Fragile Rose (a RWBY fanfiction)

Separation Anxiety

It's been one week since Ruby left to take the test. She came back yesterday. She gets her grade today.

"There's always the chance that she won't pass." Blake tried to comfort. "That'll give her time to understand that she needs us."

The ivory girl sat still, her form seeming thinner already, her eyes dull and grayed out.

Blake watched her, heart breaking as she tried to think on what to do to save her friend. The fencer hadn't spoken in three days. Not until Ruby came back, but it was still a front. Fake words from the mask that is Weiss Schnee, heiress of Schnee Dust Company.

Right now, the faunus just wanted Weiss Schnee, defiant against all obstacles and one of her closest friends.

And that Weiss was dying in front of her eyes.

"Do you think she'll be happy out there?" The heiress asked weakly. "Will she be safe..?"

Blake frowned as she thought it over. What did you say here? Did you lie? Tell the truth?"

"She'll be safe, that I know. She's a fighter, that's always been true." The faunus said, deciding that the truth was the right path. "But happy? I don't think... I really don't think she'll be feeling anything at all."

Weiss nodded, her eyes still numb to the pain in her heart. "I'm sure she'll find something to be happy about. That's what she does."

"What she does is act like a fucking idiot..." Yang muttered under her breath.

"That's your sister your talking about." Blake chastised. "She's in a rough spot, but she'll make it though and we'll all be ok."

The door opened up, an exhausted Ruby stepping through and making her way to bed before falling face first.

Nobody really knows what her test included, but she came back with a prescription for painkillers and a lack of sleep, so some things could be assumed.

"Any word yet?" Blake asked, hesitant in her question.

Ruby shook her head, face still stuffed into the pillow. "The Headmaster said I'd know by the end of the day, but it might be quite late still."

They all shared a moment of silence, nobody having something they could give at this moment. The moment where it was known that Ruby wasn't going to be spending the next three years with her team. Her friends.

Her family.

The Headmaster's Office

"You can NOT be thinking about this, can you" Professor Goodwitch snapped. "It's unheard of. Unacceptable!"

"I'm more than thinking about it, I've already done it." Ozpin told the woman as he smiled softly down at his evaluation. "You saw how she preformed. It's not crazy to think that she's ready."

"Yes it is!!! She's a child!!!"

"A child that you agreed to evaluate, giving her quite an amazing score if I recall."

Goodwitch narrowed her eyes. "I didn't think that you'd base this completely off the numbers. I thought that maybe protecting the youth would matter."

"Protecting my students ties with knowing when to let them move on." Ozpin sighed, Glinda suddenly realizing the hint of sadness in his eyes. "Ruby needs to learn to live life, and so she came to me for help."

She waited another moment for the headmaster to breath.

"I don't want to think that Miss Rose was unhappy at my school, but I must acknowledge that to be the case." He said. "And that being the case, it restricted her learning and development as a student, a Huntress, and as a young woman."

Ozpin sighed, looking over the paper before stamping it once with the seal of Beacon.

Beacon Offices, later that night

"Miss Ruby Rose, your scores are in." The receptionist called over, a few of the other students in the room raising a brow in confusion. What scores would a first year be getting here? Why go to the office for them?

The young brunette with dyed hair made her way over nervously, taking the envelope from the woman at the desk and slowly walking back to the dorms.

This was it. This was when she'd be sent away or told that she wasn't good enough yet.

This is when she'd be told she wasn't good enough... again...

Ruby slowly opened the case, pulling out the paper and feeling her heart drop. She should be happy. She should be ecstatic. But no. No.

This wasn't a letter to be happy about. This wasn't excitement.

The tears fell, the girl's face contorting in pain as she looked over the scores. The score that said she was ready to leave Beacon Academy for good. To leave her team. To leave Weiss.