"Yang, I need you to bail me out."
It was 3am in the morning. My head was throbbing from the lack of sleep. It didn't help that I just went to bed two hours ago after cramming for a test. I must still be hallucinating, because I swear I heard my sister, goddamn Ruby freaking Rose, telling me that she needs bail. Yep, this must be one of those fever dreams.
"…Get off the phone and get back to bed. It's 3am and there's a test tomorrow rubes."
My sentence is punctuated with a yawn before it trails off into a wince. Ouch, what the heck is that?! Aw crap, I think some dust just flew into my eye. I nearly forget that im still on the phone till Ruby's voice carries through the phone receiver again.
"How am I supposed to get back to bed when I'm in jail?!"
Several seconds tick by as the sentence process in my mind. Wait a sec, didn't we just go through this? Isn't she in bed right now?
I roll to the edge of the bed and peek across the room. Her bed is horribly messy, bullet casings and papers strewn everywhere. But no sign of the red cloak fiend.
"Ruby, are you shitting me right now?" I said lowly, suddenly alert. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and sit up to lean against the wall. The coolness against my back makes my mind slightly more awake than before.
"For the last time Yang, please come down and bail me out. I'm not kidding, this is like serious serious."
"Run out of cookie serious, or gonna get kicked out of Beacon serious?"
"Yang!"
Her shout is shrill and high pitched, which makes my ear temporarily deaf. All right, call me convinced. Ruby's definitely in trouble right now. My body hums with tension at the thought of her being in a dirty old cell with a creepy geezer holding a donut watching her from afar.
"Alright alright, hold on to your panties, I'm coming." I grumble out tiredly before putting down the phone. Throwing myself off the bunk as landing on the ground with the grace of a bear, I shuffle over to the closet, throw on my jacket, ember silica and a pair of boots before grabbing my wallet and keys and high tailing it out of there.
I look at my scroll. And fucking behold, its nearly 3.30 with less than four hours to go before breakfast. If Ruby wasn't my sister, I swear that I wouldn't be so shy about pummelling her face in.
"Well. You owe me two hundred lien for the bail and another hundred for disrupting my beauty sleep."
I shout over the noise of the wind as bumblebee tears through the streets like a speed devil. Her glowing headlights illuminate the empty streets as we travel towards one of those 24 hour diners near the airship landing.
"Oh shut it." She replies, her face pressed against my back. The vibrations of her words kinda makes my back itch. Or maybe that's just the wind. "I'll pay you back for the bail but you're on your own for the beauty sleep sis."
"Now that's just mean. Remind me never to rescue you from the donut guzzlers again."
"He wasn't eating a donut! It was a pretzel. They're two different things, Yang!"
I roll my eyes in response. Ohhh touchy. Too bad my awesome reaction was hidden under my motorcycle helmet. Then again, I can always just roll them again once we get off bumblebee.
"Whatever." I grouse. "He could be eating a shoe for all I care."
"Ew. Who would wanna eat a shoe?"
"Aw shucks, I dunno." I reply dryly. "You, maybe, if you keep sassing me."
"Eep." She makes a small noise and grabs my jacket tighter as we race down the streets of Vale. Shadows dance across the greyscale walls of the city, the normally bustling metropolis now nothing but a barren wasteland. It's kind of scary actually, how such a big place could ever be this quiet. It's eerie. But then again, I've always been more used to lively atmospheres compared to those like this. I know it's kinda silly for me to be afraid of the silence at my age, but I'm really glad Ruby's here right now.
She always chases the darkness away.
Eventually, we come to a halt at one of our more frequented diners, a nice little rustic diner with those cute little machines you toss a quarter lien into to play a tune. Ruby jumps off bumblebee and heads towards the double doors, her cape fluttering behind her.
I made sure my baby is all safe and locked before heading in myself. The bell jingles when I push the door open and the smell of greasy, fried food hits me like sledgehammer. I take a deep breath, saturating sense of smell with scents of the oily delights. Oh yeah, that's the good stuff.
The diner is fairly empty, save for two or three stragglers sitting at the far corners of the place, nursing cups of black coffee. They look as tired as I'm feeling, but obviously I always look fabulous. I think the colour of these boots really bring out my eyes.
