Author's Note:

Woo, very early morning boxing day update. It's about 2 here.

Anyways, judging from the title and the premise of the last few chapters you can guess where I am planning to go with this fic.

With that in mind, it's going to come to an end very soon, I expect in about three to four chapters.

Hopefully you'll enjoy how it will end.

As usual, please leave a review with your thoughts, and I hope that you enjoyed it.

- Lor

Chapter 8: Getting Closer

A couple of weeks passed, it was now the week that we were supposed to perform. Winter was beginning to set in as Weiss was progressing nicely as a student. And I had received an idea for a new piece and had just finished it, Weiss explained to me the poem the day after one of our lessons.

"Hey Weiss," I said as she was packing up her belongings.

"Yes Joseph?" She responded.

"You know that poem that you said to yourself the first day that I met you?" I said.

"Yes?" She answered.

"What's the full poem?" I asked. "Just out of curiosity."

"It's a poem that my mother used to tell me when I was five, before, before she passed away," Weiss paused for a bit.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I pitied her. Losing one's mother at five must've been daunting. Especially for Weiss who grew up alone while hating her father, her only relative that tried to take control of her own life. I wondered if there was something about this which could explain why Hector was so controlling of her. I decided to not press the issue but instead pull up a chair next to her.

"It's alright, I didn't remember much of her," She lied. But at the time I simply agreed with her and let her go on. She took a breath before telling me about the poem. She pulled out a pen and a pad of paper and began to write.

Magic mirror, mirror on the wall, what is wrong with me?

Am I too nice, am I too cruel? Why is it that I'm like this?

Tell me who I am, and why is this my role, why can't I run.

I want to run, run, run, and run from myself, but all I see is myself.

Mirror, mirror, tell me how to fix myself, mend my heart, mend it to let others in.

I'm alone in the dark, mirror, why will my sun not shine?

Light, life, where is mine? Why can't I have it? Where is my hope?

Mirror on the wall, show me who I am, why can't I mend my heart?

Where is my saviour, my prince, why won't he come?

The prince of light, slayer of darkness with the key to the door why won't you free me?

Mirror on the wall, why won't you show the true me? Why do you show the dark?

Why am I alone? Why, why, why …

For you are the loneliest of them all.

Weiss finished reciting to me the poem; it touched me and gave me inspiration at the same time. "Thanks Weiss," I thanked it, it was a beautiful poem.

Weiss was primarily silent for a moment which seemed odd to me. Her face was phased out, as if she wasn't here. Her eyes stared straight at the paper while her mind was absent. I called for her, "Weiss, Weiss?" I called, shaking her a bit.

She shook herself out of whatever trance she was in, she shook her head and faced me, "What, what?" She stammered.

"Weiss, you were gone for a second, is everything okay?" I asked her, I was very concerned for her. This usually didn't happen; she was usually punctual and attentive. There was however that one time that she confessed her troubles to me, and now with this I wondered if there was more to her childhood than what I thought.

"Everything is fine," She brushed it off but I could feel a bit of unease. I didn't want to press on in fear that she was not ready to tell me anything.

"Okay Weiss, have a good day, if you wish to talk to me, I'll always be here," I replied taking the poem and thinking about the piece that I was going to compose.

"Thank you," Weiss curtsied before leaving the room, closing it gently and leaving me in the room.

I began to draft up ideas for the instrumentation afterwards and began work. Eventually completing a quarter of the piece, it was to be an orchestral work with a vocal solo. Things were going well, Weiss didn't seem to have troubles and I didn't receive a call. I was relieved to see that she was alright for now; she came home and went straight to her room. This wasn't unusual so I dismissed it.

Or so I thought.

An hour after Weiss got home I began to hear sobs coming from the next room. I knew immediately that it was Weiss, and as I'm the only one available and accountable for her as a person I walked over rather hurriedly. I felt myself rushing over, far faster than how I would normally go.

I cracked open the door slowly to find Weiss on her bed, lying on her front and crying into her pillow. "Weiss?" I called, she didn't move, but she did seem to stop crying for a moment. I moved over and sat on the bed, tapping her shoulder. "Are you okay?" I then asked, she pushed herself off of the ground and I could see the water and redness of her eyes.

In response I pulled her into a hug as she clung onto my shoulder. She began to sob into my shirt as she wailed. "Hnnn!" She continued to wail for the next hour as I put my head onto her shoulder.

I began to pat her back, "There, there," I said soothingly. I then moved one of my hands onto her head and began to pet her while holding onto her body.

We embraced each other for a long while the cries slowly died down. She sniffled before sitting up, making me let go of her. She then faced the ground as she couldn't bear to even look anywhere else. She leaned her head on my shoulder for comfort as she continued to sniffle.

