Chapter 15: Worth the Risk

Ruby Rose

"Dad, this is Weiss Schnee," Ruby announced at the doorway, voice hitching as she, Weiss Schnee, looking like the princess of Germany, strutted into the Long home like she owned it. She had dressed in her best heels, made her a hair taller than Ruby for once, which was cute. Of course, she wore her silver and black aesthetic in both her blazer and folded skirt, complementing the snow white hair and the red intensity of her scar. What the hell was she doing dating Ruby Rose, a literal potato?

"Oh," Taiyang responded, dressed not quite to the same level of regal presence. He prefered a black turtle neck and some jeans to match the scraggly amount of facial hair he had. "Nice to meet you, Weiss. You can call me Taiyang."

Weiss paused for a moment, the German girl's blue eyes sending off a confident, close to cocky, glare at Ruby. She had a trick up her sleeve, which was positively terrifying. "Hěn gāoxìng rènshí nǐ," Weiss announced, not to Ruby of course, since it seemed like gibberish, but her dad caught it, least enough to laugh.

"I'm from Hong Kong, we speak Cantonese, better luck next time," Taiyang replied in very plain American English, accented yes, but it wasn't even Chinese. A lifetime of travels manipulated his tongue so much, no place could leave a discernible mark. Weiss frowned, but hearing Cantonese she smiled one of those razor-like smiles. Weiss Schnee never backs down.

"Hóu hòisàm yihngsīk néih." Ruby guessed, especially from how wide her father's eyes got, that this was Cantonese.

"You're shitting me," he cooed with a chuckle, slapping his sides in excitement, "Still not quite right, but wow."

"I don't know very much Cantonese to be honest, Mr. Long." Weiss faked being humble, but her body language said otherwise. Hands on her hips, chin held up so high that you might have confused it with the world's prettiest spear point. Some people would have taken that kind of overconfidence and haughty attitude as rude, but from another angle, it was enviable and very cute. Ruby chose to always look at it from that reference point.

"Well, I am impressed, now I really do have to feed you," Taiyang admitted, seeming to take the same view as Ruby and letting them in. Today was the big dinner-date-family-gathering-extravaganza the two of them had agreed on, against the redhead's wishes, setting the day at just over two weeks from when they started going out. Not even a year into being her active father, Taiyang was setting out to embarrass her. For the first, and last moment, Ruby was grateful Yang wasn't there. Whatever damage Taiyang might manage, she would dwarf it in a fiery cloud of death and the ashes of dignity. Least they didn't have baby pictures.

Weiss stepped beyond the point of no return, the girl comfortable as she skirted passed the door frame. Taiyang left immediately for the kitchen, going to nurse the already sizzling food. The German scanned the rooms as she walked, very slowly, methodically, Ruby following on her toes, nervous. She couldn't help but wonder what Weiss saw, their home for the first time exposed to her. Only a few weeks ago Ruby had crossed the border into the Long family keep, a labyrinth compared to the condo she lived in, filled with foreign smells, homely sights, and familial touches. Ruby had been wholly impressed, but to Weiss, perhaps it proved their stature difference. The Long family had no castle, mansion, or estate to give her, Ruby had even less. There was a world of difference between them, and Ruby wanted to know what she thought.

"Ruby," her girlfriend spoke softly to keep it between them. That was a bad sign. Why whisper compliments? She hated it, she had to hate it. "Do we leave our shoes at the door?" Weiss asked with a touch of embarrassment and Ruby got to breathe.

"Oh, uhh, you don't have to, but some of us do. Kind of a free for all, do your own thing kind of home, ya' know?" Ruby replied with a chuckle, playing carefree giddy girl was her style, though carefree wasn't a feeling Weiss gave her, ever.

"Fair enough," Weiss deemed, keeping her heels on of course, "It's a nice place, thank you for inviting me."

