Disclaimer: See first chapter, but replace "Rooster Teeth" with "Viz Media".
Sun
"Coff...ee..." Ruby droned as her eyes closed shut automatically. She was standing in front of her glass counter, although how she got down she wouldn't be able to tell anyone. She had gotten no sleep last night, especially after drinking a warm glass of milk in the middle of the night.
Oh, and Blake showing up. Not Qrow as she was expecting, but admittedly she had long since realized that Uncle Qrow just worked on his own schedule more than anyone else's. But now it was opening time, and Blake was still upstairs reading some of the hidden stash that Ruby had.
Also, apparently Blake was missing one of the four books? She used to get them from Tukson, but he stopped selling them when someone had asked him if he'd read it. So he read it, and realized he needed to stop carrying it. Although why she didn't order online like Ruby did, Ruby didn't know.
"I need coffee..." Ruby said quietly. Her eyes were dropping quick, and she was in no shape to do anything like actual shopkeeping today. But it was supposed to be a big day, the order from the SDC would finally come in, two unique weapons were going to be picked up which meant that she had to be awake to show them off, and her bills were due today. Which meant that she'd have essentially no time for the basics, such as the valuable liquid gold called coffee.
And Zwei was in the workshop because Blake was upstairs, which meant he couldn't do it for her as much as she'd want him to. It was kind of surprising to most early customers to see the corgi casually bringing his owner a cup of coffee. And Ruby wasn't going to ask Blake, because she was a guest and that meant that she was just...out of luck.
She made sure that the light was green, showing that she was open, and crashed onto the glass counter. Normally she was all for hoping for a lot of customers, but right now she was hoping for a slow one. Her hands met on top of the glass, and she used her arms as pillows. She could get a little shut eye, this early in the morning. Most people never showed up anytime before ten anyways...
The sound of the bell made her blink, and start to push her head up and wipe the sleep out of her eyes. "Oh hey, she's waking up!" a male voice said in front of her. "I knew this was totally a good idea!" he kept going. Ruby yawned, and finally took a look at him. Blonde, with a white shirt left open to show his...surprisingly sharp abs. A long monkey's tail came out from his backside. A couple of Vacuan nunchucks hung from his waist.
Her eyes opened instantly. "Are those R-2007K Vacuan Nunchucks!?" she asked excitedly. The blonde guy jumped back before he grinned broadly.
"Yeah! They're great aren't they!?"
"The ones with the shotguns built into every bit of it!?"
"Yep! These bad boys pack a punch alright!" He said, holding them up. "But uh...my ammo kind of got wet on the trip over here, so now I need to replace it all. And I don't got a lot of money..."
"That's alright. 45's?" Ruby asked, giving them a quick lookover. Despite him saying that the ammunition was bad, the weapons themselves were in pretty good shape.
Vacuo's weapons were always the oddest ones of the bunch, in terms of the four major countries in Ruby's minds. Vale was almost 'single hit' based, in other words one well timed attack with sufficient strength would be enough to win. Mistral was form over function, and Atlas was the opposite. Vacuo, on the other hand, was usually about using the least amount of force necessary with overwhelming firepower.
They had to conserve the person's energy and aura, because the desert is a harsh place, and instead focused almost solely on devastating strikes using little to not actual energy. Without using dust, most of the time.
"Nah, 44's. I won't be surprised if you don't have any, they're kind of rare-"
"No, I have some," Ruby answered immediately. "I stock most major ammunition and some of the more exotic ones. Everyone needs ammunition, and with the Vytal Festival coming up-"
"You needed to be ready for anything! Dang, you are smart!" he grinned again. "So uh...I don't have much money, how much for a box?"
"I'll pay," Blake's voice called out from behind Ruby. She walked down the steps, the usual makeup not on her face. She looked like she had just woken up actually. "Hi Sun."
"Blake!? I thought you went to Beacon! I didn't know, oh shoot I am so sorry if something is going on and I wasn't reading the room right-"
Ruby was lost. This was the 'Sun' that Blake had been mentioning? He was no Yang, but it was kinda close actually now that she really took him in. He was stronger than he looked, and Blake's description of his abs was absolutely correct. She could grate cheese on those things. Mozzarella, probably! And now she wanted cheese, darn it.
