Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

On any other day, in any other place, the way the sun rays highlighted the gravel path and the way the trees and undergrowth framed the buildings would have been beautiful. Today, however, Qrow didn’t have it in him to appreciate such artificial things when the tiny child in front of him looked like they wouldn’t live another day.

The child – he thought it might be a she, but it really was hard to tell – looked like they had been starving their entire life, and if that was true there was a chance that they were older than they seemed (he guessed around five). They had long, black hair that was matted and oily, with amber eyes that lacked any sort of will or emotion.

He felt his heart try and shatter at the sight of them.

“You want to bring them home, huh?” a quiet voice asked.

Qrow turned to Raven, about to argue about way they should, at the very least, take the child to Tai, when his sister moved forward, taking off the jacket she wore and wrapping it around the kid.

“Hey there, kiddo. My name’s Raven. What’s yours?” She spoke in a gentle voice, one that Qrow had never heard from her. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Sometimes he heard it when she talked to Summer, or about Summer, or about gifts she would get for Summer, or... Summer. But it still surprised him to see her using that tone with a kid.

The child didn’t speak, though, and he wasn’t sure whether it was because she couldn’t or if she chose not to. He supposed it didn’t really matter.

Undeterred, Raven knelt down closer to the child. “I have some food and water, if you’d be interested, and a nice place to sleep.” THAT got a reaction.

“... Food...?”

“Yup, that’s right. I can make you some porridge for starters, but you have to promise to eat it slow, okay?”

The child nodded, and with tiny – Gods, they were so small – hands, they reached up to grip the sides of Raven’s coat, snuggling deeper into it. Raven extended a hand, and the child looked at it for half a second before darting in closer, moving their shoulder under Raven’s offered limb.

His sister barely even reacted to that, instead standing up and beginning to lead the child back to team SRQ’s camp.

“What happened to ‘we can’t save them all’?” Qrow asked, quickly falling in step behind his older – only by three minutes, dammit! - sister.

“Wasn’t it you who said that we can save who we can? Now, shuddup and keep walking.”

The three feel into a... strange silence. The twins didn’t talk to each other, only ever checking on the child that was between them.

Before long, they returned to their camp, Summer already waiting at the campfire. As soon as she saw Raven and Qrow, she jumped up, ready to launch into exuberant chattering, but as soon as she saw the child she calmed down, sending a questioning look Qrow’s way. Qrow could only shrug in response.

“Alright, kiddo, let’s get you that porridge, yeah?” Raven said, ignoring the looks her teammates were sending her. She led the child over to Summer’s now-vacant spot and sat her down, adjusting the coat around them before heading over to get the materials for porridge.

Summer saddled up to Qrow, the most confused expression he had ever seen on her face. “Sooo... who is she and what has she done with Raven?”

“Girl, I got no clue, but whatevs. Hey! Make some porridge for us too!”

“Make some yourself, dumba- uh, stupidhead!”

Both of her teammates burst out laughing at Raven’s reluctance to use swearwords. It took them until Raven was done the food to calm down, but even then, Summer still had to wipe away the occasional tear.

Raven went back to the child with a bowl and spoon, handing it out to them. “Remember to eat slow.”

“M’kay.”

Raven nodded, standing up and going to move away, but the child reached out a hand and grabbed a hold of her sleeve. She looked back with a raised eyebrow.

“Need something else?”

“Uh... um...” The child seemed like they were searching for the words, but Common was unnecessarily difficult, so it didn’t surprise Qrow that the child was unable to form a sentence.

“M... My name...”

“Oh yeah, you never did tell me. Want to fill me in now?”

“Don’t have un.” The kid said, messing up the pronunciation a bit.

“Then is there anything we can call you for now?”

The child looked towards the flames, then let out a quiet ‘oh.’ They raised the hand not holding the bowl and flexed it, and Qrow jumped a bit when the kid’s hand became engulfed in flames. Qrow felt his heart finally start to crack. Just what had this kid been through that they already had their aura and semblance unlocked?

“M’name, uh, er... C-Cinder?” The child said, looking at the flames with something akin to friendliness.

Raven, for her part, hardly even looked rattled – seriously, teach me your ways, woman! - and simply nodded. “So, to confirm, you want to be called Cinder?”

The kid nodded before going back to their porridge.

When Cinder was done, Raven extended her hand to them again. “Why don’t we get you cleaned up and in new clothes?” Cinder didn’t even hesitate to accept the hand that was offered this time. It seemed that food truly was the way to the heart, huh?

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Raven mentally questioned what the actual fuck she was doing. She couldn’t support a full-ass kid right now! She looked down at where Cinder was holding her hand gently, seemingly unbothered by everything.

Leading Cinder to the river, Raven decided what she was going to do. In a perfect world, she would take care of Cinder to the best of her ability... but this wasn’t a perfect world. This world was one where monsters like the Grimm still existed, where kids like Cinder lived the way they had until now.

Slowly trying to sort out her thoughts, Raven knelt down and gently removed her coat from Cinder’s shoulders. “Alright, how do you want to do this? I can either help you bathe, or I can move away and let you clean yourself up on your own.”

Cinder thought for a moment. “Help me?” Raven nodded and slowly moved her hands to the bottom of Cinder’s shirt.

“Mind if I take this off?”

Cinder shook their head, and Raven moved forward with taking off the garment, making sure to move slowly so as to not startle the kid. After removing it, Raven tossed it aside. It was far too dirty and ripped to be used again.

“Hey kiddo, I’m gonna yell real quick, okay?” Cinder gave her a confused look but nodded.

“HEY QROW!” At Cinder’s jump, Raven moved her hands up to cover the kid’s ears. “BRING ME SOME EXTRA CLOTHES!”

Qrow shouted back something indiscriminately, but Raven was 70 percent sure that he would do it regardless of what he had said. “Alright then, let’s get you cleaned up, shall we?”

Raven picked up Cinder and moved them both closer to the water. On second thought, there was no way Raven could do this without getting wet. She put the kid down and took off her boots. It wasn’t ideal, but there wasn’t really any other choice. Jumping in the river, she couldn’t stop the shiver at the cold.

“Come on in, kiddo. It’s cold though, so be warned.” Raven said, extending a hand towards the kid.

Once again Cinder grasped her hand with zero hesitation, allowing themself to be tugged into the water. Immediately, they were surrounded by an orange glow that faded after a couple seconds. “’ts not thad cold.” they said, splashing at the water.

Raven shook her head, motioning for Cinder to sit down in the water so she could clean them off (ah, so Cinder’s a girl then). As the dirt and grime was washed away, more and more scars were revealed, marring the poor girl enough that Raven felt grief for whatever innocence Cinder had used to have well up, nearly bringing tears to her eyes. She choked it down, though. Cinder didn’t need to feel like anything was wrong with her.

After she was done, Raven found the new set of clothes that Qrow had placed near the edge of the tree line, folded on top of a couple of boulders. The clothes certainly didn’t fit Cinder, but by using a belt and rolling up the sleeves, they didn’t get in the way of her movement... too much, at least.

“There, how’s that?”

Cinder nodded and gave her a thumbs up, looking so adorably cute that Raven couldn’t help but chuckle and ruffle her hair gently. She squeaked and giggled, and Raven didn’t know if she’d ever heard a sound so beautiful before (Summer’s voice would have to take second place this time).

“Come on. We’ll head back to camp and set you up with somewhere to sleep, ‘kay?”

“’Kay.” Cinder said, latching onto Raven’s hand as they began to walk back. “Food?’

Raven laughed. “Are you hungry again?” she teased gently.

“Uh-” Cinder flinched slightly, and Raven realized she hadn’t registered the tease part of it – which was really the most important.

“Alright, kiddo, what do you want to eat then?” Raven said, scrambling to recover the conversation. “We don’t have a lot - ‘cause we’re on a trip right now – but I can heat up some canned goods or give you some dried meat, if you’d like?”

“Meat!” Cinder giggled, looking excited at the possibility of it.

“Meat it is then.” Raven said, sitting Cinder back on a log and heading to get the food for the girl. Raven started to make a list of all the things Cinder would need for when they got to Sudberry – wait. When had Raven decided to take Cinder with them?

Raven handed Cinder the snack and ruffled her hair gently before turning and walking over to where Summer and Qrow were watching their new addition. “Alright, here’s the plan.” Raven announced, crossing her arms and planting her feet in a shoulder's width stance. “At some point, I decided that I would like to take Cinder with us. Give me your objections now so that I may punch you and be done with it.”

Qrow rolled his eyes. “How about I throw my vote in the favor category instead? One, I’d rather not get punched, and two...” Qrow’s smile dropped. “I don’t want to leave the kid alone again.”

Summer glanced between the twins before sighing and rubbing her eyes. “Well, I wasn’t going to refuse them anyway, but... are we sure we have enough provisions to keep them fed? We were running low before.”

