When Sun had told her that he had a plan, this was not what Blake had in mind.

A deep v-neck shirt and a mini skirt in this damn weather? Sun was entirely out of his mind and Blake even more so for actually listening to him. She should have known this was what he was thinking. All it took for Sun Wukong to make the girls swoon was to show off his abs and flex his guns.

He might have a point since Yang did mention he was hot, but that didn't mean she couldn't wear black leggings underneath. She also made sure to bring her thick black blazer and the beige scarf her mother had given her two years ago. No point in getting Yang to offer her the scarf she was returning again. Although that did make for a good excuse.

Blake suddenly felt a lot of eyes on her as she walked around Bailey Hall at Beacon University. Not just Faunus eyes, human eyes as well. She would have felt a little bit more confident if not for how uncomfortably mini the skirt was. It was probably one of her mother's forgotten gifts to her.

Halfway through Professor Port's story about returning a baby bird to its nest while fighting off a vulture in the middle of downtown Vale, Blake had realized that she had no way of contacting Yang. They have been in Beacon for over two years now and they have never once seen each other until Yang had walked out of Bailey Hall with Cardin.

Then she remembered Ruby.

Immediately after Professor Port had dismissed them, Blake squeezed through the crowd. Maybe Ruby would be in the hallway, walking to her next class or hanging out somewhere. She did say that she had seen Blake around, but there was no sign of the black-and-red-haired girl anywhere.

This time, she remembered Ren, with whom she shared Professor Port's class with. She hurried back to the lecture hall, but found it empty, except for Professor Port himself and a couple of unfortunate souls who got caught on their way out. Blake snuck away and decided to call Sun instead.

After the fifth ring, the monkey Faunus had picked up, "I thought we agreed to do this later? After all your classes?"

"Sun, I don't have her number." Blake said dryly.

"Well, I don't have it either. Didn't you say you had classes with Ren?"

"I just missed him."

"I know!" he cheered, "Why don't you ask Velvet? She might have Yang's number or she might ask Coco for it if she doesn't."

"That seems suspicious." Blake had thought about it. If she were to ask Velvet for Yang's number, she might think that she liked Yang. She did, but Velvet doesn't need to know that and especially not Coco, whom she just met a few days ago.

"Blake," Sun sounded exhausted, "You have something to give back to Yang. That's why you're asking for her number. You can't find Ren or Ruby so that's why you're asking her instead."

Why didn't I think of that?

"I'm gonna do that." Blake announced.

"Yeah, call me later when you're ready." he ended the call.

The plan was simple enough. Dress to impress, ask Yang to meet her and do everything that Sun says afterwards. All Blake needed to do now was ask for the blonde's number, go to her classes, hope everything goes well and get out of these damn clothes as soon as she reaches the front door of her home.

Velvet responded with Yang's number during Blake's final class for the day. That took a while. Velvet must have asked around or hadn't found the time in between her classes. Blake thanked her, saved Yang's number on her contacts list and stared at it for a full minute. She now held a line of communication with the blonde at the tip of her fingers.

What was she supposed to say? Should she call her? Would Yang even answer a call from an unknown number?

Just send her a message, Blake.

[Hi, Yang. This is Blake Belladonna. I got your number from Velvet. I have your scarf here.]

Then what? This is too formal.

She deleted the message and typed again.

[ Hi, Yang. This is Blake. Tell me when you're available so I can return your scarf. ]

That sounds demanding.

Once more, the message was discarded. Blake thought long and hard before she typed again.

[ Hi, Yang. This is Blake. I wanted to give your scarf back. Let me know when you're free. ]

She took a deep breath and pressed send. Would Yang respond immediately? Was that the wrong thing to say? Should she have introduced herself first and waited for an acknowledgement before telling her about the scarf?

Five minutes later, she got a message. She expected to see Yang's name, but it was Sun, asking her to meet him in front of Mercer Building. She responded with a terse yes and made the ten-minute walk without another notification from anybody. Did Velvet give her the right number?

"You look hot, Blake!" Sun greeted her when she arrived, "Did you get her number?"

"I'm not sure if this is the right one." Blake ignored the compliment.

"Did you ask Velvet?"

"Wait, I'm going to―"

There was a new message. From Yang. Blake tried her best not to drop her Scroll when she read it.

Why the hell am I so damn nervous?

