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Chapter Text

There were twelve of them; Team RWBY and team JNPR, Penny and Oscar, Neon and Flynt, the latter which Ruby has decided to call up just in case. Though apparently Ivori and Cobolt still needed to study, Ironwood had agreed that the other two members of FNKI had also earned a day off. 

They weren’t the only ones either. It had taken a lot of work, getting Winter to join the kids, but Ironwood finally managed to convince her. Even if it meant technically assigning her to protection duty.

It was Jaune’s idea that they do something fun together as a team. Ruby and Nora had wanted to go to Robyn’s rally, but Jaune had put his foot down.

“What about have fun is so hard to understand? Ironwood wants us to chill. We can’t chill at political rally.”

“We’re supposed to be chilling while the world falls apart?” Nora grumbled. She was in mood, Jaune noted. He had never taken Nora to be the the political one of the group.

“The world hasn’t fallen apart yet. We need to be ready when it does, and that means taking a break.”

He looked over at Yang for help, and she complied.

“He’s right, we all are in desperate need of a break. Especially Oscar.”

Jaune smiled, because that was sure way to get Nora on their side.

“A break would be nice,” Oscar said. For such a sweet kid he sure could be manipulative when he wanted to, something he doubtless picked up from Ozpin.

“I guess,” Nora admitted. “What where you thinking of?”

“We should go to a club,” Yang said excitedly. “Dance a bit, maybe drink, half of us are old enough now-“

“No you aren’t,” Weiss said shortly. “Not here at any rate.”

“What?”

“Atlas law: drinking age is twenty.”

Yang scoffed. “Isn’t this the same country that lets you join the military at sixteen? They think you’re ready to die for your country but not get drunk?”

“It doesn’t matter, it’s the law.”

“And we wouldn’t want to break the law,” Oscar smirked.

“Not now we don’t!” Weiss snipped. “And anyway I don’t think it’d be fair to repay Ironwood by breaking the law again.”

“She’s right,” Ruby said, drawing some surprise glances. The real reason Weiss didn’t want to go out drinking had nothing to do with the law, she knew that much. “Besides, we should do this together, and try to find something everyone would like to do.”

“What would that be?” Blake asked.

“Ooh, I bet none of you have ever been to the theater,” Weiss said. “Let me see…”

She pulled out her scroll and then let a squeal of joy. “I can’t believe it! Melisande and the Huntsman is playing tonight. We can get tickets.”

“The theater…it’s a play?” Oscar asked.

“Not just a play,” Wiess said. “It’s a musical. It’s like a play but with singing. Honestly do you not even know what a musical is?”

“Uh…not really,” he admitted.

“Wait a second,” Weiss looked around at her friends in shock. “Don’t tell me. None of you have even been to a musical, have you?”

Silence.

“Well that’s final, we are getting tickets.”

“All right, but I’m going to a club afterwards with anyone who wants to come,” Yang said. 

“And Penny said she had a surprise for us,” Ruby reminded them. “We should go there first. Wherever there is.”

“Sounds good. Surprise, musical, then anyone who wants to go to the club can,” Jaune said.

“And if you don’t want to, you can go to the rollerblade rink. Neon’s promised to teach me to skate,” Ruby said happily.

Weiss wondered what would be scarier, Ruby on skates or Ruby drunk. 

“Sounds good,” Yang said. “Let’s find out what Penny’s surprise is.”

“So. CUTE!”

Ruby’s high pitched shriek made Weiss wince. 

“Yang, Yang, Yang! I want one. Please can I get one?” 

Yang looked at small spiky ball of adorableness Ruby was gently handling. Penny’s surprise hadn’t been a disappointment. Apparently Atlas had something called a hedgehog cafe. It served coffee, delicious little cakes called petite fours, and over complicated buttery pastries. But it mostly boasted of having several hedgehogs, rabbits, and couple cats. They were definitely adorable. As long they were gentle, customers were allowed to play with hedgehogs. They were sweet despite being rather prickly. Much like Weiss.

“Ask Qrow,” she told Ruby, who slumped with a moan.

“He’ll never say yes.”

“Can I…” Weiss began, looking at Winter.

“No.”

“Well I’m buying one,” Nora declared. “I have no parental figures to stop me! Perks of being an orphan.”

