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: Sorry for missing last week's upload, wanted to get this one right and yeah, hope you like it!

Chapter 41: Prelude to the Dance Pt. 2

"What do you mean she had a bouquet of flowers with her? Are you sure you saw correctly?"

"Um," Neo answers, "yeah, I'm pretty sure I know what a bouquet of flowers looks like. And it was pretty hard to miss when they exploded against the sidewalk."

"Weiss…" Pyrrha says, gently setting a hand on the girl's shoulders, "maybe it would be best not to interrogate her right now."

"I… okay fine, you're right," Weiss mumbles, "sorry Neo."

Neo gives a light shake of her head, "no it's fine. Honestly, I'm still pretty confused myself. I mean, Yang mentioned that she and Blake were starting to at least talk to each other again, but to all of a sudden ask her to the dance like this..."

"I know," Weiss huffs, "I mean, Blake and I were talking the other day about how Yang missed a test to stay with her at the nurse's office, and it definitely seemed like Blake had a lot more to say than she was telling me, but I didn't think she was thinking of going this far. I mean… with everything that's happened, I'm not even a hundred percent sure that Yang would've said yes at this point."

"Actually…" Pyrrha responds, sheepishly trailing off as two pairs of eyes suddenly snap in her direction.

"Yes?"

"Well… funny that you mention Yang missing the test, because I actually bumped into her yesterday after she had taken the make-up exam."

"Okay…"

"And, well we had a really long talk about a lot of stuff, but the bottom line is that…" She trails off again, shooting an uncertain look at Neo who's only leaning forward in her seat waiting for her to continue. "Yang said that she still loves her, that she hasn't stopped… couldn't even if she tried."

"She…" Weiss trails off for a second, dropping her eyes to the ground as she sorts through her thoughts. "She really said that?"

"Yeah… and that's…" Pyrrha's eyes suddenly go wide as the details come flooding back, "that's actually not all she said."

"Okay, I mean, what else could she have…"

"No it's… it's important!" Pyrrha cuts in, "she was all strangely sad, which didn't make a lot of sense considering that we were talking about how she was still in love with Blake and that should have been a good thing."

"Okay…"

"And when I asked about it, she said that she didn't think it was a good thing… because Blake is leaving."

With that, both her and Weiss shift their eyes down to the letter still clutched in her hand, leaving Neo to shoot a confused glance at the two of them.

"Am I missing something here?" The girl asks.

Without a word, Weiss hands the paper to her, and immediately Pyrrha can see the recognition lighting up Neo's face.

"She… I thought it was already official that Blake was going to Mistral."

"Apparently she lied." Weiss replies, not bothering to contain the venom in her voice.

"Why would she do that?"

"Well…" Pyrrha says slowly, "adding on what you've just told us to all the other bits of information we've gathered, it seems that, at least at the time, Blake thought the best way to keep Yang safe was to remove herself from her life entirely."

"That's insane!" Neo exclaims.

"Nevermind that." Weiss says forcefully. Even just from a quick glance, the serious look on the heiress's face is more than a little intimidating. "We have to do something. And fast."

"What even can we do?" She asks, quickly snapping her head between Weiss and Neo, both girls looking just as unsure as she's feeling.

"We could tell Yang…" Neo says hesitantly.

"Tell her what?" Pyrrha answers, "she hasn't believed anything we've said up until now and she might even get mad that we're discussing so much behind her back again."

Weiss furiously shakes her head. "It'll be different this time. Because we've actually got some proof to show her."

"Do you think this will be enough to convince her to do something?"

"Well you said it yourself, the only thing that was holding her back was that Blake was supposedly leaving."

"That's true… but just because Blake hasn't confirmed yet doesn't mean that she doesn't want to. A lot has changed since she first got this letter."

"I mean," Neo says, "do you really think Blake will still go to Mistral if she finds out that Yang actually loves her?"

"I honestly don't know." Pyrrha answers, "but... I'm also not sure if I feel comfortable making such a big decision for her."

And with that, the room falls quiet, with all three of them wearing similarly conflicted looks on their faces until Neo hesitantly breaks the silence.

"I mean," the girl says, "at the same time, if I were Blake I would probably be pretty upset if I found out a few years down the line that my friends kept something so big from me. The fact that this is such an important decision kind of just makes it matter that much more to have all the relevant information."

"So you think we should tell her?" Pyrrha asks.

"I just… I don't know. It's all so complicated."

"We have to get them to talk." Weiss responds firmly, "all this time we've been trying to convince them individually but clearly they're both too stubborn to listen to anyone but each other."

"Well I suppose none of this is going to matter if Blake really is ditching the dance."

"She's not ditching." Weiss insists, "I'm going to make sure of that."

Without another word the heiress takes off, letting her dress ripple dramatically behind her as she marches quickly through the door, no doubt in search of her phone to once again start spamming Blake with calls.

Pyrrha lets out a sigh as she turns to Neo, noticing the depressed look on her face as she watches Weiss disappear through the door.

"Are you okay?" She asks gently.

Neo snaps back over to meet Pyrrha's gaze, so quickly that it betrays the turmoil bubbling within. "What? Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I mean… you like Yang don't you? It couldn't have been easy saying all of that knowing what it could lead to."

Neo lets out a sigh of her own. "It… isn't…" the girl admits slowly.

"You… really like her a lot, don't you?" Pyrrha asks hesitantly. She's a little worried about digging into something like this, especially with how downcast Neo looks. But at the same time, allowing it to continue building up doesn't seem like much of a solution either.

"I… yeah, I do." Neo admits with a heavy sigh. "I really tried not to, I mean everyone knows how crazy she is about Blake. But it was just… I don't know, it just kind of happened."

