I meant it when I said it. Back to the hopefully weekly Monday schedule, and this time I actually gave the story a fair amount of thought instead of just jumping in chapter by chapter like I did before. Enjoy!
The Midnight Rose was the village's only tavern, a relatively small corner house whose bottom floor had been converted into a bar and all the living space from the bottom floor had been moved to the top. It was run by Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long and their father, Taiyang Xiao Long. The place was originally owned by Ruby's mother, Summer Rose, hence using her name in the title of the pub. It was exclusively family run and offered the friendliest and homeliest place in the entire village to catch up, hang out, or just have a good time. Some people might have even gone as far as to call it a gastropub, as they served a fair few dishes just in case anyone wanted a nice family day out, or wanted to try and eat through a hangover they had got at the very same pub. The village which held The Midnight Rose was a quaint place, the sort of place that was safe from Grimm attacks most of the time because the only thing to feel negative about was when the pub was shut. And that only happened when there was a beer shortage, as The Midnight Rose was such a community-spirited place that running it was more stress relieving than stressful. The village was on a couple maps, but only the expensive ones that had every minor landmark. It was signposted, but the sign had nearly fallen down and barely anyone came visiting anyway. The only regular visitors were the traders that brought the food they couldn't grow and the spirits they couldn't brew. The village had become entirely self-sufficient at one point, but eventually people got bored of the same food and drink, so they enquired to some passers by about including their village on the local trade routes and started bringing in all the top shelf items; rare meats, exotic fruits and vegetables and high end wines and whiskeys. People from the big cities never got to experience the strength of a small and tight community, peaking at just over a hundred people. Everybody knew each other and that kept them all happy enough, and all safe from the impending Grimm. At least as safe you could get, as no matter how happy you kept everyone, the odd patrolling Beowolf could quickly escalate to a devastating attack. However, no matter what, the village always bounced back up, not letting the defeat bring them down. After all, they had survived this long outside of the kingdoms by staying resilient, so why stop when the need for resilience was at its highest? The interior of The Midnight Rose was a long shot from the shoddy interior you would come to expect from a small village in the middle of nowhere. There were the standard tables in the centre of the room, which had a capacity of about sixty people in total, able to hold just over half of the population in one go, but that didn't stop more from squeezing in and standing around and leaning against the walls. The tabletops were constantly clean, either because the people there tried to keep tidy out of respect, or more likely the half sisters that ran the place just made damn good barmaids. The back half of the bottom floor had been converted into a kitchen used to cook the meals and the Xiao Long-Roses used it to cook their food too. The top floor was just their bedrooms, a living room and an office that had patio doors that opened to a balcony that looked over most of the village. No matter where you looked downstairs, it was always spotlessly clean. There was a small stage on the west side wall used for live performances, but when there was nothing scheduled they set up tables on the stage to account for the usual overcrowding. The evident popularity of the pub was a blessing and a curse; it brought enough business to keep the family comfortably in the green, but also meant that most of the time customers were left to stand around with their drinks. Not that they seemed to mind, however. They seemed perfectly content as long as they were some sort of intoxicated. This was the lifestyle of the Xiao Long Rose household – get up, run the tavern, sleep and repeat. It didn't seem mundane by any stretch, as every day spent with family was a blessing in their eyes, but when a woman dressed in a white dress walked through the tavern doors, she certainly mixed up the atmosphere and caught Ruby's eyes instantly. She was definitely not from around here. The fancy dress was enough of a giveaway, but Ruby knew everyone in the village by face and this girl was completely new.
As she walked through the crowd, she carved a path of people staring and ogling her, either just as entranced by her beauty as Ruby was, or they were offended by her offhanded looks and evident poshness. Whatever it was, Ruby was completely taken aback by this mysterious and beautiful woman, so much so that when she came over and asked for some top shelf white wine, Yang had to tap her on the shoulder to snap her out of her daydream. "Oh! Sorry miss, I was a world away." Ruby said, hoping that she wouldn't give a bad first impression straight off the bat.
"Yes. I noticed. As I said, I'll have your highest quality of white wine." The mystery girl requested, clearly a tad bit irritated at the need to repeat herself. Ruby only hoped she would stick around for a while longer so that she could turn her opinion around.
Ruby nodded in approval and turned to grab some of their import only, decades old wine, not thinking about the fact that wine was usually saved for functions only and that everyone else in the building was just drinking standard on-tap beer. She turned back and asked, "This okay for you?" The woman hummed in approval and Ruby reached for the corkscrew under the counter. As she brought it up and started to uncork the fine wine, she decided it best to start up some conversation to 'get the sparks flying', as Yang would always say as she teased her younger sister whenever a nice lad started talking over the counter to her. Ruby had made it pretty clear she was into girls, and Yang knew and respected that, but nothing on all of Remnant could stop her from teasing her baby sis. "So, what brings a proper woman like you to a small common village like this one?"
The woman looked up from admiring her fingernails and looked as if she was considering whether it was even worth it to talk to a barmaid from an insignificant village. "Well, if you're that curious, I'm running."
Ruby poured the wine into a fancy wine glass and placed the wine bottle on the counter, before pausing and realising what she just said. "Running? From what?" Ruby tried to stop herself from being too imposing, but the words just slipped right out of her mouth.
