Ruby liked hanging off of Jaune's back.
Yang said she should grow out of it now that she had Aura and was a big girl, but just because her big sis was in a hurry to grow up didn't mean that she was!
Her arm lazily swatted in Zwei's direction as he tried to nip at Drei who was tied to her waist like normal. Her arm flopped as she was tired and sleepy after having gone through some physical conditioning from mommy Raven.
Mommy Raven was so nice but so mean when it came to training.
"Why're you always trying to bite your big brother?" She scolded her family's dog, trying to sound like mommy Summer as Zwei wagged his tail and yapped. "Drei's done nothing wrong."
She heard Jaune laugh, his Aura flashing with that spicy-fruity smell of juniper berries. She'd had one to taste because she was curious, but it was awful. Smelled nice though. Super nice. It was her second favorite smell.
"He's probably just jealous because you always carry Drei around everywhere."
Ruby felt her face flush a little with embarrassment.
"He was my first gift from you!" She pouted, "He's special."
"Very special." Her big brother Jaune reached up to pat her on the head, making Ruby humm contentedly as he pat her on the head, ruffling her hair just a smidgeon. "Keep him with you always."
She liked that.
Other kids her age at Signal made fun of her for carrying Drei around whenever Yang wasn't looking. Even Yang sometimes told her that she was starting to get too old for stuffed animals now that she'd started Huntress training like her, but Drei was special. Jaune was always happy when he saw her with it and that made her happy too. Unlike everyone else he said it was so important she should carry it everywhere, so she would!
Besides, it's not like Ruby made fun of Yang every time her special ribbon had to get washed and she'd pout for hours! That hardly seemed fair. At least she would maturely and grown-up-edly wait patiently for Drei to come out of the wash!
Ruby drank her milk and waited like a lady.
A little chocolate covered snack appeared in Jaune's fingers as his hands started to descend, instantly distracting her from her thoughts and monopolizing her attention.
Ruby's mouth snapped forward instantly to nom on the tasty treat before anybody could notice.
These moments were their little secret.
Ruby felt bliss run over her tongue as the smell and taste of rich chocolate covered 'cookie bark' filled her mouth with the taste of strawberry jam, milk chocolate, and cookie dough. There was also a little nutty something in the mix, but she couldn't make sense of it. All she knew was that it was just sooooo goooooooood.
Big brother Jaune made the best cookies. Actually she sort of guiltily thought they were a little better than even mommy Summer's even though her mommy's double chocolate chip were still her favorite.
Mommy Raven didn't really cook much, but knew how to make some really tasty jerky, but it wasn't cookies.
She felt her cheeks puff slightly as she tried to chew as quietly as possible, tucking her head down into the crook of Jaune's neck, smelling a little of his sweat and soap mingle with the chocolate.
She could feel a few crumbs spill from her lips, which was embarrassing, but Jaune never complained so she guessed he didn't mind too much. She hoped he didn't or that would be REALLY embarrassing. She'd spilled a lot of crumbs on him over the years.
As if reading her mind, Jaune's hand pat her head again. His headpats were so comforting. They felt like daddy Tai's and Drunkle Qrow's, but different somehow. Like there was a second hand somehow. Double headpats. Like a double rainbow. It was special. Important.
Ruby giggled with a mouthful of cookie bark.
Double headpats somehow felt right.
She looked up to see Jaune's brother Ren alongside Blake practicing what daddy called kata under his supervision.
While Ren was focused more on a series of deflecting blows and the occasional punch with his hands and blows with his elbows, Blake was focused on her kicks.
There were heavy metal bands latched around parts of her legs, though. Not for weight training as she didn't really need that, as Blake's legs were stronger than any normal adult's but it must have been important for something Ruby didn't understand yet.
She didn't really remember the Glacier Incident that everyone talked about too well, especially because she'd been somewhere safe when it happened, but Blake had been hurt badly then. Bad enough that her brother Jaune had to go and give her new legs and change them every two years because she was still growing. He said he'd have to probably do it once a year once she hit puberty properly, too.
Either way, because of that Blake had super legs.
She'd seen the older girl volunteer time to help adults cut down the super hard Iron Bamboo but she would lace up a tall boot with an axehead molded to the toe that she'd use to help chop them down. And she was faster than two adults working together with a big saw.
Even her big sis Yang had to be careful when they sparred because Blake's legs could cause trouble for her even with her Semblance. Blake usually even had to spar with a bunch of padding over her legs that slowed her down and spread the impact of her kicks.
