Chapter 01: A great Sister, but an even greater Mom?

"THERE WILL BE NO FUCKING ICE-CREAM IN YOUR FUCKING FUTURE!"

"LANGUAGE!"

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!"

"YANG! MAKE HER GET ME ICE-CREAM!"

"RUBY, SHE'S DRIVING, GET THE FUCK OFF OF HER!"

"QUIT IT YOU TWO, OR I WILL DRIVE THIS FUCKING CAR INTO A FUCKING DITCH, JUST TRY ME!"

"PLEEEEEAASSEEEE, WEISS!"

"FUCK YOU!"

"That's not nice."

"NEITHER IS DYING!"

- Later, in the living room of the Xiao-Long/Rose residence -

"I love you," Ruby smiled sweetly, taking a lick of her ice-cream.

Beside her, the visiting heiress of the SDC was even paler than usual, wrapped tightly in a blanket. She was shivering, her bowl of ice-cream standing abandoned by her side.

"Existence is pain," she stated blankly.

Ruby frowned at the response, before she noticed the untouched dessert. "You gonna finish that?"

If looks could kill, the little reaper would be cold on the floor as Weiss' eyes met hers.

"Knock yourself out. Please."

"YIPPIE!" Ruby squealed, graciously swooping up the ice-cream in her arms.

The sudden movement on Weiss' side shifted the couch they were sharing, which was more than enough movement to trigger her again.

"I'm gonna hurl," she spluttered pitifully before rushing out of the room.

Ruby watched her partner disappear into the bathroom and continued to cheerfully eat her cold treat, completely oblivious to the hideous dry-heaving sounds coming from upstairs.

A few minutes later Weiss returned, doing her best living dead impression and with her blanket hunched up over her head.

"You 'kay?" Ruby asked.

Weiss groaned. "I can taste last week's breakfast."

"What does it taste like?"

"... Waffles."

Ruby gasped.

"I love waffles!"

"... Eat shit."

"Language."

Weiss dropped down onto the couch, not much caring what position she landed in. She pulled her legs up off the floor and curled into the fetal position.

"What're we watching?" she asked quietly.

"My Little Corgi."

"Oh fuck off, not today Ruby," Weiss groaned.

Her leader let out an ear-piercingly, high-pitched sigh, causing her to cringe in pain.

"But it's the movie! We've been waiting to watch this one since it came out!"

"If you make that noise again, I swear I will break your jaw."

"But Weissssssss!"

Ruby's shrill voice almost forced Weiss cross-eyed.

"Please mercyful Oum, end me."

"So we can keep watching the movie?"

"Fine."

"Yippie!"

Ruby bounced on the couch again, luckily Weiss was now entirely empty and didn't vomit. Instead she simply groaned and collapsed to the side, taking a face full of pillow.

"Mmersyamg?"

"What?"

Weiss lifted her head up.

"Where's Yang?"

"Still getting the tires fixed," Ruby answered sweetly.

"I'm surprised we didn't lose the car axel," Weiss muttered.

Ruby shrugged. "If we had just got ice-cream in the first plac-"

She was silenced by Weiss' finger of death pointing at her.

"Shut. Up."

Seeing straight past the finger, Ruby eyed her teammate instead.

"You know what this means?" she asked quietly.

"What?" Weiss asked unenthusiastically.

Ruby gave a cheeky smile and lifted herself up. She pulled herself into a kneeling position and craned over Weiss.

"Since dad staying at Signal for the weekend, it means... we have the house to ourselves."

Weiss' eyebrows hit the roof as she turned to Ruby, who was way too close for comfort. Her grin sent chills down her spine.

"Ermmm... wha...?" she spluttered.

"And you know what... that... means?" Ruby asked in a husky voice, leaning closer.

Weiss craned her neck back, moving as far away from the younger girl as she could.

"I'm... not sure I do, no."

"It means," Ruby turned around, plucking up a plastic carrier bag from behind the sofa and placed it down between them. "We can wrap Yang's presents!"

Weiss let out a breath of relief. "Thank Oum for that."

"What?"

"I was worried for a minute."

Ruby frowned for a moment, before skipping over the comment and pushing the carrier bag further into Weiss.

"I got these the other day, I just needed an excuse to get her out of the house so we could wrap them!"

Weiss' killer glare returned.

"Wait, you did that whole performance in the car, just so we could wrap up some presents?!"

"Sure did!"

"Ruby, we nearly killed Cardin!"

"Sure did! What was he doing here on Patch anyway?"

