Brighter

by y8ay8a

It took that three day mission away from Beacon Academy, but if Yang looked back on the last months, their relationship was probably bound to change sooner or later. - Bumbleby smut. Starts in between V2 and V3, follows events of V3. May very well be continued with V5.

5. Chapter 5

Chapter05 was originally 13529, it's now 15912 - chapter revision updated on 2018/07/12

"Bumbleby!" Ruby's voice rang through the training hall as a crimson afterimage vanished out of the way.

Blake's feet hadn't hit the ground, yet Gambol Shroud's handle was already halfway through the room and the brawler caught it like it was her own weapon. The faunus was about to land and swing the blonde into close combat when she felt herself yanked up again, hurled through the air by the other end of her own weapon. A surprised glance to the blur of fire that she called her partner had her meet fretful scarlet eyes and, as Blake traveled through the air like a projectile, she flipped around to see the exact spot where she was about to land consumed with a vicious electric explosion. She was thankful for the save, but did Yang really need to catapult her so high?

"She can teleport?!" Nora exclaimed animatedly.

"No, she's up there," Ren pointed up and his partner's vivid green eyes found her previous target.

The dark haired faunus noticed their leader and her partner had moved on to challenging Pyrrha and Jaune; she promptly resolved for Yang and her to do their part and overcome their own opponents. Her thoughts went a million miles an hour and, in this second, Blake noticed the arch her body described through the air would have her land too far out of combat. Before she could think twice about how horrible of an idea this might be, she called to her partner.

"Yang! The other way!"

The blonde instantly obeyed, grabbing hold of Gambol Shroud's lash with both hands instead of one and swinging her full force back into combat; Blake wondered if her body ever had traveled so fast in her life. In a heartbeat, she was inches from the powerful redhead and yet the sharp edge of her black scabbard didn't slam into her. The chink of metal colliding between her own weapon and Ren's double blades resonated through her bones with a disagreeable jolt. Blake still used her momentum to kick him with both feet and propel herself high in the air again in a backflip. Her eyes traveled the black line of her weapon's lash to notice her partner was still holding onto the other end.

"Again!"

Yang stomped her foot forward in a wider stance and swung again, sending Blake back towards their opponents for the second time, somehow even faster. Once again, Blake wondered why the hell did she think it a good idea to be flung around with such force; she'd much rather be the one in control of her partner. Ren jumped out of the way this time and Nora got ready to club her into the moon; Blake let a shadow clone take the hit as she used the top of the hammer to once more somersault out of the way. With this backflip, Blake landed a few feet from her burning partner; the fire trailing the golden girl unexpectedly didn't emanate as much heat as she expected as Yang handed her Gambol Shroud's handle back. For a second, Blake thought they could finally regroup. She was proven wrong as she instantly had to leap out of the way again to avoid Magnhild; it thundered exactly where she'd been standing, crushing yet another copy of herself.

"Another fake one!?" Nora unnervedly groaned.

"Why do you insist on trying to crush my kitten?!" Yang seethed, the fire in her hair seemingly doubling in intensity as she lunged forward. Blake found solid ground again to see her partner land a powerful hook, sending the short haired redhead a few feet back. She was very impressed to see Nora still standing.

"Maybe I should pick on you instead?" Nora laughed.

"Yeah!? Come at me!" The fiery blonde roared, shooting blazing dust shotgun shells at her and the tall young man.

Blake's eyes flickered towards the other half of her team to see how they fared. Ruby and Weiss were desperately trying to stop Pyrrha from approaching the block of ice in which Jaune was trapped. Golden orbs sharply analyzed their movements; if she knew her friends as well as she thought she did, things were not going well. Crescent Rose was a heavy weapon for a small girl so if Ruby was stuck in an extended confrontation, its weight could certainly take a toll on her. To counterbalance this and give herself an edge, she had been abusing her speed semblance... which only drained her faster. At this point, it looked like even Weiss was starting to have trouble predicting her partner's movements. They however managed to fall into a team attack, yet with Pyrrha being easily worth any two of them… the Ice Flower bullets were doing very little to keep the tall redhead at bay.

The faunus's assessment of the situation was done in only a few seconds, a violent explosion brought her back to her own duel. Light and heat forced her to squint, but she wasn't surprised to see the familiar silhouette of her partner emerging from it unscathed. Yang grounded herself to her side in a ready stance, her red gaze promptly finding their opponents again.

Both Ren and Nora also seemed to have realized their teammates were locked in what wouldn't be an even match for very long. Everyone was also quite aware that this training match had become two doubles. They would be butting heads as pairs until one half of either team won their respective match and moved to help its remaining pair in order to settle the match. The faunus sighed. "Yang," she softly called. "If we don't hurry, Ruby will exhaust herself, she's been exploiting her semblance too much and Weiss won't keep up with her much longer. If Pyrrha outlasts them, we're done."

"You're right." The vibrant red eyes darted between their two challengers and their teammates. "What's your plan?"

Blake wasn't even surprised. Of course Yang would understand this meant she had some sort of strategy. "It's not really a plan."

"What is it?"

She stepped closer, in her partner's brilliant aura, not without the fleeting thought that her place was not in the light. "If you land just one hit on Ren, I know you can take him down. I'll distract Nora." She saw the red orbs snap to her, surprising her with blatant disapproval. "Then we'll have the upper hand," Blake still tried arguing.

"I don't like it," Yang objected. "Nora is raw power, she lands a hit on you and you're out."

Blake had to pause for a second. Throughout many years, she had paired up with Adam, who also happened to have a reactive semblance. For this reason, working with Yang hadn't required much adaptation. However, her former faunus partner would often ask her to buy time, take hits, or divert the enemy's attention… while her current partner had a much greater regard for her safety, and that, she had to adapt to. She couldn't help her lips curling up into a small smile. "Don't worry," Blake promptly attempted to reassure her, "I don't intend on risking getting hit; I just need to destabilize her for a second. It's easy."

Before her partner could argue another word, Blake leaped forward, swinging her weapon full force. Both their opponents seemed surprised to see the dagger form of Gambol Shroud zoom past Ren, having seemingly expected to have the faunus's offensive target him while the two powerhouses faced off. The lash wrapped itself around the handle of Nora's hammer and Blake swung her body weight to yank the weapon out of her grasp; this was enough distraction to give Yang the opportunity to charge forward in an impressive explosion. Both of her fists collided with the young man's chest and he was sent flying a hundred feet into the wall.

At this, Nora shrieked in horror. She then did something Blake didn't understand before it was too late; she picked up her hammer and hurled it in Yang's very precise direction. It seemed counter-intuitive, but Blake noticed too late she still had one extremity of the lash tangled to Magnhild, binding her wrist to it. The split second it took for Ren to be knocked out and Nora to chuck the impressively heavy hammer definitely wasn't enough time for the dark haired woman to free herself from the improvised projectile and she was sent flying along with it at lightning speed. The faunus almost instantaneously crossed the distance between Nora and Yang; all Blake saw was her partner's eyes widen in alarm as she dodged the hammer before she shut her own eyes, flying across the room towards the opposite wall, bracing herself for an impact that was certain. An impact that turned out to be not nearly as violent as she expected it to be.

Shaken, Blake opened her eyes to realize that instead of completely stepping out of the way, the blonde had avoided the hammer before moving back in and catching her. Yang's back had slammed into the wall, effectively shielding Blake from the worst of it. They now laid in rubble and debris at the other end of the room. "Yang," she started, but with the dusty residue filling the air, she found herself coughing.

The blonde's answer was giving a faint grunt as she loosened her embrace on her. Her hair was intensely brilliant from the force she'd absorbed from the hit.

Blake separated herself from the other woman, worryingly trying to meet her gaze. "Oh god, Yang, are you okay? You shouldn't have-"

"Yes. Yes. I should," Yang cut in. Her eyes were an explosive red and her body was now emitting scorching heat; the faunus was forced to move back. "You could've gotten badly hurt, whereas my semblance is great for this," the blonde groaned as she slowly stood, and her gaze snapped back to their opponent. Nora had run up to her own partner, anxiously fussing over him, checking on his depleted aura on her scroll. "I'm charged up now."

The urge to comment on how Yang relied overly excessively on her semblance and raw power rose, but Blake bit her knew her partner was too fired up at the moment to listen to any cautionary words, but she did make a note to bring it up with her in the near future, at least before the Vytal Tournament. Yang would constantly act as if she was invincible, yet they'd learned the hard way in that train against Roman's group that if the blonde ever took a hit she couldn't withstand and got knocked out, things could go horribly wrong.

Blake stood too and before anything else could be said, Yang, completely ablaze, was already closing in on a now disarmed Nora. And though Nora was herself unbelievably strong… that very strength was being used against her thanks to the force harvested from Magnhild's throw and in addition was Yang's own absurd strength. It was far too devastating for the redhead to withstand.

The faunus dusted herself and picked up her weapon; her gaze wandered to the other half of her team's duel. Jaune had somehow liberated himself but looked to be more of a hindrance to the warrior he called his partner than anything else. The match was settled; Pyrrha may have been a great fighter, but with only the blond young man as her support, there was no way she would win against the four of them. Tremendous heat warmed her side, making her aware of her partner now standing next to her.

Blake's eyes drifted to her.