"Over here." Ruby calls me, waving her short arms like a flag in a parade. I saunter over to her and plop my butt on the soft cushiony chair. "Bacon and sausages for me." I tell her. She nods. "With coffee?"
She asks good naturedly. I grin and give her a thumbs up.
"You know it little sis."
Smiling goofily, she flies over to the counter and places our orders. I see this shrunken middle aged lady writing down what she says on her greasy notepad before disappearing into the kitchen. All to do now was just wait for the grub. That, I can do.
Ruby returns to her seat, with a cup of carbonated soda in her hand. Bleh, how she chugs down that stuff by the gallon, I'll never know.
"You're going to get sick if you drink that stuff all the time."
"Aw Yang, leave me alone. It tastes good and that's what matters."
"Weiss would get an aneurysm if she saw this."
I freeze. Ruby does the same. My eyes dart away from hers and fixes its gaze on that brown stain on the table. Shit, I curse internally. The lack of sleep must be gettin' to me. But thankfully, we both know the drill.
Ignoring my faux pass, Ruby shrugs almost carelessly.
"Yeah. She would." She says lightly, before sipping her straw. The conversation dies then and there, and we just sit in the heavy silence until our food arrives. It's a good distraction, and our bitter thoughts fade away with the taste of meat and syrupy pancakes. She gobbles down her platter of golden brown flapjacks like it's her last meal while I leisurely take a bite or two out of my bacon. I like letting the sausages to cool, so it just stays on my plate until the last of the bacon is put away.
"Soooo." I drawl out. I can see that she never expected me to speak up again, because she chokes on her drink and starts to cough. I lean back and chuckle, which she replies with a half-hearted glare. "How did you end up in jail tonight?"
"The usual." Ruby responds curtly. But I'm not going to let this matter drop yet.
"What usual?" I say, raising my eyebrows at the curtness of her tone. "It's not 'usual' that you got caught."
"I was just…careless tonight, alright?"
"Uh huh. And I'm the queen of Vale."
"Look–" She sighs tiredly, rubbing her temples. "What exactly do you want me to say, Yang? We both know what my answer is. You know what I was doing. Why do you keep insisting on doing this over and over?"
I smile crookedly, pushing a stray strand of her behind my ear.
"Because. Weiss is lying six feet underground and Blake is in a maximum security prison. I just…I just don't want to forget us, okay?"
"What 'us'?" She uses her fingers to emphasize the air quotes. There is a sadness in her expression that is commonplace nowadays. It should make me angry, seeing it, but all I feel is resignation.
After all, that's probably what everyone else sees on my face too.
"There was never an 'us' Yang. There never was and there never will be. Not anymore."
This time, I'm the one who doesn't answer. Instead, I shove the remaining food in my mouth. It's cold. The coffee takes disgusting, and I never really knew why Blake liked it so much. She practically lived on this stuff.
I speak up again, and say the same sentence I've always said.
"You have me, and I have you."
And then I leave it at that.
It's pointless to say anything else, anyway.
We both get up, and trail out of the diner. I look at my scroll. It's 6 am. It would be damn near useless to go back to bed now. I'll never be up in time for the lesson. Ruby looks at me, and runs her hands through her shoulder long, red streaked hair. She grins at me.
"Wanna go for a spin?" She asks, and hitches her thumb towards bumblebee. The first morning light brightens up the streets, but it never comes over us since there's this huge ass building standing directly in front of this diner. I smile back, and hook my fingers with hers.
"Yeah, why not?" I answer and swing our linked hands on the way to the bike. She giggles, and mimics my movement. I laugh. We get on the bike, and I start it, the engine roaring noisily. With one final kick, bumblebee springs to life and we head back down the road we came from.
AN:
Hm, I wasn't sure what i was thinking when i wrote this. Sorry I've been absent for the month of may. And I'm glad may is over, it was horrible. For me, at least. Here's to everyone who's waiting for a RnP update, I'm working on editing the previous chapters now so the new chapter might take some time.
One another note, what do you think happened to team RWBY? It's mostly up for your own interpretation and if you squint, it's actually sort of dark. Not sort off, it is. *chuckle* I am pretty tired lately due to school and family plus my lousy health so its a tiny bit of a reflection of what i've been feeling lately. Lemme know what you think is happening here and if you liked it or not. Thanks for reading!