Notice Me, Ruby!
Chapter 25: Struggles
The next morning, Weiss was the first one to wake up in the dorm of team RWBY. Ruby had decided to spend the night with team LION, so the three older girls were the only ones there. The heiress yawned and looked around, seeing her other two teammates. Much like she had suspected, Blake was still sleeping, but Yang seemed a bit strange for some reason. After rubbing her eyes a bit to clear her vision, Weiss realized that the blonde girl was wearing her regular clothes was laying on the bed. Once she got a better look at her teammate, the white-haired girl found out that the brawler was simply staring up at the roof, like it held the answers to every question in the universe.
Somewhat freaked out by the way her teammate was acting, Weiss walked up to Blake and gently shook her to wake her up. The cat faunus grumbled, displeased for the shaking, and sat up on her bed.
"What is it, Weiss? Why did you have to wake me up?" Blake asked in an annoyed tone. "Seriously, I was just getting to the good part too. It was just like from volume two of Ninjas of-"
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't really care about whatever dream you were just having, okay?" Weiss said, cutting off her complaining teammate. "It's Yang. Something is seriously wrong with her."
"…Isn't that pretty much normal for her?" the raven-haired girl asked, not bothered by what she had just heard. "I honestly don't think normal is even a fitting term to describe Yang at all. I think you should be aware of that as well."
"While I do have to agree with that statement, this is a different type of weird," the heiress answered. "This isn't Yang's typical "I'll annoy you to death with my antics that question my sanity" type of weird. This is more like "seriously disturbing" kind of weird. You need to see this."
Blake sighed and got up from her bed, not fully believing that things were as bad as Weiss making them out to be. However, upon seeing the state of her partner, the cat faunus had to admit that something was seriously wrong.
"Do you see? She's just laying there, completely motionless while staring up at the ceiling," Weiss said. "Any idea what could be going on?"
"I might know what this is all about, but I need to see if my guess is correct," Blake replied.
The raven-haired girl got a chair and placed it next to her and Yang's bunk bed, so she could stand on it and properly look over her partner. After doing this, Blake waved her hand in front of Yang's face and snapped her fingers in the hopes of getting a reaction from the blonde girl. When this didn't work, the cat faunus decided to call out to her.
"Yang? Are you okay?" Blake asked in a soft tone. "Is everything okay with you?"
"Yes. Everything is alright with me," Yang answered in a deadpan voice tone. "There's absolutely nothing wrong at all right now."
"Are you sure? You don't seem to be okay," the raven-haired girl said.
"I am absolutely, positively, a hundred percent sure that there is nothing wrong with me right now," the brawler said in the same deadpan tone. "There have been no awful things that have happened to me recently, like shocking revelations about myself that have greatly shaken me."
"…This is about you being in love with Ruby, isn't it?"
As soon as Blake said those words, Yang's face turned completely red and she sat up straight on her bed. A panicked look was on her face, as she was talking in a speed that would leave Oobleck in the dust.
"ABSOLUTELY NOT! NO WAY IN HELL! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!" the brawler yelled. "THEIRS IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WEIRD GOING ON BETWEEN ME AND RUBES! NOT IN ANY KIND OF SENSE! ESPECIALLY ANYTHING THAT INVOLVES ME HAVING ROMANTIC FEELINGS TOWARDS HER! WHERE WOULD YOU GET THAT IDEA!?"
"…In other words, this IS about Ruby, right?"
Yang wanted to deny it, but she couldn't. It was obvious that her teammates had seen through her and she herself knew it to be true. She was in love with Ruby Rose.
"Alright, I'll admit it, okay!? I like Ruby, but not just as a friend or a sister! I like her in a romantic way as well!" the blonde girl shouted. "THERE! Are you happy now!?"
"I would be happy if you didn't try to damage my hearing with all that yelling," Weiss complained while holding her ears with a slightly pained look on her face. "Honestly, if this is such an embarrassing thing for you, maybe you shouldn't broadcast it to everyone in Beacon!"
"…Sorry," Yang apologized with an embarrassed blush on her face.
