Summary: The life given to us is never easy. We are forced to pick up the broken pieces for every time we fall apart. In our darkest times, sometimes comfort from a close one can mend an open wound.
*A modern AU where Weiss' family isn't exactly rich. Hurt/Comfort: a lot of hurt, some comfort. This is by far the heaviest piece I have ever written. It circles around parental arguments and the way I've written it is sort of graphic. This might strike a nerve for some of you, so please tread with caution.
They were at it again, this time in the kitchen.
Weiss slammed her eyes shut in the living room as she heard another chair hurled to the floor. It crashed so loud that she almost believed it shattered. It didn't, she already knew. Her father's resentment was heavy, but his strength drawing from his anger alone wasn't enough to destroy a chair.
"Get off my back, woman. You don't know how much I fucking do for this house!"
Weiss felt her eyes welling up, then the tears trickled. Her father was going at it again, spewing the exact same thing like he did in their last argument. For as long as Weiss could remember, their arguments never changed. Her father had a short fuse, and her mother had a tendency to provoke him.
"You?" The volume of her mother's high-pitched screams matched her father's. She had lost her temper. "What exactly have you done for this house?"
Weiss hated it when her mother was yelling back too. She supposed it couldn't be helped if her father unfairly raised his voice, so her mother had to be on equal standing. Weiss still hated it though. Her mother's voice was gently quiet, rarely this loud. Hearing her shout made Weiss want to curl into a little ball.
Another chair was hurled again, this time it was against the wall. Weiss plugged her ears trying to block out as much noise as she could. It only helped a little bit. Their shouts shook the house and vibrated through the walls. She couldn't shut out the voices or drown them out.
Her little brother had retreated back into his room. Weiss felt sorry for him just as much as she felt sorry for herself. For Whitley, his room was the only safe haven around the house, but then again, nothing about the house was an actual refuge. Hiding upstairs was no different than being down stairs if you could hear their shouts regardless.
"I have been paying for my own share of the bills and I've been putting food on the table!" Her father had also screamed at the top of his lungs. Weiss wished he pulled a vocal cord so their argument would end, but she knew that was just wishful thinking.
"You think you're the only one paying the fucking bills?"
Weiss hated when her mother resorted to swearing, her father too. Sometimes she wished curse words never existed in the first place. They were so small and insignificant, but for some reason, it was a powerful emotional slap to the face.
"Then what the fuck do you want me to do?" Her father's thunderous snarls were terrifying. His fist slammed against the table. Weiss could hear the things sitting on top falling to its side. She hated it when he did that. The sound was triggering; it frightened her more than she wanted it to. The hot tears rolled down even faster the moment his hand banged on to the table.
"Jacque, I work two jobs."
Weiss choked out an inaudible cry. Because of it, she rarely saw her mother. Her mother was the breadwinner in this family, but that's because she had to take up the extra burden to compensate for her father's lack of income.
Society recognized the man as the head of the house; it was a man's job to be the provider. Weiss had wondered how much it destroyed her father's pride when he could barely support the family.
"And most of your goddamn money goes to drinking!"
Her mother had been an alcoholic for years. For something that was supposed to soothe her depression, it only damaged her mental health and made it for the worse. Her mother didn't just drink a cup. She drank bottles.
"And guess whose fucking fault is that?!"
Weiss bit her lips, hard, trying to slow the tears that kept coming down. She wished Winter, her older sister, was here to shield them from their parent's fighting. She knew Whitley wished for that too. But Winter wasn't here; she escaped by going somewhere far away for college. It was just her and Whitley under this roof now.
Where are you?
Weiss' phone vibrated and that was the text message she saw. Her vision blurred from the tears, but she managed to type out at home as a response. Her body trembled as the tears kept coming. She tried wiping them away, but they just came in torrents. Tissues weren't enough to dry up her tears.
"I'm always the antagonist in this family." Her father slammed the table again with his bare fist, and Weiss squeezed her eyes shut at the crackling sound. She hated it. She wanted them to stop, but she also knew the little peace they had at home would just be shattered by another frequent fight. "I am so sick of this! So, very fucking tired of this! There's never any appreciation for me."
Weiss held her hands against her ears. Their shouts increased impossibly louder. She knew there would be another thirty minutes of this until one of them stormed off and slammed a door.
Their argument will be unresolved, but she would at least have some quiet time to collect herself. As Weiss shut her eyes and let the tears crawl down as they please, she counted the seconds to distract herself.
1...
2...
3...
The count went up to 253 seconds until she heard the dreaded slam. Her heart plummeted. Of all the noises she had heard during their past fights, this was the most triggering of them all. Weiss instantly sprung to her feet, seething, and stormed into the kitchen baring her teeth.
Being physically present in the kitchen, her parent's argument grew ten times louder.
Weiss found her mother's back against the wall and her father enraged.
"Stop it!" Weiss screamed.
Her shouts were easily drowned out by their arguments. Her parents weren't aware of her presence as they were too busy screaming at each other. Her lips quivered and the stream of tears came down even faster when she saw her mother cornered.
