Chapter Text
+=+=+
“So, what, you’re just abandoning me?”
Weiss had her arms crossed over her chest as she leant back against the low kitchen counter, tie loose around her neck and the top few buttons of her shirt undone after another day of job interviews.
Under the flickering of the failing fluorescent bulb her demeanor wasn’t as strong as she would normally try to keep it when she wasn’t here; the one place she felt safe. So even though her posture was trying to say she was indifferently defensive, in reality it was more like she was hugging herself.
The days where she did her best to hide everything she was feeling were long over, the first year of college had broken most of those walls away, so even though she tried to lie with her body her eyes showed the confusion and hurt in her chest.
She kept those eyes trained on where Ruby, ever the patient best friend and housemate, was giving her a soft and reassuring look as she continued to unpack the sparse amount of groceries she’d grabbed on her way home from her shift at her father’s garage.
Despite the warmth coming from the radiator keeping the winter chill out of their small apartment, Ruby still had a scarf around her neck in a way that wasn’t as subtle or unsuspicious as she might have hoped. Clearly one of the reasons she was late home from work wasn’t just because of groceries, she’d had a pit stop along the way that served to bring this topic to the forefront of her mind yet again, and she was trying to hide the clue.
As if the failed attempt at discretion would take any of the hurt out of it.
Letting out a gentle sigh as she slid the carton of fresh eggs into the fridge and grabbed out the three loose expired ones that were left rattling on one of the shelves to toss into the bin, Ruby glanced over her shoulder at Weiss.
“That’s not what it is, Weiss, come on.” Ruby didn’t need to look into the fridge in order to know where her muscle memory could grab a can of soda from, and she slid it over the counter for Weiss to catch, a peace offering, before grabbing her own and nudging the fridge door closed with her foot. “The building didn’t offer to renew our lease anyway, remember? We were gonna have to move regardless.”
Weiss glared down at the can in her hand even as she cracked the tab and took a deep gulp, avoiding eye contact with Ruby as she swallowed. She would never forgive Ruby for getting her into soft drinks and sugar back when they were in middle-school, and it appeared that the list of ‘things Ruby cannot be forgiven for’ might be about to grow larger.
Okay, that might be unfair. And not just because of the soft pleading in Ruby’s silver eyes as she quietly broadcasted her prayer that Weiss would show her patience and at the very least hear her out. Not many people could use puppy-eyes on Weiss, but Ruby had earned the right through quite a lot of determined effort on her part.
So Weiss scowled.
The few seconds it took for the fizz to leave her tongue and throat and let her speak again were long enough for the reflexive flash of hurt to fade to a dull throb, but the can still gave a loud thunk when she placed it down onto the counter harder than she had intended to.
It wasn’t a solid enough impact for Ruby to jump, but she did raise her eyebrows, and Weiss caught how she subconsciously ground one of her feet into the kitchen tiles to represent how she was mentally bracing herself.
Which meant that Ruby was expecting a fight. For Weiss to go on the attack. Hell, she’d likely spent the entire drive home from Penny’s planning and preparing for the worst case scenarios of this entire conversation, drumming her hands on the steering wheel and then walking laps around the grocery store.
Weiss knew her too well.
Which was how she was able to find it in herself to close her eyes and take a breath, slowly nodding to indicate she wasn’t going to go on the attack. That she was going to try and be reasonable.
“...alright. What is it you’re intending?”
Ruby didn’t quite manage to stop herself from letting out a quick huff of relief at the lack of sharp edges, and she quickly took a sip from her own can and wet her lips with the tip of her tongue as she thought.
“Penny’s been intending on moving back home for ages now. Just for a year or two while her dad gets his retirement sorted out.” Ruby chewed her bottom lip as she fiddled with the can tab, forced to break off eye contact with Weiss as she continued. Her voice dropped quiet. Shy. “And…I want to go with her. Since it’s either that, or a couple of years of long-distance, and that doesn’t have a great track record.”
“...no. No, I've heard that it doesn’t.” Weiss nodded slowly to concede the point, her shoulders slumping slightly further as she found nothing to rebuke. Quickly taking another sip from her drink, she held it on her tongue for a few extra moments of fizz before swallowing.
The kitchen was too small and cramped for a conversation they both knew Ruby would need to pace in order to go through, so Weiss watched unmoving as Ruby led the way out to the main room of their apartment so she could put her drink down on their coffee table and lean against the couch’s backrest, her hands tucked into the waistband of her pants.
But Weiss didn’t follow immediately, instead simply tracking Ruby with her eyes as her best friend walked past and situated herself, her can still raised to her lips.
This wasn’t the first ‘serious discussion’ they’d had in the past couple of months, in fact they had been happening at least once a week, and Ruby had initiated all but one of them so far, always in the early-evening after a day of planning them out in advance.
Considering when the two of them had met Ruby had been the sort of person to bumble and crash her way into and through that sort of conversation, Weiss wasn’t sure whether she should be proud of the growth or not.
Though it did mean that the ‘serious talks’ had almost started to feel like the occasional ambush.
Weiss clicked her tongue and gave a resigned sigh as quietly as she could manage, before finally following Ruby out into their main room, where Ruby was already spinning in lazy circles, taking advantage of the smoothness of the freshly cleaned floorboards courtesy of Weiss’s unemployed boredom.
While every year before she’d had reliable work during breaks between her studies, this year hadn’t been kind to her, so with no studying to do and no work to occupy her time she had gradually been running out of things to clean and books to read, and the gym could only occupy so many hours of her day. Most people her age could spend entire days in front of the television or on the internet, but she’d never been one of them. If a day didn’t have at least three things productive in it, she had trouble sleeping.
Frankly she was already going stir-crazy. She knew it had been souring her mood, and that wasn’t fair on Ruby, even despite how eternally patient and kind Ruby was with her.
Though surely even Ruby had a limit.
…it was suddenly hard to keep that paranoia out of her line of thinking, as she watched Ruby pace back and forth. It had been obvious for months now that Ruby and Penny had been talking about taking that next step, and Ruby was right; with their lease not being renewed and Penny moving away, it was the most convenient time imaginable to do it.
Had Weiss given her incentive? More reason? That was ultimately irrelevant, but Weiss could still feel it settle into the back of her head. It would rob sleep from her later, but for now there was a more important and solid obstacle;
There was a problem. And they both knew it.
“I can’t afford to live alone in this city, Ruby. Not anymore.”
Weiss started off so tense and pulled taut that she felt like her insides were coiled springs, but the shame that came after admitting that type of hard truth sucked it all out of her. She deflated as she sank down onto the armrest of their couch, close enough to Ruby’s line of pacing that the dangling tail of Ruby’s scarf brushed her knee with every pass, her pacing slowing at Weiss’s words and the footfalls losing their anxiety.
Ruby nodded slowly as she came to a gradual stop, letting one foot swing back and forth along the floorboards as she sighed, before giving a hum.
“No chance your family owns something even close enough to be on the train line that you could use?”
“I do believe I mentioned that the term ‘disinherited’ is so absurdly gentle compared to the truth that it’s practically non-applicable.” Weiss raised an eyebrow as Ruby snorted, and she sighed, folding her hands together on her lap as she looked away and out the window.
The winter snows had started a fortnight ago, and even on the days there wasn’t actively any snowfall the windows still frosted over and the sidewalks were white with ice and persistent powder, cold enough that people from more temperate climates such as Ruby rugged up to an almost absurd degree just to get to and from the shops.
Weiss wasn’t quite as bothered. Her home country snowed nine months out of the year. But even she woke up shivering the occasional morning lately. There was a bite to it this year already, and the snow season had only just begun.
A miserable time for having to move. And a miserable time for her best friend to take off and leave her stranded.
But even though she couldn’t personally empathize, she couldn’t fault Penny for wanting to go and look after her father. Besides, she liked Penny, in moderation, and she knew just how happy she made Ruby. So she also couldn’t fault Ruby for wanting to follow her heart and use the opportunity to take a leap forward in the relationship at the same time.
It just meant she was screwed.
Weiss watched the specks of snow drift down from the sky outside the window, though the glass was fogged up enough they were nearly impossible to make out, and her hands tightened together on her lap as she tried to think of a solution.
Of her entire family, only her sister Winter was still speaking to her, but Winter was currently on military deployment, so she couldn’t be much help anyway. And Weiss didn’t have many friends in the city that didn’t just live in the dorms at the college, or they were in relationships and living with their significant others, which meant no options for potential housemates on that front.
With each passing minute without an answer coming to her mind, or Ruby speaking up with a solution of her own, Weiss slumped further down, eventually giving into her weight and sliding down from the armrest and sprawling out on the couch properly, staring up at the cracked plaster of the roof and thinning her lips.
Ruby sat down on the now free armrest and looked down at her sympathetically, her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to think.
“Is Pyrrha back in town yet?”
At the mention of one of their few close friends who was both single and didn’t just live in the dorms, Weiss didn’t even bother to feel a spark of hope or optimism. “Not for another six months or so. She messaged me a few nights ago.”