"All the noise aside, I'm glad that you have admitted your feelings for Ruby," Blake said. "The first step with any type of problem is to admit it, as you can't move forward while in denial. Now that we have managed to reach this state, what are you planning to do?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to keep this to myself and never let Ruby know!" the brawler stated proudly.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard what I said! I am not going to let Ruby ever know that I have feelings for her!" Yang said. "I mean, what good would come out of it, if I were to even confess? Nothing at all! I'm just going to keep this as a secret, until the end of time!"
"Yang, even though you are free to do whatever you want regarding this, as your partner, I have to say that's the absolute WORST way for you to handle this," Blake said.
"Oh really? And how is that?" the blonde girl asked, not believing her partner at all.
"First of all, trying to hold a secret gets worse with time. The pressure you'll feel will only increase until you either hold out or finally give in," the cat faunus began to explain. "However, the worst part will be the constant doubt you will feel within you. I can guarantee that you will keep asking yourself, "What if I had just confessed?" over and over again, which will be accompanied by you imagining yourself in the best case scenario. Not to mention, you won't be able to live with the idea of someone else being with Ruby. Just try imagining that right now. How does that make you feel?"
Yang was about to say that she wasn't affected by such thoughts at all, but stopped herself. Upon thinking about it further, the brawler could feel her heart break just thinking about the idea of Ruby being all romantic with someone else. Even if she tried to reason with herself about it, it didn't help. No matter who she imagined with the redhead, she felt horrible.
This reaction was obvious to Weiss and Blake as well. They could see how Yang's eyes went wide, her face turned pale and there were even signs of tears brimming at the corners of her eyes. The blonde girl soon curled her body up into a fetal position and trembled slightly.
"You're right, Blake… I can't live with it," Yang said quietly while struggling not to cry. "No matter what type of reasoning I try to use, I can't help but want to be the one to hold Ruby. Just what am I going to do?"
"Hey, it's going to be okay, Yang. We'll help you get through this," Blake said in a comforting tone, having noticed the distress her partner was going through. "Right now, I feel like there is only one thing you can really do. Talk."
"But I've already talked about this with the two of you. How would talking about this more help?" the blonde girl asked.
"Not us. I meant that you should talk about this with Ruby," the raven-haired girl answered with a slightly frustrated sigh. "One way or another, you are going to have to come clean and tell her your feelings. It's only a matter of when you'll do it."
"No way! Do you have any idea how bad that would turn out!?" Yang quickly refused. "Not only does she still consider us sisters, but things between us aren't exactly the best. Me confessing my feelings for her would not end happily!"
"Okay, maybe you don't have to confess right away, but at some point you will have to!" Blake said. "Like it or not, Ruby is the one you have feelings for, so the only way for you to avoid horrible heartbreak when it comes to this is to be honest and confess your feelings to her! Also, you should remember that the longer you spend time not doing it, many others are going to get a chance to confess and possibly win her over!"
"Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" the brawler yelled out of frustration and thought about her situation for a moment. While she knew that confessing to Ruby at this point was pretty much hopeless, she couldn't deny that her partner had a point. Even if most first-year students didn't see it, Ruby was an amazing person, so it was only a matter of time before someone with courage came up to her and asked her out. Not to mention, with her newfound popularity among third-years, the chances of someone wooing her were actually quite high. "Okay, I'll do it. There's just no getting around it, is there?"
"Not really, I'm afraid," Blake said with a shrug. "So when are you going to do it? Today after classes?"
Before Yang could answer, Weiss cleared her throat, getting the attention of her teammates.
"Speaking of classes, we should start hurrying," the white-haired girl said. "I think our first class will be starting soon."
"How soon exactly?" Blake asked.
Weiss took out her Scroll and checked the time, only for her eyes to go wide from shock.
"…In the next four minutes to be exact."
The classes for the WBY went on a normal manner, with the exception of being late to their first one. During the classes, Ruby was still keeping her distance to her teammates, which Yang wasn't sure how to feel about. On one hand, her feelings towards the younger girl were a mess, so the distance helped her keep herself calm, but on the other hand, the blonde girl couldn't deny the fact that she wanted to be close to the girl she knew she was in love with.
Eventually, it was lunch time for the students. The three older girls of team RWBY were sitting at a table among themselves, while their team leader was sitting further away from them. As they were eating, Yang kept glancing towards Ruby, practically unable to take her eyes away from the redhead.
"Yang, calm down," Weiss told firmly to her teammate. "Ruby isn't going to disappear if you stop looking at her, so eat your lunch and stop staring at her like some stalker."
