4

It was the middle of the winter, Ruby was sitting on a small foldable chair near the small pond she found in the forest. Hot cocoa in one hand and a magazine about incendiary Dust bullets. Her sister was also there. Ruby still thought that Yang cheated. Her semblance made her seemingly immune to cold so while Ruby had to wear about three layers of clothes Yang could go in a swimsuit. Zwei was also… around. I hope he won't get himself stuck somewhere. Ruby thought as she enjoyed her idyllic afternoon.

"Can you please please explain what exactly you two are doing?"

Asked Tai as he walked up to Ruby.

"An experiment" she answered, her eyes not even leaving the pages of a magazine.

Tai raised an eyebrow and continued to look at Ruby, waiting for some kind of elaboration. After not receiving any for a few seconds, he turned to his other daughter.

"Well, can you explain, why are you inside a half frozen pond, Yang?"

Why did I ever agree to this? Ah, right, Ruby promised to give me a head massage. Who would have known how good her fingers got from all the tinkering with random stuff… Yang thought while standing shoulder deep in water. It was the beginning of January, both of them had winter holidays in their respective schools and were currently spending some sister time. Yang would prefer this time to be spent relaxing at home with some junk food or maybe go have some fun with her friends from Signal but Ruby's puppy eyes convinced her otherwise. Somehow Ruby had found even more ways to tortu- test her semblance. Then she found herself in the middle of a forest with a bag containing her swimsuit and a towel. Ruby then took out her scythe and simply cut a hole in a frozen pond. And now, probably an hour later she was still inside this damned hole. Her scroll was in Ruby's lap for monitoring her aura level. She kept hers activated and Ruby was recording how big of a strain it would be on her. The problem was, she didn't feel any. Oh, she knew the water was cold but it wasn't unbearable or something like that. Ruby wanted her to keep her semblance going but there was no reason to. Should have kept the scroll with me, this is so boring! Ugh. Yang was about to ask Ruby to throw her the scroll but then she saw Taiyang making his way through the trees. WHAT? Why is he here? I have a free day! I'm not being his punching bag again! And I won't let Ruby use me for target practice! I'm already doing this idiocy because of her. Yang was so absorbed in her fears, that she almost missed the question directed at her.

"-inside a half frozen pond, Yang?"

She took a second to calm herself and to come up with a decent answer. "Ehm, well… Ruby wanted to see if my semblance would work in the cold, or something like that?" She said uncertainly. It was Ruby's idea, not hers, the whole, probably crazy, science part was her sister's fault.

"I see…" Tai responded evenly "and what are the results?" He expectantly looked at Ruby.

Ruby put down her magazine and opened Yang's scroll. "After fifty minutes Yang's aura is still full, there was a bit of a drop when she first went in but she already regained it back. Her body temperature is currently 113 degrees, well within normal." Ruby fired off her notes and looked at her father. "Do you think they will let us use an industrial freezer?"

Yang's eyes widened in alarm. If she puts me in a room with dead frozen cows, I'm leaving the island! Tai just looked confused before signing "Let's just go home, the lunch is almost ready."

-BBW-

BANG

I will never get a proper sleep anymore, will I? Yang slowly rose from the bed and walked to a window to see what the noise was.

BANG

This one was a bit quieter. She looked out of the window but the only thing she could see was a shadow of someone standing behind a corner of the house. The shadow was too small to be Tai's, and it clearly had a cape so it left her little sister as the only culprit.

BANG

This one was the loudest of the three. Yang made her way downstairs and walked out outside. She passed Taiyang's bedroom, of course it was empty. Another shot was fired in the meantime.

"Ruby, do you have to make all this noise at 11pm?"

Who the hell is in charge of the storage maintenance?! I had to spend four hours making sure they were ready! Hmm, this one is good, but maybe a bit too small for grimm, maybe it is for now. Ruby put a still smoking .357 pistol on her 'maybe' pile. The largest one so far was a 'no' pile, where she put everything she thought too weak to reliably hit grimm, mostly low calibres. So far on her 'yes' pile were a .44 revolver and a .50 cartridge handgun. Today Ruby went to the storage housing weapon for Signal. Usually one would need to be a student to get access to it but having your father and uncle teach there gave her a bit of a leeway. They didn't give her their best stuff, like rifles, grenade launchers or that sad pile of metal that was most likely a broken minigun. Now she just had to go through all of them. She already knew that when her baby would be ready it would be a sniper/scythe hybrid, she may add a sword mode but she may also just carry a shortsword or two around, dual wielding was fun. Also it helped to keep Yang on her toes, two blades against two fists. Regardless, she needed a secondary weapon, her baby would be great in open space but if she had to one day chase some abomination down a cave she would be ready. Or she will just go outside and collapse the whole thing with one or two dust grenades. Now where did I put that wannabe shotgun? Ruby started to rummage through a large bag she carried her borrowed goods in. In the corner of her eye she saw something yellow. She turned around and was met with a disapproving face of her sister. Yang was saying something to her but she couldn't hear a word through her safety headphones. Completely unnecessary thing, aura would do the trick too and it wouldn't make her head and neck hurt. But she promised to follow the proper safety list… At least now she can remove them for some time.

