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: We're here with the next chapter and it ends up being a multi-parter! This one was a lot of fun to write actually so I hope you like it!

Chapter 40: Prelude to the Dance Pt. 1

When Weiss walks into the parking lot the next day, she can already feel the weariness setting in. Which doesn't bode well considering what a long night she's in for with everything associated with the dance.

She checks the time on her phone, satisfied that she hadn't been held up for too long setting up the venue. For this year's Winter Ball she had pulled a few strings and actually managed to book a pretty great location. Which is good considering how large their school is.

The only problem was that having such a large venue meant that they had that much more to set up for the night. And with her crew, that largely meant that she'd spent her entire morning and early afternoon repeating the same orders to the same people over and over again.

I mean honestly, how hard was it to understand that the balconies on the East Wing needed to be cordoned off?

She lets out a frustrated groan as she goes to take a sip of coffee from her thermos, only to find it completely empty and lets it clatter into her cupholder as she goes to start the car.

Fortunately the drive to Blake's house doesn't take too long and she notices that the weather is actually fairly decent as she steps out onto the driveway, lacking the chilling bite to the air that she'd grown accustomed to over the past few months.

It gives her hope that the rest of the day could turn out okay despite all of the potential problems she'd been preparing to deal with all morning... until she realizes that Blake's car is missing from the driveway.

That fact alone should probably set off some red flags considering that Blake's parents had taken away her keys after everything that had happened with Adam. But Blake had made it seem that Ghira and Kali weren't all that intent on punishing her and that they were mostly just relieved that Adam's threats had turned out to be empty. Hell, even just the fact that they were allowing Blake to go to the dance was more telling than anything about how her parents felt about the whole thing.

She stops on the front steps and pulls her phone out to give the girl a call, impatiently tapping her foot as she's greeted by Blake's voicemail message.

She stands there for a second, debating whether or not it's worth calling her again before giving up and ringing the doorbell. Once, then again, then again. It only takes a few seconds of this before Weiss takes to pounding on the door, letting out a frustrated huff when she hears nothing but silence and opts to go back to trying the girl's phone.

It takes three or four more failed attempts at getting past Blake's voicemail before Weiss is chucking her phone back into her purse.

A brief moment of internal debate passes quickly out of sheer annoyance, and before she even knows it, Weiss is kicking aside the Belladonnas' doormat and revealing the spare key lying underneath.

She doesn't waste any time getting the door open, albeit stepping through a little more hesitantly as she searches for any sign that people might actually be home.

"Hello?" She calls, "Mrs. Belladonna? It's me, Weiss."

She isn't even surprised when she's greeted by nothing but empty silence, Blake's parents were always insanely busy after all, and they were probably off attending to some issue or another with their respective jobs. Actually it kind of reminds her of her own house.

It isn't until she's halfway up the stairs that she realizes that she doesn't even know what she's doing here, although there's a small chance that Blake's car being missing from the driveway could simply mean that it's parked in the garage, the logical part of her mind is telling her that it's far more likely that Blake had secretly taken back her keys to run off to do something reckless and impulsive.

She gets to Blake's room and her last hope of finding the girl sleeping peacefully on the bed are immediately dashed as she finds it just as empty as the rest of the house.

Almost immediately she fishes her phone back out of her purse, not even surprised to see that she hasn't gotten any calls in the last few minutes, and bitterly dials Blake's number again.

And this time when she hears the painfully familiar sound of the girl's voicemail, she's actually desperate enough to leave a brief message, following it up with a series of rapid text messages before once again giving up.

She runs a hand through her hair, racking her brain for any reason why Blake would ditch her like this. It was only just a couple of days ago that they'd decided Weiss would pick her up because of the whole car situation, but of course, that was before the whole incident with Cardin happened.

Had Blake's parents decided to return her car because of the concussion? That hardly made sense, especially because it would definitely be preferable to keep the girl from driving whenever possible. And even if they did and Blake had decided to drive over to her house on her own, why wouldn't she tell her about it?