Ren groaned.

“I am glad you enjoy it,” Penny said happily. “I find these spiky rodents to be very cute.”

“I like the bunnies,” Neon decided. “Why can’t you hold those?”

“Rabbits are delicate creatures Neon,” Penny said. “They are easily injured, and do not have any way of protecting themselves.”

“Unlike hedgehogs!” Nora declared, showing her pricked hands. “Jaune, can you fix it?”

“Don’t fix it,” Ren said. “She needs to learn how to be careful if she’s getting it for a pet.”

Nora glared at him and turned her back. Blake sighed. What would have usually been just after lighthearted joke was now another issue between those two. Between their unresolved sexual tension and Ruby awkwardly trying to flirt with Oscar (who was in return trying to awkwardly flirt with her) she was starting to have enough of the relationship drama. She gingerly picked up one of the hedgehogs and sat herself at a table. The poor thing was rolled into a ball, all worried.

“I feel bad for them.”

Neon sat down at her table without asking, with another hedgehog cradled in her hand. “It must be kinda scary having random people just pick you up.”

“Yeah,” Blake agreed. “Mine’s uncurling itself though.”

“You must have a gentle touch,” Neon laughed.

Blake nodded, her mind far away from thought of hedgehogs or another so frivolous. Neon wasn’t someone she knew very well. She hadn’t even met her at the Vital festive, there was no time, and she didn’t think a few sparing rounds really counted. But she couldn’t help but wonder about her. A Faunus working for the Atlas military, supporting Ironwood, of all things. Not like she was one to talk, really. But she didn’t want to talk, she realized. She wanted to listen. She couldn’t stop trying to figure out how White Fang had gone so wrong so fast, but she had a theory: they hadn’t actually listened to Faunus in general. They had tried to help people without even asking what kind of help they wanted. That was the beginning of the dangerous road.

“You can say it,” Neon said.

“What?” Could she read minds?

“Everyone wants to know what people like me and Marrow are doing in the military,” Neon kept her eyes locked on her hedgehog. “And…well, I know who you are. You of all people probably are trying to figure out what I’m doing.”

“What?” Blake knew she was sounding like a parrot, but she couldn’t help it. Her mind was reeling. How did Neon know she was once part of the white fang? How did she know about her and Adam?

“My mom was always a fan of your father. She thought he had the right idea.”

“Oh,” Blake let out a sharp breath. Of course, she knew who her father was. It was kinda obvious, you just needed to know her last name. There probably weren’t many Faunus who weren’t aware of who Ghira Belladonna was.

“Yeah,” Blake cleared her throat. “My father definitely has a vision.”

“Do you share it?” Neon asked. Her voice was curious, but Blake wondered at how to answer the complicated question.

“I used to,” she said, petting her hedgehog’s nose. “But then I disagreed for while. Now, I don’t really know. Things got..complicated.”

“Things are complicated,” Neon sighed. “Some people think I’m here just so I don’t have to suffer what most Faunus do, but that’s not true. Others think that I’m here to prove that a Faunus can be trusted too, but that’s not it either. I just want to protect people, and I know this is the easiest way. I don’t think what Atlas is doing is right. I do want to change things around here. But I’m not going to do that by storming into the Schnee dust or blowing stuff up.”

Blake winced. 

“Sorry,” Neon frowned. “I didn’t mean—“

“No, I’m sorry,” Blake sighed. “You shouldn’t have to even explain yourself. I just wanted to hear your thoughts. I’m just trying to figure it out myself I guess.”

Neon nodded. “Isn’t it funny how killing Grimm is kinda easy? I mean compared to something big like this.”

Blake let herself smile. “Something tells me you’ll be eating those words in a couple weeks.”

Neon laughed. “At this rate it’s going to be a lot sooner then a couple weeks.”

Chapter Text

The theater was huge, but luckily for them they had the best seats. Team RWBY, Winter, and Oscar were sitting in one box, the others in a similar one. Below them the stage swooped, it’s dark paneling bare and shiny with age, the a pale blue curtain across it making a sharp contrast.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’ll love it,” Weiss insisted. “It’s my favorite fairy tale.”

“I thought it was a musical,” Oscar said.

