So many factors go into making things happen, each individual action only sparks a tiny event in the grand scheme of life, this Weiss wholly believed. So many variables, so many possible outcomes, and honestly, if she really thought about it, she didn't see a future with Jaune. She didn't see a future with anyone, in fact. If you asked Weiss if she was in love with Jaune Arc, she would answer back almost instantly, with a very certain 'yes!' She was so sure of her feelings, and she felt that truly her happiness lied within his arms, and with him in hers.
But life hardly ever turns out like you want it to, and no one knows that better than Weiss, who was forced into a life she had never wanted. The life of a celebrity, the life of an heiress. One filled with gossip, and arranged dates to create a fake love between two kids who don't want it. She had managed to worm her way into Beacon through sheer willpower and determination, through years of rigorous training to be the most elegant, graceful, powerful, knowledgeable huntress she could possibly be.
And her father could do nothing but watch as she was happily accepted into Beacon with open arms, away from the life she was doomed to live, and into the life she had forged her own path towards. One she wanted more than anything. Yes, Weiss Schnee was finally happy, surrounded by friends, and colleagues whose skill matched her own. But despite how happy she was, she was on a slow incline, and there was nothing she could grab a hold of, and it was far too steep to climb back up. All she could do was sit back and wait, as she inevitably reached the end; solid ground, rock bottom.
Jaune held the key to her true redemption, and it seemed like he was going to give it away to her sister instead. Although, the only way to truly know what's going to happen, is to wait for it to happen. And Weiss liked to believe she was patient enough to do that, to wait for some kind of answer to all her problems. To wait for her true happiness.
Weiss sighed as she stared up at the bottom of Ruby's bunk, completely, and utterly drained. Both emotionally, and mentally. Her heart was barely sewn on well as it was, and Jaune threatened to tear out the threads even more without realizing it. As cliche as that sounds, Weiss really felt it. She had never understood the meaning of those sad songs they play on the radio, with the same old recycled lyrics, and cliche, trite phrases repeatedly sung over and over to make the song seem more filling than it actually was. But now she had a pretty good understanding.
She wished she didn't. As she fully gained awareness of reality, she looked out the window to see the glorious dawn, ending the beautiful night. With naught but a gentle kiss, the sun and moon traded places with each other, making all who basked in its glory jealous of the power it held over the land and all its inhabitants. it was far too early for her, and yet, she didn't feel as if she could get back to sleep again, so she she shook her head and hopped out of bed. She changed out of her night clothes and into something more appropriate to be seen in, though nothing fancy and over the top as she usually wore.
She stepped out into the hallway, wearing nothing but a pair of Yang's sleeping shorts, the strings tied tightly around her dainty waist to stop them from falling off, and an oversized shirt that Ruby had let her borrow for when she wanted to just relax in the dorm room. The cool air of the dorms brushed against her skin, making her shiver and wrap her arms around her chest. She yawned and made her way to the lounge, almost on autopilot. Her messy hair fell free as she walked wearily over to the coffee maker, letting her hands do the work while her brain wandered.
Coffee. Coffee was something that she was thankful for. People are always surprised to find that she likes it black, no sugar, no cream. Just black, like an empty void. As depressing as that sounds, she actually enjoyed the bitter taste. Winter had always joked about it in the mornings when she would actually wake up with her. 'Drink enough of that stuff, and you'll become bitter yourself,' she always sang. Weiss had never realized just how true that was. Though really it was more than likely all the building pressure, the years of hard discipline and training, and not the coffee, it was funny to think. Coincidences and whatnot.
As she turned the coffee maker on, she took a seat at one of the many empty tables, just now realizing that she was the only one even in the lounge in the first place. Usually it was packed, students all rushing to get their morning fix of caffeine so they could get up and around, and get the extra boost needed to finish their assignments. But it was early in the morning, no one would be up for another few hours at least. Weiss thought that maybe she would take the day off, she had perfect grades, and extra credit, she could afford to miss a day's worth of classes. She could always work extra too.
She could hear the faint sounds of footsteps echoing through the silence, and she turned her head to find Nora walking extremely slowly into the lounge with a frown on her face. Weiss knew that something was wrong. Nora was a walking pile of energy, and to her knowledge, had never been tired in her entire life. She chalked that up to her ADHD. Did ADHD make it harder to sleep? She didn't know. She would have to look it up later. Another thing added to the list of things to study up on. Not that it would be very useful information.
Nora walked up to the second coffee maker, and stared at it perplexedly. Weiss held in a giggle as she shook her head and began pressing buttons. "Nora? Do you need help?" Nora jumped and let out a faint 'eep', as she turned quickly.
"Oh, Weiss, I didn't realize anyone was in here." She calmed herself and pointed to the machine that was apparently too complex for her to figure out. "Do you know how to…" Weiss stood up and proceeded to show her how to work it. "Oh, thanks Weiss. I've never really had coffee too often before. Never needed it." Weiss nodded.
"You're welcome, Nora." Weiss replied nonchalantly, walking over to her now done mug of blistering blackness, she picked it up and went back to sitting at the table as the silence regained its position of authority. Nora sat down opposite of Weiss and rested her head in her hands. "So…" Weiss started awkwardly, not used to interacting with the girl. "What are you doing up so early?" She asked, hopeful that it would start some kind of conversation.
