Just a story about Weiss dealing with some things after their return from the Ever After and finding comfort in tall, blonde and no so scraggly.
Weiss Schnee lay restless in her bed within the dormitories of Shade Academy. She tossed and turned, frustrated at the mess of emotions that had claimed a tight knot in her chest. She shivered under her sheet as another breeze whipped through the shuttered window causing it to rattle lightly in its frame.
Her teammates lay still under their own covers, so knowing she wasn't getting to sleep any time soon, Weiss decided to rise from her bed and see if a walk would help clear her mind. Grabbing her scroll, she slipped on a pair of sports shoes and threw on a black hooded jumper over her night clothes for warmth. She then slipped out of their shared room and headed along the smooth hardwood hallways.
She chose no real direction, she just walked while she tried to decipher her jumbled feelings.
And mostly, she just felt angry.
How dare he be dead. How dare he leave them all to deal with his choices, with his cruelty and arrogance. He had caused them all so much pain and yet he doesn't have to suffer any of the consequences.
She scrubbed away a tear with the heel of her palm and felt the knot tighten some more.
Her mother and brother had stepped up while she was gone and had done so much to help not only the Atleasean refugees but the citizens of Vacuo as well. They were trying so hard to show that their family is more than her fathers blighted legacy and yet they were treated like filth. Swore at and pushed to the ground while they asked for nothing in return.
And yet she was feeling disconnected from her family since she had returned from the Ever After. In the year that had passed on Remnant, they all had had time to mourn the loss of their home, father, husband, and sister and were able to process their own grief while she had learned of her fathers death just a week ago, and she hated that she was so deeply affected by his passing.
She had tried reaching out to her sister, and was left bitter and frustrated at Winter being distant with her. Weiss couldn't deny that her role as the winter maiden was important, and that she was essentially the highest ranking officer left to lead what was left of Atlas' patchwork military after it suffered devastating losses in the battle with Salems forces. But she struggled to understand why she was being kept at arms length by her older sister.
She sighed deeply. She was thankful her family was safe, but her home was gone. The home she grew up in that her beloved grandfather had built for them was nothing more than rubble in a cold, watery grave. Any mementos she had of Nicholas were destroyed and that alone stung more than her own fathers death.
She thought of her teammates, of the people she called family and loved like they were her own flesh and blood, about sharing her feelings with them and she shook her head.
Her partner, her team leader should be the first person she goes to. But once again Ruby Rose was trying to carry the world on her shoulders. Being the face of the resistance, the face of hope in such adversity had placed an unexpected pressure on her. She had quickly become something of a celebrity, and Weiss knew that Ruby wanted nothing more than to just do her job. But she smiled and greeted everyone merrily anyway, always putting her own needs behind everyone else.
And when she thought of Blake and Yang, she felt an ugly emotion twist into her. Jealousy. She sees their happy faces, how they light up when they are together. She sees how comfortable they are and she despises herself for being envious of them.
She sniffs out a bitter laugh. She didn't need another reason to loathe herself. She had been the one to stop anyone from coming back through the gateway to help on the bridge. She was the one who told Ambrosius to make the portals a "one-way ticket to Vacuo". They had been informed of how to speak to the spirit of the staff, and yet she had unthinkingly closed off the possibility of help returning. If she hadn't, would things have been different. Would they have all fallen into the Ever After? Would Penny have had to…
She let out an angry and frustrated cry. She had no idea where she was, yet in front of her was a staircase. She ran up the steps and shoved the door open, it bounced off the frame as it opened up into the cold Vacuan night. Stars twinkled in the ink black sky above the desert city as the population lay slumbering in their beds below. The light wind kicked up the displaced sand and swirled it around her ankles. If she closed her eyes, she could maybe believe she was back in Atlas as she felt the chill bite at her skin.
She paced over to the rooftops edge and wrapped her arms around her body. She didn't try to stop the tears as they started to pour down her cheeks. She squeezed her eyes shut and she felt her shoulders shake as her emotions began to bubble over.
"Weiss?"
She heard his voice. Soft, kind, caring. She heard his footsteps approach her but she refused to turn around. She felt him next to her, and then his hand gently wrapped around her arm, just about her elbow. Her breath hitched and she couldn't help the desperate sob that escaped her lips.
And then she was enveloped in his embrace. She wrapped her arms around him and she bawled into his chest, allowing the pent up emotions to pour out of her. She grieved for her home, for her family, for the people she lost and for herself.
