Chapter 1: Curiosity
"Hey, Weiss, have you seen Ruby around?" Yang asked pulling herself out of bed from an afternoon nap.
Weiss was sitting away from her at their desk studying for finals. "Come to think of it I haven't. She ran off a few hours ago mentioning something about the library maybe? I doubt that she's still there though. Blake could be there, maybe she'll know."
"Alright, thanks anyways." With that Yang left their dorm and started heading towards the library.
There were very few people in the halls, especially at this time of year. Finals were coming up and everyone was either studying or procrastinating, Yang doing the later. She knew that she would pass but she wasn't stupid. She knew that she had the lowest grades of the team but didn't want to bring their team grade down. The stress had been starting to get to her so she had been napping to rest so she could start working again. Meanwhile, Ruby seemed to disappear and Yang wanted to know where she went.
Upon arriving at the library and locating Blake, Yang asked her, "Have you seen Ruby around here?"
Blake from behind the stack of books she was carrying said, "She was but not for very long. She said something about Nora and Ren. Try asking them."
Yang sighed that she'd have to walk all the way back and said, "Alright, thanks for the directions."
Just when Yang turned to leave she heard Blake speak up from behind her. "Hey, Yang?"
"Yes?"
"Are you alright? You seem kind of tense."
Yang realized that her body was on edge so she relaxed her shoulders and took a deep breath. "No, I'm fine. I'm just a bit annoyed that's all."
"Is it finals?"
"No, you know I'll be fine. I have to go."
Yang turned to leave again and heard, "You don't have to worry about her. She's a huntress at Beacon after all."
"What makes you think I'm worried about her?"
Blake set down her massive pile of books on a desk next to the two of them and gave a knowing glare.
Yang sighed and admitted, "Okay so I am a bit concerned about where she is, big whoop. What's the big deal?"
Blake smirked and said, "And you wonder why she's always running off?"
"Yes! I do!"
"Look, I mean no offense by this, but you need to open up a little. She's her own person."
"She's my little sister."
"In two weeks she's turning eighteen."
"So?"
"Give her some independence and space. She still loves you to death but let her be her own person. How would you feel if you were smothered all the time?"
Yang got in close and said flirtatiously, "Oh come on, as long as it's from you I don't mind."
Blake blushed a little and whispered, "Not here Yang, later."
"I'll hold you up to that."
With that Yang left to track down Nora and Ren to see if they knew where Ruby was. Turns out that they hadn't seen her all day which meant nobody knew Ruby's location. Great. Just great.
Yang jumped back into her bed and stared at the ceiling to collect her thoughts and rationalize them. She knew she shouldn't worry but she was anyways. She decided to think back to the start.
Yang knew about her reputation. She was a woman of many titles, some less glamorous than others, but she earned them all nonetheless. Her favorite among all of them though was being an overprotective sister. That's a role she was always good at and did well with no trouble. At least up until two years ago.
Roman Torchwick broke out of prison around two weeks after he was taken captive. Yet, surprisingly enough, the crime rate went down after that. The madman vanished into thin air and with it his criminal activities.
Vale settled and everything cooled down with him gone. They caught an imposter of a student named Cinder trying to bomb the Vytal festival but she was stopped by Ozpin. The festival went well; Yang made it into the single rounds but ultimately lost. Penny ended up winning the tournament though, so she didn't hold a grudge.
And after that life was calm. Well, calmer than it used to be. There was always school and something else going on every once in a while, nothing strenuous but life was always interesting. Yang in this time discovered that she was pansexual and while that was new to her, she embraced it. All and all she was happy.
But Ruby was becoming more of a hassle to look over. Throughout this time Ruby gradually grew more and more distant. Not figuratively but literally, she was so hard to find all the time. She acted the same around all her friends but whenever she wasn't studying, eating, sleeping, or in class she was gone.
What made it frustrating is that she was mildly reasonable about it. She was never gone long enough to concern anyone but Yang and she usually had semi-rational excuses. If she was going to be gone for a full day or more she'd let them all know a week ahead of time with a valid reason.
But what got under Yang's skin was that whenever Ruby would leave, she'd do so alone. Every single time in the past two years if Ruby needed to go she would do so alone. In two years Ruby had matured in body and mind but was still idealistic and only saw the best in people. As time went on Yang had seen the glares others had given her sister and every time it made her feel sick.
Ruby was attractive in a way that she less likely to be called hot but rather beautiful instead. Nonetheless, that still made her a target for some of the perverts of the school who viewed her as an object, not a person. Unbeknownst to Ruby, Yang had worked from behind the scenes to stop them and always done her best to keep her sister safe. When Ruby was gone though, she couldn't protect her which annoyed her to no end.
Which is why Yang was now laying in her bed, staring at the ceiling, and sighing repeatedly.
Weiss slammed her pencil down on the desk. "Yang if you keep sighing like that then there will be no fresh air left in the room. It's Saturday at 4 pm and it's nice outside. If you're not going to study then take a walk or something."
