Star-Crossed - Chapter 19 (Patreon)

When Blake opened her eyes the next morning, she recognized the walls of her cramped cabin - what she didn’t recognize was the warmth keeping the normally-chilly air at bay.  As soon as she tried to move, however, she understood why she was so blissfully warm.

Yang was still here.  In Blake’s bed.  Hugging her close while softly exhaling across the back of her neck.

Waking up in Yang’s arms wasn’t how Blake expected this morning to begin, but she should have known better.  Last night, while still desirous and wantful, had a little less fire and a little more...feelings.  Even though those feelings never made it into words, she felt them in the way Yang kissed her, touched her, and looked at her.

In every interaction, Yang treated her like she was...special.  In that sense, of course she woke up in Yang’s arms while the two of them squeezed onto her made-for-one bed.

Fraternizing with the enemy was strictly forbidden, but breaking a rule wasn’t enough to deter her.  With Command on the other side of the galaxy, she would do whatever it took to survive, and thrive, in this cruel environment.  If Yang was a part of that equation...then so be it.

Pushing any thought of ISA from her mind, Blake focused on Yang instead.  With Yang’s prosthetic arm wrapped over her, and Yang still fast asleep, she ran her fingers across the metal plating and searched out as many scratches as she could find.  With every scrape and gash, she wondered about the circumstances leading to its existence.  She might not like the answer, but she still wanted to know.  Now, more than ever, she was confident that Yang had a reason for everything she did - survival or finding Ruby.

After sliding her hand across the back of Yang’s and along each of Yang’s fingers, she moved up and started retracing from the beginning.  No matter how many times she felt Yang’s arm, the coolness and smoothness of the metal surprised her.  It was such a unique sensation that she wanted nothing more than to run her fingers over it time and time again.

Feeling Yang shift on the bed behind her, she pulled her hand away and froze.  She assumed that Yang didn’t have any sense of touch through the metal, but what if she was wrong?  She’d never heard of a technology that could impart feeling through prosthetics, but Yang’s arm wasn’t a typical prosthetic.  For all she knew, it did have some type of sensory capability, and here she was stroking it as if no one would ever know.

Fortunately, Yang’s breathing soon returned to a deep, steady rhythm, and Blake’s worry faded away.  Rather than exercise added caution, however, she returned her hand to Yang’s arm and continued her exploration.

What would this morning feel like if they were somewhere else?  Away from the Inferno and the Blackguards...how would it feel to wake up like this?  After years of claiming that she didn’t have time for a serious relationship, would Yang be the one who convinced her otherwise?

When Yang let out a deep sigh, Blake’s neck tingled and unmistakable yearning swept through her veins.  She should have already had enough, but she wanted Yang still.

Fortunately for that unquenchable desire, Yang was waking up, and several more sighs tickled Blake’s neck before she shifted and briefly pulled Blake closer.  The next second, she woke with a jolt followed by several seconds of stiffness.

Knowing that Yang must be experiencing the same disorientation Blake felt yesterday morning, she remained still and waited for the moment to pass.  A few seconds was all it took for Yang to relax into the covers, pull Blake into a tighter hug, and nuzzle into her hair.  The sweet gesture had Blake’s heart fluttering in no time, and she set her hands over Yang’s while enjoying their newfound closeness.

“Good morning...”

“Good morning,” she whispered in return, worried that anything louder might scare Yang away.

“So...you were right.”

“I like the sound of that,” Blake replied, smiling while Yang nuzzled closer.

“It is intimate,” Yang admitted, her soft, smooth voice making Blake’s heart flutter again.  “And a little challenging, but I love a challenge.”

“You rose to that challenge and then some.”

When Yang laughed - the sound incredibly light and uplifting - Blake was grateful that Yang couldn’t see her reddening cheeks.  Embarrassed nonetheless, she stared at Yang’s arm and wished her blush away.  Yang, meanwhile, propped herself up and watched Blake trail her fingers back and forth across her arm.

“Enjoying yourself?” she eventually asked, a smile so evident in her tone that Blake didn’t need to turn around to see it.

“Very much so,” she admitted, noting that Yang made no attempt to move away.

“Ruby made it for me.  She always had a way with metal.”

