Blake waited on her motorcycle, hidden away a clean two blocks away from the Schnee Manor on Weiss' request.

As of then, Blake still didn't actually know why she'd been asked to pick Weiss up as soon as possible in the morning, but she went anyways. Because she cared about Weiss.

She'd gotten the text early in the morning- before the sun had even come up. Weiss had sounded a little bit less than sober and probably closer to angry than Blake had heard her be in a while. Blake hadn't wanted a fight, and while she had definitely wanted to know what was going on, she knew that it could have waited. At least until it wasn't four in the morning.

And for that reason, Blake was there two blocks from Schnee Manor, parked on the side of the road at seven in the morning just waiting. Weiss would be there soon.

Blake kept her eyes glued to the space by the end of the road, and eventually she saw the sight of brilliant white and she knew that it was Weiss. Blake didn't move to go after her, and just let Weiss come to her instead.

It wasn't long before Weiss was climbing onto the back of Blake's bike with a simple hello and the two of them were on their way. Blake drove as fast as she could until the two of them were stopped at a park that was mostly silent. Like Weiss had asked.

"Thanks." Weiss said, climbing off of the back of bike while Blake did the same. Blake just watched as Weiss pulled off her helmet and relaxed a little bit, letting her head hang low. "I felt like I needed to talk to you about some things."

"So did I." Blake replied, removing her helmet and resting it on the seat of the bike. She glanced over towards a bench, and Weiss understood the question without her even needing to go ahead and ask it. Together the two of them walked there until they were both seated. Blake stared out across the park, glad to find that they were definitely alone for the moment.

One of them were going to need to be the first one to speak up. But for now, Blake was willing to give Weiss the opportunity to take the lead. It seemed like she needed the chance to vent anyhow.

"My brother is getting the company." Weiss stated it with a certain coldness that Blake hadn't really been expecting. Almost like in the days that they had been apart, Weiss had done everything in her power to divorce herself from the emotional side of it all. It at least explained some of the silence. "Regardless of whether father wakes up or not."

It was a revelation that Blake hadn't come expecting to hear. When Weiss had asked her to come to meet, not so much as a word had been brought up with regards to this potentially being a work matter. Now that Blake was there, she couldn't help but wonder what Weiss really wanted her to be there.

It wasn't feeling that much like a personal call anymore, that much was clear.

"I'm sorry." Blake sighed, staring down at the ground and her feet where they rested on the damp gravel below. "Should I assume that this is off the record?" She paused, already reconsidering whether or not this was the best way to approach the record. "Or..."

Weiss' expression softened, her eyes focused on something that Blake couldn't quite identify. She looked sad, that was the most prominent thought that flit through Blake's mind. Weiss looked utterly heartbroken, and she was very obviously doing her best to act like that wasn't the case.

"I haven't decided yet." Weiss finally said, wrapping her arms around herself. "This is all... still new. And secret."

"Just let me know." Blake replied, letting her hand rest in the space between the two of them as they relaxed back there. "I don't want to say or do anything that I'm not supposed to, you know that."

"I do." Weiss replied, cold seeping into her voice entirely too easily. "The thing is that right now I can't figure out if I want you to keep this all a secret. That I've been talking to you, I mean."

Blake nodded and leaned back into the seat that the two of them were sharing. "Is there something particular bringing this on?"

Weiss nodded, hugging herself still. She picked her head up, staring with narrowed eyes across the park and between two trees. Blake followed her gaze, watching as a car or two passed by in the distance and she found herself glad that it was just her and Weiss. There was something about the two of them being there alone that made it all feel worthwhile.

"Am I allowed to ask?"

"Whitley." Weiss started, pausing to glance back over at Blake for just a second. "My brother. Though I suspect that you would know that."

"I do." Blake replied, watching Weiss so carefully that she couldn't help but feel like she was placing the heiress, no, former heiress under the microscope. "So what is it about him?"

"He knew that I wasn't going to be a part of the company. And he has apparently known it for some time if the things that he said were any indicator." Weiss began to explain, knotting her fingers together in her lap and letting herself relax. "He and I got to talking, and once we got to talking it was clear enough what I was dealing with. I am not in the line of succession for SchneeCorp, and the only way that I would be is going to be through an inheritance should something happen to my brother. If even that."

