A/N: Shiro seemed to have a good time with Yang last chapter. Clearly nothing went wrong.
Maybe he'll have a better time with Ruby.
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What Happens in Vale
Shiro cracked open his eyes. It was bright. Too bright. Maybe he should have bought blinds. He closed his eyes again. He was still stiff from last night. Being thrown out of a building will do that. At least it didn't hurt anymore. If there was one thing Shiro knew well its that aura was amazing.
An alarm from his scroll had Shiro crack his eyes back open. Rolling over he grabbed his scroll. A background that showed a close up of a small boy next to his father greeted him. That was so long ago. That was back when Tai and his father took trips to Menagerie. Back before his father became too scarce in his life.
...either way that was ancient history….
It was 1100. The alarm was for his aura and semblance training. It was tedious but needed to be done if he ever wanted to unlock his true power. His body protested as his feet touched the floor. He put on his clothes going in and out of grogginess before walking down stairs.
There was a note from Tai about taking Yang out for a surprise. Shiro didn't know where Ruby was, but odds were that she was in the workshop. She practically lived there with all the work she'd done on Crescent Rose.
He sat down in the middle of the training field. His aura flared up as he called for it casting his limbs in a dull grey-blue. It circled around him, flowing clockwise as if it were dancing. He closed his eyes, concentrating.
His father had told him when he was young that he had to figure out his aura by himself.
Basically he was useless.
Tai taught him how to flex his aura. How to push it and move it. Tai told him that that was how he figured out his semblance. It came to him after several concentrated training sessions.
As Shiro flexed his aura he felt it smooth out. It wasn't dancing anymore, it was falling. He felt something separate from him, like he was using it. It circled around where he sat. It was making something? He didn't know, but he kept going. This was progress! He was so CLOSE.
"Whoa, Shiro! That's so cool!"
The excited voice threw his concentration off. He felt his once-controlled aura sprint away from his body, leaving him exhausted. He opened his eyes to a worried face. At least she knew she screwed up.
"Oh no! Please be okay! Uncle Qrow will kill me!"
Shiro weakly laughed at the comical display, "Ruby, Qrow wouldn't kill you. You're his favorite student, remember?"
Ruby groaned, "But his punishments are so bad! Last time I was punished he took my baby away from me and had me fight Dad"
Shiro rolled his eyes, "First, that was training not punishment. Second, did you need something? I was kinda in the middle of something here"
"Yea you were! That was awesome! How did you do that?" Ruby questioned with a big smile on her face.
"Do what? I was just concentrating on my aura" Shiro sighed, I thought I was making progress towards my semblance"
"Does your semblance have something to do with disks?" Ruby asked.
"Disks?" Shiro felt excited. Did he unlock his semblance? Ruby noticed his confusion. "Listen Ruby, tell me what you saw"
Ruby scratched her face, "Well you were sitting on the ground with a bright blue spinning disk above you, and another on the ground, though it was a different color" He eyes lit up as she continued talking. "But they were spinning really fast and lighting was coming out of the top one and it was growing bigger and brighter! It. Was. Cool."
That was good. He had done it. He didn't know what he did, but he had done it. His semblance was disks!….okay that didn't sound as cool as he'd hoped, but maybe they would come in handy in the future. "Thank you Ruby! He went to hug her, but she sped away towards the house, leaving petals in her wake.
"Don't touch me!"
"Ruby Rose, you have never refused a hug before. What's wrong?"
Ruby pouted, "Have you even seen yourself? Hug me after you've cleaned up, please."
Shiro looked down at himself. He was covered in sweat. He hadn't put his jacket on because he was planning on training. His white undershirt was soaked, a visible salt ring covered the upper half of his body. Also he stunk like sweat. How long had he been out here. The sun which was once high in the sky seemed to be sagging. He swore it hadn't felt like it was that long
Shiro smiled and got up, slowly taking steps towards Ruby, "But Ruby, I feel so lonely. I need a hug now"
Ruby took another step back, "A-As your big sis I command you to stop."
"I'm older than you are Ruby," Shiro said, getting closer, "As your big brother I need to thank you for coming to help last night. How about a hug?" With that he ran towards Ruby, arms outstretched. Ruby ran away, Shiro chasing her, both going from screaming to laughing.
-0-
A hot shower eases his aching muscles. Seriously, he must have been there for a while. His muscles ached as the water washed over them. He didn't notice when he was chasing Ruby, but now that he had calmed down, his muscles were tense. He felt like he had just had a major workout.
