A/N: This chapter takes place in two different days :) Enjoy! Also, Since Weiss's Birthday isn't actually released as of today, Jan 12 is my personal headcanon I'm going to use for this AU and future RWBY works in relation to her birthdays.

-: Ruby Rose

10 Jan.

Email Schnee Matriarch of all the ingredients I'll need? Check.

Her present from me? Check.

Three extra sets of clothes for the vacation? Check.

Boarding Pass and ID? Check.

Zwei? Check.

And all set. I got this! |｀･ω･)9

You be friends with Weiss, and she'll find every nit-pick thing wrong with how you "wing" all your plans. She drilled into my head how to make a list and stick to it （◞‸◟）Since then, I've been scared to not make a plan before a trip. At least with Weiss around.

It seems they have everything I need. Willow, well, Mrs. Schnee, is offering me a place at the Schnee manor for the weekend for me to celebrate her birthday. It's a surprise that I'm going, so they have me settling in the guest room on the opposite side of the mansion from Weiss's room. Three days without having to spend time with her, but it gives me three days to perfect an experimental drink for Weiss.

Other than her gift, I want to make a new drink for the café and I thought about how I could have the Schnees help me in creating it. I don't have a name for it yet, just a concept. But they didn't seem to mind. And when I perfect it, Weiss will be the first to taste it.

I can't wait to meet her family. Zwei's pretty excited too. To meet the other half of his family.

-: Weiss Schnee

12 Jan.

I didn't realize how much I really missed Ruby until I saw her this morning. Mom came to greet me with a happy birthday with a "new coffee [she] bought". It tasted so familiar, she told me I cried. How embarrassing!

Ruby came into town a couple nights ago, and Klein's been helping Ruby make the drink as close to perfection as she could. I heard Ruby noted every change she made to remind her what she did. I guess even she can be diligent when it comes down to it. She earned brownie points with me, that's for sure. Not that I'd let her ever know that… EVER!

I can't believe Ruby actually brought "Zwei" with her. While she can be an adult when it comes to her job, she can be childish too. And when it comes to the present I got her, she can be very embarrassing. What's even more embarrassing is that Mom, Klien, Winter, and even WHITLEY played along if only to tease me when they met my "godson". No way I had Ruby meet my father this time around, and I hope they never have to meet.

Oh! That reminds me. Ruby got me another birthday present, other than a taste of a new coffee recipe she wanted me to try. She explained to me that she didn't have a lot of money, so she decided to hand-make me a photo frame with a collage of pictures she took of us during the semester. Some of them, I didn't even know about until I saw the collage. I'm going to take it back with me to Beacon so I can hang it up in my apartment.

A lot of the photos were of her and me, and some of them were taken with many of our friends. But the picture that I was very drawn to was the one in the middle. It was a photo of me doing homework at Ruby's house one time. I remember it being a stressful day since it was during midterms. I had the end cap of my blue pen in my mouth, looking like I was having trouble with a problem. Must have been statistics. My hair was down, disheveled from stress, and I was holding a few strands to my temple, a quirk Ruby told me I had whenever I was concentrating on something. And I was never aware I did that at all. I remember doing that a lot when I was a kid. Old habits die hard, I guess.

There was something about the photo that made the others different. The feeling I get from it is a sense of freedom. While I am struggling in the picture, I'm a normal girl in it. I'm stressing about a college math problem for that moment rather than stressing about a photo shoot or an upcoming concert in the benefit of the Schnee Energy Company. I'm wearing reading glasses which, admittedly, is not only embarrassing Ruby caught it on camera, but it shows imperfection when I strive for perfection. Ruby emphasized the photo by adding a big heart to frame it, making a note on the side saying "Truly Beautiful". I wasn't even dressed my best, and I looked more like a school nerd than "a top performing model for the Schnee Energy Company".

But when I look at the message attached to it, and remember who those words are from, I can't help but believe it's true.

...Ruby's leaving tomorrow afternoon. I hope she won't mind an early wake up call for brunch before we drop her off at the airport.