Well...a new short story that might go beyond four chapters...it seems all I can do is one shots and short stories these days. A shame, really; but oh well.
So, this one is supposed to make you at least shed a tear, and if you don't then I applaud you. Don't worry; the OC in this story isn't OP or anything...in fact she becomes quite...filler-ish? Not useless, just there for plot and a little fluff...
...Nothing more to say. Read on, people, read on.
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"The prettiest smiles hide the deepest secrets. The prettiest eyes have cried the most tears, and the kindest hearts have felt the most pain."
-Unknown-
"I have felt pain a thousand times more than you could ever imagine; my smiles just hide it better than a mask hides a face."
-Me (Rwbybomb21)-
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It hurt. Every time a glare was sent her way, or children were hushed away from her by their hateful parents, or memories popped up of her friends dying over and over and over...it hurt. It stung, it made her fragile, cracked heart crack a little more, another chip showing up in the heart of stone she'd tried to chisel out for herself.
To protect herself from the heartache, she told herself. Over and over again she'd tell herself she was protecting herself from heartache. In reality she was saving others from getting too close to her. That day, the day she knew was coming, the day she finally gave in...That day, anyone that grew close to her would suffer her loss.
They'd burn their hearts and repeat her mistakes.
She didn't want that.
So she hid her heart beneath layers of cemented beliefs and concrete foundations with the words 'maybe I'll die today' echoing throughout her mind. She wanted to die, needed to; this world wasn't ready for her or what she could do. It wasn't ready for her pain and suffering. Not yet, not ever, and definitely not now.
As a child little Ruby, at the age of four, in her ripped and torn red dress that reached her knees, and the little, red beowolf teddy squeezed close to her chest, had a sad life. Her only parent, Taiyang Xiao-Long, and her sister Yang Xiao-Long, hated her with every fabric of their beings. She was put through hell, and each night after the beatings from her sister had stopped and she went another day without food while her sister and father sat at the table eating food she wished she could taste, Ruby constantly asked herself: "Why am I here?" Each time she did, she'd get this little feeling, this grip that tightened around her heart as she stuffed her face into her teddy and cried. She'd get this longing for a real family, for someone to heal her, to help her feel what love should be.
Each time she got that feeling, that longing, she buried it beneath her muffled sobs and shaking shoulders, each night she felt as though she wasn't worth living, she dragged that knife gently across her wrists and arms, hoping that maybe her aura wouldn't heal it. Hoping that, just maybe, her aura, a connection to her soul, knew that she wanted to die, and would just let her.
No four year old should have these thoughts, and her life only got worse from then, at age eight she discovered her semblance, but instead of pride her father beat her- for once Taiyang himself had put his hands on her, instead of getting his sister to do it. He must have figured that, after each beating, the bruises and cuts would just fade due to her aura.
Yang ramped her beatings up a notch, landing Ruby in the hospital a few times with Ruby giving them that same excuse of 'it was a bully' or 'it's nothing'.
At age nine she taught herself to fight, to use her semblance effectively, and to save other people. She wanted to impress her father, show him that she wasn't the failure of a daughter he kept calling her, show her sister that she wasn't just some punching bag, and was worthy of standing at her side instead of curled up in a corner nursing her wounds.
At ten...well, nothing had changed, though she did make her first friend when she enrolled into Signal; a girl by the name of Katie.
Katie had black hair; blacker than any night she had ever seen, had eyes so blue you could mistake them for the ocean, had hands so soft you'd think you were holding velvet. She'd confided in Katie everything she'd been subjected to, and within the two and a half years they'd known each other, Katie was her first friend. Her only friend, actually, bit it made her feel that thing she wanted when she was little- she wanted love, and Katie made her feel that.
"Yo-You know..."
Katie was a kind girl, a nice one; she knew what Ruby had been through was completely unjustifiable and wrong in every sense of the word. She hated what her own family had turned the girl into- a stuttering, fearful, scared little girl with scars along her arms and legs and a teddy constantly clutched to her chest. Even when she was ten, she had that same stuffed beowolf clutched tightly between her arms, pressed to her collarbone; she figured it was some sort of safety blanket.
