Chapter 54: ONE MORE FINAL: I need you.

Like the reference up there? I hope you do. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a huge inspiration for me. Yet again, given everything that you people have read up to this point, that shouldn't be a surprise. Anyway, are you guys ready for a finale? I bet you are! So, before we get started with finishing, I should remind you one last time that I don't own RWBY, or anything I put in my story. Now, to the finale!

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Yang was having a hard time shoving a large package into a mailbox. People on the street were giving her odd looks, but Yang either didn't care, or wasn't paying attention to them.

"I still think just a letter would've been fine," Blake dryly pointed out.

"Are you going to keep on giving me life advice, or are you going to help me push?" Yang panted at Blake. Rolling her eyes, Blake grabbed a corner of the package and began to shove it alongside Yang. With their combined pushing, the large package managed to get through the deposit slot. It must have been some miracle that it fit.

"Whew!" Yang exclaimed as she wiped sweat off of her brow. Standing straighter, she then commented, "I hope he gets the package,".

Blake shrugged at Yang's optimism. "I'm not sure Mr. Brass' office would even take things like that," was her expressed doubt.

"Hey, it's worth a shot. Why wouldn't they? They don't know that it's a gift. They might think it's like… paperwork or something," Yang defended herself with.

"I'm sure that scanners would pick up the chocolate in there," flatly stated Blake.

"Are you just trying to put me in a bad mood? If I'm remembering right, it was YOU who said to be the best damn Yang possible!" Yang cried. That got her a few more looks form passing pedestrians. Not that Yang cared.

Massaging her forehead, Blake replied, "No, I'm just trying to be realistic, is all,".

"Apologizing to Mr. Brass is real enough to me. Why can't you let me have this?" Yang whined.

"I'm sorry, okay? Can we just drop it already?" Blake wearily asked.

Yang gave Blake a suspicious look, but then her features softened. "Gah, I can't hate you, babe," Yang said with a sly smile. She gave Blake a light pat on the rear for emphasis. Blake couldn't help but grow a small, cheeky grin at the contact.

"Slow down there, Yang. If we do that now, we won't make it to the restaurant in time," Blake said. But, the look on her face made it clear that Blake was seriously considering skipping the lunch date entirely. Yang's good personality wasn't the only benefit to dating her. In fact, Blake could think of two great ones staring her in the face right now.

"I guess you have a point," Yang conceded. "But, later though?".

Blake's cheeky smile turned into a predatory one. "Absolutely," she purred. But, then she smile dropped as she pulled out her scroll to look at the time.

"Well, we should get going. We don't want to make Weiss and Ruby late," sighed Blake.

"Sure thing. I was starting to get hungry, anyway," Yang said as she began to walk down the street. With Blake following her, Team Bumblebee made their way down the street to meet Team White Rose.

xxx

When Yang and Blake walked into the restaurant, they saw that Weiss and Ruby had already gotten a table for them. And their own orders, from the looks of it. Ruby was merrily gulping down her fifth triple-chocolate mocha caramel milkshake, and Weiss was picking at her salad.

"Don't drink it so quick, you'll get a—" Weiss disinterestedly chided, before being interrupted by Ruby. By the looks of it, this wasn't the first time this happened today.

"GAH! BRAIN FREEZE!" Ruby yelled as she put her milkshake down and clutched at her head. Weiss could only sigh and roll her eyes for the seventh time ever since they got here.

Ruby was groaning in pain and rolling around in her chair as Yang and Blake walked up to the table. Yang was trying her best to restrain her giggling.

"Wow, the Ice Queen didn't freeze you this time? That's a shock!" Yang mockingly teased at the other two.

Weiss leveled her gaze at Yang and Blake. "Oh. It's about time you two showed up. Can you please tell your sister to slow down?" she said, mostly to Yang.

"Pfft. Watch this," Yang replied, cocky as ever. Walking over to Ruby's side, she lightly put her index finger on the tip of Ruby's nose. That made the cloaked girl stop immediately and stare at the finger. Then, once Yang stopped poking her, Ruby sat perfectly still. She was back to normal. Ignoring what just happened, Ruby picked her glass back up and drank some more of the milkshake.

