Ruby sat in the corner of Weiss's room flipping through her book of fairytales as she gave a final account of the number of dead and all the damages that had occured two days prior to Glynda.

"That many?" The older Sorceress seemed to mumble to herself. "I see. I shall let his Majesty know. No doubt it won't be long before the news reaches here regardless. I will contact you soon." With that the megascope went dark.

Weiss stood quiet with a thoughtful look on her face. Ruby closed her book, setting it on her lap.

That had gone about as well as Weiss had expected it too. Glynda was by no means pleased to learn that a pogrom had erupted in town at Taurus's execution. More so than that, the Sorceress was annoyed with herself for not having considered such a possibility.

The town was a heavy mix of humans and non-humans and once his acts became public knowledge anti non-human sentiments were bound to explode, and they had, spectacularly.

From what Oobleck had told her the tensions in town seemed to have lessened but Weiss had witnessed such events first hand before and knew that such a thing could change in a single instant.

Weiss growled to herself but Ruby caught the noise.

"Well… that went well?" Ruby partially questioned, unsure of the situation. Weiss sighed.

"As well as one might expect considering two of the town's largest buildings are piles of ash with several others damaged nearly beyond repair and a body count of no less than a hundred and thirty." She grumbled, crossing her arms and glaring into the space where the image of Glynda had vanished.

"Should we do something?" She leaned back into the plush leather chair and watched the Sorceress brood from across the room.

"No, we wait."

"So, were just waiting?"

"For now." Weiss nodded, turning to face the Witcher who drummed her fingers on the leather bound book. "The town will need direction in rebuilding, once the King decides what must be done Oobleck and I will be needed for that."

"But until then?" Ruby tilted her head.

"For now we wait for the King, and Oobleck will take care of anything that requires immediate attention. Until things cool off it would be better that you and I stay away from town, you especially." Weiss emphasised, leveling her gaze on the Witcher who shrugged in a sheepish gesture.

"The eyes give me away every time." Ruby nodded, propping her cheek on her closed fist.

"Indeed, and we don't need anymore unnecessary blood to be spilt or fights breaking out, so for now we'll wait."

Ruby hummed in acknowledgment.

"You're… not in a hurry to leave Beacon are you?" She asked after a moment.

Before the Witcher could answer the crystals in the megascope blazed to life, waiting.

"Now who is it?" Weiss mumbled to herself before waving a hand and allowing the megascope to project a new image into the air.

A familiar workshop and Sorceress appeared.

"Hey!"

"Yang!" Ruby jumped up and trotted up to the megascope.

"Ruby! There you are, and seemingly in one piece." The blonde Sorceress smiled brightly. "I heard you quickly took care of the monster problem."

"Where did you hear that from?" Ruby questioned the slightly grainy image of her older sister.

"From Weiss." She nodded to her colleague. "Said you dispatched it quick and proper." She nodded.

"I didn't know you were in contact with Yang." Ruby turned to Weiss.

"I required her assistance in tracking down our fisstech dealer," she crossed her arms.

"What do you know about fisstech?" She turned back to her sister, both eyebrows hitched upwards.

"I'm doing some… research for King Ozpin concerning narcotics. I can't really talk about it right now." Ruby made a face that caused Yang to roll her eyes even as she smiled and cocked a hip, arms crossed beneath her ample chest.

"Don't make that face. I got it under control." She assured.

"Hmm," Ruby simply made a different, unconvinced face.

"Is there something I can help you with, Yang?" Weiss interjected.

"Oh, no. You never got back to me with Ruby so I figured I'd pop in and remind you, but here she is." She grinned.

"Ah, right. I never had a good opportunity. Things have been, shall we say, hectic." Weiss frowned.

"How so?" Yang glanced between the other two women.

"When I was in town yesterday morning a pogrom erupted." Ruby explained. Yang froze at the word before her eyes locked on Ruby, scanning her. Ruby already knew she was looking for injuries.

