A/N: I started writing this around 11pm the other night, thinking I'd just get it out of my head real quick and get some sleep. By the time I'd finished, it was almost 4am.
Neo's name is not actually mentioned in the story because, as far as I'm aware, no one in team RWBY even knows her name. Torchwick mentioned it real quick at the end of Painting the Town, but I don't know if any of them picked up on that? So I just left it out of their dialogue. Proceed to dramatic siblings and supportive teammates.
"Oh god, I am so tired," Yang moaned loudly, flopping herself on her stomach across Blake's bed. The rest of team RWBY silently shared her sentiment as they all changed into their pajamas.
Ruby was pulling her tank top on very carefully, so as not to accidentally remove any of the bandages on her back. "Thanks again for helping me with those scrapes, Weiss."
"Well I obviously wasn't going to let you go to sleep with your back looking like it had been assaulted with sandpaper," the heiress said huffily. "Honestly, what sort of despicable man drags a teenage girl through gravel like that?"
"The kind who's not getting out of jail any time soon." Yang muttered.
"Yeah, even if today was a bit of a disaster, I'm glad we caught at least one of the bad guys." Ruby was ever the optimist.
"That one was all Blake." Yang offered a grin and a fist bump to her partner as she walked past, the latter of which she did surprisingly return before sitting at the head of her bed.
"I suppose we should accept the small victories as they come." The Faunus glanced sharply at the blonde girl sprawled across her mattress. "Why are you on my bed?"
"Because I'm tired and mine's too high up."
Blake scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Get off." she smacked her friend lightly between the shoulders in a playful gesture.
The whole dorm seemed to freeze as Yang suddenly let out a sharp scream. Her eyes scrunched shut tightly.
"Yang, are you alright?" Blake's voice came out higher than she'd intended at the realization that she may have hurt her partner somehow.
The brawler squinted her eyes open slightly, their red sheen revealing that her semblance had been activated. "I'm fine," she hissed out through her rapid breath, "Just gimme' a second." She closed her eyes and took a few deep, if shaky, breaths. By the time she got her breathe under control and opened her eyes again, they'd resumed their normal shade of soft violet.
"What happened?" Ruby questioned worriedly.
"It's nothing; Blake just tapped a bruise on accident." Yang tried to reassure her, but none of her teammates were buying it.
Blake quickly scanned her eyes over her partner and spotted the very edge of a bruise sticking out near the hem of her shirt. Without warning her, she quickly swept her massive sheet of blonde hair to one side and hiked up her tank top nearly over her head.
"Hey!" Yang tried to protest, but the dark haired girl was already holding her firmly in place with one hand.
"What the hell happened to you?" Blake's voice came out very tightly as she observed the damage. The entire area around Yang's shoulder blades was covered in a mass of black and purple bruising. There were more of them further down her back, but they were far less aggressive colors.
The blonde stared at the floor with an uncomfortable frown. "I collided with the roof of the train car. That weirdo short girl kicked my ass."
"The tiny one with the umbrella?" Weiss questioned in disbelief.
"Apparently she's a lot more dangerous than she looks, okay?" Yang snapped her response defensively.
Blake reached up and began parting her friend's hair, seeking more injuries. Sure enough, she found a swollen spot on the back of her head that was caked in dried blood. "Sit up and take off your shirt while I get the first aid kit," she instructed sharply, standing up with a scowl and stalking towards their bathroom.
Yang sighed heavily, but did as she was told.
Ruby walked over cautiously and peeked at her sister's shoulders, gasping at what she saw. "Oh my gosh, Yang! I've seen you take plenty of hits, but that's bad."
Blake came back with the first aid kit, muttering irritably. "This one's mine," she said in a mocking impression of her partner, as she sat down behind her and began rummaging through the box. "Remind me never to buy into your cocky bravado again."
The blonde didn't say a word and simply stared at the bedspread as the Faunus opened a pack of disinfectant wipes and angled her head to see the injury that needed cleaning. She hissed slightly as the blood was cleaned from the wound.
"Are you going to tell us how this happened?" Blake interrogated quietly.
