hurt ft. nova's art
Yang stared.
And stared.
She couldn’t be seeing right. It just, it just, it just wasn’t right.
Ruby, she was just, but she, she was just--
Gone.
“RUBY!”
No answer.
“ RUBY !”
Still no answer.
Yang ran, keeping her eyes trained on the sky, the last place she saw her sister, uncaring of how the world fell to pieces around her, how different voices called her name, reached for her--she shrugged it all off.
She had to reach Ruby. She didn’t care how she got there, she just had to help her.
She’d sworn to her sister she’d protect her--she’d sworn to Summer, she’d sworn to Qrow, she’d sworn to Tai--
She promised. She’d promised she’d keep her safe, and here she was, nothing left of her sister but her raggedly cloak she never took off because Qrow drunkenly mentioned once when they were younger that she looked like Summer when she wore it since Summer always wore one.
And in a desperate attempt to be closer to the mother Ruby could barely remember, mostly thanks to tales and pictures, she always wore a cloak. No matter the weather, no matter the season, she’d wear it.
And for the first time in years, she wasn’t wearing it. It had been cruelly ripped off of her, and discarded as nothing. In the seconds before she disappeared, Yang saw her, and saw her without the cloak, the look of unbridled anger in her eyes, the way she did her best to hide the fear that came off of her in waves.
Her vision blurred and Yang slowed marginally to furiously wipe at her eyes with her hand, the hand that was holding Ruby’s cloak.
That was all it took.
She screamed as she fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she lost the last bits of control she had.
“RUBY!” once again left her throat, but instead of a yell came a gut-wrenching scream, her voice nearly indistinguishable to herself.
She hears running footsteps behind her, but they don’t register, her eyes have fixated on the cloth in her hands, the tears streaming down her face blurring the red fabric. Some spots were a darker shade of red than others, and Yang could only plead and curse and pray, pray that it wasn’t Ruby’s.
Blake skid to a stop in front of her, dropping to her knees as she reached for her, but Yang pulled away.
She didn’t know why, but her knee-jerk reaction was to pull away. She didn’t look up, so she didn’t see the flash of hurt, pain, and understanding flash over Blake’s face. Her reaction didn’t deter Blake though, who once again reached out and carefully held between her two hands Yang’s free hand, that had taken to clawing at the tears streaming down her face instead of wiping. Yang stared at the limb like it was unnatural, even though it was hers, she didn’t recognize it.
In fact, she hates it. It’s the limb that let go of Ruby, the limb that failed to bring her back.
She’s shaking so badly, hyperventilating, breath caught in her chest, crashing against the walls of her chest, stuck, lost-
Blake tilts her head up and forces her to make eye contact while she speaks to her, but Yang can’t hear her.
She can’t hear anything but the cursed Grimm. She can’t hear anything but the steadily increasing pace of her heart, her choked, stuttered sobs.
Blake keeps talking, and Yang only knows this because she’s looking at her and her mouth is moving. Blake looks over her head, says something to the people behind her - Nora, Weiss, Jaune, Ren - she vaguely wonders what she looks like, how the pieces of her scattered across the ground shine.
She vaguely wonders if anyone else felt it - the tearing of her soul nearly audible. If anyone else was affected by Ruby disappearing.
Blake drew her close, one hand holding her shaking own, and one cradling the back of her head as she pulls her close, holding her, rocking her gently as she falls apart, as she sobs her heart, her soul, her feelings out -
As she curses herself and allows herself to crumble in the arms of the woman who she holds dear.
Blake holds Yang, and Yang knows Blake can hear her heart beat, she feels her tears seeping through Blake’s clothes, goes to pull away but Blake doesn’t let her.
She speaks again and this time Yang hears her.
“Love, just let me hold you, just, stay.”
And so Yang does, as the apocalypse rages around her, as things fall apart, as plans shatter, Yang stays.