Chapter Text
She was cold. That was the first thing Ruby noticed. The air around her dropped steadily in temperature until it misted on her armour. Frosting the ice-silver plates until they gleamed in the torchlight like jewels. The second thing she noticed, well, was that she was beautiful.
“Weiss Schnee” Her voice cut through the air, sharp and high and lovely. “By my name and the Holy Order I present myself to you. To carry your shield, to be the edge of your blade and punish those who would rise against you.”
She was on her knee, one high point of her greaves pulling Ruby’s eyes up into the cascading white of her ponytail flowing over her shoulder. An ice flow caught in time as it rounded the filigreed edges of her pauldrons, dropping before the spike of her breastplate. She was a pale blade in the rosy red throne room of the keep.
“Haha woah! This chick is intense. I dig it.” The tension in the room evaporated instantly in the face of Vale’s sunny ruler. Ruby’s father, the old king, let out the breath he was holding in a half sigh.
“Yang, perhaps some respect towards the defeated party?” Blake, the young queen’s advisor had her hand on her brow as she spoke.
“Enough with the morose stuff. We’re celebrating peace, not having another funeral. A bit of levity goes a long way!” Yang, the new queen of Vale, refused to sit on her throne. She instead paced around the room, an incessant ball of energy as she worked her corded muscles. “In fact, we should be doing this as a feast!”
“Hell yeah!” The distant sound of the cook’s wife was plain to hear through the stone walls.
The old king cleared his throat noisily.
“Perhaps we should finish the current matter before proceeding to the next event, Yang.” He stated in exasperation. Weiss was staring at the pointed visor of her great helm next to her as if it had been the one to decimate her army, instead of the brawler queen who was currently discussing proper fish dishes with her advisor and lover. The young knight’s face was the same colour as Ruby’s red cloak.
“I’ll have her.” Ruby spoke without thinking from the pillar she leaned upon. The entire room suddenly felt deafeningly quiet. A sputter pierced the veil of silence, the knight on the floor had raised her head in shock and her eye was watery with fury. Ruby instantly leapt up from her relaxed pose in a flustered mess, waving her hands. “N-No! No, I mean with Yang being queen now I’m the only general left, and since Weiss is swearing herself as a knight that’s like a military thing it makes sense I should be the one to help her fit in right?” She whipped her head left and right for support from her friends and family.
Yang had her hand over her mouth and was shaking in mirth, slapping Blake on the shoulder. Blake was fastidiously quiet, but her golden eyes were twinkling. It took a few minutes for the Queen to regain any semblance of control over herself before she spoke.
“Well well well. I never expected you to have such an interest in our lost Schnee, Roobes. Fine. She’s yours to deal with. Schnee.” She addressed the now very defeated knight on the floor, her voice sharpening again to her queenly station. “Your service will be bound to general Rose, you will be her shadow, her shield, her sword, whatever else you said in those knightly oaths of yours.” She flashed a wink in Ruby’s direction. “You’ll be answering her every whim and whimsy alright? No questions about it.”
“Yang!” Ruby was blushing to the tips of her red laced hair. “This isn’t what I meant! I Don’t need a babysitter, and neither does she!”
“Haha what? Can’t hear you.” Yang was immediately striding out the door, Blake on her arm. whispering into those swiveling panther ears. Blake’s expression as she glanced between Ruby and Weiss was thoughtful. Yang’s loud voice resounded from down the halls. “We have a feast to prepare for!” The rest of the court and the old king were dispersing as well. Soon leaving only a stunned Ruby and the kneeling knight.
“Uh, you don’t have to sit on the floor anymore.” Ruby’s uncertain voice soon broke the silence. Weiss continued to stare at the tiles in front of her. “You’re allowed to speak, you know…”
“I’ve yet to receive leave to stand, my lady.” Weiss’ voice was carefully controlled, but Ruby could still hear the anger there. The last words came out in a hiss.
“Oh! Um.. Sorry about that.” Ruby shuffled over to the kneeling knight and offered her a hand. Weiss’ gaze flickered between her helm on the ground and the outstretched hand, eyes wide and confused. “I’m sorry, I guess you don’t need help getting up, do you? You are a warrior and everything. Hahaa.”
