Intuitive Hearts

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life, by altering his attitude. –William James

Was it bad habit or monotony? At this point, were either of those things truly any different? Likely not, but if they were, she'd never be able to find the distinction.

The third sink on the left side had a broken faucet. She was told this as a first year by an upperclassmen and she had taken the warning to heart. Continuing to pass the information along as the years went by. Some people might have complained that there was no way to summon hot water from the squeaky stainless steel, but Pyrrha didn't care.

She splashed the cold fluid over her face, time, and time again. Day in and day out. An old, well-practiced routine. Everything was that way.

From the weekly phone call home to her parents every Sunday night, to the groggy early mornings in the five days that followed. Life as a student had grown dull, lacking the same sense of adventure it used to have. Going into Vale on a lazy Saturday was such a rare thing, she'd forgotten what take-out tasted like. Huntsmen were made of more than their expertise in battle, and Beacon was putting them to the final test.

A match of endurance and willpower.

Having a deep wealth of geographic and political knowledge were requirements too. Maps were beat into them by memorization. Debates on world issues staged over and over, relentlessly pounding information into their heads. Combat drills had taken a sharp lurch towards utilitarian, weeding out true warriors from the mere hobbyists. The matches didn't follow the rulebook anymore, the fights were bloody, the risks entirely real. Teamwork came at a premium. Long sleepless nights whittled down the last scraps of faith that the students clung onto.

When Pyrrha entered Beacon as a first year student, she joined with over two-hundred fellow students, gathered together from all across Remnant. As a Beacon fourth year, one month away from graduation, she stood among a chosen few. In her grade, there were eight teams, thirty-two students remaining. The rest of the teams had either dropped out or were forcibly being held back a grade. Students could not graduate without their team.

That was the rule of Beacon.

Wet palms braced against the white porcelain as she sighed deeply, mind thick and heavy with exhaustion. On her left, a manila envelope held all of the possibilities for her future. Recruitment advertisements for Ironwood's prestigious military, job offerings, long term mission assignments. It all coagulated in her brain like mush.

Atop it all, a handwritten letter by Ozpin himself. The headmaster invited her to personally become a huntress under his command. None of the others in JNPR received such a letter, and so Pyrrha knew she was going to have to turn down the position. It was the right thing to do.

"You got one too?" Ruby said softly as she cracked the silence in the morning as gently as she could.

"I did," Pyrrha murmured. "I was the only one JNPR who did."

"Same for me," Ruby paused thoughtfully, her gaze darkening for a moment before she spoke again. "Then again, Weiss might have gotten one. She wouldn't open the packet in front of us, so I don't know for sure."

Pyrrha wished she had something constrictive to say to that. Sadly, only comforting statements made out of desperation came to mind. Ruby deserved better than that. With great difficulty, she settled for acknowledging the truth. "Receiving a letter from the headmaster is a great honor. Probably the highest a Beacon student can hope for, but Weiss has other goals. If she plans to go back to Atlas, her only choice would be to respectfully decline."

"Yeah, I'm not looking forward to seeing her go. I know we always have a scrolls and she's only a flight away, but it feels so... final somehow."

"Yes, well, a lot of things feel that way these days."

"What do you plan to do?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know, Ruby," Pyrrha said with a shake of her head. "To be honest, I doubt any of us really expected to make it this far. My license is going to be valuable anywhere. Taking that into consideration, I suppose the reasonable thing to do would be to go home."

"I kind of get the feeling you don't want to…" Ruby trailed off.

Pyrrha swallowed hard, green eyes lifting to the mirror, seeing her own exhaustion once more. She hated the grueling regime that the teachers had insisted upon, but she dreaded the end of that regime even more. "Life at Beacon has made me complacent. We've been students so long that being here is a comfort I'm loathe to part with. I know that's just childishness, but that's the way I feel, all the same."

"Then talk to the headmaster so that you can stay here."

"Without my team with me, that's no good either," Pyrrha murmured. "I came here strictly to become a huntress. If I wasn't prepared for the difficulty of this path, I shouldn't have come."

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that. Graduating from Beacon is what we wanted. We're all probably just a little sad because we don't know what's going to come next. It'll be okay though, we'll learn to get over that sooner or later." Ruby said with a shrug. "See you in class?"

"Indeed," Pyrrha agreed, her false smile weak in the face of such brutal honesty. Then again, she couldn't expect less from Ruby Rose.

