Weiss Schnee furrowed her brow in determination as she stared at the task in front of her. Two of the three goals she had set for herself the previous night were accomplished-getting a bunch of coffee ready to be brewed, and gathering enough ingredients to make a large enough breakfast to make even Nora shocked-and now she just had one thing left to do before everyone woke up. Something she had never tried before in her life. Baking.

Cooking was one thing, but baking was new territory for her. She had observed her families butlers and maids in the kitchen preparing their meals when she was younger, and was able to figure out enough to make food on her own. But it wasn't the act of baking itself that was daunting. It was the end result she wanted, no needed, to achieve. Weiss took a deep breath and approached the countertop as if to intimidate it. She was well aware of how foolish she must have looked and was glad it was still the crack of dawn when everyone was still asleep.

Weiss made a small noise of annoyance as she grabbed the large ceramic bowl she had been glaring at and set it down with a little too much force next to the special ingredients she gathered. "Alright, cookie stuff. Don't start any trouble, and there won't be any trouble."

She felt a little silly threatening the inanimate objects. But, she was alone and allowed herself to loosen up. Weiss took a deep breath and started adding each ingredient to the bowl. She glared at the mix as it slowly became batter. These had to be absolutely perfect. After all, the whole reason she was doing this was to bring a smile to her face. She had gone through so much getting to Mistral, and Weiss could tell the false front she was putting up was starting to crack. This was the perfect way to do something special and be the best teammate she could be. She had made a vow that first week at Beacon, and she'd be dammed if she went back on something that important. These had to be perfect.


These were not perfect. And Weiss was not happy. She didn't understand where she went wrong. The coffee came out perfect, as well as the small batch of tea she made especially for Blake. All the breakfast food she cooked looked like it popped out of a cookbook. But these things that were supposed to be cookies... She mixed everything well enough, she thought. Sure, the shapes weren't exact, but they looked close enough! Or she tried to tell herself. But how did the cookies sure tried to so lovingly make end up charred? It couldn't have been when she was fiddling with the knobs and buttons on the oven. Of course not. Weiss sighed and placed the tray of failure on top of the oven. Maybe she had enough time to throw these out and try again.

The mornings silence was broken by the familiar sound of Yang's voice. "Woah hey, what's with the banquet?"

Weiss turned around and smiled at her teammates and the remains of Team JNPR walking into the dining area of the safe house, but she made extra sure to keep herself completely in front of the oven. All she had to do was pretend she never tried baking in the first place.

"There's so much food!" Nora exclaimed, darting toward the feast. She let out a loud and over exaggerated gasp. "And so many pancakes! Ren, you really outdid yourself this time!"

Ren, who now had the hyperactive Nora clinging to one of his arms and bouncing, said in his usual quiet voice, "I didn't do this."

Weiss cleared her throat louder than she needed to and spread her arms out. "You have me to thank for this," she said with a smile, "to celebrate our victory and our reunion."

Before anyone else could say anything, Ruby jumped to the front of the group. "Oh! I smell cookies!" she said happily. She took a couple sniffs in the air then wrinkled her nose. "...Ew, burnt cookies."

Weiss made a concious effort to shift herself ever so slightly to keep the oven behind her concealed. "There... are no cookies, Ruby." she said stiffly. Weiss was good at and excelled at a lot of things. Lying was not one of them.

Ruby giggled. "Weiss, I know when there's cookies around. It's like I have a special sense for them."

"I can vouch for that," Jaune sighed, raising his hand, "back at Beacon, I had a care package sent from my sisters. I left the room for a minute and the cookies they sent were gone." He paused to send Ruby a look. "But there were rose petals everywhere."

"Hey, I said I was sorry!" Ruby pouted.

"Anyway," Weiss said, getting attention back to her, "let's all relax with some breakfast before it gets cold and-"

There was a red blur and a small flurry of rose petals and suddenly, Ruby was next to the ex-heiress. Her face lit up when she spotted what Weiss had been trying to hide with her body. "I knew it! There are cookies!" The excitement in the young leaders voice turned to confusion. "... I think?"

"Ruby, wait!" Weiss called out as she attempted to grab the tray of failure.

Ruby was just too fast, and was able to snatch up the metal tray and bring it to the table, where her friends had since taken seat. Nora said something unintelligible through a mouth full of pancakes. Ren cleared his throat and gave her a look, which she returned with a grin and swallowed her food before repeating what she had attempted to say before. "What are those? They look like fish hooks."

"Hey yeah, they do. That's a weird cookie shape," Ruby commented, picking up one that wasn't as blackened. "What's with these, Weiss?"

