Although I expected a big audience, I would never have expected exactly how fast this has received attention… nor did I expect how much… wow… thank you so much! A special thank you, of course, goes to LightZephyr, pikaree1, Roseflare, EternalPKK and DaPokemonMadster for reviewing last chapter; so thank you all!
Something that should have been obvious but will be said anyway (and has been added in the previous chapter) is that this story has been planned and written with only knowledge up to the end of Volume 3 in mind. If you're reading this in the (distant) future and have, as a result, watched Volume 4 and beyond, you will likely see a few differences. Seeing as this is an AU, however, I hope it won't be too big of an issue…
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its related materials.
Fumbling slightly with the rose that she was holding behind her back, Ruby brought it into view fully after taking a deep breath.
"I brought you this," Ruby said with a smile, gently opening the palm of the bedridden woman's hand and placing the rose's stem in it. After she made sure that her friend had a firm yet gentle hold on the rose, the brunette continued, "I know how much you love flowers, so I brought this one over for you. I had to go through what felt like a million stores but I got lucky when I finally found this! What do you think?"
Upon seeing the woman's face light up at the sight of the rose, Ruby couldn't help but feel the corners of her lips curve up into a smile again. Feel like all that effort actually meant something.
And then Ruby was gasping for air as she was trapped in a spine-crushing hug that could rival her sister's by the bedridden woman.
After what felt like forever to the brunette, the other, slightly shorter woman released her grip on her visitor and sat up with a bright smile on her face. With both a tender and loving hold, the patient placed the rose in the vase by her nightstand before turning back fully to her visitor. Instead of opening her mouth to utter words, she began moving her hands.
"Thank you Ruby! But… you didn't have to…"
Fortunately for both women, Ruby understood sign language and, as a result, she had no problems understanding her friend's words. Despite being able to understand sign language, however, the brunette was not able to respond in kind, "Nonsense! I know how much you love them—"
Ruby's words were interrupted by a gentle knock on the door, catching both women off guard. After the bedridden woman pressed a button on her nightstand, the door opened shortly after and a nurse walked in. As the nurse made her way into the room slowly, Ruby's gaze lingered on the clipboard that was held in the nurse's right hand before shifting to her left hand, which held too many different instruments for Ruby to name and identify.
"Good afternoon Miss Neo, I'm here for your—" the nurse began, her eyes moving straight towards the bed in the corner of the room before coming to a stop on Ruby. Smiling, the nurse quickly turned to address the brunette, "Ah, Miss Ruby, good afternoon! What a pleasant surprise!"
"Good afternoon! You're here for Neo's regular checkup?" Ruby replied in kind with a huge smile of her own as the nurse nodded. Standing up from the chair she was sitting on, she motioned to the nurse for her to take the seat, "I will wait outside."
"Miss Ruby, please, it is fine for you to stay here. I promise that it will not take long and I am only here for a few things this time," the nurse tried to reason with the brunette, though Ruby was already waving it off before she could even finish her sentence.
"Neo already asked me to not be here when somebody is doing a checkup on her," Ruby replied with a shrug as she took her bags and moved them out of the way for the nurse. With a smile, the brunette added, "And if that is what Neo wants then I am fine with going out for a while."
Hearing this, Neo nodded in Ruby's direction, an appreciative smile on her face. The nurse only sighed in defeat, "Alright… as I said, this should not take long. Once I am done here, you will be the third to know."
"Thank you!" Ruby grinned and, with a cheerful wave in Neo's direction, stepped out of the room and into the hallway.
Once the brunette stepped out of the room, a new question popped into her mind. What should she do while waiting? Not wanting to be in the cold and damp corridor for another second, Ruby decided to wait in the little café downstairs. Once her mind was made up, it wasn't long until Ruby found herself in front of the elevator.
When the metal doors slid open with a light ding, the brunette stepped inside without a second thought. Pressing the button for the desired floor, Ruby leaned against the wall and hummed a happy tune as she waited to reach her floor.
Before the silver eyed girl knew it, the elevator had slowed down to a stop. Tapping her right foot impatiently, the doors appeared to slide open even slower than they did earlier.
