A/N: PLEASE READ THIS NOTE, WOULD YOU KINDLY?
EDIT: Went back and extended the ending scene just a bit.
DOUBLE EDIT: Sigh, trolls all over the comments again, they always pop up sooner or later...
Fair warning, this chapter is told from multiple viewpoints. Its a silly little thing, but somewhat serious in its own right.
Ironically, THIS is the chapter I've been looking forward to writing the most. While my Team chips away at An Untraveled Road, I can devote myself to the
I don't often focus on Pyrrha or Nora in any story, you know. Oh, she'll get the odd scene here and there, but she never really features per se. Even in "Just a Bit of Bread" Little!Pyrrha isn't quite one of the main characters just yet.
Ahhh, but this story is a different tale!
As ever, I own no quotes, references, or memes.
Also, a word to the wise. Don't mess with Naruto's kids. He'll turn you inside out.
"I'd understand if you'd rather not talk about this."
"Nah, pretty sure it needs to be said, I'm not a very good father, Ozpin. I'll be the first to admit that. No need to drag my conscience over the coals here. Didn't even know I had kids, until a few days ago. Now they're coming out of the woodwork. Its weird. Never thought a few one night stands would come back to bite me in the arse like this. I've only known the brats for a days days, but I'd jump into hell itself for 'em. Do you know what feels like?"
"I was a father once too, old friend. I remember the feeling."
"Great, great. Then you understand what I'm going through right now. But just in case you don't, old buddy, old pal, old compadre of mine, juuuust in case you've forgotten, lemme give you a warning. Keep them out of your plans. Exclude them from your schemes, your plots, your little shadow war with Salem. I may not be able to raise the dead, but if they get hurt...
...I WILL RAISE ABSOLUTE HELL."
~Naruto and Ozpin.
Something About Redheads
"Someone...saaave...meee...I'm...dyyyiiing."
"And that, dear niece of mine, is what a hangover feel like."
Ruby Rose felt like death warmed over. Actually, no. Nope. Scratch that. It felt like Death had picked her up, given her a good shake, then thrown her in a washing machine and set the damn thing on spin cycle. Because the world wouldn't stop spinning. Worse, her mouth tasted like sick -yuckyuckyuck!- and her everything hurt. Yes! Her everything! Absolutely everything! Her legs were sore, her shoulders were sore, her head was sore! She couldn't even bring herself to sit up in bed, darnit!
Foolishly, she made the attempt. And her stomach punished her for it.
No, no, no! her mind wailed at her! Don't throw up in bed! You'll ruin the sheets!
With a supreme effort of will, she choked her bile back down, grimacing all the while. Did alcohol do this to you? She'd drank a whole bottle thinking it was milk and now she was paying for it. How did Raven drink the stuff daily?! How did she like it?! Just what kind of monster was she?!
"Drink up." a rough hand brought a glass of water to her lips, pulling her back to reality. "Trust me, this'll have you feeling better in no time."
Ruby seized the cup and drank greedily.
Ah, sweet bliss!
Realization clicked in a moment later. Waitaminute. Silver eyes squinted. Focused. Kinda hard, seeing as everything was so blurry, but after a few moments she was able to pin down the familiar face leaning over her. A second glass of water came and went, and this time, her vision cleared enough to confirm her suspicions.
...Uncle Qrow?"
"The one and only." he grinned and ruffled her hair until she smiled. "Feeling better?"
"A little, yeah. What're you doing here?" she longed to ask more, but her skull protested, eliciting a wince.
"Eh, I called him." Yang put in glibly as she sidled up beside her. "He's the expert when it comes to this kinda thing."
"That a compliment, firecracker?"
Ruby's sniffled softly. "Still feel like shit."
Someone gasped just out of her blurry sight. Huh. Sounded like Weiss.
Apparently her uncle shared the sentiment; because his jaw clicked open. "Where'd you learn that word?!"
"I'm fifteen, not five." Ruby grinned and threw her sibling under the bus. "'Sides, Yang taught me that one ages ago."
Yang's head whipped toward her at the betrayal. "Ruby?!"
Ha! Crisis avoided.
"Oh?" Qrow's smile took on a dangerous edge now, though it still looked like there were two of him at the moment. "Did she? Maybe a little training's in order, seeing as its a weekend and all."
