Leap of Faith - Chapter 1 (Patreon)

Heyo!  Here is my entry for Bumbleby Big Bang this year.  If you aren't familiar with Bumbleby Big Bang, it's a community event where writers are paired with artists to create both a story and a work of art!  The story has to be at least 15k words (hence big, I think?) and posted all at once.  I went a bit over, but oh well.  I hope you enjoy!  I'm posting it a day early for you all because you deserve it.  lol  I'll link the artwork tomorrow once it's posted!

***

Yang lifted her glass to her lips and let her eyes dart around the dim room, searching for anyone of interest in a bar where everyone was interesting.  The tall man with a wide-brimmed hat tilted to mask his face as he ignored the drink in front of him.  The loud couple draped all over each other, who raised their voices whenever someone walked past.  Two young men whispering over a scrap of paper on the rickety wooden table between them.  The faux-military man perched on a stool at the other end of the bar from her, his gaze flicking her way every few seconds.

They were all the wrong type of interesting, but Yang set her glass down and tapped her right hand against the countertop as the minutes ticked past, watching a small red line blip on the screen set into her wrist with each tiny jolt.  The floorboards creaked and groaned with every new arrival or departing patron.  Ice cubes clinked against glasses.  Voices rose and fell.  A mosquito buzzed near her ear, which she swatted away as her phone chirped in her pocket.

The upbeat sound chafed against the vaguely immoral undertone in the air, but she answered the call with hardly a glance at the screen.

“What’s up, Ruby?”

“Where are you?  I just went by your place and no one’s there, then I check your arm and find you in the middle of nowhere?”

“Sorry, got sidetracked.  Staying a few more days.”

“You mean you’re on another wild goose chase.”

Yang frowned and glanced toward the end of the bar when the bartender started speaking to the faux-military man in a low voice.

“Something like that…” she muttered, noticing their glance just as much as she noticed Ruby’s heavy sigh.  The ensuing silence said more than words could.  Yang heard it, and understood it, but waited for Ruby to continue.

“Why don’t you let me help?  I can be on a flight tomorrow morning -”

“No, that’s fine.”  Even though Ruby couldn't see her, Yang shook her head.  “Don’t want to mess up the whole ‘girlfriend’ thing you’ve got going on,” she added with a light chuckle.  “Besides, you know I work better alone.”

“Weiss could come, too…” Ruby mumbled before sighing.  “How’s the arm holding up?”

Yang held up her right arm and curled her fingers into a fist.  The bright yellow and black metal plating was noticeably robotic, yet the sleek design perfectly mimicked a natural arm’s flexibility.  It gleamed unnaturally even in the bar’s low light, still flawless and free of scars despite the rigorous use she put it through.

“You know this thing will outlast me,” she concluded while tapping the screen embedded where her normal ‘wrist’ should be.

“That’s the plan.  Someone will dig it out of the ground centuries from now and it’ll still be good as new.”

“How’d I end up in the ground?” Yang asked, her gaze flitting to the door when two lean men in fatigues walked in.

“I don’t know…caught in an avalanche?”

Yang chuckled at the thought, and her heart lifted when Ruby softly joined in.

“Just…be careful, ok?” Ruby added.  Yang could practically see Ruby’s pleading silver eyes and laughed lightly.

“You know me…”

“I do know you.  And I know you get yourself into more crazy situations than should be possible for one person.”  Ruby waited for a rebuttal that wouldn't come before sighing again.  “I like having a sister, you know.  I’d like to keep you around.”

“Love you too, Ruby.  I’ll call you as soon as I’m on my way home, ok?  Promise.”

Ruby playfully grumbled something under her breath before exhaling and saying, “Love you, too.”  Only then did Yang end the call, and she smiled at Ruby’s grinning photo on the screen before pocketing her phone.

The bartender came over almost immediately.  “Another?” he asked, nodding to her glass while wiping his hands on a dirty towel.

“Sure.”

She slid the glass across the counter while he grabbed bottles and ingredients to mix another drink.  As he moved around the bar, she noticed a black hawk tattooed on his inner wrist.

