Man, was this chapter just…! Whew. It's not even that long, but boy was it draining to write! For reasons all of you shall soon know! ;) And no evil cliffhanger this time! You're welcome.

Also, big thanks to Robyn and Sophia, both of whom who have been integral to the development of this story by letting me bounce ideas off of, torture with snippets of upcoming chapters, and just generally being an awesome and supportive friend. This one's all for you guys!

Chapter IX

Weiss wasn't sure what she was supposed to be feeling. The confusion was obvious; she understood that part. But what about this feeling of betrayal? This…anger?

"And you were aware of this the entire time?" she balked at Ozpin later that Tuesday afternoon. Focusing at school had been rough, the haunting photograph of her and Ruby as kids seeming to burn a hole in her backpack the entire day. As soon as the final bell rang, she was out the door, not even a word spared to Blake in her haste. Her phone hadn't stopped going off yet. "Why didn't anyone tell me we used to know the other? Why can't I even remember this?"

"Miss Schnee, please calm down."

"It's Weiss!"

A flinch out of the corner of her eye drew her attention away from her immediate source of frustration and to one other occupant of the room.

Ruby was sitting hunched in a chair to Weiss's left, and had curled father in on herself upon Weiss's most recent outburst. Seeing the girl's discomfort, yet still with a simmering of annoyance, Weiss forced herself to calm down somewhat.

"Fine," she said in a clipped tone. "Will someone please tell me what is going on?"

"We were aware you and Ruby had once met as children," Glynda chose to begin from Ozpin's side. "However, as soon as your father learned of this, and after apparently figuring out Ruby's less than desirable background, insisted we not let the two of you interact any further."

"But this entire time, we have never been told why we were to keep you two apart," Ozpin added. "It was the truth that we know next to nothing about Miss Rose here. Whatever your father knows, he's never extended that knowledge to us."

After a brief moment of staring at her hands in contemplation, Weiss looked to Ruby.

"So this entire time…you knew? You remembered me from all those years ago?"

Ruby wouldn't look her way, choosing instead to remain bunched in the chair, lip between her teeth, as she gave only a feeble nod in turn.

Weiss felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach.

"And you were never…going to tell me?" Weiss cursed herself when her voice cracked, the familiar burning of her throat evident at how hurt she truly was.

"In Ruby's defense," Glynda cut back in, "Ozpin and I thought it would be best she didn't tell you."

Weiss looked back up; at the woman she had always seen more as a mother than her own biological one.

"W-Why?"

Glynda bore a sympathetic smile as she replied, "We knew your father had done his best to repress all your memories of Ruby. While we had been left in the dark as to why, he made it adamantly clear you were to stay away from her."

"So what changed?" Weiss mumbled, a bit of a bitter undertone coloring her voice.

"Miss Rose's condition."

Finally, Weiss had given Ozpin and Glynda her full attention once more. Still, her gaze was hard as she focused on Ozpin once again.

"When Miss Rose first arrived, it's true that she wouldn't speak," he explained. "For a full month we tried everything we could to get her to do so, but to no avail. Then, one day, your father brings you by while he works, leaving you to your own devices in the common room."

Weiss knitted her eyebrows together, the fact that none of this seemed even the slightest bit familiar to her troubling.

"Glynda had been walking Miss Rose back to her room when she noticed you sitting alone on the couch. Having never seen another child in her time here, she broke away from Glynda and ran to you."

Weiss cast a quick glance to the girl beside her who was now blushing lightly, yet had her eyes clenched shut. Part of Weiss wanted to reach out and console her, yet another part was convinced that Ruby had played a part in a nearly lifelong deception, and no longer deserved such courtesies.

"Did she… Did she speak?"

"No, but it was the liveliest we had ever seen her," Glynda answered. "She was smiling and at ease; a stark contrast to the silent little girl that had been brought to us. You understand why we became overjoyed when we realized Ruby may have found a friend."

"However, your father saw the two of you together one time probably only a few weeks later and became enraged," Ozpin took his turn. "He immediately snatched you up and sent you to the car before giving Glynda and I quite an earful.

"'That child is dangerous, and I will not have her poisoning my daughter!' he had shouted. Nothing more, nothing less. That was the last we heard of it. After that, he stopped bringing you by. For eight full years you never once visited the Schnee Home; or if you did, you were at your parents' side the entire time. We…did our best to keep Miss Rose away from you on our end as well, per your father's request."

