Ch. 48 Meeting the parent

Taiyang was tired. It was late at night and he was the only one awake. He wasn't tired physically, but emotionally. Both his daughters nearly died during the fall of Beacon, but by some miracle Qrow managed to drag them both back.

Some of their teams came back with him and Tai was happy to accommodate the three of them. The Nikos girl was overly polite with him, but when talking to Yang she was like a different person, one heavily influenced by Yang's mannerisms. The other two, part of Ruby's team, were just the perfect balance of destructive force and emotional calm. He would feel sorry for Ren if it wasn't so obvious he and the destructive Nora Valkyrie would eventually end up together.

And once Ruby woke up everything was looking fine for a while. Ruby was slowly recovering her strength and overall looked to be getting livelier. But then Yang and Pyrrha mentioned travelling to Mistrall to continue their education there. Pyrrha was confident she still held enough sway there to get them admitted easily.

Ruby was silent during the conversation before eventually saying that Ren and Nora should go with them, since it will still take a while for her to recover and she currently didn't even have a weapon or a partner to rely on.

Eventually she silenced the opposition by insisting that since she went to Beacon two years early she could just go back to take her last year at Signal before maybe following in their footsteps and going to Haven as well.

She looked fine with it, hell she silenced the notions of her coming with them several times. But once Yang and the others left, it all went downhill. She closed up, stuck in a depressed slump, only occasionally trying to contact her last teammate on her scroll.

With the communications network still a mess after the collapse of the CCT tower. Even if he was still in the kingdom of Vale she might not be able to reach him until the local networks pick up the slack, and that could still be months away.

Taiyang didn't know what to do. With the other four he just told Qrow to keep an eye on them and that was about all he could do. But with Ruby things were a lot harder. She barely talked to him anymore.

He tried to talk to her about her plans to return to Signal for her final year but instead of bringing her mood up he discovered that Ruby was effectively abandoned by the people she considered friends. Apparently during her first two weeks at Beacon, she tried to keep contact with them, but no matter how many messages, letters or postcards, none of them contacted her back. Even when she called them they didn't pick up.

"WOOF"

Zwei, the family corgi, made his presence known.

"What is it boy?"

As Taiyang got off the couch, he heard someone knocking at the door.

"Coming!"

When Tai opened the door he was met with a young man with the same blond hair he had. They could almost be mistaken for a father and son if it wasn't for Jaunes distinct deep blue eyes.

"Hello, can I help you?"

Taiyang didn't recognize the young man at his doorstep. He looked tired and a little dishevelled. His face was adorned with a pale blond stubble.

"Hello, is this the Rose-Xiao-Long residence?"

"Yes, I'm Taiyang Xiao-Long. How can I help you?"

"Oh thank the gods, I've been trying to find this place for days but I couldn't get in contact with anyone."

"Sorry, but who are you?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm Jaune, I'm your daughter's Ruby's partner. Qrow told me he was taking her home after… well, Beacon. Is she still home?"

Now that the young man said it, he did look like his daughter's partner, though Tai had only seen him once on TV during the Vital festival and even then he was engulfed in a burn dust firestorm for most of it.

Regardless Tay stepped aside to let the younger blonde man in.

"She is, come inside. I suspect we need to talk. Ruby's asleep though so you might need to wait until morning to talk to her."

"Right it is rather late, and the others?"

"Gone, as I said, we need to talk."

Jaune was rather startled by the revelation, but set down his backpack in the hallway, took off his dirty shoes and followed Tai to the kitchen table.

"Take a seat Jaune."

"Alright, you said we need to talk, so…"

"Where the hell have you been? "

"Sorry?"

"My daughter has been trying to contact you for weeks now. I understand that communications are unreliable right now and don't fault you for that, but you're Ruby's partner and yet you were the only one of her team missing when she woke up."

"Ah, you see there's a reason, but it will take a bit to explain."

"Then please, start explaining young man. You look like you've been through a lot. Luckily we have the whole night for you to explain yourself."

"Well let me begin from right after the fall… I spoke to Qrow that night when he found the four of us stranded on top of Beacon tower. Ruby was unconscious as was Pyrrha. Yang was holding on but barely. I was probably in the best shape out of all of us. Aura broken but otherwise unscathed. At first I wanted to go with the rest of my team, but after seeing the aftermath… I realised that I should stay and help. After all I was one propper rest away from being a completely functional huntsman in training, and that was needed. The next day I spoke to Qrow, he said he would be taking her here along with her sister and three others."

"So you helped with the cleanup?"

"Something like that, I was part of the first attempts to cull the Grimm in the newly established Beacon exclusion zone. Along with professor Port and a few other students we spent two days trying to cull the Grimm before that plan was abandoned in favour of defensive perimeters and kill zones. During that time I found the first pieces."

Jaune fell silent long enough for Taiyang to ask.

"Pieces of what?"

"Did Ruby tell you what happened to Crescent Rose?"

"She said she lost it and I didn't pry further… didn't seem like the time."

