She placed her pencil gently down, bringing her right hand to clutch her left as she inhaled and loosed a deep breath. She could feel the minor tremor in it that kept the finer precision from her hand that she needed to sketch the intricate cityscapes she liked. Dr. Ozpin told her that it was a side affect of the new medication she was taking, moving from treatment of her recent episode to what he called the 'maintenance' of her illness. He said the symptoms would come to pass, yet after two days, she found this debilitation mostly unchanged. Drawing was most things to her if not everything. She had been endeavoring to refine her peace of mind through sketching, but the buzzing in her hand was largely keeping her preferred form of expression from her. She sighed quietly and released her hand. She supposed she would have to give it more time. In the meantime, she had been experimenting more with abstract art in addition to leaving herself skeletons of cities to bring to life once her hand started obeying her again. Looking over what she had left her future self so far, she supposed the detour wasn't all bad. Her patience, she found, had slowly been rejuvenating itself over the course of her stay and put her in a advantageous position to give it all, everything, more time. A singular buzz from her phone took her away from the pages and her thoughts. Reading the message, a warmth filed her and she smiled.

'Good morning! Can't wait to see you today :D '

Ever since Winter brought her phone to her two days ago, she and Ruby had exchanged recurring morning greetings and nightly farewells. The conversations in between were light, yet meaningful. Ruby would offer her forays into the world outside with stories of her many shenanigans, give her times to look forward to when telling her of the many albums she discovered and wanted to share with her, and fill her with a curious anticipation and longing whenever she expressed that she missed her and looked forward to seeing her again. And if she was being quite honest with herself, she missed her friend terribly and couldn't wait to see her as well. Taking notice of the time, she stood from the desk that occupied her current room. She was scheduled to see Dr. Ozpin.

Their conversations had been getting progressively more personal in a certain sense. It didn't necessarily make her uncomfortable, not any more at least, though Winter hadn't spoken in jest when she said her thoughts and feelings were something she worked hard for. When it came to her imparting bits of thought and slivers of feelings, she didn't do that. Period. Winter was the exception, not the rule. The element of strangeness in it all was how she was less inclined to cling to her reticence now when speaking to Dr. Ozpin. Talking to him had grown easier over the course of her stay and oftentimes she could dare to even say that she looked forward to their talks. On her fourth visit to his office, she realized that their was an absence of a person that she could talk to about some of the heavier things that plagued her, had been plaguing her for years. Winter was privy to a lot of things, but not all. The two most glaring examples were most, if not all of the details of those haunting encounters with her father and brother. Those were skeletons of a different sort that she had made herself. Standing in front of large and slightly ajar door, she knocked.

"Come in," lofted the familiar and inviting voice from inside. "Good morning, Ms. Schnee," Dr. Ozpin greeted once she entered and came to sit across from him, sliding her feet from her sandals and pulling her legs cross and beneath her in the chair.

"Good morning, Dr. Ozpin," she smirked. "What demons are we to exorcise today?"

"That remains to be seen," he chuckled. "How are you feeling today?"

"More or less the same. My hand is still giving me trouble when I draw, though it's presented me an opportunity to experiment with more abstract forms of art," she divulged. "I suppose that has helped me with being more resolute in giving it more time. I've also been more slow to get going in the morning. It's a bit uncharacteristic of me, but I've been dealing with more tiredness when I wake the past couple of days."

"We can try an adjusted dosage of the medication tonight to see if that helps resolve your tiredness upon waking. As for your hand, that should abate in no more than a week as your body acclimates to its presence in your system. With this particular medication, I've scheduled your dose to be increased incrementally over time, at least once or twice more. I will let you know that certain side-affects may reoccur at those times, but will abate shortly after as well.

"Sounds exciting," she shrugged before looking at the clock.

"Aside from your schedule of medication, you will need to visit me once a week so that we can make sure everything is settling properly once you are discharged tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes, tomorrow." Dr. Ozpin smiled. "I've already informed your sister that she will be able to pick you up after we meet."

"Finally," she heaved, smiling after the exhale. This was glorious news and she could feel her small corner of the world calling her back to it.

"How do you feel about the time you have spent here?" She pondered his question genuinely.

