"–and that's what happened." Weiss finished speaking. Her and Blake had met up with Yang, who was frantically searching for something. Weiss explained what had happened to her, the whole traveling with Nora and being nabbed by hazel, but Yang was only half listening.

"I'm an idiot I'm an IDIOT!" Yang cursed herself. "I've been scanning crowds for that stupid red hood! But you have it! I should have been looking for white!" Yang banged her head against the wall just nearby.

"Ah, yes, we switched last night." Weiss held out her arm a bit to properly look at the cloak she was wearing. The red cloak. Ruby's red cloak. Weiss's cloak wasn't to dirty when she switched it, right..? It didn't smell weird or anything? Though, maybe since Ruby was a dragon she'd be able to smell Weiss's essence on the cloak regardless? Essence? What does that even mean? Whatever.

It had been about a half an hour, and Hazel was nowhere to be seen. That was good. It meant he wouldn't blindly chase after Weiss through a crowded market in broad daylight. Honestly, that kind of courtesy was SO nice in an enemy!

"How long has Ruby been gone? Last I saw her she was under the bed back at the inn.." Weiss wondered out loud, her concern growing.

Yang froze. "Wait. Under the bed?"

Weiss turned towards her and tilted her head with a look of disbelief. "Did you not CHECK there?"

Yang stayed silent, but started speed walking to the street the inn was on. Weiss followed.

"Don't mind me, not like I'm shopping for supplies or anything! I'll meet you back at the inn later!" Blake huffed after Weiss and Yang.

Weiss stopped, and looked back to shout "Was that, sarcastic? Do you need help?"

Blake waved a hand and shook her head, giving a tired half smile, and shouted back. "Go find your girlfriend dummy! And keep an eye on mine too!"

Weiss waved as well, and trotted off after Yang again. They reached the inn in a matter of minuets, but someone was waiting at the door to Weiss's room, and it wasn't Ruby.

Weiss couldn't hide the surprise in her voice. "Henry?" ...how did he know what room she was staying in? Weiss had made sure to keep that information secret from him!

He saw her approaching, and smiled. "Oh hey Weiss! What a coincidence!" He leaned against the wall and stretched, as if to show he'd been waiting a while.

"...hello. Why are you, here?" Weiss asked cautiously.

Yang looked back and forth between the two, her brows furrowing. "Oh!" She chirped as she made a fist and slapped it against her palm. "Number 4!"

Weiss ignored Yang and waited for Henrys response. "I was just in the neighborhood. Thought I'd, stop by and see if you were busy~" he was trying to sound flirty, but it just made Weiss want to gag. She held it in.

"I'm in the middle of something right now, I need to get past–" Weiss tried to say, but was cut off.

Henry sighed and rolled his eyes. "Come on, humor me will ya? Just give me a chance, I know you're no dating anyone. I'll make it worth your while!" he said, still blocking the door to Weiss's room.

Yang's arm twitched, and Weiss moved her hand behind her to pinch her before she could throw a punch. Yang seemed unfazed by it. She looked over at Weiss, her eyes clearly asking 'can i kill him now?' Weiss replied back with a look that said 'I'll tell Blake on you'. That made Yang grumble an look away.

"I really don't have the time at the moment, now if you'll please move..." Weiss asked gently.

Henry scoffed. "Fine. I'll come by some other time. Don't think you can run, I know where you live!" He joked with a wink, walking past them and down the stairs.

When they were sure he was gone, Yang whirled around and stared Weiss in the eyes. "WHY didn't you let me hit him?"

"We've got enough on our plates with Ruby's wanted poster! We don't need one for you too!" Weiss huffed.

"But that was for murder! I'd just rough him up a little! He needs it, the stupid prick." Yang punched the palm of her hand. She then tilted her head in thought, and asked Weiss a question. "Why didn't you say no?"

"What?"

"No. Why didn't you say it? You said, 'not right now' or 'later' but not no. Don't you want him gone?"

"I..." Yang was right. Weiss hadn't said no. Why hadn't she? Thinking back, Had she ever told Henry no? All her responses had been like Yang said, 'not now's or 'another time'. Did Weiss secretly want to meet up with him? No, certainly not, just being around him put her on edge and made uncomfortable. Like so many of the parties she'd had to attend back at the castle, her fathers cold stare making sure she didn't put a foot our of line, or insult the guests in any way. How could she tell someone no under that pressure? But... That pressure should have been gone now. She didn't have to feel like she was constantly being watched anymore. So why was it so hard to break out of that mentality? Why did it feel like she was more trapped then ever when in a situation like that with Henry? I don't understand..

