[Chapter 6]

In the kitchen of the Xiaolong cabin, three people sat around the table. An unnaturally serious expression plastered onto Qrow's face as he looked between Tai and Glynda. "You did a good thing calling me Qrow. Even though I have no doubt you and Tai could have handled this, an extra person is definitely a good idea given the type of situation this is." Glynda spoke up, a reassuring look being sent Qrow's way making him relax if only slightly.

"What are the odds she even does anything. Not like it would be the first time the bitch has lied to us." Tai grumbled to himself, a snort of amusement escaping Qrow before he crushed it and reverted to his serious mode. "Sure, my sister lies. But empty threats is not a Raven way of doing something. If she says she's gonna be back to make sure you get your shit together. Then you better bet your ass she's gonna be here tomorrow."

Silence ensued once more. Each adult not too sure what to do anymore as they looked between each other at the table. Then with a final sigh, Tai stood up, his chair grating against the floor as he stepped away and towards the living room. "Let's just call it a night. Glynda, the spare room is free for you, Qrow, the usual, blanket and pillow already there." With that, he left the kitchen and the sounds of his steps left the two after he climbed the stairs and reached his own room.

"We should probably follow his lead." Glynda spoke whilst standing up herself. "Yeah, gonna check on the kids though, make sure they ain't playing on their scrolls or something." Qrow answered back with a huff of amusement which turned to a small smile at Glynda's own laugh. "Good night Qrow."

[~~~~]

In the quiet bedroom of Yang Xiaolong and Ruby Rose, the lights were off and all was silent, except for a barely noticeable light escaping from the cracks of the red themed bed. A blanket pulled over head and Gore resting at the end, Ruby stayed up late watching videos on her scroll. A slight giggle here and there in her awful attempts at being sneaky. Her ear twitched and she paused the video, waiting for a few moments to listen again and make sure the noise wasn't just her messing with herself.

With another twitch, she swung the blanket off of her head and looked to the window to her left. Stood on the window ledge and giving the glass a few taps, was a black feathered and red eyed bird. "Birdie!" She whispered in joy, her eyes lighting up as she caught sight of it, then with a quick look to her sister's bed and a nod of determination, she kicked the rest of the blanket off her and set herself onto the floor. With slow and careful steps, she moved over to the window, her gaze locked onto the bird that seemed just as intrigued as she was.

Grasping the handle, she kept some wide eyed and serious eye contact with the bird as she twisted and carefully pushed it open, after leaving a big enough gap, she slowly reached her hand out with a hooked finger forward before stopping just next to the bird. It looked from Ruby down to the offered hand in front of it before reaching forward with one of its talons and climbing on. Ruby's eyes sparkled in joy as she carefully brought it inside with her.

She managed to hop back onto her bed, somehow without disturbing Gore nor the bird too much or at all. She brought her hand down to her bed, allowing the bird to jump off and nestle itself in the grooves of the blanket. Ruby made no effort to do anything except watch as the bird made itself comfortable on her bed, watching as the bird began to preen its own feathers. "You're a pretty birdie aren't you. I bet you take a lot of care of your feathers." Ruby mumbled, catching the bird's attention as it seemed to hold itself in pride from the attention.

All of a sudden, Ruby's ear twitched again as she caught sound of footsteps heading to her room. In a panic, she dived towards the bird with her arms outstretched and already clasping a grip around it. She franticly looked around before putting the bird on her head and crashing.

[~~~~]

Hearing the commotion behind his niece's door, Qrow was expecting to open it and see a scroll thrown across the room and both kids pretending to be asleep. Instead, he was graced with the sight of Ruby sitting up right, her eyes closed and he could only assume this was her attempt at playing possum. Gore looked like he had just been woken up and was scanning the room in confusion, and then to top it all off, a raven was sat atop Ruby's head, smugly, he could just feel the smug coming from the bird.

With a sigh, Qrow fully stepped in and walked over to Ruby's bed before flicking her on the nose. Her face scrunched up, but she made no move to open her eyes. Credit where credit is due, she was sticking to the bit.

"C'mon kid. I heard the scuffling. I know you're awake." Qrow grumbled out, glaring down at the bird as it stared up at him, then with another flick to her nose her eyes blinked open. "Why'd you flick me Uncle Qrow." Ruby whispered up to him whilst rubbing her nose in annoyance. "Cause you shouldn't be awake. Now who's your ugly little friend up there?" He asked, motioning to the raven on Ruby's head. Then with a gasp of shock, Ruby reached up and carefully moved the bird back onto her bed. "She is not ugly thank you very much. She's a very pretty birdie. Now tell her." She demanded, an accusing finger pointed at her uncle before moving to the bird.

