Chapter XVI: Mother's Pride
Seated on the edge of her bed, Weiss grumbled sleepily as she rubbed her face, her messy hair cascading down her back while she was still struggling to get a firm grip on the reality.
For better or for worse, there was no one in the room to witness her in that groggy state — the other bed was empty, left unmade when its owner had gone off somewhere to enjoy the sunny morning. It had its merits — there was no one to tease her first thing in the morning, and she was free to take as much time to regain her bearings as she needed — but Weiss couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed... perhaps because that meant that there was no one to distract her from thinking about the dream that had soured her good night's rest.
She remembered seeing Yang and Blake, standing on a shattered hill with a good amount of distance between the two. Yang had been... off, not herself, her teeth bared in a vicious snarl; despite the moonlight illuminating her face, her usually bright eyes had been as black as coal. But, in spite of that unsettling visage, it was the look on Blake' face that had seared itself into Weiss' memory, the image still vivid in her mind even though the dream itself had already began to blur and fade.
Blake had been looking straight at Weiss, with tears streaming down her cheeks, her face twisted into a grimace of sheer terror and anguish. As they had been staring at one another, there was something that had left Weiss deeply unsettled... something in Blake's eyes that Weiss couldn't quite place right away. Now, after waking up, it finally hit her — it had been guilt; guilt borne of ever considering the unwanted, profane thought of taking the devil up on their deal.
Weiss clenched her fists as Ruby's words from a week ago echoed in her mind. 'She did something to Yang... possessed, I guess. Then, she offered us a way out, for a price: one of us was supposed to kill the other,' Weiss recalled, feeling her sleepiness evaporate as her blood began to boil in her veins. 'I think she found pleasure in that, you know? Toying with us, trying to get us to jump to each other's throats just to save the person we both care about.'
Goosebumps formed on Weiss' skin, her blazing glare burning a hole through the floor. She logically knew that what she'd dreamt of that night was just that, a dream, but she didn't care — not once in her life had she wanted to strangle a bitch that early in the morning.
'Stop,' she reprimanded herself in her thoughts, doing her best to rein in her seething anger. Closing her eyes, Weiss took a deep breath, then a couple more, breathing in and then letting it all out in a steady rhythm. As much as everything that had happened while she had been out cold was pissing her off, with her recent dreams only continuing to pick at the proverbial wound, she knew that getting angry now was of no use to anyone; the best she could do was to just roll with it and help her friends deal with the fallout.
After taking a moment to calm down, Weiss dropped by the bathroom to freshen up and prepare for the day ahead of her, the thought of Ruby's whereabouts lingering in the back of her head while she was going about her morning routine. At some point, as she took off the top of her pajamas, out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of her wound in the nearby mirror. Her gaze unwittingly gravitated towards her reflection, but the sight of her abdomen didn't rattle her this time around; though the markings on her skin weren't any more pleasing to the eye than the day prior, Weiss had taken Ruby's words to her heart. Smiling softly as she thought back to the day before, she pried her eyes away from her slightly flustered self in the mirror and got back to getting dressed.
Once she was done, she headed downstairs. Despite the faint hum of the kitchen radio, the house felt oddly empty as she descended the steps; tranquil, even, though not in a way she found particularly comforting — almost as if its beating heart had been spirited away.
No voice called out to her in a greeting as she reached the landing. No one waited sitting on the green sofa, and the holo-TV remained dark and mute; even the dog bed beside the couch was vacant, with no pup basking in the splotch of sunlight warming up the red bedding. With the soft music being the only sign of human presence in the whole building, Weiss, drawn towards the sound, crossed the empty living room and entered the kitchen.
Inside she found Taiyang, sitting by his lonesome at the table; with a Scroll in one hand and a half-eaten sandwich in the other, he was reading up on the daily news over his breakfast. Noticing Weiss out of the corner of his eye, he glanced towards her, greeting her with an easygoing smile.
"Good morning," Weiss said, bobbing her head slightly and reciprocating his smile.
"Morning, Weiss. Coffee?"
Though no longer particularly sleepy, Weiss graciously took him up on his offer. "Yes, please."
While Tai stood up and went on to get her a clean mug, Weiss took a seat and helped herself to a sandwich from a nearby plate. As she waited for Tai to pour her her drink, she took notice of one additional cup present on the table; some dark residue was covering its inner walls, leading Weiss to believe that Ruby had already had her morning coffee.
Chewing on her sandwich, she waited for Taiyang to finish; once he set her drink down in front of her and took back his seat, she swallowed and asked: "So... where's Ruby?"
