Here ya go.

Please support me on Pa/treon as 'The Tanker' if you like my stories!

#

Chapter 10: Why does it hurt so much?

"George, can you carry Yang back to my house?" Weiss looked at the tired blonde who fell asleep on the couch after a good cry.

"I can but…why?" George had brought some men to take care of Topaz's body and was now accompanying the three girls.

"I just…don't think it will be a good idea to leave her alone." The heiress looked at Blake.

The Faunus nodded.

"Alright."

#

It was very hard to breathe.

Where am I?

Struggling to open her eyes she saw a familiar figure hopping happily towards her. She knew him – they had been together as family for three years.

It wasn't a long period, but they had built an intimate relationship that could never be replaced.

But as that figure got closer to her, his face gradually became blurry, his body fading away and when Yang dashed forward to hug him, he disappeared completely.

"No…Topaz, no!" She started to cry uncontrollably; her whole body suddenly sank into a deep, dark ocean that was bottomless. She was surrounded by loneliness, despair and no matter how hard she tried to call for help, her voice just stuck in her throat. There was a strong force pulling her down with no mercy; she couldn't struggle out.

Somebody…help…

Help me…

...

..

Then she heard a voice.

An angelic voice calling her, pulling her out of darkness.

"Yang…Yang please wake up!"

Wake up? So this is all just a dream then? When I wake up, will Topaz be back?

"He will come back…right?" Yang opened her eyes as she spoke, her voice hoarse and broken.

The first thing she saw was her crush, sitting beside her with a worried look and slightly watery eyes. Then a black-haired girl with cat ears approached them with a tray on her hands. Her vision was blurry but she could see three cups with steam on it.

"Yang…" Weiss wiped her face with a towel, "Are you alright?"

"Topaz…where is him, Weiss?"

"Yang, Topaz is-"

"No!" She sat up suddenly, grabbing the heiress' shoulder so tight that it resulted a painful yelp from the girl.

"Yang! Stop!" Blake quickly put the tray on the table beside the bed, then rushed to separate them.

"It's fine…" Weiss forced out a smile to the blonde, "It will be alright, Yang."

It melted Yang's heart to see Weiss like this and she instantly released her hands, having to realize that she was hurting the heiress.

Déjà vu.

When they met for the first time, Topaz bit Yang hard too.

She smiled to him and he released the bite, knowing what he had done was wrong.

"Weiss…I'm sorry…" She sobbed, "I…I didn't mean it…"

"It's fine." The heiress then turned to Blake, mouthing 'I'm okay' as the latter nodded.

The girls then offered Yang a cup of tea, trying to calm her down from the shock. Weiss' scroll rang when Blake was cleaning up the cups; it was George and the man told her that they had finished arranging everything.

However, they didn't bury Topaz yet, because they weren't sure if Yang wanted to see him the last time.

"Alright, thank you." The heiress hung up.

"Is everything okay?" Blake frowned.

Weiss nodded, then turned to face Yang as she held her hands, desperately trying to generate heat into those pair of cold limbs.

Yang's normal body heat had disappeared completely; even the heiress who had natural low body temperature was warmer than her.

It broke their hearts to see the cheerful blonde like this; however they had to do this.

They had to tell her the truth.

"Yang, I need you to calm down and listen to me, okay?"

The blonde flinched; she knew what was coming – she knew her dearest family had gone forever.

She just didn't want to face it.

Blake sat beside Weiss and started rubbing soothing circles on Yang's back.

"Yang, Topaz had…gone to a better place." The heiress felt the tremble on Yang's hands.

They didn't say anything then.

They let Yang take her time slowly to adjust her mind and her emotions; they trusted their best friend.

After Dust knew how long, Yang finally gave out a heavy sigh.

"I know."

"Yang…"

"Where is he?"

"I've planned his funeral and got everything we need." Weiss said, "But he's not buried yet, we don't know if you want to see him the last time."

"Where are you burying him?"

"Secret Base."

"Wha-"

"Yang." Weiss stared right into the two lilac pools, "I want Topaz to stay with us even after he's gone. I know he loved Secret Base very much – just like how he loved you and wanted to be by your side even after he was gone."

"…Thanks, princess."

"You're welcome. I'll cover up all the costs so…do you want to…see him? For the last time?"

