A/N: We're back. (Aw, yeah.) And talkin' 'bout depression. (Oh.)

Specifically, we're talking about situational depression, something many of us grew very familiar with over 2020. More properly classified as an adjustment disorder, situational depression has many symptoms in common with clinical depression disorders such as MDD or PDD but is fundamentally different in pathology. The crucial distinction in this case is that many people with situational depression can be cheered up or distracted from it, and often do "just get over it" when the triggering situation ends or improves. Since these ideas are central to the following chapter, I wanted to be clear up-front that I'm not suggesting depression can be magically fixed with a positive outlook and a change of circumstances. That's a myth and a very damaging one. Some people need focused and intensive treatment such as medication to knock their brain chemistry into shape. That's just not the kind of affliction we're looking at here.

Didn't miss the lectures in the author's notes, did you? Right, I'll get off my soapbox and let you get to reading, then. I hope you enjoy!

A Little Light Meddling

Rifle in hand, Ruby crept along the edge of the roof, crouching in hopes of presenting a smaller target. There was no cover up here; she had to be fast and she had to be lucky. Up ahead, a nice little nook between chimney and dormer was waiting for her, a makeshift sniper's nest that would give her a chance to start seriously thinning out her opponents. She exhaled slowly, willing her movements to stay swift yet careful. Closer…closer…just one last awkward, clambering jump, and—

Safe!

She grinned, crouching and raising her rifle, peering down the sight. There—an incautious gunman breaking cover and charging towards the safety of the very building she'd chosen for her roost. Her view wobbled and shook as she tracked him, lining up the crosshairs, completely focused. So focused she didn't notice she was being snuck up on until she heard the loud whine of a pulse pistol's discharge directly in her left ear, and the world turned misty and red.

Hissing, she yanked her headphones off, pressing a hand to her ear. "Dang it!" A scoreboard hung mockingly over the hazy red-tinged snapshot of her character's last sight, informing her that yes, in fact she had just lost to an AI opponent. Again. Ruby narrowed her eyes at the monitor.

"I'd win in a real fight," she grumbled. Her computer remained indifferent.

A notification popped in the corner. Not the game's; it was her chat app.

PicturePerfect3: still on?

Velvet. And not really a fair question. The older girl had school, after all. So yeah, maybe she'd seen Ruby had started playing about seve…eighthours ago, but Velvet had no evidence she hadn't taken a break at some point.

Which, she hadn't. But.

Ruby set aside her controller and pulled her keyboard closer.

runlikethewind: training

PicturePerfect3: but you. youre not playing online.

runlikethewind: i'm playing campaign

PicturePerfect3: …is that really training tho

runlikethewind: it is on insanity

PicturePerfect3: :0 ruby no thats for people who hate themselves!

PicturePerfect3: the cpu cheats IT CHEATS

PicturePerfect3: seek help T-T XD

haha no lol, Ruby typed back with a straight face and a leaden weight in her stomach. Her empty stomach, she realised vaguely; she should probably grab something to eat eventually. Maybe later, when she felt hungry.

"I just think it'd be good for you to talk to someone." Tai folded his hands in his lap. "It's been a crazy year, you know?"

"I don't need a therapist," Ruby insisted, crossing her arms and scrunching back further against the headboard of her bed.

"Ruby, you were taken prisoner by hostile aliens," Tai pointed out. "Which is somehow just the icing on the cake of everything you've been through since April."

"Everything's fine. Yang and Blake are gonna come home and everything's gonna be fine."

"Well, which is it? Is everything fine, or is everything going to be fine?"

Ruby clamped her mouth shut, wriggling so she was turned towards the window instead of looking at her father.

"It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you, Ruby. It's normal to seek help when things get rough. It's—"

"Human?" she interjected, voice flat.

"Right. Because Gems handle everything gracefully and never need help with anything. They're basically perfect. Real models of psychological health and emotional stability."

"They sure don't have to go to therapy."

Tai scoffed quietly. "Some of them probably should."

"You gonna take that?" Ruby asked dryly, looking over at Qrow, who was leaning against the wall to her right. She glanced towards the open doorway, where Ozpin was just visible in the shadows of the hallway, half-turned away from the scene unfolding inside her bedroom.

"This ain't about us, kid," Qrow said, the first time he'd spoken since Taiyang had initiated this little intervention.

"Right. You're just here so Dad doesn't have to be the bad guy."

"Just…think about it, rosebud," Tai said quietly. "Okay?"

Velvet sent a voice chat request. Ruby hesitated for a moment before accepting it, settling her headphones back into place and pulling down the microphone.

"Hey!"

"Hey."

"Been awhile since I heard from you. You weren't on last week."

"I'm making up for it."

"I can see that." Velvet didn't sound judgy or disapproving or anything, but there was an edge of something in her voice that wasn't 100% positive. "So how've you been?"

"Fine."

"Mmhm," Velvet prompted.

Ruby let the silence stretch out a few seconds before sighing quietly. "Weiss put you up to this, didn't she."

"Nope. But I guess that confirms something's wrong."

"No. Everything's fine. We're just not talking right now."

"The silent treatment? That's not like you. Not like her, either. I wouldn't call either of you confrontation-shy."

"It's—there's family stuff, okay? Big…crazy…Gem things. You guys wouldn't get it."

"Right. That's not even a little condescending," Velvet said agreeably. "I don't feel left out or talked down to at all, and Weiss is always really cool about that sort of thing."

Ruby flinched. "…I just don't want to talk about it, okay?" she whispered.

"Then say that. It's okay. Just be honest."

"It's not okay to Weiss. She wants answers."

"Have you tried telling her you're not ready to talk, or did you just panic and hang up on her?"

Ruby bit her lip.

