Here's the next chapter, I won't make you wait any longer, hope you enjoy! :)

Blake:

'What the hell was that? What in all of Remnant have I started?'

Blake threw her book to her side, officially accepting that no book was going to distract her anymore. She was lying in her bed, awake, long after her surrounding teammates had drifted off. She was hoping to pass out, thinking about epic detective stories, rather than staying up all night trying to figure out what her emotions were doing. However, her clock had struck two and her hope for that plan had been lost.

'What happened today?' Blake desperately thought. 'Earlier, I had been certain the best course of action was to ignore the problem and let Yang move on. I knew it wasn't going to be easy; I felt like shit knowing that my lie caused her so much pain, but I still believed I was protecting her from further emotional agony by us becoming a couple and then me refusing to acknowledge it.'

Blake's hands pressed against her forehead as she tried to think through what had happened, 'Today all of that seemed to change. My fear of judgement and hate from everyone around me seemed to disappear. Every god damn time that foolish blonde looked at me…I felt…free. Somehow Yang's presence made me feel secure. Hanging out with her had felt so simple, like there wasn't a care to be had in the world.

Has that always been there? Is she the reason I've been able to function at this academy without breaking down and fleeing from my phobia? Either way, today I've suddenly noticed this phenomena and something further. I feel more than just safe in regard to Yang…could I lov-?'

Blake clenched her jaw, holding back her thoughts. 'Do I actually believe I can just drop that word? The gravity behind that word could prove fatal to our partnership and our team. Regardless of how I feel, we could never be together. There's no way I'm going to force Yang into a secret relationship that neither of us could disclose merely because I'm too big of a coward to be openly gay. I refuse to be that selfish. I can't break down just because Ruby successfully forced us to hang out; I have to stay strong.'

Blake thought she had settled it, but her confidence was quickly dissolved. Her mind started to wander back to earlier that day. She remembered her impulse to pretend she was still asleep as she awoke cuddled up to Yang's soft form. She remembered the utter bliss she experienced – not having a care in the world, the simple warmth of Yang embracing her.

Exhausted and confused, the faunus desperately clenched her eyelids shut in hopes to find sanctuary in slumber, however, her still hyper-sensitive cat ears forced her to lock onto every noise around her. As she suddenly picked up on the soothing breaths of the teammate in the bunk under her, she felt her own chest rise and fall in sync. Blake started purposely breathing at her own, separate time intervals in defiance.

'What am I doing? No one could possibly act as ridiculous as I am,' Blake thought.

Blake had no idea how or when she managed to fall asleep, but it was quickly interrupted by a high pitched, blaring noise. She groaned, feeling cheated out of a rest she desperately needed.

"Good morning, team RWBY!" Ruby yelled, as if her whistle hadn't already awoken everyone. The team sat up groggily, all glaring at their mischievous leader who was already fully dressed and prepared for the day.

"It's still the weekend, you dunce," Weiss muttered as she rubbed her eyes. "Why the heck have you woken us?"

Ruby shook her head. "You should remember, Princess," Ruby teased, "You and I planned it out yesterday."

'Oh god, I do not like the sound of that,' Blake thought, dreading what was coming as her brain was processing the fact that she was awake.

Weiss suddenly perked up, remembering the day's planned events. "Oh, of course!" she exclaimed. Weiss leapt off of the bed and stood before her teammates. "Do you all remember the project for Port's class we were assigned last week, where we needed to design and build an ursa trap?" Weiss was met with nods.

"Well I've finished all of the designs for it and now we simply need to collect the materials and build it-"

"And we can't do that at a normal time of day?" Yang mumbled, still trying to adjust her eyes to being open.

"You should remember, Yang. It was your idea to use red sap as the bait of the trap, so we need to go into Forever Fall to gather some. We need to leave early to make sure we leave long before the grimm become active."

Yang collapsed back onto her pillow. "That project's not due for a month. I vote we sleep today and do the project a month from now."

"I think I second that," Blake muttered.

Weiss scowled, "You all are free to procrastinate all you want on your normal school work, but I refuse to let our group project be left to rot until the day before it's due. You all agreed to work with me, so we're going to work on it right now!"

"C'mon, Yang," Ruby encouraged, "You even said yourself yesterday that we should spend the day hanging out as a team. It would be great for us all to get out of this crummy room for a while."