"I'm fine." She assured. "And Weiss cast a huge storm spell or something and put all the fires out so… only a couple buildings burned down… Yeah, it's pretty bad." She finished looking at the floor.

Yang shook her head and sighed.

"His Majesty was supposed to be here in a week but it may be a while longer with this, there will be backlash at the capital." Weiss said.

"No doubt." Yang agreed. "Hmm, I might have to see the damage for myself…"

"Wait, what?" Weiss blinked as the projection of Yang began to pace about her workshop. Ruby grinned as she watched.

"There she goes." She chuckled. Weiss looked at her questioningly.

"I do also have to report to the King and tie up some loose ends here before I leave." She was mostly talking to herself now.

"Yang, there's no reason for you…"

"Alright, I gotta get some stuff finished up, I'll see you in a week." She said ignoring her colleague and in a blink the image disappeared and the crystals went dark.

"Is she always so…" Weiss trailed off.

"Yup." Ruby drawled, popping the 'P'.

"I need a drink…" Weiss sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose and walked over to her vanity.

"Kind of early for drinking…" She mumbled, glancing around the room at all the alchemical ingredients and things sitting on shelves. She noticed the sheathed rapier sitting next to Weiss's bed and had an idea.

"You any good with that?" She asked, nodding toward the sword when Weiss turned to look. She smiled when almost predictably, the Sorceress puffed up.

"Naturally, I don't carry it for show." She huffed.

"How bout a spar than?" She offered. "Nothing relieves stress like beating each other up." She grinned when Weiss couldn't completely cover up her snort of laughter.

"Very well, I'll need to change. Wait for me in the garden." Ruby nodded and strolled out of the room.

Walking down the hall she spotted a familiar head of long dark tresses.

"Blake." She called. The servant stopped and looked to see who was calling her.

"Good morning, Mistress Witcher." She nodded in greeting.

"How are you today?" She couldn't help but ask, She looked tired, like she hadn't slept all night and Ruby couldn't blame her if it were the case. "How are the other non-human servants doing?" She asked a little more quietly.

"Fine as things can be under these circumstances. Everyone's a little nervous." She sighed quietly.

That was to be expected after a pogrom, those not butchered were left to wonder when. When would it happen again, when will it be me?

"The human servants…" Blake started. "You can see the distrust in their faces."

"I understand." Ruby nodded.

"How could you understand?!" Blake snapped making Ruby jump.

Realizing what she'd done Blake folded her hands and bowed to the Witcher.

"Please forgive me, Mistress Witcher."

"Forget about it." Ruby waved away the apology. "Things are… tense right now, I get it." She assured. Blake lifted her head but her eyes stayed on the floor.

"I'm human, yeah, but I'm also a Witcher." She said after a second. "A mutant freak and an outcast. People think I carry disease, bring curses and ill omens down upon them." She said. "I've had villages loose their hounds on me, refused to let me drink from the same water supply as them and even try to set me on fire." She listed causing Blake to look up at her finally.

"I know how frustrating it can be." She finished. Blake nodded. "I have to go meet Weiss. Watch over yourself." She said before continuing down the corridor.

"Thank you." Blake's quiet thanks still reached her ears.

The garden was empty even of servants. Ruby made herself comfortable in the cool grass, soaking up the warm rays of sunlight as she waited.

It couldn't have been any longer than twenty minutes when she picked up on a very distinctive gait in the grass behind her. Her head dropped back and she found herself gazing upside down at the Sorceress wearing her traveling clothes. The blue jerkin and tall riding boots. Her rapier secured at her side.

"Are we going to spar or laze about in the grass?" She asked, planting both hands on her hips.

Jumping to her feet Ruby turned and slid the steel sword from its place on her back and gave it a twirl.

A smirk pulled at Weiss's lips as she drew the rapier from her waist.

"Ready when you are." Ruby struck a stance.

"En garde!" Weiss wasted no time going on the offense, lunging forward.

Ruby parried the straight forward strike with ease and spun swinging her own blade back around.

Weiss caught the Witcher's blade against her own and was jarred by the force. She'd known the monster hunter would be physically stronger than her but knowing and seeing were two different things entirely.

