A/N: This was a fun little prompt I received for a Secret Santa Exchange in one of my Discord Servers. Hope the recipient enjoys!
"Oh, it's so pretty! Weiss, can you believe it?!"
Weiss Schnee let out a tired yawn as she followed her partner's mystified gaze to the bedroom window, blinking as she allowed her eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. "Must you always be so loud this early in the morning?"
Ruby just turned to her with the widest grin, hopping down from the window sill she'd previously been perched upon. "Look, it's snowing!"
"Geez, you act like you haven't seen snow before," Weiss muttered, lowering herself back down to her mattress and turning away from the way-too-peppy brunette.
"Well, yeah, but this is the first snow in Mistral!" Ruby made a shuffling sound as she padded across the room, and just seconds later, she was jumping onto the foot of Weiss's bed, startling the smaller girl with a gasp. "Imagine how much snow there's going to be in Atlas! Ohhh, I can't wait to get there and find out!"
Weiss let out a groan. It was no secret to anyone that she was less-than-excited to return to Atlas, the place she'd only just escaped from only a few weeks prior. After the battle at Haven, Weiss had, in a moment of insecurity, opened up to her friends about how her father had stripped her title after she accidentally lost control of her Semblance at a party, and how he had tried to lock her away in her bedroom. She'd thought that they would better understand why she was so hesitant to return, but as soon as Qrow had told them that they needed to bring the lamp to Atlas, all of her friends had seemed to forget all about that, and were all just as excited as Ruby to travel to the Kingdom of Isolation.
She rolled over to meet her friend's silver-eyed gaze, a deep frown etching into the corners of her lips. "Can't you just let me enjoy my last few days here in peace before I have to go back to that awful place?"
Ruby's expression fell, however only momentarily as she clicked her tongue, getting up from Weiss's bed and starting toward the door. "I'm going to go get Blake and Yang. I'm sure having everyone together will cheer you up!"
The proud leader left the room, leaving Weiss alone with her thoughts. She considered trying to go back to sleep, but she knew it would be pointless, as Ruby would just come barging back in, their other two teammates in tow. She pushed aside her duvet and stretched her arms over her head, letting out another yawn as she walked over to the window.
It would be a lie if Weiss said she didn't like snow. Even growing up in Atlas, where it snowed two-thirds of the year, she could never find herself tired of the climate. Weiss had never particularly faired well in warmer temperatures, and there was a certain comfort she found in the quietness of a gentle snowfall. Now, as she glanced outside, she couldn't help but hide a tiny smile as she watched dainty snowflakes flutter through the sky, falling in every direction as a few even stuck to the outside of the glass pane. The delicate shapes reminded her of her glyphs, of her family crest that once meant so much to her back before her grandfather had passed away.
No, Atlas was the last place Weiss wanted to be right then. But it didn't change her heart, didn't change the mission she'd set out to complete the day she first left for Beacon. Heiress or ex-heiress, she would still find a way to save her grandfather's company, to save the many Faunus and lower-class citizens who slaved away in the Dust Mines with little to no rest or compensation. She knew, deep down, that the only way to reach that goal was to return to Atlas, to face her father and find a way to strip him of the name he'd married into. She owed it to her grandfather, to her mother, and mostly, to herself.
She sucked in a deep breath, closing her eyes as she turned away from the window, only opening them again when she started to move over to the closet where she'd been keeping her belongings. She pulled out her dress, the only article of clothing she now owned after she'd lost the majority of her luggage in the airship crash outside of Raven's Bandit Camp. The dress had gone through so much wear and tear since her arrival in Mistral, but Ren, a miracle worker with a sponge and sewing needle, had restored it to near-perfection. No one would even know now that she had been stomped on, kidnapped, and pierced through her entire torso, not unless they saw the scars that now peppered her body.
Such was the life of a Huntress. There were several times in her training that Weiss wondered if maybe she would be better off sporting some armor, but she absolutely hated the idea of wearing something so clunky and excessive. She liked her combat skirts, liked being able to change quickly and effectively, and she knew that so long as she kept track of her Aura, she should be fine should she take a few hits. She just needed to learn not to rely so much on her Summoning now that she had finally mastered her abilities. Her over-reliance had nearly cost her life, and she absolutely did not want to have to go through that much pain again.
Weiss shook her head, willing away her thoughts as she closed her suitcase, and brought her dress with her to the bathroom to get changed. By the time she'd finished getting ready, she could hear Ruby's footsteps herding throughout the hall, and when she stepped back into the main bedroom, her teammate burst through the door, Blake and Yang behind her, dressed in their coats and scarves.
"Oh, good, you're all ready!" Ruby exclaimed, hurrying over to Weiss and pulling her into a side hug. "Blake and Yang were already up, so we're in luck! As soon as you get your scarf on, we can go play in the snow!"
"Wait, you didn't say anything about playing," Weiss murmured, glancing between her three teammates. A pit formed in her stomach when she noticed Yang's mischievous grin. "What, exactly, do you have in mind?"
Yang slammed her fists together, letting out a tough grunt. "We're about to go see if Team RWBY can defeat JNR and Farmboy in a good ol' snowball fight."
"And we can't exactly do that without our Ice Queen!" Ruby added.
Weiss pulled away from Ruby, raising an eyebrow at Blake, who looked unusually content. "And you agreed to this, too?"
Blake simply shrugged. "We could use a little fun."
Fun? Weiss narrowed her gaze, forgetting for a moment just how much their quiet teammate had changed since they'd seen her last. Blake was becoming more and more like Sun everyday, although Weiss had to admit most of those traits had seemed to change Blake for the better. She had never seen the girl so happy and at ease, and it was definitely an improvement from the old, brooding Blake who used to run when anything got too difficult for her to handle. She seemed more open, more trustworthy, and more… well, fun.
"Alright, alright, I'll come with you," Weiss decided, but refused to admit that she needed the fun just as much as the rest of her teammates had. She truly had warmed up to them in the time they'd reunited, and she didn't want to waste a moment spent with them only to wallow in the inevitable. She knew, no matter, that they would be there for her. It was time, she decided, she be there for them, too, even if it meant backing them up in a children's game.
It was only a matter of time before her teammates learned Weiss Schnee was her family's Reigning Champ of Snowball War.