Chapter 11: Subtlety

A/N:

Changed the rating to M for some fairly tame suggestive content.

Team RWBY's window faced almost directly due east.

This meant that they got a lovely view of the sunrise, should they happen to wake up early enough to see it. And with that sunrise came a square of light, divided in sixteen by the window frame, which slowly manifested itself against the bookshelves—a little to the left of the door.

As the sun continued its rise, this square of light slipped down past the old textbooks. It hit the desk, crossed the hardwood floor, edged onto the carpet, and then found the foot of Yang's bed. It continued to climb, up across shapes beneath sheets, up to illuminate stilled hands, shoulders, and then finally—

Blake groaned, turning her face against the mattress to keep the bright out of her eyes. She sniffed, disorientation shifting to confusion. She smelled… citrus and sweat. Yang?

Someone's hand was on her shoulder. It took a moment to realize it was too small to be Yang's.

Blake opened an eye, squinting sharply as the sun did unpleasant things to her unadjusted night vision. Her vision resolved the hazy image of a pale, slender arm. Another hand grasped the elbow— that hand was Yang's hand, but the rest…

She blinked, forcing her eyes to clear as she lifted herself slowly, peering at the pile of yellow and white.

It took a moment to parse what she was seeing.

Oh, right. She smiled, setting her head back down again.

As she did, another hand wrapped around her shoulder. Her… very bare shoulder. The hand then let go, darted forward, curved around her clavicle, and poked her boob.

"Hehe."

Blake stared at the offending hand for a moment, slowly parsing how very much not wearing a shirt she was. She glanced around, noticing the familiar garment hanging from Ruby's bedframe. When did that happen?

The hand poked her boob again. "Hehehe."

Blake lay back down and turned to meet silver eyes. "Good morning," she whispered.

"G'morning," Ruby yawned. She blinked the sleepy out of her eyes, and relaxed into an adorable smile. "Your boobs are cute."

"Thanks," Blake mumbled, noting that Ruby was still entirely clothed. "When did I…?"

Ruby blew out what was supposed to be a raspberry but came out as more of a wimpy ptbht. "Well, we were canoodling when Weiss realized she still had her bra on, and Yang was all 'why don't you take it off then' wink-wonk, and then you said —"

"Riiight," Blake sighed, lying back and closing her eyes as the memory of last night clicked back into place. "Was that okay? I'm sorry if that was weird, or too much, or…"

She felt Ruby's hand drift across the skin of her belly, tingling warm. "It was nice," Ruby said. She shifted, wrapping herself onto Blake's side and kissing her cheek. "You're both pretty. I like looking at you. And the canoodling was pretty good too."

Blake chuckled, and a blush crept onto her face as she felt Ruby nuzzle into her neck. Pthala be praised. Her smile twitched. And Pruth be praised too, because last night's 'canoodling' session definitely went a little past 'romantic.'

She felt Ruby poke at her boob again. Then, she felt a poke at her other boob.

"Hehehe."

"Hehehe."

"Good morning, Yang," Blake said, she tilted her head, finding the vivid purple of her eyes, shining in a halo of wild gold hair. Like Ruby she was fully clothed, but that hardly made her any less stunning.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Blake replied. "You good?"

Yang's face took on a serious look. "I've got some bad news, Blake. I dunno how to tell you this, but I think I'm attracted to you. Worse, I think I'm in love. "

Blake resisted the impulse to chuckle. "Oh no," she deadpanned. "What a terrible thing. And what's worse, I seem to be in love with you as well. How will we ever survive."

"The true tragedy is that I'm somehow in love with two jerks who won't let me sleep," Weiss grumbled, lifting her head to glare at Blake. She was using Yang as a mattress, and like Blake she was also not wearing a shirt, pale white cascading down across her body in a manner that was... utterly beyond Blake's capacity for words.

Ruby started humming a happy little tune. "I'm happy," she said.

"We can tell," Weiss murmured, laying her head back on Yang's chest. "It's a good look on you."

"You're cute," Ruby said. She wiggled up over Blake, reaching out to poke Weiss in the boob.

"She is cute," Blake agreed, extending her finger to do the same. Weiss gave them both a raised eyebrow for their trouble, but made no effort to stop them.

"Thirded," Yang agreed, smooching Weiss on the top of her head. "This… this was alright. We should do this again."

"Tonight?" Ruby suggested. "And tomorrow night?"

Blake felt a twinge of anxiety. "I don't know," she said, reluctantly. "This was nice, but... too much more sleeping together might be a bit overwhelming for me."

This was met with nods all around. "You can use my bed, if that's alright," Weiss said. "Since yours is…" she made a vague downward gesture.

Blake's chest clenched as she realized the implication. Though nobody had thought about it at the time, this new arrangement meant her bed was functionally a communal resource now.

