Chapter 2: Today Was A Good Day

June 3rd, 1944.

Ruby was finishing up putting away the returned books to their appropriate sections. When she did, she walked the cart back to the front counter and placed herself behind said counter. You see, Ruby worked part-time at the local library to make money to sustain the strange family that she, Yang and Blake now had. It served a few other purposes as well. Blake could borrow books free of charge to satisfy her literary needs, and Ruby could also borrow books for herself. On top of that, it wasn't very busy, so Ruby could do all of her homework while she waited for customers to show up. She made good money, the workload wasn't too much and she wasn't losing too much of her free time since she could do her homework there. It was a good place to work.

The place itself was rather large. There was a large open area in the front and centre of the building, which was framed by a loft that effectively gave the rest of the building's interior a second floor. The loft and the area of the first floor under it were rowed with towering wood bookshelves. The shelves were so large that poor little old Ruby carried around a ladder, one that could hook on to the edges of the shelves, in the lower section of her cart just so she could reach the higher shelves.

The main counter, where books were borrowed, returned and fees were paid, was situated in the earlier mentioned open area. This is where Ruby spent seventy-five percent of her time at the library. The other twenty-five was spent helping customers and putting books back in their places. The large U-shaped counter was made of a dark oak wood, but it was old and had seen better days. Still, Ruby liked it. She felt important behind it, and it wasn't uncomfortable to sit at and do homework or take care of the book-keeping.

Over the course of the next few hours, Ruby sat at that same counter doing multiple things. A large part of her time was spent doing her homework, reluctantly one might add. She also dealt with people walking in to return books, borrow books and pay late fees. Almost all of them were regulars that Ruby knew well from working there for almost two years. Many of them even gave her words of encouragement with her homework, which were the only things that kept on top of it. Ruby took periodic breaks from her homework to attend to the book-keeping and also went back to return the returned books to their respective sections one more time an hour before closing.

When Ruby finished doing this, she returned to the main counter. What she found waiting there were two French Police Officers. Ruby froze when she saw this. 'Oh no, hugh…' she thought. Ruby swallowed hard before she continued to make her way to the counter, finally coming into view and catching the attention of the officers. She gave a nervous smile as she approached the front of the counter where they waited patiently for her.

"Uh… How can I help you two officers?" Ruby greeted.

The first of the two officers was older than the other, maybe in his forties. He had greying hair hidden under his cap, and an attractive mustache of the same shade of grey as his hair. He was taller and a little bigger than the other officer. His face seemed kind behind his mustache, and his complexion was slightly pink. His posture was more relaxed and he smiled with squinting eyes when Ruby spoke.

This officer made Ruby a little more comfortable. The same could not be said about his partner. The second officer was younger, maybe twenty-five, at most. His face and hair was clean cut, and his sharp features and pale complexion were easy to see. His face also bore a stern look. His posture was impeccable, and his eyes, dark and piercing. Ruby shivered at the sight.

"I'm constable Port. This little runt here is my partner, officer Sévère." The older gentleman introduced warmly. Officer Sévère was the one to continue.

"We'd like to ask you a few questions, young lady." Sévère said bluntly.

"Uh… Sure!" Ruby complied.

Port leaned against the counter, while Sévère remained straight-backed and pulled out a note book.

"Do you have any illegal books here?" was the first question that came out of his mouth. Ruby gave him a look that blended confusion and offense. Did he think she was stupid?

"Of course not. Those were all taken away before I even started working here." She responded. She tried not to sound too hostile. Sévère nodded slowly and took down notes.

"Have you seen anyone suspicious walk in over the course of the last few weeks?" he asked.

"No. Almost everyone who walks in has been coming since before I started working here. Regulars. No new people since over a month ago." Sévère took more notes down, and flipped to the next page of his notebook.

"Look, I'm sure an intelligent young lady such as yourself knows exactly what we're getting at here. Have you seen any of those Faunus rascals?" Port asked, turning towards her. Sévère glared at his older partner.

"That is not how this is supposed to proceed!" he yelled in a whisper.

"I don't give a cul de rat, pardon my language," he turned to say to Ruby, before turning back towards his partner, "about procedure. This young gal is not an imbecile; she knows exactly why we're here. No sense beating around the bush." Port remained calm while his partner stood still and boiled.

"So?" Port asked, turning to Ruby.

"No, I'm sorry but I haven't seen a Faunus in Paris since '42." She answered.

"It's not just Faunus," Officer Sévère started, "have you seen anyone suspicious or out of place in the past few weeks?"

