I'm really glad people liked the last chapter, especially Loki's part. I've actually spent quite a bit of time thinking about the situation regarding White Rose and I'd like to apologize in advance for the next few chapters.
Special thanks to Bookah for helping me brainstorm ways to make this chapter possibly one of my favorites to write.
Just a warning. This chapter is meant to be beyond sweet. If you're liable to have a squee moment and are in a position where that could cause problems, please wait until a better time to read it.
Chapter 38: Confessions, Searches
Patch, Xiao Long Residence, With Weiss
Weiss looked around and realized she was back in Amity Colosseum, paling as the realization sank in. "No, not this dream again. Anything but this…" Weiss looked down to see Ruby turning to face Mercury before she threw herself at the barrier. The heiress tried to scream, to warn her partner about what was going to happen, but no sound escaped her. Ruby staggered from the first gunshot and blinked in confusion before the second one knocked her backwards. Weiss let out a pained cry as the barrier fell and she ran to her partner, tears pouring down her cheeks. "Please just let me wake up!" Weiss dropped to her knees as she saw Ruby laying on the ground, a gaping hole in her chest.
"No!" Weiss cried out as she shot up in her chair after Yang went to grab her shoulder. The blonde took a step back as Weiss let out a quiet sob, tears running down her cheeks.
"Weiss? Are you okay?" the blonde asked cautiously. Weiss looked around, taking a deep breath before responding.
"I-I don't know…" She said, holding Ruby's cloak to her chest as she looked down.
Yang frowned and grabbed a chair, sitting down across from Weiss. "Having nightmares involving the pup?" Weiss looked up in surprise. "I know the incident at the tournament was only four days ago, but you haven't had much sleep since then and I saw you wake up to check on Rubes the night before the Battle of Beacon." Yang gave the heiress a small smile. "C'mon, it's obvious you like Ruby, so why don't you just get what's bothering you off your chest?" Weiss shuddered at the saying, causing Yang to frown.
Weiss took a deep breath, looking down at her crush. "You know that if she hadn't moved, Ruby would be dead right now, right?" Yang nodded slowly, a serious look on her face. "When I realized that… I-it was all I could think about for hours. The thought that I'd never be able to tell her how I felt, that I'd never know how she felt for me…" Weiss let out a sigh. "The only reason I tried getting any sleep was because I promised Winter I would, but…"
Yang leaned forward. "The thought was so terrifying you couldn't get away from it, could you?"
Weiss shook her head. "N-no… and to make matters worse I'm going to need to go into town to buy new clothes since our dorm was destroyed, so I'm going to have to leave her alone eventually…"
Yang hummed quietly before she smiled at the white-haired girl. "Well, I think Rubes probably has a spare set of pajamas laying around somewhere. It's all black, but it's better than nothing, right?" The blonde stood up and pulled open a drawer in Ruby's dresser, trying her best to search through the clothes inside. "C'mon, you can even use the spare bed in here. Once I find you some stuff, Blake's going to help me make some dinner. Do you want to join us?"
Weiss looked down at Ruby. "I think I'd rather stay here…"
Yang let out a sigh. "Weiss, I know you really want to be here when Ruby wakes up, but we both know the last thing she wants is for you to be tired, hungry, and miserable when she does. C'mon, I'm sure she'll forgive you for getting something to eat." Yang quickly handed the heiress a black, long-sleeved button up pajama top and matching pajama bottoms. "Here, maybe you'll feel better after a shower. Yesterday was pretty hard and unlike Ruby or me, you haven't had a chance to get cleaned up. Hell, Blake even took a break from worrying about me to get a shower." Weiss deflated and took the offered clothes, causing Yang to grin. "The bathroom's the second door down, okay?"
"Alright, thanks Yang," Weiss said, causing the blonde to pat her on the shoulder.
"Hey, I know we didn't really get off on the right foot and I can be annoying, but thanks for taking care of my sister. Just… Try not to hurt her. She's been through a lot already."
Weiss looked down at the wolf faunus, frowning sadly. "I know… I promise I'll never do anything to intentionally hurt her." Yang smiled.
"C'mon, when you're done we're making some soup." Weiss nodded, heading down the hallway into the bathroom. Weiss locked the door and went to get out of her dress when she paused.
"Wait… I don't have any underwear to change into," she thought with a blush. "I-I mean… It's only for one night or until Ruby wakes up. It's not like anyone would notice… Right?" Weiss nodded to herself, placing her clothes in the hamper before stepping into the shower. She let out a sigh as the water ran down her before she started washing. When she finished, she quickly stepped out and dried herself off, quickly putting on the pajamas before stepping out of the bathroom.
