Chapter Text
Pyrrha stormed out of the interrogation room, using her semblance to call Miló and Akoúo̱ back to her.
An officer walked around the corner, froze for a moment, and went to grab his baton. “Ma’am, please-”
She just glared at him, making a show of spinning Miló around, and he backed away. Good. No one else tried to interrupt her exit, allowing her to leave without any further issues. As soon as she got out of the station she practically deflated.
God damn it… Why did they think that? Just because Ruby was a Faunus? She had three Beacon students around her and was one herself! Ugh… Maybe a public campaign could work? How difficult would it be to sway opinion?
Vale would certainly be easiest, besides Vacuo which was practically already there, but still… She never really knew how bad it was. Damn it- Or… Hmm…
She checked her scroll, finding it to be… 6:30, awesome… The first airship to Beacon would be soon, and she’d get there just in time to hopefully be able to talk to Ruby…
Sighing, she continued down the road. There weren’t many cars or people out, it was actually quite peaceful.
On the way to the airship yard she took mental note of the various restaurants in Vale. There were restaurants open with food from every kingdom and Menagerie. The Vacuoan restaurants tended to be very open-seated, with the kitchen visible allowing one to see ceramic ovens and open flames underneath. The Mistralian had much more compact spaces and a closed off kitchen space, though they also tended to be the type where you walk up and order, then go sit down.
Valeian restaurants, on the other hand, were ones where you’d sit down and wait for the waiter to order your food. Those with food from Menagerie pretty much had no walls other than the four that enclosed the eating area, with floor mats and tables only about a foot off the ground.
Then… the Atlesian. There weren’t many in Vale, or at least not on Pyrrha’s path, but the ones there were seemed… High class. The two she passed held sleek white indoor spaces and a general busy feel. The seating was plush, comfortable, actually fairly high, and the vast majority of the tables only held two. She could see the wait staff hurriedly moving through the large windows that made up the front wall, and one look at the food told her that it was definitely high quality.
Most people wouldn't be able to afford that, but… it certainly wouldn’t hurt Pyrrha’s wallet that much, maybe she could bring Ruby here some time.
After almost 30 minutes of walking, Pyrrha finally made it to the airship docks. She probably could have made the trip faster, but after such a long night… She couldn’t be bothered. So she simply hopped on the first to leave for Beacon and leaned her head back.
—
Ruby blinked open her eyes, finding herself still in the infirmary. Right, that’s where she should be. Where… Right, falling asleep, of course. Her eyes were considerably less… non cooperative. She slowly sat up, finding it considerably easier than before.
After a few minutes of getting her bearings, a doctor popped into the room, when he saw Ruby he quickly walked further in. “Oh, you’re awake! Do you need anything? I’m not sure how good the food I can get will be, but I can get something.”
As soon as the doctor mentioned food she felt her appetite come back with a vengeance and nodded. “Yes please…”
“Of course!” He disappeared out the door.
Ruby flopped back on the bed, staring blankly to the ceiling. It was gonna be a… long day…
—
The food was… fine. It was slightly better than the hospital food she’d had in the past, but that really wasn’t saying much. She was just happy to eat anything by that point. But that left her with… nothing to do. Apparently she wasn’t fit to leave the hospital until they got some more tests back, but that just meant waiting.
And she also couldn’t play games on her scroll because it broke during her tumble. And not having anything to do meant she had a lot of things to… think about.
How was Blake? She had, stupidly, not asked about Blake when Professor Ozpin was there before. She seemed… pretty panicked when she saw that guy. The same guy that her stupid heart condition prevented her from beating, of course it would happen at the exact wrong moment!
Maybe if she hadn’t passed out, Blake would have ended up better! Or… was she even doing poorly?
Could she-
“Rubes?” Ruby jumped at the sudden voice, jerking over to find Yang in the doorway. “”You… you okay?”
“Yeah… I’m okay.” Her sister deflated at Ruby’s words, almost falling over and stumbling forward to sit next to Ruby.
“What happened? You were kicking that guy's ass and then- You just went slack!”
“Oh yeah… Well, turns out I have some stupid heart condition and now that might just… happen sometimes. Apparently it’s fairly minor, but it’ll just… happen now. They said something about stress, but I was a little out of it.”
“You… What?” Yang paled, staring at Ruby like she’d seen a ghost. “Can you- You can still be a huntress, right?”
Ruby, in turn, paled, then frantically waved her hands in front of her face. “Oh yeah! Of course! It’s just- Sometimes I might pass out. I know what warning signs to look for now, though… If my vision suddenly gets desaturated and dark, I need to… I guess stop moving?”
“Oh… good… Thank the brothers-”
The room fell into silence for a moment, but a quiet shuffling disturbed the peace. Yang turned to her, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh… I- uhm… How’s Blake?”
Yang didn’t answer immediately, but her reaction sold that it was… not good. She hung her head for a moment and seemed to roll the words around in her mouth before talking.
“She… I think she’ll be alright, but she hasn’t really spoken since last night. Apparently the counselor is talking to her, but she really thinks she killed Penny. Apparently Penny’s alive, but Blake can’t get it into her stupid head-! Sorry- I just- I can’t understand how she thinks she killed Penny! It was her stupid ex! Or at least I assume he was her ex, I’d rather it not just be a random obsessed stalker…”
“Oh…” Ruby let herself fall backwards, her head hitting the pillow.
“Yeah…” Yang trailed off, the room seeming unnaturally silent.
—
At least it did until the sound of heels came down the hall. Ruby could hear who it was before she entered the room, by both the heels and the…
“Ruby Xiao Long Rose! You insufferable little-” Weiss rounded the corner and stomped into the room, well as much as someone in heels can stomp. “I’m not going to use that word anymore- Ruby Rose, do you have any idea how reckless that was?”
“Aww, Weissy was worried!” Yang soon found herself on the floor as Weiss swiped the chair out from under her. “Hey!”
“Can it, Xiao Long.” Weiss turned to Ruby, who wilted as much as a girl already laying down could under her gaze. “What were you thinking! That man beat Yang and Penny at the same time! You could have died!”
“I- uhh… Well-” Ruby glanced around the room,
“Nope! None of that! Tell me to my face!” Weiss flicked Ruby’s human ear and grabbed her by the face, dragging her to the side to let their eyes meet. “What were you thinking?”
“I- uhh… W-Wasn’t?” Weiss’ eyes had never held more fury… “I-I mean- I s-saw Penny fall and I just- it was automatic-”
“Oh, so your instinct is to avenge a random girl that, I’ll admit, you are very good friends with, and abandon your teammate currently fighting the most wanted criminal in Vale!?”
“Uhh… Yes…?” Ruby raised her arms in surrender (and to shrug her shoulders).
“I- I can’t with you! Ugh-” She turned around, stomping around the room. “You know what I hate most about this? I would have done the same thing! If it was Pyrrha on the ground I would have tried to avenge her! I wouldn’t have been able to do… Whatever the hell you did, miss Maiden, but- Ugh!”
“Alright, calm down, Weiss Cream.” Yang had apparently recovered from residing upon the floor, now standing next to Weiss and patting her shoulder with false empathy. “Not all of us get to be special like my little sis!”
“Shut it!” Weiss slapped her hand away, but quickly found herself enveloped in a bear hug instead, “Xiao Long!”
Yang just laughed, picking Weiss up and parading her around the room, much to the heiress’ dismay. “Well, I’m taking Weiss Cream here to the cafeteria, want anything?”
“Nope!” Ruby gave a thumbs up.
“Sick. Seeya!” Yang disappeared out the door with a flailing Weiss in hand.
Her friends were weird as hell.
