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Weiss rounded the corner on the way back to her dorm hall, stepping in rhythm to the gentle little song playing in her earbuds, occasionally stepping just out of her way to crunch one of the nice orange leaves littering the ground around Beacon University.
“My sapphire snow~stoooorm,” sang that longing, lovely voice, rich and full, coming back to the chorus once again. Ruby had shot her the song in a message earlier, talking about this great new artist that she’d found through a friend of hers – in reality, however, Weiss had already known about Flowerkat for a while. The voice had sounded familiar, but she could never place it, with the instrumental being just loud enough to mask the finer details.
“And so on this autumn day, I wave and I see you away, Hoping one day you’ll see, How much snowstorms mean to me…”
A gentle sigh escaped her lips. What a sweet little song. Whoever Flowerkat was writing about sure was a lucky person. She quietly hoped that someday someone would sing about her like that – but, hey, in the meantime? It was just nice to have a nice backlog of sappy, probably gay love songs to listen to.
The song came to an end as she came to her building, quickly ascending the stairs and getting back to her dorm – really, more of a small apartment – with her roommate and close friend Blake sitting on the couch and idly plucking at an unplugged electric guitar.
“I’m back!”
“You’re back,” responded Blake. “Have a good day?”
“It was alright. Atlesian History is notoriously boring, even being from the place. Especially in being from there.”
Blake chuckled to herself, setting the purple and black guitar down on the floor beside her, peering back over the old black couch to regard Weiss, who was setting her bag down just inside her bedroom door. Today’s outfit was casual by Weiss’ standards – a blouse and slacks – compared to Blake’s comfy-casual sweater and sweatpants combo.
“By the way, Blake, have you ever heard of an artist called Flowerkat?”
Blake blinked.
“The name sounds familiar. Why?”
“I just think you’d like her music! It just seems like it’d be up your alley.”
Blake smiled warmly. Yeah, that’s one way to put it.
“I’ll check them out.”
“I’ll send you some of her stuff later.”
“Looking forward to it, Snowstorm.”
Weiss wandered over to the couch, coming to flop beside Blake, laying her head on Blake’s shoulder. They were often close – their initial housing assignment together had been decidedly rocky, before Weiss got over her rich-girl upbringing and had a pretty firm reality check about her prejudices. Still, time had healed those wounds, and a very firm stand together against Blake’s abusive ex Adam, getting him expelled after he tried to weaponize the White Fang Advocacy Club against them had certainly helped.
“You want to order pizza tonight, Blake? My treat.”
“I will literally never say no to pizza. Unless it’s got banana peppers on it. Yuck.”
Weiss giggled.
“No worries there. Banana peppers aren’t my thing either. We can order later. How’s your music program coming along?”
“Oh, you know. The professor has us writing love songs as part of a study of emotion in music. I’m starting to think I’m not cut out for it. Everything I come up with, some people seem to really like it, but like, the one person I’m trying to impress just doesn’t seem to be feeling it the same way, you know?”
“The professor?”
“… Yeah, just not really catching it.”
Weiss frowned, and sat up some, peering over at the guitar.
“Well, what if you wrote it about someone specific? You could even use me as inspiration!”
Blake raised an eyebrow, looking over at Weiss with a look of something that seemed to be incredulity.
“You want me to write a love song about you?”
“Well maybe not about me, but you know, like. Maybe it’d help if you wrote a song about someone you know, instead of some like, general concept person, you know?”
“I thought about that, but I didn’t really want to overstep, you know?”
“Well, I give you permission,” Weiss said, with a nod of finality on the statement.
Blake knew well and good there wasn’t much talking her out of something like that – Weiss always liked when she sang, it seemed, and had on more than one occasion talked about writing a song together, or at least being the inspiration for a song. She’d always said it was something about feeling special – if only she really knew, of course.
“I’ll give it a shot,” Blake said. “But right now I think I am gonna break from playing. Tried out a new song today, not sure that it’s landed, so…tomorrow it is, most likely.”
