Although she could never claim to be organized, Yang had a very rigid ritual to start out her day. She wasn't much of a morning person – in fact, she would like nothing better than to sleep in every day until 10:00 – but her schedule for work demanded that the blonde trainer had to be in the gym by 9:00 for her first set of clients. Of course, Yang loved her job, but when her alarm rang and cut her off in the middle of a dream, she found her pillow far more welcoming. Nevertheless, by the time 7:45 AM came around, she would roll herself out of bed and start her day with morning calisthenics. There was nothing better to get her heart pumping, blood flowing, and any remaining sleepiness out of her body. After this, she would take a long shower. Although the blonde took great pride in her luscious mane, it was also a pain to manage, meaning that she needed a good half hour in the bathroom to wash, untangle, and dry it out. Once she tied it into a ponytail and got dressed for the day, Yang would quickly blend herself a protein shake for breakfast – usually a mixture of yogurt, blueberries, granola, avocado, nuts, and a bit of protein powder. She couldn't spend too much time to enjoy a more traditional eggs-and-bacon breakfast, but that was a horribly balanced meal, anyway. With twenty minutes or so to spare, Yang would gun out of her apartment, leap down the stairs, hop on her trusty Bumblebee, and start speeding toward Gold's.

Yang's routine that morning was no different, but while she was exercising, washing, eating, and riding to work, her normally blank mind was swarming with thoughts from the previous night. The night was eventful enough with Weiss, but Ruby… She was the last person I thought I'd see. Yang gritted her teeth as she zipped through the streets on her way to the gym. After all that time, I would've expected her to be running her mouth with questions, insults, anything, but instead she slammed the door in my face. The blonde smirked humorlessly to herself. Not like I had anything clever to say. All I said was "Well, hello, little sis," but I guess I wasn't very nice about it. Yang took a moment to remember how she'd felt that night. Surprise, shame, and guilt. Why, though? I should be happy to see my sister after all this time, shouldn't I? After all I've been through… Yang shook her head to clear her mind of those thoughts and brought her focus back onto the road, weaving in between traffic as she did. "We'll figure that all out later, girlie," she told herself. "Don't you worry."

Once she skidded to a stop outside Gold's at 8:57, Yang returned to her usual self. She swung off Bumblebee and parked it in her usual spot – no one who went to the gym regularly was dumb enough to take her space. Once she locked up the bike, Yang dashed to the glass doors of the gym and swung them open. "Gooooood morning!" she cried upon entry.

"Oh, hey, Yang," came the reply from the front desk, where a young man sat nonplussed. Any other person might have jumped at the blonde's dramatic entrance, but by that point, he had gotten used to it. Yang gave him a quick "yo" before scanning the room for her first client of the day. However, aside from the receptionist and a woman tying on her running shoes on the other side of the lobby, the gym lobby was deserted.

"Isn't Peter supposed to be here by 9?" Yang asked the receptionist. "I rolled out of bed just so I could be on time for him."

"Ah, yes, well, you see," the man behind the desk began sheepishly. "Mr. Port called in earlier this morning – well, 20 minutes ago, to be exact – and said that he couldn't make it today. Something about back pain he said."

Yang scoffed, "Ha, back pain, my ass. If that fat bastard didn't stuff his face all the time, maybe his belly wouldn't break his spine."

"But, Yang, tha-"

"I know, I know, it's some sort of genetic condition with him, but that just means he has to work with it, and his kind of diet really doesn't help out much." She sighed, stretching her back for a moment. "Well, at least I have an extra hour to work on my chest!" She did not notice the receptionist shake his head tiredly, but it would not have mattered to her anyway. Even when all she did at work was work out, she always savored the moments when she could just do her own thing. After all, what's the point in working at a gym if a girl can't get fit herself? Yang climbed the stairs and headed for the pull-up bar. It was early enough in the day that most of the gym floor was empty, save for the other early-bird clients with their trainers and some of the more die-hard gym rats. She greeted all the ones she knew with a grin, and they returned in kind. It was a small thing, but Yang liked making the gym a friendly environment. Otherwise, people could easily fall into a pattern of coming in, doing their own thing, and leaving without so much as a word to anyone else. Perhaps that was just how they liked it, but in Yang's mind, there's never anything wrong with a little surprise socialization. Once she got herself situated and finished a few stretches, Yang leapt up to grab the bar and began rhythmically pulling herself up and down.

