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: New chapter is here! Had a little trouble getting this one through but still quite happy how it turned out. However it got me thinking that it would be nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of so if anyone reading this feels invested enough in the story to be a kind of pseudo Beta Reader for me I'd really appreciate it, wouldn't involve any editing just some brainstorming and stuff. If that feels like something you'd be interested in feel free to shoot me a DM. Anyways, read/review and things, hope you like it!


Chapter 11: Phones

Yang lets out a deep sigh and clears off the last of the dishes from the table. Today is her last shift at the diner for a few days, the owner being gracious enough to give the entire staff some time off for the holidays and the place has actually been surprisingly busy.

But of course once the lunch rush is over she's left to return to her usual spot at the counter. Normally having this much downtime would bore her to tears, but today she's busy going over all the details for their upcoming dinner.

The basic menu has been more or less finalized and she's about to snap a picture of the ingredients list to send to Weiss when her phone buzzes suddenly in her hand.

Yang turns her attention to it just as the screen lights up showing a new notification that makes her heart stop.

New text message: Winter Schnee

All at once she's hit with a flood of emotions that threaten to completely overwhelm her. The emptiness that she had buried years ago and hoped would remain forgotten suddenly seeping its way back into her heart.

She doesn't even realize how hard her hands are trembling until she goes to unlock her phone and only manages to correctly type in her password on the third attempt.

For just a second she considers not reading the message at all, that it might just be too painful to continue stirring up all of the horribly depressing memories, but she quickly decides that leaving the message unread wouldn't do anything to alleviate the sinking feeling growing in her chest.

Before she can change her mind again she taps on the shortcut, breath catching in her chest as the message pops up on the screen.

Winter Schnee: Hey Yang, I was just talking to Weiss the other day and it made me realize that I hadn't heard from you in forever so I wanted to see how you were doing.

There's a part of her that can't help but think this is some kind of cosmic punishment piling her sorry history with Winter on top of everything already going on with Blake.

It takes a fair amount of tapping her foot and fussing with her hair before she can muster up enough courage to even think about responding.

When Weiss's phone rings she's just in the middle of comparing two different bottles of vinaigrette for the salad and comes dangerously close to dropping both of them while reaching for her purse.

"Hello?"

"Hey Weiss."

The voice is instantly recognizable, "Oh hi Yang" she greets, absentmindedly looking back to browse the various bottles of salad dressing on the shelf. "I'm at the store right now, was there anything else we needed for Thursday?"

Yang hesitates for a second before answering. "Um yeah actually, I was thinking of adding another dish."

"Another one?" She asks. Weiss looks down to the shopping cart in front of her, packed to the brim with food, and then back to Ruby behind her who's struggling with her own cart. "Yang we're already making a ridiculous amount of food."

"I know I know. It's just one dish, I just sent you the ingredient list. I think a lot of it should overlap with the rest."

On cue she feels her phone vibrate against her ear and she quickly brings it back in front of her face, reading through the new list.

Strawberries, butter, graham crackers, cream cheese...

Weiss stops suddenly as realization hits her and she shakes her head in disbelief.

"Strawberry cheesecake?" She asks.

"Yup."

"I take it you spoke to my sister." Strawberry cheesecake had always been one of Winter's biggest guilty pleasures.

"Um… yeah," Yang answers hesitantly, "she said she flew in yesterday and heard about dinner on Thursday."

"Yeah… listen Yang, if her being there is going to be too uncomfortable…"

"Oh don't worry about it." Yang interrupts, "it's a holiday after all. Besides, it's been so long… it'll be great to see her again."

"Okay... if you're sure…" Weiss says. She's not completely convinced by any of it. Over the years she hasn't missed the way Yang's spirits drop every time her sister is brought up in conversation. And now the fact that she's adding on a cake just for Winter when they weren't even sure if they could manage what they had originally planned only fuels Weiss's anxiety that Yang still hasn't fully gotten over her.

"I'll be fine Weiss. Don't worry so much okay? I'll see you later."

With that the line clicks off and Weiss lets out a frustrated huff before tossing her phone back into her purse.

"Was that Yang?" Ruby asks, pulling up next to her shopping cart.

"Yup. Your sister is adding a strawberry cheesecake to the menu."

Ruby's smile fades slightly as she leans up against the grip of her shopping cart. "So Winter finally called her?"

"I guess so."

"Don't you want her there?"

"Of course I do." Weiss answers, "I love Winter. I just can't believe that after everything that's happened Yang is still willing to do things like this for her."

"Well… Yang does tend to look out more for everyone else than for herself."

Weiss lets out a sigh. "Even if that means getting hurt in the process."

