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Weiss was sick of the train. They had been there for a while, Argus was well over a day away by train and she hadn’t been able to drag along much entertainment. She had played cards so many times that she had actually done so in her dream, so when she woke up to the same offer she couldn’t bring herself to actually play anymore. And while she had packed a couple books to read, she had already ended up reading both of them given her poor sleep due to how the trains turning would force her awake for a while, stuck with a mind full of concerns about Atlas and how frail their team felt.
Although because she was left with nothing to do except pretend to try and reread a book, she ended up simply watching Yang at the table with her playing a game on her scroll, too tired to really focus on much else. She saw something was off about how she was playing her game, how she would space out sometimes, well enough that in the middle of her in-game fight she would suddenly lose from unresponsiveness. And given all the stressful things recently she didn’t think much of it. She didn’t even seem to really realize Weiss was watching either, as though she was in her own little world.
She wasn’t worried until later, when Yang left for the restroom and had been gone for half an hour, a small instinct of concern hit her very suddenly as though the thought flew into her at full speed. Weiss glanced at Blake for a moment who had been sat across from Yang, who had taken up reading to fill time just like yesterday. She then stood from the booth, leaving her book on the table knowing very well that Blake would likely watch over it.
As she took a short glance before leaving, she noticed Blake hadn’t actually been reading either, but watching Ruby as she played cards happily with the rest of team RNJR a few tables down. She trusted that whatever was happening there would work itself out later given Weiss had already settled into giving Blake the same treatment she had before.
She left the table, passed the RNJR table as she realized the train was a bit chilly, and went toward the next car. She went through a short entryway to the car before reaching another door to a small gap between each car with an empty space for the car clasps, the outside being more frigid than the inside of the train. She continued toward another car, making it further toward the sleeper cars.
The white-haired girl froze when she then saw Yang at the small entryway section of the lounge car just before the sleeper car, sitting against the wall. She looked out of place, her body was overtaken by an uneven rhythm of breathing, her legs half bent as her torso rocked a little and her head aimed down. Her mechanical hand was raised up as it gripped the rail of the stairs for the door to enter the train car from the platform at the station, and her other hand kept trying to grasp at the ground as it shakily clenched and unclenched.
Weiss quickly kneeled by her partner, unsure what to do. This seemed like it wasn't the result of some physical danger at the moment. She wondered what things her partner could have seen or felt, what could have caused their team’s tank to sit here in an unsteady heap. But she pushed all of it down, no matter what it was Yang needed to be calmed. As she leaned down to try and catch a glance at Yang’s face, she saw how absent she looked, gaze full of fear yet not focused, she was slightly pale and tears were spilling out slowly.
She started projecting her voice a little past the hum of the train and the faint rattling of her partner’s shaking mechanical arm, “Yang, I’m right here. Can you hear me?” That got the blonde to stop swaying forward for a moment, albeit not really looking at her as her back pressed firmly against the wall. Her breathing was still wrong, and she looked a little like she was sweating, like her aura wasn’t activating despite the fear she felt. The hand that had been grasping for the floor seemed to try and move somewhere forward, but it was wavering horribly.
An instinct took over, it was clearly meant to reach out to Weiss and it didn’t take her a second thought to grab it. Only comfortably able to hold her hand sideways, she mostly held her partner’s fingers, gently rubbing a thumb over her knuckles. Yang’s legs pulled in closer to herself for a moment, but guessing that contact itself wouldn’t freak her out given her non-rejection of her hand, she stopped the girl from curling up with a hand on her knee. Weiss’ voice kept firm, yet softened in tone, “Don’t close yourself off. Please. Whatever you need, I’m right here.”
Weiss tried to look and wait for any sort of response, a sign of a request, anything. The mechanical arm let go of the rail and tried to reach toward her as well, although rather than trying to reach out to her, her arm looked open for an embrace. Despite seeming completely out of place, she asked gently, “You were going to hold yourself, so you want to hold me?”
The mechanical hand opened and closed as though beckoning her idea into the present. Although the white-haired girl couldn’t understand how it would help, and not completely sure that was an affirmative response, she assumed so. She slowly moved to straddle her partner’s thighs, trying not to put pressure on her and unsure if a hug would stifle her breathing space. She was a little startled when Yang suddenly leaned against her, her head under Weiss’, the side of her head pressed to the smaller girl’s chest while a mechanical arm wrapped around her lower back in a way that ruined Weiss’ efforts to carry her own weight.
Her heart skittered for a second at the unexpected contact, and she wasn’t really sure how it would help. She was still clearly uneven in breath and with how close they were it could easily be felt how overheated she was. With her right hand still occupied with Yang’s left, she could feel the way her partner’s hand would tense rhythmically. Weiss was a little lost and trying to figure out where the rhythm came from, it seemed to resonate within her easily. After a moment, she realized the blonde was replicating the pulse of the heart she was hearing and likely using it to gain a sense of something around her.
At that realization, Weiss started trying to breathe slower, deeper, in hopes that Yang’s own breaths would start to pan out similarly. She continued the rhythm, struggling against this urge to match her partner’s breathing instead, and matched her own breathing to the way she rubbed a thumb against the knuckles of the rhythmically tensing hand. They stayed like that for a while, slowing as best they could, a small hiccup in the blonde’s breathing hindered progress once or twice, but Weiss made sure to stay steady for her to bounce back so they could push past it.
