It was Ruby's first time in a hospital. Back on Patch, every medical emergency could be solved with a medical kit, a pile of towels, a stapler and a trip to Mrs Dumpty's guest room. Despite the Grimm presence and less advanced defences, Patch was never a village that saw many wounds that'd have you rushing to the emergency room, especially when your father and uncle are both top tier huntsman. In her Beacon days, the nurse's office was mostly just a repository for pain killers and bandages, Huntsman tended to let aura sort out most of their battle damage. And after that, Ruby's group didn't tend to stay in one place long enough to make use of a hospital.

In that sense, Ruby could rationalize some iota of a silver lining as she drifted in and out of consciousness, opening her eyes, her gaze awash in blaring blurs, just long enough to note the beep of the heart monitor and the presence of masked strangers opening her up before being dropped back into the dark ocean of her mind.

She was used to the embrace of sleep to be a comfort, that listless emptiness pushing away the staples of pain and chasing away the nightmares while rebuilding your strength. It came as a shock to find that this time was not comforting. She felt adrift in a cold, turbulent ocean, waves of darkness rocking her defenceless form between the violent waters. There was no movement, the mindless state stripping her of any physical control, while the water choked her lungs before she could even hope to fade away to a painless sleep, leaving her in a tepid state between the land of dreams and the land of reality.

On top of that, the voices that lulled her to sleep before never ceased their obsession. She could no longer understand the words, just the sentiment, countless whispers from phantom lips, slowly growing more and more irritated, clinging to her skin, desperately trying to pull her down under the water; desperate to drown her.

She had been so close to letting them before. It was terrifying to remember how ready Ruby had been to let it all go, to sink into the great unknown and never wake up again, even if it was merely a traumatic moment of weakness. It was the loud gun shot that shattered the voice's control over her, ripping her out of the state just long enough to muster the will to struggle once more, long enough for pain killers and the bustle of the hospital to flood her senses.

Over time, it became easier to keep herself afloat and shield herself from the depressing temptation, blocking out the voices with voices she knew. Oddly enough, Ozpin was the first voice that came to her defence, louder, clearer, so close she could imagine him standing over her, emitting a powerful light that kept the darkness at bay for only a moment. You're better than this, Miss Rose. For a brief moment, she felt it, a warmth spreading from her cheek like a hand pressed over it. We all know it, you just have to accept it.

Yang wrapped her arms around Ruby, tears streaming from her eyes. We're waiting for you, Rubes. Wake up!

"Yang!" Her body held only for a moment, shooting out of the bed in one desperate lunge, her arms outstretched and tears in her eyes as she searched for a familiar face in the bright void that had overtaken her sight. Then the atrophy washed over her, invisible pins and needles stabbing into her every joint, peeling her apart until she collapsed back onto what she recognised as the bed.

The void faded into a blur, then bright centre spreading across her eyes, then splashes of blue and white smudged together, until finally she could just barely outline the hospital room in her mind; as well as the sole occupant who sat beside her. Unfortunately, her companion had short dark hair instead of the long, golden locks she was so desperately hoping for.

"Yang…" She croaked, only now realizing how horse and weak her voice was as it rattled her feeble vocal cords.

Ren hands came upon her shoulders, firmly pushing her down into the comfort of the soft pillows supporting her, and restraining her movement. "Ruby, you're in no state to be moving about like that."

"Yang. S-She was here, she was here, I saw her, I heard her!" Ruby refused to stop moving, every bone in her body crying out for mercy while her heart screamed for her sister. "A-And and, I heard Ozpin too. I really did. Yang? Yang! YANG!" But all she found was Ren's crestfallen gaze melting into horror at her panicked antics. He kept his grip firm, softly lulling her stress with the light repetition of 'Shh shh shh', his thumbs drawing circles into her sensitive muscles. "Please… Ren… You have to believe me, I saw her. She was here. She… She saved me…"

"I'm sure she did." His understanding smile had the best of intentions, but nothing could hide patronizing undertone in Ruby's mind, knowing he clearly didn't believe her. She couldn't blame him, but that didn't mean she was desperate to deny it. "So why don't we calm down before you rip something and make that save in vain."

At the very least, that sentiment struck true enough for her to stop struggling, the gruesome image of her ligaments and muscle joints being peeled off like an orange making her mind pause. When she finally caught her breath and let her body fall limp, she mustered up the voice to speak. "How did I get here? Did… Did Torchwick forget to finish the job?"

"Well, more like couldn't finish the job." While she had calmed down, Ren still kept his hands in position, now using them to softly pat her down, making sure she was as comfortable as her position allowed. Still, he managed to conjure up a small, prideful smile, as if he was a child presenting his grades to a parent. "As it turns out, it's hard to keep kicking someone with a bullet in your kneecap."

"A bullet in his-" Ruby's eyes widened, the memory of the gunshot that saved her form the grips of apathy sounding the gong of her realisation. "It was you! You shot Torchwick?"

Ren chuckled awkwardly, scratching the side of his chin. "Believe it or not, it was supposed to be a warning shot. Thought it'd scare 'em enough to think the cops were closing in and get them running." A surge of embarrassment passed through his eyes, his voice going up an octave. "But then it was hard to see where I was aiming, and Torchwick just kept moving, and I didn't want to risk shooting you… Let's just say it was a very lucky shot."

Concern gripped her as she stared up at Ren through worried eyes. "D-Did Nora and the Old Man make it out okay?"

He finally pulled back from her, seemingly satisfied that she wouldn't have any more badly judged sudden movements. "They got out just fine." He pulled her hand into his, one hand balancing hers while the other enclosed it from the top, giving a comforting squeeze. "Ran into them on my way there, they told me everything while they were phoning the police."

Ruby tilted her head. "What were you doing there at this time of night?"

There was enough bout of giddy energy to Ren's movements as he pushed his chair back, bending down past the bed frame – and past Ruby's vision, before resurfacing with two boxes in hand. One was a dark package with splatters of brown and orange; she didn't recognise the brand name on the box, but she did recognise the giant pictures of her chocolate pieces. Atop it, he balanced a smaller box, this one made of transparent plastic, her eyes instantly homing in on the strawberries. "I was planning to surprise you at the end of your ship."

