Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its characters, settings, etc. RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth. This work is created purely for my personal amusement, and has nothing to do with the show's canon. I do not profit from this story in any way. I am grateful to Monty Oum for creating the series, and all of the Rooster Teeth staff who work on the show for continuing it.
I would also like to thank my beta reader, 1212B.
The wind picked up outside, as the cold night chill settled over the town of Kuchinashi. It was only autumn, but the leaves had already begun to fall. Soon, the first snow would arrive, but the southern part of Mistral had so far evaded the cold grasp of winter. And anyway, "winters" tended to be mild here, as they were fairly close to the equator. The last time snow had fallen here, a town-wide emergency had been declared - one of the few times when people had listened to the authorities.
The town itself had gone silent, it being close to midnight. Almost everyone had had their dinner and gone to sleep - or so it seemed. Kuchinashi was known for being a den of thieves, and everyone slept lightly, or in shifts. Shattered windows and defaced walls testified to this, and one could occasionally hear a soft pattering of footsteps or the sounds of an alley fight in the distance. This wasn't a place where most Huntsmen or Huntresses wanted to take missions. Nonetheless, team STRQ, the best of Beacon, never backed down from a challenge, and so found themselves staying in the lawless town for the night after a successful mission.
A solitary figure quietly left the battered but warm inn, headed for a spot which had caught her eye earlier in the day. As she left, the smell of roast ham, a brief respite from her team's usual diet of "whatever they could scavenge or hunt", slowly grew fainter. Auburn hair swung gently from side to side under her white hood, and a careful observer might have heard the metallic clink of ammunition from a small white pouch on her belt. Taking the utmost care to avoid making noise, she avoided walking on as many of the fallen leaves as she could. Holding a satchel close to her chest, she stealthily walked to the clearing which she had seen earlier. She had already dealt with a bunch of hooligans earlier in the day, and had no desire to do again. The town's sole remaining bell valiantly tolled in the distance, but years of neglect left the sound a mournful shadow of its former glory, and the efforts of the intrepid bell-ringer were in vain as the midnight chimes were summarily ignored. As a crowd of drunken revelers suddenly exited a nearby alley, she quickly ducked down a side street, and waited until they had passed. When the revellers had passed, she left her hiding spot and continued down the path to the town's only park.
The park was thankfully deserted. There wasn't much left to steal after close to a century of looting, and the town authorities - what remained of them, anyway - had long since forgotten the place. This made it ideal for anyone who wanted to get away from the thievery - but it was also a good spot for viewing the lush forests which the town had been known for, before its reputation as a thieves' den overshadowed that. Wind whispered through the trees, and an earthy smell permeated the air, for the wildlife had quickly laid claim to this area once humans had abandoned it. In fact, several legends about the denizens of the forest had arisen, as a long time had passed since humans were last here regularly, allowing all manner of rare creatures and plants to flourish.
Once she had arrived at the park and cleared off a stump, she sat down, opened her satchel, and took out her mini-canvas, brush, and paints. Her weapon rested at the side of the stump, for Summer had long-since learned that having one's weapon in arm's reach could mean the difference between life and death. Several arthropods and a few worms ran out of the back of the stump as she cleaned it, and on closer inspection, part of the stump was rotting, soft to the touch. But Summer was used to sitting anywhere by now. Having set up her palette on a nearby rock, she commenced the night's work. The budding artist made slow strokes with her brush as she delicately sketched the treeline. The maples had already begun to shed their leaves, but the trees still blazed with brilliant orange and gold.
The birdsong and rustles in the surrounding forest alerted her of the presence of many animals, and the crickets made themselves audible, as usual. But as they remained unseen, she focussed more on her painting. Occasionally, a flash of red caught her eye as foxes or squirrels came close to the forest's edge, and she even saw what looked to be the large horns of a buck. But although the animals here had not been in contact with humans for a long time, none of them tried to approach her. She supposed that they might still "remember" what humans were like. After all, many of Remnant's animals had recently been found to be smarter than they had seemed, as had been discussed in one of the last lectures which she had attended before leaving for the mission. As she tried to capture the brilliant colours of the rare plants in the still night, the artist grew engrossed in her work, failing to notice the figure who had crept up behind her.
"Summer?"
"Yikes!" Summer jumped to her feet, her white cloak wildly flapping. Several brown leaves flew away in a flurry of wind. However, she relaxed upon seeing golden hair and blue eyes. "Oh, it's just you, Tai. You shouldn't sneak up on a girl - anyone - like that." A slight blush appeared on her cheeks, and she nervously brushed herself off as she quickly scanned her clothing.
A hearty laugh escaped Tai's throat. "OK, OK. I had no ill intentions, believe me. I just felt like taking a walk." He sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and shook his head slowly from side to side. "You know how Qrow gets when he's drunk, and how mad Raven gets at him when he does. It's nice to escape, once in a while. I'm sorry if I disturbed you - I just noticed that you were here, and decided to say hi." Stretching out his arms, he let out a soft "Haa…" as he enjoyed the feel of the night breeze on his arms. "Well", he said, "I think that I should go."
But as Tai turned to leave, the mini-canvas and brushes caught his eye, causing a curious expression to slowly take over his face. Noticing his change in expression, Summer followed his line of sight, and sighed as she realised what he was looking at. "It's a hobby.", she explained. "I'm not very good at it yet, but I'll never get better if I don't practice, right? I just wanted to try painting something, and these trees caught my eye earlier, when we returned from our mission. Just look at the colours of the forest!" Her cloak flew in the breeze as she swung her arm around to point at the forest behind them, sending involuntary shivers down her spine as the air nipped at the tawny skirt and dark blue cardigan which she wore under her cloak. She rubbed her hands together, mentally cursing herself for not bringing gloves. "You'd never find this anywhere else in Mistral", she continued. "These trees are rare oddities - I believe that Professor Glover took a few samples back to his lab to study them precisely because they shed their leaves, unlike most trees in this warm region."
"I see", mused Tai. "When did you start doing this? I don't remember you sketching anything at any time before now." "Since we last stayed in Kuroyuri." replied Summer. "I bought a tiny mini-canvas, some brushes, and some paints, so that I could try things out. I'm still a horrible painter - I can show you my old work, if you'd like…." Although her face remained outwardly calm, her hands were fidgeting under her cloak, and she couldn't quite bring herself to face him.
"I'd love to see them!" exclaimed Tai. Summer tried to protest as her cheeks grew as red as an apple, her hands waving wildly in embarrassment. "Well… they're just some small… I don't even know what the right word is. Things… I made… for my amusement." Composing herself, she continued. "I hope that they won't seem too bad to you. I don't have all of them here, but I did keep a few in my bag, which is back at the inn."
As they walked back, Summer talked Tai's ear off about all of the things which she had recently learnt - oil vs watercolour, the basics of mixing colours, the books on painting which she had read, written by famous artists, etc.. Although Tai hadn't the faintest clue about all of this, he couldn't help but feel charmed by her enthusiasm. It certainly made the chilly autumn night warmer, and reminded him of why he was glad that she was the heart of their team. Although his heart had been gravitating towards the brasher girl of his team, he found himself thinking that Summer wasn't an unattractive young woman, herself.
Unfortunately, the next day, a snarky Raven and a hung-over Qrow found her art, and started poking fun at her - but that's another story.
A/N: I'll hopefully be uploading some future chapters. Please let me know what you think - I'm always glad to take advice. Thank you very much for reading this story.