5 Chapter 3

Sparkly, round silver eyes rose up over a bowl at a table in Patch Primary. They loomed over it in the same way that most people would eye a mountain of gold. Orange hair and silver eyes looked out across the table, over the bowl and towards the other side as they met black hair and silver eyes. Everything else on the table aside from the bowl might as well have been invisible to the two.

'Red with green leaves,' Orange thought as he almost drooled.

'Sweet with yummy goodness!' Black thought as her eyes shone.

There was a pause, almost as if everyone in the whole world was holding their breath.

Neither of them noticed as the table shook, the clattering of two trays as their owners sat down next to the entranced twins.

Blue eyes met green ones as Ash looked over at Aqua as she brushed her blue hair out of her eyes while they took in the scene in front of them. The green-eyed girl cocked an eyebrow as she looked towards the grey-haired, six year old boy; a not-so-subtle jerk of her head in the direction of the twin cookie monsters made him sigh.

'How come Aqua never has to deal with stuff like this?'

Ash cupped his hands around his mouth as he faced the two and took in a deep breath…

"THEY'RE JUST STRAWBERRIES! STOP STARING AT IT SO MUCH!!"

The silver-eyed twins smashed their hands down onto the table and all of the food jumped into the air!

Ruby looked toward Kit, her eyes on his. With everyone focused on the flying fruits, no one else noticed that Kit's eyes subtly flashed. Everything in his vision slowed down, and he could suddenly see everything clearly. To him, the strawberries might as well have been floating in midair.

Snatching one right after the other and popping them into his mouth like a strawberry version of the cookie monster, Kit rampaged across the battlefield. No strawberry was left in his wake!

As he reached his hand out towards what must've been his 12th strawberry in a row, his faunus ears twitched!

Quick as a fox, he ducked as a piece of broccoli soared right over his head!

His eyes widened as he popped his head back up and saw his arch-rival in all things strawberry look right back into his eyes.

Panic flooded his system. 'But, but how're you moving as fast as me?!'

His black-haired sister just gave him a teasing grin as she read his thoughts. 'Anything you can do, I can do too, little brother.'

A challenging look came into Kit's eyes as he heard her thoughts. 'We'll see about that!' He thought back to her. 'And you're NOT older than me!'

That last thought of Kit's rang out in both of their heads as each moved into action.

The orange-haired twin grabbed one of the vegetables floating around and hurled at his black-haired sister.

Ruby, not even flinching, just turned her head to the side, snatching a strawberry out of the air with her mouth as she dodged the green bean that had zipped through the space between them. 'Sorry Kit,' She thought as she turned back towards her faunus twin. 'You'll have to do better than tha-' Which was when she finally saw that her twin had managed to get his hands on FOUR MORE STRAWBERRIES while she'd been busy dodging!!

Fire lit up in her eyes. She would NOT let her twin get all of her strawberries!

Quickly grabbing a few pieces of cabbage that were floating nearby, Ruby threw it towards her orange-haired twin like they were throwing stars.

They sliced through the air, cutting straight through a juice pouch on the way, before they suddenly shredded through the last strawberry.

…..

….And suddenly, it was like time started up again.

Clatters of food dropping back into their places as the plates dropped back onto the table rang out.

To everyone else, the whole thing had been a huge blur.

Both of them had devoured the red berries like crazy, each berry flashing in the light as their hands quickly snatched them in mid-air before they disappeared.

Aqua stared at her younger friends, eyes wide open as she saw what had been a pile of red fruit disappear in less than a few seconds.

'It's almost like magic.' She thought to herself.

She stared open-mouthed and in awe at her two friends, not noticing the growing look of horror that was slowly spreading across the twins' faces.

'NOOOOO!!'

Both of the twins sank down into their seats, the horror of what they'd done now upon them.

Ruby sniffled. "It was so young!"

Kit just nodded his head, agreeing with his twin, rubbing his eyes as he tried to be a man and not cry.