"F-fine…" Yang grumbled as she pried herself away from her bed.

Blake groggily stood up as well, asking, "Wait, are we going to spend the whole day out there? Gathering some sap shouldn't take that long."

Ruby turned and answered with a wink, "Don't worry, Blake. It's all planned out."

'Oh no,' Blake thought helplessly, 'What does that mean?'

"I'm going to take a shower," Weiss announced. "The rest of you better be packed up and ready to leave by the time I come out." She proceeded out of the room as Ruby said, "I'll be right back as well. I need to pick some stuff up before we go. Meet you at the front gate." With a smirk, Ruby pranced into the dorm hallway, leaving the remaining partners alone.

Blake immediately felt her rush of thoughts from yesterday come flooding back. She tried to block out the very concept of Yang and her existing in the same room together as she hastily packed supplies and ammunition she'd likely need for the trip into Forever Fall.

"So," Yang started, clearly eager to end the silence, "what do think Ruby has planned? She seemed pretty hyped about it."

Blake kept her eyes locked on her packing, still unsure how to regard Yang. "It's probably nothing," Blake lied. She had a very clear idea as to what Ruby was up to, but certainly wasn't going to discuss the theory with the blonde. Ruby was likely to pull something similar to yesterday and make the pair spend a bunch of close time together. Blake normally wouldn't mind, but with the possible feelings for Yang, Blake was far less than excited about the day ahead of them. "I wouldn't worry."

Yang scoffed at the idea. "Oh I'm far from worried. I can handle whatever Ruby's prepared for us. I'm just curious as to why she's so excited for it. She's never that adamant about our usual field trips unless a fight is guaranteed. Could there be something else she's up to?"

Yang let the thought linger as she waited for Blake to respond, but after a lengthy silence from the faunus, she took the hint and let the conversation die off. Yang went back to equipping Ember Celica and packing supplies. Blake felt guilty for rudely dissolving the conversation, but Blake was far more concerned with shutting herself up rather than being polite.

'What if I actually have feelings for her - no. No! I'm going to act like a proper teammate today and not think of horrible ways to ruin friendships and tear apart teams. It's time to focus on collecting red sap and killing anything we encounter.'

Once Weiss emerged, dressed for the day, the trio hefted their supplies and marched out of the dorm to collect their leader and head to the red forest. Upon reaching the gates of the academy, they saw Ruby was standing there as expected. To her side she carried a large basket; however, Yang caught the aroma of the basket long before she saw it.

"You've brought food. I love you. You have my support for the project now, Weiss," Yang declared as she snatched the basket away and gawked at the contents.

"Food?" Weiss asked Ruby with disbelief, "That's all it takes?"

Ruby laughed as she took the basket back from Yang before the blonde could dive in, "Yup, that's pretty much it. I figured the forest would be a lovely spot for a picnic so I packed us some sandwiches, and pizza among other things."

"W-wait," Weiss replied, "freshly cooked food like that very well may attract grim in the forest."

Ruby smirked, "Indeed it might! Isn't it great?" Ruby patted Crescent Rose as if the weapon would be excited too.

"No, that's not great!" Weiss shouted, "The point of this expedition is to safely gather the resources we need without getting mauled to death by the wildlife! Are you crazy?"

Blake sighed, "To be fair," she said, "few grimm will be active at this hour and another scent in the forest isn't going to attract anymore grim than our natural scents will anyway."

"Plus, all of that red sap we'll be collecting will be attracting the beasts anyways," Yang added.

Groaning, Weiss finally submitted, "Fine, let's just get a move on already. We're burning daylight." Weiss turned and started their march through the gates. Ruby and Yang followed right behind, anxiously awaiting the fun day ahead of them while Blake stayed far back, dreading the events to come.

It had felt like hours, but the team finally arrived at the Forest of Forever Fall after a painfully long walk out of the city. Despite the deep shaded forest now around them, glistening in the mid-day sunlight, the four blatantly ignored the beauty and collapsed onto the first clearing they spotted. Yang fell face-first into the red grass muttering something about sleep.

"Well," Weiss said, still standing among her sitting teammates, "We still have work to do. We didn't just come out here for napping. Let's go!" Groaning, they slowly stood back up.

