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: Hello everyone! We are here with another chapter, right where we left off with the last one. I did something a little different with this one, I kind of had this weird idea to center the chapter around one location and to me, there's nothing more atmospheric than sitting around a fire when it's snowing so I kind of just went with it. Anyways, hope you enjoy it!


Chapter 27: Fireside Conversations

Yang is pretty sure she's never seen Pyrrha so happy in her life.

Even from her spot leaning against the wall on the other side of the room she can see the beaming smile on the redhead's face as she's curled up comfortably against Jaune's chest, having fallen soundly asleep some time after they'd started the third movie. And she isn't exactly the only one. Taking a quick look around, she can see that most of the others are asleep as well and it feels like the perfect opportunity to slip out for a moment to herself.

But then she notices Neo snoozing peacefully against the wall next to her and she makes sure to take every precaution not to disturb her. With Ruby out of the house yesterday, it was Neo who had been the one to stay up all night holding her while she cried and Yang honestly wasn't sure how she could even begin to thank her for it.

So she starts by at least being careful as she rises to her feet, taking a moment to tuck the blanket around Neo's shoulders before heading through the sliding door in the kitchen to the backyard.

Almost immediately her body starts to shiver from the cold. It probably wasn't the best idea to head out without so much as a jacket with the light layer of snow on the ground.

Luckily the area around their firepit is protected by an awning and she rushes over, anxious to get a fire started.

She only gets as far as lifting the cover off before she hears the door sliding open once again, revealing Neo's petite frame, walking over with the light knit blanket still draped over her shoulders.

"Hey Neo," Yang says, doing her best to stifle her shivering. "Sorry did I wake you?"

"You might have." Neo teases with a sly grin.

"Heh, sorry. I'll have the fire started in a few minutes if you want to wait inside until then, it's pretty cold out."

The girl shakes her head in disbelief, chuckling softly as she closes the last few feet between them. "You're worried about me getting cold when you're out here in a tank top? I think I'm starting to sense a pattern with you."

Yang gives her a weak smile, sheepishly running a hand through her hair. "Yeah… I guess I just…"

She trails off, eyes going wide as Neo walks up close, head tilted up to look right at her.

"You have to take care of yourself Yang." Neo says quietly. Without another word, the shorter girl pulls the blanket off her shoulders and reaches up to wrap it around Yang's body, multicolored eyes not breaking contact for even a second the entire time.

"Thanks…" she breathes.

The shorter girl only smiles in response, taking a step back and reaching for the pile of logs nearby. "Now come on, I'm freezing."

Working together, they're able to get the fire started in just a few minutes and they end up on one of the larger lawn chairs, burrowed together under the thin veil of the blanket.

"So," Neo says, "are those two going out?"

"You mean Jaune and Pyrrha? Not yet. Pyrrha's been in love with him for years now, she just hasn't really figured out how to push things any further… until today that is."

"They're cute together, although I can't help but feel like the girl could do a little better."

Yang chuckles. "Yeah… Pyrrha's gotta be one of the hottest girls at Beacon... but Jaune's pretty great too. He's not terrible looking and he's definitely one of the nicest guys I've ever met."

"I'll have to take your word for it." Neo says with a smirk, "not exactly my type."

"Hey it's not like it's mine either!" Yang laughs, "but I can at least appreciate whether or not a guy is good enough for my best friend."

"I guess I can trust your instincts when it comes to taking care of your friends."

"They take really good care of me too." She replies quietly, her voice taking on a soft, wistful tone, "Weiss organized this whole thing just to distract me from… everything going on."

"That's nice of her. Did it work?"

"Um, yeah?"

Neo raises an eyebrow. "You know you're a terrible liar."

Yang lets out a long, drawn out sigh, realizing that after last night, she's pretty much past the point where she can maintain any illusions. "Okay… so I guess it's been pretty hard to keep smiling when there's so much on my mind."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She breathes out another sigh, allowing herself to crack a small smile at Neo's sweet gesture. "You've already done way more than enough Neo, I promise I'll be fine."

"Well clearly it isn't enough if it's still bothering you."

