Blake had a thoughtful list of invectives for moments like this. She had murmured a good number of them under her breath in the last handful of hours. She aimed that frustration at her scroll, nearly cracking the screen in her raw grip. "What. The. Hell."
For the umpteenth time, she received Yang's answering machine. Was it the tenth call, or the twentieth? Blake had lost count with how many times she redialed. Sucking in an annoyed breath, she slammed the scroll down and began to pace. In her mind she was slowly, meticulously, piecing together the chain of events that had brought her to this moment. Strangely, more inexplicable things had happened during her time on this team, and ever since she was a teenager, life has a knack for turning upside down.
Frankly, she should have expected something like this sooner.
The tiniest little mew called her attention, and she looked up to see the baby looking at her expectantly. Blake's ears flattened back when the baby made another sound. With renewed vigor, she clutched her scroll and dialed Yang again. It went directly to voicemail, and she cursed under her breath once more. Another mew pleading for attention sounded from the child, and Blake withheld a growl so as not to scare it. "This is asinine."
Ruby could only nod, her focus more on the sad state of the kitchen. "That's why I keep saying we need to upgrade our scrolls." If they were going to keep the baby in the house, all of the garbage and piled up fast food boxes needed to go. With two bags of recycling built up as well, Ruby was amazed the kitchen hadn't been deemed condemned months ago. "The reception is wonky as soon as you get out of the main cities." Ruby replied tiredly.
"Yang insisted you were stretching the truth to get a new one." Now that Blake knew otherwise, her ire had reached a new level. "When I get my hands on her, I'm going to staple that scroll to her ear, and plaster an antenna to the back of her head." She murmured hotly, rage in her tone. "Who goes wandering off the beaten paths like a lunatic?"
"The one who likes to live off the land." Ruby said with a tiny shrug. "Don't worry, they'll hit the main city, and all those missed calls will pop up. She'll call back, I've also left a few for Weiss."
"Assuming the inevitable is fine, but, what will we say to her, exactly?" Blake asked, looking at the babbling infant on the table before flicking her gaze over to Ruby. "This is not the sort of news you deliver over a scroll."
"I don't know…" Ruby said with a shrug, tying off a particularly smelly garbage bag. "I haven't gotten that far…I'm still trying to figure out how I'm taking all of this…I can't even imagine Yang."
"And?" Blake prompted.
"What?"
"How are you take it." Blake asked with no small amount of trepidation.
"I don't know." Ruby said softly. "I've always wanted a baby sister…but not like this..."
"Huh, I thought you were happy being the youngest." Blake said, trying to drag her gaze away from the baby who kept mewing at her. She knew the child had a sense of smell...could tell who was and wasn't Faunus by that alone. Still, she had no intention of responding back. "I was an only child, so I don't even know what it's like to have an older sister, much less a younger one."
Ruby latched onto the casual conversation like a leach. "I know a lot of people get all annoyed about being the middle child, but I'd bet it would have been awesome from my perspective." Ruby deposited everything outside before coming back and washing her hands. Then she began rummaging around in the fridge. "I guess it doesn't matter. Yang and I made due with the fact that we would be it. Dad couldn't deal with another spouse, so…no new mom, no new sibling…I won't lie, I don't think I would have been okay with having a different mom anyway."
"Ruby, you can't give that to the baby." Blake said, gesturing to the carton of milk and the clean rag Ruby had gathered. "She's a cat Faunus just like I am. We're lactose intolerant."
"You drink milk all the time." Ruby protested. "Besides, she needs to eat something."
"We grow into it, and even I can't drink anything thicker than one percent. I'd be in the bathroom all day…"
"Well then, what do you suggest?"
"Formula…preferably soy."
"We don't have any, and she's probably hungry. What do you want me to do?"
Another little mew, and Blake turn her attention to the cub, who then began to purr happily. Blake could feel her temper slipping. "Well excuse me for failing to put baby crap on the shopping list last week…didn't realize your extended family would be purring on the goddamn table." She snapped, only to look down at the red-eyed child that was now in their care. When no retort came, Blake let loose a long held sigh. "…I'm sorry…that was uncalled for."
"I know she's dead, I saw her body...I buried her..." Ruby was quiet for a moment longer. "What am I going to tell Yang?"
"The truth, as gently as possible." Blake said, plucking at the blanket idly. "More importantly, what are we going to do until then? We don't have any baby stuff, and you and I do a lot of charity work. We're not the ones grossing in the high salaries." That privilege went to Weiss, the real breadwinner of the team. Yang's profits were a close second.
Ruby didn't know. "Well, if we stick to the basics…"
"Speaking of basics, we're down one hunter." Blake pointed out. "We can't exactly sling a baby over our backs and go fight Grimm...if she's family, we can't very well get rid of her...but we can't exactly cart her around in the woods, either. Someone is going to have to say home."
"Well…never mind that for now. We need groceries. Weiss did leave the spare credit card." Ruby said, looking up to where it was kept, hidden behind one of the wall tiles near the sink. "We could always use that."
"We don't exactly have a choice…shit…" Blake bit her lower lip.
She watched those little Faunus ears twitch, and she knew there was a world of questions that Ruby just wouldn't have answers for. Now, no one would, and she didn't dare think of what that might do to Yang. Her dealings with Raven hadn't exactly been positive, and neither one of them had a good long talk about the past. The woman's exploits seemed to come and go as time went on…but to Yang, Raven was still a mystery that would never be solved.
"…Ruby?"
"Yeah…"
"You didn't happen to pack a diaper bag or anything like that, did you?" Blake wondered as a realization wafted to her nose.
"I wasn't going to stay around there any longer than I had to." Ruby murmured, ear to her scroll. If they couldn't get a hold of Weiss and Yang, maybe she could get her uncle to pick up. "Why, something up?"
Blake's aggravated sigh permeated the room once more. "She just peed."
