12 - Concern In Black And White

Sun shone through window blinds leaving thin strips of sunlight cast over a sleeping figure. The mop of black hair seemed to let out a soft groan and a feline ear flicked in the light. The figure stirred beneath sheets, curling into a fetal position, and shuddered as it flexed and stretched. Blake took advantage of her day off from both classes and work to sleep in late. Her roommate had left hours earlier for class but left the faunus woman to rest. She rolled on her back and stretched out without opening her eyes. Blake could feel the sun over her skin and knew she would get an eyeful of bright sun when she opened them. She groaned again and sat up with a sigh.

A soft knock at the door broke the peaceful flow of the morning, or what Blake thought was still morning.

"Huh, whassit…" she mumbled. "Hold on! One moment." She grumbled while getting out of bed and stretched. When she opened her eyes the room was indeed brighter than she wanted it to be. With a quick glance in the mirror, she made a half-hearted attempt to smooth her hair down and readjust her pajamas, then opened the door.

Weiss stepped past Blake and entered the room. "Were you still sleeping? It's already past noon."

Blake blinked a few times, still trying to fully wake up and figure out what was happening but managed to close the door.

"We were going to go have lunch with my sister, remember? You said you'd go with me when I mentioned not wanting to go alone."

The mention of the lunch plans sounded like something Blake would agree to. It sounded familiar, but she needed to finish waking up to process. Blake shuffled over to the mini coffee maker and ran hot water through into her favorite mug while she dug through her collection of teas to find the specific black tea she was wanting. "Mn, yeah. Um, give me a few minutes." She rolled her head from side to side and popped her neck. "What time is it?" The question came out soft and not necessarily addressed to Weiss.

"It's about twelve-fifteen, and we're meeting her at one-thirty, so we have plenty of time. It's a good thing I came over early, it seems."

Blake nodded to herself. A little over an hour was plenty of time. She could get dressed, have her tea, then do her makeup and be ready to go in twenty minutes if she needed to, but was thankful for the luxury of going at her own pace. "Mm, thanks for the wakeup call. I would have forgotten."

"I thought you might have. It's okay." Weiss walked up to Blake and smiled at her, giving her a soft nudge to her shoulder with her own. "I'm just anxious. Thank you for agreeing to go with me."

Blake smiled and sleepily tilted her head to the side, resting it on her own shoulder. "Of course. Now, give me a few minutes to finish waking up."


Sun high in the sky and gentle breeze rustling leaves in trees and the older of the Schnee sisters sat at a metal table on the patio of the restaurant. Weiss had gotten up to use the restroom leaving Blake alone with Winter. She eyed the faunus woman over as she pulled a silver cigarette case from her vest pocket. Without looking at what she was doing, she removed a cigarette and pulled her lighter out of another pocket, lighting up. She offered the case to Blake who shook her head. The three of them had eaten lunch at a small restaurant not far from the college campus.

"For the best," Winter commented and put the case and lighter away while taking a drag. She blew light smoke out of the corner of her mouth and leaned forward to pull the table's ashtray closer towards herself. "So, Weiss says you're keeping her out of trouble." Without giving much away in the way of emotion, Winter continued to stare at Blake who shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

"I guess so, but really she's just been coming with me to work sometimes."

"The bookstore, right?"

Blake nodded and relaxed a little feeling the conversation become more casual.

"That's good. I worry about her." Winter took another long drag and let it out with a sigh. "She probably already told you, but our dad, he isn't well. Or, he hasn't been for a bit, but it's been getting harder."

Blake's ears were at attention listening to what Winter was saying. She knew some of the information or had gathered it from the talks she had with Weiss before. "It's his memory? Weiss said you were in the process of taking over the family company because of it."

"Trying to. It's a complicated situation, but I'm working on it. It's all been hard for Weiss since father has all but disowned her for not following in my footsteps exactly. She's taking a lot of what he says personally when it's just the disease affecting him. I'm glad you're here today, actually. I know how stubborn she gets. I think she's convinced I'm upset with her. But if she has trouble, let me know and I'll do what I can."

Blake wasn't sure what to make of what she was being told. She sat and watched Winter with a slightly furrowed brow. "You're wanting me to spy on her for you?"