"Do you… do you want me to go get Pyrrha? Or Weiss maybe?"

Yang snaps her head up, eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion. "What? Why would you do that?"

Neo's eyes immediately go wide. "Oh, no I just thought..."

"Thought what?"

"I… I don't know…" the girl answers quietly, "just that maybe you'd… rather talk to one of them or... something."

Yang feels a pang of sympathy stab through her chest at Neo's timid response. "Neo…"

"Look I'm sorry," Neo says, "I just thought that… maybe you wouldn't want to come to me about this."

"Neo what are you talking about? Why wouldn't I want to come to you?"

"I don't know," Neo mumbles, letting her head drop down to let her hair fall before her eyes. "I just thought that… maybe you'd prefer to talk to one of your friends now that they're here."

Yang feels her heart sink at the girl's dejected answer. And it only gets worse when she realizes that the reason her words sound so familiar is that she had more or less heard the same thing all of last night when she'd been crying in Neo's arms.

Of course she'd tried her best to express just how much she appreciated the girl being there for her, but no matter what she'd said, nothing seemed to get through and she's left having to fight this nagging feeling that there's something deeper that Neo's hiding from everyone.

"Neo…" she answers gently, hunching down to force the girl to meet her eye line, "you… are one of my friends."

With that, Neo's eyes instantly go wide, for a second looking like she's going to respond but Yang doesn't want to give her any chance to protest.

"Neo," Yang continues, "I didn't just pour out my feelings to you last night because I needed to vent and nobody else was available. I did it because… I trust you."

At first Neo doesn't respond, only able to stare at her in shock as she nervously bites her lip.

"Yang…" the girl whispers finally. "Nobody's ever said… anything like that to me before."

She does her best to offer a reassuring smile in response, only barely able to contain a sigh of relief at finally starting to break through a bit of Neo's walls. "Well I'm saying it now."

"Yang… you don't know how much that means to me."

"But I could." Yang answers slowly, "if you're willing to tell me."

She sees Neo stiffen a bit, sinking back into her seat and subconsciously pulling her blanket a little tighter around herself. "Oh um… I'm not sure if I'm ready for…"

"That's okay." She says gently, "it's just… whenever you are, I'll be here."

Finally Neo lets out a light huff and the tension drains from her body, giving her a timid smile before whispering a quiet "thank you Yang."

With that Yang decides to take the conversation in a different direction, digging deep to find anything to talk about that might make the girl laugh. Of course it's partially to try and cheer Neo up, but to be honest she does it a bit for herself as well. Because she's more than a little exhausted by all the heavy conversations she's had with her friends in the past few days and after finally getting a bit of reprieve in the form of their little movie night, she wants to grasp on to any bit of positivity that she can.

When Pyrrha wakes up, slowly blinking her eyes open to the bright light shining through the window, she breathes in a deep, satisfying breath and is greeted with a slightly unfamiliar yet soothing smell that brings a smile to her lips. It takes a moment for the fuzziness in her head to clear up enough to recognize the scent and the second she does, her eyes shoot open.

Her cheeks start to heat up as she registers that her head is resting up against Jaune's chest with his arms wrapped protectively around her shoulders. She tilts her head up slowly to see the blond still sleeping but when she takes a look around the living room she finds it almost entirely empty.

The panic in her chest starts to grow as she realizes that, as the last two to wake up, everyone would have gotten a good look at the two of them sleeping on the couch.

As gently as she can, Pyrrha pries his arms apart and carefully makes her way to her feet, turning back to tuck the blanket back around Jaune's shoulders… and maybe take a second or two to admire his surprisingly handsome sleeping face.

"Good morning."

She jumps in surprise at the sudden sound of the voice coming from behind her and she has to stifle a squeal in the fear of waking Jaune up.

She turns around to see Yang standing at the bottom of the stairs, still dressed in her tank top and black shorts, with an ear to ear grin on her face.

"Sleep well?" The blonde asks cheekily.

Pyrrha rolls her eyes and heads straight to the kitchen, knowing that Yang will definitely be following closely behind. Before she can even make it to the cupboard to grab a glass for water, the blonde slides up in front of her, resting an elbow on the counter and once again flashing the same infuriating grin.

