"So, Blake..." Yang began with a pause for suspense. "What do you think?" She stepped out from the changing room and struck a model's pinup pose, pursing her lips slightly. She lifted up her sunglasses and shot her partner an eager grin. "How do I look?"
Blake doubled over and clenched her mouth shut with both hands to contain a near-instantaneous snort of laughter. Her eyes were tearing up at the sight of Yang, dressed in the largest tropical t-shirt the men's section had to offer, draping over her khaki dress pants and ending in open-toe beach sandals. She struggled to enunciate through her hands, her voice bunched up in a helpless waver as she choked back yet more laughter.
"Absolutely ridiculous!" As soon as she looked up and noticed the second pair of sunglasses suspended on the rim of Yang's straw hat she doubled over and threw an arm over her face, burying her eyes into the inside of her elbow. "I'm going to have nightmares now!"
Yang snickered and threw off her get-up, tossing the clothes into the pile that had amassed since they first entered the changing rooms. The pair had scoured the clothing store downtown for at least forty minutes for ingredients with which to concoct the most horrendous outfits they could create. Now the stage was set for Blake set as they wrapped up the finale of the most horrific fashion show in all of Remnant.
"Okay, your turn again!" Yang exclaimed, a cheerful excitement creeping across her face. Her partner nodded and slipped off to assume her next piece.
Shortly after, Blake poked her head out from behind the door as she teased her reveal with one foot, wearing a long, white high-heeled dress shoe. As she slinked into view she held a curtain around her body and pulled it up slightly to reveal her other shoe, a black dress shoe with a noticeably shorter heel. "Ready?" She teased with a shy grin.
"M-Mhmm!" Already Yang was shifting on the bench seat, staggered gasps of laughter escaping the palm of her hand and a tear just about to break from one of her eyes out of anticipation.
Blake dropped the curtain and sported a modest posture, her head off to the side and neck craned up towards the ceiling. "I'm ready for my close-up, Ms. Xiao Long..." she feigned in a husky, courtly voice.
Yang erupted like a volcano of squeals and muffled howls, gasping for air whenever her stomach muscles would allow. "OH MY GODS-!" She arched her back and strained her eyes to focus on the features of her partner's ensemble. "Is that-" she attempted, wrestling with her own lungs for control of her voice. "Is that... a t-shirt?!"
Yang flung her arm out to point at Blake's lower body, which was covered up by a massively over-sized brown t-shirt. It was so large that she managed to wear it around her waist as a skirt. Above it sat an identical, though much smaller t-shirt worn properly. Her wrists and ankles alike were shackled in a medley of beaded bracelets and bands, and around her shoulders she wore a comically loose necktie as though it were a necklace.
Yang gasped and held her gut as she struggled for breath. "Blake, I think I'm gonna have a cramp because of you!"
As the pair wrapped up the show, they gathered themselves to check for any loose items they'd left strewn about before heading out of the changing rooms. "Gods, I can't believe I was wearing these," Blake laughed, still boasting a shy smile from the performance. "I must have looked like such a mess."
"Oh, like you have anything to worry about," Yang dismissed with a laugh.
Blake eyed her quizzically. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh come on Blake," Yang shot back with a soft, honest expression. "Most of the girls at Beacon would kill for half your looks!" She felt an instant chill shoot down her spine at the words that had just escaped her lips. The statement clearly arrested Blake's train of thought as well, her mouth hanging slightly open in front of her.
'Yang, you shut your idiot mouth right now,' the blonde warned herself as she turned around from her partner and started walking to the exit of the dressing area. 'If you don't, you'll just make an even bigger ass out of yourself. Or worse...' As Blake caught up and locked step next to her, Yang briefly felt the softness of the back of a hand brush up against hers. The faunus wasn't making eye contact, but there was a certain ease about her motions; she walked as if she were weightless, and watching her reminded Yang of the fear she was avoiding. 'You'll hurt her.'
Yang was a helpless flirt by nature and it only made sense that, as she and her partner opened up to one another more, more of that nature would show itself. Still, there was a certain, increasingly frequent sense of impulsiveness she felt in her behavior when it came to Blake, and today more than ever she felt the risk she was taking in teasing her partner this way. That's all it was, of course. At first.
It all started out as just gentle teasing. Harmless fun Yang would initiate to try and get a rise out of her distant, disinterested teammate. After all, their first encounter hadn't gone particularly smoothly, and upon becoming her partner - her ball-and-chain for the next four years, so to speak - Yang felt it was crucial that she find some way to break through and establish a rapport with her. First it was jokes and purposefully bad puns. Then it was proximity- making it a point to position herself near Blake almost at all times, whether they were talking with Ruby and Weiss, sitting down at lunch, in class or outside in field exercises.
As those walls between them started coming down, Yang found herself picking up on some peculiar behaviors from Blake. She noticed the way she would sometimes catch her eye in spontaneous moments; if she were reading, for instance, and Yang would peer over to her, she would sometimes meet Blake's gaze already on her, quickly to be broken as her mysterious yellow eyes fluttered and darted back down into the pages in front of them. Yang could see those eyes fix onto her any time she entered the same room as her. She would even notice her head pivot to follow her as she moved around the room from time to time. And eventually, those spontaneous gazes wouldn't be so quickly broken.
Yang hoped that her habit of physical closeness wouldn't prove an issue for this bond with her partner; as a naturally open person, she knew that she would typically be the one to find people's boundaries, and once she felt like she knew where they were, she would not cross them. Blake's boundaries, however, felt elusive. As if they were always changing, always softening up to let Yang in just a little bit further. She prayed that it wasn't her partner simply acquiescing to contact she wasn't comfortable with, but at times, it felt like Blake was actually reciprocating; when Yang would reach out to throw her arm around her, for instance, she could feel her partner's muscles loosen to settle into her. Blake would now automatically settle into that proximity they shared. She would openly look at her, and one gaze would sometimes linger just a moment longer than the last. It started to remind her of the looks she would attract in the club or in a bar- two environments she felt she'd never see Blake in. It was a look that didn't want to be broken. At one point, a thought crossed Yang's mind- a thought she still grappled with today: was Blake putting out signals?
She quickly dismissed the notion. Her friendship with Blake was too important to risk on curious whimsy. She was too precious to be driven away by Yang's pursuit of "signals". Signals which she was likely just imagining, anyway. Of course. She had to be.
Then she would catch Blake staring at her again and the thought would resurface stronger than before.
On most days, she could simply shake off the notion that there was any implication to their closeness, but this wasn't just any day; it was Heart's Solstice. Today, across all of Vale, people were celebrating the bonds they had formed and the people most dear to their hearts. Romance was in the air in the city and it seemed to bounce off of every building, every street and every couple they walked past. Even if she tried her best to ignore it, it felt like every gesture, every touch and every smile had a connotation to it. A playful wink that she may have shot without a second's thought in the dorm room they shared with the rest of their team now had a charge to it- an implication behind it. And for someone like Yang - a walking inferno of impulse who handled her love life with the grace of a wrecking ball - it would be a very precarious situation.
Elsewhere in town, Jaune Arc walked out of a repair shop with a bag in tow. "How did it look, Jaune?" Pyrrha turned to him, peeking into the bag in his hand.
"I don't know. I didn't get the chance to see it." Jaune lifted the item up and came to a stop. "Wanna give it a look now?" Pyrrha pivoted to face her partner with a smile and nodded. He looked off the the side for a moment before reaching into his bag. "I guess I could also use a hand or two getting it on to make sure it still fits right, too..."
He produced the light-colored piece of metal they'd come to town to repair and Pyrrha helped fasten it onto his shoulder. "You know I still feel awful about this, right?" She asked.
Jaune held up a hand to her face. "Pyrrha I told you," he said with a smile. "Don't worry about it. I was the one who asked you to show me how you did that move with Akoúo anyway."
"I suppose I should just be glad you at least let me cover the repair costs," she grinned back warmly.
"Yeah, well..." Jaune reached a hand up to his neck. "I would have fought you harder on that if the Arc funds hadn't been almost cleared out last week."
Pyrrha let out a laugh. "With Ruby and Yang?"
"How was I supposed to know that Yang's brilliant plan to cheer her sister up included forgetting her card in the dorm room?!" Jaune shouted energetically as he threw his arms out. "Have you seen how much ice cream Ruby can eat?! Even Yang couldn't compete with her." He sighed as his arms deflated to his sides. "And it sure seemed like she was trying to when I looked at the bill..."
