Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“GOOD MORNING, TEAM RWBY!”

The sound of Ruby’s voice pierced the morning air with the force of a bomb, blasting Weiss bolt upright in her bed. “Cake butler, no--!” She blinked, suddenly realizing where she was. “...Ruby, do you have to do that?”

“Yep!” Ruby was already dressed in her combat outfit, Zwei sitting in her hood.

Yang let out a tired groan. “Ruby, it’s summer break. Summer break is for sleeping in.”

“You can sleep when you’re dead, Yang. Besides, today’s the day, right?”

That woke Yang up. She dropped off her bunk and began getting ready as quickly as she could. “Right! C’mon, Blake, it’s what we’ve been waiting for!”

Blake rolled out of Yang’s bed (Weiss didn’t want to think about why she’d been there instead of her own bed) and, landing on her feet, began to pack a bag. “I’d almost forgotten after all those exams.”

Weiss felt a spark of irritation surge through her. “What are you all talking about?”

Ruby tilted her head, Zwei flopping out of her hood and landing on the floor with a happy bark. “Weiss, did we not tell you?”

“Evidently not, so please, do me the honour of actually filling me on on your grand master plan.”

Ruby considered this for a moment, then grinned. “Tell you later!” And she flounced out of the room, leaving Weiss to stare at the door. She turned to Blake and Yang. “How about you two?” Yang shrugged, headed for the bathroom. “You’ll find out soon enough.” She closed the bathroom door, and the insults Weiss shot after her were drowned out soon enough by the sound of running water.

Indignant, Weiss turned to Blake. “Well, Blake? Are you going to tell me?” Blake, however, seemed to have more on her mind – and a few moments later, followed Yang into the bathroom, leaving Weiss scandalized and, if she was being honest, a little envious. It was well over half an hour before Weiss could get at the shower, and neither of the gremlins were even a little bit apologetic, let alone ashamed at how blatant they were being.

As the day wore on, her teammates seemed to find nothing but delight in teasing Weiss with the secretive knowledge of whatever they had cooked up. At breakfast, Ruby was avidly discussing details with Yang just quietly enough that Weiss couldn’t eavesdrop; when Weiss tried to lean in close to listen, Ruby stopped talking and booped her nose before shovelling more cookies into the bottomless pit that was her stomach. At lunch, Yang was texting someone incessantly, and covered up her screen whenever Weiss tried to sneak a peek. As for Blake, she maintained her typical wall of silence, but continued packing her interminable bag.

At one point, Weiss considered the possibility that they were planning something specifically for her, but quickly dismissed the notion. Her birthday had been three weeks prior, and the party Nora had thrown had already been, to use Yang’s words, “an epic gamer moment.” (Weiss still had occasional nightmares about the wailing of fire engines and the look on Professor Goodwitch’s face.) She couldn’t even begin to think of what her teammates were thinking of – a fault she blamed on the fact that none of them were from Atlas, and thus didn’t have a normal person’s view of what was fun. For all she knew, they were planning on blowing up a nightclub and robbing a bank as a fun team-bonding activity.

So perhaps she was somewhat justified in her surprise when she found out what they were actually planning.

“A road trip?” Weiss stared, open-mouthed, at her partner, who was grinning like an idiot.

“Yeah! It’s gonna be so much fun! Dad’s letting us drive his car and everything.”

Yang raised her hand. “Dad’s letting me drive his car. You’re not touching it, Ruby.”

“Duh! Road trips aren’t fun for the driver anyway. Please say you’ll come along, Weiss? Blake’s already agreed, and we need another person to get the campsite discount.”

“A campsite?” Weiss quirked an eyebrow. “You’re suggesting we take a rusty old bucket of bolts,” (“Hey!” Yang would not have her father’s pickup truck slandered like that.) “Out into the Grimm-infested wilderness,” (“It’s not like we’re defenceless civilians, Weiss, we’re all trained Huntresses.” Blake spoke reason.) “To willingly sleep in fabric sacks on the ground,” (“You were totally fine with it in Mountain Glenn!” Ruby didn’t understand the concept of extenuating circumstances.) “When we could be using our summer break to do literally anything else?”

“Yep!” Ruby chirped happily. “It’ll be fun!”

Weiss looked around the room, hoping for some measure of support, but alas, she could see none. Yang was swinging her dad’s key ring around her finger excitedly, Blake was packing up a canvas monstrosity that looked suspiciously like a tent, and Ruby was bouncing with anticipation, eyes shining with childlike wonder. Even Zwei was wagging his tail, picking up on his owner’s mood. Sighing, Weiss admitted defeat.

“Sure, why not. It’s not like I’d be able to get any studying done with you dolts bouncing off the walls.”

Ruby let out an unearthly squeal of triumph. “ROAD TRIP!” She quickly turned to her intrepid team of first-year Huntresses-in-training. “Alright, girls, Banzai on three. One, two, three!”

“BANZAI!” Blake and Yang responded with enthusiasm. Weiss slumped, resigned to the reality of several hours in close quarters with these idiots. “Banzai.”

Chapter Text

Take 1:

The sun was deceptively cheery as Team RWBY made their way towards Taiyang’s long-suffering, battered pickup truck that was probably new when Yang was born. Ruby and Yang were all smiles, but Blake had her nose buried in a book, and as for Weiss, she was struggling to carry her three bags by herself.

“I can’t believe,” she started, prompting Yang to roll her eyes, “that you three all managed to stuff everything you’re bringing into one backpack each. Did you fold your clothes at all?”

Yang gave her a withering look. “Weiss, we’re going on a road trip for two weeks, not going into quarantine for months. What are you even bringing that takes three bags?”

“Oh, you know, essentials. Air conditioning, portable screen projector, makeup kit, perfume...”

“Weiss, we’re going camping. This is about getting back to nature and immersing ourselves in the wilderness! You don’t need any of that crap!”

Weiss drew herself up to her full height – and still barely made eye contact with Yang’s chin. “Maybe you savages are content living rough in the wilderness, but I had a bad enough time at Mountain Glenn, and that was necessary. If this is going to be a vacation, then I’m going to get a vacation out of it!”

Blake looked up. “You know, now that you mention it, I think I’ll bring some more books.”

Yang’s jaw dropped. “You traitor! I’ll get you for this, Belladonna!”

Blake just smirked and made her way back towards the dorm. “Anytime, Yang. Just let me get my books first.” And she turned on her heel, leaving Weiss facepalming, Ruby oblivious, and Yang staring after her, a light blush on her face.

“Weiss?”

“What?”

“I’m gay.”

“I know, Yang.”

There was silence for a moment.

Then--

“Ooh, I’m gonna go grab my video games!”

“GOD DAMN IT RUBY--”

Take 2:

“Alright! Now that everyone has their stuff, let’s get this show on the road!” Ruby pumped her fist and began loading the bags into the truck – the camping gear in the truck bed, secured tightly, and their backpacks in their seats with them. Yang let out a whoop, and hopped into the driver’s seat. Blake immediately claimed shotgun, leaving Ruby and Weiss to spread out in the backseat, for which Ruby squealed with delight.

“Alright, girls, road trip time! Yang, start us off!”

Yang grinned. “You got it, sis! THREE! TWO! ONE! HERE WE GO!”

She turned the key in the ignition.

Ruby tilted her head. “Er, Yang? Isn’t that supposed to... you know... start the car?”

“Yes. Yes, it is.”

“It seems like it’s... I dunno... not starting?”

There was another long moment of silence.

Then Yang began to swear, hair setting ablaze as she screamed at the top of her lungs. Ruby squeaked and ducked for cover, while Blake desperately began trying to smother the flames coming out of her partner’s head. As for Weiss, she resolutely opened the door and marched out of the truck, back towards her dorm. “I give up! I’m going to go study!”

“Weiss! WEISS! Don’t leave me! NOOOOOOOOO!”

Take 3:

“Alright, it’s fixed. Sorry about that, girls. She breaks down sometimes.” Taiyang wiped the sweat from his brow and smiled at them. Weiss (who had been reluctantly dragged back by a pleading Ruby) raised an eyebrow. “Is it up to this trip, then?”

Taiyang grinned at her. “Oh, sure, it only does this every few months. Pure luck.”

Ruby threw her arms around Taiyang, sighing in relief. “You’re the best, Dad. Sorry to make you come all this way.”

Taiyang smiled softly and ruffled her hair. “No problem, Ruby. Hope you girls have fun!” He lumbered away, leaving them with a functioning vehicle – and as they piled in again and Yang turned the key, the engine let out a healthy roar, and the car slowly pulled out onto the road! Yang whooped in delight.

“ROAD TRIIIIIIIP!”

“I FORGOT ZWEI!”

The car came to an abrupt halt as Ruby pulled the door open, screaming. Yang sighed, and slammed her head against the steering wheel. “We’re never getting out of here, are we?”

Blake began to pat her shoulder. “C’mon, Yang, we’ll be fine. It’s not like the car’s out of fuel or anything, right?”

Yang didn’t reply, head still buried in the steering wheel.

“Yang, you... you did fill the fuel tank, right? We’re going on a long trip.”

Silence permeated the truck.

“Yang?”

“...Fuck.”

Weiss growled. “You dunce. Do you want to go on this godsforsaken trip or not?”

Blake buried her face in her hands. “Let’s get this thing to a gas station as soon as Ruby comes back, OK?”

Take 4:

“ALRIGHT! We’ve got our stuff packed up, the car is working, everyone is here, and we’ve got a full fuel tank. Now, LET’S DO THIS!”

“Hooraaaaay,” Weiss drawled sarcastically. Ruby smacked her on the head. “Come on, Weiss, it’s going to be fun.”

Yang grinned from ear to ear. “You’re damned right it’s going to be fun! BANZAI!”

She turned the key in the ignition, and the pickup truck roared to life. As she pushed gently on the accelerator, the heavy vehicle rolled out of the gas station, slowly picking up speed as Yang merged onto the road into suburban Vale, heading across the city towards the highway. Yang and Ruby began to chant as the car accelerated to the speed limit and became one of many going about their business in the City of Vale. “Road trip, road trip, ROAD TRIP, ROAD TRIP, ROAD TRIP, ROAD TRIP--”

Blake calmly switched on the radio, diverting their attention away from chanting to the new noise. “And in other news, the city is finally recovering from the Grimm attack earlier this month. With notorious criminal Roman Torchwick behind bars, crime has been on a sharp decline throughout the city, and...”

“Oh, turn it to something else, Blake. I don’t wanna hear about that jackass,” Yang groaned, reaching over to change the frequency.

“This is Vale FM, home to the hottest musical hits of the year! Coming up next, it’s Jeff and Casey Lee Wisteria’s hit single, “Neon!” Enjoy!” And the car began to pump techno music into the air. Yang nodded in appreciation. “Aw, hell yeah, I can rave to this.” Blake shrugged. “It’s got a bit too much internalized misogyny for my tastes, she spends half the song mocking the subject’s appearance.”

Ruby laughed. “It’s not that deep, Blake, it’s a pop song. Nobody takes it seriously enough to internalize the messages from it.” Weiss covered her ears. “Is this supposed to be music? It’s just percussion, autotune, and the same chord over and over.”

Yang laughed. “Aw, don’t be such a snob, Weiss. It’s fun and high-energy. Listen, girlfriend, can’t you see, I’m all of the things that you’ll never be, I’m cool like the rain and I’m hot like the sun, I’m a neon rainbow and you’re,” Yang turned and stuck her tongue out at Weiss, “no fun!”

Weiss slapped a palm to her face. “You don’t have to rub it in,” she groaned, eliciting a shriek of laughter from Ruby. “It’s OK, Weiss, I’m jealous of Yang’s boobs too.” Weiss turned bright red. “WHAT!? I-- that wasn’t-- how dare-- the nerve of-- ugh!” And she slowly nestled herself in her seat, fuming for the rest of the song and enduring Ruby and Yang’s snickering.

Chapter Text

Yang’s finger tapped repeatedly against the steering wheel, her eye twitching. Blake gazed out the front windshield, her book in her lap, a slight green tinge to her face; evidently, having two sets of ears made reading-induced carsickness much worse. Ruby had her fingers in her ears, eyes shut tightly. And Weiss was glaring at the massive traffic jam as if it had caused her personal offence – which, of course, it had. “How long have we been sitting in this exact spot?”

Blake rolled her eyes. “It’s been two hours, Ice Queen. It’s a bad traffic jam, but it’s not that bad.”

Ruby grumbled, “It feels like it’s been a year and a half,” as Weiss spluttered indignantly, “Why does everyone keep calling me that!?”

Blake began ticking off on her fingers. “Insufferable, rude, prude, still grappling with internalized Faunophobia, my head aches,” (“That one’s not my fault!”) “An incurable know-it-all, obsessed with grades, condescending, and this radio station only seems to play three artists.”

“That last one’s not my fault either! …It is extremely annoying, though.” The Vale FM radio host seemed to have only ever heard of Jeff Wisteria, Miley Chartreuse, and, inexplicably, Green Day.

Ruby groaned, fingers still in her ears. “Blake, don’t be mean to Weiss. It’s not her fault Miley Chartreuse sucks.”

“Weren’t you the one saying that pop songs aren’t that deep, and we should just enjoy them?” Blake asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“That was before I had to listen to Atlesian Idiot five times in an hour.”

“But that was Green Day, not Miley Chartreuse. And it wasn’t pop.”

“Look, I listened to Miley Chartreuse when I was nine, OK? I’m sick of it.”

“But those were kid’s songs, for kids. She was performing under a different stage name.”

“Ugh, whatever. I just wanna be out of this traffic jam before I go nuts.”

Blake shrugged. “Well, I can’t do anything about the traffic jam, but I did bring my Scroll. We can turn off the radio and play our own music.”

Weiss sat bolt upright. “Why didn’t you say so earlier? It’s been two hours!” “You didn’t ask,” Blake snarked, turning the radio off and retrieving her Scroll. “Now, let’s see, I have the Achieve Men, Hozier,” (“Is that even a colour?” “I think he has a colour somewhere else in his name.”) “Indigo Menzel,” (“Wasn’t she in that kid’s movie?” “She also did some Mistral theatre for adults.”) “and something called That’s A Big Ursa, among other things. What do you think we should—”

“THE LIGHT’S GREEN, LADY! EITHER SHIT OR GET OFF THE POT!” Yang leaned on the horn, briefly rendering their world devoid of any other sound, prompting Zwei to curl up and whine in Ruby’s lap. Blake hissed and batted at Yang; her ears flattened against her head as the pickup finally started to move at a snail’s pace. Yang heaved a sigh of relief, easing the gas pedal slightly. “Sorry about that, girls. It’s not usually this bad. Looks like everyone and their mother had the same idea.”

Weiss crossed her arms, convinced she could feel her blood pressure rising. “You decided to take us through downtown at rush hour! You’re the worst driver ever, Yang.”

Yang raised a hand placatingly, eyes focused on the road. “Hey, it’s not usually this bad. …Usually.”

“You already said that. Maybe Blake or I should drive, you seem a bit prone to road rage.”

“No offense, Weiss, but I’m not letting you drive my dad’s truck.”

“And I never got my license,” Blake chimed in, prompting Yang to turn her head. “You never learned to drive?”

Blake stared down at the floor pensively, arms hugging her sides. “I didn’t say that. I just said I don’t have a license. My mentor in the White Fang… he didn’t really see the point of complying with Kingdom regulations on things like that, especially out in the wilderness.”

The awkward silence that followed was broken only by Yang reaching out to rest her hand on Blake’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s OK. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad about that. Do you want to get a license?”

Blake leaned into Yang’s touch, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “I don’t know. Maybe? Maybe he just didn’t want me having a measure of freedom that he couldn’t control. He was…” She trailed off, something in her voice dying at the thought of Adam.

“We don’t have to talk about him if you don’t want to. I promise.” Yang gazed into Blake’s eyes, searching her expression for discomfort, trying to provide reassurance with her warm, familiar presence. Blake slowly managed a small smile. “Thank you, Ya--”

“YANG! EYES! ROAD!” Ruby screamed, about half a second before they would have swerved into another car. Yang swore and pulled away, hands flying to the steering wheel, romantic moment of feelings and vulnerability smoothly diverted by the imminent threat of death by distracted driving. Yang rapidly straightened out the truck, heart pounding in her chest. “That… could have been bad.”

Blake nodded, eyes wide. “I… yeah. Driving. Right.”

Weiss sighed in relief. “We can save all that for later. For now, let’s just focus on getting out of downtown in one piece. And hopefully soon, two hours in a traffic jam is just ridiculous.”

Yang grinned. “You know what? Nuts to this. I’m gonna do this my way.”

Ruby’s eyes widened with fear. “Yang, this isn’t a motorcycle, don’t you dare—"

But Ruby’s pleas fell on deaf ears as Yang gunned the accelerator, spinning the wheel with reckless abandon.

The truck accelerated.

Chapter Text

The truck drove forward on cruise control, the sun sinking towards the horizon, the highways turning to gold in the evening light. Ruby snoozed in the back, Zwei dozing in her lap, and Yang’s eyes were firmly on the road. Blake’s eyes flicked back and forth, tracing the trees as they flew by, and Weiss was staring aimlessly out the side window, ostensibly keeping an eye out for Grimm, but it didn’t seem like the monsters felt like making an appearance. Maybe the summer heat was taking its toll on everyone, Grimm included. So, not wanting to bother Yang when she was focusing on driving, Weiss was essentially alone with Blake… with all the awkwardness that entailed.

Truthfully, Weiss still didn’t quite know what to make of Blake Belladonna. She matched her grades on almost every topic, but she didn’t seem to take any pride in her academics. Not to mention, of course, the matter of Blake being a Faunus, and her being a Schnee. While they had progressed to a point where Weiss supposed they were friends, or at least acquaintances, she knew that Blake still didn’t like her as much as Ruby or Yang – that is, if her earlier diatribe could be attributed to more than carsickness. Not to mention the incident at the end of their first semester that Weiss suspected had left Blake with some lingering resentment toward her.

Well, Weiss couldn’t let that stand. She’d made Blake promise that if something came up, she’d come to her teammates first, and she’d kept that promise to Weiss, even if she still didn’t seem to like her that much. It was only fair that Weiss give the same courtesy to Blake. After all, it was unbecoming of a Schnee heiress to have poor relations with a teammate. She was expected to excel in everything, especially public and interpersonal relations. So, she cleared her throat ever so slightly, enough to announce her intent to speak.

