Hey all! So this fic has been completed over on Tumblr and AO3 for some time, and I only recently realized that I haven't put it over here yet! So... here it is! I'll add chapters once a day, there are 12 chapters in all. Please enjoy!
Melanie and Miltiades Malachite had a good life. Their employer allowed them to take what was technically one job when they applied together, which eliminated the worry that the twins wouldn't be able to stay together 24/7. Since he couldn't hire another bodyguard for another shift like he had planned, they came to an arrangement where the twins slept in one of the apartments upstairs. It was small, their intended purpose simply to put drunkards to bed when they couldn't get them safely home.
The Twins didn't mind the size, however. They were rarely ever more than a few feet apart, and they began to quite enjoy the apartment by the time Junior managed to hire another bouncer. They asked him if instead of finding another place to live, they could just pay rent and stay there. He obliged them, the advantage of having the extra bouncers on call too good to pass up.
The only bad day they've had since then was when they were both thoroughly trounced by some blonde schoolgirl. To be fair, they later learned she was a huntress in training at Beacon, and she beat up the entire club including its owner. They managed to avoid getting in trouble for losing, thankfully. The event had unintended consequences, however. It seemed the blonde managed to talk Junior into serving her, despite being seventeen years old.
It was another night when Yang was there that Miltiades pondered on what she saw as the only aspect of her life that could be better. It was an unfortunate fact that Miltiades and Melanie couldn't be together all the time. Most of the time, one had a task from junior that required only one of them. The rest of it could just be considered bad luck, such as tonight. Melanie was sick, too sick to join her sister on shift, and so Miltiades had to work alone that night.
The specific aspect of her life she hoped could be better was the fact that she didn't have anyone. Of course, she had Melanie, and she always would. But even where Melanie would try to date someone on her own, Miltiades never had to confidence to try that. Usually Melanie would join her on any dates she happened to go on. Either way, the twins had two primary problems finding a suiter.
One, their partner would be too uncomfortable being polyamorous to even date twins. This happened often when Melanie tried dating alone, as after a number of weeks she would miss her sister. After sharing everything about their lives since birth, even the stronger willed twin had to admit it was hard to be apart. Problem the second was the exact opposite of problem the first, that the other party would be far too comfortable being polyamorous. The twins had trouble finding that middle ground where someone wanted to be with both of them, and only them.
The red-clad twin sighed heavily. If only they could find someone like that, maybe Miltiades wouldn't be so alone right now. Well, Melanie would probably have them right now, honestly. Taking care of the sick one of us would be more important.
Junior noticed his bouncer's mood. "Y'know, I did give you the opportunity to take the night off."
"Melanie wouldn't let me." Miltiades told him. "It's our job, and we don't want me to get whatever she has."
"Well, I think it's time to do your job." Junior nodded over Yang's way, who was practically passed out at her table. "Maybe there's a contact in her phone you could call."
Miltiades nodded and walked over to the blonde, frowning at the memory of getting her ass handed to her. She swiped Yang's phone and scrolled the contact list. Bellabooty? Really? And Weiss Schnee? Maybe she has a 'dad' contact… wait, what? Miltiades stared in disbelief at the contact name 'Call this number if I need to go home.' "At least she plans ahead." The twin remarked, dialing the number. It rang, and it rang, and rang…
"Helloooo! You've reached the voicemail of Ruby Rose! Weiss's BFF!"
"Don't involve me in your voicemail, Dolt!"
"BFF! Yeah!"
Beep
The bouncer hung up. It was pretty late (or rather, early) by now. "Junior, I think she'll have to stay upstairs." She informed her boss.
"I'll put it on her tab." He nodded.
The twin pocketed Yang's scroll and carried her up to one of the rooms. Ten minutes later, she was sitting back at the bar as the last patrons filed out of the closing club. She felt a buzz in her pocket, and realized she still had Yang's scroll. 'Call this number if I need to go home' was calling. "Hello?"
"Hey! I'm sorry! You warned me I should be up late tonight, but I totally forgot! I definitely wasn't taking a nap and slept through an alarm…" The voice on the other end, 'Ruby' if Miltiades remembered right, spoke very fast.
"I'm not Yang." The twin responded.
"Oh. What?"
"Yang's… unable to come to the phone." Miltiades told her.
"Wait… does she need to be picked up?" Ruby asked, sounding annoyed at the very thought.
"Yup."
"Where is she?"
Miltiades told Ruby the address for the club and hung up.
This was hardly the first time Ruby had to pick up Yang from a bar, and she doubted it would be the last. She made her way across Vale quickly, thanking whoever needed to be thanked that Yang was smart enough to get smashed on a Friday night. No classes for her to miss tomorrow. She was still going to have a hell of a hangover. Ruby approached the club realizing it looked familiar. "Isn't this the place she blew up? Why do they serve her?"
Junior was at the door when Ruby arrived. He looked over her and sighed. "One, we're closed. Two, you are definitely too young."
"I'm here to pick someone up." Ruby told him.
"Blondie?" The man asked. "She's in one of the upstairs rooms, we didn't think anyone was coming for her. You can wait at the bar if you want, I'll go get her."
Ruby nodded and walked inside, sitting at the bar next to the only person in the entire place, a cute girl wearing all red. They sat in awkward silence until Miltiades decided to speak up. "So, you're 'Ruby', right?"
The younger girl jumped in her seat. "How did you know my name!?"
