What Defines Us - Ch. 22 (Patreon)

Her eyelids were heavy - so, so heavy.  Like sandbags were tied to the ends to keep them from moving, with an extra layer of glue to hold them in place.  Where was a crowbar to pry them open? Or some anti-glue or something…

Struggling to lift her eyelids a fraction of an inch, Ruby immediately let them snap shut again.  

Ugh.  The room was so bright.  Why were the lights on while she was sleeping?  Even with her eyes shut, she could see the light seeping through her eyelids while the rests of her senses slowly came online.  

Jeez...it felt like she’d been asleep for ages.

Those lights though…

Peeking her eyes back open and taking a breath that was way too difficult, her brain sluggishly processed what she was looking at - bright fluorescent lights in the ceiling directly above her head.  But why was it on? No one slept with the lights on. Unless she’d been really tired and forgot to turn them off? But she didn’t recognize these lights...

Peering to one side, she found a set of machines that she vaguely recognized as medical in nature.  But, other than being kind of familiar, they made no sense to her. Dragging her focus to the other side of the room, she could hazily see some splashes of color - flowers, maybe?  

Flowers, medical equipment, fluorescent lighting…

It was a hospital room.  But what was she doing in a hospital room?

Sounds were registering in her mind now, muffled and coming from some unseen source.  The noises were too muted for her to figure out exactly what they were, but for an instant it sounded like she heard voices or...something...

Taking a deep breath that sounded really loud in her ears, a prick of pain in her neck instantly told her something was wrong.  

Something wasn’t right.  

She wasn’t right.  

The prick was followed by tingles, then needles - lots and lots of needles.  Not little ones either - big, fat needles that were repeatedly jabbing into her arm and skull.  

Letting her eyes fall shut, she prayed that the pain would pass - that it would fade away as her pain tolerance absorbed it - but the opposite happened.  It grew from pinpricks to a steady wave of sharp agony that refused to let up.

What hurt so bad…?  Why was she so groggy?  Why was she in the hospital?

A small bubble of panic appeared in her chest, and she knew she needed to figure out where she was - what was going on - why she was here - why she was in pain.   

She needed to sit up.  She needed to see the rest of the room.  

Merely thinking about lifting her head, everything in her body screamed at her not to do it - not when she was in so much pain.  But she needed to sit up and figure out what was going on.

The beds.  They normally had a thing on them somewhere -

She turned her head to the side, and it felt like a set of knives stabbed into her skull.  

The sudden pain was so sharp that a swell of nausea rose in her stomach as a whimper forced through her lips.  The feeling was immobilizing. Even as her lungs inflated, she struggled for air while waiting for the wave of abrupt agony to fade into the distance.

It receded slowly, but eventually she was able to think that...moving her head was a bad idea.  

Giving up on using her eyes, she tried to find the button on the hospital bed using her hand...but she couldn’t move her hand.  Instead, the attempt at moving her left arm only made her pay with more sharp knives, needles, and nausea.

Her left arm was also a no go.  In fact, it didn’t seem like she could move that arm at all.  Without being able to turn her head to the side, she had no idea why, but it was locked firmly in place by some invisible force.

Tentatively testing her right hand, she was pleased to find it was free and didn’t paralyze her with pain in the process.  It did feel a lot like a limp noodle, but that was much better than the alternative.  

Blindly fumbling around in search of any type of button she could press, her eyes stared up at that bright light the entire time.

Now that her mind was fully awake and fighting away the pain, she knew that something was wrong.  Why was she here? She couldn’t remember anything. Nothing. Waking up in pain, in a hospital, with no memories of getting there, was usually the plot of a horror movie.  And those movies didn’t end up well for the person chained to the bed...which was currently her, so she needed to figure out what was going on as soon as possible.

Just within reach, her fingers stumbled across a little pad attached to the side of the bed.  Running her index finger around the edge, she found it had only two buttons. Her first attempt at pressing one of the buttons did exactly nothing - her fingers so limp and noodle-y she couldn’t even force it down.  