Blake didn’t react. Weiss wondered if she hadn’t been loud enough, so she cleared her throat a little louder. Blake’s ear twitched, but she didn’t turn. Weiss bit back a surge of annoyance. She knew Blake could hear her, she had four ears. She was deliberately ignoring her! She cleared her throat even louder, and Blake finally turned. “Weiss, if you need a lozenge, they’re in the bag.”

Weiss paused. That… wasn’t what she’d been expecting. “I’m fine, actually. I just… wanted to ask you something.”

Blake blinked in surprise. “Oh. Well… what is it?”

Weiss found herself searching for words; she’d been so focused on getting Blake’s attention, she hadn’t paused to script the conversation, calculate the pros and cons of each possible statement and the possible reactions, like the tutors had instructed her to do. In the end, all she could think to say was, “Do you hate me?”

Blake sucked air between her teeth, and Weiss cringed internally. That wasn’t a good sign. Weiss could feel her heart drop into her stomach as Blake deliberated. “I did, for a while. Now? I’m not sure.”

“You’re not sure if you hate me?” Even through the fear, Weiss could feel the indignation rising in her throat. Why couldn’t Blake make up her mind? Either she hated her, and she could safely write the relationship off as a garbage fire, or she didn’t, and Weiss could mend fences. Not knowing was infinitely worse.

Blake tutted. “Well, what am I supposed to think? You’re a bigot and a snob, and a bit of a bitch, but you’ve also expressed a desire to make things right, you intervened when I was spiraling, and the Dust you gave me on the train saved my life. How am I supposed to hate you when I owe you my life?”

Well, that wasn’t what Weiss expected. “You saved my life, too. When the White Fang lieutenant was about to kill me. I just… I don’t know.”

Blake nodded. “My thoughts exactly. I don’t get you, Weiss. You say the worst things, but your actions paint a completely different picture. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how often you’re saving people in battles. You saved Ruby and Nora in initiation, you went with Ruby and Pyrrha to save Jaune and Cardin from that Ursa, you saved me from Torchwick’s missiles in the Paladin fight using your glyphs, and you saved all our lives when the train crashed. Someone like that… it feels like you’re a good person, but then you go and open your mouth.”

Weiss stared at Blake. She honestly hadn’t thought about it like that. Getting your teammates out of dangerous positions was just something you did in battle. She hadn’t thought anyone would pay attention to it. And, she realized, there was something else she hadn’t thought about. She’d been so wrapped up in her own feelings about Blake being in the White Fang, and the drama that ensued, she hadn’t realized…

“I’m sorry.”

Blake frowned, head tilting a little. “What?”

“For that day at the docks. I’m sorry for the things I said. I never apologized, so… I’m doing it now.”

Blake’s mouth opened slightly – which, for Blake, was the equivalent of jaw-dropping shock. Weiss felt her stomach plunge further. Was the thought of remorse from her really so surprising?

Yes, it is, a part of her whispered. She’d never apologized to Ruby for that first day, either. Weiss could hear Father’s voice in her head, yelling that she had no reason to apologize, that everything she’d said had been true – and moreover, that a Schnee never backed down and never admitted defeat.

She ignored it. Blake deserved an apology, no matter how demeaning it felt, no matter how much it felt like giving up – like losing. Blake finally closed her mouth. When she spoke, her voice was quiet. “Thank you, Weiss. That means a lot to me.”

Weiss nodded, trying to work up the courage to ask the next question; something else that had been on her mind. “Um… if it’s OK to ask… why do you wear that bow, if you’re not part of the White Fang?”

Blake blinked. “Do… do you actually know anything about the White Fang?”

Weiss opened her mouth, then shut it again. What did she know about the White Fang? All she could recall hearing from Father was the things they’d done to the company – the ruined profits, the stolen goods – and the killings. And, of course, that they wore masks, and were working with Torchwick. “I… don’t actually know that much. Why do you ask?”

Blake took a deep breath before responding. “I ask because the White Fang don’t hide their Faunus traits. If I were still part of the Fang, I wouldn’t be wearing the bow at all. Believe me, I got some serious flak from Ilia when I started wearing it.”

“Who’s Ilia?”

Blake’s expression faltered. “…an old friend. Or… former friend, now, I guess. We were in the White Fang together. It was otherwise mostly adults, so we were the only kids there. …It’s not important.”

Kids?

“How old were you? When you joined, I mean.”

Blake sighed. “I didn’t join. I was born into it. My father was the founder of the movement.”

“Your father was behind—”

“No!” Blake spread her hands. “The White Fang used to be peaceful. Didn’t you know that?”

Weiss paused. Now that she thought about it, she’d heard Oobleck mention that before, but she’d just… never paid it any mind. Of course the White Fang were evil, she’d heard Father often enough, and the docks and Mountain Glenn incidents had only confirmed it for her.

Blake groaned. “The Atlesian education system triumphs again. Anyway, we’re off-topic. You wanted to know why I wear the bow.”

Weiss nodded, suddenly feeling very small and meek in the face of how much she didn’t know – and worse, how much she did know on paper, but had never connected to reality.

“I wear the bow because of jerks like Cardin.”

Weiss blinked. She’d been expecting some deep, philosophical reason, but… was it really just that? “That’s it?”

Blake nodded. “That’s it. I don’t like wearing it. It’s hot, and uncomfortable, and it cramps my ears to be bound like that. But you’ve seen what they do to Velvet, and she’s a second-year. People like Cardin take any sign of difference as an invitation to be as nasty as they want, and the Faunus are easy targets for them, because the rest of Remnant doesn’t care when it’s a Faunus who’s targeted.”

“Doesn’t care how?”

Blake met her gaze with a fierce intensity. “Weiss, do you know what happens to people like Cardin when they graduate?”

Weiss shivered, an unnamed fear welling inside her – something outside herself, an ominous premonition. “They… become Huntsmen?”

Blake clenched her fists. “Exactly. They become Huntsmen, and they go out into the world, and some of them work within the Kingdoms solving crimes, and what do you think they do if they see a Faunus in a nice wealthy human neighbourhood?”

Weiss was silent, imagining what Father would do if there were Faunus hanging around the Schnee Manor.

“Or if they were out searching for survivors in a Grimm attack, and they had to choose between rescuing a human and rescuing a Faunus?”

“I… I see your point. But surely the Kingdoms wouldn’t…”

Blake let out a snort of cynical amusement. “Sanctioning Huntsmen is expensive. Vale does it when they can, and Vacuo is Vacuo, but Atlas and Mistral? They don’t care, Weiss. Even the ones who aren’t like Cardin. They don’t do anything, because it doesn’t benefit them to side with the Faunus against rich and influential humans.”

Weiss could feel her jaw dropping. “Surely it can’t be that bad.”

“It is that bad. Why do you think the White Fang exists?”

“I…” Weiss searched for something to say, something to make it better. She couldn’t think of anything. “How did I not know any of this?”

Blake shrugged. “It’s easy for humans to ignore. And even when Faunus do speak up, humans find reasons not to listen to us. What you’re doing right now, Weiss? Trying to find ways to make it not so bad in your mind? That’s what you’ve been taught to do, because you were taught that the world was a fair, just place, where everybody gets what they deserve. The fact that you’re listening at all is progress.”

Weiss nodded slowly. “I… think I get it. So… you wear the bow to avoid all that?”

Blake nodded back. “I have to say, since I started wearing it, aside from the discomfort of the bow itself… this is the nicest I’ve ever been treated in the Kingdoms.”

“But that’s… you shouldn’t have to… somebody should do something about it!”

Blake laughed softly. “Weiss, that’s what the White Fang is. Or… what it’s supposed to be.” Her laughter slowly died, and she huddled in close, eyes returning to the window. “I… don’t know if the whole Fang became… like that, or just the Vale branch. It still makes no sense for them to be working with Roman. It’s not like them at all.”

“What… happened? With the White Fang?”

Blake sighed. “It’s a long story, and I’m getting tired. If you don’t mind, I’d rather save it until I can tell it to everyone.”

Weiss nodded. “Of course.” Then, suddenly suspicious, she turned to the driver’s seat. “You were listening the whole time, weren’t you? Why didn’t you say anything?”

Yang briefly turned from the road, eyes sparkling and wet. “I’m just so proud of both of you for finally sorting things out!”

Weiss could feel her face going bright red. “I… you…!”

Her embarrassment was interrupted by the delicate sound of Blake’s laughter – not a cynical laugh like earlier, but a real, actual laugh of simple amusement. “You’re ridiculous, Yang.”

Weiss felt her irritation sliding away, replaced with a sense of seeing something precious in front of her – a pane of delicate spun glass, ethereal as mist. If it meant Blake was happy, and able to forget her troubles, even for a moment – well, what was some brief embarrassment compared to that?

She gathered her courage one more time. “Er, Blake?”

Blake turned, laughter diminishing, and Weiss could feel it – she thought she was going to ask another question that would upset her. Well, Weiss was quite done with that. She opened her mouth, and for once, the words came straight to her.

“When it’s just us… you don’t have to wear the bow. You’re safe with us. I promise.”

Blake’s eyes widened, and she gave Weiss the biggest smile she’d seen from her – another precious thing. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”

Yang cleared her throat. “Anyway, there’s the turnoff for the campsite. We’re two hours late for our reservation, but we called ahead and let them know, so there should be no trouble. Can someone wake Ruby up?”

Weiss nodded, nudging her partner. “Ruby, get up, we’re here.” Ruby groaned, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles. “I wasn’t asleep, I was just… resting my eyes?”

A rush of affection flooded through Weiss, the strength of it surprising her. She didn’t know what it was, but she’d never seen Ruby wake up like this before; she was an early riser and was always up before Weiss. It was… oddly endearing, and she found herself smiling.

It seemed that Blake wasn’t the only one capable of giving Weiss something precious.

Chapter Text

The sun was just barely below the horizon as the truck pulled to a stop in front of a small wooden cottage with a brightly painted sign declaring the small, wooded grove ahead as Camarone Campbell’s Camp Campbell Campsite; “Now with camping!”

“I dunno, Yang, think this is the right place?” Blake drawled, rolling her eyes.

Yang winced as she opened the door. “The website looked way more legit than this.”

Ruby cupped her hands around her mouth as Zwei burst out of the truck and began chasing new smells. “Hello? Anyone here? Sorry we’re late!”

Weiss looked around, observed her surroundings, and came to the immediate sensible conclusion. “This place is a dump. How much was the reservation?”

“That’s not important right now.”                                    

“Yang, I think you’ve been scammed.”

“Did someone say scam?” The voice came up from behind them, immediately triggering a fight-or-flight reaction from Weiss, who whipped around, reaching for Myrtenaster – which was still in the truck – only to encounter a tall, barrel-chested man with a mustache nearly identical to Father’s. Weiss hated him instantly, but Yang sighed in relief. “You’re Mr. Campbell, right? Sorry we’re late, we’re the six o’ clock checkin?”

The man knit his eyebrows in confusion for a moment. “Six o’ clock… Xiao Long? Of course! Your lot is tucked away in that direction. Have fun!” He pointed their way deeper into the grove, a grin on his face that Weiss instantly pegged as fake.

Well, if they’d been scammed, at least it wasn’t so bad that they’d have to turn around, as much as Weiss wanted to. Ruby cheered, and began to unload her bags, a big grin on her face that was entirely genuine. Strangely enough, that made Weiss feel a little better about this whole thing. If Ruby was having fun, clearly there had to be something to it.

She paused, the strange thought worming about in her brain. Since when did she measure anything based on how much Ruby enjoyed it? Most of her favourite pastimes were things her partner found incredibly dull, and vice versa. Weiss reached for her bags, shoving the thought back under lock and key where it belonged. She could unpack that later, or preferably never.

Besides, she was pretty sure Ruby didn’t like girls.

For that matter, up until just now she’d been pretty sure she didn’t like girls either.

“Yo, Weiss, are you just gonna keep spacing out? Come on, we’ve got like twenty minutes of daylight left to set up the tent before the mosquitoes arrive.” Yang waved a hand in Weiss’s face and, receiving no response, looped her arm in Weiss’s and dragged the dissociating heiress along.

Their lot was pretty enough, Weiss supposed. A small clearing surrounded by conifers, with an old-fashioned well pump in a cast cement block the only sign of civilization within sight.

At least, as long as you didn’t look up.

“My dear sister Yang, can you tell me what’s wrong with this picture?” Ruby crossed her arms, eye twitching.

Yang looked up out of the circle of trees, a look of disgust on her face. “The CCT support tower?”

Blake shrugged, utterly apathetic. “That would explain why the Wi-Fi is so good this far out of the Kingdom.”

Weiss cleared her throat. “Tower aside—” “This sucks!” Yang cried, throwing her hands in the air. “This was supposed to be a back-to-nature trip! How’re we supposed to get any naturey stuff in with Wi-Fi? Do you have any idea how tempting it is to go on Tumble?”

Weiss blinked. “What’s Tumble—”

“And besides which, the support towers attract Grimm! We’re gonna spend half the time fighting—oh, son of a bitch! That’s why this was so cheap! They didn’t want to hire any Huntsmen, so they advertised it as a camping trip for Huntsmen-in-training!”

Blake coughed into her sleeve. “It’s called a hustle, Yang, and we fell for it hook, line, and sinker.”

Weiss pointed a finger at Yang. “You mean Yang fell for it. She handled all the details.”

Yang turned around, looking thoroughly embarrassed. “Yeah, well—”

“That’s enough!” Ruby stomped her foot. “Do you want to attract Grimm even more than the tower already does, or do you want to get a vacation out of this?”

Weiss internally sighed in relief. She didn’t really want to argue with Yang, and she definitely didn’t want to deal with any Grimm just yet. Ruby looked each of them in the eye, then turned to the canvas mess on the truck bed. “Alright, who knows how to set up a tent?”

There was, for a moment, complete silence. Ruby facepalmed. “Really? None of us?”

Weiss bit down a surge of embarrassment; and why should she feel embarrassed? She’d never gone camping before, so why did she feel so bad about letting Ruby down?

Yang shrugged. “Don’t look at me or Ruby. Dad always did it when we went camping.”

Finally, their eyes turned to Blake, who stared at the ground, bow twitching. Horrified realization dawned in Yang’s eyes, and she loudly cut across the silence, her voice brimming with false cheer and a tinge of desperation. “That’s OK, we can learn together!”

Ruby coughed. Blake flushed with shame, and Weiss stood there awkwardly, torn between wanting to do something to help, and having absolutely no idea what to do. Yang put an arm around Blake, pumping her fist with an excellent dose of fake enthusiasm. “Team RWBY’s first camping objective, putting up a tent! Banzai!”

Blake managed a small smile. “Thanks, Yang.”

Yang laughed breezily. “Dunno what you mean. Let’s do this!” She reached for the mass of canvas and unfolded it, a bundle of poles and stakes clattering to the ground. Ruby rifled through Blake’s bag, pulling out the ground tarp. “So, we can just look this up online, right? Or call Jaune, he’s been camping.”

Yang scoffed, clearly still eager to brush off the earlier moment. “I think we can handle this; it can’t be that hard if Vomit Boy can do it.”

Well. Weiss didn’t exactly respect Jaune, but that line of reasoning seemed faulty to her. Just because someone lacked prowess at Hunting didn’t mean they were incompetent in all fields. Besides, as loath as she was to admit it, she owed Arc a favour after what he’d done for her at the dance. So, rather than let his honour be impugned, she tapped at her Scroll and looked up the proper way to set up a camping tent. She cleared her throat, stepping forward and making her presence known. “Alright. Ruby, lay out the ground tarp with the reflective side facing up.”

“You mean the shiny side.”

“I said what I said.”

Ruby shrugged and placed the tarp on the ground. “What next, Ice Queen?”

“I told you not to call me that. Lay the body of the tent on top of the ground tarp, Yang. Make sure the door is facing the right way.”

Ruby held up her hands in apology, and Yang laid the tent down across the tarp, facing the door to the north. “All done, Commander Schnee! Next?”

“If you call me that again, I’ll leave you to figure this out yourself, Xiao Long. Blake, assemble the tent poles.”

Blake nodded silently, screwing the tent poles together without saying a word. When she’d finished, she looked straight at Weiss. “What next.”

Weiss blinked, suddenly very aware of Blake’s piercing gaze – she wasn’t sure what it was, but it set her on edge. “U-um… next, attach the poles to the tent body. It should either have clips or a sheath for the poles.”

Yang peered down at the tent. “Ooh, it’s got sheaths to run the poles through. C’mon, Blake, let’s do it together!”

Blake smiled at Yang, the unsettling expression she’d fixed on Weiss replaced with unmistakable affection. “Sure. You hold the tent down while I run the poles through?” “Sounds like a plan!”

As they worked, Weiss watched, noting with some envy the simple ease with which they worked together, their hands in perfect coordination, like two pieces of one well-oiled machine. She wondered if she would ever find someone she could feel like that with. She’d thought maybe Neptune had been the one, but while he’d certainly been intriguing, and rejection had stung, she’d found that once she’d had the opportunity to actually talk to him, she’d had no desire to dance with him, and had been content to spend the rest of the evening by herself.

Ruby’s voice sounded in her ear, seemingly out of nowhere. “Thanks, Weiss.”

Weiss nearly jumped a foot in the air, whirling around to see her partner right beside her when she’d been certain she’d been on the other side of the tent. “Don’t do that, you dolt!”

Ruby giggled softly. “Couldn’t resist. But seriously, thanks. Knowing Yang, she’d have insisted on forging ahead without looking anything up, and we’d have ended up trying to fix a huge mess in the dark.”

Weiss huffed. “Yes, well, as humourous as that would have been, I don’t intend to sleep outside among the mosquitoes tonight just because Yang wants to make Blake feel better.”

Ruby opened her mouth, then closed it again and smiled slyly. “So you noticed too? I guess I should have expected that.”

Weiss sighed. “I just… what’s her problem? None of us can set up a tent, it’s nothing to be embarrassed by.”

“It’s none of our business,” Ruby replied, gently but firmly. “If she wants to tell us, she will, but only when she’s ready.”

Weiss tried to find a suitable reply to that, but she knew Ruby was right. She had no business prying into Belladonna’s personal life, just because she reacted oddly to something. She’d always hated when people tried to do that to her; it had never felt genuine, like they were trying to learn for the sake of their own curiosity, or to gain future ammunition in some game.

