Qrow's Little Secret

Chapter 6: A Well Needed Talk

The gravel ground crunched beneath Ruby and Jaune's boots as they march on in search of help for Qrow. He hadn't woken up in two days and they both knew that if they didn't get him proper medical treatment soon, he would never wake up. But Qrow wasn't the only issue now. Earlier that day, the team of four decided to split up into two teams of two. Ren and Nora took the mountain pass as Ruby and Jaune marched on towards a town called Kiroyuri. Ren had refused to go towards the town for an unnamed reason, but Jaune and Ruby had a pretty good idea on why.

Now, as Ren and Nora took the high path over the mountain, while Jaune and Ruby took the main path, they had to be more aware of their surroundings since there wasn't two extra people on guard duty anymore. So, with eyes and ears peeled, they trekked on towards Kiroyuri.

Mumbling from Qrow caused Jaune to wince. Even with him not awake, he still managed to annoy him as much as if he actually was awake. Jaune looked at Ruby, who, once again, seemed unfazed about Qrow. In fact, she had shown zero emotion since she told them about Summer. Sure, they had her let out a silent cry every once in a while. But it seemed like whenever he said a word or mumbled, she ignored him. Jaune, however, couldn't ignore him any longer.

"Ruby." Jaune said, trying to get Ruby's attention.

"What?" Ruby said, barely turning her head towards Jaune.

"Ruby, we need to talk." Jaune said.

"No time." Ruby replied, turning away from Jaune.

"Ruby. We need to talk." Jaune said, more demanding this time.

"We can't. Not with Qrow like this. We need to keep moving." Ruby said, still facing forward.

"No!" Jaune said, stopping dead in his tracks. Ruby was forced to stop as well, but tensed up and tried to continue moving forward.

"Jaune. We can't stop now. We need to find help for Qrow. We'll stop when night falls." Ruby said, tugging at the makeshift stretcher, trying to pull it forward.

"Ruby, no! We need to talk now. There are some things that..." Jaune began.

"Tell me tonight!" Ruby said, this time turning her head a bit towards Jaune but still trying to move forward. Jaune could tell she was getting angry but he wasn't letting up.

"Ruby, stop! We need to talk about Qrow!" Jaune said, basically yelling now.

"Just tell me tonight!" Ruby yelled back, this time yanking on stretcher, causing Jaune to take a step forward but still hold on.

"Ruby! The things he is saying make it sound like..." Jaune began.

"Shut the fuck up!" Ruby yelled back, this time turning her head to fully face Jaune. That's when Jaune saw that Ruby's face was red and tears were streaming down her face. She had a look of anger yet sadness across her face and she soon turned away from Jaune and stared at the ground.

Jaune's attitude changed quickly as soon as he saw her face. "Ru...Ruby, I'm...I'm sorry, okay?" Jaune said, trying to calm down the younger girl.

"Just shut up, okay?! Just go away!" Ruby said angrily through the tears.

Jaune set down the stretcher, causing Ruby to mimic him. "Ruby, I know hard this is for you. But you can't just keep your emotions bottled up like that." Jaune said.

"You don't know shit!" Ruby said with spite. "You have no idea what it's like for your entire world to be turned upside in the blink of an eye!"

"You're right, I don't." Jaune said, which kinda threw Ruby off guard. "But you don't either." Jaune said as he walked over to Ruby, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We're going through this together. You aren't alone. It may seem like only you have to suffer through this, but if you are sad, and you suffer through this, that means everyone around you does as well. And I won't let that happen."