Surprisingly enough, Taiyang glanced to the side, scratching the stubble running along his jawline as if unsure how to answer that question. "She, uh, went for a walk," he said, not bringing Weiss any closer to understanding. Seeing the clueless stare he was being given, he served Weiss with a lopsided smile. "To visit her mom."
Her eyes widening a bit, Weiss let out a tiny 'oh' of understanding. Now that Salem was gone, it made perfect sense that Ruby would like to visit her mother at some point, and Weiss felt kind of silly not having thought of it sooner.
Knowing not what else she could or should say in the given situation, she reached for her cup and took a few sips of coffee to occupy her lips. It was completely black, but she didn't mind — it wasn't that far off from the way she usually took her coffee, not to mention that she'd feel obliged to say something if she took her time to add sugar. So she drank slowly from her cup, staring blankly at the table, neither she nor Taiyang saying a word for some time, with radio playing in the background providing them with a pleasant white noise.
Eventually, after a while of careful deliberation, Weiss took her mug away from her lips. "Do you think she'd mind if I also went there?" she asked quietly, looking up at the man sitting across the table.
Prying his eyes away from the screen of his Scroll, Taiyang blinked, seemingly having not expected Weiss to speak up. He chuckled, as if finding the question genuinely amusing. "No, I don't think so," he said, shaking his head. "Do you know how to get there?"
Weiss nodded. "Yes. We all went there together before storming Beacon."
"Right. Right..." he muttered absentmindedly, falling silent for a spell before looking back again at her. "If you do go, would you mind bringing Ruby the keys? She didn't take hers, and I'm about to head out for work."
"Certainly."
Autumn leaves whispered softly in the language of the wind as Weiss strode in their shade. With one hand down the pocket of her coat and another on Myrtenaster's pommel, she followed down a narrow forest path, with Zwei trotting happily by her side. The pup had approached her as soon as she'd left the house, seemingly eager to follow her, and Weiss simply hadn't had it in her heart to say no to those cute, beady eyes.
Zwei's company, while it had been fairly unexpected, was most welcome — it made the journey through the woods a bit less lonely, not to mention making sneaking up on Weiss that much harder for any Grimm bold enough to try. Not that she found the prospect particularly concerning — she was fairly sure she could take on anything Patch could possibly throw at her, and the familiar heft of her trusty sword weighing down her left hip served only to further bolster her confidence.
Besides, encountering any Grimm that early in the day didn't seem very likely on Patch, especially considering that their local population must have taken a nosedive after the recent events; it was really too bad, as Weiss was just itching to skewer a Beowolf or two. Being so eager for a fight was probably a bit unwise considering her recent injuries, she knew, but who could blame her for feeling a smidgen vengeful?
Still, even though she didn't feel in any danger, the Huntress in her knew better than to lower her guard completely, carefully scanning her surroundings as she continued her trek through the picturesque woods. The forest wasn't particularly dense in the area, which made keeping track of any movement in the vicinity that much easier; sadly, it didn't mean that the trees looked any less same-y, and there were moments when Weiss started to wonder whether or not she had taken the correct turn.
Despite having been brought up in the labyrinthine Schnee Manor, her spatial awareness wasn't all that great; although she usually could remember her way around a building just fine, her sense of direction out in the wilds, while still better than it had been before Beacon, was pretty shaky at best — especially when compared to Blake's. Nonetheless, she decided to trust her gut and the vague memory of the last time she'd traversed that path with her team, counting on her fluffy companion to right her course should she begin to stray.
Eventually, the line marking the edge of the woods appeared in her view from between the trees. From that point, it wasn't long before the path she followed broke out from the forest, spilling onto a familiar cliffside glade. There, she found Ruby — she was sitting on the grass by the cliff's edge a couple dozen feet away, in front of what Weiss knew was Summer Rose's gravestone. Northern breeze tousled Ruby's hair as she sat alone in the middle of nowhere, seemingly deep in thought; if she was saying anything to her late mother, Weiss was too far away to hear.
Weiss just watched her for a spell, suddenly overcome with a feeling telling her that she was intruding on a very intimate moment; hesitant, she began to wonder how and if she should approach Ruby, but, before she could reach any conclusions, her decision was made for her, as the girl in question turned around and caught her red-handed.
"Hi, Weiss," Ruby greeted her with a soft smile gracing her lips, seemingly not surprised in the slightest to see Weiss.
Weiss blinked, then exchanged mildly confused looks with Zwei before returning her gaze to Ruby and beginning to walk slowly in her direction.
"How did you know I was there?" she asked once she was a bit closer, genuinely curious what had given her and Zwei away. Noted, she hadn't been trying to sneak up on Ruby, but she hadn't been loud, either, and there still had been a good distance between her and Ruby when Weiss had been spotted.