Taking a deep breath and summoning as much energy as she possibly could, she pressed down on the button again - straining until she felt it indent slightly under her fingertip.  And it did...nothing, apparently.

Not discouraged, she moved on to the second button and used a great amount of willpower to press it down a fraction of an inch.  It immediately worked - a whir of motors sounding from the bed underneath her. 

The initial jolt of movement made her flinch, but the rest of the incline was smooth as the bed slowly but surely raised from its flattened position - tilting up and up and up until she was finally in a slightly seated position.  Gladly releasing her tenuous hold on the button, she dropped her right arm onto the bed while surveying her much-improved view of the world.

It was a hospital - with real people in it, not zombies.  No one was running or screaming for their life. Normal-looking doctors and nurses walked past the window, but they weren’t staring at her like they were expecting something crazy to happen.  They weren’t even looking at her. 

Relieved that there was no apocalypse and she wasn’t being experimented on, she carefully - and very, very slowly - tilted her head down to look at herself.  

What she saw was...alarming.

Her arm - her arm was sealed in an inflatable cast and strapped to the edge of the bed so she couldn’t move it.  But why? What happened to her arm?

Calling on her weak hand once again, she swung her right arm over and tried to pull at the straps holding her to the bed.  Her fingers were clumsy as she fumbled with the metal buckle, trying to undo it so she could free herself from the bed. It would probably be easier to undo if her limbs felt like cooperating right now...but they felt too much like jello.

Straining from the effort, she was just about to give up when a flash of yellow raced by the window, and the door suddenly flew open - forcing her eyes away from her arm as relief flooded through her.

Yang.  Thank god - it was Yang.

At least, that’s what she originally thought, but...it wasn’t.  

It wasn’t Yang at all.

“Ruby!  You’re awake!”

“Yang?” she asked, watching the person who looked like her older sister walk over to stand by the bed.  

It was Yang, but it wasn’t.  Her hair was longer - when had it grown out?  And she taller. She looked a lot stronger - older.  And...and her...her arm -

“Yang?” Ruby asked again, her bottom lip quivering when confusion quickly turned into fear.  “Where am I? What happened?”

As soon as the questions started, they wouldn’t stop.  What happened? Why was she here? The more she asked, the more she searched her brain for answers.  But...there was a part of her mind that was blocked from her - this giant gap of fog that was impenetrable.  

Why?  Why was that there?  Why couldn’t she remember?  What was keeping her from remembering?

The more she tried to reach through that empty space, the more distressed she felt.  It was like a piece of her mind was missing. A piece of her brain was missing. It was missing.  Something was missing. Something was wrong.

Yang’s smile fell as her brow creased in concern.

“You’re in the hospital.  Ruby - don’t you remember what happened?  We were in the forest -”

“We were in the forest?” she asked, her voice sounding slightly slurred.  “Why were we in the forest? We’re not allowed -”

“What?  Of course we are -”

“Since when?  Dad said never - not unless he’s there!”

While Yang stared at her in confusion and worry, Ruby went back to searching her memories for what brought her here.  

Why had they gone into the forest?  They weren’t allowed in the forest, so why would they go in there?  What happened to her? Why did everything hurt? 

Her breathing was speeding up, coming in large gasps while she ran into the same dead end over and over again.     

Something was wrong.  Something was really wrong.

She needed to get out of here.  The hospital was wrong. She wasn’t supposed to be here.  

Pulling again at the buckle on her left arm, she struggled with it while trying to free herself from the bed.  All of the motion was sending pain shooting up and down her spine, but that was nothing compared to the fear of remaining here - trapped.  Scared.

“Ruby -!” Yang yelped, catching Ruby’s hand and preventing her from undoing the straps.  With Yang holding her right arm, Ruby tried to wiggle her left arm free only for a stab of pain to sear through her.  It felt like something was trying to rip her hand right off. And her head…

When Ruby whimpered in pain, Yang immediately let go of her arm.  