“We’re only three days out from Sudberry, right? I can forgo most of my food till then.” Raven said. “Also, while we’re in Sudberry, I’d like to pick Cinder up some clothes and maybe a weapon? Just in case we’re not around to protect her. Oh, and I can train her myself, don’t worry.”

Summer thought for a moment. “Instead of forgoing most of your food, we’ll shorten what us three eat just a bit. She,” Summer nodded toward Cinder, “needs way more food than we do right now. And I agree with the weapon, but are you sure you want to train her? It doesn’t seem like... well, are you sure?”

Raven scoffed. “Who do you think trained that doofus? He didn’t pick up anything from any trainers, and they all got hurt ‘cause of his semblance. I stepped up ‘cause I was better- and don’t you even try to deny it.” She said, shooting a glare towards Qrow, who tossed his hands up in exasperation.

“I’m going to talk to Cinder instead of you, grumpypuss.”

Raven stuck her tongue out at his back as he walked away before turning back to Summer and their conversation. “Anyway, I’ll train Cinder, don’t worry about it.”

Summer nodded, looking back at Cinder – and now Qrow who was talking with the girl. “Be honest, Raven.” She said, looking at her partner. “Do you think she’s okay?”

Letting out a dry chuckle, Raven rubbed her face, dragging her hand down in a long motion. “Absolutely not. Gods, Summer. She has so many scars, and that’s just the visible ones. We don’t know how many she has in her mind and heart.” Raven looked sadly at Cinder. “She’s gonna need a lot of love – and probably therapy, but none of us are therapists, so love is gonna have to do for now.”

Summer was silent for a moment. “Come on,” she eventually said. “I’ll make some food for the rest of us. Why don’t you cuddle with Cinder or something? Build up the trust a little more, yeah?” she finished, placing her hand on Raven’s shoulder and gently squeezing.

Raven sighed, shoulders slumping a bit. “Yeah...” She brought her hand up to cover Summer’s and took in a shaky breath. “So. What’s for dinner?” she said, starting to make her way over to where her brother and charge were.

“I’m thinking... some good ol’ soup should hit the spot? Chicken noodle, maybe?” Summer responded, following after Raven.

Raven walked over to the log where Cinder was sitting and plopped herself down beside her. “Enjoy the food?”

Cinder nodded, leaning into Raven and looking back at Qrow, clearly waiting for him to continue his story. Raven wrapped her arm around Cinder’s shoulders gently, not wanting to startle her, and let out a quiet, shaky breath when Cinder grabbed her hand and started to play with it absentmindedly .

“So, as I was saying, Tai punches this thing and goes flying – which was a sight to see ‘cause it was, what, the size of a house? Then, Sum comes in and...” Raven tuned out Qrow, instead watching Summer work on the food.

Noticing her stare, Summer gave her a small wave before hunching back over the pot. Raven smiled at her partner’s back, then glanced up at the stars. It had grown dark while she had been talking with her team, and to pass the time she started counting the constellations she could see. When that got boring, she started to make a mental list of the things Cinder would need, but then she started to forget the starting items, so she gave Cinder a gentle squeeze and stood up, grabbing her coat and her scroll before sitting back down and wrapping Cinder up in the coat. She opened her scroll and started making the list with its notes feature.

Before long, Summer handed her a warm bowl and the four of them ate. Afterwards, it was decided that Cinder would sleep with the girls, and Qrow would sleep on his own, as well as taking first watch. Raven would get second watch, and Summer would get third watch, so as to make sure that Cinder would hopefully wake up beside a familiar face and not panic.

With that decided, the sleepers went to bed and Qrow manned the fire. Cinder slept through the night, and in the morning, they got ready for their upcoming trip.

Chapter Text

Four days later, they arrived in Sudberry. The trip had taken longer than planned because Cinder had been unused to travelling such long distances, requiring them to take longer and more frequent breaks.

“Alright team. I’ll go meet up with the hunters that were here before us, so Qrow, go stock us up on supplies.” Summer said, pointing at Qrow.

“Aye aye, ma’am.” He said, giving a salute.

“Raven and Cinder, you two’ll go and find us the hotel we’re staying at. Should be in that general direction. It’s called The Golden Dream. Cinder will, obviously, be in charge of this mission. Raven, text the both of us when you find it, kay?”

Raven nodded, looking down at Cinder and offering her hand. “After you, Captain.”

Cinder grinned and grasped her hand, copying Qrow and giving Summer a salute as well. “Yes, ma’am!” she giggled, tugging on Raven’s hand as she travelled in the same direction Summer had pointed toward earlier.

Raven chuckled and allowed herself to be pulled along, shooting a parting wave toward her two teammates.

Sudberry was a smaller town, only having 8,000 people living there. Of the 8,000, less than a hundred were hunters, so they often put out temporary guard positions – making it a good place to gain experience quickly.

The town, for being a place in fairly constant danger, was very friendly, having several well-known hotels and good tourist spots, like waterfalls, forests, and an abundance of wildlife. The place itself was in pretty good condition, with clean streets and polished buildings that practically shined. It was also very well protected, with many law enforcement officers wandering the streets.

Soon enough, the pair found the hotel, an unassuming place in the same row as a bunch of houses. Heading inside, they were surrounded by a homely aura, one that Raven hadn’t felt in years, and she knew why Summer had chosen this place in particular. The inside of the hotel was mostly hues of beige, not too bright but not too dark either, with multiple seating areas for their guests to rest.

Raven gently tugged on Cinder’s hand and led them both to the front desk, introducing themselves and getting their room number and key. Moving up to the third floor, they quickly found their room – number 320 – and Raven sent Cinder to go shower while she informed the rest of her team where they were.

She received a thumbs up from Summer... and nothing else, so she busied herself with surveying the room and brewing herself a cup of coffee – black, since she didn’t see any sugar or cream, not exactly ideal since she didn’t exactly like such bitter things, but it would do.

Three sips into her drink, she heard a ding from her scroll, and it turned out to be Qrow, asking her to use her portals to teleport him to the room. She sighed, but did as asked, ripping apart space using her connection to her brother to open one of her portals.

A white bag got tossed through the red and she caught it, the warm smell of cinnamon rolls catching her attention. Qrow peeked his head through the portal and smirked at her reaction to the treat he had gotten her. She dramatically clutched her hand to her chest and beamed at him. “So, you do love me after all!” she exclaimed, wrapping her arm around his shoulders and pulling him into a side hug.

“EW, HUGS!”

“Oh, shut it!”

Releasing him, Raven put the bag on the chair she had been sitting on earlier and turned back to grab more groceries. Qrow already had the next bag in hand, and within 10 minutes the rest of their necessities were in the room. Shooting off a quick text to Summer, Raven looked around and grabbed one of the provided plates, placing one of her cinnamon rolls on it for Cinder to have when she got out of the shower.

Moving quickly, she put all the groceries away in under 15 minutes – a new personal best – and sat back down to enjoy her NEW glass of coffee – with the ingredients needed to make it drinkable.

Letting out a sigh of contentment, Raven peeked open her left eye when she felt Qrow looking at her. She saw him holding something behind his back and when he noticed that she had noticed, he cleared his throat and handed her something wrapped in a brown paper bag.

“Here Sis. Uh, happy birthday.” He said awkwardly.

Raven blinked. “Wait, is it already my birthday?” she asked, grabbing the gift so Qrow’s arm wouldn’t tire from the strange position. She paused, blinking again. “OH, SHIT, that means your birthday is tomorrow!” She burst out, panicking.

Qrow burst out laughing. “You forgot our birthday’s! That’s epic!”

Raven growled at him. “Oh, shut it! UGH, I need to go out when Summer gets back so I can get you something. What cake do you want?”

Qrow shrugged. “How about just getting a tray of muffins for the both of us? That way, we can toss one at Summer so she can’t complain?”

She nodded. “That makes sense. Double chocolate?”

“Yup.”

“Any other requests?”

“Nope. I just want you to open that gift now.”

Raven eyed him for a second before shrugging. Eh, it couldn’t hurt to see what Qrow got her. Unwrapping the paper, Raven’s eyes widened as she took in the book she’d wanted for at least a year now.

Qrow rubbed the back of his neck. “So, did I do good then?”

Raven nodded quickly, trying to blink some tears from her eyes. She hadn’t expected her brother to pay attention when they had visited a bookstore while waiting for Summer. When they were still with the clan, they were forced to train all day, with almost no breaks, and when they went to Beacon, they had to study, train, hang out with Tai and Summer to improve their teamwork, so there was never time for Raven to settle down with a book. Not to mention the fact that there was never any money for the luxury that was books. The only time they were forced to try and swing it was when they needed textbooks that weren’t provided, or when they needed to catch up on things that were never taught to them.

Raven leaned over and rested her head on Qrow’s shoulder for a second before leaning back and clearing her throat. “Thanks man. I really appreciate it.”

