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: Hello! So I delayed this one by a day because yesterday was so busy but I super wanted to get it out so here it is today. Hope everyone had a happy 4th of July and everything, it was kind of crazy over here. Anyways, without further ado, here is the chapter, hope you like it!
Chapter 43: The Dance
As their group steps through the doors of the ballroom, Pyrrha's jaw drops to the floor.
"Weiss… this place is amazing…"
She can tell the others are shocked too. When their limo had pulled up, they'd all been blown away by the sheer size of the building. But after stepping inside and climbing a staircase more fit for a Disney castle, they'd arrived at the main floor that housed the most ridiculous ballroom Pyrrha had ever seen. It honestly looks like something out of a movie with the shiny hardwood floors and sparkling crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
It's definitely a far cry from the gymnasiums and event centers the school had booked in years past.
"No kidding!" Nora agrees enthusiastically, "how on earth did you make this happen Weiss?"
"Oh you know…" the heiress replies, "just made a few calls to some of my dad's friends and one of them turned out to be a partial owner of this country club."
"Wow…" Yang whispers, "no wonder you've been so stressed out about the dance."
"Well what can I say? It's our senior year and I wanted to make the dance special for everyone"
"I think you're officially the best student council president ever." Sun says, eyes still glued to the ceiling.
"Oh enough of that." Weiss answers with a dismissive wave of her hand, "as much as I'd love to hear you all rain compliments down on me, I'd much rather we all have a chance to actually get to the dancing."
With those words, the entire group kicks into gear. The first one to act is Ruby, turning around to flash her girlfriend a wide smile before taking Weiss's hand and pulling her towards the dance floor to join the large crowd already moving to the beat of the song blasting on the speakers. The two of them are followed quickly by Ren and Nora, with the energetic girl dragging her boyfriend as he happily stumbles behind.
She's just spotting Neptune and Octavia following in their footsteps when her attention is suddenly taken by Jaune stepping in front of her, flashing a nervous smile as he extends a hand out to her.
It takes a second or two of listening to her heart pounding in time to the music before she musters up the courage to take his hand, letting a smile of her own spread across her lips.
In no time at all, she finds herself on the dance floor, with their group somehow already getting boxed in as more and more students flood into the ballroom.
Pyrrha nervously looks down at her hand intertwined with Jaune's and is suddenly hit with the panicked realization that she doesn't really know what she's supposed to do now. She'd certainly gone to many dances before and had definitely enjoyed herself, but throughout all of them she'd actually actively avoided anyone that tried to dance with her. With the exception of Yang and Nora on occasion but that isn't really the same.
Desperately looking for inspiration, she runs her eyes through the crowd surrounding them and can't help cringing a little at the way some of her classmates are dancing. She has to admit that it seems pretty fitting given the song currently playing, but even still she doesn't know if she has the courage to initiate grinding up against Jaune like some of the other girls.
Although she has to admit that it does look like fun dancing like that...
Luckily, she's saved from having to do anything of the sort when she notices that their group has formed a small dance circle as opposed to breaking off for the various couples to dance on their own. So she lets out a small sigh of relief as she turns and flashes Jaune a smile, giving his hand a gentle squeeze before letting go.
It takes until about the third song for her to finally start feeling like she's loosening up a little. And of course it helps that the DJ plays one of her favorite songs, but apparently to Yang it's still not enough as the blonde comes up next to her, flashing a wide, ear to ear grin before taking her hand.
Pyrrha feels her eyebrows furrowing in confusion and is just about to ask what she's doing before Yang suddenly pulls her hand up and twirls her.
"Yang!" She exclaims, breaking into a fit of surprised giggles.
"You need to loosen up a little!" Yang replies, shouting to be heard over the music.
Without hesitation the blonde whips her arm back, violently twirling her around and causing her to stumble right into Jaune's arms.
She turns her head to look up at him, seeing the concerned look in his eyes and she immediately thinks to apologize. But then she feels the hand resting protectively just above her hip, and then how broad Jaune's chest feels with her back pressed up against it, and decides that... maybe this isn't all that bad.
