18

Chapter 18 Chapter Text

Chapter Seventeen

Warning: Contains Handholding

***

Ruby Rose kinda wished she was facing off against a horde of Beowolves. Maybe two of them. With some Ursa on the side.

If that was the case, then at least she'd know what she was doing.

Instead she was standing in the middle of a plaza in Vale, right next to a statue of some guy who was probably dead a long time ago, and was fidgeting in her combat boots while the sun baked her head.

It was, in the end, probably all Yang's fault.

Taiyang was super against the idea, but Yang and Uncle Qrow conspired behind his back and the next thing Ruby knew she was being shoved into some clothes that Yang swore up and down 'looked really cute' and then was made to walk over to the plaza.

So there she was. One Ruby Rose, almost abandoned by her family if it wasn't for the glimpses of bright yellow hair she caught through the crowd every so often and the faint scent of booze that not even a hundred pedestrians could mask. Dressed in jeans that had been cut off way too short and a red t-shirt, the only holdover from her combat uniform her boots and hood.

At least she still had Crescent Rose strapped to her back.

She was just wondering if Akelarre had maybe cancelled and decided that she had better things to do than waste time with Ruby (and why was it that the thought had made her sad, she should be happy about it!) when she spotted a white figure moving through the crowd.

The way Akelarre moved was... weird. Maybe she didn't notice last time because they were in her home and she wasn't paying attention, but in a crowd like the one around the plaza, Akelarre's motions felt off. Not enough that anyone not looking would notice, but still off. She moved like some of those early model Atlas robots did. It was like watching a stop motion video. Akelarre never had to look to slow down or speed up to avoid all the people walking past her.

Then she was standing before Ruby and any intelligent thought she had fled. "Uh," Ruby started on a high note. "Hi?"

Akelarre's hood moved back as if of its own accord to reveal her mouth and just a hint of her red eyes. "Hello, Ruby," she said.

"So, um, hi!" she said, then wanted to bash her head into the statue behind her because she had already said that.

Akelarre just gave her a small smile and tilted her head to one side. "Are you okay?"

Ruby nodded her head so hard her hair almost went flying. "I'm fine. Perfectly alright. A-okay-dokey. Everything is great."

Her sorta-kinda-maybe friend blinked at her. "Alright then," she said. "So, I didn't really draw up much of a plan, and I don't know Vale really well. Did you have somewhere you wanted to go?"

Ruby took a deep breath and then said the first thing that came to mind. "This isn't a date!"

A bunch of people stopped in their tracks as if a bubble of condensed mortification had formed around Ruby and everyone who heard just had to stop and stare. She felt all of her blood rushing to her face all at once.

It was definitely Yang's fault.

"O-okay?" Akelarre said. "I didn't think it was going to be a date anyway?" she asked. Ruby wanted to know why that had been a question. It shouldn't have been a question. Had Yang infected Akelarre too?

"G-good. Because it isn't."

'Okay."

"Yeah."

Akelarre looked around as the crowd kept on doing crowd things, then shrugged. "Want something to drink?"

"Yeah, I could use something to drink," Ruby said. "But not alcohol."

"Wouldn't that be against the law in the first place?"

It was Ruby's turn to blink dumbly. "There are laws for that?"

Akelarre shrugged. "It doesn't seem smart to give alcohol to minors. At least, that's what I was told. I think." She started walking towards the edge of the plaza where a couple of mobile booths had been placed and where bored teenagers were selling hot dogs and slushies with the sort of enthusiasm Ruby had when doing her homework.

They reached the end of the line and both of them ordered the same thing. Ruby was elated when Akelarre let her pay for her slushie and then handed over a few lien for her own. If Akelarre didn't pay for her meal then it wasn't really a date. That's how it worked in the books she didn't steal from under Yang's bed.

"Now what?" she asked between sips of ice-cold sugar water.

"Hrm," Akelarre said, straw in mouth as she looked around them. "You said you liked weapons a lot, right?"

Ruby gave her friend every ounce of her sugar-fueled attention.

"Do you know any shops around here? I don't actually have any weapons at all except for my little friends and I don't think using them in public is a good idea."

