Back to some Freezerburn this week. I'm dedicating this to Dani, my cute little kouhai; Happy birthday!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

The Princess And The Oaf

The rush of air beside her left ear alerted Weiss to the presence of the Beowulf before the beast itself did.

Clicking her teeth in annoyance, she leapt to get clear of its swipe, spinning once to build power in her arm before extending Myrtenaster and plunging it deep into the creature's bone mask to produce a devastating crack. Discombobulated, it staggered backward only to be met with a cry of victory and a pair of flaming fists pounding into its spine, severing it.

The Grimm fell motionless to the ground just as Weiss landed, and Yang gave an accomplished smirk.

"Not bad," Weiss shrugged. "But I still think you could be defeating them with a bit more elegance."

"Elegance, shmelegance," Yang rolled her eyes. "You've got your way of doing things, and I've got mine, princess. But I think you'd do well with a bit more rough-n-tough style!"

"Aren't you contradicting what you just said three seconds ago?" Weiss sighed. "And watch it," she warned as another wolf appeared behind her teammate.

With a whoop, Yang turned to face it, and Weiss also took off to one side to survey just how many more enemies they could anticipate to fight.

The pack of wolves had surprised them when they had been dispatched into the forest that morning, and the simple positioning of each at that instance had split the team into pairs, though not their usual partnered ones.

Ruby had shouted to them over the sounds of battle that it would be a better idea to split the pack anyway, and so she had taken off with Blake to lure some away, leaving Weiss and Yang together to deal with the rest.

"Let's finish this quickly," Weiss huffed.

There were only four wolves left, and she wanted to get back to Beacon and collapse on her bed; she had an exam tomorrow and would much rather be studying right now.

As she continued to dash between the claws of the beasts on her glyphs, Weiss was aware of all the hya!s and hup!s and ally-oops!s Yang was whooping out behind her. She took a moment to appreciate how quiet Ruby often was during battle, only giving out an occasional grunt or shout and none of these unnecessary sounds.

Weiss steadied herself on a glyph and spiraled in between two of the wolves, rapier extended as she sliced at both throats with terrifying precision, the only sound coming from her being from the Dust she used.

Two left.

She looked up, seeing that Yang was presently grappling with one of the wolves, the last of which was crouching for a pounce on Weiss. With a twirl nothing short of effortless, Weiss reached it in a matter of seconds before it could even lower itself.

With every holler of a battle cry Yang gave behind her, Weiss made for a clean, quiet cut:

"Hyaaa!"

A cut to the forearm.

"Whoa!"

A cut to the muzzle.

"Ow-!"

Weiss froze for an instant.

That was a new sound.

She recovered quickly from the slight shock and finished off the wolf before her with a blast of ice shards. Whipping around, she spotted Yang on her back in the grass as the last wolf towered over her, jaws salivating.

Without sparing a second for thought, Weiss propelled herself toward her target, piercing it through the stomach. It gave a howl that withered into a yelp as she withdrew her blade, and the body crumpled lifelessly to the ground to disintegrate.

Weiss stood over Yang, panting for a moment as she checked to make sure there were no other opponents in sight.

She sheathed Myrtenaster and turned around to find Yang had yet to get up. The heiress recalled the last sound she had heard from the brawler's mouth just before Weiss had rushed to assist her-

"Ow..." Yang repeated at present.

She lie on her back, propped up on her elbows, eyebrows furrowed in an expression of pain. One of her knees was bent and the other straight, but she made no effort to get up.

"What happened?" Weiss demanded.

It was not like the blonde to whine about fake agony – at least not in the middle of the Emerald Forest, anyway. Their dorm room before an exam was a different story.

"Bastard got my leg," she growled. Her lavender eyes flicked down to her right foot, and Weiss knelt down beside her. She could see Yang's knee was an unnatural color just above where her sock made the skin visible.

"I'm going to assess the damage," Weiss warned.

