Chapter 9

Ruby decided that she would never listen to her sister again when it came to celebrating. Her throat felt like someone had run sandpaper over it, the unpleasant sensation only made worse by her mouth that was dry as a desert. Despite this, the red-haired woman tried her best to fall back asleep to escape her misery, unfortunately, the sun seemed to determine to see to it that she failed.

Resigned to the fact that the world just hated her this morning, Ruby attempted to flip herself over to get out of the bed that she was currently occupying. Her sleep addled mind never registering the sensation of another pair of legs wrapped around her own until the woman visually confirmed it herself.

It took all of Ruby's willpower to hold her scream in as she found none other than her partner of six years in bed beside her. Doing a panicked once over, Ruby was relieved to find that both Weiss and herself had all of their clothes on. Giving a silent sigh as a weight seemed to lift itself off her shoulders, Ruby set to work untangling herself from Weiss.

Setting about getting ready for the day, Ruby sighed at the comfort of having a warm wash towel pressed over her face. Brushing her teeth helped her in ridding herself of the last of the taste of alcohol in her mouth.

Having spent the past two years in near isolation however, Ruby found it to be quite a task to run the fancy shower in the guest bathroom. After fiddling with it for a few minutes, Ruby found the reward to be well worth her effort as the hot water ran over her body, soothing the small aches and pains that had come from running around the mountains for the past few days.

After drying herself off and throwing on a fluffy bathrobe that Ruby was convinced had to be one of the best usages of Weiss' wealth that she had seen yet, the woman made her way to the kitchen. She finally stopped in front of a machine that she had sorely missed the past two years.

"Oh coffee… how I've missed you." It wasn't as if Ruby had particularly enjoyed the drink itself, after all, pouring in the amount of cream and sugar that she had didn't particularly keep the taste of the original roast very well. Rather, it was the caffeine provided by the beverage that Ruby had so sorely missed.

Filling the machine with water and pouring some undoubtedly ridiculously overpriced beans into a filter, Ruby sat cradling her head as small pangs of pain assaulted her.

"C'mon… can't this thing go any faster?"

"I suppose I can't be surprised that you would want everything to go faster." A semi-amused voice came from behind her.

There stood Weiss in all the glory that she could muster having just woken up. Then again, the CEO would look good in practically any situation.

"Hey, I can be patient!" Ruby replied without thinking about how loud she was being. Regret came moment later as her own voice made it to her ears. "Oww… Weiss make it stooooppp."

Rolling her eyes at her partner's exaggerated motions, Weiss merely sat Ruby down at the table in the kitchen before retrieving several mugs from one of the cabinets. Pouring the now finished coffee into two of the cups, one for herself, and one for Ruby.

"Here, drink this. It'll make your headache better." Setting down a cup of coffee in front of the girl, Weiss found that she hadn't even thought about how she had made the coffee: with a cream and five sugars.

"Thanks, Weiss…" With a small grumble, Ruby picked up the cup and took a long drink, a small sigh of bliss coming as she felt the pain in her skull dull a bit. With some degree of relief, Ruby turned her attention to Weiss who was now sitting down across from her with another cup of coffee.

"So, what happened last night? All I remember is Yang insisting that we drink and then… it's all a blur from there." Ruby's eyebrows furrowed while she struggled to call up the memories of last night.

"Don't bother sis, you won't remember anything if you were as hammered as I think you were." Appearing from nowhere, Yang hooked an arm around Ruby's neck as she sat down at the table. "Morning by the way."

"Ham- you mean I was drunk?"

"You got it sis! And… Weiss was the one to put you to bed."

Weiss was thankful that she had not been taking a sip of her coffee at the time, as it would have ended up all over her clothes and the table as she sputtered. Instead of the blushing mess that Ruby would have become two years ago however, the woman merely gave a grin to Weiss as she spoke.

"Thanks, Weiss. You're really the best partner I could have!" Calming herself quickly, Weiss shifted her gaze away before responding.

"It wasn't easy with how grabby you are you dolt…"

"Oh I can imagine." Yang waggled her eyebrows suggestively at the CEO. Thankfully, Blake chose this moment to walk into the kitchen.

"Alright, enough teasing Weiss. I thought that we were expecting Winter to come by today." As always, the feline faunus was the rational one of the group. She always somehow managed to bring the other three rather excitable members of Team RWBY back down to earth.

Eyes widening, Ruby was the first to speak. "Right! How should we tell your sister about what we found Weiss?"

"And pray tell, what did you find?" Blake's eyes gleamed with interest. "I was under the impression that all you found was Ruby."

It was a testament to the bond that was shared between the four women that the red and white pair of Team RWBY did not hesitate for even a moment before responding.

"Originally, that was my goal. It shouldn't come as a surprise though, that the dunce was already wrapped up in someone else's trouble once I found her." Weiss' less than flattering description of events had Ruby sticking her tongue out at the CEO. Rolling her eyes at the childish gesture, Weiss simply continued with her story.

"See, what originally had me running out there was a report that Winter had brought me concerning a sighting of Ruby. The catch was that it came with news of a large Grimm attack in an area where they had no business being."

