Story's not dead, so that's great! I've been so caught up in school, it's really slowed this whole thing down. I'll try my best to update as fast as I can, but the important part is that I won't give up on this little thing, so don't worry.

I hope this has enough feel-good to make up for the season finale. Oof.

No matter what Yang did, Blake lingered.

Somewhere in the periphery of her mind, always on the fringes of her thoughts and edge of her vision, almost. The quiet, calm way she carried herself. Her brilliant eyes and dark hair, somewhere almost reachable if only Yang focused hard enough.

This was not like Yang.

But then again, Blake made Yang into whatever she wanted. Putty in her hands, a giggling mess, a ball of warmth.

A mess of emotions. Insecure. Jealous. Tortured.

And it wasn't like Yang. Yang was a woman of action. Being stagnant, being stagnated into a set of emotions made her feel... eugh. Yang wanted to move. Move on. Move away. Move forward. She wanted to move from her feelings. She would never let anything stand in her way, so why did she let Blake do so in her mind?

No. She never let Blake do anything. Blake went ahead and worked her magic on Yang all by herself.

And it wasn't like Yang hadn't tried to do something about it. She had many tricks up her sleeves. Punch something till she was too tired to feel anything anymore. Drink. A lot. Meaningless sex with whichever man or woman had fancied it (never at the loft though). She even tried an actual relationship. That hadn't worked out so well. Nothing she did seemed to do anything. She was still stuck. On it. On Her.

Yang was truly at a loss. It frustrated her to no end. Blake's quick wit, her adorable tendencies, her benevolent personality. All of it made her live in just a constant state of agitation.

Short of straight up confessing her love, Yang was out of options but to hunker down and deal with. Even that was looking more and more appealing every day. At least something would be done about it.

Yeah, no.

Yang got a bottle of water out from the fridge, gulping it down, thirsty from her morning run. Well, her lack-of-sleep addled brain thought it was more of a midnight run, but that tended to happen when you didn't get any sleep. And lack of sleep tended to happen when Blake was on her mind. That, and the sounds she had heard coming from Blake's room last night. It made heat rise to her cheeks and her stomach curl in on herself, in a terrible way. Yang's nails dug into the counter as she tried to will the memories away.

And then Sun came out of her room with a pair of loose boxers on and nothing else. He mumbled a sleepy hello to Yang, a small smile gracing his features as he dragged himself to the bathroom. Yang managed to get out a cordial head nod. Sun was probably too sleepy to notice the way her teeth grit anyway. Yang shouldered the fridge door close a bit harder than she maybe had to, before retreating to her room.

Lovely. Great. Fantastic.

Weiss wasn't the earliest riser. She used to be. Then a pair of sisters showed her the delights of sleeping in. It involved all six Star Wars movies and a lot of coffee and ice-cream. Weiss had never slept in till noon before that. It was amazing.

Still, old habits die hard. She didn't quite wake up at the crack of dawn, ready to start her lessons and training, but she woke up earlier than anybody else. Unless that somebody was a certain Yang Xiao Long, stomping around and slamming fridges. Weiss caught the edges of long blonde hair as the door to her room shut close. Weiss frowned, stepping out of her room and heading over to the bathroom. That was about the biggest downside of living in the loft. A communal bathroom. There wasn't much Weiss missed about living at Schnee Manor, but her own bathroom was one thing she did miss.

She stretched her back as she entered the bathroom, yawning. She sidestepped a naked Sun-

Wait.

WAIT.

"No. NO," Weiss covered her eyes. "What is this. What-" She shook her head vehemently. "Why are you naked?!" Weiss almost shrieked. Sun panicked and clamped a hand over her mouth. Weiss panicked more, pulling away. "Do not get close to me! Why don't you have any clothes on putonsomeclothes!"

Sun sighed, reaching for a towel hung on the wall. "Why does this keep happening to me," he mumbled dejectedly. Weiss didn't even want to know about the other times.

