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Chapter Text

Weiss was clutching her scroll against her chest for a while now, as she kept pacing back and forth in front of the large window in the team’s dorm room. In the back of her restless mind, the small woman couldn’t help but notice how Haven’s dorms wing was bigger, therefor making the rooms more spacious, and even with four woman the room didn’t feel as crowded as it felt back at Beacon.

Team RWBY was now starting their fourth, and last, year of training. They had worked sweat and blood to be here, and she could help but smile when she remembered the first time they went to their first class, three years ago. Of course, their team had been notorious, mainly for surviving the fall of Beacon, but it was also because people apparently knew they were the ones who stopped Adam Taurus. So, as soon as they arrived, team RWBY was seen like one of the strongest team of the school, both in theory and in the field.

They were glad some students from Beacon were there as well, like Jaune, Nora and Ren, and SSSN too. They had people that knew what they had gone through. But still, other problems were still lurking in the wilds, waiting to strike. Like Salem. Honestly, the team didn’t know it they were glad that evil woman waited a few years after Beacon, or anxious because it gave her the time to prepare for war. Because that’s what was going to happen. War. A violent one.

A war they knew would make many casualties.

Civilians. Family, friends. When that war starts, everybody will lose someone.

And it’s with that in mind that Weiss was still pondering about what to do. Tapping on the screen of her scroll, she went to the call log, finding the date of the last time her father had called. The man, after all these years, apparently started to have a conscience, and had reached out for six month, calling a few times a week. At first, Weiss ignored it. But as he kept calling, it irked her so much that she nearly threw her scroll away, but Blake, fortunately, brought her back to her senses, and it was after discussing it with the team that she had decided she would take the next call. To know what he wanted.

Turns out, he wanted to go back on his decision for the heir. Whitley was, in his words ‘far more inadequate that Winter is to inherit the SDC’, and he offered her to be the heir again, along with the unlimited funds she had before. After a long discussion with the team again, then an even longer with Blake, she called her father, and told him she would take her role as heir, but still wanted to finish her training and be a huntress. Those were her terms, and that was non-negotiable, and her father reluctantly obliged.

So he called a few times per months, sending her documents in need of reviewing on her scroll, sometimes inviting her to video-conference, letting her have a foothold in the company.

But even after all this, they still hadn’t seen each other face to face since the hospital, after they took care of the White Fang.

And Weiss had no desire to see him in person again. She had taken back her role as heir just so she could change it to what it once was, in her grandfather’s hands. What the SDC was supposed to be.

As she browsed through the call logs, she realised her father had last called two days ago, and she recalled that her father had said he would be out of Atlas for a month, for he wanted to go himself in Vacuo’s, Vale’s and Mistral’s branch of the company.

It would be perfect.

“Weiss, could you stop pacing? You’re stressing me out, and I haven’t done anything wrong.” Yang sighed from Blake’s bunk, the faunus comfortably tucked in her arms as she read a book.

Instantly she stopped in her tracks, turning over to look at her teammates with a small, apologetic smile, still holding her scroll closely.

“Sorry.”

“What is it?” Blake asked this time, looking up from the edge of her book.

“Yeah, you’ve been pacing for half an hour, now. Usually after fifteen minutes, you’ve worked out whatever crisis you were having.” Ruby chirped in, leaning back in her chair as she twisted to look over at her, sitting in front of the desk she used to clean her weapon.

Weiss hesitated, tapping the device against her palm a couple of times as she bit her lip for a second.

Well, she wouldn’t have her answer if she never asked, wouldn’t she?

“I have something I want to ask.” She said after clearing her throat. “It’s… It’s important for me, so I would like for you to treat this seriously.”

The three other members of the team gave her all their attention then, Ruby turning around to straddle the chair (Weiss was glad she was in her pajamas. Sometimes, Ruby didn’t think this through and would do this with her skirt on.), and Blake closed her book, setting it aside on the nightstand. Yang untangled herself from Blake to sit on the edge of the bed, her eyes filled with concern.

“Whatever it is, Weiss, you know you can always ask us.” The blonde softly said, her lilac eyes locking with Weiss.

“I know, and thank you.” Weiss bowed her head slightly to her before taking a deep breath. “Now, you all know that next week we have a school break, and as my birthday is coming up, I thought…”

Somewhere in her mind, a small voice told her that she should calm down. She was far too anxious for the situation, and so, she tried to calm down by taking a deep, deliberate breath. As she thought about it now, she was as equally excited as she was terrified.

In a way, she had never felt so vulnerable in her life.

“Do you remember the pictures I showed of Atlas to Baxter, when we first went to Menagerie?” she asked instead after a short silence, glancing up to her teammates. “The aurora borealis ones?”

Ruby perked at that, a large smile on her lips.

“Of course I remember! It was so pretty!”

“Well, you see, they are always the brightest and more colorful around my birthday, and so I thought… We’ve been working hard for the past few years, and I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I do miss those lights, and I-I want to share something that I like with you, so, what I want to ask is; Do you want to come with me to Atlas during the school break?”

Their eyebrows arched in synch, not to Weiss’s surprise. She had never talked about going back to Atlas, not until now, and they just assumed she would go back only when it would be necessary. Weiss nervously tapped her index finger on her thumbnail repeatedly as Blake was the first to come back from her surprise.

“Your father-” the faunus started, her features scrunching up in worry.

“Won’t be there.” Weiss finished. “He will be out of town for a whole month.”

“Are you sure about going back?” Yang asked softly, and it was when her eyes caught Weiss’s that the smaller woman understood the implied meaning.

Yang knew, without her needing to say anything. This place would bring back memories.

“As I said, those lights are really important to me, and as someone important to me as well, I want to share this with you.” She insisted. “Plus, I’ll get to see Klein again. Although I may need moral support, once there.”

“Aw, Weiss!” Ruby jumped out of her chair, quickly trotting towards her to throw her arms around the smaller woman. “You do care about us!”

Weiss huffed as she rolled her eyes, pulling away from her partner in slight annoyance.

“I didn’t nearly die for you to revoke my love for you.”

“I’m really touched, Weiss,” Blake’s voice caught her attention back. “But… wouldn’t I be a problem? I can wear my bow if you want.”

“That won’t be necessary,” the smaller woman assured. “Klein will make sure of it.”

Then, the three other members glanced at each other, Blake and Yang giving the tiniest nod to their leader, and Ruby smiled widely, nodding.

“Then if it’s alright for us to go, we will!”

It took a moment before Weiss showed some kind of reaction, as if she expected them to decline, and a slow, small smile pulled her lips as she glanced at them one after the other.

“Really?” she asked, her voice low and quiet, her voice trembling ever-so-slightly.

Ruby hummed positively, and as Yang nodded with a smile Blake stood, a soft smile on her lips.

“We could take pictures for Bax.”

Usually, when Weiss wanted to initiate some physical contact to show her affection, she would always ask, but now, the small woman was so happy that she just stepped closer, wrapping an arm around Blake, then her other arm around Ruby and held them close until Yang stood, pouting from being left out of the cuddles.

“This means a lot to me,” Weiss murmured after she managed to somewhat hold the three of them, squeezing as hard as she could. “Thank you.”

They returned the affection by squeezing the petite women between them, all laughing as they heard her grunt, but as they pulled away, she quickly whipped her eyes, smiling excitedly at her teammates.

“I’ll call Klein, and I’ll make the preparations. We’ll leave on Saturday!” she said as she swiftly went to the door and out the dorm room.

Even with the door closed, they could hear her heels clacking away, and Ruby huffed with a smile, shaking her head gently.

“I don’t think I ever saw her this excited,” she let out.

“Do you really think this is a good idea?” Blake asked, sighing. “I mean, I do want to go and she is so happy about it, but… Will she be alright?”

“The more reason to go with her,” Yang smiled, gently taking the faunus’s hand. “She won’t be alone, this time.”

**** 

“What do you mean, you only have your leather coat?” Weiss snapped, turning around in her seat. “You’re going to die freezing!”

“Don’t worry, Ice Queen, I’m never cold.” Yang assured, shifting only slightly.

They were traveling first class, thanks to Weiss, and Yang had to say she really liked the space she had. And the seats were just so comfy.

“Have you ever been to Atlas?” Weiss asked dryly.

“Uh… No.”

“Then you have absolutely no notion of what ‘cold’ means. Fortunately, you’re about Winter’s size, and I know she leaves most of her coats back at the mansion.”

Sitting back in her seat, Weiss sighed, rubbing her temple with her index and middle finger.

“Then I hope you at least packed gloves and hats, or the things you call ‘beanie’.” She grumbled.

When the silence stretched, she raised her head, her eyebrows so high on her forehead that it almost touched her hair. The blonde shook her head, and she felt a wave of irritation wash over her, gritting her teeth, until she heard the sheepish laugh of Ruby beside her, and she quickly turned to her partner, this time dumbfounded.

“You too?”

The leader shrugged helplessly and Weiss closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Didn’t you listen when I said there was snow almost all year long in Atlas? This means it’s cold!”

“I have a scarf,” Blake reported rather unhelpfully.

Weiss took the time to stare at her, her face expressionless for a few seconds before she turned away, siting back in her seat as she stared at the ceiling.

“I should have supervised you packing.” She whispered to no one.

**** 

Atlas’s airport was, and always will be to her eyes, a piece of art. The tall walls made of white and grey marble where high, with large arch for each gates, and large panoramic windows on one side. Of course, the windowpane was thicker, and made to keep the heat inside even through the bad storms and weather. Weiss was strolling through the crowd, her luggage dragged behind her by the small wheel, and she could hear the gasps and whistling her teammates were letting out as they followed her. It was amazing to see so many colors mixing in the crowd, passing each other, recognising sometimes the stark white uniforms of Athlesian military officers, until her eyes caught what she was looking for.

A small man standing a little on the side, clad in a thick black coat with gloves covering his hands, a dark mustache hiding his mouth and a beret covering his balding brown hair.

A large smile on her lips, Weiss quickly started towards him, and as she got closer his light brown eyes fell on her as they widened, the man straightening his back, his mustache moving as he smiled. Leaving the handle of her luggage when she was near, Weiss wrapped her arms around the butler, squeezing him as hard as she could and making him chuckle quietly, gently setting a hand on her back.

“Miss Schnee,” he softly let out as he pulled away, his hands gently grasping Weiss’s. “Welcome back.”

The smaller woman squeezed his hands as she took a deep breath, her smile still on her lips as she turned to the side, pulling her hands away to touch Ruby’s arm, gaining the leader’s attention.

“Klein, I’d like you to meet Ruby, my partner and leader of our team.”

Weiss presented her partner proudly, giving a slight nod to her as she pulled her closer by setting a hand on the small of her back reassuringly. The butler smiled again, making his eyes squint a little, and he extended a hand in front of him, Ruby taking it almost instantly.

“Ah yes, young Miss Rose,” he nodded. “I remember all the good things you said about her.”

“Was it just good things?” Ruby asked, raising a doubtful eyebrow as she glanced over her partner.

The man bowed his head slightly, stifling a chuckle.

“I remember something about a ‘stupid grin’?” he said, glancing over Weiss, who rolled her eyes.

It only made the leader grin, somehow proud of herself, and Weiss grabbed her arm, pointing at Ruby’s face.

“That’s the one. The stupid grin.” She informed the man, and he laughed heartily.

Chuckling quietly, Weiss waved at Yang to step closer, and the small man had to crane his neck to look at the tall blonde.

“This is Yang, Ruby’s sister, and a precious teammate.”

That made the blonde arch her eyebrows as she glanced to the smaller woman, a lopsided grin on her lips.

“Aw, you getting soft on me, Weiss?”

“Shush it, you,” she answered instantly, slapping the blonde’s arm lightly.

“Miss Xiao Long,” the butler bowed his head slightly, taking Yang’s hand.

Once again, the blonde offered her right hand without thinking, and the man only hummed when he saw the robotic hand.

“Miss Schnee did tell me you were injured when she left Beacon. I see it didn’t stop you.”

Klein looked up, his eyes squinting again as he smiled, and he looked genuinely happy for her.

“And last but not least,” Weiss gently pulled Blake forward by the elbow, seeing her ears jerked back with nervousness. “Here is Blake, Yang’s partner.”

“Miss Belladonna,” he bowed, offering his hand. “Miss Schnee told me you left, after Beacon fell. She was very distressed about it. I’m glad you got to be reunited. All of you,” he added, bringing his hands to his back. “She cares really deeply about all of you.”

A faint pink tint rose to Weiss’s pale cheeks, but she only patted the man’s arm gently.

“They know, Klein. Believe me, they know.”

**** 

As they were in the car, Klein driving them back to the mansion, Yang started chatting with him, soon followed by Ruby while Weiss just sat back, listening to their conversation as she stared out the window.

She had always loved Atlas. Loved the scenery, the distant, mysterious, mist-blue mountains far away, boarding the city, and they could see the tall buildings, some as white as snow, others more grey, the sun reflecting in the windows. And as her eyes traveled further up the road, she imagined the wrought iron fence, tall and dark against the snow, leading to a stark white, enormous mansion, and on that moment a spike of anxiety made her heart beating faster as she balled her hands into fists.

She knew her father wouldn’t be there. She knew that Whitley wouldn’t be there either. But the memories would be there alright.

She swallowed.

It had been so long since the last time she came here. She thought she would be alright. She thought she was ready.

But when she looked up, seeing, a little farther down the road, the tall, wrought iron fence, she felt a knot form in her stomach, and for a second she couldn’t breathe, her eyes fixated on that.

Until a hand rested on her knee, squeezing gently.

Surprised, Weiss nearly jumped out of her skin, a scream just shy her lips as her heart rammed against her ribcage, but she relaxed when she looked up, locking her eyes with calm, reassuring golden ones.

Of course Blake would have picked up on her distress.

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly, just for the both of them.

Thanking the sky and all the gods above for her friend, Weiss nodded, reaching out to squeeze her hand.

“Yes. I guess I’m a little more nervous than I thought.” She admitted, her voice as quiet as Blake’s.

The faunus smiled, running her thumb over pale knuckles.

“I know you know, but I just want to remind you,” Blake started, her face shifting to light concern. “We’re here for you, always. We know you have baggage, and we know this place will be hard for you, so please, whatever it is, whenever it is, don’t hesitate. Alright?”

Weiss held her stare, feeling her hand trembling shortly in Blake’s.

“Sometimes, I wonder what I did to deserve you.”

The faunus snorted, winking.

“Hey, chin up. Sometimes, I wonder what I did to deserve you.”

The smaller woman felt the corner of her lips pulling up in a small smile, and she let out a soft huff, squeezing the faunus’s hand again.

“Don’t worry. I’ll seek you out when I need it.”

“Whatever it is. There’s nothing too small.” Blake insisted.

“Aw,” they heard Yang’s voice and they turned around in synch, questioning. “Look at you two, holding hands and whispering to each other. Do I have to get jealous?”

The faunus snorted, and instead of pulling away, she only leaned closer, sliding an arm around Weiss’s shoulder.

“You do realise that Weiss is my girlfriend when you’re not around, right?”

“Really?” the smaller woman asked, playing along. “You should have told me, I wouldn’t have played hard to get, then.”

“Fine,” Yang rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. “I can share. But I get her every weekends, alright?”

The blonde winked at Blake and pulled her tongue at Weiss, making both of them smile until they all noticed Ruby, wearing the biggest pout she could muster.

“When do I get Blake then?”

The faunus pulled away from Weiss to lean over, poking the leader’s nose with a smile.

“You know I like reading to you, Rubes.”

Ruby instantly raised her arms in the air, whooping happily.

“I get Blake for me the longest because she’s always reading!”

“Hey!” Yang exclaimed, sitting a little straighter as she uncrossed her arms. “That’s unfair!”

“It’s totally fair, you get to cuddle Blake all night!” the leader countered.

Weiss watched with a fond smile at the scene, so familiar now after all those years, and when she glanced towards the front of the car, she could see, in the rear mirror, that Klein was smiling, too.

**** 

“Holy shit,” Yang let out, her voice echoing in the large hall upon entering the mansion. “This place is fucking huge.”

“Language,” Ruby reminded her. “But, like you said.”

The three of them had stopped, glancing around to take everything in, while Weiss and Klein stopped a little further, giving them time to adjust. As the smaller woman smiled fondly, the butler stepped slightly closer, clearing his throat quietly and leaning in to talk in Weiss’s ear.

“Do you want an audience with Mistress Schnee? I can arrange-”

“No, thank you, Klein. I’ll seek her out when I’m ready.”

The man bowed slightly, stepping back.

“Very well. Do you want me to take your luggage to your room?”

“My room…”

Weiss swallowed. She had forgotten about this. But she felt a soft touch on her arm, and she blinked, brought back from her thoughts by Klein very discreetly touching her elbow.

“Another room, perhaps?”

She made a face, a mix between a smile and a grimace, and the butler smiled a little.

“Thank you.” She breathed, nodding. “But I’ll carry my own luggage.”

Klein bowed again, bringing his hands behind his back as he stepped to the side, waiting for the party to move.

“I’ll show you the rooms,” Weiss said, loud enough to catch her teammates’ attention. “You can choose whichever you want.”

As the three other women joined her, they made their way to a hallway on the right of the hall, and on their way, Weiss pointed to this room and that, giving indication.

“Here is the media room,” the smaller woman was saying, pointing at a rather large double door. “If you want to watch a movie you have on your scroll, there are plenty of adapter for it. If not, we have a really big collection of movies and series, although I don’t remember anyone but me going in that room.”

“Young Master Whitley did come more often after you were gone, but even so, it wasn’t often.” Klein informed.

Weiss hummed, nodding shortly, pointing at another set of doors.

“Here is the game room. I still wonder why we got one.”

“Master Whitley invited his friends a few times, so it was used for the first time.”

“Wait, Whitley has friends?”

They all stopped and turned around to look at Ruby, who held a very doubtful look on her face as Klein shifted uncomfortably, but remained silent. Gracefully Weiss smiled, moving to gently grasp Ruby’s hand and as she gently brushed invisible dust on her partner’s shoulder, she slightly leaned over.

“Don’t do that,” Weiss murmured, but it got Ruby’s attention right away. “There are eyes and ears everywhere, here. Whitley has been the heir for a couple of years, and I’m sure it won’t end well if a few birds tell my father about the bad things that were said in his house.”

The smaller woman gave one last swipe on Ruby’s shoulder before lightly squeezing, looking up with a smile.

“All done,” she said in her normal voice.

After her partner gave her the tiniest nod, Weiss spun on her heels, resuming the tour as she grabbed the handle of her luggage in the way. She noticed Yang stepping closer to her sister as she continued the visit, seeing them exchange a few words.

They weren’t even settled yet, and Weiss was already starting to regret coming here.

**** 

Atlas being an eight hour flight, everyone was jetlagged, and so they went to bed right after dinner, and even thought they had an entire hallway worth of bedrooms, they chose to stay close, Ruby’ and Weiss’s bedrooms next to each other while Blake and Yang’s was the one in front of Weiss’s. As Weiss was lying on the bed, thinking about how comfy it was, she still couldn’t sleep no matter how tired she was. And it was with a sigh that she got up, silently getting out of her room and making her way a little down the hallway, stopping at the fifth door on the left. But when she wanted to open it, she couldn’t.

She didn’t know how long she stayed there, wondering if anything inside had been misplaced during her absence, or if the room was still in the same state that she left it, until she felt a hand gently closing on hers, making her jump slightly.

“Are you okay? You kinda look like a ghost with your nightgown, you know.”

Weiss smiled, squeezing the hand in hers. Ruby always seemed to know when she couldn’t sleep.

“This is my room,” she informed quietly, pointing at the closed door.

“Oh. The one you were locked in,” the leader remembered.

The smaller woman hummed, chewing on her lip for a second, and after sucking in a breath, she reached for the doorknob and twisted it.

The door opened with a quiet creak, but Weiss didn’t enter, she only looked as she stayed in the doorway, and Ruby perked up, a large smile on her lips.

“It is your room!” she said excitedly. “It smells just like you!”

Weiss huffed, eyeing her partner critically.

“It does? Wait, what do you mean, it ‘smells like me’? I have a smell?”

Ruby rolled her eyes almost comically, huffing.

“Uh yes, duh? You always smell nice, Weiss, don’t worry. But I can’t really tell you what you smell like. It’s just… you.”

The leader sniffed the air a little and Weiss didn’t move, wondering why on Remnant this person was her best friend.

“A little mint maybe, but besides that… It’s just you.”

Ruby shrugged with a smile, and Weiss didn’t find the strength to be annoyed, and so she returned the smile. The leader then took a single step towards the room before glancing at the smaller woman.

“Can I?” she asked, pointing at the room.

Ruby had asked quietly, softly, but with a serious tone in her voice, knowing full well that she was about to step inside what was, for Weiss once upon a time, the only place she felt safe. After looking inside the room for a few seconds, the smaller woman’s attention came back to her partner, and she gave her a small nod, and after a soft squeeze of her fingers, Ruby let go of her hand, entering the room.

There was nothing really out of the ordinary, Weiss knew, but Ruby seemed to find every little thing interesting, looking over at every porcelain figures sitting on a dresser, picking up to give a good look at a photograph of Weiss and Winter, when they were younger, touching the fabric of the curtains and even opened the door of her wardrobe.

Weiss frowned a little when, after a few seconds of stillness, Ruby gathered a few pieces of clothing inside and brought it to her nose, sniffing.

“Oh my gosh, it smells like you!” the leader quietly let out, almost in wonder.

“Ruby, they’re my clothes. Of course it smells like me, you just said the entire room smells like me.”

“I know, it’s just…”

The leader let go of the clothes, carefully putting them back before closing the doors, hesitating, as if she struggled to find the right words that would express best what she wanted to say.

“I’m glad,” Ruby finally let out as she turned around. “I’m glad to see something that’s yours. I mean, we all went to Menagerie, we went to Patch; we got to see the places we grew up in, a place that was ours.”

“This place hardly feels like it’s mine,” Weiss quietly let out, her eyes trailing inside the room as she held her own arms, her thumbs rubbing to bring a little comfort.

“I know, but… There’s still a tiny Weiss that looked at herself in this very mirror,” Ruby pointed at the tall mirror, standing right beside the wardrobe. “A younger you that brushed her hair with this brush,” she added, walking to the dressing and picking the hairbrush, twisting it between her fingers. “There are still a few strands stuck there.”

Weiss leaned he shoulder against the doorframe, her eyes staying on her partner as she excitedly went this way and that as she talked, keeping the brush in her hand.

“I’m just glad that you let me walk in your childhood. That you let us in. I mean, your room, it’s… It’s like I always pictured it,” Ruby said, glancing around as she clutched at the brush.

“You imagined my room?”

The leader shrugged, scratching the back of her head with a short, sheepish laugh.

“Kinda. I tried to imagine the mansion, too. It's far bigger than what I had imagined.”

Ruby smiled when she saw Weiss silently shaking her head, huffing, and she quickly went to the nightstand again, picking up the photograph again.

“I had also tried to picture younger you,” she reported, a soft smile on her lips. “I’m glad this photo exists. I can picture it very well, now.”

After a second, Weiss chewing on her lip, she stepped inside the room, her fear of being trapped again present but it was only mild as Ruby was here, with her. Ruby smiled at her when she joined her, and the leader angled the frame for Weiss to see as the smaller woman pressed against her partner’s side, gently wrapping her arm around Ruby’s for reassurance.

“I remember that day,” the smaller woman smiled softly. “Klein took the picture. I was eight, maybe nine, and it was taken a few days before Winter joined the military.”

“You were so cute,” Ruby commented, a smile on her lips as she kept her eyes on the picture.

“This picture is kind of bitter-sweet,” Weiss said after a moment. “I love it because Winter smiles, a real smile. But it’s also the last time I saw her smile like that.”

Ruby hummed as Weiss set the photograph back on the nightstand, shifting so it was back in its place, and she glanced around as she straightened her back, keeping Ruby close by the arm, and the leader settled a reassuring hand on the small of her back.

“Do you mind if I bunk with you?” Weiss asked, still looking around.

“Not at all,” her partner smiled. “You can always bunk with me.”

The smaller woman hummed, nodding.

“Okay. Let’s get out of here.”

Chapter Text

When she woke up, she was kind of disappointed to find out that she was alone.

Well, it wasn’t like Ruby would stay until she woke up.

She sat up with a sigh, rubbing at her eyes before taking in the room. Her partner’s luggage was left open, bright red clothes seeming almost too bright in the stark white room, and she noticed the red cape, the base all tore up after seeing so many battles, still hung beside the door.

Ruby was still in her nightwear, then.

She sat at the edge of the bed, rolling her head and shoulders, trying to stretch a little, her feet touching the cold floor without a wince.

One thing she remembered, here. The floor was always cold.

Still, she always liked being barefoot.

She stood, making her way to the door, but before her hand touched the handle, she stopped for half a second, her hand traveling then to the red fabric, never minding if it was dirty. It always had amazed her how soft Ruby’s cape was, and as she ran her fingertips on it, she smiled.

The slight movement was enough to send a small wave of Ruby’s scent to her.

Roses. And, she always wondered if it was her partner’s shampoo, but there were traces of cocoa, too.

Very… enticing.

She shook her head, her hand leaving the cape.

I need a coffee.

She stepped out of the room, rubbing at her eyes again, and she looked up when she heard another door close.

“Uh… Hi? Isn’t that Ruby’s room?”

Blake crossed her arms, leaning her shoulder against the doorframe as she tilted her head curiously.

“Yes, it is,” Weiss answered, making the few steps needed to get to the door of her room. “We bunked together last night.”

“Huh.”

As she was about to enter her room, she sighed, feeling the faunus stare on her back.

“What, Blake?” she asked without turning around.

“Nothing,” the faunus answered instantly, but still didn’t move.

“Then why are you literally scrutinising me?”

Blake shrugged one shoulder, a small smile pulling her lips, a small glint of mischief shining in her eyes.

“You just look like you had a good night’s sleep.”

She scoffed, turning around this time, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

“Well, it doesn’t happen often, but when I bunk with Ruby it’s because I need to feel a presence beside me. It’s reassuring. So I sleep better. Happy?”

The faunus shrugged again as she made a face, but her smile only grew larger, eyeing Weiss from head to toe.

“And you’re one to talk,” the smaller woman continued, turning around to open the door. “You look like you had a good night. And I really don’t mean sleep.”

The faunus snorted, shifting in the doorway a little.

“Yeah right, as if you can tell.”

“Believe me, Blake. I can.”

This time, dark eyebrows furrowed a little, her head tilting again, and Weiss smiled. It was rare that she was the one in power with information.

“Your ‘it was a wild night’ hair gives it away, plus that very pleased smile you have, too.”

A cornered smile appeared on Blake’s lips, slowly pulled larger, and Weiss raised her eyes to the sky, sighing.

“That one, exactly.”

The faunus hummed, and the smaller woman could see she was biting her lip to stop smiling blissfully like she was, and Weiss smiled.

“But, the thing that really gives it away is the huge hickey at the base of your neck.”

She winked as Blake’s smile vanished, her hand reaching up to cover the dark spot that crept out under her shirt as a dark blush climbed up her neck to her cheeks, and she stepped into her room to change.

She could say everything about Blake and Yang’s intimacy, but she really liked teasing Blake.

**** 

“How about we finish the tour today?” Weiss proposed before burying her nose in her cup, sipping her coffee.

She hummed as she closed her eyes. Klein knew just the way to make her coffee perfect.

“And at what I’ve seen of the sky, there’s a snowstorm coming. So, no lights for tonight, either.”

“That’s fine,” she heard Yang say, her voice amused. “But, uh, do you want us to leave you alone with your cup?”

Upon hearing this, Weiss winced, huffing out a puff of air that was almost like a sob.

“I was just enjoying my coffee, why would you say such a thing,” she whined quietly, rubbing her temple as she heard the blonde chuckle. “Thank you, Klein,” she opened her eyes, turning them to the butler silently standing a few paces away from the table. “It’s perfect. Just the way I remember it.”

The man bowed his head a little, his mustache twitching slightly giving away that he was smiling.

“I didn’t know which brand to use, so I took a guess.”

“Wait, is it the morning one, or the reassurance one?” Weiss asked as she sat back in her chair, bringing her cup to her nose to smell the scent.

“Reassurance. I have noticed you were a little… distressed, yesterday, and I wanted you to start your day on the good foot.”

The smaller woman couldn’t help but smile softly as she held her cup a little more closely, feeling her eyes prickle just a little.

“Thank you, Klein,” she breathed, and the way he squinted his eyes told her he was glad. “It means a lot to me. You’re the best.”

His mustache twitched again, and he straightened her back, his eyes looking over the table at the four young women, trying to see if there was something missing.

“If there is anything else I can do, call me,” he said to Weiss, the smaller woman nodding. “I will let you enjoy your breakfast. Have a nice day, ladies.”

He bowed his head again as the rest of the team said goodbye and he disappeared in the hallway, next to the dining room, and Weiss returned her attention to the cup she held, running her thumb along the side.

“What’s the deal with the coffee?” Blake asked, quiet concern in her voice.

“It’s not that big a deal, it’s just…” she trailed off with a sigh, not knowing the right words. “Do you remember when I tell you that every time I got to see Father, Klein used to give me a coffee and then he made faces and silly voices to make me laugh?” she asked, looking at Ruby.

And her partner perked up at that.

“Yeah, I remember!” she exclaimed, making both Blake and Yang raise their eyebrows in surprise. “It was, in fact, one of the things I wanted to do. Ask Klein to show me his silly voices.”

Weiss huffed, keeping the cup close to her nose as she hummed quietly.

“Well, he always used this brand of coffee when he wanted to cheer me up,” she explained. “Hence the ‘reassuring brand’. It’s a mix. Chocolate coffee, because I love chocolate.”

With that, she sipped at her coffee, closing her eyes again as she hummed when the warm liquid slid down her throat, a warm wave going through her body.

“It’s one of the few good memories I have from home. And I’m pretty sure you’ll like it, Ruby.”

**** 

“And this is the ballroom,” Weiss sighed as they entered the large room, their footsteps echoing against the tall walls.

“Okay, what the heck,” Yang let out after a short silence. “Our house could fit in this single room.”

The smaller woman looked up at the walls, taking in the height before stepping a little to the side, trying to get a better view of the depth.

“Yes, I think it can,” she mused quietly.

“Oh, there’s a piano,” Ruby noticed, pointing at the far end of the room.

There was indeed a piano. A grand piano, white, was sitting on a small stage in a corner of the room, waiting to be used.

“Do you know how to play piano?” the leader asked, turning her attention to her partner.

“Well, I used to. I’m not sure six years of no practise have improved my skill.”

“I knew how to play, too,” Blake chirped in, her golden eyes glancing around. “But, it’s been even longer than Weiss, last time I played.”

“Wait, you knew?” Yang turned her attention to the faunus, surprised. “Is there a piano back at your parent’s place?”

“There is, actually. Although, it’s not as big as this one,” she smiled a little, pointing at the piano as they moved closer. “It’s been in the living room ever since, but now I guess it’s buried under books and paperwork.”

They neared the piano, climbing on the stage, and they looked over the massive instrument, Ruby pinching the taut strings from the open top as Blake bent over beside her, intrigued, while Yang paged through the book resting against the keys, Weiss glancing at it from time to time. She pushed up the key cover, revealing the white and black rectangles, before sitting on the bench, her eyebrows furrowed, trying to remember a piece to play.

As she was searching, she softly pressed one key down with the tip of her finger, the note, loud and clear, resonating throughout the room and making Blake jump in surprise, her ears pulling back.

“Sorry,” she grimaced a little, seeing the faunus shake her head a little.

“It’s okay. I just didn’t think it would be this loud.”

Blake then stepped back, making a little distance, and Weiss looked down at the keys again, positioning her hands over them, and she felt them move by themselves, out of habit.

Well, out of habit from long ago. Weiss barely played for a couple of seconds before she stopped, a finger on a key but not pushing, wondering if it was the right one. With a small shrug, she pressed down, only to find out it wasn’t the one, and she grimaced, pulling away with a sigh.

“I was a better singer, anyway,” she recalled, closing the cover quietly. “Winter was a better pianist than me. But, I used to sing… right here.”

Weiss stood from the bench as she spoke, stepping to the center of the stage and turning a little, so she was facing the entire room.

“So that even when people entered the room, they could see you,” Blake mused, pointing at the hallway they were from. “Clever.”

“It’s called ‘catching the attention’, apparently.”

Ruby jumped down from the stage with a thud, turning around to offer her hand to Weiss.

“This is a ballroom, right? Know any dance?” she asked as she looked up, her silver eyes shining.

Weiss blinked, stopping for a second before taking Ruby’s hand.

“You want to dance?” she asked, just to be sure, as she climbed down gracefully.

“Don’t you hate dancing?” Blake chirped in, too, raising a doubtful eyebrow.

“Well, I’m not wearing a dress and torture-shoes-with-awful-heels, and we’re just us, so…” Ruby answered with a small shrug.

“Oh, my Gosh,” Weiss whispered, eyeing her partner with wide eyes.

“Like you said,” Yang said as quietly, staring at her sister.

“Look, I just want to know, it’s not a big deal,” the leader grumbled, traces of irritation in her voice.

“You’re right,” the smaller woman said gently, patting her arm. “I’m sorry. There are indeed a few dances I know, although I don’t know if I can really show them to you. I don’t have any music on my scroll.”

“But I have!” Yang exclaimed, pulling out her scroll with pride. “I have, like, so many songs. Surely, you can find something that is close enough.”

“Just a sec.”

Before Yang could give her scroll to Weiss, the faunus snatched it from her hand, swiping at the screen and already in the music file.

“I do hope you know how to do a waltz, Weiss?” she asked with a small smile, tapping on the screen, and a song quietly started.

The smaller woman smiled then, and the faunus winked as she gave the scroll back to the blonde.

“I added this one recently, because it’s my favorite,” Blake said to Yang as she graciously offered her arm to Weiss.

“Wait, you know how to dance?” the blonde asked, dumbfounded.

“I love to dance,” she nodded. “My mother needed a dancing partner, since Dad was always working. She kind of forced be.”

Blake and Weiss stepped a little farther from the sisters before facing one another, Blake settling a hand on the small of Weiss’s back while Weiss set her left hand on the faunus’s shoulder, their other hands clasped together.

“Oh, you really sound like she had to force you in cruel ways,” Weiss snorted sarcastically, and she felt Blake move, stepping back with ease as she followed the faunus.

“Well, at first I have to say I really didn’t want to, but you know my mother,” she smiled, shrugging. “What can’t I do to make her smile?”

Weiss smiled at that, and the both of them moved, stepping and twirling with the music as Blake hummed the song.

“That is so unfair,” they heard Yang complaining to Ruby. “Weiss gets the first dance!”

But it only made the faunus laugh softly, her golden eyes settling on Weiss’s pale-blue.

“I think my fiancée is jealous,” she said under her breath as they continued dancing.

Weiss hummed, glancing quickly to the side at the sisters.

“Mm, she should be,” the smaller woman smiled, playful. “I’m quite the catch.”

It made Blake laugh again as she made Weiss spin a few times, her skirt swishing to a soft stop as the smaller woman grabbed the faunus’s hand more steadily, making her stop spinning.

“That’s not waltzing,” she said, a little out of breath. “You know this?”

Blake smiled almost cockily, winking.

“I know my dances, too. Do you know how to jive?”

“Oh my God, Blake!” Weiss quietly squealed, clutching at her arm. “Be my dance partner. I’m begging you. I’ll even dance with Kali, if that’s what it takes.”

“I’ll have you know that Mom is a very good dancer,” the faunus chuckled, squeezing Weiss’s hand. “But it’s fine by me. Whenever you want.”

“Yes!”

“But don’t steal me too often, or Yang will be jealous.”

She had said it loud enough for the sisters to hear, and a pair of lavender eyes raised to the ceiling, a blonde head shaking slightly.

“I know I have nothing to fear. I mean, Weiss is a neat ten, but I’m like a twelve.”

That made both Blake and Weiss snort and Ruby grunt, almost pained.

“Besides,” the blonde continued as she stepped closer, “I’m the one with the ring.”

Bringing her left hand up, Yang tapped her thumb on the gold and black ring, sitting at the base of her ring finger, with a smile full of mischief. Blake squeezed Weiss’s hand shortly again before turning, her hand already going to meet the blonde’s.

