Chapter 18: Gratitude
This can't be real. Why is this happening? I'm not ready. My hair is a mess. Nobody's around to get my back. What's he going to say to me? What am I going to say to him? He cut me off. Is he upset with me? Does he even know I'm here? Maybe I could hide. No, someone would tell him where I am. Should I just face him? Is he even here? Maybe he sent a delegate. Then I could refuse. I made a promise, after all. I won't break it… I… can't break it.
Weiss couldn't control the avalanche of questions and thoughts that blew through her mind like a December wind. She found herself shaking from the impending confrontation, and the cold shadow that had been cast on her by the frame of the enormous ship. Even though it bore her name, the Schnee Dust Company was not her. It could never be her. She was, by definition, a Schnee. But her reputation now preceded her affiliation with her father's company.
In Atlas, she was an heiress. In Vale, she was a huntress. Given the choice, Weiss knew there was no contest. The contempt she held for the life she used to have was indefatigable. Growing up in the shadow of something larger and more important than anything else in the world meant dealing with a lot of darkness. The presence of this great shadow meant that her past had caught up with her. Her… father had caught up with her.
It dawned on Weiss in this time of reflection that she had been quite the hypocrite. She hated Blake for running from her past, for keeping secrets and telling half lies. But was she any better? She knew the answer was no. Blake always said that she left her past behind her, and she did. But when it finally caught up to her, the ruin left in the wake of the storm was immeasurable. Hearts were shattered. Lives irreparably damaged. In that moment, she thought of Yang.
And now here she was. Weiss Schnee, the heiress once again. She had run from her past, choosing instead to fight for the people she loved, not simply tolerate the ones she dreaded. But what would happen now? Her past lay right in front of her, ready to stake its claim on her, rightfully or otherwise. She only knew one thing for sure. There was no way that she was leaving.
Instead of standing in awe of her father's great aircraft, Weiss continued on her way down the street… just like she'd planned. She would look back from time to time as she covered the two blocks on her way to the tiny pawn shop. It was right on the edge of the safe zone, and the sounds of battle could be heard only a few blocks away. She passed this shop a dozen times over the last few months of living in the Kingdom of Vale, but had never gone in.
She knocked on the wooden door, and waited until a voice came from inside. "Come on in!" Weiss twisted the handle, which didn't seem to do anything, and pushed on the door. She expected it to swing open, but instead, it fell over in front of her, making a loud thud as it hit the ground. Weiss was startled by the dysfunction of it all. The clerk standing at the counter just let out a hearty laugh, "Sorry 'bout that young lady! Ursa broke my door. I broke its leg. Didn't get a chance to fix it yet. The door, I mean. You can come on in, I'll uh, close that for ya."
Weiss was caught off guard by the hospitality of the man at the counter. The world was ending around them, but he seemed to be having the time of his life. "Are you… opened for business?"
"Yes ma'am. I welcome Humans, Faunus and Grimm. I only kill the Grimm. You're not a Grimm are ya?" Weiss was not expecting someone so lively. She'd forgotten what it was like to have a casual conversation with someone. She remained contemplative for a few seconds until the clerk pulled out what would have passed for a guitar, except for the large caliber barrel protruding from the end of the neck.
Weiss stepped back, "Human! Definitely human." The man lowered his weapon back below the counter.
"Sorry. You uh... didn't say no. Never can be too careful." He laughed again. Weiss enjoyed the man's jovial attitude, and smiled politely back at him. The man was probably in his mid forties, and had a head full of black hair, with a bit of grey mixed in. It was thinning on the top, but not enough to cause concern. He had a dark complexion, and was built well, maybe a bit above average height for a man. Weiss estimated he was right around six feet tall. He was dressed in khaki pants and a white polo shirt tucked in behind a black leather belt. "So then, Miss… I'm sorry, I like to get to know my customers."
Weiss hesitated for a moment, knowing fully how this part of the conversation usually went for her. "Schnee. My name is Weiss. It's nice to meet you."
The man stood in silence for a moment, maintaining a completely straight face. He broke the silence long enough to say, "I'll be right back," and ran off into the back room. His voice echoed from behind the door, "Feel free to look around!"
He's either going to kidnap me or rob me. I just know it, Weiss thought. Before she could be abducted, she decided to have a look around. The store kept most of the more valuable items behind the glass casing that formed the counter near the cash register. Since what she had come for would be somewhat valuable, that's where she looked. There were knives, necklaces, jewels, weapons and even a small assortment of dust crystals that had been marked up exorbitantly.
She couldn't locate what she was looking for, so Weiss turned to the opposite wall in the store to check with the more common items. As she searched, the door behind the counter creaked, and the man's footsteps could be heard walking through it. "Sorry 'bout the wait, Ms. Schnee." She turned around to see the same man, now wearing a dress shirt with a bow tie, his hair neatly combed and styled. "Didn't recognize you at first. Just wanted to make myself presentable for someone of your... ilk."
She was blown away by the hospitality of this man, yet unsure how to respond. After all, she was not really comfortable with this level of attention. "I'm flattered by your warm welcome, sir. Really, it wasn't necessary though."
"Nonsense! What can I help ya with today?"
Weiss knew her request would be an odd one, considering her age. "I'm looking for a flask. A nice one." The clerk looked at her awkwardly for a moment. "It's for a friend." The awkward looks persisted. "Really." Her face became red as she realized how ridiculous she must sound to a grown man who had probably used the same lines once or twice in his years.