Yang gave a nod, and Weiss reached forward, pressing her fingers gently yet firmly over Yang's shin, moving down to her ankle until-

"Ah, shit!" The blonde cursed and turned her head to one side as a sharp pain shot up her leg. Her body shuddered involuntarily as her fingers clenched into fists, tearing at the grass.

Weiss sat back up and sighed.

"It's a bad sprain," she diagnosed. "I'll try to use my aura on it, but I can't guarantee it'll do anything more than simply alleviate some of the pain."

"Anything's worth a shot," Yang huffed, cracking one eye open as she gave a wry smile.

Weiss knew her pain was genuine if she was actually agreeing to the offered assistance; usually, Yang would put on a brave face and assure she was "peachy keen" or something of the sort.

Weiss closed her eyes, resting her hands on Yang's ankle. The material of her boot probably staunched the flow of her aura to her teammate, but Weiss knew Yang's ankle needed the support, so she left it on.

The heiress took a deep breath as she channeled her healing abilities, trying to locate the source of Yang's pain and follow it to the epicenter to attack it directly. Yang made another small sound, but it was more of relief than pain this time.

All Weiss could feel was dissonance from the affected area, Yang's muscles being loose or tight in the wrong places. It unsettled Weiss to have to feel such things, but she reminded herself this was Yang's pain, and that as soon as she pulled away, Weiss herself would no longer be affected by it.

She did her best to fight the stiffness with her aura, but it never gave past a certain point.

Yang sat up straight and leaned forward, reaching out to Weiss, brushing the backs of her fingers over the side of the girl's forehead to break her concentration. "Hey, you're lookin' pale. That's enough, princess. You've done all you can."

Weiss blinked one eye open and met her gaze before letting out a sigh. She relinquished the flow of her aura and sat back, recoiling her hands into her lap.

"Sorry. There's not much else I can do."

"Don't apologize," Yang grinned. "It's feelin' a hell'ova lot better already."

Weiss cracked a small smile, and Yang enjoyed it for all it was worth.

Then, the heiress felt a familiar vibration in her pouch and fished out her scroll. She opened it and a familiar face popped up on-screen.

"Weiss!" Ruby cried out. "Are you guys okay? If you answered your scroll that must mean you're not fighting anymore, right?"

"Yes, yes." Weiss sighed, though Yang could see she was relieved to see Ruby was alright as well. "We're fine. Though your buffoon of a sister managed to get herself hurt-"

"What?!" Ruby yelped. "Is she okay?!"

But before she even gave Weiss a second to answer, her scroll went blank.

"Ruby?" Weiss called out for her, but a second later, Yang retrieved her scroll, and the young leader appeared on her screen instead.

"Yang! Are you okay?" she fretted. "What happened?"

"Chill out, lil' sis," Yang said easily. "It's just a sprained ankle. Though Weiss said we may have to amputate it..."

"WHAT?!" Weiss's indignant accusation was overpowered by Ruby's shriek.

"Kidding, kidding!" Yang laughed. "Geez, you guys need to calm down."

"Ugh, Yaaang!" Ruby whined. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry, but I couldn't resist! I'm fine, really. Just might take a while to get back to the school. How're you and Blake holdin' up?"

"We're fine," Ruby answered. "We actually led our wolves to the cliffs and that took care of most of them. We finished off the stragglers. The only problem is now we're on the other side of the school from you guys. Even if Blake and I raced at full speed, it might take us a while to get to you..."

"It's fine." Yang waved her hand dismissively. "You guys just take your time. Weiss and I are closer to Beacon from here so you don't have to worry so much about us."

"You're sure?"

"We're fine, Ruby," Yang promised.

"Okay... Blake and I will still try to hurry back and find you guys! But it's not good for you guys to stay still for too long. You should try to move as much as you can."

"I got it, I got it." Yang nodded. "We'll meet up with you soon, okay?"

"Yeah. Call us if anything happens!"

"You got it."

With a wave, Yang closed her scroll and slipped it back into her pocket. She looked up at Weiss kneeling beside her, and the heiress wore a stern expression as she spoke:

"She's right. We should try to cover some distance. The smell of the decaying wolves around here might attract other predators."