Katie's immaculate black eyebrows lifted in shock- Ruby had never tried to initiate any sort of contact, be it verbal or physical, before. She would always wait to be spoken to before stuttering out her answer. She would wait to be touched before flinching and gently touching back, as though the person that showed her kindness would break and shatter into a million pieces.
"Yes...?"
Ruby's silver eyes, dulled over the years from the bright, luminescent colour they had been when she was young, was blushing beetroot red and clutching her teddy- which was missing an eye and had stuffing and stitches showing in random places. Her eyes were looking left and right, constantly alert for anyone that may overhear anything she was going to say to the one person that had made her feel love. Made her feel...happy. She wanted to stay with her forever if this was what she felt, but...how would she say that?
"I-I-I...uh...w-well..."
Katie was patient, always had been; 'patience of a saint' her mother used to say, 'and a heart of gold, too'. She loved Ruby like a sister, like her very own, like everything else mattered and revolved around keeping this girl away from harm at all costs. She understood that her life had been hell, and with her patience of a saint and her heart of gold, she'd show Ruby the world wasn't everything it was made out to be- that there could be good in a world of bad, or bad in a world of good. Katie was the white to Ruby's black, was what equalled her out to be the grey that met in-between.
"I...I l-l-like y-y-y-you..."
"O...kay? I like you too, Ruby." she thought she had said the wrong thing when she saw Ruby's face heat up even more, but Katie was smart, she was kind and patient and smart. She could read people like books, she could see through them easily like a window. She could see that Ruby was implying something else, something she'd entertained as a shallow thought once or twice; but she figured Ruby was either too naive or too broken to feel anything back or she'd be frightened of how fast or slow they'd move, and Katie would lose the girl she saved forever.
The thought came to the forefront of her mind, and her face heated up even more than Ruby's was...and then she looked shy all of a sudden. Ruby was the confused one now, but regardless of what Ruby was like, she was also smart. Not smarter than Katie, but she came close to being equal at least. She couldn't see through people, but she could see through their words, their body language- it was how she avoided being beaten nowadays, knowing that whenever Yang was frustrated or angered helped a lot with her escape form the now monthly, instead of daily, beatings she was given.
They were both silent, before Ruby began nervously walking up to her friend; this might either elevate them beyond friends, or make her lose her friend forever, which terrified her beyond belief. But she steeled her resolve, and in one fluid movement, kissed Katie on the cheek. The girl's head shot upwards and she gasped, touching her cheek, before she smiled a smile so warm that Ruby could feel her cheeks reddening more than they were and her heart pounding in her chest.
Katie hesitantly brought one of Ruby's hands, that clutched her teddy to her chest, and kissed each individual knuckle before finally purring, a golden smile on her face. Ruby brought forth a hesitant smile as well as she fought inside to keep her heart under control.
Maybe things were going to look up for her...maybe.
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They did, she felt that ray of sunshine beam through the clouds in her heart and slowly, surely, pushed them aside. She smiled more often, she giggled at Katie's jokes instead of just hiding a smile behind her beowolf, and she even told jokes that made Katie smile and laugh. Oh, that laugh, to her, was what she lived for- Katie too, but the laugh was what she hoped Katie would keep, along wit her smile.
Today was different.
She sped through the hospital with her semblance; leaving many to wonder what the red blur was that had kicked up dirt and papers form the surrounding desks. The ward where Katie was situated was just around the corner from the front desk, and after that...she dropped to her knees upon hearing the sound everyone fears to hear.
"I...am truly sorry, but you don't have long left, I'm afraid...a day at most, six hours at least."
Katie had simply waved the doctor away with a single tear leaking from her left eye, while the other locked on to Ruby and she waved her over. Now at thirteen years old, Ruby didn't tower over Katie, but she did come at least a couple of inches taller at least.
A few hours later the doctors arrived to see Ruby clutching Katie's hand to her chest, over and over again nodding with tears practically flowing from her eyes.
