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AUTHOR'S NOTE

Since it's unclear exactly where they were at what points in the timeline, I'm just sort of giving Ruby and Yang a vague temporary apartment in Vale for the month in between the start of this fic and the start of Beacon's first semester. It probably has something to do with Yang and/or school, I don't know. Honestly, that detail doesn't really matter; they just need a place to fall back on early in the story, Taiyang was not shown other than that V3C1 cardboard cutout at the original time of writing, and whatever, honestly, at this point worrying about that is ridiculous compared to other details I need to explain, so yeah. Hope that's not too obnoxious of a handwave.


didn't mean to laugh, didn't know i had

didn't know the better part of what you said

'cause in your head, you are not home

modest mouse – one chance


RWBY


30 days prior to Beacon

When you stumble out into the living room and see your sister looking really awkward and nervous, standing next to a complete stranger – who's wearing a hood, which means you now owe Ruby twenty more Lien than you did yesterday – you just sort of stand there, hoping this is exactly what it looks like. Definitely not what you expected to wake up to, let alone when you expected to wake up. Good thing you woke up to something real interesting!

"It's three in the morning," you say, "when I should already be asleep, and you brought a girl home with you, and you were trying not to make any noise." Oh man did she ever fail at that, though. 'Quiet' is seriously not one of Ruby's strong suits; you're not sure she actually knows the difference between whispering and stage whispering.

"Ummm... Yes! That's, well, pretty much what's going on?" The other girl hasn't said anything yet, but she looks like she's got it together at least a little bit better than Ruby does, at least. Then again, that's not exactly tough to manage.

"My baby sister's finally growing up," you say, wiping an imaginary tear off your cheek and replacing it with what you hope is a really obnoxious smirk. "I knew I was gonna win that bet with Dad."

The blank looks on their faces tell you that's not the story here, and you sigh and shake your head. You were joking... sort of... but you're kind of disappointed anyway. At least whatever's actually going on is probably still interesting in its own right. How could it not be? And you still think you're gonna win that bet, someday. Dad only put his money on 'guy' because you called dibs on 'girl' before he could open his mouth.

"So! Yang, this is Jade, she's... a person who exists. Jade, this is my sister Yang! She um, she also exists. I think everybody does, actually – mlhpfff?" Ew, she got spit on your hand. Probably should've thought about that before you covered her mouth. It's gross every single time, and that's not gonna change.

"Sloooow down there, sis. I'm way too sleepy for this. What's actually going on here?" This Jade girl is just looking around the place, maybe getting a feel for the layout; it's pretty dark, but the whole faunus thing might mean that's less of an issue for her. Meanwhile, Ruby looks like she's thinking really hard, which you're sure she is. The urge to ruffle her hair is almost overpowering.

"I ran into Jade on the way home from this like, holding cell –" wait, on the way home from what now? "–after I got accepted into Beacon two years early somehow maybe for doing some awesome stuff you haven't heard about –" wait, after she WHAT? "–and uhhh she doesn't actually have anywhere to stay or any Lien so I just kind of brought her homeaAAUGH!?"

Whatever she was saying gets smushed down by the crushing hug you've trapped her in. A minute and a some squirming later, and she finally breaks loose.

"Gimme one second to process that."

It takes you more than one second. It does only take you about five seconds to realize that as much as your brain is shrieking a million questions and something along the lines of 'ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod' and you're suddenly not sure you are awake after all... That stuff can wait until morning. The whole... possibly homeless girl in your living room? Yeah, that has to get resolved as soon as possible, mostly so you can go pass out again.

"Okay, I'm gonna process that tomorrow, I think. So..." You finally decide to give what's-her-name some attention. Jeez, her dress really makes her blend in with the shadows. Her eyes are also crazy bright – even in the dark, when stray bits of light hit them, it's like, whoa. There's green and then there's green, you know?

"Juhh... wait, sorry. Jade, right?" She nods and gives a little wave with one hand. "She said you don't have anywhere to stay?"

"Nope. I'm not really... from around here?" Jade shrugs and smiles. "I was just going to try to sleep on a park bench or something! It's fine if you're not okay with me staying over, I mean, I guess I'm basically a total stranger. And, um." She shrinks into herself, just a little. "Some people seem to have an issue with these?"

Her ears wiggle back and forth. Oh. Right. Wait, and Ruby apparently found her wandering around in the middle of the night... she's unarmed and maybe a civilian... it may or may not be accurate, but the mental image you have right now isn't exactly great.

"That's not as much of a thing where I came from, but I know other cultures are sort of –"

"Lemme go clear off the couch," you say, and the gratitude on her face is seriously a little bit... scary. Most of Vale is so clean on the surface, but with the kind of fun you get up to, you know how nasty things can be when no one's looking or when somebody's just choosing to look the other way.

There's something bigger going on for sure – like, what was that about 'where I came from' and 'other cultures', exactly? – but it's none of your business, especially when it's hard to keep your eyes open. The couch isn't too bad, so you just lift up the back end and shake it a few times until stuff quits falling off or falling out.

"Thank you so much," she says, and then sort of trails off, like she's remembering her actual situation – whatever that is – and only realizing now how big of a deal this is for her. Yeah, she's halfway in her own little world, not that there's anything wrong with that.

"Thank her," you mumble, nodding towards your sister, "aaaand now I'm going to my room to stop being awake." Halfway through the doorway, you look back over your shoulder. "Don't, like..." A long sigh. "Just, if you see Ruby in the kitchen before seven, make sure she's not sleepwalking and leaving spare clips in the fridge? That would be awesome."

Closing the door, you flop onto your bed like a rag doll. About a thousand things just happened, and all you want now is for the rest of the night to be dreams with nobody else in them.


"And the winner of this century's Extreme Punching Championship is... YANG XIAO LONG!" The crowd is going completely nuts, and you don't blame them. It's been a long, crazy road, but the world has finally recognized you as the greatest puncher in the universe. Guys are crazy for you, girls want to be you, a few girls are also crazy for you... Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

What is that knocking sound?

All of a sudden, the world around you is... fading out, almost, becoming a thin backdrop that's blatantly fake, but you're sure you're still asleep. Is this, like, lucid dreaming or whatever? That's new. And weird. And there's a door in the middle of a stadium, just kind of standing there, and someone is knocking on the other side. Somehow. Well, that's sure a thing. Might as well open it!

"Whoa!" You take a step back from the wide, almost creepily enthusiastic eyes that are about an inch away from your face. "Um. Hi." The door opens up to a dizzying expanse of pure nothing, darker than black forever into the distance, apart from what look like weird spheres or bubbles in a lot of different colors and sizes, scattered randomly through the void.

"Sorry to interrupt! Can I ask you a few questions? The last couple dreams I tried to visit belonged to some really rude people." A really cute, sort of round-cheeked girl, slightly slanted rust-red eyes that are a lot darker than yours in that state, a bright red outfit that's cool but a little too complicated to take in all at once, surprisingly big curly ram horns, and a grin so wide it ought to be splitting her face in half.

"Uh... huh." Well, this is new. Real new. This dream is getting weird and exciting really fast! And it's just a dream, so... "Sure, why not? Come on in."

You thought that grin couldn't possibly get any wider, but you were wrong.