Chapter 3 Ruby: An Imperfect Emulation

Ruby had always known that she had big shoes to fill. The legacy left behind by Summer Rose was no small void. In some ways it had been intimidating. In others it had been empowering. Now that she was older, Ruby could see the darker reality. She could boil down all of the mundane truths. Study all of the things she had easily taken for granted. Summer had played a masterful game, whispering thousands of little white lies to protect her family.

At the forefront of her image, she was a loving wife and mother. Cookies and tall tales one moment, gentle chidings and scolding's the next. Skinned knees and shadows under the bed had been no match for her. Meals around the table and nights sat by the fire were expected. All of had been so easily received, and yet, so quickly lost.

Behind that matronly image, a seasoned warrior nursed her wounds. The loss of comrades had been expected. The pools of blood caused by the Grimm were unavoidable. Endless mission failures rested heavily on the leader, and she endured the weight of those shortcomings to the best of her ability.

Everything was compounded by the rampant sins bogging down the family, and the work that eventually killed Summer Rose, ending an era in an instant.

Ruby now understood that she had been blissfully ignorant as a child. It was all because her parents wanted it that way. Free from worry, as unjaded as possible. Summer had juggled a dual life so perfectly that neither Ruby nor Yang could truly fathom the cost until it had been paid. To those that loved her, she had been a wonderful lover, mother, and huntress. On paper, it seemed simple enough.

Almost expected, really.

Reality had been different. Summer's life had been a gritty, unkempt, mess. Plied by her vices and fortified by love. Everything she did was an act thrown together by a smile and determination. No one could really be that perfect. Ruby often wondered what it might be like to do what Summer did, walking that fine line with expert precision. She had wanted to know Summer's life so badly that she had begun to follow in her footsteps from a very young age.

Signal had been an eye opening experience. A testament to the skill a huntress would need to merely survive outside of the kingdoms. Beacon, showed that Ruby's path would never quite be the same. It was upon graduation that her footsteps began to drift from the path that Summer had walked. Missions were her main priority for years. Romance came later, with the slow passage of time.

Ruby was twenty eight and just now starting her family, a sharp contrast to the way that team STRQ had gone about things. Still, as impossible as it was, she wanted to follow Summer's example. Continuing a legacy far greater than she had ever given the woman credit for.

The slow and steady sound of chopping wood echoed from outside. Sun was hard at work turning a tree into manageable portions. The house always needed something fixed. Log cabins were in constant need of repairs. Tacking on an entire basement to clean and a shed to paint, there wasn't a shortage of jobs to be done.

A laundry basket balanced between her left hand and her hip. Her right hand gathered empty plates as she passed by the living area. She only stopped in the kitchen to put the dishes in the sink. Then she headed to the small laundry room located in the basement. The mundanity of chores were the thing she hated most. Maintaining a household wasn't as easy as maintaining a single room inside a dorm. Her years as a huntress had made some life skills impossible to learn.

Before, she hadn't been home long enough before to ever worry about it. Now, she didn't have missions as an excuse. The crying baby upstairs demanded a steep learning curve.

Ruby upturned the entirety of the basket into the washer, splashed in some detergent, and turned on the machine before leaping up the stairs. Her semblance coming to good use as she reached the crib in record time. She wouldn't have changed anything in the world. Even so, life had gotten incredibly difficult with the addition of the baby to worry about. No single chore ever fully seemed to reach its end. Something always needed cleaning, folding, put away, picked up, cooked, or retrieved from the store…

Any number of errands seemed to pile up without anyone in the household noticing.

There were times it felt almost overwhelming. Moments, like today, when her father was away on training missions with Signal's best and brightest. She wished her father's wealth of expertise would come in handy. Her daughter had other plans. It didn't seem to matter what she did to soothe her little girl. Keiko was fussy this afternoon, unwilling to be put down for a second without a crying fit.

Every time Ruby thought she might have a moment of peace to get something done, Keiko would immediately cry again.

She felt the growing frustration of helplessness as she picked up the little Faunus. The monkey-tailed child desperately seeking the physical contact of her mother. With a vexed sigh, Ruby popped the pacifier between Keiko's lips for the countless time. Several tidbits of sage advice came to mind as Ruby settled herself in a small armchair in the corner of the room.

"Ruby, you can't sweat the small stuff. Sometimes it's a shitty day, and you've just got to ride it out." Her father had explained with a shrug. He'd taken Keiko's fussiness in stride when the new parents hadn't. Letting experience resign him to a day of plans upheaved in that single instant. "The way I've always looked at things is this; if it's not going to impact tomorrow, why let it torture you today, right? No point in doing that, now is there?"

