RWBY Fic: The Xiao-Long-Rose (And Qrow) Grocery Trip

Yang awoke with the music-based alarm she set on her scroll. Throwing back the covers she was formerly nestled in, she stretched her arms above her head. Stifling a yawn, she trudged over to the bathroom to splash her face and wake up better.

Taking a short peek into Ruby's room, Yang hummed her favorite song, Gold, contentedly seeing her little sister sleeping peacefully. Yang padded downstairs towards the kitchen, hoping for a glass of orange juice to give her engine some juice. Yang smirked, thinking she's the best at puns.

As she entered the kitchen she took notice of the two grown men already there. "Good morning Yang, my sunny little dragon." Yang's father Taiyang greeted, a cup of coffee in his hands.

Yang glanced at the table, where her uncle Qrow sat, looking miserably hungover. "Hellooo Uncle Qrow! How's it Yanging?"

At that, Qrow groaned louder, while Taiyang gave an approving smile. As Yang opened the fridge door, she noticed that the fridge was rather empty. After pouring the last of the orange juice, Yang walked over to the pantry.

"Yup, Time to go shopping. Mama Yang needs her food." "You're right Yang. After Ruby's up we can all go." Taiyang nodded in agreement.

"Ugh. Head pounding. Where's my Eirean coffee?" Qrow complained. "You know that's not good for you when you have such a bad hangover Qrow! We won't give you any." Yang scolded her uncle sternly. "Fine, fine, guess I'll just continue to suffer then, Firecracker." Qrow chuckled, then winced from the pain in his head.

Yang started to sip her morning liquid sunshine, enjoying the sweet, but slightly acidic taste. Then, hearing a door open upstairs, followed by the flush of the toilet, Yang smiled, knowing her dork of a little sister had woken up. Grabbing a new glass out of the cabinet, Yang filled this glass with strawberry milk from the fridge.

Thumping down the stairs quickly, Ruby dragged herself into the kitchen and plopped down at the table next to Qrow, her eyes barely open. Yang gently placed the glass of strawberry milk in front of Ruby.

"There you go baby sister. Maybe this will change your eyes from berrily being open," Yang joked. Ruby just grunted tersely in response, before wrapping her fingers over the glass. Slowly at first, then increasing in speed, Ruby downed the glass of sweet deliciously cold milk. Her eyes shot open and Ruby sighed in happiness.

"Ahh, strawberry milk, what would I do without you?" Ruby said while nuzzling the now empty glass. "You'd probably be even shorter than you are now my little gem." Taiyang chuckled while ruffling Ruby's hair.

Ruby flailed about for a second with her arms, not happy with the sudden ruffling. "Cut it out Dad, and stop smiling Yang! Uncle Qrow, you have my back don't you?" Ruby asked with enlarged eyes and quivering lower lip. "Of course I do kiddo," Qrow said with amusement.

"Though maybe if you ate something for breakfast other than that super sugary cereal, you might not be such a little squirt." Qrow smirked as Ruby's face shifted into a look of childish frustration.

"TRAITOR!" Ruby began to ineffectively pound her balled fists against Qrow's sides.

Yang laughed. Morning was never boring in this family, even if they were all slightly strange by civilian standards, she wouldn't trade these mornings for the world.

Taiyang set down his mug and cleared his throat. "It has come to our attention that we are low on food supplies, hence, today we shall all go to the store after breakfast and our other morning activities."

"Yeah, but good luck getting there before noon with how long Yang's hair takes." Ruby snickered.

"HEY. Perfection takes time ya'know? Hair this luxurious doesn't just happen without effort." Yang shot back. They all laughed. They finished making breakfast, and all went upstairs to get ready.

True to Ruby's word, Yang took almost an hour in the shower working on her hair. After they got dressed, they all met up at the front entrance to the house they all shared, with their bags in hand.

Taiyang cursed that bag tax the Council of Vale instituted. I mean really, how much change do they think that will implement? People would still leave their forgotten plastic bags everywhere.

As the family walked down the path that led to the town of Patch proper, they fell into their usual routine. Ruby clung onto Qrow, yammering non-stop at him, who was only half-listening as his hangover began to subside. Yang and Taiyang walked while making hilarious (not actually) jokes.