Ruby’s exasperated laugh died off to a sigh as she rubbed the back of her head, ruffling the inky brown hair enough that Weiss could swear she saw a streak of red lance through it. A pink blush crested high on her cheeks and she ripped her gaze away from the excitable woman. Why was she staring? What was wrong with her? A single day in this frost-forsaken kingdom and she was already being distracted by her former enemies? Weiss closed her eye and drew a long breath. She held it there, as it cooled in her lungs. A minute. Two. Before she exhaled an icy mist into the torch bright room.
She eased herself to her feet. Joints creaking under their mistreatment. She felt like it’d been hours since she knelt on the floor of the great war room of Vale’s keep. It had only been half. Only three since she arrived at the gates of Beacon. Sword at her side and spectral steed under her. Her sword. She had given it to some retainer as a peace offering, as her Queen-Sister had instructed. Winter had been adamant in her reminders of etiquette and manners. Weiss remembered the steps and hollow words, but she felt like she’d learned them in a different life. One before she was touched by the frost.
Weiss turned to the woman General. Barely a woman. Definitely a general though, if her memories served. Her eye narrowed as she took her in. Stupid empty grin, idiotic fluffy hair, that cloak. A cloak dyed red with the blood of her countrymen. A flash of red in the dark. Nothing. Then silver blazing across the battlefield, melting the ice plating of her armour and cracking open Atlas’ juggernauts like they were play things. A hand reached to grab her shoulder, but she twisted out of its way and looked up. There was the light of winter dawn looking into her. Those eyes looked so deep into her. She shook. Just a girl in red armour. Just a girl. Just like her. She shook.
“My sword.” Her voice was hoarse with cold. it shook. “I need my sword.”
The knight spoke falteringly, before adding an Atlesian word Ruby didn’t know. Morten asstear? She was obviously in distress, and didn’t even break the hold ruby had on her shaking shoulder. Ruby had no idea what happened to her sword. But she wasn’t going to leave a terrified girl by herself to go find out.
“Come on.” She held out her hand, speaking as softly as she could. “Let’s find it together.”
Weiss took one last look in the red general’s eyes before taking a shaking breath and slapping away her hand.
“Fine. But I’m not holding your hand like some schoolgirl, dolt.” Her lip twitched upwards at the word she hadn’t used since her childhood. She stepped towards the door before looking back at the girl behind her. “Are you coming or what?”
***
It took an hour to track down the lost sword. Surprisingly handing your sword to the first retainer you saw was a terrible idea, and they had to talk to a groom, a page, a footman and finally the castle steward to find the blade. Before it was dug out of a coat rack and back into Weiss’ hands. The knight absolutely glowed in happiness when she was reunited with her blade. Her face losing its ash grey pallor and her breath no longer misting with every sullen exhale. It was positively adorable, in Ruby’s opinion.
Having no idea what to do with her ward, she took her to the castle’s great hall, where lunch was in the height of it’s madness. Yang was at the head of one great table, fist clasping a sloshing goblet as she arm wrestled with the cook’s wife. Their grunts and screeches were discernible even in the empty corner table Ruby brought the knight. The general mayhem of the great hall had sapped the rosy glow from the foreign girl’s face, and it was once again too pale for any living human. Ruby reached out instinctively to the girl.
“Hey, don’t worry we’ll just grab some food and go eat it someplace else.” Her hand outstretched to brush the hand of the knight in front of her.
Weiss glared at the offending appendage until the general withdrew it awkwardly. rubbing the back of her stupidly fluffy head again. Weiss briefly wondered what it’d feel like to pet the girl in front of her. Then immediately shut her eye and reminded herself she was an enemy general, not a frost-forsaken dog. Former enemy. Right. She shook the thought from her head. No use dwelling on it.
“Fine.” They waded through the lively castle staff and residents to reach the main table, piled high with food. Fresh baked breads steaming from the oven. Roasted vegetables of all varieties. Ducks and boars and hinds swimming in their gravies, roasted on spits and split open for any to take. A bounty richer than any Weiss had seen on any table in Atlas, even the vaunted King’s Feasts her father put upon to show his wealth. She whirled on Ruby.
