Over the next week, they planned a time and a place to meet the rest of the group. Transportation was tricky, but it was doable.
Ruby couldn't stay still on the planned day, bouncing in place or smiling at every second. Oscar was pretty excited, too, and it made him quite happy to see Ruby so excited.
The group's estimated time of arrival was noon, and the place to meet was a café at the edge of the city. Oscar and Ruby took a taxi, since the walk would've been too far for Ruby. When they go there, they weren't surprised to see that the group hadn't arrived yet.
A waitress guided them to a very long table, dropping a pile of menus down and hurrying off. They could hear her pleading in the back for another waitress to take her burden of such a large table to serve.
"I can't believe we get to see them again!" Ruby squeaked as they waited, "I know it's only been about a month, but that feels so much longer than it is when you've been freaked out that they were dead or something." She shivered and hugged herself close.
"Yeah, I get what you mean," was all Oscar said.
Only a few minutes later, the moment the two of them had been anticipating finally came. They saw a very tired looking group of people come in, eight of them. Ruby counted every one of them as they entered, tearing up instantly.
"Yang!" she cried. She flung herself out of her chair and clambered towards her sister.
Yang noticed her and barely opened her arms in time for Ruby's big body to hit her. They hugged, rotating in place about twice. Ruby couldn't hear or see anything outside of her crying. Yang just closed her eyes and held her tight. The big belly between them made the hug feel a bit strange, but neither payed any attention.
"I was so worried!" Ruby sniffed, finally breaking loose, "I thought maybe I'd lost you and-"
"You were worried you'd lost me?" Yang grunted. It was clear she was trying to keep from crying herself. She hugged Ruby again. "Ruby, I had to see you lying on a bed of bloodstained snow. " The hug tightened.
They let go of each other and Ruby turned to the next person. It was Jaune. He smiled at her, relieved, but quickly hugged her before she got the chance. It surprised her a bit, but it was nice.
"I was so scared," he breathed, "You have no idea..."
"Well, sorry about that," she murmured, "I didn't try."
He let go of her, quickly wiping his wet eyes. "Yeah, I know. I'm just glad you're okay." His eyes glanced down at her big belly several times, and Ruby tried to ignore it. She'd really grown over the last month.
Next came Weiss. She was frowning, but the expression looked forced.
"You should've went somewhere further away from the danger," she scolded, "And if you want to blame it on your condition, it was your fault for getting like that and-"
"I was worried about you too, Wiess," Ruby murmured.
A glint appeared in Weiss' eyes and she hugged Ruby, hiding her face in her shoulder.
When Jay, the new Ozpin, came in, Ruby awkwardly smiled at him. He shyly looked away. Behind him was Qrow. He looked absolutely exhausted, both physically and mentally. His hair was even messier than usual.
He tiredly smiled at Ruby, but a very sad look seemed shadowed behind it. Ruby felt herself tear up again and she squeezed him with a hug. He held her, swaying back and forth ever so slightly. She couldn't tell if she felt her shoulder get wet where his face was or not, because his eyes seemed dry when they unembraced.
"Glad you're okay, kiddo," he sighed, "You've done good."
"Thanks, Uncle Qrow," she said, "You didn't think I'd be a goner that easily, did you?"
"Of course not," he chuckled, patting her on the head, "You take after me."
Nora pounced on Oscar as could be expected, squeezing him and calling him "Cute Boy Oz", regardless of the fact that Ozpin no longer resided within him. Qrow patted him on the back and Jaune did something similar. Other than those three, most others greeted him with a "I'm glad you're okay".
It felt a little cold to him, but he didn't expect much better.
They all sat down together, ordered their drinks and some lunch, and settled down. Then the chatter began.
"Gee golly, Ruby!" Nora exclaimed, "You're even bigger now!"
"Yeah, I know," Ruby mumbled, a little embarrassed, "I found out that I really am having twins."
The group's eyes became as wide as dinner plates.
"No way, for real?" Yang blurted, "That's crazy!"
"Did you guys decide on any names, then?" Nora asked excitedly, "You've gotta have, after all this time, right?"
"Um, well, not quite, but-" Ruby began.
"You chose Falcon, didn't you!" Nora giggled, "Falcon Pine stuck, didn't it!"
"No, it didn't," Ruby replied, "We did consider some names, though."