Her, in all her blazing glory, flames licking her skin and hair vividly luminous, magnificent, like the sun itself. Crimson eyes confidently met her gaze with a cheeky grin and her radiating self-assurance forced Blake to acknowledge once again just how utterly magnetic she found her.

"Are we putting an end to this?" Yang breathed excitedly.

Blake couldn't help mirroring a small smile in response. "Let's go."

It was over in no more than a few minutes. Pyrrha, already weary from holding off Ruby and Weiss, stood no chance against the four of them. Though quite bruised, team JNPR was able to pick itself up and shake hands in good sportsmanship. It had gotten quite late in the evening and most students had already gone back to the dorms, it wasn't long after this that they too left the training hall. Blake however opted to stay behind, as she saw her partner needed to work off the rest of the energy she'd absorbed from the earlier impact.

For a time, her eyes followed her partner's shape as the blonde obliterated target after target, her hair slowly being drained of its luminosity to turn back to its regular golden. It was well over an hour after all the other students had left for the night that Yang finally seemed to have exhausted her inferno. As she trotted towards the locker room, she seemed surprised to see Blake had lingered behind.

"Had I known you'd wait for me, I wouldn't have taken my time," she said apologetically. Still, a smile graced her lips. "Why didn't you go with Rubes and Weiss?"

"I like watching you," Blake found herself saying before she could stop herself. It was true after all. "Especially when you're fired up this way."

Yang's smile widened into a mischievous grin. "Right, I remember you telling me you liked the glow of my hair."

For a second, the memory of kissing her partner's stomach again, telling her how she loved everything about her, invaded her mind. Blake didn't know what had gotten into her then, straying so close to confessing something she had resolved not to breathe a word of, not until the other woman gave her a sign that she was ready to hear them. Honey eyes still stayed on her amethyst ones. "I do. I find your semblance captivating. I feel it's a great reflection of your soul."

"Is it?"

"It is," she swiftly confirmed. "Your fire is a projection of your fierce passion, your alluring warmth, it's even your incorrigible temper," she explained. "And your light-" Blake stopped herself. A discomfited blush was creeping on her partner's cheeks and it had her understand that, again, she was saying too much. More than once already she had tested the waters, more than once she had hinted at her feelings, and she knew this sort of gushing over her partner had started making her uncomfortable. She knew if she praised her yet again, it would only make Yang feel like she was being pressured into broaching this topic they had been tiptoeing around. The faunus decided to save themselves some awkwardness and thus chose to cut short the eulogizing rant she was about to go on. " …Your light is simply beautiful," she summarized. "I can't help standing by to watch."

The blonde seemed to swallow down most of her uneasiness to put on some sort of bravado. "Well, no need to lurk and watch from the shadows. You stalker."

Blake raised her eyebrows. And here she had attempted to spare her. However, if Yang wanted to tease her, she wouldn't let her have the last word. "I thought me being your partner made it okay to hang around and watch you," she started casually and, in spite of her best attempt at a straight face, she felt the corner of her lips go up into a faint smirk. "Though were I not your partner, then yeah. You can bet I'd still hang around, and I definitely would qualify as a stalker."

She reddened again and pursed her lips. "Are you trying to make me blush?"

"Not trying, though succeeding."

"Whatever."

Yang, maybe more flustered than she should have been, stomped through the locker room to the one that was her own. She punched in the code, the door unlocked itself, and she clicked her cuffs off to put Ember Celica away in her locker; they weren't allowed to carry their weapons inside the school after all. Blake opened her own locker, storing Gambol Shroud before she started undoing the lash around her arm. Standing with her back to the brawler at first, she couldn't help glancing back to observe her partner slide her tan blazer off and dusting it. Clad only in the ass-cape Yang called a mini skirt and that yellow tube crop-top, quite a lot of skin was exposed.

Blake's eyes surveyed her figure for the millionth time. She would never get tired of watching her, even if she could only admire her backside right now.

Those absurd proportions would make any woman envious; her large breasts held an incredible shape and her hips only looked wider with the tight core she managed to maintain thanks to her vigorous training. Yang was strong, looked strong, and yet she still retained a natural, effortless femininity. The faunus left her locker open and stepped behind her; Yang manifestly sensed her approach, she stopped moving.

Standing only a few inches behind her, Blake ran her hands over her naked shoulders. With her fingers, she drew the faintly defined lines of her well-built frame, of her muscular back under the golden curls, then followed back up her strong shoulders to go down her firm arms. "I haven't thanked you for catching me," she quietly began. "I honestly don't think I would've withstood that hit, I'm not as resilient as you are."

"It was just the smart thing to do given my semblance." She hung her vest in her locker before removing her fingerless gloves, then she paused again. Her voice was nothing but a whisper as the blonde continued. "…My heart nearly stopped when I thought you would hit the wall the same way Ren did."

Blake frowned to herself. Although she knew Yang wasn't saying this because she looked down on her abilities as a fighter, she still felt the need to assert her place at the other woman's side. "I'm your partner, not a helpless soul you need to protect," she sternly reminded her. Blake's fingers, having been examining her frame as they talked, stopped on a scar on the blonde's shoulder blade, an old cut that had evidently been too deep to be completely healed by her aura. "It's inevitable I get hurt eventually, I'm prepared for that."

"I know. I know all that very well," Yang muttered, hanging her head lower. "And I know it goes both ways. There will be times you'll have to protect me and sometimes you won't be able to. But…" She breathed out a long exhalation; Blake's fingers tracing her back underneath the blonde mane had seemed to have given her goosebumps once they reached her spine and started to follow down to her lower back. "... When I think of anything happening to your pretty ass... if anything did happen, I couldn't be held accountable for my actions."

She knew Yang had tried to alleviate her statement with a bit of humorous wording, but Blake nevertheless could only hear what was implied with this confession; her partner had grown so unbelievably protective of her that she couldn't promise to keep her cool even in a training match against friends. Blake felt her chest constrict. She knew she undeniably was very dear to the other woman, but this small gap between caring a lot and being in love seemed to her like a bottomless, immeasurable chasm, an excruciatingly painful divide. Yang's words and their implied meaning often tipped the line… yet she'd keep an unfair distance, and the throbbing it caused to Blake's heart was torturing her.

She stepped a little closer, wondering if Yang could feel her breathing against her shoulder. "Nora would never seriously hurt me, she would've stopped before doing serious damage," she tried to reason, searching to rein in the conversation, a veiled attempt to help her partner backtrack from her blindly devoted and protective statements, into a line of thought that would've been standard for friends and partners… into something that didn't make Blake suffer to her very soul.

Yang, blissfully unaware of this, shrugged. "I would've argued the same thing… but she honestly seemed to have lost it for a second there, when I knocked Ren out. And it scared me. Both because I thought you might get hurt and because… if she did hurt you, even if it's Nora and she's a good friend, I…" Yang stopped for a second to let out a quivering exhalation. "I'm scared of what I could've done to her."

Blake smiled painfully to herself, opting not to answer. Yang was acknowledging she may lose it the same way Nora did if anything happened to her. So was she saying their relationship was comparable to Ren and Nora? Everyone already regarded those two as a couple and Yang knew this. So what did that say of Yang and her? Did Yang want her to be reading this between the lines, or was Blake getting ahead of herself?

…Would her partner ever be ready to talk about this? Or was she waiting for Blake to finally have enough and force the conversation? …Wasn't Yang supposed to be the upfront, courageous one?

The midnight haired faunus sighed inaudibly and leaned her forehead against her back, in the golden curls. Gunpowder, fire dust and sweat couldn't cover the sweet scent that she found so, so deliciously alluring. Yang gently closed the locker door but didn't move, allowing her to passively lean against her back. With flaring need, Blake wrapped her arms around her waist, fully bringing their bodies together. She couldn't suppress the quiet moan of satisfaction at the contact and it felt like her partner melted into her arms in response.

Yang, leaning back into her heavily, also breathed noticeably deeper. "…Blake..?"

She closed her eyes, tightening her embrace, moving her head from the blonde mane to rest her cheek against her shoulder. "Hmm?" Her breath, she knew, burned her partner's back. Impudently, she let her fingers idly caress down the naked skin of her stomach.

Yang exhaled shakily again, this time for a very different reason than her previous emotional turmoil. It was hard to tell if it was truly the case, but it seemed like as the blonde's desires were catching fire, the scent of her skin grew sweeter. It was intoxicating. Blake truly couldn't tell for sure if it was the case, or if maybe it was her imagination or even if it was in fact her own lust that made the scent of the other woman's skin more appetizing. Her partner's voice, as she spoke again, was thick and strained. "Have you found a spot where we could…? You know."

Of course, Blake had scoured every inch of every building on campus, dawdling with a book for hours here or there, fervently hoping never to see anyone so she could claim the spot as their own. No matter how great of a prospect each of these locations had been, none of them had been remote enough as they all inevitably turned out to already be someone else's usually private spot she happened to be intruding on. She had been starting to despair when she ultimately remembered a small paradise of a garden she had had to abandon once winter had come. Winter had been long gone now.

"…There's a garden where I used to go," Blake started contemplatively, already picturing the two of them surrounded by the serene greenery, leisurely indulging in each other while basking naked in the sun. "It's very secluded, I've always been completely alone when I went to read. So it you meet me there, no one would know."