"Yang, just let me take care of that before you drop it!" Weiss heard as she stepped down the stairs, bare feet moving along the wooden floors.
"C'mon Blake, I want to help…" Weiss paused as she heard the meek town to Yang's voice, frowning slightly. "I need to learn how to take care of this, right? Please?"
Blake let out a sigh. "Okay… Just be careful with it, alright?" Weiss felt something nuzzle against her, causing her to look down at Zwei. She smiled slightly before stepping into the room to see Yang trying to pour some soup into a bowl while Blake was in a similar outfit to the blonde. After a bit of effort, the blonde managed to fill the bowl with a grin. "Alright, I'm sorry I doubted you Yang."
Yang went to respond when she noticed Weiss walk into the room. "Hey Weiss, glad you could join us!"
Blake turned to look at Weiss, giving the heiress to notice the lack of a bow. "Hello Blake, I see Yang managed to convince you to forego the bow?" the heiress asked.
Blake scratched the back of her head meekly. "Yeah. I mean, it's just the four of us, right?" Weiss nodded before Blake continued. "How's Ruby doing?"
Weiss grabbed a bowl with a sigh, filling it up. "She's still not awake…" Weiss glanced at the cat faunus. "How much damage did the flash bang do to her?"
Blake looked down as she got a bowl for herself, the trio sitting down at the table. "It all depends on how far away the flash bang was and exactly how her Analysis works. She might wake up in a few minutes, or it might be a few weeks. All I know is when she does wake up, her hearing's going to be pretty bad for a few days and she's probably going to be off balance for a while… And that's not counting the possibility that she suffers permanent hearing loss from her wolf ears if it was bad enough."
Weiss looked down at her soup sadly. "I…see. Thank you for being honest with me, Blake." Weiss ate quietly for a moment before Yang spoke up.
"Weiss… I'm sure she'll be fine, okay? Then you can tell her how you feel and share your-"
"Yang Xiao Long, I swear, if you make a "puppy love" pun I will make you regret it," Weiss growled, causing the blonde to go quiet.
"She's right though," Blake said. "I'm not sure what kind of damage it did to her or if it can be fixed…" Blake gestured in the vague direction of Bastion. "But no matter what, she's going to want to know you care about her." Yang smiled at Blake before Zwei barked from the door.
"Ah, hang on, I've gotta go let Zwei out, I'll be back in a minute," Yang said before she walked out of the room.
Weiss took a sip from her bowl before glancing up at Blake. "I assume it was difficult to deal with Yang's jokes when you needed a change of clothes?" Blake looked up, a bemused expression on her face.
"Surprisingly no. I was expecting her to make more than a few jokes about me wanting to get into her pants, but she hasn't said a word about it except that she wasn't going to share her underwear. Actually, except for the joke she tried to tell a moment ago, she's kept the puns to a minimum since she woke up… I think learning that her mom left after she was born made her self-conscious that people she cares about will abandon her. On top of the panic at losing her arm…"
Weiss nodded, a frown on her face. "She's vulnerable right now and scared that if she's not careful she'll drive you off."
Blake looked down. "Y-yeah. It's endearing, but I don't think I've ever wanted to hear her puns until today. It's just… Not like Yang to be this vulnerable."
Weiss leaned forward. "You said it yourself though, she's always been insecure about people leaving her. How do we know how she was before wasn't just a mask and this is the real Yang? There's obviously some parts of her that haven't changed, though."
Blake looked toward the door. "I just hope she gets better soon though."
"We all do. It's just like me with Ruby. All either of us can do is wait and be here to support the two of them when they need it," Weiss said, letting out a yawn.
Blake smiled slightly. "You've had an exhausting last few days. At most, you've had about ten hours of sleep that I know of since Ruby's… incident."
Weiss let out a frustrated sigh. "I know, I'm just… not looking forward to sleeping." Blake raised an eyebrow, causing Weiss to look down. "I've been dealing with nightmares."
"I see," Blake said. "So that's why you've been so anxious lately." Weiss nodded before standing up.
"Regardless, I should try to get some sleep, as much as I'm dreading it…" Blake nodded. "Good night, Blake."
"Good night, Weiss. Hopefully you can actually get some sleep tonight." Weiss nodded before getting up to wash her bowl. Once that was done, she went upstairs. Blake went to wash the remaining dishes before Yang walked in, yawning quietly. "I'll take the couch, okay?" Blake asked, causing Yang to look down.
"A-actually… Could you spend the night with me? Please? I don't really want to be alone right now…" Yang said meekly, causing Blake to smile.
