Evie Frye is the intrepid sister (thesilentknife) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-08-01 16:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, blake belladonna, evie frye, yang xiao long |
Who: Yang, Blake and Evie
What: Yang and Blake run into Yang's ex-girlfriend. It's awkward.
When: Recently
Where: A random street corner
Warnings: Family friendly awkwardness, basically
Yang was dressed for the heat, in shorts a little too short and shirt a little too low, but it was hot, okay? There was also a subconscious desire to see if Blake notice or reacted, but mostly it was hot, and mostly she had eagerly bought them some ice-cream while they took a little stroll. She’d read about a bookshop in the area and planned to surprise Blake with it.
Blake wore shorts and a tanktop herself, but neither were as short or revealing as Yang’s. She wasn’t that confident in herself yet to wear anything too short or revealing. But the heat was horrid. Though the ice cream was wonderful.
“Thanks for the ice cream, it hits the spot,” she commented as she walked along with Yang.
Meanwhile, Evie was not dressed for the weather. She wore a business formal pantsuit with her hair in a tight French braid. She had coffee in her hand, the caffeine being something she absolutely needed. She looked tired, but counter-terrorism wasn’t a 9-5 job. She stood at a corner waiting for the light to change, her attention focused on her phone as she checked her non-classified email.
She winked at Blake. A guy whistled at her and she too one of those slow, naughty licks of her ice cream. She waited three seconds, then bite down hard on it and the guy cringed. She laughed. “Sorry buddy, you’re not what I wanna lick.”
Her hand at Blake’s back, she guided her through the crowd and to the light. Neither of them did too well with big crowds, she figured, though Blake probably had it worse. “There’s something really cool I wanna show you, it’s just up the street.”
Then she spotted a familiar shape and froze.
When Blake heard the whistle, she didn’t bother to look. She was more focused on just getting through the crowd. She really didn’t like crowds. Maybe it was something that would change in time, but right now they still made her very nervous. “What is it?” She asked in response to what Yang wanted to show her. However, when she didn’t get a response, she looked at Yang and saw the way she looked. Blake frowned a bit. “Are you alright?”
Evie was oblivious, finally sliding her phone back into a pocket. She sighed heavily and looked at the buildings across the street. It would be so much faster to travel by rooftop, but she’d rather not show up to work all sweaty. It would look bad.
“Uhm, its my ex,” Yang said. The ex she’d dumped because she was in love with Blake. She rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand, sighed, then raised her voice. “Evie! Hi. Fancy meeting you here. And stuff.”
Well that sounded positively forced, if only because Yang could only look at Evie and feel consumed by guilt.
“Oh,” was all the Blake could manage to say. Because she didn’t exactly know what she should say in response to that. And this wasn’t the time to ask about the break up or relationship. So she just took another lick of her ice cream as Yang called to Evie.
Evie’s shoulders squared suddenly when she heard her name, quickly followed by her heart simultaneously doing a flip and then getting stabbed all over again as she recognized Yang’s voice. Considering she’d been spotted, she couldn’t just continue on like she hadn’t heard her, and she wasn’t enough of a bitch to just walk away, so she put on her British stiff upper lip, kept calm and carried on. She turned to see Yang and another woman standing there and she gave a polite smile, though it didn’t really reach her eyes.
“Ah, hello Yang. What a coincidence running into you here.”
“Yeah, funny running into you, and all.” Yang felt like she could cut the awkward with a knife, and her usual confident posture had slouched a little, like she was physically withdrawn. Like a puppy who’d known she’d done bad.
And Evie looked good, even if Yang was pretty sure she must be dying in that outfit. “On your way to the day job?”
Yang was correct, Evie was kind of dying in her suit, but it was how she needed to dress for her job. Her credentials were currently tucked away. She didn’t need to flash them out in public, telling people that she was MI-6 with a CIA pass. Unlike the Bond movies, MI-6 operated silently in the shadows. Drawing attention was kind of against the rules.
