Chapter 71

Three solid knocks on the door pulled her from her trance.

"Ruby? Honey? Hurry up, kiddo, we got places to be!"

"Yeah, sorry I'll be right out. Just gotta finish my makeup."

There was a pause. She scrambled to pull the cabinet open and grab some of Yang's face paint.

"But you don't wear makeup, hun."

"Yeah, but today I'm leaving the property. Gotta put my best foot forward!"

He laughed from the other side of the door. That was the mantra he used to patter off to her and her sister whenever they used to try leaving the house after dressing themselves.

"That's my girl. Hurry you tushie, kiddo."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm comin'."

She had been caught staring at herself in the mirror. Not disgusted by what she was looking at, just sorta standing there topless, examining the reflection of the scar. The scary voice in her head had stayed silent the whole time. In fact, what sounded like the guitar riff from a Marcy Playground song was floating around her brain.

But scar or no scar, her dad was right, she needed to get moving. She scrambled around in the cabinet, finally feeling the chrome box that held all of her sister's makeup. It was up on the very top shelf, almost out of reach. She sighed, remembering that Yang would always deliberately hide things just out of reach when they were younger so that Ruby didn't mess with her stuff. This was pretty fair, in hindsight. The box hit the counter with a thump, and the lit sprung open.

"What the hell?"

Most of what she was seeing didn't make sense to her. It was full of pastes and powder paints and markers and a slew of other things that looked like torture devices. So much effort for what she wanted. Almost too much. She was only going into the next town, it wasn't like she was going to a fancy black tie event. With a quick rummage, she found herself an eyeliner pencil.

She exhaled, trying to calm herself.

Popping the cap off, she leaned forward to the mirror. She shivered, remembering how much this sucked to do. With her right fingers, she gently held her eyelid down, using her knuckle as a hand rest for her other wrist. Her eye watered the moment the pencil touched her eyelid, making her blink.

"Ack!"

She tried not to tear up as she sputtered and wiped her eye with the back of her hand. With a shake of her head, she tried again and leaned forward to the mirror. She exhaled slowly, holding her breath. This was no different than the focus needed to make a shot at a thousand metres. Just her target was literally her own face. Her pulse slowed, her other eye falling closed. The pencil came in with surgical precision, less than a millimetre from her eyelid.

She let it land.

And then she poked herself in the eyeball.

"Fuck!"

She dropped the pencil into the sink where it clattered against the drain. She seethed for a moment, holding her eye closed.

"Fuck, ow, YANG!"

There was silence for a moment, followed by some footsteps from the kitchen.

"Yeah?"

"C'mere, I need you."

"Just a sec, honey."

Ruby waited 'just a sec', grabbing the bathrobe off the back of the door and pulling it around herself to cover up. After the 'sec' had passed, Yang's voice came back as she knocked on the door.

"Can I come in? Are you decent?"

"Yeah, yeah."

The door opened. Yang strolled in, still wearing her apron and still covered in both cooked and uncooked pancake batter. Her right arm still bore the thick leather straps that held it to her torso, so this was a good sign that she either hadn't checked the mail yet or her package just hadn't arrive with the new one today. The girl didn't seem bothered by it, so Ruby wasn't either.

"What's cookin', good lookin'?" she asked, untying her apron.

"I stabbed myself in the eye with the eyeliner."

Yang reached down into the sink and grabbed the little pencil. She looked at it, frowned, then let out a dry chuckle.

"Honey, this is an eyebrow pencil. It's not meant for your eyes."

"Oh."

"Do you need my help?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, I haven't done this in a while."

Yang smiled and re-capped the pencil. "Okay, sit down, I'll doll you up real nice."

"Yang, I don't need to be 'dolled up'."

"Nonsense! You're my little sister, it's my duty as your big sis to make you look as pretty as possible all the time!"

Ruby lowered the toilet seat lid and sat down as Yang pulled a small step stool out from under the sink. She recognized the little blue plastic step as the one she used to use back when she was a child so she could reach the sink when brushing her teeth. Who knew a little bit of blue plastic could bring back so many memories? Yang sat down in front of her on the stool, pulling the box of makeup down off the counter and onto the floor.

"Okay, sit still."

"What if I don't wanna?"

"Then I'm gonna stab you in the eye myself. Now stay still and open your eyes wider than that."

Ruby tried her best to comply as Yang grabbed her face with both hands to hold it still. The mechanical grip that held her face in place was almost too strong to escape from, and it was kinda uncomfortable if she was honest. But she stayed as still as humanly possible as Yang slowly and methodically traced the inside lip of her eyelid. After a few agonizing minutes, the black line was finished on just the one side. This was gonna suuuck, she figured.

"Look over my other shoulder."

Ruby complied as Yang adjusted herself and her grip. Her human fingers were doing all the hard, delicate work on her face and her mechanical ones had been relegated to the task of keeping her face from wiggling around. Ruby guessed that even Yang didn't trust the false prosthesis enough to let it loose on her face with pointy things. Another few agonizing moments passed before each of her eyes matched. Yang gave her face one more once-over before capping the pencil and tossing it back into the box. Another pencil was grabbed, but this one had a felt-marker like tip on it. Ruby tried to flinch.

"What's that."

Yang rolled her eyes.

"Eyeliner. Sit still, you little weasel."

"I thought the other thing was eyeliner!"

"There's more than one kind, honey."

Ruby frowned. "There is?!"

"Mhmm."

Yang's grip was too tight. The marker came to her face.

"Close yer eyes."