“Damn. I mean, I’m glad one of us is living their dream, but I do miss her.” Ruby tsked in disappointment, allowing her train of thought to derail for a moment, before she shook her head to get back on track and crossed her arms. “Ciel?”
“Her brother moved into her spare room.”
“Oh. Crap.” Ruby didn’t take Weiss’s cold and dead tone personally, she was more than used to it, instead she reached down to mindlessly stroke her fingers through Weiss’s hair as she thought. “Sun and Neptune have a second bedroom, don’t they?”
“Sage is coming back to school next semester, I’m assuming he’ll have shotgun rights.” Weiss waved a hand so utterly lazily and dismissively that it flopped down onto her stomach so heavily that there was an audible thump. “...if this has to be done before our lease expires, you’re not giving me much time to work with, exactly.”
Ruby winced guiltily, her fingers briefly stilling in Weiss’s hair, before she managed a guilty nod.
“You’ll be okay. I’ll ask around, and I’m sure you can too.”
“...yes. I’m sure I can.” Weiss pulled away from Ruby’s touch as she sat up, looking down at her lap as she quickly neatened her ponytail again and sat it back into place, before she pushed herself to her feet abruptly and stepped around Ruby to make her way down the hall. “I suppose I'll get started doing that.”
“Weiss…”
“Leave it to me, Ruby.” Stopping at the entrance to the hall, her hand resting on the corner of the wall as she paused in the liminal space between, Weiss sucked in a deep and slow breath as she kept her back to her best friend. She didn’t want Ruby to see her eyes, not with how wet and hurt she knew they were. It wouldn’t be fair. “Solutions always present themselves, yes?”
The armrest creaked behind her as Ruby audibly turned more in her posture so she could stare at Weiss’s back properly, likely waiting for Weiss to turn back around so she could make eye-contact, but Weiss had no intention of doing so. And when that became obvious, Weiss standing rigidly still while Ruby waited, eventually she heard as Ruby let out a quiet sigh.
“...yeah. Okay.”
Weiss nodded without looking over her shoulder, and didn’t slow or linger anymore as she made her way down to her bedroom and pushed her way inside, closing her door behind her and sliding the lock with as gentle a click as she could manage.
But instead of going to her laptop to message friends or look online, or grabbing her phone to make calls, instead she simply went to her bed and curled up, her back to the wall and her knees hugged up to her chest.
+=+=+
Weiss had many admirable qualities; composed, polite, studious, ambitious…she had the presence of a force of nature but the precision of a steel blade forged in fire and quenched in the northern snows of her homeland. Even once she was disinherited by an abusive father and practically exiled, she pushed herself back up to her feet and found a way to ignore how she’d scuffed her knees under the weight of the blow.
But, despite her many, many admirable qualities, she certainly had her flaws. One of the largest being that she was capable of being incredibly petty when she was hurt, her pride locking her into the protection of turning up her nose in any way she could scramble to find.
So after Ruby had condemned her to a unique stress, she didn’t speak to her best friend for two days. Even though these days they didn’t cross paths as regularly as they used to, with Weiss leaving for the library before Ruby got out of bed and Ruby usually spending the night at Penny’s, in the few hours they crossed each other they were normally inseparable when given the chance.
For two days, however, Weiss did little more than acknowledge the text she got from Ruby informing her that she was at Penny’s for the night and wouldn’t be home until the next morning. She didn’t reply, but at least she opened the message so that Ruby would know that she had seen it.
Instead she spent as much of her time as she could summon into reaching out to friends and scouring online looking for somewhere free that might have a spot for her. But this late in the year the pickings were slim, the start of winter wasn’t typically a moving season, so most attempts ended in cobwebs and friends apologizing but promising to keep an eye out as well.
Ruby had brought it up on Friday, and it wasn’t until Monday that she got more than a text message back from someone, with her phone ringing so early in the morning that the sun wasn’t even up yet. Normally she’d ignore a call so early, calling back once the time was a little more reasonable, but a glance at the caller ID justified the misjudging in hours.
Clicking on her bedside lamp and shuffling up, she hit the answer button and stifled a yawn.
“Hello Pyrrha, good morning.”
“Oh, shoot, you’re yawning. How early is it over there?” Pyrrha’s voice was full of energy, meaning it was likely right in the middle of her busy day, and Weiss groaned as she looked at her alarm clock.
“...early. But that’s no matter. How are you? It’s good to hear from you.”
“It’s good to hear your voice too, honey. And I’m good! The next set of bracket placements are coming up and things are about to truly kick off, no pun intended.” Pyrrha laughed brightly at her own joke, and the sound had a light to it that brought a tired but true smile to Weiss’s lips as she blinked herself further awake. There was the sound of a microwave beeping, and the shuffling as Pyrrha tucked her phone between her ear and shoulder to free up her hands. “How about you? I’m sorry I’ve been so lax with getting back to you on things. I’ve just been so busy.”
Weiss let her head fall back against the worn-away headboard of her bed and looked up at the ceiling. It had been four months since she’d seen her other best friend, and long hours of unemployment and boredom had made it all seem to stretch on and on. But, just like with Ruby’s decisions, she couldn’t truly fault Pyrrha for being so busy.
So she shrugged even though Pyrrha couldn’t see it, but she knew the other girl would be able to hear it in her voice.
“It’s alright. I’ve been keeping up with your games, you’ve been busier than I’ve been in quite a while now.” Weiss smiled when Pyrrha gave a fond ‘aww’, and chuckled at the sound before raising her eyebrows. “What can I do for you? I doubt you’ve called me internationally just to catch up.”
“Well, I heard about your situation. Look, I can’t help right now, of course, but if you find somewhere to crash for six months then you and I can find somewhere solid. I’m hoping to go and finish my degree once this season is over, so you and I can get a small place somewhere.” Pyrrha closed the microwave door with a nudge of her elbow as she carried her lunch, not bothering to go to the dining table in the small room she had while passing through the city with the rest of her team, and instead simply placing it down on the counter to eat directly with a fork.
Her voice was pensive, her future still undecided even though she was riddled with ambition and purpose, but the idea of moving in with Weiss wasn’t even slightly in doubt. The certainty of it had something in Weiss’s chest thump heavily for a moment as if bloodflow was being restored to numb muscles and joints, and she let out a sigh of grateful relief as if she’d been holding the air in for two full days.
“Gods, Pyrrha. That would be amazing. Are you sure?”
“Of course! I will admit I’m frustrated a bit on your behalf at the circumstances, I adore Ruby but her throwing this on you on such short notice truly isn’t fair, but a place with you and I would easily work. It saves me from having to find a housemate as well.” Clearly shrugging as she popped a forkful of whatever she’d reheated into her mouth to quickly chew, her months traveling with other rougher athletes having tainted quite a lot of her manners and poise, Pyrrha hummed around her fork as she swallowed. “But this does of course require you finding somewhere to bunker down for six months. A bit easier than finding somewhere more solid on such short notice, but still.”
It was a different kind of problem, but Weiss tilted her head to the side as she looked up at her roof. There were a few short-term accommodations in the city, dotted around for backpackers and tourists and other wanderers, that set up ‘pay as you stay’ type arrangements.
But Weiss had never functioned or thrived well in close proximity to strangers, so the idea had something in her clench even as she gave a slow nod.
“I suppose I can try and find something.”
“Of course. Ask around. And I’m sure Ruby can get her sister to call you.”
Weiss froze as her eyes widened, and every nerve of her skin washed with an electric wave as her grip on her phone tightened.
Yang? Talk to Yang?
Why would that help? Why would Weiss possibly want to ask anything of Yang, of all people? Yang, with her attitude that was the antithesis of everything Weiss preferred in her company. With her obnoxious smile and a lack of modesty she’d had since high school, sucking in everyone’s attention and throwing a party every time her and Ruby’s parents had been away for business or simply not given a shit.
Weiss hadn’t spoken more than a handful of words to the blonde in years, ever since the day Yang had helped her and Ruby move into their place after graduation. And despite the occasional text from the other girl as a clear attempt to start conversation, and the open invitation to any night out Yang hosted, Weiss had never given it any thought or any response.
Ruby was the quieter sister, more ambitious and focused, and she’d given up on trying to get Weiss to take up on Yang’s attempts at friendship before they’d even graduated.
Apparently her lack of answer had dragged on for long enough that Pyrrha found it conspicuous, since when she spoke again to prod Weiss she kept her voice whimsical even as her words were slightly scolding.
“Just think about it. Yang’s still in that huge sharehouse at the old campus, on the twelve trainline, and this late in the year I bet a surfer or two have left to get away from the snow. At least it won’t be a stranger.” Pyrrha gave a gentle hum of encouragement as she put her bowl into the sink, the tap running for a moment. “Anyway, I’m afraid I’ve got to run. Quite literally, actually. But if you can find somewhere to bunker down for six months, I’ll be back, and we’ll move forward from there. Just give it some thought, alright?”
Weiss closed her eyes tightly for a moment as she got the rush of nervous jitters under control, and managed a tired and stressed nod.