"Your voicemail." The twin answered. "Yang attends Beacon, right? You're a little young for there."
"I'm fifteen, but Professor Ozpin pulled me ahead." Ruby answered. "Hey! You know my name and how old I am now!"
"And?" Miltiades responded.
"Well… Why are you asking?" Ruby raised her eyebrow.
Miltiades quickly turned away, hiding a blush from the redhead next to her. "I don't know… bored I guess…" She wasn't going to admit that seeing someone so cute after an entire night of thinking on the Malachite's relationship issues made her more than a little curious, and them being alone allowed her to be uncharacteristically bold.
Ruby furrowed her brow. "Well… what about you?"
"Me?" Miltiades asked.
"What's your name?" Ruby clarified.
"Oh… Miltiades."
"Mill-tie-a-what?" The redhead clearly had trouble with the name.
"Miltia. You can call me Miltia." The girl offered.
"Oh, that's much easier." Ruby smiled.
"Seventeen." The twin said next.
"Seventeen?" Ruby once again had to ask for clarification.
"My age." Miltiades told her. "I know you're fifteen, now you know I'm seventeen."
"Right." Ruby nodded. "Soo… is there anything else-"
"Here she is." Junior came down with Yang half-awake over his shoulder.
"Oh!" Ruby remembered why she was there in the first place. "Right!" She took Yang's form over hers and tuned back to Miltiades. "It was nice meeting you, Miltia! This probably won't the last time I pick up Yang, so I'll see you later, friend!"
Miltiades had to hide her blush again. She called her a friend? And promised to see her again? I'm looking too much into this… She just seems like a really friendly person, and I'm just feeling lonely.
By noon the next day, Yang had come a ways into nursing her hangover. Weiss and Blake were out of the dorm, so it was just Ruby and Yang. The redhead was thinking about the girl she met the night before. She seemed shy, but she seemed friendly too. It was nice, meeting a friend outside of Beacon. I guess Sun and them count, but they're still from other schools. They won't always be around, but Miltia at least lives in Vale.
Yang sighed heavily while rubbing her temples. Ruby gave her a pointed look. "What is the point of doing this to yourself?"
"Uggh…" Yang groaned. "Think of a hangover as… recoil. What comes before that makes dealing with recoil worth it."
"If you say so…" Ruby shook her head. Yang's analogy didn't really work for her when she kind of enjoyed recoil.
"Anyways, I don't want to talk about my night." Yang smiled. "Doth my memory deceive me, or did I see you chatting someone up at the bar after Junior woke me up?"
"Wha- I wasn't 'chatting anyone up'!" Ruby shouted. "We were having a nice conversation!"
"Sure… you didn't see her face." Yang teased. "I think, maybe, she thought it was more than a 'nice conversation'."
"We only traded names." Ruby rebutted. "And how old we are…"
"Well, as an expert in the feminine blush, I think part of her might have wanted more at the very least." Yang teased.
"Shut up!" Ruby shouted. She didn't like this conversation. Now she couldn't stop thinking if Miltia might have been hitting on her. I don't think so, but if she was… what do I think?
Across Vale, Miltiades was having similar ruminations. She knew Ruby wasn't hitting on her, the girl had far too much of an innocent air. Even if she could recognize actual flirting, which the twin doubted, her pathetic 'name and age' questions were easily the farthest thing from flirting, and unfortunately the only thing her brain could think of in the moment.
Melanie was doing much better than the night before, and knew there was something on her sister's mind. She usually knew exactly what's on her mind, but that came hand in hand with the fact they were usually together. Being sick yesterday meant there were a few hours Melanie didn't see what Miltiades experienced firsthand. That also narrowed down what could be on her mind to only that work shift. An entire shift without me? She must have been so lonely… wait… Melanie smiled. "Who is it?"
Miltiades wasn't surprised. Her sister knew her better than literally anyone, and this wasn't the first time she moped over a 'missed opportunity'. Usually she never saw the person again, but this time might be different. "A girl that I met on shift." Miltiades answered. "She came to pick up that blonde girl."
"Yang?" Melanie asked.
The red twin nodded. "Yang was already in a room by the time Ruby showed up, so we… talked a bit while Junior woke her up."
Melanie frowned. "You know how these things go, Mil…"
Miltiades frowned in return. "We didn't talk that much…"
"Well, what do you know?" The white twin pressed.
"Her name is Ruby Rose and she's a 15-year-old Beacon student." The white twin answered.
"Fifteen?" Melanie raised her eyebrow. "And in Beacon? Are you sure?"
"She didn't strike me as a liar…" Miltiades responded.
"What else?" The white twin proceeded.
"That's all." Miltiades dropped her eyes.
"So you didn't talk much…" Melanie nodded.
"She said she might be back. She said that Yang would probably need to be picked up again in the future." Miltiades told her.
Melanie settled down on the bed. "We can't do anything until she shows up again. I better get some rest, I don't want to miss another shift."
"Are you still contagious?" Miltiades asked, hopeful.
"I think I'll be fine." Melanie smiled. She was the stronger willed of the two, and stepped up as 'the tough one' for the both of them, but she still had that 'twin connection'. She would only ever admit it to Miltiades when they were alone, but she always missed her just as must as Miltiades missed Melanie whenever they were forced to be apart. Miltiades returned the smile and crawled into the bed, the two cuddling as sleep took them.