Shiro was tired. Yang and Tai weren't back yet, which meant it was free reign for food. He got dressed in his clothes: a black undershirt with his old leather belt holding his black pants up. He threw his white and red jacket over it. He felt so much better.
Walking out of the bathroom, he was met by the little prodigy herself. She looked at him while twiddling her fingers.
"Okay, what do you want?"
"I thought that since Dad and Yang are gone, we could eat out?" She said it like a question. "You know, to celebrate you getting into Beacon" She said while smiling.
"We already had that dinner in celebration for getting into Beacon" He said growing more suspicious
"Yes...but that was for Yang, not for you, right?" She grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the front door. "So let's just go into Vale and-"
"Wait. Ruby, no. Why would we go into Vale? Even if we wanted to eat out, Patch has a couple of good restaurants because of the tourists from the ferries. We could go to those" Patch may be a smaller island but people loved the idea that there wasn't strong grimm on the island. There were large groups occasionally, but they were weak enough that they hadn't even grown grimm plates yet.
"Umm...You owe me?" Ruby whispered.
"What did you say?"
"I said you owe me," Ruby protested with more confidence. "I went to Vale yesterday to get the new dust rounds for my baby, but you and Yang got into trouble. I wasn't able to get them"
It would have been intimidating if you just looked at Ruby's steel eyes, but combine her short stature and red cheeks and she became more like an angry Chihuahua. Shiro had to remind himself that she could swing a massive scythe and could destroy hordes of grimm by herself. "But Ruby-"
"No, Yang told me I could have you today because she took you yesterday! Soon both of you will be leaving me behind so you can give me this. I will be waiting outside for you. Go get what you need in order to go into town, and don't make me wait too long!" She tried to look mad as she marched outside to wait.
Shiro couldn't help but smile. It took him all he had to not laugh. Ruby was truly too precious. "Yes mame" Shiro walked up the stairs towards his room. He stopped at the top of the stairs as his mind started processing what Ruby said. "Hey wait, what do you mean Yang 'gave me to you' today!? She is not my keeper!"
He made sure to grab his sword. If last night taught him anything, its better to be prepared than unprepared. And hey, since they were going to a dust shop he should pick some up as well. The hilt of Shiro's sword had a guard that he could move through the section that held the tang of the sword. Depending on where the guard was, it accessed different vials of dust.
Shiro had used most of his dust. The vials in his sword had a few dust crystals for ice left, but that was about it. He knew though that he always kept spare fire dust in his closet. Opening the closet he shuffled around some old clothes until he found a small ornate white box. It was one of the few relics that his father gave him a long time ago. He opened it to see small holes that would hold dust vials. Where the vials should have been was a little note.
"IOU 1 Fire Dust Vial…..Ruby!" The case was empty. Guess he should have figured this was going to happen. It made sense now how Yang's fire bullets were made.
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It was getting late. They were walking down the street towards the dust shop. Apparently Ruby had a deal with the owner that she would buy most of her dust from him, in return he would let her do special orders.
"-and thats when I caused a HUGE explosion in the workshop. They wouldn't let me combine dust anymore after" Ruby scratched her head and smiled, "out of all the things, I'm not good with dust"
"Uh huh, not good with dust. Wouldn't have known…." Shiro off-handily murmured
"Hey, I apologized for using your special dust. It was a pretty good grade of dust, which is why I couldn't help but use it!"
"It's less over the fact that you used it and more of the fact that you didn't ask permission, and you went through my stuff to find it. If I go through ALL of my things, how many more surprises will I find?" Shiro said, dreading the answer. Ruby's response told him all.
Ruby shuffled around not able to meet Shiro's gaze, "I mean maybe one or two more….But I haven't been in your room recently! I swear..."
Shiro let out a long sigh when he saw Ruby's face. She looked on the verge of tears. Like a puppy that just got kicked. "Fine, I forgive you, but only if you help me replace the dust you used. I'll need it for Beacon Initiation"
A fire lit up in Ruby's eyes, "Have they released the details yet? I bet it's gonna be awesome! Like 'Kill one million grimm'!"
"The pass rate might be low but I don't think anyone would be able to finish that in the six hour time frame for initiation" He looked to Ruby's eyes. That fire is what Ruby should always have. He never liked it when his favorite cousin (No offense Yang but you know it's true) looked down or sad. The problem was she knew it.
"You know I noticed that as soon as I mentioned Beacon, those crocodile tears just disappeared. Like they were never there" Shiro questioned
Ruby looked like she was caught off guard, "Um...Oh look we're almost to the shop. It's just past this street!"
