Three hours. Three whole hours. Ruby turned her gaze away from the clock and continued to nervously pace back and forth in the den. It had been like this ever since she had gotten home. Unable to find words, Yang had slumped off to her room and Ruby had begun to cut a channel into the floor as she walked back and forth and back and forth.

Her thoughts were incoherent and her mind was a storm of emotions. How could this be happening? She wanted to cry, how could the world be so unfair? Tears were pouring steadily from her eyes, hurricanes of raw feelings. But her tears were not of sadness or despair. Those glassy, unfocused orbs held nothing but contempt and loathing. How dare they try and take Cinder from her? The audacity of those people.

The sound of glass shattering brought Ruby back to the present and she immediately realized just how upset she had become. Glass littered the floor around her and covered the sofa in its sharp slices. In her hand were the sparse remains of her tea cup, now reduced to half a handle and most of a tea bag.

"Damn it," Ruby muttered. Of course something like this would happen to her.

Ruby began to try to find some way of cleaning up the mess before she heard the door creak open behind her. Whipping around, she was disappointed to see it was only Yang. The blonde entered the room slowly, mindful of the broken glass.

"Hey there Rubes, you alright?" Yang asked, her voice quivering, betraying how not alright she felt.

"I'm, I'm, I can't do this," Ruby moaned. "They can't leave, they can't!"

Yang stepped closer and pulled her little sister into a tight embrace. She tried to open her mouth. Tried to find the words to comfort Ruby. But she couldn't even find the thoughts to reassure herself that everything would turn out okay.

They held each other close, slowly letting out their tears, slowly releasing the horrible, oppressing tension that had managed to overwhelm them. Ruby was the first to cry herself out. When no more tears came she took a shuddering breath before finally pulling herself together, or at least that's what she told herself.

"Why don't we go make some more tea," she suggested quietly.

When Yang did not object, Ruby began to lead her older sister by the hand towards the kitchen. With the shattered mug forgotten, Ruby went about putting together two new cups of tea for Yang and herself. She chose chamomile, partly because it was meant to calm the body and partly because it reminded her of her mother, the rock she had clung to and admittedly still clung to.

With steaming brew in hand, the two sisters sat at the table with their heads in their hands and began the most excruciating waiting game they had ever experienced. The minutes crawled by, each one longer than the last. Both girls stared silently at the clock, watching the time pass, or rather not pass, begging for a knock on the door, or a ring of the phone, anything. Another hour passed like this, the sun completing its descent and the moon coming out to light the world with its dismal glow.

Yang contemplated calling Neo, sending her a text, something, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She needed to know everything would be alright. But she wasn't sure she would be able to handle hearing anything else. And it wasn't just about her either. She had to be strong for Ruby as well. How could she possibly manage to do that if she heard the horrible truth?

The hours continued to trickle by, each one cutting away more and more at the small string of hope Ruby had left. She tried, truly she did, but before she could stop herself, Ruby fell face first into the table exhausted.

Stupid chamomile! I totally forgot you make me sleepy!

Yang had already drifted of, albeit a little less violently. The two girls slept restlessly as the moon traveled its path across the sky and eventually disappeared into the sea beyond. Nightmares of losing girlfriends forever and being sad forever plagued them both. Never had either of them experienced a night so void of light.

Eventually, the sun made its glorious return to the land of the living. As its first rays shone through the kitchen window, Ruby began to stir. Her head was throbbing with a dull ache. Her eyes felt raw and empty. Slowly the events of the previous day drifted back to her and she redoubled over in despair. Her muffled lamentation roused her sister and consequently brought her into the little pity party they had set up.

The room was filled with the painful sound of silent sobbing and knuckles on hard wood.

"Yang, don't break the table," Ruby groaned, still managing to be somewhat responsible even in her current state.

"I'm not hitting the table," Yang moaned back.

The sisters grew silent for a moment and listened to the sound of, knocking?

"The door!" Ruby exclaimed, jumping up from her seat and bolting to the front of the house.

Yang followed Ruby at a distance, eager to find out who it was, but terrified of what might come. She came to a stop just behind her sister who had halted a foot before the front door. The knocking continued but Ruby remained frozen in place. She tried to lift her arm to reach the door knob, tried with all her heart. But her heart felt heavy and her head felt fearful. But she had to be brave.