"Yeah..." Ruby replies with a sigh of her own. "Do you remember when she thought Blake and Sun liked each other?"

"How could I forget?" Weiss answers with a groan, "she spent weeks being all overly supportive and giving Blake all this advice, not giving any thought at all to how much it was killing her."

Ruby nods solemnly in response to the depressing memory. "I think that day she thought they'd had their first date was the first time she spent the night at Pyrrha's."

"And yet she still thinks she's better off not confessing her feelings to Blake."

"Well…" Ruby says slowly, "I guess it's hard to really blame her after what happened with Winter. Telling someone how you feel is hard enough without something like that weighing you down."

She hesitates for a moment in her response, long enough for Ruby to notice and give her a questioning look that's somehow reassuring enough to loosen her lips.

"Do you think she still likes Winter?"

Ruby takes a second to consider, gently biting on her lip before slowly answering, "I think… it would be really hard for anyone to fully get over your first crush, and for Yang…"

"It would be even harder." Weiss finishes, now more worried than ever that their upcoming dinner in just two short days would end in complete disaster.

Pyrrha hears her phone blasting her ringtone from the kitchen and she has to rush up the stairs to answer it, the whole way being careful not to trip over the various bags and backpacks left carelessly in the halls.

She had spent most of her day packing for their trip up to the mountains tomorrow where she and her parents would be meeting up with most of their extended family in a gorgeous cabin that one of her aunts or uncles owned. It was a few days of living up near a ski resort that grossly overcharged for everything so Pyrrha always made sure to be extra meticulous in her packing so she doesn't forget anything that she'd have to replace up there.

When she gets to her room she spots her phone charging on the nightstand and quickly unplugs it, hurriedly bringing it up to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi Pyrrha." She can immediately recognize a tinge of uneasiness in the voice coming over the line.

"Hi Weiss, is everything ok?"

"Sort of…" Weiss answers slowly, "I did something kind of stupid."

"What is it?" She asks, anxiety growing by the second.

"I kind of... invited Winter to dinner at Yang's on Thursday."

Pyrrha blinks in confusion. "Winter? What's so bad about that? Yang likes Blake now."

"That's the thing… Ruby and I were talking about how we weren't sure if Yang was really over her. I mean earlier we were at the store getting all the groceries and Yang called to tell us that she's adding on Winter's favorite cake on top of all the other stuff she's already making and it just has me kind of worried."

She lets out a sigh and sinks down onto her bed, shuffling slightly to burrow into the pillows. "I guess it really is just like Yang to go out of her way to bake a cake for the girl who broke her heart."

"Right?" Weiss replies, "it just feels so much like she still has feelings for her."

"Well maybe she does." Pyrrha says, "I mean it was her first love."

"God you sound just like Ruby."

"I mean... even if Yang does still have some residual feelings, what's the worst that could happen? It doesn't change how she feels about Blake or the fact that Winter's in a relationship."

"That's the other thing…" Weiss says hesitantly, "Winter just broke up with her girlfriend."

Pyrrha lets out another sigh. "Okay… that might change things a bit."

"What do we do?"

"What can we really do?" She replies, "I mean I feel like we've already more than overstepped the boundaries when it comes to manipulating their feelings."

"But we can't just let Yang keep getting hurt like this. Or Blake for that matter."

"Well then what are we supposed to do?"

Weiss is silent for a moment and Pyrrha's sure that the heiress is feeling just as conflicted as she is at the moment. Probably even more so considering how long Weiss must have been struggling with this information before finally calling her.

"I guess…" Weiss says finally, "we have to tell one of them what's going on."

"Do you think Blake or Yang are ready to listen at all? I mean we've been trying this whole time and it still feels like neither one of them have budged even an inch."

"No you're right." The heiress answers, "in that case... I guess our only option is to talk to Winter."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Pyrrha asks hesitantly, "don't take this the wrong way but what happens if you tell Winter about Yang and Blake's problems and she just sees it as an opportunity?"

Weiss lets out a deep sigh. "I'm not saying it isn't a possibility, but what other choice do we have?"

They spend another few minutes on the line but as hard as they try, neither of them can really find any alternatives to telling Winter outright. By the time they hang up she can tell Weiss is even less pleased with the result than she is, the heiress angrily declaring that she's going to go find her sister to have the talk.

When the line clicks off Pyrrha flops backwards onto her bed, letting her phone tumble across the mattress.

When did her life become so ludicrously dramatic?

She reasons that at the very least, she and Weiss have come up with a decent enough solution that could fix the problem before it gets out of hand and hopefully this means their already ridiculous matchmaking plan can get back on track.

