15-year old Ruby Rose released a loud groan, and stopped unloading gear from her sister's van to brush her bangs out of her eyes, before turning to glare at her older half-sibling in annoyance, cradling the amp in her arms that still rested half in the back of the vehicle.
"Really Yang, did you ever think that this might be a bad idea?" the younger girl asked incredulously, "A dingy bar in the middle of low town? We'll be lucky to make anything from this performance, if the owner of the place doesn't completely stiff us out of our cash."
The 17-year old elder sibling simply scoffed at her younger sisters worries, waving her hand dismissively at her as she shouldered her guitar case and easily held her own amp over her opposite shoulder, her bodybuilder physique evident from her muscular arms on full display from her yellow tank top, "Oh please Ruby, stop being such a worrywart," The violet-eyed girl chastised, "I know the guy that runs this place, and made it perfectly clear to him that if he tries to stiff us, he's going to be paying for hospital bills and renovations once I'm done with him."
Ruby sighed in annoyance at her sister's claims, muttering under her breath, "Great. We once again get a job because my sister threatened the owner," Hopefully quiet enough for her sister not to hear her.
"Lighten up sis!" Yang said as she set down her amp and wrapped her arm around her little sister's shoulder, "We'll play a couple sets tonight, rock the house, get paid, and be able to pay for rent this month without you having to pull a bunch of extra shifts at the diner."
"That is if you don't get completely drunk and blow all of our money on clothes and hookers again," Ruby shot back cattily, making her sister recoil in horror at the accusation.
"Hey, that only happened once, and you should have been making sure I wasn't drinking that much between sets, instead of hiding backstage," The older blonde shot back, brushing out her long blonde hair and adjusting her guitar case on her shoulder again.
"You should just learn some moderation, and to stop trying to impress every pretty girl you see in the bars we play at by getting completely wasted," Ruby commented, before turning away from her sister and lifting up her amp with both arms, having to be careful to avoid losing the bass she had over her shoulder. Without another word the younger girl marched through the backdoor of the club they were going to be performing in tonight, leaving her older sister gawking at her.
Once she regained her composure, Yang frowned, before puffing out her cheeks childishly, and lifting back up her amp before following after her sister inside, calling out to her to point out, "Hey, if we're going to be rock stars, we're going to have to start making a fan base now!"
"And if you sleep with every girl you meet our career will be over before it even gets started!" Ruby shouted back, making Yang pout again.
Sometimes she hated it when her sister was able to throw common sense at her.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
17-year old Blake Belladonna had no real idea why she had come to this dingy bar tonight. With her room mate out of town at another of his animal rights movements, and all of her friends off partying for spring break in other cities, she had expected her nights to be filled in with sitting at home and catching up on her reading, with maybe the odd report or article to write to try and beef up her scores once classes started back up.
She wasn't the kind of person to frequent bars, she didn't like drinking and hated the smell of alcohol and cigarettes, and rock music tended to give her a headache, so she was completely baffled as to why she had wandered into this rather poorly-kept bar, taken a seat near the door, and began to watch the stage, waiting for the hired band to begin playing.
From what she had managed to gather so far, the pair playing tonight were sisters that made a garage band together, and came from patch island, off the coast of Vale. The only thing she could information she could get about the type of music they played was "alternative," which raised a few alarms in her head, but despite her best efforts she couldn't seem to find the energy to leave this bar that was filled with a thick haze of cigarette smoke and beer fumes, as the drunks partied together on the main floor in a mass of writhing bodies that made the black-haired girl's stomach churn uncomfortably.
Thankfully the curtains finally drew apart, and out stepped the owner, a man with short black hair wearing a pair of black sunglasses and sporting a surprisingly sharp looking black tuxedo. Holding up a microphone, the man gained the attention of the crowd, who quieted down after a bit of encouragement, allowing the man to finally speak up, "hello and welcome to Junior's bar," he first stated, causing a round of cheers around the mosh pit.