Pyrrha chuckled and nodded along. Soon after, a familiar yellow stuck out to her in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to glace over at it and then recognized who it signified. "Speak of the devil, Jaune."
Jaune turned in the direction her partner was facing and saw Yang and Blake walking out of a storefront down the road. He went to wave over to them, but was stopped when Pyrrha grabbed onto his arm. "Jaune, wait."
"Hmm," he responded, raising an eyebrow. "What's wrong Pyrrha?"
"Look." She pointed. "Blake and Yang are out together."
"Yeah. I know..." he answered with a questioning stare "That's why I was gonna-"
"Blake and Yang, Jaune? Out together? On Heart's Solstice...?"
Jaune blinked and shrugged in response.
"Just the two of them...? Partners who are constantly with one another and-"
"What does that have to do with anything?" Jaune shot back.
Pyrrha sighed and took a moment to soften her eyes and voice before moving her hand up to Jaune's shoulder. "Look at them, Jaune. Have you ever noticed how they behave towards one another?"
Jaune peered at the couple in question, eyeing them over. Pyrrha watched a slow reel of his thoughts play out on his face as his eyes widened and mouth opened gradually. "You mean..." He turned to face his partner once more. "You think they're... together?"
"Together-together." Pyrrha confirmed. "When Nora suggested it to me I had my doubts, but when I started looking closer, it all seemed so clear." She pulled his arm back once more, tugging him away from the direction of the pair in question. "They're celebrating this day together, Jaune. I don't think we should disturb them."
He nodded. "You're right. Come on, let's go grab s-"
"Hey, look who it is!" The two were interrupted by the familiar sound of Yang's voice ringing out from the storefront as she waved at them. She was walking in their direction casually, her arm slung over Blake's neck, who waved back shyly.
Jaune quietly leaned over to Pyrrha. "Okay. They're definitely together." As the distance between the pairs closed, they exchanged greetings and walked together as they began discussing their days.
"So what are you two up to now?" Yang asked, a grin forming at the corners of her lips. "Are we butting in?"
Pyrrha hurriedly raised her hands and shook her head. "No no, not at all!" She let out an awkward laugh as she looked between them. "We don't have any plans for today."
"Well," Blake started, "Yang and I were getting hungry..."
"Hungry?" Jaune beamed up at the mention of the word and his stomach seemed to echo the excitement with a growl. "I'm starving!"
"Great, how about the four of us go grab something to eat!" Yang offered. Jaune and Pyrrha looked to one another. "We couuuuld do that," Pyrrha teased to her partner, "if I treat you."
Jaune raised a finger in objection, but the only sound he would produce was another loud quiver from his gut. He sighed and looked at her with a defeated pout.
Yang interjected, reminded of the boy's recent Xiao Long-involved lien shortage. "Don't worry Pyrrha, I've got him this time!" She grinned to Jaune and poked a finger into his chest. "I do sorta owe you a few meals after all, don't I?"
After settling on a quaint little restaurant near the seaside, the four sat down and resumed idle chatter about school and the upcoming festivities. Soon their waitress introduced herself and began listing off the daily specials.
"We also have our signature Heart's Solstice Sundae for dessert, if you're celebrating with that special someone today," She winked, placing a menu at each seat on the table.
Without missing a beat, Yang beamed to the pair sitting across from her, pointing a finger each at Jaune and Pyrrha. "Sounds like you two are in for a treat!" She eyed them expectantly, a smile piercing across the table at them.
As always, Blake found her idiot grin infectious and chimed in as well. "Just make sure you save room for dessert... Lovebirds," she teased. As her own laughter subsided, she noticed that Jaune and Pyrrha somehow did not seem to share her and Yang's spirit. In fact, they looked almost unsettled by the jest the two had been tossing their way. Blake's smile dropped and she felt an uncomfortable sense of doubt hanging overhead.
The silence that befell the table quickly grew unnerving and Blake couldn't shake the idea that she and her partner had made a mistake. It seemed impossible that she'd misread the pair so grossly, but neither of them said anything in response and she could tell from their faces that they were clearly anxious after the assertion.
But they were always together. Blake could not count a single instance of seeing Pyrrha without Jaune right next to her ever since the Beacon dance- and they had been absolutely inseparable that night. Nora and Ruby would gossip about them non-stop and Ren would nod along. Even Weiss, of all people, seemed happy to hear about Jaune's romantic success. Whether that was out of genuine joy for his sake or just relief to know he would no longer be focusing on her was anyone's guess, but everyone around them seemed to finally be on the same page about something. Was that all just a misunderstanding? Had they all so critically misinterpreted the relationship between Jaune and Pyrrha?
As the silence dragged on, it seemed to answer the question for her. 'Uh-oh...'
Even the waitress now looked uncomfortable with what was playing out at the table. "I'm just gonna give you kids a moment to..." she hesitated before finishing, "think about what you want." She carefully extracted herself from the awkward moment and slipped away back towards the counter to chat with a coworker.
The pair in question sat frozen still in their seats, each looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Quickly, they cast their glaces down and away from the table. Pyrrha's eyes widened like they were trying to compete for territory with the growing blush that had just ignited across her face. Jaune brought his hand up to rub on the back of his neck as he strained himself to break the silence. "Oh, no no," he chuckled out, trying firstly to pre-empt any discomfort that comment might have inflicted on his teammate, and secondly to clarify to the other pair. "Pyrrha and I aren't dating!" Plastering a smile onto his face, he brought his eyes back up to Blake and Yang. "We're just partners!"
Looking to the boy's partner in question, Blake noticed her features quickly resume a more somber expression. Her eyes narrowed to a more neutral look and the remnants of that blush were dissipating, though her gaze had not budged an inch. 'Oh no,' the faunus thought to herself. 'I think I've made a bigger mistake than I realized...'
"Yup! Just partners, haha... I mean- gods," Jaune emphatically continued. "Me and Pyrrha?! Pfffffft..." He went on, forcing several individual laughs throughout. "That'd be crazy! Right?"
Studying her further, Blake could see that still-fixed gaze narrow to an unfocused and vacant glare. Not an angry one, but a far-off look of discomfort nonetheless, as if her mind were racing to escape the table. The last embers of the fire that had lit up her face moments ago had now completely extinguished and her arms had draped over one another, hugging them to her stomach.
Blake hated to admit it, but she was far too familiar with the mannerisms of a heart suffering in silence. Over the years, she'd trained her features to withstand a torrent emotion and still belie no signs of hurt, but she could tell Pyrrha's mask had just fallen. As Jaune continued his string of increasingly unnecessary clarification, Blake saw his partner's chest expand wide, sucking air in without making a sound. It was impressive, she thought; steady breath is not easy to maintain under duress and Pyrrha was certainly, for one reason or another, under quite a bit of it at this particular moment. As the scene played out on her classmate's face, Blake felt she knew exactly what that reason was.
Yang too seemed to intuit it as well, as she too had made an effort to avoid any further comment on the topic. Blake and her partner shared a knowing stare that reflected their remorse over the misunderstanding. An uncomfortable silence had fallen over the group once more and Blake closed her eyes, trying to think of a way to smooth it over. 'Think, Blake...' she begged, slipping her cup up to her mouth. It was still quite warm, some of the steam heating up the tip of her nose. 'You know what this feels like. What would you want someone to do for you in a situation like this...?'
The answer then popped into her mind. Perhaps it would be a way to clean up the mess she and her partner had accidentally made, perhaps only a way to open herself up to a similar wave of discomfort. In any case, she felt the need to do something to break this distracting quiet. 'This may be a long shot,' she thought as she blew a narrow breath across her cup of tea to cool it off a bit, 'but here goes nothing.'
Opening her eyes, Blake glanced between the pair across the table. She took a deep breath and attempted to mercifully bury the previous topic. "Well, I think you two would look good together," she said calmly, "personally." She buried her eyes into her cup as she took another sip of her beverage. 'Gods, what am I doing?' She thought, careful to keep her hesitation to herself. 'What if I'm only making things worse?' But it was too late to go back now. She had to wrap up the loose ends she'd just frayed and try to make it as natural as possible. "But that's just me," she finished matter-of-factly.
Every eye at the table was now on her, Yang's included. She could feel the pressure from them pressing down on her like a lead blanket, but she remained unbroken and poised. Her eyes focused, almost accusatorily, on Jaune as she let the words ring in the air around them a little bit longer.
