Notice Me, Ruby!

Chapter 4: Attempted Apologies

It had been a few days since team RWBY's "incident". As one would expect, Ruby had not been happy with the treatment she received from her teammates, causing her ignoring of the three older girls to change into fully avoiding them. It honestly became rare for the WBY to even see their team leader, as she seemed to be determined to not interact with her teammates at all. Not only did Ruby sit far away from the WBY during lunch and in class, but she even went as far as to waking up earlier than the rest of her team and returning to the dorm only once the three other girls were asleep.

This caused a huge amount of stress and discomfort to Yang, who was in agony over what was happening between her and Ruby. The fact that she had essentially attacked the younger girl and made very serious accusations towards her caused untold amounts of agony to the blonde. To make matters worse, she remembered how she had long ago promised Ruby's mother, Summer, that she would look after the younger girl and keep her safe. With what she had done, Yang felt like she had betrayed the woman who had been a mother to her, when her own had left her.

However, the brawler was determined to make things right between her and the redhead. She had tried to wake up earlier and staying up late in order to get a chance to talk to Ruby, but these methods had not worked. It was almost like the young team leader somehow knew what the older girl was planning, as she would either wake up even earlier or return to the dorm later, depending on what Yang was planning. The blonde had even tried to somehow corner the younger girl in order to have a talk with her, but this didn't work either. Ruby would always find a way to slip away with the help of her Semblance, leaving behind only a cloud of rose petals.

Despite her failures, Yang wasn't going to give up. There had even been some minor things that strengthened her resolve to solve things between herself and Ruby. One of these things was when one night the blonde had been staying up late, waiting for the scythe-wielder to return to their dorm, only to fall asleep in the chair she had been sitting on. The next morning, Yang woke up to find herself still sitting on her chair, but her body had been covered with a blanket to keep herself warm. After asking Weiss and Blake about it and hearing them say that they had nothing to do with it, the brawler knew that Ruby still cared about them, even after what they had done.

But since her more direct approaches had not worked, Yang had decided to use something that required some scheming instead. Right now, she was hiding behind a corner, waiting for Ruby to walk past her. As she was waiting, she got a call from Blake.

"Yang, she's coming your way right now," the cat faunus whispered on the other end of the call.

"Okay, I'll be ready for her," the blonde replied.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Blake asked, somewhat uncertain of her partner's plan. "I mean, this could very easily backfire, you know?"

"I don't know what else to do and I'm willing to take the risk," Yang answered. "Besides, it's been too long since I've hugged her."

"Alright, if that's how you feel."

The brawler ended the call with her partner just in time to hear footsteps approaching. She pressed herself against the wall and held her breath, hoping that Ruby wouldn't notice her. Yang could feel her heartbeat get faster as the footsteps got closer with each passing second. Soon the person was right in front of her view and the blonde dashed towards the familiar sight of red hair, arms ready to go around her target.

However, Yang only managed to fall face first to the floor, as rose petals fell around her, telling her that Ruby had slipped away once again with her Semblance.

"Wait!" the blonde called out to the redhead, who simply kept running and was soon out of sight again. "Don't go..."

Yang was about to break down into tears, when she heard her partner walk up to her.

"I guess your plan didn't work, huh?" Blake said as she walked up to the brawler.

"No... She's just too fast. Every time I try to get close to her, she just disappears from sight before I can even say anything to her," Yang said as a couple of tears fell from her eyes. "I just want to make things right again. Why can't Ruby see that? I know what we did was wrong, but shouldn't she give us at least a chance?"

"Yang, what we did was pretty severe," the cat faunus explained while helping the other girl stand up. "Not only did we accuse her of a serious crime, we also hurt and humiliated her. We are honestly lucky that the only ones who know what happened are us and Professor Goodwitch. If it had been anymore people, I fear what that might have caused."

"I know, I know! But I just want to... bring things back to how they used to be, you know? How they were before any of this happened."

"I feel the same way as you do, but we have caused some serious damage to that. I think it might be best to leave Ruby alone for a while, so that we don't accidentally make everything worse. We need to give her time to heal from what we did."

"But that's not the only thing that concerns me!" Yang said with a frown. "Even before we did that, Ruby had been distant and cold towards us! What I want to do is bring back the old Ruby, who was full of life and love!"

"Trust me, I feel the same way," Blake said as she put a hand on her partner's shoulder. "However, we shouldn't risk making things even worse by-"

"NO! You don't understand!" the blonde suddenly yelled and pushed the faunus girl's hand away. "Ruby has changed into something that she's not and I want to bring her back to the way she used to be! Neither you or Weiss can understand this as you're so indifferent and don't care-"

*SLAP!*

Yang stood still in silence and held her cheek that had just been slapped by Blake. The cat faunus was glaring at her with the angriest look the brawler had ever seen.

"Don't you ever even dare think that Weiss or myself don't care about Ruby," Blake said angrily. "She is someone very precious for both of us and we feel just like you do about all of this. We have actually tried to talk to Ruby the same way you have, but since she always ran away from us, we decided to let her be alone and calm down from all of this. After that, we would have went to apologize to her and talk about what has been going on. So don't you ever accuse us of being indifferent or not caring about Ruby."

