...I know...I know...we'll have a discussion...

Blake:

The journey had felt like an eternity despite the sun resting only halfway into the afternoon. Yang and Blake stumbled through the door of their team's room, completely exhausted, dropped their packs to the ground and proceeded to collapse onto their respective beds. They completely ignored the clattering of rolling of jars on the ground and the greeting from their team leader.

After a moment of brief peace, Ruby said, "Weiss is going to get pissed if any of those jars break." As the collapsed duo remained unchanged, Ruby giggled and picked up the fallen materials herself. "That long of a walk back, huh?"

Yang's response was absorbed by her pillow. Her words were veiled, but her annoyed tone was clear. Ruby kept laughing as she said, "No one can hear you. Your words are in vain."

Yang raised her head and repeated herself groggily, "It would've been far easier if you and Weiss hadn't run off and left us with almost all of the sap. Where the heck is she anyways? Shouldn't she be whining about doing our project or something?"

Ruby picked the final jar of sap off the ground. As she sat back down onto her own bed, she replied, "Yeah, sorry about all of that." The unyielding smile she wore, however, was far from apologetic. "I have no idea where Weiss went off to. She ran off as soon as we got back and I've just been hanging out here ever since."

Blake raised her own head to narrow her gaze at their leader. Ruby was clearly lying about knowing absolutely nothing about Weiss. Having Weiss leave was all part of her plan.

"So," Ruby continued, "how was all the food? I spent a while working on it, so I hope it was good." Yang groaned is response, "It was too good…ate too much…so much pizza…sleep forever now…didn't even get any pie…"

Ruby stared for a moment at Yang and then back over to the basket resting on the table. She made the connection and then instantly bounced off of her bed to cut herself a slice of pie; she thought for sure it would've been gone. As Ruby gleefully munched into a giant slice of the apple pie, she asked in between bites, "So did anything else happen while you guys were out there?"

'Well someone is grasping for details,' Blake thought. "Nope," Blake quickly replied, eager to avoid any awkwardness over the dumb game Yang had wanted to play, "We just collected all the sap, ate, and came back."

Ruby immediately looked dissatisfied despite the mountains of sugar she was consuming. "Say, Blake," Ruby said, "I could use a hand with some stuff. Do you mind following me real quick?"

Blake stood up slowly, "I-I guess? What do you-?"

"Great!" Ruby exclaimed while she snatched Blake's wrist and hastily dragged her out the door of their room, leaving Yang still face planted on her bed.

As Ruby slammed the door shut behind them, her eyes darted up and down the hallway, making sure it was empty. "Ruby," Blake said, extremely curious as to what was going on now, "what are you doing?"

Ruby turned her attention back to the faunus as she said, "Listen to me. I should be asking you that same question! What are you doing?"

Blake wasn't following, "Uhh…"

Ruby vented, trying very hard not to scream, "Yang clearly likes you a lot and you clearly like Yang a lot. So why the heck can't you tell her you're not asexual so you two can live happily ever after and ride off into the freaking sunset?! I dropped a lot of effort into all the food and planning for today. Do you know how hard it was to get Weiss out of there? And now you two come back from the most beautiful forest in Remnant, from an amazing picnic, from a perfect plan and tell me nothing happened and you're both still just friends?"

Ruby gripped the bridge of her nose as her rant came to close. Blake shifted weight between her feet awkwardly, unsure of how to respond. She could tell why Ruby was upset, but that still didn't change her reasoning for not wanting to tell Yang all of this.

"Ruby," Blake slowly said, trying to come across as rational as possible, "I'm a coward. I panic and feel discriminated by just watching other people being abused. I'll never be able to openly be a lesbian or acknowledge Yang as anything more than a friend to other people. I just don't think-"

"What?" Ruby cut in, "You don't think Yang deserves that?" Ruby shook her head, "Maybe you're right, maybe she doesn't deserve to be in secret relationship. Maybe Yang does deserve someone who can bravely and openly be her girlfriend. Maybe Yang does deserve better than you."

Blake clenched her eyes shut. Ruby's words were exactly what Blake had been thinking, but they still really stung hearing them from her.

"But," Ruby continued. Blake opened her eyes back to the team's leader, "It doesn't matter what you think Yang deserves. All that matters, as far as this relationship goes, is what Yang wants and as far as I've heard, you are the only criteria that she cares about. Maybe she won't want to have a secret relationship, but if that's how it'll have to be with you, then she'll just have to make the choice for herself."

