Author's Note:
Well, here we have it again and in so short a time. The Muse has found me and holds me in her clutches once more. I hope it is done well enough to be enjoyed, as I have never attempted so much dialogue in a single chapter. Also, I am ashamed to say, this was all written from between 1327 EST and 0029 EST. Regardless, and without further ado, I present to you all, for your careful consideration and enjoyment...
Chapter 4
Due Diligence
Љ
"Heads up and pencils down, students!" called the professor's stern voice, her tone like a violinist hitting a particularly poignant note in a symphony; harsh and commanding, yet melodic and enthralling.
All heads within the muster-class, which were presently handling the first testing battery of their MTU career, obeyed their professor without a second thought. Papers shuffled lightly here and there, giving off the telltale sign that some few were less than confident in their chosen answers. The occasional cough could be heard as well, coming from the students that had already fallen to one of the season's less welcomed gifts.
It was the beginning of winter, for which this particular professor was named, as the biting air permeated the very bones of those attending the school. The season brought with it the MTU's first real trial for all that wished to pass under the hallowed arch at the school's rear, going forth into the world as burgeoning lights to carry the torch of the Schnee Dust Company to ever greater heights.
The battery consisted of something very akin to finals at other colleges. One striking difference was that performance on these tests dictated one's furtherance at the University. Conversely, they promised a swift boot out the door to those that failed.
One particular set of icy eyes, fixated firmly on the large blackboard behind the professor, held absolutely no hint of self-doubt or trepidation. They bespoke only pure and utter calm and collection, the owner of these icy orbs having mostly recovered her former self in these last months. Her air of superiority was back, bringing with it the smooth confidence of the heiress' former self-assurance in her performance of any tasks meted to her.
The source of this convalescence of mind, handed out unwanted as it first was, sat beside the heiress with her icy stare. This one, however, was in much less of a confident mood.
The silver eyes of the heiress' newest, and perhaps only, friend raced across her own test paper. They checked and double-checked as quickly as possible, looking like a blur of molten silver as they scanned the pencil-marks. She was sure she'd left something out, even more sure she had answered most everything wrong.
Business Economics was her least favorite subject, not the least reason being that she absolutely could not comprehend the subject-matter.
"All students, pass your papers to the end of your row!" Winter barked again, in that same commandingly melodic tone, "Line Captains, bring the tests to my desk, posthaste!"
Ruby jumped noticeably, stirring Weiss from the errant rumination that had been mulling around her head for most of the last five months. It was, as it had ever been since that night, the dully throbbing heat in her pinky that defied explanation to the heiress' questioning mind.
As the stack of papers travelling down their own row grew larger, with each test plopped atop it adding a few more millimeters of thickness, it finally came Ruby's turn to add her own. The stack shuffled in front of Weiss, the heiress adding hers absentmindedly as expected, and was passed to the now shivering raven-headed woman. It sat beside her for a moment, as she scanned her own paper one final time, though she knew full well the chance had passed to correct anything, before Ruby laid her own test on it.
She passed the stack to the student beside her, praying that a miracle might save her from the royal screw-up she assured herself this would become.
"Are you alright?" Weiss questioned tentatively, the care in her voice leaking through more than she'd wanted it to.
"Y- Yeah, I'm f- fine…" Ruby stuttered nervously, hating herself a little for even such a small white lie.
Weiss knew she was lying, yet took it at face value all the same. She returned to her ruminations as the Line Captain took their pile to Winter's desk, laying it neatly beside the stacks that had been delivered first.
She continued to drift around in her mind as she now began to think on her studies. The coursework had been lighter than she'd expected from the class, being that her sister was the one running it. It was unwelcomed, to say the least, as the heiress interpreted this to be some small show of familial favoritism. It made her icy blood run hotter, though icy might not be the best descriptor considering her recent disposition.
As she thought these thoughts, a weak whimper caught her ear. She turned her head to the right to see her partner, the ever-amicable and amiable Ruby Rose, with no less than a few thin streams of tears running down her pallid cheeks. The poor woman shook just a tad harder than before, almost as though some titanic war were raging within her lithe form.
Weiss' heart stirred at that sight, giving the heiress pause at the unfamiliar sensation.
"Weiss Schnee!" Winter called suddenly, now standing behind her lectern.
"Yes, Ma'am!" the heiress replied dutifully, standing immediately from her seat.
"Come see me after classes."
The command was succinct and carried the same tone Weiss had always known her sister for. It was cool and aloof and fully warranted of the season for which she was named. Yet, there was something under that tone that caught the heiress and once more gave her pause. There was something in the words and the way they were delivered that told her aught was amiss.
There lay a hint of accusatory anger in Winter's words; something only Weiss picked up on it would seem.
She continued to stand for a few minutes as the meaning behind this seemingly hidden detail mulled around her mind. Winter only watched at first, thinking her sister, and student, had some response, before quickly growing tired of the odd display.
