After the Storm

by Terkontar

The storm had passed and team RWBY left the grim clouds behind them, finally being able to take a breath, tend to their wounds and pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. And no matter what comes next, they'll brave this new dawn – together / Takes place after Salem's defeat, two years after the fall of Beacon. Mostly slowly burning Whiterose with some Bumblebee on the side.

28. Deer in the Headlights

Author's Foreword:

Hi! FFN has been a little wonky as of late; in case you learned just now that AtS has returned, I posted one more chapter (Bonds) two months ago!

---

Chapter XXIV: Deer in the headlights

Saturday had come and gone by, rather uneventfully at that — that is, if one disregarded Weiss spending most of the day working on her little project. The Sunday that followed had been off to a similar start for her: eat breakfast, head to Vale, work, then return home sometime in the afternoon, once she'd had enough.

Said 'enough' had come fairly early that day; satisfied with the progress she'd been making thus far, Weiss had headed back to Patch while the autumn sun still hung high over the horizon. Wrapped up in her positive frame of mind, she'd completely forgotten what day it was, setting herself up for a bit of a disappointment when Blake had turned out to be the only one to greet her home.

The house was pretty silent that afternoon. With Ruby and Yang out on the town, catching up with their old friends, Weiss and Blake were left to their own devices. The two of them lazed about the living room, trying to enjoy the peace and quiet while the world around them basked in the light of the setting sun.

As it would eventually come to light, trying was the operative word there. About an hour after arriving home, Weiss had set down her book and left for the kitchen; she'd returned maybe a minute later, empty-handed, only to leave again. After a while, she'd settled back on the sofa, but it hadn't lasted long before she started to walk to and fro across the room.

Absorbed in her own read, Blake hadn't been paying all that much attention to Weiss' behavior, at least initially; she'd shot the girl an odd glance from her spot on the armchair when Weiss left the room for the second time, but hadn't put much thought to it then. It'd been only a good while after Weiss had started her pacing when Blake had begun to take notice, finding the constant sound of the girl's footsteps increasingly more distracting.

She watched Weiss walk here and there and here again for about a minute, her amber eyes following the girl like a swinging pendulum. At first, she'd been tempted to tease Weiss about missing Ruby so much, but the more she looked, the less did that behavior struck her as impatience; rather, it seemed closer to anxiety.

"You're pacing, dear."

Weiss stopped at the sound of Blake's voice and turned to look at her. "Do you ever get the feeling that your perfectly normal day is about to get turned upside-down?"

Blake blinked, somewhat taken aback by that question. "No?" she replied hesitantly after a short spell. "Then again, I suppose the past year taught me to expect the worst on just about any day"

Weiss huffed an exasperated sigh and rubbed her face, then looked at Blake again. "Tea?"

"Yes, please."

Eager to occupy her hands with something, Weiss left for the kitchen without any further ado; Blake saw her off with her eyes, a somewhat puzzled look lingering on her face. Weiss was clearly acting strange, but Blake couldn't think of a reason why her friend would be so anxious all of a sudden — and, judging by her odd question, neither could Weiss.

Not too long after, the high-pitched whistle of the teakettle announced to Blake that the tea was just about done. Indeed, Weiss reappeared maybe a minute later with two mugs in her hands, intent on leaving them on the coffee table to cool off.

No sooner had Weiss set the tea down than the door to the house burst open and a visibly rattled Ruby barged inside. Paying her two teammates no mind, she began tearing her combat boots off her feet, almost as if they'd been on fire; once she was done with one, she unceremoniously threw it to the floor before immediately moving on to the other.

While Ruby was frantically fighting with her shoelaces, Yang quietly walked into the room after her. Meeting the two pointed stares sent her way, she just smiled wryly and gave Blake and Weiss an awkward wave.

"So, we're home, heh."

Having finally wrangled her other boot into submission, Ruby shot Blake and Weiss a brief glance, only then acknowledging their presence. "Um, hi."

"Welc—" Before Blake could finish that thought, Ruby straightened her back and all but dashed past them and up the stairs, quickly disappearing from their view. A moment later, the house shook a little when a lone door was slammed shut somewhere upstairs.

Both Blake and Weiss turned to look at Yang, almost perfectly in sync; although neither said a word, Yang could just about hear the silent 'what the hell happened?' that hung heavy in the air.

She looked up the stairs with concern, then back at the other two. Cracking a wry grin, she let out the nervous laugh of someone who knew they'd messed up. "So, uh, heh… I might've broken Ruby," she said as she rubbed her neck.

"What do you mean?"

Just as she was about to answer, Yang suddenly changed her mind and cast a furtive glance towards the stairs; rather than say anything more, she just looked at her teammates and jerked her head towards the door that led to the kitchen.

Taking their tea along, Blake and Weiss followed Yang to the other room. As the door closed behind them, Yang collapsed onto one of the dining chairs, then waited for the other two to make themselves comfortable — and a little longer after that.

"Sooo, backstory time," she eventually started. "Back at Signal, there was that one chick that used to crush on Ruby pretty hard, right?" She chuckled under her breath, smiling to the echo of an amusing memory. "Well, it might've been more than one, but that's beside the point."

She rubbed her temple. "Fast forward to today: when we were about to leave, said chick got Rubes to hang back for a bit. Didn't take long — maybe a minute. When I asked Ruby what it was all about, she said that Autumn asked her to hang someday, just the two of them, and that she went along with it. And, uh…" Here Yang hesitated for a bit, then let out a small laugh, fully aware that was the moment when she'd screwed up. "I may've suggested that she got asked out."

A meaningful sort of silence fell around the table while Weiss and Blake were processing the news. Although reality turned out to be much less concerning than they'd feared, they both could definitely see why Ruby would freak out at the prospect.

Eventually, Blake made a certain mental connection in her head; a cheeky little smirk came to life in the corner of her mouth, slowly spreading across the remainder of her lips as she shot Weiss a sideways look.

"Sooo… an early warning system? Neat"

Weiss narrowed her eyes ever-so-slightly, clearly not amused. "Not funny."

Before Yang could ask what the two of them were blabbing on about, Blake grew serious and came at her with another question. "Do you really think that's what it was about? Asking Ruby out?"

Yang buried her hand in her hair, scratching the back of her head. "Eeeh, I mean, dunno. Maybe? I didn't really get the vibes when we hung out together, but… y'know. Figured it'd be for the best to let her know there might be somethin' going on." She breathed out heavily and shook her head. "I knew that dating wasn't exactly on her mind right now, but I didn't think she'd freak out this bad"

"Did you tell her about the crush?" Blake asked, getting a small nod in response. "Well, at least Ruby won't get blindsided if that girl did actually intend for it to be a date." Briefly, her amber eyes flitted to Weiss before once again turning to Yang. "Do you think she is actually considering giving it a shot?"

Yang sighed. "You'd think so, seeing how psyched out she's gotten, no? But it's not like I've got any baseline. For all we know, she might be an ace, freakin' out over not knowing how to shoot down her old friend without hurting the chick's feelings. The fact that they've just reconnected probably makes it even more difficult." She pushed her hair up her forehead and groaned. "What a mess."

No one commented on Yang's final note, finding it to be apt enough of an assessment.

Finally, Weiss broke the somewhat-awkward silence that had fallen between the three. "Autumn, was it?" she asked, looking to Yang. "What is she like?"

Yang rolled her shoulders in a tiny shrug, not sure what there was to tell. "Kinda timid, but all in all a good egg. A bit like Velvet, in that sense," she said. "Keep in mind that we hadn't talked since I graduated from Signal, and you don't have to look far to see that a lot could've changed since then."

"Do you think she's got a shot?" Blake questioned.

"Hell if I know; back at Signal, Rubes wasmore smitten with Autumn's weapon that Autumn herself, that poor lass." Though she said that with a laugh, a clearly sympathetic grimace did cross Yang's face. "Going by the looks alone, she's pretty enough, I guess. Assuming that Ruby swings that way, and is into big-eyed redheads with a bit of a goody-two-shoes syndrome, then yeah, maybe?"

Blake stole a quick glance at Weiss, curious as to her reaction. The thing was… there was none. Weiss didn't seem to be listening, and if she had been, she remained completely nonplussed, sitting still with both of her hands firmly clasped on the mug she kept in front of her face. With her blue eyes staring a hole through the door to the living room, she seemed distracted, as if she was battling the urge to stand up and leave the kitchen.

Taking notice, Blake softly called her name. "Hey, Weiss. I know you probably want to let her vent, but I think Ruby needs a moment to herself."