"How did you know she's a girl?" Qrow asked, an eyebrow raised in question, only to be met with the determined gaze of his youngest niece. With a roll of his eyes, he looked down to the very, very smug raven. "I am sorry for calling you ugly. Out loud." Qrow relented, the smug of the bird turning to a heated glare, then one of amusement when Ruby weakly punched Qrow in the gut, a sharp exhale of air as he dramatically collapsed onto her bed.

"To think… Attacked by my own Niece… over a bird." Qrow breathed out, Ruby quickly growing panicked as she furiously tapped Qrow, the bird then joining in by pecking him on the head. He quickly got back up and swatted them both away from him, a grumpy stare being directed at the bird before he turned back to Ruby.

"Seriously though, where'd you find the bird?" Qrow asked, a question Ruby knew couldn't be avoided as she held her head low and pointed to her open window. "Relax would ya. You're not in trouble." He reassured, resting a hand on her head and patting her. "Now though, you need to sleep, so I'll watch Raven for you and make sure she's alright." He told her, watching in amusement as Ruby yawned and collapsed onto her back. "Fine. G'night Uncle Qrow." She drawled off, her eyes closing as she got comfortable.

"Good night kid." He mumbled back, the bird jumping into his offered hand as he headed for the door. Giving one last look to the sleeping duo, he closed the door and instantly shook his hand away, forcing the Raven to jump off to safety before turning into a human woman. Neither making a fuss and both of them heading down the stairs to the front room.

"Mind explaining?" A deadpan was sent towards his sister, who was fully decked out in her combat attire. "She was on her scroll. I knocked to get her off it, forgot I was a bird so it instead made her invite me in." A smirk made its way onto Qrow's face as he stared at his bashful sister. "So stupid." Qrow muttered, blatantly ignoring the glare his sister sent his way.

Then with a sigh, Qrow looked over to his sister again. "Why are you here Rae? Every other time I tried bringing you back you tried to kill me in offense." Qrow asked, collapsing on the couch and resting his head on the pillow. Raven was silent for a short while, mulling over the question before ultimately, she decided to sit on the edge of the couch and sigh in defeat.

"My distain for you and Tai, I have made very clear, which is why I stayed away. I knew I would never be able to come to an agreement with either of you that would make me stay and not actually castrate you both. And not in the loving way." She started, a flinch from Qrow as he readjusted yet continued to lay there. "But those two have nothing to do with that. I've lived with the sole condition that Yang get's One. One instance where I will save her, no strings attached. And that would be it. To be honest, it would have stayed that way as well, the two weeks would have ended, Tai would have got off his ass, and you lot would go back to being a big happy family, without the Bandit Queen to be there and ruin it." Her tone went unchanging as she continued, Qrow now opting to sit up and listen instead of laying down as she explained.

"But with that new addition you have in the family, and the way it's affected the little Gem, I had my doubts. So I've kept my eye on her, a sort of, watchful raven if you will. I've refrained from interacting with her, but I've kept note of every interaction she's had with people at her school. And Qrow, it's not good." That instantly got Qrow's attention, every fibre of his being now focusing on Raven's words. "Patch is a good place, don't get me wrong, but there's always one or two. Can't just separate the scales from the person. And it seems some people already have the Ideals dug into their child's brain. I will admit though, she's doing well in handling it. She's followed procedure, she's told who she should, and she knows that if she retaliates, she could kill him. And tomorrow, if things go as they should, you should hear about it as well. Depending on how that goes, depends on my reaction." Her cold red eyes finally looked over to Qrow, a piercing calm the complete opposite to his worried look.

"She's not getting hurt is she?" He couldn't help but ask. "No, if she was, there would be one less student. It's mostly verbal, name calling and such." She answered, watching as visible relief washed over Qrow. "That's a lot better than I thought, she can handle that." He muttered, then crashed back down onto the couch and closed his eyes. "Now piss off sis, I'll see you tomorrow." He didn't wait nor did he expect a response as he attempted to drift off. The sound of Raven's footsteps being all that he can before she opened the front door and stopped. "Good night Qrow. It was nice speaking with you." And then the door closed, and she was gone for the night.

He laid there, frozen and wide eyed before a smirk forced its way onto his face. "Yeah, yeah. Love you too sis." He muttered, reaching for a blanket and throwing it over himself in anticipation for tomorrow. Just needed to wait it out now, kids go to school, they come back, Ruby tells them all about this other kid making fun of her, they sort it out, Raven chills. We done. Easy.