“On my way back, actually.” Hers was a job that never really ended. “Just needed a shower, change of clothes and some coffee.” She might have gotten a nap in there, but she looked tired. However, whether that came from the emotional exhaustion of the break up and broken heart, or the lack of sleep was anyone’s guess. Then, not be rude and as she could tell the other woman was with Yang, she gave her a polite smile. “I’m Evie,” she said, holding her hand out in greeting.
“I’m Blake, it’s nice to meet you, Evie.” Blake said, shaking Evie’s hand. And it was at that point that Evie felt like a sinkhole could open up at her feet and swallow her. This was who she’d been dumped for, more or less. To Evie’s credit, she kept that storm of emotions to herself.
“It’s nice to meet you as well, Blake.” And now things were intensely awkward from Evie’s point of view. “It looks as though you are both managing to keep cool in this heat. Ice cream sounds like a good idea.” As Evie suddenly just wanted to jump into the Arctic Ocean to cool down.
“Trying to get Blake into a pool is like trying to give a cat a bath, but I’m still trying.”
Yang too wanted a sinkhole to open up under her. Maybe Blake couldn’t sense it, but Yang could. And it was obvious to her that Evie wasn’t sleeping well. And Yang cared enough to be concerned but didn’t know how to ask, so phrased it in the form of a statement,“Hope you took a nap too. You look like work has been keeping you up late.”
She hoped it was work. And she also realized she really missed their friendship.
“You will fail,” Blake countered, giving Yang a look. She didn’t like water overly much.
“Terrorism doesn’t operate on a 9-to-5 schedule, so I can’t either.” Evie said with a shrug. It was mostly work that kept her up at night, but sometimes her emotions kept her up as well. She kept them all so tightly confined, they had to come out some time.
“Terrorism? What is your job?” Blake asked, honestly curious.
“I work for the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, on a counter-terrorism team. I’m currently on a joint task force with the CIA.” Though going back to London, as her superiors had wanted her to, or even re-enlisting in the military seemed like a really good idea.
Okay. Yang let out a breath - she hadn’t been sure how much of Evie’s job was publicly knowable so had been reluctant to call out just what it was. But if Evie was willing to admit it, she could!
“She’s really good at it,” Yang assured Blake, subconsciously adding another inch or so of space between them.
Most of what Evie worked on she couldn’t share, but she could say who she worked for and the area in which she worked. Besides, she wasn’t necessarily working a case currently, simply gathering intel and tracking things. She looked at Yang, a little more of a genuine smile creeping onto her face. “I do my best at any rate.”
“That sounds like an intense job.” And one that seemed to require a lot of schooling and training to go into it. Blake kind of felt a little out of place in that respect. Her schooling wasn’t normal, as she was coming to understand.
“It can be, yes. I prefer being out in the field. Sitting and gathering data is not my idea of fun.” Evie was a woman of action who preferred getting her hands dirty. Sifting through intelligence wasn’t exactly her idea of fun, but it needed to be done.
“Your best is pretty good,” Yang countered, folding her arms and smirking at her. She was finally relaxing, at least a little bit. She glanced at Blake. “She’d fit in at Beacon if she had a semblance.”
Honestly Evie and Blake’s styles were pretty similar, something that Yang suddenly realized looking between them.
“Really?” Blake asked, perking up a bit as she looked at Evie. That certainly caught her attention
“What do you think my semblance would be?” Evie asked, curious. She felt her skills could certainly easily translate to fighting Grimm, though Jacob would probably be the better one for that. He was the one who enjoyed fighting. Evie preferred striking from the shadows and doing research.
That had to be given some thought, but Yang had thought about it before so her answer came quickly. “Shadows. Stepping in and out of them, moving through them, kind of like teleporting.”
Similar to Blake’s, but still very different. “Like stepping into my shadow and then appearing in the shadow of that building over there.”
