Oscar felt completely drained of energy. The first thing he did when he returned home was flop down on the couch.
"Wow, rough day at work, huh?" He didn't even have to look up to know who it was.
"Ruby, stop breaking into my house when I'm not home." He looked up to where Ruby sat on the floor in front of the tv. She munched on a container of cookies.
"Well I have a key so it's not technically breaking in."
"I gave Tai that key for emergencies. Stop using it to take my food!"
"I was hungry and bored Mr. Grumpypants. Was work really that bad?" Oscar groaned and buried his face in his pillow.
"Yes. It was very very very busy. Flann put me on the team that's going to be organizing spirit week."
"Oooh. I loved spirit week. But isn't it just thinking of fun themes that only like a quarter of the students participate in?"
"At normal schools, yes. But this is Signal we're talking about." Ruby thought a moment and nodded her head in agreement.
"One of the days, huntsmen are called in to demonstrate different aspects of being a huntsman, right? I loooved seeing all their weapons! But what makes that so difficult? Can't you just call in a bunch of the locals? I could even do a small demonstration."
"Normally, yes. But guess who Tai mentioned that I know?"
"You know a lot of huntsmen."
"It's Weiss, Ruby. Tai told them I'm friends with Weiss."
"Wait… so is Weiss coming to Patch?!" Ruby's eyes light up. Oscar nodded. "This is great news! Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"
"Well it wasn't set in stone yet. Weiss confirmed this morning, so everybody's been in a frenzy to make spirit week bigger and better. It's going to get worse once we announce it."
"But Weiss is coming to Patch! Aren't you excited?!" Oscar propped himself up to get a better look at Ruby. Her smile was contagious.
"I am," he smiled back at her.
"There's a smile!" Ruby jumped up. She dashed over to Oscar's side. "In honor of you bringing my best friend to Patch, I shall let you choose what video game we play."
"The honor is mine milady." Oscar laughed. "But you just wanted to play video games, didn't you?"
"Shhh! Now choose!" She shoved her scroll in his face.
"How about Lethal Combat?"
"Are you trying to lose?!" Ruby taunted as she started setting up the game.
"I'll have you know, I've been practicing, Rose."
"Bring it on, Pine!"
Ruby dropped her controller in shock as the game announced Soaring Ninja's win. Oscar sat beside her with a smug grin on his face.
"That's one point Pine! Finally!" She sook her head, snapping herself out of the shock.
"Fine, I'll give you that game, but you still have a long way to go before you're anywhere close to my level."
"And what is your level, milady?"
"I'm better than Yang now," she scoffed.
"Oh? Is that so? And Qrow?"
"You're sounding pretty cocky for someone that won only one round. You don't even come close to Uncle Qrow's skills in video games!"
"So I'll take that as a no." Ruby stuck her tongue out at him. "Up for another round?"
"You're on!"
They restarted the round. Large numbers counted down until "Start!" popped up in big red letters. Oscar focused on blocking and dodging Ruby's attacks. He attacked her whenever there was a small opening. Since he had started practicing, he had leveled up from button-mashing to actual fighting. Ruby hesitated a moment and Oscar took that opportunity to hit her with everything he had. He attacked in combos until "Finish Him!" appeared on the screen. He had won. The game announced Oscar's victory and he cheered.
"Yes! Two points Pine! Ruby, don't tell me you're going so…." His words trailed off.
Ruby lay motionless on the ground.
"Ruby? Ruby!"
###
Ruby woke up in her bed at home. Her head was fuzzy and her body ached. She sat up with a groan and assessed her surroundings. Her room was the same as usual. Her father would be sleeping in a chair next to her bed… or not.
Oscar was asleep next to her. He sat on the ground, resting his head on her bed. He held her hand as he slept. Ruby smiled fondly at him. She reached out to touch him, hesitating a little before moving his bangs aside to see his face. He looked peaceful.
She felt a surge of courage swell in her body. She decided to do something she had been wanting to do for weeks now. Ruby leaned forward and kissed his forehead.
