A/N: Alright update time! In fact I've got another double update for you guys today. So we've finally gotten past the party, now we're time to see a bit more of the con woman part of Ruby's personality, and a few other things too!
Enjoy!
Florida!
Ruby finished her third margarita and trotted barefoot along the sands of Miami Beach. It was twilight, and a blood-red sun descended dismally over the palms toward the west, the north breeze off the Gulf inducing excited shivers. The off-season was just beginning as most people's Christmas breaks had finished a week ago, and she was enjoying the peaceful seclusion as she played footsie with the incoming tide.
It had been a long month since she had met a beautiful, white-haired heiress and pulled a simple con with her to score invitations into the headquarters of Ironwood Engineering in Miami. She tried to keep busy as much as possible, taking jobs whenever they cropped up, no matter how small, and going around the country making sure the money she sent to the different orphanages was being spent properly.
Of course this also meant she hadn't had a proper night's sleep in almost two weeks, but whatever kept her mind off Weiss was good.
Dammit.
And just like that the heiress was back at the forefront of her mind. She was sure that it wasn't healthy to be thinking about someone this much, but she couldn't seem to help herself. And on top of it, her sister was always there to make fun of her for it making the dark-haired con woman regret accidentally gushing in front of her when they saw each other a weak after her and Weiss had parted ways.
Sighing, she made her way back to the beachfront cabana where her team was supposed to meet to discuss the details of what might be the nicest job she had ever taken. A beach resort and a twenty million dollar payout? Ruby didn't care who she was robbing, or what she was stealing, she was on she would have jumped at the opportunity, except for the one little hiccup. She was being forced to take point on the job.
Normally she was fine with being the center of attention like that, hell her job consisted of grabbing people's attention, but that was always on her terms and always after careful planning. Being the leader on a job this big meant being at the forefront at all the wrong times and she hated that.
She tripped on the steps up to the small beachfront cabana, and opened the screen door before stumbling onto the couch and collapsing into the comfortably cushions.
Probably shouldn't have had that third margarita. Or the second. Or those two strawberry sunrises...
"Good evening, Red."
"'Evening Goodwitch. That wine for me?"
Glynda Goodwitch stood next a table covered in different files pouring herself a glass of Chardonnay while she eyed Ruby through her slim rectangular glasses. She normally acted as the go between for Ruby, and on more than one occasion her sister and her Blake, and her husband Ozpin who preferred to operate more in the background and whom Ruby had only actually seen once. He ran a tight ship, and was normally the one who supplied the young con women with her bigger jobs.
"You look like you've already had enough to drink."
"Fine," Ruby said, rolling her eyes "So, any insider information you care to share?"
"I would rather not discuss the details of your job until the others have arrived," she replied before smirking, "but, knowing you, everything I have to say will be old news anyway."
"Maybe…" Ruby said with a wink.
"Oh, is the party starting already?" A voice called from the entrance way. The heavy footfalls of boots creaking against the floorboards.
"Yang!" Ruby exclaimed, turning around in her seat to get wrapped up in one of her sister's (in)famous bear hear hugs.
"Hey sis! How ya doin'?" Yang said cheerily as she made her way across the table to sit in one of the loveseats.
"Good evening, Miss Xiao Long. Miss Belladonna."
"Good evening, Glynda. How are you?" Blake said as she silently joined Ruby's sister on the loveseat.
"I'm fine, thank you."
"Hey Glynda, got any beer?"
"There should be some Corona in the fridge."
"Sweet! You want one Blakey?"
"Can we get this started? I've got, like, a week and a half to do some prep and get into contact with my friends down here, and I want to know how much effort this is gonna need." Ruby whined, rolling her head to the back of the couch.
"We're waiting on our fifth," Goodwitch said.
"No need to wait, I'm here."
Ruby turned at the voice, gasping at what she saw.
Weiss was standing in the corner, dressed as impeccably as ever, in a snow white blouse that seemed to shine it was so bright, and a dark blue skirt that made her porcelain legs look like works of art. But what drew her attention was the addition of the line of scar tissue across her left eye that definitely wasn't there the last time she saw the heiress.
