Qrow hauled Yang and Ruby against his chest, breathing hard from terror more than exertion. Both girls were crying as the beowolf corpses dissolved around them. One second longer, one second slower, and he wouldn't have made it.
“What’cha doing?” Ruby asked.
“Thinking,” Qrow replied.
“’Bout what?” Yang asked. Tai was upstairs. It was a bad day.
“Teaching at Signal.” Oz had offered to arrange it. Things were quiet since Summer… and his family needed him.
“You’re staying?” Yang asked, both girls looking hopeful.
“Guess so,” he replied.
Tai wasn’t sure what to say. Part of him wanted to laugh, the other part wanted to cringe at the damage to his carefully tended garden.
“Look Daddy! We’re weeding!” Yang declared, holding up a fistful of basil. Ruby seemed to be trying to build a castle out of soil.
Tai paused to take a deep breath of crisp fall air and look around. Fall was one of the prettiest seasons on Patch, even if it involved the most yard work. Finally, he set aside the rake and looked over at his daughters, who were practically vibrating with pent up excitement and energy.
“Get a good running start,” was all he said before moving out of their way. He’d have to rake the entire yard again by the time they were done, but it’d be worth it. Their smiles and laughter were a reminder of the good in the world.
After that day in the woods, it’s no surprise if Yang has nightmares.
But she also has her little sister. And Ruby isn’t about to let her face bad dreams all on her own.
It was dark when her eyes snapped open.
It was dark and for a one terrified second Yang thought, maybe this time it wasn’t a dream-
But then there was a sound from across the room. The tiny squeak of bedspring as Ruby snuffled a little in her sleep and rolled over, a faint ‘thwup’ of Peter Wolf falling to the floor where he always ended up.
They were normal sounds. Safe sounds.
Yang took a breath, tried to shut her eyes and go back to sleep.
It was a dream just a dream.
It was only dark because she’d woken up in the middle of the night again. It was only quiet because Ruby and Dad were sleeping, like she should be.
Everything was okay.
… a minute later Yang found herself sitting bolt upright in bed, shivering, staring at Ruby’s moon-shaped nightlight as thin arms wrapping around her knees and her frantically pounding heart.
Everything wasn’t okay.
The nightmare was still waiting for her, the nightmare that was never going to be just a dream.
Real, it was real enough for the backyard gate to still be locked tight. Real enough that Dad, after almost starting to get better, was back to crying every time he kissed them goodnight.
Summer- Mom- had asked her to look after Ruby and Dad.
All Yang had done was make things worse.
Everything except for the very last part of the nightmare had really happened. The picture, the woods, Ruby asleep in the wagon, the Beowolves… and it had been her fault.
Her fault.
Yang screwed up her face and scrubbed at her stinging cheeks.
She should sleep. Dad would notice if she didn’t. She shouldn’t make him worry about even more stuff.
Her eyes stayed wide open.
The dream was waiting and she was scared because it didn’t feel like a dream when she was in it. It felt like she was there, thrown against a tree and broken, watching her little sister look up as the shadows loomed over her, screaming when the Grimm come crashing down-
A sob in the dark. She tried to muffle it against one hand.
She didn’t want to wake them up she didn’t want to make things worse again she didn’t want to remember what she almost did-
“Yang?”
The hand on her knee made her jump.
“Ruby.” She mumbled, gulping air and hurriedly scrubbing her tears away before looking up. “What’s wrong? Do you need something?”
It was dark but Ruby sat so the little nightlight illuminated her face, silver eyes almost glowing, probably so Yang can see her skeptically raised eyebrow.
“You soundededed sad, not me.” The four year old pointed out.
Yang’s lips twitched towards a smile- Ruby’s policy was still better too many than too few when it came to adding ‘-ed’s. Dad hadn’t been able to explain why that was wrong yet, and Yang thought it was too cute to mess with. Maybe when Mom came back-
Her breath caught in her throat.
“What’s wrong?” She heard Ruby ask as she buried her head in her arms again. “Yang, are you hurts?”