“She must be one hell of an engineer...” Blake mused while tracing her fingers along one of the cracks near Yang’s wrist.  When she moved further down, Yang’s fingers intertwined with hers, and she abruptly realized that this wasn’t some random piece of equipment - this was a part of Yang, just like every other part of her.

“It’s amazing.”  Blake savored that moment of intimacy for as long as she could rationalize it before letting go.  “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“You’re a lot less creepy about it than Adam,” Yang remarked with a chuckle, but the mention of his name made Blake stiffen while something close to anger or jealousy seeped into her veins.  Acting upon that emotion, she returned her hand to Yang’s and felt relief when Yang intertwined their fingers once more.

“The two of you never...you know...”

When Yang scoffed, Blake immediately felt relieved.

“I’d rather chuck myself out the garbage chute,” Yang elaborated and, after a few seconds of silence, added, “Plus, I’ve never gotten that feeling from him.”

“Really?”

“Really.  I know everyone else does, but it’s...different.  There’s plenty of times when we’ve been alone, but he never makes a move.  I don’t know how to explain it...”

Still holding hands, Yang wrapped her arms around Blake and pulled them closer together.  Considering neither of them were wearing clothing at the moment, the proximity made Blake’s blush return.

“It’s weird,” Yang continued unaware.  “And creepy, and makes me want to punch him in the face, but at least he’s not hitting on me.  Beggars can’t be choosers, right?”

From how the crew spoke about it, Yang belonged to Adam in a romantic or sexual way.  Considering her Anima heritage, that assumption made sense.  If she didn’t see it that way, however, Blake had no choice but to believe her.  But if he wasn’t romantically interested in her, why did he treat her so possessively?

Determined not to think about him right now, Blake spun around in Yang’s arms and wrapped Yang in a hug.  Her cheeks flared from that short glimpse of soft, smooth skin, but she quickly snuggled against Yang’s collarbone and took a deep breath to calm herself.  With her ear pressed just above Yang’s chest, she heard and felt Yang’s heart beating strongly, filling her with comfort and a fair amount of excitement.

“How long have you been in?” she eventually asked, feeling that she could ask anything by now.

“The Blackguards?” Yang asked, and sighed when Blake nodded against her.  “It feels so long...but I think it’s been...a couple years?  Two and a half, maybe?”  Sighing again, she rested her chin on the top of Blake’s head and held her close.  “Long enough for me to question everything about myself...”

Rather than respond, Blake listened to Yang’s heartbeat and left the door open for more to be said.

“You know what my worst fear is...” Yang whispered before long.  “That Ruby won’t even recognize me.  Or worse - she’ll see what a monster I am and want nothing to do with me.”

“She won’t do that.”  Pulling away from the embrace, Blake looked into melancholy red eyes and shook her head.  “She won’t.  She’ll understand that you did what you had to do to survive.  And she won’t think you’re a monster, because you aren’t one.”

In a universe filled with danger, they did whatever they could to survive.  Being stuck in a bad situation didn’t make someone a bad person - Blake understood that now.  While Adam and Cinder and some of the other Blackguards were undeniably evil, writing off the entire group was unfair to the tragedies that brought them together.

Adam was a monster.  He had the power and means to change his ways yet willingly sought violence with every breath.  Cinder was a monster.  She relished the pain and misery of others, and coveted any opportunity to be the deliverer of such angst.

“You’re nothing like them.”  Touching Yang’s cheek, Blake knew that she could never say it enough.  And Yang could never hear it enough, as she leaned into the touch and sighed while her eyes lightened.

“What about you?” she asked, but Blake blinked at the question.

“What about me?”

“You were so gung ho about joining,” Yang reminded her.  “But sometimes you act like you don’t even want to be here.”

The most worrisome part about that observation was wondering if anyone else picked up on her reluctance to be as evil as they wanted her to be.  Still, Yang wanted an honest answer, as evidenced by her hopeful gaze.  Unfortunately, Blake couldn’t be as honest as she wanted to be.

“The Blackguards have prestige and power,” she answered with a shrug.  “I thought joining would boost my credibility.”

“Then what changed?”

Without trying, Yang backed Blake into a corner.  How could she answer without sounding hypocritical?  And the truth - that she never belonged to begin with - was out of the question.

“Haven’t you ever wanted something only to get it and realize it’s not what you expected?”

