Ruby jumped at the angry voice coming from the door. She turned around, glaring daggers. What she saw was a group of three people, which she judged to be father, mother and daughter, based on their looks.

All three of them had white hair, though the "mother" had clearly dyed hers that way, as her eyebrows were strawberry blonde. The "father" was a tall, stocky man with an angry look on his face. He narrowed his eyes to a degree Ruby couldn't see the colour of his eyes. Somehow she imagined them to be sky blue. His hair was very short, from the looks of it trimmed that morning and he also sported a moustache that rivalled World War I Austro-Hungarian soldiers. He was wearing an elaborate white and blue pinstriped suit, complete with snow white dress shirt and a light blue bowtie. He actually looked pretty elegant, Ruby noticed.

The mother was a much smaller woman, barely taller than Ruby. She had a similar look in her eyes as her presumed husband. The eyes were dark brown, almost black. Her hair was braided, but to the left side of her head and over her shoulders, falling down to her waist. She was wearing a light blue ballerina length dress with orange accents and ornaments. The fabric looked almost like silk.

But when Ruby looked at the "daughter" of the trio, she mentally jumped. The girl looked just like a carbon copy of Weiss, just a little older. The same eyes, the same long white hair, falling freely down her back. The only difference between the two girls was their size, Weiss being a few inches shorter. She couldn't have looked more different than her parents, though, wearing simple blue jeans and an ivory white cashmere sweater. She was also the only one of the trio that didn't look at Ruby and Weiss with hatred, but instead with something that seemed like understanding, perhaps even compassion, to Ruby. This struck her as odd. Before anyone could say another word, though, the daughter jumped to Weiss's bed and hugged her. Ruby heard her whisper something, but she couldn't hear what it was. She decided it wasn't her business anyway, and fixed her gaze on the angry duo that was still standing by the door, glaring at the scene.

"What did it look like we were doing?"

"You insolent little peasant," the man said in a low voice. "After all we've been through, trying to save our precious little girl, you go and render all our work void." The man sounded very angry and his wife was looking even more livid, but she kept her mouth shut.

"The only thing you did was make her miserable. Miserable and borderline self-loathing." Ruby didn't even try to sound neutral, she immediately went into a full-on attack.

"She is sick! We tried to heal her!"

"She most certainly isn't sick. She's the healthiest she's been since stepping her foot on the college campus."

"She's lying in a hospital bed and you have the nerve to say to me, her father, that she's healthy?"

"Do you have the slightest idea why she's lying in a hospital bed in the first place?" Ruby raised her voice, losing patience.

"Undoubtedly from some illness she got from a slut like you!"

"Father, stop it. Ruby's not a slut." Weiss spoke for the first time since the intrusion.

"Weiss, you don't know what you're talking about. This slut here infected your brain. And you were doing so well. I know it's not your fault. Your mother and I will take good care of you."

"Like hell you will!" At this point, Ruby was livid, anyone could see the fire in her eyes. "She isn't going anywhere! The reason she's here has much less to do with me than it has to do with the two monsters currently standing in front of me, accusing me of being a slut. More specifically, it has to do with an activity she had to endure this summer. Rings a bell?"

"You dare insinuate…"

"I'm not insinuating anything!" Ruby was full-on yelling at this point. "She told me! She told me what you monsters made her do! She told me what you did to her! She told me what the nuns did to her!"

"The servants of God make no mistake," the man retorted calmly.

"What kind of god allows his servants to whip a fourteen-year-old boy until he passes out with a bleeding back?"

"The kind of God that knows what is right for the boy in question."

Ruby stopped yelling at this point, shaking her head in disbelief. "How can you be so dense?", she added with a puzzled voice. She really couldn't understand how anyone could be like that.

"Don't you dare insult my intelligence, slut!"

"Stop calling me a slut and I may, you incompetent fool."

"Why should I not call things by their name? A car is a car, a bed is a bed, and a slut is a slut."

Ruby couldn't believe what she was hearing. She never felt as sorry for anyone as she did for Weiss in that moment. She was just looking at the married couple in disbelief before letting out a long breath. Calm down. You can't reason with these people.

"At a loss for words? Truth hurts, doesn't it?"

I got you now, asshole. "I guess I am a slut, then."

"Ruby!", Weiss exclaimed with pain in her voice.

"No, Weiss," Ruby said to Weiss while turning around to face her, "your parents may be right. However," she turned around again, facing the white-haired duo again, "what does that make your daughter, then?"

"Whatever do you mean?" The man looked at her and widened his eyes enough to reveal to Ruby that his eyes were, in fact, sky blue.

"I mean that I, as a slut, was seduced by your daughter," Ruby said calmly while getting closer to them, "and not the other way around. Doesn't that make her even more of a slut than me?"

