Pet Quartet (ch15)

2-DAY EARLY RELEASE FOR ALL MY PATRONS!!

Okay! Something a little more tame now.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

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														Chapter 15. A Fun Makeover

It took a few days of rest and relaxation for Ruby to recover from her traumatic experience in the basement. The others did their utmost best to pamper and comfort her.

During the day, they'd rest and play together around the house and yard, admiring how her cape would flow and billow.

Talking to Penny always seemed to help Ruby forget her troubles for a while, too. The skunk had a way of going on tangents from one topic to the next, and her listeners had no choice but to be swept along into the undertow. It was always a relief for the others to see Ruby engaged in listening, or squeaking in a response every other minute.

And Ruby's new cape had her babbling for nearly half an hour with compliments and intrigue. Penny ran around the yard with her just to look at her with her new prize.

But it was only natural that the first couple of nights after Ruby had been rescued from the snake, she'd have nightmares.

The other three woke startled and concerned the first time it happened. Ruby had been thrashing and twitching in her spot on Yang's front paws, chittering loudly enough to wake the rest of them. Once Blake had gently nudged her awake, they'd reassured her it had only been a bad dream.

After that, Blake had nudged the cape aside and groomed the little mouse for a while with slow, soothing strokes of her tongue. Yang had cuddled around her, sharing her warmth. And Weiss had sung a beautiful song for her. With all of their efforts combined, Ruby had fallen right back to sleep.

This process was repeated for a few consecutive nights, but before the week was up, Ruby's nightmares had come to an end.

Which meant she was more alert and energetic during the daytime hours, and her enthusiasm was contagious.

"Come on!" she squeaked one bright morning. "Let's go for a walk around the neighborhood today! I wanna show everyone my new cape!"

The four of them had just finished breakfast and were still a little sleepy. Yang needed to quite literally shake herself awake, very nearly bowling both Blake and Weiss over as she did so.

"Hey, watch it!" Weiss peeped. "You'll ruffle my feathers."

"Sorry!"

Weiss muttered something under her breath. Yang teasingly gave her a lick to help smooth herout again. Blake was already at the door flap, about to push it open so Ruby could hop through. But their human's voice made them pause.

"All right, everyone." The man was walking towards them with a kind smile on his face. "What do you think about going somewhere new today?"

All four of them perked up for different reasons when they heard that. Yang and Ruby were excited, as demonstrated by their wagging tail and twitching whiskers, respectively. Yang loved going to new places, and Ruby simply adored car rides.

But Weiss and Blake were a bit less enthusiastic. Weiss didn't like traveling, and Blake wasn't exactly open to change, especially if it meant her getting into that crate.

But their human was smiling so kindly that the cat and the bird didn't stay wary for long.

"But first," he said. "I've got something for the three of you. You've got to match your friend's style now, don't you?" He smiled at Ruby's cape.

Reaching into his pocket, the man called for Yang first. He bent down and tied a colorful orange bandana around the fur of her neck. Yang barked in excitement, her tail thwacking against the tiled floor. Ruby needed to jump back to avoid being swept off her paws. She crawled around to Yang's flank, then scrambled up her side.

"Yang? What's that?"

The dog was ecstatic.

"A bandana!"

"A what?"

"It's kind of like your cape! My other humans had one for me too, but I lost it. It says my name on it, right?"

Curiously, Ruby clung to her fur and peered around to look at the back of the material. There was a darker purple part with some marks sewn on it. She didn't understand them, but she guessed it was Yang's name.

"Ooooh. That's really neat! Humans can understand that?"

"Yep! They can be smart sometimes!"

With Yang's bandana in place, the man reached out for Blake. She bristled a little. She'd never really liked the concept of something choking her neck. Yang curled her tail around Blake to support her.

"Hey, it's not so bad! I think you might like it!"

Blake growled softly, but stayed put as the man gently clasped a dark purple collar around her neck. She scratched at it with her back leg for a moment, trying to get used to the feeling.

"Why is this necessary?" she grunted. "It's not like we ever try to run away..."

