Heads up that this is by far the spiciest chapter to date. Still no sex, but we're getting pretty close. Bear in mind; any actual sex scenes in this story may be posted exclusively on AO3.
(If you're severely averse to reading about horny shenanigans of any kind, you can CTRL-F "Blake found her eyebrow rising" to skip the whole scene. I recommend you read at least the first few paragraphs, since you'll miss some set-up for the next chapter otherwise, but please take care of yourselves.)
EDIT: Made some extremely major changes to this chapter. Please see the end notes for details.
Chapter 10: Rising Tension
The rest of the day passed in a pleasant blur. More and more students seemed to be giving them odd or knowing looks with each passing period—Beacon's rumor mill was a terribly efficient machine—but aside from team FLWR, nobody even so much as approached them about it. Even Cardin only gave them a resigned sort of glare across the cafeteria at lunch. If there was one good thing Weiss could say about the boy, it was that he'd finally learned that the student body's solidarity outweighed his own bigotry.
Their Monday classes kept the team separate for the most part, but they all met back up for dinner in the main hall. Team JNPR made an appearance as well, slotting into the seats across from them. An awkward silence ensued, until Nora started flicking chicken nuggets at Yang, who immediately started catching them in her mouth, as was tradition. Gradually, the atmosphere cleared. Jokes were traded for laughter, good food was devoured, and an arm-wrestling rematch was foretold for the following morning.
They all said their goodbyes and retired to their dorm rooms for the night, and for a moment things almost seemed normal. Ruby flopped back on the doubled-up bed, giggling as she watched some video on her scroll. Blake settled in on the other side and pulled one of Velvet's books out of the crate—she'd somehow changed into her yukata without any of them noticing.
Yang cracked her back, shrugging off her blazer and hanging it in the closet. "I'm gonna hit the shower," she said, glancing back at her girlfriends with a grin that sent chills down Weiss's spine. "Anyone wanna join me?"
"Ew gross." Ruby stuck out her tongue.
"I think I'm good," Blake chuckled, shooting Yang a fond look over her book. "Maybe next time."
Weiss was about to snark out some inane quip about impropriety and how showers could never cleanse Yang's dirty little soul. She was about to, but then Yang's eyes found hers and her voice got lost in the headrush.
Weiss quickly analyzed the situation.
1. Yang Xiao Long was asking her to join her in the shower.
2. Yang Xiao Long was her girlfriend, and thus this was not actually an absurd request.
3. Yang Xiao Long was very attractive, and would likely only be moreso when naked and wet.
4. Weiss now had an image of Yang naked and wet in her head, and it would be lovely to test her imagination against the real thing.
Decision made.
"I'll go with you," she said casually, catching a flash of shock on Yang's face. She stood, smoothing out her skirt as she went to hang her blazer beside Yang's. "That is," she added, tugging her tie from her collar and giving Yang a low stare, " if that was a serious offer."
Blake tilted her head, ears perked.
Yang just chuckled, rolling her shoulders and walking off into the bathroom. After a last moment of trepidation, Weiss followed her.
"You're both grooooosssssss!" Ruby called after them, though the way she descended into giggles afterward suggested she probably didn't actually mind all that much. Weiss still tilted back at the last moment, making eye contact and giving her other girlfriends a questioning thumbs-up. Ruby returned the gesture, and blew her a kiss for good measure. Blake just nodded without looking away from her book, a fond smirk and a slight blush clarifying her feelings on the matter.
Weiss shut the door behind her, and felt a flurry grow in her chest as Yang immediately began to undress. "You really are shameless, aren't you?" Weiss teased, leaning back against the door with her arms crossed.
"What've I got to be ashamed of?" Yang mused. She punctuated this by shrugging off her shirt and letting it fall to the floor, revealing a remarkable landscape of muscle tone beneath that wild golden mane. She reached back and unclasped her bra, catching it and hanging it over the rack beside the shower. "Gotta warn you though, showering together is way less sexy than the movies make it look."
"I suppose I'll find out for myself," Weiss said, committing Yang's shoulders to memory. She unbuttoned her shirt, folding it neatly and setting it aside, as Yang stepped out of the rest of her clothes.
