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Princess and The Dragons	By : RWBYRemnants Category: +M through R > RWBY Views: 1054 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: RWBY is not mine and I make no money from this fic

Chapter List
- 18
- 19
- 20
=Chapter 19
The apartment above the gentleman's clothing store was comfortable enough from an objective standpoint. Homey. However, Weiss was never going to be comfortable there. Even after this ordeal was over, it would always remind her of having to watch as her girlfriend suffered. She hoped she never had to see the threadbare old oriental rug, the crystal chandelier, the upright honky tonk piano in the corner, ever again.
“She's going to be fine,” Blake reassured her, even though she still looked nearly as shaken as she had in Mountain Glenn. “They said the arm was just dislocated. Popped right back into the socket. She'll have to go easy on it for a little while, let those muscles heal that were stretched and torn, but it's better than a break.”
“Mmmm.”
“Come on, speak up,” she half-snorted. “It's not like you to be this quiet.”
“I'm just… worried.” Drawing her knees up into the old armchair with its paisley upholstery, she glanced over at the other Dragon in her matching seat. “I thought no one would get hurt this way, and…”
The girl's amber eyes focused on the rug. “Life's hard sometimes. But… I kinda know what you mean. Now I feel stupid for thinking this way, but I always believed Yang was invincible. So strong and brave, and kind, and larger than life…”
“Yeah! And here we are waiting for her to recover from just falling off her motorcycle. It sounds ridiculous, but it isn't.”
“I have to admit, I really didn't understand why my mother was so upset about this when I heard the announcement. But now, I get it.”
The two girls lapsed into silence for a time, gazing at the rug and trying to sort through their own emotions. Weiss mostly felt relief, but the entire incident had shaken her on a deep level in much the same way it had Blake. Was that going to be the rest of her life now? Continually finding herself and perilous situations, fighting for her life? It boggled her poor, sheltered mind. But deeper down… she knew she would do it all again for Yang. In a heartbeat.
Their silent vigil was only interrupted when Watts came in from the bedroom door, still ringing his hands in a towel. Salem stood and approached him immediately. Weiss was a little surprised that she hadn't taken off that cloak of hers in all that time waiting, but she had more important concerns at the moment.
“It's going to be fine,” he told them in an inpatient voice. “I've set her arm and bandaged her other wounds. There's going to be a lot of bruising but as far as I can tell, no internal bleeding or other fractures. If she starts experiencing any other symptoms, bring her straight back and we'll re-evaluate when the time comes.”
The High Dragon bowed her hooded head. “It seems we owe you a debt.”
“You don't.” His shrewd eyes slid over to Weiss and softened very slightly. “The debt has been paid in advance. And speaking of which, if you'll excuse me…”
“Wait,” Weiss protested before he could leave. “Can I- well, what I mean is, can we see her?”
Almost as if against his better judgement, he flashed her a tight smile. “She'll be out in a moment.” Then he did vanish into the confines of his “examination room”.
“I’m going to take my leave,” Salem said, and almost immediately, Sienna was up and opening the door for her. “I trust you and the Duchess to ensure she makes it home safely?”
“Of course, High Dragon,” Kali said with a slight bow of her head. “Don’t worry.”
“I never do with you around.” Then she smirked at Weiss. “And maybe the same goes for you. Take care of my apprentice.”
Once the woman and her driver had left, Weiss gulped and approached Blake’s mother. “What is that supposed to mean? Should I be worried?”
“No, it’s a good sign. She sees how much of your heart is focused on her warlord - how loyal you are. Of course, she may try to exploit that in the future, but… for now, it keeps you from being mistrusted.” Kali looked very slightly apologetic about casting the situation in that light, but was smiling all the same.
“Oh. Well… I appreciate you being honest with me.”
“Anytime, sweetie.” Then she craned her head. “Blake? Would you mind going in and seeing what’s taking Yang so long?”
Blake only had time to stand before the door opened on its own. Yang looked battered and worn down, but she was in decent spirits; she smiled the instant she saw Weiss, for instance. The smile was a little lopsided due to a puffy bruise on her cheek, and the bandages around her head made her hair look quite odd, indeed. Still, she was whole, and awake, and alive.