"Oh, Ruby…"

Zwei, who had been stretched out on his side on Ruby's bed, suddenly scrambled to his feet, his ears perking up. He barked once, sharply, before launching himself off of the mattress towards the door and tearing off down the hall.

"Wait, Zwei!" A chill went down Ruby's spine. What if something's wrong again? "Can I call you back later? I need to go see what set him off."

"Or I can wait if—"

Ruby left the call and cast off her headphones, leaving her desk chair turning in a slow, wobbly arc behind her as she followed Zwei. Her steps were swift at first, then grew more hesitant.

Zwei had stopped barking, and now that he had and she was no longer getting a constant stream of sound effects and music piped directly into her ears, the absolute silence of the house closed in around her. Yang, Qrow, and Ozpin were almost never all gone at the same time, and when they did leave together, they either sent Ruby to Taiyang's house or—more and more often, these days—brought her along with them. But Yang was missing, and Qrow and Ozpin were looking for her and Taiyang was busy on a hunt, so this was far from the first time Ruby had been alone in the house in the past two weeks.

She kept catching herself walking around on tiptoe. Hunching her shoulders, ducking her head. Creeping through her own home like a burglar.

Zwei whimpered. Picking up the pace, she went down the stairs, pressing a hand into the banister to swing herself around towards the front door. He was pawing at it urgently, scraping it peculiarly with his pads like he understood on some level that he wasn't supposed to use his nails. Someone should really study the relative intelligence of the mutated animals in Forever Fall. If Zwei was anything to go by, they were worryingly close to sapience.

"Do you need outside?" Ruby asked hesitantly, turning her head to look down the hall towards the back door instead. "Who's been sending you out front?"

The corgi let out a sharp bark, rearing up and planting his front paws on the door. His nubby tail wiggled furiously as he stared at her.

"Okay…" Dubious, she approached the front door, nudging him away with her foot as she turned the knob. "Give it space, boy, it can't go through you. I hope." It wouldn't really be that surprising to find out her portal-opening Dog of Holding was only selectively solid.

The door didn't creak, ominously or otherwise, when she opened it, because immortals as a rule were rather fastidious about the sort of maintenance tasks that would keep their stuff whole and working for a longer chunk of eternity. But it probably should have, because on the other side of the door was Weiss Schnee, bundled up in a dove-grey parka, sleek snow boots, and leather-look gloves that probably cost more than Ruby's entire wardrobe. Each. Zwei slipped out past Ruby, shaking all over and yipping as he popcorned around Weiss's feet.

"Good boy!" Weiss praised him, lowering a long silver whistle from her lips. "Who's a good Zwei?" She crouched down and ruffled the fur between his ears vigorously. "Yeah, it's you! It's you!"

Who's a bad Ruby? asked the narrow-eyed stare aimed up at the girl in question. Yeah. It's you.

"Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed weakly. "Good to…see you…"

Weiss didn't break eye contact as she stood up again. Then she jabbed a finger towards Ruby, the tip landing squarely on her Gemstone through the heavy fabric of her hoodie. Ruby flinched.

"You are not saying another word until you answer one question," Weiss said. "Are we friends, or not? Because if you're trying to," her mouth worked silently for a moment, "break up with me, you will do it to my face. Nobody ghosts a Schnee!"

She drew her finger back just far enough to give Ruby another prod, making the hybrid wince. It didn't hurt, exactly—actually, she didn't feel the contact with her Gemstone directly. It felt kind of like getting shocked with static electricity, a harmless but alarming jolt to her system. Ruby shook it off.

"What? Weiss, of course we're friends!"

"Then I can come in." It was a statement, not a question, but it was punctuated by another jab and Weiss didn't actually move to enter the house.

"…Yes?"

"Hmph." Weiss finally let her hand drop and hoisted her backpack higher onto her shoulder, putting her nose in the air and walking briskly around Ruby without giving her another glance. Zwei pointed his muzzle skyward and followed her.

"Traitor," Ruby hissed at him, backing inside and letting the door shut with more noise than was strictly necessary. As she turned towards the direction Weiss had gone, she found herself with a faceful of damp designer parka.

"Hang that up, will you?" Weiss asked coolly, balancing neatly on one foot while she unzipped the boot on its mate. "My hands are full."

Yeah, I'm sure that's the only reason you're throwing things at me. This was a whole new version of Angry Weiss. Ruby was pretty sure she preferred the version that erupted once and got over it. …Of course, taking that metaphor to its conclusion, she really hoped these weren't warning tremors.

Weiss's boots hit the boot tray with a thump. She grabbed her backpack by its top loop and marched off towards the kitchen while Ruby was still trying to find the hanger thingy inside her parka. Did fancy rich-person coats just not have those? She gave up and hung it by its fuzzy-rimmed hood, trailing after Weiss.

Ruby entered the kitchen just as the ungodly racket of the coffee grinder kicked on, making her slap her palms over her ears. Zwei bolted past her on his way out, his ears flat against his head.

"What are you doing?" she called over the noise.

"Making coffee!" Somehow, the silent duh was louder than Weiss's raised voice.

"But why are you makING COF—" The grinding noise cut out. "—fee?"

"Because I want coffee," said Weiss. She hiked herself up on tiptoe in front of the cupboard to the left of the stove, reaching out and hooking her fingers through the handle of the largest Meridian press.

"Did you…memorise our kitchen cabinets?"

"Have Gems discovered some special, specific kind of psychic powers people can have that tell them where things are in people's kitchens?"

"No?"

"Then I guess I must have memorised the cabinets. Get me two of the bread plates—or the dessert plates, but not the salad plates—from the nice set in the dining room. The ones with the branch pattern." Weiss tapped her finger lightly against the kettle, which Ruby realised was already full and heating on the stove. She'd moved fast. "Who else is home?"