"Tonight's performers will be the band Dragon Roses, so let's hear a round of applause for these lovely ladies!" The man shouted, forcing Blake to cover her ears as a deafening cry of approval came from the mob.
Opening her eyes again and turning back to the stage, Blake suddenly found her breath catching as she caught sight of the musicians. One was a rather muscular and tall blonde girl who had to be very well-endowed, wearing a yellow tank top with a black skirt, and her partner, who was half-hiding off to the side and cradling a red and black bass like a shield, was a young girl with straight black hair, that Blake's extra sharp eyes could see had red highlights at the tips.
She had to admit the younger girl looked far too nervous up there for this to be a regular occurrence for the pair, or that she was just that shy and her sister might have forced her into this harebrained scheme, but the tall blonde exuded confidence as she grinned down at the crowd, who were whooping and jumping like animals, waiting for the real show to begin.
"Hello everyone, we're the Dragon Roses, and we're hoping you're going to have a great time tonight!" The blonde shouted, and received a loud cheer from the crowd in response, Blake only just noticing the owner standing off in the shadows, half-hidden behind the curtains but watching over the pair of girls like a hawk waiting to strike, worrying the girl slightly, as a strange unease welled up in her gut.
"We're going to start off with something classic, so give it up for our first song, red like roses!"
Another loud cheer went through the room that forced Blake to shield her ears, and once again she questioned what she was doing here.
At least until the blonde girl began to sing, and the pair actually started to perform, and then it was all she could do not to stare at them for the rest of the night.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Ruby found herself groaning again as she stood in the small dressing room backstage that Junior had cleared out for the pair of teenagers to stash their things in, as she waited for her sister and the owner to get here so they could be paid and go home. The girl was completely drained after standing up in front of so many people for the last few hours, and all she wanted was to get back to their apartment and collapse onto the couch before falling into a coma.
Beginning to tap her fingers anxiously on the small, dust-covered wooden table, Ruby went back over their performance for the night, and had to suppress a small smile, as she had thought they didn't do a half-bad job, and hoped that maybe Yang had been right, and they could get the money they needed to pay for rent tonight.
Finally her older sister came bursting through the door, blonde hair slightly dishevelled, and holding a beer bottle in one hand, making Ruby scowl, and try to distance herself from the other girl. She tended to be hypersensitive to the smell of alcohol, and just the smell of it made her nauseous.
"So I'm guessing you were getting to know some of our adoring fans?" Ruby accused her older sister, who barely batted an eye as she leaned against the wooden table and took a long drink from her bottle before responding to her sister.
"You bet Rubes, I have to make sure they're going to support us once we make it big and finally land a recording deal" Yang announced with a bright grin, ignorant of the way her sister's silver eyes narrowed at her sister's dishevelled clothes and the smell of her breath.
"Right now I'd settle for Junior showing up and giving us our pay, before we head home and I can get some sleep," Ruby mumbled low enough for her sister not to hear it.
Yang waved her hands dismissively at her sister, who she felt had just been in a mood all night for nothing, before turning to the door as a question popped up in her mind, "so where do you think Junior is? I haven't seen him since the end of our first set."
"Knowing him, probably in the back making calls with his mob buddies," Ruby replied, "we both know the guy makes some shady deals, so why do you keep in contact with him?"
"Oh come on sis, we're a teenage garage band, there aren't many places that are going to hire us without any kind of performance history, so we really have to start at these seedy bars, and work our way up to the bigger places," Yang pointed out.
Ruby had a snarky rebuttal on the tip of her tongue for her sister's naivety, but was interrupted as the door opened, and junior strut into the room, adjusting his red tie and glasses before closing the door behind him to talk to the sisters privately.