"Sorry Yang, you were saying something?" She asked nonchalantly.

"Yes! I wanted to know, why, for brothers sake, are you making all this noise in the middle of the night?!" Yang said. Clearly a bit angry.

"Well… they let me borrow this only for today so I will have to return it tomorrow."

"And you couldn't do it at, I don't know, anytime else?!"

"But they were so dirty! And not oiled! I had to make sure they were okay to use!"

Yang took a quick look around. "Whatever, are you done now?"

"What? No! I only found two good ones!"

"You only have two hands, why would you need more?"

"But what about-"

"No buts, I'm using big sister privileges! Clean up and go to bed! And no sneaking off to hunt grimm!"

Ruby looked absolutely appalled. Not only did Yang take away her guns but she also forbade her to go and get her cardio! Thankfully, she still had one last card to play!

"Nope, no, I'm not looking, my eyes are closed so stop trying and get going!" Yang said as she started to walk back inside. Ruby was certain that her pout would once more save her but it seemed that her sister finally found a way to fight back. When she got to her room ten minutes later she saw that Yang was waiting for her inside.

"Are you going to read me a story?!" She asked, voice full of hope. It may be a bit childish but Yang had a great voice and she would always use the best tone to emphasize the story beats. She hoped that maybe her sister wanted to bring back their little tradition.

Yang rolled her eyes at Ruby's antics and patted her on the head.

"Maybe some other time sis, just wanted to make sure you'd come to sleep here and not in the garage again." Yang answered, still standing near Ruby's bed, waiting for her sister to settle down.

I'll hold you to that! Ruby was a bit disappointed but went to change into her pajamas anyway.

"When did you get all of these? If you raided the place at night, why didn't you invite me?" Yang smirked and pointed at the slightly over encumbered bag of weaponry Ruby left near the door.

"Today after school when I was waiting for you to be done with yours."

"And they just gave you a few dozen small arms?"

"Well duh. We already knew each other! They always give me scrap and spares when I'm making something on my own! They are always super nice about it too!"

"Right… seems today spares just weren't enough, huh."

"Not really, they just don't have what I need…"

Yang paused a bit and thought what got her little sister down so suddenly. "You still trying to build that weird rifle?"

"Yeah, but… it's unfinished! The blueprints I mean. The dust ratio is weird and metalwork is all over the place! It's like they took a gun that was meant for a tank and tried to scale it down. It just doesn't work! Too many small parts that will get damaged when used. I tried to redo it but I don't have enough things to build a decent prototype to see if I'm right." Ruby finished her tirade and plopped down on the bed.

"Uncle Qrow was the one who gave it to you, right? Why not ask him, maybe there is more where it came from." Yang tried to be helpful.

"I already tried!" Ruby moaned into her pillow "he said, that due an 'accident' he isn't allowed there anymore."

"Probably got drunk and pissed somebody off" Yang laughed it off.

"Yeah.." Ruby gave her a weak smile.

"Hey, don't dwell on it too much. Make your weapon a bit simpler. You can always upgrade it later."

"Mhm, recoil would blow off my shoulder anyway…"

"And here we have it! Cheer up sis. You will get to Signal soon and show off there!"

Ruby smiled properly now and then yawned. "Thanks Yang, I think I'll go to sleep now."

"No problem Rubes, good night" Yang then kissed Ruby on the forehead and headed back to her own room. She was right. Only a bit more than a year before she will enroll at Signal academy. The normal school was so boring. Going to a normal school with an unlocked aura also brought a lot of headaches. Somebody was always watching her every move. Use a semblance? Detention. Get into a fight? Suspension. Doesn't even matter who was at fault. Dad tried to explain that she was stronger than other kids now and that she should be careful not to hurt them unintentionally. PE was also a bad joke, others would drop off because of exhaustion or drown in sweat while she barely broke any. She didn't know how to survive one more year. Although… I'm already friends with staff and dad and druncle Qrow are both teachers… As Ruby was falling asleep a plan formed that if successful would save her plenty of troubles.

-BBW-

"I can't believe it worked! This is the best day of my life!" Ruby was jumping around the living room cheering. Every few seconds she would unconsciously slip into her semblance and dash a few feet. Somehow all the windows and walls were so far undamaged.

