Bumbleby

Bumbleby is the femslash ship between Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna from the RWBY fandom.

Volume 1
Their first interaction was in Chapter 3, when Yang wanted to help Ruby make new friends. Blake at first seems to have no patience with the two, only wanting to get back to her book and being alone. After stating so, Yang proclaims Blake a "lost cause" to her sister. Though, when they happen to become partners in Chapter 6, she seems happy to be Blake's partner. Even though Blake is known to be the cold and mysterious type, Yang makes her smile on several occasions after they become partners.

Volume 2
In Chapter 2, Blake is adamant about finding out what Roman Torchwick is plotting. After Ruby proposes they start planning a day to do so, Yang gets excited and turns to Blake saying, “I love it when you’re feisty.”

In Chapter 6 titled Burning The Candle, after losing Torchwick a second time, Blake dedicates all of her hours trying to investigate him and the White Fang. Because of this she doesn’t sleep and acts cold towards her friends. Yang decides to try and get Blake to take a break and attend the upcoming school dance. After leading Blake to an empty classroom, she opens up about her own childhood struggles, explaining how her mother abandoned her and she’s been searching for her for years. But she won’t let that search control her like how Blake’s search currently is. Blake argues with her at first, until Yang hugs her and tells her that she doesn’t need to stop, but she should get some rest, “not just for herself, but for the people she cares about,” showing that she cares about Blake's health and well-being. As Yang is about to leave, she turns around and winks as she says to Blake, “And if you feel like coming out tomorrow, I’ll save you a dance.” In the end, Blake does go to the dance with Sun Wukong, but shares her first dance with Yang.

In Chapter 10, Yang can’t sleep and asks Blake if she is awake, which she is. This leads to a discussion (that Weiss eventually joins) about why they want to be huntresses. Blake goes on to open up a bit about her past, revealing that she had an old partner named Adam who became a “monster.” She becomes wary of what her future will be once she leaves Beacon, and Yang reassures her by saying “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You’re not one to back down from a challenge, Blake.” This shows that she genuinely believes in her, even if Blake may not think the same of herself.

Volume 3
In Chapter 11 titled Heroes And Monsters, during the battle of Beacon, both Ruby and Blake are missing. Weiss tells Yang this, and Yang chooses to find Blake rather than Ruby. Meanwhile, Blake is fighting her old partner Adam Taurus, and after overpowering her, Adam says that he'll "destroy everything that she (Blake) loves.” Yang arrives, calling out for Blake, currently unaware of their presence. Adam points at Yang saying, "Starting with her.” Blake is horrified, and her facial expression gives this away, confirming Adam's assumption. Adam then stabs Blake in the stomach with his sword, causing her to cry out in pain. Her cries grab Yang’s attention, who then yells at Adam to “Get away from her!” When he doesn’t, she charges at him in a blind rage, tears in her eyes, ultimately getting her arm amputated by Adam and losing consciousness. Adam goes to finish her off, but Blake sends forward one of her shadow clones to cover Yang’s body. While he is distracted, Blake grabs Yang and escapes.

They are later shown lying on the ground in the courtyard, with Yang still unconscious. Blake holds her hand, weeping and stating over and over again that she's sorry. Because she blames herself for what happened to Yang and feels immense guilt for it, Blake leaves team RWBY and runs away to her family in Menagerie. This greatly upsets Yang, because after all they had gone through, Blake left her without saying goodbye.

Volumes 4 & 5
Volumes 4 and 5 for the most part do not have any physical interactions between the two, but there are moments when they talk about or mention each other.

In Volume 4 Sun is wounded by Blake’s former friend, Ilia Amitola. When Sun wakes up, Blake explains that the reason she ran away was because she blames herself for the people around her getting hurt, especially Yang. She says that they shouldn’t have to fight her battles for her, that she alone should deal with the consequences and that if she left they would never be hurt by her past ever again. Sun thinks that’s ridiculous, and replies that they help her because they want to, and both he and Yang would gladly go through what they had again if it meant protecting Blake. Sun also tells Blake that running from her problems to "protect her friends" doesn't solve them, it only makes the problems worse and hurts the people she loves.

Yang mentions on several occasions that she doesn't understand why Blake left, and at some point is doubtful if she will ever come back. When having a talk with Weiss, she states, “What if I needed her (Blake) here for me?” And begins to cry as Weiss reassures her that Blake will come back and that she just needs time to heal.

