Thus we enter the Weissier sections of this story; Hope you're all excited for that!

Start Chapter 7

Willow Schnee is, in a word, conflicted.

She's currently sat within her apartment, in her living room/foyer/kitchen, on her couch, and thinking.

Thinking on what, one might ask? Well, on the fact that the man she's currently dating is also, apparently, one whom her daughter has a crush on.

Which is a bit of a predicament, in Willow's eyes, given that she's been doing her best to try and make things right between herself and her children these last few months. Stealing Weiss' crush out from under her feels like a good way to make that un-happen.

Or, well, she'd say that if she hadn't already done so. But given she's slept with Jaune Arc, gone out on a date with him, and planned another, she's pretty sure that particular ship has already sailed.

Willow rubs at her eyes with her hands, groaning under her breath as she tries and fails to mentally sort this all out. It's just… there's a lot already going on in all their lives, what with that blasted woman Salem potentially assaulting them any day now. Having this happening as well is really only adding to those stressors.

She's torn between wishing that Winter hadn't told her of this at all, and also being very glad that she had. If this had somehow managed to explode in Willow's face without her having obtained the requisite knowledge prior…

Well, that could've gone rather poorly.

As things are, she understands she's not really going to be getting a lot done in her current state of mind. It's a good thing she's not technically responsible for any work in this current day and age, what with everyone just trying to survive, and not really worrying about things like currency so very much.

She's very tempted to just… spill everything to Weiss. To confront this in the here and now, before the problem can fester any further. But then… that wouldn't be fair. This isn't just her issue.

So, instead, she reaches for her scroll, sighs however briefly, and calls Jaune.

/

Jaune's rather pleased to have received a call from Willow, even with Nora needling and teasing him about it as he runs out into the hallway to take it.

"Hey, Willow," He answers, smiling. "What's up?"

"Well, it's…" She sounds concerned, and instantly, Jaune grows more focused. "There's something that's come up recently while I was talking with Winter. I wanted to speak with you about it."

He's… decently sure he's not done anything bad towards Winter, at least that hadn't been Ironwood related, and well over a few months – years for him – ago. Even still, he feels he has to ask.

"Is it something I've done?"

"Wha– Oh, no, no. It's nothing you've done wrong."

That's very much a good thing for Jaune to hear. He gives a silent breath of relief, even as he asks, "Okay, that's good. Do you want to speak over the phone about this, or perhaps meet up in person?"

"The latter, if you don't mind?"

"No problem at all. Where do you want to meet?"

"Is my apartment fine with you?"

"Sure. I'll be there as soon as I'm able."

"Alright. I appreciate you coming on such sudden notice." Willow sounds genuinely grateful. "I'll see you soon."

"Yeah, see you."

/

The trip to Willow's doesn't take long, and nothing of note happens on the way.

When Jaune arrives, Willow greets him quickly, before ushering him inside in a way that almost suggests she's attempting to be secretive, and shutting the door behind him. He finds it somewhat humorous, but thinks nothing of it, not really, as he places Aurea Mors – his newly upgraded blade, courtesy of Ruby – up against the nearby wall. It's a bit much for him to carry it around Willow's apartment, he thinks.

"What's up?" He asks, because something clearly is.

"It's… well, like I said, it's nothing to do with anything you've done. It's more that…" She sighs, pressing her hands together and interlocking her fingers. "You know my daughter Weiss quite well, correct."

"Oh, uh, yeah, we're good friends. Have been for quite a long time. She and I were actually going to talk later this evening. Why do you ask?"

"It's more…" Willow purses her lips. "Did the two of you ever… were the two of you close, during your time in Beacon, and beyond?"

"Oh, uh… it's a bit embarrassing to admit, but I actually had a bit of a crush on her when I was in Beacon. I grew out of it once it was just us on the road, though." He explains, hoping that Willow won't judge him too harshly for that. It had been a long time ago, and for Jaune, even longer. "Is that what Winter told you?"