Silence befell the room for a brief moment where Weiss spared Ruby another sidelong glance. She found Ruby looking her way, but cheeks flushed pink immediately once caught before she was playing with the sleeves of her hoodie once more, tension evident throughout every fiber of her being.

"However," Glynda continued, and Weiss began to feel like she had fallen into a convoluted fairy tale, "upon your separation from Ruby, we began to see an immediate decline in her behavior and overall health. Whereas she had been hesitant to make eye contact before, now she downright refused. Attempts to get her to speak were met with defiant displays; on small occasions immediately following your separation, she even refused to eat."

That didn't really surprise Weiss after seeing what just a recent week away had done to the girl; she could imagine that at five years old, the confusion and frustration as to why her friend suddenly wasn't showing up and no one would tell her anything would be even more upsetting.

"But obviously things got better," Weiss filled in, her voice now having dulled to an almost emotionless tone. "What happened then?"

Glynda and Ozpin shared a glance with the other, both noticing Weiss's apparent shut down and hesitant to continue. Ruby looked back to Weiss again, concern and anxiety swimming in her eyes, yet she remained still, simply staring at Weiss and silently begging her to look her way; that she would understand the silent plea waiting for her.

But she never looked up.

"Eventually, we were able to convince Ruby that you all would be able to meet again, under better circumstances," Glynda was the one to speak up. "That promise was enough to lift her spirits somewhat, and while she still remained very closed off, she was no longer refusing food, or putting up much resistance with the staff."

"We knew as you grew older, you father wouldn't be able to have such a tight hold on you anymore. Once your parents began travelling regularly here recently, we thought now was as good a time than any to reintroduce you," Ozpin said. "We hoped your reintroduction would be the key to getting Ruby to speak, and, in essence, live."

"So the day Ruby first approached me," Weiss spoke up, her voice poised, yet only disguised as such; inside she slowly began to crumble, "that was all a setup? You told her to do that, didn't you?"

All the accusation was there in her eyes as she stared down Ozpin and Glynda, not paying Ruby an ounce of attention and even ignoring the girl's presence beside her.

"Weiss-." Glynda tried before the heiress cut her off tartly.

"No!" she shouted, standing from her chair as her eyes began to burn. "This was all some kind of experiment to you, wasn't it? Did you even think about how this all sounds? The effects of manipulating my feelings like this? How am I supposed to believe anything that's happened this past month is real? This was all just some preordained…plot!"

Spinning to face Ruby, Weiss's anger only mounted at seeing the girl cowering in her chair.

"And you let them do it!" she screamed at her. "I thought I might have been special to you, and maybe I was, but for all of the wrong reasons! I'm not some tool to fix you! I have feelings too, and the three of you just used me!"

Grabbing her backpack, she turned to leave the room, halting only when realizing she still held the photograph firmly in her grasp. Sparing the picture only a glance as soon as a tear fell onto it, Weiss crumbled it up before chucking it at Ruby.

"Here," she snapped. "To remind you of what could have been before you deceived me."

With that, she spun on her heel and left the office, making sure to slam the door on her way out.

Had she not been so consumed with trying to keep up her impartial façade, she may have heard the beginnings of Ruby completely breaking down behind her.

Blake had been waiting for Weiss when she got home. Weiss, having been too distraught upon arrival, didn't even bother questioning how or why, immediately being escorted to her room by her concerned friend.

"They planned this right from the beginning, Blake," Weiss mumbled, summing up what she had learned back in Ozpin's office. "You were right to feel uneasy about what they asked of me; they just wanted to use me."

"I don't think that's how they meant it at all, Weiss," Blake tried to reason quietly.

Unfortunately, Weiss wasn't having any of it.

"Oh, so now you're on their side?!"

"There are no 'sides,' Weiss," Blake managed to remain calm and poised. "I understand why you're upset, but take a few deep breaths and let's think through this again."

Weiss did as instructed and fell back onto her bed heavily, Blake moving to sit more comfortably beside her on the queen-sized mattress.

"I just don't understand any of this," she groaned. "Why did my father think Ruby so dangerous I couldn't even be her friend as a child, and why suddenly let her now re-enter my life? I mean, I suppose Ozpin had a point as I really didn't visit the Home often for a long time, especially by myself, but… Ugh!"

"Well, you had pulled Ruby's file from your father's office when you found that picture, right?" Blake prodded. "You didn't open the folder at all?"

"I was too shocked by the picture!" Weiss exclaimed, though she did sit up with the expel. Reaching to the floor, she hefted her backpack onto the bed. "I did stuff it in my bag before I left though."