“Armed forces?” she asked, nodding to the mark when he glanced over.

“Yup.  Did two tours in Vacuo.  You?”

“Ember Force,” she answered.  “Been free for three years.”

He let out a long, low whistle while setting down a bottle of alcohol.

“You guys were crazy.  We saw you drop in once - miles behind enemy lines.  We came in after - place was a mess, but you got the job done.”  While a wry smile tugged at Yang’s lips, he set the glass in front of her and nodded to her arm.  “That how you got the arm?”

“You know it.”  She curled her metal fingers around the glass, feeling none of the ice or condensation.

“What’s it made of?”

“Not sure.  Metal and stuff, I guess.”

“Never seen a metal like that before.”

The military man was paying attention now, his ear turned to the conversation despite staring straight ahead.  Yang glanced at him before smiling at the bartender.

“Yeah, me neither.  But they give you an arm, you take the arm.”  When he chuckled, she tapped her fist against the counter and noticed the military man’s attention fading away.  “I’m not from around here though,” she added.  “Just passing through.”

“People don’t usually ‘pass through’ all the way out here.”

“You’re right.  But I’m looking for someone.”  Now that the opportunity had presented itself, she leaned forward.  “Raven Branwen?”

She searched his posture for any hint of recognition, but he shrugged and didn’t look up from his work.

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Really?  I heard she’s around here often.  Can’t imagine she wouldn't stop by.”

Another shrug, this one slightly apologetic as he set the filled glass in front of her.

“Sorry, never heard of her.  But people don’t exactly use their real names around here.”

The response seemed genuine - or, at least, not overtly a lie - so Yang nodded, sipped her drink, then dropped some bills on the counter and walked out.  The floorboards creaked under her boots and several sets of eyes followed her, but she shoved open the door with nothing more than a light sigh.

Warm, sticky air and an orchestra of insect noises greeted her outside.  The sunset cast an orange-red glow that provided some light to see by.  Otherwise, the bar - more like a shack out in the middle of nowhere - would have been shrouded in darkness.  A collection of rugged or beaten down vehicles sat around the dirt patch designated as a parking area, amongst which her shiny, black and yellow motorcycle was conspicuously out of place.

After swinging her leg over the bike, she sat down and pulled out her phone rather than start the engine.  Swatting away mosquitoes, she absentmindedly scrolled through old messages and waited.

She didn’t have to wait long.  The door to the bar opened seconds later, and the loud couple strolled out arm-in-arm.  The woman, with her straw-colored hair pulled back in a ponytail, glanced around before locking onto Yang and tugging her companion over.

“Hey, honey,” she greeted Yang with all the warmth of an old friend.  “A little bird said you’re looking for someone.”

“I might be.”  Yang sat back and crossed her arms, eyeing the pair as they stopped several paces away.  “What’s it to you?”

“We know these parts better than anyone,” the woman replied before squeezing her beau’s arm and smiling up at him.  “Well, Toby does, at least.”

The young man grinned, revealing several dark gaps where teeth should be.  Yang squinted at them, trying and failing to imagine them as anything other than a pair of ne’er-do-wells caught on the fringes of society.  They didn’t strike her as particularly dangerous though, and certainly not a problem she couldn't deal with on her own.

“I’m looking for Raven,” she answered, only for her interest to double when Toby arched his brow and studied her with equal curiosity.

“Toby?” the woman prodded.  “You know a Raven?”

He mulled over his response for a good few seconds before nodding.  “Yeah, do,” he mumbled.  “Sure you want to find her?” he asked, squinting at Yang as if trying to read her mind.

“I’m sure.”

“Camp’s not far.”  He pointed over Yang’s shoulder, down the dirt ‘road’ leading further into the forest.

“How much?” Yang asked, knowing that a stranger’s help didn’t come for free.  The woman’s gaze slid over Yang’s arm, the silver metal sparkled in the fading light, before returning to Yang’s eyes.

“Five thousand Lien.”

Yang huffed at the steep price but, considering this was the closest she’d ever gotten to her goal, shook her head and said, “Half now, half when we reach the camp.”

