Weiss was awoken by the sound of her phone's alarm going off with a loud, irritating ringing sound. She forced herself to sit up and reached up to push her bangs out of her face as she drowsily reached over for the source of the intruding sound and turned off the alarm.

Staring up at her from her lockscreen was a message from a number that Weiss quickly recognized as being Blake's. She blinked, more than unsure of what to think of it. All that it did was give a rather simple request.

"...tell me what you think."

That had to mean something, surely? Weiss checked the time, and once she was confident that she had plenty of time set aside that she could use, she let herself open the message and see what it was about.

What Weiss found was that it was the last in a string of messages, sent to her at an absolutely ungodly hour in the morning. The messages started with a link to a web article and Blake thanking her for the interview with some additional information before the rather simple request that Weiss had first been greeted with that morning.

Blake wanted for her to read the article that she'd written, and that was beyond puzzling on its own.

Weiss didn't know how she felt about it. Somehow it managed to feel like overstepping the bounds of what their professional relationship was, despite the fact that Weiss was sure that there was absolutely nothing that was technically wrong with doing this. She stared at the link nervously and bit her lower lip, trying to fight back the urge to press her thumb to the link and see what this was about.

Surely there would be nothing wrong there? It had to be for the best if she took the chance to read the article and see whether or not it was up to par? Maybe she was just being given this as a sample as a proof of Blake's trustworthiness.

Weiss didn't know, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to find out. Perhaps there was already someone on the way to the Schnee estate that was intending to shout her down for speaking to a reporter, especially at such a sensitive time.

Or maybe there wasn't. Maybe this was just a show of professionalism and there was nothing wrong. Maybe the only sign that there was something wrong would be later when someone started trying to weed out the family's staff for information.

Maybe, just maybe, Weiss was just paranoid about a common courtesy.

If that happened, Weiss was going to have to have some sort of plan in place to intervene. She didn't want for anyone to get fired, especially not for something that she had done. It was a responsibility that she didn't want to carry and sure, that probably wasn't a good trait to have as someone that was going to possibly run a company but this?

This was her burden to carry, and Weiss stood by that fact.

Weiss sucked in a deep breath and did her absolute best to steel herself before finally following Blake's link to see what it gave her.

The site that it brought her to didn't load well on a phone, and Weiss knew that she shouldn't have been surprised by that. With some annoyance she forced herself out of bed, wrapped a light blanket around herself so that she could preserve some of its comfort, and made her way over to the small table where her laptop had been set up.

Instead of deciding to copy the link down that Blake had sent along to her letter by letter, Weiss decided to just do a quick search for Blake Belladonna and the name of the specific publication that she wrote for, The Fang.

Weiss didn't know what she had been expecting besides maybe a modest blog that didn't show much more interest in SchneeCorp than any other publication did. She was expecting at least some criticism, but this wasn't what she'd been looking forward to at all.

Nothing had warned her that this was what she would see.

"Reporter Reveals Horrid SchneeCorp Factory Conditions" was the first title that appeared, and it stared Weiss in the face. It all but screamed at her, a voice that said you are part of the problem, even if you don't mean to be.

And yet, it was all a reminder of something that had happened before. Something that Weiss couldn't forget that easily.

Weiss blinked, thinking back and remembering all too clearly what that specific article was probably referencing. She remembered her father's fury, the screaming and the anger about how a rat had managed to make their way inside of one of the factories to let the story out. Weiss remembered reading it when it had first come up.

The story had been simple. A reporter, who was apparently the very same woman that she had shared a table with the night before, had worked her way into a factory and had managed to prove that there were subpar conditions for assembly line workers, among others. Weiss' father had been worried that something similar would happen with one of the overseas plants, because that was something that had the possibility of being much harder to recover from.

Blake Belladonna had been personally responsible for one of the single most hellish weeks of Weiss' life.

