Chapter 12: Love is Something of a Promise

Weiss Schnee the Heiress

"I'm kind of glad it's still raining, it can really be relaxing after all this stuff. Still wanted to eat lunch at the park though, I even baked cookies," Ruby remarked with mild disappointment, swinging around the intertwined hands of both her and Weiss. They stepped in file, the only difference was in the way the red one almost skipped with every step while Weiss moved with almost a forlorn sense. Where her girlfriend seemed mostly cheery, looking onward and pleasantly, the silver haired heiress seemed to look past Ruby and out the glass windows into the rainy world outside. The storm the day before hadn't left, or accurately continued to grow as it passed through the coastal city. The winds were not so high as to be of too much concern, but with the downpour and consistent overcast all plans for punishment training, or afterward lunch together were washed away along with most everything outside.

"You're on a diet, less sugar and more protein. I wouldn't have let you have those cookies anyways." Weiss had no real conviction in what she was saying; more just a statement of facts as she stared below into what was the little alcove into their private park. A small silly sentimental part of Weiss hoped the park itself would be saved from the storm. As meaningless as a place actually is, it kept certain irreplaceability to her. Much rather be there then why she likely would be doing on this damp afternoon.

"No fair," Ruby grumbled in sweet little complaint, lips tightened into a pout. Weiss didn't think she had the heart right now to take away all the cookies, but it was important to keep up threats, can't look weak. "So, why exactly are we following Blake?" Ruby added, clearly the question was plaguing her, after all it was plaguing Weiss just as sickeningly. What indeed. Blake had gone alone into the wolf's den and faced the biggest monster draped in white that the Heiress could ever imagine. The Faunus then came out unscathed with a sharp flip around. Blake had cut some deal with Weiss' father; the girl had no idea what she was doing. It wasn't an insult, Blake was smart, too damn smart the fencer thought sometimes, but making a deal with the Schnee. Weiss was stupid enough to make deals first when she was young. Walked away thinking she had gotten all the things she ever wanted, and then found herself stripped of everything. A deal with a man like that, no matter how pretty, always ends up worthless.

"I want to know what she said to my father." Weiss had no reason to lie, she answered proudly, considering this perfectly in her right to know. They were supposed to be a team, which meant trust. Trusting Blake was...hard, harder at first than any of the others. Sometimes those ears, fluffy and even a bit cute, were enough to just crawl something fierce under Weiss' skin. It wasn't something she was proud of, or was going to let get in the way of the truth, but it was there in the rare moments. Still the trust was there, however fragile.

"Weiss…" Ruby mumbled back, her cheerful skipping stopping on the edge of the heiress' statement, hand tugging on her girlfriend for her to draw more attention, that puppy dog look in her eye bright as ever. "No fighting."

"I promise I don't want a fight, it's for her good." Weiss couldn't truly promise no fighting; there could always be a fight. Weiss was about as graceful as a gunshot when it came to making a point, but she had to keep faith that Blake would see the sense in it.

"Ruby, I think you should go spend some time with Yang, she's been complaining non-stop for you to spend more time with her. For a woman that abandoned you on day one you would think she wouldn't whine like a bear in heat." Weiss more just wanted to do this alone, Ruby didn't need to see more fighting between teammates. They were exactly where Ozpin said Blake should be the third year dorm that Professor Thrym had taken for her own. Blake since they came back found a part time job as an aid to Professor Ozpin, working as a default secretary. It was respectable work, but made her hard to find, chasing a ghost around Beacon who left Ozpin's office right before as they had arrived. The good professor sent them to this corner of the facility, after Blake who was sent to deliver some files. Now outside the door, it was time to catch the sneaky little cat.

"Okay," Ruby mumbled nervously, she seemed unhappy, uneased. Could Weiss blame her? After all the idiotic fights before, this seemed like another primed nightmare ready to explode. "Only if you kiss me…" Ruby had become more and more needy lately, the trip north had really gotten to her, or maybe she just wanted Weiss to refuse so she could stay.

"Fine," Weiss muttered standing on the tips of her heels to kiss Ruby's forehead. Weiss might have resisted some other day, but she didn't have the energy for it, not with an interrogation left to go in the day. "Go see your sister." Ruby nodded back, sadly and shifty running back into the academy halls. Weiss scowled alone now, the rain outside beating, a small toxic loneliness was coming to her again. When did it get so easy to ignore before, and why was it so grating now? What had Ruby done to her?

