Hello! This is a sort of micro-update, replacing the cut scene from the previous chapter. It starts off the same, but it's *extremely different,* and I encourage people not to skip it. Sorry for the confusion!

Chapter 10.5: A Small Inheritance

Blake found her eyebrow rising as she scanned the first book Velvet had picked out for her to read. It was turning out to be pretty basic, mostly a primer on the concept of polyamory itself. Which… to be fair, Blake probably did need, given that she'd only thought of threesomes as a kink thing up until about forty-eight hours ago.

And even for a 'basic' text, it was surprisingly informative. For all the romance novels she'd read (and her… varied past experiences) she'd never seen things laid out so clearly. Yang had taught her a lot indirectly about consent and boundaries, but having names for everything was helpful.

Like for instance: the fuzzy feeling she got watching Weiss and Yang flirt with each other was "compersion," and she liked it quite a lot. And the general haze of warmth that seemed to be following her around everywhere today was New Relationship Energy, or "NRE." She liked that one too, especially given that she was presently enjoying a big spike of it courtesy of Ruby holding her free hand as she fiddled with her scroll.

Still, on the less pleasant side of things, there was that tiny-but-growing lump of jealousy in Blake's chest that pulsed whenever she thought about the fact that Yang was taking a shower with Weiss not ten meters away. She'd been a little surprised when she noticed it, but the book reassured her that it was perfectly natural and merely something she should talk with her girlfriends about. Not the end of the world, and certainly not the end of anyone's relationship. Which was good.

She'd just reached the end of the fourth chapter and was about to move on to the fifth, when she felt a soft pair of lips press against her cheek.

"Heeey Blake."

"Mhm?" Blake made a show of turning an unread page.

"Hey Blake you're pretty."

She hiked an eyebrow. "Is that so."

"Yup!"

Blake fought back a smile, turning another page. "Interesting."

"You know what else is interesting?" Ruby said.

"Hm?"

"Your eyes. They're pretty. I've always thought the way that the light catches them was cool."

Blake let the smile through, looking over at Ruby. "It's a faunus thing, actually. Night eyes."

"I know!" Ruby's voice hitched a little. She sat up and crossed her legs beneath her. "I mean, mom had them too."

There was a long, long pause, as Blake quickly went back through every story she'd ever heard about Summer Rose.

Living with Ruby and Yang for three years, she'd heard many legends of the Great Slayer of Terrible Monsters and Baker of the Best Cookies On Remnant. By all accounts, she seemed to have been a wonderful woman, and an even better mother. (And if Blake suspected some of that was due to sentimentality and youthful myopia, she'd take that to her grave.)

And then, once, she'd seen a picture. A woman in the spitting image of Ruby, except for one key detail.

It'd never felt appropriate to ask about it. Ruby and Yang's family had always been a long list of sensitive subjects. But… Ruby had just given her the perfect opening.

"She was a faunus?"

Ruby beamed. "Yep! Wolf ears. Yang showed you the picture, right?"

"Yeah." Blake closed her book and set it aside. "I've… been curious ever since, but I didn't want to stir up unhappy memories."

A frown crossed Ruby's face, and she shook her head sharply. "They're not unhappy, though," she said. "Mom… mom was amazing. I don't remember much about her, but I remember loving her." She settled back down, closing her eyes. "I was only four when she disappeared," she said. "But I remember thinking that her ears were pretty. For a long time, I… kinda wished that I'd inherited them."

Blake felt an odd twinge in her blood. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that detail.

"But… that's not all there was to her," Ruby said. She sniffed, and rubbed at her eyes. "Besides, dad pointed out once that I carry plenty of other parts of her. Her hair, her nose… and her eyes."

Blake found herself looking. Silver, prettiest silver, shiny and strange. It was another unanswered question—to Blake's knowledge, she'd never met another person, human or faunus, with eyes like Ruby's.

But as she looked closer, just for a moment, she caught a familiar flicker, a different kind of shine that sent a trill up the back of her neck.

"You have night vision?" she asked, stunned breathless.

Ruby nodded. "Just a little. It's pretty weak, and I don't like to make a big deal out of it. It's not like anyone would look at me and think I was part faunus, but… it makes me happy to know I carry that little piece of her too."

Blake couldn't stop smiling as they drew closer. "They're beautiful," she said, simply and honestly. A little ache drifted into her heart, and before she could stop herself she said, "I wish I could have met her."

Ruby's smile grew, tears dancing in her eyes, and suddenly she blurred and crashed into a hug with Blake. "Me too," she said. "She would have loved you and Weiss so much."

Her whole body warmed with affection, Blake had a moment of impetuousness. She pulled her girlfriend into her arms and dragged them down together.

Ruby squeaked in surprise, then laughed as Blake peppered her with kisses. She didn't let Blake have all the fun though, pushing Blake back into the mattress and climbing on top of her, much to Blake's breathless delight.

The moment was spoiled, a bit, when a muffled sound drifted out of the bathroom. Nothing discernable, of thankfully, but enough to remind Ruby and Blake of what the others were probably getting up to.

For Blake, it made the little ball of jealousy flare back to life—for Ruby… it wasn't so clear. Her eyes took on a distant look, her smile dropping away for a contemplative frown.

"Does it… bother you?" Blake asked between breaths.

"I don't know," Ruby admitted. She sighed, slipping off Blake and curling into her side. Blake responded by turning and hugging her, pulling her into a more gentle embrace. "It's… complicated."

"Yeah," Blake agreed. "But we'll figure it out, right?"

"Mhm!" Ruby smiled.

A pleasant silence settled over them for a bit, and Blake found herself looking into Ruby's eyes again.

Then, Ruby spoke up. "Hey, Blake?"

"Mhm?"

"Over the summer, do you want to come visit Patch with me and Yang and Weiss? You could meet our dad, and… we could all visit mom's grave. And then… if you want, we could even make an extra stop on the way to Mistral."

Blake's breath caught. "Menagerie?"

Ruby nodded. "We could maybe even get dad to come along!" she said, laughing a little. "If your parents loved Yang, they'll probably like him too."

A giddy little feeling rushed up Blake's chest at the thought. "Maybe we could find a way to drag Weiss's sister into it?" she mused. "And your uncle? They'd probably fight the whole time, but it'd be nice, to have… the whole family together."

Ruby laughed, her eyes shimmering three different ways. "I'd love that," she said.

A/N:

So anyway we're back to where we were and we've got like 6 more points of canon divergence! Which, for the record, are mostly intentional. Yes, I know faunus don't work like this in canon. ;w;

Thanks to Sgt. Chrysalis, FriendOfYggdrasil, Juniorthib, and Shockfactor for reading this over! Go check out their stuff if you haven't already, it good.

And credit to FriendOfYggdrasil for Faunus!Summer (and incidentally, half-faunus Ruby)! As with a lot of other details concerning team STRQ, I'm pulling a lot of this from their fic I Will Not Scatter. We're not quite at "shared universe" level, but if you notice me doing something really creative and cool with Summer, Tai, Raven, and/or Qrow later, know that there's a good chance they did it first.