After what felt like hours to the brunette, the doors finally opened fully.
"Finally, I thought they would never open!" Ruby huffed angrily as she was about to step out of the elevator. Raising her head to try and find the right direction, the brunette felt her body freeze up. Before she could really process this thought, however, her entire train of thoughts came to a crashing halt as she found something barely half a meter in front of her.
Ruby's silver eyes met with light blue colored ones, the owner of the latter being a woman standing a little shorter than the brunette. The light blue eyed woman wore a bluish white dress that reached just above her knees under a jacket that was similarly colored bluish white on the outside and red on the inside. The jacket, Ruby noted in her state of daze, was contrasting starkly with the otherwise bluish white outfit of hers.
What stood out the most of her features was the woman's perfectly white hair. The woman's silk-like white hair was tied into a right ponytail and draped along her shoulder all the way down to her waist.
"Are you going to step out or not?"
Shaking her head quickly to regain her composure, Ruby stepped out with an embarrassed smile on her lips. Holding her hand on the door to prevent it from closing, the white haired woman stepped inside without another word in the brunette's direction before disappearing behind steel and metal.
"Wow… to think that people like her actually walked around in this place…" Ruby muttered to herself, still standing dumbfounded in front of the elevator. It wasn't until the clock chimed five times that the brunette remembered why she went down in the first place.
"Right! Café… café…" Ruby mumbled as she scanned the map of the floor near the elevator, eyes squinted slightly as she couldn't find it. It was exactly when she decided to ask for directions that she found it, "There! So… my second left eh? Alright!"
"So how did things go?" Ruby asked curiously, sipping her strawberry flavored tea as she eyed the other woman critically for any subtle changes in her body language.
"The usual…" Neo replied with an exasperated expression, munching on the muffin that Ruby had brought for her from the café, "I'm beginning to wonder why they have to keep me here any longer if all the checkups are good…"
"They may be good now, but who knows how long that will last?" Ruby countered, a bit louder than she had wanted. Seeing Neo's eyes widen at her outburst, the brunette quickly apologized, "Sorry, I didn't mean to shout… it's just—"
Ruby was interrupted when she felt a gentle and comforting touch on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Neo smiling brightly at her and, once the pink-and-brown haired woman knew that she had the brunette's attention, she removed her hand from Ruby's shoulder.
"I know Ruby, really," Neo smiled, her eyes going a bit foggy before she smiled brightly once more, "It's for the best, and I'll just have to keep up with it… for the both of us…"
"It's just…" Ruby began, trembling slightly before taking several breaths to try and calm herself down again. The returning feeling of having Neo's hand on her shoulder again helped a lot to calm Ruby down enough to formulate a literate sentence, "Why does this have to happen to you? It's not fair!"
"I… don't know…" Neo admitted slowly, a sad smile forming on her lips as her hands conveyed her thoughts to the brunette, "But I do know that this is what happened… and somehow… somehow I will just have to get through this! Are you… with me?"
"What kind of question is that Neo?" Ruby exclaimed, face aghast as she stared at the pink-and-brown haired woman, trying to find a sign of her messing with her. When Ruby looked into Neo's differently colored eyes, however, the brunette knew that she was being serious. Taking in a deep breath, Ruby smiled as she gave her friend a real answer, "Of course I'm with you! All the way, no matter how long it takes!"
"Thank you," Neo signed with a teary-eyed smile, something that was returned in kind by Ruby herself. After swallowing another mouthful of her muffin, Neo tapped Ruby's shoulder to grab her attention before signing again, "So what have you been up to lately?"
"It's always me talking about what I have done…" Ruby muttered, a hint of slight exhaustion and irritation evident in her voice, "Why don't you tell me what you have been doing for a change Neo? I feel bad for always hogging the conversation."
