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! Here is the new chapter, not a lot going on in this one but there's kind of something that I really liked about that when writing this one. Not much else to say other than thank you all for being so awesome as we continue forward. Anyways, hope you like it!


Chapter 28: A Simple Favor

When the bell rings signaling the end of fourth period, Pyrrha slowly gathers up her notebook and packs up her variety of multicolored pens before following Ren out into the crowded hallway.

It's pretty much routine for them at this point to head straight for Nora and Sun's class on the other end of the Social Studies wing so that they can all go down to the cafeteria together, and today, like most days, the short walk is spent discussing the material they'd just gone over in class.

She waves a couple quick greetings along the way, mostly to people that she barely recognizes from other classes. It's all pretty standard which means that she doesn't typically make a habit of stopping to chat right before lunch.

But then she hears her name get called out from somewhere behind her, causing her to stop and quickly scan the crowd around her.

"Pyrrha! Hey!"

She finally hones in on the source where she spots the familiar face of Octavia Ember frantically weaving her way through the sea of students, one of her teammates on the track team and probably the only girl in Beacon High with hair as red as her own.

"Hello Octavia," she says, fighting back an amused smile at the girl's uncharacteristically ruffled features, "how are you today?"

"I'm… okay," Octavia answers nervously. "I um… actually wanted to ask you something."

"Okay," she says, doing her best to hide her confusion at the girl's serious tone, "Ren why don't you go on ahead, I'll meet up with everyone in the cafeteria."

"Sounds good." Ren answers, turning back down the hallway to find Nora and Sun.

"Alright Octavia," she continues, "what can I help you with?"

The girl trails off, a whole new level of anxiety written all over her face that has her curiously raising an eyebrow.

"Octavia?"

"Hi!" the girl exclaims, quickly snapping her head back up with eyes stretched wide, "sorry, I was just… trying to figure out how to say this."

"It's okay," Pyrrha laughs, "take your time, although maybe we could at least walk towards the cafeteria together? I didn't have much for breakfast and I'm feeling pretty hungry."

"Of course! Although… I wouldn't eat too much if I were you, Coach scheduled another practice for tonight."

"I know!" She groans, "and we don't even have any meets until the spring season!"

"Well she's dead set on us winning Nationals this year," Octavia sighs, "and apparently that means working us like dogs for the next eight months."

"Well, it'll all be worth it once we're standing on that podium at the end of the year."

"Maybe you'll be standing on the podium, you're like the star of the team. As for the rest of us..."

"Hey," Pyrrha says, "you got second at the last meet of the fall season and that was up against some of the best schools in the district, I'd say you're a favorite to take plenty of events too."

The girl flashes her a grateful smile, "you're too sweet Pyrrha."

"I meant every word Octavia," she answers with a smile of her own, "now, what was it that you wanted to ask me?"

Almost instantly the girl's cheerful demeanor disappears, once again taking on the same nervous energy that had been present before.

"Well… actually, it… was kind of about… Winter Ball."

"Winter Ball?" Pyrrha repeats slowly, "what about it?"

"Well…" Octavia continues, nervously tightening her grip on the straps of her messenger bag, "there's only like two weeks left until the dance and normally I would just go in a group with my friends, but now that we're seniors they keep telling me that I should at least try to get a date before we graduate and I didn't really know how to respond so I told them I'd try, but now I'm realizing that the girls are supposed to ask for this one but I don't really have any idea how to ask someone and…"

"Woah Octavia, slow down!" She interrupts, inwardly a little relieved that the girl hadn't been coming to her for something more serious.

"Sorry…" Octavia answers sheepishly.

"Okay… so you're looking for a date?"

"Yes."

"And why did you think to come to me about this? I'm probably the last person anyone would look to for dating advice."

"Well… actually…"

Realization finally hits and she raises an eyebrow as a small smile spreads across her face. "You already have someone in mind."

She has to fight back a triumphant laugh at the sudden blush that forms on the girl's cheeks.

"Who is it?" Pyrrha asks.

