The Princess' Rogue – Extended Author's Notes
With this being my longest RWBY story to date, I wanted to provide a bit of extra insight into how the story was written, how certain things came about, etc. Many people have asked a variety of things over the course of this story that, as a result of various outside factors (including burnout and real life obligations reducing my writing time), I was not able to fully explain or elaborate on in the story itself. So to make up for that, I've included my final notes and musings.
Though before I get to that, here are my replies to all unsigned reviews.
Guest – Thanks for the comment. :) I have many stories planned that I want to write, and while I don't yet have another Freezerburn story in mind, that's not to say it won't happen later on. :) Thanks for reading!
Annon – Thanks for the review! :) This was a fun story to write, despite its ups and downs and I'm very happy to hear you enjoyed it as much as I did. Thanks for reading!
POST STORY REVIEWS
Aniko - Thanks for the review! I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the story. :)
Badassfox - Thanks for the review! It was a lot of fun writing that last bit, and I'm happy to know you enjoyed it just as much as I did. :P I look forward to your future silly reviews. There's so a lot more to come from me, so stay tuned! XD
Guest - Thanks for the comment. :) I'm glad you liked it. ^^
Guest – Thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I haven't really considered writing another Freezerburn story yet, but who knows. XD Hope you're keeping well yourself. Cheers!
Reviews aside, now let's get to the good stuff! XD
Please note, my notes are still pretty rough. They are, for all intents and purposes, just notes, and may not always flow smoothly.
Enjoy!
How this story came about.
As first mentioned in the Chapter 1 Author's Notes, the idea for this story was directly drawn from a text-based RPG I started many years ago with my best friend and first beta reader Lily. It was a really small thing, just the two of us going back and forth through online chat (I live in Canada while Lily lives in Europe), role playing as these characters. At that time, I took on the role of the rogue and Lily took on the role of the princess. This was before Skype bought out MSN Messenger (who remembers that? lol) and fanfiction was not as popular as it is today. We managed roughly 6 RP sessions before things stalled due to real life obligations. Lily got married. I left my job to go back to school in a different field. And by the end of it, we both lost touch.
Sadly, we never finished that RPG. And while I could have just as easily picked it up with another friend of mine, I didn't. It wouldn't have felt right, if you know what I mean. And so the raw files of our RP sessions sat buried in the abyss that was my hard drive for years, until I finally stumbled across them again years later while deleting some old and useless computer files.
Opening the files and reading them again, I was instantly caught up in a wave of nostalgia. Heavily into the RWBY fandom at that time, and thinking of my next fanfiction as "Tell Me Something" was quickly wrapping up, things just fell into place when I rediscovered this ancient text. Yang as the Rogue and Weiss as the Princess was a no-brainer, and so I set about rewriting the raw files I had and "The Princess' Rogue" was born.
This was my tribute and my goodbye to Lily, one I was never really able to give her. Lily is not dead mind you, she's still very much alive and no doubt having a lot of fun, sharing her awesomeness with the world. But I haven't spoken to her in years, and that's just a bit sad for me. We had a lot of awesome memories and times together, she and I, and even though I miss her very much, I wish her all the best in anything she does.
We all have our own paths to walk in this life, and despite the time we shared together was much too short in my opinion, I will never be ungrateful and unappreciative of our friendship. Just like the late Monty Oum touched my life, so did Lily, and I will never forget that.
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Volume 1 characters only club.
From the very beginning, I decided I would only have Volume 1 characters (including those who made appearances in the four trailers) in this story, with a strong focus on Weiss and Yang. My reasoning behind this was that a larger cast meant a more complicated story. This is something I've learned over my many years as a writer, and despite trying to fight it every time I started a new story, this was always the case.
There are two types of writing styles out there: Story driven and Character driven. Story driven stories are all about plot and the events which happen in the story. The characters are just along for the ride in stories like that. Alternately, Character driven stories focus on the characters, and it is the characters which drive the story forward, with the plot and events just kind of falling into place around them.
My writing style falls under the latter category, Character driven. As such, my main characters tend to have deep back stories, complicated personalities and often a bunch of issues they need time to sort through (whether they want to or not). Secondary characters also get some of that attention, though not in as much depth as the main characters usually do.
For a story with a cast of only two characters, Character driven writing is a piece of cake. Try the same thing with a cast of at least a dozen or more characters, and well, that's when things really start to get interesting. And complicated. And hence why I chose to stick with just Volume 1 characters for this story.