Qrow grinned. “’Course, sis!”

They chatted for a bit longer while they waited for the two other members of their group to come back. All the while, Raven kept the book on her lap, looking down at it occasionally with a smile and running a hand over the cover.

A little while later, Cinder came out of the shower and trotted over to Raven, leaning on her knee and peering curiously at the book. “What’s that?”

“It’s a gift Qrow got me for my birthday.”

“What’s a birthday?”

Internally, Raven doubled over and coughed up blood at the fatal hit the child had unwittingly given her. “Well, it's a day that people celebrate. It celebrates the day of someone’s birth, hence the name. It’s like saying thank you for being born, I guess.” She explained to her, ruffling the girl's hair.

Cinder nodded slowly. “But how do you know when you were born?”

“Well, usually your parents tell you.”

“And if you don’t have parents?”

Raven sighed, flinching internally. “Then other guardians, or friends, I guess.”

Frowning, the girl looked apprehensive. “And if you don’t have any of those?”

Raven leaned back and looked at the ceiling for a second, thinking. “Maybe you could count how many seasons you lived through to find the general area of when you were born?” she suggested, tilting her head to the side to look at her ward out of the corner of her eye.

At this, Cinder’s eyes lit up and a cute grin graced her face. “Oh! Then, I’ve lived through seven winters, seven falls, almost seven springs, and six summers!” she stated exuberantly.

Chuckling, Raven started to do the math in her head. “So that means that you were born in summer... so you’re about seven, then.”

Cinder nodded, resting her chin on Raven’s leg as she looked up at her. Opening her mouth, the kid looked like she was about to say something when the door opened, revealing a tired looking Summer.

The leader walked in the room, tossing off her shoes and falling onto the bed face first, letting out a loud groan that was muffled by the sheets.

Raven counted to 30 slowly. “So, how did it go?”

Summer rubbed her face against the bed before slowly sitting up to face the other three. “Tiring.” she grunted, rubbing her forehead. “There were two teams of previous hunters, apparently. One was called YAQS, and they were arrogant bastards who I failed to realize was even here. The other was much nicer, called WDCK (woodchuck), and they decided to stick around for a bit, since one of their members is pregnant right now. We’ll be meeting up with them tomorrow so they can explain more.”

Raven nodded slowly. “I see. What do you want to eat?”

Summer let out a questioning grunt. Shaking her head, Raven clarified. “You’re tired, I need to run out anyway, what do you want to eat? I’ll grab whatever you want.” She turned to Qrow. “And that goes for you too – what do you want?”

“Wait, why do you have to go out?” Summer asked, her eyes following her partner as the black-haired woman rose from her seat and put her gift on the small table that was in the corner. Raven continued to the door, putting her shoes back on and grabbing her coat as well as her Omen.

“Oh, it’s Qrow’s birthday tomorrow, and I want to get him something – and don’t worry, I’m getting some muffins for us as well.”

Summer paused, digesting the information. “WAIT, that means your birthday was today! AND YOU DIDN’ T TELL ME?!”

Raven put both of her hands up in a placating gesture. “Girl, sorry! I forgot!”

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, Summer continued her line of interrogation. “Forgot what? To tell me? Or – Gods forbid – that today was your birthday?”

Flinching, Raven put her hand to her hip and the other one up to hide her eyes as she answered. “... the second one.”

Summer facepalmed. Hard.

“Grab something for yourself too as a gift.”

“But Qrow already got me something?”

Raven was immediately shut down by Summer’s glare. Looking at Qrow for help, she received none as her traitorous brother giggled at the scene before him. Although, it seemed as though Cinder was laughing too, so a least one good thing came out of it.

“... ugh! Fine.” Tossing her hands up in defeat, Raven turned on her heel and walked out the room, trying to figure out what Summer would accept as a gift for herself and coming up completely empty.

Walking outside, she passed a billboard about parenting. Something nagged at the back of her mind, something important. Wait, when was the last time Raven had had her period? At least three months ago now... and hadn’t she been feeling quite nauseous for a time there as well? Normally, Raven would pass something like this off as her mind playing tricks on her, but something was telling her not to ignore this.

She mentally added a new stop to her list of places to go; convenience store, pregnancy test. She continued, pushing the thought of... THAT into the back of her mind. It’s not that it would be the end of the world, per se, but this was a very inconvenient time for such things. She mentally chastised her past self who had decided that alcohol would go great with denying the crush she had on Summer. Not to mention the fact that she had invited Tai to go drinking with her... which had led to... other things. What happened when you put two denying homosexuals and alcohol in the same room? Probable pregnancy, apparently.

Turning down an alley as a shortcut to the mall, Raven turned her thoughts toward the gift she was supposed to get for herself. She still had no idea what she was supposed to get - she had never been the best at being nice to herself – but she knew that she didn’t want to get another book at the moment. Maybe a new shirt? Nah, there would be no room for that in her luggage. Although, she supposed she could portal to Tai and simply ask him to put the shirt in her wardrobe or something... she didn’t want to bother him with something so inconsequential, though.

She passed a couple of trash bins, and her eyes alighted on two kids... again. Well, this wasn’t good. Sighing, she tried to convince herself that she should walk away from them, but her legs moved her forward without her permission. Kneeling in front of them, she held out her hands to help them up. Maybe Summer would accept this as her gift?

“Hey you two. My name is Raven. What are yours?”

The kids didn’t answer, and it looked like one of them was asleep, legs twisted at an awkward position beneath him. Raven frowned. This felt wrong. Not that she was trying to save them, no, but the fact that he wasn’t moving even when his legs were sure to be in pain. “Hey, little one. What happened to your friend?” she asked the girl the boy was leaning one.

The girl was quiet for a minute before whispering. “His father hurt him.”

Raven flinched, gritting her teeth to stop the sudden rage she felt. “I see. Will you allow me to help him?” She nodded at the boy but kept her eyes on the girl, waiting for permission to touch him.

The girl stared at her for a second before looking at her companion. She nodded slowly, perhaps realizing that the boy would die if left here.

Raven gave her a gentle smile. “Alright. Thank you.” Moving slowly so as to not startle the girl, Raven gently picked up the boy, cradling him against her chest so that she didn’t accidentally hurt his legs more. With him in this new position, she could see that there was no way for his legs to be saved – they would have to be amputated.

Opening a portal back to her team, she motioned to the girl to go inside. The girl passed through, barely hesitating this time. Following after, Raven met Summer’s questioning gaze and simply shrugged. “Mind taking care of that one for me?” she tilted her head towards the girl. “I need to take this one to the hospital.”

Her partner’s eyes widened as she took in the sight of the boy in her arms. “Yeah, go! I’ve got this one!” she said, shooing her away.

Nodding, Raven rushed out, making it down to the lobby in record time. She barely paused to greet the receptionist, choosing instead to run out onto the street and head to the hospital via rooftops, where she knew there would be no traffic. Jumping over streets, she took a straight path towards the hospital, making it there in under ten minutes.

Panting, she went straight to the front desk. The man looked up at her, most likely about the tell her off about the noise she was making, but he stopped when he saw the child she was carrying.

His face settled into something grim, and he wordlessly pointed to the side, where the ER was. Grabbing the radio, he sent out a message to call doctors down, but Raven didn’t stay to listen. She rushed in the direction that had been pointed out to her, passing a couple of confused nurses. One of them eventually stopped her, motioning to a bed and asking her to set down her charge. Nodding, Raven did as she was told and was then asked to fill out a couple forms. She was led back out to the waiting area and was told that she would be informed when they were done the surgery.

Sitting down, she opened up the pamphlet and looked at the first question; patient name. “Well shit.” ... she’d fill that out later. Age... nope. Connection with patient – finally, one she could answer!

Her pen hovered over the blank space as she wondered how to actually answer that. Maybe she would just say guardian or something?

She finished filling it out as quickly as she could, turning it in to the same receptionist as before and answering all the questions he had about the nature of the injuries.

Having nothing else to do, she sat back down in the waiting area and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Finally, at the five-hour mark, a nurse came by and informed her that the boy had been settled in a room. Raven asked where the room was and went to wait there for the rest of the day, finally passing out in a chair after another hour.

Chapter Text

Raven was awake, staring at the little boy whose name she still didn’t know. He had messy grey hair, grey eyes that fluttered open every now and then, and now two metal legs that he would need to learn how to use.

His legs had been unsalvageable, requiring amputation, and Raven almost let guilt consume her, for not showing up there sooner – although logically she knew that it wasn’t her fault.

She scowled – not her fault. But she did know whose fault it was. ‘His father hurt him.’ No, Raven wasn’t angry – she was furious. And also extremely fixated on vengeance.

Well, considering the fact that she couldn’t go on a man-hunt for a... multitude of reasons, including but not limited to; lack of knowledge of who she was hunting down, the fact that she couldn’t leave the little boy alone, and she also didn’t know the full story. What if the man (she refused to call him a father – he no longer had that title) was already dead?