“And I can make her dance with just the tips of my fingers,” Yang added, so quietly that Ruby didn’t hear but Weiss did, unfortunately.

“Ugh, spare me,” she grumbled as she spun on her heels. “My ears are bleeding, now.”

It made the blonde laugh as Blake kissed her jaw, sliding her hand up past the blonde’s shoulder to thumb her neck as she pressed close, Yang’s prosthetic settling at the base of the faunus’s back. Meanwhile, Weiss smiled at Ruby, who was holding the scroll in her hands awkwardly.

“Come on,” the smaller woman softly called, reaching her hand out. “I’ll show you.”

The leader shifted, toying with the scroll, now.

“I um. I’m not sure I want to, after all.”

“What? Why?”

Disappointment was clear in her voice as she lowered her hand, but she stepped closer, furrowing her brows as Ruby seemed even more awkward.

“Well, I mean, it was really pretty with Blake, and I don’t think it’s going to be as pretty as that,” the leader shrugged one shoulder, keeping her gaze low.

“Ruby,” Weiss called, her voice soft but firm, and she didn’t say anything else until silver eyes looked up at her. “You wanted me to show you earlier, and I want to show you. Come on, it’ll be fun. It’s quite simple.”

She offered her hand again, and after a second of hesitation Ruby took it, Weiss giving a reassuring squeeze.

“Where do I put this?” the leader asked, motioning to the scroll.

“Maybe give it back to Yang?” she said, looking over her shoulder, only to find out that the other half of the team was distracted by one another, as they were making out, and Weiss felt herself cringe. “Never mind, put it in your pocket.”

Ruby shook her head at the two, pocketing the scroll, then waited, not really knowing where to put her hands, and Weiss gently too her right hand, settling it at the base of her back before taking the other, mimicking what Blake and her did earlier.

“You’re going to be the lead,” the smaller woman explained. “I’m used to follow.”

The leader nodded, her face scrunching up as she listened.

“So, you take one step first, with your right foot. A waltz has a tempo of three, step-step-slide. So, step right foot, step left foot, slide right foot. Okay?”

“Um,” Ruby’s eyebrows knitted together as she looked down at her feet, unsure. “Okay.”

Weiss laughed quietly, the hand resting on Ruby’s shoulder leaving shortly to gently tap under her partner’s chin, asking silently the leader to raise her head.

“You look here, not down,” the smaller woman smiled, amused at the way Ruby seemed to deflate. “Just try to remember what we did earlier, Bake and I.”

Turns out, Ruby was a fast learner. It did take a few tries, the leader sometimes not knowing what she was doing and she would just spin Weiss around, making her laugh, but gradually, Ruby became more confident, her hand sure and steady in Weiss’s, the hand on her back pressing and keeping her close, and soon, they could move around, making the three basic steps.

“That’s very good, Ruby!”

And Ruby would smile, her silver eyes shining as they were locked with Weiss’s, continuing to dance even as the song stopped and started again for… she didn’t even know how many times it had started again.

“Are you having fun?” Weiss asked, quietly, to not disturb Ruby too much.

“Yeah, actually,” the leader answered with a smile. “I mean, I wanted to learn because I figured you like dancing, but it’s… it’s fun! I know it’s very simple, but it’s enough for me. Plus, I get to be close to you without you reminding me about personal space!”

The smaller woman furrowed her brows a little, tilting her head to the side.

“You like being close to me?”

“Well, yeah, I mean um,” Ruby mumbled, suddenly embarrassed, a faint blush on her cheeks. “I mean you… have a presence.”

Weiss narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to understand.

“A presence,” she repeated.

“I uh, you know, you give off things. You know?”

White eyebrows shot up high on her forehead, and as Ruby seemed to be struggling with her words, she also stepped on Weiss’s foot, making the smaller woman grimace slightly and the leader apologise as they stopped, but they still stayed close, Ruby’s hand as firm as before on the small of her back.

“It’s just, you’re usually so level-headed and calm and reasonable, but there’s also this softer side that you show sometimes, and it kinda stays around for a bit? And you know me, my head is… always boiling with ideas or anything really, but when I’m with you, the things you give off, it calms me down, make my head stop boiling and I can actually enjoy being here, in this moment with you, instead of thinking of a new combat move and other things like that.”

Ruby spoke quickly but quietly, keeping her eyes on Weiss’s shoulder instead of looking at her in the eyes, and Weiss blinked after the flow of words, staying silent for a second as she registered what Ruby said.

“All in all, you make the raging volcano stop for a while,” the leader resumed, her voice even quieter than before.

“Oh,” was all Weiss said.

What was the right thing to say when someone tells you that?

Still, Weiss felt a wave of warmth run through her, and her heart fluttered a little in her chest when Ruby looked up to meet her eyes, the silver of hers just a shade darker.

“I’m-I’m glad I make you feel this way,” Weiss pitifully stammered.

What am I doing.

Ruby smiled, a smile so beautiful Weiss was sure it could rival the seven wonders, and she almost felt out of her body when her partner pressed a little closer, making her heartbeat picking up.

“That’s why I like being close to you,” the leader murmured, her mouth close enough that she could feel her breath on her face.

What am I DOING?

“I like being close to you, too,” Weiss whispered, her voice slightly shaking, her heart hammering in her chest, now.

Just lean over! Kiss her! DO IT!

Ruby smiled again, and there was something in that smile. Something that irritated her and attracted her, at the same time.

Oh, how confident Ruby looked. She knew damn well what she was doing.

“It started snowing!”

The loud call from Yang, on the other side of the room, made her jump in surprise as both of them snapped their heads towards the blonde, realising now that Blake and Yang had drifted to one of the tall windows.

“Really?” Ruby asked casually, pulling away with one last glance before she started to meet her sister.

And Weiss was left there, trembling slightly, stuck somewhere between powerful attraction towards Ruby and intense irritation at being left alone like this, and it was at that moment she realised that what Ruby had said was true. She did stop the raging volcano in Ruby’s head, when they were together. The leader just didn’t know she was passing it to Weiss, for now it was her head that was boiling.

You are such a loser, Schnee.

**** 

Nibbling at her thumbnail, Weiss chuckled a little when Yang’s snowball hit its target, which was Ruby’s face.

As soon as the blonde had noticed it started snowing, the sisters ran to their room to change to something warmer, then jumped in their boots and coats (Yang had borrowed one of Winter’s coats, naturally), and they had rummaged through the box under the bench beside the door, where Weiss had put every gloves and hats she could find for them, and once all covered, the sisters jumped outside, already in awe in front of the slowly falling snowflakes, trying to walk around in the deep snow. By the time Weiss and Blake had made their way to the window, beside the door, the sisters were already out, in the snow up to their waist, throwing snowballs at each other as they tried to get away.

“That is far too much snow,” the faunus sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. “I won’t ever go out.”

It made Weiss snort, glancing at her quickly.

“Sweet, sweet summer child,” she cackled. “You don’t know what being cold is.”

“Hey, it’s not like I chose to be born on a tropical island.”

“You’re not complaining, though.”

Blake hummed, shrugging as she smiled, and Weiss chuckled, her attention returning outside. A silence fell on them as they both watched the sisters, the sound of their laughs completely muted by the windows.

“You seemed like you had fun, earlier,” Blake quietly let out, giving her a quick smile when Weiss glanced at her.

“Yes, I did. I really like dancing, and it turns out that Ruby is quite good, too. A fast learner.”

“Well, I guess it was inevitable, with her being a prodigy of combat. Fighting is like dancing, in a way.”

The smaller woman nodded, humming. Indeed, her own fighting style could be called ‘dancing’ if someone looked from afar, but Ruby’s wasn’t nearly as-

“Maybe next time you should teach her tango.”

Whipping her head towards Blake, she narrowed her eyes at the faunus, who calmly kept her attention outside.

Or was she calm?

“What?” Weiss hissed.

“Oh you know, just a suggestion.”

As she narrowed her eyes again, Blake keeping her eyes outside stubbornly, Weiss could see her bite her lip to stop herself from smiling.

“Why are you suggesting it?” she asked anyway.

“Maybe because you two like being close so much,” the faunus answered, this time letting the smile she was trying to hold back spread on her lips. “Plus, Ruby in a red dress.”

For a second, Weiss imagined herself and Ruby, her clad in a white and red suit with a rose in her mouth, holding Ruby down as her partner was wearing a long red dress that showed a good portion of skin of her legs and chest-

“Look at you, considering it,” Blake said, her voice muffled as she tried to stifle her laughter.

A violent blush burned the entirety of her face as she slapped the faunus’s arm.

“You should stop eavesdropping!” she nearly screamed, punctuating every syllable with a slap. “Besides, I was considering how bad of an idea it was!”

“You should have said that to your face,” the faunus laughed, easily catching Weiss’s hands. “You looked like you were about to drool.”

“Shut up!”

It only made Blake laugh a little more, and after Weiss pulled roughly on her hands to break them free from the faunus’s hold, she crossed her arms tightly over her chest, still feeling her face burning from embarrassment.

“I’m really sorry, Weiss, but every words spoken was echoing in the ballroom, even quiet ones. I didn’t want to eavesdrop. It’s just sometimes, I hear things even if I don’t want to.”

The smaller woman took a deep breath before rubbing her face, grunting internally. She really didn’t want to have this conversation. Not right now.

“I’m sorry I slapped you,” she finally said, crossing her arms again.

“It’s fine. It was a calculated risk.”

Weiss sent a warning glare to Blake, and the faunus only smiled back.

“Look, I know you have a thing for Ruby. I know for a long time, now.”

The smaller woman felt like a shower of cold water was dropped on her head, and she looked at Blake, who was serious, now.

“What?”

“You’re kind of obvious, Weiss. Yang would know too, if she wasn’t in such active denial.”

Weiss shifted a little, returning her attention outside, noticing that even if it was only three in the afternoon, the sun was already setting, behind the clouds.

“It was small things, at first. Discreet touches, subtle glances. You always sitting beside her. It was just small things, so I had an idea but I thought that I could be wrong. But then, I realised that Ruby could get away with that much things that we ever could.”

“I know,” Weiss mumbled. “It bothers me too, sometimes. How much I’m willing to let her do without saying anything.”

She felt Blake stare at her as she took a deep breath, keeping her attention outside as she gripped her arms a little tighter.

“Do you know when it started?” the faunus asked softly, stepping closer.

The smaller woman shrugged, shaking her head a little.

“Not really. It happened so gradually that I can’t even pinpoint a period where I knew I started to get interested. It was somewhere between starting at Haven and, well, here.”

She sighed deeply, running both her hands in her tied-up hair, bringing both her hands on her nape.

“I guess it didn’t start right when we started at Haven. I mean, we were already close, Ruby and I, but she was seventeen, and you know, maybe still searching herself, after all that happened. I just… After three years, I didn’t think that she might… reciprocate the attraction.”

As Blake made a surprised sound, Weiss huffed, her hands leaving the back of her neck as she shrugged.

“I just never knew she was interested until today, and I’m…” she made a noise, sounding like a very quiet explosion as she motioned to her head.

“Wait, you talked about attraction?” Blake asked, tilting her head on the side curiously.

“You tell me, you were the one listening in.”

“I didn’t listen all the way through. I walked out in the hallway, the last thing I head was Ruby saying that she liked being close to you and she was trying to explain why.”

Weiss stared at her for a few seconds before she rubbed her face again, with both hands.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner so I don’t say things like that?” she finally exclaimed, this time glaring daggers at the faunus.

Blake shrugged.

“Well, I didn’t think you would pursue the conversation.”

She felt her eye twitch. Twice. But she kept her mouth firmly shut, instead moving to the small table that was nearby, still close enough to the window, and as she pulled on one chair, she motioned to the other, inviting Blake to sit silently.

“Unless I read her completely, horribly wrong, I’m sure Ruby is attracted too,” Weiss finally sighed, toying with her fingers as she kept her eyes on them. “I mean, I am. Attracted to her. She… had grown since Beacon.”

“Okay, but what did she say that makes you think that?” the faunus asked, frowning a little. “I mean, it not like I want to object, it’s just I never saw Ruby responding to your advances.”

“Great, now I know I’m not the only one who’s blind,” Weiss mumbled, pulling on her index finger.

“Weiss.”

“Well, after explaining why she liked being close to me, which was really kind and sweet, she… She kept, you know, pressing closer, until I was flush against her. And she murmured again that she liked being close to me, and she was so close and I could hear my thoughts crashing because the way she was looking at me, the way I could feel her breath on my lips and I just wanted to lean over, and I pathetically said that I liked being close to her too, and oh my God, she smiled again, but it was… it was different. The look in her eyes… I couldn’t hear much because of my heart literally ramming against my ribcage, but God she looked so confident and she knew what she was doing, and I was absolutely, totally in her control, and you know what? I don’t even mind! Damn I want her to look at me like that again.”

Blake blinked once, twice, registering what Weiss had just dropped as the smaller woman sat back in her chair with a deep sigh, toying with her fingers again as a faint blush painted her cheeks.

She hadn’t meant to overshare like this. But, well, she got carried away.

“That’s… very detailed.”

Weiss kept her attention on her fingers, pulling on her index until it cracked.

“Your attraction is clearly there,” Blake started after a moment of silence.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Weiss hissed, irritated.

“And if everything you said is true, and not a product of your fantasy,” the faunus continued without paying attention to the remark, seeing Weiss plant her elbow on the table to hide her eyes in her hand. “Then we were tricked by Ruby Rose. Both of us. Because you don’t do that if your just friends. That’s disgustingly gay.”

“I know!” Weiss exclaimed, before burying her face in her hands, muffling her voice. “I know.”

“And speaking of gay,” Blake continued, leaning her elbows on the table and arching a single eyebrow. “You could have told us. Yang is still trying to find you a date. A guy.”

The smaller woman froze for a second, then slowly lifted her hands from her face, revealing a very small, unsure smile.

“Surpriiise…!”

“You’re a mess, Weiss.”

“Thank you for your input, Blake. I know.”

Chapter Text

“And, that finishes the grand tour,” Weiss smiled as she spun around on her heels, bringing her hands together in front of her as she faced the rest of the team.

“So you’re saying there’s an indoor garden, here?” Ruby asked, raising a single eyebrow as she glanced around the hall.

They were in the hall where they first arrived, before turning right to go to the bedrooms, and Weiss had showed them everything in a large arc before coming back to the hall. All except what was past the hallway on the left.

“The grand tour is finished?” Blake asked, furrowing her brows as she tilted her head a little. “What about there?”

The faunus pointed at the hallway, on the left, and Weiss paused as her eyes followed the direction, sighing discreetly.

“We don’t go there,” the smaller woman reported back, smiling for just a second. “It’s… my father’s domain, past this hallway. His office, his room, look, just… Don’t go there. Alright?”

The three other women nodded, and she nodded too, letting out a breath, and when she turned around to lead them back to the media room, Ruby spoke.

“But, what about the garden? I mean, I kinda don’t believe you can have plants here. It looks so…” the leader paused, her eyes traveling to the stark white walls, empty of everything, then outside, to the snow being pushed around by the wind. “Dead.”

“I would like for you not to go in the garden, too.”

She spoke just above her shoulder, her tone firm and cool, and she could feel more than she could see the surprise of the rest of the team.

“Um… Why?” Yang asked, unsure.

“Because.”

And she started in the hallway, soon hearing the footsteps of the rest of the team following her, and as the silence stretched, Weiss lost in her thoughts, she heard the quiet start of a song and she stopped, turning around with a small frown.

“What is this?”

“Oh, uh, well, since it’s so silent around here, and you know I’m used to like, noises and stuff, I’m kinda stressed out with all this silence so I thought about putting some music,” Yang explained, rubbing a hand on her neck as she shrugged, but she brought her scroll up in her hand, about to tap the screen. “I can put it away, if you want-”

“No.”

She shook her head gently as lavender, golden and silver eyes looked up at her, and she kept her eyes on the device in the blonde’s prosthetic hand, blinking.

“It’s… It’s fine. Keep it. I’m sorry if I looked upset.”

Weiss took a deep breath, nodding quickly before turning on her heels to resume her walking, again hearing their footsteps with the quiet music coming out of the blonde’s scroll, and Weiss closed her eyes for a second, letting out a long, slightly trembling breath.

It’s fine. Stop stressing out.

She opened her eyes when she felt something brush against her hand, and she realised that Ruby was beside her, her silver eyes settled on her filled with concern as her hand brushed against hers again.

“Are you okay?”

Nodding quickly, Weiss chanced a quick smile, the one that was fabricated after years of practice and quick to pull on, but somehow, Ruby always managed to see right through it.

Just like right now.

Dark eyebrows furrowed as Ruby gently grasped her arm, stopping her after a soft tug, and the leader stepped closer after a quick glance to Blake and Yang, angling her head to try and look at Weiss in the eyes.

“Hey,” Ruby’s voice was so soft, now, the hand on her arm gentle and caring as she felt her thumb rubbing a little. “What’s wrong, Weiss?”

After a second of hesitation, she looked up, locking her eyes with beautiful silver, and even if she was still greatly confused about Ruby’s behavior the day before, in the ballroom, she knew that she could always trust her partner.

No matter what.

“I just don’t want you to go in the garden,” she finally let out.

Ruby raised her eyebrows, but she only nodded, her hand squeezing a little.

“Okay, I promise. We won’t go in the garden.”

“Thank you,” she breathed, already feeling a weight being lifted from her chest.

“But, can I ask why you don’t want us to go there?”

Weiss swallowed, feeling her hands balling into fists, and she cleared her throat quietly.

“My mother is always there. I don’t want you to meet her.”

“Your… Your mother?” her partner repeated, just to be sure.

She nodded.

“And you don’t want us to meet her.”

A nod again.

“Why?”

“Ruby, I really want a hot cocoa right now. Can we go?”

Weiss had lowered her gaze to the ground, waiting for her partner to let go of her arm as she felt Ruby’s gaze bore into her face, the leader unsure about Weiss’s obvious change of subject, but still, she finally let go, and instantly the smaller woman strode off again, soon followed by the team’s footsteps. They followed at a distance, now, and Weiss could hear them talk quietly, sharing concerns under their breaths, until they finally reached the media room, Weiss stepping to the side to let them enter.

“I’m going to make some hot cocoa. Who wants one?” she asked, bringing her hands behind her back.

“I’ll go with you!” Ruby instantly perked, already shuffling to her side.

Weiss had to resist the urge to sigh, but still managed a small, quick smile, before looking up at Blake and Yang, who both held their hands up, and she nodded, stepping aside.

“We’ll be right back,” she said.

“Take your time,” she heard Blake say as she closed the door.

Weiss felt her eye twitch. Was it directed at her, for some time with Ruby, or was it for Blake and Yang to have more time alone? But before she could think about it further, she saw Ruby offer her hand, and the leader smiled when she looked up.

Come on, Weiss. It won’t be the first time you’re holding hands with her. Just… Don’t fuck this up. Be cool. Be c-

She took the offered hand, and Ruby smiled again, squeezing a little as she felt her thumb over her knuckles, and all the worry she was carrying faded away by that simple gesture, feeling her shoulders relax, and when she smiled at Ruby, it was much more sincere, now.

You are such an emo loser.

Then, Ruby gently tugged at her hand, and they made their way down the hallway, Weiss just happy to follow her partner around, until Ruby stopped, looking over her shoulder to Weiss with a sheepish smile.

“I don’t remember where the kitchen is,” she grimaced a little, letting out a sheepish laugh. “I think I’m gonna need a map.”

The smaller woman blinked for a second, before registering what Ruby had said, and a faint blush painted her cheeks as, without a word, she tugged on her partner’s hand, back tracking down the hallway, walking past the media room to continue.

“Oh, it was the other way!” the leader chuckled at herself. “I’m sorry. I should have paid more attention.”

I should have paid more attention. I’m a mess.

“It’s fine, Ruby. I don’t mind.”

“I hope so! We get to spend some quality time together!”

As she rounded a corner, almost dragging Ruby by the hand at this point, she was just glad she was the one leading, so Ruby couldn’t see the blush creeping up her neck to her cheeks.

Oh my GOD, Weiss. You’re so pathetically in lo-

“Shut up,” she hissed under her breath.

“Hm? Are you talking to me?”

“No.”

“Oh. Talking to yourself, I see. You know, apparently, someone talking to themselves is a sign of high intelligence, but I didn’t need to see you talking to yourself to know that.”

Rounding a corner again, Weiss sighed when she saw the open doors of the kitchen and she herd Ruby made a delighted noise as she noticed it, too, but as they made their way closer, Weiss slowed down, hesitant.

She could hear someone in the kitchen. Cabinet doors being opened and closed, something being dragged on the counter, footsteps. She knew it wasn’t the maids nor the cook, for it was too early to already be preparing dinner, and Klein went to the kitchen only when asked to, so…

As Weiss was about to backtrack, Ruby bumping into her lightly as she stopped abruptly, the person in the kitchen stepped out.

It was a woman. Older, and barely taller than Weiss. With pale-blue eyes like her, her hair as white as snow, pulled up in a loose bun, and the woman stopped for a second, her pale eyes settling on Weiss, before shifting to Ruby.

Weiss straightened her back, taking in a sharp breath.

“Mother,” she started, seeing in the corner of her eye Ruby snapping her head towards her. “May I present to you-”

“Winter,” the woman interrupted with a small smile, blinking slowly. “I didn’t know you invited your friend over. You should have told your father.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly remembered she was still holding Ruby’s hand, and she gently let go of it before clearing her throat.

“I’m Weiss, Mother,” the smaller woman informed quietly, making the woman frown a little. “And Father isn’t home.”

The woman blinked again, still slowly, and Weiss could discern the slight swaying of her mother as she stared at her intensely, her features scrunched up, before her face softened.

“Yes, Weiss. I’m sorry I mistook you for your sister. But I’m glad to see you, I’m going to write it down in my carnet, that I saw you.”

“It’s fine. You should get some rest.”

“Oh, I can rest in the garden. Why don’t you join me, Winter?”

She bit her lip, knowing that she wasn’t doing it on purpose, and with great composure she smiled, bowing slightly her head.

“Maybe another time, Mother.”

The woman’s smile faltered a little, but she nodded, the movement making the woman reel a little.

“Later, then. You can bring your friend, if you want.”

Then her expression blanked for a few seconds, and Weiss’s smile vanished as she bit her lip again, and she took a deep breath as she noticed Ruby step slightly closer to her.

Right. Ruby was there, too.

“Where was I going, again?” Weiss’s mother mumbled, furrowing her brows as she glanced around.

“You were going to the garden,” Weiss quietly reminded.

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

And the woman turned on her heels, making her way down the hallway as she sometimes stumbled a little, and it was only now that Weiss noticed the brand new bottle of wine, in her hand.

They were left in silence as Weiss watched her go, feeling a strange emptiness fill her head, her chest, numbing her feeling and thoughts. For a moment, her eyes stared at the hallway where her mother had disappeared, and she turned on her heels, her legs feeling like cotton, and she saw Ruby follow her to the kitchen, moving automatically. She went to the cabinets, pulling out one cup, then stepped to the side to arrange the kettle, and she saw her partner pull out three other cups from the cabinet, and she stopped for a second.

“I’m sorry.”

She could see Ruby stare at her, frowning.

“Why are you apologising?”

“I didn’t want you to see that.” Weiss insisted quietly, moving to fill the kettle with water.

Turning on the faucet, she leaned her elbow on the counter, settling the kettle under the flow and waiting, her eyes never leaving the little bubbles it was creating, until she felt Ruby’s hand on her back.

“Are you okay?” she heard her ask, softly.

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine. You have your sad face on.”

Weiss only sighed, shifting a little, creating some distance between them, but Ruby stepped closer, sliding her arm around her back and settling her hand on her waist, bumping their shoulders together gently.

“Hey,” the leader breathed, always so soft. “Can I give you a hug?”

“Ruby, I told you, I’m fine,” Weiss quietly countered.

“Well, you don’t really give off the ‘I’m fine’ vibe, so…”

She gently pulled away after a second, turning off the faucet and bringing the kettle on the burner, turning it on, and after a moment of hesitation, she walked back to Ruby, silently sliding her arms around the leader’s waist, closing her eyes when her partner instantly pressed closer, holding her firmly but gently against her, one of her hands rubbing small circles across her back.

“We don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to,” she heard Ruby whisper in her ear.

“Thank you,” Weiss whispered back, snuggling a little closer.

****

She had fallen asleep during the movie, comfortably squished between Yang and Ruby, the four of them sitting together on the large couch, Ruby siting between Weiss’s legs, Weiss sitting between Yang’s and the blonde sitting between Blake’s, for the faunus was resting her back against the armrest, and this was, as Ruby called, the ‘train of comfort’. As soon as Ruby and Weiss came back with the cups of hot cocoa, the leader had asked for this formation, and Weiss had relaxed so much that she had closed her eyes, the weight of Ruby’s head in the crook of her shoulder reassuring as she toyed with dark locks.

Now, the credits were rolling, and she could hear the other women quietly and gently arguing on who would go change the movie.

“I can’t move, Yang, her arm is around my shoulders,” Ruby was saying.

“I can’t move either, she’s leaning on me!” the blonde added.

“I could try to get out, but you’ll have to lean on your arm while I try to take my legs back.”

“You do realise you don’t need to get up to change the movie, right? You can do it with the remote.”

She heard Yang and Ruby gasp in synch, almost in stereo, and Blake sighed.

“We didn’t want to wake you,” the faunus grimaced.

Weiss shifted a little, opening her eyes as she took a sharp breath in, now fully awake.

“It’s fine. It was a nice nap.”

She proceeded to try and stretch a little as Blake leaned over to grab the remote, and as she tapped on the buttons to try and find something else to watch, Ruby shifted a little against her.

“Weiss, I know this is your home and you like being barefoot, but can’t you just wear socks?”

White eyebrows shot up at that, and she looked down, stopping her stretching.

“Why?”

“Because your feet are fucking ice cold, and you keep touching me with it.”

Weiss hummed then, pulling her legs back, and as Ruby looked up, about to ask her what she was doing, she lifted the hem of her partner’s shirt before pressing her foot against Ruby’s side, against her partner’s hot skin.

The scream she let out hurt her ears, but as a large smile split her face in half, it was so worth it.

The leader jolted up and away from her partner, pressing both hands on the abused spot as she turned around to glare at Weiss, a small frown on her face, but when the smaller woman laughed quietly her frown faded away, traded with a small grimace.

“Don’t you ever do that again,” Ruby still insisted, turning around to lean her back against the armrest. “Your feet are like so cold, I can’t believe you don’t feel it.”

The leader motioned to her feet, and Weiss stretched her legs again, furrowing her brows as she tilted her head curiously, and Ruby gently grasped them, settling them on her lap before starting rubbing them, her skin scorching hot against her feet and making her toes instinctively curl.

“I’m going to warm them up. For you. Remember that sacrifice.”

“Your hands are too hot, Ru-”

“They’re not too hot, it’s your feet that are too cold. Trust me, it’s really like I’m holding ice packs.”

“Can I know why there is a porn section?” Blake asked, her voice slightly amused. “Your father watches porn often?”

“What?” Weiss snapped her head to the side, her eyes staring at the TV.

Yang hummed at that, toying with one of Weiss’s white lock.

“How old is your brother again?” she asked.

“He’s eighteen. But I don’t think he’s the one watching it, it just goes with the TV. Besides, I don’t want to know.”

The blonde hummed again, nodding, keeping her eyes on the screen, before her face lit up with a laugh.

“Oh my God, Blake! Look at that title! ‘Snow Bitch and the seven dicks’!”

The faunus chuckled, still flicking through the titles as she shook her head.

“The titles of porn movies fascinate me.”

“Why are we even going through this?” Weiss asked, grimacing. “Weren’t you trying to find another movie to watch?”

“I didn’t want to choose without you guys, so while Ruby and your feet were settling down, I decided to scour through the sections and I found this gem,” the faunus shrugged with a smile. “I think the names are all ridiculous. It makes me laugh.”

“But it’s embarrassing,” Weiss insisted, before glancing at her partner quickly. “And Ruby-”

“Is twenty-one and an adult and finds it funny, too,” the leader interrupted, squeezing Weiss’s feet a little.

“Besides, if you want embarrassing, I’ve got plenty of stories for you,” Yang let out with a wink, shifting to be more comfortable against Blake.

“I don’t-”

“OH, I love embarrassing stories!” Ruby excitedly chirped in. “But I know practically every story Yang has… Yang, remember that time Dad walked in on you with this guy, what was his name again I can’t remember, and I was right in the next roo-”

“I remember, Sis. Kinda hard to forget,” the blonde huffed, rolling her eyes. “Still, I don’t know if Dad was more upset or surprised. Besides, Blake has some pretty good embarrassing stories, too!”

Ruby gasped in delight, her silver eyes looking up to the faunus who was sighing deeply, closing her eyes.

“Why did you say that, Yang? You know I’ll relive it all over again.”

“Sorry, love. But it’s just so funny! I love your embarrassing stories! Besides, it’s only embarrassing because your parents are too open and honest with you.”

“Woah what?” Ruby let out, confused.

“My embarrassing stories aren’t like Yang’s. Nobody has walked in on me and the likes. My embarrassing stories are basically my parents trying to talk to me about safe sex.”

Yang was already cackling as Ruby furrowed her brows and tilted her head to the side, while Weiss only raised a single eyebrow, and Blake rolled her eyes with a sigh again.

“When I was fifteen, I was… spending most of my time with the White fang, and there was this guy…” she trailed off, and Weiss could see Yang reaching up to squeeze her hand discreetly. “Let’s give him a fictional name like… Paul.”

“Paul. You didn’t have anything better?” Yang snorted.

“It was the first thing that came to mind. Now, Paul and I spent a lot of time together, and we grew close, and eventually, I guess we were together. He was older than me by a few years, he was like, seventeen or eighteen at the time. Anyway, my parents have noticed this closeness, even if I never told them or never did something that would give it away.”

“Kali,” Ruby snorted.

“Exactly.” Blake smiled. “And, well, my mom talked to my dad, and so one day, I’m about to go out to meet Paul, but Dad sits me down at the table, with my mother, and with all the seriousness of the world he says he doesn’t know if I’m in a relationship with someone, but even if I wasn’t, he wants to have ‘The Talk’. He says it’s time, at fifteen, for me to know certain things. Then,” Blake sighed, pausing for a second. “He pulls out a cucumber and a banana from under the table, and a box of condom, and tells me he’ll show me how to put one on.”

“But that’s not the most embarrassing of the story,” she continued. “What was embarrassing was my parents giving me advices, on both sides.”

Ruby laughed along with Yang and Weiss blinked.

“I can’t picture Dad trying to give us advices, though,” Ruby mused after a moment, and Blake grunted as she rubbed a hand to her face.

“I know! I never asked for advices! I never ever asked for The Talk altogether! But you know my parents, they want me safe and, well, enjoying myself.”

“Tell them about after we started dating,” Yang chirped in, still a large smile on her face as she poked the faunus’s cheek.

And Blake grunted again, throwing her head back with a sigh.

“Come on, I love this one! It makes me laugh every time,” Yang let out quietly, shifting to be more comfortable.

“What happened?” Ruby asked, her eyes open wide, all her attention on Blake.

Weiss had to say, she was curious too.

“We were starting dating,” the faunus finally let out, straightening her head. “And one night, we… kind of got carried away, in the kitchen, and as it was about to be serious, Mom walked in on us.”

“Ha! She must have teased you to death!” Ruby laughed.

“She did,” Blake grimaced, but a smile was on her lips. “She thought it was funny because for a short moment, Yang thought it was Dad. It was dark, and she couldn’t see a thing.”

“No moon in Menagerie equals you need a light if you’re not a faunus. Just saying. I couldn’t even see my nose.”

“You know, I’m still thinking that if it were Dad that walked in on us, he would have thrown you out the window. Even if he says he’s okay with me having sex and being in relationships, I’m still his little kitten.”

She paused for a few seconds, pinching her lips.

“He would have definitely thrown you out the window.”

“Maybe. But what happens next, I wonder!” Yang pressed, her smile large on her lips.

Golden eyes fell on the blonde for a second before Blake leaned down, kissing her softly, making both Ruby and Weiss roll their eyes.

“Boo! Get a room!” Ruby let out in mock disgust and it made Yang laugh against Blake’s lips.

The blonde winked at her sister as the faunus straightened her back, a small smile on her lips.

“A few days later, “Blake resumed, “my parents waited for Yang to be outside with Sun and Bax and they almost hunted me down in the house, before sitting me at the table again, to have another sex talk. This time, Dad giving me advices to, um… to perform a good cunnilingus.”

At that, Ruby let out a raucous laugh along with Yang, making Blake’s face heat up until her cheeks were crimson, and Weiss tried to hide her laughter behind polite coughs.

“It was even more embarrassing because Mom would just nod vigorously at everything he would say, and I just…” the faunus hid her face in her hands as she grunted, the sound muffled.

“You know, I think it’s telling a good sign that they are still having sex,” Yang gaped after a while, whipping a few tears away.

“No! I don’t want to know! I’m trying to erase the fact that they had to have sex to have me!” Blake insisted. “I’ve never been in active denial more than with my parent’s sexual life.”

“But, I mean, was it good advices?” Weiss asked, and the three other women turned to look at her.

She shrugged.

“I’m just wondering if he put you through this for nothing.”

Blake blinked, for a second silent, then a small smile pulled her lips as a soft blush painted her cheeks.

“It turns out it was good advices. I knew the theory, and I could, you know. Practice it with Yang. But I’m never telling him. I don’t want him to know.”

“Do you have embarrassing stories, Weiss? Wanna share, too?”

The blonde spoke casually, but the smaller woman could feel the three other women stare at her intently, waiting. With a short sigh, she shrugged.

“I don’t really have one, besides my really short interest into Neptune being, in its whole, an embarrassment.”

“That’s harsh,” Ruby chuckled.

“Hey, he deserves it,” Blake mused. “Sun is always telling me how Nep is flirting with everyone. You deserve better, Weiss.”

“And speaking of sexual life,” the smaller woman continued, starting to toy with her hands. “I mean, not really sexual life, but… I have something to tell you. Something that I should have told you for a while, now… Anyway, I spent a long time thinking about possible relationships, like Neptune, for example, and it made me rethink my life choices, and rethink about, well, myself.”

“Weiss. The point?” Yang pressed, shifting a little to better look at her.

“I’m getting to it,” Weiss almost hissed.

When she noticed the blonde arching a single eyebrow, surprised, she closed her eyes for a second as she took a deep breath in.

“I came to the realisation that I may not be like I thought I was? Like everyone thought I was?”

It’s fine, Weiss.

She opened her eyes, seeing the very focused look on Ruby’s face, the confused one on Yang’s, and Blake, discreetly nodding encouragingly.

They’re going to love you all the same. It’s fine. They won’t be mad at you.

“I came upon the realisation that I might… not like men. Well, not in a romantic or sexual way, that is. I might like… Well, I prefer women.”

There was a silence, and even though she could see Blake smiling above Yang’s head, she only grew nervous as it stretched.

“So you’re coming out as a lesbian?” Yang finally asked, her blonde eyebrows furrowed.

“That’s-” Weiss had to bit her lip to not bark her answer, and she cleared her throat, calming down. “Yes.”

Her face lit up then, a large smile splitting her face in half.

“Welcome to the queer family!” she cheered, throwing her arms in the air and missing Blake’s face by an inch.

And, before Weiss could smile in relief or Ruby could say something, her face went from happiness to complete mischief, her eyes narrowing as she straightened her back to sit.

“Wait a second,” she said slowly, catching everyone’s attention. “Who made you gay?”

Weiss blinked.

“What?”

“Well, there was probably someone that made you consider being gay,” the blonde explained, a wicked smile on her lips. “Who is it?”

Weiss stared at Yang for a long moment, frozen in place, not knowing what to say.

Your sister.

“I… No one. I just found out by myself.”

Your sister has been haunting my dreams for months.

The blonde hummed doubtfully, raising a single eyebrow, and she almost could feel beads of sweat on her forehead when Blake pulled Yang back against her, giving a quick kiss against the blonde’s temple.

“Leave her be, Yang,” the faunus gently grumbled. “It’s stressful enough to come out, she could do without the interrogation.”

