Chapter 7: Sing to Me
Sing to me, I am not doing well
Getting tired of my own words
Sing to me 'cause I can't hear myself
Through the loudness of my own hurts
Call me selfish when I say this
I'm kinda helpless and I need you
Sing to me 'cause I'm not doing well
"Come on let's go." I muttered to myself.
The dining hall was a mere hundred feet away, but after I had carried Ruby all night I was beyond exhausted. Every step felt like I was walking on glass and even breathing was agony. I used all of Ruby's bullets hours ago, I couldn't heal a paper cut right now if I tried.
The wounds in my gut and my burnt fingertips had begun to fester yesterday and now the flesh was bright red and swarming with flies
Ruby had been drifting in and out of consciousness, but when she was awake either mumbled incomprehensibly or started talking to people who weren't there. I heard her talk to her mom, her dad and even Yang.
Forcing myself, I began to slowly walk, groaning with each step. The edges of my vision began to fuzz out and I tasted copper in my mouth. My legs started to cramp up even more if that was possible. The air seemed to be made of brimstone and fire.
What seemed like an eternity of agony and pain later I reached the dining hall. Forgoing any decorum, I shoved Ruby and myself into the doors, slamming them open. All the students looked up from their breakfast and gasped.
I threw Ruby on the floor as gently as possible and stood up fully. Immediately my knees began to shake uncontrollably, my gut burned as if it was on fire and I started swaying from side to side, barely keeping balance.
"I lived bitches." I announced before listing forward and finally embracing the darkness.
When I woke up, it was pitch black and I was in a hospital bed. My fingertips and stomach had been wrapped in gauze with some yellow liquid seeped in it. My throat felt like I'd swallowed broken glass and my muscles had a deep-seated burn to them.
To add the cherry on top there was also a woman dressed in a white robe asleep in a chair next to my bed.
"Hey lady." I rasped quietly at her.
She jolted awake looking around in confusion before seeing me.
"You're awake!" she exclaimed.
"What's a guy gotta do to get some water around here?" I asked.
"Oh...um, right let me get you some." she said as she stood up and grabbed a pitcher and glass from a nearby desk.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I'm Summer, Ruby's mom." She answered as she poured my water, walked over to me and held it to my lips for me to drink. The cool liquid trickled down my throat and soothed the burn in my throat.
"How is she." I mumbled once I was finished.
"Alive, thanks to you. She has quite a lot of burns, but the doctors said soon she'll be good as new, my little rose is a fighter." She set the empty glass down and then, to my surprise, gently placed her arms around me and hugged me.
I squirmed slightly, unaccustomed to being hugged. My discomfort increased as her shoulders started to shake and she started crying.
"I can't thank you enough, I don't know what I would do without her." She said in a tearful, yet happy voice as she pulled away. "You saved my daughter, you saved my everything."
"It's nothing." I said awkwardly. "All part of the job, isn't it?"
She sniffed a little and laughed, wiping away the tears in the corner of her eyes.
"I guess it is." she answered.
When daybreak finally came, it brought with it the sweet, sweet smell of groveling apologies. The first came when Olivia came to visit me in the early morning.
"Well well well, why have you deemed it fit to grace me with your presence, Ms. Olivia." I rasped sarcastically after she walked.
"Shut up asshole." she snapped. "Why are you up so early?"
"The doctors keep prodding me with shit to make sure I won't die." I croaked.
"You sound like shit." she looked my weak body up and down, "You look like shit too."
"Thanks, I only carried someone 60 miles after burning my way out of a snake that had eaten me alive." I deadpanned.
She was silent for a second before she muttered something I didn't quite catch.
"What?"
"I said I'm sorry," she said louder. "I acted like a total piece of shit, I was wrong, beyond out of line and you didn't deserve it."
"Consider it water under the bridge, as long as I can sleep in a real bed I'll be fine," I said. "now can you get me my breakfast?"
"You mean, like from the dining hall?"
"No, from over there." I jerked my head at an adjacent table where my tray sat.
She brought it over to me and sat it on my lap, where I sat and looked at it dejectedly.
"What's a matter, you don't like it?" Olivia asked.
"I can't move my arms." I admitted pathetically.
She rolled her eyes and walked out, I guess you can't win 'em all.
The second set of apologies came from the members of Team RWBY that weren't getting treated for electrical burns.
"Really, it's fine." I consoled Yang who was laying on my stomach, sobbing.
"I swear I'll be forever in your debt, Nicholas whatever-your-last-name-is!" she blubbered into my sheets.
"Quit being a drama queen and compose yourself, you're embarrassing me!" I chastised her.
"Well, at least his self-interest is intact." Weiss noted dryly as Yang began to calm down
"So how exactly does your semblance work?" Blake asked, changing the subject. "Ozpin explained it briefly to us after you came back, but he didn't go into much detail.'
"Dust goes in, electricity comes out, that's all I know and care about." I said.
"That's it? How does the dust function after you're done with it? Is it still usable?" Weiss shot off in rapid fire.
"I have no clue." I deadpanned.
"Well in any case consider your dust problems solved after today, anything you need I'll make sure you get it free of charge." she informed me.
"Company favors huh, better have a good reason or people might think you're sponsoring a low-life hoodlum." I joked.
"Don't be dramatic, it's a thank you for saving our teammate, she's a great leader and an amazing huntress, because of you she gets to live out her dream." Weiss said while fondly staring off into space, a slight blush dusting her cheeks.
