The longest chapter thus far. I had an outline and I stuck to it and I am proud of myself. Thank you all again for reading and reviewing. Hope you enjoy :)

Yang:

'What the fuck are you doing?'

Yang raised her head from her knees, and frantically looked around the room through her watery lenses. She was certain she'd been alone as Ruby had left their dorm room just moments ago and her sister certainly wouldn't be talking like that. Once convinced she was alone in the dorm room, Yang lowered her head once again. 'Great,' she thought. 'Now I'm going crazy and hearing voices.'

'You're not hearing anything, dumbass. You're thinking up all of this!'

Yang brought her head back up and looked around again, again finding no one. Yang came out of her ball and leaned back in her chair, facing the ceiling above. 'Oh, wonderful!' Yang thought, 'I'm going crazy and talking to myself! The mighty Yang Xiao Long has fallen to the level of talking to herself!'

'Bitch, you wish you were talking to yourself. Right now this is the mighty Yang Xiao Long talking to a pathetic girl who's given up everything just because her little crush doesn't love her back. Do you plan on just lying around crying while hordes of demons and criminals roam the world to destroy it? Do you really think you deserve any sympathy while innocent people are terrorized daily? Why don't you stand the hell up and work for all of those crazy adventures you're after? By lying around, crying, you are achieving nothing.'

Normally, such a comment would've driven Yang into further tears, but hearing it from her own mind had the opposite effect. She became conscious of her suppressed thoughts and felt all of her depression violently transform into brutal anger. She hardly noticed her chair starting to steam around her in response to her emotions.

'Yang Xiao Long, what are you doing? You're a huntress in training and you're blowing it,' Yang bitterly told herself. 'The world isn't around to hand things over to you. You can love Blake all you want but the world doesn't have an obligation to make her love you back. You sitting around crying isn't going to change how cruel the world can be, but you getting up off your ass and becoming a huntress can still improve the world for others. That should be reason enough for you get over Blake and start functioning again. You have to get past your feelings for Blake.'

Determined, Yang stood from her desk and marched her way into the bathroom. Taking notice of her burning red eyes and still flustered cheeks in the mirror, she cupped her hands, collecting cold water from the faucet, and washed her face. 'B-but I love her…how can I just forget about that? H-how can I…I can't…' Yang shook away her instinct to shut down again. Breaking down and giving up on life wasn't going to be an option anymore. 'It's not a matter of forgetting how I feel. It's a matter of accepting how Blake feels,' Yang thought. 'I can love her as much as I want to, but if Blake doesn't want to date anyone, then she doesn't have to date anyone. It's not for me to decide any differently. Begging for the universe to be how I want it to be isn't appropriate and won't change anything anyways.'

Yang wiped her face dry and looked at herself in the mirror again. She saw that her eyes were back to their normal, lilac selves, but also became aware of her dreadful appearance, making her look like the personification of death.

'Jeez, just look at me,' Yang scolded herself. 'I'm a total wreck; I have got to pull myself together for everyone's sake. I probably gave Ruby a heart attack earlier by emerging from the bathroom like this.'

Yang proceeded to brush her storm of blond hair to try and fix herself up. After staring at it for a moment, Yang chose not to apply her make up since she wasn't fully confident that she was truly done crying.

Upon exiting the bathroom, satisfied with her improved appearance, Yang glanced at the pile of work ominously stacked next to her desk. Sighing, she decided, 'Nothing will entirely distract me from Blake right now, but I should at least do something productive while I pout.'

Yang sat down and her desk and continued the math problems that she'd started earlier. She always struggled with answering equations and such. Having only one correct answer made it impossible to pretend like she knew what she was doing. She'd much rather be bullshitting an essay for history where anything can be correct as long as you provide support for your answer. Yang found herself tempted to set the mathematics aside to copy Weiss' work later and work on another part of her work now.

'No, damn it, Yang!' Yang cursed herself. 'If I'm going to get over Blake, then I'm going to have to convince more than just myself that I've recovered. I'm going to do the math part now to show the rest of the team that I'm stable enough to work on academics! Seeing the look of worry in Ruby's eyes was horrible. I'm supposed to be the one being worried about and protecting her! I've got to show that I'm strong for her sake.'

