"Why are your knuckles white, Yang?"

"Because," Yang breathed in exasperation. "I love how excited you are, Ruby. But your constant fidgeting is very distracting, and, I'm trying to drive."

"Oh, I'll try to stop." The silence lasted all of a minute before Ruby sat up abruptly and broke Yang's much needed quiet. "I just love the snow! And this is going to be so much fun with all of us together. We hardly ever get to do things together with school."

"Uh huh." A teasing smirk pulled at the corner of Yang's mouth. She just couldn't help herself. "You sure this has nothing to do with you and the Ice Princess finally starting to date?"

"Wh- I- No!" Ruby sputtered. "This has nothing to do with that."

"Sure," Yang drawled, stretching the word. "Nothing to do with this being your guy's—What?— second official date?"

"Fine!" Her sister relented. "Maybe it has a little to do with that."

"I would have never guessed!" Yang feigned surprise as she pulled up in front of a now familiar apartment building.

"You're so mean!" Yang turned, resting her arm on the back of the headrest of Ruby's seat. She couldn't help but chuckle at her sister's protruding lower lip and crossed arms. "It's not funny. Stop laughing at me." Ruby mumbled barely loud enough to reach Yang's ears.

"I'm not laughing at you, silly." She ruffled the younger girl's hair. "I'm just really… happy to see you so giddy about someone."

"Really?" Ruby's voice sounded so vulnerable it nearly broke Yang's heart.

"Of course!" She pulled her sister into a tight hug and the other eventually uncrossed her arms to reciprocate. "I enjoy teasing you but I'll try to tone it down. Okay?"

"Okay." Ruby pulled back to look at the entrance to the apartments. "What's taking her so long?"

"Did you text to tell her we're here?" Knowing full well she hadn't, Yang enjoyed the way Ruby scrambled for her phone in embarrassment.

"Oops."

"Uh huh. That girl has your brain-" Ruby's raised brow had Yang pausing. "Sorry, I did say I would try. I'm going to slip up here and there." Both turned to watch Blake exit the building.

"Hey Yang?" Ruby spoke as she watched Blake turn to secure the door behind her.

"Yeah?"

"I'll make you a deal. How about you stop bugging me about my new girlfriend..." Pausing, Ruby turned to smile cheekily at her. Yang spared Ruby a quick glance but her eyes soon returned to the girl making her way to the car. She wore a heavier jacket than either of them with a scarf wrapped around her neck, covering half of Blake's face. Yang was disappointed to see her eyes blocked from her view by a pair of sunglasses. Blake jogged the few meters between the door and them and quickly hopped into the seat behind Ruby. "Until you get the courage to ask a certain someone yourself."

The words sunk in as she watched Blake pull the seatbelt across her shoulder.

"Courage for what?" Blake asked.

Yang noticed her shudder as she sunk into the leather. "Here, this should help." Yang changed the subject, smiling warmly. She pressed a button on the dash to turn on the heated seat where Blake sat. Ruby giggled at the blush Yang knew was making its way up her neck.

"Thank you." Blake returned her smile. "Sorry were you two-" Just then Blake's phone pinged a notification. Blake scoffed as she looked at the message. "I guess you can't have been here long if I just got Ruby's message."

"Well we have been here for a bit, but this one's brain is on a one way track." They shared a conspiratory eye roll at Ruby's expense.

"Hey! You promised."

"Okay, okay. I'll stop." Yang relented. Not wanting Ruby to start in on any of her own teasing. She wasn't even sure of Blake's feelings and she did not want to chase her away before anything had a chance to start.

"Is Ruby excited for her second date?!" Blake piped up as Yang pulled back into traffic.

"Hey!" Yang saw Ruby swat at a hand out of the corner of her eye. "Yang!"

"What?"

"Our deal!" Ruby exclaimed as Blake poked the younger girl's cheek again. "Make her stop."

"Hey, our deal was that I would try to refrain from teasing. I can't control Blake."

"Has she been annoyingly excited?" Blake asked as she finally gave Ruby a break, falling back in her seat.