In Volume 5 Chapter 13 during the battle for Haven, Blake walks into the school to see all of her old friends and classmates. Despite this, the only thing Blake says is, “Yang?” Yang looks at her in awe because out of everyone who has ever left her (without giving a good reason first), Blake was the only one to come back. In Chapter 14, Blake is finally reunited with her team. Despite both Blake and Yang's hesitation, the two are reunited, and the entire team RWBY shares a meaningful group hug.

Volume 6
In the beginning of Volume 6, Blake tries to make things up to Yang by insisting that she help her get her bag. Yang tells her that she doesn’t need to do that saying, “We’re gonna be fine,” meaning her relationship with Blake, also adding that she’s glad the whole team is back together.

In Chapter 5, Blake suggests that her and Yang search other buildings in the town they are staying in for vehicles. Yang gives her the cold shoulder, even ignoring a joke that Blake makes when they walk into the shed. When they find something, Yang looks outside of the window and panics when she sees Adam there for a split second. Her PTSD triggers her hand to start shaking, as she explains to Blake that she “still gets flashes from that night.” At this, Blake takes Yang’s hand in hers and promises that she’s not leaving and that she’ll be there with her if Adam ever comes back. However, Blake also says that she’ll protect Yang, which she doesn’t take very well. It made her believe that Blake thinks she isn’t strong enough to go back up against Adam, and she pulls her hand away from Blake’s. To add on to that, Yang wants an equal partnership, she deeply cares about Blake and doesn't want Blake to die for her. Whatever that face, shall be faced together.

They later make up when they realize that they had all been under the influence of the Apathy. When they are able to escape the Apathy in Chapter 6, Yang grabs Blake’s hand and runs out of the house with her.

In Chapter 10, Blake is tasked with shutting down the communications tower to help everyone steal an Atlas airship. Yang takes her there on Bumblebee, her motorcycle, with Blake holding onto her. Just as she is about to leave, Yang asks if she should come with her. Blake tells her no, and almost responds with a playful insult to Yang’s semblance, but covers it up saying that “You're great! And I’ll hurry back.” Yang smiles, telling her to go, and keeps gazing at her long after she leaves.

In Chapter 11, before Blake is able to disable the tower, Adam Taurus ambushes her. Blake realizes that the times she thought she was just imagining Adam there, in reality he had stalked her across Anima. They begin fighting, Adam continually harming Blake both physically and mentally before disarming her. Finally as he prepares to kill her he asks, "How does it feel to be alone?" Blake hears the sound of Yang's motorcycle approaching in the distance and replies, "I'm not alone." Yang then drives off of the cliff above them, launching herself off of Bumblebee and landing next to Blake as the motorcycle proceeds to run Adam over. Yang and Adam begin fighting, and he taunts her to a point where her PTSD starts to act up. Adam asks Yang if she’s just trying to scare him away so she won’t have to die trying to protect Blake. Blake takes Yang’s hand nd says, "She's not protecting me, Adam. And I'm not protecting her." Blake pauses and they both face Adam, confidently holding hands. "We're protecting each other."

In Chapter 12, Blake and Yang continue to fight Adam together, before he is able to land a hit on Blake which sends her off the edge of the cliff. Luckily she is able to hang on, but now Yang is left to fight Adam until she’s able to get back up. At some point Adam yells, “What does she (Blake) even see in you?” Yang uses the lessons her father taught her in Volume 4 to disarm Adam, and throws his sword off of the cliff. When Blake eventually comes back up, she and Yang use her broken sword to stab Adam. He falls off the edge and into the water below, now dead. Blake begins to shake and falls to her knees, sobbing. Yang quickly rushes to her side to comfort her, pulling her into an embrace. Blake swears she’s never going to break her promise. Yang then brings her hand to Blake's face and replies "I know you won't." They touch foreheads and continue to hold each other, Blake putting her hand over Yang’s in the process.

In Chapter 13, when they are able to leave Argus in the Atlas ship, Blake apologizes for not being able to disable the tower. Yang sits close to her, and reassures her that what had happened wasn’t her fault. Before Blake can protest, Ruby interjects and says that all that matters is that she’s safe. Ruby pulls Blake into a hug and looks at Yang, who smiles at her before looking away, Ruby seemingly understanding how she feels.

