AN: As I said in the prologue I've had a lot of the beginning of this lurking in my brain so it was quite get this typed out and ready for consumption.
Chapter 1: Red Morning
Knock, knock.
"Girls, time to wake up!"
A sleepy silver eye opened and peered over a pillow, groggily eying the door for several moment before it's owner groaned and rolled over; pulling her blanket over their form in order to try and ignore the interruption to their sleep. Unfortunately the world had other plans, and a few minutes later the knocking returned.
"Come on you two, breakfast is almost done!"
She laid there for a few more moments before the now 15 year old Ruby pushed herself up. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she yawned. "Alright dad,, I'm up!"
"Good, like I said, breakfast in 10. Come on Yang you too!"
Ruby listened to his footsteps receed, before swinging her legs around to sit on the edge of the bed. Stretching, she turned towards the other bed. "Morning si-" her greeting trailed off, her sister's bed was empty and had clearly not been slept in the night before. "Crap.." Groaning she buried her head in her hands.
It was gonna be one of those days.
15 minutes later she emerged from the bathroom refreshed and seemingly prepared for the day as she pulled a maroon red hoodie on over a black t-shirt with a wolf head on the front. Hearing her dad whistling cheerfully in the kitchen she took a deep breath and put her on best fake smile she could. Walking into the kitchen she crossed to the stove to kiss Taiyang on the cheek. "Morning Dad." Tai smiled and hugged her with one arm, using the other to flip the pancakes on the stove.
"Good morning sweetie, sleep well?" Ruby shrugged as she moved to the table, sitting down and smiling as she reache down to pet their energetic corgi as he hurried over to greet his youngest master.
"Ok for the most part. Weird dreams lately though." She frowned, trying to recall the one from the night before. "Something to do with those old stories Mom used to read."
Tai pondered this but couldn't come up with a convincing explanation. Instead he focused on the lack of thier other family meember in the room. "Is Yang moving around yet?
Ruby's mind raced, thankful that he hadn't turned to look at her yet. "Uh... yeah I think so... She did move around a bit when I was heading to take a shower. You know how she gets after long shifts at Qrow's."
Tai sighed and shook his head as he started transfering pancakes onto a plate. "I'n going to talk to hi if that keeps happening. There's no reason she should be out that late even if she's 17. I ddn't even hear her bike pull in last night."
"Uhh... she said she parked it around back? She planned to wash Bumblebee today and didn't feel like moving it out of the garage again."
Tai frowned as he passed her her meal. "She said all that before you got in the shower? You nade it sound like she was basically comatose."Instead of responding she quickly shoved food in her mouth and hid her sponse behind food blocked mumbles. "Don't talk with your mouth full. I'll just ask her after I get dressed. Want a ride to school?"
Ruby nodded and once he headed out of the kitchen she groaned and slumped in the chair. "I'm too nice Zwei. Yang better be thankful." she grumbled.
Much to her surpise as soon as she said this there was a rattle and she looked to the back door as the knob slowly started turning. Ruby stared as Zwei trotted over to investigate the door slowly opening and a familiar head poked through cautiously. "Yang!" Ruby exclaimed as Zwei barked excitedly at the blonde.
"Shhhh!" Yang insisted to both of them as she stepped in while looking around cautiously. "Don't want Dad catching me coming in this late."
Ruby scowled at her as Yang grabbed a piece of bacon and tossed it to Zwei to distract him. "Don't have to worry about that, I was stuck trying to cover for you. Again. A heads up goes a long way you know."
"Oh come on sis," Yang said cheerfully, sitting down across from her and putting her boots up on the table."You know I've got your back too. Dad won't find out, he's just too oblivious to that sort of thing." her expression darkened and she scowled. "Plus all you have to do is give him the cutesy eyes and he turns a blind eye to anything you do."
Ruby frowned back at her, these mood swings were really starting to bother her. "Just don't expect me to keep dioing this Yang."
Yang scoffed, running a hand through her short blonde hair. "Oh come on sis, it's fine. Just keep quiet and he'll never be the wiser. I could stay gone for a week and he'd probably never realize."
"Unless you two decide to talk loud enough that I can hear you down the hall." a voice says from behind them, causing them both to jump and stare at Tai in the doorway. Crossing his arms he stared at Yang. "So I assume you were gone all night?"
Yang groaned aggravated and crossed her arms, refusing to look at him. "Oh get over it Dad. I just ran into some friends while I was on shift at Qrow's and we decided to go out on the town for a couple hours after.. Was closer to the club after so I figured I'd just crash at Qrow's."
"And you couldn't call at any point?"
