[In case anyone was wondering, there's a reason why I haven't mentioned Willow Schnee yet. You'll see...]
By the time the horses were returned to their stalls, the girls had made it back inside to clean up to get ready for dinner. Weiss, however, was in for a surprise, for when she returned to her room she saw Ruby's suitcase laying on her bed.
"Did you do this?" Weiss asked her team leader suspiciously. Ruby frantically shook her head no and held up her hands in protest.
"I swear on Zwei's life, I did not do this! I promise! I know the rules! Separate bedrooms for the whole trip."
"She's telling the truth," Winter said from behind, stepping into the room. "I had asked Klein to move Ms. Rose's belongings to Weiss' room before we left to go ride horses."
Now Ruby was even more confused, but Weiss was there to offer some clarification.
"She knows, Ruby. About us. And she approves." Weiss said.
"You...do?" Ruby asked with wide-eyed amazement. "But...but if you're okay with us, why have you been such a jerk to me since I got here?"
"Ms. Rose, what you call 'being a jerk', I call 'building character'," Winter said with a dismissive scoff.
"Building character?!" Ruby objected. "Building character is putting up with Yang's puns or making the mistake of returning one of Blake's books with a smooshed corner or without the original bookmark! What you're doing is just...it's just...CRAZY-GO-NUTS!" she added, waving her arms in the air in frustration.
Winter merely shook her head in disappointment, seemingly frustrated that Ruby was not grasping the reasoning behind her motives.
"Did you know that most relationships end in break up with 1-2 years? I do not wish to subject my sister to such heartache. Whether you realize it or not, one of the duties of the older sibling is to ensure the safety of their younger brother or sister. By putting you in difficult situations, I was ensuring that you were able to overcome adversity, thereby making you a stronger person and more suitable to be my sister's lover."
"Winter..." Weiss said trying to defuse the situation. She could see Ruby's tightly clenched fists and the deep shade of red spreading on her pale cheeks, as righteous anger was starting to storm inside the RWBY team leader. Weiss, unphased, merely held up her hand to silence her sister.
"The bottom line is this - though you may be a bit rough around the edges, you still have my full blessing. I have arranged for you two to share a room together so you may engage in lesbian coitus at your leisure."
"Wow, when you put it like that, it sounds so romantic," Weiss said sarcastically.
"Yeah, makes me want to take a vow of celebrity," Ruby added.
"It's celibacy, Ruby. The word is celibacy." Weiss corrected, shaking her head.
"Well, whatever it's called!" Ruby yelled in anger. "I'm just saying that there are like a hundred non-crazy ways she could have seen if I was 'good enough' for you!"
"I'm not here to argue my methods," Winter said coolly. "I actually came to inform you that dinner will be served in exactly one hour, so please plan your time accordingly. Oh and dinner tonight is formal attire, so no combat skirts, please." And with her arms neatly folded behind her back, Winter left the room leaving behind an angry Ruby and an emotionally exhausted Weiss.
"Only my sister could find a way to support my girlfriend and I and yet still leave the room with everyone angry at her," Weiss said, falling backward directly on her bed, arms outstretched in a T-pose. "Somehow having her approval is making me even more stressed about telling Father tonight after dinner."
"Oh, goo, morn, m'lady! Tis I, Winter Schnee! I fart rainbows and own a pet unicorn. I took a bar of gold to Prom because no boy was classy enough to be my escort for the evening! Oh ho ho ho hee hee! Have you seen my large bank account?" Ruby said, using her same mocking British voice to parody Winter.
"I still don't understand why you make her sound British," Weiss said, now sitting up and unfastening her riding boots.
"Because...it's funnier that way?" was all Ruby could come up with in response. She sighed and plopped down on a fluffy chair across from Weiss' bed and rubbed her inner thighs. Her normal black tights were not suited for horse riding and her skin felt chaffed and raw. She was about ready to ask Weiss to rub some lotion on them when something Winter said earlier finally clicked in her head. "Wait, did Winter say we had to wear formal wear for dinner tonight? Cause, I, uh, didn't pack any fancy clothes."
"I thought that might be the case, so I took the liberty of packing your Beacon Dance dress," Weiss said, rubbing her sore feet. She'd been out of practice for so long that even the simplest of horse rides were more physically demanding than they should be.
Ruby wrinkled her nose and frowned slightly.
"And the lady stilts too?"
"And the lady stilts too."
"...crud."
"Ow...ow...ow...ow..." Ruby muttered in frustration and pain down each step of the master staircase. This was literally the second time in her entire life she had even worn 'lady stilts' and she hated it even more now than she did then. Each step felt like torture and she was desperately clinging to Weiss' arm for balance, lest she takes a nose dive down the stairs.
"If it makes you feel any better, I think you look very pretty," Weiss said with a smile. Ruby blushed a bit and quickly looked away, not feeling as pretty as she could be with these clumsy death traps strapped to her feet.
"I appreciate that, but we'll see how pretty I look in a full body cast when these things cause me to trip and fall." she groaned.
