My secrets are burning a hole through my heart
And my bones catch a fever
When it cuts you up this deep
It's hard to find a way to breathe
Your eyes are swallowing me
Mirrors start to whisper
Shadows start to sing
My skin's smothering me
Help me find a way to breathe
Time stood still
The way it did before
It's like I'm sleepwalking
Fell into another hole again
It's like I'm sleepwalking
I'm at the edge of the world
Where do I go from here?
Do I disappear?
Edge of the world
Should I sink or swim?
Or simply disappear?
Your eyes are swallowing me
Mirrors start to whisper
Shadows start to sing
My skin's smothering me
Help me find a way to breathe
Wake up!
Take my hand and
Give me a reason to start again
Wake up!
Pull me out and
Give me a reason to start again
Time stood still
The way it did before
It's like I'm sleepwalking
To Ruby, Atlas seemed old.
Ancient even, as they drove through its countryside on the way to White Castle. The castle itself was in the northern part of the water-locked kingdom, surrounded by mountains and forests and villages that seemed like something out of a fairy-tale. Everything was made of old, dark wood and cobbled stone. She swore she even saw a hut or two with a straw roof.
As they drove through yet another frost-bitten, shadowy forest, Ruby found herself musing that she wouldn't be surprised if there were a group of horse-borne knights around the bend waiting to make them pay a toll to use the road. A toll for an actual King.
Those days were long past, but this kingdom still seemed to exist in them. Like an old man feebly clutching at the last strings of life, this ancient, snow-covered realm did not want to let go of the past.
The road was half-covered in snow, and the forests were blanketed in it. Fresh white powder, unstained and unsullied by any footstep, glimmered and sparkled whenever the sun saw fit to shine through the patchwork clouds drifting across the white-grey sky. The branches and trunks of the trees were coated in frost that made them twinkle as they passed by. The only patches of color were of winter wildflowers that lined the road in patches, and vast evergreen trees of deep green. In a world where the other kingdoms were in the midst of summer, Atlas was in the throes of a jagged gorgeous winter.
"It's so pretty..." Ruby whispered. Her face was pressed up against the window of the limousine, and she heard Weiss chuckle behind her.
"If you were a faunus, you'd definitely be a puppy," the heiress said. "You'd have cute little ears, and a cute little tail..."
Ruby turned back around, facing away from the window and meeting Weiss' blush with a grin. "And I'd wag my cute little tail whenever I saw you. And I've give you lots of slobbery kisses."
"Hmm." Weiss tapped her chin. "Would I get to take you for walks?"
"Of course! I'd even let you put a collar on me. It would say 'Property of Weiss Schnee.' "
Weiss blushed even deeper, and tried to hide it by taking a sip of the coffee from the machine in the back of the limo. "I wouldn't be particularly opposed to that..." she muttered.
Ruby smiled at her for a second, but then a shadow flickered across her face and her smile fell. "You're sure you can't sit over here with me?"
"So like a puppy," Weiss laughed. "But sorry, no. Can't risk it." She pointed her thumb in the direction of the driver's compartment. "And I should probably warn you. When we're in Glasieren we'll-"
"Wait, glasa-what now?" Ruby asked.
"Glass, eye, ren. It's the town at the foot of the mountain that White Castle is on."
"Glasieren, huh. Does the mountain have a funny name too?"
"That depends on if you find the name Aüsgefranst to be humorous or not."
Judging by Ruby's snort of laughter, she did. "Where do you guys come up with these names?"
Weiss frowned, slightly miffed that Ruby was making fun of her heritage. "It's simply the old language of the Atlesians. Glasieren means frost, and Aüsgefranst means jagged."
"Oh. Well I guess that makes sense. Does anyone still use the language?"
Weiss shook her head. "Outside of ceremonial purposes, no."
Ruby nodded, then turned her head to look back out of the window. They were traveling through an open expanse of rolling hills now, endless snow-covered mounds undulating like waves in the open ocean. It struck the brunette as bleak and empty, compared to the beautiful forests they had left behind.
A comfortable silence fell, and at first Weiss was content to relax and enjoy the ride, shifting slightly to take pressure off of her broken knee. Which, it might be said, was starting to hurt like a bitch. The painkillers in the limousines first aid kit were wearing off. And as the silence grew, the heiress felt her anxiety grow with it. Soon enough there was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she started to feel restless. She sipped her coffee with one hand, the other tapping a repetitive beat on the leather beside her. In the absence of any sound aside from the quiet rumbling of the limousine, the tapping seemed deafening in the confined space.
She began to have doubts.
The rational side of her mind warred with the emotional side, arguing that nothing, not even Ruby, was worth losing all of the power and money that was her rightful inheritance. It wasn't worth risking her parent's wrath; it wasn't worth giving up Schnee Dust for. How could one person be worth giving up an entire company, especially one that happened to have a monopoly on the most important resource in the world?
And the other part of her mind gazed at Ruby and the tiny smile on her face, as the brunette gazed out on the frozen landscape passing by. And surprisingly, she thought of a quote, one that was etched on the statue of a giant silver knight that guarded her family's estate.
"Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or form or measure. And all of it… irreplaceable," she whispered to herself, so quietly that even Ruby couldn't hear.
Weiss had always been a logical person. And going by that logic, if everyone is entitled their own sorrow, then the reverse is true, and everyone is also entitled their own happiness. Some people were still searching for theirs, for their purpose, something that gave them true happiness and satisfaction. Something that at the end of the day, they could think about, and say 'it was all worth it.'
She didn't have to search anymore. She had already found her happiness. Or more accurately, it had found her. How impossibly lucky was that? Was she really going to give up her chance at happiness in this life for a company? For a soulless entity that cared about nothing more than profits and expenses?
The way she looked at it, she had two choices. To be happy and poor with Ruby, or to be unhappy, successful, and rich without her. There were really no other deciding factors.
Her decision was made when Ruby caught her eye by shifting, glancing at her crutches, and frowning.
The brunette had saved her life. She obviously cared for her more than anyone else ever had. Weiss knew she had found someone precious, someone that couldn't be replicated in a billion years. Someone that couldn't be replaced. A job could be replaced. Money could be replaced. A home could be replaced. But not Ruby.
She sighed, and a tight smile graced the corners of her mouth. Not Ruby.
"Oh, hey Weiss! I forgot to tell you something earlier."
And just like that, the heiress found herself slipping back into Ruby's voice, which so easily soothed her mind.
"I was just browsing some random stuff on my scroll, and I got a little curious when I saw this article on different types of sexuality."
Weiss raised an eyebrow.
"Don't worry it's nothing bad!" Ruby held up her hands in self-defense. "It was just interesting. So I found out there's lots of different types of sexualities, more than just, you know, straight or gay. There's asexual, which means that you don't really feel attracted to anybody. Well, in most cases, there were exceptions and stuff."