Reaching the town, the quartet entered the general store ran by Tai's friends and local excessively affectionate couple, Jack and Jill Mosstone.

"Mrs. Jill!" Ruby squealed, vanishing in a cloud of rose petals, reappearing in front of the woman. "There's my favorite little flower," Jill Mosstone cooed, enveloping Ruby in a squashing hug.

"You're gonna crush her Dear." Jack Mosstone chided his wife. "Oh quiet you, she doesn't mind, do you Ruby dear?" "Nope!"

The couple emerged from behind the counter and started to walk around with the family as they browsed. "So tell us about you and Ruby's time at Beacon Yang." Jack requested.

Yang began to open her mouth to respond, but the extremely excited Ruby beat her to it.

"It's way more fun than I thought it would be. And being team leader wasn't too hard after, um, uh, the first week…" Ruby trailed off.

"Ruby's partner Weiss was acting out because Ruby 'stole' the position of team leader from her. Kind of jerk move to be honest." Yang explained. Taiyang looked concerned about this as he grabbed a loaf of bread. Qrow was only half-listening, as he put each family member's preferred morning drinks into the cart.

"HEY! Professor Ozpin and Professor Port helped us work through it, so now we're super besties; better than the resties!" Ruby grinned.

"My time there has been pretty sweet too. Though I did have to deal with that time my partner Blake needed help with her whole angst drama she was going through. Had to knock some sense into her. But now we're all super tight together." Yang reminisced.

Jack smiled, happy that his two favorite locals were enjoying themselves at school.

"So your partners have become your friends? That's wonderful!" Jill stated happily.

"So you get along with your team. Little Ruby, did you make any other friends?" Jack asked with concern, knowing the girl sometimes had trouble making friends due to her initial awkwardness.

Ruby started vibrating in place, "Uh-huh! Uh-huh!" "Yeah, Rubes, tell them about JNPR."

Jack and Jill linked arms, "JNPR? Who's that?"

The group reached Qrow's favorite aisle, the alcohol aisle. "Well, our sister team is called JNPR." Ruby explained.

"It's made up of our good friends Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren." Yang added on, making sure to grab her all-important shampoo, conditioner, and cream rinse as they passed the toiletries aisle. What? She needed it to maintain her mane.

"Nora and Ren are cool. Nora's tons of fun, and Ren's nice and quiet. So you can guess their roles pretty easy, Nora's the party-maker, and Ren's the party-planner."

Jack and Jill nodded, as did Taiyang. Qrow looked fairly disinterested, but still payed attention, even more so at the next thread of the conversation.

"Pyrrha's awesome! She's SOOO strong and smart and sweet! She's like a nicer older sister! Totally unlike Yang!"

"Hey! I resent that! Anyway, yeah, P-Money's pretty incredible, even I've never beaten her. As frustrating as that is…." Yang concurred, a disgruntled face with no weight behind it flashing by, before a smile came back.

"I'll get her someday soon, can't let my own reputation get sullied ya'know?" Taiyang grinned, "That's my girl! Let me know when you're ready to fight her again, and I'll take a video of the match! For the family album!"

"Daaaaad." Yang groaned at how embarrassing her dad was. Qrow looked a tad pensive when he heard Yang and Ruby's thoughts on Pyrrha, before shaking his head.

Qrow then looked at Ruby and asked, "What about this last kid? What was his name? John? Jon?"

Ruby puffed up her cheeks in an adorable display of anger. "No! His name is Jaune! Not John! Don't be a meanie Uncle Qrow!"

"Whatever, his name isn't as important as what he's like." Qrow shot back.

"Oh, Jaune's the best! He's super funny and nice! He's so heroic! He may not be the best fighter, but he's getting stronger so fast, considering where he started! He was my first friend at Beacon too! He made that first day not the worst ever….no thanks in part to Yang." Ruby let out a torrent of words, whispering her unhappiness with Yang for ditching her that day. Yang rolled her eyes at Ruby's harmless thorny words.

"He's my other bestie!" Ruby finished singing Jaune's praises with a sparkle in her silver eyes. Qrow frowned at how Ruby was describing this punk Jaune. He didn't like the look on her face…

Taiyang and the Mosstone couple looked happy for Ruby though. Yang then spoke up on the subject.