"Take your time. We'll make a proper lady out of you yet." Weiss said, half-jokingly. Unlike Ruby who avoided anything 'fancy' or 'high class', Weiss had an entire closet full of extravagant dresses and high heels. For tonight, she chose a sleek off-white dress that kept her shoulders bare and hung down to her ankles. The Schnee family snowflake crest was bedazzled on the small of her back in glittering diamonds and it sparkled with light no matter what angle she was walking from. In Ruby's eyes, she was the very personification of beauty.
Finally, they made it to the bottom of the stairs and Ruby let go of her death grip on Weiss' arm. The dining room wasn't too far away, so Ruby was able to slowly trod over to the table without risking too much in terms of intense physical discomfort. The long oak table was set up for dinner, with two plates on one side, one plate on the opposite side and one last plate at the end of the table. Ruby instinctively sat down on the side with just one plate, but Winter was there, still in full military garb, to take her seat.
"I had the seating arrangements changed for tonight. You shall be sitting next to Weiss," she said simply. Ruby smiled and said a polite thank you, but inside she was squealing with joy. It took incredible amounts of self-restraint to not throw off her shoes and zip over to sit next to Weiss, but she wanted to make a good impression and so she sucked it up and waddled to the other side of the table, sitting next to Weiss and giving her knee a happy squeeze. Klein came in with a large bottle of wine and poured three perfect glasses for the girls but left the bottle at the end of the table.
"Master Jacques is running a bit behind, he's tied up in some business," Klein said, almost apologetically. "He sends his regards, but he will be attending shortly."
"Thank you, Klein. That will be all for now." Winter said. Klein gave a polite bow and disappeared back into the kitchen to check on that night's dinner. "Now Weiss, let's see if your time in the academy has sullied your impeccable Schnee palette. Take a sip of this vintage wine and tell me what you taste."
"Of course, dear sister," Weiss said, happy to take the challenge. She was smiling because she knew her palette was much more sophisticated than Winter's, no matter what her older sister would say. She took the glass in her hand and took a dainty sip, swishing the wine in her mouth a bit, before gently swallowing. "I detect...red grapes, late spring. And hints of oak, wait..charred oak. A dash of black pepper and hints of currant."
Winter applauded and took her own sip.
"You were right on the currant, sister. I was curious if you would pick that up or not," she said, before noticing Ruby had yet to touch her wine. In truth, Ruby had never had wine before and didn't want to drink anything that tasted like wood. "Not thirsty, Ms. Rose?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Heh, oh, you know...just letting the flavors, uh, settle. Like you should do with wine." Ruby said nervously. She took a tiny sip and immediately went into coughing fits. It did not taste like grapes at all, but rather some horrible concoction of fruit juice and kerosene. Her throat felt like it was on fire and she was not entirely sure that it wouldn't burn through her stomach like acid. "It...burns!" she wheezed.
Hearing the commotion, Klein ran outside from the kitchen to check on everything, only to see Ruby coughing violently into her clenched fist.
"Oh, my stars and garters! Is Madame Ruby okay?" he asked, his face concerned.
"Coffee!" Weiss yelled. "Five creams, five sugars. Hurry!"
In a flash Klein disappeared into the kitchen, only to return a brief moment later with a delicate porcelain cup filled with only the freshest coffee. Weiss held the cup to Ruby's lips and helped her swallow a few gulps to counter the ill effects of the wine.
"Only five sugars?" Ruby said with a hoarse whisper, trying to regain her focus.
"I want you to enjoy your coffee, but not have you bouncing off the walls like Nora after an espresso," Weiss said with a sigh. She poured the rest of Ruby's wine into her glass and took a big sip. She was going to need more of this to get through the night.
"Yes, well, dinner will be served shortly," Klein said, pouring another cup of coffee for Ruby and leaving the sugar and cream on the table for her. "Tonight's menu is your favorite, Madame Weiss - steak tartare!"
"Oh, Klein!" Weiss said, leaping out of her chair to hug him around the neck. "I've missed your steak tartare so much!"
Ruby had no idea what the 'tartare' meant, but she did like steak, so dinner couldn't be that bad.
"Oh, steak, huh?" she said, her voice mostly back to normal. "I'll have mine medium rare with a baked potato and don't you dare skimp on the butter and sour cream!"
"Ruby, that's not-"
"No, that'll be fine for now," Winter said, cutting Weiss off. "It's obvious Ms. Rose has never had steak tartare before, so tonight will be a learning experience. Won't it, Weiss?" she said with a smile.
Weiss said nothing, but carefully sat back down at her seat and took another sip of wine. Yep, it was going to be one of the nights.
As time went on, Ruby was busy sipping her third cup of coffee when the sound of a man clearing his throat cut through the calm. Jacques Schnee stood at his table, dressed in a fancy suit the color of ice. It must have cost a fortune and his face was stern, commanding and fierce. It was different from Winter's, who had her own commanding features, but she still had a sense of humanity behind her eyes. She was this way because it was her duty, not because it was her normal state of mind. Jacques, on the other hand, seemed to bore holes through Ruby with his pale blue eyes. His hair and mustache were as white as snow, even whiter than either of his daughters' hair.
"Sorry that I am late, but such is business," he said, his voice cold and hard. "Now, shall we begin?"