"Couldn't sleep, for the first time in a long time. You know I used to have a lot more trouble as a kid, my ADHD made it difficult. You know that I have that, right?" Weiss nodded again. "Well, it's not easy dealing with it sometimes. Right now is one of the few times I've ever felt so lethargic." Weiss blinked in confusion. Was Nora actually holding an intelligent conversation? "When I was a kid it was, obviously, much worse. I've always had Ren to help me calm down and focus, but it's still hard." Nora went to check on her coffee, coming back with a small smile as she held the mug in her hands carefully. "I probably shouldn't have this, it's bad for me. But I could honestly care less right now."
Weiss understood that feeling. It was self destructive, and it was surprising that Nora of all people felt it. She usually seemed to be so happy, and she appeared to take good care of herself. Weiss just looked down at the table, unsure of how to respond. Thankfully, Nora continued with her talking. "Ren always says, no sugar, no caffeine. You really should eat less junk food Nora. He cares about me a lot, and he makes sure I take care of myself. Something I don't have the ability to do myself. If he could see me right now, he'd probably be concerned for me, I should be concerned, I haven't crashed like this in a long time, but for some reason I just really don't care. Like, at all. It's scaring me, if I'm going to be completely honest." Nora took a small sip of her coffee, cringing at the bitterness of it. She had forgot to put any sugar in it, or anything really. But again, she didn't care. She just kept on drinking it straight black.
Weiss had really misjudged Nora's character it seemed. And still, Nora continued. "You know, your situation is something I'm really interested in Weiss." Weiss looked up at the mention of her name. "Your feelings for Jaune, his feelings for you, what role your sister is playing in all of this. You know he's going to choose you, right?" Nora took another sip. "It's always been you, Weiss. It'll never be anyone else. I see the way he looks at you, I've heard the way he talks about you. He loves you. It's that simple. And I know you love him too. Don't worry about your sister, it's just a crush, it'll go away."
"Nora, how do you know this?" Weiss asked, growing more hopeful of her future.
"You know, it's not so much of a secret to anyone but Ren, but I'm in love with him. Have been for a long time now, and everyone can see it, except for him. But that's because I've made my affection seem so normal, that he doesn't think twice about it anymore. To him, I'm just showing off our friendship to the world. But really, I'm just a coward. A coward who can't tell the man she loves that he's the one for her." Another sip. "Take my advice, Weiss. Once this is all over, don't wait. Just run to him, show him how much you want him. Kiss him, take him out, hug him and never let go, whatever you want, just make sure he knows. Or else it'll get to the point where you're so sure he'll reject you that you can't even think about confessing."
Weiss thought about her words and smiled. "Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks, Nora." Nora chugged her coffee, finishing it off with a sigh and a shiver as the taste rolled past her tongue.
"Really what you should be worried about is yourself, Weiss. Just as I should be more worried about all my little destructive habits that I keep to myself, so should you be worried about yours. It's not healthy to sulk quietly, alone in the corner without telling your friends you're even hurting in the first place." Weiss tensed up, freezing at her words as worry filled her mind.
"Is it really so obvious that I'm keeping this all piled up?"
"So you admit to doing it then?"
"Of course, it's always been a bad habit of mine, to run away from things, to not face them, to just keep it all buried inside until I can't take it anymore. I've tried being more open, I really have. But letting you all see the side of me I never let show is one of the most difficult things I've ever done!"
"But you're doing it now." Weiss closes her eyes lays her head down on the tabletop. "Weiss, it's never easy to open up to people, because then they have the power to make, or break your heart. In many different ways. But opening up to the right people, is quite possibly the greatest feeling in the world. But it's up to you to decide who the right people are." Nora gets up from her seat, pushing the chair in. "Just think on everything I said, okay? I'm going to try to get a few more hours of sleep before everyone wakes up. Hopefully then I'll feel normal again, more energetic. Less, like this, I guess." As Nora walked away from her, she held out a hand and stopped her.
"Nora, wait!" She turned and looked at Weiss curiously. "Do you think, we could do this again sometime? Just sit and talk? It was nice." She smiled and nodded happily.
"Of course, Weiss, anytime!" She replied cheerily. She turned and walked away again, exiting the lounge with a bit of a skip in her step, leaving Weiss alone once more. The silence seemed deafening in comparison to Nora's voice. It felt empty. But at least it gave her some peace to think, and she had a lot to think about.
Author's Notes: Hey all, I finally managed to do something. I don't know anything about this story anymore... I don't know if it'll be finished soon, and odds are, it'll completely change into something that's so different from what I had originally planned that it won't be 'Winter' anymore. I'll probably have to edit the title in some way, or the description. Most definitely the description if it goes in a completely different direction than what I had planned. You see, I had an ending planned out. But now I hate that ending, and I don't want to use it at all, so I'm going to focus on character's and relationship building for a while, maybe, perhaps, not sure... And before you guys comment on Nora's complete and total personality change, let me tell you something, I have ADHD, and I know it probably sounds really stupid, but I feel as if Nora has it too. Now of course it isn't like... Set in stone, or confirmed by Miles, or Kerry, or anyone really. But I wanted to implement it in some way, wanted to put my personal experiences in.
Now another thing I want to tackle real quick is the character's themselves. You've all more than likely noticed that I use headcanons a lot, and I try to differ from actual canon. Not so much to the extent of taking away their personalities, but to giving them unique traits that I feel makes them a better character, or at least more relatable to some people. These characters, despite not being made by me, have become my own characters. Kind of. I write them all a certain way, I develop my own versions of them. And I'm glad you like my writing so much to continue reading these stories of mine, because I know a lot of people hate when the characters are even the slightest bit off from canon. It really means a lot to me.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for reading. Here's hoping that I've got a lot more coming in the future, because my mood for writing has been very fickle lately...