Thorns on a Rose

By Fatal Melody

A/N: Hey guys! So, if you read the announcement at the end of Toothache, you'll know that I'm going through a little thing called depression. No cause for alarm, as it's been a couple of months since I realized it, and I've taken a few steps towards getting through it.

I'm happy to say that I've noticed myself getting a bit better.

I'm not getting sad for no reason anymore, and everything is starting to get a bit more color back to it. Hopefully this continues to happen.

Anyway, it's been a while since I wrote anything, besides my really quick one-shot that I posted for Soul Eater, and so I wanted to write another RWBY WhiteRose thing.

It may be WhiteRose, but it won't be my usual fluff. This one's a bit more serious, and I'm writing it so I can vent a bit.
This one is going to have some of my own personal experiences with depression. Please recognize that this doesn't mean that everything I've written here is something I've done or gone through.

Anyway, this is going to be multichapter, and if I do this the way I want it to go, it will be a bit longer than Toothache.

I hope you all enjoy!

PS: Noticed a few typos so I went back and fixed them!

"Depression, suffering and anger are all part of being human."

-Janet Fitch

Thorns on a Rose

Chapter 1: Behind the mask

Trigger warning: Self-harm

Weiss Schnee entered her dorm room. Nobody else was there, just as she had planned. She wanted to get some more studying done before their Grimm Studies exam tomorrow.

The heiress sat down at her desk, pulling her notes from her bag. She looked over them in focus, reading every word over.

This had become her routine when an exam was coming up. Sleep, eat, class, study. Rinse and repeat.

She had been studying for about 10 minutes, when she realized something felt rather off.

Ruby wasn't in the room yet.

Usually, there was a 5 minute buffer between Weiss entering the room to study for an exam and Ruby walking in to study with her partner. But today, the cloaked reaper was nowhere in sight.

Weiss found this odd enough to warrant a search for her partner. She rose from the desk, notes still strewn about on the table, and headed out the door.

She walked down the hall to check the bathroom for the dorm hall. Walking inside, she didn't even have to call the name of her leader to know that she was there.

Ruby's cloak was draped over one of the stall doors, and Weiss could hear quiet sniffles.

Weiss knocked gently on the door to the stall.

"Ruby? Are you doing ok?" the heiress asked tentatively, not wanting to upset her friend any more than she already was.

"W-Weiss! No, everything's fine. I'm just-" Ruby started, but was cut off by Weiss.

"Ruby, what's wrong?" Weiss asked her partner, seeing through the obvious lie.

"W-why would a-anything be wrong? I said I was doing fine" the reaper lied again, getting a bit nervous at the sudden interrogation.

"No, you're not fine. You're crying. The last time you cried was when you thought I was leaving Beacon for good" Weiss said. "Can you open the door so we can talk?" the alabaster-haired girl asked.

"No!" Ruby said much too quickly. "I-I mean, I'm kind of a mess, and I don't want you to see me like this. A leader should be stable in front of her-" Ruby was cut off once more.

"Ruby, you and I both know you don't believe that. Please, just open the door so I can talk to you" Weiss said gently, now getting a bit upset with her partner.

There was no response for what seemed like a crushing eternity, when it was only just a few seconds.

There was some shuffling in the stall, and the door clicked open.

Weiss was not expecting what she saw.

The first thing she noticed was the blood. It was all over the rim of the seat. The second thing was the almost ashamed look on Ruby's face. The third was that Ruby was hiding something.

The younger girl was holding something behind her back, not wanting to let Weiss see exactly what she was doing.

"Ruby" Weiss started shakily, "w-what are you holding?"

"N-nothing! It's, um, a-a pencil!" Ruby stammered her lie, mentally kicking herself for saying something so stupidly unbelievable.

"Ruby, please turn around" Weiss spoke, almost in a whisper.

She didn't want to be right, but she was.

In Ruby's hand was a bloody razor.

Her left arm was a crisscross of cuts, slowly seeping blood down her hand and dripping off her fingers.

Weiss's eyes widened in shock. She grabbed Ruby's arm to inspect the damage.

Ruby winced with slight pain. Tears were sliding down her cheeks in shame, head hung low so that her partner couldn't see her expression.

"Ruby, I'm not mad at you for this, but please, tell me why you did this" the white-haired girl calmly said, surprising Ruby with how well she was taking this.

"I-I'm not sure if I can…" Ruby responded so quietly that Weiss wasn't sure if she heard it.

Ruby was surprised a second time when her partner pulled her into a sudden hug. Weiss's arms wrapped around her protectively, the heiress herself now sniffling and trying to hold back her own tears.

"W-Weiss?" Ruby stammered.

"Don't. I know what you're going to try to say. You're going to try to give me an excuse, a reason I should think that this is nothing. But nothing you can say can make me believe that" Weiss said in a quiet, wavering voice. She began to tremble a bit, clutching her partner closer to her.

Ruby recognized Weiss' actions. Yang had reacted the same way when she had found out.

Their height difference was apparent. Weiss, who had at first been slightly shorter than her scythe-wielding partner, had grown just a little since they had teamed up a year and a half ago. Ruby was now being held against the other girl's shoulder, and the sensation was oddly comforting.

Ruby's reaction was slow, but eventually she returned the hug she was receiving, her façade of stability now crumbling into dust as she openly wept on the heiress's shoulder. Weiss rubbed her partner's back in circles, attempting to help the younger huntress-in-training calm down.

