Quick PSA: Takes place after the end of Vol. 3 - fair warning if you're not caught up just yet.

This one has been sitting on the shelf for a few weeks now. Wrote up the original form of this story with the intent on keeping it extremely short. After going through the initial plunge with Peppermint, I thought I'll try the venture of a more serious project and decided to expand upon Salvage. I've got an ending penned out already, the goal is to get this one into the ball park of 10 chapters - no promises.

Curls that glowed as bright as the summer sun in the early morning flashed before amber eyes as the owner of them looked up from her book.

"Hmm." Lilac eyes impatiently awaited those amber eyes to focus on them.

No one was around them to see this precious secret the two have been hiding. Neither of the two participants did not care in the slightest that they've been acting like two school children - hiding behind corners, holding hands when no one suspected, and sneaking in a loving kiss here and there. Because they enjoyed it. The two could have cared less about who knew, but there was certain thrill to keeping it hidden.

"Yang…" Her voice had a wary undertone as she steadily eyed the blonde. Blake was curled up on her bed getting into her novel and Yang currently stood over her, the brawler had her hand on the top bunk, the other had made its way to the novel.

A typical reaction from Blake Belladonna would be to pull away before a soul would come near her precious book and then proceed to glare at the criminal who would dare to do such a thing.

But that was not the case, not at all for Yang Xiao Long.

A mischievous look told Blake everything she needed to know; she couldn't deny what was coming next, not that she wanted to.

The brawler smiled into the lips of her favorite Faunus, Yang was enveloped by the smell of blossoms wet with dew, and she thought of early dawn whenever she kissed her.

"I'll never get tired of this." Yang smiled cheekily as Blake pulled away, with greedy eyes she moved in for another.

Only to meet the leather bound cover of Blake's novel "I was just getting to a good part." She thumbed back to the page where she left off.

"But c'mon!" The brawler let out exasperatedly.

The reader cleared her throat, "Last time I let you have your way."

"Touché." Yang took a seat on the bed and leaned back against the wall, Blake extended her legs and placed them atop of the blonde's lap. "Now all these thoughts of you looking from under me with that predator look of yours is making me restless." She ran her hand up and down the cream colored skin of the Faunus. "You can't blame me for being so-"

"Submissive?" Blake cut in with a knowing smile, "If I recall, it wasn't too hard to get you on your back." She licked her lips, "So much for being the Huntress," Amber eyes stared into lilac ones as if they just cornered a very gullible prey, "you so proudly tout yourself to be. You're more like the prey you like to say you pounce on."

Yang swallowed hard as she felt her heart race, "It takes a bit to take me down."

"Liar." Blake shifted forward, her bookmark sticking out from the page she just finished. With a fluid motion she reached out her arms and began to stroke the brawlers right arm, the Faunus knew how much pride the brawler took in her strength. She knew that it stroked a part of her ego whenever she ran her hands along the muscles of her arm.

Yang was no push over, but for her favorite Faunus she was willing to make an exception.

The brawler inhaled that dew covered blossom scent, it was addicting and it made her heart race. But the more she breathed in the more it seemed to be stained with iron. And smoke. And used Dust powder. And blood.

Through a haze she could see a bleeding Blake holding on to her hand, tears running down her face, a stream of apologies flowed from the Faunus. All Yang wanted was to see her smile instead, to tell her it was okay.

But she couldn't.

"Don't leave me alone… please."

Drenched curls that were reminiscent of a wilted sunflower sat straight up. The winter afternoon air bit slightly at her sweat, she struggled to regain her breath.

"Fuck." Yang clenched her only fist as she bit the inside of her cheek, "Why…" Her anger seemed to boil over at the thought.

The world owed her nothing, it didn't matter what she did, because all good things came to an end. Bad things happen for no reason, and sometimes you were just never meant to have the things you thought you needed.

Friends. Family. Love.

Her friends had been killed. Her mom was nowhere to be found, despite her best attempts. Blake had done the one thing she never wanted her to do. Ever.

And that was leave.

Leave her alone in this world, this world that owed her nothing, this world that would never be fair to her, this world that was so keen on keeping her alone and in the dark.

She lifted her right arm to pound on the wall next to her, but all it did was remind her of how horribly disfigured she had become.

"Fucking Dust! Why?!" Yang roared in frustration.

Taiyang came barreling into the room where his eldest rested. A mess of blonde locks was bent over crying into her knees, a string of curses fell from her lips.

"It'll be okay." Taiyang tried to put out reassuringly, although he himself was unsure at what to do at this point. Never had he ever been in a position as such.

"No!" Yang proclaimed as her voice strained, "I should've died! Now look at me!" The stub of her arm waved about.

The gentle memory of Blake stroking her arm while in bed flashed through Yang's mind.

"I'm better off dead…" She sobbed as the memory played again.

Her father's face grew stern, his own temper starting to flare at his daughter's insistence of such a negative attitude. After everything that has happened… Taiyang shook his head and took a deep breath. If he were to snap, he would only add to his daughter's animosity.

Instead, he did what he remembered doing for… his first wife.

With strong arms he enveloped the smaller girl into an embrace. At first she pounded with all her might on his back, yelling to let go, biting into his shoulder.

But he refused. Taiyang bore through; he was a damn good Huntsman, and an even better father.

