Ruby - II
Ruby checked her scroll religiously, her eyes darting down to the hard light screen she had laid out on her lap; legs kicking and swinging nervously as she rested on her family's porch.
Corwyn had, a few hours ago, asked where she lived. She replied her family had a house in the wooded areas of Patch; to which Corwyn asked the address of as he stated it was 'the perfect place', making her rather confused.
Ruby smoothed down her dress, waiting on her porch as she got lost in the fluffy clouds of the sky, only for her anxiety to kick her in the head and remind her that she was waiting.
Her scroll buzzed, "I see you. Look down the gravel road."
She looked up from her scroll to see a distant figure on the road, his iconic hammer on his shoulder with something tied to its neck swinging around every step. By his side he dragged some sort of bin, and on his back was his backpack.
Ruby's brow raised as Corwyn neared, before she jolted and jumped up, zooming down with her Semblance of rose petals behind her. She skidded to a stop as she neared, eyes wide as she tried to divine the purpose of Corwyn's sack of stuff on his hammer and the apparent cooler.
"Eager to see me?" The young man asked with a grin on his face, not stopping in his stride as he continued along.
Ruby pouted, "I just wanted to know what we're doing! Stop being so mysterious!" She whined.
He chuckled, "We're going on a picnic." He lifted his hammer slightly, the sack jostling with goods she could now smell on the wind, her stomach rumbling somewhat.
Ruby's face fell into an 'o', before a thrill of excitement ran through her. "Yes!" She cheered, the anxiety of them going to a…public location with people fading away; only to be replaced by the fact that she was now officially on a Date! With a capital D!
She heard Corwyn chuckle, a deep laugh running through his chest, causing her to blush both in embarrassment, but also because damn that laugh did things to her. "Now, I also remember a certain someone promising to bake me cookies?" He asked with a teasing grin.
Ruby's face pale, "Oh no."
Corwyn laughed and waved her sudden spike of fear away, "I'm just kidding, Ruby. Although, I wouldn't mind a lesson in baking from the renowned master of Cookies."
Ruby lit back up and a wide smile spread on her face, her hands drifting to Corwyn's arm as she started to try to pull him to her house, "C'mon, finally! Someone to indict into the Cult of Cookies!" She roared yet failed utterly to move the wall of muscle that was Corwyn's body.
She suddenly became very aware of the ripped and vascular arm she was gripping, her enthusiasm dimming down as pure and innocent curiosity took its place in a whiplash, and with methodical precision, she started to poke at Corwyn's bicep.
His laugh jolted her out of her inspections of his arm, and with an exaggerated motion he tensed his forearm and bicep, getting her to let out a sound of awe. "Years of work." He stated with a grin. "Help me with the freezer?" He suddenly asked, Ruby now aware that they were at her porch. Grabbing the back handle, she helped bring the load inside, parking the freezer in the foyer of the cabin-home, before Corwyn took the wrap of food off his hammer and rested it on the kitchen counter.
"So, I was thinking we can bake some cookies, before we find a good spot out in the forest; chill, talk, draw. That kind of stuff." Corwyn stated as he shucked off his backpack, resting it on a love chair.
Ruby smiled, "That sounds awesome!"
Corwyn nodded with an easy smile, "It's…" He pulled out a scroll that she noted looked both old and a bit dinged up, "Three fifty right now, and we have until seven thirty-seven until sunset. Know any good places with a view of the sun setting around here?"
Ruby quickly brainstormed and immediately fell into one specific place. "Yeah." She said, unable to hide her melancholy. Corwyn frowned slightly, a bit concerned by her sudden and uncharacteristic dip of mood.
"Erm…" Corwyn wasn't sure what to do as he rubbed the back of his neck.
Ruby popped out of the mood and waved her hand, "Sorry!" She hurriedly tried to bandage the vibes, "Well, my mom, she well, died." Her voice became a mosquito. "It'd be nice to have a picnic near her grave…" Ruby said sadly, but with a certain bit of hope in her voice. Glancing up, she saw Corwyn's unseeing eyes, he too lost in memory and thought.
Suddenly he bit his lips, and she saw him get a bit misty eyed. He took a sharp breath of air through his nose and dabbed at his eyes with a quick finger. "Sorry." He said, "Memories." A silence fell before gesturing towards the kitchen. "Cookies'd help." He suggested with a weak grin.
She smiled back and nodded intently, the two moving to the kitchen and started to bake. The melancholy faded quickly as the kitchen soon became a festival of noise, exclamations, shouting, and laughter; poofs of flour were thrown at one another, dirtying Ruby's more casual but still gothic clothing and Corwyn's own black fit.
The two teens made a mess of the kitchen, but soon they'd made one batch of some of the worst tasting, horrible, no-good cookies ever to grace the Rose-Xiao-Long house-hold, and some of the best tasting, gooey, and wholesome cookies to exist. They ate a good amount of both, and a plethora of cookie dough.
Corwyn then started to pack up the remainders, before he restrung his bag of goods to his hammer while Ruby went to change into clothes more suitable for a hike. She came out in her Combat Gear, funnily enough, but Corwyn didn't really mind. Whatever suited her.
They then started on their walk, Corwyn following after Ruby who was talking about any topic that interested her, eventually finding a common topic that they both shared. "Why'd you become a Hunter, Corwyn?" She asked with interest.
Corwyn hummed, "Didn't have a choice. Government dictated that for me." He said simply, but there wasn't any real heat in his voice, "Rather like the life, all told. But, if you asked me what motivated me to keep on going and training like I do?" He mused on that for a moment, "Spite plays a big part; wanting to prove to those who wrote me off as another statistic on a casualty report."
Ruby frowned at the grim imaging, not towards him, but rather at the system that ate lives like it did.
"But, recently? A big part of my desire to keep going is to see how far I can go. A journey of self-discovery, I guess you could call it. You hear a lot of big names in the Hunter communities, The Grim Reaper, The Scarlet Sands, The Arctic Hunter, Ozpin the Professor, The White Death, Glynda the Good Witch. Makes me want to have a name; to be someone, prove to myself that I too can stand at the epoch and zenith of this world that was forced on me."
Ruby tilted her head, "So, fame?" She asked.
He shook his head, "I don't train to become someone famous. I train so that I am naturally worthy of such a title. I don't want to seek great accolades or feats; rather, I want to be so damned badass, that such feats and titles would naturally fall to my feet." Corwyn grinned. "I want to be like a storm; something that sweeps by unnoticed, unstoppable, inviolate. A legend that by simply existing; I inspire."
Something in there struck a chord with Ruby herself, a silence falling as she digested what he'd said. It was that last piece that really hammered home what he was saying.
To exist is to inspire.
She mentally imagined the scenes she'd seen at the training grounds, not done to impress or as practice; but rather in combat, chained together in a fearsome chaos that annihilated everything in its path. A storm, he said, and a storm he'd certainly have the potential to become. The booming thunder, the flashes of lighting; Corwyn saw in himself the potential to become a legend. Not just a 'big name' as he called them, but something in the likes of her fairy tales.
She looked over to see the image of the tall knight interposed over the relaxed and calm young man walking by her side and couldn't help but feel a certain strength and mien emanate from the man; one that hinted at the tightly constrained powers within him.
Almost unbidden, she then took the moment to self-reflect. She realized with a bit of shock that she didn't see that same power within her. She realized she couldn't find the spark that would allow her to stand shoulder to shoulder with the man by her side.
It was a silent journey to the campsite, and with a soft smile she faced the gravestone of her mother. Walking over she rested a hand on the smooth stone. Glancing behind her she saw that Corwyn was setting up camp, the hill granting a wonderful view of the sunset.
"Hey, Corwyn?" Ruby spoke up, not the type of person to let envy or jealousy take root. "How do I become like that? A legend that by simply existing; inspires?" She kicked out against a stone, getting lost in the brush.
Corwyn was silent as he paused in cracking open the freezer, "Every day, I train with my semblances. Grand Enchantment, the one that allows me to do what I did at the field, is ever full of mysteries that I discover daily." He sat down.
Reaching over the blanket he'd set up, he picked up a rock and from his boot pulled out a knife, "Each day I refine, train, break, push, or discover my limits. I have the benefit of not holding any risks of doing so with the boons of Restless Struggler and Aura." He started to carve patterns into the rock. She walked over and sat down by him, pulling out a sandwich as he continued. "My advice to you would be to experiment, discover, learn, and refine. What are your weaknesses? What are your strengths? Address them."
Ruby frowned, struggling for quite a while to find them.
"A good warrior always knows their weaknesses, Ruby. But sometimes a third-perspective is what is needed to see what is easily missed." Corwyn smiled comfortingly, "You are fast, and your weapon is heavy and deadly; but you are not the strongest Huntress. You rely far too much on Crescent Rose, as your weapon is exceptionally weak within close quarter combat and areas where full sweeping motions of a scythe aren't possible." Corwyn stated.
Ruby blinked at the comments, Corwyn's tone entirely neutral and not judging at all. "Furthermore, If I were to face you in combat, I would try to rid you of Crescent Rose; whether that be by breaking it, or by disarming you."
Ruby didn't offer any rebuttals to the statement, having had exactly that happen to her in the ring, making her frown down at the compacted weapon by her side.
