They had always kissed. Ever since they were babies, Ruby and Yang had kissed each other to show affection. They'd kissed their mother and father in the same way once upon a time, but that had stopped after Summer Rose died. When their father shut down at her loss, and he and their uncle were always away on Hunting trips, Ruby and Yang really only had each other for physical affection - hugs, pats on the back, playful punches, kisses for boo-boos. They had no separate personal space between them when they were together.

Yang loved Ruby with all her heart. She could never understand why siblings in other families fought so much. She and her baby sister got along perfectly. Sure the two roughhoused, but it was always in good fun, and their disagreements rarely resulted in anger. On the few occasions that they did, it never lasted long before they were back in each other's arms. Cuddling, wrestling, sparring - it didn't matter what they were doing, as long as they were together.

Ruby was easy to get along with, and she loved to tag along on Yang's thrill-seeking adventures. (That is, when their father allowed it.) Yang loved her little sister's bravery and enthusiasm for life. She loved that Ruby had never met a challenge that she wouldn't rise to. She loved that Ruby was capable and independent enough to not need her, but she was affectionate enough to want her. The tenacious little rose was fully rooted in Yang's heart, and there was no way to uproot it.

That's why, when their father told them they needed to stop kissing, they thought he was joking. They both laughed.

"I don't know why you're laughing. I'm serious."

Yang scoffed.

"Okay, Dad," Ruby said patronizingly.

Taiyang raised his brow threateningly. "Excuse me?"

"What?" Yang asked. "If this is some sort of game, I don't get it."

Taiyang frowned. "This isn't a game. You guys are way too old to be kissing all the time like that."

"No we're not!" Ruby argued.

"That's dumb," Yang added.

"You girls are treading on dangerous ground here," Taiyang threatened. "I suggest you do as you're told and stop arguing with me."

Yang threw her arms in the air. "But that's stupid! We're sisters who love each other! People who love each other kiss each other sometimes! What's the big deal?"

"The big idea is that it is inappropriate for sisters of your age to be kissing! No more! You're done."

Ruby shook her head almost imperceptively. "I don't understand."

"What's not to understand?" Taiyang said aggravatedly. "No. More. Kissing"

Ruby's head was rattling back and forth now. "No," she whispered.

"Don't tell me 'no,' young lady. You're making me very angry right now. You stop this and behave properly, or you're going to be in a world of trouble."

Yang felt like he'd just slapped her across the face. Worse. She didn't know the words for what she felt. All she knew was that she couldn't quite find her breath. "Why?" she mouthed, and when no sound came out, it startled her into breathing again. "Why?" she cried.

"I already told you too many times. I'm not telling you again."

When Taiyang started to walk away, Ruby ran in front of him, tears were pouring down her face. "Dad!" she cried, "Why? Why are you doing this to us? What is so wrong?! I don't understand!" Her voice got higher and higher as she talked.

Ruby's voice was so frantic that Yang sobbed out loud. "Dad!" She couldn't get anymore words out. Her throat was clenched as tight as her heart. She covered her face with her hands to try to calm herself, but it didn't help.

Taiyang snapped, "This is ridiculous! You girls ought to know better already!"

"Better than what?" Ruby argued, still crying. "Better than to love each other? I don't-" she huffed and gestured wildly. "I don't understand!" she shrieked and dropped to the ground, sobbing into her hands.

Yang hurried over to her sister's side and wrapped her arms around her. Surely her father could be reasoned with about this. She just had to stop freaking out first. She needed to be able to talk. She took long, slow breaths until she felt like she could speak again. When she looked up, her father was scowling, but he hadn't moved. "Dad," she spoke again shakily, angrily, "Nobody ever told us there was an age limit on kissing the people you love."

"Well, there is!" Taiyang insisted. "I'm sorry if that upsets you, but there is." His voice was calm, but she could sense the danger behind it.

"No!" Ruby shouted. "There isn't!"

Their father knelt down on one knee in front of them and spoke in a low but commanding tone. "Ten and Twelve year olds don't have any business kissing anyone, anywhere, at any time. Normal people stop kissing at two or three years old!"

"Grownups kiss all the time!" Yang argued.

"That's different!" he hissed. "Grownup kissing is different than baby kissing!"

"How?" Ruby demanded.

Taiyang rubbed his head as though he were in pain. "Grownup kissing is for people who are in love.

