"Trauma is hell on earth. Trauma resolved is a gift from the gods."
― Peter A. Levine
Chapter 12-
"Why didn't you tell me you were awake?" Neo asked the woman, breaking the hug but still kept her close.
"I was enjoying watching my two favourite girls talking and relaxing together." Ruby replied softly.
Neo couldn't help but smile at the response as she decided to get to business, "You were out for three days." Neo informed her.
Nodding slowly Ruby said, "I see. What about Roman?" Ruby asked, attempting to sit up but failed when Neo and Winter both made her stay laying down.
"He got away. You protected Blake from the explosion just before I arrived. Once you cleared everything with the police and we were on the flight home you passed out and been like this for three days." Neo explained to her.
"I see. What else has happened?" Ruby asked.
"Nothing much. The White Fang seemed to have gone quiet for a little bit, licking their wounds after you took out a lot of their manpower." Winter informed her.
"I see, anything about Roman?" Ruby asked.
"He's been quiet but I haven't been able to get a hold of your contacts yet. They refuse to talk to me even though Aria is backing me up." Neo said, annoyed that the two contacts refused to talk to her. Only wanting to talk to Ruby.
"I see. I'll speak to them shortly." Ruby said, attempting to sit up once more but only to be stopped by Neo and Winter again.
"Ok I get it, I should rest some more." Ruby stated, annoyed at not being able to do anything.
Laying back down Ruby got comfortable on the bed as she spoke up again, "I'll rest for a bit now. Would you two mind leaving? I don't mean to be rude but I want to speak to Neo alone." Ruby asked softly, which the two women agreed to doing.
They both wished her well before leaving and once she made sure Aria had left them as well, letting the girl go off to explore it seemed the dam broke.
Ruby burst out crying as Neo wrapped her arms around the woman, allowing the woman to just cry her heart out as Ruby spoke through her tears and sobs.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just reacted and didn't think of the danger to myself." Ruby spilled out, repeatedly telling Neo how sorry she was and how she didn't want it to be this bad.
"It's not my time, I know it's not. I'm sorry for doing that to you." Ruby said again.
Neo allowed Ruby to cry, knowing that this was how the woman dealt with near death experiences or when she got injured.
Neo remembered when she first met Ruby how she was cold and never expressed herself. It was hard for Ruby to express her feelings for Neo at first but in the end she was able to do it.
Ruby had explained everything to her, telling her things no one ever knew which meant that every time Ruby was seriously hurt or came close to dying she would break down in front of Neo.
And all Neo could do was hold Ruby and let her cry, nothing she could say would stop her or offer the comfort she needed.
As Ruby began to calm down a few minutes later Neo said, "Little red riding hood, I don't think little big girls should, go walking in these spooky old woods alone." Neo sung softly to Ruby, the same line she would sing to Ruby while she crying.
Ruby laughed at the song, her sobs being mixed with her laughter as she sung back, "What a big heart I have, the better to love you with, little red riding hood, even bad wolves can be good." Ruby sung in return, using the line Neo taught her to reply with.
Neo smiled at Ruby as the tears and sobbing stopped as they both sung their respective lines. It was as if it was a magical switch that helped Ruby relax.
"Thank you." Ruby whispered, remaining in Neo's embrace for a few more minutes before she sat up.
"What are you planning on doing?" Neo asked, letting Ruby sit up.
"Speak to Ozpin about changing the timetable. I want to train everyone at least twice a week and more intense. I also want to get in contact with my two sources, I want to find Roman and Cinder quickly." Ruby answered.
"Why do you want to do more intense training?" Neo asked, sitting up as she watched Ruby climb out of bed with a few issues.
"I feel the time steadily approaching. I want to make sure everyone is at least trained to a good enough standard." Ruby supplied.
"I see. Are you sure?" Neo asked, her voice filled with worry at the news.
"Yes, I can feel it." Ruby answered, not caring about her state of undress in front of Neo who had seen it all before.
"Wardrobe. I teleported it into their so the others didn't see." Neo stated when she saw Ruby looking around the room. "I want you to go to the infirmary for a check-up before the next lesson." Neo stated.
Nodding her head in thanks Ruby went into the wardrobe and started pulling out her clothes and some pieces of armour. "If that is what you want." Ruby replied.
"Thank you." Neo said, admiring the view Ruby was affording her as she laid out her entire outfit in front of her before getting dressed.
Ruby changed her underwear, being in the same bra and panties for three days in bed was not pleasant. Neo watched eagerly as she took in Ruby's pale body against her red underwear and black choker, both standing out against the paleness of Ruby.
First thing Ruby put on was two armbands on her upper arms which each held ten throwing knives in each, with quick access down her sleeve to either hand.
After this came a knife holster around her ankle and thigh before she pulled on a long sleeve shirt and her red, puffy skirt and her black/red combat boots. With this done she put her corset on and with some help from Neo tied it up.
Attaching her main weapon to the small of her back alongside two pistols, one on her hip and another hidden away under her arm she attached yet another knife alongside two more throwing knives hidden in place sight.
The last thing she did was wrap her cloak around her body, hiding all her weapons from view and made her seem like someone else entirely, especially when she put her hood up and mask on.
The mask itself was something of a marvel. It looked like black sheet glass as the faceplate but it was a special martial that allowed Ruby to see out but no one to see in unless she wanted them to. The borders around it were trimmed in a dark red to match Ruby's cloak and Aria was able to interact with the mask as much or as little as she wanted. It also allowed her to project images onto the glass if she wished to.
Neo watched with keen interest, she loved watching Ruby get dressed as it was something she never did in front of anyone except for her. She eagerly watched Ruby whenever she had the chance, as Ruby was rarely ever out of all of her clothes or she would get dressed while Neo was asleep. It was also one of the few times she was able to see the large tattoo on the woman's back, which she loved seeing as it was truly a work of art.