The blond's skin went pale white, like a child caught in the sights of their first Grimm monster, too shocked to move a muscle. He didn't know what small movements he could make after such a comment. Instead, his mouth sat agape and blue eyes stared vacantly at the faunus girl who'd issued the statement, afraid to make a single twitch in his own partner's direction lest he cast out any signal that acknowledged or refuted what Blake said.
Gods, the boy was dense. 'Poor guy,' Blake sighed internally, 'How can he not see what's right in front of him?'
It was Pyrrha who would return the favor and drive away the silence once more. "Um, thank you, Blake..." Pyrrha sheepishly accepted. A long, sleeved arm reached up to her face to tuck a strand of fiery red hair behind her ears and the frown dissipated from her lips.
Blake could tell she had at least brought life back to the girl's eyes, even if she could do nothing to take back the lingering awkwardness of the moment. "And," the red-haired girl continued, "I could say the same for the two of you."
Blake's long shot had paid off. The corners of her lips curled up and she could feel warmth course through her body. Even if just a small ripple, it was enough to make her own cheeks tingle slightly. "Thank you," she returned courteously. Pyrrha could only glance back in acknowledgement, as she was currently sipping from her own cup of tea. Oh, she was good. Out of the corner of her eyes, Blake peered over to her own partner, only to find the violet eyes had seemingly not moved since she last saw her.
Had Yang been looking at her this whole time...? Or had Pyrrha's comment made the blonde turn back to eye her features once more? Whatever the case, she had not expected to see Yang looking at her, let alone so blatantly; she was practically staring at the girl head-on.
It was enough to break the careful mystique Blake had conjured up, causing her to lower her cup and turn her head to face Yang on equal ground. She felt her traitorous eyes grow wider than she meant to allow, but she couldn't stop the subtle show of surprise. As she saw Yang more fully, she noticed an unfamiliar flush of pink across the otherwise pale skin of her cheeks. Blake was now returning both the overt stare and the blush.
The waitress had returned not long after to check on the group and one by one she took their orders. Blake and Yang shared another glance as she turned to them. Without a word they smiled, and Blake gave the waitress her choice.
Across the table, Pyrrha observed the two and a warm smile crept onto her face. The connection they had was impressive, even for partners training to become huntresses; they seemed to say so much to one another with only a simple look. If anyone were uniquely suited to recognize the magnetism in the air between Blake and Yang right now, then certainly it was her. It was comforting in a small way; perhaps she would not have someone to spend this magical day with, but she could still at least participate in nurturing a blossoming relationship, if only as an outside player.
For what ever comfort it offered, she would take it up in an instant. She would enlist herself to fight for their love because they deserved it. They deserved happiness, and if she could help them along towards it in any way, well that would be good enough for her.
She sighed.
No, it wouldn't.
Pyrrha would have these thoughts from time to time, and she despised them. Intrusive little pestering echoes of some far-off part of her brain that would sometimes escape into the forefront of her consciousness. Unwelcome urges that made her feel selfish and indignant. Desires given voice.
'Breathe,' she reminded herself. 'Do not let these wayward feelings of yours ruin this day.' What good were her desires, after all, if all they would ever do is run away from her? What good were her urges if they were never in her reach to fulfill? What good was this wretched day if all he wanted was to spend it with Weiss instead of her?
Oh how she despised these thoughts.
Mercifully, she was shaken out of her embattled introspection when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Pyrrha?" She heard Jaune's voice and her head pivoted to face him, seemingly free of any input from her conscious mind. "Are you okay?" Gods, just how obvious had she been to read?
"Yes, Jaune..." she trailed off, finding it difficult to summon a convincing reply. "I'm just fine." She looked him in the eyes and felt a surprising twinge of guilt. He was wearing such a look of concern for her and she felt selfish simply for the fact that he was spending his time with her. On Heart's Solstice.
Jaune simply gazed worriedly back to her, his lips pouting slightly. Pyrrha swore for a second she could feel his thumb on her shoulder squeeze just the tiniest amount, like he was giving her the world's smallest massage.
Her face softened as the idea of a massage from Jaune entered into her mind. She could tell he was getting stronger as they trained together, but this was the first time she'd noticed his grip strength. She could feel the warmth from his hand completely covering her shoulder and she imagined what it would feel like to have that warmth cascading down all along her back. She noticed that hand was just inches away from her cheek- if she tilted her head only slightly, it would brush-
"I need to go!" Pyrrha piped up, suddenly, commandeering all of the eyes available at the table as well some at the surrounding seats. "To-... to the restroom. Excuse me. Sorry!" She bolted away from the table and off towards the lobby, a direction Blake thought was curious.
'The restrooms were the opposite way, across from the bar...' Yellow eyes narrowed, watching her movements. She was heading outside, surely.
"I'll go with," Blake announced after a moment. She wanted to give Pyrrha some time alone if she needed it, but she also knew that the answer to loneliness was seldom more loneliness. She headed off to accompany her friend to the restroom. Walking in the opposite direction of the restroom.
Yang and Jaune looked at one another as they waited for the food to arrive. "Girls, am I right?" Yang jested and grinned to him, earning one likewise from the boy.
His faded quickly however as he slouched and looked at the ground across from the table, focusing to an invisible, unimportant point. After a few seconds, Yang spoke up again. "Hey Jaune, I'm sorry to hear the dance didn't go your way," she began.
The dance? It had been a good few weeks since the dance. And quite honestly, Jaune had had an amazing time that evening. He could not see the relevance of mentioning the Beacon dance from almost a month ago out of the blue like this. "How so?"
Yang cocked her head and shrugged, "I mean, you looked kinda down in the dumps just now. I figured maybe you were still hung up on..." she trailed off, suddenly unsure whether she should have posed the topic in the first place.
Jaune blinked and raised his head suddenly. "Wait, you mean Weiss?" Of course she meant Weiss, the girl he had been obsessed with up until that point. As he thought about it more, it made sense that she'd guess her to be the source of his current moping state.
"Yeah," Yang nodded. "I mean you were practically writing an album about her last month!" She laughed.
Jaune's head fell to the table as the painfully uncomfortable memories flooded back into his mind. "Oh no..." he mumbled into the napkin linen placed at his seat of the table "I was, wasn't I?"
Yang tried to choke down her giggles, but the sound of them getting caught in her nose, only ended up making them louder. "Yeah!" She tightened an imaginary tie and donned a stately, announcer-like voice: "Watch out ladies, here comes Jaune Arc, hitting you with classics like 'Why-ss Won't You Be Mine','I Only Got Ice For You' and 'Baby, I Schneed You'!"
Jaune burst out and quickly grabbed his napkin to stifle his laughter as best it could. "Oh gods no!" He cried into the linen pressed up to his face. "Yang, please!" He brought the napkin up to his eyes to wipe away the tears of laughter.
Yang couldn't contain herself any longer either, and the two spent a good period of time just winding down together. 'It's good seeing him enjoy himself,' she thought. She liked seeing this side of him; he was actually quite fun when he wasn't beating himself up over her teammate's lack of interest.
As their laughter died down and breathing returned to normal, Jaune reflected on the exchange. "You know," he began, "I honestly haven't really thought about her at all since the dance." He smiled and Yang felt relieved. "Even seeing her hand-in-hand with Neptune in the halls the next day, I felt just fine." And he honestly did. She was just another girl and Neptune was just another boy.
"I can't really put my finger on it," he continued, "but those feelings just... kinda vanished." The dance must have changed something in him. He felt different. Almost the very next day, in fact. He had finally put this child-like infatuation behind him and had begun having fun again. "I mean, I guess it hurt my ego for a little bit- just to know I'd been rejected," he remarked pensively. "But honestly? I guess I'm back to just being normal-lonely. Instead of Weiss-lonely," he said, looking to Yang matter-of-factly.
Despite the sentiment, she couldn't pick up on any trace of lingering sadness in his voice or his expression. 'I guess he really has moved on from her.' Taking his nonchalant expression as proof, Yang pressed forward with encouragement. "Well, that just means one thing then." She smiled enthusiastically. "You know the saying: there are plenty of other fish in the sea!"
"Yeah," he smiled back. "There are."
A short moment later, plates of their late lunch arrived at their table. Half of their party, however, was still missing.
"I wonder what's taking them," Yang pondered with a glance toward the direction Pyrrha and Blake had gone off in.
Jaune shrugged to Yang and offered in jest, "girls, am I right?"