But then her phone buzzes again and she has to stretch uncomfortably far to retrieve it from where it had landed. Lazily bringing it up to her face, she sees the notification of a new text from Weiss and she feels the pit return to her stomach when she reads the message.

Weiss Schnee: Winter isn't home

Closing down the diner is somehow always the best part of Yang's shift. Not only does it mean that she's able to leave soon, it's also a nice change of pace from the sudden rush of customers that they get in their last few business hours.

Now all she really has to do is sweep the floor and wipe down all the tables and counters and it's surprisingly therapeutic. Something about just doing some simple cleaning in the relative peace and quiet is really relaxing.

She feels her stomach growl so she quickly glances up at the clock and seeing that it's just approaching 8:30, is suddenly very thankful the owners had decided to close early for the night. She's not totally sure she would've made it the extra hour on such an empty stomach.

She's just getting to wiping down the last few tables in the very back of the restaurant when she hears the bell chime by the front door indicating a customer walking in. Instantly she can feel an irrational level of annoyance. Dealing with entitled customers is easily the worst part of her job and she definitely isn't looking forward to telling whoever just walked in that they're actually closed.

With a heavy sigh she picks up the rag she's using and heads towards the front of the diner, effortlessly weaving through the booths. Just as she's about to reach the waiting area by the front door, she says, in the best 'customer service' voice she can manage at this hour, "Sorry we're actually closing early today."

The response comes just as she rounds the corner, silky smooth and with a chuckle that's lighter than air, "it's a good thing I'm not here for food then."

She freezes immediately. Because honestly, she would recognize that voice anywhere. She looks up slowly and it's like every one of her deepest anxieties are confirmed when she sees Winter Schnee standing just inside the door, hands tucked neatly behind her back and wearing a shy smile on her face.

Yang can't help but shoot a quick glance at her reflection in the window and the second she sees it she cringes on the inside. Her hair is a mess, tied back in a loose ponytail by a hair tie that's seconds away from exploding. On top of that, her apron is covered in stains and her top is this ragged old dress shirt that's missing a few more buttons than she would really prefer.

Yeah, she totally looks like shit.

Honestly it's got to be some kind of cosmic joke having Winter suddenly turn up like this.

She self consciously runs a hand through her hair, knowing how hopeless it is trying to fix it with how absurdly long it is. "Um… h...hi Winter…" she stammers like an idiot, "what are you…"

Winter's smile grows a little wider as she shakes her head at Yang's adorably embarrassing display. "Well… I thought after a long shift you might be interested in getting a bite to eat."

In an instant she feels her cheeks heating up, mind struggling immensely to process Winter's words. "Oh! Um… yeah that would be great… would you mind giving me a second to go home and change first?"

"Change?" Winter asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah…" she says with a nervous chuckle, "maybe into something a little more… presentable?"

"Honestly Yang you look fine." Winter replies, playfully rolling her eyes before rather brazenly running them down the blonde's body. "Even better than I remember actually."

In an instant she can feel her cheeks catch fire. If she didn't know any better she'd say Winter was actually… flirting with her?

"Um… okay." She says, deliberately putting the thought to the back of her mind, "I just have a few more things to do before I lock up. Maybe I can meet you there?"

"No that's okay." Winter answers casually, "I'll wait for you. Then once you're done we can head over in my car."

With that Winter takes a seat on one of the chairs by the front door, leaving Yang to head back and finish closing up.

Luckily there isn't much left to do but even so, she rushes through it as quick as she can, hurriedly wiping down the last few tables before heading back to find Winter. She can't help checking her reflection in the window again but the second she does it just feels like a mistake. Regardless of the older girl's kind words she still can't help but self consciously fixate on all the tiny details. Her only saving grace is the fact that she had taken a bit of time to properly put on some makeup in the morning. Otherwise, she'd probably be looking for excuses to go home and hide.

She finally decides that fussing over her appearance using her reflection in the window is hopeless and heads back over to the entrance, catching Winter finishing up a phone call with a quick, "Okay bye."

"Who was that?" Yang asks as Winter tucks her phone back into her purse.

"It was just Weiss wondering where I am." Winter answers, rising slowly to her feet. "Now come on. I'll buy you a burrito."

"Oh. Are you sure?" She says, reaching over to hit the light switch on the wall. "You really don't have to."

Winter looks over her shoulder with nothing but a smirk and a casual, confident shrug that she's not sure anyone else could ever pull off.

"Maybe I want to."


Author's Note: I know we're burning pretty slowly towards any actual Blake and Yang development but I swear it's all relevant. In the meantime I have to say that I love the dynamic between Yang and Winter. I mentioned before that Winter is the character that's the most different in the world without the creatures of grimm and it really shows in this one. Hope it still feels natural enough. Anyways hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!