The heavy steel door swung open with a near silent click, and Ruby took her first steps into the CEO's office. The first thing Ruby noticed upon entering was the Atlas skyline in all it's concrete glory beyond the window that took up all of the back wall. Through it, she could see everything, from the shining beacon of Atlas Academy's CCT Tower to the White Sea that hugged Atlas's southern coast. There were two desks in the room, one of which was front and center, seemingly made from polished marble which bore a silver, twelve-pointed snowflake on its front face. The top of the desk, like the rest of the office, was barren of any personal items, and (unlike the rest of the office) was covered in a glowing blue grid, faded dark in an obvious standby mode.

The second desk didn't quite match the decor of the room, being a darker steel-gray color. It sat to the left of the door and looked to be a hasty addition. Unlike the obviously more expensive desk, this one didn't have a built-in projector. Instead, what Ruby assumed to be her desk had a small, palm-sized projector on the desk and little else.

The only other piece of furniture in the room was a small table tucked in the far corner of the room. A machine sat on that table, one which Ruby recognized immediately. "You...have a coffee maker in your office?"

Once the CEO herself followed Ruby into the room, the marble desktop lit up, projecting a hologram of the Schnee sigil into the air for a moment before changing to a computer screen. Hearing her employee's question, Weiss let a shadow of a smirk show and said, "I am in charge of one of the wealthiest companies on Remnant. I am afforded a few eccentricities."

Ruby snorted, amused. She eyed the machine another moment, before turning to the other desk and splaying her hands over the cool surface, "I'm guessing this is my desk?"

Weiss stood next to her. Nodding, she said, "Yes, it is. You will be spending most of your time at work here."

Ruby hummed in the back of her throat, "I noticed that you don't have a secretary or anything."

"I never thought I needed one. I happen to enjoy working," she began, walking back towards the center of the room, "Now, though, my workload has been increasing due to new circumstances -which you will be briefed on-, and I can no longer support it all." She sat at her own desk, pulling up a few windows and files, pulling up things Ruby would need to see as she talked, "Usually, I would just increase my work hours, but Winter…" she trailed off, leaving the sentence up in the air.

Ruby laughed, turning to look at her boss, "Let me guess, overbearing older sister says you 'need more sleep'?"

Weiss looked up from her screen, sharp blue eyes showing just a hint of humor, "You say that like you know from experience."

Ruby leaned against her desk and smiled at the older woman, "Let's just say that Yang Xiao Long is the kind of woman who doesn't take 'no' for an answer. Especially when it comes to her 'baby sis'." She curled her fingers in air quotes.

Weiss chuckled at that, shaking her head lightly, "Yes, Winter had her moments, too." She sat forward in her desk chair after that, her composure turning more serious, "But anyway, as for your job, as my personal assistant you will be doing things such as sorting my schedule and prioritizing documents I need to see. Also, according to Winter," she grimaced, "you are to 'ensure that I maintain my health'. Other than that, quite simply, you will do whatever I need you to do."

"Ok, that seems reasonable," Ruby replied, brushing off any offense she could have felt about the last comment and walked over by Weiss's desk. She looked out the window, "What about my responsibilities as your guard?"

"Well, that is much more straightforward," she said, her eyes never leaving her computer screen as she began to set up Ruby's profile on the SDC's internal network, "Your job as my bodyguard is to ensure my safety. I've seen that you have all the appropriate clearances. I can answer any questions about the security measures of the building if you have any."

Ruby looked out over the Atlas skyline, her eyes catching one building in particular. It was less of a building, actually, and more of a construction site. Maybe a quarter mile from the SDC building, a mostly-constructed skyscraper stretched up into the sky, just a bit higher than the building Ruby and Weiss were currently in. "Miss Schnee?"

Weiss, who was still focused solely on her computer, acknowledged her with a hum.

"Is this glass bulletproof?"

Briefly, Weiss's hands halted on the keyboard. "I actually do not know," she admitted, before the sound of her fingers tapping on the keyboard projected on the surface of her desktop picked up again.