“I like it. It would certainly prove useful.” Evie had actually gotten a new ability from her own dreams. She could turn virtually invisible. It was a very useful skill when she needed to survey people and yet keep out of sight. Crouching on a balcony or the edge of a building’s roof could still get one noticed by the enemy. But Evie could turn invisible, allowing her to go unnoticed as long as she didn’t move.
Blake tilted her head a bit. That sounded a lot like her own semblance, except for the fact that she couldn’t jump from shadow to shadow. She could erect a shadow of herself and use it to hide or escape or distract her enemies.
Yang had a type. Though it amused her that her semblenace was taking a hit, and her partner's was avoiding it. It was complimentary.
"Yeah, just...thought about it awhile ago. Yours was easy. Still trying to figure out Ahsoka and Li's." Not that any of them needed one but it was kind of fun to think about. A lot better than the bad things, anyway. She glanced at Blake, knowing she'd have to tell her the bad things, but she wanted to wait until after her and Weiss did the 2v2 round. Before Mercury, before everything went to hell.
“I’m sure you will figure theirs out soon enough.” Evie said. It was only now that Evie really realized just how much she missed Yang. She didn’t exactly have many friends here. Yang and Ezio had been the only two she really talked to and opened up to. And lately, it had just been Ezio when he wasn’t busy. Evie tried not to bother him too much, he had his own life and his own relationship. Which was yet another reason why she had been working so much. It was a way to occupy herself and keep from focusing on herself too much.
“So are you going to give all your friends semblances?” Blake asked Yang. It certainly seemed fun to do.
“All …. “ Yang counted on her fingers. “Four of them that aren’t you or Ruby. Should people watch and make up semblances on the spot that might be fun.” She really needed to get out more. And Evie had been one of those and she just wished Evie could look at her without that flash of pain in her eyes. But she probably deserved that.
Evie was about to say that was more friends than she herself had, but she kept it silent. She wasn’t going to turn this into a pity party. She actually wished that her brother was here. He could at least drag her out now and then to air her out.
“People watching and making up semblances could be fun.” Blake agreed. She wouldn’t mind that.
They’d missed the light crossing about four times, and Yang finally grabbed both women’s hands when the light changed, to walk them across. She still wanted to get Blake to the book store and Evie did have to get back to work. Even if she wanted to keep talking to her.
“Okay now that we’re no longer holding up foot traffic.” She let go of their hands and clapped hers together.
Speaking of crossing the street, Evie probably should get moving. She needed to get to work, and she was also going to die in her suit if she didn’t get out of the heat soon.
“I don’t want to keep you both from what you were doing, so I should probably head to work.” It was an easy out, but it wasn’t a lie either. She had work that needed to be done, and she didn’t want to keep Yang and Blake from wherever they were going.
“It was nice to meet you, Evie.” Blake said again, attempting to have some people skills.
It was good to see Blake trying, at least. Even if she couldn’t see how awkward things were. Yang had to stop herself from hugging Evie, instead holding her hand out like a lame-o. “It was good seeing you. Really good, I mean it.”
It really was intensely awkward for Evie. When Yang held her hand out, Evie took it and shook it. “It was good seeing you as well, Yang.” And it was, even if it still really hurt. “I’ll see you around.” With that, Evie took her leave, trying not to scurry away, but she needed to get out of there before much longer passed.
“Are you alright?” Blake asked again, once Evie was gone. She was concerned about Yang.
Shoulders sagging, Yang shook her head. “I don’t… I’m fine. It’s fine. I just…” She flailed her hands helplessly. “I think she’s still hurting. It was all my fault anyway. That was awkward and I still have a surprise for you.”
Blake looked at Yang for a moment. Then being mindful of the last of her ice cream, she gave Yang a hug. She kind of thought she could use one right about now. “I am curious as to what you want to show me.”
Yang let the hug linger a moment, hoping Evie didn’t look back, but it was a Blake hug which was a Rare and Precious thing, and she was going to enjoy it, damn it. At least Blake didn’t ask her what happened with Evie, but Yang did have an answer. “You’ll love it. It’s just down the street and around the corner.”