She didn't have to announce how she felt, if her wide eyes and flushed cheeks didn't give anything away, the hungry growl of her stomach said all there needed to be said. "Thank you so much." As Ren moved to place the presents on her bedside table, Ruby eyes him curiously. "Is it a special occasion?"

"Not really." He shrugged "Nora told me you were looking down in the dumps lately. Thought a pick-me-up would solve that." With the presents now secure, he pulled his seat forwards, returning him to his original position. "We all worry about you, you know."

Silence passed between them without a whisper of resistance, both parties restrained by an exhausted well of ideas. When it was clear Ruby wasn't going to revitalize the conversation any time soon, and Ren's mouth grew dry and bitter with morning breath, Ren spoke, barely above a whisper and deprived of confidence. "If it helps, Torchwick wasn't exactly cool as a cucumber when I got through with him." He let out a dry chuckle, the type you stutter out unintentionally when looking back on a memory, momentarily stalling your words as you wonder if what you remembered was truly humorous or not. "After I shot him, I dashed in, slammed into him before any of them could register what was happening and held him hostage." Ren noted how his hand curled, as if he were still brandishing the Schnee approved firearm in his palm, driven purely by adrenaline and the sight of Ruby's bloodied and possibly already dead body. "A few threats and I got to send him on his way. He was practically wetting himself."

When their eyes met again, and Ren could remind himself that Ruby survived, that he hadn't gone crazy and deluded himself into seeing her ghost, the two managed to share a weak smile. A small, wordless agreement that the image of Torchwick begging for his life was a funny one in a vacuum.

However, Ruby's face turned weary as a small realization weighed upon her. "Wait, does this mean your cover's been blown?"

Ren shook his head. "No, he never got to see my face. As I said, the lighting was rather dark, and I didn't say much." It wasn't a lie. However, Ren did omit the detail of him, in a mad dash to cover himself before tackling Torchwick, had wrapped up half his face in a bright pink scarf and sheltered his head with a giant, blond wig from the store's costume section. It wasn't an important detail, but it was one he would be taking to his grave.

"Good. At least I didn't ruin that for you." A sigh of relief made Ruby look more comfortable in her bed. Her eyes shifted to look beyond Ren, noting for the first time that he was there alone. "Do the others know?"

He leaned to the side; eyebrow quirked with sarcastic undertones. "Considering you've been out of commission for over a week, I'd say that there's a slim chance they might have noticed." Ruby pouted, but that didn't deter his words. "Blake's working around the clock. Couldn't even get her to acknowledge I was there the last time I dropped by." Hunching over, he offered Ruby the perfect view of the almost loose skin that made up his cheeks, as if the stress was literally starting to drag his flesh down. "I'm sure she'll be around eventually."

Another sigh, the two finding them a good distraction to draw out their thinking time without letting an oppressive emptiness set in between them. Ren scratched the back of his neck, his features lighting up a little. "I kicked your boyfriend out of the hospital before he drilled a hole in the floor with all his pacing." A fierce blush overtook Ruby's face at the deliberate wording, but she didn't object to it either. While her socially awkward nerves flared up, there was a certain relief to hearing Ren, in a way, rooting for her in that respect. "I told him to distract himself with a project so, be prepared, he might have turned your apartment into a warzone by the time you get back."

Ruby snorted, the first good chuckle she allowed herself to let loose, even if it hurt her throat to do it. A small habit the team had learned of Jaune over the years was that, when he needed to distract himself and training wasn't an option, he had the creative drive of a middle-aged man looking for a cure to his mid-life crisis. With no rhyme or reason, he'd carve out little figures, 'improve' furniture or really throw himself into pointless redecorating. Once Jaune had suffered two weeks of sewer assignments after Ironwood's Office was subjected to one of his projects. "I'm sure whatever the result is, I'll love it."

"Remember when he kept making us those fake badges to mark successful missions?" Ren leaned back, whistling as the nostalgia warmed his voice. "They looked so bad."

"They were adorable!" Ruby could barely contain a laugh, only fighting it to save her voice, able to picture the little misshapen badges with the misspelled names engraved upon them so clearly. It felt so long ago now, an entire lifetime ago. "Weiss acted like she hated them, but she kept every single one of them in that old jewellery box. Made her feel accomplished."

Ren found himself repositioning his place on the chair, throwing one leg over the other so he could lean just off the chair and brace himself against the wall. "I never understood Weiss. Beacon was so far behind us, but she still treated Jaune like even giving him any direct or notable compliment would kill her."

Ruby just shrugged. "Pride's weird like that. I just assumed she still looked at you guys as our rival team."

"She is weirdly competitive…"

Ruby slowly turned herself over, noting the aches that rose in her arms and legs merely at the notion of moving at all. On her side, it was a more comfortable position, and one that let her look directly at Ren without having to crane her neck or pull herself up at an angle. "If she were here now, I could hear her saying something like 'There's nothing wrong with striving towards progress'. You know, with her arms crossed and her nose twitching like she was gonna sneeze."

"She lived for game night. I don't know how, but she somehow convinced me to buy all the expansions for that 'Remnant: Armada' boardgame just so she could kick my ass in every one of them." Ren shook his head, just taking a moment to recall those days, better days; the sessions could go on long into the night, Weiss outlasting every player until it was just her and Ren on their sixth cup of tea whilst surrounded by their sleeping friends. She'd always been a good drinking companion. "I miss her too."

"We should play that game sometime." Ruby grimaced, but still wore that smile. "Maybe I'll actually learn how to play it this time." Suddenly, she stopped, frowning and casting her gaze aside. "That is i-if you want to, of course."

Ren looked at her strangely. "I'd loved to, Ruby. Why wouldn't I?"

"I'm just making sure." Ruby's lip trembled, her words slow to allow herself a deep breath or two as she spoke. "I don't want to be more of a burden."

"You've never been a burden, Ruby." Ren shot back instantly without a hint of weakness to his voice. "How could you think that?"

"It's okay." Ruby didn't move her head, yet it still felt as if she'd suddenly lost track of Ren, staring right through him, through the world. "Blake was right, no matter how hard I try, I'm useless. I can't help the investigation, I can't get any information, I can't protect anyone." Her fingers tore through the fabric of the bed sheet, desperate to grip onto anything to keep her above water only to find that nothing within reach withstood the force she needed to stay afloat. "Even when the world gift wraps an opportunity for me, the best thing I could do was piss Torchwick off and take his punishment until you showed up. Hell, Gramps' store would probably have been left just fine, him and Nora would have still been safe, if I'd just swallowed my pride and stayed in my lane."