Well, at least she didn't have to watch this time. Ruby shut her eyes. This turned out to be just as unfortunate for her as having them open, as Yang immediately jammed the marker into her eyelid like it owed her money. Ruby tried to 'ack' her way out of this, but the mighty mechanical arm had other ideas, so she stayed put. Both eyes got the treatment the same as Yang drew what felt like an entire roadway worth of black onto her eyelid.

After a moment, it stopped.

"Damn, that's the first time I've done that and not had to make any adjustments!"

Ruby tentatively opened her eyes.

"Excuse me what?"

Yang shrugged and grabbed a little circular tin from the makeup box.

"Normally I have to fix at least one of my eyes when I do that. But on you I've got it like ninety-nine percent done first try! This is a rare occurrence! Hold still."

Yang pulled her phone of the counter and flipped it open to the camera, snapping a quick couple of pictures before Ruby could say anything.

"Hey!"

"I want to capture this moment in case either of us ruins it before I'm done."

"...oh. Why do you need to capture it?"

"Gonna post it on my blog and show off my beautiful baby sister!"

Ruby cocked her head.

"You have a makeup blog?"

"Nah, it's just my regular blog. I sometimes post makeup stuff if I think it's particularly good. Once a month, if that really. It's mostly just memes."

"Maybe I want to follow your blog, what's it called?"

Yang laughed as she opened the tin of powder. She dipped one of her fingers in and collected some of the pinkish powder before drawing two lines on Ruby's cheeks.

"Ruby, I love you, but fat chance. Not even if you do the doe-eyes to me, stop it."

Ruby dropped the look.

"What are you doing to my face?"

Yang added more beige powder.

"Concealer."

"Why?"

Yang started to rub in the powder around her nose.

"Because you're a young girl, and while you might think you're all mature and adult because you live by yourself in your own house and all that, you can't escape being a human being, you know."

"You sayin' I'm ugly, is that it?"

Yang laughed again, using a little white pad to smooth out the lines she had drawn.

"No, I'm sayin' you have the same blemishes on your face that I did two years ago. I'm just gonna hide'em away so your face is uniform."

"But why would I want to hide my face away? Isn't that a bit shallow?"

"Ruby, we're not going to have an existential conversation while I'm making you pretty, you're gonna sit still and let me draw on your face, okay?"

"Are you saying that I need to wear makeup to be pretty?"

"That's not what I- you're intent on making this hard for me, aren't you?"

"I'm your little sister, it's my job, isn't it?"

If she was upset, Yang made light work of it. It felt like she was trying to paint a Picasso on her face with the amount of paint she was using.

"Yeah, well... okay, pucker."

Ruby did as she was told. With a flick of her wrist, Yang procured a small black tube out of the makeup case and split it in two, revealing it to be another small paintbrush-like implement. With a much softer touch than Ruby thought possible, she brushed the head against her lips, leaving a wet feeling on them like they had been coated with candy. Ruby frowned.

"Is this lipstick?"

"Lip stain, Ru. Stop squirming and stop talking."

"Why do I need this? I'm spending the day in a junkyard with dad, not spending a night on the town with you and the girls."

"Because I'm goin' for a look here, quit your whinin'."

Another small cylinder was produced from the ever-impressive box of tricks. This one had a little brush with pointy little bristles on it. This one Ruby did recognize as mascara, the same bottle she had back at Beacon that had somehow ended up in Yang's kit. With a few short strokes, her eyelashes gained what felt like about six extra ounces of mass each before the little black bottle was put away just as quickly.

Yang reached over to the counter and grabbed the hair dryer, turning it on and blasting her face with hot air on full, her eyes watering from the indoor wind. After a few moments of getting blasted, Yang shut the dryer off and put it back on the counter. Ruby coughed.

"Are you quite finished?"

"Almost, one more step."

"I hope so, this is getting out of hand."

"You about to make a one-armed joke?"

Ruby looked away, acting as innocent as she could. "Uh, no, what are you talking about, I wouldn't do that. Noo..."

Yang snorted, fixing Ruby's hair with her fingers. With a flick of her wrist, the little compartment on her forearm popped open, and she pulled out a purple cloth that Ruby instantly recognized as the one she used to wear around her her knee as a sign of rebellion to Beacon's overly strict uniform practices. She thought she remembered a time when they were kids when Yang used it to tie her hair back when they were playing out in the yard.

"Kay, lean your head back."

Ruby complied, and Yang slung the little cloth back under her neck, pulling her hair up into a tight bun and knotting the cloth at the top of her head. She sat back on the stool to examine her handiwork, reaching forward to adjust the little curl of bangs that popped from the front of her head. Yang smiled, satisfied, and reached over to grab a hand mirror, holding it up so Ruby could see herself.

"What'cha think?"

"Rosie the Riveter?"

Yang nodded with enthusiasm.

"Yeah, I knew you were gonna be in that awful set of coveralls, so I thought I'd run with that aesthetic, and here we are! Ruby the Riveter!"

"I've never once held a rivet gun in my life, you know that, right?"

"Neither did that model, but here we are. Besides, you have a deeper mechanical knowledge than any of those wartime Rosies anyway, I bet."

"I guess so."

Yang grinned.

"Now, you see how long this took for me to do?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Like five minutes, max. That's all it takes to look like this, a little bit of eyes, little bit of lips, little bit of cheeks. And you can look this gorgeous every morning!"

Ruby gave her a half smile.

"I guess you're right. I'm still not super big on makeup, though."

"And that's fine, honey. You do you however you want. But if ever you want to wear makeup, this is how easy it is to do."

Yang stood from the stool, kicking it aside and pulling Ruby up by the cuffs on her bathrobe.

"Kay, now go get dressed, I need your help with something."