"Okay so, how much are we looking at tonight Junior?" Yang asked, getting straight to brass tacks with the man as she drained the last of her beer and placed the bottle down on the table behind her. Ruby had taken a seat on her amp in the corner, and was giving the man an inquisitive look, feeling nervous around the man, and more than willing to let her sister do all of the talking.
"Well let's see," The man began, turning away from the girls and beginning to pace around the room, "The last time you were here you destroyed three tables, half the stage, damaged four lights that I had to completely replace, and sent four men to the hospital for hitting on you," he listed out, and Ruby felt her stomach drop uneasily.
"Yeah so, we came like we agreed on and played our sets, so are you going to pay us or what?" Yang asked hotly, her eyes flashing red dangerously, and Ruby hoped she wasn't going to do something they would later regret.
"Let me spell it out for you Blondie," Junior said, "You aren't getting paid tonight, and if I didn't know you could beat all of my bouncers even while drunk, I would have had you thrown out by now."
"What!" both girls cried out, and this time yang's eyes turned completely from violet to red, as her hair began to glow slightly, which caused the larger man to take a step away from the simmering dragon.
"That's not fair!" Ruby shouted, jumping up and glaring at the man, "We performed just like you and Yang agreed on, you can't just back out on our deal after we've already done our part."
"Actually, you'll find that I very well can red," Junior shot back, glaring at the girl to get her to back down, "your sister here caused me hundred of dollars worth of property damage, and you're lucky I didn't press charges on her or are forcing you two to reimburse me for the damage. Just because you did one concert at my club doesn't free you from what your sister did the last time she was here."
"So what are we supposed to do now?" Yang asked soberly, her buzz having been ruined by now, and knowing that getting angry was only going to make the situation worse at this point.
"Pack up your things and get out of my club," Junior stated, pointing behind him with his thumb, "If you two want to do any more shows at my club, you'd better not expect any pay for a long, long time," with that the man stormed out of the room, leaving a pair of shell shocked teens.
Ruby was the first to recover, and rounded on her sister in anger, "You did how much damage the last time you were here?" She shouted, "You told me that you and Junior had an agreement, not that you owed him a bunch of money for destroying his club!"
"I had forgotten sis," Yang tried to placate the younger girl, only remembering now how scary Ruby could be when she was angry, "I thought that he might have forgiven me for that by now, so I took a shot and he agreed to let us play. I didn't think he was going to stiff us out of our pay check because of something I did the last time I was here."
"You seem to be doing a lot of that lately," Ruby shot back acidly, before she grabbed her bass and lifted up her amp, "Come on, we might as well call it a night, since I don't think we're going to make any progress trying to talk Junior into paying us tonight."
"Uh yeah, slight problem with that little sis," Yang said nervously, laughing as she rubbed the back of her head. She hadn't moved from her spot by the table, and when Ruby turned to face her she had murder in her silver eyes.
"Oh what is it now?" The girl asked in exasperation, unaware of what else could possibly go wrong tonight.
"It's just that I might have had a few beers in me between sets, and though it seems right now that I'm with it, I don't think I'm quite good to drive us back to the apartment in the state I'm in without us getting pulled over," Yang admitted, making Ruby groan as she put down her amp.
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Ruby cried out, groaning. "You know I can't drive Yang, and I'm not going to let you behind a wheel if you're completely wasted, no matter how often you might do it when I'm not with you. And we don't need you to get fined for another D.U.I"
"Excuse me," a calm voice broke through the girl's argument, and they turned to the doorway to find a girl with long black hair standing there, scrutinizing the pair with amber-colored eyes, "I couldn't help overhearing your problem, and I believe I could be of some assistance to you."
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Blake didn't know what had come over her when she stepped forward to offer her assistance to the two musicians. After overhearing their argument with the owner by accident while she had been looking for a washroom before she planned to leave for the night, and then the blonde's admittance that she wasn't able to get herself and her younger sister home, something in her mind just shouted at her to help the pair, and despite her best efforts she couldn't seem to ignore it.