"Sun. It's fine. We're not together like that," Blake answered with a soft smile. "I'm just...taking a break for a moment. That's all."
"Oh, okay. So...not together then?" Sun asked, pointing at both Ruby and Blake. Blake shook her head, and Ruby finally realized what he was talking about, before she vigorously shook her head too. "Oh good, I was worried for a moment there I just pissed off the weaponsmith."
"No, not at all. If Blake's paying though, sorry Blake, no sister's teammate discount on this one," Ruby supplied as she grabbed a few boxes of ammunition. "How do you two know each other?"
Blake flushed a bit. "It's uh...a bit of a long story."
Sun grinned. "Not that long! So Blake and her team were walking down the street and I thought I saw...shoot I wasn't about to spoil anything-"
"She knows I'm a faunus," Blake said. She pointed to her head, showing the lack of bow. Her ears danced atop her head. "It's too early to worry about most of Beacon's other students."
"Oh sweet. So I thought I saw a faunus and I was like 'I can ask for some help because I'm new!' but I was running from the cops because I stowed away because Neptune bet me that I totally couldn't do it but I wanted to try, so I did, but then-"
He was speaking pretty fast, and Ruby had to focus to really parse through most of it. It wasn't the easiest of things, especially as he actually starting speeding up his talking.
"But then the white girl from this other team was like 'hey you can't do that you're just a dirty faunus' and she started chasing me too and then Blake and her got into this massive argument and fight and it totally blew up the entire street with both teams backing up their member and then the cops came and Blake just disappeared like 'woosh' without even batting an eye when she realized what was going on and then I tracked her down to a small tree where I was like 'hey you seem like a good sort of person perhaps I can take you out for a drink like the good person I am'-"
Is this what it was like for others when she went on a weapon spiel? Eek. No wonder most people just tuned her out for a bit when she went on a long rant about how Atlas weapons overuse and overcharge their dust percentages to get an extra few newtons of force.
"I don't think she's paying attention," Blake's voice cut out through her own monologue. "Or maybe she is, but I couldn't make heads or tails of that and I was there," she said.
"Seriously!? But that was like the perfect explanation! You were all like 'boom bang boom' and she was all, 'how dare you', bang boom boom, and then there was fire and ice and everywhere-"
"Sun, Weiss didn't even use any dust. There was no fire or ice, and we didn't even fire our weapons. It was just an argument, nothing more."
"You sure? Because I could've sworn both of you were spitting fire and ice!" Sun grinned. Ruby groaned.
"So uh...total for three boxes is twenty seven hundred. Nine hundred each. Kind of expensive, I know, but-"
"Really? That's pretty cheap compared to what I have to pay in Vacuo! But yeah I still don't have any money."
"Sun, you paid for the drinks yesterday," Blake supplied. "But I'll pay for this one Ruby."
"Yeah that was...kind of all of my money. Neptune's gonna owe me a ton when he shows up in a few weeks!"
Ruby stared at him. "You came early because of a bet, and the person who owes you won't be here for a few weeks? Where are you staying?"
Sun shrugged. "Oh you know, around," he said, unconcerned. "I was kinda hoping to stay with Blake at Beacon if Ozpin'd let me-"
"No. We don't have enough room for the four of us anyways," Blake answered instantly. Sun grinned but snapped his fingers anyway.
"Darn, foiled again! My eternal nemesis, not enough space in the room!" he groaned with a smile. "Eh, what do you think? I took drama back at Cover. Cover's the preparatory school over in Vacuo, the one everyone goes to before Shade."
"Don't quit being a huntsman," Blake responded. Ruby nodded her agreement.
Sun gave a lazy grin, before he turned, his tail grabbing the ammunition boxes as he walked out the store, with his head held high and his hands behind his head. He gave a soft whistle as he went walking out.
"That was Sun, huh?' Ruby asked immediately afterwards. "He's uh...unique," she tried to come up with something that wouldn't...offend him.
"That's one way to put it," Blake answered. "He's a good guy."
"Have you called Yang or your team yet?" Ruby asked quietly. "They haven't contacted me, but they probably will soon."
