A/N: Hello all! A bit shorter chapter today, but it is ahead of schedule, so... that's a thing. I'm on vacation so I thought I might as well post as much as I can before university comes and ruins any plans I have for a regular update schedule. I think I'm also gonna use this time to reply to reviews that I get so you guys know that I am in fact reading them. So on to it.

ocomfv: Thanks! I love watching heist shows and movies, and I always like watching the ones that use people's wits instead of going in guns blazing.

Now without further ado: The Story

The next day Ruby was lounging on her couch watching the news when she got a call on her private cell. She fished around her messy little living space for her phone, finding it on the fourth ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey sis," her sisters voice chirped through the speaker. "You know how much this weird painting of a girl laying down would be worth?"

"I'm gonna need a bit more info than that, Yang. There are a lot of paintings of girls in the world."

"Blake's sending you a picture now, I think it's German, or maybe Norwegian?"

Ruby checked her phone, and sure enough she had just received a text including the picture of the painting in question.

"Oh, yeah. That's the Odalisque. And it's Dutch, by the way. But why ask me, isn't Blake with you?"

"Yeah, but we like to keep you on your toes," her sister's partner's voice came from the background.

"Oh, so while doing a job in Oslo, with your partner who's a world-renown art thief, you decide to call your sister, who, by the way, is about to make national news, just for the hell of it."

"What, a girl can't call her sister just to talk? Also what do you mean by national news?"

"I may or may not have robbed the MoMA and stolen a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar painting."

"Atta girl! Wait how'd you know I was in Oslo?"

"Gee, it's almost like I make a living brokering information," Ruby replied sarcastically.

"Alright, well next time I have a job that could use someone with a deep general knowledge to run I'll call someone else before annoying you."

"You have a job for me?" Ruby asked excitedly.

"I did, but I can see that you're too busy right now," Yang replied teasingly.

"No, I'm not too busy! Please Yang, tell me what the job is?"

Yang chuckled at how easy it was to get under her sister's skin. At the tender age of 18, her sister was internationally known for her deep general knowledge and talents for brokering information. From launch codes to building schematics, if you needed it, she knew it. But more impressive was her sister's natural talent for the art that was performance grifting.

Ruby had backstories for her backstories, forged documents, aliases for her aliases, passport photos and birth certificates with social security numbers and citizenship records for dozens of fictional people in as many countries.

Yang grew up in a family of criminals, her dad worked as privately contracted muscle, her mom was a cat burglar. They found Ruby living on the street conning pedestrians with a few crocodile tears and a well-timed cry for a mommy who wasn't there. An ice cream cone later she'd slip away before social services showed up. Usually with some unlucky sap's wallet.

After seeing what she could do they immediately went to her to see if she wanted to stay with them. Yang would never forget the day she saw this little girl stroll confidently into their little safe house as if she had lived there for years. But what really touched Yang's heart was the fact that behind all the confidence and façade, she saw a girl who was scared and hoping for a place to actually call home.

Living in a home with career criminals gave one a unique set of skills at a very young age. Yang never quite developed the affinity for subtlety that Ruby had, preferring to use brawn over brain, especially when the other guy didn't know about her love of boxing. But whenever they went on a job together the blonde haired beauty could always count on her sister's words to do almost as much damage as her fists.

By the time Ruby was fourteen she had managed to land her first million dollar job stealing corporate secrets from a Chinese engineering firm for their American competitors.

"Yang?" Ruby asked, bringing the girl back from her trip down memory lane.

"Oh, sorry Rubes. Got a little distracted."

"So what sort of job is it?"

"The kind that requires someone with a deep knowledge of the energy trade, among other things."

"Oh?"

"A client has set us up to infiltrate the Ironwood Company. We're supposed to steal some sort of hard drive or something. Our fourth is going to give us more of the details when we meet them."

"Our fourth?" Normally whenever Ruby worked jobs with her sister and her partner it was a 30-30-40 split between the three of them. The forty percent going to whoever found the job.

"Yup, Uncle Qrow found it for us, so it's gonna be a twenty percent split between him and the four of us."

"Weird normally you don't go below thirty, this must be some hell of a payout." "How does upward of twenty million sound?"

"It sounds a little too good to be true."

"I'm sorry I thought Blake was the buzzkill-"

"Alright, I'll do it!" Ruby interrupted before her sister could go on one of her long-winded guilt-trips. "Just tell me what needs to happen."

"Turns out today's your lucky day, you're gonna be heading this one. Blake'll send you the contact info for our fourth so you can meet them and have some time for prep."

"Wait, I'm leading!? No, Yang, I can't do it-"

"Sorry Rubes, I gotta go. Me and Blakey will be stateside in two weeks, bye!"

Yang ended the call and looked at her partner. "What?" She asked.

Blake looked at her and raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "Are you sure your sister's the best choice to head up this job?"

"She'll be fine," Yang answered, as she and her partner ducked down a side alley. "Besides, it's not really our choice."

Ruby sat there on her couch looking at her phone, the number Blake sent her appeared on the screen, waiting to be called. Should I call them? No, too personal. Text? But what if someone else sees their phone? Email? No, too easy to trace. Ugh why is this so difficult?! She stood up and started pacing around the warehouse she called home, finding comfort in the machines she had built for jobs. After her Uncle Qrow had shown her how to hotwire her first car, she started taking apart and rebuilding everything she could get her hands on. She loved working with her hands, the feeling of being able to understand something so completely inside and out made her feel useful, unlike with the people she conned, she was a fox among hedgehogs and she knew the difference.

After a couple more minutes pacing through her makeshift metal shop she decided to just use one of the disposable cells that she kept on hand to send a text to her soon-to-be partner.

Meet me at the Dawn to Dust café at 1500 tomorrow. Come alone.

She hit send and threw the phone on her mattress before going to her kitchen to prepare some instant noodles and have a snack before bed. When she returned with her poor excuse for a meal, she noticed a new message on the phone:

Understood.

Ruby looked at the phone for a second before taking it outside and hurling it into the Hudson. When she came back inside she looked at her favourite red hoodie before retiring to her bed to eat a meager meal and get a few hours' sleep before having to get ready for her meeting with her new partner.

A/N: Ugh. this chapter was a pain! I really don't like writing intro/set-up stuff so to me this chapter feels really forced. Oh well, it's over now! Reviews and critiques are appreciated. See you guys next time!