Till Ashes do we Part

"Love is not a feeling of happiness. Love is a willingness to sacrifice." –Michael Novak

Chapter 8

Winter could feel her stomach tying into knots as she paced the floor of the castle. It had been a week since the email had been sent, and no matter how many times Winter emailed her sister telling her to not come there, she didn't listen. It made Winter want to scream. When did her little sister become so head-strong?

Qrow hadn't fought Winter's request to have him stay in his room. She hadn't even gotten around to asking Tai and Yang the same thing before they volunteered their isolation to the Schnee. Ilia offered to wait with Yang, but Winter stopped her. She needed more than one person to help her vouch for the civil behavior of their… captors? Winter knew that's what they technically were but with the amount of freedom they were given it really didn't feel like it.

Ilia now sat on the steps in a pair of ripped up blue jeans and a red flannel top that Winter swore she had seen Yang wear the other day. Winter wasn't exactly sure just how close the two girls were, but a part of her was scared to ask. Why exactly Winter wasn't so sure. Maybe because it would make their kindness a reality that Winter still wasn't ready to accept.

Winter Schnee didn't like admitting she was wrong. Even if that was what she was about to do today to her sister. Admitting it any earlier then yesterday might wound the last bit of pride Winter had left after that night.

Since Winter had shared a bed with Qrow she did her best to avoid the man. He hadn't gone out of his way to tease her either. Though whether it was out of embarrassment from the side of himself that he showed to her, his acknowledgment at her discomfort, or maybe even is the regret of confiding in her Winter didn't know.

"When was Weiss supposed to be here again?" Ilia droller as she let her head fall into her hand out of boredom.

"I'm not really sure," Winter admitted with a small grin. Ilia groaned before falling back on the steps she was sitting on.

"What the hell did you tell her that she's now making her way up here?"

"That's the thing," Winter admitted as she finally sat on the steps next to Ilia. "I really was just asking about her life. I didn't think I was saying anything bad was happening."

"Maybe she just wants to check on you? See that you're being taken care of? Have you ever thought about that?"

Before Winter could reply the front door went flying open. Winter could vaguely see the irony in the change of atmosphere from when she first arrived at the ironically titled "Castle of the Damned" but she didn't have time to think about that before she laid eyes on her sister.

Her sister seemed to have changed and grown so much since the last time Winter saw her. She wasn't crying anymore. No, her sister stood tall and proud with her hair pulled back and her dress styled perfectly even wearing heels. While Winter couldn't agree that she had the most practical in choices of footwear, she could admire the effort.

"Winter!" Weiss called out the moment she saw her older sister. Her blue eyes softening as she ran forward to great Winter halfway. Winter pulled her sister and a giant embrace and spun her sister around in a circle before setting her down on the floor and not letting her go.

"Oh, Weiss I missed you so much." If Winter told anyone she was crying she would have called them a liar. Winter Schnee didn't cry. But at this moment, she really didn't care.

"I thought you were dead!" Weiss said though she was visibly crying now. Her eyes blubbering as she whipped her nose. "I never thought I would see you again. When I got that email I almost didn't believe it. I thought the vampires were just messing with me. But you knew too much about my life, too many personal things not even on records. But then I thought maybe they brainwashed you and I had to see you for myself and… oh, Winter let's get you out of here before they find you out here."

Winter felt her brain go blank for a moment. She could leave. They were in their rooms, and there was no way they would be able to get her back unless it was by for force. But something kept Winter's feet firmly planted on the ground even though Weiss was pulling her away.

"What's wrong?" Weiss asked as she turned back to her sister in confusion.

"Weiss," Winter started as she tried to figure out how to word what she was feeling in her head.

"So are we good to come in now or are we just going to stand outside this whole time?"

"Sun now is not the right time!"

Winter peaked around her sister to see two new voices and while she recognized them she couldn't quite figure out why exactly they were with her sister. Sun Wukong was the first person to enter her field of vision, she vaguely remembered him from a photo her sister showed her along with complaints about how he and two of his friends tried to sneak their way into the girls' dormitory. Behind him was Blake Belladonna, the daughter of the famous equal rights advocate Ghira Belladonna.

"Uh, Weiss?"