“...alright. I’m sure I can find somewhere for a few months. Thank you, Pyrrha. I appreciate it.”
“Of course, honey. You get back to sleep, and keep me posted. Talk soon.”
“Talk soon. Good luck.” Weiss waited for the line to go dead before tossing her phone down onto her sheets and pinching the bridge of her nose, her eyes still closed, as she thought.
She and Yang had never gotten along. Of course, they’d never fought or anything like that. But the disconnect had been there ever since they were teenagers. They’d both been popular, but in different ways and different crowds, and even despite how much time Yang spent distracted and aloof her grades had been threateningly and motivatingly close behind Weiss’s own.
But they’d simply…never had much to say to each other. Only looks exchanged whenever Weiss was over at their place to see Ruby, or occasionally sharing a table in the cafeteria when Yang would plop down as she drifted from table to table with her infuriatingly easy grin and a type of confidence that always had something in Weiss stiffen.
Yang moved from crowd to crowd as if she was a founding pillar of every single one, as if she was a central focus of everyone and everything, and she delighted in the fact nobody had ever seemed to disagree with it or put her in her place.
And Yang had tried getting into Weiss’s good graces, truly she had. Weiss knew that.
Weiss had her studies and little interest in parties and sports, no desire to crowd the arcade, and even though she did enjoy retail therapy just as much as Yang did she had always indulged in it alone instead of turning it into a social day like Yang and her crowd seemed to.
Quiet and loud. Silver and gold. Focused and aloof.
Weiss had dismissed thoughts of a friendship even back at the age of fourteen.
But the day she’d been banished from her family and had been forced to find her own place, suddenly penniless and borderline desperate, Yang had broken their unofficial pledge of silence to give her a soft smile away from Ruby’s sight and ears.
“Hey, if you ever need anything, I’m here. Okay?”
They barely knew each other, but Weiss knew one thing about Yang Xiao-Long for certain;
She didn’t lie, and she was never quick to change her mind or close a door.
Keeping her eyes closed and her head resting back, Weiss tapped her thumbs together on her lap as she thought over it, before giving a sigh.
The clock was ticking down, and while she might be able to find another short-term place if she scoured and networked, she might not have time before things got truly desperate.
It would only be for six months.
Grabbing her phone again and ignoring the photo of herself and Ruby that was her homescreen, she brought up the number in her contacts she had never even glanced at, ignoring it to a point it would warrant cobwebs if such a digital thing was possible.
All she had to do was swallow her pride, and trust that Yang was still the girl she’d been when she’d had the sort of bravado that could conquer the world and solve everyone’s problems.
‘Hello Yang, I know this is out of nowhere, but would you mind calling me later today if you have a free moment?’
She didn’t let herself hesitate again as her thumb hovered over the screen, and with a physical swallow to shove down her pride she hit the send button and tossed her phone away again.
Just like everything in her life in recent months, all she could do was wait for forces outside of her control to decide what they wanted to do with her without her input or having much of a voice about it.
It made her want to scream, lost and helpless.
So, pulling her pillow over her face, she did.
+=+=+
The sun was barely above the horizon when Weiss’s phone rang, but she was already awake, having only grabbed another couple of hours of restless sleep after talking with Pyrrha and trying to think of any possible solution to the months ahead. A plan with Pyrrha simplified the problem, adding a definitive timeframe and giving her an ending objective, but just because the problem was simpler didn’t mean the solution would come easily to her fingers.
Her message to Yang hadn’t been the first net she had cast, and she had every intention of casting out others once she thought of any.
It was a new experience to see Yang’s name on her phone screen, but Weiss managed to take a slow and steadying breath before hitting answer and raising it to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Hey there Ice Queen, long time no speak.” Yang was, as usual, peppy and chipper as she spoke, even despite the absurdly early hour. Music played in the background, along with the rhythmic clanging of metal, but she didn’t sound particularly distracted. “How’s it going? You all good?”
Weiss tried to prevent the corners of her lips from ticking upwards, but the fact that Yang had called her so quickly and without any suspicion had something in her chest warm in a relief that made her fingers tingle. So she pushed back from her desk and sat back in her chair, feeling slightly safer.
“I hate to trouble you, especially after we haven’t spoken in so-”
“Nah, not even a factor. And you’re not a trouble yet, it’s only been fifteen seconds.” Yang chuckled, the sound warm, before she gave a strained grunt that was followed by the clanging of more metal settling into place.
Weiss blinked as her mind placed the sound, and her entire world went into static
‘…oh my god. She’s working out.’
Weiss’s thoughts caught in her throat as her eyes widened, memories of high school gym class rattling in a locked box in the back of her brain, and she clenched her jaw tightly to prevent her attempt at speaking from coming out strangled. Of course Yang went to the gym so early in the morning, it was probably how she warmed up for the day.
“...Weiss?”
“Right, right. Sorry. Busy morning.” Clearing her throat and sitting up properly again, Weiss gave a slow sigh to focus. “I…find myself in need of some help. I assume Ruby has mentioned her plans regarding Penny.”
“Oh yeah! Yeah. It’s awesome. Gonna be sad to see her go so far away, but hey, the heart wants what it wants and all-” Yang grunted between syllables as she lifted the bar, the sound almost a growl, and she sucked in another breath with a slight shake to it from the exertion as she lowered it again. “-that jazz. What about it? We throwing a party or something? Well, you’ve called the right gal.”
Weiss winced and shook her head, standing from her desk to quickly poke her head out of her bedroom door and listen to hear if Ruby was home or not. Satisfied when the rest of the apartment was silent, and Ruby’s bedroom door was open just as she always left it when she wasn’t home, Weiss felt slightly safer as she slumped back down onto her bed and stared up at the roof.
“Not…quite. I’ll admit that I’m not entirely sure how to say it or even broach it.”
There was a pause, Yang stopping halfway through an extension in a way only muscles as powerful as hers could safely manage, and Weiss could shakily visualize what the sight would be as Yang clanged the bar back into place and sat up from the bench.
“Are you okay? Does something about it not…feel right, to you?” Yang’s gulp of water from her bottle was loud and pronounced enough to be audible through her earphones’ mic, and the absurd sound was enough to break the prideful tension holding Weiss in stasis.
Yang’s persistent superpower; comfort through obnoxious broadcast.
So, sucking in another breath and letting it out as a rushed sigh, Weiss closed her eyes again in resignation and tore off the bandaid.
“I don’t have anywhere to go, once she moves out.”
Yang sighed sympathetically as she understood, and there was quiet clicking as she drummed her nails on the metal of her water bottle. “Ohh, I getcha. Well, shit. Hmm. You’re wanting me to ask around? I can put the word out, sure.”
“I’d appreciate that greatly, the more options the better, but…” Weiss summoned every drop of her notorious determination, and choked out the words. “Pyrrha mentioned that you might potentially have a free room at your place.”
There was a loud thump followed by Yang swearing to herself as her water bottle slipped out of her hand, and Weiss was forced to wait with her lips in a tight and thin line as Yang audibly quickly scooped up her bottle to prevent too much water spilling onto the floor.
Yang went back to drumming her nails on the metal after the lid was on once more, the bottle likely held between her thighs, as she stumbled for a moment.
“Well fuck...okay, are you home right now?”
“I don’t exactly have much else to do or anywhere to go, currently.” Weiss hummed in the affirmative, and she heard Yang grunt as the girl stood up from the bench and grabbed up her towel.
“Ugh, that’s a mood. Dad’s giving most of the jobs to Ruby at the moment to help her save up for the move, so I’ve got fuck all to do.” Yang snorted without any malice or actual resentment in the sound, before perking up again. “Well, if that’s the case, mind if I pop over to hang and we can chat properly, to get you sorted out?”
Weiss shot upright in her bed immediately, her eyes widening as she looked over at the floor length mirror on her wardrobe door and took in her appearance; worn jeans, a plain cotton shirt, her hair in a haphazard and lazy ponytail, and without a speck of makeup on. Frankly it was a miracle she’d dressed for the day at all, having grown more and more prone to lounging around in her pyjamas as her unemployment had dragged on.
She knew the apartment itself was completely spotless, considering that was currently the only life’s work she had going on, but the thought of Yang coming over for the first time in literal years was enough for Weiss to feel a wash of insecure nerves.
It would be obvious from one glance at her that she was at less than her best; beaten down and tired, but not fully broken just yet. Aimlessness didn’t suit Weiss, she didn’t wear it neatly on her skin, but it was currently the swamp she was sinking in.
But…she needed the help.
“Sure. Ruby’s not here though.”
“Surprising absolutely nobody. Nah, that’s fine. Okay, I’ll head on over. I might grab some breakfast on the way though, I’m starved…” Yang trailed off as she ended up talking to herself more than to Weiss, but after only a moment she chuckled and snapped herself back to the conversation. “Alright, see you soon. Gimme a bit.”
“Of course. See you soon, then.”