"Easy for you to say, princess!" Yang said. "You have no idea how tough this is for me!"
"I might not know how tough it is, but I also don't care!" the white-haired girl said angrily. "What I do know is that if you keep staring at Ruby the way you've been doing for some time now, she's eventually going to notice and question you about it! When that happens, I doubt you'll be able to give a proper explanation!"
The brawler was about to retort, but Blake cut her off.
"Weiss is right, Yang. You should really calm yourself," the cat faunus said calmly. "Not only is there a possibility that Ruby will notice your staring, but I'm certain other students can, too. Seeing as how much of a sore subject your whole deal regarding Ruby is, I think you would want to avoid such attention."
Yang let out frustrated sigh and shook her head. This whole mess was driving her insane. While she didn't want Ruby to know about her feelings for her, the blonde girl also just wanted to let the redhead know and for this whole thing to be over with.
For a moment, Yang was completely silent as she simply stared down at her bacon sandwich and thought about what to do. She then suddenly shoved her food into her mouth and swallowed it whole, before getting up from her seat.
"Yang, what are you doing?" Weiss asked, surprised by her teammate's sudden act. "We still have plenty of time for our lunch."
"This isn't about lunch or classes," the brawler answered. "I'm going to go and talk to Ruby and tell her how I feel."
"Right now?" Blake asked with wide eyes. "Weren't you going to do that after classes?"
"By that time, I'll have already gone insane," Yang replied as she started to walk towards Ruby. "I'm going to do this now and get it over with."
The monochrome duo was left speechless as they stared after their leaving teammate. While they were happy that Yang had apparently gotten the courage to go and confess her feelings, they couldn't help but worry about how well it would go.
"So what do you think, Weiss?" Blake asked the white-haired girl. "Do you think Yang can pull this off?"
Weiss was about to answer, but then she noticed a familiar group of students heading towards Ruby. They would arrive at the redhead's table at the same time as Yang would.
"Oh no…" the heiress said almost inaudibly. "It's team DEUS."
"Team DEUS? Who are they?" the raven-haired girl asked, wondering what was up with her teammate's reaction. "Should we be worried about them?"
It was then that Weiss realized she had forgotten to tell Blake and Yang about what had happened yesterday. How another third-year team had saved Ruby and seemed to have taken a strange interest in her.
'I've got this all figured out. I mean, how hard can a simple confession be? Please! That's nothing for me!' Yang thought to herself while walking towards Ruby. 'After all, this is ME we're talking about here! Have you seen me? I'm Yang freaking Xiao Long! There's no way that a love confession of all things is going to beat me!'
The blonde girl was soon standing next to the younger girl, who stopped eating her lunch and was now looking at the older girl with a confused expression.
"Yang? What is it?" Ruby asked. "Do you need something?"
"No- Well, kind of- I mean, I do require-," Yang began to babble, unable to find the right words to say. Her face turned red from anxiety as she tried her best to speak up. "Look, I need to talk to you alone. Is that okay?"
The young team leader was about to answer, but a certain third-year managed to cut her off.
"Hey! We saw her first, so back off!" Dalia yelled in an annoyed tone, getting the attention of both first-year students. "Seriously, if you want a turn with her, take a number and get in the back of the line!"
"What are you talking about?" Yang asked, annoyed over this sudden interruption. "I really need to talk with Ruby right now, so can't you just wait a moment?"
"So you can get a chance with Ruby first!? Like hell I'm going to let that happen!" the third-year girl said angrily. "I know that you're trying to poach her just like we are, so don't even try that! We have actually gotten to know her already, so you might as well stop wasting your time and just buzz off!"
"Poach her? What the hell are you talking about!?" the brawler asked as her eyes turned red for a second. "Why aren't I allowed to talk to my own team leader!?"
"Wait a minute… Did you just call Ruby your team leader?" Dalia asked. "Are you-?"
"I think she's Yang Xiao Long, D. One of Ruby's teammates," one of the third-year girl's teammates told her.
Dalia's eyes went wide in surprise for a moment, before a confident smirk made its way to her face.
"Oh, I see… My bad. I thought you were a competitor," the third-year leader said in an almost condescending tone. "But now that I see it's someone who is not a threat, I might as well let you have a moment with Ruby. I mean, I am a kind senior, after all."
