Chapter V
Weiss pounded the desk beside her laptop for what had to be the fifth time within the past hour. She grit her teeth and fought down her rising frustration as she glared at the computer screen before her. Behind her on the bed, she heard Blake sigh as she idly turned another page in the novel she was currently in the middle of.
"Problems?" the ebony-haired girl asked in a deadpan voice.
"How can there be nothing?!" Weiss cried, pushing her chair away from the desk as she spun to complain to her friend. "It's like she doesn't even exist!"
Upon returning home from the Home Tuesday after her latest meeting with Ruby, Weiss had gone straight to her room in an attempt to find out all she could about this mysterious girl she had spent the last two weeks getting to know. Immediately typing in "Ruby Rose" to the Internet's search bar, she waited for the results to load.
Only they never did.
Obviously there was more than one Ruby Rose out there, yet every link she clicked on led her to some other Ruby in some other far off land. None of them were her Ruby.
Now, it was Wednesday night and Weiss was at it again, this time with the "help" of Blake. While she had been trying to find a social media page of sorts that the girl used last night—she figured it was a long shot, Ruby didn't seem the type to keep a Facebook or whatever her generation was into these days, but had been worth a look—now she was searching any and all news sites she could think of. She searched stories dating from today all the way back to ten years ago. If Ruby was found under such peculiar circumstances, there had to be something recorded, right?
Wrong, apparently.
"Maybe she's in Witness Protection?" Blake eventually suggested with a shrug.
Weiss just rolled her eyes and turned back to her computer. "Some help you are," she grumbled.
She heard Blake chuckle. "Why are you so adamant to find something?"
"Why are you suddenly so disinterested?" Weiss fired back.
Blake peered at her over her book and fixed the heiress with a serious look. "Because it's not my place," she answered. "While the lack of any records on Ruby is puzzling, there has to be a reason for it. A reason that I don't have the right to know." At the downcast look from Weiss as her words no doubt sunk in, Blake added, "Just because you've become friends with her doesn't mean you get instant access to her privacy. Please tell me you haven't been actively digging to find dirt on me."
Weiss's cheeks darkened at the implication. "Of course not! We've known each other for so long; I know all I need to about you!"
"So Ruby's different because you haven't known her for a decade?"
"She's different because she's just that!" Weiss exclaimed with a huff. "Different. Something's not right here, Blake. I just…get this gut feeling whenever I think about it. Don't you think this secrecy is just a little bit suspicious?"
Silence befell the bedroom as Blake chose not to answer. Weiss eventually spoke again, this time in a hushed whisper.
"Father must have something on her in his personal files…"
"Oh, no," Blake sighed, dog-earing a page of her book before setting it beside her to give Weiss her undivided attention. "As much as I'd get a kick out of rifling through your dad's things, this is not our place, Weiss."
It was no news that Mr Schnee had a habit for conducting business that tended to linger on the shadier side of things more often than not. Weiss was already aware that the files he had on each and every patient in his personal office at home differed from those the Home had. His were more extensive. The Home merely had the basic necessities to treat those under their care. Weiss also wouldn't be surprised if the public records on each individual even differed from her father's. It also wouldn't come as a shock if his personal files would still differ were Winter or Weiss ever to end up in the Home.
"Is being her friend really not enough?" Blake's piercing question submerged her back in the present.
Guilt twisted sharply in Weiss like a knife. She knew she had become obsessed with the circumstances surrounding Ruby's past, but who wouldn't? Especially after actually having spent extensive time with the girl now, it had only hardened Weiss's resolve to now help her friend. Maybe by finding out what had led to Ruby being admitted would help her know how to approach her better. She just needed more to go on.
"I just want to help her…" Weiss eventually voiced meekly.
"Weiss," the silverette looked over her way as Blake spoke again, "you have to believe you're already helping her just by befriending her. I know you're going into this blind, but that's always how meeting people goes."
"You should know firsthand I'm no good at 'meeting people,' Blake," Weiss retorted bitterly. "How many friends do I have beside you?"
"You'd have more if you could just learn to let your walls down."
A glare from Weiss had Blake raising her hands in apology; still, deep down in her gut, Weiss knew her friend had a point. It took a special kind of person to penetrate the walls she had structured around her to protect herself. She wasn't even the one who had built them; it was her father. His constant lesson to not let people in—to now show any kind of weakness, which apparently came from having friends—in order to be successful in the business world had been flooded into her since she could remember. Blake had managed to slip past her father's defenses as Weiss had only been five at the time they met, and any five year-old is going to lower the gates to anyone offering to be their friend. However, the older Weiss got, the less she opened herself up. Blake stayed within her walls, though, and she felt she would forever be in the girl's debt because of her refusal to leave Weiss's castle of solitude.
Then Ruby comes in, all but vaulting over said walls, but now Weiss had twelve years to have been shaped by her father. Despite this, his "resilient" walls had all but crumbled the instant she had gazed upon pools of liquid mercury. Perhaps the ease with which Ruby entered her life was what was driving Weiss to find out every little thing she could about this girl.
