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: So with everything that's been going on I guess I totally missed last week's upload. Sorry about that. But at least with the extra time, I was able to get this chapter to a place that I actually really enjoyed. Hope you all like it too!
Chapter 39: Excuses
"Did he really hit you that hard?"
Blake gingerly takes another sip of her tea before setting it back down on the ornate coffee table in Weiss's living room. "Well, I think it was more from how hard I hit my head on the corner of the locker he knocked me into."
"That absolute lowlife!" She hisses, "I swear I'm going to do everything I can to get that neanderthal expelled!"
"I don't know if that's such a good idea…" Blake replies slowly.
"What do you mean? Do you think he should just get away with this? Punching you? Harassing Yang? I thought you cared about her, how could you possibly…"
"Of course I care about her!" Blake interrupts, "but I also care about Pyrrha, and Nora, and Sun. All of them got involved too and if you get Ozpin to kick off some kind of investigation, I'm pretty sure we're all going to be punished with him."
With that Weiss falls back onto the couch and bites down on her lip, preparing herself for what she knows is going to be a fairly explosive reaction.
"Well, funny that you mention it…"
Almost immediately Blake's eyes go wide. "Weiss, tell me you didn't…"
"It wasn't me. I swear! Ozpin must have gotten a report from the nurse and well… it did kind of happen in the middle of the hallway."
"Oh my god," the girl groans, falling forward to rest her head in her hands.
"But he said there wouldn't be anything going on your permanent record or anything!" Weiss says quickly, "Yang… she made sure of that."
"Okay, why do I feel like there's still a 'but' coming?"
Weiss nervously fusses with the hem of her shirt. "Well, he was pretty clear that Cardin would be facing the biggest punishments, all of the stories from us, not to mention all of the other students that witnessed him hitting you pretty much confirmed that. But in the end, he said that you and Yang still hit another student and would probably have to spend some time in detention."
"What? Detention!" Blake responds, eyes instantly spreading wide in shock, "are you kidding me? It was purely self-defense! How could he actually suggest that we should be punished for that?"
"There's nothing certain yet!" Weiss answers quickly, "but he went on this long speech about principles, and honestly I kind of had a hard time following."
"That does sound like Principal Ozpin."
"Well, in the end he said that seeing as how the end of the semester is coming up so soon and that you still need time to recover, any potential punishments could wait until after Winter Break."
Blake lets out another huff, albeit this time much softer than before. "I guess that's fair."
"I'm sure it won't be anything bad, just like a day or two of sitting in the library or something. I mean Nora used to get detention all the time and I always thought Ozpin's punishments were almost insanely tame."
That seems to calm the girl down a little, with nothing more than an exasperated huff hinting that there might be some lingering resentment at the whole situation. Not that Weiss can really blame her, it did feel pretty ridiculous to punish two students just for defending themselves, but once their principal set his mind to something it was actually surprisingly hard to convince him otherwise.
"Well," Blake says finally, "I suppose this takes me out of the running for valedictorian."
Weiss shakes her head in disbelief despite the relieved smile that spreads on her lips.
"Like you ever had a chance against me and Pyrrha." She teases.
"Hey. I might not be a president or captain of anything, but my grades are just as good as yours."
"That's fair. But in all seriousness, it's probably going to Pyrrha. She really fits that 'perfect student' model with captaining the track team year-round."
Blake lets out a contemplative hum, scooting over on the couch to gently rest a hand on her shoulder, a gesture that feels reassuring until the girl opens her mouth.
"You're probably right."
Weiss instantly pulls away, clicking her tongue in annoyance as Blake lets out a string of quiet chuckles.
"Well, at least it's good to see that you're feeling better."
"Is that why you invited me over today?" Blake asks, flashing an amused grin, "to check up on me?"
"Maybe. Are you though? Feeling better I mean."
"Well," Blake answers, shooting a quick, experimental glance at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the foyer, "it's not too bad. I think the pills are helping but I'm still just a little sensitive to bright lights… and I try to avoid moving too fast."
"Do you think you'll be able to make it to the dance tomorrow? Because if not, I'm sure we could figure something…"
But Blake is cutting her off before she can get any further. "It'll be fine Weiss."
"Are you sure? Because a dance is sort of nothing but bright lights and fast movements. Plus, with how crowded the dancefloor gets, what if someone bumps you or something?"
"I swear I'll be fine," Blake repeats, "I mean I already feel way better and it's only been like a day. Sure, yesterday I had a headache for a while, but it's practically gone now. And besides, I thought you'd be happy that for once I'm not looking for any possible excuse to skip the dance."