Before she knows it her mind is already racing through the possibilities. At first she mainly pictures guys that she knows on the track team, she knows for a fact how many of them had taken a notice to Octavia over the years, but then she realizes that she'd never actually seen the girl really acknowledge any of their teammates in that way.

And then there's the fact that she'd actually come forward to ask her about it, which could only mean that it's one of her friends… oh god, what if it's Jaune?

Fortunately she doesn't get much further in her ridiculously irrational spiraling before Octavia finally breaks the silence.

"It's… Neptune…" the girl mumbles.

She actually has to stop herself from letting out a sigh of relief, she's not sure what she would've done if it turned out that Octavia had developed feelings for Jaune, but now that she thinks about it, she really should have seen this one coming.

After all, Neptune and Octavia did spend a lot of time together. They took a lot of the same classes, she's pretty sure they'd been lab partners for basically all their science classes for at least the past year and a half, and they even worked on the yearbook together.

And then there's this vague memory that suddenly pops into her head of the two of them talking during some school event a little while ago where they actually seemed to be hitting it off. It's something that she had originally intended to follow up with one of them on, but can't quite remember why she didn't.

"Neptune huh?" Pyrrha says, her smile quickly growing into an ear to ear grin, "how long has this been going on?"

"Well nothing's happened," Octavia replies, face growing redder by the second, "but I mean… I've kind of liked him for a while now… although I guess it really started when we were assigned to take pictures for the Homecoming game last year."

She slowly nods her head as the memory starts flooding back.

It had been one of those rare nights where their entire group had actually been more or less free of all of their extracurriculars and decided to make the best of it, with Nora being surprisingly convincing that they should all actually go to one of the school games together. And despite knowing very little about football, Nora and Sun had been able to explain enough of it for her to not be completely lost the entire night.

But of course, the main highlight had really been all the gossip that the event had generated, with whispers going back and forth over Ruby and Weiss, who had yet to start dating at the time, Blake and Yang, who in typical fashion spent the whole time awkwardly stealing glances at each other, and of course, Neptune and Octavia, who Nora had decided to keep a close eye on the entire night even as the two of them snapped pictures for the yearbook.

And of course she can't really leave out how nervous she had been because at some point in the night she had somehow ended up sitting next to Jaune.

In retrospect, that's probably why she had struggled so hard to recall the events of the night when Octavia had first mentioned it.

"I remember that." Pyrrha says, "you two spent like the entire night together right?"

"Yeah…" Octavia replies sheepishly, "I had never really spent time with him outside of school before and there was just this whole other side to him that I'd never seen."

"He's a really great guy," she agrees.

"Yeah, the only problem is that I could never really tell if he was actually interested in me or if he was just being nice like he is to everyone else, so I was kind of wondering…"

Octavia trails off, nervously dropping her head back to the ground.

"I could… talk to him about you if you want." Pyrrha suggests, sensing that the girl might not ever be able to get the words out. "I mean I'm almost certain that he likes you but…"

"Could you?" Octavia says, eyes lighting up in this way that Pyrrha can't help but find absolutely adorable. "Pyrrha that would be amazing, I'll… take you out to lunch or something after, whatever you want."

"You don't have to do that," she laughs, "I'm more than happy to help. But I'll still get lunch with you sometime."

"Thank you so much Pyrrha!"

"You're very welcome. Hopefully I can just bring it up when I see him in like five minutes but either way I'll text you."

"Oh there's no rush," Octavia replies, "thanks again Pyrrha, you're the best!"

With that the girl rushes forward to give her a quick hug before taking off down the hallway, leaving Pyrrha to walk the last few feet to the cafeteria on her own.

And she has to admit that the whole interaction has her in a pretty good mood. There's something about seeing her friends get together that she can't ever get enough of, and of course it helps that in this case there's significantly less drama than… certain other friends.

But her smile disappears when she gets down to the lunchroom to find Nora anxiously pacing back and forth just outside the door.

"Nora?" She says, "is everything okay?"

