Jar of Hearts (Tag: Yang)

Yang flipped through one TV channel after the next, trying to find something that would distract her.  But, no matter what she watched, her mind kept flipping back to her and Adrien's encounter with the paparazzi.  It had been almost a day, and nothing about it had ended up on the news yet.  Yang doubted it would be on TV, they weren't that important.  But so far, she hadn't seen anything on social media either.  And it was driving her nuts.  What were they waiting for?  Were they seeing who would get to interview Adrien first?  He had said he would set something up and whoever had the highest big would get to talk to him.  Did they want to confirm that first, before releasing any pictures and videos?  It made sense, considering that everyone would probably have a ton of questions after seeing them.  The news would probably want to assure people that they would get all the answers in an interview with Adrien.  Still, the waiting was driving her crazy.  When there was a knock at her door, she almost didn't want to answer it.  Things felt too tense for any social interaction.  But, it could be distracting, for a little while at least.  She checked her phone one more time as she stood up.  Still nothing.  However, if any of the online news sites posted anything, she'd get a notification.  Social media was handy that way.  You could instantly know if any account had made a post with just a simple vibration from your phone.  By the time she answered the door, her phone was back in her pocket, and she had managed to look slightly more cheerful.  And her smile broadened when she saw that it was Shadow.  "Hey man," she said.  "Good to see you-"  Her voice suddenly stopped when she noticed what was tucked under his arm.  It was a fire extinguisher, albeit a very decorative one.  "Is that for me?" she asked, not knowing whether to be serious or laugh about it.

Yang gave a little laugh.  Sure, a fire extinguisher was a practical gift and all, but it was kind of funny too.  Or maybe she just had a warped sense of humor now.  Who knew?  "Well, at least with that, I won't burn down everything in sight" she said.  "Come on in."  She waved Shadow inside as she walked over and turned down the volume on the TV.  Whatever was on would provide at least some background noise.  "Seems like I've been getting a never-ending stream of gifts lately," she said as she sat at the kitchen table.  "At this rate, every room will be jam-packed with stuff."  Although, admittedly, most of the gits she got tended to involve food.  That was what Jane had brought her, and Omar had even picked up some groceries for her along with a cake.  Yang was touched by everyone's generosity, but part of her still felt like she could never repay her friends for their gifts.  It was a feeling she was still wrestling with, despite knowing that she'd still need help for a while.  She'd learned how to do a lot of stuff with just one hand, but she still had a long way to go.  

"I swear, they're trying to fatten me up and eat me like those witches in fairy tales," Yang joked.  Still, the gesture was nice.  And she always shared her sweets whenever Jenny and Louie came to visit.  Things were getting better with Louie, albeit slowly.  There was still a lot of things unsaid between the two of them, and Yang wasn't sure how to handle it.  She'd heard Jenny say more than once how she wished they'd get along like they used to.  Louie had been Yang's right-hand-man, after all.  Still, it wasn't like there was any hatred between Yang and Louie.  It was guilt mostly, since both of them felt responsible for what had happened to her arm.  It was a conversation they'd only breached a few times, and they hadn't really gotten anywhere.  It always led to a lot of awkwardness.  And speaking of awkwardness, Shadow seemed to talk about Sunshine's date a bit awkwardly himself.  Yang wondered if it was something she should ask about.  She'd known the two were close, but Shadow feeling jealous over a date Sunshine had with someone else?  It didn't sound like him.  If anything, it sounded more like her.  She already felt jealous and a bit inferior when she saw Adrien's fangirls clamoring over him, or the beautiful girls that posed with him in photo shoots.  She knew it was something she had to come to terms with, especially since Adrien always assured her that girls like that never meant anything to him, but that was a conversation for another day.  Right now, any possible issue with Shadow and Sunshine was what interested her.  "Really?  With who?" she asked.

"Oh."  Riku and Sunshine were a thing now?  She hadn't really heard them talking about each other.  Then again, she hadn't spent a whole lot of time with either of them lately.  Although it did explain why Riku was the first one by Sunshine's side when she got tearey-eyed at her party.  Regardless, Shadow still seemed a little miffed about it.  Maybe a joke would lighten things up a bit?  "Didn't know she was into hippety-hoppety guys," she said with a laugh.  True, Riku wasn't a bunny anymore, but that must have been when they started to get close.  Yang couldn't recall them hanging out too much before Riku had gotten turned into a rabbit.  

Yang laughed pretty hard at that.  It seemed like joking had put Shadow in a better mood.  And it lightened her up a bit too.  Although, she did make a mental note to ask Riku or Sunshine what exactly was going on the next time she saw either of them.  Was this going to be a short-term thing?  Or were they serious about each other?  Heck, Yang had been asking herself the same question about her and Adrien for a while now.  She knew what she felt for him was more than a quick fling, but was she really ready to commit to someone?  People always talked about how they gave 100% in a relationship.  But Yang could never really do that, because she felt like she was never at 100%.  She was more like an 80%, with her arm gone.  She knew it was stupid to think of herself like that, but she couldn't help it.  But, she tried not to think about it too hard right now.  "You want some cake or something?  Omar brought me this almond and cranberry one that's pretty good," she said.  She might as well share her plethora of desserts while Shadow was here.  Eating them all by herself probably wasn't the best thing for her.  

"The weather does seem to start getting better for that," Yang agreed.  It was getting warm enough where people were out running all the time.  No doubt it would change once summer rolled around.  Humidity made it difficult to do any kind of exercise outside.  At least this summer would be more agreeable with Yang this year, now that she had a place with actual air conditioning.  At her hideout, she and the kids had had to make do with whatever fans they could find and pray that the freezer didn't lose power.  "Plates are up in that cupboard over there," she said, jerking with her head in the general direction while she got the leftover cake.  Hopefully, the foil wrapped over it wouldn't take away too much of the frosting once she peeled it off.

"And with the rain comes all the humidity," Yang pointed out.  Living so far south, and so close to the water, it was only nature that the climate acted this way.  Still, that didn't mean anyone had to like it.  Yang didn't like the rain a whole lot.  It made it harder for the flames she made to last for a while.  Still, she had to admit, it was better than nothing.  Get her completely underwater and she couldn't make any fire at all.  Her train of thought stopped right there, before any unpleasant memories of Cinder trying to kill her resurfaced.  She didn't want to think about that now.  She was getting better at being around bodies of water, she just couldn't look at them for too long or she started getting nauseous.  She focused on the cake, which she managed to get two intact slices out of.  "Guess this hand is finally getting a little stronger to make up for things," she said, flexing her fingers.  Doing everything with her left hand had put a strain on it for a while, but that was only because it wasn't used to doing all the work.  And it was something all amputees went through.  It just took time to develop some strength in there, so it could handle the work of two hands.  At least that part of her recovery was going well.