Metal sang as it clashed and slid against each other.

She would need to be careful about which attacks she blocked and which she should avoid entirely.

She lunged again, attempting a few speedy strikes but they were dodged entirely and she frowned.

She knew she would be outmatched power wise, Ruby was stronger and a longsword was made for powerful strikes. She had hoped to traverse the gap with speed. She was faster and her blade was made to strike with deadly speed and precision… and perhaps on any other opponent that would have worked.

It would not work on a Witcher though.

The lightning quick reflexes given to them by their mutations was faster than anything Weiss could pull off without magic.

Ruby lunged this time, swinging her blade in a tight arc that the Sorceress narrowly dodged, quick stepping out of the long swords reach before spinning in again to jab at the Witcher.

Ruby jumped back narrowly avoiding being skewered by the rapier. Silver eyes looked at her approvingly.

Ruby held her blade in both hands as she began to circle. Piercing blue eyes watched her every movement, rapier posed and at the ready for the next flurry of blows.

Digging her heal in Ruby shot off in a flurry of quick strikes.

Weiss quickly blocked and dodged the ones she could but she was being pushed back and running out of places to go.

A powerful swing knocked her blade aside leaving her open and a shot of panic flashed through Weiss and without thinking her right hand shot up and a pulse of energy sent the Witcher flying and her sword clattering to the ground.

Ruby laid still in the grass.

"Ow," She croaked.

Weiss stood frozen, hand still raised in the air before she realized what she'd done.

"R-Ruby!" Weiss ran to the fallen Witcher and knelt at her side. "Ruby, are you alright!?"

"Y-yeah… just a little winded." She huffed, carefully sitting up with Weiss's help and patting herself softly, checking to make sure Weiss hadn't blasted any holes in her.

"I didn't mean to do that, I… " She hesitated.

"It's fine." Ruby coughed and stopped patting herself down, satisfied that she was still mostly in one piece. "I forgot. Never back a Mage into a corner." She mumbled.

Weiss helped her stand and gave her a once over as she did. She seemed to be alright, it was only a pressure spell after all.

Ruby reached down and picked her discarded sword from the grass and slid it back into its sheath.

"Let's just sit for a while." She motioned and sat in the grass, this time Weiss took up the spot beside her, legs curled up underneath her.

A gentle breeze swept through the garden.

Weiss frowned at her hands folded in her lap and scolded herself for letting her instincts sweep her away even for the briefest of moments. She could have killed Ruby. Obviously she needed to spend more time working on suppressing those reactions.

Ruby could tell by the dark shadows hanging over Weiss's face that she was still dwelling on the accidental blasting.

"I wish I'd gone to Aretuza." She started out of nowhere. "My job would be so much easier if I could just blast ice or read people's thoughts..." She said. Weiss snorted.

"I don't think someone like you would have enjoyed the academy. The professors are very strict and Students aren't allowed to leave the island until their training is through. Not to mention the many lesson on etiquette and decorum." Weiss explained.

"Makes me wonder how Yang made it through." She hummed and than grinned when Weiss's lips twitched upwards along with another quiet noise that maybe was almost a laugh.

"Yang and I attended Aretuza at the same time and as I recall, she spent a lot of time in the rectoress office." Weiss informed her.

"That sounds about right. You're probably right too, Witcher training is back breaking work but one thing it does not have for sure are lessons about what kind of fork you use for fish. " Ruby smiled and gently nudged her shoulder against Weiss's.

Ruby's smile turned into a grin when when that finally coaxed the smile from Weiss's lips. Pleased that the mage wasn't looking so gloomy anymore and turned her gaze on the garden stretched out in front of them.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when cool fingers wrapped around her own and she turned to find the Sorceress's right hand wrapped gently around her left. Weiss was pointedly not looking at her. Just that small bit of contact sent a shiver through her and she grinned stupidly out at the flowers

"Ruby…" Weiss called after several moments.

"Hmm?" The Witcher hummed, listening.

