Happy Birthday Weiss!

Our next birthday is Weiss Schnee! Our resident ice queen has her birthday on March 31st! (the date for the Blue Moon in 2018) Her birthday passed before she reunited with everyone in Mistral but they of course threw a surprise party for her when they had her back!

Art piece by @yang-diary

Ficlet by @lameclub and edited by @bosiphas

Ficlet under the cut

“Hey, you in here?”

A raspy voice called out as Qrow pushed the door open and scanned the room before him. A small figure sat at the window, staring out at the world outside. They didn’t react to his question.

“Weiss, you okay?” Qrow asked as he took notice of the sad expression on her face.

Weiss quickly pulled her hands up to her face and tried to subtly wipe her eyes “O-Oh! I’m okay Qrow… Really,” she said, a weak smile which didn’t fool the other for a second.

He began to walk over, taking hold of a chair and dragged it across. As Qrow sat in front of her, he raised his eyebrows “I can tell something is on your mind. What’s going on inside the head of yours, snowflake?” he spoke in a gentle tone, despite the scratchy nature to his voice.

Weiss’ eyes flitted to the floor and she placed her hands on top of her lap with a sigh. “I… I’ve been thinking… I… No, it’s silly to be upset. Especially on such unimportant matters…” Weiss started, she shook her head and tried to laugh it off.

Qrow on the other hand wasn’t laughing, he just watched her carefully. “No, this is important. What’s got you this upset?” he said, his persistence seemed to throw Weiss off.

She blinked several times before she cleared her throat “U-Um, okay. I was thinking… thinking about my birthday that happened a few weeks ago…”

That sentence caught Qrow’s attention, as he sat forward “Go on.” he encouraged, a small grin present on his face. Weiss let out a small sigh as she looked out the window again.

“It was… like every other day…”

Weiss made her way into the dining room, she smoothed out the wrinkles on her skirt and readjustined her ponytail. As she stood there, she heard muffled voices from the other side of the room. A sinking feeling settled in her gut and she gulped nervously. As she took a few sneaky steps towards the source of the noise, she pressed her ear against the wall and listened.

“Are you for real? You forgot her birthday again?” An angry voice snapped, one that was very familiar to Weiss and it frightened her. Despite the scared tremble, she stayed there, as she listened carefully. “I can’t keep track of all their birthdays, Willow. And besides she’s been such a brat as of lately. Does she even deserve this-”

“ Jacques for once in your life can you think of anyone but yourself… We can’t keep doing this to her…” her mother’s voice continued but the sound of a fist being slammed against the wall forced Weiss to jump in shock. She let out a short gasp as she stepped back and fear made its way up her body. The distant voices continued for a moment before they faded away and were replaced by the sounds of approaching footsteps.

Weiss straightened her posture and took a deep breath as her parents rounded the corner and made their way into the room.

“Father, mother. It's… good to see you.” she smiled awkwardly as she nodded to them. Willow returned the gesture as she swirled the red liquid around in her glass. Weiss bit her lip and looked away from her mother almost on instinct. “Weiss, what did we say about eye contact?” her father remarked which had her snap back to reality and she bowed, apologetically “Right… sorry father,” she said, her voice cracking towards the end.

“As you know, we clearly wanted the very best for your birthday… ” Willow started, a glare being thrown in Jacque’s direction who just rolled his eyes in response.

That reaction had anger stir deep inside and it took every inch of Weiss’ willpower to keep a composed exterior. “Of course, you always do,” she answered, she forced a smile for them.

Her mother nodded as she took out a small, neatly wrapped box and made her way over. “Here, we saw this and thought of you,” her mother said, as the box was placed into Weiss’ hands.

Carefully, Weiss pulled the ribbon and eventually the lid of the box came loose. When she opened it, her eyes fell onto a pair of sapphire earrings. She recognised them.

Her mother always wore them, she knew immediately that what she said was a lie.

As she pushed those emotions down, like she always did, her gaze once again floated up to her parents. “Oh mother, these are… lovely. I can’t believe you picked them out just for me,” she spoke quietly, taking them from the box.

“Yes, we searched long and hard for them. All for you darling.” Willow said, a sleepy grin spread across her face.

“I'm… sure you did.” she laughed weakly as she placed them on her ears and her hands once again fell to her side in a complacent manner.

“Now, I’m very tired. So, let’s go get this dinner over with quickly, shall we?”

As Weiss trailed behind, her mind began to wander and a single tear fell down her cheeks. The whole empty manor was silent and cold. No emotions floated in the air and no genuine feelings of love were felt inside her.

She was well and truly alone.

Weiss leaned back, her eyes stared up at the ceiling above her and the world around became blurry. “So, there you go. Something silly, nothing important,” she spoke, her voice trembled with sadness. Qrow looked at her, truly shocked at what he had heard.

“Weiss… That isn’t silly. You know that, right?” Qrow spoke in a soft tone, which had Weiss’ breath hitch in response.

“But I still got a present. I got… I got these…” Weiss started, as she gestured to the blue earrings.

Qrow sighed “Yeah, true. But it doesn’t mean anything. Does it?” he asked her and she froze up.

“I… I don’t understand…”

Qrow gave her a tender smile “That’s okay, I’ll explain. What I mean is, sure you got fancy stuff from your parents. But there wasn’t any love and thought put into them.” he began, Weiss listened intently. Not once did her gaze shift from Qrow. “Those earrings of yours exist solely as a reminder of a bad memory. And I’m assuming that isn’t the only bad birthday you’ve had,” he spoke calmly, which had her head turn in the opposite direction.

“…It wasn’t.” she spoke under her breath, a whimper escaped past her mouth.

Qrow nodded, as he stood up “I’m sorry to hear about that, snowflake.” and he could see the outline of a tear that streams down her cheek. Qrow knew better than to pry any further. She was clearly very fragile right now.

“Ruby wanted me to come get you. Come down when you are ready, okay? Take all the time you need.” he told her, as he pulled himself from the chair and began to make his way over to the door. “It’s rather important that you come down. Trust me on that-”

“…Qrow?” Weiss called out, suddenly.

The man turned back, Weiss finally looked up at him “…Thank you for listening,” she said, a warm expression on her face. With a small chuckle, he nodded.

“I’ll always be here for you, never forget that.”

As the door clicked closed, Weiss sat there in complete silence. A minute passed before she reached up to her ears and touched the sapphire earrings. After a moment of hesitancy, she removed them and placed them on the table in front of her.

With a deep exhale, she nodded and got up. One last glance behind her before she opened the door and shut it behind her.