"I disagree." So many words across the English language and those were the only ones that Ren could speak with any confidence. He was not a speaker, he had neither the vocabulary nor the heart to turn powerful sentiments into words that could reignite the fire in the hearts of others, he didn't even have the voice to read a book out loud to another. No matter how much he knew in his heart that Ruby was wrong, there was little for him to pull from to form the perfect argument that would make sense, that would pierce the veil of heavy dread shielding her heart and make her listen.

"That's all I can say, I guess. There was no telling what could have happened if you hadn't kept Torchwick's attention, or if his sick mind would have had other ideas and time to indulge them, or if I could have even gotten that shot off, if he and his goons weren't distracted when I arrived. So, I disagree." He sighed, grasping her hand again, pulling it tight against his chest, hoping that somehow, she'd feel how much he believed what he said. "And I hope you'll realize I'm right one day."

Ren saved her life that day. She'd love to say how grateful she was for it, as anyone would be when saved, but Ruby Rose knew she was a terrible liar.

"At least she's awake now." Nora sighed, wiping down her sweat-laced brow with the back of her hand. "I'm sure she'll come around after she's all recovered. Take it from me, it's easy to feel hopeless when everything in your body is making you feel like you died."

Jaune wanted to tell her that he shared her sentiment, but he didn't want to let on that he was listening in on her and Ren's conversation, so he continued to be a silent spectator, blocking himself from consideration as he hoisted the bulky box of broken junk on his shoulder. It had become second nature to him over the past few days whenever Ren was in the room.

At first, Jaune thought that Ren no longer hiding away from him meant some progress after the week of avoiding each other entirely, but all that progress came to was barely acknowledging Jaune outside of brief, simple one-liners in place of actual conversation. No greetings, no jokes, no questions; just telling Jaune if something needed to be done. The best Jaune could do was linger and hope the indirect conversation would offer him an opening.

It wasn't all cold shoulders and ominous atmosphere at least. Jaune had managed to talk himself into coming down to the store and helping clear up the damages Torchwick left behind, a task that was more complicated in the wake of practically every part-timer that wasn't Ruby leaving in droves. Turns out that the store becoming a crime scene where someone was beat to near-death scared some people off. Nora and the Old Man were all too happy to accept the free help, and, well, Jaune appreciated the opportunity to catch up with Nora.

Ren was right, she was just as Jaune remembered her; those broken legs doing nothing to restrict Nora's natural energy. There was no introduction, she drew him into one conversation and soon enough it was like she never left, throwing annoying nicknames his way, begging for sugary products and roping him into backing her up in arguments like an insistent sister. She made it easy to stop thinking, and he really needed that right now.

"Where should I be putting this?" Not letting his thoughts distract him from his work, Jaune approached the man Ruby always referred to as 'Gramps'.

"Put it down on the counter." The old man waved Jaune off with a weary sigh, the contents of his scroll seemingly draining more and more from him with ever word he read. "I still need to count what's missing. Gods, I'm not going to have a wink of sleep for the next week."

"You want me to start cleaning up that corner?" Jaune was hesitant to even say it, the thought itself leaving a sudden dryness inside his throat. He didn't need to point out or explain which corner he was talking about, it was the corner everyone tried their best to avoid acknowledging since they returned to the store, the corner that still had Ruby's blood staining it. "It… It really should have been the first thing we did."

Gramps went stiff, the only trace of movement being the scroll shaking under his harsh grip. "I suppose so." A cold sigh pushed his muscles back into working order, allowing him to shake his head with a mutter of 'that poor girl', before gesturing towards the corner. "If you think you can manage it."

Jaune could only return a stiff nod, pulling the box off his shoulder and plopping it down on the counter, giving himself a moment to enjoy the weight off his back. "We'll be done before you know it." He couldn't bring himself to sound as hopeful or confident as the sentiment suggested, despair clawing at his insides before he even looked at the corner.

He was only told that Ruby was in the hospital the day after the incident. It had been a day of lounging around the apartment, enjoying his day off and not questioning Ruby's absence. She was a hard worker, probably took extra shifts; he tried not to memorize that stuff, thought it would make him come off as 'too' interested. In the moment, he'd felt proud of himself for finally going a day without worrying about something. After the fact, after Ren had startled his binge-watching session with the grave news, he couldn't recall that day with anything but disgust. If he'd just been a little more suspicious, who knows what he could have done. If he had thought to visit Ruby after her confrontation with Blake rather than tell himself she needed some time alone, maybe he'd have been there when… When…

Ren didn't tell Jaune the extent of what Torchwick did. The hospital refused to give him details. All he had was seeing the girl he loved wrapped in so many bandages he couldn't even make out a person underneath it all.

It was an instant, visceral experience, setting eyes on the scene. It was like catching a glimpse of a scar, or a wound, or something just missing from a person's body but instead of a person, it's the environment itself. Just one glance and a thousand pictures, sensations and simulated feelings flash through your mind, as if you could already feel it in your very bones exactly what happened there. It reminded him of how team RWBY had talked about Mount Glenn, walking in the aftermath of a great disaster, seeing only the destruction left behind.

Most of the damage to the store came from here, he didn't need to be told that. Shelves were sprawled haphazardly across the floor, boxes split open and crushed underneath them, violently capsized by the impact of Ruby's body crashing beside them on her way into the wall. A stomach shot, Jaune imagined, delivered by Torchwick's stainless black boots with no mercy or fear, just laughter. Whether out of blind hope for a silver lining or actual logic, Jaune reasoned that, in a small mercy, the shelves, nor their contents, wouldn't have collapsed on top of Ruby. Torchwick had a clean shot at Ruby the entire time.

Jaune swallowed fresh fear creeping into his mind. If anything had fallen on top of her, would he be burying her today? At first, he wanted to tell himself not to think like that, to just focus on the miracle that Ruby is still here and he'll still be able to see her again very soon. But a spiteful spike in his heart told his brain something different, that he should make sure he's very aware of how badly this could have gone, of how close Torchwick was to taking her away. The thought would keep him focused, would make sure that, if the time ever came, he wouldn't hesitate to make Torchwick pay.

