Chapter 5: Like a Blizzard

Ruby Rose

Arguing was fairly easy to ignore when hunting Pokemon's most sought after legendary birds, specifically Zapdos in all its shiny glory. Little feathered jerk was being testy about the whole catching process. It was even easier to ignore a fight in German when it sounded nothing like anything Ruby could fathom. Still, the tempered down shouts made into whispers felt no less troubling. Ruby didn't like it. Soon as Spanish class had ended the horde of students had dispersed. Some had came around to comment on Yang's newest pair of sunglasses, ones she so comfortably wore indoors for reasons only a few knew. Ren had dashed into his room to crash like always, Blake had taken leave with Velvet in tow, but Penny stuck around for as long as she could, telling scattered news about her family back in England. Whether she was going to admit it or not, Ruby could tell she missed home, but who didn't? Ruby sure did, the smells their of her old apartment with her mother, small but homey place covered in velvet and memories. Home was gone now. Ruby was here by herself now that everyone had left, even Penny couldn't stick around forever.

Normally the lonely moments between Spanish class and Physics Ruby could spend getting closer to her most peculiar friend, Weiss. They would challenge each other to different sort of games, often studying, but not always. Weiss was a competitive girl, she could turn sock puppets into a decisive duel to the death, or at least a day's worth of mockery. She was all about being the best, and Ruby just loved giving her a fight. Outside this time they rarely spoke, Penny not as much a fan of that icy passion Weiss had, and the German princess, or heiress or something, wasn't a fan of Penny's strange lackadaisical attitude towards everything. That only made that time together more intrinsically valuable and there were the rare moments Ruby could say something funny enough for Weiss to crack a smile or the very light satisfied laugh she only ever did when she won something difficult. It had become strangely addicting, but it wasn't happening today. Ruby lay tired, sprawled onto the dorm lobby couch curved into a ball, tapping away on her phone and playing pokemon to feel better. She didn't get to enjoy the usual daily activities and Weiss had been taken aside by Professor Goodwitch. The redhead didn't know what this was all about, but the look on Weiss' face when she was called away made Ruby worry.

It wasn't so much as anything bad was going to happen. Ruby was sure despite whatever fighting was going on Weiss wouldn't be kicked out. She was a model student after all, already top of their shared class, not to mention tied with the best in Spanish class. All she did was study and keep to herself mostly. This situation wasn't quite right. It irked Ruby, made her anxious and want to do something to clear it up. Made the girl feel like she had to charge in and stop it, protect her friend from the big, bad monster, even though honestly Glynda was cool. It was a tight, unpleasant feeling, one that Ruby didn't want to think about, again circling around to her failed attempts at Pokemon mastery.

"Es ist vorbei!" The shout snapped Ruby up, flipping onto her feet from the leather of the couch. The small outlying office from which Professor Goodwitch did her work erupted in silver fury. Weiss with her pony tail tossed back with a bit of flare, eyes filled with fire, and high heeled step making her seem even more intense than usual. Goodwitch stood by the door, an angry scowl on her usually perfect countenance, but nary a word to say. In a way that was really relieving, though Ruby didn't exactly find Glynda mad a pleasure, it was more that Weiss was okay.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Ruby asked as Weiss stepped right past her, a flurry of white fabric from her long white skirt kicking up behind the German with each hurried step.

"Just an issue of understanding," Weiss retorted. Not slowing down a step, she marched immediately to the wooden door frame marked 'Senorita Weiss Schnee', a lovely tag, which had already been given a twirly mustache and smile in sharpy. Totally Nora's work.

"Okay," Ruby muttered, feeling herself hitch on such a short, detached answer. "So let's pick something you want to do today to take your mind off of it, unless you want to talk about it. I'm here to listen, but totes about what you want." Ruby's offer did nothing for Weiss, not slowing her down even a notch, barely seemed to pay attention as she juggled the loose key to her dorm room.

"What I want is to be alone and to mix some music. Go play on your phone," Weiss replied coldly without much thought or pause. Not that Weiss gave much pause to anything at all.

"No," Ruby mumbled beside herself, grabbing Weiss' sleeve lightly. Touching her outright seemed off to the redhead, like it would be too much. It was enough to grab Weiss' attention, her blue eyes piercing fierce and angry. Totally was a little more aloof a response than Ruby was hoping, but a response nonetheless. "Please?"

