It had been a long week for Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and Qrow, travelling across several continents to the far north. Throughout that time, Qrow with Ruby holding onto him, lead the group to Schnee's fortress, though he had to struggle to keep the lead. He would have admonished Yang for being too eager in an unfamiliar territory, but upon seeing how determined her look was, he chose to keep his mouth shut and try to keep pace with his niece.
Eventually they made it to Atlas, the snow of the northern plains inspiring awe into Ruby, finally letting her take her mind off their predicament. Weiss and even Yang took in the view, admiring the white landscapes of Weiss' home.
Night fell after a day's travel through the frozen wonderland, and Qrow, who would normally be fine going a night without the comfort of slumber, found his paternal instincts instructing him to get Yang off the road and into bed.
"Hey! Let's pull over into a hotel!" Qrow yelled to his niece.
"What?! If we keep going, we'll get to Schnee's house by morning!" she attempted justifying a night with no sleep, and normally someone so headstrong would have won out. But a Xiao Long who was tired, couldn't argue with a Branwen that wasn't, and Qrow was fully aware of it.
It didn't take much for Yang to agree with her uncle, as she drove after him off an exit into a small motel next to the highway. Parking in front of a room, the three girls sat down for what felt like the first time in years. Weiss in particular, while wearing Ruby's hood to disguise her identity, held her stomach while leaning against a wall.
"I never want... to ride... A motorcycle again," Weiss complained between heaving.
"You think Yang's bad, I had to hold onto Qrow for a week, and he doesn't wash his cape. Ugh!" she shuddered just thinking about that smell.
"Hey, I wash this cape at least once a week!" Qrow defended himself, "It's just when you caught me, was the day I wanted to wash my cape," he gave his aforementioned cape a whiff and sharply retreated his nose, "Follow me, I have a room."
The three girls followed the old hunter up the steps to the second floor of the motel, Weiss holding Ruby close to her body, providing warmth to the red blur.
"I never thought, Atlas would be so c-c-c-c-cold!" she stuttered through her chattering teeth.
"I thought it was supposed to be spring!" Yang shivered.
Weiss stood between them and broke the news, "It is Spring. This is the warmest Atlas gets."
Qrow joined Weiss to disappoint his nieces, "And this is the warmest I've ever felt Atlas," he snuck a few laughs while listening to his nieces shiver.
When the group reached their room, Qrow unlocked the door and walked inside. Ruby and Yang would later learn from Weiss that by Atlas standards they were in a trashy hotel that people used to jeopardize their marriages or to hide from insane hitmen with bowlcuts. But by their standards, they were in the nicest room they had ever been in. For instance, there was a mint on the pillow. To Ruby, that made it the greatest hotel room she had ever rented. To Yang, there was a flat screen television and a jacuzzi in the bathroom, and those made it the greatest hotel room she had ever rented. To Weiss, the poorly lit room, with the hideous carpet and drapes made it one of the worse Atlesian hotels she had ever rented. And to Qrow, with the attractive receptionist and a 24/7 bar, it was ok.
But undoubtedly there was one problem for all four of them: there was one bed. And it wasn't a king size bed, it was a normal size bed that two people sharing would find uncomfortable, let alone four? What a sight that would be.
Qrow recognized this and let himself out, "You girls fight over who gets which side of the bed. I'm gonna go make friends with the barkeep!"
When the old drunk closed the door on himself, the girls looked down at the bed and shared glances with each other, wordlessly discussing what their next course of action would be.
Yang walked towards the bathroom, "I've been riding Bumblebee for a week, I'm going to take a long bath in that jacuzzi if you don't mind."
After Yang closed the door behind her, Weiss turned to her left, catching Ruby munching the free mint on their pillow.
In the midst of bubbles and a warm jet stream, Yang floated in the jacuzzi letting all of her stress drain away. If it hadn't been for the light knock on the door, she would have easily fallen asleep.
"Need something?" she called out to the person who knocked on the door.
"Just need to brush my teeth," Yang heard Weiss' familiar shrill voice.
"You can come in!" she answered
Weiss walked through the doorway, her white complexion turning a shade of red when she saw Yang in the jacuzzi wearing what she was born in, "I'll just, brush my teeth and... head out," she explained, diverting her eyes away from the two mounds on her chest.
