Author's Note: this story is a part of the RWBY Superhero Universe and it's going to have spoilers for pretty much everything. Read at your own risk! More information in the end notes.
TALES FROM THE HUNT TOWER
"That time Ruby had poor impulse control"
Setting: after Ruby Rose: Scattered Petals.
"Man, I'm beat." Yang plopped down on the living room couch. "I think I'm gonna sleep for a week now."
Jaune walked past her towards the other couch, his feet dragging on the ground and arms hanging limp on his sides. He was so tired, he didn't even walk around the couch to lie down on it – he just hit his waist against the side of it and let himself fall face-first on it.
"That's a great idea," he said, voice muffled. "You mind if I join you?"
"As long as you stay away from my bed, we're good," Yang answered, her eyes already closing.
"Thanks. Not what I meant, but clear communication is always – always… appreciated…"
Jaune became increasingly harder to hear as his voice got lower and his words started to jumble together, until eventually he was just mumbling complete nonsense. And then he wasn't speaking at all.
Yang opened one eye to check on him and realized he had fallen asleep mid-sentence. She got up, grinning to herself as she imagined all the things she could do to him in his vulnerable state. Ruby had a bunch of colorful markers in her room, didn't she? And she was pretty sure they still had some leftover pie from last week. Oh, so many terrible, terrible ideas…
In the end, she decided to just get a pillow and put it under his head so he could get some better sleep. Just because he had fallen asleep on the couch didn't mean it was comfortable. Though of course, she wasn't doing that purely out of the kindness of her heart… she was just that tired that even this perfect opportunity for a prank was too much energy to spend.
Man, did they have a demanding job.
Yang rubbed her eyes and started limping back to her couch, intending to follow Jaune's example and just crash there even if her room was just some twenty steps away. But just as she lied down and closed her eyes, the beep of the Tower's elevator stopping on their floor and its doors opening snapped her back to attention.
"-and Yang just went kablam! and punched the Ursa into the air and I was like kashing! and sliced it clean in half as I flied by, it was perfect timing, we didn't even have to say anything to each other!"
Ruby walked out of the elevator, bouncing restlessly on the balls of her feet. She was followed a second later by a much less animated Pyrrha, though she still wore a vaguely interested smile as she listened to Ruby go on and on about their last hunt.
"Ooh, but you know what was even more awesome than that?" Ruby turned on Pyrrha, her lips stretching into an ear-to-ear smile. "That time when I was fighting off a bunch of Grimm at once, and I was cut off from the rest of you guys and I was like, gosh darnit, I'm gonna have to really work to get out of this jam, but then bam bam bam!, you showed up outta nowhere and covered me with your sniper, it was sooo cool!"
Pyrrha's smile slowly faded as she stared silently at Ruby, confusion evident in her eyes.
"You do remember that, don't you, Pyrrha?" Ruby asked. "I was on the ground, and you were on top of a house? That's how you had a clear shot at the Grimm. And then one of them tried to sneak up on you but I saw them first and warned you…"
"Oh, right. I remember that," Pyrrha said, blinking a couple times. "Sorry. My mind got a little lost just now. It's probably due to how long we were out on the field." She paused. "You know, it was a long time for anyone to be away from home."
"Yeah! The longest since this all began, right?!" Ruby said eagerly. "I wonder when we'll get to do this again? I can't wait! Anyway, you wanna teach me how to use a sniper?"
"Hmm? Oh. I promised you, didn't I?" Pyrrha closed her eyes for a moment. "Maybe later?"
Ruby shrugged and hopped over to the living room, failing to notice the sigh of relief that Pyrrha released behind her.
"Alright!" Ruby exclaimed. "Team bonding time! Now that we are all back home, what do you guys wanna- Yang, what are you doing?"
"Trying to catch some shut-eye after killing Grimm for a week straight?" Yang muttered, eyes closed.
"But… but… team bonding time," Ruby said. "I thought we'd all agreed to this."
"That was before my body started to ache in ways I never knew were possible." Yang winced as her leg gave a little involuntary jump. "Yup. That's a new one. Ouch."
"But I'm just… I'm still so pumped up!" Ruby frowned. "I get that you guys are tired – uh, especially Jaune, it looks like – so it's okay if you wanna rest a while. But I don't work like that. I'm more like a… a huge energy balloon that keeps absorbing more energy and gets even hugger until finally it reaches a breaking point and explodes! Then I sleep. A lot."
"That doesn't seem healthy," Pyrrha noted quietly.
"Look, Ruby, if you wanna do your thing, then go ahead," Yang said. "This isn't school, nobody's gonna punish you for going off on your own to vandalize the walls of the girls' bathroom because that skank Veronica stole your date for the Winter ball even though you waited a whole month without asking him out and now you need some outlet for your boundless rage."
