"Now, I won't ever leave you." Jet reassured, leaning back to give Ruby a bit of room to readjust before he embraced her again.
To his surprise, Ruby did not. She jolted up, bolt upright, as if he'd just slashed her again with Midnight Rose. The move sent Jet sprawling, relaxed and unprepared as he was. Ruby turned to look at him, and there was genuine fear in her eyes.
Jet felt his aura immediately activate, the purple glimmer barely visible yet perceivable arcing across his skin as he watched Ruby. He was unarmed, but now he was ready for combat if needs be. And all the while, his thoughts were going into overdrive.
What had he said? Was it something he'd done? Done or said?
"D-don't say that." Ruby stuttered, her voice very fearful. She got to her feet quickly, and before Jet could stand, she disappeared in a flash of rose petals.
It took Jet a moment to calm his mechanical heart, which had started racing at the demand of his mind and muscles. Once he had, he reached out and took a rose petal. He turned it in his hand, curling it, gentle so as not to tear the delicate little thing.
Just like he'd surely torn Ruby. With that promise to not leave her.
The only question now was a simple one, yet it was a question with many different answers: Why? Why had it inspired such fear in Ruby? Fear enough to make her flee in terror? Was it how he'd said it? No, that couldn't be it.
Jet stood up and stretched. He WAS worried about Ruby, but the last thing he wanted to do was make her any more terrified of him than she'd seemed to be. He reached behind his jacket, and felt for the hidden zips on the back. Unzipping them all the way, he allowed his wings, which had been compressed against his back, to unfurl and stretch.
That he had wings in the first place might have contributed to Ruby's fear. A lot of people linked his wings to that of a Nevermore, and the one thing he knew most about humans and faunus was that they all considered the creatures of Grimm to be their mortal enemy. If people associated him with them, as some had upon seeing them…
He took flight soaring upwards, and then banking towards the Emerald Forest.
A little time up in the clouds would give him a little time to think.
Yang was having a pretty normal weekend day. Following her discovery that everything proceeded as they normally did when she woke up on the weekend, namely everyone being up before she was, Yang stepped into the shower, knowing that if things were normal, she'd be able to have her shower in peace.
So to say she was surprised when she heard the door opening would have been an understatement. A flump that sounded like something hitting a bed, followed by a creak that had to be those ropes attached to Ruby's bed. Then, a sob. A very distinctive sob.
"Ruby?" Yang asked, turning off the shower before she could lather up or wash her hair. Another sob followed by a sniffle, then the sound of quiet crying. Yang felt her stomach drop as she wrapped a towel around herself, before stepping out of the bathroom.
Sure enough, Ruby was on her bed. Her head was buried in a pillow, and she was curled up in a ball. Yang recognised within moments that her sister was frightened. But of what? There was no Grimm that could scare her lil' sis, and…
Oh.
Yang felt anger build up as her mind came to that conclusion.
But Jet was a nice guy. He wouldn't do that to someone that had a crush on him.
Would he?
"What's wrong Rubes?" Yang asked.
What followed was the fastest Yang had ever heard Ruby speak, as she raised her head.
"OkayIjustneedtobealonebutpleasetellJetI'msorryhescaredmewithwhathesaidbutIstillwanttogooutwithhimandjustellhimI'msorryand-mmph!" Yang cut her off but clamping a hand over her sister's mouth.
"Rubes, slow down." Yang said. "What's wrong?" Tears were streaming down Ruby's eyes and her whole face was red. Yang had only seen her sister that miserable once before, and it did not bode well. That, and the fact that she had just run off her problem at a speed comparable to her own semblance also did not bode well.
"He… he said the thing that my mum said." Ruby replied, starting to hiccup. "He -hic- told me that -hic- he wouldn't leave me and -hic- I ran. Now he might think I -hic- ditched him right after I kissed him."
"Wait, wait, hang on." Yang said, trying to get a handle on the situation. "You kissed him?"
"I was training with him and he beat me, then he -hic- flew to Sunset Hill. I kissed him, just out of the blue, and he -hic- accepted me, Yang!" Ruby said, smiling briefly despite her tears and broken voice. Then, her smile fell. "We kissed for a long time, then he… -hic- he said it, and I ran away." Ruby's head went back into the pillow, but Yang wrenched her shoulder so that Ruby was looking at her, right in the eye.
"Hold on." Yang replied calmly, waiting for Ruby to slow her breathing. "What did he say?"
There was an awkward pause, during which Ruby stared at her. For a moment, Yang didn't expect Ruby to speak. Then, she broke the silence.
"That he'd never leave me." Ruby said, a tear leaking out of her left eye.
Ah. That was the issue.