[ I'm free now. Where you wanna meet? ;) ]

"Is that her?" Sun tried to take a peek at Blake's Scroll, "Did she reply? Is she coming over?"

[ Is Mercer okay? ]

"Yes." Blake replied to Sun.

[ Yup. See you. ]

"She's on her way." Blake announced with a victorious smile on her face. She was smiling at her Scroll. She wanted to slap herself awake from this emotionally exhausting occurrence. She hasn't smiled at her Scroll like this since high school.

"Alright," Sun clapped his hands together, "you remember the plan, don't you? You gotta be cool, act all mysterious. Nora told me that Yang likes making jokes, so you gotta be sure to laugh at her jokes, okay? When she starts talking, just nod your head as if you're listening."

"Do you not listen?" Blake interrupted, an eyebrow raised at what he just said.

"Don't get distracted by anything. I mean anything." Sun gestured to his chest and made small, circular movements, "Keep your eyes on her face. Don't talk too much either."

"Sun, this is ridiculous. How in the―"

"I see her!" Sun roughly placed his hands on her shoulder, "Be cool, okay? Now start flirting."

Blake was too nervous to turn around, especially with what she and Sun had planned to do. When Sun had flashed her his million-lien smile, Blake knew that Yang was within earshot. She held up her hand and tenderly grasped Sun's bicep and laughed as naturally as she possibly could. Her own voice sounded shrill to all four of her ears.

"Hey, Yang!" Sun looked past Blake and winked at their very much expected guest.

Blake turned around and greeted Yang with a broad smile, "Hi, Yang."

Keep it cool. Smile. Not too much.

"Hi, guys." Yang was wearing her black and yellow bomber jacket again with the hexagon-bee patch, her golden hair in a clean ponytail, a plain white shirt, blue jeans and black ankle boots.

"Glad you're back." Sun said to her, then promptly turned to Blake before the blonde woman could say anything more, "Well, I gotta go meet the guys. See you girls around!"

In the blink of an eye, Sun had jogged away from the two women, towards a destination Blake hadn't known. That was the plan. The first step was to flirt with Sun, to make Yang jealous or acutely aware of Blake's girlfriend potential and then he would leave to give the cat Faunus a chance to work her magic on the blonde.

"Umm... Bye!" Yang looked uncomfortable. Was that a good sign? The blonde then focused her attention to Blake and smiled as widely as she could, her lip now completely healed, "So, how's it going?"

You have to be available, but not besoavailable.

"Great." Blake coolly reached for the yellow scarf in her bag and oh so painfully slowly handed it to Yang, "Thank you for the scarf."

"No prob, Bob." she stuffed the scarf in her jacket pocket.

She made a joke. She made a joke. Laugh.

Blake's laughter sounded much better in her mind where it didn't sound as if she were being insulting to Yang. She wanted to turn around, without a word, and run as far away as her legs would allow, but Yang's soft smile and the twinkle in her lilac eyes kept her from making a move.

"Are you heading home?" Yang asked. That smile alone could launch ten thousand ships and Blake was in a rubber dinghy.

"Yes."

"Do you want some company?"

Blake could only nod and offer a small smile, a real one this time. Smiling was not a difficult feat for the usually stoic Faunus whenever Yang was around her.

Silently, they made their way outside Beacon University's entrance. Silently, they began the twenty-minute walk to Blake's house. It was aggravatingly silent. Blake had spent last week trying to get a hold of Yang, spent the last four years imagining what a conversation between the two of them would be like, but now that it was happening, now that she was walking right beside her, Blake found that she had no words to say.

Damn Sun's wooing, swooning, crying gods and universe bending.

What had she hoped to achieve with the idea of dressing this way and acting strange? Hypothermia? What made it worse was that Yang, herself, wasn't saying anything. This was going to be a long twenty-minute walk.

"Aren't you cold?" there was the sound of honey dripping that broke the silence looming in the horizon.

Blake spared a look at her clothes. Despite the low dip in her collar, there was barely enough cleavage and dozens of inches for the breeze to seep straight into her bones. She wrapped her scarf around her neck, but she could still feel the chill through her thin garments.

"A little. It's laundry day." she lied, this did not seem logical at all, " I'll be fine."

"Ha, same."