Ruby smiled a goofy grin, her general allergic reaction to whatever the northern girl had to say, like every time she spoke. "Thanks! I know it's not exactly the fancy shmancy royal Castle, we're more brawlers than royals here!" Ruby joked, throwing a few meager air punches. She was not Yang, but hey, talent was in the blood, wasn't it?

"Oh please, I think one brute is enough per family," Weiss spun around, dismissing her partner's punches, "and honestly, I like it. Castles are intriguing, but lonely. This place feels lively."

"You should see it when everyone is here."

"I really should." The two of them caught each other's eyes for a moment, relishing the statement. This trial was sure getting longer and longer, Ruby noted with a spring in her step kicking her forward.

The meal was a Taiyang speciality, Spanish and Chinese mix. Without his wife though, Ruby noted his culture truly dominated. The main meal was Spanish pork, fresh red pig with brown coated flavoring. Around it was rice from both sides, yellow flavored and plain white to give options. If that wasn't enough there was a nice bit of celery tofu stir fry for veggies and a concoction of leftovers, the only surefire ingredient being instant ramen and an egg. All together this was a feast for three families, not three people. Go big or go home, huh dad?

"Weiss, you speak Cantonese well enough, are you prepared to eat it?" Taiyang challenged, taking his seat at the center of the table, Weiss and Ruby's chair on the other, side by side. Ruby didn't know how to feel about having her father for a wingman.

"I can't imagine I'll have any trouble eating your hand cooked meals, Mr. Long," Weiss countered, basically saying, 'oh screw you I can' in the politest way possible. Ruby just sat down, wasn't about to get between them when she could be getting into pork.

"Please, Taiyang," her father corrected with a smile, "Now eat!" Like a runner's shot, the race was on and the three of them did unholy things to that food.

Weiss may have pretended to be prim and proper, but she struggled to keep it up, locked in a race with Taiyang, which Ruby thought her father wasn't even aware he was in. Ruby coated her lips in pork seasoning and soon enough casual talk turned to jokes between bites and as was common when anyone spent time here, it felt like they were family over dinner.

"So you have physics duels? I never knew you were such a nerd, Ruby," Taiyang joked as Weiss explained how they really became friends. He was subtly probing Weiss for information, and of course she gave it. Ruby knew her girlfriend well enough to know she loved talking about herself.

"Shush," Ruby shot back, tossing one of the chopsticks she was provided at him. Yang's habits were starting to rub off on her, but oh well. She prefered forks. "This nerd managed to beat the best student in the school!"

"Uh no," Weiss cut in, shaking her head, "that is just not true!"

"I mean, probably not, but you have to be one of the better ones!" Ruby offered. Weiss wasn't biting. Least not biting the bait.

"No, I mean you did not beat me!" Ruby grinned as Weiss raged. She couldn't help but poke a dragon when her ego was hurting just a little. Just for fun.

"No, remember? We thought you were right, but Penny corrected you. It's okay, Weiss, that's why we study together," Ruby paused, considering her mortality, her short life, it was a beautiful one, "that way I can help you." See you soon, mom.

"Does Penny look like a physicist to you?!" Weiss slammed her fist on the table, shaking the whole god dang arrangement. In response, both father and daughter cracked into a full fit. They shared a similar cackle, one more thing than hair it seemed. "Does this seem funny to you!?"

"I'm sorry," Ruby answered, still giggling, "but yes."

"Okay, I'm saving this, get close," Taiyang commanded, pulling out his smartphone, a requirement for the modern business world and an easy camera for an evening together. Weiss rolled her eyes, but scooted closer to her, not too grumpy to refuse an arm pulling the pair together. Taiyang snapped the photo and their night was captured. Ruby was smiling full teeth bright and silly. Weiss was frowning and looking away, a red embarrassed little grimilian.

"Can you send me that?" Ruby asked, feeling too relaxed by her dad to be scared like before. Weiss kept up the moodiness and kept quiet, but no one paid it any mind.

