The end of Winter's stay has arrived...but she will be back (in the sequel when I find the time to write it).

Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, everything! I'm glad you enjoyed this little story of mine.

More bumblebee is on the way from me that I am so, so, so excited about! Keep an eye out for that - I'll probably put it up on Friday!

When Blake woke up the next morning, her spirits were higher than they had been in a long time, for just a couple of reasons.

For one, she was still lying in Yang's bed wrapped within the blonde's strong arms – something she hadn't thought would happen in a million years. And two, today was the day of Winter's departure from their lives. And, hopefully, the girl would be gone for a very, very long time - forever might be ideal, actually.

As everyone else began waking up, she felt Yang begin to stir as well. She watched raptly while the blonde regained consciousness with a big yawn, eyes opening to reveal sleepy lilac gazing across the small space between them.

"Good morning," Blake whispered, not wanting anyone to overhear them or to ruin this magnificent moment she had somehow found herself in.

"Good morning," Yang responded with a sleepy smile. "How did you sleep?"

"Wonderfully."

That might have been a modest way to put it - it had been the best sleep she had gotten in years.

"Good…" Yang replied with another smile before quickly leaning in and stealing a kiss. "What do you want to do today?"

"Blake! Yang! Time to get up!"

They both sighed at Weiss' demanding voice, but complied regardless – jumping down from the bed seconds later.

As soon as they hit the floor, Winter came over to greet Yang – sugary sweet smile still on her face. But her smile froze the instant she saw Blake – turning into an expression of confusion and disbelief.

"Y-you're a FAUNUS?"

Blake held a hand up to her uncovered ears in surprise at the girl's shriek, suddenly remembering that Yang had undone her bow last night and left it discarded on the bed while they slept. She turned to find Yang looking at her with what she could only imagine was an equivalent expression of horror on her face.

But the damage had already been done.

"You never said you were on a team with a Faunus!" Winter whirled to face her sister accusingly, again spitting out the term as if it tasted foul in her mouth.

"I didn't think that was important," Weiss responded disinterestedly. "I told you that I had three skilled teammates, and that was all you wanted to hear."

Winter scoffed at Weiss' comment.

"I can't imagine she does anything but drag you down," she said coldly, shooting Blake a scathing look of distaste. "Your team must be much less successful than I thought."

Blake felt Yang bristle from beside her, but Weiss was the one who replied first.

"Actually, Blake is extremely talented – she's the only student at Beacon who was admitted without any formal training. And Ruby is a prodigy who was admitted two years earlier than the minimum age limit. If anything, Yang is the least skilled person on this team – but you've had no problem begging for her attention the past few days."

"Hey!"

Winter looked around the room at them, a myriad of emotions running across her face.

"And even you will have to admit that Yang is a pretty talented fighter when she wants to be," Weiss finished with a satisfied nod.

Yang shook her head slightly, muttering, "Thanks, I think…"

"Father isn't going to approve of you being on a team with a Faunus," Winter replied, for the first time looking moderately worried about what their father might do, but Weiss just rolled her eyes.

"I really don't care what Father thinks about it - she's my teammate and that's all there is to it. If he has an issue, he'll have to bring it up with Professor Ozpin since he's the one who set the teams. And we both know that he would never do that."

Winter stared at her sister - aghast that the girl would dare to dismiss their father's feelings so trivially. Blake could practically see the gears spinning in Winter's head while she tried to figure out some way to recover from this situation, her eyes flitting back and forth between Yang, Weiss, and Blake's ears.

When a sinister smile finally appeared, Blake felt her muscles tense up while she anticipated what was to come.

"That was a really cute bow you were wearing," Winter began slowly, skirting around her main subject like a vulture circling its next meal. "I thought that it looked very...well used...but figured that you just couldn't afford a better one. But, it's actually something you wear everyday, isn't it? It couldn't possibly be that the rest of the school doesn't know you're a Faunus...could it?"

The smile Winter gave her was sickeningly sweet yet dripping in poison. Blake could feel her heart start racing when she heard the threat hidden within the seemingly innocent question.

"They actually do."

Both Winter and Blake turned to Weiss in surprise, just in time to see the younger heiress nonchalantly shrug her shoulders.

"Blake used to wear the bow all the time, but stopped once we found out she was a Faunus. She got it back out because you were coming; we didn't want to make you...uncomfortable."

The lie was fluid and believable. Blake, herself, might have even believed it if she didn't know it was far from the truth.

Winter seemed to be struggling with the explanation, observing Weiss closely while she tried to find any sign of fabrication. Weiss stared straight back, blue eyes clear and unafraid as she firmly stood up to her older sister.

"Well…" Winter finally began, turning back to Blake with another smile. "If everyone knows...and now I know...then you don't need to wear the bow anymore, right?"

Time seemed to slow down while Blake stared back at Winter, mind running at a million miles per minute as she tried to think of some way out of this situation. If she didn't wear her bow, all of Beacon would find out that she was a Faunus. But if she put it back on, Winter would know that they were lying. In which case, Blake couldn't even begin to imagine what the girl would do with that knowledge.

When she felt a ray of warmth move closer to her side, she decided what she was going to do.