Ruby sighed, "Give her the choice, Blake. Right now she believes her only option is to move on and forget about you. As much as I know she can do that, I know she doesn't want to do that. I also know you don't really want to move past her either for that matter. So go tell her you're not asexual, you are a lesbian, and you could even add in the fact that you like her too. Don't deny that by the way. You totally like her back."

Blake pursed her lips, not sure what to say. 'Everything she's saying makes sense, but…' Blake strained her thoughts. She tried to revive all the reasons she had brought up earlier as to why they could never be together. She knew they were there, but she was completely blanking out. 'Oh god, Ruby did not just talk me into this…'

"Ruby," Blake could feel herself trembling, "I-I can't"

"Why not?" Ruby immediately countered.

Blake had nothing to fight back against that question. The fear built up in her chest continued screaming that she couldn't tell Yang, but it offered no actual reasoning. All Blake could offer was a pleading look in her eyes.

In response, Ruby merely shook her head. "I get it," Ruby said, "You're scared. However, I'm done casually pushing you two together. My little plans were fun, but it's gotten ridiculous. Now I'm shoving – you're going to tell everything to Yang tonight or else I'm bringing it up with the entire team."

Blake felt herself nearly black out right there. Her words became jumbled in her throat as she tried to protest against Ruby's threat. All she could manage was, "B-but…I…please no…"

"You can either make this a private matter with Yang, or we can make it a team issue. Weiss won't be back until late this evening and I'm going to hit the gym until then. You have a few hours. Use them wisely. I wish you the best of luck, Blake."

With that Ruby casually pranced her way down the hallway, leaving Blake trembling and fighting the feeling to run away like she had during the first semester. As she turned and saw the door to their room, it appeared more like an entrance to hell.

'What the hell do I do now?' Blake thought as she sat on the floor with her back against the door. Blake sighed. 'Well it's more a matter of what I can do. I either tell Yang myself or Ruby is going to…Why can't I just tell her? What am I so against the idea? Shouldn't I be bouncing at the chance to give Yang the choice she deserves? All of Ruby's logic was sound and makes my idea of forcing us both to blindly move on sound ridiculous, so why do I still feel so against it?'

'…Am I scared? Am I just scared of telling her? She could very well get angry at me for keeping all of this from her even after she had her break down…god…'

Blake buried her head into her hands, feeling tears attempting to force their way from her eyes. 'This whole situation is far worse than it ever should've been,' Blake told herself, 'I should've just been honest with Sun in the first place and never been afraid of my feelings…I…I have to fix this…I can't keep ignoring our relationship, pretending that will solve anything.'

Blake stood up as she wiped her eyes and turned towards the door the team's room. 'As forceful as Ruby has been about this, perhaps I'll have to thank her for it one day.'

Slowly, Blake brought her hand up and rested it upon the door knob. She took a much needed deep breath to ease her trembling as she thought, 'It's time to tell the truth to Yang – that I know she loves me…and…' Blake trembled as she threw the concept across her neurons, 'and that I love her too.'

Blake turned the knob and slowly pushed the door open as she thought to herself, 'Here goes everything.'

Yang:

'God damn it, Ruby. Why'd you leave this out? Why?'

Yang was going to be perfectly happy with the metric ton of pizza she had already consumed, but once the wrapper was pulled from that apple pie and its aroma was set free, Yang couldn't bear to lie on her bed and not consume the sugary goodness. After scarfing down a generously cut slice, Yang's judgement finally listened to her straining stomach as she decided against eating any more.

With the shot of sugar pulsing through her veins, endless sleep no longer seemed to be an option as a course of action. Yang scanned the room trying to decide what could be done this afternoon. Her eyes immediately found their way to Blake's corner of the room where all the girl's books and belongings were. Yang shook her head. Thinking about Blake wasn't an option on the table.

Her gaze journeyed further until they stopped again at her own desk. She suddenly recalled that she never completed the homework for Oobleck's class that Blake and her had previously worked on together. Yang had completely forgotten to finish the multiple choice problems by copying off Weiss. She'd been completely rattled by Blake's cuddling.

Panic built in her chest as she dashed over to Weiss' desk in hopes to find the work to copy off of. Yang was shocked to find no trace of Weiss' binder or backpack. Her hopes for an easy solution had been crushed as she now raced frantically back to her desk to see her burden.