"But we ARE in love!" Yang answered desperately.

"No you're not!"

"Yes we are!" Ruby shouted.

"Sisters cannot be in love!" Taiyang shouted back. "You can love each other all you want, but you can't be in love! You can't kiss each other! It doesn't work that way!"

"Why?" Ruby howled.

Yang felt a stabbing pain in her chest as Ruby's wailing pierced the air. She hugged her and stroked her back, making gentle little shushing noises. "It's okay, Ruby," she cooed. "It's going to be okay. We can talk about this."

Taiyang raised his arms in the air emphatically. "There's nothing to talk about! Now you stop this nonsense this instant!"

"You stop this nonsense this instant!" Ruby spat back at him.

Yang had to hide her face in a fake hug to disguise her inappropriate laughter. She couldn't help it. She adored Ruby's fire. It was that fire that made them feel connected, and it raged inside her little sister in this moment.

Taiyang growled and stomped away. "I can't deal with this anymore right now."

It took a while, but Yang tried her best to help Ruby calm down. Not that she herself felt calm, but she was used to putting on a brave face so that Ruby could do the same. "It's gonna be okay, baby sister," she promised. She defiantly planted a kiss on Ruby's lips. "He can't take that away from us. I won't let him." She pulled her little sister into her lap and cradled her against her shoulder until she stopped crying. "I love you so much, Ruby." She craned her neck around to see if anyone was looking, and when she was certain they were alone, she kissed Ruby again, this time for longer than usual.

As obedient as she normally was, Ruby was happy to disobey in this occasion. She wrapped her hands around Yang's head and kissed her over and over again. "I don't care what he says," she whispered in between pecks. "I'm not going to stop kissing you. In fact, I think I need to start kissing you a lot more." She kissed Yang about a hundred more times.

The fiery blonde burned with happiness and the thrill of her sister's rebellion. It wasn't often Ruby spurned her father's orders, but when she did, Yang secretly felt proud of her. Again, it was that fire that they shared. She smiled happily as Ruby kissed her. Each touch of their lips was a healing balm to her aching heart. She didn't care if they got caught again. She needed this. How could their father dare try to take it away? Was he surrounded by so many monsters that now he was becoming one? She didn't think so. Well, she hoped not, anyway. Their father wasn't usually so forceful with them, and most days, he was downright cheerful toward them. She resolved that he would get over it, and they could go back to normal very soon. "Ruby?" she whispered. "Everything's going to be okay."

Her little sweetheart nuzzled her nose. "Promise?"

Yang grinned and bear hugged Ruby, chuckling at her sister's choking noises. "Yes. I promise. You're the best sister in the whole wide world, Ruby, and nothing is ever going to break us apart. Our love is the best love that ever existed. We're the best team there ever was."

Ruby smiled indulgently now, and most traces of her tears were gone. She laid her head back on Yang's shoulder and snuggled into her. "I'm the luckiest sister in the whole world to have you."

Her heart felt a great deal better, but it was still wounded from their father's appalling orders. Yang rocked and cuddled Ruby until her rear end was numb from sitting on the ground. They were timid about going back in the house. They didn't know what they would say to him. She wished they'd talked about it before they'd gone in, but their father spotted them walking into the kitchen through the back door as he entered from the living room.

"I was just about to come and get you," he said a bit more calmly. "I think you both should spend some quiet time in your own separate rooms for a while."

Ruby stomped her foot.

"What?" Yang whined.

"Go on," he pointed calmly toward the bedrooms.

"No!" Ruby growled.

Taiyang growled right back at her, "You go on your own, or I will take you there."

Hell's fire had nothing on the weeping and wailing that pierced the air as the two young sisters trudged away, confused, enraged, and howling like banshees. Yang knew she had words inside her somewhere, but they weren't in her mind. The only thing there was an angry red, coupled with a black pulsating around her vision. By the time she got to her room and closed the door, she was fully on fire. She roared at the heavens and began punching, kicking and breaking everything in her room. She punched a dozen holes in the walls, she hurled her books across the room, she tossed her dresser through her vanity mirror. Next, she launched her bed through the window, smashed her bookshelves to bits and set those bits on fire. She set her curtains on fire. She threw the damaged vanity through the wall, and when she was all punched out, she dropped to her knees and sobbed for another hour. A small logical place in her mind told her she might possibly be overreacting, but she felt no ability to control herself after this breech of trust, this cruel punishment. She tried several times to calm herself, but nothing seemed to work. She couldn't stop hearing his voice over and over in her head, telling them to stop, telling them they were being ridiculous. Every time she heard it, she was washed in a new wave of tears.

