I'm back! Sorry it took a bit. Turned out I unexpectedly had family over the week, then I ended up experiencing writer's block for the first time.
"You look terrible," Yang bluntly criticized me with a stoic face. From bottom to top, her eyes trailed the lines of my body, judging my tousled outer appearance.
"Huh?" I blinked a few times, seeing if my ears heard my sister correctly. Well, I definitely heard her accurately. How can I not?
"We need to take you shopping. You can't keep wearing the same clothes every day."
"What? You guys wear the same clothes every day!"
"Yeah, but we actually have real people clothes. Also, these are combat outfits. We have many sets of these, while you still have the same old one," my sister shot back at me.
"I'll have you know that this is one-of-a-kind custom made," I retorted and placed my hands on my hips.
"I think you and snowflake have been hanging out too much. You sound just like her," the blonde playfully joked.
"Hey!"
Yang ignored the heiress's offended voice. "Team bonding time! We're taking the shaggy puppy shopping."
"Do we have to?" Blake asked monotonously. She was sitting on her bed with her face almost glued to her book. With a lick on her finger, she flipped to the next page.
"Yep," Yang popped the 'p'.
It had been a week since Beacon's initiation. Things had been going pleasantly smooth as no one was at each other's throat. Weiss had ceased her degrading insults towards Faunus, however, she was still not pleased about my academic habits. On the other hand, Blake was practically being Blake. She was fairly quiet majority of the time because she was often absorbed in her own little world. The ridiculous amount of books she brought to Beacon had begun to pile in the corner as she read through them quickly like a scanning machine. And between the two girls, they seemed to be getting along to some degree.
As for Yang... Well, she's Yang.
"I'm not that shaggy," I grumbled. My response earned a few disbelieving glances from my teammates. "What? I can clean myself up."
"Sure you can," Yang distrustfully rolled her eyes. "Let's go ladies, before we miss the bullhead. Chop Chop!" She clasped her hands together and dragged me out the door by my collar. The remaining two followed suit as they had nothing else better to do on a Friday afternoon.
"You do realize I barely have any lien right?" I directed my question to Yang. All four of us were seated in the bullhead, heading towards Vale. Trips between Beacon and Vale were free for students, so I didn't have to spare any money to hitch a ride.
"I got you covered. If I can't, then you can owe the Ice Queen."
"I am not your piggy bank," she chided. She never put the effort to face us as she continued to stare at Remnant's open sky through the wide transparent barrier called a window. At a specific angle, I could see the reflection of the blue eyed beauty and the plain expression across her face. Then at a certain point of time, a swift sound of clicking captured my attention. Yang was snapping her fingers across from me with a wide smirk plastered on her face.
"When we get to Vale, you might have to be our piggy bank. Ruby here has a lot of stuff she needs to buy. If anything, she can repay you back in the future."
I rolled my eyes at Yang. Living on the streets doesn't exactly bring a pay check back home with bread on the table. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to repay her back until far in the future. Unless she's willing to accept cuddles and hugs as another payment.
The heiress redirected her attention to me and gave a questioning look. "You didn't pack anything with you?" she asked.
"Well, if you look through my stuff you can see that I practically have nothing," I huffed.
"At least you have a toothbrush and toothpaste. That's something," Blake poked fun at me and earned a laugh from Yang.
"Thanks Blake for being on my side," I sarcastically said.
By the time we were at Vale, we were deciding on where to go. Well, not me at least. I couldn't remember much during my time here. It was basically Yang and Weiss trying to decipher places to go. Blake had no interest in shopping other than the bookstore. However, the book loving Faunus couldn't leave as Yang insisted that it was a team bonding exercise. If she wanted to go to the bookstore, then we all had to tag a long too. At that moment, Blake immediately changed her mind saying that she could always buy her novels next time. Her cheeks were slightly tinted pink and she seemed flustered.
How suspicious.
"So what exactly do you need?" Weiss asked me. The four of us were casually bypassing many uninteresting small stores.
"Everything," I dryly answered.
