Weiss took a deep breath as she stood outside the door of Dr. Edrych-Gwydr's office. It wasn't the first time – as a matter of fact, she'd been standing in that very spot for nearly five minutes, and she was taking care to keep her breathing even. Like a model Schnee, she'd once again been early – punctuality was key after all – though in light of recent events, she'd begun considering the addition of that particular gem among Father's maxims to the list of those best reconsidered. As it was, she was still five minutes early, but she did not particularly relish the idea of being admitted any earlier than necessary.

Why did you agree to this?

It had been the good doctor's idea, of course, and after what she'd done for Mina, what was Weiss supposed to say No? Hardly. Perhaps there were certain cases in which punctuality was not best, but Father had another saying that thus far Weiss hadn't found fault with: Nothing in life is free… No, Edrych-Gwydr probably did not intend that Weiss should cooperate with her as compensation for the help she'd given Mina, but Weiss couldn't help feeling like it was a matter of personal honor to treat it that way, so after yet one more deep breath, she raised a hand to knock.

Wait… Her hand stopped just short of the door, Why do I… an unbidden series of recollections called themselves to the forefront of Weiss's mind as she stood there, once more affixed – this time by contemplation rather than hesitancy. They were of Mina, sometimes leaning at her side and listening with rapt attention as Weiss read aloud one fairy tale or another, or in another case, balancing a small, distressed-looking turtle on her head, but in each case Mina had been acting the child at the time. Weiss caught herself smiling, just a little, My little-

She shook her head, "No… that's ridiculous," Finally her knuckles met with the door in succession, "What would I be if I wasn't there to help a friend in her time of need?"

Dr. Edrych-Gwydr, it seemed, had no reservations where punctuality was concerned, and so the Heiress had little time to rationalize to herself, as the door swiftly opened, "Ah, Miss Schnee, thank you for coming,"

"Hello…"

The doctor's inviting smile faded, for which the Heiress gave her credit – she was catching on more quickly than most that Weiss wasn't quite naïve enough to be convinced that everything would be alright by a mere cheerful smile, "You're certain that you are willing to go through with this? If not, it's best that we not begin at all-,"

"No," Weiss shook her head, "I gave you my word, and I'm not about to go back on it,"

The doctor nodded, more solemn than before, "Then please, right this way,"

Without further discussion, Dr. Edrych-Gwydr ushered the Heiress into the closed ward. Just as previously, the space was neatly kept and furnished with a few comforting touches which the doctor thought helpful to her practice, but the arrangement of the furniture was dramatically different this time. Whereas in the previous session, all the furniture had been more or less oriented around the center of the room, this time the love seat sat empty off to the side, with the two individual-sized chairs situated in the middle of the room, back to back. The nearest, facing the door, was empty – having been reserved for Weiss herself – whilst in the opposite facing chair could be seen the unkempt tresses belonging to Nadia Undine.

This is it, I suppose… Without a word, Weiss took her seat, and left it for Edrych-Gwydr to begin the session.

Nadia hadn't known what the doctor was playing at when she had told her that there would be a third person involved in today's session, but she didn't have to wait all that long to find out. After the clipped knock on the door and the words, "Ah, Miss Schnee," Nadia had heard enough. She wasn't angry, per se – though she had the vague thought that she should be - or that she might yet be – but no, the name in itself didn't make her angry, just confused.

As she listened to the Schnee girl's boots walk across the room and take the seat directly behind her, she couldn't help but wonder, What the hell is the point of this anyway?

"As I understand it, you ladies have already met – in not under the most… auspicious of circumstances…"

The Schnee girl said nothing, but Nadia quietly muttered, "She wouldn't let me… see… Mina…"

Nadia heard the sound of fingers tightening about the arm of the leather chair, "See her? That's what you call it-?"

"Miss Schnee, please…"

And like that, the Schnee girl fell quiet again, so Nadia took the opportunity to respond to the Schnee girl's charge, "I just wanted to talk to her-!"

"And look what you did the last time that you 'just talked to her," The Schnee girl retorted coldly.

Nadia's heart froze, "I-I didn't mean to-,"

"And yet it happened,"

Now Nadia was starting to get angry, who the hell did this Schnee bitch think she was? "Shut up! I don't have to explain myself to you!"

Yet the Schnee girl was unmoved, "Oh? Remind me; who of us is the criminal here?"

"C-criminal?" Nadia demanded incredulously, "What about you Schnee? It's bastards like you that forced Mina to-,"

"Nadia," Edrych-Gwydr-stepped into the role of intercessor yet again, "Please, calm down,"

"But…" Nadia cringed, "She's…"

"She cannot be blamed for her birth any more than you can, Nadia," The doctor shook her head, "But let's move on to something constructive, shall we?"