Yang hummed in a final farewell before hanging up, leaving Weiss staring down at her phone as the screen eventually went dark from the limbo, the time barely past seven in the morning.
It’s too early for this, but Yang had never been the type for any type of societal etiquette. Weiss had asked her to call if she had a free moment, and so she had, and that had likely been the end of Yang’s reasoning process for it.
It was just how she was, and how she’d always been.
But all the same, the fact that reaching out when Weiss had asked her to had clearly been one of the first things on Yang’s mind before she’d even had breakfast made something in Weiss’s chest spark and feel slightly warm.
Yang could make anybody feel special. Like they mattered. Like they were important.
It had always annoyed Weiss in the past, seeing it as Yang’s relentless desire to make everyone think that they were her favourite. But lost adrift and aimless in her current predicament, left alone at the apartment with nothing to do except try and solve one problem after another that didn’t want to be fixed…
It felt nice to be a casual priority, even if from a girl who handed that kind of attention out so willingly and readily that it had no real value. As if kindness was a market that could be oversaturated.
Weiss pushed herself up from her bed and marched over to her wardrobe, throwing the doors open with a flourish and looking over the options inside.
If Yang was going out of her way so early in the morning just to come over and help, the least Weiss could do was put in the only sort of effort that she was currently able to.
+=+=+
The thing about Yang was that she was a protector, and she always had been. Whether it had begun back when she was a little girl with an even littler sister and there were bigger people who decided to have a problem that required fists to discuss and iron out, or it was when she was a little older and a little wiser and she knew the signs to look for when people her age sat alone at the lunch table pretending they weren’t sniffling into their plain-bread sandwiches.
There was something in Yang that had her packing extra snacks for the freshmen who had nobody to trade their cheap sardines with for something a bit tastier, and Yang hated the taste of fish but she’d shove it down with a smile to make the little ones feel okay.
And her voice got louder and her eyes a little brighter and she’d keep her hands in the pockets of the jacket the football team gave her, hiding the callouses on her knuckles that hadn’t truly faded even once protecting people became less about taking an older woman’s rage and instead became about walking someone to class or making sure they didn’t drink too much at a party.
Some people needed protecting, like little Penny Polendina with her wobbly knees and naive eyes that didn’t see threats coming.
Others didn’t need someone with a bright smile and tight hugs. Pyrrha Nikos had been everything Yang didn’t have the time to be, too busy packing her sister’s lunches and making sure to dilute her uncle’s beers for when he got into one of his moods. Instead Pyrrha had been not so much an inspiration as much as Yang could use her as a projection.
But then there were those in the middle ground; the ones who never returned her smiles but spoke up to engage with her regardless, who never hugged her back but never fought her off when she put their arm over her shoulders to help them stumble home from high school parties where everyone was trying to find the final neurons for their growing brains in the bottom of bottles.
It was why Yang had never been able to keep her eyes off of Weiss Schnee; because Weiss had always kept an eye on her out of the corner of her flawless blues, watching her with suspicion and half-hidden disdain.
Weiss didn’t understand that some people can protect others without intent or any desire for indebted reciprocation. The Yangs of the world were alien to her, and it had something in Yang desperate from the age of twelve to show her that she was real and everything was true and honest.
The need to prove her tangibility to a girl who only ever had sneers and scoffs for her. Who had never spoken much of a kind word about her even as she’d stuck to her sister’s side like glue. Yang had wanted, no, needed Weiss to know that sometimes, sometimes, people just liked to like other people.
And she had liked Weiss. With her cold wit and her silver hair in its off-center ponytail. Her dance recitals every talent show, and the way she would chew the end of her red pens when marking her own work just a little too harshly at the Rose-Xiao-Long household. The way Weiss never hugged her older sister, even on the day Winter graduated, but when Ruby would bump their shoulders together she’d always blink in shock as if surprised before gradually coming to bump her back when she thought nobody would notice.
It always made Yang want to hug her and help put some warmth into those well-toned dancer’s arms and legs and chest, just as much as it made her want to knock on the door of the Schnee household and have a not-so-kind word with her parents, telling them that Weiss Schnee was warm and they’d know that if only they touched her every now and then.
That Weiss liked chocolate icecream as her post-fencing-tournament snack and that Yang had memorised her favourite brand, and could tell them so they could put some in their own fucking freezer for their ignored middle-child.
But she’d never taken that stride, because Weiss would have killed her. Because it wasn’t her place, and Weiss needed everything in its place. Even if that was a character trait, a lifestyle, that Yang didn’t share, she could understand how Weiss had ended up that way.
She didn’t know many, if any, of the details of why Weiss had ended up starting to keep sleepwear at her and Ruby’s house throughout highschool from how often she stayed over and avoided going back to her own home. But from how Weiss sometimes turned paler than usual at the scent of wine and her hands would tremble, Yang was willing to make a few guesses.
But Weiss had turned out strong. Really strong. Yang admired it, sometimes she even envied it.
Frankly there were quite a few things about Weiss to envy.
And one such thing was brought to display when Weiss opened the door upon Yang hopping up the stairs to the floor of the apartment she shared with Ruby, and knocked;
Time had been really, really nice to Weiss.
Slightly knobbly knees and a petite frame had shifted away early, replaced with lean dancer’s muscles and strong yet tight fencer’s shoulders, and while she would always be shorter than pretty much everyone else Yang knew she no longer carried herself like she was tiny. Her legs were too strong for that, her posture too perfect to slouch, and her ice blue eyes were too sharp to be wilted by anyone’s glare but god’s.
Weiss kept her hair in the same off-centre ponytail she always had, but her hair had shifted from the elegant silver of her teenage years and turned as white as the perfect snow that was currently drifting down from the sky outside on the street.
The angles of her face had sharpened and filled out, her pink lips perfectly proportioned for the scowls and sneers they alternated between. Her skin was flawlessly pale, without a single spot or blemish, and it made her look carved from marble.
Yang had once joked that if Weiss closed her eyes and wore white, then she might be mistaken for a statue from how pale she usually was. At the time it had been a joke, but as delicate ceramic had been replaced with smoothed marble it had turned into a great and true compliment.
Art galleries were filled with history’s attempts to carve a Weiss Schnee.
Yang wasn’t sure exactly when Weiss had transcended. It was somewhere along the line, just unnoticed because Yang had seen her every single day and she had been relegated to the category of ‘Ruby’s Best Friend’ which made her more like a sibling than anything.
But one day Yang had blinked at a party and seen Weiss across the room, red solo cup of cheap bourbon and mixer swirling in one hand as she smoothed out her dark blue skirt with the other, the cut longer than most girls their age wore but short enough that flashes of her shapely thighs and calves had sucked Yang’s mouth dry.
She’d been laughing at something Penny had said, her laughter a shy and always hidden act normally only visible in her eyes, but the alcohol had pinked her cheeks and loosened her lips so Yang had heard the musical chimes from all the way across Reese Chloris’s living room and it had practically taken a baseball bat to her legs with how she buckled.
After noticing it once, Yang noticed it in the most innocuous and unpredictable of moments; noticing Weiss’s lips had filled out when she saw her nibbling her pen while doing her homework with Ruby, hypnotised by the growing sway of her hips during a school camping trip when Weiss had been walking with her friends up ahead, frozen into place by the new earth-cracking confidence in those ice blue eyes when Weiss had shot her a glare for a joke far too inappropriate to be made out in public during a weekend shopping day.
The details worth staring at were endless, so Yang hadn’t even realised she’d been doing it again until Weiss raised a sharp eyebrow from where she’d stepped aside to let Yang inside, and Yang jumped before realising she’d been spoken to but hadn’t processed a word of it.
“Uhh, huh? Wha-?”
“I said good morning, Yang. Honestly…” Weiss tutted, but there was none of the usual edge to the sound, instead she barely made eye contact with Yang for more than a few seconds before she looked away with a slight pink to her cheeks. “I don’t suppose you would like to use our shower? After your…workout?”
Yang blinked in confusion at the question as she made her way past, already unbuckling her jacket, before a wash of freezing air from the hallway went over her exposed torso and had her shiver and remember that underneath her jacket she was still in her workout clothes, her midriff bare and the leggings and extra-supportive sports top leaving very little to the imagination.
Such a thing wasn’t really something she even noticed anymore, it was just a casual thing and she normally wouldn’t blink at lounging around like this, but Weiss had been raised a little differently.
No wonder she was pink, she’d never handled Yang’s taste in sportswear or casualwear.
But not everyone could pull off the fitted shirts, trousers, skirts, and dresses that filled Weiss’s wardrobe.
Shaking her head to herself, the adrenaline and buzz from her workout still underneath her skin, Yang simply buckled her jacket back up and smiled sheepishly.
“Don’t have a change of clothes with me, I was gonna head straight home after gym and shower. Sorry.”
Weiss let out a slow breath through her nose, strained and forcibly controlled, before shrugging with one shoulder and gesturing to the combined dining and living room. “Oh. I see. That’s…no trouble. Please, be comfortable. Would you like something to drink?”