"I'm sorry," Yang apologized as she looked down in shame. "I'm just so worried about all of this and I don't know what to do..."

"Look, I understand your worry, but it's best to take things slowly, okay?" the raven-haired girl said. "You can't just expect to be able to run up to her and make everything alright in a second. You need to give her some space as well."

The blonde nodded and the two girls went back to their dorm. Once they got there, they saw Weiss laying on her bed and studying, and a large tray of freshly baked cookies.

"Any luck with Ruby?" the heiress asked upon seeing her two teammates returning.

"No, I'm afraid," Blake answered and shook her head.

"Hey, Weiss, what's with the cookies?" Yang asked as she stared at the tray of treats. "Did you decide to make yourself a snack or something?"

"Only people like you or Ruby would consider that a snack," Weiss said with a roll of her eyes. "I made those for Ruby, as a means of saying that we are sorry for what we did. Small steps towards a greater goal, as I'd like to call it."

"That's a pretty good idea, Weiss," the blonde said with a smile. "It just needs one more thing and it's perfect."

The white-haired and raven-haired girl watched as Yang took a piece of paper and wrote something on it. She then placed it next to the tray of cookies, allowing the other two girls to see what was written there.

To Ruby

From Yang

I'm sorry

"Now it's perfect," the brawler said with a smile, feeling hopeful about her chances at patching things up with Ruby.

"Just what do you think you're doing, Yang!?" Weiss asked angrily as she got up from her bed. "Who gave you the right to claim my work as your own!?"

"Come on, Weiss! I need this!" Yang whined. "We both know that I was the one most at fault for what we did to Rubes! Out of the three of us, I am the one who needs to apologize to her the most!"

While the two girls were arguing, Blake realized a fatal flaw in her partner's plan.

"Ummm... I don't think you should-" the raven-haired girl tried to say, but her warning was ignored.

"So, since you are going to claim MY work as your own, what do I get in return?" Weiss asked her blonde teammate.

"Guys, seriously, you should listen-"

"I'll be your best friend forever?" Yang suggested.

"Hey, you guys need to hear what I'm-"

"That's not good enough," the heiress said to her teammate's offer. "How about you give me something useful? Like let me use your motorcycle for a week?"

"Are you two even listening to anything that goes around you!? I'm trying to-"

"Alright, fine! You have yourself a deal, princess!" the brawler answered. "Honestly, the things I have to go through for the people I care about..."

"I am visible, aren't I!? I do actually exist, you know!? Would two mind and-"

"Hush, Blake! I think I hear Ruby coming back!" Yang suddenly said and went to lay on her bed.

Seeing as how her teammates refused to listen to her, Blake just let out a frustrated groan and went to sit on her bed to read one of her books. As she did this, she mumbled something about "stupid teammates being deaf and making things worse."

Soon the door to the dorm opened, revealing Ruby on the other side. Once she saw that her teammates were in the room, the redhead frowned and was about to close the door and leave, but Yang managed to stop her from doing so.

"We won't try to do anything this time," the blonde said. "You can come in with no worries."

"I'm just going to take my books and leave," Ruby said as she entered.

"That's okay, but I got something for you. It's on your desk."

The young team leader looked at her desk and saw the tray of cookies. She walked up to the treats and read the note that was left next to the tray, before turning her attention back to Yang.

"Apology accepted," Ruby said while looking at the blonde girl.

Yang's heart swelled with joy over hearing the younger girl finally accept her apology. It seemed like she would finally be able to make some progress with getting things back the way they used to be.

"The cookies on the other hand," Ruby suddenly added before dumping the sweet treats into the trash bin. "They are not."

The three older girls watched as their team leader put the tray back on the desk, gathered her books and finally left. Both Yang and Weiss were wide-eyed, while Blake herself didn't look surprised at all.

"What was that for!?" Weiss screamed angrily after her partner had left. "Does she have any idea how much work I put into those cookies!?"

"That's the problem, Weiss," Blake suddenly said with a sigh. "She didn't know that you were the one who made them."

"What do you mean by that?" Yang asked.

"Remember the last time you made cookies?"

The brawler's eyes went wide as she realized what her partner was talking about. She let out a loud scream out of frustration and anger at herself for making such a big mistake, before jumping down from her bed and walking up to a wall to bang her head against it.

"Dammit! Dammit! DAMMIT!" Yang yelled while she kept banging her head. "I just made myself look like a complete idiot in front of Ruby and ruined a perfectly good chance to get close to her again! How could this get worse!?"

"You still have to hold your end of the bargain and let me use your motorcycle, remember?" Weiss pointed out.

Yang's scream could be heard everywhere in Beacon.

Author's notes: I decided to put up this chapter along with the previous one, as I felt like it would ease some things that might have bothered some of you in the last chapter. I'm still unsure if you guys will like these chapters, but I felt like I should try anyway. Hope you guys did.

Anyways, please tell me how you felt about these chapters, as I take your feedback seriously. It is your feedback that decides if this story will continue or not.

Until next time.

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth.