Welcome to chapter 2! Before we begin, I'm going to answer the question asked by a reviewer about whether there's such a thing as a Half-Faunus:

No, I don't think we know what such a pairing would create, and as far as I know Half-Faunus isn't a thing in the RWBYverse. That's why I found it interesting to explore it from a fan's perspective. Hope you're alright with that!

And yes, Weiss looks like a normal human, and one of the main reasons was I wanted there to be a stark physical contrast between her and Blake, aside from the color. I'll leave it to your imagination for the other reasons :)

Now, without further ado…

Weiss stared at her reflection in the mirror, large blue eyes scanning every inch of her body. Some people told her she was too young to be concerned about her figure, even though she was already five – the age where prim and proper Schnee ladies must present themselves as elegant and befitting of their name (according to Winter, anyway).

But Weiss was not concerned about her proportions (yet). She was checking her body to make sure nothing weird was growing – no ears on her head, no tail on her butt, and no fur on her skin. She even opened her mouth all wide and unladylike to inspect her teeth, which to her relief were not growing into fangs.

When she found nothing out of the ordinary, she heaved a sigh of relief and finally stepped into the bath. It became something of a ritual for her every day, and sometimes she even performed multiple checks in one day.

Then one time, something unexpected happened during her usual inspection.

"Weiss?" Winter called, knocking on the bathroom door. "What're you doing in there?"

"I-it's impolite to ask a lady what she's doing in the bathroom!" Weiss yelled back, hastily reaching for her clothes.

There was a moment of silence as Winter stopped knocking as well as talking altogether; lady or not, for a five-year-old like Weiss to say something like that was surprising to say the least. It would have been amusing to see the look on Winter's face right then, if not for her current predicament.

Her sister's sudden call had made Weiss panic. She fumbled with her clothes, putting her hand through where her head was supposed to go and stuffing both feet through one pant leg as her palpitations skyrocketed.

What if Winter knew? What if she knew all along and was finally here to… Here to do what, exactly? What was Winter going to do to her?

Hopping about as she desperately tried to get her clothes on right, Weiss tripped and fell, hitting the back of her head on the toilet bowl seat.

"Weiss?!" Winter raised her voice a little, banging her palm on the fine wood of the door. "Weiss?! What's wrong? Did something happen?!"

With all the strength her tiny frame could muster, Weiss held back her tears as she finally got dressed properly. Walking over to the door, she unlocked it and immediately pounced at her sister, wrapping her arms around Winter without a word.

"What's wrong, Weiss?" Winter asked worriedly. "Did you hurt yourself somewhere? What happened?"

"I hit my head," Weiss mumbled into her sister's chest.

But she was not crying. Even though she was just a child, Weiss was not one to cry easily. Everyone else just thought she liked to bottle it all up in an attempt to look strong and mature, all for the sake of presenting herself as a proper Schnee. Maybe she really was that strong all along.

But in truth, she had already cried her tears dry.

All those nights she had tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep, Weiss almost always cried. Lying on her bed and viewing the world clearly despite the lack of illumination, she could not help but be reminded of how abnormal she was. Constantly surrounded by inner voices screaming in her head, berating and jeering at her in equal measure, Weiss would end up crying herself to sleep. After a few months of agonizing torture, she was sure she had run out of tears to cry.

Her grip on her sister's clothes tightened. Her body was shaking from the sheer effort of holding in her tears, simply refusing to comply with her brain's orders. Even her mind was a whirlpool of flustered emotions, threatening to burst through her skull with every aching throb her bump was sending out.

"It's okay, Weiss," Winter comforted, rubbing the back of her tiny head gently. "It's alright now. You can cry, Weiss. Don't hold it in."

Because when you grow up, you're not allowed to cry anymore.

The rest of her sentence unsaid, Winter waited patiently as Weiss quietly sobbed all over her clothes. Even when she was crying, Weiss refused to bawl like the little kid she was when in front someone else. For reasons Winter could not fathom, her little sister had a solid wall around her heart, completely shutting it away from the outside world. Even though she was just five.

"Sis, I…" Weiss pulled herself away from Winter, looking at her sister with a pair of large, blue eyes covered in a sheen of fresh tears.

Her sister's actions had always been a mystery to her, but in the simple few words that followed, Winter understood why. With a single sentence, Weiss had managed to flip her entire world upside down:

"I think I'm a Faunus."

Weiss stared at the death trap hovering ominously above her, ready to roll out of the way the moment it showed any signs of falling down and crushing her.

