Disclaimer: RWBY and all affiliated characters/titles belong to Rooster Teeth, those wonderful geniuses.
Yang pulled on a pair of tan shorts and slid a tight fitting yellow tshirt on, pulling her hair out of the collar and fluffing it a little. She could hear Nora just on the other side of the open bathroom door washing up a little before they headed back over to Team RWBY's dorm. When Nora had attacked her Yang had hoped they could have a quickie of sorts and get back over to their waiting friends rather quickly. But, Nora didn't seem to have a stopping point and now it had been a full half hour and she wasn't sure if her legs were in any condition to go play frisbee.
"You're a pretty quick learner Yang," Nora emerged from the bathroom, decked out in a little pair of pink booty shorts, a white t-shirt and a bright pink sweatband emblazoned with her hammer insignia.
"What do you mean?" Yang looked her over and was surprised to find herself wanting more of the petite redhead even though they had literally just put their clothes back on.
"I mean you're really really good at that." Nora pointed to the extremely disheveled bed they had left behind, "I'm gonna have to get Pyrrha new sheets." Yang's eyes flew open.
"Those weren't your sheets? Wait," Yang glanced at the bed they had used, "I thought you had the outside bed?"
"Wow, not even a thanks for the compliment," Nora skipped forward and gave Yang a kiss on the cheek, leaning towards the big blonde and flaring her arms out behind her to just peck at Yang's cheek. "Pyrrha and I switched beds when she and Jaune started dating. That way they're still on opposite sides of the room but they don't have to talk over me at night."
"Nora, we can't just use other people's beds." Yang stood there in shock even as Nora's lips brushed her cheek.
"It'll be fine. I told her that her and Jaune can use my bed whenever they want too. They can even push the beds together and have one big space to use." Nora laughed and Yang just stood there, mouth hanging open. She imagined having two whole mattresses of space to use, no more slipping off the edge or struggling to not fall off the end of the bed.
"And Pyrrha was okay with that?" Yang asked, still quite unsure of Nora, no matter how tempted she was by the idea of a double bed.
"Well she wasn't exactly... I mean she didn't say yes. But she also didn't say no." Nora looked around the room, trying to hide her guilty conscience in one of the corners.
"Nora!" Yang pushed at her shoulder playfully. "Your bed is literally right next to hers. We could have moved."
"Yeah but that would have slowed us down." Nora was whining now, "I mean Ren and Ruby are waiting on us."
"Oh cause we were so quick about it," Yang mocked her. They had already wasted so much time, the half second it would have taken to hop beds would not have been wasted.
"Well you were quick, that's for sure." Nora stuck out her tongue and Yang gasped.
"Excuse me for taking my time with you," Yang crossed her arms with a huff, "Beside, not all of us can make our fingers tingle like that." Nora leaned in and kissed Yang more gently this time, letting her lips linger on Yang's cheek long enough for the big blonde to calm down a little.
"Well next time it's my turn then." Nora slid her mouth over and Yang could feel her breath on her ear as she whispered, "I'll make it take all night." Yang felt a small shudder of anticipation and turned to grab Nora by the hips. It was mostly to prevent her boisterous girlfriend from doing anything else to get her excited. They really had to get back over there to Ruby and Ren.
"I plan on making you keep that promise," Yang gave Nora a very serious look and she just giggled and pulled away towards the door. Yang followed after her and they grabbed each other's hands as they moved across the hallway and back into Team RWBY's dorm.
"...really just talk to her? You think it's that simple?" Ruby was seated on the floor of the dorm room next to Ren. The large screen against the wall had video games up, but their scrolls were set aside and the game was paused.
"It truly is that simple. She just needs to know how you feel," Ren turned from Ruby to the couple that had just entered, "Welcome back. Are you two ready to go now?"
"Yup, we just had to-" Yang started but stopped abruptly as Ruby yelled and threw her hands over her ears.
"We just had to have sex first." Nora said proudly, hands firmly on her hips. Ren and Yang both groaned and Ruby began making a loud incoherent singing noise to block it all out.
"Nora, that is private information." Ren turned to Ruby and tapped her on the knee, indicating she could put her hands down.
"What? I mean I'm sure you guys heard us, or at least you heard Yang." Nora laughed again and poked at Yang's side.