Yang's fingers feathered over Blake's hand on her stomach. The touch was so light it was barely there at all and yet it felt electric. "Maybe we could go now? You could show me where it is…?"

The blonde had done her best to suppress her urges over the last days, but it'd been obvious in every look, in her lingering touches and, to Blake, it had been obvious even down to the pheromones in the air. All this pining had obviously taken its toll as Yang's struggle to repress her impulses was now such that it manifested tangibly. Her skin felt burningly hot against Blake's cheek or under her fingertips. Yang's slightly callused hands over hers moved up her forearms, caressing her skin and, although it was almost imperceptible, Blake could nevertheless feel them quiver. If she hadn't known already, for sure with this she would've understood the brawler was doing everything in her power to restrain herself.

The exhilaration of feeling so desired, so wanted warmed her body to her core, and Blake exhaled hotly. She too had lusted for her partner; she did again from the very moment she realized her bed had indeed been left imbued with the scent of them. The faunus turned her head slightly and her lips brushed against the back of her shoulder. Blake couldn't help but think… she hadn't seen anyone else in the last two hours. They were completely alone. So why go all the way out to the gardens, risking getting caught in violation of curfew when they got back?

The light touch of her lips became a full kiss on her back, travelling her skin, and goosebumps jolted her partner's body. She could now discern a hint of the smell, the delicious aroma of her arousal, and Blake couldn't tell anymore why they shouldn't. If she was to be honest, the risk factor right now only turned her on more.

Both hands slid slowly down her partner's toned stomach to fall on her belt and, without a second thought, Blake unbuckled it, leisurely sliding the brown leather out of the clasp.

The blonde stopped breathing. "…Blake?" she quietly managed. "What are you doing?"

She let the belt and half-garment Yang called a skirt drop to the ground. With both hands, she caressed her hips, finding the slightly protruding hipbones and then sliding her fingers on her tight, beautifully defined stomach again. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Here?" Yang sounded an amusing mix of thrilled and apprehensive.

"Why not?" Blake countered, both hands moving up her waist, underneath the yellow top, tracing around her strapless bra. "We don't have to go all the way out there when it's this late…"

"What if someone comes in?"

"Everyone's been gone for well over an hour and with the curfew fast approaching, no one's gonna start training at this time," she whispered, taking hold of both breasts and kneading slowly; she pressed her lips to her nape again and Yang gave a weak moan. As Blake's mouth traveled again to her naked shoulder, her fingers found the hardened nipples. The faunus smiled; she'd known her partner was extremely aroused, but she still enjoyed every bit of evidence she found. "Would you rather I stopped?"

Yang seemed to struggle with the decision for a short time, though the outcome was exactly what Blake had expected. "No, please," she quietly answered, her voice a little hoarse. "I'd lose it if you stopped, I want you like mad…"

She pressed closer against her back, massaging her breasts more assertively. "I know," Blake answered with a smile. It was hard not to know. Yet, though she answered so confidently, it nevertheless felt surreal to her just how much her partner utterly craved her. She still couldn't seem to wrap her head around how it was possible, but somehow she could make this amazing woman melt in her arms.

Yang had to bring her arm forward and lean on her locker to steady herself."…Aren't you a little smug?" She feebly protested.

Blake felt herself smiling. She indeed had sounded a tad arrogant, especially given how in awe she still was at the fact that Yang would want her at all. "…I want you just as much," she offered burningly. One of her hands left the brawler's breasts to snake down her own body, into her white shorts. She glided her fingers along her sex, getting them wet before she pressed her body against her back again, bringing her glistening fingers up for the other woman to witness. "See?"

Unexpectedly to Blake, Yang instantly took them in her mouth. Blake felt her tongue run on her fingers before her partner greedily sucked on them and a low, clearly delighted moan escaped Yang's throat. The way she seemed to be outright relishing in her taste sent a shiver down Blake's spine.

"That good…?" She found herself asking.

Along with a faint nod, Yang moaned again in response, pushing her ass backwards against the faunus's crotch. A surge of desire rose through her and Blake's other hand dropped from her partner's breast to caress her through her tight black shorts. The blonde's hips at once followed her lead as Blake's delicate fingers assertively kneaded between her legs through the fabric.

She didn't know if it was solely out of her own desire or if it was in an effort to ignite her even more that Yang gently bit the index lingering in her mouth, but when she did so… the faunus's raw need to possess her took over. Her hand left the other woman's lips in favour of exploring her stomach and hips and, as she still continued dexterously rubbing with her other hand, she could feel a little dampness seep through her shorts so wet the brawler was getting.

Blake's mouth found her skin again, exploring her shoulder and back and, as she moved towards the middle of her back, Yang hurriedly moved her hair out of the way, bunching it and holding it up out of the way with one hand, pressing the heap of golden locks against the back of her head. Blake took it as a cue to keep doing what she was doing; her lips moved to her spine and she slowly kissed up her nape, then unhurriedly down the center of her back. Blake's kisses dropped lower and lower and she found herself crouching behind her partner, her tongue tracing the skin where it met her tight black shorts. Both her hands outlined her hips slowly, then moved to grab her buttocks, kneading the firm flesh as she marked the skin of her lower back with her mouth.

She incidentally noted to herself that this was the first time she got so up close and personal with her beautifully round butt. With her teeth, she grabbed the hem of the black shorts and pulled slightly on the fabric, pausing a second, then with a hand, unceremoniously pulled them and her underwear down under her rear to expose it. She caressed her ass, leisurely taking her time to appreciate its great shape, not shying away either from kissing her skin again. She decided to leave a love bite on one of her butt cheeks, which prompted Yang to breathe out a sensual mix of a growl and a chuckle. Feeling her lust flare up tenfold made something almost beastly surface from deep within her and she pulled her shorts and underwear down from just under her ass to mid-thigh.

"Spread your legs more and bend over," she ordered.

There was a short pause but Yang nevertheless did as ordered, effectively giving Blake, in her current position crouched behind her, easy access to her sex. The faunus avidly gripped her partner's ass from under with both hands and spread her soaked lips with her thumbs, earning herself a strangled gasp.

The air was thick and heavy with her scent, with humidity in the air, and Blake lusted so much she felt light-headed. Approaching closer, she slowly touched the pink flesh with her tongue and, seemingly reflexively, the blonde bent over a little more, offering herself more openly. Her legs were shaking, almost imperceptibly so, but Blake still noticed they were.

Her fingers dug more into her flesh as her grip on her ass increased slightly. Blake touched her lips to her sex instead of her tongue, relishing in the throbbing heat, in the wetness, in how the other woman not only allowed her to do so, but so obviously fervently desired her to.

"If you do that," Yang's tone was uncharacteristically meek, "my legs are gonna give," she warned.

Oh how she wanted even more to devour her. But, though doing it in the locker room got her stupidly riled up, doing it on the dirty floor put a damper on her impulse. She gave an ardent, opened-mouthed kiss to the burning flesh and earned herself a fevered gasp before she kissed up her spine, standing again. Her hands were back on her stomach for only an instant before one of them found its way between Yang's legs. The blonde vacillated as Blake's fingers slid inside her; she gave a muffled cry and reared her hips.

Her lively and immediate reaction made Blake smile and she kissed her shoulder. "Trying to be quiet?" Her free hand slowly caressed her body.

"Well, yeah…" Yang whined in a harsh whisper. "If someone comes in…" She couldn't finish her sentence as Blake pushed her fingers deeper in her and Yang had another half-repressed moan escape her.

Her partner's hopeless efforts at being discreet had Blake recall with amusement how they'd previously concluded that in a risky situation exactly like this one, the tables should have been flipped, as Yang could be quite noisy. The faunus was however finding herself very aware of how her partner's unsuccessful attempts at keeping quiet were only turning her on more. Yang scrambled to again hold her hair up and away from her back and Blake, now steadily pumping her fingers, took the cue to return her mouth to her spine. She harmlessly bit at her neck, then moved slowly to kiss and mark her back. The other woman weakly whimpered in pleasure, rocking her hips a little faster than the pace Blake forced onto her, evidently trying to get her to speed up.

She moved her free hand into the yellow tube top again, ran her nails between her breasts, down the middle of her stomach again to her belly button and then gave a harder push of her fingers inside her. The blonde couldn't hold back this time; her voice resonated loudly through the locker room. Blake couldn't comprehend how she possibly could want her even more, but after hearing her, she somehow did. Lightheaded with the heat and boiling desire coursing through her veins, intoxicated with her scent, she was salivating, craving her lips, her sex.

"I want to kiss you," Blake murmured against her shoulder.

Yang instantly turned around, her back essentially slamming against the locker as she did so with such urgency, panting. She hurriedly jerked Blake closer to wrap her arms around her, crashing their bodies together. She pressed her mouth to hers so feverishly, harsh breaths burned Blake's face; she indulged in Yang's kiss readily. Blake pushed herself against her partner's body, returning her hand between her legs, managing to resume fingering her at an unrelenting pace. Yang moaned in her mouth again and the faunus's mind reeled. She felt like she was drowning in her, in her scent, in her heat, in the arms desperately clutching her, and, without being able to conceive just what more she could have, Blake somehow longed for even more. But what more could she possibly have? After all, her partner's mostly naked body was almost one with hers; she breathed her burning breaths, felt the hammering of her heart against her chest, her embrace essentially consumed her. Blake bit her lower lip gently, feeling contractions around her fingers. Yang's legs then seemed to fail her and Blake found herself supporting a good part of her weight as her partner broke the kiss, moaning her name against her neck, in the dark hair, her body coming undone and quivering.

