Of course.
Of course she managed to get paired up with Ruby Rose.
Weiss drummed her fingers on her desk, resting her chin in her other hand. She blew a strand of hair out of her face. Books laid in a neat row atop her shelf. Her desk was kept immaculate, barely anything on it except a few fountain pens sticking out of their pen holders. Her room was white, like it was back at Schnee manor. Big, white, shining, a little empty. Just like home.
Weiss frowned, sighing again. Somehow, the white, crisp expanse of her room felt tainted now. Just by the mere thought of Ruby Rose in her head. It was slowly ticking her off, the bleeding thought in her head that didn't seem to clot up, but managed to slowly and steadily leak out of her mind.
Ruby Rose, Ruby Rose, Ruby. Rose.
Small and short haired with red highlights and enthusiastic and optimistic; far, far too childish for her. A hidden shadow somewhere on her that she kept hidden very well, but the air of mystery still lingered on her person. Ruby Rose, a child, by all accounts. Ruby Rose, a genius, by all accounts. Ruby Rose, her partner for this history project. Partner for the next couple of weeks.
Weiss pulled a history textbook off her shelf with more force than necessary, slamming it down on her desk. No more of this. She had to study. She was going to do all of this, solo. Ruby was just going to goof off, because, well... look at her! She'd led her around to her history class and said stupid things like 'let's jump this fence' or 'we can slide down this bannister' or 'free taco Tuesday is the best!'. She was ridiculous and deserved none of the space she occupied in Weiss' frustrated, addled mind. Ruby Rose would not taint the pristine white of her room. Schnee was Schnee. Rose was... whatever. Irrelevant. It didn't matter what Rose was. Just a girl that bumped into her that she blew up at (for which she felt a slight pang of guilt at, but annoyance still overruled that part of her brain).
Weiss, with a great strength and force, read and focused on every line of text in the book. That'd show Ruby Rose. Stupid Ruby Rose.
Her scroll buzzed. It was Ruby Rose.
Ugh.
Ugh!
She unlocked her phone, thumbing down the notifications tab, viewing the texts Ruby had sent her.
hey weiss, it's ruby
gosh i hope i have the right number
just lemme know when you wanna get started on the project?
:)
God. Did she have no shame about double texting?
Weiss huffed another great sigh, locking her phone and dropping it on her desk. Tainted. That's what her room was. She needed to be somewhere else. Weiss got up, opening her door.
Right into Klein, holding a tray of cut up fruits and tea.
"Ah, Miss Schnee. Heard your sighs from downstairs and I thought, well either you're inflating a bouncy castle in here, or there's something bothering you," he peered into her room, making a show of examining every corner. "Hmm. No bouncy castles in sight. Disappointing."
Weiss rolled her eyes, despite the smile that graced her features.
"May I?" Klein tilted his head towards the tray he held in his hands.
Weiss let out a big, dramatic sigh, then moved from the doorway, letting Klein enter. He hummed in approval, setting the tray down on the coffee table in her room. He poured the tea into two cups, then took a seat at the sofa.
Weiss was still at the door, decidedly not pouting, thank you very much. Klein patted the seat beside him, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. She trudged over to the sofa with a little 'hmph!'.
"Are you going to tell me what's the matter, Miss Schnee, or will we just continue the pouting and the sighing and such?"
Weiss took a seat, smoothing her skirt and crossing her legs. She took a cup from Klein, then after a moment, uncrossed her legs, leaning into the back rest.
"You won't pout or sigh, Klein. Pouting and sighing is for teenagers. Normal teenagers. And not people in the employ of the Schnee family," Weiss said, a wry smile on her face and about a lifetime's worth of tension in her shoulders.
"You're right, I'm far too old and wise to sigh and pout, but if it is the custom in the household I am in, I feel compelled to adopt the culture," Klein offered with his own wry smile. "Now, what's bothering you, Miss Schnee?"
Weiss took a long sip from her teacup. Klein merely waited.
What was bothering her?
School?
Well, so far, her lessons and days at Beacon had been okay. It'd been almost a week, and she'd acclimatized to the culture there. She sat with Pyrrha during lunch period. She would secretly pull out the map when she was alone and lost, and was committing more and more to memory. Everything was fine.