"Ilia! You're alright!" It turned out Winter was going to get her answer first hand as she watched Blake get up and run over to hug Ilia. Ilia looked rather stiff about the situation though. She stood happily enough, but she eyed Sun questionably.

"I thought after I told you dating Sun was a stupid idea, you never wanted to see me again? Isn't that how I ended up here in the first place?" Blake visibly flinched at the sharp words Ilia threw at her.

"I just wasn't expecting my best friend to confess to me and then react so poorly to my new love, I'm sorry about what I said. I never meant it Ilia. And I certainly didn't want you to try and scarify yourself as food for a vampire."

"Yeah, well I did, and you sure as hell didn't try and stop me; and they aren't blood-sucking demons. Their people and they are trying to live a life just the same as us. They don't see some lesbian orphan girl who was the pity project of a wealthy family." In all the time Winter had seen Ilia she had never seen that dark look on her face.

"Ilia you know that's not true," Blake cried in protest but Ilia pushed her away and turned to go up the stairs.

"I'll let the others know you guys will be staying for a while. I'm sure Qrow will get a huge kick out of you guys."

"Don't you dare," Winter warned but Ilia ignored her.

"If you need me I will be having Yang screw me into the mattress." Winter sputtered at Ilia's obtuse and brazen claims. Weiss didn't seem all that comfortable either as she flushed crimson. Blake and Sun didn't say anything though as they watched Ilia walk away.

And Winter thought she was going to have a tough family reunion.

…

Winter was getting really sick and tired of awkward dinners. It had to have been about the third time she had sat through an awkward dinner and she really just wanted to take her food and Weiss to go eat in peace in the comfort of her bedroom. Instead, she was watching Ilia glare at Blake and Sun across the table while they ducked their heads down like scorned pups.

"Fuck this I'm eating upstairs." Winter had never agreed with Qrow so whole-heartedly in her entire time of knowing him. Qrow had picked up his glass but he wasn't able to walk away very far before Winter grabbed his cape as he tried to pass her. His ruby eyes classed with her frosty gaze.

"If I have to suffer then so do you," Winter's gaze screamed at him.

He snatched his cape back from her as if to say, "no one is making you stay Ice Queen."

"Lord Qrow if you don't mind I would like for you to stay, I have a few questions for you." Winter had never wanted to kiss her sister so hard in her life. Yes, she was going to make him suffer just as much as her because at the end of the day this awkward silence was his fault for having such a shit sense of humor.

Qrow snarled a bit and Winter snickered which only got her a glare that she ignored. Hard to believe that a few weeks ago she would have cowered in fear of the man's wrath. Now he seemed just about as harmless as a yipping Pomeranian.

"Fine," he sighed before he returned back to his seat.

More silence.

"So Lord Qrow—"

"Drop the 'lord' brat, I was never given a title by royalty," Qrow huffed out before knocking back a larger gulp on his meal.

"Qrow then," Weiss rephrased before continuing with her main question. "What exactly are your intentions with my sister? You take her as a bride, but only in name alone and not in matrimony. You don't eat her but also keep her from contacting the outside."

"I do it to scare away annoying kids like you," Qrow said with a twitch at the side of his mouth. He was toying with Weiss. Winter could tell and said nothing, instead, she continued to eat her chicken salad.

"So, she's a prisoner for your own amusement then?"

"Amusement yes, prisoner no."

"She's held here against her will. That makes her a prisoner."

"I said she would never leave here, not that she couldn't."

Weiss growled at the black-haired-man and Winter just sighed. She should be pissed at him but at this point, she isn't even surprised the requirement of her constant presence in the castle was another one of Qrow's loop-holed jokes. He had also introduced himself as a groom to her bride but that turned out to just be him playing along with the wedding dress as he so kindly explained the night she stayed over.

"Excellent then you won't mind that I'll be taking Winter home."

"What?" Winter had been the one to exclaim and it was enough to make her eyes go wide. Leaving? Here? And go where? Home? She loved the idea of being able to live with Weiss again but the more time she was away the more foreign the idea of her returning seemed. Was it ever really home to her?

"Winter, I came here to bring you home," Weiss explained again with a confused expression. "I thought you would be happy?"

Winter found herself confused and in a tangled-up mess in her mind. She didn't really know what she wanted. She wanted to see Weiss more. Watch her grow up and be there for her. But the idea of doing it from the Schnee Manor? It seemed unsettling and disgusting.

