1

Pyrrha was the closest thing to a goddess in this world, Weiss was pretty sure of that. Sure, part of the reason Weiss had originally wanted to team up with her was so they could form the perfect team, but really, Weiss had admired her for a long time and wished she could be closer.

Weiss had been entranced when watching the videos of her, but seeing her in action in person was something else entirely.

"Wow!" Weiss breathed out as Pyrrha sent her opponent flying to the other side of the practice arena. "Isn't she amazing?" Pyrrha fighting was beautiful to watch. It was like she was born to do it and she did it with such grace that Weiss couldn't take her eyes off her.

"Yeah, I guess." Ruby said, surprisingly non-committal for the normally excitable leader of their team.

"You should've seen her in the finals of her last competition!" Weiss couldn't help gushing. "Klein helped me find a way to watch it as Father wouldn't approve, but she did this move that - "

"Sounds great!" Ruby interrupted, and when Weiss glanced over at her, she noticed a strained smile on her face.

Weiss frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing!" But at Weiss's narrowed gaze she wilted and relented. "It's just - do you wish she was your partner instead?"

Weiss took a moment to study Ruby, taking in the way she curled in defensively, before she decided honesty was the best policy. "Maybe I did once - "

Ruby slumped a bit, as if something crumbled within.

" - But I like the partner I have now." She turned away from Ruby, even as her partner began to perk up. "Pyrrha is amazing and I would have been lucky to have her, but you are just right for me. We work well together, and our styles compliment each other." Weiss turned and allowed herself a small smile. "Besides, for all of her skill and poise, Pyrrha's not the one who managed to enroll in Beacon two years early, is she?"

Ruby's eyes shone and she squealed a bit as she pulled Weiss in for a hug. Weiss should've seen that coming but it wasn't unwelcomed. "You're the best, Weiss!"

Weiss chuckled. "Dolt…"

Weiss didn't know what had brought all this on, but she was glad Ruby was back to normal.

2

Weiss had never been that interested in boys. Mainly because the boys who normally approached her were either interested in her money and status or more… untoward purposes. As such, even the pursuit of her by guys like Jaune were a bit of a turn off. Especially since she had repeatedly told him "no."

But Neptune was… a bit different. At the very least, he seemed to bathe on a regular basis and keep good, continued hygiene and Ren was the only guy her age who seemed to do that. Plus, he was pretty decent looking.

It might be nice to get to know him better.

However, Ruby had quickly put a stop to that.

"You don't have to pull me, you know. I can walk." Weiss finally yanked herself out of Ruby's grasp.

"I just wanted to make sure you came along." Ruby refused to meet her eye.

Weiss's frown deepened. "I was the one going this way; you're the one who decided to come with."

Ruby was pouting and Weiss didn't understand what was going on with her.

Did Ruby have a problem with Neptune? That couldn't be it as she'd been perfectly fine with sending him with her sister. Plus, she'd trusted Sun easily enough… and yet she had been so adamant about going with her instead of just letting Neptune come.

"Well, let's go make this call in the library." Weiss stepped up to lead the way.

"What?" Ruby jerked up out of her pout. "I thought we could go to the tower!"

Ah. That explained why Ruby had been so insistent about going with her. Weiss rolled her eyes. "There's no need to go to all that trouble."

"But, Weiss," Ruby tugged on her arm again, but this time she made no attempt to actually drag her around, "please?" She pulled out her secret weapon: the puppy eyes.

Weiss sighed. "Fine." She rolled her eyes again as Ruby cheered and quickly hid her smile at the sight of Ruby doing a victory dance as they made their way to the tower.

Of course, her irritation returned as Ruby immediately dumped her to go chasing after that Penny girl, but Weiss quickly got over it in the face of having to call her family's company.

3

Weiss riffled through the stack of clothing before her.

Though she had been lucky enough to reclaim her dust stores and maintenance stuff for Myrtenaster as well as some other belongings, including her favorite scarf and leggings, most of her luggage had been lost sometime in between crashing and being held captive by Raven. It left her with very few options when it came to changing clothes or even just having something to sleep in. Qrow had given her some money to get a few of the essentials.