Just like Summer said he would always be.

It seemed like hours before Yang would calm down, eventually her screams turned into sobs, which would subside into gentle cries.

"You'll be okay." Taiyang repeated, this time with utmost confidence.

"What makes you so sure?" Yang's voice was muffled against his shoulder.

A rather confident grin broke out from him, "Because you're Xiao Long, but most importantly you're my daughter." He planted a kiss on her forehead.

"…I'll believe you Dad." Yang let out.

An abrupt rumble of her stomach rang throughout the air.

First the two looked at each other, then a fit of laughter erupted from the two.

"I've got some food going down stairs, I'll bring you some." He got up to go.

Only to hear the sounds of shuffling behind him, "Let's eat at the table."

Taiyang smiled, a tear threatened to spill from his eye as he wrapped a reassuring arm around his daughter's waist.

'Qrow, you better be watching over Ruby right now.' Taiyang thought to himself as he led his daughter down stairs.

It had been 3 weeks since Ruby ran off to Mistral, normally he would've ran after her and corralled her back, but Yang needed him more and Qrow gave him a drunken promise to look after her as he stalked off in his self-assured way.

Sometimes Taiyang just wanted to give his brother figure a piece of his mind. And by mind he meant his fist. Both fists, actually.

The following day, Yang got up. Which may not seem significant, but it was. The brawler got up and did her morning routine, albeit with great difficulty as she is – was – right handed.

Taiyang hung around the corner of the hallway, he was anxious that Yang would regress into her previous state. He wanted her to get better, to cope, to adapt, but in order to do that she needed to learn to help herself.

And she did, with a string of colorful words following her every action. Although his daughter had a very profane vocabulary, he was proud as he heard Yang come down the stairs, dressed in sweats and a long sleeve shirt.

Taiyang smiled every so lovingly as he planted a kiss on his daughter's forehead.

"Dad." Yang looked up at him, he nodded in response, puzzled at what it was that his daughter was thinking. "I want to go after Ruby."

"No." Taiyang turned heel into the kitchen, not fast enough as a blur of yellow came in front of him. "Yang, you can't. I won't let you." He eyed her, "It's too dangerous."

"Train me, train me like you did before I left for Beacon." There was a fire in her eyes as she looked defiantly, "Or else I'll run off too." An empty threat.

Or so Taiyang wanted to believe.

"Yang, you're strong, probably one of the strongest girls out there." A smile was earned from the impatient teenager. "But with your current condition it's not possible for you to become a Huntress."

"I won't take that for an answer, if you won't train me, I'll train myself." An angered expression took over, "I call bullshit, I can become a Huntress." Yang's defiant tone rang throughout the home, "I need to get out there Dad, I can't sit by and let them get away with what they did to me, what they did to Blake-" Yang cut off abruptly at the mention of the name.

Taiyang raised a brow at the name, he's heard this name several times now in this household. Especially while his eldest was initially recovering from her wounds, every time he heard a noise in the night and went to check on her room he would hear that name. He was thankful that her Semblance had cauterized the limb when her arm was initially cut off, thereby mitigating the threat of her bleeding out.

He wanted to press her on who Blake was, which he was about to until he saw the look on her face.

She was about to take 3 steps back and become a recluse again, is what his instincts were telling him.

"I'll train you." Taiyang quickly put out, this snapped Yang from her thoughts. "But I won't go easy, just because you're handicapped now-" He raised his hand to cut off the eccentric teen from interjecting "Doesn't mean that your adversaries will take it easy on you."

Yang grinned as her mood started to pick up.

"We'll start in a few days, for now, get used to moving around because you've spent so much time moping in bed." Taiyang teased lightly, attentively he observed his daughter's reaction to the comment.

"Psh, c'mon Dad, I bet I could give you a run for your money, even with one arm." Yang smirked as she shook her hand at him, "It'll just be an even better story to tell once I meet up with Ruby again."

That night, Yang crawled silently into bed, her Dad was up late going over some paperwork for Signal and digging up some training plans he kept in his closet. The road was going to be tough for her, but Yang was determined to get back out there.

She believed in Taiyang's words that she'll be okay, because right now those words seem to be the only thing she could cling to.

Her thoughts drifted, to her sister who took over what was left of JNPR, how her little sister was holding up, how she should be there for her, to watch her back because Yang had doubts that Jaune could do that proficiently. She thought of the Snow Princess and how her father came in full force to bring her back to Atlas, a sour look was prevalent on her face as it was more than obvious she was reluctant to go.

The fall of Beacon… Ruby held some sort of impressive power deep within her. Yang pondered if such a power was coursing through her veins as well.

Then to the scent of blossoms covered in dew, the sound of a low purr as her hand went over velvet ears, a discarded bow that Yang wish she wouldn't wear more often, the feel of her skin against hers…

"Why did you leave me?" A tear escaped as Yang lifted her one good arm on to her eyes, "I never wanted you to leave me alone."

Instead of reeling in pain, she bit her cheek as she focused on something else. Her anger. Anger at the one for leaving her. Anger at the person for causing this situation. Anger at the mastermind behind this all.

She just wanted to rage.

Hopefully you'll enjoy the ride - 'till the next chapter.

Cheers,

DevilRed