"Sure, just let me upload it to my Ruby DropBox first," Taiyang replied, messing with the app real quick. Ruby couldn't help but wonder how many photos he had of her or how, but whatever, probably a dad thing.

Ruby wasn't the only one thinking of it though. Weiss was suddenly interested again. Grinning and leaning forward, eyes set on something evil. Revenge. "A Ruby folder? Would I be wrong to suggest baby pictures might be in there?" No!

"Yeah!" Taiyang was lighting up, like someone just shot him up full of sunshine, "I didn't get to see Ruby much, but Summer, her mom, always sent me pictures." Weiss had a shit eating grin so wide one could only find it on the world's most successful dung beetle.

"Please, no," Ruby asked, wanting to slip inside her hoodie. Unfortunately, no hoodie would protect her from the brunt of a Schnee's scorn.

"Here we go!" Taiyang flipped over his phone to the first picture that Ruby never knew had been taken. She was a baby in a tub, reddish black hair just an ugly sprout on her fat baby body. This was not a flattering time for the young rose. Weiss stared deeply into the baby form, blue eyes targeting that poor child like a terminator with a target.

"You were so," fat? Yeah, I was big when I came out! "Cute!" Weiss let out in full baby talk, eyes widening and smile so innocent. Ruby had never considered, ever, that Weiss would have even the time of day for cute things, much less, much less be like this. "Aww, let me see that!" Before Taiyang could say yes, she ripped the phone out of his hands, swiping over to another picture. This one a slightly older, skinnier toddler Ruby covered in her own food.

"Look at this, you were so adorable," Weiss continued to flatter, sliding the picture across to show Ruby walking for the first time, scanned polaroids saved her embarrassment for a whole other technological age. The redhead sunk into herself as Weiss gushed, eventually taking the girl's attention. "Oh don't sulk, you still are," Weiss stared at the screen confused, flipping to a new photo, "Who are these people?"

The picture was a scanned polaroid, old, older than Ruby. In it ten men and women in military uniforms held up a flag, a rose symbol in the center and a list of sharpied names all throughout. Ruby recognized her uncle to the left, a man holding onto the corner of the banner, his desert camo marked with a Spanish flag on the shoulder, and one of the others, a woman below him, smiling with deeper red hair down past her shoulders, strong yet feminine face, and a smile that was very much Ruby's. Her fatigues were greener, body armor visible from the outside, almost covering the American flag emblem. It was mom.

"Oh, that's from before Ruby was born, it's actually from the base I met her at," Taiyang moved over to them, looking at the picture with his own sense of nostalgia. "We were in North Nigeria, rich country, but that was a poor region, we were building a mine for the company I work for, and I was brought in to help make it sustainable. Ensure the locals could basically run it without us. Of course we needed security, so my brother-in-law told me he knew a company he worked with, run by a former Marine combat engineer that specializes in sustainable security. That combat engineer was Ruby's mother." Weiss looked confused, maybe mesmerized, but something else. Unsure. What do you say about a picture of a dead woman? Ruby didn't know and she was the daughter.

Yet Weiss found the words, "She's beautiful."

"Yeah, what's interesting is we were never really a thing. I was her boss, her friend, but we were never together. More siblings than anything else," Taiyang stepped back away, towards an open chair to tell his story. One Ruby had heard Summer repeat to her much the same way. "I always guessed she was... similar to Ruby in terms of partners, but one night me and Envida, Yang's mom, my wife, got into a huge fight about me being away from home. She threatened to take Yang and I was talking about divorcing her. Summer decided to take me out drinking. Next morning, I wake up with her and she says, 'Now you and I have both made mistakes,. Call her, say you're sorry, and go back home. Also, you owe me for the tab," Taiyang chuckled, Ruby surprised to hear that part. Summer made it seem like they had a heart to heart, but knowing her mother, Ruby wasn't surprised. "I ran back home and never left. Few months later I learned one of my favorite people was on the way."