It's not like she needed much anyway.

Weiss pulled out the final thing she needed and went up to the check out. As her purchases were rung up and placed in a bag, she scanned the store for Ruby. Her partner had been the one to volunteer to come with her shopping as they were still waiting on a message from Lionheart so they couldn't all go. Weiss had been grateful for her assistance, but the girl had run off the moment they arrived.

"Here you go, miss!" The shopkeeper said as he handed her her purchases.

"Thank you." Weiss gave him a tight smile before she turned on her heel and went out the door.

The place was small enough that she would've spotted Ruby if she'd been there. So that meant that Ruby had left her in the middle of the shopping center in an unfamiliar city.

Great.

Weiss frowned as she looked around the milling crowd. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. She still needed to pick up some things for the bathroom and now she had a missing partner to contend with.

"Are you looking for someone?"

Weiss turned to look a the speaker. She looked about her age, with short pale blonde hair tied into a side ponytail and deep brown eyes. She gave Weiss a kind smile and Weiss couldn't help thinking that she looked really nice. In more ways than one.

Weiss had come to accept several things about herself since her arrival at Beacon, and thinking about how she'd always been more drawn to girls was just one of them.

"Ah. I've been separated from my friend." Nice-looking or not, Weiss was more concerned about finding Ruby. "She must've run off somewhere while I was browsing."

"That's too bad! Do you need some help finding her?" The girl offered, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. "I know this area pretty well, and maybe we could - "

"Weiss!"

In a flutter of rose petals, Ruby was suddenly at her side.

"Ruby, where have you been, you dolt?!" Weiss asked. "You were the one who wanted to come and you just up and disappeared!"

"Ha ha, sorry about that." Ruby rubbed the back of her neck before leaning forward and latching onto Weiss's arm. Weiss noticed the distinct lack of an explanation. "Who's this?" She tilted her head at the girl.

"Ah, she was offering to help me find you." She turned back to her. "Thank you for the offer."

"No problem!" The girl smiled at her. "Hey, if you ever want to…" She stopped talking.

Weiss blinked as her voice suddenly trailed off. "Hmm?"

"Anyway, I'm glad you found your friend! Nice meeting you!" The girl walked off and within moments she'd disappeared in the crowd.

Weiss blinked again. That was… odd. "I didn't even get her name…"

"Well, what are the chances of you seeing her again?" Weiss glanced over at Ruby and it almost looked like she was glaring in the direction the girl had gone.

"I suppose." Weiss hummed before flicking Ruby's forehead. She huffed as she let go of her arm to clutch her forehead with a betrayed look. "Don't think you've gotten out of explaining yourself."

"Well, um, it's just - here!" Ruby shoved something into Weiss's face and it took her a moment to see what it was and to take it from her grasp.

It was a stuffed animal, a white fox with blue eyes. It was incredibly soft to the touch and Weiss could only stare at it in the palms of her hands.

"I saw it and I know things have been tough for you lately with running away from home and getting kidnapped and I thought, 'Weiss should have a stuffed animal to snuggle with. She needs more cuddles.' And so I went and bought it but there was a line so it took longer than I - "

Weiss laughed, cutting Ruby off as she smiled and pet the little toy. "Thanks, Ruby."

She glanced up to see Ruby's face turning redder than her cloak.

"Come on." She slid her shopping bag up her arm so she could hold the fox in that hand and hold Ruby's hand in the other. "There's still a few more things to get."

Ruby's eyes jumped from their entwined hands to Weiss's face and back and then back again. "Okay!"

Weiss laughed again and headed in the direction of the bath and body shop she'd seen earlier.

The strange encounter with the girl was quickly forgotten.

4

"I realize I didn't properly thank you."

Jaune dumbly blinked up at her, and Weiss sighed at the delayed response. She had thought that he'd grown up a bit in the time they'd been apart, but it looked like some things didn't change.

"Uh, you're welcome." Jaune rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, it's a good thing that I finally figured out my Semblance, huh?"

"Indeed." Well, this was more awkward than Weiss had expected. Part of her had expected that Jaune would take the opportunity to hit on her again like in the old days, going on about how he was the knight that would protect her, but she was mostly relieved that he hadn't yet.

