Work Text:
Weiss sighed as she looked out the window. She knew she could be preoccupied with work, it was a habit every member of the family shared to some degree, save Whitley, but he had plenty of other faults to make up for that in her humble opinion.
Still as much as she could get preoccupied, so could the other two loves of her life. Normally one of them, or both rather would be bothering her to take a break, or dragging her somewhere to make sure she relaxed.
Perhaps she’d been too harsh on her rejection the last time they asked?
“I’d really like to go to dinner with them,” Weiss muttered as she looked at the picture of the three of them on her desk, making silly faces, and posing for Klein.
She put the picture down, and got back to work. She’d think more about it later, and just have to go without tonight.
Unbeknownst to Weiss an often unused summon felt her plea, one from the heart, and born of love, and its sincere boredom it felt the need to do something to help its mistress.
Ruby hummed as she did maintenance on her baby. Yep, let Weiss get through her paperwork like she asked yesterday, and then she, and Maria would…
She whirled around to find a large Grimm in the doorway to her workshop. It was truly massive, and was one of the creatures they’d feared most during any hunt.
Hounds were incredibly intelligent, and even capable of limited speech so it stood to reason that if one could somehow survive, and hunt down…wait why was it blue?
This was!
“T-TAKE THE G-GIRL!”
Ruby narrowed her eyes at the Hound wondering who was commanding it before it continued.
“OUT F-FOR D-D-D-DINNER!”
“What?” Ruby asked, entirely flabbergasted before the Hound moved so quickly she couldn’t even keep up, and had her in its front paw.
“W-WEAR THE S-SUIT!” the hound demanded as Ruby blinked, not sure what was happening, or why her day was turning out like this. Was this a sign from Weiss? Normally she’d be direct, and just tell them.
Outside of it accidentally, she hoped, smacking her head on the doorway as it left her workshop things really could have been worse. Probably.
Whitley paused from where he was braiding Pyrrha’s hair as he heard a thud coming from outside the room. It sounded like knocking, if someone was unable to control their strength.
Pyrrha frowned as she traded suspicious looks with him, and the two quickly left the room, Eddie in tow, as they wandered down the manor halls, Pyrrha’s spear at the ready just in case.
They both blinked seeing a rather large Grimm in front of a locked door. Pyrrha prepared herself to attack it before they took note of both its color, translucent blue, and the fact that Miss Rose was in its paw looking remarkably unbothered by things as she snacked on some sort of energy bar.
“Oh hey guys,” Ruby greeted the pair, and Eddie who chirped at her, which caused the Hound to turn to face them.
“G-Girl g-gone?”
“It’s trying to find Maria, but uh, I don’t know where she is since I didn’t get to take my scroll from the workshop,” Ruby explained, tossing a pout at the Hound who didn’t appear to get it.
“She said she was going to take a stroll in the gardens, and do some light exercise,” Pyrrha spoke, remembering the information from the group chat they shared.
“W-where g-gardens?” the hound asked as it tried to shrug, and only managed to shake Ruby like a snow globe as she made complaints about being dizzy.
“We can show you if you like,” Whitley offered as the great Grimm nodded happily, or what they assumed was happily.
A few moments later, and Whitley opened the back door to gesture at the expansive gardens.
The Hound made to leave until a series of annoyed chirps stopped it in its tracks, and it flinched. It then turned to Whitley, and Pyrrha before nodding its head. “T-thank y-you.”
The baby Nevermore then puffed itself up, and flew back over to nest in Whitley’s breast pocket on his jacket as Pyrrha cooed at the thing.
They both watched the Hound begin to search the small maze like garden area for one of Weiss’s wayward paramores trading goodbye waves with Ruby all the while.
“I’m glad she’s found them. I don’t know of anyone else that would want to put up with Weiss’s summons acting so independently,” Whitley joked.
“Hey. Your sister is fine. They’re just…well matched for each other,” Pyrrha said, giving Whitley a playful poke in the shoulder.
“Very true. I truly am glad she found them, however I believe we have reservations of our own we were in the midst of preparing for, my lady,” Whitley said in his most suave, and charming voice as she pressed a kiss to the back of Pyrrha’s hand.
