Building Better Worlds by TheTHICCWeeb

Dad is late again. Ruby thought looking out of the front window. This was becoming the new usual. Uncle Qrow did manage to get dad to behave like a proper parent after the incident that got both her and Yang almost killed but now he was getting worse again. Becoming more distant, coming home late smelling of alcohol. It wasn't as bad as when he first learned that mom is missing and presumed dead but he was yet to move on and so the two of them had to rely only on themselves. Yang had to pick Ruby up from preschool, buy the groceries and make food. In the meantime Ruby would do the chores around the house. Qrow was no help either. Always in the field doing missions and on the occasions he came to visit it would end at a quick hug and a forced smile, afterwards both Tai and Qrow would leave for a bar. Both Ruby and Yang would hound them the next day, Be it for training, stories or at least some attention. How they were supposed to become huntresses when the two actual huntsmen were of no hel…

"Hey sis what did the window do to you that got you to glare at it?" Yang said. Ruby jumped up, not noticing her sister walk up from behind.

"Yang! Don't sneak up on me!" Ruby said as she whirled around and pointed an accusatory finger at her sister. In response she only received an unimpressed stare. After waiting for a second, expecting some sort of apology she instead got a smile too wide for her liking. She gave up and let her hand drop. "It's just… when do you think dad will come home?"

Yang's smile disappeared as she looked at the clock. She then approached Ruby and gave her a brief hug. "Let's put you in the bed, there is no point waiting till the morning. I can read you the next chapter of that story if you want me to." Yang tried to cheer her up with a warm smile on her face.

"Two chapters" Ruby replied with a pout. The chapters were too short anyway.

Yang just chuckled at her sister's cute pout and ruffled her hair. "If we start going by two chapters we'll run out of books and I'm not reading you entries from the weapon magazines. That's your thing not mine. I don't understand most of the things written there anyway." she refuted her with a laugh. "Get ready for bed and I'll come to your room soon, okay?" Ruby grumbled good-naturedly and started walking.

-BBW-

When Ruby woke up the next morning, the sun was barely above the horizon. While she would normally stay in bed and wait for Yang to call her to come down for breakfast, today Ruby decided to see whether or not her father even got home yet. It took her some time to scale down the stairs, already sensing the smell of alcohol coming from the living room. Slowly she walked in and, surprisingly, there was a bit of silver lining to Tai coming late. A certain mechashift sword/scythe propped up near the entrance door. Revenge time. With a grin Ruby ran up to the couch and jumped on the scruffy man sleeping on it. "Uncle Qrow!" Ruby yelled out, as the aforementioned huntsman was sleepily flailing which led to him falling down on the floor. There was stomping heard on the upper floor as Yang came rushing down to see what was going on.

"Hey squirt, I get it you missed me but you could have let me and Tai have a little break. We had a long night catching up." Qrow half said half groaned as his little niece kept sitting on top of him.

Taiyang also slowly woke up in his armchair and took a tired and slightly confused look around. When he saw his daughters he quickly put a strained smile on his face. "Good morning girls. Hope you slept better than I did." he greeted with a small laugh. Looking over the room one more time and seeing that everyone was already awake albeit one of them involuntarily, he spoke: "Well, might as well start a new day! Ruby, get off your uncle, you and Yang should go change from your pyjamas and wash up. Qrow, go find Zwei and take him for a walk. I'll go make breakfast. In response he got "on it" from Ruby, "sure" from Yang and a lazy salute from Qrow.

[15 minutes later]

"Ruby, leave Qrow's weapon alone! Yang, get Zwei off the counter! Qrow, I swear, if you pour whiskey into the mixer I will punch you off the island!" After twenty more minutes of cooking and one attempted homicide, courtesy of Yang, who didn't appreciate Qrow ruffling her hair, breakfast was finally ready. This was a rare occasion when all the members of their family came together. Banter between teammates, Qrow's stories and Yang talking about school. Big reveal came a bit later, when Qrow announced that he will be taking a break from the missions to be a teacher at Signal alongside Tai. Something about the currently available missions being boring and below his skill. Slowly all of them moved to the backyard, where both Ruby and Yang started asking if they could finally get proper training. While both huntsmen insisted that they were too young and should wait a bit more before they could start, in the end they decided that eight years was enough and Tai took Yang to the side to walk her through the basics. Ruby was still stuck with monotone exercises to improve endurance and agility. Why they didn't take her to a firing range was beyond her, she had good eyes and could put her father's weapon apart and back together in under five minutes. Although she had enough sense to not say it in front of she should convince them to take to the forge at signal. There is only so much that can be learned from old magazines, random maintenance manuals or just going through the repair kit.

Qrow left after lunch. He needed some paperwork done before he could transfer from a field to a school. Tai had homework to grade, so stayed in a small office upstairs learning about all new and revolutionary ways how to kill a beowulf cub. Yang went to one of the neighbour's kid's house party. The boy's parents bought him a new gaming console and let him invite other kids from his class. This left Ruby alone again but she was fine with it. Who needs people when they have a cute corgi and a garage full of yet to be built awesome weaponry.