Her partner steadied after a while, yet didn’t let go. So Weiss simply continued, knowing that Yang would likely cue when to stop. After a long moment of the same thing, Yang leaned back while her hand released Weiss’ and wiped at her face as she looked down. Weiss knew she was wiping away tears, clear by how the chest of her own attire was now littered with them to the point where it almost looked like water was spilled on her. The first word in a while was spoken by the blonde, who couldn’t look up at Weiss, her voice still trying to steady itself against the breaking, “Sorry.”
Weiss huffed a little, “Don’t apologize,” she changed her tone to a softer one, seeing that simply talking almost seemed to set Yang back a little, or maybe it just took a bit out of her, “We’re partners, we should be there for each other.”
Yang then looked at her, the sides of her eyes a little irritated and the color had returned to her face a bit, voice still a bit weak as she looked off to the side, “Fair point. But I know you aren’t - you don’t tend to do the whole hugs thing much.”
The smaller girl let out a slow exhale, rolling her eyes. She used a hand to gently move Yang’s head to look her way before pulling it back, “I don’t mind physical contact, Yang. I’m just not very familiar with it - or I guess I’m out of touch with it.”
Despite her weariness, Yang sat up straight at that, and then she saw her partner smirk a little, “Was - was that a pun?”
Weiss flushed a little, “I didn’t mean- it wasn’t supposed to be!” She paused, giving the blonde room to tiredly chuckle, a sound which soothed her a bit. “It’s just,” she took a deep breath to calm herself further, “I know that physical contact comes easily to you. So you don’t have to worry about bothering me with it, because I know you won’t hurt me.”
There was a small look of concern, or maybe confusion, that set Weiss on edge. That perhaps she accidentally implied something she wasn’t ready to explain, but then she saw Yang’s eye catch the tear splotches on the smaller girl’s outfit. Her partner let out a small groan, “Shoot, your clothes.”
Weiss rolled her eyes, “Don’t worry about it. I knew it was a hazard of helping.” The thought didn’t seem to register to the blonde as she leaned forward a bit to take off her jacket, leaving herself in an orange tank top as she put the brown jacket over the smaller girl’s shoulders. She added, “This doesn’t go with my outfit.”
Yang let out a small amused huff, “No, it doesn’t. But it does cover the mess I made.” Weiss humored the idea anyway, given how the train had been a bit cold. As she put her arms into it and zipped it up, she found that the way she wore it made her feel a bit small, but it did its intended purpose so she ignored it.
She looked into a pair of purple eyes, Yang had been watching her, but once eye contact was made the blonde looked off to the side. Weiss immediately saw a sense of shame, and she softly asked, “So. What was that?”
Yang glanced at her for a second, holding her own hands together between them and looking down at them, “I thought I saw something. But as usual, it seems to be all in my head. So, don’t worry about it.”
That only made Weiss worry more, that at the festival she had sworn she saw something but now she was sure that it was something mental rather than the result of someone’s schemes. She didn’t want to hold back the question despite feeling like she probably should, she didn’t want her partner to feel alone in this, so she asked quietly, “What did you see?”
The blonde’s shoulders tensed a little, which Weiss quickly fought by laying her hands on them. That got her partner to finally look at her, gaze a little broken still, “I thought I saw Adam, through the door’s window a few cars down.”
Her partner looked a bit fearful, mostly spoken through her actions rather than her words. Weiss needed to know more, she wanted to help more if the time ever came again, “How often does this happen?”
Yang calmed in appearance a bit, “Not often, not as often as it used to at least. It hits me every once in a while, and it doesn’t usually get that bad. Ever since we got the team back together in Haven, I think knowing he was there made it a bit worse again. It’s really nothing to worry about, it’ll die down again at some point.” While her hands dropped, this time at her sides, Weiss gave her an unamused look, to which the blonde continued, “I mean it, it will.”
Weiss knew, she knew very well that sort of thing died down with exposure to situations unlike it. Although she doesn’t recall ever being so far as to see things that weren’t there. She sighed, “I get it. I know you’re strong, I’ve never questioned that. But when this sort of thing does happen, I need to know what I can do for you.”
She fondly recalled how Yang would take care of her in the past, and almost seemed to now even if the jacket helping against the chill was clearly unintentional. Weiss was glad to help despite dreading the fact that it was even needed. Yang seemed to stop before starting a few times, not out of hesitance, but unsureness.
The blonde tilted her head slightly before looking at Weiss' chest for a moment, much to the smaller girl's confusion before she resumed eye contact with a solid answer, “Well listening to your heartbeat helped give me a focus. You did everything just right.” She looked away, “Still sorry for how I basically forced you to let me hug you.”
Weiss turned her to look back toward her again before she quickly flicked her partner’s forehead, getting Yang to flinch for a moment before she shook off the feeling by shaking her head. The white-haired girl quickly chided, “I just told you it was fine. Seriously.”
Yang’s shoulders tensed for a second, but not in fear as she held out her hands while she spoke, “I know I didn’t have a lot of awareness, but I knew I was probably putting you in an uncomfortable position. You just, you seemed hesitant about it, now that I can think more clearly.”
The smaller girl now realized just how much of a shaken state Yang was in if this was how she was acting. Weiss put a hand on her partner’s shoulder as she slightly glared, “I wasn’t concerned about the contact, Yang. I just didn’t want to make things worse. Sometimes when people are drowning, having someone as an anchor is more of a weight than a lifeline.” She knew that very well, that there was someone that would prefer a glass bottle in their lives over her.
To her surprise, the blonde wrapped her arms around her again, although this time her head was at Weiss’ shoulder. The white-haired girl had wondered if she’d shown something or maybe said something that set off the sudden need for affection. In the wake of her most recent thought, and Yang’s most recent state, she favored contact and hoped it helped salved her partner’s mental wounds as much as possible.