She even remembered her kicking so hard it took Jaune off guard when he blocked the first time, even if Blake wasn't trained well enough to cap-capitol-capaci- take advantage of it.
Ruby knew words!
"...Do you wanna go back and train with the others?" Ruby asked, suddenly feeling a little guilty that Jaune had to sit to the side to keep her company.
Right now mommy Raven was training Yang and Auntie Noelle was doing the same with Nora and Clarent.
Normally mommy Summer would keep her company, but she was volunteering some time teaching some local Menagerie kids alongside Robin who acted as an assistant today. Big sisters Noire and Pepper were about, and one of them could watch over her if Jaune wanted.
But Ruby liked having a moment to herself with her brother. Jaune was always so busy that she usually had to share time with him and sometimes Ruby just wanted him for herself.
"Naw it's fine. I'm just enjoying the breeze with my favorite human backpack."
Ruby giggled as she hugged Jaune harder from behind.
Emerald was off somewhere being Emerald. She was nice to Ruby even though Yang and Blake didn't like her very much. Which was weird because Emerald was always polite to them.
"Some water, Master? Ruby?" She appeared from nowhere with two cups of ice water, surprising Ruby who yelped and jerked her head back as the cool glass touched the side of her warm, sweaty cheek.
"Thanks, Em."
"Thank you, Emerald." Ruby smiled a little shyly as Emerald just looked at her with garnet eyes, mysterious and unreadable, as she smiled and nodded.
"You're welcome, Master. Ruby." The older girl quietly stepped to Jaune's left side, standing in the shade with her arms held gently behind her back, her right leg brushing against Jaune's shoulder. "I shall be here if you need anything."
"Not interested in sparring?" Ruby heard Jaune ask.
"Not today. My style is 'unsportsmanly' and my victories against Blake and Yang only serve to make them dislike me. We get along well enough and there's no need to ruin that."
"You know you don't have to win every spar. Fighting without your Semblance would be a good challenge once in a while."
"I am happy to do so with your brother Ren and sisters Nora, Clarent, and Lady Robin, master."
"But not with Yang or Blake?"
"I must maintain my pride and honor as your blade."
Ruby giggled as Jaune laughed. She didn't get it, but Jaune's laugh was infectious.
"You're a good girl, Em. Don't change."
"Heh." Ruby heard the older girl let out a short bark of laughter under her breath. "I am forever your blade, my master."
Ruby wondered what that even meant.
Emerald was weird.
Kali laughed as she waved off another offering of free produce.
"Really, we have enough to go around." She smiled, "Thank you for your kind thoughts, Missus Valasheer."
"Nonsense." The brunette badger Faunus woman laughed, her long smoking pipe letting off a waft of pleasantly fragrant herbs, "That Little Professor of yours is the reason my husband's still got fingers. If he can give some prosthetics for free, I can give you some extra vegetables. I've got some great yams from Mistral in yesterday, at least take a few of those."
Kali groaned good-naturedly as the stall owner forced a paper bag with half a dozen yams into her basket.
"You know he says he's just trying to copy Dr. Polendina's volunteer work in Mantle. He doesn't want anything for it."
"And he's a good kid for it, but we don't have a Dr. Polendina. We've got a Dr. Arc and we'll show our appreciation how we well gone please." Mrs. Valasheer laughed, waving her off. "Not to mention how smooth my skin's been since he's set up that Mistrali bathouse for free! Any news on the trolley that the boy wants to set up? It'd make trips over to that side of town less of a journey."
"Being delayed since he's noticed how to potentially fix some of our crop growing issues." Kali informed, half happy, half apologetic, "Making sure Kuo Kuana and La Hau are well fed going forward is a bigger priority."
"Well now! I'd love to be able to peddle more local produce! That's our doc!"
Kali stepped away after a farewell to the friendly vendor.
Every day felt a bit like a dream sometimes. And while she occasionally missed the more rustic charm of old Kuo Kuana, their rebuilt village, now much more on the scale of a proper city, was thriving and every bit the dream that her Ghira had worked so hard for.
She was starting to worry her daughter's hand in marriage might not be enough of a thank you at the rate things were going.
Kali let out an amused giggle as she wandered over to the newly renovated fisherman's markets for some fresh fish.
She loved getting Jaune to make Mistralian sushi and sashimi. Something about the way the meat was cut changing the flavor and texture was honestly extraordinary. That and she liked the little kick of freshly grated wasabi and soy sauce together.
Ghira and Blake were too proud to admit it, but they loved sushi very much themselves, always hinting at her to be the one to request it from the boy.