"Uh, sure, anything."

They separated, and Ruby retreated into her bedroom, shutting the door. Back in comfortable darkness again, she let out a deep sigh. The bathrobe dropped to the ground in the middle of the carpet. She stretched, trying to get the remaining sleep out of her arms and back. She yawned, catching sight of herself in the mirror against the far wall. From afar, the Rosie look was certainly more like a pin-up at the moment. Ruby flushed red.

She spun around, yanking open her top dresser drawer and grabbed a brand-new utility bra she'd been gifted out and slinging it on backwards, fumbling around with the clasp before spinning it around on her body and pulling the straps up and over her shoulders. She grabbed a T-shirt from the bottom drawer and pulled it on. She turned back to the mirror, relieved to see that the Hendrix shirt and pyjama pants were more her style.

"Ahh, much better."

Her coveralls were still hanging up in her closet where she'd abandoned them the other day, and the hanger bounced itself onto the floor when she went to remove the navy blue one-piece from it. Stepping in, she pulled it up herself and over her shoulders, fiddling with the buttons along the front and popping the collar so it sat correctly against her neck. Perfect.

Go help your sister.

"Where were you an hour ago when I was waking up?"

Go help your sister.

"Oh what, not gonna taunt me today?"

The voice went quiet. Ruby waited, but nothing happened. She shrugged, leaving her room. Perhaps the bad voice was having a lazy day. Everyone deserves one once in a while. She stretched her arms above her head one last time, cracking out the kink in her neck before departing her bedroom for the second time.

Yang was waiting for her in the kitchen. She had a camera slung around her neck on a strap.

"So what did you need my help with?"

Yang held up the camera, spinning the focal ring so it clicked into place. Ruby flinched.

"Do the thing!"

"What thing?"

"Roll yer sleeve up and flex."

"Oh, right, that thing."

Ruby did as she was instructed, putting on a serious look. The camera shutter clicked a few times. Yang held the camera sideways, the shutter clicking some more. She stopped, holding the camera screen-up and looking through the little album she'd made. A big smile came across her face.

"These are perfect."

"Perfect for what?"

"My blog."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, weirdo. Now, you said you needed my help with something, what was it? I gotta go soon, so it better be quick."

"Yeah, yeah, no, of course." she stumbled through, putting the camera down and rummaging through her pockets. "Here."

"Wha-" she caught the keys with her stomach. "The keys to the rig?"

"Yeah, I gotta make a delivery today, you're gonna help me hook up."

Ruby paused.

"...Okay, so I'll give you these back then, so you can drive it, because I surely can't."

"What, you have your CDL, you go ahead."

"Yang, I can't drive that truck, it's too big."

Yang shot her some finger guns. "That's merely an opinion, kiddo. I believe in you. I'll meet you around by the barn."

Before she had a chance to interject, Yang bounded out of the back door, dashing off across the yard. Ruby watched her go, confused. She looked down at the heavy key, slung around the little leather pouch bearing the copper Maxim badge. She sighed, thumbing the key and sliding it into the front pocket of her coveralls. She turned, popping the fridge open and grabbing herself a little juicebox from the inside of the door.

She fumbled with the tiny plastic straw as she hobbled through the house to the side door. Just before she pushed through it, a voice called out from the kitchen again.

"Ru?"

"In here, dad."

His head poked around the corner.

"Oh, don't you look pretty!"

Ruby flushed, smiling, a little embarrassed. "Aw, thanks, dad."

"So you ready to go, kiddo?"

"Inna minute, Yang needs my help apparently. Gotta go hook up the truck."

"Kay, I'll meet you 'round by the silo with the flatbed. Seriously, though. You look great!"

"Gosh, stop!"

He laughed as he retreated back into the kitchen. Ruby huffed but found herself grinning ear to ear as she pushed out of the house and into the yard. The cool morning air was very refreshing, even on the minimally exposed skin on her neck and face. It was probably no more than about fifteen degrees outside, but the moisture in the air made it even crisper. The grass was wet under her boots, and the morning dew had started to soak the bottom cuffs of her coveralls. Ruby found herself almost skipping across the side yard to the storage shed built just over the fence.

With a toss of her legs, she hopped over the low log fence and into a little bit of shrubbery, kicking it aside as she approached the decrepit garage that was hid out of sight. The old wood was still peeled and cracked, and it still had that old pine board smell that filled her nose as she approached. She stopped just at the door, resting her hands on it and taking a deep breath of the old wood.

"Ahhh... excellent..."

She had spent some time last summer re-doing the inside of the crummy shed, rebuilding the seventy-year-old shelves with new lumber. It hadn't needed it, but she'd built herself a ladder out of the spare planks left over from the shelves so she could access the attic above the garage. There wasn't anything interesting up there, just a chair and old dresser from the attic in the main house, but Ruby thought it was a nice place to get away and hide. It was quiet, and it smelled nice. She smiled.

"Hup-"

With some effort, she yanked the large double doors open. The story went that they'd been built extra tall so that an antique bull-drawn covered wagon could be stored inside and protected. Now, her dad used the extra-tall garage to store the big rig they used to haul grain to the supply depot at the end of season, as this garage was the only one with a tall enough door for the big truck's tall exhaust stack.

"Hello, gorgeous." she said to the massive grille that presented itself to her. The old truck was still covered from the hood-up with the old canvas army tarp she'd found three summers ago lying in the field. "You look lovely this morning."

She caught sight of herself in the tall chrome grille. She grinned.

"You too, kiddo."

