Dust, Dust, Dust, Dust, Weiss immediately cut on the shower and locked the door. Her heart raced as she ducked over to the corner. She did not want anyone finding her and Blake alone in the bathroom in the dead of night.
By the time Blake fully caught up with what was happening, there was a bit more shuffling, a morose whine of "Cuddle miser," followed by dragging footsteps that brought a solid knock on the door.
"You in there Blake?"
Startled by the sudden question being addressed to her, Blake scrambled for an intelligent response.
"Uh..."
"Seriously Blake? Did you just start showering?"
"I, uh..."
"Jeeze, it's been like 30 minutes, what are you even doing in there?" Yang's voice dipped in a short laugh, "What, you fall asleep too or something?"
"N-no... I..." The Faunus paled, shooting a glance back at Weiss, who was currently trying to become one with the corner where the cabinet met the wall.
"...You didn't take a book with you again, did you?"
Blake winced at the accusation. The last time she'd taken a novel into the bathroom, she'd gotten lost in a particularly gripping set of chapters for the better part of an hour while waiting for the shower to warm up before realizing she hadn't even set foot in the water. And while it would make an excellent excuse, without an actual book in her hands, that particular lie would be far too easy to expose.
"There was no hot water," she casually threw out the first passable fabrication she came up with.
"Ah yeah, that'll do it. Heh, too bad you can't make your own hot water~" Yang teased, sounding wholly convinced.
Breathing a silent sigh of relief, Blake was just about to shoot back with a witty retort when she heard her partner hum in confusion.
"Weird." Yang's words weren't directed at Blake anymore, aimed instead at Ruby, "Where'd Weiss go?"
The answer contained a groggy "study room" and a sleepy, garbled indictment of Weiss's late night learning habits. It was difficult to hear over the hiss of water in the shower, but at least she didn't seem to be mounting a campus-wide search party.
Not that it made that much difference. Until she and Yang were both asleep, they were trapped. Weiss pressed herself farther into the corner, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. Terrific. Blake probably wants to shower and here I'm stuck waiting for Yang to sleep in her own bed. As if that's likely.
"Studying? At this hour? Yeesh. I don't know whether to be impressed or disgusted."
Blake could practically hear the grimace on Yang's face. Her ears twitched at the light shuffle of hair against hardwood as her partner lean back against bathroom door.
"How much longer you gonna be in there anyway? I'm sleepy," Yang dragged her vowels, as if she may collapse from exhaustion simply from saying a single word.
"...I don't know," Blake perked, vying for an easy out, "Maybe you should just go to bed?"
"Blake. I reek. My baby sister won't even let me come within ten feet of her," Yang's voice suddenly dropped to a whisper, low enough that only Blake's Faunus ears could register the sinister, "unless I surprise tackle her. Wish me luck, Blakey - and please don't take an hour long shower~"
Blake blinked, stepping back from the door seconds later when a resounding crash heralded the sounds of another scuffle.
Time successfully bought, Blake slowly sank to the floor in front of Weiss, listening for a while to the odd mixture of devious laughter and yelling. A slight tilt of her head brought her gaze to her girlfriend, silently asking for suggestions with the quirk of a brow.
Weiss gave her a sharp, what am I supposed to do? sort of glare. When she'd returned to the room earlier in the evening, she'd emptied her pockets and left her bag by the desk, so she didn't have access to her scroll, which meant she couldn't exactly cause a diversion. Weiss whispered, "Maybe she'll get bored and go to sleep."
Shying away from the glare with a half-hearted nod, Blake leaned back on her hands, trying to look everywhere but Weiss, lest she find herself dragged back into the temptation to make creative use of their new-found surplus of time stuck together in the bathroom. She cast a lengthy longing glance at the hot running shower water. It would be a shame to waste it...
Shifting over a bit, Blake leaned in close, side-eyeing her girlfriend. "Weiss," she kept her voice low, eyes darting quickly to the door and back, "Would you mind if I go ahead and shower anyway?"
"Yes, I would mind," Weiss hissed back, her color rising as she realized how loud she'd been. She ducked down and cupped her hands to Blake's ear, "You showering within five feet of me would not be conducive to my helping us avoid a reputation of complete indecency."
Blake's ears flattened at the truth in Weiss's statement, but she frowned, whispering back, "But if I don't shower, and they stay awake, and I walk out there looking like this," she gestured to her disheveled, obviously unshowered appearance, "that's not going to be much help either."
"Just tell Yang you're going to take a while," Weiss shut her eyes, rubbing her temple to ward off a headache, "She can go shower across the hall. Or in the gym. In any of the gyms. There are literally showers in every building on campus."
The Faunus put a hand to her chin. It was worth a shot. "Okay. What about Ruby?" She noticed then that the scuffling noises had stopped.
Weiss noticed the pitch of Blake's ears, "Are they still fighting?"
