I won't say this is my best work, I'm not very proud of it to be honest. But I will do a follow up chapter if this gets enough attention. So please review, even if it is only to say that it sucks.

Chapter 1

Cold Exteriors

'Just great, simply perfect Weiss, of all the ways you were going to die, it had be like this,' The Heiress scolded herself as she glared at the collapsed cave entrance, 'You're weaponless, your aura is down, you have a broken wrist, and worst of all you're trapped in a cave with HIM,'

"Hey Weiss? Can you help me with my shoulder, I think it's dislocated," Jaune Arc asked as he stood next to the Heiress, who simply punched the boy hard in the shoulder with her good hand, knocking him on his backside and relocating his shoulder at the same time, "Thank you," he managed to grunt out of his mouth.

Weiss then began trying to move the boulders out of the way with her good arm to no avail; so she conceded to sit down on the hard rock ground and think of what she did to the universe to deserve such a horrendous fate.

V

That winter day had begun as it had any other, with Ruby blowing her coach whistle in Weiss' ear, the red themed leader giving the usual announcement of 'Good morning Team RWBY', and them still somehow almost be late to class.

And the whole morning went on in the usual routine up until lunch, which had seemed normal at first. Nora was over exaggerating about a recurring dream she's been having to Teams RWBY and JNPR. Ruby was eating an unhealthy amount of sweets at an unnatural speed. Blake was reading one of her books. You know the usual.

Then Ozpin gave an unexpected announcement on the speakers throughout beacon, "Attention all first year students, your next class after lunch is to be canceled and you are all to report to the auditorium,"

"Wonder what that's about?" Yang Inquired.

"It's probably a test of some kind, Midterms are coming up after all" Ren guessed.

"Argh, I hate tests," Yang groaned. Weiss rolled her eyes, she herself wasn't one to enjoy a test, but she didn't have any problem with them either.

"Actually, I heard some of the older students chatting about some sort of special challenge for the first years coming up," Pyrrha pointed out.

"Whatever the test is, Ren and I will ace it together," Nora exclaimed, "But not together-together,"

"Why do you always have to point that out Nora?" Jaune asked with genuine curiosity.

"Oh… a, no r-reason," Nora quickly stammered out, then wanting to shift the conversation to anything else she quickly said aloud, "So Jaune, how's your plan to woo Snow Angel?"

"Excuse me?" Weiss asked in a tone that was a mixture of incredulousness and anger. Jaune slunk into his chair and Pyrrha sighed and rubbed her head.

"Oh… was that supposed to remain a secret?" Nora asked innocently.

Ren shook his head, "Nora, we really need to work on your subtly,"

"My who's-a-ma-what-now?" Nora asked, genuinely confused. Ren released a sigh in defeat.

Weiss didn't hear Nora and Ren's conversation on the definition of subtly, as she was busy glaring holes into the blonde goofball who was still shrinking into his chair. Weiss then asked threateningly "Care to elaborate Arc?"

Then of course Yang got into the conversation.

"Yea Vomit Boy, tell us on how you plan on getting into Snow Angel's combat skirt?" At that comment Jaune slunk so far down that he actually fell out of his chair and onto the floor; while Weiss turned her ice cold glare at the brawler.

"Quiet you lewd fiend," Weiss grumbled before turning her gaze back to Jaune's seat as he was pulling himself off of the floor, "Explain yourself Arc,"

"Well ah… you s-see," Jaune began weakly, Weiss simply raised an eyebrow that silently said 'you better start talking' so the blonde boy cleared his throat, "I kind of wrote a checklist of things to do for our first date and…"

"Excuse me, but what makes you think I would ever go on a date with you?" When Jaune gave no answer, Weiss immediately said "That question wasn't rhetoric,"

"Ah… I-

At that exact moment, the lunch bell rang and everyone started filing out of the cafeteria. Jaune took the opportunity to flee for his life with Pyrrha worriedly following after him.

"Flirtatious dunce," Weiss muttered to herself as she and the rest of Team RWBY started filing out of the cafeteria as well.

"Weiss, can I ask you a question?" Ruby asked as they headed towards the Auditorium.

"You technically just did," Weiss replied sharply.

"Well can I ask you another question?" Ruby asked.

"You realize that you- argh, fine,"

"Are you not attracted to boys?"

"WHAT!" Weiss shouted, getting a quick glance from some of the students around them in the hallway. Weiss lowered her voice menacingly, "Did you just ask if I was gay?"