"We have to find him, Ruby." Yang said, calmly, putting on her big sister shoes (so to speak). "You can't just run away from him just like that. He's probably wandering around, hurt and confused 'sis. He doesn't know about your mum, or about what happened." Ruby sniffled, but nodded. "The longer we leave him, the harder it'll be for him. Think about it from his position, Rubes."
She stepped back as Ruby dried her eyes on her sleeves and then hopped off her bed.
"You just confirmed that your girlfriend loves you, and confessed your own love. You cuddle with her, then when you try and tell her something you think will help, she runs away. Wouldn't you feel worried and hurt?" Yang continued. "Let me get dressed, then we'll go and find him. If we're lucky, he'll understand once we explain it to him."
A single leaf fell behind Jet. It brushed against his left wing.
He stood atop one of the tallest trees of the Emerald Forest. Perfectly balanced, on a single, bare foot. He had changed his clothes, taking a simple grey tank top with holes to accommodate his wings and black shorts that only reached his knees.
The black wings were enclosing him, his arms crossed around his chest. His aura sent an unnatural shadowy mist around him, one that coiled around him like a floating, ethereal cobra around a nest of eggs. In this state, safety from any corporeal threat was guaranteed.
It was true. The shadows were complete protection from dust-like attacks, his wings defended him from most elements, and from this position he could easily spring in almost any direction to evade a physical strike that he couldn't deflect.
But this held no defence from his inner demons. He was still wondering about Ruby.
What had he done? What could have possibly caused that kind of reaction?
It was definitely him at this point. That was the only explanation. He had been the object of his first girlfriend's fears. It hurt. It really hurt. There was no other explanations to have, nothing to blame.
Literally minutes after he'd told her that they were a couple, he'd done something to ruin it already.
His wings unfurled, and Midnight Rose appeared from seemingly thin air in his hands. The purple blade curved malevolently, and he turned his head to look down towards the floor of the forest. What he saw was four pairs of orange eyes filled with malice.
All looking at him.
Jet closed his eyes, drawing his wings inward, feeling a hidden power build form within his core. Strength.
More strength.
More strength!
He let himself fall backwards, the pressure in his chest building as he fell towards the pack of beowolves. They lunged, eager to slay him and gorge on his flesh.
He let the first claw close within a centimetre of his back before he released the power.
"So this is the last place you saw him?" Yang asked, standing on the peak of Sunset Hill. Ruby nodded vigorously.
She'd gone along with Yang's plan for two reasons.
One: She couldn't bear to lose Jet after he'd said that he'd loved her too.
Two: Even though she felt horrible at what she'd done, a bigger part felt worse for what Jet was going through, as Yang had described it. If she could help Jet, then Ruby would-
A red flash suddenly flared from the Emerald Forest to Ruby's right. Followed by a BANG that was clearly audible, then all the trees shook, sending startled birds soaring into the sky.
"What was that?" Ruby asked her sister, as she stepped in front of Ruby.
"Ruby, look." Yang said, pointing up at something in the sky. She turned her gaze skywards to see a black figure in the sky above the pinkish treeline.
That figure was winged, and Ruby could clearly see the scythe in its hands.
Jet stood in the center of a new clearing of the Emerald Forest.
One that he had made.
Pieces of bark covered in sweet sap littered this new space, which was the rough size of a swimming pool. Black pieces of corpses from the creatures of Grimm littered this ground, which itself was blackened with soot from the use of one of his potentially more powerful abilities. The stench of burnt wood was fresh upon the air.
Pain and death. That was what always surrounded him. Whether it was the Grimm, or the peoples of Remnant, it was always more pain and death.
Except this time, the pain was injected into his own heart. Jet shut his eyes.
One thing was certain about all of this. If Ruby Rose had run away like that, then their relationship had been broken moments before it had started. It didn't matter whether he knew of what it was, it was the simple fact that it HAD happened.
The death was her love towards him.
He felt anger build in his heart. It was justified. Every time that this had happened, it always led to the same outcome. Everyone suffers, and he was the catalyst. Every. Single. Fucking. Time.
A growl from behind him, and Jet opened his eyes. He turned his head in time to see an Ursa Major lumbering towards him, nostrils flaring as it picked up his scent. The eyes were fixed upon him, and it roared threateningly. Jet hissed in response, crouching and raising Midnight Rose, which had never left his hands.
"This is not a good time to push me around." Jet growled. He raised Midnight Rose even higher, and the blade grew until it was twice its normal size, before he leapt up into the air, using his wings to gain extra height, before diving towards the Grimm, somersaulting through the air, Midnight Rose trailing a purple aura.
He rolled over the top of the Ursa and then sprung off its back, before wheeling around.
