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It wasn’t long before Ren woke up, body aching everywhere, with his back to the cold, hard floor. He stared up at the ceiling, trying to gather himself and where he was. He could really only see with his right eye, and that realization hit him like a speeding train. That’s right, he thought, eyebrows pulling together in pain. Cinder took the left one. He turned his head, vision going blurry for a moment, and peered down at what remained of his left arm. He wanted to sob, he wanted to scream, but instead he just lifted his head back up to stare at the ceiling once more. Cinder took that too.
He thought back over the events of the evening, flipping through images like a magazine. He was supposed to distract Cinder while his teammates did the dirty work. It wasn’t supposed to turn into a fight. Ren couldn’t help himself, however, once Cinder began to threaten the life of his longest, closest friend. Nora; beautiful, energetic Nora Valkyrie who owned his heart in more ways than one. Those threats brought Ren to his tipping point, and he lashed out with hidden vitriol.
He had made the first move, and he knew it. No matter how much Cinder egged him on, as long as he made the first move it would always come down to Ren being at fault. He did this to himself. He knew that as well.
Only, he had expected to be killed for the way he lashed out at Cinder, the way he sliced through the fresh skin of her face. What he had gotten, however, was nearly a fate worse than death: he had to lie in wait and see the faces of his friends when they found him this way. Found him laying in a thick pool of his own blood, caked with the brick-red liquid all down his face and dried in his clothing. They would see the empty eye socket, the off-white bone inside his arm, and the thousand yard stare Ren was left with.
He wasn’t sure what to expect. Frankly, he didn’t really want to think about it either. Instead, he counted the ceiling tiles, and waited.
—
It felt like hours had passed before he heard the familiar beat of footsteps inside the facility. A group, not just one or two. He had lost count of the ceiling tiles by that point, and instead opted for chewing the inside of his lip. He didn’t really feel like getting up to see who it was, but he could guess from the way the footsteps rumbled, that the large group consisted of his friends and teammates. Moments later, he heard a gasp.
“REN!” Ruby, oh Ruby, that poor girl had been through so much. The way her voice cracked felt like a punch to the gut.
He turned his head, aching to see the girl he tried to protect, while at the same time anxious and fearful of how she might react to the sight of him. There, they all stood. Ruby, fallen to her knees with tears in her eyes. Yang, shaking like a leaf, and Blake, reaching out for Yang’s hand. Weiss looked like all the blood had left her body, but she held onto Ruby with such warmth. Qrow stood silently, with his hand clasped over Oscar’s shoulder, while Oscar let his eyes search frantically over Ren’s body.
Oh, and Jaune...the pain in his eyes made Ren want to die, just so he would never have to see that again. His leader stood, arms to his sides, helpless as his eyes flickered from Ren’s maimed body to Nora, standing almost directly in front of him.
Nora. Oh, how Ren wished he hadn’t turned his head. In Nora’s eyes he saw the look of a child, lost and hurt. Her turquoise blue danced with tears, and Ren watched in silence as they spilled over and down her cheeks. As soon as they made eye contact, she sprinted to his side.
“No, no, no no no...” her voice was so broken, so raspy, and Ren could barely take it. “No, no NO!” He flinched, and she clasped her hand to her mouth, eyes wide as if she had been slapped. Her other hand was busy flirting over his body; she touched his chest, then the good side of his face, and lastly pushed his hair away so she could see what remained of his eye. Her hands were visibly shaking, but they were oh so warm. Ren leaned into her touches, which only seemed to break her more, but he needed her right then and he would take what he could get.
Ren licked his lips, his mouth as dry as a desert, and shifted towards her. “Nora...” he started, wanting nothing more than to ease her pain. She just let out a sob and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his blood soaked hair.
A loud crunch brought him out of his stupor, and he gazed past Nora’s bright hair to see that Qrow had punched a hole in the nearest wall. Oscar looked on anxiously, obviously unsure of what to do.
“Oscar...” Ren called, voice nearly caught in his throat. “StormFlower...please...find it.” Oscar made eye contact with Ren, and nodded, relaxing a bit with a task at hand. He set off in the direction of Ren’s blood trail, and Ren relaxed into Nora once more.
Only a moment later, however, she was being gently pried off of him by their team leader. Jaune knelt down beside Nora and held his hands out, palms glowing brightly as Ren’s pink aura engulfed his body. As much as Ren wanted to tell Jaune it wasn’t worth it, he had to admit that relief from the throbbing pain was immensely welcomed. He closed his eyes, and let out a long sigh.
When he opened them again, the whole team was standing above him. Qrow brushed wordlessly against Jaune’s shoulder, and Jaune pulled his hands away. Ren’s glow faded, and he moaned softly. Pushing past Jaune, Qrow bent down and scooped Ren up into his arms.
“We’d better get going,” he mumbled, clearly still seething, and only barely containing it. Ren let himself rest against Qrow’s chest as the taller man began to walk towards the exit. He trusted that Oscar had found his belongings, and let himself fall into a light, fitful sleep.
—
He woke up bandaged and in bed, two luxuries he had not been expecting. He opened his good eye slowly, and sighed when he found that the room was relatively dark. His hand was quickly enveloped in warmth, and he glanced up to see Nora sitting by his side. Her face was red and splotchy, and he knew she’d been crying for some time, but she gave him the brightest smile he’d ever seen. It took everything in him not to gasp. Her smile faltered, and she tried again, but this time it came across as a twisted kind of frown and Ren felt his heart ache.
He slipped his hand out from under hers and reached up towards her face, cupping her cheek in his palm. With a soft smile, he lifted his thumb, and tapped her nose with it.
“Boop.”