Just looking at the two of them almost made Aqua cry too, her eyes already starting to get wet. "Guuuuys!" She whined. "Stop crying. You know I cry whenever other people start crying."

This only got the two twins to rub their eyes even harder as they tried their best not to cry for their friend.

"Hey look!" The blue-haired seven year old said as she tried to distract her friends. "I think there's still some strawberries left!"

"STRAWBERRY?!"

'STRAWBERRY?!!'

Both of their heads popped up faster than you could see, their tears dried up and all thoughts of crying long gone.

The three of them peered into the bowl, and sure enough, there was 1 strawberry left.

Only one.

As soon as she saw that, Aqua made sure to back away as fast as possible.

Kit and Ruby both looked up, silver eyes meeting silver eyes. They both knew, there was no way they were going to let the other one have it!

They both stood up and were about to start an epic fight for food the likes of which had never been seen before when a voice suddenly rang out...

"WHAT are you two doing?"

A shiver ran down their spines as their bodies stiffened.

"YANG!" Ruby cried out in fear, while Kit slowly turned his head around to face their sister.

"N-n-nothing, sis! We weren't doing anything!" Kit signed, his hands shaking. Ruby nodded her head in hasty agreement.

The blonde-haired older sister squinted her eyes. "Oh, really?" She said, with more than a little suspicion. She walked over to the middle of the table where they had all just been fighting not too long ago.

Lucky for the twins, there was absolutely no sign of what had just taken place whatsoever. All the food had coincidentally fallen right into place neatly.

"Ok," Yang said as she arched an eyebrow. "I guess if you weren't doing anything, that means you weren't really going to eat this strawberry I packed for you." Plucking it from the bowl, the brawler tossed in her mouth and ate it in one go.

With just a single action, Yang had defeated the twins!

'NOOOOOO!!'

Both of them fell lifelessly back into their seats, regret pasted onto their faces.

Their sister swaggered over to the both of them and leaned over so that she was whispering into their ears. "That's for lying to me." She said, before sauntering off.

The blue-haired friend of the two just looked at the scene in confusion. "Wait, Ash, how did she know that they were lying?" She asked, before turning to look at her gray-haired boy. "Oh." That was all she said.

"HMMM. I don't know, Aqua." The six year old boy said, dripping with sarcasm. And juice. Lots, and LOTS of fruit juice. His whole body was practically painted pink with it. "But, you know what? I think you're going to be the one to deal with these two next time." Ash stormed off, his shoes squelching with every step.

Completely oblivious, the two that were at the center of the whole problem in the first place finally looked up from their silent brooding.

The black-haired twin looked at her orange-haired twin, who nodded back to her.

'Sis is going down!'

----------

That night, at the Xiao-Long/Rose house.

A pair of scissors gleamed in the moonlight streaming in from a nearby window. A pair of silver-eyed twins were hovering over a bed with a certain blonde older sister with hair that had already grown down to her shoulders.

Ruby looked at her twin, worry clearly shown in her eyes.

'Kiiiit.' She thought to her twin. 'Maybe we shouldn't do it. What if Yang gets mad?'

The orange-haired twin arched an eyebrow with a confused look on his face. 'But you're the one that came up with the idea! Besides, how's she going to find out?' Kit put a hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes. 'Relax, no one'll know but us.' He said reassuringly.

'Ok…' Ruby said hesitantly, before an eager grin grew on her face. 'In that case, I wanna do it!'

The fox faunus held out the scissors to his sister with the red hood. 'You sure?' He asked his twin.

Instead of answering, Ruby just took the scissors.

Seeing that, Kit decided to just roll with it. Slowly, carefully he held up a single strand of gold in his hand.

Ruby turned to her brother and held up the scissors.

SNIP

-------

The next morning.

A certain dusty old crow burst into the living room of the Xiao-Long/Rose residence. The reaper with the tattered, red cape looked around, as if searching for someone, before finally spotting his old teammate sitting by an open window.

