A yawn escaped me before I stood up to stretch from my seat at the desk in Ruby and I's upstairs bedroom.

My lips pursed with utmost focus while idly tapping a pencil against my leg while pacing around the small rug in the center of the room. I stopped to glance back to the cluttered desk in the corner of the room, the words on the papers resting on top of it seemed to blur to my eyes as I considered the next direction for the narrative being built.

Staying up all night did not do me any favors, but when inspiration struck, I had to stick it out or end up losing out.

I was not entirely sure whether to reveal the wizard's deception quite yet to my protagonist. There was a bit of drama I could wring out if I were to hold back on it and keep the slow simmer going on the build-up. A hum escaped me while I considered the trade-offs. For one thing, the wizard had good intentions for concealing certain bits of information about the super evil Grimm Queen Overlord of Darkness. And, I loved the conflict it would cause…

I shook my head, it barely was even a decision that I had to spend much time considering. After all, a story wouldn't be all that interesting if people made the most rational decisions all the time. The wizard was included in that.

Perhaps I should devise some kind of a worship system? Make it so she grows more powerful for every broken and devoted disciple she has? A proper evil overlord has to have some worshipers, after all.

A sigh escaped me, maybe later. I needed to get this scene done before I did anymore world building.

Just as I was about to sit down and settle back into a groove, pencil in hand, the bedroom door practically sprang open with little warning. Instinctually reaching for my aura, my perception of time minutely slowed. Immediately, I darted for my story draft while the door opened, scooping it up in my arms and rushing to my bed on the opposite wall of Ruby's own. Warmth suffused my limbs and my movement became all that much faster; it might have been a little excessive to use aura for this, but if this was Yang and she saw what I was actually writing stories…

Well, death might be preferable to the verbal torture she'd put me through for the next couple of weeks.

Despite all of my efforts, fate was simply not in my favor. I twisted around, fast, without looking at the floor below, and found myself unexpectedly airborne as I spun from having my foot hooked onto one of the parts of the Mechashift weapons that my sister left on the floor between my bed and hers. It was used as a model for planning my own Mechashift designs in cooperation with Ruby, so far she seems to be pretty dead set on both of us having a high-caliber sniper rifle installed in whatever designs we end up using.

Strangely enough, her sing-song voice going, 'Russet, we'll have matching ammunition, isn't that great!', echoed in my mind while I contemplated my life choices amidst my unavoidable collision course set for the floor below.

Ruby really needed to organize and put away what she disassembled for my own sake at the very least.

The impact on the wooden floor came with a loud thud that reverberated through the floor. Thankfully my aura absorbed most of it, the protective, thin, crimson film fading away in less than a second from around my body.

In the middle of the precious pages of my work fluttering around me, a raspy sarcastic voice cut through the air, "Well, you should probably watch where you're going, kid. There's a floor down there."

For a moment, I contemplated the intrusive thought of throttling my most cherished uncle, but there was a fat chance of that ever happening without his sudden becoming a paraplegic. The man was the real deal as far as huntsmen went and he most definitely wasn't retired like Dad was. Many other things ran through my head and one of them was to thank the gods that it wasn't Yang. But I wasn't sure that Uncle Qrow was much better. I kind of forgot that Dad mentioned he was coming by a few nights ago.

I looked up at the man standing in the doorway, and sure enough, it was an appearance I had come to expect. Short-dark hair, red eyes, scruffy look complete with the marginal effort he makes in keeping his face shaven, and beyond that it looked like he was in the wilderness for weeks on end with how stained his clothes were. A mildly amused look appeared on his face when he looked down at me lying prone on the floor. Though, one of his arms appeared to be hanging out in front of him in a cloth sling wrapped around his shoulder.

I saw Ruby behind him, shooting me a look as if she had committed the gravest of sins. Uncle stepped into our room while bending over to pick up the closest page that landed next to his feet.