"How… how did you become a Witcher?" She asked.

Ruby turned to look at the Sorceress staring back at her, her eyes unreadable.

"So…" She started without preamble, turning her gaze back to the garden, "One night my dad's horse broke through the fence and ran off, so he's out in the woods looking for his runaway horse when he finds it… being eaten by a large angry forktail." Ruby snorted at the story she must have heard second hand.

"Well my dad was a goner for sure if a passing Witcher hadn't heard his yells." She glanced over at Weiss. "When all was said and done he couldn't pay the Witcher so instead in true Witcher fashion he invokes the law of surprise. 'Give me the thing you don't yet know you have.'" She said in a deep exaggerated voice that made Weiss roll her eyes but smile all the same.

"I thought Witcher's invoking the law of surprise was a myth." Weiss mumbled.

"Nope and hush, I'm telling a story." She tutted. She saw Weiss scowl weakly but said nothing.

"So my dad gets home to my mom and he tell her about the Witcher and she starts crying." Ruby flung out her right hand. "She was pregnant with me. I was the thing he didn't yet know he had. So six years later the Witcher came back for me so I could start training at Kaer Morhen, where I stayed until the master Witcher decided my training was complete and I started out on the path. The end."

"For someone who likes fairytales so much you're awful at telling stories." Weiss grumbled.

"I never said it would be a good story." Ruby chuckled dryly.

"True." Weiss agreed and smiled when Ruby pouted. "If you never left Kaer Morhen until you were an adult how did you ever meet with your sister?"

"Oh, well after I left the keep for the first time I went back to my parents home, to see them. Apparently they… had died from the Catriona plague while I was gone, but a man from a nearby farm told me where I could find Yang who I guess had visited them before. I found her and we traveled together for a while, that was before she had the workshop in Mistral." She shrugged and turned to Weiss.

"I'm sorry…" Weiss didn't know what else to say so she gently squeezed the hand in hers. Ruby shrugged.

"It was a long time ago and honestly... my memories of them have all but faded away."

They sat listening to the constant humming of the cicadas before Ruby suddenly spoke.

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked.

"I mean I know what it costs to attend Aretuza and and I can't remember where but I know I've heard the name 'Schnee' before." She smirked at Weiss's now disgruntled look.

"Indeed, I'm sure you have. My family runs a very large trading company called Schnee Dust Cargo." She sighed.

"That's where I heard it." Ruby snapped her fingers in recognition. Weiss nodded.

"My grandfather started it nearly over a century and a half ago, when he became too old to continue, its governing was passed to his only daughters husband… my father."

Ruby did not miss the way Weiss said 'my father' nor the face she was making.

"When it was discovered that I had an aptitude for magic I was sent off to Aretuza and effectively blocked from inheriting my birthright." The bitterness that had slipped into her tone caught Ruby off guard.

"The SDC?" She asked. Weiss nodded.

"Before I was sent off to school my grandfather had been teaching me how to run the company…" Weiss went quiet for a long moment before she suddenly stood, pulling her hand from Ruby's. "I suddenly remembered something I must take care of, please excuse me, Ruby."

"Weiss?" Ruby called but the Sorceress did not stop and quickly disappeared back inside the castle, leaving the Witcher alone.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Later that evening Ruby was still thinking about how their nice afternoon had somehow gone wrong as she walked into the stables to give Zwei a good brushing. She came to a halt when she saw Weiss standing in the stables near Stardust's stall.

"Weiss." She said surprised, causing said Mage to look at her. 'I didn't know you were here… should I... go?" She pointed behind her, already taking an unsure step back out.

"No, of course not." She said quietly before going back to Stardust. Nodding to herself Ruby walked over to Zwei's stall. The gelding snorted and shook his head, pleased to see her.

"Hey boy." She smiled and rubbed his snout before pulling open the stall door and stepping inside.

"Ruby," Weiss called out to her, making her look up curiously. "I wanted to apologize… for leaving so suddenly today." She finally said.