Weiss had been equally willing to impart the obvious struggles inherent to parenthood. "It's a lot of lost sleep and paranoia. The first several months were difficult with Ada. Nothing seemed to go right. I felt so utterly useless and frustrated." Weiss had confided the day Ruby had gone into labor. Several long hours at Vale's local hospital, and Ruby's intensifying nervousness allowing the two women ample time to have a heart to heart. "If you ever reach a point when you need to rant, call me. I've been there. I'll listen."

"Eh, whenever you started up, I'd just tuck you into the crook of my arm and plant my ass in front of the television." Qrow mentioned in passing, toying with his flask as he strolled down memory lane. Rare as it was for him to do, she had listened eagerly to his memories on the subject. "If you were really freaking out I'd go warm up a blanket a little and swaddle you in that. Usually helped, unless you were really bitching about something."

Her thoughts drifted idly to Summer Rose. What would her own mother have done in a situation like this? Ruby didn't know. She certainly couldn't ask her. Such a simple comfort was an alien concept. Summer had passed away so many years ago. Ruby couldn't even recall her mom's voice anymore. Time had faded that, and so many other things. Idly, her fingers brushed the short strands of hair on her daughter's head. If only there was a more experienced woman she could call.

If only she had someone with a wealth of answers to talk to now.

Ruby knew strong men, proud fathers. Those were the role models that had shaped her entire worldview as a child. Among her friends, the men were the ones to lead by example. On occasion, very poor examples, but they had easily left their impression. Women seemed non-existent, distant either by choice or circumstance. Three out of the four members of team RWBY alone hailed from these broken homes that had ultimately lacked a mother's love in some form or another.

Blake was the outlier to all ways. The solitary Faunus. The luxury of both loving parents. Unsheltered and well-traveled well before her time.

Ruby didn't know Kali very well, having only spoken with the woman a few times. It still brought a smile to her face. Summer and Kali would have likely become fast friends. Perhaps just as close as Ruby had become with Blake. They'd probably sit at the kitchen table and tell embarrassing stories all day long. Ruby wished she could have seen something like that. She wished that life would have provided just one such experience. For whatever reason fate had decided, it just wasn't meant to be.

So, she reached for her scroll and called Weiss. It rang three times before the white hared woman spoke up.

"Schnee speaking."

"Hey Weiss." Ruby said slowly, feeling as though she was going to end up being a burden. "How's your day going?"

"Long." Weiss said, the sounds of keys tapping away promised that she wasn't lying. "Yours?"

"Its fine, I guess." Ruby began, hesitating as she looked down to her child. Tired silver eyes looked back, the baby fighting sleep for as long as she could. "I just called to see what was up. If you're busy I can let you go."

"I wouldn't be answering my own line if I couldn't carry a conversation." Weiss said then. "It's about lunchtime anyway. I shouldn't even be working right now."

Ruby had vivid flashbacks to her friend's workaholic tendencies. There were more than a few interventions over the years. The team using any excuse to distract Weiss whenever it was possible. "Then why are you?" She asked then, thinking another day of forced relaxation might be in order soon enough.

"So that I can go home as soon as the office hours come to an end." It was then the typing ceased. A long breath of exasperation dragging along the line. "Why else would I subject myself to a barrage of correspondence so late in the afternoon?"

The rhetorical question needed no response, and Ruby laughed nervously. "Right, that makes sense."

A small chime in Ruby's ear made her pull the scroll away. It was a request for a video conference. Her thumb fell over the little green button, and moments later Weiss Schnee came into view. It had been a while since they'd seen each other. Weiss leaned back in her chair wearing what could only be described as a power suit. The white ensemble demanding respect. On the desk a china teacup sat on a saucer. A tray of finger sandwiches rested beside it.

"So," Weiss began conversationally, reaching for one of the bitesize morsels. "Care to tell me what's really going on?"

Ruby felt her teeth clamp down on her tongue out of reflex. The smile came easier than she thought it would, an honest levity mixing with the sensation of being overwhelmed. Those stern blue eyes looked just exhausted as she felt, albeit for a completely different set of reasons. There was a warming sense of comfort in that. Even Weiss Schnee had yet to reach her own concept of perfection, impossible as that was. Their efforts would always be futile. They were ridiculous notions by default.

And yet, they'd both strived for those qualities anyway. It's what made them such good friends, at least when they weren't at each other's throats.

"I'm just tired." Ruby said as she set her scroll upright, leaning it against one of the baby books on a nearby dresser. "I really missed you guys…"

"The feeling's mutual." Weiss allowed, her aloof admission telling far more than honesty ever would. Her pride had always been unkind to her. "You should have moved to Atlas when you had the chance."

