"Ruuuuuuubyyyyyyyyyyyy..."
The instant she heard that voice... Ruby knew. The redhead hadn't heard Weiss ever speak in that tone, or the blonde hadn't in so long that Ruby couldn't recall a single time. Her voice was dreamy and echoing, long and drawn out, like a wicked ghost calling out in the night. The way Weiss's soft, singer's voice trailed off on the dangling 'y' sent shivers down Ruby's spine, chilling her to the core.
"Ruuuuuuuuuubyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..."
Ruby knew she was trapped once again, in one of her few and far between dreams.
"Weiss!" Calling out for the blonde, Ruby looked around franticly. In the dream as she whipped around on the spot, the redhead noted how her limbs felt like they were weighing her down, heavy and stiff as lead. Slowly pirouetting, the redhead saw nothing around her that would lead to the presence of the shorter girl.
'Damn, it's going to be one of those pointless search dreams again ...' she grumbled to herself. After finding nothing in the surrounding landscape Ruby gave herself a brief glance. Oddly enough, the redhead's subconcious had put her in her old pajamas for some reason, the rose emblems one her white bottoms almost glowing pink in the soft light.
"Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuubyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..."
If her hair wasn't tickling her back, just as long in the dream as it was in her waking hours, Ruby would have sworn her hair was standing on end. The goose bumps and shivers that were racing over her skin certainly made her feel that way.
She had some gut sense she was in a forest, although it was hard for her to tell, as the tree trunks surrounding her were almost entirely hidden behind thick rolling clouds of fog. It was bright, everything washed gray by the floating mist. The tranquil light seemed to come from nowhere and light everything equally, diffusing through the air and causing the edges of most shapes to almost waver in the limelight. Ruby noted absentmindedly that while everything was bright, nothing cast even the smallest shadow. Not the blades of grass, not the overhanging tree branches, not even Ruby's own two feet. It made everything look unsettling. Unnatural.
"Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuubyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..."
Ruby wanted to go and look for Weiss, let this dream play itself out. But as she went to move forward, the redhead felt her feet suddenly adhere to the floor, cementing themselves in place and refusing to move.
"Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuubyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..."
The itch to go search was getting unbearable, almost to the point where Ruby wondered if the unsettling urge would be enough to wake her. But at the same time, while she still tried to shake out of her footprints and move forward... a decent part of Ruby was glad that she couldn't move. There was something unsettling in Weiss's voice, a sort of chime, a sort of whisper underneath the call that somehow shoved the grim images of graves stones, hospital wards and dark things that went bump in the night to the forefront of the redhead's mind.
'Screw this dream... last thing I needed, probably just alcohol...' More than anything just wanting to wake up at this point, Ruby shook herself in the dream, hoping to jar her mind enough to end this foul nightmare. Looking down at the ground, Ruby rubbed at her face, squishing her cheeks between her palms and massaging her closed silver eyes with her fingertips. The redhead knew this usually did the trick, although right now it didn't' seem to be calling her back to reality. It was as if something was holding her in this drea-
"...Ruby."
At the quiet murmur, both clear and concise, Ruby's head snapped upward out of her hands. If she hadn't been stuck to the floor, the redhead would have probably jumped a few feet off the ground. Just out of sight directly in front of her, barely outlined in the fog, was the silhouette of what was probably her. She was standing just out of the clearing Ruby seemed to be in, a small circle of thick trunks that all reached up towards the sky, higher than the eye could see, getting lost in the thick grey above.
"Weiss," Ruby mumbled, even in her own dreams sounding somewhat rattled. "W-Weiss, what are you doing out here?" Trying to take a step forward, the redhead found she was still locked in place. For the most part, Ruby wanted to reach out, shield Weiss and keep her safe from whatever this nightmare was going to throw at them. Protect Weiss like she always had.
...Although, something about the way the figure in front of her, how the mirage seemed to twitch eerily at the sound of Ruby's voice, made the redhead almost glad she couldn't move too. A bit of her was glad that Weiss was over where she was, out of reach and nearly out of sight.
"...Ruby," Weiss's voice called out, closer to a ghost's moan than an actual person.
Her teeth were actually chattering now. "W-w-what?
"...Why do you have a hole in your heart?"
"Wha... Weiss, what do you-"
"Why do you have a hole in your heart Ruby?" Taking a step closer, yet still remaining just as blurry, Weiss's outline approached slowly. "Why do you have a hole in your heart?"
"I, Weiss, I don't know what you mean by-"
"Why Ruby? Why?" Weiss's outline was closer now, past the ring of trees surrounding Ruby. Yet she was still as blurry as before, a hazy figure in what was becoming an ever sharper environment. Every few seconds she'd come into focus, like a television set that had skimmed over its signal. Something about Weiss struck fear deep into the redhead, shaking her to the core.
Ruby would have been lying if she had said that she wasn't scared. What made all this worse was that this wasn't in line with her usual nightmare. Ruby could handle those dreams. But this horror story... the subject was off. Almost always, Ruby was under some form of attack, or found helpless in the shoes of Blake or Yang's death. But this time, it wasn't some imagined end scene. She'd never been here, never been somewhere this new.
Weiss had never been in one of her nightmares before.
Suddenly, the figure in front of Ruby came into sharp focus. And it was Weiss alright. As gorgeous as she was during the day, Ruby's subconscious had somehow captured that beauty and replayed that image tonight for her own torment instead.
But... she wasn't... quite right. Dressed in her old snow gear, Weiss's hands were clasped together in front of her, her fingers locked together and squeezing the space between them. But while the snow suit and the rest of her clothes were white, the rest of Weiss had turned ashen gray, faded like old pictures from decade old newspaper clippings. Her skin, nails, lips, eyes, all different values and shades of powdery granite. Even Weiss's stark white hair, usually radiant and glowing, was a shadow draping of matte silver strands. Tears were streaming down her face, glistening streaks of gray.
"Why Ruby?" Weiss's voice wasn't a ghostly coo any longer, but instead a choked breath, sounding almost on the verge of tears. "Why do you love the hole in your heart Ruby?" It tore Ruby's soul apart just to listen.
