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Black Rose Blooms SilverCyberQueen_JolyneChapter 12

Chapter Text

"So… have you ever noticed that Ruby and Yang are like… never apart when they're both in the same place?" Emerald muttered quietly, crossing her legs as she sat in the shade of the Xiao Long residence's back porch, raising an eyebrow as Ruby and Yang just… sat together and talked about nothing much in particular- the same as they always did. Honestly, the way that Yang clung to Ruby and the way that Ruby clung to Yang… if Emerald didn't know they were sisters, she might have considered it an adorable puppy crush. As it was, it was honestly kinda weird how they constantly tried to be in each other's space for one reason or another- Yang flopping on top of Ruby when the latter was napping on the couch, playing video games while curled up with each other, Ruby sitting on Yang's head as a puppy (and, honestly, Emerald would have been jealous about that talent if she hadn't heard of how it happened), hell- the two sisters did everything shy of bathing together!

Then again… public Mistralian bath houses existed, so even then…

"It's because they're still pretty co-dependent," Cinder explained lightly as she swirled a glass of juice around with one hand, the other occupied with gently playing with Neo's hair as the shorter girl napped in Cinder's lap. Emerald wasn't jealous, nope, no siree- she was totally not jealous that the hot lady two years older than her also had a girlfriend the same age instead of going for Emerald. "You should have seen them when I'd just gotten to the house- I swear, I was too traumatized to really say anything at the time, but they still slept in the same bed, brushed their teeth together, curled up on each other all of the time… they were adorable kids, really, but… ugh. It was kinda sad how much they felt like they had to cling to each other for fear of losing the other."

"Was it really that bad? I've… heard Yang skip over the story of how it all happened, but… didn't your dad save them?" Emerald asked, sipping lightly at her soda and crossing her legs as she stared out over the sunny, summer yard. She tilted her head to the side, pursing her lips in thought as she looked around. "Honestly, I don't think I've ever really heard the full story. Mercury hasn't either. What's up with that?"

"Probably because you didn't need to know and it's still a sensitive subject for Yang and Ruby. Even I don't know all of the really gritty details since I only joined the family four years after it happened, but…" Cinder sighed, setting down her drink and frowning, watching as Ruby's ears flicked in a specific pattern. 

Of course she was listening. Well. At least she was saying it with permission. 

"Ruby is a grimm now because when she was much, much younger… her mother, Summer Rose died on a mission. Barely a year later, Yang found out that Summer Rose wasn't her birth mother- instead, her birth mother was actually dad's sister, Raven. Raven… ran off shortly after Yang was born, and went back to her bandit clan in Mistral. Yang… didn't know the second part. All she knew was that she wanted to find her birth mother when she was six, so one day…" Cinder grimaced, shivering a little as she watched Ruby snuggle deeper against Yang's side- with how her little sister was wearing a crop top instead of a full tank top, it wasn't hard to see the massive scars dotting her body- faded and old, but still in the distinctive shapes of tooth and claw marks. They were huge on her- Cinder hated imagining what Yang would have looked like right when she'd received those wounds. 

"One day?"

"... One day Yang loaded Ruby and her favorite blanket into a wagon, grabbed as much canned food as she could carry, and wandered out into the wilderness of Patch," Cinder sighed, gritting her teeth slightly and doing everything she could to not use her Semblance on instinct- it wouldn't do to scorch Neo's hair after they'd spent so much effort getting the dye pattern just right. "Papa Tai was… too depressed to function some days, and I guess Yang thought that she could make them a happy family again if she brought Raven back. So she found the old farmhouse that Raven and Qrow used to live in before Dad moved in here and she left. The only thing in that old, abandoned house… was Beowolves. Uncle Qrow was only a minute late. Sixty seconds… Yang lost track of Ruby, Ruby tried to run but fell down a hill… Yang almost died, and Ruby… I wasn't there to know what happened, but the way they tell it, there was this… flash of light. Silver light, blinding to the point that the grimm all just exploded … and when the light cleared out, all of the smoke swirled together and… then there was just Ruby. Lying on the ground and looking like a tiny beowolf wrapped in a red cloak."

Cinder sighed, then tried to lighten the mood with a half-hearted joke, forcing a chuckle as she picked up her drink again. "Apparently it took her two years to get herself under control long enough to maintain a mostly human form- she's never been able to completely shapeshift away her ears and tail… not for long, at least."