So she bottles up all her trepidation and nervously sets her hand on top of his before slowly starting to sway to the music. It feels a little off considering how slowly she's moving compared to the upbeat rhythm of the song, but it's just about all she can handle right now with the way her heart is pounding away in her chest.
That is, until she finally feels Jaune's hands wrapping fully around her waist and he starts moving along with her.
…
Weiss can't help rolling her eyes at Pyrrha's behavior on the other side of the circle.
Honestly had she actually thought that anyone would be anything other than absolutely ecstatic for the chance to dance with her?
Thankfully Yang had intervened, otherwise she would have had to step in instead. And she's also glad that the blonde is here for the energy she's injecting into the entire group. Over the years it had been more or less established that Sun was easily the best dancer among their friends and Weiss is happy to see that Nebula appears to be able to match his every move. But where Sun and Nebula have all the fancy moves and coordination, Yang more than makes up for it with her casual confidence. Because Yang can look good doing literally anything with how confident she is in herself.
Although of course the one glaring exception to that rule is whenever the topic of someone having feelings for her is brought up. And right now is the perfect example, with how oblivious the blonde is to how much Blake wants to dance with her. Which is honestly hard to believe considering how obvious the girl is being about it.
But she tries to push it to the back of her mind, at least for the moment. With everything that's happened the last few months, and the revelations that she and Pyrrha are planning to unload on her, she feels like she should just let her have this moment to have some fun. Not to mention the fact that Pyrrha herself is finally letting loose a little.
And sure, it doesn't hurt that Ruby had always been a huge fan of dancing, clearly having inherited some of Yang's shameless enthusiasm that she's honestly having a bit of trouble keeping up with.
The music changes again, this time to some horribly upbeat electronic song that has the majority of the crowd cheering at the opening notes. She probably shouldn't be surprised that she's out of touch with this kind of music, her father practically forbade anything of the sort after all, but after just a few seconds she has to admit that the beat is surprisingly infectious.
And she can see how much the rest of them are enjoying it too, with Pyrrha and Jaune and even Ren and Nora getting more into it. Ruby seems to like it too, judging by the way she suddenly turns and takes her hand, guiding her through a couple of quick moves.
Although as much fun as they're all having with the upbeat music it's nothing compared to what Sun unleashes on the dance floor.
Their group backs up a little, forming a wider circle to allow him a little more room, to which he immediately throws an effortless backflip that has everyone around them going wild. She can't help being impressed at the fluidity in Sun's moves, especially considering how he's doing it all in a tuxedo. And it only gets better when he spins his way over to Nebula, offering his hand to her with a devilish grin.
The purple haired girl gives him a playful roll of her eyes before accepting, letting out a startled yelp as he pulls her forward. She recovers quickly though, barely missing a beat as the two of them quickly fall into a comfortable rhythm.
"They're pretty great huh?"
She and Ruby both turn to see Nora coming up next to them with an ear to ear grin on her face.
"Are you kidding?" Ruby answers, "they're awesome! Did they rehearse this beforehand or something?"
"No," Nora says, "but I know they go to the same dance studio so I'm sure at least part of it is choreographed."
Weiss snaps her head over to the shorter girl. "Wait what? Since when?"
"Uh I'm not sure. I think Sun invited her to join when she was feeling a little homesick or something? Apparently it's a really popular style back in Vacuo."
"Wow that's actually really nice of him." Weiss says. She feels a little bad about being so surprised, Sun had always been one of the most considerate people in their group after all, often being the first to go out of his way to find some way to help, but she's still left wondering how this is the first she's heard of this.
"I mean it's pretty obvious that they've liked each other for a while." Ruby adds.
"You knew about this?" She asks incredulously.
"Yeah. You didn't?"
"No. I mean I know they spend a lot of time together. I just wasn't sure if there was anything more."
"Well." Nora responds, "if they spend all their time together doing that I'd say it would be pretty hard for them not to develop feelings for each other."
Weiss looks up just in time to see Sun pulling Nebula in close for a quick lift, spinning the girl around in a circle as the girl's face lights up with a bright beaming smile that tells Weiss everything she needs to know about their relationship.
…
Yang isn't sure how long she's been going when she finally steps off of the dance floor, but it has to be at least a couple of hours. She'd had way more fun dancing with her friends than she would have ever expected considering all of the recent drama, but even her stamina has its limits.
