It's been at least a year since Ruby's birth and my semblance still hasn't come back. When Yang asked, I had to lie to her to make her stop asking questions, but it felt wrong afterward, like when you have hiccups and pressure is building, but in the heart instead of the throat.
I hate lying to her.
Tai though has no qualms about lying to me. When I asked him about why my semblance didn't work and if anything similar happened, he just evaded the question. He knows something I don't.
Granted, I know Summer knows as well (she's terrible at lying) but I can't be mad at her when she gives me cookies to distract me. (sue me, her cookies are the best) Something cool is that, even though my semblance is MIA, I can still see my soul, which would be fine, but two things make it interesting.
One, I figured out why my semblance is blocked, I'll get to that later. Two, I can see Mom's soul.
To explain, using a semblance draws energy from the soul, and when I try to do that, a form of external energy blocks me. My system, finally deciding to be useful, told me it was magic.
That magic was very very similar to Tai and Mom's friend that came over before my little sis came out. Next time I see him I should probably ask if he did that on purpose to me.
Number two, and the arguably cooler one, I can see Mom's soul, and by proxy, her mood, state of being, and general location.
That'd be cool if it didn't sound so creepy.
Enough about my stupid problems, that's not important. What is that important? My adorable sister.
....
I might be a mild sis-con.
To be fair though, she's the most precious thing I've ever seen. One of the few things Old Gold and I can agree on is that if anyone were to harm her in the future, we would put our quarrels aside, and beat them up.
Tai suggested going one step further, but Mom didn't like the idea of us killing people.
She says that, but she's been polishing and keeping her weapons in better shape since that conversation.
I told you she was a terrible liar.
Yang has somehow become... more?
Let me explain. Everything she was before, she is that, but way more?
Is that still confusing? I'll put it this way. Instead of sneaking into my room, she just barges inside. Instead of looking forward to seeing Taiyang train, she actively joins in, though that's not a bad thing, even I've joined a few times.
The one time I thought she was changing was when I caught her under the covers of her bed, reading a book. I was elated, my older sister was going down the path of appreciating good books!
It was a book on puns...
At least I have my cute little sister to cheer me up! You won't betray me like they will, right? You won't, of course. See! She's reaching out to grab one of my cookies to give me! She's the-
Ruby?
Ruby?
Why are you looking at me like that?
No that's my cookie, you already had your share.
Ruby don't eat my cookies.
Ruby, don't eat my-
She ate them.
She ate them all. Not just the cookies, but the milk, and the cake too.
-----------------------------------
"Qrow, you need to stop drinking on the job."
"C'mon Ozpin, I'm not even in the job right now! I'm at a bar in Mistral. Speaking of, why'd you call? I thought the job about the Dawn family wasn't for a year or two?"
"It's about your 'son'."
"What about him? Summer already told me about you sealing his semblance, but that was more than a year ago. What happened now?"
"I may have made a mistake."
"How bad? On a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being I put salt in my coffee, and 10 being you not realizing Salem was going insane."
"Must you always use that as your sense of scale?"
"Do you know any worse mistakes you've made?"
"Touché. To answer the question, anywhere between a 6 and a 9."
Losing the drunk demeanor, Qrow's voice no longer resembled that of a drunk man, but a soldier, about to take a life. "I'm going to need an explanation. What you did to me and Raven was a 4 to a 6. How could this be a nine?"
Ozpin sighed. Things were in motion now, and if not properly controlled, wouldn't stop. "He may be getting used to my magic seal on his abilities." Taking Qrow's silence as an indication to elaborate, he continued. "Which means that at best, he might develop a mild immunity to magic." Sometimes, Ozpin hated the fact that his office was decorated with gears. It was a bit too on the nose for him.
After a healthy silence, Qrow finally responded. "That was the 6. What's the 9?"
Ozpin hated this part. But he told himself that he needed to be more honest, at least with the Branwen twins, despite how that turned out. "He may gain magic, not of the mild variety, like you or your sister. His magic would be of a similar tier to a maiden, with no definite upper limit."
"Shit."
"Indeed."
