Welp, welp, welp, more rebellious Ruby. Kinda fun to write her like that... strange... but not really considering it is me.
Chapter 5:
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!" A shrilled white haired woman yelled as Ruby winced. Her ears ringing already. She knew this was going to happen the second she woke up that morning. She even had a day to figure out what she would say... but now that Weiss was yelling at her in person it was hard. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I WAS! THE ONLY THING I GET WAS A SINGLE MESSAGE YESTERDAY SAYING DON'T BE ANGRY AT YANG!?"
"Sorry for testing out my mom's car's safety features... Soooo sorry."
'Why did I go for sarcasm... she is going to kill me... which don't get me wrong would make the broken ribs and collarbone feel better... as well as no more chemo... silver linings.' Ruby thought as her friend walked closer to her and was just barely about to poke Ruby's damaged rib cage when she pulled back and just pinched her nose letting out a huff.
Ruby walked up and hugged Weiss gently. "Sorry I didn't let you in on my crazy actions... but I was only going like thirty five with zero room for acceleration. The damage was rather minimal... would have been less if I didn't accidentally disable the airbags when I was learning how to hot wire."
"I worry about you Ruby... you aren't... doing... anything illegal are you?"
"Just whores, weed, booze, some LSD... no more than usual though. But I know that isn't what you wanted to ask. I promised you already Weiss, I won't go back to that."
Weiss just knew a few tears may have slipped their icy blue prison. Ruby giggled as she wiped away a few of the tears as her white haired friend quickly tried to push Ruby away who winced painfully. "Sorry." She let out as Ruby pulled away and cupped her ribs a little.
"It's okay princess... just be careful around my ribs... you have no idea how much seat belts hurt. A lot is the correct answer." Ruby spoke as she walked down the stairs. Taking each stair carefully as each single one painfully caused her ribs to move.
"God Ruby... when I heard you crashed a car, I pictured more broken bones... and stitches... maybe even a chipped tooth." Jaune proclaimed as he patted Ruby on the back causing her to tense up. "Jaune... do that again... and I'm going to skin you, tan the skin into a nice bit of leather, make a whip and whip the ever loving SHIT out of you till your name is Toby!" Ruby yelled as Jaune began to back away a little. Scared at how violent Ruby had turned in a split second and did not want to test his luck when it came to Ruby's anger.
"So Rubes where we meeting everyone?" Yang asked trying to defuse her sister's anger. Knowing full well she would never go through with that threat. It was as hollow as when Yang apologised to her friends for not telling them Ruby was sick. For the simple fact the one major sickness she has, she can't tell them. Even though she wants to scream it from the top of the roof, but wouldn't.
"Where that lamp post jumped out of nowhere. Now can we get going before someone else tests how screwed my chest is? Because if I get pat on the back again I'm going to snap whoever's neck it is that did it." Ruby seethed as Yang tossed her the bag she liked to carry with her outside. "Fuck you Yang." Ruby got out with a cough as Yang ruffled her hair.
"You're fault for crashing mom's car. Now, get going."
"Jesus, drop it already Yang. I've been on painkillers so sorry I couldn't tell you why my genius plan that totally worked by the way... and I will not mention my plan to outsiders." Ruby joked as Yang rolled her eyes. "Then until I hear what this plan is, I'll continue to assume the worst."
"Biǎo zi." Ruby uttered as Jaune and Weiss looked at her. "Call me that again Rubes, and I'm going to throw you. You know that is a terrible phrase."
"What the hell does that even mean? Neither of you tell us, Ren won't... and short of learning... I want to say traditional Chinese?" Jaune asked as Weiss unlocked the car.
"Swing and a miss. Simplified. And it means a few things... none of which are very nice... nicest is Bitch." Ruby answered quickly getting into the car. "Hey Weiss, mind if I drive?" Ruby asked as Weiss spun around to stare at her friend.
"NO!" She yelled as Yang began to hold her back. "Only people who haven't crashed can drive. Intentionally, or not." She continued as Yang patted her lap to try and calm Weiss down as she began to drive off.
