"I'm really, really sorry Mr Port. We lost track of time after our combat training and one thing led to another." Pyrrha apologized, bowing to the portly professor.

"Honestly it's sort of amazing we were able to find you guys in the middle of nowhere." Ruby breathed, speaking mostly to her two companions, and flinching a little when Port levelled an imperious (for him) look at her.

"Miss Nikos, you should know that everyone here at Beacon expects great things from you, and we understand if you need time with all your extra responsibilities." Noting that he hadn't mentioned her or Weiss yet, Ruby did her best not to roll her eyes. "You two however," Port began, and Ruby began wondering if she could out-run a lecture, "should pick up the slack! You're an entire quarter hour late for our field trip! Why, if you two were serious, you'd be following Miss Nikos' here's work ethic!"

Ruby half-raised her hand, and spoke after Port gave her a nod. "I was speaking with Pyrrha about helping her in training her partner, which took up more time that we expected. I'm just trying to help Pyrrha out. As for Weiss, she was sticking with me as we're supposed to do as partners. It was a mistake. I'm sorry." Ruby did not mention that Pyrrha's work ethic was driving her a bit batty, or that she desperately wished to be free of Weiss' omnipresence.

Ruby couldn't help the small amount sarcasm that had leeched into her voice, she didn't like being lectured in the first place and years around Cinder did much to one's ability to fake remorse. Fortunately, given the glance Port gave to her side, it looked like Weiss was wearing her Plus Ultra bitch face, and the man seemed to reconsider haranguing them any longer.

"Fine, fine. I remember being a strapping young lad once, thing's are tough when you're your age." Port began, his normal reminiscing turning into the sort of horror one normally only found on the silver screen.

"If you don't mind, Mr Port." Pyrrha interrupted, her voice understanding, "I think we should find our teams."

"Ah!" Port exclaimed, embarrassed. "Of course! Run along now, I wouldn't want to keep you from your task for too long. Nothing quite like some fresh syrup."

The students thanked him then left, Ruby exhaling through her nose so hard she thought her lungs might collapse. "Dude forgot to say which atrium we were meeting in. How is it literally everyone else guessed right?"

"I told you we should have messaged the others." Weiss complained.

"Yeah, and I did, but Yang forgot her scroll in the dorm and neither of us have Blake's number." Ruby replied, her voice a bit tight. Things had not been smoothed over between her and Weiss at all, and likely wouldn't in the near future. Ruby was still preoccupied with thinking a way out of this small nightmare her partner'd trapped her in, but she wasn't making any headway. Jealous little sister-types weren't exactly her forte, and Ruby had figured that was the closest comparison she was going to get to Weiss'... Mood.

"It all worked out in the end." Pyrrha said with a smile, stretching her arms out over her head. "I will admit, I was a little worried we'd be in for an hour-long lecture."

"Professor Port does love wasting time." Weiss said, boredly. She turned to Pyrrha, looking her up and down, before glancing to Ruby. "We should go find our team."

Ruby thought for a moment of all the things Weiss meant when she said 'we should go'. Was it, 'please fuck off, I'm her real partner'? Was it, 'get out of here miss beanstalk, I make up in attitude what I lack in height'? Did Weiss even know that Pyrrha and her were meant to be partners? Was that the source of all this? Not that it mattered, Ruby was trying to find her long-lost zen, and ignoring Weiss to do it. Little rock gardens with raked gravel and mossy streams had nothing on her chill.

"I'll stick with you two until we run into Jaune and the others. It's not like we're training or anything." Pyrrha said with a smile.

Weiss grunted, crossing her arms.

"You know Weiss," Ruby began, moving to beside the heiress and taking her hand. "You two could be good friends! You'll never know if you keep being unfriendly."

Weiss looked down at their paired hands, then back up to brunette wasn't sure if the smile on her face was holding but she'd tried her damnedest. Ruby's eyes held a certain amount of expectation, and Weiss seemed to recognize it when her lips pursed. She frowned, really frowned, and for a moment it seemed like she'd tell Pyrrha to fuck off.