Ruby answered a few beats too late to sound casual about it. "Just me."

Weiss paused. "Then just the two will be fine."

Ruby inched past her towards the dining room, shooting furtive glances at the other girl over her shoulder. She gazed at the china cabinet with some apprehension.

"Branch pattern?" she murmured, furrowing her brow.

"Lower left!" Weiss called.

Ruby jumped, looking back towards the kitchen, but she didn't see Weiss in the doorway. "Okay…" Tentatively, she pulled open the indicated door. Sure enough, there was a set of dishes with flowering tree branches painted around their rims. "Huh." She slid a pair of small plates off the top of a stack with a quiet clinking, grinding noise.

"Please don't be salad plates," she whispered to them. "I don't wanna know what happens if you are."

When she got back to the kitchen, she found Weiss standing in front of her open backpack, tearing open a package of cookies. Ruby's eyes went wide. "You brought rich-person snacks?"

Weiss pointed at a spot on the counter, and Ruby set the plates down. "Five each," she said, laying the cookies out in a fan on each plate. Ruby opened her mouth to protest—they were thin little cookies, and ten wasn't even half the roll—but as if sensing what was about to happen, Weiss wheeled to face her, cookie packet in one hand while her other was extended towards Ruby's face, a finger planted directly over her lips.

"Mmph!"

"A-bup-bup! The distribution of the remaining cookies is contingent upon your cooperation." Weiss lowered her hand and fished another cookie out of the roll, popping it into her mouth with a pointed stare.

"That doesn't seem fair," Ruby mumbled, looking down.

"If I get what I want, you get what you want. That's the definition of fair." The kettle started whistling. Weiss set the cookies aside and went to pour it off, putting her back to Ruby, who eyed the package speculatively. She leaned towards it, stretching out a hand.

"No."

Ruby recoiled, clutching her hand like she'd been bitten and shooting an injured look over her shoulder. Weiss hadn't even looked away from what she was doing.

Coffee, it turned out, was properly served in what looked like a tall teacup, complete with saucer, and the branch-patterned dishes were the only set in the house that included a coffee service. So, point the third for Weiss being disturbingly well-informed about the layout of Ruby's house. At least it gave Ruby something pretty to stare down at instead of looking at Weiss. Though she did have the off-putting sense of being a guest in her own home. Weiss had even made a point of preparing her cup upon serving, presenting it fresh and hot with steam curling off its surface.

It wasn't steaming anymore. Ruby would call the silence in the living room 'awkward', but Weiss was calmly sipping her coffee and making genteel, nibbling inroads on her plate of cookies, looking nowhere in particular except whenever Ruby shifted uncomfortably, pulling her eyes back onto the hybrid and an expectant expression back onto her face. Zwei never had returned. Probably for the best. He usually took Weiss's side.

"I don't know what you want me to say," Ruby blurted out finally, almost startling herself.

"You could start with 'I'm sorry you had to call my dad to find out if I was even still alive because I refused to answer my perfectly-functional scroll'," Weiss suggested flatly. Ruby flinched. "Then maybe you could move on to, oh, I don't know, literally anything about what happened after you hung up on me during the alien invasion that happened over two weeks ago?"

Ruby opened her mouth, but no words came out, so she closed it again and shrank a little deeper into the couch. Weiss had taken Yang's semi-usual spot in the armchair on the right, and it was jarring and weird and part of Ruby itched to evict her from it. But even if she could somehow do that without upsetting Weiss further, she'd just move to Ozpin's chair and that'd be a different kind of unsettling with her acting all aloof and critical and watching Ruby over the rim of a mug.

"I am sorry," Ruby said weakly. "I didn't want to make you worry."

Weiss set down her coffee cup with care that seemed almost exaggerated. "Is that part of the apology, or is that supposed to be why you won't talk to me? Because, what, you wanted to protect me?"

This time, Ruby was silent too long, it seemed; Weiss flung up her hands. "Just give me something, Ruby! Even if it's telling me to get out! Anything other than sitting there like you're—hoping the world'll just go away so you don't have to deal with it anymore!"

That was what was weird, Ruby realised suddenly. This wasn't Angry Weiss at all. This was Scared Weiss. And she didn't know why. Weiss didn't know what there was to be scared about. That was the whole point.

"I just didn't want to say anything until it was over," Ruby fretted. "It was supposed to all be over by now. A couple days, a-and I could have called and told you everything was okay! But it's not, and…"

"Wow, be more vague," Weiss snapped. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Ruby, please," she said in a gentler tone; still tense, but no longer harsh. "I need to know what happened."

The words Velvet had encouraged her to say were all lined up—I'm not ready to talk about it—but still Ruby hesitated. Because she loved Velvet, and Jaune and Pyrrha and all the others, but they weren't Weiss. They hadn't helped Ruby hunt for secrets about her mother and the early Rebellion, hadn't been there when Blake came out of the Record, hadn't taught her to dance and collided with her and suddenly been her. Hadn't been on the phone with her while she watched her world come apart on a tiny screen. It wasn't that Weiss was more important, or even more important to Ruby. It was much simpler than that.

"You're part of this, too," Ruby said quietly, shoulders slumping.

"Then let me be part of it. Talk to me," Weiss—well, if she weren't Weiss, Ruby would say she was begging.

Ruby swallowed, bracing herself. "After I hung up on you—"

BANG!

A door slamming. The back door, slamming open! Ruby swivelled towards the noise, hardly daring to breathe.

"Are you kidding me?" Weiss asked the ceiling in a flat, exasperated hiss.

After that first frozen heartbeat, Ruby leapt to her feet, rushing towards the back hall. Qrow appeared around the foot of the stairs before she could make it that far, dripping with seawater and snowmelt. Lank black hair flopped over red eyes lidded with active displeasure.