The day had already been plenty awful, what with being paired up with a dolt and then ending up in the same team as her. To make things worse, said dolt had become her leader. Oh, and there was that unfortunate snag where she got in her way in the forest and blew them up in front of the school gates on the first day. The last thing she needed was a safety hazard of a bunk bed that could flatten her at any time.

As a kid, Weiss had always wanted to have a bunk bed. It might have meant she could no longer cry her heart out at night without fear of discovery, but at least she would not be alone. The idea had been so appealing at the time, but now Weiss found it ridiculous how she could have wanted something so suicidal.

But even so, she was at Beacon. She was not home, and she was not doing whatever she was supposed to over what she wanted to. All her life, she had to live with every option made for her, with every path planned out perfectly, be it by her father or by her sister. Now, she could finally do whatever she wanted, and she had full rein as long as her secret remained… well, a secret.

The bed above her gave off a faint creaking noise, indicating that Ruby was tossing and turning about in her sleep. That idiot would be the death of her, one way or another.

Sighing exasperatedly, Weiss closed her eyes and was greeted instantly by a blissful darkness. Her first few days here had been nothing but trouble, but she could not bring herself to mind that much; after all, she was much more free here than ever before.

With a faint smile dancing on her lips, she drifted off to sleep.

Weiss could not remember what she had been dreaming about, but it was probably something pleasant. Even if it had been a bad dream, it would still be relatively pleasant compared to the eruption of sound that was Ruby's whistle.

Weiss had a habit of sleeping in, but that was completely justified; she always had trouble falling asleep at night, so when she finally did it would always be at a late hour. As such, she was definitely not lazy, and it was perfectly acceptable for her to wake up a little later than everyone else. Even if a wake-up call had been in order, that wretched silver embodiment of cacophony was certainly not.

Needless to say, it was another day with a horrible start. It certainly did not help matters when, despite all the ability and talent she had demonstrated, Professor Port still refused to acknowledge the fact that she would have made a better leader for Team RWBY.

In all honesty, Weiss had little interest in being a leader. She had simply wanted to stand out – to look amazing in front of everyone else – so no one would suspect she had something to hide. Instead of being discreet and constantly staying out of sight, she wanted to be in the spotlight; after all, would a person with a dark secret willingly take up important roles or volunteer to showcase their abilities?

However, she still did feel a little dejected at the lack of recognition; it meant that she was inferior, and was simply lacking in terms of ability. Weiss was certainly not the best, and was not conceited enough to think otherwise. But even so, she had wanted a little more.

Maybe I'm just not meant to be here.

Haunted by that thought, Weiss trudged back to her team's dorm room. Ever since she first found out about her Faunus half, she had thought that one sentence over and over. Even though the scale of 'here' was now smaller, the impact it had on the young Huntress-in-training was by no means reduced.

And she might have continued thinking that way, if not for a certain red-cloaked dolt.

Staring at the bottom of Ruby's bed, unable to fall asleep as usual, Weiss took a few moments to realize that Ruby was still awake, with a small light on her bed. There was hardly any flipping of pages, so she was definitely not reading. Thinking that the dolt had probably just dozed off, Weiss got up softly with the intention of switching that light off for her. Just then, a soft noise made her stop.

It was quiet, but it sounded like writing. Straining her ears, Weiss could make out the faint but unmistakable sound of pencil scratching against paper, as well as the occasional sharp noise when a crinkle was made. Then there was the ever-so-often groan from Ruby, followed by a soft yet frustrated sigh.

She was studying. As much as she found it difficult to believe, Weiss could not deny the facts: her leader – her loud, goofy, childish leader – was actually working hard.

While Weiss had been wallowing in self-pity, Ruby had been trying her best. Even though she was two years younger, Ruby was actually working harder than Weiss was. Even though she belonged here even less than Weiss did, Ruby was making the effort to fit in.

What am I doing?

Scolding herself mentally, Weiss shook her head of those pointless worries. Right now, her duty was not to be the best, but to support this young girl with her wealth of experience. As a teammate and as a partner, she could not just sit around moping while her leader did all the work.

"Just know that I am going to be the best teammate you will ever have."

That night, Weiss went to sleep with a smile on her face, the words she had said engraved into her mind like an earnest promise.

Figured I should address some canon scenes here. Hopefully it didn't turn out too terribly.

Feel free to leave a review, and I'll see you next chapter where I'll start on non-canon stuff!