"Weiss, I'm… worried about ya, honestly. You're acting weird, even for a-" No… That sounds bad, like I'm making fun of her family or whatever.
"Weiss, you've been worrying me lately, y'know? You've been quiet, and you're never quiet, so what's goin' on?" Too flippant. She can lie her way out of that one in a heartbeat. Um…
"Hey, Weiss. We need to talk privately, do you have a minute? Blah blah blah getting her alone, all that, bleh. Right, well… You're acting weird. And not in a good way. Like… you don't talk to people anymore. You haven't smiled in a week, even when Ruby's acting silly just to get a reaction out of you. It's like you're not even in your head anymore, you're not here with us anymore. And don't think I haven't noticed how little sleep you're getting, and that you disappear every other day or so and don't come back until after you think we're all asleep. So come on, Weiss… what's going on? Are you okay?" Good. That was good. I can do that. I can say that to her. Now… I just gotta find her.
Yang sighed, running her hands through her hair and closing her eyes, psyching herself up for what was looking like a pretty difficult conversation with an already difficult person. Not that Yang didn't love Weiss, she did, and without question, like the others in the team, but Weiss was different. She didn't have the easygoing ways of Blake or Ruby. Yang had to be a bit more careful around her. And yeah, that made things harder. But Yang wouldn't dream of saying it made her like Weiss any less. The blonde just had to work at their friendship a bit more, that was all.
It had been a while since all this had started, all this odd behavior from the Schnee, but Yang was still pretty sure she and Blake (who had been the one to point it out to Yang) were the only ones who noticed. Ruby was still blissfully unaware, and Yang was glad for that. Ruby didn't really do well with emotions anyway, and Weiss' were especially difficult.
Opening her eyes, Yang was confronted with her own reflection in mirror of the bathroom she was standing in. Her lavender eyes stared frankly back through the glass at her, as if she was challenging herself. Well? The mirror Yang appeared to be thinking. Get on with it, quit hiding in the locker room bathroom until you get your little speech perfect.
It was only after Yang nodded and left the bathroom that she realized that she'd been motivated by her own reflection. Once she was done with her little giggle about that, she set out to find Weiss, allowing the humor to fade from her face. There was nothing funny about what she wanted to say. What she needed to say.
After almost half an hour of combing the halls for the Schnee, Yang was inclined to say that maybe she didn't need to say it at all. Luckily, she encountered Ruby in the hall, looking confusedly at a map on the wall.
"Got lost again?" Yang chuckled, approaching Ruby. She got a satisfying jump and shriek out of Ruby, who glared balefully at her and crossed her arms.
"Hmph." She replied and turned back to the map. "I think we're… here." Ruby thrust her finger at a random spot on the map, frowning.
Yang smiled and leaned against the wall.
"If you'll tell me where Ice Queen got to, I'll tell you where we are." She said shrewdly, raising one eyebrow. "How about it, Turbo?"
Ruby considered her offer for a moment before shrugging.
"Weiss locked me out of our room," She said, sighing a little. "Don't know why you'd want to find her. Now, where am I?"
Yang looked over her shoulder and pointed to the spot on the map where the two of them were, trying to figure out why Weiss would lock Ruby out. It wasn't a normal 'Weiss' move, to lock her own partner, someone she adored (though she tried to hide it) out of their shared room… Something was wrong about it, Yang had a bad feeling in her gut, and she'd learned never to doubt her instincts on the important things.
Mumbling a goodbye to Ruby, she quickly headed for the stairs, accelerating into a run as her worry started to take over. Realistically, Weiss was probably just doing something she didn't want anyone else to see. Writing sappy poetry or reading Blake's borderline smutty novellas, or hell maybe she'd seen a really hot guy out earlier or something.
Despite the fact that all of those theoretically could be why, Yang's gut feeling said there was something far more dangerous happening. And she couldn't quite manage to quell her worry enough to stop running, until she reached the door of Team RWBY's dorms.
There, she stopped. Standing a few feet from the door, she took a deep breath and went over her little speech from the bathroom rehearsal in her head. Making sure she knew all the points to hit when she talked. I care, I'm worried, haven't smiled, I see something's wrong… What else… Oh yeah, the sleep thing, and the disappearing. Right.
There wasn't anything she could do to get out of it now… she had to go talk to Weiss about this. It wasn't something she was comfortable with, but Oum knew Blake would have been worse. So Yang had volunteered. It was a good partner thing to do. Sighing, she leaned her head back against the wall, delaying the conversation for just a moment longer. But soon, she couldn't do it anymore, and stepped to the door. Just in case, she waved her scroll at the lock, but yep. It flashed red. Locked, from the inside. Weiss was there.
The blonde let out a breath and leaned her forehead against the door.