The married couple widened their eyes in horror at the words, barely comprehending how someone as low-class as Ruby could even dare to insult them in such a way. Ruby noticed it too late and couldn't stop what happened next. She heard a loud smack on the right side of her face before she felt her head spinning and falling down to the floor. All she felt afterwards was blinding pain in her cheek.

Weiss was watching the whole ordeal, thoroughly shocked. She knew something bad was about to happen the moment her parents entered the room. She knew something was up when Ruby admitted to being a slut. But what transpired right at that moment was simply too much for her.

"You repugnant, disrespectful," every word grew louder and louder, "intolerant, stupid," the words grew even louder, starting from a whisper and developing into a loud speech, growing even louder with every word, "inhibited, dense, idiotic asshole!" She finally finished her insult. Her sister was looking at her with concerned eyes.

"How dare you speak to your father like that?", he replied angrily.

"You hit my girlfriend! You hit the person that was by my side the whole week while I was lying here unconscious! You hit the person that helped me get back on my feet, the person that taught me to embrace what I am instead of hating it! You hit my best friend, my girlfriend, my soulmate!"

Her father continued in the stoic manner, firmly convicted of his own right. "I hadn't realized that she already had so much influence over you, Weiss. I'm glad I could come to rescue you from her grip before it got too late."

"I'm not going anywhere, you idiot!"

"Yes, you are, young lady, and you're going to apologise for those insolent words or regret them."

"I will never apologise for telling you what you really are to your face."

"You know what, Weiss? I can stand being insulted by this peasant," he said, pointing at the crying Ruby, lying on the floor, clutching her cheek. "I can easily dispose of her." He stepped a few steps towards Weiss's bed, almost kicking Ruby in the face while stepping over her, undoubtedly on purpose. "But I will not tolerate my own daughter saying that kind of words to me." Saying that, he raised a hand, prepared to strike.

"Oh, you're going to hit me? Are you sure, father? Are you sure you can hurt me after what you've already done to me?"

His hand came down and smacked Weiss hard. "You will apologise or else." He lifted his hand again, but something pushed him away.

"Father, stop it! She's your daughter, for crying out loud!" The sister, silent up to now, pushed her father away from Weiss's bed with a strength that clearly wasn't expected of her. Her father looked puzzled at the happenings.

"Winter, stay out of this."

"I most certainly will not. She's my sister."

"And I'm your father!"

"And just what will you achieve by hitting her? Give her another scar? Deform her further?" Winter could barely hold back her tears.

"The scar was not intentional."

"And that somehow makes it better? Look at your daughter, look at her." Winter made him look at Weiss, made him see his silently crying daughter, the scar marring her face, the red cheek where his hand struck, getting even redder by the moment. "Look at the scar you gave her in a fit of fury. Look at all the sadness you've made her feel because you let your temper get the best of you. Abuse won't help you, father."

Somehow, Winter calmed her father down, even made him look guilty somehow.

"I just want Weiss to understand that she can be cured and that I want nothing more than that."

"I know, father. I know you only want the best for Weiss. But hitting her won't help."

Weiss stopped crying at that point, as did Ruby, who slowly rose up to sit on a chair, still holding her cheek. Weiss noticed a large red stain on Ruby's otherwise pretty pale skin.

For the longest time, nobody said anything. Everyone exchanged a lot of looks, Winter sending a comforting one to Weiss, Weiss sending an apologetic look to Ruby, Ruby glaring daggers at Mr Schnee who was busy returning the glare, Winter sending Ruby a hopeful look, to which Weiss responded with a questioning look in her father's direction, and so forth.

"Well. I guess it's time to go, Weiss. We'll pack your bags and take you back home. Where we can help you."

"I'm not going anywhere," Weiss responded with an adamant voice.

"Weiss, let's not start this again, please," her father said. Wait, he's actually saying "please"? I never thought he was capable of it.

"I'm not starting anything. I'm not going anywhere. I love the college and I love the teachers, but most of all, I love Ruby."

"Fine," her father said. Wait, what?

"S-Sorry?"

"I said fine."

There must be a trap in here somewhere. "Wait, you're actually letting me stay here?"

"Yes, I am. Even more, just answer this question: Do you really mean what you're saying? Are you really in love with this girl? Do you really want to stay with her?"

Okay, I'm scared now. But I can't leave Ruby behind.

"Yes, I am sure," Weiss said, trying to sound as unyielding as possible. What is he up to?

"Well, that settles it. If you really don't want to get better, stay. But don't ever bother coming back to our house. I'll send you three suitcases of clothes and then disown you. And if I ever see you near our house, I'll have you detained and tried for trespassing."

Weiss looked at her father in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"As serious as I can be. This is the last time I want to see you. That's the price for not wanting to be a fully functional part of society."

Weiss looked at her father, processing what he just said. "Father…"

"You're no daughter of mine."

