"Okay, okay, wait, back up a few seconds. You almost got what?" Yang said. "Can we not have 5 minutes of peace with you around? Uhg, just come on back up here, let's go to your room." She started walking away.
"I'm not that troublesome!" Weiss argued, holding Ruby's hand as she climbed up the stairs.
"Yes, but you have been for the past two days at least." Blake added as they entered Weiss and Ruby's room again. Weiss shot her a glare as she made Ruby sit on the bed. With all that had happened, everyone was to wired to think properly. Blake sighed. "I think it would be wise for us to all go to sleep now. I don't know what happened before, but your kidnapper isn't here now. They got chased off somehow?" Weiss nodded. "Then they shouldn't come back on the same night."
Ruby yawned while Blake was talking. Not in a mean way, she was just tired. Which proved Blake's point expertly.
"Lets all sleep here. We're all basically ready for bed anyways, and it might be better to stay close." Yang said, eyeing the fluffier of the two pillows at the end of the bed. A split second later, she pounced on it, almost flinging Ruby off the bed. Ruby squeaked and grabbed Weiss to level herself. Which in turn, pulled Weiss down towards the bed. Weiss grabbed Blake, and Blake tried to grab thin air. Both girls tumbled down on top of their respective girlfriends.
They settled down after a few giggles, snuggling all together like a pile of puppies. It was a little crowded on the bed, but Weiss had a sense of safety and warmth cuddled around her friends. It was nice. And nothing else bothered them that night.
In the morning, when everyone was fully awake, they went to eat in the inns dining room and Weiss explained what had happened the night before more properly. That someone with some weird magic or power to evoke a sense of calm into you had gently lead her sleep deprived self out of the room and almost out of the inn. Ruby hadn't noticed, because she was asleep and Weiss hadn't struggled because of the overwhelming calmness and drowsiness. It would have worked perfectly for her captor if Weiss hadn't stumbled over a loose floorboard in the last few seconds.
"Might be someone's semblance." Yang muttered. "There's a million different ones of those." Blake didn't look confused, so Weiss assumed that Yang had given her the semblance run down, similar to how Ruby had for her.
"Oh! Idea idea!" Ruby jumped up. "We'll just leave town!"
"They'll still follow Weiss, even if we do." Blake commented.
"No, not on foot! By Wing! Flying!" Ruby grinned devilishly. "Blake knows Yang's secret now, so we can just fly wherever instead of walking! Me and Weiss already flew a little bit just yesterday!" Blake glanced at Weiss. Weiss nodded, doing a half shrug. "That way, we'll outrun the ninja, whoever else was following Weiss, and leave Menry in the dust!"
Everyone thought for a moment. "That, actually might be a good idea." Weiss said. "I'm surprised you're the one who came up with it."
Ruby pouted. "I can think to!" She grumbled to herself for a minute. "I'm just as smart as Yang was at this age, maybe smarter."
Yang patter Ruby's head, a big sisterly smile on her face. "You've got a bright mind sis. Don't doubt that." Ruby beamed.
"How do you ride a dragon exactly?" Blake asked the rest of the group. Yang looked to Weiss.
"Well, Ruby kind of just carried me in her claws. I was unconscious the first time, so she slipped a little and this happened." Weiss pointed to her scar. "I like it though, a little bit of imperfection I can't be rid of. I rode on her back while she was walking around for a bit, but I'm not sure I could stay on if she were flying." Weiss put a hand to her chin and thought. Maybe they could somehow tie her and Blake to Ruby and Yang's backs? Would a rope even hold against their scales?
It seemed like Ruby was having similar thoughts. "If it comes down to it, maybe we could just get a really big blanket and carry them both like a sack of potatoes." She said.
Where'd she learn that metaphor? Ruby picked up so much knowledge just walking around the town, she must have overheard it from some random persons conversation. Weiss dreaded the day she'd accidentally pick up a cuss word. Ruby screaming the F word would probably send Weiss into cardiac arrest. Weiss shivered visibly at the thought.
"Weiss? You ok?" Ruby asked in a concerned voice.