Weiss's hands both raise up, the greys of the blonde's knuckles stretched white, facing Ruby. Whether she hadn't noticed, or if her dream had blinded her so that she wouldn't have seen it there before... a pistol was in them now. A shiny one, immaculately clean, a six shot revolver. Without firing, the blonde tipped the barrel of the gun back, as though there was some kick to the revolver even without it even launching a shot. "Why did you let me put a hole in your heart Ruby?"
Ruby could suddenly feel temperature in the dream, although she wasn't sure if she couldn't beforehand. In the cool, pleasant dreamtime air, the redhead also felt trailing fingers of soft warmth flowing from the tip of her sternum down towards her naval. Placing a hand on the black tank top for a moment, Ruby pulled her palm away to see it soaked scarlet red. The blood was a bit too colorful, somewhat unrealistic, but still jarring enough to catch Ruby's breath.
"... And why is there now a hole in my heart now Ruby?"
Her feet suddenly started moving again, and before she knew it Ruby had staggered a few steps forward. "Weiss, Weiss I swear I would never hurt you."
Stumbling forward, her feet moving more of their own accord than Ruby actually ordering them, she teetered left and right as though she were a drunk. Ruby started closing the gap between them, slowly coming closer to Weiss. Scrutinizing the blonde as she moved, Ruby could see no blood on Weiss. She looked pristine, perfect, her angelically ashen face still streaming silver tears.
"Ruby... it hurts." Weiss's voice came out shaky and thick, sounding as though she was going through more pain than Ruby could ever imagine her bearing in real life.
"Where Weiss, where? I'll-"
Ruby had finally stumbled within arm's reach of Weiss. But looking her over again, Weiss seemed fine. Ruby's arms both hung limp at her side, one with a palm coated in blood. Her arms still felt heavy, and Ruby lacked the strength to raise them.
The blonde stopped Ruby from coming any closer, placing a hand on Ruby's chest, right over her own bleeding heart. "It-it hurts so much..." Weiss's fingers, over Ruby's heart, tensed up, squeezing in pain.
Her eyes widening in surprise, Ruby stuttered: "Weiss, it's... it's my wound, you shouldn't be-"
"I can't take this pain anymore..." Weiss's face tilted up, and her eye shined almost pure anguish back at the redhead. Ruby realized that Weiss' eyes still held some color in them. Among the gray, the usually icy pail eyes looked like liquid sapphires. "It hurts me every day."
Suddenly, Ruby was again locked in place. She couldn't move an inch. She couldn't even speak.
Weiss's hand fell off her chest, falling to the side and leaving a smear of red on her winter white snow jeans. Her other hand, shaky and agonizingly slow, rose up. Making the long journey upward until the pistol in Weiss's hand ended up pressed against her once creamy skinned temple, a few locks of hair pinned under the steel barrel.
"I'm sorry," Weiss choked, her eyes red and a few more tears leaking out the sides. The one's from her left eye followed down her scar and ran into her mouth, wetting her lips with salt. "But I can't take this."
There wasn't a bang this time either. But Weiss's knees went slack, and she crumpled like a building whose supports gave out. She hit the floor, the sound of a body dropping heavily, before Ruby screamed.
"WEISS!"
Sitting bolt upright in her bed, the cold moonlight from the night sky shining in through her bedroom window, Ruby woke up and found herself out of breath. Naked under the sheet, Ruby's hand scrambled against her chest. She felt her rib cage rise and fall frantically, her fingertips searching for any signs of wounds.
Wide eyed, still searching in a frenzy for something as her eyes darted wildly around the room, the redhead finally let her hand drop. 'Damn alcohol...'
Rubbing at her eyes with the back of her arm, Ruby stopped when she suddenly felt a flash of cold against her cool, tawny skin. Felt how wet her cheeks had been. 'I was... I was crying in my sleep?'
Swinging her legs so she was perched on the edge of her bed, Ruby picked up the thin blanket she'd kicked off in her thrashing and dabbed at her cheeks. The rough wool seemed to do a fair job of wiping up the moisture. While she sat there, Ruby groaned as she finally felt her head begin to pound. The redhead wasn't hung over yet, but she'd passed the point where the alcohol in her system would give her any real buzz. Before long she'd probably feel like her head was on fire. Ruby grumbled bitterly at how much of a lightweight she was, even after all these years. All these tears would only add to how dehydrated she'd be later.
After she was done, Ruby let the fabric slip from her fingers and back to the bed in a small pile next to her. Listening to the night's silence for a moment, Ruby wondered how loud her scream had been. While nobody shared the room with her, both Ren and Nora were through the wall on her right, and Weiss was probably asleep in the bed directly above her. The last thing she wanted was one of those three bursting down her door, wondering why Ruby was screaming in the middle of the night.
Standing up slowly, not hoping off the bed like she would have in her youth, Ruby slowly stretched and loosened up the muscles that had bunched up in her nightmares. Raising her arms above her head as she started ambling forward and looking down at herself, Ruby saw she was covered in a thin layer of sweat, giving herself a sort of sheen in the room's moonlight. Another reason she didn't want one of her neighbors barging in.
'Although really... I mean, I can't imagine that I'd care that much. It's not like I'm that self-conscious. I don't think I'd even be bothered if it was one of the men'. In the back of her mind, Ruby did also note... well, she definitely wasn't bad looking. After Caric, and the less than harsh winter, plus the past few weeks here, and Ruby was in fine shape. While she didn't have any excess, she had enough body fat to push her out of the malnourished category. For a split second, the errant and random thought of flirting with Ren just to playfully jab at Nora flashed through her mind.
The thought was so Yang-esqe, she suddenly felt a small pang of loss just at the memory of one of her older sister's quirks.
Stepping away from the wall, Ruby idled up to the waist-to-ceiling high window that lit the room with cool moonlight. Resting her palms on the cool marble ledge, Ruby pushed the window open and let the glass pane swing forward. She sighed happily as chilled night air swept through the room, washing her limbs of the heat that had brought her to a cold sweat.
Leaning out the window, half of her hanging out over the old academy grounds below, Ruby scanned the nighttime scene in front of her for any motion. Her old habits weren't going anywhere, and she still had the unconscious feeling she wasn't safe, that there was something out there...
