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: Man it's been a long day. Almost didn't get this one through but super glad I did anyway. Hope everyone's having an awesome Father's Day, mine was busy as hell so hopefully you guys have had more of a chance to relax and stuff. Anyways, here's the chapter, hope you all like it!
Chapter 42: Prelude to the Dance Pt. 3
Yang has to bite down on her lip as she watches Pyrrha and Jaune from across the room.
Their little display has to be one of the cutest things she's ever seen and she's suddenly more thankful than ever that she and Nora had successfully convinced the redhead to visit that flower shop the other day. She only wishes now that she could somehow figure out how to get Pyrrha to make a move without alerting the entire room.
Honestly, the two had literally just declared their love for each other, even if it was veiled behind a bit of floral symbolism, surely they could manage one simple kiss or something. But even she has to admit that it would be a little fast for them to just start making out in the middle of the living room.
She's brought out of her thoughts when she catches a glimpse of two flowing skirts and turns her head to see Ruby and Weiss looking positively regal as they descend the staircase hand in hand with matching white rose corsages bound to their wrists. There's not really much she can do to contain the swell of pride in her chest as she sees just how beautiful her baby sister looks now that she's finally embraced her more feminine side.
But of course, Ruby still stumbles on her heels when she gets to the bottom of the stairs, only barely able to stay on her feet thanks to Weiss harshly yanking on her arm, giving her girlfriend a playful shake of the head in the process. It's a simple display that's so fundamentally Ruby and Weiss that Yang can't help flashing them a beaming smile.
But what she isn't prepared for is the deviously knowing look that Weiss gives her in return, immediately causing Yang to furrow her eyebrows in confusion as the two of them make their way over.
"What's going on?" She asks slowly, not missing the fact that Ruby's taken on a remarkably similar expression.
"Oh nothing…" Weiss answers with a coy smile, "just glad that everyone is finally ready."
"Uh right…" she says, still getting the feeling that she's missing something, "wouldn't want to be late for dinner after all…"
"There's that," Ruby replies, "but there's… other things too…"
She feels her eyes narrowing again. "What are you guys…"
The thought dies in her throat as she spots another figure on the staircase.
There's a voice in the back of her head telling her that she should've been able to see this coming, it could really only be Blake who they'd be waiting on to finish getting ready after all, but there's also nothing she could've done to prepare herself for… the dress.
Honestly she'd never been a huge fan of two piece dresses for formal events before, but now that she sees the way it gives just a peek at the girl's wonderfully toned core, it might be her new favorite style. And that isn't even mentioning how gorgeous the top is with thin straps crossing in front of her chest to form the main bodice.
As if her heart isn't racing fast enough, Blake takes another step down the stairs, revealing the long slit cut into the flowing, pleated skirt as well as the shiny black heels that completes the look perfectly.
She'd always known that Blake was beautiful but this is on a whole other level, the kind of breathtaking that has her unable to form even a single coherent thought in her head.
…
Weiss has to stifle a giggle as she watches Yang openly gawking at Blake as she closes the last few steps off of the staircase. And it only gets better when Blake stops in her tracks, eyes wide as saucers as they slowly roam up and down the blonde's body.
They really are perfect for each other.
But then the staring goes on for so long that she actually has to reach over and gently poke Yang in the side.
"You..." The blonde exclaims with a start, "you look… amazing Blake."
Blake immediately shrinks away, timidly brushing a few loose strands of hair behind her ear in a vain attempt to hide the blush forming on her cheeks.
"Thank you Yang," the girl breathes, "you look great too. Honestly that dress is perfect on you."
"Thanks," the blonde chuckles, sheepishly running a hand through her hair, "Nora picked it out for me."
"She's got good taste. I didn't think it would be possible for anything to top the red dress you wore last time we went out to dinner, but this one…"
Blake trails off, seemingly unable to keep her eyes from roaming a second longer and prompting Yang to do the same. And it's not like Weiss can really blame them, they do both look incredibly gorgeous, it's just hard not to laugh at how flustered both of them are. Plus, she's not sure she'd even be able to put into words how much of a relief it is to see the two of them acting so friendly again. It's enough to make her think that getting them to talk might not be impossible after all.