Lifting her right hand and gently touching her temple, Ruby found a layer of bandages and a great big patch of skin where the hair had been shaved away.

“What happened to me?” she asked, sniffing as tears began to fall from her eyes.  

There was nothing.  No answer in her mind.  She was asking the questions, but her brain wasn’t willing to give her the answers.  Instead, it was blank. Dark and empty...empty when it should be filled with memories.

“Ruby, it’s ok -”  Yang reached out, but Ruby jerked her arm away, only for more pain to shoot through her head.

“No!  What happened?  Why am I here?” she demanded, gasping for air while her eyes flew around the room, looking for answers when her brain held none.  The heart monitor by her bed was beeping faster - the sound making her more and more panicked as she tugged at one of the wires attached to her chest.

“Ruby, calm down - it’s ok -”

“I don’t know what happened!” she finally wailed.  “What happened? What happened to you? What happened to your arm??”  

The questions froze Yang in place as her jaw dropped open in shock.  

Giving up on the wires and straps - giving up on the idea of freeing herself or finding anything but emptiness in her mind - Ruby put her head in her good hand and started bawling.

“What happened, what happened, what happened,” she murmured into her palm while her shoulders shook with tears that caused more pain than relief.  

Everything hurt.  Nothing made sense.  Yang wasn’t Yang. And her mind couldn’t remember anything - nothing at all.

What happened?  Did her mind remember?  Why wouldn’t it tell her?

Why did everything hurt so much?

Something happened then - a sudden change rushed through her veins.  At first, it was quite peaceful - a wave of calm that made it harder to cry.  Then the calmness grew heavy - heavy enough that it dragged her down and away from consciousness.  

Glancing away from her hand, she caught sight of the nurse who’d walked into the room while she hadn’t been paying attention.  The woman was watching carefully. And Yang - Yang was still staring at her in surprise and concern. 

“Ruby…” 

Yang’s whisper sounded miles away because whatever was in her bloodstream was heavy...much heavier than the panic...and the fear...and the pain.  It was so easy to close her eyes and give in...

The next thing she knew, she was waking up again - only she was even groggier than the first time.  Forget sandbags...cement blocks were weighing her eyelids down now. 

Groaning in effort, she struggled to lift her eyes to no avail.  Temporarily giving up, she patiently waited for the rest of her body to reboot before trying again.

The light was still there.  The muffled noises from the hallway.  The cutting pain just on the edge of her nerves.  But nothing was...as much. The light wasn’t as bright.  The noises weren’t as loud. The pain wasn’t unmanageable.

When everything felt like it was working again, Ruby peeked her eyes open and found that Yang was still there - sitting on the very edge of a chair like someone had put a whole bunch of pins on it right before she sat down.  She must’ve changed at some point because she was wearing a jacket and gloves now. 

Even though Ruby could still vaguely remember what she’d seen lying underneath the jacket and gloves, the fact that Yang looked more normal was comforting.  It was still Yang, just a kind of older Yang. That was ok, although it didn’t seem to matter as much anymore what Ruby had seen. Maybe it mattered, but it was kind of hard to decide whether it really did or not.

Her head was super fuzzy.  Like a fuzzy peach - soft and squishy like one, too.  Through a haze, she could almost remember being upset - and slowly remembered why - but she didn’t seem to have the energy to be that upset again.  Whatever the nurse had given her was preventing her from feeling much of anything, really. Sure, she could still feel the fear at the edge of her mind, but she couldn’t feel it.  It was just kind of...there.  And that was ok, for now. This was actually kind of better.  Like a giant, floating peach.

“Ruby?” Yang whispered, her eyes never leaving Ruby’s face.

“Yang,” she answered - or tried to.  The name came out more like a muffled jumble though, because her mouth was having some difficulty forming words.