“Nah I’m alright, I’ll just refill my water bottle if that’s cool?” Yang gave Weiss as warm and reassuring a smile as she could manage as she hopped into the small kitchen while grabbing her bottle from her gym bag, and her eyes picked out the freshly done dishes that still had water drops on the sides.
So, Weiss had done all of the usual household chores she could before Yang had arrived.
It was a small thing, an unnecessary effort, but Yang chuckled fondly to herself anyway as she screwed the lid back onto her bottle and returned to the main room, dropping her gym bag at the foot of one of the dining chairs before hopping up onto the edge of it and looking over at where Weiss was leaning against the back of the couch, her arms crossed over her chest and her long hair falling elegantly over her shoulder.
Weiss was just in some of her simpler clothes; a plain pale blue blouse and a neat black skirt, combined with one of her comfier pairs of boots, but she made even simple clothes look royal, and Yang suddenly felt very underdressed in her riding jacket, sports top, leggings, and sneakers.
Why didn’t she bring a change of clothes to the gym…god that was lazy of her. A habit that normally had no risk, until apparently it suddenly did.
The silence was on the edge of being awkward. The pair of them hadn’t spoken more than a handful of words to each other since the day Weiss and Ruby had moved into the apartment and Yang had helped carry boxes up the flights of stairs. Yang had clocked pretty early on that Weiss had always gone out of her way to ignore her, and even though it went against every cell in her being to stop reaching out to someone she had tried her best.
But even open invitations had gone ignored. Any time Weiss had swung through a party or followed them out for a night she had always migrated away to either the other side of the bar to talk to a stranger, or vanished from the party before midnight so discreetly that she was a ghost.
Only Yang ever noticed those moments, it felt like; when Weiss would throw her jacket around her shoulders with a final long casting look around the room and a small smile on her lips as she looked at the people she loved who were enjoying each other’s company, before she would vanish out into the night.
And even though they were both well out of high school now and they were all grown-ups, Yang still sometimes felt the protective and curious urge to follow after her and see just where it was she went. If she really did just come straight home and curl up watching terrible netflix while still tipsy, or if there was a quiet bench somewhere she liked to go and sit.
Weiss had always had a lot of secrets she had kept from even Ruby. She was just a private person by nature. And even though there was nothing wrong with it, something about how Weiss raised her eyebrow when someone tried to pry always made Yang want to open her mouth and pry harder.
While normally she bit back that urge and simply watched Weiss go, this time Weiss had reached out. She needed help.
So after taking a quick sip from her water bottle while watching Weiss fidget with the top buttons of her blouse self-consciously, the fabric loosening slightly for the briefest flash but still enough to show Yang a glimpse of private pale skin that was hard to ignore, Yang gave her a reassuring smile and casually folded her hands on her lap.
“So, what was it you needed? Somewhere to stay, right? Since Ruby had decided to fly the nest without much of a lick of warning, at the worst time of the year?”
Weiss huffed at how casually Yang put it out there, the frustration and small amount of hurt she still felt about the situation rising up and being enough to knock away the squirm she’d been feeling in her gut at how Yang was staring at her, and she crossed her arms over her chest again with a nod.
“I know it’s been a very long time since we’ve spoken, but I find myself…rather desperate. I wouldn’t bother you otherwise. Pyrrha said you might be able to help.”
Yang shrugged easily, drumming one hand on her thigh as she reached into her gym bag with the other to try and find her phone without looking away from Weiss. Unable to look away from her. Nobody short of a creator deity should be the first one to break eye contact with eyes that blue and sharp.
“You’re hardly bothering me. I know some peeps I could ask, though it’s a rotten time of the year for it…” Hesitating as she spun her phone into her hand and punched in the lockcode without needing to look down at the screen, Yang bit her lip nervously at how her curiosity was still wriggling. “But…you did bring up my place. Why’s that? I would have thought you’d rather die than share a space with me.”
While she certainly didn’t intend it as a criticism or anything, frankly it was a fair preference for Weiss to not to want to spend every moment of her life around Yang’s particular kind of energy, Yang still saw as Weiss thinned her lips in a suppressed frown.
When Weiss answered, she looked away, breaking off eye contact as her voice quietened in what Yang had grown to learn was the closest equivalent to shyness that Weiss would ever show.
“We…have shared a living space in the past, more or less. And we are familiar with each other. That certainly is preferable to complete strangers.”
Her entire form was rigid. Insecure. Fragile. And Yang’s eyes softened and her heart ached as she saw it.
They both remembered the entire weeks at a time that Weiss would crash at the Rose-Xiao-Long household, curled up on a spare mattress on Ruby’s bedroom floor because it was better than being at home. Her parents’ divorce had been a long, long few years of lawsuits and battles for the family business, let alone the children, and Weiss had needed a home where everyone loved each other.
Weiss was popular, sociable, and invited to every event and party. But she had still needed someone to eat dinner with at night just like everyone else.
“Sure, sure, that’s true.” Yang laughed gently, her shoulders shaking with the easy sound, and she was pleased when it drew back Weiss’s eyes. “But there’s a difference between you crashing at Ruby’s and my place for at most a month at a time, and…how long did you need a place again?”
Huffing in frustration again, Weiss relaxed, frustration and annoyance being more comfortable territory than any sort of fragility. “Six months, until Pyrrha returns and we can find a place together.”
Yang let out a sympathetic whistle, a flash of frustration at Ruby going through her chest at the position she had put Weiss into on such short notice. Finding a six-month residency at this time of the year, out of university semester, on such short notice…
Many of the potential avenues that Yang had been considering, spinning her phone in her hand slowly, simply evaporated on the spot.
But still…
“The place I live…it’s not particularly busy, compared to some of the other nearby places, but we…host a few characters.” Chuckling in nervous amusement, Yang placed her phone to the side and tapped her fingers on it for a moment in thought while she looked down at it.
Her phone lockscreen was effectively a selfie with as many of her housemates crammed into it as possible.
Bar one, who avoided photos at all costs even though she was always there, despite Yang’s best efforts to grab her by the sleeve and pull her into frame. The thought had Yang grin, as it always did. She’d win eventually.
There was a fascinated pause as Weiss raised her eyebrows and stared at Yang curiously, with any sort of bashfulness or chest-butterflies absolutely unseen between the two of them before, and Weiss’s lips eventually ticked up into a small smile as she decided that she liked how it looked in Yang’s mischievous eyes.
So, seeing the sincere fondness and bemusement that made Yang seem far more human and less like an event, Weiss felt herself relax, her shoulders losing another few drops of the tension that had been in them since Yang had called.
Yang, jacket half-buckled and revealing the gold and black of a sports bra and top that was doing serious legwork considering the girl’s generous curves, with her wild blonde hair tied back and up from needing it out of the way as she rode her bike, had soft and supportive sincerity in every inch of her being as Weiss studied her.
She could do this. Yang would help her do this.
And then Weiss would just need to find a way to pay her back.
“Whatever sort of characters you’re referring to, I believe I can handle it. We did go to the same schools, after all.” Weiss gave Yang a determined nod when Yang tilted her head in consideration, still giving Weiss a smile that morphed from unsure to sly and amused, and as mischief and enjoyment sparked in Yang’s eyes Weiss felt herself warm. “It’s only for six months. If you can fit me in.”
Yang hummed low in her throat and considered Weiss, tilting her head as she thought over it. This time of year the house was at its most quiet, and while ‘quiet’ was relative it would still be a couple of months of peace for Weiss to settle in for as long as she needed.
Weiss wasn’t the same judgemental and better-than-thou girl she’d been back in high school. University and family drama had tempered her, Yang had watched it happen.
So, she nodded in agreement, and unlocked her phone to open the house group chat and type in that they were getting a new roommate, so everyone had to clear their spare shit out of one of the empty rooms currently being used as a temporary storeroom.
“Always, Weiss. Don’t you remember what my mums said back in ninth grade? Wherever a Rose, a Branwen, or a Xiao-Long sits, you will always have a chair.”
Yang gave Weiss a beaming grin even as Weiss scoffed yet smiled back, both of them remembering that night, when Summer had pressed a gentle kiss to the top of Weiss’s head while Raven of all people had held the sobbing young girl’s hand. Letting the reassuring memory sit and linger for a moment so that Weiss would accept it, Yang hopped down from the table and stretched her arms above her head.
“Alright, let’s organise getting you packed up and in before Ruby buggers off. We’re gonna have to put some of your stuff into storage, so thankfully my dad’s got that huge garage he barely uses. But otherwise, plenty of room for you. Too easy.”
“...thank you, Yang. I owe you.”
“No. You don’t.” Yang shook her head at the thinly-masked vulnerability in Weiss’s expression that was mixed in with the relief and gratitude, and she put her phone to the side so she could cross the room until she was right in front of her.
The two of them don’t get close. Not since the time Yang had nonchalantly put her arm over Weiss’s shoulders in the cafeteria and felt the small girl go rigid as if she was being electrocuted and crushed. Yang had learned in that one moment that some lines might never fade.
