Chapter 9
When Blake gets her tea and heads into her office that morning, she finds something she wasn't expecting.
"Hey you." She says as she glides past Weiss, who is sitting at her desk, her face shoved into what looks like roughly thirty different fabric samples.
"Morning." When Weiss doesn't even bother to look up from her work, Blake slides into her own desk chair and opens her laptop.
"Didn't expect to see you in here this morning." She hears Weiss release a big sigh before answering.
"I have a meeting later, and it's on site with the client. And it's in the opposite direction from the office, so it just makes more sense to leave from here to go straight there."
"You're the boss." Blake shrugs it off. Made sense to her. And it wasn't like she minded sharing the office with Weiss. "It's nice to not be stuck in here alone with my thoughts sometimes."
"Admitting to enjoying my presence this early in the morning? Are you ill again?"
"Dr. Goodwitch did say that I should tell you more about what I think, so really I'm just doing what the doctor ordered."
"I have to take a call in a few minutes. Would you prefer I take it in the other room? I don't want to disturb you while you're reading or editing."
"No, it's fine. You can stay. I'm actually just responding to emails this morning. I'm waiting on some new manuscripts to arrive so yeah, now I'm oversharing. Please just stay, it won't bother me."
Weiss rolls her eyes, and turns around in her chair to see Blake in a hoodie and jeans, and something else.
"Did you get new glasses?"
"Um yeah." Blake pulls them off and looks at them before sliding them back on. "I did like a few weeks ago. Do they look okay?"
Weiss can feel her ears heating up as she thinks back to the end of her last session with Goodwitch. The question repeating itself over and over in her mind.
"I think you look very nice." She tries to say it matter-of-factly, but feels like she betrayed herself by turning back around too quickly.
And when she hears the sound of Blake's chair wheels swiftly rolling over her way across the floor, she knows she's been caught.
"What's wrong with you?" Blake looks at her suspiciously. "You seem like you're being Schneeky"
"That was horrible." She says, as Blake tries to hold in the laughter from her own joke. "You should be ashamed."
It seems like Blake is unaffected by Weiss' disapproval of her joke, because she slides even closer, moving to look over her shoulder. Her chin resting just above Weiss' collarbone.
"I like this one." Blake reaches around her and points at a palette of neutral tones, and then some darker cool tones.
"And why is that?"
"Because the colors feel like they flow into each other. Compared to the other ones, it is the most cohesive. The other ones are just too matchy matchy."
"Is that your professional opinion?" Weiss glances out of the corner of her eye, catching a glimpse of golden irises before they begin to slide back, once again rolling their way back over to Blake's desk on the other side of the room.
"It is. I learned from the best, after all."
She doesn't know if the sigh is from her holding in her breath from Blake hovering so closely over her shoulder, or if it were from the stress of the impending phone call she was expecting.
The call turned out to be much more boring and official than she had anticipated. Neptune was also on the call so she was relying on him to catch anything she would've missed, though that was a highly unlikely possibility.
She spun around in the chair slowly, finding little things around the room to catch her eye and entertain her for a short while.
Blake seemed completely unfazed by Weiss' presence. Each time she would look over, Blake was focused on her computer screen, scrolling and reading through email messages, or hastily typing out a response. Occasionally, she would switch to another window to send a message in another application.
Eventually the call concludes and Weiss sends out a few emails to update her team on some changes or additions to projects before shutting her computer screen and placing it in her bag. When she turns around to tell Blake she is leaving, she finds that Blake is no longer sitting at her desk. And her tea is also missing.
She finds Blake and the mug of tea in the kitchen.
"You are too quiet sometimes."
"Maybe you aren't listening hard enough." Blake nods towards a travel mug that is sitting on the edge of the counter. "I made you one to take with you."
"After my meeting I have to go see Winter, but I will see you later."
"Okay. Drive safe."
—
"I haven't seen or heard from you since you expeditiously disappeared from the barbecue. How have you been?"
"I have texted multiple times."