"Care to take your seat so I may recommence teaching, Miss Schnee?" Winter spoke at last. There was a more obvious anger in her words, enough so that even other students could sense it, but she held the bulk of it expertly in check.
Without a word, pulled from her sudden vagrant thoughts with alarming suddenness, Weiss took her seat as bid. Her face felt hot and flushed as she returned to wondering over Winter's odd disposition this day. It was normal, yes quite so, for her sister to be less than warm and fuzzy. Yet, it was not normal for the older Schnee to seem as though she were hiding something, as the woman was known for speaking her mind.
Weiss turned to her partner, a sudden sickness now creeping into her gut, and leveled her icy-blues upon her. The woman still shivered with something like panic or fear, though now not as much so, yet held her own gaze averted from the heiress. She could still pick up on the odd whimper from the woman as she watched, furthering the nauseated feeling that began creeping into the heiress once again.
Had she only discovered what gripped Ruby's heart earlier…
Љ
Weiss' stiletto dress-shoes clacked loudly as she waltzed down the long hall leading to Winter's office. It seemed odd to her, upon first consideration, that a professor would keep their quarters so far from where they taught. She would later realize, and duly understand, why it was Winter hid herself away from the rest of the school to do her planning of lessons and grading of tests.
The hallway stretched forever it seemed, a long corridor of marble walls with a rosy tile floor. All along the marble wall, in even increments that seemed inhumanly accurate, there stood bronze sconces that lit the hallway dimly with raw flame. They danced and flickered in the little bit of wind that carried behind the heiress' quick step, looking like blazing fingers that shook back and forth as though chiding her.
Every now and again, Weiss would pass by one of the many labs and speaking rooms. Their silver and bronze-finished doors would wink coyly at her in the flickering light cast from the sconces, giving the letters that identified each an eerie sort of faux-life. One she passed by caught her interest in passing, enough so that Weiss recalled the oddly titled room until her deathbed.
'All-World Conference Room' it read queerly in the sconce-light, sending an odd shiver up Weiss' spine as she passed it by.
She put the thought from her head as she came at last to Winter's office door, now a full ten minutes into her walk. Though she'd always anticipated the day she would attend this prestigious university, as well as her graduation that would lead her one step closer to surpassing her father and sister, the sheer enormity of the place continued to fill her with awe each and every day it seemed.
The door stood apart from the rest, at the very end of the hallway that seemed as though it would never end. Sunken into a wrought iron frame, its steel surface was marred and pitted with deep gashes and dents. The thing looked as though it had been used as a shield in some grandiose war, sending another shiver down Weiss' spine.
She reached her right hand out to knock when an odd sound caught her ear. It was much like the heavy breathing of one who has been running for a long time, perhaps training for a decathlon or some such endeavor. Along with the heavy breathing, she could hear a dull thud repeatedly sounding off. Something like a chain rattling around joined the chorus, and Weiss knew at once what it must be.
The heiress took a deep breath and opened the door without knocking.
She hadn't even set her left foot on the ground when a whistling whoosh passed her left ear, followed quickly by the high-pitched ringing of steel piercing iron. Her heart stopped for a moment, skipping a few beats before resuming its rhythm in markedly slower progression. Her eyes turned lightning-fast to see what now warbled beside her head, lodged deep in the wrought iron doorframe.
Winter's saber stood menacingly out beside her, at an angle that suggested it had missed the heiress' head by no more than a few millimeters. Had she looked to her feet, Weiss' would've noted the long locks of hair on the floor that had formerly rested over her left ear.
"You took your time, Weiss." Called a clearly infuriated voice, pulling the heiress' attention away from the deadly implement.
Winter stood in front of a well-used punching bag, her face red and uniform slick with sweat. Her hands were bare, the gloves normally covering them left on her desk across the room, and the knuckles were bright red all over. In some spots they were even beginning to turn purple and bled openly at the very tips.
Weiss flicked her gaze to the punching bag and briefly noted the picture that barely clung to its leather surface. It was of an older man, likely in his late thirties or even mid-forties. His face sported the stubble of one that has much more important matters than grooming on his plate. His eyes were the light brown of molasses, sunken into worried sockets that further attested that he had seen much and more in this life.
"We have a very important matter to discuss, concerning you, sister…" Winter stated coldly as she walked swiftly to her desk. The abused bag continued to swing mutedly on its well-oiled chain as Weiss joined her, letting the door slam harshly shut behind her.
Winter took her seat on a posh bit of furniture behind the oaken desk, which looked more like it belonged in some executive's suite, while Weiss took the proffered piece in front. The difference was marked and distinctly commentative, showcasing the present difference between the two that the heiress so dearly wished to topple. Winter's seat was a tall bit of mahogany, painstakingly handmade and adorned with lavish carvings, over which a plush cover of burgundy leather sat. The one offered to Weiss, on the other hand, was little more than a simple conference room chair, made of oak much like the desk, that blatantly cried subordinate status.