"Ahhhhhhh Ren!" Ruby screamed and threw her hands back over her ears and hummed loudly. Ren sighed and stood, straightening his clothes as he did.
"That was why we had been playing a rather loud video game. To ensure Ruby did not hear." Ren nodded towards the screen and their discarded scrolls.
"Thank you Ren. At least someone is trying to protect my little sister's virtue." Yang put a hand on his shoulder and Ren tilted his head in acknowledgement.
"Can I open my ears now?" Ruby asked in an overly loud voice.
"Yeah, I won't talk about-" Yang gave Nora a sharp, but gentle elbow to interrupt her.
"C'mon Ruby. Take your hands off your ears." Yang said, slipping ever so subtly into her caring, motherly voice that she reserved for her little sister. Ruby slowly lowered her hands from her ears, eyes darting back and forth between Yang and Nora warily.
"Uhh… I know you two are like really involved but can you not talk like that?" Ruby's face was red with embarrassment and she stared directly at the ground as she spoke, "It's just… it makes me feel really weird because Yang's my sister and I don't even think about that stuff yet and-"
"Ruby, I'm sorry," Nora stepped forward and wrapped Ruby in a very unexpected hug, "I'm just so happy with Yang I get excited sometimes." Nora pulled away and left her hands on Ruby's shoulders, "I'll try my best not to anymore."
"And if she does, feel free to squirt her with a water bottle or something," Yang joked and saw a wide grin stretch across Ren's face and a bout of laughter shake his frame for a moment before he reeled his emotions back into his usual placid state. Nora spun on the big blonde.
"I don't need a water bottle to make me-" the redhead caught herself short and put a hand firmly over her own mouth and slowly turned back to Ruby, "That actually might be a good idea." she laughed and threw herself face first down onto on Blake's bed.
"So are you guys ready to go? Or do you wanna keep playing Hunter Combat X?" Yang gestured casually at the still paused videogame and plopped down next to Nora, resting a hand on the back of her girlfriend's head. Ren looked over to Ruby, then to the game and back to Yang and Nora.
"I believe we were done playing. Ruby and I were actually discussing her concerns about her feelings towards Weiss." Ren said calmly despite the shocked look that Ruby gave him.
"Ren, I told you not to tell anyone." Ruby shouted out, startled.
"But Nora already told me so I know that she and Yang both know." Ren looked to her.
"Nora, I told you not to tell anybody." Ruby shouted again and Nora bolted to an upright sitting position.
"Ren isn't just anybody though." Nora gave her a playful smirk, "Plus you told him anyways right?" Ruby just crossed her arms indignantly.
"C'mon Rubes, we just wanna help you figure this out. It's eating you up and you aren't happy with how things are now." Yang slid off the bed and sat cross legged on the floor across from Ruby. Nora scooted over a little on the bed and put her legs around Yang's shoulders and began to idly play with her hair. Yang was still surprised how comfortable she was with that. It was so new for her to let anyone touch her hair at all, much less play with it. But, Nora's strong little fingers felt incredibly soothing against the back of her scalp and she was gentle and respectful with her hair, never braiding it or making in knotty.
"But if you keep telling everyone then she's gonna find out from someone else and that's bad because she'll think I didn't want to talk to her about it and that'll be weird so she might bring it up when I'm not ready and I'll say something silly and mess everything up." Ruby tried to take a deep breath at the end of her rant but it came out shakily.
"We aren't gonna tell anyone else Ruby. We only told Ren, you know you can trust him." Yang said sweetly and Ren nodded his head in agreement.
"I will not tell a single other person. You have trusted me with this." Ren gave Ruby a small warm smile and she seemed to relax a little.
"Okay but still what if she finds out because I'm acting so weird around her lately or if she just figures it out because she's so smart?" Ruby gasped with a sudden realization, "What if I like mumble about in my sleep?" She lurched forward and grabbed Yang by the collar, "Do I still talk about my dreams in my sleep?"
"You're dreaming about her?" Nora's head peaked around Yang's massive mane.
"I thought you didn't think about that stuff yet?" Yang raised a suspicious eyebrow and Ruby fell backwards, away from her, cheeks flush again.
