A/N: So, it's been a long time. I haven't posted anything in a few years, and since then, I've switched obsessions from Valve games to White Rose. Before we get to the story, I wanted to just address a few things. First, RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth, and be sure to support the official release. Second, this is a rewrite of the fanfic Neptune's Girl, by doomzoom. I'd like to give doomzoom my thanks for giving me permission to write this, and I plan on putting my best effort into this. So now that I've wasted your guys' time with this paragraph, let's get onto the story.

1/4/15

"Dammit! How did shit hit the fan so fast?!" I screamed, my voice muffled by the fluffy red pillow I was burying my face in and staining with my tears. "I blame Neptune, and... and... and..." Hiccups began escaping from my throat, my throat screaming in pain from the suddenness of the movements. I sat upright and clutched the pillow to my chest, snuggling into it until the hiccups stopped, and the tears stop with them. The texture of the fabric felt soothing, soft and warm. Like the girl who gave it to me... The thought of her sent a sharp pain through my chest, and before I realized what I was doing, I threw my pillow at the wall above the head of my bed, where it impacted with a dull thump and fell onto the other pillows that rested there, my eyes burning with the threat of more tears to fall. "And..." I gasped for air "...and I blame Weiss! And Sun! and Yang..."

No you don't.

What would you know?

Everything. I'm you after all.

But she hates me. She's angry at me and wants to never see me again!

You don't know that.

Ugh... SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!

"And now I'm having an argument with voices in my head..." A grunt-y chuckle forced its way out of my throat as my tears started anew. "Maybe my life's just like those old stories Uncle Qrow told me when I was little. Just another clock-maker gone mad... Yang'd probably be making a joke about that right now." I dragged myself over to the pillows on my bed. I've only known her for a couple months, and here I am. Throwing a tantrum and crying myself silly over her. And... and... and... "STUPID NEPTUNE! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO MADE ME LIE TO HER!" Gasping for breath, I slumped across my bed and rolled over to bury my face in my red pillow, my choked sobs muffled by the fabric. "I hate life."

11/10/14

Ding!

The bell on my door, the signal of a new arrival to my store. "Hello! Welcome to Crow Clocks! How can I help you?" I called from the workbench behind my front counter, where I hunched over the dismantled body of a very expensive pocket watch. Concentrate! Need to finish this...

"Well look at you, all cute and concentrated on fixing your clocks. Just as always!" Yang calls out. Oh gee, thanks sis. Now please stop talking! Very busy. "You know, you should really pay better attention to the people that walk into your store." Not this talk again... My off hand drifted to the grip of the rifle I kept hidden under my workbench. "I mean, what if I was a crook looking to hold you u-"

Before she had knew what was going on, the barrel of my .30-06 found itself pressed to her nose. I turned around in my chair to face her, a smug grin most definitely on my face. "That. You know better than anybody that I'm faster than anybody, Yang." After I returned the rifle to its spot under my workbench, she cracked a smile, a proud gleam in her lilac eyes, and vaulted over the counter to scoop me up into one of her signature Yang Xiao Long Ursa Hugs.

"Gah! Yang... Can't... Breathe!"

"Ha! Sorry Ru." She let me go, allowing precious oxygen back into my lungs. I turn my gaze to the clock on the wall. Wait... one? Why is Yang... Ohmygod!

"Yang! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at work!" In response, she just ruffles my hair.

"Ruby, it's okay. Remember how I had to pull a triple shift the other day? As an apology, Blake let me have the day off!"

"How nice..." I turn back to my workbench and return to working on the pocket watch.

"I know! She's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my whole life. She's got dark, wavy hair and this really cool mysterious vibe, and that's not even the best part!" I can hear her bouncing on her heels behind me. "I think she smiled at one of my jokes!"

"D'aww, you're so cute. Big, bad heart breaker Yang Xiao Long has a crush on her boss~" She stopped bouncing, and stamped a foot. She's totally blushing, probably so bad her ears are turning red.