Outside, it took only a short couple of seconds' walk until Pyrrha came into view. Even with the sun setting soon, the girl was difficult to miss- tall and glowing with a gold and crimson gleam. She stood across the road just at the edge of the docks looking out into a horizon of red, indigo and blue. A photographer could have made a million lien off of a scene like this, Blake thought, just on the colors alone.
Slowly, she proceeded to close the distance between herself and the flaming figure of Pyrrha. When she figured she had reached earshot, she called out in practically a whisper.
"Pyrrha...?" Soon the silent redhead turned back to face her, her head down. In the dim silhouette, Blake's faunus eyes could make out the gleam of Pyrrha's own opening up as she raised her head to meet her gaze. "Hey- I'm sorry," Blake spoke softly. "About before. I didn't know..."
"It's quite alright, Blake." Pyrrha dismissed the matter, a gentle expression on her face. "You simply saw two close friends - partners, even - spending time with one another on Heart's Solstice. It was a perfectly reasonable conclusion to draw."
"Yeah..." Blake responded, her feline ears lowering back as her eyes looked down to the rippling colors of the scene reflecting off of the water behind Pyrrha. "Naturally, I suppose."
Pyrrha closed the distance further, bringing them into a more comfortable speaking range. "I take it," she began, a faintly detectable hesitance in her voice, "I also made a similarly errant assumption about you and Yang?" Blake nodded.
"I'm sorry," Pyrrha offered in turn.
"No worries." Blake smiled and walked further, standing next to her to face the same lakeside she had been fixed on before. Pyrrha turned back as well, now standing side-by-side with the faunus girl. "I meant what I said before, you know," Blake offered, turning to look at her. "I mean, for what it's worth, you two really would look wonderful together."
A sudden exhalation, which Blake hoped she could place as a laugh, escaped from Pyrrha. "Nora would agree with you," she said warmly. Her lips curled - not exactly into a smile, but perhaps at the very least an entertained smirk. "And likewise, Blake-" Pyrrha turned to look back at Blake once more. "I meant it as well." Now she smiled. "You and your partner would be a gorgeous pair."
Eye contact was broken by Blake once again, as she whipped her head back to the horizon and quickly found her focus lost in its beauty. Its warm colors played tricks on her mind and she regarded the image it was painting for her. That stunning, fiery horizon that stared back at her so honestly, with deep pools of gorgeous purple.
Oh it was just taunting her now.
She inhaled deeply, but her breath drew uneven and in wavering gasps. Steady breath is not easy to maintain under duress, after all.
"She really is beautiful, Blake."
Blake turned back to face Pyrrha, who had at some point slipped a few steps back towards the restaurant.
"Yeah," Blake spoke through an insurmountably beaming smile. She walked forward to join her as they began their walk back to their partners. Searching for words, Blake wanted to respond in kind. "Jaune really is..." Her eyes darted to the side and she struggled for a second to figure out how she wanted to finish her thought. "... A massive idiot," she sighed.
Pyrrha broke into a chuckle, holding a hand up to her mouth. "Nora would agree with you."
The two headed back to their party with the consolation that at least they weren't alone in being alone. They rejoined their partners, and the rest of the meal passed by with everyone in much brighter spirits.
Stepping out of the restaurant, the four were surprised to see how much of the daylight had passed. The sky above them was a deep navy blue and the sun would soon be setting on the town. Yang stretched and let out a yawn. "Wow, it sure got late, huh?"
The group agreed and looked between one another. Jaune looked between Blake and Yang. "Are you two heading back to the dorms?"
One of Blake's ears flicked as she turned to Yang, "How do you feel? Want to head back?"
Yang blinked into the yellow eyes in front of her as she assessed herself. She wasn't feeling particularly tired, and it was a beautiful evening out right now. The city was lively and the decorations and celebrations all felt so inviting. She didn't need any more convincing.
"I'm feeling great," she smiled back to the group. "Hey, what do you say we take a stroll down the boardwalk? It's a lovely night out." The group agreed and shortly after began the trek from one end of the city's coastline to the other.
Yang's promise of a lovely night did not disappoint as they found themselves coming up to a festively lit plaza along the shore. People gathered around to shop, take pictures, and just spend time outdoors taking in the sights. There were some couples dancing in the square and the sound of musicians playing nearby had no trouble reaching the group's ears. All together, they stopped and let the sights and sounds of it all process in their minds, alongside the sense of excitement it promised.
"Hey, over there!" Yang pointed out a stand along the shoreline selling various jewelry, scarves and novelty accessories. "They have lily knot bracelets!"
The group wandered over and peered into the buckets filled with long, thin strands of fabric in a variety of colors. Instructions on a nearby board directed them to choose four of the fabric strands and pick the shape they wanted to wear them in. The clerks would then twist them and form the straps into those shapes and hand them off to the customers to wear.
Yang quickly amassed a handful of yellow ones and started weeding through them. Blake carefully picked out four strands of her choice: black, purple, white and yellow.
As Jaune and Pyrrha moved to root through the buckets for their own, Yang called her partner over to her.
"Okay Blake," she began directing the confused faunus girl over to a nearby streetlight and meticulously adjusted her position. "Perfect! Right there, just like that!"
"Yang, what are you-"
"Stand still for a couple seconds."
Blake did as she was instructed as she tilted her head to eye her partner with a curious eyebrow raised. "What's going on, Yang?"
Yang ignored the question and extended her arm out to her partner's face. Next to Blake's cheek, she held up several different strands of yellow and her eyes darted between them and the faunus. One by one, Yang released most of them until only three were left.
Blake's eyes widened in surprise. 'Is she...' She felt herself tense up in front of the audience of one. She could feel her heartbeat in her chest, even while her heart itself felt lighter than air. 'Is she matching-'
Yang grinned mischievously. "Perfect." She victoriously held the winning fabric up into the air and grinned widely. "I got it!" She brought her hand back up to her partner's face and began dangling it in front of her. "It's the exact color of your eyes!"
Blake was taken aback. The fact that the blonde would choose yellow as a color for her bracelet was no shock to anyone, surely. But that she wanted it to match her specifically? Out of any shade she could pick, she wanted the one that most resembled Blake's eyes?
"Whaddya think?" Yang draped it over her wrist alongside strands of black, brown and violet.
"I think it'll look really good on you," she replied warmly, faster than she could stop herself. 'Gods, was that too much? What if she thought it was creepy? Was that weird? We should have just gone back t-'
She felt a familiar arm around her neck as her partner pulled her into another half-hug, and she sank in in spite of herself. Her body went numb and all she could feel - all she wanted to feel - was Yang's warmth. The blonde let her lean into her for a generous amount of time, before she pried herself away.
"Let's go get these finished!" Yang hopped over towards the vendor. As she headed back to the stall clerk, she turned shoot Blake a playful wink, "I'll need some help getting this on too, if you wouldn't mind."
Without even waiting for a reply, the blonde sauntered off to pay for them. 'Careful, Yang...' she warned herself. 'Remember you're playing with fire.' She approached the clerk and handed her card over to her. "This is for two lily bracelets."
As Jaune was paying for his bracelet, he noticed Pyrrha fussing with the knot design around her wrist. As he took his card back and put it away, he walked over to her. "Need a hand with that?"
As Pyrrha turned around, her hushed grunts of frustration turned into an embarrassed sigh of defeat. "I can't get this thing on for the life of me, Jaune..." The bracelet hung loosely around her her hand, almost ready to slip past her thumb and fall to the ground. From the base of the knot design the clerk had made for her, two stray lengths of fabric dangled, completely unused in Pyrrha's attempts to fasten it to her wrist.
"Pyrrha," Jaune looked at her quizzically. "You don't know how to tie a Valesian lily knot, do you?"
"A what?" She blinked.
He laughed and took her hand in his, turning it over to expose her wrist. Jaune gently plucked away at the awkward knot that held two of the strands. He took the opposite strands and held them up, looking at her.
"Here, hold these like this." She grasped them in her fingers and tried to maintain the structure he handed her. "Good. Now I'll hold these, and try to do what I just did." She followed his instructions through a number of additional loops, tucks and slips, and finally, held one piece of fabric in each of their hands.
"Okay, ready?" She nodded and he counted down. "Three... Two... One... Pull." Using all four of their hands, they tugged each strand in a different direction simultaneously and the knots taught in on themselves, securing the bracelet around Pyrrha's arm.
He smiled as she swung her arm up to the light and marveled at the work they'd just created. After all of the time she'd spent training him and looking out for him, he was finally able to help her out with something, and it felt amazing. Even if it was just something small like a knot, it looked like it meant the world to her.
