Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the following writing except the characters and events I create.

All a Matter of Timing – Chapter 1

"It's okay boy, it's okay."

Ruby ran a gentle hand down through the rough fibers of long hair on the nearby dog's back. With each inch that her fingers massaged the tension bled from the trembling body, and the drooping ears stood a little bit longer. Under normal conditions, he would have been a prime specimen of his breed, one of the few remaining sled dogs from the north.

Behind her, she could hear Yang working to set up the kennel where they would be keeping this dog. Clearly the abuse from the previous owner had involved more than just the beatings that had left the patches of torn out fur in the brown-gray coat, it looked like the poor thing had been forcibly locked up for long enough he was now afraid of any cage. Ruby had known something was wrong the second she had brought him into this room, from the way his tail had immediately dropped down between his legs and his padding gait had become slouched and slow.

But when the Atlesian husky had seen the cage he would call his own, he had tried to bolt. She had only managed to stop him by laying a gentle hand upon his mane, kneeling down to bring the poor thing into her lap and begin to calm him. As she looked back, she could see her half-sister working to sprinkle some treats along the entrance to the kennel, just enough to entice the frightened pup forward.

Between her gentle coaxing and the wonderful smell of promised treats, the dog slipped from her hands and wandered slowly through the entrance of the cage. Ruby breathed out a sigh of relief at seeing him pad around and then lie down, chomping cautiously on one of the savory meat snacks that had been laid out for him. Glancing at Yang, she let out a nervous laugh, one that the blonde was more than happy to join in on.

After a moment, their mirth died down and Ruby let out soft groan as she rose back up to her feet. "For now, let's leave the cage door open. Poor thing might hurt himself if we don't give him time to adjust before locking him up."

"I'll make sure to come back in and do that before the next scheduled rescue." Her half-sister flashed her a winning grin, a pretty face lighting up within a frame of golden hair. "You're off soon, right? Gonna go sit in that coffee shop across the street for a couple hours again?" The smile took on a much more teasing quality as Ruby felt her cheeks heat up.

"It's.. Good coffee." Yang made a noise that simultaneously agreed while communicating disbelief, a favorite of the blonde's whenever Ruby tried to dodge a subject. "Plus I have to go out and socialize! Not all of us are lucky enough to fall in love with people we work with."

Instead of distracting her sibling, the words only spurred Yang on with a triumphant yell as they exited the kennels and entered the the main waiting room. "So you are going there hoping to run into that girl again! How did you describe her? Velvet," Her sister spoke to the brunette that sat behind the reception desk, a young woman with gorgeous features and a cute accent that could slay even the most hard hearted person. "Help me out here."

"I believe it was: 'Hair the color of midnight, eyes like gold, and an ass that almost made me faint.'" Both of the older girls shared a laugh at her expense, but at least Velvet calmed down rather quickly. "Sorry Ruby."

"Not your fault Velvet. Known Yang all my life, should know better than to tell her when I meet a girl." Ruby grimaced when her words earned her a playful punch from her sister, causing her to stick her tongue out at the blonde in a juvenile expression. "So you've told Weiss too, haven't you?"

"Texted her right after you told me! She said it was about time." There was a spark in lilac covered eyes that Ruby had noticed was always present when Yang spoke of her girlfriend, the owner of the rescue clinic and resident veterinarian, Dr. Weiss Schnee. So warm with pets, especially the dogs they mostly worked with, but so cold in person. She thought it didn't get much more opposite from the good doctor than her sister, but she'd also never seen them happier than when they were together. "Told me I should give you some tips for asking the mystery lady out!"

"I think I do just fine on my own, thank you very much!" Puffing out her chest somewhat in a prideful gesture, she earned a slight giggle from the receptionist before her sister waved her off and turned to leave the shelter.

"File your paperwork and get out of here, Rose."

"Don't forget to close that cage, Xiao Long." Their back and forth amused Velvet, as the brunette let out another small laugh before handing over a clipboard with the usual forms to Ruby. Pulling a pen from the back pocket of her jeans, she snickered to herself and clicked the top.

Time had no traction on her thoughts as she went through the motions of filling out all the info they had on the Atlesian Husky. There was only so much she knew for sure, but so much more that she had figured out while working with him. The officers who had originally brought him in had only mentioned the patches of torn out fur, but the abuse of this dog had run deeper than even she had assumed at first.

Like with every time, paperwork proved the toughest time for her. Yang called it her bleeding heart, but Ruby had a hard time trying to be impartial on paper after working with the animal she then had to write about. She wanted to give a full report, even if that meant Velvet had to white out a few lines of her cursing the former owner of the pet.

The sound of a throat clearing brought her out of her own thoughts, staring in the wide brown eyes of the receptionist who was angling her head forward, like she was trying to point at something without using her hands. "Uh.. Ruby you may want to take this one."

"Huh?" Turning to figure out just what the other girl was talking about, it became exceedingly clear when she saw someone opening the second set of doors to the shelter. Black hair cascaded down slender shoulders, and fierce amber-colored eyes locked onto her's as the beautiful newcomer strode forward.

"Oh."

Blake Belladonna had been standing outside the building for long enough she was sure that anyone who happened to pass by on the sidewalk behind her probably thought she was crazy. Hell, she thought she was crazy. Clenching her fists over and over in a nervous habit, she had been trying to work up the courage to walk in and talk to the girl with red highlights.