"Does your sister know about this?" Blake asked, because it was truly the most fitting question that she could think of. One that would actually have the potential to get her more information. "Or..."

"Not yet."

Weiss still stared down at her hands, anger flickering across her face and refusing to leave. Blake couldn't help but wonder whether or not contacting Winter was even something that was possible.

"I don't know how to tell her." Weiss added, her grip tightening and her skin reddening with it.

Blake shook her head, realizing that she needed to do more than she already was. She allowed herself to scoot in closer to Weiss, wrapping an arm around the heiress' shoulders and pulling her in closer. To Blake's surprise, Weiss let out a choked sort of noise and turned slowly to press her face into her shoulder.

"I just hate this." Weiss muttered into her, and Blake decided to sit by quietly. She stroked her fingers through Weiss' hair and just hoped that she would be able to get Weiss to relax, at least slightly. "Everything-" Weiss started and growled before letting herself continue on. "Everything that I've worked for is just gone and I hate it."

"You're allowed to be upset about this." Blake said, focusing her gaze on the space between the trees across the park. She let one hand travel down Weiss' back and then back up again in an attempt to soothe. "I think that anyone would feel this way. Your last name doesn't change that."

Weiss nodded, pressing still even closer in to Blake. The two of them sat there in relative silence, neither of them wanting to say anything to the other. Blake mostly didn't know what she could say to make it any better. She just wanted for Weiss to know that she was still going to be there to.

Nearly a half hour into the quiet, Weiss spoke up, her voice easing in out of seemingly nowhere and all too broken and meager. "I want to say something." Weiss all but whispered the words into the open space between them, and Blake blinked.

"So say something."

Weiss pulled away for the first time, and she turned before reaching out and cupping Blake's cheek so that the two of them were staring at each other. So that the two of them were standing there with their eyes locked. For the first time, Blake recognized a sort of intensity in Weiss that she hadn't seen before.

When she seemed confident that the two of them were both at an understanding, Weiss spoke again.

"I. Want. To. Say. Something." Weiss repeated the words, this time taking the chance to stop between each one in search of recognition in Blake. All at once, Blake understands.

"You want to say something?" Blake asked, already slipping a hand down into her jacket so that she could remove her notebook from her pocket. "Then say it."

Weiss looked down into the space between them where Blake was setting her notebook down on her leg and smiled. Blake began to go through the same routine that she always did when it came to her job.

Date. Time. Location. All at the top of the page before she added in a note two lines down from it.

On the record.

Weiss smiled at her and nodded before relaxing slightly and leaning back into the bench, seemingly doing her best to make herself comfortable. "I think that if the two of us are going to have an interview, we should start by setting parameters and expectations for what we should discuss."

Blake blinked and cocked her head to the side just slightly. "I thought that you said that you wanted to talk?"

Weiss nodded and looked back down at her hands again. "I did." She said, sighing the words out. "But now that I do I suddenly don't feel like I know what I want to say. Or like I have even considered what will go wrong."

And that, that was something that Blake could understand. She had seen more than enough on her own that could tell her where they should start. But she also had heard enough from Weiss that she could reasonably know what to expect when things came to a head.

She didn't want for Weiss to be forced out of her family's home, or disowned entirely. But if that was what Weiss was going to have to worry about further down the line, then Blake was willing to step in if she needed to.

Someone was going to need to be there for Weiss, after all. In all likelihood, Weiss would go back to Vale once this was all over with and they all knew what they were doing.

After that, Blake had absolutely no idea what Weiss was going to end up doing.

She took a deep breath, steeling herself for the conversation ahead and decided to do her job.

"Tell me about what it means to be a Schnee."

And just like that, the conversation began and Blake made it her sole purpose to jot down every word, every detail that left Weiss' mouth because in the end, she needed to be able to tell the story and do it right.

Weiss deserved that much.


"You brought a guest?" Yang said the words excitedly, all but bouncing as she dragged Blake and Weiss over to the couch in Blake's apartment. "You know, I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be the last I saw of you Weiss."

