Just Tell Me To Stay

Summary: Yang and Blake have been in love with each other since the moment they met, but neither could ever reveal their feelings. But now that they're entering their senior year and all the talk is on colleges and plans for the future, their friends aren't sure they can just sit by and watch as they lose each other for good. High School AU. Bumblby, WhiteRose, Arkos

Author's Note: Here's the new chapter! I actually had a lot of fun writing this one. It's just a lot of mindless school fluff and set up for future chapters but I still like how it turned out. Also finally get to see some Nora because she's one of my favorite characters but she unfortunately ends up with a slightly smaller role in this story so I like to fit her in wherever possible. Anyway, read/review and all that stuff. Hope you like it!


Chapter 9: Suspicions

Weiss shoots Yang a skeptical look. "She gave you her number?"

"That's what you're taking away from all of this?" the blonde responds.

The two of them have a free period together and are sitting in their usual spot in one of the corners of the library. It's rather quiet and secluded, hidden behind the bookshelves and equipped with a pair of small couches for students to read in. With Yang's tough work schedule occupying her evenings and Weiss's numerous responsibilities as Student Council President, the two of them typically spend this time getting work done. Today however, they somehow end up discussing Yang's failure of a love life, a topic that seems to be coming up more and more recently.

"All I'm hearing," the heiress continues, "is that this girl found out you were gay, spent all this time listening to your problems, and subsequently gave you her phone number."

"Well when you put it like that…"

"How else should I put it?" Weiss counters with a tinge of anger in her voice. "Do you like her?"

"What? Of course not." She can tell by the look on Weiss's face that her words haven't done much to convince her. "Weiss, she's just a friend from work. I don't see you getting upset that I work with Sun."

Weiss narrows her eyes, "I'm not upset Yang, I just think you should be more aware when someone's interested in you."

"Who's interested in Yang now?"

The two of them turn just in time to see Nora and Sun walk up and slide into the empty seats on the couches.

"Aren't you two supposed to be in your history class?" Weiss asks, ever the responsible class president.

Sun responds with a casual shrug, "We're just watching some boring documentary about architecture in ancient cities."

"We kind of needed a break." Nora adds.

"Well while you're here," Weiss says, turning to Sun, "Do you know anything about this girl Neo?"

"Weiss…" Yang says with a groan.

"Yeah of course," Sun answers easily, "she works at the restaurant with me and Yang. She's pretty cool, a little quiet but still friendly enough."

"Well she seems to be getting pretty friendly with Yang." Weiss quips.

Nora shoots a confused look at the two of them. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asks.

Yang rolls her eyes, this definitely wasn't a conversation she had planned on having today. "Neo gave me her number the other day."

"Really?" Nora says, "is she that girl with the pink and brown hair? She's cute."

"Yeah…" Sun agrees, "he won't ever admit it but I think Neptune asked her out a while ago."

At that Nora bursts out laughing, eyes bulging out of their sockets as she scoots to the edge of her seat. "Wait. Are you seriously telling me that he hit on another girl that was actually gay?"

"Oh God," Yang groans, "don't remind me."

"We're getting off topic." Weiss adds on, clearly trying to deflect from the fact that Neptune had a thing for her as well for basically all of freshman year. "The point is, it seems like this Neo girl has feelings for Yang."

"That wouldn't exactly surprise me." Sun answers.

"Why?" Nora asks, "because Yang always has like a million people in love with her?"

"Well yeah, that." Sun says with a nod, apparently not noticing Yang's cheeks growing redder by the second, "but mostly because she's always doing stuff to help Yang out around the restaurant."

That gets her attention and she immediately decides that she has to press Sun for answers. "Like what?" she asks as casually as she can manage.

"Uh… like she always checks on your tables when you're doing homework in the back, or how she talked the cooks into having tuna melts prepped all the time for when Blake comes or…"

"Wait." Yang interrupts, "she's the one who started that?"

Sun nods, "I think she even talked all the hostesses into keeping that seat at the bar open for her."

Yang runs a hand sheepishly through her hair, chuckling in embarrassment. "Uh, no. That one was me actually."

"That's so sad." Nora wails dramatically.

Weiss turns to face the overly energetic redhead with a slightly confused look. "What is?"

"This poor girl loves you so much that she's willing to help you get with Blake just so you can be happy."

"She's not…" Yang interjects, "Oh forget it."

"Whatever you say Yang." Nora says, losing the tragic tone at the drop of a hat and suddenly leaping out of her seat, "but we should probably get back to class, come on Sun."

Sun gets up a little more slowly, giving the two of them a shrug before shuffling nonchalantly after Nora. "Good luck Yang!" He calls over his shoulder.

She turns back from waving their friends goodbye to see Weiss staring at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What?"

