RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and to its original creator Monty Oum rip.
Mornings could start worse.
Or at least that's what Yang kept telling herself as she was in the bathroom upstairs with a smelly pair of carpet and a blanket. She hoped that the smell would go away from the bathroom if she kept the door and some of the windows open. But unfortunately for her, the smell didn't seem to go away and her friend was only making the situation worse.
"Please don't do this!" Wolfy yelled as she kept herself above the water by keeping her feet and hands on the tub's edges. "I said sorry!"
"Apology accepted. Now get in!" Yang grunted as she tried to push the young Faunus in the bath. But despite her best effort Wolfy still managed to keep herself off the water.
"Somebody help!" Wolfy called out when her right hand almost slipped. "I don't want to rob!"
Yang stopped pushing and gave a confused look to Wolfy. "What does robbing have to do anything with this?" she asked and hoped that Wolfy wasn't catching on to what she trying to do.
"Isn't it when life ends-" Wolfy began and unconsciously eased her grip on the tub. Yang saw this and quickly moved on in her plan.
Before the Faunus could react, Yang had grabbed her right hand and leg before flipping Wolfy in the air causing her to fall back first into the water. As soon she was in the water she started trying to get out. Yang expected this and now instead of trying to get the Faunus into the bath, she was now struggling to keep her in it.
After a minute of wrestling with Yang, Wolfy realized that instead of drowning in cold water she could easily keep her head over the water level, and the water was actually quite warm. She calmed down and just sat there while looking towards out of breath Yang.
"Didn't expect," Wolfy said while getting into a better position.
Yang in turn just released an exhausted grunt before grabbing a soap bottle. "Seriously when I say trust me. Trust me," Yang said and started pouring soap on Wolfy's head.
But during their struggle, they didn't hear the flap of wings as a bird entered the house through one of the open windows, nor somebody's steps as they made their way towards the bathroom.
"Kiddo I'm back!" Yang heard a familiar voice call out for her in the hallway. "And is somebody dying or- damn what's that smell!" Both of the girls looked towards the open bathroom door and saw a man who froze as he saw them.
He was a tall man with spiky gray-black hair, red eyes, and he had some stubble along his jawline. He was currently wearing a gray dress shirt, black dress pants, and same colored dress shoes.
All of them just stayed where they were not saying anything. But what caught Yang's attention was her uncle's shocked look as he looked towards Wolfy. It was then that she heard a small growl coming from her left.
Wolfy was currently baring her teeth and her hands morphed into claws with dagger-like nails as she grabbed onto the tub's edge. Yet despite the growling and the nails, it was Wolfy's glare at Qrow which made her look psychotic.
It actually creeped out Yang a bit so she decided to try and cut whatever was going on. "Wolfy!" she yelled to her friend. Wolfy gave a few glances towards her and the claws did seem to start evaporating into thin air. But she was still baring her teeth at Qrow while growling little.
"Umm… Yang, we have to talk," Qrow said while taking a few steps back away from the bathroom. "Like right now, preferably in downstairs if that's possible."
Yang gave a confused look towards her uncle before looking at her friend. Wolfy had stopped growling and now was just glancing between them while blinking rapidly.
"Alright, I'll meet you there. But first I must say something to her," Yang said and pointed towards Wolfy in the bath.
Qrow just nodded before walking away from the bathroom door.
As Qrow left Wolfy stopped her glaring and seemed to fully calm down. "Can you… not growl when you meet somebody new?" Yang asked once she was sure Wolfy was back to herself.
"Uum… I- he was shocked?" Wolfy seemingly tried to reason with Yang. "I don't know… I'm sorry?" she said while playing with some foam in the bath.
Yang just sighed before grabbing a rubber duck from a nearby box. "Just try not to growl at everything okay?" she said and gave the duck to Wolfy. "Stay here and get yourself comfy. I'll go downstairs for a while."
"So you smacked her with a bat?" Qrow asked while trying to make a sense of what Yang told him. He and Yang were currently sitting at a small table in the kitchen. "Hmm… why we didn't think of that," Qrow muttered to himself.
"About hitting a girl with a bat?" Yang butted in with a joking tone. "Although if I knew what was up in the attic, I wouldn't have hit Wolfy!" she pointed out while giving her uncle accusing glare.
