Chapter Text
BEFORE YOU READ
This fanfic (and many others) are very outdated to my current writing style and portrayal of White Rose. Ice Flower has been privately rewritten/remastered, and if (KEYWORD) I ever choose to upload the new version it will be under the name of "Painted In Silver and Melodic Blue". Please do not point out inconsistencies and bad writing/characertization. I already know.
YOU MAY PROCEED.
It was okay to be in love with someone you’ve never met before, right?
Well, someone you’ve never met in person, at least.
Some of her online friends were in internet relationships despite having never personally met their romantic partner, so it wasn’t all that strange. Right? It wasn’t love-love, it was just more like a little crush.
Okay, maybe a big crush…
Weiss Schnee is the singer for the popular band, Ice Flower. She’s the main vocalist and one of the most beautiful women on Remnant. Well, she was in Ruby’s opinion. Her voice matches her beauty perfectly, it was like listening to an angel sing. The passion, the love, the thrill, it can get anyone’s feet moving and put a song inside one’s heart…
Sometimes, she sang songs of sorrow and of longing. It was almost like picturing your reflection in the mirror, but the image looking back at you isn’t who you are.
Weiss was formerly the heiress to a business called Schnee Dust, but she disappeared when she was sixteen years old and returned to the media’s spotlight with the band. At first, they started off with only three people in the band; Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and Weiss Schnee. Three years later, a woman named Pyrrha Nikos joined them.
Their friend, Blake Belladonna, stayed in the background, but she was active on social media with things concerning the band. Blake is Weiss’ best friend, there were dozens of pictures of them all across the internet. Some of the band’s fans even shipped them together and constantly asked if they were secretly together through interviews.
The most recent update revolving around that topic was posted six months ago, stating that Blake has started dating someone, but keeps her partner’s name and face out of the eye of the public. When asked, Weiss confirmed that she knows of her friend’s romantic partner and she approves. Though, she did make it rather clear that they often tread on thin ice, but the threat was empty.
Some fans were displeased with the update, claiming it was all a lie and that Blake was cheating. Nora and Weiss were quick to shut these rumors down to protect their friend.
Thankfully, Ruby wasn’t obsessed like some of these fans she’s seen on the internet, some of them even going as far as attempting to contact Weiss through Twitter and trying to find her real number as an attempt to hatespam her.
Nobody really wanted to seem to want to really befriend the girl behind the scenes, nobody wanted to meet the real Weiss… The poor woman, if she was caught without her makeup on, without her friends, or even somewhere other than onstage, she was surrounded by the paparazzi trying to get the perfect picture to ruin her reputation.
What is it with the media’s willingness to shame someone for being human ?
That was the whole reason she’d fallen in love with the angelic singer. Just one little video that Weiss’ sister recorded made it to the internet, revealing that the singer was extremely ticklish, and Ruby was head over heels.
Her heart flutters.
Her genuine laugh was simply breathtaking , the playfulness in her voice, the way she spoke . The video showed that she wasn’t one-hundred percent perfect, and Ruby was absolutely fine with that. The media, on the other hand, belittled her for some of her language and attempted to destroy her entire image over it.
People just wanted something to complain over… It would make their day.
Ruby’s grip on her pencil tightens and she looks up at the video playing on loop on her screen, a tiny smile tugs at her lips as her irritation melts away, watching the white-haired singer dance across the screen. The singer had said it herself that one of her favorite parts of her career was recording the music video, the reason being all of the bleeps, bloops, and blunders (well, she didn’t say that ) that happens in the making.
Some of them were lucky to have made it to the internet, which the band was perfectly fine with because it shows that they aren’t perfect. One of the most viral videos was recorded and uploaded by the singer’s best friend, Blake Belladonna.
Ruby rests her pencil down and rapidly typed in the title of the video into the search bar, locating it at the top of the list instantly. The video begins to play and folds her arms on her desk, watching the screen intently as her heart flutters, replaying the scenes through her head.
“Shh, she’s coming in.” A redhead shushes as she hides beneath a desk, the video camera pans out the door of the RV and shows a girl with long white hair approaching the bus. Ruby’s heart quickens as the camera zooms in; the singer is focused on something on her phone, barely paying attention to what’s in front of her.
The person recording steps out of view as the door opens, the camera turns to show a woman hiding behind the door. Green eyes look at the camera and the amazonian lifts a finger to her lips. Just as the singer steps inside, the tall redhead jumps out from behind the door, shouting loudly and startling the singer.
Not even a heartbeat after, white-haired girl stumbles back, shrieking in surprise. The recorder laughs and steps around to reveal the singer again, she was hunched over with her hands on her knees, regaining her senses. She was giggling. “Fuck you!” She says through a breath of laughs. “I hate you guys!”
Ruby swore her heart missed a beat.
“She’s going to have trust issues because of us.” The tall redhead giggles as she steps outside to check on the singer, who only pushes her away with a grin on her face. “See, this is what I was talking about!”
“I’m sorry!” The recorder laughs, “It was just too perfect to pass up, this is going on the internet.”