As Pyrrha brought her arm back down to admire her accessory up close, Jaune caught a glimpse of her face. It was alight with an infectious, unbridled joy as she laughed and spun around, watching its strands sway with her movements. Her smile was absolutely beaming and it amplified his own.
This girl felt like an entirely different Pyrrha to him; the image of Pyrrha he had become accustomed to in his mind, with her gentle, distant composure and her warm, nurturing tone that offered consolation like a mother tending to her child's cuts and scrapes, had bubbled away and burst into a wild and carefree young girl, just like any other studying at Beacon.
In this moment, as Jaune watched her overflowing with excitement and youthful radiance, he was struck with a realization: she was a peer to him. She had not been some lofty standard which he had to attain or someone far off and above him, someone whose level he had to reach just to be taken seriously by the people around him. She was already right there next to him, and they were on equal ground.
He rarely got to see this side of her- in fact, the only time he had seen her this happy was when they shared the night of the Beacon dance together. And now just like then, he could not take his eyes off of her.
Had... she always been this gorgeous?
Before he could grapple with the sudden thought that had just come over him, she spoke up again. "I have to say, Jaune, I had no idea bracelets would be another one of your strong suits," she laughed, her smile still shimmering under the streetlight. "You continue to impress!"
He felt his cheeks tingle as she said that, as if they were singed by her radiant positivity. With a smirk, he pointed at himself. "Sisters. Seven of them, remember?" The giggle that followed out of her seemed to strike right into the center of his heart. He didn't know what exactly he'd done to produce such a sound out of her, but he knew he wanted to hear more of it. A lot more.
"Even still though," Pyrrha began. "I don't know how I could ever manage a knot like that on my own. It was so intricate and involved."
"That's the point, Pyrrha." Jaune replied, excitedly. "It's supposed to be impossible to tie with only two hands."
Pyrrha looked around at the other patrons. They were all paired up and taking turns completing the knot together. Once one partner's bracelet was fashioned on, they'd swap and work on the other's. She looked over to a nearby lamppost and saw Blake and Yang engaged in the same act as Jaune went on.
"It came from an old wedding custom, if I recall. That's why you need at least two people to tie it correctly." He stopped for a moment to ponder, "it's no wonder they're so popular on solstice."
Pyrrha watched as the pair fastened the knot around Blake's wrist. Yang held out her arm and they began undergoing the same steps she and Jaune had completed.
"Of course, nowadays, they can be for anything: friendship bracelets, family gifts, anniversaries..."
Blake seemed so focused on the activity Pyrrha wondered if she was as new to it as herself.
"But the principle is the same: no one person can do it by themselves."
Pyrrha looked back with a still-lingering smile. "I think that's wonderful."
Jaune smiled back and looked to the bracelet they'd formed. "The colors you pick are important too," he went on. "They're supposed to signify something important to you." He showed her the strands he picked. "Like mine, here- yellow, pink, red, green. Get it?" He grinned in anticipation and she tilted her head in response. "It's us! It's team JNPR: yellow for me, pink for Nora, red for you, green for Ren!" He flashed her a beaming grin as he boasted his choices of fabric. "I'm sure the colors you picked are important to you too."
Their attention turned to her wrist, clad in a knot of red, green, yellow and blue. "Oh- the red and green match your hair and eyes really well!" He remarked quickly. "And I'm sure yellow and blue are special colors for you too. Like the sun and the ocean, maybe?"
'Close miss, Jaune...' She thought sarcastically as she looked into the sunny blond's naive, excessively blue eyes.
Truthfully, she found the whole display of his heartbreakingly sweet, and she had no words to respond with at the moment. Instead, she took his hand in hers and upturned his wrist with a sly grin. "So... now we do yours. Right?"
"Yang, you didn't have to do that..." Blake protested, trying to muster a scolding tone.
"Yeah, but I wanted to." Yang replied cheerfully, making her way back to the lamppost near Blake. "Think of it as a gift."
"Happy Heart's Solstice, Blake." Yang smiled warmly.
The expression in her partner's face was so genuine that Blake wanted to melt right there just having beheld it. 'A gift,' she thought to herself. 'It was already a gift, Yang.'
The bracelet around her wrist captured more than just the colors it consisted of; it was a reminder of Yang. A memento of this night. Of the night Blake got to, albeit wracked with guilty pleasure and idle secrecy, spend the "holiday of lovers" with her. She smiled warmly at the thought and turned to once again admire the ball of sunlight gracing her evening with her company.
Yang spun around in the light with her arms out, taking the evening air in and Blake was lost for response for a moment as she admired the childlike excitement in her partner.
The way the light of their lone streetlamp bounced off of the already radiant blonde struck her and arrested her thoughts for a blissful few seconds. Drowning Yang in light against the dark background of the seashore, the scene amplified the best of her partner's commanding energy. She was always warm and passionate, Blake reflected, but right now she was on fire.
Suddenly, she was yanked from the spectator's booth and onto the stage as Yang grabbed her arm and pulled her into a duet. The fiery blonde took control of her body, leading her about the town square, leaning her into dips and spinning her around, all while humming to herself with a satisfied grin. If Blake was afraid of wearing her feelings on her face back at the restaurant, right now she was mortified, as her cheeks felt like they were seconds away from combusting right on the spot.
"Hey Blake- it's just like at the dance!" Yang laughed, suddenly swapping from a brisk tango to a delicate ballroom waltz, with the apparent benefit of instantly adjusting the meter of the orchestra inside her head.
"You know you're out step right?" Blake chided playfully.
Yang shook her head. "Nope. I'm just hearing my own music." She threw her a wink and instantly, Blake fell in step with her.
Blake looked around and indeed, in a way, it was just like the Beacon dance: the couples that were locked in motion around them, the charge of romance in the air, the feeling of her heart hammering against her partner's chest as the blonde tugged her waist against her own. With the grip Yang had on her, she wanted to melt away in her arms like butter.
Blake closed in to her partner's warmth and leaned her head forward onto her shoulder. The dense blonde locks that dangled in front of her face wafted over to her nose and imprinted itself into her memories. Blake didn't know what products Yang used in her hair on this night, but she prayed she'd never change the routine, so that any trace of it she might catch in her future studying and rooming with the gorgeous blonde could instantly transport her back to this moment.
As Yang turned her to face the shore, Blake spotted a lone figure looking off to the horizon once more. Her movements slowed and the rhythm of their dance was thrown off. Yang turned to face her only to see her fixed gaze wearing a frown as the orchestra in her head ceased. "Hm, what's wrong?"
Blake only continued to stare at the red figure wordlessly. Pyrrha looked frozen by thoughts just as she had earlier, but now she was alone and Blake had no idea what she could even say to her this time.
A small, sad groan came from Yang as she perched her head on Blake's shoulder and eyed the lone girl alongside her partner. As the two looked on with a sympathetic stare, Blake noticed that off to side, Jaune was returning to her.
"Hey," Blake shot to her softly, taking her arm in her hands. "Let's give them a bit of alone time," she whispered as she nodded to the other pair behind her.
Yang looked between the other pair, then turned back to Blake with a smirk and bounced her eyebrows up twice in jest. It earned her a giggle and a slap on the shoulder from her partner, as well as a quiet, playful scold. "Behave."
"I didn't say anything~" With a cheery wink, Yang followed her feline friend as they rounded the boardwalk ahead, leaving Pyrrha and Jaune to one another.
Pyrrha stood once more by the shore, watching the lights of distant ships passing in the night. She hoped the fresh air would do her well as today had been a bit more taxing than she's anticipated.
It seemed like only a few days ago she was familiarizing herself with the feelings that being around Jaune inspired in her. She was learning new sensations and thrills and beginning to acquaint herself with her way her heart responded to his mere presence. She was suffering from her first crush, and she was taken aback by the way every little thing in her life somehow changed when he was near.
Her senses would be on edge; the smallest of movements had meaning and every sound he produced would tell a story. He could simply walk into the room and she would be transported into a world identical to the one she had just been in, but where every small detail had a completely new meaning to it, and everything was terrifying and beautiful at the same time.
That all stopped when she learned that that was how he felt about Weiss.
'It's time, Pyrrha.' She could not hang on to those daydream visions of him any longer. She knew she had to say goodbye to this fantasy of him as her knight. As her romantic partner. As hers. She had to bury it. And she could only hope that after tonight passed, the pain would slowly dull and become distant, and eventually, she could move on.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Blake and Yang and she turned to watch them. The way they were dancing to the imaginary tempo they both heard was charming to her; they always seemed to be so in sync.