“Such a gentlemen,” Pyrrha teased as she faux fanned herself, but her smile was genuine as they went back to getting ready for a night of theater, dinner, and dancing!
Maria smiled as she walked through the gardens. It was so peaceful here, a reminder of all they’d fought for, and still would again.
Who’d have ever thought a pair of silly girls would end up dating, and now engaged to one of the most powerful, and wealthy women on the planet?
Certainly not her, but she was glad for it. Hearing Baconator make a strange snuffling noise she gave him an idle pat in her robe pocket, the teacup pig sized Boarbatusk was shuffling around clearly agitated by something although what she didn’t know.
Her preflexes were…! She dodged to the left as a massive Hound Grimm came crashing through the hedges right in front of her.
“I don’t know how you got here, but I’ll make you regret…Ruby?” Maria asked as Ruby continued to sputter and claw at her face.
“Ugh, I got branches, and leaves in my mouth, why?” Ruby complained. “Hey Maria.”
“I…what’s going on?” Maria asked.
“Weiss is missing us, and manifested a summon without realizing it, and it wants us to get ready, and take her out tonight,” Ruby explained as the summon nodded.
“You thought of that yourself?”
“Pfft, nah. Pyrrha explained it, well she said it fancier than me, but I got the gist of it.”
“I see…” Maria said as she tried to figure out what was really going on, and spotted something in the Grimm’s hands.
“Are those?”
“G-give g-girl floOOoowers,” the hound stated as it held a surprisingly well put together bouquet in its hands. “W-wear d-dress!”
Maria blinked stupidly before the Grimm shoved the flowers into her hand, and then she squawked when it picked her up in its now free hand.
Maria traded looks with an amused looking Ruby. At least life with them was never boring.
Cinder sighed as she looked at the food she was in the middle of preparing. She didn’t know why she bothered. Winter would probably be held back again, and miss the dinner. Maybe she should just get takeout delivered since it could just be reheated.
Winter frowned as she tried to go over the next report that needed her attention as she once more was forced to swat at a Nevermore in her office. Granted it was her own summon that had manifested itself and had started pecking at the bun she always wore her hair in.
“What are you doing, Edgar?” Winter hissed at the summon which cawed at her in annoyance.
“Ferdinand leave the boots alone,” Winter growled as her Beowolf summon growled back, and gnawed at her ankle.
“MATILDA!” Winter shrieked as her Goliath summon headbutted the back of her chair. “What has gotten into all of you?”
Cinder finished the plate of food she had prepared for Winter. She set it down, and sighed. It would likely go uneaten, but at least she’d kept her promise.
To her great surprise, the door to the kitchen burst open, and Winter came in, her hair down, looking as frazzled as Cinder had ever seen her when she wasn’t responsible for it.
She looked magnificent.
Her eyes blazed with righteous anger before she looked at the set table, and her eyes softened almost instantly when she saw Cinder standing there.
“...dinner was tonight. I was going to be late…” Winter said out loud as if she’d just realized.
“But you’re not,” Cinder countered. “Would you join me for dinner?”
“I’m not proper,” Winter stated as she ran a hand through her hair nervously.
“You’re perfect,” Cinder insisted as she gestured toward the chicken dish she’d prepared with some new sauces that she felt Winter would appreciate.
Winter, despite all the things they’d been through pinked, and gave a nod. “I’d love to.”
Cinder smiled, her heart full of glee at seeing her fiance join her for dinner.
Willow smiled as her own summon came back. “Gave my daughter’s summons a bit of a push did you? They still need a push now, and again. I might have to lock them out of their work accounts soon if they don’t stop overworking. Thoughts for later.”
Team Crimson After Action Report
Pyrrha Nikos
Objective was to fix the flow of water to the nearby town. Suspected blockage was at the pumps, but unfortunately they required a trip outside the settlement, and in the aqueducts under the city.
Preliminary estimates were that the pumps under the town merely required routine maintenance, but the ones outside of town might have drawn a nest of Grimm, and a team, our team, was dispatched on the off chance some had made it below town, and were in hiding, or amassing in number, secretly.
Several Grimm, types noted below, were encountered, and dispatched with minimal issue, and no major injuries were accrued while doing so.