And that... actually hit her kinda hard. Her bunk at Beacon was the first permanent space she'd ever had to call her own. Yes it was small, and yes it was in a shared dorm room, but it'd been a place that was hers. And that… meant more to her than she'd realized.

It seemed the others had noticed her inner turmoil, patiently waiting for her to speak.

"Is… it bad if I maybe need an actual space of my own?" she asked. "I don't want to break this up, but…"

"You can have my bed?"

Ruby's hands were on her hands, silver eyes looking into yellow. "I like this," Ruby said. "Like, a lot. I think I might never want to sleep alone again." She looked away, suddenly quite pink. "It's fine if you want to take your bed back, I'd just put mine down here, but—"

"No, that's…" Blake felt sweetness welling up in her chest. "Thank you. That… would be really nice I think."

Ruby's face turned into a brilliant smile. "Mmm," she mumbled, nuzzling into Blake's belly. "I wanna make sure you're comfy."

"I know. Thank you." Blake let her eyes close again, feeling a warm rumble in the back of her throat. For a moment, she held it back like she always did, but… she didn't have to with them, did she?

Blake purred.

Not the quiet rumble she occasionally let slip when she was happy, either. Full-on, resonant and soothing.

Ruby startled a little at the sudden vibration but then let out a sleepy giggle and settled back in. "I'm gonna cry," she whispered. "Oh my god Blake."

Weiss was staring at her in complete and utter awe. Yang just looked on with that same dreamy smugness as always.

The sun was well on top of them all now, but instead of wincing at the glare Blake basked in the warmth, running her fingers through Ruby's hair. It was always softer than she expected, and as the strands separated around her fingers she could see the wine-red color that so often looked like black.

The smell of roses and gunpowder.

Blake's purring only grew. Wish I could stay in bed all day. Even though that's kinda how yesterday went.

Yesterday.

Which was Sunday.

Wait.

She stopped purring, unwilling to sit up and dislodge Ruby. "So… what time is it?"

Weiss's eyes got big—bigger, as Yang casually lifted the girl off her chest and set her down between herself and the others. She then reached down off the bed and plucked her scroll from where she'd stuck it the night before. She stared at it for a moment. "Uhhhhhhhh… ten minutes till eight?"

Blake blinked. "And Gardenia's class starts…?"

"At eight," Yang confirmed.

There was a tragic pause.

"Our breakfast…" Ruby moaned, slumping off Blake and sinking her face into the pillow. "Ugh, and we slept through dinner last night too."

Weiss sat up, resolution settling onto her features. She hopped primly out of bed, shrugging off the rest of her clothes as she strutted over to the dresser, ignoring Ruby's squeak of surprise and Yang's quiet whistle of appreciation. "We'll have a big lunch, now shut up and get ready," she said over her shoulder. "We're not making it to class late just because I love you."

Blake laughed as they fell out of bed, feeling lighter than she had in years. She'd just gathered her clothes and was about to head off to the bathroom as usual, when an insistent little thought grabbed her.

Standing in the middle of the dorm room, her hands drifted to the button of her pants. She hesitated, but for only a second, then slipped it free.

She changed more quickly than the others, but nobody commented on it. Blake wasn't even sure if anyone looked. But once they were dressed, Weiss turned and hugged her without saying a word.

They broke out onto the grounds into the brilliant morning sunshine with less than four minutes to spare. The year's first flowers bloomed among the shoots that lined the path, dew and the smell of spring swirling around them as they tore towards the lecture hall.

They arrived with maybe a minute to spare, piling into their customary seats. Yang had been laughing hysterically for a while by this point, and collapsed gratefully onto the desk in front of her. "God. We are stupid ."

Blake slumped bonelessly against her side. "We're all utterly hopeless," she agreed. "Did we even set an alarm? I don't think we did."

"Ex cuse me," Weiss huffed, settling down beside Blake and whipping out her notebook. She was, predictably, the only one who'd thought to grab one. "I refuse to take the blame for any of this."

Next to her, Ruby threw her hands up into the air. "Oh you are totally guilty too, Miss 'I won't stop being gorgeous long enough to let Ruby sleep!'"

Yang reached out across the desk to poke at Weiss's hand. "I don't think Weiss can turn off being pretty," she said. "I sure haven't seen her do it."

The comment earned Yang a patented Ice Queen Glare . "Oh you know just how smooth you are, don't you?"

Yang regarded her with a teasing smile, enjoying the playful indignance in those icy blues. "You don't like it?"

"Oh, I absolutely love it," Weiss sniffed. "But it's exceptionally annoying."

A throat was cleared, drawing RWBY's attention forward, to where Professor Alexis Gardenia was staring at them over her notes. Yang observed that about half the class was also looking their way with a smattering of puzzled or irritated expressions.

