A Rosy Evening

by outside998

A relaxing family gathering at the Rose household gives Ruby an interesting idea, when Blake and Yang bring their little child with them.

A Rosy Evening

„Okay, now try this sentence", Weiss said, pointing over the small table in the corner of the couple's living room of their house to a line in Ruby's book.

Ruby's eyes followed Weiss' finger, her eyes wandering over the words a few times, and Weiss could almost see the gears in her head turning, as she tried to form the sentence in her mind.

"Good, I got this", she assured herself, and started to read aloud: "Guten Tag. Ich mochte gerne einen Tasse Kaffee." She looked at Weiss with hopeful eyes, begging that she got everything right this time. But even if she did not, she would keep trying over and over, like she did the last thirty minutes.

A small smile tugged at Weiss' lips as she saw Ruby's childlike expression. "Not bad", she answered, making Ruby's eyes sparkle in excitement. "But", she chimed in, making Ruby deflate a little, "you made two little, but substantial mistakes." Her finger darted towards her book, pointing at the fourth word of her sentence, "It's 'möchte', not 'mochte'. See those little dots over the 'o'?"

Ruby nodded enthusiastically, sucking up every word Weiss spoke.

"That's called an Umlaut."

"Like those metal bands?", Ruby asked with a big smile, making Weiss chuckle a little bit at her innocent naïveté.

"No, not really. You see, those cretins who dare to call themselves musicians only use it because it looks 'fancy' or 'cool'", she used her fingers to make quotation marks next to her head. "The Umlaute in Athlesian actually have a point, as they can change the tense, the grammatical number, or even – as in this case – the meaning entirely."

A sigh escaped Ruby's lips. "That's complicated."

"Not really", Weiss assured, "you are just not used to the language yet. Anyway, you said "Ich mochte', which means 'I liked', but it should be 'Ich möchte', that is a polite form to say 'I want'."

"So I said that I liked a cup of coffee?", Ruby asked, starting to understand what Weiss was telling her.

"Exactly", Weiss said happily, a bright smile on her face, blinding Ruby almost with how sparkly she looked. "But you wanted to say that you want a cup of coffee."

Ruby nodded. "And the second one?"

"You said 'einen Tasse Kaffee', it should be 'eine Tasse Kaffee'. 'Tasse' is female."

Ruby arched an eyebrow. "I always mix this up. Why do you need three different articles for things?"

Weiss chuckled. "You know, a famous poet once said: 'Life is not long enough to learn Athlesian'. But you make great progress."

Ruby smiled with new found confidence. "You know, you're right. I think I am slowly getting the hang of it. It's not that hard."

Weiss reached over and grabbed her hand resting on the book. "Of course you are getting it. You have a great teacher, after all." A playful smile danced on her lips.

"Did I mention that you are really humble?", Ruby giggled in response.

"Not today, no", Weiss replied. Her gaze wandered to the big antique longcase clock in the opposite corner of the room. It read 7:40 in the afternoon. "Looks like they should be arriving soon."

Ruby followed Weiss' view and confirmed the time for herself. Taiyang, Yang and Blake said they wanted to come over at 8pm, simply to, as Yang put it, dust themselves off, whatever that means. All she cares about is seeing her sister, father and former team mate again after months of no words from either side, mostly because of work and family obligations on both sides. Weiss was always extremely busy leading the Schnee Dust Company, Ruby was away on hunting trips almost every second day, Yang and Blake adopted a 3-year-old female fox faunus named Türkis (which Ruby learned means 'turquoise' in Athlesian. Why the name was Athlesian was anyone's guess), having all their hands full with dealing with the little daredevil, and Taiyang was completely focused on fixing the relationship with Raven. She decided to come back after her tribe disbanded, because, as she said, she needed a purpose. Ruby remembered the phone call vividly. Never had she thought that her father could sound so happy again.

Weiss stood up from the table, pulling Ruby out of her thoughts. "I'm going to prepare the tea and biscuits."

At that, Ruby jumped to her feet. "Oh, oh, let me help."

Before Weiss could say anything (she would have said yes regardless), Ruby rushed ahead into the large kitchen, already plundering the cupboards for a kettle and cups.

A few minutes later the living room was filled with the smell of sweet fruit tea and fresh biscuits, minus two or three Ruby snatched from the plate on the mahogany table framed by their big white sofa.

