Tell Me Something

A/N: After watching the trailers and existing episodes, on top of reading the steadily growing section for RWBY, I have finally decided to write a story of my own. This is a partial AU, as some details will be taken from canon with others are made up from my own imagination.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The characters and the worlds I write in do not belong to me. The stories that I write are intended for entertainment purposes. I do not make any money from them.

Summary: Weiss Schnee was a lot of things. A skilled Dust and sword wielder. An heiress. An ice princess. But contrary to popular belief, she was not heartless.

*** ~ Chapter 1: Heartless ~ ***

Weiss Schnee was a lot of things. A skilled Dust and sword wielder. An heiress. An ice princess. But contrary to popular belief, she was not heartless. While many of her fellow Beacon classmates dubbed her as such, that was simply their own misinterpretation of what was otherwise her annoyance of them. Yes, Weiss had a bit of an ego, but heartless? That was something she was not.

A whimper.

Ice blue eyes fixed on the source, Weiss frowning.

And because of the fact that she indeed had a heart, she was currently left in this uncomfortable... situation.

~ An hour ago ~

Weiss Schnee sighed heavily, the white haired heiress to the Schnee legacy rubbing the back of her neck in exhaustion. Today had been a long day, full of rowdy classmates, absurdly boring assignments, and don't even get her started about the ridiculous rumours spreading around Beacon Academy right now.

While rumors were nothing out of the ordinary, especially for a school this size, the content of such rumors was what left Weiss reeling in barely restrained anger. One particular rumor stated that she and a certain red cloak wearing girl who shall not be named because just thinking about her name tended to leave Weiss overly stressed, were secret lovers. Apparently this love affair had all started on the first day of school. Weiss didn't know who started it, but when she found out, there would be hell to pay. Oh yes. Because really, who in their right mind would have ever thought of such stupidity? Really!? Her and... and... Gah!

The sound of paper tearing immediately snapped Weiss out of her rage filled thoughts. In her hands now lay the half torn remnants of the newspaper she had picked up to read later this evening in her dorm. Sighing again, Weiss held up the poor newspaper to eye level. In her moment of anger, the latest issue of Vale Times bore the brunt of her temper. Oh well. Not that there was really anything interesting in the newspaper anyways. Weiss could always pick up another copy on the way back to her dorm if she really wanted to.

Taking a deep breath, Weiss vowed not to have another meltdown, at least not until she got back to her dorm room where she could melt down in peace if she so decided. Instead, she chose to focus on everything and anything that was not red, while she walked back to her dorm. Like the chirping birds. Or the blooming flowers (the gardeners really did a wonderful job maintaining the campus, Weiss had to note). Ruby Rose sitting on a stone bench nearby, staring off into space quietly. The laughing idiots that were her classmates. The-

Wait. What?

Weiss backtracked a few steps, head turned in the direction of the nearest stone bench to her left. She blinked. Well, her eyes weren't fooling her. She had seen correctly. There was no mistaking that red cloak. On the bench just fifteen feet away from her, overlooking the Emerald Forest, was the object of Weiss' utter loathing and misery since coming to Beacon Academy. Unlike usual, her cloak wearing team mate being a rather bubbly girl, Ruby was sitting quiet and alone. Something just seemed so... wrong about that image.

Weiss looked away for a moment. Come to think of it, Ruby Rose didn't seem quite herself today, in any of the classes she had to unfortunately share with the girl. Many a time, Weiss had caught the dark haired girl staring out of the window dazedly, as if she wasn't really there to begin with.

Weiss frowned, quickly catching onto what she was thinking. It was not that Weiss cared about Ruby or anything. Nope. She didn't care one bit. Even after they were assigned to a team together, along with the annoying brat's overbearing sister and the boring bookworm.

The fact that Weiss even tolerated the younger girl's presence since their explosive meeting (literally!) was a miracle in itself. Then again, to think Weiss couldn't handle anything life threw at her would have been blasphemy. As annoyed as she may be, Weiss was nothing less than professional. As she was raised to be. And it was such professionalism which told Weiss to simply walk away and continue on her merry way without a single look back. Ruby's back was facing her after all, and the girl probably hadn't even heard her anyways.

