Author's Note: In my stories, the legal drinking age in most parts of Remnant is 18. Mostly because alcohol is too useful a storytelling tool to give up. This is probably a good time to remind everyone that Weiss, Blake, and Yang have all turned 18.

Chapter 2: An Accidental Confession

Weiss's scroll was lying on a coffee table in one of the Schnee mansion's numerous sitting rooms. Next to it was a half-empty glass of red wine. All of the room's lights were off, but there was a fire steadily burning in the fireplace.

Weiss herself was sitting on a couch next to the table. She was the only person in the room, but thanks to the wonders of technology, she wasn't alone. Her scroll was displaying a picture of Winter, and Winter's voice was coming from its speakers, "The doctors are very insistent that I remain here for a few more days."

"It's probably best to follow their advice," Weiss said.

"I may not have that luxury," Winter said. "Not with things as they are. General Ironwood has need of me."

"Is it really so bad out there?" Weiss asked.

"I have been reviewing the reports," Winter said. "The details are classified, but suffice it to say, I fear we have not seen the worst of what is to come."

Weiss gave a noncommittal hum.

"Are you feeling well, Weiss?" Winter asked.

"Me? I'm fine," Weiss said. "Why do you ask?"

"You seem distant," Winter said. "Has something happened?"

"No!" Weiss said. Then she added more calmly, "No. It's just…everything's changing so quickly. It's been difficult to adapt."

"You are a Schnee," Winter said. "The time will come when you will stand at the forefront of humanity. It is a burden our family has always born. You must be ready for it."

"You're right of course," Weiss said. "Don't worry about me. I'll be okay. You should concentrate on your recovery."

"I will," Winter said. "Take care of yourself, Sister. I will contact you again tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Winter," Weiss said. She leaned forward and hit the end call button on her scroll.

Weiss let out a heavy sigh as she slumped back onto the couch. If Winter could've seen her at that moment, she would've been much more concerned. Weiss was not so much sitting as she was slouching. She never slouched. She'd had too much etiquette drilled into her to do something so unladylike. Even more alarming, she'd taken her shoes off and kicked them aside. Had Father been there, he would have launched into an angry tirade about the necessity of always maintaining proper decorum.

Now that Winter's voice was no longer keeping the silence at bay, the only sounds in the room were the steady burning of the fire and the incessant ticking of a clock on the mantle. Weiss eyed the noisy timepiece malevolently. She really hated that clock. It was old, it didn't keep very good time, and it clashed with the room's décor. Father had acquired it years ago as part of a settlement with a competitor he'd brought to ruin. As Weiss understood it, the clock had been a prized family heirloom. Father had taken it, not because he wanted it, but because he could. He'd kept it all these years as some sort of perverse trophy. Weiss had often dreamed of smashing the clock to bits. She'd never do such a thing of course, but it was cathartic to imagine it.

Weiss turned her gaze to the bay window on the wall opposite her. It was a crisp winter's night outside. The broken moon shone clearly in the sky, and the light snowfall from earlier had stopped. Yang and Blake were somewhere out there amidst the lights of Atlas. Weiss wondered how their date was going. She knew it must be going well. The two of them were just so frustratingly perfect for one another. It hardly seemed fair at all.

Weiss reached for the wine glass on the table and picked it up. She hadn't paid much attention to the vintage when she'd asked Sven to bring it to her. All she'd cared about was having some alcohol to dull her senses. She brought the glass to her lips and drained its contents, savoring the mild burn as it slid down her throat. She thought about calling for another but decided against it. Being tipsy she could manage, but if she actually got drunk, she might do something she'd regret.

Control had always been the key to Weiss's life. It had gotten her into Beacon Academy and away from Father's clutches, albeit temporarily. It had allowed her to maintain an exemplary academic record even in the face of her forced transfer to Atlas Academy. Control was her guiding philosophy, and with times becoming ever more uncertain in the wake of Cinder's emergence, she knew she couldn't afford to surrender any of the control she had left, even temporarily to a lonely night and a bottle of wine.

Weiss set her empty glass down on the table. She knew there would always be things in this world beyond her control, but she'd always thought that she'd at least have total control over herself. If only that were true.