Weiss swallowed, staring her girlfriend's very naked physique. A sudden spike of anxiety cracked her confidence. "Hands to ourselves?" she asked, hesitantly.
Yang paused, still with her back to Weiss. "Do you want it that way?"
"Maybe the first time," Weiss admitted shyly.
"Then that's how it'll go," Yang said, turning to face her. She smirked, her gaze wandering down. "It'll be kinda hard not to look, though."
Weiss flushed, caught up in that increasingly familiar mix of affection and annoyance which all three of the women she loved seemed to inspire. She recovered, and dropped the rest of her clothes to the floor with a smirk. "That's quite alright," she said, going into an exaggerated stretch and observing the way Yang's eyes darkened with a little flare of pride. "In fact, I wouldn't have it any other way."
They stepped in under the water together—turned up nearly to scalding, which was how Weiss—and apparently also Yang—liked it. They settled into their various routines, and Weiss discovered the truth of Yang's words. As stunning as her girlfriend's body was, it was significantly less erotic when they were both busy scrubbing down. A companionable silence formed, more like studying together than anything.
After a moment though, Yang spoke up. "So Weiss, do you want to get lunch sometime?"
"Just the two of us?" Weiss asked, tilting her head as she lathered her shampoo carefully through her hair.
"Yeah."
"I'm not opposed, but… what brings this on?"
Yang shrugged. "'Cause I love you and I wanna spend time with you."
Weiss felt a heat that was entirely unrelated to the shower, and found herself unable to look at Yang's face—or any other part of her, for that matter. "Fair enough," she mumbled. "I need the water now, so move over."
Evidently the look on her face was amusing. "Aw, is my little snowflake melting?" Yang teased, even as she got out of the way.
Weiss drew a little composure from the pleasant sensation of scalding water running through her hair and down her back. Melting indeed. She rallied, raising an eyebrow and facing Yang head on, hands on her hips as the water streamed down her body. "Is that a complaint?" she asked, and then, in a moment of cosmic inspiration she was too addled to stop herself from having; "You seem to like seeing me wet. "
Yang's eyes bugged out, and she lost about two seconds to slackjawed staring before suddenly becoming very interested in emptying her conditioner bottle. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she mumbled.
Weiss struggled to hold her smirk, shocked by her own boldness and grateful that the water already had her skin flushed. She soon found herself faintly fascinated by the intricacies of Yang's frighteningly methodical hair care routine. She'd always appreciated Yang's incredible mane, but she'd never really given much thought to how much work it all was to maintain. It was yet another facet of the strange paradox of Yang Xiao Long; despite being outwardly uncouth, rowdy, and generally a being of chaos, she could be utterly and rigorously devoted with the things she truly cared about. Weiss was unbelievably lucky to have somehow ended up as one of the people in that category.
Eventually they swapped places again, giving Weiss a chance to start her own conditioner regimen. She fell back into her routine, her mind wandering as she set the bottle down and picked her washcloth off the curtain rod.
"You know," she mused, lathering up. "I really don't understand how you and Ruby can say 'I love you' so casually, and yet still make me believe it every time."
"It's not casual, though," Yang said. She gave Weiss a serious look. "Weiss, I've had a lot of crushes on people. I know the difference between attraction and love. And this?" She tapped a fist against her chest, smiling big and sweet. "It's love. The big kind."
Weiss felt her hand drift to her heart, squeezing her washcloth into a tight ball, the soap running through her fingers. Of course. I question if she loves me, and she just finds an even clearer and sweeter way to say it.
And of course, all this emotional intimacy was waking up the part of her that craved other kinds of intimacy, the heat spilling out of her heart and catching the rest of her body ablaze. She found herself staring at Yang, watching as the water cascaded down her body. The image only fanned the fires, and once again she had to look away.
"You're making it very hard to keep my hands to myself," she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and gripping her shoulders to keep herself honest.
Yang stopped scrubbing and slowly stood to her full height. "Hey, you were the one who wanted it that way," she pointed out, eyes lidded over a crescent grin. "I never said I was against the idea."