Ruby seemed to ponder on that question for a while, but then just smiled awkwardly and bobbed her head to the side in a half-shrug, as if to say 'I just did'.
Once Weiss was just a couple of feet away from Ruby, she stopped and looked down at her feet, a bit embarrassed about the way the situation had unfolded. "I hope I'm not intruding."
Ruby giggled at that and shook her head. "Why would I think that, silly?" She patted the grass next to her, asking Weiss to sit down — a request with which Weiss readily complied. In the meanwhile, Zwei laid down in front of them both, next to the grave. "Got here without any incidents, I hope?" Ruby asked, scratching her dog between his ears.
"Yes, no Grimm in sight. Sadly..." Weiss affirmed, trying her best to give her voice a dejected slant. Hearing a soft chuckle off to her side, she shot Ruby a half-hearted glare. "What? Am I not allowed to feel a bit vindictive? Or is it about my sense of direction, huh? If so, I made it here just fine, thank you very much."
Ruby just laughed at Weiss while the latter continued to glower at her; eventually, Weiss dropped her faux scowl and turned her eyes towards the gravestone in front of her.
"Hello, miss Rose. You two have been catching up, I assume?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss saw Ruby nod her head. "Yeah, just about finished. And I think she'd have preferred it if you called her just Summer." Having said that, Ruby glanced to the side and breathed out an amused huff. "Or that's what I'd guess, anyway. I know of her, but I've never really got to know her that well," she said, then looked at Weiss with a wry smile plastered on her face. "I guess you and I have that one thing in common, huh?"
"Yeah," Weiss let out quietly, not sure what else to say.
Ruby flying off on that little tangent caught her off-guard, but Weiss felt she understood why her friend had taken their conversation in the direction she had. Ruby had always been on the record for never talking much about her late mother, especially so regarding the ways in which Summer's disappearance had affected her, molded her into the person she was. It was a burden she bore alone in silence, hiding it behind her chipper demeanor and positive outlook, never openly complaining or getting angry; she hid it so well, in fact, that her mask had become her nature, with only a select few individuals ever suspecting the pain lurking underneath.
But Weiss was intimately familiar with that kind of wounds — ones you slap a band-aid on and then hide, both from the world and yourself. They fester. Chip away at your soul and wear you down. Weiss understood that frustration — none better. And so, if Ruby decided to finally open up, even if just for a little bit, to talk about it with someone and vent... Weiss was there for her to talk to.
"I hope you don't mind me asking, but I've been wondering for a long time... when you talk to her, do you believe she's actually listening?"
Ruby huffed out a short laugh. "Fair question, considering that I chat with a grave on a regular," she said, then cast her gaze down and rubbed her neck as she quietly pondered on her answer. "I sure used to when I was little. I think I stopped at some point, but I'd still come here and talk to mom regardless... as a way to cope, I guess. But now, knowing everything I know... I think I do. I'd like her to." Letting out a tiny huff through her nose, Ruby looked at Weiss, even managing to muster a smirk. "I didn't spend the last half an hour bragging just for no one to hear it, you know?"
Weiss placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I think she'd be proud of you," she said, then turned to look at the gravestone and narrowed her eyes dangerously. "You'd better, Summer, or you and I are going to have a nice, long chat." Ruby snorted at that, and Weiss, having achieved her goal, quickly let her glare melt away.
A funny thing... somehow, talking to a grave didn't feel anywhere as awkward as it had during her first visit, back when she and Blake had been introducing themselves to Ruby's mother; this time around, addressing Summer no longer felt as something done just to humor her partner, and almost like talking to an invisible, silent listener. That thought reminded Weiss of something, and a quiet, short giggle escaped her lips, sparking Ruby's curiosity.
"What's so funny?" Ruby questioned, amused.
Weiss stared off into the distance, shaking her head. "I just remembered that one song I wrote during our second semester at Beacon. 'Some believe in fairy stories, and the ghosts that they can't see...'" she sang softly, then turned towards Ruby with a mischievous spark in her eyes. One look at Ruby's face was enough to determine that she had guessed without a fault whom the song was referring to, the adorable pout she was making bringing a smile to Weiss' lips.
Glancing to the side, Weiss let out a short laugh and scratched herself behind her ear. "But the joke's on me now, isn't it? A real life fairytale is now sitting right next to me. And I don't just mean your Silver Eyes."
Returning her gaze to her Ruby's face, she noticed an arched brow that was asking her for clarification. And so, Weiss obliged. "You kept on going when the world started to crumble, even when others have given up. Against all odds, you've led the charge and persevered. And perhaps most importantly, you gave people hope in their darkest hour. You inspired them..." She paused for a spell, letting her eyes fall to the ground. Ripping out a handful blades of grass, she continued, a warm, fond smile lingering on her lips as she spoke. "You still do. Wherever you go, the world turns brighter and warmer. Everything seems more possible. If that isn't some fairy tale material, I don't know what is."