“It’s based off a fairy tale,” Weiss was practically glowing with excitement. “The story of the red princess and the white princess.”

As Oscar wondered which fairy tale that was, the music began to swell and it began.

Winter knew the tale of the red princess and the white princess by heart. It had always been Weiss’s favorite fairy tale, which she insisted Klein read to her before bed every night, and once she began singing she started to use songs from Melisande and the Huntsman. 

The story was simple, sweet, and sad. Like most fairy tales.

Once Upon a Time (that was how they always started, wasn’t it?) a kingdom was overtaken by another. The conquering king killed the Queen and King of the conquered, even though they surrendered, for he was a cruel man. (Weiss had thought that line funny, and Winter had always agreed. Obviously he was cruel, the text hardly needed to state it. But the line was always there). But he left their only daughter, a girl known only as the Red Princess in the tale (but given the name Caera for the musical) because his daughter was lonely and begged for a playmate. Her name was, of course, the White Princess (but the play named her Melisande).

Now the White Princess (‘call her ‘Melisande’ Weiss would beg. ‘She should have a name’) was the most beautiful woman in the land. She was so beautiful, that her jealous father was afraid that she would be taken away from him. He did not want his daughter to ever marry, but stay in his tower of gold, to beautify it like a flower pulled from the wild meadow and placed inside a crystal vase. He refused to let his daughter leave the tower, allowing her only the Red Princess (‘Caera!’ ‘Oh, fine. Caera’), servants, a huntsman to protect her from Grimm, and a magical mirror. The mirror would show her anything she asked, at any time.

And so the two girls grew up, with only each other and the enchanted mirror, showing wonders never to be touched. Melisande was lavished with everything she could ever want to keep her happy in the tower of gold, while Caera was treated as little more than a servant girl, living on Melisande’s scraps, sleeping at the foot of her bed, and bearing both of their punishments. For the cruel king could not bear to see is own daughter in any pain, and so beat Caera for the both of them whenever Melisande defied him.

But despite their difference in station, the two girls cared for each other more than the moon and stars and the impossible world the mirror showed to them. They bore the king’s cruelty and the loneliness of the tower as long as they had each other. But Melisande was cunning, and never showed her love for Caera whenever her father visited. For she was afraid of losing the only friend she had.

But as time passed, Caera grew more and more beautiful, until the king realized that she was even more beautiful than his own daughter. In a fury, he demanded that Melisande kill Caera (but on the stage he wasn’t angry, oh no. His song to Melisande was soft and sweet, reminding her that he had no need for an ugly daughter, and that she should not let a mere servant be better than her. Winter hated that song. She had heard it one to many times herself.) and Melisande agreed. When her father left, she called her Huntsman to her.

Now she has grown to love the Huntsmen, and he her, but for her cruel father they could rarely speak of it. There love was a silent one longing glances and gentle touches, of roses left by the window and letter hidden in dusty books. (‘Ugh, it’s so sappy, I hate this part.’ ‘I don’t! Keep reading, please’). And of course, the Huntsman knew of Caera, who had many a time risked a beating to give them even a moment together.

“Kill her,” Melisande instructed. “Bring her out into the woods ash and thorn trees. Tell her it’s so she can feel the grass again, a grace you give her. The kill her and give me her heart in a box.”

(‘Do you think she really will have her killed?’ ‘Weiss, we’ve read this story a hundred times. You know—‘ ‘Yes, yes. Still. I’m always worried she’ll mean it this time.’ ‘You’re ridiculous’. But she wasn’t, Winter knew what she meant more than she wanted to admit.)

“Yes, your majesty,” said the Huntsmen. And he left her chambers and found Caera, scrubbing the stone floor.

(“‘Trust me’ he said as he took her. And she did.’ ‘Who’s reading the story, you or me?’ ‘I’m sorry, I just love that part.’ Winter allowed herself a smile. ‘So do I.’)

“Trust me,” he said as he took her. And she did.

They went deep into the forest of ash and thorn trees, and then the huntsmen turned to her, knife in hand. Caera did not flinch or tremble, but smiled sadly.

“She wouldn’t want you to do it. She’ll be angry at you, and I’m sorry for that. But don’t feel sorrow for this, my dear huntsman. For with my death her life will continue, and with that I am happy. I am not afraid.”