"Eh, yo, blonde tits!" a voice from across the gym called out. Yang, who stopped moving for a moment, knew that she was the one being beckoned without needing to check and dropped from the pull-up bar. She heard the place grow quiet, unsure how the strong blonde might react. In most cases, she would destroy whoever insulted her like that, but instead, the trainer's mouth spread out into a devious grin – she knew exactly who was calling her out.

"Is that you, monkey man?" she replied playfully, turning to face the person calling out to her. Sure enough, she found herself looking at Sun Wukong, long-time friend from her college years and mischief maker extraordinaire. He wore long blue gym shorts with a white T-shirt which he at one point tore in half, exposing his well-sculpted torso. He took great pride in his abs, often using them to woo over girls at clubs and bars. Of course, until they learn how much of an idiot he is, Yang mentally added with a sneer. And then there was his other talking point: his long monkey tail as yellow as his hair, compliments of his faunus heritage. In it, he carried a water bottle and a towel for his workout.

"Ooo, just a little racist today, aren't we?"

"Says the dude calling me out by my boobs."

After a moment of tense silence, eyes locked onto each other, the two blondes burst out laughing. Like all best friends, they treated each other like dirt. Often, they went back and forth with mounting levels of insults, but on this particular day they both tacitly agreed to keep it tame. Sun held out his hand, which Yang used to initiate their own special handshake.

"It's good to see you, dude, but aren't you supposed to be at work?" Yang asked. All the effort the monkey faunus put into his body was most certainly taken out of his work ethic, so he never stayed with one job for too long. Still, he would never straight up skip work.

"What, that dumb tech job? Nah, that doesn't start until noon, so I figured that I got time enough to swing by and see what you're up to."

"Aw, how sweet!" Yang sweetly cheered, doing her best schoolgirl impression. It achieved its desired effect of royally annoying Sun, who simply face-palmed. "But yeah, just getting my morning workout before my next client comes in. Wanna join?"

"Hell yeah! These abs don't come naturally, you know." It was Yang's turn to roll her eyes as they both made their way over to the mats to perform their respective exercises. Yang tossed Sun a medicine ball for his mason twists while she lay down on her stomach for some push-ups. A couple minutes into their sets, Sun spoke up.

"By the way," he started, not missing a beat with his twists, "you didn't come out for Country Night last night, and you never miss that – what gives?"

Yang abruptly halted mid-push-up. Damn it, I knew he'd bring that up. "I, uh, something came up and I forgot to text you that I wasn't gonna come."

"Something important enough to miss a night with your bros? Lemme guess, you found a guy to hook up with at the gym?"

"Psh, as if! Don't get me wrong, we've got some hot dudes here, but none of them are my type."

"…was it a girl?" Sun suggested. Yang cast him a dark glare. "Okay, okay! Geez, sometimes you just can't take a joke."

She rolled her eyes again, but at least her expression softened. "No hookups, but it was a girl, one of my trainees. I went to the movies with her."

Sun also stopped his mason twists and looked over to Yang with curiosity. "So… who is she?"

"Her name is Weiss, and she's my most recent client. I already know what you're going to say – 'Yang, isn't it weird to hang out with someone from the job?' – and normally, yes, that's true, but there was just something about her... she looked like she really needed a friend." Yang decided to withhold the fact that she was the heiress to Schnee Tech, because that would have been a whole bucket of worms she did not want to deal with.

"Never figured you be the kind of person to make shy friends."

"She's not that shy, just kinda lonely and stressed. You know me, I don't like it when people are sad, so I figured I could help her be happy, y'know?"

The faunus mulled over this for a moment before responding, "Ah, so she's, like, your new Bl-" Before he could finish, though, Yang slammed her fist down onto Sun's stomach and knocked the wind out of him, knocking him flat on his back

"What did I say about saying that name?" Yang asked, bringing her face right up to Sun's. Her voice betrayed no cruel intention, but her eyes threatened to cut him apart.

"Don't bring it up if you still want to have kids?" came the weak reply – there was no joking his way out of this situation.

"Exactly." Her grimace became a frown as she pulled herself away from her friend and plopped down on the floor. "I've had a lot on my mind today, and I don't really wanna add that to the list."