'It's not a problem! It's only three in the afternoon. I have plenty of time to work on…sixty problems…that Oobleck is checking for both completion and accuracy.' Yang sighed at the packet in her hand as she grabbed her textbook thinking, 'Man do I wish Blake and I had just finished this yesterday…'

Yang paused her panicked actions as she turned back to the door where Blake was conveniently walking back through from 'helping' Ruby. 'Perfect,' Yang thought, relieved.

"Blake!" Yang nearly shouted. The faunus recoiled at the noise, clearly not expecting such an outburst. "What? What is it?" Blake replied, frantically. She was clearly shaken by something, but Yang hardly cared at the moment.

"I have homework to do," Yang announced as if that was worth yelling about, "and Weiss, along with her work, is nowhere to be found! Would you mind helping me with the rest of Oobleck's packet? Otherwise, I'm probably going to flunk this assignment."

Blake seemed to relax at the question as if she was expecting much worse of an announcement. However, her eyes still wouldn't meet Yang's as she distantly replied, "Y-yeah, sure."

Blake brought over a chair and sat next to Yang at her desk.

"Thanks for helping," Yang grinned, "I honestly could manage on my own, but your assistance yesterday really helped me understand the material."

Yang brought her pencil down to the first question, "Alright," she exclaimed, "Why was the Cross Continental Transmit System built?"

Yang scratched her head, " Hmmm, well it was built so the kingdoms could communicate, obviously, so it's 'C'. Right, Blake?"

Blake stared down blankly, muttering, "Yes, I believe that's correct…"

Yang glanced over at the faunus, frowning at her apparent mood. 'Didn't I cheer you up earlier today?' Yang thought, 'Why on Remnant are you so upset? You being upset makes it harder to forget about you! Sympathy is well related to love so stop it! Shouldn't I, the heartbroken one, be the one upset?'

"Hey" Yang said, "What's up with you, Blake?" Blake kept her gaze down as Yang continued," I know you said you didn't what to talk about whatever you're problem is, but… I don't know… you seem really out of it. I'm really starting to get worried, and I assume Ruby and Weiss will be also."

Blake slowly looked up at her teammate; she was clearly deep in thought as her attention still seemed to reside elsewhere. The faunus sighed, seeming to clench her jaw as she started to speak, "Look Yang… I… " Blake scowled and pinched the bridge of her nose. 'Why is this so difficult?' Yang wondered.

Blake muttered something to herself, barely audible. However, Yang would've sworn she said, "Stop being a coward."

"Yang," Blake announced abruptly, locking her eyes into reality as she locked her gaze with Yang. "Y-yes?" Yang replied, mildly surprised and extensively confused.

"I-I have to tell you something," Blake stated.

"Uh, okay! What's up?" Yang answered, suddenly noticing that Blake was blushing. 'What the hell is happening?' Yang thought.

"There's really no easy way to say this, so I'll cut the crap and just say it," Blake said, her voice nearly trembling. 'What you're saying right now is the crap, get to the point!' Yang thought.

"Yang…" Blake clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut. Yang stared at her teammate, waiting for a floodgate to burst. 'What hell is this? What could possibly be difficult for her to tell me?' Yang thought. 'I don't see why she's freaking out so much-'

"I know that you're in love with me."

…

'What,' Yang thought. She stared at Blake. Blake opened her eyes, clearly looking for a reaction to what she'd just said. Yang suddenly realized Blake had actually spoken. Blake had actually just said…

'WHAT!? WHAT!? WHAT THE FUCK!?' Yang screamed in her head. She felt her heart rate accelerate beyond measurement as her whole body contracted in an absolute panic. She felt a storm of tears behind her eyes as she had no idea how to feel. 'What just happened? Did Blake just…what…how…why…'

"Yang!" Yang suddenly became aware of Blake shaking her shoulders. Yang felt her face on fire as she babbled incomprehensively, "I-I…You…I don't…I…I can't…you…what…"

"Yang please calm down!" Blake said, as she nervously insisted "It's okay!"

"It's okay?" Yang muttered, in a daze. "W-what do you mean it's okay? Are you not…? I don't…"

Blake suddenly wrapped her arms around Yang, pulling her into a tight hug. Yang nearly lost her breath by the contact. The warm embrace, although intoxicating, was only making Yang tremble more.

"Yang," Blake softly said into her teammate's ear, "it's okay that you're in love with me because, as I've recently figured out, I'm in love with you too."