So she took Blake’s hand and didn’t look back and pulled her along until they reached an antique book store.
Hugs from Blake were definitely rare, but she felt it was called for currently. She didn’t protest when Yang took her hand and led her down the street. When they got to the bookstore, Blake just looked it over, feeling quite the elation within her.
“An antique bookstore?” She asked, glancing at Yang for a moment.
Yang was getting a little used to holding Blake’s hand. It helped chase away the nerves and guilt from earlier, though she was a little more subdued than usual. “Yep!”
She squeezed her hand. “I found out about it last week, I even came down to check it out, make sure it was legit, because I knew you’d like it.”
A smile actually crossed her face. “Thank you for showing me.” Blake said before it was her turn to pull Yang after her as she went inside. The store was already amazing once she stepped inside. Books of all sorts lined the shelves, and she didn’t waste any time starting to look through them.
Blake’s smile made Yang feel like sunshine, and she laughed as she was pulled inside. A lot of the books weren’t to her taste, but she’d spotted a few that would be like catnip to the cat faunus. Including one she’d had the owner set aside special like. Though she’d had some help with affording it.
“They have a really old copy of Sun Tzu I kind of want, and some other really cool histories, but there are some real classics too.”
Yang waved at the owner, who came over with a very old book. An original copy of Barbot de Villeneuve’s La Belle et la Bête. The long version. “But uhm. This is for you.”
“No doubt they have quite the selection here.” And it was all probably expensive and not what Blake could afford. But she could certainly look, maybe even speed-read parts of books that did catch her eye.
Though when the owner came over with a book, Blake looked at the book, then at Yang. “For me?”
“For you.” Yang smiled nervously. She couldn’t read much French but she’d figured out the title and done some google fu on the version in particular. “It’s the, uh, very original version of the fairy tale. But you probably already knew that.”
“Are you sure? I mean, this is probably crazy expensive and I don’t want you to go broke or anything.” Blake stopped short of saying that it was just a book, she could do without it, but that would be a lie. One that Yang could probably have seen through. “I’ve always wanted to read the original version of the fairytale, but never was able to.”
Yang almost beamed. She’d have hugged her but she didn’t want to damage the book. “You’re the only person I know who’d take good enough care of that book to actually read it without it like, falling apart.”
“We include a digital copy,” the owner assured them. “But it’s already paid for, would you like me to prepare it to go home?”
Blake would definitely take amazingly good care of the book. She looked at the owner, blinking a bit. “Yes, please.” She then looked at Yang. “You already paid for it?”
“Yep!” Yang nodded eagerly.
“They say a book can find its way into the hands of the person it belongs to.” The owner carefully packaged the book as she spoke. “And your friend here kept walking past it and looking at it.”
Blake was trying not to freak out about this. She also tried not to think of how much money Yang had paid for the book. “She knows I love to read, and that this is my favorite fairytale.” She couldn’t resist it anymore, and Blake just gave Yang another big hug. “Thank you, Yang.”
Two hugs from Blake in one day? Yang was in heaven. The only thing better would be a kiss. But she hadn't done it for hugs or kisses or anything else. Blake deserved it. And the look on Blake’s face more than made up for the awkwardness earlier. “You’re welcome!”
Blake was in heaven as well, though for a different reason. It meant more to her than she could ever say in regards to being given a gift like this. She gave Yang a little squeeze before she pulled away. She was almost bouncing. Almost. “This is just...wow.”
Honestly, there were few things better than this, making someone happy like this. And when it was someone she well and truly cared about? Cloud 9. She’d have to thank Logan for spotting the funds. “I had a little help, but he wouldn’t let me say no so give Logan a hug too.”
Just never tell Blake what that book actually cost.
“Logan helped?” Blake asked, a little surprised. Though she really shouldn’t be. Logan definitely was the giving type of guy, after all. “I will definitely have to give him a hug, too.”
“He totally did.” Yang took the package, then held it out for Blake. It was even fancily wrapped, with the shop’s logo on the packaging. Like a floating libram with an eye. Yang thought it reminded her of some games she’d played.