She shook her head to rid her mind of the negativity that had come creeping in as she observed them. 'I believe in you, Blake.' The faunus and her partner soon turned to go off in some other direction. Before they rounded out of view, Pyrrha shared a glance with the distant amber eyes and smiled at them as she waved. 'Please. I do hope you can at least find happiness tonight.'
She turned back to see Jaune approach her and tensed up. She did not want to make eye contact with him right now; it would only make this night harder. The irony that here she was, alone with him - the object of the strongest affections she had ever known she could feel - on the famous "night of lovers" and he was apparently so immune to any charm she could ever even hope to summon was a crueler twist of fate than she'd ever thought she would have to confront.
As she looked around them on the boardwalk, she could see love absolutely everywhere. Families walked along the streets taking pictures and smiling, couples stopped and kissed at the shore, and others walked hand in hand exchanging small smiles. Her heart melted as she observed seemingly all of Vale celebrating their love tonight with the people closest to them. It really was a beautiful holiday.
And I've squandered his.
Her hand twitched as she was caught off-guard again with another wayfaring thought. She drew a deep breath, locked once more into battle with the intrusive, unsettling echoes of those darkest parts of her mind. I've wasted his day away. I've taken Heart's Solstice from him.
"Pyrrha, what's wrong." Jaune's voice once again brought her back to the world. His hand reached for her arm like he thought she was going to slip out of existence if he didn't hold onto her. Only, he spoke clearly now, with a sort of stern determination. This wasn't just courtesy or pity; he wanted to help her. The concern in his voice and on his face alike was so transparent, so without pretense. He really was so pure, she reminded herself. And she loved that about him. And right now she despised that she loved that about him.
He brought his free hand up to rub the back of his neck as he continued. "I know I'm about to sound like a major hypocrite here, but..." he sighed, looking off to the side for a moment before returning to her eyes. "If something's bothering you, you can tell me, you know." His features softened as did his voice. By now he was more pleading than demanding. "... Please tell me?"
Pyrrha sighed. This was one battle she would not win. With a deep breath, she walked up to her partner and let her head fall onto his shoulder. Her hand crawled onto his forearm and rested there for comfort. She felt his warmth flood her body through their touch.
Even though he had been the source of such turmoil in her, she felt, above all, safety in his presence. She let herself sink deeper and deeper into that inviting feeling, unsure of just how long she'd been falling into him like this. Did time even still pass outside of this place?
The question reeled her back into reality and she soon made another observation; she now realized she was surrounded by his scent. However faint, that smell that was him wrapped around her like a blanket. It was all she could think about in this moment, and the fact that she was enjoying it certainly did not help her feel any less selfish and wrong. Shame and embarrassment were all that pulled her back into her own body as she remembered she had to come up with something to tell him.
"It's such a wonderful evening, Jaune," she said softly into him. She turned her head up once she felt ready to peer into the deep blue of his eyes. He blinked back with a soft expression that she presumed was inviting her to elaborate. 'Just be honest; tell him what you're thinking about and nothing more.' She sighed. 'You can't go wrong if it's the truth, right?'
She felt a nagging quake forming in her bottom lip as she opened her mouth, but bit it down and dispelled the twitching as she drew a deep breath. "I'm just a little bit sad that you couldn't spend it with Weiss..." Her eyes struggled with the urge to break - to look anywhere other than at him - but she willed them to stay. "I know you would have enjoyed that much more."
And with that, her eyes broke through her willpower and turned downwards. As her head crashed back down onto his shoulder, she could feel the front of her face rattled by the swelling of tear ducts ready to overpour. Pyrrha was grateful in this moment that Jaune had worn such a thick hoodie out tonight, and she prayed that the stain of her tears would not seep deep enough through the fabric to alert his skin.
Jaune recoiled from the shock of what she'd just said. "What?" His eyebrows furrowed and a look of near-disgust swept across his face. It surprised even him that he'd had such a reaction to hearing Pyrrha say that. When did disgust become the emotion he associated with that crush he'd had on Weiss?
He certainly harbored no ill will towards the girl at all, yet for some reason the mention of that one-sided attraction just now incited far more than the usual embarrassment and shame he'd feel when Nora would tease him about it. Or Ruby. Or Yang. Or any of the other friends who had spoken of it with him since the night of the dance. There was something different about that bygone infatuation being brought up in this moment, on this night, through Pyrrha's quivering lips and strained emerald eyes.
Then it clicked. Jaune regarded the mention of that failed pursuit with such disgust because of the pain he had just seen on Pyrrha's face. He now despised that he had ever given romance with Weiss even a moment's thought- not because it had hurt him, but because it had hurt her.
His mind reeled in revelation; it felt like a jigsaw puzzle had been building somewhere inside his head for weeks, and the final piece had just been slotted into place. He blinked and as his eyes opened he found himself in a world that seemed to have a whole new meaning to it, and everything was terrifying and beautiful at the same time.
"Pyrrha...?" He whispered.
She responded by lifting her head up once more to meet his eyes again. As Jaune focused on the scene in front of him, he felt a blazing warmth wash over his mind. The entire world around him appeared so lively and full of color. Fiery tones of yellow, orange and red bled in from the contrasting dark indigo of the evening sky in the distance. The closer his perspective drew, the warmer the colors were, and it seemed like Pyrrha, right there in his arms, was the epicenter of the entire palette. A deep crimson glow bathed her, setting her at the foreground of this painting, and the fluster on her cheeks looked like it was the center of the universe.
This was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Nothing else had even come close. And the suggestion that he would want to miss out on it to instead be in the cold company of the Schnee heiress now offended him.
"Pyrrha, I do not want to be with Weiss," he emphatically defended. He pulled her closer, back to the proximity they'd shared before her last statement stirred him, and his voice softened. "I want to be right here."
With you. His lips began to form the next words in his train of thought, but his breath got caught in his throat. Why couldn't he say it? Why couldn't he just finish the thought? Why had he been so ready to absolutely suffocate Weiss with unsolicited praise and adoration not a month ago, yet he couldn't speak his heart now, with his own partner?
Because this was different, he reasoned. This was delicate. This was real. That elusive thing he couldn't quite place in his earlier conversation with Yang finally hit him, and he was shocked at how apparent it should have been; this is what was different. This is what the dance had done for him. What she had done for him.
"I want to be with you."
"Jaune..." Pyrrha cried in a hoarse whisper. Her eyes gleamed as the dying sunlight bounced off the teary luster covering their surface. Her hand traveled up his arm and gripped onto it for balance as the two were pulled closer together.
Jaune's vision went dark and a new wave of warmth washed his mind clean. The universe took new shape in the void and for the next few moments in time, everything that he knew - all of existence - was now entirely contained within the touch of Pyrrha's hands and the taste of her lips.
Yang watched the pair from the distant bench she shared with Blake, giddy with excitement. "Look Blake! I think they're kissing!" She shook and bounced her legs like a child itching to shoot out of their seat and run off to find an adventure.
The way her body rocked and swayed against her caused that joy to reverberate through Blake's body as well, and she couldn't help but let herself adore her partner's sunny demeanor, as well as the contact it offered when Yang's movements pressed her hip close up against her own. "Love is in the air tonight!"
'Yeah...' Blake admitted only to herself. 'I don't need reminding.'
Suddenly, Yang's view was obscured by a raven-haired head poking into - and blocking - her line of sight to the nascent couple across the boardwalk whom she had been gawking at. "Yang," Blake teased. "You're going to ruin the moment if you stare so openly." Blake chided facetiously, a sly grin forming at the corner of her lips.
"I'm not staring!" Yang fought back with a laugh. With a playful grin, she leaned in to close the distance between their faces. Her eyes pivoted to focus on the faunus girl who seemed so intent on eclipsing her view, and Blake quickly poured conscious effort into maintaining an unshaken facade. As the glossy eyes of her partner peered into her own ambers through a half-lidded haze of soft violet, it looked to Blake as though, almost imperceptibly, her pupils shifted ever so slightly out of focus. "Or... Am I?" Yang asked in a sultry swoon.
Oh, if she knew what those eyes did to her. If Yang only knew, Blake thought, of just what these little jokes the blonde played on her truly aroused in her- of what kinds of feelings would come crashing down on her if Blake's walls were ever to be fully torn down... could she handle it? Could Blake?
