The history presentation went pretty good.
Well. It went pretty well.
Weiss and Ruby finished off with a bow, Ruby with a wide grin on her face while Weiss' smile was less reserved, though no less present. Ruby had an electric energy about her, and it shone through in the presentation. Weiss contrasted it well with a more calm, stable presence. All in all they made a pretty good team, and Weiss was more than confident they'd get a good grade.
"Well done, students. Miss Rose, Miss Schnee, you may take your seats," Professor Oobleck nodded in satisfaction, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Weiss took her seat next to Blake as Ruby plopped herself beside her.
"Good job, you two," Blake nudged Weiss' shoulder. The ivory-haired girl smiled, the relief and pride of hard work and a job well done washing over her. Yang gave her a little thumbs up.
"Nailed it," the blonde said. Ruby eeked out a quiet 'heck yeah'.
The bell rang, and Oobleck crossed his arms as he watched the students pack up.
"We'll continue on with presentations next lesson, students. Now hurry along to your lessons and whatnot," he shooed them off as he exited out the back of the classroom at his usual blistering pace.
"You guys got a break now?" Yang asked as she shouldered her bag deftly. Yang looked like she never did anything in half measures. It was always all in or not at all.
"Yeah, I'm free. Weiss?" Ruby looked to the other girl. Weiss consulted her schedule, still not entirely familiar with it only after two and a half weeks.
"Yes, I do," she said.
"Great! Wanna walk over to the mall and grab some lunch?" Yang looked at the other three, who all nodded in agreement.
That was how the past couple of weeks were for Weiss. Schoolwork and spending time with Ruby, Blake and Yang when she could. Winter would say that she was neglecting her studies, but her stellar presentation clearly disproved that (though Winter could probably find 20 things wrong in that five minute presentation anyway). It was strange, for Weiss at least. In Atlas, she was never really a part of any one group. She was the Weiss Schnee after all. The groups came to her. She rotated around, always spending lunch with whoever wanted to hang around her. It was always neutral at best, and irritating at worst. They didn't want to spend time with Weiss, they wanted to spend time with Weiss Schnee.
Needless to say, this was different. After the day spent at the Rose-Xiao Long's, the four of them would gravitate towards each other whenever they could. Weiss was even invited into their group chat. It was nice. It was really nice. And Weiss enjoyed spending time with them. There was a lot more to them that she hadn't figure out yet, but she was integrated as easy as that. She fell into the chatter, the flow of it all just fine.
The snow was fine, coming down in soft, small flakes. The four of them had all bundled up in thick, heavy coats (except Yang, though even her warm blooded nature couldn't keep her very warm in the harsh weather, so she had conceded by adding an extra layer to her clothes), and walked out to the nearby mall. Weiss had seen it around, it was only a block away from Beacon, but she never had any express interest in eating there. She hadn't been interested in eating fast food until a little bit ago, anyway.
The sidewalks had been cleared, mercifully, and the walk wasn't all too bad. The cold in Vale was still certainly warmer than in Atlas.
"God, I hate the cold," Blake wrapped her arms around herself tight, her face flushed and grumpy.
"I don't mind it, actually," Weiss supplied, because she was now at the point where she was comfortable doing that. Yang laughed.
"Of course you don't, Ice Queen," she said as she withdrew a scarf from Ruby's bag and put it around Blake's neck. The other girl took it gratefully, bundling up more.
"Hey!" Weiss protested. Ruby snickered, and Weiss gave her a stink-eye. She stopped snickering.
"Relax Weiss, we're just joking," Blake said in between shivers, still cold despite all the layers.
Weiss still 'hmph'd, though only half in jest, which was probably more than she could ever say for all her time in Atlas.
The mall was large, and still looked very much like a product of a bygone era. Some places in Vale looked like it settled in the 80's and stayed there while time passed them by. It was still very active though, giving it a feeling of earnest stubbornness. Weiss liked it. It was like, for a moment, she could pretend like time was at a stand-still. Like she could live in a bubble for a while and not have to give it up to the passage of time.