"No uhh, what? I don't. Just cause it's dreams doesn't mean…" Ruby mumbled, trying to deny with her words, though the emotions were clearly evident on her face. "Do I talk in my sleep or not?"
"Uhh yeah, sometimes. It's usually just like cookies and Zwei though." her sister replied with a grin.
"Ohh no. I have to start wearing a gag to bed don't I?" Ruby pulled her knees up to her chest and let her forehead drop onto them.
"Now that's kinky, I don't think Weiss will be into that." Nora laughed and returned to playing with Yang's hair.
"Nora!" Ruby's head jolted up from her knees and her face was redder than before.
"You seem to be very worried that she'll find out the wrong way." Ren's even voice drew Ruby's eyes and brought her cheeks closer to their usual pale white.
"Yeah, it has to be just right so that I can talk to her and explain it to her and I want it to be special too." Ruby let her knees slouch back down as she talked, "If I'm not ready I might say something wrong and if it's not special Weiss won't know how serious I am about it. She's really really into romantic stuff and I wanna do it that way."
"Aww, that's so sweet." Yang was so proud of her little sister, her affection for Weiss seemed so innocent and genuine.
"What if you bring her white roses? You know because white is like her color and roses are kind of your thing. That would be really sweet wouldn't it?" Nora didn't look up from where she was playing in Yang's hair. Ruby started at Nora's voice, expecting another tease but immediately softened when she heard her idea.
"Oh, wow, that's like, really romantic." Ruby fell limply against the bedframe behind her and looked at Nora blankly. After just a moment of silence Nora looked up and found Ruby's shocked expression.
"What? Just because my brain's in the gutter all the time doesn't mean I can't be romantic too." Nora dropped her hands to her sides, "Really, how do you think I got Yang? Just by squeezing her butt and shaking my hips?"
"I mean we did start going out because of a night at the club Nora." Yang looked over her shoulder with an apologetic smile. Nora huffed and Yang kissed her on the knee, causing her frown to dissolve away into happiness
"Do you think Weiss likes flowers though?" Ruby asked, snapping back to focus on the issue at hand.
"I believe she does. She was rather interested in the floral arrangements for the dance was she not?" Ren asked, looking to Yang who had helped set the whole dance up.
"Oh yeah, she wouldn't even let me bring in my fog machines because she said they would hurt the dang centerpieces." Yang whined, remembering the distinct lack of fog at the dance.
"Why don't you ask her on the last night of the Vytal Festival? That's not that long from now and there's gonna be a fair and fireworks and all kinds of stuff." Nora slid off the bed and fell next to Yang on the floor, "You could ask her right before the fireworks and then hold hands while you watch them. Then you would have the whole night together to talk and walk around the fair." Nora got a faraway look in her eyes as she imagined her romantic ideas being played out.
"Who knew you went in for the sappy stuff that much Nora?" Yang leaned away from her girlfriend to regard her skeptically.
"Wow, okay, who wanted to go out for the fancy dinner again?" Nora asked and Yang caught herself.
"Alright, alright point taken. Flowers and chocolates and slow boat rides through the lake from now on. No more wrestling Grimm in the woods and seeing who can punch a giant Ursa further." Yang nodded her head as if she understood and pulled out her scroll, "Let me just cancel a couple things I had planned and-" Nora slapped the scroll out of her hand to the floor.
"Yang Xiao Long, don't you change a damn thing." Nora said sternly and Yang's serious countenance broke into a wide grin and she gave Nora a kiss on the cheek.
"Never would," Yang said as she pulled away.
"I think Nora's plan will work though. You will have lots of time to spend with Weiss during the festival, watching the competition and exploring the fair grounds together. It will be a great build up to a wonderful confession." Ren smiled and Ruby seemed to grow nervous.
"Oh but then if she says no it'll be even worse." Ruby's eyes fell, "If I build it all up like that I'm gonna be so excited and nervous about that then if she says no I might just jump off of Ozpin's tower."
"She's not gonna say no Ruby." Nora said, head now resting on Yang's shoulder.
"You're a wonderful girl Ruby, she'll be very happy I'm sure." Ren put his hand comfortingly on Ruby's shoulder.