"W-Well at least its better than Little-Miss-Hasn't-Had-A-Date-Since-High-School! I mean come on. You spend all of your time either here, or hanging out with the rest of our friends." Without taking my eyes off of my work, I gave her an apathetic shrug. "Rubes, you're twenty-two! Live a little." I'll "live a little" once I'm done with the twenty thousand Lien wat- A hard pat on my back derails my train of thought. A pat hard enough to make the tool in my hand snap a wire inside the watch. A very. Important. Wire.

"Yang?" I swivel around to face my sister. Who is in the process of hopping back over the counter. Great.

"Y-Yeah?"

"That... was a twenty thousand Lien watch. A twenty thousand Lien watch that belongs to the daughter of a mob boss. WHO WAS GOING TO PICK IT UP TODAY! And now I'll have to delay until tomorrow, and give it to her free." Yang's gaze drops to the floor. "Do you have any idea how much I was going to make on that?" She kicks at the dirt on the floor. "No? More than you make in a week."

"I'm sorry Ru," Yang mumbles. I rub my eyes and let out a deep sigh.

"It's okay Yang. Just... be more careful next time. Okay?" My sister nods sheepishly. "I might be able to fix it with parts from some other luxury clocks, but that's gonna take time I don't have."

"Maybe I can buy you time. Chat her up when she gets here."

"Heh...You can try, but she's the quiet type. I'ma just get see if I can get this done."

"Alrighty. I'll let you work."

"Right." I reach over and pluck an old pocket watch off of a nearby shelf. Close enough. I hope. With the source of my replacement parts in hand, I turn back to the workbench and begin working my magic.

Ding!

Please don't be her. Please don't be her. I'm almost done! I turn around, to see a fair skinned young woman with wavy black hair and golden colored eyes. Well, shit. "Hello Miss Belladonna. Welcome to Crow Clocks. How may I help you?"

"Yes, I'm here for my pocket watch-" Her gaze turns to my sister, who had decided to look over some very fancy clocks. "Yang? I didn't think I'd see you at a place like this." Oh thank god. Just buy me five minutes. The two carried off into a conversation. I immediately swiveled around to my workbench, my hands working overdrive to get the watch finished. With the spare time Yang bought, I carefully polished, wound, set, and repackaged the watch. Finished with that, I turned to watch Blake and Yang, who seemed to be having a fairly friendly conversation.

"It was nice to see you, Yang, but I need to get going. Have a nice day." Giving Yang a friendly smirk, Blake turned to approach the counter. "May I have my watch now?"

"Yep. Here you go! It's nice to meet the Blake that Yang speaks so highly of." She quirked an eyebrow, most likely surprise. I held out the case, a small black box with dark purple nightshade emblem. She pulled out a checkbook and pen and began writing out my payment. Note to self, give Yang a very big hug when we get home. She finished writing the check and took the box from my hands, opening it and inspecting the watch inside with extreme precision. When she finished her inspection, she looked at me and smiled.

"This is the best its looked in years. Would you happen to fix jewelry too?"

"Yeah, we fix jewelry too!" I said, with the most beaming smile I could make.

Giving me a slight nod, Blake turned to face Yang. "Goodbye Yang, I can't wait to hear about how highly you speak of me." With that, she left the store.

Yang let out a breath and leaned on the counter.

"So that's Blake?" I asked, my head cocked to one side and an eyebrow raised.

"Yea-p." She said dreamily, a small smile on her face.

"The same one you're crushing on?" Oh dear God, Yang you idiot...

"Yeah."

Face, meet palm.

"Yang. That was Blake Belladonna. Daughter of the most infamous crime family this side of Vale. That ring any bells? Do you have a death wish?" I stopped from my tirade to let out a sigh. "If you get into a relationship with her and then break her heart, I'm going to be burying an empty casket."

"Ruby, it feels different this time..." Yang sighed. "And it's not like I haven't tried keeping it professional. Ugh... She's probably messing with me anyways." She let out a sad smile, before instantly brightening back up. "Lock up and let's get goin', everybody's probably waiting for us." I smiled back at her, and began tidying up my workbench, making sure all of the tools were put away properly and that the work surface was clean.

