Chapter Text
Despite the impending sense that something would go wrong, life didn’t actually change all too much for Ruby, outside of small details. Neo was out more, or Pyrrha would visit more, just a side effect of their budding relationship. Her mothers had returned to their home, close enough to arrive in an emergency, but leaving her to her own devices until the time came. She also found herself over at Yang’s bar more often but never partook in getting drunk.
Another part of that, however, was the inclusion of Weiss in her life.
Fake girlfriend she may be, but the effect of having to look real in public didn’t do well to downplay the new status quo. In the end, however, it wasn’t anything that affected her real day-to-day life, not when it was strictly for her protection, and nothing else.
Cinder, on the other hand, was probably the biggest change of all. Having a kid around was… not something she had been prepared to deal with or even something that she would say she wanted. But now, she didn’t think she would have changed that fact.
Although, if she could have taken away how her life had come about if she could have taken the small girl's nightmares from her, she would have in an instant. She had no problem saying that she would have killed for this girl, and probably much worse, if it came down to it at the end of the day.
Blake was, by all means, the biggest boon when learning how to care for her daughter. Anything that she could possibly need to know, any small detail she might have missed; Blake was instrumental in helping her along. Yang, of course, was there too. Always quick to point out that the ‘badass hero’ had been replaced by an ‘adorable mom.’
Ruby was quick to remind Yang why she had been team leader, and not her.
She still worried, for a myriad of reasons, for Cinder. It was going to be impossible to get her into any form of school, documents, and legality aside, simply because they were related. Yes, Cinder was in the public eye now, but ‘accidents’ could still happen.
Secondly, it seemed as if Cinder had definitely formed a sort of codependency with her. Which, given everything that had happened, and the supposed purpose behind her creation, it wasn’t exactly surprising. It probably didn’t help that the room she was supposed to be staying in was rather bland, which, to be fair; it was frankly impossible to decorate for a child who didn’t talk and didn’t seem particularly interested in anything.
She had seen Cinder taking an interest in the blades that were hung up around their home, as Ruby had been given ceremonial blades, and taken trophies, over the years. Genuinely, Ruby hoped that the girl hadn’t managed to inherit her penchant for battle. Although, she would be curious to find out what her Semblance was…
All in due time.
Her thoughts led her back to the current moment, though, while laying in bed with Cinder curled up against her chest. She huffed lightly, running a hand through the unruly hair that her daughter possessed.
Daughter…
Was it wrong, she wondered, to enjoy the presence of the child who had been created through such distasteful methods? A minute of thought gave her no clear answers, and she wasn’t sure if she’d like the answer regardless. What she did know was that her job now was to give this child the best life that she could, regardless of how she had come to be.
A soft buzzing was the first offered escape to this track her mind had set itself upon, and it went wholly ignored by the Hero of Remnant. Simply, she was too tired to try and pay attention to whatever it was that was bothering her.
But then it repeated.
And again.
And again.
And again–
She repressed the urge to growl as she shifted just enough to reach her pillow and pull her scroll out from underneath it. It’s not as if she was sleeping anyway, but she swore if this was something unimportant–
<...>
W_Schnee:
> Hey.
> Are you still awake?
> 👀 - 1:12 am
<...>
Ruby blinked, silently chuckling at the sight of Weiss using an emoji of all things, even if it was one of the most basic ones she could pick. She thought about just not answering, as she shouldn’t be awake anyway. However, she figured it must be of at least some importance if Weiss was texting her now, of all times.
<...>
R_Rose:
For you? <
Of course! <
1:14 am -╰(*°▽°*)╯<
W_Schnee:
> Ugh.
> Don’t patronize me.
> I just need to know if I can call you.
<...>
Ruby lifted a brow, slowly sitting up in bed, so as to not wake Cinder, and crept out of her room with silence only earned through experience. She walked down the hall, noting the light coming from underneath Neo’s door. Meaning that she was actually home for once, but definitely not asleep.
Once she had reached the living room, she sat down on the couch and hit the call button on her scroll. Unsurprisingly, Weiss picked up after the first ring.
“So, Ice Queen,” she said, tilting her back, “to what do I owe this early morning pleasure?”
“I had a thought.”
“Dangerous things, those,” Ruby chuckled.