She gave reflection a fist-bump, before sauntering around to the driver's side of the big truck and pulling the big tarp down off the cab and tossing it to the side. With a solid thunk of vintage iron, she pulled the driver's door open and ascended the ladder-like side of the fuel tank, climbing into the cab. She slid herself into the cramped seat behind the almost-horizontal two foot wide steering wheel.

She grabbed the key out of her pocket and slid it into the little slot on the left of the wheel.

"Alright, let's see if you're as charismatic as Old Red."

She turned the key. The old motor started to chug. And it chugged, and it chugged, and it slowly started to catch. Then, like a banshee out of hell itself, the big two-stroke diesel lit off with a cacophonous roar. She giggled. It was a good noise. She waited patiently for the little air pressure gauge on the dash to spin up before grabbing the long, worn-out gear stick, flipping into low-range and forcing it into what she assumed was a gear. With a blip of the throttle, she let up on the ludicrously heavy clutch.

Only to stall.

"Shit. Right."

She leaned in and smacked the parking brake with her fist. A loud hiss of air blew a mountain of dirt out from under the cab. She tried again, the big supercharger whining as the motor lit off again. In no time at all, she was moving forward.

Down the laneway and around the edge of the fence, Ruby saw that Yang had already got the tarps off the two grain trailers that sat patiently next to the barn. She accelerated the big truck, floating the transmission into the next gear to hopefully quiet down the loud and ancient motor. Two-strokes were notorious for being able to wake the dead, mind you, so it wasn't really working. Trundling around the corner and through the main gate, she fired the big truck down the laneway past the house, the long hood obscuring the track before her.

Yang waved as she approached, and she slowed the big truck on it's equally big brakes. It was around this moment that she remembered that the truck did not have power steering. She cranked the wheel four and a half times to the right, spinning the truck around so the fifth wheel faced her sister. Once stopped, she had to two-hand the wheel back five full turns and grind the long gearshift into reverse. Or, first-reverse actually.

Yang waved her backwards, and she let the truck creepy-crawl backwards towards the trailer. Unfortunately for her, she'd forgot that the truck only had a driver's side mirror since they'd bought the old girl at a scrappage yard. Even seven years later she still couldn't believe someone was just going to crush this fifty-year-old piece of art. Sure, she was rough but boy could she run.

Yang kept waving, and Ruby tried her best to not have the truck lurch backwards into either the trailers or her sister, who was currently under the leading trailer's kingpin, trying to direct her so the truck would hook up properly. She could tell this was horribly dangerous what she was doing, reversing at Yang like this, but her sister always had a plan for if things got a little heavy. And the Transporter 9000 was ten tonnes of heavy. After a second or two more, Ruby felt the hitch hit the trailer and Yang's arm shot out from behind her back tires. She grabbed the brake, stopping hard and almost hitting her head on the back of the cab. She leaned forward and twisted the key off, kicking open the door and jumping down into the dust.

"Y'all right back there?"

Yang crawled out from under the truck.

"Yeah, we're good. See, I told you you could drive it! All you needed was a little faith in yourself."

"I did stall it, though."

"Left the parking brake on?"

"Yeah."

She laughed, reaching it to the hitch to set the latch. "I do that once a year like clockwork too, don't even worry. I'm sure if we took the time, we could make the warning light on the dash come on to remind us."

"You mean if I took the time. Because I'm sure as hell that you won't do that because I don't think you can solder very well, and I don't think you know electronics as well as you think you do."

"Hey, I built my own gauntlets, didn't I?"

It was Ruby's turn to laugh.

"Those are spring-action, there's no electronics in them."

"You don't know that."

Ruby put on her incredulous look. "I routinely fixed them for you!"

"I'm just messin' with your head, kiddo, re-laaax!"

She rolled her eyes with a grin. What a pain her sister was sometimes. The sound of an approaching vehicle grabbed her attention. They turned to see the big white ramp truck roll into view from around the other side of the barn, their dad behind the wheel.

"Yeah, well... I gotta run, so, have fun with your delivery."

Yang clapped her on the shoulder.

"And you go have fun tearing old cars apart."

Ruby smiled, giving her sister a kinda lame side-hug before skipping away towards the ramp truck, calling her goodbye back over her shoulder. She approached the old white truck and skidded to a stop, pulling the old door open with a loud creak of the hinges. The cool, air-conditioned air that greeted her was quite lovely, actually, as she slid herself onto the truck's wide bench seat. It might have been cool outside, but the cool in the truck's cab was less moist and bone-chilling. Tai glanced over at her, his shades reflecting pretty much everything.

"You ready to go, sweetie?"

Ruby grabbed her sunglasses out of her left breast pocket, pepped them open and slid them on her face.

"Let's roll."

So they did.

/.../

"Hey Ruby?"

Ruby tried to stay balanced on one leg on top of the car, struggling to hold the discarded, crumpled driveshaft she'd found lying on the ground out in front of her with one hand. It was harder than it looked, but not overly difficult for her.

"Yeah, dad?"

He leaned against the old dusty police cruiser, resting his head on his arms on the roof.

"What did you want to be when you grew up when you were little?"

She swung the driveshaft over her head, spinning around like it was a thirty-pound aluminum bo staff.

"A Huntress, I think that's common knowledge."

Taiyang was quiet for a moment. Ruby hopped onto her other foot, keeping her balance on the old car roof.

"Why?"

The driveshaft slipped out of her fingers as she tried to spin it again, bouncing off the roof of the car and landing in the dirt. Ruby stared down at it.

"I don't know."

"You don't?"

She slowly sat down and crossed her legs, staring off across the rows of discarded cop cars.

"No, I thought I did at one point. Something about how mom was a Huntress and I wanted to be everything she was."

