Weiss opened her eyes to pain. Pain that stabbed deep into her retinas as the previous night's drinking came back for revenge. Even after she squeezed her eyes shut, her head continued throbbing and she wished she had a few painkillers. But the thought left her head when she realized the pillow she was using felt awfully warm and smooth compared to normal. Her hand also seemed caught beneath some sort of wire pressed against a lump in the pillow. She squeezed the lump carefully to get rid of it, wondering why she couldn't remember where she was when a quiet moan drifted to her ear from directly above her.
Her eyes snapped wide open despite the brightness of the room, bringing her pillow into sharp focus. It was Ruby. More specifically, Weiss had her head rested on Ruby's chest and her hand had found its way under Ruby's bra. Their undergarments seeming to be the only clothing that had managed to stay on them.
Weiss carefully extracted her hand and looked up to find Ruby smiling down at her.
"Morning Snowflake." She whispered, being kind to both their hangovers. She leaned down slightly and surprised Weiss by kissing her. And she deepened the kiss the moment Weiss opened her mouth to object to the intimate contact.
Weiss jumped away after the briefest of moments, her face glowing red.
"W-what do you think you're doing?" Weiss asked harshly as she hid her lips behind her hand as if afraid they might fall off.
"Um… what it looks like? Giving my girlfriend a good morning kiss?" Ruby asked in confusion as she sat up.
"I am not, nor was I ever your girlfriend. And what happened last night?" Weiss asked again, continuing her interrogation and ignoring the increasingly painful headache she was experiencing.
"Well, you won the shot contest. Then… you sort of went all cuddly on me and here we are!" Ruby summarized poorly.
"Please tell me we didn't do anything… obscene." Weiss sighed as she got up and dressed in her clothing again.
"No. We just had an amazing make-out session." Ruby breathed, remembering the fire that Weiss had lit within her. A small shiver working its way down her spine as her excitement came back.
"Right. Well, just forget that ever happened and we won't have any problems." Weiss didn't remember a single thing past the third tray of shots the previous evening, so she'd have to take Ruby's word that nothing had gone further than she had said. She finished dressing and headed for the door. "I'm going to go clear my head. I'll meet you back at the dorm."
"Um… okay." Ruby said sadly to Weiss's back. "Bye."
Weiss disappeared and the door clicked shut. Ruby stared at where her partner had disappeared for several long minutes before she got up and started dressing. A decision slowly forming in her mind as she came to the realization that her feelings toward Weiss might not have been completely unreciprocated.
She left the room and headed to the office to return the key. Nobody was there so she just dropped it on top of an important looking book behind the desk. She left the office and stopped on the front street as she finalized her decision in her mind.
She'd known for a while already that she had feelings for Weiss that went far beyond friendship, but had always been to afraid to act on them. Now however, Weiss had given her all the reason she needed to pursue her.
Even if you try to ignore me, I will prove that you need me and love me just as much as I do. Because even if we were drunk, you made me fall for you all over again just after I finally got over you. This time, I won't give up. This time, I can't afford to.
Weiss found herself wandering aimlessly through the streets of downtown Vale while her headache slowly disappeared. She'd made a single stop to get a small bottle of medication before continuing on her pointless trek. Eventually, after several hours of wandering, she found herself at the docks. There was nothing especially appealing about them. The boardwalk didn't house any particularly interesting shops, there weren't any ships docked - at least none she'd find interesting, and the wood itself gave off the faint odor of rot even though the material was technically only a few years old. The one thing she did find nice was the salt that so heavily tinted the air, clearing up any congestion she may have had.
Looking around, the place was almost abandoned with only a few people walking past. It was unsurprising since the day was rather cold for spring and there wouldn't be any sign of activity here until the temperature stayed warm for the summer.
So, even though she was starting to wish she'd been wearing a proper jacket and gloves, she leaned up against the railing at the very end of the lone pier to watch the waves from the ocean slowly undulate under the changing currents. It was something she hadn't known she'd liked before she came to attend Beacon Academy due mainly to the fact that she'd never been allowed within a hundred meters from the ocean. She'd lived a safe and sheltered childhood with nobody but herself for company.