Yang focused herself back onto the math problems. 'X squared equals 144…so I need the square root…fuck algebra, I'm getting my calculator!'

Yang slowly worked her way through a half of the worksheets she had. If she was an environmentalist, she'd be truly offended by the amount of papers distributed by her classes. None the less, she was proud of her progress when her teammates finally walked through the door.

Ruby walked through the door, shortly followed by Blake. Yang turned, trying to keep herself calm, thinking, 'Here we go Yang. Show them you have no problems now. You've come to accept your reality.' Consciously making sure to keep a steady voice, Yang said, "Hey guys, how's your day going?"

Ruby hesitated with a look of confusion, but quickly recovered herself to a relieved smile. "It's going great," Ruby replied. "I'm glad to see you brushed your hair. You look much better. Have you been working on all of your missed work?"

"Heck, yeah!" Yang grinned, "I should be able to finish all of it tonight, especially once Weiss shows up to help me. Maybe we can all hang out tomorrow since I'll be free."

Ruby was still slow to respond. It was clear how surprised she was the find Yang up and about. "Sounds like a plan to me," she finally replied with a grin. Blake stepped to the side and excused herself to use the bathroom, leaving the sisters alone. Yang could tell by Ruby's silence that she was still worried.

"Hey, I'm sorry that I yelled at you earlier," Yang finally said.

Ruby looked back with a shocked expression. "What? No!" Ruby insisted, 'It's fine Yang. I know you're having a difficult time; I just…look Yang, don't pretend you're perfectly fine if you're not. You don't owe me, or the rest of the team for that matter, anything. Our training can wait until you're feeling better.'

Sighing, Yang replied, "I'm not pretending, Ruby. I'm done crying now." Yang wasn't sure of herself before, but the concern of her sister had convinced. With a quieter tone, she continued, 'I've accepted that I can't be with Blake. I'm going to get to a stable set of mind for not only the team, but for all the people we need to help as huntresses.'

Yang was satisfied with her answer, but saw Ruby's expression was lacking the same closure.

"What's wrong? Honestly Ruby, I'm okay with this. Me crying any longer isn't going to help anything; it will only hurt myself more."

"Yeah…just…" Ruby couldn't meet Yang's eyes now. "It's great that you can talk without breaking down, but maybe don't be so final in accepting the way things are…in Blake being asexual…"

Before Yang could question what Ruby meant by that, Blake reentered the room. Ruby immediately turned away and directed her gaze down to her scroll. 'Does Ruby know something I don't?' Yang pondered, '…Nah, she's probably still just worried about me. Coming to terms with reality as suddenly as I have could be causation for concern. I'm sure she'll come around soon.'

As Yang raised her pencil and dove back into her work, to her surprise, Blake came to her side, looking at her work over her shoulder. Yang could feel her own face heat up and immediately grew angry about it. 'Gah, what are you doing Blake? Shouldn't you be reading one of your novels and being anti-social?' Blake's lingering presence quickly became a strain on Yang's mind as her pencil strokes quickly became slower and skewed. 'Focus. I've got to learn to function with Blake being around. This is something we'll just have to get used to.'

"So, Yang," Blake started to Yang's horror, "Do you need some help doing the packet for Professor Oobleck's class? I see that's the only part of your work that you haven't started yet. I'd guess that it's causing you problems if you actually chose to do math of all things before it."

'Oh god.' Yang tried to think of what to say. Blake's monotone voice made it hard to interpret if she actually wanted to help or was just trying to be supportive given how depressed Yang had been acting. She didn't dare look up to the golden eyes beside her. "T-thanks, but I think I'm okay," Yang answered. "I don't want to be a chore and drag you away from your book."

"It's not a problem," Blake responded with slight resentment, "Let's just say I have an obligation to take a break from reading anyways." Yang didn't notice Blake glare at Ruby and Ruby shrug innocently in return. "Besides, I've already read way ahead in our chapters," Blake added. "You'd be helping me out too with some review."

"Well," Yang reluctantly replied, "if you insist."