"Sure." The two went upstairs, going into Yang's room. Yang let out a sigh before sliding into her bed, giving Blake a chance to lay down before trying to get the blanket over the two of them. The cat faunus rolled her eyes before moving over the blonde, grabbing the blanket from her and pulling the blanket over them.
"Thanks Blake… Good night…"
Blake smiled. "Good night. I love you."
Yang smiled and gave Blake a quick peck on the cheek. "I love you too." Yang lay her head on Blake's shoulder before dozing off, the cat faunus smiling gently before she fell asleep.
Ruby's Room
Weiss let out a sigh as she sat down next to Ruby. Even though the last few days had left her exhausted, she wasn't willing to try to get sleep yet. "Ruby…" she muttered quietly, brushing a stray hair out of the girl's face. She stopped when the girl let out a quiet groan. Weiss leaned forward nervously. "R-Ruby?"
The wolf faunus let out a groan as she opened her eyes, a hand going to her head. "My head hurts…" she whined before sitting up, looking around the room. "I guess after the battle there weren't many hospitals left standing…" Ruby quickly noticed her partner and crush sitting next to her, a bright smile on her face even as tears ran down her cheeks. "Weiss? Why are you wearing my pa-" Weiss jumped out of her chair and wrapped her arms around Ruby's neck. Ruby blinked in surprise before returning the hug. "This feels nice, but…" "Weiss? What's going on?"
Weiss took a deep breath. "Aurelius told me about your cloak and what it means." Ruby froze slightly, panicking internally. "He said that if you gave me your cloak when you did, you have to really care about me… That you love me." Weiss pulled back slightly, giving Ruby the same soft smile that always made the Red Rose's heart to flutter. "A-and I just wanted to tell you… I love you too." Ruby's eyes went wide as she processed this, a smile slowly creeping onto her face as tears rand down her cheeks.
"R-really? You mean it?" Ruby asked shyly, a blush on her cheeks.
Weiss rolled her eyes before looking her crush in the eye with a blush of her own. "Of course I do, dolt. I love you." Ruby smiled before pulling the girl into a kiss, causing Weiss to let out a content sigh. Ruby quickly pulled Weiss into her lap as the heiress wrapped her arms around the faunus' neck. Finally, after more than half a year, Ruby could show her partner how she felt and Weiss let out the pent-up frustration she'd felt since before the dance. Before it could go any further, Weiss felt something brush against her rear, causing her to break away with a squeak. "R-Ruby!" she yelled, blushing.
Ruby blushed slightly, starting to pull her hands away. "I'm so sorry Weiss! I don't know what came over me!" Weiss felt the wolf's fingers freeze before the girl turned as red as her cloak. "U-um, Weiss… Are you… not wearing panties?" Weiss let out an embarrassed squeal before she jumped out of the bed, curling up in a corner.
"I didn't have a choice! Our dorm got destroyed and it was either that or try to borrow underwear from you or Yang!" Ruby blushed.
"Um… How about we juuust pretend this didn't happen, okay? O-or at least try to?"
Weiss let out a desperate sigh. "Oh god, can we please? I think I'm going to die if embarrassment if we don't."
Ruby nodded, blushing slightly as Weiss walked back over. "Are you okay, though? You've been kinda… tense lately."
Weiss let out a tired sigh. "I haven't been able to get much sleep since the incident in the Colosseum… I've been having nightmares about it and every time I try to get some sleep, I'm afraid I'll have to see you get murdered in my dreams." Weiss looked at Ruby, tears in her eyes. The faunus quickly pulled her partner down into a hug, gently rubbing her back. "The thought I'd never be able to tell you how I felt… I was going to say something when you woke up in the hospital but your brute of a sister had to ruin the moment and I lost my nerve."
Ruby giggled a bit. "Yeah, she does that sometimes…" Ruby went wide-eyed. "Oh gods, Yang! Is she-"
"She's fine… mostly." Weiss said quickly. "She lost her right arm and she's almost falling apart, but Blake's helping her hold it together. She's… different I suppose, but she's still the same brutish blonde you grew up with."
Ruby let out a sigh. "That's a relief I guess…" Ruby looked at the heiress meekly. "So… When did you…"
"When did I fall in love with you?" Weiss asked, getting a nod from Ruby. "I suppose I started to notice a certain attraction to you during the game in the library when you were almost nuzzled against me." Ruby blushed. "And you?"
"Well… I don't know, but I was certain I'd started to fall for you during the concert when you smiled at me," Ruby said meekly, causing Weiss to look at her in surprise.