Truth be told, even though I limited the cast to only Volume 1 characters, I still didn't even use all of them in my story. There were just too many of them, I dare say, even with the amount of content I had for the world I created. But that was okay. This story was never a competition of how many characters I could squeeze into it. This was all about Yang and Weiss', their struggles, and their victories. In the end, it came together how it should have, and that was the most important part.
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Big, bad Cinder.
Realistically speaking, there were only two choices for the big, bad guy in this story. And between Roman Torchwick and Cinder Fall, Cinder was really the better choice of the two. While there really wasn't much known or seen about her in Volume 1, just that minor bit at the end of Volume 1 was enough for me to formulate just how much of a psychopath she would be. Torchwick was a decent bad guy for bad guy standards, but he didn't quite have that extra edge, that extra umpf I was looking for.
Unfortunately, despite having grandiose plans for her, I wasn't quite able to show just how crazy Cinder was. At some point, I was supposed to delve deeper into Yang's history with her, why Cinder burned Yang and Ruby's home village to the ground etc. That never came to pass sadly, as by that time, the story had actually gone in a different direction than I first laid out. That said, check out the Deleted Scenes section below. While these details never quite made it into the actual story (as in a chapter or actual scene), I still kept the notes on it for reference.
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Ruby's death. But not really.
While I seriously considered having Ruby killed from the start, I just didn't have the heart to do it. So instead, I merely implied and hinted that was the case, that Ruby had died, without really saying so directly. Sort of.
I know Yang considered Ruby dead a few times at various points in this story, but if you consider just how long Ruby had been 'sleeping' for, that shouldn't have been a surprise. People can only hold onto hope for so long before giving up. Even the stoutest believers eventually fall. Yet, despite knowing I wouldn't be killing Ruby off, I soon ran into the problem of trying to explain how she survived all this time without going all Deus Ex Machina about it. Thankfully, Ozpin came to my rescue there, and all was good.
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Ozpin. And the power to freeze time.
Ozpin was never going to be a main character in this story. I knew that from the start. He wouldn't even make an appearance really, maybe be seen in a flashback of some sort, but that was it. I envisioned Ozpin to be something akin to Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings. He was a wizard, a powerful one at that, but he was not invincible, nor was he a god. He only had one purpose in this story, and that was to help Yang and Ruby in their time of dire need.
The idea that he could manipulate time was inspired from his office in the show. The gears as seen in Volume 2, winding in the ceiling of his office, reminded me very much of the innards of an old style pocket watch. If you've ever seen the inside of a pocket watch, where all the gears are, you know what I'm talking about. Not to mention, his office is located in a clock tower, so really, the idea of him playing with time is not all that ground breaking.
That said, the ability to wield time is a truly powerful ability. I had to be very careful about it, as I didn't want Ozpin to seem too overly powerful. Not only would that break the flow and feel of the story, it would also lead to the whole Deus Ex Machina I desperately tried to avoid when it came to Yang and Ruby's situation. So, while I could have easily had him reverse time, or speed up time (crazy powerful if you ask me), I decided to limit Ozpin's abilities to just slowing down/freezing time.
Originally, on that fateful night when Yang and Ruby were kids, Ruby was supposed to have died. Hearing Yang's wails, Ozpin and Glynda went to investigate the sound and found the two children. Ozpin, using his powers, revives young Ruby, but due to her weakened state, Ruby does not wake up and falls into a magical coma of sorts.
After looking over that idea a second time however, while writing the story, I quickly decided against that happening, as this would involve Ozpin either reversing time somehow or dabbling in the dark arts of necromancy. I really wasn't in the mood to deal with an undead/zombie Ruby at the time, so I chose to go a different route with his powers. Because really, as amusing as it would be to have Ozpin as a necromancer, that was going to open a can of worms I really had no intention of dealing with. And so, Ozpin's powers were limited to just time freezing, leaving Ruby to sleep like Snow White, and that was that.
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Velvet. Her role. Her evolution.
Our long eared Faunus friend has come a long way since I first started writing this story. Originally, Velvet was supposed to be a watcher of sorts. Being the very embodiment of the Forest/Woodland Elf in my story, she was meant to be a young Faunus too curious for her own good, who watched strangers in her forest from a far. That was at first.
Then she matured into a guardian of the forest, a protector. The animals (including Grimm) and trees were her friends and companions (some of them at least), Velvet one of many Faunus given the duty of keeping the forest safe from malicious outsiders. If anyone harmed her charges in any way, she would stop them and punish them for their misdeeds. And then I started writing the last few chapters of the story, and Velvet evolved yet again.
In the end, I decided that Velvet would be a combination of her two previous roles on top of something else. Velvet became the Heart of the Emerald Forest, its guardian as well as the guardian of lost souls which were naturally drawn to this supernatural place.