"If you're done staring at me, would you like to come with me or stay here?" Ruby asked teasingly in her soft voice.
Neo was already dressed and climbed out of the bed quickly as she followed Ruby to Ozpin's office. One of her scrolls in Ruby's hands, she sent off two quick fire messages to her sources for new information.
They ran into no students along the way to Ozpin's office, she didn't know if that was simply because of Ruby's choice in direction or something else but they reached his office without issue.
They were seen instantly as they entered the office and Ruby quickly explained what she wanted to do, and strangely enough Ozpin agreed that he would extend the Thursday lesson and would have an extra lesson on Tuesdays as well.
Leaving the office the pair went to the infirmary when Ruby changed from her Reaper mask and cloak to become simply Ruby. All they did was a standard check-up and took blood to be tested, but so far all they said was she had Aura exhaustion and required further rest.
Finally following the doctors' orders they returned back to their room to sleep the rest of the day away, however they remained wide awake and just spoke to each other.
"When are you going to tell me about Yang?" Ruby asked randomly.
"What about her?" Neo asked innocently.
"The fact she kicked the door open and accused you of more or less abusing me." Ruby stated calmly.
"Um…How do you know about that?" Neo asked shyly, unsure as to what Ruby's reaction would be.
"Aria told me, she was worried about you and so told me about the event." Ruby explained.
"I'm sorry, I should have told you but I didn't want to worry you." Neo said.
Ruby leaned over and kissed Neo gently on her cheeks, "I always worry, but Yang has gone too far this time." Ruby replied.
"Please don't hurt her. She just simply doesn't understand our relationship." Neo attempted to defend the woman.
"That doesn't mean she can make assumptions about it either, or question what it is we do." Ruby replied coldly.
"What are you going to do?" Neo asked, slightly scared for the blonde woman.
"Not sure, I want to go and fight her now to prove to her I'm not as defenceless as I apparently seem to her, but I also know that it will give me away." Ruby said calmly but still annoyed.
"I'm sure you'll think of a way to handle it." Neo said lightly.
"Maybe. Let's just sleep for a bit." Ruby replied, hugging Neo closer to her own body.
A few hours later Neo awoke to an empty bed next to her, Ruby was gone but her side of the bed was still warm.
"Aria where is Ruby?" Neo asked, calling out to the empty room.
"Mother is on the roof. She has been up there for about an hour." Aria informed Neo.
"Thank you Aria." Neo replied, climbing out of bed to follow where Ruby was.
Getting up to the roof was easy as there was a doorway leading outside, which the door was already unlocked meaning Neo could just go straight through.
Keeping as quiet as possible Neo spotted Ruby laying down on the floor with her cloak around her shoulders as she looked up to the sky.
Neo quietly laid down next to Ruby as she stayed silent and looked up to the night's sky, which was full of stars shining in the sky.
After almost half an hour of just staring up in the sky in comfortable silence Ruby spoke up, "It was believed that the stars were people that passed onto the next life and they became a star in the sky to guide the living. This was a time where they used stars to find where they were." Ruby said softly.
"What do you believe?" Neo asked softly, trying not to stop Ruby's trailing thoughts.
"I don't know. I believe the Fates guide me and my actions, but sometimes I doubt it as well. Why would the Fates guide me to something I can't complete?" Ruby stated, frustration evident in her voice.
"Maybe I'll become a star in the sky, do you believe that's what happens when people die?" Ruby asked, turning to face Neo.
"I don't know. You shine brightly already that I wouldn't be surprised you'd be a star already." Neo replied.
Ruby laughed dryly at the comment, "I don't shine bright. I wish I did but I'm as dark as the night sky." Ruby replied back.
"Why do you think that?" Neo asked.
"Because of what I do. I've killed people, I hunt down my own kind and lock them up, and I've killed my own kind before. How could I shine brightly when I've done so much evil?" Ruby asked.
"Because of the reasons you fight." Neo said, rolling over to sit on top of Ruby's stomach.
Neo reached up to lean over Ruby's body, her arms resting by her head as she moved the hood down and took the headphones off to reveal Ruby's ears.
"You fight to protect your kind as a whole. The White Fang are a cancer that you recognise, you're trying to get rid of the evil they commit by sacrificing your own soul to make the world better for the Faunus. This is how you shine brightly, never doubt that what you do is for the good of people as a whole. You kill because they leave you no choice, it is not good nor is it bad. It simply is." Neo said to Ruby, leaning down to kiss Ruby as she finished speaking.
Ruby leaned up into the kiss, happily returning it before breaking away with a smile on her face, "You always know what to say to me." Ruby said.
"It's because I know you so well." Neo replied with a smile, stealing another kiss from Ruby as her hands played with Ruby's ears gently.
Ruby purred into the kiss, enjoying how Neo was playing with ears but she had to stop Neo from doing anything more.
"What's wrong?" Neo asked, confused as to why they stopped and worried she had done something wrong.
"Nothing. We've had company since you came out here." Ruby replied, which only made Neo look more confused. "You might as well come out girls." Ruby called out.
A/N
This would have been up earlier but I've been playing the last episode of Life is Strange, which is amazing, the music in the series is amazing but the game itself is amazing as well. I've never had a game actually bring me to tears before and this one came extremely close to it, I highly recommend the game.
I might do a little story or write something for Life is Strange again because it was amazing and I have a few ideas. At the moment I'm messing with a few ideas while still working towards the end of the first act of this story, but I've got a fair bit of time to actually finish up to it.
Not much else to say, you may or may not see some more things from me over the next couple days or week or two, no idea yet to be honest.
Thanks for reading and until next time. ^_^