A/N: So, today's chapters are a little bit late because we got a surprise roommate! He is huge and orange and a cat, and will be for us with a week, and what a day it's been. He's gonna have a good time here, I think. At least a better time than... our poor team RWBY is having ahAH
HUGS,
D
In the morning, Ruby woke up knowing that she'd had a dream, but the memory of it sifted away leaving only a knotted feeling in her stomach. She closed her hands, wanting Crescent Rose, but she'd left her weapon wrapped in the ripped sleeping bag next to her, outside of the one she was sharing with Blake and the tiny Faunus. Slowly she relaxed, letting the warmth of her sleeping teammate and their small charge calm her down.
The air was cold on her face, and it tried to creep in through the opening of the bag. Getting out was going to be freezing.
Weiss was on watch by the low fire, a pot of water for coffee or tea already steaming on the coals.
Despite her careful inching and squirming, Ruby couldn't quite manage to extricate herself from the sleeping bag without disturbing Blake and the little girl, who snuggled closer to the bigger Faunus.
"Mama...?" the tiny, sleepy voice mumbled into Blake's coat.
Blake's ears flattened against her skull. She was awake. She'd been awake since Ruby started trying to move, and she wished so badly that she'd been able to stay asleep. Anything to avoid having her heart utterly shattered by a single word. Threading a hand through the little girl's hair, Blake kept her eyes screwed shut to hold back a rush of unbidden tears that hit her just as she pressed a light kiss right between the girl's Faunus ears, as any good mother would, murmuring a soft, "Good morning," feeling for all the world that those words were a lie.
In response to the kiss and the warm, kind words, the little girl nuzzled right under Blake's chin. She whimpered, still partly asleep, "I'm hungry."
Weiss had turned to see what was going on. Ruby, who had slipped free only to immediately panic over what to do after the tiny girl called Blake her mom, jumped and in a fast whisper said, "I'll get some breakfast started right now."
The tiny girl's ears pricked towards the sound of Ruby's voice and she poked her head up past the edge of the sleeping bag. Her bleary hazel eyes caught sight of Blake and turned confused.
"She said what?"
Blake tried not to listen to her team's hushed voices over by the campfire - if she could hear them, so could this little girl. Steeling herself despite knowing it was ultimately futile, Blake cracked open her eyes to really look at the small Faunus in her arms. She met eyes that screamed exhaustion, inside and out, and a quiet sadness that Blake had to stop herself from thinking about at the feeling of a tear leaking out of the corner of her eye. She tried her hardest to smile. "Do you... like fish?" It felt like a stupid question, but she couldn't think of anything else.
The girl nodded a little, still searching Blake as though she could somehow find out everything about her just by looking. Something sizzled in a pan near the campfire, and she ducked down into the sleeping bag, a small bundle of warmth clinging tight to Blake's middle.
"Blake's going to have to go foraging again soon," Weiss said to Ruby, her voice low. In a bid for speed, they'd only packed enough for the two of them when they'd left James Point, figuring Yang and Blake would have their own supplies. She stirred a measure of instant coffee into her tin cup of hot water while they watched Yang (who Ruby had practically tackled in her hurry to wake her up) fix breakfast.
Ruby leaned on Yang's shoulder while the fish and leftover greens thawed and cooked. It would probably be hard for Blake to forage with a tiny Faunus attached to her. A tiny, orphaned Faunus that thought she was her mom. Ruby craned her neck back to look at Blake, whisper-shouting, "Are you doing okay?"
With a quick elbow to her sister's side, Yang threw a wary glance in Blake's direction. Of all the things to ask someone who was emotionally compromised, 'are you okay' was a surefire one-way-ticket to tearsville-
"I'm- I'm fine... I'm fine. We're both going to be fine-"
Yang sighed. She didn't even have to look to know what those hitches in her partner's voice meant. "Breakfast will be ready in a couple of minutes," she called to the pair of Faunus, hoping to brighten their spirits with the promise of food.
Ruby tried to take back her emotional-avalanche-inducing question, "I just meant if you needed any help we could-ack!"
Weiss stopped yanking on her hood when she stopped talking. Ruby grimaced, straightening her collar and rubbing her throat where the fabric had dug in.
