Weiss couldn't decide on an outfit.
Nothing too fancy, of course. She couldn't wear the outfits she'd normally wear to galas and recitals, she didn't want to seem snobbish and outlandishly rich, especially for a small gathering at Ruby's place.
So something more casual.
But not the kind of casual where it seemed like she would wear it to school, because that was too casual. That wasn't fancy enough. She still wanted to impress Ruby, and everyone else. Just not scare them off.
Not too casual, and not too fancy, Weiss. But enough to impress, and something that was Weiss. She sighed in frustration. She briefly considered just going over in her pyjamas. She felt like Yang would get a kick out of that.
"Miss Schnee," Klein knocked on her door. "May I come in?"
Weiss scowled, stalking over to the door to unlock and open it. Klein was there, looking immaculate as ever, and Weiss briefly wished for the simplicity in wearing uniforms again, loathe as she did the Atlas Academy uniform.
"Good morning, Weiss," he said, tray of coffee already in hand. "May I come in?"
"Sure, Klein, but I'm a little busy right now," she went back to her wardrobe, hand on her chin as she looked over all her clothes, deep in contemplation.
"Of course, Miss Schnee. Choosing an outfit for tonight?" he placed the tray on her coffee table, pouring a fresh cup for her, dropping in her ungodly amounts of creamer that of course he already knew she liked.
"Yes," she sighed, feeling as lost as she ever did. "I am. And I don't know what to wear."
"You've never had much trouble picking out what to wear before," he said, in that unassuming way that he did. Weiss felt like Klein was a picture perfect butler. Mostly because she never really ever saw him as her butler. Some days he was a trusting confidant, the only real friend she had. Sometimes he was more a parent to her than her own parents. He was her Alfred, though she would die before she admitted that to anyone, mostly because she had an image to uphold, and that image absolutely did not include letting people know that she was familiar with the Batman lore.
"Well, I've never had to think much about what to wear before," Weiss told him, giving up on looking over her wardrobe and going over to grab her mug of coffee. "Impressing people in Atlas is easy. Just wear the most expensive stuff."
"And you're not looking to impress your friends?" he asked, thoughtfully refolding some clothes that she had strewn all over her bed. Weiss blew into the mug, cooling it.
"No. Yes," she sighed. "I don't know, Klein. This is different. I like them," she said with a bit of a blush. Klein chuckled, and Weiss looked over at him indignantly. "What's so funny about that?"
"Oh, nothing Miss Schnee. I'm just happy for you," he shook his head, smiling. Weiss scowled still.
"I don't want to just impress them. I want them to like me," she said quietly, a moment of rare vulnerability. A little bit less rare nowadays, but all the same.
"You don't think they might already like you?"
"Well, yes. I hope so."
"Then I have an inkling that it might not be your outfits that they like so much, Miss Schnee," he returned to Weiss, the smile still on his face. He looked at her like he was gleaming with something like pride, something like happiness, and Weiss didn't know what to do with all that. She hung her head a little bit, taking a sip of her coffee. Klein collected the tray and coffee pot. "Just go with your gut, Weiss," he told her.
Weiss nodded thoughtfully. "Thank you for the coffee, Klein," she said quietly.
"Always, Miss Schnee," he said before he left, the door clicking softly behind him.
Weiss sighed. He was right. Of course he was right. So Weiss went with her gut.
Weiss unlatched the front gate with a little difficulty, then walked down to the porch. It was already dark by then, the winter causing the sun to set at an unreasonably early time. She took a deep breath before she rang the doorbell.
Ruby answered the door, wearing a headband with antlers on it. She had on an unsightly red knitted Christmas sweater, with a cute little dog on it, a little black and white corgi with its tongue hanging out looking over their shoulder.
"Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed, her smile as wide and bright as ever. She was happy, genuinely happy to see Weiss, and oh Weiss wasn't cold enough to not echo that sentiment, even at least in the privacy of her own mind. Ruby let her in.
"Hello, Ruby," Weiss said as she stepped into the foyer of the house.
"Is that our Ice Queen? Weiss!" Yang called out as she appeared behind her little sister. She had an ugly Christmas sweater on too, with the words 'Single and Ready to Jingle' in bold on them.
Weiss rolled her eyes, but despite her best efforts that good-natured smile on Yang's face got to her too.