The midnight haired faunus waited a moment before she removed her hand from between her legs, she enjoyed the heat and pulsations from her sex, but she unquestionably needed both arms to help support her properly. Blake let her unwind, leaning her cheek against the top of her head.

Quickly recovering her breath and steady footing, Yang leaned in again, this time for a gentle, so unbelievably tender kiss. This kind of kiss was one the blonde would inevitably give her after her climax, it was one that let Blake fool herself into believing for a second that her partner felt the same way. Pulling back always tore her heart to shreds, as she abruptly remembered the reality of the situation.

Yang drew back barely an inch. She watched her with a half-lidded, so strikingly amorous gaze that Blake could do nothing but stand very still, arms wrapped around her. Yang gave her another peck on the lips before she spoke. "I needed that."

Blake kept her very close, hypnotized with the so very rapturous way the other woman looked at her. "I know."

She smiled that gorgeous, euphoric smile of hers and Blake's heart pounded painfully in her ribcage. "Of course you did. You always seem to know."

Mesmerized, overwhelmed with the moment, she was at once painfully aware again of how much she loved her. Blake wordlessly leaned in for an invested, lingering kiss in which she poured all the feelings she couldn't voice.

She never dreamed she would have the luck to even cross paths with someone like her, and somehow she was granted the blessing of being able to be relish in her this way. Blake feverishly yet so gently commandeered her lips, wondering if what she felt came through. Wondering if she needed to voice it at all at this point.

When she pulled back, Yang looked like her breath had been taken away. The flow of time seemed to have come to a standstill as they stared at each other for a long moment. Yang had recovered completely by then and she delicately cupped her partner's cheek. She didn't seem to know what to say.

Blake exhaled gently, broken out of the spell but still a little dazed by it all. "How about we shower?" she suggested.

Her urging the moment along seemed to bring the blonde back to earth. "You're gonna stay that long under the water, kitten?" she wearily shot back, leaning her forehead to her partner's.

Unimpressed, she held her gaze. "Do you really want to tease me right now?"

Yang's expression was a funny mix of blank stare and frozen smile. "…Let's just shower."

Careful about making sure she had regained most of the strength in her legs, Blake then released her partner. They both quickly grabbed their bathing articles from their lockers and hurried to the shower area. Blake started up the water and, as she swiftly removed her bow, black vest and white top, her eyes stayed on the blonde, watching as she got rid of what little clothing she had left. When Yang turned her way, exposing her now fully naked body, the faunus had to stop to take in her beauty again. It had only been twice that she'd had the pleasure to enjoy the sight of her partner's body in its full glory and she was awestruck by how reality lived up to her memory. Yang was as impressively beautiful as she remembered and Blake felt another wave of heat spread through her body, her pressing need making itself known again.

Yang stepped closer; her movement had Blake snap out of it. She nevertheless stayed completely still, motionlessly letting the blonde reach around her to unhook her bra. Yang then gently pushed the straps off her shoulders to let the undergarment fall off, leaving her chest uncovered. The violet gaze drifted down, yet the faunus's golden orbs stayed steady on the other woman's features, witnessing how enthralled she was with the sight of her body. The color of her eyes had darkened and the way she gazed at Blake's newly exposed skin was engulfing. The blonde then very slowly traced the skin where it met her white shorts, her fingers dipped in them half an inch before she went to agonizingly slowly unzip the zippers aligned with both her thighs almost all the way down. She then let her hands travel around Blake's hips and pushed the shorts and underwear down her ass to finally let them drop to the ground. Blake stood clad only in her thigh-high dark purple socks, observing her partner's eyes as the pupils grew from dilated to almost black, a looming predatory sensation emanating from her now.

The blonde moved even closer, breath strenuously controlled. Still, as she reached for her cheek, fingers finding their way into the dark hair to comb it, she was incredibly gentle. Her eyes… her eyes however, still fixated on her body, betrayed ferocious passion. "Every time I see you naked," Yang quietly started, "I'm awed. It's like… I think I remember how perfect you are, but then it turns out I'm wrong," she murmured. "You inevitably end up taking my breath away."

This made her smile a little. "…I was thinking something along the same lines about you," she admitted as she bent slightly to remove her thigh-high socks. Her eyes travelled on her partner as she did so and she felt drawn to kiss her stomach, steadily moving closer, very slowly going to kneel in front of her. The rising and falling of her stomach against Blake's mouth progressively got deeper as her partner's breathing got heavier.

"Blake…" Yang stopped her. "It's my turn to do what I want to you," she protested, inciting her to move back up and stand again.

The feeling of Yang's naked body against hers as she pulled her into a powerful hug, her smoldering, feverishly hot and magnificently soft skin, and the way she enveloped her made Blake come to a complete stop. She returned her embrace tightly and it felt to her like time stood still for a moment; she forgot she needed air, her brain was so saturated with the sensations and her desire, the only coherent thought she was conscious of was that if time did come to a complete stop in this instant, she'd only be grateful. She was pulled out her trance by Yang drawing back just enough to claim her lips. Her kiss was all-consuming again, unlike the tenderness she'd displayed a few minutes ago. Blake still readily responded; she clutched her fiercely and she felt herself just about crushed in her partner's equally needful embrace. She lost herself in her hunger for her lips, her breath seemed to elude her and yet she couldn't seem to stop kissing her. Yang's soft moaning ignited something wild in her and she bit her lip again, a little rougher than she previously had, making her wince.

The vague notion she should apologize floated somewhere at the back of her mind but it was out of reach before she could actually form the intention to do it, as the blonde had shoved her under the hot water, trapping her against the cold tiled wall. Yang gripped her thigh urgently, forcing it up next to her own hip, and Blake followed suit, hopping up to wrap both legs around her waist. She wasn't sure with the hot water running down their bodies if her partner could feel how aroused she was as she rubbed herself to her stomach, but Yang promptly squeezed one of her hands between them to touch her, never breaking from her lips. Such gentle touch when she savagely itched for release was making Blake's body tingle to her fingertips and toes and she tightened her embrace, ran her tongue against her lower lip, tried to ignite more passion, tried to get Yang to fuck her senseless like she had the week prior.

Her need didn't go unnoticed; Blake felt fingers slide inside her as she was squeezed harder between Yang's body and the shower wall. The moan caught in her throat made her realize she'd been purring, though she didn't know since when. She rocked her hips against her hand and she was so wet, so ready, Yang didn't need to work her at all to slip in the third finger she liked to add. Blake groaned, gasping, the blonde's breathing burned her face again, harsh with both the effort and the passion, and Blake somehow felt even more drawn into her, somehow wanted to give more of herself, somehow had no fear of surrendering her whole being to forget everything but her pleasure and her love. Her desire incinerated any and all of her lucid thoughts. She hung onto her, rolling her hips like she was possessed, gripping fistfuls of wet golden hair as she devoured her lips with an abandon she rarely allowed herself. Her pounding heart was ready to burst with how much love she felt, and she felt choked, her breath was running out, maybe because of the fingers pushing into her or maybe the almost suffocating way she felt engulfed in her. Ultimately, Blake had to release her lips, she panted so hard the hot and humid air of the shower that her lungs burned. Yang drew back just enough to lock gazes, but the faunus was so dizzy with lust, with the heat, she couldn't focus at all. Blake shut her eyes tightly and felt her cheek against hers, then her lips on her neck and the fingers still vigorously sliding in and out of her made her moan feverishly.

"Talk to me, Blake," Yang whispered in her ear, her voice almost lost in the resonating drumming of the water droplets hitting the tiles and sound of the shower running. "Say my name," she pleaded, with strange longing in her so quiet voice.

The fingers curled inside her and Blake bucked her hips against her partner's hand and stomach. With how earnest Yang sounded as she asked, she was tempted to satisfy her request, though… parting her lips, only a pleasured huff escaped her. Blake couldn't bring herself to say anything. She knew Yang loved hearing her, and she understood why… after all, when it was Yang who breathed her name in fits of passion, she would absolutely revel in the sound of it. Blake was however exceedingly reluctant to let go, afraid that saying anything at all whilst drowning in Yang's arms, even just her name, would lead her to inadvertently confess. She was terrified that her disoriented mind muddled by pleasure would forget, would betray her levelheaded self and she would find herself pronouncing those three words.

She shook her head no and clutched her closer. Her lips found her neck and her teeth grazed the skin; she could feel the heavy and fast pulse pounding against her tongue and the faunus couldn't suppress the overwhelmingly powerful instinct to bite down. Yang gasped and, holding her up into her arms the way she was, her fingers gripping her ass dug deeper in her flesh. She pushed Blake even harder against the tiled wall of the shower.

Blake's hands similarly clutched her so hard she knew that had her nails not been trimmed, she would have drawn blood on her partner's back. Her body was quickly tensing up and she felt herself trembling, unthinkingly biting her neck harder. Yang moaned in what seemed to be a mix of pain and pleasure and this was Blake's tipping point. The rush of the pure, unaltered ecstasy that burst through her made her head spin, her purring grew loud enough to resonate in the shower, she was shaking. At the back of her mind, she was gripped with the elusive notion that she may have been biting her too hard at this point for her aura to heal her instantly, but she couldn't help herself and didn't release her right away; not until the remaining tension left her body and she relaxed at once.