"I know all the places," Ruby declared. She pointed to the far end of the plaza where the best shops were and started walking. She had only taken three steps when she felt a cool hand slip into hers. Ruby's entire body locked up and if it wasn't for the hand tightening she might have tripped and lost her slushie. "W-what are you doing?" she asked, gaze fixed on the pale fingers intertwined with her own.

"I don't want to lose you in the crowd," Akelarre said without a hint of guile.

"O-oh okay," Ruby said. Yang did that kind of thing too sometimes. It was perfectly okay. Totally platonic.

She stared ahead and didn't look at all the couples walking by hand in hand. And she pointedly ignored the familiar voice that squealed, "My sister lost her handginity!"

The shop she brought Akelarre to was a huge building just off one of the main roads in Vale. Blood Bath and Beyond wasn't just a store that sold weapons, it was the store. It towered five stories up with windows behind which huge, high-resolution pictures of guns, mechashift weapons and mannequins in combat gear stood. It was Ruby's favourite place to go window shopping for new ideas on how to improve her baby.

They walked into the front door and Ruby paused to take in a deep breath through her nose. Gunpowder, Dusts of every sort, oil. It smelled like what she imagined heaven was like.

"Hello young Misses," a smooth voice said off to their side. The man was tall and dressed in a well tailored suit, the store's logo on a pin stuck to his lapel. He smiled at the pair of them. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"No, we're just looking," Ruby said. She could almost see the slump in the man's shoulder at that. She hoped that they wouldn't be kicked out of the store for 'being too enthusiastic' and 'not buying a damned thing' like last time.

"I actually need some weapons, but we haven't figured out what sort yet," Akelarre came to her rescue.

"Take as much time as you need, Miss," the clerk said with a wave towards the depth of the store. "If you need anything at all, you have but to ask."

Akelarre smiled and pulled Ruby deeper into the store. Walls of guns, racks of magazines, tubes filled to the brim with weapons-grade Dust of every colour. Prebuilt weapons from three dozen different manufacturers.

Ruby licked her lips before she drooled all over the floor like an overly excited Zwei. "Okay, okay, so what kind of weapon do you need?" she asked.

"Hrm," Akelarre said. "I think I would like a knife," she said.

"Awesome, follow me!" Ruby pulled Akelarre along, the older girl giggling as she jogged to keep up, hand still firmly in Ruby's grip as they raced to the end of the floor then up an escalator to the melee weapons section.

They crossed rows of polearms and swords and war hammers before arriving in a section with floor-to-ceiling displays of knives. Ruby let go of Akelarre's hand, her own just a little sweaty from the contact, and raced forwards to point out different styles of knives and their pros and cons.

If things didn't work out and she couldn't become a huntress, then Ruby was going to live here. And maybe she could even get a job selling weapons and weapon accessories.

Akelarre settled on a very simple mechashift knife that could turn into a sort of baton, the cover folding into the handle and the base and coming out with a snap to reveal a wickedly sharp single-edged blade. It wasn't the coolest knife in the store, but Akelarre said that she liked simple weapons because they weren't as likely to break.

Ruby knew that Akelarre was new to Vale, so she allowed the heresy against proper mechashift weapons to pass.

"So do we bring this to a counter?" Akelarre asked as she hefted the knife again.

"Nope," Ruby said as she took the knife from Akelarre's hand and placed it back on the rack. She pulled out her scroll and connected to the store's network, then scanned the plate next to the knife. Detailed information about it appeared on her screen with a 'Buy' button at the bottom. "See? That way you don't need to bring tons of lien into the store. It even looks like they slashed the price on that model," she said. Shoulder Yang gave her a high-five.

"Ah, okay," Akelarre said. She pulled out her own scroll (a top of the line and brand new hunter model, Ruby noticed) and scanned the knife the same way Ruby had. She then fiddled with her scroll for a moment before smiling at Ruby. "Okay, so I paid for it with the money Cinder gave me. Now what?"

"Now they'll have it in a box by the entrance for you. Unless you want them to ship it somewhere. I guess if you buy a lot of things that would make more sense."

Akelarre hummed. "I think I like this system," she said. "Did you need anything else in the store?"