With a harrumph she pulled her hand free and crossed her arms. "Fine. We'll help you find your team, then we'll go find Yang and Blake."

Ruby smiled at Weiss, who looked away when she met her eyes. "Well, they gotta be around here somewhere..."

It was going to be easier said than done, that was for sure. Looking around, the clearing extended out for a couple miles at least, the forest maintained so that the maples grew far enough apart that they had room for their massive boughs. Teams were spread out all across the hill, and from this angle it wasn't easy to see who was who.

"Let's head for the top of the hill, we should see better from there, hm?" Pyrrha offered, pointing to where the clearing made a bit of a hump. After an expectant glance from Ruby Weiss nodded, and the trio set off.

The wondrous and bizarre trees of Forever Fall had a few quirks that people couldn't tell at a distance, so few in Vale knew about some of their more fringe oddities. The first was that they constantly grew, no matter the weather. On the warm summer day that everyone was out on they extended their branches out a little faster than on the most bitter of winter's, but not by much. Secondly, and as a consequence of point one, they shed their leaves constantly. The forest floor in Forever Fall was constantly littered with six inches or more of detritus. If one were to shovel through a bit of it they'd find a veritable army of detrivores — ants, beetles, what have you — thriving quite well under-foot. As such there wads always a moist layer under the leaves where the rot caused them to slide.

That is to say, that on that particular afternoon, on the side of the moderate incline of a hill, thanks to the industrious work of the millions of insects underfoot,Weiss found a slippery spot.

To her credit, she took it gracefully. Ruby, who'd been walking slightly ahead and stomping quite happily through the leaf litter didn't hear a peep from her. It wasn't until she heard someone hissing like a wet cat that she turned around.

Weiss, who normally didn't like it when Pyrrha was in earshot of Ruby, was currently getting rather close up with the redhead. She was in Pyrrha's arms, held up under her armpits to keep her rear from impacting the ground. With her legs straight out in front of her from slipping and her shoulders lifted up above her neck she looked... well. It was the same look that cats do when their owners lift them up by the armpits. Unabashed rage, barely contained.

As Weiss' face contorted in equal measures embarrassment and anger, Ruby posed a seemingly simple question: "What happened?"

"She fe-" Pyrrha began.

"Nothing!" Weiss overruled, loudly, throwing herself from Pyrrha with abandon, so forcefully that she landed on her hands and knees on the ground. She scrambled to her feet, whirling as she did so and throwing a venomous glare at Pyrrha. "Stay away from me."

"She was just trying to help." Ruby said, frowning a bit. "I know you normally are a bit of a bitch on wheels but why are you so rude to her?"

"I'm not!"

"I just saved you from falling on your ass, Weiss." Pyrrha chided, surprising all present for the rude word she used. "If I've done something to hurt you, or offend you, I'm sorry, but you shouldn't treat anyone like this."

Weiss looked past the two of them, staring off into the distance, her lips parting to expose grit teeth.

"What's going on Weiss?" Ruby pressed, stepping towards the heiress. "Have you always been this mean? I put up with a lot but I can't imagine you're happy with yourself like this."

"You don't get it." Weiss growled.

"Yeah, I'm well aware, that's why I'm asking. I've been asking since we met, but all I get is radio silence while you act like a dick to friends and family." Ruby crossed her arms.

"Ruby certainly has been rather kind despite your... Demeanor." Pyrrha sighed. "You don't want to lose her, do you?"

The more they spoke, the more Weiss seemed to curl in on herself. Fingernails bit into her palms, her face contorted further, her tears flowed freer. Ruby was bewildered, but Weiss' reaction just provoked more frustration. Ruby'd been holding this in forever and a day, and the moment she decides to challenge Weiss on it, she cries?