A sigh and Weiss stood by the door, brushing herself off and standing proper before the wood finish. Chin up she brought her hand to the door, first bound to knock when a much heavier drop was heard within, a groan to follow. Weiss didn't think about what could be in there, all she thought was Blake should be and it might be her groaning. Blade unsheathed Weiss didn't let a moment go before opening the strangely unlocked door. There wasn't Blake inside, there wasn't much of anything at all. Weights, a table with dust on it, a rack of armor in the corner dented and warped. A long sword placed against a wall. A bag full of medicines and food resting alone on an empty nightstand aside a simple long twin bed. The room was less a living space as simply a place to sleep, no objects or personal effects hanged on the walls or scattered about to make it a home. The only thing that showed that much evidence of a person was the professor herself, collapsed on the floor in a deep sweat, eyes shut with breathe painful and rigid.

"Girl the medicine please," Azura Thrym rasped out hand reaching for the bag in vain hope of reaching it. Weiss never liked Azura, but her sense of discipline moved her. The heiress dashed to grab the bag and bring it over not sure which thing would help or what had happened. She forgot entirely that Blake was supposed to be there and found herself on her knees propping the professor against the bed for support picking up bottles each one for the professor to nod yes or no to. Eventually a cocktail meant for whatever this was came to fruition. Weiss came up with a mixture of powder and pills that Azura, as ragged as she seemed in that moment, swallowed down without the slightest hesitation.

"What happened professor? Should I get Ozpin?" Weiss asked fairly, sitting on one knee to look closely at the now finally calming giantess. This had been the first time the Heiress had seen Azura this close, or see the hulking mass without her armor. She was just as tall as before, still over six foot, broad shouldered and similarly flat chested, but it had its boyish charm to it. After all the Heiress had an even smaller chest and she wouldn't call herself anything but stunning. It wasn't the only thing the two of them shared, she was also scarred and pale, the red lines all over her body and most grimly on her face even while the eyes rested closed and peaceful.

"No no, it's my fault. I was about to fall short on my standard for push-ups, me being the stubborn old bitch I was activated my semblance instead of accepting I'm not twenty four anymore," Azura was clearly feeling better, her laugh raspy but there with a small self-satisfied grin on her face. Weiss bet she made that standard after all. "My semblance makes me stronger and numb to pain, but puts a lot of pressure on the heart sometimes, not a problem when you're young, but I'm not anymore huh? Look at this old woman; I'm a joke, Ha!" Weiss could see she was old, the greying hair and early wrinkles on her face clear indications, but her body still seemed young. The professor was dressed in just shorts and sports top that showed off her muscled and firm body, seemed not too much older and weaker than the rest of her. Azura Thrym did a wonderful job illustrating how to keep the body young with exercise and discipline, but internally… How many years had she been using a semblance that weakens the heart? Weiss considered herself so lucky to be attuned to the magic of glyphs instead.

"So what are you here for Schnee, I doubt it's to save my life and confess everlasting love. What do you want?" Azura asked with a grin, her eyes shut to the world and body breathe normalizing. Clearly Professor thought she was funny "Oh and thanks." Azura added with a nod, finally acknowledging that Weiss had just maybe saved her life. Weiss could feel the nerve in her head throb with this woman.

"I came here to find Blake Belladonna; she was supposed to give you something." Weiss clearly missed her apparently, another step late, which wasn't too surprising if endlessly irritating. After all it had been a bit since she was sent out on delivery. Missing her on the way could be explained by how subtle Blake was. For a girl with cat ears she had a talent of being inconspicuous.

"Haven't seen her," Azura replied, opening her dark eyes with only the dimmest hint of blue. Weiss didn't want to be in here any longer. She bowed as the proper lady she was and spun around, the skirt flaring with her. Where to next would be again Ozpin's office, another shot in the dark.

"If Blake's coming, stay and wait a while," Azura requested, or technically stated, catching Weiss at the door at the last minute. Whatever her personal bias, Weiss felt obligated to stick around at a professor's request, and as pseudo-family of her girlfriend. There was also something else, the way this place felt only filled with only the sound of the rain as company felt lonely. Perhaps it was just spending too much time with the red head making the heiress soft. Either way she turned around and shut the door behind her. "So why are you becoming a huntress Schnee?"

"Excuse me?" Weiss asked feeling the question somehow was a trap. Wasn't it obvious to some why a rich girl would choose to live so dangerously, wasn't even clear to Weiss until she was in her teens that the path of the rapier was for her, but for some reason Weiss thought the question was more an accusation.