"You know what I mean." Winter looks at her sternly. "Things surrounding mother and father's divorce have been rather-"
"Public? Embarrassing?"
"Among other things, yes."
"Have you heard from Whitley at all? He refuses to respond to, or even acknowledge my calls and texts."
"My attempts have also been ignored. Most likely father's doing. Mother says that Whitley has been speaking with father's lawyers. Hopefully he keeps himself out of things, but for some reason, I doubt he will. He was always so easily manipulated by father."
"I don't know why he would want to have anything to do with all of this. I would rather cut off my own foot than get involved in their legal ordeals."
"It is a lot to deal with. But honestly, I hope mother takes him for all he's worth, since it is all hers anyways." Winter takes a sip of her drink before placing it back down on the table in front of her. It was much more quiet in the house when Yang wasn't around.
"I had a reporter try to contact me the other day."
"Again?" Concern shows on her face as she furrows her eyebrows. "I thought those times were over. Weiss, you know we can't say anything, to anyone. We have to remain completely uninvolved. We agreed."
"Of course. I want absolutely nothing to do with this entire situation. I made sure of that when I sold all of my shares in the Schnee Company years ago." She scoffs at the idea of what would've happened if she had stayed home and agreed to run the company with her father. "I do wish the press would leave us alone."
"Let me know if they contact you again, or if anyone continues to bother you."
"I know, I know. I can handle it myself too Winter."
She hears Yang open a door, judging from the sound and the drawing of Winter's attention towards the entry way of their home.
"Just please keep yourself safe. You never know what nonsense father could start."
"I will." Weiss stands up from her place at the table and begins to prepare to leave.
"Hey Ice Queen. I didn't think you would still be here by the time I got home from work."
She gives Weiss a half hug as she moves through the room.
"Winter and I were just chatting and I ended up overstaying my welcome. I was just about to head home."
"Well okay. We should get lunch or something soon."
"Just let me know a day that works for you, and I will make it work on my side."
"Will do. And Weiss?" Yang says as Weiss steps through the doorway to leave.
"Yes?"
"Tell Blake I said hi." There is sincerity in Yang's voice. Not something commonly found when it comes to their exchanges.
"Okay."
—
"I would like to change the focus of our session for today, if that is alright with you?"
Ozpin looks at her, his hands crossed over one another and resting in his lap, everything about him seems relaxed, but it feels like his eyes are boring holes into her soul.
"Sounds fine to me."
"Very well. As you know, I have been reviewing the notes from your sessions with Weiss and Dr. Goodwitch. Today I would like to discuss the evolution of your relationships with Weiss and Yang."
"Okay." Blake didn't really see where this was going. They had discussed this many times over the last year or so. Or so she thought.
"Since the domestic incident involving Adam, how as your relationship with Yang been?"
"Not the same."
"In what way?"
"I feel like when Yang broke her arm, that something in our friendship also broke. And neither one of us tried to put it back together. The closeness that we had it just faded. I think a lot of it had to do with her having to move out and go back home to live with her dad and sister during the recovery."
"And did you reach out to her at all during this time?"
"Yes. I did. I would call and send messages. Sometimes she would answer, sometimes not. Maybe she realized that our friendship wasn't as strong as we had thought." Saying it out loud feels like a weight settles in her chest. "After a while, I think I gave up. I was always reaching out but after a while, I got tired of not getting the effort I put in acknowledged. So I stopped calling."
"Do you think it was the right decision?"
"I think that it was something that needed effort from both sides, and it just wasn't happening. So I think I did what I needed to do to protect myself at the time."
"And you think that is why your interactions with Yang seem strained or awkward now?"
"I mean, yeah. How would you approach someone that you literally grew up with. Spent years of your life being friends with and then when you go through something like we did just to walk away and occasionally show up and act like the best of friends when we haven't spoken for weeks at a time? I- I just wish she had talked to me. Even if it had been to yell at me. To tell me I had made a bad decision. But she wouldn't even accept my apologies any time I tried to give them."