Later on Weiss says to Blake that she’s sorry she had to “go through that nightmare” but is glad Yang was there for her in time. Yang then places her hand over Blake’s and says, “We were there for each other.” The two share a meaningful look and Blake's eyes seem to dilate a bit.

Volume 7
Throughout the entire volume Blake and Yang can be seen looking at each other at various points in time. They also fight solely together more often than not.

In Chapter 3, everyone receives an outfit change and Blake cuts her hair. When they are receiving details for their new mission. Blake realizes Yang is looking at her, who starts to fumble slightly after being caught saying, “Sorry! Just… not used to the new hair yet!” Blake smiles and visibly blushes, asking her if she thinks it looks bad. Yang, not wanting her to get the wrong idea, quickly responds, “No! No, it’s good, great even!”

Since Blake’s weapon was broken at the end of Volume 6, her weapon receives an upgrade as well. Her sword was mended back together with gold, which is a method known as Kintsugi. The gold can be perceived as a reference to Yang as she is associated with the color gold on multiple occasions throughout the show. It is also implied that Blake specifically requested her weapon to be repaired this way.

In Chapter 4, during their “graduation” party, Yang runs up next to Blake and starts taking selfies of them together. Blake was surprised at first but smiles anyway.

In Chapter 5 during the morning montage, there are flashes of team RWBY progressively getting more and more tired up to the point where Blake falls asleep on Yang’s lap, and Yang rests her hand on her arm.

In Chapter 6, after being told that everyone has the night off for the election, Blake is seen putting on makeup while Yang looks at her from on her bed. When Ruby asks where they’re going, Blake says that team FNKI invited her and Yang out dancing. When Ruby brings up the fact that Yang thought team FNKI was annoying, she replies with “That’s the best part about dance clubs. 'I can’t hear you'”, which causes Blake to laugh. A few moments later, Yang starts laughing as Blake attempts to copy a dance move that Yang had shown her. Yang demonstrates again, and Blake insists that she was doing the same thing, causing them both to laugh. Later in the episode, at Robyn Hill's political rally, Ren and Nora try to work out aspects of their own relationship. In doing so, Nora compares their relationship to Blake and Yang's, commenting "Friends, huh? Just friends?", implying that she knows they have romantic feelings for each other.

In Chapter 7, Blake and Yang are sent to ambush Robyn Hill. They have a vague conversation about what happened with Adam, Yang telling her that they “did what they had to do.” Blake understands that but says she doesn’t want to have to resort to killing someone again. Blake then expresses her opinion on their current situation and doesn’t want to ambush a huntress who’s just trying to help. Yang ends up agreeing with her, and together they go against orders to tell Robyn about what Ironwood has been doing. When Ironwood eventually finds out they told her about the Global Communications Project in Chapter 11, Yang defends Blake.

In Chapter 9, Blake and Yang look at Ren and Nora holding hands before looking back at each other, smiling.

In Chapter 12, Blake and Yang use their tag-team prowess to defeat the more "experienced" Ace Ops in combat after Ironwood turns on them due to his paranoia after Salem makes herself known.

Volume 8
In Chapter 1, Blake is seen to give a sad glance to Yang as she leaves after disagreeing with Ruby's plan to stick together as a group.

In Chapter 3, Blake admits feeling worried witnessing Ruby and Yang's fight. When Nora confesses how she's struggling to understand herself and her relationship with Ren, Blake claims that growing close to somebody that they become apart of you, but remember that you should never forget the rest, in reference to Yang.

In Chapter 4, Yang asks Jaune "Do you think she thinks less of me, for not helping out with Amity?", to which Jaune says that Ruby is her sister and no matter the disagreements, will always love her. Yang responds with a somewhat cryptic, "Yeah. Ruby", meaning that, while she understands that Ruby will eventually forgive her, she is worried that Blake may think less of her because she believes to have broken the promise they made in Volume 6 to always protect and look after each other.

When Jaune, Yang, Emerald, Oscar and Ren blow up the whale in Chapter 10, Blake Weiss and Ruby are all horrified, believing the rest didn't make it. Blake eventually receives a call from Yang, her face lighting up with relief when she noticed they were safe. This made Yang realise Blake never thought less of her and knew she was only trying to help Mantle in Chapter 1. When everyone met up at Schnee Manor, Blake stood alone, seeming upset. Yang places a hand on her cheek, the pair smiling and holding one another close, happily reunited.