"Something to do with this Weiss chick, or…"

Yang chuckled lightly. "No, nothing like that," she started, taking a deep breath before continuing. "You know how I haven't talked to anyone in my family in, like, years?

"Yes..?" Sun answered slowly, uncertain of where she was going with the conversation.

"Well, guess who Weiss's roommate at Beacon is?"

The monkey faunus's mouth opened wide in surprise and realization, and he started howling with laughter. "Oh, man that's too perfect! You run into a random girl at the gym, train her, become her friend, and find out that she's Ruby's roommate? Dude, this world is way too small."

"Yeah, small world, alright," Yang said glumly, eyes fixed on the ceiling. Sun was quick to notice that something was up.

"Oh, right, you really didn't let her know that you were going away back then. Smooth, by the way." Yang shoot him a dirty look, to which Sun merely shrugged. "Anyway, I'm guessing the reunion wasn't all sunshine and rainbows?"

The blonde woman let out a short huff of a laugh. "Not really much of a reunion, to be honest. I saw her, standing in the doorway to her room, and said something snarky like 'Wow, long time, no see', and got me a door slammed in my face."

Sun winced. "Ooo, that sucks, dude."

"You can say that again."

"Still, I don't remember you ever calling her or anything ever since you came back into town. Aren't sisters supposed to be super tight and whatnot?" Sun never had siblings, but he still had a rudimentary understanding of how to treat people right.

"Well, ye-" Yang began with a raised voice before dialing it down. "I never knew she was here in Vale."

"Well, she probably didn't know you were in town, either, so you can't blame her for reacting like that. I mean, if I saw my long-lost and totally ripped sister pop up outta nowhere, I'd do the same. You can be pretty mean-looking when you want to be."

Yang remembered how shocked Ruby looked that night and felt absolutely stupid. She already knew that she made a terrible mistake with her first impression after all those years, but reminding herself made it that much worse for her. The blonde took a deep breath and tried to shake away her thoughts. Alright, you know you screwed up, Yang started to tell herself. But there's no point in thinking about it so much instead of doing something about it. "Okay," Yang started slowly, still gathering her words. "Definitely need to resolve sometime soon. I'll find her again and we can talk it out, and I'll try to be the big sister I'm supposed to be."

"There we go!" Sun piped up. "That's the Yang Xiao Long we know and love." Yang couldn't help but laugh a little at his excitement.

"Don't get too excited – I still don't have much of a plan for how to fix things with Ruby. At least I know where she lives, so that's a start?"

"You'll think of something. She's your sister, after all, so I'd certainly hope so." Sun looked at the clock on the wall and promptly tossed the medicine ball to the side. "Damn, is it time already?"

"Gotta go to work?"

"Yeah, didn't think I was gonna be here for this long, but hey, this was a good talk." The faunus stood up and wiped some sweat from his forehead before turning to give a smile to his friend.

"Sure was. Thanks, dude."

"Anytime." Sun glanced at the clock again and his panic renewed. "Alright, really got to run now. Catch ya later, Yang-a-rang!"

"See you later, Sunshine," Yang replied, a smile back on her face.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Yang did her usual thing, helping clients with their workouts, working out herself, but most of all, not wallowing in her thoughts from the previous night. Sun's surprise visit probably helped out by clearing her mind of Ruby – she now had an idea of what needed to be done with her, and that knowledge gave her some comfort.

Even though it had been a while since her last time at the gym, Weiss came right on time, already changed into her gym clothes. For the first time since Yang had met her, though, she looked sufficiently refreshed – Yang guessed that this was how Weiss was whenever she did not have something to stress about in her life. Recently, she'd had a lot of things on her plate, between schoolwork, her big chemistry exam, and adding a workout routine, so Yang could understand where she was coming from. But now, even in the way she strode into the room with purpose, Yang could sense that her new friend had put all that behind her. A fiendish grin creased her face. Good, that means she'll be ready for what I'm gonna throw at her today.

"Hey there, Weiss! You're looking like you're having a Schn-ice day." She took extra care to pause before her pun for dramatic effect.

Weiss's composure faltered as she groaned in annoyance. "Really? Is that really how we're going to start today?"

"Aw, lighten up, Weiss! I made that one especially for you," Yang replied. "Although I will admit that your name is really hard to pun with. 'Weiss Schnee.' Not really something that rolls off the tongue, y'know?"

"Well, I guess my name isn't meant for your silly word play."