"I'd like the record to show, out of the people that know how to drive in the car here, if you include that one crash a few days ago, I've still gotten into the least amount of accidents." Ruby pouted and crossed her arms a bit too fast for her likings, because that was immediately followed by wincing at the contraction of her chest.
She could see Jaune snickering next to her. "That is Karma for calling your sister whatever it was that you called her." Jaune continued to snicker as Ruby reached over and punched him in the shoulder. "Trust me, if karma is going to it, we are screwed. I'm due for massive bitch slap. So big it needs to come from a divine hand. And right now, that'll probably screw us."
Ruby could see her sister tense from the joke, but soon relaxed once she saw someone there. "Okay, so we aren't the first... and don't bring up Blake's or Pyrrha's parents... Jaune I'll beat you to an inch of your life, Rubes... I'll... I don't know... just don't."
"Fine. But at least tell me why I can't bring it up?" Jaune asked as Ruby shrugged. "Nope. Well, not until Blake or Pyrrha tell you of their own free will. And if you try to bring them to that conclusion... your punishment will be worse." Yang spoke as Ruby recognised the distinct red motorcycle.
"Right no bringing them up got it." Ruby got out as she practically jumped out of the car. As she walked up she could see the leggy brunette smile a little at Ruby walking towards her. A smile that shrunk once she saw the blonde haired boy getting out.
"Nice to see there wasn't any lasting damage... there isn't is there?" Cinder asked as Ruby laughed a little. "God it hurts to laugh. But, no... just some rib damage... and a few sprains. Thanks for pulling me out by the way. It made the trip easier...slightly more panicky... but easier." Ruby continued as the rest caught up to Ruby.
Yang let out a whistle as she took a look at Cinder's motorcycle she was resting on. "What model is that..." Yang asked as she walked closer inspecting it. Weiss hadn't seen that gleam in Yang's eyes in a long, long time.
"The Ninja H2... why?" Cinder asked as Yang's head shot up. "How the hell did you get one? Does it have any aids? Can I take it for a test drive?" Yang asked a mile a minute as Weiss just shrugged her shoulders as she walked closer to the lamp post to see how badly it was damaged.
"I'm sorry... I'm very picky. I just got the ABS and the KTRC working after a crash. Which thankfully my dad who was driving it wasn't injured that badly. Just a few broken bones." Cinder answered as Yang could feel Weiss' growing anger. "But how did you get this... this... beauty? No. Beauty doesn't do it justice."
"My dad is a mechanic that when he was younger helped a lot of racers... one of them didn't actually like the street legal version, gave it to my dad who prefers to drive a car over one of these but knew I like to drive them so he gave it to me. Why do you have a motorcycle?" Cinder asked trying to be polite as Yang quickly responded "Just a Ninja ZX-10R... which is pretty... but not as pretty."
Ruby began to walk towards Weiss. No longer entertained by the conversation. "Whatcha up to princess?" Ruby asked trying distance herself from the annoying conversation Yang was having. "Just looking at all the damage done... shocked I almost lost my best friend..." Weiss spoke with a slight quiver in her voice.
"Oh my god! Weiss, I placed my foot on the gas," Ruby spoke as she walked out into the middle of the road and stopped at one point, "Here. Going at thirty five I would not have suffered any serious damage. The car took more damage, it was a well calculated crash. It would have been less soft tissue damage if the airbags went off, but I knew worst case, I would have gotten a few broken bones. Nothing that serious."
Ruby was already getting furious at everyone's pessimistic outlook on the car crash. She was getting disgusted by how much worry Weiss was going through. "So just stop acting like I could have died. Plus on the off chance I took more damage than the car, Cinder still pulled me out minutes later. And both my parents and sister were minutes away. Everything was well calculated." Ruby continued as she walked back across the road.