"Yeah. Let's finish this as fast as possible. He must be really cold out there…"

"No, Yang. You need to rest." Weiss took out her scroll and started dialing a number.

"What?" She looked at Blake.

"It's night time already Yang. Get some rest, we'll take care of Topaz's burial tomorrow."

"But he-"

"It's alright. Topaz won't feel cold."

"Yes he won't." Weiss said after finishing the phone call, then turned to Blake, "Blake, I think you better head back. It's dark already, I'll have George send you back."

"Thanks." The Faunus answered. She gave Yang a final hug before heading out.

"I better go too." Yang said as she shifted herself to the side of the bed, but was stopped by Weiss.

"You're going to stay. I'm not letting you to be alone in your house."

"But-"

"Ah-pup-pup." The heiress raised her hand, "I don't wanna hear it. If I say you stay, then you stay."

Yang's mouth opened slightly, but she said nothing. She knew her friend too well – that Schnee stubbornness wasn't something to be taken lightly.

"Good. Now sleep." Weiss said as she got up, "Good night, Yang."

"Hey."

Weiss came to a halt when she felt a tug on her sleeve. She turned back and saw Yang grabbing her clothes; her head was facing the floor, thus causing the heiress unable to see her expression.

"Please…don't leave me alone…"

"Yang…"

"Stay with me…Weiss…" Yang sniffed, trying really hard to not burst out crying again.

"Okay." The heiress sat on the bed, pulling the blonde to herself for a tight embrace, fingers brushing through her golden locks.

"Thanks…" Unable to control her tears anymore, she buried herself in Weiss' shoulder and sobbed intensely.

"It's okay…it's gonna be okay…" Weiss kept whispering; meanwhile her hands never stopped moving.

"Sorry, Weiss...please…just…bear with me…for tonight…"

"Sssh. How many times have I told you? It's fine Yang. I know you need a shoulder to cry on right now."

"…Pun intended?"

"Nope."

"Right…"

Yang had once again cried herself to sleep. Weiss gently settled her head on the pillow, then realized that Yang was still holding her hand tightly. She tried moving her hand to slip out of that solid grip but evidently failed. Sighing, she decided she would just sleep here for the night, as she didn't want to wake the blonde up.

She used her right hand to carefully release her off-center ponytail, whispered a good night in Yang's ear and proceeded to lie down beside her.

#

Ruby had always been quiet when she was fighting. Sure there were some occasional grunts but they weren't frequent – she would only do that if she lost her calm and confidence in a battle.

And that wasn't a usual thing.

Her skills with that giant scythe-sniper rifle were perfect, plus she had that useful semblance to assist her; a tournament like this was a piece of cake.

However, she couldn't stop that uneasy feeling in her heart.

Did something happen to them…?

"Hyuh!" She jumped into the air by utilizing the massive recoil of her rifle, then spun while bursting into a hurricane of rose petals.

Her opponent was surprised by her sudden change of strategy. Her name was Arslan Altan; Ruby could remember her pretty well because of her fight with Scarlet David. It was the most intense fight in the tournament and Arslan was definitely a strong opponent.

But Ruby wasn't afraid of her.

At all.

She had trained so hard in the past – and she would not waste those efforts.

Arslan had gone into defensive mode, trying hard to catch up with Ruby's eye-blinding speed.

She was rather thankful that Arslan was the quiet type, unlike that Neon Katt who freaking talked the entire match. It had taken all of Ruby's willpower to not get distracted by that rainbow Faunus.

Arslan started channeling her semblance, shifting away from her defensive position for just a second – and Ruby didn't waste that precious time.

She fired a shot at Arslan's right foot, causing her to lose balance for another second.

Which was already enough for Ruby to dash to her.

With a beautiful spun she had knocked her opponent out of the ring.

"And victory goes to Ruby Rose from Vale!"

The crowd cheered upon hearing the announcement.

She would fight the last opponent tomorrow and that match would decide if Ruby was the champion or the runner-up.

The fight with Arslan took way longer than she had expected, thus she went home pretty late. She missed her friends – Weiss, Blake and Yang; she hadn't seen them for over two months already.

"Nolan Porfirio…Vacuo…electric baton…semblance still unknown…" Ruby mumbled to herself on the car.

"Take it easy red." Qrow waved his hand.

"Yes honey, don't worry too much. You can do it!" Summer cheered for her daughter from the passenger seat.