Hmm.
She was sure if Blake made the request he'd go out of his way to serve it daily. He was a good kid.
Soy sauce was also a new thing Jaune had developed. Or perhaps even discovered in some long lost cookbook.
The closest thing Kali had to compare to soy sauce was garum from North-West Mistral.
Garum was tasty enough, but she found that the taste of Jaune's soy sauce was different and better. Somehow more clean and refined. Jaune claimed they were more or less variations of the same thing in principle, but despite the more robust fishiness of garum, Kali definitely preferred the gentleness of soy sauce.
Actually she might ask for the recipe and convince Ghira to grow some soybeans. See if she couldn't replicate it a bit on her own time. It wouldn't hurt for Menagerie to potentially develop some of their own products. Way she'd seen Jaune use the sauce, it seemed rather versatile.
Just yesterday Jaune had shared something he called soy-sauce marinade fish glazed in miso and it was heavenly. Her mouth still drooled thinking about it.
The fisherman's markets used to just be stalls out in the sun, but that had never been great for the condition of the fish beyond the mornings.
Now it was a large refrigerated warehouse that was kept cool with what Jaune called air conditioning. The concept was similar to using Ice Dust and Wind Dust to spread a cooling breeze in an area, but somewhat convoluted with gas pressures and grates and motors in a way that sounded complicated.
But Menagerie was always happy to spend less on Dust. So complicated was fine!
Admittedly, she wasn't the one scratching her head over manuals trying to learn how to fix it when it broke, but… well. That was the job of other people in this circumstance. She had her hands full helping Ghira maintain and manage everything while still being a housewife.
She could see locals hanging out in some of the more open spaces within, even grabbing a meal from some small local vendors cooking with the fresh seafood.
Kali was personally a big fan of the clam chowder stand. Jaune had suggested they use 'bread bowls' and while that was a bit of a luxury as wheat still needed to be imported, it was tasty and fun.
Despite the smell of the ocean and fish, the cool refrigerated warehouse was built extra large to double as a place where people could gather and take shelter from the heat. The denizens of Kuo Kuana had always been used to the smell of the sea anyways.
That had been more Ghira's idea as Jaune tended normally to be more utilitarian.
They worked well together, those two. Complemented each other in how they could cover the other's weaknesses in city planning.
Jaune's designs made La Hau and New Kuo Kuana (or the newer parts of their city anyways) have much more structure and kept things like industry separated from housing as to not keep people up at night from noise and in case a big accident would occur, while Ghira could mediate, adjust, and add personal touches settle disputes over things that happened in practice before they could become an issue.
Honestly they were borderline father and son already.
Still, while she'd stepped into the fisherman's market to enjoy the atmosphere and the cool air, Kali knew that personally picking up and shopping for fish at the market was a bad idea.
Despite her better judgment Kali found it much harder to refuse extra fish.
Especially when she clapped along in applause as she witnessed a few Faunus fishermen that had lived and worked in Mistral most their lives cleanly and skillfully take apart a large tuna the size of a grown adult with a maguro bocho. The head dismantler waved her over, offering a large segment of what he called otoro, the fattiest portion of tuna and put it in a little icebox for her.
"I-I really couldn't." Kali protested, even though her glimmering eyes didn't stray from the box, blushing as people around them all laughed at her obvious interest. "That's the best part."
Her throat gulped traitorously.
"Bah, don't worry." The seal Faunus man barked out a laugh, "Just please invite over young Dr. Arc to share some tips on cutting sashimi with me. I learned plenty last he was here. We gave out some free samples and people loved it."
"I'll certainly bring it up to him." She agreed, weak for the allure of succulent fatty tuna. "I must insist I pay-"
"Bah, it's a bonus. You paid already for the mackerel and salmon we be delivering later." He tutted her away, shoving the cold box into her arms and refusing her Lien. "Make sure the Chieftain eats well! Go, go."
Jaune seemed to worry about potential overfishing, but despite his concerns, their harvests from the sea hadn't been a problem yet to date. If anything he admitted he might have been over-concerned and not have been considering global population size and limited commercial harvesting, whatever that all meant.
He was always working a bit too hard, that boy. Always trying to prove something.
"I think we'll have a game night tonight." Kali mused, "Get all of the kids to have a bit of fun. Especially that Emerald girl. She's so constantly desperate to prove herself useful. She'll burn herself out if she isn't careful. I'll rope Jaune into it to help her and trick him into getting in some relaxation as well~. Charades is fun. What else though…"
Either way, she'd still have to see about convincing Jaune to make something with this tasty fatty tuna first.
