Chapter 25
Neo sat under the water, slightly grudging the fact that she didn't have a scroll or clock in the bathroom, as she tried to estimate if she had been in there for at least a half hour. She tried to run through her head how long she had been there and if she should wait a bit longer when there came a gentle rapping at the door.
"Umm, hey… Neo? It's been like, an hour. Are you okay in there? I mean, I'm a bit worried that you might have turned into a little tri-colored raisin." Yang inquired.
Well, at least that solves that. Neo stood up as she turned off the faucets, grabbed her towel and, as she began drying herself off, looked at her hands and realized that Yang's fear wasn't completely unfounded. Oh well, it was a good deed for a good cause. The sexual frustration between Blake and Yang was stifling when we got back. I can't believe that Ruby or Weiss weren't completely crushed under its weight.
She caught sight of herself in the mirror as she pulled on her pajamas and smiled. It's going to take me so long to get over the whole 'shower and clean clothes whenever I want' thing. With a satisfied sigh, Neo wrapped her hair in a towel and returned to the bedroom. As she started to put her stuff away, she heard a few giggles from the BY side of the room. With a quick glance towards the couple, she saw a mop of blonde hair buried into the side of Blake's neck as the fingers on her left hand tickled the Faunus on her stomach. With a wicked grin, Neo decided that it looked like they were having far too much fun; and she was feeling a little playful herself.
Silently padding towards the pair, Neo saw Blake's eyes open and fix upon her. She held her fingers over her lips, trying to tell Blake to stay quiet. Barely noticeable, the Faunus nodded just once. As Neo came within striking distance, she coiled her body into a lunge and hurtled herself at the blonde. With both hands, she found purchase on Yang's obliques and began to mercilessly tickle-attack her ribs.
Yang jumped at the shock of two more hands on her, and Blake seized the opportunity to turn the tides. She partnered with Neo and tickled Yang at the waist with one hand and behind a knee with the other.
Between gasps for air and laughs, Yang yelled out, "Fiends! This aggression will not stand!" as she wrapped up the two smaller women and threw herself forward, pulling the trio off the bed.
"Neo – get her hands!"
She rolled from Yang's grasp and tried to scurry up the blonde's body. Neo draped herself across the girl's flailing arms, as she attempted to gain control of them. Unfortunately, Yang was incredibly fit and a fair bit stronger; using her size and strength over her attackers, she began to make her way to a seated position.
Neo, with a sudden idea, grabbed the hem of Yang's shirt and yanked it off over her head as she twisted the fabric to try to ensnare the raging girl's arms. Her ploy worked and she managed to gain control of the arms while Blake continued to assail the girl's now bare ribs.
"Gaahh! NO more! I surrender!" Yang laughed under the onslaught. "Surrender!"
"Oh, so now you've had enough?"
The girls were on the floor laughing together, Neo still behind Yang with the girl's arms pinned in her twisted shirt and Blake sitting in front of her, hands on the buxom brawler's body when Ruby and Weiss opened the door and entered the room; freezing in place at the sight before them.
"Eep!" Ruby squeaked out as she covered her face, and turned a bright, crimson red at the sight of her topless sister with two girls.
"Neopolitan! Seriously, I leave for an hour to have dinner with my friend and this is what I come back to?" Weiss winked at the horrified woman to indicate her jest as she continued, "And you two. It's bad enough that you're doing these things with my poor, innocent, girlfriend in the room, now you're trying to get her involved in whatever incredibly hot things Blake spends her days reading and fantasizing about. How will I ever survive such betrayal at the hands of my teammates?" Weiss dramatically threw her head back and cocked her arm, forearm across her forehead.
Ruby was still frozen in embarrassment, she hadn't moved at all. Weiss threw her arms around the girl and pulled Ruby against her, hugging her tight, "At least I still have Ruby! Innocent and uncorrupted, she would never betray me so!"
Yang finally managed to twist her arms free and pulled her top back down as she jumped in, "Geez, Ice Queen… We should probably start calling you the Drama Queen!"
"Oh, I'm sorry… Am I supposed to be happy that the pair of you are trying to seduce my girlfriend?"
"Actually, it was Neo that pulled her shirt off." Blake chimed in with a grin. "I think she just wanted to see what I get to see."
Neo tried to feign an outraged gasp and strode over to Weiss. She looked at her with sad, puppy-dog eyes.
Weiss sighed; she was helpless against such a sight. "Did Ruby teach you how to do that?"
With an innocent shrug, Neo stood on tiptoes to give Weiss a kiss over top of Ruby as she wrapped the hugging pair into a hug of her own.
With the tension in the room mostly abated, everyone, even Ruby, noticeably relaxed.
With the joke winding down, Weiss assumed her normal 'all business' demeanor and turned the topic back to the far more pressing problem before them. "So," Weiss began, "What's our next move?"