All eyes now rested on Weiss, whose face was rapidly going from pink to red. "Th-that's because, well, you see-" she stuttered. The young woman could face towering Grimm and sing in front of hundreds with no problem. But with all eyes from the small group on her, she was suddenly more nervous than she had ever been in her entire life. Her brain ran through dozens of excuses, but none of them sounded good enough to convince everyone at the table. Weiss conceded defeat with a sigh and a small whine. "...They're... supposed to be shaped like Crescent Rose."

Ruby blinked as she processed the information before looking back at the semi-charred cookie in her hand. She tilted and turned it before finally saying, "Oh, I see it now! Kinda."

Weiss took this opportunity to snatch back her burned cookies and put the tray behind her. "I-it's not important. Let's just all forget that happened and have our breakfast," the last words out of her mouth sounding more like a plea than anything else.

"Nuh-uh! How am I supposed to forget that?" Ruby asked. She flitted over to Weiss and pulled her into a very close hug. "Cookies shaped like my sweetheart? That's the best idea ever! You're the bestest bestie ever!"

Before Weiss knew it, Ruby had released her and made her way back to the cookies, grabbing all the least burnt ones of the tray and snacking on them, humming happily.

"W-wait! Ruby!" Weiss called out again. The leader turned to face her partner, half of a cookie sticking out of her mouth. She'd never say it out loud, but it was adorable. Weiss felt her heart skip a beat. She wanted to tell Ruby to stop, that the treats were a massive failure and she deserved unburnt perfection. But she didn't, couldn't, and was unaware of just how she looked with her cheeks and ears as red as Ruby's cape.

Then she was brought swiftly back to Remnant with a crash.

"So, where are the Ember Celica cookies?" Yang asked, leaning on the table. She locked eyes with Weiss and her lavender ones glinted knowingly. A teasing grin was plastered on her face.

Weiss froze. For whatever reason, she never expected a question like that. Yang's grin grew wider and she nudged Blake with her prosthetic. "What do you think, Blake? Isn't that weird you don't get any Gambol Shroud cookies?"

The Faunus, who had taken to making a sandwich from some toast and eggs, looked up at her partner then at Weiss. She said nothing, but nothing needed to be said. Blake was smart and had figured it out just as fast as Yang had. She simply started Weiss in the eyes and put on the smallest of smiles.

There was a couple more seconds of silence before Nora slammed her palms on the table and stood, her chair being pushed back with a loud protest. "Oh, I get it now!" she said louder than needed. She was quickly but gently pulled back down to her seat by one of Ren's hands. Nora gave him an apology and put her focus onto her now third plate of pancakes. Ren put his coffee mug to his lips, but Weiss saw the glimmer of amusement in his eyes.

"...Why is that weird, Yang?" Ruby asked innocently between cookies. She looked between her teammates and friends, but the only one who was also clueless was Jaune, who just shrugged his shoulders at her.

"I think Weiss would know the answer to that," Yang answered before leaning back in her chair, "isn't that right?"

Weiss felt like her face was on fire. And now she had Ruby's eyes innocently looking to her for the answer. She briefly made the mental comparison of her leader to a puppy. That passing thought really didn't help.

"C-can we just focus on eating breakfast before it gets cold?!" she shouted, squeezing her eyes shut.

Yang burst into laughter and only quieted to snickers with a playful tap on the shoulder from Blake. Weiss grabbed her own seat and hurriedly started making her own plate, desperate to focus on something else. Ruby took the last available chair that just so happened to be between Weiss and Jaune. Wonderful. Weiss did her best to ignore a rather loud, playful hum from Yang. That was much easier when her body shifted from Ruby's weight as she was pulled into another hug. This one gentler than the last one.

"I really like this Nice Weiss streak you got going on," she said with that trademark smile.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Can you stop calling me that? It's annoying." But her voice was soft, without a trace of irritation.

She made a split decision and reached up to hold one of Ruby's arms that rested around her upper chest. The younger girl didn't seem to mind, and Weiss briefly forgot she was surrounded my her friends and teammates as she got lost in the moment. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, enjoying her leaders warmth for as long as the hug lasted. Ruby did eventually let her go and focus on the breakfast feast before her. She was genuinely happy, and Weiss felt that, for a little bit of time, she was able to relieve Ruby's emotional burdens.

The peace was shattered once again, this time by Jaune. "Ohhhh! There's only scythe cookies because Weiss likes Ru-"

He was interrupted by a now very embarrassed Weiss, who was tempted to throw the nearest object at his face. "Let's just eat breakfast quietly!"