"So annoying. "

"That's so-"

"Right?" Blake interrupted Ruby. "Weiss has been messaging me non-stop for advice on what to wear and how she should act. I'm so close to blocking her number, I swear."

Yang caught Blake's eye in the rear view mirror, her sunglasses thankfully abandoned to rest on her head. They shared a smile as Ruby squealed excitedly in her seat.

When they pulled up to Weiss' apartment Ruby unbuckled. She turned to kneel on the seat but Yang was quick to swat her before she made permanent indents in the leather. She stood, hanging on the seat for support as she leaned into the back. Yang didn't think half pulling her seat with her weight was much better but she let it go.

"Hey Blake, would you mind sitting up front with Yang so Weiss and I can sit together?"

"You two are impossible." Blake sighed, glaring at the snow outside the window as if it was just waiting to attack her.

"Please?" Ruby pouted.

"Do you really want to be in the middle of them the entire way?" Yang asked.

Blake's eyes narrowed as she imagined Weiss and Ruby making faces at each other the entire hour's drive. Before either Ruby or Yang could react Blake was unbuckled and climbing through the space between the two front seats. Ruby was quick to open the door as Blake collided with her.

"How come she doesn't get yelled at for abusing your truck when I do?"

Blake quickly shut the door before Yang could respond. She pressed the button to start the heat going to her new seat. "How was she sitting here with this off?"

Ruby knocked on the glass, mouth open in shock as she pointed to the dash. A muffled "not fair" could be heard before Ruby turned to ring Weiss' apartment number.

"What's not fair?" Blake asked, strapping herself in and sinking into the seat's warmth. "Front seats are more comfortable anyway. I call this seat from now on."

"I-" Yang laughed nervously. "Well no one is allowed to press my baby's buttons but me."

"Huh?"

Yang reached over to pat the dash affectionately.

"Should I leave and give you two some privacy?" Blake teased, unbuckling her seatbelt. "Whoops!" She exclaimed, hand flying to her mouth. "I just pressed another button. Whatever will you do?"

Yang stared, dumbfounded as Blake's eyes sparkled. Was… Was she flirting with her?

Forcing herself out of her stupor, she leaned forward covering Blake's hand still on the buckle with her own. The strap of her own belt digging into her left shoulder as she pulled at it to get closer to the girl still wearing that challenging smirk.

"You Blake, I would allow to press any buttons you'd like."

Blake pressed forward, mouth opening with a response that Yang desperately needed to hear. It would give her the answer she'd been needing for the past weeks. Agonizing over whether Blake had feelings for her other than her friend's older sister had kept her awake more nights than she would ever admit.

"If-"

"Good afternoon Blake, Yang." Weiss greeted as she slid gracefully into the seat behind Yang. Ruby quickly jumped into the vacant seat behind Blake.

"Let's go!" Ruby shouted as she buckled her own seatbelt. "Hey, what's up with you two?"

Noticing just how close her and Blake had gotten Yang quickly reached for Blake's seatbelt, pulling it across her body and clipping it hurriedly into the buckle. "She was just having trouble buckling in. There you go." Her entire face was red, she was sure of it and when she spared a quick glance in Blake's direction she noticed she'd tipped her sunglasses back on to cover her eyes. Was she embarrassed as well? If she was that only meant she was aware that they'd both been flirting. Right?

The drive to the hill was pretty uneventful. Ruby and Weiss mainly kept to themselves and Blake was characteristically silent for most of the drive. They spent a few minutes asking after each other's classes and family. But for the majority of the drive Yang was overtly aware her younger sister was in the back seat. She wanted to ask Blake what she was about to say before Weiss interrupted them but she couldn't really bring it up with Ruby and Weiss there.

Determined to not bring down the mood with her confusing thoughts on Blake, Yang promised herself to put all thoughts of 'them' away until another day.

Tobogganing was always Ruby's preferred winter pastime. When their dad would take them to the tallest hill on all of Patch, Ruby always dragged Yang out of the truck, even before it fully stopped. Today was no different. Ruby hopped out, grabbing the sled from the back and dragged Yang off to make the first run. Leaving both Blake and a dumbfounded Weiss behind. Ruby screamed all the way down the hill but once they'd stopped and Ruby was bent to lift the sled to carry it back up Yang remained seated.