Maybe she was just tired. Overthinking things. Hesitant to let go of the life she learned to love. Sad that the bygone days of shared foolishness was slipping away along with it, as one might expect. It could have been the laundry list of disappointments, both in herself and her team, knowing that they all had their separate lives to lead. That they were willing to do so. No matter what the reason was, she knew she was tired. They all were.

Ruby was right. Although they shared this same particular adversity, there was nothing else to do but trudge on and move forward.

It was what she had always wanted. Ruby had known it wouldn't come easily, but the time was fast approaching. Her future sitting in front of her, plain as day, because her efforts put her there.

But, was it worth it? Was anything that justifiable? Was this?

This was the dream she held near and dear to her heart. She would become a huntress, just like her mom used to be. As a small child she had chattered that phrase incessantly. The foggiest recesses of her recollection clung to stories that she had adamantly shoved in her big sister's face. Demanding to be read to and concocting stories of her own. Now that she was older and wiser, though, she wondered how foolish she sounded back then.

Huntresses were always the heroes in her books, but being a hero wasn't so clearly defined. It wasn't about the big things, it was about the indiscriminate tiny ones…things anyone could do, but that most people didn't.

Her uncle Qrow used to chuckle to himself and pat her on the head when she said bold words. Ruby wondered if he would do the same if he could see her now. Jaune was knocked out cold. The slice from his shoulder to his chest oozed red. It wasn't the first time she'd nicked a friend in the ring. First blood was the rule now. Draining the aura meant nothing anymore. If you couldn't kill your opponents, you were too soft. You'd forfeit the victory. As fellow classmates they held back on the final blow, but the answer was clear.

If this match had been a real fight to the death, Jaune would have been dead.

She could hear Goodwitch declaring her the victor, but she was too focused on Jaune. Helping to pick him up off the floor as he blearily opened his eyes in dizzy delirium. She helped to hand him off to the members of JNPR, watching as they took him to the infirmary.

"Nice fight, sis." Yang said, patting Ruby none too gently.

"No, it wasn't." Ruby replied critically. She was sure she was sloppy. "It was too close of a match, actually." Jaune had a strong aura, a lot of it, and now that he knew how to use it, he was no slouch in the ring. It had been a close fight because her aura was not at the same level as his. "I can't afford to let my aura deplete so much next time...it was reckless."

"Don't you think you're being a little too hard on yourself?" Yang asked then with an upraised eyebrow. "I mean, I know that being ranked in the top ten is important to you, but it's not like you're going to lose it now."

"You say that, but you're fifteen in the ranking, Yang. You need to work harder too." Ruby replied, feeling the ache in her bones. "We all do…"

"Ruby, we're good. We made it, it's just a matter of time now. We kicked ass this year as a team and as individuals." Yang told her. "You can relax a little."

"We're so close! Don't risk dropping lower now, it's the final stretch."

"I'm not saying that I'm going to get lazy all of a sudden, just that I'm going to ease up a little and that you should too." Yang laughed. "Besides, I'm okay with being ranked number fifteen. It's a totally solid number. I can go out there with my head held high…hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just tired." She nodded as they walked back to the locker room so that she could change back into her school uniform and put her scythe away. "I keep wondering if I should go talk to the headmaster or not. I haven't been sleeping well because it's a big decision, and I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do."

"Well, stop stressing so much about it and put it aside for now," Yang said shaking her head. "Figure stuff like that out later. That's why we got all of that crap a whole month early. You've got the time, so use it…after you get changed, let's hit up some grub. Weiss and Blake are saving us some seats."

"Actually, I want to go see Jaune and apologize." Ruby told her. "I know he's going to laugh it off. We always do when one of us gets hurt, but he's still my friend and I feel bad about hurting him."

"You want me to tag along?" Yang asked.

Ruby hesitated to answer as she changed, her mind still stuck in the heat of battle. There was nothing fun about it, no friendliness in the rivalry anymore. It bothered her to strike one of her best friends. She'd hesitated several times, and Jaune did too. It had been a mess.

"No," She said slowly. "If you want, though, could you maybe swing by after you eat? Get some decent stuff from the cafeteria, and bring it to him? I bet that'd make Jaune happy."

"Yeah, no kidding, infirmary food sucks."

"Thanks, Yang."

The door opened and slammed shut behind her older sister, the locker room now eerily quiet. There were students in the halls, a low roar of mingled voices as they passed from one class to another. Ruby took a breath. Yang might have had a point. Ruby could see her own cynicism. Training made her that way now, and it was what she hated the most.

It wasn't the first time she overreacted or blew things completely out of proportion…but with the magic and adventure ripped entirely out of the training, distilled down to its most simple components, what was left bothered her.

