Ruby had tensed at the sound of shattering glass from upstairs. It was muffled, probably from the bathroom as opposed to the little window above the beds. She craned her neck to try to see but the loft was just as dark as before.

I hope you're doing okay, Blake, Ruby took a deep breath, turning her focus to her partner.

Sometimes she forgot how small Weiss was. With her heeled boots and perfect posture, the white-haired girl always seemed a lot taller than Ruby. Now though, sitting curled with her knees drawn up, tucked under the edge of her cloak in the firelight, she was tiny. Fragile, like she might break.

Ruby didn't have anything to say. She tugged the edge of the heiress's pant leg gently, maintaining the light contact with her shoulder so Weiss would know she was there.

The snow-damp logs on the fire crackled and hissed. Ruby tried to listen to that instead of the muted voices upstairs. After a time, those gave way to a long, aching silence.

Yang had been unconscious when Ruby and Blake had gone for supplies. Injured, like Weiss. Well, maybe not quite as bad as Weiss. Ruby gripped the cuff of her partner's pant leg a little harder, swearing to never leave her teammates like that again.

"Hey, Weiss?" she asked, "You want to lie down? It looks like they might be a while."

Weiss tightened her arms around her knees.

"Is your shoulder alright?" Ruby swallowed to get rid of the lump in her throat, "It was pretty messed up when we found you."

The fire crackled, and the silence upstairs stretched on for another minute.

At last, Weiss murmured, "It doesn't hurt."

"How about your head? I can get you something to drink, if you want."

"No, thank you."

"You sure?" Ruby pressed. Something in her yearned for Weiss to snap at her, to call her an idiot for leaving and getting caught in the storm.

Weiss didn't respond though. Didn't lift her head or turn to look at Ruby at all.

"Just tell me if you need something, or if you want to move to the couch or anything," Ruby nudged her again, gentle, heart sinking at her inability to help, "You can yell at me, even, if you feel like it. Okay?"

The exhausted heiress gave no sign that she'd heard her partner's words.

Ruby's gaze slid to the floor. She turned back to the fire, waiting for Blake to come back with Yang.

Eventually, the stillness of the loft gave way to a series of quiet sounds - the low click of a door unlocking, the muffled rasping of a zipper, the rustling of cloth, and finally two distinct sets of footsteps coming down the stairs.

The firelight washed over Blake first, the reds and oranges of the flames highlighting the redness still lingering around her eyes. She glanced back and gently pulled her partner into the light as well. Yang had changed back into her full combat attire, but looked far more ready for a long nap than a fight. Her fingers locked with Blake's as the Faunus led her to stand before their teammates.

Ruby took a slow breath, greeting them softly. "Hey Blake. Hey Yang."

"Hey sis," Yang replied to the floor.

Blake nodded and sat down, pulling Yang down to sit beside her. Amber eyes, wide in the relative darkness, darted to Weiss before fixing on Ruby. Unsure if the heiress was asleep, Blake kept her voice low. "...How is she?"

99% of the time, unhappy/injured Weiss equaled vocal Weiss. Ruby looked down at her unresponsive partner. She was still leaned a little against Ruby, and her breathing was soft and even, but she didn't stir. Ruby's stomach twisted with worry and she mumbled to Blake, "She's pretty bad, I think. What happened?"

Blake's eyes drifted to Yang, who's expression had gone sour.

"Gregor," the brawler spat the man's name like a curse, "I made him angry, so he threw me out and took it out on Weiss instead." Part of her had wanted to believe the head miner would keep his word about not harming Weiss while she was recovering in the clinic, but he'd shown his true colors all too quickly. Yang lifted her head, tentatively reaching out to Weiss, but she stopped halfway, letting her hand drop. "I never should have left her alone with him."

Gregor was angry? Weiss got left alone? Ruby tightened her fists as she tried to put the pieces together. The whole town was hurt, why would anybody try to hurt anybody more? Just thinking about her partner getting hurt… something fierce expanded in Ruby's chest and she glanced at Weiss, who had been completely out of commission before the blizzard, "But she didn't even—she couldn't have even fought back, could she?"