"You...will? Even...even with my...limits?"
"I-I-I don't care about that! You...you're the only thing I've got, Katie...e-e-even after y-y-y-you...go."
A couple of documents were signed that day, and Ruby Rose Xiao Long became Mrs Ruby Sparrow, the youngest girl to be married since about three or four hundred years ago.
On that same day, Katie Sparrow, proud girlfriend and now wife of Ruby, passed away. Apparently, being hit by a car that was speeding through the streets at one hundred and fifty miles an hour could destroy anyone's aura and leave them critical. She was just the unluckiest- the first to die form aura draining.
The following days afterwards, Ruby's scarred, cracked heart grew cold, and she kept everyone and everything away, for fear of them being wounded or killed the same way her beloved Katie was. Her little ray of sunshine had died, and now...now Ruby waited for the day something would free her, allow her to be with her once more.
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Glynda had seen a lot in her years; had witnessed a lot of innocence lost, a lot of pain felt, a lot of hatred and sadness. But not as much as the girl currently chained to the chair she was forcibly dragged into.
She still remembers the words the girl had asked- she sounded so hopeful, so happy that maybe her wish would finally come true; and she had asked an orange-haired criminal with a penchant for murder no less. "Please, will you kill me?"
He obviously hadn't thought about what she asked him, because he simply sent his goons after her...and marvelled ad how brutally, efficiently, and quickly she had torn apart his men. In the span of thirty seconds, Ruby had mutilated his entire crew, and turned to him. She threw him her weapon, got on her knees, and looked down at the ground. "Please, just kill me, please!"
Roman must have seen something in her eyes, so he simply said "I'm sorry for whatever you've had to go through to reach this point" and then he aimed his cane at her head, and pulled the trigger. She looked up, smiled at him, and when the red ball of Fire Dust sped towards her, she whispered a solemn thanks to him, before closing her eyes.
She obviously hadn't expected Glynda to show up, throw her away, slam a glyph into the gorund, and leave a furious Ruby Sparrow on the ground, struggling to stand up, as she jetted off to fight Roman and an unknown woman.
Flash forward here, and Ruby had her hands in cuffs, her feet chained to the table in front of her, and her face a visage of utter fury and hatred for the woman pacing.
Ozpin walked in a few minutes later, and as the glare shifted form her to Ozpin, Glynda breathed a sigh of relief.
He wordlessly placed a mug on his side of the room and a plate of cookies on Ruby's, but the girl continued her glare.
"You are allowed to eat, you know."
She simply shot her glare back at Glynda and pushed the food away from her, almost causing the plate to crash to the ground. Ozpin's quick hands were the only thing that saved the poor pile of cookies from being crumbled by the floor, and his face turned from a small smile to an impassive frown.
"Fuck. You."
Glynda, momentarily caught up in her anger at the fifteen year old swearing at her with hatred, slammed her crop directly next to Ruby's hand. The girl sneered at her, obviously thinking she had actually meant to hit her and had missed. "You missed, bitch."
She looked affronted to Ruby's accusation as Ozpin calmly sipped his coffee- in his head, however, he was fuming. Tai had told him that he had loved both girls equally, that each had a heart of gold, and he had obviously been lied to.
"I wasn't aiming for you."
"Sure you weren't."
"I wasn't, I swear."
Ruby simply stared at the woman, trying to figure her out, before sharply turning to Ozpin as soon as she heard his muscles shuffle beneath his suit- her ears had evolved so she could hear the slightest movements, a mechanism she trained hard at.
He brought up a scroll, and played the most recent video of her fighting. Oddly enough it didn't show the part where she threw her weapon to the ground and begged to die-obviously Glynda had embellished a lot of what actually happened. For what reason the headmaster of Beacon could ever be interested in her, though, got her suspicious. She was awaiting a death sentence before Ozpin strolled in.
"Where did you learn to fight like this?"
"None of your business."
Glynda looked about ready to say something, but Ozpin turned his head at her, and she shut her mouth instantly. The man brought his head back, and leaned across the table.