"Tai," Qrow began. "We need to talk. Now."

The blonde-haired man's eyes sharpened. He hadn't smelled any liquor coming off of Qrow. That was never a good sign.

"Where are the kids?" Qrow asked.

Tai nodded towards the open window, and the grey-shirted reaper took a look outside. An orange-haired fox faunus was playing with his twin sister, laughing and giggling about something that wasn't readily apparent to him.

"Yang?" Qrow questioned.

"She's upstairs, sleeping. What is it Qrow? You're not drunk." The blonde-haired man paused. "And as much as I'd love it if you'd stop drinking, I know you. When you quit drinking, it's never a good sign."

Qrow's eyes darted towards the stairs, his eyebrows furrowed, before it seemed like he finally came to a decision. "I wish I could tell you that you're wrong, but you're not. Not right now anyway." The Hunter took his sword and leaned it against the wall, before sitting down in a chair facing Tai. "I did some digging while I was out there for Oz. Turns out, the kid might still have a target on his back."

At this, Tai leaned in, a dangerous look in his eyes. "What the hell are you talking about, Qrow?!" There was more than just a little anger in his voice. Qrow could feel it. There might've even been a little fear in it, too. Normally Qrow would've been glad to see that Tai had grown to love the kid like his own son, but now wasn't the time for that.

"What's happening? Who's targeting my son?!"

Qrow held his hands up in a placating manner. "Tai, calm down. Getting angry won't do anything right now."

A fist smashed down onto the table between them. "DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!!" Tai shouted.

As soon as he said it though, a look of worry appeared on both of their faces. They quickly looked out the window and breathed a sigh of relief when it didn't seem like the kids were paying any attention.

Qrow sent a glare towards Tai, who at least didn't seem like he was going to raise his voice again anytime soon.

"Are you done now? Are we good?" He said towards the brawler.

Tai nodded slowly. "Yeah. We're good."

"Alright." Qrow paused before he continued. "The people that killed Kit's parents-" Qrow quickly corrected himself after being glared at by Tai. "-Kit's, biological parents, are still out there looking for him."

Tai just sat there. Even though he was looking at Qrow, anyone could see that his mind was still digesting the new information that he'd been given.

"Why?" Was the first word out of his mouth after he'd snapped out of his daze. "Is it because he has silver eyes? I thought no one even remembered those old legends!"

The black-haired man just shook his head. "I don't know why. Maybe it's because he's got silver eyes, or maybe it's something else entirely. One thing's for sure though, his family wasn't just killed for being faunus. If they were, then their search wouldn't have lasted this long."

…..

…..

It was awhile before either of them spoke again.

Tai sighed, standing up and looking out to the open window, where Kit and Ruby were still out there playing with something that glinted in the sunlight. "What do I do, Qrow? If I do anything to make him safer, he'll start asking questions. Questions that I don't know if I'm ready to answer, or ever want to."

Qrow stood up and put a hand on Tai's shoulder. "I can't tell you what to do. Hell, I don't even know what to do in your shoes. But whatever you decide to do, I'll be right there with you." The grey-shirted man saw the look in his friend's eyes as he stared out the window at his son, and immediately knew what he was thinking about. "If you do end up telling him, I know he'll understand. Eventually. He knows you're his dad too."

Tai turned his head to Qrow, but whatever he was about to say was immediately cut off by loud yelling coming from the 2nd floor of the house.

"RUUUUBY!!!! KIT!!!! YOU'RE BOTH SOOOOO DEAD!!!"

Outside, the orange-haired twin looked at his black-haired twin as they shared a fearful look. Right away, they turned and ran towards the house.

"DAD! SAVE US!!"

Qrow grinned and Tai just couldn't stop laughing.

There were two things that happened that day.

1) Kit and Ruby found out that you should NEVER mess with your older sister's hair.

2) Yang discovered her semblance