Actions

Work Header

Diamonds

Summary:

Blake just can't make these chords work, so she asks Yang if she can use the drums, and suddenly the Ruby Roses have a new song! Band / Music / Songwriting AU. Bumbleby with a side of White Rose.

Notes:

I think most of my writing ideas can be summed up as 'Bumbleby with a side of White Rose'.

Silliness aside, this was a fun fic to write. Enjoy?

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Blake strummed her guitar in a rhythm, drumming on the wood between chords. She'd been at this for hours now, but this song was just not happening yet.


"Hey, Babes! Could I play your drums?" Blake asked Yang. The blonde eyed her curiously.


"You can certainly try, Kitty Cat," Yang answered. This should be fun to watch. Either Blake would impress her with a hot beat or she'd make a fool of herself and make Yang laugh. Blake sat at Yang's tiny drum set and pulled two fresh sticks out of a bag that hung off the side of a floor tom. She spun a stick in one hand and tapped a cymbal lightly.


Yang studied her black-haired beauty as Blake drummed away. She had never seen Blake behind the drums. The way her body moved in time had Yang hypnotized. The tight muscles in her arms danced around as she smashed the snare. Her hair bounced in time, driving Yang wild.


"I didn't think you could play drums, Blakey!" Yang commented, Blake suddenly losing the beat and stopping abruptly. The faunus girl blushed ten shades of red, Yang grinning brightly at her.


"I used to do it a little with my old band, although Wukong was a bit protective of his drums. He always said I played too hard. Then again, he played a lot of Bossa Nova stuff, so he was overly gentle."


"Ooh, did you pick up on any of that stuff? Bossa Nova usually jams..." Yang smiled at the idea, and Blake pondered for a moment before making a beat. Before long, Ruby and Weiss had hopped out of their bed and were dancing. Yang laughed at the two of them.


An idea came to Blake. "Hey, can any of you write over this beat?" She asked them, pausing for a moment. Ruby and Weiss's dancing stopped short, Weiss holding Ruby as she leaned backward. She trusted Weiss not to drop her.


She stood straight and left Weiss's arms anyhow. She picked up her own guitar and tried to make a tune over Blake's beat. Ruby found herself unsatisfied.


"I think it needs some of your tasty chords, Blake..." Ruby told her. Blake grinned and fought the urge to roll her eyes.


"Of course, I have to do all the work!" Blake joked. "Play my beat, Honeypot! If you can..." She told Yang, winking at her with that look she loved so much. Yang wiggled her eyebrows at Blake before sitting at her drums.


She worked the beat out in her mind before she began, and in a few beats, she was replicating Blake's rhythm. Blake tried these chords and those ones until she found a progression she liked. Ruby could now write a melody over their new tune.


Weiss took up the bass guitar they kept laying around and found the root notes of all Blake's chords. She missed her piano, as she was more comfortable writing with her keys, but taking up the bass was really fun. Besides, her piano was back in Atlas, and the Ruby Roses were here at Beacon.


She seemed to remember Pyrrha having a small keyboard, so she would see if Pyr would let her borrow that one of these days.


Blake grinned at the song she'd come up with, the drumbeat bringing her chords to life.


"Hey, weren't those the chords you were playing before, Blake? What song was that?" Yang asked when they finished practicing. Blake blushed. Well, she couldn't very well lie to Yang's face, even if Weiss and Ruby were here to hear the truth.


"I was trying to write something to the poem I wrote about you..." Blake confessed, blushing bright red. Ruby grinned and Weiss beamed at the words. Yang's mouth hung open for a moment.


"Wait, you wrote me a poem?"


"Is that a new thing? I write poems all the time!"


"Yeah, but I didn't know you wrote about me..." Yang answered. It was her turn to blush ten shades of red. Blake laughed.


"You're one of my favorite subjects, Fireball!"


"Which poem were you trying to write the tune for? Please tell me it wasn't 'Dragonfire'..." Weiss mentioned. Blake shook her head, and Weiss sighed in relief. "Gods, that would be a massive song!"


"Wait, Weiss knows about you writing about me and I don't?! I wanna read them!" Yang pleaded, pouting at Blake for good measure. Blake's eyes turned to hearts at Yang's pouting face, and she dug up her notebook. Yang's eyes widened. "You've never let anyone read from this notebook!"


"Well, there are a lot of painful memories in this notebook. There are some happy and upbeat writings, too, but I've transferred them elsewhere. So no, you actually can't read this one because I'm going to set it on fire." Blake dug for another notebook, this one complete with a drawing of hers on the front cover. "This one has all my stuff since I parted ways with Adam Taurus. Songs I wrote with Sun and the boys, everything I've written with you girls, lots of happy things."


"I read too far ahead when she was helping me write a song for Ruby, and that's the only reason I know about 'Dragonfire'. And trust me, I would rather not have seen that particular one. It's.. definitely something!" Weiss confessed. Yang rolled her eyes at the white queen. She took the notebook from Blake and flipped it open, turning pages until she saw the poem in question.


"Oh wow, you wrote about us... being intimate and junk!" Yang chuckled as she read on, blushing and laughing. "Man, I must be really good!"


"You are, Fireball!" Blake commented, winking at her. Yang and Blake both had a certain look about them now. Weiss hopped up and rushed Ruby and herself out of the dorm.


"We're gonna go... feed the walrus! See you soon, ladies?" She asked, Ruby still confused.


"We have a walrus?!" Ruby asked, still without a clue as to what Weiss meant.


"Perhaps not very soon, Flowers! Maybe wait for a signal?" Blake suggested. Weiss nodded, and she and Ruby disappeared. Blake could hear Ruby ask another question about the nonexistent walrus. Blake and Yang hopped into Blake's bottom bunk.


After their session and some cuddles, Blake scooped up her guitar and sang a tune for Yang. 'Lost at Sea', one of her songs from her time with Sun's band.


"You helped Sun write a song for Neptune? That's pretty funny!"


"It was hilarious, especially making all the ocean and sea jokes!" Blake chortled as she strummed her guitar. "The lyrics can easily translate, though..." Yang smiled at that.


"Aww, am I your ocean, Kitty Cat?"


"I could drown in you, Fireball!" Yang blushed even brighter at Blake's words, stealing a kiss from her lips.


\/\/\/\/\/

\/\/\/\/\/

\/\/\/\/\/

Notes:

Recommended Listening:
'Diamonds' by Ballyhoo
Or anything by Ballyhoo for that matter. Reggae-infused beach music lightly seasoned with punk. Really chill for the most part.

Again, I have a bit of a problem writing connected one-shots, especially by happenstance, instead of writing full-sized stories like I would like to do. BUT SOME DAY I WILL BUILD THAT TREEHOUSE!!