"Yeah, you just gotta believe in yourself and it'll all work out, I'm sure." Yang said as proudly as she could. Ruby had always had these little crisis of self-confidence when she was usually far beyond capable of handling whatever it was that was laid out in front of her. Ruby took several deep breaths to steady her nerves and managed to bring her stress level down a little with the help of their encouragement.
"Okay, okay, I think I can handle it. Can we go now or talk about something else though? I'm just- I'm gonna go crazy if we keep focusing on Weiss and me." Ruby clenched and unclenched her hands in her lap, still trying to wrangle her nerves. Nora turned a very mischievous look on Ren.
"Any progress over there? You seemed to have all kinds of help for Ruby." Nora asked and Ren looked over to her, a questioning tilt to his head.
"Yes, like I said. My problem isn't so much with the execution, it's just that I haven't found someone I can truly say that I like." Ren glanced to Ruby who was now paying very much attention to him and sighed just slightly, "I'm trying to find a girlfriend Ruby. I asked, perhaps misguidedly, that Yang and Nora help me." Ruby's face immediately lit up with excitement and she bounced up and down.
"Oh Ren that's so exciting." Ruby clenched her hands into tiny fists and clapped her knuckles together in sheer exuberance, "Who are you thinking of asking?"
"That's the problem. I don't know many girls to ask." Ren smiled, happy that Ruby was just as excited as Nora and Yang had both been.
"What? Pffft that's ridiculous. You know a ton of girls. There's us and Pyrrha, there's all the transfer students for the festival like that really cute Faunus girl Neon and did you see that one team from Mistral, I think they're called Indigo, I don't know their names but they're all really cute. Plus there's Penny and Velvet and Coco and-" Ruby started to rant and Ren lifted a single hand to halt her torrent of names.
"You three are all rather involved, as are Blake, Pyrrha, Velvet and Coco. As for the rest of those girls, I don't really know any of them and they are transfer students only for the festival so I wouldn't really get to have any sort of meaningful relationship before they had to leave again." Ren said calmly and without malice, he was grateful for Ruby's help but also didn't want to ramble on about impossible situations.
"Oh...yeah," Ruby's excitement level dropped considerably, "But I mean there's a ton of girls at Beacon that we just don't know. There's a really cute girl in Professor Oobleck's class who sits in the back row." Yang and Nora both looked at Ruby suspiciously, "She has this really cool sword on a chain that uses dust to heat up really hot so it can cut through stuff super easy. It's really cool except it doesn't have a gun mode." Ruby attempted to explain herself. Yang chuckled and shook her head, of course Ruby had only noticed someone because they had a cool weapon.
"We were actually thinking someone older might work for Ren since he's looking for a really serious kind of relationship that a lot of people our age aren't yet." Yang said in an attempt to calm Ruby down and get her brain to stop jumping to so many wild conclusions.
"And because he's all super serious ya know," Nora giggled a little and poked at Ren's leg.
"You mean like Winter?" Ruby looked back at Ren questioningly. All three of them sort of fell back in shock at the idea.
"Uhh, no I don't think so Ruby. She's kind of… well she's kind of a stuck up stick in the mud don't you think?" Yang asked and Ruby seemed to take offense at the idea, "I mean she really is way worse than Weiss was when she got here. Probably because she's in the Atlas military, I hear they're all like that because they work with robots." Nora giggled at that and began moving her arms about in hard, straight lines like a 'robot', making little whirring and beeping noises.
"Hey." Ruby whined, "Robots can be really really nice, you just have to get to know one."
"But I agree Ruby. Her position with the military seems to be a very large part of her life and the way those officers live is not exactly what I have in mind for myself at any point." Ren completely ignored the robot comment in explaining himself. Yang was still stuck on it, wondering what in the world Ruby meant by getting to know one. She just hoped she wasn't starting to think that Crescent Rose could talk again, that was a huge fiasco the first time right after she made it.
"And even if that happened, you said she's always off on super secret missions right? They would never be able to see each other." Nora ceased her robotic movements, frozen in place with her arms at weird angles, "Could you help me Yang? I need a jump start." Yang reached towards her girlfriend gently to help and pushed her over into a heap on the ground.
Nora collapsed on herself in a giggling heap and then sprawled out on the ground, sticking her legs over Yang's lap and spreading her arms out above her head. Ruby giggled too and did not seem as hurt or surprised as she had been about them shooting Winter down as a choice for Ren.