Pyrrha bites down on her lip, carefully considering whether or not voicing her thoughts would only lead to disaster, but then she sees more energy draining from Neo's eyes and knows she has to say something.

"You know, what you said about… having all the information. That applies to you and Yang too. You could tell her how you feel."

"I don't think it would matter." Neo responds gloomily, "even I know her well enough at this point to know that she doesn't like me that way."

Pyrrha lets out a sigh. There's a part of her that just wants to cheer Neo up at any cost, to continue being positive and reassuring and tell her to keep going for it. But she can't. She can't bring herself to lie to this girl who's already been through so much.

"I… I'm sorry Neo.".

"I'll get over it." The girl says, throwing in a weak smile, "but thanks for trying Pyrrha. Honestly, other than Yang I've never really had anyone to… yeah. Thank you."

After just a brief moment of hesitation, Pyrrha reaches forward and pulls her in for a hug, wishing desperately that there was something more she could do to help. And at first the girl only tenses up, breathing in a sharp breath that immediately makes her worried that maybe she'd overstepped. But it's barely a second later that the breath is slowly released and Neo is melting into her completely, arms wrapped around Pyrrha's waist and clinging tightly to the thin fabric of her dress.

"Look," Pyrrha says, pulling away after a moment and leveling herself with Neo's eyeline, "you already have my number, and I'm sorry I haven't been able to answer your calls today, but I really hope that you'll use it if there's anything you want to talk about in the future."

"Pyrrha, you don't have to…"

"I know I don't have to, but you also don't have to go through this alone. Okay? And I know I might not be your first choice to talk to about stuff like this, but just… at least consider it the next time you're feeling down?"

Neo finally looks up, lips pressed into a thin line and eyes tinged with uncertainty before finally letting out a quiet, "okay."

"Good. And I'll know if you don't, Yang tells me everything."

At that the girl finally cracks a small smile. "I… don't even know what to say, thank you Pyrrha."

She reaches forward and gently touches the girl's arm, pouring as much warmth and reassurance into one look that she possibly can. "What are friends for?"

…

It's only a few minutes later that Blake finally arrives, and at first it seems like they might have some hope of getting her and Yang to talk. But with everything going on, trying to get even one of them alone proves to be an almost insurmountable task. And the second Pyrrha walks down into the crowded living room she can pretty much tell that having a private conversation is going to be next to impossible.

With everyone all dressed up and eagerly awaiting the night's festivities, there's just this energy in the air that has everyone absolutely buzzing. And the constant flow of snacks and sugary drinks really only fuels the excitement.

And then of course… there's the added complication of seeing Jaune in a tuxedo for the first time that almost seems to short circuit her brain. She's not sure if it's the shiny black satin, the sleek red tie that matches her dress, or just the fact that he'd styled his hair to be a little more clean cut than usual that she likes best, but the combination has her heart absolutely pounding.

There's some part deep in the back of her mind that registers Weiss whispering to her that Blake was helping Octavia with her makeup and she gets this vague idea that she's supposed to do something with that information. But then of course, Jaune picks that moment to return from the kitchen with two glasses of punch in hand.

"Thank you Jaune," she says with a smile that she can't quite seem to get under control.

Jaune answers with a smile of his own, still the same goofy, boyish grin that she'd come to love so much over the years. Of course it breaks his refined, sophisticated image a little bit, but Pyrrha honestly wouldn't have it any other way.

"I… probably should have said it before but, you look… amazing Pyrrha…"

Almost instantly she can feel her cheeks heating up and she wishes she was at least sitting down or something so it wouldn't be quite so obvious that her knees are going weak from something as simple as a compliment.

But eventually she's able to actually look up at him again, the beaming smile returning to her face as she gets lost in the blue of his eyes. "I… thank you Jaune. You look… really handsome yourself."

There's a part of her that's berating her for being so flustered and she does her best to take a couple calming breaths, but even so it doesn't do much to slow the pounding in her chest.

Fortunately she's saved from having to find another response when Yang walks back into the room, loudly announcing to everyone that the photographer is ready to go and almost instantly, the group kicks back into action.

Over by the window she sees Nora struggling to pin a boutonniere to Ren's jacket, the shorter girl giggling uncontrollably as she stabs her boyfriend with the pin for the fourth time in a row.

"Um… Pyrrha?"

She turns back to Jaune to see the blond shyly looking up at her from behind his bangs, one hand sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah?"

"I uh… got you something. You don't have to accept it if you don't want to but…"

With considerable trepidation Jaune brings his other hand out from behind his back, revealing a small white box containing a single red rose.

Pyrrha's eyes go wide as she recognizes the corsage. Did Jaune know what a red rose was supposed to represent? He could have just bought it because it matched the color of her dress after all, and she certainly didn't want to make any embarrassing assumptions.

"Jaune…" she whispers. "Do you…"

"The lady at the store kind of helped explain everything to me." He says nervously, "she said that… every flower has a meaning and… and that a red rose means…"

"Love…"

The nervous grin returns to Jaune's face as the two of them lock eyes, neither of them able to break away until Pyrrha finally lets out a weak giggle, shaking her head at her own stupidity.

She thinks about saying something, only to find almost instantly that she's basically lost the ability to speak. So instead, she reaches for her bag sitting on the counter, ignoring the puzzled look on Jaune's face as she pulls out a little white box of her own, lifting the lid with a timid smile to reveal the nearly identical red rose boutonniere she'd bought earlier in the week.

This time, she doesn't feel any need to control the racing in her chest as Jaune's face lights up into a bright, beaming smile.

Author's Note: Yeah, one of my favorite chapter endings so far. Originally was going to make it a bit longer as this chapter's actually a little shorter but I really couldn't end it any differently. Anyways, hope you all liked it and thanks for reading!