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: Had some big moments last chapter so this chapter thought we'd go back to a bit of fluffy fun. And it's a bit of a longer one so hope you all like it!
Chapter 23: Running Interference
Pyrrha closes her locker door carelessly, letting it slam shut as she bends down to haul her backpack onto her shoulders. It takes a herculean effort to even lift the stupid thing, no doubt due to the immense size of her calculus and history textbooks. She takes a few steps out of her locker bank, heading up towards the front of the school but stops on the way when she spots a familiar blond figure standing beside his own locker, filling his backpack up with books.
The sight of him makes her heart race. Recently, she'd been trying more and more to follow through on her plans to deepen her relationship with Jaune and she knows that she should take every opportunity possible to talk to him, especially like this when it's one on one.
So she approaches, albeit slowly, still not completely sure what she should say but definitely not willing to let the chance slip.
"Hello Jaune." She greets, throwing a beaming smile onto her face.
He turns around and gives her this casual, goofy smile of his own that she just can't seem to get enough of. There's something about it that she can't quite describe. It's so friendly, and cheerful, and pure, it's so… Jaune.
She's pretty sure anyone passing by can hear the pounding in her chest.
"Oh, hey Pyrrha." He says, "are you heading home?"
"Yup." she replies, "Luckily I don't have track practice today or I'd be stuck here for another couple hours. What about you? Are you doing anything fun tonight?"
"Not really," Jaune answers, "probably just going to head home after this."
Pyrrha bites down on her lip. This was her chance. It would be so easy to ask him to hang out, maybe go to a movie or dinner or… something. It's Friday after all and they would have plenty of time, but her nerves end up being too much to handle, her mind going a mile a minute and she buckles under the pressure.
"Are you coming to Yang and Ruby's house for movie night tomorrow?" she asks, mentally scolding herself for being so spineless.
"Yeah, I'll be there."
"Great!" Pyrrha chirps, "let me know if you need a ride or… anything."
Jaune gives her a funny look. "Pyrrha, you live like a block away from their house, if anything I should be the one asking if you want a ride."
She inhales sharply, fighting the urge to kick herself for being so stupid.
Luckily she's given an easy out when she spots a familiar flash of blonde hair flowing just a few feet away from her. She looks over to see Yang approaching them, unsurprisingly followed closely by Ruby and Weiss. Although what does catch her off guard is the sight of a bubbly pink and brown haired girl walking next to Yang.
"Hello!" she greets with a cheerful wave, putting the confusion to the back of her mind.
"Hey guys," Yang replies casually, "I don't know if you've actually met her yet, this is Neo, she works with me at the diner."
"It's nice to meet you!" Pyrrha says, offering her hand to the petite girl. "I'm Pyrrha."
"Nice to meet you too." Neo responds, shaking her hand with a sweet smile on her face.
"We were thinking about going to get some sandwiches or something." Yang says, "either of you two want to come?"
"Yeah that sounds good." Jaune replies.
Yang nods her head and turns back to Pyrrha. "Pyr' did you drive today? If not, you and Jaune could meet us there. Neo has work today so I'll just have to drop her off really quick."
She feels her eyes narrow slightly as she takes in Yang's words. She's so unsure whether or not she had heard it correctly that she'd totally missed the fact that the blonde had tried to set her up to ride in a car alone with Jaune.
"Drop her off?" Pyrrha says slowly, "what are you…"
"I can take her." Weiss interrupts, shooting her a heavy look that she can't quite read. "Why don't you guys all go on ahead and we'll meet you there, I forgot something in my locker."
The others all voice their agreement, indifferently shrugging their shoulders as they head for the exit, leaving Pyrrha and Weiss behind. The second they're out of earshot, Weiss grabs a hold of her arm and drags her around the corner of the nearest hallway.
"What on earth was that about?" Pyrrha says.
Weiss closes her eyes for a second, shaking her head in sheer frustration. "That girl, I swear she's going to be the death of me."