Weiss' eyes flicked to meet Blake's, then she blinked — slowly, as if in agreement. "Yes, you're probably right. I know. It's just…" She paused for a moment, trying to think of the right way to answer, then let out a small sigh. "She's distracting."

"Huh?" Yang muttered in confusion, only for a look of understanding to ripple across her face when Weiss tapped the side of her head with a finger. "Oh."

Blake had to fight back the sly smile that threatened to break out on her face in response to Weiss' turn of phrase, but she succeeded. Rather than tease the girl, she decided to indulge her own curiosity.

"If you don't mind… how does it feel like, now?"

"You've seen it, pretty much. Restless," Weiss let on.

The other two just kept looking at her, waiting for a continuation that was not supposed to come; their stares remained heavy with anticipation, almost as if Blake and Yang expected her to showcase some sort of preternatural insight.

Trying not to laugh in their faces, Weiss shook her head. "It's… really less clear of a read than what you probably are thinking. Take anger, for example — it feels less like an actual emotion, and more like a… a wave of air, one that feels hot and yet makes you shiver at the same time."

"Right now, it's like a knot of anxious energy deep in my core," she explained, pressing her hand to a spot below her heart and above the stomach. "Not that strong, just… like an itch I cannot scratch. Honestly, if I hadn't seen Ruby just now, I wouldn't necessarily have made the connection between her and my pacing."

"Pacing?" Yang parroted in confusion.

"Mm. She'd started pacing across the living room a while before you two came back."

"I was gaslighting myself into thinking that I was forgetting something. Think along the lines of having possibly left your Scroll in public transit, or not locking the door to your house. It was maddening."

Yang winced. "Yikes. Can you, like… tune her out?"

Weiss sighed, then took a long sip of her tea. "We're about to find out."

---

"Oof!"

Blake grunted beneath Weiss as they both slammed to the ground, kicking up a small dust cloud off the barren training field.

"Good! Try again!" Yang cheered Weiss on from the sidelines, seemingly not bothered in the slightest by the fact that Weiss had Blake's head locked firmly between her thighs.

Weiss rolled off to the side, releasing her sparring partner from the headlock. She stood up and dusted herself off before once again squaring off against Blake, who had been gracious enough to agree to being her training dummy for the afternoon.

Seeking to occupy both her mind and her body, Weiss had asked Yang for an unscheduled training session in hand-to-hand combat. She'd hoped that, perhaps, the exercise would help her drown out the anxious energy that was emanating from Ruby. Yang had eagerly agreed, perhaps also seeking a distraction, and even dragged Blake into it.

In hindsight, it seemed that Weiss really had been onto something — and yet, she couldn't help but question her life choices every time her, or Blake, or both hit the ground. Which was often, especially towards the latter part of the lesson, when Yang had decided to teach her something 'fun' before wrapping up. By 'fun' Yang had apparently meant taking someone to the ground in needlessly acrobatic of a fashion — a maneuver she called a headscissors takedown, if Weiss remembered it right.

At the go sign from Yang, Weiss dashed across the few feet that separated her from Blake and hopped onto the girl at an angle, using her forward momentum to swing her legs skywards and around Blake's head. She pressed her thighs together and twisted her whole body to force a spin, rolling across Blake's shoulder and dragging the girl into a forced forward somersault.

As they both began falling, Weiss' leg slipped off Blake's head; in panic, she slammed her hand to the ground, swinging her whole body around her arm and miraculously — if a bit awkwardly — landing on her two feet, while Blake still unceremoniously crashed to the sand.

"Nice!" Yang congratulated her, grinning. "Happy accidents, am I right?"

Weiss acknowledged the praise with an awkward smile, but said nothing otherwise. When Blake rolled onto her back but didn't stand up, she walked over to her sparring partner with a pang of concern.

"Are you alright?" Weiss asked, offering Blake her hand.

Blake blinked, then let out a small huff, as if amused by the question. "Yes, I'm fine," she said, taking up Weiss on the offer and letting her pick her off the field. "You're the one getting thrown to the ground the next time, though."

A small smirk crept onto Weiss' face. "You'll have to work for it."

Weiss didn't actually mind repaying the favor, of course, and would readily do so when asked, but with sweat and grime covering her skin and hot blood still rushing through her system, she couldn't quite resist some playful banter.

Blake flashed her teeth in a cheeky smile. "Because you'd rather have Ruby being the one to go down on you?"

Weiss snorted, giving the other a half-hearted shove. "Asshole."

"You walked right into it," Blake replied with a smirk, putting an accusatory finger in Weiss' chest.

Yang approached the pair and gave each a hearty pat on their shoulders. "Good going, both of you." With that, she stepped away and walked over to a lone stool standing at the edge of the field, then tossed each of the girls a bottle of water. "Let's wrap up here for today; it's getting dark."

It was, indeed; though the clouds were still brushed with soft pinks and oranges, the whole training field was already hiding within the long shadows of the evening. It wouldn't be long before the stars would begin dotting the sky, announcing the arrival of the night.

"Aye aye, miss instructor," said Blake after taking a swig from her bottle. "I'm calling dibs on the first shower."

It wasn't really a question, but when their eyes met, Weiss gave Blake a small nod of go ahead. With her blessing, Blake started heading towards the house, but slowed down significantly as she was about to pass by Yang. Weiss couldn't see her face all that well from that angle, but as far as she could tell, it seemed as if Blake was giving Yang a rather meaningful look.

Soon, a slight grin manifested on Yang's face; she said something to Blake, quietly enough so that no one else could hear it… but if Weiss read her lips right, it was something along the lines of 'give me a few'.

Apparently satisfied with whatever she'd heard, Blake resumed her march towards the house, swaying her hips in a manner slightly more exaggerated than usual.

Weiss laughed under her breath, seeing that obvious invitation. Having shot the rather captivated Yang a brief look, she moved on to making sure she kept herself hydrated.

After a while, when Blake disappeared from their sight, Yang walked over to Weiss.

"You good?"

Weiss looked down and ran her hand across her stomach. "Yes, no complaints here."

"Didn't mean the wound, but that's also good to know," Yang said, curling one corner of her mouth slightly upwards.

At that, Weiss felt her shoulders stiffen. "Oh. Yeah, I'm alright. Why?"

"Well, you're the one that's got a freaked-out Ruby inside your head. Courtesy of yours truly."

"As I said, it really isn't quite that dramatic," Weiss replied with a small laugh, relaxing her stance somewhat. "It has gotten better, though. Not sure whether it's the training that helped, or whether Ruby simply calmed down, or perhaps both. The feeling is still there if I think about it, but I can mostly ignore it now; like the sensation of your tongue not fitting quite comfortably inside your mouth."

Yang stayed still for a maybe a second, then blinked and moved her jaw around. Shooting Weiss a look that was part-indignant and part-amused, Yang gave her a playful — if still quite forceful — shove, her face cracking into a grin.

"Oh fuck you, Weiss."

Weiss snickered, then offered Yang a genuine smile. "Thanks for the distraction."

"Don't mention it," Yang said, dismissing Weiss with a small wave.

A bout of silence followed, and Weiss found her thoughts drawn back towards the house and the girl hiding therein. She couldn't help but wonder if Ruby had decided on something already, or if she was doing alright.

She also felt kind of guilty, almost — she'd spent well over an hour trying to actively ignore Ruby and her disquiet, even though it felt like the act ran counter to the very nature of that newfound connection the two of them shared. She knew she had to learn to control it, but it didn't make her feel any better about cutting Ruby off.

Her inner musings must've showed on her face, as Yang decided to speak up.

"Um, did I just make it worse again by mentioning Ruby?" she asked, a small frown upon her brow.

Weiss startled a little, snapping her head to look at Yang. "No, no," she said along a small, awkward laugh, then looked away again. "This time it's just me psyching myself out, I suppose."

"That so?"

There was an invitation in those two words for Weiss to elaborate, but Yang wasn't pressuring her into doing so. Weiss considered the standing offer for a spell, thinking if — and how much — she wanted to divulge; eventually, she relented.

"Remember how you said you felt I replaced you?" Weiss questioned, getting a small nod in response. "I guess it's my turn to feel a bit anxious over the prospect of getting relegated to the second place."

"Autumn, huh?"

She let out a hum of agreement. "Mm. I know it's really selfish of me, but I suppose I'm just so— so used to Ruby having time and energy to hang out with me that I'm really not too keen on the idea of having to share it with someone. And that would — will — obviously be the natural course of events, should she decide to date someone, be it that Autumn girl or someone else." A wry, self-conscious smile made its way onto her lips as she looked Yang in the eye. "I know she wouldn't stop caring, but someone else would take priority."