But her team had never done that. Even when she was at her worst, they’d never demanded she talk about anything she wasn’t ready to talk about. Ruby especially had been the most adamant in respecting her boundaries, which, given her childlike excitability and incorrigible questions about most topics, had been a pleasant surprise, and a surprisingly touching courtesy.

She wondered what Ruby was thinking about at this moment…

“Hey, lovebirds! We’ve got the tent poles through, what’s next?”

Weiss felt herself going bright red, and almost against her will leaped a good meter away from Ruby, who simply blinked, nonplussed, as Weiss fumbled and nearly dropped her Scroll. “U-um! Yes, right, the next step! Uh, put the poles in the grommet! It should bend! Ruby, can you—”

“On it!” Ruby flounced over to the tent, pushing the poles up into the tent as she worked the ends into the grommets on the base. “Uh, it feels like they’re gonna break—oh, never mind, I got it. Next?”

Weiss glanced at her Scroll. “We don’t have a rain fly, so I’ll just skip over this step. Next, we stake it. Put the stakes through the grommets and push them into the ground at a 45 degree angle. You should be able to use your feet, no mallet required.”

Yang smirked. “What’s all this “you” about? We’ve been doing all the grunt work while you watched and read directions. It’s your turn, Weiss.”

Weiss paused, two forces battling within her. She knew she should probably help, but a part of her rebelled at the thought of doing such menial labour. Had she ever gone camping with her family, she knew they’d have arrived with the tent already erected by the staff. Not that she had ever gone camping. That would constitute an actual family bonding experience. In the end, her humility won out, and she stuck the stakes into the grommets.

She had to admit, there was something satisfying about pushing a stake into the dirt beneath her heel.

Perhaps even Father would have enjoyed it.

“And… we’re done! Great job, Team RWBY!” Ruby pumped her fist, her enthusiasm endearingly genuine. “We can set up the sleeping bags, then build a campfire, and roast s'mores!”

Weiss blinked at the unfamiliar word. “What are… s'mores?”

Ruby gasped in shock. “Oh my god, Weiss, you don’t know what s'mores are? How have you survived all these years?”

“Ruby, tell me what they are.”

Ruby patted Weiss’s head, genuine sympathy glimmering in her eyes. “Oh, you poor thing. I can’t imagine what it must have been like, living a mere half-life, a life without beauty or colour—”

“Ruby, if you touch my head again, I’m going to freeze you.”

Ruby leaned on Weiss’s shoulder, one arm outstretched dramatically over her head, the other draped across Weiss’s back. “Alas, a life without s'mores cannot be called a life at all! And thee, fair Weiss,” “thou,” “for thee to know not such simple pleasures as a s'more – why, I shudder at the thought!”

“Yang, help.”

Yang crossed her arms, smirking. “Why should I? You look pretty happy with this as it is.”

Weiss flushed red, stammering expletives at Yang; but for all she blustered, she couldn’t quite bring herself to actually deny that claim.

Now she just had to find out what a s'more was.

Chapter Text

The fire crackled and hissed gently, sparks floating into the night sky beneath the shattered moon and a divine tapestry of stars. Weiss was, frankly, stunned into silence. The aurorae in Atlas were pretty, but she’d never seen the stars like this, there were too many lights all the time. Even Beacon was too close to the City of Vale, and they’d been inside a ruined building in Mountain Glenn. But out here, in the wild, it was like someone had taken the inky darkness of the night sky and used it as a canvas, scattering purples and blues across it, along with countless points of brilliant light.

Not that her teammates seemed to be taking any notice. Ruby was focusing on her marshmallow roasting over the fire, a box of graham crackers and chocolate sitting at the ready beside her, Yang was looking at Blake, trying to work up the nerve to say something, and Blake was gazing into the flames, a distant expression on her face, like she was thinking of something from long ago.

Well, whatever. Weiss could stare at this sky for eternity, for all she minded. It was gorgeous, and something she could never have seen if she hadn’t gone on this stupid trip.

So, naturally, Yang took it upon herself to ruin the moment and break the silence. “So… you wanna talk about… whatever that was, Blake?”

Blake took a deep breath, her gaze never wavering, the firelight reflected in her amber eyes. “I’ve spent the last five years around tents. With the White Fang always on the move, we had pavilions wherever we made camp. But… of everyone in camp, the only people who never set any of it up were me and…” She trailed off, steeling herself. “…and Adam.”

Yang clenched her fists, then made a deliberate effort to unclench them, and reached out to rub Blake’s shoulder. Blake leaned into the touch, taking strength from Yang’s presence. “Another thing he kept from me. …I guess you all want me to talk about the Fang now. I said I would, and…”

“No.”

Blake looked up, surprised by the firmness in Yang’s voice. She met her partner’s gaze, the intensity throwing her ever so slightly off-balance. “Not unless you’re comfortable doing it. Whether that’s today, or tomorrow, or never, unless it’s literally life or death, you don’t have to share anything.”

Blake could feel tears brimming in her eyes, and alarm bells rang in her brain, warning her not to let them show; any weakness would be torn wider, used as a point of entry, and twisted into a weapon against her.

Not anymore. Not with Yang.

The thought stunned the alarms in her brain into silence, and she let the tears show. “Thank you, Yang. But… I think I need to tell you what happened.” She turned to Weiss. “Especially you, Weiss. I need you to hear this.”

Weiss swallowed the indignant reply in her throat. Blake wasn’t Father, and she wasn’t being accusatory. She was just… Weiss couldn’t make herself say it, but she knew that Blake was right; this was something she needed to hear. So, she just nodded, and listened.

Ruby pulled the marshmallow out of the flames, now thoroughly toasted, and stuck it on a chocolate bar, which she smushed between two graham crackers. She handed the sugary monstrosity to Weiss, then leaned in to listen to Blake, while Weiss tried to figure out how to elegantly handle the s’more.

Blake took a deep breath and began with the easy part: the history. “In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between Humans and the Faunus. The revolutionaries of the Faunus War had taken heavy losses, but the victory over General Lagune at Fort Castle had turned the tide of the war, and they were days away from taking the City of Mistral when the Kingdoms offered a peace treaty. Some of the fighters wanted to keep going, but the heads of the revolution were tired, and they weren’t out for revenge. The goal was to improve conditions for the Faunus and fight against the centralization in Menagerie. So… they agreed, and the White Fang was born.”

Ruby nodded. “Sounds like what Doctor Oobleck said, but he didn’t really go into the Fang, he just moved on to the renaming of Mantle. So, uh… what was it, then?”

Blake turned her gaze back to the fire, putting her voice into the lecturing tone she used when answering questions in school; she hadn’t reached the painful bits yet, she could do this. “The Fang was a sort of… administrative go-between. If Faunus in the Kingdoms had a problem, they would go the White Fang, and the White Fang would go to the Council. The idea was that Faunus would have a bloc concerned totally with their interests, able to work with the Kingdoms to make life better for them. But…” she sighed.

Weiss was surprised; that actually sounded like a good system. “So, then… what went wrong?”

Blake slumped forward, a hard edge to her voice now. “The White Fang did its job fine. But all they could do was report to the Council, and the Councils were still all Human. The White Fang’s reports were consistently ignored, and each year, the budget granted by the Kingdoms grew smaller and smaller. The Faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate, and the White Fang couldn’t do anything about it but keep track of statistics. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as a voice of our people. We began fundraising among Faunus populations, and instead of sending reports, we began organizing protests, boycotts, and rallies. And I was there, at the front of it all. My parents were the leaders of the organization, and I grew up traveling from Kingdom to Kingdom. I thought we were making a difference… but I was just a youthful optimist.”

Yang reached out and took Blake’s hand, squeezing it tight. “Hey. You were doing what you thought was right. I’d say that made a difference, whether you believe it or—”

“Don’t patronize me, Yang,” Blake spat, voice taut, fragile, on the verge of breaking, “Humanity didn’t care what Faunus did. When we boycotted a business that used Faunus labour, Humans kept on buying from them, not to spite us but because they just didn’t care, and the business’s profit margins didn’t budge. When we organized a rally, almost all the attendees were Faunus, and if we were lucky all the Humans did was complain about the traffic disruption. It just wasn’t working.

“Then, five years ago, Sienna Khan showed up at my dad’s office. She’d fought in the Faunus War, and had been one of the most vocal opponents of the treaty. She told us, flat out…” Blake focused, and a strange quality came to her voice, as though she were mimicking someone else’s words verbatim. “Peaceful protest and respectability politics only work when you have a sympathetic audience, Ghira. Look around. Our people are suffering while you try and convince the likes of James Ironwood to grow a conscience. Humanity does not care what happens to Faunus, and the only way to make them care is to impose costs to their hatred beyond what a boycott without Humans can achieve.”

Blake’s eyes glowed in the firelight, the edge in her voice turning derisive. “I was captivated… and so was Adam, and a lot of other people. Eventually, my father stepped down… but I went with Sienna. With Adam. Our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor. And… Sienna was right. It was working. We were being treated like equals. But then it all went wrong.”

Yang chanced an approaching hand again, but Blake pushed it away, hugging herself tightly. “Sienna always weighed the situation, determined what needed violence, and what needed nonviolence. Her goal was – is – to improve the lives of the Faunus everywhere. People like Jacques Schnee… the only thing they care about is their own benefit, so her goal is to make it too unprofitable to keep abusing us – to make it clear that treating the Faunus as lesser beings will have real consequences.” She turned to Weiss. “Be honest with me, Weiss. Do you think your father would ever do anything to help people if it posed a risk to his own position?”

Weiss didn’t even need to think about that one. “Never. His only goal is winning.”

Blake nodded. “The White Fang can’t beat him. So instead, they turn the use of Faunus labour into a losing tactic. But…” Her expression faltered, her voice close to breaking again. “Adam isn’t like that. He thinks equality is impossible. All he wants is revenge for what humanity did to him. And by the time I realized what he’d become, he was… powerful. Sienna saw him as her champion. I don’t know if she had some long-term plan, or if he was lying to her about who he was. He was leading the Vale branch of the White Fang, and I was isolated from anyone who could have gotten me away from him. Finally, we were robbing a train, and… he wanted to blow it up. Kill everyone onboard. The crew members would have been Faunus who were just trying to survive – the kind of people we were supposed to be trying to help. So, I…”

Blake gasped as strong arms embraced her, Yang’s voice a whisper in her ear as she finally broke down. “You got out. You came to Beacon. God, Blake… I’m so sorry you went through all that.”

Weiss stared at her teammate, a thousand and one thoughts whirling through her brain. The world Blake had described was so outside of her experience that she could only feel a bleak horror at the thought of it all – a horror outside herself, filtered through the girl sobbing into her partner’s arms in front of her, forming in her mind a single fact, cold and sharp.

Father wouldn’t bat an eye if Weiss’s teammate or people like her were killed. They weren’t people to him. And Weiss had swallowed that fact for seventeen years, believing it, because it meant that what Father was doing – what provided for the huge manor, the best schooling Lien could buy, the dresses, the recitals, the servants – wasn’t the horrific exploitation of human beings that, viewed through the ice-cold lens of reality, it really was.

Weiss wondered what the world beyond Atlas’ elite really thought of her. Stupid, vain little heiress to the throne of a monster.

It could be said that on a scale from positive to negative, both Blake and Weiss’s emotions were trending toward the negative.

So perhaps it made sense that Ruby’s next move was to reach for Crescent Rose, as burning red eyes appeared among the trees.

Chapter Text

Ruby Rose was a lot of things.

Kick-butt Huntress. Fearless team leader. Amateur storyteller, and even more amateur baker. A little sister, a highly competent weaponsmith, and pretty darn autistic.

One thing Ruby was not was unobservant. She knew that neither Weiss nor Blake was in any headspace for a fight. So, as the Grimm began to emerge from the woods, she swallowed the tinge of nerves in her voice, and put on her best leader voice. “Yang, get them into the tent, then guard the entrance.” Yang nodded, and gently shepherded her sobbing girlfriend into the tent, pulling the motionless Weiss along by the hand as she did. Ruby slowly and calmly reached behind her, only to realize with mild consternation that Crescent Rose was still by the truck. Still, it would look super lame if she reached down and didn’t grab anything, so she picked up her s’more, still nice and warm. She lifted it to her mouth and took a bite, her movements radiating confidence; after the Breach and her subsequent opportunity to see Team CFVY in action, she’d been inspired by Coco’s nonchalance in the face of the enemy. So, she slowly savoured the s’more, praying inwardly that her total confidence would throw the Grimm off. After all, if they’d been attracted to Blake and Weiss’s negativity, maybe she could mask that a little bit with unbridled positivity—nope, wait, that would just make them go for the tent. Ruby threw her s’more straight up into the air, and ran for the truck, feeling her Semblance kick in as the world around her was enveloped in rose petals.

When she used her Semblance, the world around her sort of slowed down, like someone had injected liquid sugar directly into her brain. She thought faster, moved faster, was faster. She thought about being by the truck, and there she was, her beloved Crescent Rose swept up into her hands in a slipstream of rose petals. She kicked off the truck bed, and felt her Aura carry her up, rose petals swirling until she knew she’d reached the apex of her jump. She let her Semblance settle down, and the world around her sped back up; the Grimm were everywhere, and she was above, framed by the brilliant sky. Instinct and muscle memory brought her weapon out, pulling back on the trigger and watching a round fire, a Beowolf’s head turn to black vapour, the rest of its body following – and off she went, the gun unfolding into a scythe, as the enemy approached.

One spin, and the nearest Ursa’s body split in two. Another, and a Boarbatusk was on the ground, the scythe embedded in its soft underbelly. A dollop of speed, a flurry of petals, and a King Taijitu was down one head, then a bullet through the temple of the other head. Ruby’s rhythm was erratic, lively, instinctual and flashy, without a shred of precision or discipline, but with deadly efficiency. Swing, and a small Nevermore’s down. Roll out of the way of a Beowolf’s claws, then blam, a Creep bites the dust. Swing, roll, fire, jump, dash, spin – the rhythm was Ruby’s, and Ruby’s alone. Over the past months, she’d been learning to work with others, to match her riffs to Weiss’s polished melody, to Blake’s stealthy bassline, and to Yang’s bombastic percussion. But it was here, alone against a hundred enemies, that Ruby could really shine, that Crescent Rose came alive in her hands, singing its death song as it hummed through the air. Ruby felt on top of the world, her blood burning in her veins, as the horde of Grimm turned to dust, leaving only a single Alpha Beowolf and—holy cats, was that a Griffon!?

Oh, shiz.

The Grimm slammed into Ruby, its claws slamming her into the dirt. She opened fire, but her bullets stuck fast in its body, and didn’t seem to do anything more than annoy it. She unfolded Crescent Rose to full scythe form, but at close range like this, she had no leverage. The Griffon roared in her face, and she winced, furiously writhing to try and escape its grip as it leaned in closer. She cursed her luck. If she hadn’t gotten pinned, she could have taken it in a few strikes. She tried again to escape, but the Griffon dug its claws in, and she felt her Aura shatter. It reared, and dove forward, its cruel beak plunging toward her. Ruby squeezed her eyes shut…!

Then there was the sound of a shotgun shell, and a scream, and Ruby was free! She leapt to her feet, staring at the mass of blonde hair in front of her, the Griffon slammed against a tree, and the undefended tent door. Yang turned to her, eyes as red as any of the Grimm. “You alright?”

Ruby nodded breathlessly, extending Crescent Rose as the Griffon recovered. It charged forward, but this time, Ruby was ready. She stepped to one side and swung, slicing its head off. Yang nodded once, a flicker of her eyelids turning her eyes lilac again, and she returned to the tent door. Ruby took a deep breath, and let her Aura fill her once more. Then she turned and charged the final Grimm in the clearing, an Alpha Beowolf that slashed right at her throat. She ducked, jumped, and fired three rounds into its chest, blasting it backwards and leaving three bullet holes oozing black blood. The Alpha snarled, turned tail, and retreated, leaving the clearing Grimm-free.

Ruby stowed Crescent Rose and glanced upwards, just for a moment.

Yep, Ruby Rose was observant. Definitely aware of everything around her, and definitely not one to be blindsided by a Grimm.

She stepped a pace to the side and caught the falling s’more.

See?

Weiss stared at her feet, curled in on herself, listening to the sound of gunfire resonating from outside and feeling wholly inadequate.

She knew her feelings were drawing Grimm to the clearing. She knew that, and she still couldn’t make them stop.

Part of it was Blake. Being in close quarters with someone who was sobbing her heart out felt like getting stabbed, but she couldn’t make herself go comfort her, either; she was feeling too sorry for herself.

She should have gone out there with Myrtenaster and worked out her frustration on the Grimm. That would’ve helped, maybe. But instead, she’d just stood there and let Yang drag her to the tent, and now she couldn’t leave Blake alone.

So, she sat there, unwilling to leave or to make a move toward Blake, because her stupid feelings kept getting in the way.

This was the price I avoided, she thought. This was the trade I made with the mirror.

Funny, what happens when a stone heart begins to recover. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. At least with stone, the worst she could get was angry. This kind of pain was alien to her, and it was almost enough to make her want to bury her heart under her mind again.

Almost.

…Actually…

Who did her emotions think they were? She was Weiss Schnee, and she was not about to let some painful feelings get in the way of excelling as a teammate and as a friend! She closed her eyes and let a slight touch of ice reach her. Not enough to freeze her entirely, but enough to kick her mind and body back into gear. She could bear this. She slowly uncurled and reached out to rest her hand on Blake’s shoulder, mentally bracing herself to be rebuffed.

Instead, Blake nearly tackled her, hugging her tightly and burying her face in her shoulder, leaving Weiss slightly alarmed as her brain tried to reconcile this reaction with what she thought she knew about Blake, eventually reaching a mental shrug and putting her arms around Blake, rubbing her back as she sobbed into Weiss’s embrace.

A few moments later, Blake took a deep, sniffling breath, and gently pulled away, wiping her eyes. “Thank you, Weiss.”

Weiss nodded. “Are you alright, Blake?”

Blake slowly nodded. “I was expecting the painful memories. But… you three are the only people I’ve ever told about the things he did. It feels good to… to finally let it out. I think I needed that. Keeping it inside me was like… like poison, eating away at me from the inside.”