"Lingerie it is!" Yang sang.
"W-What?! But Yaaang," I whined. If I was shopping with just Yang, I wouldn't mind at all. But having Weiss and Blake here was a bit... Embarrassing. I didn't want them to know what kind of lingerie I was buying or what color I owned. That was an invasion of my privacy or something.
"How about you two go in and we wait here," Blake suggested, hoping that the blonde would agree.
"I concur with Blake," Weiss inserted her token of opinion.
"Nope, we're ALL going in!" Yang pushed us all into the store, ignoring our pleas.
The store was huge. A line of manikins stood in just woman's undergarments. Every garment had its own unique design and its own peculiar fashion. Each piece were either conservative or completely bizarre. The ones that were bizarre screamed out 'sexy' as they barely had any fabric to cover a woman's most important region. But the bizarre ones weren't the worse. There were undergarments that words cannot even describe.
"People actually wear these stuff?" I picked up the most scandalous women's underwear from the pile closest to me and showed it to Weiss.
"Ruby Rose!" The heiress shrieked, averting her eyes from the v-string. "Please put that indecent piece down."
"I don't think we should bring kids to these kinds of store," Blake commented teasingly as she watched Weiss and I squabble.
"Kids?" I placed my hand on my chest, blinking sardonically. "So does that mean you wear these kind of stuff?" I playfully wiggled my eyebrows at Blake and fired the scanty panty at her like a slingshot. Blake blushed intensely and scampered off to another section of the room.
Huh, she actually does.
I wonder if Weiss wore these kind of stuff. I glanced at the platinum haired girl and back at the lingerie bottom piece that I was holding. My imagination ran wild as I picture the heiress nothing but a thin piece of fabric covering her nudity. A deep scarlet color flushed my face as my fantasy grew more daring. I quickly put the garment down, and fanned myself, trying to extinguish the hot blush on my cheeks.
"Alright Rubes, what's your size?"
"Yaaang, really?" I looked at her incredulously. The worst part was that she was serious. I slumped my shoulders in defeat and dramatically threw my hands in the air. "I don't know!"
"Okay you definitely need help," my sister said. She took my hand and dragged me to one of the employees working in the store. After the worker wrapped her measuring tape around the plumps on my chest, Yang got to work and started throwing pieces of lingerie for me to try on. To end my misery, I tried on every bra and sports bra she threw at me, and took whatever seemed comfortable. I didn't care whether it was laced or not. I just didn't want to stay here any longer than necessary. Once we gathered all the necessities, Yang paid for everything and we immediately left the store.
"See that wasn't too bad," the blonde smiled. "Okay next on our list are clothes and feminine products... Like a brush. You really need to brush your hair sis."
"I second that," Weiss admitted. "For a lack of a better word, you look like a drowned lion."
"I didn't know it was pick-on-Ruby day," I pouted as my tail sagged and my ears fell back.
"She didn't call you shaggy at least," Blake chuckled.
"Wow Blake, I never seen you this humorous in one day."
"I have my moments," she shrugged at me with her lips curled.
We entered the next store located at the heart of Vale. Unlike the lingerie store, manikins were fully clothed as they flaunted their next clothing line. The clothing store had several floors as escalators zigzagged to the top of the building with bustling active shoppers.
"Here, use this." Yang shoved a brush in between my hands. "Hold on to it while you're at it."
I looked at the black hairbrush and shrugged. It had been awhile since I last combed my hair. Yang never exactly owned a hairbrush because of her unruly golden locks. Her hair would just rip the flimsy bristles from the brush, and I don't think Weiss or Blake would lend me theirs. The bristles ran through my scalps as I tried to tame my disoriented hair. While I was trying to untangle my hair, Yang started throwing clothes on me like a coat hanger.
"Why do I need this many clothes?"
"So when we go out to somewhere high end, you would have nice clothes to wear," Yang answered as she threw more clothes at me.
"And when will be I going somewhere high end?"
"Stop asking so many questions and try all of these on. Come out of the fitting room and we'll give you a yay or nay."
