#scarlet fever

“Fireworks, Weiss. I found fireworks.” Yang shook the box excitedly to emphasize her point.

Weiss stared worriedly at her firebug of a friend. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Yang. It was the fact that the last time Yang had fireworks, she had to smother a field with the brand-new jacket her mother had gotten her. She was lucky her mother never found out. “And you plan to set them off…?”

“Here!” Yang pulled a lighter from her jacket.

“Of course,” Weiss sighed. “Because that sounds perfectly safe.” Pointedly, she looked around. It was a small place. Grass came up in tufts, though it was mostly weeds. There was an old swing set and seesaw. Just behind them were woods. A creek ran between the two. “Doing this. In a public park.”

“No one comes here.” Yang waved her concern away. “Plus, there’s the creak in case of any emergencies.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow. Yang lifted a bucket. Before she could stop it, Weiss’ lip curved into a smile. As always, Yang had learned. Maybe not what Weiss would consider sane. It would have been easier to just not create the possible problem rather than dealing with the symptoms. But that was the difference between Yang and her. It was one she appreciated. There were so many fun things she had done since Yang befriended her. Things she never would’ve done. “Fine.”

Yang lit up like the fires she started. She whooped.

“Bucket first!” Weiss reminded her as Yang opened one.

“Right.” Yang finger gunned, before running to fill the bucket. “Making sure you’re paying attention!”

“Sure.” Weiss rolled her eyes.

The bucket had barely hit the ground before Yang shot back to the fireworks. There was a grin on her face as she lit off the first one. It spun into the air a short distance before popping off, bright colours starbursting from it. Weiss watched each one pop off in turn. About halfway through Yang’s stash, she heard a new voice give an awed ‘ooh’.

Weiss turned toward it at the same time Yang did. The next few seconds appeared in slow motion.

A new firework had been set off. It traveled over their heads. Toward the girl who’d walked up. The firework went off. Sparks flew. In seconds her brown hair was washed partly in orange.

“Shit!” Yang shouted. Weiss watched as realization slowly formed on the girl’s features, brown eyes going wide. She dropped her camera as she reached to pat it out. Suddenly, the fire was gone. Replaced by dripping wet hair. The girl’s chest heaved. Her hands were still by her ears. Stuck uselessly in the air.

“What the fuck?” The girl spoke breathlessly, with what had to be a british accent. Finally Weiss blinked out of her trance.

“I am so sorry,” Yang said worriedly.

“Are you okay?” Weiss asked at the same time.

The girl blinked, seemingly still in her own trance. A tendril of smoke snaked from her hair. “You set me on fire.” At first she looked at the ground. Then her eyes went to Yang. Weiss held her breath. Sure Yang was gonna be chewed out by a stranger. Then the girl let out a disbelieving laugh. It was something that crescendoed to border on the edge of ‘hysterical’ but miraculously never fell off.

Weiss exchanged a worried look with Yang. “Um…”

“I can’t believe-” the girl gasped, “I only thought my brother’d ever do tha-” Another wave of laughter struck. Weiss shared another look with Yang. Because clearlythere was something off with this girl. Maybe she was in shock. Or just crazy since there was no way a sane person would just laugh about something so dangerous happening to them. Except perhaps Yang, but Weiss has known Yang long enough that she’s stopped putting Yang in the ‘sane’ category.

“Are you okay?” Weiss asked once more.

“Great.” The girl gave up double thumbs ups. Suddenly Weiss felt like her and Yang would make a great match. They could be totally insane together.

The thought made Weiss shudder. Two of them. ‘There was nothing to fear but fear itself’. That was fear itself. She didn’t think she could ever prepare for the possibility of them dating if they managed to get any further words out of the girl. Which, okay, maybe the fear was unfounded. It wasn’t guaranteed on first contact that they’d date.

“You sure know how to light up someone’s life.” The girl smiled at Yang.

Dammit. Nevermind.

“What can I say,” Yang grinned back. Brothers, it was like her flirting was instinctual at this point. What had Blake ever seen in her? (Weiss knew what it was. It was exactly what everyone saw- a good friend, a smile that could put people at ease. Except Weiss had seen the twin of that smile throughout their friendship. She’d seen it just an hour ago, when Yang first ran up to her with the fireworks. That smile could put the fear of Oum into anybody. Or, she assumed it could. It definitely put it in her. Of course, she always ended up going along. Someonehad to make sure Yang didn’t end up hurt, afterall!

And… it was fun. What could she say, her friend was fun, sue her.)

“I’m just talented like that,” Yang finished with a wink.

(Fun and stupid.)

“Well, I probably should’ve asked earlier, but do you think I could continue takin’ pictures of your fireworks?” The girl reached down to pick her camera back up and held it with a smile. Yang flipped her lighter.

“Of course,” Yang said.

“Thanks, these are some pretty great shots,” the girl said.

Yang raised an eyebrow and Weiss knew what to expect to come out of her best friend’s mouth next. “I thought you said you were taking pictures of the fireworks, not me.”

“I was actually talking about the short one.” The girl gestured to Weiss with a teasing grin and she gasped in offense despite the heat at her cheeks. It was obviously a joke, but it didn’t make it any less rude. It wasn’t her fault both these girls were giants . (Seriously, Yang was tall . 6’2 tall. And this girl came up to Yang’s nose while she was stuck at chest level. Clearly, height was an unfair metric in life.) “Though if you’re offering to pose for me, I know a great coffeeshop. We could meet there another day and talk about it.”

“It’s a date,” Yang agreed.

“Good,” the girl said. “My name is Velvet, by the way. And what’s the name of my future girlfriend?”

“Future?” Yang repeated.

“If it goes well like I’m hoping. Didn’t you say it was a date?” Velvet asked, causing Yang’s cheeks to flame and Weiss is pretty sure she just saw the impossible. Someone had actually managed to outflirt Yang.

“Y-” Wow. That was an actualstutter from Yang Xiao Long. Yang swallowed. “Yang.”

“Yang,” Velvet repeated with a smile and clapped once. “Now, fireworks?”