9

Chapter Eight

Ruby didn't skip, because she wasn't twelve, but it was a near thing. The trip from the clearing to her home wasn't too long, but it was still a good half hour by foot, especially since she couldn't just use her semblance to zip ahead of Akelarre.

So it was half an hour of chatting with her mysterious new friend. And she was totally a friend, even if she was older (apparently she was nineteen or twenty, Akelarre wasn't sure). And Akelarre was totally awesome. She didn't even complain when Ruby went on a rant about how mechashift weapons were the greatest and how the greatest mechashift weapon was her very own Crescent Rose.

"Ah, here we are," she said as she shoved open the gate. The Xiao-Long-Rose household was just ahead, visible through the sparse trees and trimmed lawn. All around the house there were little plots of tilled earth with colourful spring flowers that were just starting to bloom. "I live here with my sister and my dad. Dad usually comes home later but Yang might be here now."

"No one's home," Akelarre said. "Just a dog."

"How did you know?" she asked. "Was it a Semblance? Can you see through walls-" Ruby paused, mid sentence, and with an 'eep' threw her arms across her chest and lap. "Can you see through my clothes?!"

"No."

Ruby slumped. "Pfew, okay, cool." She moved to the front door and opened it. "You can come in, if you want." She took off her hood and placed it on the coat rack next to the door, then rubbed her boots against the mat just inside a few times to get the mud off. Ruby had gotten one splinter too many from the hardwood floor to go around barefoot. "Keep your boots on, it's okay, I can bro--" Her voice caught in her throat.

Akelarre had lowered her hood, letting the soft white material pool around her neck and freeing a head of hair that was so curly and shiny that it might have made Yang jealous. Those were all the details that she took in at a glance and dismissed almost in the same moment, because the person staring back at her didn't look all that human.

"Uh," Ruby said as she took in the black veins around black eyes with red pupils that were locked onto her. "What nice eyes you have," she said faintly.

"Thank you," Akelarre said.

Ruby looked over her shoulder towards the kitchen. Her plan had been to raid her cookie stash (because dad's rules about only having so many cookies a day didn't count if their guest was having some too, right?) but now she wasn't so sure. "So, uh, make yourself at home?"

"Thank you," Akelarre said as she glided over to the couch and sat down. Ruby saw her looking all over, as if every little detail of their living room was new and interesting. "You have a very nice home," she said.

"Thanks," Ruby said as she moved towards the seat dad usually used by her dad. She flopped down and stared at Akelarre.

Akelarre stared back, red pinpricks boring into Ruby's soul until she squirmed on the spot.

Yang was always going on about making more friends, but her advice was usually about introducing herself, then making small talk. Ruby had already talked about weapons. There wasn't anything left to talk about. She was starting to wish that Yang was there.

"So, your eyes," Ruby said. "Uh, is that because of a faunus thing?"

"No." Akelarre blinked. "It's because I'm a Grimm. Sorta."

Ruby was out of her seat in a flash, Crescent Rose extending into its long rifle form and sights pinned over Akelarre's head in the time it would take a normal person to blink. "Y-you're a Grimm?" Ruby asked. Her finger hovered over the trigger.

"Yes." Akelarre looked at Crescent Rose, then back up to Ruby. "You shouldn't fire a gun inside a house, not unless it's an emergency. You might break something."

"I'm pretty sure this counts as an emergency!" Ruby said.

Akelarre sighed, shoulders slumping. "You are not taking this as well as I would have hoped."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're pointing a gun at me," Akelarre said rather calmly. And compared to every other Grimm Ruby had ever seen that was saying something. "It's very rude."

Ruby huffed. "Yeah, well the Grimm aren't exactly polite, so there."

Akelarre's brows drew together. "You killed a lot of Grimm today. That wasn't very polite either."

"B-but they were Grimm," Ruby said. Grimm were for hunting, that's just how things worked. Everyone at school said they were mindless monsters. "It's what we're supposed to do."

"And the Grimm are supposed to hunt and kill humans. And yet here I am. How would you feel if someone hurt your dog just because they were supposed to?"

"You can't tell me that Beowolves are like Zwei!" Ruby shouted.

"How is it any different?" Akelarre asked.

"B-because Zwei never killed anyone's mom!"

Akelarre went very stiff and Ruby almost pulled the trigger and let fly a heavy armour-piercing round at the Grimm-girl, but then Akelarre looked down and the tension in her shoulders loosened. "I'm sorry," Akelarre said.

"Are, are you really a Grimm?" Ruby asked again because this flew in the face of everything she'd been taught.

"Sorta," Akelarre said.

"Sorta?"

"Yes." Akelarre confirmed. She reached under her cloak and Ruby tensed up, then the Grimm-girl pulled out a tiny white thing that fit in the palm of her hand and showed it to Ruby. She looked almost proud.

"Uh," Ruby said. "Is that a spider?" she asked.