An innocent man paid for Jaune's lack of control over his bubbling anger, but perhaps, if he aimed it at the right people…

He stopped. Shook his head. Wiped away a blood stain with his foot. That isn't a path I want to go down. He told himself. I had it right before; focus on Ruby. Stayed focused on the good things, otherwise I'll end up pushing them away.

Closing his eyes, he let images of her, priceless memories he kept under lock and key in his heart, wash a relieving calmness over him. She'd been asleep every time he tried to visit her hospital room, no matter how long he sat by her side, she hadn't moved an inch. Hearing she was finally awake from Ren was partly disappointing – the love-sick child part of him was jealous that someone else got to see her awake first, but he couldn't understate how good it was to finally throw away all those fears that her road to recovery wasn't anything less than guaranteed.

He refused to taint his love for her by using it as an excuse to bloody his hands. All he needed to focus on now was helping Nora clean up and getting the apartment ready for Ruby's return; and getting himself ready for the confession he couldn't bare waiting any longer to give her.

Ren was known for being quiet, yet it was overwhelmingly obvious when he was unusually quiet. His eyes betrayed solemn thought, his breath a heavy weight and skin irritated. Nora was simply too damn polite to call him on it, no matter how much it continued to drag on their conversation and stare her down, she didn't attempt to pry it from him. He supposed he should be thankful for that, but with how hard it was to spit out, maybe he hoped she'd do the honours and force him to spill before he lost whatever nerve he had left.

Then again, maybe it wasn't manners or compassion that drove her restraint. Perhaps she knew entirely well what was on his mind, what he had figured out, but didn't want to face it, didn't want either of them to risk speaking the words and making it real. He'd understand if it were a conversation she simply didn't want to have, and he felt selfish for his innate desire to pursue it, but one of them had to broach it. Especially since it was her own words that stopped him from locking the thought away and remaining ignorant, her's and Jaune's; that he couldn't deny his past if he hoped to atone for it.

There was no time for him to be coy about it, it seemed his mind had run through his entire supply of denial by the time a certain revelation hit him. It was during one of the hospital visits, before Ruby woke up, where he had nothing but silence and a broken friend to keep his mind company, that a niggling idea took root and blossomed into an undeniable conclusion.

Torchwick was where his mental puzzle had begun, imagining how Torchwick could have made victims of many other people, imagining Nora being in that hospital bed, beaten and bloodied by a thug who wanted to make an example out of her. It prompted him to remind himself that Torchwick was an associate of Kuriyuri, that however distant the connection, Kuriyuri would have and has allowed such terrible acts to occur, encouraged them probably.

It all kept bringing Ren back to that all important question; what has Kuriyuri done? What has he done? Desperately, he delved into his mind, digging, scraping, pulling for any fragment of Kuriyuri's cold voice to give him direction. How could his entire history, his past, the man he was and could very well still become be completely vacant from his mind? All he could uncover was that final assignment, watching that scientist's every move, hunting through his things, willing to do whatever it took to make the scientist give him what he wanted.

It wasn't a key detail in figuring out Kuriyuri's past, it was a key detail in figuring out he already knew, in understanding the questions he'd spent all his denial on.

"Nora." He summoned the strength, speaking her name sternly with a stone-cold stare that pinned her down where she sat. "When did you recognise me?" He watched her struggle to understand the question, like gears stuck out-of-place, awkwardly jittering back and forth. He sighed. "Let me rephrase that: When did you recognise Kuriyuri?" He didn't dare look away, knowing he couldn't run away from it any longer, knowing he couldn't afford to miss her reaction. He knew full well this could bring everything crashing down and make Nora never want to see him again, but locking away the truth like this wasn't right. "The one who put you in that wheelchair."

He should have known it all along, from the moment the old man said he recognised Ren. Kuriyuri didn't have friends, Kuriyuri didn't involve himself with people long enough for a casual recollection, Kuriyuri wouldn't be mistaken for anyone else. Only someone he affected would recognise him. Somone who left enough of an impression on him that he'd bring them into the simulation. All those questions Ren never asked, refused to ask, because he knew the answers would hurt. All those details he blinded himself to, ignored, outright refused to acknowledge. He couldn't stand them any longer.

Nora sunk into her seat, defeated and suddenly looking so much shorter. At least she wasn't making for the nearest exit. "I wouldn't say I recognised you… Didn't even know the name Kuriyuri." Her gaze hooked itself on the ground, as if she had anything to feel shameful about, as if she owed anything to the bastard who broke an innocent girl's legs just to get to her father. "I remembered you being so much more scary looking, but I had a feeling."

"Why did you…" He could feel his entire head shaking to communicate his utter disconnect from Nora's actions, he couldn't make heads-or-tails of how she could act so unbothered around him all this time. Staring into the face of the one responsible for the worst day of your life, let alone making any romantic gestures towards them, should have been enough to make one sick with rage and disgust. "How did you bring yourself to date me? I'd have figured I would tell my uncle to get a gun if I was in your shoes."

She blew up her cheeks with a sharp intake, running her fingers through her hair like she was scared her head would fall off. Clearly, she'd been asking herself the same question. "Well, like I said, I didn't know for sure at first." Her eyes fluttered shut, trapping her in her mind for a brief time. Ren could visualize her desperately grasping for a point of solid logic to latch onto, something that someone like Ren could understand. "What I did know was that someone like Ruby wouldn't talk so much about you guys if you were half as bad as I remembered." She finally decided on, opening her eyes with a hesitant sigh. "And then I saw you for the first time, I looked into you eyes and…" She let out a laugh that quickly broke down into a cough. "Damn it, you have some really cute eyes! They make me think of a grumpy kitty locked up in a cage."

Ren blinked, wondering if this was all just the final delusions of his mind shutting down. Everything about this situation, about this conversation, was weird, but only in the ways it shouldn't have been. "Okay, I've never been described like that before."

She placed her hand over her mouth, unable to contain the awkward laughter that refused to let this topic keep the gravatas it deserved. "I wanted to give you a chance, and our dates ended up being pretty good." Her brows furrowed, taking the chance to look Ren in the eyes, her own so earnest and pure that Ren couldn't deny it. He couldn't explain it either, but he couldn't deny it. "So, I just pushed all those suspicions back, thought I could just forget it all if I never questioned it."