I failed to see his initial reaction as my view was suddenly obscured by a mix of black and red. My twin grabbed my prone form and clutched me to her stomach, driving the small amount of air I managed to regain back out of my lungs with her deceptive and likely aura induced amount of strength. "RUSSSSET! I'm sorry! I tried to stop him, I really did! But then he started to drag me around the house, and all Yang did was laugh!"

But I heard none of this as a feeling of overwhelming panic settled into my stomach, making me feel as if I swallowed a block of lead. I squirmed quickly out of my sister's embrace as my Aura flared up in a brilliant crimson, small sparks of light floating off of me and quickly consolidating into a sizable swarm of crystalline rose petals, each holding a glowing heart of crimson red deep within.

Without a second thought, I mentally directed the gleaming, yet razor-sharp, petals at my dearest Uncle with no hesitation or regret. For there was no time for such trivialities, not when those incriminating papers remained within his grasp! I may not be that good at utilizing this aspect of my semblance, but needs meant necessities came first. Making him unhand those papers was priority number one.

Unfortunately for me, my Uncle proved himself to be the agile Huntsman that he always boasted to be, even while hindered by the stiff white cast adorning his arm. With swift, almost lazy, movements, he dodged my swarm without breaking a sweat. And most importantly, he kept a deft hand on my rough draft as my panic grew, my own movements becoming more erratic as time went on.

"Woah, kiddo! What's up with you today?" Qrow chuckled out as his body twisted out of the way of another bolt of petals that broke off the main swarm. Evidently, he didn't care too much about how the failed attack managed to shred away a small indent into the solid wooden wall behind him; puffs of sawdust crumbled off the wall and onto the floor.

"Does… it have to do with these maybe?" He shook the papers under my nose in a taunt, before shifting out of the way of Ruby as she dived at him to assist me in the heat of the moment, "You don't mind if I have a look, do you?"

I didn't reply, my mind fully occupied with directing the swarm of dwindling petals into a three-pronged attack. As I did that, though, I spotted my twin sneaking around the edge of her side of the room with her own Semblance, looking as though the cat caught the canary as she carefully moved into position behind our distracted uncle.

Said uncle, to my utter annoyance, still managed to fall into a steady rhythm despite my best efforts, maintaining a fine balance between dancing around all three of my separate streams of attack and raking his eyes across the slightly crumpled manuscript. I watched in dismay as an uncharacteristically stony look enveloped his typical smirking face.

Internally, I winced, I was fully aware he probably wouldn't be the biggest fan of what I had written considering the unavoidable parallels. Maybe it had been a bout of brief madness but I just couldn't resist the idea: writing fanfiction while actually inside the fiction in question was kind of hilarious; barring that, I wasn't stupid enough to directly name Salem or Ozma.

Although, It wasn't nearly as funny now that I was being presented with the consequences of my actions...

Thankfully, my ever-dedicated sister leapt with purpose from her position behind him and latched onto his arm holding the pages. Happy giggles escaped from her in contrast to the determined look on her face, oblivious of the no doubt complicated thoughts peeling through our uncle's brain about the contents of my writing.

"Russ! Quick!" She called out to me, and I didn't waste any time directing my awaiting razor-sharp projectiles into completely shredding the pages in his hands, yet still trying to be somewhat careful in not damaging anything else in my room. I was not looking forward to talking to Dad about anything that I might damage if I went all out.

Strands and scraps of paper go flying all over the place when the razor petals from my semblance made contact to completely destroy the poor pages. I took a deep breath and went to grab the other loose pages on the floor all while eying my uncle with suspicion with keen petals held at the ready just in case he decided to grab more.

He blinked, seeming to be in thought before glancing at my twin sister hanging limply off his arm.

She stuck her tongue out at him before letting go and shaking off the accumulating wood dust and paper shreds from her red cloak.

His stiff expression softened as he turned to me, "So… you're into writing stories, huh?"

I swallowed stiffly and nodded, idly allowing my swarm to dissipate into the ether with a pleasing sparkle of crimson red.