"Did you find out their genders?!" Nora interrupted again, "Is it two girls? Two boys? A girl and a boy? A boy and a girl?!"
Ruby wanted to scream from the amount of noise being projected into her face. Nora had her hands on the table and was leaning all the way forward with her face in hers. But Ruby kept herself under control and calmed herself. Oscar beat her to the answer, however.
"It's two little boys," he answered. A humored grin tickled his mouth as he tried to keep it straight.
Ruby frowned at him while the group reacted.
"Aww," Nora said, deflating, "I was kinda hoping it'd be one of each, y'know?"
"That's exciting," Jaune said.
"That's good," Yang chuckled, "Because our family needs way more boys. Good work, Ruby!"
"Good for Oscar, maybe," Nora growled back, "Ruby and I wanted at least one girl! One we could dress up in cute little dresses and bows and slippers and do her hair in braids and-"
"It's one of each," Ruby corrected, staring Oscar down, "One boy and one girl. For sure."
Nora's celebration won the attention of the whole café. The group awkwardly received the attention with nervous smiles, and then resumed their conversation after the attention faded away.
"So, when are you due, exactly?" Weiss asked, "Like...how far along are you?"
"Umm...I think I'm around 30 weeks," Ruby answered, "So that'd be...around 7 months?"
"Woah!" Nora cried, "That means you've got like, 2 more months left! That's like, 8 weeks! That's like, 32 days! Ohmygosh that's so CLOSE!"
"I'd say," Yang said, "That's a really short time...dang, time flies."
More curious conversation continued as they discussed how soon Ruby was expected to deliver. Ruby and Oscar felt quite relieved that the general reaction of the group wasn't negative anymore. Perhaps the near-death experience everyone had had had reduced their hard feelings on the whole baby situation.
"So, where have you guys been staying?" Jaune asked.
"At a hotel closer to this city's center," Oscar replied, "A really nice guy named Sammy has been helping us incredibly. We don't even know why, but he claims it's because he has 'nothing better to do'."
"That's a bit sketchy," Qrow mumbled thoughtfully. "What's he look like?"
"Um...Normal guy?" Ruby said, "He has dark hair and orange eyes, right?" She looked at Oscar for confirmation, then continued after he nodded in reply, "And he was wearing a t-shirt and jeans."
"Interesting," Qrow said, "Does he see you often?"
"Not really," she replied, "In fact, after he payed for our hotel stay, he left with a farewell. I don't think he plans on returning."
"Mh," was all he said.
It was late afternoon by the time the group left the café. Qrow had plenty of money on him, as he usually did, so he got a hotel for them to stay in. Ruby and Oscar went back to their hotel, and they promised to meet up together the next day.
So the next day, they met up again in a public park. A remarkable amount of pigeons were wandering around the park's courtyard and the fountain ordinating the center. Their cooing filled the air and intensified and random points.
The topic discussed was the kind of thing Ruby wanted to sleep through. They began to discuss what they were going to do, where they were going to go, the status of the relics, of Salem, and of the troubles of Remnant.
Ruby didn't care about any of that stuff anymore; she was big and tired and pregnant with twins. By the time she would've raised them to an age that she could force herself to leave them with a sitter, she would be married to Oscar. That was a good two years from now, and even then, she wouldn't leave her precious babies alone until they were old enough to make their own food.
Fortunately, her condition allowed her to fulfill her wish.
She was awoken from her not-very-important dream by Yang, who looked like she was on the verge of laughing and frowning.
"Did you hear anything we've been saying for the last hour and a half?" Yang inquired.
"Wha-huh?" Ruby mumbled, bleary from sleep.
"She didn't," Nora giggled.
"Mrghfh," Ruby groaned, "Just sum up the main points." She began to loudly yawn and stretch, as well as she could on the wooden park bench.
"We're averting Salem's attention from the Atlas Relic to the Vacuo Relic," Jaune explained.
"Okay, cool," Ruby murmured.
"And after we do that, we're going to hide the Beacon relic away from Beacon Academy," said Blake, "That way, she's less likely to find it. It would be a lot harder to find something if it wasn't in such an obvious target location."
"Mh hm."
"And after we do that, Qrow will start training Jay like Oscar had been training," Yang finished, "Y'know, since he has literally no idea what he's doing." She glanced over at Jay, who frowned back and looked away.
