Author's note: Surprise, it didn't take 4 months this time! And it's finished! Thank you for the positive response to the last chapter (that's honestly a big reason why I managed to actually get this finished), and I hope you enjoy :)

It took Ruby no time at all to meet up with Weiss and the remains of team JNPR. "Weiss! What's the emergency?" she asked, concern in her voice.

"Has your sister told you who she's in love with?" Weiss asked, getting straight to the point. Ruby's eyes darted back and forth, not wanting to share her sister's secret.

"Um, yes, but-"

"Good, because we need to convince her to stop being a fool and confess already," Weiss, motioning for the group to follow her as she walked.

"Wait, you know?" Ruby asked, tilting her head quizzically.

"Of course I do! Why else would I be talking about it?" she asked with a roll of her eyes. "They don't," she added, gesturing to the other three. "Well, they know she's in love with someone, just not who...right?" she asked, looking to them for confirmation.

"That is correct," Ren supplied.

"So who is it?" Jaune asked, curious. Ruby and Weiss shared a glance before Ruby spoke up.

"It's not really our secret to share," she decided apologetically. Jaune shrugged.

"Fair enough. So what's the plan?" Jaune asked.

"You still want to help?" Weiss asked, confused.

"Of course! I mean sure, meddling in people's love lives is usually a bad idea but...doing nothing isn't always better. Besides, I'm sure you two have a reason for keeping it a secret," Jaune said, earning a nod of agreement from Nora and Ren. Ruby grinned.

"All right! Time to commence Operation Love Confession!"

The plan was simple. Teams RWBY and JN_R, plus Sun and Neptune already had plans for truth or dare that night. Yang always chose dare, so the schemers built their plan around that: first person to land on Yang would burn her skip with a hair related dare, while the next person would dare her to write a love letter to her crush, to be delivered by Ruby the next day. If everything went according to plan (and why wouldn't it, Weiss would say), Yang's feelings would be out in the open without outing her to anyone else without her permission.

It was foolproof.

Right?

"Spin the bottle, give whoever it lands on a truth or a dare, yada yada, you get one skip, we know how this works so let's do this!" Nora explained poorly, prompting Ren to whisper a more proper description of the rules to the newcomers of the group while she spun the bottle wildly. A maniacal grin appeared on her face as the bottle landed on Yang. Perfect. "Oh Yang~" she sang.

"Dare," Yang answered without a second though. Nora's grin grew to comical proportions.

"I dare you to let me cut your hair," she said. Yang's hands immediately flew to her hair protectively.

"Hey, leave my hair out if it!" she protested. Nora reached behind her, seemingly conjuring a pair of scissors out of nowhere. "Pass," Yang emphasized, irritated about using it this early. Nora did a small victory dance while Yang did a spin of her own. While it was spinning, Weiss and Ruby used the opportunity to sneak a high five. When the bottle finally did stop, its victim turned out to be Weiss. "Truth or dare Weissy?" she asked.

"Truth," Weiss answered instinctively, knowing better than to take a dare from Yang Xiao Long. Yang groaned.

"Why do you always pick truth?" she muttered. Weiss smiled.

"Because I know better than to accept a dare from you. And that sounded like a question to me, so that means it's my turn," she said smugly, spinning the bottle while a stunned Yang sat speechless.

"I'll get you next time Ice Queen," she promised with a proud smirk. The bottle settled on its next target, Ren.

"Truth," Ren answered preemptively. Weiss thought for a moment.

"All right then, how did you really get the burn mark on your neck?" she asked, feeling immense satisfaction at the blush that emerged on his cheeks.

"Pass," he decided, to the shock of his companions. Jaune looked from him to the smiling Nora and turned pale as a sheet, muttering something along the lines of "you've got to be kidding me". Hoping to change the subject, he spun the bottle which decided to land on Neptune. "Truth or dare?" he asked.

"Careful, he gives pretty crazy dares," Jaune warned, knowing Neptune hadn't played with them before.

"Okay then, truth," Neptune said, deciding to trust the blond. Ren had a question already ready for him.

"Why are you afraid of the water?" Neptune groaned, deciding to save his pass for later.

"My weapon and my semblance deal with electricity and well, electricity and water don't mix. At all," he emphasized, shuddering at the memories.

"I think the girls from team NDGO would agree with you," Sun joked as Neptune spun the bottle, this time landing on Blake.

"Dare," Blake said, her face neutral. Neptune grinned.

"I dare you to kiss the most attractive person in this room," he said, earning a glare from the raven haired girl. Ruby and Weiss shared an uneasy look while Yang braced herself for the inevitable.

"Really?" Blake asked dryly, clearly unamused.

"Hey, I can dare what I want...right?" Neptune defended. Blake sighed, and with disinterest in her voice gave an answer no one expected:

"Pass."

Yang had to stop her jaw from dropping, something Neptune and Sun didn't manage to do. Weiss had to immediately place a hand on Ruby's shoulder so that the younger girl's excitement wouldn't show, and Jaune, Nora, and Ren looked fairly baffled. Everyone in the room had expected the dare to go in a different direction.

"I thought that was an easy one," Neptune said, his confusion evident as he recovered. Blake glared at him.

"She doesn't have to give a reason for passing," Yang reminded him. "Besides, not everyone likes kissing people in public and that's okay," she added, trying to defend her friend. Blake shot her a thankful look as Neptune shrugged in acceptance. "Your turn then, Blakey," she said cheerfully. Blake rolled her eyes at the nickname, but amusement showed in her smile as she spun the bottle, finding Ruby this time.

"Truth or dare?"