The thing sitting on Akelarre's palm raised one tiny white limb and waved. "Yes," Akelarre said. "He is Mister Spider and he is my favourite." It was a tone she recognized, that of a proud mommy showing off her baby, and the sparkle of mirth in Akelarre's eyes seemed genuine. Ruby probably looked the same when she was talking about Crescent Rose. "Mister Spider is my Grimm. I made him. I control him." The spider started to dance a little jig on her palm.

Ruby lowered Crescent Rose a little. "Why are you here? In Patch, I mean. With... with Mister Spider."

"I was bored."

"Bored of killing people wherever you were before?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

"No. Just normal bored. I never found killing people fun." Akelarre shrugged on shoulder. "The Grimmlands are kinda quiet. Nothing to do but plot the downfall of humanity or read. I wanted to explore a little." She brought her hand back and started to run a finger along the back of the spider Grimm's torso. "You can sit down if you want, I won't hurt you."

"And how would I know that?" Ruby asked.

"Because if I wanted to hurt you, I would have already," Akelarre said. Mister Spider stopped dancing and scuttled up Akelarre's arm to come to a rest on her head. It looked too silly to be threatening.

Ruby slowly, slowly moved back to her seat and sat down. She kept Crescent Rose deployed across her knees, but didn't point it at the Grimm girl. "So, are you like, a really old Grimm that grew smart and then turned into a girl after eating a ton of Huntsmen?"

"No. I never ate anyone before."

Darn, Ruby thought, her Mystrillian cartoons weren't proving very helpful. "Well what are you, then?"

Akelarre stared off into the distance. "I suppose I'm a sort of Grimm Princess."

"A princess." And Yang said she was bad at being deadpan.

Akelarre shrugged. "In the sense that I rule over part of the Grimm, yes."

"Which part?"

"Arthropods."

"You mean Grimm bugs?" Ruby asked. "Grimmsects." The little Yang on her shoulder, the one that was always telling her to play pranks and say silly things, gave her a thumbs up.

Akelarre made a noise that might have been a very weak laugh. Ruby didn't know if she should count that as a win. On the one hand, her kinda-sorta new friend laughed at a joke. On the other, her kinda sorta new friend was a princess of the Grimm and might be plotting to end all life on Remnant.

"How did you become a Grimm princess anyway?" Ruby asked.

"Did you want to become a Grimm princess too?" Akelarre asked.

"What? No!" Well, actually, Beowolves were sorta cute, if you squinted. Maybe she could become the Grimm princess of murder puppies. Or cookies. Wait, no, she was thinking bad thoughts!

"I don't blame you. You seem to have a loving family here already. I don't think you would need the Grimm."

Ruby ran a hand across Crescent Rose. "Why do the Grimm hurt people?" she asked. It felt really silly, a question she'd asked before only to be told that she was being childish, but then, she'd never gotten to ask the question to a Grimm that could answer back.

"Why do humans hurt the Grimm?"

"It, it's not the same!" Ruby said.

Akelarre nodded. "That's true. The Grimm, most of them, are expendable. They have minds but they can hardly think for themselves. They are closer to automatons than living things."

"That doesn't explain why," Ruby said.

Akelarre brought both hands up, fingertips pressing together to form an arch right over her mouth. "It's complicated."

"I have all day," Ruby said. Her grip on Crescent Rose tightened.

"Some things I just can't tell you," Akelarre started. When Ruby felt her face reddening the Grimm girl waved a hand dismissively and shook her head. "Secrets are secrets, Ruby. You can't expect me to just tell you things, especially when you're clearly on the other side. How would you feel if I asked you to betray your family?"

"Fine, I get it," she said.

"Thanks. Just... sometimes you need to do horrible things now to make things better later. That's why the Grimm are the way they are."

"That makes no sense," Ruby complained.

Akelarre shrugged. "It does make sense. It's just not very fair."

"Well that sucks," Ruby declared, her arms starting to cross before she remembered and grabbed onto Crescent Rose again.

"Yes." Akelarre sighed. "Can we talk about more pleasant things? If I wanted to talk about how doomed humanity was in the face of the never ending Grimm tide I would have stayed at home."

Ruby snorted, then slapped a hand over her mouth, but Akelarre's eyes had softened and she didn't seem to take offence. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to distract the Grimm in the house until dad got home. He would know what to do. "O-okay then... so what do you usually do for fun?

"I make new Grimm! Not more of them, but new kinds. It's really fun."

"Ah," Ruby said. She had no point of reference for that. "That sounds nice?"

"It is," Akelarre agreed. "I guess it's something like making a new weapon like your Crescent Rose. You need to put all the little parts together and make sure it works just right. It's satisfying."

"Huh, that does sound cool," Ruby admitted. She imagined assembling Grimm the way she put together her baby. Then she could command her army of MechaGrimm to... "Urg, that's not a better thing to talk about."

"I'm not really sure what two girls are supposed to talk about," Akelarre admitted. "One of the only people I talk to is... older."

