Weiss slept like a baby. It didn't matter that she was on the ground, in her combat attire, on a beach somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It didn't matter that her skin was gritty with salt and sand, her body aching and her bones chilled from a long, endless night. It was the best sleep of her life, as if she were floating on a cloud. When her eyes finally fluttered open, it was well past noon. Crawling out of the shelter Jaune and Blake had built, she sighted the sun high in the sky and basked in the heat.

She'd needed that.

Weiss had truly believed that her life had come to an end when she plunged into the rough waters, swallowed by the tide. In that moment as panic filled her heart, all the regrets of her life had flashed before her eyes like a movie reel, things she couldn't control and things she could. Her relationship with her mother and brother, things gone unsaid. The horrible way in which her father conducted himself as head of the Schnee Dust Company. Her behavior for so many years, caught up in the grandeur of her grandfather's legacy. And the way she had treated her friends for so long, back when they'd first met – Ruby, Blake and Jaune especially.

She couldn't change what her father did. Weiss was but a child with little power or control to do anything. The fact that she had turned a blind eye for so many years galled her, knowing just the kind of man he was but unwilling to cede ground to people who would strike out with violence and hatred. It was true that her father was a horrible person who exploited desperate people, many of whom were faunus. But it was also true that her life had been made even worse by groups like the White Fang who targeted the families of businessmen and workers, kidnapping and killing those who may have indirectly benefited but ultimately had no say. The fear of those days was something she would never forget, wondering if she would be next, her life snuffed out like a candle's flame.

It was a big part of the reason why she had agreed to come on this mission. If she could meet the founding members of the White Fang, her teammates parents at that – then maybe she could confront that piece of her past, and not only that but actually do some good. As heiress, her power was limited but one day that company would belong to her. As much as Whitley snipped at her heels, as much as her career as a Huntress displeased her father, she was still first in line to inherit. That hadn't changed.

It might not be now, or even in ten years – but one day, Weiss could bring about real change. She could clear away the stain her father had placed upon her grandfather's legacy and restore the Schnee name. It wouldn't just be a name you thought of when you thought of wealth or power, but of integrity.

But there were regrets she could face, and hadn't.

The situation with her mother and brother wasn't solely her doing. Particularly her mother, the woman who had all but abandoned them when Jacques Schnee tore down the illusion of a loving marriage. Consumed by alcohol, she was but a mere ghost of the woman Weiss recalled from her younger days. Back then, her mother had been so warm and loving. Some of Weiss' best memories were of those wonderful days, trailing after a woman of such poise and beauty, helping her in her garden, tending to flowers so lovingly raised and cultivated by skilled hands. It was difficult to recognize these two people as the same but a broken heart and dashed dreams had a way of bringing people low.

Whitley, on the other hand...

He was only a boy. Weiss knew she had been unfair to him. Yes, he tried to emulate their father and yes, he could be an insufferable brat sometimes but so could she. And was it any wonder that he attempted to emulate the only person who paid him any attention, even if it was the bare minimum? What other role models did he have to admire? An older sister who fled to the military without a backwards glance? Another sister who also fled the first chance she got, off to become a Huntress? An absent, alcoholic mother who couldn't string a sentence together without slurring most days? Weiss had Klein but Whitley had no one.

It was something that had burned at her for a while. After witnessing the relationship between Yang and Ruby, it showed the stark contrast between each pair of siblings. Even though Weiss loved her sister, their relationship had always been tempered, something held back. Between Yang and Ruby, there was nothing held back. They loved openly and freely.

It made Weiss incredibly jealous.

And showed her that things needed to change. Winter was her sister and Whitley was her brother. They should be united, not divided. This was a regret she could tackle – but when she fell, she had believed she'd never get the chance.

If she got home – no, when she got home, she wouldn't hesitate any longer. Not just with Whitley but with her mother. As painful as that conversation would be, it was long overdue. She was a woman now, not a little girl. It was time. If she wanted things to change, she couldn't just wait around for it to happen. She needed to put in the effort. Weiss needed to make it happen.

So she would.

But there was another regret much closer to her, something she could deal with in the present. The problem was – did she have it in her?

