Chapter Text
“Yang? I brought you some cookies and milk!”
Ruby Rose entered her older sister’s bedroom without waiting for permission. It had been three weeks since the Battle of Beacon, and Yang was locked up tightly in her own head. She barely spoke to her family. She only got out of bed when it was completely necessary. Ruby suspected that if their father didn’t bring Yang her meals, she would lay immobile in her room until she starved to death.
Yang made no indication that she noticed Ruby enter the room. Her gaze was firmly planted on the lone window in her bedroom, like it always was these days. Ruby sighed and set the tray down on the nightstand. “Let me guess. You’re not hungry.”
Immediately Ruby regretted the words that came out of her mouth. “I’m sorry Yang, I didn’t mean… I just wanted to come see you.”
No response. Ruby sat down on the edge of the bed and gently placed her left hand over Yang’s. She stiffened a little at the physical contact, but did not draw her hand away. She also did not look away from the window.
“Does your bandage need changed?”
“Dad did it this morning.”
It was the first time Ruby had heard Yang’s voice in over four days, even though she spent a sizable portion of every day with her. It was cracked, quiet and indistinct. Gone were the musical tones on the verge of breaking into laughter at any given moment.
Ruby felt a lump forming in her throat, but swallowed it fiercely. She had to be strong for Yang, and being strong meant that she couldn’t let her sister see her cry. Once the tightness in her chest eased up to a manageable level, Ruby cut straight to the chase.
“There’s something I wanted to talk to you about, sis.”
Yang turned her head towards her sister, and lilac eyes met silver. Ruby’s heart ached for her. There was so much pain where there once was fire and exuberance. It was hard for the young huntress to bear the knowledge that she could do nothing to ease her big sister’s suffering. She felt the lump in her throat threatening to return.
“I talked to Uncle Qrow yesterday. He said to find Ozpin, we need to go to Haven.”
Yang’s eyes narrowed, flickering a bright shade of red for just a moment.
“So?”
“So we need to find him, Yang!”
“Why? Why us, huh?! Haven’t we given enough to this stupid fight?!” Yang’s fiery eyes and the pain oozing from every word shouted made Ruby wince. “We’ve lost our mothers, our friends, blood-” Yang waved her maimed right arm at Ruby, simultaneously yanking her remaining hand from under her sister’s. “Do we need to give up our lives like Mom did? Like Pyrrha did?”
It was Yang’s turn to regret her words as tears welled up in her baby sister’s eyes. “Ruby, I’m-”
“We’re Huntresses, Yang. That’s why. We give everything we have to protect people.” Ruby choked the words out while tears splashed into her lap.
“Ruby… I never really wanted to be a Huntress. I wanted to go on adventures and lead a full, exciting life. Helping people was just a byproduct of that.” Yang’s eyes were solemn again as she looked at the bandage on what remained of her arm. “And now I can’t do any of those things anymore.” She added quietly. “I’m useless.”
“No you’re not.” Ruby said, sniffling. “Yang Xaio Long, you are not useless. And no matter what reasons you have, you are a Huntress. You help people. You saved Blake’s life-”
“Don’t.” Yang’s eyes flared red again. “Don’t say her name.”
“I’m sorry, sis.” Ruby stared into her lap, quietly crying.
“Me too Ruby.”
Yang took her sister’s hand again, and Ruby squeezed it tight. They sat in silence for a few moments before Ruby returned to the conversation she intended on having with her sister.
“Yang, I have to go to Haven. I have to find Ozpin. Whatever happened at Beacon… That was just the beginning. And I can’t let what happened to Pyrrha-” Ruby choked up again and looked her sister directly in the eyes. “I can’t let anyone else die.”
“Ruby…”
“No, Yang. I have to go.” Ruby was sobbing openly now. “I know it’s dangerous. I know our enemies are capable of killing me, but I can’t live with myself if I don’t fight. So it doesn’t matter how dangerous it is. I have to go, even if I’m scared.”
Ruby buried her head into Yang’s neck, hugging her tight. “I’m sorry. I love you so much, Yang. You’ve always been there to protect me. But I don’t have a choice. I have to go. Please don’t hate me for leaving you.” Her muffled words dissolved into incoherent weeping.
Those last words stabbed Yang Xaio Long in the heart, and she began crying too. She wrapped her left arm around Ruby and pressed her face into the top of her head.
“Ruby, you’re my baby sister. I love you with all of my heart. I could never hate you.” Yang whispered through the tears soaking her cheeks and her sister’s hair. “And I don’t hate Blake either. I just-” She shut her eyes tightly and shook her head as a fresh wave of anguish racked her body. “I can’t talk about it yet. It hurts too much.”
The two sisters held each other for a long time without saying anything, finding some much needed solace in their embrace. After Ruby’s sobbing ceased and her ragged breathing became slow and regular again, Yang planted a gentle kiss on the top of her head. Ruby looked up, and for the first time in nearly a month, saw a slight smile on her sibling’s face. It was a shadow of the boisterous grin that used to grace Yang’s features- not nearly as full of joy as Ruby remembered it- but it was a start. Ruby returned the smile weakly.
“I just… I couldn’t leave without telling you why. I can’t tell Dad, because he’ll try to stop me.”
“I want to try and stop you myself, little sis. But I can’t. I get why you’re going. It’s who you are, Ruby. You’re a Huntress, through and through. Just please tell me you’re not going alone.”
