Snowed In

Weiss’ eyes slitted as she rolled over. Gods above, no. She thought she had gotten off tonight without them fucking. She’d thought it was just an indoor date night. They had been doing a movie marathon of the extended edition of that one trilogy. She thought she was safe from it tonight. Apparently not.  Apparently they’d gotten bored of their trilogy and decided Jerard’s bed was a more inviting prospect. It was three in the damn morning! It was at least a Saturday night, but still! Gods, she should have known as soon as Dave had shown up that her fate was sealed. She got up and looked out the window with a frown. It was snowing pretty good out there. Blake and Yang were in different dorm buildings than her, so she really didn’t want to go out. She would end up soaked by the snow. She really didn’t feel like changing, getting wet, then having to change again once she got to one of their dorms. Plus, it was so late in the night. Their roommates probably wouldn’t be too happy if she showed up unannounced too. She really was stuck.  She changed into some pants and grabbed her bookbag then headed down to the communal kitchen. It was basically guaranteed to be empty at this time of morning. Who would be making anything at three in the morning? She had never seen anybody down there on the odd occasion she’d come back late from the library. She would be alone and that would be fine with her. Except…she wasn’t alone. The light was already on. And the smell of baking cookies was pungent. Not in a bad way because it reminded her of home on Patch. It made her think of Summer and holidays and other good things like that. But who would be up and baking at three in the morning? She saw a blond man sitting at the dining table with a laptop. He didn’t seem to notice her at all. Oh. He had his headphones plugged into his laptop, probably watching videos. He could’ve watched them on a low voice. But then again, if there were any Faunus like Blake, they would hear it loud and clear. They might still be able to hear through his earbuds, but it wasn’t as bad as if it were the normal computer speakers. That was really thoughtfu— Oh. She saw his monkey tail curled around the chair leg loosely. He was a Faunus too.  No wonder he was so thoughtful about it. She sat down at the table and saw his eyes settle on her. She smiled and waved but didn’t say anything to him. She did have some homework to do. Why bother him unnecessarily? So she pulled her books out and her table out to start filling in the worksheets one of her professors had assigned her. It was silent for a little while until he stood up and went over to the oven. He pulled out some chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. He put some on a plate and put them in front of Weiss with a grin, his tail curling. “Figured you could use a snack,” he offered. Weiss smiled pleasantly. “Thank you. Are you sure it’s okay, though?” She saw numerous containers full of cookies sitting on the counter. What was he doing with so many of them? That had to be at least four or five hours worth of effort. She didn’t want to take away his hard work. But it was pretty hard to resist fresh cookies from the oven… “I’m the one makin’ em so what I say goes!” He continued to grin. That was awfully nice of him. She did have to admit she was kind of hungry .She normally ate about six at night but she’d missed dinner the previous night. She’d gotten to work with the FHA president directly and had needed to arrive early. And she’d forgotten to stop for dinner on the way. By time she’d gotten back, she’d been too tired to want to do anything, so she’d just gone to bed. “Well, thanks again. I appreciate it. Why are you making so many cookies if you don’t mind my asking?” She was really curious. She’d never seen so many fresh-baked cookies in her life before. It had to be big if he were making so many. “LARP club needs some funds to rent out the gym for the rest of the semester. We thought we had enough, but the college raised the price by 25%. So we’re doing a bake sale to raise the rest of the funds. It’s unpleasant to spend hours outside in the snow, so yeah.” His tail curled before relaxing. Well, that was entirely unfair. The school was hustling its clubs from the sound of it. Then again…  “If you need somewhere to go, I can probably offer you a place. It’s a little out of the way, but we have free transport out there.” Weiss showed him some pictures of the ballroom in the Schnee family’s former Valian vacation home. “My sister would gladly lend it out to your club if you wanted. But if you want to do the bake sale, I understand. It’s just an offer.” Weiss smiled at him warmly, though she got a blank stare in response. Had she said something wrong? She wasn’t trying to upset or undercut him and his efforts. She understood people liked to do things for themselves, but she could still offer. “Uh, who did you say you were again?” His voice was a little hoarse and his tail hung limp. “Um, I’m Weiss Schnee.” Most people recognised her pretty quickly, but it simply flew over some people’s head. Apparently this guy hadn’t realised who she was. She was only trying to help if he wanted it. Hopefully she hadn’t overstepped her bounds. He laughed quietly to himself for a few moments before looking at her. “Never thought I’d run into the Schnee dynasty over cookies. Anyway, we would prefer to keep things more centrally located here at the college. I appreciate the offer, but it’s easier to keep things here. Sorry if that offends you.” Weiss shook her head. “Not at all. It was an offer. But if you’d like to have more space for baking, you could use the kitchens at the Indigo Home. Things there are usually quiet between nine and eleven, then two and four. Plus after eight in the evening. We have high-capacity oves that could hold more than two cookies sheets.” She could see the two