Weiss blinked, feeling very much unsure of herself and letting herself sink down onto the couch beside Blake. When Blake had invited her home for the night, Weiss hadn't taken the invitation without thinking about it too much. She didn't want to go home for the night, even if she was going to miss Klein, and Blake-

Well, Blake was far from the worst person that she could end up sharing a bed with. That was something that Weiss was very confident in now. The hotel had been proof enough of that.

However, after the day that she'd had being jumped at by an excited Yang had not been on her list of things for them to do. Yet there she was.

In the end, she felt a lot like the only choice she had was to grin and bear it and that was something that Weiss wasn't entirely comfortable with going through on. She looked away from Yang, feeling a stab of guilt down in her core that Weiss had to do her best to ignore. "It's nice to see you too, Yang."

Yang grinned widely and made herself comfortable on the couch as well before deciding to keep on talking. "Ruby was going to try and stop by later," She began, leaning forward and casting a glance across at Blake. "I figured that we were going to get pizza later. I dunno if you two would want to join us?"

Weiss watched Blake, looking for any sort of cue that could make answering the question any easier. Instead of saying anything, Blake just looked back at her though, and Weiss realized then that the choice was being placed rather securely in her hands.

And in truth.. She couldn't remember the last time that she'd just sat down for pizza with friends. Even then, to go ahead and order a pizza wasn't exactly something that Weiss would have done normally. She wished that she could understand why the request left her feeling almost like she was drowning.

"Pizza sounds nice." Weiss said, nodding and looking back at Yang, doing her best to play off any discomfort. "If that's what you think you want to do."

"Awesome." Yang mumbled, leaning back in the spot where she was sitting and letting her head rest on the back of the couch. "So. What brings you two here anyways? I thought you'd be off at a hotel room somewhere."

"We didn't want to bother paying for one." Weiss offered, and from the other side of the couch she was able to see Blake visibly relax. "And since the mansion is out of the question, this was the best place that we could go to."

There was a moment of quiet, where Yang just began to pout a little bit. "You mean that you didn't come here to see me?" She asked, still frowning. "What am I supposed to think when I never see you."

"Nothing." Blake deadpanned, sounding like she was very far from amused by Yang's reaction. "Weiss is correct. We wanted a night away from hotels, so we came here. I'm going to have some work to do, but if you want to put on a movie with Ruby and watch it, I can work while still being here."

Just like that, Yang relaxed again, the frown disappearing. "Yeah, that sounds good. Maybe I'll get your girlfriend to like me more-"

"Somehow I doubt that." Blake responded, but Weiss saw the smile that was stretching across her face. "Right, Weiss?"

"Right." Weiss replied, setting her hands down into her lap and deciding to try and take up as little space as she could possibly manage for the time being. Knowing that it was going to be a calm night was nice enough. However, she couldn't help the blush that had risen on her cheeks over Yang's teasing. "I'm sure that the night will be lovely."

Yang grinned. "Yeah, we're going to have fun. Ruby said that she would be over in an hour or two, so you should probably get to work, Blake. I can keep Weiss entertained while you're busy." And just like that, Weiss watched the way that Yang stretched an arm over the back of the couch. "I think that she and I have a lot to talk about."

"We... do?" Weiss asked, feeling a bit surprised by the comment. "I wasn't aware."

"Oh, yeah." Yang replied. "Tons."

Weiss cast a nervous glance over her shoulder at Blake, just doing her best to look for an out and only got a shrug in response. A moment after that, Blake was slipping off to get her work things and Weiss found herself sitting alone with Yang and without a single idea as to how she was supposed to breach conversation with the blonde.

However, if there was anything that Weiss could truly say about Yang it was that the woman seemed to have a sense for when things were awkward.

That couldn't have been better evidenced by the way that Yang just charged into the conversation.

"So," Yang started, sly grin stretching across her face. "What are your intentions with my roommate anyways?"

Weiss felt the blush rise on her cheeks immediately over the question because the subtext was not only there but it was also very hard for her to miss. She looked down at her hands and took a breath before letting herself speak, a little afraid to find out what the reaction might look like when she answered.