Weiss brushed her teeth, looking at Yang through the mirror. She tried ignoring the blonde, focusing on getting her own teeth clean.
"Hey, has your dad tried calling you while we've been traveling?" Yang broke the verbal silence.
Weiss winced just thinking about him, "I left my scroll in Cardin's bag, in case he's been trying to track me down."
"Nothing lost if your dad goes after it, huh," Yang laughed, "Hey, I know we haven't had time to talk with Qrow hanging around us and being on a motorcycle for eighteen hours a day, but," she paused to step out of her bath to speak with Weiss face to face, "About what happened."
A week's worth of backed up emotion laid in front of both Weiss and Yang to cross over, "You. Yang, you looked... Terrifying. The was you and Blake were-
"I should have never done that. I wish I could have taken that back so many times," she broke eye contact, looking down at her own feet, "I guess I still don't know how this relationship works."
"I don't think any of us even know how this relationship works. I don't even know how two people do it? Four people? God, I can't believe we even got as far as we did!" Weiss admitted, inching closer to Yang, "Two sisters, the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, and a former member of the White Fang all dating each other. You'd think the universe wouldn't have let it go this far."
Yang held her close and let out a small laugh, "Don't speak too soon. We still have to get Blake back from your dad in one piece."
"Don't even talk about him. I already hate being in the same continent as him," Weiss vented, looking up at Yang's lilac eyes, "And when get Blake back, we, but mainly you still have to talk to Blake about what you did," Weiss explained, "You and her were the ones to, aim your weapons at each other."
Yang knew the look in her eyes. She remembered it vividly from over a week ago. The teary gloss over her light-blue eyes revealed the fear and the worry she had for Yang. Different from a week ago, when the fear was born from Yang and the worry was for Blake. Now both were reserved for Yang and Blake.
Weiss was a huntress at heart; she only ever worried about herself and never for others because she knew that her allies were competent enough to handle themselves.
So to Yang, Weiss worrying about her gave her the hope that, she really trusted her. She held the heiress close to her, feeling her heartbeats reverberate through her body and into hers. Feeling this level of trust again, made the normally boisterous Yang Xiao Long, shed a few tears into her Weiss' shoulder.
"Yang?" Weiss asked concernedly hearing the larger girl starting to actually sob.
Through her tears, Weiss could just make out the words, "You still care about me, Weiss. Thank you so much!"
Weiss, held back her own tears and let Yang cry into her own shoulder, "Yang, I care about you deeply," Weiss finally realized that Yang was a lot closer to her than she realized, "Which is why I'm going to ask you to put on some clothes."
Ruby was in fact eavesdropping on Yang and Weiss and was happy that they were making things up and how mature her sister was. This feeling was immediately shattered when Yang started making boob jokes to Weiss, hearing them squeezed together and the light claps they made from being drenched in water.
"C'mon, Ice Queen! Join me for a swim!" followed by a splash and the lewd sounds of two naked women moving together in a small jacuzzi.
Ruby rolled her eyes and went to bed, "Useless lesbians."
Qrow fiddled with his glass on the bar, gazing at its fingerprint stains from other accounts of him fidgeting with it. He looked to his side and saw the sun breaking the night sky, "Daybreak."
He made it up to their room and walked in, "G'morning, ladies," looking at the three huntresses ready for the day in front of them, "Last day before we make it to Blizzard's house. Are you all ready?"
They only responded with a solemn nod, "Alright. Let's ride."
The hunter and the three students rode off from the snowy land of Atlas and into the continent's region of lofty peaks, where Blizzard's fortress, Weiss's former home lied.
Whatever it took, they were going to get Blake back.
A/N thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I'm sorry if it wasn't what you all were expecting, but perhaps this is something that makes up for it? I will be up front that initially when I wrote this story, I didn't have a conclusion in mind, but for a while this is how I wanted the story to turn out.
Regardless thank you to everyone who has reviewed and given me feedback, letting me know how much of an idiot I am and how to improve the story. Thanks to Pupmon1 for giving me a few pieces of advice, and thanks to everyone who gives this story the time of day.
We're coming up on the final showdown. All the pieces are in place. Are you ready?