"Look around you Ruby…" Neo replied with a sigh, gesturing at the room that they were in. Despite it being a neat and well-kept hospital room, it was still a hospital room. Ruby chuckled in embarrassment as she remembers this, before Neo added with a forced smile, "It's not like a lot of things are happening here… I cleaned the room a bit after your last visit and had several checkups, but that is really it. You're basically my main way to know of the real world…"
"I'm sorry Neo!" Ruby cried out, hugging the pink-and-brown haired woman tightly, burying her face in the silky hair of her friend as she did so. As the brunette inhaled the fragrance of roses wafting from the smaller woman in her arms, Ruby could also feel the comforting and welcomed touch of Neo's fingers as she stroked her back gently. After a minute of sitting in that position, Ruby slowly let go of her hold on Neo, "I'm so—"
Ruby was stopped from uttering another word by a small hand covering her lips. With a small smile on her face and a shake of her head, Neo fingerspelled her response, "Don't apologize. It's okay."
Ruby nodded once, not being able to say anything as Neo was still covering her mouth. Satisfied with the nod, the hospital patient removed her hand from the brunette's mouth, allowing the latter to speak again, "So… you want to listen to what I have done lately?"
This time it was Neo's turn to nod in response, assuring the brunette that she really did, in fact, want to listen to her. Taking a deep breath, Ruby began, "Everybody is doing fine; Yang is a well-recognized commentator by now."
"She doesn't just do commentaries right?" Neo signed curiously, an eyebrow raised as she recalled something that Ruby had said in the past.
"Nope, she doesn't," Ruby laughed, slightly surprised that Neo still remembered. Gulping down her now cooled down tea, the brunette continued, "It's just that her dojo is having a bit of a quiet time right now, low season and all… it could be a good thing, though, as this gives her a bit more time than usual to do her commentaries nowadays."
"That's nice," Neo nodded, smiling at the sight of the spark in Ruby's eyes, "You two still getting along fine?"
"Oh yes, definitely! That is… except this morning…" Ruby muttered, trailing off as she looked away as the memory came back up again. Upon seeing the curious look on her friend's face, the brunette knew that she couldn't back out anymore. Ruby inhaled a shaky breath, mentally preparing herself for what was to come before softly revealing what happened, "Yang… threw a bucket of ice water on me…"
As soon as the words left Ruby's lips, even though they were uttered as softly as possible by the brunette in the hopes that they would be inaudible, Neo's body began to shake heavily. As Ruby watched the pink-and-brown haired woman laugh mutely, holding the sides of her stomach while doing so, the brunette could feel the smile falter at the lack of noise that Neo was making. Before Neo could see the shift in Ruby's mood, however, the visitor had successfully brought the smile back.
"That… was priceless!" Neo panted, slightly out of breath as she wiped the corner of her eyes. Taking a few deep breaths in an effort to regain her composure, it took a full minute before she could successfully sign anything again, "Remind me to thank your sister~!"
"Very funny…" Ruby pouted, earning a teasing wink from Neo as Ruby went up to get two glasses of water. Once she returned, she offered one of the two glasses to Neo, who accepted it gratefully, while taking a sip of her own, "So yeah… everything going fine with Yang."
"How about you?" Neo asked absentmindedly and seemingly distracted, not looking up from her glass. Ruby flinched slightly at the question and, unfortunately for the brunette, this did not go unnoticed by Neo. With a slight frown, Neo signed the question Ruby knew was coming, "You're still blaming yourself for it… aren't you…?"
"Of course I am!" Ruby exclaimed suddenly, shocking Neo. More than her friend snapping like that, what shocked Neo the most was how easily Ruby admitted. Ruby's words left Neo speechless and, seeing this, the brunette let loose the river of emotions that she had been holding in, "I know what you're going to say and I don't care! I know I could've done something! I know I could've been a better friend and helped you! I should have been a better friend, but I… I wasn't! And look where it got us! You're stuck here because of… because of—"
The dam broke broke once more and, as she let out the words that were weighing her down, Ruby didn't realize that she was trembling. She didn't even realize the dampness of her cheeks until she opened her silver colored eyes, feeling the tears roll down her face. Something had caused her to stop, and it took her a few seconds to fully realize what it was.
