Course of Love
by
Weirdbard
Chapter 3
Sometimes the waters of love spin off into individual pools that just go round around by themselves. Not really whirlpools, just isolated spots of water, lost from the main stream but may someday rejoin the main flow, or may become stagnant and forever alone.
Ruby made it back from Vale with about twenty minutes left before her next class. Just enough time to put her purchases from Vale to use. Entering the tiny cell of her room she opened the small box she had been carrying and dumped out on to her bed an instruction sheet and six small black panels each about the size of a piece of writing paper.
Picking up the instruction sheet Ruby read:
Welcome to the Schnee Dust Company sound proof panels.
Make sure walls, ceiling and floors are cleared of all extraneous obstacles and then choosing a wall place a single dust enhanced sound proof panel firmly against said wall. Activate the panel with a touch of aura and the panel will automatically expand to fill an entire wall so no cutting or adjusting should be necessary.
For ceiling and floors, light fixtures and furniture do not need to be removed but be aware for superior sound blocking that the panel will flow around such obstacles and will make moving furniture later problematic but that an application of one's aura will cause the panel to shrink back to its original state allowing moving or modifications of environment. Simply after modifying the environment reset panel and reapply aura to activate again. Panels maybe activated and re-activated as many times as needed.
Warning: Make sure windows or doors are open during applications as the Schnee Dust Company sound proof panels will flow into all cracks or crevices to insure superior sound blocking function. After panels have fully been activated may you shut windows and doors insuring they are not covered by the process. Sound proofing panels to only be used in a well ventilated area for such reasons.
Ruby looked around her tiny room but shrugged. She couldn't be choosy. She couldn't risk Team Juniper hearing her sobbing at nights any more. If silence was all they heard from now on maybe Nora would assume the 'sad rats' had moved on and not investigate any more?
Placing a panel on the wall that was between her room and theirs, she consciously exerted her aura towards it. The thin panel that had seemed no thicker than a piece of cardboard turned liquid like and spread across the wall as if it was a living thing. The transformation so quick that Ruby jumped back a little in surprise. The bare stone wall of her room was now covered by a deep, deep light absorbing black with tiny sparkles in it. The tiny sparkles being the dust embedded in the panel to make it work.
Quickly Ruby applied the panels to the ceiling, the other three walls and the floor of her room. The floor part was a bit tricky as she had to lay on her bed and stretch over the edge of it to place the panel on the floor before activating it. The dull black surface spread out across the cement floor and quickly wrapped around her bed posts but did not crawl up them. Ruby looked behind her to where all her meager possessions were piled on the bed behind her. "Lucky I thought to pick my clothes and stuff up off the floor behind my headboard." Ruby mused to herself. "There is no telling whether this stuff would have glued my clothes down or just flowed over it and sealed it off from me."
Ruby glanced at the last remaining panel laying on her bed beside her and the only non-covered surface in her room. The door leading to the outside world. "What good will it do if I sound proof everything but leave the door to the hallway outside uncovered?" Ruby wondered to herself. "People walking by in the hallway might hear me crying at night and that would defeat the whole purpose. I can always apply the sound proofing panel, have a good cry and then remove it later so I can still get some air under and around the door."
Sliding off the bed with the panel in her hand Ruby approached the door and swallowed nervously. Finally working up the courage and bolstered by the assurances on the information sheet that the product could be activated and deactivated over and over, Ruby placed the panel in the center of the door and sent a pulse of her aura into it. The rectangle flowed over the door and around the doorjamb sealing the room completely leaving Ruby in a total black hole of isolation. The single bare light bulb in the room still providing illumination but the dark black walls seemed to swallow the light leaving Ruby alone in a very tiny sphere of light.
Looking at her scroll Ruby realized she had to leave now or be late for her class and wouldn't that irritate the already annoyed Weiss if she were to do that? Trembling slightly Ruby placed a hand on the black mass that had been her door and sent another pulse of her aura into it. Obediently the darkness covering her door in a formless void of black reformed back into a small rectangle with her hand in the center of it. Taking her hand away Ruby watched as the panel slid off the door to land on the inky blackness of the floor.
"Whew. For a moment I was afraid it wouldn't work and I would be sealed up in here forever." Ruby breathed out and picked up the panel and tossed it on her bed. After going to bed that night Ruby knew she could seal the door and be in a cocoon of silence where she could scream and cry with no one being the wiser. According to the instruction sheet a cannon could be fired off in a room covered in their product and no one outside said room would be able to hear anything.
Reaching over her bed Ruby grabbed the chain to the light bulb and clicked it off plunging herself into total darkness before almost leaping the short distance to her door. Ruby opened the door to her room to step outside only to find herself almost nose to nose with Weiss in the hallway. "Gah! Weiss you scared me…" Ruby quickly regained control of herself. "I mean Miss Schnee you startled me."