“Anybody get the license plate of that Mack truck that ran me down?”
Weiss flew to her side and slid her arms as gently around her love's middle as she could manage. All her heart wanted to squeeze, but her mind knew that would cause more agony than comfort.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered earnestly. “You… this was supposed to be safer!”
“It was safer for you,” she chuckled in a raspy voice. “‘Cept you wound up jumping down a hole anyway. Are you crazy?”
“Crazy for you.”
The simple line got Yang melting like a stick of butter in a bonfire. She pressed a kiss into Weiss's head through her hair. “Thanks. Still don't think you should have done it, but… thank you.”
“Let's go before Watts decides you need to pay for his services, after all,” Kali said with a slight smile.
“Right. Lead the way, Mrs. B.”

Given that Yang's Harley was now being repaired by whomever Salem used for such things, Kali offered to drive Yang home in her car. She and Weiss took the back seat. Blake went straight home on her motorcycle, though it was quite obvious that she wanted to tag along and help.
“Oh boy,” Weiss muttered nervously as they pulled up in front of Raven's house. “Here we go again…”
“Here we go? What do you mean? Oh, right - I think you did mention before that she threatened you with gunfire the last time you stopped by.” Kali paused their conversation to get out and open the rear door on Yang's side of the car. “Can you push while I pull?”
“I'm not a sack of potatoes,” Yang protested, even as the two were doing as Kali had suggested.
“Don't worry about Raven. I know how to handle her. And I promise, I won't let anything bad happen to you, Weiss.”
Sighing as she got out of the car herself and took up Yang's hand, she whispered, “Thank you. I just hope you're right.”
This time, the first knock at the door was actually answered. A minute or so later, it was yanked open to reveal the pale, evil-eyed woman who had last threatened Weiss with a mortal wound if she didn't vacate the premises immediately. She was dressed in overalls and a long-sleeved red shirt, one of the overall straps unbuttoned and dangling down toward her waist.
“What?”
“Now now, Raven, is that any way to greet an old friend?” Kali was trying for a cheerful tone, but it came across almost business-like.
“If I see one, I'll greet them differently.”
“Droll.” Her head nodded sideways toward Yang, who was curiously silent and staring down at the ratty old welcome mat beneath her boots. “Your daughter got a little banged up today. I would think she would have called you to let you know about it, but then again, you don't seem to know how to pick up the phone.”
Even while the murderous red pools were narrowing at Kali, Yang spoke up in a very subdued voice. “Thanks for the lift, girls. I can take it from here.”
“Oh?” Weiss said. “But I thought we… could…”
Just that one sentence fragment was enough to get Raven's attention on her. “Didn't I warn you never to come back here?”
“Raven Branwen,” Kali snapped. “You're even more of a bitch than the last time we spoke.”
“Yes, I am.” She strode forward until their noses and chests were nearly touching. “I'll shoot you too if you don't clear out of here.”
“Enough. We care about Yang more than you do, by the looks of it. And you're really going to turn us out of your home? Before we've even had the chance to come in?”
“She's already been in once,” she hissed sharply, and Weiss felt her cheeks bloom with redness.
“She was doing your job! Making sure your daughter was okay! Or don't you care about that anymore?”
Hackles raised end hands curling into fists, Raven took another step forward until their noses actually were touching now. “Get out.”
“That isn't going to work on me like it does on unsuspecting childre-”
Everything happened so fast that Weiss couldn't follow all of the movements with her eyes. One moment, the two women were staring each other down - the next, Raven was holding Kali up against the wall, face grinding into the door frame and arm pulled up into the middle of her back. Both a gun and a dagger were lying on the porch between their four feet.
“Ah!” Kali gasped in pain.
“You knew you weren't welcome here,” Raven snarled, sounding almost deadly calm if not for the clear pulse of anger in every other word. “Thought I made that crystal clear. If you ever come back again, I won't be so ni-”
But Kali wasn't quite finished. The heel of her shoe came down hard on Raven's toes, which were only protected by mere stockings at the moment. As she howled with pain, Kali whirled, gripped the lapels of her grimy overalls and tossed her through the open door into the living room.