"True." Weiss took a step closer. Her pulse clattered in her chest as hesitation and want warred for ownership of the next thirty seconds. "I'll need to get under the water again to finish washing my hair," she finally said, lamely.
"Should we trade places, then?" Yang asked, eyes smouldering with barely suppressed smugness. She set a hand on her hip and cocked it. "Or should we share? "
Oh to the silent void with this, Weiss thought, as the last of her inhibitions evaporated. She stepped in, her washcloth falling wetly to the tiles as she slammed Yang back against the wall of the shower and kissed her hard. Her foot slipped, and with half a thought she conjured a glyph to brace herself, using the leverage and lift to slide her other leg up between Yang's, adoring the brutal, roaring heat of every millimeter of skin-contact as more and more of her higher thoughts melted to slush.
"Fuck, Weiss," Yang breathed between kisses. "You're gorgeous. I love you."
Weiss chuckled, running her hand down Yang's sternum. "So are you." She shifted around to Yang's neck, sucking a sharp kiss there, as Yang's hands twitched on her body. "And I love you too, by the way," she husked into her girlfriend—her lover's ear. "In case I haven't made that clear enough already."
Yang laughed a breathless laugh, but she didn't pull Weiss back in, some clarity coming to her eyes for a moment. "So," she panted. "How… uh… far is this going?"
Guilt juddered through Weiss's body.
Her foot fell to the floor, her glyph dissipating as she reluctantly put some space between them. "I… think this is where we stop," she said, finding herself suddenly unable to look anywhere. "There's a lot we still haven't talked about, and… this isn't the time or the place to have that discussion."
Yang nodded, sobering up. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry if it felt like I was pushing you towards—"
"No, no, I pushed myself," Weiss sighed. She let herself fall back into Yang's arms. The embrace didn't burn, but it was still warm. "I just… I don't know. Our relationship is our own—" she gestured between Yang and herself, for clarity, "—but it still feels wrong to… take steps forward without checking in first. With the others."
Yang scratched her head awkwardly. "Yeah. I… honestly should have thought of that." She squeezed her eyes shut, wrapping her embrace more tightly around Weiss's shoulders. "Ah shit, I really should have thought of that. Sorry, Weiss."
Weiss didn't let the pause linger, resolving herself and kissing Yang firmly before either of them could spin into self-recrimination. "We'll figure it out," she promised, letting her arms hang loosely around Yang's neck. "All of us. Both of us."
Yang nodded, giving Weiss a soft, lopsided smile that made her heart turn to steam.
Eventually, they parted, giggling in embarrassed agreement that they should actually use the shower for what it was made for. The comfortable silence came again, suffused by the sound of falling water, punctuated by small talk and the occasional raunchy joke, and it was clear that the peak of things had come and gone.
Soon the water ran cold. Yang shut off the spigot and grabbed both their towels from the rack.
As they dried themselves, Weiss found herself drifting back through what had just happened, and her mind caught on an unresolved detail.
"For what it's worth," she said, fixing her towel around her body. "I think getting lunch together sounds wonderful."
Yang grinned. "Then it's a date."
Notes:
Look I'm not gonna defend that first scene, I just wanted to. Plus, it's the start of an important series of discussions, which will be continuing in slightly chiller (heh) settings in the future. Suffice it to say, though, that "no smut" tag IMEBG had maaaay not quite apply to this fic. I'll make sure to tag stuff as it happens, and give warnings at the start of chapters.
I'm also going to try to slip back into my twice-monthly update schedule, but I'm about to get very busy job hunting and trying to get set up for The Surgery, so it's a little unclear if how able I'll be to keep to that.
Thanks to Sgt. Chrysalis, FriendofYggdrasil, shockfactor, and juniorthib for the help and advice! And thank all of you for reading! Yinz are too good to me.
MAJOR EDIT: So, after a lot of consideration, I've decided to push back the White Fang arc by removing the Crime Kids interlude and reworking the second half of this chapter, which I'll be releasing as a micro-update. The subplot is still going to happen later, but I think I finally hit plot thread critical mass and it was making it difficult to write the next couple chapters in a way that felt convincing. I apologize for the confusion this causes, but this should give me enough time to wrap up some things at Beacon before things get wonky.