Weiss tried to peer past Ruby into her room as if trying to see if there had been anyone in there with Ruby but all she could was a darkness that looked as if it was the void of space itself. "What were you doing in there in the dark?" She asked suspiciously.
Ruby blinked. "Um, the light bulb in there is turned off and on by a chain. There is no light switch by the door. To turn off my light I have to click the chain and then cross to the door." Ruby explained.
"Oh. Doesn't it make it difficult?" Weiss asked slightly mollified by Ruby's explanation.
"Not really. There isn't that much distance between the center of the room and the door. As long as I am aimed in the right direction it's not like I can miss the door in the dark."
Ruby closed the door to her room and then looked at Weiss once again. "Was there something you needed Miss Schnee? I was just about to go to my next class."
"I was just looking for you Rub… Miss Rose. Your team was worried when you didn't show up in the cafeteria for lunch."
"I'm sorry if I worried Miss Belladonna and Miss Long. Ms. Adel and Miss Scarlatina asked me to join them in Vale so we could discuss some Team business during lunch." Ruby told her as she made to leave.
"Is that what you are calling it?" Weiss angrily demanded and put a hand on Rose's arm to keep her from leaving.
Ruby pulled a stop. "What?" She asked as she pulled her arm from Weiss's grasp.
"Miss Rose I'm trying to do this for your own good but this does not look good you leaving campus with two known lesbians for a secret rendezvous."
"What?!" Ruby sputtered shocked. "How do you know they are lesbians? I didn't know." Ruby said and quickly slammed her mouth shut. After a moment she replied coldly. "First off, your information isn't entirely accurate Miss Adel and Miss Scarlatina are bi-sexual not strictly lesbians. Secondly, I am trying to be professional as you requested me to be. I can't just turn down a senior Huntress in training when she asks me to join her and a teammate for lunch to discuss some things. Thirdly, absolutely nothing happened during said lunch. We just talked about a few things and then I left alone to do some shopping. Fourthly, I am going to be late if I don't leave for class right this second and that would not be professional of me!" Ruby then activated her semblance as was gone in a flash of rose petals.
Weiss felt like smacking herself in the head. She knew that nothing that scandalous had happened at lunch. She had been there spying, er observing and she knew that Ruby had left on her own. Weiss had tried to follow Ruby but lost her on the crowded streets of Vale and only spotted her boarding an airship back to Beacon as she was getting on another one herself to go back. She hadn't meant to be so confrontational with her leader. She was just… She was just… Weiss couldn't bring herself to admit to herself that she had been and was still jealous.
Weiss glanced down at her feet and notice Ruby's rose petals were just starting to fade. Ruby's semblance always left rose petals behind as evidence of Ruby using her semblance but they rapidly faded into nothingness after a few moments. Weiss just had enough time to notice that the rose petals that had always before being a rich red in color were now red with signs of black creeping along the edges of them before they faded away completely.
Ruby stopped at the door of her next class and even though she was perilously close to being late she still paused as she tried to regain control of her breathing and not break down in sobs. "Weiss obviously thought Ruby was some kind of low life tramp and that she had snuck off today for sex. While it was true Ruby had been attracted to girls before Weiss but she was completely untouched as far as that went. She felt attraction before but never a strong burning desire to touch anyone or allow anyone to touch her before Weiss.
And what was worse was Ruby had told her innocently whom she had gone off with. Now Weiss would think the worse of Coco and Velvet and if she wanted to she could smear their names along with Ruby's. Two more people Ruby would now have to avoid completely if she wanted to spare them the wrath of Weiss. Swallowing thickly Ruby with a force of will pushed her emotions and despair back and pulling her hood up to hide her face once again, she entered the classroom.
Ruby stiffly opened the door to her room and entered the darkness of it. Fumbling around in the dark over her bed for a moment Ruby finally found the chain to the light bulb and pulled it on. Classes were now done with for the day and evening was starting to fall. Normally Ruby would be with her team deciding whether to go to the cafeteria for dinner, slip into Vale to treat themselves to a nice restaurant or just order a pizza to be delivered but that was all in the past now. Ruby doubted she could hold anything down if she were to eat anyway. Her last class she had managed to bury all her emotional turmoil deep down inside and paid attention to the professor. She even aced another test but where was the feeling of victory if she had no one to share it with? With Weiss watching her every move she couldn't talk to anything female without Weiss reading more into it than there was. She couldn't even visit with her sister because Yang would know immediately that something was bothering Ruby and wouldn't leave it till she got a straight answer from her and Ruby couldn't risk that when she was already so emotionally vulnerable and about to crack.
Weiss probably wouldn't care if Ruby talked to a guy but all of them she knew were teammates with other girls and Weiss would probably suspect her of just talking to them to stalk their female teammates. One of the few all-male teams she knew of was Team Cardinal and not only would they want nothing to do with Ruby, except maybe break a few of her bones but even if that wasn't the case, Ruby wasn't lonely enough yet to want to hang around scum just because Weiss wouldn't question her motives about it.