"I…I don't know, mom." She squirmed, "I keep having this strange…uneasy feeling. I barely won Arslan just now…if she wasn't trying to charge up her semblance, I would've been the one losing the fight. Whatever this feeling is…it kept distracting me."

"Are you okay? Are you sick Ruby?" Summer turned to face her.

"No no!" She waved her hands, "I'm totally fine! It's just…you know, the feeling of something bad about to happen…"

"Nah, don't think too much." Qrow took a turn and soon their house was visible.

"Just try to focus on the fight with Nolan tomorrow. But don't stress yourself up alright honey?"

"I'll try to. He looks like a tough opponent…I've seen his fight with Reese Chloris, he's extremely good in close combat! And he has that baton which generates electricity…" Ruby furrowed her eyebrow, recalling the match.

"Just play middle range. It's no use if he can't get you into his baton range." Qrow said.

"Yeah, but he's never even use his semblance…and he already fought up to the top! Honestly I'm a little nervous…"

"Hey hey, where's that huntress Ruby of mine gone to?" The man smirked.

Ruby laughed sheepishly as she got out of the car, still couldn't shake off that uneasy feeling.

When she was about to enter her house after Qrow and Summer, she saw a familiar car slowly approaching Blake's house.

"Mom, dad, I'll be right back!" She shouted as she saw the Faunus coming out of the car.

She waited patiently for the limo to drive off after Blake thanked the driver, then activated her semblance to get to Blake as soon as possible.

"Gah! Ruby?"

"Hiya Blake! It's been a reeeeeeeeally long time! I miss you!" Little red hugged her friend tightly.

"Yeah." She forced a smile, hoping that Ruby wouldn't notice her swollen eyes.

She was still worried about Yang and at the same time sad over Topaz's death. She remembered Weiss reminding her not to let Ruby know about that, so she did her best to cover up her emotions.

"Blake? What's wrong?"

Sometimes Blake really hated Ruby's extremely sharp observation.

"Nothing is wrong, Ruby." She said calmly, her voice wasn't betraying her.

"Stop lying Blake!" Ruby released her and gazed fiercely into her eyes, "What, is, wrong? Did something happen?"

"Ruby, nothing happened. Really."

"I've been having this uneasy feeling ever since the match started today! Are you all okay? Nothing bad happened on you all right?"

"No Ruby." Blake did her best not to let her body language give out the truth.

"Blake, please tell me…"

The Faunus gave out a heavy sigh as her brain worked out a lie.

"Okay. But don't let this affect your match tomorrow. Promise?"

"Yes!" Ruby held out her pinky finger.

"Alright." The Faunus held out hers and took the girl's.

"Tell me!"

"Calm down, Red." She flicked Ruby's forehead lightly, "Yang was injured during the training today."

"Oh no! Is she okay? Is Yang okay?! Did you send her to the hospital? Is-"

"Ruby!" Blake held Ruby's shoulders, "She's fine. Weiss had her family doctor treated Yang, she's perfectly fine."

"I see…" Ruby's tensed shoulder had relaxed as she shook her head, "Tell her to rest well, okay? Oh, is she okay alone in her house? I know Topaz's capable but still…"

Blake flinched upon hearing the dog's name. She bit her lips, trying to erase the image of that lifeless body in her brain.

"Actually, she's staying with Weiss for tonight. By tomorrow she'll be fine. You know, maybe we can watch your fight at the Colosseum."

"But you guys are busy! It's fine, Blake."

"We can't promise, but we'll try."

"Alright then!"

"I'll send your regards to Yang tomorrow."

"Thank you Blake!" She hugged the Faunus, "I better go eat, I'm starving like hell…"

"Sure. Good luck on the match."

Ruby waved her goodbye as they went back to their house respectively.

Blake was genuinely thankful when she entered her house. It had already been a chaotic day for her, and the fact that her parents weren't fighting like they usually did gave her a sense of comfort.

Beatrix was sitting on her favorite chair in the kitchen, obviously waiting for Blake to come home. Judging by the fact that all the lights were off (except for the one in the kitchen), her father must have had gone to bed.

"Blake, are you okay?" Her mother asked.

She thanked her mother silently for not bombarding her with questions like 'where have you been' or 'why did you come home so late'.

"I'm fine."

