Welp... let's get this show on the road... shooting for 4k here.

Chapter 2:

Ruby yawned as she opened her locker door. Pulling her hood to obscure more of her face, just glad that Emerald hadn't seen her. She could still cover it up. All she had to do was get her things for her first three classes, and then she needed to quickly get some makeup to cover it up from Weiss it was so simple.

Only problem was at best she knew she had five minutes before Emerald came in. Just because she made the green haired woman promise she would attend the first half of the day at least when they dropped her off last night.

She quickly closed her locker and was about to run towards the library where she knew Weiss was when she stopped seeing her green haired love walking around the corner. Quickly picking up at the sight of Ruby.

Muttering under her breath a simple 'fuck' as she knew she couldn't cover up what she knew was a bad black eye. The only joy she had was that she was able to prevent most of the swelling last night. But the fact she couldn't cover up her purple tinged flesh was going to be hard. Lying to Weiss was one thing.

It was almost trivial to her at this point. But to lie to Emerald, Coco or worse, both... it was something that had constantly hurt Ruby every time. More than what showed on the surface. But she knew it was for the best. All she had to do was make it through five more months. It would be easy as walking out then. She could go to their arms and not worry about getting pried from them by the government.

Ruby tried to duck away from Emerald to be met with Emerald catching her and spinning her closer into her embrace. Her hands just resting on Ruby's hips. Head on the slightly smaller girl's shoulder.

"Where are you off to in such a rush? I still need a kiss that you promised last night... and why are you still wearing your hoodie? You never break the rules... to an almost infuriating degree." Emerald asked as she yawned again. "I'm just cold... I mean there is snow and everything outside."

Smiling a little at the fact by the sound of it. It seemed like Ruby finally learned that the cold wasn't something for normal people. But that still didn't explain why she had her hood up. Almost like she was hiding something.

Spinning her around in her embrace So Emerald was looking at Ruby's face she could see Ruby trying to avoid her gaze. Rolling her eyes Emerald reached up and pulled the hood down causing Ruby to wince a little. She knew what was going to come. Something she just wished she could have avoided.

"Who did it? Because I'm about five seconds away from breaking their necks?" Emerald asked, her anger seeping through. Ruby already knew she was going to jump to the only person in the school who was a bully. "I just walked into a door last night Em... I swear." Ruby lied, she knew it sounded cliché, to the point she could see the rampant doubt in Emerald's eyes.

"It was Cardin wasn't it?" Emerald spoke letting go of Ruby and about to storm off to find the man who may just cause her expulsion when Ruby caught her hand trying to pull her closer. "It wasn't Cardin. Think Em... It is already changing colours... it isn't fresh. I'm telling you, I walked into my door last night."

Ruby couldn't believe she pleading for the school's notorious bully. Desperately not wanting Emerald to go off and hurt someone who for once was innocent. Mainly because Ruby knew after this, Emerald wouldn't stop at one hit. Or even a few. She most likely wouldn't stop until someone came and pulled her off Cardin and even then she would try to get a few more hits in.

Looking into her girlfriend's eyes, the pools of molten silver that she normally loved to just stare into, just kept reminding her of what she knew wasn't caused by what she said. And it was paining her the fact Ruby had lied about it. She knew it was Cardin and she was going to need to remind him how it is not okay to treat woman that way.

"I'm just going to talk to him Ruby... if things happen to turn vio-"

"No Em... you'll make them go that way and I don't want you to do something stupid and get caught up in trouble again. It was a door. I promise." Ruby pleaded again relaxing as Emerald seemingly gave in. When in reality Emerald knew how she could talk to Cardin and Ruby couldn't do anything about it. 'That prick best hope Port doesn't leave the Metalwork Room... otherwise come second period, I may have an assault charge.'

Letting out a sigh of defeat Emerald spoke up, "You are going to need to tell Coco... but let's go to the canteen, I need some coffee... and I'm pretty sure the others are waiting for us in there. Supposedly Sun has some big announcement..." as Emerald spoke that Ruby smiled at the fact she felt like she was able to talk her green haired love down from hitting a man who doesn't deserve it.

Ruby grasped Emerald's hand, weaving their fingers together and was about to walk off when Emerald pulled her back into an embrace. "I still need that kiss you promised me if I came in..." as Emerald spoke Ruby just smiled a little and leaned up to plant a kiss on Emerald's lips. "Better?"

"Nope." Emerald spoke leaning back down, rubbing her tongue along the bottom of Ruby's lip, seeking admittance to something that Ruby openly gave her. As their tongues fought for dominance, Ruby decided to forfeit the fight and just let them reside in her mouth.

Pulling back just enjoying the look on each other's faces, the single bridge of saliva connecting their bottom lips causing Ruby to just develop a smile.