And it seemed that she had been doing the same thing on a regular basis for years. All that Weiss had to do was follow the links. Blake Belladonna had a specialty, and it was in being a righteous thorn in the side of SchneeCorp and its board of directors. There were reports on just about everything that Weiss could think of.

Financial statements, stories about her family, opinion pieces and stories about being removed from press conferences. Blake had them all, and Weiss…

Well, she didn't really know what to think of it. There were some things that she wanted to click on and follow to see what was said in them. The article about Winter's decision to leave higher education in favor of the military was one such subject, but Weiss was afraid to click and find out what was said. She was already expecting the moral judgements, the statements about things that Blake would know absolutely nothing about.

Weiss had given this woman an insight into the inner workings of the Schnee Family the night before, and that was something that was never going to be able to be easily corrected.

What had she done?

Making a snap decision, Weiss forced herself to get up and get away from the laptop, at least for a little while. She felt like she needed the time to be able to collect her thoughts and get herself in a place where she felt like she could actually intelligently approach this. Right now, she was too emotional, and it made Weiss think back to a conversation that she'd had with Winter nearly a year before.

Winter had told her that it was dangerous to let emotions control her. Weiss did sincerely believe that.

In the end, Weiss didn't end up actually doing all that much. She left her room and wandered down to the main floor of the family mansion which was all too quiet. If it wasn't for the fact that it was early in the morning, Weiss was sure that she would have already been left behind and alone.

The more likely explanation for the too-quiet environment came from her mother and brother still being asleep. Normally her father would have been up by then, but he was in the hospital. He should have been in the dining room or his study, enjoying the morning paper over a hot cup of coffee that was as bitter as he was.

Instead, there was more quiet than normal.

Weiss would find the first sign of life in the family kitchens where Klein was at work on breakfast. She stared at him for a moment, standing by the door and wondering whether or not she was going to make herself into a nuisance by interrupting him. Making a decision, Weiss rapped gently against the doorframe with her knuckles.

Klein heard her and picked his head up to glance back at her over his shoulder. When his eyes fell on her, the man smiled gently and Weiss felt herself relax, at least a little bit.

"Miss Schnee!" He greeted her enthusiastically, although he kept his voice on the more quiet end of the spectrum. "I must say, it's surprising to see you up so early."

"It's later in Vale." Weiss admitted with a soft smile. "I was just walking and I figured that I would check in."

"Nothing to report here, I can assure you." Klein said, still smiling the same way. "Although I do have some questions for you."

Weiss blinked, feeling a little bit taken aback because she hadn't been expecting that he would want to ask her anything. Unless...

"You're wondering where I was last night?" Weiss asked, stepping in and taking a seat at one of the stools.

"I was." Klein said quietly. "Imagine my surprise when I went to bring you your hot chocolate for the night and you weren't there! I couldn't help but worry."

Weiss nodded and looked down at the floor. There were specks of flour sitting there which needed to be cleaned up. Weiss was sure that it would be attended to after breakfast, since for now there wasn't much urgency to hat Klein needed to do.

Her mind was swimming with things that she needed to say, and Weiss didn't even know where to start.

Klein knew about Blake though, Weiss reminded herself. He'd been there the day before when she'd arrived, and had even known about Blake's position on at least some level.

He was safe. That was the important thing. Weiss was sure that whatever she told him, it would remain secret. Klein was reliable like that, and he always had been. A better father than her father. A better friend than anyone she could have met in school. One of the few people that Weiss knew she could always trust about everything.

Weiss worried her lower lip a little bit before letting out a sigh and allowing herself to speak.

"I was meeting with that reporter." Weiss said finally, forcing calmness into her voice as easily as she could. It didn't work, and it wouldn't matter with Klein anyways. Years of service to the Schnee family meant that he knew how to see through all of them like they were made of glass. "Last night."

"Ah." Klein responded, his voice warming but also wary. "And what did you and her meet about?"

"My father." Weiss said quietly, accepting a mug of coffee as it was offered to her. "I think I may have made a mistake."

