RWBY: Memories made of Red
Chapter 1: The Scrapbook
It was a warm spring afternoon on Patch. Blake Belladonna was standing on top of a wooden black chair she pulled from the dining room, reaching into her top pantries above her microwave, which radiated a small wave of heat that soothed her sore arms as they dusted with a small handbroom. Thorn had just went off to Beacon with his team following the end of their spring break vacation, so this was a perfect time to get some spring cleaning done.
"I swear I don't know how his dog fur gets all the way up here when he's barely in the kitchen!" Blake groaned as she threw off a clump of black fur off her wrist disgusted. "Especially since I'm the one always cooking in here while she just stuffs his face." She grumbled.
She soon couldn't help but snicker a bit before chuckling at the thought of her stepson's messy face full of sticky rice. He always did have bad table manners at home, usually going into his meals at high speed.
"Well, he does have a speed semblance even faster than Rubies. Of course his metabolisms in overdrive with all that lightning." Blake laughed. Soon a frown crept onto her face at the mention of her late wife, making her shoulders slack a bit.
"Ruby." She sighed.
It had been years since Ruby gave her life for Remnant to kill Cinder, she went out like a true huntress and yet….yet Blake still couldn't help but miss her deeply. She wanted to have want her back in her life, to hold her one more time and smell her rose scented hair.
As her hands went limp, she inadvertently knocked some cook books out of the closet.
"Aw damn it!" She groaned as she got off her chair to bend over and pick them up. She wheezed a bit as she did so, her back feeling a bit sore. She was middle age, almost 40, so she was starting to show some wear even getting some crows feet to her dismay. She even had to beg Weiss to send her some beauty products from Mantle that she couldn't procure in Vale. She sighed as she picked up the fallen books and started reading them, noticing the wear on them as well with their ripped fabric or wrinkled pages. These had been the ones Dad and Leia (Illia's mother and his new wife) had given her when she moved out with Ruby following their wedding. They consisted of seafood dishes to her joy, as well as standard meat and vegetable dishes. But her ears rang when she remembered how Ruby had screamed when she got a Dessert book filled with cakes, cookies, and cream puffs. She almost needed a hearing aide after that outburst.
"Hehehe, typical Ruby…Huh?" Blake chuckled, but she soon noticed a different book than a cooking books she held. It had no title on it, just an empty slot for a notecard. It must have been lost in the mess up there.
Slowly she picked it up and opened it, careful not to rip any pages in this unknown book. She gasped as she saw an image of her and Ruby in their wedding gowns. Ruby dressed in a red glittering dress while she was wearing a light purple dress with glitter as well.
"Oh my gosh! The wedding!" Blake yelled with joy as she sat down.
"I can't believe this is where we had our photo album! I've been looking for this forever!" She squealed with excitement as she turned the next page, not knowing or really remembering what memories she had placed after. She first saw one with their friends at the brief reception they had at the church before she and Ruby went off onto their honeymoon.
Blake blushed as she remembered that tender night with her new wife….and Penny when they both got a little to heated up and needed some…"toys" to invigorate themselves more. "Man was that an awkward morning." Blake sighed peacefully as she quivered from remembering her android lovers morning smile. It was awkward for Ruby and her having a friends with benefits relationship with Penny while married, though the android quickly became family to them, even being like an aunt to Thorn, flying him around on her rocket boots.
It was then Blake gasped and started gushing as she saw the next pages photo.
"Awwwwww isn't he cute." She moaned. It was just yesterday she saw her baby boy in that highchair.
Thorn's first year
"Okay! Cake baked! Streamers up! Family all here!" Anything else we need love!" Ruby called out from the kitchen. Blake cuddled their son Thorn, planting soft kisses on his red cheek as he giggled while his Aunt Yang nibbled on his little feet playfully making his tail wag to his Uncle, friends, and grandparents amusement.
"Just you Ruby! Come on before Yang eats our baby up instead of a cake!" Blake teased as she sat her son into a highchair at the kitchen table, Weiss planting a small paper hat titled "BIRTHDAY BOY!" in rainbow coloring on his small head, careful to avoid his wolf ears.
"He's ready for you Momma!" Yang teased.
"Wait no longer then! Ready?" Ruby hyped them up as she slowly walked out of the room holding a plate with a large vanilla cake clouded in pink frosting, with purple shaped markings of puppies and cats on it befit with a large birthday candle shaped 1 on fire.
In unison, everyone smiled bright as she did as she lead them in chant.
"Happy Birthday to you….Happy birthday to youuuuuu…..Happy birthday Dear Thoooooooooorn." They all sang. Thorn just giggled as he clapped his small hands, not understanding what was going on but just got caught in the excitement of their cheers for him.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOO YOUUUUU!" They sang as Ruby and Blake blew out the candle on his cake for him and pecked his cheeks with a small kiss. "And many mooooooore." Ruby softly sang.
As his other mother removed the candle and prepared a small knife to get her son a small cake slice, Thorn immediately dove his face straight into the cake, smearing his face with frosting as he laughed and started flinging cake frosting at his mothers while Qrow took a photo on his scroll.
"Thooorn! Naughty baby!" Ruby whined.
"Yeah son! Momma wanted to do that." Blake chuckled as she pegged her wife's shoulder playfully, making her blush and pout.
"Did not!" Ruby whined.
"Did too!" Blake snorted.
"Did too." Everyone else chanted in unison at the embarrassed mother before laughing. Ruby pouted more adorably as she eyed the root of the problem, her little faunus baby eating messily.
"Your just lucky your so cute my little pup or I'd put you in the doghouse tonight." Ruby chuckled as she wiped her sons cheek clean with a cloth before planting another kiss on his cheek.
Blake sat in her kitchen chair giving off a tired sigh or relaxation as her eyes were glued to that photo. That was a happy memory from a happier time.
"Now I get where Thorn got his table manners from." Blake chuckled as she saw Ruby's messy face on the birthday photo.
Soon curiosity began to envelop the cat, usurping her desire to keep her gaze on her wife's image alone. Slowly, she began to turn the page on the book.
"Well then, lets see what other memories Ruby had in store here." Blake said with excitement as her eyes widened at the next pages photo.
Author Notes
Hello Everybody! So it is with a heavy heart I announce this is the final new story I plan to ever make. I have a new job and want to take up new hobbies in town like bowling and target shooting so I need the energy do so. It has been a fun run and I am grateful to all you viewers and reviewers support. I have been criticized for my dark and edgy writing before and it's a fair critique. Stolen innocence, a rwby story that involved a pregnant and traumatized ruby rose inspired my first fanfic A THORN IN MY HEART ended with Ruby dying for everyone. It was dark and depressing and bittersweet at best. Hence, I decided that as a final tribute to my favorite Web series, I would end my legacy on fanfics by following up on Thorn in my Heart with a collection of memories in this AU universe with joyful short stories based on a DBZ episode where Chi-Chi did the same with a baby Gohan scrapbook. If you have any ideas for RWBY, JNPR and any other characters you like in RWBY you'd like to see as happy days in the scrapbook, feel free to review and let me know. I want to go out with a bang!