I figured I would toss in chapter 1 since the prologue is only 200-300 words long. Enjoy!


Chapter One
Daily Routine
[Weiss]
Date: Monday, September 12th
I should be free now
I should be fine
But the life I fought for
Still isn't mine

It was the same routine every day. . .

She woke up, freshened up and got dressed, fixed her hair the way she wanted it for that particular day, judged her appearance and her scar, then joined her father in the office. Time ticked by slowly, agonizingly slow, but she was used to it. It was rare if anything interesting happened, and even if something did, she would be ordered to stay behind and continue working.

Her life had been this way for the past year since she'd turned twenty-two; her father had decided she'd had enough 'freedom' and insisted she come to work with him, he'd given her a schedule to follow. It'd been pretty easy to adjust to, despite having to rise with the sun.

Today would be different, though. Her father was heading out on a business trip for at least two months, leaving the company in her hands. This would be her chance to prove she was ready to inherit their company and she would be able to change things, she would cleanse her family's name and bring honor back.

Since her father took over the Schnee Company, their reputation had gone downhill. Their name was no longer praised, her grandfather's hard work had gone to waste. Well, when she took over, she would fix everything her father had done and correct his mistakes. One of those was allowing the faunus to work among them, even if they were slaves. Those filthy animals were the reason that her father would return home in a rage, she blamed them for the fact she'd never had the loving parents she'd wanted.

Why wouldn't she?

Humans had done nothing to the faunus, yet they decide to make their lives miserable. Just last week, their system had been disabled and private information was stolen within a short amount of time that it was down. Two months ago, all of their cargo had gone missing from a train making its way to Atlas. That loss had cost their company millions. . . She was ready to take over the company and restore her family's name, but her first step towards proving such a thing to her father was not one she wanted to take. . . Weiss would need to find a husband.

The woman sighed and opened her bedroom door, her eyes snapped up immediately when she heard a voice greeting her, "Good morning!" It took her a moment to realize that Neptune was standing in front of her with his regular flirtatious smile, "You look stunning, Snow Angel."

Neptune was obviously the best candidate, her father approved of him and they'd known each other since they were children, and he knew as much about their company as she did. It was also as clear as day that the young man had a thing for her, so what other choice did she have? Her father wanted them to become an item anyway. . .

"Good morning to you too, Neptune," Weiss greeted her friend, "and thank you." She despised the nickname he'd chosen for her, but she did her best to tolerate it. "You look pretty alright yourself," she smiled and Neptune rolled his eyes, "so do you have a new girlfriend?" Weiss asked as she turned and started down the hallway, Neptune following closely behind her.

There was just one problem: Neptune was a player, Casanova, he played with girls' hearts and tossed them away when he was finished with them, or vice versa. She'd made it clear to him that she had no intention of ever dating him, so he stepped back to play the role of the best friend and had himself a new girlfriend every two weeks. He'd managed to keep the last one for at least a month before she decided she'd had enough of him.

Weiss did not blame her one bit.

"Nope!" Neptune said, shrugging, "But I'll find one eventually."

'Alright, Weiss. . .' The woman whispered to herself, drawing in a deep sigh, 'You can do this, it's for your family name. You have to do this, besides, Neptune is a good friend. Can't be that hard.' Weiss glanced to her friend, "Well, I was thinking, maybe I could finally take you up on your offer?" Three years ago, Neptune had confessed to her and asked her out, but Weiss turned him away. She didn't love him. . .

"What?" Neptune stopped in front of her, "Weiss, are you sure? I don't want to force you into a relationship you don't want to be in."

She forced a smile, "Well I'll hopefully be inheriting the company soon, and I need a husband, or at least a fiance, and I can't think of anybody else other than my best friend." She didn't love him, she didn't think she would ever come to love him, he was just her childhood friend and he would remain as such. Weiss wanted somebody who would love her, not just because of her beauty, not because of her name, but because of who she was. With her father around, she would never have the chance to experience that.

It was either she chose her future husband, or her father forced her into a loveless marriage. Neptune claimed he loved her, but Weiss was sure that her Father had forced the crush onto him and manipulated him into thinking it was real.

She knew if she dated him, she would be expected to marry him. But, what other choice does she have?

Neptune shrugged, "If that's what you want. . . Anyway, your Father informed me that he will be very busy in the office today, and he wants us to spend some time together. So, where do you want to go?" He asked, pulling his phone out to call a chauffeur to prepare a ride.

Weiss hummed, "I was hoping to visit the Mall after work, but I guess we could go now."

Neptune laughed, "Why? So you can spend all day rummaging through new clothes and makeup?" Weiss shot him a glare and the man rolled his eyes, "Alright, the mall it is. I'll try to find something to look at in there. Hmm, actually, hey Weiss? What do you think about me spicing up my look a little bit? Leather jackets are back in style!" The man pretended to pull a jacket over his shoulders and spun, raising a brow and grinning at his friend.

"I think you would look absolutely ridiculous." Weiss said with a chuckle, Neptune rolled his eyes and bringing the phone up to his ear.

"Hey, Falcon, my dude!" The sound of a man snapping at Neptune caught Weiss' attention and a small smirk came to her lips, "Okay, okay, sorry. So, Weiss and I need a ride to the mall. You free?" . . . "Okay, great! We'll be outside!"

Neptune clicked his phone off, "He says hello."


[Ruby]

"What do you suggest we do with all this money?"

