"Why can't she and Ruby just MEET EACH OTHER?! THIS IS GETTING OLD!"
Patience, my friends...
You know what they say! Third time's the charm, just not quite yet...
February 7th
[Change]
Location: Steelthorne Mistral - Mistral Central Station
Three days have passed.
When she was moved into her new room, she was told that her baby would be hungry every three to four hours, but it felt like every other thirty minutes that the newborn would begin crying. Whimpers, cries, and soft whines have kept her up every night. Within only a few hours, she discovered that it would be a long time before she was able to receive a decent rest.
Weiss keeps her baby as close to her as possible, tucking the blankets around her while she is sleeping to try and preserve her body warmth. She knew a newborn couldn't regulate their body temperature like an adult could so that responsibility fell on her.
For a while, Weiss couldn't feel anything below her abdomen, it was more difficult than it should've been to make her way to the bathroom across the room without collapsing.
Despite having only paid for one night, the staff was kind enough to allow her to stay long enough to regain her strength, but every night she stayed was more lien she would have to pay once she walks out of the hotel. She'd wanted to reach out to the lady who rescued her daughter, but was informed that the woman had left early that morning with a group of others.
That lady would never know how much the action means to her...
On the third day, Weiss willed herself out of bed, hunger tearing at her belly painfully. If she wants to sustain herself and Iris, she knew she needed to leave and find food. She staggers to her feet and approaches her bag, which a lady had kindly left beside the door. She kneels and retrieves her clothes, her bracelet slipping off in the process. "I'll put it back on after I change." She murmurs, staring at her clothes for a minute before tucking the large t-shirt back inside and pulling out one of her older outfits.
She grunts as she changes into them, discomfort twinging at her abdomen and fading away. A tremor of shock rolls through her, finding that even her old clothes were still a size too big. Her shirt was comfortable enough, loose, but comfortable. Her jeans, however, had to be held up somehow…
Weiss' eyes dart to one of the straps on her bag and she hums, undoing it with minimal effort and tying it around her waist. Once they are secure, she moves back to the bed and gently picks Iris up into her arms, startling the newborn awake. "Oop-sorry."
Weiss' nose wrinkles up as the newborn begins crying and she lets out a disgusted wheeze. "Ooooh, Ruby, I am going to kill you next time I see you."
The lady who helped her to the room was gracious enough to have brought her some diapers, but Weiss didn't know what size or where the woman had gotten them from, she didn't even know how to change one for a while there. It took at least an hour to figure it out.
She cradles the whimpering child close to her shoulder and starts for the bathroom, deciding that it was time Iris needed a bath. Hotels always kept those baby bottles of shampoo in them, right? Wait, how warm did the water need to be? What if it was too cold or too hot? Her body temperature could adjust to something pretty quickly, but Iris' couldn't.
'Oh, what if she gets sick?'
The numbness of her abdomen fades away as she steps into the bathroom, swinging the door shut with her ankle and grabbing the towel off the back of the door while approaching the tub. With one hand supporting Iris, she turns the water on and runs her hand under the water, waiting for it to warm up.
Suddenly, she hears a gagging noise over her shoulder and feels warm liquid running down the back of her shirt. It takes a moment for realization to hit.
"Oh, Iris, no…" She groans and pulls Iris away and sets her between her legs, using the edge of the towel to wipe the white spit-up from the newborn's mouth. She was revolted, of course, but in one of those articles she'd read months ago it said baby spit-up was normal, so she figured she should get used to it.
Iris laying between her legs, Weiss reaches up and removes her shirt, still feeling the warmth of it against her skin. "Gross…" Maybe she needed a shower, too.
A bath and a change of clothes later, Weiss stands outside the store, peering inside curiously as she holds Iris close to her chest, swaddled in Ruby's red cloak. Inside, there were numerous baby supplies, and some were very tempting to buy. She knew she needed to conserve her lien now that she couldn't take hunting missions anymore, but then again she did need clothes and everything for Iris…
Sighing, she pushes the door open with one and walks into the warmth of the store, she is immediately met by a strange, undistinguishable smell mixed with baby powder. She wrinkles her nose and shakes her head, wheezing as she adjusts to the smell. "Hello!" The man at the counter greets her as a woman approaches him, "Welcome to Lil'Love Magic, how can I help you?"
Weiss raises a brow upon hearing the store name.
'What kind of- never mind.'
She turns to them, "Do you have anything for newborn girls?" She asks, still unsure about his optimistic attitude. "I'm not sure what to look for exactly, but I have a spending limit…" The woman grins and she and her husband exchange a few words in private before she gestures for Weiss to follow her to the front of the store.
"Considering the cold seasons have arrived, we have a sale going on!" She informs her and Weiss lets out a sigh of relief, "Feel free to look 'round! If you have any questi'ns, just ask me or my partner."
