RWBY: Broken Rose (One Shot)

One Shot

The mind can be a troublesome thing even on its good days, and for F/N Rose, there were no good days, only nightmares. In a wooden house, in the forest on the island of Patch, lives a family of Huntsmen. People who fight the darkness know as Grimm and keep the peace of the civil world. However, there was one evil that they could not so easily defeat, and that was the troubles in F/N's head.

"F/N?" Ruby softly called with a knock on her brother's bedroom door. "Dinner's ready... if you want to come down."

Those words, intended not to be misinterpreted, were, in fact, misinterpreted by her younger brother of a year. Their mother, Summer, who was watching from down the hall, saw a sweet girl concerned about her younger brother. Who was attempting to shed some light into his room. What F/N heard and saw were the polar opposite.

His room was tattered, destroyed by himself, though in his mind it was the results of his family's visits to his room. With his back to one of the corners, he sat on the floor with the lights off and window covered, staring at the light that came from under the door and the two breaks in it from Ruby's shadow being cast. And it only grew.

"F/N." In a scheming tone, he heard Ruby speak in a twisted way. "Dinner's ready... if you want to come down."

Snickering followed those words, even though there really were none. As far as F/N could tell, it was a trap, he always has to sneak food in order to not go to sleep hungry. But in truth, everyone knew he snuck out of his room at night to go to the kitchen for food. Eating and drinking in a way that, if Qrow, his father, hadn't seen it for himself, would assume F/N had gone years without eating. In other words, his son got good at sneaking, but that wasn't something he could be proud of, because he was sneaking around to avoid his family. A family he believed was out to get him.

But that wasn't entirely true. F/N was bad with other people as well, which they found out when one of Summer's old friends came to visit. He just saw her as another trap, a fake beacon of light to crush his spirit. Which was untrue. But Raven, his aunt, and her direct approach didn't help.

At least once a week, she would drag him out of his room to the outside. She didn't care how he saw her or what he believed she was doing. In her mind, what someone thought of someone else was unimportant, what mattered was what the person thought of themselves. And if that meant forcing him to train to potentially build up a different self, one that realized that strength was important to escape fear, then Raven paid no mind in playing the monster. But as said before, her way of doing things didn't help. F/N simply became more scared of Raven than anyone else.

Then there was Raven's daughter, Yang. She was much more agreeable in her approach. Like Ruby, she learned that there was no good way to approach F/N, but unlike her cousin, she chose the best option. Don't approach him. Focus on her own life. Would she be there if he needed her? Sure. But there was nothing she could do for him. All she could do was support the rest of their family, in her own way.

Her father, Tai, went down a similar path, though for a different reason. He couldn't stand the look in F/N's eyes, it was like looking at a child about to be killed by a creature of Grimm. A fear rooted in the natural response of facing death. Tai didn't have the strength to have those eyes directed at him everyday. Working at Signal with Qrow, though he was often on missions, Tai simply did what he could to support the family.

Qrow, now he was hit differently by the situation. His semblance was bad luck, and for almost as long as the troubles first showed up, he felt it was his fault. That his son was born this way due to his semblance. Despite Summer's best efforts, he never stopped believing it was his fault. He too, felt gutted by the eyes F/N stared at his with.

That was the state of things between F/N and the rest of his family, which is why Ruby didn't knock a second time. She looked at the door as if it was a barrier, dividing the family, hurting it. If only there was a way to tear it down and for the light to enter his room the same way Ruby looked at the morning light that came from the kitchen when their mother was making breakfast.