The medicine numbed her mind and her mouth - nice.

“Are you feeling ok?”

“Mmmroggy…”  

Yang nodded as if that was the answer she’d expected.

“Good.  Listen to me for a little bit, ok?”

Ruby briefly considered nodding, but that was too much effort.  And talking was too much effort. Just about everything was too much effort right now.  Somewhere in her mind alarm bells were trying to ring, but it was too much effort to pay attention to those either.  

A small memory slipped through though.  It told her that this was a serious conversation based on the expression Yang was wearing.  It was the same one she’d had when she’d explained that Mom was never coming back. But...it was too much effort to think about that right now either.

“Ok...Ruby...I don’t know how to tell you this…” Yang began, shifting in her seat and taking several deep breaths before continuing.  “But you were on a hunt - we were - out in the forest, and you were seriously injured by a Death Stalker. It messed you up pretty good, but you’re going to be perfectly fine.  It’s just...um...well, it kinda flung you down and you hit your head on this rock pretty hard and uh...it looks like some of your memories might be...missing…”

What Yang said made sense because she was using words, but Ruby found it pretty difficult to fully comprehend them at the moment.  Death Stalker? Forest? A hunt? Those words didn’t make much sense when used together. But she knew that being thrown into a rock wasn’t a great thing, no matter who did the throwing.

“Ok…” she muttered, if only to have something to say.  

Was it ok?  Maybe it was.  It could be.

Shifting again, Yang’s hands clasped and unclasped in her lap.  Something about it was weird, but Ruby couldn’t figure it out right now.  It was fidgety. Was that right? Was Yang fidgety? No, Yang wasn’t fidgety, that’s why it was weird.

“So...uh, do you remember Beacon?” Yang finally asked after a long stretch of silence.  Ruby searched her mind for an answer before softly tilting her head forward.

“School...for huntsmen,” she mumbled in reply. 

Yang stared at her expectantly for a few seconds before saying, “Anything else?”

Beacon?  What else?  Huntsmen. Mom.  Grimm. Training.  Yang.

“You want to go there…”

It was the right answer, maybe, but Yang’s smile was fake.  And she turned away from Ruby for a long time, staring at her hands in her lap and taking long, steady breaths before eventually looking up again.  When she did, her eyes were shimmering with tears.

“Yeah, Ruby...I do want to go there,” she said, giving Ruby a real smile that wavered away into nothing.  Sniffing and clearing her throat, Yang tried to carry on in a normal tone. “Um...so what did I get you for your last birthday?”

It was so hard to remember anything right now.  Birthday? Her birthday had been forever ago...they’d just celebrated Yang’s...what had Yang given her?  Oh, right...

“Book on Grimm…” she mumbled when she finally remembered.  It was a great book. She’d read the entire thing in a couple of days.  Just don’t ask her what it was about right now, besides Grimm.

As more time passed, it got easier to search through her mind, like maybe she was figuring out how to work with the sedatives.  But everything was kind of...soft. Nice and soft around the edges...

“Right, so that makes me…” Yang whispered to herself before briefly closing her eyes and rubbing the bridge of her nose.  

While Yang was talking to herself, Ruby’s eyes rolled around the room and then into the hallway.  The people were moving so fast now - whizzing by the window, back and forth, back and forth. Doctors, nurses, and regular people...they never stopped.  It made her feel almost motion sick watching them. Or maybe that far away feeling of nausea had more to do with her arm and head than with the people walking by.

Moving her attention to the other side of the room, she found that the flowers, on the other hand, were nice and still.  They didn’t move at all. They were content to be flowers and be still. Nice and motionless, with get well cards placed in between them and friendly colors all around.  Red flowers, blue flowers, white, orange, lots and lots of red. Lots of red flowers. Was her favorite color red? Yes, because of her name, because it was Mom’s favorite.