"W-Wouldn't it be rude to leave Ruby out?"
"Nah, let her rest." Qrow chortled. "We'll get her some cookies afterward."
Lying got you cookies?! Maybe she should lie more often!
With her uncle's hand there to steady her back, -and Yang currently glaring bloody daggers into it!- the little red huntress found the strength to sit up despite her protesting stomach and take in her surroundings. Slowly, gradually, the room came back to Ruby in fits and spurts. Nothing really looked any different...but then again, that might've been her vision spinning. She saw Weiss perched on the bed opposite her, gaping at her like a fish. Heh. Got it in one. She'd been the one to gasp after all. As ever, Blake had her nose in a book. Wait. Did her bow twitch just now? Was she still seeing things?
Sure enough, those golden eyes flicked her way. "How do you feel?"
"Death." she croaked. "I feel like death."
"Says the girl who nearly drank herself under the table." Weiss sniped.
Now it was Ruby's turn to squawk. "I only had one bottle!"
"Yeah, lightweight." Yang snorted.
Ruby chucked a pillow at her.
Blake smiled. It was a tiny, little thing, and Ruby had to really squint to see it, but it was there. Huh. Neat.
Now that she thought on it some, it really was kinda weird to have uncle Qrow here on a weekend. Not that she minded of course. Uncle Qrow was cool. Still, she wondered why. He taught at Signal. No way he'd come all the way up here to just to deliver a glass of water and some hangover pills. Again, she was fifteen, not five. Something was up. 'Sides, he had that look in his eye.
"Now then," her favorite uncle chimed in a little too happily, "You gonna tell me who got you drunk yesterday?"
"Yeah, Rubes." Yang elbowed her none-too-subtly. "Why don't you tell him who gave you that bottle?"
Wuh-oh. So that was why uncle Qrow had come all the way to Beacon on a weekend.
Beneath his less-than-subtle gaze, Ruby's addled mind suddenly found ample reason to shake off its stupor. Her mouth opened to answer him. Common sense slammed it shut again. Red alert! Red alert! DEFCON ONE! Repeat! DEFCON ONE! See no evil! Hear no evil! Speak no evil! She didn't want to rat out Naruto, much less point uncle Qrow at him. Naruto was nice. He'd given her cookies. Sure she'd gotten drunk at his bakery, but that was an accident! He didn't deserve to be ambushed by uncle Qrow.
Raven...well...Raven was complicated. Ruby didn't know what to think of Raven.
From what Yang had told her, she'd imagined some horrible beast of a woman, ten feet tall with burning red eyes and jagged teeth. The woman she'd met failed to live up to the image her sister had painted of her. Raven had red eyes to be sure, but little more. Her tongue was sharp, but if she'd had an edge, something -or someone!- had dulled it considerably. Harsh words aside, she'd not raised a hand to any of them during their time there. Maybe that wasn't fair of her. Maybe the strong drink had dulled her memories of that afternoon somewhat. Maybe she was just being childish.
But one image stood out among them.
Raven and Naruto reminded her of Mom and Dad.
Raven made Naruto happy. She knew that. She'd seen that firsthand.
But Raven had left Yang. Argh! Conflicting feelings! What was she supposed to to with this?!
"Dunno what you're talking about." her own words surprised her. "I grabbed the wrong bottle by mistake."
"Don't worry, short-stack." Qrow's chuckle made her worry! Very much so! "I'm not gonna hurt anyone. I just wanna talk to them. Loudly. Repeatedly. With my scythe."
"Uncle Qroooow!"
Ruby tried to stand.
And her face face turned green.
Weiss went pale. "No. No, no, no. Ruby Rose, don't you DARE-
Too late; in that moment, Ruby finally lost the war with her stomach.
The outraged shriek of one Weiss Schnee echoed long and loud through the dorms.
(.0.0.0.)
It couldn't be him.
No. It...it just couldn't.
It was unlikely at best, impossible at worst.
Sat on her bed, Pyrrha turned the worn photograph over in her hands, thumbing the worn edges with great care, lest she accidentally tear it. Nothing changed. Of course it didn't. She'd been gazing at it for the better part of an hour now in stoic silence. Memorizing its every detail. By this point, she knew it better than her own reflection.
And yet she still couldn't look away.
