The Bloodstained Rose

Two Steps Back

Ruby looked up at Weiss in horror.

How can she kill someone like her? Someone who had done nothing but treat her kindly while the world knows she's an abomination? Why would Weiss even think that? What kind of sick twist is it that her dreams coincide with her own?

"Y-You can't be serious." The silence Weiss gave her was enough to confirm that those dreams were as she told.

Death in her hands, over and over again. Could it be possible that this was her curse instead? To have someone she loves die to her fault? But why? She suffered long in a cold prison alone, forgotten.

She knew Destiny has something for them the day Weiss set her free, the moment she laid eyes on Weiss. But dying in her arms was not something she wanted to happen. Her dream and own are too similar. Too close. It's not far away from being true.

Weiss looked away from Ruby with despair in her eyes. Once her eyes laid on the room, her breath hitched, her heart beating fast in fear.

"What have I done..." She whispered to herself as she saw the destruction she has brought upon the room. Everything coated with ice. Everything frozen.

Ruby was still reeling herself in when Weiss saw the room. "You must have used your semblance in your sleep?"

"This isn't my semblance, Ruby. Creation from ice is my semblance, not destruction." Weiss wilted on her spot, looking down at her shaking and pale hands. "Is this...what our bloodline gave me?"

Ruby can't answer her. Nothing like this has happened to anyone she knew. Even her magic was nothing this strong in comparison. "I don't know, Weiss."

Silence fell around them as the room hummed with power from the cold. "I hate it."

Weiss slipped away from the bed, her feet touching the frozen ground. Crystallized and cold, the room was quiet. It felt like her room back in Atlas. Where she often spent a lot of time reading. Where she watched inside out as the ice of Atlas remain around their properties.

"I don't want it." She said picking up a frosted scalpel on a tray. As if she thought and willed it, the object defrosted and in hand. The scalpel glinted under the lights from the chandelier. "I have lived too long in the cold. I don't want to create it."

Ruby approached the girl and snatched the blade from her hand in case she wanted to harm herself. "It's a part of you now. No amount of magic can remove what has been your centuries and generations before you have been born."

Weiss looked up at Ruby, a pained look in her eyes. "Ruby the cold is cruel. Unforgiving. My family, the high society of Atlas-- Everyone around me knows this."

The vampire knows she can't take away that pain. That doesn't mean that the engraved mindset given to Weiss is unchangeable. Ruby can help her cope with it like her mother has helped her with her transition.

"You know, the cold is beautiful. Winter nights can be so nice with a loved one by the fire, snuggling. Winter brings people closer Weiss." Ruby pointed out, taking Weiss' hand in hers before pulling her in her arms. "The cold brought me closer to you."

The heiress didn't know what to do but stand in surprise as Ruby embraced her, warmth spreading around her. "You dolt, you sound too cheesy."

"You're warming up to me at least...~ " Ruby pointed out.

Weiss gave back the embrace and watched as the room unfroze and crept back to normal. She smiled. "It looks like it."

They pulled away after, their smiles staying as they did. It wasn't until then did Ruby hear someone running down the hall up to the main floor. Weiss must have heard it too if it made the girl break to a run.