sheets sitting on the counter and two more in the oven. She was trying to be nice and offer him some help. It seemed like he was really pushing this tiny kitchen to its capacity… The guy tapped his cin. “That does sound better than doing these two at a time. The bake sale is Tuesday… Would you be able to take me and some other friends tomorrow?” “Sure!” She smiled warmly at him. She couldn’t sense anything nefarious from him. He seemed to only really want to bake. “Bring any supplies you have, though we do have a fully stocked kitchen with typical ingredients.” They didn’t really have anything for gluten free or other issues like that unfortunately. But if they needed anything like that, they could bring it themselves. Gluten free would be good for a bake sale, though. She saw him (presumably) send some texts and he grinned. “All right; sounds like a plan. Name’s Sun Wukong by the way. You seem pretty all right, Schnee.” Apparently he didn’t pay attention to he news. Winter had taken control of the SDC a few years ago and she was doing everything she could to make things right by all the workers—but mainly Faunus. Everyone had a living wage now and anybody branded by Gelé could get up to twenty thousand lien in compensation.  “I was mostly raised in Vale, so I hope I would have values of fairness, equality, charity, and others,” she observed. Unfortunately, some Atlassian issues had wormed their way into her mind, but she mainly held Valian values close. It was hard to not get offended when someone assumed she hated Faunus or other groups just because of her last name. But she’d learned to keep a cool head about it most of the time. People just needed to learn a name didn’t mean anything. Sun rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry for assuming. Like most Faunus, I’ve heard horror stories about the SDC.” “Do you not pay attention to a news?” It was a simple question. She didn’t know some people didn’t bother with it, but how could somebody have no idea about the SDC takeover?  “To be honest, not really. I stay pretty far from it since a lot of it’s so depressing. I’d rather keep my sun- ny—” He grinned and winked. Weiss rolled her eyes. Puns. “—disposition. I had heard about Winter Schnee taking over a few years ago, but I never really looked into it. I guess I probably shoulda, huh?” “Probably,” Weiss concurred. “It isn’t more of the same. Winter works with Faunus rights organisations to make sure things are fair and a bunch of other stuff. But I won’t bore you with all of those details.” If he wanted to look into Winter’s policies, that was on him. It was all public information. It really was up to him if he wanted to learn about it.  “Anyway, why are you out here if you don’t mind my asking?” She saw Sun starting to pack up a bit though he still had cookies cooling and some in the over. Might as well get a bit of an early start, she supposed. Weiss sighed. “My roommate and his boyfriend are fucking.” Sun made a noise. “Ouch, that’s rough. One of my buddies back home is a bit of a fuckboy. So I get it.” He hesitated for some reason. “If you’ve got nowhere else to stay, you can sleep on my bed and I’ll sleep on the couch. I’m not trying to…” His cheeks colored a fair bit. “I’m not like Neptune. Consider it repayment for letting me use your kitchen tomorrow.” Weiss smiled a bit. “You seem sweet and genuine. I do have some friends on campus I could stay with, but they’re in other buildings. I’d rather not venture out into the snow at this time of night.” Most guys wouldn’t be so awkward if they wanted to get into her pants. She saw no reason not to give him a chance. If he did try anything funny, she knew how to defend herself. Qrow had taught her how to break arms, dislocate shoulders, and shear wrists. She wasn’t the weak little doll that Gelé had wanted her to be. She was so fortunate Summer had scooped her up at such a young age… “My dorm’s on the floor above.” Well, that at least wasn’t too far away. “Oh, yeah, I’ll help you carry those cookie containers too.” From the looks of it, he might have to make a few trips… She was an aura user, so a few containers of cookies was no big deal to her. He blinked. ”Really? Thanks, Weiss.” “He grinned, then looked at his computer. He took the trays out of the oven and placed the cookies on the cooling racks. “Want some more? You had the look of someone that was hungry on your face earlier.” Weiss felt her cheeks heat up. “I…might have skipped dinner. But I don’t want to take away from your potential profits!” They were making baked goods for a reason! She couldn’t take away from that! “Eh, a couple cookies won’t be missed. He refreshed her plate with a few more. It was really hard to resist fresh, warm cookies. “Thank you. I really do appreciate it.” Half a dozen cookies wouldn’t really make a dent to a hungry aura user, but it was still better than nothing. She ate them without protest. Not as good as Summer’s but not half bad. “So what are you studying?” Sun sat back down and curled his tail around the chair.  “Conservation. I’m going to start a raptor rehab here in Vale. My sister’s having the facility built while I’m in school.” It would be more than raptors, but they would be her main focus. She had several large flight chambers being built as well as other smaller chambers. She would live off SDC funds since it’d be a nonprofit, but at least she’d be giving back somehow. She’d still be involved with Faunus rights, but not on the international stage anymore. She had her goshawk and she needed to be hunted almost everyday to keep her aggression down. “What about you?”  “Huh, can’t say I expected to see a Schnee so into the natural world. I’m here for culinary.” “Daddy’s from the Branwen tribe. He instilled a love of nature into me and my sisters. Although I know somebody you might want to meet if you haven’t already. Do you know anything about Menagerine cooking?” Weiss knew how to cook but it wasn’t a major passion of her. She had learned mainly because Summer insisted. Though Blake had opened up her eyes quite a bit to how culture was connected to cooking. The gap year in Menagerie with Blake had opened her eyes to a lot of different things. Sun tilted his head, then shook it. “Nope. Not a lot of material out there on it. It’s extremely sought out in the Faunus culinary world.” He looked at her. “Do you know someone that knows how to do it…?” Weiss smiled and nodded. “My friend, Blake, was born and raised there for the first years of her life. She’s majoring in history but minoring in culinary.” It was a strange combination but Blake was a very unique person due to her history.   Sun’s eyebrows shot up at that. “She really ought to teach classes or write some cookbooks. I know food historians really want some sort of documentation on Menagerine cooking. It’s such an untapped area and those recipes may die eventually.” Weiss nodded. “Her mother might be better for that, honestly. I’ll see if I can’t convince Kali to do that…” Blake was busy with her studies and she wanted to expose the Pogrom. She’d have SDC backing for that so the government would have a hard time saying no to let her access those sites. Kali did deal with Menagerine politics, but she could step away form it for a little while to teach some classes. Blake just didn’t have the time. She was too busy with school and trying to get through as fast as possible. She was going for her Master’s at least so that would take considerable time… She really needed an assistant in Menagerie to record stories so she didn’t have to keep killing herself. “That would be great. The Menagerine people are so reclusive that it’s hard to get any real data on them in any field.” She saw Sun relax in his chair a bit but she nodded. She’d seen it herself firsthand. Winter was helping them modernise but it would be a slow process. She could only offer them resources and let them do what they could. Kali and Ghira were at the helm of it, much to the relief of the people themselves. “Thankfully, Winter’s policies are starting to change that, but it’s delicate work.” From what Winter had said, there were setbacks at times. The Menagerine people didn’t like to be studies, but certain things like the language needed documentation. Well, languages. No two creoles of Menagerine were the same. It was a massive undertaking to try to document and standardise over twenty different creoles. Winter was doing her best, but that took up so many resources. “I can only imagine. Well, at least change is happening.” He stretched a bit. “So you got any hobbies?” “My main one is falconry which is why I’m starting the raptor rehab. I have a goshawk, kestrel, and peregrine I fly. I’ve been doing that since I was about thirteen.” Summer had purchased a gyrfalcon for Qrow as a present due to him having grown up with falconry. Weiss had been beyond intrigued so he’d taken her on as an apprentice. Her first bird had been a passage red tail, non-aura breed. It had taught a lot of what she needed to know about raptor psychology and instincts before she moved onto aura breeds. She’d flown him for a couple of seasons then released him before moving onto her peregrine. “That sounds pretty rad. Ever consider something like LARP before?” He grinned and Weiss shook her head. “I’ve tabletopped a few times with my family and it wasn’t for me.” She couldn’t get into it. She stuck to the rules too much to allow for something like homebrew. Summer had tried multiple different modules on multiple different systems and it was just not for her. “Plus, I don’t really have the time.” Between classes, Faunus rights, and falconry, her schedule was pretty backed. “That sucks. It’s so much fun, but I know it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Maybe you could bring one of your birds out one time, though. We have some characters with raptor familiars. I think it’d be sweet if they could see one up close. Whatcha think?” He grinned and Weiss tapped her chin. Of course, the average person had never really seen a bird of prey up close. It might be an interesting way to get people acquainted with them…” “When do you meet?” Sun’s smile turned absolutely brilliant. “Tuesdays at five in the gym and every other Thursday at the same time. In the warmer months, we just use the quad courtyard.”  “I usually wrap up hunting around quarter at five, so I could probably get her about six one day.” It would be pushing it a bit, but she could squeeze with her peregrine. Not her goshawk, though. The bird was too high strung to be around groups. She’d messed up socialising her so she was more than a little screwed up in the head. Falcons were so much easier than accipiters. She really loved her longwings and couldn’t wait to get her own gyrfalcon. Sun got up and packed the rest of the cookies away. “Mind helping me with these boxes?”  “Not at all.” She tucked her stuff away in her bag then picked up what he told her to. There were so many damn cookies he’d made. If they didn’t sell them all, he could leave them out. Hungry college students wouldn’t let anything go to waste. That and there was always the Indigo Home too. The people there are always appreciated a well-made baked good. She followed him up the stairs to his dorm which was relatively tidy and neat. She could see some clothes strewn about but it wasn’t too bad. She placed the containers on the counter and he opened a door for her. “Here ya go. I know it ain’t much, but hopefully it do for tonight.” Weiss smiled and nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” “Good night.” He closed the door and she shut the light off. She curled up in the bed and quickly fell asleep. She was absolutely exhausted after a day out in the freezing cold with her birds and then helping Sienna…