"Weiss, what's going on?"
"I was going to tell you earlier," the heiress says, "but I didn't really get a chance to... It looks like Yang has invited Neo to stay at her house for a couple days."
"What? Why would she do that?" Pyrrha asks.
"It's… not exactly what it sounds like… it seems that Neo's actually homeless right now."
Pyrrha eyes go wide in surprise. That had certainly not been the answer she was expecting.
"And of course," Weiss continues, "the second Yang found out she just had to offer up her own house."
"Oh poor Neo. Well I'm glad Yang's able to help."
"Yeah…" Weiss breathes heavily.
Pyrrha tilts her head a bit to the side. Weiss's reaction seemed almost… upset.
"Is something wrong?" she asks. "Neo seems really nice."
"No I definitely agree!" Weiss answers, waving her hands defensively, "it's just… I think she has a thing for Yang."
"Really? I guess they do seem rather friendly…"
Weiss lets out a sigh. "I'll tell you more in the car. We're going to be late if we stay here any longer."
…
If Blake was being honest, she never really understood how people could handle flying on a regular basis.
It wasn't only due to the sickening feeling she experienced during landing and takeoff, it was more a problem of dealing with the absolute boredom of being confined to a cramped space for hours on end. Of course it definitely didn't help that she doesn't have her phone. Her typical form of salvation for passing the time in a situation like this would be to load up music or an audiobook of some sort. She had picked up a book at the airport store that looked interesting enough but she always had trouble reading in moving vehicles.
But that isn't to say that her mind is left with nothing to focus on, in fact the reality is quite the opposite.
With nothing else to distract her, she spends basically the entire flight fixating on everything that Winter had told her the previous day. And she hadn't been able to think about anything else in the hours since their conversation either.
She honestly didn't think it was possible to have even more trouble falling asleep than she already was. But of course, for the entirety of the previous week, she was lacking something to actually focus her brain on other than the general feeling of depression which more or less lead to her lying awake listening to the hotel TV quietly droning on in the background.
After meeting up with Winter however, she now actually has something that she can't peel her eyes away from.
Which brings her here, sitting in her cramped seat next to two complete strangers with the dull roaring of the plane engines in the background leaving her with nothing to stop her from endlessly staring at the lakehouse picture clutched tightly in her hands.
When Winter had pushed the photograph into her pocket moments before dropping her back off at the hotel, she hadn't even come close to realizing what kind of impact it would have on her. If she could go back, she would find any excuse possible to leave it in the older girl's possession, because right now, she's honestly finding it nearly impossible to not break down in tears in the vicinity of a bunch of strangers, not to mention her parents sitting a few seats behind.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she's hit with the thought that after fixating on the topic for something like 30 hours, on top of the entire week beforehand, she should have been able to reach some form of definitive conclusion on what her next steps would be. But honestly, the revelations of the past couple days have been… overwhelming to say the least.
Because as hard as it may be to believe, she had always been telling the truth whenever she told Weiss that she couldn't even consider the possibility that Yang could have feelings for her. And really, how could she? She'd genuinely never ever seen what the blonde looked like when she was interested in someone.
Sure she'd heard a bit from Weiss and more recently, her older sister Winter, but she found it incredibly hard to balance that with what she'd actually seen of Yang's interactions with the people that inevitably fell in love with her.
Over the years, Blake had probably witnessed more of Yang dealing with confessions than even Ruby or Weiss, and the thing that had gone to truly amaze her was how legitimately kind Yang was to these people. Not once had she seen the gorgeous blonde hold any kind of resentment or show even a hint of awkwardness towards someone just for revealing their feelings to her. The next day she would show up to school and go right back to having friendly conversations with them as if nothing had changed. And that's not even mentioning how ridiculously attractive some of these people were. From guys on the school's various sports teams to cheerleading captains and theater stars, a number of Yang's suitors could have easily made it into magazines.