“I’m serious,” Weiss replied, sounding rather put out, and maybe a bit tired, “I just… gods, this would be easier if we were face-to-face.”
“Hey, don’t push yourself if you don’t want to,” Ruby’s tone changed, and she sat forward, remembering similar words from years ago, “if you need to wait, I can meet you in the morning, I have nothing better to do.”
“You act as if you don’t run the biggest company in the world,” a short chuckle pierced the speaker, “but if you are willing, then yes, I would appreciate that.”
“Of course,” Ruby smiled, something that Weiss couldn’t see, but Ruby hoped she would hear, “it’s only right.”
“Hey, we’re only pretending to be involved,” Weiss scolded, “no need to overdo it.”
“Oh, I know…” Ruby said, “I’d still do it anyway, though… we can meet at Emerald’s place again, so, I’ll see you in the morning, Weiss.”
Without saying another word, or waiting for a response, she let the phone go dead and hung her head over the back of the couch. The room around her was cold, and dead silent, so eerily silent that it just barely allowed her to slip off into the realm of sleep.
<X>
Robyn wasn’t always on the front lines, his skill set was too valuable to only use on one front, which is why he found himself in a small hole in the wall, with Blake at his side.
“Is that what you do when you aren’t out leading the charge?” Blake asked, eyes flicking about the room as she watched the other customers and the myriad of servers, “and here I thought you were meeting someone on the side.”
“You read too much of your raunchy novels, Blake,” Robyn grunted, taking a swig from the mug of coffee that had been given to him, eyes similarly scanning the room. Only, unlike Blake, she was waiting for someone specific, “instead of focusing on my love life, maybe you should hurry up and just steal Yang already.”
“I–!” Blake’s face began to heat up, and she barely kept herself from dropping her head into her hands, “that’s so unfair.”
“I just call it how I see it,” Robyn shook his head, showing a small smile.
“Then what would you call me, friend?”
Robyn turned at the sound of the newcomer and was greeted with the pleasant sight of who he had been waiting for.
“Emerald!” he stood, meeting her hand with his own, both giving a rather hearty handshake, not unlike old comrades of war, “meet Blake, my… hmm, might as well call her my sister.”
Blake stammered, and Emerald let out a loud guffaw, “Yang getting hitched already? I thought she’d be a bit more patient than that.”
“No, no,” Robyn shook his head, “regardless of Yang, that’s just what she is.”
Blake’s ears twitched, and Robyn immediately moved to say something else, but Emerald was too quick for them both, “wow, you must be pretty special for good ole Robyn to let you into the circle, don’t waste that.”
As if a fire had been lit underneath her, Blake immediately leaped to answer, “I won’t.”
“Good,” Emerald grinned, before turning back to Robyn, “now, you said you needed something from me?”
“Are you still in contact with Ilia?”
For Emerald, the world seemed to get a bit quieter, but eventually, she answered.
“I… yes, but–”
“Relax,” Robyn held up her hands, “this isn’t for Ironwood, it’s more of a house call, off the books, if you would.”
“Robyn…”
“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine, I’m just worried about–”
“I wasn’t trying to refuse you,” Emerald cut her off, and pointed behind her, “I just wanted to let you know that Ilia just snuck out the front door when you weren’t looking.”
“Wha–” Robyn’s jaw dropped, and he immediately pivoted on his heel, tearing out of the place, “Ilia!”
Blake watched with intrigue for someone she knew nothing about, while Emerald let out an amused huff before sitting down across from the ravenette, “I bet you’re wondering why your friend tore outta here like that?”
Blake turned back at that question, eyeing the green-haired girl, “I am a little curious.”
Emerald grunted, “I’ve known Robyn for a long time, I knew Neo even before that. When Robyn was pushed up the ranks, she needed people who could feed her information, let her get the drops that no one else could, a leg up, if you will.”
“So, she contacted you?”
Emerald made a ‘so-so’ motion with her hand, “kinda, see, I’ve been in the criminal underworld my entire life. I’m knee-deep in it, but Ilia? She’s been in an even deeper hell than that, a type of place you don’t easily get out of.”
“So, what, she was caught up in some organized crime then?”
“If you wanna call the White Fang ‘organized crime’, then sure,” Emerald scoffed, “but, then again, you already know that, don’t you?”
