The emerald forest,
One hour before dusk,
RWBY
A dim orange light filtered through the canopies of the trees as the girls continued their journey back towards the cliffs of beacon, legs cramping beneath them. They were trained to be warriors, strong and brave enough to press through any situation without so much as dropping a breath. But several hours of bogging their way through a forest filled to the brim with vines and potential threats, both their mental and physical strength was faltering. The forest appeared to have no place to set up a tent, somewhere they could let their eyes close in peace. Despite none of them saying anything they all knew that that they were all losing the will to continue on. Heaves and pants as they climbed over a fallen tree, feet slipping against a mat of fallen leaves. Their eyes scanned every small hill, every potential outcropping in absolute silence as their journey came closer and closer to its ending. Not even the ball of energy that was their team leader could muster the will to say anything, her breath faltering as she spun to face every noise. The dim light that was filtering through the trees quickly diminished, leaving them with barely any light at all, their eyes struggling to adjust to the weakening light. Light headedness began to settle in, causing their already lacking balance to falter. Even their Faunus was showing signs of dizziness. The thought of crashing against a tree made its way through the group, the first spoken word in hours. Their eyes quickly settled upon a sturdy tree that seemed a good a place as any. The latter part of the team quickly settled their backs against the tree, forcing the other two into unspoken guard duty.
"Not exactly the best way to spend a night, huh Weiss?" Came the voice of Ruby, her body sliding down the bark, her body shifting around as she tried to get herself more comfortable. Her teammate didn't reply, instead easing herself down onto a moss covered rock and straightening out her skirt. Silence thickened the air, the sounds of forest animals echoing out of sight.
"I for one, love spending the night out in the freezing cold with nowhere to sleep jumping at every moving bush, you dolt." Came the sarcastic voice of her partner, her white dress barely visible from her position against the tree. Her back shifted against the tree once more as she looked to her side to see her two remaining sleeping partners, cuddled up against each other. Her body released a long sigh as she stood up, forcing herself away. The thought of her sister being happy made her happy, but she was still a little touchy to the topic. Finding a suitable rock to sit on, she made herself comfortable once more, before speaking up once more.
"You know, my family and I used to do this all of the time. Qrow, Yang, my parents and me"
"My parents and I" Her partner corrected, merely earning a hissing noise in return.
"My parents and I" she continued, catching the ghost of a smile on her partner's lips as she did so. "Used to go camping all the time when we were younger. We would go to this one waterfall all the time, somewhere near sapphire lake, and go swimming until we couldn't swim anymore. Dad always used to splash us with water, and mom would always get mad and splash him back" she continued as a smile crept upon her lips. "And dad used to pick Yang up and throw her in the water, and then she'd get back up and he'd do it again. And then mom would leave them off by themselves, and she'd come and teach me how to swim. We would swim up and down the basin, and sometimes she'd let me grab her shoulders and we'd swim around underwater, because I didn't really know how to swim that well. Uncle Qrow would always just sit up on the shore and read his books, always saying that he was getting too old for it, or that he was preparing his next assignment for his class. He never really went swimming with us." She ended with a grin, her memories almost visible in the air.
"Sounds like you and your parents got along pretty well huh?" Shot out the voice of the ice queen, the smile now evident on her face. While her partner was happy, she couldn't bring herself to be angry or sad, no matter the situation. Something about her, it was almost like her aura portrayed happiness rather than superhuman speeds. Her partners facial expressions shot around like they were stuck through a dust powered roller coaster, her mouth moving as to formulate words, but nothing came out. Her face eventually settled to something readable, settling on the line between despair and forced happiness. The curved lines in her smile, the space behind her glare, all signs that she had brought upon her.
"Yeah, life used to be pretty good back then. Maybe one day the four of us can go back there one day? Just the four of us" she asked with optimism that the heiress wasn't sure if it was forced or natural. The girl that she called her partner could bounce back up from anything, but the loss of family was always something that hurt to bring up. Being from the Schnee name, there was hardly a moment when she was awake that the thoughts didn't pass through her mind.