"Ooo, sassy today, aren't we? I like that." Yang then sprung up from the bench and landed right in front of the petite girl. "Let's see if you've got more where that came from." She gestured to Weiss to follow her and made her way toward the squat racks. On their way over, weaving between equipment and gym-goers, Yang didn't quit her mouth running.

"So, I take it you had a good day?" she asked, looking back at Weiss.

The heiress seemed startled by her guess. "How did you know?"

"I dunno. Just a feeling, I guess." This was a lie, of course. She had noticed a bold energy around Weiss when she came into the gym moments before, and her attitude, while spunky, sounded more relaxed than before. Yang noticed these kinds of things in others, but she didn't want to come off as one of those people who pays a little too much attention to others. In her own experience, that usually weirded her out, and she didn't imagine Weiss being any different.

Weiss gave a slight smile. "Yes, today was a good day. Even with staying up later than I had intended, my exam went well, which was a relief. I knew everything that it threw at me, but I still took my time to look over my answers a few times, so I know I made no mistakes." She sighed happily before continuing. "It's nice to have things work all according to plan."

Yang couldn't help but return the smile. So this is happy Weiss, eh? I could get used to this. "Well then, I hope you can carry that attitude into today's workout! And since today is leg day, that means…"

"…squats," Weiss finished with a small amount of dismay in her voice as the pair passed by the power rack. Yang remembered the last time she tried these was right after she had fainted from exhaustion, so she could understand her apprehension. Nevertheless, she knew that Weiss was not one to back down from a challenge, and she had faith that the white-haired girl would manage just fine.

"You got it! But don't worry, we're gonna build up to those later. Right now, we've got some warming up to do. All that time sitting around in the library won't do you any favors now, so let's get you limbered up!" Weiss did not look particularly excited about what was in store for her, but after taking a deep breath, she steeled herself and gave Yang a firm nod. That's the spirit, girl.

"I have to admit, I'm impressed with how you handled today," Yang said as the girl before her heaved the bar back onto the squat rack. Most of the time, when people come back to the gym after a period of absence, they return with diminished strength. Of course, that was to be expected; Yang didn't expect anyone to magically maintain muscle mass during a break from exercise, especially in the case of Weiss who spent most of that time stressing over one thing or another. Indeed, Weiss certainly did not reach her previous weight limit from before – not that it was anything special, Yang added to herself. However, the blonde was impressed with the vigor with which Weiss tackled her exercises. She knew her limits, yet she attacked them without hesitation. If this is how she goes about studying, no wonder she's such a top student.

"Yeah, I'm impressed that I'm doing this to myself," Weiss replied once she caught her breath. For a moment, she remained hunched over from the position of holding the bar, but she soon righted herself, placing her hands on her hips with the look of a woman of accomplishment.

"This is coming from the girl who practically tortures herself with studying."

"Hey, that's because grades are important to me!"

"More important than your own body and making it feel good?"

"A massage makes my body feel good. Working out is going to make walking up all those stairs to my room just that much more painful."

"Heh, you know what they say, though; 'Pain is just weakness leaving the body.' Give this a few more weeks, and 5 flights of stairs will be nothing to you!" Apparently, Weiss had forgotten about how high up her dorm room was, since she hung her head in resignation at the mention of it. Yang couldn't help but laugh and pat her on the back.

"Speaking of the dorm, though," Weiss said, her tone becoming more serious and straightening up again. "Now that I'm over and done with my exam, I would like to hear an explanation for what happened last night. Ruby seemed really awkward about the subject before bed, and she wasn't herself this morning, either."

Ah, crap. Yang did say that she would bring light to what happened between her and her sister, but at this point, she really, really hoped that the topic could be avoided altogether; hearing about how Ruby was feeling down didn't help matters, either. She already started to think about what she was going to do with Ruby, but she would rather have it be her own matter – keeping it in the family, right? Still, she wasn't about to dodge Weiss's question now and arouse more suspicion. "…right, that. Well, the short version is that we haven't talked in three years, and neither of us really want to talk now, or probably even know how to talk to each other." None of that was a lie, but she also didn't want to reveal anything more than she had to. Weiss continued to look at her expectantly, though, so Yang went on and said, "Don't worry about it, though! I'll get it all sorted out with her soon enough, and we'll be able to put it all behind us." The trainer flashed a reassuring smile at Weiss, but the heiress's cocked eyebrow indicated it wasn't working.

