Chapter 1: New Warmth
There were no alarms. It was Sunday, and it'd been a long night after all.
Yang wasn't sure if she was the first awake or not. It was a fair bet, though. She generally was an early riser; even on her days off she liked to get out, go for a run or hit the gym.
But today she lay in bed, a finger of sunlight nuzzling her cheek, staring sightlessly at the white plaster of the ceiling as she turned the still-raw memories over and over in her head.
It wasn't a dream, right?
She sat up slowly, peering across the room, and received no answer. The bunk directly across from hers held a familiar ball of sheets and wayward limbs, emanating faint, high-pitched snores at regular intervals which drew a smile from Yang's sleepy heart. Ruby's off in slumberland, all's right with the world.
And looking below, a perfectly dissimilar scene: A relaxed face framed by white hair, an island in an ocean of blue silk which was otherwise smooth and unwrinkled. It'd always seemed bizarre to Yang how Weiss could apparently lie back onto her pillow and sleep in perfect stillness, but now the image drew different thoughts to mind. Weiss looked like a princess out of a faerie-tale, a sleeping beauty to be woken with a kiss.
Yang smiled, letting a little unfamiliar affection bleed into her expression, remembering the events of the night before, the motions of clever hands and lips. I guess I couldgo wake sleeping beauty right now. She'd probably yell at me though.
She craned her neck over the edge of the bed, peering down at the final member of her little family away from home. Yellow eyes stared back up at her.
Yang grinned. "Hey!" she whispered. "G'morning."
Blake freed a hand from her sheets to give a little wave.
"You getting up?"
Blake's ears flattened, and she tugged her covers up to cover her nose. She shook her head.
Yang stifled a snicker. Awwwww… I love a sleepy Blakey.
Still… just because Blake wasn't getting up didn't mean Yang couldn't have her own fun.
She hefted herself off her bed and landed in a crouch that was very nearly silent. Blake regarded her with baleful eyes, the rest of her face still masked by the covers. Yang just gestured towards the bed with a cheeky grin. "Mind if I join you?"
Blake managed to perfectly convey 'I'm too tired for this shit' with nothing more than the arch of her eyebrows. Still, she slowly dragged herself up towards sitting, and patted the side closer to the wall.
Yang slipped quickly in beside her, snuggling down beneath the sheets. They settled into the usual position, with Yang as the big spoon, cradling Blake in her arms, pressing her forehead into Blake's hair and breathing in the faint scent of lavender and something earthy and sweet she'd never quite been able to name. She felt Blake's hand trail back, squeezing hers tight.
"Yesterday really happened, right?" Blake asked, so soft that it hardly seemed real.
Yang smiled, planting a kiss between Blake's ears, right where she loved it. "If you remember it too, then probably ?" She looked across the room, following the lines of Weiss's chin, the so-delicate silhouette of her small body beneath the sheets. "Man, she's pretty. It's nice to be able to acknowledge that, huh?"
A deep sigh. "Yeah."
"You were bottling this up for a long time, huh?" Yang scratched lightly at one of Blake's feline ears, then dragged her finger down through tangled black to circle around a hominid one, enjoying the way Blake shuddered at each touch.
"...Yeah."
Yang shifted and hugged Blake close, pressing gentle kisses into her hair, down to the back of her neck. Gentle, teasing, comforting things, and Blake leaned into them, a low vibration growing in her chest as she huddled back into Yang's core, spine to belly.
It was a nice way to spend a morning.
Then something caught Yang's eye. The pile of limbs on her sister's bed had been shifting for a while, but now the limbs retracted, reordering themselves. A wreath of sleep-spiked hair bobbed up over the edge, and a silver glare bored into the cuddling girls.
"Uh oh, we're caught," Blake said. She didn't sound very apologetic.
Yang grinned, waving at her sister with the hand that wasn't pinned under Blake. Ruby waved halfheartedly back, and proceeded to pout adorably at them.
"I think she wants cuddles too," Blake said.