The game continued like this for a solid hour, with the group's plan for Yang never coming to fruition thanks to one problem: the only people to land on Yang were Sun, Neptune, or Blake, none of which were in on the plan. As everyone was getting ready to part, Yang heard footsteps belonging to her partner behind her. "What's up?" she asked.

"Can we talk?" Blake asked, nothing in her tone suggesting that anything was wrong.

"Of course," she said, following the girl out to the balcony without catching the attention of any of their friends. "What's up?" Yang asked, leaning back against the wall.

"I wanted to thank you for backing me up earlier," she said.

"You mean about Neptune's dare?" Yang asked, earning a silent nod from her partner. "Oh, don't worry about it! What are friends for?" she said dismissively, catching the way Blake frowned towards the end. "Is everything okay?"

"Fine," Blake lied. Yang sighed.

"You know you can talk to me right? I mean, I know things have been tense between us lately, but you're still my partner. It doesn't matter if it's dealing with grimm, the White Fang, or even just a silly dare, I will always have your back," she assured the girl.

"Even if I ran away again?"

The change in Yang's demeanor was instantaneous. All sense of cheer vanished, and Blake saw an emotion she'd seen on the girl only a handful of times: hurt. "I'm not leaving," Blake quickly backtracked, and blonde's expression softened but remained wary.

"Well that's good," Yang said, trying to hide the previous flashes of emotion. Her eyes met piercing amber that always seemed to see right through her walls. "I know you had your reasons, even if I don't agree with them, but I'm just...I'm so tired of being left behind," she admitted, in a voice too soft for the vibrant girl. Yang reached up to brush away tears that threatened to fall, silently berating herself.

"You deserve so much better," Blake lamented, taking a seat against the wall, which prompted Yang to join her.

"I'm fine," Yang lied with a practiced smile.

"No, you aren't," Blake said softly, her eyes lingering on Yang's briefly. Yang chuckled.

"You always did see right through me," she joked, her smile sad but genuine. "I have to be fine. Ruby needs me to be fine," she reasoned. Blake placed a hand over Yang's left hand.

"Ruby can look after herself," she reminded the blonde gently. "Besides, the rest of us care about her too. She's like the little sister I never had," Blake mused, hoping to get her partner to care about her own well being. Yang smirked.

"I hope that doesn't mean you think of me as a sister because man, that would be awkward."

The words just slipped out, a flirty comment that was like second nature to her. It wasn't until after she spoke that she realized exactly what she said and the fact that, unlike the other times she flirted with Blake, it would be almost impossible to interpret her words as platonic. The revelation caused Yang's face to flush as she struggled to backtrack.

"I uh I mean that would be a real awkward family, one dad and three daughters? And that's not even getting into my mom...oh and your parents? Would they just marry my dad wow that would be weird so weird does that-"

"Yang?" Blake interrupted, her cheeks a faint pink of their own as she tried to stop Yang's rambling. The blonde wished the ground would swallow her up.

"Right, sorry," she apologized, doing her best to hide her current mortification. "Something was bothering you earlier, you wanna talk about it?" Yang asked, recalling an earlier bit of their conversation, a part of her very happy for the change of subject. Blake paused for a moment.

"Do you want to know why I really passed on Neptune's dare?" she asked, finding a new source of courage. Yang raised her eyebrows.

"There's more to it than just not wanting to kiss Sun in public? Because that seemed like a good enough reason to me," she said.

"Who said I would've kissed Sun?"

It was the second time that night that Blake had caught her completely off guard. "I was under the impression that you liked him like that," she said, confused.

"I did, at one point," Blake admitted. She sighed. "Yang, I've spent enough time with him the past few months to know that a relationship between us would never work. He's sweet and attractive, but he just doesn't get me. If I did Neptune's dare, it wouldn't have been him I kissed." Yang sat for a moment, taking her words in. Relief flooded through her at the revelation that she didn't like Sun, but the didn't stop her from being taken aback. She thought it over for a moment before she spoke.

"So...who would you have kissed?" she asked, genuinely curious. Blake hesitated, searching for all the courage she had to say her next words.

"What if I showed you?" she asked. Yang's cheeks flushed, mumbling a barely coherent "okay" as Blake leaned in. Before their lips met, Yang pulled away suddenly.

"Wait," she said with a sigh.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"It's not that," Yang quickly reassured her. "I just…" she sighed. "Please don't do this if you're just going to leave again," she begged, looking her in the eyes. Blake looked taken aback.

"You mean you actually…?" Blake asked, unable to comprehend the meaning of her words. Yang chuckled.

"Blake, I've been crazy about you for a while now," she admitted. Blake's expression softened and she rested her forehead against her partner's.

"I'm not going anywhere," she declared. She felt tension leave Yang's body at her words and she placed a hand on her cheek. "I promise."

"Thank you," Yang, her left hand coming up to meet Blakes. "Now, weren't you going to show me something?" she asked, trying to downplay her nerves with a joke. Blake smirked and leaned in, gently pressing her lips against hers. There was little time to enjoy it before they both heard a high pitched squeal coming from behind them.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you two were out here," their leader apologized, unable to hide the look of pure glee on her face. The sitting pair flushed at the realization they'd been caught. "But this is so great! WEISS!" she called, earning an irritated groan from the heiress. Yang and Blake chuckled as the pair continued their antics.

"I guess the cat's out of the bag," Blake deadpanned, catching the attention of all of her teammates.

"That was a pun," Yang said, not believing her ears.

"A double pun, technically," she smirked. The girls burst into laughter as Weiss and Ruby congratulated the new pair.

Things were still far from perfect, but for the first time in a long time things were looking up.

Author's note: That's all folks! Thanks for reading.