Summary: Weiss hasn't had ice cream before. Jaune is appalled by this.
Cheesecakes and Sundaes
RWBY
"You what?!"
Weiss Schnee winced and looked around warily. "Could you be any louder?" she hissed.
"I just- I can't-" the nineteen-year-old Jaune Arc skidded back in his seat and looked to the ceiling in child-like wonder. "Mom, today I've finally found proof that aliens exist."
"Hey!"
It was a simple date night. Swing by the RWBY dorm, pick up Weiss, take her to an extremely fancy fast food diner, buy an action figure from the toy store, and then call it a night. Simple. Easy. No problem. Everything was going well until they ordered dessert. Weiss got a slice of strawberry cheesecake, and Jaune got a chocolate sundae.
And then Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, and resident Ice Queen of Beacon Academy, let slip that she had never had ice cream before.
"You haven't had ice cream before?!" Jaune's mouth was agape.
"No I haven-"
"How is this possible? How on earth is this even possible?!"
"Jaune-"
"I mean I've done the math, and the odds are like, one in a bajillion or something, but to actually see this in real li-!"
"Jaune!"
"WHAT?!"
Weiss' red face was buried in her hands. "People are looking," she managed, shrinking into her chair.
"O-oh." Jaune looked around and saw a sea of eyes looking at him, standing up with a spoon waving around in his hand. It was completely silent. "Uh… my bad," he said. "Don't mind me. I'll just…" He sat back down.
Weiss shrunk further into her chair in embarrassment. Slowly, everyone went back to their own devices and the joint sounded lively once more.
"I'm just saying," Jaune said, quietly this time, "how on earth have you not had ice cream before? That's like saying you haven't had a crustless PBJ-"
"I don't know what that is."
"-or a juice box-"
"A what?"
"-or dino-shaped chicken nuggets-"
"I've never had chicken nuggets, much less 'dino-shaped' ones," said Weiss, rolling her eyes. "What are you, 12?"
"No," Jaune said, "but at heart I still am."
"You do know that they're not actually made of chicken, right? It's just processed pink paste-"
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't you ruin my dreams, Schnee! You don't see me ruining yours!"
Weiss sighed. "Why do I put up with you?"
"Honestly, after this revelation, I'm wondering that myself."
"Just… eat your stupid ice cream, okay?"
After scrutinising her some more, Jaune withdrew back to his sundae. Weiss in turn went back to her cheesecake. The two of them sat quietly in the diner. The weather was fantastic tonight. The stars were out, and the moon was shining. Even though there was a breeze, it was just cool enough to not be freez-
"You know, it's kind of ironic."
Weiss' scarred eye twitched. Lowering the strawberry from her mouth, she glowered at Jaune. "You're still going on about this?"
"I mean, you think 'Ice Queen', and you also think 'ice cream'. And yet, the two of you have nothing in common!"
"I'm pretty sure you're the only one who's ever tried to make that connection."
"And your team leader has an incredible sweet tooth, and she never convinced you?"
"It's…" Weiss hesitated. "It's not because I don't like it."
"Well, that much is obvious, seeing that you've never had it," Jaune said. "So?"
"So what?"
"There has to be a reason," he said. "Right?"
Weiss' eyes dimmed. "Do you really want to know?"
"Yeah. Surely it can't be that bad?"
A humourless laugh escaped her lips. "You'd be surprised."
"Try me."
Weiss looked up at his earnest gaze. She grimaced. "Fine."
Jaune sat upright in his chair and looked attentively. Weiss took a deep breath.
"When I was little," she began. "I think I might have been six. Father had taken Winter and I to an event he had to go to. It was one of those boring fundraiser things he always frequented, and we always had to go to represent the family.
"Anyway, we were passing by the park when I looked out the window and saw a family there. The father was playing around with the two kids when the mother came up with ice cream cones. The kids ran up and took the ice creams from her. The father tried to take a bite from one of theirs, and the kids ran around the fountain, laughing as he chased them. The mother was laughing too. She took her scroll out and began snapping photos. It looked so… fun.