She meant every single word she had said, and it felt so, so easy and right to actually say it. All the ways in which Weiss had changed herself, had grown, it all was possible in great part due to that silver-eyed Dolt with a heart of gold. What Weiss had accomplished was still her own, but Ruby had been the key catalyst of that change — the warmth that thawed the ice and let in the sun, as well as the gentle hand that nurtured. Ruby had believed in her even when Weiss herself couldn't, and gave her strength when her own wasn't enough; she was her hope when there was none; a warm pyre that burned ever brighter the colder the night grew.
Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss saw Ruby briefly look away, her face brushed with the faintest shade of red.
"I wouldn't have made it without you," Ruby said quietly, and their eyes met.
Although Weiss heard Ruby say those words before, there was something new to the girl's voice this time around — a certain profound quality Weiss couldn't quite place nor define, but one that caused her breath to hitch and her body to shiver. There was a sense of gravity permeating each syllable, somehow making Weiss feel that it wasn't the support, being her friend, or even repeatedly saving her life that Ruby was thanking her for. No; it felt like something much more fundamental in nature, though Weiss couldn't quite name it.
It was the kind of gratitude that stemmed from one's very core; a trust so absolute and beautiful she nearly couldn't believe it existed — one Weiss didn't feel she deserved, although it was hard to argue with the look of certainty she was being given. It almost felt as if with those seven words Ruby had offered up her very life to Weiss, and had done so readily, without a hint of hesitation. Ruby putting such faith in Weiss was daunting and scary… and completely priceless.
Not once in her life had Weiss been so much at a loss as to what to say, not at a time when she wanted to say something so badly. Thankfully, Ruby had never cared much for pomp and circumstance, clearing her throat and moving on as if nothing big had just happened.
"So, about that song... it's the same melody as Mirror Mirror, isn't it?" she asked, breaking up the tension that hung heavy in the air. She did so with such ease that it seemed that Weiss was the only one actually making a big thing out of what had just transpired; as if Ruby had merely reaffirmed what she'd already believed in for a long while, not even finding a reason to give it a second thought.
Weiss let out a surprised laugh at that, but it came out more as a breathless cough than a proper chuckle. Still, she was grateful for the change of the subject. Music she could talk about; music was easy, unlike trust, gratitude and all those other complex terms and feelings. She nodded. "Mostly the refrain, but yes. I guess you could call it part two."
"How does it go after the part you've just sung?"
"I know that I could do so much, if I could just believe in me. Mirror mirror, tell me something: can I stop my fall?"
Ruby let out a pleased hum, then turned towards her mother's gravestone. "Told you her singing is amazing." Then, the smile with which she'd said those words dimmed, making room for an expression of genuine care and concern. She didn't look up at Weiss, but when she spoke up, her words were clearly directed at none other but her. "That one line... 'If I could just believe in me'... Can you believe now?"
A low, warm laugh formed in the back of Weiss' throat, quietly making its way past her lips. She felt lighter for some reason. Smiling, she reached out with her hand towards Zwei — who had been silently listening to their conversation the whole time — and scratched the underside of his snout.
"Thanks to you and the girls, yes," she said as she turned her eyes towards Ruby, speaking in a voice so tender that she herself was a bit surprised to hear it.
The two of them simply looked at one another for a second or two. Then, a gust of wind blew by, causing Ruby to shiver slightly. "Good," was all she said as she broke off their eye contact and stared off into the distance, far beyond the edge of the cliff. She remained silent for a spell, and Weiss followed her gaze to watch how the sun was rising over the isle of Patch. Before Weiss' thoughts could begin to drift off, Ruby bumped her gently with her shoulder. "Sing the whole thing to me someday, will you?"
'Sure,' Weiss was about to say, but then she remembered their conversation from two nights prior and got a slightly better idea. "We'll see," she said pointedly, unable to stop her lips from curling into a playful smirk as she turned her eyes towards Ruby to watch her reaction.
Unsurprisingly, it took Ruby but a heartbeat to catch on to the joke. Having her own card played against her, she punched Weiss playfully in her arm and began to snicker; Weiss joined in soon after that, their shared laughter rolling off the cliff and over the forest, bright and clear like the sky above.
Taiyang was long since gone by the time the girls returned from the forest. They lazed around the house after getting back, not really doing anything in particular. A while past the noon, Ruby, who was on cooking duty that day, figured regretfully that it was high time to start working on their dinner, and so, with a loud sigh, she rolled up her sleeves and headed to the kitchen.
