Shattered Masks and Moonlight
If there ever had been one thing to calm her whenever a situation got too out of hand, it would have been the quiet hours of the night and the view of the starry sky and the softly illuminated silhouette of the nearby city. It was a magical view with all the small lights up in the sky and the warm crown of lights around the city, which always succeeded to take her mind off of the depressing thoughts it produced, no matter how bad her day had been initially.
But not today. Today had been way worse than every other day in the recent months. She was used to having to be perfect permanently, twenty-for hours a day, but during the time she had spent at the academy already her mask of perfection had begun to crack –mainly due to her lovable dolt of a leader who accepted her for who she truly was, without all her titles, obligations and masks and all her grave shortcomings regarding her skill on interhuman interactions –there had to be a reason why Yang had once called her socially unintelligent, right? After all, she grew up wearing this mask of constant perfection and taking it off to finally be herself, it was simply unthinkable.
This mask was her armour against him and his unachievable standards, against the wolves in expensive designer clothing of the court –one wrong move could end her name amongst them- but before anything else, the mask protected her against herself. To let the world see all her imperfections, the flawed human being she obviously was, she simply could not allow that to happen. Mistakes meant weakness and he could smell weakness like a trained bloodhound. An icy chill ran down her spine in remembrance of the last time he detected her weakness. Her body pulsated painfully where the bruises had been.
Pulling up the hood of her hoodie she sank even deeper into all the painful memories of repressed signs of a human being. Such casual wear was not really her style but she could not deny the indubitable comfort the piece of clothing provided, plus it helped to cover up her arms. Truly, it was a mystery to her why her teammates were still clueless as to what turned her out of the dorm room on nights like this. Maybe it was due to her current hiding spot. Not many of the students even knew about its existence and even fewer ever set foot here. The small windowsill on the highest level of the furthest back department of the library was indeed a very hidden spot, her personal fort of solitude, her place of inner freedom. No camera followed her every move, no journalist bombarded her with questions, no eyes starred down on her dismissively and no friends –if she was able to call her team and her local acquaintances by that label- who wanted to stop her from what she was doing every night in which the suffocating pressure of perfection and loneliness became just too much to bear could get to her here. She hated herself for collapsing under the pressure, hated it, that her only form of temporary relief left behind nasty scars, which constantly reminded her of her masked imperfections on a daily basis. Just like her scar on her left eye was a grim reminder of her own failure.
"So, this is where you run off to." Yang. Panic arose in her. How did she manage to find her? Where the others here as well? Did she see what she-
"Almost didn't recognize you. Actually, pretty funny to see you being so … blue, y'know? Without wanting to overstep your boundaries but-"
"Yang?" her voice was barely a whisper so the addressed blonde almost blabbered over her in her gushing. "Yes, Weiss?" "Could you please leave me alone and not tell the others where I am? Thank you."
Yang remained exactly where she had been standing before, the entrance to Weiss' small aisle, and put her forefinger pensively on her chin. "Hmm, nope. I for sure would leave my teammate mulling over her dark cloud of negativity, especially so, if there are bloodstains and empty packagings for bandages lying around!" Her sarcasm was strong with that one, it was downright dripping from every word. Weiss flinched. Yang's voice had slowly turned into a loud shout and echoed form the high ceilings of the library. Pulling her legs further towards her body she shrank even further into herself. She absolutely despised loud voices. Loud voices meant that he was close by to "reprimand" her again.
"Please, Yang, just go away, okay?" The small quiver in her voice did not go unnoticed however as Yang slowly moved closer towards the heiress. Her mask was cracking even more and she knew, if Yang remained around her any longer, it surely would collapse and she simply could not allow for that to happen. She had to be perfect, a statue of ice, smoother than glass, fair and beautiful to look at but as bitter cold as a brumal, snowy night, so no one would dare venture close to her. Solitude was good. She could not hurt anyone whilst being alone and no one could hurt her, so why could Yang not understand this simple piece of logic?
To claim she had been surprised at the warm hands softly wiping her tears away –when had she even begun to cry?- it would have been a flagrant understatement. "Y'now, whatever's troubling you, we're all here for you, even if you don't wanna hear this right now. We're here and no matter how hard you push us away, we and I won't budge. We won't leave you alone." Her voice was the last soft blow which shattered Weiss' mask into tiny pieces and the soft hug, which was surprisingly soft considering Yang as the hugger, was the rescuing light which saved her from her imminent fall into the pitch-black pits of her mental hell.
The soft light of the moon shone down upon the two girls, one broken by the harsh reality of life itself and the other her rescuing anchor in the world of madness she lived in. "Sh… It's alright." Yang traced calming circles on the heiress' back whilst said heiress sobbed quietly into her shoulder. After what felt like hours Weiss looked up only to be met with concerned lavender eyes staring back at her.
"What do ya think about heading back to the dorm? 'Cause I dunno about you but I am hella tired," and as if the universe wanted to prove Yang's point, the blonde let out a heart-felt yawn. Weiss was unable to supress the light chuckle working its way up her throat. Maybe with people like Yang around, she could leave the tiny pieces of her shattered mask where they were and never had to wear it again. Maybe with people live Ruby and Blake around, she could finally show the world her true self. Maybe with team JNPR around, she would be finally accepted for who she truly was.
The hallways of Beacon were illuminated by the soft glow of the moon when two girls ventured through them, one with a confident grin and the other with uncertain tears hidden within her eyes. "Are you ready? Just so you know… we all went out to look for you, so Ruby's quite… You'll see." The expression of pure concern, clearly visible in those lavender orbs, almost shook Weiss up again. She truly did not know why anyone would ever be concerned for her, after all she was the resident mythic bitch of her whole year and kindness had never been a part of her mask at any point in time. With a short, appreciative nod Weiss opened the door to their dorm, only to be buried in a suffocating hug and a mountain of rose pedals. "Weiss! Where have you been?! We were worried sick about you! What did you do? Why-" "Ruby?" the calm voice of Blake cut their hyperactive leader off, "I think you are choking her." This observation was quite adequate, if the sudden blue nuance to the heiress' already pale complexion was anything to go by. The blonde brawler had to literally pry Ruby off of the formerly missed teammate. "But I have to agree with her, you sacred us quite a lot, Weis," Blake whispered into Weiss' ear as she hugged her carefully.
But now something happened that left the whole of team RWBY in utter shock and would have earned Weiss the beating of a lifetime if he ever found out about it, the on so perfect heiress apologized. This whole day was just too much for her to take. "I am s-so sorry," she uttered with a small quiver and barely suppressed the fresh tears wanting to run down her cheeks, she was so far out of her element this evening. "Weiss! Are you- Is everything alright?" Concern appeared to be an inheritable emotion as the two sisters had nothing but pure worry written across their faces, sometimes it was almost uncanny just how much those two could be alike but a short nod quickly soothed the worrywarts. "How about we go to sleep? I think we all had a rather… eventful day." The small appreciative smile Weiss sent Blake's way was returned and even before Ruby could give the signal Weiss had already passed out on her bed next to Zwei, making her teammates look at her quizzically.
"Well, I guess even the Ice Queen can be bone-tired." "Yang, I swear to God, I am going to hit you," the resident faunus threateningly proclaimed. "Aww, come on grumpy cat, you have as much of a chance as a wax cat in hell!" The most awful pun to ever leave Yang's mouth only caused her two remaining teammates to throw two very well aimed pillows to her face. Who said you needed night vision to hit a blabbering target?