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 the latest chapter! Hope you all like it!


Chapter 21: Nightmares

Her eyes blink open slowly, her vision still so fuzzy that she can barely make out her surroundings but the one thing she can register is the cold.

It takes a minute or so for the grogginess to clear but she's finally coherent enough to see that she's standing on the side of a road. It's dark out, probably getting close to midnight and an atmosphere that's strangely calming with the thick layer of snow blanketing the ground.

She can't help the smile that spreads on her face when she looks up to see the downpour falling from the sky. It fills her with a sense of peace that she stops to relish in for just a second.

But it's a brief moment that's over in an instant when she sees the stop sign at the other end of the road, bearing the names of the two streets that form an intersection that she knows all too well.

No.

No. Not again.

This isn't happening again.

As if on cue she hears the dull, sickening crunch of cars pushing on through the snow, moving at a speed that she knows is much too fast for the weather. Without a second thought she takes off running, only to find that no matter what she does she can't find the speed to make it in time.

She pushes harder.

She can hear the vehicles approaching.

It may be foolish to think that maybe she can stop it.

Maybe this time it doesn't have to happen this way.

So she pushes harder. Frantically. Desperately.

But no matter what she does, she knows that there's no way she's going to make it.

And as always, the last thing she does is let out a blood curdling scream as the two cars barrel towards each other.

2 years ago

Yang's eyes fly open with a start and she jolts up into a sitting position, immediately and instinctively hiding her face in her hands.

Another year and still the same routine.

It's the anniversary of Summer's death and on this day every single year she's cursed with living through the exact same nightmare. Of course she gets them through the rest of the year too, only it's always so much more vivid and intense on the actual day. She wants to tell herself that it's just because it's the anniversary and that it's bound to hit harder today. But deep down there's a part of her that knows it's because she always spends the whole day bottling things up trying to be strong for Ruby.

The only problem is that every year the nightmare seems to get worse.

It's only after several minutes that she notices how heavily she's breathing, and that no matter how hard she tries she can't seem to stop it. The realization finally hits that she's hyperventilating and that only makes things worse as tears begin to fall.

And her panic only grows as she realizes that she has absolutely no idea what to do about it.

A thought passes through her head that she could go ask Ruby or her dad but the idea is quickly dismissed. She'd spent all day doing everything in her power to cheer the two of them up and there's no way she's going to ruin all of that now with something this stupid.

But the longer it goes on the more she starts to worry that her current state is bound to wake one of them up eventually. And so she shakily makes her way to the door, being careful to keep her noise to a minimum and making sure to grab her phone on the way out.

The first instinct Blake has when she hears her phone buzzing on the nightstand is to immediately roll over and bury her head in the pillows. But then the noise doesn't stop and she's forced to blindly paw at the table, coming dangerously close to knocking everything off before she finally finds her phone and yanks it off the cable.

"Hello?" she groans.

"Blake…"

"Yang?"

The shattered tone of Yang's voice is concerning enough for Blake to instantly sit up in her bed. And hearing how hard the girl's breathing into the phone has her own breath catching in her chest.

"Blake I…" Yang says in between a series of rapid breaths, "I'm so sorry… I didn't want to wake you… I just…"

Before she knows it she's on her feet, blindly fumbling at her desk chair looking for the pants that she vaguely remembers tossing across the room when she'd gone to sleep. "Where are you?"

"I… the park."

"Don't go anywhere okay? I'll be right there."

It takes Blake far longer than she would like to reach the park between their neighborhoods and by the time she finally catches a glimpse of the dull green dome of the play structure, her chest feels like it's on the verge of exploding. Even still she powers through the pain and doesn't allow herself even a second of rest as she closes the last few feet to the gate.

Her eyes dart wildly back and forth through the area, desperately searching for a hint of Yang's shining golden hair as her panic grows. She probably scans the place a dozen times before she finally spots her sitting on the ground by the swingset, head hunched over and buried in her knees and she closes the distance without hesitation.

When she finally gets to her, she finds Yang in an even worse state than she'd initially feared, with both hands clamped tight on either side of her head, eyes stretched wide and unblinking, and her breaths coming out even faster than her own.

Blake quickly kneels down in front of her, mind racing as she searches for something she can do to help. She'd heard of panic attacks before, but seeing one here in person is completely different and she finds herself totally helpless.

"Yang!" She cries desperately. "Yang it's me, Blake."

The blonde's violet eyes finally flick up with a hint of recognition and they hold the gaze for a second before Yang collapses forward, burying her face in Blake's chest and wrapping her arms tight around her body as the tears start to flow.

With only a brief moment of hesitation, Blake wraps her own arms around her, doing her best to rub soothing circles into the girl's back.

She looks down with concern, already feeling tears well up in her eyes as she watches Yang trembling uncontrollably in her arms and she has to bite down on her lip to keep from breaking down herself. Because it's absolutely heart shattering to see Yang like this. The girl had always been nothing but the brightest of lights in her life from the moment that they'd first met and if she's being honest with herself, it's probably the main reason that she'd fallen for her in the first place.