Sure nannies came and went, as did butlers, maids, her father's secretaries… and other women she didn't know much about. Of course now she realized that those women were more likely to be escorts than actual employees of Schnee Dust. Her mother had always been there like a picture on the wall. Always there, but never there. She'd smile off into the distance, not acknowledging anything happening around her. Weiss had only realized it when she'd accidentally set wood paneling on fire with a poorly measured concoction of burn dust that was only supposed to work as an adhesive. Her mother hadn't even turned her head to the blaze by the time the fire was extinguished. More than half the room had needed renovation.
Weiss sighed, pushing the tiresome memories from her head. That's all they were now. Memories. When she'd chosen to attend Beacon, she had started the final leg of her life. School, marriage, children. It was all planned, all organized in contracts, all unavoidable and constrained to time limits. All planned before she could even walk, by her father. She would graduate the top of her class for no reason other than because that was what was expected of her. She would marry a man whom she was fairly certain was at least twice her age, and have his children via in vitro fertilization just as her mother had done for her. The children would be genetically modified to be the smartest, strongest, and quickest the DNA pool would allow. They would be hers, but in a distorted picture of perfection. Her husband would undoubtedly run the company even though he was only marrying into the family, leaving her to sit at home and watch the tutors and the help care for her kids. And then, simply because she would grow bored from her life of leisure, she would do the one thing that no contract could ever dictate, the only thing women in her family really had to look forward to. She would end her life just as many of the Schnee women before her had. She would follow the unwritten tradition and jump from the Diamond Tower and enjoy a one minute and six second drop to the concrete below where her white funeral gown would soak up the blood leaking from her shattered body.
Again she shook the depressing thoughts from her head and focused once again on the waves in front of her. These waves seemed just as trapped as she was. Doomed to break against the pier over and over and over again as days turn to millennia. The wood would be replaced or removed, but the waves would still keep throwing themselves at the shores as if trying to escape the ocean. But the ocean would always remain, pulling the water back shortly after it lands on shore as if taunting it with a possibility of escape. Even the water that evaporates from the ocean never really escapes. Sooner or later its molecules rejoin the massive rolling depths having had freedom within their grasp just to have it ripped away again.
It was a cycle. Just as the water had its cycle, a female in the Schnee line had hers. Everyone had always told her she would do great things, but when her life was predetermined, how could she possibly do anything at all unless it was written in some contract? Sure she was free at the moment, but time was running out. She had a single semester left before she'd be forced into marriage. She even knew the exact date it was to take place, and she'd known it since she'd first stepped off the airship in her first year.
She smiled slightly remembering how she'd blown up at Ruby for just knocking her luggage over. Sure it was dangerous, but she had taken precautions because she was carrying large amounts of dust through public. Really there had been no reason to get angry. And she wouldn't have been if it hadn't been for the email she'd received announcing her wedding date.
She turned from the water and walked away, no longer feeling calmed by the ocean spray. She started wandering back towards the cliffs atop which Beacon stood like an overseer's fortress. The Gothic curves and color of the aesthetics gave it an ominous look, but the emerald gem in the tallest tower bent the light to shine everywhere at once, making it seem as if the castle was always watching over the city and everything that happened in it.
Weiss supposed it was comforting now that she'd gotten used to it, but she knew its sight was just as blind as any of the walls within White Castle. It would never see one girl walk down the street, laugh with friends, drink after returning from a difficult hunt, or leave to never return. It would never see her struggle, burn her bridges, and graduate with a shining document in front of her enemies.
"Excuse me, Miss Schnee?"
Weiss smiled and stopped for the mother to take a picture with her little girl. Her smile was forced as it always had been before she entered beacon. The girl seemed truly happy to have her picture taken with 'a famous person' even though Weiss doubted she even knew her name. Weiss walked away soon after, exchanging a few polite words before heading down a narrower street that seemed to have an air of danger.
In her time in the city, she'd found out one thing. Danger was everywhere, even in places that were supposed to be safe. That was why she often chose to walk in the shadows, in the darkness so the darkness that sought her wouldn't affect the light others enjoyed. It wasn't the nicest way to live, but it was her choice. A choice she could only make when she wasn't under the scrutiny of her father and the henchmen he called security guards.
Weiss continued on, the streetlights now leaving small circles of light on the street as the sun fell below the buildings and cast heavy shadows everywhere. Weiss walked past a familiar shop that had been robbed multiple times over the few years she'd lived in Vale. From Dust Till Dawn stood exactly where it had the first time she'd seen it with her team, just before Blake accidentally revealed her faunus nature to the rest of them. The ancient owner looked exactly the same as the first time she'd met him when Ruby had told her about how she'd been 'scouted' for early admission to the combat school.