What happened at Schnee Manor?
She felt her scar tingle.
No. It wasn't that. That was a different beast.
It was Ruby Rose.
No.
Well, yes. A little? Yes. It was Ruby Rose.
No, it wasn't just Ruby Rose, it was everything! Her tall blonde sister and that raven-haired girl, too. They were always together, and they would look at her and she'd be looking at them, and her stomach and chest felt all swirly and tight and she didn't understand any of it.
It was Ruby Rose. It was-
"I'm just having a little... trouble. It's been stressful, being here, trying to fit in and... it's just been stressful, Klein. I'm sorry," she put the cup down on the table and folded her hands in her lap, staring at it intently. "I don't mean to worry you."
"Miss Schnee, you have nothing to apologize for," he put a hand on hers, and Weiss looked and he was looking at her with a kind expression, affirming to her that he really was one of a very short list of people that truly cared about her. "I'm here to help."
He smiled, then patted her hand once. "I expect you'll have school work that needs doing, so I shall leave you be. Keep your head up, Miss Schnee. Sun'll come out."
Weiss smiled at him, and he respectfully bowed and exited the room, closing the door.
The sun will come out. Okay.
Weiss took an hour or two longer than she should have to text back.
Meet me after school tomorrow. We will have a discussion about the project. Bring a list of topics you think are viable for us to use.
She hovered over the emoji button, before deciding that she was far too dignified to use emojis. Language was invented for a reason. If she had an emotion she wanted to express, she would damn well use her words.
Her phone buzzed back almost immediately.
okay!
i'm gonna end a little later than you, i have shop class last period
meet me outside shop class, say around 3?
i know the perfect quiet little spot we can sit at
Not for the first time, and she highly doubted it would be the last time, Weiss wondered what she'd been thrown into. Shop class? Why would that even be something Ruby took? Weiss couldn't ever imagine doing something like that.
She deflated a little bit into her couch. She suddenly felt tired. Something deep in her bones was weary, right in her core.
Change. Maybe that was what she'd been looking for. That was what had been troubling her all this while. Change.
It was tiring, and difficult, and Weiss was just a kid, if she was being honest with herself. Not a Schnee, not a victim. A tired child with far, far too much on her plate. She closed her eyes for a moment. Just a moment's reprieve. Just a little bit. When she opened her eyes, she got back to work.
The next day found Weiss in shop class.
She tugged at the collar of her sweater, as the wave of heat emanating from the room washed over her, a stark contrast from the biting chill outside. An old country song was playing over a cheap radio placed on the teacher's desk. The whirring of machinery and the crashes of hammers almost overrode the music. Weiss wrinkled her nose. She certainly didn't belong here.
Almost instantly, she spotted Ruby a little ways away. The workshop was large, and Weiss carefully made her way over to the younger girl, careful not to touch anything or disturb anyone. Most were paying her no mind, though there were a couple of curious glances, from tired, bleary eyes. She weaved through benches and tables and dangerous looking machines and piles of sawdust. Eugh.
As she got closer, Weiss noticed how deftly Ruby was working on her station. Her hands were a blur, carefully carving and crafting a shape out of a small wooden block. Small pieces fell out as she carved away, nimble hands working with small saws and files. She brushed the sawdust aside as it piled up, she flicked away the bigger pieces of wood that were bothering her. Ruby's sole focus was on her craft.
It was kind of... mesmerising. Weiss was entranced, and faintly, very genuinely impressed. It was a kind of show of passion that she rarely ever saw, especially back in Atlas, where everybody was always effortlessly near perfect at everything they did. Watching Ruby work, it was almost as if the block of wood was coming alive, taking shape on its own, and she was only nurturing it to grow and mould itself.
Gradually, Ruby began to slow, beginning to appraise the beginnings of her work. A fair bit of it carved out already into a rudimentary circular shape, with edges and curves reminding her of some sort of flower.
She then noticed Weiss was standing at her bench, jumping back with a start and a yelp, sending her tools scattering to the floor.
"Gah! Weiss, I-" Ruby puffed out a breath of air before scrambling to pick her tools up. "I didn't see you there," she cleared her throat and gave a nervous laugh, quickly depositing her tools onto her table.