But after she looked for far too long, Ruby sighed and had to give up. 'Nothing, just a few trees in the distance. I'm being paranoid...'
The night air felt nice, a cool wind breathing in just for her as she stood leaning out the window. Exhaling happily, Ruby tried to finally let go of the last of her tension.
"...Damn." Even though she was calm enough now, Ruby knew herself enough to know that sleep wasn't going to be an option tonight, at least for a good while. She could feel that she was wired up, nearly bouncing off the walls with energy after her short nap.
"It's not like I don't know what this is all about," Ruby muttered to herself, holding her hands together one on top another, both palms facing up. The cool granite felt nice against the backs of her forearms. "My stress dreams always mean something..."
'Damnit Mercury,' Ruby cursed internally. 'You make it sound soooo easy. As if I can just waltz up to Weiss and expect it'll all just go smoothly... Humph, like it's that simple...'
But that was a lie. Ruby knew it would probably go well... the way everyone else was talking, it sounded like the only thing keeping her from Weiss was herself. Even with that knowledge though... Ruby couldn't help but hesitate.
Sure she wanted Weiss. Every fiber of her being wanted to be with Weiss again, to try to make everything feel just like the best days of her life in the past had.
And that feeling, her immeasurable amount of want, was precisely the reason she did hesitate. "I don't... I don't deserve to be that happy anymore... And it would be at Weiss's own expense too."
Ruby jumped in surprise when she felt a few cold drips land on her forearms. After she looked up at the perfectly clear night sky, searcing for rain clouds, the redhead sighed. They were just more tears. "I guess I've pulled the stopper, and now I just can't stop the waterworks... fantastic. I'm fucking swearing off alcohol..."
Her voice was starting to fade, already sounding a bit more husky and thick. Something about speaking her thoughts out loud made her feel better... almost like they were confessions. "I don't deserve Weiss... after all we've been through together, a third party would probably call me an abusive spouse... I've never hurt her, but I can say I've made her cry more times than anyone could count..."
Ruby let her head fall, leaning forward and her forehead burying itself in the crook of her elbows. Her tears kept coming, the drops flowing forward in full force "I-It's... It's pathetic... C-crying over something s-so stupid a-as..."
Her voice wouldn't carry her any further. Somehow she'd gone from frantic, to tense, to calm, and then all the way to abysmally depressed in a matter of seconds. Her words failed her, and for a second Ruby's jaw just moved up and down, grinding away with nothing more than a few hiccupy moans leaving her mouth.
"Um... are you okay Ruby?"
The girl in question, stuck with total shock by the new voice, flailed wildly. Ruby whirled around, one of her legs knocking the other out from underneath her as she turned. Ending up falling with her back against the wall, only one arm hooked on the window frame keeping her up, Ruby franticly stared back into the room as her eyes adjusted to the darkness behind her. Once they did, the redhead sighed. While she did have her eyes covered, with the blanket from Ruby's bed raised up high, the crop of orange hair visible over the line of hemming was easy enough to identify.
"Nora," Ruby sighed, slowly standing up and sniffling, feeling her heart rate slow as she regained some calm. "Nora, you can drop the blanket..."
Instead of listening, Nora held the blanket out at arms length, her head turned away with the other arm crossed over her eyes. She was dressed in an old t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, both three sizes above her own. Probably for comfort. "I'm sorry, I, I just..."
Clearing her throat, Ruby reached out and took the woolen quilt from the shorter girl's hands. "I wouldn't have pegged you as a prune Nora." Wrapping the blanket around herself, the redhead kicked herself internally at the scratchiness of her own voice. It sounded like she'd been balling for the past hour, her voice still hoarse and thick.
"I'm not, I just wasn't sure if I was intru-"
"In all technicality, this building is your home," Ruby muttered, clasping the fabric in the center at her collarbone, bringing her arms out from underneath the red fabric and wearing the blanket as though it was some oversized patchwork poncho. "I don't think you could intrude even if I was in the shower and you just came waltzing in."
Nora lowered her arm, her eyes bright as she took in Ruby. "Odd way of putting it..."
"So...," Ruby hummed, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, the corners of her blanket swaying with her. "...Why are you here?"
"I couldn't sleep, and I heard you, ah... well, scream," Nora answered, anxiously stepping from foot to foot. "I, I tried your door. It wasn't locked, so I came in."
"Ah...," Ruby sighed. Really, she couldn't do anything else besides sigh. Ruby wasn't surprised that Nora would still be up. The girl'd had a long day, probably an extremely exhausting one. But one that would probably lead to quite a few restless nights in the coming weeks as well. "Couldn't sleep?"
Nora shook her head. "Nah... after the party Ren dozed off, I couldn't do anything else besides just lay there and stare at the ceiling..." Trying to lighten the conversation, Nora raised an eyebrow at the redhead. "So... do you always sleep like, well, like this?"
Looking down at herself, Ruby smiled slightly, swallowing a few times and failing to straighten her voice out. "Nope, not usually... didn't feel like sleeping in my clothes. Didn't feel like looking for night ones either." Ruby rolled her shoulders a few times after a sudden shiver, feeling the cool breeze wash over her back through the fabric.
"Ah... well, we're around the same size... I have a few I could loan you." Nora picked at the loose clothes hanging off her, pulling them away from her frame. "We've got a home; we deserve a few creature comforts..."
"Mmm-kay."
Nora kept rocking there for a few extra seconds, stewing in the silence with a look on her face that made it obvious something was still biting at her tongue. She then turned on a heel, and at first Ruby thought Nora was going to leave and be uncharacteristically quiet about all this.
But she didn't, and instead went to sit down on the edge of Ruby's bed. Nora patted the spot next to her, motioning for Ruby to take the seat next to her.
Ruby didn't even hesitate. She swallowed a few times, still trying to clear her voice and sound more level, before taking a place next to Nora. "So..."
"Hmph, sooo," Nora mocked, making fun of the wariness in Ruby's voice.
Ruby only responded by elbowing the ginger lightly in the side.