That's right. Ruby. She'd left Ruby sitting in that horribly neglected hotel. A hotel she still had no idea how she'd gotten to. A bed that probably had been thrown out before being salvaged from the dump. A bed where she'd left Ruby sitting, saddened at her rejection of the events of the previous night. The events she could barely even start to remember.
It wasn't the first time she'd been drunk, just the first time she hadn't been alone. Really, it wouldn't have been the first if she had actually cared to drink, but without the rest of her team, she felt she'd be out of place. After all, 'A Schnee drinks, but a Schnee does not get drunk'. The words of her father and the snap of his belt ingrained so deeply into her memory that just remembering it hurt. She had never made the mistake of being discovered in a less than sober state again.
But somehow, when she was with her team lately, she felt as if the rules of carrying her name ceased to exist, replaced by the overwhelming need to live in the moment even if she'd pay for it later. Whether its accepting Yang's shot contest or tackling Ruby off a cliff to distract a Nevermore from the other half of her team, she found herself thinking less and less about the future. Maybe that was a good thing considering how bleak hers looked.
She blinked and looked around, taking in her surroundings. She was already back on campus, looking at the statue depicting the heroes of the First Campaign. Their generic features etched in stone that had stood more than a hundred years above a fountain that was equally ancient. Something about them spoke of a struggle won at the cost of almost everything. Maybe that was just the history of the Campaign returning to her memory, but the piece itself seemed to act as a warning of the future awaiting most who leave the security of the school.
She continued past it and toward her dorm room where the rest of her team awaited her return. To their credit, there had only been a single message to her scroll in the whole day. Maybe it was due to Ruby's request, or just because they knew she needed time to herself. In the end, it didn't matter. In the end, they'd come looking for her if she hadn't returned by nine. But in the end, they would just be more people that she would never see again. Because that was her life. Filled with people who came and then left to never return.
She opened the door to the dorm and looked around. Blake was reading as per usual and didn't make any indication that she'd noticed the heiress. Yang was sleeping without snoring, which made it only the second time in known history that she was sleeping quietly. And the bathroom door was closed, meaning Ruby was on the other side of the door doing whatever she needed to.
A clatter sounded from the door along with a muffled swear. Weiss knew almost immediately what was going on without even needing to look through the door. She approached and quietly tapped twice before turning the knob and walking in.
"Need an extra hand?" Weiss asked, making sure the door was firmly shut to keep their voices from waking the explosive member of their team.
"Weiss! I didn't know you were back!" Ruby jumped slightly before turning around, the new bottle of dye unopened in her gloved hand. "And sure, if you're up to it."
"I just returned now." Weiss said, taking the bottle from Ruby and placing it on the counter while she waited for her to take off her gloves.
Ruby simply nodded and passed the gloves over before taking her usual seat on the stool she kept under the sink specifically for when she dyed her hair. Weiss slipped the thin rubber over her hands, noting the slight warmth that they still retained from Ruby's skin. She opened the bottle and poured its contents into the small bowl she'd use to mix it with the dust required for the dye to activate.
"The normal?" She asked, reaching to her hip to take a cartridge of burn dust that would make the dye turn crimson as per Ruby's usual preference.
"Actually, I made a mix earlier." Ruby said, producing one of the large rounds from her sniper without the bullet attached. Weiss realized she must have looked confused because Ruby continued. "I didn't have anything to hold it in, so I just put it in a round."
"I see." Weiss took the round and emptied it into the bowl, mixing the white liquid with the rainbow of dust that had come from the round. Once everything looked evenly mixed, she approached Ruby with the bowl in one hand and a brush and strips of foil in the other. "Do you know how long you have to let this sit?"
"Yeah, I looked it up. It's the same as the red." Ruby answered, turning her head so Weiss could start separating her locks into sections.
"It's not red?" Weiss asked as she started painting the dye on the tips, covering the fading red and a small bit of the brown above it with the white liquid. She folded a piece of foil over the dyed hair and clipped it closed with a clip from the basket that Ruby had placed on the counter when she was mixing the dye.