"Schnee, why you, a rich girl with a fortune coming wasting your time here," Azura pushed on, the massive professor laying coolly on the floor, her head resting on the mattress. Her words were harsh and critical, though the tone seemed earnest. An honest question, not just a slight. "Why become a huntress?"

"Schnee's believe in service and duty. A huntress is an honorable profession only doable by the best. Someone needs to do it. Do I need any more explanation?" Weiss recited in the same practiced speech she had mastered with her father. At first he was not keen on the idea, but pushed her into it. As for if it was true. Part of it was. Weiss had longed as a child to be a servant of justice. A knight in shining armor. Time had taught her it wouldn't be that way, but she could try.

"Figured," Azure replied with an annoying click of her tongue.

"Fine, why did you become a huntress if my answer is subpar?" Weiss snapped taking her default defensive position, looking down at her nails, an anger twitch. Azura seemed to smile, as if with closed eyes she could see Weiss snap into defensive attention.

"Yours is a fine answer, personally I love killing to tell you the truth. Watching something crumble away before you. Coming out the winner and strangling the life from something. Proving I'm better, faster, strong, bloody vicious too. That's the sweetest thing to me. That's my reason." The answer was morbid, enough so to shock Weiss. Azura seemed pleased to fill the role of a monster as much as she could. The sharpness of her teeth apparent in the way she smiled that toothy grin. Still crumbled onto the floor in a sweat she didn't scare Weiss as so much as repel her.

"That's horrid! What kind of teacher tells that to a student?!" Weiss' words left her mouth before she even had time to think about it. This was a teacher after all, not like Weiss could just shout at them. Hadn't helped with Port for sure. Instead of Azura getting mad, she gave a light giggle, almost horribly youthful giggle.

"It's not horrid girl, killing is just an action, like running. Its motive context and circumstance that makes it good or evil. I kill a grimm I'm a hero, I kill a person I'm evil. That's the way it is and for once it's also the way it should be. I kill things that need dying, like you said honorable work. I just happen to enjoy killing grimm, I love it. A good many hunters do it just for that," Azura clarified with a self-contented nod. Weiss didn't care, it was still barbaric. She wanted to stop the grimm menace, but the killing wasn't supposed to be fun, it was still a necessary evil.

"No one I know is that barbaric." Duty was duty, but barbarism was barbarism. The school was filled with hunters and huntress' many who enjoyed winning and fighting, but not killers. None of her team most certainly. Brutes, dunces, and minxs maybe, but not killers.

"Four kind of hunters. Those in it for the money, they never make it far and you won't find them in a top school. Those with no other choice, sometimes all you have is one skill. I've seen those types sometimes. People who want to be a hero, they all die early almost like clockwork. Lastly killers like me are the ones that live a long time. Miss Long is a killer, she might not think of it that way, but she loves a fight for the same reason. I wouldn't call her a murder for it. She's doing the right thing killing monsters. In the end all creatures of the light should be thankful for the good kinds of killers. I've worked many jobs in my life and only once before did I feel as happy as I did killing grimm. We all got passions eh?" A long winded speech that left Azura out of breath, but Weiss no less offended. To have her team of huntress' compared to killers was irritable even if to some degree she was not wrong per say. One person came to mind though, someone so inconsistent to the killer label. Someone that just couldn't be.

"What about Ruby then, is she a killer?!" That tossed Azura a ball she couldn't take at first. Her snappy comebacks hitting a lovely brick wall. Instead she just nodded sullenly in a ponderous way. Eyes still shut as if to focus. There was nothing to sound besides muffled rain and the professor's tired breath. Eventually her lips did part and the response came less comfortably than before.

"No, no sweet little girl isn't. Least she wasn't, we all grow to like it a little. Her though, she wants to be a hero, want's to save people. If it were up to her the grimm could live far away, light and dark far away from each other. Nothing, but goodness in her." Weiss couldn't agree more, but the way Azura said it was sad, as if it was wrong. It was then she remembered Azura's type of hunters. Heroes always die.

"So are you saying she'll die?" Weiss tried her best not to sound angry, checking her nails again as if something had changed. She couldn't help asking, though she didn't respect Azura's opinion, she mostly just wanted someone, anyone, to tell her that it was wrong and Ruby was nowhere near dying. Silly panic. Weiss hated that it a thing in her now, this worry.

:"Worried?" Azure asked finally opening her eye to look at Weiss. 'Oh really? What kind of bitch do you think I am.' She wanted to scream, but instead the silver fencer composed herself, giving just a glare instead.

