A warm house (Ruby's P.O.V)

In a cabin, located in the island of Patch, a little off the coast of Vale.

There lived a happy family, a place that was supposed to be filled with mourning and sadness is now full of warmth and life. All thanks to a timely intervention, of which none of the inhabitants of the cabin are even aware of what could have happened, much less know the identity of their savior.

But such is life, it's only clear how important it is when it has come to an end. Otherwise you just keep pushing forward in ignorant bliss, unaware of the consequence of your actions.

But now, there's no reason to talk about loss or regret.

There's only a heartwarming and very typical story, involving a not so typical family.

|Ruby's P.O.V|

When something is threatening your precious sleep, you will naturally try to somehow defend your well earned peace however you can.

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

"Uhmm..." Firstly, you try to ignore it, hoping that the disturbance will simply lose interest and go away.

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

"Urgh..." Then you try to protect yourself from the relentless assault of noises coming to you, doing your best to maintain the status quo.

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

" Hmmm... I'm up, I'm up." Then finally, you accept that your peace has simply come to an end and reluctantly decide to get out of bed.

That's how I wake up every morning, this battle is simply one that cannot be won.

"Ummm, today is going to be an amazing day!" After a brief stretching, I cheer myself up in preparation for the day ahead.

*Beep* *Beep* *Click*

So then I turn of the alarm that was still blaring and search for my flippers before making my way towards the bathroom.

There, I continue my morning rituals by brushing my teeth and washing my face to deal with all the remaining sleepiness.

So, now 100% awake and ready, I make my way downstairs. Today was a weekend, so I could take things at a very leisurely pace. Not needing to prepare myself to go to school being the main reason.

After making my way to the dinning room, I could already see two people sitting at the table.

They're mom and Dad.

Mom is a super awesome huntress for a job and a housewife when she's at home. Dad meanwhile is a teacher at Signal, the combat school that we have here in Patch.

This is our usual morning routine, mom would make breakfast for everyone and dad would help her as well, after the table was set, everyone would eat together before going to our own compromises. Mom would go take a mission and dad would take us to school before going to Signal to work.

But speaking of which, it seemed that there was one person missing from the table. Which is unusual since I'm usually the last to wake up on weekends.

"Oh, good morning rosebud. Have you already brushed your teeth?" Mom turns to me, probably having heard my footsteps with her great senses.

"Yeah..."

"Then come in, the breakfast is almost ready."

"Umhm, Where's everyone else?" After humming an answer, I look around trying to find the people that are missing.

Who answers my question is dad, which was setting the table "Your uncle is sleeping, more like blacked-out drunk on the couch of the living room, while your sibling must still be sleeping in his room."

"Really? I can understand uncle but waking up later than me isn't something that I'd expect from him."

"Who knows, maybe he used up all his battery yesterday when he was playing with his friends." Dad says, finding some relief in the idea.

"That's unlikely, it's him we're talking about. It's probably just a coincidence." Mom then intervenes, not feeling so sure of the idea.

My younger sibling can really be a handful sometimes. Compared to him, I could be said to have been a saint when I was his age.

"But at least he didn't go mess with parts on the garage or play with knives when we're not looking, in this aspect he is much better than Ruby at his age."

'Lies! I can't remember any of it, so it doesn't count. Where's the evidence? They have no proof!' I inwardly shouted in defiance.

But externally, I could only blush and hung my head low hearing those words.

When I was little, especially until I was about 2 years old, thanks to mother's constant absence and father's need to go to work, I had to be left in the care of my uncle or of a hired babysitter when he was away. So thanks to the lack of supervision, I apparently became quite uncontrollable at home and would constantly get into trouble.

Maybe because I didn't really have a sibling or someone to play with, I would feel very lonely and would use this mischief in order to get their attention and make them spend more time with me.

But later, Mom decided (was forced to) take a brake from her work and spend more time at home. I had always admired her as a personal hero and knew that her work was super important to her, but it would be a lie if I said that I wasn't happy when I heard that I could spend more time with her from then on.

Eating her food, hearing stories before bed, feeling her embrace whenever I was sad and even her nagging were things that I didn't even knew I was missing before that point.

I even got a younger sibling a few years later and a cute Corgi that I named Zwei. I can say with absolute certainty that loneliness was something that I was a complete stranger to from that point on.

"Ruby, could you go call your uncle and brother for me? The breakfast is almost ready." Mom said with her usual smile.

"Fiiiiine."

Well, this is something I'm already used to doing in my uncle's case anyway.