Moments
RWBY Chibi


 * In season 1, episode 6, Yang is cut off from telling a joke "And I said, 'Bumblebee? More like—'"
 * In season 1, episode 12, team RWBY puts on a play with Blake as the big bad wolf and Yang as the grandmother. Yang insists on cracking jokes to make an impression for her one scene, to the frustration of the others. Blake comments "Just get in bed, grandma." to which Yang responds "Easy there wolfy, you haven't even bought me dinner yet!"
 * In season 1, episode 19, when Yang is facing off Blake in a pillow fight, Blake teleports and dodges all the pillows. In one of the positions she is teleporting in, she pats the bed then winks at Yang.
 * Yang holds a "Save The Bees" sign in season 2, episode 9.

DC Comics


 * In Issue #7, Yang is insistent on helping Blake break out of her shell, taking Blake on multiple outings. Blake gives her the book The Man With Two Souls, which she doesn’t read at first but eventually does for her. One day Yang takes her to a saloon and they both get Sunflower Pops, which Blake is seen putting the bottle cap from hers in her pocket. They start talking about the stories that Blake reads and Yang compliments her by saying “You are… so smart, you know that? I could listen to you all day.”
 * In Issue #4, Blake throws the Sunflower Pop bottle cap she saved from her night out with Yang into the ocean, only for Yang to find it washed up on the beach in Issue #11.

Fanon
Bumbleby is considered one of the most popular ships in the RWBY fandom, if not the most popular. People have began to ship Blake and Yang since the "Black" and "Yellow" character trailers for the two. The ship peaked after Volume 6 when they killed Adam together, helping Yang get over her trauma whilst Blake grew from her abusive past with Adam. In Team RWBY, Bumbleby is the partner pairing to White Rose.

Bumbleby is known as the main rivalry ship to BlackSun, another ship with mutual romantic feelings between the two. Those who don't ship Bumbleby will also often ship Monochrome, Tauradonna, Ladybug, Freezerburn or Catmeleon.

On AO3, Bumbleby is the most written ship for both Blake and Yang. It is also the most written ship in the RWBY tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Yang/Blake tag on FanFiction.net
 * Yang/Blake tag on FanFiction.net

TUMBLR
 * Bumbleby moments volume 1-4
 * Bumbleby moments volume 1-4

Trivia

 * Their ship name comes from the fact that Blake’s main color is black and Yang’s is yellow, just like an actual bumblebee. It is spelled Bumbleby to mimic the "BY" used in "RWBY" and to make it easier to find in tags.
 * Yang's bike is named Bumblebee.
 * The in-universe team attack of Blake and Yang is named Bumblebee.
 * The ship has been featured on the Fandometrics most reblogged ships list several times:
 * It was the most reblogged the weeks ending January 21st 2019 and January 28, 2019
 * It was the second most reblogged ship on Tumblr the week ending January 14, 2019
 * It ranked 67th on Tumblr's Top 100 ships of 2018.
 * It ranked 15th on Tumblr's Top 100 ships of 2019.
 * The ship that Blake was on and Yang later rode in Volume 5 was named Pride.
 * The fandom considers the song "BMBLB" created by Jeff Williams (feat. Casey Lee Williams) a romantic song about Blake and Yang's relationship, although this song is non-canonical as stated by Arryn Zech in a series of deleted tweets.
 * Blake and Yang's eye colours match each other's aura colours (Yang has lilac eyes, and Blake's aura is purple; Blake has amber eyes, and Yang's aura is yellow).
 * The original concept art for Yang's DGAS outfit features a bumblebee patch stitched onto her pants, although this was replaced by her emblem in the actual show.
 * Yang's outfit from volumes 2-8 has always had a purple bandanna tied above her boot or a purple pop to her outfit. This could be seen as a reference to Blake.

Variations

 * Bees Schnees — the ship between Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, and Weiss Schnee
 * Beejeweled — the ship between Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, and Emerald Sustrai
 * Blaked Alaska — the ship between Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, and Neo Politan
 * Pollinated Knight — the ship between Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Jaune Arc, Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee
 * Pollination — the ship between Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee
 * Queen Bees — the ship between Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna and Nora Valkyrie
 * Sunny Bees — the ship between Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long and Sun Wukong
 * Tease the Bees — the ship between Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna and Neon Katt