I dared not to say a word as I did not want to disturb her further. She was completely distraught as she was silent. She then decided to speak through much struggle. "M-m-my mother," She took a deep breath before letting out more sniffles. "D-Died w-when, I-I was o-only s-six."

"S-She w-was, the b-best." She paused before beginning to cry again, I petted her head and comforted her again. "It was all my fault!" She screamed, cutting through the silence and echoing throughout the entire room.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"W-When I-I was b-born, m-m-my m-mother h-had an i-illness," She said.

"Because of you?" I asked, provoking her to explain.

"Yes!" She screamed wailing into my shirt as her scream echoed in the room. "I w-was, t-the r-reason, t-that she suffered. Five painful years! Do you understand how much my father hated me!"

"I'm so sorry Weiss," I said, "I truly am."

"A-And the worst part! The worst part! S-She loved me so much!" Weiss screamed once more. "And it was all my fault … all mine."

"Weiss, none of it was your fault," I told her.

"It was!" She screamed once more.

Well, at least you're not crying anymore. "You can't let it bother you."

Weiss stayed silent as she leaned on my shoulder. I turned her to face me before speaking to her again. "Weiss, you can't let this break you. Those things happened in the past, you aren't to blame."

"I know," She told me. "But, it was, hard growing up," She took a deep breath, "I was alone, and scared. And I just didn't know what to do. I was made fun of and hated by everyone. I even thought about killing myself."

"Weiss, you're not alone now," I told her. "I'm here for you and I always will be."

"I, I know, but, it's just," She began before I stopped her.

"Weiss, I care about you a lot," I told her. "So listen to me. You're amazing and talented. Not to mention that you truly care about others. Even though you grew up alone," I took a pause before continuing. "So stop treating yourself like this."

"I, I know, it's just, hard," She replied moving her head to lie down on my lap.

"Take a step every day and I'll be with you until the end," I told her petting her head.

We stayed like this for a couple of hours until she dozed asleep. I took out my phone from my pocket, only slightly moving it so that I didn't disturb Weiss, who was fast asleep. She tired herself out in that scene, I couldn't blame her. When you realize that you were the cause of suffering to the most greatest person in the world to you you'd be in guilt. In Weiss' case it was extreme guilt, simply for existing the suffering of her mother occurred.

I texted the group and told them to practice by themselves again tonight. I sighed as I lied back on Weiss' bed. Taking a heavy nap until dinner came. The day passed by as we spent time together on the bed. Sleeping and relaxing our bodies, later that day I heard a knock on the door, Weiss had transitioned herself to lie down next to me. Her arm rested on me, I gently got up, thankfully my hair didn't become a mess so I tidied myself up a bit and answered the door to the best of my ability.

I opened the door to find a butler there, he was dressed immaculately as usual. "Oh," He exclaimed before returning back to his usual respectable manner. "Master Joseph, I was not expecting you to be in Ms. Schnee's room."

"Yes, we had an extra lesson," I made up an excuse on the spot. Hoping to sound authentic and pass off, I knew how close Hector kept his servants. If Hector found out what I had done for Weiss and what we were doing just previously he would tear me apart. He already warned me once and I was a bit afraid of what he might do if he caught me doing it again. I looked sternly at the servant who was studying me. I tried to the best of my ability to make myself look normal.

"Very well, I also have a message for you, Master Joseph," The butler continued on.

I sighed a breath of relief, assuming that he bought into my act, "That was really tense."

"What did you expect sir?" He asked. "You just opened the door to Miss Schnee's room. Anyways, Master Schnee wishes to host a performance in the Schnee name to display his daughter's talent. After which a party will be held, he wishes you to prepare Miss Schnee for the performance and to arrange for the accompaniment. He has planned the date for the 24th of December."

"That's in a few weeks," I told him.

"Then you best not disappoint him, good day," The butler finished, taking his leave down to the main level.

I closed the door to find Weiss sitting up on her bed, stretching her arms. I sat down next to her and she leaned her head on my shoulder. I found this a bit odd but I didn't want to disturb her, she was distraught after all just a few hours ago. "Are you okay Weiss?" I asked.

"Yes, I am," She said. "Who was at the door?"

"One of the servants," I told her.

"Mmm," She hummed.

I didn't want to break the news to her, she was very, very drowsy right now and I could easily tell that she wasn't paying attention. Her voice lacked any energy and she seemed to not really care about anything that was happening. "Weiss, get some sleep, I'll see you tonight." I told her, setting her down on her bed.

She pulled the blankets up and lied down, almost immediately sleeping. I smiled slightly, it felt good that I had helped her through the troubling time. It was also relieving that she had stopped being completely distraught and wailing. I noticed that her hair was covering her eyes and that she was still wearing her hair clip. I took it off of her hair and placed it on a desk that was beside the bed. I then tidied her hair up and left.