It was clear that whatever page he read was one that hit a little too close to home to the whole Grimm Queen thing, but thankfully that was a common trope in writing in Remnant from my own reading on the CCT net. People liked putting a definable enemy that could be defeated on the Grimm, which just happened to be somewhat close to the truth funnily enough.

But putting aside the meta-joke thing, I honestly thought I could do better than some of the slop that was out there. The CCT net was no better than the internet when it came to the self-published writers, warts and all.

"Y-yeah." My focus drifted onto his arm in the sling across his chest. Really, I'd rather avoid this topic with him. "Uncle Qrow, when did you get here?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Eh, not too long ago. Got held up in the hospital for the arm otherwise, I would have been here yesterday. But, luckily for you pipsqueaks, I'll be sticking around a bit longer than usual."

"Because of the arm?" I sharply inquired, Ruby's own eyes eying his cloth wrapped limb with concern.

He sighed, tapping his broken arm with his free hand, "Yeah… because of the arm," a minute wince came over his features which he disguised well.

Seeing that we were both expectantly staring at him, he rolled his eyes, "Alright you two. You want a story of my own?"

Needless to say, we both nodded enthusiastically. Though I was more concerned about who or what could actually manage to hurt him. There wasn't much, as far as I was aware, that could give the one of the greatest Huntsman on the planet trouble. With a dramatic flourish utilizing his good arm, Uncle Qrow leaned back into his chair and started his latest tale with a sly grin tugging at the corners of his lips.

----------------------------------------

It was midday, and the sun was high with not a single cloud in the sky. A pretty normal day in that hellscape, really. But anyways, I was in Vacuo looking into some… suspicious characters taking liberties where they shouldn't; making people disappear, good people just doing their jobs as huntsmen, and I was hot on the trail of one of the perpetrators. So there's this place outside this old rinky-dink bar in the outskirts of the city-

"Uncle, almost every one of your stories begins with going into a bar…"

Alright, while that may be true half the time, Russ, but this time I wasn't there purely for my own entertainment. Sometimes old seedy bars are a locus of criminality and if you want to put your finger on the pulse of your target, you need to get into the mindset. Putting that aside, there was a document forger that did some business on the other side of the back alley that I've talked to once or twice before.

He let me know that there was a sketchy looking guy that had recently bought some papers from him for a quick ticket out of town. Not the usual kind of sketchy either, the ones who are just looking to start another life outside the burnt desert and want some distance from the local government. According to my contact the man's whole character screamed cold, calculated, and with a look in his eyes that said if you crossed him then you wouldn't get to see Vacuo's next sunrise.

So after a little catching up with my contact I decided to make my way to the inn that this man was supposedly staying at, a surprisingly rich place for a man that was probably up to some nefarious shi-uff. Stuff, up to nefarious stuff…

"Uncle Qrow, are you sick too? Did the hospital give you something for a cold before letting you go?"

No Ruby, I'm fine, really, just accidentally swallowed some spit is all..

Anyway, where was I?

"The fancy inn?"

Right, so this guy was definitely posted up in this fancy inn smack dab in the middle of Vacuo. Personally I thought the place looked a waste of perfectly good drinking money but there's no accounting for taste I guess. It certainly didn't help my opinion of the place when I walked in and the bartender sneered at me like I was a dirty rag. That's pretty typical with your fancy types though, something the two of you I'm sure will learn well enough when you start going out on missions.

But putting the locals' snobbishness aside, I made myself at home, paying extra well for both drinks and food to make sure they wouldn't kick me out or anything like that. Admittedly not my usual kind of haunt, but being a master of stealth and intrigue I quickly found myself among a group playing a game of cards-

"What kind of cards?"

What? Uh… Gin Rummy I think it was-

"Isn't that only two players?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

We took turns- ANYWAY, by the time I graciously had to bow out and return the poor sods all the winnings I took from them the man I had been looking for walked down from upstairs. I could tell this was the guy I was looking for the moment I saw him, the way he moved with a grace normal people just don't have. The deadly looking confidence in his eyes mixed with a feeling of subtle intimidation that practically seemed to leek from this guy. Looking at this man was like looking at a tightly coiled spring that was ready to strike out at anything that touched it just a little too much.