Ruby picked up the sound proof panel off her bed and quickly slapped it on the door and activated it. Alone now in a dark void Ruby could finally let it all out. She didn't have to worry about anyone hearing her or judging her but Ruby found she couldn't cry. She just felt dead inside.
"Spent all this money on sound proofing and I can't even make use of it?" Ruby said out loud. Ruby thought about crawling into bed but she could see by the weak light that it still had her possessions piled on top of it from the sound proofing job earlier and she felt too drained and exhausted to throw it all behind her headboard so she just slumped down against the now sound proof sealed door. Ruby tried to intellectually think about what she could possibly do about her situation but suddenly all she could see in her mind was Weiss with her arms angrily folded as she had accused Ruby of doing something with Coco and Velvet at lunch. Ruby wanted to hate Weiss. She really did but all she could think to herself was how beautiful the icy princess was, even while she was insinuating Ruby of acting like a wanton whore. Without conscious thought Ruby pulled her scroll from her pocket and brought up the one picture of Weiss that the heiress had left her and stared at it. As the tears started pouring down Ruby's face and her breathing began to choke into sobs, Ruby said to the empty room. "Well at least I will be getting my money out of this sound proofing."
Pyrrha paused as she noticed that Nora was near the wall that separated their room from Ruby's new one. "Hear anything?" She asked as she came up beside the girl.
"Nope."
"The sad rats must have moved on." Pyrrha said.
Nora shot her an annoyed look. "I'm not stupid you know. We both know now that was Ruby last night."
Pyrrha started to apologize but Nora waved it off. "What do you think is going on?" Nora asked her.
"I don't know." Pyrrha answered helplessly. Ruby was one of the nicest persons Pyrrha had ever met, well with the exception of Jaune and for the bubbly girl to be ostracized and now living in a tiny closet just didn't make sense and all because of some kind of experiment like she claimed.
"Weiss has something to do with this." Nora stated.
"You can't be sure of that."
"Yeah I can. Didn't you notice how every time Ruby started to say something this morning she would look over at Weiss as if asking permission or something?"
Pyrrha frowned. "And Weiss would finish Ruby's sentences if it looked like the girl couldn't figure out what to say." She added.
Nora nodded.
"What can we do?" Pyrrha asked.
"I can break Weiss's legs?" Nora asked hopefully.
"Nora! No. We don't even know what is going on."
Nora frowned but placed her ear against the wall. "Well whatever is going on, at least tonight Ruby seems okay. I can't hear a peep from the room next door." Satisfied that at least at the moment Ruby was probably fine, Nora left with her team to go across the campus to the cafeteria for dinner.
Ruby finally managed to sob herself into an exhausted sleep but the sleep wasn't restful. Her dream had started off pleasant enough. Weiss had confessed that she had been wrong and that she loved Ruby as much as Ruby loved her. Weiss kissed Ruby sweetly and Ruby thinking all her dreams were coming true opened her arms to Weiss. Weiss's face then turned evil looking and she lunged at Ruby and wrapped her hands around her throat and started choking Ruby. As Ruby struggled to get Weiss off of her, Weiss face changed into the familiar bony face plate of a Grimm and the pressure continued to increase until Ruby couldn't breathe at all.
Ruby awoke from the nightmare gasping and choking only to have the feeling of suffocation follow her from her dream state. She tried to leap to her feet but weakly sunk back to the floor as her legs felt like they were jelly. No matter how she struggled it was like she couldn't draw any air into her lungs or force her body to move. Ruby's actions were sluggish and slow and it felt like her mind was filled with thick cotton as she struggled to make sense of what was wrong with her. "The sound proofing." Ruby finally realized. "I meant to take it off the door before going to sleep but I was so exhausted from crying I must have nodded off. The panel must have blocked all air into the room." Ruby tried to turn her body to face the door but was too weak to manage even that. She struggled to raise her hand to place it on the material behind her but she could feel her own aura sputtering as she was so weak from nearly suffocating in her sleep. She wasn't sure she could deactivate the material to free the door open even if she could reach it.
"Great. Many years from now some other student upset and kicked out by her teammates might pry open this door to find a dried up skeleton in a red hood lying here and will wonder what happened." Ruby thought to herself as her vision began to grow dim. Thinking of the pain Yang would go through when finding out her sister died just across the hall from her gave Ruby one last brief burst of energy and struggling Ruby slapped her hand on the sound proofing material above and behind her as she desperately pushed her weak aura into it.
The panel shuddered and slowly shrunk until it was once again a small rectangle and floated down to lay beside Ruby. Fumbling behind her Ruby managed to get her hand on the doorknob and twist it.
