Within the Xiao Long/Rose household, it was a rather peaceful afternoon.
The birds were chirping away in the woods. The sun shone down with a gentle warmth in these colder times of late December, a time when one can expect snowfall at any time as the end of the year approaches swiftly.
Inside the home was also just as peaceful as the outside, with the ever-present adult of the house, Taiyang, taking full advantage of this rare day off from his extreme workload, thanks to a certain someone dumping all his problems on him, and sleeping in, just like his two older children, who were just as tired as he was after dealing with the academy till yesterday. As for the other adult, Qrow, he was, as usual, absent from the house for one reason or another and would probably crash on their couch unannounced like always.
However, this peace was suddenly shattered when a thunderous explosion rocked the house, snapping all three sleeping people awake as their instincts went haywire.
Yang Xiao Long was the first one to move.
She practically tore through the door to her room, still dressed in her tank top and shorts, and her hair a tangled mess.
Standing at 5 feet 7 inches at 15 years of age, she was already starting to resemble her birth mother, according to their father, in many different ways. Her figure already filling out while also showing off the compact and powerful musculature that made her resemble an Amazonian of legend.
Her crimson eyes and flaming hair a dead giveaway that she had activated her semblance on instinct.
Merely a fraction of a second later, Ignis Ruber got out of his own room.
Similarly dressed in a tank top and shorts, which exposed his lean but very much defined musculature that held unfathomable power, his cold blue eyes scanned the area for threats before realizing the source of the commotion near instantly, making him groan in annoyance.
The final person to react was none other than Taiyang, who blasted out of his room, turning his door to rubble, as his Aura flared around him like a living flame.
"What happened? Who attacked my home? And why this early in the morning!?"
Ignis gave the older man a dumbfounded look before shaking his head.
"Calm down, Tai. It's not an attack. Also, looks like you need a replacement door. Again."
Taiyang and Yang gave Ignis a confused stare at his words before the father and daughter realized what he meant at the same time.
Showing a synchronicity that only a parent and child could have, they smacked their palms to their faces and spoke as one.
""Ruby""
"Yup."
Ignis said tiredly and looked out the window towards the other building, which now had faint smoke coming out of the windows.
'She should already be panicking hard right now. The question, however, is what kind of insanity was she testing this time?'
"Looks like we might need to renovate the garage again."
Taiyang groaned as comical tears slid down his face in bitterness.
"This is the third time this year....."
Suddenly, Yang's eyes widened as she leaned out the window.
"Wait a minute!! The garage? My bike!!!"
Yang instantly jumped out the window and sprinted to the garage, making Ignis sigh and glance at Taiyang.
"I'll go check on them. You deal with calculating the costs for the garage's renovation....and your door's replacement."
"Why....? Why can't I ever save even a little bit of money without using it on restoring the house again and again...?"
If Taiyang heard Ignis's voice, he did not acknowledge, and he remained on all fours while comically crying about the monetary loss, making Ignis roll his eyes at his dramatics.
Especially when Taiyang is practically a millionaire at this point, thanks to him acting as the Director of the company that they established nearly two years ago.
With a light jump, Ignis easily vaulted out the window and landed with the grace of a cat on the ground below, rolling over the moment he touched ground to bleed off the momentum, and then took off sprinting to the garage.
The moment he arrived at the door, he could not help but sigh.
'It's a disaster as expected. Looks like Tai is going to spend more than he thinks to fix it up. That chealskate will really feel every single Lien, that's for sure.....'
The inside of the garage was a complete disaster.
The wall-mounted tool rack was now on the ground, its metal frame completely warped by whatever explosion had happened there, showing that it was near ground zero during the incident.
The tools themselves were now scattered all over the garage, some of them embedded in the logs that made up the garage's walls, some of them having blown clean through the rooftop, and a few others having either embedded themselves in other machinery or at least dented them badly.
Fortunately, none of the makeshift projectiles ruptured the Dust Fuel tank nearby, or this would have been a completely different kind of disaster, one that he would have been forced to take very seriously.
Unfortunately, one of the badly damaged pieces of machinery is Yang's unfortunate, newly bought motor for her custom bike, which cost more than ten thousand Lien, her entire year's saved-up pocket money, which is nothing compared to the kind of money she should have between Taiyang and me but she doesn't since, again, Taiyang is a cheapskate that believes in raising children with the mindset of earning their own stuff.
'....Yeah. Ruby's not getting out of this one.'
