The Red Flower

Sienna Khan, former High Leader of the White Fang, had no business crying. Such weakness was beneath her, or at the very least, she had been forced to give off that impression for about a decade. But even before she had taken Ghira’s mantle, Sienna had found it difficult to... be vulnerable like this.

To break down.

“What was the point of it all?” Sienna spat out through the choked sobs. “What did I truly accomplish in the end? Getting stabbed? Chasing your daughter away? Not noticing the psychopath I was inadvertently nurturing?”

The tigress tore her gaze away from her oldest friend’s concerned eyes. The shame etched on her face was palpable. Something Sienna was more than aware of, but nor could she stop. So she despised herself even more.

@sherekhanum​ cont. from X

A light flush of embarrassment colored Blake’s cheeks, as she wrapped an arm around herself. As if that would hide her shame. Swallowing against a dry throat, she could feel the trembling in her frame, a nasty side-effect of the withdrawals she was going through. She had gotten through the worst of it, somehow, but she still needed a bit of detoxing and rest before she could completely kick the tremors. 

Fearful eyes glanced up at her aunt, unveiled vulnerability plain in her gaze. “I didn’t want to come home like this…but I didn’t have anywhere else to go.” Her shaking hands smoothed anxiously over her arms, before falling back to her sides in shame. “Please don’t kill me. I know it’s a lot. I promise I’ll explain.” 

“You damn well better...” Sienna muttered, crossing her arms. Her sharp, golden gaze looked her niece up and down. Blake was a mess, there was no mincing that or fluffing it up.

It’s no surprise that the younger faunus was looking at her with abject fear. After coming back, nearly a year later, having gotten knocked up... Who even did the deed? Last she checked, her niece was still obsessed with that dark, violet-eyed ex of hers.

“Sheranee... I would never kill you. I know you didn’t mean that, but... I need you to know that. That no matter what you did, I would never cast you out. You’re precious to me...”

Sienna reached over and grabbed one of Blake’s cat ears, pulling on it slightly.

"You look like a lot more than just Hell, sheranee." Sienna murmured, looking up her daughter niece up and down.

To put it bluntly, Blake looked like shit.

Which was to be expected, she supposed. Blake had been off the radar ever since Mistral. She, Ghira, and Kali knew that Blake had been heading off towards Atlas (or at least that's the impression they'd been given), but what the fuck happened that Blake... wound up like THIS.

Blake's bags under her eyes had bags. She looked like a fucking skeleton, but despite that there was a slight bump in her frame- Oh, fucking Kurama, she was pregnant.

Blake: “I know you must have mixed feelings about seeing me. But I want you to know, I am so, so, sorry, Auntie. I am so sorry and ashamed of running away. I don't know how I can ever make it up to you. But I'll- How can you forgive me so easily? I thought you would be furious with me.”

Sienna: “I was never angry with you. I was sad because I was afraid you lost your way.”

Blake: “I did lose my way.”

“Impossible. I can still count each of your eyelashes…” Kali mused with a hefty, pouting sigh. Sitting back against Sienna’s hips, her slightly-trembling fingertips curiously traced those flushed features, “It’s not fair, you know. I could never get my lashes as thick as yours…and you don’t even try!”

Those same digits lifted to work loose the top few fastenings on her blouse, the heat of the tent becoming a bit stifling from both alcohol and the approaching summer weather. “If you swallowed your pride and bat them at me on occasion, you could get whatever you want, you know that?” Shrugging the garment off, she exhaled in mild relief as her sweat damp skin found the night air, through the thin, gauzy fabric of her camisole. “Mmm…why must we travel in this heat?” A drop of perspiration trickled down the slope of her throat, before disappearing into the flimsy neckline of that barely-concealing fabric — which left hardly anything to the imagination. “What I wouldn’t give to be lounging on a beach, or swimming in a lake, right now…you might even be able to talk me into skinny-dipping, in this heat.”

“Yes, well, I didn’t exactly ask for them. Genetics. They’re really... ah, annoying.” The tigress sputtered out.

Sienna Khan was screaming. On the inside, anyway. Were she of sound mind, not extremely distracted, and not far too tipsy than she had any right to be, then she might have been thankful that her dark skin hid most of her blush. Most being the operative word, given how rapidly her heart was beating.