"No." Ruby replied waiting patiently as Weiss covered strip after strip of her hair with dye and foil. Weiss waited for the girl to continue, but she didn't. After she'd finished enough hair to prompt Ruby to shift her seat so she could continue, Weiss decided that there was probably an important reason she changed her color from red.
After another five minutes of brushing and clipping, Ruby was finished. She looked at herself in the mirror briefly before turning her back to it.
"Do you know what color I'm dying it this time?" Ruby asked, crossing her arms over her chest that was once again only covered with her bra. As usual, Weiss averted her gaze when she answered.
"I have no idea." She answered honestly. "But why are you changing it? I thought your-"
"Mom dyed it red? Yeah." Ruby sighed. "But I think she'd forgive me for changing it."
"But I thought you kept it red because it was important to you." Weiss asked, confused as to why she'd suddenly change what she'd been doing for so many years already.
"Mom was important to me. But she's gone. Even if I wanted her to see my hair…." Ruby trailed off before shaking her head. "She'd understand that there's something more important that I need to remember. Something I'd forgotten a long time ago."
"Oh. What would that be?" Weiss asked as she became interested in Ruby's thoughts. It wasn't often that she thought about big picture concepts, but Weiss could easily tell she was considering one now.
"I'll remember Mom even if my hair isn't red." Ruby replied with a shrug. "What matters is that I'm alive now. Sure I can keep my hair red, but that wont do anything to keep my memories from fading. Instead I wanted to remind myself that I should do everything I can, so I don't have to have another set of memories join those of Mom."
"You've thought a lot about this haven't you?" Weiss asked moving to the shower and taking down the shower-head so she could help rinse the dye out of Ruby's hair.
Ruby knelt down and Weiss started opening the foil and removing it, surprised by the color Ruby'd chosen. She dropped the foil directly into a waste basket and then turned the water on so it was warm but not hot. She carefully rinsed the remaining dye from Ruby's hair, running her gloves through it to make sure the lower layer rinsed properly.
"Mind if I wash up right away?" Ruby asked without waiting for an answer. She poured some of the shampoo into her hand before Weiss had even realized she'd taken her white bottle, not the black one that held Ruby's shampoo. Weiss waited patiently as Ruby rubbed the soap deep into her hair. "Alright, rinse me!"
Weiss moved the shower-head back and forth, using the water's momentum to rinse Ruby's hair. Once it was done, Ruby grabbed an old towel just in case the dye wasn't completely set and dried her hair. Weiss turned off the shower and replaced the head back on its holder.
"I don't think it worked." She informed Ruby looking at the now white tips that looked very out of place on the scythe wielder. Ruby walked back to the mirror to take a look, turning back and forth to see how her hair swayed with the white tips.
"I think it worked alright. It's just a bit different from what I had before." Ruby said while turning back to Weiss. "Thanks for helping me by the way."
"I always help you, remember?" Weiss asked while removing the gloves with a snap and tossing them to the garbage.
"No, I always ask you to help me. This time you offered." Ruby corrected with a grin as she stepped into Weiss's personal bubble.
"R-Ruby!" Weiss stuttered in surprise when she backed up into the counter.
"It's okay Weiss. I get it." Ruby whispered with a slight roll of her eyes. "But I have to thank you somehow. And I also want to test a theory of mine."
"Wha-?" Weiss was unable to finish her question as Ruby's lips met hers, her tongue immediately entwining with Weiss's as her surprise kept her frozen in shock.
This can't be… happening. Weiss thought noticing that she was having more difficulty than normal piecing her thoughts together. This is so wrong…. My father would…. And then….
Weiss's mind went blank, there was absolutely nothing wrong, her father wasn't there, nothing would come of it, she just had to relax and enjoy the amazing sensation of her lips gently pressed to Ruby's, her tongue slowly dancing with Ruby's….
With Ruby's…? Weiss's hands had found Ruby's shoulders and she pushed, sending Ruby stumbling back towards the tub.
"Weiss!" Ruby started but Weiss was already opening the door. She was out of the dorm seconds later without a single word to anyone. Ruby felt as if she'd been slapped. But when she walked back to the sink and looked in the mirror, she remembered her promise. She knew it wouldn't be easy, but maybe she'd need to approach the issue differently.
But I learned one thing out of this. She must like me too or she wouldn't have kissed me back the way she did. Ruby exhaled a shaky breath and grinned at the mirror. She's an amazingly good kisser.