As Blake pulled up another chair to Yang's side, Ruby started making her way to the dorm's exit. Blake immediately caught onto Ruby's escape, and demanded, "Where are you going?" Yang was surprised by the sudden level of panic in Blake's voice.

"I got a message from Pyrrha. Apparently team JNPR needs someone to spar against Jaune in the gym, so I'm going to fill that role. Is there a problem?" Ruby baited.

'Oh great she's leaving us alone. That's exactly what I need right now. Thank you my bright, little flower of a sister,' Yang bitterly thought. "N-no, it's fine I suppose," Blake muttered. Yang was too embarrassed herself to notice how red Blake's face was growing as well.

Ruby smirked, "Have fun studying, I'll be back in a few hours. See you!" The slam of the door behind the cloaked girl echoed through the now silent dorm room.

'Stay calm. I've just got avoid naughty thoughts and focus on doing this school work. It'll be just like studying with Weiss.' As Yang opened the first page of Oobleck's packet, she immediately needed to look up the answer to the first question. She glanced around her desk and suddenly realized her history textbook was nowhere to be found.

Turning towards Blake, "H-hey, have you…uh...guh-" Yang stammered. She quickly lost herself in Blake's golden eyes. Confused, Blake asked, "What?"

'New rule – no eye contact. It'll be better to be slightly rude than to be completely incapable of speech. As Yang broke the stare and locked her sights back onto her paper, she repeated herself, much louder than anticipated, "Have you seen my history textbook? It seems to be missing from my desk!"

Blake leaned slightly away in response to the sudden jump in volume. 'Keep it cool Yang! You aren't convincing anyone that you're sane right now!' she thought. Blake stood up and walked over to Weiss' desk stating, "Yes, you left it in Professor Port's class yesterday when you bolted out of the room." Blake raised the textbook out of the pile of Weiss' supplies. "Lucky for you, Weiss went by and picked it up while we were all looking for you…" The two grew awkwardly quiet as they remembered the previous day's events.

"A-anyways," Yang managed, "should we get to work, then?"

"Y-yeah, of course," Blake quickly replied as she brought Yang's textbook and her own notes back to Yang's desk. As they worked, Yang immediately never wanted to work with Weiss again. Blake's calm, collected voice made all of the information much easier to absorb compared to Weiss' uptight attitude towards every question Yang asked. 'You know…study all the time as teammates though…' Yang clarified to herself.

They trudged through the problems. "So question twenty-five – 'What were the lasting effects of the Grimm Massacre?'" Yang eventually read. "It just led to more military spending from Vale for expeditions outside of the kingdoms right? In order to make sure scouts wouldn't enter hostile territory without the right equipment?"

"Yes…" Blake trailed on, clearly indicating there was more to the answer. Yang instinctively reached for her textbook, but Blake quickly intercepted her hand and set it gently back to the desk's surface. Yang tried not to think about the subtle warmth of Blake's touch. "You've gone three questions now without cheating; you're not giving up now."

Yang groaned, "It's not cheating! Oobleck encouraged us to use any and all of our notes and resources." Blake nodded in agreement. "Yes," she replied, "But you're not going to have the book on our next test so you may as well practice now. Here, think more about where the Massacre happened and who it happened to."

Taking a moment to process the hint, Yang slowly replied, "The expedition force was caught out west of Atlas...oh!" Yang exclaimed. "That's right! Nearly a whole military unit from Vale was wiped out in a sector Atlas insisted had a minimal presence of grimm. The horrible inaccuracy of their information caused conflict between Vale and Atlas. That tension still affects us today and almost could've led to a war."

Blake smiled approvingly and applauded Yang's correct answer. Yang grinned as she scribbled what she had said onto her paper. "So how much more of the packet do we have left?" Blake asked.

Yang glanced at the clock, noticing it had already been more than an hour. "Uh," Yang muttered, as she shuffled through the sheets of homework, "That was the last of the free response. The rest of the work is just multiple choice…" Yang paused. She didn't want to hold Blake away from her books anymore. Yang assumed Blake was only helping her out because of the recent emotional disaster.