For the last few weeks, she had noticed the girl she had come looking for walking to and from the shelter. Short black hair with red highlights pulled into a ponytail that fell just past her shoulder blades, and bright eyes the color of silver, like mini reflections when they had happened to glance in Blake's direction. The girl was gorgeous, and she had been hooked since that first look. And of course she had to work at a rescue center for dogs. Of course it had to be dogs.

She had been about to go in when a woman with impossibly long golden-blonde hair had walked out the door and froze, staring directly at her for a few seconds. It all felt incredibly uncomfortable and all of the courage she had built up before had flitted away. To make matters worse, the blonde had just laughed and said 'Hi!' before walking away, like she had known was Blake was up to and was laughing at her!

Calming herself as her thoughts got a bit too far away from her, she took a deep breath and reached forward, pulling the first door out so she could step in. The second door was much quicker as her heart began to panic inside her chest, and she realized her mistake in not checking who was inside before entering. Because there was the girl she had come to see, standing there. Watching her with a surprised expression, along with the receptionist, who looked far too interested in not appearing to be interested.

Before her nervousness could force her to bail, the silver eyed girl strode forward with a hand extended. "Hi there, and welcome to the Schnee Animal Rescue Clinic." Without being able to do much more than stare, Blake was shocked when her hand moved on its own accord to meet the incoming shake. "My name is Ruby Rose."

Ruby Rose. That explained the black tattoo on the back of the girl's left hand, a stylistic rendition of a rose flower that was burning at the tips of the petals. Staring at the inked skin as she shook the hand, she took a moment to study the girl before forcing herself to speak. "Blake. Belladonna. I-Um.."

"Did you come to see if you'd like to adopt any of our dogs?" The way that Ruby spoke made it seem as if she was trying to help Blake by offering up a reason. For all that she had sat outside thinking about what to say, having a reason for coming into this place had never occurred to her. "We have plenty of rescues that could use a good home. All of 'em that you can adopt today are fully trained for a household too, by yours truly!"

Blake wasn't sure if it was because of the good sales pitch, or because she was quite literally lost inside the pools of molten argent that were the other girl's eyes, but she almost said yes right then and there. "Well I.." She cocked her head to the side, raising an eyebrow as her mind processed what had been said. "You trained them? All of them?"

"Yup!" The shorter girl brightened up as the subject shifted, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she spoke. "I've always had a way with animals, dogs especially. They love me, I love them. They listen and learn.. It works!"

"Sounds like a useful skill to have, especially if you work.." Blake flitted her gaze over to the receptionist, who was still obviously making an effort to appear like she was not eavesdropping on their conversation. It made her incredibly self conscious, even as she cleared her throat again. "You know, a place like this."

"So, were you thinking about adopting a pet? I can answer pretty much any questions you have."

"M-maybe." A cute, lopsided smile came from the girl, enough to put Blake at ease as she returned it with a shy spreading of her own lips. It faded instantly when she heard the telltale bass of a large dog's bark from outside, and flinched as she turned to see the blonde from earlier helping a police officer bring in a very angry looking pitbull.

"Oh crap." Ruby pranced about with uncertainty as she saw the situation outside, identifying in an instant that this was going to be a trouble case from the way the dog was snapping at the harness that was being used to steer the wild and aggressive animal towards the entrance. Glancing at Velvet for a single moment, she briefly considered telling the receptionist to go and close the husky's cage.

But she knew that it wasn't just her responsibility, but that the husky would be afraid unless she was there to calm it as she closed the door this early. Mentally kicking herself for the shoddy timing she had with this girl, Blake, she forced a brief smile as she backed up. "Um, stay there, I need to take care of something and I'll be back out. Well don't stay there, move to the side, but, um.."

Pushing through the swinging double doors with a frustrated groan, she moved quickly to the cage to close it, stopping before she did. Inside the husky raised a lazy head to regard her, and she reached in to meet his snout with a gentle hand. "Aw man my luck doesn't just suck, it hates me. I'm gonna close your cage now, but it'll be okay, alright boy?"

She saw the nervousness that entered the animal's eyes as she began to close the door, but it never amplified into full blown fear. Ruby tried to take her time, but she could hear Yang's directions for the officer getting closer, and she ended up locking the kennel far sooner than she would have liked. Standing and moving to get out the way, she was barely missed by the door that swung inward to admit the three that she had seen coming in outside.

Ducking past them, she made it a few steps into the main room before she stopped, with Blake nowhere in sight. "I.. Um, Velvet?"

"Sorry, Ruby." The receptionist looked truly apologetic, with brown eyes filled with sympathy, but not directed at her. "Your girl took one look at that dog and got scared, slid along the wall farthest from it and bolted as soon as Yang got 'im through the door."

Moving to look out through the glass windows that covered the front of the clinic, Ruby let out a groan. For the past few weeks, she had been visiting the coffee shop across the road to see this woman again. She had first seen her as a waitress there, but in the days since, nothing.

Blake Belladonna.

Ruby mentally rolled the name around on her tongue, and then resolved that the woman now knew where she worked. If Blake wanted to, she could find her again. All she had to do was wait.

Author's Note: So this is my attempt to get through writer's block, I guess. Inspired in equal parts by an idea of BooksAndWeapons, and a piece of art from Noxypep, I'm not sure where this is going, but it's going to be fluffy. Which is.. New, for me. So take it easy on me, I'm trying not to be angsty in this story as this is going to be a sort of fun.. Thing. Yeah. Anyway, let me know what you think! -Fox