"I can't believe it either, sis." Yang was… unsure how to feel. Ruby somehow got into signal essentially a year early. Yeah she would turn twelve soon after enrolling but… why didn't I think of that! Don't get her wrong. She was happy for her sister and she would like to spend some time with her. Their evening sessions slowly faded out some time ago. Ruby coped with nightly grimm hunts and Yang had enough on her own plate to indulge Ruby's every plea. When did we have our last spar anyway? Shortly after Rubes figured out her semblance. Hah, suckers will learn how it feels to fight the little cheat. Sparring with Ruby was… aggravating for Yang. More often than not Ruby would just stay away and shoot at her with whatever firearm she could get her hands on. When she got close things somehow got even more annoying. Ruby was yet to figure out a proper way to fight with a scythe and her occasional use of shortswords was something she could deal with but her semblance made it all a height of frustration. Ruby wasn't able to score any meaningful hits on her but every single time Yang wanted to strike back, Ruby would just dash away in a swirl of petals. Yang technically won the spar because Ruby got tired after using her semblance so much but it barely felt like a victory.

"Just to be clear sis, you didn't point a gun at anybody to get in, right?"

"What?! Of course not! Who do you think I am?"

"My awkward, weapon obsessed little sister?"

"I'm not that awkward… I just don't have many things to talk about with people… weapons are easier to deal with."

"Sure they are." Yang rolled her eyes at Ruby's slightly antisocial tendencies. Maybe now that she gets to a combat school she will find some people to talk with. "Just make sure to study properly, Signal may not be a combat school but you still need to know math, history and other stuff."

Signal wasn't exactly what Ruby expected it to be. Sure, she liked it a lot more then her previous school but it all seemed kind of stale to her. She did love the smithing class, despite her own knowledge on the subject being way above the curriculum. She was also the first one to build her own weapon. Crescent Rose mk.2. A .308 sniper/scythe hybrid. It wasn't what she wanted it to be but she decided to listen to Yang and rebuild it in a few years when she would get all the necessary materials. The Thorns, her secondary close range weapon, were simple shortswords with switchable blades. She wanted to make them from dust but her student budget couldn't cover it and her own allowance was already spent on CR mk.3 parts and tests.

Combat class was… decent, it was run by her dad so that was a definitive plus, although she sometimes felt like she was being coddled. Most problems came from the sparring itself. Her classmates were plainly just so below her, that Ruby feared she might hurt them too much if she let loose. Their footwork was for the most part below average. Some of them clearly only started training after enrolling and it showed. Most of them treated the whole huntsmen aspect of the curriculum as a joke.

The rest of the subjects were a blur of hunting-wise meaningless activities.

She didn't have any friends in her class, despite her efforts to befriend some of them. The only one who she sometimes had a proper conversation with was a son of a smith. He was… not entirely terrible at combat, but his talents and interests were in crafting, not fighting. Even then, their relationship was mostly cordial, sharing tips here and there and occasionally discussing the newest trends.

I hope something interesting happens, maybe they will take us to a forest so everyone could at least know what a grimm looks like…

-BBW-

What is this all about? Yang was quite confused when their entire class was told that today's survival class was canceled and they all should go to the sparring arena. She got even more confused upon her arrival when she saw that the place was filled with first year kids. She started looking over the crowd, searching for a bright red cloak. Soon she found her sister standing on the side, looking as confused as everyone else. She started walking towards her when Tai walked up to the middle of the arena.

"Attention everybody! Settle down and listen up. It is clear that some of you only started training after getting to this school. To mitigate this issue we will hold a series of tournament style matches to showcase how the sparring should look like! First years, stay in your places. Third years, come here and I'll pair you up."

So… the kids don't know what they are doing, huh? No wonder Ruby was complaining all the time. Yang finally made eye contact with her sister and gave her a smile and a wink. Ruby smiled back and nodded. She was about to get a free show. Hmm, should I go easy so they don't get scared or go ham and show it, what's it all about… decisions decisions.

By some miracle her class managed to make a somewhat orderly line in front of her old man and they were quickly paired up. Some were sent back to the seats, the ones who were either underperforming in the class or those who had more aggressive fighting style. If he sends me away I'm going to tell Rubes to use his bed as a target practice!

"Hey Yang, can you please go to the back, I have something special in mind for the end so wait there please."

Eh?

-BBW-

It was extremely boring. She already saw her classmates spar dozens of times and it was clear that some of them barely even tried. She could have definitely brought some spark to it all, but NO, she had to sit back and wait for whatever Tai had come up with. Where was he anyway? Shouldn't he be watching over the matches? She looked around and found him standing near the first year's seats. Her sister was unsurprisingly gone from her previous place. Probably slipped away when nobody was looking. Yang wondered a little why her sister left, matches were boring but the weapon nut that was Ruby wouldn't miss a chance to see more different things.

The last match finally ended and it was time for Tai's grand finale. Yang retrieved her weapons a long time ago and her fists were itching to be used.

"And now for the last match. My two little girls, Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose, come to the stage."

That's it! For this 'little girl' bullshit I'll feed you my shoe!