"That's less of a nine, more of an almost ten."
"Yes. Well, on that thought, I'll leave you to your drinking."
Qrow looked down at his glass. The scotch didn't look appealing anymore. Grumbling about a parasite, he hung up the scroll.
-------
Yang was confused. More than usual.
Her younger brother was mildly glowing. When he told her he was going to try and 'fix' his semblance, she nodded, secretly wanting a bracelet like Mom. But this glowing felt weird to her. Normally, glowing is just aura going out of the body, hell, she could glow. But this wasn't that. This was an inwards glow. That made no sense, why would aura be going in the body? When she tried it, it wouldn't work, but Alex was doing it. Even Qrow could do it!
Was it wrong of her to be a little happy that Alex couldn't use his semblance?
'I mean, now I get to protect two younger siblings!'
Nodding at her rationalization, she noticed the glow failing and a mild growl escaping her younger brother's mouth.
"Why won't it work! Is it because I can't make enough to go past it? This sucks! That was my last theory to solve this!"
"So you could say..." Yang's smile morphed into a wide grin. "You're at the -tail- end of that rope."
"Yang, that was atrocious."
"Not my fault Alex, the can't all be -Yangers-"
"This is why Ruby gets more tail time than you." Getting up from his bed, he crossed over to where Yang was before he realized something fantastic.
"Hey, Yang you wanna know something cool?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm taller than you."
"WHAT! NONONO, this can't be right! How am I supposed to be a big sister if my younger brother is taller than me!"
"This is what happens when you use weights, Yang! You're foolish to think that -Brawnwen-s over brains!"
Yang shook her head. "That was bad. Not like mine bad where it sucks, but not a lot. Yours are an ...what's the word? abomination? yeah, that. Never do that again."
Alex got back up, already starting to recover from the emotional damage Yang inflicted. He'd let Yang make the awful jokes from now on. He still isn't like how useless he felt now, even though it's not his fault that he can't make stuff now. Granted, it's not the end of the world, but he wants to make a present for his sisters. How can he beat Yang at being an older sibling if he can't even make a gift? He needed to unblock his semblance soon. He already missed two birthdays, one for each sibling. He didn't want a repeat of last year where he had to get something through Tai.
Figuring out that her younger brother was not in a good mood, Yang went to one of the few things that would get him out of his brewing tantrum.
"You wanna make cookies with Mom and Sis?"
Looking down at her brother, Yang could physically see him struggle to come to a decision. They both knew what would happen. Summer and he would bake cookies, and Ruby would use her puppy dog eyes to get more than her share. Somehow comprehending that in order to get the cookies another push was needed, Yang didn't relent.
"I'll make sure that we comb your fur for crumbs?"
Now on the verge of greatness, Yang just needed one last push to achieve it.
"I'll hide some of yours so that Ruby won't eat them all."
Glaring up at his sister, Alex got up from the floor of his room, not even caring that she was breaking in again. He had put a lock on his door, and at this point wasn't even mad when he saw it in pieces in the hallway. Grumbling, he stuck his hand out to Yang. "Some help please?"
"Hmmm... I mean, I'm not your big sis anymore, so why should I help you?" The words would have been scathing were it not for the grin the size of a mountain on her face. They both knew what Alex had to do to get her help. With her grin somehow growing wider, she continued in the same vein, in an attempt to regain her lost honor. "So? Little bro~? What's it going to be~?"
While mentally cursing up a storm that would make Qrow blush, Alex acquiesced. "Fine, fine." Taking a deep breath to try and not say anything he'd regret, he gave in to his "little" sister's demands. "Hey 'big sis' could you please help your little brother get up?"
"Hm, nope!" Yang still wanted more from him, and they both knew it. What Yang didn't know though, was that there was a person at the doorway, looking down on them. Alex saw how it was, but due to Yang squatting in front of him while looking down, the situation shifted. Alex now had control of the situation, although Yang didn't know it yet.
"Yang, I appreciate the view and all, but I'm not into kids. Also, we're like siblings, I get that you love the image of a bad boy, but this is too much, no?"