"Older?" Ruby asked. "Like, she's my dad's age?"

"Was your dad born before the Grimm existed and when the moon was whole?" she asked.

Ruby knew her dad and uncle Qrow were pretty old. They were both in their thirties. But they weren't that old. "Yeah, okay. I think we're supposed to talk about boys and stuff."

"Salem said that if a boy ever hurt my feelings, when she was done with them the bards would write sagas of their suffering."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, Uncle Qrow and dad said the same thing." She rolled her eyes. "Parents overreact so much."

"They do. They always get unreasonably annoyed when you go out on your own to risk your life in an attempt to make the world a better place."

Ruby flushed, but she couldn't help but agree. "I know, right? Yang is like that too. She's always going on about how I should be careful, but when she was my age she was doing all sorts of things. It's just not fair."

"Yang is your sister?" Akelarre asked. Ruby nodded and she continued. "Tall, blond, big chest."

"Ah.... you know Yang?" Ruby asked. Was Yang's punning prowess so grand and terrifying that even the Grimm feared her?

Akelarre pointed to a wall next to Ruby where a picture of the Xiao-Long-Rose family rested. "Oh, yeah, that makes more sense."

"What were you thinking?"

"N-nevermind that," Ruby said. "So, do you have any sist--" she paused when a ringing sound filled the living room. A ringing sound that came from her skirts. Reaching around, Ruby pulled out her beaten up old scroll, swiped carefully to avoid the cracks on the screen and placed it on her lap. "Hi?"

"Ruby!" Her dad's face appeared on the screen, white teeth flashing as he grinned up at her. "How are you, my little flower?"

Ruby's face went from too-long-indoors pale to mortification-red in a heartbeat. "Daaad, don't call me that!"

Taiyang's eyebrows shot up. "But I thought you loved it when I called you that? Is my little thorn growing up? Do you not want cuddles anymore?"

"N-no, that's not it. I still want cuddles," she said. Her face went thermonuclear when she heard Akelarre make a noise of amusement at the back of her throat. When she looked up it was to find that the Grimm had a hand over her mouth and was looking off to one side.

"Is there someone with you, Ruby?" Taiyang asked. His smile took on a slightly predatory cast. "Is it a boy?"

"No. I mean yes." Taiyang started moving on the screen as if he was running. "No, dad wait, I mean, there's someone but she's not a boy." He came to a stop.

"Oh, okay. Ah, did you make a friend?"

"Y-yes. That's exactly it. We met, uh, while I was walking home. We fought some Beowolves together. You can meet her later. Why did you call?" She gave herself a pat on the back for her expert lying skills.

"I look forward to it. And don't use this as an excuse to raid the cookie jar."

"I'd never," Ruby lied.

"Hrm," her dad said, but he looked more amused then anything. "I wanted to know if you would come to Patch in a bit. There's a group of Huntsmen and Huntresses in training from Beacon here on a mission. I thought you might like to meet them. They're off chasing some strange Grimm right now, but should be back in a few hours."

"Strange Grimm?" Akelarre asked.

"Is that your new friend?" Taiyang asked. "Ah, yeah, could be that they're a new kind of Grimm, or just some Grimm that have migrated over to Patch. Whatever the case, the students will figure it out, I'm sure. Maybe you could come over too, I'd love to meet Ruby's new friend!"

"Maybe," Akelarre said.

"T-thanks for the invite dad, I'll, uh, see if I can come over in a bit," Ruby said. She waved at the screen, dismissed her dad's followup questions and hung up. "I'm in so much trouble."

Akelarre got to her feet and out of reflex Ruby did the same. "I think I should go," Akelarre said. "But it was fun talking to you."

"Ah, yeah, surprisingly I can say the same," Ruby said. "Do, do you have a scroll?"

"I... don't. But if you give me your number I can get one later."

Ruby nodded and rattled off her scroll's number, all the while wondering if the Grimm spent a lot of time online. Was that what Uncle Qrow meant when he talked about online predators? Were trolls a mysterious sort of Grimm? "So, uh, you're leaving now?" Ruby asked while she watched Akelarre shift her hood back up to cover her face and eyes.

Then the Grimm women stepped forwards, both arms wrapping around Ruby's much smaller frame and tucking her against her chest. She gasped, but the panic subsided when she realized that it was just a hug. A nice, warm, comforting hug from an older girl. She could hear the thump-thump of Akelarre's heart and felt her own start to beat faster in response.

"Thank you, Ruby. You're a nice girl," Akelarre said.

"A-ah, y-yeah, sure, you're welcome," Ruby said while her cheeks burned. "It was... nice to meet you?"

"I'll keep in touch," Akelarre said as she headed for the door. "Goodbye."

Just like that, the girl was out of their house and walking towards the front gate where an Alpha Lancer landed with grace that Ruby wouldn't have expected from such a huge Grimm. And then they were gone.

***

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