The moment his feet hit the inn's floor his eyes almost seemed to be drawn to mine like magnets. His gaze met mine, and while it was minute, he paused. Three things occurred to me at that second:

I knew this was the man responsible for all the disappearances, either personally or by some other means.

I also knew that he was well aware of who I was and why I was there. He and his… sort took me more seriously than most. They have a little, uh, Club that they talk to each other in.

"A Club?"

Yeah, a Club, pipsqueak.

"Do assassins and mercenaries even trust each other enough to organize something like that?"

Not ordinarily, no. It's a special club, Russ. Not many people are in it, but the ones that are… are just some of the worst pieces of garbage you'll probably ever see in your life. Most of them have a screw loose or something else wrong with them to be part of it. Anyways, there's a few more Clubs around here and there, this particular one just has some bad blood with me, and the kind of heavy hitters with the type of strength that make me cautious.

Thirdly, I knew the man in front of me was the kind of guy that didn't give a single damn about the people around us if things got messy. And my assessment was pretty spot on when he grabbed the poor idiot by the piano near the staircase with a smooth nonchalance that almost made it comical before pitching him at me like a living, faunus-shaped javelin going horns first.

Of course, I stopped the guy, grabbing him with a spin to bled off his momentum and shoving him to the far wall away from me. But, I knew this bast—bad guy's MO. He wouldn't let me be for long; he was buying time to close the gap between us.

Before I could draw Harbinger, with the speed only a veteran with aura use could have, he was in my face and I'm a little ashamed to say, this guy's hand-to-hand was good enough to make even your dad blush, kids. We traded blows and he kept the pressure on to keep me from drawing my weapon. This nice little Inn we were fighting in quickly wasn't looking so hot anymore after I dodged a couple of this big guy's aura technique enhanced punches that sent big furrows through the wood floor in shockwaves. The bar was a mess at this point, and the tables and patrons caught inside were sent flying through the wall into the streets. Honestly, they were lucky to get out of there even if they were a little scuffed from that.

"Wait, so he was doing all of that without a semblance?"

Yeah, he was, Russ. And, he was something else alright. A real monster. Not many people go for an unarmed specialization in our field of work. There's a lot of risk with fighting with your hands and he was old-school. There was no mechashift in the gauntlets he was using either. Putting all that aside, this guy had me on the backfoot and I only barely managed to draw Harbinger after kicking him across the room and over what was left of the bar, sending the shelf of liquor falling on him in a shower of alcohol and broken bottles. Kinda a shame, too. They had some decent vintage for such a dingy little pub.

"Uncle Qrow…."

Alright, alright, yeesh. You two are as bad as Goodwitch. Anyways, after a couple more trades between him and me with him being a one man wrecking crew, he hit something he shouldn't have and brought half the building down on the two of us.

To be honest with you two, I don't know whether to blame my Semblance for that but I'm gonna do it anyway. But, it took me minutes to dig myself out of the rubble. Unfortunately the guy split by that time, and considering what he did to that place with just his hands and no Dust, I wasn't all that surprised he made it out of there faster than me.

"Was that how you broke your arm, Uncle?"

Uh, no, Ruby. That comes a little later. In fact, I trailed this guy to Vacuo Central Station. He booked it fast enough to get there a couple minutes before I did and got on a train about to leave. It just started to hightail it out of the station when I got there, so I had to improvise and make my own boarding pass by taking a little initiative and jumping on the last passing car's roof. I actually used Harbinger to anchor myself on top.

By the way, I don't think I should have to say this, but please don't jump on high-speed moving trains if you don't have to, kids. Especially if you're drun—nevermind.

"Mhm, Right!"

I can see you crossing your fingers, little missy. Yang's already enough trouble by herself and you don't need to add to it.

"A bit too late for that Uncle Qrow. Hasn't Dad told you about the bill he got after what Ruby did last week at Sig- ow! Ruby!"

