A/N: From the very beginning, I have always supported Blake x Weiss, and it is time for me to make a contribution to the fandom! I hope this makes an enjoyable read!

Haruka

Being lonely was not necessarily a bad thing, it was something that Weiss knew well. Loneliness did not really hurt, it was… a feeling she could not exactly explain. Loneliness was just that, loneliness, a sort of numb, hollow feeling in her chest, she had long grown accustomed to it and hence, it rarely bothered her. The personality her parents and standing required of her made her a person so unlikeable, even she thought herself repulsive and foolish. How could she expect anyone else to think otherwise? To protect her family company from slander that was so obviously true, Weiss was not so delusional as to do that of her own free will; let them say what they will about the Schnee Dust Company, especially if it were not false, the public deserved to know. That was how she honestly, truly felt; she was actually embarrassed to have the name "Schnee" due to all the terrible things those with the same name had done. When Weiss had stormed, sputtering, away from that beautiful black haired girl from the first day, she was actually hiding a smile of approval at the girl's words; Weiss honestly admired that black haired girl for being able to speak the truth that she herself was forbidden from acknowledging.

She loathed that she was but a weak, caged bird, a dog on a leash, a pathetic creature trapped and restricted by her parents. She was just another one of the Schnee Dust Company's victims of subjugation, of oppression, just another casualty. Her parents would not think twice to hurt her, to use her and to direct her like a wooden puppet; as long as it was for the good of the company and would bring them profit, they would do it, however dubious, inhumane and underhanded it was. Weiss wished she were stronger and could force them to listen to her, wished she were able to do something aside taking orders like a good dog.

Her very personality, that spoiled and arrogant brat she showed to the world, was another one of the orders she had to swallow. The clothes she wore, too, and the accessory in her hair, it was all specifically chosen for her to give off a "regal" image. She was not given much leeway, even the length of her hair and nails had to be kept constant and to her parents' liking. Weiss did not appreciate any of it, she wanted to be herself and no one else, but the only way she could express her dissatisfaction and individuality was to tie her high ponytail off-center, a small and useless sign of defiance that she kept up anyway. Attending Beacon was indeed one of the things she wanted to do, but it was also an order as she was to advertise the powers of Dust to gain the company more customers; hence, it ultimately did not count either way, being half of each.

Weiss was alone in her golden cage; she had been alone from the very beginning. Her life would never change, she would always feel lonely; she had resigned herself to all that long ago. Her parents' shadows would loom over her until the day they died, and she was quite sure her individual soul could not endure the agony and oppression to survive, unchanged, by that time. However, Beacon put all its students into teams of four, rendering solitude virtually impossible; the white haired heiress' world had changed, forcibly expanding to include her three teammates.

Her parents were not happy about the fact that their daughter ended up paired with three nobodies, peasants of low social standing; they were especially galled that one of the peasants had a pretty shady crime record and might have been responsible for several attacks on the Schnee Dust Company's cargo trains. "Stay away from her, but keep an eye on her in case she tries anything," they ordered Weiss, and the poor girl could only nod and obey. "Do not grow close to even a single one of those… things in your team."

Hence, she had to keep them all at arm's length; especially that alluring black haired girl with the cat-like amber eyes, the girl she met outside Beacon on day one. Weiss could watch her, but that was all she could do, the girl was an enemy of the company and had to be treated as such. Weiss found out that girl's name with time, Blake Belladonna, and it honestly intoxicated the white haired girl even further. Black deadly nightshade, the meaning of her name suited someone so mysterious and powerful, someone who exuded an almost thrilling aura of danger. Weiss felt an undeniable attraction to her, and that was absolutely taboo. Her family, her parents, would never condone her interacting with commoners, they reminded her constantly that she was an elite, that she should only rub elbows with those of her social standing or higher. Stay away from the peasants, they had repeated since she was a child, drilling it into her head. They are all beneath you, and you must treat them with the contempt they deserve.

Robotically, Weiss had agreed to obey, concealing the flash of defiance in her eyes and looking as deferential as a puppy. She had no choice but to obey, if she did not, her parents would show her exactly how underhanded and heartless the Schnee Dust Company was. They would go after the "peasant" friend of their daughter and lock him or her away in some Dust mine, forced to work for the company until they died. Weiss could never bring such a terrible fate upon anyone, especially not anyone she liked enough to befriend. That was why, for the sake of the world, Weiss had to choose the path of voluntary loneliness, talking only to the other elites her parents would approve of.