"I'm sure you have plenty of small animals to imprison for your digital dog fights," Weiss retorted, rolling her eyes in annoyance, something deep perturbing her. That was low, Ruby thought to herself, Charizard loves me. I am not a slaver!

"Let me join you! I promise I won't be any trouble. I'll be like, super deadly silent!" Ruby was never quiet and silent like, maybe a deadly shot as a kid, but silent? Nope. She just hoped Weiss' ignorance of that might help. Not that she didn't intend to try, but standing here just the two of them Ruby was swaying back and forth, eyes and body a bit twitchy as was her custom.

"You know what's quieter? An empty room."

"We always do stuff together. I can help out, get you stuff if you need it and whatever. You know I learn quick." Ruby couldn't explain her strange desperation. She was an introverted person by nature, meeting people was horrifying, but she had already met Weiss. Being with people was exhausting, even if it was fun, but Ruby just needed to not be alone for once in her life, just for a little bit.

"Ruby, I need to focus," Weiss answered sounding just as steady as before, but stopped. Not turning the knob, not opening the door, but parked right there waiting for Ruby to reply, perfect opportunity. The young American girl still had her most tried and true weapon saved up. A tool that brought the greatest warriors, from security contractors to kick boxers to her side.

"Please, I'd just rather spend time with you doing nothing than sitting here alone." Puppy dog eyes were in full force, those giant, gleaming, grey disks breaking the hearts of anyone within her vantage. Weiss glared back, her blue ice eyes refusing to melt for anyone like her. Was it wrong to guilt trip one of her newest best friends? Probably, so Ruby tried not to think about it. It was for Weiss' own good, friendship was important. "Please. For me?" Ruby added, fully committing to the pity stare. This battle of stares was really a battle of wills. Ruby's will to be earnestly desperate for friendship and Weiss' to be mean. Bets were on that Weiss was very much only half the bitch she wanted to pretend she was.

"I hate you," Weiss grumbled, one of the most hateful sorts. A solid bet for sure. "Break anything and I will ruin you," she added with a sigh, opening the door finally, but now for them both. No one was immune to Ruby's cute, pitiful look, a weapon she swore only to use for the greater good… with occasional harmlessness once in a while. "Get in. Leave your shoes by the door. You may sit down on my bed or couch, you may have one drink from my fridge, and you may not touch anything else. You get that Ruby Rose?"

"Holy cow," Ruby replied, self-censoring as she stepped in, almost forgetting to take off her sneakers. A friendly jerk back by the shoulder reminded her of course as Weiss pointed to the girl's shoes.

"Also, 'holy cow'? Are you real?" Question of Ruby's existence aside, she was blushing embarrassed, fully aware just how weird that sounded out of a college kid. Totally not helping the 'I'm actually in high school' look she had.

"My mom never let me curse as a kid… weird habit."

Weiss' only response was a shake of the head as she tossed her shoes aside to come in. The dorm room was massive, the 'King's' room for the highest grade student in the program, though Blake suggested it might also be about money more than grades. It was a single room, only slightly larger than its companion, the "Queens" room Ren had. The space however was packed with stuff. To the left was a separate bath and makeshift kitchen complete with a clearly brought in mini-fridge of which, as Weiss suggested, would likely be loaded with refreshments.

The back of the room had a bed pushed to the wall with blue sheets made perfectly as if Weiss ever expected company. All around the bed was neatly, but heavily cluttered, with goods, most noteworthy a few types of guitars and one of those giant Violins, Ruby thought they were called Cello if her memory served. On the other side was a massive fusion of a work desk covered in papers and books, a computer desk with multiple monitors, and what looked like a super computer got freaky with a piano. Ruby felt a weird sort of smile on her face, thinking Weiss was some sort of computer geek. It so didn't match her image, but would have been just adorable. This build quickly fused with the right hand side of the room where a bright white wood dresser stood beside a small a snowy leather couch below a hanging violin, trumpet and some other string instrument Ruby couldn't identify. None of these were even the strangest or most expensive part of her room.

The closet, or what would have been it, along with a good other bit of the room had been sealed off in soundproofing, a strange grey jagged material coating the walls of a cage. Inside was a small drum set and a microphone as well, with just enough space to play about anything, barring the electric piano, which definitely wasn't going anywhere. Ruby didn't know what was weirder, the soundproofing, or just how off kilter the drums were. Actually what was up with all of this, she was a business program member, like the fancy types that wore suits around campus and talked bad about the dream seekers.