Ruby was stupefied, concerned, and tipsy.
"Ahh, Miss Schnee, glad you could join us."
Weiss didn't respond, instead opting to take the only open seat in the room.
Right next to Ruby on the couch.
The silver-haired women stalked to the furthest end and pushed two patterned cushions toward the middle, creating a makeshift barrier. Okay, that was a little rude. Luckily Ruby was a little too tipsy to get annoyed and simply sat there awkwardly, deciding instead to close her eyes for a moment to collect her thoughts. She was soon lost to the lulling effects of the Florida warmth and the alcohol in her system.
Weiss couldn't believe her eyes, they were twenty minutes into this Goodwitch women's presentation and Red had been lightly snoring the entire time, the smell of alcohol wafting lightly into the heiress nose, along with something that smelled suspiciously of roses. She had been so distracted by the con woman that she hadn't even processed a single thing the blonde women had said to her. This was the person who was going to be leading this job? Unacceptable. She wasn't about to take orders from a girl who not only was her junior, but clearly wasn't taking this seriously. And on top of it all her eye had started throbbing again, making her extra irritable.
Goodwitch dropped a stack of files on the table and looked at the group, drawing Weiss's attention back to the stern looking women and bring Red back into the world of the living.
"So, any questions?"
"I have one, we're about to steal one hundred million dollars from a man who hires ex-marines for his own private security, and we're letting her be the leader?" She said, standing up and pointing at a disgruntled looking Red.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
"What that's supposed to mean is that you're nothing but an insufferable child."
"There's a string of gentlemen from here to Sydney that would disagree with you."
"Oh, I'm sure they're intimately familiar with all aspects of your person."
"Alright, what the fuck is that supposed to mean?!" Red shouted.
"I'm standing in a room full of criminals, and the one who I don't even know the name of is the one I'm supposed to be trusting with my life? On top of that, she sleeps through a briefing, and we're supposed to just expect her to take this seriously? No."
"Weiss, where is this coming fro-?"
"This Ozpin guy, whoever he is, made a mistake."
And with that, Weiss stormed and headed to her own cabana.
Ruby couldn't believe what just happened. She had excitedly waited a month to reunite with the grouchy yet well-meaning heiress that she had befriended, but instead, Weiss acted just like she had when they first met. If not worse. What could've happened over the last month to cause her to retreat behind those icy walls? Ruby didn't know, but she guessed it had something to do with that scar on her eye. She had seen glimpses of some of the marks on the heiress's back during their time together in New York, but had opted to not say anything as it seemed that Weiss was making an effort to hide them. Seeing this new cicatrix on the silver haired girls face, she had started putting the pieces together. She had thought about asking about it, but never got the chance, and now that she had sobered up some, decided that she would wait for the heiress to bring it up en lieu of asking herself.
Still, she had to find out what was wrong with her, but as she made her way outside after her, Weiss was already gone. She sighed and was about to go look for her but was halted by a voice she had only seen once before.
"Well, I suppose that could have gone better."
Ruby turned around and was facing a tall middle-aged man with tousled gray hair and thin brown eyes. He wore a pair of shaded glass spectacles and had a thin green cotton scarf wrapped loosely around his neck. In his right hand was an ornate cane, and in his left a cup of steaming coffee.
"Ozpin! You're here?"
"Yes, you're uncle wanted to come but he got caught up in some issues with the Burmese government, so I came in his stead. He sends his love, by the way, to you and your sister."
"Oh, thanks, I guess."
"Now, what are you going to do about the young heiress?" Ruby flushed with embarrassment.
"You saw that?"
"Unfortunately…"
"So, was she right?"
"Right about what? You being an insufferable child? Because I don't think I'm qualified to answer that."
"No," Ruby giggled slightly, before frowning again. "Was she right about you, you know, making a mistake in picking me?"
"Red. I've made more mistakes than any one person you will ever meet. But at this moment I would not consider appointing you the leader for this job to be one of them. Do you?"
