"Yang look!" The seven year old looked as her excitable younger sister was running around in front of their house. "There are flower petals everywhere!" Yang smiled, not just everywhere they were coming off her sister.
"Dad! Ruby is unlocking her semblance!" She kept watching as her younger sister slowly morphed into a cloud of rose petals that seemed to be speeding up. This was the seen the father of the two walked out to witness.
"Is that her?" He asked with a tinge of pride and concern.
"Yeah! Ruby go faster!" She cheered her sister on eager to see the limits of her semblance. The swirling flower petals did just that. They continued to speed up for several seconds before her father called out.
"Alright Ruby sweety, you should slow down before you hurt yourself." Despite his words the mass of flower petals didn't slow down, they just kept speeding up.
"Ruby stop before dad gets mad!" Yang said with panic in her voice. Still the younger girl didn't slow down, not but a few moments later the petals vanished all at once.
Ruby skid to a halt panting. She looked up and saw her house, only it looked sort of different. She shrugged and went up to the front door and tried to open it. Locked. She did the next best thing and rang the doorbell. After several seconds of waiting the door opened revealing two young women. One was white haired and had a scar over her left eye. The other had black hair and had cute kitty ears.
The black haired one leaned down and gently asked, "What can we do for you little lady?"
"Are you my dads friends?"
"Your dad? I don't think so. Are you lost?"
"No this is my house!" The two women shared a worried look.
"Is your dad Qrow by and chance?" Ruby looked at them weirdly.
"Uncle Qrow doesn't live here. Is my sister here?"
The two women seemed at a loss, at the very least this little girl knew Qrow and possibly Tai-yang. A unknown child perhaps? "And who is you sister?"
"Yang!"
"Weiss call her, now."
"Already doing it." She said as she walked into the house.
The little girl looked confused but Weiss ignored it as she dialed her teammate. The scroll rang a few times before Yang finally picked up. "Ah Weiss-icle what made you want to call me? I'm only out getting groceries. Well I suppose if you wanna hear my voice so bad I can't fault you for it."
"No you brute. I- there's- well."
"Spit it out, it's not like you to be at a loss for words."
"I think your dad may have an illegitimate child." She could hear yang choke on the other side of the phone.
"Excuse me?"
"A little girl claiming to be your sister showed up at your door." The other girl went silent for several moments before asking in a surprisingly hostile voice.
"Is this some kind of sick joke?"
"What? Yang I don't understand."
"My sister, if she's even still alive, should be 15 not some child."
"Wait you have a sister?! What does she look like. . . Er what did she look like? I'm sorry." Weiss realizes her mistake mid sentences and corrects herself, still she beats herself up for it.
"She was only five when she disappeared. She wore a red cloak that was far too large for her. It would probably fit just right by now." She heard the usually unflinching girl choke a bit. The other girl didn't say goodbye as she hung up.
"Well for now why don't you come inside, your dad and sister are out right now but your sister should be back soon." Said Weiss as she walked back to the front door.
"Who are you anyways?" The little girl asked bluntly.
"Ah I'm Weiss and this is Blake." Blake looked at her teammate wondering why they were so readily inviting this child in. Not that she would want to leave her outside to her own devices, but the sudden gentleness with Weiss was odd for Blake to see.
"I'm Ruby!" The little girl chirped before making her way past the two women and running into the living room and making herself at home on the couch.
"Weiss, what did Yang say?"
"Well did you know that Yang has a younger sister?"
"Really?!" Blake felt a little hurt knowing that her partner had kept secrets from her, after she had laid all hers to bare.
"She disappeared 10 years ago, wearing a red cloak." Blake's eyes widened.
"Do you think that little girl is some impersonator then? Did Yang tell you her name?"
"I don't know on either accounts. Yang hung up before I could ask the name."
"For now I think we should keep an eye on her, and keep her company." Her white haired teammate nodded.
"I'm home!" Yang called out as she opened the front door. A trio of voices called in return.
"Welcome home!" Trio? Was Weiss serious when she said her dad had an illegitimate child? Yang followed the sources of the voices and saw her two teammates sitting on the floor playing some board game with a child. No not just a child. A girl who looked just like her missing sister.
"Hey you look just like Yang! Are you her secret mom?! Oh! Are you actually Dad, did you turn into a girl?! Or maybe," The little girl gasped, "Yang from the future here to cuddle!"
"Uh I'm Yang alright." The girls eyes sparkled before she shot off the ground and wrapped her in a hug, well more like she was just hugging her legs, but a hug nonetheless.