She opened the fridge and took a moment to examine what was in stock; thankfully, her dad had already taken care of grocery, saving her the trip. After considering her options for a spell and consulting her guest, she settled on making some chicken broth — she had the chicken, the veggies, and it wouldn't require much of her input at all, making it seem like an attractive choice for that lazy afternoon. Grabbing what she needed from the fridge, she made her way to the counter.
Before long, the chicken had been washed and put inside a large cooking pot filled with water. Turning on the stove and leaving the water to boil, Ruby figured she might as well go ahead and grab some bay leaf and allspice, to have them ready at hand when the time would come. She pulled up a drawer where they kept their herbs and spices, plucking a pack of bay leaf from the bunch and throwing it onto the counter. She also managed to find allspice, but froze for a second upon picking the packet up, realizing just how light it was; when she peeked inside, all she saw was a single, small berry looking at her sadly from the corner of the pack.
Undeterred, she got back to the drawer and began thumbing through their whole collection of spices, going over the labels in hopes of finding another packet of what she needed. Sadly, her search soon proved fruitless, causing her to mutter under her breath, "Dammit."
Weiss, who had been keeping Ruby company the whole time, looked up from her Scroll and eyed Ruby curiously. "What's up?" she asked from her seat at the table.
"We're outta allspice, it seems," Ruby aired grumpily as she continued to flip through the contents of the spice stash. "Pretty low on a couple other things, too." Letting out a mildly exasperated sigh, she finally gave up and closed the drawer with her hip. She spun on her heel to face Weiss, leaning her back against the countertop. "'Course dad would forget to stock up on spices," she groaned, running a hand through her crimson hair.
"Do you want me to go and grab it while you're minding the stove?" Weiss suggested.
Ruby blinked and recoiled, putting both of her hands in front of herself in protest. "I mean, I don't wanna bother you..."
Weiss tilted her head slightly, giving Ruby an amused look. "I wouldn't have suggested it if I minded. Besides, I could always use some exercise, even if it's just a walk."
Despite Weiss' assertions, Ruby bit her lip, still having her reservations regarding the proposition. Weiss, noticing that reluctance, just rolled her eyes and rose from her seat.
"Just text me what you need. I'll go and prepare in the meantime," she said, brushing her fingers along the edge of the tabletop as she circled the table. Not waiting for Ruby's response, she promptly vacated the room.
Ruby just sighed, resting her elbows on the countertop and leaning back a bit. Having her decision made for her didn't really make her feel any better about the prospect of sending her guest on a grocery run, but she ultimately relented; if Weiss really wanted to help, who was she to stop her with her self-righteousness?
After all, Weiss had expressed her willingness to help her cook well before Ruby had even started; her assistance having not been needed before, Weiss seemed genuinely eager to jump at the opportunity to be of use. 'Might as well let her', Ruby tried to reason with her own conscience.
A soft whine coming from her left grabbed her attention, leading her to notice the puzzled look Zwei was giving her with his beady eyes. Huffing out another quiet sigh, Ruby gave him a wry smile. "Oh well."
Pulling out her Scroll, Ruby did as Weiss had asked and wrote up a shopping list. Not long after sending it over, she heard Weiss descend the stairs.
"I won't be long," Weiss called out to her from the living room; soon after that, the sound of the front door opening and closing echoed in the building.
"Have fun."
Pushing herself off the counter, Ruby grabbed a bundle of veggies and was about to bring them over to the sink when she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, freezing on the spot the moment she turned around. Right outside the window, perched on the windowsill, she noticed a large, black corvid watching her with its blood-red eyes. Somehow, the bird seemed about as spooked by that eye contact as she was, and the two stared at one another in awkward silence for a spell, until the raven flapped its wings and disappeared from her view, flying off to the right — towards the door.
Ruby drew in sharply through her teeth. She knew that bird alright. "Oh boy," she let out alongside her breath. She looked at Zwei and pointed at the floor. "Sit here." Setting the veggies back down on the countertop, Ruby strode up to the back entrance to the house and opened the door.
Beyond the threshold stood no one other but Raven Branwen; with one hand hanging loosely by her side and the other resting on the hilt of her Omen, Raven was looking off to the side with an uncharacteristically uncomfortable expression on her face.
'Why, pleased to see you too,' Ruby thought, really holding herself back not to let the words to actually roll off her tongue.
Remembering what Yang had told her of Raven the last time the subject had been brought up, and all of the other offenses, Ruby was slightly tempted to just slam the door back into the woman's face, but ultimately restrained herself. Though she had her flaws — many of them — Raven had been instrumental in defeating Salem; that, and Ruby also had a bit of a personal debt to her, as without Raven's portals they wouldn't have been able to bring Weiss back to safety in time.