"Really? Never?" Emerald asked, letting a slightly forced puff of her own laughter as she looked over at Cinder, who just shrugged and grinned.

"That, or she's never bothered to try. Maybe she can, maybe she can't- either way, she's my adorable baby sister and it's just…" Cinder sighed, leaning back in her seat and humming as she just… let the experiences of the last six years wash over her. Nothing would ever really wash away the impact her first thirteen years of life had marked her with, but after spending a full third of her life away from that hellhole- after experiencing the love and kindness and chaos of her family now… she wasn't entirely okay. But she was getting there. 

She was still a control freak and terrified of looking weak and horrible at handling authority figures with grace and still flinched every time someone's hand came near her head and she hated it when anyone invaded the privacy of her sanctuary spaces without permission even if it was Ruby or Yang and she always felt like she couldn't trust anyone enough to talk about her issues with but-

But… she was getting better. Day by day- all she had to do was just live and not be conquered by her sorrows. She'd broken free of the past that held her down, mended her heart from the torn apart mess it used to be… She was happy. Getting there. And she was on her way to Beacon at the start of their next term, alongside her wonderful girlfriend, and… also those two dickheads Emerald and Mercury that sadly got to call themselves her cousins. Ah well. 

"Somehow, I can sense you stopped thinking about Ruby and moved on to insulting me in your head," Emerald deadpanned, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms as she gave Cinder the side eye- not at all enthused about that all too smug and catlike grin that the raven haired pyrokinetic used specifically when she was dicking on her and Mercury. 

Emerald had a sneaking suspicion that Cinder learned that face from Neo, because Neo was the sassiest bitch Emerald knew and gods if she wasn't so pretty Emerald would have tried to punch her for some of the pranks the ice cream girl had pulled on her. Not that she hadn't done her fair share back, but still. That stupid pretty face of hers- grr, why did Cinder and Neo have to be so pretty!? It made it really hard to get mad at them for anything. 

"I was thinking about how you and Mercury are kinda dickheads still, even after all these years," Cinder huffed, snorting in amusement and tittering ever so gently. 

"Wh- hey, fuck you, I'm perfectly nice!" Emerald protested, glaring at Cinder with barely disguised indignation, actually getting a little offended at such a quick dismissal. Sure, she still pickpocketed people occasionally for shits and giggles and hated little kids and had a hoarding problem and was snarky and rude to people she didn't hang out with often and played some mean pranks sometimes and thought that optimistic people were idiots but… uh.

Hm.

"You're recovering. Mercury is a dick though," Cinder acquiesced after Emerald had slumped back in her seat again, having come to the terrible realization that she may or may not still be kind of a jerk. 

"Oh yeah no, fuck Mercury."

"Not even if you paid me," Cinder snorted, snickering at her own terrible joke and shaking a little in her seat- to which Neo huffed out a little burst of silent laughter before sitting up and stretching, interrupting Cinder's moment by draping herself all over the taller girl's side (and spurring another little jealous burst of emotion in Emerald's chest). "Oh, you're awake. Did you sleep well?"

Neo nodded, then paused, pursed her lips, tilted her head, and picked up Hush from where it had been resting against the bench while she slept.

"Oh, do you want to spar? Well, alright then. Semblance or no?" Cinder asked, standing up as well and using the Gravity Dust bangle on her wrist to call Midnight over from where she'd set it against the porch steps. "Mm, Semblances it is. Ruby, Yang! Clear the field!"

"Okaaaay~!"

"Gonna get your butt whooped again, Cindy?" Yang asked, sauntering up as Ruby burst into a cloud of black and red petals and settled to a halt at the edge of the backyard, an eager look on her face to see Hush's new form in practice.

"Mmm, we'll see. I've been sparring with Neo for years- I'll have to scrape out a decisive victory at some point," Cinder huffed, splitting the bow into its dual sword form and rolling her neck. 

"You're never gonna manage that if you keep getting distracted by Neo making an illusion of herself in a sling bikini," Yang deadpanned.

"S-shut up!"

[Today's chapter was delayed for pretty much the same reason as yesterday, because I had to draw a last minute Emerald]