"You're an advisor to the King of Vale, if you're busy then you're busy." Ruby shrugged. As she dug a brush out of a bucket sitting on the floor near a pile of hay.

"I wasn't busy…" Was Weiss's almost sheepish answer.

Ruby was silent for a few seconds, thinking about what she wanted to say.

"I know… but, I could tell you were... getting upset, talking about your father." She glanced over at Weiss who stood quietly next to her horse so Ruby forged on.

"I can't say I'll be able to help or… even understand, but if you want to talk… I'll listen." She offered. Weiss said nothing and Ruby went back to brushing Zwei.

"I hate him." Weiss's cold voice broke the quiet. "He's been dead for forty years and I still hate him."

Ruby stopped brushing but didn't turn around.

"When my older sister and I both discovered we had an affinity for magic we were both sent away to school as a way to bar us from inheriting the company as my father had a distinct distaste for anything that deviated from normal. Non-humans and Mages especially." She sneered to herself.

"He and my younger brother who took over after him dragged our family name through the mud with their underhanded say they operated in a morally gray area would be too kind."

Ruby looked back at the Sorceress who was still facing away from her, running her hand through Stardust's mane.

"I… can understand why that would be frustrating…" She began.

"It's more than frustrating!" Weiss snapped, making Ruby frown. "It was supposed to be my legacy… I promised him." She mumbled to herself so low Ruby almost didn't catch it.

A long silence followed, broke only by the occasional snort of the horses and the quiet scratching of the brushes on their coats.

"I lied before." Weiss suddenly said, causing Ruby to look up at her. "When were were traveling to Beacon and you asked me if there was a reason I named my horse as I did." She finally glanced at the Witcher over her shoulder briefly. Ruby said nothing, unsure of what she could say at this moment.

"My grandfather." She started. "He and I were very close, I grew up at his knee before I went to school. We shared a mutual love of horses." She said wistfully.

"He owned a large farm where they were bred that he bought after he became successful. As soon as I was old enough he taught me how to ride." She said all this with a sad fondness in her words.

"He died while I was away at school and my father took over his estate. He sold the farm and all the horses, including my grandfather's prized stallion, Star." Weiss said this without looking up from brushing her horses shiny dappled coat.

"Some years later I located the merchant who had bought them all and found that Star had been used to sire a number of racing champions. I bought one of their descendants." Weiss finished her brushing and stood quiet.

"So… Stardust… It is a nice name." Ruby finally said after a moment.

"It's… silly." The Sorceress said, not turning around.

Quietly, Ruby crossed the stable, stopping directly behind Weiss, hesitating a moment before reaching out and wrapping her arms gently around the Sorceress's waist, conscious that Weiss was finicky about physical contact. She pulled her in closer when she wasn't rebuked and nestled her chin on the shorter woman's shoulder.

Silently Weiss's hands covered Ruby's arms at her waist and the Witcher feared she would shove her away but instead they just sat there.

"There's nothing wrong with holding on too things that remind us of the people we care about. That's human nature." Even as she said it she could feel the presence of the tattered red cloak on her shoulders more than ever.

"Even when there's no sense in it." Weiss mumbled.

"No one ever said human nature made sense." The Witcher smiled when she heard the heavy release of air she knew was amusement.

"I suppose that is true." Weiss agreed, pushing out of Ruby's embrace and the Witcher reluctantly let her go so she could turn and face her.

"It's late, I should be getting to sleep." She said. Ruby nodded.

She stepped around Ruby and made for the castle but stopped short.

"Ruby?" Weiss called.

"Yeah?" She asked, eyes still locked on to Weiss's retreating form.

"Thank you." She said at last and without waiting for a reply disappeared around the corner.

Ruby smiled at the place Weiss had been. Things were a little up in the air right now for sure, but she had a good feeling about the coming days.


This was supposed to be a onshot so i think this is as good a place as any to send it off - Malthazar LOS

[Sorry, my fault it took so long to come out, turns out I'm actually kind of busy this semester for once, who woulda thunk it.] -ODST110