But, looking down into Weiss’s wide and grateful eyes, and the way the perfect and statuette line of her lips was pulled tight in relief, Yang couldn’t hold back from gently placing her hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze.
“I’ll always be here for you, Weiss. Always have been, and it’s never gonna change.”
Weiss didn’t fight the contact or pull away from it, not this time, but she didn’t reciprocate either, instead she simply gave a timid and nervous nod.
“Alright. I suppose I should start packing.”
+=+=+
The makeshift sharehouse, converted from what had once been a dorm building on the old college campus before erosion had turned the other half of the grounds into a flood risk and the facility itself had moved to the other side of the city, was at the same time exactly what Weiss expected while also being fascinating in the small splashes and colours of the tenants who had come and gone.
On the outside, the building was actually rather pretty, the paint well-maintained and the windows clean, with an obnoxious amount of fairy lights dangling from the second and third story windows and ringing the entire building in a halo that Weiss privately couldn’t wait to see lit up for the first time once the sun went down on the right sort of night.
But she didn’t take time to admire the exterior for long, with snow coming down in flakes that covered her thick jacket, so she adjusted her final bag over her shoulder and followed where Yang was holding the front door open.
It was only her third time there and today it was the final part of the process, the first two simply in preparation for her stuff to be moved in, and she had been surprised at just how well oiled a machine that the household were when it came to the process of moving people in and out.
The building currently housed twelve people dotted around and occupying most of the eighteen dorm rooms that were still in the state to be bedrooms, and five of the longer-term tenants such as Yang herself had turned moving in into a simple and smooth operation. Weiss hadn’t had to do much more than direct where she’d like things in her small - and surprisingly cosy - new room to go, with her bed, closet, and vanity all clicking into place like tetris pieces.
She hadn’t memorised all of their names yet, but with wide smiles and eager cracked knuckles at the process ahead of them they had all firmly gotten into her good graces in their first thirty seconds.
Now all that was left was her final bag on her back, and to hand over the key to what was now her ‘old apartment’ to Ruby, who was in the process of packing up her own stuff to either be stored away or shipped over to her new place with Penny.
But she had also made sure to be as helpful when it came to Weiss moving out as she could.
The three of them paused in the hallway just outside of Weiss’s new door, Ruby with her sleeves rolled up from helping to reassemble her bed, while Yang was still sweating and flexed from being one of the two members of the household to carry in Weiss’s wardrobe.
They tried not to make it a big deal; Weiss and Ruby gave each other a long hug, and she pressed her key into Ruby’s palm with a tight and sad expression, getting one in return that was quickly followed by another even longer hug.
Ruby’s voice was muffled from her face being pressed into the side of her head as she spoke quietly. “...you gonna be okay?”
Even though her breath almost caught in her throat at the question, still hurt and the wound throbbing whenever Ruby toed around it, Weiss nodded into the hug, resting her forehead on the taller girl’s shoulder.
“I will. I’ll see you in a month for your farewell party, yes?”
“I’d like that.” Ruby released the hug and gave her a wide smile, her eyes glimmering in a pained mixture of eagerness for her own adventure while also grieving what it was forcing her to leave behind. “But, I mean, we’re gonna hang out between now and then, right? I’m not gonna be working all the time.”
Weiss gave a sad nod, her lips tight, but there was no hesitation in this particular part of it all. A life without Ruby’s constant presence was going to be hard, and new. It had been a decade since she hadn’t been stuck to Ruby’s side like glue, so to return to a life without her made something in Weiss feel fragile and cold.
But she wasn’t going to hold Ruby back from her own adventure, she would never dare to fail as her best friend in that way. And she knew from Ruby’s eyes that Ruby was going to miss her just as much as the reverse was true.
So Weiss nodded.
“Of course. Just give me a call.”
That was what their friendship would be turning into once Ruby left in a month;
Phone calls.
The thought had made Weiss shed a rare tear on more than one private occasion in the month since this had all been set into motion.
Then, with a quick hug between the sisters and Yang ruffling Ruby’s hair, Ruby was gone, vanishing down the hall and out the large swinging doors and into the snow, her car keys already in her hand and the red hood of her jacket pulled over her short hair.
Yang waited patiently and quietly as Weiss watched Ruby go through one of the large hallway windows, her hands in the pockets of her cargo pants, and she watched as Weiss slowly braced herself and clicked her pieces into the new shape they would have to take without Ruby Rose within it.
“So! Time for the tour? You haven’t seen any of the nooks and crannies yet.” Yang gave a beaming smile, excited and encouraging, and she dropped slightly in relief when Weiss nodded and turned to face her to follow at her shoulder.
Despite the wide variety of residents that she had already glimpsed - from the girl covered in tattoos exposed by the skin left over from her cargo shorts, ripped vest, and padded knuckle gloves, that had helped Yang carry in the wardrobe, to the boy with short-shaved hair as if he was ex-military but with the gentle demeanour and moon glasses of a librarian - the actual layout and decor of the main building itself was surprisingly uniform.
Everything was vibrant, with light blues and silvers and splashes of gold and bright red, the plain fluorescent ceiling lights ignored in favour of standing lamps and table lamps either donated by residents or scavenged from op shops and garage sales, and the furnishings in the main communal kitchen were all relatively new if a bit unkempt.
Someone in the building was clearly anal about everyone labelling the individual food they wanted to keep to themselves, which Weiss could appreciate, and Yang gave a wide and sweeping gesture to all of the unlabeled contents of both the fridge and the pantry and declared that it was all free-game on a replacement system; you use it, you replace it.
A small whiteboard was stuck to the archway between one of the large living rooms and the kitchen with a list of basic chores, and each resident clearly had a magnet that was moved around every week; grocery runs for the communal stuff, taking out the trash, tidying specific living rooms and hangout spaces, sweeping snow and ice from the paths, everything basic.
Troy and Zeek, who Yang pointed out was the boy with the glasses, were both due to take the trash out that afternoon, while Billie the girl with tattoos was on dishes duty. Weiss couldn’t help but scoff in amusement when Yang grabbed a spare magnet from the nearest cupboard and scribbled her name onto it in marker, before roughly and messily adding the ‘Moving in and getting comfy’ category for her magnet to stick on.
But, for the most part, people looked after themselves and their space autonomously, dealing with their own messes and tidying up after themselves.
…though some were better at that part than others, if the utter chaos of the second living space Yang led her past was any sign, with the tv on loud and blaring though nobody was in there, and cushions and food packets all over the place.
Weiss met all the residents one by one, the ones who were home at the time, and the ones who slowly returned throughout the afternoon as they finished work or off-semester studying.
The main living space, the largest and the cleanest, almost always had someone in it even as people were migrating in and out and passing through, everyone seeming to stick their head in and see who was around as they got home, and after the tour was done Yang made sure Weiss was never stranded and alone as they met people one by one as everyone passed through.
While Weiss allowed Yang to sprawl out on the largest and most indulgent of the couches, she eventually found the most comfortable of the three armchairs, and was perfectly content listening to the random and untrackable conversations that passed in and out, speaking up when referred to.
She would return to her privacy and continue setting up her room once things calmed down, but for now…this was the right thing to do. She wanted to make a good first impression, and from how eagerly everyone seemed to want to engage her in conversation she was doing that in her usual excellence.
And even though some of the people passing in were not the sort of people she would normally find herself enjoying the company of, one brother and sister far too brusque and snarky even for her taste, while another had all the armbands and pigtails and brightly coloured clothes and boots of someone who would certainly play their music too loud whenever they were home, no matter the hour…for the most part, Weiss found herself smiling whenever she was greeted.
Eventually Billie of all people had decided to bring her into a proper conversation, the other girl flopping down on the other closest armchair and hanging one leg over the armrest and folding her hands behind her head. Weiss wasn’t too surprised to find out she was an arts major, but she certainly knew what she was talking about, and she had plenty of questions about Weiss herself and her own studies and work.
The sun was starting to lower into the sky when there was the creaking sound of the large front doors opening again, and like a doorbell it had everyone in the room flick their eyes in the direction of the door arch to check and see who had just gotten home.
And when the newest arrival swung around the corner to lean against the arch casually in the same smooth and effortlessly cool movement, Weiss almost swallowed her tongue.
Midnight black hair cut short and above her shoulders, but clearly growing longer from the original shape of the messy cut that Weiss got the impression might have been done with kitchen scissors a few weeks ago, and glowing golden eyes brought out by dark makeup with eyeliner so sharp it could slice steel, Weiss’s stomach and her heart latched onto each other in an embrace when a perfect dark eyebrow rose upon the new girl noticing the stranger in the room.
A pair of lips that carried the faint traces of having been painted dark in the morning but had lost the shade over the course of the day pursed into a curious smirk as her eyes left Weiss’s in order to sweep her up and down, the dark-purple painted nails of her hand drumming on the archway in a set and strong beat that somehow seemed to draw Weiss’s attention to the rhythmic movement of her fingers.
The eyes took their sweet time, indulgent and brave, and the action itself soaked in the confidence of knowing that Weiss wouldn’t shift or protest.
