The snow was falling hard tonight, harder than it has at all since the start of this winter in Vale. It was frigid outside tonight as well. Looking out the window from inside of her warm dorm room sat Weiss Schnee, alone. She stared coldly out into the grayness that fell over Beacon Academy and what would seem like the rest of the world, if she didn't know better. She was alone. Since today was their day off from classes, Team RWBY scattered about to do their own things. Yang and Blake had gone out in the early afternoon. The fiery blond had mentioned something about taking her dark haired partner shopping for the day, an activity the latter of the two held no keen intent on doing. Weiss' own partner and the team's leader, the young Ruby Rose, was also absent from the room. Knowing Ruby, Weiss would have assumed she'd gone with her other teammates to enjoy a day of scrutinizing about the shops of Vale rather than spend her time studying for an upcoming exam for their Grimm Studies class with Professor Port. Weiss herself felt aptly prepared, having done most if not all of her studying in advance, so she had her day to herself.
From across the hall, it sounded like Team JNPR had taken their leave as well, so all was quiet. Weiss enjoyed the silence, the solitude. But looking out at the snow that never relented its attempt to cover everything in a blanket of white, she began to ponder to herself. With nothing else to focus on, she simply stared out at the snow, and after thinking about snow and the coldness of snow and winter, it came to remind her of her family. More specifically, she was reminded of the similarities a night like this held with the same night her own mother died long ago.
Weiss was an only child, and as such, the sole heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, a prestigous Dust manufacturing enterprise her grandfather built from the ground up many years before her. She was raised on the values of business. She was taught to speak her mind, yet contain herself so that she may be obedient to anyone she would ever have to look up to for business' sake. She enjoyed herself, nonetheless, as a little girl should. Coming from the wealthiest of wealthy families, Weiss was treated with any luxury a child could ever dream of. She had games, toys, and she would never have to seem to lift a finger for herself when she was enjoying herself. The only work came in business. She would sometimes be brought to attend private meetings between her father and some business partner. She would be at her best in paying attention, but it would often be too much for her childlike attention span to handle. Her father meant well in giving her exposure at a young age, but Weiss had never really felt the need to be involved.
At these meetings, she would note, however, of all the different kinds of people her father spoke with. Seeing a new person would always fascinate Weiss, and she was enthralled by simply examining the person, noting everything to herself from head to toe before being asked by her father to focus. As much as she tried, it would be futile to resist the temptation to simply gawk at every new face she met.
Even while being so excitable when meeting new people, Weiss had never felt lonely in her childhood. She was perfectly happy with her life, as her servants were always so nice to her, and she always had her kindhearted mother to turn to. Weiss' mother was definitely, as it seemed, an angel among mere mortals. She was both beautiful and kind. She spoke softly and kindly with everyone she knew, be it servants, Weiss' father, or Weiss herself. Rather than the stern businessman her father was, Weiss aspired to take after the grace of her mother, something which may have troubled Weiss' father, but as Weiss herself inherited her mother's soft and angelic appearence, it was hardly something he would press.
After a long day of basic lessons in academics and receiving coaching in singing and sitting through the occasional boring business meeting, Weiss always knew where to locate her mother. It seemed Weiss' mother had always been sitting around in bed, or at least resting somewhere every minute of every day. Weiss had learned the manners of knocking before entering in on someone, and sometimes, Weiss beforehand would peek inside to see if her mother was there. Her mother would be looking out the window with a wistful look in her eyes before being alerted to her daughter's presence, upon which she would brighten up and welcome her child in.
Weiss would then sit on the bed next to her and cheerfully go on about what she had learned today. Her mother would happily listen to her daughter for as long as she could before kindly asking her to leave, saying that she was growing tired and needed to rest more. Weiss obliged and went on her way, but not before eventually noting in the back of her mind that her mother had been so tired so much lately, and that she would often rest more and more every day.
Unbeknownst to Weiss at the time was that her mother was stricken with a terrible illness that ate away at her health every day. She was regularly checked up on by the family's most trusted and renowned doctors in order to diagnose her condition, but they couldn't find any answers, even as her condition worsened and her health deteriorated day after day. Eventually deemed with an unknown sickness, her only prescription was to get as much rest as she could. Her sickness had been wearing down on her ever since Weiss was born, and no one knew why this was. Weiss' father had seemed to be the most hurt by this, being powerless to do anything to help her and by constantly being away for business, seeing her posed challenge enough.
