A/N: Hello! For those of you who don't know I'm mostly known as Grand on here and I am a writer of dragons and cats, interesting ends of the spectrum aren't they? Ignoring my other stories this isn't the first RWBY fiction to ever be on my account, some of you may recognize me from a period when I adopted 'A Wolf Among Hunters.' but after doing so I was pretty much endlessly flamed for continuing the story and the original author took it back although I don't think he's reuploaded it yet, this is the first original RWBY fiction that will be gloriously displayed on this site!
A small girl breathed heavily as she rounded a corner at the end of a hallways and flattened her back to the wall as she peered around, the girl was young around three or four years of age, her face still held the chubbiness that accompanied a toddler her hair was quite short, bangs only barely reaching the center of her forehead, she wore a dark crimson dress that reached passed her knees her shoes had long since been discarded. Her silver eyes glinted mischievously as she heard the patter of footsteps moving down the hall after her quickly.
This was it, everything boiled down to the next few seconds she took a heavy intake of air as she bounced around the corner with a load roar, lifting her hands into the air to make herself larger and appear more like a bear.
Only the hallway was empty, she blinked in confusion as her face blanked and her arms slowly fell to her sides, she frowned and looked around herself, she had planned it all perfectly she had definitely heard the sound of footsteps but there was no one there.
Her eyes widened in a sudden fearful realization "What am I going to do if we have a ghost?!" She exclaimed loudly.
Something bopped against the back of her head lightly and she jumped three feet into the air and let out a terrified scream.
"Ow! Okay, I'm sorry, stop screaming! Please!" The girl calmed upon realizing it was a human, well sort of, that had bopped her.
The small boy pouted and rubbed at the ears atop his head with a wince, a few tears sticking to the sides of his eyes as his cheeks puffed "I still won though."
The girl stared at him for a moment and her eyes widened "No! Again, how'd you do it this time?! You like completely disappeared!"
"It's a secret." The boy's grin was a large lopsided smirk, his hair was dark, almost appearing black, but in the occasional twist of lighting you'd be able to find blue in it, two small fluffy wolf ears twitched on his head, his finger pressed over his lips hiding most of his teeth bar his extended canines and his gold eyes glowed slightly clearly pleased with his mischief.
He jumped to his feet and dusted off his shirt, her wore a simple patternless black tee and black cargo shorts, like the girl his shoes had long since been discarded "What's the count now? Twenty to two?"
"Har har, very funny," The girl crossed her arms and huffed "I won the last game so now we are all tied up!"
"I'm not tied up," The boy replied, confusion twisting his face he threw his arms around for emphasis "What do you mean?"
"I heard big sis say it I'm pretty sure it's another way of saying we are even." The girl frowned as she spoke, clearly unsure herself.
"So we are even?" The boy tilted his head "Why not just say that then? Stop trying to sound grown up."
"I don't need to try to sound grown up," The girl snapped in reply before smiling smugly "I drink milk."
The boy made a sound similar to throwing up "That's why I don't understand humans, how do you even drink that stuff?!"
"Huh?! You like it with chocolate in it, it's the same!" The girl argued.
"No it's not it has chocolate in it, so it's tasty normal milk is yuck!" The boy shot back.
"You're the one who will regret it when I'm taller than you!" The girl teased.
"If all you had to do was drink milk to grow you'd already be taller than me stupid!" The boy pulled at his eye and stuck his tongue out.
The girl looked mortified "The one who calls people stupid is stupid!" She snapped at him as he bolted away from her and she gave chase.
He rounded the corner with a laugh before he heard a footfall in front of him and his head snapped around in time for his vision to fill with black and immediately after that he was looking at the ceiling, very clearly confused as he stared at the expanse of white.
"Oh, sorry," The black thing he had run into spoke?! His gaze flicked down, oh, no, he'd just bumped into someone wearing black pants, now that he thought about it that made much more sense "Can you get up?"