"You slept with an extremely attractive woman warrior and don't even remember?" Both Weiss and Ruby were mortified. The older one that he forgot, the younger at picturing her mom having sex ever with anyone.

"I don't think it's exactly appropriate to say what I do and don't remember about that. When I think of Summer, though, it's the kind of person she was. Her zest for life, her laugh. Mostly her sense of duty, you'll never meet another soldier of fortune more devoted to making a difference over getting paid." Another was a bad word. Weiss wouldn't meet any. Summer was gone. She'd never zest for anything, laugh about anything, or make a difference in anything ever again. "You should be real proud, Ruby."

"Yeah," Ruby acquiesced. Certainly should be.

"Alright, given the y component of this is a touch more sophisticated, and we want to finish this before the sun rises, you handle the partial derivative with respect to x. I'll do y and then we will have the lagrangian in a matter of minutes." Weiss stood over the scattered sheets of graph paper like a commander over the field of battle, despite only being right next to the couch Yang so regularly occupied. It was kind of hard to take seriously though, dressed in her night gown, hair down and free. Like a child playing their hardest game of Risk yet.

"I'm sorry," Ruby interrupted from her position on the hammock bed, a comfy cradle that held her, her notebook, and the calculator, "I kind of dazed out and already did the y portion." Wasn't that bad anyways. Partials were always easy.

"Really?" Weiss glared at her like it would start a fire, "The whole point of staying up all night studying together is to be a team, isn't it?"

"Well, you can still do the x part," Ruby mumbled in her own defense, withdrawing further in her PJs and hammock home. Weiss grumbled further, hands on her hips, finally collapsing on the couch, the soft cushions taking the blow and letting their mound of physics work fall to the floor. It was near midnight and they hadn't even moved into a Spanish quiz refresher yet. They were doomed.

"The x part is too easy, just power rule. I need something more challenging!" Weiss pouted. Really she just hated being the one copying Ruby's work. Always wanted to be a leader, not much of a follower. Still an opportunity opened itself up.

"Might help you work on your speed." Ruby paid for the comment with a couch cushion to the face. Instinctually Ruby returned fire, missing completely, but making a real mess with a stack of tossed papers.

"Damn it, Ruby you might be fast," Weiss sauntered up right to the hammock, laying her chin on the edge, close enough to Ruby to make her heart do the classic jump beat, "but you certainly excel at wasting time. Exactly how are we going to get you an A at this speed?"

"Shouldn't you be concerned about getting your A, partner," Ruby shot back, reaching out with a finger to poke Weiss on the cheek. It was super soft and the red head felt exorbitantly gay. Her partner was less enthused.

"I don't need to be concerned. I know I'm getting an A." Weiss glanced at her with a harsh expression, as if Ruby was doubting the girl's skills. Honestly, she just cared a lot more about her girlfriend's score than her own. What was one more lost American girl to the world? How did the difference between an A and a B factor in when she couldn't even aim at any potential future. She couldn't be confident in her physics skills when she wasn't confident in her existence skills.

"How are you so confident?" Ruby asked, wanting to know the secret, though it wasn't new territory. Do or don't. She wanted to be a writer, then be it. That wasn't enough. Yang wanted to be a fighter more than anyone and it didn't make her win, Summer wanted to make a difference in the world and she was stolen away in a medical bed. Ruby? She wanted to live in the world of fantastical hopes and dreams, monsters and heros and no one worrying if the world could care about what they did. What did it matter in the real world whether she decided or not? The world didn't need mediocre writers, didn't want her dreams. How could she will it into being?

"Ruby…" Weiss sighed, hands gripping the edges of the hammock rocking it slightly. Her lips twisted in a grimace, like something ugly was caught on her tongue, sickly word vomit perhaps.

"I know, I know, because 'anything else is unacceptable right?" Ruby tried to mimic Weiss' mannerism and voice, throwing up finger quotes to be playful. She didn't like that ill look on her.