Blake said nothing, trying her hardest to keep her expression completely blank, but no matter what she did, hiding wouldn’t erase the words that she would always remember.
“Robyn told me about it, y’know,” Emerald continued nonchalantly, “about how you, and your team, took down Adam Taurus. Thankfully, Ilia got out long before that, but the damage was done, the guilt was branded over her, body and soul, and she sought redemption.”
“Through Robyn?” Blake inhaled, clenching her hands over and over.
“Sort of,” Emerald allowed, “she’s good at getting information, and even better at going unnoticed, with or without her Semblance, and she wanted to help.”
“And that concerned Robyn?”
“Not sure,” she shrugged, “but if I had to guess, I’d assume that, from Robyn’s point of view, she dropped off the face of Remnant. It’d been a long time coming, let me tell you, but Ilia gets nervous about the simple things. Dubious and illegal shit? Sign her up, no problem, as long as it’s beneficial to somebody. But ask her to openly communicate? She’ll be in the wind before you can even think to blink.”
Blake was getting the picture, an informant, and friend, suddenly going silent. Of course, Robyn’s first reaction would be to do his own personal investigation, he would have done the same for any of them.
“It was hard enough getting her out the first time,” Emerald mused, tracing patterns on the table, “Robyn and I had a rather… interesting time when we got ambushed. But that’s a story for another time. The point is; it was hard pulling her out last time, and I wouldn’t blame him for thinking that she may have gotten caught up in something again.”
“That… sounds like him.”
“Tell me about it,” Emerald sighed, looking Blake in the eye, “Robyn would do anything for his family.”
“I don’t know about anything–”
“Really?” Emerald interrupted, “if you’re really saying that, maybe you don’t know him as well as I thought, because, let me tell you… Robyn is the type of person to let others die if it can keep her family among the living, he would burn the entire to cinders if it meant she could simply feel its warmth…”
“And I pity the fool who would try to stand in her way.”
<X>
Weiss was restless, tonight more than any other in recent history. It was a wonder that she had managed to even call Ruby, and even more so that she hadn’t just blurted everything out that she intended to say then and there. Of course, she was glad Ruby had told her to wait, the gesture warmed her heart and was completely unusual for her to hear.
Sighing, she looked back toward her mirror, considering herself in the darkness of her room, only illuminated by the soft moonlight that leaked in through her parted curtains. She was in her usual pajamas, which consisted of pants and a shirt, both nondescript. There was an ache in her back, something she couldn’t ignore anymore after all these years, and a stiffness at the ends of her fingers.
Debating with herself for a few minutes, she finally made the decision to peel her shirt off and toss it to the floor. She didn’t run the risk of being walked in on, as she lived alone, and no one could peek through a window on the uppermost floor of the building.
Her eyes had closed prior to discarding it, and slowly, as she felt her muscles tighten, she opened them once again. Honestly, she didn’t know what she expected, seeing as this sight had greeted her so many times. But the sight of bent, broken, and crooked wings would never cease to make her breath catch in her throat.
The gloves were next, as she always wore them, and rarely took them off, except in moments like these. Slower than before, and gently, she discarded them next to her shirt, and looked down at her hands.
Each of her fingers was of blackened ash at the ends, fading back into a normal skin tone as they went further up her knuckles. Sharp, and somehow perfectly, nails formed claws, despite being untrimmable.
None of these were new sights to her, and none of them should have stilled her heart as they did, but in the end; it did little to deter the culmination of rage that she held so close. She hated that her wings– so beautiful, so full of grace, her mother said– were ruined, glowing oh so dimly with small cracks of yellow that they looked like they were dying.
She wondered if they were supposed to reflect her, then, the wings that were supposed to carry light upon each spine, were hopelessly dim. A lineage that the Schnee family had carried, full of something more , and that man had ruined it all for some play at power.
Weiss hated him for it.
Hate, however, was like the fleeting embers that her wings seemed to emulate, and died almost as quickly as it was born. Sighing, Weiss hugged herself, seeking comfort in the small amount of warmth that her wings produced.
With what she knew, and what she had been told in recent days and weeks, the decision to tell Ruby had been an easy one. Her sister, Neo, had already known, seeing as they had been friends for quite some time now, and trusted companions at that. But the girl that she had only just met, it was a wonder that she trusted her so much.