The pump was repaired easily with thankfully no extra tools being needed, and with minimal intervention from team members.
“I don’t believe using my semblance to fix the pump is in line with my skill set. I’m not much of a plumber,” Pyrrha spoke to her team leader who sighed. “Ruby can likely fix this, but I estimate it might take her an hour, or so, but again I’m not an expert, and I’m only guessing.”
“Sure, but the longer we take the longer until you can get back to your beanstalk boyfriend right?” Cinder asked with a smirk in her voice.
Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at Cinder, and cut her eyes toward the door where they could hear the reaper duo having fun playing with the nearby Grimm.
“Fiance,” Pyrrha corrected fiercely. “Guard the door, and tell no one,” Pyrrha bargained as Cinder mimed zipping her lips, and then gently closed the door, and leaned against it as Pyrrha got to work.
They had a manual so it couldn’t turn out that badly, surely…
Maria Calavera
It was such a boring mission until they mentioned the pumps out of town. Those are always good and bound to be crawling with Grimm!
Cinder, ‘our leader’, tried to order us to just kiss, and vaporize the Grimm, but I elected to ignore that dumb ass order because the only thing better than kissing one of the two women in my life is doing it while riding the high of killing Grimm the old fashioned way.
Besides, we can't afford to let our skills get rusty! At any rate, while Ruby, and I were having a grand old time that left our leader, and Pyrrha alone to handle the pump.
It had a manual that Ruby had taken half a glance at before I’d pulled her from the room. She’d assured me it was so simple even idiot sister could fix it so with Pyrrha left behind as the competent one we had a Grimm competition instead since that was a much better use of my time. \
“Twelve!” Ruby cheered brightly, her weapons flashing out in a complicated pattern Maria could barely follow as the Grimm’s arms turned into segmented cubes before it wailed, and was cut off as Ruby separated its head from the shoulders. Damn she looked fine doing it too.
Maria knew she’d chosen correctly with these two. She had only the best taste in future wives after all.
“I’m at fifteen!” Maria crowed but in the next moment Ruby had dashed ahead with her absurd semblance, and beheaded a group that had just come around the corner.
“Eighteen!” Ruby chirped happily as she beamed at Maria, who despite the absolute bullshit that was Ruby’s semblance was, returned the smile…at least before the wall near them exploded, and smoke billowed out.
Hearing their teammates cough the duo rushed in to see if they could assist them.
Cinder Fall
We had to fix two pumps for a town that couldn’t be bothered to even do the one in the sewers under their own town. What no? Why would I turn off auto dictate? What do I care if the report has shit in it? Well maybe they wouldn’t have to deal with it if I didn’t have to be away from Winter.
Excuse you? Do you know how often she has to work, or that we have time off together?
Whatever. At any rate we got in, fixed the pump, and killed a few dozen Grimm. Super boring, and routine. Not even worth the paper this was printed on.
Cinder watched, well zoned out really, as Pyrrha worked on fixing the pump. The sooner they got out of this dump, the sooner she could get back home, and spend time with Winter.
It had really been too long, and god their team kept getting pulled into-
Her thoughts were interrupted as a loud explosion rang out, and the she was thrown off her feet. Smoke began to rapidly fill the room.
“What the hell did you do?” Cinder growled in a voice that would make many a metal singer jealous, and even Winter had admitted she enjoyed.
“I’m sorry!” Pyrrha apologized. “I just…”
Whatever else she might have been about to say, or explain was cut off as the other two came into the room, and began hacking up a storm before the runt slapped a rebreather over both her own, and Cinder's face.
Pleased with her foresight, which was probably instilled in her by her own Schnee, Cinder redirected her anger at the proper location, or person, which for once, was not Maria. Who knew? Winter certainly wouldn't believe it, but it's not like they were ever going to tell her anyway.
“Explain,” Cinder demanded as Pyrrha attached her own rebreather she’d been given from the teal reaper, and took a deep breath.
“I was just following the instructions, and put in the final pipe like the manual said. I made sure the safety mechanisms were in place, and then it just exploded,” Pyrrha explained as she rubbed at her eyes, the smoke still stinging a bit even if she could breathe properly.