Yang felt her heart rate grind to a slow. She felt time slow down around her as she felt the embrace of the girl around her. She felt the serene peace she'd only ever experienced in the day dreams that stole her every day. Yang pulled herself out of the hug and placed her hands onto Blake's crimson cheeks.

"Y-you love me?" Yang struggled to ask, as she locked eyes with the faunus. Blake offered a genuine smile, brighter than the sun, and replied steadily, "Yes. I love you."

'Oh my fucking god – I have so many fucking questions.' Yang rambled in her thoughts, 'Holy shit. I don't care, fuck it!'

Yang dove forward, forcefully meeting Blake's lips with her own. Blake's face heated up even further, but she didn't pull away a bit; the faunus leaned forward a wrapped her arms around the blonde. Yang felt a constant spark travel through her body; none of her fantasies had come close to this feeling. The kiss lingered on between their locked lips until their screaming lungs finally forced them to separate. Yang prevented a moan from vocalizing as she tried to process what had just happened.

Yang looked back to the girl beside her, still heavily blushing. After catching her breath, she shakily said, "I have several questions."

Blake softly laughed in reply, "Yes, I think there's some explaining to do."

"Okay," Yang gathered her thoughts, and finally asked, "Well, uh, how did you know?"

Blake's eyes drifted to the floor as she replied, "I figured it out the other day. There was no other apparent reason why you'd be so upset with me being asexual …"

Yang suddenly remembered that point, "Wait so…uh…" Yang stammered, "…are you not actually asexual then? I…uh…"

Blake nervously laughed, "I am not. I only told Sun that because he could tell I wasn't straight and I…I didn't want…" Blake sighed, "I was too scared to tell him the truth."

Yang's eye's widened, "The truth being?"

Blake slowly answered, "As much as I've suppressed the idea of it, it seems that I'm gay."

Yang felt her heart skip several beats, "So you like girls then?" Yang felt tears coming back, but for entirely different reasons, "You can like me?"

Blake pulled Yang back into another hug, softly replying, "Yes I can like you. The real question is can you like me?"

Yang sniffled, "W-what do you mean?"

"Yang…" Blake pulled away and met Yang in her lilac orbs. "The reason why I didn't tell you this sooner is because I'm scared of what I am and what we would be."

"What are you talking about? What are you scared of? Am I-?" Yang stammered.

"No," Blake insisted, "there's nothing wrong with you, Yang. I'm just…" Blake sighed, "You know how I was discriminated against as a child solely because I'm a faunus? So I hid what I am behind my bow?"

Yang nodded.

"Well I feel terrified of being treated as a freak for my sexuality as well. Because of that, I want to hide it and- and" Blake's words got caught in her throat, "I don't want to condemn you to hiding with me. You deserve someone who can be just as open about who they are as you." Tears began to swell in Blake's eyes. She clearly felt horrible about this idea, yet Yang just felt confused.

"Wait," Yang calmly replied, "You think I wouldn't be willing to keep us a secret? Is that what you're saying?" Blake squeezed her eyes closed, nodding. Although, they suddenly snapped open as Blake felt Yang grasp her hands. 'That's her only catch?' Yang laughed to herself.

"I don't care if anyone else knows," Yang insisted, "Keeping a little secret is beyond worth it for you!"

Blake exhaled, like she was holding in the world. She gripped Yang's tighter. "So," Blake whispered, "Are we…uh…officially…you know?"

Yang chuckled as she wiped the remaining tears from her eyes, "No way! I've still got to make it official now!" Yang cleared her throat as Blake laughed in return.

"Blake Belladonna," Yang said in her most formal voice, "Will you be my girlfriend?" Blake was cracking up now, out of pure emotional relief, but managed to squeak out, "Yes! I'll be your girlfriend!"

Yang burst out laughing, out of pure joy. Without a second thought, she leapt forward again and kissed her newly declared girlfriend.

…

Blake:

After fully explaining all of what happened and completing Yang's remaining homework, the pair settled down, cuddling on Blake's bed with another movie on at their feet. Blake rested her head on Yang's shoulder, much as she had before.

Yang chuckled, noting, "This is exactly how you fell asleep yesterday. You're so adorable."

Blake grinned as she adjusted herself closer to Yang. "Yeah, I remember a bit of it."

"Wait what?" Yang demanded, "You were awake?"

Blake grinned, "No, I fell asleep. However, upon waking up I just kind…stayed there." Yang groaned in response. "You have no idea how awkward that was for me," Yang muttered. "Yeah," Blake replied, "but I dare say you survived."