Weiss' mother never healed, and Weiss never knew a thing. Her mother was only given so much time to live at the rate of her declining health, and even after passing her alleged expiration date, her inevitable death while asleep in bed still came as a shock to many who knew of her condition, but something that came completely and utterly out of nowhere in an attempt to shatter the little Weiss into a million pieces.
Weiss herself was crushed and wept for days, but her father became outraged. His already short temper was pushed beyond its limits as he lashed out at nearly everyone he came across. This came at an especially bad time, since a group of Faunus vagabonds known as the White Fang, who had once been simple equal rights protesters now turned extremist terrorists, had been increasing the frequency and ferocity of their raids on the Schnee Dust Company. His business under attack, and partners and members disappearing one by the several constantly, Weiss' father became an angry man who met his problems by taking his rage out on his employees, servants, and eventually his own daughter.
Weiss' friendly and smiling caretakers were soon replaced by strict and scowling ones as her lessons in business became more intense. Upon reaching adolescence, Weiss took part in rigorous fencing lessons on top of her normal studies. Her practice in singing became more demanding. Her schedule packed and weighing down on her back, with her father exenuating his ideal Schnee values of work, business, and work wore down on her free child's spirit, that had never been mended since her mother's untimely passing, until the point where it was completely crushed and was unable to be repaired. It tolled on the young heiress constantly, and how her father treated her all throughout never helped at all.
It seemed Weiss' father was eventually going mad with rage and unleashing it all upon his only daughter. He ulitmately blamed her for his wife's death, and seeing the resemblance his daughter shared with her only seemed to fuel his wrath, leading to an incident while Weiss was around 13 years of age where her father struck her in a drunken fit, in the face with a beer bottle that shattered and fell all around the cowering girl.
"You impudent child! You will know your place! You will never solve anything by not doing anything at all!" Weiss' father stormed off, leaving the girl wailing and all alone. Clutching at the wound she sported from the broken glass, she felt a particularly grievous gash that came over her left eye.
Waking up every morning and looking into the mirror to see the reminder of her father's words, Weiss' spirit was undoubtedly shattered, just as the glass was beneath her that cut into her that fateful night, tempted to shatter the glass of the mirror that stood in front of her, reflecting back exactly what she never wanted to acknowledge. Since then, Weiss seemed to have succumbed to the goal of being the ideal Schnee. She studied in her lessons endlessly when not participating in and eventually mastering her swordsmanship. On that occasion when she would attend meetings, she dutifully payed attention to every word and detail, learning from the interactions between the propietor her own father, all the while not speaking to her father, hardly ever looking him in the eye. She had become the ideal Schnee indeed. Cold, calculating, and cunning, and it at last seemed her father had become at least somewhat impressed with her. Years after the death of her mother, Weiss would be sent to train as a Huntress at Beacon Academy. While her father would rather have had her continue her study of business, he had no serious qualms of having the girl leave his sight to study combat as well.
And Weiss was glad to be rid of her father, and as it would seem, all memories regarding herself would be shut away within herself, hidden in the back of her mind. And even in spite of her coldness, Weiss found companionship at Beacon in the form of a young awkward girl, her bubbly and ever-passionate sister, and a reserved Faunus girl. As days of team hijinks flew by, she would seem to forget all about everything that happened, and momentarily think that she might be enjoying herself for once, a warm feeling that felt foreign, but familiar. But, it would be cold nights like these where she sits now and remembers the pain that had stalked her for what had been her entire life.
Feeling the pain, Weiss shivered, then drew back from the dorm room window. She looked at the clock. 7:30. In the winter, the darkness hardly ever changed, and so Weiss had lost track of time. She stared at the floor for a few seconds before briefly looking back outside at the falling snow, then turning around and walking out of her dorm room, closing the door behind her.
The Beacon halls were normally fairly dim, but the lack of a sun shimmering through the windows this dark and gloomy evening had made them even darker than what Weiss was used to. Still, she knew exactly where she was headed.
