Chapter 21- RR

The boy awoke to the sound of shouting, something all too common in his home. He lived in an absurdly lavish mansion, the whitewashed walls adorned with paintings and the hallways and rooms holding expensive vases, statues and other embellishments. He prepared himself for the day in a smart, well fitting shirt and vest, with a necktie and a few other minor accessories. He left his bedroom to investigate the source of the noise, though he already knew what it was.

As he nears the dining room, his hunch had been confirmed. His parents are arguing again. More specifically, his father was shouting at his mother. He left them alone, for now. His parents had always been loving and caring, until roughly three years ago, at his sister's birthday, where their father got angry at their mother and, in his outburst, firmly stated he had only married her for her fortune and the company he had recently taken control of. Things hadn't been the same until that day. His mother was absent, and while attempted to care for her children, often couldn't do it without a bottle of wine in her hand. His siblings each had their own responses. His eldest sibling was defiant, and since she was already nearing 18, decided to join the local huntsman academy. His other sister had done her best to live with the new circumstances, though he could tell she obviously wasn't happy with them. While he was young, he was perceptive. He could tell she felt like she was walking on eggshells constantly. He, however, hadn't had the same troubles as the rest of his family. His father's treatment of him remained unchanged. And why would it change? He had nothing to do with what happened, and he had done nothing wrong. And he'd always tried to be as good as possible for his father, following his footsteps to become a businessman.

Despite his calmer situation and his father's obvious favoritism, he nonetheless began to feel uneasy as of late. There was more than just arguing going on between him and his mother, he was certain from the way they interacted. He decided to find out a little more. He knew his father's schedule by now, and decided it was a safe time to sneak into his office. The door was unlocked, and the computer was as well. After all, who would dare to sneak in and snoop through his computer? The boy began searching through the computer, mainly the messages and documents. What he found was alarming. Messages from his father's workers about safety issues causing workers to get hurt going ignored was one thing, but when he found evidence of his father's workers being physically punished, maimed and even killed for various reasons, with his father's responses to them being unbelievably unconcerned, he knew he had to do something. But what? Before he could ponder more, the door opened.

"Whitley!?"

Corvus awoke with a start. He took a moment to gather his composure before sitting up. He was currently on an airship. After what had happened at Higanbana his mother had thought it was a good idea for him to get some R , in a safe and secure environment away from the Karnika tribe's reach. So, his mother decided to send him to Argus, to stay with Pyrrha and her family for a short while. Corvus wasn't entirely on board with it, wanting to stay and fight the rival tribe, but he wasn't so stupid to think he was in any state to fight them. While he was uninjured, his brush with the Grimm had left him shaken, and he needed time to recover from it. He looked out the window to see the city, he's not far. He had tried to sleep through the flight, but it eluded him for the most part, only able to rest for half an hour at most. He needed to do something, and do was eager to get off the ship.

When he finally arrived, he saw Pyrrha's mother Tethys waiting for him, who greeted him with a motherly embrace as she usually did.

"Oh Corvus, dear. How are you? Your mother told me all about what happened. Come, let's get you inside where it's nice and warm."

"You don't need to baby me, Tethys. I'm not a kid anymore." Corvus said as he followed her. He sounded annoyed, but the warm, if slightly exasperated expression on his scarred face betrayed his true feelings.

"I know dear, but that doesn't suddenly mean I'm not allowed to dote on you. Now c'mon, let's get you inside for a nice cup of tea."

Corvus followed the older woman back to the Nikos home as she asked him questions, how he's been, if he'd been getting up to anything interesting lately, etcetera. She wisely avoided the topic of the Grimm, as they're the last thing Corvus wanted to think about right now. They arrived back to an empty house, and Thetys led him into the living room, gently pushing him to sit on the couch.

"Pyrrha will be back soon, dear. Make yourself at home." She says with a kind smile as she heads to the kitchen. The two enjoyed a cup of tea, and chatted for a short while before Pyrrha came home with Chrysies. He had seen Pyrrha somewhat regularly since they had first met in Komo-Rui, but he was always surprised to see how different she looked each time he saw her. She was much taller now, though still nowhere near as tall as him. Her hair was much longer and in a ponytail, and she had a very athletic build. Despite the differences, she still looked at him with the same kind green eyes, with a little surprise at his appearance. He stood up to greet her with a smile on his face, always happy to see his friend.

"Corvus! Hi. It's good to see you. I didn't think you'd be here yet. Ah, sorry, let me change out of my uniform for a moment."

As she rushed upstairs to get out of her school uniform into her combat clothes, Chrysies approached him with a smile on his face and a chuckle in his throat.

"Corvus, my boy! Its good to see you, young man. You're getting big quickly, aren't you? You'll be taller than me before long." He gave Corvus a firm pat on the shoulder as he spoke. The two were at eye level now, despite Corvus only being in his early teens.

"Good to see you too, sir."

"How's your training going with that sword of yours, son? You given it a name yet?"

"It's going good. And no, not yet. I can't seem to think of anything."

"Well take your time, boy. But don't leave it nameless now. Not naming your weapon is said to leave you with bad luck, you know. Now, how about you put that sword of yours to good use? Pyrrha's been very excited to train with you again."

"Me too, sir." He responded with vigor, always eager to spar, but especially with Pyrrha. The girl in question came back downstairs in her combat outfit, which consisted of leather chest armor over a sports top, some thigh high boots and what looked like an armored skirt. He gave her a once over, giving her an approving thumbs up before Chrysies led the two of them out.

A/n

Ugh, I'm awful. So, so sorry this took so long. Lots of stuff going on and taking up my time, my old phone breaking causing me to lose a lot of data and stuff, and just being unmotivated in general when it comes to writing. But I do have some good news.

I'm gonna work on a new fanfic. It's Warhammer 40k, not RWBY. But if you wanna check it out, I'll say on this story's author notes when I release it. This is not going to take priority over this story, it's simply going to be a side project to do when I've got writers block for this, and also to empty my brain of everything I've been thinking myself to death over.

In my downtime I've had plenty of time to refine existing ideas and come up with new ones. So hopefully in spite of my lost drafts and plans, the story won't lose much of what it was originally going to be. Hopefully.

Now, obviously Whitley is here. Yes, this is an AU for him too, as well as one other. I was honestly dubious about what to do for these two initially. I was going to have them as OCs but thought having existing characters play the same part would be better. There will be multiple chapter segments revolving around these two, so please let me know what you think.

Finally, I was going to continue this chapter a little more but I honestly am struggling to write and don't have the motivation to write a fight scene or happy moments between two kids, so this'll have to suffice for now. Sorry guys

Though I will reiterate, I will not abandon this story, so don't worry about that.

Also, 100 favs? Thank you so much! I'm honestly shocked my story got this much attention. I never expected to get anywhere near 100, to be perfectly honest.

Anyway, as always, please leave a review if you liked it, have any comments or criticisms, or even if you just had a question. I always read and reply.

See you next time!