So here she was, in a small black van that seemed to be packed with a multitude of different things, with a voluptuous blonde snoring in the passenger's seat, while her black-haired younger sister offered directions to their apartment, even as it looked like she was about to pass out herself.
It wasn't that the girl minded the slightly extended trip back to her own place. She was used to going out for walks around the town, and she had been making a mental map of the path back to the club, and from there her apartment since she got into the van with the sisters, but it was definitely unlike her to suddenly offer her assistance to a pair of complete strangers, least of all a pair she had only just met at a seedy bar.
"Once again thank you so much for this," The younger girl offered to her senior, making Blake chuckle softly. Ruby, as the girl had introduced herself, had been offering her thanks ever since they began driving and her sister had almost immediately passed out, making the girl wonder just how much she had actually had to drink tonight, "I honestly have no idea what goes through the mind of this sister of mine sometimes."
"It's honestly no trouble Ruby," Blake attempted to placate the younger girl, "It sounded like you two were in a bind, and I couldn't just leave you there sitting in your van all night while your sister slept off her alcohol."
"Actually knowing Yang, I think in the end she would have just said to hell with it and tried to drive us home anyways," Ruby muttered, "She sometimes doesn't think about things like safety, and until I managed to talk her into selling it, she used to drive around on a motorcycle she nicknamed bumblebee."
"Her? on a motorcycle?" Blake asked incredulously, "I just can't picture it, so forgive me if I'm a bit sceptical."
"I swear it's true!" Ruby tried to assure her, "She had it for a year and spent all of her time working on it, but it was getting too expensive to keep, so we sold it and bought this van instead. She wasn't exactly happy about it, but she made do."
"So did she ever give a fancy nickname to this thing?" Blake teased, making Ruby laugh as she responded, "Yeah, she called it the shadow cat."
"How very apt, I suppose," The black-haired girl commented, "So is this your apartment building?" She asked, pointing out the building they were pulling up to."
"Yeah, this is our place, and the garage is just next door," Ruby explained, before reaching around and beginning to shake her older sister's shoulder, "Hey yang, c'mon it's time to stop trying to sleep off your hangover, we're home now."
Yang snapped up with a start before beginning to look around the van for a few minutes in a confused daze before turning to the driver's seat, "Who's the hot chick driving my van?" She asked, making both of the other girl's eyes widen in surprise.
"Yang!" Ruby cried out aghast, smacking her sister's shoulder, "Don't be rude to Blake, she offered to give us a ride home after you got completely drunk tonight. Of course you don't remember her at the club, because you were three sheets to the wind already."
"Oh get off my case little sister, it's the weekend, it's time to party and have fun! Why do you have to be such a stick in the mud?" Yang asked.
"One of us has to be responsible when you're always out partying and drinking, otherwise we would be out on the streets by now," The younger girl pointed out, making Blake blink in surprise, confusion, and a little concern about the girl's situation, but filed it away for later, like when Yang wasn't completely plastered.
Once the pair were parked, Ruby was quick to get out of the backseat and open the passenger's door, before grabbing her sister around the waist and pulling her from the van in a surprising show of strength for such a small girl. Blake grew a little concerned as she watched Ruby start to try and walk the blonde over to the elevator, and hurried after the pair, grabbing Yang's free arm and hoisting it over her shoulder to try and ease the younger girl's burden.
Ruby showed surprise as Blake came to her rescue once again, "It's okay Blake, I'm used to dragging this one back into the apartment, you can head home now, we've already inconvenienced you enough tonight."
"Nonsense Ruby," Blake replied calmly, "I know what it's like to deal with drunks, and I can't imagine leaving you to deal with someone like Yang. Besides that, my apartment is actually a lot further away from here than I had thought, and I don't think that it would be a very good idea to try and walk home at this time of night," She added.