[~TimeSkip~]

He really needs to keep his trap shut. He was almost right on the money as well. Usual day, kids wake up, he gets them ready whilst Tai does whatever self help shit he needs to do in the mornings, and he takes them to school. He took the day off for the day considering everything, chilled with Glynda, there may or may not have been a bit of flirting, he isn't one to kiss and tell. Well… that's a lie. But he'd want to at least kiss before he starts telling. Either way, things were looking good. And then they weren't, Tai came storming down in a mix of disbelief and anger, his clothes poorly thrown on before heading to the door and throwing his shoes on.

"Woah there Tai calm it down. What's wrong?" Qrow asked, getting in front of the door before Tai could bolt. "Ruby's beat up a kid. Sent him to the hospital cause apparently she was throwing Aura punches." Tai seethed, both Qrow and Glynda getting stunned into shock at the bomb just dropped on them.

"Eh?" They both asked quite dumbly. "I don't know alright! Apparently, she turned on some kid out of nowhere. So help me though I told that girl to be careful before we could start teaching her to control it. She is in so much trouble when she get's back." Tai grumbled out, not even caring that Qrow was in front of him anymore as he physically moved him out the way before slamming the door on his way out.

Silence continued as both Qrow and Glynda stared at the door in wide eyed shock. "The fuck?" Qrow quite elegantly asked. "I… honestly can't even fault you on that one. Do you have any idea?" Glynda asked, managing to snap out of it and turn her attention to him. "A small one. But that's it. Hold on actually." He quickly pulled his scroll from his pocket and started calling someone. Almost instantly the call was answered showing both Glynda and Qrow the face of Raven.

"What?" She asked, a tone of rage under her voice as she stared off at something else. "You got an eye on her?" Qrow simply asked getting a nod in return. "You wanna tell me why she went ape shit on some kid?" He asked again, this time getting a glare in return. "No. I want to see how you handle this. Depending, will affect my decision for the foreseeable future." She told him, a groan coming from Qrow as Glynda attempted to process it all. "I hate you sometimes Rae. You know that right?" He asked, a tired stare sent at his sister who merely scoffed in amusement. "I'd be surprised if you didn't." And the call ended. "Brothers that woman annoys me." Glynda mumbled before returning and sitting on the couch. "Eh, it's part of her charm."

[~~~~]

The door slammed open once more, this time two people walking in. Looking over, Qrow watched as an annoyed Tai dragged an absolutely enraged Ruby. Straight snarling and glaring at her dad topped with the scales that seemed to have massively grown up past her neck, framing her jaw and under her eyes as well as the sudden sharper teeth that were bared at him. "I don't get why you're mad at me he deserved it!" Ruby's squeaky voice attempting to sound intimidating as she fought the pull. "It doesn't matter what he did Ruby! Nothing and I mean Nothing should have made you attack him like that!" He shouted back, watching as Ruby suddenly shrunk in on herself.

"But he said-" Her meek defence was suddenly cut off as Tai continued to drag her upstairs and to her room.

"It doesn't matter what he said Ruby you crossed so many lines! That boy is in the hospital now! You are not leaving your room for a while! No scroll either!" Slamming her door shut followed by a loud crash and shout of anger from Ruby. "If that room is destroyed I swear to Oum young lady!" Another almost mocking crash was heard as Tai grit his teeth and headed down.

Stopping at the kitchen door, he glared at the latest arrival with destain. "I really don't have the time to deal with your bitchiness right now Raven." He spoke out with barely restrained anger. Instead of her backing off like he so dearly wished right now, she slowly headed towards him and decked him square in the face. His body flying back before he crashed into the couch. Instantly a pink glow encased Raven and Qrow rushed over to stop Tai from rushing at her.

"Okay really not the time Raven. Could you maybe come back and do this tomorrow or something?" Qrow asked, for once trying to be the peacekeeper of the fight. "Oh don't you worry Qrow, I'm going to be here for a while. Especially because it seems the oh so great Tai over here doesn't know how to take care of his kids properly." A jab that hit deep with Tai, a pained expression taking over as he just lay there, a far off look in his eyes as Raven's glare bore deeper.

"Alright Rae way too far. The fuck crawled up your ass?" Qrow asked, his own glare set on his sister as Glynda kept her restrained. "Go on Tai. Why did Ruby attack him?" She instead asked, her glare still pointed as Tai stared at the ceiling. "I don't know, and it shouldn't matter. If he was bullying her, then she should have gone to a teacher or me or Qrow." He answered. Raven suddenly smirked before forcing her head to turn to Glynda. "And do you mind. I promise I won't attack anyone if that helps." Raven told her, a clear mocking tone in her voice, but Glynda dropped the control anyways.