When Yang’s gaze lingered on Blake for a little too long, another blush began to grow.

“I thought it would be a stepping stone to something greater,” she added, breaking away from that look.  “Maybe it will be, but I know crazy when I see it - and Adam and Cinder are crazy.  I’m not risking my life by throwing in with them.”

“Then...would you ever consider leaving it all behind?  Being a mercenary...crime, in general?”

Yang was asking all the right questions, and each one fostered the spark of hope in Blake’s chest.

“I already have,” she replied, noting the relief in Yang’s eyes.  “I’ve just...never had a good reason.”

She hoped that Yang interpreted the answer as she intended it - that she would leave for Yang, because Yang was a good enough reason to leave any life behind.

“I hope you find one.  You deserve a better life than this.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I can just tell.  You’re different.”

Again with that word, which Blake interpreted as ‘special’ rather than anything else.  She wanted Yang to explain further, to detail the ways she was ‘different,’ but she let the opportunity pass by just like the last time.

“Guess I should let you get to work, huh…” Yang mused shortly after, not dwelling on the compliment for long.  But her tone suggested that she didn’t want to go, as did the way her hand ran over Blake’s arm and her eyes roved...elsewhere.

“Oh.”  That look was distracting, but Blake shook her head and refocused.  “I actually had news for you, but you were a little...overzealous…”

“I was overzealous?” Yang replied before laughing.  “Ok, I’ll take that.  What news?”

“I finished the maps.”

Yang’s eyes widened at the response before flitting to the desk and back to Blake.

“Really?”

“Finished right before you showed up,” Blake said with a nod.  “So...you’re the first one to know.”

She’d been too exhausted to tell anyone else.  Although that exhaustion had disappeared the instant Yang stepped into her room…

“Wow.  Can’t believe you finished them...and fast, too.”

“It didn’t feel fast, believe me.”

When Blake rolled her eyes, Yang smiled.

“I feel like I should reward you or something...”

For a split second, Blake considered turning down the offer.  But after accepting every other overture so far, what was the point in saying no now?

The opportunity disappeared when a wave of energy rumbled through the walls, rocking the ship and making them both sit straight up in bed.

“What was that?” Blake asked while Yang looked around, her eyes red and alert.

“Nothing good.”

As soon as Yang jumped out of bed, Blake followed.

“We’re not supposed to have visitors,” Yang explained while throwing on her clothes and finding her armor.  Seconds later, an alarm tore through the air, making them briefly freeze before moving even faster.

“What’re the chances you’ll stay here?”

“Less than zero,” Blake replied while slipping her knife into her pocket, hearing Yang swear under her breath as she hurried to the door.

“Then stay close,” was all she said before rushing out of the room with Blake on her heels.

The alarm was even louder in the hall, where it combined with flashing emergency lights and Blackguards yelling and sprinting every which way.

“Hey!” Yang shouted at a young man racing down the hall.  “What the hell’s going on?”

“We just got droned!” he shouted back, hardly slowing his pace.  “Adam wants all squads activated now!”

“Alliance?” Yang asked while the man carried on his mission and Blake’s blood ran cold.  Why would Alliance drone the ship if they knew she was here?

“Shit, we need to clear them out.”

When Yang took off running, Blake was right behind her.  Phaser blasts sounded nearby, followed by shouts and cries of pain.  Underneath the sounds of battle, however, was a droning noise that grew louder by the second.

Flying around a corner, she nearly crashed into Yang’s back when Yang slid to a stop.  She hardly righted herself when she saw it - the blue and black attack drone hovering just in front of them.  With multiple phasers built into a reinforced metal hull and sensors that could detect heartbeats and radiant body heat, it wasn’t something to be trifled with.

And it had already spotted them.

“Surrender or face lethal consequences,” it ordered them - the only warning it would give.

“Um, hell no.”

Grabbing Blake’s hand, Yang dragged her out of the way as the drone opened fire.  Phaser blasts hit the floor where they just stood, but they were sprinting down the next hallway by the time the device switched into pursuit mode.

“We have five minutes to get rid of these things before shock troops arrive,” Yang explained while tearing down the corridor, though Blake didn’t need the explanation.  She knew the procedure well because she’d been trained for it, and the last thing she wanted was a fight with Alliance officers on this ship.

