RWBY belongs to Roosterteeth and Monty Oum, both of which I am not.

Chapter Four

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Ruby." Jaune grinned. He yawned a bit before sitting up a bit taller on the bed that the three were lounging on. "How does your leg feel?"

Ruby looked down at her leg before flexing it a little bit. "It's a bit achy, but not too bad."

"Well, we won't know exactly until you stand." Blake remarked as the faunus decided to lay on her stomach on Jaune's crossed legs. Ruby nodded before flopping down on her back. Jaune decided to drop his torso onto Blake, sandwiching her between his legs and body. She grunted as his weight dropped onto her back, but quickly allowed it as his comfortable body heat started to get to her. The three stayed like that for a few minutes, with Ruby only moving to wiggle closer to the two teens, before a knock sounded at the door.

"May I come in?" The distinct voice of Doctor Oobleck sounded from the other side of the wooden barrier. Jaune called an affirmative and the doctor quickly entered. "How are you all feeling? Not too bad I trust?"

"My arm stings a bit." Blake called. "But I can manage." Oobleck nodded furiously before shifting his gaze to Ruby.

"I-I feel fine." The girl shifted nervously, the tall man with the wild green hair seeming to intimidate the poor child. She tried to bury herself a bit into the bed and peered up at him with large silver eyes.

"Oh nonsense. It must feel a bit of an ache." He said flippantly, flapping one long hand. Ruby watched it a bit warily before answering again.

"… Maybe a little."

"Not to worry my dear girl. The pain should go away within a week. Two at the most. Until then, I want you to stay with Jaune and Blake."

"Wait, what?" Jaune blurted out. Blake swiftly hit him in the back of the head before turning to Doctor Oobleck and nodding.

"We'd be happy to look after her." She answered for both herself and Jaune, who was now rubbing his head and muttering about child abuse.

"Excellent! You may leave anytime you feel." The doctor zipped out of the room with frightening speed as Blake turned to Ruby, who seemed to be whispering something under her breath.

"What was that?" Blake asked the girl, who jerked as if stung.

"Uh- Erm- N-nothing! I-I was just talking to myself!" Ruby chuckled nervously, Blake narrowing her yellow eyes before deciding to drop the subject.

"Well, it seems like you're gonna stay with me and Jaune for a couple of weeks."

"I'm fine with that!" Ruby chirped happily, all vestiges of nervousness gone as a bright grin bloomed on her face. The trio quickly gathered all of their things and quickly left the house offering a brief wave and a word of thanks to Doctor Oobleck, who was in the middle of making himself more coffee.

"So this is where me and Blake stay." Jaune gestured to the shelter that he had made for himself, and eventually for his faunus friend.

"Wow!" Ruby cooed, looking around the room with starry eyes. "This place is so big! And how'd you get all these blankets?! We only had one!"

"We?" Blake asked, causing the girl in red to jump. She turned and chuckled nervously.

"I-I meant me! O-only me. Heh. Heh. I'm just being an idiot." She tried to cover up her slip up, causing Blake to raise a brow, but fortunately for Ruby, she decided to drop it.

"Anyway, Jaune mostly got all of this stuff. He's been on the street for a few years. Much more than me." Jaune rolled his eyes at the faunus.

"Only by two." He protested and shoved Blake's shoulder playfully

"In dog years, that's like, a bajillion!" Ruby suddenly piped up, her head peeking out from underneath a blanket. The fabric rippled near her and her dog nosed his head out of the cover and barked. "See! Zwei agrees."

"I… don't think that's how it works, but okay!" Jaune exclaimed, a hand going down to ruffle Ruby's black hair. She grinned before she snuggled into the side of her dog. Blake watched the two from atop her crate, smiling lightly at the easy banter of the two. I could totally see them as brother and sister.

Ruby cheered as Jaune entered their hideout with a bag of food slung over his back with Blake entering behind him, but carrying a bag of clothes instead of food. It had been two days since the girl had started to stay with them and, even with the weather getting steadily colder, all three of the street rats found no shortage of things to do.

"Whatcha get this time?" Ruby asked as she started to flit around the two of them like a fly. Zwei joined her and excitedly started jumping everywhere. Jaune grinned and opened up his bag to let the excitable girl peer in. "Are those cookies?!"