"Yang… Uhm…"
"I know, Pyrrha. Not healthy either. But it felt good at least. Freakin' Veronica with her purple lip gloss and perfect wavy hair."
Ruby crossed her arms. "Well, I guess I could go out and find something to do. It'll be fun. All by myself." She gave Yang an accusing look. "Alone."
"Yup. Have fun, kiddo." Yang rolled over on the sofa and hid her head under a pillow.
Ruby sighed and looked to Pyrrha for help, but the older Huntress just gave her a little smile and a shrug before leaving for her room.
"This isn't a problem. I can have fun on my own," Ruby whispered to herself. "Yup. Already having fun… Yay…"
Normally, Ruby didn't have any problem being alone. Heck, that was how she'd survived most of her school years. Being around people had always felt harder than just being by herself. And it wasn't like she was ever bored. She knew what she liked to do, whether that was playing videogames or tinkering with projects or reading books, and she always found new ways to expand those interests.
Those were all fine ways to spend her time, and it wasn't like she'd entirely abandoned them since she'd moved to Vale, but she'd made a promise to herself then. If she was going to be living with three of her closest friends, even if one of them was her sister, then she wasn't going to spend all her days living in a shell.
Vale was a time to expand her horizons. It was a time to focus on bettering herself, and the way she'd found to do that was by focusing on her friends – her team. But if they didn't need her now – or, if she was being completely honest with herself, they didn't even want her – then what was she supposed to do?
Ruby only knew one thing. If she allowed herself to fall back into the person she'd been in school, even for a day, then it would be immensely difficult to break out again.
Maybe there was something she could do for Yang, Jaune and Pyrrha, even if they weren't exactly with her. That seemed like a good starting point! A team leader always looks out for her underlings. Or teammates.
Whatever they preferred.
"I think I'll take the Super Mega Mixed Double Rainbow Special, with black and white chocolate flakes on top," Ruby said. "Four of them, please!"
The ice cream vendor stared wordlessly at her for a moment, eyes going up and down her considerably small height, before shrugging and getting to work on her order. "This might take a few minutes. How about you take a walk around the mall in the meanwhile, miss?"
"Alrighty!" Ruby said. "Thanks, man! Be back in a jiffy!"
She made twin finger-guns at him, which only made him more incredulous. Realizing how awkward the situation had become, Ruby did the only sensible thing and slowly backed away from the counter, never dropping the finger-guns. Once she was out the door, she spun around and flashed him a smile, then all but dove out of his view.
"Flawless recovery," she said smugly. "Social butterfly Ruby Rose strikes again."
She cleared her throat and walked away, choosing to take the vendor's advice and look around the mall for a while, if only to kill some time before her order was done. It was a good thing she'd brought some of Yang's patented disguise shades with her when she'd left the Tower, or else everyone would be recognizing her and she wouldn't be able to get anywhere for hours.
The shades were a little too big for her head, though. Maybe that was why that the ice cream guy had looked at her so weird. It could only be that – her behavior her perfectly adequate for public settings, after all.
Clothes store. Boring.
Make-up store. More boring.
Electronics store. Kinda interesting, might be worth a look later.
Larger clothes store. Even more boring.
Hybrid clothes and make-up store. She was rolling in her grave, because she'd died of boredom.
Pet store.
"I shouldn't."
Ruby obeyed the unspoken law of human behavior and entered the pet store.
"Guys! Guess what I got us!"
Yang groaned and sat up on the couch, focusing all her being on holding back the nasty remarks that came to her as Ruby's shriek reached her very soul.
Goddamn, she just wanted to sleep.
"What is it, Ruby?" she mumbled. "Is it a new scythe part? No? Chicken nuggets?" She rubbed her belly. "I might actually like that."
"Even better!" Ruby somersaulted over the couch and landed in front of Yang. "Look at him!"
Ruby thrust her hands towards Yang, revealing… a dog. A partly-black, partly-white, corgi. It blinked at Yang a couple times, his tongue lolling out of its mouth, before barking and taking a lick at her nose.
"Ew!" Yang leaned away from the attacking tongue. "Ruby, what the-"
"GRIMM ATTACK!"
Jaune jumped four feet off his respective couch, before landing on his feet haphazardly, two fists raised as if he was about to enter a bar brawl.
"Grimm attack on the living room!" he yelled. "Mom – I mean, Pyrrha! Help!"
Ruby and Yang rounded on him, silent as the wind. Even the dog had lost all interest on any noses and was only staring sharply at him now.