The two remained locked in a death stare as the battle of will raged on between them. Yang, feeling the need to up the stakes even more, rounded part of her bottom lip in towards her mouth and pinched it between her tongue and teeth. Blake's face remained unmoved, however, at the top of her head, one of her feline ears flick backwards and then flip back into place. Yang swiftly broke eye contact and choked down laughter at the sight of the movement.
At last Blake could surrender to once again let emotion express itself on her face, but the emotion in question was something different now. The tornado of thrill and latent desire Yang had been stirring in her blew away in the wind when she saw her partner break down in laughter at her animal traits. The mask of undeterred confidence was shattered, but all there was underneath it now was shame and a painfully familiar twinge of self-loathing.
Yang stopped her laughter dead in its tracks when she saw Blake's reaction. "Oh- gods no. Blake. I didn't mean-" Yang's face twisted into a look of concern and fear, and those violet eyes now had only remorse and worry to show.
Dread came crushing down on her harder than it had in almost her entire life and in that moment, she despised herself stronger than she ever had anyone else, even here own mother. 'Good going, Xiao Long.' She scathed at herself inside her mind's inferno. 'You really did it now.'
"Blake." Tentatively, Yang reached for her partner's forearm and placed her hand on it. "I was not laughing at your ears." Not even feeling fit to look at her with such a pitiful response, she turned to face the ground at her feet and continued. "I was surprised. I was rude. I was stupid. So, so stupid, I-"
"It's okay." Blake responded flatly.
"No, it's not okay, Blake! I hurt you."
"You made a mistake. Anyone could m-"
Suddenly Yang's eyes shot back at Blake, red-hot with anger deserved only by herself. "I'm not supposed to be just anyone, Blake!" Yang ripped her hand away and clutched her head. "I'm supposed to be your partner! I'm supposed to be someone you can turn to- someone you can trust." Yang leaned down to bury her face in her hands, her elbows on her knees. "I'm just a wrecking ball," she muffled into her palms.
Moments later, Yang could feel a pair of arms gently slide around her. "I do trust you," a soft voice next to her whispered.
She opened her eyes to see that Blake had quietly pulled her into a hug, and she wasted no time in throwing her arms around her in return. She quickly tugged Blake close and planted a soft kiss on the top of her head before relaxing her neck and resting her cheek against a soft cat ear. "I'm sorry..." she whispered.
Blake's muscles relaxed and once again, she let herself fall into the magnetic, welcoming heat that was Yang Xiao Long. Large, warm hands caressed her back and a deep, stuttering inhalation sounded from Yang's chest. Blake soon heard a loud sniffle from over her shoulder as her partner was... crying?
Yang was crying because she knew she may have offended her? She may indeed have offended her, true, but to know that the bubbly blonde had broken into tears over her remorse for it?
It was that unexpected and sobering show of genuine respect for Blake in that moment that brought her back from the depressive spiral the mishap had sent her down. She tightened her grip on Yang slightly as she felt the closeness between them rekindled. Yang reciprocated and within seconds, the two were squeezing each other and crying into one another.
Eventually the partners settled down into a calm, restful embrace as they sat there in peace. Yang's eyes flicked back over to the two they'd left alone and, to her surprise, they looked like they'd barely budged an inch. "Whoa," she mumbled.
However quiet, her vocalization earned a tired, interrogative moan from Blake as she turned her head to follow her partner's stare.
"Are they... still at it? I can't tell..." Yang strained her eyes to eye them in more detail, to no avail. "Blake, can you tell? It's too dark for me to now."
Blake rolled her eyes and turned back to her partner. "Gee Yang, sound a little more jealous why don't you," she teased.
"What," she defended. "I'm not jealous!" She brought her gaze back to Blake resting in her arms and held her stare for a moment. It took this scene to make her realize that the sun had now fully set on the town. How ever long she'd sat there in Blake's embrace, by this point the sky was lit only by the moon and the stars, and its glow was absolutely mesmerizing on her features.
Blake's face was stunning by all accounts in the daylight already, but observing her in this atmosphere introduced Yang to a completely new level of beauty. It was as if she were specifically created for this exact setting and tone. All of the mystique that followed her effortlessly in the sunlight was amplified one hundred-fold at night, yet somehow the loss of light bouncing off of her skin at nighttime had done nothing to take away from her beauty. Instead of her beaming yellow eyes lighting up her face in broad daylight, the night sky brought out cool purples and blues dancing between the shadows of her of her hair and the glistening sheen of light bouncing off of her now-nearly-silver eyes. Analyzing her partner's appearance like this, Yang had to wonder how exactly it was possible for one person to be just so absurdly beautiful.
"Not jealous...?" Blake held her ground, wearing a look of incredulous doubt. She cleared her throat and tightened her voice into a more brassy, lively tone. "Oh, I'm not jealous, Blake! Now don't mind me, I'm just gonna stare all night long as Jaune Arc sweeps the second prettiest girl at Beacon off her feet!"
Yang snorted out a laugh as a smug smile beamed across Blake's face. "Okay, I do not sound like that!"
As their laughter decayed into the night air, Yang couldn't help but notice Blake had not released her embrace. She noticed she hadn't either. As the night drew on, the silence around them grew, but one particular thing Blake had said was still hanging in the air around her. Looking into those wonderful, shimmering, honest eyes of her partner's, Yang pressed the thought that was now ringing in her ears.
"Second..."
"Hmm?"
"Second prettiest. You said Pyrrha was the second prettiest girl at Beacon."
Blake stared back blankly, with no show of acknowledgement of what she'd said.
"I mean, for what it's worth," Yang conceded. "I'd probably agree with you on that."
"Mhm." Blake responded non-chalantly. "She's gorgeous."
"Breathtaking."
"... Stunning."
Neither of their eyes had been on Pyrrha. The two had been, over the course of the entire conversation, holding each other in a deep and honest stare.
"So."
"So?"
"Who's the prettiest?" Yang pressed, looking into her with insurmountable curiosity. "Who's more beautiful than Pyrrha Nikos, Blake?"
"... No."
"No to who?"
"To the question. Just... no."
The way Blake's expression could remain so unfaltering to any show of agitation, even when her tone had been so short and curt as it just had, was downright threatening sometimes. Yang's eyes disengaged from the stare they'd been locked in with her partner's. "... I'm sorry." Yang loosened her arms around Blake. "I shouldn't be doing this."
"Yang, it's fine," Blake smiled reassuringly. As she felt Yang's grip loosen around her she tugged more tightly in response. Blake pulled herself closer against her partner, only for the blonde to turn and rip herself away from their embrace.
"No, Blake- I shouldn't be doing any of this!" Yang bounded out of her seat and Blake's arms fell to her stomach. "I shouldn't be pushing you like this." She looked away from her partner, focusing in any direction but that beautiful black-haired faunus. "All these 'jokes', the suggestive teasing, the gestures, randomly touching you and grabbing you and getting all up in your space..." Yang flung her arms out to emphasize her words. "I even feel bad about asking you to come hang out with me on-... you know. Today."
'Today.' The word and what it meant to Blake were ringing in her head as she watched Yang coming undone before her. A warmth shot down her spine as she considered why the fact that today was so special had anything to do with whatever guilt her partner was wracked with. 'She can't possibly mean...' Her heartbeat picked up as the only possible explanation she could concoct started to seem narrowly within the realm of likelihood.
Yang rubbed her temples as she let out a heavy sigh. "Gods, I really am all over you sometimes. And I'm sorry for that." She focused on her partner now with a look of determined remorse. "Really. I'll back off, okay? I'll-"
"Yang stop." Blake shot. She turned her eyes down to the floor between them and her cat ears flattened backwards. Her voice softened and a gentle shyness came about her expression. "What's this all about? I'm here... aren't I?" Blake met her partner's eyes with concern painted on her face. "I said yes, you know..."
After a moment of letting the words buzz in the air, Yang turned her body to face Blake and tilted her head slightly.
"When you asked me to come with." She drew a deep breath and slowly advanced towards that warmth that had left her side moments ago. "I'm not stupid, Yang; I knew what day it was. What..." She hesitated and shot a brief glance off to the side. "Implications it might have for two people - two partners - to spend it together." She looked back to Yang, with her face frozen in patient openness, then she sighed and drew another breath. "But still... when you asked me to go out on the town- to join you, to spend Heart's Solstice with you, I jumped at the chance."