Here she was, Ruby Rose, daughter of the deceased, deeply-loved, Summer Rose. A month away from being a certified huntress, now she knew for sure. Her mother had never been a hero, and in following those footsteps, she would never be a hero either.

Life was messy. Existence produced traces. History…namely her history, would linger here long after she was gone. Thanks to four years of living as a person instead of as a shadow, Blake Belladonna was faced with the fact that she had far too much shit just laying around.

More random possessions than she knew what to do with. Her wardrobe had doubled in size, her book collection tripled. As a person, she had made friends and alliances that would last her a lifetime. It was a humbling, frustrating thought. She had spent too long drifting by choice, that when she ended up settling down by necessity, it wasn't an easy thing to do.

Trying to live as non-entity was painful and impossible. Yet, living as a person made her heart stutter.

She had done it for years in the safety of the school. Adults that were not her parents guided her but equally stayed out of her way. She didn't need to make excuses or worry about being a total failure. She didn't risk being a letdown. She could just be herself, with no longstanding repercussions if she took a misstep along the way. Even her heritage, after a hiccup or two, was a non-issue to the team. That she had been a terrorist didn't matter.

Not to the professors, who obviously knew, and not to the three women who might as well have been family. Yang protected her, Weiss challenged her, and Ruby relied on her.

It was naive, perhaps, to expect that sort of safety to last forever. Wrapping herself in it like a blanket, comforting herself many times with the little white lies her lonely soul had produced in the face of warmth. That she didn't need the White Fang, or her parents, because she had her team. It was the easy thing to do, the coward's way out. Her little black bow was now merely replaced with a new kind of hiding. A hiding that, in reflection, wasn't any different from what she had always done.

Immobilized and trembling in the shadows. Waiting for the big, scary, bad thing at the time to simply go away again. It was just that, instead of a shadow, it was a teammate. Courage offered to her on a silver platter all for the taking, when she herself had none.

"What in the hell is this?" Blake asked to no one in particular, though Weiss was also in the room sorting her belongings as well.

"It appears to be a fossilized doughnut…" Weiss said dryly. "Likely of the glazed variety."

"Great…" Blake deadpanned, now dreading what else she might find stuck under her bed. "Because there isn't enough shoved into every crevice, there has to be crap like this too."

"As if Ruby's any better." Weiss replied. "I already shared a similar discussion with her about an apple core."

Golden eyes rolled. "I'm surprised we didn't end up with ants," Blake said, sticking her hand underneath the bed and into the clump of scattered belongings. A few sets of shoes, a pair of hip hugger jeans and a scuffed up white box saw the light of day once more. "Every year, we end up finding things that just have no excuse being there, and every year, without fail, something is under my bed decomposed."

"Indeed."

"I knew I should have taken the top bunk this year...make Yang clean this out for once."

"Trust me, this is the lesser of two evils. I don't particularly enjoy cleaning up after Ruby, but I know firsthand, it could be worse."

"I don't see how." Blake gritted, holding up one of Yang's gym socks. It had likely gone unwashed for months. The odor of dry and musty sweat was faded, but sickening.

"Nosey maids have a tendencies to tidy everything, including the things I order them to stay away from." Weiss replied, acid dripping from her tone. "They're like honeybees, always with an agenda."

"If they bother you that much, get of a few of them to buzz under the bed. If the stench doesn't kill them, Yang's cluster of unmentionables should at least horrify them."

"That's assuming your pornographic collection doesn't do so first."

"I keep telling you, it's not porn."

"Fine, call it erotica. It doesn't change the fact that there's enough sex to make a brothel look like a church." Weiss cut her off as the scroll on the desk buzzed. "It never ends." She sighed to herself before grasping the object of her annoyance. "I have to take this, I'll be up on the roof if anyone needs me."

Blake smiled as she shook her head in spite of it all, finally getting around to looking in the white box made for jewelry. The first bow she'd ever bought with the intent to hide herself rested inside. It was tattered now, old, worn out, and abused from just one too many fights. Even though it was completely unwearable, she was hesitant to part with it. She had purchased new bows over the years, worn them out of comfort and habit than anything else.

The people that mattered knew she was a Faunus, the rest of the world wasn't her concern.

It wasn't that she hid, but that there was no reason to reach out to strangers. She had done what many assumed would never happen. She had befriended a Schnee, and Weiss treated her as an equal. If that wasn't gratifying and meaningful in its own way, Blake didn't know what was. Weiss was proof that the bow wasn't something Blake needed to continue to wear, that times were slowly changing.