Ultimately she decides that obsessing over it now is probably pretty pointless, and she's just about to turn around and leave when Weiss suddenly catches a strangely familiar flash of gold out of the corner of her eye. She's not sure what really compels her to investigate, but when she takes a couple of steps closer she spots an envelope sitting amidst a messy pile of papers bearing the unmistakable golden seal of the University of Mistral.

She reaches over slowly, eyebrows furrowing as she pulls the letter out and unfolds it against the hard wood of Blake's desk. She immediately starts scanning the contents of the letter, quickly skimming through all the congratulatory rhetoric at the beginning, down to a list of instructions for finalizing enrollment, and finally… to the unsigned confirmation form at the bottom.

…

Weiss rushes back in through the grand double doors of her house and practically sprints up the large winding staircase.

She'd spent much longer at Blake's house staring at the letter than she'd really intended to, not actually leaving until she'd received a call from Klein telling her that a lot of people had already arrived.

But being late is probably the furthest thing from her mind at the moment.

The entire drive over her mind had been absolutely reeling with the new information that Blake had actually lied about confirming her enrollment to Mistral.

She has so many questions she doesn't even know where to begin.

And the worst part is that she doesn't even know where Blake is right now, with the girl having refused to answer any calls or texts the entire time she had spent having her breakdown in the girl's room.

But she does her best to push it to the back of her mind because at this point, it'll just mean continuing to go in circles and her head is already hurting after only fifteen minutes in the car alone with her thoughts.

The bottom line is, she has to find Pyrrha.

She follows the commotion coming from upstairs, suddenly recalling Klein saying something about setting her friends up in one of the larger rooms at the end of the hall. Checking her phone one more time to find, unsurprisingly, no response from Blake, Weiss opens the door to the absolute pandemonium inside.

There's music blasting from someone's bluetooth speaker, on every available surface there are boxes of makeup and jewelry, dresses hanging from the doors, clothes piled on the bed, and people in various states of undress running back and forth across the room.

She takes a second to stop and scan the room more thoroughly, even though she knows that if Pyrrha was in plain view, she would have spotted the girl's red hair almost immediately.

But the first person to notice her presence is Nora, sitting on the bed in a fluffy pink bathrobe and fiddling with the strap on her dress.

"Hey Weiss!" The girl chirps with an energetic wave.

She absentmindedly sends a wave back at her before she feels a sudden weight slamming into her as a high pitched shriek threatens to shatter her eardrums.

"You're here!"

Weiss doesn't even need to look to know that it's Ruby wrapped around her waist, and even after being together for close to a year now it still surprises her how much she relaxes the second Ruby so much as smiles at her.

"Yes, yes I'm here." she says with a light chuckle. "Sorry for being so late."

"That's okay!" Her girlfriend answers quickly, "Klein brought up a bunch of snacks for us!"

She snaps her head over to the dresser, only just noticing the enormous plate of cookies and she can't help rolling her eyes. Klein had never been shy about spoiling Ruby with whatever sweets she wanted, even if it meant directly going against Weiss's wishes.

But the thought disappears almost instantly when she looks back down and notices that Ruby is already almost fully dressed.

"Wow…" she breathes, stepping back to get a proper look at her beautiful girlfriend.

Ruby's dress is this deep crimson colored halter neck with a loose pleated skirt going down to mid shin and a gorgeous silver rose pattern on her chest. She's not sure she could possibly find a better dress that so perfectly matches Ruby's hair and eyes.

She thinks to herself that it's actually convenient that she hadn't gotten to go dress shopping with everyone in the big group. Otherwise, this moment, where she's seeing it for the first time and her heart is pounding out of her chest would never have come to be.

"What's up?" Ruby asks with a slight tilt to her head.

"I… uh…"

Suddenly Nora appears, propping her chin up on Ruby's shoulder with an ear to ear grin.

