And more.

Chapter 29:

Stepping into the cold night air, Ruby just took a deep gulp of the air. Enjoying the good luck she had of just being able to walk out while they said the stupid prayer that she never really understood fully.

Reaching into her pocket, Ruby pulled out the small bag and smiled at the sight of it. The fact she knew it was close was a load off her mind. Even if it was just a proverbial load. Clenching her fist around it, Ruby took a deep breath as she pressed her clenched fist lightly into the bridge of her nose.

"Red? Are you out here?" Ruby could hear ask as she took a sigh knowing exactly who the voice belonged to. That she supposed was the crux of why she walked out of her small hiding place.

"Don't shout. We are near the priest residence and they do try and get to bed early." Ruby said as she shoved her fist into her pocket. She knew that if she wanted to do it, she'd need to wait. But the sight of the woman nearly jumping out of her skin was kind of amusing to her. "How did you ever make it a week on the streets if a sound behind you is enough to make you jump like that."

"I typically stuck to walls. It is kind of what happens when you use hallucinogens." May said trying to defend herself as Ruby just shook her head. As though that was going to stop her any. "And wh-"

"I'm going to cut you off there. You should be back inside taking the sobriety prayer. It will be a lot easier if you follow the crowd. Trust me on that." Ruby said as she drifted into a somewhat stoic personality. She didn't want to seem rude to the woman, but she wasn't really looking forward to the conversation she knew Pyrrha was trying to go over all the possibilities.

As she looked at the woman seeming a bit tense, Ruby just groaned internally as she began the arduous process of waiting for the woman to speak about what was on her mind. But as the seconds started to tick forward, Ruby just started to get more and more annoyed.

"I was actually wondering if we could talk."

Sighing a little, Ruby could feel the corners of her mouth start to tweak upwards before she force them down again. "If this is about meeting your family, I'm going to turn you down. I'm barely surviving my wife's family. But if there is anything else, we can actually talk." Ruby said as she could see the woman seemingly looking down. "You hungry?" Ruby asked as May looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.

"There is a diner I normally head to with my wife after the meetings. You are more than welcome to join us. Then you can probably get a dumb perspective." Ruby said with a smirk as she could see the woman start to seemingly question her suddenly. "I don't respect psychiatrists. Especially child psychiatrists not that she is one. But that is a long story." Ruby clarified as she could see the woman across from her relax a little.

"Don't you actually need to be really smart to get into psychiatry?" May asked as Ruby just started to chuckle at the comment. She knew that the woman was going to be pure of the knowledge, but that didn't make it any less funny to her.

"That is what they'd want you to think. That was like my last resort when I was ten." Ruby started as she could see the look of question develop on her face again just causing Ruby to groan internally again. "Again long story. But the short version is I was a child genius. Which ultimately lead to the heroin. That and again just a toxic ex girlfriend who was a bit bitchy from what I assume was her needing tutoring lessons from a fifteen year old." Ruby said still not fully sure as to why Weiss did what she did still years after the fact.

May just smiled a little at that. For some reason it made her feel better that even smart people would slump to drugs under the right situations. It just seemed to make her feel that much easier and she didn't even know how to describe it. But at the sight of the doors opening, she just knew that she'd might be able to get that extra step closer to earning her sobriety.

Taking a deep breath, Ruby just knew from the peeved sound of footsteps followed by the minor scolding that Pyrrha was on her way with Octavia. Hell Ruby was getting more and more surprised at how Octavia could seem to be making her sister madder and madder with seemingly increasingly less effort. Not to mention it took a certain level of courage to make her as mad as she did.

"Ruby watch Octavia. I need to go apologise to Ironwood." Pyrrha said as Ruby just sighed and shook her head as she could hear the footsteps leading her off back into the church basement.

"So which is it? Ruby or Red?" Octavia asked as Ruby turned to lightly glare at her.

"I'm actually a little confused as well about that." May said as well in a small timid voice as she could see Ruby looking away from the teen standing near them.

"For you and everyone else here it is Red. And I hate to break it to you kid, I'm not above smacking a teen who doesn't know how lucky she is having a sister like Pyrrha." Ruby stated in as dry of a manner as she could. She wanted it clear to the woman that if she had to, Ruby would smack her and not feel sorry about it. "Especially if that teen is the reason I haven't had sex in days because she decided to be a moron and start shooting up. So keep that in mind."

As Ruby said that simple thing, she could see the teen just tensing up from that single statement. Something that she knew on the surface was going to be argued that it was from the fact Ruby was mentioning sex with her sister, but she recognised that tensing action. It was one that she used a lot around Pyrrha.

"That is gross. If I caused that I'm glad. She is still my sister. How would you feel if I was talking about your sister like that?" Octavia asked as Ruby just smirked and looked at her. The almost defiant stance she was taking was comical to her.