But she was trembling.

“Foolish girl,” the Huntsmen said, but his voice was rough. “Do you think she would find life worth the living if she knew you no longer were in it? There is a grove of ash nearby. In it our seven spirits, and they will attend to you. I will kill a deer, and give it to my lady and she to my king. And you will live, but apart.

And Caera wept, unwilling to leave Melisande in a tower of cold gold with nothing but a mirror that could show her everything she could not have. But she wept as she fled and as she fled she made a promise. She would come back one day, and they would be together again. And they would be free.

“I’m beginning to remember this story,” Oscar said quietly. “It doesn’t have a happy ending, does it?”

It was the intermission, and everyone was stretching their legs. Yang and Neon weren’t currently very impressed, but everyone else seemed to be enjoying it. Weiss knew it was hard not to enjoy your first time at the theater. It felt so much more magical than the movies, and music swept her away as the story rippled around her, overwhelming her until she was suddenly Melisande herself.

“It’s not really happy no,” she admitted. “But it’s not sad either. It’s more…bittersweet.”

“Why do they always have to be sad?” Nora grumbled. “Why can’t there be more happy endings? I like happy endings.”

“So do I,” Jaune admitted. “But I don’t mind bittersweet ones. After all, it’s more realistic, isn’t it?”

“It’s a fairy tale,” Nora said. “It’s not supposed to be realistic.”

“Maybe not, but fairy tales are supposed to reflect reality,” Oscar pondered. “A lot are have sad endings because sometimes the ending is sad, but it can help to know that even heroes have faced it.”

Everyone stared at him.

“What?” He sighed. “Yes, it still me. No Ozpin here. Stories always help me make sense of things, even before…everything.”

“Me too,” Yang admitted, breaking the sudden awkwardness. “It’s not that I don’t like happy endings too, but I like messy ones as well. When things are still screwed up but you know the heroes will still keep fighting. Maybe it’s not a perfect ending now but it will be.”

“What do you think Penny?” Ruby asked her.

“I do not completely understand,” Penny said. “But I think both endings are acceptable.”

“But which do you like better?”

“I think…happy ever after is my favorite ending.”

“Got to agree with you there,” Neon said. “It’s a nice phrase. But I know you don’t entirely agree, do you Flynt?”

Her teammate smiled. “What can I say? I like things complicated.”

“Ren?” Ruby prompted.

“I don’t know,” he said shortly. “And I don’t think it really matters.”

“Well,” Blake said. “I think it depends on the story. Each has their own ending that works out best.”

“But happy endings make you feel better,” Ruby said. “I agree with Penny. Happy ever after has a nice ring to it.”

“Maybe,” Weiss said. “I’m good with anything as long as it’s not completely sad.”

Winter knew she was the only one who hadn’t yet given an answer, but she didn’t say anything. The truth was, she didn’t know which ending was best. As a child she had found happy endings foolish, sad ones depressing, and bittersweet ones indecisive. She had never really like fairy tales or musicals. That was always Wiess. The only reason she was so familiar with this one was because she had read to her so many times.

Chapter Text

The shattered moon turned twice with Caera under the care of the ash spirits, and Melisande languishing in the golden tower. It was then that the cruel king realized he was tricked.

The mirror told him. The mirror was not a simple enchanted item, but it held a malevolent spirit. He heard Melisande whisper in her sleep, tossing and turning on her bed. He saw that she truly loved Caera, and that she loved Huntsman. He saw all this, and finally he told, when he heard the words ‘ash’ from her slumbering lips. For he knew of the ash spirits well.

Her father was furious, but he still could not bring himself to hurt his beautiful daughter. So instead, he took the mirror and reforged it into a coffin of glass. Then he went to the grove of the ash at midnight, were evil was strongest, and poisoned their roots. The spirits did not die, for spirits are hardy creatures, but they did slumber. And while they slumbered, the cruel king took the sleeping Caera and placed her in the coffin.

She awakened, and she tried to fight, but it was too late. For the king had pricked her with the same poison, and she was weakened almost to the point of death.