Weiss was jolted from her thoughts and smiled weakly. "Oh, I'm fine! My mind was just wandering." She waved a hand dismissively. Ruby nodded, but had an air of worry about her. Ahh, that was a mistake.. If Ruby had said something like that to Weiss while looking sad, Weiss would surly overthink it and have it weigh on her mind all day. Would Ruby do the same? Weiss hoped not, but there was the possibility that with the more human Ruby learned to be, the more worried she'd become over things she used to be fine with.
They ate, and returned to Weiss and Ruby's room. Yang and Blake went out to go buy some sort of sack like blanket or something (they were going with Ruby's sack carry plan, it seemed the safest) and Weiss was confined to her room. They were planning on leaving that night. Ruby was going to go out with Yang and Blake, but changed her mind at the last second.
They sat on the bed next to each other. Ruby mumbled something to herself that Weiss couldn't quite hear, and placed a hand on top of Weiss's. She twirled Weiss's hand around and locked their fingers. Weiss felt her muscles relax at the comfort of Ruby's presence. She'd been so tense lately. Something on Weiss's chest felt warm, and when she reached out to touch it, she discovered it was the necklace. The scale. Weiss looked at Ruby and saw her cheeks were slightly flushed.
What? Hey, heyyyyy, wait no why was Ruby getting embarrassed? Wasn't she the peppy overly confident one? Weiss was supposed to be the awkward one! What on earth could make Ruby embarrassed?!
Weiss tried to make conversation. "S-so, uh, do you think It'll be hard to carry me in a blanket?" Ruby didn't respond. "You said I was light to you before.." Ruby was breathing heavily. Weiss tilted her head. "Ruby? Are you alright?" Weiss nudged her softly.
Ruby shook her head groggily. "It hurts to be alive." She mumbled.
Huh? What was that now? Weiss might have expected that line from Blake, but certainly not Ruby. Weiss looked closer at Ruby. Her face was really red. After putting her free hand on Ruby's forehead, Weiss gasped. "You're burning up!"
Ruby went wide eyed. "Do humans catch on fire if they get to hot?!" She said in a panicked voice, squeezing Weiss's hand tighter.
Weiss covered her mouth and looked away for a second, trying hard not to laugh. A moment later she recomposed herself and looked Ruby in the eyes. "No, I can promise you that. You won't just 'suddenly' catch on fire." Weiss pushed Ruby back and laid her down. "It looks to me like you've go a little fever." Weiss booped Ruby's nose.
Ruby glared at nothing. "What's a feeever?"
Weiss blinked. "Sick. You're sick."
"Sick? Is that a food?"
...Did dragons just, not get sick? Ever? Or maybe somehow Ruby had managed to avoid getting sick her whole dragon life, so no one had explained what It was to her? Uhg. Ruby was ignorant about the most random things. Weiss wouldn't be surprised if she didn't know what a horse was... Actually, they hadn't really come across any horses since they'd met each other. Weiss covered her face and groaned.
"Sorry." Ruby mumbled sadly from her position on the bed.
Weiss gave her a reassuring smile. "It's alright, my mind just wandered again. Being sick is as if, your body is being attacked. It gets weaker, and you need to rest and eat properly to get well again. Although..." Weiss paused for a moment. "I'm not so sure how being sick will affect YOU. After all, you are a dragon."
Ruby sat up quickly. Weiss saw her get dizzy for a second, but then she spoke. "That's it! I never got sick when I was a dragon! If I just turn dragon real quick, I'll go back to normal!" Ruby shouted in triumph.
"Shh! Not so loud! And here? Now?" Weiss waved her hands and tried to push Ruby down again.
Ruby jumped out of bed, wobbly in her foot work. "Yeah! I'm Sure I'll fit in this room! It'll only be for a second!" Ruby changed. Or, at least that's what she tried to do. Instead of becoming a dragon in a puff of smoke, a pitiful spray of thin smoke washed off her. It was like she had only completed the transition partially. Simply put, Ruby still looked human. Apart from a tail, wings, and horns on her head. And her checks had a tiny bit of red scales showing, as if they were patches of some infectious disease. Her arms up to her elbows were covered in scales, her fingers sporting long claws.
"What the hell?" Was the only thing that came out of Weiss's mouth for a minute. She thought back to what Ruby had said in the guild just recently. Something like, 'I'm totally a dragon, look at my claws and tail~!' In a sarcastic way. She now had those exact features.
