Weiss didn't get lost.

No. That wasn't quite it. She couldn't get lost. Her sense of direction was uncanny that way. Inhuman. The rest of team RWBY... not so much.

The only thing more frustrating than wandering around Vale with no idea which way to go? Wandering around Vale knowing exactly which way the airfield was, and watching Ruby take every wrong turn under the sun.

"We've already gone this way," Weiss gritted out.

"No, we haven't!" Ruby insisted. "See? I would've remembered that store! Look at those pistons! Can we—"

"No," chorused Yang, Blake, and Weiss, in perfect unison. They'd come out here to greet the students arriving from Haven for the Vytal Festival, and had decided to do a bit of shopping in Vale when they got there early. Somewhere between their third bookstore and fifth weapons shop, they'd realized their scrolls had lost service. Something to do with the network being down for maintenance. Whatever had happened, it meant they couldn't use the gps function to get back. So, they wandered. And wandered. And wandered.

Weiss glanced over her shoulder. If it weren't for several dozen blocks of buildings in the way, she would have been staring directly at the spot where the Haven students were supposed to land. But, of course, she couldn't say that. Telling them what she was seeing would be tantamount to admitting what she was.

Not that she would have been able to explain it, anyway. She'd thought it was a persistent hallucination for years, until the night she'd watched the aurora with Klein and Whitley, and all of a sudden they could see it too. Except that she didn't have to wait for it to be dark and cloudless at just the right time. Wherever she looked, faint blue ribbons traced through the air, flowing from north to south. Directions just... stuck with her, like dropping a compass into the pit of her stomach whose needle pointed my room, or Beacon, or how to get out of this hellishly disorganized excuse for a city. This was the second time Weiss had ever been "lost," and she was not enjoying the experience.

Initiation had been just as frustrating—eventually she'd given up on waiting for Ruby to find the temple, and had pretended to hear someone shouting in the right direction. But Blake definitely wouldn't buy the idea that Weiss had heard something she hadn't.

"Let's just ask for directions," Blake suggested, for the fifth time.

"Ask who?" Ruby wanted to know. "I haven't seen anybody in like ten minutes. Oh, wait, there's someone!" She pointed at a hooded figure walking in the opposite direction from them, shoulders hunched so that the person's face was completely hidden in shadow.

"Ruby, no," Weiss said.

"Why not?" Yang started walking purposefully towards the single sketchiest person Weiss had ever seen in her life.

"Because I don't want to be murdered?"

"Hi!" Ruby waved. "Do you—hey, wait!"

The figure ducked down an alleyway at a dead sprint.

Yang took off after them. "Hang on! We just want to know where we are!"

Weiss followed—because what else was she supposed to do?—and the four of them dashed around a corner to find that the hooded figure was no longer alone. There was a boy running alongside them, struggling to cover his face with his hand despite the fact that his electric blue hair would be instantly recognizable at a glance.

He and the hooded figure swerved into yet another alleyway—only for both of them to yelp and turn right back around, pelting in the opposite direction as fast as their legs would carry them.

A girl about Ruby's age poked her head out of the alley. "Salutations!" she greeted them cheerfully. "Are you going to run away too?"

"Uh," said Yang, "is there a reason we should—"

"Pfft, nah. What's your name? I'm Ruby!"

"My name is Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Blake gave her name, and stuck out her hand to shake for several seconds before dropping it sheepishly to her side. Yang shrugged and gave Penny a friendly grin as she introduced herself.

"Uh, Weiss?"

None of her teammates even blinked at Penny's odd introduction. Why would they? They couldn't see the way she twisted the blue lines around herself, as if her body was exerting the most powerful magnetic pull Weiss had ever seen. Was it a semblance? Pyrrha's messed with the lines a bit, but not like this!

"Weiss?"

And why did she smell so weird?! There wasn't a trace of sweat. Even Father's expensive cologne couldn't hide that scent completely. Every human had it. Every faunus.

"Remnant to Weiss?"

Penny smelled blank. Almost like plastic, with a hint of... copper, maybe? Was that blood? No, hang on, even a little blood would smell stronger than that... Weiss caught herself blinking rapidly, half-expecting that would dispel the illusion.

Blake's brow furrowed. "Well, that's Weiss. Being... quiet?"

"Are you alright?" Penny wondered. "You appear to be in some pain." Her head tilted slightly to one side. "Are you sure you haven't obstructed your blood flow?"