"I told you she'd like your dress!" Nora says, "the ice queen is practically melting!"

Weiss tears her eyes away and turns her head to the side, hoping in vain that it'll hide the furious blush spreading on her cheeks.

"Shut up…" she mumbles, eliciting a wild cackle from Nora.

"Oh come on!" The shorter girl says, "doesn't she look great? I helped her pick it out, you know."

"You… you do look really pretty Ruby." She says quietly, "it… fits you really well."

Suddenly it's Ruby's turn to blush, albeit much more confidently and flashing a shy smile at her girlfriend. "Thanks Weiss! But I'm sure it'll be nothing compared to your dress."

She gives the brunette a smile of her own, appreciating the sentiment but knowing for sure that there's no way she's going to beat how gorgeous Ruby looks right now.

…

Pyrrha cranes her neck to try and get a look at the commotion coming from the bedroom.

She's spent the last twenty minutes or so helping Yang with her hair. Which, with the blonde's wildly long mane, meant brushing so much she could swear that she's developing a blister.

"Hey Octavia," she says, turning to the side. The girl slowly looks up to face her, half of her attention still occupied with helping Nebula finish up her hair, "do you think you could take over for a second? She's basically almost done."

"Sure," Octavia answers, walking over and taking the brush out of her hand.

"Thanks, I'm just going to go see what's going on and then I'll be right back."

"Oh don't worry about it, I'm pretty good with hair."

She flashes the girl a grateful smile before turning for the door, walking into the bedroom and almost immediately spotting Weiss standing just beside the dresser talking with Ruby and Nora.

"Hey, you made it!" she says, quickly walking over to them. "We were starting to worry that you guys had gotten held up by something."

The look that Weiss gives her in response catches her completely off guard, eyebrows furrowed, jaw clenched, and her icy blue eyes containing a level of pain that she hadn't seen since that day they'd chased Blake to the airport.

Almost instinctively she can feel her own eyes narrowing in concern. "Weiss? Are you okay?"

"Um… yeah…" the heiress responds nervously.

"What's going on?" She looks over to Nora and Ruby, both of whom are looking just as confused as she feels and it's only then that she notices that someone's missing. "And where's Blake? Weren't you supposed to pick her up?"

"I was, but when I got to her house she wasn't there."

Pyrrha's eyes go wide. "What? What do you mean she wasn't there?"

"I mean she wasn't there. I called her like a thousand times and I got nothing. Actually, I was kind of hoping she'd just be here already."

"Well I don't think I've seen her," she answers hesitantly, "but I suppose you could check with the guys in the other room…"

"If she was here I don't think she'd have any trouble finding us," Nora replies skeptically, "especially with Klein greeting everyone by the door the second they come in."

Ruby narrows her eyes in confusion. "Then where could she be?"

"Actually," Weiss says with a deep sigh. "There's… something else that I wanted to tell you guys about…"

Weiss doesn't get a chance to continue before they're suddenly interrupted by the bathroom door flying open to the sound of Yang boldly declaring her entrance. Any thought of questioning her further disappears in an instant as Pyrrha turns in time to see the blonde striking a pose just inside the door, one arm extended to prop herself up against the doorframe with a confident smirk on her lips. And it only takes a second to see why.

The dress Yang is wearing is absolutely stunning. Shining white satin going all the way to the floor with a modestly high straight-across neckline and spaghetti straps that hang loosely on her bare shoulders. Simple, elegant, and fitting the blonde's body like a glove. It's the kind of dress that only someone as confidently gorgeous as Yang can really pull off.

As if on cue, Yang kicks off from the door, slowly sauntering towards them as Pyrrha feels a satisfied smirk spread on her face, noticing that her hard work has paid off in the way Yang's silky smooth hair flows freely behind her.

"Hey guys, how do I look?"