"Just what are you talking-!?" Yang began to ask, but stopped herself. She had better things to worry about than some third-years. "Never mind. I'm taking Ruby with me for a moment. You four can wait a while."
"Hey, don't I get to-?" Ruby tried to ask, but was cut off as the blonde girl grabbed her arm and dragged her away. "Guess my opinion doesn't matter…"
Once the two first-year students had left, one of Dalia's teammates decided to speak up.
"D, was it really a good idea to just let her take Ruby with her?" the teammate asked. "I mean, we don't even really know what Yang wanted to talk about with Ruby."
"Oh relax. It's not a big deal, as no harm can come from it," Dalia replied. "After all, we have all heard the rumors, right? Ruby isn't treated all that well by the first-years, even in her own team. The way I see it, whatever that blondie is going to say to Ruby is either not going to affect our efforts at all or might even help us. We just need to show Ruby how much better our team is and we'll have her as one of us in no time."
"I get your point, but that's not exactly what I was talking about. Lunch is nearly over, so unless the thing Ruby's teammate wants to talk about with her takes only a couple of seconds, we won't have any time to speak with her at all."
Dalia's eyes went wide with realization. She had just foiled her own plan.
Meanwhile, Yang had dragged Ruby to a more secluded area in the school, so she could have her talk with the younger girl. Ruby herself was confused over what was going on. She couldn't think of any reason that the older girl would want to talk with her alone.
'Alright, I've got her with me and no one else is around. Step one complete! Now I just need to say what I want to say and that should be mission accomplished,' Yang thought to herself, while getting ready to confess. 'Huh… This is weird. What's with this sudden feeling of apprehension that I've suddenly gotten?'
"Yang, what was it that you wanted to talk about with me?" Ruby asked, snapping the brawler out of her thoughts. "I'm right here, we're alone, so go ahead and talk to me."
After swallowing hard, Yang opened her mouth to speak up, but no words came out. She tried her best to talk, but nothing came of it. All she could do was keep opening and closing her mouth, which reminded the redhead of a goldfish.
"Yang, is something wrong?" Ruby asked, somewhat disturbed by the way the older girl was acting. "We can do this at some other time, if it's okay with you."
"NO! I need to get this done now!" Yang suddenly yelled, scaring the young team leader a bit. The blonde girl was determined to see through her confession. "Ruby… I… You… I… You…"
"Yes, we are both here," Ruby said as she was starting to get creeped out by the way the older girl was acting. "I'm pretty sure that has already been established, so can you move on with what you needed to talk about with me?"
"Well… I… something, something… feelings!" Yang kept struggling to say the words she wanted to say as her face turned red from embarrassment. "AAAAARRRGGGHHH!"
Not being able to talk properly was starting to frustrate the brawler, causing her to let out an angered roar before walking up to the nearest wall and hitting her head on it a couple of times. Cracks appeared on the spot that Yang hit with her head, as she wasn't holding back.
This sudden act didn't just surprise Ruby, but actually terrified her. The way the older girl was acting made the redhead think that she had lost her mind and was possibly becoming violent.
Having calmed down after bashing the wall, Yang walked back to Ruby, which only scared the younger girl further. This was due to the blonde girl's appearance, as not only was there a small trail of blood falling down from her forehead, but her eyes were also red and her hair was glowing due to her Semblance activating. This wasn't because of anger, but because of her raging emotions. Thanks to her feeling frustration, nervousness and embarrassment in such high levels, her Semblance had launched without herself even knowing.
"RUBY!" Yang accidentally yelled.
"Y-Yes!?" Ruby squeaked out in fear.
"THERE'S SOMETHING THAT I… I… I…" the brawler tried speaking out her feelings, but failed again. She couldn't understand how saying a couple of important words could be so hard. "GRAAAHH! WHY IS THIS SO HARD!?"
Having finally had enough, the redhead decided to make a run for it. She didn't know if Yang was angry at her or acting crazy for some other reason, but she didn't feel like finding out.
"Y-Y-You know what, Yang!? I think we need to do this some other time!" Ruby quickly said as she started to run away. "I feel like that's for the best!"
