"Could you put the speaker over there? No, over there, Yang. Do you want the music to echo? You know what? I'll just do it myself," Nathan walked over and picked up the speaker Yang put down with help from his stand, Yang walked off to likely help with actual decorations, but she didn't look happy about it. Nathan was one of the people they originally had helping with the dance, they wanted him to help with the sound system and be DJ, giving him a list of songs for the night, originally it was supposed to be team CFVY helping with set up but their mission was taking longer than expected, he would have much preferred to have Yatsuhashi helping carry some of the heavier things than Yang, she happened to be prone to not listening to people, even if they knew what they were doing. Nathan placed the speaker in the right place and looked over to see what Weiss was doing, she seemed to be asking Ruby about some specific point with decoration, Nathan walked over, overhearing some of the conversation, "-you think the table cloth should be?"
Ruby looked at two sheets intently, then responded, "don't they look the same?"
Weiss gave a frustrated sigh, "why do I even ask you?"
"I don't know, why don't you talk to some of your rich friends who know so much about fine decoration?" Ruby was probably about as frustrated, which surprised Weiss, but the girl in white turned away to end up face to face with Nathan. Weiss immediately pulled up two white sheets and asked, "can you pick a colour out of these two? Everyone else says they look the same,"
Nathan stared at the sheets, then gave his answer, "whoever gave you these sheets ripped you off, they're the same colour exactly,"
Weiss turned the sheets over and looked at them, "you've gotta be kidding me! White it is then," she sighed, walking away. Nathan looked at Ruby, "that's how you talk to 'rich' people. What's got you down?"
Ruby put her head on the table and sighed, "Natalie doesn't want to come to the dance if Blake is there. And I can't convince her otherwise,"
Nathan nearly chuckled at this, thinking, "well at least trouble with girls isn't exclusive to guys," before asking, "you want me to go talk to her, or get maybe Johnny to talk to-"
"NO! Do not get Johnny involved, I have made that mistake one too many times. That has ended way too many relationships before they could even start. Could you just talk to her?"
"Um, sure, I guess," Nathan was rather shocked hearing the girl's almost hostile response, Ruby was never angry or upset with anything it seemed, sad sure, but this was new. Nathan finished getting the sound system connected, the mic set up, and his scroll connected, then stepped out of the room to find Natalie.
After walking about the campus grounds for a bit, Nathan managed to find Natalie in the training room, wailing on a punching bag, he started the conversation, "hey, how are things going?"
Natalie stopped hitting the bag and waited a few seconds before turning around, "I'm doing okay. Could be better, but what can you do?"
"You could, I don't know, maybe take Ruby to the dance?"
"Wow, really trying hard to be blunt. I'm guessing Ruby told you why I don't want to go?"
"Yeah, and I think it's pretty petty reasoning. I mean, I guess I don't know the feeling of going to school with one of my parent's murderers, but Blake has made it pretty clear that she's changed since then, and demonstrated it too. I must say, you take traumatic events the best out of all of us, turning sadness into hatred and all, but it'd probably be nice to actually just be truly happy for once right?"
"Maybe, but my mind won't be clear until vengeance falls upon the murderers,"
"You know, you're sounding edgier than some of my earlier music, maybe you should actually try moving past these things and start something new, you have the opportunity right here, people to start something with,"
"It's not that simple, I have to fi-"
"Natalie, you're never going to make it out alive if you're always more tense than the former terrorist hiding in plain sight. I guarantee this is going to start affecting your life in negative ways, I don't want to see my partner looking worse than Johnny these days,"
"Speaking of, I wonder why she got you to come talk to me instead of Johnny? Isn't he the one usually trying to get involved in Ruby's life?"
"I guessing it was a combination of me being nearby and asking what's wrong, and not wanting Johnny to ruin the relationship you both have,"
"Ugh, why does she have to be so sweet sometimes? I can't believe she actually thought about how I'd feel even though I told her I wouldn't go to the dance for my personal reasons,"
"Well, maybe you can go with her anyways?" Nathan walked out of the room, but stopped before the door to say one last thing, "if you decide to come, I can take a couple of requests," he walked out, leaving Natalie to her training.
Nathan walked back into the ballroom to see Weiss carrying packages of table cloth, nearly tripping over herself in the process. Nathan jogged up and grabbed half the stack off of her, using his stand to maneuver the half stack to a table. He looked back to see Weiss come up and place the other half beside it,
"Thanks, that was rather close for my liking," Weiss stated,
"No problem, are you ready for the dance?" Nathan asked, curious as ever,
"I would think so, I've got a dress picked out, makeup ready, just waiting for the time,"
"You know, I would always think you look beautiful, with or without makeup,"
"Are you really trying to flirt with me now, Nathan? We haven't even gone on a date yet,"
"Well, I guess that makes the dance our first one, and considering some people I've seen, flirting before dating isn't exactly abnormal,"
"That's not the point, I don't want to look like a love struck idiot in front of my team,"
Nathan shrunk back a bit, "oh… I-"
Weiss grabbed his hand, "wait, I'm sorry. That came out way worse than I thought it would. Can you please just keep that kind of stuff down until we leave the room?"
"I mean, sure, but it's going to be hard not to compliment you, although we do need to work on you saying things you don't mean,"
"I'm trying, I really am, but it kind of just… happens, I'm sorry if I've hurt you with that,"
"Ah don't worry, I've grown a heart of steel since my combat school days,"
"Your heart isn't made of steel, it isn't even made of ice. I personally admire your ability to wear your emotions on your sleeve,"
"Well, a lot of that comes from my career, when you write songs about your emotions, those emotions become more apparent to the rest of the world,"
"Trying to be deep are we?"
"What? It's just what should be blatantly obvious, are you getting enough sleep?"
"I am, I think,"
"How many hours?"
"About six,"
"That's barely passing off as enough, are you okay?" Nathan was worried, Johnny was rubbing off on him,
"Yes, I'm fine," she didn't sound fine, not even close,
"Snow, you can tell me," he didn't care if it may be prying, he wanted to care for her, and wasn't going to let stubbornness get in the way,
"I'm alright, Nathan, you don't need to bug me about it," a look in her eyes, one that wasn't entirely honest,
"Really? Because it looks like I do. Remember when you told me to talk to someone about your problems? I think it's finally your turn to reciprocate,"
"Why!?" her shout grabbed the attention of the room,
"What? What do you mean, what did I do wrong?" Nathan was almost scared, it broke his heart to see Weiss like this,
"You fell in love with me, that's what you did wrong. You shouldn't love me, you can't love me, and I want to know why you did," Weiss looked absolutely broken, ready to burst into tears,
"What's wrong with you? One day you come to me asking if I'd go to the dance with you, and the next you're saying it's a mistake I fell in love with you? Weiss, I want to love you, I want you, I can't explain it, but I will love you forever,"
"Did you say that to your last girlfriend before she killed herself?" she was cold again, an icy barrier seemed to form around her heart, and Nathan's heart became frostbitten.
He was backing out of the room, saying on last thing, "what the actual fuck is wrong with you?" before turning and running.
AN: So, that was a thing. I've taken way too long to write the chapters for this story, I'm just kind of having writer's block for these sections, I have a larger idea for sections of the story, but I feel out of ideas for the smaller bits. Tension insues for the relationship of Nathan and Weiss, Weiss saying things she doesn't mean comes back to bite her and Nathan gets hurt, again. Things will get better, I promise, I want everyone together for the big dance. This author's note is much shorter than the other ones I've written for this story, huh. Well, Raz3r out, I guess.