AN: yeah so i fucking hate outlining, this is something to tithe me over while i work on part 2 of darkening horizons: Twilight Concerto. cool name, huh? but yeah, this ones just an creative outlet to drain my brain with

Ruby swung her great cleaver, pivoting with her entire body to bring the heavy iron blade to bear. It clanged against her sister's buckler, biting deeply into the steel disc. Unfortunately for Ruby, it bit a little too deeply, and try as she might, the huge blade was well and truly wedged.

Worse still, Yang was no knight— she was a Huntress. The difference? A knight might give their helpless opponent a second chance, or at least take the moment to gloat, but Hunters had no such sense of honor, pride, arrogance, whatever you would call it. This much became evident when Yang took the opportunity to pull her buckler aside, ripping the wedge-shaped cleaver away from Ruby and leaving her open.

Yang's arm shot forward, hand covered by the steel guard of her reverse-gripped dagger. The reinforced cup smashed directly into Ruby's face, making the girl yelp as her Aura lit up around the spot of impact. She quickly relinquished her grip on the massive iron cleaver.

Yang's stance sagged with the new weight stuck in her buckler. While Ruby's hands dropped to her sides, she freed the now-useless disc from her lower arm.

Ruby pulled two weapons off her hips, one in each hand: a war hammer with a wooden handle, bulbous head, and pointy beak for the right, and a shortsword with a straight crossguard in her left.

Yang rushed forward quickly, knowing things could get out of hand if she let her whirlwind of a sister take the offensive. The girl could barely dodge away from Yang's straight, fast punches, and every step backwards only brought her closer to the wall of their home, where Yang could surely pin her.

Ruby was forced to act quickly. Rather than dodge backwards, she made a gamble on her Aura and dove forwards, bare shoulder barging directly into her sister. Yang stumbled back a step, giving Ruby just enough of an opening to flicker away, suddenly appearing behind the blonde from a spontaneous burst of red rose petals. She brought her war hammer down first, the blunt instrument whipping out to smack against Yang's face just as she turned.

But the blow never came. Instead, Yang's arm shot up towards the hammer, metal-shrouded fist cracking into the wooden handle and reducing it to splinters. The metal head thumped to the ground, useless. To Ruby's credit, she didn't hesitate to drop the splintered handle and swipe at Yang with her shortsword while her now-free hand reached for another weapon.

Yang wouldn't let her have it, though, eating the shortsword's measly swipe so she could grab her sister's sword arm and pull her close, delivering a steel punch to the girl's gut. The shielding soul-shroud that was her Aura wavered and buckled, barely clinging on by a thread. Yang pulled her fist back to deliver a final, Aura-shattering blow.

"Hey, hey!" Ruby whined, "I got you!"

Yang blinked, then realized the prick of cold metal against the side of her neck. A dagger of pure iron, uncaring as it effortlessly pushed past the brawler's golden shroud of soul energy. "Fuckin' cheater," Yang drawled, disappointed, "you suck."

Ruby grinned, skipping away as Yang relinquished her grip. "Hey, you're the one that broke my hammer. I worked hard on that!"

Yang rolled her eyes. "And I guarantee you spent twice as much time on the buckler you just fucked." She nodded to the steel disc, still stuck to her sister's giant, ugly iron cleaver. "Gods forbid you'd hit me with that thing."

Ruby waved off her concerns. "Psh, I wasn't even aiming for you. I just… uh…" She trailed off, gaze dropping to her feet.

"Didn't think it would go deep?"

Ruby absently nodded, realizing she'd have to spend hours slaving over another buckler. At least the hammer would be an easy fix— new handle and presto! Ol' Lucy was already on her sixth handle, anyways.

"Hey." Yang's voice snapped her out of her reverie, bringing her attention to the blonde. Her hand was out, as was customary.

Ruby half-heartedly clasped palms with her sister, the feeling that she had won fading with every passing thought of smelting, refining, casting, hammering, ugh. Much as she loved the forge, she hated the tedium that the craft entailed.

