"Uhg!" Ruby growled in frustration as balled up yet another piece of paper before chucking it behind her without so much as turning around. "This sucks!"
She slumped on her desk, falling face first into the pile of scribbled on papers and various books all on the same topic… a topic she was finding more that immensely infuriating! I've been at this for days! It's one of the most important decisions I'll ever make in my entire life and I just can't figure it out!
As she rolled her forehead back and forth along the papers her anger and frustration gave way to depression and fear that forced her body to go limp. Her pencil fell from her hand as her arms flopped to her sides. Maybe… maybe I can't do it. If something as important as this is giving me such a hard time… maybe I'm just not meant to be a-
"Whatcha doing?"
"Eek! Yang! You scared me!" Ruby turned around to glare at her oldest sister. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking!?"
"Hey, it's not my fault you left your door wide open!" Yang fired back, crossing her arms defensively.
"Well get out! This is my room and as you can see, I'm… I'm kinda busy right now." Her tone went from angry to dejected in the span of only a couple seconds, her dull, hopeless gaze falling from her sister and back to her desk.
"Ruby, are you still trying to figure out what weapon you'll forge at Signal!? You've got less than a week!" Yang's eyes scanned her desk, or rather, her disaster area that a desk was buried under. Crumpled up papers, various books on weapons, Dust and forging, pencils, pens, colored pencils, markers and erasers littered the surface of her desk, completely obscuring the wood surface below it.
"I know that okay! I- I just can't figure this out…" With another groan of exasperation she turned back to her desk and held her head between her hands with her elbows propped up atop the clutter. Her heart was pounding and the stress was only making thinking orders of magnitude harder. Maybe I'm not meant to be a Huntress…
"Ruby..." Yang frowned, she'd never seen her youngest sister in this bad shape before. Slowly and gently, she placed her hand on Ruby's small shoulder, gently rubbing it with her thumb, desperate to comfort her.
"Yang, what am I going to do? Like you said, I only have a few more days to decide and- and I just can't do it! You wouldn't understand, you had your Ember Celica planned for months before it was time to forge it!" Ruby let go of her head, letting it smack hard into the desk.
"Well, why don't we start with what kinds of weapons you like!?" Yang forced her voice into it's most bubbly, cheerful state possible, hoping it would ease Ruby's heart.
"Well… I really like Aunt Qrow's scythe…" She sighed, lifting her head up just enough to fold her arms under it before letting it fall once again, though this time, on something a bit softer. She rolled her head to face her sister with a contemplating look.
"Well there you go! That was easy huh!?" She grinned putting her hands on her hips triumphantly, but the girl below her looked less than thrilled.
"Except Qrow is already teaching Floryne how to use a scythe because that's the weapon she chose to forge last year." Ruby narrowed her eyes at her sister.
"Oh, yeah…" Yang scratched at the side of her head bashfully. "I guess it'd be kinda weird to have two sisters using the same kind of weapon huh?"
"I want my own thing Yang!" Ruby declared, her eyes blurring with tears as her fingers rubbed over the cool, smooth papers under her arms. "You have your gauntlets, Floryne has her scythe, Eve has her Dust tattoos…"
"She's still grounded for that." Yang stifled a snort of laughter. Neither of them had seen Aunt Qrow put her foot down like she did the day Eve came home with her tattoos.
"My point is," Ruby glared, snapping Yang back to attention. "You all have amazing weapons and you're all really strong. I'm just me; small, bad with people and not nearly as strong as you three... I don't stand out at all."
"Sis, you know that's not true." Yang stepped behind her little sister and place her other hand on Ruby's vacant shoulder, gently rubbing them both. Confidence was never Ruby's strong suit but she's got a lot of ambition and so much potential, all of us can see it. I wish… there were a way we could show her that.
"Yes it is and you know it! You're all definitely going to get into Beacon and become Huntresses… I'm not even sure I'll make it to getting my weapon." Her voice quivered, she could barely hold back, she wanted to cry but it felt like it would just prove how weak she was… so she forced her tears back.
"Why don't you just ask for an extension? Qrow is a teacher there, I'm sure if you explain this to her she'll be happy to give you a little more time." Yang was reaching, she knew that it wasn't the best idea but she was desperate to do something.
"Even if she did, I've had all year to think. I don't want to see everyone in my class walking around with their awesome new weapons while I'm still debating on what to even make. I don't want that." She hadn't felt so stressed and depressed in a long time, all she wanted to do was sleep, and Yang making her feel guilty for feeling the way she did wasn't making it any easier on her.
"Yeah… I get that." Yang sighed, pulling her hands from her sister's shoulders. "So, what ideas have you come up with, maybe I could help?"
"I doubt it, all my ideas are pretty terrible." She huffed, forcing herself to sit up as she spread the papers around her desk out for Yang to see. "None of them feel right, like, I can't imagine myself fighting with them. I don't really know what I want and the ones I come up with that I do like… they all have their problems that make them no good."
"Hey, just because a weapon doesn't look practical on paper doesn't mean a good fighter can't make it work. I mean come on, look at Floryne's scythe, or even Qrow's when it's in scythe form, neither seem like the beast idea for a weapon but that doesn't stop them from kicking butt!" Finally Yang felt like she was getting somewhere!
"Y-yeah, I guess you're right." Ruby hummed as she let Yang's words sink in, igniting a small spark of hope in her heart.
"I know I am! Here, like this one," Yang bent over and picked up a ball of paper that had fallen off of Ruby's desk. Slowly she unfurled the paper, ready to come up with some way she could prove to her sister that she could make it work!
"Whoa…" Yang's eyes went wide as she stared at the drawing on the crinkled paper when it was suddenly and violently snatched from her hands.
"Yang no! That one was just something I did out of boredom!" Ruby flipped it over, the picture facing the desk as she covered the other side with her palm, pinning it down as a blush tinted her cheeks.
"Ruby… you should pick that one." Yang deadpanned, her gaze fixed in awe at the paper under her sister's small hand.
"Wha- no! It's way too big, I couldn't-"
"You could, and you should." Her head turned as she locked eyes with Ruby, suddenly the awestruck look gave way to gushing excitement. "Did you see that thing!? Holy crap that looks to ridiculous in the best way! All the things it can do, it's a monster! If you want to stand out, you won't do any better than that!"
"D-do you really think so?" Her silver eyes glanced down to the paper under her hand. She couldn't help herself, Yang's certitude and confidence had gotten to her and now, even she was starting to believe… maybe she could do it.
"I know so! Come on, let's go show this to Dad and Aunt Qrow, they'll tell you the same thing!" Yang smiled so brightly and Ruby couldn't help but feel her spirits and her confidence lifting. With relief in her heart the eldest sister gave her a pat on the back and started walking to the door.
"Yang." Ruby called softly.
"What's up?" As she turned around her heart warmed at the gentle, thankful smile that graced Ruby's lips.
"Thank you… for believing in me."