"Go ahead. The difference, your sister is yet to beat you into a trip to the hospital over being manipulated into shooting up. Not to mention if you were going out with her, she'd actually force you to stop then go to seven meetings a week then your entire day would be micromanaged. Trust me kid, I know so much more than you give me credit for." Ruby said calmly as she started to turn around just begging for Pyrrha to be nearly done. From what Ruby knew of the man he wasn't really one to hold grudges against the newly clean addicts.

As she could see her red haired goddess walk out of the building once more, Pyrrha breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of them standing there. A little curious as to why May was there as well, but really, she couldn't care at this point.

"Congratulations Via, you are now only allowed to attend the meetings I host. It isn't that Ironwood doesn't want you, I just don't want the embarrassment of needing to apologise for you again." Pyrrha scolded as Ruby walked over and grabbed her wife's hand giving her a light tug away from her thoughts seemingly.

"Pyr, relax. You know as well as I know that you can't push an addict without getting pushed back." Ruby said knowing it would be enough to at least divert some of the attention off the teen and onto her, but she also knew that Pyrrha wasn't mad at her and wasn't one to have misdirected anger. "If you want to punish her make her be in her room by nine."

"I am not going to have a bed time." Octavia piped up as Ruby rolled her eyes and turned to face her. Shooting her a glare that sent a simple message of 'stop now while you can get out of the hole'. She just hoped the woman was going to be smart enough to get what she meant by that.

Feeling Pyrrha pull her attention back to her, Ruby breathed a sigh of relief as she could see Pyrrha having relaxed at least a lot more than how tense she was just moments ago. Smiling as emerald met silver, Pyrrha knew that Ruby was right. The more she pushed the harder Octavia was going to push back. That she supposed was another tally on the long list of pros as to why she married Ruby.

"Come on, May wants to talk to me, you are clearly hungry because you get cranky when you are hungry, and I can figure Octavia is feeling a bit hungry as well. Her hand has been twitching so it is either hunger or she is having that itch again. Either way I think the diner would do all of us good." Ruby said trying to move them along, if just for the sole reason that she couldn't in good conscience stay here preventing the grounds keeper from locking everything up.

As Pyrrha finally seemed to relent in her anger as Ruby tugged her along. A little thankful that the other two started to follow along. She knew that at the very least the only thing to really save her is that she knew Octavia really was hungry and May did still want to talk to her.


Handing the menus to the waitress, Ruby just enjoyed the slightly relieved look on her face from the lack of Sun or Nora being with them. It was a little funny to her and she knew that Pyrrha picked up on it as well.

"What is so special about this place? I mean we past three or four other places to eat." May asked as Pyrrha just chuckled a little.

"This place actually has a lot better food. I used to come here after every meeting and then I ran into Ruby who was a bit of a hospital mystery because she had used something like eight different names in as many months for overdosing. And I started to listen to her stories of why she shot up and why she was homeless." Pyrrha said with a smile as she could see Octavia seeming like she was being very uncomfortable.

It wasn't that she wanted her sister to be uncomfortable, but she wasn't going to feel sorry at this point. Octavia had just been getting further and further on her nerves to the point that she actually took some enjoyment out of the fact her sister was uncomfortable.

"That part of my life is long behind me... hopefully for forever. May will understand a lot better than two actresses who have never dumpster dived for something to keep you off the ground." Ruby spoke trying just to move the conversation along. "Anyways, May you wanted to talk?"

"I suppose we should get it out of the way... I need a sponsor and I was kind of hoping that you would be it. You've already done so much for me so I'd be fine if you turned me down... I just don't want to ruin this chance you gave me." May said softly fearing the rejection from this near titan of confidence in the meetings, but given the few she had been to it just made it seem so much more daunting.

"Do you have any idea what a sponsor does? Because it really isn't much." Ruby said as she grabbed the white mug and lifted it towards her lips. "It is really just advice and you get in contact with me if you feel like you might use and I try to talk you away from the ledge. Everything else you need to do yourself at your own rate." Ruby said before she took a sip from the black coffee, a little glad that she had gotten it.

It was making what sleep that was filling her mind seem to increase. She knew that it was going to seem like a good thing, but she knew that once she was asleep that her mind liked to go a lot wilder. It was just a lot easier for her to stay awake until she could get rid of the heroin in her pocket in some way.

"There is a little more to it than that, but what Ruby said is about right." Pyrrha interjected as she secretly wanted Ruby to at least help someone else out at this point. Just because of how she knew that it would also help Ruby a lot more at this point.

"Yeah, I gathered as much. But I'd rather have the safety net and not need it than need it and not have it." May said as Ruby just chuckled at her.

"Fine. Just remember, no hugging. Because next time I won't warn you and I will beat you till either I'm pulled off or I've broken some bones." Ruby deadpanned as she stared at the woman who seemed to just smile at that.

'At least something good came from today...'

Author's Note:

Okay... I'm back. I drank a lot... and I think there are a few more days to come where I'm meant to drink. But I hope you all had a fun and safe new years.