I am so so so so sorry for being later than usual. I'll do better in the future. Please forgive me. Ok, this is one of the longest and most convoluted freakin chapters I've ever written for this story. I enjoyed it, so I hope you will. Chapter 11 and a Happy New Year to you all! Welcome to 2016!
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Chapter 11: Angst Then a Date Begins
Weiss
I've been seeing them everywhere since my father sent someone, whoever that man was, to contact me. He just showed up out of nowhere and dragged me off. I thought I was being kidnapped. Let's just say that he probably won't be having any kids now. I laugh at his reaction to that well placed kick.
The news he gave me, though, disturbs me. Personally, I can't believe father is giving us so much time. What could he be planning in that length of time? Whatever it is, it could very well be the end of my relationship.
I sigh as I stare out my window. I tap my pencil in the desk lightly. I finished this paper and a load of other homework less than an hour ago. This is the final draft, and I'm happy with it. It could very well be the best work I've done this semester. Though, we are only about halfway through the semester, so I can't really measure the quality fully as if yet.
Out the window, I see a shadow about two trees over. There's a slight glint of something reflecting the light, and I look closer. There they are. That's one of the team I'm sure my father sent to keep an eye on me. I smile deviously and wave at the shadow. A few seconds later, they're gone. I suppose they've relocated because I know that they can't give up. They get paid for a reason, I guess.
I sigh again as I pack up my things. Everything is back to normal, well, as normal as it can get around here, at least. I think Sun is trying to reason with Neptune, who has once again landed himself in the infirmary by trying to seduce Coco. I'm pretty sure that Coco is taken, and if I'm not mistaken, she's with Velvet. It's rare, but I have been known to be wrong. Neptune is in for a surprise if he ever stops long enough to actually ask her if she's single. I doubt he will, him being, well, Neptune. He thinks himself god's gift to women, expecting any of the female persuasion to bow before his efforts of seduction. I roll my eyes. He needs to give up on Coco and settle on one of the first years that are willing to put out for him. Better yet, he needs to grow up and think of the consequences of his actions.
I walk out of the room that I reserved in the library for studying. I haven't seen hide nor hair of any of my team since this morning, and even less of Sun since he's been trying to get his team back together. The only real problem is Neptune, and I'm sure he can handle it. Making my way back to the dorm, I spot Sun walking out of the infirmary hallway. He sees me and waves, smiling. I look at him closely and see that it's faked. When I meet up with him, I put down my bag and put my hand on his cheek. "What's wrong?"
He keeps the smile and shakes his head. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing for you to worry your pretty, white head about."
I pull my hand away and put my hand on my hips. Smirking, I look into his eyes. "Don't lie to me, Sun. I want to know. I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't concerned."
Sun sighs and closes his eyes. "It's just Neptune. He's getting more aggressive." He shakes his head. "I think it might be time to tell someone."
I sigh and take his hand. I'd gotten used to the whole physical contact thing because of Ruby, but this time, I'm initiating the contact. "Probably. The next step could be rape, or worse. I don't think that he should get that opportunity."
Sun sighs. "That's what I was thinking, too." He takes his hand back and turns away from me. "I just didn't want it to come to this. He was my bro, and he is my partner, ya know?"
I sigh and walk up behind him. "I know, and you don't have to if you don't want to, but I think it may be the best course of action. What if he does attack Coco? I know you wouldn't be able to live with yourself if he actually raped her, and you could have prevented it."
I see him take a deep breath. He turns around and gives me a small smile. "You're right. It is the right thing to do. Thanks." He gives me a playful punch to my arm. "You always know what to do."
I smile back and rub my arm where he touched. "Of course. So, when do you plan on telling Ozpin?"
Sun sighs, his smile fading. "Later. Now, though, I need to get my mind off of everything. You wanna provide the distraction?" His smile is back now, with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
I cross my arms over my chest. "And what would this distraction entail, monkey-boy?" I smirk at him, waiting for the answer, knowing that it probably isn't anything I would consider safe.
He connects his hands in that evil pyramid thing that I've seen in movies. "A fun time out on the town."
I pinch the bridge of my nose. "How many times do I have to tell you that that isn't the best idea with the paparazzi out and about?"
Sun's mischievous gaze fades just a hair at this. "Right, right. Sorry, um, how about a quiet dinner?"
I smile. "That doesn't even sound like you, Sun. Pick something you like, and I'll go along with it. I think this date should be a learning experience, don't you?"
Sun nods enthusiastically while looking like he's in deep thought. He snaps his fingers in some kind of realization and turns to me. "I'll meet you at your dorm room at five tonight, 'k?" With that, he flees, running through the hall, his tail twitching behind him.