He had a long ways to go before he could fit in with the group.
"Cool," Ruby said, "When are you guys gonna do that?" She stretched again and leaned her head against the back of the bench. Then she closed her eyes against the sunlight shining directly on her face.
"Well...um, really soon, actually," Jaune replied.
Ruby's head swung back up, hair falling into her face.
"How soon?" she demanded.
"Erm...as soon as possible?"
"Wait, I thought we were resting for a bit," Ruby said, "You know, because of all the crazy stuff we just went through?"
"But we just received an ample resting period," Ren said.
"Yeah," Blake said, "We've been down low for weeks now."
"Well, uh," Ruby stammered, "I was kinda hoping that maybe we'd get to stay together for a while still...because we haven't seen each other and all that. Seriously, I was so worried about you guys!"
"We were super worried too, sis," Yang said, "But as much as I'm sure we'd like to stick around, Salem and her plans aren't going to wait for us to finish our little 'vacation'. She's probably reeking havoc somewhere, and we're here to stop that."
Ruby deflated.
"I just...wanted you guys to stay with me until the babies are born..," she peeped.
"Aww, that's sweet," Nora said, pinching her own cheek, "I wanna be here for that, too!"
"I think all of us do," Yang mumbled.
"But I don't think we can," Jaune finished with a heavy sigh, "There's just too much delay and not much margin for error. We really need to get a move on. It'll be a lot harder since you and Oscar won't be joining us, too."
"I know," Ruby whined.
A moment of silence passed, occupied mostly by the legion of pigeons behind them.
"Isn't an occasion like this more important than missions or whatever?" Ruby asked. Her eyes radiated with helplessness.
"Ruby, I would think that," Oscar answered gently, "But the fate of Remnant is...well...timely. I guess you could say that babies are born all the time, and I know it's more than that to us, I mean, everyone here, but like...Ugh." He seemed to have exhausted his own words.
"The kid's sadly right," Qrow spoke up behind them all, "Salem's not gonna wait for us to finish our 'fuzzy family feelings' before she unleashes hell on Remnant. We have to act, whether we want to or not."
He looked away from Ruby's pleading eyes. "It's obvious she cares nothing about our relationships or family...who we love or care for."
More silence. Well, except for the pigeons, of course.
"Do you understand, Shortstack?" he finished. He met eyes with Ruby again, and it was clear that he didn't look happy about what he was saying.
Ruby quietly nodded.
I hate Salem, she mentally fumed, I hate the Relics! I hate what Ozpin hid from us! I hate the world!
Her fingers gripped the edge of the bench and she hung her head to conceal her immense anger. The others resumed their conversation on their plans and finally, they finished.
Ruby had taken another micro-nap. This time, she dreamed that she would have her babies all alone, and the group would never see them. This left her much angrier when she woke up, and she got the intense urge to punt one of the pigeons meandering around.
She had always assumed that since they were her family, they would want to be with her for such a monumental time. Sure, Salem was calling, but still...She would've stayed behind if Yang were to have a baby, or Tai was super hurt, or...
Tai!
She remember her dad and felt a shiver go through her body. He still didn't know that she was pregnant; she hadn't told him yet, and assuming that nobody else had, he was completely uninformed on the situation.
He would probably come to be with me when I give birth.
And suddenly she wanted him to know. He was kind and understanding, she knew, and so long as she explained things in the proper order and manner, she could probably keep him from trying to kill Oscar. It would be a lot better if he was there for her when she had the babies then no one at all but Oscar.
And she wouldn't even need to ask anyone's permission to tell him- it was her dad and her news to give. She was nervous to tell him, yes, but she missed him terribly and yearned for family to be with her.
Maybe it was mood swings and pregnant brain, but it felt real. She nearly teared up thinking about Tai.
I'm gonna do it, she decided to herself as they left the park, I'm gonna tell Dad that I'm pregnant with Oscar's babies.
I wonder how many of you have been wondering when the reveal would happen to Tai...well, wait no more. It's gonna happen next chapter.
Again, if you would like to be on the special thanks page on the last chapter, PM me or leave it in a review- time is running short because this story's almost complete. Oh, and by the way, I'm really happy you guys are glad this story is up again. :) Made my day.
Thanks for reading and tune in for more chapters!