[X] Qrow wants to see how far Ruby has advanced, Yang offers to be a sparring partner.
"Yang?" Taiyang asked, as he stepped into the room. "You said you wanted to talk earlier?"
Yang nodded, as she leaned back against the wall.
"I..." She began, before realising she didn't know how to phrase it.
Well, best get it over with, then.
"I've been an idiot." She eventually decided. "About... Everything. Since Five, I mean."
Taiyang was quiet for a bit, which Yang took as her cue to keep talking.
"Ever since my fight with Dito, I've just been focusing on how I wasn't good enough." She explained. "And... I didn't even notice, how it was hurting Ruby, until she started yelling at me about it. I just... I don't know what to do, dad. It feels like I'm going to make the wrong decision no matter what I decide to do."
"...Yeah, I get that." Her father said, sighing as he pulled out a chair to sit down on.
"I just feel like I can't win." Yang explained. "I... I wanted to be strong enough to look after Ruby, and I end up hurting her by not paying attention to her. But I can't let anything hurt her again. I can't do nothing. But every time I try to do something, she ends up getting hurt."
Looking at the ground, Yang tightened her fist to keep herself focused on the now, rather than wallowing in pity.
"How do you deal with it?" Yang asked. "I... I always hated it, as a kid, how distant you were. I always wanted to be better than that. But I just keep fucking up, and you're still distant but you're not the one making Ruby cry now. How do you just... How do you handle it?"
Taiyang took a long moment to think, before he answered.
"...It's not easy." He admitted. "It'll never be easy. There's always times you wish you did more, there's always times where you think you did too much and made a mistake. You're never gonna be perfectly satisfied with how you did, and once it gets bad enough, you're always going to feel like you failed someone."
Rubbing his hand on his forehead, he continued. "It's just... You do the best you can, and then you try not to think too much about your mistakes when you're done. Try to listen to people, and talk to someone when you need to. Try to focus on the good things and forget the bad. Pretend the bad things don't hurt as much as they do, until you've convinced yourself and it's done."
"Is that all?" Yang asked.
"Time helps." Taiyang admitted. "How much varies, but... Well, it hasn't been that long ago that everything happened, in the grand scheme of things. When you're young, a few months seems like an eternity, but it's not really. Just do the best you can, and try to talk to people when you don't think you can, and eventually things will work out."
It was Yang's turn to be silent for a bit, before her father continued.
"...I'm sorry I didn't help earlier." He confessed. "I'm... Most of the time, I'm struggling myself, you know. But, I just want you to know. If it feels like you need help, Yang, I'm always here. I might not be much help, but I'll do what I can."
"...Thanks." Yang sighed, after a moment.
It was too much to hope for an easy answer, then? Damn it. Everything had to be difficult, didn't it?
Still...
If that was all she could do, she'd do it. Every little bit mattered, when it came to this.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang, you slept in again!" Ruby pouted, shaking Yang awake. "Come on, Uncle Qrow's coming by today. He hasn't been here in ages, so he still doesn't even know about Zwei!"
As much as Yang wished to surrender her heard to slumberland and drift off back into tamer than normal dreams, she had to admit that the appeal of setting an overexcited dog on Qrow was a tempting one.
Groaning, Yang rubbed her eyes a bit, putting on a show of reluctance. "Ruby, it's still early-"
"It's past ten!"
"And I've been awake for five seconds, making it early."
Ruby kept shaking Yang awake. "That's not how earliness works, Yang."
"I wasn't listening when I had the concept explained to me." Yang admitted. "My ear-liness is also-"
A pillow hit her face, and Yang laughed.
"I can't believe you'd pun before you'd open your eyes." Ruby said, resigned to her fate of always hearing puns forever.
Sitting up, Yang pondered for a moment.
"I wonder if I could find some old land tied to nobility that I can buy." Yang wondered. "Then I could make jokes about my Earl-iness."
Another pillow hit Yang's face, thrown at a distance this time, and Yang smiled as she looked over in the direction it had come from.
Ruby tried to keep a straight face, but after a moment, her features crept upwards into a smile as well.
Yang and Ruby were waiting out the back of their home, by a set up training dummy and a dirt circle for practice fights, looking towards the house and waiting for Qrow to arrive.
He said today, so he should be here soon, Yang noted.
Her eyes flickered to the side, where Ruby was standing with Zwei held behind her back. A bit obvious, but the plan was simple. Once they saw Qrow, Ruby would drop the dog while Yang distracted him, and then when the two of them said their hello's, Zwei would sneak up behind him and start barkin-
"Nice dog." Said a voice from behind the two.
Yang whirled around, to see Qrow sitting on a tree branch behind them, taking a drink of what was labelled ginger beer, but might have been something actually alcoholic put in a different bottle for all she knew.
"Aw, you ruined the joke." Ruby pouted, putting Zwei down.
