What was she supposed to say to her sister? Her father? Everyone else?

She didn't want to be a disappointment. Feeling her chest tighten at the thought of being under such scrutiny, she released a harsh breath. They weren't judgmental people. Her family loved her…her team would understand. Knowing her independent ways as they did, they would keep the worst of what they thought to themselves, and knowing that wasn't encouraging.

She lifted herself from the bed, and padded over to the connected bathroom, running hot water and sinking herself into the bath.

She looked down at her body, he left no marks, no indication that he had even touched her, but Ruby knew he was being careful. All hunters had a harder edge to them. Something buried deep and dormant. She could feel it in him too. She just didn't think it wise to ask him about it. Maybe one day, she would find the courage. For now, she just needed to take every day as it came to her.

This day, would not be a pleasant one.

She took her time washing and even longer getting dressed. She hoped if it took her long enough, the day would just pass her by, but at ten in the morning she was starting to get hungry. She could feel her head begin to ache, her aura fight to activate as something sucked it dry, consuming it. Her aura would fight back, of course, trying to repair itself. Ruby could tell, it still wasn't strong enough to do so on its own. Not yet, but, maybe soon.

If she stayed locked up in the room all day by herself, she would go crazy.

She reached for her scroll, dialing a number she knew by heart. It was a silly thing to do since her sister was on speed dial, but an old truth echoed in her soul. Ruby excelled as wasting time, or so Weiss often complained. It wasn't nearly enough time though, Ruby realized, when the other end began to ring. It would be any moment before Yang would pick up, and Ruby dreaded it when Yang did.

"Ruby?"

"…"

"Hello?"

"…"

"Ruby, are you there?"

"…"

There was a momentary pause, and then a curse before Yang shuffled the scroll in her grasp. "Blake, go get help. Somethings wrong, she's not answering me."

"I'm right here Yang."

"Ruby, thank god! Never mind Blake, I've got her." More shuffling and Yang spoke more clearly. "You are okay, aren't you?"

"I guess that depends…" Ruby replied, not wanting to admit to her foul mood. "I'm not the best, but I've been worse, I guess."

"Goodwitch told me…" Yang trailed off then. "If you need help, I'm here… Blake too, we're here to help you in any way we can."

"You should probably keep your distance."

"I'm worried about you. I don't want to keep my distance."

"Ruby rolled her eyes. She knew her sister would fight her on the matter. It's why she procrastinated as long as possible. "That's great and all, but you need to stay away."

"Look, you just need my aura, right? I can-"

"I'm not completely in control!" Ruby interrupted. "Yang I don't want you to get caught up in this…I don't want to mess something up."

"I don't care about any of that…"

Ruby's breath rattled against the receiver as she forcefully released it. "I can't trust myself, and if I can't, then there's no way you should trust me." She rubbed at her face, scrubbing away the emotional fatigue. "I don't want to fight about this. It's not a big deal anyway, only a matter of time, and everything will go back to normal. I just need to wait this out. Don't worry so much about me."

"Ruby, stop doing this to yourself, there's no point. I know your trying to put on a brave face. You forget the most important thing. I'm your sister, I'm already in this. I got tangled up as soon as something happened to you. We're family, that's how it goes." Then, with a somewhat strained laugh, Yang continued. "If you don't want to let me in, I can just break the door down. You know I will, I've smashed down doors for less. Nothing here in Beacon can hold me back for long."

"If you did that, you'd get into trouble."

"Worth it."

"Yang!"

"Come on, Ruby, do you really wanna keep me away? After everything, you can't trust me with this?"

"I don't trust myself, that's different."

"Not to me." Yang protested. "I'm still bigger and stronger than you are. Keeping me away is like saying you can't trust me to look after you and keep you safe. You might not be a kid anymore, but if family can't look out for each other, then who can we really depend on? If our positions were flipped right now, you'd say the same thing, and you know it."

Ruby was quiet for a while before she relented. "I think the door is unlocked. I don't remember if Bart thought to lock it. He's absentminded about little things like that."

"He's Bart now, is he?" Yang asked teasingly.

Ruby hung up.