"Of course I'm worried," was Weiss' actual answer. Much more contained.

"Do I think she'll die? She thinks she might. Ruby told me she was okay with it once, dying for another, like her mother did. Ruby ever tell about her mum?" A moment of deep shame hit Weiss at the question. One she could only shake her head no too and grimace at all at once. "Good girl she was, I was her brother's partner and the little one practically lived in the dorms with us. Well she became a huntress, one of the best. Better than Qrow and myself for sure. Summer was the third type. She died when Ruby was still a little girl." The anecdote was not comforting in the slightest. Azura seemed to be lost in the memory a bit, her expression trapped in a circle between happy and melancholy. Weiss had known about Ruby's mother in passing, that she had been absent at least, though it was a publicly understood secret. One Weiss regretted ignoring.

"Why would she want that after losing her mom?" Weiss asked struggling to understand Ruby at some level, how she didn't lose faith. How fear seemed so absent for her. 'Why didn't I know this?'' the Heiress screamed internally, 'Because you never wanted to ask,' her heart shot back.

"When I asked an eight year old mourning girl why all of a sudden she wanted to become a huntress after it all, she told me that when Summer died, all the people that she protected, well they hadn't gone anywhere. Told me that she needed to do it now and she would just have to do better," Azura seemed proud and in a way Weiss was too. Proud of Ruby for being the person she was even if it was stupid of her. "It was too sweet too well natured. I couldn't take it. I should have been there for her, shouldn't have let her be alone, sent off to the Long's, to a family she barely knew." laugh "Well she grew up to be such a good girl. Don't you ever take that from her, don't you ever soil her good nature." All expressions of pride vanished; glares and hateful looks replaced them. Both party vilified the other in equal measure, but Weiss raged internally.

"Don't you dare say something like that to me!" she shouted back, that withheld fury opened to the world. "I look out for that dunce every day; I'm planning her training, helping her study. I help her even with diet and form. I'm keeping her safe, don't you dare say I'll soil her!" Weiss never wanted to hurt a professor more, but she seemed more pleased by the shouting than abused, a thin melancholy smile tracing her lips.

"Ruby says so, says you're good to her like that. I believe you, I want to, but I just don't get it, what do you get out of this? You're a Schnee, you lot claim to believe in all that cold hearted utilitarian stuff, not exactly a breed of romantics. What's your angle?" Again the words seemed cruel, but the tone honest and eager. Looking for something maybe. The question put Weiss on edge to, anger still there, but the own emotional confusion about the issue coming to the surface.

"If you must know, I, I enjoy her, and I think we mutual benefit each other." Weiss stood her ground, chin held high even as her cheeks turned scarlet. "We study together and it helps me learn. Ruby...relaxes me and sometimes she can be funny. I think she's honorable and I feel… I enjoy that. She's an amazing huntress, will be one of the best. She has potential, more than anyone else here. I respect that." As the words left her lips, nervous as she was Weiss understood how her answer was to the question of what Ruby was to Weiss less than what she got out of Ruby. How she felt about these things, about spending the days together, that complex emotion deep in her.

"You love her ehh?" Azura laughed, a sad sort of laugh as Weiss turned a brighter red.

"I….love is something of a promise," Weiss tried to explain, explain why she couldn't say the words. Couldn't be saying something like that when the future was still so bleak. Anything else was a lie, a deceit, something she would never put Ruby through. "Schnee don't make promises we can't keep."

"You love her, holy shit ehh?" Azura seemed undeterred by the answer, both laughter and other heavy emotions in her beginning to stir. "Schnee, you'll break her heart one day. You people are heartbreakers. This will end badly and you know it. It's why you won't say it, but damn you do don't you?"

"I...Ruby is endlessly important to me," Weiss admitted with no shame, assured of that as a fact. "I will never, ever, hurt her. Aren't you a hypocrite, didn't you abandon her?!" she finished watching Azura recoil from the words. A perfect bullet to the heart.

"I deserve that. I have a feeling in many ways this world will let her down, the both of us included. I just don't want to see it happen. Poor girl has had enough taken from her as it is," Azura pulled herself up, finally taking the moment to adjust herself onto the bed and look in Weiss' eye. Even sitting she was at eye level with Weiss. A physically intense girl by any metric. "I'm sorry girl. I know you don't like me. Don't deny it now, it's clear as day. I don't much like you; Schnee's in general have left me with only the worst feelings. We have a common interest though, seeing that little thing smile. Just keep doing that and keeping her ignorant to the ugliness around people like us. Team effort?"