"Oh-kaaaay..." Yang said. "Soooo how da you suggest we do that? Are you gonna carry me around on one of your glyphs? Unless you think you can carry me, I think we're pretty much stuck. You don't plan to leave me here, do you?"

"Would you be quiet?" Weiss snapped. "First of all, I'd never do something like that. I'm not heartless, you know. Secondly, my aura hasn't replenished enough to form more glyphs right now - nothing that would last long, anyway. Believe me, if I could use them I would, and I'd lift you by your good leg as we traveled," she muttered. "So we're left only with one last feasible option."

Yang could not hold back a tiny, incredulous smirk.

"No way. Weiss Schnee's gonna carry me back to Beacon? Oh man, I'm swooning!"

"Leaving you isn't sounding like such a bad idea, after all."

"Please forgive my incompetence."

The heiress nodded sharply in satisfaction.

"Now if you're quite finished, give me your arm." Weiss reached for her hand, and Yang obediently slung her arm around the smaller girl's shoulders. "Unfortunately, I can't manage anything other than being a crutch," she grunted, bracing herself to stand.

"Awww no bridal styles or piggybacks?" Yang pouted, trying to talk to distract herself from the mild pain as she struggled to get up. She had trouble imagining Weiss holding her up anyway, what with her petite and slender figure. Weiss might have been strong, but she was still a girl, and she had her limits.

Yang leaned her weight onto Weiss, uttering a small apology when Weiss staggered.

"Come now, you oaf," the heiress muttered. "On your feet."

Yang knew it was Weiss's own way of showing encouragement, and she offered an appreciative smile.

After a few more attempts, the two girls finally straightened up, though Yang ended up having to lean more of her weight onto Weiss than she had initially thought.

"How's the pain?" Weiss asked.

"Honestly... pretty bad." Yang confessed with a helpless smile. "I can't imagine how much worse it'd be if you hadn't fixed it up a bit, though."

"We'd better get moving," Weiss murmured. "Let me know if you need to stop to rest. Hopefully we won't run into any trouble."

"Yeah..."

Slowly, Weiss started to move forward through the trees, roughly in the direction from which they had come. Yang hobbled alongside her, staying off her injured foot. Their usual speed was absent and it was almost frustrating to the brawler how slowly they needed to move now, but Weiss never complained.

They kept quiet as they moved through the trees, and Yang was just starting to think they would make it home without a hitch.

Her thoughts must have jinxed them.

Weiss suddenly froze and went stiff, and Yang knew there was something nearby.

"Get down," Weiss urged her. She brought Yang to the nearest tree and got down to one knee, releasing Yang's arm as she leaned her injured teammate against the trunk.

The second Weiss straightened up again, the bushes exploded with a deafening roar.

Two Ursai charged them, and Weiss drew her rapier in an impossibly quick motion. She met the beasts head-on, slashing once at each of their faces to deter their attention from Yang and bring it onto herself.

Yang watched, admittedly a bit terrified now that she was immobilized.

"Shit, oh shit..." she breathed. She looked around in case there were more, a bit relieved to discover there seemed to be only two.

But even just that many was a problem.

Weiss continued to stab at the Ursai, but Yang noticed she did not use any glyphs; her aura must not have been recovered enough yet to do so.

The heiress did manage to use some of her Dust, however, and she fired shots of flames into one of the bear's faces, effectively blinding it and giving the girl enough time to slip beneath its throat and slice it open. The body fell with a thud, and Weiss whipped around and dashed after the other that had been heading for Yang.

"No you don't!" she growled.

With a spin that exerted most of her remaining energy, Weiss sliced at its flank, earning its enraged attention. It reared up and swung a huge paw at her, and though Weiss lifted her blade to parry it, the beast's strength was too much for the exhausted huntress.

The blow sent her stumbling back where she hit a tree, dazed for a moment before she slumped to her knees.