"We believe the rebels have a hide out somewhere in this area, and we must find them at once." Port added. Sévère sighed in frustration, but decided not to argue with his partner.

"You think that could be here? In a library? Last time I checked, you can't make a bomb with these." Ruby said, motioning to the rows of books all around them. The junior officer grumbled at the humorous response, but said nothing.

"We still have to check everywhere, every weekend like clockwork. Would it be too much trouble for me to take a look at the basement?" Constable Port continued.

"No, I don't mind at all. We used to use it for storage, but we don't have so many books anymore so we barely use it now. It's practically empty. I'm sure my boss wouldn't mind if I loaned you the key for a little to go check. I have to stay here just in case someone walks in and needs me though."

"Right! The key! Thank you, yes. Sévère, you can stay and hold the fort up here again. I won't be too long." Port called back to Sévère, all the while this latter glared almost accusingly at Ruby.

Ruby proceeded to sit down at the counter and worked on the end-of-the-day book keeping. Officer Sévère simply stood by the counter and watched her. Ruby tried to ignore his gaze as best she could, but she eventually gave up. She put down her pencil and turned to him.

"Do you mind?" she asked, annoyance showing in her voice. Officer Sévère narrowed his eyes at her. Ruby suddenly felt a little bit of fear, but did not let herself show it.

"I'm just doing my job." He said, his voice slow and intense.

"Well I'm trying to do mine, and you're bothering me." Ruby retorted.

"Well I'm sorry." Ruby detected some sarcasm in his voice, but took it anyway and returned to her work.

It was not long before Constable Port returned. He gave Ruby the key back and confirmed that it indeed was practically empty, no sign of illegal activity.

"Well, I think that should about wrap things up here. Thank you for your time, ma fille." Port turned and looked at the large clock suspended above the main entrance. "We should get going now, Sévère, we've got two more buildings to investigate before curfew. Speaking of which," Port once again turned to look at Ruby, "you should be heading home soon. Curfew is in just over an hour." Ruby smiled at him.

"Not to worry, the library closes in five minutes anyway. I'm headed home right after." Before Port could respond, Sévère cut in.

"That's good, that's good. Now can we get going already?" Ruby wasn't certain of it, but she was pretty sure she saw Port shoot her a smile from under that voluminous mustache of his and an eye-roll from behind his squinty eyes.

"Stay safe, child." He told her as he walked out the main entrance, following an impatient Officer Sévère.

Ruby finished up what was left of her work, before looking over the rest of the building for stragglers. She noted that no one was left in the building, except for her. She proceeded to close up the building, making sure every door was locked and all the lights, turned off. Without the lights and the people, the library was much darker and much creepier than before. Ruby left the building and headed home through the almost unlit streets of Paris.

Ruby arrived at the apartment at twenty-one-twelve. She fetched her key from out of the pouch she wore on the belt of her skirt. Even while Ruby and or Yang were at home, they kept the door locked on the off chance that someone were to walk in without knocking and see a pair of cat ears they were not supposed to. Ruby turned the key and heard the audible sliding of the bolt. She rotated the handle, opened the door and walked in.

"I'm home guys!" she announced as she closed the door behind her and locked the door.

In the living room, Blake sat in the armchair with the book that Ruby had borrowed for her the day before. Blake had changed since Ruby had left earlier in the day. She was wearing her nightgown again, which she had previously changed out of while Yang and Ruby went shopping. Her ears rose to attention at Ruby's announcement, but her eyes remained fixated to her book, almost shyly.

"Hello." was the only response that Ruby received from her dark-haired friend.

At the same moment, Yang opened the door and exited the bedroom, all the while putting her shirt back on. Her hair was messy and uncombed, and it looked like she may have been sweating in the near past.

"Hey Ruby! Me and Blake were just… Um…" Ruby decided she wouldn't let her sister try to finish her thought.

"You know what, don't tell me. Nope. Nope, I think I'd rather not know, thank you very much." Ruby said as she waved her hands around her head in an attempt to shoo away her less-than-Christian thoughts and looked away from the two others. Blake attempted to hide her increasingly reddening face behind her novel, while Yang's face bore a smile that expressed nervous guilt as she reached back and played with her beloved hair, brushing it with her fingers.

"So... You hungry Ruby? We could slap something together for a late supper or something." Yang tried to rid of the awkward silence that had befallen on the room. Ruby turned around to face them again, decidedly more pleased by this conversation than the previous.

"Yes, please!" she exclaimed.

"I'm not hungry." Blake commented. Yang turned a sly grin towards her partner.