Yang sighed again. "I don't even know. It was like she knew what I was gonna do before I did it. I don't think I landed a single hit on that girl. She must have figured out how my semblance worked too, because she only hit me a couple times before she threw me into the roof and I passed out."
"You actually blacked out?" Blake questioned in surprise. She had finished treating her partner's head wound and moved on to gently rubbing bruise cream into her shoulders.
Yang flinched slightly, but continued on in a more subdued tone. "Yeah. To be honest, I probably shouldn't even be alive right now."
The air in the room seemed to still at this revelation. Ruby, who had been hovering nearby in concern, froze completely on the spot.
"That girl was vicious. I have no doubt she meant to kill me, and she probably would have had a lot of fun doing it." The blonde paused with a thoughtful look on her face. "It couldn't have been more than a couple minutes before I started to wake back up. But when I did, she was nowhere to be found. Instead, I just barely caught a glimpse of this other woman. She had long, dark hair and wore red and black. She walked into this big red portal thing that was floating in the air and just disappeared. I almost thought I must have imagined her, but the more I think about it the more I'm sure she was there. She must've scared the other girl off." She paused again for a long moment. "I don't know who that woman was, but if she hadn't shown up when she did, I don't think I'd be here right now."
Silence pervaded the room as her words sank in.
Blake felt numb at the idea that she'd nearly lost her partner that day and hadn't even known. Part of her was furious with herself, feeling that they shouldn't have split up. This was exactly the reason Huntsman and Huntresses had partners in the first place; to watch each other's backs. Yang shouldn't have needed that woman to save her. Blake should have been there to do it herself. She'd been so focused on stopping Torchwick; she hadn't even realized she'd been abandoning her partner in a potentially dangerous situation. She should have stayed, she should have realized what a threat this woman was, she should've-
SMACK!
Blake's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the last thing any of them had been expecting.
Ruby had just slapped Yang across the face.
The blonde brawler's head was turned sideways, a massive red handprint blooming on her cheek. She stared in the direction she was now facing, seemingly unable to process what had just happened. She slowly shifted only her eyes in her sister's direction.
Ruby's fists were clenched, trembling at her sides. Her whole frame shook with barely contained emotion. There were tears in her eyes, but she seemed unwilling to let them fall. She sniffled furiously. With a rattling intake of breath, she screamed at the top of her lungs, "HOW COULD YOU LET THAT HAPPEN!"
"Ruby, what in the-" Weiss didn't get to finish her sentence, as their leader continued to shout at her older sister.
"You PROMISED me, Yang! You promised after mom died! You swore to me you would NEVER-" She seemed to be having trouble holding back the tears now, her voice cracking mid-sentence. She jammed her eyes shut and kept going. "You promised you wouldn't leave me too!" The young girl's chest heaved with sobs she couldn't seem to hold in anymore.
In one swift movement, and with a look of horror on her face, Yang pulled her sister down into her lap and hugged her tight.
Ruby didn't try to fight her, hiccupping out sobs and wrapping her arms tightly around the older girl. "You're not allowed to die, Yang." Her voice came out as a watery whimper. "You promised me. You promised…"
"I know." The blonde held one hand to the back of the smaller girl's head, the other wrapped around her middle to pull her close. Her voice was pained, but steady. "I know, Ruby, you're right. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry Ruby. I should've been more careful and I wasn't. I will be from now on. I'm not gonna leave you. I'm so sorry."
Ruby held a vice-like grip on her sister. Given the severity of Yang's bruising, it had to be excruciatingly painful. However much it may have hurt though, she didn't show it, clinging just as tightly to the smaller girl as she cried herself out.
Nobody could be sure how long they held onto each other before Ruby finally started to calm down, her sobs slowing to just the occasional sniffle. Yang, who was still wearing only a bra on her upper half, found herself covered in snot and tears, though she didn't seem to mind. She rubbed her sister's back in a comforting gesture. "You alright?"
Ruby nodded into her shoulder without looking up. "I'm sorry I hit you," she said in a quietly ashamed tone.
"It's fine. I deserved it."
"No you didn't." She held onto her sister for moment longer before sitting up and rubbing at her eyes.
Yang smiled and ruffled her short hair. "C'mon, kid, let's get you to bed. You need rest."