Truth was, she was afraid of feeling lonely down the line, should Ruby start showing any romantic interest in someone. The girl had been the first person in a long time — outside of her siblings, anyway — to show Weiss that they gave a damn. She had other friends now, of course, but between Blake and Yang being involved with each other and her not being as close with the rest, she was feeling rather insecure, worried of being left out.

What would she do if that reality came to be, she wondered. Get into dating, herself? On one hand, she probably could, but on the other she wasn't entirely sure if she had the presence of mind for it at the time — nor whether she would anytime soon.

"Eh, don't be so glum just yet. It's possible that Ruby is enjoying her single life, and is just wondering how to let the chick down in the gentlest way conceivable."

"True, but the notion is there." She mustered up the will for a small shrug, trying to convince Yang — and perhaps her own self — that the prospect bothered her less than it actually did. "Oh well, no matter. I'd get used to it, eventually, and if Ruby comes to think that someone could make her happier, then all the more power to her; Dust knows she deserves it."

In spite of all of her worries, it was a true sentiment of hers. She genuinely wanted to see Ruby happy, even if it came at her personal expense in some way. If she could make Ruby smile more at the mere cost of spending less time with her, Weiss was damn willing to pay for it. It would hurt, but Ruby would have her blessing.

Yang gave Weiss a long, curious stare after hearing that statement — one that Weiss met head-on, without averting her eyes. For a while, Yang seemed as if she was about to say or ask Weiss something, but she changed her mind. With a small shake of her head, more to herself than anyone else, she simply said: "True."

---

Weiss was climbing up the dimly lit staircase, leaving her two teammates behind her in the living room.

She'd spent the past hour or so in front of the TV, watching some random crime show she'd found airing. It'd been adequate enough to tide her over till Blake andYang had been done with their shower, and whatever else they'd been up to — and for a good while afterwards, once the pair had joined her.

She'd been quietly hoping that Ruby would also have come downstairs by the time they'd rolled the credits, but it sadly had not been the case. With the episode having ended, she had little else to take her mind off the sensation of being sweaty and vaguely gross, and so she decided to finally quit putting off her shower. She'd been procrastinating on that, since it also meant having to disturb Ruby's peace to grab a change of clothes, but her resolve was wearing thin; besides, she did want to check up on Ruby, at least briefly.

She stopped in front of the door to their shared bedroom and opened it but a crack. To her mild surprise, no light spilled forth from within the room, making her wonder whether Ruby was asleep. She knocked lightly on the doorframe, on the off-chance that Ruby was just resting inside the dark bedroom; hearing no answer, she very carefully pushed the door open and poked her head inside.

The moment she looked, two things struck her as odd. First was the fact that the room was quite chilly compared to the rest of the house, while second — and by far more important — was the realization that Ruby was nowhere to be seen among the moonlit twilight. Confused, she crossed the doorstep and walked in, looking around as she went.

Ruby had to be somewhere really close, Weiss was sure of it. But why couldn't she see her? Her intuition was drawing her attention to Weiss' side of the room, but even there she found nothing.

"Ruby?" she called out softly to the shadows, her need for a fresh set of clothes all but forgotten.

She needed not wait long for the answer this time. "Here, on the roof."

Following the sound of Ruby's voice, Weiss circled around her bed and walked over to the nearby window. As she pulled back the curtain, she noticed the small gap between the window and its frame, slowly venting the warmth from the room. Opening it wide, she stuck her head outside and was promptly met with a pair of silver eyes shooting her a questioning look.

"You wanted something?" Ruby asked, lying flat on the porch's roof.

Weiss glanced briefly to the side, taking a nibble on the inside of her cheek. Admittedly, she hadn't thought quite that far ahead. She could just say that she'd wanted to check up on Ruby, but it sounded kinda lame in her head — and she didn't want to come off as overbearing.

"Not particularly, no," she said instead. "Am I intruding?"

Ruby just let out an amused hum and silently patted the spot beside her. Needing not another invitation, Weiss sat on the windowsill and swung her legs across to the other side.

"Are you okay?" she asked before lowering her feet onto the roof.

Ruby laughed and shook her head, repaying Weiss' concern with an awkward if warm smile. "Yeah, just… freaked out a lil' bit. Sorry for worrying you all." She took a deep breath, turning her eyes towards the same stars she probably had been looking at for the past while. "It's just that meeting with the Signal gang was a lot, and when I learned that my former best friend used to have a massive crush on me, I just…"

Weiss quietly walked over, careful not to slide off the porch. "Freaked out?" she playfully suggested, sitting down maybe a foot away from Ruby.

"Yeah, that," Ruby agreed with a laugh, but her mirth quickly faded, replaced on her face by an expression akin to regret. "I also feel really bad for her, in retrospect. First me not noticing, then just straight up disappearing without a word…" She let out a heavy sigh, and a moment of meaningful silence followed. After it came to pass, she turned her head and looked to Weiss.

"What do you think I should do? Assuming she did ask me out."

Weiss inhaled deeply, with Ruby's expectant stare making her feel rather timid all of a sudden.

"I'm not sure if I'm the right person for dating advice," she said in half-jest, though her insides felt heavy. She leaned back a little, propping herself up on a single elbow. Then, with her eyes admiring the texture of the wooden roof beneath them, she added: "Listen to your heart, I suppose. What does it tell you?"

"That it's about to give out on me"

Weiss laughed at that joke, a bit against herself, before looking up at Ruby. "Do you want to accept? To see if it could work out?"

"No." That answer came barely a heartbeat after the question had left Weiss' mouth — so fast, in fact, that even Ruby herself seemed taken aback, or at the very least needed a moment to conjure up any coherent reasoning. "I… can't really imagine it working out."

"Is it because she's a girl?" Weiss asked quietly, too preoccupied with their talk to feel herself tense up in anticipation.

"No, no. She's cute, smart, kinda dorky… she's great. It's just…" Ruby hesitated for a moment, struggling to put her feelings into words. "It feels like we belong to different worlds, and I'm not sure it'll ever change."

Genuine sadness colored Ruby's voice, and it wasn't difficult for Weiss to see why — whether Ruby was actually upset about missing out on a potential girlfriend, or simply mourned their past friendship, the Fall had driven a wedge between them, and through no fault of their own at that. Weiss felt for her, truly — for both of them.

"You two agreed to meet up, right?" she moved on. "When's that going to be?"

"Tomorrow," Ruby replied, letting herself deflate like a pierced tire. "Figured we might as well, since you're going to be out and I've had no plans for the day."

Weiss winced sympathetically, drawing air through her teeth. "Ouch." Still, an unlikely hint of playfulness found its way onto her face shortly after, and she had to stifle a small giggle. "Well, at least you won't be agonizing over it for the next week," she joked, poking Ruby between her ribs.

Ruby snorted with laughter, lightly swatting Weiss' hand aside. "Heh, yeah. Doesn't sound so bad when you put it like that."

The mood between them lifted somewhat, as if they both had managed to achieve some clarity of mind, their conversation slipping into a natural sort of lull.

Weiss leaned further back and laid down on her left side, propping her head on her hand. Taking a cue from her companion, she spent a while simply watching the night sky, but her attention returned to Ruby before long. She looked at her with interest in her eyes, a certain question weighing on the tip of her tongue while she debated with herself for a second or two whether to ask it or not. Ultimately, she decided to toss politeness to the wind and give in to her curiosity.

"So… are you into girls?"

Ruby blinked and shot Weiss a slightly startled look. She quickly recovered, her surprise giving way to a wry smile that crossed her face while she began rubbing the left side of her neck.

"Um… both, I think? Or neither? I guess most people just… don't do it, for me? Like, I can tell that someone would be considered attractive or whatever, but I don't really feel it most of the time, y'know. It just… builds up over time with some people, I guess?"

The question had clearly made Ruby a little bit uneasy, but she did seem open to discussing the matter. Encouraged by that thought, Weiss chose to push her luck — especially since the things Ruby had just said jogged something in her memory. Without any preamble, she sat up and pulled up her Scroll.

"I think there was a word for it…" she spoke, her slim fingers eagerly darting across the transparent screen while typing a few chosen words into the search engine. She spent maybe ten seconds internally cursing the poor reception by the time the article she was looking for finally loaded; then, she had to wait another five for a hyperlink to take her to the page she was actually interested in, but couldn't remember what to look for.

Her eyes skimmed the initial paragraph, only to quickly confirm it was indeed what she was thinking of. Satisfied, she offered the Scroll to Ruby.

"Take a look at this."

And so Ruby did, squinting a little bit as she started going over the wiki page Weiss had just looked up for her — demisexuality.