Yang pouted with a deep sigh, mumbling a quiet ‘fine’ as she crossed her arms over her chest while Blake threaded her fingers in golden locks, and Weiss felt her shoulders relax, the weight that was settled on her chest lifting. It was only when she looked the other way that the weight came back.

Ruby was still staring at her. Intensely. The shade of her eyes a little darker than what they used to be, just like the day before, in the ballroom. A slow smile was pulling her lips, and her eyelids lowered just a little, too.

She knew. Ruby knew it was because of her.

Weiss swallowed, her heartbeat picking up.

“I’m glad you told us, Weiss.” She heard the leader say, her voice muffled by the thumping in her ears.

She felt Ruby’s hands squeeze one of her feet lightly, her hands still so hot against her skin, and she pressed both her thumbs right after her heel, bringing them all the way up to the base of her toes. It was a simple touch, really. One Ruby had done a million times, because it wasn’t the first time she would massage her feet. But right now, it felt entirely different. With just that touch, Weiss felt her brain melt, her thoughts flopping down in a puddle, and there was nothing between Ruby’s eyes and her.

In this moment, Weiss knew. Ruby was a predator, and she was the oh, so willing prey.

“Well, I have to use the bathroom,” she heard, somewhere in the back, Blake says. “I would go return the cups, too, but I don’t remember where the kitchen is, nor the nearest bathroom, too. Weiss, do you mind guiding me?”

“Fifth door on the left,” Weiss whispered under her breath, her attention still entirely focused on Ruby.

But as the faunus was moving on the couch to stand, nobody heard it, except maybe Ruby, but the leader freed her feet with a wink, leaning back as she gathered Weiss’s feet before gently pushing them off the ledge, making the smaller woman sit.

“I’ll go with you,” she said after clearing her throat, hoping her voice wasn’t shaking.

She quickly gathered the cups, and as quickly made her way out of the room while Yang took the remote, searching a movie to watch with Ruby. And as soon as they were out in the hallway, Blake wrapped an arm around Weiss’s shoulders, hugging her gently.

“I’m proud of you, Weiss,” the faunus smiled.

When the smaller woman only hummed, her attention elsewhere, Blake hummed, too, as she pulled away.

“And I also noticed how Ruby looked at you. It’s the reason I asked you to come with me.”

At that, Weiss let out a trembling sigh, making Blake laugh.

“I get the ‘she knew damn well what she was doing’ part, now. Because she does know what she’s doing.” Then, after a glance at the white head, “And she’s very pleased by it.”

“What do you want me to say,” Weiss grumbled as she frowned. “Confidence is key, as they say. I like confident people.”

“Never knew it turned you on, though.”

“Shut up.”

The faunus laughed as Weiss’s face turned red in embarrassment as she fumbled with the cups, before Blake gently took them in her hands.

“I think you two should talk. Or kiss. Whatever you want.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to talk if I’m stuck alone with her.  I’ll dream of her lips on my neck.”

Blake laughed again as Weiss sighed almost dreamingly, and they rounded a corner, continuing closer to the kitchen.

“In conclusion: I’m gay.” The smaller woman let out.

“Oh, very gay.”

“What am I going to do, Blake?” Weiss asked, her voice low and quiet. “If she does that again… I don’t know what I’ll do. I could explode, and it wouldn’t even surprise me.”

“Why are you always so dramatic?” the faunus asked with a smile as she shook her head.

“I’m not being dramatic, Blake. If I wanted to be dramatic, I mean, there’s a grand piano in the ballroom. I could lay on it and arrange a spot on me. Then, I’ll be dramatic.”

“Why do I get the feeling it will happen soon?”

And Weiss narrowed her eyes at her in a cold glare, making Blake laugh again.

Chapter Text

It was still really early in the morning. The sun hadn’t even come out yet, but there she was, fully awake, staring at the only family portrait they had, alone in the dark hallway, hugging her own arms. Wondering why her family was the way they were. Wondering what her life would have been if she had never been to Beacon.

“Hey,” she heard a soft call, on her right, and she didn’t have to look to know who it was.

There was only one person with that much warmth in their voice. And such a warm presence.

“Hi, Yang,” Weiss greeted as she looked at her, giving her a small smile. “What are you doing up? It’s quite early.”

“You know I’m an early bird,” the blonde winked as she got closer, wordlessly wrapping an arm around the smaller woman’s shoulders and pulling her in her arms without resistance. “I could ask you the same thing, though. You’re usually the last one up.”

Her pale eyes returned to the portrait as she felt the blonde rest her chin on top of her head, the large hand of the blonde rubbing her arm gently to warm her up.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Nightmare?”

“I don’t know,” Weiss only sighed, keeping her eyes up.

The blonde hummed but didn’t insist, instead raising her head to look at the portrait too.

“That’s your mother?” Yang softly asked.

Weiss hummed with a nod, her eyes on the woman, too. She felt the blonde shift behind her, just a little.

“You never talked about her.”

“I know.”

“Like I thought she was-”

“I know.”

There wasn’t any anger in Weiss’s tone, just a soft breath escaping her lips, and Yang hummed again, letting a silence fall on them again.

“Can I know why you never talked about her?” the blonde asked after a moment.

There was another silence again, long, and Weiss sighed, knowing that she was too tired to fight Yang’s curiosity.

“It’s because she’s sick.”

She felt the blonde move, and she was probably looking down at her.

“Sick?”

She nodded.

“Korsakoff syndrome. It’s a sickness often related to alcoholism.”

“Oh.”

Another, short silence.

“What-What does it do?”

“It’s the effect of the lack of thiamine due to drinking that starts to attack the brain. Memories, more precisely. It’s a side branch of Alzheimer.”

“So she forgets?”

“She has a short-term memory span of five to ten minutes, depending on how much she drank that day. And her long-term memory is all mixed up. She barely remembers Whitley. She keeps mistaking me for Winter. She doesn’t even know I was gone for six years, because she doesn’t remember. She has to write things down to ‘remember’ events, and some days it’s so bad she barely remember how to write.”

She let out a deep, long breath, one of her hands reaching up to take the blonde’s hand.

“I don’t want you to meet her, because she won’t remember it anyway. And because it’s painful to watch. Sometimes she forgets she was having a conversation in the middle of it.”

“Is it curable?” Yang asked after a moment.

And Weiss let out a deep sigh again, her eyes closing.

“In some cases, yes. But she has to quit drinking, first. She takes her pills with a glass of wine.”

The blonde hummed again, and she felt her look up, at the portrait.

“Why did you never talked about her, then? Aren’t you worried?”

“Of course I am, it’s just… It’s…” she trailed off, closing her mouth as she tried to find the right words.

It took a while, but Yang gave her all the time she needed, keeping the smaller woman close to her. They could see, down the hallway, the light of the rising sun coming through.

“It’s just that I cared too much,” Weiss finally let out, her voice quiet. “It was already painful to watch her get drunk every single day, before her sickness. I tried to talk to her. I even spent months trying to hide her bottles, but she always found them. And when she got sick, it was even worst. Try to tell an alcoholic they are alcoholics.”

“She had to take her pills sober, and pills and alcohol doesn’t mix well. But she kept on drinking, and even took her pills with wine. I couldn’t stand to see her like that. I was trying to help her, but she didn’t care. It was exhausting.”

She opened her eyes, pausing for a second.

“You know, in a rowing boat, there are two people rowing to move forward. If there’s only one rowing, we’ll go in circles. I was tired of going in circles, so I left my mother in her boat, thinking that it may make her realise that she had to row too. But instead of rowing in circles, she just sits there. I don’t know what’s worst.”

She felt the blonde pulling away, and for a second a spike of anxiety made her freeze, imagining already the blonde yell at her because she didn’t try hard enough, and she felt Yang grasping her shoulders gently, turning her around, and maybe her fear was apparent on her face because the sharp features of the blonde softened. Grasping her shoulders again, she gave a soft squeeze, making a smile-grimace to the smaller woman.

“You tried.” Yang let out, and it kind of surprised her. “At least, you tried.”

“It wasn’t enough, apparently.”

She felt the blonde’s hands move from her shoulders to cup her face, the cold metal of her prosthetic making her wince slightly, but Yang only stepped closer, and Weiss could see how shook the taller woman was as she swallowed.

“You tried, and it’s all that matters.”

The blonde softly kissed her forehead before pulling her in her arms, keeping her left hand almost protectively on top of Weiss’s head, and when the smaller woman finally looped her arms around her waist, Yang kissed her temple before leaning her cheek on top of her head.

****

“Who knew a Belladonna would walk in the Schnee mansion?” Kali mused, her voice slightly distorted.

Blake rolled her eyes at the screen of her scroll and Yang chuckled.

“I could ask Weiss to give you the tour, if you want,” Blake suggested.

“Maybe when Baxter come back from school, then. I, too, want to see where she grew up.”

“Oh, Bax is going to flip,” Yang chuckled. “There’s so much snow, here. Like, I thought we had rough winters in Patch. It’s nothing compared to a ‘comfortable day’ here, as Weiss calls it. I mean, I had snow up to my waist, Kali. It’s both awful and wonderful.”

“It’s awful,” Blake insisted. “I have to put on so many things to be able to even survive the cold, even if I’m just going out for five minutes.”

Blake’s mother hummed, raising her eyebrows at that before she looked up from whatever she was doing.

“Really? Well, Ghira did tell me it was cold there, but I never thought it would be this bad… Have you seen the lights yet?”

“Not yet, but Weiss told us that it was quite windy today. So I guess it means the wind will carry the clouds away for tonight.”

Kali nodded, opening her mouth to answer, but both her ears flicked, and her attention went to the side, where Blake and Yang could imagine was the hallway leading to the leaving room.

“Hi Gramma!” they could hear very faintly.

“Hi, honey!” the older woman called, smiling.

“‘Gramma’?” Blake repeated quietly.

“I’m in my office!” Kali talked loud enough for the boy to hear before returning her attention to the screen, a smile on her lips. “Well, yes,” she answered, her voice quiet. “He asked me if he could call me that, and I couldn’t see why I would say ‘no’, so…”

Blake’s ears pulled back, but before Yang or Kali could say something else, they could see, in the corner of the screen, the door of Kali’s office being pushed open.

“How was school, today?” The older woman asked as she sat back in her chair.

“It was fine, except the part where stupid Jasper tried to steal my things again-” They heard Baxter sigh before he gasped, and they heard the few stomps he made to get closer to the screen. “Blake! Yang! Hi!”

“Hey, little man!” Yang was the first to answer, smiling widely. “We are in Atlas!”

“Hi, Bax,” Blake greeted more somberly, but she was still smiling.

Still, the boy gasped loudly, and he sat on Kali’s lap so he could talk to the two women with Kali.

“Oh my God, your hair is so long, now!” Yang almost squealed, and the boy shook his head, making his shoulder lengths, dark red hair fly around with a laugh. “I will definitely braid it next time we’re in Menagerie.”

“It’s fine, I like when you play with my hair,” the boy smiled. “But how is Atlas? Is it like Weiss said it was?”

“Well, there’s plenty of snow,” Blake nodded with a sigh. “Wait, do you want to see? Weiss and Ruby are outside.”

“Yes please!” Baxter instantly perked, already excited.

Blake chuckled as she stood, bringing her scroll with her as she went to the nearby door, and opened it enough so she could poke her head outside.

“Weiss! Come here! Bax is on the scroll, and he wants to see the snow!”

As soon as she had the smaller woman’s confirmation, she closed the door, the short time needed to say this enough for some snow to come swirling in, and some snowflakes had landed on her head and on her face, and Baxter laughed when Blake’s ears were pinned on her head as they were melting.

A few seconds later, the door opened again as Weiss entered, closing it quickly behind her with a sigh, and as soon as her eyes landed on the scroll and on Baxter’s face, both Weiss’s and his face lit up.

“Hi, Baxter! How are you?”

“Hi Weiss! I’m fine! You look pretty!”

“I’m… What?” the smaller woman laughed a little, patting herself to let the snow fall from her coat.

“Well, I have to say, you have a look, and it looks good on you,” Kali chirped in, a small smile on her lips.

Weiss’s pale cheeks were already reddened by the cold outside, but the blush that crept up her neck was still apparent as she stomped her feet on the mat, making snow fall off her boots, and she discreetly cleared her throat.

“Um… Thank you. Now, I heard you wanted to see snow?” Weiss smiled as she looked up, her blues eyes shining.

“Yes!”

Both Kali and Baxter answered, and it made Weiss laugh quietly as she took the scroll from Blake’s hands.

“Ruby is already outside,” Weiss informed as she went to the door. “She’ll be my instrument of measure, for the snow.”

And Weiss went out again, scroll in hand, the sound of her voice instantly muted as soon as the door closed, and so Yang stood from her chair to step to the window, Blake quickly following.

They could see the smaller woman talking animatedly, pointing at this and that, and Ruby trying to get to Weiss as fast as she could, stumbling on the way, in the snow. After the leader successfully joined Weiss, talking for a moment to the persons on the other end, Weiss pointed at the snowbank, talking to her partner, and the leader quickly jumped in it, sinking in the snow up to her waist, and both of them started to laugh when Ruby realised she was stuck there.

Blake chuckled at the scene, Weiss stepping closer, scroll still in hand, and pulling Ruby by the hand to try and help her, and she felt Yang’s hand settle on her hip, gently pulling her closer.

“Does it bother you that Bax calls Kali ‘Gramma’?” the blonde quietly asked, keeping her eyes outside.

The faunus stayed silent for a while, keeping her eyes outside as she felt Yang’s thumb sneak under her shirt, caressing the soft skin under it.

“It’s not that it bothers me,” she finally let out. “Well, it bothers me just a little.”

“Really? Why?”

Blake sighed at that, bringing her hand up to rub the space between her eyebrows.

“Because, Yang, I mean… I’m not completely opposed to the idea, okay? It’s just that he already has a family, he has grandparents-”

“And he doesn’t like them.”

“I know that, but still. What’s going to be next? He’ll call us his mothers?”

The faunus crossed her arms over her chest, her ears slightly pulled back as she kept her attention outside, but she could feel Yang staring at her.

At the same time that the blonde returned her attention outside, Weiss finally managed to pull Ruby out of the snow, only to very obviously and accidently drop the scroll in the snow. Both Ruby and Weiss froze for a second, the leader’s mouth forming a silent ‘O’ as Weiss brought her hands to her head, and in synch, they turned around to the window, trying to see if they were being watched. Then they both started digging rapidly.

“I wouldn’t mind if he asked me that, you know,” Yang gently informed. “Would it really bother you if he did call us his mothers?”

“No,” was Blake’s instant answer. “Yes. I don’t know, maybe? I never thought about it.”

“But why would it bother you?”

“Because we’re not- We’re not replacing Julia,” the faunus let out, feeling her ears lowering on her head. “She’s his mother. I don’t want him to forget that. We’re not replacements.”

“I don’t think he could ever forget, love,” the blonde softly let out, pulling her closer. “Besides, I don’t think he sees us, ‘us’ meaning you, me, your parents and those two goofballs, as replacements. I think he sees us more as ‘additions’.”

They could see Ruby perking up, bringing the now found scroll up in the air proudly, and Weiss snatched it from her hands to look at it closer, but after a few seconds she hung her head low, and her partner set a compassionate hand on her shoulder with a small smile.

“I mean, how can it be replacements when he considers Weiss like his big sister?” Yang added with a smile, her tone amused.

That successfully made her smile with a huff.

“Weiss is so happy to be called that,” Blake chuckled.

They saw Weiss standing slowly, her eyes on the scroll that didn’t look like it was working anymore as it lay in her hands, and the smaller woman seemed reticent to go back inside. Probably because she feared that Blake would be mad at her. But Ruby talked to her for a moment, gently grasping her arm, and offered her a smile when Weiss looked up at her.

“Doesn’t seem like your scroll will live another day,” Yang noted quietly.

“It’s fine. I can always buy a new one.”

The blonde nodded as she hummed, and they could see Ruby linking her arm with her partner, probably to stop her from running away. Although, Blake thought, Weiss’s style was more facing everything head-on. And as they made their way back, Ruby still talking to Weiss as the smaller woman nodded a few times, Blake sighed, bumping her shoulder with Yang’s.

“Maybe you’re right,” she said quietly, looking up into lavender eyes. “Maybe we are additions.”

And the blonde smiled softly.

****

“I’m so sorry about you scroll, Blake. I’ll buy you the best one.”

“I already told you a hundred times, Weiss, it’s fine. Really. It’s just material.”

The smaller woman sighed as she led them through a large set of glass-doors, holding the door open for them to enter, and they already could hear the buzzing of the people talking and walking.

“Well, welcome to the mall,” Weiss motioned vaguely to the building as she pulled off her hat and gloves. “Where we can get separated to never be found again, so stay close to me.”

She heard Ruby chuckle as she put her gloves in her hat after making sure there weren’t any snow on them, then she pulled off her coat, before pushing her hat in one of the sleeves.

When she looked back at the other women, she saw them staring at her, blinking.

“What?”

“Why did you…” Yang trailed off, pointing at Weiss’s coat as her brows furrowed.

Her pale eyes went down, wondering what she was talking about, before it clicked.

“Ah,” she nodded. “Old habits. Well, by setting these aside, you have your hands free.”

The blonde hummed, but she didn’t seem like she was about to pull off her coat.

“I suggest you do the same. If you keep your coat on while we’re inside, you’re going to freeze when we’ll get out again.”

Then, the three other women nodded, and they quickly shed off their coats.

They took off, then, following Weiss to the center of the building where a flood of people were slowly passing by, and when they moved along, Weiss could feel the rest of the team press closer, and she felt Ruby’s hand close around her arm, on the crook of her elbow. Finally, Weiss wordlessly motioned to their right, and they moved through the crowd to enter one of the shops, a scroll shop with all the gadgets someone could dream of.

“Phew!” Ruby sighed as they could talk again. “Is it always this crowded?”

“I thought I lost Blake, for a moment,” Yang mumbled, squeezing the faunus’s hand with a smile.

Blake smiled too, but her ears kept flicking, jerking this way and that, and her straight face gave all the information Weiss needed to understand what was happening.

“Oh,” She quietly let out, but still golden eyes settled on her. “I’m sorry. I should have known.”

Both Ruby and Yang frowned slightly, looking up at Blake curiously, and the faunus only shrugged, managing a small grimace.

“It’s fine. I don’t think anything will happen. They’re just words.”

At that, the sisters understood what was happening, and they both moved, framing the faunus as they stared back at the crowd, sending glares at the people that looked their way a little too long.

“Guys, it’s fine,” Blake insisted. “Let’s just get a scroll and head back.”

They all nodded, but still, as they were following Weiss through the rows and stand, the sisters still kept flanking the faunus, but she only rolled her eyes. Blake chose quickly which scroll she wanted, and Weiss went on with the transaction, and soon, they were back in the mass of people, the four women pressing close together. But as they went down the center of the mall, they felt their blood froze in their veins as they heard a screech.

A loud, far too familiar screech. A Nevermore.

Instinctively, they went towards the noise as it screeched again, as they all reached for their weapons, realising that they hadn’t brought them. Somewhere, deep in Weiss’s focused mind, she was wondering something.

Why isn’t anyone panicking? Why is everyone so calm?

It was only when they got closer, bumping a few people on the way to round the corner, that they came upon the origin of the noise, which was a very smaller version of a Nevermore, and they could hear the gears working as it turned its head this way and that, and it opened its beak, screeching again.

This was a Grimm themed shop.

“What the hell?” Yang exclaimed, a little out of breath, perfectly summing up everyone’s thoughts.

There was a TV, against the glassed wall of the shop, displaying some movie that they didn’t knew, but when Ruby froze, the hand on Weiss’s arm tightening  in a vice grip, and as the smaller woman looked over, she could understand why.

It showed Beacon’s tower with a single person on top, a man with a ridiculously long sword that seemed to weight nothing as he swung it around to fight off the Grimm, and she could tell he didn’t know how to use it properly. Then, out of nowhere, he stopped, and started to sing.

“Is this a fucking musical about Beacon?” Yang growled behind her.

Apparently, she had noticed, too.

At that moment, the dragon Grimm flew by, and the supposedly Huntsman jumped on its back as he kept singing.

“That’s preposterous,” Blake breathed. “What is this? It’s not even showing what really happened!”

Weiss pulled away from Ruby’s hand and quickly went inside, and it took a moment for the leader to realise she was gone, and it wasn’t until she felt Blake’s hand on her shoulder that she shook her head, and the faunus gave her a small smile.

“Let’s go get Weiss before she sets the place on fire,” Yang sighed, giving her sister a quick hug.

They entered the shop only to hear the angry shouts of Weiss, and they quickened the pace.

“Where is your manager, Charles? I have to speak to whoever is in charge about this monstrosity.”

“I-I am the manager, Ma’am.”

“Oh, you are, Charles? Then, can you give me the copy of the movie that is playing, out front?”

“Of course!”

The man, fumbling behind the counter as he searched for Weiss had asked for, and the smaller woman glared daggers at the few customers inside, staring at her.

“There it is,” the manager finally said, extending a rectangle of plastic, the movie digitally stored in it.

Weiss snatched it from his fingers before throwing it on the ground and stomping on it, hearing it crush under her heel with satisfaction.

“Hey! You have to pay for that!”

The smaller woman turned around, returning her attention on the man behind the counter, and as she glared at him, he took a step back.

“I’m not paying for this,” she snarled. “I have paid enough. Do you know what happened at Beacon? Do you want me to tell you? I was there, Charles. People died. Civilians, fellow students. Friends.”

She pointed angrily at the TV, her face twisted in anger.

“This isn’t a happy ever after story, Charles, this is real! People die every day because of these monsters!” she then pointed at the head of an Ursa, hung up above the counter on the wall. “They aren’t kind, and they don’t show mercy! They only know to kill!”

She slammed her hand on the counter, making the man jump slightly, and she leaned over.

“But you wouldn’t know that, right, Charles? There hasn’t been a single Grimm attack in Atlas for centuries. But one day, they’ll come here. And that day, after they kill everyone, you won’t find it amusing at all, owning a Grimm shop.”

The man only swallowed, but he clenched his fists, his features sharpening.

“Ma’am, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave,” he said.

She felt her face twitch, and she balled her hands into tight fists then, feeling a presence behind her.

“Give me all the copies first.”

“Weiss, that’s enough.”

Before she could argue, she felt Ruby’s vice grip on her arm, and as she was about to bark back, her pale eyes met her partner’s, and the cold look in Ruby’s eyes made the words roll back on her tongue.

Ruby’s eyes were light grey. Like steel.

“Fine,” she finally grumbled, jerking her arm away from her partner’s hold. “You’re lucky they’re here, Charles,” she continued, talking to the man behind the counter. “Because I would have burn this place down.”

She turned on her heels and stomped out without a single glance, keeping her tight fists beside her, and Ruby stared at the man for a few seconds more, making him shift nervously, before she wordlessly followed Weiss, Blake and Yang on her heels.

Even if she was small, Weiss was easily spottable in the crowd. They just have to follow the chain of offended gasps and shouts as Weiss almost rammed her way through the crowd to the neared exit, quickly putting on her coat, hat and gloves, and they saw her step in a long, narrow hallway, and as they entered the hallway, the door at the end of it was closing.

They stumbled outside to see Weiss kicking the wall repeatedly, her face still twisted in anger, and they let her.

Even if Weiss was usually the most collected of the four, they knew she could get emotional. Some things just went right through the cracks of the carefully made armor she had created around her, some things that would instantly make her blood boil, and all the calculated composure explode, leaving a mess in its wake.

“Pyrrha died that day!” Weiss yelled. “Penny died! And so, so many more! I don’t understand how you can deliberately ignore that!”

She kicked the wall again, panting, before pausing for a second, trying to catch her breath.

“I hate Atlas,” she murmured. “I hate this place. Everyone is racist, snob, they think they know better and they are selfish. I hate every last one of them.”

The rest of the team stayed silent, and Yang glanced at Ruby, a little worried, but the leader kept her eyes on her partner. Her eyes back to their normal silver.

After a moment of stillness, Weiss suddenly moved, quickly making her way to the team in a few paces, keeping her head low and hiding her face, and she wordlessly went directly to Yang, pressing her face in the soft fabric of the coat, her arms still stiff along her sides.

The blonde blinked, surprised for a second, until she heard the very shaky breath the smaller women let out, followed by the tiniest sob. Weiss knew. Yang would give instant comfort.

Instantly, Yang closed her arms around her, holding her close, and she leaned her cheek on top of her hat. Ruby then stepped closer, burying her face beside Weiss’s head as she sniffed.

“You know I can’t handle seeing you cry, Weiss,” Ruby let out in a strangled voice, before she wrapped her arms around the smaller woman and her sister.

It only made the smaller woman sob louder, and Ruby whined as she started crying too, pressing closer, and Yang sighed, wrapping an arm around her sister. She kissed Ruby’s head, then nuzzled between the two heads to kiss Weiss’s temple, holding them closer with a sigh. Then, the blonde looked to the side when she felt Blake’s hand on her arm, and the faunus grimaced, her ears pinned to her scalp, her eyes watery.

“Come on,” Yang gently let out, opening her arm to give her some space.

Blake pressed on her side, nuzzling the side of Weiss’s head, and Yang held them all, burying her face in dark and white locks.

“One day we’ll be fine,” she murmured, and the three heads nodded in synch. “One day.”

And they stayed like this, not caring at all if people stared on their way out, not caring as the snow wrapped them in a soft, white blanket, too.

They were just happy and relieved to be there. Together.

****

They bunked together, that night. Just like old times. And in the middle of the night, Weiss woke up, not knowing why she did. She blinked tiredly, turning around as best she could for she was squeezed between Yang and Ruby, and she meant to close her eyes to go back to sleep, but the soft glow of the room caught her attention. Green.

Opening her eyes wide this time, she propped herself up on her elbow, eyeing outside through the window, and she could see it. Brilliant, greenish lights, snaking across the sky, clothing everything in a soft green tint.

She smiled, for a moment enjoying this, before gently, carefully shaking Ruby’s shoulder, keeping a finger on her lips for her to stay silent, and when wide, blinking silver eyes stared at her in confusion, she smiled again, pointing the window with her chin.

The leader turned around, and she let out a quiet gasp, straightening her back to sit on the edge of the bed, and she looked back at Weiss, her eyes wide, filled with awe and excitement, and she took Weiss’s hand, gently tugging on it as she stood. They stepped closer to the window, Ruby almost pressing her face against the cold glass, her breath blurring the window as she gasped again, taking in the entire sky that was lit up.

Weiss smiled gently, seeing the lights strangely lifting a weight on her chest, and she felt like in this moment, nothing else mattered. Nothing else mattered, except her and the other woman, beside her, and she lowered her gaze to look at her, feeling her heart swell when she could see Ruby bit her lip to contain the excited squeals she knew the leader wanted to let out. And in that moment, with her partner painted in the soft glow of the lights, she had never seen something as beautiful as this.

Then, Ruby looked at her, her silver eyes taking a strange shine in the light, but her smile was so wide in quiet wonder.

“It’s beautiful,” the leader whispered, trying to be as quiet as she could.

Weiss smiled again, feeling light, and Ruby pointed behind them, at the bed, as she raised a single eyebrow.

“Let’s enjoy this a moment longer,” Weiss murmured back, reaching up and taking Ruby’s hand without an ounce of hesitation. “Just the two of us.”

Her partner’s silver eyes went down at their hands, seeing Weiss’s slender thumb gently slide over her knuckles, before looking up again, locking her eyes with pale-blue, her eyes so soft now, and she smiled, entwining their fingers before giving it a squeeze, and she nodded.

As Ruby looked back up at the sky, Weiss stepped closer, but kept her eyes on her partner, memorizing every feature, how Ruby’s nose went slightly up at the tip, how her bottom lip was fuller than the other, how the light would send shadows under her cheekbones. How the light would catch in her eyes.

Truly, in this moment, Weiss had never seen something as beautiful as this.

Chapter Text

The day following the incident at the mall left the team in a kind of morose ambience, one that even Yang’s cheerful tone couldn’t shake off. But the blonde didn’t really mind. She knew they just needed a little time to process. Blake and Yang seemed to be inseparable, at least more than usual, and Weiss gravitated between them and Ruby. As for the leader, she seemed to get more distant as the day went on.

The smaller woman had asked the team if they wanted to go back to Haven as soon as possible, saying that, even if she had already booked the flight back on Saturday, she could still book a flight for them that evening, or even the next day, but after consulting the team, they all agreed to stay until the weekend, saying that they didn’t have the real aurora borealis experience. Said experience being looking at the lights while on the roof of the mansion, outside.

Besides, they didn’t want Weiss to buy tickets as they already had ones. But even if Weiss told them she could buy three airships and it wouldn’t even make a dent in her finances, they still didn’t budge on their decision.

And so, after leaving Blake and Yang in the media room as they cuddled on the couch, Weiss went out, searching for her own partner, starting to worry for she hadn’t seen her for a couple of hours, now. And knowing that the leader was bad with directions, she knew Ruby wouldn’t be very far. Or she got lost.

In any cases, she decided to try the leader’s room, first, and she slowed down the pace when she saw her partner’s bedroom door slightly ajar, only a few inches open, and as she stopped in front of the door, she could see Ruby’s form on the bed. After a small pause, she took a sharp breath in, before rapping her knuckles against the door in three knocks.

“Ruby?” she called.

When no answer came, she furrowed her brows, and she bit her lip. If Ruby really didn’t want to be bothered, she would have closed the door.

Right?

After a firm nod, she decided to just peek inside, just to make sure that her partner was alright, and she would be on her way after that. But as she pushed on the door, opening it just enough for her to look inside, the leader, who was lying on her back and was apparently staring at the ceiling with her headphones on, noticed the door opening, and she looked over, locking her eyes with Weiss.

The smaller woman froze a second, and she was about to blurt out an apology and go away when Ruby smiled a little, reaching up to pull of the red headphone.

“Hey,” she said softly.

“I didn’t want to disturb you,” Weiss grimaced lightly. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to check in, I’ll leave you-”

“Actually,” Ruby interrupted her with a small sigh, “I think I could use a little company.”

The smaller woman made a half step inside, pushing the door slightly.

“You think?” she asked, raising a single eyebrow.

“Yeah,” the leader furrowed her eyebrows as she looked back at the ceiling, and in the short silence, Weiss could hear the music still softly playing from the headphones. “I prefer to say this, so like that, you won’t really mind if I change my mind about the company. Right?”

“Well, I just don’t like the idea of you being alone when you’re feeling down, but I’ll take what I can.”

It made her partner huff with a small smile as Weiss closed the door behind her, and she carefully made her way to the bed, sitting on the edge as she quickly looked over her partner. Ruby was still in her pajamas, which was telling in itself. She usually was the first one to be dressed up, already eager to start the day, and she also wore a somber expression as her eyes stayed on the ceiling, her fingers tracing the emblem carved on the side of her headphones.

“How are you feeling, Ruby?” she softly asked after a while.

The younger woman took a long moment to answer, taking the time to let out a long breath through her nose as her face scrunched up a little.

“I don’t know,” she finally let out. “I was fine when you woke me up during the night. I was just… enjoying this moment with you. But now, I’m just thinking. And honestly, I don’t know if I want a hug for like, fourteen hours, or if I want to take a really long walk outside. I don’t know if I want company or not. I don’t know if I’m fine, or if I’ll ever be.”

Weiss opened her mouth, raising her eyebrows high on her forehead in surprise, but she closed her mouth quietly, not knowing what to say. She wasn’t expecting her partner to actually voice her thoughts, but even if she was glad Ruby did, she still didn’t know what to say.

“It’s just…” the leader sighed again. “I thought I was over it. I thought I was fine. But then I saw Beacon’s tower in that stupid musical, and it was as if I relived it. It’s just-It sucks.”

“Well,” the smaller woman let out after a short silence. “I can provide the hug if you ever need it. As long as you like. But I highly don’t recommend the long walk outside, for you might just freeze to death on the way, and we still need our leader. Also, I don’t want a block of ice as my best friend, just so you know.”

It made Ruby snort, but Weiss felt a surge of pride when she saw a small smile pulling the leader’s lips as silver eyes looked down at her, with just a glint of amusement in them.

“I still find it really weird when you try to make jokes to cheer me up. It’s weird, but in a good way. I like it.”

“You know I’m not really good at comforting,” Weiss shrugged a little with a slight grimace.

“I know.” She smiled softly. “But just the fact that you’re trying is the comforting part.”

“Are you saying it’s working, then?”

Ruby chuckled quietly, returning her eyes to the ceiling, but still, a small smile stayed on her lips.

“Yeah.”

The smaller woman reached out, gently grasping her partner’s hand to give it a squeeze, and she felt the leader squeeze back, keeping Weiss’s slender hand in her own, before tugging gently, shifting to the side to make more space, asking without a word for the smaller woman to lay down with her. And Weiss gladly did, just happy to be able to provide some kind of comfort, and when Ruby pressed close, resting her head on the crook of Weiss’s shoulder with a small sigh, looping an arm around her waist, the smaller woman slid her fingers in dark locks after a second of hesitation.

Weiss liked to play with Ruby’s hair. It started to get long, now, her hair a few inches past her shoulders, and the smaller woman always thought her hair was so soft and light between her fingers as she threaded through it. And when Ruby sighed, her breath tickling the skin on her neck as she felt her snuggle closer, in this moment, Weiss couldn’t ask for more.

She sometimes couldn’t believe how close they were, now. Never in her life had she thought she would grow close like this with someone. Never had she thought she would have people caring about her as much as she cared for them. And it happened sometimes, just like right now, that she would just lay there in quiet wonder, almost astonished that the woman she cared most in her life was all pressed up against her, and that it was alright. That it was good, and that it wasn’t frowned upon.

It almost felt like a revelation, an out of body experience, sometimes.

“Ruby?” she softly called after what seemed an eternity, massaging the skin right behind the leader’s ear before sliding her fingers through her hair.

A soft hum answered her, sounding relaxed and just a little curious, and Weiss kept her eyes on the ceiling, furrowing her brows slightly.

“Do you… Um…”

When she trailed off, suddenly hesitant, she could feel her partner shift, Ruby bumping her nose under her chin as dark eyebrows shot up, waiting expectantly, and Weiss swallowed. Trying to remain calm. Ruby’s head was literally resting on her chest, if her heart would do flips, it was sure she would know-

“Do you- Do you have sudden realisation, sometimes?” she finally blurted out, staring stubbornly at the ceiling.

Why. Why did she ask that. It wasn’t what she wanted to say.

She could almost feel Ruby smile against her neck, and she felt a warm blush color her cheeks when her partner settled back, nuzzling her neck.

“Yeah, I do,” was Ruby’s only answer, her voice quiet and mysterious.

“Oh. Okay.”

And she could tell Ruby’s smile grew larger when Weiss’s heartbeat picked up a little.

****

“That’s a sad sight,” Blake’s voice rang a little farther from her right, and she grunted internally.

Weiss sighed, staying on the same spot, hidden in a corner near the kitchen, and she thumped her forehead against the wall again.

“Leave me alone,” she grumbled.

“Now I’m starting to worry,” the faunus’s voice was much closer now, and there was indeed concern in her voice. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” she grumbled again.

“Nothing?” Blake snorts. “Then to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you, knocking your head against the wall?”

“I’m a coward.”

There was a short silence, and she felt a hand on her back, light.

“What happened?”

Weiss said nothing, only thumping her forehead against the wall again, and Blake grabbed her shoulders, turning her around so she was facing her.

“Okay, first of all, stop doing that. Whatever happened, I’m sure you don’t deserve this. Secondly, come on. What happened?”

“It was perfect!” Weiss finally snapped, rubbing her forehead. “It’s just- We were cuddling, Ruby was feeling better, we were so close and it felt right and I wanted to tell her, Blake!”

“But?”

“I panicked!” the smaller woman almost whined. “I asked about… something about sudden realisations, and I chickened out!”

“Okay, calm down. There’ll be other occasions, Wei-”

“I’m a disaster. Maybe if I bash my head in the wall hard enough, I’ll ascend into another realm and forget about this miserable attempt of a happy love life.”

“Don’t.” Blake firmly ordered. “It’s okay, Weiss, as I said, there’ll be plenty of occasions. Stop being so dramatic.”

“Why can’t I just say the things I want to say?” Weiss asked, her face scrunching up in anger. “Why is there this… mechanism that twists my words when I want most to be sincere?”