"Not yet," Blake said, looking down and away. She glanced down at her scroll. "Although they've tried calling a bunch of times. Even Weiss has."
"Who's Weiss?"
"Weiss Schnee," Blake said, a low tone of a growl starting to emanate. "Think of her as the 'Princess of the SDC'."
"She's in Vale? Why not Atlas?" Ruby asked. She wasn't the type of person to want to 'get the scoop' as Qrow would say, but a member of the Schnee family in Vale? That's kind of weird. It wasn't as if they didn't have enough money for Atlas, they were one of the richest families in the world!
Blake shrugged. "I don't know. But she's apparently feeling bad for what happened."
"You gonna tell me anytime soon...?"
"Not yet, Ruby. I'll be fine. Just upstairs. Finished chapter four," she said as she started to walk back upstairs.
"Ooh, five's the good one! Go, go, read! I got things down here!" Ruby said. She heard Blake give a laugh before Ruby turned back to the counter.
And suddenly the oppressive silence reminded her that she still hadn't had coffee yet, and there was no one around, and she still hadn't had much sleep.
Her head hit the counter with a soft bang as her eyes shut. Hopefully the bell would wake her up the next time someone comes in here!
There was a loud banging sound from her workshop, the door opening loudly. Ruby's eyes opened up as Zwei glared at her. "I know I fed you!" she said.
Zwei whined, jumping up to the bathroom door and sliding it open. He walked in with a little swagger before he shut it...somehow. "Oh. Right. We haven't had a walkie yet...I'm so tired..." Ruby muttered.
Black Bird
The first day of Blake being in her apartment was...probably the weirdest. There was meeting Sun, and that was plenty of weird too, but just the feeling and knowledge that her private space was being infiltrated by Blake was...unsettling.
Although it wasn't as if Blake caused a lot of noise. She was mostly quiet anyways, only occasionally coming down when she was sure that no one was in the shop. Ruby was glad for the company at least, but seeing how quick Blake was, it made her think that her Semblance wasn't just illusionary clones but rather instant teleportation.
Ruby made sure to not push too hard, but she had resolved herself that on the third day of Blake being there without any sign of calling her team, her parents, or literally anyone, that she'd do it for her.
It didn't help that Blake had an absolute ancient model of a scroll, one that didn't even have a lock menu or anything. All it took was Ruby looking through it for her parents contacts, putting them into her own scroll, and Blake wasn't the wiser.
Especially because Blake had put them in there as "Mom & Dad (Do Not Call!)"
Really made Ruby want to push that call button. But no, she was good, she hadn't actually done that.
It did hurt a bit though that Blake, while an absolute fish fanatic, and literally tore into baked chicken with a gusto that was honestly slightly frightening, couldn't cook worth the effort to put into it.
It wasn't even like Qrow's Semblance either, where things would just go randomly wrong. Blake just flat out couldn't cook or bake! It was so weird! It was as if everything she put onto a stove started to tremble and exude a black cloud of dust that ate away at Ruby's ceiling.
It was legitimate dust, too! That's the worst part! Who cooked with dust!? Ruby knew she hadn't put anywhere near the stove, for obvious reasons, but sure enough there it was!
So Blake was essentially barred from the kitchen, asides from sandwiches. Or tuna, somehow she could make tuna. No random dust explosions in the tuna, as far as Ruby heard. There was that loud bang the other day though...
But while it was strange, it only took until the morning of the third day before Ruby started to fall into the routine. She would get up, drink a pot of coffee, take Zwei on a walk, and finally come back for a quick breakfast and then the storefront. Blake would get up, drink a single cup, ensure that Zwei came nowhere near her, and then wish Ruby a good day on her own breakfast of some kind of toast. Ruby didn't have bread, so she didn't know where Blake was getting the toast from.
She certainly wasn't baking it, that's for sure.
And that had just been this morning. It was a late day for her tomorrow morning, so Ruby could stay up a bit. Blake didn't like playing video games, which Ruby was a bit shocked by. Who didn't like playing video games!? Especially ones with giant ninja and throwing stars, killing Grimm and everything with massive flashy techniques!? Apparently Blake didn't, the heathen!