"Look at her, not protesting against the nickname," she narrowed her eyes, then looked at Ruby. The two shared a look. "You must like us," Yang drawled in a sing-song voice, the amount of smug in her smile off the charts. Weiss didn't say anything.
"She does!" Yang teased, leaning forward and cooing over the shorter girl. Weiss swatted her away.
"Quit making fun of Weiss," Ruby poked her sister. "She is precious and must be protected!"
Yang quirked her brow.
Weiss rolled her eyes, going into the living room to greet Blake. She was curled up on the couch with a mug of hot cocoa, a book in her other hand. On her lap was-
The cutest fucking dog Weiss had ever seen. She gasped softly, stuck rooted to the spot. It was the corgi on Ruby's sweater. He looked like a dumb idiot, with his little tail all poofy and his stupid tongue hanging out and everything and Weiss would have murdered the entire population of Vale if it meant keeping him safe. He barked at her, and Blake finally tore her attention away from the book to Weiss. She maintained the blank expression on her face.
"That's the cutest dog I've ever seen," Weiss said to Blake softly. Blake scowled.
"His name is Zwei and I hate him," she spoke solemnly. Weiss gasped, louder this time. Ruby and Yang came into the living room behind her. Yang scooped Zwei up into her arms, and Blake seemed to let out a breath.
"There, Blake, I saved you from the big bad wolf," Yang laughed at the other girl, who scowled even harder. The look she gave Yang was verging on pure murder, but the blonde took it in considerable stride, putting the dog down and sitting on the couch beside Blake. Weiss dropped her bag, crouching down to carefully pet Zwei. He happily licked her hand and allowed her to give him pets because he was the goodest boy in the whole world, and that was a fact as far as Weiss Schnee was concerned, thank you very much. She heard Ruby snicker behind her before she came up to start giving Zwei scritches under his chin. It was the best day of Zwei's life.
"I think he likes you, Weiss," Ruby said, and Weiss' heart could melt right then and there she really hoped Zwei liked her.
"Is this your dog?" Weiss asked, instead of saying something super embarrassing like she wanted to kidnap Zwei.
"Nah, this is my dad's. But, you know, he's our dog," Ruby said absentmindedly. How easy, how casual it was to just have things that belonged to someone in your family belong to you. That was just how families were supposed to be. "Speaking of."
Weiss turned around and sprung to her feet as she spotted the patriarch of the household appear. Tai had on a matching ugly christmas sweater with his daughters, his had a grotesque picture of Santa, like someone had tried to drawn him with their arm asleep and also they had never seen Santa in their life before. He smiled as he approached Weiss.
"Hello, Weiss. Ruby told me you were coming- it's good to see you," he said, nice as he ever was.
"Hello, sir. Thank you for having me," Weiss smiled cheerily and interlaced her hands in front of her. Tai waved her off.
"Told you, call me Tai," he mockingly scolded her with a half-smile. Then he turned to Ruby. "Hey, kiddo, guess what."
Ruby quirked her brow. "What?"
"Chickenbutt," a gravelly voice said from behind him, and a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair appeared. Ruby immediately started squealing.
"Uncle Qrow!" she launched herself at him. Despite his wiry frame, he caught her easily, almost as if he was already expecting his niece to launch such an attack on him. He twirled her around before setting her down. "It's so good to see you! Did you miss me?"
He considered it thoughtfully, before deciding on his answer simply. "Nope," he said in that casual, gravelly voice of his, ruffling Ruby's hair. Yang walked over to hug her uncle in turn, considerably calmer, though no less happy to see him.
"Bad news is I won't be staying too long right now," he appraised both his nieces, who frowned at him. "I'll be back tomorrow, wipe those looks off your faces," he rolled his eyes, poking both of them in the foreheads. Then he pulled out two envelopes from his jacket pocket.
Both Yang and Ruby 'ooh'd at him. Qrow smirked then pulled away.
"Christmas presents, make sure not to open 'em till next week," he carefully lowered his hands, handing the envelopes over. Both of them immediately started shaking the envelopes, holding it up to their ears.
"They're not gonna last," Tai crossed his arms, looking over his oh-darling-daughters. Qrow shrugged. The blonde pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling an amused breath. "Well, Qrow and I gotta head on out for a while, on some work stuff. You kids have fun, alright?"