She smiled back at Winter, fully prepared to play this game and suffer the inevitable consequences. Before, she might have been terrified of all of her fellow students knowing her secret and treating her poorly, but...she knew that her teammates would never abandon her side. Most importantly...Yang would never leave her side.

"I guess not," she responded, the same smile firmly sealed to her lips. "Let's get ready and head down for breakfast."

Turning on her heel, she stalked into the bathroom and shut the door quietly behind her, feeling her hands begin shaking when she realized what she had just agreed to do.

Walk down to the Beacon cafeteria...without her bow...very clearly announcing to everyone that she was a Faunus…that she had been hiding amongst them all this time...

That definitely hadn't been what she'd planned to do today - or this year, for that matter.

When everyone was finally ready to go, with her teammates dragging their heels a little more than usual, she took two deep breaths before they stepped out into the hallway, trying to ignore the smug look Winter was giving her.

As the last one out of the room, she pulled the door shut behind her - suddenly wishing that she was back on the other side, hidden underneath her covers. At the same moment, she heard the sound of Team JNPR's door closing across the hallway. Slowly turning, she found herself face-to-face with Ren and Nora.

"Good morning!" Nora called out with a happy wave while Ren simply nodded beside her.

"Good morning," Winter greeted politely, nearly gleaming with glee. "Sorry, I don't seem to recall your names. Blake, would you mind introducing me again?"

The question worked just as Winter had intended, forcing both Ren and Nora's attention in Blake's direction. She felt both of her ears flick nervously while the two students regarded her thoughtfully.

"This is Ren and Nora, two members from Team JNPR. Ren...Nora, this is Weiss' sister, Winter."

Her nerves showed themselves in her words while she floundered through the brief introduction. She didn't know what kind of reaction to expect from two of her closer friends. What would they say? Or do? Especially Nora - sometimes the girl could be more of a loose…

"You have the name forgetting disorder too, don't ya Winty!" Nora exclaimed joyfully, reaching over to wrap a heavy arm around the bewildered girl's shoulders. "Don't worry - happens to me all the time! For the first few months of school, I was calling Weiss 'Rice' and Yang 'Bang' and Jaune 'Shaun' and Pyrrha 'Nyrrha'..."

The excitable huntress continued her rant of names while forcefully directing Winter away from the group and towards the dining hall. Blake couldn't help but grin at the dumbfounded expression Winter was wearing while the two girls walked away.

"Shall we go?" Ren asked quietly, eyes looking steadily into Blake's while waiting for her response. Turning to her side, she found the rest of her teammates watching her, prepared to do whatever they could to help her.

She had been afraid of not having support, of being an outcast, of being...alone. That's why she worn the bow to Beacon. She had wanted the chance to fit in and be judged on her skills, not on the heritage she had no say in choosing.

But, in the eyes of her teammates and friends, she found more acceptance than she could ever have dreamed of. And while there may be times when wearing her bow might be better than dealing with the consequences of not...here, in her own school and amongst those she loved, maybe she could be herself - for once.

"Yeah, let's go," she responded to Ren with a smile, turning to follow Nora and Winter's path down the hallway.

The cafeteria was crowded at this time on a weekend morning, with all of the students milling about and causing a ruckus - glad to have a few days off from classes. Blake could hear the the droning sound of many voices from afar, and tried to guess how many of Beacon's students were here right now. Fifty percent? Seventy? Every single student in the school?

When they reached the cafeteria doors, she could feel her nerves beginning to mount once again, but refused to run away, spurred onward by Yang's warm presence by her side. The presence she had been sorely missing the past few days. She stepped through the doors purposefully, standing just inside the doorway while she waited for the reaction to occur.

She didn't really know what she had been expecting. Everyone to turn her way and let out a collective gasp? Outrage at her for having hidden so long? Students booing at her? Throwing food?

Any of those things would have made more sense to her than what actually happened - absolutely nothing.

Only a few students looked towards the door when they stepped inside, and those that did instantly turned back to the conversations they had been having without another thought. The rest of the room failed to even notice their arrival and Blake quickly realized that they were all too consumed with their own lives to take the time to glance her way.

The lack of reaction allowed her exhale, releasing the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. She looked up when she felt a warm hand slip into her own - finding Yang gazing at her with a caring smile. Her confidence rebuilt with that single small gesture, she strode forward, hand-in-hand with her partner, to collect their food.

There were a few stares, but nothing egregious or long lasting. And there were many whispers, but those surprisingly had much more to do with the person Blake was holding hands with than her ears...by the time they had joined a sulking Winter and bubbly Nora at a table, it was breakfast as usual.

Well...almost breakfast as usual - the only exception being the suddenly sullen Winter Schnee, who had done a complete reversal from her effervescent attitude from the past few days. The girl suddenly had a chilly exterior that put even Weiss' to shame.

The rest of them did their best to ignore the girl, which Blake found very easy to do when she had the complete, undivided attention of a certain blonde partner of hers.

Yang nearly refused to take her eyes off of Blake, resulting in more than a few blushes on her part. The blonde was constantly leaning in to whisper in her ear, while her hand lightly grazed Blake's leg - the touch sending waves of chills up and down Blake's spine each time.

