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Ruby braced herself against a flinch as Jaune brought the cotton swab to her shoulder again, delicately pressing at the torn skin.
She wasn’t crying - she never did when she got like this - but she was pale, trembling slightly under his touch. A pair of scissors sat abandoned in the sink. Blood dripped slowly down their blade, the soft drip of it hitting enamel the only sound to accompany Ruby’s stuttered breaths.
“You can talk to me, you know,” Jaune reminded her gently. She already knew, of course, but that wasn’t the point. This wasn’t the kind of thing he’d let Ruby go through alone.
“My head gets busy,” she admitted, shrugging slightly.
This was a familiar routine for the two of them. Sometimes their roles switched, but the beats of the song stayed the same. One week it was Jaune, the next it might be Ruby, but they muddled through it together. Helped each other fix things up after it.
Didn’t ask too many questions, just offered support.
Ruby glanced down at her shoulder, ignoring the ache in her muscles. The sharp sting that came with another pass of the antiseptic.
It was always like this. Things would get too much for her, she’d panic, and then she’d do something impulsive to try and make her brain feel right again. Which worked - for about five minutes, and then the high would end and she’d just hurt again instead.
Jaune had found her quickly after she’d sent him a message. Hadn’t asked too many questions, just had sat down with his first aid kit rubbed circles into her back until she was calm enough for him to start patching her up.
“It’s not too deep,” Jaune reassured when he saw her looking. “Are you hurting?”
Ruby hummed. Yes. No. Not enough to bother a strong huntress like her. She had more important things to focus on than something she’d inflicted on herself. The rest of her team would still need her now.
“‘S’alright.”
Jaune frowned at her and used his free hand to push painkillers in her direction, “Take some anyway. It’ll help bring down the swelling.”
It was as close as he could get to ‘I don’t want you to be in pain’ without being accused of being a hypocrite. He understood.
Ruby took them from him, quietly grateful, and took them with a scoop of water from the tap.
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
Ruby shrugged, and the action threatened to open up the cuts again, “Mom stuff. And school stuff. And team leader stuff. It got loud.”
Not something she particularly wanted to talk about now. All that stress and fear that had shot through her system had gone now, leaving her cold and numb and exhausted. She didn’t have the energy to discuss it.
Jaune seemed to sense that, placing a gentle hand just above the fresher cuts.
“I can’t imagine with everything going on right now.”
Ruby laughed humourlessly. “You definitely understand some of this stuff.”
She looked pointedly at Jaune’s bandaged wrists, exposed from where he’d pushed his hoodie sleeves up to keep them out of the way. Jaune rolled his wrists slightly in response to that, stretching against the soft fabric. They could do with re-wrapping them; they had come open during training again and stains were starting to show through the cloth.
“Maybe, but we’re both getting through it.”
He smiled at her, and Ruby smiled back.
Then Jaune turned back to his first aid kit, pulling out a packet of bandaids.
The sight of them made Ruby snort with laughter. They were Pumpkin Pete themed, little rabbits dancing across the outside of the box with a playful cartoon grin.
“Really, Jaune?” She giggled.
Jaune rolled his eyes with a grin, “Pumpkin Pete is very fashionable, thank you very much!”
“And I will be the coolest huntress in all of Beacon,” Ruby agreed with a laugh.
Pulling a few bandaids from the packet, Jaune got to work covering up the worst areas, smoothing them down with careful hands as he adorned Ruby’s shoulder in pink, blue and yellow versions of Pete’s face. It made Ruby smile, the way Jaune double checked each one to make sure that the design was facing the right way up before he placed it. Smiling felt good. Warm as her body started to feel normal again.
It was nice to feel alive again, like the feeling was slowly returning to the tips of her fingers. She had caught the cold when she was curled up on the bathroom floor, fighting for breath as she made her way through a panic attack, one hand clasped in Jaune’s as if he was the only way back down to reality. That chill was subsiding now. Not fully - it wouldn’t be that easy - but every laugh and smile was igniting a little more in her.
“Thank you,” she said as Jaune finished his handiwork, cuts all safely protected by Pumpkin Pete.
Jaune smiled. “No worries, I don’t mind helping to patch you up. I know it’s awkward to reach your shoulder.”
Ruby let out a warm laugh, “Not just for that. For everything. For all of this.”
“Hey, any time. And I know you’d do the same for me. You already do the same for me.”
“Always. We’re a team.”
Ruby shuffled over towards Jaune, tucking herself under his extended arm and letting him draw her into a tight hug. He was warm, and safe, and one of her closest friends, and Ruby felt a little more warmth find its home with her again. They would be alright.