At that, Weiss roused herself. Her eyes were bleary with sleep and hurt. "Where's Myrtenaster?"

That's right—Weiss hadn't had her sword. Ruby's throat tightened and she looked to Blake.

Blake cringed. She had been so focused on bringing survivors to the clinic, going back for the heiress's prized weapon hadn't crossed her mind, and then the blizzard... If no one else had found the sword where they'd left it, then... "It's probably still in the bell tower."

For a few heart-stopping seconds, Ruby was sure that Weiss was going to cry. The seconds passed, however, and the heiress put her head back down on her crossed arms and was silent again.

"That's... an important thing we should take care of," Ruby swallowed, still trying to make sense of how the townsfolk could attack anyone. Sure, they didn't like Weiss's family, but after an attack? Right after an attack? She turned to Yang, "Are they going to come after us, do you think? I mean, we're kind of stuck here till..."

Chuck had never come. Of course, the storm had been terrible, so he could have been waiting it out. Maybe he'd show up this afternoon, even! Though, given the snow, landing might be a trick. Still, Ruby clung to this shred of hope. "Did anyone ever try that emergency radio?"

Blake shrugged. She'd heard a couple of the miners mention the town's emergency radio tower in passing while she'd been scouring the ruins for survivors, but it had never been anything beyond them wondering aloud whether it was still standing in the wake of the attack.

"Do you think we could use it to contact Cyan and Curtis?" Yang cut in. She had perked at the possibility of checking in on the two who had taken such good care of her and Weiss while they were at their weakest. "Maybe we could still help them out somehow. They didn't seem to be huge fans of the way the miners were acting and-" a thought struck her then, and the hope drained from the brawler's eyes as she hung her head.

"Then again, I never told them about..." Yang trailed off, dread threatening to swallow her resolve as the deep breath she'd tried to steel herself with only weighed her down, pinning her eyes to the floor. A gentle squeeze from Blake's hand pulled her from the brink of shutting back down, and she seized the moment, locking eyes with her sister and throwing the words out before they could slip away again, "-about how I triggered the swarm."

A beat of silence.

Something that had been tickling the back of Ruby's mind came to her again. That night, the night of the attack, when she and Yang had holed up in that house, protecting the three kids.

Yang slowly turned to peer out the small gap at the Liliac swarming outside, their impossible numbers briefly illuminated by two quick flashes of lightning. "...I did this."

Ruby searched her sister's face. Her question came out more like a statement. "It was an accident."

Ruby's words stripped Yang of her own, leaving her unable to do anything other than shake her head, the movement slowed by the crushing weight of the guilt she bore.

Bloodlust wasn't an accident.

Acting on it however, had been a mistake. A terrible, impossible mistake with a cost too great to tally. She had wanted so badly to kill each and every one of those Grimm, but the simple truth was, she hadn't been able to - and everyone else had paid the price.

Unable to say as much, she simply held Ruby's gaze, dreading the moment those silver eyes might darken in distrust.

"We found Jack in the Liliac's den," Blake quietly supplied from the sidelines.

Slick, oily dread pooled in Ruby's stomach. That night- the night of the attack- Yang and Blake had been on the lookout for Grimm. Somehow, they'd found the den. They'd found Jack. Ruby swallowed, guessing what came next. Still, she prompted softly, "... and then?"

Through their linked fingers, Blake could feel Yang's entire body tensed to the point of snapping, but somehow the brawler's voice still maintained an eerily even timbre when she responded quietly, "I got angry."

Ruby let her sister's words sink in. Her vision blurred with tears. She'd dropped her knees so she was cross-legged, but she wanted to stand. She wanted to bolt up to her feet and... and... she wasn't even sure. But Weiss was still leaning on her shoulder, protected beneath the edge of her cloak, so moving wasn't really an option.

"Yang, come here," Ruby choked the words out through gritted teeth. She pointed at the rug in front of herself, "Right here."