Weiss' stomach dropped. "I'm perfectly fine," she snarled, "aside from all the artificial smells in the city."

They stared at each other. Penny blushed green, which... sure. Why not. "Yes! You're perfectly—hic!—fine. I was just—hic!—checking up on all of you!" She turned to Blake. "Have you ever experienced sharp pain in your back or shoulders?"

"...No?"

"Excellent! And how are your shins?"

Yang looked as baffled as the rest of them, but she couldn't resist an opportunity like that. "I think we can all agree, a solid eleven out of ten."

Blake put a hand to her forehead. "Did I pass out? Is that what this is?"

"Just roll with it," Ruby suggested. "Hey, Penny, do you know which way the airfield is? We wanna try to meet up with the students from Haven."

"That's easy! Just head down that street and go left, right, straight, rightrightleftrightleftstraitleft—"

The others stared at Penny in helpless confusion. Weiss supposed this counted as a good enough cover story. "That was very helpful," she lied, and finally started walking in the right direction.

Not fast enough. "Do you want to come with us?" Ruby asked.

Ruby, no!

"That would be sensational!"

Ruby, why?!

"Lead the way, friend!" And, well, that was that. Penny gasped, and Weiss could practically see stars in her eyes. She wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Penny did at least take them exactly where they wanted to go, which meant that Weiss didn't have to pretend to have understood her instructions. Of course, by the time they actually got there, the Haven students were already gone. Some were probably getting settled in on campus, while others explored Vale. Team RWBY trudged back to Beacon, thoroughly demoralized, and Weiss had almost managed to relax after the whole fiasco when she caught a flash of violent blue out of the corner of her eye.

She whirled around and spotted him immediately. He was definitely the same boy they'd encountered in the city—his hair might as well have been a neon sign. He heard the clicking of her heels and turned, a disarming grin on his face. "Hey there, snow angel."

With Jaune, she'd been composed enough to turn her shock into contempt. Now, fresh from Penny seeing right through her in an instant for reasons still unknown, it shook her to her core. "Why does everyone keep calling me that?" she snapped, stumbling over the words and looking anywhere but the boy in front of her.

"Aw, man, someone beat me to it?"

"Uh, Nep?" The guy behind him elbowed him in the side. He was looking from Weiss, to Penny, to the rest of team RWBY, his tail twitching anxiously behind him. Because of course the hooded figure had a tail, and of course it had been completely invisible the moment he bothered trying to hide it.

Blue hair blinked. Then his eyes widened, and he took a nervous step back. "Crap! I mean, uh... hello, people we've never met before! I'm Neptune, that's Sun—"

Ruby introduced the rest of them, but Weiss refused to be distracted. "What in Remnant were you miscreants doing?"

Sun put his hands on his hips. "We could ask you guys the same question."

"We were lost," said Yang. "Not that much to it. What was with the cape, though?"

"Uh." His tail curled behind his back. "Sightseeing's always better when it's more dramatic?"

"Uh-huh," Weiss drawled.

"Okay, okay, you got me. I took a boat here a couple weeks ago, and I wasn't really supposed to do that."

"So, what, you're in hiding for getting here early?" Weiss was unimpressed. "Did you happen to pay for a ticket, by any chance?"

"Weiss," Blake hissed.

But Sun rubbed the back of his neck and said, "Well, I sort of overslept. The boat was already about to leave when I got there, and nobody was watching the gate, so..."

"So then you decided to go into hiding in the most conspicuous disguise I've ever seen? Is that the logic here?"

"Well, uh..." He shifted from foot to foot, his tail twitching uncomfortably. "Not exactly. I mean, it's not like stowaways are the cops' number one priority. But since I can't stay in the dorms, and I can't spring for a nice hotel, I've been around the docks a lot. That area is... kind of a lot."

Neptune frowned. "Wait, what?"

"I'm fine!" Sun said hurriedly. "Just, uh, apparently the Fang have been really active in Vale the last few weeks."

"There hasn't been anything like that on the news!" Weiss' palms prickled with sweat. Would Father call? No, not if it was only in Vale. But if activity was picking up in Vale, it might do the same in Mantle, and then she'd definitely hear about it. "Active how? What are they doing?"

Sun shrugged. "I only know what people were yelling at me."

"They did what?" blurted Blake and Neptune, at almost the same time.

"Uh."

"We're talking about this later," Neptune said, poking his friend in the chest. "Seriously, dude, you've gotta tell me when people are shitty to you so we don't keep going to the same places."