Yang rolled her eyes, scooching back towards the wall. "Well, let's give her room." Blake's ears perked up. She did as requested.
Seeing this, Ruby let out a little "eee!" sound and zoomed out of her bed at full semblance, landing with relative grace and leaving a trail of rose petals to fall across the room. The instant she ceased being composed entirely of abstracted flowers, she dove under the covers without a second thought, snuggling up to Blake with a happy little giggle, burying her face in the crook of Blake's neck. "Thank you," she murmured.
Blake chuckled, planting a kiss on Ruby's forehead, but Yang's attention lay elsewhere.
She watched as a single rose petal, drifting astray on an errant current, swayed and swum down through the air until it came in for a perfect ten-point landing right on the tip of the sleeping princess's nose.
Blue eyes opened, and crossed to regard it.
There was a beat, as the rustle of Ruby wiggling deeper into the cuddle pile drifted through the still air. She found herself a perfect spot as the littlest spoon, and looked up just as Weiss turned her imperious gaze upon them all.
Ruby gulped, suddenly stiff as a spooked deer. "H-hey!" she squeaked. "G'morning Weiss!"
Weiss pushed herself up on one arm, plucking the rose petal between two fingers to examine it in the morning light. She then turned and regarded the pile of girls with a calm expression, tilting her head up slightly and squinting.
"Uh," Ruby said, wiggling to extract herself, but Weiss held up a hand.
"Please, allow me a moment to savor this image," she said. "My girlfriend, in bed with two other women less than two days after confessing to me." Her lips quirked, her eyes narrow and playful. "Whatever will the papers say?"
Yang just rolled her eyes as her sister buried her face in shame. "You too Ice Queen," she said, beckoning with her free hand.
Weiss rose, her sheets flowing off her like water, down off that pretty little nightgown of hers. Badly feigning confidence, she strode across the room.
It was a very tight fit, awkward in the extreme. They wriggled about, shifting and trying to make it work. Eventually, they settled on a configuration—Ruby tucked in between Weiss and Blake, with Yang as the big spoon for all of them, pressing up against Weiss's back and using her height to curl all the way around to Blake again. It wasn't elegant, but it was warm, and soft, and if it wasn't the most comfortable arrangement, nobody was complaining.
Ruby breathed out a gentle sigh, pressing her face into Blake's chest as Weiss hugged her close behind. "This is the best. Ten out of ten, Team RWBY wins."
"Being buried in girlfriends is a nice way to spend a Sunday," Weiss agreed, nuzzling into the back of Ruby's head. "That… is what we are now, right? Girlfriends?"
Yang shrugged, pressing a kiss to Weiss's forehead. "Pretty much, yeah. We're going to have to tell people something anyway; if last night is any indication I'm not sure subtle will work for us."
"It's… not like we need to tell anyone," Blake said. "Team CFVY doesn't, and they seem to be doing fine."
Ruby let out a little whine. "No secrets, though!" She looked up at Blake, her eyes big and shining. "I don't want to hide how much I love you," she said, then tilted her head to look at Weiss. "Or you! It's fine with me if we don't tell everyone, but… unless you're really uncomfortable with it I want to be able to be affectionate with you two, and not just in this room or when we're alone. I'm not ashamed of how I feel for you, of any of this." She faltered. "But, if you guys really don't want to, I guess—"
Blake cut that off with a hand on Ruby's cheek and then with a kiss, smooth and slow. Ruby made a sound that was halfway happy and halfway something else Yang wasn't really prepared to quantify.
When they broke, Blake stared into Ruby's eyes with utter seriousness. "I'm not ashamed," she said. "And I won't be. Ever."
"Same for me as well," Weiss murmured, squeezing Ruby tighter even as she looked to Yang for support. "We promised as much last night, remember?"
"That we did," Yang smiled, shifting a little so she could kiss Weiss, a little less long and deep than the one before, but just as true. "And, yeah, same for me." She sighed, relaxing into the warmth at her chest, outside and in. "We should prooobably tell team JNPR though, right?"
