Chapter 6
Yang didn’t sleep again that night. Try as she might, she just couldn’t fall back asleep. So, when it came to her turn to keep watch, she pretended to be asleep when Jaune came to get her. So she wouldn’t worry about anyone.
She didn’t wake up Ruby when her shift ended, choosing to stay watch the rest of the night. It sure beat laying awake doing nothing for hours, that was for sure.
Everyone started to wake up when the sun had barely poked over the horizon. Blake was awake first, like always. She gave Yang a confused look when she saw her on watch, but she didn’t say anything about it.
Everyone else started to wake up slowly, Nora being the last to do so.
“Alright, everyone!” Ruby called once everyone was fully awake. “We’re going to eat, pack up, and then head out. Sound good?”
There were little murmurs of agreement as everyone sat around the now-dead fire. Jaune handed out the food that they had packed, and everyone ate in mostly-silence until Weiss broke it.
“Yang,” She started. She had pulled out her scroll and was looking at their auras. “Why hasn’t your aura gone back to normal? It’s still in the yellow.”
Yang’s brows furrowed in confusion, and she pulled out her scroll to see for herself. Sure enough, her aura had a good chunk taken out of it. “Huh, that’s weird…”
“Could it have something to do with the fact that you woke up in the middle of the night?” Penny suggested, “You also didn’t seem to get much sleep after that, as you were still on watch until this morning.”
Yang cursed her luck. Darn it! Of course, it was Penny’s turn on watch, and of course, she noticed when I woke up.
“Yang? Is something wrong?” Ruby asked.
Yang shook her head and crossed her arms. “Nothing’s wrong; I just woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. I’m fine.”
Blake was giving Yang a concerned look, but before she could say anything, Jaune cut her off.
“Before this dissolved into a fight,” He said, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “I could just boost her aura back to normal, and I’ve got plenty to spare.”
Yang shivered. She suddenly had a gut feeling that she shouldn’t let him do that, that it would only end up in disaster for her.
“No thanks, Jaune, save it for someone who needs it,” Yang said, giving him the best fake smile that she could.
“Are you sure? It would be no trouble-”
Yang cut him off with a, “Really, I’m fine.” And stood up. “I’m going to get started on packing everything up.”
She quickly walked away from the group, not wanting to answer any of the questions that she knew that they had.
That gut feeling she had had didn’t sit right with her. In other words, she had a gut feeling about her gut feeling. The thought would have made her laugh any other time, but this time it just made her feel sick.
She shook her head and put all of her focus on either the task at hand or her breathing. Not allowing herself to think about what just happened.
She was so focused that she didn’t even notice when Blake had come up behind her until she cleared her throat, which made her jump a couple of inches into the air.
“Yang, we’re all ready to go.” She said softly, giving her a concerned look.
Yang gave her a confused look back at her. But I haven’t finished- … Oh. When she looked back at what she thought had been the cans of food they had brought, she saw that she was actually arranging a bunch of smaller rocks.
A hot blush took over her face, and she stood up, not making eye contact with Blake. “O-okay, let’s get going.” She mumbled, walking ahead.
Why do I have to be so stupid? She asked herself, keeping her eyes trained on the ground. Blake must think I’m a total idiot. No wonder she chose Sun over me.
“Alright, now that everyone is here, let’s move out!” Qrow called as he started to walk ahead.
Yang stayed to the back of the group, watching everyone as they talked to each other. Ruby was talking with Qrow, Neptune was chatting with Weiss and Penny, Maria was walking with Oscar, though they didn’t say anything, Jaune, Ren, and Nora were together, and Sun was with Blake, obviously.
She didn’t notice Blake’s worried glances or the fact that Sun seemed to be encouraging her. All she saw was them talking and smiling, and that Sun had his arm wrapped around Blake. Yang had to look back down at the ground.
Then, she heard it, just barely, but she heard it.
“You know, I wish I hadn't even gone back to Team Rwby.” Blake said, “Yang, specifically. I don’t know how much longer I can stand her. She can’t do anything right.”
Yang could feel her heart shatter. She... She couldn’t have meant that… Right?
… Right?