Ruby could see Weiss turning around as she crossed the road. Ruby just knew it was so she could pout without any teasing from Ruby. Once Ruby got to her friend she walked around to see Weiss' pouting expression. "Why are you pouting? Is it because Yang finally has someone to nerd out with motorcycles with? Or is it because I really didn't want to see you down from me crashing a car and called you out on it?" Ruby asked wanting to know how to make her friend smile again.
"Both... slightly more so the latter... you know I'm not the jealous type... but I don't know anything about those." Weiss spoke, as she crossed her arms clearly furious at Cinder. "Careful, you know green is a bad colour on you. But you also know Yang isn't going to do anything. She isn't that dumb." Ruby joked as Weiss directed her glare at her friend.
"Remind me, why haven't I attempted to run you over? It would be so much easier than dealing with your comments."
"Because I'm your friend that will openly mock your family with you. Everyone else is too terrified to. As well as you know Yang would then out of grief, dump you. Or if that is what nearly push you over the edge, I would help you mock Yang."
"You're right... how long do you think it will be before Jaune hits on someone... I don't give him long?" Weiss asked trying to steer the conversation towards different waters. "Well Cinder has already threatened him with bodily harm... so we only need to worry about anyone we pass by. Otherwise we may need to dig a grave... so why am I not meant to bring up the parents of my favourite couple... no offence, just you know... you are dating my sister." Ruby asked just wanting to gossip instead of betting against Jaune.
"I promised them I wouldn't tell Ruby. It is very personal, and I can understand why they don't want more people to know. Just don't bring it up, let them bring it up. Promise me you won't bring it up. Promise on your Nǎinai's life." Weiss spoke holding up a finger to Ruby.
The smaller of the two held up her hands in defence, "You know no matter what, I would never promise on my Nǎinai's life. No matter how sure I was about something. I would never take that chance. But I won't bring it up to them." Ruby spoke slowly lowering her hands, as she saw Blake and Pyrrha approaching holding hands smiling.
"Good thing Cinder rode here... I don't suppose you have a helmet with you?" Ruby asked as Weiss shrugged her shoulders. "I may have one in the trunk... I would need to check. Let's wait for them to get here though before we make any deviation to the plans." Weiss continued as the duo quickly reached Ruby and Weiss.
Ruby quickly saw a blur of red hair run up and hug her. "OW! PYRRHA NOT SO TIGHT!" She heard a small 'sorry' as she let go. Pyrrha began to look Ruby over to see if she had injured Ruby more. Panic began to set in as Ruby began to wheeze a little trying to regain her breath.
After a few tense moments Ruby finally spoke, "Dear god I'm not going to get used to that pain." After a few more seconds of tense silence, "Okay, now we can hug... just don't squeeze... my doctor said I shouldn't even be out of the hospital just in case my ribs break fully. I say I'll take a chance."
Pyrrha and Blake carefully walked up and gently wrapped their arms around the significantly smaller woman. The brunette hugged the duo back and smiled at the genuine concern her friends had.
"So where are Ren and Nora?" Jaune asked as the trio disengaged from the hug. "Nora said and I quote her, 'this is mine and Renny's no pants day. Don't you dare spoil Camp Camp though.' So I doubt we will see them, but they know where the cinema is." Blake answered as she looked at Weiss' car and the motorcycle.
"Right... um, did one of you drive?" The buxom blonde asked as the apartment question was becoming obvious. "No... how many people can go on the bike there?" Blake asked as she turned to Cinder.
"I can take one more person if someone has a helmet."
Weiss walked around to the back of her car and opened the metal compartment and laughed. "Ruby heads up!" Weiss yelled as she tossed the helmet. "Sorry for making the decision, but Ruby is the closest to my size, and that is my helmet." Weiss continued as Ruby smiled wider as Yang frowned.
"Why do you have a helmet in there?" Yang asked as Weiss just glanced at her lazily. "Did you seriously forget I have three? The one I like to wear is with your bike, I keep one at my house, and I often keep the third here just in case we decide to take your bike home from school."
Ruby looked at the helmet as she turned to Cinder, "Do you know the way?"