He didn't have a physical limitation stopping him from getting up, in fact the floor was strangely comfortable, maybe he should sleep on the floor more so in response he just nodded his head slowly.
"Are you going to?" The person asked in confusion.
The boy just shook his head in response "I'm tired and If I get up Ruby will want to play another game and then she will get to pick cause I won the last one and then I'll have to go home and she will be on in the lead."
The man's face twisted into clear confusion as he listened to the child's, plight? If it could be called that, he had a hard time understanding children, should he give advice? Walk away? Did the kid even need advice, apparently he was just too lazy to get off the floor "Why not just not lose then?"
The boy shot up his fist hit his palm with a light slap "I see!"
He hadn't thought of that? The man paled slightly as he looked up, his eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise.
The boy turned around enough to see what the man was looking at and paled slightly at the sight of Ruby carved a path towards him with a specifically evil look in her eye "Midnight!" She called loudly as she approached him and lifted a bottle full of white liquid.
The boys eyes widened as he attempted to jump to his feet right as she dove forward she pinned him to the ground with a victorious look on her face "I brought your favorite!" She called sweetly.
The old man just observed silently, that tone was sweet it was threatening, actually that's what made it so scary in the first place, the boy whitened three more shades as she lifted the bottle of milk and he stared at it fearfully "I'm sorry!" He shouted loudly
"Call me master." Ruby demanded, the boy glared at her and she shook the milk slightly.
"I'm sorry master!" Midnight shouted quickly.
Ruby seemed to realize they weren't on their own for the first time and looked up in surprise "Uncle!" She shouted happily as she bounced energetically over to him and he caught her hastily she latched onto his arm and grinned widely at him he moved his arm up and down and she didn't move at all, just dangled from him like he was a set of living monkey bars.
"Ruby, you should be a little nicer to your friends." Her uncle scolded, giving the boy a quick look in question.
"But he called me stupid," Ruby argued as she looked down at Midnight "Hah, I'm taller than you now!"
"That's cheating," The boy shot up at her from the ground "You aren't taller than me your using your uncle to make yourself taller it's not the same thing!"
"I'm still above you now stupid." She called from her uncle's shoulder tauntingly, her uncle grabbed her under the arms and placed her on the ground she pouted at him and puffed her cheeks, expecting Midnight to get back at her.
Midnight just frowned at her "Besides, it's normal for boys to be taller than girls you know."
"Really?" Ruby asked excitedly pushing towards him eagerly.
Midnight leaned back away from her "Really?" He glanced at Ruby's uncle for help as he answered unsurely.
Her uncle scratched at the back of his head and sighed as Ruby's head darted between the two in rapid motion, a hopeful look in her eyes "Yeah, sure let's go with that." He replied with a shrug as he continued down the hallway.
"Your uncle's pretty cool." Midnight noted as the man rounded a corner at the end of the hall they were in.
"He's a hero," Ruby exclaimed excitedly "He's just like in the stories, he fights the monsters like bam! and Whoop!" Her arms flew around her animatedly as she spoke.
"So he's amazing?" Midnight asked, her excitement seeming to infect him as he bounced in place.
"He's really amazing!" Ruby exclaimed "And I'm gonna be just like him!"
"Hey no fair! I want to be like him!" Midnight exclaimed
"Well, there are four heroes in all my stories!" Ruby exclaimed "So we can both be heroes!"
"Alright!" The boy shouted excitedly throwing his fist into the air.
"Midnight Ruby, what are you two doing?" The two children turned to the new voice, the girl was a few years older than ruby, her blonde hair was very long hanging almost to the centre of her back her eyes were a light purple and she wore a dark brown coat and black shorts.
"We are gonna be heroes!" Midnight shouted enthusiastically.
"Yeah, like in my stories and like uncle!" Ruby added with a grin.
Yang scratched at her head a moment, maybe she should take it easy with the huntsmen stories, didn't need toddlers getting any crazy ideas "Well, I'm going to go check something out, do the two heroes want to come along?"
