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 is Part 2! Thanks for all the feedback, hope I can keep writing content that you guys enjoy. Anyways, last one ended on a bit of a cliffhanger so don't have much to say other than hope you all enjoy it.


Chapter 17: Unraveling Pt. 2

The drive back to their neighborhood is pretty peaceful. Especially when they decide not to take any of the bigger, more frequently traveled roads and stick to the small ones that wind through the various back streets. It's filled with trees and quiet little houses that are surprisingly relaxing after a full day in their crowded high school and it's usually Pyrrha's favorite time of the day.

But today she's having a little trouble allowing her surroundings to have their typical effect because her mind won't stop going back to the conversation she and Yang had in the library just a few minutes ago, wondering to herself when she had become the type of girl that let her thoughts be taken over so completely by a guy.

She does finally get some respite from her inner turmoil by a high pitched squeal from Ruby in the back seat. She's not totally sure what she and Yang are talking about, the last thing she remembers hearing was Ruby eagerly recounting the events of the robotics club meeting before Pyrrha had started daydreaming about Jaune again.

Honestly it's starting to feel like she has a serious problem with her stupid relationship illiteracy.

"Yaaaaaanggggg." Ruby says suddenly.

"Yes Ruby?" The blonde answers.

"Are you guys hungry at all?"

"Yeah, starving." Yang says to the surprise of no one. "What do we have to eat at home?"

"We should still have some leftovers from Thanksgiving right?" Ruby replies, "Oooh there's still some apple pie left!"

"Really?" Pyrrha says, "I thought you'd have eaten it all by now Ruby."

"Yang won't let me…" the younger girl answers sullenly, sending Pyrrha into a fit of giggles.

Yang shakes her head at her sister's antics. "You can't just eat pie every single day Rubes."

"Why noottttt." Ruby whines. "You've been eating turkey and mashed potatoes every day."

"Th...that's different."

"Honestly," Pyrrha says, shaking her head in disbelief, "I don't know how you two still have such good figures with the kind of eating habits you have."

She sees Yang shrugging while still giving her a triumphant smirk in the seat next to her. "Can't beat genes like these." The blonde says, but only a second later she can feel Yang's eyes looking up and down her body. "But what are you doing complaining? You could be a model for a fitness magazine."

"Yeah but I run track, I do weight training at the gym, I even do crossfit twice a week." Pyrrha retorts, "And I have to maintain a strict diet year round. You two seem to eat anything you want seven days a week."

"Well if you want some of the pie I'm sure Ruby would be happy to give you some." Yang replies, "if you ask nice enough that is."

Ruby only giggles in response leaving Pyrrha to decline as politely as she can manage.

They're just turning onto Yang and Ruby's block when she feels her phone vibrate in her pocket. Her first thought (and hope) is that it's a text from Jaune continuing their conversation from earlier in the day. She had been taking Weiss's advice as much as possible and texting Jaune more was definitely one avenue that she had started pushing pretty heavily. And so far it had felt pretty good. The two of them had been able to have some pretty fun conversations over the past week or so and it certainly seemed like they were both fairly quick to respond to each other.

That had to be a good sign right?

But then her phone vibrates again which she knows means she's receiving a phone call. Fortunately she's able to pull into the driveway before the third pulse and she quickly reaches for her back pocket, having to awkwardly prop herself up in the seat in order to access it.

"Hello?" she says as Yang and Ruby start pulling their backpacks out of the back seat.

"Pyrrha…"

She recognizes Weiss's voice despite how broken and shaky it sounds and immediately feels her heart start to race.

"Weiss?" She says, trying desperately to keep the panic out of her voice, more for Ruby's sake than anything else, "is everything ok?"

"I… I messed up… she wouldn't listen… and I just... I don't know what to do... and then she said she's leaving and…"

"Weiss! Weiss, slow down! I can't understand anything you're saying." This time she knows for sure that the others have noticed her agitation when Ruby sticks her head through the open passenger door, giving her a concerned look.

She responds with a baffled look of her own, wishing she could do something to ease the girl's anxieties.

"I… I had an argument with Blake…"

"Why?"