"Ruby, at some point those tears and that face won't work on me! I'll grow immune to it!"
"Nope." She said with a smile.
"Nope?"
"Nope!"
This was getting him nowhere.
He followed Ruby towards the dust shop. It wasn't the biggest shop he had seen, the gray walls showing no individuality from the rest of the concrete buildings that surrounded it. The big 'Dust Until Dawn' Sign shown above it, lit with neon white lights. Walking in the gray, old man matched the walls of the shop. He was small, with a balding head.
Shiro managed to buy the replacement dust for his weapon. He knew that he was going to need it for initiation so he asked if he could fill his weapon in the shop. The old man pointed him to a back room where a small workshop was set up.
Everything seemed to be going well. Shiro carefully poured each vial into its proper holder until they were full. With the amount bought he had a little extra that he stored away in a back pocket until he got home. Still tinkering with his weapon, he walked out of the back workshop.
Everything was fine.
A scream and a crash snapped him out of good and happy thoughts. He saw Ruby jump through the now broken front shop window to attack men in black suits with red ties led by...please tell me that's not Roman Tortchwick…
"Ruby!" Shiro jumped into the fray knocking out a goon that was trying to get back up next to the shopkeeper. Shiro looked back to see Ruby blasted from Roman's cane.
"Ruby!?" she seemed more concentrated on tracking Roman than her own safety. She looked back at Shiro helping hold the crying shopkeeper and gritted her teeth before running after Roman.
The shopkeeper looked like he was breaking down. Shiro had to grab his collar and arm to hold him up. "Hey old man, are you okay?"
The shopkeeper didn't audibly respond, but through tears he managed to nod his head.
Shiro was about to pull him back into the shop, away from the knocked-out goons. Shiro swore they looked familiar, but he couldn't place where. "Okay, let's get you back inside"
"Stop you cur!"
"What?" A slash at Shiro's arms with a golden sword took him by surprise.
-0-
Westlyn was restless, she just couldn't help it. She had always been close to her brother. They were twins for Pete sake! Yet she betrayed him. It had been for his own good, but he didn't see it that way.
She walked out of the hotel she was staying in for the night. Beacon was tomorrow! Beacon or bust! Yes, think about how many more people you'll meet, or strategies to be able to get through initiation easier. Definitely nothing else.
He never even said goodbye…
She felt small pinpricks of tears welling up in her eyes. She wiped them away. She needed this walk. Get her mind off of the disappointed look her brother had given her. All she wanted was the best for him. Why didn't he see that he wasn't given the training? Watching a spar and actually sparing were two different things.
And if she had to see her brother go against grimm. The idea made her shudder. Her brother would be helpless, powerless, auraless. But that is why she made her promise. She would get stronger and return to protect her brother. It was her Arc word, and an Arc never went back on their word.
She reimagined the scenario with the grimm. Just as the grimm is about to eat her dear brother, she steps in and saves his life. He thanks her and forgives her and tells her she will always be his number one sis, just like he used too.
She kept walking rounding a corner, not knowing where she was going, but just wandering and thinking to herself. She needed to protect Jaune anyway. She closed her eyes while walking. Even without her word, Jaune was a civilian, and she a huntress. To protect him from all the evils...in the...world.
She had opened her eyes and stopped to a sight that left her speechless. There was a young man with white hair in a red and white jacket and black pants harassing an old man. Then she noticed the old man was crying in front of a broken shop with a smashed window. They were surrounded by unconscious suited men. As she watched the boy said something to the old man. The old man shook and nodded, not saying anything.
Westlyn had seen enough. Now was a time to show what she was made of as a future huntress! She could not let this vagabond get away with whatever he was planning. She may not have her armor, or her shield but she was never without a weapon.
She pushed her aura into her hand, forming her single edged falchion sword out of her aura. She ran forward. "Stop you cur!" She slashed down at the boy's arms, trying to separate him from his victim. It worked. The boy let go of the old man and jumped back.
Westlyn brandished her sword at him, pushing the old man behind her. She gave him a quick look. He didn't seem too hurt, maybe a bruise here and there, but nothing life threatening.
"Are you the owner of that shop?" She asked, making sure she kept an eye on the guy in front of her, just in case he attacked.
The old man nodded.
"I'm guessing these men were involved?"
He nodded again.
That's all she needed to hear. Her eyes steeled. "How dare you attack an innocent shop, and threaten this shopkeeper! As a huntress I will only ask this once! Stand down and throw your weapon over here. Turn yourself in, or deal with me."