There were times Ruby would have agreed, but, that wasn't the life she'd wanted for Keiko. Atlas wasn't like Vale. It was a busy place, always crowded and constantly chilly. She found her gaze touching upon the window. The sunlight peeking through the thick foliage in the distance. She had wanted Keiko to have these long and lazy mornings. Days spent with little regard for the personal conflicts that would befall Faunus within the kingdoms.

"Do you think Sun and I made the wrong decision?"

Weiss narrowed her eyes in the same way she always used to. There was a time it happened often when Ruby managed to slightly annoy her. Now, along with it came a spark of concern too. "In what way?"

Ruby shrugged then, as if her question was a non-issue, bushing it aside as if it were nothing. That alone made it a very large something.

Something so intruding, in fact, that Weiss leaned forward when no reply came. "Ruby…" She warned, her tone edging. "Don't make me come back out there and drag it out of you in person. I will, and you know that's not an idle threat. I'll bring Yang with me."

"Was it a mistake to stay on Patch?"

Blue eyes blinked several times, half a finger sandwiching disappearing through her lips as Weiss chewed through her confusion. Even that was not enough to soothe her baffled expression when she shook her head. "I'm not going to dignify that with my opinion."

"Weiss-"

"No." Weiss said cutting her off and reaching for another finger sandwich. "Ruby, it's not my choice. Obviously I would have liked to have you closer to us, but, that's just me being selfish."

"I didn't think this would be so hard." Ruby finally admitted softly.

"Yes, well…" Weiss paused, watching Ruby's somber expression as she concluded the inevitability of it all. "I won't sugar coat it. If it were easy, many people wouldn't have failed us so completely when we were children. Yet, here we are. In one piece, more or less."

Ruby let out a little puff of air, looking down at Keiko. "That we are." She murmured. "For better or worse. I just hope it's not the worse. I guess…I just… I'm afraid I'm going to screw things up."

The non-committal sound Weiss allowed crackled as it came through the speaker. "Would it help if I told you that everyone probably doubts themselves at least a little bit?"

"I don't know." Ruby said before biting her lip. "Maybe…"

"Honestly? Ruby, I'd be pretty angry with you if you didn't worry at least a little." Weiss said with a sigh. "We're bound to have our failings too, after all. Being aware of them should be a concern, and that's just the way it is. Just this morning I raised my voice when I probably shouldn't have, but, Ada has my stubbornness, and my temper. It's going to happen from time to time."

"You're right…but still."

"Despite what you may think, it wouldn't have been any easier for you up here." A twinge of her own self-deprecation colored her pale features. "You'd have those bags under your eyes regardless of where you lived. You'd still be second-guessing yourself over every little thing. I don't know if there's a time that you won't…" A long silence between them caused Weiss to rub her eyes tiredly. "I second guess myself almost daily, but, I also know that I have to be doing something right. Besides, I thought you wanted to give Keiko the same sort of upbringing you had growing up?"

"That was the original plan. Now I'm starting to think I'm just being selfish."

"Then just be selfish. Unrelentingly so, if you feel that to be the best course of action." Weiss said carelessly, as she picked a straying piece of lettuce from the sandwich. "Besides, you certainly wouldn't be able to live the same way up here. Atlas has many fine qualities. Living off the land simply isn't one of them. It just wouldn't be feasible with a baby so young. The Grimm are too large, and the weather can be unpredictable."

"If the cities weren't so busy, maybe I'd consider living up there. Honestly, I just miss having everyone close by. With Yang back in Atlas and Blake away on a trip, everything is just getting to me." Ruby's gaze strayed, finding it hard to look at the camera. "Dad's on a training mission, and I feel like I'm running the gauntlet. I got sidetracked and charred breakfast to a crisp this morning. The kitchen still smells like burnt eggs. I really wish someone would have taught me how to survive in my own kitchen."

"Ah, kitchens, one of the many banes a hunter encounters once they've settled into domestic living." Weiss laughed then. "At least you haven't managed to break a dishwasher."

"oh yeah, I did that too. It was just a long time ago." Ruby smirked. "I was just a little kid and Yang was in charge of helping me. We broke ours together. what's your excuse?"

"Beacon trains us for the wilds, but it leaves us very ill-prepared for life inside the kingdoms." Weiss commented with a roll of her eyes. "I wish I could say I was blissfully exempt from the common mistakes, but, I was just as woefully unprepared as you are. Just remember, it takes time to acquire those skills." Weiss said thoughtfully, a shiver working its way unpleasantly down her spine as she scoffed. "You can follow the recipes all you want, but I'm afraid there's just no substitute for practice…"

"How have you been doing, really?" Ruby asked then.

"I'm alright."

"Seriously..." Ruby pressed. "Weiss, you look just as tired as I am."