“Weiss-”

“It’s simple. It’s because you’re scared.”

Both of them jumped, snapping their heads towards the voice, seeing Yang leaned against the wall, just a few paces away, her face serious but with a kind glint in her eyes. And when the blonde noticed Weiss freezing in place, her eyes widening, she rolled her eyes.

“Oh, come on. Don’t tell me you really believed I didn’t notice. You’re like, vomiting rainbows every time you look at Ruby.”

The smaller woman felt a dark blush burning her face as Blake straightened her back, dumbfounded.

“Then why didn’t you say something before?” the faunus asked, absentmindedly patting Weiss’s back to try and comfort her.

“I wanted her to tell me, first,” the blonde answered as she shrugged a single shoulder, finally stepping closer. “But, I guess you won’t have to, now. Why didn’t you tell me anyway?”

Yang winked at Weiss, and Blake rubbed Weiss’s back for a few more seconds until the smaller woman seemed to be able to breathed normally again.

“Aren’t you… upset?” the smaller woman asked with a small voice, toying with her hands timidly.

The blonde made a face, a mix between being surprise and offended.

“Why would I be upset?” she asked with a snort.

“Well, you always were very protective of Ruby, so…” the faunus answered for Weiss.

Yang blinked, silent for a moment, and she blinked again as she shifted, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Wow. Okay. Now, I’m upset. I mean, how- how could you possibly think I would be mad at you, Weiss?” she asked, furrowing her brows deeply and creating a crease between them. “I mean, I couldn’t trust anyone more than you, with Ruby. Besides, how could I be mad when I see two of my favorite people get together?”

“We’re not-”

“Shush. It’s just a matter of time, and you know it.”

The smaller woman clacked her mouth close, pinching her lips tightly for a moment as she shifted.

“How could it happen when I’m apparently unable to say something about it?”

“Then don’t say anything. Just do it.”

“What?” Weiss almost hissed.

“Okay, look. You think too much, sometimes. So, why don’t you just act, next time?” the blonde suggested. “Just kiss her.”

As Weiss was about to argue, the last words of Yang seemed to take a time to be registered, and the smaller woman froze again, a soft blush painting her cheeks as she seemed to think about it. And when the blonde noticed, she laughed, stepping closer and pulling her into her arms.

“Oh my Gosh, you’re so precious,” she chuckled.

“Shut up,” Weiss grumbled, pulling away angrily. “Besides, I don’t think I can. Act, like that.”

“You can’t when you think too much, but I know you can be impulsive, Weiss. I know you both want it, and Ruby’s just being a little shit and waiting for you to make the first step.”

“Wait, are you sure about that?” Blake intervened, stepping in almost protectively after a glance at Weiss, seeing her blank expression.

“Duh,” the blonde huffed, rolling her eyes. “Who do you think she told about her really big crush on her partner?”

“B-But,” Weiss stammered, blinking. “When did you know? When did she tell you?”

“She told me a long time ago that she had a crush on you,” Yang shrugged. “But she wasn’t sure about you until what happened in the ballroom. And now she’s just teasing you. Because she’s a little shit.”

There was a silence, and they almost could hear the gears turning in Weiss’s head until Blake eyed the blonde, narrowing her eyes slightly.

“So, if you knew, why did you keep telling me you were searching for a date for Weiss?”

“Okay, if I really was, trust me, Weiss would have had so many dates,” the blonde rolled her eyes. “I only said it, and never actually did. Like I said, I wanted her to tell me.”

“I’m sorry.”

Blake and Yang turned their attention to Weiss, who kept her gaze down on the floor.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Yang. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you.”

The blonde stared at Weiss for a moment, long enough to make the smaller woman shift nervously, and she sighed before pulling her into her arms, hugging her loosely.

“Look, I know I can be protective of my little sister, Weiss. But let me tell you; I couldn’t be happier. Like I said, how could I be mad when my two favorite people get together?”

The smaller woman only let her head fall against the blonde’s chest with a sigh, and Yang laughed quietly, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her away, holding her at arm’s length.

“Now listen to me, Weiss. You can do it.”

“Are you really going to give me some motivational speech?” the smaller woman asked, sarcasm dripping from her voice as she raised a single eyebrow.

“Well, do you need it or not?”

Weiss pinched her lips for a second, and Yang only smiled.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Are you serious?” Blake sighed. “Weiss, just… Do it at your own pace. There’s no need to rush.”

“Get those balls of steel I know you have and go for it, Weiss!” Yang insisted, smiling encouragingly.

Pale-blue eyes glanced from Blake to Yang, then back to Blake, and to Yang again before her face sharpened, determined, and she took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders.

“Okay.” She only said.

And she pulled away, walking down the hallway. Away from Ruby’s room.

“You shouldn’t have pressured her like that,” Blake quietly said to Yang, her eyes trailed to where the smaller woman had disappeared.

“And you’re too kind. If you don’t pressure her, she’ll never do it.”

The faunus glanced at her with a short sigh, returning her attention towards the hallway, her eyebrows furrowing slightly.

“Still… I hope she doesn’t freak out. Poor thing. She deserves this.”

“I bet five bucks she does it impulsively.” Yang let out, a smirk pulling one corner of her lips.

The faunus stared at her for a second.

“Five bucks she just tells her.” then, after a second. “And a lap dance.”

“Deal.”

****

“Why do people even like this game?” Weiss sighed.

“Uh duh? Because it’s awesome?” Yang answered.

“’Truth or Dare’ isn’t awesome, Yang. You just like it because you can ask us really awkward questions, and make us do awkward things.”

Blake’s even voice made the blonde pout a little as Ruby shrugged, sinking a little deeper in the couch.

“It was just a suggestion,” the leader sighed slightly.

“Pff, you do awkward things when you’re alone with me,” the blonde argued quietly at Blake.

And the faunus knocked her book on Yang’s face, making the blonde laugh while Weiss only shook her head as she looked over at the window, seeing that it was so dark outside. They just had dinner, and it was a little late in the evening, and the smaller woman was trying to remember around what time the first lights would be out as she heard Blake and Yang quietly bickering behind her. She was so focused on trying to remember that it took a moment for her to realise that Ruby was watching her, her eyes half closed as she sat back in the couch.

She felt her heart fluttered, and she had to remind herself not to panic. This was fine.

And, she thought with a small smile, she could do the same, right?

She turned her head just enough so she could lock her eyes with Ruby, feeling her heart picking up when a very discreet smile graced Ruby’s lips. Straightening her back slightly, Weiss brought both her hands on her lap, angling her head, and she felt a warm wave rush through her body when silver eyes went down, trailing down her neck.

A cocky grin pulled her lips. She didn’t know where this boldness came from, but she was kind of appreciating that she was playing Ruby’s game, now.

But still, when the leader looked up, narrowing her eyes slightly and imperceptibly tightening her grip on the armrest, Weiss felt her heart hammering against her ribcage, Ruby’s stare holding a hunger that made her breathless for a short moment.

“So, when will we be able to see the lights again?” Yang’s voice was distant, it seemed, until Ruby’s eyes went away, towards the window, and the smaller woman blinked, taking in a shaky breath.

Weiss took the time to clear her throat quietly as she stood, making her way to the window to look outside, feeling Ruby’s stare on her again.

“Soon, I’m sure,” she finally answered after making sure her voice wouldn’t tremble. “We should get ready to go out.”

****

Pointedly ignoring Blake and Yang’s amused glances, they stepped on the roof of the mansion, and the faunus was holding her scroll in her hands with Kali, Baxter and Ghira on the line, and they already could see a couple of bright lights in the sky, blue and green dancing in the sky.

Weiss smiled, hidden behind the thick scarf that covered half her face, when she heard the excited squeals of Ruby, Baxter’s echoing from the scroll a few seconds later, and the rest just gasped in quiet awe as more lights slowly appeared, one after the other.

She didn’t know how long they stayed out there, but she had only eyes for the sky, feeling Ruby press close to her, and after a quick glance, she could see the leader’s eyes fixated on the sky, filled with awe.

She had said it often, and it was only now that she remembered it, but the cloudless days here were the most treacherous; the cold was piercing during those days. Every breath taken felt like a thousand tiny blades cutting in the flesh, and it would ice everything that wasn’t covered enough. So, just before they walked out of the mansion, Weiss had made sure everyone had more than one layer of clothes, and that the clothes were thick enough to actually be warm. Getting frostbites wasn’t a good way to remember this night.

But still. It didn’t take long. Blake was the first to start shifting from leg to leg, flexing her knees, keeping her legs into motions so they would stay warm. Right next was Ruby, the leader pressing against her side before she started trotting around the roof.

Then it was Yang.

Weiss shook her head. Even after six years, she still could stay out in this temperature for hours. But before long, Ruby came back to her side, and this time she could feel her trembling even if she said she was alright, her eyes still fixated on the sky.

Blake’s scroll had stopped working for a while now, the cold sapping the device’s battery, and after Yang started complaining about the cold, they all decided to get back inside, glancing one last time at the sky with a little regret, and Blake said that they could always watch them from inside.

But the faunus wasn’t used to this cold. Being cold was exhausting, and as Yang was filling the hearth with more logs, trying to heat them all up, Blake had fallen asleep, curled up under a thick blanket.

“Aw,” the blonde softly let out, reaching out to carefully tuck a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear. “She’s really not made for the cold.”

“Me too,” Ruby added, her teeth clacking as she sat directly in front of the hearth with another blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

“How can you find this enjoyable?” the blonde asked tiredly, crouching beside her sister and rubbing her hands together in front of the fire.

The flames licked the new logs, and it didn’t take long for the fire to expend, giving off a satisfying amount of heat as Ruby sighed.

Weiss laughed as she carried the three cups of steaming hot chocolate that Klein had brought before disappearing, setting them on the low table.

“I guess you get used to it,” she gracefully answered.

“You’re weird,” Ruby mumbled, but still extended her hand.

The smaller woman gave one cup to her partner, thinking that was what she wanted, but the leader quickly passed the cup to her other hand, her hand still reached out, and she quickly waved her fingers, insisting silently. The blonde leaned over to take her cup, winking at Weiss behind Ruby’s head on the way, and the smaller woman gracefully ignored her, only taking the offered hand, and following as Ruby pulled her down to sit beside her.

The leader silently wrapped Weiss’s shoulders with a part of the blanket before snuggling closer, holding the hot cup with both hands, and the smaller woman could still feel her shiver. They stayed silent for a moment, just remembering the lights they had just seen, but exhaustion was clear on everyone’s faces, and Yang quickly finished her hot chocolate.

“Well, I got a kitten to tuck in,” the blonde sighed as she stood, rubbing her thighs vigorously.

“I hope she liked it,” Weiss quietly mused, glancing back at the couch, seeing the faunus’s face was now completely buried against the blanket, and only her ears were visible.

“She did,” Yang answered in a smile. “I did, too. It was really gorgeous. I just hoped Bax and your parents got to see it clearly before the scroll crashed.”

“Well, at the sounds Baxter was making, I’m pretty sure they saw it,” the leader quietly chuckled.

The blonde huffed softly, a smile on her lips, and she carefully gathered Blake in her arms before lifting her up with ease, making the faunus mumble quietly in her sleep.

“Goodnight, you two,” Yang sighed, and her voice sounded so tired now. “Don’t stay up too late.”

“Don’t worry, I’m going right after that,” Ruby assured, motioning to her cup.

The blonde nodded, humming, and she started towards the hallway, striding over the discarded winter clothes that they left at the foot of the couch before disappearing, the sound of her footsteps strangely quiet. Weiss returned her attention on the fire in front of her then, blowing a little on the warm beverage in her hands, and she felt Ruby shiver again before snuggling closer.

“I can’t believe you’re not cold,” the leader grumbled, sounding mildly upset.

“Well, I can say the same for the hot temperature and Blake,” the smaller woman shrugged, amused. “When I feel like I’m melting inside and she’s just there, with her coat on, saying that it’s a ‘cold’ day.”

Ruby laughed at the almost disgusted tone Weiss used when she said ‘cold’, and it made her smile as she buried her nose in her mug. A silence fell on them, comfortable, as they were staring at the fire cracking and sipping their hot chocolate, and after a while, Ruby stopped shivering but still stayed close, pulling the blanket closer around them, and she looked up at Weiss. Not a subtle glance. She was looking at Weiss, straight-on, and when the smaller woman finally turned her head to look at her, Ruby only smiled, blinking, and Weiss’s heart fluttered as she smiled back.

Somewhere in her mind, she wondered if Ruby’s heart would pick up when she looked at her, too.

“Truth or dare?” the leader quietly asked.

That made her huff, cocking a single eyebrow.

“Really, Ruby?”

“Oh, come on,” Ruby insisted, bumping their shoulders together. “Just the two of us. Yang isn’t there to ask awkward questions.”

She rolled her eyes, and she didn’t need to look to know that her partner was doing her puppy eyes to convince her. It was unfair enough that it worked even though she wasn’t looking.

“Fine,” Weiss sighed after a moment. “I’ll go with truth.”

She felt Ruby perk up beside her but she kept her attention on the fire, stretching her legs in front of her to warm her feet.

“Truth,” the leader repeated. “I thought you were more of a dare kind of girl, and protecting your truth fiercely, like you do with Yang.”

Weiss raised a single eyebrow, glancing at her partner.

“Do you prefer I choose dare?”

“No,” Ruby smiled. “I told you I won’t ask awkward things. Okay, let me see…”

The leader narrowed her eyes as she looked up at the ceiling, thoughtful, and Weiss glanced at her, the light of the fire creating shadows on her face.

“When did you start having doubts about your sexuality?” Ruby finally asked after a moment, turning her eyes to her in genuine curiosity.

She raised her eyebrows high on her forehead, blinking. She hadn’t expected that kind of question.

“Um.” The smaller woman turned her attention to the hearth, curling her toes a couple of times to see if her feet had warmed up. “I guess I had… glimpses of doubts, when I was traveling from Atlas to Mistral? But then so many things happened, and I only started to really doubt maybe… A year ago? A year and a half?”

“And you waited that long to tell us?” It was Ruby’s turn to arch her eyebrows.

Weiss shrugged as she took in a deep breath, grimacing a little.

“Yes?”

The leader stilled for a moment, before nodding slightly, humming, returning her attention to the fire.

“Truth or dare?” Weiss asked after a moment, tilting her head to the side with a small smile.

Ruby huffed, glancing at her shortly with a smile.

“I’ll go for truth, too.”

“Yang had asked me if I had embarrassing stories, but not you,” the smaller woman asked, furrowing her eyebrows a little. “I mean, I know you didn’t dated while at Haven, or even Beacon, but, I mean… Didn’t you have an interest in someone, at some point?”

Ruby blinked a few times before frowning slightly.

“What is your question? I feel like there are three of them.”

Weiss pinched her lips, looking at her for a few seconds before returning her eyes to the fire.

“Um.”

“Are you asking if I have an interest in someone?”

Yes.

“No, it’s… I mean… What is you sexuality?” she finally asked. “You could be straight or gay and I wouldn’t know. I never saw you interested in someone before.”

Before now, you mean.

Her partner hummed, nodding again as she shifted.

“Well, I don’t really know what to say,” Ruby shrugged. “I don’t really care for gender, I guess. It’s more what’s inside that count.” Then, after a few seconds, “But, my sexuality is someone with really cool and badass weapons.”

That made Weiss laugh and Ruby smile, the leader sipping from her cup almost timidly.

“Okay, now it’s not part of the game and it’s only to appease my curiosity so feel free to not answer if you don’t want to, but is there a weapon crush you have?” Weiss asked, amused.

“Oh, there are so many,” the leader instantly assured as she raised her eyes to the ceiling, making Weiss chuckle. “But my one and only love will always be my dearest Crescent Rose. And, right next to it is probably uncle Qrow’s scythe.”

“Because you like scythes,” the smaller woman quietly chuckled again.

“What can I say? They’re so cool! Besides, your weapon is really cool too. Full of magic and mysteries. Just like you.”

“What do you mean, ‘just like me’?” Weiss snorted. “I’m not magical and full of mysteries. Besides, it’s not that complicated once you know how it works.”

“I know. Just like you.”

The smaller stared at her for a few seconds, and Ruby seemed oblivious as she kept her eyes on the ceiling a few seconds more, before lowering them to the hearth.

“What do you mean?” Weiss asked quietly.

“Truth or dare?” Ruby asked at the same time, turning her eyes to her and smiling when their eyes met.

The smaller woman clenched her jaw for a second, her eyes never leaving Ruby’s.

“Truth.”

“Again?”

“You know I’m always honest with you, Ruby.”

“Are you really?”

Her breath caught in her throat at her partner’s quiet question, and she could feel her heart stuttering when Ruby blinked, her expression serious but soft, her attention focused on Weiss, and the smaller woman couldn’t help but glance down at Ruby’s slightly parted lips, swallowing, before turning her eyes to the hearth as she nodded, humming.

“Always.”

She felt her voice tremble at the end, almost thanking the skies that she answered with only one word. She felt Ruby’s stare stay on her for a few more seconds before the leader glanced at the fire too, and a silence rested on them.

Weiss hated every second of it.

“Truth or dare?” the smaller woman quietly asked.

“Dare,” was the instant answer.

She looked over at her partner, blinking.

She’s giving you an occasion on a silver platter, Weiss. Take it.

“I thought we were in a ‘truth’ kind of mood,” she let out instead.

Ruby shrugged one shoulder, one corner of her lips pulling up.

“You have a chance to spice it up, then.”

“Then I dare you to kiss me.”

Both their eyes widened in surprise. Weiss couldn’t believe she had let those words slip out. Even though she was screaming internally when Ruby turned to her, her eyebrows raised up high on her forehead, she could feel her heart hammering in her chest when the leader only blinked before leaning closer.

Ruby’s lips pressed over hers gently, almost brushing at first, but Weiss pressed closer, one hand reaching up to clutch at the leader’s collar to keep her there, and she could see her silver eyes stare at her with satisfaction as her eyes fluttered shut. And just as she was about to deepen the kiss, the leader pulled away.

“Truth or dare?” Ruby asked in a breath that tickled Weiss’s face.

“Truth.”

“Do you want me to kiss you again?”

“Yes.”

The leader smiled, quickly setting her mug aside before reaching up, cupping Weiss’s face with warm hands, and she took Weiss’s lips again, this time angling her head to deepen the kiss, and the smaller woman couldn’t held back the pleased hum she let out as her eyes shut closed.

Chapter Text

Lying awake on her bed in the middle of the night, scowling at the ceiling, Weiss couldn’t stop her thoughts from swarming her mind. And, just remembering how the night went, really.

One of Ruby’s hands left her face to settle on her hip, pulling slightly to bring them closer, and Weiss took the cue, turning around so she would face her partner, letting the blanket fall from her shoulders as she pulled a little more on Ruby’s collar. She could feel the leader smile against her lips, feel her grip tightening on her hip, feel her hot breath against her mouth when Ruby pulled away for a breath, and feel her wet tongue run on her lip when the leader leaned over again.

She kept her eyes closed, feeling everything, not wanting to let go of Ruby, not wanting to open her eyes and realise she had been dreaming again. If it really was a dream, she wanted to see it to its end.

But Ruby only pressed closer, propping herself on her knees as the hand that was still cupping her face slid down the side of her neck, trailing the tips of her fingers on her soft skin, and the leader quickly followed these tracks with her soft lips, peppering kisses along Weiss’s jaw to her neck, brushing and pausing for a second against Weiss’s pulse, the beat frantic against the soft touch.

She opened her eyes wide when she felt Ruby’s mouth closed there, and a shuddering breath escaped her lips when the kiss lingered. Weiss reached up, one of her hands sliding into the leader’s dark hair and fisted at the base of her neck, hearing Ruby hiss slightly as she did, and the leader continued down Weiss’s neck.

Every touch from Ruby only added some wood at the fire already blazing in her stomach, desire burning bright, fueling her body to react to everything Ruby would give her. A touch, a kiss, a sigh; everything made her head go blank, the thoughts melting or crashing into each other, and she swore her heart would jump out of her chest when Ruby’s warm lips, so soft, feeling so perfect on her skin, went the length of her collarbone, stopping at the hollow of her throat between them.

The leader looked up, her silver eyes a few shades darker, raising a single dark eyebrow in a silent question, panting, her breath burning hot against her skin.

Weiss knew, in that moment. Everything that Ruby wanted, she would be willing to give it to her.

With a quick, short nod, Weiss pulled Ruby to her again, and as she felt one of her partner’s hand slip on her back, the smaller woman braced her weight on her hand as Ruby laid her down, her hand ghosting over Ruby’s side until she grabbed her belt, tugging to bring the leader closer on top of her. Ruby laughed softly against her skin as she started nosing near her collar, trying to pull it down to give her room to work, and Weiss was about to sit back up to pull her shirt off when the sound of the floor creaking made her freeze.

“Oh. I’m sorry. Perhaps I’ll come back later.”

Weiss’s head snapped up, seeing a retreating, upside down Klein disappearing back into the hallway he just came from, and she felt Ruby’s tensed body only slightly pull away.

As the realisation that Klein stumbled on them, and it was obvious what they were doing no doubts about it, Weiss felt a dark blush creep up her face as she heard Ruby start laughing, at first stifled, trying to hide it, but when Weiss looked down, narrowing her eyes at her, the leader let it out fully, sitting back on her heels.

And as she did, Weiss couldn’t stop thinking about how gorgeous Ruby was.

With her puffed hair, her ruffled clothes, the soft pink tint that was covering her cheeks as she laughed, there was nothing more beautiful in the world to her eyes.

And maybe it showed on her face, on that moment. Because when Ruby looked at her again, her expression soft as she locked her eyes with her, she stayed there, without a word, and she smiled.

If she only knew that a simple smile could make Weiss’s already fast-paced heart go even faster.

The leader leaned down again, holding her weight on her hands on each side of Weiss to kiss her.

“Let’s leave it there for tonight,” the smaller woman heard her say against her lips.

And so here she was, alone in the darkness of her room, lying in bed and trying as hard as she could to ignore the raw need of Ruby’s touch. Trying to keep herself from just getting up and going to Ruby’s room.

God, what am I doing?

Turning on her side with an irritated huff, she wondered shortly how many times she had asked herself that, and she closed her eyes, trying to make herself relax. But as the minutes went by, her mind replaying the earlier event in loop, she gritted her teeth and wondered if bashing her head in a wall until she passed out would be considered as ‘sleep’, she heard the soft chime of her scroll, the screen illuminating the dark as it was facing up on her nightstand.

Furrowing her brows as she opened her eyes, she reached over, squinting her eyes at the light of the screen as she wondered who it was this late at night, when she read the name that had appeared on the screen, she huffed, this time with a smile.

Of course. It was Ruby.

She quickly swiped her thumb over the screen to see what the message was, and she found out that Ruby had sent her one single thing. Not even a word.

It was a simple smiley face.

Weiss huffed again, this time softly, and she took a moment to think about what to reply until she stopped.

Don’t think too much, Weiss.

And so, she only sent back a smiley face, too, wondering if Ruby would understand what she wanted to say with that single thing.

Apparently, it was enough. Because Ruby’s next message was two smiley faces.

Weiss chuckled at that, and shortly, another message from her partner appeared, telling her to go to sleep and that she wished her a good night. Replying quickly, Weiss shifted in her bed, leaving her scroll on the pillow next to her, and as she closed her eyes, she realised she felt a whole lot better now.

**** 

“I’m going in the shower!”

“Okay!” Yang replied. “Don’t break your neck, the tiles gets very slippery when it’s wet!”

They heard Ruby made a sound that was halfway between a sigh and a laugh before the leader started down the hallway, and Weiss glanced at her. Ruby was still in her pajamas, and as she walked down the hallway she stretched her arms over her head, and Weiss could see the play of muscles under her skin. On her arms and on the couple inches that was appearing of her back from her black tank top.

Ruby wasn’t as bulky as Yang, but she could make a huge sniper-scythe dance in her hands.

She leaned her chin in her hand as her eyes stayed on Ruby’s retreating back, wondering how her partner’s back would feel like under her hands, how it would feel like to have Ruby’s strong body pressed against hers, skin against skin, and suddenly her mouth was dry.

“Remnant to Weiss,” she heard Blake’s smooth voice cut through her train of thoughts just as Ruby rounded a corner, and she turned her attention back.

The faunus was still reading across from her, but a small smile pulled her lips as she flipped a page over.

“I can hear you thinking. Keep it down, I’m trying to read.”

She was about to argue when golden eyes glanced up, sending her a knowing look and a wink, and she quickly lowered her gaze on her breakfast, feeling a blush color her cheeks as she poked at her eggs with her fork.

“You know, I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind if you go in the shower with her,” Yang chirped in, tapping away on her scroll as she played a game.

This time, Weiss glanced up and narrowed her eyes at Yang, feeling an even darker blush burning her cheeks.

“Stop teasing me!” she hissed, and the venom in her voice would have been threatening if Weiss’s face weren’t crimson red, and she saw both Blake and Yang smirk in synch.

“But it’s so fun!” the blonde smiled widely, finally raising her eyes to look at her.

“Besides, you seem even more touchy about it than usual,” Blake reported, closing her book around her finger as she sat back in her chair. “Almost as if something happened.”

Her golden eyes settled on her, scanning her, and just under her gaze Weiss felt like an open book, unable to contain the small, cheeky grin that grew on her lips, and Blake raised her eyebrows high on her forehead.

“Wait. Something did happen,” she let out a little more quietly, leaning over to brace her forearms on the table, all her attention on Weiss.

Weiss opened her mouth to answer when Yang practically dropped her scroll to the ground, quickly covering her ears with her hands as she threw the smaller woman one of her largest grins.

“Do I have to cover my ears? I mean, it’s my sister-”

“Of course not!” Weiss snapped, feeling another rush of heat yet again to her face.

But there was something in her voice, a slight hesitation that made the blonde’s grin falter a little, and her hands reached closer to her ears.

“…Do I really have to cover my ears?”

“Well, I- No.”

Returning her attention to her forgotten breakfast, she poked at her eggs again, feeling the weight of Blake and Yang’s stare on her, and she decided that talking to her plate would be less embarrassing.

“If Klein hadn’t walked in on us, then maybe, you probably should have to cover your ears,” she mumbled, furrowing her brows as the reminiscent frustration from the night before settled in the pit of her stomach.

When no sound came beside her, she risked a glance up, seeing both her teammates staring at her in utmost surprise.

“What?” she growled, her grip tightening on her fork.

Blake was the first to blink.

“Well, you did say you were attracted to Ruby,” the faunus let out slowly.

“I thought you would be more chaste on the matter. Like hold hands, maybe kiss, and, like, three years later start doing… things,” Yang chirped in before Weiss could say something, her face scrunching up. “Oh gosh, I can’t believe I thought about it.”

“I didn’t-” the smaller woman started before interrupting herself, shifting a little in her chair. “I would have stick to the kissing, but…”

“But Ruby happened?” Blake mused, an amused smile pulling her lips.

For a couple of seconds, Weiss tried to find the right words before abandoning the fight.

“Yes.”

“You’re not complaining, though.”

“No,” Weiss let out, her answer just a little too fast and almost dreamingly, and another blush colored her cheeks.

“While I’m glad that you two seem to get along on that,” Yang leaned over, grimacing a little. “I wonder how it started. If you said something to Ruby or if you just acted, like I told you to.”

The faunus glanced at the blonde shortly before settling her gaze on Weiss, listening with rapt attention, and the smaller woman furrowed her brows, replaying the scene in her head. Not that she had to think hard to remember it.

I dare you to kiss me.

“It was a little bit of both, I guess,” Weiss softly let out, her gaze on the table as she spoke.

“Meaning?”

“Well, we… after you left with Blake,” Weiss started, raising her eyes to Yang, seeing the blonde nod as she listened intently. “We started playing Truth or dare, and eventually Ruby chose dare and I… I dared her to kiss me?”

Yang’s face split in a wide grin while Weiss, oblivious, poked at her eggs yet again, her eyes settled back on the table.

“And she did. And I really, really liked it, and I didn’t want her to stop,” Weiss finished quietly.

“But, I mean, you did told her,” Blake’s voice brought her back to reality, noticing how the faunus was focused on her, ignoring the very pleased blonde that smiled smugly at her. “Right?”

“Aw, come on, Blake,” Yang rolled her eyes. “This is pretty bold. Pretty impulsive. Right?” the last part was directed at her, the large smile still on the blonde’s lips.

Pale blue eyes glanced back and forth between her teammates, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“Um…”

“But she did tell her, I mean she didn’t lean over to kiss her,” Blake continued, turning to Yang.

“Yeah but it was a dare, Blake. A dare! It takes guts to dare the girl you’ve been crushing over for a long while to kiss you. It takes some boldness.”

“But-”

“Okay, what’s the issue, here,” the smaller woman sighed, interrupting whatever argument that came up next.

Golden and lilac eyes turned to her in synch, before glancing back at each other.

“We kinda bet on how you would ‘tell’ Ruby,” Yang finally answered. “Blake said you would be honest and tell her, and I said that you would do something impulsive.”

Weiss blinked, the resigned expression shifting to one of anger before settling on annoyance.

“Really?” she finally asked, her voice tight as she glanced back and forth her teammates.

Blake had the grace to look slightly ashamed, while Yang only smiled as smugly as she was.

She sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of her noise, feeling as if she was about to settle something far more important than what was really happening.

“Sorry Blake, but this time, Yang wins.”

The blonde instantly raised her arms above her head, whooping excitedly as Blake only sighed as she sat back in her chair, looking defeated.

“What was the bet?” Weiss asked, curiosity winning over her annoyance.

“Five bucks and a lap dance,” Yang answered, her smile reaching her ears as she offered Weiss both her thumbs up.

The faunus huffed, rolling her eyes.

“Fine, you know Weiss better than I do, show off,” Blake playfully growled, elbowing the blonde gently.

“Aw don’t be mad, love. You know I love you lap dances.”

“Ugh, spare me,” Weiss grumbled under her breath.

****

“Where are we going again?” Ruby asked, eyeing the walls of the long, dark hallway they were walking down.

“To the training grounds,” Weiss answered with a small smile, despite the gloomy appearance of the hallway. “I’m guessing nobody came here after I left, that’s why it’s so…” her pale eyes glanced around, seeing the few pedestal of Dust-powered light covered in rust in the humid environment. “… Abandoned.”

“‘Abandoned’?” Yang repeated, scoffing. “The place looks haunted.”

“Don’t be silly, Yang. If there is a place that is haunted, it’s the mansion.”

The blonde stopped dead in her tracks as Weiss only lengthened her strides, trying to bite back her smile as she heard Ruby sigh beside her.

“Yes, I do remember seeing a report that your, what? Great uncle died in the mansion?”

Glancing over her shoulder, she locked her eyes with Blake, glad that the faunus would join in her teasing.

“Great-great uncle, actually,” Weiss nodded solemnly, rounding a corner. “I wasn’t even born when it happened.”

“I heard that his wife died too, the same year,” Blake mused quietly, bringing a hand up to rub at her chin.

It was an unsaid fact that Yang was afraid of ghosts and everything related to it, even if she would never admit it. The blonde would deny everything if the subject was brought up, but it was in these moments that it was undeniable.

Yang was still stopped, her eyes wide, and she slowly looked over her shoulder, towards the mansion, and one of the lights conveniently flickered as she looked in its direction, and they could see the blonde stiffen visibly at that.

“How did they die?” Yang asked, trying her best to sound normal as she looked back and started walking again, quickly making her way to Blake and staying close to the faunus, glancing over her shoulder every few seconds.

“Apoplexy,” Weiss answered with all the confidence of the world. “I heard these things happened only when one suffers strong emotions, like…”

“Fear?” the blonde suggested, her voice tight and small.

“Yes, I guess,” the smaller woman shrugged. “Huh.” She let out quietly, stopping, furrowing her brows as if she just had remembered something.

“What is it?” Ruby asked, raising a single eyebrow, only half concerned, not knowing if it was real or still part of the joke.

“I just remembered,” her partner started, trying to hide her smile, knowing that this was the last straw. “They passed away in the hallway we have our rooms.”

Yang stopped again, this time the colors draining from her face as her eyes widened as big as plates, and Ruby sighed again.

“Okay, that’s enough.”

It was only now that Weiss finally gave in, her large smile pulling her lips as she laughed along with Blake, and instantly the blonde narrowed her eyes at her, her hands curling into fists as her lips pressed into a thin line.

“Sorry, but that is the only one subject that I’m sure you’ll buy,” Weiss finally said, sighing as she straightened her back.

“Don’t make fun of me,” the blonde growled, her voice quiet.

“You’re always making fun of me and teasing me, Yang. I have to get back at you with something,” the smaller woman smiled, and it made Yang narrow her eyes even more.

The blonde then stared at Blake, the faunus’s smile slightly faltering under the lilac gaze.

“I can’t believe you went along with that.”

“Yang, it was just a joke.”

“But you know that I’m-”

The blonde interrupted herself, grinding her teeth together at the word that nearly went past her lips.

“…Uncomfortable, with this kind of stuff.”

“Guys, enough,” Ruby said firmly, her eyes glancing to each of her teammates. “It was a joke. A bad one, yes, but a joke nonetheless. You,” she pointed at her sister, “Calm down. They keep teasing because you just won’t admit that you’re afraid of ghosts.”

“I’m not-” Yang started.

“And you can tell me lies that are more convincing.” Ruby interrupted dryly, before turning to the other two members of the team. “And you two, stop that.  That’s not funny.”

They both looked down at their feet, feeling like children being scolded. It was rare to see Ruby like this, calmly annoyed at their banter, wanting to solve this as quickly as possible without any fuss.

“I’m sorry,” Weiss mumbled, still staring at her feet, feeling like she was five years old.

A weight lifted from her then, and she realised that Ruby’s gaze had shifted to Blake until she heard the faunus apologise as quietly as she did, before the leader nodded shortly with a sigh.

“Good. Can we go now?”

Weiss led the way again without another word, soon hearing the footsteps of the others behind her. She looked over her shoulder, noticing Ruby’s subtle touch to her sister’s arm, silently asking if the blonde was alright, and Yang nodded as quietly.

Weiss smiled, feeling the heavy mood dissipate a little. Ruby, even if she didn’t shouted it from all the rooftops like Yang did, was very protective of her sister. In her own way.

Returning her attention in front of her, she smiled when she saw the familiar door at the end of the hallway, the small wooden door looking the same after all those years. If something could stay the same, here.

“Nearly there,” she informed above her shoulder.

“Where are we, by the way?” Ruby asked, the edge from earlier replaced by genuine curiosity in her voice. “It doesn’t look like this place is part of the mansion, honestly.”

“That’s because it isn’t part of the mansion,” the smaller woman nodded as they stopped in front of the door. “My grand-father was a hunter, too. He built a tower, west of the mansion, that was meant for his training and the training for future generations. Like Winter and I,” she huffed. “But Grand-father was also really upset that he had to wear his winter clothes for a five minutes’ walk. So he built a tunnel from the mansion to the training grounds.”

Weiss waved around them, at the stoned wall and the Dust-powered lights.

“That’s the result.”

“Huh,” Yang let out, her eyebrows knitted together as she looked around. “He had his priorities straight.”

“Your grand-father,” Blake quietly said, furrowing her eyebrows. “He was the founder of the SDC, right?”

“Yes,” Weiss smiled, pushing on the latch on the doorknob. “But it wasn’t like it is, today. Grand-Father only ever wanted to help hunters with better munitions, best quality at the best price. It wasn’t until Father took the reins that it all went downhill, to what it is today.”

She pushed on the door, sighing bitterly, the wood creaking and whining but it didn’t budge. Frowning, she pushed on the door again, this time leaning some of her weight on it, and again, it creaked and groaned but didn’t move, the humid environment making the wood shift in its frame.

“Come on,” she growled under her breath, taking a few steps back.

Before the others could say anything, she rammed her shoulder against the wooden door, and with a thud, pain spread in her shoulder like ink in water, and the door moved slightly.

But it didn’t open.

“Ouch,” the smaller woman hissed, taking a step back, holding her shoulder as she rolled it. “Brute force really isn’t my strength.”

She felt a presence beside her, but her eyes were fixating on the stubborn door, feeling anger pooling in her stomach and twisting her lips as she curled her hands into fists.

