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Uncle Qrow plonked himself across from her at he table, looking unusually solemn. Almost like a real teacher. He put a piece of paper down in front of her. "I want you to enter this."
Ruby blinked, then looked down at the paper.
SEXTANT COMBAT ACADEMY SHIFT-WEAPON DESIGN COMPETITION
She blinked, but the words were still there.
Hesitantly, Ruby picked the paper up and read a few more lines. It was exactly as it appeared, outlining the rules of entry for a weapon-designing competition that she was certain she'd never heard of before. Further down, there were more headings, about the terms and conditions.
"I'm not a student in Mantle," Ruby said, because sometimes you needed to point out the obvious with his uncle.
"Doesn't matter," he said, waving his hand. "Already had a look through it. Doesn't say anything about it."
"How did you even get this?" Paper fliers normally didn't ever leave the campus at Signal, much less be sent off to a different kingdom. Scrolls were just so much easier to use unless you were looking for people to idly browse a subject they wouldn't have opened a v-mail attachment for.
"Doesn't matter. Want to enter?"
"Me?" she squeaked. "I only have—wait, are you talking about—"
His face split into a wicked grin. "Crescent Rose? The scythe you and I've only spent two years working on? Took you long enough."
He was laughing at her, but—
"Thanks, Uncle Qrow," Ruby said. "I'm really happy you think that! I am! But I don't think—" She swallowed. Thankfully she'd been able to quell some of her panic as she spoke. "I like learning the combat-scythe, and I like Crescent Rose, I really do, but wasn't it you who said I shouldn't let anyone else use her? If I give someone else her schematics—"
"Ruby. This is a Hunter School. I promise, there is no way they'll take your designs to make their own scythes, even if they wanted to. Not because they couldn't," he added hastily, looking adorably worried that she'd misinterpret it; she wouldn't, she knew her uncle trusted her, even if he didn't trust her with anything about himself, "but because they'll know exactly how important weapons are to Huntresses. And besides," he added, with that familiar insincere smile, "it's not like just anyone knows how to use a scythe."
Ruby couldn't help but smile back, because at least he tried. She could never bring herself to ask for anything more from her uncle than that. However, she still pushed the folder back. "I'm busy," she said.
"With what?"
"Things. Schoolwork. Homework! Yeah, I took so long to design Crecent Rose that I'm behind everyone else! So I need to practice-"
"You don't need to practice that much, brat. Or have you forgotten that I was the one that taught you how to use that thing. And that I'm allowed to see your grades?"
He was totally laughing at her.
Ruby pouted. "I don't wanna."
"You, young lady, are going to fill out these forms and make everyone in Atlas understand how brilliant you are!" Her uncle pushed the paper back at her. "I think you've got a serious chance. I think Jimmy—well, not Jimmy of course, Jimmy's people I guess, but you know what he's like with hiring people that think exactly the same way as him—will really like to see your scythe design.
"I mean it," Qrow pressed. "I like it. So they definitely should too. I'm, like, the expert on these things."
Seriously? She hadn't even heard of this 'Jimmy' before! "I didn't know you knew anyone in Atlas," Ruby allowed herself to say. Getting information out of her uncle was like about as hard as skinning a Grimm alive to get its pelt. Almost impossible.
"I know a lot of people," Qrow replied flatly.
See!
"It sounds like you're his friend," Ruby said suspiciously. "Dad says you need more of them," she added, because her uncle could never miss a dig at her dad.
"What can I say?" Qrow shrugged. "I'm a friendly guy. And I'm hurt Tai thinks differently. Even worse, that he's telling lies about me to my cute little nieces!"
Ruby wrinkled her nose. Her uncle was always like this. He tried too hard to be happy, and flatly refused to let any of them know why. It annoyed Yang that he skipped out on lessons without warning, especially the ones he'd planned with Ruby, but Ruby never got angry about it.
Ruby looked down at the deceptively-boring paper on her desk. She didn't want to enter this competition, since it felt too much like bragging to her... but if her Uncle Qrow wanted her to enter badly enough to talk to her about it...
"I'll think about it," she decided, folding up the paper and pretending to ignore her uncle's whoop of success. She shoved it in her pocket. "Are you sure—"
No, of course her uncle was sure. He was always sure of things, and he hadn't steered her wrong yet.
Ruby pasted a smile on her face. "Okay! Let's do this!"
The answering grin from her uncle, relief and pride all mixed together like the best cookie dough, was almost worth the feeling of impending doom that hung about her.