Blake's Faunus ears stood at full attention, making minute self-adjustments from time to time as she tried to listen, but it was difficult to hear much of anything over the constant hiss of the shower water ringing in her head. Blake had always preferred baths for just this reason, but she couldn't deny showers were a far more efficient means of getting clean. Still, she did her best to listen, and though there was something that could have been whispering, with her dulled senses, it was too close to the sound of water to really tell.
"I... I don't hear anything at all," Blake breathed. Had they already gone back to sleep? ...Had they caught on? "Hang on..." Blake crawled towards the door, low to the ground, and pressed both of her left ears to the cool wood, straining to hear something - anything.
Not hearing anything was a bad sign in Weiss's book. She leaned in, perching almost on Blake's shoulder with her ear to the door as well.
Ruby slumped down, chin resting on Yang's head, her hair and pajamas askew, her ear to the door just below the knob. She'd already wrestled with her twice, so getting more sweaty and gross didn't really matter. She looked down at her manic big sister and whispered, "Yang, why are we doing this?"
"Because I've got... suspicions," Yang whispered back, eyes narrowing as she too pressed the side of her face against the door.
"So... you're having suspicions that Blake is taking a long time in the shower...?" Ruby looked incredulous.
"Something like that." Yang's face screwed up in concentration, but she was having trouble hearing much other than shower water. Though, the water sounded suspiciously... undisturbed. As though no one was even standing in it. Yang smirked, wondering at just how distracted her partner must be to miss such an obvious tell.
On the other side, Blake's ears flattened in dismay. The sisters were on high alert. She silently pushed away from the door to shoot a wide-eyed look of warning up at Weiss. Putting one finger to her lips, she slowly shook her head.
Weiss ran a hand over her face. How had they gone from... from... moving forward positively with their relationship to this?! Hiding in a bathroom from her psychotic teammate who wanted to catch them in the act. Why? Why did this keep happening?
Shoulders dropping in a soundless sigh, Blake got to her feet, grabbed her black towel from the back of the toilet, placed it neatly on the floor, and sat on exactly one half of it. She beckoned Weiss with an exasperated smile, patting the open space beside her. If they were going to play the waiting game, at least they could be stuck together in relative comfort.
Weiss scowled, situating herself on the towel next to Blake and crossing her arms. The mirror had fogged over and the air was getting hot and sticky from all the steam but there was no way she was going to shed her school jacket. Blake had, but that didn't really count, and they were only sitting together waiting for Yang and possibly Ruby to get bored and fall asleep so it was fine. It wasn't like they were half-dressed in a very small, private space in the middle of the night. It wasn't.
She leaned back against the sink, very distinctly not looking at Blake while a blush crept up her collar. Five minutes ago they'd been kissing. Had Blake minded? She hadn't seemed to mind. Weiss certainly hadn't minded. So why didn't Blake say anything about it? But they were hiding, so of course she wouldn't. Also she was Blake- quiet, moody, sitting right next to her Blake who had definitely kissed her back, so she was 90% sure that she had been okay with it. Weiss set her jaw, clenching her fists to help her focus on something constructive. Like a way out of this bathroom.
Blake leaned back as well, shoulder to shoulder with Weiss, shutting her eyes and attempting to relax. Arms loosely draped across her stomach, the Faunus focused on listening, trying to sift out the dull rush of shower water and focus on the smaller things. Weiss's (mostly) even breathing. Her own racing heartbeat that was finally starting to slow. A light shuffle of movement beyond the door...
Her eyes flew open when her head dipped a bit too far forward - she had dozed off. Blake shook her head. As much as she enjoyed warmth, she could feel herself sweating all over, so she idly opened the top two buttons of her blouse, frowning when it offered no relief whatsoever. Worrying her lip between her teeth, Blake made up her mind.
Eyes set on her destination, she leaned her head towards Weiss, whispering a quick, "Going to at least wash my hair," standing immediately thereafter and heading to the shower.
Weiss was too busy calculating the dimensions of the air vent near the ceiling to think much of Blake going to the shower. If she angled her shoulders just right, maybe she could fit. Noise would be a problem though, and who knew how many years of dust and grime had accumulated on the inside of the ducts.
She'd crossed arms over drawn up knees and rested her chin on them, glaring at the closed door. How much stringy, disgusting dirt would she be willing to endure in order to evade Yang and not have anyone think she was being untoward with Blake...?
In the time it took Weiss to complete her calculations, Blake was already rinsing the lather from her hair. Though the heat-seeking Faunus had developed a habit of lingering in the shower, enjoying the warmth for all it was worth, years of tepid, if not downright cold showers stolen in-between missions had taught her to complete the actual logistics of getting clean within minutes. Still, she couldn't help but linger just a bit, head angled downward and away from the spray of water to keep any from getting in her ears.
Eventually she pulled away, but not without letting slip a light sigh of content as she sat on the edge of the tub and pushed her wet hair over her shoulder.