"Look just… it's a long story… can you just meet up with me somewhere?"

"Um… sure, but… I'm with Ruby and… and Yang, do you want me to bring them?" She asks it quietly but she knows it's pretty much impossible for them to not hear her at this distance. And from Weiss's long pause she knows that her real message has more or less been received.

Is it time to let Yang in on the secret?

Weiss eventually tells them that she's at a small park by her house. There's some talk about meeting at someone's house but Pyrrha eventually gets sick of the indecision and essentially orders the heiress to wait for them.

It only takes about ten minutes to get there, all of them live pretty close together after all, but the trip feels significantly longer due to the fact that it's made in total silence. She's pretty sure that Ruby's mainly just concerned about her girlfriend, but Yang on the other hand has this brooding energy that immediately puts her on edge. Pyrrha can tell just from her body language that the blonde knows that they've been keeping something from her.

The thought crosses her mind that maybe she should have been more discreet on the phone with Weiss earlier, but looking back, she doesn't really see any viable alternatives.

When they finally pull up to the quaint little park they see Weiss's shiny white sedan parked in the corner of the lot and pull up next to it. Through the passenger window Pyrrha spots Weiss slumped over in the driver's seat, legs hanging out of the open door and elbows propped up on her knees.

Evidently Ruby sees it too because without another word she flings open her door and rushes over to her girlfriend, instantly wrapping her arms around her. Pyrrha and Yang approach a little more slowly, both of them feeling just as anxious as Ruby but still wanting to give the two a moment.

"Weiss…" Pyrrha says quietly, "are you ok?"

"I'm fine." Weiss answers shakily, although the swelling around her eyes tells a vastly different story.

Yang walks over to the side of the car, leaning up against the frame but not losing the concerned look on her face. "What happened?"

"I… I had a fight with Blake."

"Blake?" Yang says, clearly not expecting that answer, "what were you fighting about?"

Weiss turns away from the blonde's piercing gaze, looking down to study the asphalt in front of her feet. "She told me that… she wanted me to take notes for her while she goes on college tours for the next week."

"Okay… why would you two fight about that? We all know she's leaving." Yang's words come out even and monotone, matched almost too perfectly by her decidedly blank expression.

"I… tried to talk her out of it."

"What? Why would you do that?"

Pyrrha takes one look at Weiss, head hanging over her knees, holding desperately onto Ruby's hand and decides that it's time for her to take over.

"Weiss tried to stop her…" She starts slowly, drawing Yang's eyes over to her, "because we've been trying to get you and Blake together."

There's a long moment of silence as all three of them hold their breath, waiting anxiously for Yang's reaction.

"You… you what?" Yang says finally, the fire building up behind her violet eyes making Pyrrha more and more nervous by the second. "Since when?"

"It… basically started the night you found out Blake was going to Mistral and came to my house. We just… we couldn't handle watching you get hurt anymore Yang! You deserve so much better than this and..."

"What does 'trying to get us together' even mean?" Yang interrupts, voice taking on more venom with every word.

"Well…" Ruby chimes in hesitantly, "when you got sick from running to Pyrrha's in the rain we kind of… organized things so that Blake would have to take care of you."

"What?" Yang spits out.

"We had Sun ask you for your shifts at the restaurant," Pyrrha says, "and then we made sure nobody else was free so she would have to do it."

"Wait. Sun? How many people are in on this?"

"Um..." Pyrrha answers uneasily, eyes going wide, "mainly just… Sun, Neptune, Nora, Ren, and Jaune…"

"So… everyone. You mean everyone knew about this. Everyone knew about this except me and Blake? Are you guys kidding me?"

She and Ruby share a nervous look while Weiss sinks deeper into Ruby's arms, shoulders starting to show signs of shaking.

"What did you guys even think would happen?" Yang shouts, "that she'd take care of me while I was sick and we'd just magically declare our love for each other?"

"Well… not exactly…" Pyrrha says carefully.

The blonde looks angrily between the three of them, all unable to look her in the eye, much less come up with an actual response.

"There's more." Yang coldly realizes.

"Well…" Ruby begins, "I… was the one that came up with the idea to have Thanksgiving at our place."