"Uh… I don't know, maybe?" Ruby replied nervously, "I was just wondering why you aren't flattered by Jaune affections,"

"Flattered?" Weiss asked incredulously, "let me explain why I'm not 'flattered' by him or is inane advances: It's because he's an idiotic, uncoordinated, flirtatious, annoying, childish, foolish, unskilled, obsessive dunce, understand?"

"I guess," Ruby said simply.

"Good, then let's never discuss this again," Weiss stated with atone of dismissal.

Once they entered the Auditorium Team RWBY took their seats on a bench in the front row as Ozpin stood on the stadium with a microphone in front of him. The headmaster waited until everyone was seated before he began speaking.

"Students, as you know you have been assigned into teams, and as midterms are coming up I'd assume that all of you and your respective teams have learned how to coordinate together on the field of battle." Ozpin went silent as the auditorium buzzed lightly with conversation as they speculated one what the Professor was going on about, with a clear of his throat the room turned silent again as Ozpin continued, "But just because you have a team does not mean you will always be alongside them in real combat, and might find yourself working with someone of whom you are unfamiliar with,"

Again the room buzzed with conversation until Ozpin cleared his throat yet again and got straight to the point, "So for your midterm exams, you will be randomly grouped together with members of different teams from the one you regularly work with to complete your assignment,"

This time the buzz was a roar as a majority of the students stood up from their seats and expressed their protest at the decision.

Ozpin cleared his throat one last time and everyone remained silent as he produced a scroll and started reading out the temporary teams, "Team One, will consist of Cardin Winchester, Lie Ren, Ruby Rose, and Selena Umbra, led by Ruby Rose,"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Cardin's voice was heard from the somewhere in the back.

"Team Two will consist of-

On and on Professor Ozpin reformed the teams into their temporary ones for the midterms, Weiss waited patiently for her name to be called along with her new temporary team. Then Ozpin got to the last Team.

"Team Twenty-four, Jaune arc, Sky Lark, Velvet Scarlatina, and Weiss Schnee, led by Jaune Arc,"

"Ohhh… tough break Weissy," Yang, who was sitting next to the Heiress, said mockingly before chuckling to herself, "Have fun being underneath Vomit Boy's command, should I buy you an umbrella?"

Weiss became so angry that her mind practically went into shut down; she was grouped up with a rotten bully, a shy, most likely incompetent, Faunus, and worst of all, that worthless dunce as their leader.

Once Ozpin finished his reassignment of the teams, the students stood up and dispersed ton look for their new temporary teams. Weiss sighed as she figured she might as well get together with her temp team and get it over with.

Finding Velvet was relatively easy, the heiress simply had to look for the bunny ears and met up with the Faunus.

"Y-You're Weiss S-Schnee… right?" The timid Faunus asked nervously as they met up.

"What was your first clue?" Weiss responded coldly, not even bothering to be civil with the easily frightened girl.

"u-um a…," Velvet was about to answer when Weiss held up her hand to silence the Faunus and said,

"That was rhetorical," Velvet hastily bowed her head in apology until a pair of hands grabbed hold of her rabbit ears from behind and pulled them back; much to the Faunus' pain.

"Ouch, that hurts!" Velvet cried out as Sky Lark chuckled madly.

"Better get used to it Cottontail, we're stuck together for today," Sky said menacingly as he tugged a little harder.

"Hey!" Weiss shouted at the bully, "What do you think you're doing?"

"What? You want a turn?" This got Sky a hard slap across the face, forcing his to let go of Velvet's ears so he could protect his burning cheek, "What was that for?"

"For being a retarded dunce!" Weiss scolded the bully with a finger pointed at his face, she then gestured to the Faunus cowering behind her, "Sure, she's a Faunus, but that doesn't mean you can just pick on her whenever you want!"

"Never knew the granddaughter of Archibald Schnee was a black sheep," Sky quickly remarked with a cold glare of his own.

"What is THAT supposed to mean!" Weiss demanded.

"How does your father feel about his only child being a Faunus lover?" the bully asked, this got his other cheek smacked just as hard.

"How DARE you," Weiss scolded, "Don't pretend to know me or my family!"

"Okay, break it up, you two!" Came an authoritative voice to Weiss' left; she quickly turned her head to yell at whoever had the audacity to command her only to see Jaune standing their glaring daggers at Sky who, shockingly, hide behind Weiss along with Velvet, who quickly stepped out of grabbing distance from the bully.