“That sounds like a good idea. I don’t have any classes scheduled, so I’ll be around to help, if you want.”
“Thanks, Weiss.”
“Of course. Now, how about that pizza?”
Blake idly drummed her hands on the edge of her guitar, the half-eaten remnants of the pair’s meal sitting on the coffee table. Weiss had since headed to bed – Blake was always a sleep deprived night owl, so staying up until three in the morning strumming her guitar never seemed too out of place. Plus, it might spare her the embarrassment of trying to write a song while secretly being a flustered fucking mess having Weiss watch her process.
“Sapphire snow~stoooooorm…” She mumbled, strumming a chord. “Bweh. I don’t know. Maybe she’ll catch the next one, or something.”
Weiss knocked on Blake’s door, being met with the low groan of someone having just woken up.
“Blake, it’s two in the afternoon, time to get up--!”
A thud came from the inside of the door. This was either a signal that the house was alive and getting ready to complain about the calling in the house, or Blake had thrown a pillow against the door in protest of being woken up any time before the sun was entering the twilight stages of the evening.
“You have a song to write, remember?”
Blake finally opened the door, still in her nightgown pajamas and looking like she’d lost the fight with her pillow in trying to throw it against the door.
“Mmrgmgr.”
“I made coffee.”
“Mm…”
Blake trudged her way into the common room, and then to the attached kitchenette, pouring herself a cup of the delightful Brew of Awakening, plus three.
“You know, it’s kinda neat, that Flowerkat singer I told you about? Apparently last night she was talking about writing a song, too. Maybe you could send her a message on social and see if she’ll compare notes with you. Her songs are really good, but she’s not really big yet, so maybe you can get something out of it.”
“Mmh. Maybe. Something tells me we’re on the same page, though.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Went through her songs last night,” Blake said. “She’s definitely got the writing a song about someone down.”
Weiss nodded a little, leaning against the kitchen counter.
Blake shrugged, and finished her first cup, pouring another.
“Anyway,” she continued. “I really liked that song of hers, Ribbons and Snowfall.”
“Yeah, I liked that one a lot too. Short, but sweet.”
“Wonder who it’s about,” Blake mused. “Anyway, I got started on a song last night. Let me grab my guitar and tell me what you think.”
“Okay!”
Blake wandered back to her room, grabbing her guitar, coming back to the living room and sitting down, making sure everything was in tune before she started. If this bit didn’t get through, she’d just go ahead and give up and try to move on.
She began to sing.
“In wintertime, I was always alone, far from home, lost at sea…”
“… Now how I love the snowfall, and it sets my heart free.”
Weiss pulled her earbuds out, gentle tears rolling down her face – she’d just gotten done listening to the latest release by Flowerkat, just a day after the last one – and, apparently, after she finally recognized the voice singing those beautiful words. Blake had gone out to run a quick errand, she’d said, and Weiss had taken the time to listen to the newest upload.
God, how could she have not noticed? The snow theme, the references to being close but not quite there, the nickname Snowstorm?!
“I’m back,” Blake said, bag in hand from the convenience store.
Weiss bolted over, all but spearing Blake in a tight hug, the bag falling to the floor.
“Why didn’t you just say so?”
Blake looked over, slightly confused, until she saw the earbuds plugged into Weiss’ phone.
“… Oh. Because I wasn’t…sure. I…y’know…”
“Well…just say so, okay?”
“I have a massive crush on you and want to date you?”
“Yeah, I kinda gathered that, finally. God, you must think I’m just…god, the most useless lesbian ever.”
Blake didn’t agree verbally, but did that gentle head tilt thing one does when they are absolutely agreeing with the statement but don’t want to say so.
“So, Weiss?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you wanna—”
“Is that even a question? Yes, yes, yes.”
A smile broke out across Blake’s face – and Weiss’, too. Blake finally returned the embrace, soft and gentle, and squeezed tightly.
“Will you keep writing songs about me?”
“’s long as you want me to, Snowstorm.”