"Thank you for everything, Oscar," she whispered. The action caused Oscar to stir and Ruby to jerk back. Oscar drowsily opened his eyes. It took him a moment to realize that Ruby was awake. When he noticed, he jolted awake.
"Ruby!" His face showed pure worry. "You're awake! How are you feeling?"
"A little sore… but mostly fine," she smiled assuredly. Oscar's expression didn't change. Ruby dropped the smile and avoided looking into his eyes. "So… what happened?"
"We were playing video games and you passed out. I called Tai and we brought you home," Oscar looked down. He didn't say anything else. Ruby sighed, knowing what was coming next.
"What did my dad tell you?"
"He… he told me you were sick. And not like a cold kind of sick. Really sick…" Ruby took a deep breath to muster up her courage. She looked straight at Oscar.
"Oscar. I'm dying."
"I…" He couldn't even look at her. He had known something was bothering her, but not something this big. "Why didn't you tell me?!"
"I don't know…"
"Please! You can tell me!" he begged. "Ruby?"
"I didn't… I just didn't want to." She took another deep breath. "You were the one thing in my life that was going right. I didn't want to ruin that."
"Ruby-"
"I didn't want to stop being a huntress! I didn't want to move back to Patch! Everybody's been weird around me since they found out. Better be nice to Ruby because she doesn't have much time left! It's depressing! Then you came along and treated me the same as ever. I didn't want to lose that."
Tears began streaming down Ruby's face. She bit her lips as she choked back her sobs. Oscar panicked a little. He didn't know what to do and awkwardly moved his arms in weird patterns. Finally, he reached over and pulled her into a hug. Ruby was too surprised to speak at first. She buried her head into his shoulder and hugged him back.
"I'm here. I won't change if you don't want me to, but please tell me what I can do. I can help."
"I know," she muttered. "But this isn't something you can help with."
Ruby pulled away before he could say another word. She silently lifted up her shirt to reveal her stomach. What Oscar saw, turned his blood to ice. Ruby's skin was pitch black. It oozed its way through her veins, across her stomach and up her chest. Her pink flesh was cracking around the infected veins, revealing the black tar.
Oscar reached out to touch it. He hesitated, waiting for Ruby to give him a sign that it was fine. She gave a small little nod. He lightly touched the back spots. It was cold. There was no life.
"Does it hurt?" Ruby nodded.
"Everyday. I black out from the pain if I strain myself too much or don't take enough pain killers. Remember when we met at the Jade Forest? I lied about fainting from hunger… I just didn't want to tell you about this. I'm sorry."
"It's almost like… are you…?" Oscar pulled his hand away from her stomach.
"Turning into a grimm? At this point I wouldn't be surprised." Ruby sighed, faking a joking smile. "We don't really know what's going to happen. I might die, I might turn to grimm. Either way I'm gone soon."
"Please don't sound so morbid."
"Well it's the truth," she sighed.
Oscar didn't say anything. He had lost so many people close to him. He just never imagined Ruby to be one of them.
"Was it Salem? Did Salem do this?" Ruby nodded wordlessly.
Oscar slammed his fist into the mattress of her bed. Even now Salem was still trying to take what was precious to him. Tears started rolling down his cheeks. He tried to rub them away before Ruby saw them.
"So? What are you going to do now that you know?"
"Well first I'm going to tell Tai you're awake. Raven has been trying to keep him away so that I could stay with you for a bit. I'm sure he'll be happy to know that you're awake." Oscar got up and started leaving the room.
"Oscar?" Ruby called out to him, making him hesitate in the doorway. "Please don't blame yourself. You've already shouldered the burden of so many. I don't want this to be another one." Oscar sighed.
"Thank you for thinking about me."
He left the room. He went downstairs to the kitchen to start fixing something to help her recover her strength. In truth, Tai had gone out to get Ruby's medicine. The house was empty. Oscar leaned against the kitchen wall. He slid down to the floor. He could no longer hold back his sobs.