"How do we get the sap again?" Ruby asked as she lifted a mountain of jars from her bag.

"Try using the tree tap to any one of the trees around here. You'd remember how to do this if you actually had helped during the last time we were out here last semester," Weiss replied, raising a tree tap from their supplies.

"I helped…just not with the actual tree tapping part," Ruby mumbled.

Yang chuckled, "Sounds about what I helped with as well. All I did was carry the jars."

Rolling her eyes, Weiss said, "With the amount of sap we'll need to properly test our project, we'll all need to help carry it back today. Therefore, we all will be helping with gathering the sap as well."

Ruby nodded. "That sounds fair." she said, "How about Weiss teaches me how to get the sap and Blake can teach Yang?"

"Wait what?" Blake asked, hardly paying attention to the conversation as she unpacked.

"Sounds perfect," Weiss replied, "Let's get to work then. The sooner we get all of these jars filled, the sooner you all can eat the food we've essentially risked our lives for."

"Yes ma'am!","Heck yes!" Ruby and Yang each said simultaneously, now fully motivated.

"Wait…what?" Blake repeated, still confused. Yang dashed over with a tree tap in hand, grabbed Blake by the arm, and dragged them both to the closest tree.

"Quick," Yang insisted as she threw their supplies to the ground, "teach me how to use this tree thing. The faster we gather some red sap, the sooner I can eat that pizza!"

Blake slowly started to infer what had happened. She glanced over and saw Ruby was being given the same lesson from Weiss. As their eyes met for a split second, Ruby grinned and replied with a wink. 'Oh, this is brilliant,' Blake thought. 'Even though we're in a full group, Ruby has still managed to split Yang and I off. Could she have actually planned this all out? Damn – if so then Ruby is far cleverer than I would've imagined.'

Blake turned back to the blonde, who was anxiously awaiting instruction. Sighing, Blake muttered, "All right, let's get started."

Blake raised the tree tap and easily demonstrated the task of driving it into the side of the forest tree. Yang mimicked and after a minute or two, she too had perfectly used the tap. It wasn't much of a lesson, but the job wasn't as complicated as Weiss had let on. The rest of the job now was simply waiting for the jars to fill until it was time to move the next empty jar under the sap flooding spout.

As the two sat in the grass against the towering trees, their other group members could be heard bickering. Apparently Ruby wasn't as fast to learn and Weiss wasn't as good of a teacher. Blake grinned, satisfied with the synergy she and her partner maintained. They were easily able to work together. 'I think Yang and I, and the team for that matter, will be just fine,' Blake thought to herself. 'Once we're past this weird little chapter, we'll continue to be the best huntresses in training we can be. Yang will forget about her feelings that have formed and whatever route my own heart is taking will be properly stopped in its tracks.' Blake knew she should be satisfied with the thought, but something still felt wrong.

"Blake? Did you hear me?"

Blake's eyes quickly darted to her partner in response to Yang's sudden question.

"N-no," she muttered, "What is it?"

Yang chuckled, clearly amused by Blake's absent attention, "I said it's really beautiful out here. We should all come out to the forest more often, especially if Ruby gets us food every time…are we eating soon? Damn am I hungry."

Blake tried to form an answer. She was thoroughly attempting to state they'd all likely eat soon enough, but only a slight squeaking noise passed her lips. 'Shit,' Blake thought, 'actually talking directly to her is an entirely different ordeal. The forest around the blonde is hardly the most beautiful thing here and I can barely manage to look at her without feeling my chest flutter. Damn it! No matter how well we can work together, nothing's going to get fixed if I can't even make eye contact with the girl!'

Without lifting her gaze, Blake awkwardly nodded in reply to Yang. She could feel herself shudder; she really missed being the cold and collected faunus she'd managed to present herself to be up to a day ago.

"You okay, Blake?" Yang asked with subtle concern as she leaned slightly towards the faunus. "You've been really quiet – even for you."

Blake looked back up, instantly in attempt to avoid suspicion of her contemplations. "Of course I am!" Blake responded a bit too forcefully. The two's eyes caught each other. The genuine concern behind those intoxicating lilac irises further strained Blake's chest. Her eyelids reflexively sealed shut as her head directed itself back towards the ground.