That was alright. She had to stay up a bit anyways finishing up some homework, and Blake stayed in the corner reading up to where Ruby was. The book, fortunately, wasn't out of Ruby's 'hidden section' but rather a simple history of Vale that doubled as her history textbook. Dinner was only just now in the oven, even though it was late.
Ruby tried to recount the things that she needed to do before the next day. Homework, obviously, was a bigger one, but she had cookies ready to go for the morning. And these ones had a special Zwei proof lid on the bowl to make sure he didn't get in and eat all of the dough before she could!
She had already confirmed with the blacksmith the amount of materials she'd need, and she already had her list of weapons to reforge or manufacture. She even had a few customs that needed to be done this time. Those would definitely bring in the cash. Not that she was particularly hurting. She'd done the numbers for the month so far the other day, and she was a good several thousand above the black line. And that was with her rent being taken out three months in advance, so she hadn't even factored it in.
"Hey, Blake, what does the book say about the battle of Aincrad?" Ruby asked as she looked at the next question. "I think it was some big castle that the Grimm tried to mow over, but they threw in all kinds of liquid to slow them down."
Blake blinked, before she flipped to the glossary in the back, turning to the page ten pages after she was still holding. She was a fast reader, even of extremely dry material. "That sounds right. General Crimson lured them in, the book doesn't go into detail, before locking them between the third and four walls. Poured boiling oil over them."
"I knew it was some kind of liquid! Ha, thanks Blake!" Ruby said, quickly writing it down. A small breeze went past her hair, and she shivered a bit. "Think you can close the wind...ow..." she asked, turning to see the window that she knew she had closed not two hours before.
"I thought you closed that window," Blake muttered, getting up and shutting it.
"Shoot! Blake, Blake, hide, hide! Anywhere, anywhere, under the bed, under the dresser, in that box!" Ruby started whisper yelling, pointing at every possible place as she could say it. "Quickly!" she finished.
Blake stared before she did hide somewhere, probably under the bed, the only place with any actual real room. Ruby stopped and sighed for a moment just as Uncle Qrow came out from the kitchen, the Zwei proof lid in his hands. "Heya Rubes," he said quickly. No, that was the lid that she'd prepared specifically for the cookies...!
"Hi Uncle Qrow!" Ruby answered, bolting over to him and tackling him with a hug.
"Whoa, hey, this Uncle's a lightweight right now. Always a rush. Where's Zwei? I saw the lid for the cookie dough on the chair," Qrow said, pointing to the lid in his hands. She knew she had put that on the cookie dough, so either Qrow's Semblance was screwing with her or Zwei had figured out a way to get past the Zwei-proof lid!
There was a crash in the kitchen, and Ruby let out an internal scream. "In the kitchen, now," she answered, bolting passed her Uncle as she grabbed the corgi from sticking his entire face into the bowl. He gave her a happy pant, before he licked her face. She could smell the cookie dough on his breath.
"Uncle Qrow, next time you see the lid on the cookie dough, please don't take it," Ruby asked kindly. "Or else you will face my wrath!" she finished, pointing dramatically.
"Ooh, so scared," Qrow answered coolly as he pushed her hand to the side. "It wasn't, but next time I'll make sure to move it anways...is that a pasta bake in the oven? Using Summer's recipe?" he asked.
Ruby nodded. "Yeah! It's...there should be enough. If we have small pieces..." she muttered. She had used a smaller glass pan this time. She didn't particularly like going grocery shopping, and Taiyang was still smoothing things over on Patch. He'd probably long since finished but he also wanted to see if she could manage the shop on her own. As she'd been doing.
"Right, right. Well, think you mind if I stick around for it?" Qrow asked. "I always did like your mom's recipe, which is why she always tried to make it when I wasn't around."
"Was that because you ate too much of it or because she knew you'd eat all of it if given half a second?"
"Probably the second."
Ruby sighed. Between him and Blake...the oven dinged gently, and Ruby rushed in with her hotpads. Rose petals flew everywhere by the hot air of the oven, some of them getting trapped within. The ones that were already there were burnt to a crisp, but fortunately weren't already on fire.
"Uh, you sure you should be holding that? Seems kind of small," Qrow murmured as Ruby pushed it onto the stove. It was small, only enough for really two people. Which was supposed to be for her and Blake. It was way too big for one person to eat.