"What's going on?" Pyrrha came running into the living room, holding her hand out behind her. Her shield came flying out of her room a moment later, but she froze midway through attaching it to her arm. "Is that… a dog?"
"Yup!" Ruby said, thrusting the dog in Pyrrha's direction. "Meet Zwei, our new best friend! Say hello to Pyrrha, Zwei!"
Zwei barked at Pyrrha and started to waggle his tongue at the empty air between them.
"Oh. I see. Hi, Zwei…" Pyrrha waved awkwardly at the dog, which only made him more furious in his attempts to bypass the laws of physic and lick her from a distance.
"Ruby, you got yourself a dog?" Yang asked incredulously. "How? When? Why?"
"I got him just now, from a pet shop. I was going to get ice cream for all of us…" Ruby stopped. "Oh crap, I forgot the ice cream. Uh, anyway! I was going to bring you all the best ice cream ever, but I got sidetracked by this little cutie here!"
She turned Zwei towards her and touched her nose to his. Notably, Zwei didn't even try to lick her, he seemed content enough to just enjoy the moment. Perhaps for him the joy was not in the licking, but in the struggle for it.
"So you got distracted by a cute dog and decided to buy him, just like that?" Jaune asked.
"I didn't buy him. There was a whole litter being sold, but Zwei was the only one up for adoption, because he's way too rowdy," Ruby said. "He bit me five times on the way here!"
As if to demonstrate, Zwei dug his tiny teeth into her shoulder. Ruby giggled and patted him on the back.
"Thank gosh I'm a superhero, or else I'd be bawling my eyes out right now!"
"Ruby, I'm glad you're happy, but…" Yang said. "Don't you think this is a little, uhm… How do I say this. A terrible decision…?"
"What! Zwei is a great decision! He's the best decision!" Ruby shouted.
"I think what Yang is trying to say is, while Zwei is very adorable, living here might not be very good for him," Pyrrha said patiently. "Think about how often we're out because of our job. Who's gonna feed him while we are gone?"
"We could ask the Beacon guys downstairs!" Ruby said. "They already fly us anywhere whenever we ask them. What's a little dog-sitting compared to that?"
"Ruby, that's part of their jobs. Zwei, as far as we know, is not going to be saving the world anytime soon, so giving him unconditional help is not in their job description," Yang said.
"Well, he can feed himself, then! He's a very smart boy, I'll show you." Ruby put Zwei on the ground. "Sit, Zwei!"
Zwei headbutted her foot, then ran a lap around the room and bit Jaune's ankle.
Yang snorted. "Maybe he's too smart for his own good."
"Look. If he can't stay here while we're out, then we'll just take him with us on missions!" Ruby declared. "That should be fine! Beacon has Grimm-hunting dogs. Right, Pyrrha?"
Pyrrha looked away, rubbing her arms.
"I'm sorry, Ruby, I don't think there's a way this works out," Yang said, giving her a kind smile.
"Jaune?" Ruby gulped. "You're with me on this, right?"
"I don't know, Ruby. It seems like a lot of work," Jaune said. "You three can keep up the discussion, I'm just glad nobody realized I called Pyrrha Mom – ah crap did I just-"
"You know what? Whatever!" Ruby exclaimed, clenching her fists. "You guys don't wanna help? Fine! Continue doing your things that are so important like resting your minds and bodies after risking your lives a dozen times in a row! Meanwhile, I'll be doing my own thing, working my butt off to give Zwei a good home!"
She picked up Zwei and stormed off to her room, only to return a moment later to shake her finger in front of Yang's face.
"By the way, Jonathan was way better off with Veronica than with you, and it wasn't just because of her lip gloss!"
Yang gasped indignantly, while Ruby hmphed and stormed off again, for good this time.
"…We should get these two a therapist," Pyrrha muttered.
"Alright, Zwei! Let's do this again. Get the ball!"
Ruby counted from three out loud, then tossed the tennis ball towards the ceiling of her room. It stopped just short of hitting it, then plummeted fast. Zwei rose onto his hind legs, took a few clumsy steps backwards, and caught the ball with his mouth. He fell on his back, then rolled towards Ruby and dropped the ball on her lap.
"You did it again! Such a good boy!" Ruby clapped, then reached for her nightstand and took out a treat. "Here, for a good performance."
Zwei ate the treat off her hand and cooed happily. He lied down on his stomach and rested his chin on her foot, eyes staring up at her eagerly.
"See, I knew you were smart. It just takes a bit of coaxing," Ruby said. "But playing's one thing. We gotta teach you important life skills now, like feeding yourself and not jumping out of a window while nobody's watching." She smiled. "Don't worry if you're bad at that one at first, it took me a while to get it myself."
