Somehow, Weiss had managed to be in her family's home for close to a full day without seeing anyone other than Klein. Normally she would have been paid more attention to. Whitley would have come to greet her, or her mother would have made an appearance for no reason other than to criticize her.

However this time around, there was absolutely none of that. Of course, It was a difficult time for their family, and even going out to the hospital to check in on her father had been all but fruitless. Weiss' arrival had only been met with news of what she absolutely needed to know, and her family's absence. Even then, Weiss barely got more than the bare minimum amount of information.

Sadly, it felt a little bit too much like the norm. Even with her father in the hospital and apparently comatose, the man managed to stand as a shadow over all of her family's manor. Whitley was staying scarce for some reason that Weiss didn't know. Her mother was off drinking somewhere and was presumably feeling more miserable and stressed than she did normally. Winter was somewhere off on her own, probably all but completely unaware as to what was going on. If she did know, she couldn't exactly rush back to Atlas at the drop of a hat.

Because of all of that, Weiss' first chance seeing anyone would be over dinner, and it would just be spent with her brother if he even decided to show up. The two of them hadn't had all that much to say to each other, and Weiss knew exactly why.

They couldn't really pretend as though the two of them weren't in direct competition for the company. Officially Weiss was the heiress to the company, but she knew her father. Whoever he liked the best in the moment would end up as the new proprietor of SchneeCorp. From the day that he'd been born, Whitley had always been the favorite. Weiss had reason to hold certain doubts that she would be able to inherit the company because of it.

Sitting down in her room at the end of the night was chilling. The mansion was far too cold, she was too tired, and it was too quiet. Klein would likely come by to check in on her at some point to make sure that she was okay, and that was all that Weiss had to look forward to really.

The silence was too much, and so Weiss decided to occupy the time that she had with her unpacking.

It was a simple process. Setting the clothes that she'd brought with her into the dressers so that they couldn't get put into worse condition, checking the pockets of her coat, and otherwise just ensuring that her surroundings were as comfortable as they could be. While unpacking she found the parcel that Neptune had given her, still wrapped. She considered it for a moment before just setting it down on her dresser. She'd open it eventually, when she felt like she really needed it.

If she'd been able to get away from it, Weiss would have absolutely just taken a hotel room for her stay. That would have been much more comfortable for her.

But that hadn't been an option, so now she was there in her childhood bedroom.

It was when she was checking her pants pockets that Weiss had to pause.

The feeling of card paper against her fingers was already setting off alarms in Weiss' mind. She pulled the small paper rectangle out of her pocket and flipped it over, mentally going over the day's events in an attempt to remind herself of what this was.

But then she saw the name, and Weiss really didn't like the way that he thought of the woman on the motorcycle made her heart sink and frustration well up under her skin.

Her name was there, along with a number.

Blake Belladonna. Writer for The Fang.

Weiss had her questions about it. She couldn't help but wonder if Blake was anxiously hoping for a call from her to talk about… whatever it was that Blake wanted to know. The fact of the matter was that the woman had come looking for her when she'd known that Weiss would be present in a location. That should have set off a thousand more alarms in Weiss' head, but a voice there whispered what if.

Despite it all, despite what it could mean and what it could do, there was that definite temptation. She could make the call and use it as a chance to let out some of her frustration towards her family and her arrival at home. But to do that wouldn't be such a good idea.

Going ahead and making the call was dangerous to even consider. Weiss knew that she would only be asked questions that had answers that didn't exactly belong in the view of the public eye. Blake really didn't want to be the one to let those things out into the public's view either. She needed the sanctity of her family's privacy.

What was she supposed to say?

She couldn't really just go ahead and tell a reporter the truth about what was going on. How was one supposed to say 'my father is in the hospital in critical condition because he had such a severe heart attack that he went into a coma?"

How was she supposed to say that she and her younger brother were more or less in a contest to end up in a position of power?

How was she supposed to explain that her mother had no stake in the company despite the fact that she was technically completely able to run it?

Weiss didn't know, and so she set the business card down on the table next to her bed. It wasn't going to be worth making the call, Weiss knew, but at the very least she had a dream of something else on that little card.