"I can't protect her from the world forever. All I can do is make damn sure she's the best she can be when it happens. That's what I do for Ruby. Trying to baby her is just going to make things worse." Weiss had said much the same to Yang time and time before. Ruby was a big girl, she was a leader. She needed help more than sheltering. Azura didn't enjoy the comment in the least, her patience for Weiss about out with how angry she looked.

"You can't can you? I've watched your combat records and data, you have the highest amount of defeats under that belt of yours." That anger ended in spoken venom, one that made Weiss sick with bitterness. She remembered plenty of loses, but her combat role in more danger than most. Battlemages were high risk for high reward sort of class to be in, but it still burned her to think of all the missteps. What had happened to the Heiress then? She would never make a mistakes like those again. Being reminded of her fragility than was so maddening.

"Don't you even!" Any attempt to argue ended with the door swinging open, the black cat Faunus had arrived, folder in hand. Weiss stepped out of the way and Azura waved her in. She had a sway as always with the way she walked, but it ended abruptly when Weiss came into view, replaced by a confused raised eye.

"Weiss?" Blake asked.

"Blake Belladonna, heard you have something for me," Azura interrupted waving the girl over, mood already tremultous from the earlier confrontation. Blake didn't question further, taking a step into the room with the cautious grace of her cousin kin. Azura was quick to take the folder, looking over the documents, a grimace forming over her lips. "Faunus students? Ex-White Fang all of them. We really did a number on them last year. What does Ozpin want me to do about it? And why should I care, about these reformed White Fang?"

"They are our people. Guide them. Make them know they have a future here now that the White Fang is on the run," Blake answered with that small almost invisible smile she gave when feeling earnestly hopeful. "You're a hero to them," and a hero to Blake Weiss might have added if she didn't have the sense of mind to be a little considerate of her pride.

"My people? No they nearly undid all the fighting and dying my people did to get where we are! White Fang are not even people, they are animals working for monsters," Azura shouted and then rasped, her voice caught in a cough, the thought upsetting her. Blake took a step back, slightly speechless and unhappy with it. After all what did that make Blake to be called that by a heroine of her's.

"And these want to undo that damage. Not all of them are monsters anymore," Weiss didn't know if she fully believed it herself. Still didn't feel comfortable with ex-White Fang students, many who were involved in the fighting last year. Blake was a special case, but they made the heiress nervous, to some extent all Faunus did. Many hated her, and Weiss found returning the favor easier than maybe she would other critical humans. Still Blake was the same, and Blake was her teammate, a valuable one at that.

"Fine. I'm a washed up revolutionary, like they can't smell that hypocrisy in that. Don't expect much, but I'll do what a can." Azura acquiesced, waving both of them out. Whatever was left of her constitution was drained on this White Fang business. Weiss was fine with it; she had enough of Azura Thrym today as is.

"Thank you," Blake said to Azura, but Weiss felt it was more directed to her. Neither of them wanted much more to do with this today. Blake made a beeline out of there; one Weiss was quick to follow into the dorm hall. It was empty, only the windows smeared with rain and lonely sealed doors to listen in on them. Better now than in front of Ruby.

"Told you she's not that great," Weiss started, regretting her abrasive tactic. Stepping on Blake's pride, though it was meant to be funny ended up just making the girl walk faster. She had a strange talent for walking extremely fast without running; one Weiss had to sprint to catch.

"Weiss, I'm busy and don't need to hear I told you so," Blake replied without looking back, the conversation having visibly shaken her. Weiss had no idea what to do, didn't know how to make Ruby feel better about burnt cookies, much less how to heal the cold realities of childhood heroes turning out a far more bitter surprise. Without knowing how to do it well, the Heiress went for the Bluntest option.

"I'll be frank then. What did you pull with my father? What did you do?" Weiss asked pulling Blake by the shoulder. To the Faunus' credit, she didn't even flinch, not showing her hand at all. The girl was great at keeping secrets if nothing else.

"Weiss don't look a gift horse in the mouth," the black cat added, knocking away Weiss' arm. Her stare telling Weiss to back off. Nothing made the young Schnee back down about Ruby, about the team. She could be as scary as she wanted; Weiss was nothing if not sturdy.