His men carried the glass coffin to the tower. Inside, the dying princess saw the mirror, who showed her all that she could not have. No glorious place or bustling market or even the wonder of sea did he show her, but a picture from long ago, when she and Melisande were still children. They were playing with dolls, and laughing. The huntsman watched them, and though he could not join in, he smiled.

The spirit meant to crush Caera with the memory of what she could never have again, but instead she was given strength, for she still believe it was something she could still have. She refused to be crushed, but treasured the image and fought with all her might against the poison in her veins.

The cruel king sent took the coffin to the tower, and sent for his daughter and the Huntsman. They came, the doors were locked and guarded behind them.

“You have betrayed me,” he said. “But you are still my daughter, and I love you. I can not hurt you. My love for you is strong enough that I will even let you chose which of these will take the punishment. Either allow the Red Princess, who would take your place as the most beautiful of them all, to succumb to the poison. Then you will be the beautiful again. Or slit the throat of the man who took advantage of you, and I will heal your playmate. And you will be pure again.”

He handed her knife. She recognized it as her huntsman’s own blade. It was a lovely thing and not made of glass, but clear sharp steel.

“This is my favorite part,” Weiss smiled leaning forward in her seat as Melisande handle the knife carefully, almost curiously.

Oscar groaned. “How can you say that? I hate this part."

“Don’t worry kiddo, she’s going to have to sing about whatever she’s going to do next before anything actually happens,” Yang said.

“Shh,” Weiss hissed urgently.

Winter couldn’t help but smile as the familiar music started and Melisande stepped forward. This it. Weiss’s favorite song. 

Mirror

Can you hear me?

Do I reach you?

Are you even listening?

Can I get through?

She had a good voice, but Weiss was better, Winter thought. And that wasn’t coming from personal bias. Winter didn’t have personal biases.

There's a part of me that's desperate for changes

Tired of being treated like a pawn

But there's a part of me that stares back

From inside the mirror

Part of me that's scared I might be wrong

That I can't be strong

Winter look at her sister, sitting quite literally at the edge of her seat. Her eyes were shining, lost in the story, and Winter felt the familiar rush of anger that her sister had to relate to this song of all things. Jaques wasn’t quite as bad as the cruel king but is wasn’t very hard to see her inspiration came from. 

On stage, Melisande threw back her head as her voice rose:

I've been afraid

Never standing on my own

I let you be the keeper of my pride

Believed you when you told me

I was nothing on my own

Listen when I say

I swear it here today

I will not surrender

This life is mine!

The tempo picked up, to Winter’s surprise. They must have modernized this, and she looked over at Weiss to see if she minded. But her sister seemed more enthralled in music than ever. Of course, this was pretty poetic, the music changing to fit Melisande tune instead of the king’s.

Amazing how you conquered me

Chained me in servility

And made me see

The world the way you told me to

But I was young, and didn't have a

Way to know the truth

Melisande glimmered in the darkness of the stage, the single spotlight shine down on her catching on the silver jewelry and diamonds that glimmer on her head and bare wrists, dripping from her over complicated white dress. Next to her, half hidden in the darkness was the king, dressed white, a snarl on his face.

Born to live your legacy

Existing just to fill your needs

A casualty of this so-called "family"

That you have turned into a travesty

Melisande stepped away from the microphone and turned toward the king, who stepped out of the shadows. She unclasped her jewelry and tossed it at his feet, somehow making the single movement seem graceful and vicious at the same time.

 But I don't intend to suffer any longer

Here's where your dominion falls apart

I'm shattering the mirror (Her heal cracked the glass coffin, it shattered. Sugar spin glass ran down from above)

That kept me split in pieces 

That stood between my mind and my heart (She tossed her last bit of jewelry, a diamond necklace, out into the wings were people tried to be the one to catch it)

This is where I'll start

She stepped purposely toward the microphone again, head down as she sang into it.

I'm not your pet

Not another thing you own

I was not born guilty of your crimes

Your riches and your influence

Can't hold me anymore

I won't be possessed

Burdened by your royal test

I will not surrender

This life is mine!

The tempo sped up even more, turning the song into a complete rock opera. The lights went wild, catching on her sequined dress.

Shame that it took so long

To rescue me

From the guilt you used

To tie me to your family tree

I guess your training failed

You're not in charge, I'm free

Your patriarchal prison won't hold me

She turned to the cruel king, then the glass coffin.