"My phone died."
"Were you drinking?"
"Ugh, again with the damn interrogation! Get off my back!"
"Watch your language!"
Ruby sighed sadly and tried to tune out the argument as she poked at the pancakes. She really should have expected this to happen, it had become such a common thing between her father and sister lately. She knew her Dad was being a bit overprotective lately but it had gotten to a point that there was no denying it. Yang had changed. Ever since the school trip to Vacuo. Ever since the incident. She didn't know all the details but she knew enough. Enough that the very idea still terrified her thinking abou it. Just looking at the dragon braclet Yang seemed to refuse to take off couldn't help but remind Ruby of that horrifying week.
"Yang I get it, I really do." Tai said, bringing Ruby's attention back to the two. "You wen through a lot and it's been a difficult couple months. The haircut and attitude I can live with. But the lying, the quitting the academy, the drinking, it's becoming so much that I'm really worrying about you. It reminds me a lot of-" he was cut off as she jammed a finger in his face.
"Don't you dare finish that sentence." she snarled, and Tai knew when he'd pushed too far. She glared at him several moments before spinning around and grabbing her jacket. "I'm leaving, told Qrow I'd do the morning shift." she looked at Ruby who gulped nervously. "You want a ride?"
"I, uh..." Ruby looked questioningly at Tai who only sighed and waved her away. "Sure I guess." Yang turned and stormed out the door but Ruby still gave him a hug good-bye. "I'll try and talk to her."
"Just be careful on the way." he said with a sigh.
"Hurry up, some of us have things to do.." Yang said impatiently as Ruby exited the house, heading for where her sister stood by the motorcycle.
"Sorry had to find my bag." Ruby said trudging up to her. Yang tched in acknowledgement before handing her sister a red helmet. Ruby thanked her and slid it on.. Adjusting the straps she said tentatively, "I don't think Dad was trying to be so harsh..."
Groaning in frustration, Yang sat on the bike. "No Dad just goes into ass-mode every time I do anything lately. 'Don't stay out so late, go back to school, you shouldn't drink so much!'"
"Well he is kinda right..." Ruby said nervously.
"Well if somebody had my back in there like she should be maybe he'd learn to get off my case so much." Yang glared pointedly at her."Especially when I'm not the only who's being Ms. Dishonest with Dad."
"That's not the same thing!" Ruby protested. "I just can't tell him about the application., yet... . I plan to it's just such a, touchy subject?" Yang only scoffed and rolled her eyes. Looking for anyting to try and ease the pressure Ruby looked around the yard and her eyes lit up when they landed on a rather surprising sight. "Ooh what a pretty kitty!" she exclaimed and rushed away from Yang.
"What?" Yang asked confused. Seeing the animal as well sitting on the garden wall she rolled her eyes. "Really? We're gonna be late."
"Oh come on Yang, you know you wanna pet it!" Ruby hurried down the driveway but halted several feet from the feline. To her surpise the cat didn't run, only tilted it's head to look quizically at her.
"Yeah and then we can feed it to Zwei."
"Yang!" Ruby exclaimed aghast. Crouching down she held out her hand. "Be nice! Come her kitty, kitty." Again to her surprise the cat came forward right away, sniffing her hand. "Aww..."
"Really weird color though." Yang said from above them. "Who ever saw a cat with purple stripes?"
Ruby couldn't argue with her on that one, but it did seem to go well with the tan fur and green eyes. "An obviously very special one. Well aren't you friendly.." she cooed as the cat rubbed happily against her leg as she stood up, "Doesn't look like it has a collar. Must be a stray." She whimpered. "But who wouldn't want such an adorable cat?"
"Don't know, don't care. Let's go." Yang said gruffly and Ruby could almost swear the cat pointedly glared up at her.
"Well I'm gonna have Dad bring it out something before he heads to Signal."
"Good, get Zwei's new snack nice and fat."
"Yang!"
AN: And that's chapter 1! Had more I wanted to go with here but it was starting to get really long. So I'm splitting it up into two chapters. There is a lot here and it was definitely harder to write than I expected. I'm sure some readers won't like her here and trust me, I don'te like mean Yang. Especcially one that I can't come right out here and give explanation for why. But I tried to drop hints and promise that we will get to find out what is up with her and that trip that Ruby so ominousy hinted at. She's clearly going through some stuff. Will probably go back and revise this as the story progresses, there's plenty more I wanna find some way to add.
Would love to get input from readers, was Yang too mean? Was she not mean enough? Did I mangle Ruby's character right out the gate? Please feel free to let me know and look forward to Chapter 2: Orange Journey!