Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

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In the Cold

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Whitley Schnee has no memories of his grandfather.

By the time the third child of Jacques Schnee is born, his grandfather is too weak to leave his bed let alone hold him in his arms. When his daughter and son-in-law present him with the latest addition to the family, the aged and tired man smiles and barely manages to pat the newborn's head.

The young Whitley laughs and leans into his grandfather's touch.

It is his first laugh.

Nicholas Schnee dies two months later. Winter cries at the funeral. She is nine and experiencing loss for the first time. Weiss is confused. She is still young and the concept of death is new and strange to her.

Whitley is not taken to the funeral. He is still too young for that. Instead, he is left behind at the mansion with the servants. It is the first time he is left behind, but it would certainly not be the last. Whitley sleeps peacefully in his crib, unaware of the grief that has befallen not just his family but the entirety of Atlas for Nicholas Schnee was loved by all.

On that day, the mansion grows a bit colder.

xXx

Whitley's earliest memories contain lots and lots of arguing.

Like many things in his life, he blames Winter for it.

He is young so the intricacies of it escape him. All he knows is that his sister and his father are not getting along well. The two are not often home at the same time for various reasons. His father has lots of work in the company, and Winter is busy being groomed to one day inherit it.

However, when the two of them are in close proximity to each other, an argument is sure to follow. They can get loud, and Whitley often retreats to his room to escape the yelling. His mother tries to play mediator every now and then but never manages to accomplish anything for father and daughter are simply too stubborn to be reasoned with.

It takes him a long time to understand what the arguing was about. His sister, whose memories of grandfather are the clearest, misses the old days. Winter does not approve of the changes their father makes to the Schnee Dust Company. It is heading in a new direction, and she does not like it one bit.

By the time he understands, Whitley cannot help but think that Winter should stop living in the past.

xXx

Whitley first encounters the White Fang when they throw eggs at the mansion.

There is a huge number of protesters just outside the fence that day. He is five, and the sight of the huge mob with signs raised and angry faces frightens him. They babble on about things he does not understand and the fervor in their voices has him running all the way to his father's study.

"You are a Schnee, son. Never show fear," his father tells him once Whitley has finished warning him of all the angry people outside the mansion.

"But there are so many of them," Whitley tries to defend himself.

His father's eyes narrow and he immediately knows it was the wrong thing to say.

"Look at them now," his father says as he has the White Fang protesters driven away by the police. "There were over a hundred of them, yet a single phone call was all it took to get rid of them. Remember this, son. Our family has nothing to fear from trash like that. The White Fang are nothing but fools who only know how to cry and scream. In time, they will fade away."

His father is wrong. The White Fang doesn't fade away.

It grows savage.

xXx

Whitley had an uncle once. They all did.

His mother's younger brother was never interested in the family business, and grandfather never tried to impose it on him. That's the way his mother tells it. Instead, Uncle Nickle became an artist. In Mistral, Atlas, and Vale, his paintings are worth their weight in Dust and then some.

"You have a lovely voice, Weiss," Uncle Nickel tells his sister one day. "It'd be a shame if you wasted that gift."

His parents agree, and that's the start of his sister's music career.

As for Whitley, he is not really one for art. However, he does not mind. Even if he cannot bond over music or other artistic pursuits with his uncle, he still likes him. Everyone does, really. Even his father smiles a bit more when Uncle Nickle visits.

Every weekend, he visits them and brings with him sweets and cakes and gifts. He makes the mansion a little brighter and warmer with his presence.

One night, he doesn't show up.

His parents call his house, but he isn't there. His mother is worried. His father has people looking for him all over the city, but they are unable to find him. His father is furious like Whitley has never seen him before. Sadly, his father's angry face would become a common sight from that point on.

Days, weeks, and months pass. Whitley never sees his uncle again, and the mansion is colder in his absence. His mother never fully recovers.

The news say the White Fang changed once their old leader stepped down four years ago.

Whitley knows the war began long before that.

xXx

Just like his sisters, Whitley has the best tutors money can buy. However, one-on-one tutoring can only cover so much. Some skills one can only learn by socializing with others, and Jacques Schnee is all too aware of that. He sends all his children to the best school in Atlas, and Whitley is no different.

Whitley's first day of school is a success.

He never once gets a wrong answer in class and makes plenty of friends. In a day, he becomes the most popular guy in school. Excited, he is quick to tell his father the good news.

"You did not make friends," his father tells him so plainly Whitley has to stop and stare.

"Yes, I did," Whitley replies, confused.

"No," his father tells him, standing up. "You did not."

The confusion does not fade away from Whitley's face. It only increases when faced with his father's complete certainty.

"You are a Schnee," his father tells him. "Others will naturally flock to you. That, in itself, is not necessary a bad thing. If you are skilled enough, you stand to gain more than those who would hope to use you. However, do keep in mind all the people around you are after something. Always. That is simply the basics of business relationships."

Whitley does not believe his father, but he knows better than to argue with him like Winter does. He keeps his head down, nods, and takes his leave.

It is only when the White Fang starts growing bolder and rotten eggs thrown at his house start becoming death threats delivered by mail that he sees the truth in his father's words. The cowards are the first to distance themselves from him. It hurts but he hides it behind a placid smile.

SDC executives start to vanish, and more of his so-called friends suddenly have other places to be. A few stay, but Whitley is not naive enough to attribute it to friendship, not anymore. They simply know what they stand to gain by his side.

