Chapter Text
Weiss lets out a sigh as she steps back from the mirror. Once again her scar is hidden well enough that anyone who didn’t know it was there would surely miss it. She walks back into the room and steels herself, settling into her long-rehearsed mannerisms and stance before walking out to the dining room. She’s relieved to find her father has already left the manor, but the meal still passes in silence. She and her brother both focus on eating to avoid looking at the glass of wine her mother is sipping from. Upon finishing, Weiss walks back to her room to grab her school bag and checks her phone. Aside from some random notifications from social media she sees a text from Winter which she quickly responds to after getting back to her room.
Winter: Hello Weiss, I thought I would see how you were doing. Are things any better at home? Is school going well?
Weiss takes a moment to decide how to phrase her response to each question.
Weiss: Hi Winter, father has settled back down at last so things are at least stable. School is fine, classes are picking back up after the break.
She puts her phone away as she walks out to her car and makes her way to Beacon High school. She finds the student parking lot largely empty. Not many at the school get up quite as early as her but she notices a few people she recognizes from her other classes and around campus. She spots a black haired cat faunus walking alongside two other girls, a blonde and a younger looking girl with brown hair. She recognizes the faunus as Blake Belladonna from some of her classes but can’t place who the other girls are. She smiles as she sees Pyrrha Nikos walking towards the field and gives a friendly wave as she makes her way into the school building. Once again she settles into her practiced demeanor in anticipation for the day, especially as she sees an all too familiar limousine parked in front of the school and a girl with shoulder-length, pitch black hair steps out.
“Hey there Weiss.” Cinder says, her sickly smirk already making Weiss force herself not to roll her eyes. “Hello Cinder, how are you?” She says flatly as they both make their way up the small steps into the school’s main building. “Oh, great, so looking forward to dealing with Oobleck's nonsense today.” Cinder replies, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I really don't get how you seem to enjoy this shit Weiss.” Weiss rolls her eyes at the comment as she walks ever so slightly behind Cinder. “Is it so strange to take pride in what I do Cinder?” she asks, masking her annoyance better than she expected to. “I mean it's not like we need any of this, we're already set for life.” Cinder says, turning her head towards Weiss with an almost sickly smirk.
Weiss does roll her eyes this time as she watches a familiar blonde monkey faunus walk by with a skateboard stuffed behind his backpack. "'Sup Weiss." He says while smiling at her as they pass by each other. Sun Wukong had developed a strange infatuation with Weiss a while back that was mildly irritating sometimes. While she had to admit he was somewhat attractive and clearly worked out, judging by the abs he showed whenever poss-
She stops herself mid thought, shaking her head clear of the idea of the boy's almost random interest in her. She waves a half hearted goodbye at Cinder as she goes into her first class and sits down in her seat. As she waits for her English teacher to arrive she looks around the class. She watches Blake sit down and start reading a book as Ilia Amitola sits down in the next seat over.
She glances at the door to see two of the seniors she had the class with walking into the room, Coco Adel with her usual cup of coffee followed by Fox Alistair. Fox takes a seat as Coco walks over to Weiss with a much more friendly grin. “Ice queen, how much do you know about Velvet?” She asks before taking a sip of her coffee. “A normal person would say ‘hello.’” Weiss says. She pauses as Coco scoffs. “The rabbit faunus? Not much, I really haven't spoken to her. Why are you asking me this?” Weiss answers. “You take music with Sun, don't you? Fox says you two talk, I was hoping you'd ask what she likes for me.” Coco replies, as Weiss glances at the blind boy sitting nearby. “Technically I said he talks to Weiss. I never said she talks back.” He says without looking towards them while Coco turns to glare at him. “Anyway, you mind asking him?” “And I should help you with your crush, why?” Weiss asks, smirking back at the older girl. “Because I'll owe you one, and I know you won't pass up a favor to call in Schnee.” She says, putting a sarcastic emphasis on Weiss’ last name. Normally Weiss would be more annoyed at the implied jab at her family, but even though she wasn't very close with Coco, she knew perfectly well the senior didn't mean any real hurt with the comment. Coco never said anything worse than what she could take in return.
“Fine, but if you really want help with Velvet I would think they'd be more helpful.” Weiss says, nodding towards the cat faunus a few rows ahead of them. “They don't know me, and neither seems especially open to being approached by strangers.” Coco says, lowering her sunglasses as she glances towards the front of the class. “If you say so Coco, but fine, I'll try to ask him at some point.” “Attagirl.” Coco says, taking her seat just as Ms. Goodwitch walks into the classroom.
The other classes pass uneventfully and Weiss finds herself at siting at a lunch table, gazing out at the other students while Cinder talks to the rest of the group. Emerald Sustrai sits next to the dark haired girl, enthusiastically nodding along to every word. The girl had an enormous crush on Cinder that both girls knew would create problems, and so Cinder simply led her along and teased her from time to time with no intention of actually reciprocating her feelings. Mercury Black sat across from Emerald, rolling his eyes at the display. Mercury being one of the more tolerable of the group despite simply having no filter and not really thinking before speaking. Carding Winchester sat between him and Weiss, shooting ominous glances at a few faunus students sat at a table, no doubt trying to think of something cruel to do to them for his own amusement. Two twins, Miltia and Melanie Malachite, sat at the next table over while staring and practically drooling at Mercury and Cardin. Mercury chose to ignore it as he did most aspects of social life while Cardin simply hadn’t noticed.