"You...have silver eyes."
Ruby, for emphasis, rolled them and glared harder at him. Her red and black hair was tied back in a ponytail that swished around as she shook her head at him. "Wow, you must be so smart to figure that out."
He ignored her, a small smile showing on his face; his offer, the one he was going to make her, she would take it- he was sure.
"How about we get straight to the point, then?"
Ruby simply threw up her hands, which she had somehow gotten unchained and exclaimed to the air "Final-fucking-ly!"
"Yes...well...do you know who I am?"
She retorted with a growled out "Do you know who I am?"
He simply decided to humour her. he brought up his scroll, gave it to Glynda- who searched around the files of people he had on there for some reason- and then she handed it back to him as he gazed upon the information he had on her.
"Ruby Rose...Age; fifteen...height; five foot eight inches...sex; female...notes; we'll skip those...semblance; N/A?"
"Stupid morons, think you know everything because you got people to spy on me? How old is that data, Ozpin?" she sneered at him, leaning across from the table with her elbows propping up her chin and her hands clasped in front of her mouth. Behind the hands hiding her mouth she had no emotion, but in her eyes you could see the anger, resentment and sadness that had built up over the years.
He simply sipped his up- he'd dealt with worse people before Ruby, so he knew how to handle this kind of thing. All he had to do was sit back and let her vent out her anger or frustration, and then calmly talk to her, get her to lower her guard. "Not quite sure actually, all of this was given to me by your father."
She spat at Ozpin, the saliva just missing him and landing on the table a few centimetres in front of him, which he calmly wiped away with his sleeve. "That bastard is no father of mine!" she then began breathing in and out, technique Katie had shown when she got overly sad or upset- in her later years she figured it was good for nearly all situational emotions, not just sadness, and so whenever she felt angered she'd perform the technique. "My name is Ruby Sparrow, not Rose, and I'm fifteen, obviously a female; my semblance is none of your fucking business, and anything else you wanna know is probably in one of the many police reports they have around here."
While sipping from his mug, he eyed her carefully- her shoulders were stiff, her muscles always tensed, her back straight, her face permanently set into either an angry scowl or an emotionless mask, her eyes looked dimmed, her chin and cheeks had scarring, and her nose looked as though it was broken and had recently just healed. All in all this was definitely not the girl Taiyang had described to him, and with the obvious disdain that she held for her family, Ozpin figures Ruby must have been through hell.
"So...do you know who I am?"
She simply rolled her eyes again, as though she thought they had already covered this. "Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon, and no, I ain't fucking joining." At his shocked face, she grinned wolfishly, and it sent shivers down Glynda's spine- not because the grin had malicious intent behind it, or because it was filled with evil intent, but because the grin was hollow. There was no emotion behind it at all. "Now," she stood up, shocking them both that she had somehow escaped from her cuffs and shackled feet "if you'll excuse me..."
She was halfway out of the door when Ozpin stuttered out his counter-offer to her leaving. "W-What if I found you another reason?!"
She stopped at the door leading to the outdoors of the cell, where four people, differently dressed and in different colour schemes, were stood. Obviously prepared to use brute force to get her back, but she didn't see that. all she saw was the door handle that her hand was resting on. "Hmm, reason for what?"
She turned around, seeing him stand. "You obviously want to die, that much is clear from the video Glynda showed me earlier." So the blonde hadn't torn out pieces to make it more presentable? "so...what if I found you a reason?"
"A...reason? what the fuck are you saying, Ozpin?"
"A reason to live."
At that, the entire world seemed to stop for Ruby- she'd never considered finding another reason; her life was bleak as it was. She slowly turned, her face showing no emotion, but her eyes sparking with something that Ozpin had to suppress a smile at; it seemed like hope, like some form of happiness that even she had no idea she possessed. Her hands, however, were crunched up into small fists that were shaking against her legs. She looked him in the eye, the hope faded into abysmal regret, and she sighed.
"And, pray tell, how do you plan on that?"