Raven desperately needed a distraction before she did something stupid.

Sighing, she pulled out her scroll and called Summer, who she knew would be awake by know.

“How did it go?” Summer’s voice came through, not even waiting till the end of the first ring to pick up.

Raven chuckled internally. “Well, the boy’s still alive.”

“Were there... any complications?”

“Yeah... Yeah, he uh- he lost his legs.” Raven forced out, the words sticking like glue to her throat and rubbing it raw as she ground them into the air for Summer to hear.

Summer inhaled sharply, keeping quiet for a few seconds, likely putting her thoughts in order. “Okay. Um, let’s see. We have the meeting with WDCK in...” there was a moment of silence on the other end as Summer looked at the clock. Raven did as well, seeing that it was 6. “... six hours, looks like. Did you ever figure out what the kids name was?”

“Nope. Did you?”

“Yup, found out both names. The girl is Emerald, and the boy you took with you is named Mercury. I gave Em a shower, made her some porridge – which was the last of the porridge, by the way – and let her take your bed for tonight. Cinder decided to sleep with her as well.”

Raven smiled. “That was nice of her.” she said, glancing at the boy- Mercury. He stirred slightly, and she figured that he would wake up soon.

“Yeah. I think she might be getting attached... but we can’t take them all with us, you know that right?” Summer questioned.

Raven swallowed gravel. “Yeah, I know. I’ll figure something out.” she spoke quietly, as if trying to reject the words themselves.

“Don’t worry, I already came up with a solution!” Summer said, and Raven could hear the victorious grin on her face. “Sooo, I called Tai – remember he got that new teaching gig up in Patch? Well, he also got a place there, multiple rooms, quite a few bathrooms, et cetera, et cetera, and I mentioned that we had a few kids that we couldn’t take with us. He brought up that he wouldn’t mind taking care of them while we’re gone, and I said that I agreed, but that we should check with you before any decisions are actually made.” Summer finally inhaled, ending the rush of words while she waited excitedly for Raven’s response.

“... That’s a good idea, I think.” Raven said. “Hold on, I’ll call Tai and work out the kinks, ‘kay?”

“Sounds good, buckaroo! Call me back in, what, an hour?”

“Sure. Talk to you later.”

“Talk ta ya later!”

Raven ended the call, sitting back and mulling over the new information she had gotten. It... was a good plan. The only problem was how Cinder might react, but if someone that she trusted stayed for a day or two while she adjusted to the new environment, it would probably be fine (... hopefully...).

Picking up her scroll again, Raven dialed Tai’s number, hearing it ring three times before he picked up on the fourth one. “Hello, hello, one night stand!”

“... what happened to not speaking of that again.” Raven sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with her free hand.

“Uh, I thought that saying it would be funny?”

“... right. Anyway, accommodations for Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury. Are you okay with housing them until we’re done our mission?” Raven asked, moving on from the awful opener he had hit her with.

“Yupperdoodles! Do you want me to try and put them in school? Or something else?”

“Hmm, not yet. Maybe you could try teaching them how to read and write at most, but I don’t want to put that stress on them just yet, alright?”

“’Kay, ‘kay, gotcha. Didn’t expect to get three students already, huh.”

Raven rolled her eyes, shaking her head at his antics. “Oh, right.” She started suddenly. “So, I, uh, don’t want to set anything in stone yet, but...” she trailed off, unsure how to proceed.

Tai lets out a questioning hum from the other side of the phone, not rushing her, though. He knew better than to do that.

“Ok, so I might have missed a couple of periods since that one-night stand of ours and I was going to get a pregnancy test last night but I kind of got distracted?” she burst out, in a rush to get everything off her chest to the only other person who was sort of involved.

Tai was silent for a solid five seconds, before stating a deceivingly calm, “what the fuck.”

Raven flinched slightly. This felt like the calm before the storm, and she didn’t want to weather another catastrophe, especially not from someone who was normally so joyful. It just seemed... wrong somehow.

Sighing, Tai began his small rant. “Okay, so you said you weren’t a hundred percent sure, right? Then maybe we don’t have to worry about it.”

“Well, I was planning on getting a test last night, but I got, uh... distracted.” She said, flinching slightly as she awaited his response.

“Well, I suppose now would be a good time to get on that.” Tai said, voice cold. Raven knew that he was just scared, that he wasn’t trying to be hateful or mean, but she couldn’t stop feeling hurt at his tone. It wasn’t her fault!

Shoving aside her emotions, Raven tried to keep a handle on her logical side. “Yeah, I'll do that then. I’ll call you back once I figure it out.” she said, voice hollow and monotone.

Tai seemed to figure out that he fucked up, trying to apologize, but Raven hung up before she could hear him finish. Scoffing, she looked at Mercury, still dozing.

What so he was okay with taking in three kids, but having one of his own was the end of the world? That was stupid, and something she would need to ask for clarification one later. ...If she decided to speak with him anytime soon.

Softening as she looked at the still unmoving-but-in-an-okay-way kid, Raven shook her head and put the previous conversation out of her mind. She opened up a portal to Qrow, shaking him awake and leading him back into the hospital room.

“Alright, I need to head out to get all the stuff I didn’t get last night, so can you watch Mercury for me?”

“Sure, sure. Pick me up some food as well please, would you?”

Raven nodded, adding a fast-food place to the list of places where she needed to go. She turned and walked out, keeping a fast pace so that she would hopefully finish getting everything fast enough that no one other than Qrow realized she had left.

(Do NOT think of abusive fathers, Raven, that is not a rabbit hole you want to go down today.)

Stopping by the convenience store, she picked up the pregnancy test, shoving it in her bag and continuing on to the bakery, picking up the muffins , and finally heading to the mall, where she grabbed a couple of new shirts for Qrow – funny sayings on them, obviously – and a new polishing kit for him, as he had lost his previous one. It took an hour, giving her a new time of 7:28.

Her scroll rang, and she fumbled with it slightly as she answered. “Raven speaking.”

“Heyy, Raven. Just wanted to double check that everything was okay, since you didn’t call back when you said you would.” The person calling was Summer, she realized, and Raven almost groaned out loud. This... wasn’t the best situation. Raven was exhausted from her conversation with Tai, and Summer would surely pick up on that, and would then proceed to question Raven for all the things bothering her, which would just make Raven more annoyed and - yeah, it would be better to end this quickly.

“My bad, Summer. Uh, I just got to finish shopping and then I’ll be back, so- talk to you later alright?” She quickly hit the end call button, sighing in relief over the fact that she wouldn’t need to explain herself to Summer... right now, at least. No doubt Summer would notice the quick getaway and question her later about it, but hopefully Raven would have her answer for Tai before that.

She hit the nearest fast-food place, picking up a couple burgers for Qrow and herself and opened a portal to the hospital room where Mercury was staying. The first thing that made her realize that something was off was the green-haired girl curled up beside Mercury – Emerald, if Raven was remembering right. The second was the worried look on Qrow’s face as he watched her exit the portal. And the third thing – the thing that sealed the deal – was Summer, leaning against the wall, white cloak tucked into her belt and off her shoulders, silver eyes boring into Raven’s face.

“Talk now or later?”

Raven winced at the hard tone Summer’s voice took. “... Later.” She turned to look Summer in the eyes, and some of her desperation most have leaked onto her face because Summer’s eyes widened slightly. Summer straightened, reaching out a hand but stopping at Raven’s flinch. “Please.”

Summer nodded, going back to leaning against the wall, arms crossed as she looked Raven up and down, as if she could somehow figure out what was wrong by sight alone.

Raven handed Qrow his food, his gifts, and giving him a quick ‘happy birthday’ and a quick kiss on the top of his head before she walked out of the room, rushing to the nearest bathroom as soon as she was out of sight of prying eyes. Taking the pregnancy test of her bag, she rushed to read the instructions, pausing before actually committing to the act.

Closing her eyes, she finished up the test, waiting for about five minutes before inhaling to get her courage up and looking at the test.

Raven forgot how to work her lungs.

There was a conflict of emotions; happiness and dread. Happiness was winning.

She felt like she couldn’t breathe.

Her chest felt too tight, too tight, tight, help, help help help helphelphelp-

Summer.

She needed Summer.

She inhaled, forcing air back into her lungs. She stood up, placing the test on the counter near the sink then going back and sitting on the toilet lid. She used her connection to Summer to open a portal, bringing her feet up and placing them in front of her, wrapping her arms around her knees and burying her face in her arms.

“Raven? Is something- Raven! Are you okay?!” Raven nearly cried at the gentle touch on her shoulder. Surely Summer would know what to do – right? Gods, she hoped so. She certainly didn’t.

Summer’s hand moved down to gently touch one of hers, taking it gently and giving it a gentle squeeze that did make Raven cry this time. Letting out a sob, Raven practically tackled Summer, wrapping her arms around her stomach and burying her face in Summer’s chest.