"I'm sure I can manage the rest on my own, or I can just copy off of Weiss later. We can take a break," Yang said nervously. "You don't have to waste your time with me anymore." Yang immediately regretted how she sounded.

Blake chuckled as she moved her chair back, "It's really no problem, Yang. Besides, this has been really fun. We can do this more often if you don't think reviewing with Weiss is enough." 'Oh how I'd love that. I don't think I could express how amazing that would be even if I wanted to,' Yang thought.

"Well, maybe…I guess we'll see," Yang replied, desperately trying to hide how great of an idea she thought it was.

"So…" Blake started after a long pause, "Are you just going to take a nap now? I imagine you're still exhausted. I'm sure you'd earned it after working for a few hours."

"Nah…" Yang replied, "I think I'll just hang out. I don't feel like going out and about just yet, but my I've done enough sleeping for now." 'And I'd rather not risk mumbling your name in my sleep while you're fully conscious of me,' Yang reasoned.

"Hmm," Blake responded as she went over and searched through her belongings on her shelf. "In that case," Blake said, "Have you heard of the 'Shadows Gather' series?"

'Oh no she's going to recommend a book to me. ' "Yes…" Yang replied hesitantly, "I recall you talking about it last semester."

Blake nodded as she stepped away from her shelf with no doubt a book behind her back. "It's about a faunus detective who disguises himself as a human, just like how I do. He goes around solving mysteries as a detective and slowly uncovers a corrupt government network. Anyways, I just finished the sixth book and…" Blake faltered as she noticed the poorly executed, forced smile of Yang. She couldn't help but laugh in response.

"Chill out Yang, I'm not suggesting you to read them," Blake assured as she revealed what she was holding. "I'm suggesting we can watch the movie. They had the one based off the first book for rent in the library, so I thought 'Why not?'"

Yang's mind began to break down at the sight of the movie case. 'Blake isn't supposed to like movies…especially ones based off of books. Is my life a lie? Oh god, I'm losing it!'

"Hey!" Yang snapped back to reality from Blake's stern interruption. "Is that a yes?" Blake asked, "If not, that's fine. I'm going to watch it myself on my laptop one way or another though…"

"N-no! It sounds cool," Yang insisted, "I'm just surprised; I thought you hated movie adaptations."

"Well, yeah. Of course I do. They suck," Blake replied with her arms extended to the side to emphasize how obvious the fact should be. Yang wasn't following though. Blake decided she should elaborate, "I hate how inaccurate and unfaithful the movie industry is to all of my favorite stories, but that doesn't mean I can't still enjoy watching their horrible work and point out at every mistake they make. If anything, it makes the books better for me."

"Huh," Yang replied, "Never thought of it that way. Well sure, let's ridicule away!"

Blake lifted her laptop from her desk and leaped onto her top bunk with it. She inserted the disk and leaned back onto her pillow with the laptop at her feet as the built in trailers began running. Yang stood awkwardly by, not sure how to follow.

"Uh…do you want us both to sit up there…?" Yang quietly asked.

Blake seemed confused but then suddenly realized what Yang meant. "Oh, no…sorry! Gah!" Blake said. "It's a force of habit. This is how I always watch stuff on my laptop and…uh…here I'll move it down to the desk. We can just sit there-"

"No! It's fine!" Yang blurted out – speaking on impulse.

"W-what?" Blake asked. ''What' is correct,' Yang thought to herself. 'What the hell am I doing?'

"If you're comfortable up here, then it's fine. There's no reason for us to sit in those clunky wooden chairs anymore if you don't want to," Yang answered. 'Has the thought of lying next to Blake on her bed actually crippled my control over my own tongue? Am I that desperate right now?'

"W-well…" Blake muttered. She suddenly shook away her doubt and simply responded, "Sounds like a plan then. Let's just watch the movie."

'Treating it as a problem was awkward, but actually doing this feels even more awkward,' Yang thought. 'Man do I wish I could just shut myself up one of these days.' None the less, Yang climbed onto the bunk next to Blake. They weren't sitting any closer than they had been only minutes ago at the desk, but to Yang it felt entirely different and entirely too close not be thought of every second.

