Holiday
Chapter 3
She woke slowly, pulling herself from a dream that had left her oddly breathless. The fragments of the dream scattered as consciousness took hold, and Weiss groaned, squinting at her surroundings in confusion. She was not in a bed.
Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she glanced about, realizing that she had fallen asleep in the blanket fort. Early morning sunlight was creeping through a window, illuminating the starry patterns of the tented sheet overhead. A puff of warmth on her leg caught her attention, and she looked down.
Ruby was curled up beside her, no longer in her lap but coiled next to her in a bizarre heap. Her partner was still very much asleep, clearly dreaming as little twitches and expressions crossed her face; occasionally, her hands would clench, and she would mumble some incoherent phrase.
Weiss smiled slowly, shaking her head. She considered waking Ruby again, but thought better of it; it was a holiday, and this was Ruby's home. Her partner should be allowed to sleep in. Weiss however had always been an early morning person, and knew that she would not likely fall back asleep.
As quietly as she was able, Weiss stood up. Qrow was still fast asleep on the sofa, snoring occasionally. Weiss tried to imagine Winter sleeping on a sofa, and nearly scoffed at the image.
Navigating the blanket maze, Weiss made her way into the kitchen; the mess from the meal last night was scattered about carelessly. Considering they had cooked for her, Weiss thought about cleaning up the dishes, but realized that the noise would probably wake the sleepers in the living room. She could help do so later. Instead, she decided to make coffee.
Cautiously, Weiss opened the cupboards, trying to ensure they didn't squeak. Said cupboards were certainly unorganized, but eventually she located the coffee; locating the pot was much easier. As she went through the routine, having always insisted she make her own coffee despite Clyne's protests, she realized she wasn't alone in the kitchen.
Bo the pig had joined her, sitting on his haunches as he watched her bustle quietly about his home.
"Good morning," Weiss whispered, trying to keep her voice down.
Bo oinked once, before standing and walking over to the screen door.
"Do you want outside?"
He grunted, tossing his head. She wasn't certain he was aloud outside; however, he nudged the door, grunting insistently.
"Alright, alright, here," Weiss said, opening the door. "There you go."
Bo trotted across the porch and down the steps, snuffling the shrubbery. Weiss determined she should keep an eye on him at least, and pouring herself a cup followed after him.
It couldn't be later than six thirty, at most. Birds were chirping despite the time of year, singing cheerfully in the forest. Weiss took a bracing sip, sighing in relief, before leaning against the railing overlooking the yard. The air was so clean. Atlas always smelled like industry and the Dust mines, even in the nicer districts.
However, Patch was practically pristine wilderness compared to Atlas and Vale. She hummed as she took another drought, the scalding liquid burning pleasantly. She could appreciate not being in a city for once, surrounded by constant noise and people. Other than the birds, it was utterly quiet and a slight mist hung over the grounds. Bo rooted around in the grass in front of the porch.
Weiss hummed, pleased. A fluttering shadow caught her attention and she turned to the left; a large, dark bird had landed on the railing nearby, eying her. She studied the creature as it preened, its head twisting to follow the pig in the yard.
"Hello," she said after a minute. The bird turned her way, watching her with sharp crimson eyes. Weiss wondered if this was another member of Ruby's menagerie, or simply a wild animal with no fear of people.
The bird fluffed its feathers against the chilly morning air, beak turning as it studied the forest. Weiss took another sip of coffee studying its movements. There weren't very many birds in Atlas, other than seagulls and the silly penguins that populated the glaciers and icebergs.
It croaked after a moment, before flying away, disappearing into the trees. Smiling, Weiss pushed gently off the railing and headed back for the door. Bo took this as his cue to come back inside as well, trotting up the steps to follow her inside before running ahead of her towards the blanket fort. The pig disappeared beneath the sheets, grunting persistently when he located Ruby.
"Mrrg nooo, I'm sleep. Sleepin."
Bo oinked stubbornly.
"Nnn. Bad piggy."
Weiss smiled, pouring herself more coffee and some for her partner; she located the sugar and distributed far more than was necessary into the beverage, essentially creating coffee flavored syrup. Navigating the blankets, Weiss found her partner still curled up on the cushions; Bo had sat down across from her, grunting insistently. At this point, she may as well wake Ruby up; or at least convince her to move to her own bed. She would get a neck cramp at that angle.
Ruby had pulled her hood down, whining. Weiss rolled her eyes, setting her own cup on the floor. Ruby's nose twitched. A silver eye opened, peering up at her. Ruby smiled suddenly.
"Good morning, Weiss!" Ruby continued to lay stretched out on the floor, peering around. "Oh, did I fall asleep in the living room?"
She technically fell asleep in Weiss's lap, and trapped her there as well; but Weiss decided to not mention that.
"Yes, dolt," Weiss said without any real heat, handing Ruby her cup of sugar. "Here, I made coffee."
"Aww, thanks!" Ruby popped up. Their fingers brushed as Ruby took the cup with both hands; Weiss felt her face heat up, becoming strangely flustered once more. She turned for her own beverage, taking a long drink.