"Hey, you're awake," a familiar voice said, pulling her attention to the side. Jaune stood a few feet away, his jeans rolled up to his knees and his arms full of fish. Weiss counted about six of them, their tails bound together in twine. "We thought you might sleep the entire day away."

Her eyes roamed across his bare arms and shoulders, his muscles clearly defined. He had removed his hoodie and remained in only a simple white singlet, the thin material doing little to hide his built chest. Weiss felt her mouth go a little dry and she quickly glanced away, inhaling sharply to try and control her suddenly racing heart.

Another one of her regrets would have been not telling Jaune how she felt about him.

And wasn't that a massive turn around?

Once upon a time, he had been nothing but a pest to her. A persistent pest that couldn't take a hint. Weiss recalled how he would sidle up to her, smile in place as he would attempt to woo her with his fake bravado and clumsy pick up lines. Back then, she thought he was only after one thing; the same thing that all the other boys before him had been after. The Schnee Dust Company wealth was considerable, its power and prestige unquestioned in upper society. Her beauty had little to do with their interest, though she was sure it sweetened the deal.

They only wanted what she could give them, not her. Never her.

Weiss had thought Jaune was cut from the same cloth. Why else would he act the way he did, right from their first meeting? He knew who she was; there was no way he didn't. Everyone knew. No – he was just more of the same, and Weiss was tired of putting up with disingenuous, greedy men who wished to take from her.

They could all go to hell.

It had taken the events at the Beacon Dance to show her that she couldn't have been more wrong.

It was embarrassing to think about now but she had been rather smitten with Neptune. Weiss wasn't sure what came over her but something about him had drawn her in. It had slipped through her guard and muddled her brain, and his clumsy compliments that mirrored Jaune's had sounded so much better coming from his lips. Taken by his handsome face and air of cool, her crush on the boy had quickly spiraled until she was the one that pursued him.

She had never asked anyone to anything before. While she liked to project a calm front, asking Neptune to the dance had been one of the most nerve wracking things she had ever done. More than performing in front of a crowd, more than challenging her father, more than leaving the stifling atmosphere in Atlas for freedom in Vale.

She had put herself out there – and was resoundingly rejected.

At the time, she couldn't believe it. Hadn't he shown interest in her? Why would he call her Snow Angel, otherwise? From Jaune, the pet name had grated but from Neptune, it had made her heart jump. Surely she hadn't been mistaken?

It had hurt.

It was the first time she questioned how Jaune was able to withstand her brutal shutdowns but reasoned it was because his feelings weren't true. Weiss was a trophy he wished to claim. Being turned down couldn't hurt when there were no genuine feelings involved. It only reassured her that her rejection of the blond boy was correct.

But then everything was turned on its head.

Weiss had attended the dance alone but not for long. An hour in and Neptune came to her, tail tucked between his legs, admitting to everything. How he couldn't dance and didn't want to look uncool in front of her, and others – and how Jaune had talked him straight.

Jaune.

It was at that moment she understood she'd been wrong about him. That she had judged him unfairly, just like she had judged Ruby as unworthy of being team leader and Blake as dangerous to be near. Weiss had believed she was over making such hasty, uninformed judgments about her peers but obviously not. Why else would Jaune talk up the boy she was interested in if not for her? There was no other angle possible.

He had set aside his own wants for her happiness.

It was a difficult, bitter pill to swallow.

Weiss and Neptune had tried to date but it hadn't lasted. A single excursion into Vale and that was it. There was no hand holding, no kissing, no anything. The final nail in the coffin was his blatant flirting with other girls, those harlots from Shade Academy during his teams first round match. There had still remained a piece of her that wished for things to work out but that had been dashed upon witnessing his true nature.

He was a womanizer, through and through.

From then on, though... things had been awkward. It was one thing to own up to your own mistakes to yourself but another entirely to reach out to the person you had been unfair toward and clear the air. Don't get her wrong; at that point, her feelings regarding Jaune remained the same. She wasn't interested in him romantically – but she now understood that he was one of her friends; a precious friend that she had unwittingly neglected. He had stepped up to the plate for her and asked for nothing in return. She wouldn't have even known about it if Neptune hadn't spilled the beans. Even to this day, Jaune had never brought it up.