“Stupid door!” she growled, kicking the wood, as if it would really change anything.

“Weiss,” Ruby’s voice warned, and she could feel her hands tugging at her jacket to see her shoulder.

“But-”

“Let me, princess,” Yang winked at her with an annoying, cocky smile. “Banging things is my specialty.”

The blonde turned around, making double finger guns at Blake as she waggled her eyebrows suggestively, Ruby and Weiss grunting in synch as Blake only stared at her, deadpanned and very not amused.

“Okay! Moving on!” the blonde clapped her hands as she smiled to herself, making Blake roll her eyes.

“I’m fine, Ruby,” Weiss sighed, irritation in her voice but she still let her partner check her shoulder. “I’ll probably be sore, but nothing more.”

The leader hummed, a small smile pulling her lips.

“Yeah, well I just want to make sure. I can’t have you dislocating your shoulder fighting a stubborn door, now, can I?”

Silver eyes glanced up, winking, and she felt another wave of anger flare in the pit of her stomach at Ruby’s teasing, but before she could say anything, her partner pressed her lips on her shoulder in a soft kiss.

“Better?” Ruby asked, her voice lowered, a smirk pulling her lips.

“Much,” she instantly answered, her anger vanishing like snow in the sun. “Th-thank you.”

In the corner of her eyes, she saw the biggest, most obvious eye roll someone could muster, Blake grunting as if she was in pain in front of the flirting she was witnessing.

“Is this door giving you trouble, or what?” the faunus sighed, returning her attention on her fiancée.

Right in this moment, the blonde stepped back, lifting her right foot up, then kicked the door, her foot landing right next to the doorknob, the door breaking open in a deafening clash, splinted wood flying everywhere. The wood was so old that it crumbled, large plates of door falling to the ground, sprawled, and raising a cloud of dust in its wake.

For a moment everything was silent and still, the dust settling back silently, and they could see, illuminated by a ray of light coming from above and some of the glow of the Dust-powered lights, a spiral staircase going up, the dark, black metal starting to rust in some places.

“Oh, right,” Yang said, breaking the silence. “The door may break in the process. Do you mind if it does?”

Weiss glared at her, ignoring the sheepish smile and the nervous neck rub from the blonde, then stared at the debris, then went back to the blonde, this time resigned.

She climbed over the debris without another word.

As she was starting in the staircase, not even making two steps, Ruby grabbed her arm.

“Wait! Maybe you should go in the back.”

“Why?” Weiss asked, genuinely curious.

“Well… Because… I’m gonna see under your skirt…” Ruby mumbled after a second, her face reddening by the seconds.

“Ruby,” she let out, deadpanned, a singled eyebrow cocking. “You have already seen everything under my skirt.”

“What?” Yang choked, fixating her eyes on Weiss in a mix of anger and confusion. “You said I didn’t have to cover my ears!”

Weiss snapped her head to her, her skin turning as red as Ruby’s cloak.

“In battle!” Weiss almost shouted in a mix of anger and panic. “She saw under my skirt in battle! It happens for fighters in skirts!”

“But I never looked,” Ruby insisted, hiding under the front of her cloak. “And now that we’re… We…”

The leader searched for the last of her sentence, and it didn’t seem like she found it.

“Then let Yang or Blake go in front of you!” Weiss retorted back, a little harder from her embarrassment.

“But then they will see under your skirt!”

“Ruby-”

She was interrupted by a mass of golden hair, the blonde quickly wrapping an arm around Ruby’s knees before standing, the leader falling forward on Yang’s shoulder with a small shriek.

“Yang?! Let me down!” Ruby ordered, trying to stand upright.

“Now, you won’t have to argue anymore,” the blonde grumbled, brushing past Weiss as Ruby hung limply on her sister’s shoulder, defeated.

The leader only grumbled under her breath, far too used to this, and Weiss rolled her eyes, still letting Blake walked past. They started up the stairs, and Weiss remembered the long trek to the training grounds perfectly. The longest part was the stairs, really.

“You know, I think Ruby was right,” Blake quietly mused, gaining everyone’s attention. “Her head would be under Weiss’s skirt right now.”

The smaller woman tripped on a step, feeling a blush burning her cheeks as she heard Yang snicker.

“Well,” the blonde let out, smiling. “Blake can stare at my butt all she wants. I know she likes my butt.”

The faunus reached up, slightly groping the blonde’s ass with a satisfied hum, making Ruby grimace in slight disgust.

“Could we just…” Weiss sighed, shaking her head. “Stop talking until we reach the top?”

“Yep.” Ruby let out, popping the ‘P’.

She could almost hear the amused grin Blake surely had plastered on her face, but it was still in silence that they reached the top, stepping on the firm mats that covered the floor, entering a circular room lighted by the large windows that covered almost the entirety of the wall, the white seeming so stark in the sunlight.

Through the windows, they could see the mansion, seeming as white as the snow that covered everything, and Yang dropped Ruby to the ground with an impressed whistle.

“Now that’s very nice,” she let out, glancing around as she set her hands on her hips.

Weiss smiled, rubbing her hands together to try and warm them a little. The trek in the tunnel seemed to have turned her hands into ice, and to see the furnace in the corner covered in dust and spider web told her that really, nobody had come here for years. As she made her way towards it, on the other side of the large room, she saw Blake fold her arms on her chest tightly, stepping closer to Yang in an attempt to steal her warmth.

“Looks like there are a few holes in the roof,” the blonde noticed, furrowing her brows.

“That answers why it’s freezing here,” Ruby grimaced, following Weiss at a slower pace.

The smaller woman quickly reached the furnace, opening the door to glance inside.

Mm. The last person here took the time to empty it.

Reaching behind the metallic furnace, she grabbed two boxes, and after blowing all the dust from them, they could see the Schnee crest stamped on it. With practiced ease, Weiss set the two boxes inside the furnace, opening one and twisting it upside down, dropping the rough, large chunks of red crystal Dust on the other box, the cardboard box setting into flames after Weiss blew on it. With the flames, the Dust reacted, the flames growing and giving off some well needed heat.

“I have a question,” Blake asked, stepping closer and extending her hands to the furnace, greedily trying to warm her hands.

“I surely have an answer,” Weiss retorted, setting a couple of boxes right beside the furnace, in case they wanted to heat it up a little more.

“Earlier, you said that you and Winter came here often, when you were younger,” the faunus frowned, glancing around. “Does that mean that Whitley doesn’t have training like you?”

The smaller woman took the time to close the door and stood before answering, brushing her skirt to keep her hands busy.

“Well, Father always wanted a son,” she answered, her voice somewhat distant. “Whitley doesn’t have anything to prove, so he didn’t have to start the training. Also, he was never interested in it.”

“Were you?” Ruby asked after a small silence, her voice quiet.

“No, but I had to prove I was worthy of the Schnee name. And, you know the rest of the story,” she motioned vaguely at her face, but they all understood.

Weiss started to another side of the room, towards the large racks, and they could make out wooden swords of different lengths and sizes.

“But, don’t you need basic training? I mean, for the glyphs and all-”

“Whitley doesn’t have glyphs,” Weiss interrupted Ruby, lifting one of the smaller swords off the rack to look at it critically. “Just like Father.”

That made Yang snort.

“Your father doesn’t even have the ‘Schnee power’ and he gives you a hard time to prove your worth?” she huffed, shaking her head. “That’s fucked up.”

“Well, Father doesn’t have the ability because he isn’t a Schnee. He married into the name.”

There was another silence, short, the quiet sighs of the furnace filling the space.

“That’s even more fucked up,” Yang mumbled under her breath.

“In that case, your mother-” Ruby started.

“Yes.” Weiss interrupted again, her features sharpening. “But she can no longer cast her glyphs.”

The smaller woman took a deep breath, wanting to change the subject, and before the rest of the team could talk, she smiled at her partner.

“Ruby, I know you have some training with swords? I believe you trained with your uncle?”

The leader immediately perked, puffing her chest proudly.

“Yeah I did,” she huffed. “I started with swordplay before going for a scythe.”

“Good. Do you care for a spar?” Weiss smirked, raising a single eyebrow as she offered the sword she was holding, hilt first.

The leader grinned, taking the hilt and making the sword twirl in her hands, getting used to its weight and length, friendly competition sparkling in her eyes.

“You know, before now, I never thought about this,” Ruby reported as she made her way to the center of the room as Blake and Yang stayed near the furnace. “I mean, I’ve seen you train with Blake a lot of times before, but I never thought about training with a sword with you.”

“Is it a bad thing?” Weiss asked, arching a single eyebrow as she took her position with another wooden sword.

“Not at all,” the leader assured, leaning over to gently tap the wooden blades together. “If anything, I’m excited. It should be fun!”

If the words weren’t enough to convince Weiss, the grin pulling Ruby’s lips was an answer enough, and as Weiss settled, one foot forward, perfectly still as she kept her attention on her partner, Ruby held the hilt with both hands, the sword in front of her, her silver eyes focused on Weiss.

The smaller woman didn’t have to wait too long. Ruby had always been impatient.

The leader launched forward, slashing the air in front of her in a wide, one-handed arc that Weiss easily dodged by jumping back, before stepping forward, thrusting her blade, but it only caught Ruby’s cloak as the leader swirled on her heels, delivering a powerful swing with her momentum, and Weiss quickly brought her sword to her side, the blades clanking together loudly. The smaller woman grunted by the sheer force of the blow, and she glanced up, her eyes locking in silver, and her grin soon matched Ruby’s.

They jumped back in synch, keeping some distance between them as they started to circle each other, keeping their attention on the other, taking in their opponent.

In the corner of her eye, Weiss noticed the other half of the team now sat with their backs against the wall, watching their sparring session.

The low chuckle of Ruby brought her attention back, just in time to see the leader’s grin tightening on her sword.

“This is so on,” she let out quietly, her voice low and almost husky.

It was as if a lightning bolt struck her then, feeling energized to the very tips of her fingers, and as she locked her eyes with silver, she could feel her heart beating a little faster.

“Let’s dance, then,” she whispered back.

Chapter Text

Training with Blake had always been like… Well, like chasing shadows. Blake had this fighting style that always kept you on your toes, never knowing where the next strike would come from, subtle and precise.

With Ruby, it was the opposite.

Ruby would meet her most of the time, head-front, direct, her strikes hard and powerful but still fluid, like she didn’t have to work too hard to get on the offensive.

It was refreshing. On the other hand, Ruby had always been this way when they trained together.

But it was still different, for both of them wielded swords. The fight was… closer.

The wooden blade slammed against Weiss’s, hard, with enough power to make the smaller woman grimace as she let the leader’s blade slide along hers, parrying and making an opening, quickly swirling around to slash at her partner’s side but Ruby launched over, rolling on her shoulder before quickly getting back to her feet.

As refreshing as it was, they both were covered in sweat, not wanting to give a single inch to the other, both of them mostly on the offensive.

Exhaustion was taking its toll on the both of them, Weiss’s right shoulder started throbbing now after her stunt with the door and the too many times she had to lean her sword on her arms to parry properly one of Ruby’s strike. Pushing a few sweat-soaked bangs out of her eyes, the smaller woman could see Ruby’s quick, shallow breaths as she returned to her position.

At some point, Blake and Yang had started cheering, the blonde cheering for her sister of course, and the faunus would only point out a good counter-attack, or some very well timed strikes for the both of them, while Yang just wanted her sister to destroy Weiss.

They both were exhausted but Ruby still smiled as brightly as before, her silver eyes dark and almost predatory as she didn’t want to lose.

Weiss understood the feeling, straightening her back again, her eyes focused on her opponent, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

And it came.

Ruby, as always, closed the distance in a dash, for a second her silhouette blurring until she was standing just a few feet away from her, and she crouched under Weiss’s horizontal slash before thrusting her blade in front of her. The smaller woman, seeing it coming, had already brought her sword to parry it aside, and Ruby, still crouched, took a step forward and slashed, but Weiss jumped, setting a hand on her partner’s shoulder, and with complete ease she rolled on her shoulder across Ruby’s back, making the leader kneel from the added weight. The instant her feet touched the ground, she whirled around, stopping the tip of her sword where the leader’s neck would have been if Ruby hadn’t disappeared in a blur.

Weiss rolled her eyes as she lowered her sword.

“I thought it was an unspoken rule that we don’t use our semblances in a spar,” she let out, glancing around, her voice loud enough to echo against the walls.

The leader reappeared in a flow of red petals, a wide smile on her lips.

“Catch me, then!”

And nothing but petals again.

She sighed, but still kept her guard up. She could feel the gusts of wind when Ruby would brush past her, but she didn’t mind. She knew her partner would have to slow down if she wanted to land a hit, if not, the sheer speed might injure her, so she kept all her attention to her surroundings, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

As always.

After a moment, she could hear Ruby cackle all around her, and she narrowed her eyes, silent and still, until, almost out of instinct, she casted a large glyph right in front of her.

Ruby slammed on it a blink after, falling to the ground with a loud, pained groan, rose petals falling all around her.

A wave of guilt washed over Weiss as she quickly knelt beside her partner, worried eyes scanning her frame.

“Are you okay?” she asked, one hand reaching up to brush a few strands that fell into silver eyes.

But the leader smiled as she kept rubbing her forehead, holding her thumb up excitedly.

“You did it! You caught me!”

The smaller woman snorted, smiling despite her worried frown, trying to shoo away Ruby’s hands so she could take a look at her partner’s head.

“That I did,” she still nodded, ghosting her fingers on the swelling that was already forming on her partner’s forehead.

“And you deserve a reward,” the leader nodded solemnly, gently grasping Weiss’s hand to catch her attention.

“A reward?”

Ruby hummed positively, nodding, and a small smile pulled her lips.

“I was thinking, maybe a kiss?” she almost asked, the smile turning into a cheeky grin.

Weiss raised a single eyebrow at that, before sighing as she shook her head gently, squeezing Ruby’s hand with hers.

“That sounds like a fitted reward, doesn’t it?” she let out despite herself, and Ruby’s grin grew even larger.

And so, she leaned over, her hand still trapped in Ruby’s, and gently, delicately, brushed her lips over her partner’s, but the leader was apparently having none of that. Ruby reached up, sliding a hand behind Weiss’s neck and pressed her closer, kissing her fully, and the smaller woman had to remind herself that they weren’t alone, as if the excited squeals behind them weren’t enough to remind them.

Ruby was the first to pull away, gasping for breath, her smile radiant and her cheeks a soft pink tint, and she smiled as she sat back on her heels, squeezing the leader’s hand. Ruby reached up with her other hand, tapping her index finger on the tip of Weiss’s nose, making the smaller woman blink in surprise.

“Boop!”

She felt a dark blush color her cheeks as she reached up, grasping her own nose as the leader sat up, smiling at her, looking ridiculous with the large swell on her forehead.

“You need some ice on that,” Weiss grumbled, rubbing her nose on her knuckles to try and calm her embarrassment.

But it only seemed to amuse Ruby more than anything because she chuckled, and before they could do or say something more, they were knocked over by a mass of blonde hair, that then tried to break them in half.

“Oh my gosh, you guys!” Yang was squealing, squeezing the unwilling pair in her arms.

“Yang, I mean, Weiss told us this very morning, I don’t know why you’re reacting as if you didn’t knew,” Blake sighed as she walked over, trying to pry the blonde’s arms off to free her teammates.

“But I didn’t believe it!” Yang said, giving one last squeeze before letting go reluctantly. “And now… You’re so cute!”

Before they were out of her reach, she pulled them to her again, this time in a much gentler hug.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t wait for Kali’s reaction,” Yang suddenly let out.

“Knowing her, she already knows,” Blake chirped in, an amused smile pulling her lips.

“Oh come on,” Weiss grumbled, frowning, her face half-hidden in the blonde’s shoulder. “If your mother knows, I’m going to be very dramatic about it.”

The three others laughed and it snatched a smile from her lips until they were interrupted by the soft chime of a scroll.

“Ah, yes,” Blake furrowed her brows, reaching in her pocket, “Someone is trying to reach you, Weiss.”

The smaller woman pulled away from Yang, her eyebrows high on her forehead. It was rare that someone would contact her beside the team, and the thought that it could be her father… She took the scroll from Blake’s hands, slight nervousness making her hand tremble as she swiped her thumb on the screen to see who it was.

“Three messages from Klein,” she reported, surprised.

She tapped on the white box, seeing the messages from Klein, and she read them aloud.

“Miss Schnee, I am sorry to disturb you, but it seems like I can’t find you. Are you out of the mansion with your guests?”

“Miss Schnee? Do I have to track your scroll?”

“If your scroll is with Miss Rose’s, I will leave you alone, but I need to know where you are.”

Feeling another blush burning her cheeks, she read the last message so fast that even Ruby could have been jealous, but apparently it was enough for Yang to understand as she silently covered her mouth with her hand, trying hard to stifle the laugh Weiss could see asked to be released.

Ruby only smiled blissfully.

Weiss ducked her head, avoiding Blake’s amused stare, as she quickly typed back a reply.

“That won’t be necessary Klein, thank you. We are at the tower, and we were training, that’s why I couldn’t answer earlier. What is it? Do we have to come back?”

The reply didn’t take long to come.

“Mistress Schnee wishes to see you.”

That made her pause. Long enough for Blake to frown, to angle her head to try and see Weiss’s expression, but the smaller woman stepped away, towards the stairs, as she typed something on her screen again.

“I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“I have to go,” Weiss reported, pocketing her scroll as she looked back to her team. “You can stay here if you want.”

“Are you okay?” Blake asked, the worried expression still on her face.

The smaller woman stopped at the top of the stairs, one hand on the railing, and she took a deep breath, giving a feeble smile to the faunus as she saw Ruby and Yang standing.

“Yes. It won’t be long.”

“Where are you going? Can I tag along?” Ruby asked, already taking a step forward.

“It’s fine, Ruby,” the smaller woman smiled again, this time at her partner, and this time it seemed a little more sincere. “I have to see my mother. But it’s fine. She’s not Father.”

She grimaced slightly at her own comparison but still started down the stairs, making the trek to the mansion, and as soon as the team couldn’t see her anymore, her smile dropped.

****

Klein was waiting for her in the main hall, and they both entered the hallway on the left, the butler leading her in silence. That was unusual. He always was the one talking, trying to cheer her up, or just to forget how silent the whole mansion was. But as she was about to talk, he beat her to it.

“Your mother has been in a lucid phase for the better part of half an hour, now,” Klein informed her, quickly glancing at his watch before settling his hands behind his back again. “I don’t know how long it will last.”

Weiss perked up slightly, lengthening her stride so she could walk beside the butler to look at him.

“And she asked… for me?”

The man nodded, almost not believing it either.

“She said she had something to give you. That it was important, and she needed to give it to you now before she forgot again.”

He sighed deeply, slowing his pace considerably, Weiss following suit, and in this moment she knew he was completely honest with her. The worry that had carved wrinkles in his face seemed even more apparent now, and he looked ten years older than he did a few moments ago.

“You know, Mistress Schnee is more aware of her condition than she lets on. She often make jokes about it, laugh about it. I have never met someone so cynical about themselves, only to joke about it the next moment.”

There was a short pause, both of them walking silently, the sound of their steps echoing in the empty hallway.

“I know you probably won’t share my sentiment, but your mother is a very strong woman, in a way.”

The quiet snort Weiss let out made Klein smile, a rueful smile pulling his lips, half hidden under his moustache.

“I know you think that she started drinking to avoid her responsibilities.”

“That’s not what I think, that’s exactly what she did,” Weiss said back.

“And you’re right.”

That made her stop, Klein doing the same.

“You shouldn’t be the one telling me that,” she quietly let out.

He bowed his head, huffing silently.

“I know. But I wanted you to know, in case your mother was too proud to tell you that you were right. Had always been.”

“How do you know that?”

“After you left, Master Schnee placed me as the caretaker of your mother. Since young Master Whitley was almost always with Master Schnee, I had nothing else to do than spend time with her. We talked. A lot. She told me things that I’m not even sure someone else knows.”

“Seems like you’re close, now.”

The butler shrugged slightly, a smile pulling one corner of his lips up.

“I guess we are.”

And he resumed his walking, turning around and away from Weiss, but not before the smaller woman noticed the colors of his eyes flickering.

Oh, now she was curious.

She started after Klein, but before she could say something, the butler glanced at her over his shoulder, an amuse smile pulling his lips.

“Speaking of closeness, I see you and Miss Rose are… quite close.”

Weiss felt a blush color her cheeks, but she held her head high, her back slightly straighter, her hands curling into fists, but she said nothing. Seeing this defense mechanism, the old man chuckled, gaining Weiss’s attention.

“You know I only want you happy, and if Miss Rose is the one who does, then I want you to know that I’m fine with it.”

It made her relax slightly, and it was still with her fists held tight that she sent him a glance.

“Please don’t tell Father,” she pleaded, her voice quiet. “I’m not ready to… come out to him just yet.”

“Of course I won’t tell him, Snowflake,” he furrowed his brows at her. “You know you didn’t have to tell me.”

“Just wanted to make sure.”

She sighed, feeling the last of her tension leave her with it. There was just another thing she wanted to know.

“Have you been… avoiding me?” she asked, keeping her gaze straight ahead.

“No,” he answered instantly.

She looked to the side, raising her eyebrows, silently doubtful, and he cleared his throat.

“Maybe a little,” he conceded.

“Oh.”

She returned her eyes in front of her, feeling her heart sink in her chest. They were close to the garden, now. She could think about this later.

“It’s not like that,” Klein assured. “It’s just…”

He seemed to search for the right words while Weiss kept her eyes on the approaching hallway to the garden, hoping he would speak his mind before she had to go meet her mother.

“It’s just that I often forget that my little snowflake is an adult now, a beautiful young woman with wants and needs. I needed a little time to… process the information.”

She felt another wave of heat covering her face, but she didn’t say anything, instead humming quietly, and she was about to turn in the hallway when Klein gently grasped her elbow as he kept walking down the hallway.

“Your mother is in her room,” he informed her calmly.

They stayed in silence for a moment, not really knowing what to say, but as the silence stretched it seemed it made both of them more awkward, and, again, it was Klein that broke the silence first, clearing his throat quietly.

“I like her, you know,” he glanced quickly at Weiss.

“Who?” she asked, a little confused.

“Miss Rose,” he answered with an amused smile. “She came to me one time, asking about the tricks I would do for you when you were younger. She wanted to learn to do the same, to make you laugh.”

It made Weiss smile softly, and she heard the butler chuckle beside her.

“Well, she can’t change the color of her eyes, but I think she’s better than me with the impressions.”

“Don’t be silly, Klein,” she rested her hand on his arm, a smile on her lips. “You will always be my favorite.”

“Ha! You know how to make an old man happy.”

He laughed softly along with Weiss, grasping her elbow again this time to give it a squeeze.

****

Klein knocked twice on the large wooden door, waiting for a call inside before opening the door.

Weiss was ushered inside, seeing her mother frowning down at a notebook she held in her hands, and Klein had to clear his throat for her to look up, blinking, her eyes focusing on the both of them.

“Ah, Weiss!” Willow exclaimed. “Excellent, Klein, thank you.”

He bowed his head as the older woman stepped closer, smiling, and she reached over, gently squeezing his arm.

“My pleasure,” he assured, a small smile on his lips. “If there is something else I can do?”

“It will be all for the moment.”

He bowed his head again before stepping out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving them alone. Weiss took the time to eye her mother, seeing the older woman still holding the notebook closely to her as she kept her eyes trailed on the door.

“He is such a nice man,” Weiss’s mother quietly said.

“You wanted to see me, Mother?” Weiss asked, her voice dry.

The woman blinked, her attention returning to her daughter, and it took a few seconds before she nodded.

“Yes. There is something I meant to give you, but you know me. I forgot.”

She spun on her heels and went back to her previous position, by the desk, staring intently at the notebook as if it would tell her what she wanted to know.

“I wrote a letter on this,” she motioned at the notebook. “But I can’t remember where I put it.”

“You asked me here to help you find a letter?” Weiss asked in disbelief.

Not believing what she was hearing, she shook her head, about to turn around and walk out the door, when her mother’s voice stopped her.

“It was meant for you,” she informed. “The letter. I know it was important. I know I had to give it to you. But I-”

Weiss turned around to her mother, just in time to see anger twisting her features before a neutral mask hid it.

“I can’t remember where I put it. I know I have written it. I remember seeing the side of my hand dirty with pen residue,” she raised her left hand in front of her, examining it closely. “I just… When I’m trying to remember where I could have stored it, it’s…”

Weiss saw the knuckles of the hand holding the notebook going white, her hand trembling as she took a sharp intake of air, trying to remain calm. Weiss could only imagine how frustrating this would be. Always have been known for her near perfect memory, then for it to shut down on you, only remembering the things you don’t necessarily need.

“Fine, I’ll help you,” Weiss sighed, stepping to the desk beside her mother. “Where do we start?”

Willow smiled faintly, grimacing slightly. Of course, Weiss knew it hurt her pride more than anything, asking for help for something so small, but she also knew that if it weren’t as important as her mother claimed it was, she wouldn’t have asked for help. Her mother quickly pointed at the furniture she already had rummaged through, asking if Weiss could go through them again, in case she had missed it, and as she was about to start, the hand that her mother dropped on her arm stopped her.

“Thank you, Weiss,” her mother let out, quietly. “I really appreciate this.”

Nodding, Weiss started to work, opening drawer after drawer, searching through notebooks and envelopes, with the only ground fact that she’ll know when she would find it. They worked mostly in silence, Weiss not wanting to engage a conversation, and her mother… Well, Willow needed all the concentration she could muster.

Weiss went through so many letters, so many notes, varying in dates and handwritings. Willow had kept every journal, she had kept everything she had ever written down, storing it in her desk and drawers, not caring about what year was in it. There wasn’t any sense of order, and Weiss, standing in front of a sea of handwritten notes, had a sudden realisation.

This was how it looked like in her mother’s head. Her memories, scattered and mixed up, distorted and messy, and some of them missing.

Weiss glanced over her shoulder at her mother, seeing her furrowing her brows at a picture attached to a letter.

She returned her attention to the task at hand. Grabbing the first letter she could see, she inspected the handwriting. This one must have been recent, or her mother had a very bad day when she wrote it, because it was barely readable, and Weiss remembered with pain in her chest the beautiful handwriting of her mother from her birthday cards, when she was just a child.

She heard a gasp behind her and she looked over her shoulder, seeing her mother holding another letter. This one was still folded, with one, large word written in black in the center.

A name. Hers.

“You found it?” Weiss asked, dropping the letter she was inspecting in the drawer before making her way to her mother.

Blue eyes, so similar to hers, glanced at her shortly before returning to the letter in her hand.

“Yes,” she breathed, shuffling silently to the chair at her desk. “I remember writing this a few days after you left. I remember…” she narrowed her eyes slightly, her eyes still on the name written. “I remember not knowing if I would ever see you again. I remember writing this, writing things that I knew I couldn’t say. But written it’s different.”

Weiss saw her bit her lip for a second before offering the paper to her almost reluctantly, her eyes still fixated on the letter.

“It’s yours,” she said softly. “I don’t want you to read it here, with me.”

“Why?” Weiss asked, frowning, as she took it delicately.

“Because I don’t want you to see me forget again,” she sighed, suddenly looking exhausted. “And I know my lucidity won’t stay for long, now.”

“Mother-”

“Go, Weiss. Klein told me you invited your teammates over. Go to them.”

Weiss clenched her jaw but didn’t argue in front of the soft expression in her mother’s eyes, so she only bit the inside of her cheek, nodded, and made her way to the door, seeing her mother look at the mess in her room, the scattered papers on her desk. But as Weiss’s hand fell on the doorknob, her mother’s voice made her stop.

“Weiss,” Willow called, her voice soft, the sound so strange and foreign to her ears but still, it caught her attention. “I know I have my flaws. I know I wasn’t the best mother, and I know I should have been around more.”

She took a sharp breath in, almost to steel herself, before continuing.

“I remember every fight we had. And I know you thought that I didn’t care, but… I do care. For you, Winter and Whitley. So, after everything, and I hope you’ll understand that after reading your letter, I want you to know that I…”

Willow blinked as she trailed off, her eyes unfocused for a second, and Weiss felt her heart sink in her chest.

Why now? Of all the times, why now?

But after blinking again, her mother seemed to realise where she was and who she was talking to, and the older woman straightened her back, panic in her eyes.

“What was I saying?” she asked, her voice unsteady.

Weiss could feel her eyes burning, her throat tightening and she held the doorknob with a vice grip, but she smiled, hoping it didn’t look as fake as she felt it was.

“You were just saying goodbye, Mother.”

“Oh,” her mother nodded, relaxing slightly. “Well then, goodbye, Weiss. Have a nice day.”

The door closed behind her before her mother had the time to finish her sentence, leaving the woman alone as her eyes unfocused again, staring at the letters sprawled on her desk in the afternoon light that filtered through the windows.

****

It was the early evening when Weiss felt like reality came back to her, the haze of the past few hours dissipating as she heard footsteps behind her, then the footsteps stop as the person probably saw her, sitting on the ground with her back against the large couch, holding her knees against her chest and staring blankly at the fire in the hearth.

Alone in the living room.

The person shuffled closer, but she kept her attention on the hearth, until the steps stopped near her.

“You okay?” Yang asked softly.

She didn’t answer, only leaning her chin on her kneecap with a long exhale, and the blonde shuffled closer.

“Can I sit with you?”

It took a moment for her to answer, but she nodded, small and discreet, but the blonde saw it still, and she sat beside her, keeping a couple of inches between them.

Distance that she was thankful for. Right now, she didn’t even know if she wanted company or not.

They sat in silence for a while, both of them staring at the flames. After a long moment, Weiss shifted, turning her red, puffy eyes to her teammate, seeing that Yang was staring at the flames with a thoughtful expression, a small crinkle between her eyebrows.

“I’m sorry I was gone for so long,” Weiss finally let out, her voice quietly cracking, and she cleared it, returning her attention to the hearth.

The blonde smiled a little, glancing at her shortly.

“It’s okay. We figured you’d need time to get your composure back.”

She knew Yang meant it as a joke, but Weiss couldn’t help but scoff, earning Yang’s eyes on her.

“‘Composure’,” she repeated, bitter. “Look at me, with all my composure.”

She could feel the blonde’s eyes on her, but she didn’t care. Yang could see that she cried, but she didn’t care. It could be the end of the world outside, but for now, she didn’t care about a single thing.

“You went outside,” the blonde noted.

“I had to think.”

If her snow pants didn’t give it away, her red cheeks and the snow still melting in her hair was enough of a tell. Yang hummed quietly, worry plain in her eyes.

“It went that badly? With your mom, I mean?”

“No” Weiss sighed after a moment. “It’s… The stupid letter she gave me.”

“A letter?” the blonde asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Yes. Six pages thick.”

Yang waited for her to elaborate, but she stopped there, instead shifting to reach in her pocket and pulling out said letter, staring at it as if it would spit venom at her, before extending it to Yang, the blonde raising her eyebrows again as Weiss insisted silently.

“You want me to read it?” she asked in disbelief.

The smaller woman nodded, shaking it again for the blonde to take it, but Yang shook her head gently, a small, contrite smile on her lips.

“I won’t read it, Weiss. It’s a letter from your mom to you. I’m not sticking my nose in that. But you can tell me about it.”

Weiss’s lips pulled, pressed close in a thin, unhappy line.

“The whole point of you reading it would be for me, not having to tell you.”

The blonde shrugged helplessly, pushing back the letter to Weiss.

“I know, but I feel like it would be too personal. Like if I would be reading your diary. I’m not comfortable with that.”

The smaller woman sighed, irritation clear as she shoved the letter back in her pocket, before settling back in her previous position, the tense silence only filled with the cracking of the fire.

“But I meant it when I said you could tell me, though,” the blonde reminded her gently, reaching over to brush the back of her hand against Weiss’s arm. “Talk to me. I hate seeing you like this.”

Weiss took a deep breath before exhaling slowly through her nose, seeming to weight her options, before settling on her decision.

“Fine,” she finally let out. “Well, basically my mother is apologising for being such a disappointment of a mother and that she’s proud of me for running away.”

“In six pages.”

“Apparently, she always had a tendency to overdo things, but the only thing I ever saw her overdo was wine, so…”

She shrugged, a bite in her words that sounded rough even to her own ears, but she couldn’t care less. Yang was still staring at her, trying to read the things she wouldn’t say, but apparently she wasn’t satisfied with what she was seeing.

“Why are you so upset, Weiss?” she finally asked, her voice soft, genuinely curious.

“Because!” Weiss snapped, throwing her hands in the air. “Even if she apologise, it doesn’t change anything! She just stood there, in the back, running away every time Father yelled or picking useless fights with him, hiding in the bottom of her glass, letting him do whatever he wanted with us! She didn’t even flinch when he did that to me!”

She pointed at her face angrily, her eyes, already red from crying earlier, seemed even more redder now, the blue of her irises seeming electric as she rummaged through her pocket, trying to find the letter again.

“Her letter is so long because she’s just giving me excuses, explaining why she did nothing and oh, how surprising: Father was the reason why,” she continued sarcastically. “But even so, you don’t leave people to the wolves so you don’t have to deal with them, and after pleading for forgiveness to the same people you have sacrificed for your own wellbeing!”

Finally pulling out the letter with an irritated huff, she smoothed it against her thigh, at first angrily, before slowing down, continuing even if the letter didn’t need to be straightened anymore, but just to busy her hands.

“She’s asking for redemption, and I’m not sure I can give it to her. Four pages on six are about that. The last two, on the other hand…”

She sighed, but it was more to give her some courage, unfolding the letter and discarding the first pages, holding the last two in trembling hands. Her eyes scanning the page in front of her, rereading quickly as she pinched her lips for a second.

“In the last two,” she started to explain, her voice low and trembling. “She explains what happened after I left. How mad Father was that I… defied him. How he sent people all over Atlas to search for me, because he couldn’t bring himself that I had it in me to get out of there. And she… she says…”

She cleared her throat, furrowing her brows as she licked her lips, glancing up at Yang who was listening with rapt attention.

“Can I read a bit to you? I don’t think I can resume it in my words properly.”

The blonde seemed to hesitate for a second, but she still nodded, shifting a little closer, and Weiss nodded too, returning her eyes to the paper in her hands, trying her best to steady them. She started reading quietly, as if she was reading it for the first time again.

“I know that your father says that you’re just like me, and he means it as an insult,” she started, and she noticed the slight raise of blonde eyebrows at that. “And I know he tells you you’re too emotional and stubborn, just like me. But let me tell you this: you are not like me. You’re just like your grand-father. You’re not a coward like me, Weiss. You are passionate and driven, and your emotions are what’s driving you to do your best.

For a moment, before you went to Beacon, I thought your father had achieved his most prized goal up to this day: finally being able to trap you in the mold he made for you. Of all the three of you, you were the only one who fought that hard not to be modeled, shaped by him to be the best puppet he could ever want. And for a moment, I thought you had given up.

Just like I have.

But then, you came back from Beacon, only a year later, and the mold he had made for you? It was gone. You broke it in so many pieces that even he seemed surprised to see it.

I know you made good friends, there. Friends that you are willing to fight for, because you don’t break a mold like that this majestically if you don’t have something to fight for.

You stood up to your father, to everyone, for what you believed in. You fought tooth and nails to be where you are today, and it didn’t really surprised me when Klein told me that you escaped the mansion.

I know he helped you. He denies it every time, but trust me, I know. He could do anything for you.

So, I’m telling you, Weiss. You are leagues away from being ‘just like your mother’. You are that much stronger than I am. Braver than I am. You had the courage to confront the demon that haunted you, and you had the strength to do something about it. Just like your grand-father.

We are so different, you and I. While you decided to take action at this point in your young life, I still can’t bring myself to do much than ridicule arguments with my own demon. And I run away since the beginning.

That’s why I’m so happy you’re not like me, nor like your father.

I’m so proud of you, because you decided you wanted to be true to yourself.

And I’m sure, you’re going to be one of the best Hunters there is. Just like your grand-father once was.”

She lowered the paper, taking in a deep breath, trying to keep the tears from falling again.

She was so tired of crying.

“Well, she was right, you know,” Yang quietly let out after a long moment.

Weiss looked up curiously, sniffling, and she was met by one very gentle smile.

“You’re one of the best Huntresses I know.”

