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Blake had found out about the viewing room a handful of weeks after arriving at Beacon.
Okay, they hadn’t meant to. Not really. They’d just been wandering in the lower bowels of Beacon was all, trying to map out the place in their head. Beacon was a labyrinth sometimes, and more than once Ruby had called someone on their Scroll just to get directions to a classroom. Blake’s always been wary of places this big, knowing anything could hide around the corners, so they’d been exploring when they found a door left ajar. ‘VIEWING ROOM’ had been inscribed on a plain plastic plaque, and they’d poked their head inside for just a second because what even was a ‘viewing room’ anyway?
That’s when they found themself looking into the huge pool in Beacon’s gymnasium, a thick wall of glass allowing a clear view of beneath the water’s surface. It had to be for instructors, Blake had reckoned at the time, so they could watch students perform swimming trials and the like. But they hadn’t really cared for that, not when it was a quiet room in the sub-basement of Beacon. For Blake, this was a sanctuary.
See, Beacon Academy is hard to manage when you like to have space to think straight. Blake’s lived in plenty of noisy places - camps, cities, Menagerie as a whole - where silence was a commodity often found in minutes, but Beacon encouraged such close relations with other students that sometimes it’s hard to breathe. For years, Blake had managed to maintain a bubble of personal space they carefully guarded, but with a team like RWBY and a partner like Yang… well, Blake’s not quite adjusted yet. When it comes to the Xiao-Longs affection is easily and carelessly given, and whilst Blake’s sure they’ll get used to it eventually, they need somewhere to just be alone for a while.
So that’s where the viewing room comes in, and after staying there for hours at a time Blake’s pretty sure no other students really know about it. They - both the room and the pool - are usually abandoned before and after classes, and Blake takes advantage of that for all it’s worth, sitting in a blueish glow and watching the water until their thoughts align just so. It’s peaceful and private, and that’s all they can really ask for.
Which is why, when Blake heads down one evening, they’re a little surprised to find there’s someone in the pool. Even more surprisingly it’s Weiss, cutting through the water like it’s not even really there. She’s kicking off the walls and grazing the bottom of the pool with the tips of her fingers, and she doesn’t even notice Blake as they press their hands to the cool surface of the window, watching with a slackened jaw.
For a long time, Blake hadn’t known Weiss had existed. Not in a ‘I wasn’t paying attention’ sort of way, and not because they’d had more pressing things to worry about (although there were those, too). Everyone in the White Fang knew that the second Schnee child had been a stillborn, or had died young of illness, or had been born weakened and sickly, or- well, the exact details tended to change depending on who you spoke to, but the end result had always been the same. Weiss was supposed to have been buried in an early grave, as confirmed by her own father. Of course, this meant Blake had been just a touch astonished when Weiss had introduced herself for the first time on Beacon’s forecourt. They’d been even more stunned at the sight of jagged teeth and a slitted pupil, the other eye a cloudy grey with a thick scar bisecting it, blinding it.
Weiss wasn’t only alive, but she was a Faunus, as she later affirmed in RWBY’s new dorm room not two days later. A shark Faunus, with gills and teeth and eyes to match.
Talk about surreal. Blake’s ears had started twitching something chronic under their bow, a desperate plea of me too me too look we’re the same. It’d also presented so many questions whilst answering so few, although Blake got a very good idea of why her father had chosen to live as though she’d died. To be honest, they’re still struggling to imagine what it’d be like to live under the same roof as someone who despises the very blood in your veins.
Blake thinks that’s probably a good thing.
Weiss dips low in the water again, whole body turning like the flow of a ribbon. It’s no secret she likes to swim - every few evenings she’ll leave with a change of clothes in a bag, only to return an hour or so later with her short hair damp with the chemical tang of chlorine. It’s more than just a hobby, too, because when the pool was closed for a week for a thorough cleaning, Weiss had nearly paced herself into a hole out of frustration. Blake gets that - it’s hard to blow off steam when your usual methods are blocked off to you, and they can still remember the look on Weiss’s face when Ruby timidly asked if she’d like to go down to the local pool in Vale with RBY if, y’know, that was a thing she might like to do?
She’d declined at the time, mumbling something about privacy and too many people , but she’d had a smile on her face lingering long after Ruby had asked.
What this meant, though, was that this was the first time Blake’s ever seen Weiss swim. She tends to head to the pool not long before lights out, so Blake’s never down in the room at the same time. She doesn’t like swimming with others, either, as they all found out when Yang asked if she could tag along only for Weiss to very firmly reject her offer. Blake thinks they know why, especially when Weiss struggles to even change clothes with people around, so they’ve never pushed it.
But today it’s early evening, with dinner in less than an hour, and Weiss is ahead of schedule so Blake gets to watch.
And she’s so pretty. Weiss is a little… awkward on land, to put it gently. She’s all wiry and bony, and even though there’s a poise to her stance and in the way she walks, Blake’s just realising it doesn’t really compare to how she moves in the water. It feels like they’re watching a trick of the light, a flash of silver and white in the blue as her body twists with the water. She moves fast, as well - some people can splash and kick and wave their arms to almost no avail, but it looks like Weiss just has to think about it and she’s soaring forwards, going from one end of the pool to the other in a matter of seconds. It helps that she doesn’t need to surface, either, her gills flexing with every twist of her body. Weiss keeps them hidden when she can, becoming distinctly nervous when they’re on display, but now each line is dark and distinct as she rises and falls. In fact, for the entire time Blake’s pressed against the glass, Weiss never once breaks the surface.
