The alarm had already gone off once that morning. Someone had thumped it back to snooze. No one knew who, likely not even the person who'd turned it off. Now it was going off again, and nobody seemed to be in range to repeat the favor. Weiss said something approaching an "ugh" and clamped her second pillow over her head. Blake blindly reached out a hand for a book, found one that felt heavy enough, and threw it as hard as she could in the direction of the clock. There was a thud as the book made impact, a crash as the clock fell to the ground, and a sound that defied explanation as the clock came apart. "Thank you." Yang groaned. She rolled over, and promptly fell back asleep.
But then the radio kicked in over the intercom and that was that. Team RWBY fell out of bed in varying states of alertness and began their morning routines to the strains of Everybody Loves A Happy Ending. "Wake up. Your time is nearly over. No more the supernova, and no action guaranteed."
"This song is entirely too cheerful for this early in the day." Blake slurred her words drowsily as she applied her makeup.
"Wake up. You've had an operation, ideals above your station. Too much reality."
"You think this is cheerful?" Yang groaned, examining herself in the mirror. "Owww. I have bruises in places I didn't think I had places."
"You got hit harder than any of us yesterday." Ruby remarked. Of all four Huntresses in the room, she looked the most like her normal self, although that was a relative statement. "And we still don't even know who that was in the train." She looked anxiously at her sister.
"We made it out, didn't we?" Yang said with an easy-seeming shrug. "Stopped the White Fang, captured Torchwick, and killed a nice even number of Grimm. I call that a win." She punched her fists together and the bathroom lit up with a flash of heat.
"There's a lot we don't know." Blake said, and everyone could sense the anger that had bubbled back below the surface. "We just have to hope things become clearer soon..."
"Is that optimism I hear?" Yang said, nudging Blake gently in the ribs.
"Wake up, you're holding on to nothing. You know you're only bluffing. As dead as autumn leaves."
"Someone has to be." Blake said. She stepped forward suddenly and kissed Yang dead on the mouth. "I was worried about you yesterday." she murmured when she broke away only to go back in for another one, much to Yang's delight.
"All right, that's enough." Weiss barged into the bathroom and shooed the other girls out. "It's my turn." She slammed the door behind her.
"Blech!" Yang said loudly to break the tension. "Morning breath!" Blake smiled quietly. She wasn't the only one who sometimes had trouble dealing with her emotions.
Ruby's stomach rumbled loudly. "You guys go on ahead to breakfast." she said. "I'm gonna wait here for Weiss so she doesn't have to come in alone."
"That's so thoughtful!" Yang beamed, grabbing her sister in a hug and squeezing a little harder than she meant to.
"Yang-! Breathe-! I need to...breathe-! You need to...!" With a melodramatic gasp, Ruby resigned herself to her fate. "You're a hugging machine..."
The corners of Blake's mouth lifted by a full half-inch, no mean feat for her.
"And all your love will shine on everyone…"
Even the previous day's assault on Vale didn't stop the cogs of Beacon from turning. Classes were held, and students expected to attend, despite the celebrities in their midst. CFVY, JNPR, RWBY, and even the transfer students Emerald and Mercury were expected to recount their roles in the battle, and if they declined even once, the stories quickly blew out of proportion in the way that rumors do. At one point Pyrrha was said to have defeated seven King Taijitu by herself, while Coco Adel mowed down an entire horde of Goliath before Nora could have her fun. The latter spawned its own set of rumors, including a duel between the affronted Nora and Coco (and bets placed between teams on who the winner would be). "The winner of course would be Zwei." Ruby said. "Zwei always wins." Her teammates nodded solemnly.
During study period, Team RWBY found themselves in the library. Their minds were not on their work; each of them was distracted with memories of the last time they'd been here. Blake and Yang kept stealing glances at one another when they were sure no one was looking. They were wrong, of course; Weiss cleared her throat pointedly and they both dove back into their books, ears burning.
When the bell rang and everyone had started packing up, Blake took advantage of the chaos to speak to Yang for a moment. "We should talk later." she said quietly.
"About what?" Yang asked, her usual case of butterflies-in-stomach-when-being-near-Blake-or-even-thinking-about-her-itis suddenly turning painful.
"You know, us." She turned to leave, adding over her shoulder, "It's not bad news if that's what you're thinking."
She knew Blake was trying to be reassuring, but Yang couldn't help worrying the rest of the day. During Port's class, when she found herself sitting next to Pyrrha Nikos due to one of the professor's impromptu seating changes, she even asked her, "Hey Pyrrha? Do you...think Blake likes me?"
"Of course she does." Pyrrha said. "She is a part of your team."
"No." Yang blushed. "I mean lllllllllikes me."
"Oh!" Pyrrha beamed. "Well. I may not know much about love, but I've seen the way she looks at you. And if that's not love, then you did a terrible job fighting all those Grimm yesterday."
Like this day couldn't get any worse, Yang thought to herself as she let her head fall down onto her desk. Even Pyrrha's making fun of me. From the corner of her eye she could see Pyrrha put a hand to her mouth and smile sheepishly at her, and Yang wished she were somewhere else entirely.
With nothing else to do after dinner that evening Yang headed back to the dorm, hoping to find Blake there. Weiss was the only one there, however, doing her homework, diligent as always. "Hey." Yang said. Weiss looked up. "You seen Blake anywhere?" Yang asked, trying to sound casual.
Weiss pursed her lips. "I believe she was headed outside." she said hesitantly. "She didn't seem to have a purpose in mind, so you'll have a hard time finding her unless she wants to be found."
"No problem." Yang said. "I'll just follow the trail of broken hearts and besotted admirers she leaves behind her. Seriously, I think she got the most attention out of any of us today, and I don't think they even know about you-know-what." Yang bristled as she thought of how much worse things might have been. She'd seen how protective CFVY had been of Velvet, not letting her out of their sight even once. Coco's reputation had done a little to ease the harassment, but if Blake had been the one being bothered, Yang had no idea how much damage she might have done to the offending parties. Aloud, she said "Thanks Weiss!" and was about to leave the room when Weiss pushed back her chair.
"Yang, wait." she said. Yang did so, looking as surprised as she felt. "I know I may not have appeared to be supportive of whatever relationship the two of you have developed, but... I am. I just don't want people gossiping about you. Being a Huntress is hard enough without being subjected to additional scrutiny about your love life."
Whatever Yang had been expecting, this was not it. She blinked. Then she smiled. "Thanks Weiss. I don't know what we have either, but I'm glad to know you're looking out for me."
"Of course." Weiss said crisply. "We team members must stick together." She sat back down and picked up her pen.
Yang decided to take a chance. "And hey, if you and Ruby ever wanna, you know-"
Weiss knocked over her pot of ink. "Yang Xiao Long!" she screeched. "Just what are you implying?!"
"Implying?" Yang asked innocently. "I'm just saying, I think you two'd be good together."
"What makes you think-" Weiss began furiously as she tried to mop up the ink. "-I have even the SLIGHTEST interest in dating that clumsy, foolish-" She launched into a stream of colorful language that Yang was ninety-seven percent certain she didn't mean.
"Whoa, hold on!" Yang said, holding up her hands. "Lady doth protest too much?" She lowered her hands as quickly as she'd raised them. "Seriously though, you need help with that?"
Weiss heaved an overdramatic sigh. "I'll be fine. I think I got most of it before it started setting in. Go..." She waved a hand dismissively. "...make out with your 'girlfriend'." She was far too proper to use air quotes, but Yang could tell she meant them. She smiled at Weiss one last time and left.