A/N: It may be worth noting the obvious separate continuity from Cold and Warmth and other drabbles, and some more slightly disturbing imagery. Be kind. Review.
§SS§
Blood. Blood everywhere. Blood on the snow, on her hands- all over Ruby's chest. "Nononononono! This is not happening!" Weiss shouted frantically, desperately trying to stem the flow of red from the precious flower. "You're not dying on me, not now!"
Ruby groaned. The gashes from the ursa's claws were painful, as were the shattered ribs and collapsed lung resultant from the impact. She hacked up a little more of her lifeblood. "I'm okay... Not used to seeing this much of my own blood."
"Ruby, this isn't a time for jokes!" Weiss cried, leaking tears and choking on her sobs, her cold, professional demeanor evaporated in the face of trauma and tragedy. "Don't you realize what's going on?"
"I'm going to be fine, Weiss... I'm stubborn as a mule, remember?" She chuckled and coughed up some more blood, managing a strained, painful-looking smile.
Weiss kept choking back the massive lump in her throat. "Don't you leave on me..."
Ruby kept smiling in spite of the incredible, searing pain. "I'm not leaving you, Weiss. I love you too much." She hacked up some more blood, some of it clotted this time. Weiss looked at her in shock, unable to hold back full-blown crying any longer while Blake, tears in her own eyes, retained the good sense to use her scroll to contact medical help and Yang shivered and leaned against a nearby tree, unable to come to terms with the circumstances and covered in ursa bits.
Weiss looked down at Ruby, her tears falling on her younger friend's wounds. "You're really going to do this now, Ruby? You're going to give me the confession I've been waiting for while you're bleeding out on the snow?"
Ruby closed her eyes. "Well, I wouldn't have had to deal with it if you rejected me," she said.
"Ruby, quit making lame jokes, it's not the time... Besides, that's your sister's department," Weiss choked out.
"And now you're doing it. Shut up and lean closer."
"Anything right now," the older girl managed to get out around her crying, bending down closer.
As ever, Ruby Rose made it a point to surprise Weiss Schnee, grabbing her dress with one bloodied hand and dragging the older girl down to give her a kiss. All Weiss could taste was copper and iron, but that didn't seem to matter when she felt Ruby's tongue. Blake politely looked away, and Yang was willfully ignorant. They just kept sharing the kiss for a long moment. Weiss was almost as bloodied as Ruby now, but she didn't care.
"There," Ruby muttered, voice shaking, "I finally did it..."
Weiss held Ruby's head in her lap, crying all the more. "I always wanted that, but not like this," she sobbed. Ruby, ever selfless, took one of Weiss' hands in both of her own.
"It'll be okay, Weiss. Just remember, I love you." And with those words, Ruby finally passed out, just as the wailing siren of the ambulance came into hearing, making Yang perk up and Blake cringe.
She knew Ruby couldn't hear it, but she didn't care. "I love you too, Ruby."
§SS§
Some time later, Weiss sat in the back of the ambulance, accompanying Ruby Rose, the most precious flower she'd ever seen, to the hospital, holding her unconscious love's hand while the medics did their work. She watched everything they did with concern, grateful Yang had given up her right to accompany her sister in light of the new circumstances.
Weiss Schnee was not a woman of prayer and faith. But right now, she was begging all the gods she knew, all the old gods and the new ones, to help bring back her little reaper, her best friend and her other half. Her father's company could fall to ruin and the kingdom of Vale could be swept away for all she cared, as long as she had Ruby.
When they arrived at the hospital, Weiss ran with the medics to the doctors, and insisted- even though it meant threatening more than one staff member- on staying with Ruby throughout the procedures to reconstruct her chest and give her enough blood to function, and on having Crescent Rose ready to give to her when she woke.
Ruby was feverish, in and out of sleep for days. Weiss held her hand the whole while, refusing to let go. The white-haired girl neglected her own needs, barely washing, sleeping, or even eating and drinking, just for the sake of being there.
When Ruby finally woked lucid, Weiss cried again, tears of joy running down her cheeks as she peppered the younger girl's with kisses, grateful to see her alive. Yang, too, was there, and let them have their moment before she insisted on hers, giving her little sister a gentle hug. Blake, cool and distant, brought flowers and heartfelt relief, but showed little affection.
Ruby's focus, however, was on Weiss. "See?" Ruby asked weakly. "I told you I wasn't leaving you. Too stubborn to die."
"Just another reason I love you," Weiss replied with a smile, handing over the scythe. "I've been keeping this for you."
Ruby took her weapon, and laid it in her lap. "Thanks... This means a lot. Not as much as all those kisses, but a lot. I love you too."
"Promise me something, Ruby."
"Anything, Weiss."
"Be more careful. For me? I couldn't take it if something like this happened again," she said, leaking tears again. "I couldn't even handle it this time, but now?"
Ruby cupped Weiss' face in a hand. "Anything for you. You know that." She was still weak. Shaky. Still, she managed to pull herself long enough to plant a kiss on Weiss' lips, this time without the taste of blood on it. Unfortunately, it could only be brief, and Ruby collapsed back onto her bed.
"Never put yourself in that kind of danger again," Weiss scolded. "You're my everything, after all. My precious flower."
Ruby looked back at her. "And don't you ever do the same to me. Snow angel. Now let's quit calling each other barf-worthy cute couple names. Get down here and kiss me again."
And of course, Weiss obliged, happy to be with the person it seemed was built just for her. Happy to have her precious flower.