The professor let the silence linger only a moment. "If you're all quite finished?" she said. "Let's begin."

Without further ado, she launched into the lecture. Gardenia was a little Atlesian woman with a big voice, and an expert in the fine art of pointing powerfully. Despite teaching "Professional Hunting," which was basically a business class, she actually managed to make paperwork sound interesting enough to wake Yang the rest of the way up. Alas, nothing could save poor Ruby, who dozed off against Weiss's shoulder halfway through the lecture and never recovered.

Halfway through, though, Yang was yanked away from Gardenia's captivating slideshow on Hunter-specific exemptions in Valish income tax law by a subtle nudge on the shoulder from her lovely partner.

She glanced over, catching Blake's eye. Blake passed her a piece of paper—filched from Weiss's notebook, if her twitchy eyelid was reliable evidence. On it was a message in purple gel pen.

'Don't react, but we're being watched.'

Yang's eyebrows rose, but she managed to keep from looking around. Blake flicked her a yellow pen under the table and Yang caught it with practiced ease, casually bringing it out to jot down her response. 'Who?'

Blake penned her response with lightning precision. 'Hikari + Taffeta from HTHR. Florence + Wister + Roan from FLWR. + the usual ROYL death glare.'

Yang resisted the overwhelming urge to roll her eyes at the last one. 'Uh oh. Better watch out for CRDL 2.0.'

Blake snorted, covering it with a cough. 'True terror.' She paused, her brows knitting, and she jotted down a longer note. 'FWR like gossip, no surprise. Don't know why H and T though. It's actually weirding me out?'

Yang let her eyes flicker off to the right. HTHR were sitting together near the entrance. Four girls: Heather, Taffeta, Hikari, and and Ruth. Sure enough, after a few seconds, Taffeta snuck a peek at them. She was struggling to maintain a mask of placid focus, but she wasn't a very good actor.

She was at least trying for subtlety though. As Yang was watching Taffeta shoot awkward half-glances their way, Hikari just turned her whole head. Their eyes locked, and after an awkward moment, Hikari smiled and gave a little wave, before turning to whisper something to her teammate. Taffeta's dark cheeks darkened further, and an arm made of purplish-red aura flashed into existence specifically to slap Hikari on the back of her head.

Yang and Blake gave each other baffled looks. Then a new paper slid its way in front of them, bearing a message in perfect blue ballpoint.

'I agree that it's strange, but would you two please focus? I'm already going to have to teach this class to one dolt as it is.'

Yang chuckled. 'Fair enough,' she wrote on the side of Weiss's note. After a moment's consideration, she added a little heartas well.

Weiss looked down at the paper, and a little smile tugged at the edge of her mouth. She quickly penned her own little heart mirroring Yang's, aligned so that the tips were touching.

Yang let loose a dramatic gasp, clutching her heart in mock astonishment. Weiss stuck out her tongue, just for an instant, before going back to writing her notes like the model student she was.

Then Blake, who'd been watching the two of them with blatant amusement through all of this, added another little heart perpendicular to theirs, such that all three of the points were connected.

Yang giggled, and Weiss nearly lost her composure. She stayed facing steadfastly forward, but the big goofy smile on her face just made it look like she'd suddenly fallen in love with compound interest.

Inspiration hit. Yang looked at Blake, and at Weiss, and with a flick of her pen circled the three hearts together.

Below it, she wrote 'The Bees' Schnees.'

Blake choked, having to put a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter. Weiss stared down at the note for a moment with a kind of flustered disdain.

With a firm stroke, she crossed out Yang's note, then wrote her own directly below it.

'Schnee's Bees.'

Now it was Yang who had to clap her hands on her mouth to keep from cackling. Blake doubled over, head in hands in lap, shaking with barely constrained hilarity.

"Team RWBY? Is there something funny happening that I'm not aware of?"

Yang looked up, fighting desperately to maintain her composure. Blake was still curled in on herself, laughing too hard at this point to breathe, much less sit up and face the music. Ruby, of course, was still sleeping.

And Weiss, beautiful, incredible, impossible Weiss, simply tilted her head and smiled. "Not at all, Professor."

Professor Gardenia's eyes narrowed. "Is that so? Then would Miss Rose please explain how the Valish tax system handles bounties awarded to licensed Hunters?

And without missing a fucking beat, Ruby spoke. "The normal income tax is cut by seventy-five percent for any bounty over ten million lien, in half for any bounty between that and one hundred thousand lien, and isn't collected at all for anything less."

Blake and Yang had both recovered enough to sit up and gape at Ruby in outright incredulity. Ruby still had her head on Weiss's shoulder. She hadn't even opened her eyes .

"Correct," Gardenia said. "And the reasoning?"