"Didn't Neptune say he was going to bring his new girlfriend over tonight?" Yang started chuckling at my question.

"Yeah. If he's bringing her to meet us, then he must be serious about her."

"Neptune? Serious about a girl? Ha! He's as much of a player as you!" I finished putting my tools away and turned to face my sister.

"I take offense to that... It's only slightly true." I haven't seen Yang blush this much in my life! I've got to get my money's worth. I burst out laughing, which Yang replied to by lightly punching my shoulder.

"C'mon, let's get home." I said between giggles.

"Right behind ya, little sis." Giving each other a light hug, we walked out into the chilly autumn air. In the tiny parking lot across the street from my shop. In the two spots closest to the store were Yang's yellow and black motorcycle, the shining chassis and motor giving lie to the delicate care my sister gave her motorcycle, and next to that, my battered red beetle.

"Hey guys!" We called out to our friends, who had let themselves into the apartment that me and Yang shared.

"Hey Ruby. Yang." Jaune Arc, a skinny, blond haired boy, about my age replied from his position on the red leather couch in my living room.

"Glad to see you're home!" Pyrrha Nikos, his girlfriend, toned and lean, said with a warm smile. She was cuddling into Jaune, letting him run his hand through her scarlet colored hair while she read a health magazine.

"HI!" Nora Valkyrie shouted, her orange hair whipping around as she turned to face us from her position on the love seat. She was clinging to her boyfriend, Lie Ren, who merely gave us a small smile and nod as we entered.

"'Sup nerds?" All present in the room turned to face the source of this greeting. On the far end of the red couch sat Sun Wukong, a tall, muscular blond man, flashing an amused, distinctly monkey like, grin. He took a swig from a brown bottle he had in hand, before scowling at it and turning to us with an annoyed expression. "You guys got any good beer? I checked the fridge, but all there was was this 'El Borracho' crap. I mean, you could at least get some Mogar Light." I forced myself to hold in a sigh of relief. Good, he didn't see the Sorola in the back of the fridge.

"We don't get good stuff unless its for parties, sticky-fingers" Yang replied, an amused smirk on her face as she flopped down onto the black leather couch set across from the red one.

"You two love me too much to do anything about it." Sun replied with a toothy grin.

"That we do, Banana Boy." Yang smiled.

"So where's Neptune? He said he was bringing his girlfriend over tonight." I asked, slumping down into the seat next to Yang. I cracked a grin. "Oh God, they aren't going at it in my room are they?" I said, putting an overabundance of drama into my voice. Everybody in the room erupted into laughter.

"He texted me a little bit before you guys got here. Said he got stuck in traffic' after picking her up and that he's on his way." Pyrrha said between chuckles, not looking up from her magazine.

"Pffft... Bull. Shiet. That nerd can't keep his hands to himself. I know he didn't get 'stuck in traffic' for an hour." Sun flashed his monkey grin. That got the laughing started back up again.

"Yeah. I have no idea how you can stand living with him, Sun," I said with a smile. After the laughter died down, I opened my mouth to start talking, but stopped when I heard the front door open.

"Why in the world would you have the keys to your friend's apartment?" A slightly shrill voice, probably Neptune's Girl, questioned from the hallway.

"Don't worry about it. We all have the keys to each other's apartments," Neptune's distinctly suave voice replied.

"That is asinine. Whose redic-"

"Hey guys!" Neptune called out, strolling into the room with his girlfriend on his arm. She surveyed the room with critical eyes. When she looked in my direction, we locked eyes. The world around me froze, and I froze with it. Staring into those icy blue pools, I felt a warmth bubbling up in my chest, and it took a moment before I realized it.

I'm in love...

So there's the first chapter. I'm going to be keeping to updating every other Friday. While I could hammer these chapters out in a few days, I know that quality will suffer if I don't use the time afforded to fix grammar errors and check for stilted narration and dialogue.

Please, leave a review, let me know what you guys liked, and let me know what needs improvement.

Til' next time...

TehFallenOne