Weiss oddly, found that she could relate. If she hadn’t had Winter to vent to all those years, if she’d been alone with Father… well, it didn’t bear thinking about. Blake tilted her head. “How about you? How are you doing?”

Weiss shook herself. “I’m fine. You’re the one who went through all that.”

Blake fixed her with one of those piercing glares. “Weiss. Talk to me.”

Weiss threw her hands in the air. “I just feel so stupid. All the things that my father did to the Faunus, I was aware of them, but I just…!”

Blake nodded. “I know what you mean. It can be a lot to process. But you’re not stupid.”

Weiss blinked, and Blake failed to stifle a laugh. Weiss sat up straight with indignation. “Hey!”

Blake giggled a bit more. “Sorry, I’m not laughing at you. But just the idea of you being stupid? You’re Weiss Schnee. You’re a goddamn genius. What would stupid Weiss even look like?”

Weiss pondered this for a moment, the question distracting her from her intense feelings just long enough to provide an answer. An answer she really shouldn’t vocalize aloud, not even here, but—

“My brother Whitley.”

Blake stared at her for a moment, then burst into more giggles. “Why is that?”

“He’s fourteen and thinks my father walks on water.”

“OK, I can see that.”

Weiss felt an odd levity coursing through her that was diametrically opposed to the pain from earlier, a smile spreading across her face. “You know, at least I’m not like that. I made it out, and I got to know you. I’d say that makes me better off than Father or Whitley.”

Blake smiled back, the temperature of the tent seeming to rise a few degrees. “Also, you’re not fourteen. I can safely say that being that age was the worst.”

“Oh, god, that was the worst.”

Blake smiled wider and reached for her bow. Weiss’s breath hitched as delicate fingers untied the bow, letting it unravel and pulling it off – but her feeling of wonder changed sharply as she saw Blake’s ears stay in that cramped, folded position for a moment. Blake hissed under her breath, reaching up to gently massage them between her fingers until they unfolded. Weiss shook her head. “That’s not a good sign, is it?”

Blake nodded. “It’s not good, but they’re getting better. Since last semester, I’ve been sleeping without it, and taking breaks between classes to take it off.”

“Still, that can’t be good for your ears to be bound up like that.”

Blake sighed. “It’s really not. The bow nearly dislocates them, too, it pulls them so far up my head. But it’s still better than dealing with Cardin every day.”

“Honestly, I can see that.”

Blake giggled again, and the tent flap opened, Ruby sticking her head in. “Hey, girls, the Grimm are gone. Wanna finish off the s’mores? Also, um… are you two doing OK?”

Blake nodded. “S’mores sound great.” She smiled at Weiss and left the tent, leaving her alone with Ruby.

She wondered if her heart would be beating this fast if Yang had come to check on them. She decided it was possible, but Ruby was her partner. She was special.

So, she gave her a big smile, and made for the exit.

“Yes, Ruby, I’m doing fine. Thanks for asking.”

Ruby was observant, sure. She could tell Weiss was acting strange. She’d entered the tent with Blake, feeling awful, and left with both of them smiling.

Clearly, there was a logical solution here.

Weiss was clearly crushing on Blake but didn’t want to say anything because she didn’t want to ruin Blake and Yang’s relationship!

At least, Ruby was pretty sure that was it.

Oh, shiz.

Chapter Text

Morning dawned, bringing with it the smell of baking earth, clear sunlight, and a panting noise right in Weiss’s ear. She opened her eyes, stifling a yawn and rubbing away the gum between her eyelids, to find herself face to face with Zwei. She yelped, and jumped back, Zwei’s stubby little tail wagging furiously as he sat himself down, tongue lolling. She smiled affectionately and scratched him behind the ears. “Dozy dog.”

She sat up, looking around the tent. Ruby was flat on her back, arms splayed and dead to the world, a rivulet of drool dribbling down her chin. Blake was curled in the fetal position on her side, purring softly in her sleep (a noise Weiss had never heard her make before), a soft and contented sound that was almost certainly due to Yang’s arms being wrapped around her, the blonde’s face buried in Blake’s hair, their legs intertwined. It was adorable but looking at them for too long gave Weiss an obscure pain in her chest that she couldn’t quite name, so she pulled herself to her feet and quietly slipped out of the tent.

The morning was quiet and warm, birdsong occasionally calling out from the pines. Weiss made the walk to the outhouse, the quality of which she was rather suspicious of, but it still couldn’t be worse than Mountain Glenn—oh, gods.

A few unspeakably disgusting minutes later, and Weiss was making liberal use of the pump to wash her hands and brush her teeth, a feat that required some clever use of glyphs (the pump took two hands, and she needed to run her toothbrush under the water), and then she was rifling through her bags for a change of clothes and some breakfast. She quickly swapped her nightgown for a knee-length denim skirt and a short-sleeved shirt with the Schnee crest patterned on it (her combat gear was fine, but if she was on vacation she may as well look the part), and retrieved an apple, which she began to elegantly bite into, seating herself on one of the logs they’d placed around the fire.

She also retrieved Myrtenaster and placed it by her side. After last night, she didn’t want to be caught unawares. Still, it seemed the Grimm weren’t keen on another attack, so she let her mind wander. The previous day had been rather intense, and she figured she should take some time to reflect on it. She briefly thought about Blake and about Father and flinched away from the thoughts – she wasn’t sufficiently icy to open that can of worms this early in the morning. So, instead, she focused on the other revelation she’d had that day.

Apparently, she liked girls.

She supposed this explained a lot, but it was still a little jarring to realize that straight girls probably didn’t stare at other girls that way, that the thoughts she’d had about her teammates weren’t—well, they were normal, (Weiss may have been Atlesian, but she wasn’t a Marigold), but that they didn’t align to who she’d considered herself to be. It probably also explained a lot about the situation with Neptune, how she’d liked the idea of being with him, but the reality had been… well, not bad, he’d been perfectly fine once he’d talked to her, but it had felt wrong, like it was part of the persona she projected, not something she actually wanted.

Not to mention, maybe straight girls didn’t have pinups of Pyrrha Nikos in their rooms.

(Not that Father would ever have let Weiss put such a thing on her wall, but she’d kept it under the bed.)

Still, Weiss supposed she should give herself credit for being able to actually discern between her persona and her real wants, she hadn’t been able to do that when she arrived at Beacon. Weiss Schnee™ the Heiress was a straight-As, straight-edge, straight girl who strove to be objectively perfect in every way, and Weiss had thought that had been her. But sharing a room with Ruby, Belladonna, and Xiao Long for months on end had changed all that. The real Weiss Schnee was a straight-As, straight-edge girl who strove to be the best person she could be in every way. And, apparently, a lesbian.

So, of course she’d fallen for her partner. Ruby was infuriating, but she was also endearing, and a puzzle she couldn’t resist, seeming so simple and so deep at the same time in a way that Weiss still couldn’t wrap her head around. The girl showed all the signs of immaturity, getting into massive pillow fights with Yang and obsessing over minutiae that didn’t matter to anyone else (as opposed to Weiss, who obsessed over minutiae that were of the utmost importance to anyone with a sense of social sophistication), but she had an emotional intelligence that seemed almost telepathic at times, especially when it came to Weiss.

And as far as Weiss knew (and she was pretty sure about this), Ruby was straight. She’d been excited to talk about cute boys with both herself and Penny, and she spent an awful lot of time with Arc – though, Weiss’s internal critic noted, Arc had spent months flirting with her, and had gone to the dance with Pyrrha. Weiss had been pretty wrapped up in her own problems that night, but she was pretty sure Ruby had gone stag. And Ruby had had no reaction to the walking, talking romance novel cliché that was Sun Wukong and his stupid abs…

Maybe Ruby just didn’t like anyone that way, Weiss didn’t know… Maybe…

“Morning, Weiss!”

Weiss started and fumbled her apple core. Ruby was leaning over her shoulder, dressed in a black tank top and matching skinny jeans. Weiss felt her cheeks flushing, and she scrambled away from the log. “Don’t do that, you dolt!”

Ruby pouted in a way that was just not fair to Weiss’s poor brain. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, I just…” She trailed off, eyes narrowing a little bit. Weiss tensed, wondering if she’d spotted a Grimm behind her, but Ruby didn’t go for her weapon.

“Weiss, what the heck are you wearing?”

Weiss blinked slowly. “Clothes…? Why?”

“OK, don’t take this the wrong way, but that shirt is like something my dad would wear. It’s… really ugly.”

Indignation rose in Weiss’s throat, and she didn’t stop it, not for something this trivial. “How am I supposed to not take that the wrong way?”

“It’s a Schnee-patterned Hawaiian shirt, Weiss!”

“What’s a Hawaiian?”

Ruby paused, blinking. “I’m… not sure, actually. But that’s not the point! That shirt is just really tacky.”

“Says the girl wearing black skinny jeans.”

Ruby hmphed, crossing her arms. “I’m goth, Weiss. Black skinny jeans are cool when you’re goth.”

Weiss threw up her hands in indignation. “I don’t know what you want from me. We’re alone out here, and I like this shirt. Besides, all you need is a loose checkered tie, and you’d fit right in with My Dust Romance.”

Ruby gasped. “How dare you! …Wait, why am I offended? MDR kick butt.”

Weiss squinted, trying to make sense of how she could fall for someone this uncultured. “Half an inch of black eyeliner on only the bottom lid isn’t what I’d call kicking butt, Ruby.”

Ruby scoffed. “You’re a prep, Weiss. You wouldn’t understand.”

Weiss blinked, wondering if Ruby was going to start talking about limpid tears next. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ruby blinked, and her expression changed in an instant. “Oh, shoot. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean… dang it.” She sat next to Weiss. “I had a rough night last night, and I guess I didn’t get much sleep.”

Well. Weiss didn’t think she’d sounded that offended, but she was tired of the argument, and she’d take the out. “It’s alright. Why did you have a rough night?”

Ruby smiled wryly. “Griffon almost got me. If Yang hadn’t punched it, I wouldn’t be here. It was a bit hard to sleep after that.”

Weiss felt her jaw drop. “Are you OK!?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Ruby’s smile was still on her face, but Weiss wasn’t so sure she could believe it. A Griffon had shown up? They were among the smart Grimm that stayed away from humanity. It was not a good sign that Ruby had fought one, and she said as much.

Ruby waved her off. “It’s alright, really. I’m alright.”

Weiss wondered if Ruby had just been putting on a brave face, then, when they’d returned to the fire and ate more s’mores after the Grimm, or if she was really alright.

“Hey, Ruby?”

“Yeah, Weiss?”

“How did Yang, er… come out?”

Ruby tilted her head, slightly confused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, when did she tell you all that she liked girls?”

Ruby’s eyes lit up. “Ohhh. She didn’t. We always knew.”

Weiss blinked. “What, really?”

“Uh, yeah, duh, it’s kind of obvious that Yang likes girls? She was talking about cute girls from the moment she had a concept of romance.”

“And nobody ever…?”

“Ever what?”

“Nobody ever judged her for it?”

“Why would they?” Ruby’s voice carried a note of genuine confusion. “That’d be like judging someone for being blonde.”

“Well…” Weiss was scrambling to try and explain. In Atlas, it was just a given that girls were expected to like boys and give their fathers an heir, and that boys were expected to take wives and carry on their family names. There were gay people in Atlas, obviously, but they were… well, even in Atlas, they were considered normal, but not normative, it was a quirk that made you different. You had to tell people; it wasn’t the default…

She tried to explain all this to Ruby, who just grew increasingly confused and a little concerned.

“So, wait, Atlas constructed its society around the idea of boys only liking girls, and girls only liking boys? What about nonbinary people?”

“Non-what?”

“Oh, boy. I don’t know if I’m the best person to explain this to you…”

Ruby proceeded to explain to Weiss the concept of gender spectrum theory, and other things that were apparently completely commonplace and accepted everywhere except where Weiss had grown up, as Weiss continued to feel more and more like she’d spent her life sitting in a tiny room with slices of bread and water while everyone else was in a big dance hall full of hors d’oeuvres and champagne.

“So, let me get this straight. A person can just… not be a boy or a girl?”

“It’s more nuanced than that, but yeah, pretty much. I mean, I’m cis, but a bunch of my friends at Signal were trans or nonbinary, and of course there’s Yang.”

Weiss blinked again. “What about Yang? She’s a girl.”

Ruby nodded, an air of patience around her that made Weiss feel like she was five years old. “Yeah, but she’s…” Ruby trailed off. “Actually, that’s none of my business. Ask her if you want to know.”

“Oh, you insufferable little red—”

“Morning, everyone!” Yang emerged from the tent looking cheerful and perky, exactly the opposite of how Weiss was feeling. Blake trailed behind her, cat ears out in the open and perked up, a smile on her face and a hasty knot tying her yukata shut that made Weiss squint suspiciously. Yang stretched massively and gave Ruby a big hug, then turned to Weiss, and frowned.

Weiss froze. Had Yang overheard their conversation? Was she going to yell at her for prying? Maybe Blake had told her about last night, and she was disappointed that Weiss had taken so long to comfort her teammate. Yang’s frown deepened, and Weiss steeled herself, ready for the worst.

“Weiss, what the hell are you wearing?”

Chapter Text

“You’re doing it wrong, Weiss.”

Weiss groaned in frustration, hands fumbling with the fishhook for the third time. “Alright, then, Yang, you show me how to set up bait.”

“With pleasure,” Yang’s voice rang out, swiping the hook from Weiss’s hands and rummaging through the tackle box, “See, all you have to do is fit the bait onto the hook like so, and… voila!” She handed the fishhook back, the small ball of dough now firmly speared on the sharp hook. “Here you go, Ice Queen.”

Weiss rolled her eyes as she fixed the hook to her rod. “Why are we even doing this? We have plenty of food in the cooler, and this barely even qualifies as a river.”

After roundly mocking Weiss’s fashion choices, Yang had declared that she would be taking Weiss off for some one-on-one quality time, and they had wandered through the woods until they’d come across a small brook. Weiss could have stood in it and the water would barely have lapped at her neck, and she was pretty sure one decent jump would clear it, but Yang had declared it perfect for fishing, and had retrieved rods and a tackle box full of dough baits. So now the two of them were sitting side by side, Yang’s line cast into the stream. Yang grinned slyly at her. “I’m doing this to catch a fish for Blake. And you’re here because we need to talk.”

Weiss grumbled to herself as she cast her line. “Of course that’s why you dragged me off. It can’t just be because you want to spend time with me, can it?”

Yang waved her hand airily. “Geez, Weiss, it’s not like I don’t like you or anything, but you haven’t even bought me dinner first.”

Weiss rolled her eyes, her hook sinking into the water. “I meant as a friend, you arrogant… never mind. What did you want to talk about?”

Yang kept her eyes focused on her line. “I overheard you and Ruby talking.”

“I knew it!”

“Yeah, yeah, you weren’t exactly quiet. Anyway, Ruby told you about me, then.”

“I… sort of?” Weiss searched Yang’s face for emotion and found only a controlled expressionlessness. “I didn’t really follow half of what she was saying, let alone how it related to you. It was… odd.”

Yang grunted, keeping her gaze away from Weiss. “Odd. Yeah, alright.”

Weiss could feel her face flushing. “You know what, no. I’ve had enough of putting my foot in my mouth and getting passive-aggressive remarks. It was odd to me, because nobody in Atlas ever saw fit to tell me that this sort of stuff existed. I’m sick of always offending people.”

Yang maintained her blank expression, but her eye was starting to twitch. “It’s fine. Forget I said anything.”

“Oh, you do not get to do that, Xiao Long. If I’ve screwed up again, the least you could do is tell me so I—”

“I said forget it, OK?” Yang was glaring at the water now, as if hoping her gaze would be enough to fry any fish that made the mistake of swimming by.

Weiss felt the ice creep over her, indignation swelling beyond her control, felt its numbness spread through her body, felt her lips start to move before she could stop herself— “You clearly want to talk about it if you dragged me all this way, so just grow a thicker skin and—”

“Would you shut up for a moment?” Yang’s eyes were focused on Weiss now, their colour a blazing red. Weiss quailed, her mouth snapping shut. She cursed herself silently. She hadn’t even noticed that she’d been pushing Yang, but her brain instantly ran through everything she’d said and every way Yang had responded, and came up with the sum total that she was apparently deaf and blind.

“You don’t think, do you, Weiss? To you it’s just some embarrassing mistake, something that makes you look bad, makes you face social repercussions. You don’t think about how it feels to hear it, do you?”

“Yang, I don’t—”

“To hear that something that’s basically been your life for the last decade is odd. Don’t you think that no matter how patient you are, no matter how much you make allowance for the fact that it was how they were raised, no matter how forgiving you try to be, that it still hurts?”

“I-I don’t understand—”

Yang hugged herself tightly, eyes wet. “I know you’re trying. I know that. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less when you do say shit like that.”

Weiss tamped down her shock. Somehow, of every emotion she’d seen from Yang, ranging from anger to exuberant joy, this sort of vulnerability and tears had been something that she’d never encountered before. Something inside of her began to ache, and the pain of it shattered the ice like a boot. “Yang, I’m sorry, I didn’t know that…” She trailed off. She still didn’t know what it was she didn’t know, and every instinct in her was telling her that now was not the time to ask more questions. “…I should have dropped it. I’m sorry.”

Yang sniffed, eyes still red. “Yeah, I bet you are. But are you sorry that I was hurt, or are you just sorry that you screwed up?”

Weiss opened her mouth, but Yang cut across her. “Don’t answer that, there isn’t anything you could say to convince me. I just… god, I feel so weak. Here I was, ready to have an adult fucking conversation about it, and then one word just sends me spiraling like this.”

Weiss lowered her head, silent for a moment. “…that’s not what I meant, when I said…” She trailed off again. If Yang wanted her to drop it…

But Yang didn’t say a word, just looking at Weiss. Weiss bolstered her courage, and spoke, her eloquence gone, the words feeling clumsy on her tongue. “It was more like… It felt odd because… because I didn’t know you could do that. I didn’t know it was allowed.”

Yang’s jaw dropped, just a little; whatever she’d been expecting Weiss to say, it clearly wasn’t that; Weiss took that as a good sign and let the words just flow. “In Atlas, you have to be one or the other. And which one you can be… it’s decided when you’re born. You don’t get to decide. There’s this family, the Marigolds? Their eldest son graduated from Atlas, then ran away from home, and… changed? Into a girl. And it… it was something Father and his friends joked about, Yang, it was a scandal, and the Marigolds’ reputation never recovered. That’s what it was like, up there, and to hear that it didn’t have to be that way, that I could choose…”

“Enough.”