-BBW-

The sun was already setting when Tai picked Yang up. She enjoyed herself greatly and now was making sure she would get one as soon as possible. He has made dinner beforehand and intended to go to sleep early to get some rest after the reunion. When they got home he sent Yang to go find her sister and tell her to clean up and come to eat. Tai himself went to prepare the table.

Yang went to her sister's bedroom first. Seeing it empty she went to the second most likely place to find her. The garage, or how their father referred to it as "Ruby's personal workshop". As she came closer towards the entrance a little corgi clumsily ran out from the inside and jumped into her arms. "Hi Zwei, I hope sis didn't try to create you another battle armour." Yang said to the small dog, using one hand to hug him and the second one to scratch Zwei's ears. Zwei just gave a quick lick on Yang's cheek and then ran off to greet Tai. When Yang stepped inside, she was treated to a sight that had her debate whether or not she should run back in, take their father's scroll and take a few photos for future blackmail. Ruby was asleep on the floor while hugging, what Yang thought was at some point an exhaust pipe connected to a big cylindrical thing. She was also sure that the wall had one more crack than a few days ago, when she was in the garage last time. "Heeeey sis, food time, you need to be awake to eat, wake up." Yang whispered while gently shaking Ruby.

She was having a great dream, running through the forest hunting grimm with her new pneumatic cannon. She already shot sixty, twenty three of which were headshots mind you. Air Thorn, that was the name of her newest weapon. Now she reached an ever familiar cliffside and the pack leader emerged from the foliage about three hundred feet away from her. Strangely, instead of the usual black this one was yellow. No matter. Maybe it fused with lightning dust. Or ran through a pollen cloud. A beast is a beast and has to be put down for the sake of Remnant. The beast attacked first. It crossed the distance in three great leaps. It used it's claws to grasp her shoulder and started trashing. So she did what would put the abomination out of her misery, aimed Air Thorn at its head and pulled the trigger.

"Bang" Ruby woke up with wide eyes and would have jumped up if it wasn't for the weight of her latest project. Said project was currently a few inches away from her sister's face, aimed barely above her head. Yang was very unimpressed with it and instead of voicing her opinion on Ruby's new baby, as she usually called them, she simply pointed her index finger upwards. Ruby followed the direction and saw that the ceiling had been slightly redecorated due to the tennis ball that blew up on impact and stayed stuck there.

"Eh.. hehe.. hi.. Yang.. how was your party?" Ruby asked shyly while awkwardly trying to hide Air Thorn behind her back. "Yeah it was fun, we played some video games and then some brat tried to send my head to the upper floor. No bedtime stories for you tonight" Yang replied. She then stuck out her tongue and walked off leaving Ruby alone. "Also dinner's ready so you better show up soon enough. Or I don't know, shoot dad, at least it would be funny." Yang called from the inside. At the mention of dinner Ruby perked up, after a bit of thought put Air Thorn into her Maybe Box a ran to the bathroom. She had to be quick, otherwise Yang would take all the cookies for herself.

-BBW-

Next day was uneventful and then came monday. Another boring day in the final year of kindergarten. End of the day was always the worst part. While other children would be picked up by their parents, Ruby would wait for her big sister, rereading her favorite stories or practising with a toy sword. Evening went down as usual. Their father was either still at work or at the bar, or how he called, meeting up with old friends. When it became too late they went to sleep. Yang would read her the final chapter today.

"… and so the village was saved and the nameless huntsman would be forever known as The Hunter of Lost Valley. The end." Yang closed the book and put it on the nightstand. "Well sis, you have the next book in mind or should I pick something?"

Ruby looked up to the ceiling in thought. "Have you ever wondered what happened next?"

"What do you mean? The story ended, everyone lived happily ever after and like that. That's like the point of it."

"I mean the hero didn't stay there, did he like became a farmer or he continued to hunt?"

"Well, you know, how uncle Qrow always says: 'the world is not a fairy tale' so the hero probably went doing his own thing until the world caught up with them."

"But it doesn't make sense, he saved the village, he is already a hero so it should be easier for him to help more people!"

Yang frowned a little bit and looked out of the window in the room. "The world often doesn't make sense sis but it is what it is."

"Nope!" Ruby exclaimed, almost jumping off from bed "I'm going to be a super awesome huntress and a hero and I don't care what some big ugly 'world' thinks about it!"

Yang chuckled at the display and ruffled her sister's hair "sure thing, who knows, maybe there will be a fairy tale about you some day. Now go to sleep." Yang kissed her on the forehead and left the room killing the lights on her way out.

Stupid uncle Qrow, dad, Yang and stupid world. I'm going to do great. If the world is wrong I simply have to make it right? That's what a hero does! Not some guy from a book but one that is here and now! A fable come to life! With these thoughts Ruby fell asleep not noticing a few rose petals falling off her bed and dissolving on the floor nor would anyone know about a brief white glow that could be seen in her eyes.