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Vacuo nights got cold. When the sun sank below the horizon, the desert winds turned biting, the dunes losing their burning heat and wrapping those unfortunate enough to be exposed to the elements in a chill that stung to the bone; which, of course, meant that the refugees from Mantle were right at home. The Atlesians, used to their artificially controlled climate and central heating, grumbled and groaned, incurring no small amount of mockery from both Mantle refugees and native Vacuans. (Nobody commented on the Valean refugees’ similar struggles; it was almost funny how much more sympathetic Vacuans could be to people who understood that they were guests.)
All of this meant, of course, that Blake was fucking freezing. It wasn’t as cold as Solitas, sure, but she hadn’t been expected to sleep out in the Solitas tundra! The Shade-provided blanket, light and gauzy, provided no protection against the chill wind howling against the window, rattling through the stone building. Blake curled up, teeth chattering, head against the pillow, hoping to at least try and get some sleep, but between the wind howling, the sound of her own teeth, and the sobbing noises from the other room, she doubted she’d… get much… wait a moment.
Blake sat up, listening closely, ears flicking towards the other rooms. Ruby, breathing deeply and easily; not OK, not even close to OK, but… getting there. Weiss, tossing and turning, fretting about Winter; their resident Winter Maiden had been running herself ragged, and Weiss hadn’t been able to get through to her despite her best efforts. And… Yang, wracked with deep, seething sobs. Blake’s heart dropped into her stomach, and in her scramble to get out of bed, she found herself tangled up in her sheets. She tried to shadow-clone her way out, but only succeeded in getting herself further tangled. She bit back a curse of annoyance and took a breath, then carefully picked her way out of the sheets.
She stepped out into the hallway, the carpet soft against her bare feet, running a hand against the limestone wall as she picked out first Ruby’s room, then Weiss’s, then finally Yang’s. The door was locked, but that was no obstacle to Blake; a few hairpins, and the deadbolt clicked open, granting her entry. The room was bare, as expected; they’d lost pretty much all of their stuff in Atlas, and none of them had been particularly in the mood to go shopping to replace the knick-knacks and possessions that had gone in the fall. Blake quietly approached the lump in the blankets and seated herself on the edge of the bed. “Hey.”
Yang’s head emerged from the blankets, a watery, unconvincing grin plastered on her face. “Hey, Blake.”
“Everything OK? I heard you, uh…” Even now, Blake wasn’t entirely sure how to say, Hey, I heard you crying and want to make it better. She wasn’t used to this role, to being the team’s rock. That had always been Ruby… and look what that had done to her.
Blake shook herself. This wasn’t about the team. This was about Yang, the radiant girl that had walked into Blake’s life and turned it to gold, pulling her from the shadows and giving her a solid foundation for the first time since she’d been a child, something to stay and fight for. Blake would give anything for her, and now she would prove it.
Yang laughed hoarsely. “Y-yeah, yeah, I’m OK.”
Blake reached under the blankets and gripped Yang’s hand. “Yang…”
Yang’s hand tightened around Blake’s, grin disappearing. “I still can’t… how could she?”
Blake winced, flashes of a teacup and a tree coursing through her brain like lightning, a venomous “Shut. Up,” that had torn at one of the cornerstones of her family still lingering in the dark place that had spent so long occupied by His memory. “Still thinking about Ruby?”
Yang let out a punched-out noise like an injured animal, her eyes going a blazing red. “She just… she tried to… a-and I couldn’t… how could I have been there for her if she wouldn’t let me?”
Blake ran her thumb over the back of Yang’s hand, tracing shapes into her soft skin. “I know, beloved, I know.”
Yang’s other hand, her metal one, gripped the sheets, the cybernetic creaking with the force of it. “I keep seeing it. The look on her face as she… a-and I just stood there…! Why didn’t I do something? I’m supposed to… she’s my sister, how could I have not seen this coming?”
“Shh,” Blake whispered, hand reaching up to cup Yang’s cheek. “None of us saw it coming. If you’re at fault for what… what Ruby was going through… then so are Weiss and I.”
“But she’s my sister! I’m supposed to protect her, and I… and she tried to leave forever, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it…”
Blake wiped a fresh tear from Yang’s face, watching her eyes fade back to lilac. “Yang, listen to me. Ruby’s going to be alright. Maybe we couldn’t be there for her then… maybe we failed her,” and at this, Yang let out a fresh sob, but Blake held her close, “but we won’t fail her now. She needs us now more than ever.”
Yang let out another sob, something inside Blake crumbling at the noise. “What if I needed her here for me? She’s… she’s all I’ve…”
Blake leaned in, pressing her forehead to Yang’s. “I know it’s hard. I should’ve seen the signs too. That place she was in… I’ve been there before. I should’ve reached out, shouldn’t have been so wrapped up in the fairytale of the Ever After…”
“Blake, no, you didn’t—”
Blake closed her eyes. “But she’s here now. I know it hurts, but… you let me try. You let me come back. You let people in, you hold them close, even when they’ve… even when I hurt you, you accepted me back with open arms and gave me a chance to fix it.”
“Th-that’s not… you were going through so much—”
“And so was Ruby. She was going through so much pain… but that doesn’t make your feelings matter any less. So… let her try, the way you let me.”
Yang shuddered, leaning into Blake’s touch as the tears spilled forth, hot and bitter, and Blake closed her arms around her, holding her close, breathing her in, as Yang shook and cried into Blake’s embrace, holding her steady, soothing her with gentle hands tracing circles on her back.
“That’s it… let it out. It’s OK, Yang, I’m here.”
As Yang’s tears ran dry, Blake wiped them, feeling firmly rooted; if this was what being there for someone was, if this was what it meant to stay and fight, then it was a task she’d gladly accept a thousand times over. Yang let out a great shuddering exhale, and the tears ceased. They lay down together, any thoughts of Blake returning to her room ignored, and Yang murmured into the darkness, “I’m going to make it up to her. Take her out for boba or something. I won’t fail her again.”
Blake kissed her neck, eyes closing. “Don’t forget about yourself, either. You deserve to heal with her, too.”
Yang let out a soft sigh, and they lay there together, legs intertwined.
Blake basked in the warmth.