Significant Changes: The conversation Between Pyrrha and Weiss has been moved to here. It has been reworked quite a bit and given its own chapter. Themes have been expanded upon, but the full weight of that will become obvious in the coming chapters. You will notice that Nora, Ren, Coco, and Velvet play a much larger role in this early narrative than they did before. That's mostly because I'd always felt as if the Weiss/Pyrrha pairing had been rushed, poorly written, and ill planned. I'm going to do their relationship much better justice this time around.
Original chapter length: 1,745
Revisited chapter length: 2,010
"Regular dialogue" [Faunus speech only]
Chapter 17
Weiss didn't have to travel far to reach the JNPR crested stoop. She climbed the three short steps and knocked repeatedly. Ace happily resting on her hip as they waited for the door to open. The small child was more enamored by the paper ball crinkling in her hands than she was the footsteps approaching the door. The click of the lock shifted before the door opened.
"Weiss?" Pyrrha asked, still in her bathrobe in the early hour. She covered her mouth to hide a yawn, adjusting the edges of her bathrobe only as an afterthought.
"I know it's early, I won't keep you." Weiss told her. "The paperwork's been finalized, I thought you may want a copy to keep for yourself. I wanted to bring it over to you before I forgot."
Pyrrha nodded, the fog of her brain catching up as she took the small stack in hand. "Right, I should probably give you a copy of ours as well for safe keeping." She said slowly, stepping to the side. "Are you sure that you wouldn't join me for tea?"
"I wouldn't want to impose."
"Please, I insist."
"If you're sure." Weiss rolled her eyes only slightly before appeasing the woman in front of her. Pyrrha's upbringing demanded a certain level of decorum in all things, including early morning guests. "It seems like I've caused you a bit of an inconvenience."
"Oh, nothing of the sort." Pyrrha said dismissively, waving the comment off. "I spent most of my night trying to decide what to pack. Well, that and putting away everything else Nora insisted should go with us. If she had it her way I would have to pack the entire house."
"Yang's more pragmatic about it, but I'm sure she was having the same issue." Weiss nodded, setting Ace down on the kitchen floor to play before leaning heavily on the marble counter top. "I don't have much to choose from, so my bag was simple to pack."
"You've amassed quite the collection of entertainment, haven't you?"
"Books mostly, and I doubt I'll have time to read any of them. I rarely find the time now, and I don't think I'll suddenly find the time once we've been issued our orders." Weiss said with a small chuckle as Pyrrha slid a warm much of tea in her direction. "Thank you." She murmured before gratefully taking a sip.
"Having a little one around must keep you busy. I must say though, I never would have thought for an instant that you'd become so invested in her upbringing..." It was just a simple off handed statement, if not an honest observation.
"Oh please, Ace is hardly keeping me from my reading. It's everything else in the household that happens to go on at the same time."
"I didn't think she was the only reason." Pyrrha laughed. "However, I'm sure the tabloids would have something to say if they saw you now. It's endearing, Weiss, truly."
Even though Pyrrha meant it as a compliment, Weiss found herself strangely affronted, even as she knew there was no reason to be. "I hardly find anything endearing about it."
"You don't?"
"Well, what else am I supposed to do? Leave her wellbeing completely up to Yang?"
"Well, they are siblings after all." Pyrrha said with a shrug. The tiny smile across her face migrating more slowly than she would like. Humor dancing in her eyes.
"Chasing a small Faunus around is no simple manner." Weiss scoffed with a small smirk. "Yesterday I had to glyph her to the floor to keep her from getting hurt.."
"What?" Pyrrha asked, her own mug of tea halfway to her lips. "Why?"
"She ran and slipped on the hardwood floor. As if that wasn't enough she ended up crashing right into the corner table by the sofa and knocking down my water glass in the process. The shards were all over the floor it was a mess to clean."
"Sounds like it, but at least she wasn't hurt."
"Thankfully." Weiss sighed with a shake of her head. "Yang knows nothing about setting rules and boundaries. It's hard enough getting her to upkeep the ones I set for the household, let alone protecting a small child from getting into trouble."
At this, Pyrrha laughed. Her friend was a great many things, but above all, her bloodline and breeding still had a bad habit of sticking out like a sore thumb. Weiss tried to suppress it, especially given her common lifestyle and meager earnings as a huntress. Old habits were hard to break though, and there were still hints of the old Weiss that went to war with the new one.
"If I may, it's not a bad thing to care about Ace, is it?"
"No…" Weiss conceded, another gulp of tea settling her nerves. "It's not."
"So, why do you seem troubled about it?" Pyrrha asked gently.
"Strangely, I'm not." Weiss said with a tiny smile, her gaze slipping down passed the counter for a moment. "I'm exhausted. Truthfully, I think we bit off more than we can chew."
"Hmm." Pyrrha nodded quietly.
"Ace doesn't listen very well. The family resemblance is there in spades. She's an active learner, not a passive one." The one single fact proved difficult when Weiss expected her demands to be met. "I wish I could say I was surprised about that, but I'm not. I suppose I should just be thankful Ace can't set fire to the house when she starts screeching."
"Not yet."
"Not ever…" Weiss balked, tucking her chin into her palm. "If her semblance is even half as explosive as Yang's I'm buying a bomb shelter and never leaving." Pyrrha's snickering aside, Weiss glanced down to the young Faunus who hadn't left her sight all morning. "If I seem bothered by something, it's only the realization that even with four of us, we're barely able to pull off this entire fiasco."