Yang cradled her in her arms, hugging her so lovingly, so soothingly and Blake exhaled in comfort. She wanted to sleep. She absolutely loved the intimacy this brought them and the vulnerability she allowed herself to feel as the woman she loved tenderly held her, gently caressing her head, scratching around her ears. She pressed her face to Yang's neck to snuggle her in answer, but was stirred again as she tasted blood against her lips. Blake wondered if the blonde's skin could naturally get so hot, if it was because of the addition of hot water, or if maybe her semblance had kicked back in because of the pain

The faunus drew back to see her handiwork, guilt knotting her stomach.

"…Sorry," she whispered before she backed enough to meet her gaze. "I hurt you…"

"It didn't hurt," Yang promptly answered. With this, she carefully let her down so she could stand.

Her eyes swiftly ran over her features. "Liar," Blake accused, reaching out to her with one hand. "Your hair." The golden curls as they flowed between her fingers gave off a barely noticeable glow.

Having apparently not anticipated that it would be enough for her semblance to kick in and betray her, Yang groaned. "Fine," she gave, "it hurt a bit." As if she wanted to brush it off and move on, she reached for Blake's shampoo and spurted some in her hands. "I can take pain," she argued, already massaging the product into the dark locks of hair.

"I know you can," Blake scoffed in response, letting herself get pampered. "The way you withstood that impact earlier is a prime example of that," she wryly reminded her, turning her back to her in an attempt to facilitate the shampooing.

"There you go." Yang had a small grin and gave a harmless slap on the faunus' butt. "A little biting is nothing."

Pursing her lips, she glanced back to give her a disapproving look. Of course, it'd been meant toward her carelessness regarding her potentially getting hurt, not towards the butt slap. That, Yang could do as much as she wanted, Blake hoped her partner knew that much.

"Just because you suffered worse doesn't mean I should be careless," she argued. Blake felt her partner carefully foaming the shampoo on her cat ears' fur and her features softened again. "I didn't mean to hurt you, I just…have trouble keeping in control when it comes to you."

"You don't have to control yourself," Yang maintained, popping the shower head off its clasp and rinsing the black hair.

"No I do." She turned her back to her to allow the other woman to finish rinsing the shampoo out. She did so, but then there was a pause in which Yang stayed decidedly still and it prompted Blake to glance at her again. Her eyes, not unlike immaculate violet gemstones, curiously interrogated her. The glow of her hair was almost completely faded. Blake still thought she looked surreally divine and it only heightened her impression of being a filthy, sinister beast, unworthy of her. "…There is something… ferocious inside me, Yang. Something that may be more animal than human. It comes out when you… bring me to that point."

A grin split her features. "You mean your wild side?" she laughed, pulling her into a hug. "By all means, don't control yourself."

Still bothered by the bloodied bruise she left on her, Blake couldn't help being uncomfortable. No, uncomfortable was too light of a word, it was that sort of abject sentiment of feeling undeserving of being doted on or cuddled, of polluting the purity of the divine being gracing her with her light. She nevertheless let herself be embraced, though with distance enough to keep eye contact. "…Even if I end up hurting you like I just did?"

The blonde steadily held her stare. "I can take pain," she repeated.

And this brought a new suspicion to the surface. She squinted at her. "….Are you encouraging me to hurt you, Xiao Long?"

Yang shrugged, releasing her to start the process of washing her own hair. The amount of shampoo she put in her hair would've been ridiculous for anyone else, but seemed about right for her incredible mane. "Maybe just a bit."

She knew some scientists speculated that the way one's semblance manifested was a reflection of what was inside of them and Blake found herself asking: "…Do you enjoy it?"

It felt like a puzzle of which's existence she had been unaware of had fallen into place right as it came into view. Getting something positive out of experiencing pain was part of Yang's semblance simply because… she actually did get a kick out of it.

"Maybe a little," she nonchalantly reiterated, combing the product through her golden locks with her fingers.

"Maybe?" Blake repeated.

Yang shrugged again. She started washing out the shampoo.

Had Blake stumbled onto something that actually embarrassed her cocky partner? It was quite novel to see her reluctant to own up a penchant she exhibited. "I just want to know," the faunus gently said. "If you do like it, it's completely fine."

She glanced her way.

"Yang, I'm not gonna think any differently of you if you do, it's fine."

With a sigh, the blonde took the time to finish rinsing her hair thoroughly and picked up her conditioner before offering an answer. "Not a lot of pain," she eventually acknowledged, "but that much, like just now, it… it got me hot again."

Golden eyes swiped down the other woman's silhouette. The running water washed away what would've tipped Blake off even with her eyes closed, but looking on… her nipples indeed were tellingly hard and her pupils' size darkened her gaze again. "It did, didn't it," she mused. Her hand found her waist and glided a few inches down to her hip. "I'd be happy indulging anything you enjoy," she started, "but I'd feel better if we went with something that doesn't leave such ugly bruises on you. This looks appalling, I can't help feeling guilty."

"You didn't do it on purpose," Yang reminded her.

"I'll remember to restrain myself next time," the dark haired faunus asserted.

Without answering, the brawler smeared the conditioner in her hair, massaging it in; Blake assumed this was the end of the conversation and also gave her dark locks a second wash with the same product. However, after the golden mane was rinsed for the second time, Yang turned to her again.

"I'm not fragile. I don't want you to try and suppress whatever's inside you," she started up again, clearly not satisfied with how the conversation had been wrapped up.

"I know you're not. It's just-"

"I want all of you," Yang cut in and Blake froze, holding her breath.

The look she must have given her seemed to have the brawler rethink her choice of words; Yang's gaze embarrassedly fell to the ground.

"W-What I mean is… You're telling me you have that ferociousness inside of you like you think I haven't felt it, but Blake, it's not the first time it's slipped out." She raised her eyes, tentatively meeting hers again. "I know about it already. I know you're not as stoic as you'd like other people to think. I know how fierce and passionate you are and it was no surprise when you first showed me that feistiness in bed too. I like it," Yang explained. "I don't want you to hold back any of it. Give me everything you have," she earnestly insisted. "I want you to be free to be as you really are with me."

She unwound somewhat from hearing her explanation. Still, the roller coaster of emotions whenever they would approach this matter was very trying on Blake and she didn't know how much more she'd be able to take. Opting not to answer, she turned away to slowly soap up her body. The blonde wrapped her arms around her, pressing against her back, Blake paused what she was doing. Her partner's lust was certainly far from quenched, yet Blake was too shaken from the way it had felt like her heart had been flung up and down.

"You want that to happen again? Me tearing into you like that?" she sullenly questioned.

"…I want any trace you can leave of yourself," Yang's voice was almost lost through the platter of the running water on the tiles. She took the time to suck on her neck, leaving a small, purple bruise before she gently continued, whispering in her ear. "I…just love looking down at myself and seeing you've been there. Evidence of these moments I have with you," she explained, pulling her a little closer. "Love bites are healed by our aura really quick, but this bite… that'll stay a bit. It's a welcomed reminder."

She knew Yang meant no harm with confessing this, yet she suspected her partner never truly considered the impact the words she chose could have… or what was essentially implied with what she'd proclaim. Blake untangled herself from her arms a little too abruptly for it to go unnoticed and her eyes found the bite mark on her partner's neck.

They stared at each other for a second, surprise tinting her partner's gorgeous features, but as Blake did nothing but ambiguously frown up at her, Yang evidently seemed to deduce they were not going to continue their previous activities. She turned to get soap and Blake's gaze drifted to the painless bruises she'd left on the blonde's back and ass, the ones that, unlike the one on her neck that would need to be concealed by her orange scarf in the following days, would heal themselves in the following hour. "…You like it when I mark you?"

Yang was now scrubbing her body clean. "Shouldn't I?"

Blake knew it was petty, but this naïve answer made anger flare in the pit of her stomach. Yang's behavior, and often even her words, kept pointing towards there being underlying feelings. Yet she would dodge the matter as soon as the dialogue seemed to bring them to a point at which they might get addressed. And now… the omnipresent weight of their unspoken agreement -that they weren't broaching this topic- felt suffocating and unfair to her.

"No, Yang, I don't think you should." Her voice sounded harsher than she had intended it to and Yang turned to her in surprise. Blake willed herself to sound more detached this time. "I will remind you people identify their property and this… isn't very different."

Understanding flashed in Yang's eyes, followed by what the faunus could only interpret as regret. Was it regret? And if it was, regret at her own words, maybe? Or at something else?

"…Anyone looking at those bruises would conclude you belong to someone," Blake nevertheless added before she turned off the water.

The look in her clear, beautiful, amethyst eyes was heartbreaking, and Blake knew the question on her partner's lips, the one Yang was not asking her right now. Of course I want you to belong to me. The words ached to be screamed, yet Blake walked out the shower in silence and grabbed her towel. She had resolved not to voice that answer until her partner was ready to ask the question, until Yang was ready to address the feelings she indisputably was aware Blake was straining to shackle. For a few seconds, the blonde watched as her partner dried herself off and started to gather her clothing, she then followed out and dried herself too without adding a word.