"This... Has never happened before." Ruby blinked, and looked at her scaly clawed hand. She sneezed, snot dripping from her nose. She went wide eyed a moment later. "Weeeeeiss..?" She said, slight panic in her voice. "I can't change back."
Weiss couldn't help but stare. Ah, the brown dress Weiss had let her use was ruined, wings and tail having torn through it. They'd have to get Ruby some proper clothes later on. Honestly they'd needed to do that for a while, Weiss wasn't sure why they hadn't yet. Ruby sneezed. She sneezed into her sleeve, which Weiss had told her was proper educate before. Weiss was proud for a split second, and then horrified. Unfortunately, Ruby had sneezed fire, and set the sleeve on her left arm on fire. Ruby screamed. "YOU SAID HUMANS COULDN'T CATCH ON FIRE!"
Weiss acted quickly, grabbing a blanket from the bed to snuff out the flame. "Yeah well MOST humans can't breath fire!" Weiss yelled back. "Anything can catch on fire if you throw fire at it! You're a dragon! You should know this!" Weiss beat back the flame, and then took a look at Ruby's arm. It was burned. Weiss hoped that Ruby's super dragon healing would kick in soon, but for the moment, she blew softly on the burn. Ruby whimpered, obviously not used to getting burned from her own flames. Scales would protect her from that normally, but the only parts of her that had scales now were her lower arms and a little of her face. The rest was squishy human flesh.
Weiss was at an impasse. That kidnapper from the night before would certainly be back. They couldn't have them seeing Ruby like this! Ruby needed to sneeze again. This time she sneezed into her hands, which meant the scales negated it. Handy. Ruby lied down on her side, wiping her snot on the arm of the brown dress that wasn't burnt to a crisp. "Ewww no don't do that..!" Weiss complained, shoving a handkerchief in Ruby's face while avoiding looking directly at the dribbling coming from her nose.
"Weiss I think I'm dying." Ruby said, her voice muffled by her now audibly stuffy nose. She blew her nose.
Weiss sat next to Ruby and patted her head. "No, you're just sick. It'll go away in a few days." Weiss silently hoped that Yang and Blake would be back soon. Perhaps Yang would know what to do for Ruby, being a dragon herself. It was worth a shot.
The door to their room opened. Oh good, were the back? Weiss saw the person's hand first, wearing a brown glove, and realized it was neither Yang nor Blake. In a split second decision, Weiss tossed a blanket over Ruby, covering her. Ruby groaned softly but didn't move.
A girl Weiss had never seen walked in. She had very orange hair. Her eyes widened at seeing Weiss and the blanket lump that was Ruby. "Oh! So sorry! People usually aren't in around now, so they have us clean. Your room isn't ever really messy, thanks for that." The girl smiled.
"H-Hi." Weiss choked out.
The girl looked at the Ruby blanket pile. "Is your friend alright?"
Weiss nodded vigorously. "FiNe! ShE's FiNe!" Weiss's voice cracked.
The girl nodded slowly. "I'm Nora. What's your name? You're listed under 'not-suspicious traveler 2' so I was always a bit curious about who you were."
Dangit Yang! Couldn't you have picked something less conspicuous?! "I'm Weiss. This is Ruby. She's sick right now, so, you shouldn't come in."
Nora's eyes looked Weiss up and down. "Weiss, huh?" She said in an interested tone. Weiss could have sworn she saw a devilish smile cross Nora's lips for a second. "Nice to meet ya!" Nora chirped. Weiss made extra sure that Ruby wouldn't move suddenly and reveal her dragoness to Nora by accident. "What brought you here? Traveling I'd assume?" Nora made pleasant conversation.
"Sorry, could we talk later? I need to look after my friend." Weiss said, her apprehension showing.
Nora got the message, and nodded. "Right, right. Sorry to bother you! But I'd love to chat later if you have the chance! Just call me if you need a cool towel for her forehead or something." Nora waved a hand and shut the door, locking it as she left. Oh, that was nice of her.
And now, Weiss was left to wait with Ruby until Yang and Blake returned. Ruby sneezed in her sleep, burning a hole through the blanket she was under… Oh dear.