The truth is cold, but he can endure it.

xXx

Winter learns about business because she is the heir, and duty is something she takes seriously. Weiss learns because that is what is expected of her, and his sister cannot bear to give anything less than her best.

Whitley is the only one who actually enjoys it. Stocks. Bonds. Acquisition Costs. He likes learning about it all. He enjoys playing with numbers and looks forward to the time when he gets to work at the company. While Winter hones her combat skills, and Weiss practices her singing, Whitley quietly reads his books.

He imagines a time when Winter takes over the company and he and Weiss stand at her side, ready to help her. It is what his father wants for them, and Whitley does not mind it one bit.

Like most of his dreams, it never comes true.

The radicalization of the White Fang does nothing to lessen the arguments between his father and Winter. If anything, it worsens them. The arguments grow worse with every passing day until suddenly Winter is gone, off to a combat school somewhere outside the city. Once she graduates, she immediately goes to Atlas Academy, and from there she joins the military.

She never returns home again.

xXx

Winter is gone. Their father has disinherited her. Weiss is now the heir.

Meanwhile, the White Fang grows bolder and bolder. Their protests have morphed into riots. Their activism has given way to terrorism. Shipments of dust disappear and are rarely recovered. People working for the SDC are harassed and threatened. Some vanish and are never seen again. Some quit before it gets to that point.

Slowly, the structure of the SDC begins to change. Plenty of faunus in clerical and administrative jobs are fired. They cannot be trusted anymore. The servants working at the mansion are now a hundred percent human. Security is increased. His father uses his influence to make sure he has soldiers guarding both the mansion and the company. Whitley and his sister now have bodyguards watching over them every time they go out.

It doesn't stop there. The latest combat droids produced by Atlas are added to their defenses and generous donations are made to the military's research and development division. It is not just men who protect them now.

However, the attacks do not stop. They never stop. The whole thing just keeps escalating, and his father returns home angrier every day. His father loses his temper with one of the maids one day. Whitley does not remember how it happened. All he knows is that by the end the woman ran away crying.

Whitley quickly learns to stay quiet and to do as his father says lest that anger be aimed at his person.

In a way, Whitley is glad Winter is not at home anymore. The last thing the house needs is more arguments.

xXx

He and Weiss can never agree on Winter.

Weiss worships the ground Winter walks on while he finds her annoying and troublesome. Even with Winter gone from the house, she remains the cause of most of their arguments. Eventually, Whitley learns not to bring her up around Weiss, because he knows getting his sister to be rational on that subject is simply impossible.

As long as Whitley does not mention Winter or what he truly thinks of her, the two can get along fine like the siblings that they are, and Whitley is more than okay with that.

He knows his role in life and has accepted it. One day, Weiss will inherit the company and he will work alongside her. Their grandfather had created the company. Their father had turned it into the number one Dust distributor in the world. It is their job and their duty to somehow make the SDC even better.

Under his father's rule, the SDC branched into military contracts, but there is still so much more that can be done, so many ways in which the company can grow. Dust is the basis of most of their technology. That gives the SDC the ability to seamlessly branch into just about anything.

So Whitley plans.

He stays up all night. He writes and rewrites. He types and looks up market prices. He makes projections. He investigates companies. He looks up their labor conditions and sees ways in which they could be improved. He never tells anyone what he is doing. He knows his father will not take him seriously yet. He is still young after all. Instead, Whitley hides it, waiting for the moment when his sister takes over the company. Then he would be able to show her.

Alas, it is not to be.

Weiss leaves for Beacon, and he just knows the moment when his sister inherits the company will never come.

He blames Winter.

xXx

Winter is gone. Weiss is gone.

Whitley is left behind.

It bothers him for reasons he cannot quite understand. It isn't like they are leaving him in some dark forgotten cave. He is comfortable where he is. He lives in a mansion for crying out loud! He has servants that are paid to cater to his every whim, and there is also Klein who is paid to know better. He has enough money to buy whatever suits his fancy. He is connected to all the right people.

He never needed Winter, and he sure as hell does not need Weiss.

Yet...

The mansion is so much colder now.

xXx

Throughout her stay at Beacon, Weiss does not send a single letter home. Not a phone call. Not a message. The months pass and she makes not a single attempt to communicate with them. Whitley cannot say he is surprised. Weiss' desire to surpass Winter is not something she could ever ignore. Winter used to send letters home but stopped after a couple of months.

Is it really any wonder Weiss skipped straight to the part where she doesn't bother trying to reach them?

It is a pity, Whitley decides. It really is.

Sometimes he wonders what their life would have been like if Weiss hadn't made Winter her idol. Those moments are short and far in between. In the end, life is what it is, and lamenting what-ifs is simply not a Schnee thing to do.

Winter chose her path. Weiss followed after her. That's all there is to it.

In the end, they couldn't stand living under father's shadow. He doesn't blame them. The mansion is cold. Their father is colder. It's only natural to seek warmer places.

Yes, he doesn't blame them.

He just thinks less of them for it.

xXx

His sisters are gone. His mother is lost to sorrow and alcohol. His father is his father, and the rest of his family is dead.

Whitley is truly, utterly alone.

He tells himself he does not mind. His grandfather walked through a frozen wasteland to start his business.

Enduring the cold is in his blood.

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The End
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