"I am only confident because the second I stop pretending to be I'll drown in my insecurities," Weiss admitted, dipping her chin down in the hammock net, not her usual high posture. She was like a rock on the cost. The second it stops fighting the wind and waves is the moment it falls into the sea. "You either believe you can bend the world to your will, or you get bent. I prefer bending." Her head was held low, silver hair hanging in front of her eyes, but the blueness of them was sharp, sharp and staring into Ruby, catching something deep in her. "Ruby, when did you stop believing in yourself?"

When mom died, when the world decided it didn't care what either of us wanted and years of trying didn't give mom her dreams, didn't stop her from fading half way through a lifetime. She didn't win and she had all the will in the world. I'm nothi—

"When I realized this world isn't a fairy tale." Ruby cut the dangerous train of thought on the tracks, letting it crash into a partial truth. It was so odd, to think she use to be so optimistic, her old friend Reese use to compare her personality to that of a little kid with a paintbrush and the world as a canvas.

"Ruby, the world might not be a fairy tale, but that's no reason to not try and change things into one," Weiss stood up, hands still gripping the hammock bed, pulling it open for more space, "Now move over."

"What?!" Ruby shouted, feeling the whole thing nearly flip over as Weiss pushed Ruby to the far side and tossed herself in. The strange contraption twisted and moaned from the weight of two people, and Ruby froze from the touch of one. Hammock pulled them both together like a bed never really did. All weight shifting to the center, the two of them had no space between each other, pajamas alone to separate their bodies a contorted mess of appendages on the distorted mattress. They were facing each other, forehead to forehead small hole between their chins. Weiss was quick to pull her arm around her and the blanket over them. This was crazy, this was too much. This was not meant for hammock time. Ruby needed an adult and prayed none would show up.

"Okay, so I don't think sex will ever work on one of these, but this is not terrible," Weiss mumbled and Ruby torched. Her head was redder than Pyrrha's head soaked in cherry juice. The fuck happened to studying? "We'll have to get you a real bed, not a child's playset."

"Weiss, if you're tired you can sleep in Yang's bed," Ruby instinctually offered, fearing the effects of a total meltdown. Weiss' hair was in her's, hand stroking her back, legs intertwined with her's. For a relationship only a few weeks long and without even a first kiss it was an intense minute and a half.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Weiss murmured angrily. Ruby returned a headshake, though part of her was really afraid of just something being fucked up, the major part of Ruby wanted Weiss here in her hammock.

"No," the redhead answered with words, "though I don't know how I'm going to study like this, plus there's still a notebook floating somewhere between us, and I don't know if you're prepared to wake up with a binder in your butt," Ruby joked to ease the weird rumblings inside her. Weiss gave a single chuckle in reply.

"The board's considered the risks," Weiss whispered, closing the hole between their chins and giving Ruby the first kiss she'd had since high school, "We've decided the gains are worth the risk."

Ruby didn't know how much she missed things like that until now. A gentle little peck on the lips, a drink in a desert. Weiss was soft, she smelled sweet, she was gorgeous, even her jammies were more styling. How in the heck did she land this girl? "But seriously, I need help in Spanish."

"We will study in the morning, lord you ruin the mood so—" Weiss would have groaned, had Ruby not gone for a short, completely innocent revenge kiss, "Oh, you bastard!"

"You know it," Ruby chuckled, thinking that mom would have loved that joke.

Yang Xiao Long

Paris was suppose to be the most beautiful city in the world, its famous sites the envy of all, its people all spoke the language of love, its museums held the oldest and greatest collections from around the world. Its food was suppose to be the finest in the land, and its streets, while ripe with con artists, were still famed to be the grandest. Yang, however, found this place to be frankly underwhelming.

Paris was nice, but so were Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw, Hamburg, and Amsterdam, all cities the two Longs had carved through on this several week long trip through the E.U. Next up was London, a place that Yang couldn't wait to cross to. Least she could speak the language there. She had been flying completely blind since Italy.