Neo had wrapped her arms around the brunette's frame, holding the woman tight enough to be comforting but loose enough as to not suffocate her. This worked in calming Ruby down, the brunette blinking a few times in surprise at Neo's sudden action.
It didn't take long for the tears to come again, however.
"I'm sorry Neo!" Ruby cried out, burying her face in Neo's shoulder as she tightened her hold on the pink-and-brown haired woman. As the tears fell from the brunette's face and drenched Neo's shirt, Neo tried to soothingly rub Ruby's back, trying her hardest to comfort the brunette. It didn't seem to do much, however, as Ruby continued to shake violently, "I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry!"
Neo didn't bat an eye as Ruby's tears completely soaked her shirt. She didn't even appear to mind the fact that her ribs and back were screaming at her. All that mattered to her right then and there was the woman in her arms, and she did everything she could to give Ruby the comfort she knew the brunette so desperately needed.
"I… I… I'm… s…s…so…o…o…rry…" Ruby breathed out in between sobs. About half an hour had passed since she broke down and she was still where she was, still trembling as she clung onto Neo as if she were her lifeline. Neo closed her eyes, allowing a small smile to grace her lips as she could tell that the brunette was slowly but surely regaining herself.
Another fifteen minutes passed before, to Neo's relief, Ruby's breathing and sobs began to calm down, only leaving a wet and whimpering mess in Neo's arms. Throughout all of it, Neo remained still and unmoving. Unmoving apart from her hands, which the pink-and-brown haired woman used to gently stroke Ruby's back, visibly contributing greatly in helping the brunette calm down.
After another ten minutes, Ruby finally released her hold on Neo to look up at said girl, the tears and mucus still clearly evident on the former's face. Before the brunette could open her mouth, however, Neo had leaned forward with several tissues in hand to gingerly clean Ruby's face.
Once done, Neo threw the used tissues in the open trash can by her bed before turning back to Ruby. With a smile, Neo signed the words she felt she had been signing a lot already, "It's fine, Ruby, really…"
"Okay…" Ruby sniffled softly, gratefully accepting the glass of water that Neo offered her and slowly drinking its contents.
"So apart from blaming yourself for what happened to me…" Neo began, eyeing Ruby with a critical eye to see her response. The brunette, to Neo's credit, managed to stay calm, despite flinching slightly. With a smile, Neo continued, "What else have you been doing?"
"Nothing much, really…" Ruby finally managed after a while, slowly lowering the glass from her lips and placing it on Neo's nightstand, "I haven't done anything out of the ordinary… just stayed at home, sometimes going out with Yang or Nora and Penny, but that is it, really."
"Good to know that they're all doing well," Neo smiled, taking a sip of water herself. She was about to sign again but was interrupted by a buzzing sound; a sound that caught both girls off guard. With an embarrassed smile on her face, Ruby took out her phone from her pocket and frowned slightly as her eyes darted around the screen. While this didn't go unnoticed by Neo, she waited patiently until Ruby had pocketed her phone back in her pocket and focused her attention back on her before asking the question, "Who was that?"
"Yang. She's telling me to go home" Ruby muttered sadly, getting up and collecting her things from below the windowsill. With a watery smile, the brunette turned back to Neo, "I'm afraid I have to go…"
"That's alright Ruby," Neo smiled, causing said girl to frown slightly. Realizing what was bothering the brunette, Neo quickly added, "I mean, don't get me wrong. I love it when you're here visiting, but if you go now it gives you a better reason to come back again soon."
"You're right!" Ruby exclaimed, realizing that Neo was right. As her frown was quick to make way for a bright smile, Ruby embraced Neo; a gesture that was returned in kind by the pink-and-brown haired woman. After a minute or so, Ruby let go, "Until next time then!"
"Until next time!"
Sighing softly, Ruby grabbed the doorknob tightly, though something was stopping her from opening it. After contemplating whether or not she wanted to enter, the brunette made up her mind, opened the door and stepped inside.
Once inside, Ruby was greeted by the sound of two people talking, both voices being distinguishably female, as well as the welcoming and familiar scent of Yang's cooking. Letting her nose guide her, the next thing that Ruby knew was that she found herself in the dining room.
