Fipp: I've always thought that Yang would be best team mom.
Cracks in the Mirror
Atop her bed, Yang raised her hand, and carefully eyed her target across the room.
"Hey, Ruby?"
"Yeah?" Ruby asked, looking up from the book she was reading. Below Yang, in her own bunk, Blake was doing the same thing, but had borrowed Ruby's headphones to drown out any unwanted noise the two sisters would make. Which was a good thing since there was about to be lots of noise.
"Kamikaze," Yang said, and threw her arm forward, sending the paper airplane soaring through the air before it softly landed on Ruby's mattress.
Ruby looked down at the small aircraft for a moment before she gasped in realization. Suddenly she grabbed the blankets in her arms. "BOOM!" she cried out, sending the items on her bed all over the room. "OH THE HUMANITY!"
Then the door opened, and Weiss stepped through. "What was th-" A heavy blanket then landed right on Weiss' head. "RUBY!" Weiss screeched. "What is this?!"
"Um, sorry Weiss," Ruby said apologetically, trying to hide behind her cloak. "Yang and I were-"
"I don't care what you were doing, but do you have to be so loud and messy when you do it?" Weiss lectured, a hand on her hip and a finger waving at Ruby.
Rolling her eyes, Yang picked up another paper airplane. "Hey, Weiss."
"What?" Weiss snapped, a blanket still covering the right side of her face.
Yang said nothing and let the paper craft soar. It took about a second, maybe two, and the hit Weiss directly below her left eye.
A moment passed, a single solitary moment, and then Weiss exploded.
"How DARE YOU!" she screamed, ripping the blanket off her head and stomping towards Yang's bed. "Out of all the childish, immature, and brainless acts I've had to endure because of you, this is by far the worst!"
"Hey!" Yang argued back. "What's the big deal prin-"
"NO!" Weiss shouted back. "You have lost all right to speak! Do you honestly not consider others when you do anything? I could have been injured, or even worst, BLINDED, because of you!"
"Now don't you think that's a bit too m-" Weiss then threw Ruby's blanket at Yang, nailing her in the head, and sending her falling onto her back. By the time she managed to work the blanket off of her, the door had slammed shut, and several items that had been hanging on the walls had fallen to the floors..
With no Weiss in the room, Yang looked over to Ruby, who looked slightly confused and afraid. "I've never seen her like that," Ruby said in a small voice. "I mean, she has moods sometimes, but nothing like that."
Looking from Ruby, and to the door, Yang bit her lower lip. "I'll go talk to her." Carefully, Yang jumped off the bed and onto the floor, before heading out the door.
"Did something happen?" Blake asked, taking the headphones off her head.
000
It didn't take too long to find Weiss, Yang only had to follow the trail of terrified students. Eventually Yang found herself at the entrance of a girl's restroom, and slowly made her way in.
Peeking around a wall, Yang found Weiss, standing over the sinks, and looking into the mirrors. Her right eye was closed, and her left eye followed her hand which she was waving back and forth in front of her face.
Yang watched her for several moments, carefully studying Weiss and her reflection, trying to figure just what she was doing.
Eventually, an idea came to her, and she decided to confront Weiss about it. Stepping from behind the wall, Yang stood straight, and cleared her throat. Startled, Weiss spun around, ponytail whipping around and a hand tightly gripping the sink. She stood shocked, eyes wide for a moment, before growing into a glare.
"What do you want?" Weiss sneered.
Yang shrugged. "I just wanted to see if you were alright. You seemed kind of upset back there and, well, people say that I have meltdowns."
"Very funny, Yang," Weiss flatly said, turning back to the mirror, and stared at her reflection.
"I'm serious, Weiss." Slowly, Yang began to approach Weiss, though still giving her plenty of personal space. "Is something wrong?"
"And why would you think something was wrong?" Weiss growled, staring at her reflection.
"Because I'm not stupid," Yang replied, rolling her eyes. "I pay attention to things, I notice things. And I'm wondering if it..." She hesitated for a moment, wondering if this was really the best thing to do, but she came to the conclusion that it was now or never. "I was wondering if it had something to do with your eye."
Weiss turned to face her, and Yang could swear that the glare she was being sent was enough to freeze her blood.
"It has nothing to so with my eye, Yang Xioa Long," Weiss hissed, and Yang noticed her nails digging into the counter.
For a moment, Yang considered retreat, to escape Weiss' wrath and try and pretend that none of this happened. But it was happening, so there was no point in trying to get out of it.