"Being a hunter doesn't give us much time to do much else Ruby, you should know this" She continued, before mentally slapping herself one more time. For being the heiress to the Schnee dust company, she couldn't combine words in any way other than the harshest of truths. Compassion wasn't something that brought upon the profit that her father expected of her, but he could have at least taught her how to at least fake compassion. She feared that her words would hurt her partner, but all it made it do was bow her head and nod slightly, which hurt just as much. Her head remained lowered for what felt like eternity, and she wasn't sure how much her words had hurt her young partner. Her head bounced back up
"I'm sorry Weiss. I just thought that maybe one day we could go back and see it. You know, as a group bonding exercise or something right? It would never hurt to just get out and see something together. Let us know what we're fighting to save?" Her partner replied as she stared off into the night, not making eye contact.
"I, might have been a little harsh. I'm certain that we'll find some time to go back there one day. You're absolutely right" she replied as kindly as she could, making sure that she was thinking of her words before she spoke them this time. Twice was already bad enough in one night to be rude to the one person who truly cares about you here and now. She brought her eyes out to glare at the night, the darkness of the sky broken by the light of the stars.
"Hey Weiss, what was your family like? You never really talked about them, even though we've been together for well over a year now. What was your life like before you decided that you wanted to become a huntress?" The younger girl asked, her eyes still fixated at a point in the stars, as though she wasn't even there.
"Well, if you must know, my mother and I got along quite well. We used to practice swimming and cleaning, proper eating etiquette, how to introduce yourself to your guests, those kinds of things. She even used to read me stories back when I was younger. We used to read stories of the Faunus and the lives that they lived, fairy tails if you will. There was always one that she would always read to me, but I can't seem to remember the name. And I would ask her to read me that same story, night after night, day after day, until I had the whole story memorized by heart. And after she was gone, I would read that story out to myself by memory, praying that she would just read me the story one more time, brush my hair one last time, hold my hand and tell me that everything was going to be alright just one last time." She felt her hands ball into fists, her arms tensing. "And do you want to know the worst part Ruby? I hated her for it, I hated her for leaving me alone. I didn't care about what happened to her, I just cared about me. That's the kind of person that I am. I only care about myself, and I only care about what benefits me."
She was interrupted by the sudden wrapping of arms around her stomach, pulling her backwards. She felt the brush of smooth hair against her cheek, the weak breeze pulling it back and forth, her body collapsing into the touch. She wanted to be mad at herself, she wanted to grieve about her childhood, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Something inside her wouldn't allow her to do it. She stood up, almost sighing as the feeling vanished away, pulled away by the breeze. She turned around to face her partner, but couldn't bring herself to say anything. Her body longed to say so much, to pour out her feelings now and then, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. The duo stood in silence, neither party able to say or do anything that would progress the situation. They merely stood frozen in time, only brought to reality by the tossing of leaves and motions of the chest.
"Weiss, when are you going to stop being so hard on yourself?" The voice finally broke the silence, the expression a strange mixture between concern and anger, like she was addressing a puppy. But one that she knew was needed. Her partner was right; she was being too hard on herself. But all of the past moments in her life, they always seemed like she was the one to blame. Her father had raised her to be perfect, and whenever she did less, she felt like she was failing someone.
"Ruby, can we just promise to never bring up our family matters again? It doesn't really seem to be a good centerpiece for our conversations from what I can tell." She replied with a grin, matching that of her partner.
"That sounds like a great plan Weiss, let's do that." The younger girl replied with a smile, meeting the eyes of her partner with her own, before making her way back over to her rock.
"We've only got like a half an hour left before we should wake up Yang and Blake, so let's just keep it quiet until then alright?" Her partner asked as she lowered her head into her hands, leaving the heiress alone to her thoughts and the sounds of the woods.
Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive. Sorry about taking off for 2 months and the like, but it shouldn't happen again. At least I hope not. It's not that life got too busy, or that life was difficult. It was 100% my fault and I just procrastinated. Just like the end of this story. I got really tired, wanted to get a chapter up before I had to go to work tommorow, and rushed the ending. I might edit it up and clean it up a little, just to make it for my liking. I had plans, but I had to scrap them because I had other ones.
My apologies for not doing shoutouts today, but it's been 2 months and I'm not sure which ones are new and which ones are older. I'll get them going again on the next chapter. Hope you guys like it, and I hope that I don't forget to upload this time
Anyways, have a great morning, day, evening, night and take it easy