More and more, the secret delights of Vale revealed themselves to her.
"There's this one noodle place that we really like," Ruby explained to her as they crossed the threshold into the warmth of the building. Blake breathed a sigh of relief, the cold seeping out of her.
"Is it more or less healthy than McDonald's?" Weiss asked. Though she was quite partial to the junk food now, she still maintained that it was healthier to eat her way. Sometimes she wondered how Yang got the figure she did while eating the way that they seemed to.
"Debatable, but it is delicious," Yang interlocked her hands behind her head, grinning. Blake nodded in agreement, and even though Weiss was probably going to eat there whether or not she protested, she acquiesced.
The place was a little shop tucked into the corner beside the theater. There was an old man behind a counter with big, bushy severe eyebrows and wrinkled lines across his forehead. His eyes were small, sunken in and hidden behind his seemingly permanent squint. He watched them as they took a seat in a small booth. Yang nodded at him, holding up three fingers on one hand, then pointing to Blake with the other. He nodded back and disappeared into the kitchen.
"Okay..." Weiss stared at Yang, then back at the others to see if this was like a normal thing or if she should be concerned. They seemed to think it was fine, so Weiss withheld her comments.
"Don't worry about it, Weiss," Yang caught her gaze and winked. Weiss fought to suppress the blush that threatened to creep up her neck.
"So," Ruby laid her head in her palm as she turned to look at Yang. "How's your guys' history project coming along?"
Both Blake and Yang groaned.
"Presentations are dumb," Blake muttered, almost to herself. Yang blew a raspberry.
"We're having a little trouble with, like... everything," she said, playing with the chopsticks on the table. "Sorry- we're not all child prodigies and private school geniuses," she pointed a chopstick first at Ruby, then Weiss. "Some of us have to actually do brain-stuff manually, with our small peanut brains."
"Or maybe some of us could goof off a little bit less," Weiss countered with a knowing smirk. A couple days before she had caught Yang challenging Blake to a handstand challenge in the library while they were supposed to be working on their project. Blake blushed, hiding her face in her hands. Yang smiled sheepishly.
"Worth it. I won the handstand competition."
Ruby laughed, and Weiss unconsciously found herself looking at Ruby and laughing too.
When the food came, Weiss found herself looking at a bowl of noodles almost twice as big as her head. The two sisters looked positively delighted while Blake was fawning over her seafood meal, that was almost basically all just tuna.
"This is..."
"Mmph! Really good!" Ruby said, her mouth already full of noodles. Yang dove in with the same enthusiasm. Weiss almost didn't want to look at what Blake was doing, it was borderline obscene. She took a pair of chopsticks, picking up a couple of noodles and tentatively stuffing it in her mouth.
Dammit. This was really good too.
Midway through the meal, Ruby gave some side-eye to both Yang and Blake, who nodded in response to her unasked question. Weiss quirked a brow, looking around, wondering if there was something she was missing. Maybe she was doing something wrong and hadn't realized it yet. Did she spill some food on herself? She checked her clothes, finding herself clean. Maybe she wasn't eating fast enough for their liking?
"So, Weiss..." Ruby started off, fiddling with her chopsticks a little bit.
"Yes, Ruby?" Weiss paused to look at the younger girl opposite her. In the momentary silence that followed, instead of Weiss' brain filling in the void with the usual panic she had begun to anticipate, she found instead she was taking notice of Ruby's appearance.
She was pretty, though in a more understated fashion than Blake or Yang. Weiss had thought so since she first laid eyes on her. Her silver eyes were striking, pale, wide orbs that hid no emotion, instead loosing it all at once with reckless abandon. Her hair was short, ending just below the nape of her neck, and the red highlights complimented the striking black colour. It suited her. Weiss couldn't imagine it suiting anyone else half as well. Weiss faintly realized that she could stare at her for a while, just comfortable looking.
Her mind reset itself. It was a weird thing to have fixated on. She refocused herself as Ruby began speaking again.
