Hey everyone! My latest fic, published for @flufftober, is out! This fluffy fic fulfills the "Make it Platonic!" challenge by Flufftober 2025 this year, particularly the Alt 6 "First Date" prompt. I will publish fics for the other two prompts for this challenge ("Alt 9. Planning the Perfect Proposal," and "Alt 10. And They Lived Happily Ever After") later this year. Here's the summary of the above-linked fic:

Iku and Asako have their first date-not-date. It is supposed to be a test run before each of them ask out the men they have crushes on. Particularly, Asako wants to help Iku so that she is prepared when she asks out Dojo, her "prince." After leaving the Kantō library base, rain threatens to ruin the get-together. Even so, Asako and Iku continue to enjoy each other's company, whether traveling to a cafe which serves tea, a mall, the park, and many other places across the city…

Anyway, this post overrides my previously pinned post. This fluffy fic can be read fandom-blind without any knowledge whatsoever of Library War, although if you know that fandom, it would certainly increase your enjoyment. This fic has intimate/romantic female friendship, a first date-not-date, platonic kissing, cheek kisses, blushing, teasing, womance, queerplatonic relationships, female/female platonic relationships, Japanese characters, tea drinking, light social commentary, self-acceptance, rain, bad weather, and more!

She didn’t want to be a big sister to her partner.

Blake didn’t seem to like the idea of becoming an extrovert. She certainly had a knack for at least two hobbies. In her desperation to find ANYTHING she could do for her best friend, she even made a misguided attempt to cook some of the native foods Blake didn’t have access to here. All of her endeavors had failed to find that special thing that would give her that dazzling smile of - appreciation wasn’t the word - she wanted Blake to look at her like just for a moment, Yang was her world.

So she changed track entirely. She was going to show her a good time!

“Hey there, partner!”

Looking up from her book, Blake raised a brow to see what sort of shenanigans the fireball was proposing they get up to now.

“I know you’ve been rather underwhelmed by our outings, but I want to try one last thing. Blake Belladonna, will you go out on the town with me this evening?”

At this, her partner set her book down entirely. A look of surprise crossed her face before slowly morphing into a mischievous smirk.

“Why Miss Xiao Long,” she practically purred, “are you suggesting you might want to a ‘better friend to me’ by asking me out on a date?”

Yang’s face immediately went a bright red. “W-what?? N-no I mean NO! I - I just meant if - but like you - we - want”

Blake’s smile turned into a full grin as she softly chuckled at her partner’s flustered response. It became clear she was enjoying this a little too much, but she eventually she took pity on this poor brawler. “Yang, calm down - I know what you meant. And I’d love to paint the town with you tonight. How about we leave around 8 o’clock?” She offered a genuine smile to her still-pink partner.

The sigh of relief let out by the blonde could probably be heard across campus. Closing her eyes and taking a calming breath, she shyly looked back up to her partner. “Yeah,” she whispered, grateful that Blake had taken the lead, “8 o’clock sounds perfect.”

Yang was surprised to find herself back in their room. Thank gods she was alone, because no one should see her this brain-dead.

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“ - but unlike the book, it isn’t always bad. Sometimes, it’s exciting.”

“Hmm,” she replied thoughtfully, “I guess I could maybe give some of them a shot. I’d like to start easy, though. Do you have any recommendations?”

Blake immediately pulled out her scroll and started flicking through pages. Once she found what she was searching for, she scooted up next to Yang to better show her. Their shoulders were touching and the blonde suddenly had to cough, fighting the small blush beginning to form.

“See this? Dustbook is an app that not only lets you recommend and share things with your friends, but also lets your friends know what you’re up to and currently interested in! You can share photos and stories, but I really wanted to show you this group I’m a part of where we share books of all genres. If you make a post with the type of book you’re looking for, loads of members will recommend the perfect stories! Do you already have a profile?”

Yang looked at her as if she were speaking in tongues. “A - a what?”

The girl giggled that adorable laugh before reaching to start searching Yang’s many pockets. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll make you one! Just give me your scroll.”

Her cheeks were burning as Blake freely searched her body. Oh gods. Something please save her before Blake looked up and saw the embarrassment and… something else clearly written across her face.

Heavy breathing that didn’t match her own was suddenly behind her.

“This the buttercup who roughed up your brothers?”

Yang had never been so grateful and relieved to come across a fight. The gods really were on her side.

-------------------

Her pacing must be burning a hole in the floor. She had barely gotten any sleep the night before, thinking of the girl sleeping in the bottom bunk. Watching her kick butt and help Yang demolish a building had sent fire through her veins in a way she’d never known before. Speeding back on Bumblebee, partner wrapped around her waist had been even more thrilling as the brawler practically howled in pure, uninhibited joy. Yang laughed as they dismounted, Blake lightly chuckling behind her.

But that was it.

They said almost nothing to one another as they walked back to their room.

“What a night huh?! I haven’t had that much fun in months! You were a real force in there, Belladonna!”

Blake smiled sweetly at her. “Thank you. It certainly was an eventful night! Speaking of, I need to hit the sack. Goodnight, Yang.”

And that was it. Blake just… went to bed. They had talked for hours, listened to some killer music, kicked some ass, and burned down a building! But all Blake had to say was that it was ‘eventful’. She was almost heartbroken. It really had felt like a date. They had been relaxed, open, heartfelt and talked as though they had known one another their entire lives. Not to mention the pocket stunt that still brought a little blush every time she thought about it.

The blonde shook her head. At the end of the day, she still hadn’t accomplished her mission to find the perfect thing to be a better friend to Blake. Was there something she hadn’t thought of yet?

That was when a bit of conversation came rushing back to her. Dustbook.

Yang scrambled for her scroll and frantically searched to download the app. She could check out Blake’s account to find out some of her hidden or forgotten interests to give her the perfect day!!! Fingers flying, she set up an account at lightning speed. It prompted her to fill out her profile as she smiled at her genius.

Quick selfie? Check.

Name? Check.

Birthday? Check.

School? Check.

Gender? Check.

Sexuality?

…

Sexuality? She’d never really thought about it before. I mean, she liked that boy band a lot and there had been some cute boys at Signal. She also kinda thought Pyrrha was a snack. Coco was… just kinda a wow. But would she ever want to date them? Hold them?

There certainly only one person she was stalking right now. Only one person who seems to light up the room. One person whose hair she could spend hours running her fingers through. One person she had spent the night obsessing over the way her arms had wrapped around her on Bumbleby and who sent her heart into overdrive as they searched her body. One she had sought for more and more time with. It was pretty clear that she had developed a bad crush on her partner.

If she wanted to do this little Dustbook thing to make Blake happy, Blake would be able to see this profile. And her sexuality. If she put down hetero, would she completely ruin any chance of being more? If she indicated an interest in women, would her partner think Yang had asked her on an actual date? Would she be disgusted and she would lose her best friend? Or worse - what if Blake saw this and liked it? Oh gods. What if she reciprocated. Yang was completely paralyzed with the millions of possibilities and implications this tiny question held. She was screwed.

A loud *thunk* echoed in the room as her head met the desk.

The door slowly creaked open, taking in the mess of blonde hair sprawled on the desk.

“...Yang?”

She met her sister’s question with a groan.

“What’s wrong? Are you ok?”

Wordlessly, Yang put her scroll on the desk in the direction of her sister’s voice.

After a few moments clearly trying to figure out what the problem was, Ruby broke the silence.

“So… which of these are you? Straight, gay, bi, asexual, demi? What do you want to say is your sexuality?”

Are you here?