"You can open your eyes now," Sun sighed again. Weiss peeked in-between her fingers, blushing madly. Sun had wrapped a towel around his waist, his tail curled down into it. Weiss put her hand down and glared at him. "Sorry, I was gonna take a shower and I didn't know anyone was-" Sun caught himself. "I'm just gonna- gonna go?" He pointed out the door. Sun walked out briskly. Weiss glared at his retreating form.

Wait a second.

"That was my towel."

"Penny?"

"Ruby!"

Ruby's small frame was wrapped up in a bear hug to rival Yang's, lifting her off her feet.

"It's good to see you, Ruby!" Penny said when she finally released Ruby, who checked for bruising on her ribs before smiling and punching Penny playfully on her arm.

"I haven't seen you since finals ended! What have you been up to?"

Penny's smile froze, as did the rest of her self. "I have been... with my family," she said tersely, hicupping a bit as she did. Ruby cocked her head at her. The two stood there in an awkward silence that seemed to be almost a trademark of their relationship.

"Okay, well... What are you doing here?" Ruby gestured around. The nearby HEB wasn't somewhere she'd expected to find the daughter of an ex-general turned professor. "I've never seen you around here before."

Penny smiled, looking around and marvelling at the sights and sounds of... a grocery store."My friend brought me here! I said I wanted to experience more of what he did, so he thought he would bring me along while he did some shopping!" she replied, chipper as ever.

"So... Where is your friend?"

Penny looked around in mild surprise. "Oh," she said. "I seem to have lost him."

More awkward silence, as Penny cocked her head, somewhat lost in thought. She looked around a bit. Ruby brushed some lint off her skirt and cleared her throat. Outside of the tenants of her loft, Penny was her closest friend. This was what it was like being friends with Ruby.

"Penny!" a male voice called from behind Ruby. Penny smiled as a man with shoulder-length black hair, swept back and tucked behind his ears, came up to Penny, a blue basket in one hand. "I thought I told you not to wander off," he lightly admonished her, much the same way somebody would scold their puppy for peeing on the carpet.

"Sorry, Mr. Risinger!" Penny replied cheerily, unfazed. She grabbed his arm excitedly then, throwing him slightly off balance. "Mr. Risinger, meet my friend Ruby!"

Mr. Risinger smiled warmly at her. "It's nice to finally meet you Ruby; Penny talks about you a lot."

Ruby blushed a bit at that, smiling and giving him an awkward jumble of 'stopitshutyourstupidfaceohmygosh'.

Mr. Risinger turned to Penny. "And I thought I told you to call me Jon."

Penny smiled, like she had just heard a secret. "Alright... Jon," she giggled like a schoolgirl saying her first curse word. It was honestly adorable.

Jon looked at his watch, frowning slightly. "We should get going now, Penny," he turned to Ruby. "It was nice meeting you."

Penny lifted Ruby up in another bear hug. "I'll see you later, Ruby!"

Ruby waved to the pair as she tried to get the wind back in her lungs.

"That was... something," Weiss noted, careful to keep her voice even as she approached her younger friend, pushing a cart loaded with groceries. It was later in the day, after the incident with Sun, when Weiss decided to go grocery shopping. Ruby had decided to tag along. Now Weiss was treated to 'Awkward Friendship Theatre' starring Ruby Rose, and a touchy, cheerful orange-haired girl.

Weiss pretended like her constant hugging and touching of Ruby didn't make her insides twist slightly and make her a bit irrationally angry.

Ruby turned around to face Weiss. "Oh, hey! You saw... all that?" Ruby laughed nervously, looking away and scratching the back of her neck. "Yeah, that was- that was Penny. My friend. My friend, Penny."

If 'awkward' could ever be used as a descriptor for the weather, it would be right then. All passersby would have commented on the weather that day being quite awkward. Then stare at their toes silently.

Weiss merely quirked a brow. "I got all we needed," she gestured into the cart with her hand. Ruby perked up, then rushed over to check the contents.

"Aww, there's no Skittles!" Ruby whined, her lower half sticking out of the cart and she buried herself into it, digging through the items. "And where's that bag of cookies? Or the cookie dough? And I think Blake wanted actual dough," Ruby noted. Weiss smacked her hand to her forehead.