So I slowly walked towards were my uncle was at, I would have liked to dash there but I was prohibited from using my semblance inside the house.

The good thing about having two huntsman as your parents is that I get to have my aura unlocked before the other kids and some early training to boot.

Most children can only have their aura unlocked when they're 10, since that's the age where you can enter combat schools, but I'm 8 and already had my aura unlocked a month ago, my semblance was discovered just a few days after.

They probably did this so I could be safer, having a barrier to protect me at all times was something that could bring my parents a lot of peace of mind, especially when the one watching me over is my Uncle.

Speaking of which, I quickly arrived at the living room. Now having to witness a very common sight.

Uncle Qrow or Druncle as I like to call him, laying on the couch while hugging a bottle in his sleep. His posture is uncomfortable just to watch, he's sprawled on the couch with no regard to his back or neck. But I think that it isn't a problem for someone with aura to deal with.

But more uncomfortable than the sight is the smell, it is a very strong smell of cheap booze and something tells me that he didn't take a bath before blacking-out on the couch.

But the sloppy appearance that he's showing can be very misleading, he's a badass huntsman through and through, just like mom and dad. In fact, they were all part of a team once.

He's also been my caretaker for a good part of my infancy (despite his semblance) and currently he's been training me whenever he stopped by.

For me, mom will always be number one and dad a close second. But I have to admit that uncle's weapon is pretty cool, so one day when I finally become a huntress, I will build a weapon like his.

So after pestering him every day, he accepted to do some very basic training, mostly revolved in allowing me to use my semblance without bumping into everything in my path, the progress have been very slow and I got laughed at many times after running straight into a tree, but there's still progress.

I can't wait until I can finally start receiving some real training when I'm 10.

But focusing back into the task ahead, I carefully aproach him, thinking about how should I go about waking him up.

It's something I have done numerous times, but it's never something easy to do.

"Uncle Qrow, wake up!" I softly shake his shoulder.

"zzz..." But he doesn't respond.

"Uncle Qrow, come on wake up!" So I then pat him on the cheek while increasing my voice.

"Uhmm, Summer I wasn't the one who spent the money, I swear. zzz..." Uncle mumbles something in his sleep but shows no signs of waking up.

"I said. Wake up!" Finally confirming that uncle was not going to wake up with normal means this time, I pull on his ear and shout at it directly.

"Ugh... Just 10 more minutes Rae." This seems to have pulled him from a deep sleep but couldn't fully wake him up.

But it made me quite curious about who is it he's talking about.

'Who is this 'Rae' he's sometimes mumbling about. This seems to be a nickname so I guess that they must have been quite close and if I'd also guess, then she's the woman that was on the photo with mom, dad and uncle.'

Since the name of their team was STRQ, and the only letter missing is the 'R', I have concluded that 'Rae' must be the missing member of their team.

...

Ruby can be said to have always been a curious and adventurous girl, so it isn't surprising that she has explored everything on the house and naturally came into contact with many things that she wasn't meant to.

Even as a child, she could guess that the woman on the photo was a taboo for the three of them. It was kinda hard not to, especially when whenever she asked any of them about it, they would make complicated faces and respond with: "She's gone." and "I don't know."

But she's sure that this person isn't dead, the expression on them varied from rage, betrayal, melancholy or longing. But never as loss or deep sadness like in one of the funerals she once went to, for people here on the island.

So she never questioned them again about it. Just kept it in mind for when she got the opportunity to discover herself later.

...

"You leave me with no other option." Having made up my mind, I could only resort to my last weapon.

I quickly go to the kitchen and fetch a glass of very cold water, as I'm doing so. I can hear giggles coming from mom while dad does a dry chuckle. None of them try to stop me from what I'm about to do.

With the glass of water in hand, I stand before him with making a solemn expression.

'Trust me uncle, I didn't want it to come to this.'

With a brief apology, I poured it all into his head.

"Aaaargh?! What the hell?" He quickly jumped up from the couch, his huntsman instincts kicking in and making him immediately adopt a combat ready stance.

"You used a swear word, I'm going to tell mom."

"Huh? It is you pipsqueak, did you really need to go that far?"

"But you just wouldn't get up otherwise."

"Then you could have just left it alone, I'm not a morning person anyway."

"But it was mom that asked me to wake you up, breakfast is almost ready."

"Summer? Then I suppose it can't be helped." Hearing those few words, all dissatisfaction was completely erased from Uncle's face and he obediently made his way to the dining room, he probably doesn't dare to disobey mom since she was his former leader, I heard she beat him up a lot when they were at Beacon to keep him in line.