Nora just laughed, shifting slightly. "Thank you, by the way..." Nora stared down at her knees, which were crossed one over the other. "I mean... thank you for rallying the troops, coming to get me, keeping Ren out of all of it too..." She smirked to herself, and then muttered: "If you guys hadn't shown up, I'd have probably been giving blowies behind dumpsters this time tomorrow..."
"Don't mention it." Ruby let go of one side of the blanket as she spoke, so that it was now just hanging over her shoulders instead of being clasped together tightly at her collar. "I know you'd have gotten me or Weiss if it'd been the other way around."
Nora laughed. "Damn straight..."
There were a few seconds of silence, where Ruby kept on wiping at her eyes, just to make sure they were clear. Every time she'd still come away wet, as though there was no end to the constant stream of tears. Nora wasn't oblivious; she caught onto the waterworks immediately, although at first she didn't say anything.
"Your eyes are red," Nora commented meekly, watching the redhead out of the side of her eye.
Ruby just sniffed back "allergies."
"Ah..." Nora stayed silent for a moment before she turned to look at Ruby. "You know, I walked in here just as you made it to the window..."
"Hmmm..." Ruby didn't comment. She just kept her eyes trained forward, out the open window opposite them. She could feel Nora gazing at her knowingly, showing the knowledge that seemed to spend most of its time hidden.
"...So you seriously don't think you deserve her?" Nora watched Ruby, who didn't reply in anyway other than slowly breathing out through her nose, like a ballon that'd leaked air.
"...Nope." A few more droplets dripped off her nose, as she continued to tear up bitterly. She stopped trying to wipe them away though, instead bowing her head and letting the salty beads of water fall off the tip of her nose and dust the tops of her thighs.
"Here," Nora sighed, picking up the fleecy tip of the blanket next to Ruby and dabbing at the redhead's face herself. "First off, you do. You do, and every reason you have to tell yourself you don't... well, they're bullshit."
Ruby didn't respond, just pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, crushing herself into an even smaller space than her lean figure already took up. She rested her chin on her knees, so she could still stare out the window without having to put any energy into holding her head up.
"And even if you did..." Nora began, before she stopped. Just as she started to speak, she saw Ruby's shoulders start heaving up and down. One of the redhead's hands clamped over her mouth, with her eyes squeezed shut. "Ruby..." she cooed quietly, gently wrapping an arm around Ruby's shoulders and squeezing lightly.
"I-I don't want to cr-" Ruby stuttered, the words creaking out sadly. She shuddered under Nora's arm, her head pointing down so that her temples pressed against her kneecaps. "I don't get to just cr-"
"Shhhhhh," Nora hushed her. "It's good you're crying. You never do, even when the toughest of us should. Everybody cries, there's nothing wrong with it." She waited another second, and then whispered quietly: "Although... I'm not the one you should be crying to..."
Ruby shook her head, the tips of her hair flying every which way. "No, no no no I can't. Weiss has her own proble-"
"Stop that," Nora scolded her softly. "If you'd open your eyes, you'd see that you're the only thing in Weiss's world that she's even remotely concerned with."
Waiting a second, letting Ruby calm down a bit, Nora asked: "Could you tell me what that dream you had was about? The one you were talking about when I walked in..."
Between the rattily breathes, shaky pauses and complete breakdowns, it took Ruby nearly ten minutes to explain enough to Nora. Every few sentences, Ruby would have to stop and compose herself, pull herself back together. A part of Ruby, along with just being sad, was crying out of confusion now too. To Ruby, all this made no sense. It was like once she started crying, she couldn't stop her sob fest. Eventually Ruby finished her story, got everything out to Nora through the breaks and pauses.
"Hm... Well, it seems like you already know everything I was going to tell you."
"I, I, I..." Ruby stuttered, trying hard to regain a small amount of composure. She only held onto it for a second though, before she lost it again. "I hurt her so much!" A few more sobs lurched their way out, and Ruby whimpered: "I'm horrible... I'm..."
"That is the wrong point to take away from all that," Nora tisked, smiling slightly as she hugged Ruby. "You hurt her, sure. I'm not arguing that point with you; you seem to be set in stone there." Nora smiled, and in her voice Ruby could hear the girl's high spirits. "But you don't seem to understand that you're hurting her just as much by staying away..."
"I'm not the person you should be crying to... So, just sleep on it... You'll know what to do in the morning." Humming happily, Nora let Ruby stay on her shoulder, virtually soaking the ginger's over-sized t-shirt with salt. Staying rigid as stone until Ruby started fading off to sleep.
As Ruby's eyelids grew heavy, although they still also felt wet, she watched Nora smile as she drifted off. Towards the end, at the point where she was stuck between reality and a safer dreamland this go around, Ruby imagined someone else entirely there under her cheek. A pair of thinner shoulders supporting her head, singing her to sleep like she once had a lifetime ago. Serenading her with the most beautiful voice in the world.
Her hangover wasn't as horrible as she'd expected. Waking up, the orange sun already shining dully into her room, Ruby slowly sat up groaning. She was still under her blanket, although another one had been thrown over her at some point during the night.
Nora was gone, which was to be expected. Ruby, through her surprisingly small headache, was already regretting all her neediness last night. It wasn't right to make Nora, after all she went through yesterday, listen and take care of her problems.
Standing up, Ruby slowly stretched her arms over her head again, this time feeling a lack of tension. 'Well, at least my moment of being a crybaby had some use...' Ruby thought sourly, still kicking herself for how she'd acted last night. Sure alcohol had had a small part in the previous night... but more than anything, it was just Ruby finally letting the damn burst. She actually checked to see if her eyes were still tearing up. They were dry though.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby noticed a square of white covered with plashes of red standing out on the bedsheet, almost ready to tip over and off the edge. Taking it with a hand, Ruby wasn't too surprised to find a note. It seemed to be how everybody communicated nowadays. After she easily identified the handwriting, Ruby thought to herself: 'so what next, is Nora gonna run for the hills too?'
Shaking her head, Ruby let her eyes wander over the note blandly, following down the trial of thick block letters a few times before she actually absorbed anything from them. Starting from the top again, Ruby forced herself to focus on her friends note.