The heiress doesn't respond, which she knows just means that Weiss thinks that Nora and Sun had presented so much evidence that she doesn't need to say anything further.

"Look Weiss, I promise there's nothing going on with Neo. I'm already too busy with my nonexistent love life to go after a coworker who may or may not like me."

Weiss only responds by shaking her head in disbelief and goes back to scribbling notes in her planner.

...

When the bell finally rings signalling the end of 4th period Blake eagerly stuffs her books into her bag. She had been in a bit of a rush this morning and hadn't quite had time for a real breakfast so she'd been eagerly waiting for lunch the entire morning.

She quickly slips through the crowds of students and rushes towards the main hallway that houses all the lockers. But when she turns the corner she sees an all too familiar blonde that stops her in her tracks.

At first she feels a smile spreading on her face, an effect that seeing Yang never really failed to deliver… until now.

The smile fades when she notices that Yang is chatting casually by her locker with a petite girl with pink and brown hair. Blake vaguely recognizes her as one of the other waitresses at Yang's restaurant. If memory serves she had always been nice enough in the past but right now, all Blake can see is how the girl's button up shirt and low hanging jeans show more skin than is probably appropriate, or the way she's playfully running her fingers up and down Yang's arm.

It isn't exactly the first time Blake's seen her in a situation like this. Just being Yang seemed to attract attention from over half the school, and the blonde would always be polite and try to seem engaged in whatever they were saying to her. But anyone who really knew her could spot the awkward fidgeting or the way her eyes darted around looking for someone to bail her out.

In fact over the years they had all learned how to recognize it and swoop in to rescue her. Easily the funniest time had been when Nora had walked up and immediately started kissing her neck. Although the resulting hickey got Yang grounded for a week and also had the unintended consequence of drastically increasing the number of girls asking Yang out.

But as Blake gets closer, ready to make up some excuse to steal the blonde away, she realizes that she doesn't see any of the usual signs of distress.

So she closes the last bit of distance slowly, noticing the wide smile on Yang's face and all but forgetting the hunger she'd been feeling.

"Hi Yang," she says, forcing a smile onto her face.

"Oh, hey Blake." Yang responds, flashing a beaming smile of her own, "um, I don't know if you guys have really met yet, this is Neo, she works at the restaurant with me."

Blake turns to face the girl and is greeted with a gentle handshake and a smile that's sweet as sugar, but one that doesn't quite reach her multicolored eyes.

"Yeah I think I remember," she says, "but it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Neo replies, "Yang's... actually told me a lot about you."

Blake is slightly taken aback. The second the words leave Neo's mouth the girl's cute and cheerful demeanor fades ever so slightly and she almost sounds… sad.

Suddenly she's starting to regret coming in ready for a catfight. That is until she notices the fingers still lingering on Yang's arm.

Neo seems to realize just as Blake does and she hastily jerks her hand back to awkwardly fuss with the hem of her shirt.

"Um anyways," Neo says, "I should probably go find my friends, it was really nice to meet you." With that she rushes down the hall leaving Yang to watch her run off in confusion.

"What was that?"

"I'm not sure." Blake replies. It's only partially a lie, to anyone other than Yang the answer would be almost painfully obvious but as usual the blonde ends up oblivious. "But I'm too hungry to think about it, come on, let's go eat lunch."

"Okay!" Yang chirps, spinning on her heels to head towards the cafeteria.

Blake lingers for a second before following just a step behind. Her eyes drift down to Yang's hand swinging idly by her side and she's suddenly hit with a wave of jealousy at the fact that she doesn't have enough courage to initiate the same kind of intimate contact that Neo had earlier.

Suddenly Yang turns around, giving her a confused look and asking, "Is everything okay?"

Blake snaps her head up. "Yeah of course, why?"

"Nothing, it's just, you were walking kind of slowly and..."

The blonde trails off just as their eyes meet and Blake can tell that her moment of weakness hadn't gone unnoticed.

But as always, she follows her instinct to cover it all up with as real of a smile as she can manage. "It's nothing." She says, "I was just worried I had forgotten something for a second."

In an instant Yang's face drops, completely losing her cheerful energy that was present only a second before. Just as Blake is about to ask what's wrong Yang beats her to it, quietly asking, "College stuff?"

She's completely caught off guard by the question. Because honestly with everything that had been going on the past week or so, Blake hadn't really given much thought to their issues surrounding her tenuous choice of university. And really, she's been more than willing to forget reality for a while and keep spending time with Yang like everything's still perfect.

But then it's moments like this that bring her tumbling back into the real world and remind her how angry Yang still is about it.

"Blake?" Yang gently prods, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"Um yeah," she lies, "there's just been a lot to deal with, I'm supposed to write a few short essays to apply for scholarships and it's all just kind of annoying."