After blowing a small cloud of smoke out the side of her mouth, Winter shook her head. "No, no, no. I mean if something serious happens, let me know. She's my sister and I love her. Father is still in control of the accounts and I'm not sure if he's going to cut her off since he's already done that with mother. I already told her to let me know if anything like that happens, but I'll feel better if you'll keep an eye on her too." Winter took a final drag from her cigarette and stubbed it out in the ashtray.

Blake slowly nodded. "You know she doesn't share all of that stuff with me, right?"

Winter shrugged. "That's Weiss. But, I'll give you my number." She slipped her phone from her pocket and pulled up her number and slid it over for Blake to enter into her phone. In the middle of entering the information, Weiss crossed the patio, approaching the table. Blake quickly finished punching the last digits in and slid the phone back to Winter.

"Everything alright?" Weiss was skeptical of the situation, sensing something serious had happened. "I should have known better than to leave you alone with my friends," she sighed and sat in the chair between Winter and Blake. "I already know you two were talking about me." She turned her attention to Winter.

With a slight laugh, Winter shrugged. "And if we were? What's my baby sister going to do?"

"Ugghh, you're the worst sometimes. Let's stop wasting time. What is it you wanted to see me for today?"

Blake scooted her chair a little closer to Weiss, unsure if she should tell her later about the conversation she had with Winter. Maybe when Weiss was in a better mood. Maybe after the two of them left and stopped by the coffee shop on the way back.

"Right to the point. How very punctual. Are you sure you don't want to come work for the company?" Winter teased.

Weiss rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Right. I wanted to tell you that we've settled everything with Ruby's family's lawyers and no criminal charges are going to be pressed. So, this is a little bit of a… celebration lunch. But I also wanted to talk to you about father."

A sense of relief lifted a little bit of the weight from Weiss' shoulders, but it was only one of several anxieties about everything. The mention of father tensed her muscles back up. Blake could practically feel the tenseness radiating off of her.

"Mother and I are having to consider more seriously moving him to a care facility. He's… not improving. The doctors aren't sure if there's anything that can be done at this stage to prevent further deterioration, especially with how early the onset of it all was. But, if, or I should say when, we decide to move him, would you want to see him before that? I feel I know the answer, but mother wished me to ask anyway."

Weiss was sitting motionless and staring at Winter, expressionless. Winter reached a hand across to touch Weiss' knee, and when she did Weiss blinked a couple of times. "I, um- I- I don't know."

"That's alright. You don't have to answer right away. There's still a lot we need to take care of first with the company and accounts and everything. And he's still himself a lot of the time, but we felt you should still choose before we go through with that."

Weiss lightly nodded and closed her eyes, raising her hands to cover them for comfort like she did as a child. Blake reached over and rubbed at her shoulder, and Weiss took some deep breaths and lowered her hands.

"Sorry, sorry…"

"Hey, Weiss, no need to be sorry. I'm sorry for bringing it up, but mother insisted. I'll tell her you have to think it over. She'll understand. Anyway, I should head back to the office soon." Winter stood from her chair and stretched. She stepped closer to Weiss to lean down and give her a hug. "Don't worry too much, okay? Just focus on school and I'll handle everything else, alright?" When she stood up she rubbed her hand on Weiss' back and left through the restaurant.

"Are you alright?" Blake leaned in closer to Weiss.

"Y-yeah, I'll be fine," Weiss replied unconvincingly.

Blake wasn't sure if she should press the obvious lie or not. She knew she could talk to her about it later and instead stood up from her chair and offered a hand to Weiss. "Let's head back. We can stop by the coffee shop on the way. My treat."

Weiss looked up at Blake and accepted her hand. "I'd like that. Let's… let's do that." Her words sounded hollow and she sounded lost while thinking about everything.


Blake had walked Weiss back to her dorm after the two got back to campus and wound up staying to talk with her. She was surprised to see the state of Weiss' room. It seemed as if the usually neat and orderly Schnee had let all of that go to the side in the previous weeks. It was understandable knowing the family stress she was dealing with, but she wasn't expecting it to have gotten to the point it did. Weiss not having a roommate allowed her to slack on tidiness and it appeared it snowballed into a disaster.

The talk with her sister had only made things worse for Weiss. Once the bedroom door shut, she began to cry. Blake stepped closer and wrapped her in a hug, letting her cry it out into her shoulder.

