This is a super self-indulgent mess that no one asked for but I've started school again and I hate everything and I wrote this instead of studying for my quiz tomorrow so it is what it is. Set between volumes 3 and 4. Content warnings for blood and vomit. Enjoy!
It's never a good sign when you wake up and have no idea where you are.
What the—Ruby jolts, startled, groaning when the motion drives a spike of pain through her head. That's not a good sign. She reaches up tentatively with one hand for the source of the pain. It comes away wet. Why is her face wet?
It takes too long for the realization to come, her mind foggy and slow, Blood. It's blood. She's bleeding. She frowns, swallowing hard. That's—that's really not a good sign.
And why's it so dark, anyway? She can't even make out any shapes or outlines of anything around her. Once again, it takes far too long for her to gather her scattered thoughts, but eventually it comes to her—duh, her eyes are closed. She cracks them open, trying to get a look at her surroundings before the pain in her head worsens and she squeezes them shut again.
Where is she? She'd managed to get a glimpse of tree branches arching overhead, but that doesn't really help much. She has no idea where she is or what happened or why her head hurts so much. A shiver runs down her spine. Her head hurts, she's bleeding a lot, and she has no idea what's going on.
As much as she hates to admit it, she needs help.
Fumbling a little, she reaches into her pocket, breathing out a sigh of relief when her hand finds her scroll. She doesn't even have to look at the screen as she punches in her sister's number; she knows Yang's number better than she knows her own.
There's a long pause as she waits for her sister to pick up. Ruby frowns again—Yang usually picks up as soon as she hears Ruby calling—and she's starting to wonder if Yang is asleep or something when her sister finally answers.
"What is it, Ruby? I told you that I didn't want to talk."
Ruby's frown deepens. That's—not the answer she was expecting. Her sister sounds angry with her, but for the life of her Ruby can't think of why—and trying to remember just makes her head hurt worse. She groans. "Yang, I need help," she mumbles. The words feel slippery, like it's hard to fit her mouth around them. "M' head hurts and I dunno where I am—" Her head throbs in protest, and Ruby cuts herself off with a moan.
"Whoa, Ruby," the annoyance has drained from Yang's voice, replaced by worry. "What's going on? What happened?"
The questions are just making her more confused. "I don' know," she murmurs. She's so tired. "Don' remember."
"You better not be messing around." Yang sighs heavily.
"'m not," Ruby promises. Even lying down with her eyes closed, the world around her feels unsteady.
"Okay, okay, I'm on my way," Yang says shortly. She sighs again. "Stay where you are. You better not have gone far.'
"'m not going anywhere," Ruby manages to get out before her sister hangs up. A wave of warm certainty washes over her. Her head still hurts and she's still confused and lost, but Yang is on her way. She knows that everything is going to be okay.
She must have dozed off at some point, because she wakes up to a hand on her shoulder. An extra-warm hand. Yang. Her mouth twitches up. "Hey, sis," she says tiredly.
"Geez, Ruby, you could have mentioned that you were bleeding everywhere." Yang sounds stressed, but her hand is gentle as she tilts Ruby's head.
"Sorry," Ruby mutters. She drifts for a moment before abruptly coming back to herself when a piece of fabric is pressed firmly against the side of her head. She gasps as the pressure increases the pain in her head, reaching up with one hand to try to relieve it.
Yang swats her hand away. "Leave it," she scolds. "Unless you want to bleed out into the dirt."
Ruby lets her hand fall, breathing slowly through the pain and trying to settle her uneasy stomach. "Sorry," she says again.
Yang heaves a sigh, her warm breath ghosting over Ruby's face. She's sighing a lot. "Let's not do this now, not when you're bleeding all over my jacket."
"'kay." She doesn't dare try to nod, not when the pain in her head is finally starting to ease up a bit. Yang must hear the dejection in her voice, because she carefully brushes Ruby's hair back from her forehead. The touch is maybe a little too soothing and Ruby soon finds herself drifting off again, into a hazy twilight away from the pain.