"Do they even let you do that?" Ruby asked not being able to take a step passed the jagged death cave that was the soundproofing room and that weird mini drum set. "Also you play the drums?"

"So long as you pre-pay more than the cost of fixing the room before you move in I've found I can do about as much renovation as I want. Not to mention the sound proofing keeps the sound in as much as the sound out. Ren sleeps through it all," Weiss answered in matter-of-fact tone, stepping comfortably to her desk, unraveling the massive ponytail behind her, the flowing strains of thin silver falling way past even Yang's hair, which Ruby thought impossible. It was such a rich and healthy hair despite the grey color, reminding her much of the color of her own eyes. Ruby wanted to reach out and touch it, run her fingers through it to see if it really was woven silk and silver. That was crazy though, crazy thoughts for someone a lot more bold than Ruby.

"As for the drums sometimes I need a unique sound byte for a piece. I'm not quite the percussionist I would hope for, my specialty falls mostly in string, but what I am is a composer," Weiss announced proudly taking her seat, crossing her legs in a feminine fashion so as not to show off. She was clearly waiting for some shouts of admiration, which Ruby thought was kind of adorable.

"A composer? I thought you were in the business program, not music?" Ruby replied, the lack of praise not exactly what Weiss was aiming for from the sound of the German's annoyed groan. Perhaps it would have been smart to pepper in a compliment or two about how cool that was, but Ruby was already fighting her desire to riddle her full of questions as was. She was filled with curiosity, the true form of admiration.

"I am not having this argument twice in one day. Yes, I am in the business program. Yes, I am a composer. You wanted in, you're in. Now let me work." Only occurred to Ruby now that perhaps it was not the missing praise, but the line of questioning that set her off. Weiss didn't wait for a response before turning on the frankensteinian computer-instrument hybrid, the White Snowflake emblem popping onto both her monitors with a deep blue and white light.

"Is that what you and Professor Goodwitch were arguing about? I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I mean I didn't really 'cause it was in German, and I don't know German, so I didn't completely listen in, only like kind of," Ruby ended in a mumble realizing she had one about two sentences too far to look anything, but creepy today.

"What was the 'I'll be quiet Weiss, I promise' stuff about earlier?" Thankfully Weiss was more annoyed than creeped out, her arms crossed defensively. Ruby just mouthed an, 'I'm sorry,' back, earnestly feeling a little awful for failing the whole 'be quiet' mission statement in under a minute. That sad looked cracked Weiss again though, that irritated groan a sign she was about to open up. "Fine, yes, that is what the argument was about. As my advisor she was concerned I was taking too many music electives this semester and not enough of my program courses."

"How many electives?" Ruby humbly asked swaying her way towards Weiss, the computer still loading her profile.

"Only two!" Weiss shouted back in irritation, "How many do you have?"

"I haven't signed up for a program yet so… all four," Ruby admitted with a chuckle, nervously plopping down on Weiss' bed. The covers were super soft, the blue felt like silk, heck it might as well have been for all Ruby knew of fine cloth. Collapsed Ruby felt its warm sleepy embrace, very comfy and covered in a winter wildflower scent. Pretty smell… Weiss' smell. "How many program courses?"

"Two," Weiss answered this time with a hitch of nervous awkwardness. Ruby couldn't remember in the last two weeks if she had ever seen an awkward Weiss and in the time the answer felt like no.

"Wait, you're taking physics on top of that?" Ruby asked impressed that Weiss would take a really difficult extra class on top of a standard four set. Maybe that just Ruby being lazy, but she wasn't sure she could manage a thing like that.

"Physics is part of my program courses," Weiss answered defensively. Ruby gave back an audible 'oh' at the exact reason Glynda Goodwitch had been a little peeved.

"How many non-gen ed program courses? Like how many business courses?" Ruby asked sitting back up, waving the strains of red from her face. Weiss looked tense, her usual confidence shaken for just a moment before finally those ice blue eyes looked back to Ruby.

"None right now..." Weiss' nervousness napped back to anger, chin lifted up in defiance and attitude back in full. "Look, the program course schedule is just advisory I can take whatever I want! Just play your stupid game and leave me alone!" Weiss retreated to her computer, tossing on some large headphones emblazoned with the white and blue snowflake again. They were big professional headphones, locking Weiss away from the rest of the world. Ruby could light the room on fire and Weiss would feel it before she would hear it with those things. The redhead didn't want to leave the conversation on that, but to shake Weiss and demand her attention was just rude. Ruby was left to her own devices. That meant only one thing. Zapdos or bust.