"Ruby, that was months ago! If we were lucky, that was a month into our first semester!" Ruby let out a frustrated sigh before Weiss continued. "You were going to ask me to the dance, weren't you?" Ruby scratched the back of her head meekly.
"Yeah… I was trying to decide if I should ask you to the dance or just ask you to go on a walk with me or something…" Ruby hummed. "When did you know you were in love with me though?"
Weiss looked down meekly. "When you danced with me and said that it was worth the backlash you'd deal with, I knew I was in love with you. I swore I'd win your heart and I wouldn't let anything stand between us."
Ruby grinned. "I remember that, seeing your smile was the best part of the night for me."
Weiss smiled slightly, a blush on her cheeks. "You're such a dolt sometimes, you know that, right?"
"But I'm your dolt, right?" Ruby said with a smile before she realized what she said. "I-I mean, if you're fine with that. If not, I'm fine waiting. After all, a few more days wouldn't be too much, right?" Ruby's rambling was cut off as Weiss placed a finger on the girl's lips.
"I will admit I like the sound of that, but perhaps we should have dinner tomorrow to make it official," Weiss said, causing Ruby to smile.
"You mean like a date?!" Weiss rolled her eyes, a smile on her lips.
"Yes, dolt, a date. I would prefer a chance to celebrate our new relationship." Ruby let out a squeal, holding Weiss tight.
"Thank you, Weiss."
"You're welcome, Ruby. But, um…" Weiss blushed. "Do you mind if I stay here? Just in case?"
Ruby smiled, pulling Weiss under the blanket. "Sure, I don't mind. If what you said is true, it'd be easier for me to be here anyways, right?" Weiss nodded before Ruby gave her a quick peck. "I love you, Weiss."
The heiress smiled as she lay her head on Ruby's chest. "I love you too, Ruby."
Bastion Docks, with Winter, Aurelius, and Janus
"The Aurora destroyed approximately 28% of Vale before its own annihilation," Janus stated as they walked along the dock. "Much of the damage was restricted to residential areas and the commercial district. We were only able to evacuate 60% of the city's population before the Aurora was compromised. At present, we have accounted for all but 3,245 of Vale's citizens, with 5,490 confirmed deaths to Grimm, White Fang attacks, or bombardment. However, a number of shelters have failed to report in, so the number could be much higher."
Aurelius let out a frustrated sigh. "We are potentially looking at tens of thousands of deaths as a result of several hours of fighting. The brutality is unforgivable." Aurelius glanced at Winter, noticing the distant look on her face as she looked down on the city. "Schnee!" She quickly jumped out of her daze. "Are you well? You seem… distracted."
"Yes. Forgive me, I simply trying to process the scope of the destruction," Winter said. While this was partially true, the Specialist had a number of things on her mind.
Aurelius nodded. "Until Athena completes the modifications, we won't be able to contact the outside world or inform Ironwood if we need support. As it stands, I need you to assist in rescue operations in the residential districts. You can start from the east while I start in the west. Is that acceptable?"
"It is. I'll begin organizing search patterns immediately," Winter said before turning toward a nearby Roc. Once she was on board, Janus turned toward the Blue Rose.
"Aurelius, why must you torment her so? You know very well what bothers her and yet you continue to let her struggle through it."
Aurelius hummed. "She needs to learn for herself. While she seeks knowledge of the world, knowledge of the self requires one to be willing to learn it. Once she realizes what it is that's troubling her, she can take the next steps to becoming who she was meant to be." Janus let out a grunt before Aurelius started moving to the nearby transport, letting out a sigh. Picking through the remains was never something he enjoyed.
This chapter was fun to write. Small scenes that were meant to be of little importance ended up changing and eventually dominating the entire chapter, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out.
White Rose is now a thing and, as Weiss hinted, she is perfectly fine with the thought of being a couple right now.
Yang might seem out of character, but it's important to remember that in canon a major part of her motivation to become a huntress was to find her mother and find out why Raven abandoned her. If you pay attention to the last episode of Volume 3, you also might notice that her frustration and anger at Blake running may be just as bad, if not worse, than her misery at losing her arm, which means either she's come to terms with losing her arm or she's simply more fixated on Blake, both of which suggest that she might be more afraid of being abandoned by the people she cares about than she is of losing her arm.
As a result, it wasn't too much of a stretch to me for me to combine the two to give us the Yang we have now: a girl that's terrified of being left alone with nobody that cares for her and hides it behind her confident attitude and endless puns. She'll eventually regain her confidence and playful nature, but the events of the last few chapters will leave a lasting mark on her as she starts to occasionally show a more subdued, thoughtful side of her, such as when she talked with Blake at the café.
As always, let me know what you think. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