She can't help but roll her eyes at the cheeky glint in the girl's violet eyes, a perfect representation of exactly how cocky Yang's words are. But at the same time, she also can't resist letting out a sigh of relief at how much better the blonde is clearly feelling. When they'd gone dress shopping last weekend, Yang had been so unsure of herself that she and Nora had spent almost the entire day talking her into buying it. It had gotten so bad that at one point Pyrrha had actually considered simply paying for the dress herself and telling Yang later. So now, seeing Yang finally realize how perfect it looks on her eases more tension from her shoulders than she could have possibly expected.

"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to." Weiss says with a playful glare.

Nora let's out a light giggle before skipping over to the blonde, leaning over to closely examine Yang's skirt. "Looks good, I sure know how to pick 'em."

"She found this one too?" Weiss asks incredulously.

"I pretty much chose all of their dresses!" The shorter girl declares proudly, "you should've seen how slow they were all being. We probably would've starved to death if I hadn't taken charge."

Pyrrha can't help but nervously run a hand through her hair at Nora's shockingly blunt yet surprisingly accurate description. If she's being totally honest, she's still more than a little nervous at the dress that was picked for her. She does of course admit that it had looked good on her, Nora and Yang's strong words had definitely done their part in convincing her, but she still has some considerable apprehension in wearing something so revealing.

Which is definitely part of the reason she'd been stalling by offering to help Yang with her hair.

"Well…" Weiss continues, "it does look incredible on you Yang."

"And your hair!" Pyrrha adds, noticing the way her loose, blonde curls fall gently around her shoulders, "that definitely isn't just from me brushing it a few times."

"Octavia worked some serious magic." Yang replies, giving her blonde locks an appreciative flip. "And she did it so effortlessly too. I wasn't even sure what was going on half the time."

At the mention of her name, Octavia walks out of the bathroom with a light chuckle. "Just as long as you like it."

"I really do!" The blonde replies eagerly, "thank you so much!"

"I'm happy to help." Octavia says with a gentle smile, "but unfortunately I'm not all that great with makeup. You guys said your friend Blake was really good with it right?"

"She really is!" Yang answers, "you should see the kind of things she can pull off on Halloween!"

"Well, do you think she'd be willing to help me with mine?" the girl asks nervously, "I'm not sure I really trust myself to…"

"Oh, don't worry about it! We pretty much have Blake do our makeup for all of our dances." Yang stops suddenly, shooting an inquisitive look between Weiss and Pyrrha, "where is she by the way?"

Pyrrha feels herself stiffening instinctively, casting a nervous glance at Nora and Ruby, the two girls wearing equally panicked looks on their faces.

But fortunately, Weiss is quicker to react.

"She should be here soon!" the heiress says calmly, "she just got tied up getting some errands done this morning."

"Oh, okay," Yang replies with a casual shrug, "hopefully Neo gets here soon too, I wouldn't want to be late for dinner."

She sees Weiss turning to the blonde with a confused expression of her own. "Neo's not here yet?"

"No, she had a shift at the diner that she couldn't get out of, mostly because all of the other waitresses are already covering for me and Sun." Yang says sheepishly, "actually, she said she should have been done almost an hour ago, I wonder what's taking her so long..."

"Hmm... " Pyrrah says, "I can give her a call really quick, just to make sure if she's okay."

"I don't think so!" Yang replies with a halfhearted glare, "You've stalled for long enough, it's way past time you start getting ready yourself."

"I haven't…" She starts weakly, "okay fine…"

"Great!"

Without hesitation, Yang grabs onto Pyrrha's arm and drags her off toward the bathroom. She lets out a defeated sigh as she slowly stumbles after her, neither of them noticing the panic on Weiss's face as she's dragged into their makeshift dressing room.

…

Pyrrha takes another experimental turn in front of the mirror and nervously bites down on her lip.

It's not that she doesn't think the dress looks good, in fact it's one of the most gorgeous she's ever seen. She just isn't used to wearing anything so… bold.