The last bit of orange rays of the setting sun broke through the closed curtains, but did little to illuminate the room enough on its own. As a result, the lamps were already turned on, enveloping the room in a similar colored, albeit artificial, light as the sun's.
On Ruby's right was the dining table, fully set with the food still steaming slightly, the sight and smell enough to make her mouth water. Ruby smiled, glad to know that she was still on time for dinner. Not seeing Yang anywhere in the room, the brunette was about to try her luck in the living room when the door to that very room opened and two women walked out.
"Hey Rubes, about time you got back home!" Yang exclaimed cheerfully, wasting no time to ruffle her little sister's hair. Once satisfied, the blonde slung an arm around her sister's shoulder, grabbed the wrist of the woman who followed her and guided both into the room, "Now that you're finally back, we can eat! Let's chow down, I made your favorite!"
"Really?" Ruby's face lit up almost instantly upon hearing her sister's words, scanning Yang's face for any hints of it being a joke. Once she realized that the blonde was, in fact, telling the truth, the brunette wasted no time in jumping at her in a hug, "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"
"Well then, we better get going and eat it while it is still warm," Yang said with a smile and a light chuckle, gently guiding her ecstatic younger sister to the dining room. It only took the blonde three steps to realize that the other, raven haired woman wasn't following, "Blake? Are you coming?"
"Thanks for the offer Yang, but I think I will pass for now," the raven haired, Blake, muttered in response with a small smile evident on her features. After having looked away for a while, Blake turned her attention back to the two sisters and added, "This should be bonding time between you two; I don't want to intrude—"
"You're not intruding at all Blake!" Ruby added hastily, waving her arms in panic as she tried to help persuade said woman to stay, "We want you to stay a bit longer!"
"Thanks Ruby, but I really can't…" Blake tried again, an apologetic smile gracing her lips as she turned to the younger brunette, "I was only here to return a book I borrowed anyway. Maybe next time?"
"I'll hold you to that!" Yang smirked, earning a single nod in response from Blake, "Alright… take care Blake."
"Of course…" Blake's reply was almost inaudible, though the smile was a sure-sign as to what she had said. Not wasting another second, Blake gathered her things, waved to the two sisters and left the house.
The silence that followed was a prolonged one, one that neither Ruby nor Yang knew how to break. Eventually, it was Yang who got the conversation started again by clearing her throat.
"Sooo…" Yang trailed off as the two sisters moved to sit down at the dining table. As Ruby looked at her from the opposite side of the table, clearly waiting for Yang to continue, the blonde did exactly that, "How was your day?"
"It was alright," Ruby replied with a shrug as she focused on pouring water into her sister's glass before filling her own, "I went shopping with Nora and Penny before visiting Neo."
"Seems like a nice day indeed," Yang chuckled, having started to pile up food on their plates, "How is she, anyway?"
"She said she's been doing fine," Ruby began, receiving a full plate with a grateful smile before adding, "She also looked like she was doing a lot better… even so…"
"You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened Rubes," Yang interjected gently, her tone being both gentle as well as stern, "What happened has happened, and it isn't your fault. You should focus on being there for her, supporting and helping her all the way."
"Funny, that's exactly what Neo said as well," Ruby admitted with a laugh, recalling the pink-and-brown haired woman's conveyed words from earlier that day. Letting out the breath that the brunette didn't know she was holding, she grinned, "I know I have to do it."
"That's the Ruby I know!" Yang laughed before motioning the plate in front of the brunette, "But you can't do anything on an empty stomach so dig in!"
That is all for now; hope you guys liked it! As always, reviews are highly appreciated!
I know that this is supposed to be White Rose-focused, but Strawberry Ice Cream is kind of really adorable as well… hm… On a related note, how old do you guys think Neo actually is (in canon)? Yes, that's a serious question that I will have in the back of my mind until her age is officially confirmed… Either way, a crying Ruby is a hard-to-depict Ruby… hope I didn't mess her up too much…
Until next time everybody! Take care!