Nora was in the hallway of her dorm building. The rest of Nora's team had turned in for the night hours ago but Nora had a sense of dread following her all day long so she snuck out of her room. The dark cloud around Nora was not something that usually happened with the energetic girl and she couldn't shake the feeling that Ruby needed her. Nora listened in at Team Ruby's dorm room. She could hear Yang and Blake yelling and Weiss shouting in defense about 'the experiment' but she couldn't hear Ruby trying to make peace within her team so that must mean Ruby was somewhere else. Nora had tried knocking on the door to the small room Ruby was supposed to be in but listening at that door had revealed not a sound. She was just about to give up and go back to bed when she heard a click. Looking quickly over at 'Ruby's room' she saw the door slowly swing open and then Ruby slump backwards into the hallway.
"RUBY!" Nora screamed and leaped the distance across the hallway to her side. Ruby's face was paler than Nora had ever seen it before and there was tinge of blue around Ruby's lips. Nora placed her head on Ruby's chest but could barely hear a heartbeat. Tilting Ruby's head back Nora gently pulled her mouth open and began mouth to mouth resuscitation with her. As Nora feverishly worked to get Ruby breathing again she could hear the door to Team RWBY's behind her open and a moment later Weiss screaming bloody murder at her.
"What the hell are you doing with Ruby?! Stop that!"
A moment later she could hear Yang and Blake race up as well.
As Nora rouse up to take another breath of air for Ruby she quickly said. "Ruby not breathing!" And bent back down to force air into the oxygen deprived girl.
"What?!" Yang yelled and dropped to her knees beside Ruby and Nora. She reached for Ruby's body but was halted by Blake. "Nora is doing what she can." She tried to reassure Yang.
"What happened?" Weiss asked in shock.
On one of Nora's rising to get more air she just pointed at Ruby's open door. Weiss ran over and stuck her head into the dark room. At first she didn't notice anything odd. Other than the tiny room was even worse than she had imagined. It was even more like a dungeon than Weiss had imagined and she felt like she had been kicked in the gut as she thought of poor Ruby being alone in such a dark and dank place. Weiss looking down noticed a black sheet lying on the even blacker floor about the size of a piece of paper and bent over to pick it up. As her head dipped below her waist however, Weiss became dizzy and with the black sheet in her hand she backed quickly out of the room.
"Carbon Monoxide poisoning." She told Yang and Blake.
"What?" Yang shouted up at her.
Blake shook her head sadly. "I knew we shouldn't let her stay in that room. That it was dangerous."
Weiss turned the black sheet over and over in her hands. She easily recognized the slight sparkles in the material as fused Dust and she was sure she had seen this material before but where? The heiress had studied almost every single product made by her father's vast company and as if looking at a catalog she mentally flipped through it until finally it clicked. "Sound proofing panels." She said out loud.
"What?" Blake asked.
Weiss looked back into the room being careful to not get too close to it as it was still filled with dangerous carbon monoxide. She could see the utter black walls with just a hint of sparkles reflecting the single shining light bulb in the room. "It's one of the products that can be made with infused dust. They are panels you apply to a wall to block out sound. They work marvelously well since they are infused with Dust to enhance them but they cover all openings unless you are really careful. Our dolt must have applied them to every surface in the room and accidentally suffocated herself."
"Don't. Call. My. Sister. A. Dolt." Yang gritted out between clenched teeth as her eyes turned red and her hair started to shine as if it was catching fire. The only thing keeping Weiss alive at the moment was nothing could pry Yang from her sister's side as Ruby fought to breathe.
"Why would Ruby soundproof…" Blake started but stopped as she realized. "She's been crying in there and didn't want to disturb anyone so that is why she did it."
Ruby started weakly coughing and once Nora was certain she could breathe on her own she stopped doing mouth to mouth. Almost immediately Yang took Ruby's small form from Nora and enveloped Ruby in a mighty hug.
"We want her to get air Yang. Not keep her from it!" Nora shouted and pulled on Yang's arms to loosen up a bit so a recently revived Ruby didn't slip right back into unconsciousness.
Yang immediately loosened her hold and cradled Ruby as if she was the finest crystal ware in existence and she was afraid that her little sister might shatter at any moment. "Ruby are you okay?" Yang asked her desperately.
"Yeah Yang. I'm okay… But just tell me we got that Nevermore that pecked me on the head?" Ruby managed to woozily ask.
Yang sobbed/laughed. "Yeah we got it." She assured Ruby as she let her younger sister rest in her lap.
Ruby finally managed to get her eyes to semi-focus and stared up at her sister. "Oh Dust I've missed you sis. I thought I was going to never see you again or you would hate me and leave me alone." Ruby began sobbing. Finally, she looked past Yang to see Weiss standing beyond her. Weiss looked worried and upset but to Ruby's eyes it looked like she was disgusted with their leader. Ruby sucked in a deep breath in fear. "I meant Miss Long!" she squeaked.