'I'm supposed to be getting over her,' Yang thought to herself. 'I don't think this situation is helping at all…You know what, no! Blake and I are teammates; we're good friends. It is perfectly acceptable for us sit here and watch this movie together. This situation is fine. I am completely stable right now. Let's just watch this movie. We've just got to focus! I can do this; I-'

"They've already mispronounced the lead character's name," Blake stated, suddenly interrupting Yang's mental rambling.

"W-wait what?" Yang muttered, not knowing what was going on. She suddenly realized the actual movie had started.

Blake repeated herself, "The main character's name is 'Locksher', but his first client is pronouncing the 'o' as a 'u'. That wasn't a plot point in the book, this is just poor acting. Not to mention his first client was specifically wearing a blood red shirt in this scene. That was significant symbolism that the director chose to simply ignore."

Yang was impressed; she hadn't realized how serious Blake would be about finding every last detail out of place. Blake noticed Yang's silent reaction and laughed, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry," she said, "I kind of take this way too seriously. I'll probably be commentating the entire time."

'Oh so in other words, I can't zone out in the movie. I'm going to have to talk to you the entire time. Great,' Yang thought. "That's fine. I probably won't understand what's going on otherwise," Yang replied.

Blake delivered as promised as the movie crept on. Yang heard in exquisite detail exactly what was happening in every scene of the movie and even more so, what was supposed to be happening. She was by no means unhappy with this. Blake's insight and clever remarks only made the movie more enjoyable to watch. Yang was just upset that during the whole time, she was thinking about the faunus sitting next to her. The tension Yang felt kept her heart rate in the sky as she made every effort to keep her hyperventilating quiet.

'Why the heck has she been so nice to me today? Is she really just forcing herself to take a break from reading?' Yang wondered. 'Is the universe just being a dick to me again by having Blake act like this right after I've pledged to get over her? Oh my god…no…what if the universe is having mercy and is showing me a still have a chance with her…?'

Yang's gaze panned to the beautiful girl beside her, with her eyes glued to the screen still rambling about horrible script writing and crappy special effects. Learning about hobby of the faunus – watching movies just to tear them apart – had felt like a shot of satisfaction earlier. Yang was reminded of her long lived desire to open up her anti-social teammate. An image of the two together vividly illustrated itself as Yang's vision blurred from reality.

'No…' Yang thought. She caught herself from her day-dreaming and snapped herself back. 'Don't get your fucking hopes again, lovebird,' Yang angrily told herself. 'The sooner you accept the way things are, the better. Hoping is just going to raise you up and drop you twice the distance.'

"Hey, did you hear me?" Blake's voice rattled Yang's senses.

Yang jolted as she realized Blake was speaking. "Uh…no…I uh," Yang muttered, guiltily for not paying attention as she tried to avoid Blake's golden gaze.

Blake chuckled, "Don't worry, I'm pretty zoned out right now too. This movie is far more disappointing than I had anticipated. The 'Ultimate Hunters' movie I just saw was great by comparison. I mean, this scene playing right now wasn't anywhere in the book." Blake leaned further back onto her pillow. "Wake me when this scene is over," Blake joked, "It doesn't deserve recognition of existing."

Yang laughed in response, mainly glad that Blake hadn't questioned why Yang was zoned out.

Yang returned her to attention back to the laptop at beyond her feet. Due to Blake's silent protest, Yang heard the characters talking for the first time. Blake was exaggerating just how offensive and atrocious the movie was, but Yang could agree that there was plenty of room for improvement.

As the movie dragged on, Yang actually started wanting to read the book. She could tell that there were plenty of details she wasn't noticing or simply weren't shown that the main character was effortlessly picking out and recalling later. Without Blake's commentary, Yang had no clue what so ever as to what was going on. She was about to nudge Blake and ask, but suddenly a fight scene began and Yang lost any need for a plot.

The epic scene lasted several minutes, and Yang enjoyed every last bit off it as the detective knocked goon after goon down, racing through a sewer to save his friend. The detective eventually captured the lead villain, saved his friend, and started a monologue about what being a hero 'truly means'– the usual movie crap. Yang lost interest as the movie started to wrap itself up. She glanced to the clock on the wall which indicated it had almost been two hours.

