Flame's Shade

Night vision was her greatest asset as she traversed the dark city streets of Vale. The alleyways were cramped, full of homeless, drunks, and late night partiers, but she didn't pay them any mind. Her cloak outlined her dark shape, black tendrils of ribbons hoisting her up a nearby fire escape.

She climbed up, perching on another roof, jumping down, and running along the shorter buildings below. She avoided any form of light, sticking to the shadowy corners as she made haste, eager to be home and in the safety of her abode. She took a flying leap off the end of the nearest stall, leaving no trace of her existence behind. She landed deftly on her toes, and turned the corner.

Another alleyway, but this one of more friendly company. Well, friendly so long as you weren't a criminal. These were hunter's homes, and as she passed by them, she could smell the faint cooking of meals at the late night hour. Her ears twitched when she heard rambunctious shouts of glee. Team JNPR must have been back from their mission. The remaining three members were loudly chastising Nora for reasons that the figure didn't dare to find out.

Paying no mind to them, she continued onward, down another set of long and narrow passages. All of these entryways were dark, indicating the people living in these homes where either sleeping, or nowhere to be found. The huntress passed by these as well, coming to a stop. Here, nestled in the slums of Vale itself, she found herself face to face with her front door. Four insignias were burned into the wood.

Team RWBY's calling cards. This was their domain.

With a smirk, she unlocked the door, and pushed back her hood, stepping through the threshold. She closed it behind her, yanking her black cloak from her body and hanging it up, leaning heavily on the wooden door once more. Gratefully, she did away with her shoes. Stocking feet falling gently upon the smooth wood underfoot. The kitchen light was on, and she greeted the familiar inhabitant whose scent was second nature.

"Hello, Ruby."

"Hey, Blake." Ruby said tiredly, sitting at the kitchen table. In her arms there was a bundle of blankets, the likes of which Blake suspected protected rather precious cargo.

"Is that…what I think it is?" What she couldn't figure out, however, was why Ruby would be in possession of such a small child.

"And what do you think it is?" Ruby returned, her silver eyes full of something that was as distant as could be.

Blake stepped around, coming face to face with a sleeping infant. Tiny little triangle ears flicking ever so slightly in unrestful sleep. "A faunus cub…" Blake deadpanned, taking a pointed sniff. It was a baby girl. "And why do you have her?"

"Mission…" Ruby murmured, her gaze downcast once more. "It went wrong."

"The same mission Yang and Weiss followed you on?" Blake asked.

Ruby shook her head. "That one ended, they went off to report in Vacuo. This one was a solo mission, escorting a merchant to a nearby village off the coast of Vale. It was fairly close to Patch, I knew the area, so I took it." Ruby paused, words quiet, almost haunted. "It was just supposed to be a little walk, you know? Maybe a stray Grimm or two, nothing serious…but when we got there…" Ruby shook her head. "Everything was destroyed."

"Ruby, how big was this village?"

The girl shrugged. "Maybe fifty strong, at most."

"And this village in question…" Blake cleared her throat. "I'm to assume it wasn't a human one…"

Ruby's answer, while expected, was no less discomforting. "No."

Blake sighed at length. "Was it Grimm, or, something else?"

"I don't know..." Ruby began. "Grimm go crazy all the time you know. They run amok, and leave all sorts of carnage behind…but this was..." Ruby hesitated. "It was almost methodical. I didn't think there would be anything left, but I'm so glad I looked…" Ruby had no idea what to do upon retrieving the child, and had carried her back home without a second thought. "I found her, so here we are...I suppose."

"Her parents?"

"You really, really don't want to know." Ruby murmured, else clamping shut. "I didn't want to know, either."

Blake went about making herself some tea. The silence in the room heavy, and thick with tension. "And it never occurred to you to follow protocol? We have measures we take for situations like these, you can't just bring an infant home on a whim. She needs care, and we can't provide that."

"I'm not sticking her in the orphanage."

"Ruby…"

"No!"

A very loud cry tore through the room, causing Blake to roll her eyes as Ruby tried to shush the little girl back to sleep.

Somehow, the idea of tea seemed rather unpalatable under the scrutiny to those angry silver eyes. It was a feat to upset Ruby in any capacity, but anger was especially rare, and Blake found herself on the receiving end of a hard glare. "You know what they do to Faunus in those places…she'll be ignored." Ruby argued, her voice quieter but no less gentle. "You know what it's like."

"I'm more than aware." Blake hissed. "Be that as it may, we are not equipped to handle this kind of situation…and besides, think ahead more than a few hours. Do you know the first thing about keeping a baby around? Raising it? There are knives under floorboards, swords under sofa cousins, bullets in candy dishes. We can't keep a kid in a place like this."

"So we clean it up…"

"What about next-of-kin? She could have family out there somewhere."

"What are the chances of that?" Ruby asked honestly.

"Remnant is huge." Blake protested.

"Considering where she came from?" Ruby shot back, icily. Her time spent with Weiss a terrifying example of how a person could learn bad habits.

"Fine, I'll grant you that...but think of the way we live our lives. We come home from a good mission and fall asleep in a bed of beer cans. There's not exactly a lot of maternal instinct around here, Ruby." In fact, thinking about it, Blake would be ashamed of the living conditions if she stayed in the home for any length of time. The spider making a web in the corner of the ceiling only made it more true. "This is not going to work."

"It has to work, Blake." Ruby shot back, holding the child ever closer. "If it doesn't, then what's the point of anything we do?"

Sitting down next to Ruby, Blake weighed their options. "I'll take her to Menagerie. They have an orphanage there. It's not like the one in Vale...that's the best I can offer."

"This isn't up for debate." Ruby said pointedly, in her 'I'm the leader' voice. "I'm keeping her."

"What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing."

"Ruby…we've found kids before." Blake began. "We process them, get them into the system, they either stay at the orphanage, or they go into a foster care. That's the extent of our duties, we're hunters. Our job is to slay Grimm and protect civilians. Anything beyond that isn't part of the job description."

"This one's special, Blake." Ruby said quietly. "I can prove it…but you have to hold her, and swear to me you won't move."

"If it will get you to stop being stubborn, fine." Blake conceded, willingly taking the small girl into her arms. Crimson eyes blinked owlishly, a happy little burble of sound morphing into a contented purr. Blake watched Ruby leave the room, heading off towards her bedroom, only to come back with something that floored her. "Is that, Raven's…"

"Her sword…" Ruby said darkly.

"You said her parents were dead." Blake refuted, still coming to terms with the sight in front of her.

"I told you…" Ruby began heatedly. "You didn't want to know…"

AYangThang: I've been sitting on a huge hunk of chapters of this for a while, and I thought, well why not. This is a family centric fic, mostly.