At this point, anything he said was uncertain and hesitant, as if he were navigating a minefield, expecting every step to be the one that sets off the charge and brings reality crashing down on him. "And now?"

But reality never came. Sadness passed through her eyes, she struggled with doubt, she leaned into melancholy, but there was never a hint of the anger, of the spite, of the disgust that should have been there. Through it all she still looked at him, her tormentor, the man who took her father, with fondness. "You still have some pretty eyes." She took his hands in hers, squeezing them tight as sighs filled his ears. "You've changed. I know that shouldn't be enough, that I should hate you, but my heart's kind of set on you…" It was an odd feeling, watching her pull his hands up to her cheeks, gazing at him with such soft intentions. "So, if it's not too awkward, I want to see where that takes us."

One part of him to stop questioning a good thing, to just accept it, but the other parts of him, every logical part of him, yelled that this made no sense, there had to be a trick to this. But Nora would never trick him, so he just had to accept that reality was feeling charitable today.

"You were right, Nora." He shook his head, leaning into her, resting his forehead on hers. "You're fucking crazy."

She shrugged "I know."

"I don't deserve a second chance, but if I'm getting one anyway, I'll make sure not to waste it."

Her recovery rate was a matter of perspective. For Ruby, the multitude of pain killers and whatever semblance her doctor was using on her made time a non-existent factor. Hours and days passed in a blink of an eye, leaving patches of slow down for minutes at a time, usually just in time to greet any visitors before shutting down completely for a power nap.

Jaune visited her a few times, she could always hear his heavy stumbling footsteps over everything else long before he made it to the door. She'd gotten quite good at listening to him as it was all she did during his visits. Turning over, making sure her body was facing the wall and her face was sheltered, it made it easy to let Jaune assume she was asleep. He was too polite, or awkward, to dare try and wake her, so she never had to switch up the routines.

It wasn't that she had a problem with Jaune. No, his presence was a comfortable anchor in an uneven storm, it's why she never made her act a truth and slept through his visits. To put it simply, she didn't want to know what Jaune saw. The idea of looking up at him, seeing his carful features tighten with anger and shame when he had a better look at what Torchwick did to her, it frightened her. If she saw Jaune in agony, she feared she'd never get that face out of her mind, that it would make her feel more powerless to comfort him than ever.

He never seemed to mind, or at least never let it show. Sometimes he'd sit in utter silence, running his hand down her arm and lightly chuckle at how quickly her body leaned into his touch. There was a tranquillity that radiated from him, one in sharp contrast to the raging storm of disfunction she knew clouded him before he reached the room. It must have been a concentrated effort of calmness he wore for her benefit, as to not disturb her sleep. She refused to entertain the idea that it was the sight of her, safe and sound, that made him so suddenly peaceful.

Many other times, the silence proved too much for him and he'd fill the room with one-sided conversation. He'd complain about the fake weather never changing ('What we really need is some sun, we haven't been to a beach since Beacon!'), mentioning that he's worried that the hospital quilts are too thin to protect her from the cold. He'd tell her about how wonderful Nora was, assuring her that Nora and Gramps are wishing her a speedy recovery. She had to hold back an instinctive snort when Jaune mentioned that his son had been asking about her and that, if anyone asks, she's 'Agent Strawberry'. It didn't really matter what the topic was, there was such an earnest nature to Jaune's voice, giving it the texture of a relaxing bedtime song; she just loved listening to him go off about every little thing. When he left, he took a piece of her with him, making sure she would feel his absence until he returned. Every time he was there, it was impossible to focus on the pains in her heart, impossible to mull over the darker thoughts, all she wanted to do was keep him there and listen.

Well, listening wasn't the only thing she wanted from him, but she was pretty sure Jaune would take offence if she voiced any of the other ones.

Eventually, the lie lost it's lustre as even the Doctor confirmed she was awake as the day of her pending release from the hospital arrived. Seeing Jaune with her own eyes for the first time in weeks was just right. That's the only word she could use to describe it. The moment she saw him, the boy in the process of squeezing himself into the nearest corner to get out of everyone's way, everything just clicked into place. He had a nervous energy about him, body lightly bounding on one foot like a child desperately waiting for their mother to finish shopping, thinking only of the day ahead when the chores were over with.

When she slipped off her bed to take her first official step post-recovery, he was there. The poor nurses he'd bound through to get there were glaring at him, but he didn't care about anything else but placing himself beside her, waiting to be her safety net in case her knees failed her. It was annoying, the nurses were probably giving her some crucial details of what she should and should not be doing for the next few days and she couldn't hear any of it. Her heart was beating so loud she thought it had fallen up into her ears while she slept, all because Jaune kept giving her that adoring look that gave her no excuse but to blush.

She couldn't imagine him looking at Ren like that, nor would Blake ever see it; Ruby liked to think it was a privilege exclusive to her. She wondered if this was what the elderly were raving about when they talk about their husband or wife who makes them feel young, somehow still gazing upon you like it was the first time. May I just really rock the hospital gown look. Ruby couldn't find the strength to try and rationalize it, just nod and try to stop drooling as her totally-not-boyfriend fawned over her.

"Are you cold?" His idle question was enough to ground her in the present, making her realize they'd escaped the clutches of the hospital and dressed her in her regular clothing while her mind was occupied. Jaune was walking notably close to her, ferrying her through the busy street with his strong frame, and he was still too far from her for comfort.

"It's a bit chilly." She lied through her teeth with a light whimper and a cough. She didn't have a cough, her throat was feeling much better than when she was trying to talk to Ren, and some could say her jacket was keeping her perfectly toasty. "I think it's like… You know… My immune system or something's still weak."

She barely made it through her cheap excuse before Jaune's own jacket was around her shoulders, engulfing her with his left-over body temperature and smell. It was almost like embracing him, but without the bulk of his arms trapping her against his strong chest. Oh god, what has gotten into me. As it turned out, weeks in bed, refusing to so much as look at the man she loved with no physical intimacy with anything other than scalpels and needles left Ruby a little touch starved. It didn't help being so close to him, remembering how they used to snuggle back in the simulation and watch cheap B-Movies, knowing how much she missed his touch in particular.