Qrow shrugged, and fell out of the tree. Unfortunately, he managed to land on his feet as opposed to his face, and put the now empty bottle into his coat as he did so.
The instant his feet touched the ground, Ruby was on him. Qrow had just barely reacted in time, sacrificing his arm to Ruby's hug to stop his lungs from being crushed by his niece. Said arm quickly raised upwards, pulling Ruby off the ground before she could try again, and Ruby giggled a bit as her feet dangled off the ground.
"Are you getting faster?" Qrow asked. "Should I invest in body armour? Or maybe I should break my ribs in advance."
Ruby laughed again, as Qrow reached around with his other arm to grab her head, and try and pull her off.
Ruby looked up at the arm, and seeing it in motion suddenly made her remember that it was robotic in nature. Her laughter died off, and she went quiet, for a moment.
"...Ah, don't be like that." Qrow complained, as he put her on the ground. "It's been ages since I got this old thing. I barely remember I have it when it's not declaring me drunk and trying to cut me off."
Yang smiled a bit after that joke, and after a moment, Ruby's expression lightened a bit.
"Sorry, didn't mean to bring down the mood." She noted.
"It's alright, kid." Qrow assured her. "I ruin basically every mood I'm involved in, you know."
Deciding the two of them had gotten enough time to themselves, Yang stepped forward, and clicked her fingers to get Zwei's attention. The dog looked up at her, and as Yang gestured towards Qrow, it started barking.
Qrow took a step back, but the dog had apparently learnt from Ruby, and was biting at her boots after a moment.
"Oi!" Qrow objected. "Very funny, Yang, now call it off."
"I dunno..." Yang mused. "Zwei looks like he's having fun."
"I'm not a chew toy." Qrow objected.
"Dad's told me the story of your school days-"
Qrow held up his robot arm, and held a fist towards Yang.
"...I need to figure out programming." He complained. "I miss being able to flip the bird with this hand."
"If you really cared, you would have done something about it already."
Qrow shrugged. "In fairness, every time I make this decision, I get drunk and forget about it."
There was a lull in the conversation, until Qrow decided to change tracks.
"So, how's the training been going Ruby?"
"I'm pretty good." She replied, smiling. "I tried out at the school training range the other day and I only accidentally hit myself like twice."
Qrow raised an eyebrow. "Really? That's pretty impressive."
"Congratulations." Yang noted. "You've almost managed to avoid a problem that doesn't exist with, for a random example, shotgun gauntlets."
"Don't listen to her." Qrow advised. "Your sister is the very essence of boring and is just upset she can't comprehend fighting without just punching."
"That's not true!" Yang objected.
"So have you figured out how to deal with kicks yet?" Qrow asked.
"...Shut up." Yang muttered under her breath. "Jerk."
"Anyway, mind if I see how much you've improved?" Qrow asked. "Just to get a good measurement."
"Sure!" Ruby chirped in agreement.
A thought occurred to Yang.
"Hey, why don't we have a spar?" She asked. "I can prove to Qrow about how punching is a lot more practical."
Ruby took a moment to think about it. "If you think it's a good idea, I can do that."
"Go for it." Qrow suggested. "I always like watching people like Yang lose this argument."
Ruby grinned, and Yang made a show of pretending to be offended. She reached for her arms as she walked over into the dirt circle, making sure Ember Celica was loaded in the process.
As she turned back to Ruby, she saw-
"Wait." Yang objected. "Where were you hiding that massive scythe?"
"I just had it on me." Ruby explained, as she stepped into the circle herself.
"I supposed I'm refereeing here?" Qrow asked. "Alright then. Three!"
Yang braced herself, moving into a stance that would let her charge in before Ruby could properly swing her scythe-
"TwoOneGo!" Qrow finished, and Ruby leapt into action.
Yang stepped forward and punched forward, feeling the movement as Ruby charged forward and narrowly ducked out of the path of her blow. The blade of the scythe carved around, cutting around Yang's back, and the older girl quickly reached to the side and grabbed the shaft of the scythe before Ruby could pull away.
The shaft suddenly tilted upwards, and Yang looked up in time to see Ruby kick her in the face. The gun part of the gun-scythe fired at the same time, ripping the shaft from Yang's grasp as she stumbled back.
She regained her footing to look ahead again as Ruby slammed the scythe into the ground, angled so that the curve of the blade rolled her down towards Yang.
Ember Celica fired, breaking against Ruby's Aura as she charged again, getting into melee range again in a fraction of a second and jamming forward, jabbing Yang in the stomach and Yang felt more blades emerged from the spear impaled in her. Dito twisted his spear, leaving Yang in agony-
She charged forward, forcing herself through the force of the bullet firing into her stomach, and Yang reached out as her Aura flared with flames explosively. She heard a cry of shock as she reached forward, grabbing her opponents face and slamming them into the ground, firing Ember Celica in the process. The end of the scythe was leveraged upwards, knocking Yang up a bit.