“I’m not. Jaune, Nora and Ren are meeting me here tomorrow morning. We’re going together.”
Yang pulled Ruby into another tight hug. “You guys be safe out there. And Ruby Rose, you had better come back to me or I’ll single handedly hunt you down.”
Ruby jerked away from Yang, eyes wide. It slowly dawned on the maimed blonde brawler what she had just said, and the two sisters collapsed into laughter.
“I love you, Yang. And I’m going to miss you while I’m gone.”
“I love you too, Ruby.”
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“Ruby!”
Yang’s eyes snapped open at the sound of her father’s panicked shouting. She sighed and closed them again. Yang knew from her conversation with Ruby the previous evening that her sister was dead-set on leaving the safety of their father’s home in favor of seeking… revenge? Justice?
Maybe a little bit of both.
Whatever was motivating the young Huntress, Yang was grateful for the catharsis the two had shared before Ruby set out on her journey. For the first time since the Battle of Beacon, Yang had felt something. It may have been the emotional equivalent of having stitches torn open and the resultant wound filled with wasps, but after three weeks of numbness, even raw pain was breath of fresh air.
“Yang!” Taiyang burst into the bedroom, wide eyed and pale. “Yang, wake up!”
“I am awake.” Yang didn’t even bother opening her eyes.
“Yang, Ruby’s gone! She-”
“-Went to Haven to look for Ozpin.”
Yang took a deep breath and opened her eyes, looking up at her father. His frightened expression transformed into one of anger. “How did you know? Did she tell you?”
“Yes, Dad. She did. And before you ask, she didn’t tell you because she knew you’d react like this.” Taiyang had started to interrupt, but closed his mouth and furrowed his brow, his rage thinly veiled.
“I’m not allowed to be worried about the well being of my daughter? Even after you-” His expression softened. “Even after you got hurt?” Tai shook his head. “Aren’t you worried?”
“I definitely don’t want anything bad to happen to Ruby. But I think the only way you were going to keep her here was by chaining her up. And I’m not so sure that would have worked either.” Yang closed her eyes again. “You know Ruby, and you know I’m right. Her leaving to rejoin the fight was inevitable.” Yang sighed again. She was drained, a hydroelectric dam in the middle of a dried up riverbed.
Taiyang began pacing back and forth in front of Yang’s bed. “I need to find Qrow, get him to bring her back-” He started, but his daughter swiftly interrupted him.
“Dad, who do you think told Ruby to look for Ozpin in Haven?”
Taiyang’s blue eyes widened in shock while he processed this thought. Yang could practically see the gears turning underneath her father’s unkempt blond hair, and she braced herself for the explosion that would follow once it all clicked into place. His eyes narrowed into slits, and when he spoke next, it was with a voice that can only be described as the eye of a hurricane.
“I need to find Qrow. And when I do, I’m going to beat him senseless for planting these ideas in your sister’s head.”
“Dad.”
Yang sat up in her bed and swung her legs over the edge in one swift movement. “You don’t get it, do you? There was nothing -I mean nothing- that could have stopped Ruby from taking off. Do you not know your daughter at all?” She put her hand to her forehead before continuing. “If you’re going to blame Qrow for telling Ruby where to start looking for Ozpin, then you have to blame me for reading her so many fairy tales as a child. You have to blame yourself for sending her to Signal and Beacon. And maybe you have to blame yourself for being a Huntsman in the first place.” Yang looked up into her father’s eyes.
“This is who Ruby is. Above all else, she wants to help people. Do you know what she said to me last night? She told me ‘I can’t live with myself if I don’t fight. So it doesn’t matter how dangerous it is. I have to go.’”
‘…even if I’m scared.’ Yang chose to keep the end of that sentence a secret between sisters.
Taiyang’s eyes drifted to the bedroom window, his mind racing. He began pacing again. “Nothing you say can change the fact that I’m worried sick about Ruby. She’s too young, Yang.” He stopped at the window and leaned on the ledge, taking in the snowy winter morning. “I’ve lost too much to this fight, and I can’t bear the thought of losing Ruby too.”
Taiyang suddenly found himself lost in painful memories. Images flickered through his mind in a rapid succession. A young Ruby, perhaps only four years old, sheepishly admitting that she had eaten all of the chocolate in the kitchen. Yang reading stories to her baby sister by the fire, purple eyes focused intently on the book in her hands, unable to see the absolute rapture in Ruby’s face as she listened. An afternoon spent long ago with Summer Rose, pregnant with Ruby, and Yang -my god, she must have been only two or three, so precious in a brown and yellow dress and short pigtails- in a meadow full of flowers, smiling and laughing and planning their future as a family.
Taiyang started as he felt Yang’s hand descend on his shoulder. The two of them shared a meaningful glance, then both returned to the pristine frozen landscape outside.
“Uncle Qrow won’t let anything bad happen to Ruby, Dad. And she’s not out there alone, either. She has friends from Beacon with her.” Yang’s hand fell from her father’s shoulder, and they stood quietly together for a moment.
“Hey Dad? Can we go for a walk later?”
Taiyang looked at his daughter with mixed emotions. Pride and sorrow and sympathy and love and a hundred other nebulous feelings converged and multiplied in his chest until it felt like he would collapse under their weight.
“Sure, Yang.”