Toby and the unnamed woman glanced at each other before Toby shrugged and the woman beamed.  Finally separating from each other, she flounced over to Yang and held up her phone.  Yang set up the transfer and sent the money, watching the woman’s screen light up when it was received.  The woman beamed before pocketing her phone and saying, “Follow us.”

Toby started up a dirty four-wheeler with roll bars and no seatbelts to speak of, so Yang started her motorcycle and lightly revved the engine.  As soon as the woman had settled in, Toby gunned it out of the parking lot, spraying a cloud of dirt and gravel in the vehicle’s wake.  Yang rolled her eyes and followed them down the rarely traveled path cutting through Mistral’s fabled forests.

The sun setting and the dense trees on all sides quickly smothered any lingering light from the air, leaving only her bike’s headlights to see by.  Her eyes flitted from one side of the road to the other, spooked by the misshapen shadows cast by the trees.

They drove so far into the wilderness that she considered turning around and cutting her losses, but she hadn’t come this far just to give up.  Besides, if Raven was out here, she would be tucked someplace that the rest of Remnant forgot.  That was exactly the type of place where Yang found herself when the four-wheeler finally pulled off of the path and stopped.

“About a mile,” Toby explained, nodding to the trees when Yang pulled up beside them and hopped off her bike.  She frowned at the wall of darkness, but Toby tossed her a small torch before finding one for himself and his girlfriend.  He then took the young woman’s hand and dove into the forest.  Yang glanced around before taking a deep breath and following.

The pair whispered up ahead, but Yang couldn't pick out much more than tone as she picked her way through undergrowth and fallen trees.  After trekking through the forest for what felt like a lifetime, the woman’s ceaseless banter stopped, and Yang discovered why when she saw a soft orange glow through the trees up ahead.

Toby motioned for them to ditch their torches, which he quietly buried under a pile of leaves before waving Yang after him.  Her pulse started to pound as they crept closer to the light, and she subconsciously tapped her wrist, checking the battery, when she realized that this might actually be it.  She finally found Raven’s camp.

Any thought about confronting Raven disappeared when she heard the soft, metal click of a gun’s hammer snapping into place.  Adrenaline flooded her veins as she slowly turned around.  The young woman stood behind her, aiming a gun at her chest while her boyfriend unsheathed a long, jagged hunting knife.

“Ready to pay up, honey?” the woman said, malice dripping from her tone and smile.  “The price has gone up though - we want that instead.”

She jerked her head to Yang’s prosthetic arm, but Yang balled her fingers into a fist.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” the woman chided.  “Everyone can walk out of here in one piece.  You’ll just be one piece short.”

When Toby huffed at the joke, the woman grinned at him.  Yang jumped on the brief moment of distraction, tearing the gun from the woman’s hand, crushing the muzzle in her metal grasp, and tossing it aside.  “Hey!” the woman yelled while Toby leaped into action, slicing his knife at Yang as she ducked and backed away.

“That was a good gun, you bitch!” the woman shrieked while Yang tracked Toby’s blade back and forth, making sure to always keep him in front of her.  A sharp whistle ripped through the air, rousing shouts and sounds of life from the nearby camp.

With help on the way, Toby lunged at Yang again.  She leaped forward at the same time, deflecting the blade with her right arm before leveling her left fist in his stomach.  The air left his lungs as he stumbled backward, giving her just enough space to spin and knock the knife from his hand with her boot.

A gunshot cracked through the air and a bullet pinged off of her metal arm before burying itself into a nearby tree trunk.  She glanced at her arm, none the worse for wear, before spotting the dark figures racing to join the fray.  Spotting the forward group of at least six, and who knew how many weapons, she cocked her arm back and punched forward with every ounce of energy she had.  The stored energy released in a shockwave that knocked the oncoming group from their feet and threw them into the trees with yelps followed by grunts or groans of pain.

Before they recovered, she picked an arbitrary direction and took off.  Branches and leaves whipped across her arms and face as she stumbled through the forest, relying on the camplights until left with nothing but faint moonlight to see by.  She heard the calls and shouts behind her then ducked as gunshots preceded bullets whistling past or shattering the branches above her head.