Qrow sighed while thinking if he could take a swig off his flask. "We had our reasons to keep this whole debacle as a secret. And really, Wolfy?"
"What? It was the best name I came up with at the moment," Yang defended herself while trying to move on to other things. "And besides! Why shouldn't I know about the girl who lived in our attic for who knows how long! So no more 'once you've grown' just tell me what's going on."
Qrow looked at her with a neutral face but Yang saw some hint of sadness in his eyes as he was thinking how to proceed.
"Fine." He finally answered. "Just promise me that none of what I say leaves this house." Yang just made an expression of zipping her own mouth before throwing the imaginary zipper away. "Kiddo, I need to hear it," Qrow said with a cold tone that surprised Yang.
"I promise!"
Again Qrow just kept a neutral expression on his face but this time he looked to be examining her. They just sat there in silence with the table between them.
"Alright," he began and took a more relaxed position. "Buckle up Kiddo. I'm gonna tell you a story. I'll try to keep it brief but we will have to go back in time."
He took out his silver flask and took a couple of gulps from before setting it aside and turning towards Yang. "Do you remember your mother?" he asked and received a nod from Yang. "I will have to bring her up."
"I don't think it's that big of a deal," Yang said surprising Qrow. "I mean, she and dad left each other because they didn't love each other. Right?"
Qrow just gave a small smile and ruffled her hair for a while. "Look at that, you have grown," he joked which earned a pout from the blonde. "Anyway our story starts a few weeks after the day you came to this world. I learned about the situation involving your father's and my sister's relationship and how it did not look good."
"It wasn't long before Raven left Taiyang," he paused for a while and looked towards an empty soda bottle on the table. "Tai didn't take it easy and I saw him cry his eyes out several times." Yang couldn't help but snicker at the thought of her dad crying. But quickly stopped once she saw Qrow's serious look.
"Although he was getting a bit better day by day," he began again once he was sure he had her attention. "He was healing very slowly. And he had a baby to take care of as well. So I called our specialized positivity magnet."
He took out an old photograph from one of his pockets and presented it to her.
In the picture were four young adults posing near a tree. Two of them she immediately recognized as her uncle and her dad from their younger years. On the right side of her father stood a woman with long messy black hair and the same red eyes that Qrow had. It was her mother, she had seen some old pictures of her and Taiyang smiling and having fun together.
But what caught her eye in the photo was the woman on the left side of the picture. She had a white cloak around with a hood over her head. The cloaked woman had shoulder-length black hair that ended with red tips. The resemblance between her and Wolfy was clear as day. The only major difference besides age between them was their eyes. The woman had bright silver eyes instead of Wolfy's red with black sclera.
"Her name is Summer Rose," Qrow said bringing Yang out of her thoughts. She let go off the photograph letting him put it back to his pocket. "She was the leader of our ragtag team Stark. Beyond naive but if you had a bad day she would be there for you." He chuckled at some memory before continuing. "So I called her and told about Tai. And even before the day ended she came knocking on the door."
He took a moment to walk down the memory lane before coming back to reality. "It was like seeing a miracle happen right before me. I don't know how but somehow she managed to bring Tai back to his former self within a matter of days.
"But she just didn't leave him after he got better. Sum decided to stay and help Tai with you," he paused for a chuckle before continuing. "At the time I could bet a million lien that this house was going to be called the Xiao-Rose household."
Yang just sat there before carefully asking, "What happened?"
Qrow went silent for a while. "Around the time when you were just one-year-old. Summer went on a mission. We don't know what kind of mission, but what she told us it was just a simple huntress job and that she would be back in a week.
"Well, a week went by. We heard nothing. Second, followed soon after. Your father and I joined the search party. On the third week we didn't do anything but look for her."
He let out a long sigh before confirming Yang's doubts. "We didn't find her. Yet for the next few years, we took shifts in looking for her and taking care of you.
"During your fourth birthday Tai decided to celebrate your birthday and took you to his relatives, I allowed him to go and offered that I would look for Summer in the meantime. He really needed the break from all of that.
"Most of the search party had quit and she was declared as deceased. I was currently checking some wild forest in the north of Sanus. There I came across a rundown house that was constantly at the brink of collapse."
