The first time they had a one on one talk, they were on one of the balconies.

Weiss frowned as she stared at her feet. Her hands traveled to the rim of her skirt absentmindedly, gripping it as tight as she could. Professor Port's words were still haunting her; kept her in their grasp.

Deep down she knew what they meant. That didn't mean she could accept them. Not fully, not yet. She still deserved better. A proper leader, not a child.

The sound of approaching footsteps pulled her out of her thoughts. As usual she made herself as small as possible, nervously keeping her gaze locked on the doorway.

"– worry dad. Ruby and I are on the same team. I'll keep an eye on her."

That voice.

Weiss' eyes widened briefly. Why did it have to be her?

The blonde brawler walked, as nonchalant as ever, straight towards the edge of the balcony. It seemed she hadn't seen Weiss yet, and that caused her to sigh in relief.

The heiress kept a watchful eye on her teammate. Yang said a few things she couldn't quite hear. She didn't want to listen in on the conversation, but she couldn't help it when the blonde started to raise her voice slightly.

"Everything's fine, I'm sure we can handle our little problems together. If the stories from uncle Qrow are true, you weren't always a functional team either!" Yang commented playfully before laughing in amusement. Weiss frowned.

She couldn't see her teammate's face from her position. Yang had turned her back to her. Things were silent for a few seconds, and then she could see the blonde's shoulders tensing a little.

Her frown grew deeper.

"Anyway, I gotta go dad. I still have a few things to unpack," Yang continued. Her tone wasn't as chipper as usual, and it sounded very forced. Did something happen? "Love you!"

It wasn't directed at her, but those words stung. They were enough to break her out of her skeptical reverie. She briefly looked back at her feet, partly because she was out of it and partly because she didn't want Yang to see her and start a conversation.

To her surprise she didn't hear any footsteps. The only thing that filled the tense air was a deep sigh.

Weiss raised an eyebrow and looked back over to Yang. She was still leaning against the railing of the balcony's edge. Her shoulders were slumped.

The heiress couldn't see what she was doing. Was she gazing at the stars? It looked like she was staring ahead.

Whatever it was, it wasn't her business. Weiss straightened her back and decided to mind her own. Yang might've come here to have some time alone and she was more than willing to give her that.

Besides, she still had her own battle to deal with.

Her lips formed a thin line. Professor Port wanted her to become the best person instead of the best leader. It wasn't that easy, it didn't work like that. It wasn't going to be enough.

Weiss' eyes trailed back to Yang. She caught herself and quickly turned her head the other way. Why would she care about the blonde's reason to be here? Yang wasn't paying her any mind.

Perhaps that was what she wanted. For Yang to notice her.

Preposterous. They obviously hated each other, so why would Yang come to her?

Despite her own reasoning, blue eyes darted back to the brawler once more. She stared right into lilac.

Weiss almost jumped off the bench she was seated on. She made sure her back was as straight as it could be and took great care in squaring her shoulders. Unfortunately she forgot about her facial expression.

Yang started to come her way. Slowly, as if she was creeping towards her prey and every wrong move would scare it off. Weiss felt like a scared deer in Yang's headlights.

"Weiss." She sounded neutral, something the heiress hadn't expected. Anger would've been more appropriate, if Yang's behavior from the past few days were an indicator.

After a short moment of silence she was finally able to pull her lips apart. "Yang."

Without any sort of invite the blonde plopped down next to her. Weiss noticed the corner of Yang's mouth twitched upwards. "I don't know what you said to Rubes earlier, but she's built a bookfort around her."

Weiss blinked.

"I'd expect something like that from Blake, y'know, with all her books and stuff? We usually use blankets and pillows," Yang continued. Weiss still didn't understand what she was getting at.

"What?"

The blonde let out a laugh. "She's studying. Cramming, actually. I've never seen her try so hard, and I saw what she was like with designing Crescent Rose." It caught her off-guard. Ruby was doing that for her?

A strange feeling gnawed at the pit of her stomach. Weiss couldn't look Yang in the eye anymore. The ground looked a lot more interesting.

"Hey," her teammate started in worry. From the corner of her eye she saw Yang's hand reaching for her, but it remained at a safe distance. "Everything okay?"

Weiss felt a bit nauseous. Professor Port was right. Ruby wasn't worthy of her title at first, but at least she was doing her best.

Because Weiss had asked her to.

