10

Ruby was glaring at the dimmed fire dust crystal. She gave two to Yang, one of them literally burned itself out and fell apart. The other one was in front of her. It was still in one piece but the formerly bright red crystal turned darker, closer to auburn. Ruby tried to understand what caused the change but after five minutes of thinking she just chugged it into magical stuff and decided to ignore it. It was a secondary problem anyway, merely a curiosity. Primary problem was more material, this stuff was extremely expensive. Ruby may have got five of them for very cheap, and she won't think whether or not she stole them, but buying them officially was a big deal. They had neither the money to supply Yang nor they had the license to handle C-class crystal dust. That was without even mentioning Ruby's other projects. Crescent Rose mk3 was too advanced to be built from scrapped weapons and cheap metal she could find on the market. She didn't regret blowing a hole in her budget for Yang's sake but now she had to deal with the consequences. Maybe we should get a part-time job? They have pretty much killed all the grimm on Patch anyway, what little was left, was tightly monitored and kept alive for Signal students.

-BBW-

Signal started to get boring for Yang. She could easily keep up with the studies and spend most of the time during the lessons reading through the reports of supernatural occurrences. Apparently the last king of Vale was a leader of a cult, each leader given a cane wielded by the leaders before him. And now it belonged to the headmaster of Beacon. People in power leading secret cults… too basic, but possible. Combat was a joke. She was good but she had to defend her position on the scoreboard from time to time. Now she had to hold herself back so she wouldn't get too much attention. She wouldn't mind the reputation of being awesome but she didn't want Ruby to be caught in the middle of this whole magic and cults stuff. What little spars she had, she always went for a close range just to spare some ammo. She had to repay Ruby for the dust and new weapons even if Ruby brushed it off. Maybe I should really look for work. Nothing big, she didn't want to skip her workouts.

Yang was walking through the main settlement and found another problem. Even if there were some part-time offers she was too young for all of them. 'Too dangerous work for an inexperienced girl.' Bullshit! I know more about bodybuilding than that moron at the gym! Too young to be a waitress, you can't serve alcohol unless you are of drinking age yourself. And apparently it was a bad thing she was training to become a huntress. Whenever she mentioned that she had unlocked aura and was studying at Signal, people would give her a wider breath and very politely tell her that there is no work for her. Yeah sure, I will start doing missions when I'm what? Twenty one? Fantastic… Suddenly there was a crash from the nearby backalley. When Yang peeked around the corner, she saw three men from local lowlifes getting harassed by five men in black suits, black sunglasses and red ties.

"This is now our turf, so you can get lost or get rekt!" One in black sneered. "You had your fun in this shithole but now it's ours."

It would seem that some of the Valean gangs decided to expand on Patch. More gangs would mean more crime and that would cause additional headaches for her if left unchecked. She stepped out of the corner and decided to greet them properly. As soon as the locals saw her, they ran away. They made sure to know all of the Signal staff and majority of the students. It was one thing to sell drugs and another to piss off dozens of soon to be supersoldiers.

"Why hello there!" Yang called out. "I heard you were new in town, let me show our hospitality!" With a blink her eyes became crimson and she went to meet some new people. On top of the nearby building a raven watched what happened next. It was satisfied and disappeared in a small red cloud.

-BBW-

What is taking Yang so long? Ruby pondered in her room. It was dark outside and her sister was yet to show up. Even their father already came home. She was probably just out with her classmates or something.

Yang finally came home right after the sunset. She brushed off Tai about meeting some people from Vale proper and showing them around. Ruby knew her sister was indeed kind and caring but something seemed wrong about this one. Like Yang was telling a joke only she understood. When Ruby tried to bring it up, her sister almost had a giggling fit and promised to explain a bit later.

It was the beginning of spring so Ruby had relocated back to her own bedroom instead of using Yang as a heater/body pillow. Close to midnight the door slowly opened and a wild mane of blond hair peeked in. "Hey Rubes, you asleep?"

Ruby put away her scroll and replied. "Not yet. Are you going to finally tell me what you were doing?"

"It's not important, everything's dealt with."

"Dealt with…" Ruby thought for a second about the phrasing, then her eyes shot wide. "Yang! You started a fight, didn't you?"

"I wouldn't even call it a fight." Yang scoffed. "Just some thugs who thought themselves too good for Patch. Besides, I went easy on them and let them walk away."