“This model shouldn’t explode like that,” Ruby said simply as she looked at the remains of the pump.
“Well it did,” Maria pointed out, because of course she did.
“Yeah, but it shouldn’t even be able to generate that sort of blockage, or backup without the fail safes kicking in. It’s why a lot of people still use this model. The power is lacking, but it’s steady, reliable, tons of fail safes, and lasts a long time with minimal routine maintenance, plus it’s got that whirring thing.”
“What whirring thing?” Cinder asked, a moment before Pyrrha. Cinder noticed Maria was lost in her own little world that she often went to when one of her partners started getting passionate, or effortlessly showcasing their talents. Gross.
“Mhm. Sort of like the fear effect frequency in humans, Grimm have the same deal. Well not fear, but they do find it annoying, and humans can’t hear it. They try to avoid it when they can,” Ruby explained as she continued to muck about the remains of the machine.
“So why not make every machine out of it? Or line walls, or outposts with it?” Pyrrha asked, and even Cinder was forced to admit she was moderately curious about the answer.
“Because it just annoys them. If there’s no other way to go they’ll go through it to stop it. It’s why you just use it in areas you don’t want them to go. There’s no humans, or Faunus here, so no food, or reason to be here, and it’s annoying. They can go elsewhere so why bother it? It’s why they came around once we showed up,” Ruby explained as she pulled something from the machine.
“What’s that?” Maria asked as she came closer to see through the still smoke filled room.
“This is a type…” Ruby cut herself off to Maria’s disappointment as she looked at the others. “Sabotagay!”
“Can’t you just say sabotage like a normal person?” Cinder complained as she held her hand out, and was given the remains of a device.
“I mean you said I was wrong about sherbet too, and karaoke, but I wasn’t~!” Ruby sing songed.
“I missed when you wanted to impress me,” Cinder complained as she looked at the remains of the device.
“I say we go visit the mayor, and ‘politely ask’ if he knows anything else,” Maria offered as she twirled her kama, and lightly scraped them against each other. For once Cinder was in full agreement. Whoever had done this was keeping all of them away from their Schnee's, and that was the worst crime she could think of.
“And anyway nothing important happened so we decided to get back, and do the boring stuff before we took you out for dinner,” Maria explained as she handed over the flowers for Weiss.
“I don’t know how you two just know, but thank you,” Weiss said sincerely, a wide grin split her face. “I love you so much!”
“Anything for you!” Ruby insisted with a grin.
“And you’re wearing the outfits I wanted to test. The suit makes you look dashing, and I know you don’t usually like them, but I must say the dress really brings out the best in you, Maria,” Weiss gushed.
“You look like a vision of beauty as well,” Maria offered honestly. It was never a hardship to praise Weiss.
“I’m always amazed at how lucky I got with you two being so pretty,” Ruby put in with a grin.
“Oh, did you make copies of your reports for Winter, and I?” Weiss asked politely as they waited on the appetizers to arrive.
“We did,” Maria assured her.
“I’m glad. I know you think it’s silly since there’s an official report, but Winter and I worry about what Ironwood might do with those records, or what he might change.”
“It’s fine. Might be a fun collectable later in life,” Maria said as Ruby fidgeted even as Maria gave her an elbow.
“What’s wrong Ruby?” Weiss asked noticing her distress.
“Uh…my journal, report thing…”
“What is it?”
“Dropped into the Aqueducts,” Maria cut in. “Only a few pages near the front survived.”
“Oh,” Weiss said, sounding understanding. “That’s fine. It was just a routine mission so while its disappointing I’m sure the other three’s reports will fill in the gaps admirably. Just take more care of it in the future. You’re always so clumsy,” Weiss playfully chided her fiance, or one of them as the waiter came back with the appetizers which distracted Weiss long enough for Maria to shoot Ruby a quick glare.
Weiss could NEVER find out. They’d never get to do anything again.
Ruby Rose
We had to fix a couple of pumps. The model is interesting because of the anti Grimm properties on it, and its reliability, but it’s not that cool.
Odds are we won’t even get to see any Grimm!
The rest of the writing is missing with the bottom part of this page being soaking wet although there appears to be a slight bit of red discoloration at the very edge.