'God damn it, Blake!' Blake yelled in her head, 'You're supposed to be helping all of us get past this! Just talk to her normally! Convincing her that something is wrong is the last thing we need. Sympathy and concern is far from a beneficial contribution to Yang's mental state. If I keep this up, she'll never be able to move on and find happiness elsewhere!'

Yang scooted herself ever closer along the bark of the crimson tree to the clearly troubled faunus, but she didn't get a chance to press further questions.

"Heck yeah!" Ruby shouted from across the clearing, "I did it! Now we can sit back and eat while the taps do the rest of the work!"

"You dolt!" Weiss yelled in response, "We still have way more jars to fill! Just because it took tons of effort to start getting the sap, that doesn't mean we can just slack off and abandon our work! Shut your stomach up and get back over here!" However, Ruby had already pranced away to snatch the basket she'd left on the ground in the center of the clearing. The red-clad girl proceeded to unpack the contents of the basket and spread out a grand blanket over the grassy patches. Despite Weiss' continued scolding and yelling, Ruby continued her defiant actions – completely blocking out the princess.

Yang was surprised at her sister's actions and regarded them with a rather impressed nod of the head. Ruby giggled as Weiss' anger only built further. "Don't worry, girls," Ruby said to her other teammates in a lower tone, "She'll be out of here as happy as can be any second now. I really hate having to this, but I'm hoping it'll be worth it."

Blake glared at their team leader with a strong mix of anger and fear, sharply asking, "What do you mean?" Rather than giving an answer, Ruby merely winked and continued laying out the picnic. Despite the pure charm of Ruby's actions, Blake was wholly unamused – terrified by what Ruby was up to.

'Weiss will be out of here? Wasn't her plan was just to make Yang and I work together? Is she up to more?' Blake worriedly wondered.

Suddenly Weiss' incessant scolding came to a halt as she was silenced by the ringing of her scroll. Blake saw a giant smirk grow on Ruby's face as Weiss paused her rant and picked up the incoming call. Blake also saw a drastic shift in Weiss' expression as she raised her scroll to her ear – was that a smile?

"H-hey, what's up?" Weiss nervously said into her scroll, every ounce of anger gone from her voice. "No, nothing – nothing at all," Weiss continued. "Oh, that would be perfect! Yeah, yeah…okay see you then!" Weiss hung up her scroll and frantically began collecting the filled jars, placing them in her pack.

"Wait, who was-?" Yang tried to ask.

"There was a little emergency, I need to get back to Beacon right away," Weiss insisted as she blocked out the question. 'Emergency?' Blake thought. 'If there was an emergency, Weiss would be pissed, not fluttery eyed. I don't think I've ever seen the girl smile like this.'

"Wait, wait, wait, princess," Yang demanded, "You're the one who was freaking out about getting attacked by grimm and now you're going to try and make it back all by yourself? Are you-?"

"Don't worry!" Ruby interrupted, "I'll escort her safely out!" By this time Ruby had perfectly laid out the picnic food. Blake distinctly noticed the count of only two plates set out on the blanket and a tiny rose in a vase placed between them. 'Oh god damn it, Ruby,' Blake thought.

"Wait!" Blake yelled as Weiss and Ruby started leaving the clearing, somehow already entirely packed. "You only took a third of the jars, do you expect Yang and I to lug the rest of them back? And Weiss, are you really putting your grade in our hands? What happens if we don't collect the sap correctly or we don't gather enough of it? Don't you want to supervise or something?"

Weiss didn't even turn back, still dreamily smiling, "Yeah, sure, whatever, Blake."

'No, this can't be happening,' Blake frantically thought, 'Don't leave me to a romantic picnic alone with Yang in a god damn beautiful forest clearing. '

Blake darted forward and grabbed Ruby's arm, preventing her from walking any further away. "Ruby!" Blake hissed.

Ruby returned a monumental grin in response, leaving nothing but pure innocence in her wide, gray eyes, "Yeeesss, Blake?"

"I-I…you…ugh," Blake struggled helplessly. She wanted to beg Ruby and Weiss to stay here. She wanted to make Ruby understand how she desperately wanted to avoid toying with Yang's emotions any further. There were so many things that needed to be said to avoid the imminent situation with Yang, but with Yang standing right there, Blake was mute. Ruby clearly knew this as she innocently waited for what Blake had to say.