"Are you going anywhere in particular with this Ruby?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah! Geez, you didn't let me finish. Anyway, there's this thing you can be called demiromantic, or demisexual. It means you only feel attracted to someone once you've... oh, what did it say? 'Once a reasonably stable or large emotional connection has been created,' I think that was it."
Weiss frowned. "And your point?"
"Well... I think that's why you never... liked anyone before me. I'm pretty sure you're just demisexual. Or demiromantic. Or whatever."
Weiss considered the implications. "So, basically... you're saying the reason I was never attracted to anyone before you is because I... never formed a strong emotional relationship with them?"
"I guess?" Ruby shrugged. "I dunno, I guess it sounded better in my head."
"No, that actually makes sense. Demiromantic huh?"
"Yeah," Ruby agreed. She smiled and glanced out the window, where stands of trees were beginning to appear in the midst of the hills, like green polka dots on a white sweater. "I thought it sounded kinda cool. And it really does make sense, if you think about it."
"And there's something I was going to tell you earlier too, before you interrupted me about why things are named funny here."
Ruby turned back to face the heiress with a grin. "Well it is a funny name."
Weiss couldn't help but grin back. "Regardless, I was going to tell you that you'll have to be on your absolute best behavior in Glasieren. Like I said before, it's at the foot of the mountain that hosts White Castle, and it was one of the only places I was allowed to go while I was growing up."
Ruby frowned. "Yeesh, that's harsh."
"What I mean, Ruby, is that everyone knows me there. I maintained a sort of anonymity in Vale, but it's different here. There's not a person in that town that doesn't know what I look like. And I'm not saying that they don't like me or that they're out to get me, but if they see you holding hands with me or anything like that, word will spread, fast. And then it'll spread to my father, before I have a chance to tell him myself. He won't like that. This will probably go a lot smoother if he finds out about us from me first."
Ruby crossed her arms, pouting. "Eh, that makes sense. I don't like it, but it makes sense. I'll just have to find somewhere quiet to kiss you then."
Suddenly she froze and brought her hands to her mouth. "Oh crap, did they hear?!" she whispered, pointing towards the driver's compartment.
Weiss merely chuckled. "Relax Ruby, it's soundproof. They can see us, they just can't hear us. My father respects at least some of my privacy."
Ruby still didn't look convinced. "Yeah, but how can you be sure?"
"I've been riding in these things my entire life dolt. They're all made to the exact same specifications. My father wouldn't have it any other way."
At the continued mentions of her father, Weiss felt her the return of her earlier anxiety. She felt her fingers start to tap a beat into the leather again, and she didn't stop them.
Ruby watched her fingers for a second, then frowned. "Still nervous?" she asked.
Weiss simply nodded.
"I would ask you if you still wanted to do this," Ruby continued, "but I know how stubborn you are. Once you've made up your mind, you wouldn't go back on it if someone held a gun to your head."
Weiss smirked. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that then." She glanced down at her feet for a few seconds, then back up. Her tone was much more gentle this time. "Ruby, why do you love me?"
Ruby cocked her head to the side. "Why... why do I love you?"
Weiss nodded, her fingers still drumming rhythmically to the invisible beat in her mind.
"Well..." Ruby started off, eyes locked on the floor. She talked with her hands as much as her words, waving them in the air to emphasize her points. "You're the most beautiful girl I've ever met, like by far, aaand you're really smart, and super strong, on the inside mostly haha, aaand you know how to do a lot of really cool things... your fashion sense is the best I've ever seen... but those aren't really the reasons you're looking for, are you?"
Weiss frowned, but nodded again.
There was a pause of silence, and then Ruby continued. "I think the reason I really, really love you, and not just love you, is because you have this... I don't know, I guess this other person inside of you? Ugh, I'm having trouble putting this into words. "
Ruby stopped and took a deep breath before continuing. "Alright, so you've got this front, this person that you act like. Weiss Schnee, heiress to Schnee Dust, blah blah blah, all prim and proper, and you get angry with people real easily and you don't trust anyone but yourself, and you act really arrogant and stuck up. Weiss Schnee is kind of a jerk, basically. She's built up this wall around herself, and doesn't let anyone get close, and it's kinda off-putting."
Weiss felt her frown deepen. Hearing Ruby talk like this wasn't doing wonders for her anxiety.
But then a broad grin stretched across Ruby's face. "But that's not the real you. The real you is behind that wall, and she's sweet, and caring, and kind, and such an incredibly beautiful person that it makes it hard for me to breathe sometimes. That's the real you."
Ruby smiled at her with all the warmth in the world, and Weiss felt her heart flutter and her throat tighten.
"And it's not your fault in any way at all. It says a lot about you, that you can even let the real you out after the way you've been raised. Your parents tried to turn you into this... this robot, but they couldn't change the real you. The real you has so much love in her... and I think you just needed to find a way to let it out. And so that's why I love you. I love that I can be that person, the one that you can give that love too. And it's kinda selfish, I know, but I'm really glad that I'm the only one that gets to see just how beautiful and amazing the real you actually is."
Ruby sat back, and released a pent-up breath. "So yeah, I love you. And that's why. Did that make sense?"
Weiss felt her heart break, in the best way possible. It didn't hurt; it was like it broke open and filled her body with such an incredible warmth and feeling of closeness with Ruby that she never wanted it to end. She felt tears prick the corners of her eyes, and as she reached up to wipe them off with the corner of her sleeve, she realized Ruby was still waiting for an answer, with that same honest smile.
So Weiss gave the only answer she could at the time. She smiled, closed her eyes, and nodded.
She wanted to touch Ruby, to feel her warmth and her skin on her own, and it was tantamount to torture that she couldn't. So, subconsciously, her aura reached out for her. It met Ruby's with an infinite, all-encompassing embrace, one that sent fire shooting up her spine. In her mind's eye, she saw white weaving in with red and swirling around it in the endless ocean of soulspace, forming a whole that floated in an abyss of emptiness. Alone in the abyss, the entity that was two parts and a single whole at the same time existed with a simple fragility that seemed to her the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
A pervasive sense of calm and deep content filled her, and she hummed softly. She could see Ruby felt it too, given how the younger girl's mouth turn into an 'o' as she gripped her knees with her hands.
Her anxiety faded, as did the burning pain in her knee and the dull ache in her side. She and Ruby both sighed at the same time, then looked at eachother.
The brunette started giggling, and Weiss found that her laughter was horribly infectious. Within a few seconds they were nearly doubled over. Neither knew exactly what they were laughing at, but they were laughing at it together.
They were together, and that was all they needed to be happy.
Weiss realized that finally, the thought coming to her like it was the most obvious thing in the world. She knew that she would give up everything she had to be with Ruby.