With half of the task done, I move on to finish the last part.

Getting up to the top floor, I move towards my brother's room. It is right across from mine so I just have to make the same walk I would to return to my room.

Reaching his door, I decide that just knocking at it and calling him would be enough to wake him up.

*Knock* *Knock* "Haaaanzo, are you awake?"

My little brother's name is Hanzo Xiao-Long, but what he takes from father isn't just the surname, while I'm more like mom in appearance, Hanzo takes a lot from dad with the exception of having the same silver eyes as me and mom, but the blond hair and facial structure were definitely gotten from him.

His personality is very active, my parents say that he's: 'a person of actions instead of words', so he's always looking for something to do and in the end of the day he seems to have a near infinite amount of energy.

He's also quite susceptible to getting into fights, not because he can't control his temper, but simply because he seems to enjoy it, I already have a headache just to think what troubles he'll get himself into once he grows older.

But ever since I got my brother, it's apparent that I've been gradually becoming more responsible and autonomous. Or at least that's what I've heard mom and dad saying about me, but it can't be helped, now I have to be responsible for both myself and for him as well whenever our parents aren't at home.

We are 4 years apart, he was born a bit after mom started to stay at home longer. I was four at that time and can remember being absolutely elated to know that I would be an older sister.

And I still like it very much, though a handful at times, my little brother is just too cute I can't help indulging him just a little bit (dotting older sister). My parents say I'm spoiling him rotten but, did they see the look he gives me? It's like retribution for all the times I used it on my Uncle.

Then, shortly after calling, I heard a response from inside the room.

"Comiiiing~" I hear a cute voice, responding by dragging out the words with a sleepy tone.

After hearing a bit of shuffling from inside, the door opened to reveal the last person that was missing from our family.

He's even smaller than her, with chubby and very pinchable cheeks, his blond hair currently very messy from having just woken up and silver eyes being only half opened, he's currently wearing a very comfortable pajama with long sleeves and fluffy slippers.

Suffice it to say, The youngest of the house is giving a completely different vibe from his usual very energetic and adventurous personality.

But I just save this image in mind and proceed to my usual 'older sister routine'. It's been 4 years but I'm still not tired of referring to myself as such, even in my mind.

"Good morning." He says as he briefly stretches his body.

"Good morning, little brother. You must have still not brushed your teeth yet, am I right? Come on, the breakfast must be ready." He's already been taught how to brush his own teeth, so he's been doing this on his own for some time.

"Hmmm." He just humms to my question, which tells me that he didn't and isn't very eager to.

"To the bathroom you go then! I'm going to be watching so you better brush well." I say taking his little hand and leading him to the bathroom, doing this kind of thing has already become a second nature to me.

"Mmmkay." He let's out something between a quiet hum and an affirmation, despite being so energetic and sometimes getting into trouble, he's not disobedient and usually listens to me well. That's the reason that mom and dad can every now and then trust me to look after him.

So with my little brother in hands, I take him to the bathroom and wait for him to finish there before taking him to the dining room table where everyone was waiting.

"Little Rose, little Dragon, come and sit. There's a wonderful day ahead of us." Mom says cheerfully.

Uncle Qrow in comparison isn't faring very well, his head is currently planted on the table, probably having to deal with the hangover.

Dad seems very calm, but from where we are standing, we can see him moving from under the table and sneakily giving some treats to Zwei despite being the one that told us not to give him anything other than his dog food.

So we both go to the table and sit next to each other, I sit next to mom and he sits next to dad that are both at the ends of the table with uncle being opposite to us.

But while we're eating, mom suddenly looks towards us with a mischievous smile and says:

"The two of you can look forward to today, I decided to prepare something special." Mom suddenly says, raising our expectations while denying us more information. She must be doing this on purpose in order to see our reaction.

But both me and Hanzo started drooling just thinking about her cooking, so it's safe to admit that she's succeeded in what she wanted to do.

"How's going your schoolwork going Ruby? You've left nothing over for the weekend I hope." Dad then raises a completely different topic, but something not completely unexpected coming from him considering he's a teacher.

In response, I turn my gaze away and pretend that I didn't hear what he just said.

"Ruby, I always tell you to finish your schoolwork before the weekend, so I think you should know better by now." Dad, says with a stern expression.

"But it's the beginning of the weekend! Can't I just do it later?" I can't resist telling him.

"We both know what this 'I'll do it later' always results in. You'll finish it all by the end of today, otherwise I'm confiscating your Scroll." With these lasts words, he finishes the conversation leaving no room for rebuke on my part.