He gave a look to Glynda, who looked confused before recognition flashed behind her eyes. She then glared at Ozpin while tiredly bringing up her riding crop. Before Ruby could activate her semblance to move out of the way of the bolt of light that flew from the end of the crop, it slammed into her forehead, and memories of her and Katie were brought to the forefront of her mind. She could see Glynda panting while kneeled on the ground, but when she had apparently thought of everything she could about Katie, there was a blinding light.
She watched Glynda wave her wand once more, a blinding light, and then darkness.
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"Is she okay? You..."
"...Never explained how I got here. I died, and now I'm..."
"...looking at you, Ruby...come on, you can..."
"...Wake up, please."
She heard that voice; the others that came through her senses didn't really matter to her, but this voice...she heard it in nightmares, in dreams, in hallucinations, in half-awake states. Hell, sometimes she heard it as a little voice in her head, a conscience, so the speak. It told her what she should and shouldn't do. So hearing it just made her groan.
Then, her eyes widened when she spotted black in the edge of her vision, and she turned her head from the cell's ceiling, to her left side, where the hand with the wedding ring Katie had given her was. She flexed her fingers, her mouth suddenly dry.
Her eyes closed and she began sobbing, while the girl who died and she'd seen in her dreams, had suddenly crushed her close to her chest.
"K-K-Katie..."
"...Hi Ruby..." The woman pushed her back slightly, and lifted her by the chin when Ruby started wheezing out 'it's just a dream' over and over again. Then, she did something that had Ozpin's eyes widen and Glynda to turn away awkwardly- the black haired girl, Katie, placed a small kiss to Ruby's lips. When she finally pulled away to see a wide-eyed Ruby, she frowned at the lack of innocence in her eyes. They seemed...harsh, muted, as though she couldn't stand to see anymore yet did anyway, like a bystander to a murder scene.
"Y-Y-You...d-d-d-d-died..."
Katie simply brushed back Ruby's hair behind her ear, and smiled that smile that made Ruby's stomach flip. No illusion or hallucination had been this great before, and none had the effect it had on her now...which could only mean...
"Y-You're...alive."
Katie simply chuckled, wiping some of Ruby's tears away with her left thumb. Ruby had missed the touch of her girlfriend-turned-wife, and so she nuzzled her cheek, almost needing to feel the affection she'd felt so long ago. "I am. All I remember is a white light, and then nothing."
Katie turned her head to the stunned Ozpin, and nodded her gratitude. "I suppose you're to thank for somehow bringing me back to my Ruby?"
He simply nodded; he didn't anticipate this! He figured Ruby had taken the name of this girl because she saw a sister in her or something- he did not anticipate the girl to have taken her name due to a relationship this intimate. This...this was something his brain was having a hard time of keeping up with, and in the back of his jumbled brain, he thought of castrating Tai when he was done here.
Coughing into his hand, he brought attention of the couple to him. "Well...it's nice to see Ruby's girlfriend at last."
Katie lifted an eyebrow, looking at an equally confused Ruby, before turning back to the quizzical Ozpin. He had no idea what was coming, but he felt his mind brace itself just in case. "We're married, actually."
Nothing could have braced himself for that, and he promptly feinted, Glynda following suit from aura exhaustion a minute later.
Ruby just chuckled darkly at the turn of events, with Ozpin feinting due to brain overload, when a few minutes ago it had been her on the ground.
Katie just looked even more confused than she already was, but shrugged and grabbed Ruby's hand, smiling when the girl's face broke out into a blush whilst simultaneously a genuine grin displayed itself on her...older features...
...huh. She had just now realised that Ruby was older than her...this is awkward. "So...tell me what happened while I was..." she cringed at the word she said next, but nevertheless she sighed when she saw Ruby relax against her. "...gone."
And with that, Ruby spun her tale of what her life had been like, and with each word Katie grew sadder and sadder.
But now, now...Ruby finally had Katie back, and the girl in question swore never to leave Ruby's side again. Death wasn't appealing anyway; it was just a white, vast expanse of nothingness. No god, no heaven or hell, nothing but white. She wasn't planning to go back to that any time soon.