The flowers were ok, but…

Returning her gaze to Yang, who was watching closely, Ruby immediately looked away.  The more her eyes swept the room, the more a feeling grew in her chest that something was wrong.  It didn’t seem like anything was wrong, but her slightly malfunctioning brain said that there was - the feeling was strong enough to grow over the sedative and push down the calm.  

Something was...missing.

“Where’s…?” she began to ask, but the question fell apart in confusion.  What had she just been looking for? It had been there; only it hadn’t been.  What was it - was it the flowers or the people? Something about the room made her think that...something was missing?  The red flowers. The roses. They seemed important, but why? Because that was her semblance - her aura? Was her aura...looking…

Flustered, she shook her head - an immediate mistake that made her wince and close her eyes while waiting for the pain to fade away.  Only when it was gone did she try to see past the wall of fog in her mind again, but there was nothing to see - nothing but clouds and fog.  

Plus, it was hard to find anything when she didn’t know what she was looking for.

“Where’s...what?” Yang asked, watching while Ruby struggled with her uncooperative mind.  “Are you looking for something? Someone?” 

“I think so…?” she mumbled, her eyes still seeking out whatever it was that had brought the question up to begin with.  Was she looking for someone? Maybe? But her mind had no names or faces. And the more she searched for the end of the question, the further it moved away from her.  

Eventually, the feeling passed entirely, and she couldn’t have explained why she’d asked in the first place.

“I don’t know…” she said, frowning at the lack of understanding.  “I don’t know…”

“Um, ok, well don’t worry about that right now!” Yang replied with a smile, but her cheerfulness was forced.  They grew up together - Ruby knew when her sister was pretending. But why was Yang pretending?

Ruby’s eyes moved to the door when it suddenly opened, and Yang spun towards it in concern.  Seeing that it was only a nurse walking inside, Yang visibly relaxed as the door quietly shut once more.

“How are you feeling?” the woman asked while moving purposefully around Ruby, checking things she couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

“Been better,” she mumbled through her drowsy mouth.  The woman gave a short chuckle at the reply.

“And you’ve been worse, my dear,” she replied before leaning over and shining a small flashlight into Ruby’s eyes.  “On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate the pain you feel?”

Right now Ruby could only feel a vague pounding pain, nothing like the sharp ones when she tried to move.  But was one or ten the highest? Did it matter? Could she just pick one or the other?

“Five,” she answered, making the woman laugh once again.

“Those sedatives are doing their job, aren’t they?” she remarked, glancing at the screen by Ruby’s side before nodding her head.  “Everything looks good. I’ll leave you to your chatters.”

Without another word, the woman opened the door and disappeared into the hallway.

“She’s weird…” Ruby murmured, this time making Yang laugh.  The sound was familiar and comforting - enough so that Ruby felt her lip twitch up with a smile.

“She totally is, but she’s fantastic at her job,” Yang explained, leaning forward in her chair so she was closer to Ruby.  “She’s been looking after you since we got here.”

Right.  Hospital.  She hadn’t been here forever.   

“How...long?”

The question brought clouds into Yang’s normally clear lilac eyes.

“A while, Ruby.  Quite a while…”

Frowning, Ruby carefully moved her eyes down her immobilized left arm.  A while? Did that mean like...years? Months? Decades?? And her memories…how much time had she lost?  How long had it taken for Yang to grow up this much? 

Ruby didn’t know if she wanted to ask that right now.  No, she didn’t. 

When Yang briefly unclasped her hands, Ruby noticed that one of them was shaking.  No, she didn’t want to see that either. Yang was always calm under pressure. What could shake her so badly?  

It was nicer to pretend like everything was ok, for now.

“So…the other day I’m sweeping out the kitchen - and you know how much I like cleaning, so I was tryin’ to get it done as fast as possible.”  Pausing the story, Yang shot Ruby a quick glance to make sure it was ok to continue. “I left the back door open, and I was just gonna sweep everything out the door - easy peasy, right?  Well, while I’m sweeping, guess what decided to come running inside the house?”