Blake sighed. "How did you even manage this?" She asked.

Ruby laughed and simply replied, "'I have my ways.'" With that Ruby turned and ran forward to catch up with the heiress. "See you guys back at Beacon!" Ruby yelled back.

As the two disappeared into the depths of the forest, Blake was officially left alone with Yang. She turned to see the cause of her major dilemma majestically scarfing down a slice of pizza and chugging a can of soda. 'Beautiful,' was somehow the first word that came to Blake's head.

Reluctantly, Blake approached and sat upon the picnic blanket directly across from Yang. Reaching into the basket, Blake realized Ruby really did go all out. Aside from the full cheese pizza Yang had already found, there were several sandwiches – all notably tuna, some various fruits, several cans of soda and bottles of water, and finally an apple pie. As angry as she was becoming with Ruby, Blake couldn't help but appreciate the genuine effort being put into this.

Blake picked up out one the sandwiches, desperate to have an excuse not to talk, and sunk a giant bite into it. She immediately heard Yang chuckling across from her.

"I see that you were hungry to," Yang laughed, "I can't believe those two just up and left this all behind. I think Weiss literally just went crazy back there. Who the heck called her?"

Despite her first bite already swallowed and her mouth empty, Blake offered no vocal response to Yang as she kept her eyes wandering around the natural scenery – trying to land anywhere but on the blonde.

As she continued eating in silence, Blake could feel Yang's gaze burning into her.

After an awkward minute or two, Yang finally spoke up again and asked, "Blake, what's going on?" The question immediately set Blake's thoughts into red alert.

"W-what? What are you talking about?" Blake hesitantly replied. "N-nothing is-"

"Blake," Yang insisted, "You've been blocking me out and refusing to talk to me." Yang slightly softened her gaze as she continued, "Are you angry at me for something or-"

"No! No!" Blake instinctively insisted. "I-it's not your fault!"

Yang's eyes lit up. "So there is something wrong then?" She asked.

'Oh, great,' Blake thought. She didn't offer a response as she tried to innocently sip her water. Yang sighed.

"Look, Blake," Yang started, "as you've probably noticed, I've been dealing with some difficult stuff too. I can certainly agree that bottling it all up and trying to ignore it can feel like the only answer, but doing that will only make the pain hit harder when you finally have to face it." Yang's voice softened as she continued, "Blake, you're a really good friend and I hate seeing you suffer. I just…I…" Yang shook her head and resumed with her voice filled with her usual energy, "I just want you to be happy Blake, so if you need someone to talk to or vent to then I'll always be here. I'm your teammate after all and us teammates have to stick together!"

Blake held her hands to her cheeks to try and hide the blush forming across her face. Yang's presence was bad enough, but now these thoughtful words were making Blake's heart tremble even more. 'She says that all she wants is for me to be happy, even after believing there'd be no chance of us ever being together? ' Blake thought. 'I think she'd help my own problem a lot more if she quit being so perfect. Gah, how can she make me get like this? Why is she doing this? Shouldn't she be pulling away from me because of the pain I've caused her already? Why's she just giving in and letting Ruby push us closer?'

"So," Yang finally said as she finished her second slice of pizza, "do you want to talk about whatever it is?"

Of course she wanted to. Blake desperately wanted to correct all of the lies to Yang and remedy the guilt she felt. She wanted to listen to her desires and be able to fully acknowledge Yang's presence. She wanted to assure Yang there could be something more between them and dive head into a possible relationship. However, such a path still led to further guilt. How could Blake possibly expect Yang to commit herself to her while Blake wasn't even fully committed to her own sexuality?

Carefully, Blake replied, "I can't talk about it. I-it will affect other people."

Yang chuckled, "Oh c'mon, I won't tell anyone."

Desperately trying to avoid the subject, Blake countered, "Well do you want to talk about the difficult stuff you've been dealing with too?" Blake already knew all about Yang's problem and she needed to prevent Yang from knowing that she knew, but that didn't mean she couldn't use it to her advantage.

Yang's expression shifted to shock and then back to a nervous laugh as she scratched the back of her head. "Yeah," she replied, "I'd rather not. We can just say my issues affect people too."

