Significant Changes: The scene with Ruby and Ace is longer this time around. More detail has been given to Ace as a character.

Original chapter length: 2,609
Revisited chapter length: 1,310

Chapter 19

Departure day came quickly.

For Ruby, standing on the front stoop and wishing Weiss and Yang a good week away called back old memories. She tried not to dwell on it, but, the concept was no different than it had been in her childhood. There was once a time when her father spent all of his time drowning in his work teaching students.

Those days were foggy now, aged and worn like a used photograph.

Vaguely, she could recall waiting for him. During the school year he only came home on weekends. Entering the household very late on Friday nights when his daughters should have been asleep. He would leave on Sunday, just after dinner. That was one of the many reasons Ruby recalled staying with their uncle in Vale when she was small. It was closer to the school, and thus, closer to her father. It was easier for him to make the commute nightly to the apartment. He could make the trip faster than crossing the water to get to Patch.

As a child, she had never seen a fault with his actions. She had been too young to think poorly of him. Her starry-eyed impression of huntsmen outweighed any concept of abandonment. She never thought that he was prioritizing his work over his children. It never occurred to her to feel anything other than admiration.

Then again, the same could have been said about her uncle. That face value trust was occasionally misplaced, but, she didn't know it then.

Now, she knew that they were simply men. The titles they wore proudly only carried them so far, and it didn't save them from themselves. They were not the perfect image of huntsmen to be idolized. Instead, they were the warning of what would happen if everything went wrong. Loss defined them in more ways than one.

They would never be flawless, no one would.

Watching Weiss and Yang leave the house was easier than Ruby wanted it to be. The list of justifications, while short, stood on their own merits better than she thought they would.

Yang was doing what she felt she had to do. Weiss was simply clinging to the facts as they came to her. That was the extent of the entire situation. It was no more complicated than that. The choices they made were not unlike the same choices made by Taiyang and Qrow. History ruthlessly went on repeat.

The ambitions were noble, at least, on the surface.

Inwardly, she wondered if Ace conceptualized any of that. If Ace really understood that goodbye meant more now than it had ever meant before. A week was an eternity to child, and she remembered that well.

[Out.] Ace mewled, her small palms slapping upon the wooden door.

"What's wrong Ace?" Ruby asked calmly.

Ace only looked at her before plopping down onto her behind. Ear flicking and with a small scowl she mewed unhappily. [Out.]

Ruby just sighed.

If understood anything about Yang at all, it was that she jumped headlong into solutions as they came. Working the wall was one was an answer to a huge problem, and Yang was grasping for it like a starving man did a dinner plate. That didn't stop the house from feeling empty, though.

Yang and Weiss had only been gone a day, but Ruby noticed their absence in the little details. A few of the books Weiss kept above the fireplace were gone now. Yang had taken a few of the picture frames off the mantle. They both had raided the kitchen, taking their favorite snacks. The fact that there was no longer any beer in the fridge, or wine for that matter. All of it had been disposed of, or drunken before they left.

It was the silence she noticed next.

The lack of her sister bellowing across the house in her usual fashion, playing music, or watching something obscene on television. Yang's racket was easy to miss. Weiss had always been more reserved, but even she had her own distinct noise, albeit more subdued. Ace noticed the changes as well, if her occasional glances at the door were any indication.

[Out.] She mewed again as she sat by the front door.

"What, do you want to go outside?" Ruby asked softly. "Not yet. You have to wait."

Ace just gave her a look as though the older woman was completely stupid. [Out.]

"No, not right now." Ruby said before sipping a glass of water. "Come here." She said, patting her leg invitingly.

[Out.] Ace mewed again insistently, giving the older woman a confused glance when her demands weren't met. She stood up and reached for the door handle even though she couldn't quite touch the lock. When that failed, she started meowing again. [Kin. Out.]

"No, Ace we can't leave yet."

Ruby watched as the little girl ran over to the square ring of papers that hung up on the wall. Today was a Saturday, not that Ace knew that, but the sheet of paper was colored green. Green paper meant going to the park. Ace noticed that color.

[Out.] She mewed at the calendar before running back to the window to wait some more.

It was the first time in her life that Ruby cursed the colored pages hanging on the wall.

There was no Yang, and thus, no park. Ruby sighed, taking her now empty glass into the kitchen. She thought Ace might follow her, but the little Faunus stayed put. Ruby could only watch helplessly, leaning heavily on the wall. She had been hoping, praying, that Ace wouldn't notice.

Pulling out her scroll she looked at the clock. Yang and Weiss were probably still settling in before orientation. They started officially working Monday.

"Ace." Ruby called, pulling the little girl's attention. "No, not right now. Yang's working."

[Out…] Little ears flattened back, and a whine protruded from her throat as she looked back towards the window. The word 'no' always seemed to be a bad thing.

"Ace, come here." Ruby said, as she pulled the stairs down to the attic. "I want to show you something."

She cocked her head to the side, her left ear flicking, and a mew forming the question she was still too little to ask with words. She looked back to the window once more, as though she might miss something if she were to leave her place. Little claws dug into the wood as she fought to pull herself up, sitting in the open space near a lone cactus plant.

[Kin!] She mewled loudly, as if Yang could somehow hear her. [Kin! Out!]

"Ace, come here if you want to see Yang." Ruby said, bending over and patting her legs. She watched as Ace looked torn between following her, and waiting for Yang. The decision seemed to be a hard one for the small child. "Come on Ace…"

Curiosity won out.

Slowly, she made her way over to Ruby, letting the woman pick her up. Ruby carried her up the steep ladder in to the very top of the house. The floors were rickety. The room was dusty. The ceiling was so low even Weiss was at risk of bumping her head on it in a few places. Ruby put a palm over the little girl's head. Fingers softly pushing against the kitten-like ears, keeping the dust and cobwebs out.

"See that big wall over there in the distance?" Ruby, said, pointing over to it. From this far away, it looked small, but Ruby knew better. "That's where she is."

Ace cocked her head to the side, ear flicking against Ruby's palm. [Out] She fussed, palms slapping on the window as a black bird fluttered by.

"Do you miss Yang?" Ruby said. "She's working really hard so that you can be safe and warm. She'll come back in a little while."

[Kin…] Ace made another discontented and somewhat confused sound. [Out.]

Ruby only shook her head. "I know you don't understand, but Yang's working." Ruby sighed sadly. "If you want to go to the park, we have to wait for Blake to get back from the dust shop first."