Besides, Raven's expression genuinely intrigued Ruby, in the 'morbid curiosity' kind of way; it was new, and if Ruby was to name it, she would be tempted to call it 'desperate' — that is, if she hadn't known any better.
Her arms crossed, Ruby leaned nonchalantly against the doorframe. "Yang's not home," she said coolly, shooting the woman in front of her a dirty look.
Contrary to what Ruby had expected, Raven seemed... relieved. Letting out her breath, she turned her tired, red eyes towards Ruby. "And Tai?"
"Neither." Assuming that their business there was done, Ruby began to close the door, but Raven stopped her, forcibly grabbing the door by its edge.
"Actually... I came here to talk with you," Raven said.
Ruby blinked rapidly, for a hot second thinking that her ears had deceived her. That said, she was quick to wipe her surprise off her face, taking on her best impassive expression as she let go of the doorknob and once again crossed her arms. She didn't say anything, didn't reply in any other way, just staring at Raven intently; after a second or two, her wordless 'let's hear it' finally came across, prompting Raven to cast down her eyes and speak.
"Yang's... angry with me," she started clumsily.
Ruby felt her eyelid twitch. 'No shit.'
"I'm not saying that I haven't screwed up, but I think there was a bit of a… misunderstanding, the last time we talked, and I doubt at this point she'd listen to me if I tried to clear that up. So I thought— no, hoped, that maybe you could help me reason with her?"
'Oh wow,' Ruby thought, allowing herself to quirk her brow. Raven asking for help — for anything, really — was... well, 'new' was certainly one way to put it.
It was really quite hard to believe, but there she was, reaching out, pleading, unable to hold Ruby's stare and fumbling with words, as if admitting the truth of her own shortcomings brought her physical pain. It did explain why Raven looked so out of sorts when Ruby had opened the door, though. By the looks of it, she was about as lost and inexperienced in pleading for help as a stereotypical high-school girl asking out her first crush.
It was no reason to give her any quarter, however. "And why should I do that?" Ruby asked coldly. Impressed though she was with Raven's plea, she still had to be convinced that it was in line with Yang's best interest. "It's Yang who gets to decide whether she wants to give you yet another chance, and it seemed to me that she's already made up her mind." Her voice probably had more bite to it than it was necessary, but Raven was a big girl — she could handle it. Not to mention that she had earned it.
That got Raven to meet Ruby's gaze. For a heartbeat, her red eyes flared with anger, or perhaps frustration, but that fire quickly sizzled out, a look of defeat springing forth from its ashes.
She seemed smaller, somehow; there were dark shadows under her eyes, and her usually proud back was now at a small angle, her shoulders slumped as she looked at Ruby with a bitter smile. "What do you expect me to say? That I'm desperate? That Yang was right and that I'm a coward, who was so hellbent on strength and survival that I've destroyed my team, and then my own family? That I left my daughter to fend for herself all her life, even when she needed me? That a bunch of kids, with you at the helm, have done what I thought impossible?"
Raven's words were coated with venom and spite, but the shots were all aimed at her own self. She shook her head, taking in a deep, shaky breath. "I've committed many mistakes over the years, Ruby, and regret many things I've said and done. I used to look away from them all, hiding behind excuses and talking myself into believing that what I've done was necessary — even taking pride in 'difficult choices' others wouldn't have made— choices someone like your mother could never have made. Back when STRQ fell apart, I thought she was a gullible, spineless weakling, and I was so sure I knew better. And look at me now." Spreading her arms wide, as if to show off the extent of her failures, she let out a hollow, dead laugh of someone who no longer could outrun the trainwreck of their life that they themselves had derailed.
"My blood brother hates me. I've doomed my clan, and now that they're either gone or scattered to the four winds, Yang's all I have left. I know I can't atone for a life of abandonment, but... am I really being unreasonable when I simply want to fight for her? To do right by my daughter, at least once in this fucking disaster of my life?!" she said, her voice rising and falling with the flow of the emotions she for once had set loose. The last few words were a low growl uttered through her clenched teeth, each one accentuated with a downward punch.
Ruby listened quietly to everything Raven said. Though she was trying her hardest to keep her expression indiscernible, on the inside she couldn't help but feel pity. At one point, it crossed her mind that Raven was simply saying what she wanted to hear, to get into Ruby's good graces... but even though she wouldn't normally put it beyond that woman, this time she was inclined to believe in her sincerity.
She still didn't like Raven, she still didn't exactly trust her to do the right thing, and nothing Raven had said excused any of the terrible ways in which she'd hurt Yang and dad... but she deserved credit for finally being honest with herself and owning up to her mistakes. One thing Ruby could do for her was to at the very least hear her out.
"Well, at least you're aware that you've royally fucked up. That's progress," she deadpanned, then pushed the door wide open and leaned her back against the doorframe, moving aside so as to let Raven in.
Raven huffed through her nose; a slight upturn appeared in the corner of her mouth, marking the beginnings of a faint smirk. Surprisingly enough, Ruby noticed a certain degree of... fondness in Raven's red eyes. "Qrow was right, you know? You really do sound just like Summer at times."
Giving Raven an unimpressed look, Ruby turned around and marched into the house. "Flattery will not get you anywhere."
Raven's smirk grew as she crossed the doorstep. "And who said I was flattering you? The brat was annoying."
A paper grocery bag in her hand, Weiss slipped inside the house. Much to her surprise, the moment she set a foot in the living room, she heard sounds of a conversation coming from the kitchen; she couldn't quite make out the words, nor did she recognize the muffled voice of the person Ruby was talking to, with her only takeaway being that it was some woman. Her curiosity piqued, Weiss quickly took off her shoes, hanged her coat over the backrest of the couch and headed straight for the kitchen, taking the groceries with her.
As Weiss began to open the door, Ruby's laughter spilled through the crack. "No he didn't."
"Ask Tai if you don't believe me," the other person replied amusedly, their voice oddly familiar to Weiss' ear.
Weiss wasn't quite sure whom she had been expecting when she opened the door. Maybe a friendly neighbor lady who had baked too many cookies, or some colleague of Taiyang... but whoever it had been, it certainly wasn't Raven bloody Branwen, least of all Raven Branwen who was in the middle of peeling a carrot with a knife, chatting casually with Ruby sitting on the nearby countertop. Nothing about the scene made any sense, and so, unable to process seeing Raven in such a domestic setting, Weiss couldn't help but stare at the woman, wondering what bizarre reality she had just walked into.
Hearing her entrance, Ruby and Raven both turned in her direction. Raven gave Weiss a small nod of acknowledgment; there was a slight smirk on the her lips, likely borne of the absolutely stupefied expression Weiss undoubtedly had painted all over her face.
"Hello there, Schnee. Don't pay me any mind, I was just about to leave anyway." Finishing her work with one last slide of the blade, she set both the now-peeled carrot and the knife down on the countertop and dusted off her hands. She approached Zwei and patted the corgi on the head, then walked to the door leading outside. Stopping briefly by the doorstep, she turned around towards the girls and bowed her head in a silent goodbye, then left the building.
Still shell-shocked, Weiss just stared blankly at the back entrance to the house, continuing to do so for a good couple of seconds after Raven had disappeared behind the closed door.
"Thirty. Minutes," Weiss uttered, then looked at Ruby, who was trying really hard not to crack from holding back her laughter. "I've been gone for thirty minutes, only to come back and witness the single most bizarre scene I've seen since Beacon. The hell, Ruby," Weiss laughed, shaking her head in disbelief as she put the grocery bag down on the table. "What did she want?"
"Make amends, I suppose." Ruby jumped off the countertop and grabbed a clean mug, moving in to make some tea for Weiss. "Long story short, she's asked me to mediate between her and Yang. Apparently, Yang misunderstood her intentions the last time they talked."
Taking a seat at the table, Weiss looked at Ruby curiously. "How so?"
"What sis told me," Ruby spoke, pouring some hot water into the cup, "was that Raven had wanted Yang and Blake to leave with her; the two of us had never been mentioned. Yang assumed that it was about helping Raven rebuild the Branwen clan, so she told her to fuck right off." She slid the mug across the table, putting it in front of Weiss, then peeked inside the grocery bag and fished out a pack of allspice. Tearing it open, she approached the stove and lifted the lid off the pot, releasing billows of white steam into the kitchen. "Turns out, Raven believes that she failed her clan, and so cannot in good conscience ask the few remaining survivors to go back; she just wanted to hunt and travel 'round the world together with Yang. Guess it's her idea of a mother-daughter bonding exercise," she explained while adding ingredients to the pot.
Breathing in, Weiss nodded solemnly. "It does sound like Raven."
"Yeah, I suppose," Ruby laughed, putting the lid back on and leaning her back against the counter. "Still, I told her that she's done goofed nonetheless. What she did was essentially to ask Yang to choose between her and the rest of us — you, me, dad — and, frankly, Raven is in no position to ask Yang to give up anything at this point, even if just temporarily. So I said that if she wants to ever rebuild that bridge, she should make an effort to enter Yang's life, not to try and drag sis into her own."
"That's a sound advice, actually."
"I have my moments," Ruby conceded, giving her friend a long look through her eyelashes and accepting the compliment with a smirk that was just as graceful as it was smug. Then, her smile faded a bit, her expression returning back to serious. "In any case, I agreed to clear up the misunderstanding, but the rest is up to them."