As she got comfortable in the less than comfortable seat, Winter's words began to eat into Weiss. Once again, that nauseated sensation was clawing its way through her because of the tone and, this time, the words themselves. The heiress was finding herself wondering if, concerning a certain someone, she might have made a wrong decision.
"Certain things have come to light, Weiss, and I fear I have to come to you with my concerns." Winter began, leaving a sensation of dread to well up further in the younger Schnee, "Though it also concerns your partner, Miss Rose, the burden falls to you."
Weiss stiffened up in her seat as she listened, now worrying openly over what it was. It never failed to irk her how Winter seemed cursed to drag out her statements when in private, leaving one to do little more than worry until she got around to coming out with it.
"Now, what I'm about to lay upon you may seem unfair, Weiss." Winter continued, "However, please realize my hands are tied. Due to unfortunate… circumstances, there is little I can do for you and, I'm sorry to say, you'll simply have to handle this yourself."
Weiss' throat began to close as a cold sweat broke out all over her. Her icy-blues began to stare through her sister as images of previously imagined scenarios played out once again.
"I'll cut right to the chase, then." Winter said morosely, closing her eyes as she leaned her chin on her clasped hands.
Weiss' heart felt ready to pop as it lumbered along in her tightening chest.
"You're going to have to help Miss Rose study for make-up tests."
Winter jumped with an uncharacteristic squeal when a sudden thud broke the near-silence of the room. She had already drawn a small, yet undoubtedly destructive, pistol of some sort from her coat, her own icy eyes darting instinctually around the room. When she finally found the source of the sound, which lay rubbing its head in front of her desk, the older Schnee looked even more ready to use her hidden weapon.
"What the hell was that?!" Winter yelled, letting go of her usual composure.
Weiss lay on the cold floor of her sister's office, rubbing the back of her head where it had smacked the hard surface bellow. She looked up at the woman, her eyes tearing up with both pain and relief, as her face began to flush red. One leg remained slung over the now toppled chair as she tried to sit up.
It took a moment, as well as some small effort, but Weiss managed to pick herself and her seat up before replying.
"You… surprised me with what you said…" Weiss replied blearily as she returned to her seat.
"Well, what did you think I was going to say?!"
Winter still had not regained herself as her younger sister stared at her, eyes full of a tiny bit of awe along with the teary look of pain. It almost looked like a small smile might crack across her face.
"Nothing." Weiss replied flatly, striving to kill the smile before it could further infuriate the woman.
"Yes, well…" Winter began, trailing off as she re-holstered the gun and took her seat, "There you have it. You'll have to help your partner study for a make-up battery in two weeks."
As Weiss collected herself, trying desperately to calm her still-racing heart, it suddenly struck her how ludicrous this was. She remembered clearly that the handbook stated the first-year's Winter Battery was a do-or-die, sink-or-swim, finality. One passed and continued, or one failed and hit the road. It was supposed to be nothing more or less, thus she now gave her sister a quizzical look.
"Wait." Weiss pondered aloud, "Isn't this supposed to be what culls the unfit from the school?"
Winter met her sister's gaze, resting her chin on clasped hands once more, with a look of irritation that seemed not entirely directed at the heiress.
"Indeed, it is. Yet, for a few… relevant reasons, there has been an exception made." She sighed and leaned back in her chair, moving her interlaced hands behind her head in a very uncharacteristically relaxed manner.
"If she fails, it would look bad on me." Weiss muttered wearily, "Is that it?"
"Yes, but that's not all." Winter replied as she closed her eyes, "The woman didn't get in by the usual means. Therefore, due to the prodding of a certain friend of our father's, there is a vested interest in her success here."
A grimace of disgust passed quickly over Winter's face, almost unnoticed by Weiss, as she sucked in a deep gust of air. The sigh that followed sounded distinctly defeated.
"I despise little more than I do bureaucracy, Weiss." She said at last, "But, as I said earlier, my hands are tied and I cannot simply fail and expel her. If she fails this make-up battery, of course, then she's gone."
Weiss' heart stirred oddly, with the same unknown feeling that greeted her when she saw her partner's silent tears earlier. She shut the sensation from her mind.
"Which ones did she fail?" the heiress asked, trying to ignore the odd sensation.
"All but Psychology, apparently." Winter replied with a hint of praise, "It's her major, from what I understand, and it seems a good fit. Unfortunately, to graduate from this university, as you know, she has to cross-major in the company's key aspects. Namely: Business Economics; Business Ethics; Sociology; Market Management; and Advanced IT."
Weiss was doing well in all the subjects her sister had just listed, something she felt more than a little pride in herself for. Still, she marveled at the mountainous task ahead of her partner, whom she assumed wholly inadequate for the trial. It sent another of those peculiar pangs through her as she thought of how the bubbly woman must be dealing with the challenging nature of this place.
"So, how did she do in Economics?" Weiss inquired hopefully.
"Thirty-two percent." Winter replied flatly, "I made sure to grade hers first, and she failed magnificently, dear sister."