"Yup!" As soon as Jaune muttered that one word, the small box of pastries was snatched out of the bag in a blur and reappeared on the other side of the room with Ruby already munching on one.

"Good thing we stole more than one box, huh?" Blake remarked, opening her own bag and pulling out bundles of clothing.

"Yeah, bet they'll be gone in a week though." Jaune chuckled and pulled off his jacket before taking few loaves of bread and some cheese that the two managed to get out of his bag.

"Nuh-uh!" Ruby piped up, crumbs clinging around her mouth. Blake shook her head a bit before walking over to her.

"You are a walking trash can." She said bluntly and reached out to clean Ruby's mouth with a napkin.

"That's not nice!" She pouted. Jaune and Blake both chuckled before turning back to their work.

"Hey, Ruby?" Jaune suddenly said, turning away from where he was putting a few bags of chips away. "Do you know how to fight?"

"Huh?" The girl asked questioningly from where she was playing with a scrap of cloth with Zwei.

"Y'know, fight. Protect yourself?" He got a questioning stare from both girl and dog. "I'll take that as a no. Do you want me to teach you? I've been planning on teaching Blake ever since the two of you got attacked by those dogs."

Blake perked up at the mention of her name and started to debate with herself the advantages of learning self-defense. "How do you know how to?" She heard Ruby asked.

"Like Blake keeps saying, I've been out here for a while now, kinda hard not to learn a few things." He answered flippantly. "I can teach you how to shoot my sling if you want?"

"Ooh! Is it that thing you used to fight the dogs?!" Ruby yelled excitedly, rushing over to the blonde and tackling him in a hug. "You have to teach me! Pleasepleaseplease?!"

"I already said that I would, so I will. I can probably set up a small shooting range in the alley or another building if I need to. Let me just gather some cans." Jaune said and detangled himself from the excitable girl before grabbing his hoodie and pulling it over his head. Ruby turned to Blake with a grin and launched herself at her.

"Didja hear, Blake?!" She yelled out as the faunus staggered back a few steps as Ruby wrapped herself around her waist. "Jaune said he would teach me how to fight!"

"Yes. I was three feet away. It would be hard for me not to hear." Blake smirked and rubbed Ruby's head. The girl grinned up at her before rushing after Jaune with Blake following close behind.

They found him in an alleyway near their hideout with a stack of cans next to him and a couple of cardboard boxes overturned on the ground with his back turned towards them. Blake and Ruby stopped a few feet behind him and took a seat on an unused stack of cinderblocks. It only took a few moments of watching for the younger girl to say something.

"Hurry up! I wanna shoot something!" Ruby whined. She flailed around a bit on her makeshift chair before Blake forced her to stop by way of lightly tackling her to the floor.

"Maybe if you're less impatient, he'll be done faster!" Blake admonished as she forced the girl into a headlock.

"What does ip… impti… whatever that word was mean?" Ruby trailed off as the word alluded her.

"Impatient?" Blake supplied, still keeping the younger girl in her hold. "It means that you can't wait."

"What?! I can totally be not impatient!"

"You mean patient." Jaune piped up from where he continued to set up a small shooting range.

"Yeah! What he said!" Ruby squirmed out of Blake's grip and scrambled over to Jaune. "I can totally be patient."

"You don't have to be for long." Jaune grinned as he placed a final tin can on top of a short wall that he had made out of cinderblocks and struck a pose. "And I. Am. Done."

"Dramatic." Blake commented dryly as Ruby squealed in joy.

"Can I shoot now?! Can I?! Can I?!" Ruby zipped around her two friends before a small ache in her leg made her stop. It didn't prevent her from jumping onto Jaune's back though.

"As soon as you get off my back." Jaune grunted, trying his hardest to make sure the little red ball of energy didn't fall. In a flash, Ruby was standing at the makeshift shooting range, Jaune's slingshot already held in her hand.

"I'm ready!" She chirped happily as Blake watched Jaune try to figure out how she got his 'weapon'

I'd hardly call it a weapon. Blake thought ponderously. Maybe more of a distraction.

Thwack!

"Ow! Ruby! Aim it at the cans!" Jaune's pained voice ordered, drawing the faunus' attention to see the blonde rubbing a painful looking red welt on his arm.