It was an old photo all things considered; one taken among a crowd of people she failed to recognize. They didn't matter.
The man and woman standing in the center? Very much so.
Her mother's bespectacled face gazed back at her within the photo, her smile framed by a youthful face alongside flowing curtain of crimson hair. It was the face of a young woman in her late teens, not yet the careworn visage she'd come to know and love. Her green eyes shone with mirth, bearing an impish spark Pyrrha still didn't recognize, one not yet worn away by time and the concerns of a single parent raising a child.
And there, with both arms wrapped around her waist...him.
Bright blue eyes blazed up at her from within the photo, set in a whiskered face framed by a messy mane of blond hair. And that grin. He smiled cheekily at the camera with her mother, as though the two of them were sharing some silent joke that their photographer wasn't quite aware of.
This was her father.
This was the man Mother had told her about, the man she'd been searching for, the man she'd all but given up hope of ever meeting.
Mother always spoke fondly of him; theirs had been a chance encounter, one that bore unexpected fruit. He'd been a wandering Huntsman, and Mother, an accomplished Huntress. They'd been together for a few months, gone on a few Hunts together, then parted on good terms. They went their separate ways, like two ships passing in the night. It should have been simple.
Nine months later, a child was born. She was that child.
Pyrrha had grown up on tales of her Father, a man who moved like lightning and fought like a demon. A man with a quick smile and an easy laugh. A man who eschewed technology, yet if you shouted for him, he'd always come running. She'd begun to think said man was a Ghost. Any attempt on her part to find him yielded nothing. Atlas? Nothing. Vacuo? Less than nothing. Mistral only bore this single photograph, and Mother had been loathe to part with it. There was only the vaguest mention of him in Vale, and that -alongside her desire to escape her fame- had led her here. From there, she'd hit a dead end.
She'd not thought on it since; in truth, she'd given up. Put it from her mind. Until now.
Nora had described a man with similar features having hired her at his bakery. She'd described him perfectly; right down to the whiskers and cheeky grin. That was just like her to focus on the strangest details. It was too much of a coincidence for Pyrrha to ignore. No, it felt like destiny. Mother always said she was special. Now something in her blood called to her when she looked at this photograph and she felt a burning need to confront him, felt it in her very bones. She had to know the truth. Why didn't he come back? Why did he leave? WHY-
"You alright there, Pyr?"
"Hmm?" Pyrrha perked up, drawn from her reverie as someone called out to her.
Jaune -and their Team!- gazed back at her expectantly when she raised her gaze. They were waiting for an answer to their question, a question she hadn't heard.
"I'm sorry," she blinked, "What was that?"
"My job, silly!" Nora was all too happy to pose it again. "Today's my first day. I was asking if you guys wanna come with."
"She's afraid to go alone." Ren clarified. "Something about stranger danger."
Nora jerked back as if he'd slapped her. "Renny! How could you?!"
Just like that, the tension evaporated.
Pyrrha snorted.
It began as a snicker in the back of her throat; she tried to hold it back, tried to restrain it, to no avail. She failed spectacularly.
With that she released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and burst out into full-throated laughter.
"Uh, guys?" Jaune scratched the back of his head. "I think we broke her."
Pyrrha laughed even harder.
What was she so worried about? She didn't need the recognition of a man who may-or-may-not be her father. She had her Team. She had her friends. They didn't care who she was, where she'd come from, what she would be. To them she was just...Pyrrha.
"Yes." she carefully slid the photo into her pocket. "That sounds grand."
A man with blue eyes and whiskers.
It couldn't be him.
Could it...?
(.0.0.0.)
The time had come! The hour was nigh! Today was the day!
Nora could've carried on like that for hours; she was just that excited. Under normal circumstances, she might've done so. But not today! Nothing would bring her down! She could do this! As a wise man once said, there is nothing to fear but fear itself. So grab fear by the throat and strangle it! Wait, was that the quote? She wasn't sure. Probably. Anyway!
Pancakes!
Fleet feet carried her down the worn path with unerring aim, forcing her teammates to keep pace or be left behind.
Poor Jaunie struggled all the way. Hopefully Pyrrha could toughen him up a bit with their little late-night-rooftop sessions. A random idea tingled in the back of her brain. Maybe she and Renny could help, too. They'd make a man out of him. Heh. She liked the sound of that.