"No, it isn't." Willow answers. "Although that is… minorly disconcerting to hear."

"Why?"

"Just that you felt attraction to my daughter, and now here you are, involved with me." Willow runs a hand down her face in exasperation. "I feel like I'm some old creep."

"I don't think you should feel that way at all," Jaune shakes his head, standing and walking over to Willow, taking one of her hands in his own and squeezing lightly. "If anything, you should be upset at me."

"Over something that's long since come and gone? What reason would I have?"

"Then it's the same for you. Don't think that you're somehow in the wrong for… what would you even be in the wrong for?"

"Being a cradle-robber."

Jaune actually laughs. "Well, even if I might look younger than I am physically, mentally, you're only six or seven years older than me."

Willow nods, as if she understands, but it's a bit harder to make peace with that than she'd like.

Jaune definitely gets that.

"Is that… odd? Those years you lived in that alternate reality?"

"Well, yeah." He admits. "More than a little odd, to be frank. They were… those years didn't even exist for anyone but me, so it's a bit hard to accept that all my friends just… didn't grow any older. The world stayed the same while I changed."

Willow's face contorts somewhat, and then she says, "That's… almost how I feel about my time with Jacques. Albeit somewhat differently. It's more that… once I realized that Jacques was only using me… just after Winter was born… I became closed off as a person. I spent my days drinking, and leaving the duties of parenting to the many maids and butlers of the Schnee Manor. Rarely did I experience a cognizant day. I think… perhaps a few months out of those two decades I spent sober."

"That's…"

"Yes, well… luckily, things are better now. But I was in a rough state, so to speak. The thing that ultimately woke me from that state was when Weiss again left Atlas, after the fall of Beacon. Jacques was furious, and Whitley was becoming more and more like him. It was… I didn't wish for that to happen."

Jaune nods his head. "And it didn't. Whitley's a good guy."

"Yes. No thanks to me, but…" Willow sighs. "But yes, he is."

"You don't think you had something to do with it?"

"No. Whitley… he changed on his own. I had nothing to do with it."

"I don't think that's true. Not one bit. But then, we're getting a bit off topic, aren't we?"

Willow concedes that fact. "I suppose we are. I called you here for a purpose, after all."

"And that purpose was?"

"…Are you aware that Weiss holds feelings for you."

Those words are perhaps the most shocking things that Jaune has ever heard in all his life. He gives an audible "Wha?" even as his face scrunches up, and he tries to rectify that information with… well, with everything.

And it just doesn't add up.

"You're… sure about that?" He questions. "Because I'm pretty sure she doesn't."

"Well, in all fairness, Jaune, you are rather dense in these matters."

"I would take that personally if I didn't also know that was true."

"Winter was the one who told me." Willow explains. "And of course, normally, I would never reveal my daughter's feelings for another, but… this complicates things, does it not?"

Jaune can see how it does, somewhat, complicate matters, yes.

"I guess it does… but uh… what do you think we should do about it, exactly?"

"Well, I…" Willow looks down and away, sighing under her breath. "My daughters feelings… you said you felt the same way for her, once, correct?"

"Yeah…?"

"Then I wouldn't want to get in the way of–"

"Woah, woah, woah," He interjects, not even letting Willow finish that thought. "Sure, I had a thing for Weiss once, like, for me, twenty-two or so years ago, but I don't now."

"But my daughter…"

"I… it sounds cruel to say it aloud, but the truth is… I can't answer Weiss' feelings." He admits, shaking his head minutely. "You're the person in my heart, Willow. So please, don't try and… take yourself out of the equation, or something like that."

Willow looks rather uncertain as to how she wishes to handle this scenario, and yeah, Jaune can kind of understand why. There's a lot of things going on right now, and a lot of baggage to try and maneuver around.

But Jaune's determined to do so.