A leg wrapped around Yang's arm, forcing it to the side suddenly and allowing her opponent to force themselves upwards, pushing Yang off her.
Yang got to her feet, but a moment too late, and suddenly her vision was filled with red, as Ruby started running around-
Ruby.
Yang took a breath, calming herself. Damn it, she'd forgotten where she was, for a moment. It was just a spar. It was fine. There was no need to overreact.
Ruby's scythe cut Yang's arm, and as Yang fired in that direction, Ember Celica pushed forward uselessly. The scythe cut her back, and Yang sprung around to face her left, onto to feel the end of the scythe slam into the back of her head again. Jumping up and backwards, Yang saw Ruby, and fired Ember Celica back to propel herself towards her younger sister.
Ruby retreated out of range again as Yang landed, fired her gun-scythe to push against Yang's momentum as well as forcing herself way more. The scythe twirled around while Ruby let herself fly through the air, and as she hit the ground, she fired again several times to halt her momentum, and then reverse it.
Yang fired forward again, only to miss as Ruby used the end of her scythe to push herself aside without losing her forward momentum, before twisting the weapon around and grabbing the shaft of the scythe with both hands. The space between her hands slammed into Yang's throat, as Ruby jumped and put her entire weight behind the movement, forcing Yang back.
Allowing the blow to her neck, Yang reached to grab Ruby's arm, and throw her to the side. Crescent Rose slid through Ruby's hands to hit the ground before Ruby did, allowing her to throw herself upwards and take the moment to flip the weapon again, shooting her self further upwards.
Yang looked up, and was forced to raise her hands as the sunlight struck her in the eye. A shadow quickly passed over, as Yang could observe through her fingers, and the scythe blade hooked under Yang's arm a moment later.
A gunshot echoed out, pulling Yang upwards and forward, eventually leaving her on the ground, Grabbing the blade as she fell, Yang forced the shaft upwards to shift Ruby's grip, moving her hands back into a less secure hold. Yang hit the ground face-first as Ruby landed in front of her, and in the second she needed to adjust her grip, Yang charged forward.
Seeing her sister charging at her, Ruby twirled Crescent Rose again, then jerked back as she just barely avoided hitting herself in the head. Yang came into range and barged her shoulder into Ruby's stomach, pushing her back as Crescent Rose came down on Yang's back, and Ruby was pushed back, sliding on the ground for a bit as she transformed Crescent Rose into a primarily gun form. It fired, slamming into Yang's chest, and she groaned as her Aura took a hit.
"And stop." Qrow called, clapping loudly to get everyone's attention. "Good work, everyone. Nice show. I'd call a winner, but Yang would just accuse me of bias, so we're gonna say you're both losers."
"Bully." Ruby pouted.
"...Sorry, Rubes." Yang apologised. "I got a bit... Carried away, there. Didn't mean to be rough there."
"No worries." Ruby shrugged. "It was a fight. Fights are rough. Normal enough."
"That should have been an easy fight, though." Yang decided, starting to grin. "Ruby, I've got two years on you, and you've barely used that weapon. When did you get so amazing?"
"Wow." Qrow declared from the sidelines. "It's almost like a scythe is better than fists."
Zwei barked in what seemed like agreement, and Ruby nodded along.
"You guys suck." Yang dismissed.
"No, no, you're the one who spent most the fight losing to someone who trained for two less years." Qrow pointed out.
"Play nice." Ruby defended. "Yang tries her best."
"It turns out I've been worrying for nothing." Yang chuckled, ruffling Ruby's hair a bit to annoy her. "If you're already like that in a fight, I'd hate to be some thief who thinks you're an easy mark."
"I'm not that good." Ruby objected.
"Look, either you're good or I'm rubbish, and if I'm rubbish then everyone in my class is even more rubbish." Yang pointed out.
"...Yeah, I guess." Ruby accepted.
Of course she accepted it. She'd improved a lot, recently.
...Was improved the right word, though? Back in Mountain Glenn, the last thing Yang had seen was Ruby getting ready to fight Dito, and she didn't walk out of the fight crippl-
No.
No, she wasn't thinking like that. She was going to improve, not backslide.
She might need to have a talk with her dad later, though. Or maybe Qrow, when Ruby wasn't around.
For now, though, she should just try to enjoy her time with her sister and uncle a bit.
Time passes, while Yang tries to move past her whole... Thing. During that time, she will have to end up interacting with someone other than Ruby at some point.
[X] Following the completion of the assignments at school, the study group have a small party to celebrate getting it over with.
[X] Yang decided she was curious about what it'd be like when she went to Beacon, and wondered if Fox would be able to give some hints.
[X] Miltia called up one day and asked if Yang just wanted to waste some time with her for a bit. Yang decided she didn't have a reason to say no.