The Ice Queen and the Viking

Something is wrong.

Weiss had honed intuition throughout her time at Beacon Academy. A skill that had saved her time and time again.

Everything is quiet. Too quiet. Which sounded more than a little odd coming from someone who valued silence. Weiss slowly put down her nail file and looked up.

Bright turquoise eyes were focused on her with an intensity that made Weiss worry as she slowly realized that they were the only two left at the lunch table. Despite a growing understanding and maybe even something akin to friendship that had emerged over the semesters, Weiss still felt wary.

"Yes, Nora?"

"Watcha ya going as for Halloween?"

White eyebrows furrowed. "Going as…?"

Nora blinked, looking around as if she was unsure before focusing back on Weiss. "Y'know, your costume…?"

"Oh. That." People dress up for Halloween, right. Somehow Weiss had completely forgotten about that. "I'm not dressing up."

"Whaaa!?" The curiosity melted into horror, as Nora's hands clapped against her cheeks. "But if you don't get a costume you can't go trick-or-treating-"

"Considering that I'm not going, I don't see an issue," Weiss retorted flatly, before returning to filing her nails.

"But… but… it's Halloween, you have to go!" Nora's arms frantically waved around, her distress clear. "It's like the best holiday ever because you can dress up in costumes and people give you free candy and everyone has lots and lots of fun. Ren and I always have fun and we go every yea-"

"Not every year - both our teams were on away missions last year, Nora." Weiss could distinctly remember Ruby's lament while they were camped out in the wilderness, missing apparently the best holiday of the year… according to her partner – who would definitely be agreeing with Nora, if it wasn't for the fact that they were the only two left at the cafeteria table. "Your team's mission started the day before ours and you didn't get back until after we did, ergo you didn't go."

"But… why don't you want to go?" Nora clearly couldn't comprehend Weiss' complete nonchalant view of it. "Everyone has fun if they go, unless you haven't gon-" Nora let out a huge gasp before leaning far too close for Weiss' personal comfort. "You've gone before, right?! Right?!"

"Yes, I have." Weiss unconsciously scooched back in her seat, wanting to get some modicum of personal space back. "You walk up to a door, say trick-or-treat and then they give you candy." Silence greeted her, prompting the teen to look up at a disbelieving Nora. "What? Winter took me the year Father was out of town."

"I don't get it." Nora tilted her head as she slowly leaned back into her seat. "If you went, you should know how much fun it is, unless you didn't have fun but you totally had tons of fun. Everyone has lots of fun, right?"

"I ate so much candy that I got sick and Father yelled at us… so no, I didn't." Weiss let out a little sigh, at the rather unpleasant memory. "If I really wanted candy so bad, it'd be easier to just buy it in bulk than going door to door and harassing some poor citizen for it."

"Pleaseeeeeee?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Pretty please with strawberries on top?"

"No."

"…"

Weiss could see the gears turning in Nora's head, clearly devising some strategy to make her capitulate. "I'm not going to do it Nora. I have better things to do."

"Well, um, I'll tell Jaune that you're free on Halloween! …AND find him a guitar!"

"You wouldn't dare." Weiss' eyes narrowed as a huge smile spread across Nora's face.

"I tried with pretty please strawberries, but you left me with no choice!~"

"…still no." Weiss gave a small shrug after a moment, her features relaxing back to a neutral expression. "I'll just turn him down for whatever he says."

"I'll… tell Ruby that you're being a stick in a mud, and then she can order you to go!"

"Still no." Weiss glanced down at her scroll, not even bothering to look Nora in the eye.

"…"

"…"

"Please, Weiss?" This time, Nora's voice lacked its usual energetic quality, but closer to someone choking through emotions. It was the kind of tone that Weiss couldn't quite recall ever hearing the teen use and it made her feel guilty. "You never look like you're having any fun and you're always being really strict… you can have fun for just one night... please?"

Weiss' words died in her throat. There was more truth to what Nora had said then she'd like it to have. Movie night with JNPR turned down three weeks straight, always rescheduling the trip to Vale she'd promised Ruby… Maybe Yang was right. Maybe I am no fun. Letting out a long sigh, Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "I want it on record that I'm doing this under protest."