"Willow, I want you to understand that what I felt for Weiss… it was a teenage crush." He explains, shaking his head. "I thought I was in love with her in the same way that every teenager thinks their first crush is love. But I realized I wasn't. She's my friend, and a close friend at that. But that's all we are; friends."

"But that…" Willow lets loose a hoarse breath. "I feel like I am in the wrong, somehow, for all of this."

"Why do you feel that way?"

"Because I'm some… some forty-year-old woman who's come to steal away someone my daughter is infatuated with!"

"Willow, you're not stealing me." He feels the need to reiterate. "I'm not Weiss' by right just because she has feelings for me, in the same way that Weiss wasn't mine just because I had feelings for her. I don't love Weiss, but I do love–"

He realizes what he had been about to say, and clamps up. Willow, far too perceptive to not catch something like that, goes rather red.

"O-Oh."

"I er… I don't… uh…"

"No, I…" Willow is still blushing rather heavily, but there is a small, almost innocent smile on her face as she looks up into his eyes. "I think I understand. Feelings we haven't given voice to, yet, that exist nonetheless."

Jaune feels like a complete idiot, going and almost dropping an l-bomb, what, two and a half, maybe three weeks into starting to go out with Willow?

His feelings aren't quite that intense yet. He knows that for sure.

…Right?

Jaune forces himself out of his own head. That way lays thoughts he really can't be affording to have right now. Not when he and Willow are talking about something entirely different.

Those thoughts are for later, when he's lying in bed in his room trying to sleep, and his brain decides to play a compilation of his more embarrassing blunders.

"But… you get what I'm trying to say, right?" Jaune asks, just to make sure, to further clarify if he needs to.

"I do." Willow nods her head, looking away from him, her face still showing the smallest dusting more of pink. "You… what you feel is only for me, regardless of what Weiss might want."

He nods. It sounds… harsh, and a bit cruel, but it's the truth. He just can't see Weiss that way. She…

She deserves a lot better than him, that's for sure. Not to have to deal with all his baggage, not to have to carry his burdens when he can't.

He and Willow complement each other in that way. They're both carrying baggage, and together…

Together they can share the load, just a bit.

No sooner than Jaune has thought this, however, does the door to Willow's apartment receive a knock. The both of them are somewhat startled, and that feeling is only amplified by the sound of the person standing on the other side.

"Mother?" Weiss' somewhat muffled voice calls out towards Willow. "Are you in?"

"Oh, uhm, y-yes, of course, darling!" Willow squeaks out, and it's a rather high-pitched thing indeed. "Just a moment, I'll be right there."

Willow looks towards Jaune, gestures for him to retreat into her bedroom, and then moves towards the door.

Jaune doesn't have to be told twice.

/

Willow will not deny that she hadn't been expecting Weiss to suddenly arrive at her abode at… she looks over at the clock on the wall, which, rather damningly, states that the time is six, which is around the time Weiss normally comes to visit.

Curse her distracted brain! She'd been so busy thinking about Weiss' feelings for Jaune that she hadn't even thought to consider that Weiss might be coming over.

She walks over towards the door, stalls for just a moment to make sure that Jaune has hidden himself away in her bedroom – he has, and closed the door, which is rather smart – before she turns the knob, and pulls it open.

"Hello, mother." Weiss bows somewhat, a relic of their more formal relationship during her daughter's childhood. "How are you?"

"I'm well, thank you, Weiss." She's lucky she's a trained businesswoman, someone who'd, once upon a time, been preparing to take over the Schnee name herself, up until her grandfather's sudden passing. She's quite adept at keeping a straight face, even when most would not normally be able to. "Might I ask why you've come over?"

"You said that if we wished to talk, we were always welcome." Weiss states, though her features do dim somewhat. "Although, if this is a bad time, I could always–"

"No, no," She shakes her head, shelving her own insecurities about being discovered. She needs to be there for her daughter right now. Nothing else is more important. "Now is a fine time. Would you like me to get you something to drink?"

"Oh, well… if you have it ready, then perhaps some sweet tea?"