Weiss snorted, unable to hold the tears back, and she chuckled quietly as she rubbed her hand in her face, trying to wipe her tears away.

“It’s just…” she let out after a moment, her voice raspy. “Nobody in my family ever said they were proud of me. Well, of course they did, but it was always for my grades, my skills, my performances… Never for who I was. Who I am. The first one to ever do that… was you, actually.”

She felt a strong arm wrap around her shoulders and she let Yang pull her into her arms, hugging her gently. She laid her head on the blonde’s shoulder, realising now that she was glad she wasn’t alone, and she kept the remnant of the letter in her hand, playing with the edges, both of them silent for a while.

“I’m not sure if I want to keep it or if I want to burn it,” Weiss finally let out.

“Wold you feel better if you did?” Yang asked.

“I don’t know,” she breathed.

The blonde hummed and Weiss pulled away gently, gathering the pages of the letter and placing them in order, before folding it back, staring at her name, written in black ink.

“You wanna give it some more thought?”

Weiss nodded silently, running her thumb on the paper, feeling the texture of it, when she felt Yang shifting closer and quickly lifting her up as she stood.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m taking you back with me,” Yang answered, hefting Weiss a little higher against her. “You’ve been alone long enough.”

The blonde started towards the hallway and the smaller woman didn’t have enough energy to fight back, but she did try to.

“I can walk, you know,” she let out, quietly.

“I know. But you’re so small and tiny, I like carrying you.”

Weiss snorted but said nothing more, shifting to pocket her letter before making herself more comfortable, leaning her cheek on the blonde’s collarbone. She could feel Yang nuzzling her hair from time to time, but she didn’t mind. She was just so exhausted.

“Hey,” the blonde called softly, earning Weiss’s attention. “We can talk about it another time, okay? But right now, you look like you need a break.”

She only nodded as Yang rounded the corner, and she could see light come out from the open door to the media room, and when the blonde entered it, she could see Ruby sitting in one corner of the couch, one of her comic books open in her lap, while Blake was taking the rest of the couch, her head laid on Ruby’s thigh, reading one of the thick paperback she had brought along.

“Sorry if you’re still waiting for your drinks,” Yang said, making both Blake and Ruby look up at them. “But I found something on the way!”

They both perked up when they saw Weiss in the blonde’s arms, but before they could say something, Yang set her down right beside Ruby, then moved to slip her hands under Blake’s arms to move the faunus so she would lean her back against Weiss’s side, almost tucking them together.

“Be good with her,” the blonde straightened her back, patting the white head. “Is there something else you want?”

“Could you tell my headache to go away?” Weiss sighed as she shifted to be more comfortable against Ruby’s side.

Yang huffed, smiling, and she leaned over to kiss the top of the three heads.

“I’ll be right back.”

The blonde quickly walked out the room, leaving them in stunned silence.

“Are you okay?” Ruby asked after a moment, a frown of worry twisting her features as she tried to angle her head to look at Weiss.

“You’ve been crying,” Blake noted, the worried note in her voice apparent.

“I’m fine now,” Weiss only answered, leaning her cheek against Ruby’s shoulder.

The leader instantly moved, wrapping an arm around Weiss’s slender waist to pull her closer, and Blake shifted closer, snaking behind Weiss’s back to be squished between the back of the couch and the smaller woman, and as she settled there, comfortable, opening her book again, a low rumble started deep in Blake’s chest, the vibration shaking the last of Weiss’s tension.

“Aw, Blake,” Ruby smiled, seeing the faunus rub her cheek against Weiss’s shoulder. “I love it when you purr!”

“I know,” the faunus smiled, snuggling closer.

Weiss tilted her head back, leaning her temple on top of Blake’s head.

“Thank you,” she breathed.

Her breath tickled the faunus’s ears, making them flick against Weiss’s nose. And just like that, she felt that much better, comfortably squished between Ruby and Blake, both of them not asking anything but supporting her in the best way they could. The faunus returned to her reading, the purring continuing quietly, and Ruby nuzzled her temple gently, gaining her attention.

“Wanna read my comic with me?”

Her voice was soft and gentle, almost hesitant as Weiss felt the leader’s hand close around hers, her thumb running over her knuckles. The smaller woman nodded, shifting closer, and entwined her fingers with Ruby’s, making the leader smile as she turned her attention to her comic.

Yang came back a while after with four steaming cups, the smell of cocoa wafting from them deliciously, and after distributing them she sat down beside Blake, and after a quick kiss to the faunus, the blonde settled back, letting Blake play with her hair as she sipped from her cup. And there they were; team RWBY, in order, sprawled on the couch.

In this moment, Weiss had never felt more at home.

“Guys?”

Weiss’s soft voice caught everyone’s attention, the quiet purring lowering for a moment as all the eyes were on her.

“I don’t think I have ever told you, but… It’s in moments like these,” she motioned at them, cuddles and all, “That I know that it doesn’t matter where I am. It doesn’t matter where we are. It’s in moments like these that I truly feel like I belong, and I…”

She sighed, her breath trembling as she felt Ruby squeeze her hand.

“And I love you. I know I’m not the most expressive when it comes to things like this, but it’s important for me that I tell you. That you know.”

“Don’t worry, Weiss,” Blake’s smooth voice made her look to the side, seeing the soft smile pulling her lips. “We know.”

Chapter Text

She woke up suddenly, her body frozen in silent terror, her breath stuck in her throat, her hands grasping the sheets desperately as she stared at the ceiling wide eyed. She didn’t want to move. She couldn’t. She needed help, she needed-

“Shoot Weiss, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you like that!”

She looked down, towards the door, seeing Ruby step in the room with a very disappointed pout as she closed the door behind her.

“I wanted to sneak in bed with you and wake you up very slowly, but… Hey, you okay?”

Her silver eyes went to worry when she noticed that Weiss was still staring at her with wide eyes, and she seemed to understand the situation because she quickly sat on the edge of the bed, pushing back a few strands of hair from her face.

“Breathe, Weiss,” the leader said softly, her eyebrows still furrowed in worry. “You’re okay, I promise.”

Finally, her throat relaxed enough to let her take in a sharp breath, and all her body relaxed with just that, taking deep breaths greedily while Ruby brushed her fingers on the side of her face, her arms, taking her hand and squeezing, everything to try and sooth the panic Weiss just had.

“I thought you didn’t have this dream, anymore,” the leader quietly mused, bringing Weiss’s hand up to her mouth to softly kiss it.

“I thought so too,” she finally sighed, closing her eyes when the thumping in her temples calmed down. “I don’t think it was ever this bad.”

She felt the bed dip when Ruby climbed on, and a gulf of fresh air hitting her when the leader lifted the covers to slip under. Soon, it smelled like chocolate and roses when Ruby snuggled close, tucking her head under Weiss’s chin and pressing her ear against her chest.

“Don’t worry Weiss, I got you,” Ruby murmured, wrapping an arm around her, keeping Weiss close to her.

The smaller woman kept her eyes closed, already exhausted after just waking up, and she sighed deeply as she brought a hand up, sliding her fingers in Ruby's dark hair, always so soft to the touch. The leader hummed happily, nuzzling her neck, and they stayed in silence for a while.

“What time is it?” Weiss finally asked, half-asleep already.

“It’s still a little early for you, but late for Yang.”

“I see. It’s nine.”

“Yep. You can sleep in, though, you deserve it. Besides, it’s going to take time for Yang to make the cake, she wants to make it herself and she said it would take a good part of the day-”

“A cake?” Weiss asked, furrowing her brows in confusion. “Why would she make a cake?”

“Your cake, Weiss,” Ruby insisted.

The smaller woman cracked one eye open, confusion plain in her face.

“What do you mean, ‘my cake’?”

“What do you mean?” Ruby pulled away slightly, staring at her with a weird expression. “You can’t tell me you forgot about your own birthday.”

“My-”

Weiss interrupted herself, thinking.

“My brain is not yet turned on, could you give me my scroll?” she asked in a sigh, pointing at the nightstand behind her partner.

“Woman of little faith,” Ruby chuckled but still complied, reaching over to grab the device before bringing it to Weiss.

Tapping the screen and immediately squinting her eyes to protect them from the aggressive light of the scroll, Weiss checked the date before dropping the device on the bed and closing her eyes, groaning quietly. She could feel Ruby smile against her.

“Happy birthday, Weiss,” the leader softly let out with a kiss on her neck.

“I completely forgot,” she sighed, rubbing a hand against her face.

“It’s fine, you had other things on your mind,” Ruby gently reassured. “But today is your day. Okay? Twenty-three only happen once, I hear.”

“That’s such a dumb thing to say, every age only comes once.”

“Not if you’re a vampire.”

Weiss snorted as she could feel Ruby smile in her neck again, the leader snuggling closer.

“Remind me why I have feelings for you?” the smaller woman playfully asked, toying with a few strands of dark hair.

“Oh, you do?” Ruby asked in faint surprise, looking up, her silver eyes sparkling with amusement.

Still, it was in a much more serious tone that Weiss answered, shifting until she could lean her forehead against Ruby’s.

“Yeah, I do,” she breathed.

The leader smiled, her expression softening as she rubbed their noses together.

“Is it weird if I say that I do too?”

“Not at all. I’d say it’s very fortunate.”

Ruby’s eyes glanced down at her lips for a second, and Weiss swore she saw her bit her lip before she leaned closer to kiss her, but before their lips would meet, Weiss pulled away.

“Wait, wait.”

“What? What is it?”

“I… have bad breath in the morning.”

“I don’t care?” Ruby shrugged, trying to get in again.

“But I do,” Weiss gently pushed her back, reluctantly.

The leader grumbled under her breath, shoving her face in Weiss’s neck with a loud groan.

“Fine,” she heard Ruby mumble. “No kisses in the morning.”

She then vengefully started trailing kisses down her neck, and it made Weiss laugh softly.

**** 

She woke up again, this time much more slowly, without having realised that she had fallen asleep with Ruby. She felt a presence behind her and she smiled.

She was glad she wasn’t alone.

Rolling over, she snuggled closer, taking in the warmth and the steady breathing… before realising that it wasn’t Ruby.

She opened her eyes wide in surprise, just in time to see one lazy amber eye crack open.

“Hey,” Blake mumbled before starting stretching, grunting quietly.

Weiss still stared at her before glancing around, utterly confused when she realised that she was still in her room, and not with the person she thought.

The faunus seemed to catch on her confusion because she looked back to her, a small, teasing smile pulling her lips.

“Disappointed I’m not someone else?”

Narrowing her eyes, she didn’t say anything, only rolling back to the other side while Blake chuckled quietly.

“I just woke up, could you not tease me?” Weiss grumbled, frowning.

The faunus laughed gently, nudging her back.

“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that.”

“What are you even doing in my bed?” the smaller woman asked, looking over her shoulder.

Blake shrugged, a smile still on her lips.

“I stumbled on Ruby as I was going out of my room, and she looked like she didn’t want to leave you alone even if you were sleeping. She said you had your dream again.”

It wasn’t a question but she paused there, waiting for confirmation, but Weiss stayed silent, feeling her shoulders tensing. The faunus shifted closer, leaning her forehead against Weiss’s back, nuzzling gently.

“She had left the door open and you looked so comfy, so… I told her I would take a nap with you.”

“You took a nap right after waking up?” the smaller woman asked, raising a single eyebrow.

She felt Blake shrug again.

“Yeah.”

She rolled her eyes as she felt the faunus rub her cheek against her back, remembering how cuddly Blake was after waking up, and she let herself relax, just enjoying the other woman’s presence for a moment longer.

“You’re fun to sleep with, you know?” Blake informed quietly in a content sigh. “Your hair isn’t as messy as Yang’s, and it’s easy to just push it away. And you also don’t take half the bed, and you don’t move much. Plus, you’re a space heater too.”

“And I don’t snore,” Weiss added, amused.

“Yeah, but you know. Now I can’t sleep properly when she’s not snoring right in my ear.”

It made her snort and she looked over her shoulder, seeing Blake smile softly, and she turned around again to face the faunus, this time almost hesitant as she settled in front of Blake.

“You really love her, don’t you?” she asked, her voice quiet.

Dark eyebrows shot up as the faunus blinked, then she raised her left hand between them, wiggling her fingers to show off the ring at the base of her finger.

“Of course I do? I wouldn’t be wearing this if I didn’t.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Weiss shook her head, keeping her eyes on the ring. “It’s just… It’s not because you’re married that you love each other, you know? I don’t think my parents ever loved each other.”

When she saw Blake pull away slightly, seeing her ears pull back, she quickly brought her hands up, trying to be reassuring.

“Not that I’m putting you in the same bag!” she assured, noticing how Blake furrowed her brows at that. “It’s just- Ah, keep putting your foot in your mouth, Weiss, you’re doing so great.” She grumbled to herself, rubbing her fingers between her eyebrows. “Just… never mind. Forget what I said.”

She was about to turn around again, embarrassed, when Blake gently grabbed her hand, stopping her.

“What are you trying to say?” she asked, genuine.

“I don’t know?” Weiss sighed, pushing her bangs back, trying to organize her thoughts. “I guess I’m trying to say that it… kind of amazes me. To see two person actually love each other for years. I mean, how long have you been with Yang?”

“Almost six years,” was the instant answer.

“See?” the smaller woman smiled. “That’s what I’m talking about. You know it because you care, because you love Yang and you love the relationship, right? I could ask Father how long he’s been married to Mother and he wouldn’t be able to answer me.”

She sighed again, letting out a long, deep breath, thankful that Blake was listening.

“But the thing that really throws me off my chair is your parents. I mean they’ve been together for more than twenty years – twenty years – and they still love each other so much? It’s almost as if I can’t comprehend it. It blows my mind, but in a good way.”

The faunus laughed quietly as she rolled on her back, both women side by side as they stared at the ceiling in silence, the sun pooling from the window falling on the foot of the bed.

It was a no cloud day, it seemed.

“I just don’t think I can do it, in the long run” Weiss whispered, breaking the silence.

Blake lolled her head to the side to look at her, her brows furrowed.

“Do what?”

“Have this with Ruby,” she explained. “I mean, you know where I come from.”

She motioned to the walls around them, meaning the sickly relationship she had with her parents and pretty much everyone in Atlas, but the faunus shook her head, resting a reassuring hand on her arm.

“I do, but it’s not all that, okay? You’re a much better person than your father, Weiss. Besides,” she shrugged, squeezing her arm a little. “It’s not even been a week. Give yourself a chance.”

The smaller woman didn’t say anything, keeping her eyes on the ceiling, and Blake shifted closer to hug her gently, nuzzling the side of her face until Weiss leaned her head on hers and settled her hand on Blake’s arm, her thumb gently rubbing, accepting the affection.

“Okay, we should get up,” the faunus gently pulled away after one last squeeze, and sat on the bed. “I hear this cake is a chocolate one, and I don’t intend on missing it.”

“Ugh, why do you need to do this anyway every year? You know I hate the attention,” Weiss grumbled as she got out of bed, making her way to the personal bathroom.

“But we also know that, deep down, you like it.”

The smaller woman sent a glare to her friend, and Blake only winked before disappearing out the door.

She sighed. Sometimes, she could swear Blake was being possessed by Yang.

**** 

“Happy birthday, sweetie,” Ghira’s deep voice seemed even more rumbling than in real life through the small interferences of the video call, and they could only see a glimpse of his face in the corner of the screen as he quickly leaned over to kiss the top of Kali’s head, then Baxter’s. “I waited so I could tell you, but now I’m going to be late. Have a nice day!”

“Thank you, Ghira, but you didn’t have to,” Weiss said, grimacing slightly.

“I know I didn’t ‘have to’,” the tall man smiled before winking in the screen. “I wanted to.”

The smaller woman grunted internally as Ghira exited the room, but she only smiled, feeling someone squeeze her hand and realising that it was Blake, who was also trying to hide the amused smile that was pulling her lips.

“Happy birthday, honey,” Kali smiled.

“Happy birthday, Weiss!” Baxter exclaimed excitedly, before reaching to something off-screen. “We made a little cake to celebrate with you!”

“There’s no ‘we’, I only watched you,” the older faunus gently reminded the boy as he pulled a plate with a small cake on it.

“Well, ours is still in the oven,” Blake reported. “You made that alone? It really looks tasty. You want to make one for my birthday?”

“Yeah of course!” the boy smiled, puffing his chest proudly. “And one for Yang, and one for Ruby!”

“Yes!” they heard the leader say quietly, trailing the ‘s’.

“You like cooking, little man?” Yang asked, sitting on Blake’s lap so she could be seen by Kali and Baxter.

“Yes! I love it!”

His miles wide smile was enough of a tell, and it made the blonde laugh.

“Well, next time we go to Menagerie, how about you, Kali and me, we cook something really great?”

Baxter perked up, his eyes wide and sparkling, while Kali sat back, playfully disappointed.

“Well, it could be you and me cooking, and Kali watching because it’s her kitchen?” Yang tried, seeing Blake’s mother’s expression change to a thoughtful one. “With a glass of that wine she really likes?”

“Ah, perfect,” Kali nodded, a pleased smile on her lips as she winked.

“Oh,” Baxter’s voice brought their attention back, and he was staring at the cake in the plate in front of him. “I don’t think twenty-three candles will fit.”

“It’s okay, Baxter, it doesn’t have to have that many candles,” Weiss smiled. “Just put as many as your age.”

“But you’re not twelve, Weiss,” he retorted, almost shocked.

“I’m just saying it doesn’t have to be accurate,” she sighed.

“But…”

She missed what he said after, for a moment muting all the noises around as she rubbed her temple, hoping the migraine that she felt close wouldn’t wreck her head soon, and only when she felt a hand drop on her shoulder did the noises came back, and she looked up.

“Hey. Want some coffee?” Ruby asked with a smile, and right now, with the sun illuminating her from behind, she looked like an angel that had descended from Heaven to rescue her.

“Yes! Let me help you!” Weiss answered, almost too quickly and too loudly as she stood, but her retreat was masked by Baxter telling Yang and Blake one of his school project that involved a lot of candles.

The smaller woman followed her partner to the counter, a couple of feet away from the rest of the team, and they took their cups before Ruby started working with the machine.

“Thank you,” Weiss quietly let out, watching what her partner was doing.

“You’re welcome,” the leader replied as silently. “I noticed you’d zone out. Figured I would give you a hand.”

“I just don’t understand why birthdays are so important,” she sighed, toying with her cup.

“You only say that when it’s yours,” Ruby chuckled. “You’re the one who goes full on celebration when it’s someone else’s birthday.”

Weiss grimaced, guilty of charge. She did go a little over board a few times with the preparations of her teammates’ birthdays.

“Still,” Ruby continued, earning Weiss’s attention back, and the leader pressed the button on the front of the machine to activate it as she turned towards Weiss. “Birthdays are important. I mean, twenty-three years ago, you came into this world, Weiss. Isn’t it worth celebrating?”

The smaller woman shrugged, lowering her eyes to her cup.

“I just don’t think it’s that big a deal. Everyone has birthdays.”

“But everyone is not you,” the leader softly insisted. “You are the only one who makes this day so special, Weiss.”

“But many people have the same birthdays,” Weiss let out, shrugging again.

Ruby sighed, staring at her for a second before reaching over and taking her hand, gently, and running her thumb over her knuckles.

“Okay, maybe for you it’s a day like every other, but it’s important for us. For me.”

Weiss looked up into beautiful silver, seeing Ruby smiling softly, and she leaned over, taking the leader by surprise as she literally stole a kiss. But Ruby’s smile only grew, and she wrapped an arm around Weiss’s waist as she kissed her, and Weiss grabbed the leader’s belt, making sure she wouldn’t go anywhere.

She was really starting to like that belt.

“Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?”

They broke the kiss at Kali’s overjoyed voice, turning to see the other half of the team staring at them along with Kali, and Weiss felt a blush burn her cheeks as Ruby squeezed her hand, and she looked up, seeing the leader smiling at her. She couldn’t help but smile back, what else could she do in front of something this beautiful?

“Yeah,” Ruby nodded, returning her attention to the screen. “You’re really seeing this.”

There was a second of silence, then it was broken by Kali’s deep sigh as she sat back in her chair, smiling.

“Finally! I was about to take bets on how long it would take you two to finally be a thing!”

Ruby laughed as Weiss stared at Kali for a moment, before turning to Blake, deadpanned, and the faunus chuckled.

“Told you,” she tried to stifle behind her hand, but Weiss only narrowed her eyes, her lips pinched in an unhappy line.

“Yeah, it has been a while since you told me, Weiss,” Baxter chirped in, distracted as he was placing the candles on his cake.

Everyone in the room went silent and stared at him, before looking up to Weiss, and she could positively say that she have never felt this uncomfortable in her life.

“You told him but not me?” Blake finally asked, sounding offended.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m kinda upset for her,” Yang added, propping her elbow on the back of her chair to better look at her.

“Well, he asked!” Weiss tried to defend herself. “And you know me, I’m honest!”

“No, you really just can’t refuse anything to this cute face,” Ruby mused, winking at the boy in the screen.

The smaller woman glared at her partner as she let go of her hand, and she stepped away, forgetting her coffee, and started out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Ruby asked.

She looked back over her shoulder to her partner, then quickly over to Blake before answering, just before she rounded the corner.

“I’m going to be very dramatic.”

**** 

Well, lying on top of a piano wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. It was actually kind of comfortable, even more so with the spot that was directed at her, keeping her warm.

Still, she had her arms crossed and a frown on her face as she kept her eyes closed to protect them from the light, wondering how everyone knew about her attraction for Ruby even before she told someone.

Well, someone else than Baxter.

Unless… He told on her? No, she made him cross his heart. He would never betray her like that.

So, was it because she was that obvious?

That made her nervous. What if it went all the way up to her father? Or Winter? Would she be disappointed in her? Would she be mad at her?

She shook her head. No. Today was her birthday, and Ruby asked her to enjoy it. She could think of this later.

Still, it was written in the sky that her father wouldn’t be pleased in the least with that. And honestly, she was starting to be afraid of the time he would find out.

She let out a deep sigh, rubbing her hands on her face with a grunt.

“Ah, Blake was right.”

Startled, she moved her hands and was about to sit when she saw Ruby making her way to her, half-amused and half-concerned to see her on the piano.

“She told me you would probably be on the piano, which brings the question… What are you doing?”

The leader climbed on the stage as Weiss lay back down with another sigh, throwing her hands in the air while Ruby sat on the piano’s bench.

“I’m being dramatic, Ruby. Isn’t it obvious?”

“Huh.”

Her silver eyes trailed on her and the surroundings, even went up to look at the spot, and a small smile pulled her lips.

“Well, now that you say it, it kind of does,” she nodded, chuckling.

Weiss rolled her eyes but said nothing, closing her eyes again, and they stayed in silence until she felt Ruby brushing her fingers on her hand, before gently taking it in both of hers.

“You know that Blake isn’t really mad at you, right?” the leader asked, her voice quiet, her thumb gently caressing.

“Of course I know.”

“Okay, then… Why are you being dramatic?”

“Because everyone knew even before I told them!” Weiss snapped, gritting her teeth.

“So?” Ruby shrugged. “And for what it’s worth, I didn’t. Well, until…”

She pointed over her shoulder at the ballroom with her thumb, a teasing smile on her lips that made Weiss narrow her eyes. But Ruby’s smile morphed into a sheepish one, and her glare softened, and she squeezed Ruby’s hand.

“I just don’t want my father to know,” she explained quietly, lowering her eyes to their hands. “At least, not now. When it’s so new for me, and, well, with you.”

The sheepish smile vanished instantly and was replaced by the serious expression Ruby wore when they were out on a mission, and she shifted closer, her silver eyes a shade darker searching in pale blue.

“You think he’ll be mad?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Weiss sighed.

“Do you think he’ll do something?”

“Hopefully, he’ll know when I’m far away in Haven, so the only thing he could do is threaten me to remove me from the company and/or cut out my funds again. But, I’ve been preparing for this, so I have a foothold in a big portion of the company, so technically, he won’t be able to do that unless the board agrees, which I’m pretty sure won’t happen. Oh, and let’s not forget the profanities.”

She fell silent as Ruby thought about what Weiss had said, and she kept her eyes on their joined hands, seeing that even though the leader was so serious, her hands were still so soft against hers.

“Or I could threaten him that I’ll leave and he’ll have to take Whitley back as the heir. Which I’m sure he won’t do, since he thought that Whitley wasn’t up to his expectation enough for him to reach out to me.”

“Hey,” Ruby’s voice brought her eyes up, and when their eyes locked, Weiss could see, behind all the seriousness, there was so much affection. “I’m here, okay? Whatever you need, I’ll be there.”

“I know,” the smaller woman breathed, bringing her hand, still trapped in Ruby’s, to the leader’s face to brush the back of her fingers against her cheek. “Don’t worry, I know.”

Ruby pressed a kiss on the back of her hand, keeping their eyes locked, and she leaned her cheek against Weiss’s hand, nuzzling it for a moment.

“Do you really want this?” Weiss asked, her voice so quiet in the large room.

Ruby only raised her eyebrows, asking quietly what she was talking about, and Weiss shifted, quickly running her tongue on her lips.

“Do you really want the restrictions that come with dating me?” she clarified. “I’m the heir of the biggest company on Remnant, Ruby. I have to keep in mind the public’s eye. That means restrictions on physical displays of affection when we’re out. That means boring meetings and events that I have to attend. That means a whole lot of paperwork that I’ll have to do, no matter what. Do you really want that?”

Ruby frowned, slightly confused.

“Weiss, what-”

“I’m giving you a choice, Ruby. It’s important. If you’re not comfortable or willing to have those restrictions, I understand. I’d prefer to end this now, when it’s new, then later on and make things complicated.”

“Of course I’m not comfortable with all of this, Weiss,” Ruby answered, and Weiss felt her heart sink in her chest. “I don’t want to be watched or be surrounded by paparazzi like your father every time we step foot out of a place.”

“Oh.”

“But,” the leader let out and waited for Weiss to meet her gaze. “I want you. If being with you means all the things you said, then I’ll make do. And as for the events…”

She grimaced, her lips twisting for a second.

“I’ll have to wear a dress and nice shoes if I go with you, right?”

Weiss nodded, and it made the leader grunt quietly.

“You could go with Yang, maybe. That’s more her thing.”

**** 

“Are you okay, Bax? You’re quieter than usual,” Yang asked, worry knitting her eyebrows together.

The boy has been placing the candles on the cake, meticulously, focused entirely on that for the better part of twenty minutes, and at the blonde’s comment, he raised his head, blinking for a second before smiling sheepishly.

“I’m fine, but I guess I’m a little nervous,” he laughed, finally pushing the plate to the side and out of sight.

“Nervous? For what?” this time Blake asked, glancing up at her mother.

Kali only glanced at Baxter, pushing one lock behind his ear.

“Well, that’s my cue,” she said to the boy before standing.

Before they could say something, the older woman was out the door, closing it silently behind her and leaving them alone. They fell silent for a moment, waiting for Baxter to say something, but when the boy only toyed with his fingers without seeming eager to be the one to talk first.

“What is it, little man?” Yang asked, her voice soft as she leaned her elbows on the table. “You know you can tell us everything.”

“I know,” he nodded, keeping his attention down on his hands. “I just… I want to ask you something. Gramma said I had to ask you first.”

Both Blake and Yang raised their eyebrows at that, glancing at each other, but they stayed silent, focused on the boy. They saw him chew on his lip for a second, and he looked up, decided.

“I wanted to know if I could… call you my mothers?”

They both froze. Yang was the first to come back from her surprise, a large smile pulling her lips, but she waited instead of giving her answer, turning to Blake.

The faunus’s expression was blank.

Yes, they had talked about this, but still… She never imagined that Baxter would ask. She always thought she would be ‘Blake’ to Baxter, not… not his mother.

She felt Yang gently grasping her hand, giving it a squeeze to try and catch her attention, and she blinked, feeling her ears pulled back against her head. She glanced at Yang, the blonde patiently waiting for her to talk with her smile so kind… She cleared her throat.

“What-What would you call us?” she asked, unsure.

“Well, I thought that you could be Mama, and Yang could be Mom,” Baxter perked up, shooting a glance to the blonde. “I… told Mom already, that I wanted to call you that, and Gramma said that she thought Mom would be happy for me.”

Blake sighed, bringing her hand to her face and rubbing her knuckles between her eyebrows, before running it in her hair and settling her eyes on the blonde beside her, who was still waiting on her.

She knew Yang was overjoyed by what Baxter was asking. But like always, Yang waited before saying anything, making sure she was comfortable enough to proceed, and she knew that if she said no, Yang wouldn’t say a thing.

Still. She couldn’t decide for the two of them.

“Let’s just say we’ll give it a try for me,” she finally let out, returning her attention on the screen. “If I’m not comfortable with this, then just… switch back to Blake. Okay? I know Yang will love being called ‘Mom’.”

The boy perked up, his smile a mile wide as he seemed to vibrate in his chair.

“Okay! Thanks… Mama! I have to tell Gramma!”

He almost tripped down his chair as he ran out of the room, leaving the door open.

She let out a long breath, one that she didn’t know she was holding, and before she could say something to Yang, she felt the blonde tug on her hand, and soon, she was wrapped up in the blonde’s arms, and felt a kiss being pressed against her temple.

“God, I love you,” Yang said right in her ear, her voice trembling. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” Blake murmured back, hugging her as tightly as she could.

“I’m so glad I’m living this with you,” the blonde continued.

Blake laughed softly, nuzzling against Yang’s neck.

“Just don’t make it weird.”

The blonde only snorted.

**** 

“There’s a song I used to play for Winter,” Weiss said, quietly, as she stroked Ruby’s hair. “I think I can still play it. Do you want to hear it?”

They were both on the piano, Ruby’s head comfortably tucked under her chin, and she guessed more than she saw the leader’s pout.

“Five more minutes.”

The smaller woman chuckled, nuzzling the top of Ruby’s head until the leader propped herself on her elbows to look down at her, silent for a while, ghosting her fingers on the side of Weiss’s face.

“I’d love to hear it,” Ruby finally murmured, smiling.

Weiss couldn’t help but stay there, enjoying how close Ruby was, noticing the few freckles on the bridge of her nose that were just a shade darker than her skin, how her silver eyes was just a patchwork of various shades of gray and that it was darker at the rim, how her lower lip seemed so full and inviting…

She must have been staring because Ruby leaned down with a laugh, kissing her gently until Weiss ran her tongue on that wonderful lip as she slid her hand behind Ruby’s neck, entangling her fingers in dark locks. The leader gasped against her mouth, and she pressed her body against Weiss’s. The smaller woman smiling wickedly at that, marveling at Ruby’s reaction, and out of boldness, she let one of her hands slide down her partner’s side, teasing at her hip, before moving down again, and as if on cue, Ruby brought her knee farther up, between Weiss’s legs, stopping just shy of pressing.

Weiss let out the tiniest whine in Ruby’s mouth, her hand stopping on the leader’s thigh above her skirt, and she could already feel the hard muscles that were shifting under her fingers, and as she was about to slip her hand under the skirt to feel it better, Ruby pulled away, sitting back on her heels and catching Weiss’s hand in the process.

“You,” the leader panted, bringing Weiss’s hand to her mouth to kiss it, “Are very good at distracting.”

The smaller woman smiled, panting too, and she raised a single eyebrow as she eyed her partner up and down, shamelessly.

“And you’re a very good distraction.”

Dark eyebrows shot up, one corner of Ruby’s lips pulled up a little more in a smirk as something passed in her eyes, but she only chuckled, moving past Weiss to climb down the piano before turning around and offering her hand.

“I still want to hear the song, you know.”

The smaller woman let her head fall back on the hard surface with a sigh, then proceeded to climb down too with Ruby’s help. But as soon as her feet touched the ground, Ruby pulled her closer, stealing a kiss.

“I’m going to sit here,” the leader pointed at a lone chair beside the piano, “because if I sit beside you I’m going to get distracted.”

The leader pulled away, sitting down but kept her eyes locked with Weiss, and as she made her way to the piano’s bench, she could feel Ruby’s eyes on her, watching her every move, every sway of her hips, and as she sat down, the leader snorted, earning Weiss’s attention.

“You know, for someone who can stop my thoughts from being the craziness they usually are, I really can’t think straight when I’m with you,” Ruby let out, winking exaggeratedly.

Weiss grimaced, lifting the panel protecting the black and white keys.

“Oh, this was Yang’s level of bad pun,” she groaned. “I think I’m going to need a minute to try and forget you ever did that.”

Ruby laughed and Weiss smiled, taking the folder where the music sheets were, combing through them to find the one she wanted to play, and finally finding it, installing the folder in front of her eyes.

All and all, it was an easy piece, and she never really had a problem before with playing and singing at the same time, but… it has been a long time.

“Let me get my bearings,” she mumbled, more to herself than to Ruby.

Still, the leader pulled her chair closer only to lean her elbow on the piano and rest her head in her hand.

“Take your time,” Ruby assured.

Placing her hands over the keys, her fingers hovering just shy of the white keys, she could replay the song in her head, and tentatively played it, quickly reviewing the song, switching notes and testing her voice alongside it. All the while under the watchful eye of Ruby, who seemed content to just watch and listen.

Finally, she felt confident enough to start it, playing softly, and the lyrics of the songs flew past her lips without effort.

“Some say love it is a river / that drowns the tender reed. Some say love it is a razor / that leaves your soul to bleed. Some say love it is a hunger / an endless aching need. I say love it is a flower / and you its only seed.”

Her touches were still hesitant at times, but her voice was not, remembering the lyrics by heart, but she still played the right keys at the right moment, and so far, she wasn’t at all disappointed by her performance.

“When the night has been too lonely / And the road has been too long, / And you think that love is only / For the lucky and the strong, / Just remember, in the winter, / far beneath the bitter snows / lies the seed that with the sun’s love, / in the spring, becomes the rose.”

She let the last note echo and fades around the room before she brought her hands to her lap, suddenly nervous as she looked up to Ruby, waiting for a reaction.

The leader was still in the same position, her eyes focused on Weiss’s hands before glancing up, her expression soft as she smiled.

“I loved it,” she said quietly.

“Really?” the smaller woman perked up, deeply satisfied that her partner liked it.

Ruby nodded as she shifted, straightening her back, this time resting her chin on her fist.

“You said you used to sing this to Winter?”

“Yes,” Weiss nodded, one of her hand ghosting over a couple of white keys. “She was the one who showed it to me, actually. But she can’t sing, so she always preferred when I played it.”

“I can understand that,” the leader smiled again. “Can I ask for an encore?”

“You really liked it,” the smaller woman smiled, but still obliged, placing her hands across the keys.

“What’s the title, by the way? The title of the song?”

Weiss stopped for half a second, and she looked up, a soft smile pulling her lips.

“It’s ‘The rose’. Who knew one of my favorite songs was named after you.”

**** 

Blake felt one of her ears flick towards the hallway, and she turned her attention that way as Yang put her scroll away, but the blonde noticed it right away.

“What is it?”

“Weiss is singing,” she reported absently. “I think.”

“You think?” the blonde asked, raising a single eyebrow.

“We’re kind of far from the ballroom, but…” she paused, narrowing her eyes to try and concentrate. “It does sound like it.”

Yang hummed, clapping her thighs as she stood and smiling down at Blake.

“Then let’s stalk closer and listen in! I bet she’s singing something disgustingly cute to Ruby. Besides,” she added, glancing over her shoulder. “The cake is ready. We should gather the troops so we can eat it!”

Blake laughed as she stood, taking her hand and entwining their fingers together with a smile.

“Let’s go, then. I like listening to Weiss singing.”

**** 

Well, she did have enjoyed her day. Blake and Yang had come in the ballroom to fetch them, and the cake was delicious. They even had a piece for Klein, and a few left for the day after, and they finished the evening, cherry on top, with watching the lights in the living room, where the windowsills were large enough for them to sit on the edge, bundled up in blankets.

Now, in her nightgown, she was sitting in front of her dresser, her hair down, and she was brushing her hair with a huge yawn. Only her bedside lamp was still on, and the room was illuminated by the warm light of the lamp and the greenish light of the aurora borealis from outside. These were really the kind of nights she liked. Where everything was illuminated by the sky alone.

Three knocks at the door, quiet, brought her attention, and as she was about to ask who it was, the door opened and Ruby stepped inside.

“Hey,” she only said, closing the door behind her.