Neither girl spoke.

"Right…" Edrych-Gwydr sighed, "Let's begin at the heart of the matter, shall we? If you would, both of you please explain to each other the nature of your relationships with Miss Carfax?"

There was a long quiet after that as both Weiss and, in the chair behind her facing opposite, Nadia Undine pondered the question, What does she mean by 'relationship' anyway? Weiss silently fumed, I don't – well, not like that anyway… I mean… she sighed, before finally mustering her answer, "She's my best friend,"

Edrych-Gwydr nodded, "As far as I've gathered, she thinks of you in the same way, but could you share how your friendship started?"

Weiss hesitated, "Well… I suppose we had a somewhat rocky start…" she admitted after some pause, "I…" she let out another long sigh, "I was suspicious and afraid of her because she was a Faunus – completely irrational, I know – and I knew it then too – but I've lost a lot of people to the White Fang and… old habits die hard…"

There was a longer period of silence this time, presumably as Edrych-Gwydr gauged Nadia's response, though Weiss couldn't be sure even as the doctor spoke again, "Very well, do go on,"

"Alright…" The Heiress swallowed, "Well, I suppose that we had a bit of a rough patch when she kidnapped me and Blake finally admitted to the rest of us that she… knew Mina from the White Fang… But I guess that worked out alright… barely,"

"What do you mean barely?" Nadia demanded, "If you-,"

"We had to stop her from killing herself because she'd upset Blake!" Weiss snapped, "And none of us wanted that,"

Undine fell silent again.

Taking a deep breath, Weiss continued, "After that though, things got easier… She took a job at that crass little maid café and she was officially part of our team so… We just kind of settled into a comfortable routine…" Weiss paused, "Although I suppose that the routine changed… I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but eventually she started coming to me when she thought that she couldn't go to Blake and then when she lost her memory… I was… I took care of her and…"

Weiss stopped herself before she could begin to tear up – wouldn't do to show that kind of weakness to Undine – but she was honestly surprised at herself by the degree to which merely recounting events had affected her, There really is no reason for that…

"N-no…" Nadia refused to believe it, "All her problems are because of humans like you! You don't get to pretend to be her mother!"

Weiss struck the arm of her chair as a wave of anger flowed over her, "I am not trying to be-," I'm not… am I?

"What? Cat got your tongue, Schnee?"

Weiss shook her head, solely for her own benefit, "No…" You didn't mean to but…. "I'm not playing at anything Undine; Would you have done any less for her in my position?"

Nadia had nothing to answer that. Part of her screamed inside her head that the Schnee girl had no right to claim to be Mina's friend – let alone suggest that she – Nadia – didn't care as much, but then in the back of her mind there was just a shadow of a nagging doubt rooted in a hazy memory of when she had confronted Mina at the shipyard – of when Mina had asked her if she knew how the Schnee Heiress of all people could be her 'best friend.' She hadn't believed it at the time and she still didn't want to believe it now, but yet…

"No…" Came Nadia's feeble answer at last, "I… I just… wish I could be that for her – and more-,"

"What you want," the Heiress reproached, "is to take Blake's place in her life. That isn't fair to Blake, and have you thought for an instant what that would do to Mina? Have you?"

"Miss Schnee, please-," Dr. Edrych-Gwydr tried to mollify the infuriated Heiress, but to Nadia's distress, the Schnee Girl wasn't' having it this time, and Nadia felt herself shrink under every accusing word.

"No!" The Schnee girl was practically shouting now, "Perhaps you weren't paying attention when I said that she attempted suicide when she thought she'd done wrong by Blake, but Blake Belladonna is literally Mina's entire world!" The Schnee Heiress abruptly stood, sending a cold lance of panic through Nadia as the girl's boots audibly rounded the chairs and suddenly the fair-haired girl was in front of her now, "I don't care how devoted you think you are; do you honestly think she would ever be happy if you took Blake away from her?" Nadia tried to look away as Weiss Schnee berated her angrily, but she couldn't escape the Heiress's frigid blue gaze, "And if that would really make you happy…" Weiss very deliberately looked her straight in the eyes, "Then you're sicker than I thought…"

Nadia was transfixed upon the furious countenance of Weiss Schnee which dominated her vision as if etched in sharp relief against the hazy ambiguity of everything else that didn't at all matter. What held her gaze most fixedly though was the scar over her left eye – Schnees were supposed to be so much better than everyone else – that's what they supposedly wanted everyone to believe anyway – yet there was displayed such blatant imperfection… And then…

"W-why are… you crying?"