"Hey." Yang's voice is soft, but it still makes Ruby jolt a little in surprise. Bad move. "I think the bleeding stopped. We should get you inside. Can you stand? I can't really carry you anymore."
Something seems a little off about that last part, but Ruby doesn't have the energy to really think about it. Standing doesn't sound appealing, but going inside sounds excellent, so she braces herself and says "Yeah."
Yang slides an arm under her shoulders, and slowly but surely begins to level her up to sitting. Once again, Ruby finds herself vaguely curious why Yang is doing everything one-handed, but that train of thought quickly evaporates upon sitting up. The pressure in her head skyrockets, and the change in position proves to be too much for her uneasy stomach.
She lists to one side and throws up with a loud moan; a small part of her mind hopes that she's not puking all over herself. This has already been embarrassing enough. When she's done, she scrubs a hand over her mouth and groans at the increased pounding in her temples.
Yang is rubbing circles between her shoulder blades as she props her up. "Sorry Rubes, I should've done that more slowly. Guess it was too much too fast. You wanna take a breather before we go any further?"
As nice as that sounds, Ruby would rather just get this whole thing over with. "No, 'm good," she says shakily.
"Yeah, sure," Yang huffs, but her arm is gentle as she hooks it around Ruby's waist and slowly, inch by painful inch, easing her up to standing. The process is just as painful as sitting up was, and by the time she's on her feet Ruby is covered in cold sweat and fighting to keep her balance. But she doesn't pass out or throw up again, so she'll consider it a success.
It's the little things in life.
She starts to sway immediately upon standing, but Yang's arm is there again, guiding her until she's propped up, leaning into her sister's side. Secure. "Almost done, Ruby, just gotta make it back to the house. One foot in front of the other. You ready?"
Ruby struggles to hear her sister over the ringing in her ears, but she can make out the words "almost done" and "house" which sounds good to her. "Yeah," she mumbles, her voice hoarse and croaky.
"Alright, let's go. Just focus on moving your feet and I'll do the rest, 'kay?"
Walking is just as unpleasant as sitting up or standing was, but Ruby finds it a bit more bearable if she shuts out everything else and just focuses on shuffling her feet. Yang's arm is a warm constant at her back, her voice a soothing rumble in her ear.
At some point, she must have zoned out completely, because the next thing she knows, she's sitting on the couch with her sister nudging her shoulder. "You still with me, Ruby? I'm pretty sure that you have a concussion. I need you to stay awake for me."
Ruby's eyelids—no, her whole body—feel like they're made of heavy rocks. Weighed down and impossible to lift. "But Yang," she murmurs, her voice dangerously close to a whine. "'m so tired."
She can practically hear Yang rolling her eyes. "Fine, fine, but I am going to keep waking you up to check on you, and you'd better not complain."
Ruby can't make out most of her sister's grumbling, but she understands that she's allowed to sleep now. She drifts off to the sensation of her sister cleaning the blood off her forehead.
The next thing she's aware of, she's blinking awake, sprawled out on the living room sofa. Her head still aches dimly, but the room is still dark. It must still be early, then—or—a quick glance reveals that her sister has shut the blinds and pulled the curtains closed to dim the room as much as possible.
Yang. Ruby swallows hard around the lump in her throat. Her sister is slumped in a chair she's pulled up next to the couch, snoring. She looks exhausted, dark circles under her eyes and her hair a rat's nest.
But she's here.
The memories are slowly coming back. Her father, leaving for an overnight trip to check on—something. Trying to talk to Yang, to get through to her, to help her yet again, only to be yelled at and unceremoniously kicked out of her sister's room. Again.
Going outside to train because she couldn't stand staying in the oppressive silence of the house for one more minute without losing it. And then—something went wrong. She'd woken up hurt and confused and ended up calling her sister for help. Yang had been annoyed, angry, accused Ruby of messing with her.
But her sister had come anyway. She'd found Ruby and brought her back to the house and sat with her all night. And that—that gives her hope.
And maybe it's silly of her, but as she drifts off again, her head wrapped in bandages and her sister snoring beside her, Ruby feels closer to Yang than she has since they got home from Beacon.
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