"Don't you fucking dare push me!" Her mother screamed at him. Tears had been streaming down from her eyes just as much as Weiss'
Her father pushed her mother again and Weiss found herself furiously coming in between the crossfire. She shoved him backwards to put the distance. Winter wasn't here to protect them anymore, so the role was temporarily passed down to her as the second oldest.
"Get the fuck out." Weiss choked out a snarl at him. A large part of her held bitter resentment against her father for hurting her mother. A minor part hated herself for incorporating such an ugly word, but it was almost required to get the point across. Her voice cracked and her body continued to tremble, but it didn't stop her from saying it. "I want you to get the fuck out of this house."
Her father looked at her dead in the eye, his anger apparent through his wrinkles.
"I'm done," he spoke low, but his tone was still laced with tired anger. "I'm done." He raised his hands effortlessly when he repeated himself. "I'm done with everyones' shit!" His voice suddenly boomed into a screaming shout. Weiss was certain that Whitley could hear their father from upstairs. Her father then turned to point his finger at her mother. "Especially you, Willow. I am sick and tired of you. Keep the kids, but I'm going to take my half. I am done."
Her father stormed past them with heavy feet and slammed a door. Weiss shrunk at the sound, but hearing the door slam was better than hearing a chair crash to the floor. She presumed her father was going into the room to pack his bags. When she looked back to her mother, her mother was sobbing.
Weiss mustered up a strong front, dried up whatever tears that were coming from her eyes, and wrapped her arms around her mother.
It made her feel completely helpless when she felt her mother yanking her in for comfort. Weiss chewed her lower lips as she listened to her mother break down. Her mother had been sobbing out incoherent apologies in between the broken cries.
Weiss silently held her mother while she rubbed her back in hopeful little circles. She hated seeing her mother cry. She would rather break a bone than see her mother drop down to this low.
Within the next few minutes, her father had packed up and left. Her mother will be seeing the divorce papers shortly.
When her mother's cries softened into low whimpers, Weiss quietly sent her away to the bathroom to clean up. It wouldn't be long before her mother sought solace in a bottle or two.
Her mother chose to shower, but Weiss knew that was her safe place to cry. The shower water will wipe the tears that the tissues failed to dry and the sound of water will drown out the heart wrenching sobs.
Weiss knew because that was her safe place in this house. She had been there multiple times.
I'm outside.
That was the text message she received when her phone buzzed. Weiss dabbed the last few remaining tears at the corner of her eyes and gave one final sniff. She stepped out of her house and saw Ruby bent forward; she was out of breath because she had ran here.
Weiss didn't budge from where she was standing. She forced a small smile at Ruby with the leftover tears in her eyes.
The moment their eyes met, Ruby had that heartbreaking look on her face. She trudged to the front porch and opened up her arms to give Weiss a strong hug.
She rested her chin on top of her shoulder, and Weiss weakly hugged back in return. Ruby gently rocked her side to side and croaked to her softly.
"It's okay to cry, Weiss."
Weiss curled her fingers into her best friend's back. At first, she bit down her trembling lips to stifle her sounds, but she could no longer hold them back anymore. She felt it balling in her throat, but then it just ripped out. She pressed her forehead into Ruby's shoulder and tore out a raw cry.
"I got you," Ruby whispered comfortingly. "I got you, Weiss."
Weiss kept crying. She cried for all those years of living in that dreaded house. She cried for living in an ongoing state of fear, a fear of when another fight will break out next. She cried for the times her mother had picked up a bottle.
The tears came in hot as she remembered how long she had to endure it for. All the raw emotions came flooding out, and Ruby just held onto Weiss as she continued to break down.
She was like a shattered mirror, so broken that Ruby was afraid her friend might crumble and whisk away like dust. She had never held someone so fragile in her life.
"You're okay now," Ruby said softly while rubbing her back soothingly back and forth.
She quietly listened to Weiss wrenching out another cry. The body quaked like waves in her arms. Her shoulder was wet and stained heavily with her best friend's sorrow, and that only made Ruby hold onto her tighter. She couldn't imagine how much Weiss had gone through. No one deserved this.
When Weiss emptied out her last cry, Ruby pulled away and gingerly smiled at her. Her best friend's lashes brimmed with tears, and Ruby swiped the falling beads with a thumb when she had blinked.
"A bit better now?"
"Kind of." Weiss sniffled and wiped the tears Ruby had missed with her sleeves. She weakly smiled back when she felt like she had nothing left inside. At least, for now. She knew that wasn't the end of it.
"Come on." Ruby took her hand and led her away from this place. She knew only time could do the healing. There wasn't anything she could do except be Weiss' light during her darkest time. Her friend's wings may be broken, but she'll catch her whenever she falls. She was determined to be Weiss' pillar until she learned how to fly again. "Let's go for a walk."
This story bounced off of Yurippe15's prompt: After her parent's nasty divorce, Weiss Schnee thought love was overrated and unnecessary or that was she thought until she met Ruby Rose.
Completely steered off the prompt's course, but this sad wreck would never exist without the reviewer's suggestion.
This was a difficult piece to write, personally because half of it stemmed from my past. To those who are going through this, stay strong.