"... Wish I could've figured it out sooner. Maybe I could've - " He broke off, his hand coming up to rub his breastplate.

Weiss eyed it as well. Ren and Nora had mentioned how Pyrrha's armor had been combined to form Jaune's new weapons and armor.

Weiss laid her hand on his arm, startling Jaune. "I'm sure Pyrrha would be proud of you." She told him with a sad smile.

"Yeah." He sniffed and rubbed his eyes. "Look, would you…" He abruptly stopped as he seemed to look at something behind her. "Nevermind. Just - you're welcome. I'm glad you're okay."

Weiss's brow furrowed at the sudden turnaround in behavior. "Okay?"

"Yeah. See ya!" Jaune gave a sharp wave as he powerwalked away. "I have to talk to Ren about something."

"Okay…" This whole situation felt vaguely familiar.

"Hey, Weiss!" Weiss turned to see Ruby bouncing up towards her. "Wanna spar?"

Something felt familiar about this as well. What was she missing?

Still, it was clear that she needed to work on her fighting forms. When confined to her room, she'd only been able to practice her summoning effectively and at the fight in Haven, Weiss had spent too much time trying to summon something to end the fight quickly to compensate for her lack of recent combat practice. That had been a mistake.

"I'd love to." And she followed a cheering Ruby out into the yard, stopping only to collect Myrtenaster.

Jaune's weird behavior was brushed off as his normal sort of weirdness.

5

Weiss hated this.

Weiss hated everything about this.

Another charity function. Another day of dealing with the stupid upper crust of Atlas. It wasn't even a proper dance, just one of those stupid things where people stood around and tried to show off how much money they had.

Frankly, she was surprised that she was the only member of her family here.

However, Ironwood had insisted on her using her connections to gain some information about the possibility of betrayal among the elite of Atlas. Weiss knew he hadn't been born to money, but she would've thought that Winter had explained to him that the rich and powerful of Atlas would instantly sell out anyone and anything for a corn chip as Ruby would say. It could be literally anyone here and they'd never be the wiser.

At least she'd been allowed to bring her partner along. Blake would've been better, as she and Weiss were the ones who specialized in subtlety, but there was no way they would've been able to get a Faunus inside.

Weiss sighed and took a sip of her water. She'd already warned Ruby off of the alcohol they were serving to everyone, regardless of who was actually of age, so she tried not to worry about the fact that Ruby was off doing a perimeter check. Ruby probably wouldn't commit an incredible social faux pas before returning.

Oh, great, there was another thing for Weiss to worry about.

"Oh, hey, beautiful." Weiss looked up to see a young man approaching her. "Long time no see."

…Had they met before?

The guy looked like a rich and yet cheap knock-off version of Neptune and his flirtatious smile reminded her all too much of the womanizer.

Weiss elected to ignore him.

"Oh, come on, I know we didn't exactly hit it off last time. I'm still not sure what I said that made you angry - "

Oh, right. That guy from that last disastrous charity event that she had thrown out. What was his name… Harry? Harold? Heather? It started with an H but she would swear that some sort of flower had been mixed into his name.

"I mean, I guess I can understand why you'd be upset. It's kinda sweet that you'd care about - "

Dear gods, was he still talking? Weiss had completely tuned him out.

"Still, I would like to get to know you better." He winked at her and took her hand. Weiss frowned at him.

Huh. He really did look like a crappier version of Neptune. And he thought he had an actual chance with her. Hadn't she made things between them obvious last time?

"Look, I thought I made myself clear." She told him, since he didn't seem to be taking a hint. She tugged at her hand, but he tightened his grip. "Let go of my hand." She growled lowly, but if he didn't let go soon, Weiss was not above causing a scene.

"Listen, I've tried being nice and all but - " He whispered back before hissing in pain. Pain caused by the hand that was gripping his wrist and that Weiss knew had a lot more strength than his.

"She said let go." Ruby's eyes almost seemed like they were on fire with the fury that shone in them. At Beacon, people had quickly learned to run when Ruby had that expression.