Touching upon the Gaia Theory, which in simple terms states that the Earth is alive, as well as the Lifestream concept from the Final Fantasy series of games, I envisioned that when people died, they returned to the earth, "from dust to dust" as the saying goes. As Aura (according to RWBY) can be found in all living things (except Grimm), I figured that there would always be places where lost souls would gather. Such a place was the Emerald Forest, and hence all the supernatural things going on there giving it the reputation for being haunted.
Velvet, one of the Forest/Woodland Elves who was very much in tune with nature, naturally became the guardian of that place, including the lost souls. And it was there she came across Ruby's soul, holding onto it (Ruby's soul resided in the ruby red rose Velvet gave to Weiss near the end) until the time was right to return it to her weakened body.
While Ruby had not yet died, she came very close to it. In real life, people have often talked about out of body experiences, their spirit floating high above as their body recuperated from whatever ailed them. It was the same for Ruby in this case, the only exception being how long it took for her to heal and where she hung out until then.
Seeing what happened to Velvet in Volume 1, while I knew she would not be a main character in this story, I nevertheless wanted to her to have an important role, both in the story and shaping Yang and Weiss' future. Inadvertently she did that without my help, giving them a few helpful nudges here and there, helping to guide them when they were lost. So my concern that her impact wouldn't be felt because she was being overshadowed by Weiss and Yang was a moot point I was only too happy for. It was a shame she could not get more of the spotlight, something I think she very much deserves, especially in the actual show.
In terms of Velvet's actual powers, given that it was hinted she was a magician of sorts in the show, I decided that Velvet would wield the power of nature. It's not so much in the way of she commands the elements of earth, fire, wind and water to do her bidding. Not like the Avatar from the Last Airbender series. No, Velvet asks nature for help, and if it chooses to help her, it will. So the whole thing about the trees saving Yang from the pack of Beowolves, Velvet merely asked the trees to help protect the blonde, and they did.
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Races in the story.
What good would a fantasy story be would be without its many races? Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, etc, the list goes on, each race having their own divisions among them as well. Given the world of RWBY, it seemed only natural for the Faunus to take over the role of the other races for all the non-human characters in the story. While some of them were easier to decide (Blake as a Dark Elf/Shadow Kat), there were others who needed some tweaking (Adam as a Dwarf/Taurus). While not a necessary thing, I think it was a nice touch overall, one which allowed for character continuity as well as story depth.
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Faunus tongue.
While I knew this would not be a focal point of the story, given this was a medieval fantasy world, I did want to dabble in this a little bit. Not having the faintest clue about actually creating my own made up language from scratch, my first reaction was to turn to already established languages. And my first choice was Elvish, as created by J. R. R. Tolkienfor the Lord of the Rings. As Velvet was an elf and she would mainly be the one using it, I figured using Elvish wouldn't be a bad choice for Faunus tongue/language. Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out too well in that choice as the only English to Elvish translator online had trouble converting even the most basic and simplistic of words like 'you' into Elvish.
Not to be deterred, my next choice of language was Latin, that being an older language and possibly close enough to the feeling I wanted. Despite there being plenty of Latin to English (and vice versa) translators around, I found the Latin translations of dialogue to be rather sharp and hard on the eyes and ears, something I didn't like one bit. The one thing that I loved about the Elven language was how soft and smooth it sounded, like a flowing river, but with words and sounds instead of water. So with the Latin sounding as it did, I immediately vetoed that idea.
In a last attempt to keep this idea alive, I decided to play around with the text on my own. After remembering a neat fact about the brain, how as long as the first and last letter of a word are in the right spots, the brain can still read a misspelled word, I chose to shuffle the letters in the words around in no particular order. Given some of the words only had three letter letters in them, I shuffled all the letters around, rather than keep the first and last letter the same. The result of that came out a lot better than I expected, a bit rough sounding at times but good. And so Faunus tongue was born. A few random apostrophes and capitals were thrown in for dramatic effect. :P
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Pairings in the story.
This will be a surprise to many, but when I first began this story, there were only three pairings hard set. That being Blake & Adam, Pyrrha & Jaune, and Ren & Nora. Originally, there was no Yang & Weiss pairing planned.
At that time, Freezerburn was only starting to get noticed, and I had no intention of forcing the pairing onto the story just because everyone else was getting into it. As far as I was concerned, anything between Yang and Weiss would only happen if it was natural, if it felt right. The absolute worst thing I could do was force them into this, making the whole story feeling forced because of it.
So how did I decide they would get together in the end?
I didn't.
The characters chose that for themselves.