"Oh we'd be fine with putting you up for the night, and besides that'll give Yang time to sleep off the alcohol so she can give you a ride home in the morning," Ruby pointed out with a wide grin that Blake couldn't help but mirror. Ruby's seemingly upbeat personality was simply infectious, though the older girl believed it was buried under a layer of exasperation for her sister's antics.
The three girls rode the elevator up to the sister's apartment in a calm silence, only occasionally broken by Yang's moaning, as Ruby and Blake both came to the conclusion that the alcohol was finally beginning to fight back against the girl and making her regret drinking too much, but at this point Ruby had no more sympathy to give to her sister for the things she had gotten herself into.
Stepping out of the elevator, Ruby was surprised as the three almost bumped into a tall red haired girl, who had a basket of laundry balanced on her hip, with her hair tied up in a ponytail, wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of running shorts.
"Oh Ruby, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," The girl was quick to apologize, which immediately earned her a few points with Blake, who tried to hide a smile as Ruby exchanged pleasantries with the girl.
"It's okay Pyrrha, as you can see I'm just dragging this drunkard home after our latest failure of a gig, with a little help from miss Belladonna here," Ruby stated, using her free hand to point to the black-haired girl on her sister's other side.
"Come on Ruby, you don't need to be so formal with me," Blake chastised the younger girl gently, "just calling me Blake is fine miss?" The girl asked, turning to speak with the redhead, and extending her hand to the other girl for a handshake.
"Miss Pyrrha Nikos, and I have to say that it's nice to see someone helping poor Ruby here deal with her sister's antics, Yang can be quite a handful, though we all try to pitch in as much as we can," She explained, taking the girl's offered hand with a small smile after shifting her laundry basket to her opposite arm.
"Sorry to run on you Pyrrha, but I really want to get this drunkard to bed and set up Blake here for the night, so here's hoping you have a good night," Ruby offered to the older girl, who gave her a warm smile in response.
"Of course Ruby, though I feel I need to remind you again that if there's ever anything you need all you have to do is call me," Pyrrha replied, before turning her attention back to Blake, "and it was nice meeting you miss Belladonna. I hope to see you around."
"I'll uh, try my best," Blake offered to the woman, before following Ruby's lead as they half-dragged the blonde girl down the hall to where she imagined the sister's apartment was.
Fumbling with her keys for a few minutes, while Blake held Yang for her, Ruby finally managed to unlatch the door and push it open, before helping Blake drag Yang into the room, reaching up to flick on the lights on her way past.
Blake had to admit she was surprised by the state of the place, as it looked rather dishevelled. Between all of the dirty dishes piled up in the sink, the clothes strewn about the room haphazardly, along with a pair of empty pizza boxes, it wasn't quite what she expected of an apartment shared by two girls.
"Home sweet home," Ruby chuckled nervously, suddenly wishing she had gone ahead and cleaned up a little before inviting Blake in, but got back to the matter at hand a moment later as she began to once again lead Yang to the back where the bedrooms were.
Blake followed along at a sedated pace, watching the sister's perform one of their common rituals, Ruby dragging her sister into the older girl's room, before dropping her onto the bed, adjusting her body so she was laying on it like a normal person, and pulling one of the girl's comforters over her body before leaving the room, stopping to close the door behind her before turning back to their unexpected guest.
"So umm, I guess I should clean up the place at little," Ruby said nervously, looking around the pig sty of a room in embarrassment. Blake had to suppress a smile at how cute the younger girl could be at times, even though she had only known the sisters for at least an hour by now.
"I don't mind that much, it has a bit of a homey feel to it," Blake admitted, though she still tried not to sit on any of the laundry on the couch as she took a seat. Ruby released another nervous chuckle before asking the girl if she might want anything, but Blake declined her, noticing the way that Ruby tried her best to cover a rather deep yawn.
"You don't have to dote on me all night you know Ruby," Blake pointed out, "You must be really tired after your performance tonight, and after having to deal with your big sister all night can only wear on you, so if you could just collect a blanket and pillow I can find a place for myself."
