"Hey all, how'd things turn out?" Yang asked loudly as she shut the front door and walked into the living room.
"After you provided a good distraction, quite well. All things considered." Weiss said as she quickly sat up from her reclined position on the couch.
"So we did win, eh?" Yang jumped across an armchair and pulled her scroll from her pocket.
"Yeah! Weiss was amazing!" Ruby said, once again getting excited from the climax of the match.
"I already told you it was nothing special." Weiss argued, a slight pink hue taking over her cheeks. "Anyways, has your father sent you a message?"
"Don't know, I haven't checked." Ruby replied, not moving to get her scroll. "Yang?"
"Yeah, he said he'll be a little late, but only by about half an hour." Yang replied as she checked her messaging app. Her stomach let loose a loud growl just as she tossed the scroll onto the table. "Maybe I should have a snack…"
"NO!" Ruby yelled making both her sister and girlfriend look at her with surprise. "I mean… you… shouldn't spoil dinner?"
Ruby's eyes found Weiss for a brief moment before she looked at Yang pleadingly.
"Alright, why don't you explain, Weiss?" Yang sighed, slouching into the chair even more.
"We're going to make an announcement at dinner." Weiss said, consciously taking Ruby's hand so even Yang couldn't miss the movement.
"Oh… gotcha!" Yang winked before hopping back to her feet. "I promise I'll only have something small."
"Okay…" Ruby grumbled in defeat. "I should have used the puppy eyes…"
"Now, now. No need to be so serious." Yang came over to her sister and wrapped her in a hug. "I'm sure everything will be fine. Not to mention…"
Yang trailed off with her eyes on Weiss. Ruby followed her gaze and the two sisters stared at her as if she had something on her face.
"What?" Weiss asked cautiously.
"Nothing." Yang waved a hand in dismissal as she turned to make her way to the kitchen. "Just that tonight will prove whether or not my first impression of you was right."
Once the blond left, Weiss looked over at Ruby questioningly. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Maybe we should get Blake to help us make supper?" Ruby replied with a nervous laugh. "Just in case?"
Weiss sighed, hoping that Ruby wasn't going to be as nervous come the moment of truth. She responded after another moment of thought. "I suppose it couldn't hurt."
Over the next half an hour, Ruby and Weiss found Blake hiding in Yang's room reading, and after some explaining, managed to convince her to help them cook something that wasn't just a simple dish that they already knew how to make.
Weiss wasn't exactly sure whether that was a good thing or not since Blake had only agreed to give instruction where it was needed. So, as she had predicted, Blake now sat in the kitchen with her book as Ruby and her looked through all the food they had at their disposal.
"What can we even make from these ingredients?" Weiss asked, looking at the assorted meats and vegetables in front of her.
"I was going to make kabobs with them." Yang said from her spot beside Blake, hoping to enjoy her teammates making fools of themselves as they tried to cook.
"Don't think of what the ingredients can help you make." Blake said philosophically. "Think of what you want to make, then choose your ingredients."
"I don't really know. Does your dad have a favourite dish?" Weiss asked curiously. She looked from Ruby who shrugged to Yang who smiled and nodded.
"He really likes stew." Yang said with a look of satisfaction.
Ruby and Weiss looked at each other for a moment, neither one picking up whether Yang was making a joke or if she was serious.
"Stew…" Weiss echoed just to make sure she'd heard right.
"Yup! Stew." Yang replied. "Ruby should know that. You haven't forgotten last winter, have you?"
"Right… but-" Ruby started to object but Yang cut her off.
"Nope! I know what you're going to say, and the answer is no." Yang replied, her smile lingering, giving Weiss a feeling that there was nothing helpful that would come from her mouth.
Ruby opened her mouth to try again when Weiss put her hand on her shoulder. "Your sister isn't going to help with this one."
"I guess you're right… so stew?" Ruby asked, glancing at the ingredients. "I don't think kabobs would be a good idea. Too dangerous."
"Fine… stew it is." Weiss conceded with a sigh of defeat.
"Yes! I knew you'd give!" Yang cheered.
"If you aren't helping, go away." Blake ordered Yang with a wave of her book. "I'll call you when it's time to clean up."
"Yes, your majesty!" Yang said sarcastically as she left for the living room. "I'll be watching TV."