But she wasn't just standing there pouting. Ruby could just make out through the pain on Weiss' face the glare she was trying to manage at Pyrrha. Glancing at her friend, she didn't see any anger or malice in Pyrrha's form. She looked a bit insulted, maybe a smidge hurt, but nothing else. Nothing but their proximity. When Ruby had stepped forward she wound up sliding beside the redhead, turning towards her slightly and away from Weiss. While this was normal, and Ruby herself didn't mind because she thought Pyrrha was the bees knees, this clearly didn't sit well with Weiss.

"Go on ahead for now Pyrrha." Ruby sighed, rubbing her brow with her index finger and thumb. She offered the redhead an apologetic look before stepping towards Weiss, extending her hand. "Let's go."

"Go where?" Weiss asked, looking at the hand apprehensively.

"Somewhere we can talk."

Weiss stared at the hand for a moment before reaching out and grasping it. The moment she did the pair flashed off in a race of white and red, twin clouds of petals blitzing away with a gale of a gust. The leaves on the ground kicked up as they went as they were sucked into the vacuum of their wake. This left behind a rather stunned Pyrrha, who had no idea that Ruby could do that, let alone so quickly. Within a few seconds the pair were already difficult to see though their wake carved a path through the treetops.

The pair flew for a fair while before their form became unstable. While Ruby flew straight as an arrow, Weiss orbited her frantically. The cloud of white wobbling as it circled the path, pulsing with nervous energy, it was only a matter of time before she fell away. And fall she did, snapping back into existence forty feet over the tops of the trees below. Weiss was disoriented and her emotional state didn't help. Mere seconds after separating from Ruby she was fractions of a moment from breaking through the trees when a flash of red intercepted her.

"This is way easier when you don't fight me you know." Ruby grumbled as she crouched on a branch, carrying Weiss in her arms. The heiress squirmed in her grasp, jabbing her hands this way and that and nearly palming Ruby in the jaw. The brunette's grasp never faltered, and aside from moving her face out of the way of some blows that seemed just a bit too on-purpose she was steady in her perch. "I'm not going to let you go you know."

"Drop me!" Weiss all but shrieked.

"I'm not going to do that, and you know that you can't make me, so you're going to have to make like a held baby and just cry it out." Ruby chastised, tightening her grip. "You're gonna tell me all about what's on your mind and why you're acting like this, and big sis is gonna make it all better."

Weiss continued to thrash for a bit, whatever thought of proper appearance and decorum long-since forgotten as she threw a real tantrum. As she did so Ruby watched the forest floor below, counting the Ursa and Beowolves that were starting to creep closer. They were high enough up that they couldn't climb up here, so as long as they didn't fall out of the tree they wouldn't need to worry about—

Apparently interested in giving one last hurrah, Weiss pitched out her fist once more, and just so happened to clip the corner of Ruby's chin. This caused an unfortunate chain reaction: Ruby bit down on her tongue, then swore and lifted her hand to massage her chin, which meant she was no longer holding Weiss, who was too teary-eyed to stop herself from landing bodily on top of a Beowulf. As she had fallen Myrtlenaster had unlatched from her belt, coming to rest in the middle of a duo of Ursa.

Ruby, somewhat aware of what had happened through the pain and taste of blood in her mouth, looked down once more to see what had happened.

"Well. Shit." She breathed. She jumped down from her place and collided with one of the Ursa on her way down, flattening it down prone into the dirt before summoning her axe and taking a swipe at the other. She could see Weiss tumbling off of the now quite-upset Beowulf and staggering the wrong way away from her Rapier. "Weiss! Knock it away, your thing's over here!"

"I can't!" Weiss shouted back, skittering back on her hands as the Beowolf loomed. The girl covered her face as it reached forward to swipe at her, panic overtaking any training she'd ever had.