"Yeah I think I do. If we do get side tracked, just tap my side and we can pull over and you can tell me." Cinder began as her and Ruby walked over to the motorcycle taking her first genuine look at it. She had to admit it did look like a majestic thing.
Cinder grabbed her helmet and swung her leg over it moving forward as she slipped her helmet on. Ruby was quick to take her own seat after she slipped the helmet on. She quickly wrapped her arms around the woman and was thankful Weiss' pure white helmet had a tinted visor.
She felt the blood rush to her face as she pressed herself further into Cinder as the bike began to pull out from where it was parked.
Ruby had no idea how fast they were going, but the thick cotton of her hoodie did not stop from the wind biting at her skin. She let a smile grow as they weaved through the traffic. Having long since lost Weiss and the rest due to the combination of speed and moving past the cars.
They quickly came to a stop just at a red light and was shocked to not even hear the engine. "Take a right up here! And then the third left! Straight shot after that!" Ruby yelled hoping Cinder heard. Her response came from Cinder just stating in a slightly louder than normal voice, "Okay, no need to yell that loud. It isn't like your sister's bike."
"This is so cool by the way. I can see why Yang loves it." Ruby spoke in a similar manner as Cinder as to not hurt her ears. "No, you really don't, and you can't legally here. Maybe we can take this to a track then you can see why." Cinder spoke quickly leaning forward again as she quickly turned the corner and began to open the engine up once more causing Ruby to laugh at the feeling of the wind nipping through the fabric, not caring that it was probably dangerous.
She loved the feeling. It was making her feel alive, something she hadn't felt in awhile, something she was enjoying deeply. But as they take the left turn, she knew it was going to be short lived. It wasn't that far left to go.
Cinder sensing Ruby wanted to go faster for the remaining distance she began to truly accelerate. She loved what parts of Ruby's laugh came through over the loud roar of the engine, causing Cinder to crack a smile as she began to slow down once the building was in sight.
She could just feel the girl attached to her waist frown.
Cinder quickly found a parking spot, and turned the engine off. "That. Was. Fun! We need to do that again!" Ruby yelled practically ripping the helmet off as she dismounted. "This was so cool. How fast does it go? What is it that makes it street legal? Why am I asking so many questions? Regardless it is sooo cool."
"It can go a maximum of two hundred and forty miles per hour, the main thing that makes it street legal is the mirrors, and I have no idea why you are asking so many questions... Should we wait for them? I don't want to carry my helmet with me all day." Cinder spoke dismounting her bike and began to lock it. Once the break lock was in place she stood up and rested the helmet on the seat.
"Yeah... kinda need to... I forgot my bag in Weiss' car, and that has some pain killers I was prescribed in it. Can't enjoy the movie while in crippling pain." Ruby joked as she began to rub her ribs. She could feel the dull pain sensation from where she hugged so tight.
"Are you in pain now? I'm sorry if you are... I'm still putting her through her paces and thought why not just open it up." Cinder spoke as Ruby waved her off a little. "It wasn't from that. It was all on me just squeezing so hard. You don't really notice what muscles you use until they are in pain, then they just scream when you use them. Which sucks... it really, really sucks. But I do not regret doing what I did."
"We have time to kill... do you mind me asking why you did that? I was worried once I saw it was you when I helped you out of the car." Cinder asked and unlike when ever anyone else asked, she didn't feel the sickening sense of concern. She felt like she should talk to her about it, which was confusing her. Normally she would just tell someone to hit the road, but this woman was a mystery.
"My parents were getting into a very violent fight. Like it isn't as secret as they think. And I needed to do something drastic to distract them from each other. So totalling my mom's car was as I keep reminding everyone intentional... and despite what Weiss keeps thinking calculated."
"How bad was the fight that you needed to do something so drastic?"
After a few minutes when Ruby didn't answer Cinder felt like she needed to speak up again. "You don't need to answer... I'm just being nosey... sorry."