The faunus said in response, satisfied, "That's what I thought."

The two, content with keeping their own secrets, continued conquering the seemingly endless supply of food. In relative silence aside from the occasional chirp of a bird or rustle of the leaves, Blake finished two sandwiches and two slices of pizza before finally yielding. Yang also had to finally admit surrender after her seventh slice of pizza. There was still tons of food remaining, but considering it was a serving size intended for four people, neither of them were ashamed of their shortcoming.

With the ordeal complete, Blake proceeded to pack up what food had been spared – most of which was shamefully the actual healthy fruits. The apple pie was untouched, but Blake knew it wouldn't remain that way for long. As Blake started to fold up the blanket, Yang sat in the grass trying to make the largest burp possible as some sort of celebration. 'To be fair, she is achieving her goal,' Blake thought, 'but that doesn't excuse how weird she's being. You could've fooled me that I'd find solace in this girl.'

Yang:

Yang was obviously one to mess around and generally be the light of any situation. Such was a title she held with much pride. With Blake clearly being in a less than joyful state, Yang took it upon herself to try and cheer her up in any ridiculous way necessary.

'I need to maintain a distance from Blake to make sure I can get past my feelings for her,' Yang decided, ' but that certainly doesn't mean I can simply leave her to pout. She doesn't have to talk about whatever's wrong, but she does have to cheer up whenever I'm around since I'm the coolest teammate ever.'

Yang proudly continued her obnoxious bellows which echoed through the branches of the forest. Yang's goal, if anything, was to get Blake's attention, no matter how annoyed such attention may become.

"You're being gross," Blake finally said as she closed the lid to the basket with all of their belongings collected.

Yang looked up, laughing now, "Oh, are you going to lecture me about maturity and manners now? You're starting to sound like Weiss."

"You sound like an ursa."

"Now you're directly insulting me. Now you really sound like the ice queen," Yang replied, excited now that the faunus had acknowledged her. "I refuse to allow you to become as horribly boring and stuck up as she is. Quick let's play a game or something! We must save your humanity!"

Blake slung her pack, overflowing with collected sap jars, over her shoulder. With a face slightly softened, but still clearly trying to stay emotionless, Blake replied, "Or we could calmly walk our way back to Beacon. How can you even consider doing anything else after the amount of food we just ate?"

Ignoring Blake's input as she picked up her own pack, Yang continued with a gleam in her eye, "I know a fun game! Let's play tag!"

"Tag? What are you thinking-"

"Tag!" Yang yelled as she suddenly leapt forward and tapped Blake on the arm. The blond then darted back several yards, bracing herself to bolt away, expecting Blake to pursue. Rather, the faunus stood still, unamused. "Yeah…" Blake responded, with a sizable dose of sarcasm, "No."

'Man is she good and sounding so uncaring and distant,' Yang thought, 'It's cool if Blake's upset about life or whatever, but I'll be damned if I can't help her find a bit of fun in life too. Sorry about this, Blake, but desperate times call for desperate measures and frankly I'm craving to just see you smile just a little bit. So we're going to have some fun whether you want to or not!'

"You asked for this!" Yang yelled as she bolted back towards the faunus. Blake stood immobilized, expecting to be tagged yet again in a pathetic attempt to get her to follow Yang, but instead, Yang reached and gracefully plucked Blake's bow off of her head. Before Blake could fully react to what had happened, Yang dashed away at full speed with the black bow raised triumphantly in her hand. Calling back, Yang repeated herself, "Tag!"

Yang's heart pounded as she dove into the brush of the forest, leaving the clearing behind, and rushed forward. Among cursing and yelling, she could hear faster and faster steps approaching behind her as grass and leaves crunched underfoot.

'Heh, well it sounds like she's chasing me,' Yang's thoughts were immediately doubted however as the sounds of her pursuer suddenly vanished. Yang looked back and saw nothing but red trees and grass behind her. Yang kept running forward as she tried to spot any sign of where Blake could've vanished to. As Yang turned her attention back to where she was going, she was surprised to see the faunus dropping from above only feet in front of her. Blake had passed her through the tree tops! As impressed as Yang was in Blake's speed and skill, she couldn't think about any of that as Yang's momentum drove her directly into the faunus.