Weiss saw him in a much different light after that.

And in typical fashion, when Jaune no longer showed an interest in her and was just himself, it was Weiss that fell so hopelessly in love with him.

It wasn't immediate. It was the small things that slowly built up over time with his defense of her to Neptune as the foundation. It was all the late night study sessions their teams engaged in, their outings to Vale, their shared missions. It was watching him grow from the hopeless, bottom-of-the-class Huntsman-in-training to one of the top students in their year, in the span of a single year. It was seeing him become a fine leader, a person even someone as respected and skilled as Pyrrha Nikos could respect.

It was watching him become a man.

After the dance, he never once asked her out on another date. He never once tried any of those ridiculous pick up lines he had been so awful at delivering. He no longer held a flame for her, simply falling neatly into the role of her friend.

It was devastating... and there was no one to blame but herself.

This is what she wanted – until it wasn't. But now that she liked him, admired him, loved him – how could she say anything? Such reversal of roles placed her squarely on the back foot and she didn't know how to change it. Weiss knew now that he saw her, not just another Schnee, not her bank account or powerful name, but he also only now saw her as one of his friends. Not a potential girlfriend, lover or... wife.

Could she really put herself out there again? And with the person she had so carelessly disregarded? Being turned down by Neptune had hurt enough and that had just been a flash-in-the-pan crush. This wasn't that. This was so much more.

If she confessed to him and he rejected her advances, it would destroy her. She knew it.

But could she really live this way forever, watching him and doing nothing? They'd nearly died. Was this an acceptable course of action?

No, it wasn't.

But this wasn't exactly the best time to start a romance.

This was what one would call a conundrum, yes?

"Sorry," she said, wrangling her thoughts under control. "I guess I was really tired."

"It's fine," Jaune moved over to a rock protruding from the sand and placed the fish there. "We were thinking of doing a little exploring but it's probably too late in the day. The sun sets pretty early around here."

Weiss nodded, finally facing him. "Moving around at night would be unwise."

"Right. We have no idea what is out there and getting lost after we all found each other would be pretty stupid, wouldn't it?" he laughed lightly. "You had the right idea with the fire, though," he pointed down the beach and Weiss followed his finger. While she slept, they had constructed two towers of wood, each one about ten feet high. The logs were stacked in a square in the same log cabin style you would use for a campfire.

"We're going to fill one with damp leaves and burn during the day, creating as much black smoke as possible. The other one, we thought we'd burn during the night – sort of like a lighthouse, I guess."

Weiss smiled. "Smart."

"We could be here for a while," Jaune said seriously. "They'll send someone for the ship, I have no doubt about that. The cargo we were escorting was too valuable for them to ignore but who knows how far the currents took us. The fact that none of us drowned was a miracle."

He could say that again.

"Where's Blake?"

Jaune waved an arm down the beach. "Getting more oysters. I think she is a little in love with this place."

Weiss eyed the pile of fish.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," she smirked.

They'd done well at scavenging the debris that had washed up on shore. Weiss inspected the rifle they'd found while Jaune set about cleaning and gutting the fish. Blake returned soon after with a sack full of oysters and when she spotted Weiss, she crushed her in another hug.

"Sorry," Blake whispered into her ear. "I just..."

Weiss hugged her back, hard. "Shut up and keep hugging me."

Jaune watched them both with a fond look.

Fresh fish and oysters. In Atlas, such a meal would be considered fondly. Solitas didn't have much to give its people beyond plentiful seafood stocks so the people of the north were well versed in eating the bounty of the sea.

Blake set up a pile of wood and then Weiss lit it using a pinch of fire dust. Jaune skewered the fish with sharpened sticks and hung them above the fire while Blake began opening the oysters. When everything was ready, they devoured their lunch ravenously.

Blake looked like she was in heaven, her cat ears twitching happily as she sucked the juice from the fish frames. Jaune shot Weiss an amused glance, one she returned.

