RWBY A Day in the Life of Crime
Chapter 15: How to Save Ruby
"Maybe we should just kiss to ease the tension between the two of us?" Sun poised the question with one of his handsome smiles. He was leaning casually against the hospital wall, arms crossed over her muscular chest which was on casual display given his open shirt.
"Wha?" Yang asked distractedly. She was busy peering at the white wall in front of her.
"I said we should kiss to ease this tension." Sun watched as Yang dragged her gaze up to his face. Her eyes usually alive with mirth and mischievousness were dead, with bags under them.
"What tension?" she asked, her tone monotone.
Sun let out a sigh, stemming his hands on his hips. "It was a joke to help lighten you up. You're...so tense and just not acting like you and I'm worried."
"Well sorry for not being myself. But you're not the one missing a fucking limb!" Yang suddenly snarled out and Sun realized that that had been the wrong thing to say.
"I don't...I mean, let's not talk about it," Sun put up his hands to dissuade the topic from continuing.
"No. I need to do something about this," Yang said, her left hand absently trailing up to where the stump of her right arm was bandaged.
"About the...arm?" Sun trailed off not sure if he should be bringing it up but wanting to be certain what it was Yang was referring to.
"No. That's gone. But it can be fixed. Dad got me a mechanical arm, military grade. But...it's Ruby." Yang swallowed hard at this and looked away, back at the wall in front of her.
"What about her? Is it the fact that she didn't visit you? I know that she'd be the first one usually...in fact, yeah where is she? Why isn't she like sitting 24/7 by your bed?" Sun gave a wide look around the room.
"That's the thing, Sun. Ruby is...gone."
"Gone?" Sun echoed, scratching his blonde spiky hair in confusion. Was she dead? The girl had run away a year ago. There was no telling what had happened with her.
"She's caught up in some bad business, and it's up to me to stop her, because she won't see the error of her ways." Yang griped the bed sheets hard with her good hand. Her grip was white knuckled. Her face was contorted with emotional pain. Sun couldn't stand to see Yang like this. He missed her sunny disposition. She'd usually come out of scraps and bad situations laughing it off like it was nothing. But not this time. And he was really worried for her. What had happened to make her like this? He wanted more than anything to help her. To make her smile again.
"I want to help."
His admission caught her off guard. She turned incredulous eyes to him. "Don't. I don't need it."
"Yes, you do," he countered, approaching her. "This is tearing you up. And I can't stand for it. I won't see you in pain like this anymore. So whatever it is that has hurt you...the reason Ruby is gone...I want to be able to solve it." He stopped at her bed, staring at her with pleading eyes.
She couldn't meet them. "No."
"Yang, don't be like this. You know you need help. Whatever it is that Ruby has become involved in, it caused your arm to get cut off. And I want vengeance against the one who hurt you like this. I want to help you get back at them. And I want to save Ruby."
There was a bitter laugh from Yang at this as her hand came up to her stump. "If you want vengeance against the perpetrator who did this to me, and want to save my sister, then you can't come along. Because she was the one who did this." The last sentence was said with bitterness, so much that Sun had never expected the girl to be able to speak like this. He had only ever heard her voice, light, loud and booming as she laughed long and hard at some joke or another. Or heard it in the throes of anger, terrifying and bloodcurdling. But not like this.
"Ruby...did this?" Sun's mind had a tough time wrapping around the concept. "How?" He knew the girl had anger issues but never had he thought she would raise a blade against her sister. The two girls loved each other dearly. Their sisterly bonds were what every pair of sisters wished it was. So what had gone wrong? Had Ruby been pressured into doing it?
Yang shook her head. "It's none of your business."
Sun tightened his lips. Yang's refusal to let him help was pissing him off. He rounded the bed so that he would be directly in her line of sight. She just looked through him. Her hand was scratching intensely at her bandages. He bent forwards a little so that he could be level with her gaze. "Yang Xiao Long, I'm your best friend. And have been for a good portion of the three years we've attended Beacon together. We've faced certain death together, fought off countless hordes of mobsters, played way too many pranks to count on our fellow teammates and had our share of drunken nights out on town. We've gone through way too much to simply part ways here. I'm going to help you with this issue. I'm not leaving you be to do it on your own and there is nothing you can say or do to dissuade me from my decision." Sun pointed his finger at her in accentuation of his words.