They stayed like that for an amount of time that neither girl knew, too concerned with each other to care. Their moment was interrupted by another girl walking in on the fragile scene.

"Weiss? Ruby? Are you guys in here?" Yang's voice rang out, but dropped to a whisper mid-sentence as she saw the blood.

Weiss's pristine white jacket was now dark red on the right, stained with Ruby's blood. The heiress was certain it had leaked through and ruined her shirt, but she couldn't care about her clothing now, even if she wanted to.

Yang left the room, allowing Ruby and Weiss as much time as they needed. The blonde jogged to the Team RWBY dorm, grabbing a First Aid kit, and jogged back to the entrance of the bathroom.

When the sniffles finally died down, she re-entered, kit tucked under her arm.

Several minutes later, Ruby had bandages around her arm, already turning an almost unnoticeable pink.

Yang didn't say anything to her half-sister. She had talked to Ruby about this before. She was more worried about what Weiss would think about all of this.

"Weiss, can we talk for a bit?" the brawler asked, gently pulling her teammate to the side.

"Sure. Ruby, you go ahead and lie down. We'll be right behind you in a bit" Weiss said, gently hugging her leader once more before letting go entirely and watching the broken girl walk back to their dorm.

Weiss turned to Yang when their leader was out of sight.

"I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no. This isn't the first time this has happened" Yang said, a quiet tone in her voice that few people would ever hear.

"I-it's not?" Weiss stammered, surprised by the fact that she was indeed going to ask that question.

"No. This has been happening for years. I thought she had finally stopped when she was accepted to Beacon, but I guess not" Yang responded, looking down to the floor.

Yang was ashamed of herself. She didn't notice the signs popping up again until it was too late. She had broken her promise to herself, that she wouldn't let it get this far again.

"What was all that, Yang?" Weiss asked gently, not wanting to step over any lines.

"Ruby," Yang started, pausing to try to find the right words, "Ruby isn't as happy as she lets everyone else believe." The blonde let the statement sink in for a second.

"What do you mean? She seems perfectly happy with everything" Weiss responded, confusion on her features.

"What I'm about to say doesn't leave this room, ok?" Yang asked in a calm, yet demanding voice.

Weiss simply nodded. The two sat in silence, Yang taking her time in choosing the words to say.

"About 10 years ago, Ruby's mom died. You already knew that. What you didn't know, was that she didn't die on a mission" Yang said carefully, not wanting to reveal too much of Ruby's personal issues. "Summer died while protecting Ruby" the blonde continued.

"You see, back then, Ruby and Summer didn't live with our dad and me. They lived about 30 minutes away, in a small village. That village didn't have its own team of huntsmen and huntresses protecting it. All they had was Summer. Everyone panicked when they saw Grimm close to the outer borders of the village, and all that did was entice even more Grimm" Yang spoke, recalling the tale with a somber tone.

"By the time Summer had gotten everyone's worries to die down a little, it was too late. The village leaders told everyone to evacuate the village, towards the town where dad and I lived. Summer stayed behind, and Ruby didn't leave like she was supposed to" the brawler paused, taking a few breaths.

"When Summer found her, Ruby was already battered and bleeding. She had been found by a Beowolf. Somehow, Ruby managed to kill the thing, or at least scare it off, by using a butter knife of all things" both girls chuckled a bit a the thought of Ruby scaring a Beowolf with a butter knife. The two fell silent after just a few seconds, a silence coming over them as Yang began to tell the rest of the tale.

"Ruby was barely conscious when she got to our house. We knew Summer didn't make it when we saw the cloak" Yang finished, relaxing now that the tale was done.

Silence fell over the two. Weiss stared at the floor, attempting to comprehend everything, when a realization hit her.

"Wait. If Ruby came back alone, then" she paused, eyes widening, and was cut off by Yang.

"She saw Summer die in front of her own eyes" the brawler confirmed.

The two stood there in silence once more. After letting it sit for a minute, Weiss's expression hardened.

"Yang, I promise you that I won't tell a single soul about this. I want to help her" the heiress said with determination.

Yang nodded, and the two girls left the bathroom for their dorm.

Ruby was on her bed when they arrived back in the dorm.

The young huntress sat up when her teammates entered the room. She quickly wiped her tears away, not wanting to bring any more attention to herself than she already had.

Weiss took off her now blood-stained jacket, and found that her earlier assumption was correct; both her jacket and shirt were stained red. Ruby immediately apologized.

"Ruby, this is not your fault. I hugged you, not the other way around. The only one to blame for my shirt being stained is me. Besides, I can easily get this out" Weiss said to her partner, no traces of annoyance in her voice whatsoever.

Ruby was surprised once again when Weiss hugged her, but was much faster in reacting this time. The young reaper returned the hug, nuzzling into Weiss's shoulder.

They separated once again, with Ruby missing the contact immediately.

For the first time in 10 years, Ruby felt the same comfort that she had from her own mother.

A/N: PHEW! That was a long first chapter! I'll be writing a lot more over the weekends, possibly even putting out a chapter every week. Anyway, this story is far from over. This story is going to be about Ruby's journey through depression.

And before you ask, yes there will be some fluffy moments between Weiss and Ruby. After all, this IS a whiterose story.

See you all next chapter!