Looking at the package as Yang held it out, it took a few moments before Blake mustered up the courage to take it. It was almost like the book was a holy relic or something. Blake carefully took it in hand, looking at it and trying to believe that this was actually happening. “I will treasure this.” And she’d probably build some impenetrable vault or something to keep it in so it didn’t get accidentally damaged or something.
“Lets get that thing home,” Yang suggested. “Then maybe you can read it to me. If you can read French.”
They might have to learn French. Though if Blake could speak French, Yang was screwed.
“I may need a French to English dictionary.” Blake didn’t speak French beyond a few basic words that tended to be used frequently in modern English. But that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t learn to read and speak French in order to read this book.
There was just about nothing that Blake wouldn’t do in order to read a book.
“We’ll get you Rosetta Stone,” Yang promised. “But you’re super smart and you’ll figure it out really fast. Learning a second language isn’t all that hard, but it takes determination. My first language was English but I learned Korean to speak with family overseas, and some Chinese too.”
“I learned Japanese and English simultaneously, it’s hard to tell which one I’d consider my first language.” Her grandparents had been immigrants to the United States, so Japanese had been handed down to her. Not that she had any contact with any of her family, but that was besides the point. “Learning French would be fun, I’d think.”
“Maybe I could learn too!” Yang leaned in close, and said in a faux French accent, “Omelette du fromage.”
“We could learn together.” Blake looked at Yang and just shook her head at the French words. “I think we will need to expand the vocabulary beyond that.”
She just grinned at Blake, and put her arm around her. “We should get started right away. That book won’t read itself.”
Blake clutched the book close, ensuring that she wouldn’t drop it on the way home. It was definitely too precious to be dropped. “It would surprise me if the book could read itself.” That was probably something more for a horror movie or something.
“...this is Orange County, don’t tempt fate.” Yang leaned her cheek against the top of Blake’s head for a moment. It felt right, and also weird, without the ears.
She wondered when Blake would get the ears and she caught herself reaching up to scritch non-existent ones.
“A book reading itself would probably be among the least shocking things that happen here.” There were plenty of other options at hand regarding how everything behaved and what went crazy here in Orange County.
When Yang leaned her cheek against the top of her head, Blake wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it. It felt...somewhat okay and yet also strange.
“Might be kind of cool. Unless it was the necronomicon. Then we’d be screwed.” Yang could feel Blake tense up a little bit, so she straightened her head and started to pull away.
"We probably don't want that book reading itself."
“Necronomicon?” Blake asked, not entirely certain what that was. “But it would certainly be an easy way to read books.” She tried to keep herself from getting too tense, and she took some slow breaths to help that. She really didn’t like getting so tense and finicky when it came to people touching her and being in her bubble, but she couldn’t help it.
Yang didn't remove her arm from around Blake, in part to acclimate her to touch and honestly because she was a really touchy person and it was Blake. Was that creepy?
"Uh, dark evil book, a huge plot point in the Evil Dead and Army of Darkness movies which we're so going to watch tonight now. Also I think it's related to like c'thulu or whatever. Lovecraft."
She might have read some of those books once.
To her credit, Blake didn’t move away from Yang. The arm around her was comforting, but there was still a limit to how much touching she could handle at once.
“So a movie marathon, then?” And with a name like ‘Evil Dead’ Blake had a feeling it had to do with zombies or some other undead creatures.
“Maybe just the second two. The first one is like, straight horror, but they cover the details in the first few minutes of the second one which is kind of.. A comedy horror? They’re great movies though.” Cuddling on the couch and watching Ash make funny quips sounded like a good evening to Yang..
“Comedy horror might be a better way to go.” Less chance of them bleeding over into her dreams and making her nightmares worse than they typically were, at least.
“Yes!” Yang pumped her free fist in the air, squeezing her arm around Blake. “I think you’ll love it, and if you don’t I’ll put on like Beauty and the Beast or something to make up for it.”