She breathed in, and prepared herself.
"I'm going to be blunt Weiss," Yang said firmly. "There is a giant scar over your eye, and I get the impression that it's something you're sensitive about it, but now I'm starting to think that there's something more to it. Maybe there's some sort of..." She had to be very careful with the next work, she wanted this to work out as well as it could. "Any sort of damage."
"NO!" Weiss yelled, slamming a fist onto the counter. "There is NOTHING WRONG! No DAMAGE, no INJURIES, no IMPERFECTIONS!"
"Weiss," Yang spoke softly, trying to calm Weiss down. "There's something wrong, I can tell, and you don't have to tell me if you don't want. But, whatever I did to start this, I'm sorry, I just want to let you know that. Okay?" Turning Yang began to walk back to the door. "If you do need to talk though, I'm always happy to listen." With her back to Weiss, she began to make her way to the exit.
"Wait..." Weiss' voice said, smaller than it had previously been. Yang looked back to her, and saw that all the anger and fury had vanished, and that Weiss had looked somewhat smaller. Her shoulders slumped, one arm lightly grasping the other one, and her eyes cast down towards the floor. She took a deep breath, and turned her gaze back to Yang. "You're right," she said, each work coming out with a great deal of effort. "There is a..." She struggled, as though the next words were trying just to say. "There is a blind spot, in my eye."
"A blind spot?" Yang asked, her voice low.
"Yes," Weiss replied. She turned, and looked back to the mirror. Closing her right eye, she raised one hand and waved it in front of the scarred eye. "It's not very big, and honestly I can compensate for it most of the time, but..."
"But it's still there?" Yang offered.
Weiss was silent for a moment, before she lowered her hand. "Yes. It's still there, and there's nothing I can do about it."
"Then back in the room...?"
"Your stupid airplane flew right into it, I couldn't even see it, and then almost hit me in the eye. I don't like being reminded of it."
"I'm sorry."
Weiss shook her head, and looked back to Yang. "No. I'm the one who should be apologizing. I shouldn't have exploded like that. I've had more than enough time to get used to this, I should be better composed than this, I should-"
"No need to say anymore," Yang said, taking several steps towards Weiss. "Don't worry about it, it's okay, though I do think that we should get back to Ruby and Blake. I think they'll be curious about what happened." Yang raised and arm, and placed it directly on Weiss' shoulder.
Yang could feel Weiss stiffen under her hand, she then slowly drew it back. Before her, Weiss' body became less rigid, before she relaxed her body.
"Sorry," Yang apologized, drawing her hand back to her side. "I guess you have a touching-thing too?"
Weiss didn't respond, and only walked past Yang and towards the door. She made it several step before stopping. "Yang?" she said, not turning around.
"Yeah?" Yang responded, not turning around either.
Deep breath. "Thank you for talking to me. There aren't many people who know about it, so I'd prefer it if you kept this to yourself."
Yang gave a slight smile. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone if you don't want me too."
"Thank you," Weiss said, just before her footsteps began to echo through the room again.
"But, if you don't mind me asking," Yang asked, turning around to face Weiss, who in turn faced her. "Just how exactly did you get that scar?"
Weiss only stared at Yang, her face unreadable.
"We've never really talked about it. Blake, I'm guessing, thought just it not a good thing to bring up, and our Dad always told Ruby and me that scars tell stories, and it might not be one they're comfortable talking about."
Weiss continued to stare for what Yang felt was an uncomfortable amount of time.
Eventually, she did speak.
"I received it in a training accident," she said at last. "I was careless, and now I have a permanent reminder."
"A reminder?"
Yang didn't get an answer, but as Weiss walked out of the bathroom, she was certain she heard "I'm not perfect" coming from the heiress.
As the door closed, Yang found herself in doubt over Weiss' explanation. Weeks ago, when Weiss had the big argument with Blake, Yang found herself siding with Blake more than Weiss, but she still tried to keep a sympathetic ear open. Though, there was one thing that caught her attention more than anything else.
"It made for a very difficult childhood,"Weiss had said, when talking about how angry her father could get when he got home.
At the time, Yang did not want to think about the implications behind that statement. Even now she didn't want to think about them, but she can't ignore them. She'd talk to Weiss about it, not today, and maybe not tomorrow, because she's afraid what bringing up something like that would do to her.
For now, she'd let the issue rest where it was at the moment. No sense in pushing things harder than they needed to be, let Weiss talk when she was ready.
000
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Mrfipp