"What." Yang says, violet eyes searching Pyrrha's face, "no hickies, no smeared lipstick, did Ren and Nora go home in the middle of the night for nothing?"

She does everything she can to fight the furious blush spreading on her cheeks. "Yang, stop being so ridiculous, and I'm not even wearing lipstick."

"Still, you guys really didn't do anything last night?"

"I… no!" she hisses quietly, "did everyone really go home?"

"Well Sun and Neptune are actually sleeping upstairs and Weiss is with Ruby in her room. People started waking up at around one in the morning and we all decided to leave the living room to you guys."

"And Neo?"

"She's uh… in my room."

Pyrrha raises an eyebrow and it's now Yang's turn to blush.

"It's nothing like that!" Yang whispers through clenched teeth, "we just… kind of stayed up late talking and we fell asleep."

"Really? Because when Weiss wakes up I don't think she's going to be happy when she finds out you two spent the night together."

"Look it's…"

"Not to mention…" Pyrrha cuts in hesitantly, "if Blake ever finds out."

At that Yang lets out a deep sigh before dragging her out to the backyard.

"Ok…" the blonde says hesitantly, "something happened the other night."

And before she knows it, Yang is spilling everything to Pyrrha. How she'd picked up Neo from work and let her borrow her jacket, how Blake had found them, outside her house in the cold and run off with tears in her eyes, and finally how she'd spent the whole night crying with the picture in her hands.

Pyrrha immediately jumps to her feet, looking down at her with eyes wide in shock. "Yang! You spent the whole night crying? Why didn't you call me?"

"Well," she answers sheepishly, "I just… you were at the movies with Jaune and I didn't want to do anything to get in the way of that."

"Oh my god Yang! Are you kidding me? I would've…"

"I know." Yang interrupts, "that's why I didn't call you. I knew you would've dropped everything to help and I just couldn't do that to you."

"Yang…" Pyrrha sighs, sitting down and pulling her back into her arms.

"Look I'm sorry, I… definitely wasn't thinking straight."

The redhead lets out another sigh. "It's okay, I just... hate the idea that I wasn't there for you. Was Ruby at least home?"

"Um… no, she was out with Weiss so it was just Neo."

"Neo? And did she…"

"Yeah." Yang says, "she's actually been really great. Even last night when we were talking, she was… really supportive."

"Well I'm glad she was there for you."

"Yeah…"

Pyrrha looks at her for a second before crossing her arms in front of her chest. "There's something else."

Yang snaps her head up quickly, somehow still caught off guard by her best friend so thoroughly seeing through her.

"Yeah," she sighs, "I actually got the sense that something else was really bothering her."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure. It's just that… she got really quiet whenever I mentioned anything about her family or where she was before coming to Beacon."

Pyrrha lets out a thoughtful hum as she absentmindedly fusses with the strings on her hoodie. "Didn't you say that there was something going on with her brother?"

"Yeah…" Yang says with another sigh, "but I didn't really want to bring that up after everything that's happened. Not that it really would've mattered, she doesn't really like talking about her feelings."

"Sounds like someone I know." Pyrrha answers sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The redhead gives her a serious look. "Yang… as much as I'm concerned about Neo, I'm just as worried about you."

Almost on instinct Yang drops her eyes to the ground, "I already told you I'm fine Pyr."

"Are you?" Pyrrha counters, "because to me it kind of seems like it hurts you just to say Blake's name."

With that she falls back into her seat, instinctively wrapping an arm around herself. Because of course Pyrrha's right, she might not have even realized that she'd been subconsciously trying to steer the conversation away from herself, but now that her best friend is pointing it out like this there's not much she can really say about it.

"Listen Yang." Pyrrha says, "I don't want to keep interfering more than… we already have, but to me it sounds like you should at least talk to Blake about all of this."

"I tried." Yang answers dejectedly, "I spent hours trying to call her. I even sent her a few texts before the movies last night but she hasn't responded even once."