Suddenly Qrow caught Weiss' eye, holding his gaze with her, an intense and thoughtful look on his face. Weiss shifted uncomfortably. Ruby took notice, and shifted closer to Weiss as she spoke to her uncle.
"Oh, right. Uncle Qrow, this is-"
"Weiss Schnee, right?" he said with a knowing smile. Weiss swallowed thickly, not knowing what to really make of the situation. "Your sister Winter talks about you all the time."
Weiss blanched.
"What?"
Qrow smiled a small, far off smile. How did he know Winter? Was this a military thing? He certainly didn't look like any military personnel she'd ever encountered. If it wasn't a military thing, then how did Winter know him? Oh god, did she even want to know? What if this was super gross?
"Ask you sister about me sometime," was all he said in response, winking as he reached into his jacket pocket again, this time retrieving a silver flask. Weiss furrowed her brow, not entirely sure how to react. It probably was a gross thing, wasn't it? Weiss wanted to gag.
"Qrow," Tai nudged the taller man, noticing the growing discomfort in Weiss' face. Qrow chuckled, then walked off out the front door. Tai rolled his eyes then followed him out the door.
Weiss ran a hand through her face. That was a thing. It was always a thing. It was always something.
"So, Weiss I don't wanna be like, crass or anything but-" Ruby started off as soon as the two men left.
"He definitely fucked my sister," Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose. The other girls all nodded in agreement.
"Man, that's kinda messed up," Yang played with her hair as she looked anywhere but Weiss, who had now retreated into the living room to curl up in a ball in the arm chair.
"Y'know, how did he even come in? Like, I was with Weiss at the front door the whole time," Ruby wondered aloud.
"Huh, yeah you're right," Yang furrowed her brows and rubbed her chin.
"Maybe he came in through the back door," Blake said.
They all paused, then looked at Weiss, the barest edge of a smile on their faces, the twitch on their mouth threatening to betray them as they all fought to keep themselves in check.
Weiss glared at them, then groaned, hiding her face in a pillow.
They all burst into laughter.
Okay, so did Weiss.
God dammit.
They settled Weiss with a mug of hot cocoa, and turned on some bad Christmas movies.
It was good. It was great. Better Christmas than any she'd ever had, even if it wasn't technically Christmas yet. Not even halfway through the first movie, Yang brought out a bottle of a bad idea.
She held the tequila up triumphantly, presenting it to the other girls.
"Dad just texted that he wouldn't be home tonight, so ladies I think it's time to really get into the Christmas spirit!" she proclaimed.
"Oh no," Blake shook her head. Ruby just gaped at her sister. Weiss pursed her lips.
"Is that really a good idea?" she asked. Yang looked at her incredulously.
"Is it a bad idea?" she challenged.
"Yes?"
"Nope."
So, okay, none of them put up much of a challenge, but Weiss would maintain that, at least at first, she had called it out as being a bad idea.
At least at first.
After a couple shots, Ruby was... excited. And loud. Blake and Weiss were huddled on the couch, with Ruby in an armchair and Yang seated on the floor, leaning against the couch on Blake's side.
"We should watch Jupiter Ascending!" she practically shouted at everyone. They'd just reached the end of the Muppet Christmas Movie (Blake's suggestion, surprisingly).
"That's a really bad movie," Blake said. "It's got Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum and they're boring, but Eddie Redmayne is in it! And he plays the villain like he has asthma!" she then started to gasp like she was having an asthma attack and recited lines from the movie. Yang laughed loudly, which only encouraged Blake to keep going. Weiss found it amusing too, even though she'd never seen the movie.
"I've never seen it," she offered up with a shrug.
"It's really bad!" Blake told her. She got chatty when she drank. It was good to know.
"I haven't seen the whole thing either," Yang admitted. Blake gasped.
"It's-"
"I heard it was pretty bad," Ruby said, and Blake scowled at her. Weiss giggled, and Ruby put the movie on.
Weiss had, as of quite recently, heard from a couple sources close to her that the movie was not good, but it was way worse than she had expected it to be. Blake's impression of Eddie Redmayne wasn't far off from the mark. They drank and laughed together until their faces were flush.
"Why's he a dog Faunus in space roller-blades?" Weiss gasped for breath in between laughing fits.
"That's the one accurate part about this movie!" Blake reached over to grab Weiss' arm. "There was this guy who was a dog faunus who used to roller-skate back when I was in the White Fa-"
Blake blinked, her words fading off. Weiss furrowed her brows, retracting herself from Blake's touch quick, like she'd been burnt. The other two looked at them.