Retrieving the elusive manila folder, another object fell out with it. Both Weiss and Blake focused on the foreign object before them now.

Weiss felt a new wave of tears spring to her eyes.

Ruby's rose. The one the girl had made for her the first time Weiss had visited her. Hesitantly, she reached to pick it up, fixing a few of the smashed petals from her textbooks. Blake watched silently.

Holding it within the palm of her hands as she first had upon being given it, Weiss let a nostalgic smile grace her lips.

"I think…" She trailed off momentarily, and Blake thought she had nixed whatever thought had been sprouting before she spoke again, this time in a whisper.

"I think I was falling in love with her, Blake."

The brunette's eyes widened at the admission, but she remained quiet.

"That's why all this hurts more than it probably should," Weiss continued to mutter to herself, still gazing at the paper rose. "Why wouldn't she tell me any of this? I thought… She made me feel special."

"You were special to her, Weiss," Blake finally spoke softly. "All these years, she waited to approach you again; she believed she'd have the chance to be your friend, and she finally got it. There was—is—something about you that drew you to her, even a decade ago. Maybe back then it was simply because you were a kid like her, but for her to still be so excited to be your friend again all these years later? She waited a long time for you, Weiss."

The heiress's smile fell a bit at that.

"But I still couldn't get her to talk…"

"That's why you can't let today be the end of this," Blake told her resolutely. "If you really…do feel that strongly for her, then you won't give up on her so easily."

Weiss's eyebrows came back together as she mulled over Blake's words, knowing deep down her friend was right. Ruby was hardly at fault here; honestly there was no 'fault' for anyone.

She had just opened her mouth to speak again when the doorbell rang. Confused, Weiss looked up, sharing a glance with Blake, both wondering who it could possibly be. Weiss had just gotten up off the bed when she made out a sound of surprise from one of her butlers and Neptune's frantic cry of "hey!"

The thundering of footsteps were then pounding down the upstairs hallway, and as they grew increasingly louder, Weiss felt her stomach lurch.

It couldn't be…

Sure enough, the door to her bedroom burst open then, revealing an utterly disheveled, hysterical Ruby.

"R-Ruby?"

Frantic silver eyes locked on to her before the girl was barreling towards her at inhuman speeds. Blake darted out of the path of the red blur as she jumped on Weiss, the silverette noticing only then the pounding of rain upon the roof as she felt how soaked Ruby was, as well as the shivers that wracked her small frame.

"I'll fetch a towel…" Blake mumbled lamely, quite shell-shocked at the sudden drastic turn the night had suddenly taken. She also figured she should alert the staff the girl wasn't an intruder as she heard Neptune now approaching.

"Ruby, what are you doing here? H-How did you get here?" Weiss didn't even know where to start, nor was she quite sure her addled brain wasn't playing tricks on her.

It only took one resounding sound to alert her that, yes, this was definitely real.

"W-Wuh-! W-Wss!"

Her name. Ruby was saying her name—or, as much as she could, at least. A fresh round of tears suddenly broke free as Weiss wrapped Ruby up in her arms.

"Wuh! Wuh-ss! Wuhss…"

"Ssssshhh, Ruby," Weiss did her best to calm the nearly convulsing girl. "It's okay. Please, please calm down."

But Ruby wouldn't listen. Pulling back, Weiss saw the pure, unbridled fear clouding silver eyes, and she realized Ruby wasn't exactly one hundred percent here in this moment. Weiss's heart broke all over again.

She hadn't meant for this to happen.

She hadn't meant for any of this to happen.

"Wuh!" Ruby continued to spit out. "Sssr… Ssssry…"

An apology. Ruby had come all this way to apologize. Weiss wiped at her eyes.

"No, no Ruby, you don't have to apologize, okay?" Her hands rested firmly on the girl's shoulders, her eyes boring into hers, hoping to break through the mist that hazed them. "I'm the one who's sorry. I just became completely irrational back there, and I shouldn't have stormed out. I wasn't even thinking of how you would react to that. I was just angry with Ozpin and Glynda, not…not y-you, okay?"

Ruby hiccupped a few times before sniffing and burying herself back into Weiss. Small sobs still wracked her body, though Weiss began having difficulty telling them apart from the shivers that were becoming ever more prominent as well. Luckily, Blake returned right then with a stack of towels and a few blankets stuffed under her arms.

