Author's Notes: Honestly, storms still get under my skin, and I get really anxious really badly during the more severe ones.
The room was quiet. It had been quiet for days, and it was honestly starting to get to both of its inhabitants.
Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc were sick, or at least they were. The damn bug was adamant about staying, and though the worst was behind them, they felt it would be a bit longer before everything was fine.
Because of this they had been exiled, doomed to stay inside of RWBY's dorm while the remaining three team members took up temporary residence in JNPR's. But to live in exile was a terrible punishment, and in both Jaune and Ruby's eyes, their friends and teammates were now traitors. Traitors that had locked them up and left them to fester and rot in a cage too small with naught but themselves and a slew of electronic devices (and secretly, Blake's books) to keep themselves entertained.
Really, to that extent they thought it wasn't a half bad arrangement. They had played video games for the entirety of days one and two. But on the third day they had grown bored of life in digital, and had turned to more traditional methods such as reading and playing rock paper scissors.
By the fourth day, they were just sick of being sick. Lying in bed and complaining about all the inconveniencing being done to them by the illness living inside. The best part was having someone to agree with you that yes, life does indeed suck; that yes, being sick does indeed suck; and of course, that yes, they were too good for this and had never done anything wrong to deserve this.
That being said, the fifth day passed by rather uneventfully, and the sixth day was filled with both of them taking turns soaking in the hot bath for three hour intervals while the other sat with their back against the bathroom door, idly making conversation about nothing at all.
The seventh and final day of their week spent in eternal isolation was one that they would remember for the rest of their lives, perhaps.
Ruby was afraid of thunderstorms.
That is, she was just afraid enough to warrant a light shaking and tensed muscles. It wasn't as if she were quaking in her boots at the first sign of a storm, because she knew with absolute certainty that not all storms meant trouble. But growing up on the small island of Patch she was no stranger to storms that caused a lot of people a lot of distress.
They got bad quite a few times when she was little, causing a deep seated fear that she had, on more than one occasion, felt she rose above. But every single time she heard that clap, that deafening boom; and every single time she felt the floor shake beneath her feet, she felt a twinge of fear well up from her stomach.
The air was always charged with just enough emotion during a storm that she supposed it was easy to get swept up into childish feelings of vague dread. She knew she wasn't in danger, but that didn't mean her hands would stop shaking.
When it had started raining the two of them cheered, knowing that at the very least the rain would cause a change in atmosphere. Ruby couldn't wait to curl up with a book she definitely should not have been reading next to the window and let her body finally purge itself of all the poisons running amok.
However, soon the rain had picked up far more than either had expected. And with heavy rain came thunder, and with thunder came shakes.
Ruby had seen Yang just a couple hours earlier when she had visited to drop off notes from the day's lessons (obviously taken by Weiss and Pyrrha), as well as some food. But she would be lying if she said that she didn't wish at that very moment to have her right beside her, assuring her that everything would be alright.
A little voice in her head that sounded much like her father told her that she was safer at Beacon than anywhere else if there was a bad storm. But still, the shakes.
Jaune looked up from his Scroll as the lights in the dorm room flickered, causing his partner-in-exile to let out a cute, but troubling 'eep.' He immediately put his Scroll away, his eyes falling on Ruby's much smaller frame with worry.
The silver eyed girl took a few deep breaths, and in her concentration failed to notice that Jaune had taken a seat on Weiss' bed alongside her. She was startled out of her deep breathing by a hand on her shoulder, jumping as one would if something jumped out at them from the shadows.
"S-sorry, it just looked like you needed a friend so I uh…" Jaune smiled sheepishly, shrugging apologetically. Ruby merely chuckled, her momentary fear subsiding at his close proximity.
"Yes. I mean, yeah. Thanks, hehe… I uh, don't do storms."
Jaune felt like maybe she was underselling it. She was shaking much like she had been when their bug was at its worst. And that hadn't been a fun time at all, not being able to even keep any food down. It had gotten so bad at one point that Ruby could barely stand to exist, seemingly rushing to the bathroom green in the face no matter what position she stayed motionless in.