Ruby Rose, the youngest member of their team, had made a few awkward attempts to get on friendly terms with her despite all the times she was let down, but she was so socially retarded that Weiss could easily put her off with her false cold and arrogant act; with Ruby, she did not even need to try. Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's elder sister (with absolutely no family resemblance, Weiss might add), was way too sociable to bother herself with someone so resistant to her, she had so many other friends to choose from already. And Blake, alluring, beautiful Blake, was too antisocial to respond much to Ruby and Yang's advances, let alone make any of her own.

One of the arguments she had had with Ruby strayed into her mind for a moment, filling her senses with the sights and sounds of the emerald forest, back when they were lost and Weiss was trying to get her bearings, panicking but trying her best not to let it show. Ruby had snapped at her, "Well, stop acting like you're perfect!" Those words cut through Weiss more than any sword, any spear, any claw, any fang, could have, it brought a stinging pain all the way to her very core. She was the most imperfect human being she knew, with countless wounds all over her crumbled soul, but she was forbidden from showing that to anyone. Almost bitterly, she had spat out, "I'm not perfect!" Before she could reveal her true fragility and pain, she quickly raised her guard and forced out something haughty, narrowly saving herself. "Not yet," she had said, as if she could ever be perfect. Fortunately, Ruby was not the best at reading people and failed to catch her bluff; Weiss was sure that Blake definitely would have.

Weiss hoped that she would be content with loneliness throughout her stay at Beacon and continue putting up a convincing act regardless for this part of the play that was her miserable life. However, in reality, things loved to go horribly wrong and make you miserable; that little, ignorable attraction she had felt toward Blake had changed, mutated, morphing into a flame that demanded she try befriend the dark haired girl.

To remind herself of who she was, Weiss did something she never would have done otherwise, step in front of a mirror and look herself in the eye. It would hurt her terribly, she knew that well, but it was the only way she could hope to rid herself of that unbearable, brainless desire deep in her frozen heart. She could not help but flinch at what she saw gazing back at her, her knees buckling beneath her and her heart twisting with disgust and pain. Anyone else would see a breathtakingly beautiful ice princess with snow white hair, crystal blue eyes and skin like porcelain, but Weiss knew better; she could not help but know better.

Clenching her fists, the white haired girl pleaded with the mirror, "I can keep it from the world, why won't you let me hide from me?" The words came from her song, the song she had written to express her pain and yearning, a song that had raised much controversy on her life, her happiness and her mental state when she first sang it. It galled her parents considerably to deflect all those worries and questions, and they forbade her from singing publicly from that day onward. Sighing, she studied the wounded, hollow-eyed girl that was her reflection, the scarred girl who wore brilliant masks at her parents' bidding, and told herself, "Remember, this is not for you, it is for them. You are Weiss Schnee, and no amount of hoping and yearning will change that."

Her heart was but a shattered mess of chains and blood, nothing else. Sighing again, she stepped out of her clothes and headed into the shower, having stood at the mirror for long enough. Fortunately, she was the last girl in the shower; she would have created a line otherwise.

Turning the knob to cold, she stood silently as freezing water poured over her slim, pale body. Exhaling shakily, she felt the cold nip at her skin, nothing in comparison to the blizzard that raged in her frozen, lonely heart. She thought almost bitterly of her name, Weiss Schnee, of the gleaming white snow that it meant. The pretty princess Snow White's heart was frozen over with the very thing that she was named after; the freezing snow was the very thing that hurt her so badly she could barely continue to live.

Weiss hoped that the biting cold would numb her again, would kill that burning desire within her for Blake Belladonna. She had to turn her heart to stone, it was the only way she could survive a life like this one. That way, she would have nothing to oppress or repress, nothing to hide, and she would no longer feel like a miserable marionette forced into some sinister puppet show against her will. She would not be happy, she probably never would be, but not feeling anything was miles better than being downright depressed.

"Hey, Weiss," when she emerged from the shower, Ruby once again attempted to be as friendly as she could be, "Care to join us for dinner?" Why could she not leave her alone? Had Weiss not been cold and arrogant enough to chase that silver eyed girl off?