"So you are from the future to cuddle!" Yang slowly knelt down and looked at the little girl in the face. Ruby's silver eyes sparkled with excitement and wonder. Yang hug the girl tight. Her baby sister was back. She couldn't help herself as she sobbed quietly. The little girl patted her back. "Don't cry future Yang, I'll cuddle as much as you want!"
"Yeah, I'd like that." Yang spoke in barely a whisper.
She had been sitting in her older older sisters lap for some time now. Yang grows up to be so tall, Ruby hopes she gets as tall when she grows up. "So who are they?"
"Ah those would be my teammates."
"Teammates? You're a huntress now!" Ruby looked at her sister with stars in her eyes, she always wanted to be a huntress!
"Well in training, but yes."
"That's so cool! In the future am I a super cool huntress too?" Her sister frowned when she asked. Ruby tilted her head in confusion.
"Ruby."
"Yeah?"
"I don't know how to say this, but I'm not from the future. You're from the past."
"What? I don't get it."
"You've been missing for 10 years." Ruby didn't fully understand the weight of just how long that truly was, but she did know it's a long time.
"But I was only using my semblance and then you were older?" She was confused and a little scared.
"I don't fully understand why. I'm just so. . . So glad you're alright." Her older sister squeezed her tight.
"I'm sorry."
"Oh Ruby!" The dam broke and slowly the young girl started crying.
Weiss watched the two sisters reuniting awkwardly. What was she supposed to say or do when it's revealed that their teammate has a time traveling sister who is five years old and has been missing for ten years? She glanced at Blake and saw the other girl was feeling much the same. Suffice to say they were both out of place.
She had to resist the pang of jealousy that ran through her, she wished her own family issues could be so easily resolved. That jealousy was swiftly followed by guilt. She may not have known that her teammate had a missing sister until today but she should still be happy for her teammate. She was dragged from her thoughts by the little girl who she only just noticed in front of her.
The girl grabbed her and Blake's hands and dragged the two back to the couch. "Ruby?" All three of the older girls asked.
"You two looked like you needed to cuddle too! Me and Yang would always cuddle with dad when he was sad!"
The girl sat her and Blake on the couch and then promptly made herself comfortable on their lap. The little girl looked at her, then her tiara and then back at her. "Are you a princess?"
She heard Blake laugh and she glared at the black haired girl in response. "No, I'm not."
"Ah." The little girl sounded so disappointed it made her heart ache.
"I'm more like the knight in shining armor."
"But you're not wearing armor. And you're too pretty to be a knight."
"That's very sweet Ruby but believe me there are lots of pretty knights."
"Then you must be the prettiest!"
"Yang I love your sister."
"You love that she feeds your ego." She laughed.
Blake had heard of cuddle puddles before but never had she been a part of one. Until today that is, wherein the excitable kid sister of her teammate was eagerly snuggling with her and her teammates. She hadn't been paying attention to Weiss but she imagined the girl was also having her own share of jealousy followed by self hate as they watched the sisters.
But as she lied there on the couch with her teammates she couldn't help but enjoy herself a bit. It sort of felt like she was experiencing her own childhood again, she remembered hiding under the covers of her parents bed on more than one occasion after a nightmare. Gods she missed them. Ruby didn't seem like the coward she had been but the girl did share all that same childish wonder about the world.
She looked at the girl and found her staring at her, or rather her ears. She knows her teammate and her father well enough to know the little girl likely isn't thinking anything bad. "Can I help you?" She asks gently.
"What kind of kitty faunus are you?"
She heard Weiss snort with repressed laughter revenge for earlier perhaps. "I'm a panther." Ruby's eyes sparkled.
"That's so cool!" . . . After several moments of her eyes sparkling she asked. "So what do you do?"
"What?"
"Er. My sister is the coolest in the world, and Weiss is a knight, what are you?"
Ah, now she gets the question. "I'm a. . . Ninja." The girl actually squealed in excitement at that.
"Wait can you make clones or run up walls? Oh and are you like super sneaky? I bet you're great at hide and seek."
"Um, in order, yes, yes, yes and yes." Blake said a bit smugly.
"Yang your teammates are so cool!"
It was now Yangs turn to feel jealous as her little sister paid attention to her teammates and made it a group cuddling session. She had really wanted her sister all to herself. Her sister hopefully wouldn't be going anywhere, so there should be more time in the future. Still seeing her sister so excited and so happy filled her with joy. Just knowing she's alright, alive and unharmed, was more than enough for her.
She gently ruffled her sisters hair and smiled.
A/N I was randomly in the mood to write something a bit fluffy today, so here we are. It's extremely likely that there won't be more of this. Overall it was fun to write. Have a good one. Cross posted on ao3 under Clouds_at_Dusk.