Five minutes later Weiss and Ruby were sitting on the sofa, listening to classical music on the radio. At first Ruby did not understand how Weiss could listen to that kind of music, as there are no 'sick beats that blow the roofing felt into the neighbors' gardens', or 'perverted drops that would suck a cat into the subwoofer'. But she had to admit, the longer she listened to Weiss' preferred music, the more she liked it. Most likely because Weiss enjoyed it so much, she guessed. Right now, Ruby was resting her head on her wife's shoulder, content with the soothing sound of Beethoven lulling her in.

When suddenly the ringing of the doorbell surprised Ruby and she literally jumped off the sofa and almost fell into the table. "Jesus fucking Christ", she cursed. Weiss broke down laughing, dropping the book she was reading onto the ground. Ruby shot her an angry look, making Weiss laugh even harder and falling over on the sofa, holding her stomach.

Ruby walked to the front door to open it, ignoring Weiss' cackling from the living room. She opened the door, and was a little shocked when she did not see the expected four people, but five. "Welcome", she said, stepping aside to let the guests in.

Yang was first, hugging Ruby. "Heya, sis. How's life and Weiss treating ya?"

Ruby reciprocated the hug. "Great in both regards."

"Is she laughing?", Blake questioned, stepping next to Yang and shaking Ruby's hand. She never was one for hugs and body contact.

Ruby sighed. "Yeah, ignore her."

A whistle escaped Yang's lips. "I never heard her lose her shit like that."

Blake gasped and gave her a punch in the side. "Language!"

"Oh, shit", she replied shocked, realizing that they have a susceptible young faunus on their side. Then she realized what she said in shock, and corrected herself. "I mean, darn. Sorry."

Blake moaned exasperated and shook her head.

Luckily Türkis did not seem to notice any of that, as she dashed past Blake's legs towards Ruby, who kneeled down as soon as she noticed the little whirlwind. "Aunt Ruby!", she yelled excited, her green eyes sparkling.

Ruby easily scooped her into her arms and stood up. "Hey there, little one. How are you?"

Instead of answering she started to look around, taking advantage of the new-found vantage point. "Where is aunt Wiss?"

Ruby giggled at her constant mispronunciation of her wife's name, set Türkis down and pointed towards the living room. "Aunt Weiss is on the sofa. You can join her, we even have snacks."

At the mention of the last word the child's eyes seemed to pop out of their sockets and she dashed, as fast as she could, into the living room, greeting Weiss as she ran in.

Ruby's attention shifted over to the remaining two guests. "Hey, Dad, good to see you. You are looking great." She gave him a big hug.

"Thanks, Ruby, so do you", he replied warmly.

"But I never expected you to join them", she said to her final visitor. "Don't get me wrong, I'm pleasantly surprised, and you are absolutely welcome, of course, but you did not strike me as one for family reunions, Raven."

"I reckon I also don't strike you as one who sits around all the day, especially in solitude", she said with a smirk.

"Touché", the redhead replied with a grin.

That was true. She was never one who just sat around and waited for things to come. After all, that's the reason she and Taiyang came back together. But as Ruby took a closer look at her, she noticed some small, but interesting changes on her. Her eyes, although still burning with fire, looked far gentler now, as if the fire inside them does not try to burn the people around her anymore, but warm them. Her posture is far more relaxed, with hanging shoulders and her hip at a slight angle, and her smile looks genuine, gentle, not smug or arrogant. Seems like Taiyang really changed her, and Raven let him.

"And", Raven added, "I was curious. I wanted to see how you are living and wanted to meet that girl of yours."

Ruby arched an eyebrow. "If I remember correctly you already met her. A cage was involved, I believe."

"And that's why I am here. I never had the chance to say sorry or to really talk to her, get to know her."

Ruby shrugged. "That's fine by me, and I completely understand. That's nice of you, by the way." She stepped closer to Raven, broadening her muscular shoulders, and said with a calm that let everybody know that she was not one to play stupid games with: "But let me make one thing clear: I know how you and your former tribe treated her. I believe my dad when he told me that you changed, and I can see some of the changes. But this is my house, and she is my wife. If you dare upset or even insult her, I will wring your neck and throw you out to rot, so Weiss can use your decomposed body as compost for her garden. You get me?"