"Of course you aren't. You've had plenty to eat today, haven't you?" Blake buried her nose deeper into her novel at Yang's lewd comment. Ruby's eyes narrowed pensively at Yang's words, trying and failing to understand what she was saying. She then turned and looked at Blake to gauge her reaction. Then it clicked. Ruby's eyes went wide. She quickly shut her eyes and covered her ears, as if she could prevent herself from hearing and understanding what Yang had said.

"Ew! Yang, that's gross! What did I just say?" Ruby yelled.

"Hey, I didn't say a thing." Yang defended innocently. Blake put her book to the side suddenly. She then got up and walked towards the kitchen.

"I'm making food. When the two of you are done... discussing... feel free come and join me." Ruby and Yang both stared at the black-haired Faunus as she walked into the kitchen. Ruby was the first to speak up after a few moments of silent staring.

"A bite to eat is all I was asking for." she said quietly as she followed through the kitchen door. A few moments later, Yang started towards the kitchen as well, a look of disappointment painted on her face.

"You two are no fun!" she called.

The three of them had some of the beef Yang picked up earlier in the day, along with some potatoes and the recently acquired wine. Ruby and Blake, both wanting to avoid the previous topic of conversation, started talking about books. This topic was deliberately picked for being one of the few common interests the two girls shared, as well as to spite Yang who showed no interest whatsoever in literacy.

"Speaking of books, how was work today Rubes?" Yang all but interrupted, in a desperate attempt to steer the conversation towards something even mildly more interesting. Ruby blinked a few times, processing the request for information after having turned to face her sister. A smile grew on her face as she prepared to speak. Blake sighed quietly, knowing her conversation on favourite authors with Ruby was lost at sea until further notice.

"Well, when I first got there, Dr. Oobleck came up to me like really fast! Then he told me he had things to do and was taking the rest of the day off and that's why he moved my shift to the evening, and that I'd be closing alone, and BOOM! He was gone, out the door! I barely even saw him-" Yang interrupted Ruby mid-speech, waving her hands in front of her.

"Wait wait wait wait! Who's this Ooblack guy again?"

"Oobleck. He's my boss," Ruby explained, "at the Library."

"Right! Ooblerck! I remember him!" Yang exclaimed. Ruby and Blake stared at her, unconvinced.

"You had no idea, did you?" Blake said.

"Not a clue." Yang admitted with a grin. Ruby was about to get back on topic, but Yang continued. "Wait a sec here! You said he's a doctor, right? What the hell is he doing working at a library? The hospitals are low since they took away the Faunus."

"There is more than one kind of doctor, Yang." Blake explained, slight exasperation in her voice, but it wasn't easy to tell with how monotone she could be.

"Yeah. He's got a doctorate in history. He even substituted at the school three years ago." Ruby continued.
"You know, I don't have to understand. Just keep going." Yang replied cheerfully. Ruby sighed slightly before continuing.

"Anyway, he's got to be putting something in that coffee of his. I mean, he's practically super-human!"

"I'd like to see Blake try what he's having," Yang commented with yet another devious smirk, "might make for an interesting night."

"Yang, I don't think that'd be such a great idea. Remember back when we had Minou?" Ruby replied. Minou was a kitten Ruby and Yang had when they were kids, living in their family farmhouse in southern France. Minou had a terrible habit of dashing around the house, across the top of beds and through anything left lying around. In the middle of the night. While everyone was trying to sleep. Dad didn't like Minou very much.

"Fine, I guess." Yang said with a sigh of defeat. Blake thought about yet again defending the fact that she was not a cat, but decided against it. That argument was not one she wanted to partake in.

"Anything else interesting happen today, Ruby?" she asked instead. Ruby resumed her story once more.

"Um... no, not really. Oh, well, just before closing time, two police officers came in. One was kinda nice, but the other wasn't. A real harsh one. They were looking for some not-so-legal books and Faunus and stuff. Apparently, a group of Résistance fighters is hiding out somewhere in the neighbourhood."

"I've heard the same." said Blake, before putting a piece of beef in her mouth. Ruby and Yang stared at her.

"How would you know that?" Ruby asked her. She started chewing very slowly, possibly in an attempt to create more time to formulate a convincing lie.

"I read it... In a newspaper..." Blake came up with when she was done chewing.

"You're a terrible liar. They wouldn't put something like that in the newspaper anyway." Yang replied. Blake sighed.

"I was asked to join." she admitted.

"By who?" Yang raised her voice.

"An old friend."

