Blake sat on one of Beacon's windowsills, watching the morning sunlight shine on the layers of snow that completely covered the grounds. A book laid abandoned in her lap, her forehead pressed against the cold window as she surveyed the surroundings.
Much of the snow was untouched save for the occasional snowman surrounded by footprints; most of Beacon's students had departed the day before to visit family, including her three team mates who she had grown to regard as close friends. Blake had no family, however, and although her friends offered for her to go with them, Blake flat out rejected Yang and Ruby's offer, not wanting to intrude nor feel awkward at their home. Weiss didn't even offer, knowing it would be inappropriate. The faunus would reject the prospect immediately.
She never knew how much she'd miss their company, though, and regretted her decision to stay. Unfortunately, Ozpin would not allow students staying at Beacon over the festive period to leave its perimeter, Grimm sightings having increased in the area. Similarly, students who left were not allowed to return until the end, when airships would be sent to collect them.
The corridors were completely silent. Blake was alone and, unlike most other times when she was alone, she was beginning to feel lonely. She had to admit that she missed her partner, Yang, the most. From the start they had clicked as a partnership, and together they had built a strong friendship from that foundation. Blake yearned for Yang's presence to fill the empty school, not accustomed to being without her for too long.
She sighed, absent-mindedly scratching behind one cat-shaped ear. Her bow was in the dorm; since there was no one around (and most who had stayed for the festive season were faunus anyway) she decided that wearing it would be an unnecessary bother. Two weeks without her teammates or Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren would prove difficult to deal with. Even books couldn't help pass the time when it slowed to a torturous crawl.
Flakes began to fall gently from the white sky, colours becoming a shade darker as the sun disappeared. Amber eyes turned away from the window to look down the long corridor, the only sound accompanying her being the slow rise and fall of her own breathing.
Slipping from the ledge, she began the walk back to her empty dorm, book clutched to her chest. Perhaps she could nap to help pass the time, though she doubted she would be able to sleep. She used her keycard to open the door, still feeling disappointment at the sight of three untouched beds. Only her books seemed to decorate the room, personal touches from the other girls mostly having gone into suitcases and taken home. Away from her.
'Don't be so dramatic,' she told herself, 'they're coming back in a fortnight.'
The thought did nothing to soothe her. When she didn't have any friends except the acquaintances she had in the White Fang, she thought nothing of Christmas and the act of giving presents; normally, it was just business as usual with the bonus that they could capitalise on the distraction it caused. When she enrolled in Beacon Academy however and made three new friends (including Weiss after they had finally ironed out their issues) she had been looking forward to partaking in the gift-giving ritual. That was before she remembered that they had lives outside Beacon.
She placed her book back on its shelf before wandering over to Yang's set of drawers. A memory of the blonde angrily stomping on her suitcase to make the bulging contents compact came to mind, and so Blake assumed that the drawers would be empty. In the bottom drawer however, Yang's favourite warm hoodie was folded neatly. Blake pulled it out, shaking the article and feeling the soft fabric in her hands. 'Did she forget this?'
She didn't question it further, instead bringing the light brown garment to her face, the smell of her partner reminding her of how much she missed having her around. Blake knew a long time ago that she liked Yang as more than just a friend, though quickly resigned herself to the fact that her feelings would never be reciprocated. Four years in a partnership was a long time however, and although she was an expert at hiding things, this secret was becoming harder and harder to keep locked away.
Her bottom lip trembled and her chest ached. Her vision was already beginning to swim, tears pricking at her eyes. She told herself to grow up and stop being a child.
'Be happy for them. Yang and Ruby are probably having fun. They haven't forgotten about you,' she rationalised, not liking how emotional she was being about such a small matter. She unzipped her jacket, throwing it into one of her own drawers, and pulled Yang's hoodie over her head. Collapsing onto her bed, she snuggled into the clothing, faunus ears poking out from beneath the hood.
She fell asleep not long after.
The next morning, she decided to take a walk around the school grounds. Yang's clothing provided most of her warmth as she trekked through the snow, breath instantly turning to steam in front of her.
Waking up and not hearing Weiss whine at Ruby for leaving toothpaste on the sink had been strange, as had not having to wake Yang for the fifth time. Sure, it was more peaceful, but Blake had already accepted that a lack of quietness was a sacrifice that had to be made when you were a part of team RWBY. Now the quietness that she had initially craved had become her prison.