Honestly, she's not sure anyone could be expected to identify Yang's friendship as concealing something stronger. But she knows that dwelling on the past like this isn't going to help her current situation.
So what should she do? What could she do?
The ideas going through her head range from continuing down her current destructive path and bottling everything up, all the way up to a full on confession of love.
Could she really do it though? Telling Yang how she felt would mean so much more than just revealing her feelings. It would be exposing a vulnerability in herself that she'd worked desperately to conceal for years.
She's not entirely sure what ends up being the final straw that truly makes up her mind. It might be the lack of sleep, the steady buildup of input from her friends over the years, the longing she's felt all week not being by Yang's side, or just as likely the warmth that she feels just from seeing the picture of Yang's beaming smile, but by the time her plane touches down on the runway in Vale, there's one certainty in her mind that she'd been cowardly dancing around for weeks.
One way or another, she has to know the truth.
…
Weiss gets a text message letting them all know that they've decided on going to this sub shop in downtown Vale that's become one of their favorite spots over the years. It's kind of dark and dingy and definitely one of those places that Weiss would never have imagined herself even stepping into, much less actually eating at.
But they make these toasted chicken marinara sandwiches that are absolutely to die for.
By the time Weiss and Pyrrha walk in, the others are already standing inside the door, waiting in line to place their orders at the counter. But fortunately the line moves pretty quickly and they take their order cards over to one of the booths near the back while Jaune takes a quick trip to the bathroom.
Yang slides in to the end of the table, casually leaning up against the wall and draping her arm around the back of the seat. Following closely behind, Pyrrha immediately moves to take the seat next to the blonde, only to be stopped when Weiss reaches an arm out to pull her back.
The redhead turns, giving her a confused look.
Weiss only responds with a mischievous smirk as she slides in, pulling an equally confused Ruby into the two vacant seats next to Yang.
"Why don't you sit on that side Pyrrha?" Weiss says.
Pyrrha's eyes go wide in realization. "What? No! This is way too obvious." She hisses under her breath.
"It'll be fine." Yang laughs, "Jaune isn't exactly the most observant person on earth."
"Yeah but…"
"Pyrrha?" Jaune says, suddenly popping up behind her, "are you going to sit down?"
"Jaune!" Pyrrha squeaks, jumping slightly in surprise, "um yeah… I was just… doing that…"
The redhead trails off, sliding across the cushioned seat with her face flushed a deep crimson that rivals her own fiery hair.
They spend a few minutes aimlessly chatting before their food finally shows up and she's able to dig into the deliciously messy sandwich. Weiss hears Yang and Ruby sparking up a conversation about some new superhero movie that had just come out, but she doesn't really hear much of it. Instead, spending the entire time shooting pointed looks at Pyrrha in the hopes of encouraging the girl to make some sort of move.
Eventually she gives up on trying to be subtle and brings her phone out under the table to send Pyrrha a text.
Weiss Schnee: If you aren't going to hold his hand at least scoot up closer to him or something
Pyrrha perks up at the sudden vibration from her phone and sneaks a quick glance at it. The second she sees it she turns to Weiss, eyes wide in embarrassment and vigorously shaking her head. Weiss can't help rolling her eyes at the redhead's timidness. For all the talk that they'd had about Yang not recognizing her beauty, Pyrrha had always been just as bad.
Tall, smart, athletic, and drop dead gorgeous, Pyrrha and Yang made up the most intimidating duo at Beacon High, but somehow neither of them could ever really see it.
And it's made all the more frustrating when she's forced to watch Pyrrha shyly stealing glances at Jaune instead of being confident enough in herself to do something. But Weiss tries to put it to the back of her mind. She trusts Pyrrha at least to not make the same mistake that Yang and Blake have, even if she might need the occasional nudge to get her going.
Weiss finally tunes back in to the conversation, listening to Yang passionately describing all the detailed nuances of a fight scene.
"I'm sorry," Weiss says, "is this that new superhero movie that just released?"