Yang suddenly felt a light pressure on her shoulder. She tilted her head down and was horrified to see a mess of black hair weighted against her. From that and the soft sound Blake's breathing, Yang realized Blake was asleep, and likely had been for the latest parts of the movie.

'Oh my god,' Yang cursed, 'she is so fucking adorable. I would literally give anything to cuddle her right now like a little kitten. Why the fuck is this happening me? Quit testing me universe! I said I'm getting over her, and I will! Tempting me is futile; all it shall accomplish is get me pissed! I'm going to punch a wall down if I have to keep dealing with this level of cuteness from her!'

Yang considered her options. All of them were likely to end awkwardly whether it be to wake Blake up or try to escape from under her. Yang decided to at least stick it out as a pillow until the end of the movie. Unfortunately her limbs quickly grew stiff from her inability to adjust herself. All she wanted was to stand up and stretch as she sat agonizingly still, trying to ignore the fresh scent of Blake's shampoo swarming her senses.

Eventually the credits started to roll, and Yang finally decided she had to escape. She willed her muscles to slowly move out from under the slumbering faunus, but they refused to respond. Yang couldn't decide if she was terrified of the awkwardness of Blake abruptly awaking or if she simply didn't want to stop Blake from cuddling against her.

Before Yang could build up the courage to leave or stay, the door to the room suddenly creaked open, revealing a hooded girl walking through. 'Oh here we go,' Yang thought in response to her sister's entrance.

"Hey, guys! I'm back! Do you guys-" Ruby paused her yelling as she saw the situation of her two teammates. Miraculously through all the noise, Blake was still asleep on Yang's shoulder. She immediately dashed over, grinning ear to ear, "I thought you two were studying. Did you get her off track?"

"Ha ha," Yang said, now encouraged to move out of her predicament. She hastily replaced her shoulder with a pillow and gently set Blake's head down. "It was her idea to watch a movie," Yang explained, quietly, "the other seating arrangement was in the crappy wooden chairs so we sat up there…" Yang couldn't hold a sentence with Ruby's expression beaming at her. Ruby was unsettlingly happy about this situation.

"Don't get any ideas Ruby. I'm not making any moves," Yang insisted.

"Oh of course not," Ruby said, with full sincerity, "I honestly believe you. I honestly believe that you, yourself didn't make any attempt to make a move on Blake."

Yang nodded in response, unsure how to take what her sister was saying. Suddenly Yang's eyes went wide with a sudden realization.

Curious, Ruby asked, "What's wrong?"

"I just sat through a two hour movie," Yang said.

"Yes…and?" Ruby continued.

"I have to pee!" Yang demanded as she bolted past her sister and slammed the bathroom door behind her. Ruby burst into laughter in response to her sister's exit.

Ruby:

'Well there's Yang for you. She's always on point,' Ruby happily thought. 'I'm glad my idea to push them together worked out as well as it did. This probably would've been a wreck if Yang hadn't suddenly perked up, and really should have been a wreck. I don't fully believe that Yang is over and Blake and for Blake's sake I hope she's not...'

Ruby smirked as she glanced over at the sleeping girl dressed in black. She walked over and hovered her head over Blake's ear.

"I've already figured out another plan for tomorrow. I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am," Ruby whispered to the faunus, "By the way, it might work on Yang since she's oblivious, but next time you pretend to be asleep, quit moving your ears around to hear everything. Your bow has been shaking ever since I walked in."

Ruby patted Blake on the back and stepped away, pleased with how still Blake's bow had suddenly become.

Emotional roller coaster...we're finally climbing it. Oh my god it's so much more enjoyable to write happy stuff. I fucking love happy stuff. Why can't a story be good without conflict and just be happy stuff? I mean then it doesn't relate to real life as well and then the story doesn't feel like it matters, but still! Anyways, I'm glad I got this out much faster than the last. Next chapter should be out soon, but no promises. I have exams starting soon and those are sadly in more dire need of attention. None the less, thanks again for all the support, means the world :)