CONTENT WARNING

This story contains depictions of child abuse, racism, brief mentions of suicide ideation, and violence that may be disturbing to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

VERY important author's note at the end. DO NOT SKIP!

Special thanks to my friend for creating the cover art for this massive project!

Act 1: Growing Pains

"Winter, how many animals are in the Dust Mine?"

Winter, who was brushing the knots out of Weiss' damp hair, stopped. Weiss swung her feet impatiently beneath the table, staring at the golden light flickering outside her window. The growing blizzard dimmed its brilliance tonight.

"Where did you hear that from?" Winter asked.

"I heard Father complaining about animals after dinner." Weiss crossed her arms.

It wasn't fair that Winter got to pet animals all day while she was stuck in their boring family lodge. Her bedroom didn't even have any toys to play with. All she had for entertainment were bookshelves filled with textbooks, glass souvenirs, and framed photos of the Manor.

When Father said she was old enough to visit the Dust Mine, Weiss thought it meant she could walk through the Mine like the explorers she saw on TV and in books. So when she learned her only job was to meet project managers and read reports, she wanted to burst out crying.

"Why can't I go into the Mine with Winter?" she had asked Father on their flight.

"You're only five, sweetheart," Father said without taking his eyes off his Scroll. "Your mother would throw a fit if I let you go in so soon."

Weiss bit back a retort. She was promised a fun vacation away from home, not more work.

"And wipe that ugly look from your face, Weiss. You're embarrassing yourself."

Weiss didn't complain again. Not even when her bedroom window faced the Dust Mine she was forbidden from exploring. It was easy to ignore during the day. If she squinted, she could pretend it was a tiny insignificant hill, but at sundown, it lit up like a firefly and beckoned her all through the night, tempting her with promises of treasure and adventure.

"So? Did you really see animals down there?" Weiss tilted her head back to look at Winter.

"It's not polite to eavesdrop, silly." Winter flicked her forehead.

"What kind of animals do we have?"

"It's nothing special." Winter continued brushing her hair. "I wouldn't worry about it. They're…not cute."

Weiss didn't care if they weren't cute. Knowing there was a bunch of animals waiting to be pet gave her another reason to go to the Mine herself. She turned her gaze back to the dark window; the distant yellow light winked at her.

Tonight was finally going to be the night.

After being stuck in the family lodge for two days, it was time to go on a real adventure. She had all the skills to pull it off.

Back at home, when she couldn't fall asleep, Weiss liked to sneak out of bed and pretend to look for buried treasure all over the Manor. She was an expert at dodging the servants and patrolling guards now. The secret passages she found along the way helped make her job that much easier.

After finishing her nighttime routine and wishing Winter good night, Weiss waited for the lodge to settle. She didn't dare make her move until she heard Father's and Winter's snores from down the hall.

Weiss threw her covers off and changed into her thickest winter jacket, using her full-length mirror to help dress herself up. With her winter jacket and wool scarf secured, Weiss tip-toed out of the lodge.

The first part of her plan went off without a hitch. Her small size made it easy to sneak past the patrolling guards. The hard part was trying not to get blown away by the blizzard.

Millions of tiny snowflakes flew into her face, and the wind threatened to push her flat on her back. The cold sank right through her jacket and into her bones, leaving her trembling.

The thought of going back to bed crossed her mind, but Weiss refused to give up so soon. It would all be worth it once she reached the Mine. With so many obstacles her adventure threw her way, there was bound to be a great reward on the other side! That's what always happened on TV and in books anyway. With the promise of adventure and treasure locked in her head, she pressed onwards.

But it wasn't worth it.

It was like walking into the mouth of a monster.

Icicles dangled from the dark ceiling like fangs, ready to sink into her at a second's notice. The yellow light she saw from her window was from a string of old lightbulbs suspended around the circular entryway. A gaping black hole glared at her from the back of the Mine.

Weiss inched further inside, her blood turning cold as the path sloped down to an endless black abyss. This wasn't how it was supposed to look. The Mine was so bright from her window; how could it be this dark on the inside? Were their monsters inside? Would anyone find her if a Grimm crept out and dragged her down?

She turned to leave, stopping in front of a wall of snowflakes. Tears burned her eyes when she failed to catch the dim light of the lodge in the distance.

Father hated whenever she cried, girls her age weren't supposed to cry like toddlers, but Weiss couldn't help herself. Was she trapped here forever? Would she never see Winter or Mama ever again? Her whimpers grew louder with each unanswered question.

Weiss' heart dropped to her belly when something crunched behind her. She twisted around, wiping the tears out of her eyes and searched the darkness for monsters.