"Are you sure about this, Nora? Is this even the right way?" Boo! Hiss! Leave it to Renny to ever be the voice of reason and caution. Not that there was anything wrong with that, mind you. Reason and caution were good traits. She just didn't have much of them. But that was alright. Renny had more than enough brains for the both of them. Under normal circumstances, Nora might have listened to him. But today she didn't want reason! She wanted pancakes!
"Of course I'm sure! Now, forward!" she cried, stabbing one finger...well...forward! "Nora has spoken!"
"Nora needs to stop referring to herself in the third person." Jaune sighed with a rueful smile.
"Nora refuses!"
"Now now, there's no need to be cross," Pyrrha interjected fondly.
"Nora senses treachery within the ranks!"
Learning to cook had always been a personal ambition of hers; a talent she hadn't quite been able to pick up. Something she'd gone without for so long. Renny always did the cooking. She wanted to impress him with her skills and now that opportunity was right here within her grasp, knocking on her door! Really, it was just manners to do the same when she finally reached the bakery.
She slapped her fist against the wooden frame and sent it crashing against a wall.
Jaune and Renny winced. Pyrrha just sighed.
The door to Baker's Dozen crashed open with a resounding bang. Probably had something to do with her punch.
"Lieutenant Nora, reporting for duty!" she called, snapping off a sharp salute as she stepped through. "You here, old man? I've come for pancakes!"
At this hour, Naruto didn't have much in the way of customers. Perhaps that was a mercy. For them. Nora's unique brand of...sanity wasn't something you wanted to be exposed to for long.
But she did see a new face. And that new face looked kinda angry, actually.
"What're you doing?! You can't just go kicking the door in like that!" A mousy-looking girl with sharp eyes and bright hair not unlike her own saw their little party and made a beeline for them. Clad in the signature golden blue uniform of Baker's Dozen, she looked tiny. Frail, even. More skittish than a deer in the headlights. She noticed the antlers a heartbeat later. Oh, shit, was that racist? Nooo! She wasn't racist! She was the least racist person in the world!
Nora dropped her salute with a frown. "Who're you?"
"That's my line!"
"Down, Deery. She's a friend." Naruto emerged from the back with a steaming tray of some confection she didn't recognize. It smelled almost as good as pancakes. Almost! When the little Faunus tried to protest, a sugar cookie sailed into her mouth like a flung shuriken, forcing her to chew on the ob
"You're early." Those gentle blue eyes flicked over her for a moment -and seemed almost familiar- before they flitted over her shoulder and noticed her team. "You know, when I hired you, I didn't expect you to drag your friends along for your first day."
Nora never saw Pyrrha perk up behind her.
"Sorry, not sorry~!" she chirruped happily. "So, can we get started?"
Naruto looked like he wanted to argue. In the end, he decided against it. Wise choice.
"Eh, screw it." he shrugged and ushered the bubbly girl behind the counter. "Deery, meet Nora. Nora, meet Deery. She's new. You'll be working together for the foreseeable future."
"Even if I'm working here under duress." the smaller girl grumbled as he finished her cookie.
"Eh, don't sweat the small stuff." he waved her complaints away. "We're paying you and giving you a place to stay, not to mention three meals a day." Then he swung an arm outward to indicate the woman she'd seen earlier. "I'm sure you remember Raven...?"
Nora blinked. "You hired her after all? Doesn't look like much."
Raven went terribly still and a curious sensation brushed the back of Nora's neck. It might've been fear. She didn't like it. The bubbly grenadier considered her opponent for a moment, sizing her up. The red-eyed woman certainly looked angry enough to stab her.
"Raven." Naruto warned.
The huntress pinched the brow of her nose. "Must not kill...
"Hey!" For her part, the Faunus wilted. "You didn't tell me I'd be working with a Huntress!"
"Oh, don't be like that!" Nora saw her opportunity for what it was and pounced, slinging an arm around her shoulder before she could escape. "I'm sure we'll be great friends! Well, not best friends, because that's Renny's spot. We've been together forever you know. Well, not together together, buuuut...
"Someone," The smaller girl wilted. "Kill me now."
She was granted no such mercy.
(.0.0.0.)
It was all Naruto could do not to laugh as he watched the chaos unfold before him.