Yang shook her head at the worry in Ruby’s voice, even though it felt like someone was squeezing her insides together, making her whimper in time to the pain.
There was a shift of mattress and then the patter of feet on floor as Ruby ran off into the room.
Panic jolted through Yang, what if she wakes Dad because of me he hardly get any sleep anymore I can’t be the reason he gets less, she uncurled and scrambled to the edge of the bed.
“Ruby wait! I’m okay, you don’t need to get Dad!”
“’m not!” Came the indigent reply from somewhere by Ruby’s bed.
A second later Ruby was back, crawling up beside her big sister as Yang slumped in relief.
“And you’re not okay, Yang.” Ruby poked her sister in the side, grumpy over being lied too.
“You had’s a bad dream, I cat tell.”
“Can tell.” Yang corrected with a hiccup of watery laughter. She felt Ruby shrug against her elbow, heard a muttered ‘whatevers’ as something warm and soft fell over her shuddering shoulders.
Ruby draped the cloak over them and cuddled close with a sigh.
“Mom says bad dreams are just bullies.” She mumbled as Yang instinctively wrapped an arm around her. “They’ll go away if you tells on them to someone, and I’m, I’m already awaaaaake….”
Ruby yawned, then gave her head a determined shake.
“So tells me so we can go back to sleep.”
But Yang was only half listening.
She was breathing in rose petal scent, already feeling herself calm down as she drew a corner of the cloak between her disbelieving fingers.
“Ruby, is this…?”
“Mom left it for me.” The younger girl’s offhand voice was completely the opposite of the pounding in Yang’s chest.
“In some paper under my bed. She said I should wait until my birthday, so I openededed it yesterday after breakfast. It’s way too big for me.” Ruby noted. “But, it’ll fit when I’m all grown up and a huntress like Mom… Won’t it?”
For a moment Ruby wavered at the thought of ever being big enough to fill Summer’s shoes, or in this case, wear a hunting hood like hers.
Yang sniffed and gave her little sis a hug.
“Sure it will.” She staunchly affirmed, realizing now that the threads under her fingers weren’t nearly frayed enough to belong to Summer’s old cloak. A second later her confidence melted away.
“Wait, yesterday was-” A lead weight fell into the pit of Yang’s stomach.
“-you’re birthday.” She whispered. “And you didn’t get a party. We forgot it.”
And it was her fault again.
Dad probably wouldn’t have forgotten if she hadn’t driven him half mad with fear for the second time in one year.
Ruby hummed and leaned heavily into Yang’s side, struggling not to drift off in the double warmth of her sister and the fine spun dust-and-wool cloak.
“’s okay. You made it a fun day anyway. And Dad didn’t break anything washing dishes, so thats was nice too...”
Listening to her Yang felt the tears start to prick her eyes again, she couldn’t’ stop them.
But she couldn’t keep from smiling either.
“Rules are rules.” She kept her voice low as Ruby twitched at the edge of sleep.
“We’re going to make it up to you tomorrow, Ruby. Just you wait.”
A faint snuffle was the only answer.
Boneless and limp, Ruby curled into Yang’s side as the older girl eased them down on the bed. It wasn’t that cold and the cloak was super warm anyway, so Yang didn’t bother trying to wrangle the covers out from under her sleeping sister, just wrapping Summer’s last present around them both as the night filled back up with sleepy silence.
“You made it a fun day anyway.”
Yang squeezed her eyes shut and pressed a kiss on Ruby’s feathery bangs, letting the words settle like padding around her aching heart.
“…dreams are just bullies. They’ll go away if you tells on them to someone-”
“So tells me so we can go back to sleep.”
Those words made Yang feel a little guilty.
Ruby was already asleep so… There wasn’t any point, she’d just make Ruby have nightmares too…
But the worst thing in the world was watching someone -Dad- be hurt and not being able to do anything to help. Not even being enough for them to let you try.
Yang’s lip stung a little at she bit it, hesitating.
“…ruby?”