"Blake. You told me to trust you, fine I will, but you promised me you would come talk to your teammates next time you're in trouble. If you think you can make a deal with my dad and not be in trouble, you're way dumber than I think you are," Weiss replied remembering a promise on the docks they shared together when everything was the bleakest. A promise to be a team, no matter what, to put aside inner bias, to be a cohesive unit. To never abandon the other.

"Trust me. For once I get why you're uppity, but just trust me." Blake softened up with the reminder, still an immovable when it came to the secret. It might be a little comforting to know she hadn't forgotten, but what did it matter if she didn't act on it.

"Why should I if you don't trust me enough to tell me? Tell me why should I trust you?" Weiss nearly shouted back, her frustration causing a crack in Blake. For a split second the Heiress could see in her eyes all the frustration, the fear of this game she was playing, the anxiety of being in Castle White, the panic of knowing no other alternative. A few other dark bits. The facade cracked and trust was it. Weiss never thought it meant so much to Blake, but the near tear in her eye told the silver girl all about it.

"Weiss I know you're still uncomfortable with me being a Faunus. I can see it in your eyes, I've been seeing that look all my life, but I know you're fighting it. No matter how much you want to you never treat me differently. Not anymore. Sometimes I see how rich you are, how you got everything off the work of others, how you're part of that family." Blake took a big step closer in her moment of honesty, hand clasping Weiss. The sudden touch was shocking to Weiss, but she tried to restrain herself from flinching, knowing full well it would only hurt Blake to see it. "But I don't hate you, sometimes I want to hate you, but I can't. You are one of the roughest, sometimes downright coldest people I know, but at the end of the day you'll always be there for the team, you would do for me what I'm doing right now for both of you. I don't doubt it in an instant," Weiss tried to speak, but she couldn't Blake could see that, her eyes dropping single tears. How much had going to Castle White put on Blake? Weiss hadn't even seen it.

"I would tell you everything Weiss...if I could, but it might be for nothing if I say anything. The deal will end. You are all my family, I won't let any of you be taken away," Blake admitted, her hands intertwined in Weiss'. The thought of it like a family, was alien, but not horrible. Now she was angry, but not at Blake, not at herself, but just how this could happen.

"Blake. I...damn it...Damn it!" She shouted, caught without any choice, but to blindly trust Blake. "No matter what do not let him cage you up! I won't let that happen Blake. I swear to every god you want I will not let that happen." Whatever her father did, whatever price Blake was paying, Weiss would find a way to undo it. Give her back whatever was stolen. He was Weiss' father to suffer through, not hers.

"I won't, not my first deal with the devil…Weiss you are definitely not perfect, but I know you are a good friend in your own way, even if it's in a just really moody way," Blake joked her emotions beginning to wrap themselves back up behind the veil she hid them behind. "We are friends right?" Blake added something Weiss thought was just a stupid question at this point.

"Don't be a dunce, it doesn't suit you...of course," even if Weiss couldn't have thought of when, they ended up there after all. Friends despite all of their mutual efforts to the contrary.

"And here I thought you enjoyed dunces." Blake wiped away her lone tears quickly, masterfully reducing the smear of her make up to near none. A smile came back to her lips, a familiar if faint smile the minx had whenever she thought she was clever. "I wonder, do you make her wear the cone hat for kicks? Are you into shaming in bed? No judgment from me I promise." And just like that, the teasing came back.

"Ohh you think you're funny?" Weiss questioned with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms, not taking any of this mess.

"I'm hilarious," Blake replied with a smile and a sway of her hips, the air of self-confidence restored to her and that just sexual taunting motion that drove the whole school crazy, in lust or frustration. 'Fine,' Weiss admitted 'You're funny, but I'm not done little cat.' There was more than one way to solve a mystery and Weiss was far from giving up on the first try. Both Ruby and Blake were on the line now; she had a million reasons to play this game with her father, no matter how horrible it might be. No giving up.

***This chapter ended up way harder to write than I ever thought it would be. Still not sure why. . I've touched on the negatives of Weiss and Blake's friendships too much without giving positive to show how in all its issues they are a team, this chapter was partially meant to show that. Also interested to see what some people pick out of this chapter as interesting or odd. Best thing is this chapter came in time for the trailer, got to reference it and tilt the story more in the canon of season too. By the way, anyone else super excited for new season? Totally plan on making small changes were I can to match it better.

I tried a newish style with this chapter, cutting down prose and adding more dialogue, how did you guys and gals like it? Leave a review and tell me whatcha think?

Big thanks to A-rav for editing and work on choice begins nowish! Buh-BYE!

Edited slighty to match up with season 2 episode 1