Willow pours the two of them glasses, and makes her way over towards the couch and coffee table, which Weiss has already sat herself down at.

"So, what's going on?"

"Ah, well…" Weiss clears her throat somewhat awkwardly, clearly somewhat uncomfortable with breaching whatever topic it is she wishes to. "I am… there is someone in my life for whom I have feelings for."

Willow's breath catches, and it's an obvious enough noise that Weiss turns to her with confusion in her gaze. "Is… that so odd a thing?"

"No, no, it's just…" She decides that some honesty might not be so bad. "Winter actually conveyed to me that you had feelings for someone."

"She– truly?" Weiss looks bothered by that. "I had thought she would keep such a secret, not go spilling it out for everyone!"

"It was only me she told, Weiss." She does her best to smile for Weiss' sake, and for Winter's sake as well, not wanting the two to get into some petty argument over this. "So… you have feelings for someone?"

"I… yes." Weiss sighs, tilting her head back so that she's staring up at the ceiling above. "He is… I'm not certain you'll remember having met him, but you did back at Atlas. His name is Jaune Arc. Do you recall him?"

Oh, Willow recalls him, alright.

"I do." She says, because trying to pretend she doesn't know the man she's dating seems like a recipe for disaster. "He's the man who spent twenty years in that other dimension, correct?"

Weiss' eyes widen somewhat. "You're rather well-informed, mother. Indeed, that was Jaune. He is… a rather dense man. Somewhat foolish, and simple. But… he is also brave, and stalwart. Kind and understanding. I… funnily enough, it was once he who held feelings for me, and yet now, nearly three years later, our rolls have been reversed."

Yes, it very much seems like they have. Willow swallows on some spittle at the back of her throat, trying to remain calm and impartial in this.

She has a feeling that's going to grow rather difficult.

"And now… I plan to confess my newfound feelings for him tonight." Weiss tells her, looking towards her mother for guidance and support. "And I… I suppose I was just coming here so that I might talk with you. A way to calm my nerves."

Willow loves to hear that, really, she does. Knowing that she can be a bastion for her daughter when she is feeling stressed, or otherwise perturbed, is very much a good thing.

This particular topic however…

"I see. And how do you foresee that going?"

"Well, I would imagine he would accept. I've been given no information that would contradict that assessment."

Willow winces, luckily, Weiss does not see.

"And if he were to decline?"

Weiss shoots her a look, then. "I thought you were supposed to be here to support me, mother."

"Well, I–"

"I'm joking." Weiss clarifies, and Willow breathes out as subtly as she can in relief. "If such were to happen, then I would like to think I would handle it in an amicable fashion. But then, who knows how one might react when emotions are running hot?"

Willow feels like that's fair. "I see. Well… I think you've got a good shot." She lies, and it hurts, but she wants to support her daughter, she really does. "Be honest, and true to yourself and your emotions."

Weiss nods her head, then, before smiling somewhat smally. She looks around at the apartment surrounding them, and then speaks again.

"It's funny. I can't remember a time before Vacuo when you and I could have a conversation like this."

Neither can Willow.

"Just… a normal conversation that an average child might have with their parents." Weiss' smile grows somewhat dimmer. "Or, well… with my parent. Regardless, I am so very pleased to see that you have been doing well lately, mother. I know we all have been, including Winter and Whitley. I assume that has something to do with this mysterious paramour I've been hearing about?"

Willow goes red in the face, and Weiss giggles at her.

"I suppose that confirms that suspicion." Weiss shakes her head amusedly. "Still, irregardless of the reasoning, knowing that you have been avoiding alcohol, that you've been genuinely bettering yourself, that you're happy, most of all… it means so much, mother. I think I speak for all of us when I say that."

Willow nods her head, trying not to shed tears of happiness at hearing such. She does not deserve to, not after what she's done to Weiss, not after the lifetime of her children's lives that she'd ignored.

Not after she'd stolen the man Weiss loved out from under her without even meaning to.