She stumbles over to the side of the room where they'd piled all of their jackets and bags on a table and gratefully falls back into a chair, letting out a relieved sigh as she feels the cool air flowing in through the door. She takes a minute to recover her strength, not wasting the opportunity to kick off her heels and give her feet a much needed reprieve, before reaching over to fish her purse in search of her phone.
Her eyes go wide as the screen lights up showing twenty seven notifications for text messages and missed calls. Yang quickly swipes up on the screen to open it and to her surprise, sees that all of them came from one person: Winter.
She doesn't waste any time slipping her shoes back on and hurrying out of the ballroom, searching the hallways for an empty corner that hasn't already been occupied by overly eager couples looking for privacy. It takes a few minutes but she finally finds one of the many balconies unoccupied and quickly steps through the door, shivering a bit at the chilly night air as she dials Winter's number.
The line only rings twice before she gets an answer.
"Where have you been?" The older girl shouts, not wasting a second with needless formalities.
"I... sorry Winter, I haven't really been checking my phone. We have a dance today so things have been kind of busy."
"I know you have the dance today, that's why I've been calling! Why aren't you at the dance with Blake?"
The question catches her so off guard that she's barely able to come up with a response.
"I… what?" she stammers, "how did you even…"
"Weiss posted the pictures on Instagram." Winter answers quickly, "and there was a pretty conspicuous lack of a date on your arm."
Yang lets out a sigh as she sheepishly runs a hand through her hair. "I mean… it's complicated."
"What's so complicated? It seems pretty simple to me honestly. Either you asked Blake to the dance or you didn't. So which one is it?"
"I… I didn't." She admits finally, falling forward to rest her arms up against the cold stone railing.
"Yang."
"It's not my fault!" She shouts defensively, "a lot has happened and…"
"What could have possibly happened?" Winter cuts in, "last time we talked at Thanksgiving you finally agreed that you would ask her out."
"She!" Yang trails off, voice losing the ferocity that was present just a second earlier. "She doesn't love me Winter. It's official now. She went on these college tours and I chased her to the airport like an idiot and… she rejected me." It's the first time the admission has escaped her lips in weeks now and there's definitely a part of her that feels like she shouldn't be so torn apart by it anymore. But her voice still ends up coming out just as shattered as if it had only happened yesterday.
"I don't know if what she did really counts as rejecting you… I mean she didn't exactly give you a chance to actually confess your feelings did she?"
"God you sound like Weiss," she groans, "wait. How do you even know about that?"
Winter lets out a deep sigh. "Well… actually… I went and found Blake a few days later when she came to Atlas."
"What?"
"Weiss told me what happened." The older girl continues, "so I went and talked to her."
Yang can feel her heart starting to race and she instinctively tightens her grip on the railing. To be honest she's not totally sure how to feel about this new information coming to light, but there's still a small spark of hope lighting up in her chest that she tries desperately to keep under control.
"I… what did you guys talk about?" She asks quietly, knowing exactly how dumb of a question it is the second it leaves her lips.
"What else is there?" Winter confirms, "we talked about you of course."
Her heart rate goes out of control as she listens to Winter recount every little detail of her conversation with Blake. How she'd gone to find her at her hotel, how they'd gone to a nearby restaurant to talk, and finally how Blake had dumped out everything about why she'd decided on leaving for college.
"I…" Her voice is barely louder than a whisper, still struggling to believe everything that Winter had just told her. "That's how she got the picture?"
"Yes." Winter answers, "and I know she was still a little hesitant but she at least promised me that she was going to talk to you about it, did something happen?"
"No, we didn't talk about anything, she never even…" she stops dead, suddenly remembering the night that they'd gotten Pyrrha to go to that movie with Jaune. She had picked up Neo from the diner and when they'd gotten back… "Oh my god." She breathes shakily.
"What?" Winter asks, allowing a bit of anxiety to seep into her voice.
"She did come and find me that night." She answers quietly, "it must have been right after she'd gotten back to Vale."
"What happened?"
"She… she saw me with Neo."
"Who is Neo?" The older girl asks.