Still it wasn't without charms. The river was beautiful, packed with gardens and ancient builds right against modern corporate structures. Yesterday Yang went to the Louvre while her mother worked in the hotel, a grand emporium of weird things from across the globe. So much that there wasn't even a conceivable way to see it all in one day. There were still mysteries there Yang hadn't even begun to unravel. Tonight, however, it was Envida that pulled her along.

Her mom knew the city well, spoke French fluently enough, and knew many of the shops and corner store owners. People treated the girl they called Raven with the same way one might an old friend, and Yang was the shocking daughter no one expected. Her French skills were pitiful, but it was nice to get the attention from her mother's friends even if it all sounded like gibberish. Together they stopped by place after place, until they reached one of the corner clubs, a nice bar centered between the river plaza, Notre Dame in the distance bigger than any picture could make it out to be, and a statue of a rider on horseback, his lance comically lit up by a long neon green tube. Guy looked like he was holding a god damn lightsaber. Yang was happy to give a salute to whatever French hero mastered the Force.

The corner club though, that place was nice. Its bartop black stone, room tastefully set up with circular couches all in low lighting. The patrons were well dressed, much nicer than Yang in her usual tan jacket and shorts. Mother was even out of her element in a vintage club, her standard old goth look, black on black on black on red wasn't exactly the style. Still, Envida seemed to be the envy of the world, confident, friendly with the bartender, while Yang chilled, botching her order of a Strawberry Sunrise's French equivalent.

"Sorry for dragging you around," Envida opened while finishing up with the old bartender, "I just wanted you to meet my old friends, I feel like they deserve seeing my daughter with how much I use to write about you." Yang smiled at that, knowing at least she use to be the family pride and joy. Less so now. After all how proud could one be of a fight-happy fuck up?

"No problem, mom, I'm just glad to get a drink, I totes need one. Haven't been wasted since, well yeah." Yang knew better than to mention the accident, though the scratches on her body had long since healed over the weeks, it was still not exactly one of the best talking points for a happy fun filled evening.

"You won't be getting drunk. Take it easy. This isn't one of those clubs." Envida grasped Yang gently on the shoulder, squeezing to reassure her, not scare her off like a little bunny. Not that Yang was ever a little bunny.

"What kind of club is a club where you don't get drunk?" Yang sang from the swivel of her bar stool, snatching a drink as it came to her. Her mother never stopped her, she had her own drink, a wine probably. She was the fancy type with her drinks, after all.

"This kind. This place is more for you to enjoy some fine drinks and fine music, not get wasted and start a bar brawl." Mother pointed towards the center act, a small musical troupe of woman clad in vintage dresses and styles. Two brought fine string instruments to be backed up by a man in the back on a piano. The last, a black woman with the prettiest wavy hair Yang had ever seen sung, her voice a snappy and sultry French that took front and center in their ensemble. "You never were one for refinement, huh? Couldn't sit still for it."

"I'm like a shark, mama, got to keep fighting and swimming or I drown." Yang knew she wasn't trying to be mean, she never was. Envida wasn't judging her so much as stating a fact like the world turns and the sun rises.

"You know most sharks don't actually need to do that?" Of course that didn't mean a Long would ever keep from being a smart ass, not especially the mama bear. "Nothing wrong with taking something in first. Not stopping, just orienting yourself."

"Mama, last time I oriented myself, it pointed in every direction." If her mom actually got her thinly veiled sexual reference, she didn't react. Well mama, that's about as close to coming out as pan to you that you're gonna get 'till ya catch me with a dick in my mo—

"You know that's a direction in itself. Everywhere isn't so bad." Yang didn't expect mom to go straight into serious land, they had comfortably skirted around things for a while. Factually, Yang knew she knew pretty much everything in her life. Mothers had a way about that. Now they were reaching a moment on this trip, a moment to really figure things out. Yang's gut reaction was to say screw that. Yet…

"I hate my life right now. I don't want to do culinary," Yang admitted, staring deeply at the musical act. They were fantastic, the performance too good for a half empty club, though they were certainly getting attention from the seemingly stoic crowed.