Dread pools in the pit of her stomach almost immediately, but she brushes it off and recomposes herself. With a formal voice, she addresses the woman again. "What size clothes and, um, diapers will my baby wear?" She feels humiliated for her question, but it was better than spending lien on a guess.
Hesitance flickers through the employee's eyes and she laughs nervously, "Well, um, Daryl knows more about newborn sizes than I do," she explains with a kind smile, "I specialize in toddler clothing. One sec, lemme fetch him for-" She's cut off by the man speaking up from the other side of the store, laughing and explaining that he could hear every word they were saying. She smiles as another customer enters, a young man with a toddler practically hanging off his leg, "Daryl will assist you, good luck." She says as she approaches them.
The man, Daryl, turns to Weiss and eyes the little red bundle in her arms curiously. "I would say she would wear between 18 inches to 20 inches in a romper or a simple tee," the words were beyond foreign to her, "but the diapers and pants will be a little iffy considering she's rather small."
He claps his hands together and gestures towards a shelf with his fingers, "But we can make it work! There should be some outfits of that size over there, we just restocked! Try to keep around the same size of the shirts, but sometimes you will need to downgrade a few sizes for them to be able to wear their pants. Okay?"
Well, she understood absolutely none of that. "Thank you," Weiss says gratefully as she walks over to the shelf and the man leaves.
After a few minutes of searching, Weiss has chosen four small-size outfits at the cheapest price she found. One was a fluffy red onesie with Beowulf's ears on the hoodie, reminding her of Ruby and her red cloak with her Beowulf pillow. Another was a cotton wool pink t-shirt with a baby fawn embroidered into the design, the letters above spelling out 'I am a-doe-able!' in black font.
Yang would've loved it. Her third choice was another onesie in case the red one got dirty, it was black with little white kitty paws at the feet. The last one was a fluffy, cotton outfit with little wintery designs decorating the t-shirt and pants. She made sure to get a pair of white earmuffs for her and a few diapers.
She pays for the clothing and heads to the back of the store where the bathroom was located.
Weiss left the store a bright pink stroller containing her travel bag in the little compartment. Inside of it, she'd packed Iris' things in with hers, diapers and all. Thankfully, the stroller came with a little heating space for the newborn, which was usually programmed by the mother's scroll, but could be monitored from the side of it. Iris lay inside of it, dressed in her red onesie, the hood pulled over her head and the baby was grunting and making noises of disapproval.
Weiss went a few lien above her spending limit, but she made sure that everything she purchased was something she needed. She'd considered getting whatever that thing was that the mother attached to her person - a baby carrier, that's the name. But, she needed a place to store her bag as it would be too heavy to carry with the additional weight.
In conclusion, she had no idea what she was doing.
Weiss manages to situate herself and locates the nearest map of the village, thankful that the train station wasn't very far away. Her eyes glance down to Iris laying in the heated stroller, asleep, and she lets out a sigh. For her baby's safety, she could no longer go where the train takes her, she needed to be responsible…
Making up her mind she turns the stroller, with minimal effort due to the bag wanting to fall out, and starts in the direction of the train station.
She was used to traveling wherever she wanted, choosing what she wanted to do and where she wanted to stay. She was careful about how she spent her lien and often refused to accept help from other people, believing she could do it all on her own. Now, she had her daughter depending on her for survival and having been born during the cold seasons, Weiss needed to stay in one place until Iris was old enough to travel and her chances of getting sick were slimmer, or at least until the warm seasons arrived.
Perhaps purchasing a train ticket and heading to Vacuo would be best for the colder seasons; she could return to Mistral when Iris was older.
"Enjoy your trip!"
Weiss ignores the person at the counter as she walks away with her ticket in hand, scanning it over to ensure that it was accurate. Satisfied, she looks up and her eyes search for the nearest bench; her arms are beginning to grow tired from pushing the stroller.
Well, it was at least better than carrying the extra pounds on her person. Spotting a nearby bench, she sharply turns the stroller to head in the direction, and rising panic forms in the pit of her stomach when she hears quiet whimpering coming from Iris. Every nerve and every voice in her head told her to stop and check on her, now. Logic reminds her that she couldn't just stop in the middle of the station.
"It's okay, little one." She murmurs, more to herself than to Iris. Weiss stops the stroller next to the bench and walks around to the side, lifting the veil. Her brows furrow in worry when she sees her daughter's scrunched-up red face, little choked sobs escaping her as her cries slowly become louder.
'What's wrong? Her face is so red.'
Using all of her willpower not to slip into panic mode, she reaches to put the back of her hand to the newborn's forehead. Her skin was clammy and warm to the touch. "You're so warm." Was that the problem? Was she overheating?
Panic surging through her, Weiss quickly turns the heating off and unstraps her from the stroller, lifting her daughter and cradling her in her arms.
"Shh, shh… Quiet, Flower." She whispers to the crying infant, touching her palm to Iris' cheek again as her heart clenched tightly in her chest. "You're overheated, aren't you?" Weiss looks around for the nearest fan and her heart sinks upon realizing there wasn't one; the ceiling fans were to circulate the warm air and that wasn't much help.