"Well maybe…"

"Just give it a rest Pyrrha." She interrupts, maybe a little harsher than she really intended, "I appreciate you trying to help but… if she wants to give up on me then I don't think there's anything anyone can do."

"Yang…"

"It's okay Pyrrha, I'm used to it."

Pyrrha gives her a heavy look, eyes starting to water and opening her mouth to say something before she hesitates, silencing herself before she has a chance to voice her thoughts.

For a second she thinks about saying something herself, because surely there's something that can fix the heartbroken look in Pyrrha's eyes, but she doesn't get a chance to before the sliding door opens again, revealing Weiss in a fluffy white bathrobe.

"What are you two doing out here?" The heiress says, rushing over to join them by the comforting heat of the fire. The two of them scoot over, making room for Weiss on the cushioned seat and squeezing closely together to fit under their small fleece blanket.

"We just wanted to talk where we wouldn't be disturbing anyone." Pyrrha answers quickly, giving Yang a chance to compose herself and throw on as convincing a smile as she can manage.

"Why?" Weiss smirks, "did you keep Jaune up all night or something?"

That immediately brings on a light chuckle from Yang as Pyrrha weakly stammers her denial. "Don't… don't be so ridiculous, we didn't do anything."

"Still," Weiss continues, thankfully not noticing how grateful Yang is for the change in subject, "you two were really cute last night. Think you'll ask him to the dance soon?"

"I… it's not like I have much time to decide."

"Have you figured out how you'll do it yet?" Weiss asks.

"No…" the redhead groans, "what about you?"

"I think I'll take Ruby to that dessert place that she likes, maybe get a giant cookie that says 'Winter Ball' or something."

"That sounds like a great idea!"

"Ruby certainly loves her cookies." Yang agrees. "But don't you think you should leave yourself some ideas for Prom at the end of the year?"

"I'll… cross that bridge when I get there…" Weiss stammers, "and besides, it'll be Ruby's turn to ask by then."

As if on cue, the sliding door opens once again, this time to allow Ruby and Jaune into the backyard, both of them with blankets piled on their backs. Yang turns to take a closer look and recognizes a bag of marshmallows in her sister's arm and shakes her head in disbelief.

"Rubes, it's like ten in the morning. You really want to start the day with a sugar crash?"

The brunette only responds with a cheeky grin, sitting down on the adjacent bench that forms the corner with theirs around the fire while Jaune sets down a shopping bag filled with graham crackers and chocolate.

Weiss lets out a sigh as she lifts the blanket off herself and slides over to join her girlfriend. "Honestly, do you two eat like this when your father's home?"

Yang throws her head back and laughs, "who do you think she learned it from? I was the one who started making actual meals back in middle school when our dad started working so much."

Ruby giggles as she pulls Weiss under her blanket. "Come on, you have to admit that s'mores for breakfast sounds awesome!"

"Jaune," Yang says, noticing the redhead shivering next to her, "I think Pyrrha's feeling a little cold, think you could share that blanket with her?"

"Sure," he answers casually, sliding up next to the redhead and tucking both of them under the covers.

To her credit, Pyrrha accepts it with considerably more grace than she normally would, especially considering that the slight blush on her cheeks could easily be passed off as being from the cold.

A few minutes later they're all more or less set up with a few marshmallows roasting gently on sticks and they're joined by Sun, Neptune, and Neo, each of them carrying out a few mugs and a large thermos filled with steaming coffee.

Honestly it feels more than a little ridiculous spending the rest of the morning like that, sitting around the fire roasting marshmallows, dressed in their pajamas with nothing more than a couple blankets and the warmth of the fire to shield them from the bitter cold. But for Yang, it might be the closest to feeling peaceful that she's gotten in weeks.


Author's Note: I actually kind of really liked writing this chapter despite how many iterations it went through. It kind of has the fluff to angst ratio that I really just can't get enough of, even though it hurts me to write Yang being so hopeless about her relationship with Blake. But for all of Yang's continued spiraling, there was still a lot that happened for Neo and Pyrrha this chapter that I'm hoping to develop soon. Anyways, hope you all liked it and thanks for reading!