"You make do with what you have." Pyrrha noted topping off her friend's cup of tea. The action was slow and measured. "No one can fault you for that."
"If you look at the four of us, and we paint a mottled picture that crumbles under scrutiny." Weiss bent down out of sight for a moment, coming up with a paperclip between her fingers. Ace mewling in protest. "No, Ace, this is not for children." Weiss sighed, setting the paperclip just in front of Pyrrha. "Case in point…"
[Mine] The angry toddler fussed.
"No." Weiss shot back firmly.
Tiny ears flatted backwards. [Mine!] She yowled louder.
"Ace!" Weiss said, voiced raised just enough to get her point. it was only after she ad the little girl's attention that her voice lowered to a softer level. "I said no." Edging the paper ball with her foot, she pushed it back towards the little Faunus before turning her attention back to Pyrrha. "See what I mean?"
Pyrrha bit her lip, weighing propriety with concern. "Is she really that hard to take care of?"
"Ace is a busy child, always on the move." Weiss told her. "I'm not saying we're all completely inept. I'd like to think we're far from it. The matter's complicated."
"How so?"
Weiss shrugged simply. "One might also say that when it comes to our individual capabilities, none of us are exactly parent material." The tea helped to make the news less disheartening. A simple sip and a glance to Ace made it seem so silly in retrospect. "Yang once asked me if raising her was the right thing to do. At the time, I thought the matter obvious. Now, I'm not so sure."
"Can I ask why?"
"It's not one single thing. It's just the facts of our upbringing, together, make something of a mess." Weiss began, painting a rather large target upon herself to start off. "I know nothing of a warm family home. I understand the principle, but the experience eludes me."
"Ah, and you find that to be a hindrance."
"Yes, precisely." Weiss nodded. "On the other side of that very same coin, Yang fluctuates too much for any sort of consistency. She tries her best, we all do. She struggles with temperance, and according to every book I've read on the topic, temperance and consistency are two things children need the most of."
"Our fathers are not temperate people, yours least of all."
"Yes, I know. My father, if I can even call him that anymore, is the last person I'd ever want to emulate." Weiss told her. "Yours on the other hand..."
"He has his moments too, I swear by that." Pyrrha pointed out. Her successes was born of exceedingly high expectation. Her father has wanted nothing less for her. "My father can still work himself into a foul mood at the drop of a hat. He simply chose never to take that mood out on others if he could avoid it. He was still a wonderful father, just as Yang's a wonderful sister."
"Consistency then, at the very least. That is lacking where it shouldn't be." Weiss told her. "Or so goes the theory. I'm not quite sure what all those parenting books have done to truly help the matter. I'm still at a loss more often than not."
"That does sound rather difficult." Pyrrha hummed, thinking on that. Her dealings with small children wasn't nearly as vast as Jaune's own, and her view on the topic was stunted as a result. She took a peek around the counter. Ace blinking up at her before edging closer the pale leg beside her. As though Weiss would protect her. Slowly her ears started to lower as a stare down began.
[Mine.] Ace growled, clutching the little ball of paper to her chest as though it would be taken from her.
"Ace, stop that." Weiss warned, though the threat of retribution ran empty as Pyrrha laughed anew. "See what I mean?" Weiss trailed off, shaking her head gently to rid herself of the mental fog. Her worries often put a cloud upon her. "Blake's the most clinical, explaining away strange mannerisms as Faunus habit. Most of the time, she says Ace will grow out of it. That's fine, they probably are harmless little habits. The problem is, trying to contend with Ace is near impossible right now. She's too animal-like in nature for a human to grapple with."
"Now that you mention it, she does seem much more like an apex predator than a child." Pyrrha had never been bitten by the small teeth, and for all of Ace's animal-like habits, she was also a very unsure of what to think of others. Very quick to hide behind her caregivers the moment something strange and new frightened her. "Though, I did notice that you didn't mention Ruby in that analysis of yours."
Weiss set down her mug. "Well, that's because Ruby's not afraid to retaliate against those little claws and teeth. Where Yang's afraid to hurt Ace, and I refuse physical violence on all measures if it can be avoided, Ruby's not so reserved about it. She just flicks Ace on the nose and goes on with her day, as if she didn't just send a small child away screeching."
"That's..." It forced Pyrrha to take pause. "That's shocking, truly."
"For Ruby, or for Ace?" Weiss returned, seeing those stunningly green eyes try to come to grips with the little truths that had presented themselves in spades at the RWBY household.
"Well, that is the question, now isn't it?" Pyrrha surmised, bashfully admitting her own defeat on the subject. "I merely assumed Ruby was more nurturing. She's light hearted enough. It surprises me she'd be heavy handed about anything that doesn't directly involve Grimm."
"Ruby can be very nurturing too, don't get me wrong. She's just tougher on Ace over all, I think." Weiss agreed. "I think she's doing what she assumes her father and uncle might do. Neither one of them tend to be subtle. Doting and loving in their own way, certainly, but that doesn't exactly equate to normal."
"No." Pyrrha agreed. "Perhaps it doesn't, but does that seem to stop Ace from making trouble?"
"Not yet, but Blake is equally heavy handed. Ace doesn't seem to be intimidated by their rough handling, so maybe there's something to all of this. If there is, I certainly don't understand it. It may simply be the way things shall be."
Pyrrha nodded, looking at the clock mounter on the wall. "Ren should be waking up soon. Why not stay for breakfast?"