Special Thanks

Xlyra from AO3 helped with storyline development and was one of the people

who helped inspire this story! Thank you so much for the help!

Mikotizini from FF.N helped with the editing of the final draft for chapter 1 and was the other

person whose work inspired me! Thank you as well!

Sky has helped with editing and proofreading the final draft of this chapter!

(Sky is not a fanfiction author, but is an amazing editor!

Make sure to give this great person some extra love!)

Give their works a look! They are truly amazing!

A Painting in the Park

Chapter 5

"Weiss Schnee! Ruby Rose! Open up and get out here."

Weiss sighed. She had known that this wouldn't work, but they had been found quicker than she originally thought they would though. The voice that called out was oddly familiar as well. Definitely not her father, as it was feminine. And it sounded very annoyed.

"Do not make me repeat myself, sister."

At that, Weiss scrambled to get out. Winter was one of the only people Weiss even minutely trusted from her family, and Blake was well aware of that. Blake herself didn't trust her but they didn't know each other very well.

"One moment Winter!" She quickly chided herself for sounding even a bit excited.

Weiss squirmed around until she faced the door, accidentally hitting Ruby a few times. She muttered an apology towards the other girl a few times before she was finally at the small door. After a few attempts to get out, she came upon a worrisome discovery.

"Hey, Blake…"

"Something wrong Weiss?"

"You could say that. We are kind of stuck in here…" The crawl space door was jammed closed. Either that or it couldn't be opened from the inside. She sighed. This seemed to be just her luck. Thankfully Blake understood her silent request for help and came over to assist. A few minutes later Weiss and Ruby were sitting on the living room couch with Blake and Yang sitting across the room. Winter was standing in front of her sister, and she did not look happy at all.

"So Weiss. Is there any reason in particular that I managed to find a certain painting in a certain museum's public unveiling? I'm sure you're familiar with that said painting."

Weiss' eyes dropped and Ruby's followed the suit. She had known that Winter had shown up because of that but she had hoped that they'd at least have a quick and happy reunion. Obviously, that wasn't quite the case and her sister was, as always, straight to business.

"Actually, it wasn't really Weiss' fault that it ended up in the museum." Ruby said this without a hint of hesitation, which surprised Weiss. It seems that it wasn't quite what Winter expected either by the rise of her eyebrow.

"How so? In order to commission a painting of a person to be put in a museum one must first have the said person to consent to being painted." Weiss sighed at Winter's logical approach. She was, of course, correct in her course of thinking, and while she wasn't necessarily happy that Ruby put the painting in the museum…. anyways, despite how she felt about the situation, she did know that this was her fault.

"Of course, and I did give my consent to being painted." She still didn't quite know why she had, but the fact of what happened still stands.

"But Weiss! I'm the one who put the painting in the museum without telling you!" Ruby once more spoke up. It was almost as if she was determined to make herself the culprit of the whole thing. Weiss couldn't imagine why she would ever do that though.

"Speaking of that. Do you understand what exactly that entails?" Winter cut through what was sure to become a bickering match about who was at fault. Both girls immediately went quiet and found something else that was quite interesting to look at. Mainly, the floor.

"Yeah… Weiss told me the short version of what's going to happen…" Ruby sounded very upset and the sound made Weiss' heart ache a little, although she wasn't quite sure why.

"I told her that due to fathers abundance of money and power that more than likely he, or someone who reports back to him, will see it soon. If they haven't already. Although since you're here, I'm sure they've already found it and you've just been tasked with bringing me home." Weiss sighed.

"Yes, someone who reports directly to father is the one who saw the painting." Winter stated this matter of factly, if not smugly.

"It's just such a shame that the person who found it also happens to love her sister more than she loves her father." Winter let off a small smile as Weiss' head snapped up.

"Excuse me? So father doesn't know where I am?" Weiss still didn't get her hopes up. After all, even if Winter had been the one to see and find her and the picture, it was still possible that others could find it in the museum. Ruby just sat there, unsure whether to be happy or not.

"No he doesn't, nor will he. I actually didn't come here to talk to you, Weiss. In fact, I didn't even know you were here. I came here to talk to Ms. Rose. Her neighbors, Sun and Neptune if I recall, told me she and her sister would be here for dinner tonight."

