That bastard! Yang seethed silently, before letting her rage bubble over into a scream of anger. She fell into the full swing of her Semblance, dashing at Junior and allowing her power to glow so brightly that the world nearly went white.
He pulled my hair out!
Her fist impacted against his jaw with a dull crunch , breaking something despite his Aura, and throwing him bodily out of the window of his club. Yang followed suit.
This had been meant to be a simple information-gathering 'mission', and yet it had developed into an all-out and horrific brawl. Which was fairly typical, all things considered, but still so annoying.
Together, she and Junior tumbled out of the club, hitting the pavement harshly. Yang rose to her feet, staring down at the recalcitrant man.
"Y-Yang?"
Yang flicked her vision upwards, to where a girl in red and black, with deep red hair and silver eyes was standing and gazing at Yang with an expression of sheer, utter, terror.
Oh.
In retrospect, perhaps Yang should have expected something like this sooner. She could practically trace Reuben Rose's path through life to where they were today.
Backstep. Look back to the day when Reuben was just a little brat, five or six, sitting on Summer Rose's knee.
"Hey mom?" He asked hesitantly, poking his fingers together as if he was ashamed of the words in his mouth. "Why did you name me 'Reuben', anyways?"
Summer shrugged, confused but willing to follow Reuben's somber mood. "It's just an old name from mythology. The name of a famous man. Why do you ask, sweetie?"
Reuben buried his face in her stomach, so he wouldn't have to meet her inquisitive gaze.
"I don't know." He whispered. "I don't know if I like it and I don't know why I don't like it."
Summer's brow furrowed up with brief consternation. "Well, it's just a name. It's not an important part of you, it's just a thing that other people call you by."
He thought on the matter for several minutes, before he gave voice to the question bubbling up in his mind.
"Were there any other names you wanted to give me, Mom?"
Summer smiled.
"Well, we planned to call you 'Ruby' if you were a girl, but I bet you would like that name even less than 'Reuben', heh."
Reuben flushed just as red as the roots of his hair, although Summer didn't see it.
"It doesn't sound that bad…" He whispered, assuming he would be too quiet for Summer to hear. Summer did a complete double-take, looking up to stare at Yang, who was sitting on the other side of the room.
Yang shrugged, looking away from Summer and turning to the book she was reading.
Summer managed to find her voice after a few moments, gently cupping Reuben's face and lifting it to face her.
"Do you like that name more than the one you have now?"
He tore himself away, looking down in shame.
"It's okay." Summer said.
She really didn't get it , but she hardly wanted Reuben - or Ruby, as the case might be - to go and be ashamed, did she?
That was not allowed, no sirree.
"I don't care what your name is or who you are, you're always going to be my baby." Summer whispered, wiping away one of the tears from the corner of Ruby's eye and drawing him into a crushing hug.
And for a moment, all was right in the world.
Step forward. Look to the day when Qrow came home, bearing the news which changed Ruby's life forever.
"She's gone." Taiyang said, with a pathetic little hiccup which showed how much he'd been crying. But he put on a strong face for his children, as strong a face as he could manage.
Qrow patted Taiyang awkwardly on the shoulder, staring into Ruby's silvery eyes with a too-calculating expression. And then - after making his excuses - he departed with a flutter of black against the white and cloudy sky.
Ruby watched him go with dead eyes, staring into the sky for hours on end. Yang herself watched Ruby carefully.
"Ruby, it's getting late." She said, sitting next to Ruby on the porch. Ruby just shook his head.
"Don't call me that."
Yang looked at Ruby with concern.
"Call you what?"
"Don't call me Ruby !" Ruby - or rather, Reuben - nearly screamed. "It's all so wrong . That was what Mom called me, and now she's gone!"
Yang took Reuben into her arms, letting his tears stain her shirt. Even Yang cried, setting her head on top of Reuben's as she waited for his tears to subside, even for just a few moments.
"You can still use that name." Yang whispered. "I think… I think she would have wanted that."
Reuben's voice broke like glass. "It just feels so fake ."
Yang gripped Reuben tighter.
"It will be okay, Rubes." She said, putting faith in her ability to fake it until she could make it. Reuben stiffened momentarily before accepting the moniker.
Accepting the compromise.
Step forward. Look forward to the day when Reuben was in his teen years, coming home from Signal Academy along with Yang to regale Taiyang with tales of his days at the school, during Signal's winter break.
"And then, you know, Uncle Qrow told me that I could move up a grade, if I wanted. I think he was sort of proud of me… but it's hard to tell, cuz he has such high standards."
Taiyang snorted, sitting with Yang on the couch opposite from Reuben's chair.
"And… why, exactly, haven't I seen the paper trail for something like that?" He asked with a curious little grin.