"What can I say? I live a tiring life." Weiss said to her. "We're both lonely, it seems. It's just that we're lonely in different ways."

Ruby missed her friends, she wouldn't even think to deny that.

She wished Yang would have stayed a little longer for the moral support, but Yang had her own lover to return to. Her life had been waiting for her to pick up where it had left off. Besides, the blonde wouldn't be gone long. Yang was already hard at work planning a summer trip, fully intending to bring her husband along with her next time.

Thankfully those small pangs of loneliness were easily soothed away by the strong arm that wrapped around her that night at dinner. The monkey Faunus giving her the sweetest peck on the lips as he took the baby from her for the first time that day. The sky was painted in evening hues, and he was happy to set the long list of chores aside to wait for the next sunny day.

"Did you manage to get the shed cleaned up?" She asked him as their noses brushed against one another. A small laugh slipping from her lips when Sun leaned down, placing a kiss on the nape of her neck.

"Nope, not all of them." He said, another kiss delaying any elaboration as it lingered. "I managed to get the roof patched up though."

"I heard that part." Ruby told him. "So did the baby."

"Woke her up from her nap, didn't I?"

Ruby nodded, holding back a yawn. "Several times."

"I'll make it up to you." He said, holding aloft a well-worn basket that smelled distinctly like the river. "I managed to catch dinner."

"I'll go start a fire then." She said giving Sun another quick kiss in passing.

Sun had always been a fun person to be around. That was really how it started. Yearly tournaments in the academies almost assured team SSSN's visits to the festivals. Early on, his attraction to Blake had been the primary gossip among their friends, but somewhere along the way, that early romance had fizzled out. No one thought too heavily on the topic. Their relationship had never been serious enough to be a concern in the first place. Youth and the distance between the academies were likely partly to blame.

Ruby wasn't completely sure. She had been too focused on being a huntress to be interested in the idea of a relationship at the time. That went double for her friends. She tried not to think about it. Still, as a huntress, she had been drawn to him even then. He was a wild boy back then, always looking for a thrill or a good laugh to pass the time. He was not unlike Yang in the way trouble seemed to find him at every turn. He grinned and laughed his way through most of the adversity he faced, both as a Faunus, and as a huntsman. There was a lot to admire about that, and about the way he jumped headfirst into any problem his friends might be having.

As a young adult he began to mellow, joint missions between Vale and the other kingdoms allowed for plenty of passing visits between the two teams. Ruby could never really explain her attraction to Sun. It wasn't as easy as listing all of the qualities that he seemed to have. It wasn't complicated enough to require introspection. There was no great euphony, or breathtaking realization. It was as simple as friendship growing over time.

At lot of it came down to the little things. Times she didn't have the words for. Moments adding up over those long years in the field.

He was baser, perhaps, than other Faunus she knew. Brushing aside snide comments with ones of his own. He was happy not to be human, and happy not to care what that might mean. It was the way he poked the fire on a long mission's night, the way he scratched the back of his head when something perplexed him, and that shit-eating grin when he was about to do something he wasn't exactly supposed to do. There were a great many things he would never think twice about, going with the flow of wherever life took him.

At the end of the day, Sun Wukong was a simple man with easy to attain goals.

He rather liked fish cooked over an open flame, nothing more than a pinch of seasoning to flavor it. The days out in the wilds never truly leaving him as he leaned over the fire pit in the same old way he always did. He didn't think too critically about the baby swaddled up and resting on the thick log. His tail was flexible enough to hold her safely, cradling her close without a worry in the world. He was content enough to wrap his arm around Ruby, not saying a word as they watched his fresh meal cook over the flame.

He once said there was nothing more rewarding than that. Something deep within him telling him to tend to his family. It wasn't uncommon to forage as a hunter, but Sun did it more out of instinct than starvation. He'd brought home a bowl of berries, snacking on the fruit as though they were candy. Actually, they were better than candy, or so he had eagerly proclaimed after finding the bushes they grew on.

Ruby reached for one of the dark little fruits, smelling the sweetness as she perched it to her lips. She had eaten so many of these on the road. Berries in Vale, grapes in Mistral, figs in Vacuo, and beets in Atlas. Each kingdom had their own native plants, but there was something extra special about the berries on Patch.

She didn't miss the smirk pulling at the corners of his lips, his own self-satisfied assurance that he'd done a good job.

"We're trading tomorrow." Ruby said then.

"Huh, what do you mean?" He asked, only for Ruby to place a sweet berry to his lips in offering.

"Tomorrow, you get to spend the day with Keiko, and I'll clean out the shed." She told him, watching as Sun nodded his head in understanding.

As she looked back to the fire, she still had to wonder what Summer would have done. She might never know, but, wondering had always been half the fun.