As silly as this sounds, I had no say in Yang and Weiss getting together. As any good writer will know, things never turn out the way you want it to. So while I originally planned for Yang and Weiss to just be friends, as the story played out, they opted for a much different relationship. While I could have just as easily put my foot down and said no to it, I didn't. Because if I did, I would be doing the exact thing I didn't want to do. Forcing the story down a certain path just because. Not only would that have made things feel forced, I'm almost certain Yang and Weiss would have rebelled in some other way, a way which would have probably threatened to ruin the story for good. So I left them be.
Now I'm sure some of you are reading this and thinking, but wait, you're the author, don't you dictate how things go? My answer to that would be yes and no. Maybe this is because of my writing style, that being Character driven/focused, but I really don't see myself as an author. I'm more like a parent, with all the characters in my story being my children. I can start things off, guide them on a certain path, all the while letting you know what happens in the form of this story, but in the end, they decide how they want things to go, and I'm just along for the ride. That's the best way I can describe things. Ask any prominent author out there. I'm sure they'll tell you something similar. Either that or I'm just the oddity amongst all writers. XD
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Adam Taurus. The loving husband. The good guy.
Yes, I know Adam is a bad guy. In the show at least. But I wanted to do something different here. Very rarely have I come across a story where Adam is written as something other than the big, bad guy. So for "The Princess' Rogue", Adam was the good guy, a loving husband, and a big brother to the kids of the Cat's Cradle Orphanage. He is of course also a complete badass when he's ready, Blush and Wilt having made an appearance towards the end. It was just a shame I couldn't write more about him like this, because really, I think he deserves more attention. I can only wait and see what's in store for him in Volume 3.
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Blake. And her baby bump.
Alright, who here thinks Blake would be an awesome mother? I do! When first thinking about pairings, the moment I knew she and Adam were going to be a thing, I also knew Blake had to be pregnant. She just had to be. Given her love of books and reading, she would be the parent who would read the kids to sleep. I can so see it. So it was done.
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Weiss. And her decision not to go back to her old life.
This was something that came up a few times towards the end, after it was revealed Yang had left to turn herself in. Couldn't Weiss just go back to the Capital City and show that she's alive, thus disproving Cinder's claim that Phoenix murdered her? The answer to that question is, well yes. She could have. But then, if she did, it would be expected of her to return to the White Castle, for her to go back to the life she tried so desperately to escape from in the first place.
But that wouldn't be so bad, would it? Actually, yes, it would be very bad. Why? That's the funny thing with growth and growing up. It's like that saying, 'what is seen cannot be unseen'. After tasting freedom, after coming into her own person, after taking responsibility for herself and carving her own path in the world, how could she ever go back to her old life? If I was in Weiss' position, I couldn't. Knowing all of that stuff, there would be no way I would want to go back to that old life. And I would fight tooth and nail never to have to go back to that either. It's just not logical. After changing so much, for Weiss to go back to her old life would be like pretending nothing she went through ever happened. That's such a waste of life, if you ask me.
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Deleted Scenes/Chapters.
Believe it or not, when I first started this story, it was only supposed to be like eight chapters long. Ten chapters at most. But as any good writer would know, things don't always happen the way you plan it, and before I knew it, my story had literally doubled in length. And that was after I chopped various scenes/chapters because they didn't quite fit right.
As this story was mainly focused on Yang and Weiss, reading specifically from their point of views, anytime a scene or chapter came up in another character's point of view, if I couldn't somehow rewrite it in Yang or Weiss' point of view, it had to be cut. No only that, if a chapter did not flow well with the one before and after it, usually dragging at some point or reading too choppy, no matter how fantastic the idea was, if I couldn't smooth that section out, that got chopped as well. This happened quite a few times when the story went in a different direction than I had originally planned.
Rather than get rid of those parts completely however, I kept the notes for them, in the hopes of writing those missing sections out later on as extra behind-the-scenes chapters after the story ended. Sadly, due to burnout on this story (which threatened to stall it indefinitely), I decided it was best not to write them at all. Some of them I was able to salvage, just a bit, by having a character mention something or the other about it, but most I just had to cut completely. So here they are, the missing chapters/scenes that will never be written, in no particular order.