I stand there, brow knit in confusion, staring after him. "What the hell?" I shrug and sigh, knowing full well that I asked for this. He is way too enthusiastic sometimes. Then, I'm smiling, remembering our first two dates. i got to choose the first date, and it didn't end too well. We were eating at a very expensive restaurant, one that required a certain dress code. Needless to say that Sun couldn't keep his shirt on. I definitely didn't mind, what with his, um, physique, but the other patrons were horrified. It didn't help that he's a Faunus, either. That kind of place isn't usually meant for them. It's meant for rich humans with no true sense of right or wrong, but I wanted to treat Sun. I wanted to give him something, but all it did was get us thrown out. He brushed it off, but it was a blow to my dignity, that night. We went to that ice cream parlor, though. That was at least one highlight. I smile at that memory.
The second date, that one was interesting. I don't even really think it can be considered a date. Everything was a bit muddled during that one. We let Yang plan it, and I was against it, but Sun wanted to give her a chance. So, we sat through a very torturous concert, at least it was for me. Sun loved the Achieve Men concert that Yang got us tickets for. That was an experience that will probably give me a migraine every time I think about it. I rub my temple at this. Now, I'm just going to let Sun plan a date. It can't be that bad, can it?
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I was wrong. I was seriously wrong. He's taking me to an arcade. Who am I kidding? I knew this was going to happen. I knew he'd pick someplace like this. I pinch the bridge if my nose in frustration and just shake my head. I guess this is what I get for letting him do something.
I turn to Sun and cross my arms. "I am not going in there."
Sun grabs my shoulders from behind and starts to forcibly push me toward the entrance. "You are, Weissy. You said I could plan the date, so, this is the date."
I groan at the prospect but accept my fate as he pushes me in. "Fine. I did say that you could choose."
I swear he just pumped his fist in the air in victory. I can't exactly see him, but that's what it sounded like. "Yes! Knew you'd say yes."
I scoff. "I didn't exactly say yes, Sun."
"Close enough."
We make it into the crowded, gigantic room that is completely filled with nerds. Their not even the kind of nerds that I'd enjoy being around. No, they're gamers, the exact opposite of myself. These are geeks, obsessors over the virtual world, player of video games, goers of comic conventions. I shiver in both disgust and fear and look around. Sun drapes his arm over my shoulder, making me look up. "Why did you choose an arcade?"
Sun shrugs. "I like it here. You meet all kinds of interesting people. Plus, like anyone would believe that THE Weiss Schnee would come into a place like this."
I sigh. "You may have a point. Okay, what first?"
He looks around with his finger tapping his chin. "Hmmm, that's really hard. There's the basics over there. You know, like, Pac Man, Mario, and all. Then, upstairs, there's the Dance Dance Revolution machine thing and a couple of weird games like shooting hoops or that, um, throw game. I forgot the name for it."
I quirks my eyebrow. "That throwing game?"
Sun nods with determination. "Yep. So, you pick. Whatcha wanna play?"
I pinch the brisge of my nose. "I don't even know what any of those are, Sun. You just pick so that we can get this over with."
Sun smirks at me. "Now, is that any way to think this early in the date? I'm sure that by the end of the night, you'll find yourself an arcade enthusiast."
I hold up my hand. "Whoa. Let's not go that far. Let's see if I actually enjoy tonight first before jumping to any conclusions."
Sun waves a hand at me in playful dismissal. "Don't worry, you will." He beams, and I can't help but return it with a small smile of my own.
He winks and pulls me toward the Pac Man game. I look at all of the blinking parts and the horrible graphics that the screne displays. "This looks a bit underwhelming. Are you sure you want to start with this?"
I look up to see him with his eyebrow raised. "This is a classic. Trust me, you'll get addicted to it in no time." He gestures toward the game with a dramatic wave of his hand.
I look at it skeptically and smirk. "I doubt I'll become addicted to such a primative game."
Sun just smiles and waves a token at me. "Then play it, if you're so sure of yourself."
I swipe the token from his hand and put it in the machine. I look at the screen and then back at him nervously, still trying to hold onto my confidence. "I don't exactly know how to play."
he facepalms. "Of course you don't. My bad." He moves to get almost in front of me. "Okay, you put the token in. Now, you just press the one player button, then start. You move the joystick around to guide you. It's pretty simple, really. That's why I started on this one. It's pretty basic, ya know."
I nod along. It does look simple. he moves behind me to watch as I press all the buttons he told me to. When the game started, a little crescent shaped thing appeared on the side. I moved the joystick, and it moved, too. Hmm, interesting. The objective seems to be to get the tiny, golden pellets littering the screen, so I start to make the little yellow thing eat them. It's going along great until I see these weird ghost things coming for the yellow circle thing. I have no idea what they are or what they plan on doing, so I just wait. I keep making Pac Man thing go, but then, the ghosts ambush me. I have no idea what happened, but GAME OVER flashes on the screen, and a vein throbs in my head. I turn to Sun in both disappointment and a strangely consuming fury. "Again!"
