What Remains ~ RWBY

Part 7

Ruby's P.O.V.

"Hey," I say gently. Oscar jolts up.

"Hey," he replies blankly, trying to get himself together. Doesn't he realise by now that I dont care? That I get it? That he doesn't have to hide his pain? I stop dead in my thoughts, suddenly aware of my own hypocrisy. Maybe Qrow was right.

"I saw that you weren't sitting with the others, so I thought I'd check on you." I say it casually, but we both know thats not the real reason I approached him. He knows that I've seen him with his head in his hands, his body trembling with fear in a room with no danger.

"Yeah, just ate too much food I suppose," he laughs weakly, scratching his neck.

This is wasting time. I'm sick of the small talk, the lies.

"Follow me, I wanna show you something."

I can see the hesitation in his eyes, but he gets up anyway. I smile, leading him to the balcony off of the hallway that separates our rooms. I open the glass door and invite him to walk through.

"Wow," he says, "The view out here is really something."

I laugh, "Yeah, it is. But this isn't what I wanted to show you."

He looks at me, puzzled, and I grin. Without giving him time to speak, I pull a leg up an over the railing, dangling my foot precariously in the air. It's at least a twelve story drop, the ground's so far away you can barely even see the people as they Criss cross over the sidewalk. Oscar takes a step towards me anxiously, and I swing my other leg over.

"Ruby!" He yells, taking another step now to grab hold of my forearm, "The hell are you doing?"

I lock eyes with him, my stare unflinching, and with a grin, slowly stand up on the tiny ledge on the other side of the balcony.

"What are you waiting for?" I tease, "Come on let's go."

His eyes are screaming now, looking at me as though I've finally snapped. For a second, I think he's going to scold me, drag me back inside and treat me like a nutcase. But then something changes. The gold in his eyes, its back, sparkling at me for the first time since I lost him. Without a word, he climbs over the railing to join me, balancing on the ledge and all the while holding my stare.

"So, what now? Jump?" he jokes.

A grin spreads across my face and I extend my hand to him.

"Do you trust me?"

This time, there's no hesitation. His fingers lace with mine and without a word, I pull us both into the abyss. There's a silence, thick and pure, that fills our ears like cotton. The world around us is moving so quickly it's nothing more than a blur, but we seem to be falling in slow motion. The air is like a blanket, spiralling around us as we fall weightlessly. He doesn't scream, just looks at me deeply as we tumble through the air, like he trusts me wholeheartedly even when we're plummeting to our deaths. The ground is getting closer, the wind louder and louder in our ears, but he still doesn't waver. Seconds before our entangled limbs smash into the concrete, we erupt into a swarm of red and green petals, like a branch of holly dancing in the sky. We zip up, back towards the clouds, scaling the building we had just watched blur past us as we fell, until we reach the roof.

When our feet touch the ground, and the remaining petals drift away, Oscar and I are still holding one another.

"That was close," he whispers, panting for air. He's so close that I can feel his breath on my forehead. He's warm, and despite just free falling through the sky, he stands steady against me.