Subaru wearily opened his eyes, remnants of tears lined down across his face. He just woke up again, having a hard time sleeping. Like a nightmare he can't overcome, vivid yet depressing, it seems every night that passed followed the same formula: he would wake up in the middle of the night and would try to go back to sleep again, only to cry and repeat the process after.

With nothing better to do, he dotted his eyes around to check what's going on. He can conclude that he was still in team RWBY's dorm and that it was still in the middle of the night. His eyes then dotted back to what laid in front of his eyes, his spirit, Beatrice. He lightly smiled, seeing how peaceful she looked as she slept next to him, with her small and delicate hand holding his.

Though it soon faded into a worrisome frown yet again, his true self showing, his true pathetic, weak, and depressed self. He was having an urge to do the deed he was always told not to do by his contracted spirit. He resented it, loathed it, hated the act that he always did whenever he felt this way. But it was necessary because it was the only way he could calm down.

His face trembled in fear as he was not sure what to decide on. But alas, he broke his promise once more, turning away from his spirit's gaze and revealing his bare forearm, complete with scars of both old and new wounds of his previous sessions of self-harm. However, before he could do that, he heard a voice coming from behind. A small and sleepy voice, that of a little girl as she tugged at his tracksuit.

"Subaru? What's wrong, I suppose?"

He looked down, not wanting to turn back, revealing his forearm yet again towards her, an arm that had been healed so many times for the past year. He was afraid, afraid of the outcome of his Beatrice crying once again, although she is stronger and was used to it, he still trembled about that single thought of making her sad. He cannot answer, not because he does not want to, but because he can't. He can't reveal to her what he was about to do.

Enough courage won't even make him turn towards her, not capable of facing her in this state. But then, he felt a nudge on his body, Beatrice's forehead placed herself onto his back. She hugged him close to her, not wanting to let go of her Subaru that she knew was going through something. She does not want him to do it again, it pains her for seeing him doing that and keeping it a secret to only him and her alone.

"I know what you are going to do, I suppose" Her voice is wavering, "I don't want to see it, in fact."

"Beatrice…" He muttered, with fear being an underlying tone of his voice as he called her.

Beatrice knows if he said her real name means that something is wrong. She understood her contractor better than anyone else, that he is a lonely man who often uses a mask to hide what he would call, "his true pathetic personality". That he always tries his best to be a better person, yet self-hating at the same time. She wanted to support him whenever she can, and hugging him tight like this is one way for her to get the message across.

"Please….don't hurt yourself, I suppose. I know you are lonely, but please don't, in fact. Betty's here to support you whenever Betty's Subaru needs it." Her voice kept trembling.

"Why are you doing this?" Subaru responded in a somber tone

"Just answer what's wrong and face Betty, I suppose. Subaru knows what Betty's talking about, in fact."

He pondered for a moment, deciding whether to listen to her or not. She's stubborn and won't back down easily by just ignoring her, meaning there's only one thing that could be done to defuse this situation. He chose to turn his body around to face her. Beatrice adjusted herself to around his eye level so they could see each other better. Subaru observed the expression of hers, full of sadness and worry for him. It forced him to answer her, but he began to grit his teeth and clench his fist, preventing him from doing so.

"Subaru, do you want to start our private talk now, I suppose?" She changed the topic, noticing his reluctance to talk about his attempted deed of self-harm secretly from her.

He looked at her again, silent as always, but now he is more or less confident to answer. But alas, his mind and body were divided on what to do. He tries to think up something to respond with, but his body prevents him from doing so. He does not want to open his mouth, reluctant to answer yet again.

But suddenly Beatrice tugged his shirt and hugged him tight, connecting her forehead with his. An aura of warmth radiated out of her small frame as she caressed Subaru's hair slowly and gently, with her left hand clenching his. "You're worried for them, I suppose?" Her tone quiet, akin to a whisper, wanting to comfort and calm him down enough for him to talk it out.

Tears began flowing out of his eyes as he quietly cried out and placed himself onto her chest, "The nightmares about them won't stop! Even with you being beside me, clenching me tight like you always did, it won't stop! I have bad dreams about them dying, being captured, tortured, eaten alive, and I couldn't stop them! They're vivid, but the feelings of pain and death are there! I can't stop them from dying, I can't stop them, I can't!"

Her eyes closed, listening to his sobs closely and thoroughly as she comforted him. His worries and nightmares, things that he could not escape from, she listened to it all while he continued to cry it all out.

"I couldn't stop worrying about them! I hate myself for doing that! I can't stop! I'm scared of the future, scared of what will happen to them without us! We should've not visited the forest to train! If we didn't do that we could be with them right now! I should've run my errands sooner, I should've been stronger for them! I'm worried! Pathetic! Scared for the future Beatrice!"

A cry was then let out, muffled by him burying face onto her chest, her letting him cry it all out onto her small frame. But with all of his crying, it could potentially wake the girls upon their 'bunk beds'. After all, you wouldn't want your sleep to be interrupted by someone sobbing, even though Beatrice knows that this is necessary or it would just build up and get worse. Therefore, she decided to act on it and placed her head near his ear, before whispering her thoughts towards him.

"I know you are worried, Subaru. Betty is too, in fact. But right now Betty knows that she has a priority to take care of, I suppose."

Subaru looked towards her, dumbfounded. Her words stopped his sobbing, but it only confused him. He can see why Beatrice would have him as her priority, but he doesn't understand why she wouldn't care about the others if she was worried too.