Felt like days and at least a million save state loads after that till Ruby had her prize. The rare beast was her's to keep, though Weiss' suggestion of Pokémon poaching did soil it a bit. Majestic thunderbird-god-thing was now reduced to a house parrot that could be used as a replacement lamp. At least it was a shiny house parrot. Without nostalgia filled joy of Pokémon the boredom was building something fierce in Ruby, a force for evil that could not be stopped by anything besides discovery.

Weiss was no help either. The would be composer had done nothing but listen to music samples, which Ruby could barely hear even the faintest hint of through the headphones. At first watching Weiss work was interesting, less in the respect that Ruby understood or could follow what she was doing, but more that Weiss was so... focused, so in the moment as if nothing else existed. Watching someone in the moment truly where nothing else exists can be a joy in its own right if not at least inspiring. Made Ruby jealous a little to see how passionate she was about her music, the smile on her face when you could see was getting something achieved was deeper than any Weiss had ever shown Ruby before. Not to mention Weiss herself was somewhat intoxicating to watch, the unusual treat of seeing her with her hair down to use the bulky headphones, the army of expressions she used, the smile. This was becoming a thing. Ruby wasn't going to let it be a thing just yet.

Still voyeurism only stays fun for a little while, interaction was the true want. Ruby wanted to learn about Weiss, what she was doing, and was about. For all their hangouts in the past two or three weeks Ruby knew remarkably little about her German friend. In an agreement made between the redhead and herself she quietly got up to, silently now, explore the dorm room further. The walls had plenty more to share. Fine paintings were hung up around the room next to instruments of different sizes and shapes. The largest painting was also the most beautiful, a velvet smeared forest in autumn. Like something out of Ruby's story. She hadn't been writing recently, the mild taste of self-disappointment sharp in her mouth. She was too embarrassed to keep going, afraid of devoting more to something that wouldn't be any good in the end.

In the urge to discover Ruby began to be more assertive with her searching, sticking to the rule that as long as she could see it without opening something, it was not creepy to get a better look. There were a lot more books than Ruby thought at first. Almost none of them were on anything like sheaves, but all neatly stacked and almost all in German, so information gained was zilch. Under Weiss' bed was a small black trunk that had in marker written both in German and English 'Do not open!', which was likely just as much for Ruby's sake as Weiss', and a few notebooks with the word musik written on them. Again the language barrier really hampered all attempts to get to know Weiss in any other way of talking. It wasn't meant to be like a spy thing, Ruby just wanted to know what she was into, what Ruby might do to cheer her up and connect them.

Demoralized, but not deterred, Ruby found her most interesting objects for sure: the sword behind the instruments. There was a rack of them behind the cello, three altogether, two obviously practice swords and one very ornate one with a strange, but intense looking handguard. Picking up the sword it was super light, the blade thin, but sharp looking. Ruby wasn't dumb enough to test it, but it seemed able to cut a little. Whatever convincing that needed to happen came when Ruby saw the point, a shockingly thin glistening point that would easily get someone if she wasn't t careful. All of a sudden Ruby really didn't want to be holding this. Doubly so when she turned around.

"What are you doing with Myrtenaster?!" Weiss was angry, very angry.

"Mytranastor?" Ruby asked and butchered all at once.

"Myrtenaster!" Weiss clarified and shouted, snapping the sword back from Ruby's hand, becoming about eight times as scary with a weapon in her hand to complement her already scary as hell hateful scar. "Don't touch anything, remember that part?"

"Are you even allowed to have a sword!?" Ruby asked, quite sure that no one was allowed swords no matter how much they put down for their dorm room. Potential murder being as expensive as it probably was.

"I'm officially part of the Fencing team; it gives me certain right of ownership!" Weiss retorted still shouting, face flushed in red.

"Isn't that only like if you keep them in lockers? Weiss, I'm pretty sure that regardless of how cool that sword is you can't have it in the dorms," Ruby guessed, guessed right enough to make a very nervous Weiss take a step back and go wide-eyed.