"Well, so far as we can tell, we broke up the White Fang's operation with Torchwick in the Southeast and foiled whatever they planned to do from that base. Since Torchwick's in Ironwood's custody, I'd say that we should really focus on the White Fang. Maybe see if they're going to try to continue whatever was planned, even without him around?" Blake's voice rose at the end of her sentence, somewhat unsure about her proffered suggestion.
"Has anyone heard anything at all from Ironwood or the Atlesian army if they've managed to get any information out of Torchwick?" Yang asked generally, but moreso towards Weiss, given her sister's military career.
"I haven't heard anything. Winter didn't say anything about Torchwick the last time I saw her, but maybe I can try to see if she knows anything." After a moment's thought, "Anything that's not 'Classified!', that is."
Ruby absently rubbed her chin as she tentatively offered the only bit of new information she had, "Well, Penny told me something about General Ironwood telling her that she needed to prepare for an upcoming war. But since we're in a time of peace, I really didn't understand what she was talking about. Maybe we should try to figure out what Ironwood thinks is going to happen?"
Weiss tried to think through what fragmented and seemingly unconnected bits of information they had. "I'll ask Winter about that as well." Turning towards Blake, she continued, "Blake? You and Sun were both seen at the White Fang meeting, so it's unlikely that you'll be able to get into another one, right?"
Drawing her lips into a tight line, Blake lowered her head and shook it at Weiss's assessment.
"I'd hate to drag Velvet into this… Maybe I'll talk to Coco and see what she thinks…" Weiss continued, "Since Sun and Neptune have connections in Vacuo and Mistral, maybe they've heard something about any preparations for war or anything unusual within their kingdoms?"
The other four girls expressed their agreement and began discussing options for how they could start on the next phase of their investigation.
"Hey, Rubes ~ any idea what this week's field trip will be?" Yang asked her sister.
"No. Not yet. Ozpin normally doesn't give any info to the team leaders before Wednesday."
"Okay. Well, it looks like we have a few more days to find some new information and come up with a few options so we're ready for Friday." Weiss offered as she concluded their brainstorming session.
Almost immediately, Blake and Yang started talking about heading into Vale to check out a movie. After a few moments of discussion, Ruby jumped in and started offering suggestions she wanted to see. Another couple of minutes later, the trio had settled on an option and headed out, saying they'd be back in a few hours.
As the door closed and locked shut, Neo cocked an eyebrow at her girlfriend.
Weiss blushed slightly. "Neo, it smells kind of, umm, sweaty and musky in here. You… You weren't really doing anything with those two, were you?"
With a sweet smile, Neo shook her head. She reached down and picked her damp towel off the floor and handed it to Weiss as she pointed towards the BY side of the room's beds then off to the bathroom and pointed to the towel.
Weiss thought about Neo's pantomime for a quick second and translated, "You wanted to give them a little privacy, so you took a shower and they made use of the time?"
Neo nodded at Weiss's summation.
"So, when you got out, you and Blake decided to attack Yang and things just got a little, weird?"
Another nod.
"Yeah, that happens with her… Given Ruby's reaction, I'm pretty sure she walked into a bad flashback of the last time a tickle-fight erupted in this room. It was bad. Two-on-two turned into everyone against Ruby until she used her Semblance to bolt out of the room. And then it turned into Blake and me versus Yang. Every time we managed to get a hand on her, she somehow managed to wriggle away, leaving us holding another piece of her clothing. Eventually, she wasn't wearing anything and Blake and I were just trying to pin her down to get her to stop. Then Ruby came back…"
Neo thought it was hilarious, but nevertheless, definitely saw how it could be traumatic for the young team leader to see her older sister in an, admittedly, compromising situation.
She took the towel back from Weiss and hung it over the back of their desk chair when she felt Weiss wrap her arms around her waist. Weiss pressed herself into Neo's back, let her hands start to caress Neo's sides, and started to kiss her on the back of the neck and over her shoulders.
"We do have a few hours to ourselves…" Weiss said in a breathy tone.
Neo reached down and covered Weiss's hands with her own. She pulled the girl's hands apart from around her waist and guided them down to her hips and nodded slowly.
A/N: Things are getting a bit steamy in RWBY's dorm!
Well, I've had a couple of people question the past few chapters.
1.) Weiss is just really trying to be a better friend to Ruby.
2.) Yeah, in my world, Neo can talk ~ but here's why she doesn't: You've noticed that she only did when her hair was black and eyes green. You've also noticed, that when she's under significant emotional stress, her eyes flash colors. When Neo infiltrated Cinder's faction, she knew that she couldn't speak to give anything away, so to ensure she didn't, she used her illusion semblance to change her hair and eyes. The amount of concentration it took to do so limited her ability to speak ~ a win / win for her (disguise plus the silence she needed). By allowing the illusion to fully dissipate (when she shook her head to break the illusion in Ozpin's office), she's no longer allocating the mental resources to maintain it, so she regains her ability to speak. It's pretty weird and kind of out there, but I thought it was a cool reason why she doesn't speak...