Still frozen into rigidity, Weiss didn’t even twitch, and the girl’s lips curled up in a victory so personal and selfish that it must have been delicious on her tongue.
Eventually those golden eyes returned up to her face, having travelled along the exposed skin of her legs from how her skirt was riding up slightly in her posture, and how the button-up shirt hugged her petite frame, and the dark girl’s smirk twitched from curious to appreciative and then on to casual at such a rapid speed that Weiss wasn’t sure whether or not she’d imagined it in the first place.
“So…” The tip of the girl’s tongue appeared as she ran it lightly along her top lip in thought, and Weiss suddenly couldn’t look away from her mouth. “You must be…Weiss?”
The girl’s voice was impossibly low in its accent, almost a purr in how it wrapped around the syllables of Weiss’s name, the last syllable coming out in a deceptively serpentine hiss that she drew out a beat longer than necessary.
Somehow, Weiss managed to nod, and managing that simple movement was enough for her composure and propriety to attempt to return, and she stood to cross the room to greet the newcomer in the same way as she had all the others.
Extending her hand to the other girl, Weiss gave a polite and friendly smile.
“Weiss Schnee. It’s nice to meet you…?”
With an amused glance down at Weiss’s hand, the girl took her other hand from the strap of the satchel over her shoulder, the leather covered in faded patches and suiting the dark shade of her jeans and leather jacket immaculately in aesthetic, and she took Weiss’s to give a firm shake that was soaked in amusement at the formality of it.
“Blake. It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Yang has mentioned you before.” Blake held onto Weiss’s hand as she clearly ran her eyes over the details and features of her face now that she was closer, her gaze travelling along Weiss’s sharp jaw and the pale plane and curve of her neck, before she met her eyes again. “And she was right. About everything.”
Ignoring the absolutely sundered and confused state she had reduced Weiss to, Blake released her hand and tilted so she could glance over the room and give everyone within it a quiet yet genuinely warm smile, her dark lips carrying such a natural slyness in their shape that even the innocent face made it look as if she was up to something.
“Afternoon, everyone. How are we all travelling?”
Most of the room, who had all already fallen back into their own conversations or dozing or watching where the tv was on with the volume low, simply gave a wave and called out their hello’s, and Troy raised his head up from where it had been resting on Zeek’s lap and gave a smile.
“Belladonna! What’s the word? You not fired yet?”
“Getting better at not being caught, boy. But, nothing special to report.” Blake shrugged casually, somehow making the movement look sensual with how the leather of her jacket hugged her back, and the unbuckled front shifted to reveal the dark purple shirt she wore underneath.
Seemingly picking up Weiss’s confusion and curiosity out of the corner of her eye, Blake tilted her head just enough she could make eye contact with her and gave a teasing wink before looking around at the others again. “Well, I’m home tonight, so knock if any of you need anything.”
Straightening from the arch with a smooth and slow pivot on the ball of one of her feet so she slunk around the corner in the one movement, Blake shot her eyes to meet Weiss’s again before her back was turned to her entirely.
“It was good to meet you. I’ll see you around.”
Struck dead by golden eyes and a golden voice, Weiss couldn’t help but watch her as she vanished down the well-lit hallway, the sway of her denim-clad hips and the sleek shine to her black hair underneath the lights, before whipping her head away the moment she saw Blake about to look over her shoulder.
+=+=+
Blake wanted Weiss.
One glance at that pretty, poised form, those sharp blue eyes which had memorised the room and everyone in it, the perfectly painted fingernails that had glinted under the ceiling lights as they had shaken hands.
Those phenomenal thighs flashed by her skirt when she had stood up from her seat…
Blake wanted those legs over her shoulders and trapping her fucking skull from how hard she was making them quiver.
Yes. Weiss was one of the most jaw-dropping people that Blake had ever seen, with some of the softest yet strong skin that she had ever shaken the hand of and studied from up close. She saw the pale and smooth skin of Weiss’s neck and collarbone and wanted to taste her sweat on it, wanted to suck her pretty upper-class voice off her tongue and make her moan instead.
Blake wanted her.
Spinning her pen in her fingers as she sat on her bed with a notebook on her lap, music playing one of her favourite playlists quietly out of a bluetooth speaker on her desk, Blake was lost in those distracted thoughts as she looked out of the window and into the falling snow decorating the quad of the old campus.
The white snow the same shade as Weiss’s hair, which Blake wanted to wrap around her fist and-
Blake snorted to herself as she caught her pen in a tight grip to stop it from spinning, and she let her head fall back against her headboard, eyes closing and allowing herself to dwell in the thoughts for a moment. If she stopped fighting the current and indulged for a little while, they would pass, and she would be able to get back to her daily writing.
She tried to do two-thousand words a day, as hard of a task as that often was, but it meant she’d have a first draft in only a couple of months and then the process of fixing it up taking a bit longer.
Give it a few months, and she’d have a new manuscript to submit, and maybe one day she’d be making enough money from her books to pay off her student loans.
But the occasional distraction didn’t hurt, and Weiss was gorgeous enough Blake had been sundered straight from her eyes through her brain and down to her core in the instant moment it had taken to notice the perfect curve of Weiss’s lips.
Grabbing a few cold chips from the dinner plate resting next to her on the mattress and popping them into her mouth to chew, Blake opened a single eye to look out into the night. They hadn’t turned the fairy lights on tonight, there was no point when the snow was falling thick, but the light of her desk lamp was enough to illuminate the flakes that were drifting past her window.
It had taken her a while to get used to the snow after moving from the tropical climates of her home, but the sight was always beautiful and the silence always peaceful enough to make it worth the cold.
Also away from the oppressive heat and humidity of her home, she had been able to truly flex her taste and style here. You couldn’t really get away with much leather or denim when you lived somewhere that had fall days hot enough to fry eggs on car bonnets.
Until moving, Blake’s fascination and drift towards the darker tastes in colour and flair had been forced to be longing and fancy. She’d bought her first ever leather jacket within her first week off the ferry.
Now she’d grown into her taste. University grunge suited her more than singlets and flip-flops ever had.
And Weiss had clearly approved, without much subtlety.
Blake smirked to the snow.
There was a quiet knock on her door, and Blake checked the time on her phone even as she swung off her bed and stood, before giving a breathy chuckle at who she knew it was as she slid back the lock chain on her door and opened it, her eyebrow already raised.
Yang stood outside calmly and confidently, her hands in the pockets of the extremely short cotton shorts she slept in, and her orange tank top sleepwear was faded enough from time to leave little to the imagination. With her wild and long blonde hair loose and cascading down her back like liquid gold, and her tanned skin seeming just as gold under the low light of the lamps, Yang was like a summer siren as she smiled at Blake and raised her own eyebrows.
Linking into her previous train of thought, Blake was amused at how Yang would have fit in perfectly in Blake’s hometown, unlike herself.
Regarding Yang for a long and playful moment, her eyes travelling up and down her body and drinking her in utterly self-indulgently, Blake didn’t even try to bite back the appreciate growl as she slowly grabbed a handful of Yang’s top and pulled her inside, closing the door so she could press Yang up against it and kiss her.
Yang’s strong arms were around her in an instant, gripping into the back of her own dark shirt, a baggy band shirt she had bought years ago that hung down low enough on her upper thighs that she could get away with just wearing underwear as bottoms, and Blake encouraged the possessiveness by shimmying her hips in a grind against Yang’s thigh.
With a rapid and violent pivot, Yang slammed Blake up against her door hard enough the wind was slightly knocked out of Blake’s lungs in a gasp that was swallowed into Yang’s mouth, and as Yang’s hands slid down from her back, travelling over her shoulder blades and hips to grab her ass, Blake happily hopped up to wrap her legs around Yang’s waist so Yang could move her wherever she wanted.
Sometimes they fucked against the wall, sometimes on the carpet, because sometimes one or both of them were too impatient to get to the bed.
Blake knew that Yang was strong enough to hold her up without any of her help, so she unwrapped her arms from around Yang’s neck just long enough to pull her own shirt up and over her head to toss it away, only for her head to fall back against the door and her hands to shoot to Yang’s hair when Yang’s lips and tongue were immediately on her chest.
Taking her time to kiss and suck every inch along Blake’s collarbone and the valley of her cleavage, Yang knew Blake would end up impatient, she always did, and it would distract her enough with fuzziness for Yang to be in absolute control on exactly where and how she wanted the irresistible girl currently arching into her mouth in a growing need for stimulation and grinding against her waist with miniscule movements and tenses of her thighs.
Yang knew that a few of the others who lived on this side of the retired dormblock were still awake and in the nearby living space watching tv, so fucking against the door would make even more noticeable noise than they usually did. But while neither of them cared about that sort of thing they did try and take the discomfort of their friends in mind.
Floor or bed it was, then. She’d consider Blake’s desk, because she loved plopping Blake down on her desk so she could then drop to her knees in front of her, but Blake’s work laptop and files were sorted on it, and despite appearances and demeanour Blake did take her work seriously.