Ruby's hope faded, and she stopped in her tracks. "Oh."

Qrow flung his hands in the air. "Ocean's big, kid. What d'ya want from me?"

"Ingress to the rest of the house?" came Ozpin's voice from behind him. Scowling, Qrow shuffled to the side, allowing Ozpin to step into view. "And might I suggest a towel?"

The scowl deepened. Then—

"Eugh!" Ruby flinched away as Qrow shook his head like a dog, flinging water droplets from his hair in a spray of heavy mist. By the time she recovered, the Pearl was already stomping up the stairs, muttering under his breath. "Qrooow!"

"What!? I'm getting a towel!"he hollered.

"Oh—!" Ozpin reached up with the hand he wasn't using to lean on his cane, pulling his glasses off and eyeing them with dismay. His lower set of eyes narrowed briefly into a squint, clearly unused to unfiltered light. "He knows saltwater leaves spots…"

She just looked at him for a moment, feeling…something she couldn't quite place. Beneath the quiet pounding in her ears, she could hear Weiss approaching from behind her. "You're really worried about your glasses right now?" Ruby said slowly.

"Uh," Weiss began, holding up a finger. Her wide eyes darted between Ozpin's pairs—which were a little wide themselves, now, taking in Ruby's blank, off tone.

"Yeah, yeah," Ruby cut her off. "Ozpin's a Fusion, old news, moving on!"

"Not to me," said Weiss, sounding stunned and a little hurt, but Ruby was already ploughing forward, the hot, churning feeling in her gut growing stronger.

"You get that Yang and Blake are missing, right?"

"Yang's what?" Weiss yelped.

"Not now, Weiss!" Ruby shrilled, balling her hands into fists and glaring at the girl before turning the furious expression back on Ozpin, where it belonged. "Are you even worried about them!?"

"Not especially, no," said Ozpin, slipping his glasses back on. He didn't sound cold, or harsh, or even disinterested. A little puzzled, if anything.

Ruby was speechless. Reeling. "You—but—!"

"A twenty-foot-tall Fusion with approximately ten thousand years of combined combat experience against a single monster—even a powerful one, even a Fused one—is certainly a contest, but one with an inevitable outcome. I have explained this before, to you, and Qrow, and Taiyang. And now to Weiss, I suppose; good afternoon, Miss Schnee." He smiled at her, folding his hands atop his cane. "How are you?"

"Confused?"

"Understandable."

"Winning isn't inevitable!" Ruby managed finally, practically tearing at her hair. "When was the last time we won anything? 'Cause the last time we were supposed to have an easy win, we got locked up on an exploding spaceship!"

Wordlessly, Weiss extended her hands towards Ruby, palms-up, looking between her and Ozpin with an open mouth and a creased brow.

"Yes, that's entirely literal," Ozpin told her. "The ship is gone now. We're quite safe."

"Yang and Blake aren't!"

"Who the heck is Blake!?"

"Scapolite."

"Stop ignoring me!" Ruby shrieked, stomping her foot. "And stop ignoring them! Qrow obviously just spent all day looking for them, and you, what, sat around on a beach waiting for him to come back? Flexing those Garnet oversight superpowers?"

"Goodness," Ozpin said mildly. "Are we quite sure Yang isn't here? I could swear I heard her talking just now."

For some reason, the fact that Ozpin wasn't getting angry at her just made Ruby even angrier. And he wasn't even trying to mock her, she knew what passive-aggressive Ozpin-speak sounded like and that wasn't it. He actually wasn't upset. At all. About any of it.

"You don't even care," Ruby realised, taking a step back. She scrutinised his face, like he was a stranger she was struggling to recognise. "Do you?"

At that, he frowned. "Of course I care."

"That's not what you said a minute ago!"

"Ruby, you never asked me if I cared. You asked if I was worried. There's a difference."

"Not to you! Youworry when you care. It's how to tell if you care. You freak out!"

"I worry when I don't know what to do. In this case, I know exactly what to do. Search, and wait. In time, either patience or diligence will bear fruit." His gaze slid away, landing somewhere between middle distance and the front door. "Certainly I would prefer some magical incantation that puts the world to rights, but there is simply no such thing. So I will search. And I will wait. And…I will hope." A faint smile. "Clearly the world's turned upside-down."

"But you were right to be a pessimist! The rest of us were hoping for the best this whole time and everything turned out horribly!"

Ozpin's eyebrows rose. "I'd like to see your idea of a positive outcome, if a decisive victory with zero casualties isn't good enough to qualify."

"How can you be so sure there weren't any casualties?" Ruby burst out. Then she clapped her hands over her mouth, feeling sick.

"Ruby…" Cautiously, Weiss reached out and touched her arm, letting her fingers rest there.

Ozpin's hand came down gently on Ruby's opposite shoulder. "What's the golden rule of the murder mystery genre?"

"…The butler did it?" Ruby ventured, bewildered.

"Don't slander butlers like that," Weiss scolded. "It's always the spouse."

Ozpin actually sighed. "If you never see the body," he recited, "there isn't one. Automatically assuming the worst of a person or a situation without sufficient evidence is every bit as hazardous as blind, absolute faith. But I have four thousand years of sufficient evidence for my faith in Yang's ability to survive. Wherever she is, whatever she's doing, she's alright. So is Blake. And they're coming home."

Ruby bit her lip and bowed her head, blinking back tears.

"Have you put further thought into your father's suggestion?" Ozpin asked quietly. Weiss felt Ruby tense. From the way his eyes crimped just at the corners, Ozpin had felt it too. "Hm."

"I'm fine," Ruby whispered.

"We can see that," Weiss said flatly. Ruby's shoulders hunched, and Ozpin withdrew his hand.