"Pft. Stop lying kitten. It's your mother that we're talking about here." Her mom smirked, motioning her hand at the chair opposite of her.

She knew that was her way of showing concern, so she obeyed and sat on the chair.

Despite fighting with her father all the time, Beatrix was actually a good mom. Unlike how her name or appearance had suggested, she was rather playful and naughty – and somehow childish too. She was like an adult version of the mix between Ruby and Yang, but without that untainted innocence or that outgoing grin.

Or the tendency to make puns in the most inappropriate time.

But most importantly, her mother did care a lot about her. She loved her daughter.

"Well?"

"It's just…" Blake let out a heavy sigh, "Topaz…Yang's dog, died."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Beatrix's smirk was gone instantly, replaced by an expression that was somewhere between shock and sorrow.

"So am I." She said calmly, "Yang is spending the night in Weiss' house."

"I hope she'll be fine." Her mother smiled, "Although I've never met her, I know that she's a strong girl from how you described her to me."

"I hope so too. She took a pretty large impact. She mentioned something about her parents leaving her…I guess she must be feeling really depressed because her last relative left too…"

"Blake, it's going to be fine." Beatrix held her hands, "Weiss will take good care of her."

Blake didn't know why, but the moment Beatrix mentioned Weiss' name, the image of the heiress hugging the blonde and cuddling with her, whispering comforts in her ear had shown in her brain.

She felt a little pain in her chest but had decided that it was because of the dragon that was usually beaming with energy being so broken.

Or was that not it…?

No, I've had this feeling before…

A bulb had lighten up in her brain all of the sudden as she recalled about everything that had happened in the past two years.

Oh Dust…I like Weiss…

Her eyes widened and tears were formed in them.

In a romantic way…

"Blake?" Her mother called.

"Yes?" She swallowed, trying hard not to think about that.

She felt jealous of Yang.

But she should not feel that way and she knew it.

Yang was in her most vulnerable time – Weiss was simply the best person she could turn to.

Even so, the bitterness that was roaming in her heart now was so true.

"It's okay to cry, honey." Beatrix said, "No one will judge you."

No, mom, that's not it…

She had read so many books – so many romance novels but this was the first time she really had experienced it herself. It was nothing like how the books had described. It was much more painful and real.

Did Yang have romantic feelings for Weiss too?

She then recalled the incident during Ruby's birthday celebration last year – how her eyes had made contact with Yang's when she was stealing glances at Weiss.

She was simply admiring the heiress at that time without thinking much, but now that she was aware of her feelings…maybe she did that because she wanted to look at her…crush.

If Yang did the same thing as her, then it meant that she liked Weiss too.

"Mama, I want to sleep already." She said before her mother could see through her again.

"Sure. Good night, honey."

"Good night."

She buried herself in her fuzzy warm blanket, trying to sort out the situation.

Normally if she had troubles she would've gone to Yang – only she couldn't this time.

Because Yang was involved in it.

But, did Weiss know about their feelings?

If Weiss by any chance knew, would she choose Yang or Blake herself?

No…she would definitely go to Yang…

She closed her eyes, recalling how Weiss had helped her during Topaz's death.

Ugh, why am I thinking about this? Yang's one and only family is dead and here I am, thinking about myself!

She bit her lips until it bled, hating herself for all the selfish thoughts that had been running in her mind since her talk with Beatrix.

Tears started to roll down her cheek against her will as she silently made a decision – one that she always did whenever she was in trouble – running away.

She would just force herself to run away from her feelings until…until the point where she absolutely had nowhere to escape to. Until she had to deal with that, she would just ignore it.

Right, that was the best choice.

Only it couldn't ease the pain in her chest.

Why does it hurt so much?

#

I'm really bad at naming chapters. But I need to do it!

Anyway, thanks for reading my story. It's finally chapter 10! Hooray!

If you've got any question, just PM me or leave a review, I take my time to answer the reviews that are…reply-able. That's one of my ways to say thank you to the readers!

I was kind of struggling when I was writing this chapter, haha. It's kinda rushed too.

This wasn't in my draft, in fact after Topaz's death it was a massive time skip – but I felt like it'll be incomplete if I don't focus more on how they cope with Topaz's death so…yeah.

That's all. Thank you again!

Please support me on Pa/treon as 'The Tanker' if you like my stories!