"Yeah, Jaune's a bit of a dork, but he's pretty cool other than that. Ruby's right about him getting stronger, I'm actually getting interested in sparring with him. I also love that he enjoys my sense of humor. Oh, and he's an amazing dancer, I'm considering about taking him with me when I go clubbing soon. It'll definitely be really fun!" Yang smiled, happy at the thought of dancing with her friend.

Taiyang had a huge grin, "Like the others, he sounds like a great young man, I'd like to meet him."

"Oh! Yang! Show them the picture Nora took of you, me, and Jaune!" Sure thing little sis!" Qrow, Taiyang, and the Mosstones gathered around Yang as she stook out her scroll to show the photo.

The picture was of Ruby on the left side of the picture, making bunny ears with her fingers. Yang was on the right side, one hand on her hip as she laughed. The blonde boy in the middle looked really sheepish, and somewhat embarrassed.

"That's Jaune there, in the middle." Yang informed the adults. Jill let out a far more girlish squeal than should be appropriate for someone her age, "Oh, he's cute, I see why you like him girls!" "So are you two thinkin' about pairing with this Jaune?" Jack asked with a bemused smile from his wife's antics.

Ruby blushed at that, "I don't like-like him! He's just my boyfriend!" Qrow blanched at that.

"Ruby means he's her favorite friend who's also a boy. Not a boyfriend." Yang clarified. Qrow seemed to be somewhat relieved at that.

"Though, he probably would make the girl he does end up with pretty dang happy." Yang mused, with a thoughtful look on her face. Qrow's facial expression darkened with anger. Jack was the only one to notice, and seemed concerned about Qrow's emotional state.

Taiyang, oblivious to Qrow's sour mood, said, "He really looks like a great guy, I think I'd probably like him a lot. We may have to invite him to visit one day. Jaune and I may even have some things in common!"

When Taiyang said this, Qrow started muttering darkly about 'blondes sinking their claws into every woman they come across'.

As the family finished with their shopping, the Mosstone couple started proving why they were known as overly affectionate. Ruby was grossed out at their PDA's, and Yang was not much better. Taiyang was unaffected, while Qrow was still muttering darkly to himself.

Once the quartet paid, they headed back to their home.

"I'm gonna go call Weiss, and then Jaune, and then Blake, then Nora and Ren, then Pyrrha!" Ruby zoomed upstairs like a rocket as soon as the family got inside. "She's still such a kid," Yang shook her head as she began helping Taiyang put away the groceries.

Qrow approached Yang with a question, "Hey Firecracker, what's this Jaune's last name?" "Oh, did we forget to tell you? It's Arc."

Qrow's eyes bulged out hearing that name. "Why Uncle Qrow?" "Don't worry about it." Qrow told Yang. Qrow opened his flask and took a long swig of the strong drink.

He then thought to himself, "Guess I'll have to reconsider my plan to force this Jaune to stay away from my nieces. No way in the name of the Younger Brother am I gonna risk pissing off his mother. I don't want to die a death quite THAT painful after all."

Either way, at least he had managed to sneak his Eirean coffee into the cart. Take that Tai and Yang! Taiyang then spoke up, "Oops, looks like Jack and Jill forgot to pack that coffee of Qrow's at the store. Guess he'll have to go without." "We can pick it up next time. I think that he should lay off it for a while anyway." Yang reasoned. "I agree! Qrow should join me in the worship of the sweet, sweet, strawberry milk!" Qrow whimpered at not having his morning brew. He couldn't wait for the next Xiao-Long-Rose grocery trip, maybe his semblance wouldn't screw him over next time.

AN: Surprise! I didn't think I was gonna get another non-drabble fic done so soon. But I wrote this mostly as a way of relaxing with something fun to write from the numerous papers I've got on my plate at the moment. (Final year as a history major means a lot of writing.) I think Taiyang would be the type of dad to encourage his kids to date, while Qrow would be the overprotective one. Think of Eirean coffee as Irish coffee. AKA, with the alcohol content. Also, the picture described in the story is based off a fanart by Nuricombat on Deviantart. I think it's hilarious.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little bit of family time with the Xiao-Long-Roses. (And Qrow). Until next time! (Whenever that is.) Mikainox signing off!