"There's blood in my puke!"

Ruby frowned. "Okay, that's actually quite serious, you should get that checked out."

Weiss held her hand up, stopping them from getting off topic.

In a quieter voice, she continued. "How did you know she'd ruin the tires? Surely there're easier ways to get her out of the house?"

Ruby waved her off with a smile. "I had to make it look like it was her idea... I'm a master at getting what I want."

Weiss scoffed. "You are not."

"I ammmmmmmmmm~."

"Argh!" Weiss growled, holding her hands to her ears. "Fine, fine, you are, you are!"

Ruby crossed her arms and smiled adorably.

Weiss shook her head clean from the ridiculousness that just occurred and picked up the carrier bag.

She frowned. "Hang on... why does Yang get presents? It's not her birthday, is it?"

Ruby giggled into her hands. "It's not for her birthday silly... look at the date!" she pointed towards the calendar in the corner of the room.

Weiss turned to the calendar and squinted, struggling to see it from across the room.

"Tuesday, Twenty-Seventh of March?" she asked, confused.

"Yep!" Ruby smiled.

Weiss turned to her partner, almost dreading to ask the question.

"What's so special about the Twenty-Seventh of March?"

"It's Mother's Day!"

"..."

"..."

"... No, it isn't."

"Yes, it is!"

"No, it's not."

"It is."

"Not."

"Is."

"Not."

"Is, is, is, is, is!"

"Ruby," Weiss growled, "Mother's Day is in May."

Ruby frowned. "No, it isn't."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it isn-"

"RUBY!" Weiss shouted, before regretting it instantly and clutching her head in pain.

"But it is Mother's Day... I read it online!" Ruby pouted.

Weiss sighed at her leader's baby face. She knew exactly the right buttons to push...

"Where did you read it online?"

Ruby took out her scroll. "MyDust, I'll show you."

Ruby spent a second flicking through her scroll, before passing it to Weiss.

Squinting to focus her vision, she read the screen.

"Ruby," Weiss gave a disappointed sigh. "This is a Mistral dustsite."

Ruby frowned, confused. "So?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "The Mistrals have Mother's Day in march. We are in Vale."

At this revelation Ruby's eyes dropped down onto her carrier bag.

"Oh..."

Weiss face-palmed.

"Why don't you show me what you got her anyway?" she gestured to the bag.

The cookie reaper smiled, quickly rearranged herself into a sitting position and took the bag into her lap.

"Okay so first-," her hand went into the bag.

"Hold up," Weiss' finger shot into the air.

Ruby paused, watching her partner expectantly.

"I don't know why this is only occurring to me now," she said more to herself than Ruby. "You know that... Yang's... not your mother, right?"

Ruby chuckled. "Of course I do, silly! Not really, anyway."

Weiss eyed Ruby, wondering what delusions were going on in her head and worrying about shattering them.

"Not... at all, you mean. She's your older sister."

Ruby shrugged. "Yeah, but she's also basically my mom."

Weiss squinted. "No Ruby, she's not."

Ruby shook her head. "No, she is! I realized that when we were in Miss Peach's class and were talking about biology! You don't have to actually be somebody's mom, to still be their mom. I mean, since the day our actual mom went missing and dad fell into depression, Yang did her best to take care of me in her place," Ruby explained, dropping on the couch, swinging her legs up and down.

"She always had to play two roles at once: that of the awesome big sister and the loving mother. She's been doing it for so long, she's basically both by now! And not only to me, but Team RWBY as whole as well! She takes the blame if one of us messed up, drives us everywhere, makes us food when we're hungry, talks to you when you wake up screaming at night-"

"I didn't know you knew about that..."

"And don't forget about Blake! Without Yang's intervention, who knows what would have happened to her."

"True..."

"You see what I mean! Yang is basically Team RWBY's mother. That means she's your mom, too!"

Weiss frowned, the cogs in her head ticking over.

"I... guess you have a point," she sighed. "My mother... it's... well,... it's complicated."

"See! I've been thinking about it really hard. And I figured, since Yang's basically our mom, we should get her something for Mother's Day! I even got you some stuff for her as well!"

At the mention of her inclusion, Weiss' interest peaked. She gestured towards the bag.

"So, what'd you get her?"

"Weelllll...," Ruby routed around inside the bag. "... First we got... candles!"

She took out a pair of scented candles and handed them to Weiss.

"For her room, when she relaxes."

Weiss shrugged.

"How very... normal, considering it's coming from you, but nice, she'll like them."

