RWBY Silver Eyed Warrior Chapter 25: An Apology (Patreon)

“Weiss Schnee is the winner!”

Words that should’ve made her feel some sense of accomplishment and pride in her abilities. Even if her opponent was just some child.

Weiss glared across the arena, letting the glyphs she’d formed around Corvo fade away. His aura had fallen into the red, hers just barely ahead in the yellow, disappointment replacing the infuriating grin that’d been on his face. Facts that should’ve reinforced her victory over him.

All she felt was frustration.

“You may return to the stands.” Professor Goodwitch said, the both of them putting away their weapons and leaving the stage from opposite sides.

Her fist tightened, bottom lip curling into her mouth.

She underestimated him at first. She’d fully admit that. Her initial plan had been to quickly overwhelm him, either forcing him out of the arena or striking away at his shield while keeping him on the defensive with superior speed. That’d failed miserably, Corvo quick to prove there was real logic behind his presence here at Beacon by forcing her to make greater use of her semblance.

Even then, he was little more than a child in over his head.

Then, with that semblance of his, not activated by words like she expected but a simple snap of his fingers, left her disarmed and-

“Hey Weiss!” Weiss stiffened up as she stepped out into the empty halls that surrounded the arena, the door behind her pushing open just before it closed. She was tempted to just ignore him and head up the stairs leading back up to the stands but stopped.

Did he chase after her to gloat?

To ensure that she knew she’d lost long before the match’s result was called?

“You were awesome. How did your semblance do all that different stuff? Was it the dust in your weapon?” As he ran his mouth, asking all sorts of random junk like he really was some child, Weiss bit down harder into her lip. Frustration or anger. She couldn’t tell which one was winning but both were growing with every word that left his mouth. “What else can you do with-“

“Would you stop running your mouth?” Weiss said whipping around to face him. “What’s your game here?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Him playing dumb only made her that much angrier, her face grow hotter and heart thumping in her ears. She closed the distance between them, Corvo stepping back against the door that’d closed behind them.

“You went out of your way to humiliate me down there.” Weiss said glaring up at him. “What did you think was going to happen afterwards? Did you think you could just act like you didn’t turn me into a laughingstock in front of all of our classmates, our professor?”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.” He insisted. She’d like to think she knew a liar when she saw with. After everything she had to put up with in Atlas, from her own father to all the people interested in the Schnee name, she had more than enough experience with such people.

Could someone actually be that dense? So stupid that they didn’t realize what handing over her weapon after their fight turned into such a one sided affair meant? He might as well have screamed to everyone in the room that he thought she was nothing more than a weakling.

No, no matter how innocent he seemed, everything from his raised hands and unsure eyes pointing towards confusion, he couldn’t be that stupid. He was just a better liar than most.

“Just leave me alone.” She said, taking off.

They had a child for a leader. Another child petty enough to carry out that whole humiliating show. And a teammate who barely talked, her nose buried in a book even during classes.

This whole team was a mistake.

XOXO

Corvo stared up at the stage lights pointed down at the arena below.

He was used to people from Signal either being angry or annoyed with him after a fight, few of his classmates willing to fight him unless it was required by their combat instructor. Nothing new so what happened with Weiss shouldn’t really bother him. Especially with how she was treating Ruby. But he’d never actually cared to follow up with any of them before. Whatever their problem with him, it wasn’t like it mattered all that much.

But Weiss was his teammate. They’d be sharing a room for four whole years. Not to mention the fact that Ruby actually wanted to be friends with the girl.

He couldn’t just ignore the fact that she was angry at him.

“What’s wrong?” Ruby asked, poking his cheek.

“I’m pretty sure Weiss hates me.” He admitted. She’d returned to the stands but had gone out of her way to sit away from their mingled teams, in a whole different part of the arena.

“Yeah, I’d hate you too.” Yang said.

“Me three.” Nora said.

“Wha-“ Corvo looked down at all them, at a complete loss. “I didn’t even do anything.”

“I wish that were true, but you may have crossed certain lines.” Pyrrha agreed with them. “Especially against someone who takes as much prides in what she does as Weiss. I know you like to enjoy fights but giving up your advantage like that was a bit insensitive to her.”

“I thought I was being pretty sensitive.” Corvo said. “Come on, you were all watching the fight. She isn’t good at hand to hand, so I gave her back her weapon so we we’re evenly matched.” That wasn’t really the reason he did it, but it was pretty sound logic.

“Oh please, we both know you were just trying to have fun. If you were taking it seriously you would’ve just gone for the win and kicked her out of the arena.” Yang said, tilting her head back to look up at him. “This is part of the reason you never had any friends back at Signal, dude.”

“I was taking it seriously. Training is about getting better not winning. Ringing someone out isn’t going to help with that.”