Weiss just stared at her, crashing back into reality a little bit herself.
Charming. Really.
"Clean yourself up and meet me outside in 5 minutes," she told her. Ruby smiled, dusting her hands off on her apron before tucking some hair behind her ear. Errant sawdust coated her hands and hair, and she just stood there messy and smiling at her. Weiss bit the inside of her cheeks, and clenched her fists.
"Sure thing, Weiss!" Ruby said cheerily. Weiss paused, then just nodded once before swallowing hard and turning away. She walked faster out of the class, only breathing once she was out.
Shop class. Really?
Ruby popped out of class shortly after, as Weiss patiently waited, still halfway focused on loosening the tension in her body.
"Hey, c'mon, I'll show you the place I was talking about," Ruby waved her over. They walked side by side, and Weiss still held the files against her chest tighter she should have any reason to. She readjusted her grip, loosening and relaxing herself. Ruby held the straps of her bag with both hands, her gait loose and easy, though a tad more composed and precise than Weiss would have thought. She turned on her toes, and there was a sense of energy in her every step, like at any moment she could have turned into a dead sprint with little effort.
The spot she was talking about was in the corner of the library, hidden by a large shelf of academia. A couple of wooden benches and tables were scattered about, illuminated by an orange lamp that hung above on a chain. It was... kind of cozy. Certainly cooler than the shop class, but warm enough to be comfortable. Ruby selected a seat and plopped herself onto the bench, swinging her legs over to turn herself around, a mess of awkward, gangly teenage limbs. She beckoned Weiss to take a seat with a smile and a quirk of her head.
Weiss took her seat with less fanfare, smoothing out the bottom of her skirt and placing her bag and files on the table.
"So, I've prepared a few topics we could research," she pulled out a piece of paper with a list, sliding it over to Ruby. "I trust you've done-"
"Here's mine!" Ruby fished out a slightly crumpled paper, smoothing it out a little bit first before handing it to Weiss. "Sorry it's kind of crumpled. My dog Zwei was out for blood yesterday," she laughed, but bit her lip and didn't meet Weiss' quizzical stare. "I had to, y'know, save it. I messed it up a bit, but- yeah," she cleared her throat.
"Right," Weiss rolled her eyes before taking a look at her list.
It had almost everything Weiss had put up in her own list. Plus a couple extra ones that caught her eye. Ruby had even put a little bullet point description beside each title.
Huh.
"So... can I have a look at your list?" Ruby smiled an easy smile. If she wasn't a Schnee, Weiss might have felt compelled to mirror her facial expression. Weiss flipped over to the page in her notebook and handed it over to Ruby. She read quickly, the smile blooming on her face.
"Heh, awesome. We both thought up the same things!"
"Yes," Weiss murmured. "We did."
She looked up from Ruby's list and the other girl was beaming. Weiss, in the most inexplicable fashion, felt just a little bit more at ease.
When they finished their discussion, Ruby walked with her to the front entrance of the school. Weiss had texted Klein, and he was already outside waiting for her. They walked in silence until they reached the edge of campus. Weiss turned to Ruby just before she descended the first steps down. An apology was caught in her throat, and Weiss almost just shouted it at her. Instead, Weiss reigned herself in a bit.
"Ruby," she said softly, her eyes darting from her to the ground. The name felt foreign in her mouth, but in a way that felt okay. Weiss swallowed thickly and leveled her gaze at Ruby.
"Do you want to come over tomorrow!?" Ruby blurted out, cutting Weiss off. She started blushing, a light pink dusting over her neck and ascending upwards. Weiss stared at her, mouth agape. Her silence must have gone on a little too long, because Ruby started to flounder a little bit.
"I mean- that is if you want. Want to work on this project a little bit more- the history project. That project."
"Yes. I do," Weiss bit her lip. Ruby immediately smiled wide.
"I'll- I'll text you my address then."
"Okay."
"See you later Weiss," Ruby said, and she turned and walked away. Weiss felt like she'd just been caught up and spit out of a tornado.
Well. This was all very unexpected.
Hello. Welcome back.