Ashen Wool

-complacency

Summary: It was weird being back in Atlas after the effort she had gone through to leave, but it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

Well, I got a new series going for the fluffiest pair in V7, hope you all enjoy. I'll be switching between this and Moonstruck for a bit while working on some smaller things as well or some long lost projects of mine.

Weiss raises her glass to her lips, taking a moment to enjoy her coffee before she joins her team in the briefing room for her third mission as a licensed huntress. When she sets the glass down it clinks softly on the table, followed soon after by another clink.

She looks up to see Marrow slip into the seat opposite of her, trails of steam rising up from the coffee mug he had just set on the table. For a moment he's just gazing at her, as if he's trying to figure out how to word whatever is on his mind.

"So, what would you have done to help with our systemic societal issues?"

"Excuse me?"

"Mm," his fingers tapped away at his mug for a few seconds. "It was just weird hearing a Schnee talk about causing problems for a faunus and not being... you know, snide about it."

Oh. He was talking about what she had said back in the mine yesterday when they were going after that geist grimm.

His head tipped to the side, as if studying her now. "You don't actually blame yourself for what happened, do you? Even if you had wanted to help as a child there wasn't much you could have done."

She glanced down to the cup she was cradling in her hands. "I know, but that doesn't excuse the fact that I didn't even try to understand what was going on. As a child I was too focused on living up to my father's expectations, even when I disobeyed him and went to Beacon I still thought all faunus were like those in the White Fang." She blinked at the ringlets that appeared in her drink from Nora jumping up and down a good twenty feet away."Besides, I'm not the heiress anymore and I doubt Whitley will care to change anything to better the faunus' working condition when he takes over. Even then, Father wouldn't allow it. He takes pride in having prices so low that he can just run everyone else out of business." Like Flynt's father.

"What if you were still the heiress?" She glanced up at Marrow's words.

"If I were..." She hadn't thought about it, she hadn't bothered after her father took away the title from her and gave it to Whitley instead. Though, after befriending Blake and the others... she had a few ideas before, nothing really fleshed out: just simple things to up the quality of life for their employees. Most of which were faunus. You would never see the privileged people of Atlas digging dust out of mines. It was unfortunate, but the truth was that even if she offered jobs to humans in the mines most of them wouldn't take it. They only wanted to run the shops that sold their dust, not get their own hands dirty alongside the 'trash.'

"I suppose I would put more resources into making sure the mines are stable. So if there was an explosion it wouldn't take the whole mine with it, like what happened back then. I could employ a couple huntresses and huntsmen rather than robots to look after the miners in case of grimm or maybe even a few soldiers from the army."

"I doubt Ironwood would mind helping out a bit."

She gave a nod of her head. "But beyond that... increased wages. I don't care about building a ton of profit, if I can put a bunch of money back into the company to make it better, that would be fine. As a trained huntress I could just scope out any new areas myself to determine if it was safe to set up a mine there. Umm oh, I had an idea before of setting up a daycare for employees, so they don't have to pay extra while they're working or worry about their children, especially if both parents are working. And any parent that was stay-at-home could apply for the jobs that would give them. It would help the faunus in Mantle rise out of poverty at least."

"Have you noticed that all the children Jim-"

"Jaune," she corrected him.

"Right." Marrow scratched lightly at a spot just behind his ear. "All those kids are human, you don't see a single faunus among them."

"Because the public only wants to pay for human schools?" She knew exactly what he was getting at. "I would like to offer any faunus - whether they work for the company or not - to have a free elementary school house just for them. That way they don't have to deal with the bullying or increased cost for schooling. But that's kind-of not possible right now." For obvious aforementioned reasons.

She could only hope Robyn Hill would help the faunus once she was elected. It certainly seemed to be one of her promises to the public.

"Hey, Weiss." She nearly jumped in her seat at Blake's voice, she wished her teammate would make more sound when she walked. "Once you're done you'll be coming on a mission with Yang and me." Weiss turned to face her as Blake spoke.

"So soon?"

"Yeah, you said you wanted a search and destroy mission, right?"

"Yes," Weiss said glancing at Marrow, who was currently sipping at his coffee.

"Is that okay? You can talk with Clover if you want a different assignment."

"It's fine," she assured Blake. Weiss simply hadn't been expecting to leave so soon since she hadn't gone into the mission briefing room yet. That and... Marrow looked slightly disappointed to have their conversation cut short.

It wasn't the kind of thing she usually talked about: hypotheticals that were unlikely to happen. But she had been enjoying the conversation, if just to try and think of other ways she could help now that she wasn't the heiress. Surely there was some things she could do as a huntress to atone for her past mistakes?

"I'll meet you out there in a bit."

Blake merely nodded her head before she started walking to the door.

Weiss drained what little was left of her coffee before she stood up. "Sorry. Maybe we can talk another time?"

"Sure thing." Marrow's tail was swaying slowly in the air as he seemed to get lost in thought.

With an apologetic smile Weiss turned around and followed Blake out so she could ask about the details of this mission she had acquired before she ended up going in blind.