Yang wasn't in the mood to argue so she did as was requested. She paced the campus grounds, fortunate she had her boots considering it had rained all last night and the day previously. The weather was cool and calm with a relaxing breeze that would come every once in a while. Yang making circles around the campus staring at her feet and thinking about how Blake was right.
Ruby's eighteenth birthday was in two weeks and Yang hadn't started preparing yet.
Now anxiously walking, Yang was in the middle of brainstorming when she heard footsteps running up from behind her at a remarkable pace. On instinct, Yang cocked her gauntlet's guns and spun around to enter a battle stance. But before she could do anything she was brought into a giant hug.
"Yang!" Ruby squealed as she gave her sister a squeeze and then let go.
Yang sighed a breath of relief and smiled. "There you are. Where have you been for the last four hours? You disappeared at noon."
"I wanted to relax and spend some time with some friends. Besides, I went shopping! Look at what I got."
Yang watched as Ruby, cheerful as ever, went through her two bags she carried with her and displaying her new clothes. Yang had to admit, Ruby did have a fair taste in clothes when she wanted to. Maybe that one partner project a year ago with Coco had influenced her a bit.
"But look at all of these. They're so pretty." Ruby said as she began putting them back into their bags.
"They do look cute on you. Where did you go to get them?"
"A little store that Coco had told me a while back. So I went and checked it out."
Yang's ears were listening but her eyes were glued to a price tag sticking out of the bag. "That combat skirt was 750 lien?"
Ruby looked down at where Yang was looking and quickly brushed the price tag back into the bag. "No…"
"Do you have any idea how expensive that is?"
"Well yeah, but-"
"It's pretty damn expensive! How'd you pay for that? Did you take Weiss's credit-"
"No, I didn't take Weiss's credit card. It was a present-"
"You didn't pay for it yourself!"
Ruby's eyes widened when she realized her mistake. She sighed and said, "Listen to me and I'll explain. I didn't have the money with me when I went shopping with my friend. They decided to cover for it and called it a present but being responsible, as you've taught me, I couldn't accept it. They bought it for me but I've since paid it back in full. Alright?"
Yang couldn't be too angry at that. "Alright, just let me know where you're going next time, okay?"
"You know I don't have to but if it'll settle your nerves then next time I will."
It was 11 pm and Yang was in the library "studying" as she put it to her team. They were all in bed sound asleep while Yang was sitting in a corner on her laptop trying to find something.
Ruby's excuses for her shopping spree two days ago were reasonable but Yang felt something off about this time. There just wasn't something right about it. It was her gut instinct and she always followed her gut instinct.
So when Yang had found the tags in the trash earlier that morning, she grew suspicious. In total 2,000 lien had been spent on those clothes. Had this been Weiss, then that'd be understandable, but it wasn't and the tags with that value read specifically for Ruby's clothes.
That was too irregular and while Yang didn't like that she had to do this, she had to find out what really happened.
Clicking one last time Yang looked through Ruby's bank account to see where the money would've been withdrawn. Yang knew Ruby's account password and Ruby knew Yang's but that was for security reasons, in case something happened to either one of them. Since Yang practically ran both their finances, she knew how much Ruby had beforehand.
Looking at the number in the account, Yang felt her stomach drop. Not because Ruby failed to have enough in the account, she had quite a fund saved up, enough to cover a 2,000 lien drop. Yang was filled with dread because there was no decrease in the account. The money there was the same it was a week ago which meant Ruby never paid it back. Any withdraws should've gone through in those two days.
Yang closed her laptop to think. Ruby told her a story that didn't add up and none of the options looked good.
Ruby could've stolen the clothes, but that idea was quickly eliminated. Ruby was still as clumsy as ever and there's no way she'd be able to successfully steal clothes, let alone accept the morality of it. Besides, Ruby liked clothes but nowhere near that much. Not enough to steal them or pay that much for them.
Ruby could have another rich friend. But who would have that much except Ruby? She would hardly buy anything so she's saved up so much over the years and who other than Weiss could afford it? Besides, she had already asked Weiss about it and she said she didn't know anything. And what student could afford such a gift? That meant that her friend was likely older than her.
Ruby said it was a present in a way that made it sound like a slip. But if Ruby did pay this friend back then what of hers would be worth that much? What could she give that's not material? A service? An experience?
Yang slapped herself for thinking what came into her head. Ruby would never do that? Could she? She wasn't even eighteen yet and this was Ruby she was thinking about.
Yang knew that she had to do more investigating if she had to find out. There was much more to this than what meets the eye. But in the meantime, there was one thought on her mind that almost made her snap her laptop in half.
"Who the hell is deflowering my sister?!"
A/N: So this is the start of my newest fanfiction after Two Sides of a Bloodied Coin, I hope you all liked it. I just finished writing chapter 5 but I'm going to get a little farther ahead before I release any more. Just so you all know, this fic will deal with a lot of sexual themes and jokes but will have no smut. I'm like 98% confident on that. If you have any questions or suggestions just leave me a message/comment/review and I'll see what I can do. I hope you all like what I do, it certainly makes it a lot more fun.