Her legs sank into the snow up to her knee, making her walking staggered. She was almost glad that no one was around to see her usually calm self stumbling and struggling through the powder. Taking a walk had proved to be a bad idea, not clearing her head like she expected it would.
She reached the top of a hill not too far from Beacon, taking a second to admire the view. The feeling in her toes was disappearing from the cold and her nose was numb. Too lost in her thoughts, she didn't hear footsteps fall closer and closer. In fact, it was only when the person shouted right in her ear that she registered anything.
"Damn, that Bellabooty!"
Suddenly, strong arms wrapped around her waist, and she and her attacker were propelled back down the hill she had spent so long walking up. Blake could feel snow cover her everywhere, falling down her shirt and soaking her hair as they rolled, but she couldn't feel its bite.
She knew exactly why.
Yang's aura surrounded them, the pleasant warmth keeping out the chill of the cold. Even though they were hurtling downwards through the snow at some unreasonable speed, Blake felt completely safe with her partner. Eventually they came to a halt, Yang perched above her, massive grin on her face, arms either side of Blake's head. Blake was glad she could blame the redness of her face on the cold.
"What are you doing here?" Blake asked, almost giddy with excitement. "Why aren't you at home? Where's Ruby?"
"I decided to sneak back in for my kitten," Yang said, standing up and brushing herself up before offering a helping hand to Blake. The cold immediately hit the faunus when the blonde pulled away and she began to shiver. "I imagined you here all cold and lonely for Christmas and I just couldn't stay at home. We're partners."
"What about Ruby?" Blake questioned, clasping the hand with her own before being yanked to her feet. "And if you'd have been caught, Goodwitch wouldn't have spared you."
"What Goodwitch doesn't know won't kill me," Yang answered, walking side by side with her partner as they made their way back to Beacon. "Ruby is too busy geeking out over her weapon and upgrading it to care too much, and doesn't mind being without me for Christmas. Besides, Weiss is going to our house next week, and I don't mind giving them alone time."
Blake was unable to suppress a smile. She never thought that Yang would come back to keep her company, though perhaps she should have. Yang was the most selfless person she knew, after all.
A shudder caused her breath to hitch, grabbing the blonde's attention. Lilac eyes filled with mirth looked into her own after quickly scanning her body.
"My clothes not warm enough, Blake?" She asked, causing the girl in question to blush slightly. Not waiting for a reply, she put her arm around Blake's shoulders, pulling her close. The faunus felt that familiar warmth spread through her, but knew only part of that was attributable to Yang's aura.
"I'm glad you came back," Blake admitted, Yang smiling at the words. She continued in almost a whisper: "I missed you."
"I missed you too, partner," Yang replied. The rest of the trip was made in a comfortable silence.
"Y-Yang, what is this?" Blake asked upon their return to the dorm. Presents were piled up in a the corner, each wrapped in patterned paper.
"They're all for you," Yang responded with a grin. "From Ruby, me, and our family."
Blake had never received so many presents before. "Your family?"
"Yeah! I mean, I mention you so much in my letters that you might as well be one of us!" Yang's grin faltered, realising what she just blurted out. Blake blushed at the new-found knowledge. Yang continued valiantly: "They thought you deserved something."
"Thank you," Blake said simply, unsure of how to react.
"We should get changed," the blonde suggested, noting how their clothes were soaked from the snow. The faunus agreed, but went for a shower first to regain some of her own warmth, leaving Yang to her thoughts. After she changed into her pyjamas, she sat on Blake's bed, back resting against the wall.
She would never tell Blake that the main reason she came back to Beacon was because her family had had enough of her moping. The normally exuberant blonde had been reduced to a silent brooding lump, and it was Ruby that finally told her to go back to the fighting school and spend Christmas with her not-girlfriend. Ruby had also made her promise that she would tell Blake how she felt.
"As your leader, I order you to do it to improve relations and efficiency. For the good of the team!" She had declared, a cheeky smile on her face. If Yang didn't follow her sister's orders she knew that Ruby would nag and nag with an especially grating voice. Weiss would also no doubt get involved, and a fully-powered team Combat Skirts was a force to be reckoned with.
'I kinda wanna lay here naked but that would be really inappropriate,' she thought, brow furrowed as many options raced through her brain. "I could write her a letter and leave it somewhere? No, I want to tell her face to face, that's the best thing to do."