The entire house seemed to fall silent. Raven was stunned, to say the least. Ruby was at least half a head smaller than the former tribe leader, but right now she stood ten feet tall. There was no room to argue in her silver gaze. No, silver is not the right word. Right now, her eyes were steel. Unbending, unyielding, made to last. And Raven knew that the little flame remaining in her own eyes was not nearly hot enough to melt it. It most likely never was. After all, she heard of Ruby and her achievements. Everyone has. Those who didn't weren't born yet or died long beforehand. She was the one who killed Salem, was the one who wiped out an entire continent of Grimm after that, and she married the wealthiest woman in the world, who just so happens to lead the biggest company to ever exist. People were thankful to Ruby, praised her, honored her, respected her, feared her. Mentioning her name was enough to send shivers through every criminal, petty thief or crime lord. And right now, she was standing in front of Raven, piercing her with her gaze as if trying to impale her.

Taiyang carefully approached Ruby and rested his hand on her shoulder. "Honey, is that really necessary?"

Ruby did not move an inch. It almost seemed like she did not even notice him. But they knew better. She did, of course. She noticed everything. Always. But she wanted an answer. From Raven.

And an answer she got. "No, Tai", Raven said, "she is right. Ruby, I promise, I will be on my best behavior. I want to fix things, believe me."

Ruby looked her deep in the eyes, searching for a spark of deceit. Raven slowly became anxious and stood perfectly still, fearing the slightest movement would make her jump at her throat like a rabid wolf. But instead, Ruby clapped her hands, making everyone in the hallway jump, and happily said: "Great, why don't you all go take a seat in the living room and enjoy a cup of tea?" She turned around and frolicked ahead, as if the entire confrontation did never happen.

Blake, Taiyang, Yang and Raven haven't moved. Too deep was the shock. The only exception seemed to be Yang, who was smiling after Ruby and shook her head.

"Yang?", Raven forced out of her throat.

"Yes, mom?"

"Your sister is scary."

Yang's laugh bellowed into the living room.

As Ruby returned to the living room, Türkis was sitting on Weiss' lap and looked at a fashion magazine with her. The little faunus pointed at dresses and outfits she found pretty and Weiss would explain her what they are made of and to what occasions one would wear them. A smile creeped up Ruby's lips as she sat next to her and took a biscuit.

"Raven is here", she said.

Weiss did not even look up, she just answered calmly: "I know. I heard her."

The guests entered the room. Yang, Blake and Taiyang greeted Weiss, took their seats and started to nibble on the treats and enjoyed their teas, as Raven slowly approached her, her hand extended.

"Hello, Raven", Weiss said. Again, without raising her gaze from the magazine or Türkis. Her voice sounded… distant. Not frightful, or sad, or – God forbid – angry. It seemed as if she did not wish to interact with her unless Raven made the first step.

Uncertain, Raven's eyes wandered between the Heiress and the red huntress sitting next to her. Where Weiss did not give her any attention, Ruby gave her all and more. One wrong move, one wrong sentence, and everything will be over. So Raven thought about what to say very carefully. "Weiss", she began, but quickly corrected herself, "Misses Rose, I, I wanted to say that I am extremely sorry for what my former tribespeople did to you. What I did to you. I know now I was wrong, and I wanted to take this chance to formally apologize. It is long overdue, of course. I admit that I treated you badly because I was scared myself back then. That does not make right what I did, absolutely not. I just hope that we can start again, this time, as friends. As family."

Weiss closed her magazine and let out a sigh. She lifted Türkis up and placed her into Ruby's lap, stood up and said: "You know, I was expecting a calm evening with my friends and family, not a soap opera."

She smiled warmly and grabbed Raven's hand. "Of course I forgive you. Don't worry. I never have been resentful. Well, maybe towards my father, but he was a piece of crap anyway. I know why you and your people acted how you did. It's called survival. I went through that too, I used to be a huntress, after all. Call me Weiss, by the way."

Raven let out a breath she did not know she was holding and relaxed. A wide smile now on her face, she replied: "Thank you, Weiss. Thank you so much."

Weiss snickered. "Ruby can be intimidating, right?"

"No kidding", Raven answered with a laugh, taking seat next to Taiyang on the smaller part of the sectional sofa. "She must love you very much for her to be so protective."

