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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Jan 7, 2017 22:28:07 GMT
Yang had to admit, she was kind of glad that she had her own place now. It was starting to get a little cold around the city and she was happy that she had a nice, warm home to go to. True, she had managed to nab a space heater sometimes for her old hideout, but it wasn't quite the same. She was sure her kids felt the same way. The last time she had talked to Jenny, she was still marveling at all the useful things her house had that the theater had been without, like heating and ovens and T.V.'s. Truthfully, Yang was kind of marveling at it too. She had to remember now that she didn't have to hoard all her money all the time in case she couldn't steal any or win some in a fight. She had a job now, one with consistent pay, so she could afford to treat herself every now and again. Which was why, when she was walking through the city, she decided to get herself a magazine from one of the many vendors dotted along the streets. She flipped through the magazine as she walked, noticing that all the models that had been showing off holiday fashion for the past few months were now wearing stuff fit for Mardi Gras. One particular guy had a two page-spread all to himself. With his blonde hair and green eyes, he kind of reminded Yang of Chat. But, she shook that thought away as she flipped to another page. She had done decently in trying not to feel so mopey about him over the past month or so. She didn't want to slip up now.
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 8, 2017 1:10:39 GMT
Aqua left her apartment. She hadn't seen her roommate Namine in a few days. She was starting to worry. Namine had a schedule. She was predictable. Reliable. This wasn't like her at all. She even missed work which the blonde never did. Some officers laughed it off, saying the blonde was high on drugs or looking for an excuse to get fired. The Others unit probably didn't believe it. So Aqua was walking around, looking for the blonde herself. The girl wasn't answering her phone. Distress was starting to settle in when a shock jolted her system. Blonde. Not the blonde she was looking for but one that was familiar.
"Yang?"
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Jan 8, 2017 4:58:12 GMT
Yang looked up when she heard her name, and while the woman's face didn't jog her memory, the blue hair certainly did. Yang had only met one person in her entire life that had hair that color. "Aqua..." The magazine fell from Yang's hands, and she hurried to pick it up, mumbling a curse word or two. It wasn't that she was unhappy to see Aqua. It was just...they had only met one time before, and it was on a night that Yang didn't like to remember so much. But Shadow and Sunshine seemed to like her well enough, so she figured she could trust her, at least a little bit. "Uh...hey. How's it going?" She gave an awkward wave.
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 8, 2017 16:47:28 GMT
Aqua smiled a little uncertainly. She seemed to have caught Yang by surprise, judging by how quickly Yang fumbled over the magazine she was reading and the choice swears. But the question, seemingly innocent was weighted. Aqua hadn't had a good time of things in a while. Shadow brings her Terra's badge, telling her that Terra very well might be dead. Her partner was turned into a rabbit. Now her roommate hadn't been home in a few days.
"It's... going?" she said. "I... I heard about what happened. Are you okay?"
Yang... One of Terra and Aqua's last cases. Right when she thought they would launch the investigation into the murder of Yang's parents, her badge was taken from her. She was sent to trial about her involvement with Terra's decisions and actions but only cleared because she literally had no idea what he had done. Still, it had taken time and touching their old cases brought up so much hurt that Aqua wished she couldn't feel. She shouldn't have let the ball drop on this one. She had assumed that Yang had gone with family, to live with them, but instead learned that she had lived on the streets, taking in children in equally terribly situations.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Jan 8, 2017 19:19:13 GMT
"I'm fine. Really," Yang said reassuringly. And it was the truth. It was taking a while, but she was starting to see that this had been the right decision for her and her kids. She was happy, and they were happy. Well, except maybe Louie. He still seemed a bit unsure about all these changes. But Yang was sure he'd be happy too. His new parents were loving, caring people. Surely, he could sense their emotions to know that much. "I think things are starting to look up for once," she continued. "I feel...optimistic."
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 8, 2017 20:58:42 GMT
"That's... good. That's really good." she said.