Weiss lets out a quiet hum, still not entirely convinced that by the girl's words, or the obvious deflecting. But at the same time, she's also not really sure if she wants to dig into why Blake seems to be in such high spirits for fear of disturbing the much-needed and long-awaited peace that they've somehow arrived at. Especially with how stubborn Blake could be, poking at this too much could easily elicit an extreme reaction that definitely wouldn't help her condition.
Guess she'll just have to make do with keeping a watchful eye for the next couple of days.
"Well," she says, "I'm glad you're doing okay, but are you sure you won't be needing to check with an actual doctor?"
Blake shakes her head, gently. "The nurse was confident that it wasn't too serious. Plus, Yang has a lot of experience with stuff like this and… and I trust her judgment."
Weiss can't help the cautious smile that spreads on her lips. She doesn't even know when the last time was that she'd heard Blake say Yang's name, especially like this, without even the slightest air of regret staining her words. And she can't help but feel an immense sense of relief that they really might be moving past it all.
"How did things go with you two?" Weiss asks slowly, "you said she stayed with you at the nurse for a few hours right?"
"She did…" Blake answers, "and it went fine. She was really sweet and super insistent about checking if I needed anything every five minutes or so, but honestly, she seemed kind of… quiet."
"Quiet?"
"Yeah, I don't know. Honestly, I'm still kind of worried that deep down she's still mad at me or something."
Weiss shakes her head quickly, "I don't think so. If she was still holding onto any resentment I doubt it would've lasted through you taking a punch for her, not to mention the fact that she probably wouldn't have taken it upon herself to drag you to the nurse like that. Actually, she was probably just worried about…"
She trails off, cringing slightly as she sees Blake's eyebrows scrunching in confusion, dashing any hopes that her slip up had gone unnoticed.
"About?" Blake prods.
"Uh, nothing! Nothing I was just…"
"Weiss."
She lets out a huff, seeing the serious look in the girl's eyes that tells her there's no real use in trying to lie any further.
"Well, I guess Yang actually had a test in her last class…"
"What?" Blake shouts, immediately jumping up to her feet.
"But she was able to work it out with her teacher!" Weiss replies quickly, "she said that the nurse was nice enough to give her a note for all her classes. Actually, I think she's probably still at school right now making it up."
…
Yang shambles through the hallway and up to her locker, her backpack loosely dangling from the weak grip she has on the straps and dragging slightly on the ground.
When she had shown her history teacher the note that the nurse had given her, he had actually seemed pretty understanding that her missing the test wasn't really within her control. Which of course, had been a great relief as she'd spent the better part of the afternoon stressing about what her grade would end up being with a zero on the last exam. But then when she'd shown up today to take the make-up test, she'd found that she could barely even get herself to focus.
At one point it had gotten so bad that she'd written an entire half page of her essay using Blake's name in place of basically every historical figure.
Thank god Weiss had been so willing to branch out their tutoring sessions to include other subjects beyond Math, otherwise there's no way she would've been able to fix everything in time.
She finally reaches her locker, all but slamming her head into the cold metal surface when she hears someone calling her name from just a little further down the hall.
"Yang?"
She shoots a glance to the side, head still pressed to the door of her locker, and finds Pyrrha, looking every bit the school track star with the shorts and the tank and the gym bag neatly hanging over her shoulder.
"Oh, hey Pyr'."
"What are you still doing here?"
She lets out a dramatic groan, "had to make up my History test."
"Oh that's right. Because you were so worried about Blake that you decided to ditch all of your classes."
"Hey," she fires back, "you saw how hard Cardin hit her, I think I had every right to be worried."
"No you did." The redhead concedes, "but maybe it would've been better to not shoot yourself in the foot with your History teacher. Then, maybe you could have even gone over to her house yourself today instead of sending Weiss?"
"That…" Yang stammers, "I'm not really sure if we're back at that level yet."
With that, Pyrrha comes up next to her, arms crossed in front of her chest as she leans up against the lockers.
"Back at… what level?" Pyrrha says, "I mean you already sat with her in the nurse's office for like three hours."
"Well yeah, but that's not really… the point."
Out of the corner of her eye she sees the girl's eyes scrunch in confusion.
"Okay… so then what is the point?"
Yang takes in a deep breath, spinning around so she can sink to the ground, not needing to look up to know that Pyrrha's followed suit.
"Well," she begins slowly, "I mean, last time I went to her house unannounced it was to tell her parents about that crazy lunatic she thought was stalking her."
"You can't possibly be telling me that you think you made the wrong decision there." The redhead says, "I mean if her parents hadn't gotten involved poor Blake would've driven herself crazy."
"No, that's not what I'm… I definitely don't think I made the wrong decision there."