"She does." Weiss grabbed Ruby's hand who began to bounce Türkis on her lap. "But I love her just as much. I just don't need to be protective. She trains a lot. And I mean, a lot. You should see her naked. She has muscles in places I did not even know you can have them" Both women started to laugh carefree, all the tension forgotten and long gone.

"Perfect", Ruby chimed in with fake happiness, "My wife and the mother of my sister are talking about me being naked. I can die happy now. Maybe not happy, but I can die now."

"Hey, Rubes", Yang suddenly called from the corner of the room, most likely to change the subject, for which she was extremely grateful.

"'Sup?", Ruby answered. She did not even notice Yang getting up, now that she thought about it. She was currently hunching over the book Weiss was teaching her Athlesian with.

"What's with this book?" Her eyes scanned over the letters, trying to make any sense of them. "Okay", she said as she straightened herself, "those are not words."

"That's Athlesian", Weiss deadpanned.

"Yep", Yang said, blinking rapidly as if to clear the letters from her retina, "not words."

Taiyang spoke up, his voice filled with pride and excitement. "You are learning Athlesian?"

Ruby grinned sheepishly and nodded. "Yeah, I wanted to broaden my horizon, so to speak."

"What brought that on", Blake inquired, taking a careful sip of her tea. Cat tongue and all that.

Ruby took Weiss' hand in her own, smiled warmly at her and answered: "It's the native tongue of my wife. I always thought it sounded beautiful when she talked to her sister on the phone or even in person. And Weiss speaks our language, so why should I not learn hers? It's only fair."

"Holy crap", Yang chuckled, "What did the Ice Queen do to you? That was disgustingly sweet. I can feel the caries develop as we speak."

"I think it's cute", Raven chimed in, "It brings you two even closer than you already are."

A mischievous grin deformed Ruby's face. "And I can insult people without them knowing it."

"You could", Weiss said coldly, "but you will not. I will not teach you anymore if I catch you doing that."

Ruby's expression made her look like a scolded child, earning a laugh from Yang as she took her seat again next to Blake. "The only words I know in Athlesian are 'Scheiße' and 'Ficken'."

"Of course you do." Weiss shook her head.

"Yang", Blake warned, "what did I say about cursing?"

"Sorry, mom", the blonde replied sarcastically.

A laugh escaped Raven. "What does that make me?"

Before Yang could answer, Türkis became increasingly restless and jumped off Ruby's lap, dashing out of the living room. Blake wanted to chase after the little speedster, but Weiss raised her hand as she stood up. "Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on her." She took a quick look around as she stepped into the hallway, before turning to the left, deeper into the house.

"Have you two ever thought about having children?", Taiyang asked suddenly.

Ruby took a calculated sip from her tea, an almost melancholic look on her face. "I thought about it. And I am sure Weiss did too. But we never actually talked about that topic. With me hunting, Weiss managing a huge company… I don't think we would have the time to really care for a child."

Nobody knew what to answer for a few seconds. The silence got interrupted in an almost painful way by Yang's humorless laugh. "That's a load of horseshit and you know it."

Blake threw her an angry look, but considering Türkis was not in earshot, could not blame her for cursing. Again.

"What do you mean", Ruby inquired.

"Seriously? Well, for one, Salem is dead. You killed her yourself. The Grimm are almost wiped out, as you should know, you killed like ninety percent of them. And you are not the only huntress in the world, sis. As for Weiss: Do you really think a company of that magnitude, global and all that shit, would just collapse in itself if she would take her maternity leave or whatever? Hell, none of you actually need to work. You just do it to have something to do. So why not take that energy and put it into something productive? Leave something behind for the future and all that jazz."

Ruby was thinking. Like she said, the idea of having a child crossed her mind multiple times, but she never gave it any real thought. It was almost always just a whim, and she choked the little spark in her head with whatever excuse she could come up with. Was Yang right? True, the company had at least a hundred chairmen. Weiss always talked about how boring the meetings were and how she would have loved to spend the time at home, not wasting it listening to some 'senile farts', as she put it on her best days. And Ruby herself? Why was she still hunting, when she had a house, a loving wife and not a care in the world? Maybe that's the reason she still does it. Her live is almost too secured, too safe. She leaves the house so she can look forward to coming back home again. Just sitting at home would drive her insane. There is no excitement, no danger, no uncertainty. Would a child change that?

As if to answer her question, she heard laughter coming from the hallway. As she turned around, she spotted Weiss, a happy expression on her face, playfully chasing after a giggling fox faunus. The scene painted a warm smile on her face.