Why? Why would he do this? Didn't he remember what comfort a kiss could be? Didn't he remember how comforting Ruby's kisses could be? What could be wrong with that? In this harsh and lonely world, they needed that comfort desperately. There was no getting through life without it. She imagined that she might have responded better, if he had insisted she cut off her hand! At least that might not have broken her heart so terribly. She felt more shattered than the glass littering her floor.

She crumpled bonelessly to the floor when her tears subsided. She felt empty inside now. As she stared off into space, she wondered what Ruby was doing. Their house was so big, it was hard to hear anything in other rooms. When she couldn't hear anything through the door, she peeked under it, in hopes that she could see footsteps or something in the hallway. Nothing. With a quick last sniffle and a wipe of her face, she slowly opened the door and peeked out. Silence. She didn't know where her father had gone, and she didn't care. She tiptoed to Ruby's door and sneaked inside, noiselessly closing the door behind her.

"Yang?" Ruby whimpered from her bed. She lay in the fetal position, cuddling her stuffed beowolf, tissues scattered around her. Her room was in similar shambles to Yang's, minus the fire and ashes.

The young blonde tapped her finger to her lips, but smiled reassuringly. She crawled into Ruby's bed and molded herself into her little sister's back. She needed comfort more than ever right now. She was emotionally and physically drained, and she soon fell asleep with her nose in Ruby's hair. She woke with a start to the sensation of someone sitting on the bed. It was Taiyang. She cringed back, afraid of what he would say, but he raised his hand to stop her.

With a heavy sigh, he said, "Listen, I don't know what it is with you two, but this has got to stop." He gestured to the destruction around him. "What has gotten into you?"

"You said we can't kiss anymore!" Ruby started to cry again, covering her face with her hands.

Yang embraced her again.

Taiyang sighed. "You know what? Forget I ever said anything. This is just absolutely ridiculous."

"You're ridiculous!" Ruby sobbed.

"Now, stop that!" Taiyang said sternly. "What did I just say?"

"You said we were being ridiculous!"

"Ruby, this whole situation is ridiculous! My two perfect daughters just demolished half my house!"

Neither of the girls had anything to say about that.

He shook his head. "I take it back."

"Take back which part?" Yang grumbled.

Taiyang rolled his eyes and huffed, "I take back what I said about you girls kissing."

"You mean it?" Ruby asked, hopeful but skeptical.

Taiyang shook his head as he stared at the floor. "I don't like it. And it's not something you ought to be doing, but I'll be damned if I ever have to go through something like this ever again. It turned my sweet little angels into wild half-crazed monsters! I just- I can't have that."

Ruby and Yang looked at each other for reassurance before actually believing him. Ruby timidly moved toward him for a hug, and he embraced her warmly, pulling her tiny form into his lap. The little brunette snuggled into him, but still pouted.

"Come on, sweetheart," he gently coaxed Yang, who still held back. "Come here, baby girl."

Reluctantly, she crawled into the nook of his arm, and his touch was as warm and comforting as ever. She knew he couldn't have become a monster. She knew he was a man of reason. She knew he had no cause to punish them. It was such a huge relief to be assured of those things. He may have made a mistake, but he was a good father, and she knew he loved them. "Thank you, Daddy," she whimpered. "I knew you'd come around."

Taiyang rocked them in his arms. "I guess so."

Yang didn't like his tone, but she didn't care. As long as she could still love Ruby as freely as she liked, she didn't really care if he approved. He had his ways of showing affection, and they had theirs. What harm ever came from two sisters being in love? Yang was certain there were much worse things they could do.

"By the way," Taiyang added. "You guys are going to fix the damage you did to this house all by yourselves. Don't expect me to lift a finger to help. You want your stuff replaced? You're gonna have to work it off."

Yang couldn't care less. She would have destroyed the whole house, if she thought had to. Nothing - not even their father - could keep her and Ruby apart, and she knew she would destroy the whole world before she let anything or anyone separate them.