The children glanced at each other and nodded "We do!" They replied firmly.
Yang chuckled as she glanced at Ruby's feet "Where are your shoes?"
"Don't know!" Ruby shouted happily as she climbed up her sisters back and slung her legs over either shoulder "And onward our forces go to victory!"
Yang glanced at her sister above her "Stop repeating the things I say without knowing what they mean."
"Why?" Ruby asked innocently.
"Because board games and real life are different." Yang replied with a sigh "Midnight, do you know where your shoes are? I can't carry both of you."
The boy look at her very seriously for a moment before his mouth opened "I do not."
Yang face palmed heavily "Don't be confident about that."
"We can use that!" Ruby pointed at a small red wagon with a grin.
Yang frowned and rested her chin against her fist for a moment "Sure, that will work."
The two kids climbed inside an Yang grabbed the handle and pulled them along behind her as she left.
There were only so many identical trees a child could look at before getting bored, Ruby yawned loudly and blinked her eyes tiredly "I'm sleepy." She stated
"Heroes don't get tired!" Midnight exclaimed as he yawned loudly and shook his head "I'm not tired." He stated unconvincingly.
"It's okay to take a nap it's not that much further," Yang stated simply, hiding her breathlessness as she walked, why did she think this was a good idea? There was nothing good that could come from her bringing them along and pulling them just made her unnecessarily tired "Besides even heroes sleep."
"Then I'm going to sleep!" Ruby announced happily as she curled into a small ball in the bottom of the wagon, Midnight watched her almost enviously.
"Then I'll keep the monsters away while you sleep." He announced boldly crossing his arms over his chest and scanning the surrounding trees.
"Thank you." Ruby replied tiredly as she fell asleep.
Midnight yawned again and shook his head "It's alright If you sleep too you know." Yang informed him calmly.
He shook his head defiantly "I'm watching for monsters, it'll help you too." He replied quickly as he looked around, his ears twitched and so did his nose.
"I can smell a building." Midnight informed as he screwed up his face "It's smells bad."
"How can a house smell bad?" Yang asked with a frown.
"I don't know, but that's how I would describe the smell, it's bad." Midnight replied scooting forward slightly and looking in front of them curiously.
"Where are we going anyway?" Midnight asked curiously looking up at Yang expectantly.
"I'm looking for my mom." Yang replied plainly, too tired to think up a good lie or excuse.
Midnight remained quiet as he looked around "She's in the bad house?" He asked curiously
"Maybe." Yang replied
"What if she's not?" Midnight asked again
"Then I'll need to find her someplace else." Yang replied
"What if she's like Ruby's mom?" Midnight asked
Yang paused "I am at least sure she isn't…dead."
Midnight pursed his lips a moment "Do you think death hurts?"
"I wouldn't know." Yang replied honestly
Midnights head lulled slightly to the side as he looked and his eyes went a little far off, like he was thinking deeply about something "Do heroes die as well?"
"Sometimes," Yang replied calmly "Sometimes that's how far you need to go, to protect people."
"If Ruby becomes a hero…will she die?" Midnight asked, looking at Yang curiously.
Yang paused and looked down at him "I hope not."
Midnights eyes glowed slightly as he sat up "I'll become the best hero then! I'll protect Ruby and everyone."
Yang ruffled the boys hair with a playful smile "I'll leave it to you then."
He smiled happily before the smile seemed to simply wink out, he pointed ahead of them "The bad house is there."
Yang stopped and let go of the handle of the wagon "Wait here okay?"
Midnight nodded and looked around, his nose twitched as he took slightly longer inhales his ears twitched at every sound, he could hear birds, which was a good sign animals meant the monsters were far away, he watched Yang's back for a moment as she disappeared inside the bad house.
The atmosphere shifted abruptly and Midnights hair stood on end as he looked around, he took another long breath, the bad smell was stronger now and it was everywhere his eyes scanned the trees rapidly as his ears twitched.
Then the birds stopped.