She took a deep breath before sighing. "I made a huge mistake."

How could she be so stupid? What if she already ruined the bond with her partner? The year had barely started and she already justified the argument that she didn't deserve to go to Beacon. All because she was blinded by greed.

Her father would come to pick her up and take her back to the prison he called home.

Weiss' flow of thoughts abruptly came to a screeching halt when she felt light pressure on her shoulder. Alarmed, she looked up. Yang flashed her an encouraging smile.

She didn't know what to do with it.

"That's okay. We all make those. Want to talk about it?"

Weiss couldn't quite grasp the meaning of this. She frowned, opened her mouth to say something, but swiftly pressed her lips back together again.

Yang nodded in understanding. "It's also okay if you don't want to say anything. But if you need a shoulder, you can always use mine. Okay?" Her lilac eyes were filled with what Weiss could only describe as determination. She really couldn't comprehend Yang.

"Why?" was out in the open before she could stop herself. She took a hold of the fabric of her skirt.

This time it was Yang who was caught off-guard. "Why what?" she asked. "Why did I say that?"

Weiss refused to look her teammate in the eye. She nodded.

A chuckle escaped Yang. "Because I want to be there for you, Weiss. We're teammates, we're gonna get to know each other better." Weiss didn't need to see Yang to know she was smiling. "And I care about you."

Hearing those words was one thing, but being able to process and accept them was another.

"Why?" she repeated. "We've only known each other for a few days. Our first meeting wasn't very friendly," she argued. She rolled her eyes. "Not as bad as with your sister, but still." Her voice wavered.

Yang put her hand on top of Weiss'. The touch was gentle, almost non-existent, as if the blonde was afraid to hurt her. She wasn't made of porcelain. Weiss glared at Yang, causing the latter to pull her hand back immediately.

It dawned upon the heiress that Yang was only checking up on her. She didn't want to make Weiss feel uncomfortable.

"Weiss."

Yang's voice was so stern Weiss felt like she had to look at her.

"You're my teammate now. You're gonna be a part of my life," she explained. "Yeah we got off to a rocky start… So did you and Ruby…" Yang broke eye-contact, though just for a second. "But we're gonna have plenty of time to fix that. I'm sure we can become friends."

There was that trademark smile again. Weiss was a little annoyed she could smile this much.

She remained silent, despite the fact Yang was finished with her little speech. Her silence signaled the blonde to continue. "I'm going to do my best to make that happen. Okay?"

Weiss noticed Yang wasn't asking her to do the same. Was she really willing to go that far? For her?

If an obnoxious brawler was more than willing to do her best for just a teammate, who was she to not be willing to do the same for her partner? Her leader?

Weiss nodded. "Okay," she slowly replied. Yang's smile widened. "I…" the heiress added in uncertainty. She mentally berated herself. "I'm going to do the same for you."

An arm wrapped itself around her and she was pulled into the blonde. "Aww, thanks!" the blonde said. Weiss regretted her actions.

She shook her head slightly. Not at all. It felt nice.

Warm.

"Oh, hey," Yang continued. She pulled back to put some distance in between them. "Speaking of things."

Weiss fought the urge to sigh.

"Thanks." The heiress raised an eyebrow. "For, y'know, saving Ruby back in the forest. I wouldn't have made it in time."

Seeing that serious look in her eyes, Weiss smirked a little. "You said it yourself," she replied. "We're teammates. We need to look out for each other."

Yang mirrored her smirk before getting up from the bench and stretching. "Good talk, but I'm pretty tired. Wanna come with?"

Weiss shook her head. "You go on ahead. I'll be there shortly."

The blonde eyed her in concern.

"I still need to make a phone-call," she lied. She didn't want to go back just yet. There were things she needed to think about; words that needed to be sorted out.

Her lie was enough to get Yang off her tail. "Oh, yeah. I'll see you later."

With a final smile Yang left the balcony. Weiss only had more to mull about.

A/n: Yang thanking Weiss for saving Ruby... I really missed that in the show. Even if it was just an off-hand comment, they should've added it. That way we know Yang really cares for her baby sister, and that she's trying to reach out to her other teammates. I don't know. The lack of Yang in volume 1 always bothered me.

Anyway! Hope you liked it. I wanted to mirror their talk in Volume 5 because I really love parallels, and because their roles are pretty much reversed the first two volumes. This is the actual start of the Freezerburn build-up ;)