In hindsight, he knew Nora was energetic; just not this much. He considered himself a good judge of character and he'd been granted some measure of the girl upon their first meeting. But this? This took the cake. She flitted around the bakery like a hummingbird as they prepared for the day ahead. She reminded him of himself when he was younger. Well, if he'd been hopped up on sugar AND pancakes, with a burning need to make friends out of everyone he met.
Not only had she latched onto Deery, but she was fair certainly she'd declared them be "second besties" whatever that meant.
Come to think of it, Nora did have blue eyes...
No, no, no! he stomped that thought down until it fell silent. He couldn't go around making assumptions like that. Nora might well have a loving family for all he knew. She certainly had friends aplenty. Her Team had laid claim to a table and hadn't left since.
"So?" he asked, taking her aside. "I'm guessing that's your team over there? You never gave me their names."
"Oh!" Nora leaped at the chance to further acquit herself in his eyes. "I forgot to introduce everyone! The one with dark hair is Renny-
A pair of pink eyes met his across the way. When Naruto nodded, the teen returned it.
"Then there's Jaune Arc. He's got a buncha sisters."
Safe! Resemblance aside, Naruto didn't know anyone by the name of Arc, thank the gods.
"And the redhead's Pyrrha Nikos." Nora whispered conspiratorially. "Don't tell anyone she's famous. She's shy."
Naruto spied a flash of red hair in the chaos and shook his head. Nikos. He definitely knew that name. Nah. What were the chances...? Surely not. No way. Nikos was a common name, right? Lots of people had it. He stole a glance at her for a long moment and something in those green eyes of hers lit a spark in the back of his head. He shook it off, shooed Nora away with an indulgent smile, then chuckled as she decided to harass Raven instead.
Nikos.
Still, the name burned in the back of his mind. Coincidence. It had to be. After all, the cakes weren't going to bake themselves...
"E-Excuse me?" A hand tugged on his sleeve. "May I have a moment of your time?"
Naruto turned, already knowing what he would find there.
A pair of piercing jade eyes gazed up at him sadly.
The immortal hissed out an angry breath.
Bugger.
(.0.0.0.)
Pyrrha wanted to bolt.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! She'd been so stupid!
She wanted to run, hide and bury her head in a pillow!
Even now, standing here before him, it took all of her strength not to flee. Her heart hammered fiercely, blood pounding heavily in her ears, drowning all else out. Her knees wobbled, threatening to buckle like so much rotten driftwood. Somehow, she'd gathered up her courage to leave the table, step forward, and tug on his sleeve, but...
"E-Excuse me?" she cursed herself for the stammer even as she said it. "May I have a moment of your time?"
...she had no idea what to do now.
"Hmm?"
When he turned to face her, fear froze her tongue, turning it to a block of ice in her mouth. Here, when words mattered most, Pyrrha's resolve faltered. Drat. She'd always let her actions speak louder than her words. In battle, she was peerless. A fighter without fear. Unsurpassed. The Invincible Girl. Here? She lost all control. She felt like a small child, weak and afraid, and here, fear finally had its day.
"Pyrrha, was it?" compared to the grin he'd granted them before, this smile looked stilted. Forced. "Was there something on the menu you wanted?"
No! her soul cried out and in that moment, Pyrrha found a tiny shred of courage. She grasped it before it could slip away.
Dipping a hand into her pocket, she pried the old photo free from her wallet. She handed him the photograph.
"H-Here."
Naruto accepted it from her gingerly, warily, as if he expected it to explode in his face.
"I remember this." He murmured, squinting at it with strange intent. "Vanessa took it with an old camera on the pier. Something about making a memory." A rusty chuckle fled from his lips as he cradled the faded image in his hands. "Good times. I wish I could've kept in contact, but I didn't have a Scroll back then. Wait." all at once those ice blue eyes narrowed and quite suddenly, the championship fighter found herself the subject of a different kind of scrutiny. The harsher kind. "Where did you get this? She never would've parted with this picture."
Pyrrha's hand flew to her mouth to stifle a gasp. Vanessa. That was her mother's name.
...my mother gave it to me." a lie. She'd stolen it from her.
Naruto blinked. Slowly. "Your...mother?"