As of late, Weiss's own emotions had worked to undermine her in insidious ways. She'd tried to repress them. She'd tried to ignore them. She'd tried everything she could think of, but to no avail. There was no use denying the truth anymore. Even Yang had somehow managed to figure it out. She, Weiss Schnee, had feelings for Ruby, and they were tearing her up inside.

Weiss wasn't sure when her feelings for Ruby had developed. They'd grown so slowly, it'd been easy for her to quietly bury them deep down inside. She'd been so good at it that they rarely troubled her conscious mind. But when Weiss had returned to Atlas, Ruby's absence had drawn them out. Even then, she'd mistaken them for missing a friend whose presence she'd grown accustomed to.

It wasn't until Weiss had laid eyes again on Ruby in that alley behind the faunus bar that she'd finally understood her feelings were far stronger than a simple desire for friendship. She'd been drowning without even knowing it, and seeing Ruby had put the breath back in her.

Weiss still didn't know if she could call what she felt love. She didn't really even know what love was. All she could be certain of was that her feelings were getting stronger. Seeing Yang and Blake together had made things worse. She was genuinely happy for the two of them, but they'd awakened a kind of jealous envy in her.

The most obvious solution to Weiss's dilemma was to simply confess to Ruby. It was direct, straightforward, and simple. However, Weiss had categorically rejected the idea almost the moment she'd thought of it. There were many reasons. Chief among them was that a relationship with Ruby would expose her to the full scrutiny and scorn of Father and the rest of the Schnee Family. It was a logical, practical reason, and maybe Weiss wouldn't have felt so tormented if logic or practicality had anything to do with why she hadn't expressed her feelings to Ruby.

The brutal, honest truth was that Weiss hadn't confessed to Ruby because she was afraid to. She'd faced down grimm literally ten times her size, but all her courage evaporated in the face of a cheerful girl two years her junior. It was simply pathetic.

The worst part was that Weiss knew Ruby would be gone soon. As torturous as Ruby's presence had been, Weiss didn't want her to leave. However, it was only a matter of time until Ruby would be back on Cinder's trail. She was too much the hero to do anything else. And Weiss couldn't go with her. She had too many responsibilities to leave Atlas, both to her family and academically. There would already be consequences enough for how long she'd neglected her scholastic duties at the academy, especially since she was still the de jure leader of Team WHYT.

When the day came that Ruby departed, Weiss knew she'd be left wondering what might have been if she'd worked up the courage to say something. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it. There were too many ways it could go horribly, horribly wrong.

Weiss tried to tell herself that it was for the best she kept silent. If Winter was to be believed, this wasn't the time to be worried about some silly crush anyway.

"There you are!" a bright voice called out from behind Weiss.

"Ruby!?" Weiss said. Instantly, she corrected her posture and sat up straight.

Ruby bounced happily into the room. She plopped down on the sofa next to Weiss. "You disappeared so fast after Yang and Blake left!"

"Sorry, I…had something to take care of," Weiss offered feebly. Of course Ruby would show up now. Weiss wondered how disheveled she looked. She reached up and tried to straighten her hair surreptitiously. She glanced at her shoes but quickly decided there wasn't a way to get them back on without calling undue attention to them. She hadn't been crying had she? She didn't think so. Hopefully her eyes weren't red and puffy.

"What're you doing sitting around in the dark?" Ruby asked.

Thinking quickly, Weiss said, "I prefer the ambiance this way." It was mostly true. The firelight did set the mood for her sitting around and feeling sorry for herself.

"I guess it is kind of romantic," Ruby said.

"What?" Weiss sputtered. A surge of panic shot through her. What did Ruby mean by that?

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately for Weiss, Ruby immediately switched topics. "Yang and Blake sure looked happy together! Isn't it great?"

"Yes, I suppose it is," Weiss said. Her heart rate slowly returned to normal. This was just ridiculous. She'd at least been able to keep herself outwardly composed around Ruby since their reunion. She'd even endured Yang's crass teasing with relative grace. Now it seemed she could barely handle something as simple as being alone in a room with Ruby. She had to figure out a way to fix this, lest the situation get completely out of hand.

"You should've seen Yang when she was trying to find something to wear. It was so funny," Ruby said as she started babbling.

Ruby kept on talking. Weiss's eyes slowly drifted over her. Ruby had changed since Weiss had first met her. She was slightly taller, and her figure was just a little bit fuller. They were small, subtle changes, but they were impossible for Weiss to ignore. It was getting harder and harder to think of Ruby as a child rather than the young woman she was rapidly becoming.