Summer wrapped her arms around Raven, running a hand through her hair as Raven cried. She still didn’t know if she was crying because or joy or fear or some other emotion.

After a few minutes of uncontrollable sobbing, Raven finally calmed down enough to explain why, exactly, she was crying. She motioned over to the counter and Summer moved them both enough to grab the test, looking down at it for a long moment before wrapping Raven back up, a slight tremble coming from her this time.

“Breathe. Just- breathe.”

Raven nodded against her, trying to match her breathing to Summer’s steady rhythm. It took another couple minutes for her to succeed, and Summer never stopped running her hand through her hair.

“Do you want to talk about it?” her partner asked quietly.

Raven quietly told Summer everything, never lifting from her hiding place. Summer was quiet throughout, nodding occasionally.

“Okay. And how do you feel about all this?”

“I-I don’t know. H-Happy? I think...”

“I see. I think that’s a good thing, no?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Summer gently nudged her up, placing a hand on her cheek and rubbing her face soothingly. “Come on. Let’s go back to Qrow, okay?”

Raven shook her head. “I have to call Tai. Tell him what happened. I promised.”

Nodding slowly, Summer looked her in the eyes, bumping against her forehead with her own. “Okay. Can I be here with you while you do that? I won’t do anything unless Tai says something completely unnecessary, alright?”

“... Okay. I’d like that. Thank you.” Raven whispered, nearly crying again at the care that was being giving to her.

Letting out a sigh, Raven turned around in Summer’s arms, pulling out her scroll and dialing Tai’s number – tossing it on speaker at Summer’s nudge.

“Raven.” Tai’s voice was cold, and Raven could feel Summer go tense under her.

“Hey Tai-”

“Skip the formalities. Just tell me what the results were.” he interrupted, and Raven flinched, recoiling into Summer for some sense of security.

“Right. Sorry. It was positive.” she mumbled, already dreading his response.

Tai was silent. “Can you get rid of it.” It almost sounded like an order. Although she supposed that didn’t matter.

“No, I can’t.”

“Why.”

“Too far along.” She didn’t actually know if that was true – she just wanted to refuse him. SHE wanted this child. It didn’t matter what he wanted, especially since she didn’t expect him to play a part in parenting.

“Fine. I’m not helping you with it though.”

“I know.”

“I don’t even want you to tell it that I'm it’s father, got that? What happened was a stupid mistake, just because we wanted to forget out stupid crushes on our team members. I want no part of that thing’s life-”

“Would you quit your damn whining?” Summer finally broke. “Raven already said that she didn’t mind you not helping. Calm down.”

Tai went quiet for far too long. Raven started to worry again (two of the happiest people she knew were at each other’s throats because of her. What was the point? She should have kept this a secret).

“Summer, this doesn’t concern you. Stay out of it.”

“Oh, on the contrary,” Summer scoffed. “Wasn’t it you who just said that this started because of your crushes on me and Qrow, right? Then that makes this all of our problem. I’m not gonna let you put all the blame on Raven when it isn’t her fault.” She spoke calmly, but that didn’t mean she was letting Tai walk all over her. No, she knew what was right and she wasn’t going to let Tai hurt Raven for no reason – and even if he did have a reason, she doubted that Summer would actually let him do anything anyway.

“... tch.” Tai hung up, not hanging around to hear Summer chew him out.

“Are you okay?” Summer asked her, still not letting Raven go (she didn’t know who it was for at this point, but she decided it didn’t really matter anyway).

“... I will be.”

(Only after Tai hung up did she realize she had forgotten to ask him why he was okay with other kids and so against the possibility of his own, but that was a conversation for another day, she supposed.)

Chapter Text

Qrow was silent, staring at Raven as if she had grown a second head. “... I don’t know what to say.” He rubbed his face roughly, and Raven took a quick glance at the clock – 9:32. They still had a while before the meeting with WDCK (good. At least Raven hadn’t completely thrown all their plans into the gutter). “Why didn’t you talk to me? Why go drinking with TAI, of all people? He’s not even someone you trust all that much!”

Raven flinched at the outburst (it felt more like Qrow was disappointed in her, and that made her feel wrong. So what if she didn’t talk to him about this problem? It was her problem! He didn’t need to know everything – honestly, she hoped he never would). “... sorry.”

“SORRY?” he cried incredulously. “RAVEN! I’m your brother, why wouldn’t you come to me?! I could have helped you! I could’ve played matchmaker, or something! I could have tried to set you up with someone else! I could have been a shoulder for you to cry on! I-” Qrow slumped down in his chair, placing his forehead in his hands and shaking with barely controlled emotions.

Raven just sat there. She felt like crying, but she couldn’t (this was her fault – why should she make it all about her? No, she didn’t have that right). Instead, she kept a neutral expression, locking her gaze on the ground at Qrow’s feet and praying that they’d give her a punishment that she could handle.

Qrow stood up and walked over to where she sat on the bed. They had moved to an empty room at the behest of one of the nurses. Summer had gone down to the front desk to talk to them and see about making an appointment for Raven while the woman in question filled in Qrow on (most) of what had happened.

Qrow pulled Raven into a side hug, placing her head on his chest. Surprised, Raven blinked a couple of times, but didn’t relax (she had fucked up big time – and there was always pain whenever someone fucked up. It had been like that while she and Qrow were still with the tribe, and it had been like that after the tribe was slaughtered and they were left to wander. That was the way the world worked).

“I want to help you. Please- please, let me help you.” Qrow pleaded in a broken whisper, and Raven could tell he was on the verge of tears.

Raven inhaled sharply. She had thought he’d be mad, or disappointed, or something, but she certainly hadn’t expected this. “... okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay, I’ll let you help.”

Qrow smiled, wide and elated. “Okay! What should I do first?” he asked excitedly, happy just at the chance to help her.

Raven rubbed the back of her neck, smiling sheepishly at her brother. “Um, I don’t know?”

Blinking, Qrow nodded awkwardly. “Uh, right. In that case, I will... leave the room?” He chuckled, embarrassed, and gave her double finger guns, walking backwards out the door. On his way out, he bumped into Summer, who laughed at him (obviously).

“Oh, bugger off.” he grumbled, closing the door behind him once Summer had entered the room completely, apparently now done with setting up the appointment.

Summer smiled at her. “So, how did that go?”

“Better than I expected, honestly.” Raven admitted, giving her partner a small smile.

Summer nodded, sitting down on the bed beside her. “So. You said in your conversation with Tai that you weren’t able to get an abortion, right? Does that mean you want to keep the baby?” she asked, a serious expression on her face.

Hesitating, Raven thought for a moment. “... yeah. Yeah, I want to have this kid. I-Is that all right?” Raven tucked her chin against her chest, shoulders slumping inward as she waited for Summer’s response.

“Of course it is! Why would you think any differently?!” Summer burst out, shock dripping from every pore of her body.

Raven flinched slightly, then felt guilt flow through her and hoped that Summer wouldn’t notice (of course she noticed, Summer ALWAYS noticed). “I-I don’t know?”

Summer scoffed. “Yeah, me neither! Anyway,” she shifted, placing one leg up on the bed and turning toward Raven. She tapped on her leg to get Raven to turn towards her as well so that they were facing each other. “Do you have any names in mind?”

Raven was taken by surprise. “Well, I mean, no? I kinda learned about this today? And we still don’t know the gender?” She tilted her head to the side as she thought about all the reasons why picking out a name NOW would be a bad idea.

“Then why not pick out two names – one for a boy and one for a girl – or maybe a gender-neutral name?” Summer suggested, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

Raven opened her mouth for a second before closing it. She... had nothing to say to refute Summer’s points. “Alright...” she sighed, resigning herself to her fate of hours and hours of picking out baby names with Summer.

“Annnnd the second thing I need to talk to you about,” Summer spoke up again, looking a little embarrassed now. “Tai said something about a crush...?”

Raven began her second panic attack of the day.

“Wait, wait, wait, I promise that’s not a bad thing! I’m not mad or upset about that either!” Summer burst out, rubbing Raven’s back as she hyperventilated. “C’mon, breathe!”

When Raven managed to control her breathing, Summer placed a gentle hand on her cheek and nudged Raven to look at her while she spoke. “I wanted to speak with you about the crush thing because I wanted to know if you still had a crush on me because I have a crush on you and- ugh!” Summer shook her head, looking so much like a dog for a moment that if Raven hadn’t just had her world turned upside down (again) she would have laughed out loud.

A stupefied ‘huh’ was the only thing Raven knew how to say at the moment, although Summer rushed to say some more so Raven wasn’t required to make any other noise than that – and she was incredibly thankful for it, right now.