"Ruby don't!" Yang said as she started to tighten her hold on her sister.
Ruby began gasping as if she still couldn't get enough air. "I can't… I can't… Do this… Any more." She started shaking and crying.
Nora reached for Ruby. "She's having a panic attack. We have to get her into the showers and calm her down or she's going to hyperventilate and pass out on us again."
"No. I'll go back to my room and…" Ruby tried.
"You are never going back into that room again." Blake nearly hissed.
"You don't understand!" Ruby cried. She kept looking at Weiss and all she could see was condemnation and disgust. Ruby was only half right. Those looks were on Weiss's face all right but they were not for Ruby but how Weiss was feeling about herself at the moment. Her attempt to help Ruby get over her 'phase' had nearly killed the best/only real friend Weiss had ever had.
Nora reacted and plucked Ruby out of Yang's arms and headed towards the showers. Yang was so shocked that the orange haired girl had managed to snatch her sister out of her arms that Nora was half way to the shower before Yang could react.
As Nora got Ruby into the showers she deftly stripped out of her skirt and top so she could enter the showers with Ruby and help the girl. "No I can't be in here with you." Ruby tried to weakly stand and almost fell. Not only was she battling the effect of almost dying from carbon monoxide poisoning but also the fact she hadn't eaten more than two bites of oatmeal and had overused her semblance this day plus all the emotional stress she was under.
"Why can't you?!" Nora demanded just barely restraining herself from shaking Ruby.
"Weiss won't like it. She'll think I'm trying to seduce you or something." Ruby cried.
"I knew it! I knew this was all because of Weiss! That she was controlling you somehow!" Nora shouted as she pulled the still resisting and struggling Ruby with her to the showers. Even though Ruby was still fully dressed and Nora was only in her panties and bra, Nora pulled Ruby under the showers and started them on warm water.
Nora brushed the water out of Ruby's face and stared into her eyes. "What does she have on you?" She asked the struggling girl well aware that she only had moments before Yang, Blake or Weiss herself might break in.
"I love her." Ruby broke down sobbing.
Nora was shocked. "That's it? How does that give her so much power to control you?"
"She… She… Hates me." Ruby continued to break down as she shook like a leaf. "She hates that I could be interested in girls. She hates that I am in love with her. She'll tell everybody I'm some kind of freak and get me kicked out of Beacon… I have to be perfect. I have to be professional… Can't ever show any more interest in her or any other girls." Ruby sobbed as she was hardly aware of what she was saying or where she was at as her aura struggled to clear the toxins of carbon monoxide out of her body while dealing with a critically low blood sugar from not eating.
Yang didn't bother opening the doors to the shower room, she just barreled through them. At her heels was Blake and bringing up the rear was Weiss.
"What is wrong with my sister?! Why is she freaking out?" Yang yelled so loudly that everyone on Campus must have heard her.
"You can't tell her!" Ruby her eyes grew huge in absolute terror said turning to face Nora. "You can't tell her! Please don't tell her!"
Nora for one of the first times in her life felt a headache coming on. She was a brawler. She rather let her hammer do the talking rather trying to reason things out. But even she knew that if she told what Weiss had said to Ruby, certain things were likely. One: would be that Weiss would be a dead woman. Two: Would be that Yang would probably go to jail for said murder. Three: Ruby might end up in a strait jacket in a mental asylum the way the poor kid's day was going. Nora was really wishing Ren was here right now. He would know what to do. Hell, even Jaune's advice would be welcomed.
"I think…" Nora said carefully. "That all of you need to get out of here until I can get Ruby calmed down."
"I am not going to leave you here undressed with Ruby." Weiss said folding her arms across her chest.
"Do I have to get my hammer?" Nora asked, not that reluctantly.
"Please don't fight. Not about me. I'm not worth it." Ruby cried. "Just let me crawl back to my room. Everything will be fine in the morning."
"We are not letting you go back to that deathtrap!" Blake said. "You are returning to our room. Your rightful place. You are our leader and you belong with us."
Ruby head ached and she was having trouble keeping up with what was going on. Her stomach was tied in knots but at the same time was growling in hunger. She wanted to sleep but at the same time was terrified to. She wanted to be cuddled in her sister's arm but at the same time was scared by what her sister might think of it and overall, she still wanted to hold Weiss tenderly in her arms and kiss her.
Yang, Weiss and even Blake were yelling and arguing back and forth and Nora finally had enough. "SHUT UP!" She screamed. "You!" Nora said pointing to Blake. "I can feel Ruby's stomach growling and feel her shaking. I doubt she has had anything at all to eat today so you go down to the cafeteria even if you have to break in and gather up all the foods that Ruby likes and bring them back. We are going to get some food in her if we have to poke it down her throat ourselves!" Nora then pointed at Yang. "You go get Ruby's night clothes and figure out where Ruby is sleeping tonight. Cause as soon as we get some food into her and are sure she is no longer in danger this girl is getting some rest!" Nora finally pointed a finger at Weiss. "You are going to help me get Ruby bathed and calmed down."
