The Color of Snow
Remnantian Year 875
Weiss Schnee was many things. Heiress to the largest dust company in all of Remnant, a singer of great renown, a huntress in training, and a daughter and sister who wished her family wasn’t as horribly broken as it was. But when someone would ask Weiss to break her down to her barest parts and lay herself out in pieces, she would say that what defined her the most was her loneliness. She may have been surrounded by all sorts of people growing up. Butlers, maids, servants, cooks, parents, clients, siblings, family and competitors. But Weiss had always been alone since the day she was born. Her father was an abusive and controlling narcissist who cared for her only as a potential heir to groom. Her mother didn’t even care for Weiss beyond her hospital bed. Weiss had been raised by the butlers and maids, most especially Klein. But he was still just a butler, it was a job for him and he wasn’t always there for her. Winter was her older sister and had cared but as she grew older, she grew more short tempered and left Weiss all alone to go join the military, leaving Weiss to take her father’s anger. Whitley was once a beacon in Weiss’s life but he took to copying their father far too much and they had fallen apart. Leaving Weiss with no one.
So when she made it to Beacon Academy despite her father insisting on sending her to some school in Atlas or Argus even, Weiss was hopeful to gain companionship. Weiss fought to choose her path, defeating a geist that her father had wanted to deter her away from being a huntress. It didn’t work and now she could form bonds. She latched quickly to a familiar face in Pyrrha Nikkos and saw her as a good companion and would be able to ward off her father’s disgust with her if she made connections.
But now… Weiss regretted her tunnel vision. And inside that tunnel had laid a boulder named Ruby Rose. And she tried to continue down the tunnel and ignore it, choosing instead to focus on Pyrrha and people the warrior of Mistral liked. Yet Ruby kept blocking Weiss to continue down the tunnel. And now, the words of the headmaster had made Weiss stop and look at the boulder she was pushing past. She saw it was not the most held together, filled with cracks and breaks, but it held up the tunnel she traveled through. Without it, Pyrrha would become the bearer of the weight, or perhaps Jaune, or Weiss herself. And perhaps they too would begin to crack under it. Instead, Ruby was left to bear it herself.
Weiss had ignored their leader, believing her beneath the heiress, without realizing the effect she had on the younger girl. She wanted to be friends with her, but Weiss refused. The tunnel was now falling apart on itself and Weiss knew it was up to her to keep it held together.
So now she found herself awake, late into the night with a sleepy Ruby Rose behind her, walking into the dorm common rooms with purpose in her eyes, despite their tiredness. No one seemed to be awake at this time, likely having fallen asleep hours ago or working on homework in the privacy of their own rooms. Weiss however did not sleep. No, as she lay in her bed, she contemplated and thought about Ruby Rose and discovered that she did not truly hate the farm girl. No, she was just projecting onto her. Projecting her self hatred.
“So uh, whatcha wanna talk ‘bout?” Ruby questioned with a yawn as the two sat on opposite couches and Weiss saw her tail drooping behind the leader as she sat down, “So early…”
“How do you take your coffee? I’ll grab some for you?” Weiss asked politely and Ruby shrugged.
“Two sugars and some creamer,” Ruby informed and Weiss gave a small nod before walking to the common room’s kitchen and began brewing a pitcher of coffee as her team leader curled up into a small ball while she waited for the coffee.
“Here, hope it’s sugary enough for you, given how often I find you eating cookies, it’s probably a low amount,” Weiss joked and Ruby grabbed it and began to slowly sip on it as she became more aware.
“So what’s up Weissy,” Ruby smiled and Weiss rolled her eyes before she began to sip on her own coffee, which had no sugar in it. The bitterness would keep her focused.
“I wanted to apologize to you and how I’ve treated you recently. You have been doing your best to be a leader and I’ve been an obstacle all the while. I’ve been projecting my own issues onto you, and for that I apologize,” Weiss bowed her head and Ruby blinked some small tears away.
“Aww if I had known that’s what this talk was about I wouldn’t need coffee. I just didn't want to push you. Things take time to adjust to. I have experience. So don’t worry about it,” Ruby seemed to brush it off but Weiss shook her head.