He looked at her, then. Really, truly looked at her, as though only seeing her for the first time. Blue eyes bulged. Narrowed. Pyrrha saw the moment realization broke like the dawn; saw it in the host of different emotions playing across his face. Disbelief. Joy. Shock. But not disgust. Never disgust. When he took half a step forward, she skittered back despite herself, unused to being touched. Naruto withdrew his hand with a flinch.
...how old are you?" the words were a croak.
"S-Seventeen." she stammered out. "I'm seventeen."
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Raven shouted somewhere in the background. "Another one?! How busy were you?!"
Naruto's face turned ghost white and he clutched at the bar to steady himself. For a moment, Pyrrha feared he might faint or worse, suffer a heart attack. Somehow he rallied himself and stood again. She couldn't help but notice the claw marks he'd left behind in the wood. She could feel the swordswoman glaring holes in her back, but she endured. She had to endure. To fold now meant disaster.
"Bloody hell," Naruto shook his head in disbelief. "Vanessa had a kid. I didn't know. She had you."
...yes." the word struck him like a slap. "You didn't know?"
"Like hell I did! I woulda stayed!"
Pyrrha felt a slow blush begin creep up the back of her neck. Slowly, gradually, it turned her pale face redder than her hair. Not from shame, nor from pride, but some other strange emotion she couldn't quite quantify. He hadn't rejected her. He hadn't turned her away out of spite. If anything, he looked guilty for not knowing the truth. And he'd admitted it. Accepted the possibility that he might be...be...she couldn't get the word out. Fear locked up her throat again, choking any words she might've mustered.
A moment of awkward silence pushed itself between the two of them.
"Well, damn." Naruto broke it first. "Guess I owe you a lotta birthday cake, don't I?"
Pyrrha broke.
"Daddy!"
She wasn't quite sure what compelled her to move, only that she did. Her legs betrayed her and with a sob she bolted, not away, but forward. Her head collided with Naruto's chest with an audible crack, causing the blond to grunt in surprise. When the tears came she didn't fight them. Pyrrha didn't weep. She wailed. It wasn't a pretty sight. She didn't care. She bawled into his apron, thick tears pouring from her eyes as she clung onto him for dear life. Strong arms wrapped around her back, hesitantly at first, but then with resolve when she didn't try to struggle or slip away.
"Aw, hell." she heard him sigh. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to make ya cry...
Somehow, that made it worse. Knowing he cared. It hurt.
Pyrrha wept miserably against him.
Daddy. It should've been strange, calling some random stranger such. She couldn't bring herself to care. Even now, seventeen years worth of pent up emotions crashed down on her all at once in a torrential flood. She found herself caught up in them, unable to escape the deluge. Pyrrha wasn't sure she wanted to. "You're real...!" She babbled into his chest, fingers clutching fitfully at the fabric of his apron. "All this time, I thought you weren't...but you are...! You're not a ghost!"
"Wait," his laughter only made her cry harder. "Why'd ya think I was a ghost-
He never had a chance to finish that sentence. Without warning, the door flew from its hinges.
Everyone, customer, waitress, and hunter alike craned their heads toward the entrance as fresh sunlight spilled into the bakery. Even Pyrrha wasn't immune to curiosity. Not a heartbeat later saw saw perpetrator storming in, brandishing a sword in one hand, and an old silver flask in the other. Bleary red eyes swept over the room in search of something, and failed to find their target. They narrowed.
"ALRIGHT!" Qrow Branwen bellowed! "WHICH ONE OF YOU BASTARDS GOT MY NIECE DRUNK?!"
Pyrrha felt Father -just saying it made her heart perform a cartwheel!- tense against her; heard the low, angry growl rumble through his chest. Oddly enough, it didn't scare her. For a fleeting instant his very body burned gold in her grasp. With one arm still wrapped tight around her, he snatched up a tray from the bar and hefted it menacingly.
"Close your eyes, sweetie." he smiled at her. "I'm about to commit murder."
Someone beat him to it. "You look like shit, brother. Drinking again?"
Pyrrha poked her head around Naruto and saw a woman clad in red and black rise from her seat. She'd failed to notice her until this very moment. No longer. As she looked on in quiet consternation, the swordswoman sashayed past them to meet the intruder, hips swinging with every step. Qrow saw her too; he must've; because he raised his flask to his lips and took a long, hard swig.
"Me and my bad luck...what the hell are you doing here, Raven?"