It was, by far, the best breakfast she had ever had at Beacon to date, and not even Winter's occasional glares or icy presence could get under her skin this morning.

When they had finished their meal, they decided to hang around the front lobby for the next couple of hours before Marshall would return to collect Winter and her belongings. The lobby was the best place to people watch on the weekends as students rushed in and out on their own tasks. Some teams would go out to practice while others were headed into Vale for shopping or other outings.

For her part, Blake hardly thought about her uncovered ears anymore. It was only when Velvet gave her a quick wink while she walked past with the rest of her team did Blake even remember her bow was gone.

They passed the idly time chatting about the past week and their plans for the weekend. Weiss and Ruby tried several times in vain to get Winter involved in the conversation, but the girl seemed content to sit there sullenly - staring out the front windows while tapping her perfectly manicured fingertips impatiently on the edge of her chair.

As soon as the black town car could be seen on the very outskirts of Beacon's property, Winter shot to her feet, clearly anxious to get away from this place.

"Would you mind helping me with my bag?" the girl asked Yang politely, her sweet smile still fully operational.

After a quick glance towards Blake, Yang shrugged her shoulders and easily shouldered the bag. They exited the school just as they had entered, with Yang walking ahead by Winter, while Blake trailed behind with Ruby and Weiss. But the atmosphere couldn't have been more different from when the girl had first arrived.

"Did you ever find out why she visited?" Blake asked while keeping her eyes fixated upon the two girls in front of her.

"Just to mess with me," Weiss answered flatly. "Or, as she put it, 'Can't I just want to see my little sister once in awhile?'"

Ruby giggled at Weiss' perfect impersonation of Winter's voice as they approached the car, watching Yang hand Winter's luggage over to Marshall to be stowed away.

"Well, it was very nice to meet all of you," Winter began as she turned back to face them, her poised energy completely restored. "And Weiss, it was great to see how you're doing here. I know we all had our doubts about how you would be able to manage such a school."

Weiss scowled at the insult, but said nothing in return.

"Oh, I know! You all really must come to the Schnee Ball next year!" Winter suggested, eyes suddenly shining with excitement at the prospect.

All four members of Team RWBY stared at the girl like she was out of her mind, but Winter seemed completely undeterred.

"All of Vale's wealthiest and most powerful will be in attendance," she continued while sliding elegantly into the backseat of the vehicle. "Blake will have to wear the bow, of course, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem, should it?"

With those words, the door closed and the car began moving away from them - taking Winter out of their lives.

"I can't believe you thought I liked her," Yang said, breaking the silence as she let out a small giggle.

"Hey, you were pretty convincing at 'keeping her company!'" Blake protested, which only made Yang dissolve into real laughter.

"I'm so glad she's gone though..." she added, feeling muscles she didn't even know she had relaxing now that Winter had been taken away from their school. Apparently, having two heiresses in her life was one too many.

Feeling a warm hand slip into her own, she turned her gaze to Yang's.

"Although I guess there is one thing I should be thankful to her for..." Blake whispered, moving closer to Yang and enjoying the warm air cutting through the cold.

"If you say me, I'm going to kiss you," Yang whispered back to her, leaning slightly closer in anticipation while Blake smirked at the response.

"If she'd never visited, things might never have happened between me and...you…" she said, grinning at the end while emphasizing the word 'you.'

True to her word, Yang instantly drew her into a loving kiss - completely removing any thought from Blake's mind that didn't have to do with her fiery partner.

An embarrassed cough brought her crashing back to reality as the two of them jerked apart, turning to find their two teammates staring at them with jaws dropped, equal expressions of dismay written upon their slightly red faces.

"When did THAT happen?"

Yang laughed while Blake blushed deep red in embarrassment at Ruby's question.

As the four of them walked back towards their room, she let Yang recount the exciting story of what had happened between them yesterday - although she hastily cut in when the blonde was going to go into far greater detail than necessary (seriously, Ruby and Weiss did not need to know how she kisses).

She laughed when Ruby teased Yang about finally having a real girlfriend, causing the blonde to chase her sister through the front doors of Beacon - leaving her and Weiss trailing behind.

"You know that Winter won't give up that easily, right?"

Surprised, she turned to look at Weiss, whose clear blue eyes were carefully following her younger partner as Ruby and Yang ran about ahead of them.

"If anything, she's only going to try harder now. She'll never accept that there's a person on this planet who she can't have."

Blake turned her eyes towards Yang, who had somehow managed to capture her speedy younger sister and was now tickling her mercilessly.

She didn't respond to Weiss comments, although she could feel that they were true. Unfortunately, that meant that she had not seen the last of Winter Schnee.

But, if and when that day came, Blake would be more than ready. Now that she knew Yang returned her feelings, she wouldn't sit idly by if Winter attempted to steal the blonde away.

Of course, that was a problem for another day. For now, their lives could return to normal. Well...the new normal.

And, the next time Yang was given the opportunity to choose an opponent in Professor Goodwitch's class, she once again chose Blake.

Blake wiped the floor with her.