"Really?!" Weiss had barely nodded, before she found herself being pulled into a hug by a considerably happier Nora. "Yay! You're going to have so much fun, you'll see! Ooo, we'll have to get you a costume!"

What am I getting myself into?

"What about this?"

"I'm not going to be a…" Light blue eyes narrowed at the label, "a sexy pirate."

"Okay… well, what about this?" Nora forced another plastic package into Weiss' hands. "You could be a-"

"I'm not going to be a sexy anything, Nora." There was a disturbing amount of costumes with sexy or hot in the title. "Are there any costumes here that won't make me look..." Weiss fumbled about for unfamiliar words, "like some kind of depraved deviant?"

"Hmmm…" Nora tapped her chin for a few moments before diving back into the aisles upon aisles of costumes, leaving Weiss alone for the first time since they got there.

The store itself was a huge building, and while the ceiling may not have been very high, the row after row of brightly coloured costumes that might as well have been several dozen deep in any direction from the changing room gave some idea of scope. And all of them are 'sexy' pirates and ninjas, for some inane reason.

Flipping through what must have been a good fifteen or twenty costumes that Nora had left with her, Weiss couldn't help but wonder what kind of people would wear these sorts of outfits. A certain blonde hair teammate floated to mind. This was definitely the kind of thing that Yang would wear.

I wonder what Nora's costume is…

Truth be told, Weiss hadn't thought to ask her; the moment classes had finished, Nora had dragged her to the first airbus to Vale – much to her teammate's amusement. If what she is picking me out for me is anything to go by, it's probably something simila-

A loud thud heralded Nora's return as a pile ten feet tall came crashing down at Weiss' feet, causing the teen to jump back out reflexively. "I got all the costumes that weren't 'depraved'!"

"So I see." Weiss gingerly picked up one of the many plastic packages. It was something far tamer than previous choices: a generic witch costume, complete with a pointy hat. "I suppose I should try it on…?"

"Yup!"

With that, Weiss turned around and went into one of the changing rooms and locked the door. A few minutes later she emerged in perhaps the most stereotypical costume she could think of.

"Perfect!" Nora was all smiles, a sentiment that Weiss didn't share. While the whole thing was indeed not the least bit scandalous, it was perhaps a tad too conservative, as Weiss could already feel herself starting to overheat. I'm not spending an evening running around while sweating to death. "Oooor not?" Evidently Nora had picked up on Weiss' plight before she went back after grabbing another costume to try on.

This time, Weiss had quite the opposite problem; there was almost nothing to it, barely being more than a few strips of cloth around her. That can't be right, Weiss glanced down at the plastic bag, 'Sexy Ninja'. A low growl of embarrassed frustration escaped from her lips, as she changed out of it. Opening the door, Weiss peaked out, "Could you hand me another one, Nora?"

"Okie-doke!" Within seconds a sealed plastic bag came sailing towards her, Weiss barely catching it before closing and locking the door.

Wiser this time around, Weiss read the label first.

Ice Queen.

Before the door had fully opened, Weiss was already out. "Really, Nora? Really?" She tossed the bag at the very confused teen. "The 'Ice Queen'?"

"Uh, yeah!" Nora was giving Weiss a look as if she had grown a second head. "Who doesn't want to be the Ice Queen? She never gets cold, and can make ice and snow- Oh! And builds real snowmen who are super nice and friendly-"

"-Okay okay I get it-"

"-and builds castles out of ice, like she is the queen of a huge castle, and can control the weather and burst into song whenever she wants, and has the best friends ever!" Turquoise eyes, which had drifted away from focusing on Weiss during the ramble suddenly refocused on her, excitement twinkling in them. "Now I want to try it on!"

Weiss numbly nodded, as Nora rushed into the room and burst out barely ten seconds later, the door slamming open against the wall, startling the white-haired teen. "How do I look?"

If Weiss was being completely truthful, Nora looked really good.

It was a hard to describe that particular kind of good; perhaps it was a bias on Weiss' part, but she'd never consider Nora to be particularly... feminine, something to do with bench pressing a car during an average workout. Which was surprising because the elegant dress was more than a little snug against her.

The sleek ice blue fabric fit on her like a second skin, and the neckline plunged down almost criminally low on the orange haired teen. Down from there the shiny white and silver only accentuated Nora's hourglass figure, only then making Weiss understand just how well-proportioned her friend truly was, as she gave a twirl. Weiss would be lying if she said the redness in her cheeks came from anything other than the apparent realization that Nora was not only more than a little attractive but downright hot.