"No, not really," Ruby said, but she started looking at all the shiny weapons around them anyway.

"Did you want to go look at parts for, uh, her name is Crescent Rose, right?"

Ruby squirmed on the spot, then gave in and nodded. "That would be really cool."

Grinning, Akelarre stepped past Ruby and started making her way up one floor, Ruby hot on her heels.

And then they were in heaven.

Barrel modifications, mechashift components, firing mechanisms and huge displays showing off the newest and greatest trends for hunter type weaponry. Ruby zipped from one display to another, a trail of rose petals in her wake.

She stopped before one display in particular. Floating in a field created by two gravity Dust emitters was a C41 Timberbeowolf Night and Day Optics System. The scope spun lazily in a circle, its wide lens glinting in the multitude of lights embedded into the bulletproof display case.

"What's that?" Akelarre asked.

Ruby wiped her chin. "That, is Remnant's most advanced optics and fire control system."

"It's a scope?" Akelarre asked.

Ruby gasped. "It's not just a scope. That's like, like calling Crescent Rose just a gun. No, that's an optics system. Voice activated zoom with pre-programmable settings, full night time capabilities, anti-glare systems on the main screen, a wireless display system that can send real time footage of any shot you take to a paired scroll. It has night vision, heat vision, x-ray vision, Grimm vision and normal sights. It can track moving targets, assign priorities, and has a built-in communications suite that can track how much ammunition is left in your gun's magazine. It can be coupled to an ammo changer system to fire custom rounds. You just need to name the kind of bullet you want to fire and it switches it automatically. It has an in-built AI that can learn from its user. It even has wifi."

"So it's a very good scope?" Akelarre sounded a little overwhelmed, as she should be in the presence of such magnificence.

Ruby huffed. "It's the best. It's built in Atlas, but was designed by a team of Remnant's best marksman over the course of two decades. It's the culmination of an entire series of really, really good scopes. I have a C20 on my baby and it's already super good. With this, you could aim and hit the eye of a Beowolf, from three thousand meters away, while jumping off a Bullhead. With a throwing knife." She swallowed. "No offence?"

"None taken," Akelarre said. She swiped her scroll at the barcode below the scope and its statistics appeared on the screen. Ruby leaned forwards to read them. Then Akelarre swiped up and touched the 'buy' button with her thumb.

Ruby's entire body froze like when Yang had used up all the hot water cleaning her hair. "Whaa?"

The scroll's screen flashed as a 'Transaction Accepted' appeared.

"There, you can pick it up by the door, right?"

"You can't just buy that! Y-you don't even have a gun!" Ruby cried out.

Akelarre blinked. "But it's not for me. It's for you."

"No!"

"You don't want it?"

"No."

"I can give it back, I'm sure they'll refund me." Akelarre made to pull out her scroll again.

Ruby placed both hands over Akelarre's scroll, the action entirely reflexive. "... No?"

Akelarre wrapped Ruby in a quick, tight hug, pressing the young girl's very red face against the nook of her neck. When she pulled back it was with a huge smile, the same sort Yang wore when Ruby did something she thought was cute. "It's okay Ruby, you're a friend and I don't really need the money. It's a gift, no strings attached."

"Thanks," Ruby finally said with her shoulders hunched and her fingers pressed into each other before her chest.

Akelarre's grin was infectious. "No problem! So, do you want to go see if we can play with it right away?"

Ruby was by the front check-out counter in the time it would take the average person to blink twice. Akelarre arrived a few moments later, stifling a giggle behind the long sleeves of her shirt.

The man who was at the door earlier was all smiles as he checked Akelarre's scroll then procured two boxes for them. One was rather plain and had a picture of Akelarre's mechashift knife-baton, the other was a flat black case with stainless clasps and the word 'C41' embossed into its hard plastic sides. Ruby took it with the reverence she would use for lifting up a newborn puppy.

"Where to next?" Akelarre asked as she started towards the front.

Ruby hugged her case to her chest, cheek rubbing against its top. "Anywhere you want to go!" She beamed up at the taller girl. "Thank you so much. My baby is going to look fantastic with this."