And so she prepared herself to do so. Because even if she lost it all, if she had Ruby, she would be happy.
The brunette's rich laughter, mingling with her own higher-pitched giggles, told her so.
But as Ruby smiled at her one last time, and then returned to watching Atlas glide by outside, a thought occurred to her. It was a nagging sensation, one that wouldn't leave her alone. She decided to give voice to her worries; perhaps that would negate them.
"Ruby... there is something I'm worried about. Something else besides my parents."
"Yeah?" Ruby asked. "What is it?"
"I... sometimes, when I'm back in that place... I feel like my old self. It happens every time I go home, I start to slip back into my old ways, I guess. I feel so cold there, and it somehow... reflects onto my personality. Have you ever noticed that I acted different when I came back to Beacon after summer break?"
"Well... now that you mention it, yeah. You're always kind of a jerk for a little while, but after a week or two you're always back to normal. I dunno, I don't think this'll be a problem Weiss. I'm here too."
"And that's why I'm worried. I don't want to treat you like my servants or my family; I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to shut you out."
Ruby smiled gently to try and reassure her. "I think you'll be fine Weiss. You're stronger than that."
Weiss stared out the window at the landscape of snow and ice, and drummed the fingers of her free hand on the leather.
"If only you knew Ruby... if only you knew..."
Ruby felt as if she was in a dream world.
The limousine had been traveling steady upwards for the past hour, up a series of twisting switchbacks - built wide enough even for the limo - that led higher and higher into the mountains. They had passed by Glasieren a few hours earlier, taking the long route around the town and up into the mountains. They were already impossibly high up, past the treeline, now among the clouds that drifted beside them and obscured their vision. The only vegetation she could see were hardy shrubs that clung to the mountainside with an incredible tenacity. She could only imagine how cold it must be outside; she could hear the wind whipping against the side of the vehicle.
And for some reason, even though they were closer than ever to White Castle, Weiss was smiling.
"Ruby, if these clouds would only part..."
"What, is the view that great?" Ruby asked.
"It's breathtaking. One of the only things I miss about home."
The brunette felt the vehicle level out, and for a while they drove straight, over what looked to be the open plateau of a mountain-top. But mountain peaks weren't naturally level like this. Someone had to make it so.
The road they were on was paved, made of grey stone, and immaculate. Ruby thought of the time and money it must have taken to build something like this so high up, where the oxygen was thin and the temperatures capable of causing frostbite.
"Did you family build all this?" Ruby asked. She was in awe. "Level out this mountain peak and everything?"
Weiss nodded, and there was pride in her face. "It was built, and is maintained by my family. Well, their employees, to be more accurate. We've never spared any expense to impress."
"Obviously not," Ruby breathed. The clouds parted to their left and right, treating them to a view of stark white mountain ranges stretching out as far as the eye could see. The mountain peaks seemed to pierce the heavens; they thrust that high into the sky. The snow around them was more pristine than Ruby had ever seen snow, or even thought it capable of being. Where the sun shone through the clouds that drifted among them, it shone like a thousand sparkling diamonds. "This is surreal..."
"Oh, you think this is impressive?" Weiss said with a smirk. "You haven't even seen Der Turm Weiße yet."
"Der Turm... Weiss?" Ruby asked.
"Wise-eh. It's more Atlesian. My name means white in that language, did you know?"
"So... Der Turm Weiße... the white castle?"
"More like the tower of white, but that works too. Everyone just calls it White Castle nowadays; it's obviously a lot easier to say."
"I'll say," Ruby huffed. "You Atlesians and your crazy names. I'll bet this limo is named Der Weinerschnitzelmobile or something."
Weiss laughed. "Have you ever even had schnitzel?"
"No!" Ruby replied, turning to look out the window again. "But I know that... that..." Ruby stuttered, unable to speak.
They had breached the final layer of cloud, and were above them now. And her breath had been stolen away by the sight before her.
They called the mountain Aüsgefranst, or jagged. It certainly was.
The peak itself was split into two large pieces, one being the flattened plateau they were on, and the other a towering spire that stretched up impossibly high. But that wasn't what had taken Ruby's breath away.
What did that, was the towering structure built into and around the spire of rock.
A magnificent citadel of white stone, so high up that instead of being highlighted against the backdrop of a blue sky, it was set against the vista of the dark, almost black upper reaches of the atmosphere, which in turn was bespeckled by stars. Shades of white and black warred with eachother in the sky, the achromacy of the stars and the castle competing against the black of the void to draw Ruby's eye. White Castle, or Der Turm Weiße, stood out against the stark blackness of the stratosphere: a monstrous ivory tower laid out on the silky darkness of space.
The bottom sections - of what Ruby thought would more be more properly called a fortress - appeared to be a concentric ring of massive, crenelated walls, topped with imposing battlements and jagged spires. Heavily armored windows with iron bars over them shone into the night, the light from within mirroring the light of the stars. Triangular banners on the walls and towers flapped in the wind, bearing the Schnee family crest against a pale blue background.
The upper sections of Der Turm Weiße rose higher and higher, finally meeting and terminating in one colossal, sky-shattering tower that rose out of the peak itself. The tower was at the center of the castle, and must have stretched at least forty stories high. It was octagonal, the edges harsh and jagged. The top of the tower was tipped by spires of harsh white stone set at regular intervals, so that it appeared as if it were wearing a crown.
The only apparent way to the castle was over a long bridge that connected the two halves of the mountain peak. It started at the end of the plateau they were driving across, and stretched out for almost a thousand metres over empty space, white fog, and the roof of the clouds, far, far below. The bridge was wide and long, made of solid grey stone. Giant flaming braziers of iron and steel were staggered every hundred metres or so, on both sides of the bridge. Ruby couldn't figure out how they managed to keep them lit so high up, where the air was so thin and cold.
The more she took in, the more the brunette didn't believe her eyes. A castle, no, a citadel at the top of the world, stretching out into the vastness of space and challenging it, shouting into the void. We are here, we own this world, and we will not be ignored!
She heard Weiss clear her throat, and she reluctantly pulled her gaze away from the sight presented by the frost-edged windows of the limousine. The heiress was staring at her expectantly, as if she was expecting Ruby's judgement of her home.
"Umm... wow."
The heiress sighed. "Normally in this kind of situation, I would say that my house isn't that big of a deal, but..."
"Yeah..." Ruby breathed. "No way you can say that now. I mean holy crap! You grew up here!? Weren't you afraid of like, falling up into space, or, or falling down off the mountain! This place is crazy!"
Weiss rested her chin on the palm of her hand and shrugged. "People have called it lots of things before, but crazy is a first."
"Well, it's like a freakin' fortress! Is your Dad expecting to fight off a few armies anytime soon?"