Ruby growled, cleaving a Grimm in two before flashing over to Weiss, delivering a boot to the Grimm's side as she arrived, knocking it clear sideways. She glanced between Weiss and the approaching monsters, and a frown set on her features. Fighting random Grimm wasn't exactly the most difficult challenge in the word, but keeping a bystander safe while their emotions are out of whack? Even if Ruby couldn't see them, she knew more than enough about their enemies to know every single one in a mile half-mile radius that was already following the scent of the students had just turned to come here instead.

Ruby could easily get Weiss back to the clearing, but the chaos and confusion of bringing all the Grimm would cause a positive feedback loop. Normally she wouldn't care, all of them were trained to fight, but Ruby was already emotionally tired and just didn't want to deal with all that.

She drove her axe into the Beowolf she'd just knocked over, then drew it back and threw it at the two remaining Grimm in sight, reducing them to a faint cloud of black ash. She grabbed Weiss and pulled her up and over to the tree they'd been standing in, setting the girl with her back to the tree. Placing her hands on Weiss' shoulders she could hear around them the low hum of a growl.

"Winter, Winter please." Weiss was repeating, her hands clasped in front of her chest in prayer, her voice a hissing whisper. "Help me!"

Ruby grimaced down at her partner. Now she definitely couldn't bring her back to the others. Ruby reached up and pressed a hand against the side of the tree as she summoned up years-old anger. The brunette closed her eyes, seeking darkness, and found it where it always hid: between her shoulder blades. Beneath the black of her garb she could feel the toxic tendrils start to bend and twist, alien matter flexing and pushing against the flesh under her skin. In the inch-across gap between her shirt and trousers a lick of black flickered beneath her skin.

"Leave." A single word command, spoken in an exhalation, from Ruby's mouth but not of her. The growling stopped all at once.

The side of the tree Ruby was touching groaned under her grip, and as the darkness retreated she could only move in increments. Ruby's breath came heavy, nausea and vertigo flipping her stomach as muscle and bone no longer threatened to crack under pressure.

"Weiss." Ruby managed, rocking back and away from the tree to rest on her haunches and recover. "They're gone."

The heiress didn't reply, her knees lifted so high that her forehead was pressed against them. As the pressure faded she had a sense of the hysteria and sorrow that was plaguing the girl, and she knew that it wouldn't be long before more Grimm came knocking.

"Weiss if you don't stop crying, I'm going to make you stop." Ruby play-threatened, leaning towards the girl. As she continued to sob Ruby remembered something she might have heard on the internet: if someone's crying, and you don't want them to, get them something to drink so they can chill out. Well, she didn't have a water flask on her, but if occupying someone's mouth long causes them to break out of their mania, she knew something that'd do the trick.

With her left hand she reached forward and rested her palm against Weiss' cheek. With her thumb she wiped away one of the tears that had stained her skin and gently prodded her to meet Ruby's eyes. Watery eyes met silver as Ruby slid her free hand between Weiss' knees, pulling her legs down and apart, pressing her palm against the side of her thigh to move it out of the way as she leaned forward.

Weiss' breathing started to normalize, whatever emotions she was battling with before being swiftly replaced by confusion. It was briefly considered that perhaps there were less extreme approaches to this therapy but Ruby was tired and only a couple of inches from Weiss' lips when she considered it so she just… Didn't stop.

She's had a lot of practice, Weiss thought as she stared into Ruby's closed eyelids. She couldn't think to do anything, so shocked was she that what was happening was happening. The hand on the inside of her thigh, just above her knee, the fingers gently caressing the back of her head. It was really nice, but it was so unbelievably wrong.

After a very, very long handful of seconds Ruby pulled away, and as she did so she removed the hand behind Weiss' head but left the one on her leg. She held Weiss' gaze and paused, waiting.

"I'm not into girls." Weiss whispered very quietly.

Ruby chuckled, a few hearty breaths of laughter rising from her chest. "If you didn't like it against this tree there's thousands more in the forest if you want to double check."

"I don't," Weiss cleared her throat, her voice small. "Please don't."