With that settled, Weiss faced forward again, her dorm building visible not too far in the distance. Taking one step forward, Weiss silently berated herself when her body refused take another step.

Damn it. Something had to be terribly wrong with her today.

She couldn't.

She couldn't do it.

She couldn't leave Ruby alone right now, not until she found out why things just felt... weird.

Weiss face palmed.

"Hey," came a voice behind Ruby.

Nothing.

No flinch, no cringe, no movement aside from the slight breeze which blew by, ruffling Ruby's cloak. The younger girl had her hood on for some reason, though Weiss couldn't fathom as to why. It wasn't cold out right now, in fact, it was quite warm. The heiress to the Schnee legacy had half a mind to dress down into a tank top and shorts when she got back to her room because it was so warm out. Ruby should have been sweltering under her layers.

"Hey," Weiss said again, this time a bit louder. She was just under three feet behind the raven haired girl at this point. Weiss crossed her arms over her chest with a frown.

There was still no reaction from the scythe wielder.

A finely manicured eyebrow twitched. Was Ruby ignoring her? No, no, it wasn't that. Ruby wasn't the shallow type who resorted to such things. After spending an exuberant amount of time and energy just trying to befriend her in the first place, that would have been the last reaction Weiss expected. Ruby probably had her headphones on and was blasting some garbage for music, making her deaf to Weiss' voice.

"I said hey!"

Weiss, now standing off to Ruby's left, grabbed the younger girl's shoulder and yanked her around to face her. While she was almost certain that Ruby wasn't intentionally ignoring her, unintentional or not, Weiss Schnee was not one to ignore.

"Weiss," came a pathetically weak voice. "H-Hey."

Weiss felt like someone had punched her in the gut. She was frozen in her spot, gawking.

"Was this your spot?" Ruby asked, either not noticing the other girl's shock or not caring about it.

Silver eyes looked devoid of everything but agony and pain. Ruby was pale, a cold sweat covering her face. A fist clenched tightly to the black material of Ruby's shirt above her stomach. Normally lithe and smooth movements were jerky and stuttering as Ruby rose to her feet shakily and unbalanced.

Weiss couldn't but stare.

This was Ruby? This was the annoying brat who was too hyper for her own good most times of the day? This was the Ruby Rose who frustrated her to no end with her naivety? This was the girl who aggravated Weiss just by thinking of her?

"S-Sorry, I'll move."

Again, that pathetic voice!

This was not her Ruby Rose.

"T-There you go," Ruby said with a forced smile. She now stood off to the side, allowing Weiss free reign on the stone bench.

"It's... a nice spot." Ruby looked back to the Emerald Forest. "I didn't mean... to be in the way..." Then she was falling forward, limp.

"Ruby!"

It was purely out of instinct that Weiss lunged forward and caught the collapsing girl before she could crack her head open on the concrete below their feet. Weiss initially stumbled a few steps to accommodate the sudden extra weight, but soon adjusted.

"Hey! Ruby!"

Harsh breaths were Weiss' only answer, the younger girl in her arms shivering every so often. Weiss bit her lip. Scanning the area, the Schnee successor quickly noted that they were the only ones in this particular area of the Beacon Academy campus. While this particular corner was not the most travelled of areas, surely she'd soon see another person to deal with this mess.

She was Weiss Schnee.

The heiress to the Schnee legacy. Master of Myrtenaster. Wielder of Dust. Weiss Schnee was not a damn babysitter!

So she waited. And waited. And waited.

But when five minutes passed and no one else wandered by, Weiss silently cursed whatever gods existed in the world. In six different languages.

The white haired girl looked down at the shivering mess in her arms. Ruby better appreciate what she was going to do.