The boys eyes widened and he looked around carefully, they needed to be quiet and hide, he glanced at Ruby still sleeping soundly beside him as if nothing was wrong he got to his feet slowly and hopped out of the wagon he landed with a light thud and he looked around, fear gripped at his stomach and made his fingers numb, he grit his teeth and shook his head roughly as he grabbed a sturdy looking stick from the ground and looked around.
A few moments later Yang emerged from the house, her face marred by irritation as she moved towards Midnight the boy drew her attention and pressed his finger to his mouth in a signal of silence and she frowned and slowed her pace, everything seemed normal to her eyes, but she could feel tension in the atmosphere around them.
She couldn't hear anything.
Her eyes widened when she heard a branch snap and a low growl seeped into the small clearing in front of the house, Midnight paled but the grip on the stick he had tightened until his knuckles whitened.
Yang was tired, her legs and arms were already burning and just breathing was difficult as her head whirled around in time to see a large beowulf lumber out of the trees towards them, followed by a second and finally a third, their red eyes locked on the small group of children and they snarled louder. Yang wasn't sure where the energy came from but in a quick burst of speed she bolted up the small hill and grabbed Ruby from the wagon, the small girl whined quietly as she was jostled around but didn't wake.
Yang slid to a stop and her head snapped around to see Midnight backing away from the beowolves slowly, the stick held out in front of him like a sword, his eyes glowed with an emotion she couldn't quite place and his ears stood straight up on his head, the largest beowulf hesitated a moment before jumping at him and the boy shifted diving to the side, only he was second too slow and the beasts claw dragged across his cheek.
Yang expected him to scream and run, but the sound that broke from the child's throat was a wolf like snarl as he brought his stick down hard, the wood snapped over the bone mask and the beowulf yelped and jumped back, it paused a moment before concluding the boy was unarmed.
"Midnight run!" Yang shouted at him.
The boys nose twitched again and he glanced at the trees to his left before diving out of the way of the beowulf's lunge and darting into the tree's away from Yang and Ruby.
The blonde stared in surprise as she watched the three Grimm carve through the trees after him and she fell to her knees, exhaustion and guilt finally getting the better of her.
Midnight darted between trees, his heart raced, his legs hurt, his head throbbed specifically around his cheek he didn't need to touch the cut to know it was bleeding he could smell it on himself as he slid underneath a downed log. His nose twitched again as he caught a familiar scent and he switched direction abruptly, the largest of the three beowolves flying over his head and slamming into the trees with a loud yelp, Midnight took a quick glance back and noticed the small monsters seemed to be ignoring him, he rolled over his shoulder grabbed a rock and launched it at them, it struck the small one in the eye and it howled in pain.
The three monsters refocused on him and he opened his mouth "Catch me if you can!" He shouted whilst childishly sticking out his tongue.
He wasn't sure if they even understood him, but they lunged at him again and he took off, keeping himself just out of their reach with his small frame. He rounded a large tree and his vision filled with black before he was staring at a red canopy of leaves.
His exhaustion finally caught up with him and he couldn't manage to lift his head at all, but he had made it, the scent was familiar enough that he didn't have to see who it was to know he had made it, a small cocky grin broke out on his face "I definitely won this one."
Qrow glanced down at the young faunus and smirked "You did good kid, you've got guts I'll give you that." He leant down and picked the boy up slowly, the boy seemed to have enough strength to clutch at his coat and half support himself even if he was unconscious, the larger beowulf rounded the tree first and swung at him, Qrow's mouth split into a half grin as his hand rotated and his sword flashed up sending the Grimm staggering backwards as Qrow shifted his footing and launched, he spun through cutting the beowulf in half and moving onto the small ones, the closest took a swing at him and he jumped turning over the blow and slicing through the beasts arm, it fell to the ground and quickly disappeared as the beast howled in pain and Qrow turned abruptly and jumped his feet slammed against the back of the third beowulf's head and forced it into the ground as he drove his sword through the back of its neck, he used the bone mask as a kick board and speared forward impaling the final beowulf in the chest and withdrawing his blade and flicking it before sheathing it over his hip.