Howard, or whatever his name was, quickly let go of Weiss like she was the one made of fire and he scurried off. In his place, Ruby took her hand and quickly looked it over as if checking for bruises.

"He didn't hurt me, Ruby." Weiss told her gently as she could practically sense the concern radiating off her. "I highly doubt he had the strength to grip anything heavier than a paperback book."

"But he was touching you!" Ruby said just a tad too loudly, drawing some curious eyes to them. Weiss quickly led them off to the side where they wouldn't be as noticeable. "He was acting like he knew you." Ruby continued more quietly, a scowl on her face. "Like he had the right to just - "

"Unfortunately, a lot of people here feel entitled to things that aren't theirs. I used to be one of them, remember?" Weiss wasn't sure what was bothering Ruby so much about this.

"No! Even when we first met, you - " Ruby broke off, glaring into the distance. "I just - I hate how he was acting."

"Well, he wasn't the first and probably won't be the last to act like that to me." At Ruby's indignant expression, Weiss tried to smooth it over. "It's fine; I can take care of myself. We can probably use this for our mission."

"That's not - I don't - " Ruby couldn't seem to articulate herself very well and she huffed out a groan. "I'm going to check the perimeter."

"But you just - " Even without using her Semblance, Ruby certainly knew how to make a quick getaway. Weiss frowned after her friend, wondering what was up with her.

A chuckling drew her attention. Weiss glanced over to see an older gentleman sitting in a chair along the wall. "My, my, what a spirited youngster." He cracked a grin at her. "Looks like someone's a bit green-eyed."

Weiss frowned harder. That didn't make sense. Ruby's eyes were silver and -

Oh.

Oh.

Weiss blinked at the realization, and then she felt a blush rising in her cheeks..

Oooooooh.

Well, that explained a lot.

+1

"Ruby, were you jealous?"

Weiss was not one to beat around the bush.

Ruby froze on her side of the room, seemingly startled by the question. After a long moment, she finally spoke. "What?"

Weiss rolled her eyes as she set down her book. They'd finished their mission with a few possible names, debriefed, and finally returned to their shared room to relax for the rest of the evening. Weiss had waited until Ruby had calmed down a bit playing video games, but this was a conversation they needed to have. "At the charity event. With what's-his-face. Were you jealous?"

Ruby's face erupted into red. "Ha ha! Me? Jealous? Why - why would I be jealous? I mean, even if that guy was hanging onto you as if he knew you and had some right to touch you, there's no way I would be jealous, right? Right?"

Ruby was a terrible liar.

Weiss decided to give her a break and save her before she dug herself a deeper hole. She slowly got to her feet and walked over, Ruby too busy rambling to notice.

"So what if it seems like I'm the only one you let do that? And occasionally Yang and Blake, but that's a whole other - " Weiss stopped Ruby mid-rant by placing a finger on her lips. Ruby blinked and nearly went cross-eyed trying to look at it.

"You know…" Weiss said slowly, drawing her finger back. "If he had continued being insistent, I would have told him I already have a partner."

Ruby deflated and looked away, defeated. "Yeah, a partner…"

"Though of course, he probably knows nothing of Hunters, so there's only one sort of context that he'd interpret that as." Weiss continued. "And I really wouldn't have minded people thinking we were like that."

Weiss could see the cogs turning in Ruby's brain before it clicked. "You mean…" She pointed between the two of them. "You - and - and me?"

Weiss smiled. "I told you once, didn't I?" She took Ruby's hand and squeezed it. "I like my partner."

Ruby's eyes widened, and then -

"Eeeeeeeee!" Ruby squealed and launched herself at Weiss, tackling her onto the bed. Weiss laughed and hugged Ruby back, glad that everything had been cleared up.

After all, it was kind of ridiculous.

Why would she seriously look at anyone else when she had Ruby?

There was really no need to be jealous.

AN: At the very least, the jealous moment with Neptune is definitely canon and since we're returning to Atlas, Henry Marigold (knock-off Neptune) could very well show up again. I guess we'll see.

And Weiss doesn't really notice it because this is the first time she's had a friend and it becoming something more just sort of snuck up on her, but I imagine Ruby realizing it first because she tends to do things faster.