Now this conversation's finally over

Mirror Mirror, now we're done

I've pulled myself together now

My mind and heart are one

Finally one!

She stepped back and arms outstretched, knife in one of them. The lights flooded the stage once more, showing the furious king, Caera lying in the shards of the sugar spun coffin, and the Huntsman in black with his hands tied behind his back. But the focus was still on Melisande herself, shining like a star and she sung the last chorus.

I'm not your pet

Not another thing you own

I was not born guilty of your crimes

Your riches and your influence

Can't hold me anymore

I won't be possessed

Burdened by your royal test

I will not surrender

This life is mine!

The music rose to it’s final crescendo and for a moment the actors seemed frozen in time. Then it stopped and Melisande moved suddenly, driving the knife into her own chest. 

Oscar screamed and Winter realized that he had probably never seen something so…realistic. Ruby was quick to explain it was all fake, she had bags of fake blood sewed into her dress.

“I know!” He said. “It’s obviously not real. I just don’t like this stuff.”

Melisande fell to the ground, blood staining the white of her dress. The Huntsman and Caera gave cries of anguish, but none so horrible as the king, who gather Melisande.

(‘He wept loudest of them all, for he was weeping for someone who had never existed’)

Caera grasped a shard from the coffin and used it to cut the Huntsman’s bonds with the last her strength. As she collapsed the Huntsman walked calmly over to the weeping king and dead princess. He bent over the dead Melisande and pulled out the knife, then plunged it into the king’s chest.

“I don’t want to watch this,” Oscar grumbled, at the sight of more blood. 

“That’s the last of the violent parts,” Ruby promised him.

It was added, Winter thought. The fairy tale never said what happened to the king after he wept over his daughter. Some said he died of broken heart (what heart, she had always thought), others that the Huntsman or the Red Princess had killed him, still others that he was locked away for the rest of his life. But both Winter and Weiss were in agreement that the best ending was none—when the story just didn’t bother telling you what happened to someone so awful, because he didn’t deserve any kind of ending at all.

In this musical though, the Huntsman gave Caera the cure, and the curtain dropped.

“Is it done?” Oscar groaned.

“No,” Weiss said. “There’s one final scene. I told you it had a bittersweet ending, not a sad one.”

The final scene and final song where nice, but Winter found herself preferring the one in the fairytale.

(‘Caera did not think she could bear a life without Melisande in it, but now that Melisande had given her a life at the cost of her own she could not throw it away, or even waste it. And so, she spent her life carefully, ruling the kingdom with grace and wisdom, fighting Grimm to protect her people, and giving a home to lost children she found. She enjoyed her life, and loved it, because it was a gift from a dear friend.  And gift should never be taken for granted. The end.’)

Chapter Text

"I’m sorry that upset you,” Ruby said.

“It’s fine,” Oscar really didn’t want to ruin the others one night of fun. It was bad enough that he had screamed like a girl about what he knew was fake blood, but making Weiss or Blake feel awful about enjoying something was unthinkable. “I just wasn’t expecting that.”

Ruby knew he was lying. She was good at telling that sort of thing (probably a side effect of growing up with Qrow) and he was a bad liar anyway.

“Want to go back to the hedgehog café?” She asked.

“Uh…I thought you were going roller skating with Neon.”

“I don’t have to do that. Want to go?”

“It’s almost eight, it’ll be closed by now-“

“You aren’t answering my question.”

A pause. 

“Beacon was the first real battle I was in, and I was jumpy for weeks afterwards,” Ruby said quietly. “I had bad dreams. And at Beacon they tried to prepare us for that, mentally as well as physically. So that probably helped. But you didn’t have any of that. And you haven’t seen something as bad as Beacon, but you’re still probably going through a lot more than you ever have before. I’m just saying, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Getting upset like that.”

To his annoyance he felt tears begin to well up. Darn it, why was this girl so nice to  him constantly? He’d be little more than a drag on everyone since he met them and he had nearly gotten them killed by telling them to reveal Ozpin’s secret. But Ruby had never been anything but constantly sweet and kind. It was just her default mode, like she didn’t even know how to be anything else.

“Thanks.” Deep breath. “I guess I just want to go back to the dorms now.”