Sucking a final dark mark on Blake’s breast a few inches away from her nipple, the soft skin hypersensitive but still not quite where Blake craved her attention, Yang hummed happily as she kissed her again, slightly amused at the taste of salt on Blake’s tongue from her dinner.
“Where, baby…?”
“Bed.” Blake nipped her lip playfully, her hands still in her golden hair, and her eyes were blown dark and black as she stared. “I want to see the snow.”
Yang snorted even as she obliged, carrying Blake across the room easily. “You’re so dramatic.”
“It’s the bed tonight or you'll be swaying back to your room slick down your fucking thighs but viscerally incomplete.”
It was an empty threat, Blake would have allowed Yang to sit on her face right in the hallway if Yang grabbed her hair just right, but it made Yang laugh, and that sound was worth anything Blake could give.
So Blake grinned into Yang’s smile as they kissed again, before squeaking as she was dropped onto the mattress. There was the clattering of ceramic as her dinner plate fell to the floor, scattering the few remaining chips onto the dark blue carpet, but neither of them cared as Yang cupped Blake’s cheek with one hand while she grabbed onto her thigh so Blake would wrap her legs around her waist again.
Yang always kissed her like she was responsible for the perfect shade of the night sky on a clear summer night, how the weather had been when Blake had fucked her from behind against the outside wall of the abandoned tire factory that had been pumping with music so loud the concrete wall had been pulsing as Yang had came against it.
That hadn’t been the start. And it most certainly hadn’t been the last, considering how Yang had sat up briefly to pull her top over her head and reveal her lack of bra, only to grin when Blake growled and yanked her down again with her thighs to kiss.
Before shivering when Yang whispered against her lips.
“Saw you looking at Weiss. You trying to make me jealous?”
Blake smirked, running her nails down Yang’s shoulders and arms, leaving scratch marks that would fade but for now were white streaks on tanned skin, little imperfections like the type Blake always covered her with like signatures.
“Aww, don’t pout, I can’t resist those puppy eyes.”
Biting Yang’s bottom lip and tugging it between her teeth in a way that had Yang tense up with sparks, Blake hummed in thought as the white-haired woman flashed into her mind. She wondered whether Weiss would be the type of girl to be on top like Yang was, or if she’d be the type Blake got to take control of the way she sometimes liked.
Something in her body must have reacted at the thought, because Yang smirked once her lip was released and chuckled.
“Sorry kitty, but I think she’s straight. Though actually, I’ve never seen her date at all.”
Blake burst out laughing, the sound sharp and loud.
She slid her hands up Yang’s powerful arms again, indulgently enjoying the bulging of the strong muscles underneath the skin from a life of working with cars, weekends kickboxing, and mornings at the gym. Yang had power in every inch of her form, the type that could potentially crack plaster with how hard she could slam Blake against walls if she lost too much control.
And Blake loved to push to see if she’d ever get to that point.
But that wasn’t on her mind as she scratched lightly up Yang’s neck to dig into her hair, anchoring Yang’s mouth to her neck and moaning when she felt her teeth sink in hard. Instead she thought of wide bright blue eyes, and a pretty pink tongue that had inadvertently flicked out for Weiss to wet her lips upon first sight. How Blake had only had to hit her with her most playful smoulder in order for her to buckle and her thighs to shake for a moment underneath that devilish skirt that was pretending to be more modest than it was.
Weiss’s hand had been sweating ever so lightly in hers, that perfect little bottom lip had been chewed lightly between her teeth as she’d had to focus just to walk straight, and Blake had felt her body heat just from arm’s length distance.
So as Yang sucked a black mark into her skin, inflicting the pain just as much a turn on for her as receiving it was for Blake, leaving both of them grinding lightly and shivering, Blake laughed again and cooed.
“Oh honey...” Blake dug her fingers into Yang’s hair, tugging it firmly but not harshly, just in the way Yang liked, and shuddered at the reaction of Yang biting harder and pressing down, shuffling her thigh more directly between Blake’s legs for her to grind on.
And Blake happily did so, sighing at the friction as she wondered whether Weiss knew.
About herself. About Blake. About any of it.
She didn’t strike Blake as a First Kiss Virgin, but if Yang had never seen her date then maybe it had only been the sort of kisses shared shyly in awkward teenage whimsy…
‘Oh. Oh this could be fun.’
Yang detached from her neck and pulled back enough she could look down into Blake’s eyes and study her face. Despite the joking comments, there wasn’t a speck of jealousy in her eyes as she knew what Blake was likely thinking about. Instead there was only…curiosity, as if she was considering something for the first time.
It had Blake’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise and her mouth curl up in true yet impure amusement.
“Wait, you’ve never considered it?”
“I mean, she’s my sister’s best friend, has been since she was twelve. We’ve known each other for almost a decade.” Yang shrugged, tilting her head as her unique lilac eyes began to shimmer with a new light. She gave a gentle smile, light and soft. “...she is beautiful though, isn’t she.”
“Oh she’s gorgeous. I bet seraphs glare in envy. I don’t know how you’ve never thought about it.” Blake’s smile shifted from hungrily amused, to just as soft as Yang’s own. Yang really was noble in her own bruised-knuckle way. It was one of the things that had called to Blake in the first place. “Such the valorous white knight. Have you really never wondered what that angel tastes like?”
Yang’s eyes flickered wide as she gasped in surprise as the direct lure cut through the normal dance-flirting and right into her chest, and while she half-expected it to shoot up into her brain for her to disagree with and laugh off, instead it went down.
Blake’s eyebrow rose at the minute shuffling of Yang’s hips caused by the lightest and most unconscious twitching of her thighs.
“Well, you’re going to now, aren’t you?” Chuckling not unkindly when Yang immediately blushed slightly because she was unable to disagree and almost frustrated with herself for it, Blake tugged her hair again to pull her back down to her lips. “Maybe I’ll make you moan her name when I let you cum.”
Yang froze in the kiss as the lightning shot through her body and left her light-headed and fuzzy, and for truly the first time in her life she shivered as Weiss’s face washed through her mind in a way it never had before; eyes wide and lips open as she writhed on Yang’s dark sheets.
‘Oh. Oh, shit. ’ Unable to hold her patience any further, Yang hooked her fingers into Blake’s underwear and began to pull them down.
Seeming to sense the lustful resignation suddenly in Yang’s chest and beginning to heat up her blood, Blake simply laughed into her mouth in victory as she shifted her hips up so Yang would have an easier time.
Yang was always a lot of fun.
And when white-hair and perfect blue eyes flashed through Blake’s mind, she felt a heat in her stomach humming that if Weiss really was as inexperienced and reserved as Yang seemed to think, then she wanted to be the one to wake her up.
She wanted Weiss, who wanted her but might not realise it.
But while Yang wasn’t the possessive or jealous type…
Pausing in her grinding for a moment, Blake bit her lip as a thought occurred to her, and she gave a gentle coaxing tug of Yang’s hair to guide her head so they were looking into each other’s eyes. Yang frowned in concern and curiosity at the slight contemplative scrunch of Blake’s lips, and she tilted her head.
“What’s up?”
“Just feel the need to ask and check,” Blake bit her bottom lip as she thought over it, tilting her head.
She and Yang simply had an arrangement. Stress relief. A bit of fun. And Jesus Christ was it fun. And while Blake herself didn’t go out on any, she wasn’t bothered on the few occasions Yang went out on dates, though Yang never brought any home.
But this felt different. This girl, felt different.
Weiss wasn’t just any girl. She was one who Blake could tell that Yang held close within her chest, loyal and fond and protective.
And so even though Blake wanted to bare her teeth and sink them into Weiss’s pale thigh as a storm battered the window and thunder covered the moans, she still tilted her head slightly and gave Yang an inquisitive look.
“Would you be okay if I fucked Weiss?”
Yang shrugged instantly, a small smile appearing on her lips, and she immediately kissed her deeply but swiftly, managing to slip a hum of confirmation into her mouth as she gave a playful nod upon pulling back and ignoring how Blake instinctually chased her lips a few inches.
“Of course. You’re not mine, y’know. And she’s a grown-up, and beautiful, even though…yeah, I’ve never thought of her that way. Just…” Yang pulled up slightly so she could look down at Blake, and after thinking for a moment she gave a shrug and a mischievous smirk. “Just don’t ruin her for the rest of the city, yeah?”
Blake raised an eyebrow as the reassurance washed through her chest, and her eyes sparked with danger as she thought of everything that might be ahead of her if she played things right and she was correct about the way she’d almost made Weiss buckle.
And if Yang was fine with it, then she was going to give it her best shot.
So she nodded, giving a non-committal hum behind her smirk, before grabbing a fistful of Yang’s hair and pulling her back into a kiss, banishing thoughts of Weiss from her mind for now and instead allowing herself to crash and fall into the ocean that was Yang.
Weiss, beautiful and regal and mysterious Weiss, could come later.
No pun intended.
…mostly.
Blake giggled to herself.
+=+=+