"Me? Why did you want to talk to me? Were you planning on yelling at me because of this? Suing me? Did you plan to-" Weiss put her hand over Ruby's mouth in order to stop what was obviously a panicked spewing of words. Ruby had made herself as small as she could during her rambling but slowly righted herself so she was sitting with at least a little dignity.

"Yes I did plan on yelling at you, but it seems as if you already understand what you did so that won't be necessary. But for the most part, I came to say thank you. Your art is going to make a beautiful addition to my… personal art collection."

Ruby and Weiss looked at her questioningly at the last part.

"What… What do you mean Winter?"

"What I mean, is that the painting is now my property. I bought it off the display the day after the opening for an absurd price. Father will question me about what I was buying, but thankfully I've always been a connoisseur of art. He won't think too much on the fact that I bought an impressive painting off of the display."

"So wait, does that mean Weiss is fine? You don't have to bring her back to her… uh, father?" Ruby's question started off really excited, but it quickly because nervous.

"From what Winter told us when we answered the door, the answer is a big fat N O." Yang called out from the other side of the room. Weiss and Ruby had forgotten that Yang and Blake were still actually in the room, sitting quietly on the love seat.

"That's why we let her in. She explained why she was here and so we... hesitantly showed her where you two were." Blake added with a smile.

"You know… the fact that we were found so quickly makes a lot more sense now." Weiss muttered to herself, although judging by the small giggle coming from next to her, she hadn't muttered it quite as quietly as she'd thought. The giggling from Ruby did elicit a smile from her though.

"The… ah, blonde bimbo is correct." Blake started laughing at Winters words and Weiss couldn't help but smile at it.

"Hey!" Yang's disagreement, on the other hand, went ignored by those in the room.

"You don't have to return to father. Although you'll do well to watch yourself, as well as what you do, from now on. Even though you already should have been doing such."

"I'm sorry." Weiss quickly apologized.

"Also, why did you decide to choose such a hiding spot anyways? You know that if father really wished to find you, that he would have the building layout and so would know of that spot right?" Winter was pointing out the very thing Weiss had tried pointing out earlier.

"Well you see, Blake uses that place for books and she told us to use it to hide and so we didn't question it, or at least I didn't, Weiss kinda did and said something similar to you and..." Ruby started trailing off.

"Yes, and speaking of books. The ones we found in there were very interesting, Blake." Weiss had an almost invisible smirk while Blake averted her gaze with a blush. After taking a quick glance at Ruby, she noticed that the artist was also sporting a blush.

"What was so interesting about a bunch of books?" Yang, of course, hadn't quite picked up. Blake obviously hadn't told her about her little hobby yet, but Weiss planned to change that. Blake realized what was being planned and gave them a pleading look.

"Oh, nothing much… A few had topics based around swords and their respective sheaths, while others were talking about explorers to a new cave. Blake has a very wide choice of books that she reads." Weiss added a wink to Yang, who was obviously catching on as her eyes were slowly widening.

"Blake… is she saying what I think she's saying?" Yang was looking at Blake, who's blush was growing by the minute and who was trying desperately to hide in a couch pillow. However, she did nod in response to the question.

"That's awesome!" Yang leaned over and whispered something. Blake had lowered the pillow to hear what Yang was going to say, but she quickly threw it back up as her eyes went wide. Weiss had an idea as to what the now laughing Yang had said, and it was obvious that Blake still wasn't fully comfortable with the girls' straightforward ways. Although she could also say that she wouldn't fare any better.

"Well, I am going to have to see myself out, if this new topic is anything to judge by. It seems like there's going to be a few… intimate activities going on soon enough." Weiss jumped up when Winter spoke.

"Winter, wait!" Weiss went and gave her sister a hug. Her family had never been big on such things, but her sister definitely deserved this for everything she'd done for her.

"Thank you…"

"Of course Weiss. I will always be there to clean up your mess." Winter teased Weiss as they shared the hug for a short while longer.

"I want a hug too…" Weiss barely heard the complaint that was said across the room, and it made her smile just a bit more. She knew that Ruby was the one that said it, but she didn't move to do anything about what she had said. Not yet at least. She could get her hug at some other time. Even if she didn't particularly deserve it after everything that had happened.