"Don't test me; Myrtenaster has bled bigger fish than you!" As cliché a line as that line was, being held up at blade point by whatever a Myrtenaster was made the cliché feel plenty fresh to Ruby.

"You've stabbed people with it?! You're threatening to stab me with it?!" Well that was obvious, but this was the first time anyone had ever threatened to hurt Ruby. She sure as hell didn't expect it to be blackmailed under threat of rapier to be the first near death experience.

"No! I only nicked him. Plus I'm joking; I won't hurt you because you aren't saying anything. Right? Please?" Weiss lowered the rapier, making Ruby feel a whole hell of a lot better. "I'm sorry," she added, seriously. Ruby didn't believe she was in any real danger the whole time, but that realization only came after the fact. Never again was she going to snoop. Creepy days were officially over forever.

"Your jokes aren't funny!" Ruby shouted back finally catching her breath. All this tenseness was exhausting. Suddenly all Ruby wanted was a nap. "Wait, you did hurt someone?!"

"He hit me first," Weiss answered calmly tapping her swords blunt face to her eye, covering the scar for a moment.

"Oh." It wasn't a particularly meaningful comment, but what was there to say about that. 'Sorry for the face scar,' definitely wasn't cool. Ruby might have gone up to hug her if the whole sword stabby thing wasn't still kind of uncomfortable. "Do you want to talk about it?" Ruby offered, almost on default. Whatever her damage, Weiss was her friend after all. Plus it was Ruby who wanted to know so badly. Might as well ask.

"It wasn't that bad, I went to an academy for secondary school, I think you Americans call it high school. Either way it was for the upper elite of society. Everyone was from money or German nobility, or both more often than not." Weiss sat herself down for the story, Ruby doing the same after a moment, just out of rapier reach even if stabby time was over. "I was captain of the girl's fencing team my Junior year. Nobility have this thing with fencing that they need to be top or mommy and daddy won't love them. My vice captain graduated and I picked the second best fencer to replace her. Simple right? Well the third best was a prideful child. After being skipped she decided she was going to get me kicked for not picking her by spreading rumors that I didn't promote her because she refused my advances. As if! I'd rather be with a hairless ape than her kind of bitchy person."

"That's horrible," Ruby mumbled. She had avoided most high school drama by being kind of out of it. Sure, she had her first love and that broken heart, some fights between friends, but the few she had stayed close, nothing political or cruel like that.

"Not even the most unpleasant part. No one believed her except her 'needs to prove himself' man child of a boyfriend, a soccer player whose daddy never loved him or something. I'm walking home from practice and he throws some trash at me. I don't think he knew what he tossed had a broken bottle in it, but as you can see, it did." Ruby was mostly speechless when the story finished, her grey eyes sticking mostly to the floor. She had no idea this sort of stuff ever actually happened. Weiss wasn't sad though, a self-satisfied grin on her face said there was more.

"A few stitches later I decided he needed to be taught a lesson. To do it I had to break up with my girlfriend at the time, but we weren't that serious." Girlfriend. That certainly rung in Ruby's ears as something interesting to hear. "I told the bitch that started this that I would make her co-captain if she would kiss me in front of her boyfriend after practice to announce us as a couple. This was all about a promotion, so offering two promotions was easy enough to win her over, and of course every idiot is dying to believe the Captain was in love with them. She did it and he was quick to throw a punch. This time I knew he was coming, and this time I had Myrtenaster. He walked away with a scar that round and my friends were quick to tell the authorities how he attacked me. I broke up with the girl the day after. I like to think that was fairly brilliant." Weiss seemed proud of herself, and yeah it was clever, but Ruby was still hung up on her getting hurt at all. Plus the girlfriend character. She was the most interesting part of the story.

"I'm sorry for all that, and for looking through your stuff. I'm just restless." Ruby wanted to change the subject. The high school fights, the girlfriends. It was a bit much out of nowhere. She needed more time to process it.

"Apologizes won't make my skin heal, dunce. I like to think it's intriguing anyways," Weiss replied putting back her prized sword in its hiding spot, a nice little back cupboard. "I almost stabbed you, I consider us mostly even. So long as you don't do it again."

"Again, I was just looking for something to do and I kind of wanted to learn about you. I like the scar too by the way, it's pretty cool." Ruby found that way more embarrassing to say than she meant it, her voice hitching somewhere on every fourth word.

"You could have written, aren't you an aspiring author," Weiss asked and Ruby sunk. She didn't feel like this moment of self-doubt again, but how else to explain.