"I wouldn't." Ruby shook her head, finally moving her other hand. She rocked back until she was resting her weight on one knee, crouching. She crossed her arms and smiled. "How are you feeling?"

"Angry." Weiss answered.

"No more tears?" Ruby teased.

"I'm OK."

"Then lets talk without attracting every Grimm in the forest, shall we?" Ruby rocked to her feet and stepped around Weiss to lean against the tree beside her. She looked up at the red canopy above and closed her eyes, breathing in deeply the earthy scent of the forest.

Weiss corrected her posture after realizing she was quite probably flashing the forest right now. She tucked her legs in and shifted to be a bit further away from Ruby.

"So, about Pyrrha." Weiss tensed a little as Ruby spoke, and refused to look at her. "Are you jealous?"

Weiss chewed on that for a moment. "I think you two were supposed to be partners."

Ruby turned and looked at her, but Weiss didn't look back. "Why?"

"You two spend all this time together. I feel like I'm just following you around while you seek her out, make her a part of your day." Weiss whispered. "I didn't even see your eyes until after Jaune had called out to Pyrrha, and when I turned to look at you, well." Weiss pulled her legs up to her chest. "So yeah. I think I don't have a partner. That or my partner's Jaune."

"Yeah, well, the reason why I spend so much time around Pyrrha is because she's hot and I am a card-carrying, square-meal-eating, lady loving piece of beef." Ruby explained with a laugh. "I enjoy agonizing myself by flirting with a girl who probably like yourself isn't interested in the fairer sex, despite my many, many, many charms."

"But you kissed me." Weiss argued, turning to face Ruby.

"And?" Ruby asked with a raised brow, shrugging. "I guess I shouldn't be that flip about it huh? I did that because I wanted to distract you from panicking. Personally I'm at the point where kissing is just a nice thing to do, it's not a symbol of undying affection."

"You shouldn't just kiss people." Weiss grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll ask permission next time Princess." Ruby sighed. Weiss was really focused on that kiss, and that was a bit worrying. She didn't really wanna be reported to a school councillor for assault or something like that. If Port started lecturing her on chivalry she might just kill the man. "Point is, I spend time around her because she's a) attractive, and b) my friend."

"And you two aren't partners?" Weiss pressed.

"Jaune saw her first." Ruby said, and it wasn't a lie, because nobody really knew. "We thought we saw each other first, but Jaune would have seen her before I did when she was walking toward us."

Weiss shifted in place. She didn't like that.

"Look, Weiss, we went over this before, right?" Ruby patiently reminded her. "That night when I was soaked, I told you that I'd stick with you no matter what, right? That you'd always be able to choose to follow me? That we were in this together?" Ruby did her best to suppress the mild annoyance she felt. She swallowed the bitter draught of patience and took a few moments to let silence fall over them. Weiss' silence wasn't denial, and she knew that. She chose a topic that might lead to some answers: "Who's Winter?"

"My sister."

Progress.

"She protected you when you were a kid?" Ruby asked, pulling her knees to her chest and resting her folded arms on them. She relaxed, smiled at Weiss, implored her to share. Weiss nodded, a tear gathering in her eyes. "And she left."

"My childhood was a nightmare." Weiss spat, her features shaking with anger. "My father beat us into submission, if not with words than with actions. He wanted to make us cruel clones of him. If we weren't perfect, or we just didn't make the same choice he did, we were worthless to him." A shaky sigh broke the stream of words, and Ruby could see the hatred behind those blue eyes. "Winter was the only one strong enough to stand up to him. She was the one who made sure I had decent memories. Hiding in the library, reading books under covers… Hiding from father."

Ruby's heart went out to the girl. She knew this anger, the pit that grows in one's core, one that threatens to turn a good person into a wandering specter. You haunt in circles, chilling the lives of those whose path you cross, orbiting around the deepest of pains like a gravitational well, unable to propel yourself away. The only way to escape is to sink, and to sink is to die.