“RAVEN!” Yang gasped, sprinting inside to crouch over her mother's form. Kali calmly picked up the two weapons and slipped them into her clothes - Weiss couldn't tell how she did that, either, or where they wound up.
“You got a lotta nerve,” Raven snapped as she began to sit up - only for Kali's boot to push down into her stomach and keep her still. “Hey!”
“No, you've had your turn, you overgrown brat. Now you will listen.” Her eyes closed for a moment, and her finger and thumb pinched at the bridge of her nose. “This is somehow actually worse than the rumble we were supposed to have today…”
Raven's tone was now extremely put upon. “I don't care. Whatever it is you have to say to me, save it. I don't want to hear-”
“You have a beautiful, strong, caring, capable daughter who only wants to have fun with her friends and enjoy a few dates. Who tries to do the right thing when she can. And you couldn't care less. It's reprehensible. I know… that I smother my own daughter a little bit, embarrass her sometimes, but it's far better than letting her believe for even a second that I don't love her. Maybe you are capable of doing that for Yang, or maybe you're not. But you could at least try pretending a little bit harder for her sake.”
“Why? What's the point?” Though she was shouting up at Kali, Weiss couldn't help noticing that her eyes never strayed toward Yang once during that conversation. As if by doing so, she could make believe she wasn't there. “Life is cruel, and the world is cold. It doesn't care what you want or who you love! You should know that better than anyone, right?”
Kali's face became a mask, almost as rigid and foreboding as the one Raven had worn the last time Weiss was in that living room. “That wasn't my fault. I couldn't change my entire plan for the future simply because your feelings got hurt!”
“What…?” Yang breathed in mild surprise, looking between the two of them.
“And I can't change my plan simply because you've decided you're somehow my mother now, Belladonna. I've made my life, and I've made my decisions, and I'm going to stick to them. The same way you did. So you can either get the hell out of my house and leave me alone, let me try to patch up my stupid daughter, or we can keep fighting about this. But I promise you those are our only two options in this situation. Keep coming back and rattling my cage, and I really will kill you.”
“You will not,” she sighed in annoyance, even while both Yang and Weiss were flinching from the threat. “Stop that. We both know you're a giant kitten and those threats aren't fooling anyone.”
“They're fooling me!” Weiss hissed.
“You don't know me as well as you think you do,” Raven said in a bored tone of voice. “Just stop embarrassing both of us and leave.”
The two women spent a good ten seconds glaring at each other from their different vantage points: Kali still standing on top of her, Raven still barely propped up on her elbows. The former's voice was a little softer when she said, “We both made our choices, Raven. Just because you want to believe mine was so much worse doesn't mean I was the only one who chose wrong.”
“Fine. I'll give you that. Now go.”
“No.”
“Haven't you been listening? I said I'm going to kill you if you don't leave me the hell alone!”
“And I said that Young Schnee and I are going to help your daughter get set up in her room! End of discussion! So you can either start warming up some chicken noodle soup for her, or you can lie there in the middle of the floor like a complete imbecile and prove to me what a waste of human skin you have become!”
For a long, highly tense moment, the two older women simply stared at each other as if doing so could make the other one burst into flames. Then Raven turned aside to glare at nothing. It seemed that she was conceding defeat. Without another word, Kali reached down to help Yang to her feet, and the three of them made their way down the hall.
“'Young Schnee'?”
“Shush,” Kali murmured, though she did smile very slightly. “Just trying to mention you so she knew it was a package deal and wouldn’t try to run you off. Again.”
“You guys shouldn’t be messing with her so much,” Yang whispered as they entered her room. Weiss wanted to stop and look around everywhere, to absorb the inner sanctum of the girl who meant so much to her, but she was pretty distracted by their circumstances. “She's kind of a dangerous woman. And not in the fun way.”