Weiss stepped outside, onto a balcony that overlooked the Beacon foregrounds as well as the city of Vale in the distance. Though, it would be hard to tell with the snow tonight. It made it seem like nothing existed other than the building, giving off the impression that if you were to jump, you would be endlessly falling through a cover of snow and fog. Even so, the snow appeared to be letting up since Weiss had begun her contemplation of memories hours before. The temperature had only dipped, though. A gust blew, which made Weiss flinch, but never managed to deter her. Weiss approached the ledge of the balcony, and looked out into the distance. Content with the silence, she opened her mouth and began to sing.
"Mirror... tell me something."
Now Weiss was thinking about her time here at Beacon. From the first day arriving here, she had been bitter. Flaunting her name around as if it would mean anything to anyone else, she only proved to make herself an enemy to the young Ruby Rose. And yet, what was it she wanted inside...?
"Tell me who's the loneliest of all..."
Acting only to satisfy herself, Weiss seeked to distance herself to anyone who came near, which puts her on opposite ends of the spectrum with Ruby. But, in the end, isn't what they wanted the same...?
"Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all..."
When she was forced into being with someone else, she resented her for it, when it was clearly her own fault for acting with such impudence. All of her problems can just be pinned back to her. But why...?
"Mirror, what's inside me? Tell me, can a heart be turned to stone?"
She eventually attempted to try and make nice, but only to promise to better herself for her own sake rather than for anyone else's. No matter what, she was ice cold. She was selfish.
As her emotions within her started to pick up, so did Weiss' voice as she sang. She became louder. Someone from inside stopped and heard the heiress sing her heart out of her. Her voice sounded beautiful, but pained. Every note she hit had an emotional force behind it. The passerby decided to take a closer look.
"Mirror, mirror, what's inside me? Save me from the things I see."
Weiss was ignorant to how others so close to her even felt as she would discover when her black haired teammate would too outright attack her way of thinking, which may not have been Weiss' own to begin with. A new perspective was offered to her by a Faunus formerly of the White Fang, her enemy only bound to birthright, even though the both of them wanted nothing to do with their past. Even so, Weiss only disregarded the problem, just as she does with everything else.
"I can keep it from the world, why won't you let me hide from me?"
She was alone, and did nothing but cry to herself about it.
"Mirror, mirror... tell me something..."
She rejected anything that tried to challenge her feelings, even if they were right.
"Who's the loneliest of all...?"
Weiss hated herself. So she just chose to shut herself away from everyone else, so no one could find her, and yet, that's the exact opposite of what she wanted.
"I'm the loneliest of all."
Finishing her song, Weiss' emotions between her pain-filled memories and her own self worth couldn't be contained. Her knees gave out from beneath her and she fell to the floor, quietly sobbing to herself, her hot tears falling onto her skin, then becoming cold like the snow and ice she wallowed in. Now, the silence was hurting her as well, and Weiss found a brief stint of solace when she heard someone approach from behind her.
"M-Mommy...?" Weiss weakly muttered towards the person, without thinking, before looking up through her tear-filled eyes to see the red cloak floating in the wind. She immediately looked back at the snow beneath her. "... Ruby."
Ruby Rose stood over Weiss, in her usual attire centered around black and red. Her face full of earnest concern, she looked down at the girl whose hair was about lost in the white snow that surrounded them.
"Weiss... it's cold out. What are you doing out here?" Ruby asked with a genuine tone.
Weiss didn't look up at her team leader and responded with a hmph, doing her best to shove away her previous display of emotion. "That's... none of your concern. What about you?"
"I was just coming back to the dorm from the library when I heard you singing. Then I noticed you were all alone out here." Ruby managed a smile. "It was really pretty. Your singing was, I mean." She awkwardly fidgeted about in the cold.
"So you actually studied?" Weiss' tone remained ice cold. She remained staring at anything, so long as it wasn't her leader's face.
"Y-Yeah, just like you said to do. I-I mean, you're right that it's best to be prepared, so even though I knew it would be a drag, I figured 'why not', you know? Since it does, uh... y'know, help." Garnering no response, Ruby fidgeted more. As another gust blew, both Ruby and Weiss shivered, but the former of which only being phased by it.
