Summary: Yang and Blake have been in love with each other since the moment they met, but neither could ever reveal their feelings. But now that they're entering their senior year and all the talk is on colleges and plans for the future, their friends aren't sure they can just sit by and watch as they lose each other for good. High School AU. Bumblby, WhiteRose, Arkos

Author's Note: Season 8 is here and so is the next update! Not sure what everyone thought of the first episode but I'm really interested to see how it will turn out. Anyways, we're following up right after the cliffhanger from last week and it's a bit of a long one here so I hope you all enjoy it!


Chapter 30: Promise

"What do you mean it's Adam? I thought you said he was in jail!"

"He is!"

"Then how did he send you this?" Weiss snaps back, "do they really allow criminals access to computers?"

"It doesn't matter!" Blake wails, the sound only barely muffled by the hands covering her face, "he… he knows I'm here! He could... he could…"

Weiss quickly rushes back to her side, realizing that right now, the how and the why aren't important. Right now, all that matters is that she stays strong for the both of them.

So she slides up next to her, gently wrapping her arms around Blake's trembling shoulders and pressing her forehead close.

"Blake, hey… it's going to be okay. He can't hurt you here. I promise, he's just trying to mess with you."

"But what… what if he's not? What if he's out already? You don't know what he's capable of! If he comes to Vale, all of you…"

"Is that why you posted your confirmation without telling anyone?" Weiss interrupts. "To protect us?"

She feels Blake nod against her chest, letting out a quiet whimper that all but breaks her heart and has her tightening her grip on the girl's body.

"I… I saw the message two days ago." Blake mumbles, "and I just… I didn't know what to do. I've been just… just freaking out ever since."

"Why didn't you call me? I could've come over and helped you figure something out. You didn't have to…"

"I couldn't!" Blake cuts in, "back in Menagerie, Adam had a friend that could hack anything! He would get into my emails, my Facebook, he even somehow put a tracer on my phone! He used to know exactly who I talked to, what I said to them, he was even able to track the GPS of my friend's phones!"

"Blake…"

"No!" Blake shouts, jumping up to her feet, "you still don't understand! He's dangerous! This isn't just a threat, it's a promise. The last thing he said to me before he went to jail was that he'd take away everything and everyone that I care about! That's… I can't risk…"

The girl trails off, once again breaking down in tears and falling back into her bed.

Weiss is at her side in an instant, ignoring Blake's weak protests as she brings the girl back into her arms.

She whispers whatever soothing words she can come up with into Blake's ear but she can tell they're not having any effect.

As always her mind starts to race, desperately searching for something that she can do, some way to fix everything and dry her friend's tears. And at first she has nothing, an all too familiar feeling lately of helplessly watching her closest friends suffer.

But then, out of nowhere, she gets this idea. It's far from certain, barely even a lead drawn from the distant memory of a conversation that happened so long ago that she's not even sure if it's real.

But if it'll ease the terror in Blake's eyes, anything is worth pursuing.

"Listen Blake," she says slowly, "my father… he knows people. I think I remember one of his friends being involved in the justice system down in Anima. He… he might be able to look into this for us, at least give us a real answer on whether or not he's still in prison."

That seems to get Blake's attention with the girl finally lifting her head back up to meet her concerned gaze.

"Really?" Blake whispers.

"I'm not saying it's definite, but… I can at least talk to my father about it. Okay? No matter what, we'll figure something out. I promise."

Blake holds her eye line for another second looking like she's barely able to keep it together before falling apart completely, falling forward to throw her arms around Weiss's shoulders.

"Thank you Weiss!" The girl cries. "I... I don't know what I'd do without you."

Weiss immediately returns the gesture, gently wrapping her arms around Blake's waist and pressing her lips to the top of the girl's head.

"I promise Blake, you won't ever have to find out."

Weiss isn't sure how long it takes for Blake to finally stop crying, but eventually she manages to calm her down, leaving both of them silently slumped up against the side of Blake's bed with one of Weiss's hands still gently stroking the girl's silky black hair.

"I… I'm sorry Weiss." Blake mumbles, finally breaking the silence.

"Blake this isn't your fault. This is all Adam, he's…"

"No not that," Blake gently interrupts, "I meant… I'm sorry for everything. I've kept so many things from you, told so many lies… I've been such an awful friend."

"Hey, you're not the only one to blame." Weiss answers. "We've both made some mistakes in the past few weeks. All of this might not have happened if Pyrrha and I had just left everything alone."

"Weiss, you don't have to make excuses for me."