"Why should Weiss be the one stay and help you with my sister?" Yang demanded.
"It's not too late for hammer time." Nora said ominously. "Do you really want to do this when your sister is in this bad a shape?"
Yang shuffled her feet and cracked the knuckles on her had a time or two before storming off to find Ruby's pajamas. "And be careful in that room!" Nora called after her. "The door has been open long enough for the bad air to escape but don't close the door or stay in there longer than you need to."
"Yeah. Yeah." Yang yelled back. "Just watch my sister."
Blake took off after Yang and the mostly broken shower room doors swung shut.
"Help me get Ruby's clothing off so we can bathe her properly and then we can dry her before Yang gets back with her pajamas." Nora commanded Weiss.
"I'm not letting you strip Ruby naked." Weiss started but was stopped as Nora keeping one hand on Ruby's shoulder to keep her standing, took the other hand and wrapped it around Weiss's throat and dragged the girl to within an inch of her face. "I SAID. Help me get Ruby's clothes off and get her washed. I don't know what you did to this poor kid but it almost indirectly got her killed. Do you want me to tell Yang?"
"No. Please don't tell my sister." Ruby pleaded. "It's not Weiss's fault. It's mine. I'm the unnatural freak." Ruby wobbled on her feet, exhaustion pulling her down like a Grimm Ursa. "Weiss was only trying to help. Not her fault I that I fell in love with her."
Nora looked over at Ruby and sadly shook her head. The poor kid had it so bad that if Yang were to attack Weiss, Nora wouldn't be a bit surprised if Ruby threw herself in front of Weiss to take the punishment instead. Nora then looked at Weiss. "Go away. I'll take care of Ruby myself. Someone like you doesn't deserve to be in the same world as Ruby Rose."
Nora tried to hold Ruby up at the same time as work the laces of her corset loose to untie them. She didn't have a knife with her or she would have just cut the clothing off Ruby and worry about replacing the stuff later. Nora saw a pale arm move past her towards Ruby. "Hold her up and I'll work on the laces." Weiss said softly.
Nora shot her look but after a moment nodded and moved around behind Ruby to hold her up.
Ruby started crying again. "No, you don't have to do this Weiss. I know you hate me. That I disgust you."
"I don't hate you Ruby." Weiss started crying too. "You are my best friend! In fact, I think I maybe falling in L…"
"Don't!" Ruby sobbed/ordered.
Weiss went silent but continued to help undress her. Finally, between Nora and Weiss they got her clothing off and her down to just her black lacey panties and bra. As Nora supported Ruby, Weiss washed her while Ruby cried the entire time. For shame of being brought so low she couldn't even bathe herself. For making Weiss have to do something that 'obviously' she must hate and lastly she cried in self-loathing that she enjoyed Weiss's hands on her so much.
As Weiss was wrapping a towel around Ruby to dry her, she could feel Ruby shuddering in her embrace. "I'm so sorry Ruby I didn't mean to put you through any of this." Weiss whispered into her ear.
"My fault." Ruby muttered.
"NO. It's not." Weiss nearly growled. "That day you confessed you thought you loved me you caught me off guard. My father always had plans to marry me off to some business owner's son. When I was young and showed interest once in a girl he beat me so severely I thought my own father was going to kill me. He used to lecture to me over and over that girls like that were unclean and no Schnee would ever be one of them." Weiss started sobbing and crying. "I… When you… I was scared someone would do the same to you so I rejected you. I pushed you away and tried to 'cure' you of your phase."
"It's not a phase Weiss. I love you. I didn't ask for it to happen. I tried to ignore it, to bury it deep but I couldn't." Ruby cried back.
Nora behind Ruby shook her head sadly. How did it come to this? Two people who actually felt pretty much the same about each other reaching a point where one almost died? Why couldn't one of them just playfully poke the other one on the nose and say 'boop' and then admit how they felt like she had done with Ren?
"So tired." Ruby muttered. "Can't I just go to sleep and wake up tomorrow and this all have been a nightmare?"
"Not until we are sure you are going to be fine." Nora told her. "You want me to have to take you to the school's infirmary?"
"No." Ruby shouted. "They would ask questions. I don't want anyone to know."
"All right then. You are going to get dressed in those cute pajamas you always wear. Eat some food and then talk to your team. Then you can go to sleep but in your Team's room." Nora shot Weiss a hard look. "Or my Team's room but you are not going back to that closet ever again."
"I can't talk to my team. They'll think I'm sick and hate me." Ruby sniffled.
