RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth, of which I am not a part of.

This story is dedicated to merendinoemiliano on FFN, who requested: an AU where the Schnees are Polar Bear-Faunus. Not sure if this will come out exactly how you wanted, friend, since the details requested were a little bit vague, but hopefully you enjoy it nonetheless!

The picture for this fic (on ) was made by the awesome Father Febe, who also goes by the name radish-cup on tumblr. Check out the rest of her artwork, it's beautiful!

Most people wouldn't find cloudy days to be the best time for an outdoor walk, but to Weiss, it was absolutely perfect. Something about the feeling; it was obviously darker than those blindingly sunny days, yet that just made it more comfortable. Somehow. Indeed, the afternoon breeze felt just right.

One of the heiress's furry white ears twitched slightly as she braced herself up with her arms, nails scratching against the smooth stones of the bridge. Her legs kicked back and forth, with little acknowledgement to the murmuring stream below. Her blue gaze set itself into the distance, lost among the blackened branches of leafless autumn trees.

Okay, so 'comfortable' might be an exaggeration. 'Safe' was probably a more fitting description.

After all, anywhere, any time of the year, was better than that horrid, marble prison that her family called a home.

A sigh escaped her throat before she'd even realized, quickly lost to the wind as she brought her hands back to her lap, mind wandering as her shoulders slouched forward. It may be a small distraction to her problems, but they were problems she simply couldn't deal with right now.

It wasn't until she heard the lack of footsteps behind her that Weiss's attention broke away from the landscape. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched with confusion as a young woman with black hair settled her arms onto the wall beside her, not even registering the heiress's presence.

The snow-haired faunus's brows furrowed.

Who's this? Why'd she stop next to me?

As the other girl said nothing, her gaze returned to the riverfront, only to nearly jump out of her skin as the brunette spoke up.

"Not many people stop and admire the river. I never understood why; after all, it's so calming." She hummed. "You seem like the type of person that doesn't just take everything that life offers to you; you act skeptical, as though the beauty of this scene has more to it than just the aesthetics."

Weiss's nails scratched across the fabric of her skirt scrunching up in her lap. This girl was being very rude, intruding on her privacy and just asking questions without introducing herself, as though they were already acquainted. She stole another look at the woman, taking a second to note the black bow wrapped neatly atop her head, barely rattled by the wind.

Amber eyes flicked into view. "What's wrong?"

Surprise crossed the heiress's face, only to be replaced by a glower. "Well, a person I've never met is trying to dispense her wisdom on me and yet she hasn't even bothered giving an introduction."

The black-haired girl didn't break her gaze but moved her hands to pull at the ribbons wrapped around her wrists. "But if I did tell you my name, how would you know I wasn't lying?"

"Because then, I would know you were at least trying to be nice." The polar faunus growled, her ears twitching with agitation as she looked away.

"Blake."

"Huh?"

As Weiss turned back, she came upon the sight with the other girl, who was now smiling lightly.

"My name. It's Blake. Yours?"

The heiress blinked, shifting her eyes around as though she was being tricked yet finding nothing out of place.

"W-Weiss."

"Mmmm. That's a nice name."

A few more seconds passed. The white-haired girl returned her gaze to the sky.

"So, what do you want from me?"

The other girl tilted her head, eyes questioning. "What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious? No human would want to talk to a faunus unless it was something important." She muttered, tone not hiding her apathy of the situation.

Blake opened her mouth, as though she was about to say something, only to close it again. Her next words came out in a more hushed tone.

"You… seemed a little upset about something. I wanted to see if I could do something about it."

"Well, your attempts at small talk isn't making me feel better." Silvery locks danced as the heiress shook her head. "It's not something that you should concern yourself with, anyway."

Another hum. "Well, I doubt that I could give any real advice on a situation I'm not involved in, but perhaps I coul-"

"What is your problem?!" The shock that emerged on the brunette's face was unconstrained, evidently startled by the sudden change in tone from the quiet woman she'd been talking with just a second ago, her face having turned slightly red to match the frustration in her voice. "This shouldn't matter to you! It's something I have to deal with and nothing you say to me is going to fix it!"

"I…"

"I didn't come here to chat with some random passerby that doesn't know how to properly introduce herself and yet thinks that they know who I am, as if I'm just another collective datapoint of my species, to be treated like I can't amount to anything substantial and need to be carried to the finish line!"

She pulled her legs up to her chest, biting her lip and pressing her forehead to her knees.

"Everyone tells me I'm not good enough, just because I'm a faunus. But it still wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't for my family… even my sister still treats me like a helpless cub…"

Blue eyes squeezed shut.

"This is the only place I feel comfortable, so just let me be."

There was a moment of utter silence.

"Pfff-hahaha!"

The noise took Weiss's full attention, her head swinging around in disbelief as she stared at the brunette, who was covering her mouth and failing to muffle her giggling. Scowling at the sight, the heiress huffed and turned away, trying her best to ignore the other girl as a hand came down on her shoulder.

"Weiss, that doesn't sound like a very wise thing to do. People don't get better by locking away their hearts and never opening up their issues to anyone, especially if they are problems that that person feels are holding them back."

The heiress didn't give a reply.

"You seem to think that nobody will ever understand what you've been through. Maybe that is true; it's an experience that only you have ever known, after all. Yet, you'll never know if things will get better if you don't take risks and reach out to others. If you just stay in one spot-"

"So, what?" The white-haired faunus cut her off, the brunette fixing a confused look at her. "It's not like I'd even know where to start looking."

There was a pull on her shoulder and she turned to see yet another warm smile from Blake.

"How about this? Since we both love this view so much, we can meet up here every day around…" She took out her scroll.

Weiss's head came up at this, eyeing the large logo on the holographic screen.

That's…

That's the same school that I go to…

"It's 5pm right now, so we could keep it like that. Every day here, before sunset, we could sit together and just talk. It doesn't even have to be about things you're sulking about; we could just discuss what we like and such. Sound good?"

"…okay." Before she'd realized, the word left Weiss's mouth. With a breath of shock, her arms suddenly came up, flailing wildly as though she was trying to reverse her answer, only for her thoughts to be caught by the shine in her new companion's eyes.

There was something in them, something she didn't think she'd ever seen before, yet her mind wasn't willing to call it the genuine care that it had been constantly hoping to one day find.

Or maybe I just don't want to admit that she may be right…

"I'll… I'll… think about it."

Relief poured across Blake's face, before her smile morphed into a cheeky smirk.

"Good. I'll be here, even if you don't come, so hopefully that guilt will inspire you to meet up anyway."

As the brunette walked off, her form beginning to fade away into the distance, Weiss turned back to the view before bringing up a hand to block the rays of sun that fell upon her.

Strange, I thought it was supposed to be cloudy for the rest of the day…

Her eyes fluttered shut, shaking her head before letting out a small scoff, only betrayed by the tugging of her lips upward.

Well, I suppose all clouds disappear eventually…

I'll leave it up to you guys to decide whether Blake is a human or a Faunus here.

Again, I hope you guys enjoyed! My next fic should start at some point before the end of the year, though with the amount of time it'll take to research the subject and considering the busy-ness of my upcoming schedule, I don't have a definitive date in mind; for all I know, I might just buff out the first chapter by the end of this month or delay it until after Christmas. As I've said before, however, I WILL have a Halloween fic for the end of October, so you can be certain that I'll have at least one fic out by then.