"Hello?" A voice – a kid's voice called out from somewhere in the darkness. "I heard crying. Is everything okay?"

"W-who's there?" Weiss whispered.

Weiss fell backwards when something red moved out of the dark tunnel. She nearly screamed for help until she realised it wasn't a monster.

It was a boy. A boy with flaming red hair and two black horns sticking out from his head. Despite the cold, he only wore a brown one-piece pyjama set. The metal necklace shackled around his neck reminded her of a dog collar.

The boy froze when he looked up from the ground.

Mama always said that their family were blessed with beautiful eyes, but Weiss thought the boy had eyes much prettier than hers. They reminded her of the sparkling blue gemstones in Mama's jewellery box.

"W-wait!" Weiss cried when he backed away.

He stopped, looking down at his dirty sneakers.

"H-hello, I'm Weiss," she said carefully, remembering how the characters on TV introduced themselves. "What's your name?"

The boy didn't respond. She was going to repeat her question when she saw he was shaking.

"You're going to catch a cold. Winter says we need to dress warmly to prevent sniffles." She unwrapped the white scarf around her neck, but when she stepped forward, he stumbled away.

She frowned at his reaction. It reminded her of the times she tried to run away from Father when he needed to teach her a lesson without Mama around. Seeing another kid do that to her left her chest feeling funny - tight like someone was pressing down on her.

"Don't be scared. Here, I'll leave my scarf on the ground and turn around!"

She folded her scarf on the floor and stepped away. She smiled before turning her back to him. For a moment, she thought he snuck away, but the crunch of his footsteps approaching made her heart leap with excitement.

"You should wear a winter jacket. It's super cold in here," she said.

"...We're not allowed to." His voice was soft.

"That's silly. Everyone needs to dress warmly."

"That's a rule only for Humans."

Weiss furrowed her brows. Why did he talk like he wasn't a Human? He looked like a Human, and he talked like a Human. Maybe he just liked to play pretend like her cousin Lavender.

"Well, I think everyone should dress warmly in the cold. Except for the Grimm. They can turn into popsicles."

"Pop…sicles?"

"You know, like ice cream on a stick! But Grimm popsicles probably don't taste that good…unless they're dunked in a bunch of chocolate! Everything tastes better with chocolate!"

"Chocolate? What's that?"

Weiss gasped in horror. "Only the bestest thing in the whole wide world! Do you seriously not know what chocolate is?!"

"I've never heard of it before. What is it?"

Weiss taught him everything she knew about chocolate. This, she deemed, was an emergency.

"I still don't get it. So it looks like poop, but it's…sweet?"

"I didn't say it looks like poop!"

"They're both brown—"

"Chocolate is heaven, and poop is yucky! One day I'll bring you some to try. Then you'll see why it's the best thing ever."

"I don't know…I don't want to eat chocolate Grimm by accident."

Weiss laughed at the thought of giving him an entire chocolate-dipped Grimm for dessert.

"Don't worry, I'll give you normal chocolate," she promised. "I'm too small to drag a chocolate Grimm here anyways."

The storm outside relinquished its furious gale. Weiss could just make out the white light from of lodge signalling her to come home, but she made no move to leave.

"Can I turn around and look at you?" she asked. "I really like your hair."

There was a pause. Weiss wanted to sneak a glance at him, but she kept her head facing forward.

"You…like my hair?"

"Yeah, I've never seen red hair in real life before. It's pretty."

"O-oh…I guess you can look. B-but if you say something mean, I don't ever want to talk to you again."

Weiss eagerly turned around. He was even smaller than she was. Up close, she saw patches of dirt staining his clothes. Her scarf draped loosely around his neck.

"You need to tighten the scarf to stay warm, silly."

He tensed when she hurried over to him. He didn't try to run away again. As Weiss rewrapped the scarf around him, she caught tiny letters and numbers carved into his necklace.

"Is that your name?" she asked, squinting at the minuscule etching. "#DC…14–?"

"No!" His eyes grew wide for a moment before looking away.

"Then what is it? You never told me your name." She finished securing her scarf around him.

"Adam," the boy breathed.

"That's a nice name." She smiled. "I like your costume, Adam."

"My…costume?"

"Your horns! They look so real!" She poked one of the dark horns, surprised at how firmly it stuck to his head.

"That's because they are real." He backed away from her when she reached out to pet them. "I-I don't like it when people touch them."

"I'm sorry," Weiss clasped her hands behind her. "It's just…I've never met anyone with real horns before. They're really cool."

"Y-you think so?"

Weiss nodded. Meeting another kid was already thrilling enough, but a kid with real horns was better than anything she could've imagined. Weiss couldn't believe how lucky she was.