This “acceptable” group she’d been introduced to by her father upon moving to vale consisted solely of people who were outright vile or simply indifferent to the others. Weiss pretends to listen as her mind rapidly wanders from whatever gossip Cinder talks about and her gaze drifts around the cafeteria. She scowls slightly as she spots Cardin’s group of thugs; Russel, Sky and Dove, hassling a freshman at the edge of the room.
She briefly turns back towards Cinder at the mention of Coco’s name. “Adel? Don’t get me started. Head over heels for the bunny girl back there.” Cinder says, sneering. “Think she keeps carrots in that ugly ass purse of hers?” Cardin offers, prompting an obnoxious bout of giggles from Melanie. Weiss grits her teeth quietly, knowing anything she said would inevitably get her father’s attention. After all, her friendship with Cinder wasn’t just because Jaques deemed her acceptable, rather it was to keep the family company in good standing with the Falls’.
She looks across the room towards the table where Sun sat with several others. She recognizes Blake and Ilia, along with Velvet, the aforementioned rabbit faunus she was now supposed to ask about for Coco, sitting next to an enormous boy from the football team and joined by the redhead and blonde she’d seen before school. She notices Pyrrha at the adjacent table with three others who Weiss couldn’t name. The blonde girl roars with laughter at something that was said. Weiss watches for a moment before meeting Sun’s gaze for a second. She looks back towards Cinder and shakes her head slightly as the bell rings. She wastes no time getting up and walking away with her tray.
Her history class passes extremely quickly, a byproduct of Mr. Oobleck’s almost constant caffeine-induced speed. Weiss walks into her music class. She sets her bag down and turns to see Sun walk into the room, his shirt left unbuttoned for this period. He walks past her with his usual smile and waves. “Hey Weiss.” he says. “Hello Sun, I actually need to ask you something.” she says, following him to the edge of the room. “Shoot.” he says as he sets down his backpack and skateboard. “Coco asked me to see if you could share anything about Velvet that might help her… ‘endeavors.’” Weiss says pointedly. “Well, I can tell her plenty, but really you should just tell her to find out for herself.” Sun says, grinning. “Suggest that she finds out over a coffee or something. Velvet’s been eyeing Coco for a while herself.” Weiss smiles and rolls her eyes slightly. “Well, that’s not surprising, maybe this will be the push she needs. Thank you Sun.” Weiss replies. “Yeah… no worries.” he says, his expression dropping slightly as Weiss walks away.
Weiss walks towards the parking lot, the crowd of students thinning out as people stop to talk. She walks through the gate and pulls out her car keys as she hears a voice from the boy standing by the fence. “Hey Weiss, can I talk to you for a sec?” Weiss turns towards Sun, his shirt buttoned up for once as he holds his skateboard behind him. “Make it fast.” She answers, tapping her finger against the key.
“I wanted to see if.. maybe you'd want to kinda... walk. Over at the park sometime.” He says flashing her a slightly nervous grin. “I- Wait What?” she starts to say and stiffens slightly. “Well, I've seen you around there a few times and I just thought it might be a good way to uh... get to know each other.” He leans against his skateboard and stumbles slightly. “Oh- not to say that I've been like, watching you or anything. I mean not that I wouldn't want to watch you, but not like in a weird way- I mean, I just noticed you were there a few times and I just... uh. You seem a bit more... relaxed out there than at school”
Weiss raises her eyebrow and looks at him for a moment. ‘If he's trying to ask me out he still managed to do better than that blonde boy from freshman year’ she thinks to herself as she looks over the boy, taking in the sight of his shirt and torn black jeans as well as glimpsing his blonde tail through her peripheral vision. Her response comes out a bit quicker than she thinks it should have.
“Sure.” “Oh! Cool, so maybe tomorrow at like, 1?” “Yes, that'll work for me.” She says, still silently wondering what possessed her to be this careless with her decision. “Alright, well I'll see you there Weiss. Have a good one!” Sun says as he sets down his Skateboard and steps onto it, rolling down the road. She watches as he disappears around a corner and goes to her car. She sits in the driver’s seat for a moment, thinking over what just happened before driving back to the manor.
Weiss groans at her desk, feeling unusually distracted from her homework by what happened after school which she had been contemplating since it happened. It was a bit late to pretend Sun wasn’t at least attractive, but that didn’t explain why she so quickly agreed to go out with him without at least contemplating the risks of it as she would with anything else, and the more she did think about it, the more risks there were. Mostly related to her father, her social circle and the potential fallout should they find out she went out with some ‘faunus punk’ or some other (and far more rude) description. She supposes she could cancel, or simply not go. The strange thing though, is she doesn’t seem to want to despite the several logical reasons why it might be a good idea. ‘We’re just going to walk around the park for a bit, if nothing else he may be interesting company’ Weiss thinks to herself. ‘It’s not like this will actually turn into anything.’