"Are you okay?" Blake asked, alerting Yang to her presence. The blonde looked a little red in the face, but the faunus supposed it was the lighting. She sat next to her on the bed, staring at the opposite wall.
"Perfect!" Yang chirped, set aback by the scent of Blake's shampoo mixing with freshly washed clothing. "What do you want to do now?"
Blake shrugged. "We could watch a movie."
"We're not watching the adaptation of Ninjas of Love, before you suggest it," Yang said quickly, watching Blake's cat ears pin back in disappointment. She reached out, the tips of her fingers scratching behind one of the ears, unable to contain a fond smile when her partner began to lean into the touch and purr. The action was natural to both of them, having done it many times before, oblivious to the raised eyebrows of Weiss and Ruby.
Soon, they found themselves with Blake's head resting in the curve of Yang's neck and shoulder, leg and arm thrown over her body protectively. Quiet purrs escaped her as Yang carried on her ministrations.
The blonde wished she still had her courage; it seemed to have abandoned her when she needed it the most.
The days following were relaxed, filled with activities such as decorating the tree in the Great Hall. Yang could barely take the romantic tension between them much longer; the straw that broke the camel's back had been when Blake tended to her shoulder after she fell from the ladder whilst wrapping tinsel around the branches.
Despite Yang's assurances that she was fine, the faunus insisted on seeing the injury herself. Luckily, it was only bruised. The only blood involved was that which rushed to the brawler's face when Blake kissed the darkening area softly.
In that moment, Yang decided that Christmas Eve would be the day in which she would either gain the best present of her life or lose her from misread signals.
They spent that day mostly outside, Yang finally succeeding in provoking her partner when she bolted giant breasts onto their snowman. When Blake finally caught her she piled snow into her face, both of them laughing. Blake liked to think that it was Yang that brought positivity back into her life, lighting up places within her that had previously been doused by shadows.
"Blake," Yang suddenly said, breaking a period of silence. Blake looked down at her, now noticing she was sat on Yang's hips. Their faces were red. Yang knew it was now or never, and wanted to take this chance before this moment of boldness escaped her. Her heart pounded almost painfully, consequences of her planned action playing through her mind.
"Yeah?"
Yang sat up as much as she could, arms propping her up. This left her and Blake's faces only inches apart. The blonde looked at Blake's lips, murmuring: "You know what I want for Christmas?"
Blake's eyes widened slightly, her breathing quickening. "I don't know, what do you want?"
Yang needed no more prompting and softly touched her lips to Blake's, feeling her partner stiffen before reciprocating. She slowly lowered herself to the snow until eventually they were laid down, their bodies pressed together. Her hands threaded through black hair, Blake's forearms either side of her head whilst they shared gentle kisses, made difficult by the fact that neither could quite stop smiling.
"I thought you weren't meant to unwrap presents until Christmas Day," the faunus teased, fingers playing with the one curl of hair that stubbornly refused to stay flat against Yang's head. Yang rubbed their noses together in an affectionate eskimo kiss before responding.
"Santa doesn't have to know." The blonde momentarily thought of Ruby, who she would have to thank with a mountain of cookies (and weather the subsequent storm that would come in the form of Weiss 'my partner will not have such an unhealthy diet while I still draw breath, swap those for sugarless raisin oatmeal cookies, please' Schnee).
"I won't tell him, don't worry."
"We should go back," Yang stated, accepting Blake's help in standing. She nudged her partner playfully. "Wanna be girlfriends?"
"For some reason, I do," Blake responded, swatting the back of Yang's head before she held her hand in her own, hardly believing what had transpired in the space of a few minutes. "This has been the best Christmas I've ever had."
Yang grinned. "It isn't over yet, kitten."
"Yang… Yang wake up."
Yang groaned, pulling Blake tighter against her body. "Go back to sleep."
"But it's Christmas day." The disappointed tone of the faunus' voice made the blonde open her eyes, her resolve to sleep melting when she saw the childlike excitement written across Blake's face. Her girlfriend (this new development still hadn't quite sunk in yet) quietly added: "I want to open my presents… and to give you yours."
The look on Yang's face caused the black-haired girl to chuckle.
"You're such a pervert," Blake said, smirking.
Yang sat up and stretched. "This coming from the girl who hides her most erotic stories behind the hidden panel in the wardrobe." The statement caused Blake to stammer and blush, caught completely off-guard. The blonde interpreted this moment as a victory, giving her partner a mischievous wink before leaving the comfort of her bed. She picked up all of the presents in one scoop, miraculously not dropping any on the return journey. "Which one do you want to open first?"