A thin ribbon of pain suddenly passed from ear to ear in Weiss' skull as a headache began to threaten its presence. She put the middle and pointer of each hand to her temples and began to rub them softly, hoping to coax the beast away. She knew now that her assumptions of the woman, unkind though they may have been, were nearly spot on.
"We only take the best of the best, Weiss." Winter started up again, still sitting in that unusually relaxed manner, "This Ruby Rose is definitely not that, yet Mr. Axter seems wholly convinced that she be given as much leeway as possible."
The name struck a chord in Weiss, bringing an image to light. She once more thought of the little old tutor of hers, a long-time friend of her father's, that had always hobbled around on his twisted wooden cane. He had always been insistent that the heiress should know more of propriety and morality than anything academic, leading to much of her disillusionment when she later saw the world for what it was.
All the same, however, she had retained a sense of gratefulness for his efforts.
"He's the one?" she asked in disbelief.
"Apparently, though I have no idea why." Winter affirmed, opening her eyes and sitting up properly once more, "So, will you do this, Weiss?"
"I don't exactly have an option." Weiss mused.
"Of course you do, sister." Winter replied with a sly grin, "You could always give up and deny the request I've made."
Weiss eyed her sister's cold stare, considering the words briefly. She knew full well that she was being goaded, as was Winter's usual Mo, yet she knew better than to play into it. There was also, aside from Winter's obvious trap, a reason to accept the 'requested' task.
Mr. Axter's tired old gaze entered her mind, giving Weiss all the reason she needed to reply as she did.
"Oh, I'll do it." She said coolly, flashing her own sly grin, "Count on it, Sis."
Winter was taken aback somewhat by the look in Weiss' eye.
Ђ
The cup of strong coffee she held in her hands shook nervously, much like the rest of Ruby's body. Her silver eyes were wide as dinner plates, from the caffeine as much as the anxiety eating at her this very moment. Her teeth chattered and her skin crawled as she looked over the pile of tests laid out in front of her, covering the scratched surface of Weiss' coffee table. She darted her gaze from test to test, reading and rereading the large red numbers on each.
Weiss sat beside her, looking carefully through her student handbook. She was leaned back and relaxed as much as her partner was huddled forward and anxious. One leg sat atop the other, the back of one knee overtop of the other, as she lightly kicked at the air. Her cool and collected demeanor was the antithesis of Ruby's at this moment as she sipped at her own coffee, held haphazardly in the other hand.
This scene had played out rather unchanged for the last hour, ever since Weiss had brought her partner to her own dorm-room for a session of hard study. Thus far, however, it had only consisted of the heiress trying to satisfy a curiosity while her partner seemed sure that her grades would magically change if she only kept staring at them.
They did not, of course, no matter how hard she gazed.
"You're a psychology major, right?" Weiss asked, breaking the silence and startling Ruby.
The woman jumped only slightly, sloshing some of the bitter beverage onto her hand. It was lucky that the coffee was no longer piping hot.
"Yes…" she seemed to apologize more than affirm.
Weiss closed the book with a muted thud, sitting up and tossing it onto the table. She hadn't felt this comfortable in years when it came to a relaxed atmosphere, though it did not occur to her that this was the case. Her mind was already busy putting together lesson plans and ideas for pounding the information into her partner's head. This left little free space in her conscious mind to wonder why she was presently so at home with herself.
"It looks like Business Economics is your worst subject, huh?" Weiss said as she picked up the test and started flipping through its pages.
"Yeah…" Ruby sighed, "But, I've never really been good at math. Asking me to name all these obscure formulae and algorithms is just cruel!"
"It's not just you, Ruby…" Weiss chided absentmindedly, "Everyone here has to take these five classes just to graduate; along with whatever major one choses, that's what makes this university so prestigious."
The heiress' icy-blues crawled across the paper, making note of each wrong answer and speculating the possible train of thought that might've led to it. Ruby watched this as she took another sip from the lukewarm coffee, cringing slightly at the bitterness.
"Look here..." Weiss spoke at last, leaning toward the woman, "This formula can be most easily recalled if you observe how it's set up."
"Take this and this…" she continued, marking a few numbers and clusters of numbers, "and if you move them here, adding them up on their own, it should make more sense."
Ruby's eyes grew wide with amazement as she watched. The formula did indeed make more sense when she saw it solved in the heiress' manner, after rearranging the numbers and using them in a different equation. She took another careful sip of the coffee, this time not even remotely noting the bitterness.
"And this one…" Weiss began, showing the awed woman yet another way to rearrange a formula for easier recollection.
This went on for two hours as Weiss gave her partner method after method for easier memorization of the admittedly complex material. The session was interrupted thirty minutes in, predictably, when the heiress took a break to refill their coffee. From there, it proceeded exactly the same until a certain zenith was reached.
Weiss finally realized, after the two hours of acting as a tutor for the first time in her life, just how underequipped the woman was for the MTU. She decided it best to learn more of her foe, that being Ruby's seeming lack of capability, and stopped their lesson to pose her questions.
