I will be posting this story on ao3, with added bits that are too cool for posting here.

Now that the temperature was above freezing, well above it in fact, Ruby had switched back to her combat skirt. She found a nice t-shirt to go with it, but beyond that everything else was excessive and stuffy. Neo was pretty content with shorts, but other than that they were outfitted much the same as each other. Ruby hoped she didn't have to talk to Neo about the importance of underwear, as she considered it a given. The last thing was footwear, and as much as Ruby loved her boots, they were not suited for these temperatures. Fortunately, but also unfortunately, they had to bring a lot of clothes with them in case the temperature dropped suddenly, and there was no guarantee it wouldn't. While that did mean she would be able to keep her own clothes with her, it also meant she would have to carry it all in the steadily increasing heat. That was the part she wasn't looking forward to.

It felt like she had been cooped up inside for forever. Opening the front door and stepping outside felt like being released from prison, or being born all over again. The sun was beating down on the city, bathing everything in light and warmth. A little too much light and warmth, but it was actually pleasant. Neo stepped out behind Ruby and immediately slumped over, looking totally wasted. It seemed the weather didn't exactly agree with her. Ruby hoisted the bag with her clothes and some supplies over her shoulder, looking out over the still-empty city before them as it baked in the sun. Where to go?

"We should try to look for others. If we can find a shelter, or a ship that we can take to Atlas... what do you think?"

Neo was doubled over, her hands on her knees, panting heavily. She barely raised her head, wheezing as she waved Ruby off. Ruby got the sense she was playing it up a little, but wasn't so cynical that she would tell that to Neo's face. If she was playing it up, it was most likely to make more obvious something that was actually true. So the heat or the light was hurting Neo... what did that mean for Ruby?

"Do you need me to carry you?" Still with her head down, her hair hanging almost to the ground, Neo shook her head. A few seconds later, she nodded. Ruby sighed. "Alright, let's not make a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be." Putting down her bag, she crouched down for Neo to climb up onto her back. It took a moment before Neo got on, wrapping her arms around Ruby's neck and her legs around Ruby's waist, resting her head on the back of Ruby's neck. Ruby picked up both of their bags, struggling to stand up straight again, but once she was up it was a lot easier to move. She had to lean forward to keep from losing her balance and falling over backwards on top of Neo, but she could manage. "Okay, you ready? I'm gonna start walking."

After a moment of no response, Ruby felt Neo nod her head, which was pressed up against the back of her neck. She could already feel Neo's hair getting soggy from both of their sweat and sticking to Ruby's skin. It was uncomfortable, but little had been since she woke up in the street, so she put it out of her mind and took her first step carrying Neo on her back. Immediately, Neo slid down her back, her arms tightening around Ruby's neck. In her panic from falling, Neo tried to pull herself back up, which had two effects; first, she started strangling Ruby, who doubled over to try and pull Neo back up, which almost sent Neo flying over her head, and second, when Neo did move back into position as a result of both their efforts, Ruby felt the pressure on her back from a pair of peculiarly soft parts on the front of Neo's body. She knew, of course, what it was she felt starting to poke at her back, but that didn't make it easier to put it out of her mind. She would just have to not mention it... and move on, and put up with it. For her part, Neo had also noticed, but was loath to admit it by adjusting her position. If she didn't do anything about it, she could pass it off like Ruby was imagining things, but if she made a big deal about fixing her position Ruby would know that she wasn't wearing a bra. An oversight that, after this, Neo wouldn't be making again.

"Alright... now that we've got that out of our system, let's go for real." Ruby took another step forward, this time more carefully. Neo was clinging onto her like her life depended on it, so this time she didn't slip nearly as much. Another step, and Ruby noticed something. The faster she moved, the more Neo moved up and down with each step. On the one hand, it was all sorts of distracting and disorienting, but on the other hand it almost felt like she was getting a back massage. She opened her mouth to say as much, but decided better. The last thing she wanted was to antagonize the only other person in sight, especially someone who had their arms already around her neck, not to mention someone who didn't like Ruby very much to begin with.