So with no way to stand against this tyranny, I continue eating breakfast with a slightly more sour mood.

...

Many hours later, Ruby can be seen in her room dealing with all her unfinished schoolwork.

"Urgh, just why?! Is any of this going to even matter when I become a but-kicking huntress? This is stupid!" Despite all her complaining, she completed all her schoolwork very thoroughly and put quite a bit of effort into it.

There's no helping it, before she might not have given in so easily, but currently having her Scroll taken away is something completely unacceptable to her.

After all, aside from weapons, her mother's cooking and her cute little brother, there's another activity that has managed to garner her interest.

"Woo-hoo! Finally I'm free, I managed to finish everything before it was too late, I haven't even done my free pulls of the day."

Ruby has of late gained a new need, much like her uncle needs his daily dose of alcohol to feed his addiction, she needs to roll the gacha to satisfy her own.

Ruby Rose has caught the gacha fever.

It all started a year ago when one of her schoolmates introduced her a 'fun game' they've been playing. She got curious since she has heard of that game before in some news, thanks to how 'addictive' this game was mainly but nothing about what it actually was about.

So she decided to just give it a try, the game was free afterall, just how much harm could it actually do?

And the first week was an absolute blast, she was progressing and unlocking things at a great pace, the simple and very addictive gameplay was still very fresh and it didn't consume too much of her time.

She was interested in all the characters you could unlock, but more than that she was doing it for all the different guns she could get for her characters. The variety and detail put into each one made it a treat to a gun-nut like her.

But as she went from the 'fun zone' to the 'grind zone', the gameplay started to become a chore in order to get very scarce dopamine spikes with every gacha pull, this is where the changes started happening. She started moving away from being a 'casual' and becoming 'die-hard' player of the game.

At first her parents didn't think much of it, but when her school marks started taking a nosedive as more of her time was dedicated to the game, it became hard not to notice the changes and measures had to be taken.

But they were just a bit too late, as under its malignant influence, she has crossed a line that couldn't be uncrossed. Done something she has never even imagined doing before.

Sweet and innocent Ruby, someone who showed almost inexhaustible kindness and aspired of heroism and justice. Has done the very thing she abhors the most.

After having her will broken by the constant grinding, the temptation of using money too skip it was just too much. And having her uncle passed out in a bar with his wallet completely unprotected proved to be to be the the final straw, even if his wallet was kinda empty already.

When doing it, she justified it to herself with: 'It's not my fault, I've been corrupted by the media! I was instigated by the developer, it's all his fault! All those new weapons being kept just out of my reach, it's like he made the last update while thinking of me, this is a conspiracy!'

After the brief elation, what followed was a enormous wave of guilt, to the point she became physically sick. At that point it was very clear to everyone around her that something was going on.

When she finally couldn't take it anymore, she went to her mother and asked: 'What is this pain that I have in my chest that won't go away no matter what I do?'

And her mother's answer was: 'That's your conscience my dear and unless you free the guilt that you hold in your heart, it won't go away.'

So she went to her uncle and confessed everything with tears in her eyes, but to her surprise he apparently already knew it from the start and didn't appear to be upset about it. He seemed to even respect her cunning and only commented in how sloppy she was while doing it.

So in the end, he didn't even tell anything to her parents and just let it slide. But all her inner turmoil she suffered for several days made her finally decide to make a firm resolve.

'I won't play this game ever again!' Resolve that only lasted a week before she changed it to 'I won't spend money on this game again.'

That ship had already sailed and completely stopping playing would be almost impossible at that point.

So until now, the only gacha she's been doing is the completely free kind. So the daily free pulls are one of her few opportunities to do so.

'Come on! Oum bless my next draw. Give me something nice.'

Sometimes a very simple action that weren't meant to cause changes on the time-line can have unexpected results.

This is something that Jaune would one day come to know.

(AN: Just clarifying a few doubts that the readers might have at the end of this chapter.

1-Yang still exists and next chapter will show her whereabouts, I just wanted this chapter to focus on Ruby and the new sibling.)

2-Hanzo will not replace Yang judging by the fact that he is 6 years younger than most of the main cast and can't attend Beacon.

3-As some might have noticed, Ruby's personality has gone through many changes, that is a result of several aspects such as having her mother survive, having a younger sibling and not having a older sister to rely on, but those changes will become more apparent later.)

(Hope you enjoyed it, next chapter will wrap up all the extras I've planned before the trip in Vacuo.)