"Yang!" She exclaimed. "You have to get up."

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Um… I'm trying to carry the sled back up so we can go again."

"You do realize you just left your girlfriend at the top of the hill on your second official date. Right?"

Ruby blushed digging her toe into the snow. "I got nervous."

"Nervous?" Yang fell back onto the snow laughing. "You two have been inseparable for months! What could you possibly have to be nervous over?"

"I-" Ruby went silent, pulling her hood up to cover her face. "You wouldn't understand. Let's just go." Ruby dropped the rope, abandoning the sled to Yang's care as she made her way up the hill.

Yang instantly sobered and jumped up, grabbing the sled and hurrying after her sister. "Wait." She cried, grabbing Ruby's arm once she'd caught up to stop her. "What was that supposed to mean? I wouldn't understand."

"It's just… You're you!" Ruby huffed.

"Yeah, but that hasn't ever stopped you from being able to talk to me about whatever is on your mind. I'm a little hurt you think you can't talk to me about whatever this is."

Ruby kicked harshly at the snow beneath her feet. "Weiss is probably expecting a kiss or something from today."

"Well, possibly yeah." Yang was developing more questions but not getting any answers. "You two are dating. I mean, do you not want to kiss her?"

"No, I do" Ruby was quick to correct. "I like, really want to kiss her."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I've never-" Ruby groaned. "Never mind I don't want to talk about it."

Yang had known her sister was new to relationships but she never thought she was still this innocent. Her nerves made absolute sense now.

"Is everything okay?"

Ruby and Yang looked up to find Blake making her way down the hill to meet them.

"Where's-"

"I sent her to get us all some hot chocolate when I noticed something seemed up. Plus I think she could use the distraction." Blake turned to Ruby. "You really hurt her feelings leaving her behind like that."

Ruby covered her face with her hands "I'm hopeless."

Yang and Blake shared a look as Ruby took off up the hill again.

"What was that all about?" Blake asked her.

Yang smiled softly after her sister. No matter how much she wanted to be left alone with Blake having her own questions needing answered, her sister needed her right now.

Yang grabbed Blake's wrist and pulled her along to catch up with Ruby. She didn't want Blake thinking she was being left behind as well. Even if they weren't actually dating. As they closed the distance on Ruby, Yang cleared her throat.

"My first kiss was an absolute joke. It was horrible."

Ruby stopped. "And that's supposed to make me less nervous how?"

Yang ignored her and continued. She would have preferred Blake not to have been here for this confession but she wasn't going to let her bashful side stop her from helping her little sister.

"I was in a group hang out in highschool. Me and five friends decided to go get some milkshakes and fries at the diner down the street from the school. Do you remember that one?"

"Carole's Diner." Ruby answered.

"That's the one." Yang paused long enough to come up beside Ruby. "So there I was with a group of friends. Sapphire wanted another refill on fries and I volunteered to go get them for her. But when I was waiting for the order Bast cornered me. I was so surprised and…" Yang paused. "Well I hadn't ever thought of him in that way but he seemed to think I did. He apologized afterwards, saying he should've asked me if I wanted to go out with him but instead he had Jem set up a group thing because he didn't know how to approach me on his own."

"I'm sorry Yang. I never knew. I thought Jen was-"

"No, Jen was much later. And more enjoyable." Yang smiled. "But my first kiss will always belong to Bast and it wasn't anything like the stories tell you it should be. My first kiss was wasted, stolen, and something I would like to forget but can't." Stepping forward she wrapped her arms around Ruby's hunched frame. "You may be nervous Ruby, but that's a good thing. I never got the chance for my nerves to go haywire for my first kiss. You have the chance for yours to be what the story books write about. Yours gets to be with someone you really care about. Nerves or not, that's something to be happy and excited for. It's not something you have to be scared of."

Ruby squeezed her tightly before stepping back and removing her hood. She smiled at Yang and grabbed the sled out of her arms before rushing up the rest of the hill "Thank you!" She called back down once she'd reached the summit.

"That was very nice of you." Blake's soft voice spoke up from behind her. "It must not have been pleasant to relive that particular memory."

