A/N: First off, i'd like to say thank you for all the support i have been getting. I never thought this story was going to get any kind of attention. i would like to say a special thanks to LazyKatze and A-rav for all there editing, for there criticism, and just general help with the story. Make sure you go check them out. Just in case the way i set up the progression of the story is messed up or weird, this chapter takes place before the first chapter and after the second. Please, please, please, leave a review or private message me about what you like/don't like about the story and writing. I love to know what you guys and gals think about it, plus it helps me write better. if for some reason you like my witting, go check out my other story Nightmares and Fairy Tales. (It is White Rose fluff). You probably don't want to listen to me ramble on any longer, so i present to you, Wilting Rose Part 3.

3 months earlier...

Weiss

It had been two months since she had met the rambunctious red head. Every conversation with Ruby, which seemed to become more and more frequent, ended up with Weiss yelling at the girl and one of the two storming off. She didn't mean to be so hostile and cold to the other girl, she just couldn't help it. Ruby made her feel different than normal. When she was around Ruby she felt happy, and her heart would beat faster. She would try to open up, try to be different than her normal icy self, if only to impress her partner. When something went wrong, as it normally did, she would do the only thing she knew. She would retreat back into her icy shell and harden her defences. She would lash out, attacking what ever made her mad. Unfortunately, Ruby happened to be the target of the lashing out most of the time.

"You insufferable little brat!" she shouted at the smaller girl, "Maybe, if you were to pay attention for once, you wouldn't mess everything up!"

The smaller red themed girl shrunk, tears beginning to well up in her big silver eyes. She turned and ran, leaving rose petals in her wake.

"What a dunce," the heiress scoffed to herself. "I ask her to do one simple thing—just to get me some coffee." She looked down at her icy blue dress, now stained dark brown. "Well this dress is ruined." Weiss rubbed the bridge of her nose, feeling the soon to be headache forming. She raised her head, looking for where the redhead had run off to. Not seeing any sign of the younger girl, Weiss started to get even angrier. "Fine, she wants to go run and cry like a child then so be it! She will just have get back to Beacon by herself!" She turned with a huff, walking quickly back to the air docks where ships would take her back to the school.

Ruby

Her eyes filled with tears as she ran down the street, not caring who she bumped into. She ran, not knowing where she was heading. She turned a corner and found herself in an empty alleyway. Ruby leaned against the wall, not being able to run anymore, her sobs now audible. She slid down the wall, bringing her chest to her knees. She sat there and cried, tears streaming down her face. Why?! Why does she hate me so much? All I ever do is try to be nice to her! She reached up, wiping away tears from her eyes. "I can't do anything right!" she spoke out loud, the echo of her choked words bouncing around in the empty alley. "Why do I even try?"

Ruby's head drooped into her hands. She sat there for who knows how long and cried until her eyes were red and swollen. She cried until her throat was raw and bleeding, her voice threatening to never return. She cried until her whole body was spent, all of her energy exhausted. She cried, wanting her heart to not hurt anymore. Unfortunately, that time never came. Ruby sat there until the sky was darkening and the moon began to rise. As she sat there waiting for the pain to go away, she realised she had stopped crying. She didn't know when she had stopped, only that she had. She hadn't stopped because the pain was gone. It was still there, throbbing away in her chest, reverberating throughout her body. She had stopped for one simple reason. She had run out of tears.

Ruby sat in the alley contemplating the new emptiness, left by the absence of sadness. She had felt something like this before after her mother had died. She hated the feeling, however, she always had let the hole stay, not wanting anything to replace her mother. But two? One hole in her heart was more than enough. She wanted, no had, to fill the gap, so she looked at all of her other feelings, trying to find a replacement for the newest hole in her. As she searched she only found one feeling with any extra to spare. Pain. Ruby took it, desperate to close the wound caused by the white haired girl. She took in the pain, filling in the chasm in her heart. The hole was gone, and she smiled. Not one of her old, happy-go-lucky smiles that everyone had come to associate with her. This smile was happy without a doubt, but in all the wrong ways.

She liked this new feeling of closure, and she couldn't get enough of it. Ruby took her pain and filled in every nick in her heart. Every time she was yelled at, or made fun of, or picked on. Every memory of something bad happening to her, she filled it with pain. Every. Single. Thing. No memory was spared, not even the ones of her mother. She finished, but she still found plenty of pain remaining. Ruby lifted her head back letting out a horrible, twisted laugh. She enjoyed this. For the first time since she was a child she felt whole again. She sat there laughing her head off, enjoying the almost euphoric feeling of the "wholeness". Deciding she was never going back to feeling empty again, she got up and started walking home.

There was something Ruby didn't realize when she decided to coat her heart in pain. Pain, like any other feeling, is like a drug. The more you are exposed to it, the more numb you become to it. After a while, she would have to go to great lengths just to feel the smallest amount of pain. It was a terrible price to pay, but to her, it was worth it. Anything was worth not feeling empty anymore.