With the dispute over, Jaune pulled out his scroll and opened it to read a message as he said, "Okay, I got the instructions for our midterm, so I suggest we follow them and get this over with so we can go back to our teams,"

"And who put you in charge?" Weiss asked coldly as she glared at the knight.

"Ozpin, or have you forgotten already," Jaune replied coldly; much to Weiss' irritation.

"Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?" Weiss demanded.

"Your team leader for this exam, which if you want to ace, I suggest you cooperate, as cooperation is one of the criteria we are graded for," Jaune stated. This actually shocked Weiss internally; she had never seen the dunce act so serious; not that she expressed her shock.

"Wha-what is the assignment?" Velvet asked Jaune cautiously.

"We are to head out into the emerald forest and bring back the head of an Alpha Beowolf; we will be graded on our teamwork and efficiency on the kill, as well on our ability to track it," Jaune stated as he deactivated his scroll and gestured for his new team to follow him to the cliff face, whom did with varying degrees of reluctance.

V

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful; up until they found a group of Beowolves through some snow tracks in the snow. When they saw the alpha Jaune and Weiss broke off from Velvet and Sky to chase it down into the cave just as it collapsed. And here they were, trapped, the only silver lining being that the collapse also killed the Alpha Beowolf. Said beast's head was currently crushed under a large boulder.

"Is your scroll working?" Weiss was drawn from her reverie by Jaune's question. She silently reached into her pouch and pulled out her scroll; finding it with a cracked screen as it refused to turn on.

"No, yours?" Weiss asked.

"no…" was all Jaune said as he walked over towards the Beowolf corpse and picked up his sword in his left hand, his right still recovering from the dislocation.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asked as Jaune was about to stab his blade into the Beowolf's gut.

"It's going to get dark and it's already freezing cold in here, so we need to keep warm," Jaune said as he roughly stabbed the beast's gut and cut it open, releasing its guts.

"You're not suggesting that we…" Weiss couldn't finish her complaint as she struggled to hold back her stomach and try to look anywhere but at the Grimm's split organs.

Jaune put his sword aside as he stood up and said sardonically, "Would you rather we huddle for warmth?"

"It would be mildly more preferable," Weiss muttered as she managed to regain control of her stomach. Jaune sighed as he walked over to the heiress and sat beside her against the cave wall, he was about to up his arm around her shoulders when she swatted his hand away, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Huddling for warmth," Jaune pointed out.

"Well do it with as little contact as possible," Weiss demanded.

"The point is to have as much contact as possible," Jaune pointed out. This cause Weiss to concede and let him wrap his arm around her shoulders, she then wrapped her own arms around Jaune's waist while being mindful of her broken wrist.

"If you try anything Arc, I'll castrate you," Weiss threatened as she snuggled closer as the cold started to really set in.

"Really Weiss, you really think I'd try something?" Jaune asked.

"I-It's all you boys e-ever th-think about," Weiss stuttered through her now chattering teeth. Jaune pulled away from Weiss despite the cold so he could glare at her in the eye.

"All us b-b-boy's e-ever-r th-think ab-b-bout?" Jaune repeated, sounding hurt but angry, "D-Did you e-ever th-think th-that someone m-might have s-s-s-simply wanted-d a d-d-date with someone as b-beautiful as y-you,"

Weiss scoffed at Jaune as they two reluctantly huddled again for warmth. Hours passed in silence as the two struggled to keep warm. Their consciousness faded in and out as the cold overwhelmed them. Violent shivers soon overcame them as they tried as hard as possible to keep warm.

"You th-think they'll f-f-f-find us-s?" Jaune asked out of the blue, his breath visible in the cold air.

"V-Velvet and Sk-Sky s-s-saw us get t-t-trapped, with-th any luck, th-they will have reached B-B-B-Beacon f-f-f-f-for help," Weiss reasoned as she struggled to remain conscious.

"J-Jaune?" Weiss asked meekly.

"Y-Yes Weiss-s-s?" Jaune replied.

"W-Why are y-you s-s-so interested-d in me?" Weiss asked as she struggled to keep her eyelids open. She couldn't feel her extremities anymore, "W-When I-I've b-been so-o-o m-mean t-to-o-o y-you,"

"B-B-Because I-I c-can s-see passed-d the c-c-cold exterior-r-r," Jaune said weakly, "B-Because I c-can s-see th-that y-your j-just lonely a-and…"

Weiss looked up to see Jaune struggling to remain conscious; his lips and ears were blue and his breath was becoming, much like she was feeling right now.

Right before she lost consciousness, she could swear that she heard what sounded like rocks crumbling…