The door swung open to reveal Cinder and Neo standing side by side, hand in hand. The girls had their heads down and their faces hidden from view. Both of them were quivering, unable to keep themselves still. From the shorter of the two came a small, somber voice.

"We came to say goodbye."

Yang and Ruby were crushed. How could this happen? Why did it have to happen to them? Why was the world so cruel? Ruby felt new tears spring up to her eyes and she quickly brought her hands up to her face to wipe them away. Yang stood unmoving. She was still trying to process how such a thing was possible. She just couldn't make sense of it. And she found it particularly difficult to come to terms with what was happening with Cinder and Neo rolling on the floor laughing their asses off.

Wait, what the fuck?

"Oh my god! Your face!" Neo exclaimed from her position on the ground.

Puzzled, Yang and Ruby stopped and stared at the absolutely insane sight before them. Instead of bawling their eyes out, screaming to the world how unfair it all was, their girlfriends were laughing their fucking asses off.

"What the hell is this?" Yang asked, confusion overpowering her anguish.

Neo took a gasping breath before responding. "We're not going anywhere silly. Gotcha!"

Yang was still for a moment. Still as a statue. A towering, threatening, red eyed statue that was ready to go on a Neo killing rampage. Then she was happy. Overjoyed that her girlfriend wasn't leaving her, was never leaving her. She scooped the small girl up and gave her a bone crushing hug.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" She cried, holding Neo tighter.

"So, you're not going?" Ruby asked hesitantly, feeling as though it were all too good to be true.

"No," Cinder replied gently. "We're not leaving for a long time."

Ruby bounced with joy before embracing Cinder with even more enthusiasm than Yang had had with Neo. The two couples stood like that for near a minute before someone suggested they head inside for a better explanation of exactly what had happened the previous night.

"So, as you know, we left you guys around three yesterday," Neo began. They were all sitting around the kitchen table, couples holding hands. "I was so damn mad I thought I was going to lose it. We made our way back home and along the way came up with our plan of attack."

"Don't call it that," Cinder chimed in. "We weren't going to war, we just needed to explain the situation."

"Aww, but that sounds soooo lame!" Neo complained. Yang smiled at the adorable outburst.

"Anyway," Cinder continued. "We decided what we wanted to tell out parents on our way back home. It was a longer walk than we expected, but we got home before four. When we did finally get there, I was somehow surprised to find the house empty."

"Yep, so we waited. And waited. And waited. It was awful!" Neo moaned.

"That's why we're only here telling you about it now," Cinder explained. "We waited till close to eight o'clock before our parents finally came home. When they did, we sat them down in the living room and had a nice family chat."

"Can't believe we didn't do it sooner," Neo butted in. "I guess it took you two to bring out this kind of strength in us." Neo smiled abashedly at Ruby and Yang, mostly Yang.

"Well, that's, that's good to hear," Yang replied weakly, entranced by the reverent look she was receiving from Neo.

"Back to the story," Cinder cut in. "We sat them down and we had probably our first heart to heart in a real long time. We explained how hard moving was for us, how much we like it here, how we can't possibly leave, now or ever. I don't think they ever realized before now just how difficult all this moving has been for us."

And we finally connected, like a family should.

"But we're here to stay!" Neo exclaimed, smiling widely.

"Yep," Cinder added. "Won't be getting rid of us that easily."

The sun was setting over the ocean once again and everything felt right in the world. Despite the emotional roller coaster experienced over the past sixteen hours, Ruby could not be happier. She had Cinder, truly had her for good. Nothing would stand between them now.

"Ruby?" Cinder called from her cozy place buried in the crimsonette's side.

"Yes, my dear?" Ruby replied, her fancy suave voice in full effect.

Cinder giggled at Ruby's silliness. "Should people be allowed to feel this happy?"

Ruby turned to Cinder and took one of those delicate hands into her own. She kissed each knuckle softly between each word. "No. No this is all for you, my dear."

A/N: BOOOM, and that's all she wrote. Beautiful, right? Please don't kill me. Hopefully you enjoyed this roller coaster of a final chapter. As always I'm eager to hear what you think, so leave me a note, good or bad. If you liked this you'll probably enjoy the next story I'll have coming out soonish. It will be a fabulous story by the name of "The Collector", featuring some truly groundbreaking relationships, if I do say so myself. Otherwise, thank you for joining me on this wonderful adventure, may we meet again in an even greater story. Remember, keep reading, keep being awesome, till next time.