“I can turn them off,” she blurted out.  “If you can hold them still, I can turn them off.”

Yang shot her a glance but didn’t question the disclosure as they sprinted down the hall with a drone on their heels.  Over her pounding heartbeat, she heard more drones, more gunfire, and more cries of pain in the distance.  No matter what, she had to keep ISA off the ship.  She couldn’t watch her fellow agents die just because Command made the mistake of droning the Inferno.

“Get ready,” Yang said as she led them around another corner, only to groan when they saw the hallway up ahead.  “Shit.  The kid.”

Ret stood in the middle of the hall, looking completely overwhelmed while holding a phaser in one shaking hand.  And they just led a maniacal shooting device right to him.

Yang recognized the dilemma at the same time Blake did, and responded by sliding to a stop and turning back the way they came.  Blake hardly had time to react before Yang sprinted to the corner and, the instant the drone flew past the wall, leveled it with her right hand.  The force of the blow sent it crashing into the wall, and Blake pulled out her knife while Yang followed up with another powerful punch.

“Hold it!” Blake yelled over the frantic whirring of its motors.

As soon as Yang grabbed the drone by one of its phasers and dragged it closer to the floor, it started firing in all directions, leaving red-hot burns everywhere.  While it struggled to free itself from Yang’s grasp, Blake slid underneath, flipped her blade in her hand, and jabbed it into the tiny, cleverly-concealed slot on the bottom of the device.  A counterclockwise twist cut power to the rotors, and the device instantly fell silent.

“Damn, you weren’t kidding,” Yang breathed out while dropping the disabled drone to the floor.  With no time for more than that, Blake stood and rushed over to Ret.

“Ret, stay here,” she ordered while opening the door to the nearest room and pushing him inside.

“But I can help!”

“No.  Stay here.”  In no mood for an argument, she took the phaser from his hands and handed it to Yang, who quickly holstered it.  “Stay,” she ordered him one more time before nodding to Yang.

With nothing more than that nod, the two of them raced away in search of more drones.  Depending on the size of the ship waiting to breach the Inferno, there could be as few as five to as many as thirty drones on board.  Blake hoped for five, but there was too much commotion going on for it to be that low of a number.

“Left,” she said when she heard buzzing nearby.

Yang turned left at the next fork in the hall only to spring back when shots whipped past.  The drone appeared a second later, and Blake threw herself behind a stack of containers as it opened fire.  Yang crouched behind a set of lockers on the other side of the hall and met Blake’s gaze, but she only stayed there for a second before moving forward.

Blake had no idea what Yang was going to do, but she stood to support and flinched when a near-miss burned across her shoulder.  Yang, however, ripped off one of the locker doors and used it as a shield to rush the drone straight on.  Once close enough, she lowered the makeshift shield and smashed it into the drone with so much power that the locker door bent in on itself while the drone crashed into the wall.

Wasting no time, Blake raced over to help.  Yang grabbed the drone and tore off one of the phasers, then did her best to hold it steady while Blake ducked underneath and disabled it.  The whirring stopped, only to be replaced by a loud clanging in the vents running between the walls.  When the sound quickly disappeared above them, Yang glanced at the wall then at Blake.

“We need to get to the bridge,” she said, and Blake followed without question.

Incapacitating the captain or preventing a jump would be ISA’s priority.  As long as the drones secured the bridge, the Inferno was stuck.  And as long as the Inferno was stuck, Alliance had an easy way on board.

Making it to the lifts, they rushed inside and caught their breath on the short trip to the command center.  When the doors opened, Yang held out an arm to keep Blake from rushing out.  Instead, she peeked around the corner and raised two fingers.

Two drones were stationed outside the bridge.  Those would watch each direction in the hallway while several more kept tabs on the navigation crew.

‘Bum rush?’ Yang mouthed, but didn’t even give Blake time to ask what that meant before sprinting out of the lift and directly at the drones.  Quickly understanding the strategy, which was suicidal, Blake tore after her as the drones opened fire.

They were too late, as Yang had already reached them and knocked one into the wall before grabbing the other and dragging it to the floor.  Knowing they only had a fraction of a second to work, Blake slid underneath the device and jabbed a few times before getting her blade in the right spot and twisting.