“I do worry about it because I have been hurting all of us, you dolt. I’ve been the weak link of the team. I thought I was maturing and being better, but I was just brushing you aside like my father does to everyone, especially the faunus. I hate that I emulated him, but what I hate more is that I’ve hurt you. I want to improve. I want to try and maybe… be friends with you, Ruby, if you’d let me,” Weiss admitted softly, not quite meeting the eyes of the girl across from her. Weiss didn’t even see Ruby move until suddenly Ruby was laying her head on Weiss’s lap on the couch.
“I’d be happy to be your friend. And as your friend, I claim your lap as my new pillow,” Ruby happily stated, with small tear streaks visible and Weiss snorted in laughter as tears filled her eyes as well.
“I don’t deserve to be forgiven so fast,” Weiss tried to deflect but Ruby just wrapped her tail around Weiss and nuzzled her head into Weiss.
“Holding grudges is harder though. Besides, if we wanna be a good team, we gotta be friends too,” Ruby responded and Weiss put her hand on Ruby’s head.
“Would it be alright to pet your head? I know you said you have a girlfriend and I don’t know if it’s offensive because you’re also a faunus and that could be demeaning, maybe?” Weiss asked nervously and Ruby just laughed.
“You and Jaune are so similar. It’s fine Weiss. I like the affection. And Penny is just glad I get physical affection because I am happier with it. Only she can pet my tail though. Girlfriend privilege,” Ruby informed and Weiss nodded before beginning to pet the head of the redhead and felt her drowsiness finally catch up to her as she faded to sleep, with Ruby following closely behind.
When Jaune woke up in the dorms to find no one else in there, he almost panicked about missing class. Then he looked at the time and saw he was actually awake earlier then normal. Then he realized that all his teammates had also seemed to be awake early then. So once he finished changing and getting his school work in order so he didn’t have to rush later, he headed to the common area and saw Weiss and Ruby asleep on one of the couches together. Jaune couldn’t help but smile at this. They had both been struggling to get along, now it seems like they were making progress. But this left him to wonder where Pyrrha was. Before bed last night, Weiss had mentioned that Pyrrha had been pushing herself too hard in training. Maybe she was doing that again.
Sure enough, he found his missing teammate in one of the training rooms, bags under her eyes clearly visible.
“Did she even get any sleep? She looks exhausted,” Jaune noticed and walked over to his teammate just as he feet gave out from under her. Jaune sped up to catch her and Pyrrha groggily tried to push up.
“Need to… train…” Pyrrha didn’t even acknowledge his presence as she pushed hard enough to stand up again, but then fell onto her face and groaned in pain. Jaune then made the decision to call the first person he could think of to help.
“Jaune it’s 5 am, why are you calling so early? Aura training was two days ago,” The groggy voice of Velvet Scarlatina sounded over his scroll and Jaune just chuckled nervously.
“Well, I kinda need your help getting Pyrrha to the nurse. I’m in training room 13, she passed out,” Jaune asked for help as he tapped his feet on the floor anxiously.
“Ugh. COCO! Get up! We’ve got a Yatsuhashi incident with a first year,” Velvet yelled to her roommate who just swore in response to their wakeup call, “I’ll be down there in a few minutes. Coco’ll help bring her to the nurse. Let me just quickly call the nurse to tell them about this.”
“Thanks,” Jaune sighed in relief.
“Thank me by winning against Winchester in combat class this week,” Velvet retorted and Jaune could only gulp nervously in response as he hesitantly nodded, nervous of facing off against the more muscularly built student.
One moment Pyrrha had been practicing as hard as she could. She needed to get better. But the next, she somehow found herself sitting up on an unfamiliar bed with something attached to her hand. It took a few moments, but she realized that she was in a hospital room and that the thing on her hand was an IV drip. But how did she end up here?
“Ahh Miss Nikkos, you’re finally awake. Good, your team was worried about you, as were your friends. You pushed yourself far too much young lady. From what Mister Arc and Miss Schnee told me, you had trained almost all day yesterday with no breaks until Miss Schnee found out and then snuck off in the night to train more. All without taking care of your physical wellbeing at all. When you were brought in, you were severely dehydrated, with no aura at all remaining. Several muscles you were training were put under a lot of stress and caused you to develop several muscle strains and stress fractures. You also have very low blood sugar. I have talked with Headmaster Ozpin and he has agreed that for the moment you are not to participate in any strenuous activities for a month to allow time for your body to heal. Your team has already been informed of this,” The nurse told her and with each word, Pyrrha felt more and more guilt weighing on her mind. She only passed out because she was weak. She always… no she never stopped herself in the past. It was always her father who noticed, so she wouldn’t hurt his money maker.