While Ruby was busy reading, Weiss' stare never left her face, observing with interest every change in Ruby's expression — from the line of her lips, through the subtle shifting of her eyebrows, to the way the girl's silver eyes seemed to grow ever so slightly bigger with each passed paragraph.

"Huh," Ruby let out, almost as if in disbelief, while going through the last few lines of the article. "Yeah, seems about right." Once she was done, she returned the Scroll to Weiss, a thoughtful look upon her face.

Weiss pocketed the device and laid back down, grinning to the sky; for whatever reason, she couldn't help but feel exceedingly smug about herself, even had she wanted to.

"Well then, that's one mystery solved."

Ruby tilted her head. "Mystery?"

"Oh, you know. With how little interest you've shown in dating, the three of us have been wondering whether you might be asexual."

Ruby's frame shook with a snort so violent that it could've passed for a sneeze, only for her to break into genuine belly laughter that made Weiss feel really silly about even entertaining the idea.

"Yeah, no, I might be many things, awkward included, but an ace I ain't, believe you me."

"Can you blame us? Yes, we've all heard your teasing, but you never seem to mean anything by it. You've just… never seemed interested."

"Guess I can't," Ruby admitted while swiping a lone tear off the corner of her eye, final throes of laughter still lingering in her voice. "Back at Beacon, I suppose I really wasn't. Curious… maybe. It was definitely interesting, and a little bit amusing, to watch you gush over Neptune. But crushes, falling in love, all the rest of that garbage… I just figured I'd have time for it down the line." She looked at Weiss and mustered a crooked smile, both of them knowing full well how that assumption had panned out.

Weiss saw how warmth seemed to drain from Ruby's eyes, supplanted by something… strange. Not quite sadness — more like a sense of emptiness, or maybe loss.

Ruby's weak smile flickered and faded from her face. With a small sigh, she averted her eyes, only to look at nothing in particular, almost as if in shame. When she spoke again, her voice's volume was maybe half of what it'd been before. "Later, I… I guess I just didn't have the emotional bandwidth for it."

Weiss' hand twitched slightly, about to reach out and offer Ruby some comfort, but some part of her being resisted that impulse.

She didn't quite understand what exactly stopped her, not at first, at least. Ruby might not have seemed like she was in the need of reassurance, perhaps, but most definitely like she could use some kindness. And yet…

Then, it began to slowly dawn on Weiss — be it because of Ruby's body language, or the connection that they shared.

For whatever reason, Ruby did not want to be touched in that moment.

Once she arrived on that conclusion, Weiss couldn't be more sure of it. She wasn't being shut off or anything, or even asked to change the subject, but something about Ruby's distant — no, avoidant — stare and the way she held her arms to her chest made Weiss acutely aware of an invisible wall of glass that wasn't there seconds before.

An owl hooted somewhere in the distance, causing Weiss to snap to attention — and to realize, much to her momentary embarrassment, that she'd been staring. Rather than continue going down her previous track of thought, she swallowed, then moved on to the next question that was pressing on her lips.

"If not for the Fall… would you give Autumn a chance?"

Weiss wasn't entirely clear what possessed her to ask that, but she was genuinely curious, perhaps because it was a side of Ruby she had never had the chance to see before.

Ruby tensed up at that question, although Weiss didn't quite notice it in the limited moonlight. "I… don't know. The Fall has changed so much, it's hard to imagine myself in a setting where it'd never happened." Her words rung earnest, but Weiss sensed they lacked their previous spontaneity — Ruby's answer was careful and measured, uncharacteristically so. "At the same time, I can't really think of a reason I'd say no. Had I never gone to Beacon, though? Yeah, she probably would have had a decent shot."

Her delivery of that last bit was flat and matter-of-factual, but in a dismissive sort of way — as if speaking about a hypothetical so far removed from reality that it had little to no bearing on her life.

A longer while of silence followed in the wake of Weiss' 'I see', and Ruby found herself holding her breath. Asking whether she would've given Autumn a chance had things been different was inching uncomfortably close to another, quite similar question Weiss could ask her. Deep in her heart of hearts, Ruby was hoping it wouldn't come — not that night, and not like that. It was a question she was afraid of, because she feared there was only one answer she could give — one she sure as hell did not feel ready for.

Which is why she almost laughed with relief when Weiss asked her something else.

"So, what's your type?" There was a genuine, teasing grin on Weiss' face; her eyes gleamed slightly in the moonlight, looking at Ruby with live interest, seeming borderline excited at the prospect of a good ol' girls' talk.

Fair was fair — they didn't get an opportunity like that often.

Ruby let out a small chuckle. "Sorry to disappoint, but I don't think I have one"

"Examples, then?"

She rubbed her chin in thought. "I think that Jaune cleans up pretty well, on top of being pretty stand-up guy. Sun, too — he's got that whole roguish charm, but is really just a big dork that seems like he'd be nice to hold close. Also, Blake's, like, super sweet, not to mention pretty."

"Don't let Yang hear you," Weiss playfully warned. "Neptune, since you mentioned him?"

A conflicted, part-sympathetic grimace showed up on Ruby's face and she rubbed her neck on reflex. "He's a good guy, but… would I be mean if I said that he's trying too hard?"

"I'm not sure about 'mean', but it'd make two of us. It's actually what made me lose my interest," Weiss agreed, then gave Ruby a 'yes, really' sort of look in response to the dubious stare she was being given. "Anyone else?"

A good deal of prior tension returned to Ruby's body. She hesitated for a second, before licking her lower lip and asking: "Anyone specific you've got in mind?"

Weiss rolled her shoulders with theatrical nonchalance. "Oh, you know her. Blue eyes, white hair, bit of an attitude."

Ruby's chest tightened, even despite Weiss' attempt at humor. Still, she did not plan on backing down from the question.

Then, a certain idea struck her — and so she answered, with all the innocence she could muster:

"Oh, yeah, Winter's totally hot. Bit old for me, tho."

Weiss let out a short gasp, then swatted Ruby's arm in mock-outrage. "Jerk!" she cried, laughing in disbelief.

Though it definitely wasn't the answer Weiss had been fishing for, she did understand that her and Winter were a fair bit alike; knowing that Ruby was just being cheeky about it, the answer seemed to satisfy Weiss well enough.

That said, Ruby wasn't quite done. She waited a few seconds until Weiss calmed down enough to meet her eyes, then asked:

"I have called you gorgeous, haven't I?"

She didn't laugh, didn't turn it into another joke; it was a statement of fact worded like a rhetorical question — a simple truth, spoken like it should've been obvious to begin with.

Weiss' whole body seemed to go rigid for a heartbeat, only for her to blink and draw a sharp breath while a small kaleidoscope of emotions swept across her face in rapid succession — not the least of them being genuine shock.

It wasn't the words themselves that took her aback so much, but Ruby's delivery: deadpan and serious, like she wanted to leave no room whatsoever for second-guessing and interpretation.

Weiss was quick to look away, turning her eyes towards the stars, as if hoping they could help her make sense of the tangled up feelings that rose within her chest. Being happy was part of it, she was sure, but there was much more within that mess, and not all of it was positive.

"You have," Weiss mouthed quietly, barely above a whisper; for all the unrest inside her mind, a faint smile still did grace her profile.

They lingered there for a while yet, but Weiss returned inside before long, leaving Ruby to her own devices while she herself finally headed for her long-overdue shower.

Ruby listened to her receding footsteps; when she heard the door close behind Weiss, she exhaled a breath of relief.

"Crap," she muttered, rubbing her face with agitation.

Ruby was a little upset with herself. She felt guilty; unclean, even, for stringing Weiss along any more than she already had… but she was a selfish girl.

And at no point had she been insincere.

---

Ding!

Hearing the cheerful ring of a toaster, Weiss set down her freshly brewed coffee and began circling around the granite island that occupied the center of the extravagant kitchen. The space was criminally over-equipped for how infrequently it had seen any use in recent years, but Weiss would never complain about having a state-of-the-art coffee machine at her disposal.

She was in an exceptionally good mood that particular afternoon. There was an undeniable skip to her step as she moved about, jigging a little to the beat of the music that blared throughout the usually empty building. Even while she waited for butter to melt on her toasts, she kept tapping her foot to the rhythm, quietly humming the melody to no one but herself.

If asked, she would find it quite difficult to pinpoint why exactly she was in such high spirits. Her pet project was at least partially responsible for that, of course, seeing that she had just finished it — and with a whole day to spare, at that. She was actually quite proud of what she'd accomplished, and with so little in the way of prior preparation, but it wasn't all that there was to her good mood. Perhaps it was the nice weather right outside the massive window, or maybe simply a full night of restful sleep. For the most part, she just woke up like that, with the fruits of her labor being the gem that crowned that fine day.