But she still has to figure out when she and Pyrrha could possibly get the two of them alone. Dinner probably wouldn't work with how big their group is and there certainly won't be any privacy in the limo either. Their one chance to ambush Blake at the door earlier had pretty much been quashed entirely by a horde of girls asking Blake to help them with their makeup, not to mention the fact that Pyrrha had been too busy making eyes at Jaune from across the living room.
And that, unfortunately, leaves finding some rare moment at the dance as the only option.
Although it's not the worst idea either. Thanks to the fact that she'd spent the whole morning setting the ballroom up, she knows exactly how many private little nooks there are to have a conversation, not to mention Blake's habit of running off on her own halfway through a dance. If she's being realistic, or rational in any way, she might recognize that there's probably going to be a lot of opportunities over the course of the night, but she's just never been someone who enjoys leaving things up to chance like this.
Her thoughts are interrupted by Ruby loudly clearing her throat, probably sensing some of her turmoil and bringing all three of them crashing back to reality.
"Um… we probably need to get ready for pictures soon." Her girlfriend says slowly, "the photographer's kind of been waiting for a while."
"Oh right!" Yang says, "let's go!"
With that, the blonde turns and heads towards the kitchen with Blake following closely behind. Weiss however, hangs just a couple steps behind and watches the two walk off with a strange sense of relief despite the uneasiness still bubbling up inside. She knows how foolish it is to get her hopes up, especially with how poorly their efforts had gone in the past, but seeing them like this… it's almost like all the drama of the past few weeks never even happened.
…
Pictures end up taking a lot longer than they'd initially planned and Yang can tell that the constant deviations from their schedule is seriously stressing Weiss out. But then Ruby comes up behind her and gently wraps an arm around the heiress's waist and just like that the tension disappears from her shoulders, a small, intimate moment that Yang can't help cracking a small smile at.
Although it probably helps that they're finally at the restaurant now, alleviating the initial concern that they might miss their dinner reservations.
The place itself is this beautiful steakhouse, extravagant in a way that only Weiss could really choose for their group. But she can't exactly say she's complaining, with the heiress being kind enough to foot the majority of the bill for them, they'd ordered some of the most delicious food that Yang had ever seen.
And of course the dinner is made even better because she has a front row seat to watch Pyrrha and Jaune making eyes at each other. Honestly it had kind of been going nonstop since their unspoken declaration of love for each other at Weiss's house earlier, but afterwards everyone had gathered up for pictures and then immediately been ferried into the limo. Now that they were at the restaurant though, the two of them were free to be with each other with almost no distractions.
Except, with how ridiculously shy the two of them are, it ends up being more along the lines of stealing glances at each other and then snapping their head away the second they make eye contact, either reaching for their fork or their drink to hide the very obvious blush on their faces.
Yang has trouble deciding if the display is adorable or infuriating. Adorably infuriating?
"You'd think one of them would just suck it up and go for a kiss or something by now." She says quietly, leaning slightly to the side.
When she doesn't hear a response, she turns to Neo, finding the girl deep in thought as she absentmindedly pokes at her food with a fork.
"Neo?"
The girl snaps her head up with a start, her pink and brown eyes stretched wide open. "Hi! Sorry, I was just… what's up?"
"Is everything okay?" Yang asks, not at all convinced by the smile that Neo forces onto her face.
"What? Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"
"I don't know, you just seem kind of down."
"Oh, it's really not…" Neo trails off when she sees the skeptical look on Yang's face.
"Look we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Yang says gently, "just… if there's anything you need…"
Neo lets out a deep sigh before slowly nodding her head, letting a small smile spread across her face for what feels like the first time in hours. "Thanks blondie."
Yang pulls back slightly, a small smile of her own cracking on her lips.
"What?" Neo asks, self consciously looking down at herself, "is there something on my dress or something?"
"No nothing like that." Yang answers quickly. "In fact, you look really cute." She's definitely telling the truth too. The dress that Nora had ended up picking out for Neo is absolutely adorable, a really gorgeous shade of rose pink with dark brown trim that perfectly matches the girl's hair and a really cool slanted cut skirt that feels so fitting with Neo's two tone look. And of course, Nora hadn't let up on pressing the girl into getting a strapless dress, leaving the girl's shoulders completely bare with a really elegant sweetheart neckline.
"Then what is it?"
"It's just… I haven't heard you call me blondie in a long time."
Neo's eyes stretch slightly in surprise before timidly turning away. "I didn't really think you'd notice."