"Maybe not," Yang agreed. "But what if we got lost? This tells them where we live so we can be returned! I knew a ton of guys who got lost all the time. Pyrrha told me it happened to Jaune a couple times."

As the two of them chatted, the woman entered the kitchen, holding something else in her hand. She held out her finger for Weiss to perch.

"Your turn, dear."

As the man retreated to another room to fetch Blake's carrier crate and Weiss' cage, Weiss fluttered up to the woman's finger. She carefully picked one of Weiss' legs up and fastened a small silver ring around it.

Weiss shook her leg a little, but the ring wasn't heavy at all. In fact, it was so light it was almos as if it wasn't there at all. When she flew back down to perch on Yang, it didn't bother her flight or landing at all.

Finally the woman picked up Ruby.

"I'll just need this for a moment, dear."

She gingerly removed Ruby's cape and put her on the counter. A few minutes later she came back with it. It had darker red squiggles embroidered into it, and Ruby guessed that was her name.

"So that says my name in human language? Weird. But cool!"

Ruby basked in glory as she was adorned with her new and improved cape.

Now, the whole group looked fashionable.

By then, the man had brought the carrier and cage around. As Ruby and Weiss were put into the birdcage, the mouse did her best to read the scribbles on the bird's ring.

"Wow, it's suuuper tiny!"

"Quite gawking! I don't want it getting dirty already."

While those two were carried out to the car, Blake slunk into her carrier crate, shooting Yang an envious look due to the fact that she didn't need to be put into a cage in order to go in the car.

The entire family headed out into the driveway, and the animals were situated in the car. Yang hopped up into the back seat in between Blake's crate and Weiss' cage.

"I wonder where we're going?"

"If you'd wait," Weiss said. "I'm sure you'll find out."

"Aw, that's no fun, Weiss!"

"Well then, would you like to ask them? Go ahead, see what they say since they can't understand you."

As the bird and the dog bickered, Ruby chuckled a little bit.

The sounds of their voices helped to calm Blake down a little bit. She figured that maybe the car wasn't so bad if she had her friends there with her.

As the vehicle started to move, Yang straightened up so she could peer out the window. She gave a constant report of where they seemed to be going.

"Okay, that looks familiar. There's the food store and, oh! That tree definitely looks familiar! I think? Wait maybe not... No, wait! Yeah, that one for sure!"

As the other three listened to her excited barking in the background, they talked amongst themselves about where it was they could be going.

The drive lasted a little longer than most others they could remember being on. But after a while, Weiss was starting to get a little queasy from the drive, enough so that she hopped down onto the floor of her cage to lean against Ruby. The little mouse squeaked softly to comfort her and wrapped a paw around her back.

Blake was also getting a little claustrophobic in her cage. Her fur was starting to bristle, and she had to keep standing up, turning around, and curling up again because she couldn't get comfortable.

Thankfully, it wasn't long after that when the car slowed down and came to a halt. Yang perked up and stood on the back seat.

"Guys, guys! I think we're here!"

Her excited words roused the others as the closing of the car doors signified the humans coming back to get them. The man opened the door and stood in front of them, and the four of them looked up.

"All right now, everyone. We're here to have fun, but we can't stay all day. Once I whistle for you, please come back as soon as you can."

As he was saying this, he reached in to open the doors to Blake's crate and Weiss' cage, letting the three animals come out. Blake thought that was really strange, because the humans usually only let them out when they were inside a building. But from what she could tell, outside the windows now there were trees and open skies all around them.

The man must have been able to sense their anticipation, because after petting them all gently, he moved aside.

"Have fun, you four."

He revealed a brand new scene to them.

Grass stretched out for at least a mile, a flat, green field of sorts with a few trees scattered here and there. There was a small pond as well, and the whole place was bustling with activity.

But other than humans, there seemed to be only one other kind of animal here.

When they saw them, Ruby tiled her head, Weiss let out a shrill chirp, Blake growled softly, and Yang let out a loud, enthusiastic howl.

With their varying levels of joy and dismay, all four of them cried out at once.

"A dog park?!"

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A/N: Oh boy! Imagine how this will go...