Blake flinched visibly at the younger girl's tone, but when she felt Yang release her hand, she quickly shuffled back and out of the way as the brawler immediately shifted in one smooth motion to kneel right where Ruby had pointed. Her ears flattened at the look of defeat in her partner's eyes, but she dared not interfere, mindful of the crackling tension in the air.

She wouldn't have had a chance to anyway. As soon as Yang knelt, Ruby pulled her down and wrapped her arms around her neck, burying her face in her hair and gripping as hard as she could at the awkward sitting-kneeling angle.

Ruby had gotten these kinds of hugs before, from Yang, or from Summer before she was gone. The kind that said 'I'm here no matter what', even when you didn't have the words. So Ruby gave Yang one now, tears spilling into her sister's golden hair as she sat with her, holding on for all she was worth.

Yang broke for the second time that night, locking an arm around her little sister like a vice as she dissolved back down into the seemingly endless tears she thought she'd gotten out of her system with Blake. Her other arm reached out to hold Weiss in place, keeping her from slipping from Ruby's shoulder. When she felt Blake gently drape her arms around the three of them, she only cried harder.

Ruby wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, just clinging to Yang, to one another. She didn't think about what Yang confession would mean when they got back to Beacon, or of what it meant to the town here and now. She just kept her eyes shut and her face buried in Yang's shoulder.

Eventually, Weiss squirmed in her teammates' embrace. She whined, half-awake, "Can we please cry somewhere that's not on top of me?"

Yang started, releasing Weiss to quickly swipe an arm across her eyes, "Hey, you're awake!"

Blake was the first to move, letting her arms slip from around the group to instead gently pull Weiss from the tangle of limbs. Bright amber eyes peered down at the heiress, "How are you feeling?"

Shivering and miserable, Weiss tried to shrug Blake's hands off, "Do you have to ask?"

Ruby pulled back from Yang, still sniffling. There wasn't going to be an easy fix for what had happened- there probably wouldn't be a fix at all- but searching for a way to make it better would have to wait. She glanced at her partner, and then at the mess of blankets and pillows on the couch behind them. "Yeah, okay. Let's get the couch set up for Weiss. Think we can move it a little closer to the fire?"

"Yeah, 'course, I got it," with one last swipe across her eyes to clear her vision, Yang vaulted over the couch, thankful the heavy oak piece of furniture was just as sturdy as it looked. Once Ruby and Blake shuffled Weiss out of the way, she pushed it forward in one great shove, wincing at the sudden earsplitting screech of wood against wood that only stopped once she stopped, leaving the couch a mere two feet from the hearth. "Ouch. Ow, should have lifted instead..."

Ruby flipped the tangle of blankets up so they draped over the back cushions and unrolled Weiss's sleeping gear in their place. "There you go. Tell us if you get too warm or something."

"That's not going to be an issue," Weiss mumbled, clinging to Blake for support. She shook with cold as her aura continued to try to re-establish itself.

Blake led the heiress to the couch and helped her lie down in her thermal sleeping bag. Once she'd shifted into what was hopefully a comfortable position, Blake pushed her hair aside and zipped the bag shut. Yang appeared at her side a moment later, greeting Blake with a soft smile before gazing down at Weiss with an unreadable expression.

The heiress hadn't said word one about... anything. Anything other than being cold and tired, anyway. Yang frowned at the sleeping bag. She had been trying to keep this girl warm for the past three days - personal experience warned that even set right next to the fire, one layer simply would not cut it.

With a low hum of dissatisfaction, the brawler set to work, pulling each and every one of the tangled blankets from the back of the couch and tucking them tightly around Weiss one by one in fluid, practiced movements. In no time flat she had wrapped the shivering girl in a thick cocoon of warmth, stopping just short of laying a kiss to her forehead as she remembered this was Weiss she was tucking in to sleep, not Ruby.

Quickly shaking her head, Yang stepped back to admire her work. "That should do it."

"I can't move my arms," Weiss complained, straining weakly against the layers.

"That's how you know it's a good blanket barrier," Yang reassured the squirming girl, unable to keep from smiling at Weiss's resemblance to an angry caterpillar.