Ruby hummed, wordlessly reaching into her coat and drawing out two Items. She then placed these two Items together and began working one of them onto the other.

All the while, silence reigned in the CEO's office, aside from the sound of typing, and a light scraping sound coming from the bodyguard's Items. Weiss was almost done setting up Ruby's profile but was interrupted by an odd clack-clack noise that she didn't recognize. Her brow scrunched together, and she swiveled her office chair to face the noise, which originated from her bodyguard. She looked just in time to see the ex-huntress raise up Rosebud, along with the suppressor she had just finished screwing onto the muzzle, to point at the window and squeeze the trigger twice.

POP POP

The loud noise rang in her ears, matched in volume by the cry of "Heilige Scheiße!" from the startled businesswoman as she clapped her hands over her ears and tried not to slip from her chair in shock.

The now crushed bullets clacked against the tiles as the green field of energy that had stopped them faded into nothing. "A kinetic barrier, damn!" she sounded impressed, "Seems like Mister Schnee was more paranoid than I thought, those don't come cheap," Ruby said, flicking the gun to 'safe' and clearing the chamber.

Weiss barely registered the words. Instead, her eyes were locked firmly on the place where the .45 caliber handgun had shot her window. She tried to collect herself and still her pounding heart as she said, "Miss Rose, can you please tell me why the hell you just fired a gun in my office?"

Ruby kept the gun out, deciding to let the barrel cool off for a moment before she removed the suppressor. Now that her aura was in such short supply, she really didn't want to risk burning her hand. "I was seeing if your windows were bulletproof," she said simply, tapping her hand on the suppressor to see if it was still hot. It was.

"I could've just pulled it up on the computer!" Weiss said, still a little frazzled. Her heart was slowing down, finally, but that little surge of adrenaline was still burning through her veins. It felt...good.

"Yeah, but that would've taken a while. This way was much more efficient," she replied, finally meeting her boss's eyes. Ruby expected her to be mad, but she was surprised to find that very little actual anger actually lingered in those pale blue eyes. Frustration, maybe, but very little anger. In fact, Ruby thought that she even looked just a little bit amused.

Weiss shook her head, a sigh working its way up from her lungs. She wanted to be mad, but she simply didn't have it in her. A part of her couldn't help but admire that gaul of the ex-huntress. Still, though, "But was shooting the window really necessary, Miss Rose?"

Ruby looked down and felt the suppressor again. This time, it was warm enough to touch comfortably, so she began to unscrew it. She hummed first, a sly smile slipping onto her lips, then said, "Maybe not, but," she met her boss's eyes once more, "I am the personal bodyguard to one of the wealthiest woman on Remnant. I am afforded a few eccentricities."

A part of Weiss was still mad at the other woman, and another felt no small amount of frustration, but a larger part simply felt the bizarre urge to laugh. 'Oh, Winter, what on Remnant have you gotten me into.' "Maybe so, but next time you get the urge to discharge a weapon in my office, please ask me first."

"Noted."

The ex-huntress finished unscrewing the suppressor and removed it from the gun. Weiss watched her as she did it, her heart finally calm again. The weapon interested her, she would admit only to herself. She rubbed a hand against her slightly sore ear and asked, "Aren't those things supposed to make the gun quiet?"

Ruby shrugged, tucking the gun and suppressor back into her underarm holster, "Kind of. They don't work like they do in the movies. The suppressor definitely makes the 'bang' a lot quieter" she emphasized the 'er', "but nowhere near silent. At least, not with a .45 like Rosebud." She tapped her right ear, "If I shot it in a confined space like this without the suppressor on, it would've run the risk of hurting your ears."

Weiss watched as she stooped down to collect the crushed lead bullets from the floor. "Why did you need to know whether or not the windows were bulletproofed so urgently, anyway?"

Ruby scooped up the shell casings as well, before pointing out of the window with the hand that wasn't currently full of metal, "You see that construction site over there?"