"Like I have to tell you anything to get you to avoid the docks."

Neptune turned pink. "That is not the point!"

They said their goodbyes before the boys could devolve completely into bickering. Penny had to go, too. She explained (rather badly) that she wasn't staying in Beacon with the other Atlas students, for reasons unclear that probably had something to do with being a living magnet. Or, well, Weiss really wanted them to have something to do with being a living magnet. The alternative felt like too many odd coincidences for one person.

"See you around," Neptune called after them. He waved, then winked at Weiss and added, "Great meeting you, snow angel!"

She flushed and turned on her heel, so that no one would notice her grimace as her wings started to cramp.

Without any input from Weiss whatsoever, Sun and Neptune became regular additions to their group. Penny, too, though she didn't have nearly as much free time to socialize. And with them came that same name. Snow angel.

The really maddening thing was that she couldn't work out whether she hated it or not. It ached like one of her cramps, but she didn't tell him to stop. Went out of her way, in fact, to sit where she knew he'd be, just so he'd walk past her and say it again. Would cover her wince with a smile that was easy to misconstrue as encouragement.

"I don't get it," Jaune grumbled, one evening at dinner when the boys weren't present. (Apparently Sun had dragged Neptune to a noodle shop.) "How come he can say that and it comes out all suave and cool? It's the same words!"

Weiss had been wondering the same thing. Was it something about Neptune? Why hadn't Jaune been able to strike that same raw nerve?

"You can get away with a lot when somebody likes you," Yang said, shooting a teasing grin Weiss' way.

Was that it? She supposed it did feel sort of... warm. Angel.

Jaune accepted that explanation with a shrug. That was the one good thing that had come from her argument with Blake—he hadn't tried to ask her out since. And if the why of it stung a little, that wouldn't make her ungrateful of the result. She didn't like him that way. She'd known that easily right from the start, because she'd imagined a crush would be impossible to miss.

The real thing was... underwhelming. Was this really how her mother had felt? It didn't seem worth it. But feelings changed, didn't they? Not everyone fell in love at first sight. Maybe this was how it was supposed to go. Small at first, and then you let it grow.

So she started smiling back, here and there. Letting him sit next to her in the library. Little things. He had his own little things. He winked across rooms and flashed his startlingly white grin, which made her feel a pleasant sort of invisible she couldn't have explained if she'd wanted to. Found excuses to brush hands and bump elbows, which she learned to dodge. And for a little while, she felt almost human.

Of course, something had to ruin it. The only surprise was that it wasn't her dovetailing combat record, or the shortened breath and cramps that had caused it, or even the delicate truce with her teammates. It was, of all things, a dance.

The event was set for two weeks after the last airship arrived from Vacuo, right between the end of their exams and the beginning of their final mission of the year. It was meant to be a celebration of unity between the academies. Students were encouraged to make friends with the visitors, to relax and enjoy themselves.

Weiss had honestly forgotten about it. Her blissful ignorance came to an abrupt and screeching halt three days before, halfway through a round of Remnant: the Game. Since they had ten people playing a game meant for four players, they'd all teamed up in partner pairs—except for Ren and Nora, who were watching instead. It was a terrible way to play, because they kept arguing with one another and accidentally giving away their cards, but all in all it had made for a surprisingly pleasant afternoon. Until Sun glanced at Neptune on his left, then leaned forward over the table, upsetting a few of the pieces. "So," he said. "Who's everyone taking to the dance?"

It was like he'd dropped a live bomb. Suddenly no one on team JNPR could look at each other, Neptune turned scarlet, and Ruby became utterly fascinated by her cards. Blake was the only one who seemed unfazed. "Well, Yang's making me go," she said, bumping their shoulders together with a grin. "So I guess she's my date."

Yang dropped their entire hand on the table. Face-up. "Y-yeah," she said, scrambling to scoop them out of sight. "It'll be nice to hang out with no pressure, you know? Just fun. Maybe dancing!"

Weiss stared at her. Was that what was going on there? Her stomach churned, and she ruthlessly shoved the feeling away. Being jealous of her teammates because they got to go to a stupid dance was a new personal low.

"How about you, Neptune?" Yang said, in a transparent attempt to redirect attention away from herself. "Asked anyone cool to the dance lately?"

"That's not fair!" he blurted. "I can't yell no hetero when I chicken—ow!"