~ Present ~

It would take all of five minutes for Weiss to figure out how she was going to carry the unconscious Ruby Rose to safety. Carrying her bridal style was out of the question (Weiss was an heiress, not a damn body builder!), so she resorted to draping Ruby across her back, Ruby's head resting against the back of her right shoulder. It would take another half hour to make it back to her dorm room, Weiss at times hugging the wall of buildings, stalking the shadows of the inner hallways in order to remain out of sight. While she was not heartless, there was still a thing called pride, and she absolutely refused to be caught with her self proclaimed hazard to her health on her back.

Once she finally made it back to her room (her room was closer than the nurse's office), Ruby was gently deposited on her bed, having been stripped of her weapon and shoes just minutes prior. Ruby's boots and scythe remained near the door to Weiss' dorm, out of the way. When attempting to remove the girl's cloak, Ruby showed a surprising amount of aggression and stubbornness even in her unconscious state, Weiss just giving up in the end and leaving her with it.

Another whimper, and an undecipherable murmur.

And now Ruby was here. And Weiss didn't know what to do.

"This is ridiculous," Weiss muttered, turning her back on the younger girl, in search of her cell phone.

The logical thing to do would be to call the school nurse and let the nurse take Ruby away, leaving Weiss in peace. The only flaw in that logic was that the moment Weiss took one step away from her bed in search of her cell phone, Ruby made that awful whimpering sound, akin to a kicked puppy. Weiss froze.

Damn it. Weiss liked puppies.

Damn it all!

With all thoughts of finding her cell phone forgotten, Weiss turned back to her bed, moving to sit on the edge of it.

"Ruby, hey..." she said softly, unsure if Ruby could hear her, or even sense her as she tossed and turned restlessly. "I'm here. Shh..."

That did nothing to ease the younger girl, another mewl leaving Ruby's lips, making the Schnee heiress cringe. Making a fist, Weiss clenched her jaw in indecision. Blue eyes looked away momentarily before falling on the red cloaked girl again. Against her better judgement, Weiss Schnee crawled onto the bed and snuggled up next to Ruby, taking the girl's head in her arms, holding her close.

"Mirror... tell me something..."

When Weiss was younger and her mother was still alive, whenever she had a bad dream, her mother would always do this.

"Tell me who's the loneliest of all..."

Crawl into Weiss' bed and wrap her arms around her daughter warmly.

"Mirror, what's inside me?"

Gently stroke her hair, fingers running through white locks soothingly.

"Tell me can a HEART be turned to STONE?"

And Weiss' mother would sing, in the most angelic voice Weiss had ever heard.

"Mirror, Mirror, what's behind you?"

That would be one of the few memories Weiss had left of her mother, before the older Schnee's life was suddenly and viciously cut short by a car accident of which Weiss was the only survivor.

"Save me from the things I see..."

From her mother's death, Weiss' father never recovered. He became distant and disconnected from his daughter, the only thing which garnered any sort of reaction from the older man being Weiss' ever increasing skill in swordplay.

"I can keep it from the world..."

Soon, that became Weiss' focus, her mission, her goal in life. To make her father proud of her. To make up for the fact that she lived, and her mother died.

"Why won't you let me hide from me?"

But that choice was not without its sacrifices.

"Mirror, Mirror, tell me something..."

Ruby settled in Weiss' arms, the younger girl's once ragged and harsh breathing evening out, her tossing and turning, stopping. It amazed Weiss how effective this was, but then again, it worked for her, so why not for other people?

"Who's the loneliest of ALL?"

Weiss continued her soft melody well after Ruby fell into a peaceful slumber, an hour later, the heiress to the Schnee falling asleep herself. Just as her eyelids drooped shut and the darkness wrapped her up in its warm embrace, Weiss vaguely remembered thinking about how she hadn't felt this content since her mother died.

"I'm the loneliest of ALL..."

A/N: In this universe, students are given their own rooms in a dorm and not a joint dorm where up to four students live together as I've seen in many other fanfictions. Also in this universe, Weiss' mother died in a car accident, Weiss also having been in the car at the time. Ruby's birth parents were killed in a beowolf attack, leaving her the sole survivor. Later on, she was adopted into Yang's family.

This particular snippet takes place somewhere after initiation, but before real missions start.