Yang realized the Grimm's ire was now directed at her teammate, and she quickly took aim with Ember Celica. She did not have much elbow room, but she threw a punch and managed to make a shot on the Ursa's rear.

It rounded on her and charged, huge paws thundering over the earth in fury.

But just before it could reach her, Weiss managed to send out a wave of ice to strike its hind legs. The beast let out a confused bellow before finally trampling off through the undergrowth.

Yang breathed a sigh of relief, feeling her pulse finally drop again as she wiped a hand over her forehead. She looked to the side, finding Weiss still on her knees as she gasped for breath, still winded from the blow she had sustained, but other than enervation, she seemed to be unharmed.

Yang let her head fall back against the tree behind her, and closed her eyes for a second of rest.

Within that time, Weiss had managed to get back on her feet, using Myrtenaster for support before sheathing it. She stumbled over to Yang and got down beside her, taking her arm across her shoulders again.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"No more than the ankle," Yang reported.

"Come on then... we should get going."

Yang blinked, eyes wide.

"Hold on a sec, princess. You should rest a second. You look like you're about to keel over."

"I'd rather keep moving than risk more Grimm finding us."

Yang let out another sigh.

"Alright..."

They repeated the tedious process of trying to get up, stumbling more than a few times before they had gotten to their feet.

"It's not too far now," Weiss murmured as she began to walk again. Yang was silent now, painfully aware of just how much the smaller girl was struggling.

Weiss was panting, her forehead beaded with sweat, shoulders heaving. Her heart pounded hard beneath Yang's arm, and it took all of the blonde's self-control not to speak up. If she suggested Weiss take a break again, it would only serve to insult the heiress's abilities, and Yang knew as much.

It was difficult for her to do, but she kept her mouth closed, doing her best to put the majority of her own weight onto her good foot to lessen Weiss's burden.

Only after they had continued for several more minutes in this way did Yang decided to speak up.

"Y'know, Weiss. You're doin' pretty well with the rough-n-tough stuff."

Weiss turned to flash a glance at her, and Yang knew she saw a small smile.

"And your balance... they way you're managing your pain and your weight evenly... it's quite elegant, Yang."

Yang grinned in return.

A few moments later, a familiar voice reached their ears, and they recognized Ruby's zealous tone calling for them.

"We're here!" Yang called out as Weiss finally brought them to a halt.

Relief washed over them both as their partners appeared before them at long last. Blake's ears perked up as Ruby let out a breath.

"Oh, good! I'm so glad you're both okay!" She rushed to them in a burst of speed, only then seeming to realize their conditions. "Oh geez! Yang, you can't walk! And Weiss, you look like you're gonna pass out!"

"Perhaps..." Weiss huffed, not sounding terribly opposed to the idea.

Blake stepped up before her. "Let me take Yang," she offered.

Once she was certain Blake was supporting the blonde girl, Weiss stepped away, swaying slightly.

"Whoa there!" Ruby steadied her with a hand on her back. Weiss shook her head a bit to regain her bearings.

Yang watched to make sure Weiss was alright before she turned to Blake who slipped her free hand behind her back.

"You okay?" the Faunus girl asked.

"Yeah, I'm good," she smiled. "S'all thanks to the princess. She saved my ass."

"It must've been hard for her to carry you back," Blake murmured.

Yang nodded in agreement, as it was much easier for Blake to hold her up with her taller stature.

"Let's get back to the school," Ruby said.

But before she started walking, she kept her hand on her partner's back and swooped down to hoist Weiss into her arms.

"H-Hey!"

"Oh come on, Weiss! It's only a few minutes away. You should rest."

Weiss glared up at her, but she was lacking the energy to keep her tight-knit expression for long. Yang noticed the heiress sent one last look her way to make sure she was alright before Weiss complied and closed her eyes.

"Yang, you oaf. You owe me a massage when you've healed," she muttered.

The blonde grinned cheekily.

"You got it, princess."

A/N: This was an idea spawned from a post I once saw, something along the lines of "Can you imagine tiny Weiss having to carry and injured Yang back from battle?" and I thought it was cute.

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