That angered Weiss. "So that's it? Rather than accepting the fact I don't like men, you're just taking me out of the family?"

"It's a disease and you don't want to cure it, so yes, I'm disowning you because you want to be ill." He turned around, wanting to leave.

"And you'd do the same if me and Winter were both lesbians?"

Mr Schnee looked back. "Don't you dare even insinuate my only daughter is anything like you," he said, hate in his voice obvious.

Weiss looked at Winter, who seemed nervous all of a sudden. She then looked at Weiss and met her warm and encouraging gaze. She then took a deep breath.

"Father," she breathed.

"Yes, my dear daughter?"

"If disowning homosexuals is your standpoint, then I'm not your daughter either."

"What are you saying?" Mr Schnee obviously didn't want to understand what his daughter was trying to say.

"I'm saying I'm homosexual too. I've known for a while now, but never found the courage to tell you. And after seeing what you've done to Weiss when you caught her… I realized it might be better not to. But today I've seen how despicable you truly are. So I have this to say to you: if you don't want to even try to understand that homosexuality is not a disease, then I'm not your daughter."

Ruby had a lot of troubles not lashing out at the bigot that disowned Weiss rather than accept her like she was. But the look of anger was replaced by a look of incredulity and a hint of malicious happiness at Winter's words. Mr Schnee's face was priceless when Winter confessed and Ruby couldn't hold back a laugh anymore. She started laughing uncontrollably, ignoring the glare of the elder Schnees. Mr Schnee looked in her direction, livid with anger and defeat.

"You… Fiend!"

Wrath blinded the man who went to hurt Ruby or even kill her. Luckily for Ruby, this time she was expecting it and easily dodged the attack, tripping him in the process. He fell face first on the floor, or would if he hadn't caught himself with his hands. He rose up immediately, his head bowed in defeat.

"I have no children." He said nothing else, just grabbed his wife by the arm and practically pulled her out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. That left Weiss, Ruby and Winter alone in the hospital room. The first thing Ruby did was kiss Weiss. She made it quick, though, as she didn't want to make it awkward for Winter. Weiss pulled Ruby closer to her while simultaneously urging Winter to come closer, which she warily did. The trio then shared a long hug.

Ruby then broke the silence.

"Winter, was it?"

The older Schnee daughter nodded. "Where will you go now?"

Winter looked at the floor. "I… A friend of mine said I can stay at his place."

"You know, I could ask my father to keep you. We're not very rich, but me and Weiss will spend most of our time on college grounds. And I know my father doesn't want to be alone all day, what with my sister always around with her band and all."

"Really, there's no need. I have a place to go. And I took quite some money with me this morning, expecting something like this. Which reminds me," she said, looking at Weiss, "I brought you some money too. I'm very sorry I couldn't stand by your side up to now, but I was scared." With those words, Winter took a pretty thick envelope from her designer bag and offered it to Weiss.

"That's… Very thoughtful of you, Winter. But I'm not sure I can accept it."

"I insist, Weiss. I have failed you as a sister on more than one occasion. This is the least I can do to try and make up to you. Also, it's your money. I emptied your trust fund because I knew they wouldn't let you take it after this."

Weiss reluctantly took the envelope and spared a smile to her sister. "Thank you."

Winter then made herself ready to walk out. "I guess this is it, Weiss. I'm going to live with my friend and you know it's a long journey, so I must be going."

Ruby then interfered. "You're not going anywhere."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. You're not going anywhere today. I'll leave the two of you alone so you can catch up on everything and when visiting hours are over, I'll come back and take you to my place."

"Ruby, you really don't have to do this," Winter said with conviction, but Ruby answered with the same tone.

"I'm not sacrificing anything. You two are sisters. Bond a little, you haven't done that in a while. I'll let you go tomorrow. Speaking of bonding, I have some of my own to do. Enjoy your day together, sisters!"

Winter wanted to say something, but Weiss interrupted her. "She won't take no for an answer, Winter." This made Winter stop and say her own goodbye to Ruby.

As Ruby shut the door behind her, she almost ran home, hoping Yang would still be there. To her relief, she found her cooking lunch. She waited for her to stop fiddling with the wooden spoon and then tackled her in a bear hug from behind, startling the blonde.

"What the hell? Ruby?"

"I love you so much, Yang."

"Ruby? Are you okay?"

Ruby then told her sister everything that transpired earlier that day. By the end of the story, it was Yang who was clinging on her sister tightly, caressing her hair and trying not to cry.

Weiss looked to her left and there was Ruby, holding her hand as the duo stood in front of the college gates. Ruby gave her girlfriend a warm smile and Weiss gave Ruby a look of pure, unadulterated love. Then they shared a short kiss before stepping onto the college grounds for the first time since Christmas break. The lawn was covered with seven inches of snow, but luckily the path to the main building and the dorms was cleared. They walked down the path and met a lot of their friends. Most of them merely offered a little chit-chat to the two lovebirds, but a select few had more to say.