Blake sighed gently and picked up the short black shorts and semblance of a skirt that had been discarded hurriedly a little earlier. "What do you call this thing anyways?"

---

On the first Saturday of the month, Ruby and Yang usually made the trip to Patch to see their father; that Saturday was no exception. Though she would rather have spent the day with her blonde partner than without her, Blake figured she could use the opportunity to zip through that trilogy she'd bought and never got around to read. She went about her morning routine quietly and, after having gotten breakfast, trotted back to her room to find her remaining teammate studying. Opting not to disturb her, the faunus pawed to her bed and picked up volume one to start on what promised to be an epic tale.

It however did seem she had disturbed her, because Weiss had straightened up in her chair. She also fidgeted admittedly uncharacteristically.

Blake's eyes drifted from her book to her teammate at her desk. The snow-haired young lady gave off such a tense vibe, she couldn't concentrate on reading. Finding the beginning of the line on her page again, her eyes followed the words without registering their meaning. She found herself looking up at her friend again, this time catching the pale blue orbs fixed onto her. Weiss quickly turned her back to her again, seemingly resuming her studies, and Blake's own gaze was trying to decipher the same single line in her book again and, no matter how many times she read the words, they didn't make sense at all so distracted she was.

Annoyed with her lack of focus, she found herself glancing towards the source of her distraction, only to discover Weiss was staring at her again.

"Is there a problem?" Blake attempted. Ignoring her friend's behavior was downright impossible, might as well deal with it.

Weiss turned around to sit sideways in her chair in a way she didn't have to crook her neck to look at her. Blake deduced that if whatever this was required for her to get into a position comfortable for dialogue, this was going to be a substantial teammate looked oddly discomfited and it seemed to the dark haired faunus like she was assessing something; maybe the situation, maybe her own upcoming words.

Quickly, Weiss's features settled into a resolute expression. "…Blake, I'm going to ask something that may seem odd. And I really want to apologize if I somehow got the wrong idea, and please, please don't be offended if I did get the wrong idea."

She raised her eyebrows, surprised with her friend's unusual awkwardness. "What is it, Weiss?"

The snow-haired lady cleared her throat, apparently trying to swallow down some nervousness. It still took a moment for her to speak. "…Do you— …well. Do you— …I'm sorry if I'm completely mistaken, I don't mean to infer anything. Or be rude. But…"

"What?" Blake pressed, eager to cut the chase. Weiss was starting to worry her with this extensive preface.

Still hesitant, she examined her for another seemingly interminable moment before she gave a light sigh, apparently deciding to simply go for it. "…You…like Yang, don't you?"

Blake's expression went blank. She had been mindful of the likelihood that Weiss had some budding suspicions, but she had not anticipated being confronted anytime soon, or at all.

Her empty stare seemed to prompt Weiss into specifying her notion. "…And I do mean in a non-platonic way. You're… attracted to her, aren't you?"

She opened her mouth, about to go into full denial mode, but immediately closed it again. No matter what phrasing Weiss had decided on to share her assumption, this… hadn't been a question. This was, in fact, a statement. Weiss had seen through her and Blake knew that if her friend was certain enough to address her with this, none of the brittle excuses she would come up with would be able to convince her otherwise. Not to mention, she knew that lying to her would only amount in upsetting the snow haired heiress because after all, Weiss had made Blake promise to come to them if something ever troubled her again. A lie so blatant would only amount to having Weiss call her out on a breach of trust. Resigned golden eyes drifted to the forgotten book in her hands. She closed it softly. "…Have I been so obvious?"

Weiss looked visibly relieved that this wasn't going to turn into an argument. "…Obvious enough if one knows to look for it," she graciously offered.

"If one knows to look for it," Blake repeated. It wasn't very hard to figure out. She gave a deep sigh. "…And you knew to look for it because you heard me purring."

She nodded once. "...that, paired with the way you were cuddling up to her then, yes," Weiss paused for a short moment, seemingly reviewing the events of that morning in her head. "It was disconcerting given how distant you typically show yourself. And from there, as I watched you, it was so plain to see I wondered how I hadn't caught on before."

Blake silently stared back at her. It was a long pause before she said anything. "…Okay," she eventually acknowledged, still very unsure why her teammate decided to broach the subject.

"Right." Weiss gave a curt sigh, apparently regrouping herself. "…The reason I'm…I deemed I should discuss this with you," she started, proceeding to move on. "Not only could it be precarious for the team… but I'm also concerned for you," she carefully explained. "How do you intend on dealing with this?"

Her grip on her book had tightened to the point she now noticed her fingernails had turned white. Blake set it aside on her bedside table. "Do I have to deal with it?"

The other young woman looked displeased again. "It's going to wear you down if you don't," she shot back. Then her expression relaxed a little and she looked to be more hesitant. "…Unless you think it's not worth it because it'll pass? Do you think this is just momentary infatuation?"

Blake felt her jaw tighten. If only this was a harmless, shallow crush. If only it had been curiosity, experimentation, a phase, whatever they liked calling it. "No." Her voice sounded feeble, she was distressed to realize and Blake had to pause and swallow down some of her uneasiness. "This..." she started again, "this, it doesn't qualify as mere infatuation," she confessed in a whisper. "…It's very far from a simple crush, it's so monumental that I'm honestly a little at loss."

Weiss's expression softened even more and she finally stood from being sat at her desk to calmly walk up to her. "How long have you been feeling this way?"

The faunus gave a disheartened shrug. "I don't really know myself. I used to try and not think about it because I thought it was pointless but…" What was she supposed to say now? "But now it's…" she tried again, though she had to pause once more, totally unsure how to continue from there. After all, the reason she faced her feelings was because Yang left her no choice but to when she'd met her with unexpected desires. If she explained this, would it be too crude? Unwarranted information? Would her friend be revolted?

"It has caught up to you?" the heiress presumed, now sitting across her teammate on her own bed, adjacent from her.

Before she could elect whether or not it may be better to leave things up in the air, keep it vague, Blake found herself shaking her head to rectify her supposition. "I wouldn't say it like that," she carefully answered. Seeing the expectant look on her friend's features, once more without really thinking about whether or not she should elaborate, she carried on with her explanations. "I probably would have kept ignoring it indefinitely, but… it's just…the…circumstances changed. And I had nowhere to hide from myself."

"What happened?"

Blake seemed to suddenly become aware of where answering Weiss's questions brought them and of how the only thing that could come next was confessing to what happened. She silently stared at her, realizing in surprise that everything in her urged her to come clean. Blake realized she wanted to tell someone; she needed this suffocating secret off her chest, she needed to alleviate its weight. And though she couldn't help the omnipresent fear of what may result from such a confession, she found it very encouraging how Weiss hadn't been alarmed at all about the way she felt for her partner. Blake decided that it may not be too much of a gamble to let her know.

"If you want to know the truth…" She started, unsure how she should phrase her revelation, "…With Yang…" Blake nervously took a deep breath. "…Somehow, she… ... Her flirting wasn't… all that insignificant," she explained, hoping Weiss would catch onto where this was heading.

"She said something that made you believe it's not?" Weiss carefully asked. It was a warranted question since Yang did have a tendency to flirt as banter.

"More like, she did something," Blake tried.

Her expression was even more inquisitive. "Okay…?"

Blake held her breath. There was no going around it, she had to say it. "We did it. Yang and I. We did it," she ended up stating.

Weiss stared at her vacantly for a few seconds. She then frowned. "… …Pardon?" She had a short, tense laugh. "I think I misunderstood."

"You didn't," Blake countered with as much composure as she could muster.

She shook her head, and eyes closed, she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I think I did. Because seriously, I don't think you actually meant to say what I heard." Her pale blue eyes snapped back up to meet her friend's, her cheeks now a little pink. "Blake. It sounded like you said…that …" Weiss didn't seem to be able to articulate the next words. She touched her two indexes together.

The faunus was starting to feel more than a little self-conscious, but she nevertheless gave a single, very deliberate nod of her head. "…It's what I meant to say," she carefully confirmed. Maybe this hadn't been a good idea. Maybe she shouldn't have opened up.

There was another pause in which Weiss seemed to start to accept what had just been said. Her face was rapidly turning as red as Ruby's cape. "…. … No, really, you two….? ….You…?"

"…Yes, Weiss, do I have to spell it out?" she unnervingly shot back, more than a little anxious.

Her eyes were now incredibly wide. "…Wow. Okay," Weiss carefully said in a breath. Her gaze drifted to the ground. "Wow…." she repeated, apparently still in disbelief. "That's… well… leagues ahead of what I expected to hear."

She waited a moment in silence, wishing her friend would say more, anything that would clue her in as to whether or not she was taking it well. Blake felt anxiety constrict her stomach and throat; she had to will herself to say something before the overpowering urge to flee got the better of her. "…Does that change your opinion of us…?"

Weiss instantly looked back up at her. "No! No, of course not," she said right away, in an effort to reassure her. "It's natural to have those urges, and you have feelings for her, of course you'd… you'd want… you'd..." As she spoke, her icy blue orbs slid from the faunus's shape, down to the bed she was sitting on. "Of course you'd want to… do…" she trailed off, now crossing her arms.

As she watched her in her reflection process, Blake quickly felt a different type of dread overtake her. "Please tell me you're not picturing it."

