Ruby woke with a start. A hard jolt that was akin to being dropped in a pool of ice water straight out of a hot tub. She sat up with a sharp gasp and her breath caught and she started coughing. Rolling onto her stomach she pushed herself to her hands and knees and tried taking deeper breaths, only for her heart to stop and her breathing to cease.

Her hands and arms up to her elbows were red and crusty with blood. Blood that definitely wasn't hers and wasn't a Grimms. Grimm blood evaporated away even if it did spatter you. Human and Faunus blood…. Did not.

Jerking to her feet, her dog ears twitching like crazy atop her head a million thoughts raced through Ruby's mind. The one she stopped on first was the startlingly clear 'bend over, you're going to be sick.'

So Ruby bent over and was violently sick.

"Oh god, oh god oh god what the fuck, what the fuck is going on what did I do… oh god oh god" It was the third time in Ruby's entire life she had ever sworn. Ruby swearing was as rare as Weiss running up to you and hugging you out of the blue. Simply put, it never happened.

"Ruby?" A voice Ruby recognized as well as her own hands rang out behind her. She so badly wanted to turn around. She so badly wanted to run into their arms and cry her eyes out. She so badly needed to be held and told that everything was fine and that she was okay.

Instead, she held her arms tightly to her chest, hiding what she hoped was all of the blood and froze. She stood stock still and refused to move, she barely even breathed. "Ruby… you've got blood in your hair and on your face….." Ruby flinched and fresh tears sprung to her eyes. Her chest labored to hide her desire to burst into sobs. "Bug…. Come on, please." The familiar nickname broke all of her resolve.

She whipped around and launched herself into waiting arms. "Blake!" She sobbed, gripping tightly to her shirt. Blake wrapped her arms tightly around her blood caked and sobbing girlfriend, crushing her to her chest. She held her with every ounce of force she could muster. Ruby sobbed uncontrollably against her. Soon her legs failed her and Blake couldn't hold them up for long so she slowly slid to the ground, pulling ruby into her lap and rocking her.

It was a full hour before Ruby calmed down enough for Blake to try talking to her again.

"It's okay bug, its okay, you didn't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it."

"What… what do you mean?" She hiccupped, looking into Blake's eyes for the first time since she'd lost control the night before.

"Do you remember anything from last night?" Ruby shook her head no. "We were out in the city, you wanted to take me to the new book store that just opened. You wanted to buy me something nice for the cookies I made you last week." The memory was hazy but Ruby could recall bits and pieces. "We were cutting down an alley to make the last airship to beacon." Ruby could remember yanking Blake down the alley, but as soon as she took three steps in her memory simply vanished. Blake had begun slowly rubbing Ruby's trembling Faunus ears and occasionally pressing a kiss between them.

"Some men started to follow us. It was obviously not anything we couldn't handle. But one of them... One of them recognized me. He was someone from my past, a darker part, he was saying things. Ruby I can't lie to you, he was throwing every slur and derogatory remark he could. It wasn't bothering you, until he started saying what he wanted to do to me… while he made you watch." A whimper escaped her lips. She couldn't remember but she could imagine well enough. In response Blake held her tighter and renewed her effort to sooth her trembling teammate.

"Baby, you're a rage Faunus." Blake had only ever called her baby three times. Each time when she was either ecstatic and couldn't think straight in her joy or when she wanted to cheer ruby up and nothing else worked. Or in this case, when she needed to sooth ruby while breaching a very serious matter. "A rage Faunus is someone who can… submit control or have control take from them and turn."

Ruby burrowed farther into Blake, clutching her shirt so hard her knuckles turned white. "Turn into what" She whispered brokenly against Blake's collar bone.

"Turn into a more… humanoid version of their Faunus trait. In your case…"

"A werewolf Blake… I'm a werewolf" Ruby whimpered brokenly. "I'm a monster."

"No!" Blake shouted. She forced Ruby away from her and cupped her cheeks, staring hard into teary silver eyes. "You are not a monster. You know what you did? You turned and took swipes at them, they attacked you and you defended yourself. You didn't hit a single one of them until you had to. They got stupid and angry, you hurt them, I can't and won't lie to you, yes, you hurt those men, but you never killed a single one. Even as a scared, angry wolf, you had enough humanity, enough compassion, to spare their lives. You looked at me with so much regret in your eyes and you ran away. I looked for you all night and just found you here, crying over hurting men who deserved to be killed."

Blake pressed a bruising kiss to Ruby's lips, kissing her over and over. She held her tight and rubbed the tears away and kissed her again and again, until the shaking had all but stopped, her tears had dried and until Ruby couldn't believe she was a monster. Blake kissed her eyes, her cheeks, her forehead, her lips and all down her throat and neck, along her exposed shoulders.

"I love you Ruby Rose. I love you so much. Because you are kind, you're joy itself. You're warm, radiant, loving, beautiful, brave, compassionate, and genuine. I could list a million things about you, most good but some bad. But monster is not one of those things. I love you, all of you, every single bit." Blake's speech had Ruby in tears all over again.

"Thank you… thank you I love you." Ruby repeated over and over like a mantra. And Blake held her and told her she loved her too every single time. She held her until Ruby was ready. She held her until Ruby could stand again so they could make their way home. And as they walked home, Blake kept a tight grip on her hand and pressed kisses between her ears with a muttered I love you.

Blake held her until Ruby had come to term with who she was. And Ruby never stopped being grateful for Blake shattering every expectation and loving her unconditionally.