She was scared.
It sounded ludicrous, of course, being scared of a fifteen year-old girl who was nothing short of adorable and apparently couldn't even speak. Yet, in the late hours of the night when Weiss tossed and turned in her bed, sleep continuing to evade her, she knew it to be true.
She was scared, yet still filled with the burning desire to help. That brought wave upon wave of confusion. Shouldn't one go running with their tail between their legs at the first inkling of fear? Instead, Weiss was barreling towards it head on.
"Weiss?" Blake's concerned tone brought her back yet again that night. "I'm sorry. That was rude of me."
Weiss just shook her head. "It's okay," she replied. "You don't have to apologize if it's the truth."
Blake cringed at the lifeless tone Weiss used. Wanting to keep her friend's spirits up, she quickly got back on the one topic that Weiss always seemed so eager to talk about now.
Ruby.
It was clear to see the change this one girl was making in Weiss's life. While her obsession with Ruby's past could end up being harmful down the road, everything else was emitting such light from the heiress, Blake had been sure that life had been quashed years ago.
"What did you and Ruby end up doing yesterday? I never did receive any text."
Blake found the light blush Weiss sported then a bit curious, the way she refused to look her way when she responded, and the manner in which she took her bottom lip between her teeth even more so. Still, Blake only stored that information away for a later time.
"I was in the middle of sending you a text, honestly," Weiss began to explain, "but then Ruby grabbed my attention and I just…forgot."
Blake quite literally had to bite back the retort of "naturally" at Weiss's explanation. Clearly this girl would not be vacating Weiss's mind anytime in the near future.
Blake figured she could at least bring some productivity out of Weiss's newest obsession.
"You know, it may not be the start you want," Blake spoke up, "but if you want to start seeing life from Ruby's point of view in order to help her, what about writing that paper of yours on her?"
That finally got Weiss to look at her.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"You need to pick a psychological condition, right?" Blake pointed out with a casual shrug. "I know you don't know exactly what Ruby's been diagnosed with, but anything regarding mutism would most likely be a good place to start."
Blake then quite literally saw the spark of determination take flame in Weiss's eyes, before the heiress quickly spun back to her computer, beginning to type feverishly once again. Blake flashed an unseen smile at her friend before returning back to her book.
For the next fifteen minutes, the only noises in the room came from the idle tapping of the down arrow from Weiss's computer, and the turning of pages from Blake's book.
Finally, Weiss broke the silence once again.
"All I'm finding is this thing called selective mutism, but that can't be what Ruby has," she explained in a mumble, most likely mostly to herself.
"And why not?" Blake prompted after a few seconds of silence in which Weiss didn't go on.
"Because according to Glynda, Ruby hasn't spoken at all for ten years. All the sources I'm looking at still show people with this disorder to speak in familiar, comfortable situations. Wouldn't you think Ruby having been at the home for that amount of time would make the Home familiar to her? Or that she'd feel comfortable around people like Ozpin, Glynda, or Pyrrha? Yet, she still hasn't said one word to any of them apparently. Ozpin's even been her therapist for this entire time and she hasn't even spoken to him once."
"So apparently she's not comfortable with any of them despite that," Blake suggested, again so casually it began to irk Weiss once more. "Just being there for ten years doesn't automatically mean she's comfortable there."
"I know!" Weiss snapped before sighing heavily, looking forlornly over her shoulder at Blake. "Sorry…"
Blake just waved her off, knowing full well by now this behavior was normal from her friend when it concerned something she was passionate about.
"Look," Blake spoke up again, "I keep saying it, but I'll say it again: just keep being Ruby's friend. Things will happen when they do, and there's really no way you can speed any of this up. You're making a great impact in this girl's life, and while the results may not be ones you want to see, in time I think they'll become just that."
Weiss rolled her eyes before spinning back around in her chair. "Why aren't you in my psychology class?" she mumbled. "Better yet, why aren't you teaching it?"
Blake chuckled. "If I was, I'd give hundred-question tests every week just to spite you."
An eraser flying from the desk to the bed had both the girls dissolving into a fit of laughter, and for a moment, Weiss found Ruby had been pushed to the back of her mind.
A week later, Weiss was back at the Home with Ruby on their designated Tuesday, the two of them sitting side-by-side down at the pond. Ruby was currently in the middle of making crowns for them out of the small flowers that surrounded the water as Weiss watched fondly from her peripherals. Soon, however, the silence became a bit too stifling for the heiress and she cleared her throat, swallowing her nerves for how personal she was about to get.
"Ruby?"
The crimsonette beside her inclined her head towards Weiss ever so slightly to let her know she was listening, yet remained mostly focused on her second flower crown.
"Are you…happy here?"
Weiss bit her lip while her stomach churned, watching Ruby slowly stop what she was doing before looking at her, confusion causing her eyes to turn gray like a looming storm.