She was at her family's property in Vale, in the upper-class part of the Residential District. She never liked that place much in the past — large and spacious for the sake of being massive and showy, it lacked nothing except the soul and the sense of taste. It was… inoffensive; borderline sterile, even, dominated by colors black, gray and white, with an occasional flash of brushed metal to break up the monotony — or try to, anyways. One could definitely argue it was a fine piece of architecture, but it always felt more like a showroom than an actual home to Weiss; perhaps because it was exactly the way it'd been treated.

She'd been using the space as her little hideout for the last three days. Occupied for maybe two weeks at best in any given year, it had seemed to her like the ideal spot to work on her gift idea in secrecy. Funnily enough, even though she used it only for work, the house had never felt so lived in as it did now, with various odds and ends strewn about, and plastic tarps spread all over her makeshift workshop in the reading room upstairs.

Seated atop a granite countertop, Weiss was enjoying her toasts when a sudden, sharp buzz of a disengaging lock almost caused her to drop her Scroll. No longer were her legs swaying to the beat of the music; alert, she set down her food and quietly hopped off her perch, listening for the intruder.

The front door were barely opened when a familiar voice spilled inside.

"Winter, dear, is that you?"

Weiss clicked her tongue in displeasure. Getting walked in on by her mother had been a very distinct possibility she'd risked when deciding to use the house — one she had considered, if not quite believed in. Weiss had hoped that if she were to get discovered by someone, it'd be by Winter. Alas, she'd miscalculated.

She could manage, though.

"Mother?" Weiss called, moving so that she had a clear view of the entrance.

The moment she peeked her head into the living room, Willow's face lit up with both surprise and seeming delight. "Oh, Weiss! Is this where you've been staying?"

Weiss shook her head, feeling rather awkward after basically getting caught red-handed. "No, no, I've just been using the space for a… personal project of mine," she replied, massaging the back of her neck.

"A project?" Willow tilted her head with curiosity. Then, she must've smelled something, as her nostrils dilated and she took a whiff of air; the moment that she did, Weiss already knew she got made.

Eyes lighting up with surprise and recognition, Willow looked at Weiss with a smile that made the latter want to roll her eyes out of her skull. "My, is that smell what I think it is?"

Weiss didn't answer, but it was clear that her mother didn't need her to; rather than wait for Weiss' response, Willow pushed past her and up the stairs, basically beelining it for the reading room. Resigned, Weiss followed in tow, not even trying to stop her mother from seeing her secret project.

Besides, what was she to do — forbid the woman from her own house?

It had been inevitable, really, the moment Willow set foot in the building. If it hadn't been for the strong aroma of nail polish remover in the air, the dirty work shirt hanging off a kitchen stool would've clued her in soon enough. Not expecting anyone to find her there, Weiss hadn't exactly been taking good care of covering up her tracks.

Nor cleaning.

Or closing doors, now that she thought of it.

Was she mad at herself, in retrospect? A little.

She wondered what her mother was doing there to begin with. Since Willow was in Vale, Weiss half expected her mother to have a meeting scheduled within the next hour or two. That said, Willow's choice of garb struck Weiss as rather odd, were it to be the case. Not that there was anything wrong with it, no. Her light coat was classy enough, if not particularly extravagant, but the knitted gray turtleneck Willow wore underneath would seem rather out of place, Weiss felt, at a high-level business meeting.

Before Weiss could ponder some more on that little nugget of information, Willow already invited herself into the reading room; with the door having been left conspicuously open to let the fresh air in, she hadn't needed to do much guesswork.

The reading room was one of the smaller ones within the building. A bit cramped for Weiss' needs, really, between the tall bookcases with volumes that no one had ever opened and the cushy armchairs that had felt little warmth in their existence. The only reason she'd chosen it over the living room or the master bedroom was the plentiful sunlight it was getting for most of the day… and, well, also the fact that it'd required little in the way of moving furniture around. It served her well enough as a workshop, and, in time, Weiss actually started oddly appreciating how tight it felt in there — almost cozy.

The moment Willow walked inside and laid her eyes on Weiss' handiwork, her face cracked into a small, seemingly earnest grin — one that spread as she approached, sheets of plastic rustling beneath her feet.

"Well, I'll be!" Willow let out, and Weiss, who filed into the room a few steps behind her, thought she noticed an oddly nostalgic, perhaps regretful, glint in her mother's eye. Before Weiss could make sure her sight wasn't deceiving her, Willow smirked a little and shot her a brief glance. "You've gotten rusty, dear."

Putting her arms across her chest, Weiss repaid her mother for that little jab with a very bored expression. That said, the comment stung just a little more than she would care to admit. "How about telling me something I don't know, Mother?"

Rather than do the polite thing and answer, Willow came back at Weiss with a question of her own. "Is this a gift?" she asked, her eyes carefully examining the fruit of four days of labor.

Holding back a sigh at the breach of courtesy, Weiss followed her mother's gaze and nodded. "For Ruby's birthday, yes."

"It's beautiful," Willow said, giving Weiss exactly what she'd asked for — a remark she hadn't been expecting. "She must really mean a lot to you."

Weiss's eyelids fluttered as she raised her eyebrows, genuinely taken aback by the praise and insight both. Still, she was quick to land on her two feet, hiding the lapse in her guard behind a sarcastic smile. "What gave it away? The fact that I picked up the art again?"

"That too, but no, it's not what I meant," Willow said, a certain warmth lading her tone. "It's simply the feeling I get from looking at it."

A pair of blue eyes regarded Willow with a stare of quiet scrutiny. Weiss considered both her mother and her words for a second or two, wondering whether she could take either at face value.

A small smile threatened to break out on her face, but she shoved it right behind a veneer of stone-faced nonchalance. Still, her mother's assessment did pleasantly tickle Weiss' ego — if the comment had been indeed spoken in earnest, it meant that Weiss accomplished her core goal for her project.

Plastic shifted and crackled under Weiss' weight as she took a step closer, standing beside Willow as they both looked at the canvas in front of them.

"She does," Weiss quietly admitted, deciding not to hide the softness in her voice.

---

Once Willow had adequately sated her curiosity, both she and Weiss started heading downstairs, with the latter leading the way. For whatever reason, a slight smile was not leaving Willow's face; she seemed rather pleased with herself, or perhaps the situation; for what reason specifically, Weiss did not know, and didn't care enough to guess.

About halfway down, Weiss threw a glance over her shoulder and asked her mother, "Will you be staying here for long?"

Before Willow could even open her mouth, another voice cut in and replied in her stead. "She won't. I might."

Weiss' head whipped around in the general direction of the kitchen and her whole body momentarily froze in place, one hand glued to the railing. From her elevated position, she couldn't really see the speaker, but it didn't matter — she knew that voice alright. She just didn't expect to hear it on that side of Remnant anytime soon.

She glided down the last few steps and spun to the side. Inside the kitchen, she spotted a young man with white hair, not unlike her own, dressed in a sharp, form-fitting gray-blue trench coat. He was leaning his back against a tall kitchen stool, observing Weiss' surprise with an amused slant to his eye.

"Whitley!"

"Hello, sister," her brother said with a nod and a smirk.

He seemed… well. Certainly much better than the last time they'd seen each other at their father's funeral. It appeared that the passage of time proved helpful in his case; his back was straight and hair returned to its well-groomed state. His mannerisms still remained subdued, somewhat, but it looked like he was slowly building himself back up after the first Battle of Atlas left its mark on him.

Weiss just stood awkwardly in place, not really sure how she wanted to, or should, react. She was genuinely glad that Whitley seemed to be in a better headspace, but she hadn't had the time to mentally prepare herself to face him. They might've kept in touch through occasional texts or short calls, but it wasn't quite the same as meeting in person.

Perhaps aware of that inner quandary, Willow decided to break up the rising silence.

"I'll be waiting in the car with Klein." Though her words were clearly directed at Whitley, her hand brushed against Weiss' shoulder, almost as if to give her a gentle nudge.

True to her word, Willow removed herself from the situation and exited the building — although not before meeting Weiss' eyes, if only just for a moment.

Thrown under the bus, Weiss drew a lungful of air and hesitantly entered the sunlit kitchen. She approached Whitley and paused for maybe half a second, looking at her brother; he just looked back at her in turn, and something about his eyes told her that he was finding himself in the same predicament as her — not quite certain what he actually wanted to do.

Feeling a lopsided smile steadily crawl onto her face, Weiss opened her arms for a hug; much to her relief, she wasn't left hanging for long, as Whitley accepted the invitation after but a heartbeat of initial reluctance.