"Plus she's just soo old." Nora moaned from her spot on the ground and Yang couldn't help but laugh out loud. Weiss's sister was only a few years older than them but Nora was right, that seemed to make her incredibly old, she must be what? Twenty-five.
"I really appreciate you trying to help me but I know that now that I am actively looking for someone, I'm sure that it will work out. It's only been a little while so far." Ren patted Nora on the shoulder and she closed her eyes, humming in happiness with the sunlight reflecting off her hair.
"We want you to be happy though Ren." Ruby sat a little straighter, crossing her legs underneath her.
"I am very happy Ruby. Thank you." He gave her a polite little nod of his head, "I have waited a while to seek out a partner," Nora's eyes flew open and she gave Ren a playful glare, "besides Nora." Ren sighed, "I don't want to rush it now."
"Alright, but we aren't gonna stop looking. If we see some cute girl giving you the eye we're gonna basically throw her at you, you understand?" Yang looked to Ren and he nodded his head gently, hair swaying in front of his eyes.
"Soooooo, are we gonna go do something now?" Nora's arms fell out to her sides in exasperation.
"We could dooooo, this!" Yang said and then began fouriously tickling the undersides of Nora's knees causing her to bounce upright and giggle uncontrollably, flailing about and trying to stop Yang from tickling her further. It didn't help though as Yang pinned her down and tickled her sides and reduced her to hysterical heap on the floor. Ruby shot up to her bed in a flash of rose petals. Yang stopped, keeping Nora pinned to the floor and turned to face Ruby.
"Running away sis'?
"Oh no, I'm not letting you two get anywhere near me. You might team up on me." Ruby said from her vantage point above the chaos. Ren looked calmly between the couple rolling about on the ground laughing and Ruby sheltering under her sheet.
"Or we could team up on her." Nora offered from her spot beneath the hulking blonde. A smile spread across both the shorter girl's lips and Ruby leapt from the bunk onto Yang's back with a fierce, high pitched battle cry. She tackled Yang off of Nora and started trying her best to get at her most ticklish spots, under her arms. Yang swung her arms haplessly around her, trying to bat Ruby away until Nora put her in a hold from behind. "We've got you now Xiao Long." Nora screamed and Ruby laughed as she pressed her assault, causing Yang to writhe about in a frenzy of ticklish joy. Ren laughed as he watched the three wrestle, chuckling out loud as Nora tried to hold Yang down and did an impressive job of it.
The door to the dorm swung open and Blake and Sun came barging in, Sun's arms wrapped around Blake's waist and hers around his neck, their lips firmly together. As soon as the door swung open everyone froze. Nora was holding Yang from behind her legs around her waist and arms under her shoulders, clasped behind her head. Ruby was straddling Yang's legs and had both hands around her sides where she had been tickling her. Sun and Blake fell away from each other and stood in horrified shock that they had barged in as they had and Ren just sat there, waiting for someone to react.
"Wooo, get it Blake!" Yang yelled from her spot between Nora and Ruby. She pumped a single fist into the air despite Nora's hold, cheering her partner on.
A/N - And the journey to get Ruby and Ren with a significant other continues. Will they pull it off? What will Weiss think of Ruby's, now extremely sappy, confession. Will Ren find someone that he thinks he can really go for? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. Gotta just see what happens I guess, it's way out of my hands at this point.
Also, a note of kinda sadness here is that I will no be posting from June 30 to July 5 because I will be in LA for Anime Expo (I'll be cosplaying as Major'a Mask Skull Kid if you're there). Then again I will not post from July 19 to July 25 because I will be in San Diego for Comic Con (same cosplay again). So, my last post will be Tuesday June 28, then July 7 I'll start back up and stop again on July 17 and return on July 26. That said, I may post some little stuff in between those dates, maybe some one shots I have been kicking around in my head and that but there won't be updates to my major stories "Clubbin' " and "Friends and Loved Ones". I just won't have the time to give these stories that I feel they deserve or the time to respond to all your comments and reviews that I know you deserve.
I hope you're still enjoying this story as we approach the end. It's been a heck of a ride and we aren't quite done yet. The next two chapters will be up over the weekend.
-Zach