"Subaru just has to stay strong and take the priority of finding a way to return home, I suppose. Betty will support you along the way, in fact."

"Beatrice…."

Ignoring his call Beatrice with her comforting and warm tone continued. "Even if it may take another year until we get back, Betty will always be by your side, I suppose. Subaru doesn't know what the future will serve for us, even Betty knows that too, in fact. Just stay focused on our priorities and lean on each other."

Subaru only lay there looking towards her eyes, her frowning face turned into a comforting smile. His crying had stopped, but still, he stood dumbfounded. But at least, he knows what to do now.

"Take priorities and don't mull over the past...is that you're saying?"

"If that is how you interpret it, yes, I suppose. We just need to hope for the best for them while we find a way to get back, in fact."

"What if we can't get back?"

Closing her eyes and placing her forehead back into his chest, snuggling deeply into him, she replied, "We'll have to wait and see, I suppose. Betty will remind you that Subaru can ask people around to help, in fact. Betty will always support Subaru whenever he needs it."

His deadpan look and dry eyes turned into a slight smile as he hugged Beatrice closer to him. Someone that will always support and help him, that's what Beatrice is in his eyes. She reminded him that she'll always be there for him, those words are the only ones he needed to hear to calm himself down.

"Thanks, Beako. Sorry for worrying you so much in the middle of the night."

Small breaths are the only response coming from her, as she soon fell asleep with a smile. He is tired, but satisfied, and soon he fell into slumber yet again. Unaware and ignorant of the world around them as they embrace each other in warmth.

The little rose above gave a deep thought after overhearing their conversation. His sobs and cries of worry and the little spirit's reassurance and comfort, all she heard as she lay there on her bed. It is a deep thought about the nasty-eyed man below her, a man who called himself Natsuki Subaru.

Ruby thought of her first impressions about him. The man seems to be always tired and exhausted, his eyes always have remnants of trauma and fear. She admitted that she is dense and can't read people well, even now she has a hard time figuring him out, but Ruby knows what a person that experiences trauma looks like. Because she had read about those types of people in the books she always read, and that she heard it first hand. They have the same eyes the person below her had, filled with exhaustion and constant paranoia. This could answer why he decided to fake most of his reactions, such as when Yang told her about Subaru's 'weird act' in the bathroom.

But she then delved further, could that possibly be why he distanced himself from the rest during lunch that afternoon? For her, it is possible, but that drove her into another question about it. What kind of hardship did he experience?

From what she heard below from Subaru's sobbing, she thought that she got an answer. His worry of his friends and family must've brought him to the brink and placed him into a deep depression. However, Beatrice for some reason didn't act like that at all. Perhaps it is because Subaru is her main priority? Could be, but that would mean that she did not care a whole lot about the others that Subaru cared about as well, which would be weird and kinda creepy for her. Unless it is because there is only Subaru that Beatrice placed him as a priority.

She began to move onto another possible reason for his hardships he is experiencing right now. Beatrice told the entire team about his achievements while Subaru was distancing himself, and the fact that he and Beatrice are from another world. Now that she thought about it with how direct and seemingly honest by tone Beatrice was. Homesickness and thinking of the consequences of his disappearance could be another reason why Subaru was like that in the first place. After all, like that one wise uncle in the comics said "With great power comes great responsibilities", or in his case "With great achievements come great consequences".

His friends and family could be a target for the bad guys, due to his disappearance presenting a great opportunity for them to do something bad towards them. After all, if someone who brought down two great beasts that are much stronger than the strongest Grimm out there and he also brought down one of your henchmen in the process, but he then disappeared so suddenly, who wouldn't dare to try and hurt the ones that person loves?

After thinking about that, it made her realize how much Subaru is similar to the heroes that are in one of her most favorite fairy tales and books. It made her sympathize with him, relate to him, and fall for him. To Ruby, Subaru is someone she always wanted to be and admired when she was little, and still is right now.

He is like those heroes in the books, but unlike most of them, he is human too. He faced hardships and triumph over the challenges that faced him, he is selfless, not caring for himself but for others. He is much like a real person, a real hero in her eyes. No matter what people think of his achievements, she views him as a hero. A human and relatable hero in the books is what he is to her.

She will make sure that he will reach his goal, with all of her strength she will help and support his cause.

With the newfound motivation to help someone, Ruby then finally decided to act on it immediately. She slowly sat up and brought herself onto the dorm's desk, not forgetting to borrow Subaru's whip, and started brainstorming.

She began to verbally whisper to herself, or rather, the weapon in front of her, "I heard you're named the Guiltywhip by Subaru, right? How about we call your new little brother something different, something much cooler!"

A/N: Author here! So after the recent critique by a certain user about my dialogue style, I have decided to change it!

A few other notes:

- Longer chapters in the future, starting with the next one. This will be the last chapter with a short word count.

- I will and am constantly revising the drafts and reviewing it with other fellow writers before publishing it, so you will see the story evolve in quality. Hopefully.

- As for chapter 1-4, I won't necessarily make a rewrite of them in the near future. Maybe after this first book is done or when I have time I can do a rewrite, but for now, I will leave it as it is. At least those chapters get their messages across with some degree of quality, unlike the terrible wattpad fics I always cringe at while reading.

- Speaking of Wattpad, this story is crossposted into that site too! Having the same name as well! My username there is Sterron, since apparently Frisk999 is unavailable, like c'mon!

PS: If you want to be critical, at least be detailed about it, so I can look into those issues and fix it on the next chapter. Like, be better critics damn it! Give constructive criticism, not hate comments.