“Hi, Ruby,” Weiss greeted, but her eyebrows furrowed.

“What’s up?”

The leader leaned her back against the door, keeping her attention on Weiss, and at the odd question, because the answer was obvious, she eyed her partner.

“I’m preparing for bed, obviously,” Weiss still answered, lowering her brush.

“Cool, cool.” Ruby nodded, glancing away around the room.

“Ruby,” Weiss sighed, setting her brush aside and standing to step closer to the leader. “What is it? Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine, it’s just, um…”

Ruby chewed on her lip for a few second, and she shifted, clearly hesitant.

“Is it about your dream?” Weiss tried, searching for her eyes.

“What? No, no it’s… something else. Look, I um…”

“Whatever it is, you know you can tell me, Ruby.”

Silver eyes finally looked up and locked with hers, the hesitation that was there moments ago seemed to vanish instantly.

“I was wondering if you wanted to continue what we started.”

Blinking, Weiss narrowed her eyes slightly, confused.

“What did we start?”

“You know. On the piano.”

As the realisation was dawning on Weiss, Ruby’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked down, thoughtful.

“And in front of the fireplace.” She added.

“Oh. That,” Weiss let out.

“I- You- Yang told me that we should take our time, but what if I don’t want to?” Ruby shrugged. “If you don’t want to I totally understand and I’ll go back to my room and I promise I will never ask you this again, but I think you’re so beautiful and sexy and I really really want you, and-”

Weiss interrupted her rambling with a hand on her arm, Ruby’s words dying on her lips lamely but she paid no mind.

“Could you… say that again?” she asked, her voice hushed and low, and she felt a deep seated satisfaction when she saw Ruby swallow, her eyes glancing down to her lips.

“Say what?” the leader asked, her voice quiet.

“The last part.”

“That I understand if you don’t want to?”

“The last-last part.”

“Oh.”

Weiss stepped closer again, and something shifted in Ruby’s behavior, darkened silver eyes looking down at her through her eyelashes, her hands reaching over to rest nicely on her hips.

“I think that you’re beautiful and so very sexy, and ever since I got to kiss your skin I can’t shake the feeling of you against my lips, and I want to tell you everything that you are against you, and also I really, really want you, Weiss.”

The smaller woman stood on her toes to close the distance between them, kissing Ruby deeply, making the hands on her hips grip tighter.

“That was better than expected,” the smaller woman murmured against the leader’s lips after she pulled away.

“So… is that a yes?” Ruby breathed, keeping Weiss close to her.

But the smaller woman only kissed her again, her hands reaching up and unclasping the leader’s cape from her shoulders, letting it fall to the ground in a whisper of fabric, and she felt Ruby smile against her lips.

Chapter Text

She woke up gradually, not really knowing what made her get out of her slumber. She stretched lightly with a soft grunt, keeping her eyes closed to savor the moment. She could feel the fabric of the blanket against her, feel the cold air hitting her skin when one of her arms slipped out from under the covers.

She had never slept naked before. In a dorm with three other people, it would just be weird. But even in the rare occasions where she did have a room for herself, she still slept with her nightgown, because Ruby and Yang sometimes could forget what a closed door meant.

Still half-asleep, she furrowed her brows, wondering why she was naked in bed. And then, she heard a soft sigh beside her.

She opened her eyes as it all came back to her, realising that it was still quite early in the morning, the horizon only starting to get paler out the window, and still, a few aurora borealis was still illuminating the room with their soft lights, and she looked over, enjoying the sight.

Ruby was sleeping on her stomach, both her arms up under the pillow, facing away from her and resting some of her weight on her bent knee, most of her back bare, her hair spilling on her pillow like ink against the white pillowcase. Her breathing was slow and deep, the light sculpting her back majestically, and Weiss stayed there for a few seconds.

Trying to memorize everything of this moment.

At last, Ruby’s warmth called to her, and trying to be as discreet and delicate as she could to try and not wake the other woman, Weiss scooted over, slotting her legs right behind Ruby’s, snaking an arm under her head along the leader’s, and she kissed the spot between her shoulder blades, nuzzling there for a moment. She let her free hand wander, ghosting over Ruby’s smooth skin, following the line of her shoulder, then circling around the hollow of the muscle, before slowly sliding down her side, feeling the subtle bumps of her ribs.

She stopped at the curve of her hip, drawing soft patterns that led her fingers against her lower back before her hand went all the way up, all the while leaving soft kisses along Ruby’s back and shoulders.

The quiet grunt the leader let out told her that maybe she wasn’t as discreet as she thought she was, and so she stopped. And she waited, until Ruby sighed again.

Her hand wandered again, this time dragging her nails along her skin, just enough to feel, and she watched as it would raise goosebumps in its wake, along with a shudder along Ruby’s spine. Weiss stopped again, holding her breath, hoping that Ruby hadn’t woken up, but the way the leader shifted, slightly grinding her ass against Weiss’s hips, was enough of a tell.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” she murmured against her skin, caressing her side with the back of her fingers.

“It’s fine,” her partner mumbled, her voice muffled from the pillow. “I’m not totally awake yet.”

Weiss kissed the spot between her shoulder blades again, this time earning a soft hum as she did.

“What were you doing anyway?” Ruby asked, her voice sleepy, slowly going back to sleep.

“I’m marveling.”

“At what?”

“At you,” Weiss murmured, nuzzling the hollow of her shoulder.

Ruby chuckled sleepily as the smaller woman wrapped an arm around her frame, and the leader brought one of her hands from under the pillow to hold it, pulling it closer to her chest after kissing the pale fingers.

“I think you marveled enough last night, no?” Ruby teasingly let out, a smirk clear in her voice.

It made Weiss huff, but she snuggled closer, nestling her nose in Ruby’s nape after a soft kiss.

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop.”

“Aren’t you the sweetest,” the leader murmured, already back in the sands of sleep.

The smaller woman smiled, closing her eyes. She wanted to stay like this forever, in bed with Ruby, skin against skin, stealing her warmth, and just so comfortable snuggled up like that. She never wanted to leave this bed again.

Then, just as she was about to fall asleep, she heard what had woken up. The discreet, yet insistent buzzing of a scroll, vibrating on the hard surface of the nightstand.

She groaned quietly, hiding her face deeper in Ruby’s neck, her mind set on ignoring it.

… Then again. Who would try to reach her this early in the morning?

Just a quick glance, she thought, reluctantly untangling herself from the soft warmth of the woman beside her, reaching over with a sigh and squinting her eyes to protect them from the light of the scroll.

Then her heart dropped. Five messages from Klein.

“What on Remnant…” she muttered, straightening herself as she swiped on the screen to see the messages.

She hadn’t realised her hands were shaking until she had to use both to steady the device enough so she could read, and as she did, she felt like her heart stopped beating for long, painful minutes, frozen in panic, her breath caught in her throat, then it came rushing back, her heart thundering in her hears, pounding in her chest, and she whirled around, gripping and shaking Ruby’s shoulder mercilessly.

“Ruby, wake up,” she ordered, her voice short and tight.

But the leader only grumbled under her breath, shifting to be more comfortable. Gritting her teeth, Weiss shook her again, this time with more force.

“No, Ruby, wake up. Please.”

The wavering in her voice on the last word came through Ruby’s sleepy mind, and the leader jolted awake, suddenly realising that Weiss was panicked, and she threw the covers back, sitting straight on the bed, hastily blinking the sleep from her eyes as she focused her attention on Weiss.

“What is it? What’s going on? Are you okay?” Ruby asked one after the other, shaking her head as she glanced around the room, making sure there were no threats.

The smaller woman only gave her her scroll, her mouth pinched in a thin, stressful line, and as Ruby took it, Weiss saw confusion turn into surprise, then into panic as she lifted her silver eyes to her, searching her.

“Your father’s coming back,” Ruby breathed, horror clear in her voice.

“We only have an hour to get ready before he gets here,” the smaller woman took her scroll back, getting out of bed. “Thanks to Klein, we have a head start. Go in the shower, I’ll wake the others.”

As she made her way to the door, quickly slipping in a silken bathrobe that was hanging on the door leading to the bathroom, Ruby jumped out of bed straight to the bathroom without another word, the sound of falling water following suit. Tying the knot haphazardly around her waist, Weiss opened the door and reached the one right in front of hers in three wide strides, before pounding on the door with her fist.

“Whoever is on the other side of this door,” Yang’s voice was heard through the door, the accent of sleep still there but it was laced with anger. “If I ever get up, I will-”

“You can kill me later, Yang, for now I need you to get up and get dressed,” Weiss interrupted, loud enough that she knew they heard her. “Father is coming, and we only have an hour. I need you to take a shower, and be dressed as cleanly as possible, because he won’t stand it if we are not on our best behavior, and I know he’s already going to be upset because we’re here and-”

The door flew open with Yang stepping out of the room as she pulled down the hem of her shirt, struggling to pass her arm in the sleeve in her haste, and the telltale of a shower starting was heard.

“Woah, whoa, slow down,” the blonde managed, finally winning the battle with her shirt. “What do you mean your father’s coming?”

“Klein texted me to warn us,” Weiss explained, hugging herself to hide how she was shaking. “He would have warned me himself but Father had requested Klein to get him from the airport. Yang, I-”

Weiss took a sharp intake of air, her breath trembling, clutching at her arms.

“I don’t know why he’s coming back,” she finally let out. “I made sure he would be gone for the whole month, I even tracked his schedule and I saw he already had booked flights and hotels! He wasn’t supposed to come back for two weeks after we left!”

She closed her eyes, making a list of all the things he would be upset about, and as the list only grew longer, she ran both her hands in her hair restlessly.

“He’s going to be so mad,” she breathed, feeling her face twist. “He’s going to ask why I’m here, and he’s going to be upset that I didn’t ask if I could bring you along, and… Oh my God, Blake! Father… He’ll be furious that I let a faunus into his house, he’ll-”

She felt Yang’s hands pull her into the blonde’s arms, effectively cutting her off, and she felt the blonde rest a protective hand on her head as she held her close, wordlessly trying to calm her down.

After a moment she relaxed slightly, enough to actually reach out and clutch at Yang’s shirt, and the blonde started petting her hair.

“Hey,” she softly whispered. “You got this.”

Weiss scoffed, the quietness of her voice softening the bite to it.

“I wish I could believe you, Yang.”

“You know we’ll do anything to help you, Weiss. If you need us do something, just ask,” the blonde softly continued, and Weiss felt her look to the side. “Did you wake Ruby up? Her door is closed.”

She tensed up again, freezing in panic as she could feel a cold sweat gather between her shoulder blades as Yang looked into Weiss’s bedroom, for she had left the door wide open, and she was pulling away when she saw her furrow her brows.

“Why is Ruby’s cloak in your room? On the floor, too. She always hangs it, this thing is sacred to her eyes. Did she change in your room too? Like, all her clothes are on the…”

It was in that moment that Weiss realised how Blake was right when she said that Yang was a little oblivious, even if it turned out she knew about Ruby’s crush. But as realisation dawned on her after an eternity, the blonde turning her blank expression to her before lowering her eyes to look at what she was wearing, Weiss did the same, realising that in her haste, she had tied the bathrobe loosely, and the light blue silk exposed a good portion of her chest, stopping at the swell of her breasts. Even as Weiss pulled it up to cover herself a little more, it was clear she wasn’t wearing anything underneath.

Yang looked back up to her, blinking.

“…Floor,” she finished quietly.

Weiss felt a violent blush burn her cheeks as she busied her hands, closing the flaps and tying the knot properly this time, and refusing to meet the blonde’s eyes, but refusing to run away, either. She wasn’t guilty of anything. Right?

They stayed in awkward silence for a moment, Weiss taking so much interest at the hem of the bathrobe, until Yang crossed her arms.

“Huh. I never thought Ruby wouldn’t listen to me.”

Her voice… was quiet. Not angry, like she feared, but just in silent wonder, more talking to herself than to her. Still. She had to make sure.

“You’re not mad?” she asked, hesitating.

Yang blew a raspberry, shrugging.

“Why would I be mad, Weiss? Honestly. You are both adults. As long as you both were willing to, there’s no need for me to be mad. Besides,” she added with a teasing smirk, “You look like you had fun.”

She blushed again, this time crossing her arms tightly over her chest with a frown.

“I’m not discussing it with you. It will only be weird.”

“And you’re right!” the blonde smiled, making finger guns at her. “Now do your thing, and I’ll fetch some bleach so I can burn the images I had from my brain.”

Weiss couldn’t help but laugh. Even at a time like this, she was glad that Yang had been able to make her think of something else. Even for a moment.

**** 

She pulled on the claps of Ruby’s cloak for the hundredth time, straightening it so it would fall from her shoulder properly, and at the sigh the leader let out Weiss pulled away, biting her lip. She knew she was too stressed, but still. She looked up, seeing the encouraging smile Ruby was giving her, her eyes so soft and full of affection, and after a short nod, the smaller woman tried to return one. She then stepped to the side, in front of Yang.

The blonde let Weiss stress over her outfit, the smaller woman pulling and smoothing, only stopping when she was satisfied, before pushing back a blonde lock behind Yang’s ear. The blonde winked, and she nodded in response.

And she stepped to the side again, in front of Blake.

Only to find out that there was nothing she thought was amiss. Blake was clean and proper, everything falling perfectly on her, and she sighed, letting her hands fall on each side of her as she looked up into golden eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” she murmured, hoping that her voice was low enough so the staff members couldn’t hear. “I told you your bow wouldn’t be necessary, and now…”

“Weiss,” Blake interrupted, reaching over and gently grasping her arm. “You didn’t know. It’s fine.”

“But it’s not,” the smaller woman insisted. “What if he tells his guards to throw you out? Or worse!”

“What worst can he do?” the faunus asked, shrugging lightly.

“Do you really want to know?”

“…Never mind.”

The smaller woman sighed, looking to the side. They were gathered in the main hall, the staff and them, making two long lines on each side of the entryway, and now they only had to wait for the master of the house to show up.

“Talk about an ego complex,” Yang muttered, her eyes trailing over the staff. “It looks like a king returning to his castle— Ooh I see,” she grumbled, her face twisting in a dark frown.

She was about to retort something at her, but the words stopped on the tip of her tongue when she noticed that the maids closer to the door bowed down, and she quickly whipped her sweaty palms on her skirt, taking position in front of her teammates.

“He’s here,” she informed, her voice short and tight, her eyes fixated on the door.

She felt someone take her hand, discreetly, and she didn’t need to look back to know that it was Ruby. After a reassuring squeeze, the leader let go, and Weiss squared her shoulders, taking a deep breath in.

Jacques Schnee soon appeared, standing tall with his back straight, his hands gathered at the small of his back, and he marched on, ignoring the rows of staff greeting him, Klein following close behind.

Finally, he reached the end of the line and when he was only a few paces from her, Weiss bowed her head, dipping just low enough.

The staff had to bow down. For her, being the child and the heir of the master, she didn’t have to bow down as much.

He stopped in front of her, turning to face her, and she swallowed hard before straightening her head to look up at him, managing to make a small smile.

“Father,” she greeted.

His cold blue eyes were staring at Yang, then settling on Ruby long enough for Weiss’s mind to start blaring red hot alarms, before finally, his gaze lowered to her. He had completely ignored Blake.

“A word. Now.”

He turned on his heels and stalked away towards the hallway to the left, and Weiss knew he was going to his office. She waited for him do disappear from sight before she looked over her shoulder at Ruby, and she was instantly met by silver eyes.

Silver eyes filled with concern. She had noticed too.

“I’ll be right back,” she let out, knowing that whatever ‘word’ her father wanted to have with her, it wasn’t going to be quick.

The leader nodded, her eyes drifting towards the hallway, and she was about to start towards it when she nearly bumped into someone.

“Dearest sister, it is such a pleasure to see you again,” a smooth voice said.

Whitley.

She stared at him for a moment, her younger brother only smiling his enigmatic smile, noticing how tall he was now, and she rolled her eyes, paying him no mind as she made her way to her father’s office.

She couldn’t remember one time that she genuinely wanted to go to her father’s office. Well, no, there were times where she was actually excited to go see him.

When she was just a child. When she thought that her father loved her, and when she loved him.

She loved him for way to long.

She stopped in front of the door, her eyes fixated on the doorknob, and she had to remind herself that she couldn’t just turn back. Whatever he was about to tell her, she wouldn’t run.

Not anymore.

Taking a sharp breath in, squaring her shoulders, she knocked twice, waiting for her father’s call, and decidedly twisted the doorknob, stepping inside.

**** 

“Take it out,” was the very first thing he said to her, not even bothering to look at her as he read a paper he took from a file on his desk.

“I beg your pardon?” Weiss blinked, slightly confused.

He raised his cold eyes to her with all the care he would look at a garbage can.

“That thing in the main hall, that thing that you dare call a teammate. Throw it out, in a car or in an airship, I don’t care, but I want it out of my house.”

Weiss gritted her teeth and squeezed her fists tightly, hidden behind her back. She could check this subject from her list.

“Father,” she said with a cool voice, trying to remain calm. “My teammates are my guests. I want you to treat them as such. All of them.”

“Well this is my house,” her father retorted, his voice sharp as he returned his attention to the paper. “And as you well know, I don’t like when rats stays here.”

“Technically, this mansion is Mother’s, not yours. And me being the heir, it’s as much mine as it is yours.”

She saw his moustache twitch, and he raised his eyes to her again, this time as a warning.

“I would watch my tone if I were you, child,” he hissed.

Weiss had a hard time not to smirk at how easy it was to rub her father the wrong way, but still, she bowed her head in silent apology, playing along.

“You know I don’t like when I’m being kept in the dark,” he told her, letting the paper fall back in the file and clapping it shut as he stared at her. “And now, some birds told me that my heir dares to sneak back home while I’m not there, with her team.”

Weiss kept her head held high, her chin up. With her father, the most important thing was confidence. Even if you were wrong, you had to be wrong with confidence.

“I didn’t think you would mind, since you wouldn’t be here at that time. And we would have been gone when you would have come back.”

“You just hoped I wouldn’t notice.”

Jacques leaned both his elbows on his desk as he watched her like a hawk, and Weiss felt the little confidence she had from her jabs at her father wash away, turning instead into nervousness. She could feel cold sweat on her back, and she swallowed, holding her father’s gaze.

There was no calm in his eyes. Just held back anger, that he tried to play as calmness as he brought his fist close to his mouth, leaning his chin on it.

“What astonish me, Weiss, is that even after all those years, you still don’t realise it.”

“Realise what, Father?”

“That the staffs fear me more than they trust Klein.”

The alarms that had rang earlier in her mind started up again when she saw him reach to a briefcase at his feet, pulling out a file from it, then proceeded to place everything on his desk for her to see.

“I should fire him, honestly,” he said, distracted. “But he’s the only one who knows your mother’s medication by heart, and the only one she remembers enough to let him medicate her. He’s also very efficient at his job, and replacing him would only be wasted time.”

These were pictures. Of her and Ruby. Of them holding hands, and a few showed them kissing. One of them was when they were on the piano, and one of Weiss’s hands, trapped in Ruby’s, seemed like it was guided under the red skirt.

She knew it wasn’t like that, but the picture said otherwise.

She felt panic rise as her eyes traveled across the pictures, her fists squeezed so tight that her nails were sinking in her skin, but she didn’t say anything as her father finished placing the pictures, then settling back in his previous position, studying her.

“Some birds told me that you didn’t sleep alone tonight, if sleep is the right word,” her father informed, his voice cutting.

“Being homosexual isn’t a crime, Father,” Weiss said carefully.

She saw him twitch again and he scoffed, his eyes lowering to the pictures.

“You chose the classic course. Whoring yourself to your leader,” he spat out, disdain clear in his voice. “I just can’t see what advantages it would grant you. And judging by this one,” he extended a hand, tapping a picture of the four of them all snuggled up in the couch when they watched movies, “It wouldn’t surprise me if you were the whore for the whole team.”

“Blake and Yang are betrothed, and friends get close,” she snarled. “And I’m not whoring for advantages to Ruby. I… I love her. Besides, who is bedding me is none of your-”

She jumped, startled, when he slammed his hand on his desk, making the few things on it clatter.

“It is my business, child,” he growled, his eyes narrowing dangerously. “I have plans for you. You’re going to be married to the son of an influent, concurrent Dust company, and-”

“I don’t want to,” Weiss interrupted, hissing between gritted teeth. “I’m going to be a Huntress, and I’m going to take care of the company, too. I’m not marrying anyone.”

“You don’t get to ‘want’ things!” Jacques snapped, suddenly standing up and making his chair scrape loudly behind him. “You have to do what has to be done, for the sake of the company!”

“I’m not scarifying myself for this!” Weiss snapped back, matching her father’s raised tone. “And you don’t get to decide what I do with my life!”

He stared at her, his mouth twisted in anger, and she could see his pale neck turning red as he tried to contain his fury.

“Your mother would be so disappointed in you, if she could remember all you did.”

That was a low blow, even for him, and it infuriated her so much that, for a hot second, she was about to summon one of her Ursa to show him who was really in a position of power. But then, she thought of something else.

In terms of anger, she was her father’s daughter. Just like him, there were things that pushed all her buttons at the same time, ensuring an explosion of anger as spectacular as it was dangerous. And she knew exactly what would set him off.

She spun on her heels, making her way towards the door.

“Did I tell you I was finished?” she heard her father yell.

As much as it scared her and made her flinch, she didn’t stop, opening the door wide and stepping out.

“Where do you think you’re-”

She turned around as he stepped around his desk, crimson creeping up from his neck, and as she looked him dead in the eyes, she slammed the door with all the force she had, making it shake in the frame.

She heard him scream, and for a second, she thought about running, to let the fear control her and make her race down the hallway to go hide in her bedroom, hoping she would reach it before her father reached her. Just like she always did.

But she stayed there. Planting her heels in the ground, she faced the door, chin up, head held high, and even if she was shaking, even if she was terrified of the man on the other side of the door, she wanted him to see that she wasn’t scared of him, now. That she wouldn’t cower and abandon the fight. That she wouldn’t let him hurt her like he always did. She wanted him angry, because she wanted to show him that she was strong, now.

The door flew open, and the mighty Jacques Schnee appeared, his entire face as red as Ruby’s cloak, his face twisted in fury, and his tie loosened, but when he saw her, waiting for him, he stumbled on his feet, expecting that she had run off like the other times. But seeing her like this, raising her chin defiantly, meeting him dead on, seemed to set him on another level of fury.

“You arrogant brat!” he roared at her face, and before she could do or say something, he grabbed her by the arm, his hold so tight his finger dug in her skin and making her yelp in pain.

He then started to drag her down the hallway, pulling on the rest of his tie as she tried to pull herself free from his hold.

“Bad children deserves to be punished, and it seems like I haven’t punished you enough,” he growled, and only now did she noticed the wooden cane in the same hand he used to pull on his tie, and her blood ran cold.

Her old fears came back full force, all the shaky confidence she had flew away, and this time, she pulled on her arm for dear life, trying to sink her heels in the ground, trying to break free and run, pride be damned. Be he held on, his vice grip hurting her so, so much, and only making the terror rising that much quickly.

“Father, please, let me go!” she pleaded, not caring that her voice was trembling and wavering, using her free hand to try and pry his hand off.

He ignored her, only pulling harshly on her arm. She felt tears brimming her eyes, wondering how she had let it get this bad, wondering how she could escape him, and he rounded a corner, dragging her behind, and her eyes fell on his room’s door.

Her breath caught in her throat, and desperate, she scratched her father’s hand, sinking her nails deeply enough to make him yowl in pain, and he turned around, rage twisting his entire face, his eyes shining. He raised his arm, about to strike her with the cane, and she curled in on herself, closing her eyes.

Suddenly he let her go as she heard a tumble, and instead of falling to the ground, a pair of arms held her, and she opened her eyes. Blake had shoved her behind her and Ruby was holding her, while Yang was presently slamming her father against the wall, her arm pressing against his throat.

“Why don’t you pick on someone your size,” she hissed, her eyes flaming red and the tips of her hair starting fuming.

His cold eyes stared at the blonde for a few seconds, surprised, before he looked over at Blake, noticing how she was shielding Weiss as the faunus stood ready, glaring at him with her ears flat against her scalp, then to Ruby, who was the definition of ‘if look could kill’. Finally, his eyes settled on Weiss, and all she could see in them were disdain and disappointment.

Jacques pushed Yang away, straightening his shirt, not breaking eye contact with Weiss.

“Pathetic,” he spat out.

After one last glance at the blonde that was watching his every move, he turned on his heels and left, closing the door of his bedroom behind him.

They were left in silence, Blake turning around to look at Weiss, Yang doing the same, blinking the red from her eyes.

“Are you okay?” Ruby asked her, her voice soft.

“I’m fine,” she let out, her voice trembling as she pulled away from her partner.

“You’re shaking like a leaf,” the leader noted, her frown of worry deepening.

“I said I’m fine,” Weiss said with a little more force, starting back on shaky legs, the tears finally falling.

But Ruby didn’t insist, nor did Blake or Yang, and they only follow her in silence, and Weiss didn’t care that she stumbled on the way. She just wanted to be alone.

So much for being strong.

She wasn’t strong, after all. She wasn’t strong at all.

**** 

She folded a shirt then set it in its suitcase, slowly, meticulously. The room was silent, blissfully silent, and she focused on her occupation, packing up for their early flight in the morning. Still, since her… talk, with her father, the team had left her alone, as requested. At least, up until now.

Two knocks sounded on the door, then silence. Waiting. Weiss ignored it, folding another shirt silently. And the knocks came again.

She sighed.

“I want to be alone,” she said, loud enough to be heard through the door.

There was a short silence, as if the person was hesitating.

“It’s me,” Ruby finally said, knocking against the door softly. “Can I come in? Please?”

She threw her head back, staring at the ceiling, the shirt forgotten in her hands and she let out a long, deep sigh. She could hear the soft creeks of the floorboards in front of her door, indicating that Ruby was still there, waiting.

She knew her partner could be very understanding. She also knew that she could be very stubborn.

And after a day like this, she was just so tired of fighting.

With another sigh, she left the shirt on her bed, making her way to the door and opening it, seeing how Ruby perked up at that. She didn’t say anything, didn’t even motion for her to enter, she just left the door open as she returned to folding her shirt, turning her back to her.

She heard the leader carefully step inside, then silently close the door, and she could feel her eyes on her as they stayed silent for a moment.

“I’m sorry,” she heard Ruby whisper, and she gritted her teeth, almost tearing the shirt in her hands.

“Ruby, I so don’t need your pity right now,” Weiss snapped back, wondering why she even let her enter.

“I’m- Wait, that’s not what I meant!” the leader quickly backtracked.

“What did you mean, then?”

She refused to look back, shoving the shirt half-folded in the suitcase, irritation clear in her voice, and she heard the leader sigh behind her.

“I mean, I’m sorry he reacted so badly,” she tried, and Weiss glared above her shoulder. “About us. And I mean, about us,” she insisted, motioning to the both of them.

Weiss furrowed her brows, turning a little more to Ruby as the leader kept her eyes on the floor, her expression concerned.

“Why are you even apologising? That’s not your fault at all, Ruby.”

The leader shrugged, grimacing slightly.

“Is it, really? If I hadn’t asked to stay last night…”

“Ruby,” Weiss interrupted dryly. “It’s not because you asked that I let you stay. If I didn’t want you in my bed, then you wouldn’t even have seen the colors of the sheets.”

Ruby stayed silent, staring at her as Weiss flapped a new shirt in her hands decidedly, folding it and setting it in the suitcase, turning her back to her again. A silence fell on them, this time a little lighter than before.

“I just…” Ruby sighed after a while. “I don’t understand why he even wants to control you like that. He even tells you who you’ll marry, I mean…”

The leader shook her head as Weiss turned entirely to face her, starting to get confused.

“What the fuck,” the leader softly breathed. “That’s sick.”

“How did you…” Weiss trailed off, staring at her in wonder.

Ruby smiled slightly, shrugging one shoulder.

“Blake was eavesdropping. She had a bad feeling about this. And… we would have intervened sooner, but Whitley tried to stop us.”

Weiss huffed, nodding. Of course. Trust Whitley to let their father take out his anger on her. She turned around again, staring at her half-filled suitcase, wondering about what her life would look like if she had never attended Beacon, if she had never met her team, if…

“Did it happen often?”

Ruby’s voice was so quiet that she nearly missed it, and maybe she wished she did. She looked over her shoulder, noticing that Ruby wasn’t even looking at her, her silver eyes staring off past her.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Weiss let out.

“Because it explains a lot, actually,” Ruby continued, as if she didn’t hear the smaller woman.

“Explain what?” Weiss asked carefully, feeling her shoulders tensing.

“You,” Ruby answered simply. “Well, first-year-at-Beacon-you. Why you didn’t like to be touched. Why you flinched every time someone shouted. Why you were so guarded.”

“Ruby,” Weiss interrupted, her voice flat and dry. “I don’t need you to analyse me.”

The leader grimaced, lowering her gaze to the ground. Another silence fell between them, Ruby watching for a moment as Weiss resumed her packing.

“If I ever do something…” Ruby started hesitantly, earning Weiss attention. “If I ever do or say something that hurts you, in any way, you’ll tell me, right? I… I really don’t want to hurt you.”

The smaller woman stared at her for a long moment, waiting for Ruby to look up at her.

“Of course I will, silly.”

She extended her hand and the leader instantly stepped closer to take it, running her thumb on pale knuckles, and they stood there for a couple of seconds, a few inches between them except for their joined hands, neither of them looking up in the other’s eyes. For her part, Weiss was staring at Ruby’s shoulder, at the metal clasp holding the leader’s cloak in place, until she felt the leader lean her head against Weiss’s, lightly, as if asking if it was alright for her to do that. The smaller woman only stepped closer, leaning her cheek against Ruby’s shoulder as she circled her waist loosely, a weight lifting from her chest when she felt Ruby do the same.

And they just stayed there. Weiss wasn’t even sure for how long. The only thing that she was sure of was how good it felt. How much she needed it, to just be held by someone who cared about her when she felt like she was in pieces.

That it was okay if she wasn’t okay.

**** 

Meanwhile, in the room across.

“I will murder him in his sleep, Blake,” Yang hissed through gritted teeth for the hundredth time as she was pacing like a tiger in a cage. “I swear, if Weiss wants me too, I’ll gladly do it.”

“Count me in if she ever gives you the green light,” Blake muttered behind her book, curled up on the bed.

The blonde stopped then, glancing at her.

“Why are you even bothering with a book, Blake, you’ve been staring at the same pages for the past fifteen minutes.”

The faunus clapped it just, letting it fall beside her as she looked up, her ears pulled back.

“Fine, here. What do you want me to do? Pace across the room with you?”

Yang only stayed silent, her fists squeezing again.

“I’d rather try to distract myself and keep my hands busy then elaborate ways of murdering Weiss’s father in his sleep and make it look like an accident,” she dryly let out before taking her book back, flipping it to the marker she had left in it.

The blonde huffed at that, and after a second, she stepped closer and sat on the edge of the bed.

“Fair point.”

Then, Yang sighed deeply, staring down at her hands as she curled her fingers, the panels and gears from her prosthetic’s clinking quietly.

“I wonder why people do that,” the blonde quietly let out, and when Blake looked up, she could see blonde eyebrows knitted together, a deep wrinkle between them.

“Do what?”

“Hurt their own children,” she answered, closing her prosthetic hand into a fist. “I just… It’s your own children. That you made yourself. Why? How?”

The faunus considered her for a moment before lowering her eyes on the metal fist, pondering what the right answer was, and finding that there wasn’t any she could think of.

“I don’t know,” she finally breathed.

Yang sighed again, her shoulders slumping a bit as she did. They stayed silent for a while, lost in thoughts, until Yang straightened her back.

“I know I’m not as naïve as Ruby, about the goodness of the world, but… I guess I never thought…”

She trailed off, chewing on her lip.

“I should have known,” she continued, her voice lower but harsher. “Weiss was so panicked this morning, and I just thought that she was overthinking it. You know how she is,” she added, glancing up at Blake.

“How could you know, Yang? It wasn’t written on her forehead what would happen.”

“I’m the one who notices when things are bad, Blake! That’s what I’m good at! And I just… overlooked it!”

“Stop that. Right now,” Blake said, smacking her arm with her book. “This isn’t about you.”

“I know, I know, that’s not what I meant, I just…” she took a deep breath in, then slowly let it out through her nose. “I’m just worried for her. Is she really okay?”

The faunus looked slightly to the side, her attention elsewhere, before coming back to the blonde, closing her book.

“I guess so… I don’t hear anything.”

“Ugh, this sucks,” Yang leaned back on her hands, staring at the ceiling. “Why did Ruby told us to stay put? I want to make sure our girl’s all right. And also ask her if I can maybe punch her asshole of a father into the moon.”

“And shatter it even more than it is? I’m not sure she would agree. Maybe go for the sun, so it won’t get destroyed in the process.”

The blonde huffed, the last comment snatching a very small, cornered smile from her.

**** 

“Is it really okay for me to stay with you tonight?” Ruby asked, shifting awkwardly in the doorway.

“Ruby, the last thing I care about right now is my father’s opinion.”

Weiss sat at the edge of the bed, already in her nightgown, and was starting to brush her hair as Ruby was still in the doorway, looking at her, mildly concerned.

“But, I mean… isn’t it like… rubbing salt into the wound? I don’t want to get attacked in the middle of the night, Weiss.”

The smaller woman scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“Oh please, he would never attack us himself. He’ll send goons for that.”

“How is that supposed to be reassuring?” the leader let out, this time frowning.

“It means that they’ll have to get past the security, because if we’re going to be attacked, Father will deny all ties to it. That means, the security grid will still be up, and all the guards, too. Plus, I’m pretty sure Blake will hear them before they reach us. She can hear a pin fall on a carpet from across the room when it’s full of people.”

Ruby seemed to be mulling over it as Weiss brushed the length of her hair one last time, then settled it on the nightstand and sliding under the covers, scooting over to take the far side.

“Besides,” she added, this time more softly. “After today, I really need a cuddle body.”

As the leader stared at her, Weiss patted the spot beside her, waiting. And after a sigh, Ruby stepped inside, closing the door behind her. She was in her sleepwear too, and her hair was still damp from her shower, but it didn’t stop the smaller woman to snuggle close as soon as Ruby was under the covers, and they stayed silent for a long while after the leader reached over to shut the bedside lamp off.

It took a while for her eyes to adjust to the dark; the clouded sky blocked every light the sky had to offer, and being so far from the city… Still, at some point she could make out the lines of Ruby’s profile, but not much else.

“Ruby?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you…” Weiss hesitated, and she was about to give up when Ruby nudge her head with her nose, encouraging. “Do you ever feel like… like you’re cursed?”

There was a long silence, and the clouds moving gave enough light to illuminate the side of the leader’s face, turned towards her. And right in this moment, Weiss had never seen her with this expression before.

Sadness. Infinite sadness, sculpted in silver.

“I do,” the leader breathed.

The smaller woman blinked, but before she could say something Ruby sighed, shifting.

“Why do you ask?”

“I was… just wondering if I was the only one,” Weiss admitted with a quiet, sheepish laugh.

“I think we all think we’re cursed, at one point or another. But, I guess, for some people it stays longer. And sure feels like a real curse.”

She said nothing, only shifting against her to be more comfortable, and she reached blindly under the covers, meeting Ruby’s hand halfway. She laced their fingers together, her thumb caressing the side of her finger, feeling the pads wielding Crescent Rose had created.

Maybe a change of subject was a good thing.

“How do you see your relationships?” she asked then.

There was a short silence, and Ruby moved her head, probably trying to see her in the dark.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, how do you figure them, in your head,” she explained. “If you imagine them at all.”

The leader hummed, thoughtful, her fingers playing with Weiss’s, until she shrugged.

“I don’t think I really… imagine them? I’m not sure I get what you mean. How do you imagine them?”

“Well, it’s like… a room. For every person in my life, there’s a room for them. And inside, there’s candles.”

“Candles?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “Each candle represents a reason why I like this person; they remembered my birthday, they remembered what kind of coffee I like, they let me pet their dog, and it goes on like this.”

Ruby huffed, and she could guess that she was smiling when she felt her squeeze her hand.

“How does my room look like?”