"Oh, really? And how exactly do plan on doing that?"

"Easy! I know where she lives now, so I'll just take my bike over to her place and we can sort it out from there."

"Uh huh. Because that worked out so well the last time you suddenly showed up on her doorstep."

"Well…" She had to admit, now that the idea was out of her head, it didn't sound so amazing anymore. In fact, she can just imagine Ruby walking up the stairs to her dorm room and seeing her buff sister waiting at the door. That'll set us back another couple weeks…

"Also, do you even know when she's around? You could be waiting for hours before Ruby shows up. Not to mention that you probably don't have her number, either."

"I… alright, you got me there." Yang was a little crestfallen upon realizing how threadbare her plan for fixing her relationship with Ruby turned out to be, but she was more surprised at how scathing Weiss was. I mean, she's not wrong, but Dust, she can really be forceful sometimes.

Weiss groaned before going on. "Brilliant. My roommate and my trainer, probably two of the most involved people in my life at this point, are both dolts who cause way more drama than there ought to be. This is something that we're going to resolve swiftly and decisively."

Yang looked at the girl with a confused expression. "What do you mean, 'we're' going to resolve this?"

"I mean that I'm stepping in as well," Weiss declared, puffing out her chest boldly. Yang heard this and immediately tried to convince her otherwise – after all, this was a family matter, and damn it, this was something Yang needed to fix herself – but Weiss quickly cut her off before she said a word. "Look, I know you're probably going to say something about how I should butt out of family business, and normally I would respect that, but in this case, I am not going to sit around and wait for you two to stop moping about. So, this is what's going to happen: you're going to block off some time Sunday afternoon, and you, Ruby, and I will all meet up somewhere to talk this whole thing out. I'll be there to make sure you actually do that and that you two don't get at each other's throats. I still feel like you haven't really been giving the full story, but I can wait to hear it come out organically from when you talk with Ruby. So, do we have an agreement?"

There was a long pause after that. Yang stared at Weiss blankly for a while, her mind swimming in thoughts again. Once again, she was taken aback by Weiss's forwardness. Usually, that was her trait, and it was how she had gotten through to Weiss before when she first started coming to Gold's, but now the tables were turned. On the one hand, it pissed her off, since the blonde was not quite ready to hand over control of the situation to someone else. Even more to her displeasure was how fast Weiss wanted to move this plan along. Can I really be ready to see Rubes again in just two days? the blonde asked herself. She was hoping to tackle this issue at her own pace, as this wasn't just about the lack of communication with her sister for three years. No, any conversation about that would inevitably lead to talking about what started the whole ordeal, which was a conversation she was not ready to have. However, Yang couldn't deny that something had to be done. Plus, in all honesty, she felt relief in knowing that she was getting help to mend the rift between her and her sister.

"Alright," she said finally. "Sounds like a plan to me."

Weiss smiled, satisfied with the answer she got, and took a glance at her phone. "Good. Well, it's almost time for me to go, so I'll get out of your hair now," she said as she gathered her things. "I'll see you on Sunday, I suppose?"

"Yeah, see ya then. Don't forget tomorrow, though – arm day!"

"Wouldn't dream of it!" Weiss shouted back as she made her way toward the stairs leaving the gym floor. Once the white pony whipped around the corner out of view, the grin that Yang had plastered on her face softened into a slight frown as she processed what was soon to come.

"Time to face the music, eh, Yang?" she told herself quietly with a sigh.

EDITORS: condor700 and Just_one_more_

For a story that started around the gym, there really wasn't much of that lately, so I fixed that. Also, just like Weiss did here, I started working out again after a long period of absence, and BOY, does it suck. I mean, while I was there and for the rest of the day, I felt great, but as I'm writing this author's note, my arms are doing their very best not to move D: Just a hump I've got to get over, of course

As you might guess, all shall be illuminated VERY soon about Yang's past. Well, probably not all. Maybe half? A third?Somethingwill be revealed at any rate, and I'm sure that y'all, like our little Schnee, are eager to see what that is. Thank you so much for reading thus far; it's good to hear what y'all have to say for story, and I hope that you have even more questions and comments for me! Feel free to ask away, as I'm always open to suggestions (I'll take them at my own leisure, of course). That's all for now!