The blonde holds her gaze for just a second too long before throwing on a smile that isn't at all convincing enough for someone who knows her as well as Blake does.

"I'm sure you'll do great!" Yang says, "I'd offer to help but, well you've seen how bad my essays are."

Blake playfully rolls her eyes but inwardly she isn't really sure what to do about the constant tension growing between them, hanging over their heads and threatening to spill over at any moment.

...

The walk to the cafeteria is short enough but Yang can tell by the incessant fidgeting that Blake is especially anxious to get to her lunch.

"Feeling extra hungry today?" She asks, trying desperately to diffuse some of the awkward energy in the air.

"Yeah kind of." Blake answers sheepishly, "I was running late this morning and sort of missed breakfast."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I just haven't been sleeping too well recently."

Taking a closer look Yang can see some slight bags under her amber eyes and feels her own eyebrows furrow a bit in concern. For a second she thinks about pressing her a little harder but isn't sure she's fully prepared to hear more about how hard Blake's working on her college applications.

But she's saved from having to cover up her moment of weakness when they finally find their friends at their usual table in the back of the cafeteria and she quickly throws on another fake smile before sliding into the vacant seat next to Pyrrha.

"Hey guys." Yang greets, briefly worrying about whether or not she's being too cheerful. "What's up?"

"We're talking about plans for Thanksgiving break!" Ruby chirps.

"Thanksgiving?" Blake asks, struggling with the lid of her lunchbox.

"Yeah!" Sun answers, "Neptune and I are heading to Vacuo for the week, we've both got some family there."

"That sounds fun," Yang says, and she really means it. There aren't many things that appeal to her more right now than the opportunity to just escape reality for a few days. "When are you guys heading out?"

"We're catching a flight this Friday after school." Neptune replies.

The others chime in with their plans. Nora and Ren each have dinners with their respective foster parents, Jaune is going to his sister's house in Mantle, and Pyrrha's family has their annual ski trip.

"What about you guys?" Pyrrha asks.

"Nothing special," Blake says quietly, "my parents always drag me to some awful dinner with their friends."

Yang nods sympathetically. Blake's parents had somehow only befriended couples in Vale with kids younger than five years old. Which meant that dinner parties tended to be mind numbingly boring if not full on migraine inducing. Although Yang did have these dinners to thank for some of their longest conversations, with Blake desperately texting her within seconds of food being served.

"God I'd almost take the screaming children over an entire week stuck in the cold, silent house with my father." Weiss complains.

"Well… maybe you guys don't have to." Ruby says slowly, getting the attention of the entire table.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asks.

Ruby takes a nervous breath before continuing. "Well… our dad will still be on his business trip which means Yang and I are on our own for Thanksgiving this year, why don't you guys come have dinner with us?"

The second Ruby suggests it she feels the sudden urge to hug her amazing little sister, her earlier worries about Blake all but forgotten.

"That's a great idea Ruby!" She says with a small grin. "You guys haven't had my famous garlic mashed potatoes have you?"

"They're really good!" Ruby follows up enthusiastically, "she also makes this amazing casserole, and ooh, Yang's mac and cheese…"

Her sister trails off with her usual dramatic flair when it comes to delicious food, eliciting some sporadic chuckles from their friends around the table.

"Well…" Blake says, "I'll probably have to check with my parents but it sounds like a lot of fun."

"It's not like my father wants me at dinner with all his pretentious friends anyway." Weiss adds, "count me in."

"And I know the rest of you all have plans already," Yang says, "but if any of you change your minds you're all welcome to come too."

The others all voice their thanks but Yang doesn't really hear them. She's mostly running through everything she'll need to prepare the food. Normally she'd be more than comfortable with the cooking. A few more people and she might be a little nervous about getting everything ready, but just cooking for the four of them is plenty manageable.

What does spark a bit of concern however, is the fact that it's going to be Weiss and Blake eating it. Catering to the heiress' refined palate would be worrisome enough without adding on the pressure of cooking for Blake for the first time ever. And then there's this irrational part of her mind saying that it might also be the last time before Blake leaves and her mind starts racing even harder, going over everything she knows about what kind of food Blake likes.

But then she looks anxiously over to where Blake is munching hungrily at a tuna salad sandwich and it only confirms what she pretty much knew all along.

She should probably look into some fish recipes.


Author's Note: So Yang's ability to cook does end up feeling a tad anime but that's probably because I watch way too much anime. You all might even see some manga influences in the way the story is just generally written. Also I couldn't resist throwing in some Blake/Neo jealousy into this story just for fun, hopefully doesn't come out too catty or anything. Anyways hope you all liked it, drop reviews if you feel so compelled. Thanks for reading!