The small town tavern was boisterous and it smelled like sweat, cigarette smoke, alcohol and misery. The patrons' chatter almost overwhelmed the music that played from a dust, outdated jukebox that mingled with the sound of clases clinking together or against the hardwood tables. It was a pretty sad, crappy place filled with tough looking men, mostly miners from the nearby Schnee quarry, which made the two young women sitting at the bar dressed in conspicuous outfits stand out even more.
One was a tall blonde beauty, her long golden hair reached down to her lower back. She wore a low cut white top that formed a wide "v" shape towards her shoulders where it fell into straps leaving most of her shoulders bare. The top was adorned with a thick black belt just above her hips where the white top was cut asymmetrically, one side falling down to her thigh while the other side left her hip exposed while at the back it came down to her knees, showing the bright gold on the inside. Around her waist she wore black shorts fasted with a silver chain belt, her legs were bare all otherwise all the way down to her black high heeled boots and around her neck she wore a purple pendant hung on golden chain.
The other was a shorter girl with shoulder length black hair ending in dark red tips. She wore a red tank-top beneath a black, unbuttoned jacket with silver buttons and fur lining the inside along the middle, the sleeves were rolled up to her shoulders and a black hood hung behind her head. A long red cape flowed down to her ankles fastened to her shoulders by steel pins shaped like her rose emblem. Wrapped around her chest and at her hips were tan leather belts holding vials of various flavors of Dust. Around her waist was a white skirt with yellow frills at the hem, her legs were covered by black stockings and at her feet she wore black combat boots with red laces. One on hands she wore a black fingerless glove while on her other wrist an upside down cross was attached to a silver chain that wrapped around her wrist and she had ruby earrings hanging from each ear by thin gold chains.
"Hey, barkeep, two more shots of tequila for me and a strawberry daiquiri for my girl over here." Yang smiled amiable, easily taking the bartender's attention. They were both beautiful young women, of course they got prompt service.
"You two look a bit young to be in a place like this." He said suspiciously, still pouring their drinks anyway.
"Come on, we're old enough and our Lien is as good as anyone else's." Ruby said as she scooted herself a little closer to her sister until their bare arms brushed against each other. The bartender shrugged, placing their drinks down, two shot glasses with tequila and a wine glass filled a sweet strawberry slurry, a straw poking out of it and a sliced strawberry at the rim of the glass.
"So, what are you to lovely ladies doing in a place like this? There ain't much to do in this town unless you're here for the mine. Let me guess, you're Huntresses hired for security by the SDC." He glared at them accusingly and with no small amount of spite in his eyes, but Ruby and Yang simply shared a confused look before Ruby gave a small shrug, grabbing her glass and taking a sip of her favorite drink, she could barely taste the rum behind the sweet fruit.
"Nah, we're not Huntresses." Yang smirked, leaning back as she put her hands behind her head. "We're freelancers, though I guess mercenary wouldn't be a bad way to describe us either."
"I like freelancer better, we do all sorts of things, a decent amount of it falls outside what a Mercenary would do, besides, freelancer sounds cooler and more mysterious." Ruby smiled contently, her mind was already beginning to cloud at it was only her second drink. She could already feel the warm floaty sensation spreading through her entire body as she let herself relax, leaning against her sister even more, feeling Yang toned, firm muscles just beneath her skin against.
"Well then there you go, we're freelancers." Yang said simply, leaning against her sister, the warmth of her skin forcing a content smile to form from her lips. "We're just here on business, nothing to do with the mine or the SDC."
"Well then you're welcome here. That mine has been nothing but a curse to us, sure the extra security they brought has helped keep the Grimm away but it doesn't matter now that our wells are poisoned from runoff, which means our crops are dying and the Company barely pays our miners enough. They're destroying this town faster than the Grimm could. Hell, if I had the money I'd pay you two to kill every overseer at that mine to send a message to the Schnees that they aren't welcome here!" The malice and hatred in his voice was palpable and he went on his tirade against the mine, but the sisters were having none of it.
"Dude, I'm just trying to enjoy a drink with cutie on my shoulder." She jerked her head to Ruby who was half finished with her daiquiri. "If you can't pay us then save the sob story and let us drink in peace."
"Yeah! What she said! I'm cute!" Ruby giggled, putting her glass down before she dropped it while she nestled her head against her sister's firm shoulder, letting out a content hum as she got comfortable.
"Fine, enjoy your drinks." He huffed bitterly before turning away to tend to the other waiting patrons.
"You're terrible at making friends Yang." Ruby cooed, a soft laugh escaping her lips as she closed her eyes, focusing on the warmth from her big sister.
"You want to listen to him bitch about his problems? Isn't that what we're supposed to do to him? Like, I'm pretty sure that's part of the job description or something." She growled, picking up her shot glass in her fingers before pounding it back, the strong alcohol burning her throat as it went down, settling into a pleasant heat that spread through her belly.
"I'd like to do something, it's not fair what that mine is doing to them… but I don't think killing half a dozen people will help and like he said, he couldn't afford us." Ruby gave soft whine as the effect of her drinks started to hit her more and more.
"Don't worry about it, we'll finish what we came here to do and then we can put this place behind us. For now, just drink and forget about it. There's nothing we can do here." She tried to hide the disappointment in her voice but Ruby knew her big sister too well, Yang wanted to help just as she did, but she was right, there was nothing for them to do.
"Babe we can't get too drink we're *hic* on the job…" Ruby felt the comfortable fuzziness beginning to overwhelm her, she was always a lightweight.