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Deleted # 1 – Their First Kiss
- Yang is now at the JNPR tavern, being attended to by Ren, Nora with Weiss watching on in fear
- Yang is near death, Cinder's poison running its course
- Ren is trying every single herb/medicine he can, but Yang is thrashing deliriously and can't stay still enough to swallow the medicine that will cleanse her system
- Jaune and Pyrrha are out trying to get more herbs/medicine for Ren
- As Yang progressively gets worse, Weiss takes matter into her own hands
- As Ren and Nora are trying to hold Yang down, Weiss takes a mouthful of the medicine (not swallowing) before leaping on top of Yang and feeding the medicine to her mouth to mouth
- Yang swallows the medicine this time, the medicine almost instantly jump starting her Aura to help in the healing process
- As Yang's Aura initially flares from the medicine, Weiss' Aura bonds with Yang's and for a brief moment, they are once again connected to each other
- As Yang settles down, the medicine now taking affect, Weiss withdraws to find Ren and Nora, along with Jaune and Pyrrha (standing in the doorway) looking at her in shock
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Deleted # 2 – Weiss vs Boarbatusk
- Weiss has just left Yang under the tree to find help
- Along the way, she runs (literally) into a lone Boarbatusk
- Fight that follows is based heavily on her fight with a Boarbatusk in class in Volume 1
- In place of Myrtenaster, Weiss calls forth a shard of ice the length of her arm in her panic
- Velvet shows up at the end of the fight and points Weiss to the exit of the forest
- While Velvet doesn't actually talk to Weiss, Weiss figures things out and takes the help without question, as Yang's life still lies in the balance
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Deleted # 3 – The Forest Guardian
- While Weiss has gone off to find help, a pack of Beowolves comes across the nearly fatally wounded Yang
- Velvet, who has been watching the yellow and white pair for a while now, intervenes and through magic, has the trees attack the Beowolves and chase them off
- With the threat gone, Velvet goes to Yang's side and shares her Aura with her to heal Yang enough so that Yang will survive until Weiss comes back with help
- Velvet tucks a message on a piece of parchment in Yang's pocket for Blake to get later
- Velvet is one of the 'ghost/friendly spirits' (not really, just a myth) said to inhabit the Emerald Forest
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Deleted # 4 – The Watcher
- Velvet watches from a tree branch high up as Yang and Weiss fight
- Yang storms off, leaving Weiss to sulk at camp
- Velvet follows her in the trees
- Yang stops a ways from camp and calls out to Velvet, saying she knows she's there
- Feeling adventurous, Velvet jumps down and walks up to Yang
- They chat, Yang promising they'll (Yang and Weiss) will be out of the forest soon, leaving Velvet in peace
- Velvet is mute?
- Yang hints she knows what Velvet is
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Deleted # 5 – The Wizard and the Apprentice
- Ozpin (Wizard) and Glynda (Apprentice) are travelling through [insert name] during a thunderstorm
- Even in the storm they hear Yang's screams/wails and go to investigate the sound
- They find young Yang screaming Ruby's name, crying
- Ruby is near death, just a few minutes longer, she will be dead
- Despite being a powerful wizard, Ozpin cannot bring back the dead
- Instead Ozpin freezes Ruby's time, giving her the time she needs to heal herself
- Ruby will remain in a magic coma of sorts, while her body tries to heal itself with the help of Ozpin's magic
- During this time, young Ruby will not grow in age or physically, and will not require food/drink to survive, she just needs time for her body to heal itself
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Deleted # 6 – Black meets Yellow and Red
- Blake's POV as a child (7(?) years old)
- Her first impression meeting Yang and Ruby
- Ozpin (Wizard) and Glynda (Apprentice) have saved Yang and Ruby from the streets, though Ruby is still unconscious/coma
- Yang is mute right now, her gaze hollow
- It will take months before Yang is talking again, young Blake helping her to do it
- Ozpin takes Yang and Ruby to Blake's family, the Belladonna's great friends with the wizard already and the ones nearest to where they found Yang and Ruby
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Deleted # 7 – Confrontation with the Damned
- Yang has left the JNPR tavern with Weiss' bloody jacket to turn herself in
- Cinder intercepts her along the way, with Junior and the Twins
- flash back to Yang not killing Cinder in the forest, but knocking her out
- Yang, despite wanting to, cannot kill Cinder, she is not a murderer
- Cinder talks about how things could have been different between them
- Yang learns the truth about parents' death
- Cinder had heard about Yang as a young fire Aura prodigy
- She went in search of Yang, planning to take Yang under her wing as her own
- Yang's parents and village/town refused to give Yang up
- Cinder razes the village to the ground, if she can't have Yang, no one will
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Deleted # 8 – Reunion
- Adam reluctantly tells kids to play somewhere else as he closes door behind Weiss
- Blake greets them, Adam returns with his weapon
- They both threaten Weiss demanding to know what they want from Yang
- Weiss convinces them she doesn't mean harm, they believe her
- Yang is sleeping on couch, with bandages
- Weiss wakes her up, Yang is surprised to see her
- Yang tells Weiss she's laying low and just being Yang and not Phoenix for now
- Weiss asks to join them
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Will there be a sequel to "The Princess' Rogue"?