"Honestly, it has been a generally positive and.. life-changing experience. I feel as though a veil has been lifted from my life. It's like getting a pair of glasses when you never knew you needed them. Having never known a world that wasn't blurry, you believe that is the way it has always been and always will be. That it is like that for others too, but then you put on the glasses and suddenly the leaves on the trees have lines!" She becomes suddenly aware her soliloquy and noticed the gentle smile on Dr. Ozpin's face. "I-If you can imagine it," she finished shyly.

"I can, Ms. Schnee. Especially after such a poetic description."

"Hardly."

"I wouldn't be so sure," he playfully battled through his continued smile. "But I am glad to hear that you have received such great benefit in your time here."

"I have," she concluded. "But despite all that, there is a subtle, yet lingering trepidation." She furrowed her brows as she readied to explain her complex concern in the most coherent way the knotted bother would allow. "When I leave here.. there are things I don't want to break, and most troubling are the things that are broken, relationships that I don't know can be fixed. Relationships I don't know whether or not they deserve to be fixed." Dr. Ozpin ruminated for a moment on her words.

"While Bipolar Disorder distresses the mind and the body," he started, "it also distresses the many relationships one has cultivated, carried, and maintained. Some of the people in your life will see through your illness, through the actions you have taken while unwell, and to you, poised quite effortlessly not to forget, but to forgive and understand. Yet while there are some who will embrace you wholly, there may be others who aren't quite as primed towards embracing you without explanation and recompense, if they are primed to consider it at all."

"Such is duality," came her short reply.

"Why don't you feel they deserve to be fixed?"

"Because I don't know if I care to forgive them, or be forgiven." Her brows lowered with old anger. "My father and my brother.. I was cruel, or 'evil' my brother would say. I hurt them or lashed out at them. I remember these times, from as early as my sophomore year in high school, and its familiar. I could argue in favor of my actions being outright unforgivable, but I could argue that for their actions as well. I've cause Winter pain before, but she's never hurt me. Not like they have."

"How did they hurt you, Ms. Schnee?" Dr. Ozpin's voice wasn't forceful, but soft and caring, letting her know that if this question was too much for her that she could abstain from answering, but also letting her know that he was there to listen, understand, and help.

"Violence." Her voice was low, and carried a tone that said she had no desire to speak on it further.

"I see.." Dr. Ozpin acknowledged, a silent moment of brevity passing them over before he continued. "I think we are fine to stop here today, but as always, know I am hear to listen whenever you need."

"I appreciate it," she sighed as she pulled her legs from cross beneath her to slide her feet into her sandals. "It seems we've found our demons," she smirked to herself as she made for the door, turning back briefly to finish. "Until next time though."

"Until next time." And with that she passed into the hall. She walked the now familiar path to the lobby, her mind burdened due to the particularly heavy note her and Dr. Ozpin's conversation ended on. But she needed to seek counsel on that particular bother. It had been an almost imperceptible anxious lining to the days after Winter told her that her father and brother had inquired after her. It riddled her with a mixture of vague yet complex feelings of guilt and anger, impervious to absolution.

"Weiss!" She had been on autopilot her entire route, her mind preoccupied with old weight. She hadn't the awareness of her surroundings as she alighted the stairs to prepare herself for the girl now bounding toward her. "Hey!" Ruby collided with her using such a force that she expected to be on the ground by now. But the embrace merely knocked her off one foot briefly before that familiar hold grounded her again and pulled her close.

"Ruby," she said through a laugh, heart pulsing quickly from the initial startle as Ruby jostled her lightly up and down as she bounced. "Fun fact: my brain might be dribbling off the base of my skull."

"Sorry!" Ruby exclaimed, releasing her before taking a step back. In doing so, Ruby allowed her the opportunity to look on her friend. It was almost like seeing her for the first time and strangely enough, she wondered had she ever truly seen Ruby before now.

"Hey you.." She was met with gunmetal, inviting and.. brilliant as they shone through her dark bangs, her high cheekbones, undoubtedly from her father, accentuated by her full smile. Ruby beamed at her, hands behind her back and rocking back and forth on her feet in excitement. She was rather small, but firm as outlined by the black tone of her skinny panted legs, and maybe a bit taller than her? Her mannerisms, her presence was so effortlessly endearing as her characteristic jubilance rolled off of her in waves.

"Earth to Weiss! How's that basketball game?"

