RWBY A Day in the Life of Crime
Chapter Six: Ruby's Past
A/N: This one takes place in the past, sort of.
Ruby had anger issues. Bad anger issues. She didn't want to have any, but that didn't take the fact away that her temper was often spiraling out of control. A wrongly said word, a wrongly placed action, and her mood would whorl into a stormy tempest. She couldn't help it. It was just who she was. She didn't like being angry. And it most certainly did not fit her image. She was petite and cute looking, so when she went off on a rampage it caught others off guard so badly they often never wanted to associate with her, leaving her sadly friendless. Because when Ruby got mad, she got violent. Things broke, people got hurt, and she raged on until her anger was spent.
She had tried several different ways to hold in her anger but that did no wonders for her. It would only gather inside her, like a well full of rainwater, until it overfilled, a tidal wave that wiped away every last shred of humanity. In fact, it was her bad temper that left her in the situation she was in now, her being the boss of the Grimm.
It had all started that faithful day six months ago. Ruby, whose dream it had been to be a huntress at Beacon Academy, had sent in an application to them. She wanted to learn how to fight crime and to protect the people of the city from evil villains and the likes. Yet, despite her prodigal prowess and capabilities with her semblance and weapon, the school had rejected her, citing that she was simply too young and they could not accept her. That she should try again in three years time.
This had made Ruby mad. She wanted to attend Beacon with her older sister Yang more than anything else she had ever wanted before, but the stupid school hadn't let her, they denied her one dream. So she had decided to go around and thrash some garbage cans so that her anger wouldn't hurt any one person or hurt an establishment. However, while she had been out back, kicking some trash bags around till they erupted like rotten fireworks, she had overheard some villains. Edging around the corner of the back of the store she saw three men dressed in black. She instantly recognized the mark of the Grimm mask that covered their faces, deformed white shapes with black marks and red glowing eyes. It was the Grimm gang, one that threatened the entirety of the city. A small smile had broken out on Ruby's face as she saw them. She could use this opportunity to beat them up and then it would show that stupid Ozpin guy how really powerful and useful she was. And then he would have to let her into the school! Fueled by her anger, she took out her weapon and went up to them.
"What are you doing here little girl?" one of them had asked, the one that had been first to see her. "This isn't a safe place for little girl's like you. Now get back before we hurt you."
"And put away the weapon you have there. Little girl's shouldn't play with blades," the other said, bending down to pat her condescendingly on the head. Ruby felt her brow twitch at this. Ozpin had called her a little girl too before he had turned her away. She wasn't a little girl!
"I'm just small for my age, but I still have time to grow! And I'm strong. Stronger than you all!" Ruby insisted, stomping her foot in annoyance, her eyes scrunching up.
"Sure sure," said the third dismissively. "Now get out of the way before you get hurt. We have something to finish here."
"The only thing getting finished here will be you!" Ruby growled out, holding her weapon up higher, mentally high fiving herself for that good one liner. She even talked like a good huntress. So why couldn't she be one?
"Huh?" the first of the three blubbered out, not expecting those words from her mouth. But those were the last words he heard from her mouth for the rest of the evening because with two well placed swings of her blade she caused him and his friends to knock out. Ruby had then taken the unconscious criminals to Ozpin who had merely looked at her down his nose and said that this wasn't proof enough that she was qualified to join the school. Then she had gotten mad all over again, her joy at having taken down the criminals cut short.
So then she been kicking another pile of trash when she overheard yet another evil scheme. More Grimm gang members were planning to rob another store. So Ruby went to stop them but their unconscious bodies still did not impress Ozpin. And incentivized even more so, the girl had decided to capture one of the Grimm members and then interrogate him until he told her where she could find the leader of the gang so she could fight them. The captive didn't know where to find the gang leader since he was the last rung on the social gang ladder, and so he had sent her to someone who would know and that person sent Ruby to someone else and that someone else sent her to someone else. Ruby went on a wild goose chase until at last she reached the top. But it wasn't easy.
Along the way there had been boss battles. Ones that tested her abilities to the core. But she had succeeded and finally reached the last level: the real boss. She had strode into the boss's chambers, ready to kick her ass, but when she laid eyes on her everything changed. She was beautiful, her long evil locks tumbling down her shoulder and as dark as the very night she worked in. Her curvy figure was clad in a skin hugging red dress with sheer red sleeves and gold racing up and down the side in swirls. Flames danced in the palm of her hand and she turned her head over her shoulder to look back at Ruby, the rest of her body facing the giant half arch windows overlooking the city.