Yes, no, and maybe.
While I didn't originally plan for a sequel when I first started writing this piece, I can not, NOT say that I haven't had thoughts for another story in this world as this story progressed. If I ever do get around to writing a sequel for this, it will be a long time in the future. I still have many things to write at the moment, including the sequel to "Tell Me Something" which I promised a while back.
So, the answer for now is no.
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The next step. (What happens now that "The Princess' Rogue" is done?)
"In a Land Far, Far Away" will be starting up again next month.
I will continue with my monthly posting schedule, but it won't be like it has been up to this point. What I mean by that is, due to shifts in my personal life, including less time to write etc, I'll be updating any one of the number of stories I will have on the go, not just one story/drabble consecutively. As I will be taking a break from longer (as in 10+ chapters) multi-chaptered stories (due to a higher risk of burnout on the longer pieces), I will be writing more shorter stories and drabbles at the same time, any one of them updating when the monthly update comes. You'll see what I mean when it happens. Just know, I will be posting something up at least once month, which means some stories may have longer wait times for updates.
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General last minute things.
Once again I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has read this story. Whether or not you've added it to your favorites, story alerts or even reviewed it, I am truly thankful for you taking the time to read it. It couldn't have been as successful without you, the readers.
As a bonus for those of you who have graciously taken the time to read all of these notes, below I have included one last tidbit for your enjoyment.
The Princess and the Rogue (and Little Red too!)
Closed blue eyes fluttered in the dark, Weiss moaning softly as the conscious world reeled her back in. It started with the twitch of her fingers, followed by the minor flexing of limbs, finishing up with the soft yawn which escaped her willing lips. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, Weiss glanced around the bed trying to discern what had awoken her at this ungodly hour.
A sniffle, followed by the shuffling of cloth.
"Ruby?" Weiss murmured groggily, only now noticing the small form standing next to her bedside.
The said girl flinched at the sound of her name, Weiss frowning as she spied the little one clutching at her red safety blanket tightly. It was a gift from Yang and Ruby's late mother, Ruby often draping the material over her shoulders and wearing it like a cloak. Now however, as seen by the sliver of moonlight seeping through the crack in the curtains, the blanket was bunched up in Ruby's white knuckled grip.
"What's wrong sweetie?" Weiss asked, softer this time. "Did you have a nightmare?"
Currently lying on her right side, Weiss started to push herself upwards with her right arm only to pause when the arm curled around her waist from behind held her tighter. Despite snuggling closer to her, Yang did not wake. The blonde remained dead asleep to the world, her soft snores warming the back of Weiss' neck. That really wasn't all that surprising given what they had been through these last few days. When exhausted, Yang was akin to a hibernating bear, and as clingy as a koala. Weiss was always the lighter sleeper between the two of them, despite wishing many a time now that she wasn't.
To her question, Ruby nodded hesitantly, still clutching at her blanket tightly. But the little one did not speak, nor did she move from her spot just two feet away from the edge of the bed.
Weiss' lips pursed at that sight, her heart immediately going out to the frightened girl. It was very clear the wee one wanted nothing more than to jump into bed with them. That's how things were the first week after Ruby awoke, the four year old taking in the changes in the world around her surprisingly fast. Quickly making friends with the other orphans in the Cat's Cradle Orphanage after her initial shyness, last night Ruby declared she wanted to sleep with the rest of the kids, to show how much of a big girl she was now. But, as Weiss knew, even big girls had nightmares.
"Come here," Weiss said, fondness in her voice. Scooching backwards and nestling herself deeper in Yang's embrace, Weiss lifted up the blanket and patted the newly created space she made on the bed.
Teary silver coloured eyes widened at the gesture, Weiss nodding slightly with a small smile. Even with that encouragement, Ruby still refused to move.
Weiss' brow furled.
It was almost as if the little girl was-
A nervous glance to the slumbering form behind Weiss.
Oh.
Oh! Of course!
"It's alright Ruby," Weiss said, hoping to ease the little girl's fears.
While Ruby would have no issue with jumping into bed with Yang, the little red didn't know Weiss all that well yet. It probably felt like a betrayal of sorts to the young child that she had awakened Weiss instead of Yang. Not that that was Ruby's fault, of course. With the room being as small as it was (space was a luxury in this re-purposed church after all), it just so happened that Weiss' side of the bed was closer to the door. Ruby was probably on her way around the bed to her sister's side when Weiss awoke, and seeing that, she froze in fear.
