#rubyxblake

Ruby seemed to be a constant ball of movement. Always planning or decorating or training or leading the team on some ‘great new adventure’. Although Blake pretended to act annoyed every time Ruby cleared her throat to announce something, she actually found Ruby’s energy adorable.

Right now, though, Ruby was nowhere to be seen… or heard. It was almost worrying. Not that Blake was worried about Ruby! Of course not. Ruby was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

Still, the silence was heavy in team RWBY’s room and Blake was finding it harder and harder to ignore.

Blake sighed a little before swinging her legs over the side of her bed. “So,” she started as nonchalantly as she could. “Where’s Ruby?”

“I don’t know,” Yang said. “Maybe she’s hanging out with Jaune?”

Blake sat in her bed a little longer, trying to get her mind off of Ruby. Why did she care so much? But it kept picking at her brain. Finally, she got up.

“Where are you going?” Weiss asked.

“Uh, for a walk,” Blake answered, closing the door behind her before Weiss could ask anymore questions.

Yeah, a walk sounded good. And maybe she’d run into Ruby and they could walk together…

“Hey Blake!” Blake jerked at her name, turning to see Jaune.

“Oh, hi,” she replied. Then, she remembered what Yang said. “Have you seen Ruby?”

“She said she was going to the roof after dinner,” Jaune answered. “Maybe she’s still up there.”

“Thanks,” Blake said. She picked up her pace, walking towards the stairs to the roof.

“Well, bye!” Jaune yelled after her.

Blake threw a dismissive wave over her shoulder, concentrated on getting to the roof.

When she reached the roof, Blake found Ruby sitting on the edge, staring out onto the campus. Ruby’s shoulders were sagging. Blake thought that must be the first time she ever saw Ruby completely still.

Ruby sighed and leaned back a little, moving her gaze upwards, towards the stars. Blake felt a tug, something like… sympathy, for Ruby.

Blake walked closer to Ruby and said, “Hey.”

Ruby turned around, eyes wide. She relaxed when she recognized Blake. “Oh, hey, Blake!”

Ruby said the greeting enthusiastically, but the words seemed to lack their usual spirit.

“What are you doing up here?” Ruby asked.

“Uh, I was going for a walk and Jaune told me you were up here so I thought I’d, maybe, um, check on you,” Blake stuttered to an explanation. “What are you doing up here?”

Ruby turned back to the stars, as if they held the answer to Blake’s question. “I don’t know. I just felt a bit… overwhelmed and I wanted to think.”

Regret poured hot and heavy into Blake’s veins. Her ears rubbed against her bow as they turned downwards. “Oh, well, I’m sorry for bothering you. I’ll just go.” Blake stepped backwards quickly, stumbling a bit in her haste.

“No!” Ruby said. “I mean, you can stay. There’s plenty of roof for the both of us,” Ruby laughed quietly and patted the space next to her, “Come on.”

Blake walked slowly over next to Ruby and peered of the edge. Okay, yeah, cats were supposed to like high places, right? But the hairs on the back of Blake’s neck were standing up and it felt like her entire body was screaming what are you doing? But Ruby was looking at her and Blake felt that tug again so, against her better judgement, she carefully lowered herself until she was sitting next to Ruby.

“So, do you come up here a lot?” Blake asked, leaning as far away from the edge as possible.

Ruby looked away. “I don’t know. Whenever I feel… worn out, I guess. Which seems to be more and more often lately.”

“Maybe you’ve been working yourself too hard,” Blake said, staring down at her hands.

“But I have to work hard, I’m the leader of RWBY,” she replied.

“We’re still a team,” Blake told her. “If you ever feel overworked, you’re supposed to be able to count on us. This isn’t all on you.”

“But everything has been going wrong!” Ruby huffed. “We started off with Weiss completely hating me! And you barely liked me, too! And then, we finally started working as a team but you and Weiss got into a fight and you ran away and we had to fight all those bad guys and it’s just too much!” Ruby’s words had been building up into a yell, but then they cracked at the end and Blake saw some tears falling out of her eyes. “I just feel like I’m a bad leader,” she finished quietly.

“You can’t blame any of that on yourself,” Blake tried to comfort her. “None of us knew each other except for you and Yang. Of course we were going to have trouble at the beginning. We had to get to know each other. And Weiss just wasn’t ready to find out about me, but that doesn’t matter anymore, because we got through it, and now we’re stronger for it. You got us through it.” Blake reached out to put her hand on Ruby’s shoulder.

Ruby leaned into Blake’s hand. “You really think we’re okay now?”

“We’re better than ever,” Blake reassured her, squeezing her shoulder.

Ruby smiled, wiping her face dry. “You’re really good at cheering people up. I think you missed your calling, you would’ve made an amazing therapist.”

Blake smiled, warmth spreading through her chest at the thought that her words made Ruby happy.

Ruby leaned her head on Blake’s shoulder and Blake smiled even harder. “I guess I’m glad you missed it, though, or else you wouldn’t be here to help me out.”