"Yeah, your mother was the best." he reminisced.

Ruby sat for a moment and traced a familiar figure into the dirt on top of the car. The little figure wore a cape much like hers, brandishing a weapon kept hidden under the mysterious white cape.

"But now I'm not so sure anymore. I mean, I was what, like three when mom died?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"I don't know why I never made the connection between being a huntress and being in danger. Like, it's not a fun job, dad."

Ruby placed one hand on either side of her little drawing and pushed her weight down on the roof of the car. She shifted, lifting her bum up and balancing on her hands. Her legs uncrossed mid-air, stretching out over the roof in a kind of slow, acrobatic splits. But only so far as the coveralls were a little constricting.

"Oh believe me, honey, I know it's not a fun job. I was a huntsman for five good, solid years after you were born."

Ruby brought her legs together up in the air, before slowly stretching her right one down so the sole of her boot just barely made contact with her bun. Her left leg, thanks to the coveralls, was forced to follow the other one down. It made for an awkward balance, but she managed to stay upright.

"Did you ever finish at Beacon?"

"I didn't need to, and I didn't really want to. After Yang was born, her mother and I left school and left Qrow and Summer behind to finish up. We actually all moved into a little apartment in Vale for a while."

"I remember the one."

"Yeah, dingy little place. Never really liked it. But anyway, that's where we lived, with Raven 'acting' as my 'wife' for that time. I mean, we were only nineteen at the time, Ruby. Waaaay too young to be married."

Ruby twisted her hips and switched legs, bringing her left boot down to touch her head and lifting the right one out of the way.

"I thought you could get married at seventeen?"

He shrugged, reaching over and spinning the little light fixture on top of the police light bar.

"You can, it's still too young in my opinion. But the landlord had explicitly stated that the building wasn't supposed to be for highschool students, so we had to pretend."

"Is that why Raven left?"

"No, she left because she's a toxic human being with very little moral fibre. Your mom spent more time being Yang's mom than Raven did before she left. She wasn't exactly mother material."

Ruby chuckled dryly, a little disappointed.

"Oh."

"As much as it hurts me to say, Yang was an accident. Because Raven had a very lax attitude toward contraception and a very aggressive attitude towards me. I hope that's not too gross of a description."

"No, that's pretty gross."

"Let's just say I wasn't given a choice in the matter. Raven was gonna take what she wanted from me, and then leave."

Ruby shifted all her weight over to her left hand, steadying herself, before lifting her right hand slowly off the car's roof and holding it out straight beside her. She wobbled momentarily, before finding her balance and holding steady.

"That seems overly harsh, dad."

"Raven was overly harsh. Please don't fall, honey, you're making me very nervous."

"I got it, don't worry."

"You're a lot more flexible than you make yourself out to be, you know. I'm actually quite impressed."

"Not everything is punching and shooting, dad."

"Same thing your mother told me once, actually. Without saying 'dad' at the end, of course."

Your dad's gross.

Ruby winced back a laugh.

"Right, of course."

"You know, you're really good at avoiding my question, Ruby."

She brought her legs back around and down, so her soles touched the roof of the car. She let the weight off her hands and stood up, straightening her back. She let out a groan as her spine slipped back into the correct place.

"Yeah, I know."

With a quick hop, she tucked forward off the edge of the roof, flipping over Taiyang with a half-twist and landing as gracefully as one does wearing heavy steel toe boots and constricting coveralls.

"Noice."

"Thanks. What was your question?"

"When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

"As far as I can remember, a Huntress. I thought I said that."

He smiled, leaning his back against the car and giving her a smug look.

"That's not what I remember, honey."

She stuck her hands in her pockets and kicked up some dirt.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I remember differently. I remember asking you where about three or four what you wanted to be and you used to sing to me that you wanted to be a musician. You were so excited about music and dancing and guitars and stuff like that and you were only three!"

"I knew a complex three-syllable word like musician when I was three?"

"You most certainly did! Your mom was really big on you learning to talk, so she made sure you were the smartest, most conversational little baby I'd ever and will ever have seen. But you were so adamant. And it was adorable."

Ruby smirked. "A musician, huh?"

"Yeah, I brought you to a music store once when you were maybe six so I could by new strings for that old guitar in the den, and I promise you, we were there for like, two hours just strolling around 'cause you wanted to look at each and every guitar in the damn store. And I let you, because I could see that you absolutely loved it. Your uncle was a little upset that we took two hours to buy strings and lunch meats."

"Heh, sorry..."

"No, no, don't apologize!" He said, shaking his head. "It was probably the best day ever for me, and I will remember that moment until the day I die. But it was in that moment, while I had you up in my arms looking at a particularly beautiful Strat, and you said to me 'daddy I want one of these when I grow up' with that cute little lisp you used to have, I knew."

Ruby stopped, looking over at him. He had this nostalgic look on his face that was halfway between joy and sombre remembrance.

"You knew?"

"I knew that you'd never let anything get in your way of getting what you want. That you'd be determined, passionate, resolute... earnest. That one day, when the thing you wanted most was dangled just out of reach... you'd rise to the occasion and claim it, no matter the cost."

She chuckled.

"Sounds pretty corny, dad."

"Oh, you might think so, but I'm serious." he pointed a finger in her direction. "I've seen you use that look I think maybe three times after that guitar. First was probably when we gave you your first backpack for your first day of kindergarten. You looked at that little red with this crazy fire in your eyes and my goodness did you not wanna give that up."

Ruby smiled down at her feet as they started along the procession of cars.

"I think I still have that bag."