It was a little bit stiff, but not altogether uncomfortable, lasting for a few seconds before they pulled apart.

"How have you been?" Weiss asked, staying one hand on Whitley's right arm.

Her brother shrugged. "I'm managing. Life has been pretty uneventful since your latest message."

Weiss let out a small laugh. "You can say that again. I'm still getting used to how slow things have been lately."

Whitley narrowed his eyes a little and looked down, as if searching for something in Weiss' posture, or perhaps on her body. "How's your injury?" he asked after a while, turning down the volume of his voice by a notch or two.

Weiss threw a sweeping glance around, almost as if half-expecting to see her mother watch them from the doorway or through a window. Having made sure that they had no audience, she grabbed the hem of her black tee and pulled it up a bit, exposing her stomach.

Whitley's face contorted into a sympathetic grimace as he laid his eyes on the four pink marks carved into Weiss' abdomen. For a moment there, Weiss could've sworn that she might've spotted genuine concern flash in her brother's eyes; she lost sight of it when he looked away and swallowed, perhaps pushing back the bile he might've felt in his throat.

Weiss glanced down and held back a sigh. She couldn't see the marks all that well without a mirror, but she could feel them easily enough whenever she ran her fingers across her stomach. She knew for a fact that the situation looked better than it did when Ruby had walked in on her nearly two weeks ago, but she was slowly coming to terms with the sad reality that the gashes were there to stay a while. Disappointing, but there wasn't much else she could do about it.

Noticing Whitley's discomfort — and the fact that he grew even paler than usual — Weiss let go of her shirt and let it fall back in place.

"It's mostly healed up, though it will probably leave a mark for the foreseeable future. I'll live," she stated, giving him a crooked smile. Said smile picked up on some sincerity soon after, as Weiss tilted her head curiously and looked at Whitley with interest. "What are you doing here, anyways?"

Between his initial comment and the massive white suitcase standing scant few feet away, in the corner of the room, it was clear that Whitley was meaning to stay in Vale for a while — a week at minimum, if Weiss were to hazard a guesstimate by the size of his luggage alone. It did not explain why, though.

Shadow grew deeper in the corner of his mouth, though his smirk stayed clear off his eyes. "That's precisely what I'm trying to figure out," he said, then let out a surprisingly tired sigh. "Sightseeing, for now. Later, we shall see," he answered somewhat evasively, before fixing Weiss with a discerning stare. "But I could ask you the same question."

"I've been using the space to work on a gift for a friend. But don't worry, I've already finished, so I'll be out of your hair once I clean up the place a bit," Weiss promised. "That said, I'd appreciate it if I could leave my things here till tomorrow — would that be fine?"

"I see. Suit yourself." Although he said that with a dismissive wave, there was something about his demeanor that made Weiss think he was almost… disappointed.

He pushed himself away from the stool he'd been leaning against and made moves to go past Weiss, already on his way out of the house. "I'll leave you to it, then; Mother's waiting."

"Say," Weiss called after him, spurred by the look she'd briefly seen in Whitley's eye, "if you're staying in Vale anyways for the time being… what would you say to a little meet-up, one of these days?" She smiled a bit when her brother paused and turned to meet her stare. "I could show you some good spots to grab a bite to eat, if you'd like."

While Whitley's expression didn't change much, his eyes seemed to light up a little at the suggestion. "I— wouldn't mind that," he said after a moment of hesitation. "Are you free on Wednesday?"

Weiss gave him an apologetic look. "I'm afraid I already have plans for the day," she said. Wednesday was the day of Ruby's birthday, and she considered her presence there non-negotiable. "But Thursday could work, if that's fine with you?"

Whitley gave her a small nod, a shadow of a smile briefly crossing his face. "Thursday, then."

Weiss walked her brother off; she even got to briefly hug Klein, who seemed to have been waiting for his favorite Snowflake in front of the building. A complex but not altogether unpleasant feeling swelled within her chest as she watched the white car roll down the paved driveway and out onto the nice suburb streets. Her blue eyes followed that speck of white as it drove past the pretty houses and well-kept gardens, until it eventually disappeared from her view after taking a turn at an intersection.

Weiss found herself smiling slightly, stood in the threshold of the house; even after her family's car was gone from sight, she lingered there for a while longer, simply enjoying the breath of chilly air on the bare skin of her arms.

It was a fine day, indeed.

---

Humming along to the melody playing in her earbuds, Weiss marched down the same forest path she'd been traveling frequently for the past two weeks. The forest roof above her was alight with rays of the setting sun, while hundreds little splotches of sunlight danced and shifted beneath her feet, having pierced the canopy. The scene had been changing day by day as winter drew ever nearer, but it somehow felt the same even as the days grew darker and shorter. As silly as it might've been, she almost started considering that particular neck of the woods to be hers.

Which might've been why spotting another person in said woods put her a little bit on guard. Alternatively, it was the mane of auburn hair that flashed between the trees, sported by someone on the path just ahead, right beyond the bend.

Weiss slowed her step a bit and discreetly tapped at her earbud, turning down the volume. She didn't fully understand why she'd done that — after all, she had no basis to suspect that the stranger would want to chat her up, even if Weiss' suspicions regarding their identity were correct. In the end, she chose to simply chalk it up to personal curiosity.

It wasn't long until the mysterious stranger came out from behind the bend — a lone girl in her late teens, in whom Weiss quickly recognized Ruby's friend from the mall, Autumn.

Now that Weiss could take a better look at the girl, she was forced to give it to Yang that Autumn was indeed quite pretty. She stood at around 5'7" or thereabout, with long legs and an attractive, pear-shaped body; even the thick, checkered brown coat that she wore couldn't quite hide her well-defined waist. The girl kept her shoulder-length auburn hair loose, save for the singular braid formed from her bangs and rounding her right ear.

As soon as Autumn realized that the person ahead of her was no random passerby, she paused, slowing down almost to a crawl. It was brief, however; the moment her initial surprise wore off, a wide — if slightly awkward — smile spread across her face and she resumed her step. Bafflingly to Weiss, it almost seemed to her as if the girl couldn't believe her luck, for whatever reason.

"Hi! You must be Weiss, right?" Autumn greeted, with far more energy and cheer Weiss would expect from someone who'd just gotten turned down. Her voice was warm and quite pleasant, if rather low for a girl.

Weiss took off her earbuds and tucked them away in the pocket of her coat, coming to a halt maybe three feet away from the girl. She took half a second to eye her cautiously, lightly taken aback by the happy demeanor. Not that she suspected Autumn of anything, just… it wasn't quite how she'd imagined their hypothetical meeting to go.

"Yes. Autumn, I presume?"

"That's me alright!" the girl confirmed, putting forth her right hand. Seeing no need to leave her hanging, Weiss obliged and gave Autumn a little shake. "Nice to finally meet you. Ruby's told me quite a lot about you!"

"Likewise," Weiss replied, mostly out of politeness; she didn't know how to feel about the girl just quite yet. Still, she did go through the effort of putting on a pleasant smile. "Nothing bad, I hope."

Autumn's large eyes looked to the side as she considered that question; while she was thinking, her right hand fiddled somewhat restlessly with her hair, pulling at it lightly or twirling it between her fingers. Eventually, her gaze once again zeroed in on Weiss, and a crooked, sheepish smile appeared on her lips.

"Would you consider the story of your first meeting 'bad'?"

An involuntary laugh broke free out of Weiss's chest and she looked down at the path beneath her feet, nodding. "Not my proudest moment, indeed," she admitted, then looked up at Autumn with genuine curiosity — borderline nosiness, even. "How was your outing?"

"I got shot down," the girl admitted casually with a half-shrug and a lopsided smile, only for said smile to quickly give way to a wide grin. "Other than that, it's been great!"

Weiss blinked, taken aback yet again. She scanned the girl's face — pretty, round, with a narrow chin, gentle lines, and a smattering of freckles — but she didn't spot anything that'd suggest she was being fake or otherwise lying. There was no strange tension to her features, nor was there anything suspicious about the curve of her lips. Even her eyes, brown with a reddish tint, seemed… genuine.

"You seem to be taking it rather well," Weiss noticed, letting some of her surprise to bleed into her voice.

Autumn gave her a knowing look. "Being rejected by my first teenage crush, you mean? Oh, I'm positively devastated," she said with a laugh. "Jokes aside, I suppose it's simply the fact that I've had well over two years to get over her; even dated for a bit. Ruby leaving Vale without a word hurt, but I guess it did make moving on a little bit easier."