“Then maybe you shouldn't live with her,” Weiss said as they settled Yang on the bed. It was a pretty simple twin bed, the sheets a plain pale blue color.
“Where else am I going to go? Qrow and Ruby's? They hate me.” Weiss flinched, privately thinking Yang was at least wrong about Ruby, but there was no time to bring it up. “And your parents sure as hell don't want me around. Face it, I'm stuck with my square of a mom who sometimes points guns at my friends.”
Kali sighed as she began to pull off Yang's boots. It seemed she had shifted into Mom Mode without consciously meaning to do so. “She wasn't like this when we knew each other. Close, but not quite this… unpleasant.”
“Yeah. She, uh… never talks about you. Even when I bring you up in conversation.”
“Fabulous.”
Both the shortness of the answer and the deadpan tone with which Kali delivered it gave Weiss concern. But she decided there was something she needed to know a lot more urgently then she needed to console Blake's mother.
“What really happened between you two? And don't just say that she left the Dragons and that's the only reason you had a falling out. I can't believe that.”
“It’s a long story you wouldn’t enjoy,” she laughed. “Maybe I should start cleaning up in here; I can’t believe what a sty you let this become!”
Weiss’s hand clamped onto her arm before she could stand. “I don’t mind long stories. Do you, Yang?”
“Nope,” Yang said, though she looked less than enthused about hearing the rest of the tale. “Go for it.”
The woman was silent for a long few seconds, hazel eyes staring at the curtained window above Yang's battered old dresser. At first, Weiss started to think that she was never going to reply at all. It turned out she was simply choosing her words carefully before she began.
“Maybe we were never truly friends in the first place. At least, not in the way most girls are. But we were both Dragons, in a time when the Dragons was a very different gang. We used to have men, you know. Doesn't that sound crazy now?” She chuckled quietly, even while Weiss let out a quiet gasp of shock. “And we were always by each other's sides. Even though we had our respective boyfriends, I could tell that her interest in me was not strictly platonic. She always was a real bearcat. And sure, Boston Marriages existed back then, but as I said… the Dragons were very young, and hadn't established themselves as a safe place for ladies to love ladies quite yet. So she wound up with the Founder, and I with my big burly grizzly.”
“Wait, wait…” Weiss sat forward on the bed, her brow furrowing. “Was ‘the Founder’ some kind of nickname? Or was Yang’s father really one of the first Dragons?”
To her surprise, it was Yang who answered, “Nah. My dad was the first Dragon. I mean, he and his friends at the time were, and Raven and Kali. The name of the gang is from our family name, Xiao Long. Didn't… I tell you that?”
“No!” she gasped, completely caught off guard. But at least Yang looked authentically surprised that the subject has never come up before. Then again, they didn’t spend a lot of time discussing her Chinese heritage.
“It's true,” Mrs. Belladonna went on, hands folded on her lap. “Really quite revolutionary for the time: before Taiyang made this new gang of his, women could only hope to be the girlfriends of gangsters. 'Molls’ as some would put it. He saw how strong Raven and I were, and a few other women, and thought there was no reason there shouldn't be a co-ed version of the Huntsmen. We could all watch each other’s backs, not just the men with us in supporting roles. I suppose it worked for a little while, but eventually, most of the men went back to their old organization. And the Dragons became the den of lesbian iniquity that it is today.”
Despite the wry tone with which the last line was spoken, Weiss felt like she had a lot more to think about. This whole time she had never once questioned how the Dragons began. Even being one of them now! But it actually made a lot of sense: most girls she knew had no interest in such activities, and would much rather go to the beauty parlor or split a malted at the diner. Prepare for motherhood and wifehood. Even the average “liberated” woman who had found a new sense of solitary purpose after joining the workforce during World War II didn't go quite so far as to assume that men were irrelevant.
That was unique to the Dragons, as far as she could tell. It was kind of a shame that the only place women were equal to men was organized crime.