"Thanks, I suppose." She mumbled before moving over to her brother and the still downed Tai. "That, child, who I suppose you think didn't deserve it, is currently getting off lightly." Raven announced. "Poor little Ruby was minding her own business. Drawing in that little notebook she seems to have. Then all of a sudden, this simple-minded parasite of a child decided to make himself known. But… we all know Ruby. I mean c'mon, she's a strong girl. And ever since her little bonding session with the creature nothing seems to faze her." The statement seeming to be directed at everyone as Qrow and Glynda nodded along.

"And now, what do bullies hate more than a target standing up for themselves?" She asked, the answer instantly reaching Qrow but taking a few seconds for Glynda to catch on. "They hate being ignored." She answered, a nod from Raven and sudden understanding in Tai's eyes as he sat up.

"And little mister Racist had just the buttons to push. Try to piece it together. Two months off school, sudden scale growth… dead mother? Try to guess." Her smirk turning into a scowl at the mere memory of the incident. A look that was copied by Qrow as he looked away. But the best one, was Tai's look of rage that slowly morphed into regret.

"Yeah. Feel regret. Now go up there and apologize. And hope that she forgives you, cause I'm gonna lord this over you for a while." Raven told, a smirk of victory when he held his head low in defeat.

Silence ensued as everyone mulled over the conversation, then without a word, Tai stood up and headed upstairs. No one stopping him in the slightest. He stopped his short journey and stood in front of his daughter's room. His hand reaching for the door handle before pulling back and instead knocking. "Ruby. Can I come in?" He carefully called out to, a quiet sniffle being heard on the opposite side of the door that almost made him die inside. "Go away." Instead, he leaned against the door and slid down till he was sat with his back against it.

"Rubes… I'm sorry." He started, his voice breaking as he struggled to find the right words. Taking a deep breath to try to calm himself, he leaned back and stared forward. "Your dad isn't in the best of places right now. And that's not an excuse, I promise, I'm just letting you know that I don't mean everything I say sometimes. I've been trying to get better. For you, and for Yang. It's really slow right now, but I'm trying." He stopped for a second, burying his head in his arms as every emotion threatened to spill. "And sometimes… sometimes I forget I'm not the only one hurting. Your mom didn't just leave me. She left us all. And we're all dealing with it in different ways. So, I'm sorry Rubes. But you're just gonna have to put up with me until I'm better."

And he was ready to leave it at that. Move on with the day with the guilt ripping him apart as his daughter resented him for however long she did. Instead, the door slowly opened. Ruby stood there, rubbing her own puffy eyes with Gore next to her, leaning up and keeping constant contact. "Do you want help?"

His eyes widened by a fraction before the dams broke, tears spilling from his eyes before he reached over and pulled her into a hug. "You and Yang are already helping, every second of everyday with you with me is all the help I'll ever need."

[End Chapter]

I, my fellow readers, have reached a predicament. So, the original of this book that I am remastering? Remaking? Whichever works better. Either way, in the original, I diverted from the main plot around Vol 3. *SPOILER*If you don't know, this is the fall of beacon where everything goes to shit then after in Vol 4 Ruby, Jaune, Ren and Nora go on an adventure for the relics. Yeah, either way, I started this by saying it diverts around that point, start of Vol 4 is different on my end. Very different. Because of this, I made the genius decision to focus on my own plot and ignore the rest of RWBY, so I stopped watching, so all of my knowledge ends at Vol 3. Now since this one was going to have changes, I thought I should catch up, brush up on knowledge and watch the rest of the show to get a greater understanding of remnant as a whole. Now here is where the problem starts, RWBY has been taken down. I cannot for the life of me find a single place where I can watch it. I mean I knew Rooster Teeth shut down, but I didn't realise that equalled to bringing down their show. SO I am very much in the dark, if you lot know any places that hasn't taken down, would be much appreciated, otherwise this is going to be a bumpy story.

Ignoring that rant for now though, I would like feedback on one thing and one thing only, the rest of the accuracy of way I portray things can always be differed, but I constantly struggle with understanding pacing of a story. So let me know what you think, was the progression of this chapter rushed? Dialogue that could have been worded differently? Stuff like that, it's the main place I want to grow so let me know what you all think. Also if there's any issues with the chapter let me know. I mainly say cause apparently one hundred words appeared from somewhere, IDK where and I can't properly check till later.

And with that, I hope you liked this one either way, talk to you in the next whenever that may be.