It's red of course, silky smooth satin that's just about as shiny as Yang's dress with a deep plunging v-shaped neckline and gold trim lining the straps and bodice.

But the main thing that's got her still feeling nervous is the open back with nothing more than a pair of thin straps crossed over her shoulder blades, leaving the rest of her back shockingly bare.

Honestly, how on earth had she ended up with a dress that showed more skin than Yang's? Although she supposes that compared to how form fitting the blonde's dress is, her's still leaves more to the imagination.

"I found them!" Yang declares loudly as the bathroom door once again flies open.

Pyrrha turns to see her standing just inside the doorway, triumphantly holding a hand over her head with a pair of earrings dangling on her fingers.

"Is this really necessary?" She asks apprehensively, "I mean the pair I've got is more than enough…"

"Oh come on, Weiss said you can borrow them for tonight so you have to at least try them."

"Alright, alright" she concedes finally.

Yang gives her a confident smirk and quickly closes the distance between them, squatting down next to her and gently placing the earrings in her hand.

"Are these real rubies?"

The blonde nods enthusiastically. "Yup! Twenty four carat gold too! Weiss has some really good stuff huh?"

"Yeah…" she breathes, "are you sure it's not too much? I mean with this dress and the heels and…"

"Are you kidding?" Yang interrupts, putting a hand on Pyrrha's head and forcing her to look back at her reflection in the mirror, "can you not see how gorgeous you look? Jaune's going to pass out when he sees you!"

Pyrrha lets out a deep sigh before biting down on her lip, still unable to control the anxiety gnawing away at the back of her mind. She has to admit that the earrings are very pretty, and she can't deny how well the color matches her dress… so she reluctantly puts them on, letting out a defeated sigh when she looks up into the mirror and sees how perfectly the earrings complete her look.

"Okay… you're right," she admits finally, "they look really good."

Yang flashes her a cocky grin. "Of course I'm right."

"You're ridiculous." She replies with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

With that, Yang hops back up to her feet. "So now all that's left is makeup!"

"Yeah, but we said we wanted to wait for Blake right?"

"She's got to be here by now…" Yang answers hesitantly, turning her head toward the door, "wait here, I'll go see if anyone's heard anything."

With that the blonde rushes out to the main room, leaving Pyrrha to go back to staring anxiously at the mirror. She knows she should be better than this. After all, she'd always done her best to stay positive about any insecurities regarding her appearance. But it's not like she can really help it. Having Yang as a best friend kind of meant that comparisons with the gorgeous blonde were more or less inevitable. And honestly… there had always been just a little part within her that held onto the irrational fear that Jaune never thought she was hot enough in that way that guys seemed to like about Yang.

She's not even sure how long she's been waiting when the door opens again to reveal Weiss, quickly striding through the entrance in a gorgeous light blue prom dress with a sheer lace snow crystal pattern on the skirt.

"Wow," Pyrrha breathes, "Weiss you look beautiful."

"Thanks... " Weiss says with an exasperated sigh.

"Is everything okay?"

"Actually…" the heiress answers, "I've been trying to get you alone for a while now."

Pyrrha can feel her eyebrows furrow in concern. "What's wrong?"

Weiss lets out another sigh before gathering up her skirt to sit down at the stool next to her. "I… when I went to pick up Blake at her house… I found this."

Her eyes narrow even further as Weiss pulls out a folded sheet of paper from the inside of her dress. Even with just a quick glance Pyrrha can recognize the ornate golden seal of Mistral University but once it's actually unfolded and she gets a chance to read through it, her heart stops completely.

"What is this?"

"It's… Blake's acceptance letter to Mistral." Weiss answers heavily.

"She… she didn't sign it?"

"No."

"Wha- what does this mean?" The redhead says quietly, "I thought she'd already sent in her confirmation. But… is she actually staying in Vale now?"