"Ah, I'm fi-"
"Hush." The taller girl quickly pulled her tank top back on before leading the protesting girl to her bed. "Get in there. I'll sing you your song."
Ruby shyly looked at the floor, mumbling "You don't have to do that."
"Sure I do."
The younger of the two sisters climbed into her bed and curled up onto her side, settling herself under the covers. The elder stood on the lower bunk to be at eye level with her, lightly running a hand over her hair as she quietly sang an old lullaby.
Blake and Weiss huddled at the edges of their respective beds, feeling like intruders in this private family moment. Even Zwei seemed to have known to stay out of it, as the canine had stayed on Weiss's bed observing this whole time, and only occasionally emitting a concerned whine.
Once Ruby had drifted off to sleep, Yang kissed her forehead and stepped down from the bed. She backed up slowly, until her legs hit Blake's bed and she fell into a sitting position. With a deep, heavy sigh she placed her elbows on her knees and dropped her face into her hands. "I'm a terrible sister," she muttered quietly.
"No, you aren't." Blake wasn't about to let her think that way for even a second. "You're an amazing sister, and Ruby loves you more than anything. You handled that really well."
The blonde ran her hands through her bangs in a distressed manner, tears visible at the corners of her eyes. "It shouldn't have needed to be handled at all. I shouldn't have put her in a situation where she felt like that in the first place. I should have been more careful."
Before she could sink any deeper into her own despair, Weiss interjected in a clipped, stern tone. "Yang Xiao Long, you stop with this self-loathing nonsense immediately." When Yang looked up at her in surprised confusion, the heiress softened her tone slightly. "As someone who actually does have a terrible relationship with their sister, I can tell you that you are not even remotely close to being a bad one. I would have killed to have Winter treat me the way you do Ruby even once in my life." Her expression hardened slightly. "You did nothing wrong, do you understand? There was no way you could have known how that fight would turn out. You were just doing your job."
The two girls stared at each other for a long moment, one with trepidation and the other with intense determination. Finally, the distraught brawler sighed and wiped roughly at her eyes to remove the tears that clung there. "Thanks, Weiss. You're right."
"Of course I am. " The pale-haired girl tried to act aloof, but her sigh betrayed her genuine relief at her friend's change of attitude.
A calm silence settled over the room. Blake placed a hand gently on Yang's back in an attempt at an empathetic gesture. The blonde smiled at her gratefully. "Did you even get to finish dealing with what you were doing before Ruby hit me?" She asked.
"I finished with the worst bruises on your shoulders, but I didn't get to the rest of them. You can keep your shirt on this time if you want me to take care of it."
Yang laughed lightly. "Yeah, that sounds good thanks."
Blake pulled the other girl's shirt up slightly and began rubbing the bruise cream into the remainder of her injuries. Yang relaxed into the contact almost immediately.
"Thanks for doing this, Blake," the blonde said in a tired whisper.
She smiled. "That's what partner's are for, right?" Her comment was simple enough, but Yang seemed to notice the change in the Faunus's mood after she said it.
"What's on your mind?"
Blake didn't bother to ask how she knew. "I should've been a better partner today. I should have stayed with you for that fight."
"I told you to go."
"And I listened. I'm not going to leave you like that again. It was irresponsible." The conversation trailed off as she finished tending to the last of the blonde's injuries and pulled the hem of her shirt back down. "All set. Now get off my bed."
Yang laughed and stood up with a stretch. "Rude, kitty-cat." She turned to climb into her own bunk but paused before doing so. She leaned against the bed frame and smiled down at the golden-eyed girl. "You're the best partner I could ever ask for, Blake. Don't you forget that."
The Faunus blushed at the unexpected praise. "Thanks. Same goes for you."
The blonde smiled. It wasn't quite up to her usual standards of blinding grin, but no one would have expected such from her after the day they'd had. "Goodnight, Blakey."
"Goodnight, Yang."
Hopping up onto her bunk, the exhausted girl fell asleep within minutes. It didn't take long before the whole dorm was filled with the gentle breathing and quiet snores of four thoroughly overtired teenage girls, who had more than earned their needed rest.