She cut to the left, toward slightly more breathable space, only to gasp and crash to the ground when what felt like a sledgehammer hit her side.  Groaning in pain, she pressed her hand to her stomach only to feel it covered in warm, sticky blood.

“Shit…” she mumbled, pushing herself back to her feet and staggering onward.  The gunshots and voices sounded further away, and moving in a different direction, but she kept going, bumping into trees and tripping over rocks while searching for a way back to civilization.

Only when the gunshots stopped did she pause and lean against a tree, sucking in deep breaths and keeping her left hand pressed to her side.  She patted her pocket and, finding it empty, looked around the forest floor before leaning her head back against the tree and grimacing.  Her phone must have flown out of her pocket during her tumble, and there was no way she would find it in the darkness.

Gritting her teeth, she straightened up and willed herself onward.  She could hardly see anything until it was nearly right in front of her face, but that made the small pocket of light ahead of her even easier to see.  She stumbled towards it, hoping it would lead her to help of some kind, only for disappointment to swell in her chest when she got closer and realized it was just moonlight.

The forest gave way to an expanse of grassy plains bathed in a silver glow.  The shift happened so abruptly that Yang would have thought it was mad-made were it not for the lack of any other man-made structures to be found.

Lightheaded and breathing heavily, she dropped to her knees and struggled to catch her breath.  Unsuccessful, she tenderly removed her hand from her side and softly cried out as the dark wound gaped at her.  Deep red blood soaked her jacket and covered her hand, and she didn’t need to be a doctor to know that she was losing too much, too fast.

But, faced with a vast expanse of wilderness, she didn’t see what more she could do about it.  She collapsed to the ground instead, holding her hand to the wound and staring up at the sky.  The stars looked brighter and clearer than she remembered.  Of course, she couldn't remember the last time she stopped to look at them.

But even those dimmed as the edges of her vision blackened.

Her ears started buzzing - a soft, low buzz that gradually grew louder.  She thought that she could hear helicopters circling up above.  Rapid gunfire.  Frantic voices.  Crackling radios.

Stay with me, Corporal.  That’s an order.

“Was never…good at following orders…” she huffed before her eyes drifted shut.

**

She gasped and jolted up, instinctively reaching for her side and blinking in the blinding daylight.  Her shirt had been shoved up around her chest - her jacket was crumpled up on the ground several feet away - and a large patch of some sort of flexible, black fabric covered the bullet wound.  The material looked rough and cross-hatched, almost like woven canvas or kevlar, but was smooth as silk to the touch.

“What…?” she breathed out, running her fingers over the patch without experiencing any of the pain that she vividly remembered from last night.  Looking around, she found that she was laying in the shade cast by the large rock outcropping behind her.  Soft, cool grass surrounded her and carried on across the sweeping, rolling plains in front of her.  There were no cities, no buildings…no roads, even.

She touched her side again before discovering a much smaller black patch stuck to her upper arm - this one with tiny, blinking white lights on it.  The lights flickered in a pattern that she couldn't understand.  Just as she reached up to pull it off, however, she froze as someone jumped down from a nearby ledge and landed directly in front of her.  The girl locked eyes with her and froze just as quickly, both of them staring, neither of them moving a muscle.

Considering Yang was out in the middle of nowhere, she wouldn't have expected to run across another living being for days, much less a girl her age wearing a black, skin-tight outfit.  The sleeveless top had cutouts showing off her collarbones and upper chest while the leggings clung to her hips and legs.  Yang could just make out what looked like thin silver threads weaving through the fabric, which by itself was enough to draw everyone’s gaze back home.  Yang’s attention, however, caught and stayed on the feline ears poking out through her jet-black hair.  They swiveled and moved independently, tracking sounds that Yang couldn't hear while amber eyes bored through her.

“Uh, hi?” Yang eventually said.  The sound broke the girl out of her trance, and she walked over.

“You’re finally awake,” she replied, her voice smooth as honey.