It was really tempting to kiss Blake’s cheek, and Yang let go of her before she did that. She really needed to stop having those intrusive thoughts. “The book’ll fit in my saddle bag.” She flashed Blake a grin. “My place or yours?”
“I appreciate it.” Only time would tell how Blake would react to the movies, but she was game for trying, at least. “Um, we could go to mine? I don’t think Logan would mind. Though if he brings his blue-haired girlfriend-person home, we may have to go to your place. And I may need to spend the night there.” Aria was...kind of an intimidating person. Not that Blake had really talked to her much or that the woman had ever done anything to her. It was just the feeling she had being in her presence. She preferred to not take up too much of her time.
“My bed is always yours,” Yang assured her, entirely innocently for once. Bumblebee was waiting for them, and she unzipped a bag for Blake to put the book away. “They’re probably really loud. Just looking at Logan, it’s like…” She moved her hands. “It’s like becoming exhausted just thinking about sleeping with him.”
“I’m fine on the couch. Or the floor.” Blake had learned to sleep on the floor. Some nights that was where she’d slept after her parents had left Scientology and she’d moved in with the asshole ex and his parents. She put the book in the bag, then shuddered a bit. “I’d rather not think about it.”
“No way, I’m not letting my friend sleep on the floor! Besides, it’s not like we haven’t shared a bed in our dreams after a nightmare.” Yang got onto the bike, and gestured for Blake to hop on.
“Maybe, but this is not our dreams. I’m...not ready for that.” Platonically sharing a bed with someone was definitely still off the table. Blake was not ready for that. At all. She got on the bike behind Yang and readied herself for the drive.
Yang swallowed her disappointment, replying cheerily. “I’d sleep on the floor then.” She gunned the engine, heading off to Logan’s house. Hopefully this Aria person wouldn’t be there, she clearly put Blake ill at ease, and that made Yang ill at ease.
“I’m fine with the couch, really.” Blake insisted. She didn’t want to put Yang out. But of course, it was moot point if they didn’t need to go to Yang’s apartment. Blake wasn’t scared of Aria, though, she just got nervous around her. She held on, and luckily for all involved, Aria wasn’t there when they got there. She got her book out of the bag, then led Yang inside.
“Did you want to order food or something? Are you hungry enough for that? Or should we wait until later?”
“I’m dying,” Yang replied, her stomach rumbling loud enough to wake the Grimm. “Dying.”
Taking a seat on the couch, she started flipping through netflix until she found what she was looking for.
“Well, we can’t have you dying. What do you feel like? Pizza? Chinese? Something else?” Blake asked as she went to pull out some menus for take-out places.
Yang peeked over at Blake, chewing her lip. "Surprise me!"
Blake eyed Yang. “What do you like? Kind of hard to pick if I don’t know if you have allergies or strong dislikes to something.”
"Well I do like eating out..." Yang grinned at her. "Chinese sounds fine, you can get yourself something with fish! I'm not allergic to anything."
Except maybe Adam. That was a joke she wasn't ready to make.
The Adam joke was also not one Blake would react well to, and she doubted she ever would. Best to just never bring him up, really.
Putting the other menus back, she brought the Chinese one over and handed it to Yang, letting her pick what she wanted from it. She already knew what she’d get, so she didn’t need to look.
Yang absently patted the couch next to her as she looked over the menu. “I’ll have this and this. I’m suddenly dying for eggrolls.”
Her mouth salivated at the very thought.
Making note of what Yang wanted, Blake then dialed the number and put in their order for delivery. Once that was done, she put the menu back where it belonged, got the proper amount of cash (including a tip, always tip the delivery person) and set it out before she finally sat down on the couch.
“Okay, now I’m ready.” She’d get drinks when their food got here.
“Perfect,” Yang said. Chinese food, a pair of fun movies, and Blake next to her. Except for the reminder of how she’d hurt Evie, it was a good day. And maybe some day she’d stop feeling guilty. Maybe some day.