Weiss followed where Ruby had pointed, thankful that the morning sunlight cut through the city's smog so easily, and nodded. "Yes, I see it," she answered as Ruby casually dumped the remains of the bullets into a small waste bin.

"Minimal security, line of sight, elevated position," Ruby listed off like she was reading off of a grocery list, "That position at the top of the construction site is almost ideal for a sniper. If this glass was puncturable, then all a shooter would need to contend with is the construction workers, who wouldn't be there at certain points of the day due to workers unions, and the relatively high wind around high rises, which could be pretty easily adjusted for." She was quiet for a moment, before saying, "Also, that building is about four hundred meters away. Any marksman worth their salt can make that shot."

Weiss was stunned. She was a smart woman and she knew it, but the exposure of her office had never once crossed her mind as a safety concern. "How do you know all of that?" she asked, her eyes struggling to move away from the suddenly threatening construction site.

When she did turn to look at her bodyguard, however, she saw an almost-sad smile on her face. "I was a sniper when I was a huntress," she explained, "and I've had to make shots like that before." Then, she turned away from the window to look at Weiss, and the sunlight seemed to make her silver eyes glow, "And if I wanted you dead, that would be how I would kill you. That's how I know."

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After the eventful first few minutes on the job, the two women settled down a bit. Ruby began to set up her workstation, punching her personal information into the profile that Weiss had made for her and running through the programs on the computer that she wasn't one-hundred percent sure of how to use. After that, Weiss sent Ruby her first batch of paperwork to sort through.

Ruby's job was to sort through any papers not marked 'Confidential, CEO Eyes Only', and prioritize them for Weiss. This meant that, say, a profit report from some mom-and-pop dust shop out in the middle of a place Yang would've proudly called 'Bumfuck, Nowhere' was less important than an update on a large merger with another corporation. Additionally, Ruby also pulled up some of the security blueprints for the office to look over between files. "Excuse me, Miss Schnee?" she asked, breaking the silence in the room.

Weiss looked up from a hard-copy file sitting on her desk for a brief second before looking back down, "Yes?"

"Can I make requests for small changes to the office security measures?"

That got Weiss's attention. She glanced up, suddenly more interested in the conversation. "Why do you ask? Did you find a weakness in the security? Again?"

Ruby shook her head, "No, it's all very top-notch, but I'd like to make a few adjustments. Personal preferences, more than anything."

Weiss tapped her fingers on the desk for a moment, pondering whether or not she should allow it. Eventually, she shook a strand of platinum hair out of her face and said, "I don't see why not, so long as it isn't anything drastic."

Ruby leaned back into her office chair, letting it slide back on its wheels until it bumped against the left wall of the office, just a few feet behind her desk. She tapped her right fist against the wall, "The schematics of the room don't show anything important right in here, so I wanted to know if I could have a concealed weapons locker built into the wall in case of emergencies."

Weiss's brows furrowed, and an odd shiver went up her spine. Not an unpleasant feeling, but a confusing one. "What kind of things do you plan on putting in there?" she asked.

The bodyguard shrugged, "Nothing much, maybe a rifle or a shotgun." She patted her side where her underarm holster lay concealed by her suit jacket, "There isn't much in the city of Atlas that I can't take down with Rosebud here, but something with a little more oomph never hurt anybody." A beat of silence passed, before Ruby corrected herself, "Well, that's not really true, considering they're guns, but you get my point."

Weiss thought about it for a moment. Honestly, it was curiosity more than anything that made her say, "Yes, but I want to see what you plan on storing in my office before you bring it in."

At that, a genuine smile grew on the warrior's face, "Oh, Miss Schnee, that is no problem at all! Since you let me move one of my gun safes over, I have plenty to choose from. Plus," she leaned forwards back onto her desk, her grin growing an extra few millimeters, "I always love to show off my babies."

A single white eyebrow raised, equal parts intrigued and confused at Ruby's eagerness to break out her firearm collection. Weiss opened her mouth and almost said, 'I look forward to it', but then she remembered what she promised herself the night before. 'She is my employee and just my employee. She is not, nor will she ever be, my friend,' she reminded herself. Instead, she simply said, "Quite," and went back to her paperwork.

