Just a one shot, I'm afraid, and dreadfully short. We were tossing ideas around on the discord, and this really got my muse going. So, a first draft later, and here you go:

Weiss hated many things in her life. She hated politics. She hated her father. She hated Salem and the grimm.

But right now, Weiss hated weddings. It was a reminder of the loneliness.

She had never considered herself a romantic. She was too pragmatic, realistic. Few huntresses married and settled down for a family and children, and she was too busy for romantic attachments in any case. But still...

She'd never believed in the phrase "the happiest day of your life", but as she looked at Ren and Nora at the end of a long aisle, their smiles, and their tears, she couldn't help but believe it. And her heart ached. Jealous, sadness, regret. Things she had never expected to feel.

She was 22 years old. She had a loving, safe team, and an entire additional team of friends.

But as she looked at the crying couple, she had never felt so alone.

If there was one thing Weiss hated in life as much as weddings, it was liquor. Drink had stolen her mother. Ruby's uncle was foolish and dangerous to everyone around him. No, alcohol was a blight upon the world, and she would never partake of it.

'Never' never turned out how you expected.

Four drinks in, and Weiss was what Yang would call 'plastered'. Her speech was slurred, the world was spinning, and her hormones somehow made her feel giddy and hopeless at the exact same time.

Her shaky steps carried her onto a stool next to Yang, and she groaned as she fell forward onto the bar.

"Hey." Yang's voice sounded weird. Weiss chalked it up to the booze.

"I hat weddings."

"What?"

"I het them!"

"Weiss, how much have you had?"

"That'sh no' impor'ant."

"Uh…okay. Why do you hate weddings?"

"Because I'm so llllllonely!"

"Weiss, you have two teams full of people who love you."

She raised a hand and shook it, the wrist limply flopping from side to side. "Nooo, nooooooooooo, not like that."

She hiccupped, turning it over and facing toward Yang, the skin cool against her flush skin.

"I jusht…I luked at Ren 'n Nora, an'…they were sho happy. I jusht thought…I wish that wash me. And it can't be…"

"What? Why can't it be?"

"I don't know any boysh!"

"You know plenty of boys…"

"Whatamigunnado? Marry Neptune!? Ha!" She laughed so hard that the force almost sat her up. "Ren's married, and…"

Her face fell, and she looked, and felt, like she might start crying again.

"What's wrong?"

"It can't happen."

"What can't happen?"

"Me. Getting married."

"I think it can."

"Not with who I want."

"Who do you want?"

A heavy sigh left her, blowing at her bangs. She couldn't remember if she'd already told Yang this.

"It's Jaune…"

There was a long pause.

"What?"

"Yeah. If I'd shaid that in first year, I'd be confused too. But…it'sh too late."

When Yang didn't say anything, she continued, "I misshed my chance, and now it's too late. He probably hatesh me."

"He doesn't hate you."

"Yesh he doesh!"

"Why would you think that?"

"Because he shtopped talking to me! I was so mean to him first year, because I thought he was just a skirt chaser, or shocial climber, or something!

But no, he'sh…he's sweet and kind and honest and…more than I deserve."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I fell for some dumb trick from a different cute boy, without appreciating the one I had. And even then, he helped me, I guessh. I put so much of my personal worth into going to the dance with Neptune, and…then Jaune made him say yes, iunno. And I was so happy that Neptune was finally talking to me, but then he told me. 'You're looking at him,' he said. 'You've got some good friends looking out for you.'"

"Why is that a bad thing?"

"Because I wasn't!" Several guests turned to look at her outburst, but she didn't care, couldn't care anymore. She'd spent so long with the guilt chewing at her. "I wasn't his friend! I was terrible to him! I mocked him, and laughed at him! And after all of that…he convinced a boy to talk to me…"

"You didn't laugh at him, you just didn't go on a date."

"I did in private. I felt so guilty. I called him pathetic, one time, I think. I was so…stupid. I don't even know what I was thinking, but I didn't even realize what I had until I didn't have it anymore. Neptune came and talked to me because…Jaune didn't want me anymore."

"You're not property to be passed-"

"I know! I meant…Jaune had…moved on, I think. He saw me as a friend, maybe, but he…he didn't want me as a girlfriend anymore. I was just Weiss now, not…not 'Snow Angel.'"

"I thought you hated that name."