Taiyang seemed to notice Ruby's reaction. "You could have that every day", he hinted.

"It will be difficult", Ruby argued.

"Nothing that's worth anything in life is easy, Ruby."

A sigh escaped her lips. "You're not making it easy on me. Maybe I'll talk with Weiss tonight."

"Adda girl", Taiyang said with a smile.

The rest of the evening the five talked about family, jobs and hobbies, as Weiss played with Türkis in the hallway. Blake talked about her job at the Patch newspaper, while Yang stayed home and took care of the little one. That surprised Ruby, as she always assumed Yang to be too 'wild' to be the one to stay home. The cat faunus replied that this was exactly the reason why, as Türkis is a whirlwind herself, and when she comes home from work both her girlfriend and daughter will be too exhausted to cause any sort of trouble, meaning that Blake can enjoy her evening and relax.

Yang told about every happenstance she could think about where Türkis did something cute, mischievous or was just around. The way the blonde's face beamed while reminiscing showed just how deep her love was for the little fox faunus. Most of Taiyang's reactions were knowing laughs and little anecdotes of how he remembered his daughters doing something similar. Ruby learned that her sister drastically toned down her training regime to take care of their daughter. But she also assured that she is happier than ever.

The red-eyed woman elaborated how her tribe disbanded, how useless and without purpose she felt. And how Taiyang almost passed out when she showed up at his door. Their first talk was awkward, full of tension, neither of them had any idea what to say, how to start. Taiyang invited her in, trying to break the ice that enveloped their relationship. He succeeded, evidently, but both Raven and him knew that they have yet a lot of work to do. He was working as a teacher again, now that both children were out of the house, and Raven worked as a… mechanic? Now, that surprised Ruby. But she explained that she was a woman of the hands-on approach. She needed something to do, get her hands dirty. But still, mechanic?

Weiss came back into the room, carrying an exhausted Türkis in her arms. Blake took her off her. "Someone is sleepy." A quick glance at the clock revealed the time to be 10pm already.

Blake nodded. "Yeah, guess we take our leave then. To tug the little one in."

"Sounds good", Yang chimed in, taking a last big gulp of her tea.

"Well, and I guess that's our mark to leave too", Taiyang said, taking Raven's hand as she stood up.

Ruby and Weiss led them to the door, giving everyone a final hug. "it was really nice seeing all of you again."

"Likewise", Taiyang replied.

Of course, Yang could not hold it in and added with a mischievous grin: "Don't you mean 'like-weiss'?"

The groans rumbled through the entire house.

The silence in the bedroom was only interrupted by Weiss changing the pages of her book as Ruby was laying on her side, trying to figure out how to approach the topic of them having a child.

"Ruby, spit it out", the snowhead suddenly interrupted Ruby's thoughts.

"What do you mean?" Ruby tried to sound indifferent, but her voice and the fact that she was trying not to turn around betrayed her.

Weiss sighed, marked her page in the book with a bookmark and put it on the nightstand next to her side of the bed. "Seriously, Ruby? We know each other for ten years now. Do you really think you can hide from me when something is bothering you?"

Now it's Ruby's turn to sigh. Weiss was right, she always knew when something was bothering her. And that may be for the better, because she would confront her about it, forcing Ruby to spill the beans on what was wrong. In a way, Ruby was thankful for that.

"You know", Ruby started as the sat up on the bed, "today was a lot of fun. And I saw you playing with Türkis and how happy you were. I mean, you were giggling and running around and stuff. And, and… I think I want that every day."

Weiss' eyes widened as she realized what Ruby was implying. "Ruby…", she whispered.

"I know it's gonna be difficult, and not every day can be as fun and easygoing as today, but today Yang told me about how life is with a child. She sounded so happy, so… content, I don't know. I want that too. For us."

Weiss grabbed Ruby's hands under the sheets. "Honey, I love that idea."

Ruby gazed into crystal blue eyes, her own close to tears. "You… really?"

"Of course." A gentle smile pulled on Weiss' lips.

Ruby's own face felt like it ripped apart with how hard she was grinning as she wrapped her arms around her wife's neck. "I love you", she whispered.

"I love you too."

AN: This was a little story that came into my mind and then kind of went out of control. I am planning on using this little story as a prequel, so stay tuned.