"Weiss?" The hand waving in front of her face, finally pulled Weiss from her stupor. "Weiss, you okay? Your face is really, really red…"

"It's hot in here." Icy blue eyes darted towards the floor in shame.

"Oh!" Nora nodded, taking the lie at face value without missing a beat. "So does it look good on me?"

"You could say that," Weiss stated as neutrally as she could, before perhaps a rather bold idea bubbled forth. "You should have that be your costume."

"Hmm…." Nora considered it for barely a moment. "Okay!"

That was easy.

"Buuuuut…."

Too easy, it'd seem; of course there was a condition. There was always a condition.

"Only if you go in the costume I already got for myself!"

Weiss let a pained sigh. "Is it a 'sexy barbarian' costume or the like?"

Nora contemplated that for a moment. "Well, barbarians are pretty hot, but nope, it's not sexy or revealing at all!"

"So what is it?"

"It's a surprise!" Nora stuck her tongue out as Weiss groaned. "So, what'll be?"

"As long as it's not too risqué, fine."

Besides, what's the worst that could happen?

"Do I really need to wear the fake beard?"

"You promised you were going to wear my costume and Vikings always have beards, so you have to wear it too!" Nora heard her friend give a little sigh before putting on the fake facial hair.

Nora couldn't contain her excitement, bouncing up and down as she waited. In only a few minutes they were going to leave with the rest of their friends for trick-or-treating and Weiss was still putting on Nora's former costume. It was that of a proud horned warrior, complete with a six foot tall plastic axe, chainmail and even a fake beard.

The only problem that put a damper on the mood, was, well, Weiss. Not in a literal sense, but in Nora's eyes, she certainly didn't see happy. Which, in all fairness, she had been shanghaied into this whole thing - but that doesn't mean she can't have fun? I didn't know I was going to love sweet potato milkshakes until I had one, but now I do, so it ca- "Let's get this over with already."

The smile plastered across Nora's face wavered for a moment, just a moment, before returning in full force. Weiss really didn't sound all that enthused for what they were going to do, but just you wait, I'll get you to have fun yet! "Onward, to candy!" With that, Nora grabbed her bag and-

"Why do you have a garbage bag?"

"Where else would I put my candy, silly…?"

Weiss gestured – a hard feat considering the oversized axe she was wielding - to the small plastic pumpkin with a handle that she was holding in her other hand. "How much candy do you think we're going to get?"

"All… of… it…?"

Weiss raised a finger, before she swallowed her words, shook her head, muttered something under her breath and started to make her way to airbus, leaving Nora with an increasingly determined smile.

I'm going to make Weiss have fun whether she wants to or not!

"So, where should we start?"

"I heard that there is someone on Ogre Street gives out only full-sized candy bars!" Ruby said.

"But I thought Ogre Street only gave out apples?" Jaune retorted.

Weiss was only half paying attention as her friends bickered between each other about where they were going to start.

Truly, Weiss cared very little on the start point.

Some part of her mind was just counting down the minutes until they could head back to the warm comforts of the school. Yet…

Even though they had spent the better part of fifteen minutes wandering around the city, Weiss was enjoying herself. I really should spend more time outside of the school with everyone, even if I do look like some uncivilized barbarian. If there was one thing that Weiss could say about the outfit, it was definitely not a 'sexy' costume. Hot was applicable, but only in the sense that it was rather insulated.

"It's decided," Pyrrha stated, "we'll head to Ogre Street right after we go t-"

"I'm taking Weiss."

"Buh-what? Why?" Ruby's confusion was something everyone else echoed, Weiss included.

"Because I want to get candy now, and you guys are taking, like, forever!"

"…and you need me, why?"

"Because I," Nora quite proudly pointed to herself, "convinced her to come with us, so I got dibs!"

"I was wondering why she showed up…"

"How did you convince her?"

"You can't call dibs on me!"

"Yes I can!" Nora hummed with pride. "Plus, you're sorta-kinda wearing my costume, so I got double-dibs!"

Weiss looked back at her friends for help, only to have Yang push her towards the bubbly teen. "By the rule of dibs, she does have dibs on you, sorry Weiss."