She grinned back at him. It was not a pleasant smile by any measure. "Bad luck has nothing to do with it, Qrow."
"That so? Because my niece just happened to tell me you'd shacked up with an old friend...he in? I wanna have a word with him."
Raven twitched. "He's not here."
"Really, because that looks like him hiding over tha-AARGH?!"
In hindsight, Pyrrha would later realize that the intruder -Qrow!- was absolutely soused at the time and thus couldn't be held solely responsible for his actions. Also, he really shouldn't have pressed that button. Raven's boot cannoned into his face and sent him crashing through a wall, tumbling and swearing. A decidedly Qrow-shaped impression was left behind, but the huntress didn't stop there. Eyes spitting flames, Raven drew her blade and surged out into the opening after him with an angry snarl. The howls of pain that followed would be the stuff of legends.
"There's that moment gone." Naruto palmed his forehead and exhaled in a long suffering sigh. "Coffee?"
Pyrrha sniffled, giggled, and dared a small smile. "I'd love some, thank you."
Mother had been right after all. Father was weird.
A/N: Damnit, Qrow~!
Now this was fun to write. Hilarity, shenanigans, and of course, the feels.
Before everyone starts squawking, remember, this his a humor-driven story. Naruto didn't father the whole bloody cast.
We'll get the Oz and other bits next chapter. Felt better to just focus on the main cast here. Ruby's not a happy camper right now, is she? In canon, we get next to nothing on Pyrrha's family. Zip. Zilch. Nadda. We saw a woman with glasses who MAY have been her mother in one of the later seasons, but that's about it. The mystery continues I suppose, but it stands to reason that Pyrrha would have daddy issues. Poor girl just wants some love. She never really got it in canon.
As ever, reviews are my lifeblood. Without them, I cannot write.
So In the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Revieeeeew, Would You Kindly?
They keeps an old man alive.
And enjoy the previews.
As ever:
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
PLOT DETAILS AHOY!
YE BE WARNED!
Get ready to smile~!
(Previews!)
"Stupid deer."
A hand tapped his shoulder.
Cardin turned and met Nora's smile.
"Would you care to repeat that, you sonuvabitch?"
Raven's blade flew from its sheathe.
"Must we?" Weiss squirmed. "I fail to see the point here."
"You asked for this. You want to be independent, don't you? That requires strength. Draw your weapon, Schnee."
"You. Want to fight. Me?"
Pyrrha perked up at his baffled tone.
At the end of the day, no matter how she might try to hide it, Pyrrha was still a championship fighter. She'd been trained to capitalize on an opponent's weakness, wherever she saw it. Her mind viewed this as a fight. Very much so. More than that, she wanted to test herself against him; more than anything, she longed for a fight where victory wasn't a guarantee. More than that. He treated her like a normal person. He didn't care about her title, her fame, any of it. She was normal to him. Just his daughter. Just...Pyrrha. She could count the number of people who treated her like that on one hand. One was Ruby. The other three were her teammates. Pyrrha couldn't help herself. She pounced.
"Please, Father?" She clasped her hands together before her chest. "Just a little? It'd mean the world to me."
"Jeez, my heart!" Naruto wheezed and clutched at his chest. "Still not used to hearing that...
Hesitation. She homed on it like the champion she was. "Then, how about...Papa?"
It was super effective; Naruto folded like a house of cards. "Fine...
Raven shook her head. "Whipped."
"H-H-Here."
Adam regarded the cake before him with baleful eyes. It was a decadent thing indeed. His mouth watered at the sight of it.
...this will do."
Deery took one look at his expression and scuttled back behind the counter like the frightened foal she was. Coward. She wouldn't do well in the Fang. Oddly enough, she seemed intent to keep the blond between her and him at all times. That implied a certain trust. Anyone willing to hire Faunus, pay them a decent wage -let alone stand up for them!- begrudged a bit of respect. Just a bit. After all it was quite late and his sweet-tooth had been bothering him all week. The thought stirred an odd pang in his chest. Blake had always enjoyed sweets...
"Aren't you going to charge me?"
"Nope." Naruto granted him a small smile. "Its on the house."
"I don't believe that for a moment, human. What do you want from me?"
"Not a thing." His answer floored the faunus. "You just remind me of an old friend...
R&R~!