"Sort of," Yang answers, "I haven't actually seen it yet, I just can't get over how awesome the ending of the last one was!"
She stops for a second, an idea forming in her mind and she has to fight to keep the grin from spreading on her face.
"Well none of us are doing anything after this right?" Weiss says, "why don't we all go see the new one?"
"Sounds good to me, I've been waiting to see it for weeks now." Jaune says enthusiastically, "what about you Pyrrha?"
"I'm certainly free." The redhead says happily, meeting the boy's eyes for what must be the first time today.
"I think I'll have to sit this one out..." Yang says hesitantly, "I'm going to pick Neo up from the diner in a couple hours, I'm not sure there's enough time."
"Well," Ruby adds, "I've watched all of the other ones with Yang so I think I'll have to wait to see it when she's free."
Weiss feels a smile cracking on her lips, satisfied with how accurately she had predicted the sisters' answers.
"Well I guess we could just wait till next weekend or something." Jaune says.
"No no," Weiss replies, dismissively waving her hands, "if you've been this excited to see it you certainly don't have to wait for us, right guys?"
She shoots a look down the table at Ruby and Yang, both of them perking up and grinning mischievously as understanding quickly dawns on the pair of sisters.
"Yeah," Yang follows up casually, "you guys should totally go see it, all the reviews said that it was really good."
"I'm sure there will still be tickets available for a slightly later showing" Ruby adds.
Pyrrha's eyes go wide when she realizes what they're doing, before narrowing in a glare directed straight at Weiss.
"That sounds good to me." Jaune says, causing the redhead to snap her head over to him in surprise.
"R-Really?" Pyrrha stammers.
"Yeah," Jaune replies, already pulling out his phone to look up showtimes. "It says there's a showing in about an hour with some free seats at the theater down on 6th Street."
"Ooh that's a good one!" Yang says, before cheekily adding, "they just switched all the theater seats to… reclining couches."
With that Pyrrha's face flushes bright red and Weiss can't help the smirk that spreads on her face, knowing that the 'reclining couches' that Yang was referring to were actually loveseats with removable armrests that had become something of a favorite for her and Ruby.
"Oh I heard about those." Jaune says, completely missing the hidden meaning, "I've been wanting to try them out, are they comfortable?"
Weiss shares a quick look with her girlfriend before answering, "Oh they can be very satisfying."
Out of the corner of her eye she can spot Ruby failing to stifle a giggle behind her hands while Yang gags in the background.
"Awesome!" Jaune says, still tapping away on his phone and nearly causing Weiss's eyes to pop out of her head at the boy's obliviousness. "What do you think Pyrrha?"
The redhead's eyes go wide at suddenly becoming the center of attention, hunching her shoulders slightly in a vain attempt to hide the burning in her cheeks. "Um, that… that all sounds great."
"Perfect!" Jaune says enthusiastically, "I'll buy the tickets now."
"When did you say the showtime was?" Pyrrha asks, still struggling to meet anyone's eyeline.
"Uh… 5 o'clock," he answers, "so a little over an hour."
"What are we going to do until then?"
"I'm sure you two can figure something out." Weiss says, "Jaune, Pyrrha rode with me today, do you think you can drive her home after?"
Pyrrha's subjected to another round of blushing as Jaune nods, "yeah of course."
"Great," Yang says, "because we should probably get going."
The three of them immediately start sliding out of their seats, ignoring the panicked look on Pyrrha's face.
Weiss feels the grin returning to her face as they're waving goodbyes over their shoulders, unable to resist the urge to throw in one last jab.
"You two have fun now."
Author's Note: This chapter was a ton of fun. I've been wanting to give Pyrrha and Jaune another moment for a while now with the nonstop drama with everyone else and what better way to do it than have Weiss, who's already in a happy relationship, give her a gentle nudge? Of course gotta mention Blake finally making a pretty big decision so we have that to look forward to. Anyways, hope you all liked it and thanks for reading!