"…figure it out, but I guess it was obvious. What do you think, Weiss?" Ruby asked.

Weiss realized that she'd missed most of what Ruby had said. "I, uh…I think…" she fumbled helplessly.

"Are you feeling alright?" Ruby asked. "You've been kind of off tonight."

"I'm fine," Weiss insisted. She was getting tired of people asking her that.

"Alright. If you say so," Ruby said. "So I've been thinking. You never did tell me who your crush was."

"My…my crush?" Weiss stammered. For the second time in as many minutes her panic rose. Where was all this coming from? Weiss started to wish she'd ordered a second glass of wine.

"I know you said it wasn't a good time to talk about it the last time, and you were right, but we've got plenty of time now!" Ruby said.

"I don't think…. That's not really an appropriate topic of discussion," Weiss said.

"Ah come on, Weiss," Ruby said.

Weiss wondered if Ruby was playing some kind of sick joke on her. Did she somehow know about her feelings? Was this her way of goading her into confessing? Weiss searched Ruby's face, but there was nothing there other than a sparkle of excited anticipation in her eyes. Weiss quickly realized that Ruby was not the type to toy with her on purpose. If she knew, she would've just come out and said it.

"Why do you even want to know?" Weiss asked.

"You've seen how happy Yang and Blake make each other," Ruby said. "Wouldn't it be great if you had someone like that too? So fess up! Who are you crushing on?"

Weiss understood what was going on now. Helping out Yang and Blake on their first date had inspired Ruby. She wasn't done playing matchmaker, and Weiss was her next victim. Weiss wasn't sure what she'd done to earn such a cruel fate.

Weiss knew she needed to do something to placate Ruby, so she said, "It doesn't really matter who it is."

"Of course it matters!" Ruby said. Suddenly her voice turned somber. "When I was over in Haven, I talked to Jaune a lot. He never said anything at all about…Pyrrha. But one night he told me that just before she…before she went to fight Cinder, she kissed him. He'd had no idea how she'd felt."

"He didn't?" Weiss asked.

"No. And that's why it matters," Ruby said with a stern look on her face. "If you never tell someone how you feel, they'll never know."

Weiss was taken aback. She hadn't seen this side of Ruby before. In all probability, no one had, not even Yang. Ruby was always so upbeat and cheery, even after the battle at Beacon, that it was easy to forget what she'd been through.

Words formed on Weiss's lips and stuck there. She felt like she was standing at the edge of a great precipice and the smallest of steps would send her plummeting into a bottomless abyss.

"Is it Neptune?" Ruby asked suddenly. The cheer was back in her voice. "You two got along pretty good at the dance. You know, after he agreed to go with you. After it was half over."

Weiss blinked in surprise at the question. She said, "No, Ruby. It's not Neptune."

"Mmm…how about Ren?" Ruby asked.

"No," Weiss said, sighing wearily. She could see where this was going.

"Cardin?"

"Why would you even think that?"

"How about Sun?"

"No."

"Nora?"

"No!"

"Uh…Jaune?"

"No!" Weiss said. Her patience was rapidly running out. Ruby had unwittingly been tugging on her heartstrings since she'd entered the room. This childish guessing game on top of it all was more than she could take.

Ruby dropped her voice to a whisper, "It's not Blake or Yang, is it?"

"No!" Weiss said, at her wit's end. "It's you, you dolt!"

Weiss's eyes went wide when she realized what she'd just said. Her face drained of color. She suddenly felt dizzy.

"It's…me?" Ruby said, sounding utterly confused. "Really?"

Weiss realized she still had a slim chance to save herself. Maybe she could deny it, or laugh it off as a joke, but to her horror, she heard herself say, "Yes. It's you."

"Really?" Ruby repeated.

"Yes really!" Weiss said.

"But…why?" Ruby asked.

Weiss squeezed her eyes shut. Of course Ruby would find a way to make this as difficult as possible. Weiss took a deep breath and opened her eyes again. "I might ask you the same question," she said. "You were awfully eager to be my friend when we first met."

"Yeah, I guess…" Ruby said. "I guess I just wanted to impress you at first. You know, because of how we got off on the wrong foot. I knew I could do better. But then, well, you're just so cool! Er…no pun intended. You know so much, and you're just so…confident. No matter what happens, you're always like, 'I got this.'"