"Christmas is around the corner, and Yang and I usually have this little Christmas gathering, at our place. And I- I mean we were wondering if you wanted to come. It's next week," Ruby finished her point with satisfaction, looking mostly grateful that she was able to stumble this invitation with just a little bit more finesse than the last time she had invited Weiss over.
Weiss blanched. That wasn't exactly what she was expecting. Christmas was kind of the last thing on her mind over the past few weeks. But it was a welcome invitation, one she didn't even have to think about the answer to.
"I would like that, thank you," she told her, smiling. Ruby smiled wide in response.
"Cool! Alright, cool," she said, pausing only for a heartbeat before digging back into her bowl of noodles. Blake and Yang shared a small look, one that Weiss couldn't yet scrutinize. So she just took Ruby's cue and continued eating.
When they finished, a bill was placed on their table, and Weiss, without hesitation, took it away from Yang. The blonde looked at her in surprise as she took her wallet out from her bag.
"What's the occasion there, Weiss?" she asked as Weiss took the bills out (with tip, of course- she was from a wealthy family but she wasn't raised a savage). Weiss uncharacteristically shrugged, providing no answer. She didn't really have one, to be fair. At least, not one she could freely just speak out like that.
"Consider it... part of the Christmas spirit," Weiss said, half truthfully. In all honesty, she wasn't very big on Christmas. It wasn't much of an event for her back in Atlas. If she was lucky, she could catch her mother in one of her rare moments of sobriety, and they could share a moment on Christmas. There wasn't much need for presents, and there wasn't much of a family gathering for the Schnees, no matter the holiday.
"Thank you, Weiss," Blake said, the two sisters echoing her sentiment. They trudged their way back to school, Blake still shivering the whole way. The bell rang in time for them to disperse, each going off to their own classes
As she walked to her chemistry class, Weiss passed by the Beacon High School trophy case, proudly displaying various golden trophies earned by the clubs and teams in Beacon. She gave it a quick once over, finding that most of the them were from the basketball team. There were a fair few from the debate team, and various other clubs. She had to really look around to find what she was looking for. But there, underneath the section reserved for the fencing club, was a pitiful single silver trophy. She scowled, before moving on to her class.
She thought about it all during class, having learned almost all of what Professor Peach was teaching back in Atlas Academy (maybe Yang was right about the whole private school thing).
After the last bell rung, Weiss didn't go out of her way to seek Ruby, Blake and Yang. Instead she pulled out her map, finding her way to the gymnasium.
There were several people in gear, masks on and fencing swords in hand, standing around talking. Weiss observed them for a little bit, trying to suss out the leader of the group. She didn't have to look very long.
"Hey, listen up team, get started on warming up, and we'll start practice in a couple minutes, alright?" a Faunus girl, skin specked with spots looking almost like freckles at some places stood up on the steps of the bleachers and spoke to the rest of the team. She had long brown hair, tied off into a ponytail, holding a sabre of her own, resting it under her armpit as she texted on her phone. Weiss took a deep breath and approached her.
She didn't take too long to notice her, spotting one of the only people not in gear walking up to her. She tilted her head and quirked her brow.
"You're Weiss Schnee," she said, before Weiss could even get a chance to speak. Weiss stopped in her tracks, withdrawing into herself a bit. Then she steeled herself.
"I am," Weiss said, standing tall and proud. The other girl narrowed her eyes at her. "What's your name?"
"Ilia Amitola. What do you want?" she asked, her tone a little more confrontational than before. Weiss didn't back down.
"I want to join the fencing team," she said simply. Ilia blanched.
"You want to join my fencing team," she repeated. Weiss nodded. Ilia ran a hand through her hair, pocketing her phone. "Okay. Have you ever fenced before?"
"Yes. In Atlas Academy," Weiss spoke without pretense and arrogance. Ilia, all the same, still didn't seem to like it very much. She picked up a spare sabre lying around, tossing it to Weiss, who caught it without hesitation. She stared at Ilia, irritation flaring behind her eyes.