"Ahh. Yeh, that's good. Thank you!" Ruby beamed. The hood of her strawberry onesie flopped down over her bangs and her partner giggled.
"You're welcome," Weiss said after a moment. "Um. I was hoping to take a shower at some point-"
"Oh! Yea, no problem, we have a bath upstairs!"
Ruby hopped up, reaching out to pet Bo, before leading the way from the blanket fort. The rest of the morning was spent without any semblance of order or routine that Weiss was accustomed to. At Beacon, they had a schedule to keep to, and at the Schnee manor, Weiss's days were practically accounted for down to the hour. However, the Xiao Long/Rose residence was apparently free form chaos at all times.
Yang got up surprisingly early, but instead of going to work-out or help Ruby and Weiss make sense of the mess in the kitchen, she set to playing video games and facetiming Blake on her scroll. Qrow did not wake up until well past ten, rolling off the sofa with a groan and trudging into the downstairs shower as Yang and Ruby tossed pillows at him and shouted like hooligans.
Ruby did her best to help Weiss put the dishes away, but in the end made things nearly more stressful when she made a disorganized heap in the cabinets; in the end, Weiss chased her away and set to organizing it herself. Ruby remained in the kitchen, watching her guiltily until she started tossing grapes into the living room for her sister to catch with her mouth as she played games.
Bo had his breakfast on the porch; Ruby would actually put some kitchen ware outside for him to help clean, which Weiss was absolutely horrified by despite it being practical. When he was done with them, Weiss put them in the sink with bleach.
Eventually, Yang got dressed to go get Blake from the airship; Mr. Xiao Long had his own ride, apparently. Ruby and Weiss had finished the dishes, showered, and changed. Weiss hadn't brought too many things to wear, and Ruby insisted that she could wear some of her own as they were near the same size; Weiss had been particularly skeptical of this, but relented when Ruby handed her a simple t-shirt and jeans. Weiss couldn't remember ever having worn jeans in her life, but accepted the garments graciously.
Noon came and went. Ruby made sandwiches for everyone, showcasing their many, many ingredients to Weiss to pick from. She would probably have gone through the entire refrigerator, lifting each item out triumphantly until Weiss picked something.
As the partner's at their lunch, the sound of twin engines rumbling outside caused Ruby to leap up in excitement, dashing away in a cloud of red petals; Weiss and Bo followed after her.
Yang and Blake pulled into the shed, Blake pressed closely against her partner. Behind them, Mr. Xiao Long's own bike, a more classic model built for comfort over speed rumbled loudly. It had a side car, carrying what appeared to be a corgi.
"DAAAAAD-"
Ruby crashed into her father, a friendly, tan blonde who immediately scooped Ruby up and held her over his shoulder as he laughed.
"Hey hey, there's my little hunter!" he exclaimed, turning the ignition off. He continued to carry Ruby in one arm, who was laughing joyfully. "How was your first Semester?"
"Great! I love it – Oh, that's Weiss!" Ruby pointed at her, legs kicking in the air.
"Oh yea?" he smiled warmly. "Nice to meet you, Weiss! I'm 'dad'."
"Noo, no dad jokes yet-"
"Yes dad jokes, I haven't had a chance to make them; I have a quota, I need to catch up," he laughed. "You can call me Tai though, Weiss."
"It's a pleasure," Weiss nodded primly.
Yang and Blake joined them, Blake smiling softly at Ruby's enthusiastic greeting.
"Hi Blake! I'm so happy you could make it!"
"Me too," Blake said. "Hey Weiss."
Weiss smiled at her teammate; she was glad that things weren't still awkward between them, after the events with the White Fang. That, and the fact that Blake was secretly a faunus didn't bother her anymore; Weiss had had to sit and think long and hard about her own beliefs, where they came from, and who she wanted to be as a person. Being prejudiced towards others based solely on their species was not an aspect she wanted to embody. It would take time and effort to weed out her father's hateful doctrine, and until she did, Weiss had requested that Blake point things out to her if she was behaving as such. Blake had graciously agreed.
"Let's go in!" declared Yang. "I gotta show you my action figures-"
"You have action figures?" Blake smirked, trailing after her partner.
"Yes!"
"I didn't think you were such a nerd."
"…Yes! I'm like, a half-nerd," Yang chuckled.
"Party animal by day, comic book geek by night?" Blake asked.
"Totally!"
"She likes super-heroes!" Ruby declared. "Dad, put me down, I gotta be a good hostess-"
"Waaa, I thought I'd just carry you around like this all day," Taiyang laughed, tickling her ribs.
Ruby giggled, kicking her feet frantically.
"No, nono, no tickling!"
Weiss smiled as the family trooped into the house, still babbling and laughing together. It truly was nothing like her own household. A part of her wondered if this was what most families were like, and if hers was the one that was bizarre? Or perhaps normalcy was completely relative? Regardless, it was turning out to be the start of a surprisingly pleasant winter break.