Chapter 18
"Are you even listening, Neo? I will not rest until I've complained about everything!" Weiss was still going as they walked into their room.
Neo made a gesture with her left hand holding her thumb parallel to her other four fingers and moving them in unison open and closed.
"Why you… I am not yapping!"
Neo suddenly covered her mouth as she mimed a gasp.
"What now?"
Neo closed the distance between her and Weiss, grabbed the heiress's scroll and tapped the home button to show them the time. The dining hall would only be open another forty-five minutes; they needed to hurry over if they were going to have dinner. Neo was certainly adapting quite easily to having so much food regularly available; she couldn't remember the last time she ate so well, so frequently.
In unison, Neo pointed to both, her mouth and the time on the scroll, to indicate that she was starving and wanted to track down some dinner.
"Oh, wow. It's getting late." Weiss smiled at Neo. "Time really flies when we're spending time together. Honestly, I'm so comfortable with you, I just kind of lose myself."
Neo thought it was a sweet compliment coming from Weiss, but at the same time, the girl was still yapping and cutting into their precious eating time. Neo tossed their calendars and other items on their desk before heading back to the door. Giving Weiss a quick kiss on the cheek, she grabbed her by the little bag at the small of her back and started to drag her towards the dining hall. Weiss grabbed the doorknob and yanked it shut as she was being dragged out of the room.
Weiss finally freed herself from Neo's vice-like grip and turned around to walk along side the small woman and caught her hand. She leaned her head onto Neo's shoulder and the pair left the dorms in silence.
Neo was enjoying the peace and quite after Weiss's tirade the entire way back to the dorms. The girl probably didn't want to admit it, probably didn't even realize it, but Ruby's hyperactivity seemed to have rubbed off on her a bit.
Of course it was too good to last, though.
"I really don't understand it. You and Ruby are both so tiny but, when it comes to food, you're bottomless pits. Ruby with her cookies and you with, well, everything, actually."
Neo shrugged and kind of glanced away.
Weiss halted and grabbed hold of Neo's shoulder, "Neopolitan?" The small woman stopped and turned to face her. "One day, I would really like to hear, well, not 'like', that's not the right… Whatever… I want to hear about your past. There's so many things that I know take for granted, having had everything I've ever needed. I've learned a lot from Blake, Ruby, and Yang about what it's like to not have everything. I feel like you have a story that you keep inside, but need to share. And I'll be here to hear it when you're ready."
Neo wrapped her left arm around Weiss's waist and rest her head on her partner's shoulder as they resumed walking towards the dining hall. Mercifully, Weiss kept quiet this time. The girl was right; Neo did want to tell someone the full story of everything that she's been through these years. She would never understand though. She said it herself, she takes the necessities for granted. She had everything handed to her. How could a Schnee possibly understand the struggle of my life?
As soon as they arrived in the dining hall, the pair grabbed their trays and loaded up with their food before looking around the large hall for their comrades. They spotted the rest of RWBY and JNPR at their regular tables, so they wandered over to join them.
Weiss was a little concerned about how Ruby was going to act, especially since Yang indicated that the girl wanted to speak with her. She was afraid of the questions Ruby would ask and she knew that she would not have any answers for. So, Weiss tried to put as much distance between her and Ruby as possible. She also tried to limit the amount of physical contact she made with Neo; it seemed prudent to not rub the new relationship that was causing Ruby's distress right in her face.
Neo noticed the way that Weiss's immediately went silent, picked a seat as far away from Ruby as she could be, and her general avoidance of their teammates, especially the girl in the red cloak.
Pyrrha, oblivious to Weiss's struggle, wanted Neo and Weiss's input to debrief from their earlier match and figure out how she could improve. Unfortunately for the Amazonian warrior, Weiss was (surprisingly, Neo noted) no longer in much of a chatty mood and Neo's ability to communicate her take on their match was fairly limited.
Trying another tactic, Pyrrha tried to ask Neo a series of simple 'yes' or 'no' questions to try to gain an understanding of her training and battle style. Much to Pyrrha's chagrin, Neo responded with a lot more shrugging than offering the substantial answers she hoped for.
Eventually Pyrrha gave up and everyone ate in silence. To Weiss's relief, her teammates decided to head out as soon as they finished rather than hang out with the silently brooding bunch.
After Ruby, Blake, and Yang left and Jaune and Ren headed off for the dessert cart, Weiss began speaking again, "Well, Pyrrha, I guess it just had a lot to do with the fact that Neo and I were able to read each other's movements and intentions pretty well and react to each other more quickly than you and Nora could."