Oh no. Qrow was going to find out about Blake, and then the teasing would be endless! A never ending tirade about finding her with another girl! Not because Blake was a girl, but rather because Blake was another person in general! Admittedly Qrow would do the exact same thing regardless of who was over. "You know, your mom only did this on special occasions. So what's the occasion? And why's it so big?" Qrow asked, poking the gently boiling pasta and sauce.
"Oh, uh, no occasion!"
"It's too big for one person Rubes."
"I was saving for leftovers?"
"In that pan?"
"I wasn't exactly expecting anybody to come over!"
"You should always be expecting me to come over Ruby," Qrow answered. "Especially when you have things like this!" he said, pointing to the bake. "Wait," he said, sniffing it closer. "You forgot the allspice. And is that fish in there?"
"I had leftover fish?"
"You made fish pasta!?" Blake's voice suddenly yelled from under the bed. She was out a moment later next to the glass pan, trying to blow on it so it'd cool quicker. Ruby sighed.
Qrow took a moment to take in Blake's appearance before he started laughing. "I knew someone was there, but I wasn't expecting Yang's missing roomie!" he grinned. "So, how long has this been going on Ruby?" he asked.
"Qrow, it's not what you think!"
"I think it's exactly what I think it is. A lone girl, meeting someone out on the streets, setting up a special occasion in the loft for a quick -"
Ruby threw a pillow at him. "It's really not that!" she shouted.
"This looks delicious. Will there be enough for you though Ruby?" Blake asked as she grabbed the pillow out of the air. Qrow had deflected it towards her, Ruby realized a moment later.
"Uh..."
"Oh, I get what's going on," Qrow said. "You knew I was coming, and you wanted to feed Belladonna at the same time! Clever, Ruby. Clever. Just barely clever enough to try to throw me off the trail, but not quite clever enough!"
"Uncle Qrow!"
"Wait, you know who I am?" Blake asked, pointing at the huntsman. Qrow stood up a bit straighter.
"Well yeah. I know everyone on your team. Gotta say, not fond of Ozpin's name for you girls. And Arc. PABY? Really? Is that even a color?"
"I think it's some form of brown."
"Probably. I would've gone with Peanut Butter, personally," Qrow answered. "Team Peanut Butter, coming for duty exactly as requested!" he faked an Atlesian salute.
Ruby sighed. "I can get another thing going if you'd like, but I'm out of fish and don't have chicken out of the freezer..." Ruby muttered. She wasn't going to win this.
"So Ruby, you gonna tell who exactly this is so I can stop teasing you?" Qrow asked, even though he'd proven he already knew.
"Uncle Qrow, this is Blake Belladonna, Yang's partner in Beacon. Blake, this is my uncle Qrow. Adopted," Ruby muttered.
Qrow faked a wince. "Ouch, really shows the love there Rubes."
"Adopted? How does that one work?"
"Eh, it's complicated. Half-sisters and all that," Qrow explained. Blake's mouth opened for a moment and Ruby could tell the instant she made the actual connection.
"Oh, so you're Yang's uncle, and Ruby adopted you as her own because you couldn't otherwise!"
"Oh no, there's two of them," Qrow answered with another dramatized wince. "That about sums it up though. You know, Yang asked me to look for you and I thought I'd stop by my favorite niece in Vale's place."
Ruby grumbled as she pulled out another package of pasta, grabbing the bowl of cookie dough before Zwei could grab at it again. He let out a soft whine, ignoring the ignoble glare that Ruby sent his way.
"I...just needed a place."
"I get it. I really do," Qrow said. "So I'll just tell Ozpin you're safe and sound, and if I tease Ruby a bit more about the girl in her loft, don't hold it against me?" he asked. "Especially because I have seen that hidden bookshelf of hers."
Ruby dropped the bowl. "Uncle Qrow!" she yelled, flushing like mad. "You told me you had no idea and that you wouldn't tell Dad and why!?"
"Because it's too much fun to tease you," Qrow answered with a teasing grin. Blake gave a laughing giggle before she kept trying to cool down the fish pasta bake.
So in case it wasn't obvious from a few chapters ago, this isn't a Ladybug fic. It just looks like it right now.
Until Next Time!