The Heiress broke off suddenly, one hand reaching up to gingerly feel the tears beginning to spill from her eyes, "I… so I am…"

It was only then that Doctor Edrych-Gwydr made another attempt to mediate as she spoke up with a slow nod, "This is good - we're letting walls come down and expressing emotions – now let's use it,"

"Use what?" The Schnee Heiress demanded of the doctor, finally turning her icy gaze from Nadia, "I have nothing else to say to this-,"

As the Heiress fumed at the doctor though, Nadia couldn't help tuning it out when a realization dawned on her. This Weiss – a Schnee – cared too much – it didn't make any sense. She shouldn't care – it would have made more sense if she didn't like Mina, but Nadia would have thought a Schnee would be ambivalent on the subject at best, yet… There was only one thing that made sense, "You love her too… don't you…?"

Weiss froze mid-sentence.

That's… Her mouth hung agape as her mind came up blank, ridiculous… Yet her face fell, But… I… She shook her head, It isn't like she's probably thinking but…

It had just been a few quiet, barely audible words, and from a girl whose rationality was more than a little dubious on top of it all. Under any other circumstances, Weiss might have simply ignored a comment made so quietly – probably wouldn't have even heard it – but deranged as Undine might be, Weiss couldn't rightly deny it.

"I…" Weiss squeezed her eyes shut, steadying herself on the back of the chair, "Mina Carfax is my best friend," she responded in a forced level tone, "And I'm sure you've been told this, but we Schnees… We're a greedy bunch…" Her fingers tightened around the back of the chair, "Well, that much is true I suppose – after all, I'll be damned before I let you – or anyone – take the people I care about from me..."

Weiss spared Undine another look, and found her gaze held in surprise by Nadia's pale green eyes which met hers, belying a mix of disappointment and shame more than the jealousy and resentment that the Heiress had been expecting. Nadia managed to hold her gaze for a long moment, until Weiss remembered what Undine could do with direct eye-contact, though the precaution proved to be uncalled for when Nadia's face fell, "You do…"

Weiss sighed,, "Yes…"

"But…" Nadia weakly queried, though all defiance had seemingly bled out, "Why? Or… how…? An Ex-White Fang… you should hate her…"

Weiss shook her head slowly, "You still don't get it…" she answered, without malice or anger now, "I've lost a lot of people to the White Fang, Nadia, and that didn't exactly leave me with a positive impression of Faunus as a whole… And until Mina, I'd never gotten off on the right foot with any Faunus – Blake included – And I know that's partly my fault, but I want you to think about how you've been thinking of me; because I'll bet anything that you were just like Blake at first – or any other Faunus I'd met before coming here… Mina and I could be friends because to her, I was a person first, not a Schnee…" Weiss straitened, stepping away from the chairs as she shot the doctor an ill-tempered look, "Are we done here?"

Edrych-Gwydr's mouth was set in a concerned line, but after noting the manner in which Nadia had now taken to staring dull-eyed, at the floor, the doctor had nothing left to add, "Very well… Thank you for your time, Miss-,"

"Weiss," The Heiress interrupted, "My name, is Weiss,"

Weiss leaned up against the wall of the empty corridor halfway between the infirmary and the dorms. She didn't really know what she had been expecting, in retrospect, but it hadn't involve spilling her own guts.. Maybe she'd expected to help Edrych-Gwydr convince Undine that maybe she wasn't being entirely rational, but never this…

She brought up a sleeve to wipe tears from her eyes, "And just how the hell did I end up In tears, exactly?" She shook her head, "It's done now…"

"Hey… Are you alright?"

Weiss tensed, her gaze snapping in the direction of the unfamiliar voice. It's source was that Emerald Sustrai girl – one of the exchange students from Haven. Weiss recalled having met her in passing a few times, but they had not been properly introduced in any real sense, so it was somewhat strange that Weiss's welfare should concern her to any degree.

"I'm fine," The Heiress lied through her teeth, before changing the subject, "How are you finding Beacon?"

The clumsy shift clearly perplexed Emerald, but she didn't make an issue of it as she answered with a shrug, "It's alright – oh, but rumor has it that you've got another new student?"

Weiss's brow furrowed, Is she talking about…? "Is that so? I 'm afraid that's news to me,"

"Hmmm…"Emerald seemed to mull over Weiss's uncertain response, "Maybe it's just a rumor after all…"

"Must be…"

Author's Note: Hello everybody, and I do hope that you enjoyed the chapter; just a quick reminder – not that it's of huge importance, but chronologically speaking, this chapter plays out more or less concurrently with the last one – I just figured the two made better chapter separate then if I were to try and make one cohesive bigger chapter – God knows I've got enough perspective transitions in this one alone. Incidentally, all the breaks in this chapter were meant to suggest a flip between Weiss and Nadia's perspective. At any rate, as always, feedback is appreciated, and until next time, have a good one.