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Weiss sat at the window in Team RWBY's dorm, staring out at the front yards of Beacon as snow fell lightly from the sky. There was already a pretty thick covering of snow on the ground, yet it seemed like it'd never end. Around her, the room had been decorated, thanks to Ruby with a little help from both Yang and Nora.

Small white snowflakes hung from the ceiling on glittering cords, and a dark green wreath, entwined with red, hung on the back of the door. Red and green streamers were wrapped around the bottoms of both Ruby and Yang's beds, lined with Christmas lights that flashed red, green, and white.

Next to Weiss' desk, sat a large Christmas tree that Yang had brought in. It was wrapped in red, yellow, black, and white streamers, decorated with Christmas lights and ornaments of different sizes. Ruby had personally made three different ones for each member of her team out of clay, and Weiss, Blake, and Yang had teamed up to make one for Ruby.

Blake's was a black cat with a white ribbon around it's neck, Yang's was a yellow flaming heart, and Weiss' was a white snowflake with a light blue back. Ruby's was a large red rose, the stem wrapped with black, white, and yellow ribbons. On the tree, it sat closest to the star, and the other three were spread out underneath it. Weiss' directly under it, Yang's on the right, and Blake's on the left. When they'd first set the tree up, the girls had sat down around it, exchanged gifts, and ate milk and cookies. Weiss had felt at home.

Now, the day before Christmas, the dorm was empty. Blake had gone home to celebrate with family, and Yang and Ruby had done the same thing.

Weiss, however, had decided to stay at Beacon. Her family wasn't exactly festive, and the fun memories she'd made just before her team had left would only serve as a painful reminder.

Sighing, Weiss got up from the chair at the window and made her way over to her bed, where she promptly sat down. She had to make sure to tilt her head as she sat, lest she hit her head on the edge of Ruby's bunk. She wore a white skirt, light blue leggings with white knee-high boots on under, and a light blue sweater to match.

Sitting there, Weiss reached across to the bookshelf between the beds and grabbed a simple, silver picture frame from on top of it. The picture was of Team RWBY, just after they'd come back from a dangerous Grimm hunting mission. Ruby had scar all along her face and arms, Yang's entire right arm was in a cast and her left shoulder was bandaged heavily. Blake's forehead was bandaged up beneath her hair, and Weiss' hair was unkempt, sticks and twigs sticking out at odd angles. The scar over her left eye had been reopened due to a hard hit she took, evident by the swelling around her eye, the redness of the cut, and the blood down her left cheek.

Despite all their injuries and what they looked like, all the girls were smiling. It had been a successful mission. Yang was out of the infirmary in a week, and Weiss was out in two days. Those two days, however, Ruby had refused to leave the girls' bedside. She insisted that it was her fault that the scar had been reopened by not being a good enough partner and watching out for Weiss like she was supposed to. Weiss had tried to tell her that it wasn't her fault, that Weiss herself was at fault for not being as vigilant as she should have been, but Ruby refused to listen. In the end, Weiss conceded defeat and allowed Ruby to take care of her, even after she'd left the infirmary.

Weiss set the picture frame back down and hugged her arms. Even now, mere hours after Ruby and Yang had left, her heart was beginning to ache at just how lonely her week would be. She steeled herself and stood up, stuffing her scroll in her pocket, and left the room, shutting the door behind her. She quickly made her way down to the dining hall to make herself a cup of coffee. As she did so, she realized just how quiet the room was. It had probably never been this quiet since the year started.

There were a few other people there, Ren and Nora who sat further back in the room than usual, and a few other first years who Weiss didn't know. She refused to look in any of their directions and took her coffee and left the hall, quietly walking back to her dorm. On the way there, she stopped at one of the long windows that lined the hall and stared out at the snow. Nobody was outside, which was to be expected. No one wanted to be out in that cold, maybe except for Ruby, but she wasn't at Beacon. Weiss smiled as she began to picture what Ruby would say if she were still there.

'Mandatory team meeting!' she would call out. Yang would poke her head out from atop her bunk. Blake would pull her nose from her book and look up, and Weiss would turn away from her desk and the current studying she was doing to listen. 'I order us to go out and enjoy the snow today!' Ruby would continue. She'd drag them all out and they'd make snowmen, snow angels, and even engage in the occasional snowball fight with Team JNPR.