She watched him. Watched his face. He seemed confused at first. Maybe saying she was already a huntress was bold, but no way some random thug would know the difference. Either way he would be rather weak compared to someone with training.
"Look" He finally confessed to his crimes, "I think there has been some kind of misunderstanding." He reached for his weapon.
Westlyn stepped back and tensed, ready to block if she needed. If he wanted to fight her here, the shopkeeper might be in danger. She gave him another glance, "Step back. Its dangerous for you here." She looked back at the boy. "I'll deal with him"
The shopkeeper looked like he wanted to say something, but another confident look from her had him stepping back. Good. He needed to know she was confident. She could do this.
"Are you going to come willingly?" She asked
"Look, I don't have time for this. My cousin is going after a madman, by herself" He looked towards one of the buildings while brandishing his sword.
She knew that look. Westlyn jumped in slashing down at his weapon, keeping him from looking away. "You are not getting away" The boy was able to block it, giving a flick of his sword and a returning slash.
"I already said this is a misunderstanding and that I don't have time for this!" There was an explosion on top of the roof that left the boy with a concerned expression.
"More of your ilk I'm assuming?" Westlyn had underestimated him. She had put her aura into that strike that he had just brushed off. It mean one thing: He had his aura.
She didn't wait for a response. She jumped in slashing at his chest. He blocked and slashed back. She shifted her weight, pushing his sword down into the ground. Westlyn used her superior height to her advantage to keep him from bringing it back up.
He headbutted her. Westlyn was stunned for a second. Her freeze cost her. He slashed at her legs. Her aura blocked the hit, but it still knocked her legs out from under her.
Westlyn landed on her stomach. She tried to stab at the boys legs only to realize that when she fell her aura blade had dissipated, taking a chunk of her aura with it. He looked down at her like a predator looking at prey.
Here she was, bested by some rouge smaller boy that she didn't even know. She pushed as much of her aura into her defense as she could, not trusting it completely in its depleted state to protect her. She moved to put her arms up to grab the sword as he pushed it down.
She couldn't move. Why couldn't she move?
"Children" A woman with blond hair held up in a bun said, stepping out of the shadows. She wore a purple cape and held a riding crop towards them. Westlyn recognized her instantly.
"Miss Goodwitch! Apprehend this criminal! He was attacking this civilian before I stopped him!" Westlyn shouted.
"No I wasn't!" Came the reply from the guilty party. "I was protecting him from those thugs!"
"You mean the men in suits that are over there?" Westlyn darted her eyes over, mostly because of Glynda's semblance holding them on the ground, only to see that the men were gone. The shopkeeper was also gone. He probably went to fix what he could from his business.
"I mean the ones that woke up and ran away while you were attacking me" the boy huffed.
"Enough!" Glynda said not caring about the bickering between two teenagers, "Both of you will be held at the police station while we sort this out. Might as well, I already delivered one person there tonight" She spoke slowly and with authority, sending glares at both of them before picking them up with her semblance. They were both floating in the air, stuck as if they had fallen down.
The boy didn't seem to mind. He was resigned to his fate. 'Good, that'll teach him', Westlyn thought. The only part that she didn't like is that she was being lumped in with this thug. He may be held right now, but she is sure he would escape or try to at least.
"Can you stop staring at me? Usually I'm all for a girl checking me out, but yours is just creepy" the boy smirked
Just the thought of herself 'checking him out' got her mad. How dare he! He may have deep blue eyes that reminded her of the ocean, but that doesn't mean she was 'checking him out'! "Just you wait, I'll make sure you're locked up for what you've done" Westlyn said with her own smirk. See how he likes that.
"~Kinky~"
"No it is NOT!" Westlyn screamed at the boy.
"Children silence, before I force your mouths shut. You can flirt later" Their captor spoke again while pulling them inside a police station. In order to get through the door, Glynda held them closer to each other, which was met with protest by the short haired girl and laughs at her reaction from the boy. Uuh, teenagers. This is why she was glad she was a teacher, where she only had to deal with them in class where they were on their best behavior, unless they wanted to be punished.
"I am not flirting!" Westlyn felt her mouth forcefully shut for a second with a glare from the veteran huntress. Westlyn whimpered. She wasn't…
The last she saw of the boy, he was being put into an interrogation room via floating, while she was escorted to her own.
Good, she never wanted to see him again.
Ever.
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A/N: Sorry this took so long! IRL stuff and things