"She's just a friend." Yang answers, "but there was a misunderstanding. It was cold out and we couldn't get the door open. She didn't have a jacket so I gave her mine but then I got cold too so she pressed up against me… oh my god. That's why she was crying."
It's like the world itself comes crashing down and Yang can feel frustrated tears start to well up in her eyes as her body starts to shake.
"You made her cry?"
"I didn't mean to!" She exclaims.
"Yang." Winter says, voice tinged with frustration. "Blake saw you with another girl and immediately ran off crying? How does this not immediately set off alarm bells that she might have feelings for you?"
"It did! I even went to talk to her about it afterwards! Or at least… I tried..."
"And? What happened?"
"She… announced that she'd already confirmed her enrollment to Mistral and after that… so much other stuff started coming to light."
"But you still could've…"
"Yang?"
She snaps her head at the sound of her name, quickly turning around to face the entrance to the balcony and sees Weiss and Pyrrha standing just outside the door.
"Yang are you okay?" Pyrrha asks, hurrying to her side and immediately wrapping an arm around her.
"What happened?" Weiss asks, coming up on her other side. "Who are you talking to?"
"Winter." She answers, weakly offering the phone to the heiress who doesn't hesitate to take it and talk to her sister. They only talk for a few minutes before Weiss hangs up, the expression on her face growing even more serious than before.
"She tell you everything?" Yang asks, eyes glued to the ground in front of her.
"Yes." Weiss answers slowly, "how are you…"
"I don't know." She replies, "I don't even know what to think anymore. I mean everything that Winter just told me… what you guys have been saying for years… none of it makes sense! I mean… if she actually has feelings for me then why hasn't she ever said anything?"
"Well," Pyrrha begins carefully, "maybe you can cut her some slack. I mean you can see how scared she's been recently."
Weiss nods her agreement. "Plus, I feel like you of all people should understand how hard it can be to confess your feelings to someone you're so close to."
"I guess." Yang mumbles.
Pyrrha gives her a sympathetic smile. "You know, you could still tell her how you feel Yang."
"What would be the point?" She asks, "I mean even if she does feel the same. She's still leaving. I mean… what, we date for a couple months? The whole time knowing that there's a hard expiration date?"
She can feel Pyrrha tensing up next to her as the redhead shares a serious look with Weiss. The two of them hold their gaze for a few more seconds before the heiress slowly pulls away, letting out a deep sigh that has Yang furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.
"We… actually have something to tell you about that." Weiss says.
"We've been trying to figure out how to get you and Blake alone all day today," Pyrrha adds, "but with everything going on we haven't had a chance."
"What are you guys talking about?"
The heiress lets out another huff before reaching into her purse and hands her a folded up piece of paper.
Her confusion growing by the second, Yang slowly unfolds it, scanning the text as her heart starts pounding again.
"What… what is this?" she asks shakily.
"It's Blake's confirmation letter." Pyrrha answers hesitantly.
"No. This… there's got to be some kind of mistake. This has to be a copy or something."
"It's not a copy Yang." Weiss says. "I pulled this straight from an envelope sitting on her desk. It has the seal and everything, you can't just fake that."
She can feel herself starting to shake again.
Blake wasn't going to Mistral?
Had she just been lying all this time?
Why would she do that?
How does that make any sense?
She lets out a low groan as she brings a hand up to rub at her temples. When she'd woken up this morning she'd spent a ridiculous amount of time mentally preparing herself for what she'd known would be a taxing day but she had no idea it would be this bad. With all this new information being dumped on her about Blake, all the secrets and the lies, all the things that had been going on behind her back… it threatens to overwhelm her.
So despite her best efforts to control her emotions she still ends up crumpling the letter slightly as she clenches her fist. She can tell that Pyrrha and Weiss are concerned, even pretty sure that they're saying something, but she doesn't even process it.
There's only one thing on her mind right now and she's jumping into action before she can even register it, launching herself off the railing and heading straight for the door.
It's far past time she and Blake had this talk.
Author's Note: Was considering merging this with the previous chapter but idk, just didn't feel right for some reason and yeah. Anyways, hope you all liked it and as always, thanks for reading!