Honestly, if she weren't so good at it, she'd love to be a Huntress like Yang, or her dad, or her mom… or her uncle… or most of her friends. A life of adventure, the heat of battle, the fame, the glory! She'd do anything for that life.

But alas, it wasn't for her, not since her mom died, at least. Yang was already steeped in that lifestyle by the time Summer passed, but Ruby was young enough for Tai to steer her away from that life, and she understood that. She understood how dangerous it was, how rare it was for Hunters to reach their middle ages, and the kind of toll it took on those who did. She understood. That didn't mean she accepted it, though.

She hefted her cleaver, still stuck in her sister's buckler, throwing the blade over her shoulder. It was her baby, even if it was just a massive wedge of sharpened iron on a leather-wrapped handle, she loved it. The piece was an amalgam of farm tools, door hinges, nails, pots, and pans melted together and folded until they resemble the shape of a cleaver, then carefully honed and sharpened until even light pressure would split the flesh of her thumb. It was almost as long as she was tall, being a little more than five feet herself, and was completely unreasonable. Its heft was ungodly, and swinging it felt more like throwing the thing than making any kind of controlled, precise attacks like her sister made, giving it the nasty habit of pulling her with it.

But it wasn't for fighting people, since Huntresses generally didn't fight people. It was for Grimm— the otherworldly beasts that arose in times and places of crisis— and made of iron strictly for that purpose. The material was unique in that soul energy, the stuff from which Grimm are exclusively comprised, simply despises it, making it the best material with which to slay the beasts. That's not to say that it's the only thing that can kill them— a child with their bare fists could, theoretically, kill a Grimm if given the opportunity, but iron just made it so much easier.

Not that she'd ever actually tested it on a Grimm— her knowledge came second-hand from her sister or her uncle, or from illustrations, which were painfully rare to find. She'd only ever been able to use it with her uncle Qrow or her sister, who were nice enough to indulge her desire to train, even if her dad protested.

Ruby dropped the iron hunk on her work table, sighing as she dreaded remaking the buckler. With a small hammer and a lot of elbow grease, she managed to pry the buckler free, and proceeded to chuck it in her steel pile. It would be a job for tomorrow— the sun was much too low to be working. Ruby returned to her home, pushing open the door and rushing to the table when she caught the scent of her father's cooking.

"Nice of you to join us." Tai, her father, said over his cavernous, steaming stew pot. He didn't even have to look at his daughter as she tried to stealthily slink into a chair.

Ruby gave a sheepish laugh. "Ahah… yeah. What's for dinner?"

Tai grumbled something inaudible, then scooped a ladle full of stew into a clay bowl and handed it to his eldest child. When Ruby got one, she could see that it was some kind of meat stew with chopped carrot of diced onion. The scent hit her nose, making her stomach rumble loudly, but she held herself back until her father sat with them.

As was customary, they clasped hands around the table, and sent a prayer to Ozma— the watcher of the dead— to keep sacrosanct the soul of her mother, and to leave her unbound from worldly contracts. At once, they gave each other's hands a final squeeze, then let go. Ruby dug into her stew feverishly, uncaring of the drops that fell from her spoon and onto her chin and shirt.

"'Sho, Rubysh," Yang gulped down her mouthful and cleared her throat, "Ruby's getting a lot better. She actually beat me today. Can you believe it?"

Tai glared at his daughter. "She shouldn't even be fighting. She could get hurt." His eyes briefly flicked to the girl, who was just trying to stuff her face without any feelings of judgment.

Yang frowned at her father. "She's already been hurt from smithing."

Ruby winced, clenching and unclenching her right hand reflexively. If it weren't for the healing properties if her Aura, she would never be able to smith again. Her hand shouldn't have even been on the anvil.

"Well, she's still here, isn't she?" Tai glared at his eldest daughter, but his words shook the one he wasn't looking at. The unsaid words rang louder than anything else: 'unlike her mother'.

Ruby felt herself choke up, and the odd sound that croaked its way out of her throat got the other two's attention. Tai's eyes widened as he realized what he'd done, but it was too late. She was already crying.