“Yeah, I’m - who are you?  Where am I?”

“You’re in Menagerie, and you’re trespassing.”

“Menager-what?”  Yang looked around as if there might be a road sign or some other obvious explanation for what was going on.  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to trespass,” she added when the girl crouched several feet away from her.  “I was just…running for my life a little bit.”

“Running from who?”

“A group of…thieves, I guess.  Maybe murderers - I didn’t stick around to find out.  You haven’t seen them around, have you?  They’re dangerous.”

“You’re the only human I’ve seen.”  When Yang exhaled in relief, the girl pointed at her prosthetic.  “Your arm.  Where did you get it?”

“Oh, uh, you know, just picked it up at the arm store.”

Yang flashed a cheeky grin, but the girl didn’t flinch.

“It’s made of faunium.  All faunium belongs to Menagerie.”

“Except for this batch,” Yang replied, flexing her metal fingers.  “This fauninium or whatever belongs to me.”

“Faunium,” the girl corrected.  “Where did you get it?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because it belongs to Menagerie.”

“I don’t even know what Menagerie is,” Yang pointed out.  When the girl frowned, she took a deep breath and released it in a slow, steady exhale.  “Ok, let’s start over.  Can I ask an important question?”  When the girl narrowed her eyes but didn’t respond, Yang pointed at her side.  “Did you do this?”

Amber eyes flitted to the black patch and, when a nod slowly arrived, Yang smiled.

“Then thank you.  For saving my life.”

One of the girl’s ears flicked, and then her frown eased into a half-smile.

“Well, it was either that or let you die, and letting you die didn’t seem like a nice thing to do.”

“I appreciate that,” Yang said, chuckling at the dry sense of humor.  “Now, what’s up with my arm?”

“It’s made of faunium.”  The girl tapped one of the silver plates of metal on Yang’s arm.  “Faunium belongs to Menagerie, so how did you get it?”

“You mean this silver stuff?  It was my mom’s.”

“Where did she get it?”

“Never got a chance to ask.”  Yang offered an apologetic smile - understanding, then sympathy, flashed through the girl’s eyes - before holding her arm out in front of her.  “Everyone seems to be interested in it these days though…” she mused before dropping it to her side and shrugging.  The girl pursed her lips but scooted closer, the tension lifting from the air like the sun creeping higher in the sky.

“How’d you get in here?”

“‘In here?’”  Yang looked at the rocks behind her before squinting.  “You mean like…right here?”

“In Menagerie,” the girl replied with a nod.

“Uh…this is just the forest outside Mistral.  Far outside Mistral.  I guess…maybe they call it something else?”  Yang tried to recall seeing a different name on a map but ultimately shook her head.  “What do they call you though?”

“You mean -?”

“Your name?”

The girl leaned back on her heels and shook her head.

“You’re a human.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to be a stranger,” Yang pointed out before extending her hand and saying, “I’m Yang.”

The girl stared at Yang’s hand for a long time before scooting closer and lightly touching two fingers to Yang’s palm.  She then traced the grooves in the metal with her fingertips before weaving her fingers through Yang’s.  Cheeks warming as the rather intimate gesture continued, Yang gently cleared her throat and said, “You’ve, uh, never shaken someone’s hand before?”

The girl immediately withdrew, her brow furrowing and ears swiveling in every direction but towards Yang.

“Blake.”

“Blake,” Yang repeated before smiling.  “See?  Now, we’re friends.”

Blake tilted her head as if unsure whether or not Yang was joking.  Yang, on the other hand, swallowed and then licked her lips.

“Man, I’m thirsty…any chance there’s something to drink around here?”

Yang looked around for any evidence of a stream or other body of water, and Blake watched her for several seconds before shrugging a small, black pack from around her shoulders and removing a black bottle.  She handed it to Yang, who flipped up the cap and sniffed it before taking a sip.  It wasn’t water - it tasted more like an energy drink - but her body didn’t care.  She needed hydration, and it was hydration.  She had hardly taken two large gulps, however, before Blake snatched the bottle away.

“Not so much,” Blake chided while returning the bottle to the bag.  “You’ll make yourself sick.”