A loud throat clear broke them from their moment and severing the bridge. Looking towards the noise Emerald groaned at the blonde man standing there for who knew how long. "Jaune... you got five seconds to tell me why you came here, and how long you've been standing there before I beat you a little. And then tell Coco you were watching her girlfriends make out." Emerald spoke knowing that the blonde feared both her and Coco.

"Not long I swear. And Sun just asked for me to come get you as he went to get Weiss out of the library..." Jaune got out quickly as he turned to his side in case Emerald decided to actually hit him. "She isn't going to hit you Jaune." Ruby said as she quickly began to drag Emerald towards the man by the hand. Giving the ebony skinned woman's hand a squeeze trying to tell her by it to not harm the man.

Ruby just smiled as Emerald fixed her hood for her with her free hand as they walked towards the canteen. Ruby smiled as she closed her eyes, just enjoying the fact Emerald wasn't going to do anything bad that would warrant her getting thrown out. She just needed to make sure Coco didn't do something equally as illegal and equally as stupid in Ruby's eyes.

As they stepped into the large room, Emerald smiled at the fact only a handful of students where there. She figured most would be home, clearly just wanting to get into the holiday spirit and not attend. Something Emerald did think about doing but she did promise Ruby she would at least make it to lunch and if her gut feeling was to be trusted that Ruby was lying to her about what gave her an Irish kiss, she couldn't let Ruby be unguarded.

Ruby was about to walk towards the table when Emerald pulled her closer. As she leaned down to whisper something in her ear, Ruby's breath hitched at the feeling of her hot breath began to drift into Ruby's hood, falling onto her exposed neck.

"Want me to get you anything? Or do you just want to share something to eat?" The way her voice danced off her lips Ruby froze for a second. "Just some hot cocoa please..." Ruby spoke blushing as Emerald pulled back and smiled at her. Saying a simple 'Kay' as she walked to go get in line.

Pulling her hood down a little to try and hide her blush she began to walk towards the table where she could see her friends sitting. As she took one of the seats she could finally feel that she had regained control of the blood flooding her face. Getting ready to just enjoy the day because she knew Coco would definitely have something planned for the three of them after school. Not that Ruby cared what she had planned. She just wanted her girlfriends holding her.

Once she was sure all the blood that was where it was supposed to be Ruby began to look at her friends. Across from her sat the red haired woman named Pyrrha clearly trying to scold her teal haired girlfriend who sat next to her, for what, she had no idea, but could assume judging by the tightly bound and splint fingers from doing something that she didn't fill Pyrrha in before,

On Pyrrha's other side sat Jaune seemingly like he was ready to go home any minute. On Ruby's left sat an excitable ginger haired woman named Nora, greedily gobbling down some snack her boyfriend had made for her. The raven haired man in question was sitting next to the ginger haired woman head resting on the table, Ruby just knew Ren was trying to get some more sleep, something she often found funny no matter how much sleep he seemed to get, he would just sleep more.

Next to Ren sat one of Ruby's oldest friends, a raven haired woman named Blake, nose deep in some book as she reached into her bag pulling out a multi coloured cube and without taking her gaze from the text, sliding the cube towards Ruby. Only punctuating it with a simple sentence. "I got bored last night... figured you might have fun figuring out how that core works."

Ruby grasped the cube and smiled at Blake. "Well, when you are ready, I have the last chapter written..." As Ruby spoke she could see the book move down slightly just so she could look into the amber eyes. The mirth in them made Ruby smile as she reached into her own bag and pulled out her notebook that she kept her recent story in and slid it towards the raven haired woman.

Once Blake caught it with a hand she could see Emerald taking a seat, shocked at the idea that she wasn't the first one to read it. Looking back towards Ruby, Emerald placed the paper cup down in front of her causing her to smile. Ruby looked around the table and noticed three people were missing. Two of which she knew wouldn't be much longer. She was about to ask where the blue haired boy was when he took a seat towards the head of the table.

"Hey Neptune." Ruby said as she began to attempt to twist one of the sides of the cube to find it practically fixed in place. "Hey Ruby... does the other guy look worse? Who am I kidding... Emerald probably castrated him." the blue haired man said trying to joke but diverting all attention onto the small brunette woman.

"I walked into a door last night... nothing else." Ruby lied to the group as she felt one of the coloured rows on the cube turn. She could see the teal haired woman attempt to look into the hood and shrugging her shoulders. "You see... Ruby comes in injured and her girlfriend doesn't freak out. All I did was dislocate a few fingers... I even let you talk me out of the drop in I wanted." The teal haired woman complained as Pyrrha poked her in the ribs.

"I'm not mad you're injured Reese... I'm mad that you didn't tell me if I asked you not to fall onto a piece of wood from a second story window that you'll in turn decide it would be better to run along roof tops with Sun."