"Alright, well," Weiss clears her throat, taking another sip of her sweet tea before standing from her position on the couch. "I've enjoyed talking with you, mother. Truly, I have. But I feel I must go and face the proverbial music now."

Willow nods her head. "Mm. Good luck, darling."

"Thank you, mother. Although I hope I shan't need it." She says, smiling coyly. "I'll call you with the news, irregardless of the result."

Willow does her best not to show her reaction on her face. "I'll be waiting, then."

Weiss nods, and walks towards the door. Willow sees this as, finally, her being able to take a breath. She'd managed to pass that trial.

And then, of course, things come crashing down around her, as they always must.

For Weiss' eyes, briefly, divert from the doorframe, and instead settle on something just off to its left. Willow initially doesn't have any idea what it is that could have stalled Weiss' departure, but…

"Wait… this is…"

Willow doesn't know what's going on. She stands from her own position, trying to get a better idea of what it is that Weiss had drawn up into her hands.

And then she realizes just what it is.

She feels her stomach drop.

Because Weiss has in her arms a rather familiar sword, sheathed in a rather familiar shield.

They are Jaune's weapons, which he had taken off upon entering her apartment.

She hadn't even thought to put them away, far too distracted with… well, everything to remember they had been cast aside.

Evidently, the same had been true for Jaune as well.

"These are… Jaune's weapons." Weiss speaks, her voice calculating, as if she's making deductions as she talks. "I would know, he showed them off to everyone earlier today after he and Ruby finished smelting him something actually usable. Why…"

Weiss turns towards Willow, confusion and suspicion warring on her face.

"Why are these here?"

Ah.

The question in and of itself, hm?

Willow supposes she should've expected as much.

She's just not sure how she's supposed to answer that.

"Well… that…" She licks at her lips, trying to bring some moisture to them. "…Weiss, darling, I…"

"Mother, why are you acting so odd?" Weiss takes a step forward, but it's stunted. "Why do you have Jaune's weapons here?"

She's trying to come up with an excuse, really, she is. Anything that might explain such a thing away.

She's not sure such exists, but she will make every attempt.

Of course, as she's doing her best to come up with something, the bedroom door behind her creaks open.

Willow feels her stomach sinking somehow further.

Both she and Weiss turn at the sound, and they both look back to see Jaune emerging from out of Willow's bedroom, looking rather guilty himself.

"Wha– Jaune!?" Weiss looks between the two of them with clear bewilderment. "You– why were you in my mother's bedroom!?"

"Uhm… well…" Jaune looks away in as obvious a representation of guilt as Willow has ever seen.

She cannot truly blame him. She's feeling much the same.

"Weiss…" Jaune clears his throat, evidently planning on taking charge, and likely, in telling the truth of the matter. "So, uh… the truth is–"

"Wait…" Weiss cuts him off, her voice fading. "The person mother's been with, the person she met at that bar, who was younger than her, and… the person she's dating was…"

Jaune swallows visibly, before, with an almost grim affect, he nods his head.

Weiss is visibly shaken by such. She takes a step back, seemingly trying to make sense of everything she's learned within the past two or so minutes. Willow can't really blame her for not being able to.

"I see…" Weiss swallows, opens her mouth, tries to speak, and fails. "I… I see."

"Weiss, darling, I…"

But Willow can't summon anymore words. Not really. No matter how hard she tries, nothing comes. Weiss looks to her, waits for her, but when she says nothing, she nods her head, somewhat absently.

And then a moment later, she pulls open the door, and she's gone.

End Chapter 7

Alright! That's chapter 7. Next chapter will be more Weiss, as one might have guessed. This story is actually going to be coming to an end pretty soon. Like I said when I showed the idea at the end of Cinderella, this was only ever going to be around 60k words. Probably chapter 10 will be the last one? After that, there's a larger commissioned story that will be coming up, and potentially my RWBY mech idea, if I end up having the time. We'll have to see!

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