"Not really. But if it helps Ruby then I'll put up with the discomfort it brings me until I manage to lock the memory away again." Motioning up the hill Yang changed the subject. "Let's go get some hot chocolate before Ruby drinks them all. You look like you're freezing."

The second Yang and Blake grabbed their cups from Weiss, Ruby was dragging her new girlfriend to the top of the hill. Weiss happily obliged her. Yang grabbed one of the blankets they'd brought from inside the truck then motioned for Blake to follow her to the rear. She lowered the tailgate and spread the blanket across the metal. She hopped up and motioned for Blake to join her. They sat in comfortable silence as they watched the other two return to the top of the hill time and time again.

"My first kiss wasn't something I look back on with excitement either." Blake broke the silence.

"I'm sorry."

"Thanks, but you don't have to be. I chose it, unlike you. But hindsight can be a bitch and I should've never agreed to it. It just never felt right, but it was something we are supposed to do right? The whole relationship and kissing thing." Blake took a sip of her hot chocolate. "I've learned looking back with regret is the easiest way of losing sight of the present. So living in the moment is something I try to do as often as I can, but it's still something I sometimes struggle with."

"That's a very mature way of looking at things." Yang commented.

"Besides," Blake continued. "Who says the first first kiss should be the one that you have to remember for all time. You can always try again with someone else and decide that's the one to set the bar."

Yang was so captivated by the expressions forming on Blake's face she never realized how close her hand was until Blake was placing her own gloved one on hers. Blake squeezed gently, leaning forward when Yang didn't pull away. Unlike Bast, Blake paused halfway, giving Yang an out if she wanted it.

Like she would have ever in a million years said no to her.

Closing the distance was the easiest decision Yang ever had to make. When their lips met a warmth filled Yang; one that had nothing to do with the hot chocolate she was holding. Adjusting the angle Yang pressed forward, deepening the kiss. She felt Blake's lips pull against her own and knew she was smirking in triumph. Yang pulled back. One day she would wipe that smirk off Blake's face. But today, she would let Blake have this win. She deserved it for making Yang feel better. She chuckled when a large snowflake landed on Blake's nose. Gently she brushed it off with a swipe of her gloved hand before hopping off the tailgate and holding her hand out.

"I can see you don't really enjoy the cold, but would you like to go down one time with me before we head to the chalet for lunch?"

Blake accepted Yang's outstretched hand. "That sounds like a plan."

"A good plan?" Yang asked for clarification.

"A great plan." Yang took the lead, pulling Blake gently through the growing crowds of people. "Oh, Yang."

"Yeah?" She stopped, turning to face Blake in case something was wrong.

"Give me your phone for a minute."

"Okay." Yang was a little confused but placed her phone into Blake's awaiting palm.

Yang watched as Blake removed a glove and pressed buttons rapidly on her touchscreen.

"Here you go." Blake said as she handed the phone back and quickly shoved her hand back into her glove. "Now you can message me instead of Ruby when you're waiting outside my apartment. Or if you decide to pick me up sometime without Ruby."

Blake rubbed her gloves together to warm her fingers, having lost all the heat when her skin was bared. Stepping forward Yang took her hands in both of hers and rubbed them together. She brought them up to her mouth and breathed warmth into them.

"Better?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"Then let's go." They continued to where Ruby and Weiss were just coming up the hill. "Hey Ruby! Let us have one go before you wear the sled out completely."

"Okay, Fine! Weiss let's go get more hot chocolate!"

Weiss rolled her eyes as she was dragged past them "Like she needs more sugar."

Blake and Yang laughed as they disappeared in the crowd. Blake sat on the sled first and Yang took up the spot behind her.

"Oh, and Blake." Yang whispered into her ear, wrapping her arm around Blake's middle.

"Hmm?"

"I'll definitely be calling you." She relied as she pushed off, allowing the sled to crest the ledge and soon they were both falling.

The feeling of her stomach turning and the laughter forcing its way out had nothing to do with the sled's descent, and everything to do with theher falling rapidly for the girl in her arms. She was sure of it.

/

Prompts for this chapter is Snow