"When did this happen?" Ruby half-yelled. Blake's ears clung to the top of her head in reaction to the tone of Ruby's voice.

"When the two of you were out today. Letter passed under the door."

"You better not be thinking about it." the tone of Yang's voice was threatening, but its roots were based in concern.

"I don't plan on it." Blake responded. Yang sighed in relief.

"Well good. I don't need two idiots trying to get themselves killed." Ruby grunted and crossed her arms in disagreement.

"I'm not an idiot." She pouted.

"I call you that because I wuv you!" Yang sung as she got up and quickly moved to embrace her little sister. Ruby got up and ran around the table to avoid the barrage of hugs and kisses her sister was trying to launch onto her.

"Nonononononono. Yang, stop it!" she yelled. Blake calmly kept eating her supper, before weaving through the running siblings to wash her dishes.

The rest of the evening was relatively uneventful. After Ruby and Yang finally calmed down, they finished their supper. They deeply regretted wasting so much time as they ate their now cold food.

Ruby went to bed on her couch not too long after that, and so Yang had to make an effort to stay quiet. She and Blake stayed up an extra hour before also going to sleep for the rest of the night. Well, Yang slept for the rest of the night. Blake, on the other hand, woke up at almost two in the morning.

Blake slowly got up and out of bed, careful not to awaken the bear of a girl sleeping next to her. She proceeded to strip off her nightgown, and change into some more form-fitting clothes. When she was done with her clothes, she tied a black ribbon into a bow on her head in such a way that it hid her Faunus ears. After that, she silently exited the bedroom and entered the living room where Ruby slept. Both Yang and Ruby were relatively deep sleepers. There was little, if any, chance of waking either one by accident. Still, Blake moved carefully through the room. She went to the kitchen.

'Unbelievable.' Blake thought to herself. Neither Ruby nor Yang seemed to have cleaned up anything from the late supper. Dirty dishes, pots and pans were lazily spread around the kitchen and dining room area. Cleaning the supper time dishes was the only responsible Ruby and Yang had inside of the apartment, and they still managed to fuck it up.

Blake turned her attention away from the stress-inducing sight and towards her goal, the dining room window, which was one of only two windows in their apartment. Blake walked up to it and opened it. Peeking her head out, she breathed in the cool fresh air of the June evening. Their apartment was on the second floor, counting the ground floor, a little too far to drop down from comfortably. Luckily, each window on the apartment building was paired with a wrought-iron flower basket. Their basket was empty. Blake couldn't care for a flowerbed, since someone could see her leaning out of the window from the ground, and Ruby and Yang couldn't even take care of a few dishes.

Blake crawled out of the window and onto the wrought-iron basket. She closed the window behind her and looked up, another wrought-iron basket, this one also empty, by chance. Past that, Blake saw the edge of the rooftop. The building was only three stories tall. Anything taller would mean pricier rent, something Yang, Ruby and herself did not need, and couldn't afford anyway.

Blake jumped up and grabbed at the flower basket. Catching it, she pulled her dangling form up the wall and onto this basket. The edge of the roof was now only at her chin, and so she simply hoisted herself up onto the roof.

Blake sat on the roof for a few moments. Closing her eyes, she took another deep breath to savour the cool air again, then let it blow out smoothly from her open mouth. From here she could clearly see the dark Paris skyline. There wasn't much to see, she thought. Sure, there was the Eiffel tower off in the distance, but Blake never felt it was all that impressive. An ugly, roughly yet sturdily built structure made by a bridge designer for no other reason than to show off. Big Ben in London at least served a purpose. The Statue of Liberty in New York represented Freedom and Liberty. This tower meant nothing. She sighed.

Blake got to her feet and walked to the edge of the rooftop on the side nearest to the tower. The apartment building and the structures surrounding it were of similar shape and height. On top of that, they were less than a few feet apart, making it easy for her to hop from roof to roof. Doing so, she eventually got to a more industrial type building. This building had a service ladder from the ground to the roof. Blake took full advantage of it to get down, and found herself in the yard. A quick hop over the fence and she was in the streets. Maneuvering the nearly empty city streets, Blake kept to the shadows and alleyways. It was way past curfew and she didn't have an Ausweis. Not to mention the bow, though covering her Faunus ears completely, was just plain obvious. Even the dumbest of soldiers and collabos would no doubt see through it.

She eventually found herself on Nélaton road, and followed it until she arrived at her destination: the Vélodrome d'Hiver. Blake escaped her prison of safety often to come here, close to once a week, but drifting to once a month and taking detours during the winter to avoid being followed back home.