It became a slog, a long step-by-step journey down empty streets. It didn't take long for Ruby to really start feeling the effects of having someone on top of her. The space between them became like an oven, filling with sweat. Ruby noticed very quickly that Neo being on top of her did not make for any sort of shade at all, and she could see the result in the form of long lines of sweat running down her face, arms, and front. Her hair felt just like if she had just dunked her head in a bucket of warm water, and Neo's hair wasn't any better. In fact, being longer, it was starting to get on her nerves how much it was sticking to her own back, neck, and arm. One lone adventurous strand was even making its way over Ruby's shoulder and down the front of her shirt. A part of her wanted to yank that strand of hair off of Neo's head in frustration, but she'd spent her entire life avoiding messing with others' hair and she wasn't about to start now.

There came a point, well into their long trudge, that Ruby began to wonder what had actually happened. She stopped next to a pair of houses and set Neo down in the shade between them. Jogging away, she went about trying to open the front doors of every house, three in each direction, on both sides of the street. None of them were open. They were all shut, and all but one were locked. The door hadn't been broken in, which was a good sign, and it looked to be a good place to take a break. She left the door open and ran back to where she'd left Neo, only to find the small woman, and both their things, missing. Thinking she'd mixed up where she had left Neo, she checked every alleyway up and down the street over the entire area she'd just covered, then expanded her search several houses further. She checked every alleyway on the other side of the street, and was about to start kicking down doors when, while running, she had to pivot to one side to avoid falling down a manhole. She landed hard on her rear, and sat there staring at the open manhole. She was certain that hadn't been there, and once she took a moment to think about it she realized it was right in front of the alley where she had first thought she'd left Neo.

Slowly, Ruby approached the manhole, and peered down into the darkness. It wasn't completely darkness, since the sun was still straight overhead. Down at the bottom, she could see their bags, open, the contents scattered about haphazardly. So that was it then. Neo had gone down into the sewers. Ruby could understand if she just wanted to escape the heat, but to leave their clothes and weapons and food all over the dirty sewer floors like that was, Ruby decided, probably unlike her. Ruby thought about it for a moment before deciding on the answer. Since Neo hadn't been handling the heat and the sun very well, she might have been delirious and suffering from heatstroke. In her daze, she might have been seeking out anyplace to escape the heat and fallen down the manhole. If that was so, she could be down there right now, badly hurt. There was no other choice. Ruby had to follow.

Without her aura, Ruby had to climb down the ladder into the sewers, which was not a descent she appreciated. The ladder was rusty, to start, and also sticky and damp, and worst of all very dirty. Everything below her smelled horrible, and the heat was definitely making it all worse. Then things got even more problematic, when the ladder suddenly stopped still several feet from the floor. It was hard for Ruby to see exactly why, but it looked like the rest of the ladder was resting on the floor in a twisted heap. That was discouraging, but even worse she could see that the contents of their bags were strewn out on the ground in a trail leading off to one side. She dropped the last few feet, though she felt the impact in her legs without her aura to support her. She quickly gathered their clothes and shoved them into one of the bags and threw it up and out of the manhole, then grabbed both weapons, fastening Hush to her belt and Crescent Rose held firmly in her hands.

The bags had been dropped first. Neo had grabbed onto as much as she could and taken it with her, dropping things every so often. She wasn't delirious. She was taken. Taking one last breath in the sunlight, Ruby stepped into the darkness to follow what had quickly turned into a trail of sandwiches. Something was alive down here, surviving the deep freeze in this damp environment, and it had come up for a moment to grab Neo and drag her down to the depths. She chased the trail as far as she could before it went cold, the breadcrumb trail ending in a plastic bag floating in a stream of standing water running down the middle of the tunnel. There was only one direction it could go for a while, but when it branched again Ruby would lose the chase. Neo would be gone. Sure enough, Ruby reached the end of the tunnel, where it split off in two different directions. She didn't know where to go. She had lost Neo, the closest thing she had left to a friend.

Drip... drip... drip...

Ruby looked up. That sound... it was coming from the left hand path. Something was there, moving in the dark, coiling around itself. Something enormous, wrapped in a giant bind of long tendrils. The mass began to writhe, separating and revealing its captive, held in the grasp of countless tiny tentacles. Neo was being dangled above a giant mouth of what looked to Ruby almost like a carnivorous plant. The tentacles... The vines, began to wind their way towards Ruby. Before she could back away from them, she felt one grab her ankle from behind and pull her leg out from under her, knocking her down and lifting her up into the air. Other vines reached out to her and wrapped around her arms, snaking their way up her limbs. But all Ruby could see was Neo as the monster plunged her into its mouth.