She hummed the tune of 'Bumblebee' as her feet sped up slightly on the way back home.
"And you're sure that she came alone? No trail or anyone following her?"
"Positive Boss." Greene Branwen replied with a lazy mock salute. Despite everything, nobody in Parabellum actually cared for the military protocol side of things. "The uh, you know who came asking to see you. Apparently once Lionheart was out of the picture she was taken in by Ozpin."
Raven spat to the side, Greene stopping to join her only because she'd made it a rule. She knew it was petty, she didn't care.
"What does she want? Told her last time that I was busy with my own shit when the brat was healing Summer and I couldn't care less about her problems."
"She says she wants some temporary shelter to avoid his gaze. They're clearly having a disagreement of some sort, I couldn't tell you, Boss."
Raven laughed.
"Hiding a Maiden under the parasite's eyes? Shit. If I wasn't working through my own shit when she came by the first time… bah. No need to cry over spilt blood. Nobody let Qrow know she's here if he stops by."
"He swings by once a month for one of the poker nights. Nobody bets money with him anymore since he's got his Semblance reversed by your apprentice. We only gotta play it safe then, but with his luck the way it is now I don't think that'll be so easy."
Raven snorted. So that's what the fuck he was always slinking into camp for.
"Do we still have that invitation for one of those Vacuoan casinos in Almurawij? Give him that the next he swing by and tell him to fuck off."
"Boss we were saving that for this month's no-holds barred brawl tourney prize!"
Raven rolled her eyes.
"I'll get Jaune to swing by and customize the winner's weapon, how about that?"
Greene blinked.
"Shit, for real, Boss? Aw hell yeah! I've seen clips of Victory Wing. I want some of whatever that Elm girl's got. Fucking POCKET LASER CANNON here I come! Ha ha!"
Raven sighed into the palm of her leather gloved hand as Greene whooped and ran off to tell the rest of the tribe the changes to their monthly limit testing sessions.
"That fucking monster of a PlasmaCannon-GreatHammer's a quarter ton for a reason, moron. Eh. Brat'll figure out a lighter lower output version if he's gotta." Raven shrugged. "If he complains I got blackmail."
The thought of Yang getting to see him crime fighting dressed in a skirt was hilarious. The only issue with that is her dumb little angel would insist on joining along and Raven was happy to not let Jaune drag her into that mess. Nor was she planning on untangling what weird mess of a friendship he had with those twins.
Just find a boy or girl your own age to suck face with, stop messing with her brat. He was fucking taken. By Yang, obviously.
Speaking of Yang, she'd need to start designing the basic form of her Huntress weapon soon, but she was procrastinating, like always. Maybe she'd get Jaune to give some suggestions to motivate her angel. She shone like the sun whenever he gave her some one on one attention.
Some of that procrastinating nature was admittedly from Raven herself, but she chose to bully Taiyang about it instead because of the one time he'd completely forgotten a project in Beacon during their junior year.
It was hot when he looked mildly embarrassed and uncomfortable. Raven liked watching her husband squirm. Actually she liked it when people squirmed in general. It was fun for her.
Summer always called her a little sadist, but that wasn't right. Raven only liked seeing her enemies in pain.
"Let's see what the little bitch has to say then." She cracked her neck, "She's what, twenty two now? Fresh graduate of maybe a year or two? Hells she running away for now?"
The irony of that sentence would be lost in the cold forest camp of Parabellum.
"Obviously we can do something more complex later if you care about that kind of thing." Juniper watched Jaune speak as he held up a few roughly modified versions of Yang's armored gauntlets. "But it's not even about learning how to shoot, but what feels right in the first place."
Ruby raised a hand from where she sat on the ground, shaded by a tree.
"Yes, Ruby?"
"Can she punch a bullet?"
Juniper held in a snicker as he saw Jaune look befuddled.
Yang's eyes lit up though.
"Yeah, that would be loads cooler than just shooting with my hands pointed straight like a moron!"
Jaune looked like he had so much to say about respecting firearms and the nature of precision weapons, but Juniper waved a bit to catch his attention.
"Remember, it's her Huntress weapon. She needs to be the one to find it fun and interesting, right? Is shooting bullets by punching dumb and inaccurate? Absolutely. Are there types of guns that make accuracy not important? Also yes. Think, Jaune. You got this."
Jaune's ears turned from him, back to normal, and began to twitch rapidly as he began tap-stamping his right foot into the ground the way he did when he was either lying or thinking deeply.