“I’m sorry ma’am,” Pyrrha apologized and the nurse just sighed, as if expecting such a response.
“Dear, this is why Beacon has exercise coaches and trainers, so students don’t push themselves like this. Just get some rest for now,” The nurse lightly scolded and Pyrrha hung her head as she felt her exhaustion catch up to her and she once again drifted to sleep.
Eventually, Pyrrha would wake up with blurry eyes to see her teammates bickering around her. They all looked more tired than she felt.
“… and that’s why the Tale of the Maidens is the best fairy tale, it’s short, sweet and simple,” Jaune argued and Pyrrha paused as she processed the words, “Not unlike yourself, Snow Angel.”
“First, not an angel. My name means white snow in Old Atlesian tongue. So half of your nickname is right,” Weiss corrected and Ruby snorted at this.
“Weiss, I think he was trying to flirt, not well though” Ruby informed and Jaune and Weiss both began to flounder and wave their hands at this, denying their leader’s statement.
“But the best fairy tale is the Ever After tales. Complex lessons and an overarching narrative make for a better story,” Weiss continued and Ruby looked down at Pyrrha, who seemed to watch with humor in her eyes, and Ruby smiled and kept silent.
“Yeah, maybe in terms of an overall story structure, but fairy tales are usually read to kids. Short and simple is best for that purpose,” Jaune countered and Weiss tilted her hand.
“Ehh… you might have a point but we were debating our favorite stories originally and you’re not quite a kid anymore Jaune. Ruby probably is though,” Weiss shot back and Ruby held a hand over her heart and fell back into one of the chairs in the nurse’s office with fake drama.
“No! Not… my pride… farewell… bleh,” Ruby stuck her tongue out in a fake death and Pyrrha could hear Weiss let out a short snort of laughter. How long had she been out if she missed those two finally getting along? Must have been weeks for that to have happened.
“As enjoyable as this all is,” Pyrrha finally found herself speaking up, “How long was I asleep for?”
“Huh?!” Weiss and Jaune were both caught off guard as they finally realized Pyrrha had been awake. Ruby just shrugged.
“Err… it’s past dinner time? They had really good steak today, sad that you missed that. It was seasoned so well,” Ruby wagged her tail excitedly just at the thought of it and Pyrrha let out a small laugh.
“I’m sorry I missed it, I’ll try not to next time,” Pyrrha apologized and this suddenly seemed to sober up her teammates for some reason.
“Pyrrha, why did you push yourself that far in the first place? I know we’re still getting used to being a team, but you were hurting yourself,” Ruby asked quietly, her ears pressing up against her head sadly.
“I… can we just forget this happened?” Pyrrha closed her eyes to try to ignore the questioning but Weiss just scowled.
“Professor Goodwitch said that if you do this again, then you will be suspended for intentionally pushing yourself too far. So no, I think we need to know Pyrrha, so we can help you if it happens again,” Weiss scolded with a harsh tone, but Pyrrha could sense it was more from worry than anything else.
“I just… fine. But can I tell it in our dorm instead of the hospital room?” Pyrrha asked, feeling herself be smaller as she felt her father scream in her mind to just be stronger, to not seem weak. But Pyrrha just ignored it. If she didn’t ignore it, then she couldn’t keep going.
“Sure. We’ll get out of your hair for now. But just know Pyrrha, we do care about you. It hurts to see you in a hospital bed,” Jaune assured as her team made their way out of the room but Pyrrha felt herself freeze at the mention of a hospital.
“Papa, why won’t you see mama?” Pyrrha recalled when she was young, around eight years old, tugging on the sleeve of her father’s jacket, even as he held a scowl on his face.
“Shut up! Do not call me your papa!” Her father backhanded her across the hallway of their house, “Your mother died in the hospital, ignorant child! A grave is worthless! Now get up, you said you wanted to be a huntress, so no being weak!” Her father roared at her and Pyrrha just whimpered as she gave a small nod.
Maybe she could leave out a few things when she talked to her team. She felt that if she told them about her father, her team would be wanted for murder, or assault at the very least. A small part of her wanted her father gone, but more of her felt too attached to him to lose him. He was all she had left.