The Lady In Red (2)

"Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you." – Randy Pausch

Chapter 11: The Lady In Red (2)

Summer Rose hummed as the ship finished to dock to the tropical-like island of Menagerie, little Ruby sleeping blissfully in her arms as Yang enjoyed her own napping with her father. Qrow was staring as the workers from the ship and the dock started to finish the preparations for the people to finally leave.

It has been an interesting trip the one that took her and what was left of her team from Patch to the small semi-nation ruled by Faunus. Lots of fun around as the kids were enjoying their first time away from home and their first moments with a swimming pool.

While the local beaches of their hometown were incredibly beautiful and they had been given the chance of visiting those more than once, trying the swimming pool was a different experience altogether.

Her little Rose was so happy to play with water without the 'itchy' sand around and Yang was finally given by her father the first lesson to swimming. The blonde was skeptical at first, but almost turned in a fish with how eager she was with the whole concept of racing with her old man and her mother-

A sigh left her mouth as her silver eyes looked at the medium-sized capital with a sliver of concern. What if Raven had already hit? What if she was long gone and their efforts were all in vain?

Eyes closing as she craved for some little rest, her wishes were partly crushed by Qrow poking at her forehead, smiling as he was met with a pout from her.

"Sorry, Sums, but you need to be up and ready when we will catch my dumb sister."

Her lips curled in a small, tired smile as a yawn flied out of her. "Sure, but you are holding her. Last time… was kind of weird."

Raven had always been aggressive when being hold down by any member of her team, but Summer was a special case as the female Branwen found that there were simple ways to bother a fellow woman.

Things that for now were better kept silent and away from the public, her mind wandering back to the workers, now making way for the first wave of tourists to leave.

"It's time to go and face our little 'friend'." Taiyang muttered as he got up, Yang still sleeping in his arms as he led the way to the main entrance of the ship and through the docks of Kuo Kuana, the city being the major center of the entire community of Faunus in Remnant.

People with cat-, dog-, fox-, etch- ears and other curious appendages that were normally spotted in animals, but looked completely human… as those were humans in her eyes, with logic, heart and soul.

Their first stop was the postal office in the city, the place where it was the easiest to find people that have made use of letters and packages. A state-owned company, the receptionist was kind enough to sign down an appointment with one of the consultants available for this little search, bringing proof that they 'knew' the sender.

Few minutes later they were swooped inside the office of a young woman with antelope ears twitching in her ears once in a while, looking very formal but friendly at first impressions and Summer was glad that her assumption was correct when she was given quite quickly a chronology of the packages sent to her, with all the details on it.

She looked at the address of the sender, Taiyang giving glances at the small map of the city he had brought from a tourist standpoint they had found along the way and signed down the interested house.

Thanking the helpful woman, their next stop was their most important as they didn't waste time to alert the individual that had repelled Raven the first time of the possible repercussions of this situation.

Reaching a small-sized house, compared to their own back at Patch, Qrow decided to be the one knocking at the door as his teammates were busy with the children. Someone from within said 'Here, a moment' as footsteps reached for the entrance and the door was opened to reveal-

A wide-eyed young man. Short, dark-brown hair, black glasses and quite the unshaven beard that reminded them of Qrow. He was wearing a single sleeveless shirt and baggy gym pants as he seemed to have woken up just now from the tired look on his face.

"Oh." His lips turned in a thin line as he seemed out of words for their sudden appearance and Summer couldn't but snort amused at his confused reaction. This simple act warranted him frowning at her and the woman couldn't but look away from his accusatory glance.

"John Bukharin?" The Branwen finally asked, the shock about the age of their mysterious friend subsiding.

"T-That is me." He made way. "P-Please enter?"

Taiyang nodded and entered first, ignoring the skeptical look from his brother-in-law, and the older Rose followed closely as they were met with a surprisingly spacious living room with kitchen incorporated.

Yet there was one element that wasn't usual for a simple house like the one they had just entered into. Staring wide-eyed as her eyes were fixed on them, Raven Branwen looked like a deer caught in headlights.

She was tied down with some rope on a chair, in front of her sitting on a couch a tiger-faunus woman, keeping a partial stare over their former teammate while also studying the new arrivals.

"It… would seem like he didn't need any warning at all." Taiyang commented with some cheek, but while they expected to have some introduction and explanation now that they were in, their little peace was broken by the sudden loud cry of a little child.

Ruby Rose had just woken up and her first sight? The scary-looking Raven Branwen.

As Ruby continued to cry in her mother's hold, I finally managed to 'wake up' from my shock at seeing STQ of team STRQ knocking at my door in a Saturday morning.

I was pretty tired, the chat with Ilia's parents ending in a positive tone as they accepted that I took her as an apprentice and kind of babysat her while they did their best to find jobs, kind of surprised at their daughter's innate capacity to write good stories.