"There you are!" The shorter girl exclaims, "where have you been?"

"I was… talking to Octavia, didn't Ren tell you?"

"He did but… you know what, that doesn't matter, you haven't checked your phone recently have you?"

"My phone? No, my morning classes are all kind of intense so I don't really get much of a chance to look at it much."

Nora lets out a frustrated groan, quickly running a hand through her hair. "God, of course, I should have figured as much."

"Sorry, have you been texting me or something?"

"Well, not exactly… I kind of got my phone taken away last period, but my teacher just wouldn't listen when I told her that it was an emergency!"

"What? Nora, what's going on?"

Nora purses her lips, letting out a heavy sigh before finally bringing her head back up. "Well… this morning in Homeroom…"

The girl trails off suddenly, eyes snapping past Pyrrha as a familiar voice chimes in from behind her.

"Have either of you seen Yang?"

Pyrrha turns around to find Weiss rushing up to them, wearing a similarly distressed expression on her face.

"Yang?" She repeats, "no, not since this morning. Why?"

"She wasn't in the library during our free period." The heiress answers, "she isn't answering her phone either."

"What…"

"God, you two are unbelievable!" Nora interrupts, causing both of them to stop at the girl's unexpected outburst.

"Nora?" Weiss says, "what are you…"

She doesn't get a chance to continue before Nora whips out her phone, giving it a few light taps before shoving it in their faces.

It takes a second for her shock to fade enough for her to process what she's seeing beyond some vague recognition of a social media app, but once she's actually able to read the words displayed on the screen, her heart sinks into her stomach and her mouth goes dry.

Blake Belladonna: I'm so excited to announce to everyone that I've just confirmed my enrollment to the University of Mistral for next Fall…

Pyrrha tears her eyes away from the screen, not needing, or even willing to read any further, her heart furiously pounding in her chest.

"Has Yang seen this?" She asks quietly.

"She… she did." Nora answers, "this morning in Homeroom. God, I should have stopped her! I could've…"

"Nora this isn't your fault." Pyrrha interrupts, "there's no way you could have known about this beforehand."

"Still…" Nora mumbles.

"I'm calling her." Weiss says suddenly, already reaching for her phone.

But Nora interrupts her before she can even open up her contracts. "Don't bother, I called her like a dozen times after Sun told me that he didn't see her in second period. I think she turned off her phone."

With that Weiss lets out a frustrated groan. "Of course she did."

"Where do you think she went?" Pyrrha asks, "do you think we should go look for her? I mean me and Nora have next period off."

"She could literally be anywhere." Weiss answers angrily, "and even with your free period there isn't enough time for you to search all of town on your own."

"We could still check her house maybe…"

"It's up to you two I suppose, but I would probably wait and see if Ruby hears anything after school."

Pyrrha lets out a heavy sigh, frustratedly running a hand through her hair. "You're probably right."

The three of them fall into an uncomfortable silence for a moment, each of them lost in their own thoughts at this sudden development.

"Has anyone talked to Blake?" Nora finally asks, looking up between the two of them.

"Not since third period." Weiss answers, "but I can't help but notice that she hasn't shown up for lunch. Unless she's already inside?"

"No such luck." Nora grumbles. "But given that she didn't show up for lunch yesterday either…"

Weiss lets out a frustrated huff. "She's not answering her phone either. I swear these two… I'm going to stop by her house after school today and get some answers out of her."

"Weiss…" Pyrrha says.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just… maybe we should take it easy on them for a couple days."

"I'm not going to go yell at her or anything, I'm just exhausted by all of this. It's all secrets and lies, nobody ever finds out about anything until the worst possible moment. God, I'm so sick of this!"

Pyrrha's eyes go wide at the heiress's forceful tone, shooting a quick, concerned glance at Nora, unsurprisingly finding a similar expression on the girl's face.

"Weiss…" she says carefully, "is everything okay?"

Weiss's eyes go wide and she lets out a heavy sigh, loosening her iron grip on the strap of her shoulder bag.