Blake looked incredibly torn, picking up two presents and weighing them in her hands. She finally decided on a soft package, carefully peeling back the tape as Yang watched impatiently.
"Just tear it open already," she urged, already knowing what was within each present. When Blake finally pulled out a patterned knitted sweater, Yang groaned. "Mum knits them every year for the family. You're sort of included now, sorry about that. Mine's in my suitcase. At least you got an… okay design."
The faunus felt her throat tightening, hoping that the incoming tears would be kept at bay with sheer determination alone. For the first time in her life, she felt as though she had a chance of proper family. She wrapped her arms around Yang, burying her face in her shoulder.
"I know it's ugly but damn," the blonde chuckled, placing her hands on her girlfriend's back.
"I'm happy, Yang," Blake said, "I'm glad we became partners."
"You mean you're glad you stalked me in the Emerald Forest so we could romantically lock eyes," Yang joked, reaching an arm to the pile of presents and handing another to the faunus when she pulled away. She wiped a tear from Blake's cheek with her thumb, palm resting there for a second before finally dropping to her side.
"I didn't stalk you, I was looking out for you," Blake argued, giving in to the urge to tear off the paper. "I wanted to make sure you were alright, and observe your skills of course."
"Sure, observe my skills. That's exactly it."
Most of the presents ended up being simple things, such as fluffy socks and chocolates, but Blake treasured them. From Ruby, she received a series of books that she had once mentioned wanting in passing, surprised that the team leader remembered such a throwaway comment.
"And here's your present from me," Yang announced, producing a package from behind her.
"Yang, why did you do this?" Blake asked, exasperated. "How many times exactly did you wrap tape around it?"
"Ten," the blonde replied proudly, "ten for each different direction."
Several profanities swam around in Blake's mind, but she pushed them aside and focused on the arduous task of unwrapping a Xiao Long gift. When she finally did finish, she had a thick photo album in her hands, the glass frame in the front showing a picture of team RWBY. Flicking through the pages, she saw that Yang had written comments for every single picture in her scrawly handwriting.
Yang, worried that her gift was not good enough, attempted to justify it: "I wanted to remind you that we're your family now. I feel like you forget that sometimes."
"Thank you," Blake said quietly, sincerely, squeezing Yang's hand. "But if half of these comments are puns I will kill you."
"There's a really good one on page eleven, I swear," Yang replied, winking. "Now come on, kitten, I'm hungry."
The faunus stood and walked to her drawer, pulling something out. "But you haven't opened your gift from me yet."
A small present fell into the blonde's lap, wrapped in simple black paper. "You didn't have to."
"Open it," Blake ordered, a light blush covering her face as she looked away. Yang complied, uncharacteristically opening the package carefully. She popped open the little red box that was within, smiling at the sight of two simple silver bracelets, one engraved with Blake's insignia and the other with her own. "I thought we could wear each others' symbol, since we're partners, but if you don't want to you can just wear your own."
Yang said nothing as she plucked the bracelet with Blake's symbol from the box and fastened it around her wrist. She smiled at her partner, whose eyes looked into hers for approval, before kissing her firmly, hoping that Blake could somehow understand the feelings that Yang wasn't able to put into words before smirking. Blake already knew where this was going before Yang continued: "Now I know you'll be with me when I-"
"Don't you dare-"
"Blake my opponents with fire," the blonde finished, stifling a laugh at the distinctly unamused look on the faunus' face. Blake flicked her nose playfully before kissing her girlfriend, never tiring of the sensation. Yang tried to deepen the kiss, her tongue slowly tracing Blake's bottom lip. The black-haired girl couldn't contain a laugh when she sensed the blonde's aura spike for an instant, the sound of her amusement ruining the moment. She pulled back and squeezed Yang's cheeks together between her thumb and fingers playfully. "Let's go eat breakfast before you set the room on fire."
Yang made a noise of disapproval, pouting until Blake said: "You're going to need energy for what I have in mind."
The blonde was up and out of the door in a flash. The faunus raised an eyebrow, heat rushing to her face. 'I think she'll be disappointed when she finds out I meant going for a walk… although… we could stay inside and… keep warm."
Perhaps Yang had the right idea; it was cold outside after all.
End.
Blake = Bake in that pun just in case it was too far out. Merry Christmas.