Really, there was something about that short period of time that Weiss had spent with Blake that had left Weiss wondering. Maybe if she was lucky she would have been able to go off with her sister and she could live a different sort of life. Maybe she could wear leather jackets that had some actual wear to them and drive motorcycles instead of sitting comfortably in the back of her family's car.

But, Weiss knew, that wasn't her place in life. She had been born into the upper echelons of society and groomed for the sake of SchneeCorp since her early childhood. There were only so many options that she really had that she could take advantage of.

High society was just where she belonged, Weiss knew that, as little as she liked it.

A knock on the door made Weiss pick her head up. That had to be Klein, she thought, and so she got up and made her way over to the door. "Coming!"

"Please open the door, dear sister." A voice called through the voice, and Weiss was already groaning internally at the sound of it.

Whitley. Of course he would finally decide to spend some time with her in a non formal setting. Already Weiss was dreading what was to come, if only because she wasn't used to her brother coming to her with any legitimate desire to speak to her. He probably wanted something, but Weiss couldn't imagine what since company was rarely in the equation.

She sucked in a deep breath and forced herself to relax as she stepped up to the door and pulled it open.

On the other side, Whitley was there. He was standing there, still in the same clothes that he'd worn to dinner. Khaki slacks, a blue shirt that probably cost one or two hundred dollars, and his hair impossibly well groomed.

He wanted something from her, Weiss was certain of it.

"Hello, Whitley." Weiss greeted him. "I wasn't expecting to see you after dinner."

"Well to not come and check in on my dear sister would be rather rude, don't you agree?" Whitley replied, smiling coyly like he thought that he was going to get away with something. "Is it so wrong to want to catch up?"

Weiss sighed, knowing that there really wasn't all that much that she could do at that point. "I suppose not." She said, opening the door to her room a little bit further. "Come in."

Whitley smiled and made his way through the door, and he was happy to make a beeline for the chair next to Weiss' window and bookcase. On the way he brushed his fingers over Weiss' dresser, picking up Neptune's package and turning it over in his hands in some interest before setting it down. Having reached his destination, Whitley took his seat. It was the only proper chair in the room, and so Weiss had no choice to take her seat on the edge of her bed facing her brother. There really wasn't all that much that she could do for the situation.

"So." Weiss began, making herself comfortable and doing her best to ignore the presence of the business card on her bedside table. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I suppose you went to see father?" Whitley asked.

"I did." Weiss replied with a quiet sigh. "I do wish that someone would have gone ahead and told me that it was that bad, though."

"Well you know how these things are," Whitley sighed, shrugging. "Vultures in every room waiting to get in on our family's business."

"I do." Weiss replied, her mind flashing back to the run in with Blake outside of the airport. "But I don't see why anybody couldn't tell me that things were that bad."

Whitley leaned back in his seat a little bit more, crossing one leg over the other almost elegantly. "I suppose that if you were in Atlas rather than spending all of your time in Vale, you would be more up to date on things."

The comment was all that it needed to make Weiss' blood begin to boil and frustration begin to take her over. She'd gone to Vale on her own choice, because that was what made her the happiest. Being away from Atlas meant that she had a little bit more power over her own life rather than being tied to whatever was going on with her family.

Weiss didn't want to have to live under her father's thumb anymore than anyone else did.

"I suppose." Weiss said, although she kept her head high for the comment. She tried her hardest to hide how frustrated and nervous she was able to do things. "I would have been here sooner if I could have."

"Nobody blames you, dear sister." Whitley replied. "It isn't as though you've abandoned us like Winter has."

Another comment that made Weiss angry. "Has anyone heard from her?"

"No." Whitley replied with a roll of his eyes. "I suspect that she's doing her best to avoid us these days. Or maybe she's just afraid to embarrass the family again."

"I'm sure that's not the case." Weiss replied calmly. "Winter always cared about us. That hasn't changed."

"And yet she left." Whitley said, his voice tinged with frustration of his own. "I'm glad to know we're on the same side, Weiss."

We aren't, Weiss thought silently to herself, although she didn't dare allow herself to air the thought. She had the strong suspicion that her brother was just doing his best to push her buttons and annoy her at this point.

The constant power play that the two of them were permanently locked in came to Weiss' mind, and it became all too apparent to Weiss that this was a matter of him trying to provoke her. Whitley was trying to make her snap or lash out.