Ruby's smile fell a bit at Weiss's clipped response. 'Damnit, woman, why so cold?' the redhead thought to herself, before shaking her head, and going back to her work. She eyed the stack of papers she had already reviewed and moved into Weiss's inbox queue and decided she had built more than enough of a buffer for herself to go ahead and pen down her boss's schedule for the day.

Ruby glanced at her watch as well as the list of tasks she and Weiss needed to complete by the end of the day. It was extensive, but nothing Ruby couldn't handle. Silently, Ruby thanked all the leadership classes Ozpin made her take so many years ago. She looked at the array of document deadlines and meetings like she would a battlefield and began to order them into time slots like she would any of her subordinates. It wasn't too dissimilar.

The muscles in her left shoulder cramped then, as if to remind her that she would never step foot on that battlefield again, and a hiss rose up in the back of her throat. She rolled the shoulder and massaged the scarred flesh, pushing her past out of her mind.

She marked four o'clock as her time to meet with the other security personnel and set aside an hour at one o'clock for lunch. She ordered the few meetings Weiss had that day into their own time slots and wrapped up the schedule. Settling down, Ruby got back to work, zoning into her computer and letting her fingers fly across the keys.

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Weiss couldn't help but admit it, if only to herself: she was impressed. When she gave Ruby the job, she did it so she would only have to deal with one other person instead of two. She knew, or thought she knew, that the more lighthearted woman wasn't truly qualified for such a lofty position in such a big company, so Weiss had made sure to not rely on the younger woman to actually effectively do her job. On this first day, at least initially, Weiss had made sure not to overload the woman. After all, she didn't want to intimidate her new employee into quitting the position and damning Weiss to having two employees invade her life.

She doubted she would be so lucky twice.

Knowing, or thinking that she knew, that Ruby didn't really have the capability to keep up with her workload, Weiss had made sure that only a portion of the documents she had to deal with went through the Personal Assistant. After a while, papers that Ruby had reviewed began to trickle into her usual inbox, and Weiss's eyebrows slowly rose up towards her hairline.

Each report bearing Ruby's mark appeared to have been thoroughly analyzed and annotated. Notes lined the margins of the papers (both the digital versions that scrolled across her computer screen and the paper documents that slid atop the stack on the corner of her desk) highlighting the important sections of the reports and labeling the topics of specific paragraphs.

It helped that the redheaded woman seemed to think in a way that was stunningly similar to Weiss. With a few exceptions, Ruby seemed to mark everything that Weiss would've noted while reading through.

They had been hard at work for a few hours now, and Weiss had been working on a mixture of documents that she was getting fresh from her sub-offices and documents that had gone through Ruby first, and Weiss noticed that she got through the documents that had gone through her PA notably faster than the others.

So, yes, Weiss was impressed. Even more so since she knew that Ruby's training in business was a secondary certification. The past few hours had little in the way of talking between the two of them, but Weiss felt like she should incentivize more of this kind of behavior. "I must admit," she began, gaining her PA's attention. Once those silver eyes met hers, she continued, "I'm a bit impressed with your performance so far."

Ruby quirked her head, a movement Weiss would usually attribute to a puppy, and asked, "What do you mean?"

Weiss's pen clicked into the little holder she had for it on her desk and minimized the screen of her computer for a second, the holographic-projected monitor collapsing into a small cube of light on her desk ready for her to tap and reactivate. "You mentioned that your degree in business was secondary to your education as a Huntress, yes? Well, for someone who has neither a major nor undergone any kind of extensive training, like I have, these papers are remarkably well processed."

A smile grew on Ruby's face then, small and genuine. Something seemed to shudder inside of Weiss then. She was confused for a moment before she realized that this was the first time in her memory that she had made anyone smile an honest smile. Internally, she scolded herself for liking the idea that her praise pleased her assistant, but she couldn't deny that she did like the feeling it gave her.

This woman was like a virus, she concluded.

Oh, wait, she was talking again.