Klein raised an eyebrow and let himself lean against a counter. He didn't let his line of sight waver away from Weiss, and it left the heiress feeling more than unsure about how she felt about having this conversation. "Why do you think that you've made a mistake?"

Weiss blinked and looked down into the thick dark brown drink, seeking words that didn't come to her so easily. "I didn't realize who she was."

"Ah." Klein responded. "Would it comfort you to know that Miss Belladonna is reliable?"

That was something that Weiss hadn't been expecting, not really. She'd been expecting some sort of scolding or further questioning about what the two of them had talked about the night before. But Klein didn't do either of those things.

No, instead he was just trying to comfort her.

It almost didn't make sense.

Almost.

"I… Don't know." Weiss admitted, not letting herself look up at the butler. "What do you mean by reliable?"

"Simply put," Klein began, his voice still so gentle. "You can trust her with your anonymity. I've never known Miss Belladonna to out one of her sources, and I doubt that she would change her tune simply because she spoke to you."

Weiss nodded, forcing herself to listen to Klein's words. Blake was reliable. She had to run that through her mind over and over again, and still she didn't know whether she was going to be able to believe it. She let out a choked sigh and nodded, nervousness shaking through her whole body all at once.

"Is she… fair in her stories?"

"I'd say that she is kinder with some topics than she is with others." Klein answered. "This is a civil matter, I doubt she would be harsh with regards to it."

Weiss couldn't help but to squirm a little bit, feeling more than just a little bit unsure about how she was supposed to be considering and thinking about what Klein had just said. The fact that he was only able to talk about how Blake was likely to report because of the topic wasn't the most encouraging thing.

Really, it just left Weiss wondering what was going to come next should she desire to cultivate a professional relationship with Blake Belladonna. Maybe getting on the woman's good side and being there and allowing for her to report on SchneeCorp regularly would be a good thing. Maybe if she was open to Blake having a presence it would make the reporter kinder by not locking her out of the stories that she seemed to rely on. Maybe….

Or maybe Weiss would open herself up for Blake and line herself up to let the woman become a semi-regular fixture in her professional life, and would only get burned for it. Weiss wished that she knew how it would end either way, but it didn't seem that was was a luxury that she would be afforded.

She looked down into the mug that she'd been given again, hoping sincerely that she would be able to find some sort of comfort there but only finding herself unable to take it. Normally coffee was one of the things that Weiss was able to use to ground herself. It reminded her of mornings with her sister, and of taking her time travelling between classes with Neptune, or even the quiet voice of the man that had come to become Winter's mentor.

There was a reason that Weiss had decided to order a coffee the night before when she'd met with Blake. She'd needed that comfort.

Weiss did her best to push the thought away from her mind and picked her head up so that she could look up at Klein, who was standing there and looking so very relaxed. Like there was nothing long at all. Weiss hesitated for a moment, a certain question dancing around in the back of her mind that had the potential to make things worse.

"Klein?" She asked finally, deciding that it was probably for the best to let the bad come. "How do you know her?"

"I do my research on the company and the family." Klein said calmly. "I find that keeping an eye on the press has been useful in preparing me for what your father's moods might send up looking like." He shook his head and turned back to the food that he'd been working on, all too calm. "I'm sure that's something that you can understand."

"I do." Weiss admitted, and she couldn't help but wonder how much of a mistake she'd managed to make by never doing similar research when she was still living in the Schnee manor regularly. "It just seemed like you knew her from something else."

Klein went quiet, and Weiss could see the way that his shoulders tensed in an obvious sign of nervousness. She could practically imagine the man edging his way into the corner of a room already because of it, always looking to make his way out of the sight of those he served. He looked back over at her over his shoulder, and Weiss couldn't help but think that there was some sort of fear registering all too clearly on Klein's expressions.

He was quiet for all too long, and when he spoke it only came following after a long, slow sigh. "I do hope that you'll know to keep secrets for me, Miss Schnee."

That was bad, Weiss thought. But she looked down at her hands before speaking up and bracing herself for what was going to come. "You can trust me, Klein."