"I think I have dain bramage," she joked, eliciting an all too familiar sound of laughter from her friend. She smiled, realizing that she missed the girl opposite to her more than she knew. She had yet to break away from her eyes. Gunmetal she realized she'd been longing for. Tearing herself from her reverie, she made to speak. "Do you want to walk around the grounds?"

"Let's do it!"

"This way," she gestured before leading the way across the ground floor and through the double doors opposite the entrance. The sun hit her and topped off any part of her that Ruby's warmth hadn't reached, if such a place in her existed at present.

"Hey, Weiss," Ruby said as she pulled on the base of her cardigan's sleeve and held on. "It's great to see you. I've missed the heck outta you, y'know?" She lowered her gaze to the grass, smile the furthest from leaving her face.

"I can't say I haven't wanted to see you either." Ruby laughed at that.

"I'll take it! But I've already figured you missed your best friend about as much as I missed mine." She wasn't wrong.

"Maybe I did," she quietly admitted, though still loud enough so that Ruby could hear it as she wrapped her pinky and ring fingers around two of Ruby's own that weren't currently holding her cardigan's sleeve. Ruby moved closer to her, relinquishing her hold on her cardigan in favor of holding her hand in earnest and walking shoulder to shoulder with her.

"How have you been, Weiss?" She saw Ruby turn to look at her in her periphery as she gently inquired about her.

"I've been fine, I suppose. It's been.. a lot, honestly." She kept her eyes forward. "Times of uncertainty. Times when I was unsure of myself, unsure about life in a way. It's been difficult. It still is if I'm to keep going with the honesty disclaimer." A tear fell from her eye. Swiping it away, she laughed to herself. Here she is happening upon yet another one of those doors. Understanding. She smiled, grateful for what the girl next to her had given her.

"I want you to know I'm here for you Weiss." Just a lovely as she remembered her.

"I'm still gratefully taken aback by how you are despite how consistently dreadful I've been."

"Weiss, stop." Ruby hopped in front of her, stopping their forward motion and taking both of her hands in her own. A tear rolled down her cheek as she hesitantly met Ruby's eyes. "You haven't been consistently dreadful. I've seen more of you than what you think is all I've seen of you. You use twelve words to say you like spending time with someone or that you miss someone instead of three plain old words. You literally say you are unable to say that you didn't miss someone," she laughed. "You're interesting, talented and passionate. I mean, look at all of the art you've made! You're witty, and have a dark, twisty, dry sense of humor that cracks me up, and despite what you think, you're nice and kind, and you said thank you before you left Qrow's the first time we met. Even after how dreadful you thought you were, you thanked me. I've helped dreadful people, and none of them have thanked me afterwards. So you don't get to think you've been dreadful to me if I, uh.. don't think you've been dreadful to me? Yeah." Gunmetal, honest and resolute. Ruby's hands were still holding hers firmly, thumbs gently going back and forth over her fingers as she continued to smile and unblinkingly hold her gaze. Another tear rolled down her cheek as she wove her arms around Ruby's neck and pulled her close, her friend enveloping her in kind.

"I think I could really use a friend like you," her muffled confession came from the fabric of Ruby's sleeveless hoodie as she cried into it.

"You already have a friend like me. ばっか," Ruby stated, accenting her final word with two light knocks on the back of her still buried head. "Sorry for lightly battering you in two-two." She snorted a laugh into Ruby's hoodie before pulling away.

"You know, you're a little funny." Ruby beamed. "Just a little though," she smirked before wiping her eyes

"I'll take that too!" Her exclamation was punctuated by her pulling a tangle of wires from her front pocket. "So this isn't one of that albums I discovered, but I do want to share it with you. Are you Fish?"

"Am I what?" She blinked, confused by the question she was asked.

"And there's my answer. Buckle up Weiss! I'm about to introduce you to one of my favorite bands, Fishmans!" She took the earbud Ruby held out to her, the pair she brought lengthier than the one they used at the park and perfect for their walk. Once they both affixed their bud to their ear, Ruby pressed play and they resumed their walk. The band definitely piqued her musical sensibilities, but she found herself distracted by very small distance between them that the earbuds allowed for. Closing the space, she took Ruby's pinky and ring fingers into her own.

"I think I rather like holding your hand," she said so quietly that she herself could barely hear it.

….

I've had quite the past few weeks, but thank you for reading, please look forward to more, and I look forward to any and all of the little lights that are your comments/reviews.

Take care and see you always, Ivel.