Blake paused mid-eye roll when her Faunus ears twitched at the sound of a low growl coming from something other than Weiss. Amber eyes narrowed, zeroing in on Yang's stomach. "When was the last time you two ate?"

"Er..." the brawler fumbled for a response, smile faltering as she tried not to think about the clinic, "...today?"

After a brief staredown, Blake gave Yang a gentle shove towards the kitchen, nearly sending her straight into Ruby. "Then, go make us all something delicious," she commanded, her half-smile removing any bite her words may have held otherwise.

Go take your mind off of things. Was the message Yang received, and she managed to smile once more before slipping quietly into the kitchen, thankful for a solid task to focus on.

Just as the brawler left their line of sight, a bright crack from the fireplace sent an ember flying, landing inches from the edge of the couch.

Blake stamped it out immediately, slowly lifting her gaze to Ruby once she was sure it had been snuffed out. "... At least one of us should probably stay to make sure Weiss doesn't catch on fire."

Weiss huffed and settled down, growling incoherent threats after Yang.

"On it," Ruby gave Blake a thumbs-up, her heart still heavy. She went to the couch and set about making the layers of thick crocheted wool a little less constricting for her partner. To Blake, she added, "Hey, tell Yang there's more macaroni and cheese in the cupboard."

"Okay," Blake nodded, brushing a hand across Ruby's back as she passed by her young team leader. She paused at the kitchen's entrance, looking over her shoulder, "I won't tell her that's all you've had for three days straight though."

"What was that?" Yang's voice carried from the depths of the kitchen.

"Nothing," Blake called back to her partner, throwing Ruby a conspiratorial wink before slipping into the kitchen and out of sight.

"Macaroni and cheese is good," Ruby pouted, taking the edge of her cloak and twitching it up over her arm to keep it out of range of the fire. Pasta also kept well, which might become important if they were trapped here for a significant length of time. Slowly, she stopped adjusting the blankets and just sat on the floor near the armrest. "Is that better?"

The heiress gave a drowsy affirmative. She had her face turned away so all Ruby could see was her ear, the curve of her neck, her tumble of ivory hair. She looked pale to Ruby, but then again Weiss's skin was fair to begin with.

She had lost so much blood. Ruby couldn't get the mental image of her partner lying gently curled on her side just like she was now, but in a pool of crimson in the icy darkness. Before her thoughts could go far down that road, Ruby reached under the blankets in search of Weiss's hand. All she found was the slick synthetic fabric that made up the outer shell of her sleeping bag.

Weiss shifted to look blearily over her shoulder. She groaned, shutting her eyes again. "Ruby. I'm trying to rest."

"I know, just," Ruby remained kneeling at the edge of the couch. In the firelight she could make out the bruise across Weiss's temple. "Can I hold your hand or something? Please?"

Correctly interpreting this as her only means of getting any peace and quiet, Weiss sighed and extracted one arm from her sleeping bag. Ruby took her hand. It was cold, but not as cold as before. She fixed the blankets so Weiss could keep warm and sat with her head down, both arms under the covers.

"I'm sorry I left you in the bell tower," Ruby murmured into the couch cushions.

Weiss let Ruby grip her hand like it was a lifeline. She gripped back a little, "I should've been able to handle it."

"Our scrolls weren't working," Ruby lifted her head, scooting closer, "We shouldn't have split up."

Weiss's strength waned. She scolded softly, "You're such a child."

It was good to hear Weiss criticizing again, so Ruby didn't mind, really. When she whined, the edge of her mouth quirked up, "You always say that."

"Because you are," the heiress snuggled down under the blankets. "Now let me sleep."

Ruby rested her head on the edge of the couch again, content for a while to hang onto Weiss's hand and know she was okay.

Twice now, being separated from her teammates had turned out badly. First Weiss got hurt, and now…

The pale light from the window had dimmed, presumably because the sun was dipping below the valley rim. Nightfall wasn't far off. Crescent Rose was warm and heavy at Ruby's back, shielding her from the heat of the fireplace and the thoughts of what was to come.

A/N: Someday it will be RWBY Tuesday again. For now, Friday will just have to do.

-Fiercesomest