"Ruby…" she began gingerly, unusual for her, as she sat the present test paper on the table, "Why did you actually decide to come here?"
The woman looked at her quizzically, tilting her head to the right like a puppy hearing a strange new noise. Her silver eyes glimmered wonderingly in the light given off from one of the ancillaries over Weiss' desk. She moved to set her coffee down, turning her eyes back to the table, and took a deep breath of air before releasing an equally deep sigh. It sounded positively relieved.
"I'm here because you offered to help me study for make-ups, Weiss." She replied cheerily.
The heiress could only stare her down with a look of mixed amazement and curiosity, which turned swiftly to mild ire when she realized the woman was blatantly playing dumb. She clucked her tongue angrily as she crossed her arms and leaned back into the sofa. She kept her gaze leveled on the woman, her icy eyes now giving off a distinct look of exasperation.
"There are many other universities and colleges aside from this one, Ruby." She said matter-of-factly, "You could have gone to any number of other places that would let you study psychology in peace. Places that wouldn't ask you to study and learn five awfully hard subjects in just five years."
Weiss narrowed her eyes, watching the woman as she tried to measure her up. Unknown to the heiress, Ruby did exactly the same, sans the narrowed eyes, as she turned her own gaze to see how well the heiress saw through her, if at all.
"So, why this university?" Weiss asked again, relaxing her posture.
Ruby looked away, breaking the stare down, and took hold of her coffee again. She still jittered a little with the caffeine rush that was only just letting go of her, yet, as she raised the delicate cup to her lips, she put on her most mature air of calm and composure. She took a long, deep sip and let the warm bitterness sit for a moment, thinking hard how she should reply, before finishing with a satisfied sigh.
"I guess you could say I was… forced?" she half replied, half asked, as she took another slow sip.
"I beg your pardon?" Now Weiss was sitting up, her back stiffening with indignation as she gazed accusingly at her partner. Her eyes said loudly what her prudish nature, now mostly healed and returned in full force, would never let her.
"People have literally killed to get in here, Missy." The heiress spat with no attempt to hide her growing ire, "People study their whole lives and subject themselves to all sorts of humiliations and owed favors to get in here. People have been turned away, who were more than capable of paying any price to attend, simply because their intellect won them no spot and they didn't know anyone to pull some strings."
Ruby was still considering the mouthful of coffee that sat on her tongue, the last drops of her cup, as the heiress rambled on.
"I'm sorry, but explain to me how you were forced to attend a university where people borrow, beg, cheat, steal or even murder to just get their foot in the door?" Weiss finished, now huffing and panting for air.
"My sister…" Ruby replied listlessly, setting the empty cup down, "And some weird little guy named 'Asten' or 'Axen'…"
As though her blood weren't already boiling, Weiss all but coiled up like an angry viper on the inside at the mention of her old tutor's name. Her face flushed red and her arms shook as they sat crossed over her bosom, which now heaved heavily with strained breath.
"Axter?" she questioned as calmly as she could manage.
"Yeah, that was it!" Ruby replied, energetically but still a tad morose in her tone.
"What does he have to do with you getting in here?" the heiress inquired, her tone relaxing only slightly.
"Well, it's a long story…" Ruby said with what looked like embarrassment.
"I have plenty of time."
Weiss had not lied; she had time, much and more, with which she could presently do most anything. It had struck her as odd, earlier, that her old tutor had anything to do with the woman's enrollment. Now though, with the word 'forced' being thrown into the mix, she was all ears and ready to devote any amount of time needed to learn the answer.
"My sister, she's an amazing huntress…" Ruby stated admiringly as she began to recount a story that would last well into the night.
Ђ
Weiss remembered much of what was being told to her, though it was an odd thing to hear one's own history recounted from a different angle. It held her interest in full as the raven-headed woman recounted it in splendid detail. The way she embellished each bit of it told the heiress that the woman held no small amount of admiration for her older sister, this 'Blazing Sol', and that it might even border on something like idolization.
Some four years earlier, as Weiss herself recalled, her father had received a call while on one of his rare visits to his younger daughter's college. He had wasted no time, as soon as it was made apparent that it was business related, in excusing himself to attend to the matter. He left Weiss alone at the table they had been sharing, sitting near a window in the little tea shop just outside the school.
She remembered well his scowling face when he'd returned, his cup of tea now cold and his daughter's all but consumed. She also remembered well, as he gave her what little detail he was willing to, the feeling of acid crawling up her throat and needles poking her heart.
"The White Fang, along with some weird tamed Grimm, took that Axter dude hostage." Ruby said, pulling Weiss back into the moment and away from her memories, "So, Beacon dispatched my sister to get him back as something of a graduation test. Her and another girl, one I've never met, that calls herself… Nightshade, I think."