Weiss would complain every second of the way, but at the end, she'd find that she'd enjoyed the day as much as possible. They'd all go back inside, have hot chocolate, and Ruby would fall asleep first, her head always on Weiss' shoulder...

Her heart began to ache once more and she briskly walked away from the window, taking a sip of her hot coffee to steel her nerves. Her brisk walk slowed to a halt as she neared team RWBY's dorm, as she noticed that the door was left slightly ajar. Not enough for anyone to really notice, but Weiss did. She was sure she had shut the door completely behind her. Sighing and blaming her frayed nerves, she quietly walked back into the room.

At a first glance, nothing was really out of place. Both Yang and Blake's beds were made completely, as Blake had forced Yang to make her bed before the both of them had left. All of their things were in place how they should have been. Weiss' bed was completely neat as well, sans for the bit of ruffle where she had sat earlier. Truly, nothing was out of place glancing at it.

However, Weiss quickly noticed the one thing out of place; the pair of red bags sitting next to the door. Ruby's bags. Weiss raised her eyebrows in confusion. That didn't make any sense, Ruby and Yang had left earlier that morning!

Quietly setting her mug down on her desk, Weiss walked around to her bed and stood on the tips of her toes to peer over onto Ruby's bed. And sure enough, there she was. Ruby was lying on her back, her scroll in both hands and earphones over her ears. She hadn't heard Weiss enter, but she clearly saw her looking up onto her bed. Ruby's eyes widened in realization, and in a flash of rose petals, she tackled Weiss in a hug, throwing the both of them to the floor.

"Weiss! I was so worried when we left, you looked so depressed, and then Nora texted me and told me you were still here after the airships left and I-" Ruby's rambling was halted as Weiss gently pushed a finger up against her lips. Weiss pulled the both of them to their feet, pulled Ruby's arms from around her neck, and went over to shut the door quickly. Ruby bounced on her heels, worried silver eyes following Weiss' every movement. She wore a black and red layered skirt, black leggings and black shin-high boots under neath and topped with a simple black and red striped sweater with her cape clasped around her neck, as usual.

"Ruby Rose." Weiss stated, eyeing the girl with crossed arms.

"Th-that's me?" Ruby replied, shooting Weiss a sheepish grin as she did.

"What are you doing here?" Weiss asked, her anger melting away as soon as she saw the look in Ruby's eyes. Ruby, who wasn't prepared for anything less than a scolding, began stuttering over her words.

"W-well I wanted to...I-I thought you would...I-I didn't want to leave you alone for the break," She managed to get out, completely ignoring the fact that it took her three separate tries to get her words out. "I thought you'd be going home, but when Nora said you were still here...I rushed back to stay with you!"

Weiss' eyebrows furrowed in confusion. On one hand, Weiss was touched that Ruby would go so far to make sure that she wasn't alone. On the other hand, she was furious that Ruby had sacrificed staying with her family. She decided to focus on the furious.

"Ruby. Christmas is a time where you're supposed to be with your family, with people you care about and people you love!" She exclaimed, grabbing one of Ruby's shoulders as she spoke. Not too hard, but just enough to get her point across. "Why would you sacrifice any of that just to be here with me?!"

Ruby simply smiled and removed Weiss' hand from her shoulder, grasping it in between the both of hers. "I didn't sacrifice any of that! I care about you, Weiss, and I'd like to think that you care about me! There's definitely some love in there too." She grinned at Weiss, who's eyes were currently stuck to the ground.

"But..but your family...?" Weiss asked, refusing to meet Ruby's eyes. Ruby smiled in response.

"Yang called our dad and explained the situation! He's fine with my staying for break if it's to help a friend!' She replied happily.

Weiss looked back up to Ruby, her eyes brimming with tears, and threw her arms around Ruby's neck in a tight hug. Ruby faltered for a moment, but quickly reciprocated, clasping her hands together behind Weiss' back. It wasn't very often that Weiss cried, and it was even more rare that she cried openly and in front of people. As it was now, though, she didn't have a care in the world. Tears fell from her eyes, tracing their way down Weiss' cheeks and then falling onto the soft fabric of Ruby's hoodie. Ruby held her close with one hand and rubbed small circles on her back with the other, keeping quiet and just enjoying the embrace as Weiss cried into her shoulder.