He pulled the boy away from him and examined the wound on his face, it wasn't that deep but it was likely it would scar before he could attend to it properly, he clicked his tongue and shook the child's shoulders lightly.
Midnights eyes snapped open "The monsters!"
"I got them already," Qrow calmed quickly "You were with Ruby and Yang do you remember where they are?"
"I got the monsters to chase me, they were still at the bad house…I think." Midnight replied tiredly his head lulling down before snapping back upwards "That way." Midnight pointed in a seemingly random direction, but the way his ears twitched and his nose followed suit made Qrow nod quickly.
"Rest up little one, I'll take it from here." Qrow commanded as he gathered the boy on his shoulder quickly and darted through the trees.
"Ruby you need to be quiet okay?" Yang instructed as the little girl swayed on her feet, waiting for her sister to open the door in front of her eagerly.
"Yes!" Ruby exclaimed loudly before clapping her small hands over her mouth "Okay." She whispered quietly.
Yang chuckled and pushed the door open, Ruby darted inside and jumped onto the seat beside the large bed "When is he gonna wake up?" Ruby asked curiously
"Hopefully soon," Yang answered as she moved her younger sister to her lap and sat down "Why?"
"Cause he's one ahead of me now! I need to get even again before I can take the lead." Ruby complained, quickly forgetting about the rule of quietness.
Yang peered down at her sister as she leaned forward and took a hold of the small boys hand tentatively "Don't you just like him?'
Ruby's hand retreated to her side so quickly Yang could have questioned if it ever moved in the first place "No, boys are gross." She stuck her tongue out for emphasis.
Yang just blanked and looked forward, the difficulties of children.
Midnight hadn't moved since they had gotten home, his face was slightly obscured by the bandage that covered most of his neck and some of his cheek, Ruby yawned loudly as she watched her friend sleep.
"Want to go bed? We can come back here in the morning." Yang asked as she watched her sister.
"No, I'm staying here," Ruby announced resolutely "He protected me from the monster while I was asleep, I have to do the same for him!"
"I protected you quietly at least." The boy complained as his eyes opened and he yawned, Ruby's face split into a grin and she dived forward into a tackling hug.
"It's time we had another match!" The girl exclaimed eagerly.
Midnight pulled the blanket over his nose so just his eyes were visible "No, I want to sleep, I feel like I got hit by a truck."
"You'd be dead if a truck hit you!" Ruby waved off.
"I'm sleepy." Midnight responded firmly as he rolled over.
"You've been asleep forever let's play!" Ruby complained
"It hasn't even been a full day Ruby," Yang interjected "Midnight got hurt he needs to rest properly you don't want him to get worse right?"
Ruby looked at her sister and back at her friend "Fine, you get a free pass until your better," She finally gave in with a pout "But you better be prepared."
Midnight glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes "I'm winning again aren't I?"
"Only because uncle said you should get a point!" Ruby seethed as best she could for a four year old.
"Hey, I definitely earned the point I'm closer to being a hero than you are!" Midnight taunted from under his blanket.
"You are so lucky I already let you off today." Ruby growled before an idea seemed to plant itself in the child's head, if Yang had to explain it would look a lot like a light bulb popped on above her head, Ruby flipped up one side of the blanket and dived under it.
Midnight rolled over and frowned at the girls wide grin before she abruptly rolled atop him and her hands descended to his sides, his eyes shot open and his legs kicked futilely as she tickled his sides.
"S-s-s-stop i-i-it!" He attempted get out between laughs "R-R-Ruby…s-s-stop it…I-I'm serious. Ow." Yang grabbed her sister to stop her and Ruby frowned, Midnight winced slightly and relaxed his jaw, a small line of blood appeared on the bandage on his cheek and Ruby paled slightly at the sight of it.
"Aw man, now I have to get new ones," Midnight complained as the metallic smell of blood reached his nose "Happy?" He asked Ruby, he tilted his head slightly at her appearance.