Yang clicked her tongue, shaking her head. “Doesn’t change the fact that you pretty much bullied her in front of everyone.”

“So what, I’m supposed to apologize for giving her weapon back to her?”

“Whoa, I didn’t say that. Ice Queen needs to stop being so uptight over everything too.” Yang said. “But if you and Ruby actually want to be friends with that girl, you should probably do that. You know what mom says about being the one to take the first step and all that.”

Wanting to be friends was a strong way to put not wanting to cause trouble for Ruby, but he guessed Yang was right. He did kind of want to be on decent enough terms with her. At least enough to ask her more about her semblance and weapon.

Ruby, who’d been quiet, tapped her leg to his while everyone returned to watching the fight. “I could try and apologize for you. I mean making sure the team gets along is part of being captain, right?”

“Maybe.” It would be a lot easier to just let Ruby handle but like Pyrrha told him, she was probably already under some pressure especially when Weiss still hating her. “But I do want to say sorry myself if what I did bothered her that much. We are all supposed to be spending the next four years together.

“Alright but if you need help let me know. I’ll try and come up with a plan.”

Corvo nodding, before, with a sigh, looking down towards the fight.

Blake and Ren were down in the arena fighting. Both were pretty agile, dodging and weaving around each other’s weapons, Ren’s some kind of short blades with SMGs built into their curved guards.  Their similar ways of fighting was actually creating a pretty interesting match, his own eagerness at the thought of fighting either one of them growing.

One odd thing he noticed was the way Blake’s bow moved but he just brushed it off, focusing on the real challenge ahead of him.

Apologizing to Weiss.

XOXO

What did he know about Weiss?

She took classes seriously. She was mean. And actually a pretty good fighter with a super cool semblance.

So not a lot.

“You don’t need to think so hard about it, Corvo.” He nearly jumped on the spot, spinning around to find Pyrrha stepping out her dorm room. She was in full armor with her weapons on her back.

“Where are you headed?” He asked.

“Just some team training. I thought I should get a head start on that sort of thing and the others agreed.” Pyrrha explained as she closed the distance between them, smiling down at him. “You’re a good person, anyone can see that, so you don’t have to do anything fancy. If you show her you’re being sincere, I’m sure she’ll see it.”

“Doesn’t really mean she’ll accept the apology.”

“That is true but, like Yang said, this is just about taking the first step. What Weiss choses to do is up to her.” Pyrrha leaned down, pecking him on the cheek. “Good luck.”

Luck was something he was going to need a lot of.

After watching Pyrrha leave he took a breath and stepped into the room.

Ruby was off asking Glynda for advice about being a leader and last he saw her Blake had headed in the direction of a different building without any explanation, so, as expected, Weiss was the only one in the room. Sitting at their desk, she was already going through all the notes she’d taken for the day and maybe even getting ahead on work for their classes.

She glanced his way, then back down without a word. Even if he hadn’t gotten further on her bad side that’s about all he would’ve expected from her.

Taking a chance to prepare himself he headed over his and Blake’s dresser, setting his scroll and headset down. Then with a deep breath he headed over to the side of the desk.

“Weiss.” Unsurprisingly, she flat out ignored him, continuing to go through her binder. She didn’t have earphones in either so its not like she couldn’t hear him. “I don’t want to bother you if you’re busy, but I do want to talk to you…so I guess say something if you want me to leave you alone.”

Silence. Probably the silent treatment rather than her wanting to hear what he had to say but if she wasn’t going to interrupt him, that was perfect for what he wanted to do.

“I’m going to take that as permission to talk now.” He said, ignoring his own hesitation. “Look, I’m sorry about what happened in combat class. I didn’t mean to make fun of you or anything like that.” He explained. “I just thought you and your weapon we’re really cool and wanted to fight with you more.” Crap that was probably a horrible way to phrase it.

“You’re saying I couldn’t match up to you without it.” Weiss stated without looking up.

“No that’s not-“ He stopped himself short. Pyrrha said be sincere and she sounded more confident about all this than he felt. “Look, I don’t want to lie to you. I’m pretty sure with it comes to hand to hand combat I’m way better than you.” Weiss glanced up to glare at him, her eyes like knives. “But training is all about getting better and overcoming challenges, you know. I wasn’t sure I could beat you with your semblance and weapon, so I gave them back to you and I lost, fair and square.” He sighed. “I don’t really know if any of that helps but I’m serious. I just wanted to say I’m sorry. That’s it.”

That was going to have to do. The more he talked the worse he made things.

He turned.

“Wait.” He looked over his shoulder. Weiss had moved, shifting to fully look up at him, arms crossed. “Anyone can just say they’re sorry. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“…do you want me to do something?” He questioned after a short silence.

Weiss nodded.

XOXO

(A/N: No people, Weiss is not a goner like the rest of us. She isn’t asking for any sexual favors.

Not yet.)