Ruby shriveled up into a tight ball, bringing her feet up onto the bed when there was another very loud crash. It had startled her out of their little exchange so badly that her heart dropped to her stomach.
She was left a mess, shivering like she was freezing out in the cold, soaking wet and sniveling. But it wasn't that cold in the dorm at all, in fact it was quite warm.
Jaune reached out to her, lightly placing his hand on her back in a show of support. "Ruby, do you-"
He was cut short by a small shout, Ruby growing even more tense if that was at all possible. He pulled his hand away, unsure of what to do. When Ruby calmed down enough to realize what happened, her face began to grow as red as roses.
"S-sorry, that was…" She looked at him and chuckled to hide her obvious embarrassment. "Sorry."
Jaune said nothing, knowing perhaps that there was nothing he really could say. So he accepted her apology by wrapping her into a deep hug. A warm hug. A hug that she very much appreciated, pushing into it with a small smile.
Jaune gladly stayed with her in that position, even as Ruby repositioned to be more comfortable. She pressed her face into his shoulder, using it as a pillow as she leaned her entire body against him.
They let silence consume the space, only being broken by the sound of the rain outside and the occasional thunder clap that thankfully seemed to have less of an effect on Ruby as time moved forward.
"This is different," she said softly, her eyes closed as she enjoyed the peace and comfort provided to her by the dorky boy she called her best friend.
"Hm? What is?" He turned his head gently to look at her, smiling when he saw just how calm she appeared to be. There was a bit of stray hair that fell down between her eyes. He very tenderly fixed it, inadvertently making her smile a little bit wider as she snuggled deeper into him.
"This. Um… Dad would always… sing to me when I was younger. Because that's what mom would do. I would apparently cry so loudly until he figured that out. He always told me that I was the loudest cryer." She giggled. "Eventually Yang took over as the one who would sing to me."
"Yang can sing?" Jaune raised his eyebrow at the thought, trying to picture Yang standing straight and prim and proper, singing like Weiss did. The thought was a little funny.
Ruby hummed in thought, seeming to think hard about whether or not her sister could actually sing well or not. "...nope!" Jaune laughed, and though Ruby tried her hardest to hold it in, so too did she laugh at her own joke. "Okay, that's not really fair. She's better than dad, at least."
"I definitely can't, unfortunately. I'm very certain you've heard me." Ruby, her eyes still closed, burrowed her head further into his shoulder.
"Hm, yep. You could do with some practice. You were a bit pitchy. Weiss had some choice words to say about your performance."
"You know, out of everyone, I'd have thought Weiss would understand that no one likes a critic," Jaune said with feigned indignance. Ruby's smile grew to be a little bit more toothy.
"Anyway," she said, lightly slapping at his leg, "the point is… this is different from the way my family usually calms me down. It's nice. I could get used to it." Her voice grew to a whisper as she seemed to nod off, her body growing heavier. Jaune grabbed her by the waist, hoping he wasn't being too handsy with her as he pulled her into a tighter, though still tender, embrace.
Whereas before she were simply laying against him, now she was all but asleep in his arms. It was comfortable. It was something he could get used to as well, he found.
It was warm in the room, but she was warmer. It was a pleasant experience getting to hold her, and though they were often close… this felt closer. Closer, in fact, than they had ever been. He relished in the contact, adoring the simple way her chest rose and fell as she breathed peacefully.
Jaune jumped, much as she had earlier, as the loudest thunder clap of the night so far had hit, knocking Ruby out of her peace entirely and knocking the power out in the process. Her eyes opened slowly, unable to stop a grin from spreading across her face. Jaune just sighed in regret of the moment mother nature had ruined.
"You know, you're supposed to be the one comforting me here," Ruby said.
"My older sister Saphron used to sing to me too," he admitted.
Ruby smirked. "Dork."
"Dorkier."
"Dorkier-er." Ruby rebutted, reaching up and booping his nose with her forefinger.
They both smiled.