"Not that I know of, but he likes to be prepared for everything." Under her breath, she muttered: "Let's see if he's prepared for this."
Instead of pulling into a cul-de-sac in front of the castle, like Ruby had expected - because mansions always had cul-de-sacs in front of them - they drove through a massive gate where the front door should have been. The doors, made of some unknown, imposing metal and inlaid with gold, somehow managed to be imposing and extravagant at the same time. If Ruby had to guess the material it was made of, she would have said titanium. Titanium sounded right. The citadel-castle combined opulence, dignity, and the appearance of invulnerability like nothing Ruby had ever seen. There was somehow nothing fragile about even the most ornate of its features.
The large gate revealed a dim, rectangular tunnel, which eventually led to an expansive subterranean plaza. The large underground space was lit by the same massive braziers Ruby had seen on the bridge, but these ones blazed with a pale blue flame. At the opposite end of the plaza from the tunnel was another set of massive doors, made of dark wood engraved with silver. The silver tracing actually made up a mural, the scenes depicted on it ranging from a man inspecting a dust crystal with a critical eye, to armored men with shining swords battling rampant lions.
The limousine slid to a stop in front of the gates, which then opened without a sound. Five men stepped out, one in white, and the rest in black.
The man in white opened their door. "Mistress Schnee, Miss Rose, guten abend , and welcome to Der Turm Weiße."
The butler – at least, Ruby presumed he was a butler – stepped away from the limousine to give them space to exit, then shook their hands cordially. He was middle-aged, balding, but his white suit was ornate and undoubtedly expensive, with gold trim and shining silver buttons.
The way he was dressed made Ruby glad that there had been spare changes of clothes in the limo. It had been admittedly tense, as both girls blushed and looked off to the side as they changed, but at least now they looked presentable.
The four men with him were armed, and Ruby assumed they were a security team. They were dressed identically to the men in the limo, and bore sophisticated looking assault rifles and incredibly serious expressions. And giant poles up their asses, Ruby thought with a snort. She wondered how much they were paid.
"Thank you Albrecht," Weiss said, her voice dragging Ruby back to the present. Somehow, even with her crutches, her crooked nose, and her scar, she was the epitome of dignity and authority. "I assume my father wants to see me immediately?"
The azure light from the braziers reflected from Weiss' hair in a strange manner, coloring the ivory tresses the same shade as her eyes for a brief moment. Blue eyes, blue hair. The moment was surreal as Ruby held her breath, awaiting the butler's response.
"Alas, he is actually away from the castle. He is on a business trip to Vacuo, you see, and shan't return for several days at the least."
Ruby caught a visible flicker of relief on her partner's face, but it was incredibly brief. The heiress seemed colder, and harder than Ruby was used to. Her face was impassive and stoic, and her posture was ramrod-straight. Well, as straight as she could make it while being forced to lean on her crutches.
"And my mother?"
"She accompanied him, as a matter of course."
"Very well," Weiss continued. "I remember my home quite well, and I will be able to find the medical facilities quite fine on my own. Is Dr. Brandt in?
"Yes Mistress."
"Good. After we stop there, I will show Miss Rose here to her room, and I presume that dinner is being held at the normal time?"
"As always, precisely six o' clock in the evening, yes Mistress Schnee."
"Very well. Our weapons, my rapier and her scythe, are both inside the car. Have them taken to our respective rooms, then you are excused. Miss Rose, if you would follow me?"
Miss Rose. Not Ruby, Miss Rose. For some reason, the brunette didn't like the sound of that.
Weiss gestured through the open gates, eyes hard and face expressionless, and then she strode into Der Turm Weiße. Ruby took a deep breath, her exhale misting in the thin, freezing air, and followed.
They walked side by side through the empty, cold hallways of Der Turm Weiße.
Ruby had expected the citadel-castle to be busy, bustling with people even, as they rushed back and forth to keep the massive machine that was Schnee Dust running smoothly.
But everywhere they went, they saw no one. The rooms they passed through, while ornately decorated, were dark and vacant. The prevalent color scheme appeared to be white and blue, but the lack of light turned everything into a muted grey. Shadows clung to the corners and the ceiling, hid behind the white leather couches and plush armchairs, lurked under wooden desks and in the empty caverns of unused fireplaces.
"Why is this place so... dark?" Ruby asked.
Weiss kept her head forward as she crutched. Her face was still impassive, but flickered from place to place as if she was reliving old memories. Bad ones.
"Because light is a waste," she responded. "To my parents, at least. Why illuminate unused rooms when it costs money to do so? You have to understand Ruby, everything is a cost-to-benefit ratio to them. There's no benefit to lighting an empty room, so they don't pay the cost for it."
"Yeah but... I dunno, this place just feels so... empty. It makes it seems kinda creepy and old."
"It is old. My great-great-great grandfather build the foundations and the lower levels, and my great-great grandfather build the upper levels and the tower. This hallway we're in is probably at least three hundred years old."
"Wow..." Ruby breathed. "Why does it need to be so big though? Are you guys like, constructing an army of giant robots in here or something?"
Weiss didn't so much as smirk at the brunette's attempted joke. She didn't call Ruby a dolt, or a dunce, or have a witty comeback prepared. She simply continued talking about the castle as if she was a tour guide who had done this a thousand times before. And that was how Ruby knew something was wrong. How she knew that Weiss really didn't want to be here.
"The lower levels, constructed by August Schnee as his personal residence, contain the lobby, the grand hall, a ballroom, an opera hall, countless guest rooms and offices, the servant's quarters, the kitchens," she paused and took a deep breath, then continued. "A swimming pool, a gym, an indoor running track, the gardens, the-"
"Wait wait wait," Ruby interjected. "The gardens? You have an indoor garden?"
"Yes, I just said that. Finally, the lower levels contain a bar, a full-efficiency laundry room, the wine cellar, the grand library, the-"
"Why is it grand?"
"Ruby, shut up and let me finish."
The brunette squeaked and clasped her hands behind her back as she walked.
"Ugh, where was I... the grand library... oh, a music room, the sitting room, various lounges, and finally, the sun room."
Ruby kept silent now, simply following Weiss, behind and to the right of her partner. The walls of the hallway they walked along were lined with what looked like torches, but they were capped by ornate lightbulbs instead of flame. They were still quite dim though, and didn't do much to illuminate their surroundings as they walked.
The brunette stared at the walls, wondering why they were made of white stone and not something more inviting, like simple plaster. There were large paintings here and there, as well as portraits of very old looking people that Ruby didn't recognize.
"Oh, probably Weiss' forefathers," Ruby thought to herself. "Man, this place feels so big and empty... I wish Weiss would talk to me more, but she's been really quiet lately. This place is probably getting to her. Hell, it's even getting to me!"
