Chapter 1 : Qrow's Call in the Night

The light of the moon shone down on a small log house on the island of Patch, situated just off the coast of Vale. The light of the moon in it's half broken cycle brought a surreal glow to the land as it shone down on the snow filled landscape below. It was just nearing the end of winter.

Inside the home, a celebration occurred. The youngest daughter of Taiyang Xiao Long, 15 year old Ruby Rose, had just informed her family that she had been accepted into the prestigious Beacon Academy two entire years early due to meeting the headmaster of the academy, a curious older man who goes by the title Professor Ozpin.

Ruby had intervened in a robbery headed by the nefarious criminal, Roman Torchwick, who had attempted to steal the inventory of a small dust shop in Vale that happened to be Ruby's regular haunting grounds. After the ensuing battle and the arrival of a mysterious woman who aided Torchwick in his escape and the notorious Huntress and Beacon Academy professor Glynda Goodwitch, Ruby was brought to the local police station to be questioned about the events that night by Professor Ozpin, only to receive the invite much to the young girl's surprise.

Inside the modest home, Ruby currently found herself being smothered in the affectionate embrace of her elder sibling.

"Oh Ruby! I'm so proud of you!" Ruby couldn't help but wince as she was dragged into a bone crushing hug by her older sister, 17 year old Yang Xiao Long. Desperately she reached a hand out towards her smirking father. She was sure she was conveying to him her simple message of 'HELP', if only through her eyes as the rest of her face was somewhere in between her sister's breasts, yet he just shrugged and averted his lilac eyes sending her his own message of 'You deserve it'.

Traitor. She deserves to be tortured for trying to do the right thing? So maybe it was a little stupid for a 15 year old huntress wannabe to try and stop a full-fledged armed robbery on her own, but she had only attacked after they had tried to mug her. Which is more than can be said for Yang. Who single handedly destroyed a nightclub the other week.

That was just the way it worked in this house though. Every time Yang did something crazy and it worked out, it was fine. Because Yang reminded her father of himself, she had heard enough of Qrow's stories to know that much. But when Taiyang looked at Ruby he didn't see her in the same light as he did his eldest. Ruby looks to much like Summer. Every time he looked at her she knew that he wasn't seeing just one person, Qrow too and Yang sometimes. Yang did her best to not treat her like glass and Ruby would never be able to truly get across to her sister how much that meant to her, but still there were moments when it happened.

The difference was, with Taiyang it was always problematic. When Yang does it, she snaps herself out of it quickly and acts like it didn't happen. Qrow is more complicated, he never quite stops seeing her mother when he looks at her, but it doesn't stop him from treating her as his niece. He differentiates between what he can't help seeing and who she really is.

Her dad has trouble with that.

Ruby closed her eyes. Now wasn't the time to think about things like that, not in front of her sister and dad. The last thing she needed was to start getting into one of her moods and for them to get worried about her, she would take what she was getting now versus that nightmare any day.

She opened her eyes again and got back on track.

"Yang! Can't breathe!" The choking theatrics weren't really necessary but she knew Yang loved to play along with stuff like that. The blonde pulled away and grinned at her, in that special way that Yang did everything with her whole heart behind it, and held her at arm's length.

"Oh come on sis! You can't tell me you aren't excited right? You're going to Beacon!" Yang gushed as she absentmindedly brushed some lint off of Ruby's shoulder.

"Yeah of course." Ruby said as she put on a smile for Yang's benefit. "I just - a lot happened all in one day, you know and I really thought things were going to go waaaay worse than they did and I'm still coming down from the adrenaline and-" Yang finally cut her off with a laugh, thank god, she was running out of stuff to babble on about.

"I get it Ruby, chill. Go take a shower or something, I'll make something to eat." Yang said as she spun on her heel and made towards the kitchen. I let out a genuine sigh of relief and heard dad chuckle in response.

He stood up from his chair and walked after his first daughter, patting her lightly on the back as he passed. "You know how she gets, I'll make sure she doesn't burn the house down. You relax for a bit, 'kay kiddo."