"How old are you, Adam? I just turned five!" She held up her fingers as Mama showed her whenever she recited her numbers.

"I'm six."

Weiss was a little disappointed he wasn't the same age as her. Sometimes she wondered if she was the only five-year-old in the world.

"Why were you crying earlier?" Adam asked, making her cheeks burn.

If Father heard her crying, he'd be furious that she embarrassed their family, and Mama would've said she was too old to act like this anymore. Would Adam be upset if she told him the truth?

"My mom says bad feelings get weaker when you share them with someone," he said when she didn't answer. "She says it's like asking someone to help you carry something super heavy. You should try it."

"Y-you promise you won't get mad at me?"

"I promise."

Weiss shyly summarised her late-night adventure and how quickly it'd gone wrong.

"That does sound scary," Adam said kindly. "I'd be crying too if I was all alone in here."

The fact that he didn't make fun of her at all left her chest feeling warm and fuzzy.

"It doesn't look like it's snowing super bad anymore." He pointed to the little snowflakes fluttering in the wind outside. "You can go back home now."

"But I want to stay with you a bit longer."

"Huh?" He tilted his head. "Why me?"

"Because it's fun talking to you! I wish it was this fun to talk to grown-ups. Father keeps forcing me to meet all his important employees, and it's awful."

"I kind of know what you mean. I always have more fun talking to my friends than with adults."

"Y-you have friends?" Weiss gasped. "What is it like?"

Adam furrowed his brows. "Don't you have friends?"

"Father only lets me talk to family and work people. The only kid I've met is my cousin Lavender, but she's a meanie!"

Weiss told him about the time Lavender broke her favourite doll for fun, making sure to emphasise that her cousin liked wearing long, puffy sleeves. Lavender said it made her look like the princesses they saw in paintings, but Weiss thought it made her look like an angry cloud. Satisfaction welled in her chest when Adam laughed at her description.

"Well…if you want, I could be your friend," Adam offered.

"R-really?" Her heart jumped excitedly. A part of her thought he'd laugh in her face and say he was only joking, but he smiled instead.

"You're really nice. I don't mind being your friend."

"Oh, thank you!" She tackled him into a hug.

Weiss could barely believe it. She had a friend, a real friend! Her mind raced through all the fun things they could do. Maybe they could make friendship bracelets like the ones she saw on TV. Or they could go outside and make matching snowmen.

"Adam, how many times do I have to tell you it's dangerous to be up–!"

They both gasped when a lady emerged from the dark half of the cave. The stranger's hair was as red as Adam's, and a pair of brown horns grew from her head.

Weiss squealed when the lady turned her grey eyes on her. She didn't know who the lady was, but the furious look in her eyes was all too familiar to her. She didn't think anyone could look as angry as Father.

"It's okay, mom. She's my new friend," Adam said.

"Adam, you know better than to trust strangers."

Adam's mom stormed towards him. Weiss recognised the situation anywhere. It was what Father did whenever he planned to leave a painful burn on her cheek. She couldn't let that happen to Adam. It wasn't his fault she snuck into the cave.

Just as Adam's mom was about to grab him, Weiss pushed him out of the way and stood up as tall as she could.

"You can't hurt him! It was me! I snuck out of my room! I-I didn't mean to…" She shivered. "I-I promise I won't do it again. S-so please don't hurt him."

She braced herself, hoping Adam's mom didn't hit as hard as Father.

"Why would I…?" Adam's mom gave her a funny look before stepping back. "Oh gods, even to his daughter…"

"See, Mom? She's different!" Adam ran up to his mom before Weiss could stop him.

To Weiss' surprise, Adam's mom simply ruffled his hair. She didn't even slap him or push him away.

"Your name is Weiss?" Adam's mom asked her in a much gentler voice.

Was she only pretending to be nice? Sometimes Father would use his nice voice to trick Weiss into confessing something she was trying to hide from him. Her eyes flickered over to Adam, noticing how close he stood to his mother without fear.

"Y-yeah," Weiss finally answered. She relaxed when Adam's mom smiled down at her.

"It's dangerous to be out here all alone, Weiss. You need to go home."

"But I don't want to go home. I just made my very first friend!"

"If someone sees you here with Adam, we could all get into big trouble. Besides, it must be way past your bedtime."

"But I want to play with Adam!"

"And I want to play with Weiss too, mom," Adam said. "She's cool for a Human!"

"I'm sorry, but this can't go on." Adam's mom ripped the scarf off of his neck and wrapped it hastily around Weiss again.

"But Adam needs it! He's cold," Weiss protested, trying to push her hands away.

"I know, but he'll get in trouble if someone sees him with it."

"Get in trouble with who?"