Her eyes traveled from the old landscape paintings on the wall, to the shadowy ceiling, to the marble floor, and finally back to Weiss, who was still crutching along. And then she noticed the faint glow of illumination ahead. It excited her, she wanted to get out of the doom and gloom that was already so prevalent in this house. Weiss glared and huffed in exasperation as Ruby overtook her, borne ahead by the incredible power of two working legs.
They cleared the hallway and emerged into a massive room, sporting two curving staircases that led up to a second level that ringed the first.
"The grand foyer," Weiss explained. The twin staircases were on their left, and the heiress pointed to a set of large wooden doors to their right. "That's the actual front door, but my parents only use it when we have guests to impress. Otherwise we use the underground entrance, which is obviously much more secure."
"Well it's certainly... impressive," Ruby said.
The two staircases wrapped around either side of a statue that seemed to demand her attention. A man in shining steel armor of the knightly days, with a gleaming longsword in one hand and a bright blue dust crystal in the other.
"Someone you know?" Ruby asked.
"August Schnee, the one who built these sections of the castle."
"Ah." Ruby replied. A silence fell between them, and it wasn't exactly comfortable. The brunette took the opportunity to further examine the room.
The floors were black and white marble, and while the room was comparatively much better lit - courtesy of a massive, incredibly expensive looking chandelier - than any other room Ruby had seen so far, it was still dim, and the corners of the room were shrouded in shadow. The walls were white, the columns along the walls were white, the ceiling was white, the stairs were white; everything was so white. Ruby had never seen so much of it, and never realized how so much of that one color – or lack of color, if you were being technical – could bleach the life from everything.
"No wonder Weiss is so withdrawn and serious all the time..." Ruby thought. "I'd go crazy if I had to live here."
The heiress cleared her throat, and it sounded impossibly loud in the bitter silence of the cavernous room. "Ruby, if you're ready to move on? I'd like to show you more of the lower levels before we have to deal with Dr. Brandt."
"You don't want to get your leg and side looked at?"
"Ruby, I can handle it. The pain's nothing I haven't dealt with before. And like I said, I really don't want to deal with Dr. Brandt."
Ruby frowned. "Well what's so bad about him?"
"Her. And she's a more of a stuck-up bitch than I am."
"Yeesh, how is that even possible?" Ruby laughed.
Weiss simply glared at her in response.
The brunette gulped, and looked somewhere, anywhere else. Anywhere that wasn't Weiss really.
Her eyes were drawn to the staircases, and then up further, at a large, no, massive set of stairs on the second level that led out of the room and even further up, up into shadows that she couldn't see past.
"Hey, Weiss?"
"What Ruby."
"Uh, where does that big staircase go? The one up past the statue?"
Weiss followed her gaze. "Oh. That staircase. It goes to the upper levels."
Ruby was slow in asking: "What's up there?" She was hesitant because Weiss had been unusually snappy and frigid lately. She was starting to take up her old moniker of Ice Queen again.
"Up there?" Weiss frowned. "My room, for one. My parent's rooms, my father's offices, among other things."
"Oh... Is my room on the upper or lower levels?"
"Ruby, I already told you the guest bedrooms are down here."
"Yeah but... are you gonna be alright? We'll have to sleep alone?"
Weiss stared at her, her gaze dripping with contempt and disbelief. "Are you seriously that naive? You think I'm going to fall apart without you or something? Stop being so clingy. You're lucky I even brought you here in the first place." She huffed. "Now come on dolt, I'll show you your room."
The heiress turned around, her crutches making loud clacking noises on the marble floor, and started off down a hallway opposite the one they had came out of.
And Ruby followed behind. But this time, she kept a little more space between them. This time, there was a frown on her face and a slight pang in her heart. Because when Weiss had called her a dolt, it had been different than all the other times.
She had said it like she meant it. There was no warmth behind it. She had made it sting.
Weiss crutched on, ahead of Ruby. For some reason, she didn't want to be near the brunette right now.
With her incessant attention and constant asking of 'are you okay,' she was starting to remind Weiss of her old servants. The ones that only cared because it meant a paycheck. The ones that she knew secretly loathed her. Maybe that was just her paranoia talking, but it seemed like Ruby was becoming just like all the others. All the others, who wanted to take advantage of her and leave her in the dirt. Like her parents. Like her old friends.
She reached the door to Ruby's guest room, but instead of entering, the brunette stood outside the door, staring at her. There was a question in her eyes, and Weiss didn't necessarily want to hear it.
If it was 'Are you alright...'
She didn't know how she would respond. She could feel the ice wall building up around her heart again, as her brain whispered in her ear, telling her Ruby was a liar, a cheat, yet another person who was only with her for her status and her wealth.
And right now, Der Turm Weiße's frigid chill was sapping her energy and her will. Right now, she didn't have the strength to tell that voice 'no'.
They stood outside of the door to the room Ruby would be staying in. The brunette fingered the doorknob, the cold metal sending a chill up her arm and down her spine. And that chill was only deepened by the look in Weiss' eyes.
The heiress stared at her, uncaring, unfeeling. Her eyes were frost-bitten and hard, bitter with the weight of heritage and duty. But the worst part about them, to Ruby, was that they weren't the eyes she had come to know. They were the eyes of the old Weiss, the one she had met at Beacon three years ago. The Weiss that genuinely despised her and thought nothing more of her than a failure.
"Weiss... are you alright?"
The heiress' eyes visibly flared with anger, and her scar twitched. "Am I alright? Who do you think you're talking to? I'm the heiress of the entire Schnee dynasty. I'm always alright."
Ruby frowned. "Weiss, that's crap and you know it. You've been acting all weird since we got here, like you used to back when we first met. It's like you've... I dunno, forgotten me or something."
"How could I forget you? You're standing right here, being as annoying as ever," Weiss scoffed. She brushed a strand of her hair off to the side, then continued. "And you've been acting different too. You won't stop pestering me and bugging me, and honestly I just need to be alone for a while."
That stung. "You need to... be a-alone? But you can always talk to me! I'm your best friend!"
Weiss stomped her foot down. "Well sometimes you just get a little bit too in my face with it! Ooh, look at me I'm Ruby Rose. I'm so perfect, I never get mad or angry at anyone and I've just got such a fucking big heart that you could drive a semi into it."
"That's not fair Weiss!" Ruby nearly yelled. The sound of her voice was like a blast of lightning in the empty air of the castle. "I've never been anything but nice to you, and tried to treat you the best I could because I know how you grew up, I know it sucks, and I know you need a friend!"
"Oh I know, you're so perfect inside that it hurts! And sure you want to be my friend and girlfriend and all that crap, but maybe I just want that friend to not be so inanely pushy about being one! Can you just back off for five minutes?!"
