Honeycomb Hearts

Never Strikes Twice

The Next Day, 8:54 AM

Ruby sat, awake, on her bed. Her face was contorted in thought as her hand, clutching her phone charger, hovered mere inches away from a wall outlet. Her phone had died just minutes prior, so she had, without any thought, gone to plug in her charger. However, moments before plugging it in, she noticed how everything in the house was made of wood, including the walls. Was she sure that the charger wouldn't spark with the wall outlet and cause the house to set in fire? Her thought process was hardly disrupted as the house began to slightly tremble, causing everything that wasn't nailed down to slowly begin vibrating.

However, since Yang was not, in fact, nailed down to the floor, she too began to vibrate and tremble. Her eyes shot open, immediately noticing the shaking in the ground. Quickly, she jumped off of the couch and grabbed Ruby by her arm, grabbing a bit too tightly for Ruby's liking, and kicked open the door. She practically threw herself and Ruby down onto the front porch, barely landing before the edge of the porch and avoiding falling into the coarse dirt from the day prior.

"Owww, what was that Yang?" Ruby moaned. She quickly noticed the tremors, and her eyes became as wide as Yang's. "Wait, is it because of-"

Ruby's sentence was cut short by a train whistle from nearby, which then too was cut off by Ruby's sigh. "Yeah, Ren told me about the train tracks about half a mile that way." Ruby weakly pointed in the opposite direction of the town, her other hand rubbing her sore upper arm.

"Train... tracks?" Yang's eyes didn't close an inch until she heard the train whistle once more. She flopped down onto the porch, breathing a heavy sigh. "I thought it was... I thought it was another..."

"Another earthquake." Ruby solemnly finished Yang's sentence, and a deafening silence pervaded the conversation. Ruby was lost in thought, trying to find the right words to comfort Yang, and Yang was coming down from her adrenaline high while also looking for a way to apologize.

"Hey Yang, you took some electrical engineering courses in college, right?" Ruby asked. She lifted the charger, still clutched in her left hand. "I was gonna plug this in, but I wasn't sure if the wiring or whatever in the house was too old and could start a fire."

"I... think it should be fine..." Yang's breathing still wasn't quite back to normal, but Ruby could tell Yang was no longer thinking of the earthquake. "You said Nora was good with that technical stuff, so I can call her to help me take a look later."

"Ooh! Maybe she'll bring ice cream!"

Yang broke into a howl of laughter, "Ruby, it's too early to be talking ice cream! We haven't even had breakfast!"

Ruby crossed her arms and made the biggest pouty face she could, glaring at Yang. "Fine, mom, whatever you say."

"Mom, huh? Is this anything like back in seventh grade when you called me mom in front of your whole class?" Yang chuckled, "I'm still flattered, by the way."

Another aura of silence broke the conversation. Yang propped herself up to a sitting position and glanced over in the direction of the train tracks, invisible to her eyes, but one last whistle from the train proved that they were in fact there, just out of sight.

"I'm sorry."

Ruby placed her hand on Yang's, slowly rolling it over the back of her palm. "Don't be. I wasn't there when the quake happened, but from what I heard it was really, really scary. I saw how well you were acting in front of everyone, especially me, but deep down I knew you weren't really over it yet."

Tears began to well in Ruby's eyes. "I just – I just didn't want it to happen again. I didn't want you to get hurt, I couldn't imagine losing you." Yang pulled Ruby into a bear hug. "You're more important to me than anything else, you and Dad are all I have left." The tears began to stream down her face, and slowly she began to wail, clutching Ruby tightly.

Ruby hugged her sister back, rubbing her hand in a circle along Yang's back, just like she remembered she would to for her when she cried as a kid. "It's all gonna be fine now Yang, don't worry." She pulled away slightly and looked at Yang's face – it was a teary, snotty mess, but she could tell it was mostly out of love, not fear. "Dad and I aren't all you have, you know. You have your bike, this cool house, some crops we're growing together, and you've already made a new friend here!"

Yang sniffled, attempting to wipe the tears from her eyes, only for more to take their place. Despite this, a smile broke from her lips. "You call me mom, but you're always there for comfort when I need it." She took a deep, shaky breath, before continuing, "I'm sorry for breaking down like this. Nobody should have to see their older sister like this."

"You're right – I may not have to, but I'm glad that I did." Ruby stood up and offered her hand to Yang. "Now c'mon, whaddaya say we go get some food? I heard Ren has some good pancakes."

Yang took Ruby's hand gratefully and pulled herself up. "Yeah, let me just get my phone and uh... clean up a bit."

Ruby pulled Yang into another quick hug. "Yang, I love you."

Yang could only lean into the hug, her tears finally subsiding. "I love you too, sis."