"Hey," He waved his hand in front of her face and her silver eyes snapped to his "I'm fine, it's barely a scratch!" He exclaimed
She seemed to relax and Midnight smirked "Besides, a great hero like me won't be stopped by something as little as this!"
"Ah, good you awake," The three kids turned to the voice of Qrow as he leaned against the door "Yang, Ruby I'd like to talk to Midnight for awhile think you guys can wait outside?"
Yang nodded and Ruby's hand shot up as she spoke "Yes!"
The two girls left the room and Qrow moved inside and shut the door before taking a seat in front of Midnight, Qrow removed a new set of bandages from a drawer beside the bed and Midnight moved towards him quickly "How are you feeling?"
"Kind of tired," Midnight answered honestly as Qrow redid the bandages and made sure the stitches hadn't split too far "Other than that fine."
"That's normal, Grimm attacks usually knock people around much more, an injection of bad emotions can even kill weaker people." Qrow watched the child's expression as he took in the information with a nod.
"You were very brave you know, leading the Grimm off like that, other kids would have cried, screamed, run away." Qrow noted
Midnight looked at the older man with a flat look on his face "Other kids don't want to be heroes."
Qrow almost laughed "Well, I think I have a way to help with that."
Midnight tilted his head in confusion.
"How about you come traveling with me? I'll train you to be a really strong hero." Qrow offered attempting to use words the kid would understand.
"Can Ruby come too? We both want to be heroes, I don't think I should leave her behind." Midnight asked innocently, Qrow shook his head.
"I don't think she's quite ready for it all yet, it'd just be me and you." Qrow explained calmly.
Midnights ears twitched slightly "Can I say goodbye?"
Qrow nodded his head "Hey, boast about it too if you want."
Midnight inclined his head gratefully and pushed himself off the bed and left the room silently he rounded the corner and Ruby spotted him, she swung her legs forward and pushed off the chair and darted over to him "What did uncle want?"
"He wants me to go traveling with him," Midnight replied and Ruby stopped "He wants to train me to be really strong."
"Are you going?" Ruby asked her hands folded over each other and she scuffed her boot on the ground.
Midnight paused for a second "Yeah, I'm gonna go learn to be a super strong hero."
"Oh," Ruby replied as she looked around "Uh, good luck?"
"Oi," Midnight sounded and she looked straight at his lopsided grin "You better not make me wait on you teammate, I'll leave finding our other two members to you."
Ruby let out a small laugh and nodded her head firmly "Mmm." She hummed in response.
Midnight gave her a quick two finger salute and moved away, turning around as he fell into a quick step beside Qrow.
The older man glanced down at the boy, the child's teeth flashed and an almost inaudible sob escaped his mouth, a few tears fell from the edge of his eyes and he wiped them away hastily.
Qrow ruffled the boys hair in a quick motion and smiled reassuringly "I'm sure the next time you two meet you'll be a force to be reckoned with."
Midnight nodded his head resolutely, even if he didn't fully understand the words he got the basic idea.
Yang walked over to Ruby as Midnight and Qrow finally disappeared from sight "You okay?" Yang asked carefully.
Ruby's hands moved out to the side before she whipped them forward and slapped both of her cheeks hard, Yang watched the girl in surprise "I can't be left behind!" She exclaimed as she darted passed Yang.
The blonde sighed and shook her head and followed after her.
A/N: And so that concludes the first chapter, as you can no doubt imagine a lot of cannon material is going to be altered with Qrow now having a sidekick, the idea of making my OC Ruby's childhood friend was kind of improvised but I think it fits the story well and I hope you enjoyed their interactions as well as the chapter in general, I should pretty much warn you guys now that I'm going to mostly abandon Volume three mostly for reasons I explained at the beginning, the only aspect I'm sure I'm keeping is the tournament but I might add one or two other things depending on how ideas roll.
With that, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will see you guys in the next one, peace!
