Ruby finds somebody in the last place she expects.

Ruby hadn't expected to find her here.

Ruby hadn't expected to find her at all, actually.

But here she was, more haggard than Ruby ever remembered. Various wounds and scratches and bruises marred the otherwise smooth surface of her skin. Thick bandages were wrapped around her arm, a dull red colour present on it, like a wine stain that couldn't quite come out of the carpet. Her bow was missing, her ears open to the air, and her hair pulled into a loose bun, strands of her coming down to tickle her face and sway slightly with the quiet breeze like silent wind chimes. Blake Belladonna didn't look very well. She stood still across the street, the freshly slain corpse of a Grimm fading into nothingness beside her. She looked like a ghost, although that could just have been Ruby's pure shock. She might as well have been looking at a ghost, a spectre from a time before, that wasn't so long ago but felt like eternity. The grey of dusk certainly didn't help.

"Blake?" Ruby asked, her voice small and quiet and disbelieving because even though the girl she was looking at had all the features of the faunus girl she once knew, she looked nothing like her. Besides, what else could she say? A million thoughts ran through her mind, a million questions were threatening to burst through like water out of a dam, but somehow she managed to freeze right there on the spot, just looking at her friend. Her spectre. Her runaway. Her white whale. Her teammate. Her friend. Her friend.

"Ruby," she responded, in a way that was almost disappointed, almost jubilant, almost heartbroken; a confused mix of emotions only the horribly guilty could experience. Blake found this to be funny, actually. Not 'ha-ha-ha' funny in a comedic sense, but funny in that of all the people to run into in the Grimm-infested, desolate ruins of Vale, it would be Ruby Rose, and nobody else. It was funny in the way the universe was when it wanted to say 'fuck you', but couldn't actually express it in words, so it instead chose to present it in such a way that was infinitely more effective. Like dead parents. Like a murderous mentor. Like a horde of monsters unleashed onto innocent people. That kind of funny.

Ruby started walking across the street, slow and casual as you please. Some part of Blake's mind screamed and flailed and told her to run, run away, please god run away as fast as you can. She slid a foot back instinctively, tensing up and getting ready to flee. The more rational part of her brain told her she would never have a chance of outrunning the younger girl. The little voice inside her brain sighed inside and was relieved that Ruby was alright, and shame overwhelmed her with every step forward that she took.

Ruby didn't flinch, finally stopping right in front of the slightly taller girl. Neither made a move for a moment. The distant growls that usually accompanied the silence of what was Vale were now quiet. Silent for a moment, as if all life itself hadn't expected this to happen and were waiting to see which direction it was going, so it could plan accordingly how best to destroy everything good about it.

Then Ruby hugged Blake. She wrapped her arms around her and squeezed her so tight Blake thought she might burst, only she realized that she was feeling that way not because of the intensity of the hug, but the rush of emotion that overcame her because of it. Not for the last time Blake cursed her damnable emotions. Her stupid feelings that got her into this mess anyway. The guilt of getting her hurt piled onto the guilt of running piled onto the guilt of not being able to save anyone or stop anything piled onto the guilt of Ruby Rose with her arms wrapped so tight around her, conveying love for her that she never, ever deserved a single iota of.

Blake wrapped her own arms around Ruby. Her throat felt tight and her insides were crawling and in free-fall at the same time. She felt the smaller stature of Ruby and almost laughed when she realized that without her heels, they'd probably be the same height, and her hair had gotten longer and lighter in colour, and she smelled like roses still and she was shaking a little bit, but probably not as much as Blake, oh god Ruby.

Her heart pounded in her ears and her vision blurred and some small part of her didn't want the hot tears to fall because she shouldn't even be here right now, let alone hugging her. It was reckless and irresponsible on Blake's part. Ruby had to get away-

"I'm so glad you're okay," Ruby whispered, interrupting Blake's runaway train of thought. Her voice was hoarse and she sounded older, far older than she had any right to be.

Blake didn't know how to respond except to hold her tighter and say 'I'm sorry' over and over again in pained whispers and whimpers.

They stayed like this for a while. Tears stained both of their clothes and for a while relief, sweet relief was all they felt because they were alive, they were okay, even when everything they knew had collapsed, fallen like dominoes around them and every comfort they had known was fractured, almost to the point of no repair.

Here they were embracing each other in the ruins of a civilization, not overrun by monsters, and they were relieved.

After a while, they came back down, and Blake pulled away first, and Ruby did the same a bit more reluctantly.

Then Ruby stared at Blake, and she could have almost withered under that stare just out of pure guilt. The question wormed it's way to the front of Blake's mind, burgeoning and insistent and Blake's tongue found it didn't have the courage to actually ask, freezing like it was winter in her mouth. She inhaled and held her breath, not wanting to ask it, burning to ask it.

"What are you doing here?" Ruby asked, and Blake winced at the slight bitter undertone in her voice. She supposed she deserved it, after all. It still stung, though.

No less than you deserve, something inside her chimed.

Blake bit her lip, then looked around. The sky was quickly darkening, and this place was already a threat with light out. She didn't feel safe, being this exposed, where anything could attack them from anywhere.

As if on cue, the howl of a beowolf sounded through the air, followed by what sounded like hundreds of howls joining it. Both Ruby and Blake unsheathed their weapons, heads whipping around to the source of the sound. A sudden wave of something she figured was nostalgia hit her as she stood, ready to fight, beside her teammate. A scene of a bygone era, she had thought. Yet here they were.

"It'll have to wait, let's go," Ruby said, and without missing a bit, sped off down the street. Blake didn't even hesitate before following, and that alone filled the both of them with hope. Hope that one day, things might go back to the way they were.

I wrote a thing while I was writing another thing my bad.