Problem is, they’ve ended up so transfixed that they don’t even realise that Weiss is swimming past the glass with a look of confusion etched across her face. She slows just long enough to press her hands to Blake’s, blinking once, then twice, before her mouth falls opens in a silent ‘oh’.
A rush of embarrassment hits Blake, heat climbing up their neck, and they step away from the glass like they’ve been struck. They shouldn’t have lingered as long as they have, should’ve turned around and left Weiss well enough alone; this is clearly her space to think, too. They start to mumble out apologies before remembering that Weiss won’t be able to hear them anyway, but then she just frowns and points upwards with a few harsh jabs of her finger. Then, once she’s sank low enough for her toes to touch the bottom of the pool, she pushes upwards and rises out of sight entirely.
And Blake follows, because the least they can do is say sorry to her face.
The pool is deserted, as expected. Blake pads through the changing room and notices only one bag on the bench - Weiss’s, her uniform neatly folded beside it - and when they step out onto the poolside where the smell of chlorine is strongest, the entire room is empty. It feels strange to see, especially considering the few times Blake’s been here it’s been packed to the rafters with other students, but they don’t have to wait long for company. With a crash of water Weiss surfaces from below, palms striking the slick tiles as she pulls herself up and out of the water with ease. Every time Ruby’s tried to climb out of the pool like that she usually winds up beached on her stomach like a seal, but not Weiss. Instead, she’s running a hand through dripping hair, feet still submerged and swimming outfit soaked to a navy blue that’s nearly black, and Blake watches her gills flex closed before she turns to fix them with a look.
“What were you doing down there?”
Blake takes a while to answer, but that because they’re a little distracted. Maybe someone would make a joke about Weiss’s swimsuit showing off a lot of skin, but it’s mostly because Blake’s never seen her like this before - no clothes like armour to cover all the vulnerabilities. Aquatic Faunus are a rarer breed, found mostly on the islands around the likes of Menagerie, Mistral and Vacuo, and Blake’s fascinated and just a bit jealous. Every Faunus has low-light vision no matter their blood, and the sharpened hearing and sharper teeth Blake can boast is shared by thousands of other Faunus. But those like Weiss are one in a hundred - even less than that, if tales of her kind being hunted for their teeth and eyes and blood are to be believed.
Blake believes them. They’ve met Faunus of every sort who’d barely survived those types of encounters before.
But they’ve been staring too long, because Weiss looks about ten different shades of uncomfortable as she pulls her feet from the water, tucking them beneath her so she can stand up. For the first time Blake sees that she’s lithe in a way that’s not wholly human - too thin in some places, too elongated in others - and again their ears twitch. Blake can relate. People think they look out of proportion, too.
“Whatever,” Weiss says, short and irritated. “I didn’t care anyway. Isn’t that room off-limits?”
Blake bites their lip, picking off dead skin until they taste blood. “No. Unless someone just keeps forgetting to lock it.” After a second, they follow up with, “Sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t mean to intrude. I didn’t know you were here already.”
Weiss has to turn her head a little further so she can properly look at them, and Blake steps out of her blind spot with another quiet sorry . She doesn’t say anything at first but she’s too expressionless for Blake to figure out what she’s feeling, so they start mentally trying to word an excuse to leave when Weiss speaks up again.
“Is that where you’ve been hiding all this time?”
Blake’s nod hardly counts as more than a flinch, but they press on regardless. “Yeah. It’s solitary, and quiet.” And there’s no-one around to see if Blake takes off their bow for a handful of minutes, which is a luxury they haven’t afforded Weiss. So, in the interest of levelling the playing field a little, Blake raises their hands and unties the ribbon. Weiss just squints at first, but then the silk falls to Blake’s side and her eyes go comically wide. “It’s private, too.”
The swallow that runs down the narrow column of Weiss’s neck is thick, and she starts and stops for a few syllables before she just runs a hand over her face, water trailing down her temple. “That would… that’d explain it, yes.”
She stares off at the far end of the pool for a minute, so Blake reties the bow over aching ears. Part of their brain is going you shouldn’t have done that what if she tells everyone what were you trying to even prove, but when Weiss looks back to them she’s got a little smile that’s warm and friendly, and Blake’s left wondering how often she smiles like that at all. “We’re talking about that, by the way. Would’ve made things less lon- awkward, if you’d told me from the start.”
“Yeah, well.” Blake shrugs. “I didn’t expect you to be a Faunus with a name like that.”
Her laugh echoes around them like a first notes of a song, a siren’s call, and she combs her hand through her hair again. “True. I suppose none of us are how we really expected though, right?”
With that, Weiss lets out a long breath before bringing her arms up and over her head, pressing her palms together as she rises onto her toes. Muscle ripples just under her skin, and Blake’s just as awed as they were beneath the pool all over again, nearly missing Weiss’s next words.
“I’m going back to the dorm soon, but… I suppose you can keep watching, if you like.” The smile she has now is a little cheeky, especially considering that Blake’s just stood there gawking, again.
“... Sure.” The syllable is barely out of Blake’s mouth before Weiss bends and dives below the water’s surface, the outline of her body blurring as she glides away, and Blake watches her pale figure until they can hardly make her out against the tiles anymore.
Maybe it was a good time to start having company more often.