"Mija," her mother replied with a smile, "I've known that since before the crash, we never made you pick culinary, so long as you go to college, me and your father are happy. Even this late, change your program and we will help you through it." Yang knew that was true, always did. Culinary was picked not because she loved it, but because it was the only thing she didn't hate. Yang had no practical passion, her Tao was nothing useful.

"Mama, I love fighting," Yang didn't know how to explain it better than that. Or in a way that would make her parent do anything but cringe in disgust. Of course she did tense at that. How could Yang blame her? No one wants a fighter for a child.

"You want to be a professional then?" Envida brushed her hair back as she asked, a nervous twinge. She drank a sip of wine as well, drink down her own suggestion maybe. It was too late.

"I can't," Yang admitted, defeated, "I lost the Vytal festival, tied for third. Even if I get into minor leagues, I'll be past my prime before I even get enough fame for it to be a livable job." The French troupe, their song took on a sad mournful tone, a bit of blues in the mix. It was an awesome soundtrack to her loss.

"You know, when my parents wanted me to be a doctor, I traveled to a lot of places. Paris, Japan, but you know what was an odd favorite?" Envida asked, nudging Yang to spur her own. The daughter rolling her eyes.

"What?"

"A rural town in Wales you'd never even have heard the name and I certainly can't pronounce it. I stayed in a blacksmith's place, an honest-to-god blacksmith, he sold traditional swords and other things, specialist kind of guy. I couldn't believe he existed. Why in the world would an old timey blacksmith still exist? I asked him that," Envida paused her story, tongue caught on the exact words, trying to build a portal to the past with memories, "'No matter what, if you love it you can become a master of it, and if you become a master, someone will pay you for it'," she quoted in English, accented, but perfect, something ingrained in her so much it never even translated. "He said I was like a little raven flying across the planet to escape being trapped. That's how I got the nickname. After a month with him, I moved in with my brother Qrow, and while he worked overseas, I went to school here. I learned programing and marketing. No one would pay me to be free, I thought, but I became a master of it. I help build and host travel sites. Like a blacksmith, who would pay for something like this?" She turned from the band, eyes bright with an intuition, toward her daughter. Smug woman, Yang loved her so much and hated how smart she was all at the same time. "Yang, my little one, I don't know what it is, but if you master your love, you'll find a way. Just think of another angle."

The singer hit a strong chorus, that seasoned voice overpowering the violin, the piano, the cello, all of its orchestration. That sad love song she was singing seemed to turn to an affirmation of her own power. Yang could only guess, her face, those strong dark features seemed unbendable. She was too good for this place.

"I think I'm ready to go home," Yang mumbled, hushed as not to disrupt the woman's finale. Her mom smiled, sipping away at her wine glass confidently.

"After we get to Wales. I have some flowers to drop off there."

***Of all the chapters I've written, this is easily the one I knew least what the hell I was gonna do with it. I am so sorry if it's boring! I did get this done on time! One week from last release and I'm hoping to finish all of choice before November!

Thanks first to Savvymeme for helping me with dinner constructions, she is a delight and a fantastic artist so check out her tumblr by the same name if you want some RWBY goodies or other fun stuff. My other thank you goes of course to the Editor and savior of Choice Lazykatze, she is a wonder and her fic layers of Ice had a fantastic brand new chapter, you have to check it out it's great!

Please everyone leave reviews to tell me what you think! They help steer the ship (Ha!) and really point in the direction it should head, like the bumblebee section you all love is so much bigger because of your reactions so don't hesitate to tell me what you think!

I've decided to add random behind the scenes facts every chapter. First one was the original Name for Choice was "Another Language" in fact the google doc containing story notes is still under that name.