After that, Jaune pulled down the old shelter and used the materials to finish the new bigger one. He tossed the plastic sheet over the frame, still large enough to cover it all after unfolding it completely, and then slid the other piece inside for the floor.

"All done," Jaune said proudly.

"Is this everything you've found?" Weiss asked, gesturing around the camp.

There were a pile of suitcases and when Weiss dug through them, they were filled with clothes. Most of them were men's clothes. That made sense. Most of the staff on the ship had been men. None of their things were here meaning their bags were probably at the bottom of the sea. Along with some blankets and sheets, the duffle bags contained towels.

It reminded her how filthy she was. Her skin was gritty, her clothes were stiff and uncomfortable, her hair was a mess. Oh, her beautiful hair! Usually so soft and smooth, combed to a fine shine. It now resembled a bird's nest, filled with sand and grit.

"I need to wash," she said, her voice brooking no argument. "I don't feel like a person."

Even worse, Jaune had seen her looking like this. He must think she looked a fright. He would never say it, might not even want to think it, he wasn't that type of person, but Weiss felt a little embarrassed.

Blake perked up. "Why don't we go together?"

Jaune sniffed his own armpit and recoiled. "Yeah, I'm a little overdone. A bath sounds good."

The problem was that there was no fresh water around to speak of. None they knew about, anyway. They would have to bathe in the sea. Not the most terrible thing but salt water left its mark, especially on hair. It was the best they had, though.

Blake and Weiss sorted through the spare clothing and picked out the pieces that would fit them most. It was a much harder proposition for Weiss because of how petite and slender she was but thankfully she found a pair of pants and a shirt that were marked as small. Gathering their things, the two women made their way down the beach while Jaune moved in the opposite direction.

They found a nice spot in the lagoon, the exposed rocks giving them a space to set down their clothes and towel before stripping off. In front of Blake, she had little shame and the faunus felt the same way, having seen each other's bodies before and often. Living together for a year and a half, they had quickly adapted to living with three other girls.

They had nothing to hide.

Weiss slipped off her boots and socks, wiggling her toes as her feet were aired for the first time in over a day. Undoing her belt, she set aside her satchels before shimmying out of her combat dress. Her bolero had been lost when she fell overboard, stripped from her upper body as she was carried away, so all that remained were her underwear. She was a simple, practical girl. White cotton peeled away from her hips as she hooked her fingers underneath the waistband and tugged her panties down her thighs. They pooled around her feet and she kicked them away before unhooking her bra, freeing her diminutive breasts. While they had grown a little bit since starting at Beacon, they would always be small.

Glancing to the side, she caught Blake looking her way and smirked when the raven haired girl quickly looked away.

Ice blue eyes observed her friend as she finished removing her pants, revealing her plump, shapely ass. Left in nothing but a purple thong, her cheeks swallowed the material completely. Blake then unhooked her bra, her sizable bust bouncing free and while Weiss wasn't one to lament her smaller proportions, she still felt a small flare of envy.

Blake's breasts weren't what you would call large but they weren't small either, a very nice middle ground capped with creamy, puffy nipples. They held an attractive youthful sag to them, slightly drifting apart and Weiss looked down at her own chest, perky and high, with tight, salmon pink nipples.

What if Jaune saw her now?

She quickly looked around to ensure he was nowhere in sight. As much as she sometimes fantasized about such things, it would be mortifying to be caught in such a state of undress by the man she desired. Weiss wasn't prone to bouts of self doubt but she knew that guys typically liked a more full figured woman.

Someone like Yang or Pyrrha, or Blake.

Looking back at her teammate, she watched as she removed her thong, pulling the material down her long, toned legs. When she was completely bare, the cat faunus turned to face her, cheeks a little red.

"Shall we?"

Weiss tested the water with her toes, swirling her foot as the clear pool rippled. It was warm.

Blake slipped in first, humming happily and Weiss followed her lead. Standing, the water only reached just below her crotch but when they sat, it covered most of their body, only leaving their heads exposed. The water was so clear that even submerged, Weiss could still make out the details of Blake's fit, athletic body.