Weiss poured them both more coffee from the carafe sitting in front of them, filling their cups nearly over. The steaming liquid poured out like flowing ichor, sending the aroma of charred chestnut throughout the private dorm-room. She then took a cup and handed it to her partner, almost dropping it as she listened to the story with utter intrigue.
"They found him in a mostly abandoned city, one that had been lost and decimated in the last war." She continued, cup in hand, "For a strike-team of only two, the mission was considered nearly impossible. I swear, I could've killed that idiot headmaster when I found out. Dad said the same thing, come to think of it…"
She trailed off in remembrance, taking a slow sip, before moving on.
"She told me they found him in an even older city, buried deep beneath the ruined one, that had a train-track running through it. They stopped the White Fang and killed lots of Grimm, but realized that a train had departed with their rescue target onboard.
"They followed after it on foot and caught the thing before it got to speed. Then, while they were making their way through, she told me they fought some weird girl with an umbrella. Oh, and the weirdest thing about her…"
Ruby leaned in close, as though she were going to share a juicy secret.
"Her eyes were constantly changing between brown, pink and white. Or, so my sister swears."
She leaned back, sporting one of her goofy grins, and took yet another nip of her coffee. The warm feeling was very welcome in the slight cold that pierced the room, reaching them from the frigid air outside that overpowered the amazing insulation of the building. It also helped her to keep going on, nervous as she was that her newfound friend might not believe her or, heavens forfend, might even not like her after hearing how she got in.
She was already knee-deep and it was swim no matter which way she went from here. Thus, with another warming sip, she went on.
"Anyway, to make a long story short, they found him in the head-car." She went on, a twinkle now glowing brightly in her silver eyes, "My sister and Nightshade, they stopped the guy that was making Axer-"
"Axter." Weiss corrected.
"Right, him. They stopped the guy that was trying to make him program a bomb or something. Then, the three went and stopped the train from crashing into a blockade at the tunnel's end, saving an entire city from countless subterranean Grimm!"
Ruby jumped up and waved her arms through the air, as though proclaiming the sheer awesomeness of her idolized sister, and unwittingly threw the better part of half a cup of coffee across the room. She yelped in surprise and horror as soon as she realized what she'd done, her face burning red with embarrassment almost instantly.
She dropped the cup, which, amazingly, did not explode into a thousand pieces, and slapped her hands over her mouth in disbelief. She remembered, suddenly, why her sister never let her have coffee when they were younger.
"I'll clean it up later." Weiss stated calmly, as though it were perfectly normal to sling one's beverage in excitement, "Please, continue. Let me hear the last of this."
Ruby looked away from the long splatter of coffee that covered a swath of the carpet, and even the right half of the foot of the heiress' bed, and rested her silver eyes on her partner. To her utter surprise, Weiss looked absolutely entranced and seemed not to give the lesser of two shits about what had just been done with her expensive libation, to her expensive room no less.
"I'm sorry, Weiss…" Ruby muttered abashedly as she sat back down.
"I said I'll clean it up." Weiss replied, sounding somewhat irritated, "So, like I also said, please go on. I want to hear the rest of this because I have more questions for you; if my intuition is right that is."
Ruby swallowed audibly, pushing the lump that had formed in her throat away, and went on as bid.
"Well, when they got back to Beacon, that Asser dude-"
"Axter."
"Right, right, Axter…" now her face was positively blazing with red, camouflaging the crimson tips of her hair, "He was really nice and offered to give my sis a little something extra for all her awesome work. He told her he'd give her anything she asked for that was in his power, so long as it wasn't too outrageous. So, she thought for a while and asked him if she could take him up on it later. When he told her yes, she thanked him and took some leave to come home.
"I guess she ended up choosing what she did because I've never been really strong. She knew I wanted to be a huntress too when we were little, but since an accident when we were really young I've gotten sick very easy. Signal wouldn't take me because of that, and since she blamed herself, I guess, she sorta took it on herself to be twice the huntress for both of us."
Ruby stopped and almost looked as though she were thinking deeply. Her eyes shut and her right hand rose, middle and pointer extended, to begin rubbing the side of her head. The odd gesture passed as quickly as it came.
"She came home while I was going to a local college." Ruby resumed, interlacing her fingers and placing her hands on her lap, "She hung around for a week before asking me to join her for a little trip into the nearby city. We went to a few places, even got some ice-cream, and then she asked me something funny. Something I didn't get until a weird letter came in the mail last year.
"She asked me if I still wanted to help people. I said yes, of course, and she just left it at that."
Ruby stopped and looked closely at Weiss, noticing that the heiress seemed far and away from the present moment. She looked to the woman much like she was lost in recollection, which was spot on the mark. She was, however, quite intently listening all the same.
"Please, finish." She said, moving her hand in a circle from the wrist.
"Well, she went back to Beacon and graduated." Ruby went on obligingly, "Three years after that, right after I got my first job with my technical degree, I got a weird letter in the mail in a really fancy envelope. It said I had been accepted into this place and that I needed to come in for an interview, which led up to this, I guess."