My dear, sweet, caring, oh so wet friend (I mean the tears from last night, not as in... never mind),
Ruby almost put down the letter there, rolling her eyes as she imagined Nora stooped over a desk, cackling madly as she wrote this out. But she continued on, more for a laugh than anything else.
After our talk last night, I know you'll be off to do what's right. It's what you both deserve...
I left a bit after I was sure you were asleep, so that Ren wouldn't come searching for me.
Although, I would love to see his face if he walked in here to find you naked in my arms...
I came back a bit later, although you were still asleep a bit after three, if the grandfather clock downstairs is still accurate.
Nobody had the heart to wake you, which I was perfectly fine with, you deserved a break.
Anyways, I left you some extra clothes by the door, something a bit nicer yet still something that looked like you'd wear.
I asked Weiss to keep watch from the arms room for me, while everybody's doing actual watch with me up on the fourth floor common room.
Go get her tiger.
"..Three?" Looking up from Nora's somewhat heartfelt, yet extremely sarcastic letter, Ruby glanced out her window and towards the sky. With how low the sun was sitting in its ark, the time was probably a few minutes before seven. Before long and the sun would have been completely out of view, lost out of sight below the ring of trees encircling the academy.
'No wonder I don't have a hangover, I've already slept it off...'
Sighing loudly, Ruby let the note slip between her fingers and fall faced down on the bed. She didn't need to be told twice. Mercury's last piece of advice had been enough, and Nora's only added more resolve to Ruby's already made decision. 'I've been running from this for far too long,' Ruby absentmindedly mused as she walked away from her mattress and toward her room's door. 'Hell, maybe she'll be smart and flat out turn me down.'
Smirking at the grim thought as she walked, Ruby came to the door frame. And at her feet, where the note left for her said they'd be, was Nora's promised pile of clothes.
Without taking the time to look through them, Ruby pulled the new pieces on, absentmindedly noting they felt somewhat stiff, like they'd been in a drawer under a lot of weight for quite a few years. Luckily they all fit, or at least they felt like they did. With her arms over her head as she slipped something thin and red over her shoulders, Ruby thought: 'Weiss isn't an idiot, she knows you can't see shit from the new arms room...' Shaking her head as she started having doubts already, Ruby stood up straight and turning towards her room's mirror, taking a long look at herself.
Ruby was dressed more... she couldn't think of the word to describe it. She guessed it would've had been calm. Or... tranquil? Her outfit wasn't built for survival. Hell, it wasn't even for working. A pair of knee length black silk shorts and a red flannel blouse that flared out around the waist. The blouse was crisscrossed with scattered white lines, webs of threading that seemed to keep swirling even while Ruby stood still.
She looked... well, Ruby realized she looked like she was dressed for a normal Sunday, before everything had happened. A part of her didn't like the outfit, reluctant in how casual the clothes felt. They didn't make sense to wear now. But she also was a bit mesmerized by the plainness of it all. In this room untouched by the apocalypse, in this outfit, Ruby could imagine for a moment the world as if it hadn't ended. That she'd live the last decade happily, that she'd spent those years helping people as a huntress, and that today was a simple day off .
In the end, Ruby decided she liked the look. Nora had done a good job. Nodding to herself, the redhead looked in the mirror, wondering for a quick second if she should do anything with her hair, before deciding to just let her locks hang like she usually did.
Ruby started walking out of the room, squaring her shoulders as she went, before she looked down and smirked. She was wearing her old hiking boots, out of habit throwing them on as soon as she got dressed. The scuffed, scratched, worn out beige leather didn't match in the slightest with the rest of her outfit. She leaned down and pulled the shoes off, not even bothering with the laces. 'I guess I'm going barefoot,' Ruby smiled to herself, throwing the boots onto her bed.
Landing next to the note, Ruby realized there was something written on the back too as the paper nearly fell off the bed. A bit more hastily scratched out, more frantic than the rest of the words on the other side. Plucking the note out of the air just before it hit the floor, Ruby read the simple sentence, folding the note up and sliding the paper into her back pocket before she walked out the door.
Thank you. For giving me something else to think about besides myself last night. Don't kick yourself for relying on me.
You helped me more than I helped you.
~Nora
'Hell, I should just dust mop this floor every once in a while...'
As Ruby walked along, her hands together in a knot while she tried working out her nerves, she could feel flecks of dirt and dust sticking the thick, roughened skin of her feet. The slick, still shiny marble floors looked clean enough, but apparently that wasn't entirely true.
'I'll... I'll walk up to her and go... no, I'll just come up behind her and wait until she notices... nah, that's creepy, I should...'
Ruby kept on wrestling with her internal emotions, trying to think of what to say and how to say it. Running her hand along the molded banister to her right, Ruby looked over the balcony she was walking along. It led from the second floor, where almost everyone slept, to either a staircase spiraling upwards or down to the ground floor. The entire building was four floors, a model to the four years in hunter training. Old team RWBY's dorm was on floor three, same with every other team that was her year. When the fourth years left and vacated their rooms, newbie hunters would take up those rooms, constantly keeping the ages on the different floors rotating.
Shaking those thoughts out of her mind and returning to the problem at hand, Ruby finally grumbled bitterly: 'Hell, who am I kidding? I've got about as much charm as a rock nowadays.' Ruby thought to herself as she hooked an arm around the pillar at the end of the rail she was walking along, swinging down the staircase and taking the steps two at a time. The polished wood was scuffed after all these years, and under Ruby's bare feet she could actually feel some of the swirly ridges on the raised wooden slats. 'I better just, I don't know, talk...'
The redhead knew didn't want to be turned down. Even after all she'd said, all the bittersweet jokes she'd made, Ruby knew she wanted Weiss and her to be together again. 'But I remember it being less than a season ago, when the longest conversations we had were shouting matches...'
Ruby winced bitterly at the memories, and in the back of her mind she added: '...my fault...'
Reaching the bottom of the staircase, immediately turning left, Ruby's eyes landed on the door everything was leading towards. Barely open, the wood scuffed and scarred, covered in deep gashes and divots that ruined the mahogany finish. From here, it looked like somebody had spent too many days throwing knives into the thick oak, probably while fighting off boredom.