The duo saw Yatsuhashi in the distance, towering over everyone else. Next to him, a familiar slender figure walked, holding hands with him.

"Oh, they are so cute together!", Ruby couldn't hold back her excitement.

Weiss looked at the oncoming duo and couldn't help but agree with Ruby. Velvet was beaming with joy and so did Yatsu. They finally got close enough to talk, but they embraced before saying anything.

"Okay, guys, seriously. How? When?" Of course you'd want to ask that first, Ruby. You didn't even say hi, the white-haired girl rolled her eyes.

Velvet was all too happy to tell what happened, though. "He just kind of invited me to his place for New Year's and I thought it was going to be a party, but then it was just a dinner, just the two of us, and then we watched some movies. And then it just… Happened," she answered with pure joy, barely containing herself so she wouldn't bounce in place while talking.

"I'm so glad you found each other," Weiss said.

"And how did you two spend the New Year?", Yatsuhashi asked in his deep voice that wasn't often heard.

Weiss blushed and squeezed Ruby's hand tighter. "I thought we'd have a nice, calm evening together…", Weiss started.

"Oh?" Velvet looked concerned, but Ruby quickly but in.

"But then we went to see my sister's band perform in the city. I don't think they are exactly Weiss's style, but she seemed to enjoy it."

"Hey, their slow songs are good. I just don't like fast paced songs, is all. And they have a lot of fast songs."

"Doesn't help that White Rose, their slowest song, is written especially for us, does it?"

Weiss blushed harder. "I love that song."

Velvet couldn't contain herself anymore and started jumping in her spot from the happiness she felt at Ruby's words. "Oh my god, you got a song written especially for the two of you? That's so awesome!"

Ruby scratched the back of her head while sporting a shy smile, a pose that Weiss loved immensely. "Yeah, it kind of helps when you have a sister that's the main songwriter for the band."

After a little more banter and asking about Weiss's feelings about all that happened, which Weiss didn't look too comfortable sharing, but didn't resist either, the two pairs parted. Not making ten steps forward, Ruby and Weiss were stopped by Gia, who looked as happy as ever. She tackled Ruby into a tight hug that almost crushed her ribs from the look of it.

"Hey there, lovebirds! How's it hanging?"

"Gia, you'll break my ribs," Ruby breathed out, making her friend let go.

"Sorry, Ruby, I just missed you so much. Sorry, Weiss," she then turned towards the other girl and hugged her as well, though not nearly as powerfully as she did to Ruby. Thankfully.

"No bad blood between us, Gia," Weiss replied with no venom whatsoever.

"So, were you at the concert for the New Year's?", Ruby inquired and that's when the avalanche dropped.

"Oh, of course I was, it was so freaking awesome! Your sister is really the bomb! And that new song, White Rose? It's about the two of you, right? It's such an amazingly awesome song!"

Ruby and Gia were busy swooning over the perceived awesomeness of the concert, so they didn't notice Weiss looking dreamily at her girlfriend. She was taking in all her figure, her imperfections that somehow made her even more perfect, her enthusiasm for everything, her adorable smile, her slender arms, the warm hand that still held Weiss's, and so much more things she loved about her.

A song came to her, out of the blue. Lovely, never ever change, keep that breathless charm, won't you please arrange it? 'Cause I love you and the way you look tonight...

She couldn't help it as she let go of Ruby's hand and amorously hugged her from behind, planting a kiss on Ruby's nape, disregarding Gia, disregarding everybody in the world except Ruby.

"Weiss?"

"Sorry, Ruby. I just love you more than you'll ever know."

"Aww, isn't that just perfect?", Gia chimed in. "Well, I'll leave you two to it. See you in class, Ruby!"

Ruby waved her goodbye before turning around and looking Weiss in the eye. Neither of them said anything, they just instinctively leaned in for a passionate kiss that was only broken when Weiss had to breathe in some air. Then the duo stood there, hugging each other for a long while before Ruby spoke.

"So, snowflake," she asked with a happy voice, "Ready for some more college?"

Weiss looked her girlfriend lovingly in the eye. "As long as I am with you, rosebud, always."

Then they shared another kiss before intertwining their hands again, walking towards the dorms. Weiss looked at her smiling girlfriend again. Perhaps there is a god, after all.

And it's finished! Happy Valentine's Day to everyone that has someone next to them! For those that don't, Happy Singles Awareness Day (which is tomorrow)!

Thank you to each and every one of the 111 followers and 61 favourites. Thank you to everyone who took their time to review, even if it was a simple one-liner. But mostly thank you to everyone that enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.