Yang hugged Weiss from behind. Weiss flinched at the sudden gesture, but didn't try to get away. "Sorry. You've still got stuff to work through huh? Guess I can't relate, seeing as how I can just punch the living daylights out of anyone I want to get away from. Not to say you're weak, but I'm just,,, overqualified." Yang rubbed the back of her head with an awkward smile.

Weiss nodded, words not coming out. Yang let her go and opened the door to Weiss's room. Ruby was perched on the bed, acting as if she'd been there the whole time. Yang let out a breath of relief. "You WERE under the bed, weren't you?!" She growled.

Ruby nodded eagerly, smiling brightly. Yang sighed, and scratched her head. "I feel dumb. I think, I'll go help Blake out. With gathering rope and stuff. Saddles almost done. Yeah.. That." Weiss could tell Yang wanted to pounce on her sister and check her over to make sure she was ok. But even Yang had enough sense to know that it would be kind to leave Weiss and Ruby alone for a little while. She pushed Weiss inside, and gently shut the door.

Two things immediately stuck out to Weiss when she entered the room. One, how drafty it was. The window was shut, wasn't It..? And two, how Ruby was holding her hands behind her back still. No wait, make that three things, the makeshift shoes Ruby had been wearing were covered in mud, and they were NOT like that yesterday.

"So..." Weiss said, moving forwards and sitting on the bed. Ruby backed up to the window, as if trying to hide somthing, still smiling. "Where've you been?"

"Uh... Well, you see..?" Ruby avoided eye contact. Weiss saw a flash of red when Ruby fidgeted in place. Red? She was wearing Weiss's white cloak, why would there be– ! Weiss lunged forward and grabbed Rubys arm, pulling it around front. Shards of glass poked out of multiple deep cuts and scratches. "H– wh–?" Weiss stuttered. "Ruby?!" She yelled. Ruby closed her eyes and tried to take her arm back, whimpering a little. Only then did Weiss see the broken window behind her. Weiss took a deep breath to calm herself. "I'm. Sorry for yelling. Lets get this out of you." She spoke softly through gritted teeth to calm Ruby down. Ruby nodded.

"I tried to follow you but I didn't want to let you know so I tried to go out the window, It only broke a little! But then I, um.. I thought I sensed another dragon? But he looked like menry? Hahaha, So I got confused. And followed him but then I got lost and when I kept having this bad feeling and trying to find you but I couldn't and and when I got back the doors heheheh the doors were locked so I climed in the window but I slipped and my arms got glass in em and–"

"Shhhhh." Weiss shushed her, trying to cool her head. "Its alright. I'll try not to leave like that again." Plink, plink, plink. The sound of shards of glass falling to the floor as Weiss plucked them out filled the silence of the room. Uhg. Weiss had offered to help immediately upon seein Ruby hurt, but, this was disgusting. So much blood. Why was there so much blood? This was going to be hell to get out while washing. Its a good thing ruby had seemed to have rolled up her sleeves before climbing through the broken window. What would happen if Weiss didn't help? Would Ruby Just have to live with glass in her arm forever? Or would they disappear next time she went dragon? Either way, they were causing Ruby pain right now, so Weiss wanted them gone. "Have you gotten glass stuck in your arms like this before?" Weiss asked, to particularly distract herself from the goreish scene before her.

"No, never! First time! PFTTT." Ruby snorted a laugh when weiss wedged out a particularly deep shard. "Owwwwww." She whined.

"Promise me you won't climb through broken windows like that anymore, alright?" Weiss sighed. She was beginning to feel dizzy from the sight of this.

Ruby pouted and nodded. "I only did it because I didn't want to worry you guys when you came back."

Weiss gave her a dull look. "Uh-huh. And how did that work out for you?"

"...badly." Ruby said, looking away. Weiss got back to focusing on pullin out glass. "Hey, menry was juat here, right?" Ruby asked.

Weiss froze. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I felt like he was a dragon before.. But, just now he wasn't? I wonder if, my senses are broken..."

"Didn't Yang say normally you can't tell if someone's a dragon when they're in human form?"

"Yeah NORMALLY, but maybe, he, wanted me to know..?"

"But if he was one, wouldn't he have turned into a dragon back when we stole the scale from him?" Weiss wondered out loud.

"I'm, not sure?" Ruby tilted her head. "Well, probably. Because he would have known about the whole 'dragons can turn into people whenever they want' thing. I'm not sure how to do it yet, but if a dragon wants to they can, turn off their magical shield barrier.. The thing that keeps magical signature trackers from finding us. Well, unless the tracker has a literal dragon scale in it, but its pretty rare for those to fall into human hands."