Weiss immediately stopped talking. Yang’s eyes were lilac again, and she was giving Weiss a very strange look that Weiss couldn’t understand, but it made her shiver a little.

And then, inexplicably, Yang smiled.

“Alright, Ice Queen. I guess there was something you could say.”

“Yang, I swear, I didn’t mean to hurt you, and I’m sorry—”

“I believe you.”

Weiss blinked. “Can… can you please explain it to me, then? If you’re OK with that? Ruby said it was none of her business, so I assume it’s not necessarily something you tell people.”

Yang took a deep breath, wiping her eyes hard. “Yeah, OK. I’m trans and nonbinary. My pronouns are she/they.”

“What do those terms mean?”

“Well… when I was born, everyone thought I was a boy. Turns out I wasn’t, but I figured out about a year or two ago that I wasn’t quite a girl, either. I’m sort of in between being a girl and being neither, if that makes sense.”

Weiss considered this for a moment, then nodded at Yang. “I think I get it… and the pronouns?”

“I use she/her pronouns for official stuff and around people I don’t know all that well. All my Beacon paperwork and stuff like that says I’m a woman. And most of the time, it fits pretty well. But sometimes they/them feels like it fits me better, you know?”

Weiss nodded again, noting how a smile was spreading across Yang’s face again, her—their eyes beginning to dry. “Thank you for telling me that, Yang. I won’t forget it.”

Yang cracked a grin, though it wasn’t very wide. “You’d better not.”

“Now, any sign of a fish?”

Yang glanced at their line. “Not yet, no.”

“Does this river even have fish?”

“The website said it was stocked year-round with salmon.”

“Yang, salmon are longer than my arm! Look at how small this stream is, it couldn’t possibly have salmon in it!”

“But the website said—oh, damn it, don’t tell me it lied again!”

“I swear, the next time we see that Campbell degenerate, I’m stuffing that moustache of his down his throat.”

“I’ll help.”

And they continued fishing the empty river, while a thought buzzed quietly in Weiss’s head.

“Could I do that too if I wanted to?”

“SOARING NINJA WINS! TOTAL ANNIHILATION!”

“God damn it, Ruby!”

Blake threw the Scroll down in disgust. It was their fifth game of Ninja Fighter that morning, and Blake’s fifth defeat. She groaned and leaned against the log. “How are you so good at this game?”

“I was always playing video games with Yang and Uncle Qrow whenever I got the chance. I mean, except for when I was reading comics, or training, or…”

“I get the picture.” Blake stared up at the sky. “How did you find The Man With Two Souls, by the way?”

Ruby grinned, sitting down next to her. “It was great! I liked the twist reveal at the end, about how the man actually only had one soul the whole time, and the whole thing was a commentary on the Atlesian emotional repression policy in the prewar era.”

Blake smiled. “I liked that part too.”

“Oh, speaking of Atlas and emotional repression, I wanted to talk to you about Weiss.”

Blake’s ears flicked towards Ruby. “About Weiss? What about her?”

“I think she might have a crush on you, Blake. She was acting all weird last night after you shared the tent together while I was being a cool Huntress.”

Blake blinked, her thoughts going on a journey from surprise, to brief contemplation, to a resounding no that reverberated through her brain even before Yang’s face appeared front and center behind her eyes. “Thanks for telling me, Ruby. I’ll have to head that off at the pass.”

“No prob! I wondered if maybe the right thing to do would be to keep it quiet, but then I thought about all those romance novels, and how all the drama gets extended by people just not talking to each other about stuff, so I figured the smart thing to do would be to just tell you before it could get out of hand.”

Blake nodded. “That’s pretty sensible of you, Ruby.”

“Thanks! I also wondered why she wouldn’t act on it, and I figured it was because she didn’t want to get between you and Yang, and sister takes priority over partner, so that was another reason to head it off, because I really can’t see Yang being OK with you dating her and Weiss, and—” Ruby took a deep breath, and Blake held up a hand. “I really don’t need to hear any more, Ruby. I’ll deal with it, I promise.”

“Also, you know, she’s super repressed and probably in the closet, and just based on her face journey when I explained gender and Judith Buttermilk to her I think she’s probably also an egg?”

Blake smiled and nodded, pretending to know who Judith Buttermilk was and what “egg” meant in this context. “She is super repressed.”

“I know, right? I feel really bad about it sometimes, because I just know there’s a really cool person under there, and she’s so sophisticated and elegant and really pretty—”

“Ruby—”

“—and she’s super composed on the battlefield and our team attack is awesome and she smells nice and she works really hard and have you heard her sing—”

“Ruby, I think you might—”

“—and so of course I want to be her bestie, which I obviously am, and also kind of want to be her sometimes?”

Blake stared up at the sky, trying not to laugh.

She knew that she should probably tell Ruby.

Hell, every romance novel’s excruciatingly drawn-out plotline told her that she should tell Ruby and save everyone a lot of time and effort.

But she wondered what would happen if she didn’t, and just let events play out.

Then she realized that was stupid.

“Ruby, I think you might have a crush on Weiss.”

Ruby blinked. “What? Pshht. Nah. Me? Have a crush on Weiss? No way. You’re talking crazy talk, Blake.”

“That’s an awful lot of very specific denials, Ruby—”

“Oh look Weiss and Yang are back you’d better go deal with that situation I mentioned I’m gonna go to the outhouse BYE!”

And Blake was left with a trail of rose petals leading in the direction directly opposite the outhouse, as Yang and Weiss entered the clearing with a full tackle box and no fish, rods slung over their shoulders.

“What was that all about?” Yang asked, their eyes tracking the rose petal trail.

Blake shrugged, and turned to Weiss. “Just Ruby being Ruby. Weiss, can I talk to you for a moment?”

She saw the flicker of fear cross Weiss’s face, and she knew that Ruby was right. She cursed internally. As if she didn’t have enough on her plate. But thankfully, Weiss nodded, and Blake led her into the tent, where she took a deep breath.

“Look, Weiss, I just wanted to tell you… I value our relationship.”

Weiss nodded, somewhat relaxing. “Alright?”

Blake took another deep breath; this was hard, she’d never had to do it before. “And you really do mean a lot to me.”

“And you to me, Blake.” Weiss smiled, but instead of putting Blake at ease, it made her stomach plummet at the thought that she’d have to wipe that smile from her friend’s face.

“That being said…”

Weiss raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“I’m really flattered but I don’t return your feelings, I just like you as a friend—"

Chapter Text

The sun shone low in the sky – not low enough to count as sunset just yet, but low enough for the sky’s blue to become pale, hints of white tinting the horizon. The pines rustled as Blake followed her girlfriend through the small trails, crouching to look at…

“What about these ones?”

Blake sighed affectionately and took in the berries sprouting from the bush in front of her.

“Chokecherry. Don’t eat the seeds, they have glycoside.”

Yang shrugged. “Might as well leave them alone, then. How about… these?”

“Raspberries.”

“Sweet.” Yang plucked a couple and tossed them into her mouth. Blake shook her head. “You took Professor Peach’s course the same as me, Yang. You should be able to identify these plants yourself.”

“Yeah, but that would’ve required me to pay attention.”

“Yang!”

Yang laughed, skipping along the path. “Hey, I’ve still got good test scores. I can just read the textbook later.”

“That’s not the point, Yang. If you just cram for a test for the sake of a grade, you won’t be able to remember any of it out in the field.”

Yang waggled her eyebrows. “Well, when I have such a smart partner, I don’t need to remember. How’re these?” she asked, turning her attention to a flowering plant laden with berries.

Blake crossed her arms, trying her hardest not to laugh or smile. “Now I’m not even going to look, or you’ll never learn.”

Yang just laughed and picked a berry. “Suit yourself, then.” She lifted it to her lips, and Blake’s eyes widened as she recognized the glossy, almost cherry-like black berry. All her laughter died away in an instant as she charged forward and tackled Yang to the ground, the berry rolling away. “NO!”

Yang blinked as she stared up at Blake, taking in her shrinking pupils and heavy breathing. “Geez, Blake, I wasn’t gonna actually eat it, what do you take me for?”

“That was belladonna, Yang. Deadly nightshade.” Blake remembered vividly her father showing her the plant that was her family’s namesake, and telling her that she must never, ever eat any of it. Yang’s confusion gave way to sudden clarity. “Yeesh. What is with this place? No fish in the river, belladonna in the woods, why would anyone camp here?”

Blake took a moment to regain her bearings now that Yang was safe. She took a deep breath, pushing away the images that were springing into her brain; Weiss unconscious on a train floor, Yang being punched through a concrete pillar, Adam’s eye. She shook herself, and slowly realized she was straddling Yang. She blushed and stood up. “I didn’t actually see any other campers, Yang. I think we’re the only people in the world to fall for such a blatant scam.”

Yang groaned and pushed herself to her feet. “Yeah, well. It worked out, huh? Besides, we also have raspberries.”

“Heh, I guess so. Any sign of Ruby?”

Yang shook her head. “Guess she wants to be alone right now. How was your talk with Weiss?”

Blake groaned aloud, running her hands down her face. “God, it was so embarrassing. Ruby told me Weiss had a crush on me, and I believed her, so I tried to head it off, but Weiss had no idea what I was talking about.”

Yang winced. “Sounds rough. What’d you tell her after that?”

“Well, I wasn’t about to throw Ruby under the bus, so I just apologized, and we worked it out like adults, and she told me some things that she asked me not to repeat, and I think everything’s gonna be fine.”

 Yang stuck out her tongue. “You’re really gonna just leave it with that? Now I have to know what she said!”

Blake winked at Yang. “Tough. I keep your secrets, I’ll keep hers, too.”

Yang shrugged. “I told Weiss about me when we were fishing.”

“I meant about what you saw on the train,” Blake thought, but she really didn’t want to think about how badly their most recent mission had gone, so she turned her attention back to what Yang had just said about coming out to Weiss. “How’d she handle it?” Blake could easily imagine that conversation turning sour, and she noted Yang’s face tense a little.

“It wasn’t great, but I think I overreacted a bit. We worked it out.”

“Thank god.” Blake sighed in relief. “I don’t think I can deal with any more drama. It’s been two days, and we’re here for two weeks.”

Yang nodded. “Honestly, the only ones here who haven’t had a breakdown yet are Ruby and Zwei.”

“Ruby did run off into the woods somewhere.”

Yang just facepalmed. “So much for no drama. At least Zwei’s having a good time.”

Blake’s expression dropped the surrounding temperature by five degrees. “Too good a time. That dog keeps getting near me.”

Yang snickered. “He’s friendly, Blake. He wants you to play with him. How are these?”

“Blackberries. I don’t care how friendly he is, I don’t want him near me.”

“Is it beca—”

“No, it’s not because I’m a cat Faunus. I just don’t like dogs.”

“Oh. Any particular reason, or…?”

Blake shook her head. “I like my personal space, and dogs don’t respect it.”

“Fair enough. How about these?”

“Holly. Don’t eat them.”

Yang nodded, stretching luxuriously, and despite Blake’s best efforts, she couldn’t stop her eyes from following the arc. Yang was wearing a tank top and shorts, and the effect on Blake was just not fair, and the worst part was that Yang knew it. She turned to Blake, grinning. “So, why did Ruby run off, anyway?”

“I pointed out her incredibly obvious crush on Weiss.”

Yang wound a finger in her hair. “Sounds like Ruby, all right. Rubes is willing to deal with everyone’s problems but her own.”

“That doesn’t sound healthy.”

“It’s not, but she doesn’t listen to anyone about it.”

“And how about you, Xiao Long?”

Yang hesitated. “What do you mean?”

Blake extended her hand. “I know you, Yang. Your acting is great, but I can tell when you’ve been crying.”

Yang sighed and kept walking, Blake close behind. “It’s alright, really. I misinterpreted what she meant, she got defensive, I blew up. It’s all fine now. What are these ones?”

“Mistletoe, it’s poisonous. Yang, please, talk to me.”

“And this one?”

“Lily-of-the-Valley. Poisonous. You were there for me, please let me be there for you.”

Yang stopped walking, and finally sat down, between a belladonna and another flowering shrub. Blake sat beside her, leaning in.

“Hey. We’re fine. We’re together. I’m here for you no matter what, OK?”

Yang nodded, putting an arm around Blake. “I don’t really want to talk about it, but… I guess I can let you be there for me.”

Blake smiled, purring softly as she held Yang. “That’s all I ask.”

“This one?”

Blake looked at the other flowering plant and found herself surprised. “It’s a chili. Those are bell peppers. I didn’t know those grew in Vale.”

Yang shrugged, leaning into Blake’s touch. “Well, plants can grow anywhere they’re allowed to thrive, you know. All it takes is some hard work and love.”

Blake nodded, purring louder. “I agree completely.”

“And someone willing to tackle you to the ground to stop you eating poison berries.”

“Yeah, maybe don’t eat random plants you found in the woods, Yang.”

“Duly noted.”

Ruby’s boots cracked branches, her cape flapping behind her, the world around her a blur.

She wasn’t sure why she was running, or what exactly she was running from. All she knew was that she had to keep running, to outrace her thoughts. She slid around a tree, kicking up a spray of mud that coated the side of her jeans, and she barely even noticed, her brain was running just as fast as she was, and she couldn’t escape it.

“Ruby, I think you might have a crush on Weiss.”

It was unthinkable. Impossible, really. Blake couldn’t have figured it out, not when Ruby had buried those feelings down the deepest hole she could find.

She couldn’t let herself have those sorts of feelings. Not for a teammate. That was what the badge meant, that someday she might have to choose between saving an innocent and saving a teammate, and because she was the leader the choice would be on her, and she knew, somewhere deep down, that she couldn’t let herself end up like Dad. Friends were fine, Uncle Qrow had said, you could lose friends; it would hurt, but you could keep going. But not someone you loved. Not someone who made you feel like that. That was the sort of person you kept away from the battlefield, the sort of person you fought to come home to when it was all over, the person to whom you swore it would be OK before you headed out, your white cloak flapping as you see them for what you don’t know would be the last time—

Red like roses

She couldn’t let that happen again.

Fills my head with dreams and finds me

She couldn’t fall in love with a teammate.

Always closer

Couldn’t hold on to anyone she couldn’t keep.

To the emptiness and sadness

So, she would bury these feelings, and lock them away.

That has come to take the place of you

And she would keep smiling and laughing, because she needed that, and her team needed it even more, and she wouldn’t fail the burden that Ozpin had trusted her with, because that’s what it meant to be a leader.

Chapter Text

Ruby’s feet tromped through the undergrowth, twigs snapping beneath her boots. She wasn’t running anymore, but she could still feel the itch in the back of her neck, urging her to move, to let the world around her slow, to feel the wind rushing past in a slipstream of roses, and think about nothing at all.

She knew she should probably go back; the way she’d run off, they were sure to be worried about her. But if she was honest, she was sort of alright with that. It was the sort of selfish thought she’d been trying her best not to have since the day she’d spoken with Ozpin in the halls after class, but she needed some time for herself, dang it! She’d planned for this trip to be fun, but so far it seemed less like a vacation and more like… well, Ruby didn’t really have words to describe it, except that she’d seen two teammates have a breakdown, a Griffon had nearly eaten her, and Blake had figured out her secret.

She wondered if this sort of thing happened when Team JNPR went on vacation. Probably not. If it were them on this trip, Ren would probably be making them all pancakes while Jaune played his guitar and Pyrrha swooned over him as obviously as she could. But no, it was Team RWBY, and that meant that trouble just seemed to follow them. Normally, Ruby was more than OK with a little excitement, but even she knew that “too much of a good thing” was a real thing that happened. She wondered if something was wrong with them all, or if it was just her.

For the first time, she considered just loading everyone in the truck and going home. Call it a wash, and just go home for the summer instead. It was the sensible thing to do, especially since they’d been blatantly conned.

But…

Well…

The truth was…

Ruby didn’t really want that.

She wanted this trip to be fun. She’d been looking forward to it for weeks, had excitedly packed, and hadn’t they had fun putting up the tent? Roasting s’mores? She didn’t want to just leave, but… well, she wasn’t sure what to do. Everything was jumbled up, and all her thoughts were in chaos, and she just wanted things to feel right, and the urge to just run wouldn’t shut up, and she normally had better control than this, it was easier to keep up the mask (not a deception, she would explain, had she been asked, but a filter over her thoughts, the same one that other people seemed to put up without even thinking about it but she had to work at all the time), but she didn’t have anything to fidget with and everything was too loud and too quiet at the same time and all the voices in her brain were shouting at each other instead of working together and all she knew how to do was drown them out with a rush of wind and roses, but she didn’t know where she was, and—

Her thoughts came to a screeching halt.

She didn’t know where she was.

She looked around, but the pines seemed to be crowding around her, and it was getting dark, and she didn’t recognize any of her surroundings. She took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching her fists.

Her thoughts fell into order as one tangible fact presented itself.

She was lost. She had to find her way home. That was her mission.

Ruby turned around and began to walk. If she stayed moving in one direction, she’d either find her way back or reach the edge of the woods. From there, she could find the relay tower and the highway, and navigate back to the campsite.

She nodded in satisfaction. She was still Ruby Rose, and now that she had a goal to work towards, the disparate voices fell silent, her focus directed entirely towards that goal.

Make it back to the campsite. Until she did that, nothing else mattered.

Really, she was a little disappointed in her goalless self for falling apart like that. That wasn’t what she’d been trained to do, after all.

“Any sign of her?”

Yang shook their head. “We found a bunch of plants, but no Ruby. If she doesn’t want to be found, she won’t be.”

Weiss stomped her foot in frustration. “Unbelievable! She’s so childish sometimes. First she dreams up some infatuation between me and Blake, and now she runs off. What were you two even talking about?” She demanded, rounding on Blake, who stiffened.

“Nothing important, just books.”

Weiss put her hands on her hips. “Oh, don’t ‘just books’ me, Belladonna. You were talking about something that upset her. I swear, if you made her cry…”

“Woah, woah, woah, where’s this coming from?” Yang held up their hands conciliatorily. “Why would Blake ever do something to make Ruby cry? They’re friends!”