The mystery woman placed a hand round the wine glass, gripping it with what seemed like no effort at all. "That," she took a sip of the wine, tasted it for a moment, then cocked her head as if to say, 'not bad'. She placed the glass back on the counter and continued speaking, "is none of your business, barmaid."
Ruby looked mortified; she really had over imposed, and now she had no doubt left a bad impression. She scrambled to find the words to apologise, "Oh, I'm so sorry, miss! I didn't mean to over impo-"
"I don't believe I caught your name." The woman interrupted. Ruby didn't know whether or not to be relieved that she hadn't annoyed the woman or scared by the fact that this could mean she was going to have her assassinated. She certainly looked like she'd have the power.
"I- It's Ruby, miss. Ruby Rose."
"Oh, so this is your establishment, then?"
"Er- No miss, it was my mum's, but she passed away when I was just little, so it went to my dad." Ruby never really talked about this stuff, as The Midnight Rose's history was just widespread knowledge among the community at this point.
"Schnee. Miss Schnee. Miss Weiss Schnee. You can stop calling me 'miss' now, I think you'll find that my name suits me more. And I apologise for the loss of your mother."
"O- Oh, thank you mi- wait. You're a Schnee!?" Ruby nearly shouted out, as she never expected to find a Schnee of all people here in her family's quaint little corner pub. The Schnee's owned the largest dust company in all of Remnant, making millions – maybe even billions – of lien per year. They were the richest family on the planet, without a doubt. And here was the heiress to the whole company, in her village, sat in her tavern, drinking her wine. The whole thing was almost too good to be true.
"I am indeed the heiress to the SDC; although I would appreciate if you didn't tell that to the whole room, Rose." It caught her off guard to hear the Weiss Schnee use her name in conversation. "And thank you for the wine." She sat up and straightened her dress. "Now I have to find somewhere to stay."
"Miss Schnee," Ruby piped up, "the building opposite this one is the only inn in town, and its always empty, so you'll get in just fine. Also, if you don't mind me saying, you might want to find a change of clothes. That dress – as nice as it is, and believe me it is stunning, - makes you stand out a fair bit." Ruby thought that she could at least offer some advice, as it may get her onto better terms with the Schnee. However, she also prayed she didn't overstep her boundary, as once she had annoyed the woman it was unlikely she would get another chance at redemption.
"Thanks for the help, Rose." She turned away and flicked her hair over her shoulder, making Ruby's heart skip a beat. It was like the room stood completely still as she admired the out of place Schnee heiress. She'd also be lying if she said she didn't catch a glimpse of her rear as she was walking away. The moment the woman had left the building, Yang appeared over Ruby's shoulder, simultaneously comforting her and startling her. As soon as she saw the expression on Yang's face, she knew exactly what was coming next.
"Was that our most expensive wine?"
Okay, that was not what she was expecting. "Yeah."
"And did she just drink it and then walk out?"
"Yeah."
"Without paying?"
"…"
"Ruby?"
"…Yeaaaahhh."
"She might be the ice queen, but you were sure warming up to her, eh Rubes? The Schnee charm really did a number on you. Enough to get a free drink, no less! Speaking of numbers, did you get hers?" This was what she was expecting in the first place. Nothing Ruby could have done would've completely voided the humiliation that was brought on by Yang's barrage of teases. There was no hope of her surviving the night.
Ruby fired back with, "Shut up, sis. We all know you and the chef are getting pretty cosy with each other." With this, Yang's face turned bright red and she turned to walk away from the situation. She walked straight past a customer and into the kitchen, where the chef was preparing a smoked salmon dish for a couple who had taken a stage table. Ruby followed after Yang, also completely ignoring the same customer. As she walked in, she saw the chef dividing up the fish, and almost felt bad for her, having to work in red-hot conditions in a red-hot kitchen. The chef was a cat faunus, but that hadn't led to any problems in the company, as none of them were racist monsters, but she had volunteered to take chef training and eventually rake the job. Everyone had assumed this was because she wanted to hide herself from the public eye, and it was probably at least half the reason. "You know, Blake, you really didn't have to take a job in the kitchen. You could easily work out in the front with us. No one would mind your cat ears, either. In fact, I know a certain blonde-haired employee that finds them veeeery attractive. She motioned her head towards Yang, winking as she did so.
"Nonsense. I realise that some people might not care about my heritage, you have no idea how much a person can change when faced with a faunus. Besides, I like being near the fish. I like to snack on them when I'm hu- I mean, what? No, I don't do… that. I can still keep the job, right?" Blake asked, nervously. Ruby just laughed her off and went back to working the counter in the front of house. The rest of the day was boring. There might have been some interesting things to happen, or gossip to listen in to, but nothing could take the place of that beautiful woman that had completely stolen Ruby's heart. Weiss Schnee. The day went by in a flash, and before she knew it, Tai had taken the front of house and the two girls were in bed, almost fast asleep. Ruby just laid there, thinking about that girl, before drifting off into unconsciousness, with nothing but the Schnee heiress in her dreams.
I would give my right arm to see Whiterose become a thing in volume 7. You think I'm joking. I'm not. Any reviews appreciated, criticism or compliment.