Ruby stood up and opened her closet, revealing the three large bags of dog food that were now fighting for territory with her clothes. She had moved everything Zwei-related to her room and kept it there for the three days he'd been living in the Tower. If no one else wanted him there, then so be it, she'd shoulder all the responsibility, and nobody had to see it.
"Okay, Zwei. This here is food. You know that well already, don't you?" Ruby asked, and Zwei barked happily in response. "Yup. But here's the important part: you can't just eat whenever you feel like it, or else you'll get sick! Bad sick. So you've gotta pace yourself. One bowl in the morning, one bowl in the afternoon."
She filled his bowl with food and put it on the ground, but pointed a finger at him, telling him to stay put. Zwei glared at her, but obeyed, his tiny tail bouncing on the ground.
Ruby then took a wall clock from her nightstand. It was the one they kept in the living room, but she'd stolen it today while everyone was still asleep. They had all been rightfully confused to find it gone, but Ruby had feigned ignorance, for revenge.
Yeah, she was being a little petty, whatever.
"This is the clock, Zwei. It tells us the time to eat!" Ruby said. She changed the hour hand so it was on 10 a.m. and showed it to him. "This is lunch time. Eat, boy!"
Zwei's eyes straightened, as if he suspected some trickery was afoot. Carefully, he inched towards the food, then took one meager bite. He looked at her and Ruby nodded encouragingly, and he started to eat without reserve.
"Okay, okay! Good enough!" Ruby pulled him away from the bowl and gave him a treat. "Now here's the time for dinner!"
Ruby started to change the clock again, but midway through it, she started to feel something beneath her. Eventually, she realized the floor was shaking – the walls too. Ever so subtly, the whole Tower was shaking.
Suddenly, it intensified, making her bed and nightstand rock and slam against the wall. Ruby called for Zwei, but the loud noise of an engine overpowered her voice. She reached forward to catch him, but Zwei slipped between her fingers and ran under her bed, pressing himself against a corner and whining like mad, his eyes wide open in panic.
After a minute had passed, the noise stopped, as did the shaking, but Zwei continued to whine.
"H-hey, boy. It's okay!" Ruby said, lying down next to the bed. "That was just a Beacon jet taking off! They don't do that often, it's mostly for emergencies. Come here, it's over now!"
Zwei stopped whining, but didn't move from his spot at the corner. Ruby stretched her arm under the bed and grabbed him by the back of his neck, then gently dragged him out into the open. As soon as he was out, she lifted him and put him on her lap, letting him rest against her chest. He was shaking, of course, and she could feel his little heart beating at double speed.
"Ruby, everything alright there?" Yang called on the other side of the door. "Is Zwei okay?"
"He's okay!" Ruby yelled. "Just leave us alone!"
He's not okay.
Ruby looked at Zwei, starting to tremble herself now. How could she be so stupid, bringing him to a place like this? And even if it weren't for the jets scaring him, did she really expect him to feed himself properly using a clock? And that was just the tip of the iceberg. What if he got sick while nobody was there, or he played with their weapons and got hurt, or someone bad came and…
"I'm sorry, boy." Ruby pressed her forehead against him. "I don't think this is gonna work out."
Zwei whined softly against her chest.
"I'm telling you, it was a slip of the tongue," Jaune said stubbornly. "That was it. An honest mistake. Have you never called one your teachers Dad or something embarrassing like that?"
"Okay, yeah, I might have done that once or twice," Yang conceded. "The difference being they were, you know, my Dad's age. Not mine."
"But Pyrrha's older than me," Jaune said.
"It's true," Pyrrha said. "My birthday is June 18th. His is September 3th." She smiled. "I just happened to remember that right now!"
Jaune gestured graciously at her. "Thank you, Pyrrha!"
"You two deserve each other."
A soft creaking of the floor alerted them to someone else in the living room. Yang looked over her shoulder and saw Ruby stopped like a statue on the way to the elevator, a large backpack on her pack and a bundle of fur in her arms.
"Ruby? Where are you going?" Yang asked. "And is that Zwei?"
Ruby looked down remorsefully and nodded. "I'm taking him back to the pet store."
"What! No, you're not!"
Yang jumped to her feet and marched towards Ruby, trying to take Zwei out of her arms, but Ruby turned away and kept the dog out of her reach.
"Stop it, Yang! You were the first one to say this wasn't gonna work out, and congratulations, you were right!" Ruby said. "I'm gonna do the right thing now, and you can't stop me."
"Not if it's up to me, you won't!" Yang made to grab her, but Ruby ducked under her arms and ran towards the elevator with Zwei in one arm, looking like he was having the time of his life.