"A little faith, young Rose."

She swallowed. "All you ever ask, right?"

"It's a reasonable request. A little faith is what we owe each other. Any more must be freely given." Ruby was still directing her gaze at the floor, so she missed Ozpin giving Weiss the sort of look that was probably meant to tell her something. Apparently, he'd forgotten that she'd ditched class during Silent Communication 301: Advanced Meaningful Glances. On account of not having existed until a few millennia after the course was over.

"I'll leave the two of you to talk—I daresay you have a fair bit of ground to cover. Weiss, please let me know if you're staying for dinner." He glanced up the stairs, after Qrow. "Something tells me the cooking rota's turning my way a little early this week."

"Oh, I—" have plans, she bit back just in time, because maybe she didn't anymore. It would kind of depend on the next however-long until she had all the answers she'd come for. "I'll let you know."

The Garnet nodded and turned for the stairs, tossing his cane lightly to hold it still at his side by the shaft as he went up.

"I guess you probably have more questions now," said Ruby, scuffing her toe idly against the floor.

Weiss heard her scroll chime in her pocket. "One second—yes, obviously, and you're going to answer them, but that's probably Klein."

It was not. It was a text from one of the numbers Russe had programmed in. Ozpin's.

Be patient with her. Please.

Patience turned out to be unnecessary. A few seconds of silence held after they'd sat down again. Then the whole story tumbled out of Ruby with the force and weight of an avalanche. All Weiss could do was get out of the way, keep quiet, and wait out the tremors.

"So…Yang and Blake Fused and went missing along with one of the Homeworld Gems, who's now an insane murder bull because he Fused with a monster." Weiss began counting off on her fingers: two, so far. "Peridot and Qrow's archnemesis are also missing, but they're laying low. The ship's wrecked, so there's not enough evidence to convince the kingdoms that Homeworld tried to invade again, so it's going to be just as bad the next time this happens. But we're all crossing our fingers that there won't be a next time for at least another thousand years or so because the Diamonds won't be in a rush to throw good manpower after bad."

"Yup."

"Also Blake got adopted by Faunus, Ozpin's a Fusion, and Qrow has a magic password that turns his brain off and one of the enemy combatants running around who-knows-where knows what it is."

She held up eight fingers towards Ruby, who had the audacity to reply with a bob of the head and an "Mmhm."

Weiss squeezed her eyes shut, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Anything I missed?"

"Qrow and Oz think there could be a fourth Homeworld Gem somewhere on Remnant, 'cause Bloodstone and Jaspilite were both nowhere near the engine room when the self-destruct was triggered and Peridot shouldn't have been able to do it, either. But we have no idea who they are or what they look like or what powers they might have." Ruby sighed. "Or if they even exist."

"Lovely. And the reason for slow-rolling the Gem hunt this time is…?"

"Peacekeeping. If we go all-out hunting down the Homeworld Gems, we'll find them sooner rather than later. But they know that, too, so there won't be anything stopping them from doing something drastic if they start feeling cornered."

Weiss didn't really want to think about 'doing something drastic' entailed for someone who literally couldn't care less about Remnan lives. "Oh," she said, and it was the kind of 'oh' that meant a lot more than that.

Ruby nodded, understanding. "Right now, everyone's safer if we work slowly and secretly. We've got more Huntsmen on the job this time, though. Everyone's so busy, Dr. Oobleck's just been assigning me readings and taking my homework by email."

"So Qrow and Ozpin have been focusing on the search for Blake and Yang, or—Fire Opal, I guess—and you've been sitting around the house alone?"

"I keep asking them to let me help," Ruby said defensively. "But they won't. Apparently my stupid human body," she raised her fingers into air quotes, "'needs air' and 'can't survive in high pressure'."

"Well…yeah," Weiss drawled. "I didn't think you were going to be trawling the seafloor. I meant you shouldn't be cooped up like this. It's not good for you. It's almost Yule; are you telling me you're not some insufferably-cheerful holiday freak?"

She frowned, looking around the living room. And coming up to the house, too… "Do you guys not celebrate Yule, or something? Knowing you, I thought there'd be tasteless red-and-green décor everywhere by now. Or at least a sentient holly bush that keeps trying to eat the house, or something."

Ruby's face fell. "Everyone's busy," she said again. "And…Yang's in charge of decorating."

Weiss swallowed her second Oh of the day before it could escape, leaving them in silence.

"So now you know everything I know." Ruby gave a helpless little shrug, not quite looking at her. "Sorry you had to come so far to get it."

Weiss looked down at her Signal Academy uniform. "It wasn't that far out of my way."

"Oh! Right. But you missed the airbus back—and the ferry doesn't make as many trips in winter—"

"The next bus leaves in plenty of time to get us where we're going. And we'll have time to finish our coffee."

"That's good," Ruby said, nodding. Then she blinked. "Uh, what do you mean, 'us'?"

Weiss frowned at her, then clapped a hand to her forehead with a groan. "You didn't talk to Velvet, did you."

"Well, yeah, I di—hey, she said you didn't put her up to that!"

"I didn't put anyone up to anything! She was supposed to tell you what we're doing tonight and then I was supposed to make sure you actually showed up! Or keep you company if you weren't in any shape to go," Weiss added in a mutter, reddening a little.

"But there's nothing about going-out plans in the group chat!" Ruby pulled out her scroll, swiping her finger frantically over the screen and then holding it out at Weiss accusatorily. The hybrid then gasped, lowering the device. "You made a separate group chat without me!"

"There's a group chat?"

"You're not in the group chat," Ruby breathed, her eyes going wide. "Oh man."