"I'm not making excuses." She says, "it's just… I feel like the only thing we've done for weeks is argue. And honestly? I've really missed you Blake."

The girl lets out a shaky breath, mustering up the strength to give her a weak smile. "I've missed you too."

It's right at that moment that she feels her phone buzzing in her pocket. At first she thinks about just leaving it be, after all it feels rather rude to check her phone when she's in the middle of a serious conversation with Blake, but then the thought crosses her mind that it might be an update about Yang and she reluctantly fishes the phone out of her pocket.

Pyrrha Nikos: We still can't find her

A deep sigh escapes her lips as she reads the message, shooting an uneasy glance at her friend next to her before letting the phone drop onto the pillow.

"Something wrong?" Blake asks, sitting up with some life already returning to her eyes.

"Uh… no. It's nothing."

"You know you're a terrible liar."

Weiss bites down on her lip, just stopping herself from cursing under her breath at her foolishness for thinking that she could actually deceive her best friend.

"Okay, fine. It's… Yang."

Almost instantly Blake's eyes go wide. "You didn't tell her about Adam did you?"

"No! Definitely not." She answers quickly, "and Pyrrha and Nora aren't going to tell anyone either."

"Okay, so then what is it?"

Weiss nervously bites down on her lip. With everything that had just come to light, she hadn't actually gotten around to telling Blake that Yang had run off. And to be honest, there's a part of her that's reluctant to do anything that could risk distressing her after spending so long getting her to calm down.

"Weiss? Has something happened to Yang?"

She lets out a deep sigh, seeing exactly how pointless it would be to try and lie her way out of this one.

"She's… missing."

Blake's eyes immediately go wide. "What? Did someone…"

"No!" Weiss interrupts, making sure to cut off the girl's erratic imagination before panic truly sets in. "She just ran off, all on her own, she's completely fine, she was just a little… upset after… after seeing your status."

Blake falls back to sit on the ground, turning away with a guilty look on her face, amber eyes glistening as tears once again threaten to spill over.

"She's still out there?"

"Well… yes." She says, "but Pyrrha's going out to look for her again. It's just…"

Blake snaps her head back. "Just what?"

"Well… we've kind of spent all day calling people and driving all around Vale and… she's not sure where to look anymore…"

She sees Blake's eyes flare up before shooting another concerned look toward the window and it's just now that Weiss notices that the girl's breathing is a little faster than normal.

"Oh my god…"

"Blake?"

"She's… is she…"

"Blake!"

WIthout hesitation, Weiss slides over, kneeling right in front of Blake so they're face to face, breath catching in her chest for just a second when she sees the look of pure terror on the girl's face.

"Listen to me Blake," she says, "she's going to be fine. Okay? We're going to find her, and we're going to bring her back."

But the panic in Blake's eyes only seems to get worse, still fixated on the window as her breathing continues to speed up.

"Blake!" Weiss shouts, starting to grow more desperate, "look at me! We're going to find her. Okay? You told me that you were willing to do anything to protect her? Well she needs you right now."

That finally gets the girl's attention enough to flick her eyes back over to meet her own.

"What… what do you mean?"

"I mean… we've looked through every possible place around Vale that we could think of. Nora and Sun even checked the bars downtown but we still have nothing. There has to be somewhere else that we just aren't thinking of."

"Yeah but what am I…"

"You know her better than anyone Blake." Weiss interrupts, "Yang talks to you about everything. I know for a fact that she's told you things that even Pyrrha doesn't know. If there's anywhere else in Vale that she could be hiding, you're the only person who can tell us."

Blake holds her gaze for what feels like an eternity, amber eyes stretched wide in shock as she processes Weiss's words. And it wears tremendously on her patience, waiting on what feels like a knife's edge but still way too scared to tip it in any direction.

But then, finally, the fear in Blake's eyes fades away, replaced by a newfound sense of conviction that has her holding her breath. "Where have you guys looked so far?" Blake asks urgently.

WIth a relieved huff she picks her phone back up and starts scrolling through it, quickly reading out all the texts that she, Pyrrha, and the rest of their friends had exchanged throughout the day. There's the park, the area around the school, the diner, several people's houses… the number of places they've sent someone to check is actually staggering. And it only serves to fuel Weiss's anxiety that they still haven't found her.

What's more, she can tell as the list goes on that it's having a similar effect on Blake, with the girl's eyes narrowing more and more as her concern grows.

They stay quiet for a second, both of them deep in thought and Weiss absolutely racking her brain trying to think of any other places that they could have missed. But honestly at this point, she feels like she's mentally gone through every building in Vale.