Sun just laughs and hands me another token. "Oh, I told you that you'd become addicted. I just never expected you to get hooked so fast." His smug smile is ignored for the time being so that I can get back to the game. I slide the token into the machine and press start. I take a deep breath and start to move the little Pac Man around. I know to watch out for those ghosts, so I steer clear of them. Suddenly, a flash goes off, and it makes lights dance in front of my eyes. I try to blink it away, but more follow. By the time I can see fully again, the screen say GAME OVER, and I'm ticked. I turn around to see about five people with professional grade cameras taking pictures of me and Sun. I gasp and start to run, but I know that that isn't the best course of action. I school my expression as more flashes go off. In my head, though, I'm panicking. How the hell did they find us? We had ten minutes in here, and they found us.
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Atlas
The one and only Lila Schnee, wife of Wit Schnee, who is the CEO of the SDC, is walking angrily down the hall. Her husband has done something that she expressly told him not to. He has meddled in his childrens' lives again, and she is going to tear him a new one. A secretary moves out of nowhere, trying to intercept her. She pushes the young woman aside effortlessly, despite the continuous protests.
The young woman follows behind Lila, nervously biting her nails, hoping that she won't lose her job over this. The young woman, whose name is Amarilla, is fretting over the angry woman in front of her. She knows exactly who it is. She's the reason that the last seven secretaries that have worked for Mr. Schnee personally have been dismissed. It wasn't for anything like this, but she caused their early termination either way. She thinks the last four were just trying to seduce Mr. Schnee, and they were caught with their boobs out. She thinks that was literally the case for the girl before her. She shudders at the rumors that his wife was actually in the room when the last girl made her move. Mr. Schnee is so oblivious, or that's what the rumors say.
Lila reaches the her husband's office and doesn't even bother knocking. She barges in and stops in front of the door, waiting for her husband to look up. He puts down the papers and his glasses and glances up at her with a curious expression on his face. "Yes, dear. To what do I owe this delightful entrance of yours?"
She taps her foot as Amarilla looks around her to address Wit nervously. "I'm sorry, Sir. I tried to stop her, but she persisted."
Wit raises his hand to stop her talking anymore. "It's quite alright. Go back to your desk, and in the future, just let her through." Amarilla nods her head and scampers off.
Lila turns to her husband after the girl closes the doors. "Do you know what I have gotten wind of, Wit?"
Wit tilts his head curiously and plasters on an innocent face. "No, honey. I haven't a clue."
Lila basically growls at him. "Oh, don't play innocent with me, you bastard. I know that you've been meddling with another daughter's love life again. I've seen the tabloids, and I've heard the Covert Ops team has been deployed for an unspecified mission. This exact thing happened when you learned that Winter might have an interest in some Vytal Hunter some time ago." She wags her finger at him menacingly. "What have you done?"
Wit hangs his head in defeat. "Nothing gets by you, does it?"
Lila just smiles deviously and shakes her head. "Of course not, my dear. How else do you think I even became interested in you?"
He shrugs. "My dazzling good looks?"
Lila chuckles. "That was only about eighty-five percent of it, love." Her face turns serious again. "Don't change the subject. Why do you have the Covert Ops team watching Weiss?"
He hold up his hands in defeat. "Hey, you're the one that changed the subject, not me."
Lila did growl this time. "Answer the damned question."
Wit grunts. "I dont like the boy. He's a Faunus."
Lila pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I don't give a flying fuck if he's a fucking alien. You swore that you wouldn't get involved until something horribly detrimental to either Weiss or the company happened."
Wit stands up, sending his his chair gliding backwards. "It is detrimental to the company for her to be in a relationship with a Faunus, Lila!"
Lila holds out her hand. "You don't yell at me. It is not detrimental. If anything, it could help."
"How the hell can having a Faunus as her boyfriend be a help to anything?"
"PR, lots of it. Good PR for the SDC. Faunus would trust us more, buy from us more. Sales would skyrocket, and then we can actually elivate the wages of our Faunus employees, making everything even better."
Wit strokes his chin. "But what if he's with the White Fang? What if he's just faking through their relationship in a bid to gain her trust so that they can manipulate her to their advantage?"
"God, you're a paranoid old bastard, aren't you?"
Wit throws his hands into the air. "It could happen!"