Blake nodded, now eyeing Weiss with a suspicious gaze that made her nervous. “And why are you so invested in Ruby’s emotional wellbeing, Weiss?”

Weiss felt the icy indignation rising in her throat, and tamped it down hard, this was not the time. “She’s my partner, Blake, of course I care!”

Blake quirked an eyebrow. “Just partners?”

Weiss huffed. She didn’t know what Blake was getting at, but she didn’t like how close she was getting to Weiss’s current confusion. “What do you mean by that? All the team partners I know are like that. Yang would punch anyone who made you cry, Nora threatens the kneecaps of anyone who even looks at Ren the wrong way, and Pyrrha went solo against all of Team CRDL because of how they treated Jaune! My concern for Ruby is completely ordinary!”

Blake and Yang glanced at each other. Weiss felt a stark horror rising, like she’d horribly misjudged a situation and made a massive misstatement. “What? What is it?”

She could see the gremlins having a conversation with each other with just their eyes, they weren’t subtle, but whatever argument they’d just had, Yang apparently won, because Blake heaved a dramatic sigh and turned back to Weiss. “Yang and I are dating. Nora and Ren aren’t ‘together-together’,” she said, making quotation marks with her fingers, “whatever that means, but they’re pretty obviously dating, and Pyrrha’s crush on Jaune is about the most blatant attraction I’ve ever seen in my entire life; Jaune’s just oblivious, and even he’s started to notice, they were together at the dance.”

Weiss blinked.

Well, when you put it like that…

Well, she wasn’t that surprised. She already knew she liked Ruby, and she supposed now was as good a time as any to let her secret out.

“Blake, Yang…” Weiss took a deep breath, praying for courage…

“I’m gay.”

She wasn’t sure what she’d expected them to say. She knew they weren’t about to deride her; they were gay themselves. But she’d been expecting a hug or something, maybe an acknowledgement of how much courage that took to say.

Instead, Yang fished a wad of Lien out of their pocket and handed it to Blake. “You win.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Blake rolled her eyes. “Yang and I had a bet on whether you’d come out before we graduated.”

“And that means…?” Weiss wasn’t sure what she was feeling now, or what she was supposed to feel.

Yang shrugged. “It means we knew.”

Ah, right, that was it.

She was supposed to feel angry.

“You fucking KNEW!?”

At least they had the decency to look ashamed. White-hot rage spilled from inside her, and she didn’t bother trying to restrain it.

“I’ve been trying to make sense of my feelings this whole gods-forsaken trip, and now you’re trying to tell me you knew how I felt before I did? And instead of telling me that might be it, or even respecting my privacy, you decided to bet money on it?”

Yang shrugged a little. “I mean, it’s not like it was a big deal, right?”

“I’m from Atlas! It’s a big deal to me!”

Blake winced. “I’m sorry, Weiss. I… guess we didn’t really think—”

“About my feelings? That’s obvious.”

Weiss could feel the anger receding; it had served its purpose. Yang was scuffing the ground with their boot, hands clasped behind their back, and Blake was hugging herself tightly. She swallowed the rising guilt; she hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true, and she was still upset with them. Just because they felt bad didn’t mean she was obligated to forgive them immediately.

But she did feel bad about the shame on their faces. Yang looked up slowly. “It was mostly my idea. I’m sorry, Weiss.”

“I accept your apologies. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go look for Ruby.”

Blake shook her head. “It’s getting dark, Weiss. It’s not safe. She’s our leader, she can take care of herself.”

Weiss looked at Blake for a moment, then over at the truck. Blake’s eyebrows furrowed. “What is it?”

“Can she take care of herself without Crescent Rose?”

Weiss strode into the woods, Myrtenaster drawn, ready to find her partner.

So far, Operation Get Back Home wasn’t going too well. All the trees looked the same, and Ruby was pretty sure she’d been here already. She was getting frustrated, and she was tempted to cut her losses and just call the others. She reached for her Scroll, and groped empty air. She swore quietly; the Scroll had been set up for video games, and she hadn’t bothered to retrieve it before she ran off. She sat down, a shiver running down her spine. There was nothing for it but to sit and wait for a rescue.

What if they didn’t find her before morning? She’d be out in the cold summer night all alone, lost and scared. All because she’d had to run off. She wondered again if there was something really wrong with her, something beyond neurodivergence. Another shiver ran down her spine at the thought.

Would the others even realize anything was wrong, or would they just think she wanted to be alone? They might not be looking for her at all, she was the leader. (The thought that they had gone after her in Mountain Glenn and would surely search for her now didn’t cross her mind; it was hard to think of any positive reassurance right now.) Maybe, she even wondered, they were glad she was away for now. She knew that being two years younger made some things a bit awkward, and being Yang’s sister put a damper on the conversations they could have around her, especially if she was right about Weiss’s crush. Maybe they were happy for her absence, at least in the short term. Maybe they resented her being the leader and just weren’t saying anything. Maybe Ozpin had made a mistake.

A shiver ran down her spine for a third time, at that thought… no, wait.

That wasn’t her thoughts.

That was her Aura.

Ruby slowly stood up and turned around to meet the gleaming red eyes glaring at her, inset in the bone skull of an Alpha Beowolf, jaws slavering in hatred as it reared, revealing three scarred welts in its chest exactly the size of Ruby’s bullets.

There were times when oh shiz really wasn’t enough to cover it.

Chapter Text

White boots stumbled through the undergrowth, heels catching roots, nettles and grasses nicking at bare shins, slowly draining her Aura, albeit by negligible amounts. Weiss didn’t even stop to notice, her thoughts flying a mile a minute; every word Goodwitch had ever lectured about search patterns, every book she’d ever read about rescues, all of it was vital, because Ruby was in danger, she had to find her.

Funny, how that single thought threw everything else into sharp relief. It wasn’t even the first time Ruby had been in trouble like this, but in Mountain Glenn, she’d been focused primarily on stopping the White Fang, and she’d trusted that Ruby could hold out. Now, however, she found herself on the verge of panic, all due to one simple fact that had been sitting in the back of her mind for a long time, now speaking plainly, with neither fire nor ice.

Ruby was precious to her. Whatever other confusing things may be going on in her head, that fact remained, steadfast and true. All else was irrelevant in the face of that. Yang and Blake’s stupid bet, confusion over whether she actually wanted to be a girl if she had the choice, coming out to Winter and Klein, even deciding whether her feelings for Ruby were romantic or not; none of it mattered, so long as Ruby needed her.

Weiss looked back and forth in desperation, memorized lines slipping through her brain. She gritted her teeth and stomped her foot.

Focus, Weiss.

She remembered Blake’s story, remembered how she’d never connected what she’d studied to the actual world around her. It was the same principle here, she thought. Bring the words out of memorization and study, forget the context of grades, apply what she’d learned to the here and now, because she didn’t have time to remember, she had to know it.

She scored a tally into the nearest pine with the edge of her blade; if she saw this tree again, she’d know it. She set her eyes on a search pattern, listening intently for any disturbances in the rhythm of the woods.

It was hopeless, she didn’t know what that rhythm was, she’d never dealt with real wilderness like this, only the Emerald Forest with its ruins, and she’d gotten hopelessly lost there. Her chest tightened like steel claws were crushing her ribcage; it was getting hard to breathe, Ruby was in danger, and she couldn’t muster enough tracking skill to find her. She should have brought Blake along; she was perfect for this sort of thing with her night vision and Faunus hearing. What had she been thinking, heading off on her own like that?

Well, she knew the answer to that. She’d been mad at Blake and Yang, and she’d wanted to be the one to rescue Ruby, because…

The open question lay there. Weiss knew there had to be a rational explanation, and she was pretty sure she even knew what it was, but she couldn’t make herself admit that, not just yet. It was too petty, too clingy, too proud, and because of it she may have doomed Ruby.

Weiss closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle.

Then she heard the scream, and she knew where she had to go.

If she could just make it in time…

The evening seemed to fall utterly silent, as red eyes met silver. Ruby tried to rally her thoughts. The Grimm recognized her from the night before, she could tell that much. It snarled, claws gleaming. She put up her fists, trying to remember all her thoughts from last night about deadly rhythms and death songs, but they wouldn’t come to her brain. Instead, thoughts like my, what big teeth you have or if I outrun it, I’ll get even more lost bounced through her brain. She managed a nervous chuckle. “You’re a big boy, aren’t you?”

She felt her lips move, heard her voice, but she hadn’t made any conscious decision to speak. Her brain felt empty, sluggish to move – and that scared her even more than the Grimm. She tried desperately to remember the one session on unarmed combat she’d had with Yang before Beacon, but all her brain supplied was the memory of punching a uniformed Faunus and getting her clock cleaned in return. She bit her lip. Was she even making a fist correctly? She remembered being told that if she made it the wrong way, she’d break her thumb the moment it connected, but her mind refused to connect the tidbit with her actual stance.

The Beowolf advanced slowly, tail swishing from side to side, ears perked. It knew she was scared, she realized, and it was almost relishing it. She wondered how long the Alpha had survived, to gain enough intelligence to enjoy the way she stared at it.

Too long, her strategic hindbrain noted. Campbell must not be able to hire many Huntsmen.

She tried to swallow her fear, to quash it beneath bravery, but even she knew this was a bad situation. Running would get her lost, and she knew she couldn’t fight back without Crescent Rose. Her heart pounded in her chest, as she realized she had exactly one option.

Ruby took a deep breath, tilted her head back, and screamed as loud as she could.

The Alpha charged, and Ruby dove to one side, the Grimm’s claws shredding the tree trunk behind her, sticky sap dripping from its paw that could just as easily have been her Aura: or her blood. Ruby took a deep breath; if the scream had reached, she just had to hold on. The Beowolf charged again, and Ruby leaped over it, hand grabbing its bone mask and pivoting as she jumped. The Grimm reared, and spun around, its claw catching against the steel toe of Ruby’s boot. Sparks flew as a horrible nails-on-chalkboard sound rang out, throwing Ruby off balance as she involuntarily winced. She felt her back slam into a tree, and a moment later, the Grimm was on her. She kicked out, her feet slamming into its underbelly repeatedly as its teeth tore at her Aura, until it briefly backed off; she’d kicked it right in one of the bullet wounds.

Her Aura was broken; she could feel that one of its blows had nearly broken skin and would certainly leave a bruise. She was a sitting duck, she knew, and her options were even narrower now that her Semblance was off-limits. The Beowolf reared, let loose a howl, and charged. Ruby winced as the cold overtook her…

Wait a moment… the cold?

She tentatively opened her eyes to see a spike of glittering ice in front of her, between the Grimm and herself. She looked around and heard what she thought must be the most wonderful sound in the world; a cold voice speaking in even, measured tones.

“Get your filthy claws off my partner.”

Weiss faced down the Alpha Beowolf, eyes narrowed. This was something she’d been trained for, not simply taught. Three bullet wounds in the abdomen, scarred and healing. She’d never fought an Alpha by herself before, but she wasn’t about to fail now. She summoned a glyph and prepared to strike. The glyph appeared beneath her feet and propelled her forward; she swung Myrtenaster with surgical precision, slicing at the brute’s side. Another glyph caught her and redirected her momentum back at the enemy: another precise strike. The Alpha’s claws lashed out, covered in something sticky that she hoped to all that was holy wasn’t blood, and she took the blow, sliding backward. She almost readied a fireball but stopped herself in the nick of time. Pines weren’t necessarily that flammable in the summer, but it’d been so dry, she risked lighting the underbrush. She settled for ice instead, sending a line of spikes at the Grimm; but it dodged to one side, and charged toward her.

Weiss took a deep breath. It was time to bring out the big guns. She cast the glyph beneath her feet; the ticking of a clock rang in her ears as the Beowolf slowed down before her eyes. In fact, the whole world slowed to a crawl. She wondered briefly if this was what it was like to be Ruby, then set about delivering as many strikes to the monster’s body as she could before the glyph wore off. Arms, legs, chest, face; every target was fair game for Myrtenaster’s sonata, a polished, perfect melody that did not waver, that left no room for error and brooked no sloppiness. A flawless instrument of destruction, set against the Grimm that would… not… die. She wasn’t sure what it was; whether her blade was dull, or this Grimm was just that tough, her strikes were dealing damage, but not enough, not nearly enough. She gritted her teeth, pouring all her Aura into extending the glyph. She had to kill it before it was able to react. She struck it a dozen more times, each strike piercing its flesh, but none dissolving it into smoke…

She felt her Aura flicker, and she cast all her willpower into keeping the glyph together, but she felt it fade; and felt the Beowolf’s head slam into her own as time returned to normal.

As she fell to the ground, darkness clouding her eyes, she tried to force herself to get up. Ruby still needed her; she couldn’t falter!

Her body refused to obey, her strength at its limit; but then, a very odd thing seemed to happen.

For the final moment before her eyes fluttered closed, she heard a voice yelling her name, and the darkness turned into brilliant moonlight.

Ruby opened her eyes. Her head was pounding, her mouth as dry as the desert of Vacuo. She couldn’t quite recall what had just happened; she remembered the Beowolf, remembered Weiss coming to save her, but not much after that. She supposed she must have tried to help and gotten knocked out, but that didn’t explain how they’d survived to make it back to the tent.

Ruby paused. That last sentence didn’t quite fit, but she figured there was no point in mulling it over. For they were back in the tent somehow. She could see Blake curled up in her sleeping bag, Weiss flat on her back with a large bandage wrapped around her head, and Yang, fast asleep in a chair facing her. Somehow, she was fine, and home. She didn’t know how or why, but they’d made it. She took a breath and tried to ask for water, but the word that came out instead was, “Weiss.”

Pale blue eyes immediately flickered open, glancing over at Ruby. She winced, waiting for the rebuke; she shouldn’t have run off, she should have brought her Scroll, or her weapon, she was childish and, and…

“I’m so glad you’re alright.”

Ruby stared at her partner, apologies dying in her throat. She couldn’t place exactly what sort of look Weiss was giving her, but it made her feel warm inside in a way that set alarm bells ringing. She curled inward, trying not to meet her gaze. “What… happened?”

Weiss shrugged. “I’m not sure. Blake and Yang said they found us unconscious. You’re fine, I’ve got a concussion, which is why I’m awake.”

“You hit your head?”

“I must have, but I don’t really remember anything after my Aura broke.”

There was silence, then, as Weiss took in Ruby’s body language, and Ruby continued to avoid her gaze.

“Ruby, I… I have something I want to tell you.”

Ruby shivered. The alarm bells were ringing, her brain was trying to scream at her, but it was wrapped in so much cotton wool that nothing was getting through. Besides, the last time she’d listened to those warnings, she’d wound up lost in the woods.

Still…

“Can it wait until morning? My head’s pounding, and I need water.”

Guilt and sympathy flashed across Weiss’s face, her expression crumpling in a way that made Ruby’s heart give a painful twinge. “Of course.”

Weiss stood up, wincing slightly with the effort, and exited the tent, returning a moment later with Ruby’s water bottle. She handed it over, and Ruby drank until it was empty.

“Thanks, Weiss.”

Weiss shrugged. “It was nothing.”

“No, for earlier. You saved my life.”

Weiss flushed slightly and rubbed the back of her neck. “You’d do the same for me. Besides,” she continued, a note of cold returning to her voice, “you shouldn’t have been out there without a weapon in the first place. What in the world did Blake say that made you run off like that?”

Ruby bit her lip. The water had soothed her throat, and some of the throbbing in her temples was beginning to subside, but a terrible pain was forming in her chest, one that had nothing to do with the Grimm. Words began to rise in her throat, no matter how hard she tried to force them down. She only shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. The cold vanished from Weiss’s voice again as she said, “Ruby, are you alright? What’s wrong?” But the ringing in Ruby’s ears began to drown out her partner’s voice as she just shook her head again.

“Ruby, breathe. Talk to me, please. Tell me what’s wrong, I can help!”

Ruby tried to push back her feelings, tried to put the mask back on, she’d managed it for so long, she couldn’t do this now, her thoughts were—

Soft arms wrapped around her, sobs that weren’t her own sounding in her ears, and everything else fell away. Her body, completely independent from the storm in her mind, uncurled and hugged Weiss as gently as she could, as the heiress cried. The sound pierced right through the fog and the chaos, and struck right at her heart, as Ruby realized with sudden clarity that maybe Weiss also wore a mask, and she was seeing underneath it. A corner of her brain screamed at her not to get too close, not to let this happen, but her heart told her, plainly and without reservation, what she’d known all along.

Weiss needed her.

And so she was there.

Chapter Text

The next morning dawned slowly, as if the sun itself were reluctant to show its face. Blake was up first, carefully making her way through the tent to the outdoors, toothbrush in one hand and a bucket in the other. She glanced at the sleeping bodies of her teammates on the floor and sighed in soft relief. When she and Yang had followed that flash of light, they’d found Ruby and Weiss unconscious, and for one horrible moment, Blake had feared the worst. She’d felt the ground underneath her tilt, as if Remnant had shifted on its axis, and she’d thought she was about to throw up until she felt a pulse in Weiss’s wrist and carried her back to camp.

On the whole, she thought, this whole camping trip had been nothing but trouble. She’d been carsick, she’d had to expend a considerable amount of her patience to educate Weiss without throttling her, she’d relived all her worst nightmares in front of everyone, something was troubling Yang that she didn’t want to talk about, Ruby had some sort of problem going on about her feelings towards Weiss that Blake couldn’t wrap her head around, and she’d been pretty badly embarrassed by turning down a confession that hadn’t actually happened. All this, and it had only been three days. Blake was ready to go home, but… well, she wasn’t sure how to broach the topic. She wondered if maybe it was just her, and the others wanted to stay, and if she brought it up, they’d be unhappy with her. She knew that they’d react reasonably, but some part of her brain still whispered that she had to keep them happy. She shook herself. This is different, she reminded herself. They’re not like Adam.

She reached the water pump and began to fill the bucket, like any sensible person who was used to not having running water 24/7. The rush of water filled her ears, the white noise a welcome relief from her thoughts. She focused solely on the waterline in the bucket and stopped when it had reached an acceptable level. A quick stretch, and she was washing her hands, then brushing.

Maybe she was a little too focused on her task, because even with Faunus ears, she didn’t hear anyone approaching until big strong arms wrapped around her. For a fraction of a second, she panicked, then realized what was going on as a sing-song voice called out, “Helloooo!” Blake rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. “Morning, Yang.”