"So, this is it. The moment that will ascertain everything. The fight that will determine the fate of my gang. You have done well to pursue me this far, but today will be the last day you will be able to do so, for it all ends now." Even her voice was hot, smooth like velvet and with the right touch of timbre to it. Cinder turned to fully face Ruby at those words, whose grip had gone slack on her weapon, causing it to drop to the floor with a clatter. Ruby had never seen such a majestic being like this and her brain wasn't sure what to do about it, and neither did her body. Cinder arched a brow at that action, and at the dumbfounded look on Ruby's face before continuing. "Are you ready to fight?"
Ruby's next words startled Cinder so badly she almost lost her balance in her sky high stilettos. "Can I join your gang?"
Cinder blinked once, twice. And then pinched herself with her free hand on her neck to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She wasn't. "What?"
"You're so pretty. I want to work for you!" Ruby pumped her hands up and down enthusiastically before realizing she had some drool on her chin and going to wipe it off with the back of her sleeve. "Where do I sign up?"
"Err, uh." Cinder, a smooth talker who was able to talk her way out of any situation, found herself unable to articulate an answer to Ruby's response. The flame in her hand died out, a plume of smoke in the shape of a question rising up from where it had been. "Don't you want to fight me, anymore? I mean, I was kind of hyped up for this fight."
"Nope, not anymore. You're pretty." Ruby shook her head back and forth.
"But I trained for months for this." Cinder couldn't keep the hint of whine out of her voice. "Like, a lot."
"Still don't wanna fight you. Too pretty." Ruby nodded her head up and down quickly.
"But you decimated a huge portion of my gang. You ruined my operation! And now you're just going to stop all this, just because I'm pretty?" Cinder lifted her hands up in the air to accentuate the ridiculousness of this concept.
"Yup. Now, where do I sign up for the job. Ruby Rose reporting for duty!" Ruby snapped her heels together and saluted Cinder who sighed and did a face slap. "Outside the door and down the hall, third room on the right. You can sign up with Roman. He's the guy with the stupid hat whose always smoking a cigar." Cinder would ordinarily be worried that new recruits could be double agents, especially if they changed sides so quickly, but this girl looked too naive for such trickery. So then was she really going to give up destroying Cinder's gang just because Cinder was pretty? Cinder had to make sure, the idea not giving her any rest until she was a hundred and ten percent certain.
"So, you're really not going to fight me?"
"Yes."
"Like...really, really, not going to fight me."
"Yes."
"For reals. No fighting at all? Not even a little exchange of negative words. Or a harsh stare?"
"Yup. You got it. Gonna keep it a hundred percent fight free between us," Ruby nodded her head up and down harshly, promising vehemently.
"Well...wow," Cinder said for a lack of better words.
"Alright, I'm gonna go sign up now. See you later boss." Ruby waved to Cinder before leaving the villainess's chambers.
"I still cannot believe that was how you came into the gang," Cinder said, concluding her reminiscing on how her and Ruby met for the first time. She was lying on her back on their double poster bed, the younger girl's head resting on her stomach as Cinder's fingers threaded through her short locks. "I thought it was a joke."
"But it was all earnest. I was super serious about joining you!" Ruby sat up at this so she could look into Cinder's eyes and convince her of this as the truth. The younger girl too had been thinking about the past but she'd rather think about the future, especially when it lay right next to her.
"But all because I was beautiful. What if I had been some ugly old hag, or a man? Then what?"
"Then that would have been different," Ruby admitted. "But I'm glad you're not any of those. I'm glad you're you." She turned around to lie on her stomach now, face first on Cinder's warm belly. Cinder's hand resumed it's stroking.
"Hah, do you only value me for my outside appearance?" Cinder breathed out, with a hint of amusement as she let her head sink into the soft pillows, her eyes trained on the canopy of their bed. It was a deep red. Her and Ruby's stuff came mainly in shades of red or black, both girl's liking the same color scheme and making there one less issue on what décor to put in their apartment.
"Your beauty was what captivated me at first, but it was you as a person that captured me for good, like a bird in a cage. You're so talented and smart and charming and you are powerful as well. I don't think there's anything you can mess up. Whatever you do turns out well for you. You're just that kind of person," Ruby expressed with fondness in her big silver eyes.
Cinder let out a chuckle at the girl's fascination with her. "If that's the case, then why am I not the boss of the Grimm anymore?"
Ruby wrinkled up her nose at this. "You know why. It's because I love you."
Cinder closed her eyes at this and let herself fall into another memory.