The twenty foot walk between the end of the staircase and the door was agonizingly long. The entire distance, Ruby tried to find something to do with her hands. She had the urge to shove them into jean pockets or the pouch of a hoodie, but her outfit left her without either of the two hiding places.
'I wonder,' Ruby thought as she came up to the door, her fingers trailing back and forth along the slices in the wood as she stalled for a second, 'if Nora planned that, so I wouldn't have a place to hide them ...'
Ruby squared her shoulders once, twisted her neck and got a satisfying pop out a turn to the left, before pushing the door forward to walk in. There was a half second where light spilled out of the crack between the door frame and the heavy wooden door, like water gushing out from a broken dam. She was blinded for a moment, before the redhead could see everything.
Singing to herself softly, Weiss made up her own little tune as she hummed, trying to distract herself from the boredom that was her watch. She'd switch back and forth between softly sung notes, hums and whistles, weaving them all together into an impromptu beauty. Even after all this time, Weiss was confident in saying she'd held onto her gifted voice through all these years.
'Although,' Weiss mused, smiling to herself as she scanned the room and the peeling sea green wallpaper that already drooped away sadly from the walls, 'these definitely aren't the venues Father used to have me perform in...'
Sitting on her small crate, which she'd found shoved into the rooms corner, Weiss sat with her legs folded underneath her. Watching the swaying trees off in the distance, as their tall and arching branches leaned back and forth with the breeze, their leaves dusted gold by the soon to be setting sun.
She actually had to shift her ankle every once in a while, the hard and rough wood underneath her heel cutting off the flow of blood to her feet. Every few minutes she'd feel her lower leg start buzzing with numbness, similar to the feeling of the hardcore painkillers she'd been given once for a broken arm. Weiss was so bored that she actually let her foot and calf go numb, just so it'd give her mind something to think about as she shook them awake. She needed something to bide the time, until whatever she was here for would eventually show up.
'Okay Nora, I'm tired of waiting... its been nearly ten hours, and you sure as hell wouldn't have asked me to keep watch here if you actually wanted a lookout, can't see anything from this room...'
Looking around, Weiss's lips couldn't help but twitch as she started to laugh at her humble surroundings. 'Quite the stronghold...'
For an armory, the room was pretty depressing. Really, it was just two racks of extra weapons, on a few thrown together metal shelves precariously propped up against one of the room's walls. The only usable weapons on the ledges were two rifles, neither as good as Ruby's own personal hunting rifle, along with a spare rusted shotgun, an untouched SMG that nobody seemed comfortable using, and a small plastic bin filled with a dozen or so pistols, revolvers, and others handguns. Everybody kept their own weapons on them, meaning this room was really filled with only spares and discards. Three duffel bags filled with half empty ammo boxes were piled underneath the shelves, all originally promised to be emptied and organized by Nora. And that promise, evident enough by the now scattered bullets across the floor, had gone nowhere.
But while their stock pile was measly, Weiss had to keep on reminding herself that it was really only for six people. And for the longest time, only four. These guns, plus everyone's own personal firearms, were more than enough.
Originally this had been team CFVY's dorm. But Weiss remembered how after she and Ruby had arrived, Nora'd insisted on clearing out the old team RWBY dorm. And that switch had taken her, Ruby, Nora and Ren a single trip down the staircase, and even then the blonde hadn't been carrying much. Just to give Weiss a bit of the home touch, back in her old dorm.
"Shame I have nobody to share it with," Weiss muttered, letting the words flow out on a sigh as her shoulders sank. Ruby still felt like keeping her distance, and had just picked some crappy visitors bedroom on the floor below her. 'I don't think Ruby even knew she was moving in next to Nora and Ren until the night everybody went off to sleep...'
Suddenly, a knock came from behind her, a soft rapping that sounded less like knuckles against wood and more like the sound of fingers thrumming against the top of a desk. Looking back, Weiss lips unconsciously twitched into a smile as she saw who was standing in the door way.
"Hey Ruby, I was just talking about you," Weiss called, seeing the other woman barely poking her head in. By the look on the redhead's face, it seemed like Ruby was only half happy that she'd been see. While she smiled, the second she and Ruby locked eyes Weiss saw...
Weiss had a hard time believing it; she hadn't seen the look in quite a while. But from the look coming across Ruby's silver gaze, it seemed like the redhead was actually... well, scared. Almost like a deer getting stared down by a beowolf, already pulling back and ready to bolt. "Ruby, what's wrong? You okay?"
"Hey Weiss," The redhead answered meekly, ignoring Weiss's question. "...no, nothing really," Ruby muttered, holding onto the door frame she'd been clinging to for a few extra seconds before actually walking into the room. "Just thought I should say hi..."
Ruby took a few steps forward, into the soft evening light filtering in through the room's tall windows. "Wow," Weiss remarked, arching one of her delicate eyebrows as she looked Ruby up and down. "You dress yourself?"
"Nope, Nora decided she'd dress me today. Found these left for me by my door." Spinning around, dancing towards Weiss on the tips of her toes Ruby remarked: "How do I look?"
Weiss snorted, her lips twitching into a thin smile. "Not bad, not bad. Although I do miss my usual armed to the teeth, leather wearing, gun slinging partner. I can't even remember the last time I saw you without shoes," Weiss laughed, looking down at Ruby's bare feet. They were pail, almost snow white from the lack of sunlight they received.
"Don't worry about it too much, I won't be changing my usual outfit," Ruby replied, stepping up next to Weiss. Rolling her shoulders, the redhead huffed "I'm not too thrilled about the lack of padding myself either. After all this time it's hard to believe that this was my usual casual wear..."
As she spoke, Weiss noticed something a tad off in the redhead's voice. There was this sort of shakiness, somewhere between nervous and fearful. 'It probably has to do with Mercury...,' Weiss sighed to herself, sure she'd landed on her reason. After he'd left last night, Ruby had tried to act calm and composed, come in like nothing had happened. But everyone else could see pretty quickly how shaken she'd been, and how edgy she was that night.