Ruby kept her eyes on his back as he exited the room then made her way upstairs, crossing the hallway to the door on the end of the hall and walking into her shared bathroom with her sister. She turned on the hot water on and took to disrobing. Yang had a good idea of taking a shower and while she may have started babbling just to get Yang to stop with the smothering affection, none of it was a lie. It had been a long night so far and the adrenaline crash is total hell.

She switched the water to the shower head and stepped into the shower, drawing the orange curtain closed behind her. The color had been a compromise between the Yang and herself after an argument over colors when they were younger. She closed her eyes again and sent her fingers chasing after the water than ran through her hair, reveling in the feeling of comfort that hot water provided in contrast with the chilled air of winter she had fought in earlier.

What a mess.

She had seen the dust robberies in the news but figured that it was some sort of coincidence that so many were happening all at once. Goes to show what she should think about coincidences.

The fight had been easy, at least for what it could have been. Torchwick had been so successful with fodder like that as his henchmen and it made him all the more dangerous in her book, if not physically than mentally. He could lead the police force of a major city in a kingdom on a wild goose chase with nothing more than street thugs? To be fair, the woman with the explosions and glowing clothing was not small fry in any way. Glynda Goodwitch is one hell of a huntress and the criminals had gotten away with just a few punctures in their ship to show for it.

The two women had only fought for a minute at most, but to Ruby it had seemed so much longer. They were amazingly powerful and she had felt completely out of her league. It had been a while since she had been reminded first hand just how far off she was from her goal.

Funnily enough, a mere hour later and she ended up closer to her goal than she had ever expected this early on. At first when she had been brought to the police station, she had been nervous that they would call her father and that she would have to deal with that nightmare for the next month. She wasn't quite sure if what had actually happened was better or not. On one hand, being accepted into Beacon and generally praised for her actions and skill by both the headmaster of an academy and, begrudgingly, a top huntress and getting offered a spot in the academy had heavily distracted her dad. On the other...she got accepted into Beacon early.

Not that attending Beacon is bad, because it isn't. She planned on it in fact. But with her own class, who left her to her devices because they knew at this point that she wanted nothing to do with them, just the way she wanted it. Attending the academy with Yang would be a disaster. Yang being around would make being distant from people impossible to say the least, her older sister wouldn't understand her reasoning at best and would probably just flat out disagree with her.

Ruby groaned and shut off the water, having been going through the motions of cleaning herself while lost in her thoughts.

What a mess.

She needed to call Qrow tonight.

Patch - The Xiao Long/Rose household - 11:28 pm - Ruby Rose

After dressing in some simple sweatpants and a tank top Ruby messaged her uncle that she would be calling him later that night and receiving a riveting 'k' in response, she went back down the stairs and enjoyed dinner and small talk with her family while simultaneously doing her best to avoid talk about Beacon to moderate success.

Once they finished dinner she gave the excuse that she was tired and headed upstairs, a lie of course as her nerves over the situation she was in would never allow her to sleep.

Walking into her room she swiftly locked the door and made her way to the window, throwing it open and climbing out and shimmying her way up a pipe to sit comfortably on her roof.

Retrieving her scroll from her pocket she rushed to dial Qrow's number, messing up a few times due to her haste. Jerking the scroll up to her ear she began fiddling with the ties on her pants as she waited for him to pick up.

"Hey kid." Qrow's gravelly voice reverberated out from her speakers. She hadn't realized how tightly she had been gripping her scroll or how stiffly she had set her shoulders until hearing his voice. A large amount of tension fled her body almost instantly, her uncle had always had that effect on her since she was a little girl.

"Hi, Uncle Qrow. How's the mission going?" She greeted, almost certain that he could hear the relief in her voice as prominently as she could herself.

"What's got you all wound up, squirt?" He asked. She rolled her eyes, it was just like him to ignore a question he wasn't allowed to answer.

"I got accepted into Beacon tonight." She said, deciding to get straight to the point. The other side of the call went silent for a few seconds.

"I didn't miss any birthday's did I? Or did I forget how to count out here?" He questioned dryly. She laid her back onto the shingles and locked her eyes onto the moon, far too acquainted with Qrow's humor to laugh audibly though it did bring a small smirk to her lips.