Never had she really wanted to hide her Faunus Traits, she loved them even as a child, but after years of being forced to hide them… to bind them … she had simply been too ashamed to let the world see her as a broken thing.
“Coward…” she whispered to herself, feeling like she had just jumped headfirst into an icy lake.
Ruby was different, she supposed, having only just met Weiss, and she was already going above and beyond to protect her. She didn’t push her boundaries and regularly kept her in the loop.
She felt respected, and frankly, loved.
The girl took no interest in Weiss, she knew it well, and that sat just fine with her. As it always would, after all, drifting too close to the sun was extremely bad for anyone with wings, as the tale was told.
As she screwed her eyes shut, and sunk to the floor, hoping to dream of a better tomorrow, she failed to notice the way that her wings glowed brighter. Even if only slightly, the warmth that poured forth was enough to lure her into the best sleep she had in the last decade of her life.
<X>
Cinder awoke to an empty bed, barely aware of the world around her, as the only thing that really registered in her mind was that the source of warmth she held was now gone. Cinder was not scared, not as she lowered herself off the large bed, and walked through the dark room. She tried not to make too much noise as she walked through the halls, but she wasn’t a very coordinated person and bumped into a few things as she turned the corner.
Thankfully, nothing was knocked over, or even overly loud. And she continued without issue, barely noticing anything distinguishable in the world around her, as she had since she had awoken the first time. It was like… her childish mind didn’t quite have a word for it, so she could only associate it with experiences.
The world around her reminded her of the waking moments in that place , floating, looking through a liquid to an obscured world beyond. As if she wasn’t quite awake, but didn’t have the capability to wake up either.
She found the source of the heat that had left her, lying on a couch and sleeping the night away. Cinder, being the way she was, wasted no time in hauling herself up onto the couch, and pulled herself closer. Once she actually got closer, though, she barely noticed something different, something that hadn’t been there before.
They were crying.
Even years later, with copious ways to try and explain, Cinder wouldn’t be able to verbalize how she felt in that moment. If she had to compare it to anything, it would be akin to being stabbed with something.
“Some people may call me a monster, for what I’ve done… but you, child… you are their only hope,” a gentle hand caressed her face, just as the glass came up around her, “in the end, I hope Robyn will love you, as I have loved them.”
It was not something that could be explained, she could neither call it a dream, nor a memory, as it hadn’t quite been there before. And she couldn’t remember experiencing it, but whatever it was, it allowed something to flip.
She pulled herself closer, snuggling up against it, and sniffled.
“Don’t cry…”
<X>
The sun was what woke Ruby, as the blinds in her living room were almost never closed, and the sun chose to rise rather early at this time of year. Grumbling as she tried to rise, only to be stopped by something pressed up against her side, with her eyes snapping open, she looked down.
Upon finding out that it was only her daughter, who had managed to snuggle up to her at some point during the night, she sighed. Looking down at her with a soft smile, she ruffled the small girls hair, eliciting a whine from the child.
“Alright, c’mon, Cinder,” she stood, against Cinder’s wishes, “I gotta get going soon, which means you’re gonna be staying with Auntie Yang, and Blake for the morning.”
Again, for the second time since meeting CInder, she swore she heard the small girl mumble something . So sure that she was imagining, she crouched down, getting closer to the girl, and spoke again.
“Cinder? You wanna get up for me?”
A beat passed, and Cinder’s eyes slowly opened.
“Too early…”
Ruby’s eyes widened, jaw opening and closing, but no words came out. She took a breath, and tried again.
“CInder…?”
The girl grumbled, shifting in her position to face Ruby, and actually pouted at her.
“Tired…”
Ruby did not hesitate, did not blink, did not wait . All she could think of, at that moment, was hugging her daughter as tightly as she could. Maybe it was silly, embracing and tearing up over just a few words, but to hear them, to experience them …
In a world that was trying to keep her down, to kill her; it meant everything.
Cinder squeaked as she was pulled into the hug, but didn’t fight it. Rather, she spoke again.
“Don’t cry…”
Funnily enough, Ruby just laughed, despite the tear-stained face she was now sporting.
“For you kid?” Ruby chuckled, “Sure, I think I can manage that.”