"Hah! You'll never catch me, suckers!" Ruby shouted, mashing the elevator button to call it to their level.
Five seconds passed. Twenty. Forty. A whole minute. Ruby gave up on pressing the button.
"Okay, what's going on here-" Ruby gasped. "Pyrrha!"
Pyrrha put her glowing hands behind her back and smiled apologetically. "We don't need to catch you. We just need you to see reason."
"This is unacceptable! I am your team leader and I demand to be treated accordingly!" Ruby said, putting her foot down.
Zwei barked for moral support.
"Ruby, listen. We know you're upset, but we just wanna talk," Jaune said. "We heard what happened with Zwei earlier, with the jet and all that. He must have been really scared."
"He almost had a heart attack!" Ruby corrected angrily.
"Yeah. But you calmed him down, right? He should be fine next time it happens, we just have to be there for him," Yang said.
"And about the food problem," Pyrrha said. "We've been doing some researching, and there are a few solutions to that. It might take a while to decide what's best, but that should be a decision we can make together easily."
"But that's… It's not that simple," Ruby said. "There's a bunch more stuff we gotta look out for. I'm not sure we can handle all of it."
"Sure we can, as a team. If we can save the world from calamity, we can take care of one air-licking corgi," Yang said. "Just don't expect me to clean up his poop. I'm strictly the cool aunt." She looked at Pyrrha. "And you're the mom, obviously."
"Goddamnit, Yang," Jaune groaned.
"Guys… I really, really appreciate this. You're the best team ever!" Ruby said. "Here, Zwei! Be free!"
She dropped Zwei on the ground, and the four of them watched him for a moment. His eyes scanned the area around him, waiting for any threats to make themselves known, until finally he found one – a pillow that had been left on the floor of living room. With a bark and a snarl, he took of running and snatched the evil object with his teeth, and started to trash it about like a true hero.
"Yeah, he's gonna need some training." Jaune rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and went after the dog, whistling to try to get his attention, but Zwei only ran away from him while his slaughtering of the pillow intensified.
Pyrrha went after Jaune to help him corner Zwei, and Ruby made to follow too, but Yang put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her.
"Hey, Ruby. I'm sorry I was so harsh with you about Zwei earlier," Yang said quietly. "I should have listened to you more. And, uh… I'm sorry if we made you feel alone…"
Ruby shrugged. "It's alright. I'm fine being alone sometimes. Kinda the usual…"
"It shouldn't be the usual." Yang sighed. "I'm gonna try harder so this never happens again."
"Uh-uh. That's a no from your team leader," Ruby said. "You know how you're always telling me to slow down? Well, you know it never works. The same goes if you try to keep up with me. Someone's gonna end up miserable." She smirked. "We're just on different speeds most of the time."
"I guess that's one way of looking at it." Yang scratched her head dubiously. "Okay. Just promise me you won't isolate yourself too much?"
"Yup! Now that we have Zwei, that won't be a problem!" Ruby said. "Actually I might have some trouble keeping up with him…"
They heard the kitchen door being slammed against a wall, then the noise of a dozen glasses shattering on the floor.
Yang pinched her forehead, while Ruby slowly stepped around her, laughing nervously.
"Oh boy…"
Surprise! Well, I guess this is a surprise, if you forgot about that little tease after Scattered Petals. Honestly I don't blame anyone for forgetting that, with how long it took me to actually start this thing.
So, Tales from the Hunt Tower. This is going to be a companion piece to the RSU's Phase 2, consisting of unrelated one-chapter stories focusing on the mostly-ordinary lives of our dear Huntresses (and Huntsman). These chapters won't be coming out as often as the main stories - my not-plan is to have 2 chapters of this per main story. And if you're worried, no, the schedule of Blake and everything else after her won't be affected by Tales. The main stories will always be my first priority.
Regarding spoilers: every chapter will have a disclaimer next to the title in the beginning, indicating when it takes place (like this one, 'after Scattered Petals'). That's mostly for the sake of people catching up or doing re-reads, so they don't get spoiled for stuff they haven't got to yet. If you're caught up to the newest story, you'll be fine reading Tales.
Lastly. Nothing that happens here will be world-altering. My main goal with Tales is to focus on the relationships between the universe's main characters, maybe introduce some already-existing individuals to the group, but - unless I really change my mind - I won't be introducing all new characters. So, no, Cardin won't be making his triumphant debut here either.
(sorry)
Well, that was a lot of information for a story that's all for the sake of fun. Am I forgetting anything? Nah, I don't think so. Man this is going to be fun. I can't wait to-