"Well it certainly doesn't feel like I've been doing a great job at it." Ruby said, looking down.
"Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry about, but a badge you wear constantly. Not only will the responsibility fall upon your shoulders should this job fail and you are caught, but it runs deeper than that. If you are not always preforming at your absolute best, then what reason do you give others to follow you?"
"But what if I can't?" Ruby asked, her feelings of insecurity rising to the surface faster than a rocket.
"You've been burdened with a daunting responsibility Ruby, I suggest you take some time to think about how you will uphold it."
"Okay," Ruby said, before turning and heading to her cabana. "Thanks Ozpin!" She had taken three steps before it dawned on her.
"Wait, how do you know-"
She turned around and found herself alone, "-my name…"
Great, yet another thing to think about, she thought with a yawn. I think it's time for bed. I'll find Weiss and work things out with her when I'm more awake. She stumbled and cursed under her breath, and less drunk.
Weiss had been tossing and turning for several hours when she heard the screen door on her cabana gently slide open. She was about to get out of bed when she felt a hand grab her by the front of her neckline and lift her up against the wall of her room. She opened her mouth to scream, but felt another strong hand cover her mouth, preventing any sound from escaping. She flailed around wildly, trying to fight her attacker, but whoever it was, they were much stronger than she was and simply held her there ignoring her weak attempts at fighting back. Then the bedside lamp was turned on by a second person in the room and she saw her attackers.
Holding her up against the wall was the blonde woman from the meeting earlier that night, and standing next to her was the black haired one who had sat next to the brute. She vaguely remembered their faces from a Skype call several weeks ago, but couldn't remember their names.
She looked between the black haired one who stood with her arms crossed and a look of annoyance on her face and the blonde barbarian holding her up who looked downright furious.
"Good evening, Weiss," The black haired one said cooly. "I'm Blake, and this is Yang. We came to have a couple of words with you. Now, Yang's gonna put you down, and we're all going to have a nice civil conversation, got it?"
Weiss nodded and Yang dropped her to the floor not unlike a sack of potatoes.
"What is the matter with you two?!" Weiss nearly screamed before Blake put a finger to her lips.
"Quiet now, wouldn't want to wake the neighbours would we?" Yang cracked her knuckles and Weiss gulped.
"Wh-what is you two want?" She asked in a lower register.
"Well, you see," Yang said as she crouched down and got more than a little too close for comfort. "I don't really appreciate people badmouthing my little sister, and while I was more than happy to beat an apology out of you right there and then, Blakey here had a better idea."
"O-okay, but what does that have to do with breaking into my room in the middle of the night and hurling me against a wall?"
"We just wanted to talk to you," Blake replied, "and I thought it best we establish our credibility beforehand."
"Okay, but why?" Weiss was started to get annoyed by the raven haired women, but with the flaxen Neanderthal looming over her, she wasn't about to let it show.
"So that when we say that everything you said about Red is bullshit you'll be more inclined to believe us."
"Oh, really? So break into my room and rough me up so that I'll do what? Believe that that dolt is just as good as you?"
"Nope," Yang replied, "see, we already know that you spent some time with her so that should be enough proof that she's good." Weiss blushed as memories of spilled pasta sauce and red dresses flashed to the forefront of her mind.
"We're here to convince you that she's the best." Weiss scoffed.
"Oh please, you expect me to believe that an eighteen year old girl is one of the best criminals there is?"
"Yup," Yang said proudly.
"Weiss, if you look any of us up, do you know what thing all our files would have in common?" Blake asked.
"I don't know, probably a lot of things." This was getting tiresome, and Weiss's eye was starting to hurt again.
"The biggest thing Yang, her sister, and I have in common is that we've all been to prison at least once."
"That's nice, but what does it have to d-"
"The thing you won't find on the file though, is that, unlike Yang and me, Red wanted to get caught."
"Why would she do tha-"
"Ah ah, Ice Queen. No interrupting, let Blake finish." Yang said in a sickeningly sweet voice.
