"If there was ever a question of who Robin takes after most, that would have proven it." Pyrrha sighed a Nora fished the younger twin out of the tree she had managed to get herself stuck in. "I do hope she'll be more mindful of herself in the future. Her aura isn't nearly robust enough to take that kind of beating for any length of time."
Jaune winced. "Yeah, uh, whoops. Think she'll grow out of that?"
"I don't know Jaune." Pyrrha said with a tiny smirk. "Do you think she'll grow out of it?"
"Maybe not...then again, I don't see that as a bad thing." He smirked, giving his wife a long look of appreciation before tending to the chores.
Pyrrha watched from the window, as outside of her home a rather strange scene unfolded. Nora was overseeing a sparring match. While that was normal, the fervor that the girls seemed to take to the round, was not. There was an edge to it. Gone were the giggles of who was going to get who. Silence and coordination replaced that. They were, in Pyrrha's humble opinion, far too invested. With their face masks on, hair done up in the same style, and no words from either of them, she had a hard time differentiating the twins.
She frowned. That had never happened before during a spar. Robbin was never as sure-footed. She always overstepped, compromised her center of balance...fell forward and onto her knees. What usually made it more obvious was that Astrid almost always kept her edge conservative. Seeing this abrupt change in their battle tactic sent a fearful, cold chill, down Pyrrha's spine.
"You know, this upcoming ball seems the perfect time to be opportunistic." She said slowly to her husband.
"I'd question in what way." Jaune replied, plucking their son from the high chair, and placing the boy on his mother's lap.
"Do I truly seem so duplicitous?" She asked, holding her yawning little boy close. He rested his head on her shoulder, as he always liked to do after a meal.
"No." Jaune shrugged. "Of course not. You're not that kind of person." He cleaned the chair, folded it up, and put it in the corner. "I just worry about you, that's all." Then he began gathering the dishes from the table. "There's always something to be gained from those parties according to some of our friends."
"Well, you know, all of the headmasters are invited. Though some are more willing to attend then others." Pyrrha began. "I'm always being scouted by one of the top schools or another. I was thinking, maybe I should retire from the arena circuit. I could very easily take a teaching job."
"No, Pyrrha." The blonde man said. "We've talked about that. You love the arena, so many of our friends are there, and it's the only chance you get to see them. Plus, Weiss and Coco offer you four times as much as you would get as a teacher."
"But am I doing the right thing?" Pyrrha asked as she paced around with her petulant son. He refused to close his sleepy little eyes for anything. "When the season starts up, I'm hardly ever home. Besides, I don't want to be instilling the girls with visions of battle. Arena or otherwise. It is bad enough that I let them take up fencing…or that you've let Weiss feed the girls ideas. Robin's on a daily workout program that Yang customized. She's three years old."
"Almost four." Jaune smirked, recalling his own reaction to the reminder Weiss had given him.
"They're turning her into a little warrior, and you're letting them." Pyrrha shot back. "What's next? Astrid starts training to be a debutant? I won't do that to them, Jaune. I won't let them lead the life I lived, with all of the social pressures that alienated me for far too long. It was painful, forcing that perfect smile all the time."
Jaune smiled, shaking his head at her silliness. "Pyrrha, sweetheart…I know you love them, and you only want to keep them safe…but, we're hunters. I fought hard for that privilege…and you know what I was like. If a scrub like me can make it into Beacon and graduate, just think about what they can do? You never used to be so cynical."
"I didn't have three children to love and care for." She told him softly. "Now I do. Now I see Remnant, and how dangerous it is, and how completely foolish we were."
"We still are." He said with a laugh. "Do you really think you can force them to do something they don't want to do?"
"No…but I can encourage other paths." Pyrrha told him desperately. "I can guide them away from this madness. From Grimm and arena fighting. I want them to understand those simple little things that I was never given the chance to have…because I was a prodigy. I want them to be children, for just a little while, before they go trudging headlong into adulthood, and danger, and god knows what else. What's wrong with wanting to protect them?"
"If they want that, then nothing's wrong." Jaune told her. "But Weiss is right. If they want to enter combat school, you already promised them you wouldn't hold them back. You swore to support them, and I'll be damned if they step into Beacon with the same ineptitude I did. We have this chance to give them the tools they need, and I don't think that's a terrible idea."
"The spotlight is an incredibly lonely place to be…"
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a backwards embrace, chuckling softly a she kissed her exposed shoulder. "They won't be lonely. They'll have friends. It's just that those friends will be in high places. As they get older, they'll be invited to gigantic birthday parties, summer trips, and sleepovers, just like all the regular kids have…it's just that everything will be absurdly grandiose, because you know Weiss and Coco don't do anything halfway."