Those piercing golden eyes of hers, usually so sharp and delighted on the battlefield, now honed in on every bead of sweat that adorned Kali’s skin. It seemed so unfair. Kali didn’t have the slightest clue what she was doing! How... sensual she was being. What all of this was doing to her...

Sienna clenched her thighs, her throat the equivalent of the Vacuan Desert. “I could, ah... Draw up a cold bath?” The fierce warrior asked slowly, trying not to sound like the blushing and bashful schoolgirl she felt like. Images of Kali’s naked flesh, glistening and wet, surged through Sienna’s mind at the very suggestion. She bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood, if only to distract herself and draw her mind away from such thoughts.

Ah, so she hadn’t heard about Atlas…or Vacuo…or the time Blake had just spent combing what felt like the ends of Remnant for a ghost. That was…both relieving and horrifying. It spared her from the weight of having to endure the inevitable conversation…but only for now. 

Her eyes slipped shut as Sienna’s forehead pressed against her own, and her shoulders released a bit of the tension they bore at the familiar, calming gesture. “Let’s just say…a lot has changed. Some good, some bad…but I don’t think I have the energy for it right now.”

She finally allowed a fraction of that vulnerability to show, her hastily-constructed facade cracking a bit at the curves. But she managed to keep it from shattering entirely. “After dinner. I’m starving. And I haven’t had a chance to say ‘hello’ to Mom, yet. So…” That suggestion hung like a shaky prospect, Blake’s haunted eyes lifting hesitantly, as Sienna pulled back a bit. But…Blake’s willowy fingers didn’t let go of her aunt’s hands. She wasn’t sure why – maybe the starvation of touch…or the lack of comfort and security she’d had access to over the last several months…but she just…couldn’t pry that contact away. It was almost like a silent, wordless plea for something she couldn’t voice. 

“Umm…is she in the kitchens? Or…uh…” a hard swallow, as she struggled to maintain that unaffected composure, hands unconsciously squeezing her aunt’s with more force than she had intended. “Or her office?”

Blake was troubled. Sienna didn’t need to be the young woman’s aunt to see that, it was written all over her face. It was in the way Blake clutched onto her hand as if she were afraid to let go. It was in how... haunted her daughter’s golden eyes were. More so than usual.

What did it say about how she had raised Blake that she had to judge how shaken Blake was by degrees? That it was Blake’s default nowadays?

It looked like the girl was about to break into pieces. If Sienna pushed too much, then Blake surely would. There would be a time to hold her and allow Blake to simply... let it all out. But it would be after dinner, just as Blake had asked. It was best to let Blake tell her tale on her own terms.

“In the kitchens, of course.” Sienna gave her daughter a soft, reassuring smile. “Preparing your favorite meal. When we heard you would be returning, we couldn’t let you have anything less than the warmest of welcomes.”

@sherekhanum cont. from X

“Never could hold his drink, could he?” A wine-stained chuckle tumbled against Sienna’s jawline, as the smaller woman nuzzled drunkenly into her cheek, as if she were a lap-cat trying to scent-mark her. “We, on the other hand, are much more capable, aren’t we?”

Not a full moment later, she tipped forward, sending them both sprawling onto the ornate, Vacuan rug that covered the tent floor. A flurry of laughter erupted from Kali’s lips, as her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders, falling against Sienna’s face with the impact. “Oops!”

Her forehead lowered, pressing against the other’s with a heavy sigh, weight settling against her partner in contrast to the apology she issued, “Sorry, Si...don’t worry, I’ll kiss it and make it better.”

Sienna had been about to haughtily agree with the smaller woman, until Kali completely proved herself wrong almost instantaneously, sending them toppling to the ground. She was thankful that the rug that adorned her tent was so soft. The sudden shock of falling over, Sienna’s alcohol-addled mind slowly processed the position they were in.

That is to say, that Kali was straddling her, laying on top of her. The tiger Faunus’ face exploded into shades of red that had nothing to do with the many drinks she had downed throughout the night. Sienna’s heart skipped a beat.

Was she in heaven? She must have been, for having Kali so tantalizingly close, her breath flush against her tattooed skin, could not be anything more than a dream. If it was, Sienna did not want to wake up.

“Who am I to deny the gift of my closest friend?” Sienna questioned. Despite her best efforts, her words slurred slightly; the aftereffects of a night spent celebrating one of the most important days of the year. “Especially on your birthday! I had to use it!”