Yang didn’t pause for an answer, which was good because Ruby probably couldn’t have thought of one.  

“A squirrel!” Yang said, throwing up her arms at the same time.  “Freaking little bugger came waltzing in like he owned the place.”

When Yang chuckled, Ruby attempted a small smile and briefly closed her eyes.  It was easier to track Yang’s words now, and they were making a little more sense when put together...although it felt like her mind was taking a long time to make all of the connections.

“Did you catch him?” she asked after her brain finally created the scenario for her.

“Catch him??  Ruby, this is a squirrel we’re talking about!  Those tiny, super fast and nimble critters that climb trees?  Maybe you could catch him, but of course I couldn’t catch him!  He was jumping around the kitchen while I tried to corral him with the broom - I think I knocked over everything possible.  Dumped the groceries on the ground, broke the eggs, dishes, too. He just hopped around like a demon taunting me into breaking more things.”

Imagining her sister destroying the kitchen while swinging a broom at a squirrel made Ruby smile more fully this time.   

“Just when I decided to fry the little sucker, he runs out the door and disappears into the trees.”  Shaking her head in disbelief, Yang sighed. “I would’ve leveled the entire woods looking for him, but decided against going to prison.”

A small laugh bubbled out of Ruby’s chest - the sound making Yang grin happily.

“The worst part was I had more to clean up afterward,” Yang commented while leaning back in her chair.  “It would’ve been better never to have tried at all!”

“Tell that to Dad…” Ruby replied while Yang laughed.  The sound was reassuring - like, better-than-sedative soothing.  And it was nice listening to Yang’s voice. Yang’s voice was the same.  

If Ruby closed her eyes, Yang’s voice was as comforting as it had been when they were kids.  And if she didn’t think about the block in her mind, she could remain calm and unaware. She wasn’t in the hospital.  Her arm wasn’t strapped to the bed. Her head wasn’t heavily bandaged. There wasn’t a drug in her system preventing her from being upset.  There weren’t doctors whizzing by in the hall or get well cards by the windowsill. She wasn’t any of those things. She was just...hanging out, talking to her sister with a little bit of pain and sedatives thrown in.  

“Can you tell me a story?” she finally asked.  Yang had always been a great storyteller. It was her flair for exaggeration that made any small tale exciting and awesome.  A story would keep Ruby’s mind off of the hospital and her arm. She was sure of it.

“Yeah, sure.”  Yang settled further into her chair before smiling at Ruby.  “You gonna close your eyes? I gotta take you to a faraway land.”

Obediently closing her eyes, Ruby let out a deep exhale and sank back into her pillow.  There was no pain, no hospital - just her and Yang lying in bed at home like they’d done so many times before.  That was a memory she did have...and it was a nice, happy one.

“Ok, so...how about one of Mom’s favorites?  The fur trader in Vacuo.”

Fur trader...ah, that was a good one.  But all of them had been Mom’s favorites.  She’d weeded through years and years of stories to pick out the very best ones to tell her daughters.  Or so she said. 

“So once upon a time there was this fur trader who lived in Atlas,” Yang began - her familiar voice and the familiar story putting Ruby more at ease than she’d felt since waking up.  “Now, course he doesn’t sell real furs - we’d have animal rights people on our grill in no time for that.  Fake furs, but this guy was a pro. He was so good; he could sell a mink coat to a mink Faunus.”

Ruby groaned at the claim and Yang chuckled.

“You know what I mean!  This guy could rip you off three ways to Sunday, and you’d be the one walking away thinking you’d got a good deal.  But, just because he was a great salesman didn’t mean he was a great businessman.  Or a smart dude in general. He was actually kinda dumb, so even though he had this awesome talent, he was only moderately successful.  But never rich and that made him upset because he wanted to live in a big house and drive a fancy car and such.  Like who doesn’t, ya know?”

“Mmm…” Ruby quietly agreed, struggling a little bit to track the story, but succeeding regardless.