“I really like the way you take care of us, your smile when you win a fight, how gorgeous your eyes are, how you take such pride in your hair but still don’t mind me running my hands through it! I love how thoughtful you are, and I hate how you look when you try and start to talk about what happened when you were young. Some days I look at you and all I want to do is hug you until you push me away! I love how soft you are with me, and I find it adorable that you don’t let anyone take care of you except me – although you should probably try and let Qrow help you too, but my point stands! And your lips are really pretty and more often than not Ifindmyselfreallywantingtokissyou, and-” Summer crossed both arms over her face, a blush painting her face a pretty pink. Peeking out from her hiding place, Summer finished her spiel that had already made Raven’s face go a similar shade. “If you do – still have a crush on me, I mean. If you do, do you think, maybe, that I could try...?” Her voice broke off at the end, and she seemed so hesitant and shy in that moment that Raven almost laughed again.

“Try? Try what?” Raven teased even though her face was on fire and her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest.

“... you know...” Summer mumbled.

Raven smirked. “Yeah, I do. But I want to hear you say it.”

Summer straightened, placing her hands in her lap as she cleared her throat. “Raven Branwen, I’d really like to kiss you.” She said firmly, although her hands shook a bit no matter how much she held them together.

“Yup, got that part.”

Summer whined slightly. “You’re an evil, evil woman, you know that?” She cleared her throat again. “Raven, may I please kiss you on the lips?”

“Nope.” Raven said, popping the word.

Summer flinched away, looking a little confused but mostly embarrassed - and a little hurt. “Yeah, I should have expected that... sorry-”

Raven leaned forward and pressed her lips against Summer’s. “I’ll kiss you instead.”

Summer’s eyes widened. “Like I said, evil.” she muttered under her breath. That didn’t stop her from wrapping her arms around Raven’s neck and pulling Raven on top of her. She kissed Raven again, and it was everything Raven had dreamed of and more. It was filled with so much more emotion than Raven would have thought possible – but that was Summer, wasn’t it? She always managed to surpass Raven’s expectations.

She felt a momentary flash of panic as Summer pulled away to take a quick breath, but it didn’t last long, Summer as eager (or as desperate) for Raven as Raven was for her.

“Hey, what’s up lesbians!” Qrow kicked in the door and took a second to stare at the lesbians in question, who were currently frozen in place at they stared at the intruder. “Nice one, Raven! Getting that V even while pregnant, huh?” he said, grinning evilly.

“... you have exactly three seconds to close the door before you leave this building in a body bag.”

“Yes ma’am! I’ll see you in an hour! Quick reminder that it is currently 9:48 and we have a meeting at 12! Goodbye!” He slammed the door shut, leaving a surprised Raven to stare down at Summer, the one who had actually made the threat.

“... nice one.”

“You can reward me by kissing me.”

“Yes ma’am.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 10:45, Raven was uncomfortably warm, VERY hot and bothered, and desperately wishing that they didn’t have to actually do anything today, but, alas, they were working adults – being 22 sucked, she could tell you that much – and needed money, especially since Raven kept bringing more and more kids into the equation (Hah! As if she was going to stop!).

“Are you okay?” Raven gave a small jerk at Cinder’s voice. Turning, she looked at the girl beside her. Cinder looked concerned, her hand tightening around Raven’s. “You’ve looked out of it for the past little bit.” Raven blinked. She hadn’t expected Cinder to learn how to speak so well so fast, but she felt an inexplicable pride at it too.

“Uh, what?”

Cinder rolled her eyes at her before tugging on her hand, leading them forward to catch up with her teammates. Qrow gave her a smirk, and like the mature adult she was, she stuck her tongue out at him. Summer gave her a small smile, but maintained her distance (perhaps, like Raven, Summer knew that if she got too close, they’d be right back where they were half an hour ago – although that wouldn’t be good since they were in a crowded street right now).

(... yes, not good at all...)

(That was a thought she’d have to take a look at later.)

“Yeah, I’m fine. I... just have a lot on my mind right now.” They had decided to head out a little early, to pick up some food for all of them – including Mercury and Emerald, the former of the two now awake – and make sure that they weren’t late. The day had been very stressful, especially for Raven, so Summer and Qrow had tried to get her to stay home, but she had refused. She hadn't wanted to miss anything important (is this what FOMO felt like?).

Picking up some (more) fast-food, they dropped off what the two still in the hospital wanted and left Cinder to watch over them, leaving Tai’s phone number so they could ask him for help, should they need it. Although, she’d like to have a... talk to anyone who would attack the hospital, let alone children in the hospital.

Hopefully those extra security measures would be unnecessary, but Raven had never had the best of luck... for multiple reasons.

They wandered around for a bit, and around 11:30 they went to the meeting place given by the leader of team WDCK, who Summer had described as a nice young woman by the name of Willow. The place was called The Golden Dream (one of her favourite places to be, honestly), with the weirdest of contraptions- drinks. She meant drinks.

To their surprise, it turned out that Willow was already there, sipping on a drink and reading a book. Summer waved to her, slightly panicked, and Willow gave her a smile, setting down the book.

“Oh my Gods, I thought the meeting was at 12! I’m sorry for being late!” Summer rushed to say, but Willow simply laughed.

“Oh, not to worry! I’m early myself, you know. You had the right time. Anyway, my teammates will be here in half an hour. They’re just wandering for a bit, since this’ll be the last time we’re here.” she reassured, motioning for them to have a seat. “Do you have any questions beforehand?”

“Um... what drinks do you recommend?” Raven shot Summer a look. Had she forgotten to take her partner here, despite how great everything about the Golden Dream was?

Willow laughed. “A true woman of culture, eh? In that case,” she pointed to a couple of items on the menu. “These ones, perhaps? Although, these are suited to my taste, to some trial and error might be in order, huh?”

Summer chuckled awkwardly. “Yeah, that’s true. Well, we’ll try these ones first and go looking for other ones if no one likes ‘em.” After placing the order, there was a couple minutes of silence as Summer tried to come up with conversation topics.

Raven took a moment to observe the other woman. With long white hair and one blue eye, being called striking was an understatement. Her left eye was covered by a massive scar (she couldn’t tell if it was a burn scar or a slash scar – perhaps a mix of both) and subsequently gone, but Willow didn’t seem to mind, keeping a large smile on her face as she sipped on her drink.

“So, what are your teammates like?” Raven asked, saving her partner (and everyone else) from the steadily growing longer pause.

Willow gave her a smile. “Well, my other three partners in crime are Damien Vero, my partner and a double knife wielder, Cana Calavera, a feisty warhammer wielder, and Kali Belladonna, who’s- actually, she might tell you herself, since she’s almost here.” She nodded to outside, where a black-haired woman was walking towards the door. As soon as she noticed she was being watched, she gave them a wave and hurried the rest of the way inside.

Raven assessed the newcomer as she came up to the table. Kali had long black hair that went to her waist, two gold studs in her left cat ear, a long black tail, and two golden eyes that warmed as she looked at Willow. Her outfit consisted of an open, black vest and form fitting black pants, a white handkerchief hanging out of one of her pockets. She wore a white button-up shirt under the vest, the top button undone, and a yellow choker outlined in black. In addition, she had a small necklace – one of the ones that held a picture or two in it. So, in total, she was a wereanimal, most likely of the feline variety, and didn’t seem to wield a large weapon, based on the lack of heavy muscle on her frame.

Kali pulled out a chair and sat right next to her leader, tossing one arm over the back of her chair as she lounged. “So, these the newbies?”

Willow tapped the back of her head, and Raven heard an audible smack, although Kali barely even seemed to shift. “Not newbies. They’ve been fighting Grimm for a while. But yes.” Willow turned back to Summer and pointed at Kali. “This is my most ill-mannered teammate. I would tell her to be kind but she’s incapable of that, so instead I apologize in advance for her behaviour.”

Raven smiled despite herself. Their attitude towards each other reminded her of Qrow and their older brother.

A shadow passed over the table, and Raven looked up at the waitress, sort of surprised she had managed to sneak up on them with an entire tray of drinks in hand. The waitress quickly passed out the drinks, and Raven took a second to admire her efficiency. The server placed the tray on her shoulder in a casual movement. “Anything else?”

A round of ‘no’s’ sounded, and the waitress nodded before walking away. The table resumed its silence for a couple minutes, although it wasn’t as awkward as before.

“Ah, look who’s here.” Willow nodded towards the door, and two people entered – Damien and Cana, she assumed. Damien had black hair tied down in a ponytail, a dark complexion, and green eyes already focused on their table. Cana had blonde hair in a pixie cut, with bronze skin and turquoise eyes, and she looked like she hit hard.

The duo moved to take their places at the table, Damien sitting beside Willow (the side that wasn’t occupied by Kali) and Cana sitting beside her partner. There was another quick round of introductions before the conversation got started.

Cana looked them over. “So, why’s there only three of you?” She let out a grunt as Kali elbowed her, her partner giving her a glare.