"Ugh." Weiss rolled her eyes. "This isn't the point. We're going to finish our coffee, I'm going to go get changed, and then we're going into Vale. We're going out to dinner with Jaune and Pyrrha and then meeting up with Coco and her group to look at some Yule light display thing at the arboretum, then probably wrapping up with some stereotypical teen thing like going to the mall. Or the Gunmetal. Are we sure Coco doesn't secretly live at the Gunmetal, and she keeps inviting people there so we don't find out?"

"This is an intervention," Ruby realised, her tone turning wary. "You guys are intervening me. Uh. With me. Intervening in—you're managing me."

"Superbly," Weiss said loftily, lifting her coffee cup. "You're welcome. We leave at 5:15. Be ready."

There was no way—none—not a chance in hell—that Weiss had picked the restaurant, a mid-scale burger joint that Ruby strongly suspected had been chosen to prevent the young socialite from outright turning her nose up at fast food. Whatever the reason, the second Ruby set foot inside, she had to stifle a groan, inhaling deeply for a second whiff of savoury beef, caramelised onion, and toasted bread. The sizzles of searing meat and hot fry oil were a constant background noise beneath the sounds of clinking cutlery and glassware and the blended hum of a half-dozen different conversations.

"Oh man that smells good."

Weiss wrinkled her nose as she stepped hesitantly into the tile entryway. "I suppose it's inoffensive enough."

Ruby smacked her gently with the back of her hand. "C'mon, Weiss, live a little! Gourmet burgers are a thing, there's no way you haven't eaten one before."

"Are you really trying to convince me this is gourmet?" Weiss narrowed her eyes at a sign by the door inviting them to Please Seat Yourself! "The service alone—"

"Yeah, yeah." Ruby popped up on tiptoe, craning to look around the restaurant. "Do you see Jaune and Pyrrha anywhere?"

"No. We're a few minutes early. They're probably not here yet."

"Then let's sit over there! They'll be able to spot us easy."

"You seem more cheerful already," Weiss grumbled, sounding oddly resentful about that as she trailed in Ruby's wake.

"Because I just realised I'm starving and we're standing in a place designed to meet my needs!" Ruby snickered. "Meat my needs," she repeated, grinning cheekily as she slid into a chair.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Ha, ha." She took the spot to Ruby's right.

"Aw, come on! That was classicwordplay!" Ruby pressed a fist to her heart. "Somewhere, Yang just felt so proud of…"

The grin practically melted off her face, her posture drooping.

"Ruby…" Weiss trailed off with a breathy sound. She looked more uncomfortable than sympathetic. It would have been much worse the other way around. "She's coming back."

"Yeah." Ruby pasted on a smile. From the look on Weiss's face, it wasn't as convincing as it could have been. "I know."

"Good evening! How's everyone doing today?"

Ruby startled a little in her chair as a menu appeared in front of her. "Fine!" she chirped, making brief, darting eye-contact with the server. He probably wasn't any more convinced by that than Weiss was, but active concern over her long-term emotional wellbeing was well out of his job description.

"Glad to hear it! Can I get you ladies anything to drink?"

"Water for me," Weiss said, "and there'll be four of us."

Ruby put in an order for cola, and was mercifully spared from further discussion of Yang by the arrival of Jaune and Pyrrha bare seconds after the server had departed.

"See? I told you we weren't late, they don't even have drinks yet," Pyrrha said, patting Jaune on the arm as she took a seat across from Weiss. "Hello!"

"Hey, guys," Jaune added, sounding slightly out-of-breath as he wriggled free of his coat. "Sorry, I—whew—I had some stuff to take care of at home."

"Are you alright?" Ruby asked, frowning as she looked him over. His ears and nose were awfully red compared to Pyrrha's, considering they should have been out in the cold for the same amount of time.

"Had to shovel the driveway before I could leave," Jaune said, plopping into his chair with an explosive sigh of relief. "Oh, wow, has sitting always felt this good?"

"At least it was a good workout," Pyrrha suggested.

"I thought you said good workouts shouldn't take you past a dull ache. We're in fiery throbbing territory here."

"'We'?" Weiss echoed, raising a disapproving eyebrow.

"Yep, my muscles and me. We're the one-man ensemble cast of the worst reality show of all time. Hey, Pyr', I'm—I'm gonna take a little nap." He folded his arms on the table and laid his head down. "Just order me one of everything on the menu. Wake me up if I start gnawing my own arm off."

Pyrrha chuckled. "Okay, Jaune. I promise not to let you cannibalise yourself in your sleep."

"Yaaaay, friendship," Jaune mumble-cheered, weakly flopping his wrist around for a celebratory finger-twirl.

Weiss shook her head, rolling her eyes, but Ruby detected the hint of a smile on her face. Jaune had clearly grown on her, even if it wasn't in the way he'd hoped for. At least originally. Now Ruby thought about it, it had been a while since she'd last heard Weiss complain about unwanted advances, let alone personally witnessed one of Jaune's awkward attempts at flirting with her. Maybe he was getting over his crush.

I hope so. It's hard to watch a friend go full cringe like that. And he quit while he's ahead—Weiss never sounded uncomfortable, just annoyed.

"Glad you could make it after all, Ruby," Pyrrha said, startling her. Ruby inspected her face to try and see if she knew, somehow, but it was the same ol' pleasant Pyrrha Smile directed at her as always. "Weiss mentioned you'd been busy lately."

"Well," Weiss said before Ruby could figure out how to respond, "we're all coming up on the end of term, whether we're getting a traditional education or not."

"Right." Ruby seized on the lifeline, grinning in relief. "Just been busy, busy, busy! It feels like I've barely left the house the last couple weeks."

"Imagine that," Weiss muttered.