There's definitely a part of her that wants to just keep holding onto Yang and hope that it's enough to just erase whatever problems she's facing but after a minute or so it becomes clear that the blonde's breathing isn't slowing down at all.

So it's with a Herculean effort that she peels herself back, heart breaking once more when she hears the whimper that escapes Yang's lips.

"Yang," she says, doing her best to keep her voice even and gentle, "Yang, look at me."

But the girl doesn't budge, save for the ever present trembling in her shoulders from her rapid, uncontrolled breaths.

"Yang." She repeats, this time with a little more desperation bleeding into her voice, "Yang, I promise everything is going to be okay. I'm right here. I… you're safe here… with me."

That seems to do the trick as the blonde slowly raises her head, finally allowing Blake to meet her eye line. She's not sure where she gets the willpower to maintain her composure seeing Yang so shattered, but she channels every last ounce into forcing her best attempt at a reassuring smile onto her lips.

"Okay great. Now we're just going to take it one step at a time okay? Let's just start with one deep breath, do you think you can do that for me?"

Yang holds her gaze for a second, eyes tearing up as if the very idea is almost insurmountable before finally giving her a slow, shaky nod.

"Good, okay we'll go slow. Okay? Just… in… and out."

It takes a few seconds before Yang is able to follow suit, pressing her lips into a thin line before finally breathing in for an uneven breath that's still far too short for her liking.

"That was great." She says, hoping that it doesn't sound as unconvincing as she feels inside, "now let's just do another one okay? Just in… and out."

It takes another few tries before Yang is finally able to take in what she considers to be a full breath and when she does Blake has to fight to keep herself from letting out a sigh of relief. But she keeps at it, adding on anything she can think of that can help calm her down.

And slowly, eventually, Yang's breathing becomes more steady and even, but Blake still doesn't dare stop guiding her through the breaths.

She doesn't know how long it takes before they finally do stop, and somehow along the way she ends up sitting on the ground with Yang curled up in her lap. She'd be lying if she said that the position was comfortable in any way, especially with one of her legs starting to lose feeling from bearing the full weight of Yang's body. But honestly there's nothing in the world that would make her disrupt the peace that she'd worked so hard to achieve.

So she bears with it, taking comfort in the fact that she'd been able to be there for the girl she'd fallen so madly in love with in her time of need.

She looks down, wondering to herself if Yang had fallen asleep and if she had, whether or not it would be possible to carry her back home. But just when she decides that she'll figure out a way even if it shatters her arms, Yang breaks the silence.

"I… I'm really sorry." The blonde mumbles.

Blake can't help furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "For what?" She asks.

"For calling you in the middle of the night and… and freaking you out like this. I swear I don't know what happened, I just woke up from this nightmare and I just couldn't stop and…"

"Yang." She interrupts, "you have nothing to be sorry for. Okay? In fact I'm really happy you woke me up instead of suffering through it on your own."

"I… really?"

"Yes Yang. I… I'm here for you."

She hears Yang sniffle again before burying her face back into Blake's chest. "You don't know how much that means to me."

Without missing a beat she tightens her arms around the blonde's trembling shoulders, leaning down to gently press her lips on the top of her head. "I promise you Yang." She whispers, quietly "no matter what happens, whenever you need me, I'll be here. Always."

Present day

Yang flops back down into her bed with a frustrated huff.

She probably shouldn't be surprised that waking up with the same nightmare had sent her mind down this path. She's actually not even sure how many nights in a row it's been where she's woken up like this but it's definitely taking a toll on her.

Because as if waking up to the same recurring nightmare of watching her step mom get killed in a car accident wasn't bad enough, she now has to be reminded once again just how heartbreaking it is that Blake is leaving.

She doesn't even notice the tears in her eyes until one drops onto her pillow.

She lets out a groan and brings up a hand to wipe away at her eyes, frustrated at herself for the stupid, childish reaction. But it feels like the more she tries to stop them, the harder the tears fall.

Because Blake's words that night had meant more to her than anyone could possibly believe and the idea that after all these years they turned out to be empty… is too much for her to handle.

Before she knows it the tears start flowing freely and she immediately flips over to cry into her pillow. Because she's always kind of been a loud cryer and Ruby is sleeping in the next room.

The thought crosses her mind that she could run to Pyrrha's house or at least call her, but as always decides against it, not wanting to add anymore to the girl's insane schedule. And then there's the fact she'd learned over the past couple days that Neo was a really light sleeper and there's almost no way she'd get away with it without waking her up. And that's honestly the last thing she wants to do with how hard these last few days have been on the poor girl.

And so she stays where she is, crying quietly into her pillow as the same intrusive thought rings over and over in her head.

If you promised to always be here when I need you, then why aren't you here right now?


Author's Note: Sort of a depressing end to a chapter where Blake and Yang finally get a moment. Makes me a little sad for sure but I guess I'm also a sucker for angsty hurt/comfort fics. Anyways, hope you all liked it and thanks for reading!