"And Nora and Weiss were the ones who gave you the idea to take Blake out to dinner." Pyrrha adds.

"What else?" Yang says sharply, "I can tell there's something else you guys aren't telling me."

She looks back at Ruby and both of their faces are a mixture of shock and confusion.

"What?" Pyrrha says, "Yang that's all we've done I swear."

"It's not… all." Weiss cuts in finally, her voice still quiet and broken, "we didn't do anything else but, today with Blake… she told me that she's going to be spending over a week on college tours because… she's looking at schools in Vacuo and Atlas as well."

Pyrrha feels her heart sink as a pit starts to form in her stomach.

"Vacuo and... Atlas?" Yang says, her voice suddenly losing all of the acid that had been pouring out just a moment earlier. "That means…"

"Yang please listen to me." Weiss half sobs, barely able to contain the tears threatening to spill out, "after she told us all about going to Mistral, I confronted her about it and… and she told me that the real reason she had applied was because she wants to get over you and she doesn't think she can do that without some space."

The blonde falls quiet for a moment and Pyrrha can see her entire body starting to tremble. She wants to reach out, pull her best friend in for a hug and beg for her forgiveness, but the tension in the air has her frozen to the spot.

"Get over me?" Yang finally whispers.

"Yes Yang." Weiss says. "She loves you. She's been in love with you for years now but she never thought you could feel the same."

"How could she not see…" Yang says quietly, tears starting to well up in her eyes. "No!" she shouts suddenly, "that doesn't change the fact that you guys have been doing all of this… manipulating behind my back! I mean I can't believe you guys would do this! If Blake wants to run away from me who the hell are you guys to tell her that she can't?"

"Yang, we only did this because we care so much about both of you!" Pyrrha cries out, feeling her own eyes starting to sting, "do you think we wanted to go about it like this? Weiss and I… we agreed for so long not to interfere with your relationship but we just… couldn't take it anymore!"

The blonde shakes her head in frustration but Pyrrha can tell that their words are starting to get to her, chipping away at her fiery resolve.

"But… but still…" Yang says weakly, "you guys could've…"

"Could've what, Yang?" Pyrrha interrupts, angrily wiping away at her eyes, "we've been trying to convince you for years now that Blake liked you back and you've never listened. What else could we have done?"

Yang falls silent, unable to come up with anything in the face of Pyrrha's verbal barrage. The redhead lets out a shaky sigh and realizes just how heavy her breathing had become, at the same time noticing the shocked looks she's getting from Weiss and Ruby.

"Yang…" the redhead continues more gently, finally closing the distance between them and pushing her forehead up against the blonde's. "I am so, unbelievably sorry that you had to find out this way but please… please understand… you two belong together. She loves you Yang. I don't even know what to say at this point that would convince you but please, you have to believe me."

The blonde stays silent again, closing her eyes and taking long, heavy breaths. Pyrrha can still feel the tears flowing on Yang's cheeks.

"Yang," Pyrrha repeats, "I think Weiss decided that now was the time to tell you because… this might be it. If you let her go now… you could lose her for good."

With that Yang slowly opens her eyes to match the girl's intense emerald gaze. They stay like that for a while. Teary eyes locked on the other, neither seemingly able to move. There's a part of her that wants to do more, to say more, but deep down she knows that at this point, she doesn't have any cards left to play.

Finally, Yang breaks the stalemate, tearing her eyes away and swallowing hard before shakily saying, "Okay."

Her eyes subconsciously flick over to Ruby and Weiss, both of whom are closely watching every move they make.

"Okay... what?" Pyrrha asks.

Yang meets her eyes once again, this time her soft violet irises have a determined fire behind them, a level of conviction that Pyrrha had never seen before.

"You're right." Yang says, "I'm done waiting. Let's go find her."


Author's Note: Finally some hope for Bumblby! Pretty obvious but might as well say that this will be the first 3 part arc in this story, hate to leave yet another cliffhanger but there is way too much to squeeze into this chapter and I like to keep them around 3k words (give or take a couple hundred) so it definitely had to go to a third. Anyways hope you liked it. As always thanks so much for reading and feel free to leave some feedback!