Shrugging, Summer took another sip of her drink before explaining. “Don’t worry, he’s still alive. He decided to pick up a job in Patch, so he’s over there right now.”

“Then why take this job if you aren’t at full strength?” Willow asked, raising an eyebrow, curiosity evident in her tone.

“Well, I mean, the rest of us want to be Hunters, so we’re not gonna let being down a person change anything.” Summer said, placing her drink down and pulling out a pad of paper and a pen. “Anyway, want to explain what we need to know?”

Willow nodded. “Sure. It’s about that time anyway.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “So, you already know that this area has a lot of spawning pools, making it a breeding ground for Grimm, kind of like Kuroyuri and Akayuri near Mistral. That means that this area is in constant danger, and there aren’t enough hunters that settle down here, yada, yada, yada.” She took another sip of her drink. “Anyway, this area has a lot of different types of Grimm in it – Nevermore's, Beowolves, Ursai, and some Taijitu, but don’t think that’s all. There were plenty more, even some that were considered rare, so be on your toes.” Tapping one finger on the table, she continued. “In April and December, the Grimm will launch coordinated attacks, with proper army tactics and everything. During those times, even more new Grimm might show up as well. After and before those big attacks, Grimm numbers in the surrounding area will lessen, so make sure you report every little thing, even if it seems like nothing, okay?” She seemed to be looking more at Qrow and Raven as she said it.

Raven nodded, committing her warning to memory.

Satisfied, Willow continued. “In certain areas, it’s super easy to get ambushed or get lost, so we’ll give you our maps of the area to be safe.” She tapped her chin slowly. “I think that’s it, so instead, do you have any questions?”

Summer shook her head. “I think we’re good, but do you mind if I get your number? Just in case.”

Smiling, Willow pulled out her scroll. “Yeah, no problem at all.” After the two exchanged numbers, Willow stood up and pushed her chair in. “We’ll still be on duty till the 25th of September, so ten days from now. If you want to come observe some of the things you’ll have to do, come find us, ‘kay?”

“Gotcha. Thanks!” Summer said, jumping up and offering her hand to the white-haired woman. Willow chuckled and the two shook hands before the other leader led her team out of the establishment, Damien and Kali waving goodbye.

“So, I think that turned out well.” Summer stated, looking to her two teammates for confirmation.

Raven nodded in agreement, offering her arm to her girlfriend (they were dating, right?) which she immediately took, looping her arm through Raven’s and beginning to walk back to the hotel.

Qrow and Summer chatted with each other while Raven just listened to her thoughts. Even though she was slightly worried about their new job and all, the most pressing matter on her mind was that of her new child. What was she going to name them? Where would they sleep? How could she keep them safe from the Grimm while traveling? Would they grow lonely? What if-

Summer gently nudged her shoulder with her own, bringing them to a stop and gaining Raven’s attention. “What’s on your mind, my love?”

Raven blushed at the word choice. “U-Uh, nothing much?”

“Is that a question?”

Raven grimaced, using her free hand to rub the back of her neck. “I’m just... thinking.”

“About?”

“What we’re going to do now that I decided to have a kid.”

Summer shook her head. “The same thing as always. Live life to the fullest. What’re you worried about?”

Raven looked around for a moment, only now realizing that Qrow was gone. “What happened to Qrow?” She asked, ignoring the question for the moment.

Summer watched her carefully, deciding whether or not to press the issue before eventually humoring her. “He went inside a store so he could pick up some baby stuff for you.”

Feeling herself go misty eyed, Raven blinked rapidly to stop any tears from falling. “Oh. I see. That’s... nice of him.” She managed to get out, and Summer leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek. She froze for a second, still not used to being allowed to receive this type of affection from her partner, before almost melting into a puddle on the ground.

“So, what’s troubling you?” Summer asked again, taking her arm from Raven’s and moving it up to her cheek to rub rhythmically.

Raven sighed, leaning into the gesture. “It’s stupid.” She mumbled.

“I find that whatever you’re worried about tends to be a big problem, so I would beg to differ.”

She sighed, giving up. When Summer Rose wanted something, she usually found ways to get it. “Can I really keep them safe?” she finally asked in a small voice.

Softening, Summer gently brought Raven down to give her a hug. “Of course you can! You’re THE Raven Branwen, the person who raised Qrow! If you could protect Qrow, then you most certainly can protect your child, alright?”

Raven buried her face in Summer’s shoulder, a few tears coming out despite her best efforts. “Alright.” she whispered, voice slightly muffled by the white cloak.

Apparently done with his shopping trip, Qrow ran out of the store and began to talk to them. “Heyyyyyy, so- Summer, did you make Raven cry.”

Summer gave him an exasperated look. “Like I would do that- wait. Okay, it’s not like it was on purpose!” she said defensively, sweating a bit at Qrow’s judgemental look.

Her brother turned to Raven. “Do I need to beat up your girlfriend?”

She paused, and Qrow guessed at what she was thinking now. “Summer, do you agree that you’re Raven’s girlfriend?”

Summer blinked. “Uh, yeah? Why?”

Qrow gave Raven a pointed look. “Now, dear sister, answer my question.”

“Wait, can you-”

“No.” Qrow interrupted, not turning back to Summer even as he shot her down.

Raven stared for a second before her mind finished rebooting. “Uh, please no?”

Nodding, Qrow switched topics like he changed functions on a multi tool. “Anyway, look at what I got!” He rifled through the white bag of things he had gotten from the store. Triumphantly, he pulled out the first thing, a pink baby onesie that said ‘If I refuse to nap, is that resisting a rest?’

With the proudest, most shit-eating grin on his face, Qrow stared at Raven with the puppy eyes he had long perfected. Raven felt her resistances immediately falter and fall.

Sighing, she nodded. “Alright, fine. That one's okay. What’s next?”

“Next is... this!” He pulled out a yellow pacifier and waited for her sigh of confirmation before placing it back in the bag and grabbing the next thing.

Raven furrowed her brow. “What is that?”

Qrow beamed, holding the blue, catlike stuffy creature up in both hands. “This, my only surviving family member, is called a Nunray, an ancient mythical creature that used to be commonplace.” he recited. “Apparently, it was also a major animal in wereanimal myths and folklore. And look! It has antlers!” Qrow pet them softly. The antlers didn’t go past the back of the stuffie's head, a soft brown that was easy on the eyes.

Letting out a hum, Raven outstretched her hand for Qrow to deposit the thing in. Examining it for a second, she finally nodded and allowed him to put it back in the bag. “Alright, these are acceptable.” She agreed, offering her arm to Summer so she could lead them back to the hospital. “Come on, Qrow.” she said, offering her hand to him as well.

Smiling, Qrow took it, looping his hand with hers, and she had the quiet realization that Qrow was now taller than her. Not by much, of course, but tall enough that it gave her a pause, giving her small flashbacks to her father standing over her with his belt. Her step stuttered for a second, and Qrow gave her a questioning look. She could feel Summer’s gaze boring into the side of her head as well, but she paid no attention to it, studying Qrow’s face for any sort of similarity to the man she had called dad.

Finding nothing that peaked her worry, she simply smiled at her brother, tugging on his arm to indicate that she was ready to go. He opened his mouth, probably to ask what that was about, but she just shook her head.

She wanted to say something, to give reassurance that she was fine, but her tongue felt like lead in her mouth. Instead of trying to speak and tripping over herself, causing more worry in the long run, she just tugged on both their arms, a bit harder this time, and led them away, humming a small tune to herself.

Chapter Text

While Qrow had never been Raven’s confidante like she had been his, that didn’t mean he knew nothing of her struggles. From working awful jobs constantly after the Tribe was gone, to studying for him since he was never able to learn from a book. He knew that it took its toll on her, but Raven never complained. She bore it with a smile.

Raven was his safe-place, and he knew he wasn’t hers, but that was fine because she had a safe place now – Summer. Summer was someone Raven could be vulnerable with, someone who had been the first person Raven had looked for when she needed comfort when Tai was being a dick.

And honestly? He was grateful.

Even if he didn’t know her as well as he wanted to, that didn’t mean he hadn’t noticed the flash of fear on her face when she had looked up at him in the street earlier.

And by the Gods did he hate that.

He wasn’t somebody Raven should be scared of.

Raven was his kickass older sister, and in his admittedly bias opinion, she was a better person then 99.99% of the people on Remnant. That was a fact. And because of that fact, the world had tortured her (literally), and it hurt that he couldn’t make that pain go away for her.

And he owed her so much that if wasn’t fair he couldn’t do anything for the most important person in his life.

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He watched the creature of darkness come closer, stalking him. He spared a look to everywhere he could see, seeing if anybody was still around, but of course there wasn’t.

Qrow backed up until he hit a massive rock, pressing his back against it, hard. His hands shook in the dirt, and he felt like begging for Raven or Robin to magically show up and save him.