"You are a good Huntress, Ruby; yet you are also, ironically, very traditional in how you fight and act in combat. Even I myself am at fault in this, as despite being trained in sparring formats within Combat Class, we are slayers and hunters of Grimm, not other Hunters. Sadly, these are weaknesses that experienced criminals, rogue Hunters, and other bad elements can and will exploit in us. A thief would flee into an alleyway where our weapons aren't as effective, a Rogue Hunter would easily extrapolate our combat style and use it against us, and as much as you love Crescent Rose; she needs a lot of maintenance." Corwyn grimaced, "How much do you know about Hunting Deployments?" He suddenly asked.
Ruby frowned, "Not a lot. Uncle Qrow comes back from them a lot; dirty and stinking of alcohol." She admitted, feeling a glut of overwhelming pressure fall on her as she realized how little she knew about being a huntress.
Corwyn nodded, "Hunting Deployments are often targeted at remote locations where hordes of Grimm are grouping up, migrating towards, or nesting within. It could be weeks if not months of constant combat; resources, supplies, and time are premium in these situations. Can Crescent Rose reliably function for such an extended amount of time within a variety of hard environments filled with dirt, mud, silt, slush, heat, cold, sand, dust, blood, and other irritants for an extended amount of time without a single maintenance?"
"My aura…" She spoke up, but Corwyn shook his head.
"Aura is a premium resource. It saves your life; any amount of it not directed towards protecting you or enhancing yourself, can cost you your life." Corwyn shook his head, "I have ungodly amounts of it, but being conservative with one's resources is how one survives this profession."
He continued, "Semblance focused combatants are usually regulated towards hard-points with plenty of reinforcements to cover and assist in their protection. From my perspective, practically everyone in class uses their Aura in ways that are simply disgustingly wasteful." Corwyn sighed and shook his head.
"That's ironic," Ruby muttered, knowing how much Aura Corwyn had, and upon reflection knew that he rarely spared Aura where he didn't need to. It made him a somewhat passive fighter, but when one was expecting to face unrelenting aggression in the form of the Grimm and teenagers with a chip on their shoulder, a passive fighting style was an effective one.
"Reinforcing one's weapon should only be done in combat, not 24/7 to protect it from debris; otherwise it's a drain on Aura limiting your ability to regenerate spent aura. Slow regen means you have lower reserves when it's crunch time, which in a Deployment, can be at any moment and last for several hours of brutal combat as hordes of Grimm wash over you." Corwyn took a bite of his sandwich as he lectured.
Then Ruby had a thought, "What about my semblance? Should I not use it?" She asked.
Corwyn shook his hand side to side, "Semblance use should be 'last resort' trump cards, as generally, one should be exceptionally adept in holding their own in combat without relying on their semblance." He pointed at himself, "My semblance is relatively conservative with my own Aura despite its…dramatic effects," Ruby giggled at that understatement, "But even then, I'd likely only use it when I needed to. Why use a limited resource like Dust, Aura, or Bullets, when swinging my hammer is free?" He asked.
Ruby remembered his other, less impressive Semblance, and her jaw dropped, "You…don't get tired." She remembered.
Corwyn grinned, "Ever." He nodded, "I'm building myself up to utterly excel within a Deployment; to be a bulwark that just doesn't die even after thousands of Grimm fall on my maul." He chuckled. "In that sense, I'm a very generalized fighter; a wild-card thanks to my powerful semblance, but if I had to be specialized I'd say I'm the Bulwark of a Team."
Ruby perked up at the mention of teams.
"True Specializations, like being a pure Dust Caster or Close Combat Specialist, are in my opinion, only done once one has a team in the first place to cover for your own weaknesses. Even then, every member should be capable of holding their own in any combat situation without the assistance of Dust, Aura, Semblance and any other expendable resource that may be required to deal with Hard Targets."
Ruby listened well as Corwyn spoke, getting lost in his voice as she laid down and watched as he drew out several notebooks from his backpack. He opened them to a fierce looking Grimm with a title above it stating it to be a 'Wendigo'. "This here is the Wendigo, and like many Grimm, it has a unique ability, in this case it has an accelerated regeneration factor; one that only grows more dramatic when it consumes human or Faunus flesh. In this case, we'd need to use an attack that could generate one heavy blow to instantly kill the beast: requiring us to go through its skull and face mask. This is a foe that I consider but one of many Hard Targets; Grimm that require by simple virtue of being hard to kill, extra resources and effort to slay. They are, in my opinion, the most annoying Grimm any Hunter can face save for my personal hate of Aerial Grimm."
Ruby found herself resting her head on Corwyn's shoulder, looking over it and down to his various art books as he got lost in a long seminar about Grimm types, resource management, tactics in taking down Grimm; as he did so, Ruby found why he had that spark and why she didn't.