"I'm not!" Weiss balked, and her face reddened again. "…I wasn't!" she then exclaimed even louder, her voice much higher pitched. The heiress looked discomfited and more than a little flustered. She shut her eyes and joined both hands in her lap, taking a deep breath. "Sorry, I have to process this," she eventually apologized, finally regrouping herself a little. Only then did she look to Blake again. "Sorry. So Yang is also…? I mean… then, are you two… an item?"

"No," Blake immediately said. "No, we're not. If that had been the case, we would've definitely told Ruby and you," she added, and Weiss nodded in approval. The midnight haired woman gave her a little smile, though it swiftly faded from her features as she opened her mouth again.

"…I don't know if Yang will ever want anything more than…this. Hence, I asked her to stay discreet. After all, well… how would we have been expected to go about with this? Just offhandedly let you two know we—" She stopped herself and had to breathe; discussing this was unnervingly embarrassing. Moreover, she'd never had to actually describe, verbalize, what she and Yang were doing. "I just…I don't know, Weiss… were we supposed to actually just come out with it and tell you we had…. casual sex…?" She almost cringed saying it. Blake didn't want to call it that. It wasn't casual sex to her and she thought it may have sounded crude to someone refined as Weiss. But there was no going around it right now. "Just throwing that at you without context… I felt it would've been... kind of too much info? I mean, Yang and I are…technically still just friends, and what we did, it… it didn't change how we behaved when with you two… We simply felt it wasn't something Ruby and you needed to know."

The understanding on her friend's features relieved Blake immensely. "…I see your point." Weiss crossed her legs and leaned forward slightly, observing her for a few seconds before giving a sigh. "…Honesty, I don't know where to go from here," she pursed her lips. "And here I was astounded with even just the suspicion that you may have feelings for her. I thought you'd deny it. And I sure didn't expect something like this. I mean… to start with, I don't know anyone who's… …." She trailed off, seemingly hesitant with what wording to settle on.

"…Gay?" the faunus offered, in an attempt to save her the struggle. She saw some air of guilty discomfort cross her features for a second and Blake paused. She in truth had been thinking about this a lot ever since that night. Yang had asked her if she'd always known she had some interest in both sexes and she found herself now questioning if she truly did have interest in both. "I don't know about Yang, but for myself… I…" she paused. "I'm still unsure about… outside of her, what it is exactly I'm attracted to, really," she admitted. "I mean…all this, it's very new to me. Love, relationships, even friendship, all that seemed irrelevant when I was in the White Fang. I was… I was a soldier. I lived for the White Fang. I never had time to dwell on anything but our mission…on what I used to think was my duty," she explained. She shifted positions in what she realized was probably embarrassment. "The people who fought alongside me in the White Fang… we were united by a perceived common enemy, not much else. So when I entered Beacon Academy, I didn't anticipate making any sort of real connections. I never had many with my peers. You all are… a pleasant surprise."

Weiss smiled a genuine smile. "To be honest, I feel the same about the three of you," she agreed, and as Blake smiled back, it looked like this acknowledgment of what their teammates brought them embarrassed Weiss. She cleared her throat, clearly she didn't want to dwell on this. "So… dating was never one of your concerns?"

This snapped her back to the conversation at hand. "It was so far from being on my mind, I mean, just having the team was already overwhelming, hence… romance… I wasn't ready to think about it yet. I had no interest," Blake explained.

"…Given where you're standing now… I'd argue you did have some interest," Weiss amusedly shot back.

She felt herself blush. "...I genuinely didn't think I did!" she argued. "And because of that, I honestly never gave… …sexuality in general a thought… and…I… had no reason to believe I may not be like the majority of people… but… … then…" Blake sighed a kind of disbelieving chuckle. "Then, I realized I was constantly watching her. And… how I was looking at her. And the way I felt when I did."

"That's kind of adorable, actually."

Again, she felt her cheeks redden. "Not really," Blake breathed, opting not to rectify that when she'd mentioned the way she felt, it had not been meant to describe only romantic feelings.

"No, really," Weiss stressed, still grinning. She let her friend steep in her embarrassment for what Blake deemed was an unfairly prolonged moment before she had the grace to move on. "Does that mean that she's the first person to ever catch your eye?"

The faunus felt herself frown. Could she really say that Yang caught her eye? After all, when they first met… she hadn't looked twice and had really tried hard to blow her off, as she and Ruby had interrupted her reading. "Hmm. I don't think it's the right way to put it, she didn't catch my eye per se," Blake found herself saying. "I mean, I do think she's ridiculously attractive," she clarified, "but that's… that's not why she stood out to me. Lots of people are objectively attractive, but Yang, however…"

Blake stopped. What was so different about Yang? As the question presented itself in her mind, she didn't even need to think about her answer. "…Yang, as I got to know her, I quickly… … to me, she shines. And it's only truer the more I know her. She… she's unguarded and genuinely compassionate and so, so caring. She's so warm." It was the first time she was able to communicate openly her feelings and Blake felt her heart swell with the love she felt for her partner. Her eyes found her friend's again, the snow haired lady stared back with inquisitive interest and Blake found herself continuing.

"I'd… in my life, I'd experienced such hate and rejection, I…. I shut down. I hid behind walls I didn't think anyone could even start to breach," she explained. "I had never thought I could open up to anyone again. And her… just so naturally… she…" Blake's eyes had drifted to the floor. "The way she's inexorably positive and outgoing, and… always trying to make the best of things… and her laugh, her laugh, Weiss, it makes me want to be happy. For the first time in my life, I actually look forward to what the future may bring. I had never met someone who made me feel so optimistic. Or… safe. Safe with them and safe with myself. I had never met someone who made me want to let my guard down, look up, reach out for them. And Yang... Yang, with her beautiful, passionate fire… she…" Blake breathed shakily. "She tore me out of a darkness I had come to believe I would forever be engulfed in," she finished with a quiet sigh, feeling herself smile nonetheless. Her eyes were on Weiss's again, and her sheepish smile widened in spite of herself. "….Everything is brighter now."

There was a very long pause before she answered at all. "…Wow," Weiss finally managed in a quiet voice, awed. "You're right. Infatuation doesn't cover it. You're really, really in love with her," she bluntly confirmed. Blake felt her face redden yet again. "Here I was looking on, thinking you might have a shallow crush… I never expected you to be so serious about her," she commented.

Blake felt self-conscious again. "…I didn't intend on any of this to happen," she offered, feeling the need to apologize. She knew what the team meant to Weiss, and she knew how her feelings could end up tearing everything apart. "I…. like I told you, I… me neither, I never had what I have with you three. You're all so important to me, and I… if anything happened, I can't… I would never forgive myself if everything fell apart because of me, I'm…. sorry, I…"

"Stop it, stop," Weiss instantly shot, holding her hand out as a sign for Blake to fall silent. "…The way you talk about her is beautiful. And nothing you should be sorry for, okay?" The icy blue orbs held her stare as she said this, as if she wanted to stress her point. "Now. Yes, I was worried about what your feelings may mean when it came to us four being able to continue working as a team, but… come on Blake, I'm not heartless."

"…Sorry, I just…"

"Stop apologizing," Weiss unnervedly cut in, causing Blake to instantly crumple. Silence filled the room again and the snow haired lady sighed. She decidedly didn't seem to have wanted to shut her down the way she did; Weiss attempted to pursue the conversation. "…How did it happen?"

"What?" Blake confusedly blinked a few times.

"Yang and you," she specified. There was a short pause, in which she looked quite unsure of herself, before she opened her mouth again. "You don't have to explain if you feel it's too personal; I simply can't help but wonder, since you're not in a relationship… this isn't something that just happens, is it? How did you end up…getting to that point?"

It was beyond her power to stop the memories from flooding her; Yang's warmth against her back, her hands delicately caressing her breasts, her nervous breath shivering against the back of her shoulder. She had to focus to push back the images and phantom sensations. "…It's odd, but it really did simply happen. Completely out of nowhere," she answered. It truly had been a tremendous shock to realize her blonde partner actually desired her. "…We shared a bed on a mission and before I knew it we were…. ….well, she was…" Blake exhaled shakily, struggling not to replay the events in her head, yet trying to rack her brain for any clue allowing her to understand how Yang had even taken that first step to start with. "I can't imagine what possessed her, she… showed curiosity. And suddenly it was desire… and I don't know where she gets that sort of audacity, she just went for it," she explained vaguely. Her body felt warmer even as she tried to not think about it in details; Blake couldn't hold her friend's gaze. "And god, how I had wanted her…" she confessed. "Of course I encouraged her. Of course I reciprocated."

Weiss hummed pensively. "Well…if she's the one who came onto you… doesn't it mean she's interested in more…?"

"Does it really?" Blake shot back. "After all, sex and love aren't mutually exclusive," she argued. Though Yang did seem to be awfully attached to her, she more often than not would tiptoe around discussing what it was they were doing and Blake didn't dare get her hopes up. "Not knowing is killing me," she admitted in a quiet voice.

"…When was this?"

"The escort mission last month."

There was sudden understanding on her features as she suddenly made sense of something that had apparently been bothering her. "…That's…why. That's when she started calling you 'kitten'," she blurted in bewilderment. "It wasn't out of the blue, that was why."

Blake felt herself redden a little. "…Right, you'd noticed that."