"I said, things we needed. You don't need cookies. Or cookie dough!" Weiss sighed. Ruby poked her head out from the items in the cart to give Weiss an affronted look.

"Weiss," Ruby whispered. She somehow slid her whole body into the cart, then stood up on her knees as she inched closer to Weiss. "Weiss," she said again, starry eyed.

Weiss looked at Ruby quizzically. "What are you doing," she deadpanned, as Ruby got up to Weiss and smushed her cheeks together. Weiss was mildly irritated, but made no move go get away.

"I need the cookies, Weiss," she smushed harder. "Give me cookie."

Weiss sighed. She removed Ruby's hands from her face, planting them firmly on Ruby's own cheeks, smushing them.

"Bloo bloo bloo," Ruby said something through smushed cheeks. Weiss smiled. Even a Schnee couldn't ignore adorable of this intensity. Certainly not live with it and be as stoic as ever. Weiss rolled her eyes, then let go to push the cart to the confectionary aisle. Ruby whooped in the cart.

They actually did forget Blake wanting some dough.

Today was Blake's quiet day. The loft was silent and empty- Sun was hanging out with Neptune, Weiss and Ruby were out running errands, and Yang was at the gym. Blake had a cup of tea on her nightstand, and she was going to finish this book. Truth be told, this was how Blake planned every single free day anyway. A good book, and some nice tea. It's just that she had to work around the chaos that was living with Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. She managed fairly well. She could now sense when a pillow would be flung in her direction, and could duck and weave without missing a beat on her book. Sometimes, there were perks in being raised and trained by a group of militant revolutionaries. Most of the time, not really.

Blake settled into her bed. The pillows were propped up just so. The window was open, and a breeze tickled her slightly. The sun gave her ample lighting. Everything was perfect. She thumbed her novel to where she had last dog-eared it. Ever since her visit to Qrow's apartment, she had picked up a few mystery novels. Qrow was a man of good tastes.

She was barely half down the page when the door to the apartment was unlocked, and a certain Yang Xiao Long rushed into her room. Ever since the Christmas party, Blake had taken to not wearing her bow around the house, so her annoyance was very clearly conveyed to Yang, if it wasn't already etched on her face.

"I'm not here!" Yang said in a frantic, hushed tone before slipping into her closet, burying herself deep inside all her clothes.

"What the f-"

"YANG!"

Weiss stomped into the room, her white shirt stained with what looked like egg. She stalked into the room, looking around slowly like a velociraptor. Much like a velociraptor, Weiss opened the door to Blake's closet, finding a cowering Yang with a bra on her head.

Weiss' wrath was unleashed on Yang in full force. Blake had never seen somebody so petite and small beat up somebody twice their volume in sheer muscle. But here she was.

And like that, quiet day was ruined.

Blake put down the book, grabbing her tea and heading into the kitchen. She would have been disappointed, except this was how most of her planned quiet days went.

Blake took a sip of her tea, and it spoke to how used to everything she was when she didn't spit it out at the sight of Ruby Rose stuffing her face with cookies.

"Don't look at me!" she almost hissed, shoving another cookie into her mouth. Blake sighed, before snatching the bag away, much to Ruby's protests. She grabbed a napkin and wiped the chocolate away from Ruby's mouth.

"No more cookies," she said simply. Ruby whimpered, but left the bags of groceries to sulk in her room.

Weiss finally stomped out of the room, the eggs on her practically cooking, and Yang followed suite, nursing her wounds.

"Little lady hits hard," Yang almost whimpered. Blake took a sip of tea, quirking a brow at her.

"No less than you deserve probably."

"Hey, whose side are you on?"

Blake smiled. "Not yours."

Yang gasped dramatically, putting her hand on her chest in her best impression of a shocked housewife in the 40s. "Et tu, Blakeus?"

"What happened anyway?"

Yang shrugged slightly. "Not my fault."

It was totally her fault. Blake heard the shower running as Weiss cleaned the egg off of her. She also heard her quiet vows to murder Yang.