Yang froze a bit at that comment. Why had he suddenly gone on the attack? That doesn't make any sense. And why would he phrase it like that? If Summer were here he wouldn't say that she started it, he'd just make weird jokes, he'd only call out her tastes if...
"Oh hi, Dad!"
------
Tai was glad, for all the wrong reasons. No, not 'wrong' per se, just... questionable. For starters, part of his paranoia is rubbing off on Summer. Although they are paranoid about different aspects of the same issue. While the demon in his head was worried as all hell about Alex apparently having an affinity for magic, and if that was one of Salem's plots, Summer's head demon was worried that Alex would be kidnapped by one of her goons, and turned against her. So. basically the same thing, Summer's just had extra steps.
The second reason he was happy, was that apparently Yang's thing was 'bad boys' or girls, he didn't really care. What was important though was that Alex was 100%, not that. He was a momma's boy if ever there was one. Okay, maybe 90% not a bad boy as he had... 'daddy issues'? but still, at least that's too high to be in her strike zone when she grows up.
He still doesn't know about Ruby, since, well, she can't talk. Well, she can make noises and gestures, her first word hasn't come out yet, but that's not a problem. Aura babies' brains develop way before normal babies. Yang and Alex had their auras unlocked at what was birth for Yang, and likely the same for Alex and they started talking at the age Ruby's at. That's not to say Ruby is stupid, she can understand words, but Ruby's aura unlocking will be on her 2nd birthday.
"It's not like that's just because I can't think of a good gift for her."
Unaware of Alex's ears perking up in the next room, he continued his train of thought.
'If her first word is "Alex" or "Brother", I swear I'm sending him to Qrow, the kid's three and he has aura, he'd be fine.'
Snorting indignantly at the thought, and conveniently ignoring that, despite the kid's brains, he has no method of income and wouldn't last long, Tai went outside to do his daily patrol of the island, content.
---
(In atlas)
"Ah, Reya? Is that you?" An old voice says.
"Yes mother, it is. I'm not alone though, I brought company." The young woman that looked to be in her twenties with silver hair, now identified as Reya, responded. "I brought your granddaughter here to see you. Say hi Sif!" Reya stepped to the side to let her mother see her daughter who was clearly very shy.
"Aum... Hello, m-m-miss Fria" The little girl said, her blue eyes threatening to shed a tear with how panicked she was.
The old woman, Fria gave a kind laugh and attempted to calm her granddaughter. "Just Fria is fine, although grandma or anything of the sort would be nice. I'm going to be very lonely soon and I'd like to talk before that happens."
Sif quickly went up to Fria and took her hand, exclaiming "What! No! I just met you and I told mom I wanted to spend time with more family, and ... and you can't just leave!" Before realizing what she had just done, her energy quickly fading back, letting her shyness come back. "Oh... sorry, I can be a little...excited at time..."
Fria smiled gently at her granddaughter. "It's fine, a little energy here and there, and it is never inherently bad, I could use some at the age I'm at. In any case, I never said you couldn't see me, just that it would be harder to. All you would need is a little clearance, but that can be arranged easily, no?"
Looking up from Sif, Fria looked at Reya with a glance that said 'If I'm not allowed to see my granddaughter, I riot'
Sighing at her mother's stubbornness, Reya left the room to make a call. "Ironwood? She has a new condition, my daughter needs to be able to meet her if you want her to go through with this.
Yes, I know that it could mess things up, but would you really deprive her of familial contact?
You know damn well what I mean! I'm on a timer now thanks to you, and Fria's all Sif would have left! I'm still not a fan of your plan, remember. I'm only on board because you said that you would never deliberately kill her, only if she wished you to do so!"
Sighing at her superior officer's retort, Reya sighed.
"Listen here -James-, the woman is giving up her life for this, and all she wants to be able to see her granddaughter every now and then, if that sounds unreasonable to you, maybe you're an unreasonable person.
No- don't you start with that 'good of the world nonsense' I get it, but you need to keep your paranoia in check. Once you get your act together, call me back."
Hanging up abruptly, Reya went back into the room, wincing at the fact that she had to be the bearer of the sub-stellar news.