“Oh, there’s so many candles. I have to put them on the floor now, because every other furniture is already full. It warm, and very nice. Blake and Yang’s are pretty much the same.”

“What happens with someone you don’t like?” Ruby asked after a moment.

“Well, it depends,” the smaller woman said quietly. “If I didn’t like them from the start, it doesn’t really change anything. The room is dark, with no candles.”

“And with people that you liked at first?”

Weiss sighed. Ruby sounded genuinely curious, and in the dark like that… She liked to think that she had never been this close to Ruby before. Besides, she was the one initiating the conversation.

“Let’s take an example, shall we?” she finally said. “My father. His room, once, was lit with many candles, from when I was younger. Through the years, I guess he just stopped caring as he used to, you know? So, slowly, I was blowing candle after candle. When I left to go to Beacon, there were still a couple that were lit. But then, I met you and Blake and Yang and… I learned that the world wasn’t the way Father used to tell me.”

She fell silent for a while, but Ruby didn’t press her.

“I still wonder sometimes at how blind I was,” Weiss murmured in quiet astonishment. “I can’t believe I thought I had all the answers, that I knew everything. I mean, right now, I feel like I don’t know a thing.”

“I think you really didn’t have a choice, back then,” the leader gently countered.

“Did I?” the smaller woman huffed. “My thoughts are still mine.”

“You didn’t know better, Weiss. You can’t wish for something you don’t know.”

Weiss sighed, taking a moment to weight Ruby’s words before shifting slightly, quickly wetting her lips.

“A lot of candles were extinguished by the time Beacon fell,” she resumed her story, knowing that her partner was listening with rapt attention. “I don’t think I ever talked to you about the time between Father bringing me back from Beacon and when I escaped the mansion, did I?”

“I don’t think so, no,” Ruby answered after a short pause. “Except being locked up in your own bedroom.”

Weiss hummed, nodding.

“It was… nothing like before. It felt alien. I felt alien. I… in a way, my room had been my prison from the start, but at first, it was by choice. Because I didn’t want to be here, I wanted to be out there, I wanted to be with my team. And then, the Charity gala came, and… My prison by choice became my prison by force. And all the candles that were left were extinguished by me when I closed the door.”

She let out a long sigh, absentmindedly scraping her thumb nail over her forefinger in the same spot, and she noticed only when Ruby gently soothed her thumb over the abused spot.

“Turns out, there was still one last candle in his room,” she let out quietly. “A little one, hidden away behind a desk. My… My hope that someday, he would realise that I’m his daughter, and not some puppet he can manipulate and control. And today,” she paused, taking in a sharp breath. “Today, he blew it out himself, staring at me dead in the eyes, alone in the room lit by the one, small candle in his hand. So now, I guess I can put a lock on the door.”

She felt Ruby wrap an arm around her to pull her close and she let her as she closed her eyes, appreciating the contact. They stayed like that for a while, long enough for her to wonder if Ruby had fallen asleep, but when she felt a hand move to her head, then the tips of Ruby’s fingers touching her face gently, she knew her partner was still awake.

“So, how does it look like for you?” Weiss asked, keeping her eyes closed as she felt warm fingers pause their travels on her lips.

“I’ve been thinking about this,” Ruby answered in a low voice, her fingers tracing the edges of her lips. “But I guess it’s… a little like Hansel and Gretel.”

“Like who now?”

“You know, the story of two kids in the woods, marking their way home with bread crumbs?”

“Oh, yeah. But… Bread crumbs? Really?”

Ruby laughed softly, and it felt like warmth rushed to her every ends as she smiled, kissing the fingers that still lingered on her lips.

“Yeah, bread crumbs,” the leader confirmed a bit sheepishly. “Or cookies’. Anyway, I guess I just make a trail with these crumbs to the person, and every… bad thing that happens, it’s just a bird that went away with a crumb. So, I might get lost a bit when I follow this trail, but eventually I’ll get back. I think for some people there were too many birds, and I get lost in the forest.”

She felt her shrug, and the fingers went to trace the line of her nose, then followed the arch of her eyebrow. Running blind like that, Weiss wondered if Ruby wasn’t memorising her every features through touch.

“I don’t know. I’m not super creative for things like that. You, I like when you talk about things like that. You always get your thoughts in images easy to understand.”

“No, I think it’s great,” Weiss countered, smiling. “Is it always bread crumbs, though? What if it rains?”

The soft touch of Ruby’s fingers stopped dead in their tracks, followed by a guttural grunt.

“You thought about this way more thoroughly than I did.”

Weiss chuckled along with Ruby, the leader’s touch resuming as she shifted to lie on her side, facing Weiss.

“I’m not used to think about this,” the leader confessed, sounding almost sheepish. “My thoughts usually go to a… darker route.”

“Really?” the smaller woman asked, even though she already knew. Ruby might be the ever happy-go-lucky one, trying her best to be optimistic in every situation, she knew that her partner wasn’t all that. “Like what?”

“Like the upcoming war with Salem,” the leader answered instantly. “How many innocent will die. How we’re going to be on the front lines because of me. How it’s going to be my job to kill Salem. Do you want me to continue?”

Her tone was bitter now, just a little bit angry as she cupped her cheek, but whatever state her mind was, her hand was gentle, her touch feather-like.

“I never asked this. I only wanted to become a Huntress to kill monsters, to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. I never asked to be the winning key of a world-wide war.”

She sighed, her breath dragging on, rubbing her thumb across her cheekbone.

“I never asked to drag you into this. And I know it’s going to be soon. I can feel it in my gut. I just… I just wish I had more time.”

“Ruby,” Weiss softly called, reaching up to set her hand on top of Ruby’s. “You’re not alone. Even if you don’t want to, I want to go with you on the front lines. I know Blake and Yang wants to, too. We could follow you through hell without hesitation. We’re stronger together, Ruby.”

The leader paused for a few seconds before leaning over, and she felt Ruby’s soft lips on her forehead in a tender kiss, her thumb running on her cheek again, and Weiss’s hand moved from Ruby’s to reach over, clutching at the leader’s back, keeping her close.

“I’m pretty sure it’s where I’ll end up leading you,” the leader murmured against her skin. “But I know we’re stronger together. That’s the reason why I marked my way to you with giant boulders.”

Weiss huffed, one corner of her lips lifting up in a smile.

“Oh, have you now?” she playfully asked.

Ruby hummed positively as she kissed her eyes, the tip of her nose and her cheeks.

“Yup. Giant, massive, heart-shaped boulders, leading straight to you.”

She laughed against the leader’s lips as she kissed her, and she could feel her smile and chuckle.

Still, Ruby’s words remained in the back of her mind, fearing the time when the war would actually start. She knew everything would change, then.

For better or worst.

**** 

She woke up slowly, shivering, goosebumps on her skin as she felt the cool air on her naked shoulder. She sighed as she pulled on the covers, rolling over to snuggle the warmth of the woman beside her… only to find the spot empty, some residual warmth left behind.

Her eyes flew open, a feeling of betrayal starting to grow in the pit of her stomach.

“You’re awake,” Ruby’s unmistakable voice was heard behind her, and she looked over her shoulder. “Good morning.”

She turned around, a small scowl on her face as she glared at her partner, sitting on the windowsill in her tank top and shorts.

“What are you doing?” she asked, keeping the blankets close to her.

The leader shrugged, leaning her head back against the glass as she looked at her, a small, feeble smile on her lips.

“Watching you sleep.”

“Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Couldn’t.”

The smaller woman sighed, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles.

“When did you wake up?”

“A little before sunrise.”

Ruby stood, closing the distance to sit on the edge of the bed, reaching a hand to brush a white lock away from her face, her silver eyes searching her face.

“You look so peaceful when you sleep,” the leader murmured, her smile more sincere now. “I wonder what you’re dreaming of.”

“Come back to bed,” Weiss whispered back, taking her hand to leave a kiss on it. “I’m cold.”

Ruby huffed with a smile but obliged, making Weiss scoot over to have more room, and the smaller woman snuggled close to her partner to leech her warmth, shivering again, and it made Ruby laugh in her ear, softly.

“It amaze me how a space heater like you can be so cold in the morning,” she said in her ear, her tone playful as she ran her hand up and down her back.

“I’m out of fuel in the morning,” the smaller woman muttered.

Ruby chuckled, kissing her temple. They stayed silent for a moment, the shivers running down Weiss’s back finally stopping as they were resting in a cocoon of warmth, Ruby’s hands never stopping their motions.

“What time is it?” Weiss finally asked, her voice quiet and distracted.

Distracted, because Ruby’s hand was traveling lower and lower on her back, tracing the hollows on her lower back, then following the curve of her ass with her palm, the rough patched of callouses scratching her skin deliciously, before squeezing one cheek firmly.

“We’ll have to get up soon,” Ruby answered in a breath, never stopping her motion.

“How soon?” the smaller woman breathed, feeling Ruby’s hand doing down the length of her thigh.

“Like half-an-hour soon.”

Then, Ruby’s hand stopped at her knee, before going up, dragging her fingers on the back of her thigh, making the smaller woman shudder.

“Good,” she let out, a little breathless already, and she saw the predatory smile on her partner’s lips.

The leader made them move, rolling Weiss on her back as she settled on top, one hand already sliding down Weiss’s taut stomach, tracing the edges of her scar there.

“You know, you should really wear something when you sleep,” Ruby mumbled as she was kissing her neck, her fingers circling Weiss’s bellybutton. “I can’t help myself when you’re pressed against me, naked, looking so pretty.”

“Well, you’re the one who undressed me, last night,” the smaller woman whispered, guiding the dark head to her breast, her breath short. “Besides, I’m not complaining.”

The leader laughed softly against her skin, and she closed her eyes, focusing on Ruby, on everything that she did as she tangled her hands in dark strand, pulling just enough to hear the leader hiss under her breath.

And just as Ruby’s hand slipped between her thighs, making her let out a breathless gasp, the door opened wide.

“Hey Weiss, I thought you- Fuck!” Yang interrupted herself and quickly clapped a hand over her eyes, closing the door behind her.

Weiss had instinctively pulled on the covers with a yelp to cover the both of them, and after a few seconds of stillness, the shock wearing off, Ruby stood on her hands and knees, locking her eyes with Weiss under the blanket in total exasperation.

“Sorry!” they heard the blonde say through the door. “I guess I should have knocked… Uh, take your time, it’s fine, everything’s fine, I’ll just go… burn my eyes and try to forget this moment.”

Ruby sighed as they heard the blonde loudly walking away, and the leader lowered herself to lie on top of Weiss, her head tucked under the smaller woman’s chin.

“I never thought I could be turned off this quickly,” the smaller woman let out, finally breaking the silence.

After a second, Ruby snorted and started laughing, and Weiss did the same, the shock finally wearing off completely.

“I think the worst part was her, telling us to take our time,” the leader chuckled, trying to calm down.

The smaller woman chuckled, sliding her fingers through dark hair and after a moment, they both sighed, not moving from their spot.

“We should get ready,” Weiss softly reminded.

Ruby hummed, nodding, but she didn’t move. The smaller woman could understand that.

She really didn’t want to start this day.

**** 

“Okay, so I did a little recon, and your father is waiting in the main hall,” Blake reported, entering Weiss’s bedroom as the smaller woman was making sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. “What do you want me to do? I can disgust him away with my ears.”

Weiss snorted, looking over her shoulder with an amused look, but upon seeing how the faunus looked serious, she turned around to face her, her smile disappearing.

“I can face him again, Blake, don’t worry. And yes, as the host, although unwilling, he has to see us go. It’s proper etiquette.”

Blake hummed, furrowing her brows as she looked down, and as she saw her curl her hands into fists, Weiss reach out, setting a gentle hand on her friend’s arm.

“But thank you. For offering to shoo him away.”

The faunus offered a feeble smile, her ears slightly pulled back.

“I also have a few assassination plans, if you’re ever interested,” Blake tried to joke, keeping her voice down just in case.

The smaller woman arched an eyebrow, glancing around, but still, one side of her lips pulled up slightly.

“Noted,” she let out under her breath.

Weiss then stepped out of her room to Ruby’s, hearing the sisters talking down the hall as they were herding all their luggage, and Blake followed her, silently. The faunus watched her as the smaller woman went around the room, pulling on the sheets of the bed to sooth a wrinkle there, and after a moment, Weiss stopped, turning her back to her, and sighed.

“What is it, Blake? If you want to say something, then please, do so.”

The faunus frowned, slightly surprised.

“I don’t-”

“You’ve been staring at me the whole time like you want to decipher me. So,” she turned around, motioning helplessly with her hands. “What is it?”

Blake stared at her in silence for a moment, nibbling at her lower lip, before giving in.

“If you knew there was a possibility that your father would react that way,” she started, and was earned a warning glare. “Why did you make him angry?”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” the smaller woman only said, hiding her expression as she turned her head, hiding behind her bangs.

“You said I could ask what I wanted,” Blake frowned.

“I never said I would answer.”

A silence fell on them, Weiss picking at her skirt as Blake would only stare at her, hoping the smaller woman would say something more, but when the silence only stretched on, she sighed.

“Why didn’t you try to defend yourself, then?” she insisted, and she noticed the way Weiss gritted her teeth, her hand curling into a fist. “You could have easily pushed him away with a glyph, or even summon something. But you didn’t.”

“I said, I don’t want to talk about this,” Weiss hissed, glaring daggers at her.

“You couldn’t, right?” the fauns asked softly. “You were too afraid.”

The smaller woman’s expression twisted, now turning to suspicion, but Blake kept on, pressing.

“And, some parts of you wouldn’t, hoping that there’s still good in him and he’ll finally see it. Right?”

“How did you…” Weiss narrowed her eyes at her, confused.

“Because I understand, Weiss. When I faced Adam at Beacon, I…” she shifted, glancing down for a second, and she noticed the way Weiss straightened her back. “I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. And it cost Yang her arm.”

She looked up, seeing the blank look in the smaller woman’s eyes, and she stepped closer, extending a hand for Weiss to take.

“Adam hurt me in different ways, but I understand the struggle, Weiss. So can you tell me; why did you put yourself in danger like that? What were you trying to prove?”

“Dammit Blake, I said I didn’t want to talk about it,” the smaller woman softly let out, her voice trembling very slightly as she kept her eyes on the faunus’s offered hand.”

“Have you ever talked about this with someone?”

The white head shook, delicately.

“Not even Winter?”

Weiss shook her head again, finally reaching over, wrapping her forefinger around Blake’s, authorizing the smallest contact, as much for her than for the faunus.

“I… I wanted to show him I was strong, now,” she finally said after a while of deep silence. “He always said I wouldn’t survive on my own. That I was nothing without him. I wanted to show him that I am a Huntress now, that I made it on my own, but… Turns out, I’m still weak,” she chuckled humorlessly, squeezing Blake’s fingers shortly.

“But you’re not.”

The smaller woman grimaced as she looked away, once again hiding her expression.

“Blake, listen, I couldn’t even do anything against him-”

“No, you listen,” Blake interrupted, tugging slightly on her hand. “Look at you.”

Weiss glanced back at her, doubtful.

“I can’t look at my father without trembling in fear if he looks at me a certain way? Thank you, Blake, I really needed the reminder.”

“No, you sarcastic idiot, I was talking about you now. All of you.”

Weiss barely frowned at the insult, knowing that the faunus didn’t really mean it, and arched an eyebrow.

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, you had all the reasons and the rights to never trust anyone,” Blake explained, keeping her voice soft. “To never let someone touch you. You had all the reasons to stay alone, Weiss. But not even half a year at Beacon, and you gave us your trust. You gave us your touch. You let us touch you. I mean,” the faunus reached up with her other hand, cupping Weiss’s cheek gently, “I’m touching you and it’s okay. You’ve been hurt longer than me, but you went ahead when I couldn’t and trusted them. You trusted Yang, without an ounce of doubt, after what happened at the Vytal tournament, something that I couldn’t even do at the time.”

She paused, gently rubbing her thumb over Weiss’s cheekbone, offering the smaller woman a reassuring smile, pretending that she didn’t noticed the tears welling in her blue eyes.

“And that take strength, Weiss. To trust again, to let yourself love again. And look at you now. You have us at your side, people you can trust, friends that would follow you through hell and back. Through your hell and back,” she added. “You have a girlfriend that trusts you with her life, and I know you trust her in the same way.”

Weiss lowered her head a little, hiding her eyes behind her bangs but didn’t pull away, nor did she pushed her away.

“You’re so strong, Weiss. You’re stronger than I am. So please, don’t ever think you’re weak, because you’re not. Okay?”

The smaller woman didn’t said anything, only stepping closer and leaning her forehead against Blake’s shoulder, holding on the faunus’s hand for dear life, and Blake quietly wrapped an arm around her shoulders, feeling them trembling.

“You’re going to ruin my makeup,” was the only thing Weiss mumbled after a while, followed by a sniffled.

“Oh, what a tragedy,” Blake only responded before setting a kiss on top of her head.

She felt the smaller woman slap her arm lightly, but she clutched it, her hand shaking, and the faunus held her, for as long as Weiss accepted it. After a moment, the smaller woman pulled away, sniffling, and cleared her throat, trying to compose herself.

“How do I look?” she asked, her voice still tight, but without an edge.

The faunus looked her over, using her thumb to wipe away a tear trail on her cheek, and she nodded, solemn.

“Still presentable.”

The smaller woman raised a single, doubtful eyebrow before leaning over to look at herself in the mirror, moving her head this way and that to see every angles of her face and, satisfied, she nodded, taking in a sharp breath.

“Still presentable,” she repeated, clearing her throat again.

Weiss patted herself, soothing imaginary wrinkles on her shirt and skirt, and was about to exit the room when Blake gently grabbed her arm, squeezing for a second.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice low and gentle.

The smaller woman nodded, looking up to give her a genuine smile, and she took the time to take her hand with both of hers, her thumbs rubbing over the back of her hand.

“I am, now. Thank you for that,” she lowered her head with a soft huff, a small smile still on her lips. “I, um… I needed that.”

“Anytime,” Blake assured.

Weiss nodded shortly, but just before her hands could slip away, the faunus held on for a second longer, earning the smaller woman’s attention.

“And it’s okay if you can’t face your demon alone,” the faunus said. “I know I couldn’t face mine alone.”

Weiss pointed a playfully threatening finger at her, one corner of her lips pulled up, but her eyes spoke of affection and gratefulness.

“Stop talking to me. I don’t want to cry again.”

Blake chuckled and let go of her arm, and as she did, Weiss grimaced a little, her eyes falling to the faunus’s shoulders.

“I cried a little on your shirt,” she informed quietly.

The faunus looked down at her shirt but shrugged, waving it off.

“It’s fine.”

“Okay.”

The smaller woman nodded again, quickly wetting her lips as she brought her hands together, toying with her fingers.

“Okay,” she said again, before turning around and walking to the door. “We should get going. I want to get out of here.”

**** 

Blake and Weiss met with the sisters, and of course, they both complained about being hungry since they had skipped breakfast to finish the preparations. Ruby proposed to raid all the food in the kitchen, but Blake opted to just prepare a quick lunch, something that they could pack to eat later, at the airport while they would wait for their flight.

So, Blake and Ruby went to the kitchen while Weiss and Yang reviewed if they had everything, again.

Because there was no way Weiss would come back if they forgot something.

“Hey,” Yang said as she sat on one of the suitcases, catching the smaller woman’s attention. “I um… I’m really sorry for earlier. Should have knocked.”

Weiss huffed, keeping her focus on their luggage, checking the cases of her mental list.

“It’s fine. I was more startled than anything. But don’t do it again.”

“Heh. I’ll try.”

Finally reaching the end of her list and with nothing more to do, she sat beside Yang with a sigh, waiting on their last two teammates to join them so they could leave. But at the same time, she didn’t care if they took their time. She could make her father wait.

However, the awkward silence that ensued, she could have gone without. The blonde kept bouncing her leg and glancing around, as if she expected an ambush or something. And when Yang started to rub her thigh, she sighed.

“Why are you this nervous?”

“I’m not nervous,” the blonde huffed.

Weiss turned to look at her, staring her dead in the eyes for a few seconds before reaching over and setting her hand on the blonde’s knee, making the bouncing stop abruptly.

“But you’re not nervous?” she asked, her voice like honey.

“Fine,” Yang growled, rolling her eyes. “Maybe I am.”

“Why? We’re leaving. Are you worried the airship will crash and we’ll be stuck in Atlas forever?”

“No, you ass,” the blonde rolled her eyes again, flicking her hand. “I didn’t think I would be alone with you.”

“Excuse me? Since when it’s wrong?”

“Since I saw you… your…” Yang trailed off, motioning to Weiss’s vaguely. “Chest area…”

“You’ve seen me in bras several times over the years, you can’t be all that surprised-”

And then she sighed, the pieces finally clicking together.

“You saw my chest area with Ruby there. I see.”

The blonde sighed deeply as she looked away, her knee starting to bounce again, but Weiss touched it and made it stop.

“Look I just…” Yang tried to start, rubbing the back of her neck. “I need some time to adjust. You two happened so fast, I didn’t…”

“Yeah, I can understand that,” Weiss mumbled under her breath when the blonde trailed.

“My sister isn’t having sex,” Yang laughed, shaking her head. “Nah. Never gonna happen.”

“Are you sure about that?” the smaller woman said, so suggestively that Yang chocked on air.

“Definitely.”

“Mmh-hmm. So, this morning…”

“No, you were just…” the blonde motioned in front of her, desperate to find an activity they could have been doing. “Comparing bodies. Yeah.”

“Uh-huh. With her mouth on my boob.”

“Don’t say things like that!” Yang immediately exclaimed, reaching up to press her hands over her ears with a grimace.

It made Weiss laugh, and it was enough for the blonde to lower her hands with a small smile, bumping her shoulder with Weiss’s.

“You’re terrible. I’m never hanging out with you again.”

“Oh, please,” the smaller woman rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. “You’ll miss me.”

A silence fell on them again, and this time it wasn’t awkward, and Yang wasn’t making her knee bounce. Still, now it was her turn to grow steadily nervous; with each passing minutes, the time to cross her father’s path came nearer. She knew he wouldn’t try anything when she was with her team, but still. Her father had a way to hurt her with words, too.

She took a deep breath, soothing her skirt on her thighs, and her fingers bumped into something, in her pocket. Frowning, she traced the edge, soon remembering what it was, and reached to pull it out.

“I, um… I have reached a decision,” she quietly said, earning Yang’s attention.

The blonde stared at her for a second, her brows furrowed in slight confusion, until her lilac eyes dropped to Weiss’s lap and saw her mother’s letter in her hands, her pale hands flipping it over and over.

“Oh. And?”

The smaller woman nibbled at her lip for a moment, her eyes staying on the paper before unfolding it slowly, rereading the first few lines she could see.

“I’ll keep it,” she finally reported as she looked up. “As a reminder.”

“A reminder?”

“Yes. Of the things I don’t want to be,” she paused then, taking the first pages in one hand to reread the first lines of the two last pages. “And of the things I should keep with me.”

Yang nodded slowly, her eyes staying on Weiss’s hands for a moment before glancing up, a genuine smile on her lips.

“I think it’s a good idea,” she said softly.

The smaller woman nodded, too, before folding the letter and putting it back in her pocket, and she stared at the end of the hallway, sighing deeply.

“If they could hurry up a bit,” she let out, leaning her back against the wall. “I want to go home.”

It made Yang huff with a smile, and she took Weiss’s hand in hers, squeezing the cool fingers once.

“Yeah. Home sounds good.”

**** 

Finally, after some staffers insisted to take their luggage, they made their way to the main hall, ready to go.

Jacques Schnee was still there, as still as a statue. Leaning his weight on a wooden cane that Weiss recognized all too well.

She knew her father had brought it along on purpose.

The team noticed when Weiss’s strides shortened, hesitating. At the same time, they all reached out, discreetly, to touch her back, and it seemed to bring back her earlier confidence as she straightened her back and squared her shoulders.

They had agreed to an order. Yang first, because she was the most hot-headed of the group, and they wanted her out of the mansion as soon as possible. Then, Blake, the faunus’s cool-headed demeanor could keep the blonde in line. And, there was no way they were leaving her in the back. Then Weiss, because between two people she felt safe. And finally, Ruby, the leader closing the march and watching their backs.

Weiss thought that it was a little extreme. The rest of the team just wanted to make sure.

Whitley was there as well, standing a few paces behind the master of the house, his hands brought behind his back like always, and his enigmatic smile, that Weiss never quite knew if it was genuine or faked. As they got closer, she could feel the tension bleeding from her teammates, and when they stopped in front of Weiss’s father, she tried to relax her shoulders, and held her head high.

“Father,” she bowed her head slightly.

Their eyes locked but he didn’t say anything, only staring her down, but Weiss expected it, and she was up for the challenge. The seconds ticked by, none of them wanted to let the other with this staring contest, and it wasn’t until someone cleared their throat that they both looked away, to the origin of the noise.

“My dear sister, I am saddened to see you leave so soon,” Whitley stepped closer, giving just the slightest bow of head at her as he.

Weiss had already loaded a retort, acid burning the tip of her tongue, when their father clacked his cane on the floor, snapping his head toward his son without a word, and Weiss saw him flinch, stepping back to his previous position. This time, when she glared up at her father, it was a poisonous stare, but Jacques didn’t seem the least bit impressed.

“You should leave,” was the only thing he said, his cold eyes staring into hers.

Gritting her teeth, she turned on her heels, and the team escorted her outside, in the order they had decided earlier. But as they were passing by, she heard her father said something, but couldn’t understand properly. Ruby, on the other hand, had heard clearly.

“What did you just say?” the leader hissed as she stopped dead in her tracks, turning around.

Jacques smirked, satisfied with her reaction, and when she saw his hand tightening his grip on the cane, alarms as red as Ruby’s cloak started screaming in her mind.

“Ruby, that’s enough. Let’s go,” Weiss quietly said to her, reaching over to grab the leader’s arm.

“Does she have to offer herself twice for you to understand, too? You heard me the first time.”

Weiss grabbed Ruby’s arm before her hand wrapped around the handle of her weapon, and behind her, she heard Yang’s gauntlets extending, but not chambering a round. The guards that were discreetly standing a couple of feet away glanced at each other, wondering if they had to intervene.

“Yang!” Blake and Weiss called in synch, but the blonde didn’t move, completely still, her eyes flickering to red.

Ruby was fuming by the time Weiss looked back, her entire being tense and almost vibrating in place as she glared daggers at her father, who seemed even more pleased with the reaction. His eyes very briefly glanced to the tall blonde looming over her teammates, but his attention came back on his primary target.

Still, Weiss pulled on her arm again, trying to get her attention.

“Come on, we put you in the back to make sure this kind of thing wouldn’t happen, Ruby,” she quietly reminded her, gently dragging her away.

She didn’t put much of a resistance but kept her eyes on the man, and Weiss could see Blake doing pretty much the same with Yang, and she realised almost in horror that Jacques followed a few paces after them.

Was he asking for a death sentence or what?

She almost could hear Yang growling behind her, and the hold she had on her partner’s arm had transformed into a vice grip, wishing, hoping that nothing happened until they got in the car. She really just wanted to go.

She looked up front, wondering just why the door had to be this far away until, distracted, she heard her father say something, obviously only for Ruby to hear.

In the next blinking second, all she could think of was a long, bone-deep sigh.

Then Ruby pulled her arm free, taking a step forward, and Weiss looked back just in time to see her father rising his arm to strike her with his cane. Probably in self-defence.

Something clicked in her head. She knew her partner could take the full blow without it scratching her, without it depleting her aura, but she just couldn’t let it happen.

Before she even thought about doing so, a glyph appeared in front of Ruby, inches away from the arm she had raised to block the blow, and the cane bounced back violently when it hit it, hearing a satisfying ‘crack’ from Jacques’s shoulder. He yelped in pain as he reeled back, gripping his shoulder, but his hand tightened on the wooden cane as he set his eyes on Ruby in a murderous glare, his lips twisted in anger.

Ignoring Weiss that had stepped closer, he stomped in the leader’s direction until a tall and large, light-blue beowolf appeared in front of him, and before he could even look up, it slammed him against the nearest wall, sinking it’s long, sharp claws in the wall. The wind was knocked off his lungs at the impact, and as the beast pressed its large paw against his chest, it was hard to breathe. And as he opened his mouth to yell at her, the beowolf roared, its fangs only inches away from his face.

“Don’t you dare touch her,” she growled, her own voice sounding foreign to her ears.

She heard the recognisable cocking of automatic rifles and she looked to the side; the guard had decided to finally take actions, pointing their guns at her, and she was about to set glyphs in front of her until she felt something against her back. Glancing over her shoulder, she realised that the team had drawn their weapons, covering her back as they were facing the guards.

“This is getting interesting,” she heard Yang mutter under her breath before quickly chambering rounds in her gauntlets.

“This is ridiculous,” Jacques exclaimed, his face steadily growing redder as the seconds went by while he struggled under the unmoving large paw of the beast. “Release me this instant!”

“Your quarrels are with me,” Weiss hissed, stepping closer to her father. “Not with them. I asked you to treat them as guests, and you didn’t. My job, as a partner and teammate, is to protect and help my team.”

Her father laughed, and there was nothing kind or warm about it.

“Don’t you see that you’re outnumbered? Just give up. Maybe I’ll be a little more… forgiving.”

“Oh, we’re outnumbered?” Weiss asked, her voice as sweet as honey, then she turned to one of the guards. “James? Have you ever fought a Huntress or a Hunter before?”

The guard shifted, keeping his hands firm on the rifle that he kept pointed at her, but he shook his head.

“No, Miss Schnee, never.”

“I see. Duke? You?”

“I can’t say that I have, Miss.”

“Does anyone have ever fought a Hunter, then?”

The silence that followed gave her the answer and, humming, she nodded.

“Well, you see, the thing is that your bullets won’t even be able to get past our aura,” she informed nonchalantly, and when she saw the head of the guards, James, glance quickly to the other guards, she knew she already had them.

Well. Maybe she was exaggerating a bit. But she had to make her point clear.

“Besides, will you even be able to shoot at us?”

And before one of them could speak, she extended her right hand, summoning four other beowolf between them and the guards.

Ruby gave her a sidelong glance. Weiss was overdoing and she knew it, but she kept her focus as she looked back at her father while most of the guards dropped their weapons.

Now it was his turn to be fuming. And Weiss was in this ice-cold, calculated rage that left her feeling a little detached, but noticing every detail.

And she remembered how Whitley had flinched earlier.

Jerking her head towards him, staring with wide eyes at the scene, his jaw slack and his arms falling helplessly on each side of him, she took a step in his direction, gaining his attention.

“Did he hurt you?” she asked, her voice hard.

Whitley blinked, confused, and she stepped closer again, annoyance making her grit her teeth, and he instinctively brought his hands up, making sure she saw he was unarmed.

“Did he hurt you?” she asked again, this time with a little more force.

He brother seemed to hesitate, opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water, and his eyes darted to their father, but the smaller woman snapped her fingers, bringing his attention back.

“Here, Whitley. I’m asking the question.”

“Never as much as he did to you,” he finally answered after another hesitation.

She gritted her teeth, so hard she felt like they would shatter.

“What is wrong with you?!” she spat towards her father, and the beast roared just a hair from his face and he only raised his eyes to the sky, the whole thing just an annoyance to him.

Still, she closed the distance to reach her brother in three large strides, her brother tensing as she got closer, but she stopped a few feet from him.

“I don’t like you, and don’t force yourself to like me either, but as a big sister it should have been my duty to watch over you, and…” she glanced over her shoulder to her team, her eyes falling on Yang for a second before returning to her brother. “It may be a bit late, but here’s this: the next time he hurts you, you call me.”

When he didn’t move, staring at her in astonishment, she stabbed her finger in his chest, insistent.

“You call me! And I’ll be back,” she added, turning to glare at their father. “And next time, I will hurt you.”

Jacques rolled his eyes but said nothing, and she returned her attention to her brother once again.

“Do you understand?” she asked, this time her voice much softer than it has been. “And… lower your arms. I have nothing against you.”

He obliged silently, and as quietly he nodded, and, Weiss thought, it may be the first time she saw him without his very irritating smile, now wearing an expression that was somewhere between fear and amazement.

Awe. It was awe.

She nodded too before turning on her heels to approached her father, still stuck between the ivory claws of the beowolf, and she stopped in front of him, absentmindedly petting the tall beast beside her.

“There’s your one and only warning, Father,” she said coolly, her lips pulled in a thin, fine line. “Now, my guests and me, we will take our leave, if you let us,” she finished sarcastically, not waiting for his answer to turn on her heels.

She motioned to her teammates, gripping her partner by the elbow as she made the other beowolf step back from their offensive stance to sit down, and only when they were out the door did they dissolved into thin air, returning to their master.

Ruby and Blake were already in the car when Weiss hear the quick footfalls of her father coming to the front door, but he stopped there, shaking in anger, and the smaller woman noticed in satisfaction that the cane was broke.

Still, Yang made no move to climb in, only glaring daggers at Weiss’s father.

“Get in the car, Yang,” Weiss told her very quietly.

“I’m not sure he’ll-”

“Yang, I’m about to faint and I don’t want him to see it, so get in the goddamn car.”

The blonde instantly climbed inside. She closed the door after she sat on the seat, and Klein pulled from the parking lot only a few seconds after, and she tried to keep her back straight and her head high for as long as she could, feeling her heart pounding in her ears.

“Is the gate still in sight?” she asked Ruby, her voice, low and quiet, feeling it tremble a little.

The leader quickly glanced back before shaking her head, and the smaller woman let out a deep breath, slouching back in her seat as she ran both her hands in her tied-up hair, closing her eyes.

“Why did I do that,” she murmured, exertion making her voice raw and the emotions rising tears to her eyes. “Why did I do that?”

“Uh, because the fucker deserved it?” Yang was the first to answer. “You should have seen his face when he realised you used one of your summoning on him. It was glorious.”

“I shouldn’t have done that!” she insisted, this time hiding her face in her hands. “I should have kept my cool, I should have… What if he retaliates? Oh God, I really don’t feel good.”

She felt a hand on her back and she was pushed until she hand her head between her knees, two hands rubbing her back.

“Deep breaths,” Blake said soothingly, patting her back.

She followed the instruction, closing her eyes, focusing on breathing, and figured that the other hand, presently rubbing her back so quickly it could burst on fire, was Ruby’s.

“Oh you were so awesome, Weiss! You’re so badass and so, so attractive when you’re angry at someone else but me!”

It snatched a snort from her and she heard the gagging noise Yang was making, before the sound of a smack made her stop.

“Ouch! Don’t hit me like that!” the blonde complained, and she figured that Yang slapped Ruby back, because another dry slap sounded.

“Then, don’t act like a kid!” Ruby smacked her again.

“You’re the kid!”

Another slap. Then, it was a flurry of slaps, and both Blake and Weiss sighed in synch.

“Okay, kids, settle down,” Blake intervened, and soon, the sisters were grumbling under their breaths but they stopped fighting.

While the faunus took care of them, she couldn’t stop but replaying the events, and when she felt a little better, she straightened her back, feeling like one giant overcooked noodle, leaning back on her seat, keeping her eyes closed.

“Who do I think I am?” she wondered quietly. “Talking to him like that… “Who do I think I am?”

The longer she thought about this, the more she wanted to stop on the side of the rode, dig a hole and hide in it for the rest of her life.

“Who you are? You’re Weiss-Fucking-Schnee, number one badass on the Badass scale! That’s who you are!”

She opened her eyes to see the large, miles wide smile of Yang, Ruby nodding in approval beside her and Blake smiling too, winking, and in this moment, she thought that maybe, things wouldn’t be so bad.

“Did I miss something while I waited in the car?” Klein’s voice came from the front of the car, and they all jumped a little, all of them having forgotten that he was driving.

“Let me tell you what happened!” Ruby was quick to turn to him, excited.

The blonde turned too, prepared to add some things her sister might be forgetting, and Weiss leader her head back, sighing.

“I’m so tired,” she breathed, closing her eyes.

“Well, you did get a little… overboard,” Blake nodded quietly.

“No, I mean, I’m tired,” she insisted, and the faunus looked at her with a knowing look. “I just want to get home.”

Blake smiled, leaning her head back beside the smaller woman, and Weiss lolled her head to the side to lean it against Blake’s.

“Yeah,” the faunus breathed. “Me too.”