A bag was tossed to the side as a tall blonde with unruly hair entered the abandoned cabin she and her partners were staying in, the woman crossed her arms behind her head and stretched, letting out a contented hum before throwing herself onto an old leather couch.

"We don't do anything with it," two more people stepped into the run-down building, the younger one shutting and flicking the latch down to lock the door, "remember, Yang, anything we steal goes straight to the Boss. These are our missions and we'll be paid later." The girl with a bow in her hair took a seat beside Yang, who lifted her head up to place it in the other's lap.

"Oh come on! We spent a month stalkin' that dude, and we just barely escaped the police this time! I think we deserve a lil' bit of it." Yang tried to persuade the two, gesturing to the sack of money sitting beside the door.

"Don't you remember what happened last time you convinced us to keep half the goods?" A young girl with short crimson red hair said quietly, sitting criss-crossed in the floor in front of the couch. A pair of lilac eyes glanced towards the younger girl, sighing when her gaze met deep pools of silver.

Yang closed her eyes, "Yeah," a smirk came to her lips, "but I got a beautiful, sexy girlfriend out of it!" The black-haired girl simply stick out her tongue, "Ohh, would ya like to do more with that tongue of yours? Because I'm totally down!"

"Yang! Not in front of Ruby!" The girl hissed as Yang reached up to cup her cheek.

Ruby rolled her eyes and stood to her feet, "The house is all yours. Text me when y'all are finished. . ." She said as she glanced towards her sister and Blake, who were already in the middle of making out. The young girl let out an annoyed sigh, forcibly erasing the image from her head. "Or, y'know, I can just stay the night in the truck again. . ."

Without another word, she grabbed her phone and left. Once she was outside and seated in her father's old red truck, she checked the messages sitting unread on her home screen. One of them was an alert for a new mission within the next few weeks, sent to her by an anonymous email address that she could only guess was her Boss; Ruby skimmed over the email and hummed quietly before marking it as read and moving on to her text message.

P: I just got my allowance raised! Would you like to accompany me to the mall today?

Ruby allowed a small smile to come to her lips and sent a simple 'sure' back to her friend, she clicked her phone off and started the vehicle. She took one last look at their rundown house and released a sigh, "We'll find a better place to live one day." she whispered, "I just havta work harder and play my part. . ." If it meant helping her sister and Blake find a real home, she didn't care what she would have to do. When they'd been orphaned, Yang had been so desperate for a job that she took the first one she believed she was qualified for, which, unfortunately, not a very good one.

Thankfully, her sister had been able to convince their boss to allow her to train as Yang's apprentice, having found her endurance and agility useful. She'd much rather be using her skills for something else, but she had to admit that their job kept their lives interesting. It offered Yang the thrill she'd been searching for her whole life, and Ruby was helping people just as she claimed she would be doing, but all for the wrong reasons. The more people they helped, the more people lost their careers and/or their lives. . . It really depended on what their boss planned to do with what they brought back.

Ruby sighed and pulled out of the overgrown driveway, turning her truck around and riding down through the path through the trees. The house they lived in was abandoned and their boss bought the property, offering the land to them as a reward for all that they've done. Up until then, the sisters had been staying in a crowded room at their company's headquarters, having no other place to stay. Of course, they could've called their father and asked to return home, but they didn't want to burden him. He'd been so proud of them for starting their own lives, they couldn't just head back home and become dependent on him again. He wouldn't care, but it just wouldn't sit right with them. . .

The young girl turned onto the dirt road heading towards town and removed her phone when it buzzed from the console. She glanced at the text, sighing when she saw a familiar number at the top of the screen. Frustration and disgust rose up inside of her and she slung her phone into the passenger's seat, focusing her attention on the road.

She couldn't just say no, though.

Twenty minutes later, she found herself sitting in the parking lot in front of the mall, waiting for her best friend to show up. She, ironically, lived closer to town than her friend did and always arrived early despite her friend being a very punctual person. Ruby sat up when she heard the sound of an engine approaching and she smiled, recognizing the vehicle as her friend's, she stepped out of her truck and locked it with a click of a button, turning to approach the green car that had parked on the other side of the lot.

"Penny!" Ruby greeted as the redhead exited her own vehicle, the other woman gave a wave and quickly locked the car before jogging over to Ruby with a bright smile on her freckled face.

"Ruby!" Penny smiled, the two of them sharing a brief hug before turning and starting for the mall, "So, how is work going?"

The red clad woman heaved a sigh, she'd been prepared for that question. . . Penny was concerned about her well-being, and as far as she was aware, Ruby was working at a small restaurant in Mantle and lived in a tiny apartment not far from it. She couldn't just tell her friend that she was homeless and was practically a criminal hiding in plain view, that wouldn't end too well.

"Pretty well," Ruby avoided eye contact with Penny, "we just got paid today, so that's good! Though, I feel that my hours may change here soon." She was twenty years old now, and their boss had made an exception for her when she was eighteen and nineteen as she was still new to the system. Yang had been trained by Blake, one of the company's top spies, and in turn, Yang trained Ruby. Ruby feared once their boss grew tired of having her around, she and her sister would be separated.

"That's good though." Penny grinned, "More hours means more money, right?"

Ruby forced a grin, "Right!"

I don't know. . .


Allow me to clear up possible confusion.
No, Weiss is not interested in Neptune at all, they are just friends and will stay that way.
Yes, Yang, Blake, and Ruby are basically homeless.
No, the text Ruby received first WAS NOT Penny.

I'm open to answering more questions!