"I... I haven't written much since I got here. I'm just worried that it won't turn out alright." Ruby had been so sure she wanted to be a writer while her mom was around. She practiced and read to her whenever she was home. Now with her gone, now that it was do or die, Ruby felt frozen in place.

"If you aren't talented don't bother with it, if you are stop being a dolt and work," Weiss replied spinning her chair back around to her own passions. She didn't put on her headphones though, eyes locked to the screen, but ears open to Ruby.

"I don't know what I am when it comes to this." Her mom and Yang always liked them, but a bias was there. She did some stuff for her school's column, but no one ever reads a school newspaper. That was more for work experience. It was so strange to write with no gauge for its quality outside of her own paranoid perspective.

"Give me what you have, I'll decide. If you think I'll just flatter you then you really don't understand me," Weiss demanded, opening her hand for the booklet. At the moment Ruby almost didn't know what to do, but the second she saw Weiss' annoyed look Ruby knew not to waste a moment of her time, taking out the red covered notebook for her, all of Ruby's embarrassment coming in full force. At least she didn't read it out loud.

"Hmm, the prose is adequate. You're characters have no names though and no description. Why?" Weiss asked after a page or two of silence, face never shifting expression, just that serious frown. Ruby could literally feel her begin to sweat more by the page.

"I don't know who they are yet, still working on the cast" Ruby tried to answer, apparently either well or too poorly to be recognized as Weiss kept reading.

"I like how you use dialogue, very fluid and natural. Feels personable...Oh a curse word, so edgy Ruby." A rare joke from Weiss Schnee, though coated in negative sarcasm. Ruby still had no idea if she hated it or not. The praise felt tingly though "There are drawings here, why?"

"Thought it might be interesting having, like, art in parts, like multi-media stuff. Make it special," Ruby answered confident in that choice. She didn't draw much, and only sketches of monsters and places to coincide with events. It wasn't half bad if she said so herself.

"Multi-media…" Weiss hovered on the word; she seemed to taste it with mind, something big under consideration. After a deep pause and quick run of a few pages she finally spoke again, leaving Ruby more confused as before. "You could have a concept album as well."

"What?"

"A concept album. A series of songs that tell a story or concept. Essentially like a soundtrack, have it designed to play at certain parts. Might be at least a new idea to incorporate into a written work," Weiss handed the notebook back, as if she just suggesting the most casual thing in the world.

"Wait… Weiss are you suggesting you want to make a soundtrack to my book?" Ruby knew she wasn't the smartest girl ever, but that was what Weiss was trying to say.

"Well, I never said I, but it would help build my portfolio, so if you are asking. I'll try the opening scene. I'll make a song for it, If you don't like it then I'll know your taste is poor and we'll move on." Ruby felt a smile tug at her cheeks as Weiss pretended not to get excited as well. This had the potential to be something great.

"Alright, so I didn't write it yet, but for the opening I'm going to do this like ominous slow build to our main heroine, and she's going to be in this like snowy field out in the woods and just like have all these bad guys,, or monsters, or whatever, we can decide, fight her and she's just going to be like crazy good spinning around like a blizzard of doom just like taking down this army. Then we'll pull back the stakes a little after the opening hooks the reader." Ruby didn't realize exactly how much she had thought about it until she opened her mouth to actually tell someone. It was all more or less up there, in some distorted and misshapen form. The kind of adventure fantasy story Ruby wanted, what was holding her thoughts back was her own lack of enthusiasm. Having one person remotely interested in the project was like breathing fire into it. Waking something up that felt kind of dead.

"Like a blizzard…" Weiss neither seemed impressed or disenchanted with the description. She focused, expression contorted into the usual focused scowl. Without so much as a word, she turned to the keyboard, quickly opening up a new project on her computer. Again Weiss didn't speak as she began playing on the electric piano. Ruby couldn't hear the notes, her private composer was the only one, her headphones now tightly fashioned on. She played the keys in a precise pattern, one two, one two, one two, one two three four with a rapid deviation every third set to something more loose.

"Ruby, hand me the acoustic and violin, after the melody I have an idea." Ruby could only guess Acoustic meant the less electronic brown looking one than the white and blue slim one. Violin was pretty limited to, only between the obviously super violin and normal chin held one. Weiss quickly grabbed to the guitar of the two, pulling a pick from an inner pocket in her jacket, the pick marked with that same snowflake emblem.