Hey, no inter-sibling violence during story time. You two will get plenty of chances to hurt one another on purpose or by accident later.

Anyways, I jumped on that moving train and what do I see? This son of a—gun pulls himself up atop the car from one of the side doors and climbs up to meet me. Guess he wanted to kick me off pronto.

So there we were, the gallant hero and the merc looking at me dead in the eyes. And let me tell you two, the guy had a glare that could freeze lesser Huntsmen in their tracks, but I've stared down plenty of Grimm uglier than him.

"So did you guys fight on top of the moving train? That sounds really dangerous, and awesome!"

You're telling me, Rubes. This guy was unhinged enough that he didn't care about the risks. As soon as he got his footing, he came at me hard and fast, clearly aiming to either knock me off the train or knock my head off my shoulders. I think both would have worked for him.

We clashed, trading blows for slashes, but the rocking of the train car combined with the blistering winds made it treacherous footing. A few times I almost went over the edge, only just managing to hook my scythe into the train's roof to stay anchored.

Anyways, I did manage to get my fair share of payback on him, but the b- guy just shrugged off the bulk of my strikes with Harbinger like they were nothing! His Aura control must have been off the charts; he was redirecting some of the force of my hits he blocked into the roof of the car we were fighting on and that was causing us to rapidly run out of places to stand on. I wasn't all that keen on taking the fight up close in the car's interior; I saw the civvies, pale as sheets, watching us from their seats from down there as more of the roof was trashed, and we gave them one hell of a show they probably won't ever forget.

We were still going at it, the sounds of metal screeching when Harbinger clashed against his armored fists rang out over the howling wind. I grit my teeth as I feinted left before I brought Harbinger around in a wide arc aimed for his ribs. He wasn't falling for it though, catching the blade with his gauntlets and trying to rip it from my grasp.

"Wait, he caught your weapon, how is that even possible? I've seen your sword carve through Grimm armor like it's nothing!"

Believe it, kiddo. This guy was a freak of nature, strongest Aura I've ever seen. But-

"Wait Uncle Qrow, how do you get your Aura to that point?"

Ah ah ah, ask again after the story, Russet. I don't think your sister would forgive you for interrupting story time. Again. Anyways, I still managed to keep my hands on my scythe despite his attempts to rip it from me. But that's when I saw it, an absolutely colossal tail ripping its way through the sand dunes. Before either of us could blink we were both hurdling off the train as the biggest Taijitu I have ever seen rammed into it like the fist of the God of Destruction himself had a personal vendetta against it.

"Woooah, how big was it Uncle Qrow!"

Heh, must have been at the very least six hundred feet long by my reckoning!

"Uh-huh…"

Anyway, the both of us were knocked off the train and thrown pretty far into the desert… not that stopped either of us for more then a second or two! Before you'd imagine it the two of us were back at it, Harbinger lashing out here, his fist striking there! Each blow we made against each other and each clash of metal made my teeth clench and my bones rattle! Yet just when I thought I was about to get the upper hand that bloody massive Taijitu emerged from the sandy dunes again, in retrospect I suppose I should be thankful it didn't go after the passengers but at the time I was pretty peeved about the whole thing.

As it emerged from the dunes, the white half of its body looming over us like an evil king of all that they surveyed, I was briefly distracted and that ba- uh scumbag used that to his advantage and managed to put my arm in a hold, and well you can probably how the next few seconds went from there.

"Ow."

Ow indeed, anyway my arm definitely felt broken at the time but any good Hunter worth their salt can fight one handed anyway so it wasn't too much of an inconvenience. More to the point, my brief distraction with the King Taijitu gave me an amazing idea, you see the scaly… guy… wasn't just trying to eat us whole, no he was very specifically circling us from within the desert's dunes. The beast's mere movements were creating tidal waves of sand that threatened to swallow both of us and giving us almost no solid ground to actually stabilize ourselves with!