One down.  But no time to celebrate, as the first drone righted itself and spun towards them.  Yang put her fist through its hull with a loud crunch of metal on metal, but it reacted with such wild movements that it became impossible for Blake to get underneath.

“Hold it still!” she yelled, ducking out of the way as one of the rotors passed dangerously close to her cheek.

“I’m - trying -”

Spotting an opening, Blake dove forward and stuck her knife into the drone.  Before she could disable it though, it jerked to the side, ripping the blade right out of her hands and sending it skittering across the hall.

“Any - day now,” Yang huffed as Blake raced to collect the knife and the drone fought to get airborne.

As soon as Blake got her hand on the knife, she dove back under the drone, jabbed the blade into the bottom of it, and twisted.  The rotors fell silent as the drone dropped to the floor, and Yang wasted no time sprinting to the doorway of the bridge.

Just inside - four more drones, which immediately turned their way.

“Shit.”

Yang shoved Blake out of the way as phaser fire covered the floor where they just stood, but that moment caused just enough of a distraction for the other Blackguards to fight back.  Chaos immediately erupted in the room, and Yang wasted no time joining.

“Jump!” Adam shouted while Blake raced after Yang, running on pure adrenaline now.

One of the pilots tried to make it to the navigation system only to be taken down by a wayward phaser shot.  Those who were unarmed cowered behind desks and terminals while the drones and Adam’s guards exchanged volleys of superheated air.

“Jump!” Adam roared again, but no one attempted to reach the Inferno’s controls this time.  They were too busy fighting for their lives.

“Blake!”

Turning towards Yang’s voice, Blake found that Yang had grabbed another drone.  That drone then dove to the side, sending her crashing into one of the desks with it, but she refused to let go.  Meanwhile, the other Blackguards tried to corral the rest of them.

So much was going on - so many people shouting and shooting and calling for help - but Blake fell back on her training.  One thing at a time.  She couldn’t control everything, but she could do one thing at a time.  And first, she would help Yang.

Racing over, she stopped and ducked backward when the drone flew towards her head.  Still wielding her knife in one hand, she projected its path and leapt that way before it even got there.  One stab upward, twist sideways, and it fell silent.

The lifeless device hadn’t even hit the floor before Yang ran towards the next.  Blake stayed right on her heels but let her choose the path of attack.  When Yang planted her foot on one of the chairs and launched herself at the drone from behind, Blake slid underneath the desk and met them as they crashed to the floor.  While it struggled to take off, one of the other Blackguards threw himself on top of it to keep it down.

“Flip it!” Yang shouted while pulling the drone sideways.  The blades whirred with new life, and it nearly got out of their grip while Blake searched for the right spot.  But, upon finding it, she had it turned off a second later.

Hearing just one left, she leapt to her feet, turned around, and found it right in her face.  There was the briefest of pauses as it scanned her, but she wasted no time flipping the knife in her hand and throwing it into the space where the rotors attached to the shell.  The blade hardly left her hand before she sprinted after it, and the drone finally fired, but she ducked the shot before popping back up, tearing out her knife, and stabbing it into the bottom of the drone.  The next second, it fell lifeless to the floor.

In the sudden silence that followed, she looked up and found Adam staring at her.  But that look only lasted a second before he turned back to the room and shouted, “Jump!”

Now that the coast was clear, the pilots scrambled back to their stations to see out the order.  A second later, the Inferno jumped, and everyone on the bridge let out an audible sigh of relief.  Another few minutes and they would have had an even worse battle on their hands, but they somehow avoided that fate - today.

“How did you know that?”  When Blake looked over, Yang motioned to the scrapped drone at their feet.  “How’d you know how to turn them off?”

“Not my first rodeo.”

While Yang took the response at face value, Adam didn’t so much as blink.  The look in his eyes made Blake squirm, and she couldn’t escape the feeling that she just gave something away.

The drone made only a split-second hesitation, but he saw it.  Would he convince himself that it was just his mind playing tricks on him?  Or would he think that it paused because it matched Blake’s facial scan in its database?

Thankfully, he turned away after not too long.

“I want to know how they found us.  And clean this junk up,” he demanded while kicking one of the drones.  “Cinder,” he added with a jerk of his head before disappearing from the bridge, and Cinder strode after him without a word.

While several crew members rushed over to start the cleanup, Yang motioned for Blake to follow her and hurried out of the room.