Still, though, just because she didn't completely need it, didn't mean she had to give it up, either.

"Father, I…Yes I understand…I know exactly what my priorities should be and I…..." Weiss sighed at length. "No. I was not made aware by anyone that he had a girlfriend. I don't understand how that applies to me…Perhaps for some women that is a valid concern, but I don't share it…Gender doesn't mean everything…That's simply nearsighted…Of course not! I'm not planning on becoming some sort of spinster…It is ridiculous!…If I had wanted to join the military like my elder sister, I would have stayed in Atlas…I don't deny that I've been difficult, however, I have been focused on my studies as I should be…Yes, I will."

Weiss hung up the call with little more than a murmured curse. With an agitated sigh, she dialed a number she rarely put to use. Memorized by force, not by desire. After three rings, they picked up.

"I don't pretend to think for an instant that you're an innocent young man, Whitley. However, I never assumed you to be a shame to our bloodline," Weiss hissed between gritted teeth. "Just what in the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I haven't the slightest clue about what you're talking about," a smooth voice replied, boyish and cunning, a troublesome, knowing tone in his voice. "I've been maintaining my studies here in Atlas. Preparing myself to help aid you in running the company after my graduation in a few short years. It was what our father intended after all."

"You've been sleeping around," Weiss replied.

"You have no proof of that claim."

"I don't require any, I'm not stupid. You think just because I'm away at school that I'm a complete and total stranger to you?"

"Oh, my dear sister, I never said that."

"Father's elated by the way, that you have so many girls interested in your affection...can't imagine why he would be," she noted sarcastically.

"Is he now? I wasn't aware."

"Oh, don't be obnoxious," Weiss shot back. "Whitley, I know how you think. You're the third child. The only chance you have of getting the company away from me is to offer up something that I don't presently have. You're taking the route of progeny, because as a man, you can get away with sleeping around." She sighed, long and slow. Winter would have a field day with this one, if she managed to hear of it. "Trust me, this is not the path you want to take."

"How can you be so sure of what I want, Weiss?" the young man asked. "I'm entitled to my own desires, aren't I?"

"I know you seem to think the world of our father, but he's not a good man…dancing to his tune might earn you the company, but you'll also be planted firmly under his thumb. You don't want that, no one should."

"Then why do you seem so interested, Weiss? Why be, as you say, planted under his thumb, if you don't want that?" Whitley mused thoughtfully. "I'm perfectly capable of undertaking the task, if you're so obviously opposed."

"I've trained for this!" Weiss shot back. "I've worked hard to be in this position, and you have no idea the sort of game you're playing at. If you had decided to travel abroad, I might think you were more prepared to understand the sort of man our father is…the problem is, you haven't, and you'll end up brainwashed if you keep this up."

"Weiss, I don't doubt you have the best of intentions. You've always been a well-meaning person, so let me offer you some sage advice," Whitley replied simply, as if he wasn't threatening his older sister. "Stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours. To the victor, go the spoils. Play fair now, big sister."

"Damn it, Whitley, you don't under-" The line had already cut off. Her infuriating little brother was biting off more than he could chew. "What an idiot…"

Home was another four letter word for hell. It sounded more friendly and inviting, but that was just semantic thinking. A turn of phrase, pretty dressings for the scars beneath it. Rooms were cells, inheritance shackles. They rattled every time her father spoke. Warmth was an inferno, a promise to be burned with every smile. Family was fate…linear and inescapable, because like it or not, she had a job to do.

She'd made promises that held weight, both to herself, and the people that mattered, and she would always keep her word. Even when that word guaranteed her own discomfort, she knew she had to try.

There was nothing left for her in the cold northern wasteland that Atlas prided itself on. There was nothing honorable about her intentions. It was as much about spite as it was personal duty, and Weiss was wise enough to know that. Going home - if she could really call the place such a well-intentioned word - was the plan she'd had from the start.

It was vicious, but no less so than her predecessors, poised for equal greatness. After all, that was the plight of a Schnee…Biting her lip, she decided to call their big sister. Maybe Winter could sort their baby brother out.

AYangThang: Hello everyone, welcome to the newest project to see the light of day. It's been brewing for quite some time, and unlike the other works on this profile, this one has the gift of actually having a Beta. That being said, I want to give a huge thank you to Dongyrn for suffering through all of the edits, and helping me to build the bedrock of this story. Speaking of, if you haven't seen her new crossover fiction featuring the RWBY characters in the Star Wars universe, go check out RWBY Star Wars: Prophecy over on her profile, it's a good read.