"I know the feeling," Pyrrha sighed. "Signal Academy teachers are something else. Final projects and final exams in every class! If I weren't on an athletics scholarship, I'd be seriously considering paring down on extracurriculars…"

"It's boot camp," came Jaune's muffled voice. "Break you down to build you up. The faculty's all disguised drill sergeants."

"It is a very Atlesian system," Weiss allowed. "But nothing worthwhile ever came easy."

Pyrrha hummed. "True."

Ruby thought about pointing out the assortment of worthwhile things her Gem heritage had dropped into her lap since birth, but it seemed a little mean to rain on their 'no pain, no gain' parade like that. If that was the attitude they needed to motivate them, more power to 'em. Besides…it was a very Yang way of thinking. Like when she'd supervised Ruby's earliest attempts at tree-climbing.

"If you want up on the higher branches, you gotta reach for 'em!" she'd yelled. "They're not gonna come to you, dummy!"

"You could just fly me up!" had been six-year-old Ruby's (entirely logical!) protest.

"Yeah? And how're you gonna get up if I'm not around?"

Ruby couldn't remember how she'd responded. Just that it had made Yang laugh.

"Oh thank god," she heard Jaune groan, yanking her back to present day and the glass of cola sliding into her view. "I will take the largest glass of whatever lemon-lime soda you have and then I will take another. Please."

"Jaune, you should sit up," Pyrrha chided; Jaune hadn't shifted position to put his order in, and Weiss had buried her face in her hands in clear mortification. And Ruby…

What would normal-happy-Ruby do?

Slowly, Ruby reached across the table and jabbed Jaune sharply but gently in the arm. "Poke!"

"Gah!" Jaune's head shot up, his whole body flinching back. Pyrrha covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. And, seeing his shocked, wounded expression, Ruby startled herself with an undignified snort of her own genuine laughter.

"Aww, look at the little Yule goats!" Velvet pointed out the assortment of straw figures tucked around the bases of trees covered in twinkle lights, wide red ribbons wrapped around the goats' necks. "I didn't even see them down there!"

"Yule…goats?" Weiss craned to look. "Why goats?"

"You've never seen one before? They're a Mantelian thing, I thought you'd know them."

"Is that a lit-up peacock sculpture?" Coco squinted up into one of the conifers. Ruby had never actually seen her without sunglasses before, but she guessed they'd make it hard to enjoy the light display.

"I think that's just a wire frame they wrapped with lights to look like a sculpted peacock," Pyrrha mused. "It's very creative!"

"Doesn't that still make it a sculpture, though?" Yatsu wondered. "Where are we drawing the line, here?"

"Yatsuhashi with the Deep Thoughts here." Fox made a lopsided jazz-hands gesture; his left hand clutched a to-go mug close to his chest. "'What is art?'"

Jaune turned to Fox with an expression of dawning realisation. "Are you…actually getting anything out of this?"

"Comedy, mostly. Relax, someday I'll blindfold you guys and make you watch a movie with descriptions on and we'll be even." Fox hefted his mug. "I got my friends, I got my cocoa, admission's free, it's whatever."

"Oh! Ruby, look at the snowflakes!" Velvet urged.

"Where? Oh!"

There were hundreds of little stars and snowflakes woven out of silver and gold wire and strung on fishing line between a pair of cedars, strings of tiny fairy lights illuminating them from all sides. Some were three-dimensional shapes, forming cages around glass beads or crystals that refracted the light.

"That," Coco said slowly, "had to have taken so long."

"What're we looking at?" Fox asked.

"An entire blizzard's worth of snowflakes made out of teeny-tiny jewellery wire," Yatsu told him. "It looks like the air's sparkling."

"I know what I'm making the Gems help me with next year," Ruby sang, grinning. "Qrow's gonna hate me."

"Couldn't he just opt out?" Weiss asked as they resumed walking.

"Nope. I'm gonna hit 'im with the puppy-dog eyes. He can't say no to that."

"Oh, heads up, guys!" Coco raised a hand. "East exit's that way, hearth is that way. Anyone got a burning need to see an unlit Yule log?" Her eyes lingered on Pyrrha. "Vandalise a Yule log with their initials and someone else's inside a heart?"

"No," Pyrrha said in a high-pitched voice, her face glowing red in a way that may or may not have been due to the berry-coloured lights strung on a nearby holly. "I think we're all good!"

"Very convincing," Fox droned into the lid of his mug as he lifted it for a sip.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune gave her a rather puzzled smile. "You have a crush? And you didn't tell me?"

Coco leaned towards Ruby, muttering out of the side of her mouth. "Oh no, it's so much worse than I thought."

Ruby bobbed her head. "And that is why I have adopted a strict non-interference policy."

"Speaking of crushes," Pyrrha said rather loudly, fixing Coco with an eye-twitching glare and a taut smile, "I assume we're headed to the Gunmetal after this? Seeking the services of the lovely Amber?"

Note to self: do not tease Pyrrha. It is not worth it.

Coco blinked. "Uh…"

Ruby's eyebrows shot up, and she exchanged glances with Weiss. Coco was not an 'uh' kind of girl.

"I think she's out of town," Coco said, recovering with a toss of her hair and a swift pivot towards the exit. "Visiting family for Yule. Or maybe she found another job. Bartender's not the most stable gig unless you're serving bigwigs on the regular."

Velvet leaned in-between Ruby and Pyrrha; Weiss bent closer to listen. "We haven't seen her for a couple weeks. Coco's not, y'know, shattered or anything—shoot, sorry Ruby, no offense."

"It's okay," Ruby assured her, though she had flinched a little.

"It's just weird, though," Velvet went on.

Pyrrha nodded. "I know bars and restaurants have high turnover—Jaune and I work at a bakery—but it's strange to quit around Yuletide. Most places can't afford to let their employees take much time off this time of year, either, there's just too much work to do."