"It's fine, it's nothing we can't handle, sober or otherwise so just enjoy yourself." Yang turned slightly, making sure to keep Ruby balanced against her shoulder as she gently stroked her little sister's silky black hair, running her fingers through the soft, cool strands eliciting a hum of pleasure from Ruby's throat from having her hair played with. Yang's heart felt overwhelmed as she looked at the sleepy, satisfied face of her little sister. Ruby's cheeks were tinted slightly red and her eyelids fluttered as she fought to stay awake and in her daze she snuggled up even more to her sister.
"You're just trying to be cute now aren't you?" Yang shook her head, almost ashamed that Ruby's tactic was working so effectively on her. With a warm, loving smile Yang slowly pulled her hand from the hair on the side of her head, bringing her fingers up, tenderly brushing aside Ruby's red tipped bangs before leaning over, careful to not jostle her little sister as she fell asleep on her shoulder as she gently pressed her soft lips against Ruby's forehead. This girl is just impossible sometimes.
"Hey there…" A man's voice from beside stole her from her tender, loving moment with her sister, much to her irritation. Begrudgingly, Yang turned to the source of the voice, jerking her shoulder to force Ruby back into some semblance of alertness.
"What do you want?" Yang tried to hold back the hostility in her voice as she turned to the man. He was older, looking well into his thirties with short greasy black hair and brown eyes, he dressed like any other miner there, poorly and in dirty, tattered closed but he had a distinctive scar on the side of his neck.
"Well I see a beautiful lady with no man keeping her company and I just thought "what a shame", so I just had to come and talk to ya." He smirked, his teeth pearly white, a little too perfect for this impoverished mining town outside the kingdoms.
"That's very sweet of you, but I'm hardly alone." Yang leaned back, gesturing with her hand as she presented her sister, Ruby staring daggers at him, her silver eyes cold and piercing with protectiveness.
"Oh and who is your friend?" He sounded just a little annoyed but at Ruby's glare he didn't dare sound outright disrespectful anymore.
"She's my little sister actually." Yang sounded friendly enough, at least to him and probably everyone else, but Ruby could hear the subtle edge in her big sister's voice. The man was treading on thin ice with both of them.
"Well, why don't you and I go back to my place while she sleeps off her drinks?" He grinned, moving a little closer, placing his hand over Yang's. "Come on, I'll show you a good-"
Whooosh!
In a blur of red and a shower of rose petals Ruby's Semblance activated as she rushed in between Yang and the man who was foolish enough to make advances at her. Before he knew what was going on Ruby grabbed his wrist painfully tight, forcing his hand from Yang's before she pulled on his collar with her remaining and and in a swift and surprisingly graceful movement for how buzzed she was, she threw him from his barstool, slamming him to the hardwood floor.
"Yang is mine!" She glared menacingly down at him, stomping her foot down on his chest as she reached for her back and pulled out her weapon!
In her hand she held a sword with a translucent glowing dark green blade that arced in a shallow crescent over the central shaft from the tip on one side to below the hilt while a smaller hook formed as from the other side of the tip ending in a sharp, inward hook towards the shaft. The hilt had a metal guard over her fingers just behind the long, main energy blade where Ruby held it and just above was a slot for her Dust cartridges. This was her Dust Variable Elemental Saber-Scythe; Lux Reaper, and its tip was mere millimeters from the man's throat.
"You crazy bitch get that out of my face now! Do you have any idea who I am!?" He barked, but Ruby was unperturbed, moving the tip of her blade just against his throat, just enough to draw a drop of blood from his punctured skin.
"Aaaw, I love when you get protective of me!" Yang said happily as she threw her arms around Ruby, pulling her back against her chest. On a whim, Yang moved her hands down, bringing her arms around her little sister's hips as she lowered her head, kissing up and down Ruby's warm neck, eliciting a soft moan as Ruby squirmed in her grasp.
"Yang, we're on the job, that- that's unprofessional." Despite her protest Yang could feel Ruby's heart beating harder and faster through her lips against her little sister's neck and even without that, she felt Ruby pushing her neck into each kiss.
"You're drunk, what's professional about that?" She teased, bringing her head up to Ruby's ear, her warm breath sending shivers down Ruby's spine, nearly making her lose her grip on her sword.
"You made me drink!" Ruby whined as she felt Yang's tongue gently tracing the edge of her ear, she could feel her knees going weak and knew she had to come back to her senses before they lost their target and thus, their pay.
"I didn't force you to do anything baby sis." Her tone literally couldn't have been more seductive as she whispered into her ear.
"Babe focus, he's right here just tie him up already!" Ruby fought with all the focus she had in her now doubly hazy mind to fight the urge to moan at her sister's advances.
"Only if you let me tie you up later!" Yang pulled away, giggling to herself as she walked around Ruby, but not before giving her a loud, hard smack on her ass, forcing out an adorable yelp.
"What the hell?! I thought you were sisters! You freaks! If you know what's good for you you'll-"
Thud!
He was silenced as Yang knocked him out with a powerful kick to the side of head. Reaching into her shorts' pocket she pulled out a thick zip tie and while Ruby put her sword in its place behind her back Yang rolled him over, putting the man's hands behind his back and tieing them as tight as she could manage, the thin ribbon of plastic digging into his wrists.
"Well, we got him." Ruby smiled cheerfully at her sister. "Guess we should bring him to the local authorities to collect the bounty huh?"
"Yeah, probably a good call, then we can relax before we leave town tomorrow." Yang grinned back, as she effortlessly threw the man over her shoulder.
"After you sweetheart." Yang winked at Ruby who just rolled her eyes in response, walking over to her and taking Yang's hand in her own their fingers clasped together as the two walking out side by side and hand in hand out of the bar with their prize over Yang shoulder.