"Get good, Weiss," Yang chuckled as she sat at the nearest free seat.

"H-how did that work?" Weiss couldn't help but as, astounded at that trick.

"Ancient sisterly secret," Yang replied offhandedly as she picked up a menu to browse.

"How long have you two been here?" Blake asked as she took a seat next to Yang.

Weiss gestured to the growing pile of empty milkshake cups. "Long enough for that to happen," she replied.

"So, twenty minutes, then?" Blake asked, not skipping a beat.

"Yeah, about," confirmed Weiss. She stabbed at her salad some more. "So, what were you two up to?" she asked.

"You know, some shopping, some mailing. Does the chili burger look good to you?" Yang replied as she showed something on the menu to Blake.

"For you, yes. I would rather have the grilled tuna, though," Blake said.

"Well, that settles that for us, I think," declared Yang as she snapped the menu shut. "Yo! Waiter!" she then yelled across the room. A man in black pants and a white shirt walked up to the table.

"Yes?" the waiter asked.

"Yeah, we're ready to order," Yang said as she gestured to herself and Blake.

"What'll you two have?" the waiter asked, pulling out his notepad.

"Yeah, I'll take the chili burger and she'll have…" Yang trailed off as she waited for Blake to say her order.

"I'll have the grilled tuna, please," Blake politely ordered.

"Is that all? Any drinks?" the waiter asked.

"The both of us will take tea, please," Blake responded for Yang. Yang shot her a look, but she went a long with it.

"Okay, your food will be out in a bit," the waiter said before walking away.

"Tea? Really?" Yang complained to Blake as soon as the waiter was out of hearing range.

"It's much healthier for you than those energy drinks," justified Blake.

Weiss nudged Ruby in the shoulder. "See? You can learn something from Blake," she told Ruby.

"Oh Weiss. You so silly," Ruby deflected as she briefly stopped slurping down her milkshake.

Weiss could only huff dejectedly at her girlfriend's willful ignorance. Annoyed, she shoved some lettuce leaves into her mouth and chewed. It was amazing to think that Ruby somehow didn't have diabetes, or a heart attack for that matter. If Ruby's body was an engine, it would somehow be a perpetual motion machine.

Of course, this was going on while Blake and Yang were arguing over how good tea was.

"I don't get it! It's just hot leaf water!" Yang protested. Blake looked like she had been slapped in the face when she heard that opinion.

"It's… It's… argh! It's nothing of the sort!" Blake shot back. "It's not some collection of sugars and chemicals! Tea's a traditional drink that was refined over the centuries by master brewers!".

"More like master losers…" was Yang's lame insult. Blake's eyes bugged out regardless of the comeback's quality.

"Argh grrr bleh gahhh!" Blake replied in Angrish. Then, her anger overtaking her common sense, she grabbed the container of sugar on the table and dumped it on Yang's lap. "There's your sugar! Drink up!" she then heatedly cried.

Shocked and angry, Yang grabbed a bunch of small creamer cups. Then ripping off the tops, she emptied them on Blake's shirt in retaliation.

Weiss and Ruby could only look on in horror as the fight turned into a stare-down. Blake and Yang were shooting murderous glares at each other, and they were acting like they were holding themselves back.

Blake looked into Yang's eyes, and Yang did the same. Then, at the same time, Team Bumblebee lunched at each other and began to passionately make out. The both of them ran each other's hands over their partner frantically. They didn't care who saw.

Pausing to breathe, Yang quickly growled, "You're so god damn HOT when you're angry,". Blake didn't reply with words. Instead, she decided to do the natural thing and clean Yang's tonsils with her tongue. And yes, their kissing was as graphic as it sounds.

Ruby and Weiss' expressions of horror quickly turned into looks of disgust and confusion. How the hell did this fight turn over so quickly?