"Why would I back off from the person I love when she obviously needs help!? You know you're being a real jerk all of a sudden!"
Weiss leaned forward on her crutches. "Oh I'm being a jerk huh? I'm the one with the broken knee, and nose, and the lacerated side – no thanks to you! - and yet I'm the jerk here? If you hadn't rushed off towards that stage like the colossal idiot you are, I'd be completely fine!"
Ruby raised her voice to match Weiss', and it echoed down the otherwise empty hallway. "You weren't mad at me for that before! I saved your freaking life! Now just..." She took a deep breath, attempted to calm herself. "Tell me what's really wrong. Is it this place?"
"This place?" Weiss asked? "What's wrong with my family's ancestral home huh? It's certainly a far sight more dignified than any place you've ever lived in."
Ruby felt her anger rise, and she pushed herself off of the wall and got in Weiss' face. "Weiss, just stop insulting me for one second and tell me what's wrong! You told me you would get like this, but that doesn't excuse what you're doing right now! What the hell is wrong?!"
Weiss leaned forward to match her, their faces inches apart. "Oh you want to know what's wrong? Well I've got an annoying, asinine failure of a huntress in my face, who won't just shut up and get in her room! While she's in my house! Get in the room, and stay there!"
"Stop telling me what to do," Ruby screamed. "You're not my fucking mom!"
Weiss backed up and raised her free hand, her tone mocking and insincere. "Oooh well I'm sorry, how could I ever forgot about Ruby Rose's mom? It's not like you ever shut up about her!" She mimicked wiping tears with her free hand, but the tears that Ruby felt gathering in the corners of her eyes were real enough. "Oh, my life's so hard," Weiss mocked, "my mom died when I was young, I never had real parents! Well maybe having real parents isn't so fucking great huh! Look at mine!"
Pain. A sharp pain in her heart, like a jagged sword twisting and shoving each and every which way. Ruby hadn't felt pain like this in a long, long time. A deep, emotional burn that came with being intentionally treated like trash by someone you loved.
She couldn't deal with it right now. Not like this. Not with the source of that hurt so close. She didn't want to be anywhere near Weiss anymore, and it killed her that she felt that way. She had promised that she'd never let Weiss go, and here she was, wanting to do exactly that.
Ruby simply turned away and opened the door to the bedroom, stopping partially inside the doorframe. Her voice was low and full of hurt, reflected by the pain she felt in her heart. And just to top it all off, her headache had returned. "Weiss... just go." She didn't want her to see the pinpricks of water in her eyes.
The heiress simply turned up her nose and huffed, then spun around and crutched away as quickly as she could.
Ruby closed the door, slumped down against it, and started to cry.
Time stood still, and Weiss took each step down the long, dark hallway with careful, measured precision.
Well, as precise as your steps could be with crutches. She took her time, examining the walls and the different rooms of the upper level as she took the long journey to her room.
Memories flowed through her, and it felt like she was sleepwalking. Either end of the hallway was shrouded in shadow, and she felt like she could see the darkness as a living thing, a twisting, amorphous mass that carried with it the sorrows of her past. She felt like she could actually hear the silence, could hear the absolute lack of any sound in this place. No laughter, no conversation, no joy. The threat of her future.
Time stood still, and she was spirited away, back to the past. As she stalked ever onwards through the cold and the dark, the clock wound itself back. She felt like she had never left this place. She had never attended Beacon, never met her team. Never met Ruby.
Ruby? Who was that?
The name sent a pang of hurt through her heart, but she dismissed it. She didn't like the feeling it brought up, like the pain of fresh wounds, so she buried it under a wall of ice. It seemed so much easier to do here, where everything was already so cold and dark to begin with.
She was Weiss Schnee, heiress of Schnee Dust. She lived here, in this castle at the edge and top of the world.
She was learning much these days, fencing and business theory, and history and mathematics and science and all sorts of interesting things.
Maybe her parents would let her attend Beacon Academy next year. She wanted to get out, to see what the world outside was like beyond the borders of Atlas, where everyone knew who she was and how to treat her. She could convince her parents that being a huntress would increase her desirability as a wife... Yes...
But after that, she knew, she would have to find a husband, and he would take over the company in her father's stead once he passed. She would provide him a suitable heir, to carry on the Schnee dynasty. The Schnee's supplied dust to the entire world. It wasn't so much her duty to her family, it was her duty to the world that she had to uphold. If they didn't control the flow of dust, who would? She would not let the world devolve into anarchy because of a resource crisis.
And if she was lucky, her husband might even let her manage some of the company with him. But that was just a vain hope. She knew that in all likelihood, she would end up as a trophy wife.
She stopped crutching, embraced the silence, accepted the dark. She was at peace with her fate. There was no escaping it. There was no point running from destiny.
Lost in thought, lost in the past, she glanced to her right, and was met with a closed door. The stylized white snowflake on it stood out. It was her room.
Her room... Strange that she had stopped here then, completely by chance. Or it might be that she was just so familiar with this house that her feet had subconsciously carried her here.
She dismissed the thought and grasped the doorknob, the metal cold to the touch. She turned it and pushed the door open without a sound, then crutched forward to stand in the doorframe.
It was just as she had left it, a month short of a year ago. Or had she ever left it at all?
The room was just as dark as the rest of the house. The center of it was taken up by a large white canopy bed, with tall pillars made of a dark wood on each of the four corners. To her right was a set of frosted glass doors that opened to her personal balcony, as well as a writing desk. The left side of the room contained the entrance to her expansive walk-in closet, and an old black grand piano in the corner. That was where she had first learned how to sing.
She laid a crutch against the door, deciding that she could make do with only one.
In a daze, she crutched closer to the balcony, ghosting the fingers of her free hand along the desk. She stopped with her hand pressed to the frosted glass, the chill seeping from her fingers to her hand, up her arm, into her body. She shivered.
Light. The room needed some light.
She reached over to the writing desk and flicked on the lamp, and the room instantly seemed a little warmer.
Her gaze wandered over the room, her mind wandering with it, and eventually her eyes came to rest upon her bed. She wanted the rest of her body to rest on it as well, she decided. She had already been standing on these infernal crutches enough for one day.
She set the crutch aside and flopped down on the giant bed, scrunched the sheets up in between her fingers, and let out a long, drawn out sigh. This place might never truly be her home, she decided, but she liked this bed. She loved this bed.
A tight smile found its way to her face, and as she lifted her head, something caught her eye.
A wolf plush, grey, and about the size of a football. It was propped up on her pillows. Now when had her parents bought her that? They had always purchased anything she ever wanted, as long as she toed the line. But she couldn't remember them getting her this stuffed animal.
"Oh wait, that's right!" she realized. Her smile grew wider. "Ruby got that for me back at Beacon, and I had it shipped here after that night with... Ruby..."
