blake finds weiss before she finds ruby. she might as well start there.
“do i have eyes?” blake tries not to flinch at her tone. “of course i did.” a pause. softer, “i’m worried about her.”
“you have a funny way of showing it.” weiss stands and looks blake in the eye. blake forces her ears not to lay flat against her head. “have you tried talking to her?”
“of course i have. you’ve seen me-“
“that is not what i meant, and you know that.” there’s something in weiss’s eye that makes her uneasy. her protectiveness over yang has been clear since the vytal festival incident, but there’s something else. weiss knows something that blake doesn’t.
“there was no fire,” blake says dumbly. she doesn’t know what else to say. “there was no fire, but her eyes were red. i didn’t know… that she could do that.”
weiss deflates somewhat. “i didn’t either. none of us did.” her shoulders pull back again. “but things change.”
“do you think she wouldn’t change the way she fought after what happened to her?” blake’s throat tightens. “what’s left of her arm may have healed, blake, but the rest of her hasn’t. she fights differently because she’s scared. she’s more controlled because look at what happened the last time she rushed in without thinking. she doesn’t fight to win anymore. she fights to protect herself and stay alive.”
blake blinks- she really didn’t expect to get this far with weiss. or this intense. “and have you… talked to her about it?”
weiss lets out a clipped, bitter laugh. “believe me, i’ve tried. but you know yang-“ in the back of her mind, blake thinks you used to, but you don’t anymore “-she’s always the first to help, and the last to accept it.”
blake’s eyebrows furrow. “i don’t know what-“
“of course you don’t!” weiss’s voice is much louder now, and blake pushes down the embarrassment that crawls up her neck. “of course you don’t, because you haven’t bothered to talk to her about why you left.”
blake bristles at this. “you know why I left! it was my fault that he took her arm. it’s my fault that happened to her. i hurt her enough.” blake doesn’t bother to blink away the tears that well up. “i hurt her and i don’t know how to fix it, weiss. i can’t. she’s better without me.” blake sniffs. “it ended up being for the better. she’s healed, and i had business with the white fang. maybe it was for the better. she doesn’t need me.”
weiss and blake turn their heads to see ruby leaning against the doorframe. her combat boots and skirt are gone, and her hair is pushed out of her face. blake’s heart tightens. sixteen is still so, so young.
“yang won’t talk to me. well, she talks to me, but not about how she’s feeling. it’s not like she ever has, though.” ruby pushes her self off of the doorframe and makes her way over. “yang… she’s always been the kind of person to put everyone’s needs before her own. we know this- you know this,” she tilts her head in blake’s direction, and blake wants to scream.
“wait, wait, what?” blake’s heart comes to a screeching halt. “you left? how could you just leave when she just got-“
“look who’s talking,” weiss spits out. blake stops her sentence dead in it’s tracks. shame crawls up her cheeks and neck, her heart frozen.
ruby pushes on. “i left because i needed to. i didn’t want to leave her, but she wasn’t physically able to come. she needed to rest,” and ruby sounds wise beyond her years. blake stands still.
“you left because you didn’t want to hurt her, but you were also scared, blake. weiss left because she was forced to. and as for me-“ ruby averts her eyes- “there isn’t a day where i don’t regret leaving her.”
a silence falls among the three of them. blake breaks it with a shuddering exhale. “i didn’t know you both left. that means that she just… she was just alone? the whole time?”
“she had dad. and zwei. but that’s not the point. the point is that she hasn’t healed. i hear her crying out in pain when she has to fix something with her arm. i dropped a plate the first night we got here, and she started crying. there is something wrong and she won’t tell me, and that breaks my heart.” ruby looks down, and then looks blake straight in the eye. “did she tell you she found her mom?”
blake feels the blood drain from her face. “… what?”
“i figured.” ruby is speaking so easily, like this is a normal topic of conversation for them to be having. it scares blake. “she was at haven. i’ll give you a guess as to whose side she was on.”
there’s a ringing in her faunus ears now. the tears she kept trying to push down are back with a vengance. “oh my god i- i couldn’t even… i didn’t know-“
“and that’s the problem. you didn’t know because you guys haven’t talked. it’s been what, three weeks? and all you say to each other is “good morning?” or “pass the salt?” i love you, blake, and i love my sister. but this has gotten ridiculous.” ruby’s voice carries so much strength in her words, and blake has never been scared of her until now. “yang is not okay. and from what i can tell, you’re not okay, either.”
“but what should i do? she doesn’t want to talk to me. she won’t even look at me, ruby. how can i fix something she doesn’t want to be fixed?”
“did it ever occur to you that she might be thinking the exact same thing?”
“yang needs help, but she won’t accept it. she needs to be strong for everyone because if she’s not strong for everyone else, she doesn’t know how to be strong for herself. the world has stomped all over her and put her through hell, but she’s still standing. she’s not okay, but she can be. and blake, i think it needs to start with you.”
blake doesn’t know what to say. weiss seems to sense this. “just talk to her, blake,” she says softly. she puts a hand on her shoulder. “be completely honest with her. it would do the both of you so much good.”
“and i think it will go a lot better than you expect,” ruby adds, nodding.
blake inhales deeply before slowly nodding her head. “okay.” she locks eyes with weiss, and then ruby. “okay. i will. thank you guys.”
ruby and weiss smile at blake as she leaves the room.
“do you think they’ll be okay?” ruby asks. weiss looks at her knowingly.
“i have a really good feeling that they will be.”
it’s about sundown when blake knocks hesitantly on yang’s door with her elbow. the two cups of tea in her hand are scalding hot, and somehow, they anchor her.
they don’t anchor her enough to keep her eyebrows from shooting up when she hears a soft “come in”.
yang is on her bed, her prosthetic opened and a screwdriver in her mouth as she twists one of the wires of her arm. her hair is in a messy bun and she’s only wearing a sports bra and joggers and i’m so in love, blake thinks. i don’t deserve her. her hands tighten around the cups of tea.
yang looks up and meets blake’s eyes. clearly not expecting her, her eyebrows skyrocket and she takes the screwdriver out of her mouth. “uh, hey,” she says. her lips tighten.
“hey. i uh, um…” and blake, who has never been great with saying words, fumbles for a second. just ask. that’s all you have to do. she deserves to know why. do this for her.
“i was, um, wondering if we could… you know… talk?” blake raises the cups in her hand. “i brought jasmine. if that’s, um, still your favorite.”
blake doesn’t breathe for the next five seconds. yang closes the open panel of her prothetic and turns her body fully towards blake. they lock eyes once more, and in the back of her mind, blake is thinking please say something, anything, please tell me you’re okay, let me help you.
but then a smile slowly breaks out onto yang’s face- a real smile, with all of her perfect teeth and freckle-dusted cheeks on display. blake’s heart throbs, and she’s never been more in love.
“i’d love that, blake. let’s talk.”