He took out the old photograph and looked towards Summer. "I finally found something. Just in the middle of the dusty floor inside the house, laid the very same white cloak that Summer used to wear.
"I began my search through the house and soon saw a Boarbatusk. It was bashing a wall so it didn't see me coming. I dispatched it quickly and examined the wall. There had to be a reason why it was trying to get into the wall. I cut it open with my weapon and peered inside."
He took out his scroll and began going through his pictures. "I couldn't believe my eyes what I saw." He showed a picture of a small toddler who couldn't be anyone else other than Wolfy. She was wrapped in a gray coat looking very cute and Yang couldn't help let out a small 'aw' which caused Qrow to chuckle lightly. "Don't let the looks fool you, she already had her claws and if she had slashed any lower I wouldn't be here."
Yang gave him a confused look so Qrow decided to show her his wound. He lifted his chin up and traced the spot between his chin and neck where three thin scars could be seen.
"Yikes," Yang let out as she saw the scars.
"You tell me," Qrow groaned. "I had to sacrifice my coat just so she wouldn't slash me more. After that, I took a picture and sent it to Tai. As he saw the picture he had the same thought as I. That the small slasher had a striking resemblance to none other than Summer."
Yang looked at the picture before asking Qrow, "Why was she in the attic? And why all the secrecy?"
"Well, at first we set the guestroom for her, but it wasn't long before she was out and scratching the door to your room." Yang was confused for a while before thinking what Wolfy would have done and felt a shiver go down her spine.
As if sensing her discomfort Qrow commented on it. "Yeah… I don't think she would have come for you for some snuggles.
"So just to be sure we decided to try to make the attic a place for her." He brought his hand to his arm and traced some faint lines going across them. "Let's just say it wasn't easy with what was essentially a Grimm pup nearby. But we managed and after a while, we cleared the attic enough for a small child."
He just chuckled at the memory of him and Taiyang going around the attic with Wolfy biting them and scathing them whenever she had the chance. "Despite all that effort the worst was yet to come. Just a couple of days after we had finished the room she had disappeared leaving no trace of herself. Of coarse Tai and I started panicking and told you that we had a vermin problem in the house. Do you remember it?"
Yang brought her hand to her chin and started thinking for a while. "Was it when I was sent to grandpa for a couple of weeks?"
Qrow smiled and answered after a while. "Yes, I think so. But anyway later we found out she had managed to get inside the walls in the attic. And despite all of our efforts to fix the walls, she still managed to get inside."
"Well anyway the rest is history," he said and took a deep breath. "We tried to get her act less… feral. But whatever we did she responded with growling and tried attacking us. As the years went by her claws and teeth only got sharper so I started visiting her less frequently as did Tai."
A solemn look came over his face. "As for why we kept this as a secret. Well, she is essentially humanoid Grimm. This is some Ozbin level stuff. Of course, we weren't going to keep her up there forever. We just hoped we could make her act more like a real child so that the other hunter associations wouldn't just count her as a feral Grimm and lock her up in a cell for some experiments."
After his story, they just sat there in silence as Yang processed the story in her head. She looked towards Qrow who was expecting her to say something.
"Wow," Yang began. "This is a lot to take in."
"Yeah… take your time. I just hope that our talk has cleared some things up. And I think you should go back to Wolfy-" He cut himself off as he said the name. "We'll have to come up with a proper name for her."
There was a slight glimmer in Yang's eyes that Qrow didn't like at all. "Can I give her a full name," she asked eagerly.
"If it's anything like the one she has now then I don't think she would appreciate it later." Qrow shot down her dreams as he rose from his seat.
"Well, Wolfy seemed to like when I named her!" Yang exclaimed.
Qrow just sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose before saying, "From what you told me, she could barely speak let alone understand what it means to have a name." Before she could protest he cut her off. "But if you want you can give suggestions. And who knows? Maybe your head has something else other than air in it."
Yang pouted for a while before a thought crossed her head. "So you're telling me there's a chance I can name her?" she asked causing Qrow to roll his eyes as he made his way towards the door leading to a terrace outside.
Maybe some clear air could help his inevitable headache.