“One day, he’s talking to a friend who mentions how there wasn’t a single fur store in Vacuo.  Our trader immediately sees a golden opportunity.  No fur stores in Vacuo? Well then, he’d go there, open a store, and make a fortune!”

Grinning, Ruby finally knew better than to shake her head at the man’s silly mistake.  But it was a silly mistake. If she could shake her head, she would.

“Why aren’t there any shops that sell furs in Vacuo?  Well, cuz Vacuo is flippin’ hot! Anyone crazy enough to wear a fur coat there would be sweating bullets in no time,” Yang said with a soft chuckle.  “But our trader wasn’t so smart on this little thing called geography, so he packed up his entire life, got on an airship, and headed to Vacuo. He was determined.  Open a store, make a fortune, live happily ever after. But on the way there he struck up a conversation with a suave chap who wanted to know what was with all the coats.  ‘I’m going to open a fur shop,’ the trader explained happily.”

Ruby loved with Yang made up the voices for characters in the stories.  They always had really interesting accents. Not real accents, just interesting ones.  At least, Ruby didn’t think they were real...

“Why’s the suave chap interested?” she asked during the pause, playing along with the story even though she already knew the ending.  

It didn’t matter if she'd heard it before - it was always fun to hear it again and see what details might change.  Mom’s story had originally been about an ice salesman, then a rice salesman, and so on, until Yang had decided on furs - for this version, at least.

“That’s a great question, my genius little sister.  Why would a random stranger show interest in a small fortune of fur coats?” Yang asked.  “I can tell you it wasn’t because he was interested in breaking the world record for wearing the most coats at once!”

Softly giggling, Ruby tried to imagine how many coats she could put on at once.  A lot, probably. That would be hot though.

“Obviously, the charming chap was planning on robbing our poor fur trader blind - which he did.  When the airship docked in Vacuo, affable chap threatened a great deal of violence upon our fur trader before forcing him off the ship without his precious cargo.  Then the genial chap tossed twenty Lien on the ground and said, ‘Ya know, a fur store in Vacuo was a horrible idea anyway. You’ll thank me later.’”

“And headed back to Atlas,” Ruby whispered, picturing a charming man laughing in his new pile of coats while the airship took off from the station and left the fur trader behind.

“You know it!  Now, some people will say that it’s highly unlikely that a thief would willingly leave the trader with a single Lien in his name, but some people don’t understand that even thieves can show a little pity when they’re taking someone’s life work from them.  Right, Ruby?” 

“Right,” she agreed, opening her eyes but immediately closing them when the sight of the hospital room jolted her away from her safe place in Vacuo with the thief and the trader.

“I knew you’d have my side!” Yang remarked before continuing the story.  “So our poor fur trader is now furless, in Vacuo, with only twenty Lien to his name.  Furless as in he doesn’t have any coats, not like some crazy Faunus insult. He’s lost everything!  He was just robbed, it’s baking hot, and he doesn’t even have enough money to get an airship home. What’s he supposed to do now?  He came to Vacuo to sell coats. That was his entire life, and now it was gone.”

Was ‘furless’ really a Faunus insult?  If she remembered any of this later, Ruby would make sure never to say that around any Faunus she knew.  Which...did she know any Faunus? 

“The first thing he does is buy a bottle of water since it’s so hot,” Yang continued in her soothing voice.  “So that’s five Lien out the window right there. Standing outside the store, he’s lamenting his horrible luck when he sees a businessman walking by in a suit.  Now that guy must be hot, he thinks to himself.  If anyone was in need of a bottle of water, it’s the dude in the black suit walking in the sun.  Then he gets an idea - he walks up to the man and says, ‘Hey man, you look awfully hot. How about a bottle of water for ten Lien?’”

This was the best part of the story.  It was the part that always gave Ruby goosebumps of happiness.