Another smile.
"I promise not to tell Yang if you don't," Weiss said.
It would take time to build the bond between them, to where Ruby would feel comfortable enough coming to Weiss when she was troubled. But Weiss was patient and more than willing to wait for that, for however long it took. Ruby was part of her life now after all, just like Yang. And she wouldn't want it any other way.
Weiss' words seemed to do the trick, watery eyes widening for a moment before Ruby's lips trembled, tears threatening to fall. Just when Weiss feared she may have said the wrong thing, the little red all but jumped into bed with her, trying to bury herself in Weiss' chest. A little shocked at Ruby's vehemence, it took a few seconds before Weiss wrapped her arms around the trembling and sniffling child.
"Is that better?" Weiss asked softly, draping the blanket over Ruby now and running a hand through short locks of brownish red. She could only imagine how horrifying Ruby's nightmare must have been, what with the little one shivering against her. Ruby was shaking worse than a leaf in a storm.
The slight nod of Ruby's head was Weiss' answer, Yang's little sister further pressing herself against Weiss, trying to erase whatever minute space remained between them. Frowning even more at this behavior, Weiss held the child just a bit tighter, kissing Ruby's hair.
"Did you want to talk about it?" she asked quietly.
Ruby shook her head immediately, a shudder running through her.
"Okay," Weiss said, rubbing the little girl's back. "That's okay. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
Seconds ticked on in silence, save for the muffled sniffles of a still shaking Ruby. There was also a dampness now, slowly creeping up the front of Weiss' shirt where Ruby's head was currently pressed against, the small child sobbing quietly.
"You know," Weiss began, still embracing the little one gently. "When I couldn't sleep, my Mama used to sing for me."
Ruby stilled in her grasp, and for the first time since jumping into bed and clinging to Weiss, the little red raised her head and looked at the former princess.
Weiss smiled.
"Can I sing for you, Ruby?"
Her smile only widened as Ruby's expression morphed into one of shock. That was a common reaction Weiss received, the ex-heiress quite used to it by now. For some reason, her status of princess (former, that is) always seemed to imply her lack of talent in that area, something Weiss really never really understood.
"C-Can youz?" a tiny voice said, snapping Weiss out of her thoughts.
"Of course I can," Weiss replied, reaching up to wipe away the little girl's tears. Ruby didn't flinch in the least.
"Would you like me to?"
Just when Weiss thought her smile couldn't get any bigger, it did as Ruby wiped her remaining tears on her sleeve and nodded.
Ruby was so adorable.
"Okay," Weiss said. "Close your eyes."
Without question, Ruby did as she was told, Weiss also doing the same and she sucked in a deep breath and began to sing.
"Fear not this night, you will not go astray…"
How many years had it been since she last felt this… serenity? Ever since her mother died, all Weiss knew was anger, and sadness, and hopeless. And it was that anger, that sadness, that hopeless which drove her from the White Castle in the first place, in the hopes of finding something better. Anything better than that place, where constant reminders of what she had, lingered.
"Though shadows fall, still the stars find their way…"
Had someone told her she'd one day run off with a rogue who had originally chased after her to cash in on her bounty, Weiss would have laughed at them. To say said rogue was also a woman, one she would eventually become absolutely smitten with, well, that's when Weiss would have threatened the naysayer with execution unless they kept their crazy mouth shut.
"And you can always be strong…"
And yet, here she was, together with Yang Xiao Long, the infamous rogue Phoenix (who was now 'dead'), and she was free.
"Lift your voice, with the first light of dawn…"
Was this the happiness as written about in stories? Was this what it felt like to find the rumored other half of your soul? Having now experienced it, Weiss could understand why some people would kill for this. In a world as vast and wide as this one, it was easy to get lost, to drown amongst the chaos.
"Dawn is just a heartbeat away…"
For a long time, Weiss was drowning.
Drowning in loneliness.
Drowning in sorrow.
Drowning in despair.
But not anymore. Now she was no longer drowning.
Now, she was soaring.
"Hope's just a sunrise away…"
Opening her eyes again, Weiss looked down to find a now peacefully sleeping Ruby. The little girl's breaths were slow and soft, Ruby clutching at the fabric of Weiss' night shirt, comfortably snuggled against her. Tucking some loose locks of hair around Ruby's ear, Weiss could but shiver as the hand which held her around her waist, effectively smooshed between herself and Ruby, retracted, fingertips ghosting across the flesh of her stomach as her shirt had ridden up when the little red snuggled against her.