He cared so much about being a Hunter.
'I just wanted to live up to mom, kill monsters, be a hero…' Ruby bit her lips as she sighed, finding suddenly that her motivation to be a Hunter was simply…immature. Almost unbidden, her eyes drifted to the animatedly talking Corwyn, his passion visible and practically tangible as he spoke on length about a new type of Grimm, the Jackalope and their terrifying ability to turn entire settlements into bone-towns as they roamed the southern prairies of Saunus.
'That,' Her hand stroked along Corwyn's side, feeling the steel in his body as she did so, 'Is a Huntsman. Is it so wrong to want to chase after it too?' She wondered. 'To be an inspiration…' She smiled, a new fire burning in her heart as she wondered.
How far can I go?
The conversation drifted, the two talking about funny moments in their lives. Ruby spoke of her strange father, before then inevitably speaking about her family's dynamic.
"I don't really pay much attention to the rumor mill, but what's the entire deal with Yang and you being half-sisters?" Corwyn asked.
Ruby giggled softly, "Yang's mom and my mom were Huntresses, a part of dad's team. He and Yang's mom had a…fling I guess. My mom didn't really like that and claimed dad; but then Raven showed up pregnant, wanting to marry. She found my dad and mom married and preparing to have me as well. It's a mess." She sighed, shaking her head.
"Yikes." Corwyn said, a bit amused. He glanced up at the dimming sky, his eyes taking in the falling sunset. "Hey, do you mind if I sketch you out in the sunset?" Corwyn asked with an easy grin.
Ruby smiled a bit bashfully, "Sure." She shrugged.
Corwyn got up and moved to the edge of the picnic blanket, before taking out his art kit and started to sketch. Ruby blushed a bit as his gray stormy eyes were piercing things, intense and perceptive beyond belief. The sun slowly set behind them, and soon it dipped down beneath the horizon, painting the sky a beautiful pink and purple-orange. Corwyn lost his light source to sketch, but he was ever a quick drawer and presented the image to his date.
Ruby smiled as she took the image, before burrowing herself into Corwyn's chest nuzzling into it as his arms instinctively hugged her.
"Thanks." Ruby whispered.
Corwyn chuckled, the rumbling feeding into her due to their proximity. They stayed hugging for a long while, Corwyn enjoying the stars as they started to reveal themselves; while Ruby warded off the chilling air as she slowly started to doze off inside Corwyn's arms.
…
Ruby stirred awake, blinking as she realized she'd fallen asleep. The warmth of a shirt, the beating of a heart, and the soft breaths alerted her to her situation. Face burning, she looked up, only to find the ever amused and smug face of Corwyn. A of his hand pulled out a closed scroll, and her face brightened even more.
"Umm." Ruby shuffled in his arms, unsure of herself as wild thought raced in her mind, and before her rational side could catch up; she raised herself into his arms, before placing a soft chaste kiss on the corner of Corwyn's mouth.
Retreating back into his chest, Ruby boiled in embarrassment, missing Corwyn's blink of surprise and return of his cheeky grin. One of his arms threaded into the embrace, breaking it slightly, before the hand cupped Ruby's chin. Bringing her face up, he bent down, and his lips captured her own in a true kiss.
Eyes wide and alert, Ruby panicked for a brief moment but quickly surrendered to the sensation and connection. Corwyn leaned back, Ruby falling onto his chest as he rested down in the grass. Legs shifted positions as the two kissed, a brief break of the seal allowing Ruby air, before she returned for more.
Corwyn's tongue licked at her lips, and the inexperienced girl opened her mouth, allowing his tongue to dart inside. A moan and gasp both were elicited from Ruby by the bold action, the teasing strokes of his tongue quickly making the girl surrender as they both continued the sensual kiss. Corwyn's hands stroked along her back, briefly ghosting her ass, before resting themselves on their swell; there they groped the soft and firm flesh, drawing even more squeals and moans from the girl as his hands enjoyed themselves. The tips of his fingers teased at her groin and inner thigh; the sensitive flesh being teased making the girl moan.
They separated as Ruby broke for air, Corwyn not needing the supply, something that she noticed and glared at him for. He gave his increasingly familiar cheeky chuckle, before Ruby dipped down and started to softly kiss at his neck, her own hands familiarizing themselves with his body. She stroked his built form, soft fingers preserved by Aura digging into his shirt as she experimented with his chest, feeling the texture of his abs and then rising to meet the warmth of his core and then the taunt wiry flesh of his pecks.
Gulping, Ruby suckled the neck a bit more, before rising back up and restarting their kiss, the two teens exploring one another's body as the night was born into the world once more.