"..."
"Weiss, how long have you been out here?" Ruby remained out in the cold with Weiss, who still sat quietly in the snow. "It's freezing. You're gonna get sick if you stick around out here, so c'mon, let's get back to our-"
"Leave me." Weiss abruptly cut her off. After Ruby relented, Weiss looked up at her with the most callous glare she could muster, which seemed to make Ruby shrink before Ruby took note of the pink tender skin that outlined Weiss' eyes.
"Weiss... what's the matter?" Ruby offered her hand to the heiress, who then proceeded to shake as water started to well up in her eyes.
"'What's the matter'...? Nothing! Nothing that you should concern yourself with, you dolt!" Weiss stood up and started yelling at Ruby, which once more would have caused her to shrink and scurry away like a mouse if not for the fact that Weiss now had tears streaming down her face. Weiss seemed prepared to say more to put her down, but it didn't look like she had it in her. She looked tired. Weiss was about to sink back onto her knees when Ruby caught her and kept her on her feet.
"H-Hey, you're not going to accomplish much by just sitting around like that, you know." Weiss' tears continued to fall as Ruby's words of encouragement reminded her of something like that she had heard before, only then the words had intended for something far different. It caused Weiss to pull Ruby into a hug, where she sobbed into her partner's shoulder.
Ruby hesitated in flinching, and instead decided to return the hug, and her warmth, to her. "Hey now, Weiss. It's alright," Ruby patted her partner's back. "You know... you don't have to feel so alone."
Unwilling to speak further at the moment, Weiss calmed herself as Ruby helped her back to their dorm room. Yang and Blake were yet to return still. The duo sat side by side on Weiss' bunk, where Ruby had managed to convince Weiss to tell her thoughts. Ruby listened intently while the white-haired heiress went on about her memories of her mother, and her own opinion of herself.
"Weiss, those feelings you have of yourself aren't things you should let get to you. Not everyone's going to agree with them, you know? I... think that's all wrong. You can be a little... precise at times, but you aren't a bad person. I don't think so. Blake doesn't think so, and neither does Yang. We're your teammates. We're still here because we think you're a wonderful person and teammate. I think you're the best partner ever."
Weiss stared at the floor. "Ruby, I..."
"And... my mom kinda disappeared on me, too. And tonight is kinda like that night, too. You're not alone, Weiss. You don't have to be lonely. If there's a problem like this, you're supposed to come to your teammates, right?" Ruby smiled at Weiss, and Weiss looked at her, reminded of her own words.
"Ruby... I'm sorry. And thank you."
Just then, Ruby's older sister Yang barged through the door, followed by her partner Blake, each donned in winter attire.
Yang shook herself out, loosening the snow from her winter clothes as she removed them. "Brrrr! It's chilly out there!" The blond removed her hat, then patted down the messy hair left in its wake, before turning to her raven-haired companion. "That wasn't so bad, was it, Blake?"
Hanging up her jacket and other accessories, Blake shivered. "We were walking around for hours. I think I would have rather been 'cooked up', as you said, in here enjoying my quiet time. You know I'm very sensitive to the cold." Blake's Faunus cat ears twitched under her signature black bow.
"Awww, but then we wouldn't have found those sappy romance novels you wanted to desperately!" Yang said, easily trying to get a rise out of Blake.
Blake's face reddened slightly. "At least they'll serve more purpose than all of those outfits you'll never wear!" The two black and yellow partners bantered back and forth at each other for awhile with the red and white partners looked on, amused, before the two finally gave it a rest. Late into the snowy evening, the team decided to call it a night. Ruby turned to Weiss one last time after the team had gotten dressed in their sleepwear.
"Home is where the heart is, and your home is here with us, see? Sweet dreams, Weiss." Ruby smiled at Weiss once more, brimming with purity and a friendliness that always managed to warm Weiss' icy exterior to reveal the hidden warmth within her.
"Good night, Ruby." Weiss returned a soft and grateful smile, something looking not unlike her late mother as she did long ago.
Author's Notes - Jeepers! That was a lot longer than I planned it to be. But I think my hours of nonstop slaving has produced something nice. My second RWBY fic, feel free to give your feedback!