Warning: many people are going to make stupid decisions and jump to conclusions. If you don't enjoy that sort of thing, this probably isn't the work for you.

The legal drinking age in Vale is eighteen because I say so. There's probably a spinoff work that says I'm wrong, and I'm afraid I don't really care.

Weiss does not party. Weiss does not go out on the town to drink and make a fool of herself. Weiss does not "have fun".

"Really? Too good to have fun for one night?" Yang asks, pouting. "All I'm trying to do is make sure you enjoy your birthday, and it's your eighteenth so it's an important one." She's a terrible actress, and Weiss is not fooled in the slightest.

"I see no point. Besides, I have to study."

"No, you don't. You study every day; you can take a day off."

"I'm not going," Weiss huffs, then sits down at her desk and opens a textbook. She doesn't care which one, since she just has to look busy.

"Fine, Daddy's Girl. Stay home and be good while I tear up the town," Yang says, and Weiss can hear the smirk. It's an obvious and simplistic attempt at reverse psychology, and the worst part is that it's kind of working. Weiss's blood is boiling, and she wants nothing more than to stand up and agree, but that counts as losing, and Weiss doesn't like to lose.

"It's fine if she stays here," Ruby insists. "It'll be fun! We'll watch the early seasons of Giant Bugs vs Robot Samurai, before it got too sci-fi, and Jaune said he'll bring spinach dip!"

Oh, God, Weiss doesn't like these options.

"Going to a nightclub and drinking, you said? Sounds like so much fun." She tries her best to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, and she's not sure it works. "I'll get my coat."

…

Nightclubs are … nightclubs are fun. Much more fun than studying.

Weiss voices that thought, and Yang laughs.

"Oh, I'm going to bring that up all the time when you're sober."

Some small part of Weiss is more than a little upset by whatever she's currently doing, but most of her thinks that she's never noticed how kind Yang is.

"You're my best friend, you know that?" she says, draping an arm over Yang's shoulders. Yang hastily moves her drink out of the way.

"No, I didn't know that."

"It's true. You're great. Have I said that?" It's very important to Weiss that she gets this message across.

"Well, never in those words. You usually call it 'irresponsible' and 'reckless' and sometimes worse."

"Well, that's true, but you're still great."

"Uh-huh. Thanks." Yang tries to separate them, but Weiss doesn't appreciate it and clings to her jacket. She's spending the whole night having fun with her new best friend, no matter what.

…

Weiss is upset, and she's not entirely sure what she's upset about, but she has to keep going because she doesn't want to lose that argument.

"You left for like – ten minutes. Maybe fifteen. You left me alone, and I thought you'd never come back, and I thought you were dead."

Yang doesn't seem affected by the tears swimming in Weiss's eyes, but she does pat her on the arm and steer her around a fence.

"I know it was a bit longer than I said, but there was this cute girl, you know?"

All pretenses of argument are forgotten. If she were less drunk Weiss would have treated this revelation as a fairly obvious one, but it completely blindsides her.

"You like GIRLS?"

Yang leans away from Weiss's flailing attempt to point at her, chuckling.

"Yeah, I do."

"You mean you kiss girls?" Some part of Weiss is still aware enough to be mortally embarrassed by the questioning and what it might imply about her own, uh, tendencies, but that part of her is rather outnumbered. "What's it like?"

Yang rolls her eyes and kisses Weiss. It's nothing spectacular by an objective standard, but Weiss still sees fireworks.

If kissing girls is like that, why does anyone ever bother with boys?

"Whoa," she says, and Yang laughs at her.

"You are so drunk. Come on, let's get back to the dorms before someone finds us."

…

It was absolutely, categorically not spying. Blake isn't a spy, and any suggestions that she'd engage in sneaky and underhanded behavior are slanderous.

She was a little intrigued, and a little concerned, by Yang inviting Weiss out on what sounded a lot like a date. And more concerned by the fact that Weiss accepted. So she took the entirely reasonable, and not remotely spying-related, staying awake to watch them come back. Through the window. With binoculars. And after pressing Nora into assistance because her team's room has windows facing a different direction, so she'd have information regardless of which path they took. Again, not spying.

Weiss and Yang arrive back later than she expected. Both are leaning on each other, talking and laughing. Weiss is wearing Yang's jacket.

Clearly romantic.

You're jumping to conclusions. It's cold out and Weiss didn't bring a jacket, so Yang lent her a jacket because she's so kind and so caring underneath that devil-may-care exterior…

The Kiss happens.

That's how Blake thinks of it, with capital letters, because it's so horrifying. It settles into her mind with a thud, and Blake sets down her binoculars and curls up, trying to pretend to be asleep. It doesn't really work, and her pillow doesn't deserve the abuse she lays into it, alternating punches of sheer fury and tears of God, I'm so stupid, why did I fall for someone like her.

The door opens and Blake freezes, tugging the blankets over her head. There are some heavy footsteps, then a muffled thud as Weiss smacks her head on her bunk, and Blake isn't saying Weiss deserves it but it does cheer her up a little. Yang laughs, but the friendly kind of laugh, not the way she usually laughs at Weiss, and they exchange a few sentences that Blake isn't listening too.

"Good night, Weiss," Yang says eventually, then Blake feels her land on the edge of Blake's bunk and then hop up to her own. "Good night, Ruby."

Blake waits, but she doesn't hear anything, and before long there's a soft snore from above her.

Blake doesn't really cry after that. She understands. Yang's own partner is an afterthought, now that Yang's team has her sister and her –

Blake can't even think that word without wincing.

It's fine. Blake's going to stay away from them for days or weeks or months if she has to, and she won't have to see them together, and so she won't have to think about them. It doesn't get rid of her problems, but it makes them go away for a little while, and, hell, some of her problems she's pushed away like that haven't even come back yet.