"I've spoken to Miss Belladonna a few times in the past." Klein admitted, dropping his volume dangerously low. "As someone close to the family I've been able to pass on stories when it suited me."

"And she's never done anything to interfere with your life here?"

Klein smiled, just slightly. "I believe that if she had, you would have been well aware of it by now, Weiss."

It was comforting, really. Maybe with that information in her hand Weiss was going to be able to feel a little bit more confident about future meetings and interactions with Blake. There was a definite possibility for her to keep going, but for now...

She still had an article that Blake had sent her that Weiss hadn't been able to even begin reading. She'd gotten so worked up and worried that she hadn't been able to even consider reading.

Weiss let out a quiet sigh. "I should probably leave you, shouldn't I?" She asked. It was a simple question, but it was also one that she had asked Klein a number of times in the past. He knew what it was about- he knew that she was asking for the permission to stay if she decided that she wanted to. Whether or not Weiss would was always a question, but having the permission was useful to her either way.

"I won't make you if you don't want to." Klein said, his voice as gentle as it ever was. "You know I just want you to be happy."

Weiss felt the smile tug at the corner of her lips and she pushed herself up onto her feet, picking up her mug and topping it off. "Could you come and get me for breakfast?"

"It'll be no problem at all." Klein replied, smiling at her as she went to the door.

Just like that, Weiss felt like she was really at home again. It felt like she and Klein were able to pick back up exactly where the two of them had left off. Weiss was being cared for and looked after, and Klein was the comforting presence that he always had been.

It was nice to have that at the very least.

And Weiss was sure that Klein felt the same way. She'd missed him in her time that she had spent out in Vale. She was sure that Klein had missed her as well.

But she was home, for at least a little while. She pushed the thought away from her mind and went up to her room to finally read over Blake's article and see what she really felt about the whole thing. Weiss was wary of it, unsure of what she was going to be presented with but feeling at least a little bit more confident about the matter.

But she opened the article, and read, and read, and read.


Blake sat at the table across from Ilia, waiting for the redheaded woman to give some sort of reaction. She'd been waiting all day it seemed like, and her frustration and exhaustion only managed to pile up more and more as they day wore on bit by bit.

Mostly, she was still waiting for some sort of reaction from Weiss Schnee on the article.

And Ilia was still sitting there, reading the printed out story. Finally she let out a quiet sigh, massaged her temples and looked up at Blake.

"So." She began, keeping her voice down as she made herself a little bit more comfortable. "Do you want to tell me about your source, or should I start guessing?"

"They requested their anonymity." Blake answered, much more calmly than she would have liked to do otherwise. It was just the only way that she actually was able to tackle this. "But I can promise you that they're close to the Schnee family."

Ilia nodded, letting out a slight sigh. "You know that if this doesn't turn out to be true, we're going to be in a load of shit, right?"

"I do." Blake responded, folding her hands together in front of her. "But I'm confident about this story and my source." Of course, she couldn't go ahead and say who that source was, but Blake had her hopes that Ilia could take her word for it. "And I trust this source. Very much."

"I just don't want us to get into any more trouble with the Schnees than we have to be." Ilia said quietly, leaning forward against Blake's dining room table and folding her hands together in front of her. "You know how it is."

"I do." Blake said calmly. "But you can trust this source. I trust this source."

Ilia nodded slowly and set her palms down, flat on the table. "I trust you." She said finally, her voice all too calm. Much calmer than Blake was used to hearing from her over something like this. "So you aren't going to tell me anything, are you?"

Blake hesitated, unsure whether or not this was something that she could breach. Of course, she and Ilia had been working together for years. They'd more or less been working on The Fang since the very beginning. Every time that Blake picked up a story, Ilia was there to check it. And on the rare occasions where Ilia would do a story, Blake always did the same for her.

It was just one of the things that made their relationship work. And Blake liked it that way.

And besides, Ilia was reliable. She'd never gone ahead and given a story out to someone that it didn't belong with.