Yang grinned, pecking Blake on the cheek. “How’s everything today, Blakey?”

Blake smirked, gently swatting at Yang’s thigh. “No kissing until you’ve brushed, your breath stinks.”

Yang giggled softly and released Blake from their grasp. “Heard it all before. Outta the way.” Blake pulled the bucket away and resumed her ablutions as Yang began to pump water with a single hand, almost casual as they began brushing their teeth.

Blake looked up, admiring the view from where she was crouching near the bucket. “Anyway, things have been alright. I’m glad Ruby and Weiss are OK. How are they?”

Yang shrugged, mouth full of toothpaste foam. They spat it into the grass, then took a moment before answering. “Ruby’s changing Weiss’s bandages. Dunno what happened last night, but it took a lot out of them.”

Blake nodded quietly. “Ruby has a crush on Weiss, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. Rubes isn’t exactly subtle about it. Why do you mention it?”

“That’s what we were discussing when she ran off. She seemed pretty upset.”

Yang was silent for a moment after that.

Then another moment.

Blake could sense a shift in the atmosphere, tension creeping into her veins. “Yang? What is it?”

“Qrow,” Yang spat, a surprising amount of venom in their voice, “I swear to god.”

“Your uncle?” Blake blinked in confusion, “What about him? I thought you were close.”

“We are, but he has this whole thing about not getting romantic with teammates. He won’t really talk about it, but I’m pretty sure it’s why he and my dad don’t get along. And he trained Ruby,” Yang added as an aside.

“Yang, I don’t understand. Do you mean because…” Blake cast her thoughts back to that conversation in an empty classroom, back when sleep deprivation had left her nearly unable to stand. What had Yang said…?

Yang nodded sourly. “My dad married two teammates and lost them both, and it broke him. I don’t think Uncle Qrow has much sympathy.”

“But…” Blake tried to think of a response, but it occurred to her that her only previous experience with romance was with someone who was more likely to kill on the battlefield than to die on one. Maybe she wasn’t an expert on this.

Yang nodded again, letting the pump go dry and toweling their hands. “The way I see it, everyone knew what they were getting into. They knew they were risking their lives, and they did it anyway. That’s not a weakness, it’s a strength. To be able to love like that even at the risk of desolation.”

“And you think Ruby feels differently?”

“I know she does. She took the loss of our mom pretty hard, and combine that with what Qrow taught her…”

Blake nodded, seeing the connection. “She must be terrified of her own feelings, huh.”

Yang stretched, extending their hand to Blake. “That pretty much sums it up. I don’t know what state she’ll be in when last night comes up, but we’ve just gotta be there for her.”

Blake took their hand, standing face-to-face with Yang. “And… what about us?”

Yang smiled softly, eyes a glimmering lilac. Blake could count every one of the freckles splashed across their face. “I don’t believe in any of that crap. Better to have loved and lost and all.”

Blake leaned in and kissed them.

“Ruby, you really don’t have to do this.”

Ruby shook her head, tongue poking out of her mouth. “I want to, Weiss. You’ve got a head injury, and that means you need to change the bandages every morning.”

Weiss rolled her eyes, trying yet again to explain. “Ruby, my Aura’s back. Whatever injuries I sustained are almost certainly already healed—ow!”

Ruby moved her fingers away from Weiss’s head, a smug grin on her face. “I knew it. No pretending to be fine allowed, Miss Schnee!” And she continued to change the bandages, just like she’d been taught at Signal. Weiss sighed. The truth was, her head did still hurt, and last night’s breakdown certainly hadn’t helped. She’d seen Ruby so pitiful and scared, and something in her had shattered; she’d just started crying, and somehow that had called Ruby back from wherever she’d gone. To say Weiss was worried was an understatement… and Ruby had just given her a verbal opening.

“Well, if we’re going by that rule, maybe you can tell me what that was all about last night.”

Ruby’s mouth tightened, her smile becoming forced. “There’s nothing to tell. Everything’s—”

“Fine?”

Ruby sighed. “I guess I walked right into that one.”

“Yes, you did. Now, spill.”

“Didn’t you say you had something big and important to tell me in the morning?”

Weiss huffed. If she had to give up her own secret to coax the truth out of Ruby, so be it. “I’m gay.”

“Oh, same.”

“What, that’s it?”

Ruby blinked. “…Sorry, sorry. I’m so used to Yang saying that every five minutes that I just kind of automatically…” She shook herself. “I’m really happy for you, Weiss. That’s a big thing to figure out about yourself.” She spread her arms, and Weiss didn’t hesitate to hug her. A few months ago, she would’ve balked at the very thought of taking comfort in Ruby’s arms, but the truth was that there was no other place where Weiss felt safer, not even with Klein or Winter. When Ruby held her, that obscure pain in her chest diminished, and a warm feeling flooded her whole body.

And then the penny dropped.

“Wait, same?”

Ruby nodded, nonplussed. “Um, yeah? It’s not like I hide it. I’m a lesbian.”

Weiss stared at Ruby for a moment, wondering how on Remnant she’d missed that, to which her brain just replied with a noncommittal shrug, running on autopilot.

“You like girls?”

“Yep.”

“Cool.” Weiss flushed, wishing she had something better to say, anything at all. Ruby tilted her head. “Are you OK, Weiss?”

“Fine! Yes! Everything’s fine!”

“Weiss—”

Weiss sighed, fanning her face, prompting a giggle from Ruby that was about the purest sound Weiss had heard all day. She managed a smile, leaning against Ruby’s shoulder – which caused the unexpected reaction of Ruby tensing.

Weiss paused. That wasn’t what she’d expect from this situation. Something was still pretty obviously wrong. “Ruby, you’re still on the hook for last night.”

Silence. Weiss reached for Ruby’s hand and gently held it. “Ruby.”

“I can’t.”

Ruby’s voice sounded fragile and tense, like she was holding back tears. Weiss’s heart twinged painfully, and she gripped Ruby’s hand a little tighter. “It’s OK, I’m here.”

“I c-can’t do this, Weiss, I can’t.”

“Just breathe. Talk to me.”

Ruby shook her head, squeezing Weiss’s hand. “I…”

“Please. Ruby, I can’t stand seeing you hurt like this. If you tell me what’s wrong, I can help—”

“I can’t fall in love with you.”

Time seemed to slow to a halt. Weiss felt her veins filling with liquid nitrogen, an entirely new kind of cold filling her body, not hardening her gaze but instead making her completely numb, wrapping her brain in a chill that set her whole body shaking.

“Oh.”

Ruby wouldn’t meet her gaze, knees curled up to her chest. “I’m sorry.”

Weiss tried to speak, tried to say something assuring to Ruby, but the words died in her throat, a ringing in her ears growing steadily louder, as the numbness covered her entire body. She had a vague impression that she was feeling some sort of emotion, and that as soon as the numbness was gone, her world would implode.

She saw herself stand and leave the tent, saw Ruby do nothing to try and stop her as she exited, hands shaking.

She didn’t walk into the woods. She wasn’t an idiot.

But she did walk over to the fireplace and sit down, staring up at the sky.

She heard chatter as Blake and Yang walked by, and she was aware, once again, that some form of emotion was bubbling in her chest.

She felt nothing.

There were approaching footsteps, then people sitting on either side of her. She was dimly aware of blonde hair on her left and black hair on her right.

“You OK, Weiss?” Yang’s voice was concerned but trying to sound casual. Weiss’s brain rated it a poor performance, while Weiss continued to just stare at the sky.

Weiss felt her lips move, heard words come out with no conscious thought. “Not really, no.”

Blake’s voice was more hesitant, more sincere. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Weiss supposed that she should, and once more heard words come out without thinking. “Ruby said she couldn’t fall in love with me.”

And that was it. Saying it aloud broke the spell. The numbness evaporated from her body like morning dew in the sun, and heartbreak tore through her, ravaging her heart and mind and burning her to cinders from the inside out as hot tears spilled over, and she began to sob. Strong arms closed around her, and a hand began to stroke her hair.

“It’s alright, Ice Queen. We’ve got you.”

Yang’s voice was soothing, the consummate big sister, as she continued to hold Weiss. Blake gently gripped Weiss’s hand and sat with her, not saying a word. Great, heaving sobs wracked Weiss’s body as words forced their way out of her. “I-it’s so stupid, I shouldn’t be f-feeling like this, b-but…”

“The heart wants what it wants, Weiss. You’re not stupid for having feelings.”

“I j-just don’t understand. What did I do wrong?”

“Nothing.” Blake’s voice was firm. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Ruby has her own issues she needs to sort out before she’s ready for a relationship.”

Weiss sniffled loudly. “But I can help! I want to be there for her!”

Yang sighed. “I know you do, Weiss. But she has to be willing to let you in, and I don’t think she’s able to do that right now.” Yang glanced over to the tent, and Weiss realized that she’d left Ruby all alone. “I should—”

“A-ba-ba-ba-bup.” Yang shushed Weiss, who was mildly consternated by Yang turning her own phrase back on her. “I’ll talk to her. You stay here. Blake?” Blake nodded, and Yang gave Weiss one final squeeze before standing up and making their way to the tent.

Blake and Weiss sat together, Blake’s arm around her shoulder. “I know how it feels, Weiss. That sort of hurt. I promise, you’ll be alright.”

Weiss sniffed, wiping her eyes with her handkerchief. “I just…”

“I know, Weiss, I know. Just know… even if you and Ruby don’t end up together, you’ll still always be her partner.”

Weiss nodded slowly. “…I… suppose so. But what if all this comes between us, and—”

“That’s up to you. You don’t have to let it.”

“But what if—”

“Weiss.” Blake’s eyes were intense, and they were locked directly on Weiss as she spoke. “I need to ask you something. Do you want to be in a relationship with Ruby?”

Weiss slowly nodded. “I love her.”

“Then the best thing you can do is be her friend while she sorts things out. Let her come to it in her own time. Even if she never does, you’ll still have a great friend. Do you think you can live with that?”

Weiss looked up at the sky, an odd feeling coming over her, like a rising tide quenching the heartbreak burning inside her. For once, her heart and mind were united, giving her a simple answer.

“Yes, I can do that.”

Blake smiled softly. “Then you have nothing to worry about.”

Weiss smiled back. “Thank you, Blake.”

“It’s what I do. Now we just have to wait for Yang and Ruby.”

There they sat, watching the tent.

Waiting for the storm.

Chapter Text

Footsteps, soft and vaguely crinkly on the ground tarp as the laminated vinyl crunched beneath Yang’s boots.

An empty tent, with the sleeping bags in a pile over a person-sized lump.

Yang sat down cross-legged, and simply waited for a moment.

Ever so slightly, a shift, then a hand emerged from the pile. Yang smiled softly and took the hand in her own.

“You wanna talk about it?”

Ruby’s voice came back from inside the pile. “I guess so.”

She wriggled a bit until her head emerged, laying it in Yang’s lap as she fought down tears.

Yang stroked her forehead gently. “It’s alright, Rubes. I’m here.”

Ruby sniffled. “I just… I don’t know…”

Yang took a deep breath and steeled herself; there were a few things she had to ask, and she knew that Ruby would avoid the question if she tried to cushion the blow in any way. She always hated being blunt with Ruby, but…

“Are you in love with Weiss?”

It tore at her, to see Ruby wince like that, to see the pain on her beloved little sister’s face. But ever so slowly, Ruby nodded.

“But you don’t think you can be in love with her?”

Ruby nodded again. Yang took another breath, rallied all her strength, and approached the crux of the matter.

“Why?”

Ruby was silent for a long while, then eventually, with a lump in her throat and eyes wet, she spoke.

“Because I’m the leader.”

Yang opened her mouth to speak, but she’d opened the floodgates, and now Ruby couldn’t stop.

“I’m the leader, and it’s my job to keep the whole team safe, and I have to always be at my best, and I can’t have any distractions to keep me from that, or else I’ll just be letting the whole entire team down, and I especially can’t be in love with my teammates because what if someday I have to choose between saving Weiss’s life or saving an innocent person’s life, don’t you see, Yang, all of it’s on me, and I already screwed up so many times!”

Yang blinked. “You haven’t screwed up, you’re—”

“Yes, I have! I should’ve said something back when Weiss and Blake were fighting, I should’ve talked to Blake when she was burning herself out, I wandered off and got myself captured in Mountain Glenn, and then I got lost here and nearly got killed by an Alpha, and, and—”

Yang hushed her softly, pressing a finger to Ruby’s lips.

“Rein it in a little, Rubes.”

“But Yang, I—”

“Listen to me. Maybe both of us could’ve handled the incident at the docks better. I sure as heck didn’t speak out either. But you looked for Blake, and when you found her, you talked to her and made sure she knew she was safe.”

“I—”

“And when she was burning herself out, you were the one most concerned for her well-being, and that was what let me talk to her, and that’s what led to us going out. So, really, that one’s fine by me.”

“But—”

“And yeah, Mountain Glenn wasn’t great, but you did try to go back and get us, right? You said as much afterward, and we still stopped the train and saved Vale.”

“But—!”

Yang shook her head. “Ruby, you’re allowed to make mistakes. Always doing your best isn’t the same thing as always getting it right. And you do always do your best, whatever mistakes you make.”

Ruby sniffled softly. Yang cleared her throat. “As for that other stuff, Weiss is a trained Huntress. She chose to be out here, and you know exactly what she’d say if you said all that to her.”

Ruby nodded slowly. “I know, but…”

“Whatever Uncle Qrow said to you, Ruby? That’s his baggage, not yours.”

Ruby blinked, looking up at Yang. “How did you know…?”

“I guessed. What exactly did he say to you?”

Ruby winced. “It… wasn’t exactly directed at me…”

Yang blinked, then it clicked. “Did you overhear him yelling at Dad?”

Ruby nodded. “He was… really drunk. Like, way more than usual. It was the anniversary of when Mom…” She trailed off. Yang nodded, stomach clenching, and gripped Ruby’s hand a little tighter.

“He said… he said that Dad was pathetic, that he’d set himself up for heartbreak, that he should never have fallen in love with teammates in the first place, and that he shouldn’t be surprised that he lost them, especially when he was around… Dunno what he meant by that last bit…”

Yang was going to strangle her uncle the next time she saw him. “Did he say anything else?”

 “Dad said that being heartbroken was better than pushing everyone away like Uncle Qrow did, and that if he was really so pathetic, than Uncle Qrow should just leave instead of hanging around.”

“And…?”

“Uncle Qrow started crying, and I ran off. I think he apologized when he was sober…ish… but I just… I never got those words out of my head.”

Yang took a deep breath; she had to stay calm, because if she started crying, then Ruby would lose it. She could deal with her feelings later; Ruby’s were more important.

“Ruby, did you judge me when I started dating Blake?”

“What? No! Of course not, why would I—”

“Then why would you judge yourself for wanting to do the same thing with Weiss?”

Ruby closed her eyes. “You’re not the leader. You don’t have to—”

“Any of us could be stuck in the position of having to choose between a partner and an innocent person, Ruby. Hell, normal people have to make those choices sometimes. We all made the choice to become Huntresses; to put the people first, and ourselves second.”

Ruby shook her head. “But being the leader is different. I have to put all of you before myself, and then the people before you.”

“Who told you that crap?”

“Professor Ozpin said—”

“What exactly did he say?”

Ruby didn’t even have to think to recite it from memory. “Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle, but a badge you wear constantly. If you're not always performing at your absolute best, then what reason do you give others to follow you?”

Yang blinked. “That’s all?”

“Uh, yeah?”

Yang pushed down the exasperation. “Ruby, that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to have a life! You matter too!”

“But—”

“Besides, do you think we’re kids or something? We’re all training to be Huntresses too, Ruby. You don’t have to bend over backwards to shelter us, and you definitely don’t have to break yourself to do it.”

“I—!”

“Ruby.” Yang’s voice was firm now. “Forget all the crap Uncle Qrow said, forget the crap Professor Ozpin said. What do you want?”

Ruby was quiet for a moment. Yang slowly took a breath, and relaxed her grip on Ruby’s hand, just a little…

“I don’t know.”

Ruby’s face crumpled, and tears fell. Yang leaned forward and hugged her tightly, and the floodgates opened. Ruby pulled herself out of the sleeping bags and buried herself in her sister’s embrace, bawling into her arms as the tears fell and fell and fell. Yang stroked her hair, singing softly as she held her through it all.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you, nothing will ever harm you. I’m close by, I’ll stay here, through all things I will be near…”

As Ruby cried into Yang’s shoulder, a war was aflame in her brain. All her thoughts were running in different directions, her mask was shattered, and all she could do was cry.

One part of her brain yelled that it was sick of being a leader, that she should just kiss Weiss and go from there. In response, another part of her brain flashed an image of a white cloak, but instead of Mom’s face, it was Weiss. Pain lanced through her chest, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She was hyperaware of Yang’s hand in her hair, her song filling her ears but the words sliding off her brain without an ounce of comprehension. She couldn’t muster any energy, Uncle Qrow and Professor Ozpin and Yang all running through her brain at once, interspersed with the shriek of a Griffon, the roar of a Beowolf, and the shattered look on Weiss’s face as she’d left the tent.

Weiss…

Slowly, ever so slowly, patterns worn into Ruby’s brain began to fit, heaving against immense effort as her mask began to reassemble, forming around the image of Weiss’s heartbreak like the irritation at the center of a pearl. The part of her that was determined to be a leader had a duty to her partner and teammate. The rest of her just knew that Weiss was upset. Ruby slowly dried her tears and wiped her eyes. “I-I have to…”

Yang shook their head, eyes piercing Ruby’s mask. Yang could always see through her; they knew each other too well. “Blake’s with her. My priority is you, Ruby. What do you want?”

The mask splintered, but even that brief moment had been enough for Ruby to put her brain back together. Alright, she asked herself, what do I want?

Surprisingly, the answer came easily. Yang raised an eyebrow when they heard it, but otherwise didn’t react. “If that’s what you want, then I’ll help, but… are you sure you won’t just be making it harder on yourself?”

Ruby nodded. “I’m sure. I…” she hesitated. “I know I’m not the best at this sort of stuff, but I know what’s important.”

Yang sighed wearily. “If you say so. What should I do?”

“I need to talk to Weiss. Can you and Blake…?”

“Of course.” Yang stood up and made for the exit.