"She'll get in contact with us when she can." Weiss said calmly, because that was all that she could really do at that point. "You know just as well as I do that she's busy with what she's doing."

"Of course." Whitley said, rolling his eyes and standing up. "I suppose it's late, isn't it?"

"It is." Weiss answered, eyeing her brother with suspicion. "Is that all that you wanted to talk about?"

"I suppose it was." Whitley said, smiling coyly as he made his way over to the door. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow, dear sister. Hopefully we'll see this all resolve itself sooner than later."

"Hopefully." Weiss replied, unable to help the way that she felt so distant and lost when she said the words. "Thank you for coming to see me."

"It's no problem." Whitley said, finally closing the door behind him and leaving her behind.

Being able to be alone was a good thing though, Weiss thought. It meant that she had a little bit of time where she could collect her thoughts and calm herself down for what was to come. She seated herself on the side of the bed, and thought hard on what her day had been like.

It had been long. Too long. Whitley had only managed to make it longer and more frustrating.

The business card on the bedside table taunted her again, and Weiss reached over to pick it up and turn it over in her fingers.

Maybe if she could have some of her anonymity guaranteed, then she could get away with making that phone call and seeing what became of it. Maybe the conversation between herself and Whitley was all that she needed.

Frustration was there, all too clear on her mind. It would be so easy for her to just go ahead and air some of her problems to the press. She could tell them that she was certain that she was being punished for her absence.

Despite her better instincts, Weiss reached for her phone and made the call.

It was probably the single dumbest decision that she'd ever made over the course of her entire life.

And still, Weiss couldn't help but smile when she heard the voice of the reporter on the other end of the line.


Blake had been laying in her bed, listening to Yang chatter on about how her day had been. It was an old ritual that the two of them had been partaking in ever since the two of them had first met and started living together. Every night, the two of them would sit down and talk about what had happened to them. It was just a way for them to unwind and often just complain.

For Yang, that meant that she'd spent her day with her little sister going to the movies.

For Blake, it meant something else entirely.

But a phone call was a phone call, and Blake didn't have all that many options to deal with things.

Yang had been fine with the fact that Blake had needed to leave, and Blake was glad to have the space to do that. She left her apartment building the second that she was ready and climbed onto her bike, mentally going over the call in her mind.

Weiss Schnee had called her, with the intent of giving her some sort of information that she thought would be useful. For some reason the woman had requested that the two of them would be able to meet in person. Normally that was something that Blake would have said no to, but when it came to someone that was like Weiss who was important, then she didn't have all that many options.

She drove across the city until she was outside of a small coffee shop that looked like it was upper class at the very least. Blake had a suspicion that it was probably a little bit lower-end than what a member of the Schnee family would be expected to attend, but didn't care too much to comment on it.

When she stepped inside, Weiss was already there. The woman had decided to tuck herself into a corner of the cafe. She was sitting there at an empty circular table that surely only had the room for one other person. Her face was covered up with sunglasses, and a hood covered her hair for the most part.

Weiss had come here looking for some level of anonymity. Blake made a mental note of it, if only because that was probably going to end up being important.

But, standing around and making the woman that had kindly agreed to an interview wasn't worth it.

Blake made her way across the cafe and took her seat across from Weiss, already reaching into her pockets to remove a notebook and her phone. She carefully placed her things on the table in front of her where Weiss could see her, and waited.

"You're Blake, right?" Weiss asked, looking up at her.

"I am." Blake replied calmly. "Weiss Schnee?"

"I am." The woman replied, picking up her hand so that she could remove her sunglasses. Weiss folded them in her hand and set them down onto the table in front of her.

Blake couldn't help but think that she had come to the cafe too heavily armed, despite how little she had brought along with her.

The pen felt heavier in Blake's hand than it ever had, and so she took in a deep breath and finally took the chance to start the conversation.

"So you decided to call." Blake started, if only because that was the only good starting point for a conversation that came to mind immediately. "why the change in heart?"

Weiss was staring her down, and Blake couldn't act like she was surprised by any of it. This was probably going to end up being one of the most frustrating interviews that she ever did, Blake thought.

But the white haired woman sitting across the table sighed heavily and looked down at her table. "I forgot how my family could be." She said calmly, and Blake couldn't help the raise of her eyebrow. But Weiss didn't let herself continue instead changing the topic so that it would suit her better. "I need you to answer some questions for me first, though."

