First long, multi-chapter fanfic on here! Enjoy!

It started with the coughing. Yang and Blake noticed a little later than Weiss did, but they noticed all the same. Ruby would sometimes cough for minutes at a time, before slipping back into a calm, undisturbed state. While the others might have passed it off as a cold, Weiss wasn't so sure.

-oo00oo-

It was winter time at Beacon Academy, and most people had gone to their homes for the holidays. Except for a few.

Pyrrha and Jaune had gone to the Nikos' estate, where the redhead champion would finally introduce her new boyfriend to her parents. Jaune simply hoped that they wouldn't kill him during the night.

Ren and Nora had gone back to their village. Being neighbors, they had agreed to meet each other somewhere with their families to make the festivities "doubly fun," in the words of Nora. Ren had simply stated it would be a breath of fresh air with some of his family.

Team RWBY, however, was going nowhere.

"Come on, Yang! We could at least go to the island and stay with Zwei for a few days!" Ruby Rose pleaded. Yang Xiao Long sighed, pushing her sister's embrace away from her body.

"Sorry, sis. Dad said not to go to the house while he was gone, so looks like we'll be here for Christmas."

"It won't be so bad." Weiss Schnee chimed in, noticing Ruby's downcast expression. "I'm certainly not going home, so I'll be here."

"And I don't have a home to go to." Blake Belladonna added. Yang grabbed her teammates in a massive hug with her strong arms.

"Aw yeah! Looks like it's a team RWBY Christmas!"

"Yeah!" Ruby shouted. "Even if the other students might be grumbling about not being able to go to their homes, we'll have the best Beacon Christmas eve-"

The crimsonette was cut off as she began coughing. Yang dropped them, worried that she had been crushing the 15-year-old on accident, but she coughed still.

"Ruby! Are you okay?" The nearby heiress shouted, grabbing the girl by the shoulders. The coughing subsided, and after a deep breath, Ruby smiled.

"Yup! Just a cough, winter does this to me."

While the others went back to laughing and having a grand time, Weiss stared hard at her leader. The girl seemed right as rain, but her cough had been violent, and looked terribly draining.

"Oh well." She shrugged after a bit of speculation. She was young, and strong. A little cough would go away in no time flat. There couldn't be anything major to worry about.

With that thought out of the way, Weiss grinned and jumped into the conversation with her friends.

-oo00oo-

"Alright, girls, first order of business, we need to get a tree!"

"How do we get a tree into the dorm?" Weiss deadpanned. The blonde brawler flashed her signature grin.

"I have a plan."

The plan consisted of Ruby using her scythe to cut down said tree, Yang carrying the tree to outside the dorm window, and Weiss using her glyphs to create a pathway to the window for the well-endowed teen to carry it up and push it through the opening.

The end of this project involved a whole lot of pine needles, and a Christmas tree that looked like someone had tried to turn it into a boomerang. The top of the tree bent to the side, pushed against the ceiling of the room.

"Well, gang, I think we did pretty well!" Yang girnned.

"'Pretty well' is not how I'd describe this." Blake said quietly, sniffing the branches like… well, a cat.

"OOH! Can we decorate it yet?" Ruby squealed. Weiss smiled and nodded, working with Yang to pull out a box of decorations.

The next few hours consisted of laughing, a bit of off-key singing, and all around merriment. Every now and again, Ruby would try to stifle a cough, but often to no avail. Yang would pound her sister on the back, saying something like "Just let it out," or "Poor girl, you're catching a cold." But for the most part, the afternoon went smoothly.

When night came, the dorm room seemed just that much cozier with the tree faintly glowing, sparkling with ornaments and tinsel and a star that they had to tape to the top so that it wouldn't fall off the tree.

"I'm happy that we got that tree." Ruby yawned from her bed.

"Yeah, it makes it feel more like home." Yang agreed. Blake stayed silent, though a smile danced on her face. Only Weiss' reaction was hidden.

"What's wrong, Ice Princess? Never had a tree before?"

"Well, no, actually." She admitted. "Father never cared much for that sort of thing. Mother was always sick, so she never was able to suggest we get one, and Winter… well, Winter was Winter. She was always so practical."

"That's sad." Ruby said softly.

"You get used to it." Weiss replied, brushing it off.

"Well don't worry." Ruby said, swinging over the edge and grabbing Weiss' hand firmly. "As of today, December 1st, I declare that this is going to be the best Christmas you've ever had!"

If only she knew how wrong she was.