Weiss almost wanted to laugh. She really had Ruby fooled. It was nice to know the air of self-confidence she very deliberately projected had convinced at least one person.

"I mean, who wouldn't want to be your friend?" Ruby asked. "Well, I guess a lot of people don't, but that's cause they don't know the real you!"

"Thanks…" Weiss said. Ruby was definitely related to Yang. At least she had slightly more tact that her sister, if only just.

"But you're crushing on…me?" Ruby asked.

Weiss looked down at her feet. She took a deep breath and said, "Every time I meet someone, the moment they learn who I am, they have a plan for me. They want to use me. They want to earn my favor. They brand me as a symbol. You're the only person who's wanted to be my friend just to be my friend."

"What about Yang and Blake?" Ruby asked.

"They only cared about me after we were put on the same team together," Weiss said. She knew that was mostly her fault. She hadn't been very approachable when she'd first started at Beacon.

"I guess I see what you mean," Ruby said. "But we are friends now, right?"

"Yes we are," Weiss said.

"So what does that have to do with you crushing on me?" Ruby asked.

"It's…" Weiss started. How could she explain her feelings to Ruby? The truth was, she didn't fully understand them herself. "Maybe that's just it. We're friends. I trust you. I believe in you. Other than Winter, there's no one else in this world I can say that about. Not even Yang or Blake, at least, not to the same degree. Is it really so surprising that I…care for you?"

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Ruby asked.

"Many reasons," Weiss said. "Plus when you're attracted to someone of your own gender, the odds aren't very good that they're attracted to you back."

"Oh. Yeah. Well…" Ruby fidgeted nervously.

Weiss braced herself. This was the part she'd hoped to avoid more than any other. Ruby was about to tell her that she wasn't attracted to girls.

"I guess now that I think about it, I haven't ever been attracted to anyone before," Ruby said. "Not in, you know, that way."

That wasn't what Weiss had been expecting to hear, but it was none the less devastating. "It's okay, Ruby. I…" she started.

"But maybe…" Ruby said, then stopped.

Weiss's breath caught in her throat. Had she heard that right? She didn't dare so much as make a sound until Ruby finished her thought.

"Maybe…" Ruby started again. She sounded very hesitant at first, but she picked up confidence as she kept talking. "Maybe if it was you, I could be. That'd be…yeah. That'd be okay."

Weiss had no idea how to respond. She wasn't even sure how to interpret what Ruby had just said.

"Weiss!" Ruby jumped up off the couch excitedly. "We should go on a date!"

"You want to go on a date?" Weiss asked, utterly shocked.

"Yeah! Isn't that what you do if you want to find out if you like someone? Like, in that way?" Ruby asked.

"I guess it is," Weiss said.

"Then let's go on a date!" Ruby said. "I mean, if you want to."

"I…yes!" Weiss said.

"Great! Tomorrow? Five o'clock?" Ruby asked.

"That sounds wonderful," Weiss said.

"Alright!" Ruby said. Then she assumed what she probably thought was a formal tone. "You may meet me at my room at five o'clock tomorrow. Don't be late!"

Ruby sped out of the room in a flash of rose petals.

Weiss was absolutely stunned. She sat there for a long time, so confused about what to feel that she didn't feel much of anything. She had a date with Ruby. She had a date with Ruby tomorrow. This simple fact echoed endlessly in the halls of her mind.

Weiss reached for her scroll so she could call Sven. She definitely needed a second glass of wine.

Author's Note: Dang it, Weiss! I said no more angst! I blame you for this!

It's time for a confession on my part. I had no intention to write any White Rose into Missing Pieces. It just kind of happened. I blame Weiss for that as well. It wasn't because I don't like White Rose. (See the White Rose tag on my tumblr if you don't believe me.) But because my preferred depiction of Ruby is asexual/aromantic.

You can only ship tease something for so long until you've got to bite the bullet and actually go through with it though. So I came up with a compromise: portray Ruby as demisexual. (I'm pretty sure that's the correct term for what I'm going for. There's probably a more specific one out there. Feel free to correct me.)

Constructive criticism is always welcome so please feel free to review or comment. If you want to be notified of updates or send me a message, you can find me on tumblr under the name electronicyarn.