She knew she shouldn't push her luck, that there was probably some solid logic about respecting boundaries or not feeding unhealthy habits in the back of her mind somewhere, but Ruby was, quite honestly, not in the mood for thinking straight at the moment. So, the diabolical little liar extended her con, giving off a loud and weary sigh as she 'stumbled' forward. Oh, how weak her knees suddenly felt. "I think the pain killers are still making me a bit dizzy…" She muttered oh-so innocently, falling back into Jaune's arms, bracing herself against his chest. It was like be presented with a tray of freshly baked cookies; she just couldn't help herself. "W-Would you mind helping me walk? If it's not too much to ask."

She could practically hear steam escaping his nose, his mouth running amok with a splatter of half-shaped nonsense that left his cheeks flushing a deep shade of red. "O-Of course, Ruby. Anything you need. I would love you. Love to help you, is what I meant- In any way you need. Of course!" Ruby never considered herself to have that much of an ego, but that? Oh yeah, that felt good to hear. Listening to Jaune made her feel safe, but talking to Jaune made her feel confident, made her feel like she could still believe the fantasy of the relationship they once had just a little longer.

"Thank you so much!" Her feeble mask broke for a moment, her voice sounding way too energetic for the weakness she was attempting to portray. She saved herself by distracting him, pressing her cheek flat against his shoulder and breathing down on his neck with reckless abandon. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You'd do just fine." His instant response made her heart lurch. She briefly wondered if maybe he too got that small confidence boost from making her blush, or if her dork- uh, if Jaune was too oblivious to even notice what effect he could have on her at times.

She weakly slapped his chest. "This is no time for flattery, Jaune."

He turned his head slightly, the comparison to a golden Labrador becoming stronger every day. "Then when is a good time for flattery?" What she wouldn't give for her social ineptitude to give her a break so she could tell whether he was, dare she hope, flirting or making a legitimate query.

"When we're home and I've had time to freshen up." She grumbled, no such evidence or clear indication to offer her the small mercy of understanding.

Jaune scoffed "You freshen up?"

She spotted his grin only growing in tandem with her pout. "Just because I go for the minimalist approach doesn't mean I don't prepare my look at all!"

"And here I thought you were just a natural." Jaune shook his head. "I've never felt so betrayed."

Ruby shook her head, a solemn voice accompanying the action. "We all have skeletons in our closet."

During their whole trip back to the apartment, Jaune never wavered in being her personal crutch, no matter how little effort she put into keeping up the act over time. Maybe he didn't notice, maybe he was just focused on making sure she didn't fall, but a small, hopeful part of her allowed itself to think that maybe he wanted an excuse to embrace her just as much as she did. Either way, their spirits stayed high, their conversation divulging into trading cheesy barbs and complaining about hospital food. It was so familiar to Ruby, the energy, the laughter, the closeness; it was like they were dating again.

By the time they reached their apartment door, giggling so much they practically vibrated with every step, any spectators would probably have mistaken them for being drunk. Maybe they were drunk, just not on alcohol.

"-nd that's why you'll have to show him our secret hand shake the next time we're at Pyrrha's." Adding to the drunkard theory, Jaune reached the end of his explanation with the grace of a school lecturer in the midst of a major hangover, jumping between volumes and points at random.

"Jaune," Ruby rolled her eyes. "we don't have a secret handshake."

Jaune merely shrugged, falling against the door as he desperately rummaged through his pockets for the key. "Yeah, but I told Little Jaune that you did! It's the only way he'll accept that you're a secret agent."

"Why do I have to convince him of your lie?" The door opened with a surprising amount of force, causing Jaune to collapse into the room in a bundle of limbs, leaving him with his nose partly buried in the carpet and partly buried in Ruby's shoe.

"Because you're his hero." Jaune didn't raise his head, leaving his voice muffled as he lazily wagged one finger up at her.

With a chuckle as she looked down at Jaune's predicament, Ruby carefully stepped over the man's body. "I've never talked to the kid; how can I be his hero?"

Jaune rolled over, watching Ruby's upside-down form retreat over to the kitchen space. "Well, you're my hero. And he takes after me, so obviously he has the same heroes as me."

"You're such a sweet talker." Her eyes roamed over the apartment space, suddenly taking notice of how homely, for lack of a better word, the apartment had become. In the politest sense, the two room, one tiny bathroom space had been a claustrophobic dump. Mostly empty, wrapped in old carpet, cold and the only furniture consisted of two sleeping bags and a foldable chair.

"It's that old Arc charm." It seemed that Jaune had spent all his days off cleaning up the entire space, she'd only now noticed the change in carpet (which, with how familiar it looked to her, she was 80% sure was generously donated by Gramps), a nice soothing blue texture that didn't feel like she was sinking into it with every step. The foldable chair had been replaced with some actual chairs and, by God, an actual bed in the bedroom. She could sleep without the horribly uneven floorboards digging into her back.

"Did you get a raise while I was gone?" Ruby asked as she absentmindedly looked over an array of potted plants Jaune had shelved, drawn specifically to the bed of roses. "I didn't think a janitor's salary could afford a make-over."

"I might have asked Blake to chip in a little." Jaune was only now getting around to pulling himself to his feet, grunting as his bones whined against the movement. "Should have seen her face when she saw the apartment for the first time. You'd think she was walking into death row."

Ruby couldn't help but shake her head, just imagining Blake ripping off a blank check and shoving in in Jaune's chest whist aggressively inquiring 'How much money do you need to make this liveable?'. Truthfully, they probably should have just asked Blake to dig into some of that Schnee money at the start, but they always refused to either out of pride or sheer politeness. "I gotta say, Jaune, you actually did a good job."

Jaune pouted, storming towards her in a huff. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

She giggled, a noise that seemed to instantly dissolve any visible offence on Jaune's face. "Just that you don't have the best track record with this stuff. Remember Ironwood's office?"

Jaune could only scoff. "I was being experimental! It would have been a hit back in Vale."

And suddenly, just like that, the two just burst out laughing. Like, a good proper, ugly, annoying chorus of laughter akin to a flock of seagulls gasping for their last breath. It felt so good for Ruby to laugh without it scratching her throat. It felt so good for Jaune to laugh without a depressing undertone. It felt so good for them to just laugh with each other again, to be with each other again.