Tai tried to make amends, but Ruby bolted away from the table before he could even open his mouth, leaving nothing but a trail of roses in her wake. She blinked straight into her room, body materializing from the cloud of petals and dumping her onto her bed.

She remembered the day she discovered her ability. It was completely by accident, Yang had appeared around a corner to spook her, and Ruby suddenly found herself in her mother's arms, meters away with rose petals floating off of her. She was so scared that she was dying, turning into a cascade of rose petals that would wither away and fade to dust. She had been crying so hard, and was so confused when Summer smiled and laughed.

Her door creaked open. Ruby threw a blanket over herself, knowing who the guest would be. He sat down on her bed, the straw mattress sagging slightly with the new weight. "I'm sorry, Ruby. I… I shouldn't have said that."

Ruby didn't respond, hoping he would take the hint and leave.

"I know you're not asleep, red. You snore like a bear."

Ruby groaned and turned, throwing the blanket off to show a scowl to her father. The man recoiled, wincing.

"Okay, okay, look, I…" he rubbed his neck, avoiding eye contact, "I'm sorry. I just…" he inhaled sharply, like he was holding something in.

Ruby softened her face, suddenly guilty as she saw his eyes, too, were watering up.

"It really hurt me, too. I don't want to go through that again." He said after a while, wiping his eyes before any tears could escape.

"But Yang is—"

Tai held a hand up. "Yang is different."

"How is she different!" Ruby shouted, sitting up suddenly.

Tai gave her a stern look, the softness draining from his face. "She's older."

"I'm sixteen! The same age as she was when she did her first hunt!"

"And she had already been extensively trained, had supervision from myself and your mother, and had already killed several Grimm." Tai stated factually, frowning.

Ruby threw her arms out. "So why haven't I been trained! You and Qrow could do it! It's not fair!"

Tai stood, crossing his arms as he looked down at her. "Ruby, no. It's too dangerous. You can't waste your talents by throwing your life away!"

"I won't throw my life away!" Ruby shouted, "I can fend for myself!"

"You've never fought a Grimm before! It's different from Yang!" He shouted back.

"Let me choose for myself!"

"You don't get to choose when your choice is going to get you killed!"

The room was suddenly void of all sound, the pressure of silence pressing on them both.

"I don't get to choose, huh?" Ruby stared him down, lip quivering as she fought to keep her tears in.

Tai scowled, matching her glare. "You're the best smith in Patch, Ruby. You could be the best damn smith in Vale if you don't do something stupid."

"Like get killed by a Grimm? My mom was stupid to get killed by Grimm?"

Tai recoiled. "That's not—"

Ruby rolled off of her bed just to stand and challenge him. "No, that is what you meant! You can't be mad at me because you're mad that my mom died! She's my mom!"

Tai's hand flew up, arm cocking back.

Ruby set her jaw and stared him down. "Do it. I'm stronger than you think."

Tai pursed his lips, hand shaking as he fought himself.

"I can take it!" Ruby shouted, stepping even closer to him, silver eyes challenging his.

Tai stared, eyes widening like he really was going to do it. But his hand dropped and he sighed. "No, you can't."

Ruby growled. "I can! Hit me!"

Tai looked away and shook his head. "I won't."

Ruby pushed him. "Come on! Let me show you! I can take it!"

Tai frowned before locking eyes with her again. "If you could, you wouldn't be crying."

Ruby touched her eye and sure enough, it was bursting with hot, angry tears. She stepped away from her father, scowling at him. "Fine," she said, gaze darkening, "I'll show you. I'll show you that I can take it."

Tai knew what was coming, but he was much too slow, the petals slipping between his fingers. Her red plume zipped out of the room, Tai chasing it as fast as he could.

He managed to catch one last glimpse of her before she disappeared: her unwieldy iron cleaver slung over her shoulder in its clasped leather sheath, with several more weapons dangling from her hips in various frogs, sheaths, and rings. She gave him one last look, moonlight reflecting in her silver eyes, before she disappeared in a cloud of rose petals.