It was a rhythmic clacking upon the floor. One crutch, followed by two footfalls, then the crutch again. Yang had listed to it echo down the hallways, and though she knew those footfalls belonged to Sun, she could not be bothered to go and meet him half way. Instead she waited for him to come to her. Strangely, he did so with the same kind of stubborn idiocy that had likely injured him in the first place. She shouldn't have been surprised, but she was.

She watched him sit down, all of his usual antics put aside as he scratched the back of his neck idly. "Can we talk?"

"Does it have to be now?" She asked him.

"Kind of...yeah." He nodded tensely. "We haven't really talked…ya know…not really. I figured, maybe it's about time that we should."

"There's nothing to talk about." She shrugged. "Ruby's got her life, I've got mine. She made that pretty clear."

"Yeah, well, you're still family." Sun said offhandedly. "And family, they look out for each other." There was a long drawn out pause, one that lingered, and he cut the silence again. "I wanted to thank you, for keeping an eye on Zhu."

"That was Blake's doing not mine." Yang halted him. "Can we cut the bullshit, I'm in a bad mood."

"I know." Sun said. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. You don't think she's actually going through with it, do you?"

"The operation?" At this, Yang's eyes hardened. "I don't know. I haven't talked to her about it since. I just go check in on her, sit with her during lunch…but we don't talk about it anymore. Every time we do, we fight, and I'm…I'm tired of fighting with her. She does everything I tell her not to do anyway."

"I'd say I won't let anything else happen to her, but I keep doing a pretty shitty job of protecting her." Sun admitted guiltily. He rubbed his hands together nervously, leaning forward, feeling his stiches pull with the movement. "But, you know…we all have to go to hell in our own way…and if she wants it, I'm not going to tell her otherwise."

"You're quoting my uncle now?" Yang bit out.

"Well, wise man. Helped look after you and Ruby after all." Sun earnestly turned to Yang, noticing her trepidation. "When I started drinking to numb the pain of losing Octavia, Ruby told me it scared her. That she wanted it to stop." He couldn't help it, smirked. It was full self-hate. "Last thing I wanted to do was scare Ruby, so I tried to stop, but it was harder to do than I expected…that's when she started telling about your dad, and your uncle in detail. Then I realized, she wasn't scared of me drinking, she was scared of what it might mean for Zhu."

"She ever tell you why?"

"No…"

"We don't talk about it." Yang nodded.

"Then, why ask me?"

"Why not? I don't know what the hell you two talk about." Yang refuted heatedly, before gritting her teeth. "Sorry…not your fault I'm acting like a bitch…it's just…she's my baby sister…she is always going to be. I know she doesn't like it when I nag, but I love her, I want the best for her…I know we drive each other completely ape-shit…no pun intended…but at least we can say we do. From the kind of family we come from, Sun, that's rare…we're lucky to have a bond at all."

"Can I ask what happened…back then, I mean?" Sun had always wondered about Ruby's early childhood. A topic that honestly, Ruby herself was unable to recount more than a few select memories of.

Yang's nod was mechanical, practiced. Something she had clearly done hundreds, if not thousands of times. Her featured schooled off into a distant, and very controlled façade. Even her words were measured, her tone like glass. Smooth, but easy to see through, the fragileness there under the surface. "At the time, she wasn't all that much older than Zhu is now. Maybe a month or two. We lost Summer Rose, and she was too little to understand. Dad kept telling her that mom went away for a while…she kept asking for mom though, kids are innocent like that."

"And…you didn't wonder that same thing?" Sun asked.

"In the Xiao Long family, if someone goes away, they don't come back. My real mom had already 'gone away' too. I knew that phrase wasn't good the second that I'd heard it…anyway there was an incident. Ruby was with dad one day by herself after mom passed. Uncle Qrow and I came back, and Ruby was sitting on dad's lap screaming. He didn't wake up at first. That loveable jackass nearly killed himself."

"That's harsh…" Sun admitted, knowing he could have been in the same position.

"Found out he drank enough that his aura couldn't nullify the alcohol. Do you realize how much a hunter has to drink for that to happen? He had to get his stomach pumped." Yang sighed, the memory was one she would never forget. And on some level, Ruby never had either in spite of being so young. "For about two years after, she started crying whenever she saw anyone pick up a whiskey bottle, or something that looked like one. Uncle Qrow took us for a little while so dad could pull himself together the best he could."

Sun was quiet for a few moments. "I'd never try to intentionally hurt Ruby."

"I never said you would try to."

"She's not a replacement for Octavia."

"I never said that, either."

"I'll take care of her, Yang, I promise, no matter what I have to do."

"My problem isn't with you. You've done nothing wrong." Yang finally ranted. "I'm pissed at Ruby. I do not want to become my uncle, for god's sake."

"I…don't follow…"

"I know you're a good man Sun. I know that, because whenever Ruby's needed you, you've been there." No, she wasn't angry at Sun. "You came from a happy home. With siblings, and parents…"

"I don't understand what that has to do with-"

"I don't expect you to understand." Yang fired back, interrupting him. "You had stability. Stability that Ruby and I never had. And why not?"

"Because your dad drank?"

"Because our dumbass moms were both hunters." Yang rudely corrected. "They put their jobs before us, and look where it got them. Look where it got us. They weren't here for us when we needed them to be. It was a hard life on everyone. Hard missions for Summer. Hard nights for dad who stayed up worrying about her…hard on Ruby in general. Hard for me, listening to her cry knowing there was nothing I could do. Then one mission became too hard, and Summer never came back…she was dead, and none of us got to say goodbye."

Sun had no idea what to say to that. Ruby had never painted her childhood full of sunshine and rainbows, but neither did she depict it as some sort of unmitigated hell that Yang had laid out before him. Whether or not that was the price of being the older sibling eluded him. However, it went without question that Yang had done her best to protect Ruby at all cost. Ever since he had known the siblings, he knew to respect Yang's watchful eye, because her presence was enough to state that anyone who wronged her sister would answer directly to her.

Yang's tirade ebbing into silence was even more uncomfortable than hearing her own voice. "History repeats itself." She looked back to Sun, eyes now colored a deep shade of red. "Zhu was screaming for you, crying for you. Neither one of you were there for him." The rage in her voice was unquestionable. Hurt. Betrayal. "And I told Ruby that if she…" She took a breath. "It's not the arm that really pisses me off, it's the principle. If she goes through with it, that means she cares more about being a huntress more than she cares about you and Zhu."

"I don't see it that way. She loves being a huntress."

"Wanna know what life taught me? You ask for too much, you get burned. Everyone else you love loses something too." Yang murmured. "I don't doubt she loves being a hunter…but if she cares about Zhu, or you…she would be part of a family she never got to have. She wouldn't torture Zhu the same way our moms tortured us. She needs to decide what she loves more, being a huntress, or having a family…because she's the type of person who just can't do both."

And knowing that, deep down, bothered Yang. Ruby was only human, she wasn't perfect. She, was not infallible, and her faults, like Yang's were a great many. Several of them a testament of their upbringing. Ruby was lucky though, to have Yang at her side. When their father or uncle weren't around, Yang always had been…and the welcome distraction of being siblings was what had gotten the two of them through the worst times imaginable.

So no, it wasn't just the arm…it wasn't just that Ruby could have very easily come home in a body bag. In total, it was the culmination of everything they'd ever dreamed as children. Sharing a bed, reading stories, and looking out the window, waiting for a woman who never came back.

AYangThang: You're still getting an update tomorrow, but this scene is long, and I didn't want it eating the chapter...even though it is an important part of the fiction, and needed to be included, so here it is, early.