"I demand to know what the rules ar- eep!"

Weiss never got a chance to finish her sentence as she found herself being hauled away from her teammates, as they waved goodbye, and towards a part of town she had most definitely never been to.

What made it an all more foreign sight was the decorations. There were dim lights everywhere – ranging from inside carved out pumpkins to hanging from trees or even in the eyes of fake skeletons. For the most part, the decorations looked rather cheap to Weiss, save for one particular house that had a figure in black sitting on its porch, its hood tracking her progress down the street…

Perhaps the most surprising thing for Weiss was the sheer number of children out and about, the streets filled with them in costume, running from door to door, paying no mind to anything else. The heiress' observations were ruined, however, as Nora ushered her to someone's front door.

Taking a deep breathe in, and steeling herself for whatever foolishness that came from it, Weiss rang the doorbell. In short order, a middle age gentlemen opened the door.

"Trick-or-treat!"

Nora was starting to have doubts.

They'd been going door-to-door for the better part of an hour, slowly growing their collection of candy, yet Nora was fairly certain that Weiss was bored.

When one went trick-or-treating, everyone had fun thinking about all the different kinds of candy they were going to eat when they got back, how they were going to gorge themselves on it for the days – not that Nora's cache every lasted that long – for the weeks to come.

Weiss just robotically went along with it, passively letting Nora lead her through the streets, to each house. Like she was being forced to do this. Which isn't technically wrong…

The point was, Weiss didn't look like she was having fun and if Nora didn't do something about it, it was only going to get worse.

What do I do?

Nora's thoughts raced a thousand a second, each idea more ridiculous than the last – even by her own standards. Think, what would the Ice Queen do?

Turquoise eyes blinked as a rather less than ridiculous thought up.

"Let it go, let it g-"

"Stop!"

Nora froze, as Weiss stomped up to her. "Please, please, don't sing that song. I've heard it far too much."

"But Weis-"

"Sing the song, sing the song!" Nora found the source of the voice to be a five or six year old girl who bolted across the street, before stopping a few inches short. "Sing the song, sing the song!"

At least someone is having fun, the excited twinkle in the little girl's eyes brought a smile to Nora's face. "Of course!" Nora cleared her throat dramatically, "Let it go, let it go, a… um…kingdom of… snow…" Panic shot through Nora as she realized that she didn't know the words for the song. "…Let it go?"

The little girl's excited twinkle started to take on a blurry shine, as big fat tears began to bubble up. As panic started to overwhelm Nora, she felt Weiss nudge her, before the white-haired teen leaned over to her, and whispered in her ear. "I'll sing, you play along. Also it starts with 'The snow glows white'."

Nora squatted to the kid's height, grabbing her attention instantly. "Will you let me try again?" The little girl nodded, her tears mostly forgotten. Straightening back up, and glancing at Weiss, Nora started once more.

"The snow glows white on the mountain tonight, not a footprint to be seen."

It wasn't Nora singing that. Nor was it Nora that started to quite beautifully sing the rest of the song that she tried to lip-sing to but failed miserably. Rather, it was Weiss.

Only on exceedingly rare occasions did Nora ever get to hear Weiss sing. The occasion had to be special, and the heiress had to be in just the right mood for it and even then, it wasn't a given. In all the time that they had lived across the hall from each other, Nora had heard Weiss sing a grand total of maybe five times, and only through the walls. Suffice it to say, it was strikingly different when Weiss was right next to her.

The voice belied that of the small, lithe individual standing next to her; rather it sounded overpowering, yet in a strange way, soft. Weiss' voice made Nora's chest feel heavy, like emotions were boiling up in it, every time the titular phrase came up. In those few minutes, the rest of the world melted away from Nora's perception.

At some point, Nora had given up on trying to lip-sync with her friend's voice – not that the kid, along with the growing crowd of other children in the darkened street could tell in the pitch black evening light – and just listened. So when the song finally came to an end, it was only the kids who were disappointed at the conclusion – I wonder how much candy I'll have to bribe her with to get her to sing again…

However, while the crowd of kids did start to disperse, some of the children wandered towards Weiss, much to her confusion and Nora's amusement. "Hey Mister, what are you?"

"I'm a Viking," Weiss deadpanned after a moment.