Weiss lets out a weak huff, slowly running a hand through her hair. "I'm not sure. The letter says that she actually still has a few months until the deadline."

"We have to find her." Pyrrha says, hurriedly rising to her feet. "Is she still not here yet?"

"I don't think so." The heiress answers sullenly, "honestly I'm starting to worry that she isn't coming at all."

Pyrrha can feel her anxiety growing at Weiss's pessimistic words and she frantically looks around the room in the vain hope of finding something that will help.

"Well I'll at least try calling her again." She says finally. She knows it's a long shot at this point, but with the utter panic rising in her chest she doesn't think she can handle anymore sitting around and waiting. "Have you seen my phone?"

"It's not on you?"

"No… I think I gave it to Nora when I started helping Yang with her hair."

"Well if she…"

Weiss is cut off by the door swinging open again and the two of them immediately snap their eyes over to the entrance, both nervously holding their breaths in fear of the possibility that Yang had overheard their conversation. But to their surprise and immense relief, they aren't greeted by bouncy blonde curls and a shiny white dress, instead seeing the familiar pink and brown locks that can only belong to one person.

"Neo?" Pyrrha says, doing her absolute best to regain her composure, "you made it! We were starting to get worried that we'd have to send someone to find you."

It's only then that she notices how hard the girl is breathing, practically gasping for breath as she puts a hand on the wall to steady herself.

"Neo are you okay?" She asks, quickly running over to help her.

"I'm… fine…" the girl wheezes, "just… ran… for a while…"

Weiss walks up to Neo's other side and the two of them help her onto the nearby couch.

"You were running?" The heiress says.

Neo nods her head before suddenly turning over to Pyrrha, catching the redhead off guard with the intensity in her multi colored eyes. "Why haven't you been answering your phone?"

"Me? I'm… sorry Neo, I haven't really been checking it, but I think it's somewhere around here…"

"Forget that!" Neo interrupts, "Blake! Is she here?"

Pyrrha narrows her eyes. "Blake? No, she isn't, we were actually just about to go find a phone and call her again."

"Oh my god" Neo groans, sinking back into her seat and burying her head in her hands.

Pyrrha shoots a quick look at Weiss, seeing her confusion mirrored in the heiress's delicate features before turning back to face the petite girl on the couch.

"Neo, what's going on?"

The girl lets out another sigh and looks back up to meet Pyrrha's gaze, her pink and brown eyes losing a bit of the conviction that had been present just a moment earlier.

"I just ran into her."

"What?" Weiss says, "when?"

"Like an hour ago at the diner." Neo answers heavily, "I was rushing out to come here and get ready but when I walked out she was just sitting there waiting."

"That's where she's been all this time?" Weiss replies before stopping suddenly, "wait, what did she even want?"

Neo jaw clenches, taking in another deep breath at the aggravating memory. "I… she pretty much bolted the second she saw me, I tried to chase after her but my god, that girl is surprisingly fast."

"Blake does seem to muster up untapped potential when it comes to running away from things." Weiss spits, causing Pyrrha to shoot a half-hearted glare out of the corner of her eye.

"It… actually seemed like she was heading in this direction so I was hoping that I would find her here but… I guess she isn't."

"Maybe we should get Sun and Neptune to take a look around?" Pyrrha suggests, "the area around your house can be pretty confusing."

"I could just ask Klein to send some people to…"

"Guys!" Neo interrupts, surprising them both with the sheer volume of her voice, "the important thing isn't that Blake ran from me."

"Okay, so then what…"

"The important thing is… that Blake had an entire bouquet of flowers with her. I think she was going to ask Yang to the dance."

Author's Note: Been a long time since I've done a cliffhanger like this (as in a positive one) and yeah I just couldn't resist. Last chapter we had Yang realizing that there's nothing she could do about her feelings for Blake and it seems that Blake might have reached similar conclusions? Hopefully we find out in the next chapter! Anyways, thanks so much for reading and I'll see you at the next update!