"What?" Yang says, caught completely off guard by how weirdly empty Neo's words sound. "Why would you think that?"
"Well I just… nevermind," Neo says quickly, "I guess I never really asked if you were okay with me giving you a nickname."
"Oh don't worry about that, in fact I thought it was kind of cool that you were comfortable enough to give me one."
"Really?"
Yang nods her head emphatically. "Mhmm, actually when you first started working at the diner you were so quiet and shy it felt like you didn't talk at all your first few weeks there. But then you started getting more relaxed and… I guess I was actually kind of relieved when you started calling me 'blondie'."
Neo stares at her, eyes wide in shock. "You… really? Yang, that's really sweet."
She flashes the girl a smile, happy to see some life finally returning to Neo's eyes. Today's supposed to be a day for fun after all, and she intends to do everything she can to make sure her friends have a good time.
…
Weiss spots the forlorn look in Blake's amber eyes and lets out a sigh. The past few hours had been fairly frustrating, with neither her or Pyrrha able to get the two of them alone to have their little talk. There's honestly a small part of her that thinks it should have been easier, there were certainly windows after they finished taking pictures where it seemed like they'd actually have some alone time, but somehow, whenever either of them had tried they would be magically interrupted by some issue to spring up that began to feel progressively more ridiculous every time. And now that they're here at the restaurant, she's starting to worry a bit over whether or not she'll really have any opportunities for the rest of the night.
But she still has to try.
"You know if you wanted you could still go sit over there." She says quietly.
Blake snaps her head over with a start, clearly embarrassed that she'd been caught staring.
"What? No. I'm perfectly fine over here."
"You know Neo doesn't bite right?" Weiss says. It's definitely a loaded question, one she'd been carefully crafting for practically all of dinner as she tried to figure out how to breach the subject with Blake. So now that it's finally out in the open, she's watching intently for any sort of reaction from the dark haired girl.
But of course, being Blake, she's able to throw on a deadpan facade in less than a second, which in itself, is a sort of an answer to Weiss's suspicions.
"I know she doesn't." Blake says quickly, "in fact I think she's… actually really nice."
Weiss narrows her eyes. "I didn't realize you two really ever talked."
"We have... on occasion."
"Well then why not go sit with them? I know you want to sit next to Yang. And I'm sure her dress looks even better up close."
That finally at least gets some kind of reaction from Blake, as evidenced by a light dusting of pink spreading into her cheeks. Of course it's only one small step towards their ultimate goal for the night, but she can't exactly say she's complaining.
"That… I wasn't…"
"It's okay Blake, I think she looks great too."
Blake lets out a deep sigh, slumping back into her seat and letting a bit of the desperate wanting return to her eyes. "She really does."
"So why aren't you over there with her? I know you've been missing her these past few weeks and she's definitely missed you too."
"It's… still kind of awkward… besides, those two look like they're having fun on their own."
As if on cue, Yang falls back into her chair, laughing hysterically as Neo giggles into her hand. The display is enough to make Weiss cringe a little on the inside, because honestly it does look pretty bad, especially when Yang leans over to bump Neo with her shoulder. And obviously it shouldn't be a problem, this is just how Yang is with friends after all, but with Blake actively looking for reasons to stay out of her life, seeing any 'evidence' like this that the blonde might have feelings for someone else is about as damning as things could get.
"Blake they're not…"
"It's okay Weiss." Blake interrupts, "I promise you I'm fine. Just… as long as Yang is happy."
With that Weiss sinks back into her seat. She can see that Blake is lying, honestly it would be obvious to anybody with the way the girl is biting down on her lip to keep it from trembling. But even still she can't seem to find the words to fix all of this. And it's so… frustrating to be stuck in this position again. Helplessly watching Blake and Yang suffer for so many years had been the driving force behind her and Pyrrha getting involved in the first place and seeing it repeated here only reaffirms her conviction to make this finally happen.
Author's Note: So what can I say, I'm kind of a sucker for big cheesy scenes where a character sees someone's outfit for the first time, but you all probably know that already. Also, kind of debated combining this chapter with the previous or the next but couldn't quite find a better way to separate it other than this and I wasn't super confident in my ability to edit like 10K words at the same time, also definitely not doing that to my Beta either. Anyways, hope you all liked it and thanks for reading!