It was going to be a long process and I had to state multiple times that it wasn't something that required some salary for my case as I was doing it for the sake of 'writing'. Seriously, I wasn't that greedy to force poor people to pay for something that should be genuinely explored and refined to create a precious diamond out of the rough piece.

Returning back to the current situation, I invited the three to take a seat on the large couch as I went to prepare some breakfast. Taiyang and Sienna asked for simple coffees while I was kind of surprised when the rest asked for some chocolate-milkshake.

Little Yang, still with her twin-tailed comb, seemed surprise at the unknown house she just woke up into but her attention shifted away from the initial confusion when the sweet desert was mentioned, her hand lifting quite fast as the words sunk in her brain.

I blinked at the full predicament and just realized something very interesting and amusing. This was STRQ trying to work as a family and showing still some inability for those new duties. It was not glaring, but still visible and Raven was still doing nothing, so I cannot say for sure she would do well with Yang or not.

As I prepared the massive amount of cups for the task of satisfying the bellies of everyone present and the two kids still sleeping in their room, I yawned as I finished the first batch and handed the results of my handiwork to Qrow, Summer and the two children.

Ruby had the most amusing of reactions, her cry long subdued but her eyes shining brightly at the familiar smell of chocolate and milk, her mouth latching on the straw connected with the cup and starting to drink the content almost instantly.

Yang followed by humming as she drank the content of her own cup.

Summer and Qrow were surprised at the delicious taste of the beverage, even the Branwen had been shocked by how good it was and, since this compliment came from a known drunkard, I think I can say that it had to be dang good!

Much to the surprise of the present ones, I had also brought the cup for Raven to drink from the straw, my shotgun being held in my free hand as I prepared for any funny business with the tribe's leader.

She behaved well, showing no weird attitude in drinking the content of the cup just like she had done in the past two days. What kind of weird? The 'not-for-kids' kind of weird.

Offering the two cup of coffee to Taiyang and Sienna I returned to the two remaining cups and turned at the huntsmen. "I am going to wake up the kids and… I will be back soon".

I ignored the confused looks as I went to knock softly at one of the door and entered the room quietly. Nora shifted in her bed while Ren slowly opened his pink eyes at him, staring at the cups and nodding as he sat on his bed, ready to accept his chocolate-milk.

Giving him the cup and some tissue to clean his mouth, I moved towards the still slumbering girl and let out a soft whistle. It was something mom would do to wake me and- my sister down.

My little sibling would groan and try to sleep the entire morning, failing against mom's stubborn determination of having us wake up in a 'healthy hour'.

"Dad?"

I blinked as blue eyes turned at me, holding now an empty cup in her hands.

I chuckled nervously. "O-Only a day-dream, sweetie."

She nodded slowly, her worried look didn't vanish as I moved to pick Ren's cup and returned by the door and turned at them.

"We have some guests. I wish to see some good behavior from both of you, okay?"

A collective nod, I was glad they understood the situation and went to open the door and bring the two cups to the dishwasher, then went to collect the others and did the same.

"So you are alone with this… all?" I glanced at Summer, her head peeking from the couch and nodded. "Really? No one else?"

"Having learned to do this stuff just last year. Mom wanted me to be ready before letting me go."

"Oh." She grew a little quiet at that, possibly because she had some issues with her own parents, but Taiyang took it as a chance to continue the discussion.

"So you learned pretty recently. Had to be rough."

I nodded. "Quite, I was atrocious in doing laundry for two months, then I got things right."

"I remember trying to fix my own laundry back at Beacon. That machine was cursed-"

"Or maybe you just can't work around devices, Tai." Qrow joked at the expenses of his friend but the blond man smiled even more.

"You weren't much better. Am I right, Sums?" The woman smiled innocently, but I could see the teasing forming up in her mind.

So she opened her mouth-

"Qrow was incredibly dumb with the washing machine. I remember him getting his entire wardrobe pink once because he couldn't understand why colored clothes had to not be mixed with white ones."

Raven's little tale was met with a giggle with Summer and the surprised look from Taiyang and Qrow. The moment of silence that followed was briefly interrupted as a yawning Nora walked out of her room, followed by Ren.

Silver eyes shifted to the two children and the older Rose squealed in glee at the two unsuspecting kids. "They look so cute!"

The Valkyrie smiled widely. "Thank you, pretty lady."

Yang slowly moved off the couch and stood in front of the two new individuals and tilted her head on the side. "I am Yang."

The orangette smiled widely. "I am Nora annnnd!" She pulled the boy close. "This is Ren!"

He waved at the blonde and she nodded with a small smile.

"Do you want to play?" The young Xiao Long opened her mouth to reply but she stopped to look at Ruby. Her young sibling blinked at her and clapped her hands at her, spitting out her pacifier while repeating the same word.