“Hey, Yang?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

Yang met Ruby’s gaze. “You’re my sister. I’ll always be there for you.”

And Yang left the tent to go get Weiss, while Ruby awaited the inevitable.

Chapter Text

The sun shone high overhead, baking the earth of the campsite, and beating down on Blake’s brow as she stood in a combat stance, Gambol Shroud at the ready in her hands. She glanced briefly at Yang, who looked wholly unconcerned as the red eyes gleamed through the undergrowth.

Blake swallowed her nervousness. She should have expected that heartbreak from Ruby and Weiss would draw Grimm to the clearing. The least she and Yang could do was keep them at bay while the two of them talked. “Ready?”

Yang grinned, and Ember Celica extended along their wrists, their hands clenched into perfect fists; not too tense or too loose, ready to tighten at contact, and not a moment before. “Aw, come on. It’s just a few Grimm. We’ve got this.”

Blake narrowed her eyes, a smug, playful smile darting across her face. “Then let’s show them what we’re made of, partner.”

 There was a shriek, and a Nevermore flew from the trees, its beak wide open. Blake raised Gambol Shroud and fired, the shot piercing the Grimm’s body and turning it to vapour in an instant. Yang let out a whoop and charged headlong at the approaching monsters. An Ursa raised a heavy paw, but Yang caught its strike with one arm, and delivered a haymaker directly to the side of the head; Blake swore she saw the thing’s head rotate 45 degrees before it dissolved. A King Taijitu lunged at her, but she adroitly feinted to one side as the Grimm bit down on a shadow clone, and swung her cleaver blade down on its neck, while her katana shifted to kusarigama form, and she launched it at the snake’s other head. The sickle caught on the Grimm’s neck, and with a tug of the ribbon, the pistol trigger squeezed, and the sickle was pushed through with enough force to lop the thing’s head off.

A Beowolf sliced at Yang’s Aura, but Yang simply tanked the blow, sliding back only a few inches, then delivered a flurry of jabs and straights to the Grimm’s gut, turning it to smoke. A Creep burst from the ground beneath them, its tail whipping their torso, but Yang made no move to avoid the blow, instead letting the force dissipate against their abdomen and delivering a right hook straight to the body.

There was a droning whoomp-whoomp-whoomp sound, and a Boarbatusk rocketed at them, spinning in an arc of bone spines. Blake dove to one side, infusing her clone with Ice Dust, but the Boarbatusk careened right through the ice and spun towards the tent. Yang swore and launched themself into the Grimm’s path, hands spread. Blake’s eyes widened, and she fired her pistol, but the shots ricocheted off the Grimm’s bone plating. The Boarbatusk slammed right into Yang, kicking up clouds of dust that obscured Blake’s view.

But when the dust cleared, the Grimm’s tusks were in Yang’s hands. Flames danced in their hair, and their eyes had turned that deep red that always made Blake’s stomach drop (among other things.) Yang let out a bellowing roar, and with the strength of all the blows they’d taken throughout the battle, threw the Boarbatusk to one side and delivered a crushing blow to its unarmoured belly. The Grimm dissolved into smoke, and Yang set their eyes on the remaining threat, an Ursa Major that didn’t seem even the slightest bit fazed by the desolation of its comrades.

Yang glanced at Blake and nodded once. Blake shifted Gambol Shroud to kusarigama form and tossed the weapon to Yang. Yang leaped into the air, and Blake pulled hard on the ribbon, turning on her heel while digging her weight into the ground. She heard the unmistakable sound of Yang’s gauntlets firing, and the weight became manageable as she began to spin, Yang propelling themself forward as the centripetal force increased. Had Blake been able to focus on anything other than the move, she’d have seen a blazing trail of fire describing an ever-growing circular arc around her as Yang sped up, moving faster and faster, until finally, the flaming arc crashed fist-first into the Ursa Major. All the force of Yang’s Semblance, plus the centripetal force of the arc, channeled into the Grimm’s body at the singular point where Yang’s fist met it, and the shotgun gauntlet fired.

To say the Grimm exploded would be almost an understatement. It flew backward, crashing through at least three trees before dissolving into smoke. Yang tumbled to a stop, rolling with the impact, and came up on one knee, breathing hard as their eyes became lilac again. They glanced at their Scroll and winced to see their Aura nearly entirely depleted, only to hear Blake cry out as a massive spike of pain filled their shoulder.

Weiss rubbed her arm nervously as she entered the tent, a rising apprehension filling her body and setting her nerves ajar. All Yang had said was that Ruby wanted to talk to her, and her mind, well-practiced in the art of cynicism, drew all sorts of undesirable conclusions to the fore. And yet, the sight of Ruby sitting in the chair, hunched over and miserable, still shook her, her chest twinging. She took a deep breath, willing courage to herself.

“Hi, Ruby.”

Ruby looked up, a small, sad smile on her face.

“Hey, Weiss.”

For a moment, she stood there awkwardly, unsure how to proceed. Her etiquette training, her lessons on mapping and predicting the flow of conversation and guiding it to her benefit; it all flew out the window with Ruby. The girl said what she meant, and meant what she said, and that was, Weiss realized, part of why she loved her. Ruby’s smile became tinged with sympathy, and she got out of the chair, sitting cross-legged on the ground tarp. Weiss sighed internally, feeling a pang of… something, she couldn’t tell if it was pity or admiration. Even when Ruby was hurting, she tried to make things easier for everyone else. Weiss sat cross-legged across from her, and took a deep breath, only for Ruby to blurt out—

“I’m sorry—”

“I apologize for—”

Both of them paused, Weiss’s brain rebooting for a moment. Ruby giggled a little, and Weiss took that as a good sign. She would take all the encouragement she could get. She put her thoughts in order, and opened her mouth, determined to think before she spoke for once, and master both fire and ice, rather than let either master her.

“Ruby, I’m sorry. I pushed you to open up when you weren’t ready, when I should have just… been there for you.”

Ruby’s eyes widened, and she shook her head frantically. “Nonono, you didn’t do anything wrong, Weiss! I’m the one who screwed up, I just… I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m sorry.”

Weiss shook her head decisively. “A-ba-ba-ba-bup. I don’t want to hear it. You didn’t do anything wrong either, Ruby. I guess we just… both have baggage. All I want is to be there for you, no matter what. You’re precious to me, whether as a friend, a teammate, or… something else.”

Ruby’s eyes filled with tears, but the smile on her face widened. “You’re precious to me too, Weiss. I… I care about you a lot, and… it scares me a little.” Weiss opened her mouth to reply, but Ruby kept going. “It scares me because being a Huntress… it’s dangerous, and the thought of losing you scares me to death. I know it’s the life we chose, but—”

Weiss cleared her throat. “It’s a job, Ruby. We have this romantic vision of being Huntresses in our heads, but at the end of the day, it’s a job to keep the people safe; not a lifestyle, or a means to an end, or something all-consuming. And…” She hesitated, then continued, “the thought of losing you scares me, too. But bad things could happen to anyone, not just Huntresses, and we’re all training to make sure those bad things don’t happen. So… don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.”

Ruby nodded, swallowing hard. “I know that, in my head. But…” She shivered. “It’s still scary. I… lost my mom. She was a Huntress, and she died. And so… I wanted to become a Huntress too, to protect people who couldn’t protect themselves. So that nobody else would lose someone like that.” She looked Weiss full in the face, eyes brimming over with tears. “And it scares me that I care about you so much, because I really don’t know if I could take losing someone like that again.”

What seized Weiss in that moment, she could never tell for certain, but her hand reached out to cup the side of Ruby’s face, and her thumb gently brushed a falling tear from Ruby’s cheek. With a soaring in her chest that turned all the pangs and twinges she’d been feeling into a bursting warmth, she leaned forward and let her lips press against Ruby’s.

It was nothing like she’d expected. Had she been asked to make an advance prediction, she’d have said that it would be something soft and sensual. Instead, Ruby’s lips were chapped from three days in the wilderness, and she could feel her teeth behind them, and their noses were smushed a little together… and Ruby didn’t reciprocate, her hand gently pushing Weiss away. Weiss felt tears brimming in her own eyes.

“I-I’m sorry, Ruby. I had to do that. Just… just once.” The warmth was fading, numbing cold starting to fill her extremities. “Say the word, and… and I won’t bring it up again, ever.”

Ruby was silent for a long moment, as a growing sense of dread clawed at Weiss’s stomach.

“You know… Yang asked me to think about exactly what I wanted. So, I said…” Ruby took a deep breath. “I wanted things to be like they were. I want to be with Team RWBY, and feel like home, without my chest squeezing every time I…” She shook herself, and Weiss could feel her stomach imploding. This is it, then, the voice in the back of her mind whispered, the Ice Queen reaping what she sows.

“But… I shouldn’t run from how I feel.”

Ruby wiped her eyes, and sat up a little straighter.

“Weiss.” Weiss stiffened, the numbness suddenly dissipating, leaving her totally unguarded for whatever was about to come next.

“I think… I need to work out my feelings. I don’t… I don’t want you to never do that again, but… right now, I’m not ready. I know it’s selfish of me to ask, but… until I am… until I can say those words to you… can we still be friends?”

The gnawing feeling in Weiss’s stomach didn’t go away entirely, but a burning warmth filled her heart, soaring through her body. “Of course we can, you dolt! Didn’t I just say you’re precious to me as a friend and teammate, too?”

Ruby really did start crying, then, but the smile on her face stretched from ear to ear, and she hugged Weiss so tightly she thought her ribs might crack. Weiss stroked the back of Ruby’s head, and for once, words came easily to her. “I’ll wait for you, Ruby. However long it takes, I’ll be there. And if you decide, in the end, that your feelings for me aren’t like that, I’ll be there anyway.”

Ruby nodded slightly, resting her head against Weiss’s collarbone. “Thanks, Weiss. Besties forever?”

Weiss smiled fondly at her partner. “Don’t push your luck.”

Ruby led the way out of the tent, feeling more relaxed than she had since the previous morning, when Blake had said those fateful words. Maybe she’d end up like Dad, and maybe she wouldn’t. But either way, she knew she’d have her team to depend on, no matter what happened.

Then she saw the Grimm.

Yang was breathing heavily, bleeding from the shoulder indicating a broken Aura. Blake was dual-wielding her blades, sweat dripping down her brow, as she faced off against… holy shiz.

The Death Stalker reared, its stinger clearing the treetops, each of its pincers big enough to crush a pine tree in two. Ruby gulped, but no fear came to her then. She grabbed Crescent Rose, and let her voice ring out in her best leader voice, tone authoritative but not bossy.

“Checkmate!”

Instantly, reaction to the word worn into muscle memory through months of practice, Blake and Weiss sprang into action. They flew at the massive Grimm, each of them striking at the joints connecting its pincers to its body. The Death Stalker swung a pincer, and Weiss’s glyphs yanked herself and Blake out of the way in the nick of time.

“Ice Flowers!”

Glowing white glyphs appeared in front of Crescent Rose’s muzzle, and Ruby fired, her bullet passing through the glyphs and infusing itself with Dust. Icy roses bloomed on the joints articulating the monster’s stinger, limiting its range of motion. Ruby checked her Scroll and saw that Yang’s Aura wasn’t quite done regenerating.

“Ladybug!”

Ruby darted forward, Blake by her side, and the two speedsters began to deliver alternating blows to the thing, Ruby’s scythe and Blake’s katana harmonizing into a power chord that wreaked devastation on the enemy. With a shriek of rage from the Grimm, Blake’s katana took out each of its eyes, one by one, while with a great heave, the curved scythe blade sliced one of the massive pincers clean off.

Yang drew their gauntlets to full position, Aura glowing once more, and nodded shakily at Ruby. “Glad you could join us, sis.”

Ruby nodded. “Sorry to keep you waiting! Freezerburn!”

Weiss darted forward and stabbed her rapier into the weakened limb holding the remaining pincer in place. With a single surge of Dust, the joint froze solid, and a glyph launched Yang directly at the target, their fist shattering the frozen limb and severing the pincer. The Death Stalker shrieked again, and the ice flowers on its stinger shattered as it lashed at Yang, only for another glyph to pull them out of the way. Ruby glanced at Yang. “You up for Bumblebee?” Yang shook their head. “Already used it once, my Aura’s not up to it a second time today.”

Ruby grinned. “Alright, then. Cannonball, those two trees!”

As one, Team RWBY moved like a well-oiled machine. Weiss spun in place, and spikes of ice froze the Death Stalker’s feet to the ground. Blake and Yang ran to the trees Ruby had indicated, across the clearing, and Blake tossed her kusarigama to Yang, taking up position in one tree while Yang scaled the other. The ribbon stretched between them, pulled taut, and Ruby leaped at it, her feet pushing it downwards, while Blake and Yang held it fast. A glyph caught Ruby and the ribbon, holding them in place as the elastic tension grew. Ruby winked at Weiss, who flushed and focused on calculating just the right trajectory. The glyph turned red, and a flurry of rose petals was blasted at the Grimm. Ruby roared with equal parts fury and delight, and her scythe hooked on the Grimm’s stinger, her feet planted on the upper side of its tail. The rifle fired, and the stinger came off, while Ruby shot straight upward into the air. She hung there for a moment, suspended in midair in the noonday sun, then clicked a switch on Crescent Rose, and the scythe blade extended straight forward into war scythe mode. She launched herself straight down, and the blade pierced right through the bone plating over the thing’s head. With one final, clicking shriek, the Death Stalker dissolved into a mass of smoke.

“Well, that was fun.”

Blake gave her a flat look. “Look, Ruby, I’ve been thinking… this is sort of the worst camping trip ever.”

Yang sighed in relief. “Oh, thank god, someone finally said it. This place sucks ass.”

Ruby blinked. “Aw, come on, it’s not so bad.”

“There’s no fish in the river, there’s a bunch of poisonous plants in the woods, and the CCT tower constantly attracts Grimm.”

“…Yeah, OK, it is that bad. But, uh… at least Zwei had fun?”

Yang rolled their eyes affectionately. “He can have just as much fun in Patch. I’ve been meaning to properly introduce Blake to Dad anyway.”

Blake flushed a brilliant red. “Yang!”

Ruby briefly weighed her options… and decided that maybe there was something to be said for giving up on lost causes.

“Yeah, alright, let’s get out of here.”

“We can’t leave yet!”

All three of them turned to stare at Weiss. Yang tilted their head. “Weiss, you were the least enthusiastic about going on this trip, and you hate this place.”

Weiss nodded. “Oh, absolutely. But we paid for two weeks. If we’re leaving, we’re getting our money back from Campbell.”

Blake winced. “I… don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m pretty sure that guy’s already got a place to stash our bodies.”

There was a brief silence as the others absorbed the sense of Blake’s words. Yang sighed. “I’ll start the truck if you girls take down the tent.”

Ruby grinned. “Alright, Team RWBY! Our next objective: Getting out of this hellhole! Banzai on three! One, two, three!”

“BANZAI!”

(And this time, Weiss joined in.)

Chapter Text

There was something about falling to your death, Ruby thought, that made you reassess your priorities.

As the strange orbs of light that filled the void drifted past her, cape flapping wildly in the wind, her mind wasn’t on Atlas, or the Relics, or even on the fact that her sister was gone. All she could think about was those three days in the woods, and the feeling of Weiss’s lips on hers. So much had happened since then, but that feeling had stayed dormant, buried in the back of her mind through the Fall of Beacon, the journey across Anima, and even the apocalypse, only to awaken now, at the end. It was funny, she thought, that she’d spent so long worried that she’d lose Weiss if she let herself get close, only for Weiss to still be standing while she was the one falling.

She wished she’d kissed Weiss again. All her reasons not to seemed so silly now that she’d seen so much death. She’d come so close to losing Weiss in Mistral, and she hadn’t done it. They’d all nearly died at Brunswick Farms, and she still hadn’t done it. Even when they’d been facing down the end of the world, and Ruby had mustered the courage to defy the General’s plan to abandon the world to save one Kingdom, she still hadn’t had the courage to just kiss her goddamn partner; and now she never would.

And yet, despite the void, she still couldn’t be left to her thoughts; her regrets were interrupted by the sudden sight of a blur of pink and brown flying at her; Neopolitan, the killer, coming at her with death in her eyes. Even when they were both falling to their deaths, apparently it wasn’t enough to let the fall do it; whatever Ruby had done to earn her hatred, she wanted to kill her with her own two hands. Ruby winced as the fist slammed into her face; Aura was pointless at this point, and she felt pain blossom across her cheek as Neo’s Semblance gave her the shape of Oscar, then Yang, then Penny, all with that same expression of hatred on her face that belied the imperfect illusion. Ruby struggled as an arm closed across her windpipe, impossible lights dancing in front of her eyes as fog filled her brain. She kicked out, and somehow managed to spin a full 360 degrees in the zero-gravity void of freefall, shaking Neo off her. The last she saw, the murderer had taken her true form, glaring at her as they were separated by thick clouds.

“Ruby! RUBY!”

Ruby snapped awake, sitting bolt upright, gasping for breath. For just a moment, a flush of relief filled her; it had been a dream, she was back in the tent, and nothing hurt; Pyrrha was fine, Yang was fine, nothing bad had happened.

The ache in her throat told her otherwise. As she took stock of her surroundings, she realized with a sinking desolation that they were wholly unfamiliar; a wide beach dotted with large starfish, tropical birds wheeling overhead, and a large jungle just past the shore. She stood up, her cape sopping wet – she must have landed in the ocean and washed ashore.

She squeezed the water out. It slowly dawned on her that, well… she had fallen, and yet…

She was still alive.

The penny dropped. If she’d fallen, and she was still alive, then that meant that Yang and Blake were still alive too.

And if they’d fallen and lived, then that meant that whether Penny, Jaune, and Weiss had made it to Vacuo, or fallen after Ruby…

The Staff was safe. They hadn’t failed.

She hadn’t failed.

She wanted to laugh. How tiny failure looked now! The worst had happened, and she was still alive! She was lost in the forest again, but this time, she knew that she was not abandoned. The thought occurred to her that Neo was almost certainly still gunning for her, but… well, she wasn’t afraid anymore. Let her try to kill her, when not even Cinder had managed it. She picked a direction at random, and started to walk, goal set.

She was going to find Blake and Yang.

Together, they’d find a way out of here.

Then, she’d find Weiss.

There was something she needed to tell her.