"Thank you, Yang. Now, seeing as you're new to this whole "criminal underworld" thing, let me explain:
When you get caught, everything about you is put into the system. Now, normally, this makes life significantly more difficult for a criminal, as the authorities now have a trail to follow. Therefore, you get people like Ozpin and Yang's uncle, who stay far away from the whole thing so that nothing can be traced back to them. Red decided to do the complete opposite."
"Wait-what? That makes no sense. How does she not get arrested just walking around?" Weiss asked. She couldn't wrap her mind around a girl who was wanted around the world yet who walked around with her head held high, instead of hiding away in some South American country without extradition laws.
"'Cause she uses the system to her advantage," Yang said. "The girl is wanted for grand theft, larceny, espionage, breaking and entering, extortion, embezzlement, fraud, forgery, money laundering, the works!"
"I still don't understand." This was starting to get really frustrating.
"Look," Yang said. "Most criminals try to leave as little behind as possible after a crime, right?" Weiss nodded. "My sister does the opposite, she leaves almost everything behind. There's so much information in her file that there's no telling who she really is. And which who did what thing. And what who stole which thing. Or who which-"
"Stop before you give yourself an aneurism," Blake interrupted. "Basically, she floods the system with information. Who's to say what's correct? Say they have evidence but they can't prove her identity. There's no one to link it to because she's protected herself with more aliases than the feds can keep straight."
Weiss was flabbergasted. How could one girl, barely be on the cusp of adulthood be able to come up with such a complex plan, and be able to fool law enforcement agencies all around the world? But, even knowing that, there were still issues and she wasn't going to go down without a fight.
"Okay, fine. So Red's some sort of criminal savant. That still doesn't excuse her spending the entire meeting in a drunken coma instead of listening for crucial information."
"We're not done yet," Blake said. "She took you to that little orphanage in New York, right?" Weiss nodded. "Because that's not the only one. Red's been using almost all of her money to build orphanages all over the country, and clean up the streets around them. In fact she's just started getting the ball rolling on a few international projects too."
"You wanna know what my sister plans on using the money she makes off this job for?" Yang asked, "any sensible person would take their twenty million and rush off to an early retirement, but instead, my stupid little sister is gonna funnel almost all of it into those orphanages. She's even tried to hire me to be private security on a couple of the international ones. She puts everything she has into helping people, and works herself ragged making sure that no one has to end up like her. And she only asks for one thing in return from the people she helps. You wanna know what my sister asks of someone in return for saving their life?"
Weiss nodded. Feeling slightly intimidated by the intenseness in the blonde's eyes.
"She asks for information." Blake finished. "In return for helping people in any way she can, she asks them to gather information however they can. The girl has an information network from here to Russia, that's ingrained in everything from street gangs and the slums, to Wall Street. Those files that Goodwitch gave us? More than eighty-five percent of the information was gathered by Red herself. So you'll forgive us if we allow the girl a moment of rest every once in a while."
This was too much, Weiss knew that Red was a good person she had seen that for herself back in New York. How could she have forgotten all that when the thought of the girl was one of the only things that got her through the last month at her father's house. She looked out the window of the bedroom and saw that the sun was just starting to rise and sighed before looking back at the two women in front of her.
"Do you know where Red is right now?"
"She should be in her cabana, which coincidently, is next door." Blake answered.
"I need to talk to her." Weiss declared, standing up and heading for the door.
"Weiss, before you go," Yang said, also standing, "there's something you should know."
"What now?"
"It's just that…" faster than Weiss could follow Yang punched her in the gut with all the force of a wrecking ball, knocking the wind out of the heiress and causing her to double over as Yang got dangerously close to her ear, "…I don't take kindly to people insulting my little sister." She whispered. And with that, the two of them left Weiss on the ground gasping for air and headed back to the cabana, and comfy bed, they both shared.
A/N: I know I should've included it in the actual chapter part, but in case you were wondering, when Yang is "too close for comfort", I actually had a vision of her being, like, a foot and a half away and Weiss just really doesn't like people being close to her. Oh well I'm tired and I'm rambling :P. Make sure to read the next chapter as it's a double update.