Later that night, Blake had returned from the library to find her teammates asleep. She was curious as to why there was another girl in Weiss' bed, until she noticed a piece of paper sitting on her bed. She read it and smiled at Winter as she slept.
Blake,
You may be wondering why there's one extra person in our dorm tonight. My sister, Winter, decided to drop in rather unexpectedly. She's going to be spending a few days with us, I hope tomorrow you two can properly meet each other.
She looked over the flawless handwriting. Weiss' was graceful in everything she did, it inspired a sense of jealousy in even the most reserved and taciturn people. It was beautiful, she was beautiful, she hated to admit it, but she was jealous. Horribly jealous. And jealousy wasn't an emotion she was used to feeling. She hated herself for it, but what could she do? Absolutely nothing. She sighed and laid down in her bed, ready to fall asleep and wake up to a new and beautiful day.
It was raining. That was the first thing Blake had noticed when she opened her eyes. Naturally, being a cat faunus she absolutely despised any form of water, rain included. Showers and baths were okay though. It was not going to be a good day for her. She hated being inside all day, she would much rather sit under her favorite tree and read her cheesy romance novels in the shade. That was a normal and perfect day for her. A yawn from the other side of the room caught her attention. Winter rose from the bed and stumbled into the bathroom. She must be a morning person, unlike Weiss, who would rather you throw ice cold water on her than get up early. Blake had to admit, she was really cute. Her pajamas were simple, a black shirt that was too large for her and black pajama pants. They looked extremely comfortable. Her hair was a messy tangle of silver and purple, but like Ruby's it was a cute kind of messy. She always wondered how Ruby pulled that off. Maybe it had to do with the length of her hair. Messy long hair was more of an annoyance than it was cute. It gets all ratty and tangled up, and brushing it is just the worst.
Winter sleepily stumbled out of the bathroom and rubbed her eyes. Blake slid off her bed and approached her. "Hey." Winter's eyes snapped open and she shook her head.
"Oh, hi! You must be Blake!" They shook hands.
"I'm sorry we couldn't meet yesterday, but I didn't get back to the dorm until late last night." Blake explained, smiling shyly.
"Don't worry about it, Weiss said that you were way into reading, so I expected it! Introverts tend to know the habits of other introverts, after all."
"Right. We should probably wake the other's up. It's almost time for breakfast." Winter's eyes shone with happiness at the mention of breakfast. It was probably her favorite meal of the day. They got to work waking up Ruby and Yang. Ruby bolted up as soon as food was mentioned, and Yang glared at Blake through a curtain of hair. Weiss was a different story however, she absolutely refused to get up. Winter told everyone to go on ahead and wait for them. Being her sister had it's perks. For example, knowing where she was ticklish and where she wasn't. Winter pounced on her and started her relentless attack. Weiss bursted out into a fit of laughter.
"Stop it, sis!"
"Not until you get up!" Weiss cursed.
"Okay, okay! I'll get up! Just please stop!" Winter pulled her hands away and cheered triumphantly. "You should know to never do that! Especially when I'm going through… That time." Winter laughed at her sisters flustered expression. "It's not funny!" Winter started laughing harder.
Jaune sat down next to Ruby, smiling at the way she was so invested in Nora's story. "Hey, Jaune."
"Hey, Red. What's her story about this time? Same thing as usual?" Ruby giggled.
"Yeah, but it's a good story. For some reason it never gets boring." Jaune looked at Nora. She was good like that. She knew how to keep things interesting. Weiss and Winter sat down across from them. Weiss ate the usual, two pancakes and a carton of milk. Winter on the other hand had a stack of four pancakes and bacon. Lots and lots of bacon. As well as three cartons of milk. Which was only two less than what Ruby had. She was starting to remind him of her. He looked back over at her, to see her dip her bacon in syrup and eat it in one whole bite. Winter looked up to see the stares she was receiving.
"What? I like bacon! There's nothing wrong with that!"
"Yeah!" Ruby exclaimed. They highfived each other over the table. The table broke out in laughter. The dreary weather was forgotten as they happily talked amongst themselves. Winter couldn't stop staring at Jaune. She would always catch herself and look away, but she was sure the others noticed. Not Jaune though, which was odd considering he was staring at her just as much, not as obviously as she was, but still. Weiss didn't know why, but she felt like crying. She wanted to be away from them, away from everyone. But still she stayed. Weiss' situation would surely bring about drama, there was no avoiding it. She damned herself as soon as she gave Winter the okay. She just hoped that their relationship would be spared, but that was highly unlikely. It was already strained enough as it is.
"Hey Winter, Ruby and I were planning on catching a movie later today. You wanna come?" Jaune asked. Ruby jumped up.
"Ooh yeah! You want to?"
"Sure, sounds like fun!" She would get to spend time with Jaune, and Ruby, it was perfect.