"Oops! Sorry!" Came to totally unrepentant reply.

"Jaune! Dinnertime!" Blake called out to her friend. It was the afternoon after Jaune showed Ruby how to shoot his sling and the girl had only stopped once Blake started to cook. Jaune staggered into view with his arms laden with a small bundle of firewood in his arms. Ruby and Zwei were already tearing into their food behind them. A makeshift pot made out of a large tin can that was filled with stolen soup was hanging over the fire that they had managed to make a few weeks earlier. Jaune nodded at Blake before walking into their hideout and placing the pile of wood down in the corner, well away from their little fire. They had no wish to burn down the only decent place that they were able to call home in the big city of Vale.

"What're we having today?" Jaune asked. He rubbed his hands together in an attempt to warm them up before peeling off the thick sweater that Blake had forced on him when she noticed that his breath was steaming. He had sworn up and down that he would be fine, but the faunus would hear none of it. They had no access to any medicine if he somehow became sick and the teen wanted to take no chances.

"Chicken noodle soup. Doesn't taste too bad considering the expiration date has passed by a couple of days." Blake ladled a serving out to Jaune in a chipped bowl and handed it to him before grabbing herself some food. The both sat huddled next to each other as they sipped the steaming soup from their bowls. It's been steadily getting colder and Jaune noticed a dark clouds rolling in from the North the night before.

"It'll probably snow soon." Jaune said, gathering the attention of both of his female companions. Zwei continued to lap at his own bowl of soup, cheerfully ignoring the blonde. "We'll need to keep the fire going through the night to make sure that we don't freeze to death. We can sleep in shifts to make sure it doesn't start burning everything."

"I can take the first one!" Ruby piped up. "I've done it before with…"

She trailed off and got quiet, which didn't escape the notice of Jaune and Blake.

"You okay?" Jaune asked, concerned. Ruby looked up and nodded with a faraway look in her silver eyes.

"Yeah. I just… I'm tired." She said simply before standing up abruptly and walking over to their shared 'bed'. "… I don't wanna take the first shift tonight."

"I can do it." Blake said. She watched Ruby with concerned amber eyes before furiously whispering to Jaune.

"Go talk to her!"

"Why me?!" Jaune whined.

"Because you're like a brother to her. Now go!" Blake hissed. Jaune sighed and walked over to Ruby. He crouched down and ruffled her hair a bit to get her attention before the two began to talk in muted tones.

Blake tuned both out and quietly finished her soup and started to stare into the fire. A few minutes later, Jaune sat back down next to her and picked up his bowl.

"She has a sister." He said quietly before sipping is soup more. Jaune continued after he finished. "She hasn't seen her in weeks. Ruby thinks she might be dead."

They both sat in silence, the crackling of the fire and quiet breathing of Ruby were the only things heard.

"We going to look for her?" Blake asked. She already knew the answer. In the short time that she had known Jaune, he had never refused to help someone in need.

"We're gonna start tomorrow. I know a few other orphans that live in the city that I can ask. One has to have at least heard of her. We can't wait too long though. The snow gets too bad sometimes and we'll have to hole up to prevent freezing." Jaune explained. Blake nodded once.

"You should get some sleep too. I don't think Ruby's up to taking a shift tonight." Zwei plodded over to Ruby and laid himself out next to her with a contented huff.

"Got it. Don't stay up too late. Wake me up when you feel sleepy." Jaune said before joining Zwei and Ruby in the blankets. He wrapped the young girl in a hug before falling asleep himself. Blake smiled before turning back to the fire. A hand came up to touch her necklace. It was soothing fingering the smooth stone. A gesture that had quickly become a habit when she felt troubled.

I hope we find her.

Hey guys! ChaosDemon1129 here once again! I bring gifts! Here is a shiny and new chapter of Orphans. Sorry if it took a bit long. Writer's Block kicks butt. I hope you guys like it! Also, I will have a oneshot that I made out either this week or the next. I wrote it up to try and fight my Writer's Block and it worked! Yay! It's a JaunexBlake (i.e. Knightshade) story too.

As always, remember to Follow and Favorite if you have not done so already and please Review! It might make my chapters come out faster and more frequently. I will see you all next time! Bye!

~ChaosDemon1129