"Hey, it's alright. You're okay," Blake whispered and held Weiss.

The shorter girl shook her head, not looking up, and slid her arms around Blake. "It's not. Father's mad at me, Yang hates me, and I'd assume so does Ruby and the rest of her family. Mother hasn't talked to me. You and Winter are the only ones who talk with me and don't seem to get uncomfortable. Everyone else, if it's not the incident, it's my family and the things my father has done."

Blake sighed. She wasn't sure how to respond to that. Of course, Weiss didn't make her uncomfortable, but she could easily see why others would. Her family alone had a level of notoriety in the city for being ruthless thanks to the aggressive business practices of Jacques Schnee. From what she could tell, Winter rolled with the rumors and seemed to enjoy dressing the part. But Weiss, even back in high school she remembered Weiss being sensitive about her family. Blake guided Weiss to her bed, passed laundry and textbooks on the floor. "Sit for now. There's no rush on anything, there's no need to process it all right now."

"You're right," Weiss mumbled and sat on the edge of her bed. "And… thank you for going with me."

"Of course. I'm glad you woke me up in time, too. I'd have completely slept through it otherwise."

"I figured you might. It's why I went over. That and I had trouble sleeping. I was thinking about possibly waking you up sooner but decided against it." Weiss leaned to the side and fell over on her bed while looking at Blake. "I remember how much you like to sleep."

Blake smiled and stepped over to Weiss' desk to slide the chair out to sit in. She swiveled it around to face the bed. "I don't think I'd have gotten up if you came over any sooner." She paused and debated on telling her about what Winter asked of her. She was thinking of it all the way back to campus and felt it important to let her know. "Hey, um, Weiss."

"What is it?"

"Winter. She asked me earlier-"

Weiss sat up suddenly. "What?"

"It's nothing bad. She's worried about you. Fears you might not talk to her if anything bad happens and gave me her number to let her know if something does, but I felt I should talk to you about it."

Weiss leaned forward and covered her eyes with her hands, head nearly touching her knees. "She always does this."

Blake slid the chair forward and rested a hand on Weiss' shoulder. She wasn't quite sure what to say and instead stayed quiet.

"She tries to baby me so much. I'm not wholly useless like she thinks. I just- I wish she knew that. If I run to her every time I have an issue I'm never going to get out of father's shadow. Or her shadow. I can't do this anymore."

"Listen, why don't you come back to my room for a bit? My roommate is gone for the weekend, we can watch a movie or something and take it easy. I have work tomorrow, but it's not until the afternoon so I don't have to get up super early. We can stay up and have a movie marathon."

Weiss slowly lifted her head and wiped at her eyes. They were red from crying and she had to rub at them a number of times until she could see clearly. "A-alright."


With the setting sun, something else set in with Blake's thoughts. The conversation from lunch with Winter kept playing over and over. Weiss' family issues reminded her of her own the year before and how Weiss and Ruby were both supportive of her. But Yang… Blake flopped onto her bed next to Weiss. She had fallen asleep halfway into the second movie Blake put on and she didn't feel like waking her.

She thought about her dad's accident and how she needed to go back home to help out for a while. How Weiss and Ruby would message her to see how things were going. How Yang and she had a fight right before she had to leave. It wasn't like their normal arguments and it got personal. Blake remembered being so mad at Yang and Yang apologizing over and over via messages when she was gone, but any time she called the two would argue again. She remembered realizing the two weren't meant to be. How hard it was breaking up. But also how easy it was to be friends again months later. Or… Civil enough to be friendly for the group's sake.

Blake reached for her phone on the nightstand and pulled up her messaging app. There was nothing from Yang since the conversation about Ruby's crutches.

'Hey Yang. Hope you and Ruby are doing well.'

Within a minute she got a reply back. 'We're fine'

Blake read the message and set her phone on her chest to stare at the ceiling. Talking with Yang was a long shot and she knew it. After a minute she picked her phone back up. 'Everything going okay?'

'Like I said, we're fine'

Blake could tell she hit a nerve messaging her. She'd have to try talking again another time. 'That's good. Give Ruby a hug for me.' With a final message sent, she set her phone back on the nightstand and grabbed the remote to put another movie on while she settled in for the night.