“Let them deal with that,” she explained after they stepped into a lift.  “Pretty sure we did enough heavy lifting for now.”

“Right.”

Watching the numbers on the wall while the lift lowered away from the bridge, Blake replayed that moment again in her head.  The drone.  The pause.  The look in Adam’s eyes.

“Come on.”

Once the doors opened, Yang nudged Blake’s shoulder and walked into the hall.  Without much thought, Blake followed.  It was only when she walked into Yang’s room and heard the door close behind her that she realized how familiar this place was.  Not only familiar but...comforting.  Here, she felt like she could be the closest thing to herself.

Right now, she needed a place to worry.  So, while Yang sat down and pulled off her armor, she paced the length of the room and did just that.  Her heart and mind were still racing, and not from fighting off the drones.  This wasn’t adrenaline - it was fear.

She could explain it as a misunderstanding during the heat of battle, but she doubted Adam would believe anything she said over his interpretation.  Then what could she say?  The drone must have malfunctioned?  Overheated its phaser?  Suffered temporary targeting difficulties?

”Are you ok?”

Pulled from her thoughts, she turned towards Yang, who looked concerned by her silence.

“Yes,” she lied.  “I’m just...”

Shaken was a good word.  Worried.  Scared.

“You know what cures the jitters?”

The moment Yang stood up and held out her arms, Blake laughed.

“You do have a kink, don’t you?”

“A big one, yeah.”

When Yang wrapped her in a warm, gentle hug, she sighed and returned the embrace.  After only a few seconds, her heartbeat slowed, her adrenaline dissipated, and her worry about what Adam had or hadn’t seen faded to the background.

“Are you ok?” Yang whispered while running her hand up and down Blake’s back.  “You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

“No...I’m fine.”

“Good.”

The longer Yang ran her hand across Blake’s back, the better she felt, as if the warmth of Yang’s palm kept the stress away.  She teased Yang for the ‘kink,’ but she would gladly stand here for hours and hours on end.

“So…” Yang added after enough silence had passed.  “I know I wanted you to stay in your room...but that was really hot.”

Laughing at the compliment, Blake leaned back and lowered her arms to Yang’s waist.

“Thanks, I guess?”

“I’m serious.  Who taught you how to fight like that?”

The very people who unleashed the drones on the ship...

“Picked up bits and pieces throughout my travels, and my dad taught me some when I was little.  Blades are a big thing on Menagerie.”

Realizing that she just deviated from her cover story, she held her breath and waited for Yang’s reaction.  Thankfully, Yang just chuckled and gently clutched her sides.

“Well I’m really grateful to your dad right now.”  Meeting Blake’s gaze, Yang gave a hesitant smile before adding a soft, “For more reasons than one.”

When Blake’s heart cartwheeled in her chest, she scolded herself and tried to control her emotions.  But that was hard when Yang was like this - this different person who she wanted to see more and more of.

“So...in the interest of really bringing out my kinks…”

When Yang trailed off and stepped away, Blake frowned in confusion and sadness at the loss of Yang’s touch.  Yang wasn’t gone for long, however, as she grabbed Blake’s old ISA knife off of the desk and extended it with a grin.  Blake, however, stared at the weapon before giving Yang an incredulous look.

“I hope you’re not asking me to hurt you, because you haven’t pissed me off that much yet.”

“Noted.”  After a light laugh, Yang waved the knife.  “I want to see you use this.”

“And how will you defend yourself?”

“Easy.”

When Yang raised her metal arm and grinned, Blake rolled her eyes and grabbed the blade.  After re-familiarizing herself with the weight and balance, she spun it around to a proper grip.  That was when she noticed how Yang was staring at her.

“Not gonna lie,” Yang said while raising her fists.  “I’m hoping this ends up in my bed again.”

“If you’re lucky.”

Blake spun the blade again and, as soon as she heard Yang’s joyful laugh, smiled.

“You know, ever since you showed up, I’ve felt the luckiest I have in a long time.”

Blake’s heart fluttered at the comment, and she briefly considered dwelling on it - maybe even asking Yang to elaborate.  Recognizing that now wasn’t the time, however, she smiled and raised the knife.

“You’re going to need it,” she teased, springing forward the moment Yang looked ready.