"Okay…"
Yang nervously bites down on her lip, "it's just that… it already felt like a lot stepping in and taking her to the nurse. I just don't want to push my luck too much and make her uncomfortable or… or anything."
"Yang you're not going to scare her away by showing that you care."
"Yeah but how do you…"
"I just know." Pyrrha cuts in firmly. "If nothing else, I think the fact that she took a punch for you is proof enough of that."
Yang lets out a deep sigh, letting her head fall back against the locker with a quiet thump.
"I… I think I have an answer, by the way." She says, her voice weak, barely louder than a whisper.
"An answer?" Pyrrha asks.
"Yeah, to the question you asked me the other day."
The girl's eyes narrow for just a second, probably lost in the ambiguity of her words, before widening in realization.
"Whether or not you still…"
"Yeah." Yang finishes, "yeah that one."
"And?"
A light scoff escapes her lips. "Funnily enough, I kind of have Cardin to thank for showing it to me."
Pyrrha takes on the same confused expression that was present just a second before. "What?"
"It's kind of ridiculous actually," Yang says, "I mean I literally spent days thinking about everything that's happened between me and Blake these past few weeks, worrying about how our relationship has changed and whether or not it's beyond repair."
"I know," Pyrrha cuts in, "I have the essays in my text history to prove it."
"But…" she continues pointedly, "the second I saw her head hitting that wall… all of it kind of went out the window."
"So, you're saying…"
"Yeah," Yang breathes out, "I still love her."
She feels Pyrrha's eyes boring into her. "You almost say that like it's a bad thing."
"Isn't it? I mean she's leaving Pyrrha."
"You don't know that."
"How? She's already confirmed her enrollment hasn't she?"
"Well sure," the redhead replies, "but I can't help but wonder how much of that was because of the whole 'Adam' situation."
"Pyr…"
"And even if she is leaving," Pyrrha continues, "that doesn't mean you're going to lose her."
And that's enough to stun her into silence. Not because Pyrrha had seen through her so easily, at this point that doesn't even come as a surprise any more, but more due to the sheer shock of hearing the main fear that's been haunting her all this time being brought out into the open.
"I… how do you know that though?" Yang stammers, "she's literally going to be living halfway across the continent."
"I'm not saying it wouldn't be tough, but we live in a pretty wonderful time. And with computers and phones and things, it makes it easier for people living far away to stay friends, or… maybe even something more…"
She turns to give the girl a deadpan stare, eyebrows raised and arms crossed in front of her chest.
"What?" Pyrrha says defensively, "you just told me you still love her. Love. Don't you think that merits finally telling her how you feel at some point?"
"Honestly," Yang answers, "I hadn't really gotten that far yet."
"Well the dance is tomorrow. Do you think you'll ask her to go with you?"
"I don't know if that's such a good idea."
"And why not?"
"Well I mean," she mumbles, "we only just got back to a level where we're talking to each other again. I think asking her to be my date to Winter Ball is kind of pushing it."
"I suppose you might be right about that," Pyrrha admits, "but in that case, what are you going to do? Because there's only a semester left until graduation. And if you wait too long…"
Yang lets out a deep sigh, falling over to rest her head against the girl's shoulder as the energy deflates from her body, "I know."
She feels Pyrrha taking in a long, drawn-out breath before wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"Listen Yang, I know it's hard, especially after everything you two have been through. But I just… I don't know, I just don't want you to do anything that you'll end up regretting later."
"There are plenty of things that I regret."
"Well sure, but letting go of the love of your life doesn't have to be one of them."
At that Yang lets out another sigh. Because Pyrrha's right, honestly she usually is. And this time she can't even deflect by making fun of the girl's own inability to confess her feelings to Jaune.
All these years, and even more so in the past couple of weeks, she'd been able to fabricate an endless stream of excuses to hide her crippling fear of telling Blake how she felt.
Whether it was Blake's imaginary attraction to Sun, the fear of driving away one of her closest friends, or not wanting to stand in the way of a promising career at Mistral, Yang always found some stupid, cowardly reason to discredit her own feelings and keep them bottled up.
But now, even after weeks upon weeks of fighting and near heartbreak, she strangely finds those feelings burning stronger than ever.
And this is exactly the type of situation where she'd normally fall back on those same excuses, with her heart practically leaping out of her chest and Pyrrha offering her usual words of encouragement.
Only this time, Yang doesn't have any excuses left.
Author's Note: This one's kind of the end of a mini-arc that started with Pyrrha's question of whether or not Yang still loves Blake and yeah, I guess I just really like the idea that love can persist no matter what happens, even if you yourself try to stop it. Hope that comes through, anyways, thanks so much for reading!