"Ruby?" Weiss asked simply, as she felt the both of them were thinking the same thing.

"Right," Ruby replied, understanding what Weiss wanted to do.

Gathering up all of the empty and half-full milkshake glasses, Ruby took off to sit at a different nearby table. Weiss picked up her plate of salad and glass of water and did the same. There was no way they could be seen with the people who by now had crawled onto the table to put on show that the other diners didn't need to see while they were eating.

So much for having a peaceful, normal lunch.

xxx

"Well, at least we didn't have to pay for our food…" Ruby said, trying to look on the bright side. Team RWBY was walking down the street, back to the air dock so they could get a ride back to Beacon Academy.

"Yeah, but we can't eat there anymore!" Weiss irritably called out to the rest of the team.

"Hey, I blame them. I mean, what kind of jaded world do we live in where we can't publicly express our love? I think society is the real thing to blame here," Yang mused.

"I can't agree more," Blake sided with Yang.

"You two were grinding on each other in there!" Weiss cried.

"Hey, I just love Blake that much. Isn't that right?" Yang asked Blake. She draped her arm over the shoulder of the cat ninja and flashed her trademark grin.

"That's right. You sure can be romantic…" Blake sighed happily as she nuzzled her head into the crook of Yang's neck.

Weiss looked at Ruby and rolled her eyes. She wasn't really keen on watching such a display while she was trying to have a nice day with Ruby. Although, she had to secretly admit to herself, it would be interesting if Ruby did that to her instead. It wasn't like she would say no to it, exactly.

"Just where do you get off thinking you can do that?!" Weiss continued to complain.

"Well, I would've gotten off in there, if that manager didn't interrupt us," reminisced Yang.

Weiss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Even she had to admit she walked right into that one. Damn Yang and her clever quips!

"Please, can we just move on? It's not something I'd like to think about," pleaded Ruby.

Yang took her arm away from Blake to pat Ruby on the head. "Okay, okay, I swear not to talk about it more, especially how ready I was to drink from the furry cup," Yang said in a patronizing tone. Now it was clear she was saying this stuff just to annoy Weiss and Ruby.

Speaking of them, Team White Rose retched and gagged at the same time Yang said that unpleasant euphemism. Who the hell even comes up with something like that?!

"I'll pay you good lien to never say that again…" Weiss groaned in agony. It was as if Yang's comments were beginning to physically hurt her.

Now it was Blake's turn to step in. "Save it for the bedroom, Yang," she advised.

Yang clicked her tongue in annoyance, but she agreed anyway. "Sure thing, mistress,".

Blake couldn't help but smile at being called that. Now that reminded her of some good times… except those times were actually pretty recent. Still, it was a good memory to have.

So, Team RWBY walked to the air dock in silence, letting the subject drop. Part of the way there, Weiss decided to intertwine her hand with Ruby's. Although the both of them blushed a little at the contact, they didn't break their grips. Their fingers remained interlocked, as if their lives depended on that touch.

Not that they would ever want to let go. It was so clear to them now. They would never let each other go, not even for a second. Sure, there may be moments of weakness and stress, but those were only natural. Their love each other was stronger than those obstacles combined.

All of Team RWBY felt that way for their respective partners. Having waded through the refuse of humanity's sorrow, having stuck together through the darkest times, they learned that they needed each other more than ever. They had stared despair in the face, but instead of giving in, chose rather to look at the person they loved and metaphorically say the one thing that meant the most:

"I need you,"

xxx

END

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Wow… what a way to end this story! Or, should I say, season. I like to think of these longer stories as seasons more than anything. But, don't worry, there is more to come! Also, I'm really, really honored to write for every one of you. Without your support, this story wouldn't exist. So, thank you, thank you all. Truly, you all deserve the best. You fans are simply awesome, in my opinion. Oh, and say thanks to JimboYokimbo for editing the earlier chapters of this piece. He's a cool dude, send a thanks his way. Now, I must be going. I have more stories to write!

This is The Draigg, fading away… for now.