"You do, it's in the closet back home. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it."

"You're very nostalgic."

He shrugged. "What can I say, you're my little girl, now and always, honey. I'm gonna be your dad forever, so forgive me for doing dad things around you."

They chuckled together.

"You're forgiven."

"Thank you, Ruby, that's very sweet. You know, that look I was talking about, the next time I saw it was on your fifteenth birthday during your first year at Beacon when I gave you the keys to your mom's truck."

Ruby stopped walking, her attention drawn elsewhere.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, you thought it was the greatest gift in the world. Even if you couldn't bring it to school with you, you cherished it. I think you even slept in it over the winter break."

"That sounds like me, yeah. What was the third thing I looked at like that?"

"Wasn't a thing, honey. It was a person."

She glanced back over. He too had his hands in his pockets, and he had his back pressed up against the back of a flipped-over van.

"Who?"

He smiled.

"Your friend Weiss."

Ruby froze in place. He didn't seem to be lying. His face held nothing but sincerity, actually. She tried to lay into him with a snappy retort, but her voice had scrunched itself up into her throat and was refusing to come out.

"...what?"

He nodded, cheerfully. How he could even be cheerful was a damn surprise.

"Yeah, I remember, it must have been right after third year, you brought all your friends home to the farm to show off and hang out. I remember you brought that Ren fellow, his ginger girlfriend..."

"...Nora..."

"...Your friend Pyrrha, and of course Blake and Weiss."

Ruby crossed her arms and leaned up against the nearest car, trying not to make eye contact. She slouched, sliding down the metal fender and coming to a stop with her butt on the ground.

"So?"

"So I remember the way you looked at Weiss. You would always stare just a little longer than necessary, laughed extra loud at her jokes, funny or not. You were literally hanging off the poor girl, and I could see how much she meant to you. You had this look, this... sparkle in your eyes every time she was within a certain distance from you."

She pressed her face into her arms. This was too much.

"Here's the thing, though." He slid himself over and sat down next to her in the dirt. "She looked at you the very same way. With this brightness in her face, this sort of raw, genuine happiness every time you looked her way. She kept rattling on about how annoying and childish you were being, but she never once said it maliciously."

"Dad, we're always like that, though. It's not abnormal."

"See, it was, though. You two look at each other the same way your mother and I used to. More so, even. You two are meant to be together."

Ruby sniffled.

"So when I heard that you ran away from her on the night Pyrrha died, I almost didn't believe it. I thought Yang was lying to me like some kind of sick, cruel joke. I thought 'why didn't she run into her arms and take comfort in the arms of someone who she is mutually head-over-goddamn-heels for?' But then you showed up at our door and locked yourself in your room."

"I made a mistake."

"And I understand that, honey. You need some time away, and that's fine. But I want you to remember how you feel about this girl, and I want you to remember how she feels about you."

"I..."

"How do you feel about her, Ruby?"

"...I love her."

"Why?"

Ruby pulled her legs up against her chest.

"She makes me feel safe. She helps me forget. About the bad stuff."

An arm fell around her shoulders.

"Then that's all the reason you need, kiddo. You love her because she helps you love you, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Then you owe it to her to heal and run right on back to her."

She sniffled again.

"I guess so."

"Well, I know so. And step one in healing is remembering how to love yourself without her."

"I've been trying!"

"And you're doing very well, I've noticed. Your night terrors have gone down in the last little while, eh?"

She blinked.

"...Yeah, how did you know?"

"I am still your father, and you still worry me, so I do check up on you at night. And you've been pretty good the last little bit, there. I know your sister's been helping a lot."

Ruby gave a dry laugh.

"Yeah, she's doing alright, I guess."

"You guess?"

"No, I know."

He smiled. "That's more like it."

He hugged her close.

Why don't you tell your dad? You know... about him?

She couldn't. She never would be able to. She knew that whatever bad, illegal, irrational thing that Yang might do when she told her, her dad would do exponentially worse. Yang might be satisfied tearing him in half and only hurting him, but her dad was more likely to slaughter the entire planet should he need to. The idea made her feel sick. She'd tell Yang when Ren arrived, and that was it. Her dad didn't need to know.

Okay, no, that's fair. I keep forgetting that 'the entire world' includes Weiss, and that would be unfortunate if she caught your dad's ire.

She half-smirked. "No kidding."

"What was that, sweetie?"

She sniffled. "N-nothing, it's fine. I'm sorry."

Yeah, I take back what I said. Yang only. Then we'll feel better, eh?

She nodded to herself.

"Don't worry about it, kiddo. We all do things we're not proud of, but it's how we learn. Besides, she'll forgive you, I promise. She's probably thinking of things to do to help you right now. She might be a little mean, but she loves you more than anyone loves anyone."

"Heh. Really?"

Really.

"Really. Everything will turn out alright."

She leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Thanks, dad."

His face pushed against the top of her hair.

"Like I said before, anything for you. I love you, Ruby."

"Love you too, dad."

Her hair was, once again, given an affectionate fluffing.

"C'mon. We got stuff to find. As much as I like moping, and believe me, I'm the king of moping, we have places to be."

"Okay."

She sniffed back the rest of her bad feelings, which washed away quicker than she was anticipating it to. Maybe it had something to do with just how right he was, and how much Weiss actually did care about her. The image alone of the woman sitting alone at her desk, planning on how to get back to her had brightened her up almost completely out of her momentary funk. She took her dad's hand and he helped her up off the ground. Life felt alright for a moment. Even if everything was wrong, it felt right.

"So have you seen anything in this yard worth salvaging?"

Ruby looked around.