She laughed and wiped at her eyes, her fingers staining with mascara.

"I used to. I thought it sounded so condescending, so possessive. But…it changed, he changed. Once he got over that stupid shtick, it…sounded like a compliment, again. I was an angel." She looked up at the lights above the bar, and the shine in her eyes was astonishing.

"But now I'm just 'ice queen'," and she slumped back onto the bar.

"Why didn't you tell him?"

She huffed, and her lip stuck out adorably. "I dunno. Pride, and fear. I thought I would look stupid or silly if I asked him when I told him no so many times. But I think…I think it was more…I think I was scared."

"Scared? Of Jaune?"

"A little…"

She sat up, propping her face on one arm while her other hand twirled at a toothpick in an empty martini glass. "When you fall in love with someone, they have power over you. You care about everything they say or do or think. It can break you, and I-"

"Love? You were in love with him?"

"I don't know. I thought I was. I think a part of me still is…there's that fear in the back of my silver head that thinks…what if he said yes? I could've been…I could be so happy right now. But then I remember what he did, and I have to talk myself out of that."

"What did he do?"

She picked up the wet toothpick, bending it gently in her hands. "He got over me."

"How do you know?"

If a toothpick could creak, this one did. "He smiled at me in the hallways. He'd come to our dorm to work on Ruby with homework, or to hang out with Yang."

"Those all sound great."

The toothpick snapped, and tears streamed down her face again. "I'm so SELFISH!"

"What? Why?"

She felt a comforting hand rub gently up and down her back as the wooden shrapnel fell temporary carpet beneath the stool. "Because-! Because I didn't want him happy, and friendly, and impersonal! I wanted him to stutter and blush and look away and-!" She sobbed, hard, and it shook her small frame so much that she had to brace herself on the edge of the bar. "I wanted him to care as much about me as I did about him!"

She leaned forward, folding her arms and laying her head down, her body shaking. "I'm terrible!"

"No you're not." Yang's voice was still weird, but soothing, like a patient mother.

"I am! I called him pathetic! Why would I ever think that he could care about someone as shallow and selfish and dumb as me?!"

"You're not any of those things, and you know it."

She sniffled at sat up. Her makeup was a mess, mascara running down her cheeks, lipsticks and eyeliner smeared.

"What?"

"I know that Jaune thinks that you are beautiful and brave and kind. Do you think he was any better; moonstruck over some pretty girl he barely knew?"

She chuckled and wiped at her face, her whole sleeve coming away blotchy and dripping. "Really?"

"I know so. I think, you've got a better chance with Jaune than you want to admit."

Weiss punched her, "Don't make fun of me!"

"Ouch! I'm not, I'm not, I'm serious!"

Weiss stood up shakily, "Okay, if you say so…I'm gonna go talk to him." She started to walk off the faux carpet and onto the grass, before a voice called out to her.

"You might want to wait till you're a little more sober!"

She whirled on her teammate, damp and dirt sleeves on his, chin raised in defiance. "I have never felt so sure of anything in my entire life!"

She then turned around, and proceeded to fall face-first into the grass.

Jaune watched from his seat at the bar as Yang rushed to her fallen teammate from the dance floor.

He leaned onto the bar, where he'd just comforted Weiss and offered her advice on how to pick up…himself.

A heavy sigh escaped past the fireflies. "I…"

A/N: There you have it. A fun little one shot, set after people have graduated from Beacon. There's a lot of complexities to be explored in White Knight. If I didn't think you would all claw my eyes out, I might write a paper on it, or something.

Jaune's decision isn't terribly clear here, and I didn't intend it to be. The fic is marked as [Jaune, Weiss] because of Weiss' feelings, not Jaune's. It's up to the reader to decide whether or not Jaune decides to pursue a relationship.

I had some difficulty writing drunk Weiss. If you look careful, you can see that her language gets less and less distorted as she goes on, and I just wasn't really sure how to remedy that. You can only turn 's' into 'sh' before you get pretty sure that you're audience is tired of it.

In any case, I'm moving on to my commissions now, one NSFW dragonslayer, one SFW knightshade, and one SFW dragonslayer.

Also this week, I hope to finish off RitCoP, as I'm trapped at a family reunion, hidden away from my desktop and all the terribly distracting video games within. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all later.

SpookyNoodle