The Rose and the Candle
Summer Rose dragged her tired and fatigued figure down the streets of Vale. She had recently returned from another one of Ozpin's "special missions". She still didn't know what these missions were really about. Ozpin was cryptic enough as it was, but he always seemed to dodge Summer's questions about what the missions were supposed to accomplish. He never provided a good enough answer for Summer's liking, but he always mentioned some mysterious enemy. Summer knew that Ozpin was serious about whoever this mysterious enemy was, but their identity was never shared. Summer was practically convinced that Ozpin didn't trust her with that kind of information. If Qrow is allowed to know, then why am I kept in the dark? A question that constantly ran through Summer's head these days.
It was almost midnight as she continued to make her way through the nearly empty streets of Vale. A few people, night owls mostly, were still around and going about their business. Hardly any cars were around, but she could make the headlights of at least one coming towards here. She had to get to the docks before the night boat to Patch departed. Taiyang would give her nothing but grief if she missed it again. She still had about an hour or so left before it left, but Summer liked getting to her destination with plenty of time to spare, especially with the amount of distance still left to go. She just hoped nothing interrupted her plans.
"Hey! Get back here!" yelled the owner of a sweets shop nearby. Just once I'd like the universe to listen to me, Summer thought. She had just come back from a mission that involved fighting a large number of Grimm in the middle of Forever Fall. Despite her duties as a Huntress, she just was not in the mood for another disturbance. As she neared the cause of the disturbance, she made out a small figure running away from the shop and into the nearby alley across the street. The only car on the road swerved and nearly crashed trying to avoid the reckless thief.
Time to go to work. Again, she thought as she placed her hand on her weapon beneath her white cloak and hood and prepared to use her Semblance to catch up. Her hand was placed on her weapon so it didn't leave her person while she used her speed to catch up with the thief. She launched herself forward and crossed the street into the alley with incredible speed as the few bystanders stared in surprise. As she slowed down, Summer caught sight of the thief attempting to quickly climb a ladder onto a nearby rooftop. In the dark she could barely make out much, but from studying the figure, it looked like it could have been a young boy, about Yang's age. That changed her opinion of the situation in a heartbeat. Not one of these cases. I hate these cases.
Summer reached the ladder as soon as the thief had climbed up to the top and had begun running across the roof. Once again using her Semblance, Summer leaped up and landed on the edge of the roof. As she stood up, she saw that the boy had reached the opposite end of the rooftop. He had tied his bag of stolen goodies around his right wrist and had his hands held out as if he was planning to fall backwards off the roof. From this position, despite the distance, Summer could make out more of his features. Orange hair, green eyes, a pale white complexion. His apparel consisted of a white shirt, black pants supported by brown suspenders, white socks, and black shoes. Summer guessed that he was rather poor, given the rather dirty conditions of his choice of clothes.
"Can you save me, heroine?" the young boy asked in a mocking tone.
"Look, I don't have time for games. I need you to step away from the ledge and come with me so that we can resolve this situation without anyone getting hurt."
A smirk spread on the young boy's face. "You had your chance." With that he slowly began backing up to fall down to the alleyway below.
Summer instinctively used her Semblance to cross the gap between her and the boy, grabbing him by his shirt and pulling away from the drop below. They both collapsed onto the rooftop, the adrenaline slowly but surely draining out of their systems. Once she had recovered from the adrenaline rush, Summer stood up and grabbed the back of the boy's shirt. He looked away from her with a pout on his face, crossing his arms and legs as Summer held him in midair. Now it was Summer's turn to display a smirk on her face.
"Looks like I can save you, troublemaker." Her only response was a grunt of annoyance from her captive. "Now, how about you come with me, little one? You and I have business with a certain robbed shop owner." With that she grabbed the bag of treats still tied around his wrist, securing it to her belt, and carried him to the ladder back down to the alley.
When she finally brought the boy back to the shop owner, the police had arrived on scene and were questioning the old shop owner. Summer strode up to the men with the little thief in tow. The shop owner looked like he was ready to give the kid a good spanking for stealing from him.
"Excuse me, officers. I believe I caught your little cookie thief," she said as she handed the stolen sweets back to the shop keep. With the sweets returned, the shop keep went back into his store to seal them away to dispose of later.
One of the officers turned to Summer and looked down at the boy. Summer had set him down so he could walk, but still kept a tight grip on the back of shirt. She wasn't going to let him get away, not after his little stunt on the rooftop.
"Thanks, Huntress. We'll take care of the kid from here. Come on, you." The officer took the kid and guided him to one of the police cars. As the cop closed the door and began to make his way back to Summer, a thought struck her. I wonder if that kid has any family. If he doesn't… Summer mentally sighed. Taiyang's going to be livid when I break the news to him. It doesn't look like he has many places to go, though.
"We'll take him down to the station and figure out what to do with him there. There aren't many street rats like him roaming around, so finding out if he's living with anyone should be easy."
"Well…" Summer hesitated to offer her solution. She didn't know if she would introduce a third child into her already strange family. But then again, she didn't think him being in police custody was the best idea. "Actually, if he doesn't have anyone, send word to me. I think I have a good idea of where to take him."
The cop just gave Summer a confused look but nodded in reply. "I'll be sure to do that. Gotta let the chief know about it, though."
Summer gave her own nod in reply. With that the officer turned back to the car and got in and drove off, taking the young thieving boy with him. Summer stared down the road where the car went, certain that no matter how kind her gesture may be, she was going to regret it later. After pondering her choice for a few minutes, she reached into her pocket and grabbed her scroll. Going through her relatively small list of contacts she found the one she had been looking for. A few rings passed before a man finally answered.
"Hello?" he said with a tired and exhausted weight to his voice.
"Hi, honey," Summer responded with a perk in her voice.
"Summer! Oh thank the gods, you're alright. Where are you? Did you get on the boat? How soon are you coming home? Let me tell you, these girls are seriously going to be the end of me. Do you know what Ya-"
"Tai, dear, I'm cutting you off there. I'm just calling because I may be late."
Silence. Silence for what felt like a solid minute. "It's not about Ozpin is it?" came the cautious reply.
"No. It's something that happened in Vale. I'll tell you about it when I get home."
With that, she closed her scroll and began to make her way to the docks. Hopefully, she thought, she hadn't made a bad decision.
I wonder if Yang and Ruby would be okay with an adopted brother…