"Not really. A lot of these are too far gone or already missing engines or vital parts we need. You?"

"I saw a Stallion highway interceptor by the gate, but it looked a little too, uh, destroyed."

"Yeah, too bad, that five-oh would have been great for the truck. Sucks we gotta use one of these old hunks."

She knocked her fist on the hood of the car they'd been sitting against. She frowned as she looked down at it.

"Hello, what do we have here."

"What is it?"

She took a step back from the tired old police car. It had all of its panels still on it, most of them dented, and the front bumper guard was a little pushed in, but the car seemed otherwise alright. The back passenger window was smashed, she noticed.

"This one seems fine."

"But does it still have an engine?"

Ruby reached her fingers under the edge of the hood, fiddling around for the latch.

"Survey says..." she lifted. "Yes! Wow, it's clean."

The motor sat silently in place, all the air hoses still attached and wiring still in place. Not even a single spark plug was missing. Most of the other cars in the lot had been cannibalized for their parts for police cars still in service, but this lonely, dusty old girl seemed to have been overlooked.

"I wonder if it still runs."

Ruby dashed him a look and pulled a wrench out of her overalls. She put one end to the negative terminal of the battery. The moment the other side of the wrench touched the positive terminal, a large, loud spark ignited between them, shocking the hell out of her and making her drop the wrench.

"Shit. Still has power, I wonder if anything else works. Hope the keys are in it."

She pushed the hood as far up as it would go, resting it against the top of the windshield.

"Please be careful."

She took a second to pull the airbox open, banging out the old filter of all the sand and silt that had collected in it. The sensors all seemed fine as well. Ruby's heart skipped optimistically.

"How many miles on it?"

Taiyang pulled the creaky old door open and leaned inside.

"Fort- oh jeez, only forty-nine thousand. This thing's like new."

Ruby came around the side of the car and stared in as well. The interior was relatively clean, the upholstery was all still in one piece, and the plastics were all faded but crack-free.

"Hey, yeah it is."

She slid herself into the driver's seat. It was a weird feeling to be in a police car. It was still just a car, but it was the underlying principle.

"Are there keys?"

Ruby dug around on the column. The key slot was empty. She opened the console. Empty. The glovebox. Empty. She even checked up under the sun visor, the same place Yang kept the keys to the Crusader. Nothing.

"Nope. Gonna have to hot-wire it."

She leaned down and popped the bottom of the steering column off. The mess of wires fell down into her hands, none of them labelled. She pulled a little flathead screwdriver out of her coveralls and undid the screws on the back of the ignition cylinder.

"Going to hot-wire a police car? Wow, that's a whole lot of illegal, honey."

She took three of the wires, coloured in red, blue and yellow and twisted them together.

"Oh, I know. But hey, look at it this way. If I break the law, I'm already in the cop car. I can just drive myself to jail."

She touched the bundle to a black wire that was exposed. As soon as she did, all the lights on the dashboard came on.

"Hey, that's neat!"

"I know, watch this!"

She took a thicker black wire and touched it to a thicker white one. The starter motor spun and grabbed for a second.

"Hey!"

"That was cool! Do it again!"

Ruby laughed and held the two wires together again. The starter spun, turning the motor over and over for a few seconds. It lit off. Ruby cheered.

"It's working!"

She pushed the accelerator down. The motor spun easily up, revving loudly. There was clearly a few holes in the exhaust, making the usually quiet police engine sound like a powerful hot rod. It was awesome.

"Any lights on?"

She checked the dash.

"Just the airbag light. Everything else is a-okay. Hey, this thing has a quarter-tank."

"See if it moves."

Ruby grabbed the gear lever up behind the column and pulled it down into reverse. The vehicle jerked as the transmission engaged. She hit the gas. Both back tires immediately filled the air around the car with a thick cloud of silt.

"Gonna go with 'yes', dad."

"You stuck?"

"Not for much longer. Stand back."

He did. She pulled the door closed and settled in. For safety, she pulled the seatbelt over herself and latched it. With a drop of her fist, the gear lever fell into drive.

"Okay, show me your stuff, car."

What about me? Can I show you my stuff?

"No."

But I wanna...

"You be quiet. I can live without you."

I don't think s-

She booted the gas pedal. The big engine spun up, silencing the voice in her head and shunting the heavy car forward in the dirt. She bounced the motor off the rev-limiter a few times, fighting for traction in the loose surface. She floated her foot on the brake pedal to modulate the wheel speed, and the car started to slide forward in the dirt.

Oh hey, it's coming free.

And then it did. And it came free all at once, shooting forward. Ruby barely had time to react as the car careened forward with gusto, all two-hundred-eighty horsepower punting the big sedan into the side of another discarded police car. She sat for a moment, in awe.

Damn. Impressive.

She shook her head.

"Hey, I thought I said I could live without you."

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound antagonistic. Look, Lie will be around your house later, and you can get some help properly. I was trying to lighten you up.

"Oh. Sorry."

Don't worry about it. Go get yer dad. He might want to go for a ride.

She popped the car back up into reverse, and slowly backed up to her dad, straightening the car up in the 'road' they were all parked along. She reached across the middle of the car and pushed the passenger side door open.

"I think I like this one!"

He slid into the passenger seat.

"Great! Let's go buy it, then!"

"Buckle up for safety!"

He did as he was told. Ruby gave the gas pedal another hard thrashing, and the car continued backwards at high speed. With a quick left-right swing of the wheel, the car pivoted around on the loose dirt, flicking the nose around the other direction. She jammed the lever down into drive and shot forward.

"Hold on!"