"I-I mean…" Weiss cursed herself for stuttering, knowing if her father saw her fumble over her words when talking to a mere girl, words of scorn would pour from between his lips. "It's just…I know you've lived here most of your life, and I hope you don't mind me knowing that, but as you know my family owns this facility so I just wanted to make sure you were being taken care of in the most suitable manner."
Well, that wasn't what she had meant to say at all. Good going, Weiss.
Perhaps not so surprisingly however, was the look Ruby was now giving her. Ruby didn't believe for one minute that was what Weiss had the intention of saying when she started talking.
How did this girl she had only known for a few weeks know her better than she sometimes knew herself?
As Weiss remained silent, mulling over how to possibly to put what she wanted to say in words without sounding as obsessed as she knew she was, Ruby took the opportunity to place the first flower crown atop Weiss's head. The movement had Weiss looking back to Ruby, heat rising to her cheeks when she noticed just how close Ruby had moved to her to do so.
"U-Um…" Weiss internally face-palmed as she floundered for words. Ruby merely beamed at her before adjusting her crown slightly and falling back to her haunches, staring at Weiss in her crown with a proud—and dreamy? Weiss's heart fluttered briefly—look.
"Thank you, Ruby," she finally managed. Ruby's smile widened before handing Weiss the second crown. Weiss fiddled with it for a moment before watching Ruby motion to her own head. "You…want me to put yours on you?" The heiress guessed.
Nodding her head rapidly, Weiss could easily imagine two perked ears atop her head, a tail wagging manically behind her. The image had Weiss giggling before she too leaned forward, lightly letting the bunch of flowers fall to Ruby's head.
The two spent a moment admiring their new headwear on the other before their eyes happened to lock and brilliant blushes lit up their face. Ruby looked away first, causing Weiss to frown again upon seeing the upset look on Ruby's face as the younger girl began to pull tufts of grass from the ground, her eyes clenched shut once again.
"Ruby?"
The girl didn't move at Weiss's call, however, her knuckles only straining more around the grass in her grasp. Acting on instinct then, Weiss carefully reached forward and gently pried Ruby's hands open, the grass fluttering to the ground. Ruby finally opened her eyes as Weiss placed her right hand on Ruby's cheek, moving the girl's head so silver eyes were piercing into her soul once again.
"Why do you do that?" Weiss asked, her courage finally having mounted. "When I joked about you following me, when you grabbed my hand that one time, and just now… Why do you always look so upset with yourself? Do you think you've made me uncomfortable? Because you haven't, honestly."
Ruby shook her head, but did indeed shut her eyes again, this time raising her fists up to her head like Weiss had seen other patients sometimes do, moving them against her scalp almost like a—none too gentle—massage.
"Hey, hey," Weiss whispered, pulling Ruby's fists back to her lap where she covered both the girl's hands with hers, refusing to let go. "Ruby, please tell me what's wrong."
When Ruby only continued to look distraught, though her eyes had remained open this time, thank god, Weiss asked one of the many questions that had been plaguing her mind the past several weeks.
"We're friends, aren't we?"
At this, Ruby frantically nodded her head, her eyes screaming for Weiss to never doubt that. Weiss smiled, one huge weight lifted from her shoulders then. Ruby hesitantly returned it.
"I want to help you, Ruby, but I can't if you won't tell me what's wrong," Weiss tried to explain as gently as possible. "I don't like seeing you upset."
Like before, Ruby opened her mouth as to speak before she closed it, glancing away from Weiss. Still, she tried again. And again, and again; yet no noises ever escaped. Weiss felt her heart clench.
She's trying so hard! Weiss thought with a mix of pain and pride. The pain soon won out, however, upon noticing the tears building in Ruby's eyes.
"Ruby!" Weiss cried out, leaping forward to place her hands on the girl's shoulder, giving her a small shake. "Please! I'm sorry; I shouldn't have asked that of you, please don't push yourself just for me."
Looking at Weiss with watery eyes, the heiress's heart went out to the girl for the umpteenth time since knowing her. Flashing her a smile, she adjusted the flower crown on Ruby before carefully pulling the girl into a hug, giving Ruby plenty of time to pull out of the embrace if she desired.
Instead it was Ruby who closed the final gap between them, all but crushing Weiss to her and nuzzling the older girl's neck. Weiss giggled a bit at the feeling.
"It's okay, Ruby," Weiss told her confidently. "I promise I'll help you. I promise I'll continue being your friend. And I promise I'll never leave you, okay?"
Managing to pull out of the hug slightly, she chuckled at Ruby's bashful look, acting to wipe away a few tears before they could fall.
"So stop crying, you dolt."
Ruby giggled mutely at the jab before burrowing back against Weiss, a deep happy sigh resonating from within her. Weiss shuddered as Ruby's breath tickled her neck, fighting down another blush before she cradled the young girl back against her.
"You're going to be okay…"