"No problem," Akelarre said before patting Ruby on the head. She pouted, but at that moment Akelarre could have mentioned that she lived off a diet of kittens and Ruby would have been nice to her anyway.

Not that she had been bought. No one bought Ruby Rose, daughter of Summer Rose! She was unbuyable, no matter how totally awesome the gifts were.

"Oh hey, the bakery three doors down just pulled some cookies from their oven." Ruby stared at Akelarre for a moment. How has she known? Was it a semblance? Were all Grimm able to feel the goodness that was fresh cookies from afar? Or did Akelarre have a really good nose?

She shrugged. Akelarre had been nothing but super nice so far. Grimm didn't buy people presents or bait people with freshly baked cookies. And if they started to do that, then she would be in a world of trouble.

The sun was just past its zenith when they stepped outside. Akelarre pulled her hood down lower and Ruby squinted.

There was a man blocking their path. Tall, with scruffy hair and a scruffy unshaven face with gaunt eyes. He had a sword in one hand and a flask in the other. "Stop right there," he growled.

Akelarre paused and Ruby did the same right next to her.

Uncle Qrow pointed his sword in Akelarre's direction. "You're coming with me," he said.

"Um," Akelarre began. "No?"

Uncle Qrow spat on the ground, then looked towards Ruby. "Plan's done for, back away from the Grimm."

Akelarre's hand shot out and touched Ruby on the shoulder before she stepped between her and Uncle Qrow. "Ruby, how about you go to that bakery? I'll be with you in a moment."

"I, uh, that doesn't sound like a good idea," Ruby said. Mostly because she was pretty sure Uncle Qrow was about to do something stupid. Again.

"Ruby, she's not your friend, she's just trying to use you."

Akelarre's shoulders tensed and she reached into her cloak to slowly pull out her scroll.

Qrow scoffed. "Are you going to call some reinforcements, girl?"

Akelarre shook her head. "I'm calling the police."

There was a beat of silence and both Qrow and Ruby said "what" at the same time.

"A man who--" Akelarre sniffed-- "smells like alcohol is threatening two girls with a weapon in the middle of a packed street. It seems pretty clear cut to me."

Ruby and Qrow both looked around and Ruby felt the blood draining from her face. There were... a lot of people watching.

"But I'm not threatening Ruby!" Qrow said while pointing his sword at her.

A few people in the crowd backed off, but others looked ready to jump in. "You're saying that you're only threatening me?" Akelarre asked.

"Exactly!" Qrow said.

Someone gasped. The crowd moved a little and a pair of men in blue uniforms with VPD badges on moved out from behind some gawkers and started beelining towards Uncle Qrow. They both had their hands on their handguns. "Okay sir, that's enough out of you," one of them said. "Lower the sword sir, there's no need to make this complicated."

"What? Don't arrest me! Arrest her, she's a Grimm!"

Akalarre snorted. "Is it because my eyes are red? I'll have you know that they're like that naturally."

One of the cops eyed them, but he quickly turned back to Uncle Qrow. "Right, I think you've hit the bottle a bit too hard, friend. Come on, there's no need to make this complicated."

As the two officers moved towards a protesting Uncle Qrow, Akalarre grabbed Ruby's hand and started pulling her away. In moments they were between a dozen people, their view of Uncle Qrow completely covered. "Did you know that man?" Akelarre asked.

"Nope," Ruby said.

***

Yang took a step to the left.

The blond girl with the parasol took a step to her right.

Yang took two steps to her right.

The girl with the parasol took two steps to her left. Her pretty little gothic dress swishing with a sound that almost made her think of soft laughter.

Yang's fists closed and a growl escaped her.

The girl with the parasol gave her a winning smile.

Yang took a step to the left...

***

Writing from Ruby's POV is a little strange. She doesn't have the attention to detail that Taylor does and tends to... flit around a lot, for lack of a better word. Anywho, bit of fluff before the plot picks up. I know some were complaining that there was too much fluff (cough, heretics, cough) but once the story picks up the pace there might not be too much opportunity for it.

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven's Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 and eschwartz for doing word things! You're all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone's edification that eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no way crazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven's Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.