A/N: a shorter update, but I wanted you guys to know I'm still thinking of you. Figured the couple needed some downtime after what they've been through lately! But it's never plain sailing for Team RWBY, so it won't be any more so for Bumblebee.
Hope you guys enjoy the new update!
I do not own RWBY.
After being kept in the infirmary for a couple of days for tests and observation, Blake was finally discharged from the infirmary, and she returned to team RWBY's dorm room feeling better than before.
Well...almost. A look at her arms was all it took to remind her of the pain she'd endured, and as a precaution she'd been put on a course of aura inhibitors - since the dust now infused into her skin was bound to her aura, the inhibitors reduced the risk of her accidentally using whatever abilities came from it in the school.
The reduction of her aura also left Blake feeling fragile and vulnerable, as if the slightest knock would cause her irreparable damage.
When she finally entered the team's dorm, she was greeted with a powerful hug from Ruby, a warm smile and polite greeting from Weiss...and Yang, who pulled her close and kissed her affectionately, gently, with a tenderness that seemed at odds with the brawler's powerful nature. Almost immediately after that, Weiss called for a team meeting to discuss 'boundaries', although the other three didn't really know what she meant. Ruby and Weiss sat down on Weiss' bed, while Blake and Yang sat on Blake's. Despite it being a meeting, Blake felt more like it was an intervention.
"If you two are going to be...together, then I think we need to establish some ground rules," she declared officiously, and Ruby sniggered.
"Just ignore her, you guys, she's just jealous," the diminutive leader joked, and Weiss scowled at her.
"I am not!" she argued. "I am simply trying to make sure we respect their privacy, and at the same time they respect our..." she searched for the most diplomatic way of phrasing her thoughts. "Our lack of interest in their nocturnal habits."
"Take it easy Weiss, Blake's only just got back," Yang stated, earning a nod of agreement from Blake.
"Yeah, even we haven't discussed our relationship yet," the faunus added, giving Weiss a lop-sided smile. "Not properly, anyway."
"Well, you guys know how you feel about each other now, right?" Ruby asked, and Yang nodded. Blake smiled fondly, and blushed. "Well, I'm not an expert but I think that means you two are like, dating now, right?"
The two taller girls looked at each other, their eyes meeting as if they were both searching for an answer there. After a moment they both smiled, Blake looked away again and Yang looked back at Weiss and Ruby.
"Yeah, I guess we are," she agreed, taking hold of Blake's hand.
"All the more reason for us to set some ground rules," Weiss pressured, and Yang rolled her eyes.
"C'mon Weiss, what do you think is going to happen? We've been together officially for all of thirty seconds, it's a little early to be proposing." Her tone was light, but Ruby could detect the seriousness behind the words. As far as she was concerned, she was happy that Yang had found someone she deserved, and that Blake had found someone who would love her no matter what.
"I'm more concerned with later down the line, when you two want some...alone time," she explained, forming quote marks with her fingers.
Blake's eyes narrowed, then went wide as she realised what the heiress was implying.
"Weiss, I think it's far too early to worry about Yang and I sleeping together," she said quickly. "I really think you're concerned about something that hasn't even happened yet, and may not for a while."
"But I-"
"Weiss, I think we should just let them sort things out for themselves first," Ruby suggested gently, resting a hand on her partner's shoulder. Despite her scowl, Weiss was secretly impressed at Ruby's mature approach - not that she would actually tell her that.
"Well...can you at least keep the public displays of affection to a minimum while we're around, please?" Weiss' tone was pleading, and Yang briefly considered making a joke until noticed the very real concern on the heiress' face. Clearly the idea made her uncomfortable.
"I think we can do that," Yang told her, and Weiss visibly relaxed.
"Yeah!" Ruby cheered. "Let's all go into Vale to celebrate!"
"I think I've had enough Vale for a while," Blake sighed, and Yang nodded
"Let's not forget I'm restricted to Beacon for who knows how long," she added, and Weiss turned her scowl towards their leader.
"And we have classes tomorrow," she reminded the younger girl. "I think we should all be more concerned with helping Blake catch up on what she missed, before we do anything frivolous."
Ruby deflated, dropping her arms back to her knees as her head lowered sadly.
"It was just a suggestion," she added in a small voice. Finally Yang got up, her shoulders popping as she stretched.
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I think we should head to the cafeteria," she suggested. "I am starving."
"Anything has to be better than infirmary food," Blake said as she stood as well, and Weiss promptly joined them.
Ruby suddenly brightened as a thought occurred to her, and she shot up quickly and ran to the door.
"Oh my god today's burger day!" she shouted, and bolted out of the room in a flash of red hood and rose petals.
"Well, I guess Ruby's in too," Yang said with a shrug, before they all followed their lightning-fast leader to the cafeteria.
"What I don't understand," Weiss stated as the team ate, "is why Adam is apparently so intent on assassinating my sister. She isn't particularly high on the hierarchy of my father's company."
"No, but like you she is an inheritor of it if he died," Blake explained. "Plus your family is high-profile - assassinating a prominent member of one of Atlas' most prominent families would be big news."
"But why use a faunus to do the job?" Weiss asked further, pitching her voice lower so as not to alert the entire cafeteria to Blake's true heritage. "Surely that would be counter-productive?"
"It would show other faunus that determination can achieve your goals," Blake replied bitterly. "It would show them that if we refuse to be beaten down, if we fight back, we can make a massive impact, and killing your sister would make us feared more than ever."
"Well, he's got a few problems with that plan now," Yang chipped in, placing a hand gently on Blake's arm. "With Blake back with us, he'd have to get through everyone at Beacon to take her back, and there's no way I'm letting that happen, let alone anyone else."
Blake smiled at her girlfriend and rested her head on Yang's shoulder, and the brawler kissed the top of the faunus' head.
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I don't like the idea of him lurking around Atlas," Ruby declared around a mouthful of burger. "I'd feel better if we went and stopped him."
"That wouldn't be-"
"You guys are finally together?" asked a familiar, excessively-cheerful voice. "Ohmigod, that is sooo cute!"
Jaune and the rest of Teamn JNPR sat down next to their friends, as they often did at meal times, and before anyone else could say anything Nora cut in with more overjoyed exclamations.
"I mean, you guys have been making googly eyes at each for, like, forever! It's about time you two finally got together, ya know?"
"I think what Nora means is that she's happy for you both," Pyrrha clarified with a small smile. "And so are the rest of us."
"So are you guys going after the guy that kidnapped Blake?" Jaune asked, and Blake straightened up at last.
"I wouldn't advise it," she told him, "and I wouldn't want you guys to get involved either. He's too powerful and too dangerous, and-"
"And with eight of us, including Nora and Pyrrha, we could totally kick his ass!"
"Ruby!" Yang chided. "You know dad would kill you if he heard you talk like that!"
"Sorry sis," Ruby said quietly, suitably chastised, and Yang looked at Blake.
"She's right though, we totally would."
Blake sighed, staring at the markings etched into her skin.
"Guys...I'm really not comfortable talking about this yet," she said. "I still need to recover, I still need to know what this dust is meant to do, and...and I'm not ready to face him again, not yet."
"Don't worry Blake, everything will work out," Yang reassured her, taking hold of her hand as if to reinforce the statement. "And no matter what happens, whatever you face...you know you'll always have me at your side."
Blake smiled gratefully at her blonde-haired girlfriend, before leaning in to steal a kiss. Weiss and Ruby rolled their eyes at the couple, and the heiress sighed.
"And this is why I wanted ground rules."