Wait, hang on...
Hand-made fan, just like the one Nora made on their first trip to Vacuo!
Weiss laid Iris back inside of the stroller and unbuttoned her onesie, hoping it would keep her cool while she worked on her little project. Still unsure, she breathes in a shaky breath before unzipping and reaching into her bag to fetch her empty water bottle, she manages to locate a retracted pocket knife Winter put inside her bag and she gets to work.
She took her time measuring the cuts and stretching them out into three perfectly matched shapes, Weiss bends them back to hover over the blue bottle cap before she used the tip of the blade to poke a hole into the middle.
Now, she just needed something to hold it up. She searched through her bag again, making sure not to destroy the makeshift fan she'd created. Iris' cries have lessened, but they still sound painful and each one sends metaphorical flaming daggers into the center of Weiss' heart, causing extreme anguish and distress to slowly build inside of her.
She pulls out some sort of metal tool with a bent, octagonal hook, and her brows furrow in pure bewilderment. "What is this?" She mutters. She shakes her head and pokes it through the hole of the lid. "Oh well, I'm using it."
Holding the end of the poorly handmade fan, she gives it a spin with her fingers and she sighs. Well, it would work, but the lid would spin against the handle. She would create another one when she was in Vacuo, or just buy a portable fan.
Iris had quieted down and her eyes were watching Weiss curiously. Weiss gives the fan another spin and the infant's brow twitches, the woman giggles and holds it close to the little one, spinning the makeshift fan and causing wisps of Iris' thin, ivory air to move. She seemed fascinated by the noise the fan-made, her brows twitching and her eyes squinting every time the bottle loosely reverberated against the metal.
Watching the newborn's puzzled expressions, Weiss releases little chuckles and snickers.
She stops the fan with one finger and jerks it back down again, causing the cut-up bottle to spin rapidly. Iris' eyes briefly widened in surprise, blue eyes desperately searching for something to focus on before blinking several times as her little face scrunched up into a baffled look. Weiss laughs and her arms drop around the handle of the stroller, the fan dangling from one hand as the other brushes her purple hair out of her eyes, her laughter is reduced to a quiet fit of giggles.
"Well," she chuckles out after a minute, fixing her eyes on Iris, "at least you seem better."
"How much is a train ticket to Patch, Vale?"
A cold wave hits Weiss like stampeding Ursa and her head jerks up a little too quickly, her blue eyes immediately finding the familiar form of a young blonde woman standing at the ticket booth across from her. Yang. The brawler withdraws some lien and counts it before looking at the barely visible person. "How much for additional cargo? Say, something like a motorcycle?"
Weiss wants to move, to get up and to talk to her, to ask how everybody was. She wanted to ask how she was. Dread pools in Weiss' belly. What if something bad happened to their friends…?
"No no, just a ticket for one. I'm alone this time." The team must've separated. "Talk to the other guy about the motorcycle?" She looks over her shoulder, "Him?" She waits for a moment.
A hand points in the opposite direction and she nods.
"Thank you!" Yang says happily and she walks away from the booth, in Weiss' direction. Her blood turns cold, but she can't seem to manage to rip her eyes away from the blonde; as Yang comes closer, heading towards the booth behind them to discuss the transportation of her motorcycle, Weiss reaches up to close the veil of the stroller, concealing Iris.
Catching her eye, Yang stops and she looks at Weiss with an expression of irritation, "Why the hell are you staring at me? Creep."
Weiss diverts her eyes towards the stroller and whispers an apology, making sure not to let her voice seep through. "I'm sorry, you looked like somebody I used to know." Her voice is thicker, her accent is more Mistralian and her words are dull, missing the sharp edge and pitch her regular voice had. Some words were lengthened while others were cut short but they all had a certain twang to them. "I didn't mean to stare."
Yang sighs, having bought her story. "Well," she whispers with a kind smile, "so long as the person I remind you of is nice, that's alright. I'm sorry that I was a bit snappy, I've had a rough day." She looks at the stroller and her smile brightens, causing fear to strike into Weiss' heart. "Can I see the baby? I love kids!"
Weiss clears her throat, searching for an excuse. "She's sleeping," she decides, "I just got her to sleep and I don't want her to wake up again…"
"Alright, well, I'm sure she's beautiful!" She continues walking, not bothering to look back at her. "But it's not nice to stare. Might wanna work on that!" Well, at least she isn't as temperamental as she used to be.
Dimly hearing the announcement of her train's arrival, Weiss shakily stands to her feet and checks the side of the stroller to ensure that the heating had been turned off. She was sure that Iris had already fallen asleep due to her sudden silence, so she didn't bother to open the roof.
She spares one glance back towards her former teammate before heading towards the train.
Let me know what you think! We'll be seeing Winter again in the next chapter, along with a certain bleach-haired huntress!
~Dixie