Weiss was scary sometimes.

Ruby stood in the doorway of Weiss' room, watching her work on her laptop. She never did stop, did she? She was even supposed to take it easy today. It was a part of a promise she had made. May was more than capable of handling the company for a day in her absence.

"So," Ruby stretched the word out, grabbing the Schnee's attention from the email she was reading. "You're not super busy tonight are you?"

Weiss turned to face Ruby, raising an eyebrow in question and glaring at her. Ruby toyed the hem of her skirt, looking decidedly not at Weiss.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well..." Ruby's eyes flickered towards Weiss' for a second. "I- I wanted to... no. Nevermind!"

Ruby rushed out of the room, shutting the door behind her, leaving Weiss thoroughly confused. Well, now she couldn't get back to work. She sighed, shutting her laptop and walking over to Ruby's room. Weiss knocked on the door twice.

"Uh- don't come in!" came Ruby's muffled voice from inside.

"Why not?"

"I'm... naked!"

Weiss froze, her mind now occupied with the mental image of a naked Ruby-

No. Not going there.

She shook out of her slight reverie to knock on the door again. "Ruby," she said. "Let me in," Weiss paused. "Please."

There was no response. Weiss sighed. Fine. If that was how Ruby wanted to be, then she would leave her to it. She was sure she could weasel out and explanation later. Weiss walked away into the kitchen, to find a somber Yang Xiao Long seated at the kitchen counter, her chin resting in the crook of her elbow as she stared at the fridge.

"Is everybody being strange today?" Weiss asked, her hands akimbo. Yang looked at the shorter girl with a tight-lipped smile.

"Hey, Weiss," she said, her voice sounding something like weary. Weiss faltered. What was happening?

"Yang? Are you..."

Yang waved a dismissive hand at Weiss. "It's fine, Weiss. It's just Christmas," Yang sighed, running a hand through her hair, a tic she developed when she was stressed. "Ruby and I- our mom passed away around this time. This time of year's kind of tough. Especially for Ruby."

Yang was looking in Weiss' direction, but she wasn't looking at her. The blonde was miles and miles away. Her glazed over eyes finally refocused on Weiss as she came back to reality. Weiss wouldn't pretend to know how they felt. Her own mother left when she was a baby. Too young to really know her.

"I'm sorry," Weiss interlaced her fingers, looking down. Yang waved another dismissive hand at her, walking over to wrap a one-armed hug around her shoulders.

"It's okay, Weiss," Yang said brightly, squeezing Weiss a bit before retreating into her room. Weiss put up no complaints. She rocked back and forth on her feet for a while before going back to Ruby's room, and knocking. Two knocks, hesitant and slow.

"Ruby," she said, soft and gentle. "Would you like to go out tonight?"

Weiss heard things being shuffled around, before the click of the door unlocking, and Ruby's face illuminated by a single strip of light from the hallway. She could barely see grey eyes, obscured by the hood she'd thrown up over her head.

"Go out?" Ruby asked, like it was ridiculous. Because, was this some sort of trick? "Why?"

Weiss smiled, as gentle as she could be. "We can get some food. Just the two of us. How does that sound?"

Ruby paused. Then she smiled, wide and innocent. "That sounds nice, Weiss."

"The dorks left, so I guess it's just us," Yang smiled at her raven-haired roommate as she sprawled out on the couch next to her. The top of her head just barely teased Blake's exposed thigh, a few stray hairs tickled it slightly. Blake flipped a page and hummed in response.

"Just us," Yang drawled. "Juuuuuussstttt usssss," she sing-songed. She spread her limbs out and stretched, the back of her hand connecting lightly to Blake's chin. She didn't miss a beat. Yang brought her hand around to the back of her neck and another atop her head.

Now Blake perked up, as a hand snaked fingers up to brush against the fur of her ear.

"Yang," she called out, the slight warble in her voice betraying her calm facade. Yang paused. Blake silently took a deep breath before continuing. "What are you doing?"