"RUBY, WAIT!" Yang yelled after the younger girl, only for her to disappear in a cloud of rose petals. "I have something I need to tell you…"
With her attempt at confessing having failed, the blonde girl could only walk up to the wall and bang her head against it again, except this time she was just lightly tapping it. The weight of her failed attempt at confessing had crushed Yang's spirit so badly that she was unable to muster the strength to really hit anything.
As she was mulling over her failure, Weiss and Blake arrived there. When the monochrome duo saw the state their friend was in, they immediately became worried and rushed over to her.
"Yang, what's wrong?" Blake asked in a worried tone. "Did you… get rejected by Ruby?"
"No… I couldn't even bring myself to confess," Yang answered in a sad tone as she sat on the floor and hung her head down. "For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to say how I felt about her and I just ended up embarrassing myself and scaring her away."
"What could you have done to scare away Ruby?" Weiss asked, before noticing the damaged wall. "Never mind…"
"It's stupid, isn't it? I'm ready to face Grimm with a smile on my face and no fear at all, yet confessing to someone is pretty much impossible for me," the brawler said. "I don't get it. How could I mess up so badly?"
"Don't be too hard on yourself," Blake tried to comfort her partner. "Confessions aren't exactly easy in the first place, let alone in a situation like yours."
"I guess so… I mean, this all still feels so weird, you know?" Yang said. "I know we aren't actually related, but it wasn't too long ago that I was treating her as my sister. Now I'm actually in love with her. It's just crazy."
"Well, how about you talk about your feelings for Ruby with someone you know and trust? Preferably from your family," Weiss suggested. "I feel like that could help clear away some of the tension you're feeling from all of this, which could help you when you try to confess again. Not to mention, you're going to have to let them know at some point, so you could clear that hurdle out of your way now."
Yang thought about the heiress' suggestion and it seemed to make sense. By talking to someone she knew she could trust, not only would she gain more confidence in regards to Ruby, but she would also clear away the fear of letting them know about her feelings for the redhead.
Now, the big question for the blonde girl was who to talk to. Two people immediately came to mind, her dad and Uncle Qrow. It was inevitable that they would eventually find out about her feelings for Ruby, so she might as well talk to one of them. However, her father, Taiyang, was still broken over the losses he had gone through in life with Raven first leaving him and then Summer dying. Yang feared that telling him such shocking news might be a bit too much for him.
Qrow, on the other hand, felt like the perfect person to talk to. He was much more of a free spirit and didn't judge people harshly. Not to mention, Yang was certain that if she asked, the old crow wouldn't tell about her situation to anyone.
"Thanks, Weiss. I think I'll try out your suggestion," the brawler said as she stood up. "I already know the perfect person to talk to, so I'm sure it will work out."
"You're welcome," Weiss said with a small smile, happy to have been a help. "Hope things work out well for you."
With Yang's spirit lifted, the three girls began to make their way to their next class. As they were walking, Weiss realized she and Blake had forgotten something.
"Hey, do you think we should tell Yang about the other third-year teams going after Ruby?" the white-haired girl whispered to the cat faunus. "We kind of got caught up with the moment and forgot to tell her earlier."
"I don't think we should. We're not even sure what that is all about, after all," Blake whispered back. "As far as we know, it could be something completely harmless, so we shouldn't make Yang worry more. It could lead to some bad consequences. You know how she likes to overreact when it comes to Ruby."
Deciding to keep their latest finding a secret from their blonde teammate for now, the monochrome duo were going to ask their team leader about it later. Yang was already really stressed out with her newly discovered feelings for Ruby, along with everything else that had been happening lately. It would be best to confirm the whole things, instead of jumping to any sort of conclusions.
They would find the truth, no matter what. At the same time, they hoped that Yang's talk with her uncle would go well.
Author's notes: We'll soon learn the truth about Ruby's father. While I can't say for sure that it will be in the next chapter, I can promise that it will happen very soon in this story. I can't wait to see how you will react to it.
I've also been meaning to say this for quite some time, but I've always forgotten due to having so many things on my mind. I would like to thank you all for the massive support this story has gotten, especially with the favorites. When I started, I would have never guessed that this story would get so many favorites from you all. It's even getting close to beating War for Ruby. Seeing so you give so much love to this story has really made me happy and motivated me to continue. So once again, thank you all.
On a not so happy note… my birthday was last week… so… woo hoo, I guess…
Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter and will check out the next one.
Until next time.
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth.