The groups speed slowed as they made contact with the sandstorm that stood between them and their destination, at least the sandstorm seemed to offer some protection from the unrelenting sun. Yang frowned as a weird sensation tingled up through her shoulder from her prosthetic, she extended out Ember Celica and flexed her fingers, however, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until she went to collapse Ember Celica back into her prosthetic.
Sparks flew out and her fingers contracted unwillingly into a fist eliciting a surprised scream from the blonde as she stumbled and landed onto her knees as she held her malfunctioning arm in the other. Before she could react, Yang found herself draped in Ruby's cloak as her sister spoke.
"Jaune, you keep watch." She ordered and Jaune nodded in understanding. Without speaking Ruby handed one end of her cloak to Blake who had sat to the left of Yang and held it over her partner offering her some sanctuary from the sandstorm, Ruby knelt on the other side of Yang as Weiss had knelt in front of the blonde.
"Let me?" Ruby asked as she offered her hand out to Yang's that cradled her sparkling prosthetic.
"I can do it myself." Yang snapped back and immediately felt guilty, she hadn't meant for her voice to be laced with so much venom, looking down towards to ground she tried to hide the red flush she could feel spreading across from her cheeks.
"Yang?" Ruby spoke softly as she extended her outstretched hand closer to her sister as Weiss spoke next.
"We know you can but let us help." The ex-heiress' voice drew Yang's gaze back up in front of her and she gave a small nod in acceptance. Ruby quickly set to work, Weiss passed her a small tool kit from one of her pockets and Ruby popped open some hidden panels that helped enable maintenance on Yang's arm, Weiss followed Ruby's instructions using some fire and ice dust generating some water to help clean the sand that had been building up as Ruby continued to check for anymore hidden sand. As she watched her sister and Weiss act in sync, Weiss using the dust to wash the parts directed to her by Ruby with water, a guilty sensation took hold in the blonde.
"Ruby?" Yang asked quietly causing her sister to pause and look up into her eyes, Yang's voice became apologetic and remorseful. "…Back in Atlas, I'm sorry for telling Robyn about Amity, it was hypocritical of me to undermine you and then criticise your leadership." Ruby gave her a small sympathetic smile, understanding that Yang must have been carrying this for a while.
"Hey, I'm not a dictator, I can handle some criticism-" Ruby tried to make light of it but Yang shook her head sternly.
"No. I shouldn't have done it, whether I meant it or not is irrelevant, I shouldn't have said it full stop. That wasn't the right way to express my worries." Yang's stern response seemed to cause Ruby to freeze for a moment as the sounds of the sandstorms rippled across Ruby's cloak, at first Ruby didn't respond opting instead to continue removing more of the sand that had become caught in Yang's prosthetic, Weiss followed her partners lead and melted more ice dust for her to use, after a few more bits of sand were removed Ruby spoke as she continued working.
"We're sisters, we're gonna fight and disagree on some things but at the end of the day I love you." Ruby's voice was filled with an earnest hopefulness that Yang hadn't realized until now, just how much she missed that. Giving her younger sister a thankful smile her attention was drawn to Weiss who took a moment to nudge Yang's arm, when Yang looked up to her, Weiss' eyes flicked towards Blake and she turned her head slightly into the Faunus' direction, the blonde was unsure what could be wrong until she turned and her eyes took in Blake's expression. When she looked over to her partner she could see the guilty look that sat upon Blake's face, the Faunus' eyes remained transfixed on watching Ruby and Weiss expose and then clean the internal mechanisms of Yang's prosthetic.
"Blakey, it's okay, clearly it just wasn't the heat that I had worry about." She tried to play off the incident that had caused her partner to become nervous but the unsteadiness in her voice betrayed her.
"I'm sorry." Blake uttered quietly as Yang responded by leaning her head onto Blake's shoulder.
"There's nothing to be sorry for, you know that." The blonde responded matter-of-factly. Yang closed her eyes seeking to savour the moment, the sounds of the sandstorm were only interrupted by the occasional noise of water from Weiss and metal on metal as Ruby finished up tinkering with her arm.
…
Soon after Yang could make out the sounds of Ruby closing back the compartments of her arm and she signalled to Weiss to stop the water, Ruby toyed for a few more moments as she rolled Yang's sleeve down as far as it could go.
"I've done the best I can but until we get to Vacuo I'd say try to keep it covered, at least until we're through this sandstorm." Ruby admitted upset that she couldn't do more for her sister, Yang flexed her arm as she spoke.
"I'm sorry for snapping, thank you for helping…" Yang's voice started as thankful but as she paused a smirk crossed her face as she turned towards Ruby and Weiss. "… and hey, how do you stop a sandstorm?" Yang asked gleefully.
"Don't." Weiss said trying to sound stern but it was clearly half-hearted.
Yang giggled to herself as she flicked Ruby's cloak from Blake's grasp and tucked that end closer to herself, brushing it across her own shoulder, removing some specks of sand. "A dust buster."
Blake groaned as Ruby whipped her cloak free of Yang's grasp and cradled it safely in her arms while Weiss put an arm around Ruby as she spoke teasingly.
"Don't worry, if she did that we can always bury her up to her head."
Yang raised her hands in faux defeat as the group stood up. "Wow, you'd think being in this desert you guys would be used to some dry humour." Yang winked as she finished eliciting more groans from the group as Blake pushed her shoulder playfully.