"Yang! Dad! I'm home!" Ruby strode into her home's entrance hall after taking off her shoes. Her father was cooking in the kitchen and her sister was watching TV. "Yang." Ruby looked disapprovingly at her sister. "I need you to stop getting into fights; I had to go to the police station to apologize to a guy named Junior because you had a fight in his club!"

Yang waved her comment off. "It's fine Ruby." She turned her eyes to her sister. "It's just I HAVE to find my mother. You and I both know this, and the only way I can do this is by searching for her outside, taking risks; like a real huntress should."

"So your misadventure that nearly got us killed was one of your searches." Ruby turned away and walked to her room, ignoring Yang's glare. She reached the corner and looked back at her biological half-sister, silver eyes coldly looking back. "A real mother knows better than to abandon her child."

Ruby lay in her bed, smiling as she remembered the expressions of horror that she managed to create today. At least six people were hospitalised for several months, the deputy headmistress of Beacon academy made such a… beautiful expression in the police station. Oh, and she was accepted into Beacon. 'That's also good I guess…'

She turned onto her side, wondering how her family would react to her being accepted into one of the most prestigious schools in all of Remnant. "They'll probably not believe me and try to force me to become an engineer in Vale…" She grumbled under her breath. She scratched her wolf ears, just like her mother used to; it always helped her calm her nerves.

She sighed as she thought back to her family. Her sister Yang: a girl who believed that the best way to part with night club owners was to tease them with her feminine wiles before grabbing them by the balls, both figuratively and literally. Whilst Ruby approved of the literal part, Yang didn't go far enough with his punishment, merely squeezing them tightly instead of crushing. 'Yang and I don't meet eye to eye anymore.' Ruby huffed. 'I suppose, now that I've been accepted into the same school as her, two years early, I'm going to have to get along with her.'

Then… there was her father. That slimy, arrogant mother-fucke- Wait. 'That's not an insult, since he did actually fuck my mother.' She smirked.

'Take two.'

Taiyang Xiolongwas a grovelling drunkard of a man, who was only her father in blood and nothing more. Ruby remembered that when her mother was still alive, he was actually an attentive and supportive dad. Now, ever since Summer Rose passed away, he drowned himself in delusions of how a perfect family should be. That apparently involved the father being the breadwinner of the family, the wife should stay at home, the oldest child must take after the head of the family and there are any children left, they should have comfortable, safe jobs protected by huntsmen and huntresses. He had actively discouraged Ruby from applying to Signal, and even tried to stop her from taking private lessons from uncle Qrow! The bastard didn't even realise he was getting benefits from the Vale council; and even that was because of his former wife being good friends with them!

Yang had fortunately not inherited the vision of grandeur from their father, but instead was fixated with finding her mother to an almost insane degree, casting away her relationship with her sister, barely even getting to know Ruby.

'Both of them still believe I'm a fragile little girl who needs to be protected from the dangers of the outside world.' She closed her eyes and fell asleep, mumbling: "I'll show them!"

Ruby woke up to the sound of sniffing. Groaning, she opened her eyes to see the panting face of the family dog. "Zwei!" Ruby blinked away her tiredness. "What are you doing here?" He barked quietly, and Ruby understood what he wanted to do. "Fine, I'll walk you." She whined in irritation when she saw that it was 2 am. "Goddammit Zwei."

She quickly changed and walked down the stairs, making sure that the wooden floorboards did not creak. Her ears perked up when she heard a howl in the distance. She spared a glance at Crescent Rose, but decided against bringing the heavy weapon for a walk; her claws and teeth were weapons enough.

Half an hour later, Ruby pulled out her claws from a beowulf and sighed in disappointment. 'This one died after a few minutes of my fun.' She eyed the surrounding trees. 'Why is there only one Beowolf?' She glanced at Zwei. 'Usually when I walk Zwei, there are at least a couple more.' She narrowed her eyes and grew more cautious; there was a sinister sense of foreboding in the air. "Zwei." She called out, eying the trees. "Come here."

Snap

A twig broke and Ruby immediately rounded on it; she backed into the centre of the clearing they were in. 'This is not a grimm. They'd be loud and coming straight for me.' She lifted her head a sniffed the air a couple of times. 'They're good; going downwind keeps me from smelling their scent.' She lowered her centre of gravity and spread her arms out, claws twitching in anticipation. 'They're good. I can't wait to have fun with them.' She grinned but she was still nervous; other than the first stick the perpetrators had not made a sound since, a testament of their skill.

Zwei ran towards Ruby careful not to make too much noise. He was an intelligent dog and knew that something was up. He turned away from Ruby, covering her blindside, just as he was trained to do. He would bark if anything came from behind.

He almost failed to do so.

Ruby ducked underneath the massive blade that flew out of the trees. Ruby growled in irritation upon recognising the sword. "Dammit Uncle Qrow!" She crossed her arms. "Stop attacking me in greeting!" A smirking man calmly walked out of the trees, sword resting on his shoulder.

"Hi Red." He gruff, baritone greeting indicated he didn't care about what just happened. "Did you bring your scythe?" He leaned to the side, and upon seeing nothing on Ruby's back, sighed. "No. No, I didn't." Ruby replied as she calmly tensed her legs. "But before that," She leapt at him, hugging him with all her might. "UNCLE QROW!" She gleefully snuggled her head into his chest. "Oh how I've missed you! Did you miss me!?"

Qrow patted Ruby's head, causing her to push her head harder into his chest. She looked up to him with hopeful silver eyes. "Nope." He cheekily smiled. "I missed Zwei though." The dog barked in happiness, as Qrow used his other hand to pet him.

