A/N: Hello readers! I do sincerely apologize for my absence. This summer has been hectic, with me looking for a place to live and working at an overnight camp in the middle of the woods. But worry not! Now that I'm all moved in and getting back into the swing of things, I'll be able to get back into my writing too. So for your viewing pleasure I've whipped up a little something to give you a small taste of what is to come.

As always thanks to those who follow/favourite and an extra big thanks to those of you who leave reviews!

Weiss watched as Red flirted with the man at the reception desk for a moment and pushed down the strange feeling in her gut before walking past them. She made a beeline for the door behind his desk, running through the lessons her father had drilled into her as a child.

Chin up, shoulders back, focus on your destination.

She willed herself to supress the shudder that ran through her as she fell into old habits. Memories of the many parties she had to attend filled with manipulative politicians and CEOs and their equally deprived children flashed behind her eyes. She stopped outside the large oak door, taking a deep breath as she read the name ingrained in large, bold letters on the brass plaque before her.

Velvet Scarlatina, Chief Architect & Head of Design

She knocked and barely heard the soft voice granting her entrance. Unsure of what awaited her on the other side, she allowed herself another deep breath before opening the door.

When most people envision someone whose job title includes the words Chief or Head they don't imagine walking into a corner office to be greeted by a timid looking brunette who couldn't be older than twenty-five.

The woman turned to her and smiled softly before standing and extending her hand. "Ms. Dietrich," she said with a quiet British accent, "a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"The pleasure is mine, to be sure." Weiss said as she shook the other woman's hand. She sat down in one of the plush leather seats across from Velvet, carefully making sure her face didn't betray any of the confusion she was experiencing.

Throughout her life, Weiss had been forced to meet more CEOs and important businessmen than she cared to count; but sitting across from her was a woman who seemed to have none of the characteristics shared by any of the snakes in suits she had the misfortune of meeting.

Instead of flashy suits or dresses, Velvet Scarlatina wore a simple blouse with a tan jacket and brown pencil skirt. She didn't take up the room with her presence like some of the big shots did, and there wasn't the fire in her eye that usually told Weiss the person before her would do anything to get what they wanted, with the usual cavalier approach to the rules. Weiss watched as she rifled through one of her drawers, looking for something, and wondered how someone who seemed as passive as this Velvet woman had managed to climb the corporate ladder as high as she had.

She was snapped from her thoughts when the other woman started speaking, eyes down as she continued to search her desk. "So, Dietrich, that's German, correct?"

"Yes." Weiss answered, unsure of where this was going.

"Beautiful country, I've always wanted to visit."

"I would wait until spring if I were you, the winters there can be quite brutal."

Velvet let out a small chuckle, "I suppose you're right. Now," Weiss's eyes widened as the brunette placed a gun on the desk. The matte black silencer attached to the barrel was lined up perfectly with her frantically beating heart. "Why don't you tell me who you really are, what you're doing here and how in the hell you heard about Project Lapin?"

Weiss looked into Velvet's eyes, took in her posture, the set of her jaw. Everything about the brunette businesswoman had changed, instead of a timid woman cowering at the prospect of any conflict, the former heiress now saw someone who exuded confidence from every pore, who knew they were the smartest person in the room and was content to let everyone else think otherwise.

She was about to open her mouth to explain, recount everything that had happened since that fateful day in New York, but caught herself.

This was a woman who had no qualms with killing her where she sat, all because she mentioned some project or something. Red had told her what to say, and while she would have to take time later, when there wasn't a gun pointed at her, to think about why she inherently trusted a girl whose name she didn't even know, at the moment, staying alive was all that mattered, and even though she had next to no idea what her friend was planning, it was probably her best chance at doing so.

"Mademoiselle Adalise sent me." Weiss said as calmly as she could, her stoic mask betraying none of the relief she felt as she saw Velvet's eyes soften. "She wants to use the program."

Velvet nodded and placed the gun back in her desk, pulling out a small thumb drive as she did so and plugging it into her computer.

"And who are we using?" She asked, brown eyes not leaving the screen as she tapped away on her keyboard.

"The man at the reception desk out front."

Velvet smirked before hitting some more keys. "I never liked that guy. If you insist on being a pig and harassing everything in a skirt, at least have the decency to remove your wedding ring."

Weiss hummed noncommittally as she watched the other woman work. A few minutes and several keystrokes late, Velvet finished whatever it was she was doing. She ejected the thumb drive and stood up, handing it over to the former heiress with a small smile. Weiss accepted the device with a nod before arching an eyebrow when a business card was also pushed into her hand.

"Mademoiselle Adalise is a complicated woman, and I have a feeling you two are going to be together for a while. If you ever have any questions, call this number."

Weiss nodded her thanks, slipping the card into her pocket. She walked out of the office, gripping the thumb drive tightly as she ignored the feeling of every eye in the office following her. She made it to the elevator without incident and sighed when she landed on the ground floor. She walked a bit faster once the doors to the outside were within sight. Once outside, she made a beeline for the silver Toyota parked nearby. She hurried to the car, throwing open the driver's side door and all but collapsing into the seat before closing her eyes and resting her head against the steering wheel.

This was the second time since meeting Red that Weiss found herself at gunpoint and the second time the enigmatic brunette had, in some way or another, saved her.

She thought back to the last time she had felt this way for someone and frowned as her memory failed her. She could remember feeling afraid when her father caught her and the pain from the punishment afterward, but it was as if someone had torn the pages out of a book. So many details were missing that all she could remember was that she was to consider this sort of behaviour wrong, and she would be punished severely if she was caught doing it again.

She was jerked from her thoughts when she heard the passenger door open.

I know I locked the doors when I got in.