Ruby immediately went rigid at the sound of the door opening, but Weiss kept her embrace firm to let the girl know all was well. Blake made sure to approach more cautiously, simply setting the linens on the bed and winking at Weiss before departing. Weiss felt blood rush to her cheeks.

"H-Here," she stuttered once Blake had left, pulling Ruby back once again. "Let's dry you off, okay?"

Ruby didn't move as Weiss draped a towel around her, her attention focused on the bed, appearing to be in deep concentration. After having used the second towel, Weiss finally caught on to the girl's lack of response.

"Ruby?"

The girl looked up at her, and Weiss had never seen a more determined look from her.

"W-Wuhss… Wsss. Wiss."

Weiss smiled at the girl's valiant effort to say her name, but once she noticed tears lining the girl's lower lids, she gently shushed her, tenderly wiping the droplets away before they could fall.

"Hey, hey," she whispered. "Ruby, it's okay. Don't push yourself." She looked up at her and Weiss smiled; a pure, loving smile. "It's okay."

A small smile of her own flickered across Ruby's face in response before the younger girl bowed her head and blushed quite profusely.

"Sssy…"

"And stop apologizing, dolt."

Despite the girl's head still being downturned, Weiss grinned when she saw Ruby's smile grow ever so slightly, her shoulders shaking once in a telltale sign of amusement.

"Seriously though, Ruby," Weiss started to say, her tone becoming serious and melancholy, "I do apologize for making you this upset. Again. This is the second time I've made you cry like this and I hate that it seems it's becoming a habit. I just…"

Any remaining statement she had was immediately shut down upon the gentle caress of lips at the corner of her mouth. Eyes wide, she observed Ruby pull away, this time her brilliant red cheeks on display for all to see.

All Weiss could do was sit there and blink for a moment.

Ruby had just kissed her.

Ruby had just kissed her.

The biggest grin Weiss had ever known split her face then, Ruby's growing in turn as both girls blushed even more, Weiss eventually having to look away.

"Thank you…" she mumbled abashedly, fiddling with the end of the towel Ruby still had wrapped around her. Ruby just leaned forward to touch their foreheads together, humming pleasantly after doing so. Weiss's heart began to beat at a near erratic rate.

"You…ran, I'm assuming, all the way from the Home to here, in the rain, just to see me?"

Ruby nodded.

Weiss huffed, but Ruby kept her from pulling back, having grasped both her hands in hers and stowing them away with hers beneath the towel.

"I'm sorry," Weiss repeated. "I just…lost it when I thought I had been used. I feel like that's all I've ever been with my own parents, so after thinking I had also been so with people who were basically surrogate parents, really hurt."

Blue locked on to silver, and Ruby flashed Weiss another smile, hoping to alleviate some of the silverette's residual pain.

"I'm…not good at letting people in," Weiss admitted. "Maybe you could tell that, but regardless, you were the first person I had let get to know me for a long time, and you did it so quickly, and I didn't panic for once and just let it happen, and it was amazing, and…"

Weiss squeezed Ruby's hands. She responded by squeezing back.

"I panicked when I thought it had all been a lie."

Ruby was the one to pull back then, though one of her hands came up to cup Weiss's cheek so gently, so lovingly, the blush the heiress had just gotten rid of returned tenfold. Brushing a fallen strand of hair behind Weiss's ear, Ruby shook her head.

"It wasn't?" Weiss guessed.

Ruby shook her head again, this time to confirm. Weiss let a soft smile free in response as she mumbled, "I know that now."

Ruby mirrored that smile before letting her eyes slide shut, falling back against Weiss to rest in their previous position. Weiss let out a small chuckle.

"We should probably let Ozpin and Glynda know where you got off to," she said. "I'm surprised they haven't called already to see if you miraculously made it my way."

"Nnhh…"

Despite it not being the first time hearing that soft whine from Ruby, Weiss's heart still fluttered at the sound.

"No?" she said with a chuckle. "You don't think I'd make them come fetch you at this hour, do you? Nor am I going out in this weather to do so either."

Yet another grin slowly built on Ruby's face as she began to catch on to the implications the heiress was suggesting.

"You came all the way here; why not spend the night?"

Silent giggles of mirth escaping her, Ruby tackled Weiss back to the bed, cuddling up against her even more aggressively than she had earlier. Weiss just found herself laughing along and at complete ease. And as the two settled into Weiss's bed more properly only an hour later, one single thought flitted through Weiss's mind.

Screw school tomorrow. The girl nestled in her arms was far more important.