"You really think so?" Pyrrha asked.
"I know so." Jaune murmured.
"Alright, alright." Pyrrha gave in with a soft laugh, just like she always gave in when Jaune was holding her this way. "You win." Safe, secure, as if there weren't overly large Grimm going on a tirade…as if she wasn't spending too much time on her career. "I suppose a little structured training could be beneficial for them, Robin especially."
"Take her on your morning runs with you. I'm sure she would love that."
She licked her lips, trying to ease the tension she felt in the back of her mind. Her job, her ambitions, were ones that carried her well as a teenager, and even as a newlywed, but it hadn't been so kind to her after she settled it. Not after she became a mother, and most certainly not after this last mission. Even Nora, the most unflappable among them, came back more thoughtful…obligatory pancake stabbed onto the end of the fork notwithstanding. "Yes, I believe she will."
Weiss wasn't just the boss, she had her hand in every aspect of the company. It wasn't that she didn't trust Yang with the security personnel, but rather, she feared she was putting too much work onto her. Dousing the blonde with everything that Blake and Yang used to work on together. During lunch, and times she wasn't bogged down with other things, she took to inspecting the footage gathered around the company.
It was by accident that while doing this, she came to a very upsetting realization.
There were cameras everywhere, all of the offices, even her own. So, it was no surprise that Ruby's office also had a camera. What did surprise Weiss, was that Ruby looked infuriated. Instead of blipping on to a new footage feed, like she normally would, Weiss froze with concern. Ruby sat at her desk, trying and failing to pinch a coin between her fingers. Such a simple act frustrating the young huntress to no end.
Weiss quickly spotted the problem. Ruby couldn't get the leverage with her fingers and thumb to grasp it off the workspace. A soundless but obvious curse fell from Ruby's lips as she swiped the coin and several stand of papers off of the desk, slumping over it as her shoulders shook.
Soundless, the entire thing was horrifying enough. When Weiss turned on the sound, she heard the sobs, and her heart sank.
The time stamp told her that the video was taken three hours ago. More hurried than she would have liked, Weiss accessed the live feed and noticed the room was now empty. It wasn't a surprise, Ruby would be out of the main building by now on any normal day. Still, even seeing evidence of Ruby crying alone was not something Weiss was willing to slip between her fingertips.
Without even hesitating, she summoned Yang, practically forcing her down into the over-plush leather chair to watch Ruby's unmitigated stress unfold. This time though, they both watched it from the beginning. What started as a simple practice that the doctors had instructed her to do, turned sour quickly. The stress mounted, the anger, and when Ruby snapped, they both heard the string of swears that would never otherwise come from the guttural rage Ruby rarely possessed.
Then, more sobs, and Weiss paused the feed.
"Ruby…" Yang let out a surprised, ragged breath. "Goddamn….I didn't know."
"She's strong, Yang...sometimes too strong." Weiss said slowly. "We should have known better when she was pushing for the new arm."
"They said she would get better." Yang protested.
"In what context though?" Weiss asked. "She is better, technically. From a purely medical logic, she's made an almost full recovery, outside of the damaged nerve ending they promised she'd have. I suppose we both overestimated the extent of her struggles."
"I gotta go talk to her." Yang said, but before she could do just that, Weiss blocked her from getting up. Leaning heavily on the arms of the office chair. Yang would have to shove her aside if she wanted to stand. "Move."
"We're going to talk to her about this video, but not like this. She's been charged up about this for a while. You both have. Don't make it worse by turning this into another fight...it'll be okay. We'll fix this." Weiss promised, her own worry about the situation edging her words. "For now, we're going to scrounge through the last few weeks of backlogged recordings, and make sure this is the worst of it."
"I don't think I can look at any more of that." Yang said, shaking her head. "She's torturing herself. How long has she been trying to do that?"
"I have no idea." Weiss said, biting her lower lip. "All I can say is that this time, it's our fault Ruby's pushing herself too hard." Weiss said. "We should have paid more attention to her. Listened to the things she kept trying to say."
"...it's not going to get any better, is it?" Yang asked.
"They said six months. That's how long it would take to see the extent of the damages." Weiss murmured. "But no, I don't think it'll improve much further from this point. But I'm no doctor, and that's just my guess. When you only listen with half an ear, this is what happens…I'm going to call Blake. Let her know we're going to be late…and that I don't want Ruby to be on her own right now."
"Yeah...okay..."
Weiss saw Yang hesitating at the computer terminal. Saw the older sibling falter in a way that couldn't be afforded. Those haunted lilac eyes called for harsh, drastic measures. Weiss reached over, slamming down the mouse in front of the blonde. "Pull it together." Her eyes narrowed, an impression of her father ghosting across her features. "This is not time for you to fall apart."