"Heh I guess so," Yang mused, "Anyways, what do you think we should do to Ruby for all of this?"

Blake chuckled, asking, "For doing all of what? Caring about both of us enough to entirely disregard what both of us asked of her? I don't think that requires too harsh of a punishment, after all," Blake held onto Yang a bit tighter, "her plans worked out."

Yang smirked, "Regardless of success, she had the full intention of disclosing what I told her to keep secret. For that, she at least deserves a bit of a scare." Yang pondered the idea for a moment. "I know," she exclaimed, "How about when she comes back, we pretend to hate each other and blame such on her forcing you to tell me you love me. That'll definitely scare her from ever disobeying big sister Yang again." 'Ohhhh Yang,' Blake laughed to herself, 'I'd rather not punish the one who gave me the courage to love you.'

"I guess that could work," Blake smiled, "but that would require us to stop cuddling now. She'll likely be back from the gym any minute now." Blake finished her point by pecking Yang with a kiss on the cheek.

Yang felt herself start to blush, "dear god," she muttered, "it's only a few hours into this relationship and you already have complete and total control over me." Blake grinned with victory as Yang shook her head.

"I suppose instead we can simply congratulate Ruby on a job well done once she comes back," Yang suggested. Blake nodded her head, rubbing it against Yang's shoulder.

A silent moment passed as the movie played on Blake's laptop. Blake was picking up on a lot of crap going on in the movie, but she hardly felt the need to point it out or acknowledge it. All she was really paying attention to was Yang's embrace.

Just then, a thought popped into Yang's head. "So Blake," Yang started. Blake tilted her head up to make eye contact, "Yeah?" she replied.

"Um…I'm totally cool with keeping this a secret …as long as we need to…" Yang said, with slight unease, "but aren't we going to have to tell Weiss?"

Blake sighed. That very thought had been in the back of her mind, but she didn't really know how to approach it. Weiss seemed to more or less handle Blake being a faunus, but expecting her to accept two lesbian teammates and keep their relationship a secret seemed like a bit much.

"I-I don't really know," Blake stated, growing more concerned now, "I definitely agree that we'll have to tell her. Hiding it from her would be insanely difficult and likely bad for our teamwork, but…she's…"

"She's Weiss," Yang concluded, with somewhat annoyance.

"How about we talk to Ruby about it?" Blake suggested "She's Weiss' partner after all, so she may have some better insight."

Yang giggled.

Confused, Blake asked, "What? What's funny?"

"I just realized," Yang beamed, "we're partners, and we're partners."

"Oh my god, Yang" Blake laughed, "Contain yourself - this is serious!"

Yang scratched her head, still giggling, "I know I'm sorry."

Shaking her head, Blake stopped laughing and offered, "Okay so we'll talk about this whole…everything with Ruby, and take it from there."

"Sounds like a plan," Yang agreed, "Until then, cuddles!" Yang proceeded to kiss the faunus on the forehead and pull her closer.

'Oh Yang' Blake blissfully thought as she tried to suppress the knowledge she'd have to keep this bliss a secret from the world.

Okay so as you probably noticed, this story kind of died. To be honest, I have no real excuse, my interests have simply wandered from writing, so I've been working on drawing and programming. After all, this writing is at its core just for fun. (To be honest, I also read a lot of fanfics WAAAY better than this, which isn't much for motivation) So, sorry for those of you really dedicated to this story, I realize how much the wait must have sucked, and I totally understand if you don't even follow this anymore...speaking of which this story got up to 120 followers when I was gone, like holy crap - I'm really glad so many people have enjoyed the story. I hope not all of you hate me. As for the future, I'm not going to make any promises on times, but I will say that I've had more to this story planned out for a long time and I should be able to continue it. (To be honest - again, the real reason I finally got this chapter out is because you all wanted it...so if you want a second arc...please vocalize it. Motivation is damn important.)

*Sigh*

Okay, so story. This is end of the first arc, so at least now a somewhat cohesive thing has been created. Blake stopped being dumb and now they're a thing and we Built a Bumblebee woo hoo now we have to have mild happiness before bringing in more crushing conflict. Yay arc 2!

Anyways, if you're interested, I do a lot of fan art on my deviantArt "Fl00rMaster". I update that far more regularly as I've been drawing fan art for every new episode of Volume 3.

Hope to see you all for Chapter 12...I hope to see me at Chapter 12...