The collision left the two collapsed onto the ground, the fall cushioned by the thick grass below. Yang's eyes winced shut as the pain registered. "Sorry," Yang kept saying over again as she tried to find her bearings. Her voice trailed away as her eyes registered that she had landed on top of Blake with their bodies pressed together and their faces only inches apart.

Yang immediately recoiled and scrambled off of the faunus, feeling her face erupt in red. 'Oh my god,' Yang frantically thought, 'That was not good…I mean was good, but…NO! I need to keep my distance and that was not nearly enough distance. I've got to be more careful! Holy shit!' Yang was so busy worrying about her own embarrassment and blocking out naughty thoughts, that she didn't even notice how equally, if not more, blushed Blake had become.

After a horribly awkward silence, Blake finally muttered, "Can I have my bow back?"

Yang snapped out of her thoughts and nervously laughed, "Yeah, of course." Yang handed the bow back and Blake hastily wrapped the material back over her ears. Another silence quickly ensued as the teammates picked up the packs which had scattered to the ground.

"So," Yang started, longing to stop the awkwardness, "You want to head back to Beacon now?"

Blake's lips curled into an ever so slight smile, "Yes, but let's walk calmly and not steal my bow anymore. That way no one will get trampled."

Yang chuckled as the two started slowly walking under the red leaves back to the academy, "I didn't trample you!"

Blake laughed in response, a sound that was a joyous ring to Yang's ears, "Much like how you sound, you trampled me like an ursa. Just learn to watch where you're going."

"Me watch where I'm going?" Yang countered, "Why don't you watch out where you drop out of a tree?"

Blake shook her head, "Why don't you refrain yourself from stealing bows and insisting on playing childish games so that I don't have to jump through the trees to stop you."

"You didn't have to jump through the trees," Yang pointed out, "You could've simply ran after me like a normal person!"

The bickering and joking between the two continued as they made their long way back out the forest and back to civilization. The journey back was even more difficult than before since the teammates were carrying more than their fair share of sap jars, but neither complained. Sharing each other's presence seemed to be solace enough as they walked back to Vale.

As they walked down the busy street of Vale, now nearly back to Beacon, Yang glanced over and saw a genuine smile resting on Blake's face. Yang smiled in return, proud of her work. The blond thought to herself, 'I have no idea what had Blake all moody and antisocial today, frankly I don't really care to know specifically what it is, but I'm glad I managed to cheer her up, at least for today. Making this girl happy is the best feeling in the world, and I'll be sure to do so even if she'll never know how much I care about her. I don't need to be with Blake, I just need her to be happy.'

As true as her thoughts were, her mind still couldn't stop recollecting the sense and feeling of her contact with Blake from before. The physical embrace, whether Yang wanted to acknowledge it or not, had felt amazing.

Yang sighed as they nearly arrived at their destination, thinking, 'Though, I would still love to be with her…'

HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED? WHAT TOOK SO LONG? Well, I had been planning on taking a break for exams, but after taking said break for two weeks, it became increasingly more difficult to get back into writing. I really wanted to write this whole past month, but my motivation never really led to me to actually sitting down and writing. I honestly just got distracted a lot - drawing, playing dota, reading other, better fanfiction, literally just sitting and doing nothing. Regardless, I'm glad to finally be back. This chapter was the hardest to write so far because I had a plan for it and then I chose to abandon the plan. The first arc was supposed to end this chapter, but I didn't want it to feel forced or rushed, so I had to rework everything. I could write another 5,000 words just explaining my reasoning, but I think it would be better for me to just shut up and start chapter 11 so the story can speak for itself. Thanks again for all of the support from all of you. I probably would've given up on this if there weren't 80 freaking people waiting for more. I mean that's a lot of people O_o please don't hurt me.

WARNING! BLATANT ADVERTISEMENT INCOMING! PLEASE IGNORE IF YOU GET OFFENDED BY ANNOYING ADVERTISEMENTS: I've also been updating my deviantArt. If you like crappy fan art or crappy sketches, then I'm "Fl00rMaster" on deviantArt. If anything that's just another place you have the option of yelling at me at.

Anyways, I'm going to go play dota...wait no...write chapter 11! Yeah. In all seriousness though, I'm going to try and roll out the chapters faster. Five weeks is really too long _