The concrete of the sidewalk was dry and cracked. The wind was whistling while carrying the scent of street food. A thousand voices chatted to each other, combing into an amalgam of conversation which fell onto the ears of seemingly the only girl in the entire city with her mouth closed.

Her name was Ruby Rose, a girl with red bangs and eyes of silver.

She walked past shop after shop. A small office build from cream colored bricks which possessed a frosted glass window with faded golden letters reading

"STALLION'S

Notary Public"

There was a night club with blacked out windows, a video store, and a small food stand labeled "A Simple Wok."

"Free sample miss?" The man running the stand said with an old, creaking voice.

"Crap." Ruby's heart dropped and started beating at twice the normal rate.. "Is he talking to me? Those noodles did look good. Agh, I can't get any now though. Besides what if he wasn't talking to me and I go up and take someone else's free sample? Would it even matter if it's free?"

"N-No thank you." Ruby hastily squeaked out with a blush, hoping the man would hear her.

"Okay, have a good day." He said, revealing he was, in fact, talking to Ruby while looking for the next person to monger his noodles to.

Ruby sighed and kept walking as she adjusted her skirt.

"At least I know I still pass." She thought to herself as she looked back to the video store.

There was a poster for some superhero movie on the front, showing a warrior in a half-and-half colored suit with red bugged out eyes labeled "Windy Detectives."

Ruby always wanted to be a superhero when she was a kid.

But now instead she was on her way to first day at the photographer job at a local newspaper, the Beacon Bugle, her sister got her.

"I guess a photographer working with a reporter is, sort of a detective." She thought to herself.

Not that it mattered. After all, that's just kid stuff.

Right?

Blake Belladonna stared at Reddit on her PC, mouse hovering over her email, ready to switch windows if her boss happened to walk by.

"Hey there, kitty-kat." Came a playful voice with a sing-song rhythm to it.

Blake looked up and saw a playful face framed by a messy mane of blond hair.

She sighed and stared down the girl. "Not now Yang." She said as she pushed up cat eyed glasses. "I'm busy." She said before realizing her Reddit thread was still up. She quickly spun in her chair and slammed her finger down on her mouse to change her monitor to the extensive list of unread emails the company had been sent, mostly people with lame hobbies they think are newsworthy, with the occasional UFO abductee or photos of a hobo in a ghillie suit claiming he saw Bigfoot.

"Busy reading scary stories?" Yang said while wagging her finger at Blake.

"N-No." Blake said as her face flushed red and she darted her eyes away from Yang.

"Hey it's okay, as long as Ms. Ice Queen doesn't see." Yang spoke in her typical, playfully charming tone of voice as she leaned against the desk in a way that Blake couldn't help but take notice of her big… tie.

"No dirty thoughts in the office." Blake said to herself, her eyes darting to her PC's clock given she was now dispirate to go home.

Yang gave a kittenish chuckle. "Like somethin' ya see?" She winked at Blake whose face turned an even brighter shade of red as she gave Yang the best death glare she could muster at the moment.

It was a very big open secret in the office at the Beacon Bugle that Blake Belladonna, the quiet secretary, had a major crush on of the reporters: Yang Xiao Long, despite her reluctance to admit so.

Not that this wasn't understandable. Ms. Xiao Long was well known for being considered the most attractive reporter on-staff, and she had dated the majority of the other staff at some point, sometimes several at the same time.

"You know kitty-cat, I don't have anything scheduled this Saturday." Yang spoke like she was offering a bag of candy to a child.

"G-Good for you." Blake said flustered as she attempted to return to scrolling through emails.

"And I need something to do." Yang was not ready to give up yet.

"So?" Blake said while pretending she wasn't very excited about where this was going.

"So maybe you and I could-"

Much to Blake's simultaneous relief and dismay, they were interrupted by the sound of the Beacon Bugle office's glass door creaking open, sounding off the little bell rigged up to the top.

Blake turned her amber colored eyes away from the glare of her PC monitor and looked at who had just walked in.

It was a girl with a large camera bag swung around her shoulders. She had a very shy look on her boyish face, a look which was all too familiar to Blake. She was wearing a pinkish-red blouse with a corset laced around it, with a rose-patterned skirt hanging around her petite waist.

"Rubes!" Blake's crush shouted and she jumped in excitement and ran over to the girl with her arms outstretched and pulled her into a tight hug.

Blake secretly wished she was that girl, evidently named Rubes.

"Yang!" The girl said in a high pitched voice muffled by Yang's super hug, before pulling herself out of Yang's grip.

"Yang, you're embarrassing me." She said in a childish voice. "And I told you to call me Ruby here!"

"Aww I'm sorry, I just can't help myself around my little sis!" Yang spoke in an atypically motherly voice as she ruffled Ruby's hair around.

"Yaaang!" Ruby cried as she slapped her sister's hand away and tried to fix her hair back up.

"At least she's only her sister." Blake thought to herself as she observed the scene in front of her.

"So uh, how can I help you?" Blake said as she realized she should probably get back to secretarying.

"Oh Blakey, didn't you hear?" Yang said with another big grin. "My little sis is gonna work here!"

"She is?" Blake said.

"Yes?" Ruby said meekly.

"Oh God they already hate me." Ruby's thoughts started to go back into a spiral of self-doubt.

"Sure is!" Yang said as she put her hand on Ruby's shoulders. Ruby was thankful for her sister taking over the situation.

She then yelped as Yang started making a drum roll noise and pulled the bag off her shoulders, unzipped it, and reached inside, pulling out a square, dual lensed camera with a red casing with an insignia of a rose on it.

"Ta-da! She's our new photographer!" Yang said after she finished her drum roll.

Blake looked over the scene before her again, before taking off her glasses and flashing a smile.

"Welcome to the team." She said as she gave Ruby a welcoming look. "I'm sure you'll do great."

"T-Thanks." Ruby was still nervous, but composed herself and walked over to the secretary's desk with her hand outstretched.

"I'm Blake." She said as she took Ruby's hand and shook it. "And you are?"

"Ruby Rose." Ruby now felt much more welcomed and confident.

"Ruby? That's pretty name." Blake said as she turned back to her computer.

"Come on sis!" Yang said as she ran over and grabbed Ruby by the hand, before rushing her off down the hall.

"Yang!" Was the last thing that Blake heard as the duo disappeared down the hall.

"Maybe this won't be awful after all." Ruby thought to herself.