“It happened gradually,” Kali went on, oblivious to Weiss's internal monologue. “Raven would make disparaging remarks about my Ghira, but never tolerate the same about her beau. I could tell she wanted to have both of us all to herself. And I don't think she even realized that's what she was doing; please don't think I'm trying to paint her as being manipulative, or a two-timer. But eventually, we both had enough of the constant arguments and she left the Dragons at the same time her husband did.
“They were never really happy. We kept in touch for a little while after that, but around the time Taiyang ‘replaced’ her with Summer Rose, she pulled away. Stopped coming around Junior's, stopped answering my calls… my letters. Shut everyone out. I know she felt deeply betrayed by the two people she had cared about the most, even if it was an unreasonable feeling. Sometimes we just can't help how we feel. But knowing the reason why I lost my best friend didn't make it hurt less.”
By now, neither of the two girls had much to say. This was all new information to Weiss for sure, but Yang even seemed surprised by some details. As if she had known all the facts without ever being exposed to the emotional footnotes.
“Mrs. B… I'm sorry,” Yang breathed softly as she could, seeming to shrink in on herself as she leaned against the wall. “My mom is a real piece of work, alright, but I never knew… well, I'm real sorry.”
Kali's smile was still bittersweet as she stared at the dirty carpeting. “She's the parent, not you. So thanks, but the apology isn't necessary.”
“Well, I think this sounds ridiculous,” Weiss snapped, arms folding in front of her chest. “She should have… I don't know, talked to you? Tried to have a conversation in which you both understood each other a little better? It's completely unacceptable!”
“What would we have said that we didn’t already say? Raven was determined to see herself as the victim of two cold-hearted people who just…” In a rare moment without her shields up, Kali had to clear her throat to rid it of that trembling quality that signalled tears might come soon. “We wanted to love her in different ways than she wanted to be loved. Things were said that we might not ever be able to take back. But it’s all in the past. My only concern now is that Raven isn’t… isn’t taking out her frustrations with the world on her own daughter.”
There was a loud clank from the doorway. They all turned to look, but though footsteps could be heard throughout the hallway, all they could see was a TV tray with a bowl of soup sitting on the floor. A little had sloshed onto the packet of saltines when she set it down hastily.
“Oh…” Kali covered her mouth with her hand, looking legitimately ashamed of herself. “Oh dear.”
Weiss picked up the tray and looked for Raven, but didn’t see her. Then she returned to the bed, gazing down at the soup. “Chicken noodle.” It was still hot, too, steam rising gently from the pale yellow liquid.
“This is my fault. I shouldn’t have been talking about her in her own home. I’m sorry, girls.”
While Yang was struggling with what to say, Weiss set the tray down. “I need to use the ladies’ room. Can one of you point the way?”
“Sure,” the current Dragon said numbly, her fingers just barely touching the handle of the spoon. She looked both fascinated by it and detached, as if not really sure that it was real. That anything was real. “End of the hall, opposite the way you came in. Can’t, uh, can’t miss it.”
“Thank you.”
On her way back from the bathroom, Weiss felt a little nosy. All she could think about was Kali’s story, and Raven’s reaction to overhearing the bit she did. What was her home life really like? It seemed to be as bad as Weiss’s - just in different ways. A little curiosity never seemed to hurt Nancy Drew…
The hallway closet only held linens and some assorted things like a seldom-used vacuum cleaner, some broken pieces of a chair. The master bedroom was even more spartan than Yang’s; at least Yang had a school pennant and a radio. This room literally had nothing but furniture, including an unmade bed. Her own mother had always told her that an unmade bed was the sign of madness… but then again, that had been before she went a little mad herself.
She was about to rejoin her fellow Dragons when she heard a brief crash of glass from the living room. Barely glancing into the room at where Kali was rubbing up and down Yang’s back, comforting her as they both faced away from the door, she continued on to investigate.
The first thing she noticed was a mess of broken glass below a wide stain of brown, just next to the TV. Some kind of liquor, by the smell of it. Then she saw Raven slumped in an armchair, eyes glaring at the stain as if daring it to speak out against her.
Then she noticed Weiss standing there and shot to her feet, wrapping her hand around her neck. This time, she was sure she was about to die.
- 18
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Princess and The Dragons