. But Yang wasn’t going to let Raven go without one more question, “Yeah, you should. But where’s mom? Where’s Summer.”
She asked for Ruby, but she also asked for herself. Summer had raised her, been the mother in all the ways Raven hadn’t. Supermom in both lives.
Raven hadn’t expected Yang’s emphasis on the word mom to refer to Summer would affect her at all and she was a little surprised at the twinge of anger she felt in response to it.
Her knee jerk reaction was to tell Yang the same thing she had told Qrow: Summer didn’t remember her and had no idea who she even was. But something made her stop. It wasn’t pity. No one could ever say that Raven Branwen pitied anyone. And she certainly wouldn’t insult her daughter by pitying her now. No, this was something different but equally as uncharacteristic for the crime boss.
Raven sighed. “She isn’t with me,” she said coolly, but not unkindly.
Yang couldn’t quite keep the disappointment out of her voice, “I figured. But I had to ask for..Ruby.”
Yang had done some research, after Nevada. About amnesia, especially the kind that Summer seemed to have. She hadn’t hadn’t found much hope.
Raven noted the tone of disappointment and that strange feeling intensified. Again she almost said that Summer didn’t remember her. She didn’t remember Ruby or Tai. This time it would have been without the knee jerk anger, but Raven bit it back anyway. Instead she said, “of course,” in that same not-unkind voice and nodded. She glanced through the front windows towards the parking lot where her car and Yang’s bike both sat. The light was fading. She pulled her phone from her back pants pocket and looked at the time. “It’s getting late,” she said. “I should be going.” She looked back at Yang again. “I think it’s time you made a decision about where you’re going next.”
“Yeah.” Yang looked down at her plate, her appetite long gone. It would be nice to know where she was going. To figure out what she’d do with her life. It would be easier if she could talk to Blake, because it would make it easier to talk to Weiss and Ruby, and even to talk to Qrow.
Love sucked.
“I’ll figure it out on my own, but thanks.”
Raven lingered a moment longer, looking at her daughter. If she’d been more the mothering type -- if she’d been more like Summer -- she may have had some words of encouragement. But as things stood she had none. Not that Yang would have accepted them even if she’d had them to give. A small sigh and she headed for the door.
Yang could have said something. Maybe opened the door a little bit. But she wasn’t ready for that and she didn’t think she would be for some time. So instead she said nothing, and watched her mother go.