Lila walks over to him and wraps her arms around his waist. "You have pushed Weiss all her life, forcing her to do things your way. I went along with it under the stimpulation that she would have the freedom to love as she chooses, as you never had until I basically stole you. I don't want her to have to run away to be with the man that she loves. I don't want her to have to sneek around behind my back. Do you understand? You are breaking that sacred promise yet again, Wit. What happened to: A Schnees word is law?" Lila looks up at him with pleading yet defiant eyes.
Wit hangs his head in both shame and defeat. "I know, Lila, but I can't have her being manipulated. It's more likely that she will be conned by a Faunus than any other man. Why can't you see that?"
Lila sighs. "I just don't have that ingrained hatred that you do. Ever since your father started to use Faunus as cheap labor, he's been afraid of the Faunus, paranoid that they will come for him one day. He's living in a fucking bomb shelter, Wit. I don't want that to happen to you. Can you just get to know the boy before you pass any judgement, like you've been doing since birth?"
Wit frowns deeply, his brow furrowing in deep thought and frustration. "It's hard to shake a lifetime of prejudice in only a few months, Lila. I don't know if I can."
Lila stares up into his beautiful, glacial blue eyes. "You can. You have to, for me, for Wiess, for the SDC. It will be for the better, and if it helps, I'll be by your side the entire time."
Wit leans down to place a kiss on his wife's forehead. "That helps tremendously." He gives a sigh. "If you insist, I will try to be more open minded, but only for you."
Lila smiles. "Thank you."
The intercom comes on, the secretary's voice ringing through the room. "Mr. Schnee, the photographers that you sent to that arcade have reported back with what they say are incrimenating photos of your daughter."
Wit blink and looks down at Lila, who has a furious expression lighting her face. Lila walks over to the intercom located on her husband's desk and presses the button to respond. "Thank you, Amarilla. That was lovely information. Continue with your work." Lila looks up from the desk at her husband, who is slowly scooting away from his, again, angry wife. "Oh, Wit." She tisks. "What did you do?"
Wit frowns, his brow furrowing once more. He gulps, a lump appearing in his throat. "I might have," He pokes his forefingers together nervously, "sent some fake tabloid photographers to ruin Weiss' relationship, according to the ultimatum that I had given her a few weeks ago." His statement comes out more question-like than he intended, ending the sentence a light higher than he thought his voice could ever go.
Lila shakes her head menacingly at her husband. She takes up one of the magazines from the desk and swats him with it once before throwing it away. She pinches the bridge of her nose. "This is ridiculous. What the hell were you thinking? You do realize that you've become insane, right? You took this way too far. I'm sure you also threw in a couple of death threats and a very menacing guard, didn't you? Oh, right, this is you I'm talking about. of course, you did. I wouldn't see this plan of yours come about any other way." Lila spins away from him and starts to pace the floor. "We have to actually make this up to Weiss. We don't want her to become estranged like Winter did. She's already elected to study away from home. I couldn't bear it if I lost her, too. You will rectify your grossly unnecessary actions now. Call off the gaurd dogs, the photographers, the Special and Covert Ops teams you have on both the boy and Weiss, and you will talk to the boy." Her scroll dings, and she pulls it out to check it. Twenty or so emails were sent today, so she has to sort through them to see if any of them are urgent. One of the very last ones, the ones that were sent earlier today, catches her attention. It's from Ozpin, detailing an event next weekend. Lila smiles deviously. She looks up at Wit, who now has a fear in his eyes that only his wife can invoke. "i have the perfect solution. We're going to Beacon next weekend. It's family day."
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A/N: Ok, I took a severe turn with Mr. Schnee, there. I apologize for anyone who thought that he was going to be a bad guy. There isn't a true bad guy or anything. The closest I could get was Nep, and he's only psychotic, or quickly becoming psychotic. At least, I don't have a true bad guy yet. I can always fit it in to make it longer. A struggle would make this infinitely better, don't you agree. Oh, and Mrs. Schnee! OMG, she turned into a badass, huh.
Future reference:
Lila means purple in German and Wit means white in Dutch. Lila has lilac colored eyes very similar to Yang's and blonde hair. Wit, well, he has the glacial blue eyes and white hair. He's, like, super tall, too. I want him to be 6'1" and Lila is Weiss' height. That's where she gets her shortness from. lol. Amarilla won't be really appearing anymore, but her name means yellow, I think, in Spanish. Weiss had a difficult childhoos because her mother couldn't interfere. Her father wanted to finish raising her as the heiress, so her mother was given no say in her true upbringing. It was mostly isolation. Winter was the first candidate, but she ran away to nearest Hunters academy, that being Atlas. She forfeited her position as soon as she did this, leaving Weiss alone to bear the burden.
I think that might be it. Well, Follow, favorite, review.