But then Blake slowly rises to her feet, a serious yet thoughtful look on her face as she walks up to the window, gazing off into the distance and gently resting her hand on the cold glass.

"Blake?"

The girl doesn't answer immediately, taking one final moment before finally turning to face her, golden eyes showing a level of nervousness that she doesn't quite understand.

"Call Pyrrha." She says slowly.

Weiss's own eyes stretch wide as she rises to her feet. "You know where she is?"

"I… I'm not sure…"

"What do you mean you're not sure?"

"I mean," Blake snaps, "that it's not a guarantee. I'm not even sure if I'm remembering correctly but… Yang told me something a couple years ago… right now it feels like the only place that's left for her to run to."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Weiss says, already looking around the room to find her keys, "we can just go ourselves, it'll be faster than…"

"No!" Blake shouts, "not us. It has to be Pyrrha."

Weiss narrows her eyes in confusion. "What? Why? Blake, the roads are getting worse with every minute, we don't have a second to lose!"

"Weiss." Blake says, "if Adam is in Vale... he could be watching us right now. It's already more than I can bear putting you at risk, I'm not going to let him follow us to Yang as well."

"Blake, you're being ridiculous. We don't even know if…"

"Please Weiss," the girl pleads, "just call Pyrrha."

She gives Blake one last uncertain look, heart absolutely shattering at the fear creeping back into her eyes, and unlocks her phone, taking just a couple quick taps to dial Pyrrha's number, and bringing the phone up to her ear.

Pyrrha lets out a deep sigh as she slips her coat back on.

Even though she'd only spent half an hour to warm back up and eat a snack with Ruby and Neo, it still feels like too much time wasted sitting around when her best friend is still somewhere out in this storm.

And it certainly doesn't help that blasting the group chat for updates or new ideas had come up disappointingly short.

Just as she's about to open the door, she feels her phone vibrate in her coat and she stops, struggling to reach her pocket with all the layers she's wearing.

When she's finally able to find it, her heart starts to race as she sees Weiss's name displayed on the screen, filling her with a sense of hope that she does her best to contain.

"Hello?"

"Pyrrha..." The heiress says slowly.

"Weiss! Have you heard anything from Yang?"

"No. But I'm here with Blake and… she wants to talk to you."

There's a bit of rustling on the line as the phone is handed off, plenty of time for the anxiety she'd been feeling all day to kick in again

"Pyrrha?" Blake finally says, voice sounding as weak and broken as ever.

"I'm here Blake."

"Weiss… told me where you've looked and… there's just one place that hasn't been checked that I can think of that she might go to hide."

"I'm listening…"

"Before I tell you… you have to promise me that you won't tell Yang… won't tell anyone that you talked to me."

Pyrrha can't help furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "What? Blake, what are you talking about? Why can't I..."

"Promise me!" Blake interrupts, "it… it's for her own good. For all of you."

Her confusion only grows at the girl's cryptic words, and her first instinct is to question her on her strange behavior, but ultimately her concern for Yang's safety wins out.

"Okay Blake, I promise. This conversation will just stay amongst the three of us."

"Okay," Blake says, letting out a deep sigh of relief, "it's a bit of a long shot but there's this cafe, it's just a few blocks from her house, called Lucille's."

"I remember it," she answers, "it was one of Yang's favorites. But I thought it closed over a year ago. Why would she go there of all places?"

"It… Yang still goes there from time to time. She told me once that… it was one of her earliest memories of Summer, that she used to take Yang there when Ruby was still a baby."

Pyrrha's eyes go wide at the girl's words. Feeling a small tinge of guilt that she had no idea how much the little cafe meant to Yang. But at the same time, if this was all true, then Yang really could be hiding there now. At the very least, it feels like a better lead than the random guessing they've done for the past few hours.

It's not the first time that she'd been this thankful that Yang has Blake in her life.

"Okay," she says, "I'll go check the cafe right now. Thank you Blake."

"Don't thank me yet." Blake replies weakly. "Just as long as you can bring her back. And remember, nobody can know that you spoke to me."

...

Blake's strange behavior sticks with Pyrrha all through the painfully slow drive to the cafe. Sure Weiss had told her about her abusive history but, seeing it in person is… something else entirely.

At the very least it makes it even clearer that there's a lot more to Blake than any of them knew about.

But she puts it to the back of her mind, deciding that right now, all she can do is focus on Yang and eventually makes the final turn onto the street, bringing her car to a stop in the spot just in front of the store, barely able to make out the faded lettering painted onto the window.