"Weiss," Winter didn't even finish addressing her sister before she got up from her seat and ran off. Winter sighed and stood up herself. "Please excuse me."

It hadn't taken Winter long to find her sister considering how Weiss knew the castle very little from the little tour Winter had given her to try and avoid the tension that was the Belladonna clan. Weiss was sobbing and stood next to a large window in what looked like it was a lower level sitting room. Winter recognized the outside that peered out into the hidden garden.

"Weiss," Winter started as she reached a hand out to her younger sister and Weiss, while not rejecting the touch didn't gravitate to it either. "Weiss, Schnee manor isn't a home for me. It never really has been, and you know it."

"It isn't one for me either," Weiss protested as she spun around to look at her sister finally, tears streaming down her face and sobs threatening to bubble over. "Father has only gotten colder and more calculated and Whitley becomes more and more like him every day. Mom is always passed out and Kline, though I love him like a father, isn't you Winter."

"Then stay here with me." The invitation wasn't Winter's to give. But if she learned one thing about this little vampire family, they weren't one to turn away strays. "You can still go to school, come and go as you please, and you don't have to listen to father. You can be whoever you want, no strings attached."

Winter grabbed Weiss' shoulders and the wide-eyed female just stared at her sister in aw and shock at the sudden invitation.

"I know they seem scary but," Winter paused and took a deep breath for what she was about to admit. "They aren't all that bad. They just want to live in peace the same way we do."

"But the Schnee family name. It's mine to carry on. I'm supposed to be next in line."

"Damn the name Weiss," Winter said and she pulled her sister close. "You are so much more than that. Father will only let you stay as long as you follow him and we both know he is no Schnee. He stole that name from mother when he married her. If I have learned everything here, the only duties you have are the ones you decide are important to you."

"I suppose we are the only family we really have," Weiss admitted with a small giggle.

"I suppose we are," Winter admitted at she let her sister sit up straight.

"I guess I need to go home and get my things then," Weiss said with a smile and Winter smiled broadly again.

"I suppose you do."

…

By the time Winter and Weiss were saying their good-bye's it was apparent Blake and Ilia were already making up with the sobbing and "I'm sorry" that just keeps tumbling out of Blake and Sun's mouths as they hugged their friend.

"What did we miss?" Winter asked as they stood by the door where the limo awaited them.

"Some chick flick bullshit," was all Qrow said with a shrug. Winter rolled her eyes with a slight smile.

"You better bring this girlfriend with you when you visit," Blake told Ilia before hugging Yang who hugged her back pretty willingly.

"I planned on it, I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was ok."

"I'm sorry I didn't try to stop you. I was just so scared and I didn't know and…"

"None of us knew you have nothing to be sorry about."

"Let's get moving, some of us have a schedule to keep!" Weiss yelled at them and they broke up the little reunion with Ilia waving Blake goodbye the whole time the car was leaving the driveway and out of sight.

"So, you invited her to live with us?" Qrow asked Winter and she winced at his words. She was caught.

"Sorry," Winter apologized, though she knew Qrow she was only sorry because she was caught. "I should have asked first."

"It will be nice to have some noise around again, it's been too quiet since Ruby left," Qrow admitted and Winter looked at him in shock. Her eyes were wide and jaw felt a little slack. Qrow looked down at her lack of response before he quickly ducked his head to the ground with the faintest dusting of red on his ears. "Doesn't mean I might not give her shit and lock her in her room for being too loud."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Want to try me Ice Queen," Qrow teased as he looked at her and she felt that familiar pounding in her chest. This time though she smiled and quickly turned back into the house.

"Guess that means I'll be stealing all your alcohol then."

"You can try," Qrow crowed after her and for the first time in a while she smiled at him and giggled. It may have been childish but she didn't care.

It was time she took back her stolen childhood and had some fun.

BRK: Two things. One, sorry for copping out of Ilia and Blake. I didn't have the energy for the whole make-up storyline with them so I kind of rushed that. The second thing is premiering this Thursday will be the sister story to this fic that follows the Ruby and Oscar storyline since the rosegarden in this is weak and I miss rosegarden. So I hope you guys will go check it out if you are also a fan of rosegarden! That's all for this update, until next week later gators!