"'Ang! 'Ang!"

Summer giggled as she slowly set the five-years old Rose on the ground and let her slowly walk towards her sibling. Taking the smaller hand on her, Yang slowly led the smiling child to the room Nora and Ren shared, half-closing the door.

Just as I finished washing off the last cups, I turned around to see Raven sigh in relief as the children went in another room, causing me to mutter quietly. "Of course you would be relieved of that.."

Maybe it wasn't soft as a whisper, as red eyes quickly snapped my direction with a surprised glint I knew she had heard me and, seeing her turn so suddenly at me, the rest of the group had their attention on me.

"So… I guess this isn't a mere visit of courtesy." They nodded as I took a seat near Sienna, the woman assuming a little more her role of guard than the one of minder seeing the situation required more of the former than the latter.

"You seemed to know a lot about us and… Ozpin." I nodded at Qrow's words, glancing at my legs as I waited for the question.

"Why did you help us?" Summer's question pierced beyond my initial preparation for the interrogation as it went quite off-board right at the beginning.

"Uh… What?" Silver eyes softened and she smiled at my confusion, maybe already knowing about it.

"You have this knowledge but, seeing that you have already settled away from Vale in general, you didn't keep things to yourself. Why did you want to help us?"

"Because it was the right thing, I guess?" I advanced quickly, stopping just a moment to elaborate. "I know Ozpin is mixed with some crazy stuff about the Grimm and- I don't know how far I can go about it-"

"Grimm have a Queen." Raven blurted without hesitation, drawing the shocked looks from the rest of her team.

I nodded. "Salem and her clique, yes." And their shock was now directed at me.

"Y-You know about that?" Taiyang asked with a light stutter, it had to be surprising that someone out of the chessboard knew this much of the 'game'.

"I know about the Maidens and the real connection between the Headmaster and Salem."

"That sounds quite interesting and- real connection?"

I sighed at Summer's noticing my little word-play, but decided to see if I could garner their trust. "Ozpin was once married with Salem."

"That sounds far-fetched-" "Like magic, dear brother?"

Qrow scowled at Raven's mocking tone but I was already explaining the 'relationship' between the two individuals.

"We are currently on the second or third wave of humanity. In the previous ones there were other Kingdoms and Grimm were less than now. Why they started to get more and aggressive? Salem tried to bring her beloved back to life and got the Gods going ham at each other."

"Gods? You mean The Brothers?" I nodded at Taiyang but Qrow sighed skeptical at the whole situation.

"This is ridiculous. Gods? What proof do you have of their existence?"

"The relics." Silence ruled for a while as the cocky front the Branwen had tried to put on collapsed at the mere mentioning of the very objects Ozpin had to have mentioned more than once to them.

"But why would she be angry at humanity?" The Rose questioned with some confusion, the story incomplete and long thus.. I decided to deliver an abridged version of it.

"Well, Ozzie got resurrected, they ruled humanity for a while and had four kids, then when Salem discovered their kids had magic she had some fit as she felt threatened about this."

"So she attacked the kids?" There was a protective note in Taiyang's voice but he frowned as I shook my head negatively.

"Quite the opposite. Ozpin tried to pull a Raven with his kids." A groan left the mentioned woman's mouth. "Sadly he got caught and died for the second time to give times for the children to run away from Salem."

"So it's literally a badly-handled divorce situation?" Qrow cracked with some amusement and I nodded with a chuckle. "Seriously? Maybe that is why Oz is that embarrassed of talking about it."

Summer giggled and smiled widely. "Now that makes Rae looks good when comparing the two situations."

"I am still here, Summer."

Ignoring the groaning from the tied down woman, I decided to pipe in with my own teasing.

"I mean, Raven at least didn't cause the end of the world… but I think she is still hunted down from those she is trying to avoid."

"Damn right you are, mister!" Summer replied so eagerly and everyone took a chuckle… minus Raven.

I could see her face reddening in fury, the woman shaking the more teasing was added to the previous ones and then I realized why one shouldn't anger Raven Branwen.

I was in the middle of another fun comeback when – SNAP – The sound was quick, but the paranoia had urged me to keep an eye over the captive rogue huntress and I barely turned in time as-

CHU!

I blinked once, then twice, finally my brain rebooted as I felt her legs crossing and bringing out chests close and-

I could feel the chocolate and milk… dangit-

Summer 'eeped' as Taiyang and Qrow moved together to try and wrestle the woman away from me. The kiss was a desperate one, but the emotion was there, the passion was there.

Sienna joined the struggle, helping the two men and slowly pulling Raven away from me and then-

She smiled as she was pulled away completely, licking her lips and saying just one word as she was tied once more in that chair. One word that sent some heavy shivers on my back.

"Mine~."