Pyrrha and Neo both snapped their heads towards Weiss, especially since it had been at least ten minutes since Pyrrha last tried asking Neo a question.
"Umm, Weiss… Are you okay?" Pyrrha cautiously ventured.
"Yeah, it's just that I'm a little uncomfortable around Ruby right now."
Nora leaned across Pyrrha and looked at Weiss. "Ooohhhh! Gossip!"
Weiss looked around before speaking again. "I'm as surprised as everyone else, but it turns out that Ruby is more observant than Jaune. By a lot, actually."
"What do you mean, Weiss?"
"Pyrrha, it's painful to watch, but virtually everyone at Beacon, aside from Jaune knows that you're into him. You're not exactly subtle or trying to hide it…"
"That was a little more blunt than I would have put it, but yeah, that's accurate." Nora interrupted.
"… or anything. I wasn't even aware that I was giving off any signals or anything, and yet Ruby picked up on them. So Yang told me that she's pretty crushed that Neo and I are together and trying things out." Weiss finished and took the small woman's hand in hers and averted her gaze from the girls sitting across from them.
"Weiss, umm, wow… I, ugh, I didn't know. I never saw anything more than being partners between you two." Pyrrha really wasn't sure what to say in this situation.
Unfortunately for Weiss, Nora had no such shortcoming.
"Is anyone on your team NOT a lesbian?" Nora shouted loud enough that anyone in the building could hear before clasping her hands to her mouth, as she realized what she just did.
Turning an incredibly bright red, Weiss tried to shrink into her seat and hide from all of their schoolmates that turned towards the sound of Nora's outburst.
"Aw, c'mon!" Jaune's voice was shrill as it reached them from the far side of the room.
Pyrrha's head fell forward and landed on the palm of her hand. Her other hand massaged her temple. Nora was bubbling over though. "Honestly, I always thought you and Blake would end up together. You're both so, well, brooding and dark and there's the whole 'monochrome' color palate you two bring to the table…" The Valkyrie shut up and sat up straight with a "meerp!" as Pyrrha's elbow made contact with her ribs.
The women all sat in silence; none dared meet another's gaze. Pyrrha stood up and turned to leave before she paused and looked over her shoulder, "As long as you're happy Weiss, I support you and Neopolitan. But, it doesn't change what your leader is probably feeling. And you'll need to work that out together." With that parting bit of advice, she headed towards the exit.
"You're really cute together!" Nora turned her eyes towards Pyrrha before sighing and getting up to follow her. "We're all happy for you. You too, Neo."
Neo's hand hurt from how hard Weiss was squeezing it. Poor girl was basically just outed to the entire school. She didn't have the heart to try to pull her crushed digits from the girl. Neo suddenly realized that there's no way news like that wouldn't make its way to Atlas almost immediately. She chanced a look at Weiss. The girl's face was blank as she looked down at the table. She was probably worried about her father finding out.
Despite her outwardly stoic appearance, Weiss's mind was flying. Winter. My ridiculously over-bearing sister is going to lose her mind when she finds out that I'm dating a former criminal. "What will father say?" ~ she could hear the woman's stern voice already ~ "You are the Schnee Dust Company's heir-apparent and you would risk our family's reputation for this criminal?" There was absolutely nothing she or Neo could do to ever redeem her in the eyes of the Schnee family. She glanced at Neo, And now, this poor woman was about to be thrown to those wolves, after just barely escaping whatever torment she faced from that Torchwich fiend.
"Neopolitan, I am so sorry that happened." Weiss finally realized the death grip she had on the small woman's hand and eased up significantly. "My family will probably start hearing rumors about this within the hour. Then they'll start calling. And since I'll keep ignoring them, they'll probably send my older sister Winter to check up on me." She paused briefly, "Winter has never approved of anything I've done. She hates that I came to Beacon instead of staying at Atlas and following her into the military. She sends me disapproving notes every time I try to tell her about all that Team RWBY has accomplished. She hates that I want to live my own life and do something that makes me happy, regardless of how it 'reflects on our family.' And now I've dragged you right into that mess."
Neo was touched that the girl cared so much about how it was going to impact her. Weiss clearly wasn't thinking of just how she was going to have to deal with everything. Neo smiled at Weiss and shrugged. She pointed to herself, pat the table in front of Weiss, then pat the back of the girl's chair before she leaned against her and looked up into her eyes.
Weiss softly chuckled. "In front of, behind, and right next to…" She tilited her head and rested it upon the multihued head on her shoulder. "The same place I'll be for you, Neo."