The gesture seemed to flow so naturally for the blonde as she wrapped her arms around Blake's shoulders, engulfing her in warmth. At the last minute, Blake had raised her own arm to fight it the way she always fought off Sun's hugs. If this were Sun, she would immediately use said arm to deflect his gesture, but this was not Sun. This was Yang Xiao Long and Blake's arm had now been caught in between her own pounding chest and Yang's breasts.

Oh, my dust. Soft.

Blake felt like a creep. She instantly pushed Yang away as amicably as she could and she took a step back so she wouldn't have to actually push the area where her arm was currently wedged between. There was warmth everywhere around Blake and inside of her, rising to her cheeks and setting fire to her insides.

"Oh, sorry!" Yang scratched her neck, a nervous smile on her face, "I usually give Ruby and my friends a big hug when they feel cold. Spread the warmth, ya know."

"You definitely have an impressive bo― impressive body heat." Blake tried not to smile, "I'm just not a big fan of hugging."

Say goodbye to more hugs in the future, you idiot.

"Not a fan of..." Yang's lilac eyes widened; the way her jaw dropped was even enchanting, her lips slightly parted and looked inviting, "Do your parents ever hug you?"

"Yes, they do." Blake laughed the thought of the blonde's lips out of her mind, "I'm just really not the hugging type."

"You probably haven't been hugged properly." Yang snorted, she threw her arms open and looked expectantly at Blake with a wide grin, "Quit arguing and come here. I've got warmth for two."

Blake didn't need another invitation, but she didn't want to seem all too eager either. She shrugged, rolled her eyes, smiled and carefully approached the warm blonde in front of her. She should have done this four years ago, back in that kitchen, should have done this last week when Yang had held her after Cardin attacked them.

Yang was warm like the beaches of Menagerie, her body was as soft as the sands in between Blake's toes. Though Blake couldn't see them now, she knew how her lilac eyes were as magnificent as the skies at the break of dawn; her hair as golden as the sun itself.

That would have been enough, to hold the woman she was bound to spend the rest of her life with close to her. The smell of apples lingered in the air between them and filled Blake's lungs. It was all she could hope for. But Yang gave her more. She pulled Blake closer, tighter until she could feel something jagged against her rib.

"Ouch!" Blakehad to break the hug, much to her dismay. Something in Yang's pocket was poking her.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Yang took one giant step back and fished for the thing that had hurt Blake within her jacket pocket.

Barely a minute and Blake already missed Yang's warmth around her. As if the universe had wanted to insult her further, the wind blew and sent a chill down her spine. Yang looked all too happy as she pulled the thing out of her pocket and held it up against the patch on her chest. It was a keychain: yellow hexagon with a cartoonish bee, same as the one on Yang's jacket.

"I remembered you didn't have a keychain." she squeezed the keychain in her hand before she held her palm open for Blake to reach for the metal object, "This is for you."

It was a lot warmer than she had expected when her own palm closed around it, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, of course!" the blonde laughed, "I have around twenty more keychains in my room."

"Are you collecting them?" Blake began the arduous task of finding her lone key within her bag. She kept her face down so that Yang wouldn't see her cheeks had turned crimson or how her smile refused to fade away.

"No. When I buy stuff, they almost always come with free keychains and it doesn't help that Ruby gives some to me as gifts. She probably thinks I am collecting them. I only ever use this one." Yang pulled a set of keys from her pocket, held together by a silver bottle opener keychain in the shape of an Ursa's head.

Yang had three keys on her keychain, Blake noticed. The blonde had explained that one was for her apartment, the other was a key to their home back on Patch Island and the last one was for her motorcycle in the garage on the island.

"Your motorcycle isn't here?" Blake asked, curious why she had never seen Yang on one before.

"Nope." the blonde laughed, "There's barely any parking here in the city and it's either gas or groceries. Last I checked, gas is bad for your health."

"Thank you for the keychain." Blake smiled and held up her house key and its new companion for Yang to see, "My lonely key won't be so lonesome anymore."

"Don't worry, Blakey." Yang motioned for them to continue walking, "Someday, you'll have your own set of keys. One for your own apartment and a car, maybe. Then you'll definitely thank me for that keychain."

Blake liked the sound of that. She couldn't help but imagine that that apartment was going to be shared with the woman next to her. A beige couch with orange throw pillows, a wide kitchen with dark wood cupboards and white marble countertops, the smell of coffee in the air and Yang offering to make breakfast.