"She had a bad dream?" a husky murmur sounded behind Weiss, Yang repositioning her arm to encompass both Weiss and her sister.
"It seems so," Weiss said, gazing fondly at the child in her arms. Yang shifted behind her, Weiss soon feeling a kiss pressed to the back of her neck.
"Thanks for watching over her for me," the blonde said, cuddling up against Weiss just a bit more.
Weiss sighed in contentment, very much enjoying her partner's warmth.
"You don't need to thank me silly," the former princess said, glancing back over her shoulder. "I'm just doing what you would have done."
The corner of Yang's mouth quirked upwards, the blonde pressing another kiss to the back of Weiss' hair.
"Maybe," the rogue drawled, pushing herself up for a moment to see over Weiss's shoulder. Leaning in to give Weiss another kiss on the check, Yang lay down again, burying her nose in Weiss' hair.
"But still," the blonde said with a yawn. "Thanks Snowflake. You're the best."
Weiss felt her cheeks go hot, the ex-heiress still not used to such affection and compliments.
"Dunce," Weiss pouted, her eyes fluttering shut as Yang gave her a peck on that one sensitive spot just behind her ear. She had to bite her lip to keep herself from moaning out loud.
A light slap.
"Yang," Weiss hissed, her cheeks a darker shade of red now. "Your sister is right here! Behave yourself!"
"Mmmm…" Yang murmured for a moment, smacking her lips. "Don't wanna."
Weiss couldn't stop the shudder which ran through her as Yang left open mouthed kisses along the curve of her neck and shoulder. With her right arm pinned down under Ruby's weight, Weiss reached back with her left, blindly feeling around for Yang's head, or hand, or something which she could grab to get the blonde to stop. Her wandering hand was caught by a larger one however, Yang wasting no time in shifting her affection to Weiss' arm, leaving her breathless.
"Y-Yang…" Weiss whimpered, all rational thought quickly leaving her.
Only when Ruby mumbled something incoherently in her sleep did Weiss snap out of her haze, both she and the blonde behind her freezing in their spots as the little one shifted. In the end, Ruby settled again with her thumb in her mouth, snuggling further against Weiss' front, still asleep. Yang and Weiss breathed in relief.
"Well…" Yang said chuckling after a few seconds. "That was a thing."
Weiss looked back at her partner unamused.
"Awww," the brawler crooned. "Is Weissy all hot and bothered now?"
Weiss gritted her teeth, absolutely glaring at those mirth filled lavender orbs. She hated it when the rogue teased her this way, and Yang knew it.
"Good night, Yang," Weiss said, laying down again.
If Yang wanted to behave like that, two could play at that game.
Pulling her hand back from her partner's grip, Weiss enveloped Ruby in a hug again, the little child rather cuddly despite her small size. A smile crept across her face as Yang sputtered at her back, the rogue no doubt baffled at how quickly things had turned and not in her favor.
"Weiss-"
"Sleeping," was Weiss' reply, any further verbal queries met with the same response.
After three more unsuccessful tries, Yang finally gave up and settled for wrapping her arms around Weiss and Ruby again. Intertwining their fingers together, Weiss raised their joined hands up and kissed the back of Yang's knuckles.
"Love you, Princess," Yang murmured, a smile in her voice.
"Love you too, Dolt," Weiss whispered softly, smiling more. "Now go back to sleep. You're cooking Ruby and I pancakes tomorrow morning, to make this up to me."
Yang chuckled behind her, the sound quickly relaxing Weiss as her eyelids drooped shut.
"Don't push your luck Xiao Long," Weiss murmured sleepily. "I mean it."
A yawn.
A kiss was pressed to the back of her hair, Weiss sighing happily.
"How does pancakes and that new dress you wanted from the market sound?" the rogue said softly. She stroked Weiss' hair. "My treat."
"Mmm…" Weiss agreed only half awake now, unconsciousness beckoning her closer. That sounded really nice. Yang always knew how to spoil her.
"And then it will just be you and me," Yang continued on, Weiss further succumbing to the darkness. "And we're going to have a Yang-ing good time."
Unamused blue eyes opened halfway, Weiss fighting down the urge to roll her eyes.
"Do you get it? Yang-ing?" Yang chuckled to herself, almost snorting. "Because it's you and me, my name being Yang."
"Now you're doing laundry," Weiss deadpanned, no mercy given. "The entire orphanage's," she added as an aside.
Yang flinched beside her.
"Oh come on!"
END
A/N: The song Weiss sang to Ruby was just a small tidbit from "Fear Not This Night" written by Jeremy Soule and sung by Asja for the Guild Wars 2 MMORPG.