"Yeah, so we stayed the night at one of the nearby towns and headed out to the site of the attack the next day."

"One of the townspeople also handed me a small black box that he said was found near the area where the attacks began. It's sitting in my room at the moment." Blake nodded, digesting the information easily and prompting the pair to go on.

"Anyways, the next day Weiss and I searched around and eventually we found something just like the box, except like a hundred times bigger! We figured that the boxes must have been what was attracting Grimm."

"An interesting story to say the least"

The four women jumped in their seats when the foreign voice sounded.

"Winter!" Weiss was the first to regain control of her vocal functions.

And indeed, Winter Schnee was standing in the small doorway that led to the kitchen, looking as immaculate as ever in her typical military garb.

Ruby was the next to ask a question that was on all of their minds. "Since when were you here?"

"Long enough to hear the important bits of the story." The reply was curt, though that was to be expected from the elder Schnee sibling. "Now, do you have any exact coordinates for this large black box? If it's function is as you've stated, then it is of utmost importance that we retrieve it as soon as possible."

Quick and to business, Winter's actions were nothing unexpected. After all, this was the woman who had asked several of her own soldiers to take some of their fellows to the infirmary. Injuries that they had suffered because of the specialist's own harsh training method.

"We couldn't get exact coordinates, but we sure can give you a good estimate." Ruby handed over her scroll. On the screen was a map of Atlas and its surrounding areas. A small red dot marked a spot that the kingdom, with only a few villages close by.

"I will arrange for several ships to arrive at the area in a few days, we should be able to have it back in Atlas for examination within a week." Winter nodded as she handed the scroll back to its owner. It seemed however, that she was not done yet.

"Weiss." Her sister turned to face her. "If I recall correctly, today is the day that you have an appointment scheduled with the young scion of the Cintas Family."

Weiss' expression only grew darker as her sister continued to speak. "Another one of father's many attempts to connect the Schnee name to another corporation."

"Wait what?!" Despite her apparent maturation in the social department, it seemed as if Ruby still had a penchant for being able to chime in at the worst times.

The sisters stared at one another for a moment before Weiss finally relented and began to speak. "In exchange for a smooth transition of power in the SDC, my father voluntarily allowed me to take over his position in exchange for a favor. As you have undoubtedly guessed, this favor involves meeting with any frivolous heir that he so chooses." The scowl adorning Weiss' face only grew deeper as she continued.

"Initially it seemed like a good enough deal. I would simply spend a bit of my time each month humoring my father. As of late however, it has become rather troublesome."

"Father has insisted that Weiss expedite her search for a potential partner. He believes that a marriage will secure the Schnee name for the next generation." Winter supplied an explanation. "I will be going Weiss, there are many things that I must do before I can send out a group to retrieve that object." And with that and a goodbye to the other three women in the room, Winter was gone.

Of course, there was no way that Weiss would be able to avoid the questions that she was about to be subjected to.

"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner Weiss?" Ruby looked as if she had half a mind to start shaking Weiss were the white-haired woman sat.

"Well I apologize if I was too busy looking for my partner who's been gone for the past two years." Weiss snarled back. She immediately regretted her decision when Ruby leaned back into her seat with a hurt look in her eyes.

"Hey, watch it Princess. Ruby might not be a little kid anymore, but she still has feelings." Yang was halfway out of her seat, with the only thing holding her back being Blake's arm placed in front of her. The three may have grown closer in Ruby's absence, but the younger woman would always be Yang's priority.

Weiss wanted to apologize, she was just about to really, but Yang's outburst had brought back some not so fond memories Team RWBY's second year, where Weiss and their red-headed leader had not gotten along so well. The then heiress had become more and more occupied with her duties as the successor to the SDC, leaving an ever smaller amount of time to spend with her team. Ruby's enthusiasm and zeal hadn't done any favors for Weiss, who was already running on fumes the majority of those times. It had only been a matter of time until Weiss blew up on her partner.

"Well then, since she isn't such a little kid anymore, she should stop barging into my business like she is one."

A look of disbelief crossed Yang's face before Blake clenched down on her shoulder with her hand. The latter then spoke before anyone else could.

"We're going Weiss. Yang and I will take Ruby out and we'll be back tonight. Hopefully, you'll have gotten over whatever's bothering you by then." The faunus' eyes stared straight into Weiss' own. The look in them let the latter know that Blake wasn't pleased. Even then however, it was a sort of restrained disappointment that was expressed.

Realizing that Blake was giving her the only way out of this situation that wouldn't result in a full blown shouting match, Weiss agreed with her fists clenched. "Fine." She managed to grind out.

Giving a short sigh, Blake lead the two sisters in a somewhat awkward path out of the apartment.

"Weiss."

Sharp blue eyes turned to look at Ruby.

"Sorry…"

The apology left the CEO speechless as the door to her apartment closed in an echo that spread through the empty rooms. Why on Remnant was Ruby the one apologizing? It made no sense.

The cheerful ringing sound of Weiss' scroll notifying her of her appointment in the afternoon seemed like some kind of twisted jab at the woman's mood. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like the time that Blake had afforded her would result in any kind of positive change in her mood.