Ruby wiggled her eyebrows. "Weiss approved?"

She chuckled and nodded. "Weiss approved."

"Goodie!" Ruby squealed.

Her hands returned back into the bag, returning a second later with something new in her hands.

"Bath bombs!"

"Aw, I love those things," Weiss smiled.

"Weiss approved...?" Ruby teased.

Weiss smiled, shaking her head. "Weiss approved."

"Yeah!" Ruby smiled. "Next one is: alcohol!"

Ruby handed her a bottle.

Weiss winced. "You were doing so well..."

She took the bottle, reading the label. "... Ruby, this is expensive, even by my standards. Where'd did you get the money for it? Even more important, how did you bought it, aren't you underage?"

Ruby mouth opened into a cheeky grin.

"You didn't!"

"Didn't what?"

"You were shoplifting?!" Weiss screamed, eyes wide open in shock.

Ruby waved her off casually. "Of course not, what do you take me for? It was a 'buy one, get one free' - deal."

"... And?"

"I took the free one."

Weiss groaned.

"I'm not a crook!"

"What else you got?" Weiss asked, deciding to drop the subject... for now.

"Welllll," Ruby sang, digging through her bag of goodies.

Next she pulled out a picture frame, which was disproportionally big for the size of the bag. Weiss considered being confused, but figured when you're dealing with Ruby, sometimes it's easier to just accept what happens and not ask questions.

"I got this!" She turned the picture frame around.

Weiss gasped.

It was a beautifully hand-panted scene of the sun setting over a sandy beach. The sky was dark orange, the sea was calm and the whole picture had an air of relaxation to it.

"That's gorgeous..."

"I figured," Ruby began. "Since she sometimes misses Patch so much when we're at Beacon, she'd quite like it."

Weiss took the frame into her hands and admired it in greater detail.

"Ruby that's... really thoughtful of you."

She smiled, blushing.

"Think she'll like it?"

"She'll love it," Weiss nodded, before smiling. "Weiss approved."

"Yay!" Ruby squealed. "One last thing!"

"Oh?"

"Hold out your hand!"

Weiss did as told, only to have a small gold locket get dropped into it. "A necklace?"

"Open the bit in the middle, it's got a little picture inside!"

Weiss wrestled with the locket for a second, before clicking it open.

...

...

...

"Holy shit..."

"It's shit?"

"What? No! It's just..."

"What?"

"We had this done so long ago, I forgot we even did it in the first place," Weiss held the picture closer to her face.

"I printed it out so I could put it in there. It was really tricky, the printer is super difficult to use. I had to do it like twenty times before it I got the right size… we have to buy more paper when we get back to Beacon, by the way."

"Ruby, we don't own a printer."

"That explains many things."

"But seriously," Weiss continued, ignoring her comment, "This is really nice."

Ruby smiled at her words, and then quieter, replied. "You think so?"

"Yeah, I do," Weiss smiled.

Attached inside the locket was a miniaturized version of the picture they took right after the initiation, showing the future members of Team RWBY. Sweaty, dirty and exhausted, but proudly presenting the artefacts they collected.

A beaming Ruby stood in the centre, holding her hands up with victory signs, grinning widely.

Yang had her left arm wrapped around the shoulders of her little sister, smiling proudly at the camera.

Blake was standing next to her partner, arms crossed, smirking slightly.

And Weiss herself was on the left side, right next to the youngest team member, with a tired smile on her face.

- Later -

"SURPRIIIIIISSSSE!" Ruby sang, as an exhausted Yang walked into the house.

"Ruby, I love you. I really do, but I'm too tired for any of your antics..."

"Yang," Weiss interfered. "It's Mother's Day."

"What the fuck are you talk-," Yang stopped mid-march. She spotted something.

"Are those... presents?"

"YES!"

"... For me?"

"ALL THE YES!"

"... That one present is bottle-shaped..."

Ruby and Weiss shared a laugh.

"Believe me, it's better you don't ask," Weiss smiled.

"It's all yours!" Ruby exclaimed, gesturing towards the small pile of presents on the couch.

Yang eyed the two grinning girls in confusion. "... Why?"

"I already told you," Weiss shrugged, "It's Mother's Day."

"... It isn't."

"Believe me, it's better to just roll with it."

"It's your special day!" Ruby squealed.

"Yeah, mom," Weiss folded her arms, smirking.

Yang starred at the two in shock, and then sighed, putting her hand to her forehead.

"Dear Oum, I have TWO of them now..."