"No, it is okay... it is just something Yang and I don't overly like to talk about for obvious reasons. I doubt you would want to talk about your parents fighting."
Ruby noticed Cinder tense up a little at her comment. "Actually my mom passed away two years ago. And my dad and I just had to move... we had nothing but sad memories at the old house." Cinder spoke, some tears slipping past their prison which she quickly wiped away.
Ruby quickly wrapped Cinder in a hug, unsure of how to talk to her about it. "I'm sorry to hear that. Do you want to talk about her... or do you want to change the topic?" Cinder was shocked, she hadn't expected a reaction like this from Ruby. She could hear Ruby wince from the hug, but she still held on.
"I would much rather us changing the topic... I really don't like talking about my mom... it still hurts." Cinder answered as she hugged Ruby a little bit lighter than how she was being hugged.
"Okay topic change... what is your favourite scary movie? Mine would probably be the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
"I don't watch that many scary movies... the only one I ever remember fully would be The Shining. But I also loved the book. Not so much the sequels... but that is just me." Cinder could see Ruby smile as she pulled away from the hug, she wasn't sure how but that made her smile a little but frown at the same time just from Ruby pulling away.
They talked for a while before a snow white car pulled into the spot next to Cinder and they could just make out the people in the car being the rest of their group. "Weiss mind if we leave the helmets in the car?" Ruby asked as Weiss got out. "Fine, just put them in the trunk." Weiss answered.
"Yang grab my bag. I need to take my meds." Ruby stated as she closed the trunk and felt a bag being tossed at her causing her to wince again. "Biǎo zi" She muttered softly and quickly fishing into the bag to pull out an orange bottle and a bottle of water.
Once the white pills were swallowed Pyrrha spoke up "Right let's go in. Can't wait for this... I read some good reviews about Camp Camp." They began to walk in Ruby slowed down to walk next to Cinder. "Sorry to bring it back up, but if you ever want to talk about your mom... you can talk to me."
"Thanks Ruby. I may eventually talk about her... but it may not be for years."
Summer froze when she heard the door slam shut. She looked at the brunette pulling away from her neck. "Shit! I swear if that poxy bastard is home." Summer muttered as the woman on her pulled away. "I think that is the closest I've seen you to being yourself in a long time."
The brunette leaned down and began to kiss her collarbone again, "Raven, I need to make sure that wasn't him. I'll be damned if I give him the moral high ground." Summer pulled away as the other woman frowned. "To be fair, I've been sleeping with you a lot longer than he has been sleeping with Elie."
"Yes but at least I don't let my daughters see me with nearly every one with a pulse. Hell he moved on from Elie a month ago and is starting to sleep with your brother." Summer spoke quickly walking over to pull her bathrobe on, "Just wait here. It may just be the girls in which case, I can send them out to get something to bring home for dinner."
"I'll wait then you sexy beast you." Raven spoke as Summer quickly walked out of the room and started to walk down the stairs to see Yang, Ruby and Weiss rummaging through the kitchen. Probably looking for something to eat.
"Hey girls, what are you doing?" Summer asked as Ruby turned to her, "Hey mom, we invited some people over, gonna watch some horror movies..."
"Okay, but you'll need to go out to get some popcorn and I'll be asleep upstairs, so if you would be nice and go out to eat before you start that would be lovely. I just got home after a week being on." Summer continued as she wrapped her arms around herself. "Okay Summer. Want us to bring you back anything?" Weiss asked as Summer smiled.
"It is okay Weiss, just make sure my girls eat properly. You know that they would eat oily food given the chance."
"Well do." Weiss stated leading the sisters into the living room as Summer walked back up the stairs. As she entered her room she saw her secret brunette lover she smiled. "They may be smart, but thankfully know not to ask too many questions. We have an hour at least before they are back."
"Good. No come over here you naughty girl."
Author's Note:
Welp, don't you like the potential for future conflict that I do plan to use. As well as some backstory on Cinder. Now to write the next chapter of 'Corruption of my Mind' then back to this, so see you guys in a few days.