"Cuz… I turned him down." Reuben said with a subdued tone, looking away from his sister and father.
"What? Come on, why would you do that?" Yang sputtered. "I thought you wanted to be, like, a super-Huntsman!"
"Well, yeah…" Reuben whispered. "I want to be a Huntress-"
"Huntsman." Taiyang absently corrected. Reuben's smile grew slightly strained.
"-but… I don't know. I'm fine with things as they are."
He shrugged. "I know I'll be a great Hunter some day. I don't… I don't need to rush into things."
Yang didn't miss Reuben's insistence on the gender-neutral language, quirking an eyebrow. He blushed under her searching gaze, before she turned away and looked at Taiyang.
"Well, Dad, I've got plenty of stories to tell you, too…"
Step forward. Look towards the day when Reuben had completed one of his years at Signal, and had come home again for summer break.
A loud bang and a shattering noise rang out through the house, from Reuben's room. Yang was the first one on the scene, grabbing Reuben and lifting him off of his feet.
A mirror on the wall had been explosively shattered, casting fragments of broken glass across the floor of the room. Crescent Rose was still smoking in Reuben's hands, even as Yang looked Reuben over for injuries.
Taiyang entered split-seconds later, taking in the sight of the room and coming to his conclusions with ridiculous speed.
"Reuben Rose! What did you do !?"
Reuben cringed away and pried himself out of Yang's grip.
"Nothing, Dad."
"This doesn't look like nothing! What the hell were you thinking!?"
Reuben looked away sullenly, offering no rationale or explanation.
Yang saw the hurt in his eyes, the hurt so bad that he acted on instinct and actually shot out the mirror as opposed to face himself in it.
Impulsive was always Reuben's shtick.
Taiyang continued to chew out Reuben for several minutes, before ordering Reuben to replace the mirror that he destroyed.
Even though Reuben did indeed get a summer job at a weapons shop - and get himself preemptively employed in another branch, during the school year - he never did replace that mirror.
Yang almost wondered where all of Reuben's money was going, but she quickly learned the truth.
Look forward again, to when the summer vacation was almost over, and Yang heard a knock on the door.
"I'm coming!" She called out, dropping the video game she was playing and traipsing out to the front of the home, where a man was standing with a large and bulky package.
"Package for one Reuben Rose?"
Yang shook her head. "Sorry, he's not here. I'm his older sister, though, if you need someone to sign…?"
The man, a burly figure with brown hair and eyes shrugged.
"Fuck it, I just want to go home. Go ahead and sign for him."
It was certainly of questionable ethics, but Yang didn't really care that much. She signed Reuben Rose in a sloppy scrawl which was all-too-similar to Reuben's own handwriting, and picked up the package, noting the return address with curiosity.
A pharmacy.
It was a few hours later when Reuben came home, walking in the door and instantly noting Yang's position next to his questionable contraband.
"Hey Rubes. We need to talk."
Reuben completely froze up.
"Yang?"
The girl in question pushed the package towards Reuben, staring at him sternly.
"Listen, I don't really care about whatever you're trying to take… just… please be honest, are you being safe? Are you going to hurt yourself?"
Reuben gulped, pushing his fringe of dark red hair back. Yang couldn't help but notice how long it had gotten since he started growing it out, compared to his earlier short haircuts.
"I'm being as safe as I can be, Yang."
Yang looked into his eyes, searching for his honesty.
"Okay. Go ahead and get to… whatever you're doing. I won't tell Dad."
And then she left, leaving Reuben to his devices. She wouldn't figure out exactly what he was taking until one fateful and dark night.
Look forward one last time. This was the path Reuben Rose had taken, leading him to a face-to-face meeting with his sister outside of Junior's club.
"Y-Yang?"
Yang couldn't help but see straight through the red-and-black clothes to the scared kid underneath. If Reuben didn't look so horror-struck, then Yang might have congratulated her sweet little sibling for cleaning up so nicely.
But she didn't want to push him (her?) into opening up before they were ready.
So she did her best to put on an expression of confusion. "Sorry, do I know you?"
Reuben stared, gobsmacked, before finally squeaking out a reply in a feminine voice so alien in comparison to their normal masculine words. "I… I guess not."
Yang intentionally shrugged dramatically and turned away, making a beeline for Bumblebee.
She could grill them for information on what the hell they were doing... after all, that black corset looked tight enough to crack a rib, even through Aura. And what were they doing, sneaking out in the middle of the night?
But really, she just wanted Reuben to be safe and sound.
"Take care of yourself!" Yang called back to Reuben over her shoulder. "Stay safe, it's dangerous in this place at night!"
And then Yang hoisted herself onto her motorbike, and she was gone.
Yang could practically hear the flutter of rose petals as one mortified Ruby Rose flickered back home.