Weiss and Ruby started preparing the food for the stew. It quickly became apparent that Ruby was not the right person to be wielding a sharp knife even though her scythe probably had a sharper edge to it's blade. Weiss quickly found out on the other hand, that she was actually quite skilled, and managed to chop all her vegetables into neat pieces that were all roughly the same size. She quickly took over the cutting as Blake assigned Ruby to the pot where she was now carefully monitoring the heat as the meat cooked and made sure nothing ended up burned or stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Blake went between them, monitoring their progress as she also started pulling out ingredients for another dish she had agreed to prepare due to the difficulty level. After Weiss finished cutting the ingredients, Blake examined the chunks of beef in Ruby's pot.
"So now just add all the vegetables and keep stirring it for the next thirty minutes." She instructed while she poured her mixture she'd been working on into a pan and quickly put it in the oven below the stove. "That should be done in about 45 minutes, so we'll have everything ready to eat in about an hour. Does that sound fine?"
"An hour puts it exactly when my dad said he'd be home." Ruby said, looking down at her clothes and then at Weiss's attire. "I sort of wanted to clean up after the paint-ball fight."
"And what were you doing up until now?" Blake asked, noting that the fight had ended hours ago.
"She kind of caught both of us when we fell off a building. So she was on the couch recovering." Weiss said, looking down and away from the faunus. "And I was kind of… keeping her company."
"Fine." Blake sighed, sitting back on the chair she'd been on before. "Ruby go get ready. When you're done the princess can go."
"Hey!" Weiss jumped at the nickname.
"Thanks! I'll be quick!" Ruby disappeared with her semblance barely held in check to avoid the rose petals from falling into the food they'd worked so hard to create.
Blake's eyes shifted from Ruby's exit back to Weiss who had taken over stirring the stew. She watched Weiss for a moment before turning back to her book.
The two teammates remained silent for a few awkward moments before Weiss coughed lightly to break the silence.
"I… really appreciate your help." Weiss said to the stew while she changed her stirring pattern to the opposite direction. "This is actually the first thing I've enjoyed cooking in my life."
"You're welcome… and what do you mean?" Blake asked curiously.
Weiss took a deep breath and turned her body so she was facing Blake. A single hand held the wooden spoon firmly as her wrist gently kept the thick liquid in motion.
"It's not that I needed help to make anything. I'm sure you saw my skill with a knife when I was cutting the vegetables." Weiss said to a nod from Blake. "I was taught how to cook by a team of chefs that work at a 5 star restaurant."
"Knowing your background, I could see that." Blake stated with a nod as if that explained everything.
"But you know… the only reason I was taught to cook was because it was something my father thought would make me more suitable as a bride." Weiss stated with a grimace. "Believe it or not, he actually agreed for me to be married with six different people already."
Blake's eyebrows shot up at the information and she looked at Weiss curiously for an explanation.
"He managed to weasel me out of the marriages through a series of purposely created loopholes. It didn't make for very happy business partners." Weiss said ruefully. "It's actually how he acquired the eastern mines where the majority of the faunus labour disputes have cropped up from."
"And he's really okay with you and Ruby?" Blake asked skeptically even though the fact that Weiss was there in front of her gave evidence that he was.
"Actually, he treated my announcement as a practical joke. And then he finalized yet another marriage contract that seems to be the one he's meaning to have stick." Weiss said darkly. "My sister is the only one who was understanding. And she's promised to get me the contract so I can find a way out. Speaking of which…"
"You want my help." Blake stated with a frown, looking up from her book into the heiress's eyes.
"Yes. And Yang's. And JNPR's too if they have free time. I don't know how solid my father created it to be, but I have a feeling I'll need all the help I can get." Weiss said gravely, stressing how difficult the task might be.
"Why go through all that work?" Blake asked calmly. "I mean, wouldn't it just be easier to go through with it and get married?"
"It would be easier. Astronomically so." Weiss nodded in agreement. "But I can't for three reasons."
Blake widened her eyes slightly as the prompt for Weiss to continue, so she took a deep breath to steady herself and began.
"First, I need to do it for myself. I need to take control of my own life and not allow my father to make every major decision for me. It should be up to me if I get married, not some piece of paper that orders me around." Weiss said, feeling even lighter as she spoke her feelings aloud not just for Ruby, but for Blake. A faunus who was a friend, but one she wasn't terribly close with if you didn't count the occasions that they'd fought grimm or attended class together.
"Makes sense." Blake nodded, prompting Weiss to continue.
"Second is that I need to do it for Ruby. I made a promise to her before I knew about this contract, but I can't just break my promise. I never break my promises." Weiss said, hesitating at the end. "And the third reason is… well, it's sort of silly."
"Regardless, I'd like to hear." Blake stated as she checked the time quickly. Ruby would be back in a matter of moments.