"Well that's one way to put it. Crescent Rose was melted, cut and torn to pieces by the same woman that orchestrated all this, Cinder Fall. It happened seconds after Cinder tried to kill Yang with an arrow to the back. At that point Ruby did the thing with her eyes, the blinding silver light. Qrow explained to me that it's a hereditary weapon against Grimm, like an extra semblance carried within silver eyed warriors. I don't know how much any of the others remember or told you, but I distinctly remember hearing Cinder screaming in pain. She was clutching her arm as she escaped on a Nevermore of all things. I don't know what's going on, but I believe Ruby is going to be in the middle of it, whether any of us want it or not."

Taiyang sighed. He had hoped his daughter would be spared her mothers fate.

"I hate to say it, but I agree with you. Her mother, Summer… How much did Ruby tell you?"

"She was a huntress. MIA and presumed dead. I assume she had silver eyes?"

"Got it in one. I never knew the details of what was going on. Whatever was happening, and still is, was always Ozpin's secret. I suspect Qrow is now probably the only one who could tell you the whole story."

"We'll have to find him at some point then, but I digress. Back to what I was doing. After the exclusion zone was officially abandoned to the Grimm it was all but impossible to get in there and search for the pieces."

Taiyang knew that expression, he had seen it on many huntsmen over the years.

"So you went in anyways…"

"So I went in anyways, yes. It took a while, about a week to find all the larger pieces. Then I spent two more days trying and largely failing to find any more. Well I found a few shards and the loose gear, but overall I wasn't able to get any more."

"There seems to be almost a month between then and now…"

"Well, yes. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that bringing the corpse of Crescent Rose here would only serve to hurt Ruby further. So I sought help from my master."

"What does a huntsman have to do with this?"

"I suppose Ruby didn't speak about me much. Not a huntsman, master blacksmith. My master is Cobalt Fèvre and I've been his apprentice before Beacon."

"Wait, so you're a blacksmith?"

"A master blacksmith technically. But I went to Beacon right after getting my qualification, hence seeking help from my master."

"I think I see where you're going with this."

"I really don't think you do. My master helped me in an unexpected way."

"Well, continue talking and we'll see. Why do you think I'm wrong?"

"Because you seem to know oh so very little about me."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Did you know Ruby and I are dating?"

"WHAT!"

After Taiyang screamed, it only took a second of silence before a thud that came from upstairs was heard. Ten more seconds of awkward silence later a flurry of rose petals came rushing down the stairs, revealing Ruby Rose in her black button up pyjamas.

"Dad what's - JAUNE!"

Jaune quickly stood up.

"Ruby!"

The next few moments were a little confusing for Jaune. The first moment Ruby hugged him tight, the next she slapped him. Hard. That much Jaune could process but right after that Ruby grabbed him by the collar and passionately kissed him.

The kiss was long and Jaune wasn't embarrassed to admit he practically melted into it.

When the kiss ended and they opened their eyes again they were met by a silent Taiyang with his mouth hanging open. Not that either of the two cared about him in the moment.

"Why didn't you call?"

"I did, couldn't reach you though, the world is falling apart."

"It's so good to see you."

Jaune just silently wrapped her in his arms and sat back down, now with Ruby on his lap.

"So as I was saying Ruby and I are dating."

"You, uh… so you are… How? Since when?"

"Early May, so a little over half a year ago. As to how, we have a lot in common and I've had a huge crush on my team leader since initiation."

"How have I not heard of this?"

Taiyang questioned Ruby quietly, though he couldn't help but let the hurt seep into his voice as he did.

"Well, only our team knows, I didn't even tell Yang."

"Oh that reminds me, Ruby. Qrow figured it out when I was fussing over you after the… after the fall of Beacon."

At the mention of the night Ruby's expression turned dark and then a bit angry.

"Speaking of, where have you gone, mister?"

"I'll tell you in a bit, though seeing as you're here I can get to the important part of what I was talking about with your dad."

"And what would that be? I'll admit you've completely lost me."

"Well, the unexpected help made me realise something. It made me realise how much Ruby means to me, and that I've almost lost her that night. So I'd like you to recognise our relationship and promise that you'll not stand in the way of our love."

"And pray tell where did you get the idea that I would stand in your way?"

"From Qrow actually. I believe the exact words were "Tai will kill you when he finds out.""

"Heh, he knows me so well. I might not kill you but I'll certainly try."

"Dad!"

Jaune narrowed his eyes. He's been there when his father played the "so you want to date my daughter" card, but he felt Taiyang was more serious about his threats than Doré ever was.

"So when? Now or tomorrow?"

"Let's strike the iron while it's hot."

Jaune turned to Ruby with a questioning look.

"Was that a blacksmith pun?"

"Knowing dad, it might have been…"

=O=O=O=

Author's note:

I'm aware not everyone will agree with how I'm handling the relationship between Jaune and Ruby right now, but I hope you can see where the relationship is coming from. The nature of being huntsmen means that their life expectancy is pretty low as is, not to mention the near apocalyptic event that is the fall of Beacon. As such I feel like huntsmen would tend to progress relationships faster.

I'm mostly done with my exams, but I'm behind on some other work still. I have a decent idea of where the story is headed, it's just a mater of finding the time to write it.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch.49 Lunatum Cor Rosae