"Fine." Blake said finally, leaning in and dropping her volume so that it was dangerously low. "But if I tell you, you have to promise me this doesn't get out."

Ilia stared across the table at her, and Blake couldn't help but think that she might have actually gone a little too far in her attempt to intimidate Ilia. But Ilia didn't say all that much about it. She just sat up tall and nodded.

"I promise." She said finally, voice icy. That was about as good as it was going to get, Blake thought, and so she leaned in a little closer.

She was glad that Yang was out for the time being.

"Not a word, I'm serious." Blake offered it as an ultimatum of sorts before finally deciding to launch into her story about the day before. "So I met Weiss Schnee outside of the airport yesterday, you know that." Blake began to explain, locking her eyes with her friend. "I got to her through an old contact that was nice enough to connect me to her. Old trusted source."

"But I thought that you said that she turned your interview request down." Ilia responded, leaning in with disbelief showing clear on her face and through her entire expression. "What does she have to do with anything?"

"I gave her my card." Blake began to explain. "And last night she called me. She wanted to meet so that she could tell me some things."

The absolute, deafening silence that settled in between the two of them was expected, Blake supposed. There wasn't really a good way to explain that she had managed to get an interview with one of the people that was likely to be among the most important to them in their line of work. Especially when The Fang was so often shut out of everything involving SchneeCorp.

"You interviewed Weiss Schnee." Ilia said dumbly, and she stared at Blake like Blake had suddenly grown two heads. Or cat ears, or something. "How the hell did you-"

"I don't know." Blake answered, clamming up a little bit. "I already told you, she called me. I just took the call, and when she asked me to meet with her, I went and we met."

Ilia nodded along, letting herself relax back into her seat just slightly. It looked like she was searching for something to say, something that she could do to make all of this make a little bit more sense. When she didn't seem to come up with something, Blake couldn't really blame her.

After all, Blake was still feeling some disbelief over the night before.

"So what was she like?" Ilia asked finally, her grey eyes flicking up to meet Blake's. "Anything like you'd expected?"

And that was really one of the major questions that Blake had been asking herself. When she'd agreed to the meeting she'd definitely gone in with certain expectations of who Weiss Schnee would be. She'd been expecting entitlement, or meanness, or some sort of demands to have to deal with.

But Weiss hadn't given her any of that. Instead, she had just seemed like a woman that had gotten frustrated with the situation that she was in. Worried, even. Really, Weiss had acted like a normal person and Blake didn't know how she was supposed to be reading into it quite yet.

"No." Blake said finally, shrugging. "Not really. She was smarter than I thought, for one. Didn't ride by on her father's name for her degree like I'd first thought. She knew a bit more about the company than I'd thought, even mentioned to give me a name that would be important for the current story."

"Which one?"

"Claret." Blake answered. "He's standing in as the head of the company until whatever family nonsense that's keeping Jacques Schnee from naming a successor gets hammered out."

"Family nonsense." Ilia repeated, and Blake couldn't help but think that the other woman managed to sound as though she was in a state of disbelief. "So it's really that bad?"

"It sounded like it." Blake sighed, because she really couldn't think of all that much else that she was supposed to do or say about the situation at hand. "She hasn't given me a reason to doubt her just yet."

"Yet." Ilia mumbled, and really that was the only word that could actually sum up what Blake was thinking. She had Weiss Schnee on her side for now, but that had to be a limited time thing- surely the woman would come to her senses at some point, and when that happened, things were going to change.

But for now, Blake fully intended on clinging to the way that things were already going for as long as she possibly could because that was going to be for the best.

"I don't know if she's going to ever want to come up and speak candidly as herself for us." Blake began, since this was an explanation that felt like it was necessary to give. "I figure that once she sees my track record-"

"Right." Ilia repeated. "Use her while we still can, I suppose."