Her soft smile stayed throughout that explanation, but faltered somewhat in the middle; it wasn't difficult to tell that the silver lining she'd mentioned had offered her little consolation.

"I really didn't mean anything when I invited her to hang out. I guess I'm just happy that I got my friend back," she added.

"So Yang did jump the gun."

"Yeah, she did," Autumn agreed, looking away while her hand kept tugging away at her hair. "In her defense, I can't blame her. Last time we've seen each other, I was down bad for Ruby, so I guess it's only fair she'd let her sister know." She exhaled sharply, almost like in a silent laugh, then looked at Weiss with a tiny, self-conscious smirk. "Besides, for all my talk about moving on, I probably wouldn't have been strong enough to not go for it, had Ruby asked me out. I mean, she was pretty before, but now? Alas." She sighed and put her lips into a thin line, but it was pretty obvious that her seeming disappointment was being played up for theatrics.

Then, Autumn shifted on her feet and deflated a little, for the second time showing Weiss an expression that wasn't quite as bright and cheery.

Regret.

"I guess that the worst part about today wasn't the rejection, but knowing that I used to have a chance," she confessed with a heavy heart, briefly pulling at her hair with more force than before.

Weiss hardly knew the girl, and yet she couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy. "I don't suppose she just… dropped that on you, did she?"

Autumn shook her head. "No, no, she was initially very gentle about breaking the news to me. As usual." She summoned a shadow of a smile onto her face, but it never reached past her nose. "You could say that curiosity killed the cat. Closure is overrated, sometimes."

Autumn heaved a sigh, and with that, it was almost as if the clouds had parted. Apparently not one to let herself be weighed down by might-have-beens, she looked at Weiss with renewed interest. "You know, I was hoping I'd bump into you."

Weiss straightened and tensed up a little. "Why's that? Is there something I can help you with…?" she asked cautiously.

"No, it's nothing like that. Or, in a sense, you already did." Autumn laughed a little, seeing Weiss' confused stare, then finally let go of her hair and scratched the side of her neck. A tiny simper flitted across her face, like she realized that what she was about to say might come off as silly or plain odd. "It's probably going to sound cheesy as hell, but I just wanted to thank you for taking care of my friend. Ruby might be the nicest, most driven person I know… but she has some serious auto-destructive tendencies."

Weiss snorted in wholehearted agreement. "Tell me about it."

A spark of curiosity flickered in her mind. Autumn represented a part of Ruby's life that Weiss knew very little about, but would very much like to. It was most tempting, to pick her brain a little in search of insight, especially with how agreeable the girl had been so far.

Feeling she'd be remiss to let the opportunity slip by, Weiss fixed the girl with curious eyes. "How did the two of you meet, anyway?"

"Meet-meet, or…" Autumn started hesitantly, turning to Weiss for further instruction.

"Starting from the beginning?"

The girl giggled. "I guess you could say I started off as the hallway creep, though I prefer the term 'distant admirer'," she replied with a playful grin, one that grew wider at the good-natured shake of the head she got from Weiss. "I spotted her between classes, walking down the hallway with Yang; it was probably my first, maybe second, week at Signal. I still remember thinking 'whoa, she's soooo cute'." One corner of her mouth dipped as her expression changed into a wry, self-deprecating smile. "But I was too big of a chicken, so I just stayed away, and Ruby lived in blissful ignorance to my existence until a few months into the semester."

"Something happened, I wager?"

"Yeah," Autumn confirmed, the same crooked smile still lingering. "I showed up early to a Combat class. Which was a mistake, because one of the 'mean girls' decided she wanted to start something that day." A look of tired annoyance mixed with distaste cast its shadow on her face. "My parents run a bakery in Patch, and the parents of that girl run another on the same street, so there is a bit of not-so-friendly-competition between our families. It's all really petty, but it is what it is. You get the idea."

Weiss simply nodded; she understood all too well that kind of generational animosity, having been the object of such on more than one occasion.

Autumn carried on. "Ruby and I were in different classes, but every now and then we'd have Combat at the same time. It just so happened that it was one of those joint classes, and Ruby had also come early. She saw everything and intervened."

"And kicked their asses?" Weiss asked, a knowing smirk creeping upon her lip.

Mirth lit up Autumn's eyes and she had to hold back a grin. "No. I kicked hers, actually," she said innocently, only to burst into giggles at Weiss' puzzled reaction. "Keep in mind, she was just starting to learn under Professor Branwen at the time. Even then she was stupidly difficult to hit, but wasn't all that great at fighting, yet."

"I— were you the one she challenged? Why?"

"So that I didn't have to accept any other challenges that day," Autumn explained. "It was quite clever, really. Had she challenged any of the bullies, they could've told her to get lost. Even if they didn't, and she managed to keep dodging until she wore the opponent into submission, there would be two more that'd be happy to beat my ass in front of the class. But by challenging yours truly, she took me out of the equation altogether."

Weiss slowly nodded along. "I see. Makes sense."

"Mm. Let's just say I wasn't too surprised when I heard that she was made the team leader."

"So, that's what got you into her?" Weiss probed. "Her standing up for you?"

"It would be pretty cliché if that was the case, wouldn't it?" Autumn remarked with an amused hum. "But no, not really. I'd had my little girl-crush on her for a while by then, so, granted, her intervention did leave me a bit… starstruck. But it wasn't until a while later that I had my gay awakening."

Weiss snorted with laughter at the term, even though she tried not to. Autumn, unsurprisingly at that point, didn't seem to mind; if anything, she seemed pleased to have gotten a reaction out of her interlocutor.

"We started hanging out between classes. Getting to know each other. I learned that she was not only pretty, but also clever and about as sweet as they come. That she likes weapons, sugar, and is a total dork. And something about her started drawing me in, though it took me a while to understand what it was."

Weiss felt herself beginning to smile. It all sounded so familiar it made her awash with nostalgia. Oddly, she began experiencing a sense of connection building up between her and Autumn — a sort of tacit understanding between two like-minded individuals that met each other by complete accident.

Autumn took a deep breath and rocked on the balls of her feet. She looked down with a rather wistful expression on her face, her hand combing her hair.

"Then it hit me. She didn't care who, or what—" she spoke and looked Weiss in the eye, carefully watching her reaction when a long, fluffy tail suddenly unfurled from beneath Autumn's coat, "I was."

For a moment, Weiss simply stared at the aforementioned tail — red and bushy, with a tip of white at its end. It wasn't her intention to be rude, but the revelation that Autumn was a Faunus hit her completely from the left field. Then again, perhaps it coming off as a surprise was exactly the point: Ruby had never seen it as worth mentioning.

As soon as Weiss caught herself and the two of them locked eyes again, Autumn carried on. That said, there was a certain air of mischief about her, as if she was satisfied to have taken Weiss off guard. "She didn't care about my past, nor what I could do for her. She didn't take pity on me, either. Instead, she made the effort to try and see me for who I really was, deep down." Her gaze dropped down alongside the volume of her voice. "Or better yet, to see me for the person I wanted to be. The way she made me feel…" An expression both dreamy and nostalgic appeared on her face. She shook her head, as if in amusement at her inability to find the right words. "It made me realize I wanted to be with her."

Autumn's sentiment struck a chord within Weiss, even making her choke up a little. She knew well how it felt to be truly seen and accepted. The vulnerability of it all, and the comfort. There was something about Ruby's quiet faith that had the power to convince a person they could change, and grow, and dream. She didn't ask for anything, she didn't expect, didn't burden Weiss with her disappointment. Ruby simply… was, there for those who needed her kindness. There, for those who still needed to find themselves.

"I— I get it. Her trying to see the real you, I mean."

"I had a feeling you would," Autumn said warmly. "It's why I decided to share it with you. Normally I'm nowhere this open about these things… but I guess it's kinda nice, to talk about it with someone who also appreciates that side of Ruby. Who gets it. Not many people seem to notice it about her, even among her friends. Which is really too bad, because I think it's beautiful."

Weiss nodded, then gave the girl a long, scrutinizing look. "Why give up, then?"

"In a sense, I've given up on her a long time ago," Autumn replied, letting her feet carry her a couple steps to the side. Her eyes downcast, she dragged her right shoe across the ground, sweeping away the leaves and leaving a dark mark in the path below. "I suppose I could give it time and see, but… she's right, you know? I can't see it working out for either of us." She turned to Weiss. "Tell me: between your time at Beacon and now, what's the biggest change in her that you've noticed?"

Weiss considered the question carefully. It was a difficult one, perhaps more so than Autumn herself believed it to be. While at the core Ruby remained largely the same person she'd been, a lot about her had changed. From Ruby's hair, through her body, to the way she carried herself and behaved, Weiss had observed great many developments about the girl, both large and small, and not all of them entirely positive. To pick one that could stand out the most to another person was… tricky.