“Where were you for boot camp…” Yang muttered before chuckling to herself.  When she licked her lips though, she discovered that those two gulps had been incredibly quenching.  She wasn’t even vaguely thirsty anymore.

She wasn’t in any pain, either.

Looking down at her side, she grabbed the edge of the black bandage and carefully peeled it away from her skin.  “Holy shit,” she muttered when she reached the spot where the bullet had entered.  Now, there was nothing but a faintly red patch of new skin, which she touched with her fingers since she couldn't believe her eyes.  If she didn’t have the memories - the hammer hitting her side, the pain, the warm blood oozing over her fingers - she might think it was all just a dream.

“How -?” she began, looking up and finding Blake rolling the bullet between her fingers.

“I dug this out of you,” she explained, dropping it into the palm of Yang’s hand.  “It’s very…primitive.”

“Still hurts like a bitch though.”  Yang studied the bullet before sighing and tossing it away from her.  It bounced once before disappearing into the grass.  “So I did get shot,” she mused as she again touched her side.  “Doesn’t feel like I got shot…”

She lifted her shirt and searched the rest of her stomach and chest as if another injury might be lurking somewhere.  But, beyond the small red spot on her side and plenty of small scratches from her sprint through the trees, she was fine.

“You have a lot of scars.”

Yang glanced at Blake and chuckled while letting her shirt fall back into place.

“Yeah, that’s what happens when you decide the special forces sounds ‘fun.’”

“Are scars what make the ‘special forces’ special?”

Yang nearly laughed but, with Blake’s genuinely curious gaze on her, shook her head instead.

“It’s an advanced division of the military,” she explained.  “We tend to jump into the worst, most dangerous situations.”

“That doesn’t sound special.  That sounds ill-advised.”

This time, Yang did laugh.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she agreed.  “Maybe they should call it the ‘stupid forces’ instead.”

While Yang kept chuckling - her commander would literally chew her up and spit her out for a comment like that - the remaining tension in Blake’s shoulders disappeared.  She scooted closer to Yang and finally sat down, then pulled her bag into her lap and removed what looked like a head of bright red cabbage.  She then produced a small black knife from somewhere else entirely, which she used to cut the cabbage into small wedges before offering one to Yang.

“Eat this.”

“Is it going to paralyze me so you can steal my kidneys?” Yang asked while staring at it.

“Why would I want your kidneys?  They’re already damaged.”

“What??”

Yang nearly launched into a slew of questions, but she settled down when Blake snickered.

“I’m kidding.  Besides the arm and bullet wound, you’re a remarkably healthy specimen.”

“I think you’re the hottest girl who’s ever called me a ‘specimen.’”

Blake’s left ear twitched at the remark, which prompted Yang’s cheeks to warm again, but a smile curled her lips moments later.

“So you’ve been called a specimen before.”

“No, I -”  When Blake smirked, Yang started laughing again.  “Give me that,” she said, snatching the hunk of bright red something from Blake’s hand.  Ordinarily, she would be far more wary about eating a strange plant offered by a stranger, but Blake was beautiful and funny - and Yang had an enormous soft spot for beautiful, funny girls.

She silently cursed that soft spot when she nibbled at the cabbage and immediately made a face.

“It tastes like dirt, but it’ll help.”

“I’m only doing this to impress you,” Yang replied before forcing the rest of it down.  When Blake smiled and handed her another piece though, she sighed and begrudgingly took it.  ‘Tastes like dirt’ was remarkably accurate, but it was also oddly refreshing.  Almost as if the dirt was somehow purifying her.

“If you weren’t searching for Menagerie, what’re you doing here?” Blake asked while Yang cajoled herself into eating more.

“I’m looking for someone.  I tracked her to the outskirts of Mistral but -”  Thinking back to what happened in the bar and the forest, she shook her head.  “Ran into trouble.  Story of my life.”

“Do people often go missing, where you’re from?”

“In my life?  Yes.  In everyone else’s lives?”  Yang chuckled and shook her head.  “It’s pretty uncommon, thankfully.”  Yang swallowed the last bite and was silently grateful that Blake didn’t hand her another.  “What about you though?”