As Pyrrha scolded the teal haired woman shrugged her shoulders. "It was amazing though. We got some amazing footage and all that happened was I didn't grab a ledge properly that was like five feet off the gro-"

"Not the point here Reese, got the Snow Angel here... oh and Nep need you to edit that." the remaining blonde man of the group spoke, reaching into his pocket to pull out a small black and red device, tossing it across the table till the blue haired man.

Taking the seat next to the white haired woman who grabbed his hand quickly looking around the table noticing Ruby's face. "Ruby... what hap-"

"Door. Don't worry." Ruby said as she took a sip from the paper cup Emerald had bought for her. Enjoying the warm liquid flowing down her throat. Glancing at Ruby, Sun just snickered a little. "That doesn't look like a door... I mean Reese has some experience with doors being violent." The blonde man spoke as the white haired woman next to him elbowed his ribs.

Quickly turning the next row Ruby smiled sliding the cube back towards Blake, "Only way you can turn it is a single clockwise turn along the furthest right side column." Ruby said as the raven haired girl moved the book down to glare at her."It took me hours to build that and you figured that gimmick out in no time. Unbelievable." Blake said quickly placing the cube into her bag along with the book she had been reading into her bag turning to the blonde man.

"Okay what is so important that you need to address the full group... minus of course Coco... who I'm assuming you already told... wait... Weiss isn't pregnant is she?" Blake asked as the white haired woman glare harshened on her. "No... at least I... don't think so... that isn't the point... I got Weiss to let us all go to the Schnee cabin literally next Monday to Christmas eve." Sun began as the woman next to him hit his ribs again.

"I told you the place needs to be cleaned and the place needs to be restocked... plus we don't get off till the end of Monday." Weiss scolded the man who just smiled at her. "Weiss... relax... that is what I meant." Sun spoke with a smirk on his face as the white haired woman smiled back and leaned up to kiss the man.

Ruby just smiled and had an idea as she pulled out another notebook and opened it to one of the crisp clean pages and grabbed the pen that was resting inside of the rings that had kept the pages together. She knew even if Blake didn't like the ending, it was fine. Her love for that story had vanished almost a week ago when she knew realised the plot hole she had written herself into. But this new one she was going to love for a while.

She could feel Emerald reading over her shoulder, not that she minded at this point. At this point it would be easy enough to change anything. This was her second favourite part of when a story idea hit. The only thing that bested it most times would be when her friends read and enjoyed them. She just knew once she could figure this story out... she was going to enjoy it.

"Why am I a villain?" Emerald asked causing the table to look at Ruby, shocked at that one sentence. "Everybody loves a redemption story... plus... it'll be cuter if I'm able to cause you to change your ways... besides... you won't be alone in who the villains are. They just won't be able to be redeemed." Ruby responded not taking her eyes off the page as she turned the notepad ninety degrees and quickly pushed down on the side of the pen to change the colour ink and begun to write more.

"Back on topic... you guys in? I'm thinking we get Coco to buy booze, we have a few nights drinking having fun, because after the holidays... the responsible members here will be cramming, the fun half will be... well having fun and not trying to cause a rift in the group for doing something stupid letting fate decide where we go with our future... and not to mention... Ruby may move to a different family making it harder to communicate." Sun spoke causing Ruby to stop her writing.

She wasn't sure how she had forgotten that she was meant to have a meeting with her caseworker... even if she was positive that the man wasn't going to separate her from her friends, the possibility still remained. The only solace is... Salem would lay off a bit during Christmas and New Years... just to make sure Ruby healed enough.

"That won't happen Sun. She is eighteen in a couple of months... legally then she is an adult and the government won't do anything except give her everything she is entitled to." Emerald responded quickly pulling Ruby a little closer, knowing how hard it was for Ruby to even entertain the idea of that. Partially because she knew how much herself and Coco meant to Ruby, but also because it brought up things Ruby was only ever comfortable to talk about once a year. At most four times a year and today wasn't one of those times.

Ruby turned to Emerald and smiled at her, just the fact she was looking out that much meant the world to Ruby. "I'll think of a way to convince Salem if you want to go Emerald..." Ruby spoke as Emerald smiled at her. They knew from the way Sun talked he already told Coco and already gotten the yes. She was already thinking of the type of lie she would need to tell Salem to get her to agree to a week without her. Pending that possible failure... she would then need to make some sort of deal.

Smiling as she turned back towards Sun, "Looks like me and Rubes are in. For the week of drinking and having fun."


As Ruby held onto Yang, the tears that had streamed down her face staining her cheeks with long red drags. she relaxed only marginally from Yang's insistence that she wasn't going to abandon her. All they had to do was wait for their mom to leave... but there was still the nagging doubt in the back of her mind that something was wrong.