The two of them had fallen into another round of silence, but the air wasn't charged with awkwardness and unease. Sun's plan was completely forgotten now. All that research and planning had gone to waste. Not that it was very useful in the first place. It might have worked for him, might work for another guy, but it didn't for her.

Blake could only wonder what Yang was thinking about as they walked, wondered if Yang might like her the same way she does. Last week, they were complete strangers and the blonde was oblivious to her existence and now they were friends. Blake wanted them to be more than that. She wanted them to be like Coco and Velvet.

The memory of those two had reminded her of everything that happened at Leelu's Pizza Dome two days prior. Yang had seen her look away from Coco and Velvet. Did Yang think she was uncomfortable with how close they were to each other? She was uncomfortable. Not with Coco and Velvet, but with the wild thoughts that stirred in her mind in that moment.

"Hey, Yang." Blake said softly. She needed to clear the air.

"Yeah?" Yang shot her a look.

Blake had no courage to look at Yang, "I'm not... I'm not a homophobic person. Last Saturday was―"

"Coco and Velvet." Yang giggled, "No, no, it's okay. I mean, I was a little surprised by them too. And you did mention that you weren't comfortable with that."

"I didn't even know Velvet was seeing someone." that was the truth.

"Coco can be a blabbermouth, but she's pretty hush-hush about some things. I found out about them last week, after I got suspended. Coco was really mad."

"Yeah, but I just wanted to say to you that I'm not homophobic. I was just caught off guard... I don't really notice these things."

I spent the last four years choosing not to.

"Really, Blake, it's okay. I respect other people's views in life. We don't have to talk about it, if you're not very comfortable with it. But it's good you're trying to accept it."

"Honestly, Velvet was the last person I expected to be gay." It was true. Blake had known Velvet even before high school. Their parents had spent a tremendous amount of time together and that meant their own daughters would have as well. But right now, Blake realized just how little she knew about the rabbit Faunus.

"Be not afraid of gayness." Yang had tried to adopt a serious expression, but she couldn't pass up a chance to laugh at her own joke, "Some are born gay, some achieve gayness and some have gayness thrust upon them. Coco was probably born gay. I wonder which one Velvet is."

"That's not how the saying goes." Blake laughed, more at how contagious the blonde woman's honey-dripping laughter was than at her actual joke. She turned to behold the woman next to her.

"That's how it should go." Yang was just about to to look at her too, but her damn Scroll rang and tore an opportunity for Blake to look into the sunrise away. It was out of reflect, but Blake had managed to look at the screen. Her heart fell when she had seen Amber's name, "Sorry. I gotta take this."

How could she have forgotten about Amber? How could she have forgotten how she and Yang had spent almost half an hour in the restrooms? Blake quickly took a step away and slowed down to give Yang a little bit of privacy, her cat ears tucked inwards, not wanting to hear Amber's seductive voice over Yang's Scroll. Yang had briefly looked at the sudden movement of her ears before her head had turned the opposite direction.

"Hey, Amber," Yang smiled, Blake frowned, "what's up?"

"Are you coming over or not?" Amber said, lust and desire in her voice.

Damn these Faunus ears.

"I'll be there in an hour?" Yang pouted.

"Make that thirty minutes. You owe me."

"I'll make you dinner then." Yang laughed, her rosy cheeks had now turned crimson, "I'll see you later, Amber."

Blake gritted her teeth as she watched Yang slip her Scroll back into her pocket, her face still flushed. She had spent all this time with the blonde, trying to impress her and all it took to make her look this happy was one call from Amber.

Girls like her don't stay single for long.

Yang slowed down her pace so that Blake could catch up to her, "I like to cook sometimes."

The dismissive and rapid manner in which the blonde had said it proved that she did not want to talk about Amber, but Blake really had no response to that. All she could think of was that Yang, the woman she was supposed to be with, the one she had been thinking of for the last four years, was going to go to Amber's apartment and make her dinner. She had to say something though. She had to enjoy what little bit of Yang she had, "That's cool."

"What about you?" Yang laughed, "What do you like? Any hobbies?"

I like you.

"Nothing interesting." Blake said dryly. She couldn't find it in herself to even pretend that she was feeling okay, "I like reading books. It's pretty stupid."

Yang only hummed, "It's not stupid if you like it. Come on, tell me more. What do you like about books?"

"What's in them?" Blake bit her tongue. That sounded a little too harsh.

"Uh-huh." Yang had only smiled at her, "Keep going."