"Fine," I grumbled as I sauntered to the dressing room. Locking the door behind me, I looked at myself in the mirror. And wow. I do have to admit that I really do look disheveled. I continued to brush my shoulder length hair until I didn't look awfully sloppy, or in Weiss's terms, a drowned lion. I slipped on a few clothes and presented myself to my teammates.
"Wow," Yang whistled. "I guess you can clean yourself up."
"Told you." I spun around to give them a better look.
"Glad to see our leader looks a bit more presentable," Weiss eyed me up and down.
"Ladies?" Yang asked.
"Yay," the three said in unison.
After a few yays and nays, we left the store holding a handful of bags that were majority mine. It was all thanks to my teammate's generosity, though mainly Weiss's, that I can now live a more comfortable life style. As we strolled down the sidewalk, my head frantically twisted and turned at the spectacular beauty that Vale had to offer. The towering buildings, the smell of fresh baked goods, the busy crowd of people, everything seemed all so familiar. There was a warm feeling of home the more we walked around Vale, definitely warmer and fuzzier compared to Vacuo. It just seemed... Right.
Then boisterous shrilly laughters broke my stream of consciousness. My ears twitched and I jerked my head, facing the street on the opposite side from us. My feet stopped walking, and I stood passively as I caught a glimpse of a handful of children running around in the park. They chased after each other with insuppressible giggles, seeming so carefree.
"Rubes?"
A flame ignited in my chest filled with longing and sadness. If things didn't turned out the way it did, could I have that when I was a child? Would that been me if I didn't have those five years forcefully ripped away from my hands? But who would I be if fate were to take a different route? After all, it was those five years of hardship that broke me down and molded me back to something I thought I pushed away.
"Rubes," Yang placed a hand on my shoulder, snapping me from my thoughts.
"Huh?"
"You okay?"
"Y-yeah, I'm fine."
I tore my eyes away from the park to give my sister a feeble reassuring smile back. She had a face of worry, but her lilac eyes told a different tale. She knew. She could sense the distraught in my metallic eyes, but she didn't have the confidence to ask. "Come on Ruby. Let's go." She grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me along to Blake and Weiss who were patiently waiting with confused looks on their faces.
As we begun to walk, I could feel the dull aching pain burning in my temples. The more we walked, the stronger the pulsating throb got. My pace began to slow, and my breath became shallow. For some odd reason, my heart swelled in anger, and yet, it cried in distress. My left hand clutched the side of my head and my right hand held against the building exterior for support. My teeth chewed on my lips and I slammed my eyes shut.
I vaguely recognized the area.
"Ruby?"
I inattentively disregarded my sister's voice, and fluttered my eyes open. I took my own detour into the dark hidden alleyway, following the familiar gut feeling.
"Ruby!"
The resonating pain pounded in my head as I walked deeper into narrow passage. I could hear my companion's footstep behind me, but I was too focus on the uncertain anxiety that welled in my chest. It didn't take long for the passageway to open up into a bigger open space. Filled garbage cans sat disgustingly off to the side. Plastic bags and other foreign objects littered the floor, and colorful illegible graffiti marked the walls. A somber expression shadowed over my face as snippets of fragmented memories played like broken record player.
"Are you okay Ruby?" Blake uneasily asked.
I heedlessly didn't answer to her either. I forcibly dragged my feet to the center of the large secret backstreet, and stood at a particular spot. I closed my eyes, and shakily took a deep breath as my mind bravely replayed the scene over and over again. Nails unconsciously dug deep into my skin, drawing a trickle of blood from my ripped skin.
"Is something the matter?" This time, Weiss asked me.
After a brief moment, my eyelids slowly lifted itself from its heavy state. I continued to stare down at the dirty cemented floor, the same spot where I was brought to my knees before I was unconscious.
"Ruby," Yang tried again and firmly grasped my shoulder.
I took a sharp, quiet inhale as I snapped from my trance-like state.
"It's nothing," I shook my head. "Come on, let's go back to Beacon."