A minute or so later, Weiss was fresh out of tears, though her eyes were still red and puffy. She leaned away from the hug, just enough so that she could see Ruby's face and smiled.

"Th-thank you, Ruby...I thought that...," Her voice frayed and she shook her head, opting to just place her head back on Ruby's shoulder. "No, it doesn't matter. Just...thank you...for coming back."

Ruby smiled and patted Weiss' back before pulling the both of them to Weiss' bed and sitting down. Weiss immediately pulled her legs up to her knees, letting go of Ruby just to hug her legs instead. Ruby sat next to her, their shoulders brushing against each other, and rested her head on Weiss' shoulder, shoving her hands into her hoodie's pocket. The two of them sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Weiss spoke up.

"Ruby..?" She asked skeptically, glancing over at her as the girl stirred.

"Yea Weiss?" She responded, sitting up and looking at Weiss. Weiss looked back, an eyebrow raised in question.

"Why...," Her voice faltered, and she shook her head again. Steeling herself, she dropped her legs to the floor again and turned fully to look Ruby in the eyes. "How...how can you care so much?"

Ruby tilted her head, an eyebrow raising in question. "Do you mean...about you?" Weiss nodded her head. "Well, it's not very hard!" She laughed at the end of her sentence, issuing a glare from Weiss. Ruby cleared her throat.

"What I mean is...it'd be harder not to care. You're always helping me study, making sure I don't get too far behind in classes, You're always there to help me whenever I ask for it, you're always willing to listen whenever I have a problem that I can't talk to Yang about," Ruby stared into Weiss' eyes as she spoke, breaking away occasionally to collect her thoughts. "You're smart, you can fight really well, and you're like, really pretty..." Her voice faltered and her face took on the same tone of red as her cape. She cleared her throat.

"L-Like I said. It'd be harder not to care, Weiss. You're such a good partner, and I couldn't ask for a better one." Ruby ended. A blush crept it's way up Weiss' neck, and she looked down at the bed to steel her nerves. She had begun to realize that she'd grown dependent on Ruby's optimism on a daily basis. The few hours without her had almost been too much for Weiss to handle. Now that Ruby was back, she didn't want her to leave. Weiss sighed.

"I...I don't deserve this. I-I've done nothing but yell at you since we met! And you...you still just..care, so much.." Weiss said, her eyes beginning to fill with tears again. Ruby pulled her into another soft hug, placing her cheek on the top of Weiss' head amongst the garden of luscious ivory tresses.

"You yell so much because you care! Or, that's how I think of it anyway. Every time you yell at me for slacking on my work, it just means that you care about my grades and care about me in general! I like to think of it as a good thing!"

Weiss sniffled and pulled herself out of Ruby's embrace to reach forward and flick her forehead, Ruby jumping and pouting in response. Weiss greeted it with a smile.

"Y-you're a dolt, you know that?" She stated. Before Ruby could respond, Weiss leaned forward and placed a delicate kiss on Ruby's cheek, pulling back as all the heat in her body rushed to her face. There's definitely some love in there too, Ruby had said. Maybe Weiss was interpreting it wrong, but if she wasn't...

"Ruby...I-I'm asking a lot of questions, I know, but...what did you mean? Th-that love thing, that you said.." Weiss asked skeptically. This was unknown territory. She had come to terms with her feelings, and the idea that Ruby didn't feel the same, quite a bit ago, and as such pushed it to the back of her mind. However, she was in a vulnerable state. That and...what Ruby said had made her think quite a bit.

Maybe it was Weiss' imagination, but Ruby's face seemed to shoot up another shade of red. She fumbled with the edge of her cape for a bit before getting up and walking over to the Christmas tree. She took Blake's ornament, the black cat, and took her cape off. Pointing to her cape, specifically the hood, she said; "This is a bag, okay?" Weiss nodded, unsure of where exactly Ruby was going. She dropped the cat into the hood, or the 'bag', and then upturned it, letting the cat fall back into her hand. She looked back at Weiss, an eyebrow raised expectantly.

"I...I don't get it, Ruby, I'm sorry." Weiss finally said. Ruby groaned and repeated the gesture, putting the cat in the bag and letting it fall out again. Weiss didn't pick up the notion.

"I-I just mean that...y'know, looks like the cat's out of the bag?" She stated, a nervous smile stuck to her face. Weiss' mouth took on a simple 'o' shape as she suddenly understood. Then she exclaimed; "Oh!" once she realized what that meant.