"I understand." Blake said, scribbling down her typical set of beginning notes that she would always use at the beginning of an interview. "What are they?"

"How will I know that I can trust you with the information that I give you?" Weiss asked, leaning back slightly in her seat and shifting like she was taking the chance to cross one of her legs over the other. "Because I think that you understand that this is a sensitive time for my family."

Blake paused, and let out a quiet sigh before deciding to give an answer. "All that I can promise you right now is that you'll be cited as a source close to the family." She began, her voice calm."We treat this as though you are any other company member under a non-disclosure agreement and you should be fine."

Weiss hesitated, and Blake really couldn't blame the woman for it at all. There were too many ways that this could go wrong for both of them. Blake just waited patiently because there wasn't really anything else that she could do.

"You think that will be enough?" Weiss asked, her blue eyes narrowed. "Because I can't risk the fact that I am interviewing with you get out."

"It's always been enough in the past." Blake responded. "It's the most that I can offer you."

"Very well." Weiss said,holding her head up high. She was staring down at Blake's hands, focusing on the one with the pen resting in it. "I suppose we should begin?"

"We should." Blake replied calmly. "I'd like to start with the status of Jacques Schnee."

"Of course." Weiss answered. "I got the news last night and was able to see him earlier today." She hesitated for a long moment, and Blake couldn't help the little uncomfortable pang that worked its way through her chest. "He's... not well."

"I'm sorry." Blake responded, because what else was she really supposed to say. "Could you give the exact nature of his condition?"

"He had a heart attack." Weiss said calmly. "A particularly bad one. He's been in a coma ever since. We... don't know if he's going to wake up or not."

Blake scribbled down a note, because that little bit of information alone gave her much more than she had ever gotten to work on previously. "I see." She said calmly. "Is there anything else you want to tell me about it?"

"Not particularly." Weiss responded. "For the time being the company is going to be run by the Board of Directors until we know my father's condition. If he passes or retires, it will either go to myself and my brother Whitley." She shook her head. "Right now, we're not sure who will actually inherit the company."

That was strange, Blake thought to herself as she scribbled down yet another note. Normally the question of who was going to take control over a company was something that would have been well laid out and well documented. But the way that Weiss was talking about the topic was like she was trying to say something else. That there was some sort of disconnect between how things were run and... something else.

Blake didn't know what it was.

"Have you spoken to anyone involved with the company on this matter?"

"Not yet." Weiss answered, holding her head up high. "Neither has my brother, to my knowledge. At the moment the company is under the control of man by the name Marlin Claret. He acts as a high-ranking member of the board of directors. When my father's retirement or..." Weiss went quiet. "Or we have other news comes, then it will go to either myself or Whitley to control."

Blake scribbled the note down. She had her serious doubts that she was going to find herself in a situation where she would be able to speak to Marlin Claret. If anything about how past meetings with similarly high ranking members of SchneeCorp's board was any indicator, then Blake would be turned away in a second.

"I understand." Blake replied, looking down at her small notepad with the small set of notes that she'd taken the time to record there. "What of your mother's involvement within the company?"

Weiss' eyes darkened and her expression grew to be much more severe all at once. "My mother no longer has formal involvement within SchneeCorp." She watched Blake closely, keeping her gaze close and intense. "Although I suspect that you already know that."

So she'd done her research, Blake realized. That was a good thing to know. It was always a good thing to know whether or not she was stepping into an interview with someone that was informed or not.

The truth was that Blake didn't really know what to make of the Schnee heiress. She hadn't exactly taken to keeping close tabs on the offspring of Jacques Schnee beyond keeping track of the most basic information possible. There had been at least a part of Blake that had come in with certain expectations.

She'd been expecting that Weiss would be disconnected from the things in the company. She would be a young woman that knew closely about what the family's bank account looked like, but not much about how things actually worked. Blake had been expecting vapidness. Expensive clothes and little to not interest in the way that things would work. Entitlement.

But somehow the woman that she was meeting with was managing to look nothing like what Blake had been expecting. Weiss seemed intelligent in her own way, and while the woman was certainly conscious of her looks, she did seem to have some intelligence about her.