"Well, 'cause Vale wants Hunters to do more missions?" Ruby said, shrugging with the unoccupied side of her body. "More specifically, it makes it less necessary for Hunters to get civilian jobs to support themselves. It also encourages Hunters to take more lower-paying missions, since they're tax-exempt."

"Very good." Gardenia said, her eyebrows lifting. "However, I'm still going to have to ask you not to sleep in class."

"I'm not sleeping," Ruby said. "I'm just enjoying my girlfriend's shoulder. It's very nice, but I can pay attention too."

Yang's soul was leaving her body, Weiss was pink as a Vacuan sunset, Blake was in a hysterical little coma, and the whole class was looking at them like they were insane. Which, probably wasn't that far off.

Gardenia let out the kind of sigh that spoke of many, many years of teaching rowdy teenagers how to get paid for their violence. "Very well," she groaned. "As I was saying…"

Gradually, the class came back under her control, but Yang found she couldn't stop grinning the whole time. Weiss kept smirking as well, while Blake just tried to play it off between fits of giggles. Ruby tried to maintain the 'serious team leader' facade, but propriety had never been her strong suit, and eventually even she let slip a little giggle.

When the bell rang and things wrapped up, Yang glanced over to catch Taffeta practically carrying her teammates out the door. Hikari turned around once more to smile and wave, only to be grabbed by a pair of spectral arms and forcibly dragged from the room.

Definitely weird, Yang thought, right as Weiss grabbed her and yanked her into a group huddle.

"You dolts are adorable, but this cannot become a pattern," she said, her voice low.

"I thought I was a scoundrel," Blake said with a smirk.

Weiss glared icicles at her. "Don't you start. As enjoyable as… this is, we are at Beacon to learn to become huntresses, and I think it's extremely important to take that seriously. I love you all very much but if our relationship begins to impact our grades I will be quite upset."

"Our relationship , huh?" said a voice that didn't belong to any of them.

They turned, and found themselves face to face with one Florence McAllister, leader of team FLRW, the remainder of which were also in attendance.

"Oh, hey Flo!" Yang said brightly. She barely even knew the fourth-years—mostly through Coco—but they were at least acquaintances of hers, which as far as she knew was more than the rest of her team could say. "What's up?"

"Just thought we'd congratulate y'all," Wister said. They gave a bright smile, shifting their wiry frame to sit on one of the desks. "Welcome to the Entire Team Squad!"

It took a second for it to click.

Ruby sputtered something, waving her hands frantically. "What! Wait, how!? Was it the screen names again?"

From the back of the group, Lucia sighed and raised her hand. "Flo's semblance an emotional radar," she said dryly. "Apparently, you guys have been blasting love and affection at each other since the moment you walked in. Also, as a personal observation? You're just about the least subtle people I've seen in my life." She stepped forward, a smile settling over her sterner features. "Anyway, we know you're all team CFVY's friends already, but if you need anything feel free to hit us up."

"S-sure!" Ruby said, smiling a little too bright. "Thanks!"

"We'll leave you guys alone," Florence said, shooting a wink over her shoulder as they turned to go. "But, let us know if you wanna hang out sometime, 'kay?"

Team RWBY waved them goodbye, and there was a quiet moment as they all processed what had just happened.

Yang rubbed chin in thought. "Y'know," she said, "that's the second time in as many days that somebody's figured it out before we even had a conversation with them."

"Okay but that semblance is totally cheating!" Ruby hissed. "I know we're not subtle but come on!"

"Coco did say there were more…" Blake paused. "Polyamorous Teams here at Beacon. I guess it makes sense that they know each other?"

"And now we do too," Weiss mused. "This might just be the strangest form of networking I've ever encountered."

Yang laughed at the joke, but something caught her eye. FLW had left the room already, but their last and quietest member, Roan, lingered at the door.

He glanced up at Yang, a thoughtful look on his face.

It only lasted a second, but Yang got the funniest feeling that it meant something. Just like with Hikari and Taffeta, only… more, somehow.

Then he was gone.

A/N:

This chapter did NOT turn out the way I expected it to! At every stage, something new kept happening, but I think I've finally gotten it under control now. Originally it was around 6k words and had a whole 3 more scenes in it. The good news is, I have 3 whole scenes to wrangle into the next couple of chapters!

Also, we finally meet some OCs! They won't be stealing the spotlight too too much, but they're in there! For what it's worth, I've currently got a grand total of THIRTY original team names laid out for Beacon, plus slightly less than that for each of the other academies. Not that all of those people have names, faces, weapons, and so on, but I figured that, for a story which doesn't have to contend with limited animation budgets, it'd be neat to have a few more faces hanging around.

Thanks to FriendofYggdrasil, Sgt. Chrysalis, shockfactor, and juniorthib for the reads, and thank you for reading! I'll see yinz next time!