"Well, that answers most of it." Weiss said, "But I do have a few more questions, if you'd humor me."
Ruby regarded her partner with wide eyes. She'd not yet, in the full six months she'd been at the university, heard the woman speak so humbly. It was almost scary.
"Yeah, sure…" she muttered cautiously.
"It's good to know who saved my favorite tutor, and I suppose it's pretty neat that his savior's sister is attending with me, but I have to ask…"
Weiss paused, her face twisting as she considered her question. It looked like she was chewing something very nasty in her mind.
"Why would you start, um..."
She paused once more as it came again, washing over her face like some awful smell had found her nose. Ruby almost laughed, barely hiding the chuckle as Weiss' brain continued to turn circles.
"Why did I start stripping?" Ruby spoke up, finishing the heiress' thought.
"Yeah… that." Weiss affirmed, looking miserably embarrassed.
The raven-headed woman snorted a short giggle, leaning back on the couch before the real laughter could come tearing out. She clutched her stomach and shook as she tried to stifle the attack, tears welling in her eyes from the withheld laughter. After a few moments of this, perhaps a minute at most, she sat back up and regarded the heiress with her widest smile yet.
"You don't have to act so reserved, Weiss." She said happily, "It's been a while now since I made you that promise. Aren't we friends, yet?"
Weiss' face washed red, her ears even beginning to burn, as that odd feeling shot through her heart again. It felt like even the ice of her icy-blue eyes would melt.
She turned her face away and mumbled something under her breath.
"What?" Ruby said, cupping her right ear.
"Nothing!" the heiress replied indignantly, "Just answer my question…"
Ruby's silver eyes glimmered even brighter as she gave one more heartwarming chuckle. It sent the oddest feeling yet through Weiss' spine.
"I passed the entrance exams, by some kinda miracle, but failed to qualify for a scholarship." She said flatly yet jovially.
"This place has scholarships?" Weiss half asked, half barked in surprise.
"Well, for us poorer folks that manage to get in, yeah. But I couldn't qualify, not smart enough I guess, so I had to figure out how to pay it myself and fast."
The smile stayed on her face as she went on, but it seemed to dim gradually. Weiss only barely noticed and noted this.
"I didn't want my sister to know, so I went and tried to find a way to pay for it myself. Needless to say, I almost passed out when I saw the tuition total. Still, I thought to myself, there must be some way to pay for it here. Someone willing to sponsor me or something, you know? I just couldn't let her down, not after she got me in here already."
The woman's silver eyes lolled slowly to the picture-frame on Weiss' bed, sticking there as she went on.
"So I went to the city to find some kind of work." She went on, now sounding off somehow, "I applied to a few places, but none of them would pay enough for me to make it work. Then, while I was walking through the Oasis District, this guy approached me. He startled me, of course, and I was ready to run away at first, and I can run really fast.
"But when he started talking to me, I could see he wasn't dangerous. I've always had a good eye for seeing through people."
Weiss knew this last statement to be nothing if not true.
"He talked to me for a bit. We even went to sit in that park while we kept on talking. When it came to what I was doing just wandering around, I told him I needed a job, and a well-paying one at that, and I needed it fast. So he asked me what I needed it for and I told him.
"Gosh, Weiss, I've never seen someone laugh as much as he did after I told him. I thought he'd never stop, I even thought someone might call the police on him. When he finished, though, he finally introduced himself and offered me a job. He said his name was Mahogany Saxton and he needed a new dancer at his club very badly. He told me I looked like I could handle it and even offered to let me work short hours."
She stopped as a look of shame washed over her soft features, her silver eyes glossing as though tears were suddenly fighting to be let through. Whatever it was, however, she pushed it away and went on admirably.
"When he explained to me that it was basically stripping, I felt like slapping him and walking away. If he hadn't quickly explained that most of his dancers were students here, and that he made them all wear masks to hide their identity, I might have done just that. The last nail in that coffin was when he said he'd pay my way in full if I danced for just two years."
She turned her silver gaze to lock with Weiss' icy-blues, sending a jolt of what felt like electricity through the heiress. There was pleading in those eyes; pleading for mercy, for repudiation and for relief. It hurt her to see it, for some reason she couldn't put her finger on, and it made Weiss herself feel like she might shed a tear or two.
She had never felt that way about another person.
"How could I say no?" Ruby asked, almost pleaded, with that same look of hurt in her eyes, "I couldn't say no. I didn't say no…"
It was small and thin and barely noticeable when the first tear dropped. With no small effort, Ruby kept it at only the one tiny stream as her face grew redder.
"I couldn't let my sister down by wasting this chance, and I certainly couldn't tell her I failed to make it on my own, so I went for it. I felt dirty, too, you know? Dirty and exposed and… just… filthy."