'And I'm glad she was,' Weiss remarked, looking up at her partner's face. 'If she'd taken Mercury bailing without missing a beat I'd be more worried than if she-'
"May I?" Ruby suddenly asked the question as she pointed down to the spot next to Weiss, breaking the blonde's train of thought.
"Nope, it's mine" Weiss joked, shifting over a bit and contradicting her statement. 'A hell, I'll get a chance to her ask in a minute...'
Sitting down next to her, Weiss felt a hand brush over the side of her own as Ruby took her spot. Weiss didn't respond, although she couldn't help but feel like her hand was warmer now, a soft heat spreading from the tiny point of contact through her skin and all the way up to the crook of her elbow.
"So," Weiss muttered, her voice hanging on that small word for a few seconds, "how're you doing?"
"Uh, fine, fine," Ruby replied, seemingly unable to think of anything else to say. Weiss could tell by Ruby's immediate scowl that the redhead was already kicking herself over that sort response.
"Hung over?" Even though she was concerned, Weiss couldn't help the small laugh that snuck its way into her voice as she asked.
That got her, a thin smile cracking Ruby's somewhat nervous composure. "Actually no, not really."
"Seriously?" Weiss tisked to Ruby mockingly, sighing loud enough for it to sound more than fake. "What a shame, maybe your days of being a lightweight are behind you?" Leaning backwards, letting herself fall onto the hard wooden crate so she was staring up at the ceiling, Weiss whistled a low soft note. "It was fun messing with you back then, you after a single drink, barely able to see straight..."
"You know I only got one drink in me last night, and it was less than this much," Ruby grumbled, holding her thumb and forefinger less than two inches apart over Weiss's face. "It's not like I'm Nora, who decides to take down half a vodka bottle and thinks she'll be just peachy..."
"Ruby, let me tell you a thing," Weiss started, letting one of her hanging feet smack lightly against Ruby's calf. "Everyone, and when I say everyone I mean everyone, was amazed by how little you could drink before you'd actually get drunk. The second a shot passed your lips it was easy enough to see you were hammered by that dopey look you'd get on your face. Hell, even teachers would sometimes come when we'd go out drinking just to see for themselves how much of a lightweight you were."
"They did not," Ruby laughed, although Weiss could tell the redhead wasn't actually too sure.
"Believe me, I made over a hundred bucks on a bet with Port that you couldn't take two shots of vodka. After I won Glynda started making these hypothesizes that it had something to do with your speed semblance, that you'd be absorbing alcohol almost instantly."
"Huh," Ruby muttered, the corners of her lips twitching into a smile, "so... maybe the world ending and my losing all my powers wasn't that bad after all." Leaning forward and resting her chin on her palm, Ruby huffed: "...I'll finally be able to enjoy a tequila sunrise..."
"Sure sure," Weiss laughed, glad Ruby wasn't acting all surly and quiet anymore. "So Ruby...," she started, the end of her laughter bringing forth another emotion. Worry.
"Yeah?" Ruby smiled back at Weiss, her lips spread crookedly as she turned her head to look at the lying down heiress.
"...Mercury." Weiss winced the second she mentioned his name, watching as Ruby's face fell. "Are you okay? I mean, last night-"
"I'm fine," Ruby sighed, pulling up one leg and wrapping one arm around her shin, placing the other next to Weiss's ear to keep herself propped up. Resting her chin on her knee for a few seconds, the redhead stared forward out the window in thought. "I just... I just wish he hadn't. Or that I'd seen it earlier, so that I could have thought for longer on how to stop him."
"...I think he'd been planning on leaving for a while," Weiss replied, watching Ruby's face as she talked. Ruby's put her hand down close, and Weiss kept on getting distracted as she felt the knuckles of the redhead's long fingers tickle her earlobe.
"Seriously," Ruby asked, her voice colored with both surprise and sadness.
"Yeah...I mean, he'd been eyeing the road out of town for the past few weeks... he'd never really unpacked, never really claimed a room..."
"I guess..." Ruby sighed, shaking her head. "Fucking sucks..."
Weiss nodded in agreement. "It does, I'm gonna miss him..."
"Think he'll ever be back?"
Wondering how to respond, Weiss sighed. "Gives us a good reason to stick around, doesn't it?"
"Hmm...Guess it does, doesn't it?"
For a few minutes, that was it. They both just sat together in the silence, enjoying the soft quiet surround them both. After years of terse replies and bitter snaps, they were both fine with the small lull in conversation, especially one only this short. Ruby kept shifting and squirming, as though she couldn't find a comfortable seat on the wooden edge.
Sighing, more amused than annoyed as she watched the back of Ruby, Weiss thought: 'Of course you can't find a comfy spot, it's a har-'
Interrupting the blonde's thoughts again, Ruby started: "I didn't want to talk about Mercury though."
"Alright, I understand..." Weiss brought one of her hands in front of her face, bending and flexing her fingers, watching the light play off the oval disks on the end of each digit. Absentmindedly, she wondered if anybody had a file or polish to share, or anything really to work out the dozens of tiny scuffs in her nails.
"I wanted to talk about... well, I..." Ruby squirmed a few more seconds, before she rushed out the thought she'd been chewing on in a single breath.
"I wanted to talk about us."
Watching Weiss, Ruby waited for a reply on batted breath.
From the look on her face, Ruby could tell the blonde hadn't been expecting the conversation to take this turn. Weiss went from inspecting her nails, a pointless task as each one was as perfect as always, to being so stunned that she dropped her hand above her face. With the dull thud of skin on skin, the back of Weiss's palm lightly smacked her on the forehead, momentarily blocking the blonde's eyes from view.
"W-well," Ruby started stuttering, the nervousness in her voice already creeping its way back in on its own after Weiss's reaction. "I-I just wanted to talk to you, not about you..."
Weiss still said nothing, and out of fear from being misunderstood the redhead added: "I mean, it's not like I have a problem or anything..."
Just lying there, Weiss watched Ruby, her eyes wide and apprehensive. With her back against the hard surface of the wood, Ruby couldn't tell if Weiss shoulders were actually raised or just... just raised.