Yet I wasn't out of options yet, with careful methodic exchanges of blows done every time either of us got close to each other I managed to lure him closer towards one of the edges by gradually feigning a retreat. It was just a clever disguise though, for one moment I was right on the edge where the Taijitu would likely strike and then the next I managed to switch our position with a well timed CQC technique and threw him into the waiting maw of the Taijitu!

"Woah, you fed him to the Grimm?! That's crazy!!"

"Yeah that's… how did you manage to kill the Taijitu though?"

Pshh, do you honestly think some silly snake is enough to give me any real trouble? I had that thing cleaned up in under a minute, the thing might have been an Elder Grimm but that just made it smart enough to lay some basic traps. A Taijitu's main weakness is its eyes you see, and well, I was able to get quite close to its eyes…

----------------------------------------

"Alright kids, I think I'm done tellin' stories for the time being," Qrow stands up from his position on top of Ruby's bed, before wincing as a loud rumble erupted from his stomach. "…Yeah, I think it's time for some lunch. You two want something?"

He pauses before reaching the door and fixes my sister a look, "And we're not having cookies for lunch again, Ruby. I got an earful from both Tai and Yang last time."

"Awww, but Uncle Qrow." I hear Ruby whine from behind me, and I'm almost certain she's trying her patented puppy dog expression in an attempt to break our uncle's will.

But unfortunately for her, he's not a world-class huntsman for nothing, something that all the fresh holes in our walls are likely to be quick to remind her of. And I, in turn, am equally quick to remind her myself. "Ruby, you do know those eyes aren't going to work on him, right?"

"But they work on you, don't they?" Her rebuttal is both swift and harsh.

"Only sometimes…" I grumbled back before putting a bit more spring into my step in order to catch up to our uncle. I had a question that I had been holding back since I had first seen him, and now seemed as good a time as any to ask. "Hey Uncle Qrow, about that guy you were fighting. Do you know what kind of Aura manipul-"

I stared down cross-eyed at the finger that just shushed me before I snapped my eyes back up to glare at my smirking uncle. "Yeah, yeah, I knew you were gonna ask me that at some point, even without the story. So I got you a gift when I stopped by Beacon a while ago. I'm sure Goodwitch won't mind."

A slow blink came from me at his explanation. I was very much aware of how untrue that statement might be, regardless, the upkeep of Beacon's library wasn't my problem.

"I left it downstairs on the coffee table in the living room, now, I know it might be a little bit of a trip for a recluse like yourself…" He trailed off playfully, letting go of my lips.

I rolled my eyes before sticking my tongue out to blow a raspberry at him as I made my way to the first floor. Yang's presence on the couch in front of the television screen, errantly flicking through channels every so often, was quite easy to see.

Hair tied up in a messy blonde ponytail, our eldest sister was busy relaxing. laying out on the couch on her back as she used the remote. Even so, despite her outward projection of nonchalance, there was tension in her body posture. Her attention was focused on the screen ahead of her until Qrow, Ruby, and I had hit the final step down.

Her eyes scanned us, halting when they landed on me. She sat up from her sprawled out position.

"Hey you two!" She called out, sitting up and setting the remote aside on the table next to the book I sought, "I see our Uncle managed to drag our brother out from your room."

Qrow chuckles, before putting a hand on Ruby's shoulder, causing her to look up at him in curiosity, "It took some doing, but I managed it without losing a limb or two, though not for a lack of trying on his part."

Yang just raised an eyebrow before eying me. Thankfully it didn't seem like Qrow was keen on sharing what I was writing. My gratitude had risen a smidge higher beyond where it already was.

"Anyways, I'm taking Ruby out into the backyard for a bit. Try not to fight like cats and dogs with your dad while we're gone, yeah?"

Wincing, her lilac eyes glanced at Ruby and I before awkwardly looking away, "Right…"

Giving a nod to her, Qrow shuffled out through the front door with my twin in tow, Ruby very much having the look of a deer caught in the headlights. That left me alone with Yang and the book that was very much my focus on the table in front of her. She clearly had something to say to me, but maybe if I grabbed it quick enough I could avoid it…?