She doesn't want to get her hopes up as she steps out of her car, she's certainly gone through exactly this more than enough times in the past few hours to have some pessimism in this regard. And it certainly doesn't help that she's already shaking from the cold by the time she steps on the sidewalk, although it's hard to really tell whether or not she's still on the street with the snow coming up past her ankle.

It's on a bit of a whim that she presses her face against the front window, feeling her hope starting to die out completely as she scans the room.

She's pleasantly surprised by what she finds inside. Overall the space is absolutely adorable, just this tiny little hole in the wall that's still furnished for some reason with just a couple tables packed up against each wall and old fashioned posters littered throughout, even spotting an old upright piano in the corner.

But unfortunately, despite the cozy atmosphere, she still doesn't see anything indicating that anyone had even stepped foot inside for months, until she spots a faint glow by one of the tables in the back.

Before she knows it, her heart is racing, bringing some much needed warmth back to her body as she dashes to the door, quickly throwing it open despite the snow piled on the ground.

She rushes inside, letting out a deep sigh when she finally spots the unmistakable mane of blonde hair pressed against the back of a booth, barely visible under the dim light of the embers in the small wood burning stove tucked into the corner.

"Y-Yang?" She calls out hesitantly, almost afraid that what she's seeing is some kind of illusion, "Yang it's me."

When she doesn't get a response she quietly sits down next to her, noticing the lake house picture sitting atop the dust covered table.

"Hey Pyrrha," Yang says finally, voice weak and shattered, barely louder than a whisper and body still curled up against the wall.

"Yang…"

After a second, the blonde rolls over, catching Pyrrha by surprise as she suddenly burrows her head into the redhead's lap. She's half expecting tears, but eventually it becomes clear that Yang is all cried out, leaving her with no options other than wrapping her arms around her and gently stroking her hair.

"She's really leaving." Yang finally mumbles, voice quiet and broken, muffled slightly by the thick fabric of Pyrrha's coat.

"Yeah…" she answers quietly, throat painfully dry from staying silent for so long.

"All this time… I guess it didn't feel completely real. Even when she left me behind at the airport, it was like there was still some part of me that believed she'd somehow end up staying. But now…"

Yang's voice breaks again and she presses her face back into Pyrrha's chest.

"Yang, it's going to be okay."

"How?" The blonde chokes.

"You… you'll still have us." She says shakily, "me, and Weiss, Ruby, Nora, we'll always be with you Yang, and… there's Neo too… and Sun, Ren, Neptune, they've all spent the entire day out in this blizzard looking for you. We all care about you Yang. You… you're not alone."

"Thank you Pyrrha," Yang answers quietly, grip tightening around her waist, "you don't know how much it means to me that you still care so much."

Pyrrha feels her eyes narrow, sensing the real meaning behind the blonde's words.

"Yang… Blake still cares about you a lot."

Yang lets out a bitter scoff.

"She does, she even…"

Pyrrha cuts herself off. She wants nothing more than to tell her about the phone call earlier, how Blake was an absolute wreck worrying about Yang and how she was the only one who actually knew where to find her. But… in the end, she made a promise, one that she doesn't even fully understand, but still she feels she has to uphold.

"Even what?" Yang asks, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"She… she was just really worried when she heard that you ran away."

She knows it's not the most convincing lie, but honestly it's the best she can come up with on the spot.

And with that, Yang finally sits back up, gloomily looking back at the picture resting on the table.

"It… it doesn't matter." The blonde mumbles quietly.

"How could it not matter?" Pyrrha replies, "Yang, this is Blake we're talking about."

"It doesn't matter because she's leaving… for real this time. There's no question about it, no hope that something could change between us in the future, nothing. She's running away just like everyone always does. She doesn't love me. It's over."

Her heart shatters as she watches Yang sink back into her seat, blonde hair draped over her face and tears once again starting to flow down her cheeks.

Pyrrha desperately searches her mind for something that she could possibly say to convince Yang that she's wrong without breaking her promise, that Blake really does love her and is hurting just as badly. But she doesn't have anything left other than the hopeless sinking feeling in her chest. She's already said everything she can and now all she can do is wrap her arms around Yang as her body is racked by a fresh round of tears.


Author's Note: We probably have the lowest point here for Blake and Yang. They're each going through so much and struggling with things that aren't necessarily in their control, but in this, there's also a hint of hope, it's just up to each of you to see it. Anyways that's it for this chapter, I'll see you all next week. Thanks for reading!