"I've just... well," she started again, seeming at a loss for words. Ruby knew she'd shoved herself clear past the point of no return. She'd either succeed or fail tonight.
"It's just that I wanted to say sorry, for everything that's gone on between us." Twisting her hands in front of her, Ruby tried to recall some of the things she'd planned up last night, some of the apologies she'd crafted.
"I've got a lot to say sorry for," Ruby started, almost reading the sentence out as though she'd rehearsed it a thousand times. That number was pretty fair. "And I don't know if I'll have the... the years of time...," she trialed off, already half forgetting what she was going to say. The way her heart was clenched up in her chest, almost causing her actual pain, was making it hard to even get out that measly sentence.
"I know I'm not easy to be around lately, and that I'm edgy and mean now..." This was easier; she didn't have to think on how to insult herself. The thoughts started flowing easier, although Ruby had to stare out the window in front of her, avoid Weiss's harsh and fathomless gaze. Every time she caught her piercing icy eyes, Ruby couldn't help but lose sight of everything else.
"I'm cruel and bitchy now, and I've been about as good at conversation as a rabid Beowolf for the past few years. I've... I've treated you worse than anyone has ever treated anybody. I'm so, so sorry that I've made you cry as many times as I have..."
Ruby stuttered off, realizing that she'd never be able to put it all into words. Instead she just started waiting, for Weiss to say something, say anything. Even if she felt fists start pounding on her back, Ruby felt like she deserved them at this point. What she received was far worse... silence. Weiss was so quiet that Ruby couldn't even hear any of the blonde's breathing.
"I'm..." Ruby's shoulders sagged, her voice almost crushed by loss and defeat. "I'm just sorry..."
Rocking forward, Ruby slowly got up off the crate, taking a few steps forward. Standing in front of Weiss with her back to the blonde, her arms both wrapped around her own chest tight. Ruby's fingers curled around each side of her waist, gripping the thin red fabric tightly. 'Why am I so sad? I always expected rejection would be how this ended...'
Trying to stand as tall as possible, Ruby arched her back and stared straight ahead toward the orange horizon. None had spilled, but Ruby could see the salty droplet already beading up across her vision, making everything along the bottom edge seem distorted and warped. She wouldn't let Weiss see her cry because of this. Guilt tripping the blonde wasn't what she wanted.
"I'm still... I'm still in love with you Weiss." It was easier to say this... now that it was over, Ruby could actually think somewhat clearly.
'All that time I spent putting myself back together was a waste huh,' Ruby thought bitterly. 'Wonder what Mercury would say if he was here... probably some half assed snappy quote or saying...'
"I'm not trying to win you over Weiss, or guilt trip you into anything... I just want you to know how I feel, and that I just want you to be safe. This doesn't change that..."
Finally there was a sound behind her... and it was the sound of hard leather boots against the rough wooden floor, as Weiss softly slid off the crate she'd been lying down on. Ruby heard four steps, each one slow and deliberate, as Weiss walked up behind her.
Ruby kept on blinking, trying to pull back a straight face. Would she get slapped? Shouted at? Screamed at? Ruby couldn't imagine how Weiss would react, until she thought of the worse one of all.
What if... What if Weiss just left, without saying a word? Ruby wouldn't have been able to take that. She wouldn't have been able to take any of the things she was thinking of... but that would have left Ruby as just a shell to collapse in on herself. To just implode at the loss of hope that still kept her from falling to dust.
But whatever she would do, the blonde wasn't going to leave Ruby to shatter on her own in silence. Ruby felt a pinch at the fabric around her shoulder, slowly pulling that side of her back and turning her around.
As she spun, the redhead found herself turned towards Weiss. Ruby looked down at the girl who was standing right in front of her now, barely any space separating them at all. Once Ruby faced her entirely, she just stood there still, waiting. She couldn't help it, and Ruby she saw a single tear slide off her face and drip off her nose. Staring into Weiss's inscrutable, glacial eyes, Ruby's suddenly felt dry.
"Weiss..." Ruby shuddered, looking down into the pale blue a head below her. "I'm... I'm hollow Weiss." As she spoke Ruby strained her voice, making sure that now of all times, that she wouldn't let her voice crack and break. "I can't make you happy as just an old, broken shard of the old me..."
Two fists, side by side, bunched up at the fabric near her collar, both of Weiss's hands grabbing at the front of Ruby's blouse. Unconsciously tensing up, Ruby let her arms stay wrapped around her waist. Whatever Weiss was going to do, Ruby would make sure her reflexes wouldn't stop her.
Weiss pulled her down, to the shorter girl's eye level. 'Probably so she'll have an easy time hitting me... I think she'd be more of the back handed slap type...'
"Ruby," Weiss's voice murmured, slipping out between barely parted lips. Her eyes looked like she had more to say, nearly reflecting her thoughts like a beacon lamp. But after a few seconds of just staring into Ruby's pools of molten silver, she just whispered:
"...shut up."
Ruby's eye widened at the voice in front of her. It wasn't cold or angry, it wasn't bitter... it was soothing, sweet, kind. Loving.
And her legs almost gave out when Weiss pulled Ruby a few more inches in, bringing their faces together. Ruby watched as Weiss turned hers slightly to the left, just enough so that their noses didn't get in the way of each other's.
As they kissed.
Her legs almost gave out as they kissed, and Ruby actually sunk a bit lower than Weiss as the blonde wrapped her arms behind Ruby. It wasn't long and drawn out, or filled with any of the raw passion a five year gap would contain. But somewhere in it, as they slowly just did nothing more than kiss, they washed away their pain and anger. Even the small specks they'd forgotten about were swept away. Leaving them with nothing but love and bliss.
Ruby's arms fell slack around her, dangling as she tried to catch up. Her eyes were closed, just letting all these thoughts and feelings sink in. She felt Weiss break off their kiss, using her still clenched hands to push Ruby just an inch away.
Ruby opened her eyes, and noticed nothing more than the blue one's right in front of her. They were sparkling, shining bright as Weiss smiled.
"If your hollow, then I want you to be whole. Because I love you too," Weiss hummed, just as she pulled Ruby in, pulling her close for another kiss.