"I've set a melody with the piano, a build up that stays at a low tempo. Next bit will be something a lot of people call Spanish Guitar, it'll mark this kind of uncontrolled section in the music, though it'll still follow the two, two, two, four pattern of the melody," Weiss explained as she toyed with the guitar, turning knobs and strumming every once in a while. Ruby felt herself nearly bouncing from anticipation, the same ridiculous enthusiasm she started this idea with. The Weiss who was so focused and perfect was back again, this time playing a super complicated riff that Ruby couldn't follow or understand, but it was great, felt energetic, cheerful yet chaotic. It just made Ruby smile, to hear the sounds bounce around in her head. This alone made the feel of that snowy field come even more alive.

"That was awesome!" Ruby shouted as soon as the playing stopped earning an annoyed growl once again.

"I was still recording idiot!" Weiss shouted hitting pause on the little red light she had for the computer matched up to her auxiliary mic. Not the shiniest moment, but Ruby didn't feel all her excitement leave just yet.

"Next part is going to be where you bring all the instruments back for the heart of the blizzard feel you were getting at. I want you to be able to get all this, but since showing you is going to take a lot less time than classes in music theory I'll just have you listen to a temporary version." The Violin was sharp, intense and quick, the recording no longer than a minute. It was rapid, the beat feeling like a quickening cyclone, but Ruby guessed that was the intended feel and it most certainly worked. For a kind of dumb idea, this was the best idea ever.

It didn't take much time after that to have a finished demo of Weiss' plan. Ruby found herself sitting in a the seat Weiss normally saved for her, a strange and warm place to be, her headphones placed firmly on Ruby's head and the German herself hovering over her, strands of silver brushing the sides of the redhead's face. This moment felt both appealing and nauseating in how nervous Ruby was just to be there. To say the wrong thing or touch the worst thing and be kicked out before hearing the final result of over an hour of work.

"Remember the demo isn't finished, I'll re-record most of it in the sound booth and there will be more instruments throughout, but I'm not missing class on your account," Weiss explained, her voice muffled by the headphones.

Ruby nodded in agreement almost ready to disappear into the void of music. "So if this works out, we're partners?" Ruby asked the distorted voice of Weiss.

"If you consider owing me for all my current and future wasted time as partnership then I suppose so," she replied though gargled and difficult to hear. Didn't matter, Ruby heard the important part. They were totally partners. Operation friendship was completely successful.

"Thanks, Weiss. For letting me in."

"Shut up and listen."

The music poured in after that, piano first in something Weiss called a walking pace. It was a slow build into the guitar, same recording as before with more context. Ruby thought about the scene for a bit, and absolutely did it match, but she already knew that. In this musically driven moment of both close contact and verbal isolation Ruby thought a bit more about Weiss who looked down at her above with the most analytical eyes, searching for some critical thought in Ruby's glowing grey eyes. Instead she just had a goofy grin on. The song reached the stormy end part. The melody back, but at around two times spread something Weiss called presto. It was in this presto that Ruby smiled, thinking about something. It had been a long time since she crushed on someone, about a year even. Ruby had assumed Penny would have been the one first, but no strangely enough it was the pale composer looking down at her. Ruby didn't even feel anxiety at the realization. Crushing on a friend happened a lot for her. Instead she was just happy to feel it. Happy for today. It really was like a blizzard of pleasant things.

*** Omg its 7 AM and I'm just finishing this ;~; someone kill me please. Well this chapter I've been trying to do more dialogue and less prose, see how everyone feels about it, let me know! Also happy to do more White Rose, and have a day where we learn about Weiss a bit and her dreams and choices. Plenty of mystery about her still, but in due time.

I want to thank LazyKatze for the edits, who btw is waking up early in the morning so she can do them before leaving on vacation! So you all should say thank you by reading Layers of Ice her awesome fic. You can find it on my favorites list if you want :D

Edit: So a guest review asked how you add audio to a written book. Well you would have a set of tracks that the books would have say a subscript number corresponding to a numbered track list, that you play as you read as sort of mood setting. Plus it's a concept album so in theory it would tell the story in a more ethereal sense by itself as a companion piece. It's a weird idea, but Weiss mentions that it's weird cross medianess is why it's kind of interesting.

edit: Even more edits by Aniko, thanks to him it's even cleaner!