Ruby...
Her smile died completely. The ice wall collapsed as quickly as she had built it. She remembered it all. Who she was. Who Ruby was. What Ruby meant to her. And then what she had said.
I'm the heiress of the entire Schnee dynasty, I'm more 'alright' than you'll ever be!
If you hadn't rushed off towards that stage like the colossal idiot you are, I'd be completely fine!
Well I've got an annoying, asinine failure of a huntress in my face, who won't just shut up and get in her room! While she's in my house!
Oh, my life's so hard, my mom died when I was young, I never had real parents!
Her face scrunched up in shock and pain, and she did the only thing she could think to do.
She buried her face in Mr. Fangs, the grey wolf plush, and cried.
Through the quiet halls of Der Turm Weiße, not a soul was to be found.
They were silent and empty, much as they had been since they were constructed. The Schnee's were never very fond of hired help; the servants only walked the halls once a month, and then only to clean everything and make sure the place didn't get too dusty.
Not a soul to be found, except for one. A normally bright, shining soul. At the moment though, it was cloaked in an aura of sorrow. Tints of emotion shone through, anger, remorse, frustration, bitterness.
Feeling all these things and more, Ruby Rose strode through the frigid white halls of the castle. Aimless, wandering. It had been a few hours since her fight with her girlfriend, and she had grown tired of sitting inside her room. Plus, if she was being honest, she also left it just to spite Weiss. Because Weiss had told her to stay inside it. So, naturally, that was the opposite of what she wanted to do.
Before long though, as if by pure chance - why did that happen so much in this place? - she found herself in front of a smooth wooden door, marked with a golden placard that read 'Dr. Brandt.'
Remembering her headaches, she raised her hand, and then knocked once, twice, three times.
She waited for a few moments, realizing the Doctor probably wasn't in, before she heard the soft shuffle of footsteps approaching the door. It swung open without a sound, and then there was a woman standing before her.
Tall, nearly six foot, with a severe face, harsh features, and tight black hair wound into a bun.
"Can I help you?" she asked. Her voice would be reminiscent of hawk's, if they could speak.
"Um... yeah, I'm Ruby Rose, here with Weiss Schnee? We had a little run-in with the White Fang at an opera, and then-"
"I'm aware of what happened to the two of you. That's the reason I'm in my office right now. I was expecting the both of you though, where is Weiss?"
"Um... she's settling into her room right now. I think she'll be here later."
"But why isn't she here with you?" She poked her head out of the door and glanced down the hallway. "You did come alone, after all."
"We uh... we're not on the best of terms?" she squeaked. "It's complicated, but like I said, she'll be by here later. I think I might have a concussion or something, and I figured since I saw your sign I might as well check in and see if you're in, but then I kinda didn't want to bother you but I figured a concussion was serious so-"
The doctor held her hand up. "You're rambling. Stop that. It's incredibly annoying."
"O-oh." Ruby stepped back, remembering Weiss' words from earlier.
She's a more of a stuck-up bitch than I am.
"Well uh... I'll just head back to my room then and..."
The older woman silenced her with a glare that was surprisingly Weiss-like. "You said you had a concussion? That's a serious matter, if left untreated. So how about you stop pouting, and step inside my office?"
"...Okay?"
"Well, you do have a concussion."
Ruby sagged into the chair she sat in. Great. Just another wonderful thing to add to the list of today's great events.
"But it's very mild. The headaches you're feeling should be gone within a week. But every concussion injures your brain to some extent. This injury needs time and rest to heal properly. I would advise you to not partake in any sort of activity that could lead to a head injury. I trust you're smart enough know what you should and shouldn't do."
The doctor sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose, and shut her eyes. "In the event that you do, however, know that experiencing a second concussion before signs and symptoms of a first concussion have resolved, may result in rapid and usually fatal brain swelling. So like I said," she finished as she stared at Ruby with a look of mild distaste, "participate in combat at your own risk."
With that, the doctor swiftly stood, stepped around the desk, and walked out of the office. "If Weiss comes looking for me, I'll probably be in the sun room." She mumbled something else as she walked off, but Ruby managed to catch the back end of it. "-the only room I can stand in this fucking place..."
"Well that was... interesting..." Ruby said to no one in particular. The air in White Castle was so empty and cold, she felt like it needed to be filled with words and conversation as much as possible. Even if that conversation was with the potted plant next to the doctor's desk.
Ruby stood, realizing she should probably leave and wondering why any doctor would leave a patient alone in their unsecured office. But as she turned to go, a folder on the desk caught her eye. She could only read a fragment of the label on the yellow folder, but what she could see read: iss Schnee.
"Iss? Weiss?" She wondered aloud.
Glancing around to make sure there were no cameras in the room, and then out into the hallway to make sure the doctor wasn't coming back, she slid the folder across the desk and picked it up. The cover did indeed read: Weiss Schnee.
Overcome with curiosity, she opened it.
It appeared to be a detailed medical history of her partner, complete with biometric readings, psychiatric and psychological analysis', even dental reports and x-rays of her bone structure. Flipping through at random, a particular section caught her eye.
"Let's see..." she said. "Weiss Schnee, age sixteen, diagnosed with... attachment disorder?"
Simply for the sake of filling the ever-empty air, she read the following passage aloud.
"Attachment disorder is where a child or adult is unable to form normal healthy attachments. This is usually due to deta... detrimental early life experiences - such as neglect, abuse, separation from their parents or primary caregivers (after six months of age and before three years of age), frequent change of caregivers, and lack of responsiveness from their caregivers. Symptoms vary depending on age. In adults, they fall under one of two categories – either avoidant or anxious/ ambivalent personalities. Weiss falls under the category of avoidant. The symptoms are summarized below."
Ruby scanned the document with suspicion, then continued reading.
"Avoidant: intense anger and hostility, hypercritical of others, extremely sensitive to criticism, correction or blame, lacks empathy, sees others as untrustworthy and unreliable, either sees themselves as being unlovable or "too good" for others..."
She took a deep breath before continuing. Even though she was angry at Weiss, this was still hard to read.
"Relationships are experienced as either being too threatening or requiring too much effort, fear of closeness and intimacy, compulsive self-reliance, passive or uninvolved in relationships, finds it hard to get along with co-workers and authority figures, prefers to work alone, or to be self employed... may use work to avoid investing in relationships..."
She looked away from the folder, processing what she had just read. She stared at that same potted plant, deciding that talking to it was better than talking to the air.
"Well... that certainly seems to fit. Weiss is definitely hypercritical, she lacks a lot of empathy... and given what she said to me earlier today, it's like she sees me as 'untrustworthy and unreliable'... ouch."