"We tell Nora and the whole school will know by sundown," Weiss grumbled. "Still, it would save us from having to tell people ourselves."
"Efficiency!" Ruby cheered, plunging her face directly into Blake's chest in celebration.
Blake rolled her eyes, scratching Ruby's head absently. There was a pause, drawn out, as breathing slowed and they all shifted a little closer to one another.
Weiss hummed, reaching up to run her fingers through Blake's hair. She hesitated, fingers tensed as she neared Blake's feline ears, and after a moment Blake's fingers delicately closed around her wrist and guided her forward. The touch drew a little shudder out of Blake, as she showed Weiss what she'd once showed Yang, the right motions, where to be gentle, where to scratch deep. Before long, she let Weiss's hand go, and settled deeper into her embrace with Ruby, clutching her tight as a slow rumble built in her chest.
Yang grinned so hard it hurt, watching them all, before she felt something shift. Weiss freed her other hand, letting it trail back across the sheets and settle on absentmindedly on Yang's inner thigh, heedless of the rush of heat the little action caused. Or, not so heedless, as she turned her head to give Yang a wordless smirk before settling back in like it was nothing.
Yang sucked in a breath. Ooooooh she's gonna kill me so dead.
Blake glanced up to regard both of them with knowing aloofness, tinged just-perceptibly with enough affection to cover the world. "Is there even a reason to get up?" she said. "We actually could spend all day like this."
"Food…" Ruby murmeled weakly into Blake's boobs. With a regretful sigh, she retreated from that little slice of heaven, forcing Weiss to quit her ministrations as well. "Plus… Jaune wanted to meet with us today, remember?"
A sober chill settled over them. With everything else that'd happened yesterday, the events of the previous morning had slipped their minds.
Blake let out an illegible little grumble, reaching out to drag Yang's hand from Weiss's shoulder to her own hip. "Five more minutes."
Yang snickered, stretching forward to kiss her. "Nerd," she pronounced.
"No no," Blake said seriously. "I'm a scoundrel now, remember?"
"Dolt!" Ruby mumbled happily, pointing to herself, then "Lout!" at Yang.
Weiss shrunk into Yang's embrace with. "You are all the worst and I hate that I love you."
"But you do love us," Yang said, grinning as she squeezed the pretty little princess tight. "And we love you, Icy Weissy."
Weiss turned on her shoulder, giving Yang a look that stank of death and famine. "Call me that again, and I will destroy you in ways you only mostly enjoy."
"That so?" Yang grinned, leaning in to give Weiss a big, slow kiss. Weiss seemed to agree with this, if the way she grabbed the back of Yang's head to keep her there was any indication. Yang was ready for it to break whenever… and then she felt teeth on her lower lip and the whole arrangement seemed very warm all of a sudden.
"Mhmm," Ruby muttered, looking up at them with a knowing smirk. "Spicy Weissy." Blake let out an abrupt snort of laughter.
Weiss finally let Yang go, staring into her blown eyes with the smirk of an artist satisfied with her work. Then she turned, just in time for Blake to catch her, pulling her into a kiss that was just as deep. Pressed between their bodies, Ruby giggled, looking on with shining eyes.
Blake parted, leaving her finger pressed up against Weiss's chin, tilting her head to expose her flushed neck. This seemed to please Blake, as she flicked her attention to Ruby with a clever grin.
Ruby moved like lightning, darting in and planting a series of quick kisses up Weiss's neck, slowing only as her lips traced the shell of Weiss's ear.
"I love you," she whispered, and caught the lobe in her teeth.
And oh, the shudder that produced.
Yang hummed, pressing against Weiss from behind, grinning like an idiot at the way the girl melted into her, the trembling weight of raw happiness in her arms. "You said five more minutes, but… maybe fifteen. Fifteen minutes. Sound good?"
Nobody disagreed.
A/N:
Special thanks to FriendofYggdrasil and Sgt. Chrysalis for the beta!