"The third reason is also Ruby so you might just consider it a continuation of the second. If I'm married, I'll disappear from your lives. I know Ruby's not a child and she knows what would happen. But I can't put her through anything like that. I can't bring myself to cut the ties we've created. And not just Ruby and myself, the ties that we've created as a team. I can't be the one that does that to Ruby, to Yang, and also to you. I can't be that person." Weiss trembled and turned back to the stove to focus on stirring. "That's why I'll need your help."
"Alright then. Just let me know when you need it." Blake said as she rose to her feet.
Ruby entered the kitchen in clean clothes that were identical to her previous outfit though with much less dust clinging to them. She made to take the spoon over from Weiss who turned and walked out without another word.
"Is she okay?" Ruby asked, the concern in her voice heavy and obvious.
"She'll be fine. She just needs a moment to herself." Blake answered. "How about you go get your sister to clean up for dinner and I'll take over the stove?"
"Alright." Ruby passed the spoon over and left the room.
Blake listened carefully to the crash in the living room and Yang's surprised voice before Ruby responded tauntingly and then laughter echoed through the halls as quick footsteps ran up the stairs.
"Well, lets see how they did…" Blake mumbled to herself as she carefully picked up a spoon to taste her teammate's concoction. "Hmm… not bad."
Blake stirred it a few more times then removed the pot from the heat so the sauce would thicken. She sat back on the chair while she waited for the bread she'd made out of leftover ingredients in the kitchen. She knew it would turn out fine since she'd made it with fewer ingredients before and all that could happen was it turned out like cardboard. But with the few extra grams of flour and the spoon of yeast she'd found, it would be perfect.
She pulled out her book and started reading while she waited for the timer on her scroll to tick down. She managed to get so engrossed in the story that she hadn't noticed Yang come in the room and sit down beside her, making her jump at the sudden movement as Yang leaned down onto the counter.
"Don't sneak up on me!" Blake reprimanded her partner, playfully smacking her arm with her book.
"I don't sneak, you should know that." Yang replied with a grin. "I think you said I was 'like a berserking bull in a china shop' at some point."
"You are. And that's why you should always break something when you enter a room." Blake replied, returning to her book. She carefully kept the small smile that had started to stretch across her lips hidden.
"I would, but I don't think this house has enough left to support that habit, so we'll just have to settle for the normal routine." Yang commented, sounding as if she didn't actually care one way or the other. "Anyhow…"
Yang trailed off and the silence that followed in the wake of her unfinished thought was enough for the normally anti-social Blake to continue the conversation.
"Yes?" Blake prompted, turning to Yang who looked normal, except her eyes. Her eyes held a depth normally hidden to the outside world, and in that depth, concern was the foremost emotion that plagued her as she thought about what Blake could easily guess at. "Is it about the other half of our team?"
"Yeah… it's just… I don't know where to start." Yang said, letting out a deep sigh.
"How about the beginning?" Blake prompted, already prepared to continue acting as the team counsellor.
"Okay… well, don't tell them I told you, okay?" Yang asked to get an immediate nod from her teammate. "Remember that call I took right before the paint-ball fight?"
"Yeah, you seemed a bit confused after you hung up." Blake said, remembering that the moment Ruby and Weiss had left, the phone had sprung to life, interrupting her reading.
"Well, it was Weiss's older sister." Yang said. "She seemed to be sort of secretive, but what I managed to understand is that our heiress is apparently getting married to an heir. And if that's true, what the hell is she doing leading Ruby along?"
Blake lay her hand on Yang's shoulder as her eyes threatened to turn red as her aura flickered on the edge of emergence. She squeezed tightly until Yang took the signal and started breathing deeply.
"As it turns out, it seems that we all know about that now." Blake said once Yang's eyes had stayed their normal violet for a few moments without wavering. Those piercing violet ringed orbs snapped onto her own in a silent plea for information and Blake took a deep breath. "Yes, even Ruby knows about the impending marriage."
"And she's okay with it?" Yang asked incredulously, wondering where the little sister she knew not two weeks ago had gone.
"Of course she isn't. For that matter, neither is Weiss." Blake stated to make sure Yang knew that Ruby wasn't being played by Weiss. "By what I've heard, we may need to help Weiss get out of the contract that her sister is most likely going to deliver since she would have the resources to get an insider copy of it."
"And what if she can't? Then what?" Yang asked, riling herself up again. "What if she can't get out of the contract and ends up married to some asshole? What happens then? And what would happen to Ruby? She'd be beyond heartbroken."
"I think that's where she's hoping to get your help." Blake stated with a small grin that Yang had accidentally let slip her concern for their white haired teammate.