Sun slung an arm over Neptune's shoulders, as if he hadn't clearly just kicked him under the table. "Don't mind him, he's just bitter because he's been overthinking it for a week."

"Dude, shut up!"

The game ended with a decisive victory for Jaune and Pyrrha—Yang's trap card strategy didn't work very well when the entire table had seen her hand, and Neptune kept losing track of his own forces. Odd, really, since he'd been an absolute terror the last time she'd seen him play. Weiss herself still barely understood the rules.

Sun left once they'd cleaned up. Neptune waved him off, then hung back, shifting from foot to foot and thumbing through random books on the shelves. Yang glanced at him, rolled her eyes, and tucked the game under her arm. "Ruby and I are gonna go call our dad before bed."

"We are?"

"Yep. It's been almost a week, he's probably started talking to Zwei."

"Can't we just do that in the—" Yang grabbed Ruby and started walking away, and her confusion turned into muffled protests that it was fine, she could walk!

Blake must have been in on it too, or maybe Yang had done something to prompt her. "I wanted to find a book first. Do you mind going on ahead, Weiss?"

"I suppose not?"

Neptune straightened up from where he'd been leaning against the wall. "I'm going that way," he said, oh so casually. "If you want me to walk you back."

Her heart sank. Something told her she knew exactly what was coming—but with all of them watching her, she couldn't think of a reason to say no. So, she went.

Neptune was silent for a while. Long enough that she almost started to relax. Then he cleared his throat and said, "I... sort of have a confession to make."

Oh, no.

"I don't usually go to this kind of stuff. Just stay in, tell everyone I think it's lame, you know? But, uh, the thing is... it's not that I don't want to go, I just... can't. See, I have this secret."

Her wings prickled with pins and needles. "Do you."

Neptune took a deep breath, as if bracing himself to dive out of a plane. Then, all at once, in a flurry of words she almost didn't understand, "Ican'tdance!"

"What."

"I can't dance. At all. Sun say's it's like I turn into one of those wacky inflatable arm things."

"That's it. That's your big secret?"

"Pretty dumb, huh?" He grinned sheepishly. "So, I guess... I was wondering if you wanted to go with me anyway. I promise I'll make you look super graceful by comparison."

Weiss looked away. "I can't."

"Oh. Sorry."

This was the part where she was supposed to apologize back. To tell him she wished she could go to the dance, that she had a secret of her own. But even the thought made her bristle, and it would only lead to more questions. "It's alright," she said instead, which was true, and, "I'm glad you asked," which wasn't.

She entered the dorm expecting to be alone, and was disappointed to find Yang sitting cross-legged on her bed. "How'd it go?" she asked.

"Badly."

Yang blinked. "What? I thought you wanted—"

"Well, I didn't." She crossed the room and started rifling through the papers on her desk for something to do with her hands. "What did you do, anyway? I know you made him ask."

"I didn't make him do anything. He wanted to ask you, and I wanted to ask Blake, so we sort of... talked each other into it."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, right, like you asked Blake properly."

"Why does everyone keep—you know what, never mind. What happened? Are you okay?"

"Why do you care?"

Yang groaned. "Look, Weiss, I get that you're trying really hard to make us all hate you, but believe it or not we do actually care about you."

"Right."

"Ruby's upset, because you keep running away whenever she tries to talk to you. I think she thinks you're mad at her. Blake told you something really important and personal right before you started self-destructing, and now she's feeling guilty even though she didn't do anything wrong. So could you just... just try to talk instead of exploding, for once? Because as frustrating as it is watching you hurt people I care about, I can tell you're hurting yourself a lot more."

"I can't go to the dance," Weiss said. "Happy?"

"Did you want someone else to ask you instead?"

"No. It doesn't matter who I go with, I just can't. And I'm not going to tell you why, so you might as well drop it."

Yang sighed. "Okay. I'm sorry. You don't have to go, and you don't have to explain it to me if you don't want to. But you do have to do something else for me."

Weiss glared at her.

"Don't bury yourself in textbooks while the dance is going on, okay? Relax. Get some food. Walk around. I don't know. Just... do something that makes you happy. Please?"

It felt like someone had tied a knot around her guts and pulled. A shout from that part of her that thought it knew better, that kept trying to lead her off one cliff after another, that just would not shut up. "I don't want your pity," she snapped. "Save it for someone who cares." And then she turned on her heel and stormed into the bathroom, so that Yang would stop looking at her like that.