"Well, it helps that I did use the stuff I learned in Business as a huntress," Ruby explained.

That was intriguing. "Oh?" Weiss asked, sliding a document from her inbox to the forefront of her desk, skimming it and listening to the ex-huntress's explanation.

"I don't know if I ever mentioned it before, but I was actually the leader of a team," her smile changed a bit, the slightest bit of sadness slipping into her voice, "Me and my team were freelancers, more or less. You know what that means?"

Weiss glanced up at the ex-huntress for a second before looking back to her paperwork. Her response was clipped, but polite, "I know what the word means, yes, but not when it comes to the huntsmen. Explain."

Ruby waved a hand dismissively and said, "Ah, it doesn't mean much, just that we weren't part of any formal group. We were just a team who did odd jobs that were posted up on the Network."

Weiss nodded along, comprehending both Ruby's description and the paper at on her desk, though the paper was marked 'low priority' by Ruby and Weiss had confirmed that it wasn't too important, so she wasn't overly worried about its contents. "The Network?" she asked.

Ruby didn't seem to mind that Weiss was multitasking. Most people would find that rude, but Ruby had never really had much of a social sense. "Ah, it's just a thing that we would use. It's kind of like a subdivision of the CCT network where we get missions and file after-action reports," she explained further.

Weiss frowned, not seeing the connection, "What does that have to do with your business training?"

Ruby minimized her own screen then and began to really explain, "Being a huntress pays well enough, but it's not a lot since a lot of the people we help don't have much to pay us with. I, as the leader, did most of our budgeting stuff 'cause I understood it, you know?"

The Schnee's eye twitched at the word " 'cause", but she said nothing of it. Instead, she opted to allow the conversation to continue, "Go on."

Ruby tapped her holographic keyboard to bring the screen back up. She flipped it around to show Weiss the report that she had been working on, Weiss obliged her and looked at the profit report from the SDC's domestic product division. Ruby motioned at it and said, "This isn't too different from an after-action report, just replace 'Lien' with either 'ammunition' or 'Grimm' depending on if its an expenditure or a profit."

"I must admit," Weiss said, her eyebrows rising again, "that has got to be the most unique way I've ever heard someone describe a corporate document."

Ruby beamed.

Weiss felt that something in her shudder again, and she quickly changed the subject, "Yes, well, we should probably get back to work." She re-opened her computer and tucked the now sufficiently reviewed document into her 'completed' folder in her desk.

Sensing that her boss didn't want to talk anymore, Ruby said, "Yes ma'am," and reset her computer screen. Soon, the room fell into silence again as the two women got back to work.

'What was that?' Weiss wondered. The something in and of itself wasn't unpleasant, but it was confusing as all hell. 'She's not your friend,' she reminded yourself, 'Do not over-familiarize.' Even if she succeeded in that, though, she still had no idea how or why that shuddering occurred. Once more, Weiss rationalized, 'She's like a virus,' and left it at that. Another emotional issue pushed to the wayside, and it left Weiss wishing she could research her own emotions, but sadly, that bit of science hadn't quite been worked out yet. Truly, she just didn't know how to handle any of this.

She cursed Winter for forcing this on her, though there was no real spite in it. Weiss only spent another moment dwelling on the confusing emotions before solving it the only way she knew how: she opened another document and began to read.

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A/N

I think I'm going to end this here. I had planned to continue this chapter longer, but this is a neat little stopping place and gives me a good jumping off point for the next one. Another shorter chapter but what can you do?

Maybe one day I'll be able to post these chapters with any level of regularity, but until then, stay tuned!

Don't forget to review either! If you want the next chapter, leaving a review is the only way you have to incentivize me to write, and people run on incentives. It's the only way I have to improve, too!

(Also I really, really love to read them.)

Another thing, I marathoned the second half of this on the night of February 1st in honor of Monty Oum. I never got the chance to meet him, but he and his work has radically changed my life. I felt there was no better way that I could honor him than by creating something. I hope, wherever he is, he hears me when I say "Thank you".