She stopped and turned her gaze away, wrapping her arms about herself as she thought of it. She shook with disgust and nausea as the feeling washed through her. The usual air of unbreakable happiness and unassailable positivity was all but gone, replaced with the truth of her feelings as the woman bore herself to her partner. She had not intended to, not at first, but found herself unable to stop the revelations as she went on.
Perhaps it was the excitement of having a friend, at last, in this oh so foreign place she now resided.
"That's why you chased me, isn't it?"
Weiss' voice, as well as her question, pierced the woman like an arrow of ice. It nearly stopped her heart in its tracks as the truth bit into her; a truth, she realized at this moment, that she had not fully comprehended herself. It would've relieved her, if only a little, to know that the heiress understood it even less so than she did.
"Yeah, that's part of it." Ruby agreed listlessly, "I was glad to know that someone else, someone like you, had anything at all to do with a place like that. It made me feel like I wasn't a total screw-up and, in some weird way, like maybe I was doing something right."
Ruby relaxed herself a tad, unfurling her arms and leaning back against the sofa.
"When your mask came off, and I saw it really was you, I couldn't just let you go off to whatever you were running into. You looked so… naked with fear. And that's saying something, considering I was on my way to being nude on a stage, you know?
"I chased you because I wanted to help get that look of terror out of your eyes. I only saw it for a moment before you ran off, but I still knew I couldn't leave it at that. So, I went after you…"
The room was silent for a time; silent as the grave. The only sounds that permeated the still atmosphere were the occasional soft whispers of the groaning wind, billowing the cold of winter through the outside air, that managed to pierce the building's walls. Every now and again, a door could also be heard, though only barely, as some other important personage went about their business in some other part of the dormitory.
Otherwise, it was only the silence between these two as each thought over what had just been laid out.
Ђ
Weiss was relieved, if calling it such did the feeling justice, to finally know who had saved Mr. Axter. Her father had spent no small fortune to see the man returned alive and well. He knew intimately what the White Fang did to members of his company, and important ones even more so, and had no intent to simply watch and wait while the poor old man likely faced a terrible death.
It felt odd, as well, to know that she was partnered with the sister of the man's savior. Had she been more of a religious or even superstitious person, Weiss might've considered lending credence to the preposterous idea of fate. Yet, whatever it was, it made her happy in some small, underused part of her heart. It brought a smile to her barely-pink lips as she thought about it.
Then there was the matter of Ruby, who now looked as though she'd just been given some unimaginably awful news. It was clear to the heiress, of course, what that look across her raven-haired partner's face really was.
It was the look of shame and guilt that accompanies self-doubt and supposition that is smashed by conflicting opinions and attitudes, both internal and external, when one takes a chance on something unfamiliar only to find themselves neck-deep and unable to swim. It was the very same look that had decorated her own scarred face, as she had stared deeply into her mirror on many nights these last years. It was the look of disgust that comes when your heart says you're a good person and your mind says you're an amoral monster.
She knew it well; well enough to hate seeing it on the woman's face, that is.
"So, are you going to keep doing it?" Weiss asked suddenly, breaking the silence like a hammer.
"Doing what?" Ruby asked in reply, her gaze now trained on the ceiling as she lay back against the couch.
"Making your sister proud by getting by with your own hands."
This shot deep and well, hitting the morose and abashed woman right where the guilt was strongest. It seemed to crack, almost enough to be felt, as the iron grip loosened, if only a little. She turned her silver eyes to the heiress, the look of pleading now mixed with curiosity.
"You may not be doing it how you imagined, and I don't doubt it makes you feel…" Weiss trailed off, thinking of how to say it, "I'm sure it makes you feel used, but you're doing it on your own. You're taking the opportunity she gave you and making it work. Wouldn't that make her proud?"
Ruby looked as though she might truly burst into tears as the iron chains of guilt weakened further under Weiss' sage words. Her lip trembled and her eyes glimmered even more with tears barely held in check. Yet, as this went on, those trembling lips managed to curl upward in the weakest of smiles.
"You're right, Weiss…" she said at last, sounding far and away, "Thank you…"
Weiss felt it again, and was now growing somewhat perplexed as much so as annoyed with the feeling, as Ruby's tone sent that odd twinge through her heart. It was warm and gentle, but it made the underused organ feel as though it must suddenly begin racing. She didn't dislike it, per se, but she was growing tired of not understanding it.
"Well, you've got one part down pat at least." The heiress mused, "Now we just have to get you set on the grades, no?"
Ruby wiped away a few tears that had managed to fall free and gave the woman one of her bright smiles. It stemmed both from the heiress' words as well as the fact that, as it now seemed, the snowy-haired woman had warmed up to her.
The study went on for another hour, after their long palaver had eaten up four by itself, before they packed up and parted ways. Ruby left with a smile decorating her soft features once more and went on her way to the small apartment in which she stayed. Weiss saw her off with a fonder wave than she had given anyone in recent memory, returning to her room and going about cleaning up the mess from earlier.
When she finally turned in for the night, the heiress' heart felt unusually warm. She thought briefly that she must be getting sick.