She thought as the familiar flood of fear began to course through her veins. The irony of running around on life-threatening adventures with an internationally known criminal only to be done in by a random carjacker was not lost on her.

If he thinks he's getting out of this without a fight, he's sorely mistaken.

She felt the familiar mask of indifference with a hint of annoyance slip back on and prepared to fix her would be attacker with the coldest glare she could manage, but deflated when she saw short brown hair with red streaks and heard bell-like laughter.

*(OoO)*

Ruby chuckled burying the slight stab of guilt when she saw the fear in her friend's eyes. She laughed even harder when the platinum haired woman huffed before smacking her arm.

"Don't do that!" Weiss shouted, "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Aw, Weiss. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Ruby cooed, the adorable pout on Weiss's face sending tingles up and down her spine.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Weiss asked. "I thought we agreed to meet back at the cabin."

"Yeah, there's been a slight change in plans." Ruby explained. "My meeting didn't go quite as smoothly as I hoped."

"Alright, but how did yo-"

"I'll tell you everything when we get back." Ruby said sternly, earning a curt nod from the silver-haired girl. "For now I need you to drive and tell me if you notice anything." She watched as Weiss put the car in drive and pulled into the streets.

"We're being followed," Weiss stated, face remaining passive as she casually adjusted the rear view mirror to give herself a better view of the black Mercedes three cars back.

"Think you can lose 'em?" Weiss scoffed.

"Hmph, can I."

"Can yo-"

"Of course I can!"

Weiss took a deep breath as she swerved the car between lanes, working her way toward the highway

Not bad.

Ruby raised an eyebrow at the look of concentration on the former heiress' face, pleasantly surprised at the skill with which she weaved through traffic. She looked down at her phone remembering the conversation she had with her sister the previous night.

"If you want to get to know her better, you gotta open up first"

Ruby sighed, "Yang, you know I can't do that."

"I don't mean tell her your whole life story, just little tidbits!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She was answered with a rustling sound coming from her phone's speakers before Blake's sultry voice greeted her. "Hey Red."

"Hey Blake."

"What our favourite blonde means to say is ask her questions about herself. When she answers, try to tell her something about yourself in return. It doesn't have to be anything big, but if you can find ways to relate to her it will make getting to know her a lot easier."

"Thanks Blake, I'll try."

"Would you look at that Blakey, even though our little girl is all grown up, she still comes to us for tips on getting in the Ice Queen's pants!."

Ruby blushed before chuckling as a sharp smack and a loud "Ow!" came out of the speaker followed by her sister's admonished "sorry".

She was pulled out of her thoughts as she heard Weiss curse softly.

"What's wrong?"

"Traffic."

Here goes nothing.

"Actually that might not be so bad." Weiss arched an eyebrow as she glanced over at the brunette.

"How so? We've slowed down to a crawl. It'll be simple for him to keep an eye on us."

"Not necessarily. The easiest way to keep track of a car is using the license plate, but with this many cars between us and him, all he knows to look out for is a silver Toyota, and by my count there are six of those in the immediate vicinity."

"Okay, but he knows where we are right now, and odds are he's memorized our license plate by now."

"Yup, but if you can weave around enough to confuse him, I might just have a solution to our other problem."

She watched as Weiss raised a skeptical eyebrow before sighing and pulling into traffic. Ruby took a moment to admire the skill with which the former heiress wove the car through the traffic like a needle pulling thread. After several minutes of lane-switching, passing, and being passed, Ruby pulled out her phone and opened up one of the many apps. A moment later a faint whirring sound came from the back of the car.

"What was that?" Weiss asked, eyes never leaving the road.

"Don't worry, it was just a little gizmo I had installed courtesy of a certain Mr. Bond-"

"Hey I get that one!" Weiss exclaimed, a large grin spreading across her face as she eased the car through traffic.

"There might still be hope after all!" Ruby laughed, she chanced a glance at next to her and got lost in a pair of arctic sapphires. Moments later and she was brought back to earth as Weiss's focus returned to the road. "Anyway," Ruby cleared her throat, "we should be good to go now. Our license plate is different, so that thug shouldn't be able to track us now."

Weiss nodded and pulled out of traffic, "So are you going to explain what is was you were doing that prompted thugs in horribly clichéd black cars to follow us?"

"Sure. But only if you tell me where you learned to drive like that."

"When you grow up with bodyguards following your every move, you get pretty good at slipping under the radar." Weiss sighed, and Ruby immediately regretted being the cause of her eyes losing the cheerful glow residing there moments before. Not one to let a little sadness get in her way, she powered through.

"Well, in any case, that's probably some of the best driving I have ever seen. It normally takes me twice that long to lose a tail." Weiss flushed as the smile returned to her face, and Ruby felt her chest swell with pride. "As for what I was doing, I tried getting some info from one of my old contacts, but clearly if you're left with the Serbian police one time, you suddenly become suspicious of everybody!"

Weiss's bell-like laughter filled the car as they pulled into the drive in front of the cabin. "Well, everything went smoothly on my end."

"Really?"
"Yeah, why?"

"No reason. I'm just surprised Velvet didn't hold you at gunpoint." Weiss gawked at her for a moment before responding.

"You knew that crazy British lady was going to point a gun at me and you didn't warn me!?"

"Don't worry, I knew you'd be fine!" Ruby put on her most innocent look while Weiss tried to glare a hole into her, though the younger woman could tell there was no hostility behind it.

"Just… don't do it again."

"Alright," Ruby laughed, "next time I'll warn you before I send you to meet someone who may be armed."

Weiss eyes softened as she turned to glare half-heartedly out the windshield, a hint of a smile quirking her lips. "That's all I ask for."

Ruby grinned as she got out of the car and pulled Weiss up to the door of the cabin. "Good. Now, come on! We got a heist to plan!"