"Who didn't?" Weiss retorted, making her friend wince. After a short silence, she resumed. "So it's been a month? …And you… don't know still? You haven't gotten around to talk about it at all?"

The faunus shook her head dejectedly. "No, we talked… I mean, not our first time, at that point we were both confused but-"

"Hold on!" Weiss cut in, scandalized. "First time?" She repeated. "Implying not just one time?"

"….A couple of times," Blake quietly offered.

"A couple of times during the mission or…?"

"…No, not just…" she trailed off. She'd phrased her confession vaguely enough to let her friend think it has been a solitary episode, but she'd just inadvertently betrayed herself. Resigned, she glanced embarrassedly at her teammate. "Spread out over the last weeks."

Blake watched as her expression went from stunned to confused, and then to borderline offended. "You two have been having sex for the last month?" Weiss sounded almost distressed. "When?"

"…Not while you and Ruby were sleeping," she conservatively offered, thinking that her concern over this was probably the reason her friend was so agitated. "We hadn't done it that morning you saw her in my bed," she then added, opting not to let her know this was only thanks to Yang's uneasiness with her sibling's presence. "It's only been when… sometimes, when we've had a couple of hours alone."

Weiss looked very relieved. "…Okay."

Clearing her throat, Blake resolved to move on from this embarrassing interlude and go back as quickly as possible to the matter that had previously been at hand. "…I just meant to say… that yes, although vaguely, we have talked. My issue is that we haven't progressed enough for me to figure out what it's supposed to be," she summarized. Her gaze drifted to her hands to let her notice she had been clutching her uniform skirt in tense fists. Staring at them for a second, trying to pinpoint why she felt so thin-skinned, she came aware that the agony and irritation she constantly tried to stifle when with Yang was now surfacing.

"…It hurts but… she's… I understand she's lost. I've been there. And I've had almost a year to come to terms with how I felt about her, I can't expect her to breeze through this in three or four weeks. Plus, she's been honest about…how she knows we're in a delicate situation…" she rationalized, though the more she spoke, the more sensitive she felt. "And to be fair, she did try to talk it out when we were still out on that mission but she… seemed so confused, and lost, and… I told her it was okay if she didn't say anything," she explained, inhaling deeply in an attempt to calm down. "The thing is, since then… I thought she'd have figured it out at least a little… but it doesn't seem like it. She still doesn't seem to understand exactly what she wants from me. And now she's been purposely avoiding the topic, but still she keeps… she keeps looking at me this way and… I can't say no, I don't want to say no… it's just… a mess."

While Weiss apparently did her best to keep a neutral expression, her tone when she spoke was clearly displeased. "…It's so unfair to you. Her behavior is completely unreasonable," she asserted. "I know you want to be understanding, but Blake, you still have to respect your own feelings. What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Blake bitterly repeated; she knew what she wanted had already been made explicitly clear. Moreover, with every word, she struggled more and more with feelings of frustration, maybe even resentment. "I want her to be making love to me, not using me for sex."

Weiss seemed to physically recoil from her words. Though she'd seemed angry with Yang a second ago, she visibly didn't think this was warranted. "…Don't say that…" she breathed with a twinge of sadness. Recovering, her voice was louder this time, more convinced. "Don't say it like that! She does care for you and you know that! Yang wouldn't use you, that's not like her at all! She's not-"

"I know!" Blake cut in. "Don't even-..." she halted, not wanting to take out her anger on her teammate. This anger was quickly blurring itself with profound distress anyways and she inhaled deeply, shakily pressing her hands over her face. Her throat was painfully constricted and it was hard to push words through. "I'm s-sorry...I know you're just... it's just..." And she realized she was tearing up, which only served to destabilize her more. "…I'm being stupid…"

There was a shift and, even if Blake still held her hands over her face, she understood Weiss moved from her bed to sit next to her instead. "It's not stupid, Blake, don't say that. Getting our feelings out there is always difficult."

"…I-I…know. I'm sorry," she sniffed, trying her best to get a hold of herself. "…I didn't mean to say-...I know she's not using me… I didn't mean it. I'm just frustrated," she sobbed in spite of her best efforts. An arm came around her shoulders and Blake bowed her head, leaning into her almost imperceptibly. A couple of months ago, she would could never have anticipated, not in a million years, that Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee dust company, would ever be comforting her. But there they were and she was so incredibly thankful for her presence.

"I…just…I love her so much, I want to come out with it, I… want to be with her, and yet I can't… pressure her into anything," she blurted a little incoherently, the words coming out seemed to be alleviating the weight on her heart. "I'm so scared of losing her… and I…" Blake had to stop herself to sniff again, clumsily trying to wipe her eyes and nose. "…Then I remind myself…I shouldn't anyways, I shouldn't ever ask her to be with me… and it's… it's j-just so unfair…" She sobbed again, hiding her face awkwardly with her hands again.

Slowly, comfortingly rubbing her back, Weiss waited a moment before asking, "Why not?"

Blake scoffed and separated enough to look at her, paying no attention to the tears rolling down her cheeks. "Weiss, I'm a faunus, may I remind you?"

As soon as the argument passed her lips, she felt her friend tense up and expression stiffened. It couldn't be clearer that Weiss understood where this was heading but Blake nevertheless continued.

"You know the world doesn't take kindly to one of us with a human. You used to be like them, to think like that, you know how some people can be," she argued and Weiss's arm around her was almost rigid, her hand stiffly clenched her shoulder. Blake searched her features, but the pale blue orbs would not meet her eyes; the faunus gave a shaky sigh. "I know Yang doesn't care about that. It's been very clear that my race doesn't even factor into the equation to her. But other people do care, and I don't want to jeopardize her. I can't drag her into the shadows with me, that's not where she belongs." She then let out a dry, forlorn, semblance of a laugh. "…And honestly, an interracial and homosexual couple…? It almost sounds like a bad joke. It's a disaster waiting to happen."

There was a heavy silence in which Blake managed to dry her tears before Weiss was able to say anything again. "I hate hearing you talk like that."

She shook her head dejectedly. "I'm trying to be realistic. I know what I am and I know what committing to me would mean for her future," Blake sniffed again and got up, her eyes scanning the room for some tissues. "We both know she could find herself an amazing guy at the drop of a hat if she wanted to. And who could blame her, that'd be so much easier on her than being with someone like me."

"Key words; if she wanted to," Weiss shot back. "If she wanted some guy, she'd already have some guy," her white-haired teammate argued as she stood too. "We both know there would be no need to fall back on someone she didn't actively want. So 'someone like you'," she stressed the words Blake had chosen to designate herself with as she air-quoted them, "... is what she wants. You've got no right to diminish her choice."

Not having any answer to this, the brooding faunus wordlessly pulled tissues out of their box. She took a moment to start cleaning up her runny makeup. She didn't know at what point in this conversation she let herself spiral down into self-hatred again.

Seemingly encouraged by her silence, her teammate stepped a bit closer. "You can't make up your mind this way about what you can or can't hope for before talking it out honestly with her."

Blake turned to her, snapping out of herself. "I can't be selfish, Weiss!"

"You are being selfish! Doesn't she get a say in all this?" She argued right back. "It's selfish to decide for both of you that what you two could have isn't worth the fight! Even if being able to be together happened to require some struggle, you don't get to give up in her stead!"

"But it's not like she has decided on anything anyways," the faunus miserably complained, throwing away the tissues she'd used in favor of pulling out some new ones. "I don't know what she wants!"

"Like that's a good excuse to deny her the opportunity to make both of you happy?" Weiss maintained. "You should tell her. Tell her you're serious about her."

"But she knows!"

The white haired heiress stared back for a second, stumped. It took a second before she regained some verve. "Wait, didn't you say you didn't talk enough to…"

"I didn't tell her," Blake allowed, "but it's not like I've tried very hard to hide it," she admitted. "...I've been… quite open with allowing her to see what she represents to me. I believe she understands how I feel."

"…You let her guess?" Weiss carefully confirmed, earning herself a nod. She crossed her arms, seemingly a little perplexed. "…And she's still been…sleeping with you?"

"…Yeah."

She blinked several times, her gaze drifting down in contemplation before it snapped back up to the golden eyes. "…Isn't that a good thing?" she tried. "We both know she cares about you, if she does know and yet didn't reciprocate, wouldn't she have stopped so she wouldn't make it harder on both of you?"

Blake shrugged. Of course she hoped this was the case, but with the way her partner seemed scared of the topic, she still feared what could come out of the latest developments. "Maybe she thinks denying me this closeness she is willing to give me would be more cruel," she countered.

Weiss groaned. "…Did she say anything back?"

"…This is Yang we're talking about, of course she's said plenty of things back. This girl talks a lot," the dark haired faunus remarked a little sarcastically. Wiping her eyes again with a tissue, she gave a curt sigh. "But no matter how much was said I couldn't get anything tangible. I can't get anything beyond a confused mess, which only amounted in confusing me as much as her about what she wanted." Blake then dropped herself back on her bed, her eyes wandering from her friend to the wooden slates supporting the mattress of her partner's bed above hers. "…Yang is very candid and impulsive. If she knew where she stood, she wouldn't be able to keep it to herself. At least not very long," Blake quietly mused, more thinking out loud than really addressing her teammate.

Weiss didn't seem to be able to find anything more to say to attempt to comfort her, she gave a small sigh.

tbc