Weiss didn't say anything to that, thinking quietly on what she'd heard as she stirred her mug with a spoon. Eventually, she looked up at Ruby. "Do you think it'll work out?" she asked.
Ruby pondered on that question for a second. "Dunno," she said, staring thoughtfully at the opposite wall. "But I do know that Raven cares far more than any of us has given her credit for."
Weiss sat alone on the sofa, enjoying a fairly decent read by a lamplight; two cups of tea lied on the coffee table in front of her, one of them topped with a floral-patterned saucer meant to trap the heat inside.
The house was silent save for the occasional rustle of a turned page and the pleasant crackle of a flame burning in the fireplace, its blaze basking the room in a soft, warm glow. The windows looking into the room were dark, just as they had been when Weiss and Ruby had returned home from their café scouting about two hours prior. After a quick visit to the bathroom, Ruby had gone to the workshop to apply the final touches on her gift, leaving Weiss to her devices; and so there she was, reading a book while she waited for her friend to finish.
Hearing a soft squeak of hinges, Weiss' eyes flicked from her book to the kitchen door, just in time to see Ruby walk into the dimly lit living room. Dressed in an old, somewhat snug gray hoodie that she wasn't afraid to get dirty, Ruby circled the coffee table and walked over to the couch; her crimson hair was once again done in a cute little bun at the back of her head, likely tied up that way in the hopes of keeping out the paint.
Ruby sat down on the armrest and leaned back, collapsing onto the couch right beside Weiss with a quiet 'oopf', her head brushing lightly against the outer side of Weiss' thigh as she fell. The smell of paint still lingered about the girl, but Weiss didn't mind.
"All done?" Weiss asked, looking downwards at her friend.
Ruby hummed softly, pulling up her Scroll. "Mmm. Now to wait till the coat dries up and then it's ready for tomorrow."
For a while, Weiss just watched how Ruby's slender fingers darted to and fro across the screen of the device. Then, her friend's texting reminded her of something, and she asked, "So, has Coco replied to you yet?"
Ruby's silver eyes turned to look up at Weiss, and the two of them shared a conspiratorial smile.
"Yep. Every piece of the plan is in place," Ruby said, grinning.
She then closed her Scroll and let her arms to flop limply onto the couch, folding her hands atop her belly. Falling quiet for the time, Ruby just stared at the ceiling pensively, the lull in their conversation prompting Weiss to get back to her book. That comfortable silence lasted for a while, with the girls simply enjoying their closeness.
Eventually, Ruby's voice broke out amidst the quiet. "So..." she started, "it's just two more nights till the team gets back together, huh? It'll be nice to have the Bees back; it's been a quiet couple of days without them around."
Weiss nodded. "True," she conceded. Then, she glanced down at Ruby and a gentle smile crept onto her lips. "But not unpleasant ones."
Ruby chuckled, then flashed Weiss a lovely smile of her own from her lying position. "Guess they really weren't," she agreed easily, and for a while the two were just looking each other in the eye. Then, Ruby's grin gained a certain mischievous quality and shifted into a smirk, with playful sparks twinkling in the girl's silver eyes as she glanced to the side. "All things considered."
Weiss tried to scowl at that, but she found it really hard to keep a wide grin off her face. "What's that supposed to mean?" she questioned, poking Ruby in her stomach and causing her to burst into giggles.
Author's Note:
Well, here I am. About half a month later than I'd have liked to, but exactly on the day I predicted. I might be actually getting decent at predicting those releases.
...okay, I might have cheated a lil' bit with that; initially, the update was supposed to be a fair bit longer. Or, well, include more scenes at the very least; I never know how long particular scenes are going to turn out until I'm about halfway through them.
A bit of trivia: the scene with Raven is one of the oldest ideas I've had for this fic. It's good to finally get to the interesting parts, lol.
Sooo... remember how I said that January was going to be a bit wild? Oh boy, was I wrong. It was hell, one of a kind I haven't seen in my five years of studying at two different faculties; my circadian rhythm was so shot by the end of it that I got it back under control just this week, and I've been mostly free since the 2nd of February. But hey, I've passed everything, and I'm off to my last semester in this madhouse! Yay!
The bad news is, I have no idea how often I will be able to update over the course of the next four months, what's with writing my BA thesis, obligatory internship, studying for finals and whatnot. The story will continue, however; I'll come back in full force once I'm free, and I'll also try to keep posting new updates in the meantime, whenever I'm able.
As always, thank you for your time; I hope you enjoyed. If any of you feel like chatting, feel free to hit me up on Discord ( Terkontar#1181 ). See you next update!