"She left when I was ten. She couldn't handle it anymore. She went to Atlas and left me behind. With an enraged father and a bitter house." Weiss shook her head. "I could have gone to a prep school in the city, escaped dad, stayed near Winter but I, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do anything. I just became what dad wanted, just perfect enough."

"You were just a kid." Ruby reached out to rest a hand on Weiss' shoulder. "I can't imagine you could have just up and left your family all that easily."

"My deepest regret is that I couldn't follow her." Weiss whispered. "Everything could have been different."

"Have you ever talked with someone about this?" Ruby asked. "Like, professional help."

"Who?" Weiss finally turned to look at Ruby. Her eyes were red, her mouth a firm line. "I'm a minor, any councillor I talk to would be a mandatory reporter. If my father ever heard a whisper I'd be disowned like my sister was. I can't survive on my own Ruby, I have nobody."

'Who' indeed. Ruby didn't know. It couldn't be anyone at Beacon, Weiss would probably deny it on principle. It'd have to be someone in the city, and Ruby couldn't just pick someone out of the phone book, Weiss needed someone discreet. Maybe it was time to ask Qrow for a favour, or Taiyang. She seemed to remember Yang mentioning something about Tai being popular with kids from tough households because he got them to talk.

That would mean going to Patch, which wouldn't be sustainable for appointments, and would also mean biting that particular bullet. Ruby had avoided going 'home' for this long, she didn't want this to be the reason she went back.

"I'll help you figure something out." Ruby sighed, pulling her scroll out of her pocket and opening her DMs with Cinder. Regardless of what solution she picked out, Weiss couldn't spend her own money. There was definitely an accountant carefully reading each line item on her card payments, and that meant Ruby'd be footing the bill until something was figured out. And Ruby footing the bill meant shaking the ole money tree. "We'll find someone who you can talk to and not worry about anyone talking."

Hey. I need you to up my allowance for something you're gonna hate.

She sent off the message, then reached over to grab Weiss' hand. "And if you say 'no, please don't Ruby you sexy, sexy beast, I'd be horrified if I accepted your help' please know you can't stop me because I'm very stubborn. That and the way things are right now isn't tenable. I need you to trust me around my friends, I want you to feel secure as a person, I want you to feel safe." Ruby smiled. "OK?"

"OK." Weiss whispered, clearly unconvinced.

Ruby's scroll dinged.

Convince me.

Ruby replied with an incomprehensible string of emojis before stowing her scroll and standing, maintaining her grip on Weiss' hand. She gently pulled the Heiress up to her feet, brushing blades of grass off her dress and straightening it out.

"I would prefer not to go back to the others." Weiss mumbled, brushing her knees off with her free hand. When she was done she reached down to the ground and grabbed Myrtlenaster. She frowned at the speckles of dirt and mud that clung to its perfect white frame. She could only imagine how unkempt she was, both from her tumble and from her... Episode.

"That's OK, we'll head back to the school." Ruby nodded. "If you're feeling better now, we can fly there. It'll save you a walk, and you might actually enjoy it this time."

Weiss scanned the woods taking in the dim crimson. She nodded after some hesitation. "I guess." She was about to ask what she should do when Ruby let go of her hand. When she turned back to face the girl she was gone, and in her place a haze of petals surrounded the white-haired girl. Every way she looked she could see the cloud, choking out the already minimal light.

She froze as a hand rested on her back from behind, fingers grasping firmly yet gently around her shoulder. "Just relax."

"I'll try." Was grumbled reply.

As Ruby had never explained to Weiss what the sensation of flying was, she was rather unprepared for the combination of weightlessness and complete sensory depravation. While yes, it was certainly true that she'd flown this far from the clearing, she was rather pre-occupied with her own internal struggles. So tormented was her mind that she didn't really appreciate how bizarre it felt.