"No judgement here, we were all young once," he replied. "I have a few in a drawer under the counter. I don't leave 'em on display because honestly, nobody buys these things." He knelt down, pulled open the drawer, and retrieved a small box, before lifting it up to the counter. "There ya go. You can look through those if you want."
She opened the box, and immediately saw the most perfect flask for her purposes. It was crafted from silver, and had the Schnee Dust Company emblem engraved into it. Weiss held it in her hand for a moment before asking, "Where did you even get this? I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before…"
"It's probably been… years. I used to get all kinds of SDC stuff from a couple of my long-time Faunus business partners. Said they were in some kinda partnership with your dad. Haven't seen 'em in a while though."
Weiss knew that it had probably come from a cargo train that had been hijacked by the White Fang, or at least that was what her instincts told her. The man probably didn't mean any harm by it. He just didn't know that his 'business partners' had taken certain liberties to acquire their goods. It didn't matter, though. This was a gift. "How much do you want for it?"
The man knew he could probably get away with inflating the price, but he had no interest in trying to swindle his new customer. "Tell ya what. If you have any dust on you, we can probably negotiate ourselves a deal. I've been trying to get back into the dust business for a long time."
Weiss reached into her pack to retrieve some spare dust canisters that were normally reserved for her weapon. She had more back in her room, so it didn't bother her to part with them. She laid a half dozen of them on the counter. Considering the ridiculous price of dust these days, she figured that would be enough.
The clerk's eyes lit up like Christmas lights. "Ms. Schnee, this is easily worth double the price of this flask. I can't take all this in good faith."
She smiled, "Consider it my thanks for being so hospitable. You run a good business here, Mister… I don't believe I caught your name either."
"Name's Flynt Coal. Senior. Pleasure to meet you."
Weiss just stared blankly at the man, uttering only one word, "What."
The hearty laugh returned. "I think you know my son, Flynt Jr. I used to run a dust shop in Atlas. Your dad's company pretty much squashed us, so I sold out to him. That money was enough to move to Vale, where I opened this pawn shop. My son stayed in Atlas, where he grew up and went to school. But I've been fortunate to see him a lot recently, what with the Vytal Festival and all."
The thought that good things did, actually, still happen in the world made Weiss smile. She exchanged her dust canisters for the flask, and bid her new friend farewell, "Thank you again Mr. Coal. I'm sure I'll visit again sometime."
"The pleasure's all mine, Ms. Schnee. Oh, and if you see my son around, tell him to stop down here and see his old man sometime. I'm gettin' too old to be lifting broken wooden doors all day." She smiled and acknowledged his request.
As Weiss stepped out into the street, she turned back to look at the name of the shop. The sign simply read "Coal's". Don't know how I missed that one, she thought. The warm exchange she'd had with Mr. Coal left her in a pleasant mood as she started the walk back to the hospital.
The sun was beginning to set on the second day of their residence in Vale. Weiss considered how lucky they were that the safe zone had been established, maintained and even expanded somewhat in that time. She kept thinking about how things would continue to get better. For the first time in probably a week, she was genuinely happy.
Then, she walked up to the front door of the hospital, where the her cordial demeanor was blown away by the icy cold reality of such a gaudy ship, which was still hovering above the city. Oh, right. There's that. Her internal monologue bemoaned the possibility that at any moment, her nightmare could compound itself by the appearance of her father.
She quickly made her way up to Room 226, and knocked gently on the door. A woman's voice answered, "Come in!" Weiss pushed the door open, and saw that a nurse was tending to Yang's scratches and cuts on her legs. Her teammate didn't seem to be any better off mentally than she had been earlier in the day, but at least she wasn't rolling on the floor in agony like the last time.
Qrow was there too. He had a bowl in one hand, and a spoon in the other. When he looked up to acknowledge Weiss, the outline of chocolate around his lips became apparent. He immediately went on the defensive, "She wasn't gonna eat it… and I couldn't let it go to waste. Hey, did you know Ren is like, a really good cook? Made this from scratch."
"And lake slime, probably," Weiss joked. "I can't believe you ate Yang's pudding." Then she thought about what she was saying. "Oh wait, you're an insufferable ogre. I can totally believe it." Qrow just shrugged. Whatever it was that he was spooning into his mouth, it was delicious.
"So, what'd you do with yourself in the last couple hours?" Qrow asked, with a mouthful of pudding.
"Well, I thought a lot about everything I've… we've gone through in the last few days. Everything you did to help me, all of the times that you knew exactly what to say to make me feel like everything was alright... I realized that I never properly thanked you for it. And… in light of certain events that I may or may not have been paying attention to, I bought you a small token of my gratitude." She reached into her pack, and pulled out the silver flask.
Qrow couldn't help but stare at the gift. Without even looking, he set the bowl down on the table, having totally forgotten that the spoon was still in his mouth. He stood up, and walked toward Weiss, speechless. A minor miracle, she thought. He opened his mouth to speak, and the spoon fell to the floor, much to the chagrin of the nurse tending to Yang. "Weiss, I… you didn't have to-"
"Please," she interjected with a wry smile. "You're no good to anyone sober."
"I could kiss you," Qrow said, creating an awkward uncertainty in the mind of his young friend.
"Please don't," was the response he got from Weiss.
The huntsman settled for a more casual show of thanks. The two closed in to mutually express their appreciation for each other in the form of a harmless hug.
As the embrace began, a voice came from behind Weiss, just outside the room, "And what, may I ask, is this all about, Qrow?" He was already oriented in that direction, so it was easy for him to simply look up. He stood, embracing one Schnee, and looked into the bewildered eyes of another.
"Damn it," he muttered.