“This food, what in the name of Frost are you doing with it all? Every person here could eat three times their keep and there would still be left over.” She was shaking again, her anger spiking as the plates of her armour once again frosted dangerously. Lances of cold air radiating out around her. Ruby was absolutely uncomprehending of the sudden danger she was in.
“Huh? I mean all the workers need to eat too? And they bring food home to their families if they live outside the castle. Oh and we turn all the leftovers into stew to feed those who can’t feed themselves! The fields have been so bountiful this year the farmers keep gifting us with game and goods and the cooks have to whip it all up before it goes bad! It’s even more in the summer if you can believe it! Before the war we used to have to throw feasts every week for it all to be eaten.”
Weiss couldn’t feel her legs. She couldn’t feel her arms either, it was a mechanical doll that stepped past the girl in front of her and picked up a loaf of hearty brown bread. Tears in her eyes as she took a bite. Then another. Then another. It wasn’t fair. The world can’t be fair. A young man looked at her in concern, speaking words she couldn’t comprehend. He took the loaf of bread out of her shaking hand. Gently. He was so gentle. Not the greedy grab of her brother or the desperate hands of the starving. Her head turned to see who had taken from her. Her eye panned over the open shirt displaying too much skin for any winter chill, the sandy blond hair and reassuring smile. But it caught on one particular feature. He had a swaying monkey tail behind him, holding its own chicken leg. Weiss stiffened. She knew they might be here. In Vale. But not so close. Not in the castle.
She jerked backwards, arm flying out to grasp the hilt of her sword. But before she could draw it, there was another on hers. A warm hand covering her own. The second shock in so many seconds. Weiss tried to pull away but was caught. The Faunus before her stood with both hands up, calming. There was a voice in her ear. Gentle and kind. And a little squeaky. The hand on her own pulled her away. through the corridors until Weiss had the wits about her to pull away from it.
“You shouldn’t touch me.” The knight warbled. Ruby looked back in surprise at the sudden lack of resistance. “The cold burns. It burns anyone who gets close to me.” Ruby looked down at her hand. It was turning red under her eyes. Interesting.
“Is that why you’ve been avoiding me? You’re scared to hurt me?” There was a hint of mirth in Ruby’s voice. As if she couldn’t quite believe what she was saying.
“N-No!” Weiss shifted, arm clutching the other. “It’s simply improper to touch others in Atlas.”
Ruby’s eyes softened from their teasing edge. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. And I’m sorry I didn’t think to warn you about Sun before we entered the great hall. I know he can be a bit much for new people.”
“That’s not. It wasn’t because he was new.” Weiss looked at the floor, voice arely above a whisper “He’s a Faunus.” Ruby was the one to stiffen this time. She had heard there weren’t any Faunus in Atlas anymore, but she hadn’t realized why.
“Is that a problem?”
“Well… I expect them in the castle itself. Don’t you know what they’re like.” Ruby barked out a laugh.
“Oh I know exactly how they are. They’re my friends, they’re kind, generous and loyal.” She suddenly grew quiet, the silence of the grave washing down the corridor and the tap tap tap of bone on stone filling Weiss’ ears “Unless you were speaking of a different person. Or perhaps Faunus as a whole? That wouldn’t be good, you know.” Weiss was frozen by the words of the reaper.
“N-No.”
The chill that had invaded even her was dispelled in an instant. Ruby spun and began to lead her down the corridor again.
“Good! You’ll meet lots of Faunus while you're here so I’d hate for that to be a problem.” Weiss nodded along. It definitely wouldn’t be a problem, she told herself. She was screwed.
***
They found themselves on the battlements overlooking the city below them. The keep was perched on a hill surrounded by lowlands and lake giving it a natural strategic advantage. The town below started as a simple farmlands to upkeep the castle before growing into its own village, then town, and now bustling city in the shadow of the Keep Which Had Never Fallen. The single rock that anchors the Coalition of Valian Cities.
“Do you blame us for invading?” Weiss couldn’t resist, not while the beautiful greens and reds and oranges of the trees and fields around them sparkled in her eye. “With lands so bountiful and beautiful. Could you not empathize? Our lands are cold and harsh, the people poor and hungry. What you have could feed us all.” Ruby hummed.