"What do you mean?" Yang asked slowly, not processing Blake's implication.
"Well, no offense, but you would likely be useless for sorting through a contract for a loophole." Blake stated slowly, hoping to explain to Yang her role without wasting the time that was slowly running out until Weiss inevitably rejoined them. "But your specialty is being able to think on your feet and predict the way people react. It's what makes your boxing a viable combat method. What you need to do is to figure out a plan B so that in the case that the rest of us can't break the contract, we have something else that can at the very least give us more time with it."
"So, like something that makes them call off the wedding like the church burning down?" Yang asked to a frustrated sigh from Blake.
"Think more along the lines of Weiss getting snowed in at some remote ski lodge so she can't get to the church." Blake stated, just spewing the first thing that popped into her head. "Something like that."
"But there aren't any mountains around here." Yang cocked her head to the side, a small grin making her lips twitch as she tried to hide it.
Blake was about to respond when her faunus hearing heard Weiss and Ruby walking down the stairs together. She turned off her scroll's alarm the exact moment it started and moved to the oven to pull the bread out.
"I know that. That's why it's your job." Blake hissed quietly as she purposely made noise with a selection of cutlery. "Now go make yourself useful and set the table."
"Sure thing." Yang nodded, noticing Weiss come into the room in an outfit slightly fancier than her usual attire. As she passed Weiss, she stopped and patted her shoulder. "I got your back, just leave it to me!"
Weiss looked at Yang as if she'd just sprouted wings and a snake's tongue as she left the kitchen to the adjoining dining room.
"What was that about?" Weiss asked in confusion, still looking after Yang. "Though I am somewhat relieved that she at the very least supports my relationship."
"Are you thinking she wouldn't?" Blake asked rhetorically as she waited for the bread to cool enough to cut.
"Actually, I thought she might have been a little bit hesitant." Weiss said. "But see? If Yang is fine with us, I'm sure your dad will be too."
"Uh… sure… if you say so." Ruby mumbled, fiddling with her hands on the edge of her skirt as she swayed between her own world and the real one.
Yang came back in to get bowls and plates when Ruby had replied, and looked over at her sister. She took a deep breath and leaned across the island where her and Weiss had taken seats.
"Hey Rubes… how you holding up?" Ruby looked up at Yang and shook her head, letting a long breath out as she closed her eyes.
"He's just going to hate it. I know it." Ruby replied quietly.
"Hey now. Hold on a minute. He might not be the best at talking, but I'm sure he'll be happy for you." Yang said as she took her sister's hand in hers and gestured for Weiss to take her other hand. "Now, I know right now I don't exactly have the right to give you advice."
"Yeah, because I'm the one announcing I'm gay and that my girlfriend is Weiss all over a single meal." Ruby laughed dryly.
"Well, there's that…" Yang agreed, joining the laugh for a moment before returning to her serious talk. "But I think it's more because I haven't completely accepted you and Weiss."
The room was silent while they waited on Yang's next words. It wasn't exactly the best time to be lost for words, but everyone could tell Yang was making sure there was no way to take her words the wrong way. She gently squeezed Ruby and Weiss's hands, getting their attention back before she continued.
"I love you Ruby. You know that. The only reason I haven't been able to accept you dating Weiss is because that means you don't need a big sister anymore. It means when you need help, it'll be Weiss that comes to your side. Sure I'll come if you call, but I'm smart enough to know you'll only need my help when Weiss's isn't enough." Yang said as she started to rub her thumbs across the back of the girls' hands. "But I'll get used to the idea, I know I will. I just need some more time to adjust. And that's why I want to tell you that dad will be the same way. He'll be sad because you won't need him as much, but I think he's already started to come to terms with that since you started combat school. In the end, what he really wants… what I want too, is for you to be happy. And if Weiss is who makes you smile, then go ahead and smile."
Yang clasped both of their hands together and let them intertwine their fingers. Then she clasped the ball of fingers in her hands and squeezed them gently.
"So yeah, if you need a big sister, I'm there… for both of you." Yang said. "And if dad doesn't support this right off the get-go, then we'll deal with it if that happens. But I have a feeling you'll be fine."
"Thanks Yang." Ruby smiled sadly at her sister. "I feel a bit better now."
"Alright! Oddly enough, that's exactly what I was aiming for!" Yang let go of her teammates hands and scooped the dishes off the counter before she left the room.
"You know, your sister definitely has her moments." Weiss stated while she caressed Ruby's hand, making the younger girl blush a little at the display of affection.
"I heard that!" Yang called from the other room, causing all three of her teammates to burst into laughter.