"Long story short, some guys tried to rob a dust shop I was in and I fought them. Then a huntress showed up, the bad guys got away and next thing I know I'm meeting the headmaster in a police station and he invites me to attend Beacon this semester. You probably did forget how to count though since my birthday was two months ago. Alcohol can probably do that to you."

Again he said nothing for a bit, the only sound that could be heard was a soft 'thunk' coming from her scroll that she could only assume was him setting down the flask he was about to drink from. He sighed heavily. Wearily.

"Sorry."

"It's fine. I know you're busy. You didn't mean to forget or anything. You just owe me strawberries when you come back. Or a new sight for Crescent Rose. Or both." She said and heard him chuckle softly.

"Deal. So you got into Beacon two years early huh? Why is that a problem?" He asked.

"Because I'm going two years early. With Yang." She stressed to him.

"Ah. And that would get in the way of that solo career you've been planning, right?" He guessed.

"Getting in the way would be putting it lightly. Yang's not going to let me stick to myself, ever."

"Is that a bad thing?" He questioned. I blinked and took a moment to think about what he could possibly mean by that.

"Uh, yeah I think. Why?"

"Because, Ruby, I think you're taking this solo career thing too far."

This time she was the one that was silent, and she started chewing lightly on her tongue. She had been planning on a solo career for three years, shortly before she even entered her current school, Signal Academy. She had toyed with the idea even longer, dating back to when she had started training to learn how to use Crescent Rose. When Qrow was the biggest presence in her life while father spent years grieving her mother's death and her sister was busy with Signal.

"I thought you said-" Her uncle quickly cut her off.

"I know what I said, Ruby. And nothing has changed, if going solo is still your thing in four years then I've got your back. You gotta understand though kid, wanting to go solo doesn't mean being alone, and it doesn't mean you can't have friends." He said. Ruby listened intently to her uncle, as it wasn't often that he spoke this seriously about something. "I understand the why, Ruby. You need to realize that I went solo because I was in a team and realized that I can't...that it wasn't going to work for me. That might not be the same for you."

Ruby was quick to respond. "But if it is the same for me, then what?"

"Then you go solo like you planned. That's all there is to it, kid. You have to try first though or you won't know. Did you really think you'd be able to pull off not being friendly with anyone? You?"

"What if I'm no good at being a teammate? I'm not really at my best talking to people." She muttered into the scroll.

"You probably aren't any good at it, not right now anyway. Listen, when you were a toddler, you were bubbly and excitable. When you first learned to talk we had a hard time getting you to shut up, and I can't tell you the amount of time I got regaled with the tale of how little Ruby just walked up to some stranger and started talking to them like she knew them." He laughed after he finished talking and she felt her cheeks heat up from the story.

"That was baby Ruby!" She shot back quickly in her embarrassment.

"Point is, things changed. A lot of things. You started being a little more distant from everyone and that's fine, but I think you've still got it in you. No matter what happens, I know you'll succeed squirt. You've always been resilient." He finished.

Ruby felt a warmth spread through her chest, fighting strong against the frosty air. It felt nice having someone believe in her wholeheartedly like that. Her father and sister believed in her as well, but their belief went as far their fear. The fear that if they let her wander to far from them, she would disappear.

Ruby took a moment to just breath and think. Try being on a team? She had spent so long thinking that a team would just be a stepping stone to her real goal. She had grown since she made that her goal though and thinking about it, when her younger self had made the decision, announced it to Qrow with such passion, was that passion born of confidence in her thoughts or the fears that she still held onto?

What he'd said made plenty of sense, maybe she would've realized it if she'd wanted to. You have to try something to know if it's for you or not. Short and sweet. Perhaps bittersweet considering the circumstance, like dark chocolate.

Ruby sat up. "You're right, like always."

"I'm not sure about always." Ruby watched as a cloud lazily rolled across the sky, passing in front of the moon and darkening the world around her.

"Thank you, Uncle Qrow. I love you."

"Love you too."


Not super happy with how this turned out. Thanks for reading, I'd appreciate criticism if you have it in you.

This is basically going just be practice for me, so don't expect an amazing plot or anything special. I'm going to be changing things up to keep it interesting though, just in small ways. Little Changes. Get it?

Little Changes in this chapter: Ruby wants to go solo, she was even more influenced by Qrow, and she's much more introspective about herself and the people around her.