I closed the door gently before returning to my room, it was very late in the night and I had already called off my appearance in the practice. I sighed, I was doing that quite a bit now a days. I need to get back to them, I've already disappointed them quite a bit. I shook myself out of the trance and began to get back to work on the composition.

The following day Weiss came to my room a lot earlier than usual. She knocked on the door, shaking me out of my slumber. I sat up on my bed as my arms lazily lied down on the bed. I had barely opened my eyes as I wiped my mouth of drool. She then knocked again after a long pause and I made my way to the door. "Who is it?" I said, grumpily. I opened the door to find Weiss dressed up. She seemed to be holding something in her hands. "Oh, Weiss!" I corrected myself. "What time is it? Isn't it too early?"

"I, I just wanted to say thank you for yesterday," She told me, handing me a neatly wrapped envelope with both of her hands.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Thank you! What's this?" I opened the envelope to find two reservation tickets to see a jazz performance in a jazz café.

"I got us two reservations at a jazz café, it would've been today but it was booked all week. This is my way of thanking you," She said, I noticed that her voice was a bit shaky so I directed my eyes a bit upwards. Her cheeks were a bit flushed.

"What's the matter Weiss?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing at all," She denied.

"So why are you blushing?" I asked.

She turned even redder than before, "W-Well …" She paused for quite a while, clearly embarrassed of the whole situation.

I laughed, "It's alright, you, didn't have to do this."

"It's just, you mean a lot to me, Joseph," She told me, flat out.

"And you mean a lot to me too," I told her. "Anyways, ready to begin the lesson?"

She went with me into the class room while I set up for the day. The sun was barely even rising as the nights were getting longer. There had been a trickle of snow which was on and off for the past few weeks though. "Weiss, has your father told you about your performance for these aristocrats?" I asked.

"Yes," She answered. "He told me that you were going to prepare me for it?"

Last night, as I was mulling over in my sleep, I realized how much the poem related to Weiss, and in sense, my piece as well. "Yes, I was wondering if you would like to perform one of my own compositions," I asked, handing her the composition that I was working on.

"This is based off of the poem that I gave you," She stated.

"Do you have a problem with it?"

"No, not at all, it looks good."

She then began to sing out the vocal part and I felt a ring in my ears. This ring seemed to tell me that it was exactly what I had envisioned it to sound like. It sounded absolutely breathe taking as Weiss voice carried the melody. It was a mixture of her own unique voice and the emotion that she conveyed. The slightly cold tone mixed well with the words of the song, adding an extra effect to it.

"Weiss," I began. "That sounded absolutely wonderful." I complimented her, clapping my hands while doing so. "I have a question, and, this might be a bit personal."

"I'm ready Joseph," She told me.

"Did the poem particularly pertain to you? It's okay if you don't want to answer it."

Weiss took a deep breath, "It's fine, I guess, I felt a heavy connection to the poem. It's as if the poem was meant for me. Ever since my mother died I grew colder, as my father blamed me for it I grew depressed. Nobody was there to help me, and I guess that I began to shut out anybody that would. And I guess I still do, I guess they were right, calling me Ice Princess."

"Weiss, you're wrong," I told her. "You're amazing, and you're not alone. I'm here for you, and always will be."

She looked up and smiled at me slightly, "Thank you, it means a lot."

"You're welcome, now, back to the lesson," I said.

A few things came from that, one of them being the fact that I felt a very strong bond with Weiss. I could relate to her as well, never having the true love from out parents. Mine didn't care about me at all and left me with my uncle. I was glad for that at least, at least I had a parental figure that guided me and loved me.

Weiss on the other hand, was a different story; she had no one, no one at all. She later explained to me that even the kids in school hated her. They thought that she was stuck up, I couldn't blame her, when all of this pain was coming your way she responded by shutting everybody out. She hardened herself and became resistant to everybody, denying them access into her. She found that this would be the most effective way to stop the pain.

Yet, I shed a tear on the inside; I don't know why I did. I felt immense sorrow for Weiss but I did not show it. Where is this feeling coming from? Why do I feel so much for Weiss?

We finished the lesson and after sending her off I began to reflect over the past two days. Why do I feel so much for her? Is it because I'm her teacher? Or is it something more? I paced my room back and forth trying to figure out the answer. Argh! Why! Why do I feel so connected to her? She's my student, so it should be a strictly student and teacher relationship.

But, wait, what if there was something else? Something else that I am feeling besides empathy, what if it's something more? Something deeper, something more … affectionate, wait, no, that can't be! I paused for a moment before something else hit me. Everything up to this point could be connected with one word. Love … could it be? It, it would make sense as to why Weiss blushes around me at awkward moments.

But, it can't be … can it?