Yang retracted her hand. She'd gone too far. She mentally cursed herself. She'd let her feelings gotten the better of her- she'd been impulsive and oh god Blake hates her now doesn't she. Yang retracted her hand like it had touched fire, and her face conveyed similar sentiments. Blake almost moaned at the loss of touch on her ears.

Blake paused. Had Yang crossed a line? She was always this affectionate anyways. Hugs and cuddling and hand-holding was pretty much par for the course. Now Blake's ears were exposed, she supposed it was only natural for Yang to try and feel them. Of course, she was unaware of the intimacy of the gesture in faunus terms. But as it stood, Yang was a pretty important person in Blake's life. No, she decided at that moment, petting her ears wasn't crossing any line. Yang was Yang. And that was that.

Blake smiled at Yang, who had sat up on the far end of the couch, as far away for her as she possibly could. Blake shifted to rest her head on Yang's lap, much to the blonde's surprise. Then she grabbed Yang's hand and led it to rest atop her head, all the while still smiling at Yang, to her even bigger surprise. Then Blake went back to her book, like nothing had happened.

Yang hesitated for a few moments before combing her fingers through Blake's hair, letting the black locks flow like water. After a while, she began to tease the base of one ear. The furry appendage twitched slightly in response, but the owner remained intently focused on the book. So Yang became more adventurous, petting and stroking the two ears in between playing with her hair. Soon she became engrossed in it, and she almost missed how Blake had put her book down and was now staring intensely at her.

Yang stopped, staring back at the beauty on her lap, knowing how thoroughly fucked she was.

Blake stopped, staring at the gorgeous blonde looming over her, not quite knowing what she was doing, but only that it felt right.

They inched ever closer together, as Blake travelled up and Yang leaned down. Eyelids fluttered closed and breaths hitched as the moment reached its peak. Blake could almost feel Yang's warm breath on her lips, and-

Knock, knock, knock.

Both of them froze, eyes slamming open, suddenly very acutely aware of the distance between them, or the lack thereof. Blake scrambled away, bolting upright on the couch and very pointedly looking anywhere but Yang.

"Hey, Blake?" came Sun's voice, muffled from outside the loft. Blake's eyes widened even more, if it were possible.

Yang was a big, strong and scary woman. She was headstrong, and she was confident. Yang Xiao Long did not back down. Yang Xiao Long did not run away.

But yeah, Yang absolutely ran away into her room, locking it shut behind her as she hid under the covers and did her best to muffle her screaming.

Blake answered the door, after taking a moment to get the blush in her cheeks down and running her fingers through her hair, almost trying to rid any stain of Yang from her, as if Sun could sense it.

"Sun," she metered out, measuring her tone of voice very carefully. She smiled, because she was supposed to smile, and she supposed these sorts of things came instinctually when one's brain wasn't currently on fire and melting.

"Hey!" Sun enveloped Blake in a hug, which she returned tersely. Sun pulled away and smiled. "Sorry, are you surprised to see me? I called you a bunch of times, to be fair," he waved his phone at her. She looked towards her room, where her phone lay charging.

"Sorry," she said, giving a tight-lipped smile. "What are you doing here Sun? I thought you were out with Neptune."

Sun shrugged and smiled in that goofy way he knew how to. "He wasn't feeling too good, so he went home to take a breather. I thought I'd come here and see you for a while."

Blake resisted the urge to flatten her ears against her head as the confused feelings of guilt started to seep in from what had- and hadn't happened with Yang. She stored the memory away for later, even as it kept pouring over and bleeding into the forefront of her mind. Blake gave Sun a rueful little smile.

Sun sighed, but smiled all the same. "Bad timing, huh?" He shrugged, and pulled Blake in for a kiss, which made something fierce in her recoil instinctually. She managed to barely surpress it, and kissed him back, chaste and as normal as she ever would.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Blake," Sun turned on his heel, and walked into the hallway stairwell, hands in his pockets in a disarming show of how casual he was.

Blake shut the door with a little click, then leaned her head against it, squeezing her eyes shut tight. The black-haired faunus held her breath.

Then she let out a scream.