Again Ruby could tell that Yang was playing with words right now. "Yang…" She started threateningly. Or at least as threateningly a twelve year old in bright red pajamas could be. "What. Did. You. Do?"

Yang rolled her eyes at the attempt. "Had them bow down, pay for the time I wasted because of them and let them choose the limb they wouldn't mind breaking."

Ruby's jaw fell open. Yang actually sounded almost proud of it. Before she could chastise Yang and drag her to whoever she hurt to apologize, her sister decided to change the topic.

"Anyway, on the important matters. I think I know a way to solve our money problem." Yang finished the sentence with a smirk.

"This isn't over!" Ruby promised, although both of them knew in the back of their minds that Ruby would forgive her and focus on something different. "What do you have?"

Yang's smirk grew into a grin when she presented Taiyang's wallet.

"We are not stealing from dad!" Ruby almost screamed. They did need money but they would not become criminals because of it.

"Yeesh, keep it down, will ya? It's not money we need." Yang then pulled out an old, slightly worn down card from the wallet and held it in front of Ruby.

"Dad's license? What does that have to do with anything?"

"My sweet little sister, you should already know what we can do with it." Yang strolled up to Ruby and placed the card as well as a black scroll in front of her. "We set up a new account, take missions with Tai's ID and split the money." She explained like it was the most normal thing to do.

"How would that even work? We can't go in person! And our scrolls are tied to us!" Ruby still couldn't understand. She did get the idea but the process had way too many roadblocks for them to wiggle around.

"That's what the other scroll is for. It's a burner scroll, untrackable and with no personal info. I'll just log in to the mission board, pick an extermination close by and put down the bank number. We won't need to meet with anyone. Also, he used to be a good huntsman, I doubt anyone would start poking around if he decided to take missions once in a while." Yang unveiled her master plan. She put her hands on her hips as if asking to be praised.

Ruby stayed silent for a while, mulling over the idea in her head. So far it had merit. She really wanted to try a proper mission but she was also pretty sure that this wasn't okay with the laws. There was another complication to consider. "Okay, let's say we go through with this and we are caught?"

"Oh please- like they would even care! As long as we do it properly everything will be fine."

"Whatever… how do we get to the mainland? There probably won't be anything on Patch."

Yang raised an eyebrow at the question. "You somehow carried me all the way across the island and now you ask me this?"

An inexistent lightbulb sparked above Ruby's head, her answer being only a sheepish grin.

-BBW-

It took them almost a week to get everything ready. Technically Yang was ready to go after two days but her sister wanted to make sure everything was perfect. Weapon maintenance, first-aid kits, rations, mapping out the route, adequate alibis. When she decided that everything was in order, or more precisely when Yang gave her a speech, that if she could get started with one easy mission how she would expect to be a huntress.

Today was friday night, Tai already went to sleep and the sisters sneaked to the eastmost shore of the island. Yang marked the location on her second scroll and Ruby put in the optimal trajectory.

"Are you ready?" Asked Ruby. She wasn't having second thoughts. She would finish this with a breeze. She still worried about her big sister though.

"I was ready for quite some time." Yang responded with a smile.

Ruby nodded, took a deep breath and put one hand on her sister's shoulder. In an instant two clouds of petals, one red and one yellow, shoot off into the distance.

-BBW-

Keep it steady, inhale, exhale… wait, I don't even have lungs right now… Traveling by being transformed into a cloud of rose petals was a very strange sensation for Yang. In the beginning, before they even took off, she felt Ruby's aura push into her. Her own aura automatically tried to stop it but she reigned it in. A split second later she could feel her body grow lighter, a strong sense of vertigo and suddenly they were speeding over the channel separating Patch from the continent of Sanus. Yang had calmed down and almost got used to the strange feeling of Ruby's semblance when she made out the thinly forested shore on the horizon. Just a minute later Ruby pulled both of them into a dive, in the last moment she reversed it and when the upward momentum died she released her semblance. Ruby landed gracefully and with a practiced ease. Yang on the other hand found herself suddenly rematerialized some twenty feet in midair. She managed to somewhat break her subsequent fall with a quick roll but compared to her sister that was almost embarrassing.