“‘Ten Lien?  That’s a ripoff,’ the man said, to which the trader immediately replied, ‘Of course it is, but you don’t have to go into the store, find the bottle, or wait in line.  That’s already been done for you.’ And...the argument worked - the businessman didn’t even flinch pulling out a crisp ten Lien note and handing it over. ‘Thanks,’ was all he said before walking off without another word.  And suddenly, our fur trader, who had only twenty Lien to his name just a few minutes ago, now had twenty-five.”

“Life lesson time,” Ruby whispered, using the phrase the two of them had coined for the end of the story when Mom would tell them the lesson that could be learned.   

“Life lesson time!” Yang repeated happily.  “So the fur trader, who’d made a really, really dumb decision and lost everything he owned in the process, was still able to learn something valuable.  You see, when he thought he’d lost everything, he really hadn’t. He was still a trader - he still had the skills to barter and sell something for a profit.  Taking away his possessions could never change that.”

In the brief pause, Ruby heard Yang take a deep breath before speaking again.

“What we can learn from him,” she said softly.  “Is that - while some things can be lost - there are pieces of ourselves that can never be taken away.  No matter what.”

The connection brought Ruby’s thoughts jarring back to the present - to the hospital and her own lost memories.  When she slowly opened her eyes, the look on Yang’s face said that that was the purpose of choosing this story, to begin with.

A bubble of sadness wanted to well up in her chest, but it wasn’t allowed to grow very big.  In fact, it stayed as a little bubble that was only kind of bothersome.

“What can’t be taken from me?” she asked, her mind focusing more on the curiosity rather than the anxiety of that question.  Leaning forward, Yang reached out and gently picked up Ruby’s right hand - which Ruby didn’t try to move away this time. 

“Who you are, Ruby,” Yang answered tenderly.  “Smart, caring, determined...nothing can ever take those things away from you.  That’s who you are, and who you’ll always be...no matter what.”

The words made Ruby feel better, in a way...as did Yang’s loving purple eyes.  Nothing made a whole lot of sense right now, and everything felt jumbled up or lost, but if what Yang said was true...then there were some things Ruby had managed to hold onto.  Hopefully.

“Thank you, Yang,” she replied, opening and closing her eyes when a small headache pricked the middle of her forehead.

“You’re welcome, Ruby.  But you should get some rest now.”

Hearing Yang stand from the chair, Ruby opened her eyes and accepted Yang’s gentle squeeze of her good hand.

“I know you’re gonna have a ton of questions,” Yang whispered to her.  “But let’s take it slow. Everything’s going to be ok - I promise.”

Yang’s promises always made Ruby feel better.  If Yang knew that things would be ok, Ruby had no reason to believe otherwise.  Yang had a way of making the impossible possible - that was her job as big sister.  And it was Ruby’s job as little sister to trust her - to believe that, even when Ruby had no idea what was going on, Yang would guide them through.

“Will you stay?” Ruby asked, a bubble of distant fear expanding when Yang backed towards the door.

“Of course I will,” Yang replied with a smile that popped that bubble before it grew any larger.  “I just need to go to the restroom. I’ll be back in a minute, k?”

“Ok.”

Ruby just barely caught the tears in Yang’s eyes when she turned and walked out of the room.  Once in the hallway, she paused outside the door and raised one hand to cover her eyes, her shoulders slumping before she hurried out of view. 

In the temporary solitude, Ruby felt unease creeping around the edge of her mind.  She was supposed to be upset right now, but she wasn’t - and that was a weird sensation.  Instead, she was just kind of...numb. And unsettled. But mostly numb.

She’d always liked the fur trader story because it was nice to think that people could start over even after something pretty bad happened to them.  But was there an alternate ending to the story? Maybe the fur trader was able to track down the thief and reclaim all of his stolen coats? Or did the trader always move on without them?  

Would she have to start over too?

It didn’t matter right now...she was tired...and hopefully Yang would get back before she fell asleep.  Another story would be nice...