Miserable and icy, Weiss snapped, "Not in your dreams." Yang made some sort of comment about her bad mood (she might have mentioned something about it being someone's "time of the month"), but the white haired girl was much too upset to snap at her for it. Pushing past them, she headed back to the empty dormitory where she could cry her heart out in peace and privacy; everyone else would be at dinner, stuffing their faces. The lucky things, able to do as they pleased, free from the chains that kept Weiss firmly bound to her parents' every whim…

When she passed Blake, she briefly noticed a flash of emotion in those hypnotizing amber eyes; was it… sympathy? Putting it out of mind, the white haired girl fled before her tears started to fall, right there in front of all her teammates. She could not let that happen, she could not imagine the price they would all have to pay if she did.

Curled up in a tight ball in her sleeping area, Weiss let out the pain that she had hidden in her heart, her shoulders shaking with her sobs. Within her, emptiness swirled and ate incessantly at her, gouging wounds in her already shattered soul. She hated it, that once in a while it all got too much for her to bear and she had to cry her heart out like a wounded child. She hated that she would always flinch whenever she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, however brief. She hated it all, but she could not help it, she was only human after all, and all humans had feelings.

That was why she needed a heart of stone, so she would no longer have to feel any of those horrible emotions that tormented her and made her life a living hell. A heart of stone trusted no one and was trusted by no one, it was a heart that took the path of loneliness by choice and felt neither pain nor sorrow. Her lonely heart had curled in on itself defensively, trying to harden itself, but it ended up pushing away the only thing that could help it. Companionship with trustworthy people, that was all that could save Weiss from the jaws of a loneliness-induced insanity. Companionship, the very thing she had to reject, to steer clear of.

The softest sound of footsteps right at the edge of her bed made Weiss tense, her hand instinctively seeking Myrtenaster, her powerful rapier stocked with high quality Dust mined and purified by the Schnee company, a weapon that gave her an edge over the others yet made her weaker for it. As her hand wrapped around the hilt of the rapier, Weiss sensed that the aura of the intruder was not at all threatening in any way; she assumed that it was one of the girls that slept next to her intruding briefly to get something she needed. Releasing Myrtenaster, comfortingly weighed down by the full barrels of Dust within, the white haired girl focused on all the sounds made by the person before her, refusing to raise her head from the shelter of her blanket. There was a scuffing sound of feet shuffling awkwardly, the sound of clothing being pressed, shifted; this person was on edge, for some reason currently unknown to her.

"Weiss…?" Said girl recognized the velvety purr instantly; it was Blake, and she sounded rather nervous, "What's wrong?"

"Everything," she longed to snap bitterly, but how could she? Ruining the image of a perfectly happy and arrogant heiress with all she ever wanted was absolutely forbidden. No one could know how trapped and lonely Weiss felt, not even the other elites; she had to seem as if she had more than she could ever want for all the time. She had to continue pushing everyone away, especially that observant and sensitive dark haired girl; otherwise, there would be Hell to pay for them both.

"Just… tired," she said softly, uncharacteristically, yawning as loudly as she dared; she hoped to convince Blake that it was but a mere physical exhaustion that was bothering her, instead of a soul-deep, painfully dark despair. Hidden beneath the covers, Weiss could still practically see the doubt flickering across Blake's cat-like, hypnotizing amber eyes.

However, Blake chose to leave her as she was, advising her to get some rest so she would feel better in the morning. Forcing an edge of haughtiness into her tone, Weiss replied, "I can take care of myself."

Even through the sheets, she could feel Blake's sympathetic and empathetic gaze upon her. Very softly and very sadly, without an ounce of taunting or insolence in her voice, the dark warrior whispered, "Sure you can…"

Weiss lacked the heart to snap at her for the comment, waiting for the alluring dark haired girl's footsteps to fade before allowing her tears to continue falling.

"Blake Belladonna…"

The longing in her heart for said girl was tearing Weiss apart, how could she desire another girl so strongly that she was willing to risk absolutely everything just to get one day, one moment, alone with her? What was this strange, burning feeling in her chest…?

"I think I love you…"

A/N: Please leave a review telling me how you felt about the story! Thank you very much!

Haruka