"I suppose you could say that my intentions aren't entirely abnormal." Weiss answered Yang, doing her absolute best to ignore the way that thoughts of the night in the hotel that she and Blake had spent together. There was a lot that the two of them had done, and Weiss...

She didn't want to have to talk to Yang about it at all, that was for sure.

"Right." Yang replied, her grin widening as she relaxed back into the couch. Weiss found herself feeling more and more aware of Blake's absence with the amount of time that they spent sitting there. "So you like her then?"

"I do." Weiss mumbled, still too aware of the fact that she was blushing. "A lot."

"Yeah, me too." Yang responded, her violet eyes drifting towards the door to Blake's bedroom and resting there for a moment too long. There was a softness there that Weiss hadn't been prepared for, and for just a moment she couldn't help but wonder what was going through Yang's mind. "She is pretty great."

Weiss looked from Yang to the door, and then back to Yang, looking for the words that she needed the entire time and only finding herself unable to find them.

"How long have you and her known each other?" Weiss asked, because... somehow that felt like the single best question that she could have asked. At the very least, it was going to be a chance for her to learn something about Blake and that wasn't an unwelcome possibility by any means. "It seems like you're close."

Yang shrugged. "She and I met a couple of years back. She needed a place to stay, I needed a roommate. We ended up staying together and never stopped." She paused, and Weiss watched Yang's eyes widen for just a second like she had realized that there was more to the question that Weiss had decided she wanted to ask. "We're just friends. Always have been. She's kind of like a sister to me and Ruby at this point."

"Ah." Weiss replied, sitting up straight and tearing her eyes away from Yang. "I hope that you don't mind me staying the night here." She said, blinking and feeling a wave of something uncomfortable overtaking her as she sat there with Yang. "I just needed a chance to... get away from home."

"As long as it doesn't get weird, I don't mind." Yang said with the same relaxed manner that she seemed to use when she talked about everything else. "And for the record, you are way better than some of the people Blake has brought home in the past. Just keep in mind-" Yang's tone began to change, and Weiss blushed because there was something in it was was wrong.

"Um-"

"Look, Weiss." Yang charged forward in the conversation. "I care about Blake a lot. If I find out that you have screwed her over for any reason, I won't be forgetting it."

"I understand." Weiss responded quickly, because the threat was there, barely veiled. She hadn't come into this looking for any sort of problems between the two of them. "And I don't have any intentions of hurting Blake." Weiss decided to say. "She has been helping me a lot personally. And I like her a lot. More than you know."

"Just... don't hurt her." Yang sighed, pushing herself up to her feet. "She's my best friend. And she has been through hell already. She doesn't need to go through that again."

"I understand." Weiss replied, sighing. "Really. I don't want to hurt her."

"Yeah," Yang murmured. "I figured. But I figured I should give you the talk anyways about this stuff. It's nothing personal."

Weiss nodded, still feeling more than just a little unsure of herself with everything that was going on. "I understand." She said, letting her eyes drift over towards Yang for just a moment. "I just wish that you didn't feel like you had to."

Yang went silent for a moment, staring at Weiss and she just smiled slightly, nodded, and relaxed. "You're not so bad."

"Thank you." Weiss sighed.

Behind them, there was the sound of a door opening, and then moments later Blake was settling onto the couch beside the two of them with her laptop in her lap, a pad of notes at her side, and a pair of headphones sitting around her neck.

"Is everything fine here?" Blake asked, making herself comfortable.

"Yeah, we're cool." Yang said, grinning wide. "Don't worry about us too much."

"Right." Blake said, and Weiss couldn't help but notice that there was a more than healthy dose of skepticism to her voice. She tried her best to ignore it, because no matter what Weiss was sure that Blake had overheard what the two of them were talking about. "If you're sure."

"We are." Weiss said, relaxing a little bit. "Promise."

Blake nodded and smiled before putting her headphones on and putting herself to work. An hour later, Ruby arrived and then the pizza was there, and Weiss relaxed beside Blake, letting the movie that had been picked out just play.

It felt like one of the single most relaxing nights of Weiss' entire life, and she savored every second of it.