It's not that I hated her or anything. Far from it even with her rash of troublemaking and rebellion recently. Honestly, I just was just conflict averse. It was difficult to deal with others when they had feelings on the mind, and just by looking at her I could tell that we were going to tread down that territory.

Biting my lip, I moved to the table and swiped my prize from its surface before hurriedly attempting to make my way back upstairs.

But, before I could fully disappear to the second floor I heard from behind me words that made dread settle in my stomach, "Russet, hey, can I talk to you?"

Concealing my annoyance, I slowly spun around and returned down to the living room. Yang had a complicated expression on her face, but she seemed relieved that I actually came back down. She reached for the remote on the table and completely switched off the television, the room almost immediately being filled with an awkward, tense silence.

"So… it's been a bit of a while since we kind of talked like this, honestly, I've been so busy with my own thing… and Dad and I… Well, we haven't been too buddy-buddy lately."

She rambled a bit, her hands making awkward movements as if she was unsure where to put them and her words sounded almost a bit rushed and afraid, "A-anyway, I just wanted to say that if you or Ruby need my help, I'll put my stuff on hold for a bit and help you out. Dad and I might be having a little, uh, rough patch, but I don't mean for it to affect you guys."

I blinked slowly at her as I tried to discern her stream of thought, Yang having a moment of self-consciousness wasn't exactly what I was expecting today, she was always more of an act first kind of girl rather than a thinker. Frankly, I was taken completely off-guard.

"Uh, No problem," I managed to say, the awkwardness in my voice painfully clear, "Don't worry about it."

"Are you sure, Russ?" The teenage girl rhetorically asked, uncertainty in her tone, "I'm being serious, you know."

"Yang, it's fine." I reply, glancing down at the book in my hands, and wishing I was anywhere but here right now. I always hated conversations like this, serious conversations, ones where people were either worried about me or some other complicated emotion that needed just those right words to help set things right.

Except I never had those words, all I had was my own social ineptitude and brief floundering bits of insight.

With that said, she gained a hard-set expression before standing up and stepping with purpose toward me. Bracing, I knew what was coming. Firm arms wrapped around me before she enveloped me into an unwavering embrace. Propping her chin on my head she lets out a quiet exhale before pulling back slightly to look me in the eyes…

"I can't exactly promise to stop fighting with Dad, but I can give it a shot. Maybe keep it from getting into yelling maybe?" She sounded contrite, "Really, I'm sorry…"

"You just need to like, I don't know, talk to him?" I sighed, uncertainty filling my lungs, and anxiety burning in my stomach.

"I don't know… I just don't get why y'all are yelling at each other so much. I mean, I know why you're fighting, I just don't understand…" I trailed off, not really certain about what exactly I wanted to say.

Instead I took a deep breath and hugged her tighter, "Love you…" I whispered simply instead.

She pursed her lips before regaining a smile, "Love you too, Russ," and she paused for a second, "Well, considering how well talking with dad has gone so far…"

Yang shook her head, "I mean, I think I get what you're trying to say, but whenever I remember what he's been like for years before—"

She stopped herself then shook her head, "Never mind that little brother. Anyways, I'm sure you want to read the new book Uncle Qrow got you, I won't keep you from that any longer."

She steps away and sits back on the couch again, "Talk to you later, okay?"

I nodded before quickly stepping back upstairs. As soon as I made it up, I exhaled softly. Dad did not make it easy on her.

For the longest time, the first thing on my big sister's mind was either Ruby or myself. Thankfully, I managed to help her out some after getting my own problems sorted, but she had to grow up fast when Taiyang decided to mentally check out for as long as I could clearly remember; certainly ever since the whole debacle with the wagon, the bucket, and the old cabin Yang took us to before Qrow had to save our asses.

Our dad only really started to be more active a year or so ago, and she's having trouble adjusting with him trying to set rules and restrictions on what she does. Honestly, I think she started giving him grief out of spite at some point, but that was my own personal opinion.

Family drama aside, at least I'd finally be able to satisfy my desire to learn more about Aura. I couldn't wait to sink my claws into this book.