Riku had really taken her advice when she said they needed to make things right with Yang. He took care of her. It still just infuriated her that Frollo would just take the justice system into his own hands like that. He had no probable cause to invade Yang's former home. He also had no warrant to search her premise. She wanted to make him regret it. She smiled at Yang. The young woman rehomed the children she took in, got a new house, a new job, and she had to get used to living on the 'good' side of the law again. If anyone had a chance to make a clean start of the bad situation, but it would be Yang. There wasn't a lot of help Aqua could offer her.
"Are you settling in okay?" she asked. "I know it's a lot to get used to."
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Jan 9, 2017 4:19:26 GMT
Yang nodded. "Yeah. Having an empty nest still feels a little weird. But I've been chatting with the kids almost every day, so I guess it's not like they've really left." Just hearing their voices on the other side of a phone, or seeing their faces during face time, was enough to make Yang smile and assure her that they were doing okay. "How are you? I heard that you and Terra...well, sort of..." Yang wasn't sure how to put it. When she had mentioned Aqua, Terra was sort of an inevitable thing that people brought up eventually. Yang didn't know all the details: only that he had gone off the deep end and nobody had been able to find him for a long time. Yang was sure that couldn't be easy for Aqua.
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 9, 2017 14:43:28 GMT
"I doubt you'll ever be completely rid of them." Aqua said. "They'll never forget what you did for them."
Aqua could see it. The kids would still be attached to Yang, perhaps even inviting her to future important life events, like a big sister or an aunt. School events, graduations, extracurricular activities, prom. They would want her to be there for them because she meant a lot to them. It also did the faery some good to know that Yang had people who cared about her after she and Terra let her down. Knowing that Yang did good for herself and others despite the situation that she was in, eased a little guilt, but not all of it. She certainly felt horrible for what happened.
"We have reason to believe that Terra - that Terra..."
Why was this so hard? It shouldn't be this difficult to spit it out! Shadow had the proof, despite how Aqua had wanted to believe it wasn't. There was just no denying it. She had spent hours and days trying to but things didn't look good. Terra's bloodied badge. Terra never went anywhere without it. He would have rather died than give it up because it was his mark of 'honor'. He wore that badge so proudly. He had been honor bound by his word until things just twisted so badly that Aqua hadn't even seen where it went wrong.
"That Terra is dead."
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Jan 9, 2017 19:21:04 GMT
Yang gave a little laugh. "Yeah." She hoped that it would stay this way. They may not be her kids anymore, but she still cared about them, and she wanted to be there for them. She was just happy that their guardians were fond of her. They seemed to be happy that she had saved their kids from linving dangerous lives, even if their home had been an abandoned movie theater and their guardian had a record with the police. Speaking of the police, Aqua had less than happy news about Terra. Yang felt her heart sink a little. She had been hoping maybe she could make things up with him and Aqua, for thinking badly about them and a good chunk of the cops for so long. It looked like she had missed her chance with him. "Shit," she muttered, feeling sad for both her and Aqua. "I'm sorry."
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 9, 2017 19:37:54 GMT
Aqua winced. Yang was sorry for her? How could she be so forgiving? The blonde was still just a kid and had been a kid at the time of the incident. Aqua couldn't suck up her own heartbreak enough to be the adult she was supposed to be. She had been so caught up in her own hurt that she dropped the ball. She failed Yang. While Yang seemed to have been okay with that, Aqua never would be. But she had to live with the fact that she had failed Yang.
"Yang... I'm the one who should be sorry. I let your case go. Terra did some terrible things and when I got back on the force... I couldn't work our past cases but I should have never have let yours go." Aqua said, her voice cracking at a few octaves. "I can never make that up to you."