"There's something you guys don't know." Weiss finally says.

Pyrrha shares another look with Nora, once again seeing her confusion mirrored in the girl's eyes before motioning for the heiress to continue.

"I talked to Blake the other day," Weiss says, taking another deep breath to gather herself, "she told me why she's been so against revealing her feelings to Yang, why she's running away."

Pyrrha falls back onto the coarse, scratchy turf of the school's indoor football field and immediately brings her hands up to cover her face. She knows she has to get it together, her coach would blow a gasket if she saw her slacking off during practice like she is now, but she can't help it. Weiss's words about Blake, the story about the boy that Blake liked when she was younger and the accident that had happened because she'd let her feelings get out of control hadn't left her mind for a second since first hearing it before lunch.

She had spent her entire free period with Nora afterwards bouncing ideas back and forth about what they could possibly do to help, but in the end they'd pretty much gotten just as far as Weiss had: absolutely nowhere. They couldn't even come to a decision about whether or not to tell Yang.

But for all the turmoil she's feeling, she has to admit that there are a lot of things that are definitely starting to make a lot more sense now. If anything she's actually surprised that Blake hadn't had an even more serious reaction to all the pressure they'd put on her. She herself certainly wouldn't have reacted as well if something like that had happened to her.

But with that thought she goes back to the same thought that she'd been juggling all afternoon: what are they supposed to do now?

It certainly doesn't feel right to keep pressuring Blake into a relationship that she doesn't feel comfortable with, even considering how great Yang would treat her. And she wants to say that there's still a chance that being with Yang could actually help with Blake's trauma, but no matter how she spins it, she can't really justify continuing with their meddling after all the damage they've already done.

She's brought out of her thoughts by a gentle nudge to her shoulder and she quickly opens her eyes to see Octavia kneeling on the ground next to her with a concerned look on her face.

"Pyrrha? Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she answers, quickly sitting up, "why do you ask?"

"Well it's just… I called your name a couple times."

"I'm sorry, I was just… spacing out."

Octavia raises an eyebrow before flashing her a cheeky grin. "Pyrrha Nikos spacing out? Never thought I'd see the day."

"Oh shush, it's just been a really long day."

"Well that's a relief, I was starting to worry that maybe you were upset because I asked you about Neptune."

"What? Why would I be upset about that?"

Octavia sheepishly runs a hand through her hair, nervously fussing with the end of her ponytail.

"I don't know… I just got this crazy idea in my head that maybe I'd done something really insensitive by asking you to help with someone you could actually have a crush on yourself. But then I realized how stupid that was, I mean everyone knows how crazy you are about Jaune and…"

"Wait…" she cuts in, eyebrows furrowing slightly, "what?"

Octavia's eyes immediately go wide. "No I don't… I didn't mean everyone, I was just..."

"Oh my god." Pyrrha groans, already feeling the blood starting to rush to her cheeks.

"If it's any consolation," Octavia says, "everyone thinks you two are really cute together."

She's just on the verge of burying her head in her hands again when she hears the blaring tone of their coach's whistle.

"Oh right," Octavia continues, "Coach sent me over here to get you to wake up."

Pyrrha gives the girl a quick nod in response, letting out a light huff as she hops up to her feet. She's just reaching back to tighten her ponytail when she feels her phone vibrate in her back pocket.

For a second she thinks about just tossing it into her bag, after all it would definitely get in the way during practice, but she decides to sneak a quick glance, only for her heart to once again sink into her stomach when she reads the text displayed on the screen.

New Text Message from Ruby Rose: Yang still hasn't come home.


Author's Note: Had a random thought to throw in some members from Team NDGO so the first one to join this story is Octavia! We never really got much of NDGO in canon so thought they might be cool as extra characters to add to the story. But of course the big thing is that Blake is leaving for sure and Pyrrha/Nora are finding about about Blake's past while Yang is left on her own. A lot of pieces are starting to move around here so hope you all liked it and thanks for reading!