Winter was having the time of her life! She thought that Jaune and Ruby would pay more attention to each other considering they've been friends for a long time, but they were actually including her in conversations and asking her opinion on things, completely interested in what she had to say! It was a startling contrast to what her life was usually like. While she had the attention of their parents, Weiss had the attention of the media and people that wanted to be her friend. And guys that just wanted to get up her skirt. That was the one thing she wasn't jealous of. Nobody should have to go through harassment of that nature, especially someone like Weiss, she deserved so much better. And from the looks of it, she had got exactly that. She had a wonderful life at Beacon, with wonderful friends. The media left her alone, and no one really even cared that she was there. She was normal for once, and Winter thought she would hate that, but she didn't, in fact she loved it.
The movie was great, she didn't think a movie could make her laugh so much, but it had. By the time they left the theatre, her sides felt like they were going to split open. They walked around a bit after that, all three wearing rain coats and holding umbrellas. None of them really minded the weather, Winter loved the rain herself. There was a certain feeling that came when it rained, she couldn't tell exactly what it was but she loved it all the same. It was like a melancholy yet happy feeling. No, happy wasn't the word. Optimistic maybe? They had stopped talking a long time ago and were now just enjoying the atmosphere around them. It was peaceful. Winter felt as though everything was going to be okay, even though she knew it probably wouldn't. Her and Weiss' relationship was going downhill, that was very obvious to the both of them. Weiss leaving for beacon was probably going to be the last nail in the coffin, but she had delayed that. She made sure to send letters and such. Weiss disliked texting and calling people, she didn't know why, but whatever made her happy.
She had come to Beacon out of desperation, but she couldn't let anyone know that. She was completely terrified that things would become so bad between them that they wouldn't even talk. She didn't want that, she wanted things to be back to the way they were. But were they good back then? She kept on asking herself that question. It certainly seemed like they were, but Weiss was very good at hiding her emotions, even when they were little. She knew now that there must have been some form of hard feelings between them all those years ago, there's no way that there wasn't. That wasn't what scared her though, what scared her was how different things were now. Whenever Weiss hugged her, she could feel it. Whenever Weiss spoke with her, she could feel it. There was apprehension hidden behind every bit of interaction they had, and it terrified her. Even when they were sleeping something felt off. They were no strangers to sleeping in the same bed, after all they had shared more than that growing up. Baths, food, you name it. But for some reason, it felt so astronomically different, and it wasn't just because they were older.
"Hey Winter, you mind if I ask you something?" Ruby had spoken to her, knocking her out of her thoughts.
"Hm? Oh yeah, sure!"
"Do you like Jaune?" Winter stopped walking. Ruby stopped as well. She quickly looked around, noticing for the first time that Jaune was nowhere to be seen. Ruby noticed her confusion. "I asked him to go on ahead and wait for us." Winter nodded.
"I don't know if I like him. But I'm interested in him, y'know?" Ruby smiled and laughed.
"You know, I felt the same way when I first met him. But I didn't really have any experience with boys at the time either."
"So do you? Like him?"
"Nah. He's a great guy, but I just see him as a really good friend. And besides, I'm not really interested in a relationship right now. I'm really busy and all that. Jaune's got a tactical mind, I don't. I have to study so much I barely have time for anything anymore except on weekdays."
"That's not healthy, you should slow down a bit."
"Maybe… But Weiss gets on to me if I don't keep up with my studying. And I'm sure you of all people know an angry Weiss isn't a good one." Winter giggled. "Anyway, we should probably get going." They caught up to Jaune, and lapsed back into comfortable silence. Winter's thoughts turned back to Weiss. Mainly to how she could fix things between them. If she could just get her to open up, talk about things, then maybe everything would be okay. Maybe.
Weiss' way of dealing with things was unorthodox. It was destructive, and it hurt her more than it helped. That is to say, she didn't deal with them. She kept her feelings bottled up, she ignored her problems hoping they would go away. But they never did. They just came right back, to visit her at Beacon. She slumped over her desk and hummed a sad tune. She loved her sister more than anyone. She wanted everything to be alright between them. But she was to blame for everything, or at least that's what she believed. She ran away from her sister, away from her father. She thought that maybe, just maybe, things would be better if she did. Winter's life would be a lot better if she just disappeared, and her father probably wouldn't even care. But then Winter insisted upon writing her letters, and what could she do? Ignore them? That was too cold, even for her. So she wrote back. And now Winter was back with her. Only for a little while, yes. But she had a feeling she would visit more than just once, because now she had friends, and Winter's never really had friends other than her before.
Even if their father said no she would find a way, she always did. Weiss would just have to deal with it. "I can't run away this time… Maybe this is a good thing." She whispered to herself. "Maybe we can fix things."
Author's Notes: I've been taking it slowly for the past day or two. Before I was cranking out chapter after chapter, I was never really satisfied with them, so I'm gonna take it slowly for a while and see if I like my chapters more. I'm not gonna get better if I rush through the writing process all the time. I'm still trying to think of a direction for SFOAYR, I'm sorry for not updating that in a while. I'll get on that as soon as I can convince myself to pick an idea and stick with it.