"I like how they smell. This is really boring stuff, you know." Blake smiled back. Yang seemed to be listening, hanging on to every single word that would dare tumble out of her lips and she was ashamed that all she could talk about was books.

"Old and not old?" Yang had a pinched expression on her face, but the smile was still there. Blake could only continue in the hope that she could keep that smile where it was.

"Kind of, but my favorite has to be the smell between old books and brand new ones. It's like burnt wood with... phosphorus? I―I can't explain it. I don't know."

Yang laughed, not unkindly, but softly, "I feel really bad for not knowing what you mean. I've never really thought about the smell of books."

"Sorry. I told you it was stupid."

"It is not." Yang announced, finality in her tone, "You really shouldn't apologize for the things that make you happy."

"Thanks for listening." she said softly as she pulled her blazer tighter to ward off the chill in the air.

Blake clutched the keychain Yang had given her when she saw her house in the distance. Her eyes widened to see that her father's car was in the driveway. She remembered how she had run out of the house this morning, afraid that her father would tell her to dress in something warmer, remembered how she had told Yang that it was laundry day.

What is he doing home so early?

Yang must have noticed the panic in her amber eyes because the blonde had stopped walking, her own lilac eyes fixed on the car in the driveway, "Your dad's not gonna kill me, is he?"

He is going to do much worse than kill you. He'll kill me.

The universe taunted her again. The front door had opened and out came Ghira Belladonna who waved at them to come closer. Was he watching them from the window? Blake saw the confused look on her father's face when he inspected his daughter from head to toe.

"Dad, this is Yang!" Blake chirped before her father could say anything.

Ghira looked at Blake, the scowl on his face turned into a smile the minute his eyes landed on Yang, "Hi, I'm Blake's dad."

Yang was nervous as she held out her hand for Ghira Belladonna to shake, her unease evident in her smile. Blake had heard a soft squeak from the blonde's throat the moment her father had scooped her up in a hug, lifting her a foot or two in the air. Blake had to fight a groan from escaping her own throat.

"Blake told me all about what you did last week." he put the shaking Yang down back beside Blake and smiled, "I'm sorry about how I reacted. I had just heard there was a fight and you had a cut on your lip and I assumed the worst."

Stop talking. Stop talking. Stop talking.

"Dad, what are you doing home so early?" Blake almost screamed.

"I took a day off." Ghira inspected Blake's clothes again, but didn't mention anything about it and turned to Yang who had thankfully recovered from her shock, "I'm making dinner. Would you like to join us?"

Half of Blake wanted Yang to leave so she could quickly change out of her clothes and before her father could ask her about them and reveal that it wasn't in fact laundry day. But half of Blake wanted Yang to stay, to forget about Amber. Yes, it would be awkward, but then she could spend more time with her.

"I'd love to... sir." Yang said, her hand unconsciously grabbed a tuft of her golden locks, "But I have to be somewhere."

"Well, maybe next time then." Ghira offered, "How about this weekend? As an apology for how rude I was last week."

Blake saw how Yang's hand slipped into the pocket of her bomber jacket, how her hand must have gripped the Scroll inside it. Yang was nervous. Yang wanted to be somewhere else right now. She wanted to be with Amber.

"I can't this weekend." she laughed nervously, "My dad's coming over to visit me and my sister."

"Okay, let me know when you're free. You can even bring your sister along." Ghira smiled at her, defeat in his tone, but there was hope there, " Thank you again and I'm sorry."

"No problem, sir." Yang said stiffly then she turned to bid Blake goodbye.

"Bye, Yang." Blake forced herself to smile and watched as Yang walked back the way they came, her golden hair swaying in that clean ponytail. She watched as the blonde pulled out her Scroll and pressed it to her ear.

Blake closed the front door, still clutching the keychain Yang had given her. She sighed softly before she turned around to see that her father had been observing her all this time.

"Why are you dressed like this?" he raised his eyebrows expectantly, "It's cold out."

"I hadn't noticed." Blake whispered as she slipped her keys back into her pocket, "I'll go get changed then come down to help in a few minutes."

Her father said nothing more and Blake was grateful for it. As soon as she reached her bedroom, she changed out of her absurdly thin clothes and into something warmer, something thick and black. Still, she was cold inside, her skin missing the warmth of Yang, the person she was going to spend the rest of her life with, who was now on her way to Amber's apartment.