She didn't want Yang to leave her... but she couldn't stand to think if her cowardice would lead to something like their father getting killed. She knew he wouldn't have asked for Yang to do something for her if he could help it. He knew the terror she bestowed upon them both already.

Taking a deep breath to try and calm her nerves a little Ruby spoke up to the blonde girl holding her, getting ready to turn the page of the book they were reading. The same type of stories that had always calmed Ruby in the past. Fairy tales. "Yang... I'm scared... but can you go help daddy? You said it yourself... sometimes you just need to be brave and face your fears... it worked for me. Now I can sleep in the dark."

The way the five year old spoke caused Yang to smile. She remembered she told that to Ruby once out of anger from having her crawl into her bed for the twentieth time in a row. But now the brunette sitting between her legs as they read the book trying to calm each other's nerves was giving her that same true advice.

"Okay Rubbles... but if you hear me scream... hide in the crawlspace in the wardrobe where I keep my candy. Do you remember how to open it?" The blonde woman spoke as Ruby nodded her head. How could she forget. The day she found her sister removing the small ridges on screws to make it easy to slide out she found interesting. "Okay..." Yang said leaning down to plant a kiss on the top of Ruby's head.


Ruby opened the back door of the house she knew was unnaturally cold. As if god himself had removed all the heat from the building Ruby often dreaded going to. But it wasn't like she had much of a choice. Not if she wanted to keep Emerald and Coco in her life. She would much rather live with Salem who didn't care nearly enough about Ruby to care who she dated than the possibility of someone who loathed the fact Ruby was a lesbian and she had multiple consenting girlfriends.

As she closed the door slowly as to not make it loud and risk waking the woman Ruby often joked with her friends that she was as evil as evil gets. She would rather not have another bruise she would need to lie about to the people who truly did care for her.

Turning around she nearly jumped at the light in the living room turn on, and what most considered to be a sing song voice carried its way towards Ruby. "Ruby dear... do you mind coming in here?"

Ruby knew that wasn't a question. It was a demand. One that if she didn't meet or brought up the inevitable that would happen, she would be meet with something far worse. She knew this way it would be the best time to ask to go on the trip, depending on how angry Salem was.

Ruby carefully walked, already knowing how Salem felt about it when Ruby made more noise than needed. The scar from where her stomach was burned was proof of that. She walked into the room to see Salem in her chair, stroking the large, black dog sitting next to it, patiently waiting for its next order, the woman spoke again in that same bitter sounding poison that Ruby was used to. "This is rather late Ruby. Where were you? I was worried." She asked as the dog stood turning around to face Ruby. Listening to the silent command it's master gave.

"I was at Coco's and I lost track of time." Ruby spoke, looking down out of fear the snarling dog would take any other sort of action as a challenge. One Ruby knew from multiple past experiences she wouldn't win. "And I know this is rude of me mom... but do you mind if I go next week on a trip with some friends...? I'll be gone till Christmas Eve." Ruby spoke, still not taking her eyes off the ground.

She could hear soft paws being placed going around her. She knew it was from the other dog Salem had taken to keeping to what Ruby knew deep down to make her life even more hell when Salem or Cinder weren't there to do it.

"Do you know of the dangers the real world has Ruby? Not to mention... this close to a holiday where one should be spending time with their family... oh wait. That's right." Salem spoke as she stood up from her seat to quickly walk to the side of the first dog. "If you truly want to go it'll be your present. But you still need to be punished for breaking curfew." She continued as Ruby cringed expecting the feeling of one of the large mutts chomping down on a limb. Trying to brace for any sort of pain that didn't seem to come from them.

Salem flew across the floor to grab Ruby by the neck and dragged her up the stairs. Ruby just trying not to pass out from the force the older woman was applying to her neck as she quickly matched the woman's speed as so she wouldn't fall walking up the stairs backwards.

That was when she recognised where she was going. Ruby began to fight as as she watched the dogs climbed the stairs behind her. Staring into the red and yellow eyes of the beasts as she could feel Salem smile While she threw the door open to reveal a small room. That was once nothing more than a place to keep a small water heater and some towels.

Perfectly square. Each side the same length as the door. Salem tossed Ruby inside of it causing Ruby dread. Dread that only intensified once she heard the command Salem issued to her loyal dogs, "Beo, Wolf, make sure she doesn't leave there till seven in the morning. Feel free to bite her anywhere but the neck or head if she does."

Author's Note:

Welp there... thus far Punk Metal has struck again... and I revealed the other ships... being Sun/Weiss and Ren/Nora... hope you guys found this chapter interesting. Also is it just me that the slang for a black eye is 'an Irish kiss'? We are a country of lovers… not fighters… unless you take our drink. Onto the Guest review...

Guest 4: I checked... just you. But you can't judge a concept properly on one small piece of data... you got to wait for more. Hope you are going to enjoy the rest of the story though.