Of course not!" Weiss replies immediately, looking stunned.

"That's not what I meant," Yang protests, but she trails off because what did she want? She'd wanted Ruby to stop trying to talk to her about Blake. And her sister had. And Yang had hated it.

"Then what do you want?" Ruby bursts out, looking thoroughly miserable and confused. Now that she's dropped the indifferent mask from before, it's clear that she's just as torn up about all of this as Yang and Weiss are. She's just gotten better at hiding it. "You don't want me to talk to you about stuff, you don't want me to leave you alone, so what am I supposed to do? No matter what I do, you guys are mad at me. I'm starting to feel like you don't want anything to do with me!"

"Ruby," Weiss murmurs sadly. "Of course that's not true." Yang nods in agreement. There's so much she wants to say, but the words feel stuck in her throat. She never expected that her snapping at Ruby would upset her sister this badly.

"I spent months wondering if I'd ever see you again," Ruby says, her eyes bright with tears. "And then we're finally back together, and it feels like we might as well be on opposite sides of Remnant all over again if you're just going to keep pushing me away. What's the point of being together as a team if you don't even want to be teammates?"

"We're still a team, Ruby," Yang manages to choke out, swallowing hard around the lump in her throat. "That's never going to change."

"I didn't come all the way to Haven just for fun, Ruby," Weiss points out. "I came here to be with my team again."

"But what's the point of being a team if you guys don't want to be teammates?" Ruby argues, scrubbing angrily at the tears that have started to spill over. "Teammates are supposed to be there for each other. They're supposed to be friends. They're not supposed to snap at each other for trying to help, and they apologize to each other if they hurt each other." Ruby lets out a long, shuddering breath. "Do you guys really want to be a team again, or are you just going along with it because that's the way that things were before?"

There's a moment of stunned silence following Ruby's question. It seems like some sort of cruel joke, but her face is deadly serious. And she has a very good point. It's a big difference between just being a team in name, and actually acting like one.

And Yang and Weiss haven't really been good teammates since they've arrived in Haven. They'd taken for granted that things could just go back to the way they were back at Beacon, as if a whole year hadn't passed since they'd all been in the same place. As if they all hadn't changed dramatically in that time.

But so long as they all still care about each other, and they're willing to try, they should be able to make things work. To be a real team once more.

"You're right, Ruby," Weiss says finally. "We haven't really been acting like a team at all. We haven't been very good friends to you since we got here, let alone good teammates."

"I guess we're a bit out of practice," Yang admits, swallowing back tears of her own. "I've gotten used to trying to deal with things on my own, but that's no excuse for snapping at you when you're just trying to help. I'm sorry, Ruby."

"It'll take some time to readjust." Weiss says, looking at Ruby hopefully. "But I'm not going anywhere. I'm here because I want to be with you guys, not just because it's what we were doing before."

"You're not getting rid of me either," Yang adds, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be than right here with both of you."

"We've grown apart, but that doesn't mean that we don't still care about each other." Weiss looks Ruby firmly in the eye. "We'd love to be a team again."

"If you still want us, that is," Yang chimes in. "It's up to you, Ruby. We're going to try our best to make it up to you, but it's your decision."

"There's nothing I'd love more," Ruby says softly. "It's all I've wanted the whole time we were apart. But I'm holding you to the whole 'trying harder' thing, okay?" She wipes at her eyes. "And I'll try harder too, okay? I'll try to leave the whole Blake thing alone, even though I think it would really help if you'd talk about it."

"You're already doing plenty, Ruby," Weiss assures her. "Just, please give us a chance to make things right."

"And with Blake," Yang sighs heavily. "Just, give me some time, okay? I'm trying, I promise, but it still hurts to think about, let alone talk about it."

"Of course," Ruby replies, pulling her sister in for a hug. After a moment, she gestures for Weiss to join them. "I missed you guys so much. I'm so glad that we're here together."

"We missed you too, Ruby," Weiss replies instantly.

"Definitely," Yang agrees. "Things just aren't the same without our fearless little leader."

"Hey, at least I'm taller than Weiss." Ruby laughs wetly. "Anyway, now that we've settled things here, can we go eat breakfast before Nora eats all the pancakes?"


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