He said nothing, he just held onto her and let her pour her heart out. She felt so incredibly small in his arms, yet she did not feel uncomfortable. Oddly, she felt safe. She knew he would not judge and he would not move until she was ready.
Once the tears stopped, she pulled back and finally looked up into his warm, deep blue eyes. She rubbed her eyes and sniffed out a shaky, quiet apology. "I'm sorry, I must look awful."
"Impossible," Jaune replied softly. "You feel a bit better for letting it out?"
She just nodded, the lump in her throat choking any reply.
"You want to talk about it?"
She looked down at the floor and wrung her hands together. She squeezed her eyes shut again and drew in a deep, shaky breath before she spoke.
"I suppose I'm just frustrated. It was meant to be better once we all got to Vacuo and yet," she sighed, "I can't help but feel like I'm just…"
"Lost," they both said together.
They both let out a weary laugh.
"I always said I was going to define what it means to be Schnee," she said with a shaky voice. "How do I undo all the hate and injustice my father has sown on this world?"
"That feels like a lot to take on by yourself, Weiss," he replied.
"Well I'm not going to stand idly by and do nothing," she said, her voice tinged with anger. "I need to do something."
"Yeah, that's fair," Jaune said softly. "But, can I ask a question?"
She nodded her head quickly.
"What does it mean to you? To be a Schnee," he asked gently.
"I…" She was stunned at the question. She had never heard it framed that way before. She had always strived to make sure other people knew who and what a Schnee was supposed to be, but to herself? She thought of her grandfather, of who he was and the values upon which the company was founded and then to her father and how he had twisted them to suit his own needs. "I'm not sure," she answered quietly.
"Well, if you need a hand figuring it out, remember you've got people around you. We all made a promise to each other, to be there no matter what."
Weiss shifted uncomfortably. "I know, but I tried reaching out to Winter and Ruby is, well Ruby."
"And Blake and Yang are?"
"Busy," she replied curtly. "What about you?" She asked, trying to change the focus of their conversation. "What keeps you awake at this hour?"
It was his turn to sniff out a mirthless laugh. "I never expected my life to turn out this way," he said bitterly.
"What do you mean?" She pressed.
"I spent my whole life wanting to be the hero, the one who jumps in and saves the day. That hasn't exactly worked out the way I wanted it to," he said bitterly. "It feels like no matter what I do, the only thing that follows me is death."
"You're asking too much of yourself again," Weiss said quietly. "You're a brave and selfless man and maybe that's all you need to be. Maybe you'll be the hero you want to be without realising what you've already done. It's happened once before." She spoke honestly, hoping he would understand her meaning.
He had been her hero at Haven.
At this point Weiss Schnee realised two very important things.
Firstly, was that they had stayed standing so incredibly close to each other. She could feel the warmth of his body and felt her own rise onto her cheeks.
And secondly, as she looked up at his once boyish features now haunted by a life that had been so cruel, was the feeling in her stomach of her falling and there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop it.
She shuffled herself forward, the space between them mere inches. And as she angled her head, feeling the air crackle between them, she began to raise herself up onto her toes to close the gap some more when she heard a voice.
"Weiss!?" She heard Ruby Rose call out from the staircase behind them.
Reluctantly, she stepped back and with an apologetic look towards her companion she turned to face the doorway. "Ruby, I'm upstairs" she called back, using her sleeve to dry away some of her tears.
She heard her partner bound up the stairs and watched as she appeared, slightly bleary eyed in the doorway. "Weiss, what's wrong? You weren't in the room, so I went looking for you, and…"
Weiss forced a brief smile onto her features before she spoke. "You're fine, I didn't mean to worry you. I couldn't sleep. I went for a walk and I ran into Jaune and we talked about a few things," she said pointing backwards at Jaune in the moonlight.
'Are you ok?" Ruby asked carefully. "Because you can talk to us, remember."
'No, not really, but I think it'll be fine, eventually," she replied. "We should all probably head back to our rooms," she suggested and with a nod from both of them, they all descended the stairs and made their way back towards their dormitories.
Glancing back at Jaune as he headed away from Ruby and herself, she wondered if in her emotional fragility she had over extended herself and had confused the situation.
What she didn't see was a similar glance back, and a question in his mind about what had almost happened.
Neither slept well that night because of the emotional storm that still raged in their hearts. But at the eye of the storm was something new, a seed of change for what was yet to come.
All mistakes are my own, and this is the first thing I've written for a while and felt confident enough to publish so please do give feedback.