They didn't have the luxury of soap or shampoo, so all they could do was rub at their skin with their hands. Weiss traced her belly, feeling her toned abs beneath her soft skin before rubbing at her legs. Pausing for a moment, she buckled down and rubbed between her legs, making sure to clean herself thoroughly. She then moved up her torso, scrubbing her breasts, her pits and arms, and then around her collar and neck. They might not have had soap but she still felt cleaner than she did before, any sweat and grime washed away by her caresses.

"Can you get my back?" she asked.

Blake paused in her own cleaning and met her eyes.

"Sure," she said, wading over as Weiss turned, exposing her back.

When Blake's hands touched her, she jumped even though she was expecting it. Giggling, she leaned back as Blake rubbed her from her shoulders, down her spine and the rolling, lean muscles of her back down to just above her pert ass. They remained this way for some time, Weiss' eyes slipping shut as her body loosened, relaxed.

When Blake was finished, Weiss returned the favor, lightly massaging Blake's shoulders before dipping down and scrubbing all the way to her impressive butt. Digging her fingers in by her trim waist, she wiggled her fingers in deeply, causing Blake to arch and squirm away.

"D-Don't, I'm ticklish," Blake breathed through a laugh.

Weiss smirked. That was good to know.

Next came their hair. Salt water wasn't exactly the best thing for it but Weiss was beyond caring. Undoing her side-tail, her white tresses fell around her shoulders and into the water. Without hesitation, she dunked herself under, giving her head a vigorous shake before resurfacing, running her fingers through her now wet hair. Blake did the same, her kitty ears flicking water free as she reappeared.

"I'd kill for a brush right now," Blake muttered.

They made do with their fingers, combing their hair with their hands as best they could. Weiss dunked herself about a half dozen times, running her fingers through her hair and across her scalp, determined to remove as much of the sand and grit as she could. When she was relatively satisfied, she stood, wringing her hair and then tying it up.

And then they just sat, lightly dozing as the late afternoon sun beat down on them. Weiss could already feel her skin becoming irritated but she couldn't care any less at this moment.

"This place is nice," she commented before adding, "If you can ignore the whole deserted island in the middle of nowhere thing. And how we got here. And that we are stuck here until someone finds us."

Blake chuckled sarcastically. "Yeah. Very nice."

Weiss bit her lip, worrying it between her teeth. "How have things been? With Jaune, I mean."

Blake glanced her way. "What do you mean?"

"He appears focused," Weiss said. "He isn't overdoing it, is he? He can get a little overzealous sometimes."

There were few people Weiss had met with as strong a work ethic as Jaune had. It had taken her a long time to see it, seeing as she only saw the worst in him for so very long, and they weren't on the same team – but when she noticed, it was hard to ignore. No ordinary person was able to close the gap as he did, in such a short amount of time. She knew of his fake transcripts, knew of his lack of training, and yet only a year and a bit later, he was standing beside people who had been training for the better part of their lives.

Pyrrha was owed a lot of credit for this, but it was not all her. If he didn't have the hunger and drive, and the appropriate work ethic to back it up, it didn't matter how good Pyrrha was as a teacher. He would have floundered.

But the bad thing about such drive and determination was that sometimes, he could overdo it. Weiss knew from first hand experience because she was much the same in this regard. Her work ethic on attaining perfection may have stemmed from an unhealthy place, at first a desperate need to prove herself to her father that she was good enough, and then later to spite him, but there were times when she pushed too far, too hard, too quickly.

She didn't want to see Jaune do the same here.

"He's been good," Blake assured her. "He is worried about Ren but he isn't panicking. He knows that we can't do much more than try and make it easier for anyone searching to find us. He – well, I guess you could say he has been a bit of a rock."

Blake closed her eyes for a moment before pinning her with an emotional look.

"We held on to hope that you were out there somewhere but... it was difficult."

Weiss moved, sliding over beside Blake and nudging into her, resting her head on the taller girl's shoulder. Finding Blake's hand, Weiss laced their fingers together.

"Well, you found me," Weiss nuzzled against Blake, uncaring of their nudity. Blake had really soft skin. "You don't have to worry about that anymore."

They sat in that pool until their fingers began to prune, taking comfort in each other's presence.

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