And so she wondered, what was there that could've realistically surfaced during the handful of meetings Ruby'd had with Autumn. She was beyond certain that Autumn hadn't had the chance to notice even half the things about Ruby that'd changed. It had to be something quite apparent, but at the same time not as superficial as Ruby's looks.

She conjured the mental image of Ruby from their first semester at Beacon — bright, smiling and full of energy — then contrasted that face with the Ruby she'd eaten breakfast with that morning.

Eventually, she made her guess. "Her demeanor. And the way she smiles."

"Exactly," Autumn agreed. She looked rather pleased, Weiss mused, as if the answer continued to prove something in her mind. "She's still caring and sweet, but there's that sense of… distance between us. She walled herself off, and doesn't want to let me in." She forced a wry smile, moving her hand away from her hair and placing it on the side of her neck. "I know she doesn't do it to snub me, or anything. I can see it's hard on her. The way her eyes seem to grow distant when she feels she can't tell me something. How her smiles seem often strained, or just… dim, kinda."

She sighed. "And I get it. It started with two of her friends getting murdered right in front of her eyes… and even back then, I had no clue how to help her. But now?" She let out a small, dry laugh and shook her head, then turned a pair of deeply sympathetic eyes at Weiss. "I know that life hasn't been any kinder to your team since. I can't understand what you've been through, not really. And I get that Ruby doesn't want me to ever find myself in the position where I do understand."

Her mouth curved into a strained but sincere kind of smile. "Which is why I'm glad she didn't go at it alone. And that she does have someone to understand her. Even if it means that I have to take a step back."

Weiss felt the need to swallow. She said nothing, fearing she'd only trip over her tongue; instead, she simply nodded in quiet understanding, deeply appreciative of Autumn's perspective on things — and maybe a little abashed by it, too.

Autumn was quick to pull back from that unpleasant tangent. "So, what made you notice the effect Ruby has on people?" she asked curiously, grinning as she drew closer to Weiss — almost getting in her face, really. "And don't be shy; after all, I just poured my heart out to you."

Weiss coughed out a surprised laugh, but humored the question nonetheless. She wasn't in quite as sharing mood as Autumn seemed to be, but the girl probably had earned herself a bit of honesty. "Let's just say that I wouldn't be the same person I am today if the Dolt never bumbled into my life."

Autumn pouted in disappointment, having clearly anticipated a more elaborate response. "You're no fun. But fine; I'll try to get more out of you once we get you drunk at the party," she threatened with a playful smirk.

Weiss chuckled. "You may certainly try."

"But I've taken enough of your time for now." Autumn pulled away, unhurriedly moving past Weiss and taking a few lazy steps on the path towards the town. "It's been real nice to meet you, Weiss. See you around." She waved, and Weiss replied her in kind.

"See you."

Weiss watched the retreating figure for a short spell before putting her earbuds back on and heading in the opposite direction, towards home.

She reflected on her little chat with Autumn while on her way. Their meeting, brief though it was, offered her some interesting perspective, both on Ruby's past and Autumn herself. The girl had been a surprise, in more ways than one… and yet, paradoxically enough, the biggest surprise of them all was how well she understood her.

Then again, perhaps it shouldn't have been so odd.

About two full songs had elapsed by the time Weiss arrived at the clearing by the cabin. A plume of smoke was rising off the chimney, luring her inside with the promise of a warm hearth. She very much looked forward to getting shelter from the wind, which — while sporadic — had an undeniable bite to it whenever it picked up. Weiss was already beginning to visualize herself cozying up in front of the fireplace, a cup of tea in her hands, but then she spotted a dark shape beneath one of the trees that lined the path to the house. She recognized what it was nigh immediately, the sight bringing out a soft smile onto her face.

She approached — unhurriedly, almost lazily — then leaned over the girl sprawled on the bed of grass and fallen leaves, watching her with amused eyes. Ruby was lying on her back, hiding her face in the crook of her right elbow, shielding herself from the world; she was undoubtedly aware of Weiss' presence, but gave no show of it.

"Seeing you like this, one would think it was you who got shot down," Weiss joked.

"Har har," Ruby groaned. "I feel like an asshole."

Weiss' smile grew wider — not because she had no sympathy for Ruby, but because she was quite fond of that side of her. She sat down on the ground beside Ruby, less than a foot away from the girl.

"You did what you felt you had to do, operating under the information you've been given."

"Riiiiight," Ruby exhaled with a low rasp. "I swear imma kick Yang's butt for getting me so worked up over nothing."

Weiss laughed under her breath. "To be fair, she wasn't the only one," she spoke. "I also thought that Autumn was hitting on you the other day, when I saw you talking in the mall."

A single silver eye peered at Weiss in confusion from behind Ruby's forearm. "Huh? Why?"

"She was putting her hair behind her ear; playing with it and whatnot," Weiss explained, then glanced to the side and awkwardly scratched her jaw. "Then again, she behaved much the same with me, so I suppose I read too much into it."

A look of recognition briefly crossed Ruby's face, only to get quickly replaced with a smirk. "Oh. Maybe she's into you?" she teased with a grin. "Kidding. It's just a thing she does basically all the time, even when she thinks there's no-one around. Think it's a tic, honestly." She shrugged. "You kinda stop noticing it after hanging with her for a while."

"Oh," Weiss let out, biting down on her lower lip; now it was her turn to feel silly. "If it makes you feel any better, she seemed in good spirits when I saw her."

"Not really, but…" Rather than finish that sentence, Ruby just shook her head and sighed. "So, you two bumped into each other?"

"Yeah, just down the path. We chatted for a bit."

"How was it?"

"Bit strange, but not in a bad way," Weiss admitted, scooting closer to the tree and leaning her back against the bark. She looked straight ahead, towards the trees; still, Ruby's questioning stare did not escape her attention. "Mostly not what I've been expecting."

"What were you expecting, then?"

"I dunno," Weiss replied honestly. "For her to be more disappointed about the situation. And maybe be a little hostile towards me."

Ruby raised her eyebrow. "Hostile? What for?"

"Taking over her position as your best friend, I suppose."

"I don't think she considers it a competition," she said with a small laugh.

Weiss breathed out a dry huff. She was inclined to agree with Ruby. Autumn was not only taller and better endowed than her — she was also the better person.

"Seems that way," she concurred. Closing her eyes for a spell, she drew deep of the chilly air. "She said she's simply happy to have her old friend back in her life."

A soft rumble reverberated in Ruby's throat. "I suppose she would."

Weiss didn't comment, simply staring at the forest ahead in thought. A few seconds slipped by; then, Ruby spoke up again.

"Thanks, Weiss."

Something about the girl's voice sent a pleasant sensation throughout Weiss' body; she looked down at Ruby, raising one corner of her mouth. "I think you'll have to be more specific."

"For giving me the push to go and meet the gang. I really might've chickened out otherwise."

Weiss hummed, reaching out with her left hand towards the lying Ruby and lightly ruffling her hair. Rather than swat her hand away, as she often would with both Yang and Qrow, Ruby just let Weiss do as she pleased; all she did was close her left eye cutely when a lock of dark hair strayed too close. Weiss stopped after but a moment, her fingers briefly combing through Ruby's hair with one last, careful pull.

"You're welcome."

---

Author's Note:

Hi! I'm back with another chapter, and proud to say that it took me only two months, not two years, to post it. /s

Truth be told, I publish this update with a certain degree of trepidation. I'm well aware that many people aren't too keen on OCs in fanfiction, and that I'm basically playing with fire in this chapter. I guess there's nothing left for me to do but to cross my fingers in hope that you didn't mind Autumn's character too much, or at the very least found her bearable. She probably won't be playing too active of a role moving forward, if it's any consolation; certainly not as the looming threat of drama.

All of that said, I'm also kinda happy to finally get this chapter out; that rooftop scene has been sitting inside my head probably since 2017, or maybe 2018. Looking forward to your thoughts!

Also, I wished to thank you people for the largely positive response to my return. It means a lot!

Next station? In vino veritas!

DT610: Re-read a couple times a year? Sheesh, I'm honored! Definitely don't think AtS is good enough to warrant it, but I'm happy to hear it!

EdoShadow: Honestly? I get where you are coming from, and I'm sorry that you were disappointed with the story. AtS should definitely have slice of life tag, but with the site limiting us to two tags max, it sadly is what it is; I fully realize that AtS's pace is glacial for a fic that is labeled as "romance"/"hurt/comfort", and that the story itself is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. Thanks for your opinion, regardless!