She read the symptoms again. "Relations are experienced as either being too threatening... yeap, that's her. Fear of closeness and intimacy, yeap. Compulsive self-reliance, bingo. Passive or uninvolved in relationships... Eh, maybe sometimes. Finds it hard to get along with co-workers and authority figures, definitely."
She closed the folder and laid it back on the desk, figuring she had read enough. It put things into a different perspective, their whole argument, and actually, all of Weiss' behavior. It explained everything.
"Attachment disorder, huh?"
She sighed and sat back down in the chair by the door, shivering against the chill in the air.
And then she did what she didn't necessarily want to do. In her heart, she forgave Weiss.
She said it out loud just to make it real: a breathy whisper in the frost-bitten air.
"Weiss... I forgive you. And I still love you."
And slowly, the seemingly perpetual smile that she always wore worked it's way back onto her face.
"I forgive you Weiss."
Ruby's guest room. A conspicuous lack of Ruby.
The sitting room. A marked absence of Ruby.
The library. No Ruby.
The kitchens. No Ruby!
The pool, the gym, the track, the grand foyer, the ballroom, the gardens. No Ruby.
Weiss crutched through the frigid, desolate hallways with a quiet desperation. The walls seemed to warp and stretch around her, her fear transforming them into a nightmarish parody of the corridors she had walked as a child.
Her fear. Constricting her, squeezing her, burying her.
Because she couldn't find Ruby. And she couldn't argue away the part of her that said that Ruby had already left, that it was her fault,that she had done this to her girlfriend. And the reason she couldn't fight off that little whisper was because she knew it was right. Because she had done this to her partner.
She had to find her. She had to apologize, before it was too late. Before Ruby realized what a cold-hearted stuck-up bitch she was, and would always be, and left her forever. Before the one light in her cold, dim life disappeared forever.
She stopped by the door of the sitting room, and barely managed to suppress a howl of frustration. If her hands weren't occupied with her crutches, she would've been tearing at her hair.
Where was Ruby? Why had the girl even left her room in the first place?
If only she would just listen sometimes, when she told Ruby to stay in her room she had a reason and-
No. No, she was done blaming Ruby for this. The fact that her mind was still trying to do so was sickening. Distraught, alone, and cold, she stared into the sitting room, out the window, at the frigid abyss beyond.
And then she saw something she hadn't seen before. The very top of what looked to be a head of dark brown hair, peeking out from over the top of a large, leather chair. Her breath caught in her throat, and she moved slowly, hesitantly across the room, not willing to believe her eyes. But closer inspection confirmed it. It was indeed Ruby. She was slumped back against a crimson leather chair, one of many arranged in a loose circle around the fireplace. But the fireplace was empty, and the room was abysmally cold.
Ruby was in nothing more than a loose grey shirt and a pair of black pants. And judging by the way the brunette shifted in her sleep and curled in on herself like an armadillo, she was definitely feeling the cold. She was also very, very asleep. Her mouth hung open, admitting a trail of drool that was steadily working its way down her face.
Weiss couldn't help but smile at the sight. It was the first time she'd smiled since they got there.
"You dolt..." she whispered to the empty air.
She spun on her crutches, moved quickly to a small closet just outside the room, and retrieved a large blanket with a distinctly creamy color.
"Figures, if my parents can't have white, they'll have shades of white," she thought with a sigh.
She moved back into the room, and ever so carefully, so as not to wake her girlfriend, she draped the blanket over her.
The effects were immediate: Ruby mumbled something in her sleep and uncurled from her ball, and her face was lit by a gentle grin.
Weiss felt a smile on her face to match Ruby's, and after staring at her partner for a few long, drawn out seconds, desperately hoping that she would forgive her, she walked over to the windows and stood in front of them.
"So cold..."
She brought her hand up and tried to wipe the frost from one of them, succeeding in clearing a small circle with which she could gaze on the outside world. Sometimes she felt trapped in this place. It was like an island, so difficult to reach and just as difficult to leave. She could understand wanting to isolate yourself from the rest of the world, especially if you were the most powerful company in it, but times like this it weared at her. She just wanted to go somewhere, anywhere else. Anywhere she couldn't slip back into her old ways.
She felt ashamed, horrified that she still had the capacity to treat Ruby like that, after everything the girl had already done for her.
If she could treat Ruby like that now... what about in the future? Could Ruby trust her? Could she trust herself?
Lost in her thoughts of self-deprecation, she didn't hear the soft rustle of cloth from behind her.
She didn't hear the quiet footsteps, or the gentle swish of a blanket being opened.
All she felt was it suddenly wrap around her from behind, along with a pair of strong, warm arms.
"Ruby! I-"
"Sshhhhh." The brunette placed a finger against her lips from behind, pulling her closer by the waist with her other arm. "Just ssh. I forgive you."
A moment passed, in which Weiss' heart ceased to beat.
"You... you forgive me?" Weiss whispered, more to herself than anyone else. Ruby simply squeezed her tighter.
Yes, Ruby forgave her.
Ruby actually forgave her.
With that realization, a terribly comforting warmth suffused her, one that stretched from Ruby. The blanket wrapped around the both of them did a magnificent job of keeping out the cold air, and Weiss turned and buried her face in Ruby's shoulder.
The brunette simply held her close, rubbing slow circles into her back and resting her chin on the top of Weiss' head.
What did she ever do to deserve someone like this? Someone who she could treat like garbage, someone who would then come right back to her and hold her like this? Someone who, no matter how hard she unconsciously tried to push away, kept coming back for more? Someone who knew that deep down, she needed this? That she needed this warmth, this affection, this love?
"I'm sorry," she mumbled against Ruby's shoulder.
"I already told you Weiss, I forgive you." She let out a long, pent-up sigh. "I forgive you."
They stayed that way for a few minutes, content simply to be. Then Weiss raised her head and found Ruby's lips, pressing a long, heartfelt kiss to them.
When she drew back, Ruby was gazing down at her with those eyes that seemed to swallow her. With that beatific smile, the one that melted her heart and filled her soul. As their auras met, the sensation as amazing as the first time it had happened, Weiss found herself nearly overcome with longing for the girl that was holding her. So she squeezed her closer, like it was the last time either of them would ever do so, and whispered gently in Ruby's ear.
"I need to get out of here. I don't want to do that to you again. I'll take one of my father's cars and head down to Glasieren for a few days. Will... will you come with me?"
Ruby kissed her again. "You already know the answer to that."
Being demiromantic is actually a thing, it's when you only feel attraction to a person once you've made a powerful emotional connection with them. I figure that explains Weiss' affections for Ruby. Attachment disorder is real too.
I hope you all enjoyed, and please leave a review before you go, even if it's as simple as "ur riting is gud lol." On second thought, please try to leave more than that. Did you like White Castle? Enjoy your weekend!
The lyrics at the beginning are from Sleepwalking by Bring Me the Horizon.