She came here to remind herself of the events that had taken place here almost two years prior. She wasn't sure what it was that had happened, she had already started living secretly with Yang to avoid the flame of the angry French populace, but she knew that whatever it was, it was not pleasant. She could see it here, in front of her. Every door of the once inviting sporting stadium barred by chain and padlock. Every facet of the once bright skylight roof painted a gloomy dark blue. Every face of the once proud walls bearing the memory of the horrific events that took place within them. Blake shivered, and wiped a single tear from her cheek.

Remembering the grimness this place held was not the only thing Blake did when she came here though. She always reflected upon her day to cheer herself up. Whatever may have happened, it was always better than life in one of those damned camps.

Blake thought of today's events, starting with Yang's panicked and angry yet love-inspired entry to the day. Next came the quiet time she had cleaning and reading and after lunch, 'quality time' with Yang, then more reading. The day ended with a pleasant supper, where she had a nice discussion about books with Ruby before she talked about her day at work and… Oh yes. The letter. The one her friend passed under the door inviting her to join the Résistance fighters as they now called themselves. She didn't want to get involved in the fighting, but she had seriously considered it for a moment, which was why she stowed the letter away in the bottom drawer of her nightstand rather than destroy it.

Blake shooed away the letter from her mind. She didn't want to think about it so much. All things considered, today was a good day, she thought.

"Hé, toi!"

'Merde.' Blake winced and stiffened at the sound of the voice, and her ears twitched from underneath her bow.

"What are you doing out past curfew? Do you have an Ausweis?" asked a second voice.

'Great, two.' Thought Blake. She spoke without turning around:

"No." She refused to face them. This was the end of her freedom. The end of any happiness she still held onto in this life. She would not face it, would not give it the privilege of seeing her face.

"Well you're under arrest. It's a crime to be out this late." The second voice replied.

"Hey wait a second… you wouldn't happen to have something hidden under that bow of yours, would you?" the first voice cut back in. Blake knew the men where far too close for her to give them the slip without taking a few bullets, but also way too far away for her to try and take them out barehanded. She was done. Caught. Doomed to go to Drancy. However that didn't mean she couldn't toy with her captors. She knew full well how much the Faunus scared them, and she took full advantage of it.

"Maybe," Blake answered, "I guess you'll just have to check for yourself."

Both men pulled their weapons, P38s, and pointed them at her. The second man nodded for the first to go get her. The man audibly gulped, a sound that Blake heard clearly and almost made her chuckle, before he started slowly moving closer and closer to her. When he got to her, he pressed the muzzle of his handgun into her back, and with his left hand reached up to remove the bow. Blake's two black cat ears greeted him in an almost mocking fashion. Blake couldn't see it, but the two French Police officers exchanged a look that blended wonder, fear, disgust and excitement.

"You're under arrest!" the second man yelled.

"And you're repeating yourse-" Blake's retort was cut short by the first officer, who had pistol-whipped her in the back of the head. She dropped to the ground like a bag of rocks.

"Sacrebleu, we got one of these stupid mutts!" the first policeman called to the second.

"Well I for one am not surprised in the slightest that I could get one. I'm a little more surprised that you managed to be helpful in making it happen." The second officer said, holstering his weapon.

"Helped? I did all the work!" the first one exclaimed, swinging his arms around.

"Ah, ferme-toi, Joseph." The second man told him, walking up to their prize.

"You're a trou de cul, you know that Marcel?" Marcel chuckled a bit, then they both turned their attention to Blake's immobile form on the ground before Joseph continued:

"What do we do with her now?"

"We bring her back to the station, hand her off to whoever deals with these psychos, then grab ourselves that fuckin' promotion we've been waiting on." Marcel cheered.

"You know, I take back what I said earlier. Today was a good day." Joseph affirmed.

Author's Note: As promised, one week. The third will take much more time, I'm sorry. I only have a few hundred words in it so far, and all on paper. This one was written prior to the first one's release, all I had to do was fix it up. I hope to get chapter three done in two weeks, but no promises this time. Hopefully with the upcoming spring break I'll have an hour or two of extra free time to do everything my life demands of me and write per day.

I think this chapter was better than the previous, personally. Let me know what you guys and gals think! I did not anticipate to get such a good response for this story, so thank you, the lot of you. I love getting reviews and PMs and responding to them, and the advice you all give can only help make this story better. So leave a review, send me a PM, ask me questions or leave comments if you so feel the desire to, and have yourselves a good day.

"One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel, and the next it's rolling over me."
– Far Cry, Snakes & Arrows (2007), Rush.