"Not arguing." Nora told her. "You talk or I hammer."
"Why would we hate you?" Nora, Weiss and Ruby all looked up in shock to see Yang standing in the doorway with her sister's pajamas in her hand. Behind her they could see Blake was back with some take out containers from the cafeteria in her hand.
Ruby started shaking again. "First dry. Pajamas. Then food and then talk." Nora instructed them all.
Ruby found herself sitting on Weiss's bed. She would move off of it and sit on the floor but she was so tired she couldn't move and this was where Nora had sat her when they entered the room. Weiss sat next to her but not touching her. Yang and Blake were sitting on Blake's bed and staring across at them. Ruby couldn't look her sister in the eye but just stared at the floor. Standing guard at the closed door of their room was Nora. Ruby had eaten every scrap of food that Blake had brought and wished there was more. Not because she was still hungry or that the food was sitting well in her stomach but so she could put off the questions longer.
"You've ate. Now talk." Nora stated firmly with her arms folded across her chest.
"This is really Team RWBY business. Why are you still here?" Weiss said shooting Nora a glare.
Nora glared right back. "Because I half way believe that Ruby is stalling and as soon as her aura builds up enough she'll zoom off in a trail of rose petals and I don't feel like tracking her all across this campus or all of Vale." Nora said.
Ruby gave a slight guilty start showing that plan had crossed her mind but she was too exhausted to even attempt it.
"Ruby?" Yang asked hurt after noticing the twitch she had done when Nora had said that. "You were going to run? From me?"
"I couldn't take it if you are sickened or disgusted by me." Ruby mumbled.
"Talk." Nora stated again.
"Before I say what I have to." Ruby began finally looking up at her sister. "Promise me Yang that after you hear what I have to say you won't attack, harm or treat Weiss any different than you normally would."
Yang's eyes immediately went from lilac to deep red. "What has she done to you that you feel the need to make me promise that?"
"Just promise me." Ruby begged.
Yang continue to glare at Weiss and said nothing.
"Promise her already!" Nora yelled at Yang.
"Why?"
"Cause it obvious Ruby won't talk until you do and nothing is going to improve till she does."
Yang angrily folded her arms across her ample chest and finally said. "Fine. I promise I won't attack or beat her to a pulp."
"And not treat her any differently than normal?" Ruby pressed.
"I can't do that sis. How can I promise something like that when I don't have a clue why? I can promise to try to not react but I can't promise not to treat her differently until I know why."
Ruby started to continue pleading but Nora once again spoke. "Take it Ruby. It's the best you are going do."
Ruby looked down at the floor and mumbled. "Okay." But then went silent again.
"Oh by Dust." Weiss finally said. "I'll start with my side and Ruby can fill her in her part. I feel I first should tell you why I reacted the way I did so if you cannot forgive me, you can at least understand where it was coming from. When I was younger I never found guys to be all that interesting but I was attracted to a few girls. My father found out and he beat me something severely to change me from being a les..." Weiss couldn't bring herself to say the word. "From a kind of girl who would be attracted to another girl. Constant lectures on how my future was to be married to a respectful boy. My sister Winter had a brief fling once with a girl and was disowned by the family and shuffled off to military school because of it."
"What's this have to do with Ruby?" Yang asked suspiciously. Nora could see the look of surprise on Blake's face and realized that she had already connected the dots.
"Last Sunday I told Weiss that I liked liked her. She thought as a friend and I corrected her and said more than that. She then asked if I meant like family. To show her what I meant I hugged and kissed her." Ruby said slurring her words a bit from her exhaustion. "She pulled away from me and told me that girls like me were freaks, unclean and animals."
Yang started to get up to cross over and wring Weiss's neck but Blake held her down by putting her hands on her shoulders. "You promised." She reminded her. "Hear out the whole story."
Ruby was silent for a few moments and then when it was apparent her sister wasn't going to kill Weiss, at least at the moment, she started again. "Weiss told me that she didn't think she could feel safe in a room where I was at so I suggested I move out and only talk or see her during classes or missions and that I would be the most professional Huntress in training she had ever seen."
"She put you in that closet over there?!" Yang yelled.
"No. It was my idea. I wanted Weiss to feel safe but I couldn't bear to be too far away either. And now she hates me." Ruby said as tears started pouring down her face.
"I don't hate you Ruby! You are my best friend."
As if those were the magic words that Ruby had been waiting to hear, she slumped over backwards and was asleep before her head even hit Weiss's pillows. Even with Ruby sitting right next to her, before Weiss could move a muscle, Yang was at the side of the bed gently checking Ruby. A soft snore could be heard coming from Ruby. "She's just asleep. Poor kid must have been going through Hell and was just waiting to hear…" Yang shot a burning glare at Weiss so strongly that Weiss frowned and getting up off her bed she stood beside it.