"Warming right on up to her, are we?" I teased.
"Well...it's not like...I just." Weiss sputtered, now blushing profusely.
"Yeah Weissy you're getting rather close to my sister, should I give her the birds and the bees talk." Yang joined in, still sniffling a little.
"It's not like that, we-we're just friends." She stammered, turning even redder.
"So if you are just friends, why did you buy 3,000 Lein worth of weapon parts for her?" Blake asked slyly.
"Not you too!" Weiss yelled incredulously as the rest of us laughed at her behavior.
Team JNPR came in the afternoon, after sparring and gave their rounds of apologies and thanks.
"You should hear everybody, you're practically a legend around here now!" The hyper redhead (who I learned was named Nora) exclaimed. "Some people are saying you'll be the next Vytal Champion!"
"Well I wouldn't keep your fingers crossed, I got kicked out of an illegal underground bare-knuckle boxing club." I reminisced.
"How does one manage that?" Pyrrha asked.
"Well, they had this really dumb rule where you couldn't talk about the club." I recounted.
"And?" the black-haired guy named Ren asked.
"Well, you won't believe it, but I talked about the club." I finished sarcastically.
"Well the Vytal is going to be different, it's designed to push you and your team to your limits and test your combat capabilities." She said.
"Pyrrha, we should get going." Jaune interrupted softly.
"Oh, I'm sorry Nick but Jaune and I need to get ready for when we go into Vale tonight." She apologized while blushing. I looked at Jaune who was also blushing and gave him an approving nod as they walked out holding hands.
"So, are they a thing now?" I asked.
"You haven't heard the story!" Nora gasped. "It was the most romantic thing ever, it was the morning after you and Ruby 'died', we were getting ready for class and then Jaune just asked her out on a date out of nowhere, we were all just so stunned and then he started sputtering and mumbling on about how we wouldn't be around forever and how he at least thought he should try and then Pyrrha kissed him to shut him up and it was just so perfect!"
She sighed dreamily and laid her head on Ren's shoulder, which caused the boy to blush and sit up a little straighter.
"Well, they'll certainly be less pining in our dorm now that they're together." Ren said awkwardly, causing Nora to sight up straight as well.
"Right, togetherness is great, like me and Ren being together, not together together but..like, ya know." she said flustered.
"Uh huh." I said, unconvinced.
My unwilling role as matchmaker was more than fulfilled, but these idiots made coming out of retirement look like an appealing venture.
When the morons in charge finally let me get my hands on some dust, I recharged, healed and finally left the damn infirmary. I wasn't discharged per se, but it's not like they could have stopped me.
The first thing I did was go check on Ruby...
Ok that was a lie I had a smoke first...
Ok maybe I had a tiny itsy bitsy drink...
Oh fuck it, I caught an airship to Vale and got smashed to celebrate. But the first thing the next day I went to see her.
"Nicky!" she squealed as soon as she walked in. She was with her mother and a black-haired man dressed in a formal vest and a red cape.
"Shhhh." I shushed as I pushed up my sunglasses and rubbed my eyes, still nursing a hangover.
"Oh are you still recovering?" she whispered.
"Yeah, let's call it that." I said, glancing at the others in the room. The guy in the vest stood up, walked over to me and held out his hand.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Qrow, Rubster's dad." he said.
"I'm Nick." I said as I gingerly shook his hand.
"Mind if I talk to you outside?" he asks.
"I didn't do anything." I quickly said on reflex. Everyone in the room stared at me for a second before Qrow cleared his throat.
"I know, I just want to talk." he clarified.
He opened the door and I walked into the hall, he followed me out and sat on a bench near a drinking fountain.
"Pretty nasty hangover huh?" he guessed
"How'd you know?" I asked.
"Nobody wears glasses indoors unless they're hungover," He explained, smiling slyly. "and I also used to have a fondness for hooch myself."
"Used to?" I asked.
"Oh yeah, morning noon and night I was always somewhat drunk." He recounted. "I quit not long before Ruby was born though."
"Decide to settle down and have a family?" I guessed.
"Just the opposite, Summer and I weren't even dating when she got pregnant." He said. "We had always had a thing for each other but never was anything serious."
He leaned back and let his eyes fixate one somewhere far in the past.
"She just, sorta, stormed into my room one day and announced she was pregnant, told me I would have to choose between our family or alcohol." His eyes drifted back to now and focused on me. "Haven't had a drop since that day, and I don't plan on having any soon."
He sat up and walked to where I had propped myself against the wall and put his hand on my shoulder.
"I know I can't stop you, and I can't pretend it's easy. but I can tell you it's a lot better on the other side." He said sympathetically.
"You're right, you can't stop me." I said as I pushed his hand off my shoulder.
"Well, I did my best...oh, by the way." he grabbed a bag off his belt and tossed it to me. "My wife and I got you this."
I opened the bag to see a red, ceramic cylinder about the size of a wine cork, it had threads on one end and a thick copper rod sticking a quarter-inch out the other.
"It's called an ADC or Arc Directional Concentrator, it focuses all electrical inputs into a straight beam of electricity." He explained. "I thought you might find it useful, considering your semblance and all."
"Thanks, I'll put it to good use." I said as he walked back into Ruby's room.
I stared at the ADC, turning it over a few times in my hand before shrugging and pocketing the device.
"All part of the job, I guess." I mutter before I walk back into Ruby's room.