Ignis sighed and looked to the two girls, staring speechlessly at the absolute disaster zone.
Ruby, the 12-year-old, was covered in soot from head to toe. Her dress and her favourite cape now look like she crawled through a coal mine.
Her teary eyes stared at her elder sister, who was giving her a serious tongue-lashing. Not just for the mess she caused, but also because she put herself in danger.
Ruby had her Aura unlocked a long time ago, even before I arrived in this home, and unlocked her Semblance nearly a day or two after activating her Aura. A record that nobody could break. Well, nobody except me, but that is a different conversation entirely, since I am an anomaly that nobody can anticipate in this world.
However, just because she had her Aura unlocked doesn't mean she is no longer in danger.
In terms of Aura quantity, Ignis had everyone in this house, and even at school, except for the Headmaster, beat. They say that his Aura quantity is equal to that of a veteran Huntsman already, and it will only continue to grow as he ages. By the time he reached the age for Beacon Academy, the school thinks he will have an Aura quantity nearly triple that of a seasoned veteran like Qrow at a minimum.
In terms of Aura density, Yang is the one who triumphs over everyone.
Her quantity is average at best. But the density of her Aura is absurdly high, allowing her to keep up with Aura monsters like Ignis most of the time unless she uses her extremely Aura-intensive Semblance.
But Ruby? She has none of these advantages.
Her Aura reserves? Average for her age. Her Aura density? also average for her age.
That meant that in a house of exceptions like this, she is the normal one. But her brain hasn't realized that part yet.
Hence, her blood sister and adopted older brother worry for her with her tendency to blow things up when experimenting.
'I really shouldn't have gotten her that Custom Ammo Kit for her birthday.'
Ignis sighed as Yang finally stopped shouting and hugged her sister tightly, showing how worried she was for Ruby's safety.
The teenage boy walked forward and sat down beside Ruby.
"So? What were you messing with this time?"
".....Water Dust compression. I wanted to see if I could create compact casings for compressed Water Dust."
Once again, the teenager sighed at her whispered words as she peeked out from behind Yang's hug.
"Messing with things to create new ammo for my gun again, huh?"
She nodded at his words as her silver eyes regained that excited light.
"I wanted to get rid of that water reservoir problem for the Annihlator, so I tried to use Water Dust instead. But, I miscalculated the PSI and, well...."
Ignis patted her head as she hid in Yang's hug with embarrassment.
"First of all, I told you not to give weird names to my weapons. You should never personalize a tool or revolve your entire combat style around them when they can so easily be taken away."
"Second of all, messing with pressurized Dust is extremely dangerous. It is the main reason why I do not use any Dust or Mechashift in my weapons."
He stared at her seriously, and Yang rolled her eyes at the familiar lecture but still smiled, shifting her younger sister into a comfortable position in her lap as she too sat down.
"Mechashift can jam. Complex mechanics can fail. Refined Dust can explode if not handled properly or lose effectiveness over time. That is why, it is always best to go with the least complex systems possible for weapons that are to be used on the battlefield-"
Yang smacked Ignis's head mid-sentence, making the boy stop talking.
"How many times will you repeat that? If she didn't change the first few times you said this, she ain't going to change now. I mean, look at her."
At her words, Ignis looked down to find Ruby staring at him with a bewildered look, steam practically wafting off of her head at the familiar info dump that she could never internalize, no matter how much Ignis tried.
The boy sighed once again, patted the younger girl's head, and got up.
"I'll go see what Tai is up to over there. Oh, by the way, you might want to look at getting a new motor, Yang. I don't think that ruptured cylinder can be repaired anymore."
Yang's eyes widened as her head snapped towards the engine that was hanging from the harness. The brand new engine that she was going to install in her beloved Bumblebee today.
The same engine that now clearly sported a rupture straight through its piston housing and injection system. A result of Aura-Steel tools being thrown at the solid Aluminium motor at Mach speeds.
Her eyes flashed a deep crimson before she closed said eyes and whispered to herself while trembling, making Ruby panic hard.
"Alright. It's fine. It's just an engine block. I can replace it. It will just cost me.....another ten thousand lien. Fuuuu...."
She blew out air rather aggressively, making Ruby give her older sister a pitiful look, knowing that she had really messed up this time.
As for Ignis, he just grinned and left, knowing that Yang really wanted to curse out like a sailor right now, but could only hold herself back since Ruby was right there.
And so began one of the more normal days in this quirky, but warm household.