"Where will she sleep?" Blake asked.
"Right here. I'm not moving her and risk waking her up."
"Well where am I going to sleep then?" Weiss asked. In truth she would be just as happy to curl up beside Ruby and hold her while she slept but she kind of doubt Yang was going to allow that to happen.
"There's Ruby's bed across the hall." Yang suggested. "I'll even help seal you in nice and tight by bricking the wall closed after you are inside."
"Yang." Blake warned but then added. "It's a tempting thought and would be kind of poetic justice but you promised Ruby."
"She's not sleeping with my baby sister after nearly destroying her!" Yang nearly yelled but softened her voice when she saw Ruby whimper in her sleep.
Weiss could feel tears in her own eyes as she looked at Ruby but a Schnee doesn't break down in front of others so she tried to keep a strong front. "I told you. My father…"
"We get it." Nora stated reminding everyone she was still in the room with them. "Your father fucked you up and screwed with your mind but that is no call for how badly you treated Ruby. If your daddy's training made you leery of accepting Ruby when she told you how she felt, you could have simply said you were flattered but not interested. Ruby would have been hurt but your friendship could have survived it. But you just had to go that extra mile and call her a freak and sick."
"It's the Schnee way." Blake said. 'Not just brush someone off but smash their face in the dirt and grind them into it."
"Look I'm sorry! Alright? I overreacted and made things bad. I know that. But when she suddenly hugged me and kissed me the only thing I could think of was her being beaten and called names like my father had done to me. I just wanted to spare her that." Weiss looked to Blake. "You should understand."
Blake's gold eyes narrowed at her. "Why?"
Nora snorted this time. "Cause you are a Faunus of course."
Yang and Blake stared at her in surprise. "Oh come on. Everyone knows it. Well except maybe for Jaune. But everyone else? We've noticed the bow on your head twitching and how can anyone miss your cat like reflexes?" Nora looked at Weiss. "And I can kind of get what she means. You were born that way. You have no control over it and you are persecuted and mistreated because of it." Nora could feel Yang's burning glare. "Look I'm not saying that I approve of what Weiss did to Ruby either intentionally or unintentionally, just that she might have had the best, if totally screwed up, intentions at heart."
"Well thank you."
"Oh don't get me wrong on this either. You ever cause our little Ruby this much pain again and I'll break both your legs." Nora smiled at Weiss evilly. "Gleefully and slowly."
Weiss swallowed nervously as she realized she was mostly in hostile territory here. Nora was guarding the door still. Yang was a few feet away from her with her eyes burning red and Blake never did really like the heiress that much cause of her family name. Her only 'protection' was Ruby and she was sound asleep at the moment. Not that Weiss felt Ruby owed her anything at this point anyway.
"Look. All our emotions are running high at the moment. Let's get some sleep and decide what should be done tomorrow when we are all thinking more clearly." Blake stated.
Ruby in her sleep began whimpering and thrashing about, obviously trapped in a nightmare. "Weiss." She called out in her sleep.
Yang without a thought crawled into the bed beside her sister and pulled her into her arms.
Ruby called out for Weiss a few more times before calming down and sighing softly. "Yang." Ruby stopped fighting whatever was happening in her dreams and relaxed.
"When we were kids this used to be the only way to stop her nightmares." Yang explained as she gently brushed Ruby's bangs from her face.
"Since it looks like Yang isn't going anywhere tonight why don't you take her bed and leave those two to sleep in yours." Nora suggested.
"I don't want her in my bed." Yang nearly growled. As if feeling her sister's anger, Ruby began to whimper again. Yang quickly resumed spooning Ruby and she once again settled down.
"Well do you want her to sleep with Blake?" Nora asked raising an eyebrow.
"That is so not happening." Blake stated.
"It's my bed." Weiss said. "Wouldn't it make sense for me to be the one holding Ruby so she can get some sleep and let Yang go back to her bed?"
Nora, Blake and Yang looked at Weiss. "Oh you blew that chance when you called my sister a freak." Yang told her with venom in her voice. "Go ahead and sleep in my bed." Yang smiled at her unpleasantly. "Maybe you'll forget that it's a top bed tomorrow morning and roll out of it and break your neck?"
Weiss was hurt her team had turned so cold to her, irony anyone? But she understood. She had really messed up this time. Ruby had already been dealing with issues of not being a strong enough leader and then Weiss just had to add to them by making her doubt herself even more. Weiss felt sick to her stomach when she realized in her efforts to 'help' and 'improve' Ruby, Weiss had only forced loving and sweet Ruby to be more like Weiss and at the moment Weiss hated who she was.
Nora seeing that there was not going to be any bloodshed, at least that night and that Ruby wasn't going to run away, quietly let herself out of the room and went back to her own dorm room. Weiss reluctantly climbed up into Yang's bed and Blake shut off the light.