Blake felt a nervous blush light up her cheeks as Yang's expression softened even more; however subtle the change, it seemed to return a surprising amount of radiance to her features. "I don't really know what it all means yet," oh how she hoped that lie had been convincing, "but I was ecstatic when you asked me." Just as I'm ecstatic when you make those 'jokes' with me-
No, that was still a step too far. Blake didn't know what exactly Yang meant by this sudden outburst, but if anything could have at least pushed thoughts like these up to the surface for her, it was going to be the sort of passionate outcry she'd witnessed from her troubled partner just a moment ago.
"Blake," Yang responded in almost a whisper as the faunus drew closer still. "I'm a mess," she admitted with a soberness to her normally sunny voice. "I'm pushy. I'm needy. I can brush up against people's comfort zones with the grace of a bowling ball sometimes..." The sentiment earned her a warm smile from her partner and she continued. "I just feel like I'm... intruding when I push you like that."
"Don't." Blake wasted no time in commanding. To hear Yang suggest that all of this was forced by her - that it was unwanted, that it was unreciprocated, or that Blake didn't herself have urges that extended far beyond those her partner demonstrated towards her - it pierced Blake's chest and bore into her. "Yang, please- you're never intruding." Blake reached out towards Yang's arm. "That stuff is never unwelcome, nor unwanted-"
Yang pulled her arm away and cast her look to the ground, leaving Blake's eyes and outstretched hand alike aimlessly suspended in the empty air between them. She held her hands behind her and looked to her feet as she toyed for a couple seconds with her balance, pivoting one ankle left and right. 'Right here and now Yang, just get it over with.'
If she were ever going to push that one question - to reach through both of their barriers and try to take hold of Blake, to have her not just as a partner, but as a partner - then the sooner the better, she reasoned. If she didn't do this tonight, she felt like she would spontaneously combust the next time Blake looked at her.
"Blake, if this is what it sounds like..." One glace at the pained expression that lingered in Blake's eyes threw Yang's own back down to the ground and a heavy silence pinned them there. Yang drew several breaths to steady herself before she pressed on.
"Look, I don't have much experience on this side of..." She glanced back and attempted to maintain eye contact. "... A confession." She kicked a leg back and backed away from Blake one more step to offer her more space in the event that her words would make her uncomfortable. "But that's what this is."
Blake followed her partner's lead just as she had in their earlier dance, and answered Yang's step backward with a step of her own forward. Her hand and eyes each found their partners as she took Yang's arm and saw those honest violet pools flicker back up to her own begging ambers. "Yang..." she whispered almost silently before being cut off.
"Also... please know, I didn't plan on telling you this tonight; this wasn't some sort of trick to try and put you on the spot or anything. But I can't run from it now." Yang let Blake close the distance, but refused to further any of the contact the faunus made towards her. She simply continued to speak and hoped that she would know when it was time to stop.
"I've been totally infatuated, Blake..." she sighed. "It's like, whenever you're around-" Her eyes unfocused as she tried to wade through her thoughts. "I mean, when we're fighting together it's one thing. But when we're alone - when we're just doing nothing together, when I'm playing my games and you're right there under my bunk buried in one of your books, when I can't get to sleep at night - you just keep running through my head."
Just saying it out loud caused a blush to form under violet eyes. "I mean, honestly- you think I was watching Jaune and Pyrrha with jealousy?" She laughed dismissively. "How could I have been jealous over her when I had Blake Belladonna right there in my arms?"
Her eyes flipped back to regard Blake's expression and she hesitated to go on. "Sorry, that was too much... I'm too much."
"Stop, Yang... Please, don't say that anymore." Blake pleaded. "I don't think you're too much." She wanted to grab her partner and comfort her and press her back into another embrace so strongly right now she could feel her arms twitching at the thought. But Yang was trying to word this properly, and she reasoned that she should let her.
Yang plowed ahead with a slight smile brought on by Blake's words. "Look, the last thing I want is for this to interfere with our friendship or our partnership here. If I'm just being weird then I promise, I'll squash this. I'll back off. I'll keep my distance and-"
"Yang, don't!" Blake begged as she snatched her hand and held it in front of her. The shock of it coursed through her partner and those purple eyes stuck to the flustered faunus as she continued.
"I meant it before. I don't think you're too much. I don't think you're pushy, I don't think you're needy, or weird, or a mess or anything like that. I think you're... Yang." She cupped the strong hand in hers and pressed ever closer into Yang as she continued. "You're warm. You're safe. You're fun. And-" She inhaled and looked down into the warm hand inside of hers before her eyes trailed off to the side. "You're the most beautiful girl at Beacon Academy," she admitted.
Yang stood still, her gaze boiling over with pleasure as the words settled into her mind. Her arms opened ever so gently to invite Blake in, and raven hair quickly threw itself onto her face as her partner flew into her embrace. Within seconds the pair were holding each other more tightly than they ever had before.
Yang looked over her partner's shoulder and off in the distance, she saw that the couples who had been walking and dancing and shopping earlier had now begun to thin out. All that seemed to linger still were pairs locked in embraces just like theirs, most of them joined at the lips as well. Making an effort not to sound too greedy, Yang hesitated. "So umm, do we-..." her question was stopped when she felt the faunus' soft hand sliding up to her cheek.
Blake retreated from the hug, pulling her arm up to rest a second hand on Yang's collar and leaning her forward into her. Their lips brushed up against one another and the warmth of their breath amplified the desire between them. Blake backed up a step and pulled her partner closer to maintain their proximity. Yang followed.
Another step back from Blake, another forward from Yang and soon the pair's last short dance of the night terminated at the bench they'd just occupied. The heat between their faces now was so intense it threatened to finally melt them together. "I want to sit down," Blake whispered, "for it..."
Yang loosened the grip she had on her waist and turned to sit. Though it felt like trying to tear apart magnets, their lips drew away from one another as Yang sat down, only for the distance to be promptly closed when Blake lowered herself and nestled into her lap. Hungry arms found their way around the blonde's neck as her partner pressed in and their lips settled into a long, fiery kiss.
Jaune and Pyrrha strode wordlessly along the boardwalk, her arm tucked in has and their fingers interlocked. Though the pair seemed to walk in a light daze, the silence and Jaune's touch were all Pyrrha could ask for right now- all she could likely handle. After the array of passion, physical exhilaration and emotional exhaustion the day had brought her, she was left with very little energy for coherent thoughts. And judging by their brief conversation on the docks afterwards, Jaune was in a similar state.
They would have to process the events of tonight on their own and attempt more conversation of it in the future, but that was a story for another night. For right now, two things were clear clear amid the fog of their minds: firstly, that they both strongly wanted to be together - that they would be together - and secondly, that they could really, really go for some dessert right now. They'd gone off in search of the other half of their party in order to extend the invitation to them.
"Pyrrha, look-" Jaune pointed off to a familiar yellow blur drawing closer as he and Pyrrha approached. She followed his finger to a nearby bench where she was treated to the sight of Yang Xiao Long with a very comfortable Blake Belladonna sitting across her lap and resting her face in her partner's neck.
The two looked so peaceful that Pyrrha wasn't even sure whether they were awake or not, until she could make out the faintest motion of Blake's head rubbing a small pattern into Yang's neck. "Heavens, Jaune- they're cuddling!" she whispered excitedly, cupping her hand to Jaune's ear.
He blushed seeing them and changed course slightly, placing his hand across Pyrrha's waist as he veered away from the bench. Pyrrha look to him inquisitively.
"They're celebrating together; I don't think we should disturb them." He said with a smirk. "We'll check back up on them later." He and his partner shared a shy nod and looked around for a dessert place, until they were halted by a noise that shot out at them from the nearby seat.
"Psssssssssssst." Yang's face was now beaming at them upside down, her neck craned over the back of the bench. "Where do you two think you're going," Yang taunted. Blake's head rose up from her partner's neck as she shot them a flustered smile and quickly broke eye contact.
Pyrrha reached up and tucked a fiery strand of red hair behind her ear. "Jaune and I," she announced, an inextinguishable happiness making itself apparent across her cheeks as she now knew she was referring to them as a couple, "were thinking of going to get some dessert... We wanted to see if you two would like to come along."
Yang pulled her head back up to look at Blake.
"Let's go with," Blake shrugged with a smile.
"Great!" Jaune turned to Pyrrha excitedly and planted a kiss on the side of her head. "I don't know about you two... but I kinda regret passing on that sundae earlier," he remarked with a grin.