“That’s the thing, if you had simply asked we would have traded with you, would have given grain and game to survive your winters. But no, you came clad in iron ships and ice dreadnaughts.” Ruby’s face turned dark as she turned to the knight beside her. “Your father waged war to take our home from us, not to make his home livable.” Ruby’s hand strayed behind her cloak. Weiss knew what that meant. She immediately stepped away and put her hand to her sword.
“We bled and died to protect our homes Weiss. Just as your people did for your father.” Her hand fell to her side. Weiss followed suit. “I’m just done with the killing. The senselessness of it all. Aren’t you?” Weiss looked at the girl across from her. Bloody red. Red with her blood. But just a girl. She reached up and stroked the scar that carved upwards across her face, over her empty eye.
“My sister inducted me into the Holy Order when I was 11.” Weiss' single eye misted over, a single crystalline tear freezing as it fell. “I was suitable for it, my magic. They carved away everything that wasn’t an edge. Everything that wasn’t winter and ice. I sharpened myself until there was nothing left of me to cut away. Until I was nothing but a blade to cut.”
“Weiss…”
“You want the fighting to stop. But that’s all that’s left to me, all I have left. Do you want me to disappear too, Ruby Rose?” Weiss took a step towards the girl in red. “Will you take the only piece of myself that hasn’t been taken?”
“You’re wrong.” Weiss started back in shock. The girl was actually talking back to her?
“You say you’re a weapon, that you’re nothing but a sword to be wielded. But that’s not what I see. I see the changes to your face and hands when you’re happy, the glow of your eye when you’re mad. You have emotions Weiss. You just need to recognize them for what they are.”
“You’ve barely known me for half a day yet you would dare to say…”
“That's all I needed. You’re a terrible liar you know. You’re terrified of Faunus, you’re enchanted by food. You have faults and desires and needs like any other person. You moron.
“D-dolt!” Weiss was blushing furiously, how could she be so open around this absolute dolt of a girl. What sort of Schnee was she? She was ice, she was frost. A voice sounded in her head. If you can’t act worthy of your name then I’ll take it away, I have your brother after all. Why would I need you? There was a flash of pain along her scar, Weiss slapped a hand to it.
“Oh gosh, Weiss are you okay. Oh dear I didn’t mean to upset you so much” She felt hands cup her face and tried to flinch away. But they held fast and followed her, rubbing the tears away from the corners of her eye and warming her cheeks. It felt so warm. It was warm.
“Don’t touch me, dolt.” she managed to squeak as she brushed the hands away. Blushing again. “I told you you’d freeze your hands.” Ruby looked down at her hands and closed them into fists.
“Nope!” Weiss shot her a sharp eye.
“What the hells do you mean nope?”
“They’re fine! Well, the one that wasn’t burnt before is fine, and this one is just a normal cold burn from earlier and…”
“Cease your rambling, what do you mean?” She eyed the hands offered to her and sure enough, they were unchanged from earlier. “But, how did you...?”
“It probably just has to do with your emotions, duh. I’ve been watching your ice machine gig all day.” Ruby was infuriatingly smug about it.
“But I’ve never not burned anyone before?”
“Weiss… have you ever been happy to be touched before?”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you ever been hugged or touched gently or anything since the uh, weird religious frost mage thing?” Weiss looked back in her memories, she must have been hugged by her sister? Not since the war started definitely but while she visited the enclave? No, that would definitely be prohibited. Weiss worked over her mind about the past ten years of her life. Since the enclave she was deployed under the royal guard for her father, but there was no gentleness from him. She felt the scar over her empty eye socket again. So much for escaping him.
“Weiss, that’s kinda messed up.” Weiss puffed up again, her eye growing stern.
“Atlas is simply different from your lecherous kingdom.” Ruby’s eyes immediately widened.
“Lecherous? What does that even mean? Touching people isn’t lecherous, oh Maidens, what is wrong with you?” Both girls were blushing quite heavily now. Ruby sighed and pulled her hood over her head. “Let’s just go inside for now.”
“Fine.”