Blake appreciated the sentiment from her team, but it was the distress practically vibrating off the little girl in her arms that inspired her to at least attempt to calm herself down. She half succeeded, unable to stop the slow trickle of tears, but mustering enough calm to whisper a soft stream of apologies and encouragement to the tiny Faunus as she ran her hands in soothing circles across her back, or gently through her hair.
That seemed to help a little, and the frightened silence subsided into intermittent sniffles.
Back by the fire, Ruby held a plate for Yang to scoop food from the frying pan into.
"I think you should take it over," she said, "You're... well, I mean, you were great with me when mom-" the feelings from that time were still raw, and the feeling of loss from her nightmares reared up. Ruby dropped her silver eyes to the snow, her words breaking, "I mean, this girl is pretty tiny and if both her parents- so, um-"
Without a word Yang wrapped her sister in a hug from the side, careful enough to avoid upsetting the plate of food, but tight enough to hopefully squeeze some reassurance into her. The hug was quick, just a few solid seconds before she pulled back and flashed Ruby and Weiss a wink and a smile. She took the plate and strolled over to the pair of Faunus.
Blake looked up at her partner, tired, but curious.
"Well hello there," Yang squatted down beside the sleeping bag, "Word on the street is you lovely ladies ordered breakfast in bed."
It took a few moments, but the smile that worked its way across Blake's face was worth the wait. She sat up as best she could in the confines of the zipped-up sleeping bag, half-pulling the little girl up into her lap. "Why yes, I believe we did."
There was some squirming, and the little girl peeked up past the edge of a sleeping bag at Yang and the food.
Blake looked between them, realizing anew that this little Faunus would need to get along with her team if they wanted any hopes of functioning during this trip. Keeping one arm securely wrapped around the girl, Blake reached out to place her other hand over one of Yang's. She ducked her head to speak into the little girl's Faunus ears, her words softened by affection, "This is Yang. She's my partner. She is stronger than an Ursa, she gives the warmest hugs, and she is very good at cooking."
The girl shrank against Blake some, and she turned to hide part of her face, but her ears stayed perked towards Yang.
"Uh, hi. Hey there~" Yang sat on the ground and waved. She held the tin plate out. "So today there are tasty green things and delicious fishes, all for you," she glanced at Blake, wondering if it might be better to just give the plate to her to hold. "Should I uh..."
Blake paused, watching the little Faunus for a reaction.
The girl's ears twitched, wanting to flatten, but too interested to do so. Her nose worked overtime, but her fists stayed buried in Blake's shirt. Those hazel eyes glanced up at Blake for direction.
"At this rate, we'll be here all day," Weiss had a cross set to her jaw as she took up the regular camp chores, scouring her breakfast plate and cup with snow and picking up gear her teammates had left lying around, including some of the tiny Faunus's more irredeemably dirty and torn up clothing. She considered burning them.
"We have to help where we can help, you know?" Ruby rubbed her hands by the low fire while Weiss fussed over the camp, "and we're still in the time frame we gave Cyan and the others."
"Not if something else happens," Weiss snapped, keeping her voice low, "and this is Grimm territory. 'Something else' always happens."
"She's a little kid, and she's scared," Ruby said, finding Weiss's gaze and holding it, "We have to take care of her."
"I just don't think it's a good idea to spend all our time looking after one child when there are dozens of people waiting for help back at James Point," the heiress stalked past Ruby and dropped an armload of gear into the bottom of the sled.
Ruby felt a surge of that deep down desire to protect folks, and she levered herself up off the rock, "We'll see if she'll eat, and then we'll go. We won't be here all day, so no worries, alright?"
Weiss frowned, searching her as if to see if she meant it. At last, she crossed her arms, "That sounds acceptable."
"Good," Ruby said and looked over to see if the others were making any progress.
At Blake's silent direction, Yang had leaned back a bit, resting her head on the arm she'd propped up on one knee, eyes closed and feigning sleep as she held the plate out for them.
Blake herself had taken a small bite of the fish, holding another bite-sized piece right by the little girl's face. "See? It's good."
The girl's ears flicked back. Her eyes left Blake's as she nipped the bit of food from her fingers, ducking into the shelter of the sleeping bag as she wolfed the bite down.
Smiles stretched across Blake and Yang's faces, but where the brawler kept up her act, Blake gave the tiny Faunus a small squeeze of encouragement. "That's it, come on," she gently urged, unzipping the sleeping bag a few inches for easier access to the food, "Eat as much as you can."