"Well then, let's see what they taught you up there, Weiss Schnee, from Atlas Academy," she brandished her sabre, twirling it in the air a few time before resting the point in the ground. Weiss swallowed thickly, then put her bag down by the seats, flexing her fingers and twirling her own blade around, carefully stretching her muscles. It was clear that this wasn't a challenge she wasn't going to back down from. They moved to the mats laid out. By then, everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch the scene unfold. People were whispering among each other, nudging each other and snickering. Phones were whipped out, recording the whole thing. Weiss blocked them out, focusing on her breathing. Focusing on everything Winter had taught her.
Shoulders up, front foot forward, grip on her weapon not too tight. Breathe. Focus. Ilia looked at her, an easy smirk on her face. Weiss gave a quick salute with her sabre, one that Ilia didn't return. She scowled, but got into her en-garde position regardless. Ilia did the same.
"Best of three, count us in Fennec," she told another Faunus boy. He counted down from three, and off they went.
Ilia was fast and aggressive, but Weiss was faster. She was in the zone, dodging each of her strikes or parrying if they came too close. After blocking a series of aggressive blows, Weiss went on the offensive, taking back ground. Ilia exerted effort with each dodge and block, Weiss could see the first traces of faint sweat beading down her forehead. She kept her breathing steady, attacking quickly, giving her no inch to attack back. In a blink, Weiss had the tip of her sabre pressed against Ilia's sternum, before she even realized. Ilia grunted in frustration. The rest of the club clapped as they went back to their starting positions.
Weiss hadn't picked the right outfit for this, she thought. Skirts were not meant for fighting, though the idea of it seemed really cool.
Fennec counted down again, and this time Weiss started out on the offensive. She didn't look to do anything fancy, didn't want to show off (however tempting that idea might have been), just to get another point so she could end the whole show quickly. Ilia didn't look none too happy either, her emotions written all over her face. She was parrying with lightning speed, and in a whirlwind flash, Ilia ducked and jabbed Weiss in the forehead with her sabre, the dull tip doing nothing more than irritating her.
She went back to her starting position as the crowd in the gymnasium grew now, from just the fencing club to the other few people who were around. They started clapping and cheering as the pair reset.
Weiss brought the blade up to her face, breathing in deep as she tried to channel everything she'd been taught. In a split second, the room fell away to black, and Winter was behind Weiss.
"Focus, but don't think too hard, Weiss. Your opponents will be strong. They'll be fast, and fierce, and they will all want to see you lose," she had said, circling around her. Weiss had held the sabre pointed out in front of her, eyes closed and breathing in deep, steady breaths. Winter stopped at her side, then placed a hand on her shoulder.
"You are Weiss Schnee. You will have to work harder than anybody else if you're to succeed. And you will, sister. You will."
She opened her eyes as Fennec counted down.
Nobody saw what happened. Nobody knew what it was until they reviewed the footage, but it was over in two seconds. Weiss held the tip of the blade at Ilia's throat, her own blade pressed down under Weiss' foot. Ilia couldn't suppress the surprise on her face. Weiss stared straight into Ilia's eyes. They looked at her in anger.
Weiss lowered her blade, stepping off Ilia's weapon, letting her get her grip back. The crowd erupted into thunderous applause.
Ilia threw her blade down.
"You're in," she growled as she stalked away angrily. Weiss brushed hair out of her face, then turned to face the crowd, surprised at the size of it. Everyone was cheering for her, and this time she genuinely didn't know how to react.
"I'll just... leave now," she muttered, backing away to her bag. She grabbed it and walked quickly out of the gymnasium, blowing out a deep breath. Her wrist was kind of hurting, and her muscles pleasantly ached, and her heart was beating a mile a minute. She cradled her wrist as she breathed. Okay, so maybe that last move wasn't technically legal. But she won, all the same. At the very least, proved something to Ilia.
Weiss dug her hole a little deeper.
Guess who wrote this plot point a long time ago and now has to learn fencing terms?