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Jan 9, 2017 23:22:05 GMT
Yang's heart dropped. Aqua still blamed herself for that? In the past, maybe Yang would have been angry about it. But now, she just wanted to put all that stuff behind her. She was done being angry and blaming the police for what happened to her and her parents. She'd always feel some pain about it, sure. But she didn't want that bitterness to have such a big part of her life anymore. "Look, we both have things that regret doing," she said. "You regret letting my case go. I regret...killing all those gangsters that night. But if there's one thing that people have been drilling in my head lately, it's that you have to move on from that stuff and get on with your life. We can't change it, but we can change the future, so that deserve more of our attention." Yang felt like her pep-talk was a bit corny, but it was how she felt. A lot of her friends had been trying to help her move away from her old life and start a new one, and she had taken their kindness to heart. It was okay to be helped, and it was okay to let go of a painful memory. Those were two big lessons she had been taught over the past few months.
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 10, 2017 3:33:48 GMT
"If only it were that easy." Aqua said. "But... Thank you."
Yang was sweet. She had really grown up to be someone strong and very independent. Aqua couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if she and Terra had managed to stop the gangsters in time. Yang might have actually had both her parents. But it was what it was, like Yang said. She and Terra hadn't had the full picture. They couldn't have gotten to the gang in time to stop them. But from those mistakes, Aqua would learn for the future and then teach Riku, so he could make sure not to commit the same mistakes.
"So what has you out today Yang?" Aqua asked.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Jan 10, 2017 4:18:00 GMT
Aqua seemed cheered up at least a little bit, and that was good enough for Yang. She had a point though. It wasn't easy, moving on from this stuff. Sometimes, Yang would have doubts creep into her mind, wondering if this was all for nothing. Then, there was still the other stuff that lay in the back of her mind: Cinder's attempt to kill her, Thrax attacking her at the ball. It seemed like they happened a lifetime ago, but they still lurked in the back of Yang's mind. She couldn't help but frown a little anytime the LaFayettes were mentioned, and the river still made her get a little nervous. She hoped that, like most bad things, she would get over them in time.
"Treating myself," Yang replied, holding up the magazine. "Now that I actually have extra money to spend. Although, I don't know if I like these as much as I used to. Were there always so many advertisements in these things?" They seemed to make up half the magazine.
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 10, 2017 15:17:44 GMT
"If you want to treat yourself, I suggest the spa down the street. They do really good pedicures." Aqua said. "I go once a month."
Then again, Aqua was constantly on her feet. She might not have shown off whatever color nail polish in strappy shoes and no one would be admiring her feet any time soon, but it was still a nice sort of treat for herself. Yang didn't seem like the type to get a manicure. She had a history with fist fights and punching. She wouldn't spend the money to get her nails done, only to rough them up later if she got a little rowdy.
"And you'd have better luck with a small time magazine than one that obsesses with Adrien Agreste." Aqua said.
The blonde was on the cover. It probably had some interview with him and/or his father about the family business. Aqua had nothing against the Agrestes. She liked Agreste junior better than she liked Agreste Senior. Senior had some... conflicting opinions on Others and their role in the city. He was one of those people who probably got along with Frollo. Or at least funded his campaign. But for every dollar his father donated for Frollo or like causes, Adrien donated double for something contradicting his father's beliefs. Made her wonder where he got that from.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Jan 11, 2017 2:02:42 GMT
"A spa does sound nice," Yang agreed. Maybe once she wasn't so frugal with money, she could go in for a session. Old habits died hard after all, and she had to remind herself not to hoard money so much. When Aqua mentioned the model's name, it rang a bell in Yang's mind. That was right. The Agreste's were some of the richest people around here, right up there with the LaFayette's. No doubt the two were joined at the hip and talked about rich people things like yachts and sports cars and mansions. She wondered what Elsa's opinion of them was. No doubt she had been to more than a few events sponsored by the Agreste's, seeing as how she was in the upper circle. "Does the guy do anything else except model?" she wondered aloud. It seemed like he had quite a big number of pages throughout the magazine, more than the other models. Maybe it was just because he was a local celebrity or something. Yang didn't know. She usually didn't think about stuff like that.
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