"Oh no, that's really not necessary," Ruby quickly replied, "my room is a lot cleaned than Yang's or this main room, so unless you mind staying in there tonight we shouldn't have a problem."
"I don't see why I can't stay in your room tonight," Blake shrugged, "unless you're going to murder me in my sleep or you snore," She teased, but it seemed like Ruby was shocked and appalled by the dark humour. "Sorry, I was just teasing you a little bit Ruby, I'm sure you won't try to kill me, but I'm not sure if you snore."
"I don't!" Ruby was quick to vouch, "Me and Yang used to share a room, and if anything she was the one that always snored in the night to keep me awake."
"Yang and I," Blake was quick to correct the girl's grammar, but it didn't seem as though Ruby minded the correction, if anything her smile only seemed to widen further as she grabbed the older girl's hand and led her to the other room, which Blake had to admit was much cleaner than the main room, or judging by her brief glance, Yang's room.
A desk in the corner held a sketchbook that made Blake's fingers itch to look through it, and she had a small bookshelf next to her bed filled with several novels, though Blake thought that she could spot a few old storybooks among the girl's collection, she brushed it off as just how the girl was.
There were no clothes on the floor, and the only oddity was a bright red jacket laid on the girl's desk beside her sketchbook that Blake had somehow not noticed during her initial scan. She noted it seemed to have seen some wear and tear over the years, but had a feeling in her gut that she shouldn't ask Ruby about it so soon after meeting her.
"So yeah, this is my own place in the apartment," Ruby giggled lightly, as she moved over to the closet and pulled it open, before beginning to dig around it for the things that Blake would need for the night. "I usually don't let Yang in here because I know that she would go through all of my things for any kind of blackmail material, So I can safely call this place Yang-free."
"Judging by how you talk about her, it seems like you and your sister don't always get along," Blake pointed out curiously, causing Ruby to pause and turn to her, grinning nervously.
"Oh we get along just fine," Ruby replied, "it's just that like all siblings we often get on each others nerves, and sometimes it's even worse since, well, never mind," The girl stopped herself, before backing out of the closet and holding out a blanket and pillow, "Anyways, here are your things, and I would offer you some clothes to change into in the washroom, but I think my clothes would be too small for you," She admitted.
"That's fine, I can sleep in these," Blake replied casually, before beginning to set out her bedding on the floor, not catching the way Ruby was watching her at first. Once she did however she had to stifle a chuckle before speaking up, "Yes?"
Squeaking as she realized she had been caught, Ruby turned away from the other girl and began to dig through her closet again before pulling out a change of clothing, and darting from the room, only calling over her shoulder that she would be back in a moment, and announcing to Blake that she should make herself comfortable.
Blake laughed openly as she laid down and set her head on the pillow, staring up at the ceiling of the younger girl's room and allowed her mind to wander.
She had to admit that the sisters were interesting, and if miss Nikos was any indication, that their friends were equally intriguing, and Blake was curious to get to know them better.
Considering that this wasn't usually how she dealt with strangers, Blake felt surprisingly calm around the girls, though for the life of her she couldn't imagine why, she decided not to think about it too hard, and opted to roll over and attempt to get some sleep for the night, suddenly realizing just how tired she actually was.
Just before her eyes closed, she caught sight of movement out of the corner of her eyes, as Ruby slipped back into the room, now wearing a red tank top and a pair of black shorts, and tried to cross the room as quietly as she could, since she was under the impression that their impromptu guest was already asleep, and she didn't want to disturb her.
Climbing into her own bed, Ruby had to suppress a squeal of joy at how interesting her day had turned out to be after just how bad it seemed that night from dealing with Junior and her sister, and cuddled deep underneath her sheets with a bright smile.
Before closing her eyes, the girl whispered into the quiet room, not expecting anyone to hear it, "good night Blake," causing the older girl to smile to herself.