There was no way to answer that. At least, not over the scroll, not with her sister leaning between being over protective, or overly supportive. It was a coin toss really, and Ruby wasn't sure what would actually be worse. Her hearing wasn't as good as Blake's but she knew to pay attention to the smallest sound, and so when she heard the door across the hall open and close, and listened for the footfalls she knew would follow.

Hands perched in her lap, she waited for the longest few seconds in her life. She had felt the strange feeling of time standing still before, but none of those times had assaulted her with a level head. The heat of battle, that was different. She could fall back into her training to save her in those all too crucial moments. She could always count on her instinct and natural ability. There was no training for this.

It seemed like forever before Yang opened the door, stepping through, Blake following closely behind. Ruby didn't know what she expected to see when she looked up to see her sister's gaze, but she felt an unresolved sense of same when her sister came to stand by the bedside. The small trash can by the side of the ben held all of the evidence needed to thwart any and all denial, so Ruby didn't even try. She just looked away again, feeling the pounding in her head begin again.

"Geeze, Ruby…" Yang sighed, feeling herself come up short. After all, she had no way of knowing the intimate details of Ruby's life. The younger woman was an adult, able to make her own choices, and Yang mostly steered clear of things that weren't hers to know.

"You should have told us." Blake said, stepping forward, placing a hand on Yang's shoulder knowingly. "We're huntresses too, we know what it's like out there. You can't always expect to come back unscathed. Shutting us out doesn't do us any of us any good."

"You don't understand-"

"Because you won't let us!" Blake barked over Ruby's protest, her ears flattening back as she put her hand to her face. "We're a team, family even. If you can't tell us, then what kind of credit is that? Don't want to tell me? Fine, but Yang's your sister, and you owe her better than that…" Blake shook her head.

"I don't even know where to begin." Ruby murmured.

At this, Yang licked her lips, wondering if she truly wanted to know. At the end of the day, Ruby seemed alright, more or less okay. It was better than she could have hoped for, and she wondered if she should take comfort in that. "I think that the beginning might be a good place to start."

So, Ruby told the story, recounting the mission and where it went wrong. Admitting that there were foggy bits of memory, moments she just couldn't completely explain. She glossed over the aftermath, brushing it away for what it was. Skimming over the lewd details of her first sexual act ever. Momentarily, she lingered over the fact that she had spent the night in the arms of a man who she truly respected, and now wanted more from him. She wondered aloud if that was a good thing, but during that time, she couldn't bring herself to look at Yang.

She could feel the heat of the woman, her aura and that nagging feeling she had come to know started up. The monstrous hunger beneath the surface of her skin, the touch of thousands of Grimm boiling in her blood, their desires and bloodlust the same as hers. The need to take what she so craved drilled into her head as she finished her sordid musings. "So, it just gets to that point where I just need Aura…and when that fails, and I'm stuck in my own head. It's like I'm forgetting what it's like to be human. At least whenever I'm with him…I feel like it'll all just go away. Like it's a phase, nothing else."

"And the need to consume another's aura is persistent, I assume? As in, it's happening right now?" Blake asked.

"Yes. It's always there, sometimes worse than others." Ruby shrugged. "I don't know if that'll ever go away."

"The headmaster seems to think so." Yang said reassuringly. "You can rely on me. I have a lot of aura."

""No, Yang, don't. That just makes me hungry for other things." Ruby said with a shake of her head.

"Huh?" Then it dawned on Yang. "Oh…yeah, um...right."

"I'll be fine, sis." Ruby said, but she wasn't sure if she was trying to convince her sister, or herself. "Bart will be back soon. I just have to wait out the day."

There was an awful silence at the mention of his name again, and Ruby looked to the side, catching a glimpse of something on her older sister's face. She wasn't sure what exactly resided there, the emotion wasn't one she had ever quite come across. "If it's all in good fun, then I guess its fine." Yang said, but she could tell that wasn't the case. She knew, and she wasn't sure she was entirely okay with it. "Just do me a favor, try not to get attached too fast…you do that, then I promise I'll try not to murder him if it doesn't work out."