After five minutes, Ruby finally let go of her father-figure and sat down. "Was it you who was killing all the grimm?" When Qrow nodded, she pouted in return. "Whyyy?" She whined. "I was hoping to have some fun whilst walking the mutt." Qrow ruffled her red and black hair. "You need to realise that sometimes, you need to tone down your… fun time." Ruby pouted even more. "A good example was today; Ozpin told me you put several men in hospital and you almost leapt onto an airborne bullhead." He lightly smiled. "He also told me that his deputy head seemed to be slightly out of it when he entered the room. Care to explain why?"

Ruby flopped onto her back, gazing at the stars. What unsettled Qrow was her ecstatic expression. "Oh she just tried to down a bullhead in the middle of the city. I merely gave my opinion on what would have happened." Qrow raise an eyebrow at that, which Ruby noticed. "Okay, I maaaay have told her a white lie about how the bullhead was full of dust, or that there were people on the street." She whistled innocently.

She was far from being innocent. 'She blew the thing out of proportion!' Qrow sighed. 'Why is she so troublesome?' He put his hands behind his head and lied down beside her. "Look, kid. Normally, I would've congratulated you, but to leapt onto a flying bullhead?! That's crazy and you know it." Ruby scowled slightly, though she knew Qrow was right.

"So, when are you going to tell me you got into Beacon two years early?" The scolding not ten seconds ago was lost amongst the excitement Ruby felt. "The headmaster of Beacon personally invited me to attend his school! I have to say, he's pretty good; I even had to start crying to convince him and his deputy!" Qrow sighed for the umpteenth time. "Only you could convince an unmovable person such as Ozpin."

Ruby smiled at that. "It's because I'm cute!" Qrow snorted, but he knew it was true. Few people could change Ozpin's mind, and only Ruby could change it with her damned puppy eyes. 'Even though she's a wolf."

He sat up, and glanced down at Ruby. "It's only two, so we have about half an hour before somebody gets worried." Ruby grimaced at this. "So how about we do a bit of close quarter's combat training whilst Zwei here watches?"

Ruby grinned at Qrow and jumped up, ready to fight. "Alright! Let's do thi-!" She dodged a sword swipe. "Dammit uncle Qrow!" She jumped back. "That was dangerous!"

Qrow smirked. "That's how it is supposed to be, Red." He slicked back some hair in a way that Ruby thought was cool. "Alright." He smirked. "Come get some."

Ruby laughed and ran at Qrow, intent on fighting him head on. She ducked underneath a sword swipe, tensed her legs and lunged at Qrow's throat, claws outstretched. Her opponent bent backwards beneath the claws and kicked Ruby up into the air before regaining balance and stabbed upwards, seemingly intent on impaling her on his sword.

With a growl, Ruby forcefully twisted herself mid-air to face Qrow. She could easily see the oncoming blade and batted it aside, but it gave Qrow a good opportunity to grab her wrist. He slammed her into the ground and once again tried to stab her. Ruby tore her hand away from Qrow's grip and pushed herself out the way of the sword.

The blade sunk into the earth, trapping it for a moment and yet it was all the time Ruby needed to land a flying kick on Qrow, forcing him away from his weapon. He crashed into a tree, with enough force to crack the bark.

Quickly recovering, he dodged Ruby's claw swipes. He rolled away from the tree. 'Yikes.' He looked at the tree. 'Damn claws are sharp.' The bark was torn out, claw marks gouged deep into the tree.

He turned to face Ruby. "You've improved Red, I'm proud o-." He put up his guard, just in time to stop Ruby's hands heading for his face, but the one of the claws managed to hit him in the cheek, impacting against his aura.

He kicked her away. "Why did you attack me?"

"Speaking in a fight is a sin; that's what you taught me!"

He smirked. "Not unless you're fighting someone worse than you."

Ruby started to growl. "Why…you."

She charged again, and instead of lunging with her laws, she summersaulted into an axe kick, heading straight for Qrow's face. She missed when Qrow jumped away, and calmly watched as the ground where he had been cracked under Ruby's heel.

Landing, she changed strategies; instead of charging headfirst, she regained her breathe and approached Qrow cautiously.

When she stepped into range, Qrow threw a hook at Ruby's head, but she barely managed to duck underneath the blow. She reached up and grabbed the appendage before he had a chance to pull back and pulled him off-balance. She then mercilessly kicked Qrow in between the legs, but there was not enough force to crush them.

Smiling perversely as Qrow gasped in pain, Ruby jumped behind him and slid her hands around Qrow. "Banzai!" Ruby giggled as she lifted Qrow over herself. Qrow crashed into the ground with a groan. 'Nice suplex…Why did she have to kick me in the nuts?'

Ruby rolled away from the groaning Qrow. He was still lying on the floor, crying. "Hehe." Ruby didn't approach the grounded Qrow; she knew how dangerous he would be if she came too close. "Oh dearie me, did my poor old uncle break something whilst sparing with his step niece?" She knew he would be annoyed at that quip at his age.

Zwei barked. Clearly, he was amused. He cheekily walked to Qrow's fallen figure and cocked his leg. "Stupid dog." Zwei stopped when a stiff Qrow tentatively sat up. "That was cheap." Qrow smiled. In an instant he had stood up and was directly behind the off guard Faunus. "But I'm cheaper." He brought his leg up in a sharp front kick, directly between Ruby's legs. Ruby yelped in surprise but did not fall. His eyes widened and her legs snapped shut.

Qrow's laughter died quickly as he saw Ruby still standing.

"How could you put your foot in-between a lady's legs so easily?" Ruby spat out. "Uncle Qrow… You're a pervert!"

"Takes one to know one." Qrow smirked. "I didn't know you were a masochist."

"I'm not." Ruby laughed, trying to hide her blush as she jumped to hug her uncle.

For now, everything was as it should to be.