“What about me?”

“Do you live out here?”

“Out here…in the wilderness?”  When Yang nodded, Blake smiled.  “Do I look like I live out here?”

“No…but I don’t exactly see a city nearby.”

“I live in Menagerie.”

“You said this is Menagerie.”

Yang gestured to the plains and the forest in the distance, and Blake nodded.

“It is.  But there’s a city - I live there.”

“Any reason you’re out here patching up dying ex-spec ops then?”

Blake’s gaze dropped, and she suddenly had much more interest in the small black patch still fixed to Yang’s upper arm.  “I needed a break,” she mumbled while tapping the patch.  It lit up with a variety of small numbers and letters that Yang couldn't read, but Blake hummed and gently peeled it off of Yang’s arm.  She then set it on her wrist, where it melded back into the black fabric and disappeared.

“Ok, that’s pretty trippy.”

Blake tilted her head but then glanced at her wrist and sent Yang something between a smile and a smirk.

“Right.  Your clothing is…rather useless.”  Blake picked up Yang’s jacket and held it between her thumb and index finger as if it was drenched in radioactive waste.  “The fabric rips, holds stains, and doesn’t have any biological monitoring system to speak of.”

“Yeah, these dumb human threads,” Yang said, chuckling as Blake handed over the jacket.  A nasty blood stain marred the left side, and she stuck her finger through the fresh bullet hole.  “Only thing it’s good for is protecting my modesty.  Well, that and keeping out bugs and poisonous plants and stuff.”

After slipping her arms through the sleeves and shrugging it over her shoulders, she gently pushed herself to her feet.  She immediately swayed, but Blake jumped up and set a hand on her waist to steady her.  The action felt instinctive yet protective, and a strange appreciation swelled in Yang’s chest while she beamed at the girl.

Blake seemed to think nothing of keeping her hand on Yang’s side, standing close enough that Yang could see every long, beautiful eyelash framing those gorgeous amber eyes.  Blake was slightly shorter than her, and slimmer in stature, but there was no hiding the sinewy muscles in her arms.

“How do you feel?” Blake asked, searching Yang’s eyes for the answer.  Yang twisted from side to side first, regretfully losing Blake’s hand in the process but thankfully finding no other ill-effects from what would have been her early demise.

“I feel…better than I have in a while, actually.”  Yang felt like she could scale a mountain or run a marathon, but she snuck a grin at Blake.  “Do I even want to know how you healed a bullet wound in under a day?”

“You should just be grateful that we don’t use such primitive science anymore.”

“I can’t tell if you’re calling me primitive or all of humanity primitive.”

Blake considered the question before letting a small smile sneak onto her lips.

“Both.”

“Fair.”

Yang laughed as Blake’s smile grew, and they both ended up standing there, smiling at each other, before long.  Questions swam to the forefront of Yang’s mind but, before she voiced them, Blake tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced away.

“I should help you find your way out of here.”

“I don’t have to go,” Yang replied without thinking.  When Blake’s gaze returned to her, brow raised and amber eyes warm, she doubled down by shaking her head.  “I mean, I bet they’re still searching for me anyway.  I should probably lay low for a bit.  Wait for the heat to die down.”

“You mean for the sun to set?”

Blake looked up at the sky, but Yang chuckled and shook her head.

“No, I mean, like, wait for them to stop looking for me.”

“Oh.”

Blake relaxed, but she tapped her fingers together rather than say what was on her mind.  If Yang didn’t know any better, she would say that Blake wanted her to stick around.  And, considering the brunette beauty had literally just saved her life while also proving to be an incredible conversation partner, Yang saw no harm in granting the mutual wish.

“So, uh, maybe I can hang out for a bit?  You can tell me more about Menagerie?”

Blake’s eyes brightened - possibly the most heartwarming and endearing thing Yang had ever seen - and another gorgeous smile snuck onto her lips.  She didn’t sit back down, however.  She grabbed Yang’s hand and said, “I can show you.”