Yang seemed to wilt under his intense gaze and heartfelt words. "I...I feel so lost, Sun. I don't know what to do. It's...it's Ruby. She's my sister. I love her and I'm worried for her. What can I even do to save her? She doesn't want to come home. She doesn't see anything wrong with what she's doing." Yang's voice wavered. She sounded like she would cry but Sun knew better than that. Yang never cried in front of others. "Am I a bad sister? Is this all my fault? Where did I go wrong?" Her hand clutched her stump painfully and Sun could see blood seeping through the bandage. It was like the bloody version of Yang crying, because she couldn't do it with her eyes as long as he was around. Sun gently untangled her hand from it's vice like grip and held it between his two hands.
"Yang, you're the best older sister anyone could ask for. You've taken care of Ruby since forever. And when she went missing, who was the first to look for her? You. It was you. You didn't sleep, didn't eat for a whole week as you scourged the city for her. And you put up posters for her, you alerted the police. No one cares more for her than you do Yang. So if anything bad happened to her, it's not your fault. She's not a little girl anymore. You can't protect her from her own decisions. All you can do is support her and console her when they go bad." Sun stroked his thumb over her knuckles.
Yang was silent for a long while after this, her eyes having fallen down to the sheets pooled around her legs. Her shoulders shook and Sun knew she was trying hard to hold back her tears. He gave her the time she needed, just holding her warm hand in his.
When she recovered, her eyes were burning with determination. "Alright, Sun. We've got to get my sister back. I know she didn't mean to hurt me, she just needs help getting back onto the path she strayed off of. I know she won't come willingly so we'll need to come up with some plan in order to get her back."
Sun was glad to see her familiar flare of energy back. He hated a mopey Yang. "Any ideas?"
Yang shook her head. "Not yet. Help me brainstorm some. I want to get Ruby back as soon as possible. Get me that pad of paper from there and a pen so I can write down some ideas."
"Got it. And Yang," Sun turned on his heel to look at her as he backed up to get the pad and paper from the table top. He needed to see if her renewal of spirit was genuine or just a mask to cover up her darker emotions. "If you need help, just ask for a hand."
Yang snorted at this. "I would say I'm all-right, but I'm actually just left," she cracked back, shaking her left hand, her only good one, and he let out a breath of relief, his grin spreading on his mouth. Yang seemed to have recovered from the brief depression she had been in.
He pulled up a chair to sit by her bed and the two of them got to making plans for their operation dubbed Rescuing Ruby Rose, or RRR for short. It wasn't easy but with two brains the plan making went by faster. Yang filled Sun in on what she knew about the situation which wasn't much.
"I know someone who could help us out with this," Sun had assured her. "They can spy on Ruby's gang if she truly is in one. And leader of it." Sun let out a low appreciative whistle. "How the hell did that happen?"
"I don't know," Yang said thoughtfully before her expression changed and she was waggling her brows. "I'm stumped." She raised her wounded right arm and she and Sun laughed together at this.
"But not for long," Sun said, calming down, and he patted her shoulder. The sun had gone down and it was getting dark. He had to go back to the dorms so he could do his work. "We'll get Ruby back."
Yang sobered at this. "Yea." Was all she said and all that needed to be said. In that one word lay all of Yang's insecurities about the issue and Sun didn't want to press her by asking if she was really okay. That would only anger her and make her draw back further into her shell. He was just going to pretend everything was alright.
"Text me if you need anything," he said as he left. He hated to go, especially when she needed all the support in this big transition but he couldn't stay over night. He only hoped she wouldn't do anything stupid. He knew she had a penchant for doing that. He was the smarter one of the two. Although he could be as stupid and rash headed if not more than her in certain situations. Their relationships worked like a series of checks and balances. Sometimes he'd be the dumb one and sometimes she'd be the dumb one and they'd look out for each other. But it worked, and they had fun which was the most important part.
"Okay." Her smile only lasted until he left. Then she slumped down onto her bed, lifting her stump up so she could look at it. "Stumped...huh," she muttered to herself, her voice full of tears that she could now freely shed. "Why, Ruby? Why?" she just wanted to know to ease this sting of betrayal and confusion she felt.
But she wouldn't know until she saved her sister, no matter what it took.
No matter what it takes, she vowed.
A/N: I kind of imagine Yang and Sun like Beavis and Butthead. Except their not both dumb at the same time but do so on and off. And they really care about each other. I kind of want to write a chapter about them before this incident to show them having a good time, but we'll see how it goes.