"Okay… that was a thing, I guess?" Yang muttered while picking herself up from the ground. "Your semblance feels weird sis, not bad, just really weird… and a bit tingly." She would make sure Ruby knew her experience, frankly, if she wasn't mentally prepared to be transported, she would have let go of her dinner somewhere over the ocean. Ruby just crossed her arms and sent a wannabe glare her way. Yang fished out her scroll and made a quick scan of her sister. "87% sis, you better stay above twenty for the trip back."

Ruby gave her a sharp nod. "Where now?" She was already in combat mode. Chatting was all fine and nice, but it gave away their position and could attract unwanted company.

"A bit north-east, looks like some grimm from Forever Fall decided that the forest wasn't good enough for them." Yang looked at the mission specifics. "Stay in the back, I can take a beating better than you, and we need to get back afterwards."

"Sniper duty it is." Ruby remarked with a predatory grin.

Grrr

A low growl reverberated from the inland. "What do they say- target in bound?" Yang winked at her sister and sped off in the sound's direction, Ruby trailing a few paces behind her.

-BBW-

It's over already? But I didn't even get to try the chain grenades! It started out rather slowly. A small pack of beowolves. Then the alpha, Then some more grimm. Ruby was methodically killing every single one she could see while Yang charged through them and kept obliterating everything in her way. Their warpath stretched for about fifteen miles of ruined trees, broken boulders and a lot of spent casings. Then suddenly it all ended. Yang had her small dose of entertainment when a beringel tried to jump her. Ruby never understood the notion of beating someone with their own arm but Yang seemed to enjoy it so it wasn't her problem to deal with. After she was done, she took several photos of the partially dissolved grimm as evidence of the mission completed and they were off. It was… rather dull. Ruby thought that doing proper hunts would bring some challenge to test her new toys but the two of them took care of everything without a single stumble. Maybe Yang was right… I hope the pay will be nice.

On monday the message on Yang's black scroll appeared. Mission was successfully completed and the reward transferred. Ruby didn't have her own bank account so Yang gave her her old one instead. What followed was a giant mess for Tai when almost three new rows of boxes appeared in his garage.

The time went by. Ruby and Yang would go on a mission once every week, usually at the weekend nights and then they would sleep it off for half a day. When summer started they convinced their father to let them go camp out in the forest to get a 'proper survival training'. The forests on Patch were yet to recover after an unexplainable grimm purge and after Qrow stopped by to make sure they knew what they were doing he let them go. Too bad they didn't tell him which forest they will be staying in. All in all life went as usual, Qrow would drop by every month or two to train Ruby, Tai would spar with Yang and the two sisters would do their own things afterwards. Ruby in her workshop and Yang diving into mythology and conspiracy theories. Although Yang had to take a break at some point because she almost got recruited into some weird cult of grimm worshippers. Everything else was fairly normal.

"Ruby, why are you in your underwear?" Her father asked in a tired tone.

It was the middle of the summer and Ruby was enjoying some cartoons on the tv with her sister. She was wearing only her underwear and next to her stood a large fan that kept sending air into her face. All the windows in the room were also opened and even then Tai could tell that the room temperature was probably ten degrees higher than the outside.

Ruby just blinked at the question and then pointed at Yang, who was holding a large bag of popcorn. "She made popcorn without the microwave, the room got too hot." Yang didn't add anything, although the smug look on her face was an answer on its own.

-BBW-

For brothers sake! Yang hoped that at least on her birthday she would be able to get a good sleep, kick back and relax. Maybe even convince Ruby to make her an in-bed breakfast. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be as she just woke up to a horrendous revving coming from the garage. I swear, if she put that bloody chainsaw into her scythe, I will melt the thing!

Yang stumped her way down, the volume of the noise steadily increasing as she drew closer. When she opened the doors and was about to enter-

"Happy birthday!" Ruby yelled over the noise and despite all the dirt and black smudges on her person she was smiling from ear to ear. "I have you present! I'm yet to do the painting but it's almost ready!"

She stepped aside and Yang finally saw the source of all the commotion. Polished frame, beautiful V4 engine, shiny breaks…

"What do you think?" Yang stopped staring at the bike in front of her and refocused on Ruby. She was standing right next to her, her earnest silver eyes looking up and shining with unbound energy. Despite all the dirt she was covered in, Yang lifted her up and gave her crushing hug.

"I think that I have the best sister on Remnant!"