Adam's mom didn't answer. She smiled and ruffled her hair just like she did with Adam.

"Promise me you'll never speak about this to anyone. This meeting has to stay a secret forever, do you understand?"

Weiss shivered at the strange look in her eyes but nodded regardless. She wasn't good at many things, unlike her sister, but at least she was good at keeping secrets.

"I'm sorry it has to be this way." She took Weiss by the hand and pulled her towards the exit.

"Wait!" Weiss dug her boots into the ground. "Can I say goodbye to Adam first?"

Adam's mom hesitated for a second but finally gave in. Once she let go of her hand, Weiss ran back to Adam and tackled him into another tight hug.

"Tomorrow at midnight," she whispered into his ear before letting him go.

He didn't answer, but the smile on his face told her everything she needed to know.

The walk back to her room was as miserable as the initial journey to the Mine. Once inside, she curled into her cold bed and spent the night daydreaming of all the fun games she could play with her new friend.

When she returned the next night, he was already waiting for her.

Weiss snuck out every night that week to play with him. She initially planned to play outside in the snow, but Adam said he wasn't allowed to leave the Mine.

"The adults will never know. They're all sleeping right now," she said when he turned down her idea to make snowmen.

"The adults here always know when someone leaves." Adam fidgeted with the necklace beneath her scarf. "Sorry, Weiss, but we'll need to stay inside."

That was fine with her. She had plenty of fun indoor games planned anyway. The only downside was that they needed to use their indoor voices to keep any adults from hearing them, but Weiss didn't mind. Playing with Adam was a thousand times more fun than playing with Lavender.

Adam was nothing like her cousin. He didn't know any of the latest cartoons, didn't have a favourite cereal, and didn't even have a favourite clothing brand!

He listened to her when she told him what she liked. He never made fun of her for liking white over the latest trend of purples, didn't poke fun at her favourite songs, and never thought her games were stupid. He was the friend she'd always dreamed about.

Her last day at the Mine came faster than she liked. A week ago, Weiss wanted to return to the Manor as soon as possible. Now, she would give anything to not go home. She tried to think of reasons to make Father stay longer, but she couldn't come up with anything convincing.

This would be goodbye for real.

"Do you have to go home tomorrow?" Adam asked her when she told him about her departure the following day.

"I do…Father won't let us stay for another day. But I'm happy we still got to be friends." She tried to smile, but it didn't feel real. She felt colder than usual.

"Will you ever come back?"

"I don't know if Father will bring me to this Mine again…"

For once, the two of them had nothing to say. Weiss wasn't sure what this meant. Friends on TV saw each other every single day. If they couldn't see each other again, did that mean it was over for good?

Weiss wanted to punch something. It wasn't fair that she had to lose her only friend so soon when kids on TV had their friends forever.

"If you want, I can play with you again the next time you come back," Adam said, making whatever urge she had to punch something melt away.

"Y-you'll still be my friend?"

"Of course. Just because I'm not seeing you for a bit doesn't mean we can't be friends."

"And we'll meet here at midnight again?"

"Yeah. It's a promise," he said, holding up his pinky to her.

Weiss hooked her pinky around his. It was the first time she'd ever made a pinky promise with someone outside her family. Winter had told her pinky promises were special because they lasted forever. She could barely contain her excitement at making such an important promise with her very first friend.

"So…what do friends do when they need to say goodbye for a long time?" she asked.

"I don't know. I never had to say goodbye to my friends like this before." He scratched his head. "I guess we could play all your favourite games, but I don't know if we'll have enough time."

"What if we try to play them all at the same time?"

"At the same time? Is that even possible?"

"We won't know unless we try. Come on, let's hurry before it's time to go."

Turns out, combining tag, play fighting, eye spy, and house was much harder than they thought. Though their idea went up in flames five minutes in, Weiss had never laughed so hard her entire life.

The main focus of this fic is Weiss' growth as a character. Lucky for you, this is a gen fic turned shipping fic. Frostbite may not be on the very first page but I assure you that romance will be coming in hot~

This story is rated M for a reason. Difficult depictions of Faunus racism and child abuse will be prevalent throughout.

I never get explicit, but I most definitely toe the line in a certain chapter (if your mind is in the gutter it's in the right place lmao). But if you're here for erotica you're very much in the wrong place lol

Thanks for reading! Please be civil in the comments.

I know shipping a polarising character like Adam with one of the "good guys" can be…a fiasco, but let's try to be civil.

I'm not trying to prove canon Adam is an angel, I'm presenting an AU Adam based on my very specific "what if" scenario. He'll borrow from his canon self here and there, but he's a product of the specific circumstances I will put him through.

It's just an AU. It really isn't that deep so let's all be chill.