Ruby smiled. “I’ll make hot chocolate for both of us. It can be just you and me.”

She realized what she had said and suddenly her face matched her cloak. “Not like that, I mean, it’s not that I don’t think, I uh, just thought the others would be busy. Will be. Will be busy so it’ll be just the two of us. So—“

She tripped suddenly, and Oscar tried to catch her but forgot he was smaller than her. They both ended up on the ground.

She helped pull him quickly, and now they were both blushing and looking awkwardly at each other.

“So, yeah,” he mutter. “Coco is good.”

“Yeah,” she agreed.

They hurried to the dorm.

"That's screwed up!" Yang shook her head. "That was your favorite fairy tale as a kid?"

"It's romantic," Weiss looked insulted.

"It's horrible," Yang exclaimed. "She killed herself, how was that romantic?"

"She sacrificed herself for her friends," Weiss retorted. "That better then romantic, it's..heroic."

"Why do heroic stories have to be so depressing?" Blake grumbled.

"It wasn't depressing, it was bittersweet," Weiss insisted. She wasn't going to let this one go, Winter thought faintly amused. "And I thought you liked it."

"I did like it," Blake admitted. "I've never really been to a musical before. It was..."

"Magical."

Blake smiled. "Yeah."

Yang sighed. "Well, it wasn't my type of music to be honest. I'm going to the club. Coming?"

Weiss shook her head and Blake gave her a guilty look. "Do you mind if I-?"

"Don't be silly," she said. "I'm glad to be able to enjoy sometime with Winter anyhow."

"What about Ruby?"

"She's on a date," Yang pulled up her scroll. "She just texted me that she and Oscar are going back to the dorm for some hot chocolate. You know, anyone else and I would assume a lot more, but those two probably will just drink hot coco and stammering a lot. She clearly hasn't inherited my natural charm."

"I think they're cute," Weiss decided. "And thank dust she hasn't inherited your natural 'charm' as you call it."

"Are you instigating that I'm not charming Schnee?"

"I'm instigating that there are more appropriate descriptions then 'charming'."

"Who else is coming to the club?" Blake asked, ignoring the ongoing spat.

"Everyone: Neon, Flynt, Nora, Jaune, and maybe Ren if Jaune manages to talk some sense into him," Yang frowned. "If he doesn't I might smack some sense into him."

"Aren't you missing Penny?" Blake said.

"Penny is coming with me and Winter," Weiss said firmly. "We're going to have some sister time."

"But...you aren't sisters?"

"Tell that to Winter."

"Fair point," Blake smiled. "Guess you probably want to get to know her now that the two of them are so close."

"Precisely," Weiss said, with more confidence then she felt. She couldn't help but feel that Penny, her, and Winter would make for a very awkward group but she had to try.

"So, you have a dinner planned or something?" Yang was clearly thinking along similar lines.

"Well, Penny can't eat," Weiss reminded her. "I was thinking of going ice-skating."

"Can Penny ice-skate?"

"I was going to teach her," Weiss smiled proudly. "Me and Winter are both very skilled, of course."

"Hopefully that will go well," Yang said, clearly thinking it wouldn't. "Well, see you back at the dorm tonight. I'm going to see if the boys are coming or not."

“What are you doing?" Ren demanded.

"This is intervention," Jaune looked determined, which was never a good sign.

"What?"

"You've got to work things out with Nora man."

This was the last thing Ren could afford to deal with right now. "It's really not any of your business."

He tried to walk by but Jaune blocked him. 

"Yes, it is. I'm your team leader, for one thing, and for another it's just painful being between the two of you."

"I don't want to talk about it."

He tried to push past him but Jaune wasn't moving.

"Let me through."

"No."

"This is stupid."

"Yeah, I know."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Really?"

Ren sighed. Clearly he wasn't going to be allowed to leave until he said something. Pushing down his angry he finally admitted:

"I'm just stressed right now, okay? I need some space. So give it to me."

Jaune sighed and relented. He wasn't getting anywhere this way.

"Fine. But can you just try to talk things out with her?”

“I told you, there’s nothing to talk about.”

“Riiight.”

“So can I go now?”

Jaune sighed. “Yeah, whatever.”

He watched Ren storm off, wishing he knew how to get through to him.