Yang cracked her eyes open to check the little girl wasn't watching, quickly casting her gaze across the campsite to catch her little sister's eyes, throw her a wink before shutting them again.
Ruby grinned back at Yang and poked at what was left of the fire. Yang had always been good with kids, so her starting to get along with their new passenger wasn't really a surprise. Weiss had settled down too, turning one of the girl's ragged shirts over absently.
The little girl looked out at the plate in Yang's hand, ears pinned to her red hair. She couldn't seem to gather up the courage to leave the sleeping bag, or reach out, so she buried her face in Blake's coat with a high pitched whine.
Blake bit her lip, opting for a slightly different approach. She carefully pried one of the little girl's hands away, and brought it over to grasp the tin plate, covering the tiny hand in her own around the plate's edge. "See? Nothing's going to hurt you. You're safe with us."
That seemed to do the trick. The plate was close enough to her now, and nothing bad had happened. In a flash the little girl was gripping the plate with both hands and scarfing the fish and greens down like they might disappear if she waited another second.
Yang cracked her eyes open, meeting Blake's in a triumphant smile. Though, her smile began to fade when she saw Blake's smile vanish, watched her Faunus ears perk tall at attention, swiveling as if to catch something.
A high-pitched warning bark from Drei broke the moment.
The brawler turned her head, alarmed, but mostly confused, as she couldn't see anything nearby. "What's up b-whhuh?" Suddenly, the little girl was in her arms, courtesy of Blake, who had dropped to put both of her left ears to the ground. After only a few seconds she stood again, rushing to roll her sleeping bag up at speeds Yang hadn't thought humanly possible. "Ruby," Blake called, "There's a herd of something headed this way. Hoofed, coming from the northeast."
"Gotcha," Ruby called back, sighting across the steep slopes to their left. A bunch of black shapes emerged from a tumble of rocks- some kind of mountain-goat Grimm? They weren't huge, but there were a lot of them, and they'd be on top of the camp in another couple minutes. Ruby scattered the fire and motioned for the sled. "Let's go, guys."
It'd be better to save ammo than stay and fight.
Weiss was already pulling the cords of their packed goods tight while the little Faunus kicked and struggled to get free of Yang's arms.
Blake tossed the rolled up bag to Ruby, grabbed Gambol Shroud, and leaped after Yang into the sled.
"Jeeze Blakey, you handed me a squirmer all right," Yang hunched low against the packed goods in the back of the sled, head knocking against what was probably a can of beans as they jerked forward, pulled by Drei into a decent pace. Her grip was soft, solid iron around the little girl's waist, unbreakable even against the little girl's wildest flailing, but that fear was only going to draw even more Grimm straight to them. "Shhhh, it's okay," Yang looked up at her partner for help, pulling the Faunus from her self-appointed job of watching the sled's rear, "You're all right, it's... it's uh..."
Words failed the normally talkative brawler when Blake straddled her stretched out legs and knelt down, resting one arm atop Yang's shoulder to aim Gambol's pistol at the distant herd behind them, and curling her other arm protectively around the little Faunus girl's shoulders, creating what could have been the most awesome hug-sandwich in history if it weren't for the whole being chased by creatures of darkness thing. Regardless, Blake's presence seemed to be helping, so Yang joined her in whispering soft reassurances to the tiny Faunus they held between them.
The wicked curved horns on the Grimm spilling down the mountain towards them gleamed with streaks of red in the winter sun. Ruby didn't wait to see if the little girl settled down.
"Cover up her ears," she told Blake and Yang, bracing herself and Crescent Rose as Weiss hauled Drei on board and summoned up a row of glyphs. Myrtenaster glowed white at her hip, and the sigils stretched in a line down the hillside.
The report from Crescent Rose echoed off the cliffs, and they were off, shooting across the snow so fast the Grimm didn't have a chance of keeping up.
The mountain Grimm herd came to a disappointed halt, hooves churning the snow of the team's camp as the sled vanished over a distant rise.
Their flared noses sniffed at the fear in the air, their bony faces turned towards the sun.
A harsh cry overhead caught the attention of thousands of burning ember-red eyes. Dropping below the cloud cover, an enormous flock of Nevermore soared through the air. Sharp hooves stamped the ground as the herd shifted, following their fellow Grimm to the much, much larger source of fear lying beyond the mountain ridges.