When the laughter died down and the two were left flushed, breathless and puffy, Jaune summoned his voice to softly whisper "I missed you."

Under his gaze, Ruby suddenly felt self-conscious. She looked away, a well of conflicted emotions drumming in her ears as she dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "I know."

He caught her cheek, and with that touch she caught her breath, his rough palm perfectly fitting around her soft skin. "Ruby…" The way he dragged out her name, as if he were stuck in the last syllable of a groan after drinking something refreshing, it made her body tremble. "I missed you."

Her mind shielded her heart, still unable to take his words for what they were. It must have been made obvious on her face, as that was when Jaune decided to move to a more direct approach. His body loomed over her from this position, one hand guiding her gaze to meet his while the other forced her to slide onto the kitchen counter just to avoid falling over, pinning her underneath him. There was a fire burning in his eye, a determination tinged with desire that burrowed into her heart, damn whatever denial her mind tried to feed her.

"Are… Are you sure?" She could hear herself wheeze as she spoke, weighed down by the pressure of her desperate heart and tinged by the air Jaune was so easily stealing from her lungs.

His forehead came to rest against hers. For once in his life, Jaune Arc had no doubts or social awkwardness to bring him down or stunt his sentiment, just him alone with the love of his life. "Trust me, I tried to deny it." Against her better judgment, she found her arms circling his torso, refusing to let go ever again. "But no matter what I did, I just… I just kept falling in love with you again."

"Oh, so… This is my fault, huh?" Ruby found it in herself to laugh, though this one was short-lived and breathless. Why did she suddenly feel like she just finished a marathon? "Never knew I was that irresistible."

His hand slipped away from her waist, traveling up her side – with her feeling ripples of electricity at every spot his finger touched – until it joined his other hand, grasping her face like it was the most fragile thing in the world. "I know I hurt you, and I'd understand if things couldn't go back to what they used to be because of it." Stressed lips peeled open to reveal his teeth tightly pressed together, as if whatever was going through his head made it hard to look at her, but he resisted the urge to break his gaze. "And in any other circumstance, I'd probably lose to nerve to tell you all this, but…. Seeing you lying there, hearing what… What that rat bastard did to you…"

She heard him swallow, pushing back the unfettered protective rage that threatened to spill into the moment. She watched his eyes bounce between still, erratic, narrow, wide; containing himself for this moment, focusing on this moment. "Well, I realized I couldn't afford to wait. If Ren hadn't gotten there in time, then that'd be it. And the last thing that'd stick with you would be your last words with Blake and… And where we left off."

Once he said his piece, the strength holding him together faded and his head fell, not yet ready to see Ruby's response in her reaction. It was one part adorable and three parts stupid from where she sat, awkwardly contorting her body into a pose she'd never find comfortable or preferable outside of the fact that Jaune was there on top of her. Couldn't he hear her heart yanking on her veins like they were prison restraints? Couldn't he see how her skin flushed like her namesake? Couldn't he hear how she moved to follow his every touch? How could he do this to her and not already know her answer?

"Jaune, if I was looking to reject you, I wouldn't be looking for ever excuse to cling to you on the way here." She shifted in his arms, his grip weak enough to let her fall against him, settling her head against his cheek. Not looking at him, but pulling him close enough to her that she hoped he could hear and feel what he was putting her through. "Listen, it hurt, a lot, when we broke up." She didn't fight the hiss of pain that accompanied her words, this was about being open, not hiding their feelings any longer. "To me it was just another example of our world falling apart since we got here, but I understand why it happened."

From the moment they woke up that day, it was questions, questions, questions. They couldn't trust their memories, they couldn't trust their connections, they couldn't trust anything. As much as she wanted to ignore the questions and carry on like they did before, she couldn't deny, as she and her friends had learned in their pursuit of the truth, that the question would always be there, hanging over them. "We just got told none of us were who we thought we were, that left a lot of identity issues." They didn't know who they were, Ruby told herself bitterly, they didn't know if any personality they'd developed inside the simulation would be short lived, if they'd simply wake up one day to the fictional avatar's dead and gone. So, in retrospect, Ruby had to admit that she understood wanting to figure out if anything they had was still there before they tried anything. "Those needed to be sorted out before... I know. If we tried to just act like nothing changed, we'd probably have just screwed everything up, wouldn't we?"

Of course, there was one answer left to give, but Ruby found her mouth unable to move anytime she tried to speak it. Instead, with a wistful sigh, all she could do was dance around it, shame filling her stomach. "Are you sure you want to start over?"

"Why wouldn't I?" He didn't hesitate, didn't even need to think about it. He was so sure it made Ruby wonder how she couldn't match that certainty.

She finally pulled by to look him in the eye, pulling out that last issue like pulling out her teeth. "What if you still have a chance with Pyrrh-"

Well, as it was already stated; he didn't hesitate. Her brain, however, did. Or, to put it in better terms, her brain short circuited the moment his lips claimed hers.

She'd almost forgotten what kissing Jaune had been like, but with utter certainty she could say that he'd never kissed like this before. Their prior kisses had always been tender, chaste, brief and always ended with them darting away from each other like lingering too long would invoke a strict teacher to scold them for PDA. The type of kiss that left Ruby feeling giggly, but fearful Jaune was afraid of touching her for more than a second, not helped by Yang nicknaming them 'virgin' kisses.

It might just be because he now had a thin strip of hair accompanying his lips, but his lips had never felt so rough against hers. There was no thinking involved, the moment he touched her, the moment his warm breath hit her flesh, the resulting shiver that wreaked havoc on her body just naturally pried open her lips and pulled him in. It didn't help that his body was now standing at full attention, trapping her hips between large biceps that could snap Audrey's body in half if he so much as flexed, tightening the pressure on her lungs until she had no choice but to return the kiss just to steal back the air he was stealing from her.

There was an instinctual part of her brain that wanted to insist to an invisible, judgmental audience that she wasn't 'that kind of girl', but nothing could deny how, even as Jaune broke the kiss, her lips were already puckered up and reaching out for more.

Ruby was lucky Jaune didn't start talking straight away, her brain going into a full-on reboot as her body went limp in his hand. It was only after a few taps on his back to inform him that she hadn't fainted that his eyes calmed down and he continued. "Pyrrha will always be a part of my history. I'll cherish whatever I can remember and do what I can to make up for how I've wronged her, but…" Not content with flaunting his strength just by pinning her down, Jaune pulled her up into his arms, carrying her against his chest where he could still peck at her forehead. "In my future, all I can see is you, Ruby Rose."