Weiss glanced up when Blake sighed. She froze.
Blake, her tall, attractive girlfriend was soaking wet. Well, from the waist up, anyway. Little spikes of fur stuck up at the base of her ears and her underwear showed through her white top.
Weiss snapped her gaze away and faced the opposite wall. She's fully clothed. It's fine. We've used the same locker room all school year and it's been fine. Pyrrha wears less into battle, for goodness' sake- Blake's shirt being see-through is... it's fine. She shut her eyes and tugged discreetly at the collar of her suddenly stifling hot jacket.
The motion caught Blake's attention, amber eyes briefly leaving the task of wringing out her hair to glance over at Weiss. She was bright red, probably from frustration... or perhaps the heat. At least that she could help remedy. Since her arms were already soaked, Blake took a moment to masterfully ease the shower's temperature from hot to cold without changing the water pressure.
Shaking her sleeves back out from having been rolled up to her shoulders, Blake cringed at the sheer amount of water she'd gotten on her blouse, despite the acrobatic half-bent stance she'd taken to avoid... exactly this. She may as well have just showered in her clothes for all the good it had done. The water was starting to seep into the waistband of her skirts, so she pulled the shirt free, leaving it untucked and dripping.
She really needed a towel, but of course Weiss was sitting both on her towel and directly in front of the cabinets housing the extras. A brief glance down at herself banished the creeping desire to simply let herself air dry, summoning a creeping blush in its place. Deciding a bit of embarrassment was wholly worth getting drier faster, Blake stood from her perch and bent down to place a hand on Weiss's shoulder, vying for her attention.
"Stop it," Weiss swatted at Blake's hand, eyes still shut and stupid, treacherous blush still raging out of control. Even though it was fine, she wasn't going to look. She buried her face in her arms. Blake was her girlfriend and she was going to respect her girlfriend's privacy and not look at her and her incredibly see-through shirt, even if she was technically still completely clothed and it was fine.
Both brows raised in surprise, Blake gingerly settled both of her hands atop Weiss's arms to keep from getting swatted in the face as she leaned in to whisper into her girlfriend's bright red ear, "I need a towel..."
Understatement of the hour. Weiss all but fell off the towel she was sitting on, sputtering almost under her breath, "Just take it. You're dripping on me."
"Thanks..." Blake took the towel and wrapped it around her neck, but she kept her sights on Weiss. Once she spotted the offending drops of water, she used one corner of the towel to gently dry the side of Weiss's neck she'd dampened.
"What are you doing?!" Weiss whisper-shrieked, flailing her arms at Blake and her three-fourths indecent neck drying endeavors. She pointed, absolutely refusing to open her eyes now. "Go- go listen to the door."
Amber eyes rolled, but Blake couldn't help but smile at the wild display, wondering what type of reaction their next trip to the locker rooms would entail. Before her thoughts could wander too far, noises from the dorm room had her ears swiveling to attention.
Blake crept back to the bathroom door, pressing her ears to the wood just in time to hear a sleepily mumbled, "Ah, who am I kidding." There was no mistaking Yang's voice, and heavy footsteps followed by the mournful squeak of books being crushed could only mean one thing - the brawler had returned to bed.
There was no audible sign of Ruby either, prompting the Faunus to throw a triumphant smirk over her shoulder... only to find Weiss's eyes were still screwed shut. With a short sigh that was closer to a laugh, Blake returned to her girlfriend's side, risking a quick nuzzle to her temple as she delivered the good news, "The sisters have retreated."
"Good. Well. I'll go, then," Weiss looked, just for a second. Blake's dark hair had a little more curl to it when it was wet. she swallowed and got to her feet, brushing dust from her sleeves.
"Wait," Blake caught Weiss's hand, held it tight. "Stay a while?" She wasn't quite sure why the request came out like a question, but she was quick to clarify, "Yang only just left."
"Why didn't you say so before?!" Weiss snapped, accidentally gripping Blake's hand harder instead of pulling away. Accidentally? She blinked down at her hand in Blake's, then up at Blake herself, and then away, not sure where to look again. "I... I suppose we'll just have to..."
Blake sometimes wondered if Weiss knew how impossibly cute she could be, and the Faunus only just avoided pulling Weiss into her embrace, remembering her own soaked shirt at the last second. Though, that didn't keep her excitement from spilling over as a sly smile as she took hold of Weiss's other hand as well and moved in, close as she could be without touching. Pressing a quick kiss to the other girl's cheek, she suggested, "...keep ourselves occupied?"
A/N: Blaaaaaaaaaake.
Also, could we please just have an hour long episode of Qrow and Ruby and Yang and Weiss and Winter engaged in rival family hijinks instead of a World of Remnant? And Blake can just be, like, reading in the corner? Yes? Please and thank you.
In the meantime, flustered Weiss is flustered. Thanks for the reviews!
- Fiercesomest