"You were with the White Fang?" Weiss' voice sounded far away in her own ears. She felt herself sobering up quick.
"I was." Blake looked at her, her mouth set in a hard line and steel in her eyes, all the laughter and smiling melting off of her in an instant.
Weiss clenched and unclenched her fists. The words rang out in her ears, all she could hear were those words. Spoken by the police, by the reporters. The name a curse in her father's mouth. Her mother's eyes, sad and defeated. She could feel the heat of the blast, the roar of the explosion turning into a tinny ringing sound in her ears, bouncing around her skull.
She remembered waking up in the hospital, her head foggy and her movements slow and muddy. There were bandages covering her left eye and everything felt thick and heavy. She remembered trying to understand it all as Winter held her, speaking words she could barely comprehend at the time. She had never seen her sister cry until then. She remembered that very clearly.
The White Fang. That's all anybody kept saying, kept telling her.
The White Fang planted explosive in your room. They didn't time it right. They blew up the west wing. The White Fang tried to kill you. The White Fang are still at large. The White Fang won't reach you in Vale. The White Fang can't hurt you anymore.
Demons. Beasts. Monsters. Animals, savages, terrorists. The White Fang.
Blake Belladonna staring at her with golden eyes and an unapologetic look and anger. Red, hot anger, like a poker in a fireplace, burning with a touch.
Blake Belladonna laughing with her, making her feel welcome. Blake Belladonna guiding her, telling her how to get around school. Yang and Blake hugging each other, always so easy and casual with their intimate touches. Blake Belladonna, quiet and buried in her book, but looking over with a small, reserved smile, a look of fondness that made Weiss understand what Yang saw. A tug in her heart for Blake Belladonna, one of her first real friends in Vale. Blake, Yang and Ruby, the first real friends she'd ever made. Only a month in and making her feel more at home than anywhere else she'd ever felt in life.
Blake Belladonna, member of the White Fang. Angry and vengeful and out for her, her family. Her house in rubble, on fire still. Blake Belladonna, walking out of the wreckage to finish her off, with a quick, sharp knife. Screams in her throat that Blake would cut out.
Weiss felt dizzy. Weiss felt disorientated.
Weiss felt angry.
"They tried to kill me," she said quietly. Blake faltered. "They planted explosives in my room. I was lucky I was running late because I wasn't there when it blew up. That's why I moved to Vale."
Blake cast her gaze downward, and Weiss could see clearly now that her bow was twitching downwards too. She felt that anger flare up, the fire being stoked inside her.
"I almost died. My family almost died, and you were a part of them?" Weiss spat out with venom. Blake returned her gaze back to Weiss, righteous fury present in her eyes again.
"I'm sorry that happened to you, Weiss. I am. But how many Faunus has the Schnee Dust Company killed? Work to death? Exploited and cast out. How many families has the Schnee family destroyed?"
"So I deserved to die that day?!" Weiss exploded. She got up out of the couch.
"No!" Blake pushed off in return. "But it doesn't absolve you!"
"Hey, guys, let's just-" Yang inched forward to get in between them. They both shot her a sharp look, and she backed off. Weiss clenched her fists tight, feeling something heavy settle deep in her chest.
"You think I need absolution? For being born a Schnee?! Did you think I asked for this? To be an heiress to a bastard of a man, to have my every action scrutinized and criticized and judged? To be part of a corrupt system, to be born losing?" Weiss screamed at the top of her lungs at Blake. She flinched in response, but shook her head.
"Weiss. I'm not a part of them anymore. I didn't want this. But the White Fang, they're not all beasts out for blood. We just wanted to be treated as equals. Something the Schnee Dust Company clearly didn't agree with. The people who did that to you, they're guilty, they're monsters, but you're complacent in this system, Weiss. That bomb was just as much your fault as theirs!" Blake said, her voice wavering as she stepped closer to Weiss.
"You're a fucking monster. Just like them," Weiss spat out, fury making her voice quiver. She picked up her bag and walked out of the house, slamming the door shut as she sped out onto the front yard. She heard the door open and shut again as she walked off but she didn't pay it any mind until a smaller figure appeared beside her with her coat.
"You can't run out like this," Ruby said, and her eyes were too big, there was too much emotion in there. "Don't run."