The kids looked between each other, before shrugging and looking back up at Weiss. "What's that?"

What Nora expected to hear was a rousing tale about bearded men with axes who fought in blood feuds, and who drank mead from the skulls of their enemies. The kind of gripping tale of awesome combat against krakens and dragons that'd be sure to put wonder into the minds of any. Instead…

"…and that's how their ethno-linguistic heritage made it conducive for them to be better than average seafarers…"

Nora had never heard a description of Vikings be so utterly boring in all her life, the description was already making the little kids start to shuffle away. She isn't even trying to do a cool voice for it! Nora had to change that.

Sliding in close, Nora draped herself over Weiss' shoulders, - made easier by the fact that she wasn't wearing heels – causing the teen to freeze mid-word. "You should tell them about the time that you killed a kraken with your bare hands!"

"But I never killed a Krak-"

"Ooo, tell us!" The kids were all bunched around the axe-wielding, bearded Viking now, excited about killing mythological sea creatures. "That sounds awesome!"

"I… went to its lair and punched it in the face," Weiss lamely stated. "It died."

"That's… that's it?"

"That's just the short version." Nora winked at the kids before whispering into Weiss' ear. "You gotta make it seem really epic and awesome!"

"Fine," Weiss muttered after a moment, before turning back to the handful of confused kids. "I tracked the creature back to its lair after many moons of following it through the open seas." The kids 'ooo'd' and 'ah'd', giving confidence to Weiss' words. "When I finally confronted the creature I… I…"

Weiss jabbed her elbow into Nora's side – not all that hard – as she struggled for words. The orange-haired teen knowing exactly what to do. "You ripped off a tentacle and beat it with it!" Nora whispered.

"…I grabbed hold of one of it's tentacles and ripped it off with my bare hands before using it's own limb as a giant club…" Nora felt another jab.

"Then you punched it underwater!"

"…and beat it under the waves…"

"Strangled it with its own tentacles!"

"…before grabbing hold of the rest of it's slimy, waving tentacles and wrapped them around its neck, choking it…"

"Before punching it so hard that it exploded!"

"…Then I punched it, while it was distracted, so hard that it's head exploded, killing the terrible beast!"

"Wooooah!" The kids started to applaud wildly. "That's so awesome! You're the coolest person, like, ever! I want to be just like you!"

Even in the dark streets, with a beard coming up Weiss' face, Nora could still see the largest smile she'd ever seen the heiress give.

Nora's doubts vanished.

"Thank you."

Nora's head tilted as if she didn't quite understand what Weiss had said. "Huh?"

"I said 'thank you'." Weiss let out a little sigh. "Truth be told, if you hadn't dragged me out tonight, I probably would have spent the evening studying instead of having fun."

A huge smile tugged at Nora's lips. "I told you that you were going to have fun!" An excited twinkle entered Nora's eyes, as she shifted her almost full bag on her shoulder. "We're going to have even more fun when we meet up with everyone!"

Weiss gave her a small nod and smile. "Soooo…."

"Yes, Nora?"

"Can I pick out your costume next year, too?"

"I suppose, as long as I get to pick yours out as well."

"Deal!"

Editor/BETA: Gorsouul

BETA: ASouthernRussian

BETA: Liara_90

October 2016's Monthly Contest

Theme: Halloween

Character: Any member of team RWBY (Weiss Schnee)

AU: Hey look, my second favourite ship finally got a story!

That's right, I did another MonCon entry!

…Actually this is the first Nora/Weiss story tagged for …huh. I'm deciding to call it White Lightning!

If I'm being honest, I wasn't sure that I was going to do this. Basically I just realized that I wanted more content for this ship and I had no real reason for not doing it, and I got half of it done in a day… That being said, I feel like the quality suffered because it may have been slightly rushed and my lack of knowledge/experience writing from Nora or Weiss' POV.

So for those who read Spoon Equality, you can think of it as a side story for it, and as a apology because I won't be able to get to my weekly chapter for it today. Sorry! D:

I'd love to know what everyone thinks of this, so yeah, if you could leave a review it'd be wonderful!

Most importantly, don't forget to vote for The Ice Queen and the Viking for the contest on the RWBY subreddit!

Now that's posted, time to watch the new episode for Volume 4, woo!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day! :D