Weiss glanced awkwardly away, remembering how reckless Ren and Nora were with their dragon tracking compass. If it really were that rare, they wouldn't have been waving it around like that.. Ruby didn't notice Weiss's change quick change of expression.

A bit longer passed. "There." Weiss let out the breath she'd been holding in. Ruby's arms looked,,, well, they didn't look much better, but at least there wasn't glass sticking out of them anymore. Weiss used one of the pillowcases from the bed on one of Ruby's arms, and a blanket scrap (leftover from when they had to ration blankets from Ruby's dragon sneezing) on the other. Weiss wasn't sure how long it would take Ruby to heal. When she'd held that spiked ball in the weapons shop before, it hadn't taken more then an hour. But how long had it been already? Half an hour of silently plucking glass from her arm? Weiss hadn't seen any sign of it healing yet. She hoped it would.

BASH

The door burst open. Yang was there, and looked ready to pounce on Ruby and strangle her. "You dirty sneak!"

"Huh?" Weiss couldn't help but say.

Yang pointed at Ruby "She's bleeding!"

"...yes. I'm aware." Weiss said slowly.

"No, no she tricked me! She put a little blood in her nose! So when I saw her earlier I didn't freak out because I just thought she had a nose bleed!" Yang stomped angrily.

Ruby looked away, pretending Yang wasn't in the room.

"I think she's fine now, so yo–" Weiss was almost immediately cut off.

"I worry about you! You're, you're, you're like me! But worse!" Yang took a deep breath. "Uhg. I KNEW it was to strong a smell to just be from the nose. I'm an idiot." She wandered over to the bed and sat on it. "I gave you two a half hour alone, now it's my turn to coddle my little sis." Yang reached a hand out and rubbed Ruby's head. Ruby smiled and leaned into the hand. That same hand honked her on the head a second later. Ruby stuck out her tongue at Yang and the two playfully bickered.

Weiss remembered a question she'd had earlier "Oh Yang, I wanted to ask you, how long does healing usually take?"

Yang subsided from playfully tormenting Ruby a moment. "Huh? Healing?" She tilted her head and looked up in thought. "Ohhhh oh yeah! Healing! Uh, hm... Well it depends? On the wound? And on how much magic We've got stored up? Ruby should be fine by now if it was scratches." Yang glanced next to Weiss. "Buuuut judging by that bloody pile of glass there, I'm guessing another hour at least for it to be fully gone."

Weiss nodded. That... Well that didn't exactly make sense, but, she trusted Yang enough to take her word for it.

W– Hm? Trust? Weiss's brain yelled at her. Oh god. They were people Weiss trusted. People she'd spent time with, and wanted to be around. If Weiss found herself back in her fathers clutches, she would actively try to break out of his grasp to go back to said people instead of obeying him meekly like she did before. That thought warmed her to the core.

The door to the inn room bust open again. Blake. Seriously, did those two even know how to knock? "We ride at dawn!" Blake triumphantly called out, the bags under her eyes screaming for sleep. Weiss held in a laugh at her scragged appearance. She hadn't looked to closely at Blake earlier when she'd escaped Hazel. Ah. Hazle. That had happened hadn't it? It felt like days ago, but that was just a few hours ago wasn't it?

"Wrong!" Yang yelled to match Blake's enthusiasm. "We leave at like,,, 5 AM! Sneak attacks work better in the morning!"

"That IS dawn you moron." Blake glared. "I'm going to sleep right this second, I don't have your crazy stamina." She flopped onto Ruby and Weiss's and bed.

Ruby and Weiss looked to Yang for an explanation. "I guess she finished sewing and tying leather enough to make a saddle. She was up all night, poor thing. I was to! ...Mostly. We were shopping earlier when you came about Weiss because we just needed a tiiiiiiny bit more thread." Yang strode over to the bed and rubbed the now snoring Blake's head. "Wanna sleep in a safety pile on the same bed again? She's probably gonna be out till tomorrow, but I don't want to move her just in case."

"I like the sleep pile. It reminds me of sleeping on you in dragon form." Ruby smiled as she spoke to Yang.

"I mat not against it either..." Weiss said, letting out her inner tsundere.

Yang nodded. "Sweet. You two can go to our room for a bit so you can talk without worrying you'll wake her, I'll stay here. Remember, like Blake said. We ride at dawn~" She smiled mischievously.