"Okay, but we are hitting the Gunmetal, though!" Coco declared, holding up her scroll. "They just posted they're selling non-alc mulled cider and I need some!"

Ruby looked to Weiss. "What time is Klein expecting you home?"

"He's not. I'm sleeping over at your house." Weiss said it like it was obvious. "Which is why I left my backpack there?"

"Oh! …That's part of the intervention, huh."

Weiss didn't say anything at first, the others' conversation washing passively over them. "Did I mess up?" she asked quietly. Hesitantly. "I meant to ask you to come out tonight, but then I just…kind of…told you instead. I think I maybe do that…a lot."

"You do," Ruby confirmed, a little reluctantly. "But I know you'd listen if I really put my foot down, so…I guess I kind of let you? So that makes it okay. And it helped. Really." She swallowed. "You were right, it—it wasn't good for me, just sitting around at home."

"Would you rather I went home tonight? Gave you some space?"

Ruby bit her lip. "I think I could use some company," she admitted.

"Then you'll have mine."

Ruby was about to thank her, but she noticed a bit more colour in Weiss's cheeks than the cold would explain. So she just smiled and leaned closer, bumping her shoulder companionably against Weiss's.

Weiss opened her eyes yet again and glanced at the clock. 3:17 AM. Less than ten minutes after the last time she'd checked.

Sharing a twin-sized bed sure wasn't doing her sleep any favours—their handful of previous sleepovers had seen Ruby rolling out her sleeping bag to leave the bed for Weiss—but the hybrid didn't toss much in her sleep, and they technically fit. Almost four hours certainly should have been enough time to nod off, but Weiss hadn't managed anything more than a fitful doze.

No, she knew what was wrong.

Weiss flipped back the covers on her side of the bed, craning to look over at Ruby as she slowly inched her body off the mattress. The other girl was sleeping pretty deeply, and she didn't react even when Weiss's feet hit the floor with a soft but solid thump. She didn't stop to consider the fact that she was in a nightdress with her hair loose and dishevelled around her shoulders. She crossed the bedroom floor with a cautious, padding gait, easing the door open and slipping outside, bracing a hand against it as she inched it closed to keep it from rattling in its frame. Weiss leaned her back against it, taking a deep breath as she looked down the hall.

She set her jaw, squared her shoulders, and marched towards the door she wanted. She didn't bother knocking—she'd remember this later and cringe. Weiss grabbed the doorknob firmly and twisted it, shoving the door open forcefully.

Seated at his workbench, Ozpin had already fixed her with a mild, unreadable expression, blinking slowly. Evenly, almost unnaturally so, the way a motion only became as a result of total inattention or focused intent. "Miss Schnee. You're up rather late."

Which was probably some kind of manners-reinforcing power play to counter her busting into his space because he'd been calling her by her first name with increasing frequency for months, but Weiss was distracted by the topographical holo-map projected over the table in front of him, long arrows tracing through the space just above it. Currents, she was immediately sure of it. He was studying the seafloor.

"You told Ruby you weren't that worried." She couldn't help the accusatory tone. It was almost 3:30 in the morning after she'd spent hours helping Ruby away from the edge of an emotional spiral. If Ozpin had been peering over the ledge this whole time, she was going to poke all four of his steadily-blinking eyes out so he couldn't do it anymore, before Ruby could notice and join him and undo all Weiss's hard work. Go quiet and fade away like Willow wilting in the garden with a glass or five of wine.

"I'm not. But I care. Part of my family has been lost at sea." Ozpin gestured to the map with a motion broad enough to indicate the actual ocean, like he could find Yang and Blake buried somewhere in the hologram's depths. There was a stylus tucked between his middle and ring fingers. "The fact that they will likely find their own way home does little to lessen the blow. It is in my power to help them, and so I must try."

It's not in my power.

"Did you mean it?" Weiss asked abruptly, crossing her arms.

"I'm not in the habit of saying things I don't mean, but would you mind being more specific?"

"After we met Blake. You gave me back the sword and said you'd train me if I asked." Realising how defensive she looked, Weiss lowered her arms. She couldn't stop her fingers from tightening into fists, though.

Ozpin said nothing, tipping his head to the side and gazing at her expectantly. The metronomic blinking had stopped—he in fact was not blinking at all, now. Weiss let him stare, meeting his eyes with her own. If he was searching for something, she'd give him a chance to find it. If he was trying to intimidate her, then he'd just have to be disappointed.

"I did say that, yes," Ozpin said at last. "Accordingly, I meant it."

Weiss's voice was clear and even when she spoke again.

"Then I'm asking."

A/N: Ah, here it is, here's the damning line from A Tangle of Briars's end notes: if all goes well, then by the time I've got a functional outline I should also have enough material already written to not only start posting, but post with regular updates.

Yeah, so. All did not go well.

I will not rattle off the reel of excuses, but very little writing got done in May and June. I apparently finished "Volume 1" just in time to actually be able to, well, finish it. So this next part is going to have to run on the same "it's done when it's done" principle as the first instalment, because it's been three months, I do have a functional outline, and I needed to break posting inertia before it broke me. I was kinda looking forward to having my stuff together, but it is what it is.

And what it is, in this case, is *drumroll* Volume 2, known on AO3 by the name Crystallinity! Not much to V2C1, I'm afraid; much like SU's original Full Disclosure, it's more about stage-setting and dealing with the aftermath of the previous season's finale than shocking revelations, fun interactions, or fight scenes. Next chapter, though? Next chapter is Sworn to the Sword. Weiss is officially done being relegated to the background.

I cannot express how excited I am to be posting again, even if the last few months have been unexpectedly hectic and thus, unproductive. Thanks for joining me for another whirl through this AU! See you next time!