If It Be Thusly (Weiss Schnee x Reader)

The Push and Pull of the Wind

With a sigh you look over at Funeral. It has rust climbing up the blade and most of the detail's been lost to weathering and age. It looks how you feel: inadequate and left behind. Maybe you'd just be better off if you left. Would make things easier for Weiss.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weiss holds her head in her hands, unable to look at her friends lest tears start flowing.

"Weiss, I'm sure it'll be fine," Elise comforts, all the while smoothing gentle circles into her back.

"You don't know that," she replies, full of spite and anger. It's true, of course, Elise's semblance is not future-sight or soothsaying. Max stands awkwardly straight, keeping his arms crossed and a crooked frown on his face.

"Look. Weiss," he starts. "You're the heir to fortune, you have money. Use it. Bribe him into leaving the school so you get put into a trio," his face becomes a note more shrouded and sinister as he continues. "And if that doesn't work, just beat him into leaving."

Weiss' cold eyes meet his through the gaps in her fingers. His eyes are a shade of dark red, like old and clotted blood, as if they were stained by violence. A conversation of no words happens between their gazes, and she acquiesces to his idea. As long as she finds a way to get you to leave the school, she'll have to be added into a pre-existing partnership as a third person.

"Fine," she states, simply and politely, before brushing off her skirt and leaving the room. Each step echoes around ominously. Elise's brow furrows in concern.

"Are sure that was a good idea?" She asks.

"At least I actually tried to help instead of mumbling lies into her ear."

Her lips curve into the perfect visage of disdain. Ever so occasionally she finds his arrogance to be painfully annoying.

"Whatever. Let's just start drills."

Weiss stomps back to the room she left you in, fully intending to force you, by any means, into leaving the school. Admittedly it's a half-baked, potentially risky idea, but it's the best she's got. At this point she can accept the low grade you'll inevitably produce or get rid of you and be partnered which much more competent people. To her, the answer is simple. It's the Schnee way to be the best, the king amongst kine, no matter what the cost is. That mindset forged a corporation that might as well be the government of Atlas, and it took the shedding of blood both of the Schnee family and their employees.

She stops in front of the door, taking a deep and steeling breath of fresh air. She tells herself this will be just like negotiating a trade deal, which she'll inevitably have to master when she becomes the CEO of the SDC.

"This is practice," she tells herself, placing her hand on the door. However, through the door's small window, she can spy you, moving back and forth, training basic sword moves. It's nothing special, and it lacks any of the tact or refinement a Huntsman needs, but it's effort. Every step you take builds on what you have a little more. She was once very similar, going over the same steps in the icy ballrooms of the Schnee Manor.

She gulps, finding herself conflicted. At one point she assumed you simply lacked any effort or desire to succeed, but a little voice in her head reminds her that not everyone will have the same opportunities she has. It would be cruel to force you to leave, especially with money, manipulating her privilege and generational wealth to play with your life like a pawn. Maybe she won't get the grade she needs with you as her partner. Perhaps her father won't let her attend Beacon. But at least she'll have acted morally and properly. Her family were knights and huntsmen before businessmen, and that ancient tradition still screams in her blood, that she act nobly and justly.