In a way it was like resting in an isolation tank. She heard nothing, felt nothing, and over time it became difficult to even form a thought. Mildly —which was the only way to do anything in this state— she considered that this was rather off-putting. How anyone could enjoy this like Ruby said was a mystery.

Then, all at once, pinpricks of light. Through the haze of nothing comes the reality of the exterior, of the outside. She's aware of swathes of colour, of bursts of meaning, knowledge being processed for her. Hungrily her under-stimulated mind consumes the information like a fire does dry kindling. She sees or remembers or understands the flight of red beneath and around. The red below is the forest, the red around is Ruby. Then comes blue, the blue of the sky, of the distant sea, then the white of clouds, of Weiss herself.

With self-recognition Weiss finally understood the comfort of flying. In a limited way she could tell where she was, and thus move herself around in her orbit. She could fly straight in parallel with Ruby, or she could barrel roll and spin. She could feel a certain tug or resistance when she strayed too far away, probably Ruby making sure she didn't fall out of the semblance. It would have been bad if she did, as she could clearly see the speed at which they were rocketing over the treetops, approaching Beacon as quickly as a speeding airship might. She watched in awe as they cleared the field between school and the forest, rocketing towards and around the academy's buildings.

Eventually they came to a stop on one of the balconies their dormitory had. Weiss felt her stomach do a few flip-flops as her body was recombined before being gently set on the ground. Ruby landed a few moments later less gracefully, tucking into a roll moments before hitting the ground and flopping over.

Weiss rushed to the brunette's side to see the girl covered in sweat, all of her muscles straining and flexing as she tried to right herself. Ruby's brow was soaked, and her shirt under her chest was darkened with moisture.

"Oh fuck, I haven't done that for a while." Ruby wheezed, grimacing in pain as she pressed a hand to her chest. "Damn Weiss I didn't know you were hiding a dump truck under your skirt." Ruby sounded like she was doing an impression of Yang, but it was hard to tell under all that pain.

"What are you talking about?" Weiss shook her head. "Never mind, what happened?"

"Flew too far too fast." Ruby explained breathily, giving up on getting up and just laying flat on the ground. "Last time I did that was like, I don't know, forever ago? Imagine you walked into a gym and lifted like, twice as much as you normally do for a jerk. Then you decided to run ten miles like that, and you actually did. That's what I did, and I somehow didn't drop you before we got to the rooftop. That's good." Ruby sounded like she was talking to herself, "Dropping you eight stories would suck. I'm sure you'd have been fine though."

"Didn't you used to do this with Cinder?" Weiss questioned, surprised by just how fucked up Ruby was.

"Yeah, but you get used to it. It's like balancing something on your nose. The more you do it the better you get. Aura's different, different shape to balance. With Cinder it's like she was sitting on my face, not much to balance. Just, you know, don't drown." Ruby blabbered on, sounding less and less intelligible. "Hey Weiss?"

"Yeah?" Was the reply, laced with trepidation.

"Could you go to our room and go into the medicine cabinet?" Weiss nodded. "On my shelf there's a bottle labeled 'vitamin supplements'. Could you get those for me?"

"Why would vitamin supplements help?"

Ruby smiled, "Because they're like, narcotic level pain killers. I'm pretty sure they're super illegal to use anywhere but in a hospital, but I got a boatload. Like, these things make horse tranquilizers look like caffeine suppositories. If you could get me a half pill and some water that'd be great."

"Do you promise to stop these disgusting similes?" Weiss asked.

Ruby's expression twisted with confusion, the brunette's brows quirking. "What's a simile?"

Weiss looked down at her partner, then their surroundings, then the distant horizon they'd come from. She pursed her lips. She'd known Ruby for a couple months now, and she had some respect for the whirlwind lady. She didn't know everything about her, and didn't know if she'd look like back on this all with horror. But right now, she didn't have a choice but to trust her.

"Alright," Weiss stood up, brushing off her knees and putting her hands on her hips. "I'll get you your drugs Ruby."