Ruby’s head jerked up with snort at the sound of her name and Yang jolted too, honestly surprised her sister had heard the sigh-soft whisper.
“Dreamem.” Ruby’s mouth stumbled over the word, her eyes staying closed even as she nodded.
“’m listening.”
“I…”
Yang let out a tired breath as she gave in.
“I dreamed about that day in the woods. When Uncle Qrow saved us.”
Ruby nodded again, a bit more awake this time.
“But,” You get hurt and I can’t stop it and then it’s just me and Dad all alone all because of me. “Qrow isn’t there. He isn’t fast enough.”
Silver eyes snapped open.
Yang flinched as Ruby peered up at her, probably scared now because her stupid big sister couldn’t keep her stupid problems to herself-
“Did the Grimm hurt you?”
Yang blinked.
“No.” That wasn’t important but actually. “Well, yeah. But-”
“I’ll stop them next time.”
Ruby sounded sharp, like she was trying to cut through the shadows around them with just her words. Yang thought Ruby might have sounded pretty cool, if she didn’t still have a little kid’s voice.
Maybe she sounded kinda cool anyway.
“I stoppededed them last night.” Ruby went on proudly. “I had a scythe like Uncle Qrow but I was faster. They tried to hurt you but I cut them alllll up into pieces before they could!”
“Really?”
Yang found herself grinning without even trying to. The image of teeny little Ruby dicing up Grimm the same way their Dad cut up carrots for dinner- add her oversize cape and Yang could barely keep from laughing.
“Really.” Ruby said with her most solemn nod. They were so close together though that her head ended up bumping against Yang’s chin.
One of them snickered. One of them snirked.
Then it was somehow the most funniest thing in whole world and they were giggling, stuffing handfuls of cloak against their lips to muffle their laughter as they whispered ‘really’ back and forth in ever more mock serious tones.
“We’re gonna have to get lots bigger before we can really hunt Grimm.”
Yang said a few minutes later, flopping onto her back as she caught her breath.
“Mm.” Ruby agreed. “You’re already biggers than me. You’ll be hunting a long, long time before I can.”
There was a hint of a pout to that last bit Yang couldn’t ignore.
“Awww.” Reaching over she scooped Ruby back into her arms, ruffling short hair until her sister squeaked furiously.
“Just drink milk at breakfast and you’ll get big too!”
“I’ds better.” Ruby huffed, struggling free only to tug the cloak back on them and snuggle against Yang’s shoulder. Settling down again she sighed. “You can’t goes hunting on your own.”
“I won’t...”
Yang promised drowsily, then added.
“And don’t worry about fitting into the cloak. You will someday, it’ll just take a while.”
“Promise?” Came the sleepy whisper.
“Yeah...”
Yang closed her eyes and breathed in, slow and deep.
This time the Ruby she pictured was tall, not huge but definitely grown up, just enough height for her red cloak to dance around her heels.
She was carrying a scythe. It was big like Uncle Qrow’s, red because Ruby loved red, and slung over one shoulder with the same easy care that all hunters had with their weapons.
The huntress glanced at Yang, silver eyes twinkling as she smiled... like Mom’s always used to.
Someday, Yang told the huntress, someday you won’t just be a dream-
“I promise.”
“…”
Ruby let out a soft snore.
Yang had time for one last little laugh before her eyes closed. Slipping away, she drifted off into a world of roses on the wind and Ruby racing cheerfully at her side.
She smiled in her sleep.
If there was just one thing Yang could do right, it was going to be making sure her sister’s dreams came true.
It’s not little red riding hood it’s How Little Red Riding Hood Kicked The Wolf’s Butt and then Teamed Up With Goldilocks To Totally Rid The Whole Forest Of Evil Grimm- to be continued. Always. And Forever
Kid Ruby eating half a box of dog treats before realizing they aren’t cookies
Yang thinking it’s hilarious. Tai hyperventilating as he calls poison control, puppy Zwei carrying off the rest of the box (bigger than he is) while no one’s watching