"If you had been in Yang's position, what would've happened?"
"I don't know if I could just move on from everything the way she did."
"Could it be that she was trying to protect herself too?" Blake realizes that she had moved to the edge of her seat, and quickly slides back fully onto the couch as Ozpin continues. "Or that maybe she was able to find something within her relationship with her fiancé that she could not find in the friendship she had with you, and it was what Yang needed in order to heal on her own?"
Sometimes Blake hated how Ozpin was always able to widen the scope of understanding. Reminding her that there was always an alternative perspective. And that how something feels to her may be a polar opposite to how someone else reacts in the same situation.
Her and Yang had been thick as thieves growing up, but they were always different. Opposites in most aspects. And for them, opposites didn't always attract.
What she needed in order to heal wouldn't and shouldn't necessarily be what Yang needed.
"It feels wrong that realizing I've misinterpreted Yang's act of self preservation as intent to end our friendship, and that I actually feel relieved."
"I think it may be a good idea for you to have a sit down with Yang sometime in the future to see if you can get a true understanding of each other and where you stand with one another."
"I'm not sure if I'm ready to do that just yet, but I am open to doing it sometime soon."
"Progress is progress, this is a game of distance, not speed."
"I know."
"Now, have you given any thought to the question I asked previously?"
"I have given it many thoughts."
"Is that a good or bad thing?"
"I'm not sure."
"Let's keep it simple then." Blake nods in confirmation. "Same question I asked in regards to Yang, since the incident has your relationship with Weiss changed?"
"I think so, yes."
"In what ways? Has it been positively, or negatively?"
"I think we have gotten closer. I would say it has been positive, for sure. She helped me in times where I felt like my entire world was burning down around me. If it hadn't been for her, I don't think I would've been able to make it to where I am right now."
"Do you want it to be something different?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you feel satisfied with your relationship in its current state? Or do you wish it were more or less in certain aspects?"
"I mean- I- well." Blake begins to get flustered as her brain begins to take off carrying all of her tangible thoughts with it.
"Okay. We can dial it back. I don't want to overload you." Blake unclenches her hands, the blood flowing back into skin that had turned white. "But I do want you to spend some time before our next session doing some reflection into why you feel like this may be a difficult topic of discussion for you."
—
A few hours later, Blake is laying on the couch watching the ceiling fan spin. It seems to be her new favorite pastime lately.
She hears the garage door open and then the faint jingle of keys before Weiss comes bursting through the door into the house.
It sounds like she is having a heated discussion about the fluffiness of cushions, but Blake can't really tell. All she knew was that Weiss was very animated while she was on the phone, and it was fun to watch.
Her free hand was waving around like she was trying to cast a spell with an invisible wand. And the expression on her face ranged anywhere along the spectrum from utter disgust to just above slightly less than annoyed.
Before wandering up the stairs to her room, she gives Blake a small wave to say hi without interrupting her call.
She returns a little while later, phone no longer attached to her ear, and wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt.
"Busy day?"
"Not really. Same old stuff."
"How is Winter?"
"She is doing well. I think she is just keeping tabs on me. Making sure I don't do anything stupid regarding our parents' divorce, and that I don't accidentally slip up and speak to someone from the media."
"I'm sure she just wants to make sure you're okay. Since it's basically just the two of you, since you know.. all the stuff going on and everything."
"Yeah I know. But its Winter so it always comes off more harshly than I'm sure she intends. I don't know how her and Yang work."
"I guess sometimes opposites attract."
"She said to tell you hello, by the way." This catches Blake's attention. "Yang."
"Lovely."
"I don't think that's always true, you know."
"What isn't?"
"I think it's far more common for people that aren't opposites to attract towards one another. There has to be some sort of commonality, right?"
"Right."
"See." As Weiss walks by, she ruffles Blake's hair. "I knew you would agree with me."
Blake can only turn around to watch Weiss as she walks back up the stairs and returns to her bedroom.
And she knows that if that had been Yang, she wouldn't have bothered to turn around at all.