Ruby sat off to the side, not quite content due to the lack of hugs she had gotten, but respectful. She reaaaally enjoyed hugs, but she usually didn't grumble and gripe about not getting one. She had actually been quite surprised when she had done so out loud.

After Weiss saw Winter out and returned to sit next to her on the couch, they all just sat there. It felt very awkward, to Ruby at least. She didn't really know how it felt for the others though. After what felt like forever, although, in reality, it was probably only a few minutes, Blake finally spoke up.

"Well… Now that that's over, how about we finish up with our original plan? You know, dinner?" Blake asked this as she stood up, Yang quick to follow.

"That would be awesome! C'mon Blakey I'll help get the table set! I'm starving!" Yang nearly bolted to the kitchen as she said that.

"I think we should probably join them, Ruby." Weiss gave a small smile as she got up and followed Blake. Ruby was starving as much as Yang was, so she didn't argue at all. Of course, she was going to happily go along with a plan involving food being eaten! Who wouldn't?

"Do we have any cookies for dessert Blake? I feel like I'm in the mood for cookies. Maybe some milk to go with it. Aw, who am I kidding? Of course, we have to have milk with our cookies!" Blake hesitated, although Ruby didn't really notice it as she was too busy salivating over the thought of cookies.

"Of course we have cookies. You know we never go eat at someone else's house without bringing something of our own Rubes! It's… uh… tradition!" Yang spoke with confidence up until the last sentence. Blake stares at her with a raised eyebrow, and Yang gives her a wink in return.

"Oh right! I forgot about that! How could I forget about our beloved cookies? Oh, Weiss, you're going to love them! It's my mom's special recipe." Ruby gave Weiss her best smile. She still felt bad about what nearly happened because of her, and so she was going to try and make it up to the platinum haired girl.

"You know, I am not exactly… big, on desserts and sweets. So that being said, I will not be having very many." Weiss returned her smile, albeit smaller and more apologetic looking.

"More for us then, right Ruby?" Yang gave off one of her own brilliant smiles, which Ruby was only too happy to return.

"Yup!" Ruby replied cheerfully.

"Dinner first, you dorks." Blake said as she brought out the food.

Dinner went on for about an hour, and Ruby could confidently say that it wasn't as awkward as it could have been. Thankfully Yang and herself were very chatty, and so there was always something to talk about. Yang started the dinner by talking about how her BMXing was going, and Ruby would exaggerate all the cool stuff she could do on her bike.

Blake eventually expressed interest and Yang followed that up with an invite to her next big gig. All expenses paid of course, and the ticket would be to one of the better seats. Since she'd be the star of the show, she could pull out a couple VIP tickets for her big events. That was probably the only reason why Ruby could get into most of her events if they were being honest.

After that, Blake mentioned her newest book that was coming out, although she wouldn't say anything. Weiss then mentioned how she was Blake's editor and that she would vouch for this new book of hers is, yet again, a gem.

Ruby also barely touched on the topic of what she was working on, saying that she was working on a few new sculptures for her park collection. Weiss perked up and got quite happy upon hearing that. She asked what they would be, but Ruby decided that she wanted it to be a surprise for her. So she had told Weiss to meet her at the park on Monday and that she'd show her the first one in person.

After dinner had finished Yang had grabbed a plate full of cookies and they all headed towards the couch. They watched a movie together while snacking on them, and by the looks of it, Weiss enjoyed the cookies. Even if she would never admit it out loud.

After that, Ruby and Yang headed home to their shared apartment and Blake took Weiss back to hers. Now Yang was in her room, already on the phone with Blake. Meanwhile, Ruby was laying on her bed, thinking over the day that was coming to a close.

'Well, things could have gone a lot worse. And thankfully Weiss isn't too upset with me. Weiss… I really like that name actually… I hope I can make a friend out of her. I'm pretty sure I can with the way things are currently leaning towards.'

Ruby smiled to herself. The idea of being friends with Weiss made her quite happy. Then she remembered that Monday was a lot closer than she had realized. The smile quickly faded and she bolted over to her art room with the intent to finish the first sculpture so that it can dry out in time.

A/N

Looks like things turned out

Just fine! Whew.

What a relief right?

Now let's just hope Winter's

Plan works as well as

Everyone hopes it will!