The girl, whose insides were practically an inferno judging by how brightly her skin burns, couldn't speak for a good minute. The best she could get out was a series of breath-filled groans where her tongue uselessly slapped against her chin, any and all syllables lost to time. It was only when it had just gotten pathetic enough a display to be sad that she managed to roll her tongue back in and form a, mostly, coherent sentence, all backed by the wheeze of a woman whose lungs were failing her. "Whoa… That's… T-That's a good answer." She took a good few deep breaths, trying to avoid looking at that damn amused smirk Jaune was starting to sport. This was all gonna go to the boy's head, she just knew it. "Have you been holding out on me or do I have to get hospitalized more often?"

"Maybe I just never felt like I needed to kiss you like that before." Jaune, now clearly on a confidence high from Ruby's reaction, gave the most smug and self-satisfied shrug Ruby had ever seen. "Never thought we were at that stage in the relationship, you know?"

"So you were holding out on me." She released herself from his torso, throwing her shoulders back as her hands found a new thing to anchor her too, his collar. With no mercy she pulled herself back up, wrapping her legs around his waist and lunging in for another kiss; this time on her terms. "No holding back anymore."

The ferocity in which she practically threw herself at him managed to knock him out of balance, causing Jaune to stumble back into the nearest wall, dislodging an empty shelf and bringing it down on his head. However, his brain was barely active enough to notice the wooden material smacking him across the forehead, just instinctively shrugging it off while clinging to Ruby. "What? Is that an order, Rubes?" He teased between bouts of air.

While the passion burned like a sun, the tact and skill didn't exactly come to match it after the first kiss, the two finding themselves banging their heads together more often than not on their way to restore the connection. "You may be a leader-" Ruby growled into his chin as another miss had her nose poking his lips. "but as the girlfriend, the one who you owe a month's worth of snuggle time might I add, I am THE leader. My orders are absolute!"

"So… This is you going through Jaune Withdrawal Symptoms?" He couldn't help but laugh with the cheesiest grin.

Ruby groaned, meeting his grin with a childish pout. "Jaaaaune, you're such a dork! You're ruining the moment."

"Ruby, I can feel you." Jaune unhooked one hand so he could trap her cheek between two fingers, the heat from her flushed skin practically dissolving the air into steam. "I don't think a bucket of ice would be able to ruin the moment."

"Don't be mean to your girlfriend." She kept using that word, she loved using that word; 'girlfriend', it was so pleasant on her tongue. "Otherwise, you'll be sleeping in the sleeping bag tonight."

"Oh yeah…" He snorted, letting go of her cheek in favour of cupping her chin. "I only bought one bed, didn't I?"

Ruby shrugged, feeling herself melt into his hand. "Works out for me." Despite how confident she sounded, her eyes betrayed the primal shock and awkward horror that came with such forward words; even she didn't know where she got the confidence to be so direct. "I'm not too keen on being apart from you right now."

"You mean, you want to… Oh." This was where Jaune's confidence nosedived, his hormones raged, and his sober mind screamed 'what the hell are we doing?!'.

"I mean, we're both technically in our thirties… And you've had a kid…" She talked so deceptively nonchalantly, like she was just explaining what she needed from the grocery store. Hell, even as panic gripped his heart, he was still inching towards the bedroom. "I think you can survive one night with your girlfriend."

"You're sounding a little eager there, Rubes." He nervously swallowed, trying to project a face and voice much smoother than he'd ever felt in his entire life.

Ruby nervously swallowed, trying to project a face and voice much sultrier than she'd ever felt in her entire life. "I'm eager? Jaune, you're not the only one who can feel things."

"…Rubes?"

"Yeah?"

"You're up against my stomach. Trust me, you're not feeling what you think you're feeling."

"Oh."

"Do you want me to change your pos-"

"Jaune!"

Neither of them succeeded in their endeavours, but neither of them had much desire to call the other out.

Both dorks were internally calling this a bad idea. Both dorks were externally challenging the other. Neither dorks had the good sense to back down. And maybe, the thought hitting them when their eyes locked and everything felt just right, they didn't need to. Maybe they just needed each other tonight.

They entered this world unsure, broken and unstable. They couldn't trust anything around them, not what they saw, not what they remembered and not what they knew. They'd thought they lost everything that day.

Tonight, the two leaders, friends, lovers, found comforting in each other's arms. Not just celebrating the passion that brought them together, but knowing that, at the very least, there was one thing they never lost no matter how far apart they were pushed; their love for one another. And no matter what came for them, they'd protect this love, protect the one truth in their dream that didn't turn into a lie in their reality.

I want it known that I rewrote the plan for Jaune and Ruby's scene about three or four times when it finally came around to writing out the scene in full. In one version it was a tension breaking argument that devolved into them aggressivly confessing that they still loved each other, in another it was a full on comedy scene that broke a lot of the tension interspersed with touching moments (you have no idea how many terrible, terrible sex jokes were cut), in another it was just a full on emotional dumping scene where the two talked to each other through a closed door, ect. Ruby and Jaune's reconciliation and getting back together was just the one scene I couldn't entirely nail down what I wanted to do with.

I never really realized how productive Blake has been in the plot until I spent two chapters without her inclusion. It's unintentional, but I think it helps make her abscence, after the rather angry confrontation last we saw her, felt... Or it means the plot is stalling. Let's go for the one that sounds better.

Ren's scene, I'm unsure of how it turned out, to be honest. I feel like his other conversations with Nora, Blake and Jaune set the groundwork, but as a result, as a scene of him figuring out what Kuriyuri's more relevant sins were comes off as kind of quick and almost painless. Like, part of me was trying really hard to not just make it a copy of Blake's scene with Adam revealing his relationship with Wither, as well as just thinking it was more natural for Ren's scene to focus more on how Nora can be so oddly accepting of who Ren is while Ren struggles to come to terms with it (and not just for the reason you think it is). Problem is, with how I've planned out this story, the next chapter is gonna be the last one that has any room to breathe, so at this point I'm just gonna have to hope and pray I can make this and it's development come off natural and satisfying enough.