Weiss being able to name the people in charge of her father's company was a surprise in itself that Blake was all too happy to hear. IT meant that she was going to be able t work with Weiss and be kept in a position where they were going to be able to work forward. Really, there was a rather large part of Blake that was hoping to see another interview moving forward.

But she had been asked a question, and Blake knew fully well that it would be rude to let it hang over their heads for forever. "I am aware, yes." Blake said, trying her best not to smile through her response.

"So you were testing me, then?" Weiss asked, leaning forward and smiling slightly herself. It was a surprise. "You thought that I wouldn't know about my family's company?"

"I can't say that I knew how involved you would be." Blake replied calmly. "Have you been preparing yourself to eventually lead the company?"

"I have." Weiss replied. "I have a business degree, and I spend my time doing my research and trying to get to a better place to be able to take it over."

"And your brother?"

"Has taken similar measures." Weiss said calmly. "My sister would have done the same had she decided that she wanted to remain in the line of succession."

Blake scribbled down a few notes, already thinking about how she was going to be able to twist the things that had been said during this interview to make it sound as though it had truly been done with someone that was just a person that was close to the family. Maybe she would get lucky enough that Weiss would agree to future interviews moving forward, and then she would gain the woman's trust enough that Blake would be able to start interviewing and writing from a more honest point of view.

All of a sudden, Blake was sincerely hoping that she had a better way of talking to Weiss. She wished that she'd had the time to prepare a list of questions for the woman, but every part of their meeting had been arranged so suddenly that doing anything like that just wasn't in the question.

"How did you find out?" Blake asked calmly. "About your father's condition?"

"One of our family's butlers called me when it happened." Weiss explained, her eyes going dark and her gaze flickering down to the table between the two of them. "After that I booked a flight as quickly as I could and flew back to Atlas in the morning as soon as I could."

Blake felt a pang of sympathy, and really didn't want to do anything to acknowledge it. there had to be something wrong. Perhaps it was Blake's own upbringing that was getting in the way now. Maybe it had to do with the fact that her mother and father had always been there and happy to reach out to her and help her if she needed them. Even when Blake would take the time to try and push the two of them away, she could always trust that one of them would step in and try to help her if something was wrong.

For someone to have to receive the news that their father was in the hospital and in serious condition from a family butler...

There was something wrong, and Blake didn't know what it was.

And she really didn't want to know.

But she was a journalist, and SchneeCorp was her specialty, and had been ever since she'd first started writing professionally.

"Is that sort of thing normal?" Blake asked, because it was something that would be useful to know. "Or was this an outstanding circumstance?"

"I'm choosing to abstain from answering." Weiss replied, her voice calm. "If I may."

"You may." Blake said, scribbling down yet another note and trying not to feel frustrated by the response. This sort of thing had to be expected at some point, she knew, but she'd been hoping that it wouldn't come as easily as it did. "I'm sorry about how our first meeting went this morning."

"It was a bad time." Weiss said with a coolness that Blake couldn't deny. Blake had to wonder how many interviews Weiss had been through in the past if she was able to keep her calm as well as she had so far. "And there was a lot going on."

"I understand." Blake replied. "I think that you've told me everything that I needed to know for this article."

"Do you?" Weiss asked. "And if i have more things that I want to tell you?"

Blake paused, because that was absolutely the sort of response that she hadn't been expecting at all. "You want to tell me more?"

"I think so." Weiss said, with a little bit of hesitation but still managing to maintain her calm. "Although I would hope that if we do so in a follow up interview there would be more time to prepare."

Blake nodded and smiled. "I would be glad to do another interview if you think there's something that you would like to share." She said calmly. "And some more time would be nice, I agree."

"Then it's settled." Weiss said, smiling slightly. "I have your number, and since I've called you then I suppose that you'd be able to call me if you need to ask questions?"

Blake nodded and flipped his notebook closed so that she could slip it away in her pocket once again. Once she got back to her apartment, Blake knew that she was going to have a lot of work to do, but that was going to have to wait for a little bit. "I guess so." She said, standing up and stretching slightly. "If you want to?"

Weiss nodded, a slight smile just beginning to tug at the corners of her lips. "I think that I do, Blake Belladonna."

It was about the best thing that Blake could have hoped for, but fearing the situation become more awkward, Blake left without another word beyond goodbye.