He needn't have bothered. The Grimm's body only stayed together for a moment before both sides slid apart, drooling inchor upon the soot-covered, sap-spattered clearing. As Jet turned away from the halved Grimm, he gazed upon the laser blade of Midnight Rose, which had shrunk to its regular size.
The armour of most Grimm were impenetrable to non-dust based attacks. That meant that had he been using Crescent Rose, that trick wouldn't have worked. But with the blade of Midnight Rose, he had sliced that thing in twain.
"Pathetic." Jet said to himself. Normally an Ursa Major would have posed a threat, but here, with his new weapon, that thing hadn't posed any threat. Just one attack, and done. Next!
The black mist was coiling around him. His mind was fading. The grip he held upon his own body was beginning to vanish, slowly and meticulously, like a slow submersion into the black void that was the depths of the sea. He would let it happen.
Footsteps behind him. Jet hissed again. More? Were they more Ursa?
They wouldn't be alive for long. The darkness surrounding him was consuming him. Consuming his control, his restraint. Soon those Ursa would rue the day they came near him, as had the beowolves before, the Ursa Major…
No, the footfalls were too light. And if the corpse of a major was here…
Beowolves maybe?
Well, whatever they were, it was only more blood to anoint his blade with. Jet snapped out of his trance, the darkness around him disappearing. He would be the one to end the lives of the creatures approaching him.
The footsteps crunched as they reached the broken bark, then they stopped. Jet stretched his wings, then took fight with a powerful wingbeat, moving higher and higher until he cleared the treeline, before Jet turned around.
His heart caught in his throat. There was Ruby. Gazing up at him.
From up here, he couldn't tell if what he was looking at was fear or sadness. Possibly both.
"Jet! Can you come down?" That was Yang's voice, and sure enough, she was right behind her sister. Jet tossed his scythe into the air, and it vanished, returning to his aura as black dust. He then put his hand beside his sides before concentrating on Yang.
'Are you here about what happened between Ruby and I?' Jet sent at Yang, using Izzet's power. She looked surprised, but only for a moment.
"Yes! Ruby wants to tell you something!" Yang called, looked earnestly up at him. So he held all the power now? But what was Ruby going to say to him? Would it be a plea for forgiveness? An explanation?
Or a rejection?
Jet folded his wings against his back, and plummeted. He buffered his aura just before impact. The ground that he hit crunched underfoot, the sudden attack against the ground itself sending sap covered bark and earth flying in all directions.
He was watching Ruby, who fidgeted under his gaze now, and Jet felt his heart sink. Not good, if she wasn't able to look him in the eye. Or maybe it was guilt?
You know what? Shut up, brain.
"Go ahead. I'm in a listening mood." Jet responded. He shifted his gaze between the two sisters, eventually focussing on Yang, being the only one who'd spoken to him. She nudged her sister.
"I'm sorry, Jet." Ruby said, and Jet immediately locked eyes with her. "I just… I'm sorry. Can I do anything to make it up to you?"
So it was an apology.
"One of the things you can do for me is listen." Jet said, irately. He turned away, hating himself for this, but Ruby needed to know. "When you ran away, I spent a long time wondering what the hell happened. I flew here, and I still had no idea what had happened. Scenarios running through my head, lines of dialogue. Trying to work out what it was about myself that scared you that much, or what I said."
"Jet?" Yang asked. Jet turned to face them again, treating them to his coldest look.
"I never worked it out. And I was hurting. Because I thought I'd lost you." Jet said, watching Ruby and Yang wither under his watch, part of him feeling a savage pleasure at letting them know how much pain he'd felt, and the other part treating him to a feeling of nausea at his actions.
The second part was stronger than the first. Jet closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He was going too far. Sure, they had worried and hurt him, but at the same time he wasn't out for revenge. No. If anything, he WANTED Ruby to come and find him. And what was he doing?
Lashing out. Like an idiot.
He opened his eyes again, and lowered them along with his voice, softening his gaze.
"Just… please explain to me why you ran away." Jet said, attempting to stay in control. A teardrop falling from his left eye betrayed his front of pure anger, and he knew that while Ruby wouldn't pick up on it, her sister certainly would. Sure enough, he heard two pairs of feet stepping towards him. They were definitely human.
"Chin up, Jet." Yang said. "Let Ruby look you in the eye and tell you."
If he hadn't been felling such a roiling tide of emotions, he would have been embarrassed for two friends, one being his girlfriend, to see him like this. But, as Jet raised his eyes to look into silver ones, he saw genuinely sorry eyes. Ruby was staring at him in a way that reminded him of a puppy that had made a mess, and was now begging for the forgiveness and attention of its owner.