"S-so you...you...," Weiss stuttered with her words, not being able to bring herself close enough to saying what Ruby was insinuating. Ruby swung her cape back on and stuck Blake's ornaments back onto the tree. Then, in a bout of confidence, she walked back to Weiss and knelt in front of her, nodding her head as a bead of sweat ran it's way down the side of her face.

"Y-yes, Weiss. I...," She faltered out again, her face dropping into another shade of red. "I-I love you, Weiss. I really do, you just...t-try so hard to make me better than I am and just...," She sighed, her voice shaky and quivering. "N-no one else does that for me and I...I can't thank you enough."

Weiss' face took on several shades of red one after the other; peach, rose, magenta, and then tomato red. Sure, scenarios like this had run through her head, but she had come to terms with the fact that it would never happen. Now that it was, she didn't know how to react.

Ruby looked up at her expectantly, her eyes full of question, though she stayed quiet. In her head, several thoughts were running amok. What if her confession ruined her friendship with Weiss? What if Weiss didn't feel the same way, but wanted to try and be friends? What if Weiss didn't want anything to do with her after this? What if...What if Weiss hated her for it? The thoughts alone almost made her shiver, but she steeled herself and fought it out instead.

Suddenly, hands encircled her neck and pulled her closer. Weiss fell to her knees in front of Ruby and pulled her into a tight, soul-crushing hug that rivaled Yang's own bear hugs. Ruby was taken aback but weakly hugged back, confused on what this could've meant. Speculations ran through her head until she heard Weiss' deathly quietly whisper of; "I-I love you too, Ruby.."

Tears began to form in the crevices of Ruby's eyes and she tightly brought her arms up, hugging Weiss around her waist and burying her face in Weiss' shoulder. Out of all the speculations and theories and ideas that ran through Ruby's head, that was one that she didn't even think of, the one that she thought would never even be a possibility. The thought that Weiss would feel the same way was...drat, what would Weiss say? Preposterous, that was the word. it was preposterous.

After a minute where the both of them simply shed tears into the other's shoulders, they eventually pulled back and stared at each other for a moment. Ruby had failed to realized how beautiful Weiss' eyes were. Likewise, Weiss had never seen how enticing Ruby's eyes were. Another minute or so passed before the both of them decided to stand up. Weiss' coffee had long since grown cold, and Ruby admitted that she was a bit hungry. Together, they walked up to the door, where Weiss reached back to grab her mug and Ruby looked up at the ceiling for no real reason.

Weiss retrieved her mug and went to step out of the door, but Ruby took a hold of her hand, keeping her in place. Weiss looked back, confused, and followed Ruby's line of sight up to the ceiling.

Hanging above the door, was a small green, red, and white plant. A mistletoe. Weiss remembered that Yang had hung it there to try and catch people off guard when they were entering the room. So far, however, she had only ever managed to catch both herself and Blake with it. Blake hadn't been very happy and Yang had to spend the night in the infirmary.

Now, both Weiss and Ruby stood underneath it together. A line of blush ran across Weiss' face as she felt Ruby cup her cheeks and pull her closer. She didn't it fight it, however, and she may have closed the rest of the distance herself until she was met with the sensation of soft lips upon her own.

The tilt of their heads came naturally, and Weiss' lips moved in tandem with Ruby's, her empty hand straying to the other girls' waist and settling there. When they finally pulled away, both their faces bored a matching line of bright red blush, as well as dumb smiles plastered onto their faces. Suddenly, Ruby giggled and buried her face into the crook of Weiss' neck. Her breathing down her skin made Weiss shiver, but she made no effort to move her at all.

"What's so funny?" Weiss asked, keeping her mug a bit far off to avoid any unwanted spills. Ruby hummed in content before peering up at Weiss through strands of her own hair.

"This is...the best Christmas present ever!" Ruby replied, darting up from where she was resting to plant a brief, chaste kiss on Weiss' cheek before pushing the door open and stepping out, grabbing Weiss' empty hand and pulling her out with her. Weiss merely smiled and followed her out, entwining their fingers and shutting the door to their dorm behind them before Ruby lead her off to the dining hall.

Maybe her week stuck at Beacon wouldn't be as bad as she thought it would be...