Jaune's weapons knowledge was advanced but it was from a world that lacked Aura and had different needs. While Juniper mostly agreed that the way the guns in Earth (from the way it was described to him) made a lot more sense to arm as many people as possible, mostly against each other.
On the other hand, Remnant was, in Jaune's words, a Death World.
By Jaune's own words, he had no idea how humanity managed to even survive this long against the Grimm. Frankly even with Ozma in the background how had humanity lived this long?
But they needed more versatile methods to be dealt with, specialized fighters that while being able to cover a large base of basic ability, needed to be able to do specific things really well.
"If we make the act of punching at sufficient velocity, or rather the actual cessation of motion as the trigger, we could easily make that the basis for the hammer of the gun, so to speak. Yeah we can definitely let you punch bullets. Actually it'd be pretty easy. Figuring out how sensitive it needs to be is the real trick."
Yang looked excited, her fists beginning to shadowbox a bit as she imagined herself firing bullets at imaginary Grimm.
"Ooh ooh! Can we make them use the same kind of bullets Mom Summer uses? I wanna match!"
"I mean, we can, but I'd personally recommend shotgun shells like Qrow." Jaune looked like he wanted to point out that a .50 caliber HMG round might hurt Yang more than it would hurt her enemies right now.
"I mean Harbinger is super cool too, but why?"
"With all the motion that comes with punching, you're not going to be super accurate. Might as well make sure you hit things."
"Hey!" Yang argued back, "I could totally hit shots with my punches! I'm really good at it!"
She performed a quick flurry of fists to prove her point as she slowly approached Jaune, her eyes narrowed and faintly gleaming red. She added a pair of short jabs towards Jaune's chin at the end to prove a point.
If she was grown up that might have been intimidating, but since she was barely eleven it was just cute.
Pyrrha was honestly squealing inside at how adorable young Yang was.
"That's not. Nevermind. I'll make two new versions with the kinetic hammer mechanisms." Juniper chuckled as Jaune rolled his eyes, pulling out his Disassembler and readying to throw the current prototypes in.
"Wait. That's the machine that breaks everything, right? Don't do that!" Yang argued, grabbing Jaune's forearms. "It's not like we gotta throw-em away!"
Juniper briefly wondered if Yang was projecting her old abandonment issues onto these prototype gauntlets. Despite everything and how much of a surprisingly good mother-daughter duo Raven and Yang made, it didn't change the fact that Yang knew that her mother had left her for the first six and a half years of her life.
Honestly he didn't even know if she'd ever even gotten around to explaining why.
"Yang, there's no need to waste materials. They're just going to be remade into your new test gauntlets anyways. It's not like we're throwing them away."
"Psh. Yeah. I know that! But, y'know. You kinda made them for me still, so they're like, kind of mine still, right? I just wanna keep 'em. Just for y'know memories and stuff, y'know?"
Jaune laughed alongside Juniper, the two in sync as Yang flushed.
"I-I mean, if we gotta we gotta, but-"
"Ok, I'll just make new ones. Who knows, maybe you like these versions regardless. You'll get a feel for what the recoil feels like either way." Jaune just put away the Disassembler as he pointed out what the three different gauntlets were chambered in.
"This one actually is a shotgun, like what I'm suggesting, so we can lead with that. It's got a bit of a kick, so don't straighten your arms perfectly, you'll just hurt your elbow."
"Alright, alright." Yang waved him off as she quickly fastened on the gauntlets, the shotgun mechanism extending the barrel past her knuckles. "I got thi-"
And flew backwards, landing hard on the ground as the propulsion of the shot knocked her flat on her back.
Juniper roared in laughter. Who knew watching Yang, the girl that could have beaten his ass six ways to Sunday when they'd gone to Beacon, learning to fire a gun for the first time could be so funny?
Jaune grinned, one of his ears perking in his direction, as he leaned over Yang, extending a hand to help offer her up.
"Now next time, you brace your feet like you're in a fighting stance instead of being at rest, yeah?"
Jaune danced away from an angry swipe at his thigh as he laughed, stepping forward again to pull Yang up by the forearm, just a bit too strong for a boy his age, and yanking up Yang hard enough that their foreheads collided.
"Ow-whoops." Jaune rubbed his head with his other hand as Yang's body pressed up against his. "Sorry bout that."
"No problem, y'know?" Yang replied back quickly, blushing at how she was sent flying back so easily. "It's like, accidents happen, y'know?"
Ruby just shouted from her place in the shade.
"Do it again!"