“Good!” The singer looks at the camera, “Maybe the viewers will finally see how cruel you guys are!” The singer approaches the door again and steps inside. The camera angles down to show the shorter redhead peeking out from under the desk. The vocalist speaks, causing the butterflies in Ruby’s chest to act up again. “Okay, anyway. According to-”
As she steps passed her, the redhead’s hand shoots out and grabs the singer’s ankle, prompting a scream of utter terror to erupt from her as she stumbles forward, kicking at her attacker as she scrambles away.
Laughter bursts out around the room as the singer shoots up both middle fingers, her knees pulled to her chest as she struggles to comprehend what is happening. “Oh my god! Guys! I hate you all!” The singer snaps as she composes herself, standing to her feet and dusting herself off.
“No, we traumatized Weiss!” The recorder snorts. “She’s never going to trust us again!”
“I’m leaving! Damn you all!” Weiss half-yells and half-laughs as she quickly leaves the RV.
The camera turns to show a tall, lanky man with dark hair standing at the other end of the bus. He wasn’t laughing, but the amusement was evident on his face. “She knows she lives here, right?” The woman holding the camera giggles. “Oh my God, she’s never going to come back!”
The video ends and similar suggested videos cover the screen, leaving a warm, yet hollow feeling swimming through Ruby’s being. Her finger taps at the touchpad and rewinds to a particular shot of her crush, she pauses the video and increases the video opacity to 1080p so that she can clearly see the singer’s features.
Ruby picks up her pencil and flips to an empty page in her sketchbook. She glances at the time in the right corner. She has three hours before she’s scheduled to livestream, and she still didn’t have any idea of what to draw. She’d promised her watchers a livestream every two weeks, she’s been procrastinating recently. The end of her pencil beats against the desk as she examines the white paper staring back at her.
She could just digitalize the one she’s about to draw, that way she can add special effects that her pencil can’t do justice. Such as Weiss’ eyes; they were familiar somehow. Ruby could almost put her finger on it.
She shakes her head and begins sketching.
The artist starts with her outline, paying close attention to the singer’s features and posture, etching them onto the paper with extreme delicacy. It takes a few tries to draw the posture to mirror the one onscreen, but Ruby’s quite proud of the outcome. With gentle, soft strokes of her pencil, she sketches the hair and gradually fills it out.
One of her favorite things about the singer, aside from the bright color of her eyes, were her messy bangs. They were not combed back or styled, it was all natural and in Ruby’s opinion, it shows more of Weiss’ actual personality. She wasn’t perfect.
Perhaps she was thinking too much on this.
“Ruby!” Her door swings open, Ruby lifts her head and turns around to see Yang entering with an annoyed expression on her face. “The casserole’s done. I’ve been calling for you for ten min-” Her eyes fix on the large computer screen in front of Ruby and she smirks a little bit, a knowing, yet unreadable glint flickers through her eyes. “All right, well,” she turns away with a wave of her hand, “come get dinner when you’re done swooning .”
The brunette practically falls out of her chair with a shout, “I’m not-!” She’s cut off when her chair crashes into the floor. It takes her a few seconds to get the chair up and off of her. “Yang!” She hollers after her as she scrambles to her feet to follow her sister, throwing her door open again and quickly jogging down the staircase. Yang is already in the kitchen, withdrawing two plates from the cabinets. “I wasn’t swooning!”
“Yes, you were.” Yang answers, handing her a plate as she walks by to approach the stove, opening the oven and removing the casserole. “It’s not the first time I’ve walked in and you have a picture of her up.”
“I was drawing!” Ruby protests, following her sister. Humiliation and embarrassment settles in her stomach. Yang was well aware of her crush, and she steals every opportunity she sees to tease her about it. “I have a livestream in three hours, and I-”
Yang interrupts her. “And you were going to draw a smiling Weiss?” She asks with a smirk on her face.
Ruby’s mouth clamps shut and her hands grips the edge of the counter, waiting for her sister to finish fixing her plate. Yang moves and Ruby takes her place. “Speaking of your little crush ,” Ruby glares back at her, “how would you like to see her live and in person?”
The artist scoffs and takes a seat across from her sister, “As if. She’s performing in Vale tonight and Dad won’t let me go!” She grumbles, staring at the plate sitting before her. “I asked for tickets when I first heard she was coming to Vale, he said no because Dawsbury is too far away from Patch.” She lifts the fork up to her mouth. “He’s also paranoid because of the attack that happened in Mistral last year.”
“Well,” Yang says with an unreadable smile, “what if I told you that I have tickets?” Ruby looks up at her with an expression of disbelief, unwilling to believe her sister. Her jaw drops when Yang pulls two tickets out of seemingly nowhere, “You’re welcome.”
“How did you?!” Ruby’s hands hit the table as she reaches over to snatch the tickets from the blonde, lifting them up to the light. Her heart ignites with hope upon noticing that they were, indeed, legitimate. “They were sold out! How did you manage to land tickets?! Did you tell Dad?!”