"I agree." Blake paused, reaching for the printed out copy of her article so that she could pull it in close to her and check it over for something that would be of use to them. "I was thinking that we follow this story-"

Her phone rang, loud and insistent, and it was all that had been needed to break Blake away from her initial line of thought. Blake sat up properly and stretched just slightly before reaching over for the phone and checking the contact on it.

She was expecting to hear from Yang, some sort of question about whether or not she had plans later.

She wasn't expecting to see Weiss Schnee's contact information getting displayed so prominently on her caller ID.

Blake didn't say anything, just turned the phone so that Ilia could see who was on it. Ilia stared, her mouth dropping open just a little bit before Blake took the chance to pick up the call and see whatever it was that Weiss was calling her about.

"Blake Belladonna." She introduced herself, immediately upon pressing her phone to her ear. "Writer for The Fang."

"I know who you are!" Weiss snapped back, some anger showing clear on her voice. "And I needed to talk to you!"

"I'm guessing that you read the article?" Blake asked, putting on her most bored monotone because at least if she did that she might have had a chance to make sense of things. "What did you think?"

Weiss was quiet for a little while, like she understood completely well that she hadn't managed to bait the sort of reaction that she'd wanted. Blake didn't know what she would have been looking for, but keeping things calm was going to be a good idea for the time being. "It was... good." Weiss said finally. "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

Blake looked to Ilia, who was just sitting there sipping at her coffee. Wordlessly, Blake reached over and grabbed the printed out article and flipped it over to the mostly blank side before grabbing a pen. "What do you need to tell me?"

"Nothing." Weiss replied, her voice all too hard. "I wanted to ask you some questions, actually."

"Well, can it wait?" Blake asked, brushing her bangs out of her face. "Because I'm kind of in a meeting."

Weiss was quiet again, and that was all that Blake really needed. It wasn't as though she had gone ahead and told any lies about what the situation was. "It can wait, but I would prefer to be able to speak to you as soon as possible." There was a very brief pause, and then Weiss spoke again. "What do you mean you're in a meeting?"

"I'm with my editor." Blake said, as calm as ever. "You wouldn't want to talk now."

"Very well." Weiss said, her voice insistent and hard. "I want for you to come and meet me tonight."

"Understood." Blake said calmly. "Where and when?"

Weiss huffed out a short breath, and was soon following it up with the name of another restaurant that Blake didn't know that she was going to be able to afford, and a time- nine that night. It wasn't as though that was going to be hard to navigate, Blake thought.

However, she couldn't help but consider the problems that came from meeting in a public place. That put far more at stake than she liked to think about.

"I can be there for nine." Blake said, looking over to Ilia as she took the moment to scribble down the details of her meeting with Weiss. Ilia leaned in to read them over and glanced up at Blake, questioning silently. "Should I prepare for anything in particular."

"Yes." Weiss said, her voice still angry. "Be ready to hear from me about what I think of your-" She stopped herself, and Blake heard the sound of the woman shifting around like she thought that something might have been wrong. When Weiss spoke again, it was with her voice hushed. "I'll explain when I see you. But this isn't an interview. Consider it closer to a job interview."

And oh, that wasn't good, Blake thought with a grimace. "I'll keep it in mind." She said, doing her best to maintain her own illusion of calm for the time being. "It's a date."

"Right." Weiss snapped. "Nine o' clock. Don't be late."

"I'll see you there."

And with that, Weiss hung up and Blake was left to deal with things for herself. She set her phone down and leaned back in her seat, staring Ilia in the face.

"So that happened." Ilia said, staring her down. "Is that how your last call with her went?"

"No." Blake said, shrugging. "Closer to the first time that I met her, but not like our last call before the interview last night."

"You're going to go?"

"It isn't worth it to stand her up." Blake said quietly. "Besides, this was probably a long time coming."

Ilia nodded slowly, her eyes downcast for the moment before she let out a quiet sigh and picked her head up to look Blake in the eyes. "I wish you luck. Get us something good, if you can."

"I'll do my best." Blake said, folding the article up and tucking it away and out of sight.