"I asked Winter what they were eating, and she told me. I then asked my father if we could have ice creams too, but he refused. I pleaded with him the whole trip home, but he just kept saying no. Eventually I started crying. When we arrived home, I went straight to my room and stayed there the whole time, even skipping dinner.
"Winter came into my room later in the night and tried to console me, but I just kept crying about the ice cream. Finally, to get me to calm down, she told me to wait, and that she'd ask the butler who was always nice to us for some money, and that she'd sneak out and try and get ice cream from a store. I stopped crying then and hugged her. I was so… thankful at that moment.
"So I waited. And I waited. I was beginning to get sleepy until I heard my father shout my name. Thinking Winter had come back with ice cream for all of us, I ran down the stairs with a big smile on my face.
"When I got down the stairs, the first thing I saw was my father's face. He was furious. On the ground was Winter. There was a big red mark on her face from where he had hit her. It turns out she had tripped an alarm when she had snuck out, so she was caught by the guards on her way back in. Beside Winter was a tub of ice cream. She looked at me. Her eyes were watering in pain, but she tried to give me a smile.
"My father kicked the ice cream towards me. 'You want ice cream?' he said. 'Well here's your ice cream.' And then he ordered the guards to take Winter to her room and keep her there for disobeying him. And Winter, she just… smiled at me the whole time. I cried and I cried, pleading with my father to punish me instead, but he just ignored me and went back into his study. In the end it was just me and that tub of ice cream.
"I never ate that ice cream. I left it there and just went straight to my room. The next day I heard that the nice butler was fired. When Winter was finally allowed to leave her room, I just hugged her and kept apologising over and over. And Winter just kept… smiling, and said that everything was fine and that it was worth it just to see me happy again. She asked if it tasted good, and I lied, saying it tasted really good because she got it for me.
"Looking back, I don't think it was really the ice cream I wanted. I think of the three of us back then, I was the only one who never made the right connection to what I was searching for." Weiss blinked furiously before giving Jaune a small smile. "And there you have it."
Jaune could only stare.
"Don't… pity me or anything," she said, forcing bite back into her voice. "It's in the past. I've just never had ice cream. It's not a big deal, okay?"
"… okay," was Jaune's quiet response.
"Good," Weiss said brightly, picking up her fork. "Now let's finish up our dessert so we can buy your stupid action figure."
"… yeah."
Weiss slowly picked away at her cheesecake. For a fast food diner, the quality was actually pretty good. While she would never come here willingly, she might consider coming here again if her team wanted to… or Jaune, she guessed.
"… hey Weiss."
"Hmm?" she said, toying with a strawberry.
"Look up."
She did so. "Why-?" she began. "Mmf!"
Jaune withdrew his spoon and went back to his sundae. "It's been a while since our teams have had a get together," he said. "We should try to do that in the semester break." He looked up at her. "Don't you agree?"
Weiss was still looking at him in astonishment.
A chuckle. "It helps if you swallow," he said.
She did so.
A smile. "Good?"
"It's… sweet," she managed before her face crumpled. She hid into her sleeve.
"Well it is ice cream," said Jaune, scooping up another spoonful. "It'd kinda suck if it wasn't."
One of Weiss' hands snaked out and grabbed his wrist. Jaune let her do so and sat back quietly. Her shoulders were shaking.
Moments passed before Weiss straightened up. Her eyes were puffy as she reached for a napkin.
"I didn't mean to uh, overstep," Jaune said, scratching the back of his head. "Are you… okay?"
"I look like a mess," she replied, her voice hoarse.
"Well, you kinda did cry…"
"Shut up."
"Yes ma'am."
Weiss shook her head as she wiped her eyes. "You're… weird," she said.
"That's like, the fifty-second time you've called me that."
"You counted?"
Jaune shrugged. "I've got nothing better to do."
Weiss rolled her eyes.
Then,
"… hey."
"Yep?"
Weiss smiled.
"Can I have another spoon?"
Cheesecakes and Sundaes Fin
- Narutochaos22