Yang laughs and Ruby sits herself back down, silver eyes still locked on the tickets she held tightly in her hands. “Let’s say I know someone.”
Ruby raises a brow and looks at her, setting the tickets on the table and sliding them back over to Yang. “Let me guess,” she says as her sister takes another bite of her food, almost spitting it out as it was still hot. “You know someone who knows a guy, whose brother has a friend who knows a guy, and this guy works for the band?”
The blonde chuckles and shrugs. “Sure, let’s go with that.”
Ruby still can’t believe that, somehow, her sister managed to get two tickets for Ice Flower’s concert in Dawsbury, Vale. She’s only dreamed of meeting the singer in real life… According to Yang, the tickets they were given also consist of a backstage pass. Ruby doubted that part, she didn’t see anything about a ‘backstage pass’ anywhere on the ticket.
“It sure is crowded.” Yang murmurs as she pulls her motorcycle into an empty parking space, Ruby removes her helmet and hands it to her sister, who sets it on the seat next to her own. “I didn’t think there would be this many people considering the concert is being held on a Wednesday.”
Ruby gapes at her, “You didn’t-” she shakes her head, “Yang, Ice Flower is about as popular as your Achieve Men! If not more!”
Yang holds up a finger, “Ahp, ahp, ahp!” She crosses her arms, “Nobody is as popular as the Achieve Men. They’ve been running since before Ice Flower was even a thought !”
“You know this how ?” Ruby asks challengingly as her sister leads her through the gates, handing the tickets in. “The Achieve Men have been a thing for four years, and Ice Flower for three.”
“Clearly, they were inspired by the Achieve Men’s music.” Yang says in her defense, almost jokingly. Before Ruby can retort her response, Yang ruffles her hair with one hand and the brunette growls. “But, I’ll admit, Ice Flower isn’t half bad.” She makes a gesture with her head, smiling a little bit. “Come on, this way! We’re goin’ backstage.”
The artist is momentarily stunned, watching the blonde make her away around the crowd and towards the tour bus seating on the hill in the distance. Why were they going backstage now? Wouldn’t they go after the concert? Wouldn’t they bother everybody if they go now? The performance was only in thirty minutes…
Breathing a sigh of reluctance, Ruby follows closely behind Yang and reaches to grasp her hand so she doesn’t lose her in the crowd.
“You bastard!”
A body slams into hers and she loses her footing, she releases Yang’s hand she sees lilac eyes glancing back in her direction in confusion. Her back hits the ground and she only has a moment to roll out of the way before a foot kicks into the ground where her head once was. She looks up to see a man grabbing another by the throat, his knee reaching up to violently smash into the scrawnier one’s belly.
Ruby has to be careful where she puts her hands as she attempts to climb to her feet, people are both running to stop the fight and retreating away. A high heel stomps into the ground between her fingers as a woman runs by and fear rolls through her like a bolt of electricity, she scrambles to her feet and ducks as a fist flies over head, knuckles punching into the heavier man’s face.
All she hears is the sound of fists meeting flesh, screams of terror and confusion, angry growls, and shouts of frustration.
Suddenly, the heavier man is thrown off his feet and he lands just in front of Ruby. His olive eyes are wide with fear and shock, his breathing shallow and rapid. Ruby follows his gaze to see Yang standing front of a scrawny boy, her hands in tight fists and her eyes ablaze with irritation. The boy behind her has a bloody nose and he’s holding his gut, tears in his eyes as he thanks her.
As security approaches to escort them out, Yang walks over to Ruby and examines her worriedly. “Are you okay?!” She asks desperately, “I thought they’d trampled you!”
“I’m fine,” Ruby answers as Yang pulls her into a protective hug, “let’s just go before something happens again.”
Yang sighs and she takes Ruby’s hand, hauling her through the crowd and keeping her close this time. They break through the crowd towards the front and Yang leads her around the back where fencing was set up. A little ways away, the Ice Flower tour bus was visible. So was the white haired singer sitting on the step, gazing down at a notebook.
Ruby’s attention is pulled away when she’s out of her sight, they’re stepping around the rehearsal booth. There’s a woman standing guard and she looks at them, frowning in slight irritation. “Hey!” She puts her hand on the pistol on her side and Ruby glares at her while Yang remains calm. She wouldn’t really shoot, would she? Yang said they had backstage passes. “You can’t be back-”
“It’s okay, I invited them.” A voice cuts her off and Yang grins smugly, elbowing Ruby as if she’d known she doubted her for a second.
Ruby leans around her sister’s back to locate the voice, recognizing it, but unable to see who it belongs to. Her eyes widen as the guard unlocks the gate and lets them in, Yang leads her inside and her eyes meet with a familiar golden pair. Her heart nearly stops in realization…
“Ruby,” Yang says happily as she comes to the woman’s side, draping her arm across the raven-haired girl’s shoulders, “I’d like you to meet my girlfriend.”
‘Girlfriend?’ Yang didn’t tell her she was dating anybody.
“Your girlfriend is Blake Belladonna…?”
Well, this explained how she managed to get the tickets.