"Weiss…" She called through the door. "Weiss, hey. Unlock this, alright? I need to talk to you." No reply, no sound at all. Or Yang though that for a moment, but as she closed her eyes to listen closer, she heard a sound. Quick rasping, soft and light and panicked. Breathing, fast breathing, too fast to be normal, and… if Yang was right, interspersed with hiccups and- Oh shit. Ohhhhhh shit, Weiss is crying. She never cries!
"Weiss, um… I know you're in there. C'mon, let me in. I want to talk to you. I'll be alright, just let me in there."
More muffled crying from Weiss, but no words, which only served to ramp up Yang's anxiety more and more.
"Let me in, please, Weiss, I'm getting awfully worried out here." Yang let one hand rise and fall, thumping her fist against the door. "Don't make me do something we'll have to pay for."
Only then did Weiss speak, and her voice was almost a perfect imitation of her average tone. But Yang could hear the unsteadiness, she could feel Weiss' fright through the door.
"No need for that." The Schnee said flatly. "I'm fine."
"Weiss…" Yang muttered, backing slightly away from the door and cracking her knuckles. "You're not really making this easy for me here. Just let me in and we'll talk, alright?"
Silence.
Complete silence, no crying, no nothing… until Yang caught the distinct sound of a metal weapon being jammed back into its sheath. Too quick to be anything but guiltily.
"Oh, hell." Yang murmured softly, realization crossing her mind and burdening her every action with sorrow. "Weiss, why would you do this…"
"Don't come in!" Weiss snapped through the door, the shake in her voice becoming more and more obvious as she started to realize what Yang was going to do. "Don't do it, you oaf." There was none of the usual bite to her words. Only fear. Weiss was running through the room now, stumbling to the bathroom. Yang didn't give her another second to hide. Instead, she simply took one step forward, cocked her fist back, and punched the door right out of it's frame.
Before the dust even settled, she was racing into the bathroom, throwing the closing door open before Weiss could lock that one too. Her momentum carried her a few feet into the room before she even processed the images that were entering her eyes, but when she did, she moved even faster.
Weiss was standing at the far side of the bathroom, an open bottle of pills in one hand, the label obscured by the blood pouring down her arm. Blood, stemming from deep, brutal slashes across her forearm, way too much blood to lose. She had poured a pile of pills into her other hand, and was on the verge of swallowing the fistfull of them.
"Weiss!" Yang cried, launching herself forward and praying to Oum she'd get there quick enough. The brawler grabbed Weiss' wrist, yanked her hand away from her face, pulled the smaller girl off balance and wrapped her arms around her in an inescapable hold. Weiss kicked and fought, of course, clutching the still-half-full bottle of pills to her chest, trying to hide it.
"Drop it." Yang ordered, easily keeping her grip on the weakened Schnee, "Now! Weiss, drop it!" She couldn't wait forever, Weiss was losing blood, and Yang was terrified she'd lose too much. She was on the verge of just ripping the bottle from Weiss' hand when the Schnee finally went limp, letting the bottle drop to the floor and spill the pills all over the tiles. The girl started to shake, sobs wracking her small, pale form as she collapsed against Yang. The blonde could only wrap her arms around Weiss, clinging to her as tightly as she could.
"Weiss…" She mumbled, sliding down the wall and pulling her into her lap. "Weiss, it's okay, you're gonna be okay. No need to cry…" Despite those assurances, despite her words and her steady embrace, Yang was crying herself when she called the emergency line. She held Weiss tightly, steadily, wrapping a towel tightly around Weiss' bleeding arm and taking Myrtenaster from her as the lady on the phone instructed her to.
"It's okay. Weiss, it's okay…" She never stopped talking, never stopped trying to soothe Weiss' tears and sobs any way she could, using what worked with Ruby and with Blake, rocking the trembling girl gently and never ever letting go of her. "You're alright, you hear me? It's okay, you're okay, everything's gonna be alright."
It took minutes for Weiss to even stop sobbing enough to speak, and when she did, all she could gasp out was a soft "Why? Why, Y-Yang, why save m-me?"
If Yang's heart wasn't already shattered, those words made absolutely sure it was. She sniffled quietly, putting her chin on top of Weiss' head like she did with Ruby, rocking back and forth a little like she did with Blake.
"Why, W-Weiss? Why not? You're my teammate, you're my friend… I'd be up a creek without a damned paddle without you around. And you're gonna be around, you hear me? I'm not letting you go away, Weiss Schnee, and I'm gonna be right beside you the whole damn time. Keep you on track until you can keep yourself there. You'll be fine, you'll get there, and I'll be there to see it, okay?"
Weiss relaxed, finally, leaning her head against Yang's chest and nodding ever so slightly.
"Okay…" She murmured, and though it was barely loud enough to be heard, that was all it took for Yang to know that everything was going to be okay.