She spun around the corner, drifting the big car around the corner in a cloud of silt and noise. It was so easy to get the cruiser to slide sideways, and now she wondered why she'd never bought one anyways. Every damn corner in the yard became her bitch in that moment.

And in that moment, she was free.

And it was all good.

/.../

They pulled off the highway, the old ramp truck shuddering and swaying under the weight of the big car that was strapped on the back. Three hundred lien had bought them a brand new engine for the shitty old truck, and it had come with an entire police car, for free! Ruby had her feet up on the dash, her borrowed hat down over her eyes.

"So do you still want to be a musician?"

Ruby shrugged, slouching down further.

"Maybe. I'm fine with my job at the radio station. I have a few major problems with being a musician, though."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, m'not very good at guitar, for one thing."

"It's called practice."

Ruby laughed.

"I tried that, and I learned to play a few songs a while ago. But now I can't really play anymore."

"Why not?"

Ruby stayed silent. She didn't have the heart to tell him that the guitar he'd given her, a vintage Telecaster, had stopped working a while ago so she couldn't play it anymore.

"I dunno. Maybe music production is more my style. Or maybe I need a new guitar."

"I'll buy you one for your birthday, if you want?"

She lifted the brim of her hat off her eyes and looked over.

"You would?"

"Did you have one in mind?"

"Uh, well, there's this red one at this guitar shop back in Atlas, but it was a little too much for my budget."

"How much is too much?"

Ten grand.

"Sixty-five."

"Yikes, yeah, not happening. Try more like a nice Hunter Music one. We'll go shopping later in the week, if you want."

"That's fair."

"You shouldn't give up your dream just because you can't play guitar. It's not a precursor to being a good musician, hun."

"Here's the thing, though. I'm a very good DJ and I do manage the station when Mister Bulsara's out of office. Maybe I should become a record producer."

"That's certainly an idea. I'd assume you have a pretty good grasp of the industry, based on you doing all those interviews. My favourite of which is the one you did with Gord Downie."

"Heh, yeah, we recorded that at that little- you know along the main drag in Anfang there's that little cafe that's done up fifties-style with the chrome and the Art-Deco styling?"

"Yeah, Maggie's or something, eh? I think we took you there last year for your birthday."

"I held the interview there over burgers and root beer floats."

"That's cool as hell."

"Everyone likes that interview. It's the most downloaded one from the store on our website."

"That's because it's really rock and roll."

Ruby shrugged.

"That was a completely unscripted interview. We were just talking and I happened to have my recorder out."

"Ruby, honey, I think you went on a date with Gord Downie."

She laughed, slapping her knee.

"Yeah, and it was awesome."

"I'm gonna download that episode when we get home."

"Please do. Are we there yet?"

The truck slowed, rocking like a cradle around the big corner just down the road from their house. It looked like the cop car was gonna rock itself off the back of the truck, but Ruby's skill with a set of ratchet straps was keeping the beast tamed.

"Almost. Keep your shirt on."

"Eh, whatever. So you think I should become a producer?"

"Very much so. You've been to school for that, eh?"

"Yeah, but not for the same kind of stuff. I'd need to go back for business n' stuff."

"You know, if you want, I can fund that trip back to college."

"...you'd do that?"

He reached over and rubbed the top of her head.

"What did I say before about the moon?"

She cooed, feeling substantially better.

"Thanks, dad."

She received an affectionate stroke of her cheek, and she could feel her face flush. An opportunity to go back to school was certainly captivating. Going back to school would be nice, she thought, since it would open enough doors to get her out of that crummy bungalow and her dead-ish end job.

It was a chance to move on with her life.

A good chance.

You're taking that chance.

She smiled under her hat, hiding herself beneath the old fabric. She liked this opportunity. She never though she could afford to go back to school, since she could barely afford her house, her truck, her meagre, quaint little life in Atlas. She'd always wanted to, but never had. And now, given the opportunity...

"Hey, who's car is that?"

Ruby sat up as the truck slowed to pull into the driveway. A big, stylish looking silver sedan sat politely aligned behind the Crusader and the Syncro, just in the shade of the big oak tree at the end of the fence line. A brand-new Hunter RRS sedan, wearing a Starlight Rentals badge on the trunk lid gave away it's origin. The airport, most likely.

Maybe it's Ren.

Ruby's heart skipped a little. He was earlier than expected. The big truck lumbered like a lethargic buffalo as it rounded the fence onto the gravel driveway, pulling passed the line of cars and around to the side of the house.

"I think someone's here for me."

"Oh? Who'd that be?"

"Dunno, let's go find out."

They got out of the truck. Yang was in the backyard, splayed out in a lawn chair, a drink in her hand.

"Hey guys!" she cheered, raising the bottle. "Ruby, you have a visito-o-o-or!"

"Thought so. Where is he?"

"How do you know it's a he?"

Ruby strolled over, having a seat on the little cement steps. She flicked the top of Yang's drink.

"Just a hunch."

"Well, tall, dark and gorgeous is in the living room, a-waiting your arrival."

Ruby stood. "Kay c'mon."

"What, why?"

"Just c'mon."

Yang stood, and allowed Ruby to drag her back into the house. True to her word, there was a mysterious, beautiful figure in the side room, sitting comfortably in the thick leather armchair that occupied the corner of the little room. Ruby pulled her sister into the room, and deposited them both onto the corduroy couch that sat across from him.

Muh goodness, he is pretty.

"Good afternoon, my friends."

"Hey, Ren."

A big smile crossed his face.

"Hello, Ruby."

"We're here, together. We can start this now."

"I can see that."

He clapped his hands together, rubbing them for good measure.

"Let's get started."