Oh how he wished he had had the foresight to bring Harbinger. At least then, when Raven found his body, she would have known that he went down fighting. Instead, he had no other option but to cower away in fear – fear that would lead even more Grimm to find him.

“Damn it...” he cursed, leg throbbing from the bone-shattering hit it had suffered at the hands of his cousin. Why had he thought following Huw was a good idea? That guy had had it out for him since the moment they met!

But since when had Qrow ever done anything right?

Meeting the scarlet gaze of the Grimm in front of him, he felt tears slip down his cheeks to wet his shirt. “I’m sorry, Raven. I’m so sorry.” he whispered, eyes falling shut.

He accepted that he was going to die, but he didn’t have the courage to stare death in the face as it came to claim him. Raven would, though. She did it every day.

CLANG!

His head shot up, staring at the head of the wolf Grimm as it rolled across the ground to rest against his leg.

And there, in all her blood covered glory, was Raven. Holding her weapon in both hands, the Omen of Death stood tall even though he could see her legs were shaking.

Terrified as he was.

But still fighting.

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“Hey Qrow.”

With a start, Qrow turned to Summer, going from lounging in his chair at the hotel room to sitting up straight. Habits die slowly, after all.

“Yeah boss?”

Summer quirked an eyebrow at the nickname. She didn’t dwell on it, however, just moving on to what she wanted to say. “What do you think that reaction was about earlier?” she asked, playing with the folded bundle of her cloak, which she had laid down on the bed before she sat down.

Shaking his head slowly, Qrow let out a long sigh, allowing himself to slouch back against the back of the chair again. “No idea. I assume you don’t know either?”

Summer shook her head as well. “No, nothing concrete...” she trailed off, thinking. “Hey. That nickname. You usually use it when you aren’t feeling the best mentally, yeah?”

Qrow blinked, then rubbed his chin as he thought about it. “I mean, I guess? Why’d you ask?”

Taking a second to think through her response, Summer flopped on the bed before speaking. “I think... that Raven’s stressed. I mean, she hasn’t taken a rest since, what, the start of our time at Beacon as a team?”

Qrow snorted in amusement. “Rest? Raven doesn’t know the meaning of the word! But, continue.”

“ANYWAY,” she stressed, “With everything that’s happened lately, it’s no wonder she’s spacing out, right? I mean, before all she had to deal with was this new job, but in less than a week she got three kids and a baby on the way, yeah? That’s bound to put some strain on the mind.” Summer grimaced. “More strain than a semblance, anyway.”

They both went silent for a second, thinking. “How did Raven get her semblance anyway?”

Qrow shook his head. “I dunno. She’s never told me. And she’s never showed me any scars, so I think those’ll be one you.”

“What do you mean?”

Smirking, Qrow raised his eyebrow and stared at Summer until her cheeks turned red.

“Oh.”

“Yup.” He said, popping the word.

He easily caught the pillow Summer threw at him, placing it in his lap as he thought. “It’s rather unfair, isn’t it? The way we get semblances, I mean.” he added as an afterthought.

Summer nodded. “Yeah, agreed...”

There were a couple of ways to get a semblance. The first was to lose a body part, such as an eye or limb. The second was to be in a near death situation where the semblance you awaken helps get you out of harm's way. The final way was...

“Oh. I think I know what her trigger was.” Qrow whispered, almost hoping Summer hadn’t heard, but of course he was let down the second Summer sat up and stared at him intently.

“Yeah?”

Qrow rubbed his face, sighing. “... has Raven ever told you that we had an elder sibling?”

Summer shook her head. “No. Why?”

“Well, on the day we got our semblances, Raven told me he died.”

Summer’s eyes widened. “So you mean...”

“Yeah. I assume Raven watched him die.” The third way to get a semblance – watching a loved one die. Oftentimes, people who awaken their power this way become fiercely loyal to their remaining family, refusing to let them go and putting themselves in harm’s way for them.

“... That checks out with so many things.” Summer whispered, placing her forehead in her hands. She remained like that until she heard Qrow let out a curse.

“12 years, and I never even thought about it!” Qrow growled, hands balling into fists. He didn’t know whether he wanted to cry or get pissed – he was leaning more toward angry, since if Raven saw him cry then she’d just get super worried about him, and then he’d just feel guilty, and then he’d spiral and- yeah, anger was probably safer right now.

“You’re not the only one who didn’t think of it...” Summer said softly. “Hey, do you think you could tell me a little more about your past? I know you two don’t like talking about it, but-”

“Sure.”

“... huh?”

“Sure, I don’t mind talking about it.” Qrow asserted.

Summer furrowed her brow. “Really?”

“Yup. Where do you want me to start?”

“From the beginning.” Summer said, making herself comfortable on the bed, hands in her lap as she sat with her legs folded.

Qrow nodded, shifting in his chair and tossing one leg over the other, still holding onto the pillow, although it was more in a death grip now. “I don’t want to go into too much detail, cause it just generally makes me feel bad, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask, alright?”

When Summer nodded, he started his story. “In our Tribe, there were three Elders. They ran everything, including the training sessions for select individuals, and one of them handled discipline. Their names were David Frost, Dewi Branwen, and Lily Branwen.” At Summer’s questioning gaze, he nodded. “Yup, Dewi and Lily were our parents. David was our uncle. Anyway, because we were the children of two of the most important and powerful people in the Tribe, everyone had high hopes for the three of us. Wren and Raven lived up to their expectations. Me, on the other hand...” He trailed off, shaking his head sorrowfully.

“Because of the latent power of my semblance, my teachers weren’t able to teach me, and then after a short while of being in my general vicinity, they would get hurt. Bad. Naturally, I was compared to my sister, which just ruined any desire of actually getting better. So, I got worse and worse until the Elders had had enough. They brought me into their little chamber of evilness and showed me something. A prophecy from before me and Raven were born. Basically, it was saying how Raven was the Omen of Death, and I was the Harbinger of Darkness, how we would destroy the entire clan, et cetera.” Summer looked angry for a second, but Qrow just waved his hand dismissively. “It’s fine. Now, at least.

“Anyway, from that point on, whenever I failed, there would be a punishment. Most of the time, it would just be missed meals, or isolation for a couple of days, but then I guess Dewi got fed up with everything. He took me to one of the soundproof rooms and...” Rubbing the back of his neck, the words clogged his throat, not wanting to come out. What if Summer thought less of him now? What if she also thought he was a failure? What if she felt she couldn’t rely on him anymore? What if-

Breathe, Little Brother.

He forced himself to exhale, the air burning the inside of his body. “And he would grab one of the wood sticks, the softer ones, since broken bones were a pain to deal with, and he would, you know... hit me with it...?” He turned away from Summer, facing the wall instead. Unable to face her disappointment.

Coward.

Where the last voice had brought comfort (as Raven tended to do), this voice washed it away and instead brought pain, anger, sorrow, defeat. This voice sounded like his dad. Of course it did. He couldn’t say those words in his own voice (another sounding of coward), and Raven would never say those things to him. Not even in his nightmares was Raven anything other than supportive and loving. The only way for his own mind to get at him was to copy the voices of the people who had hurt him.

“Oh, Qrow...”

His head jerked towards Summer, surprised by the gentle words. “... w-what?”

Summer’s eyes were swimming in tears, melted silver filled with heartbreak. She stood up, coming closer so she was standing over him. Reaching down, Summer grabbed his hand in both of hers, giving it a squeeze. “That’s awful, Qrow! I don’t exactly know what to say,” she admitted, the words a little mushed up, “but if you ever need a hug or something, like a night out or- or... you know, just ask me, okay? I’ve got your back, always!” she said, protectiveness in every word and action and, most of all, in her eyes.

Qrow blinked a couple of times in surprise. “R-Right. Uh, thanks...”

Wiping at her eyes, Summer let go of his hand and went back to the spot she had been sitting in since earlier. “Yeah, go ahead and keep going. I’m listening.” She spoke softly, as if still reeling from what he had already revealed.

Qrow sighed. If that was enough to bother her, he genuinely felt bad for her heart at the end of his story. “Okay... after that, anytime I didn’t do enough, he would take me back to that little room. At first, he didn’t do enough to leave scars, but after a while, my body couldn’t keep up with all the new injuries.” He lifted up the bottom of his shirt, revealing the tail end of a couple of curved scars that wrapped around from his back. Summer flinched, so he dropped the shirt and continued again. “Raven started to notice the way I’d flinch when she got closer. We were around seven here, by the way. Eventually, Dewi got angry. Despite everything he was doing, I still wasn’t getting better. That time, he didn’t manage to control himself. He practically had to drag me out of his torture room. I was barely able to get out of bed the next day, and Raven finally had enough.

“She confronted me, made me tell the truth. When she learned what had been happening right under her nose, she got pissed. She went straight to Dewi, had a talk with him. I never got beat by him again.” Qrow let out a ragged sigh, shrugging helplessly.

Summer’s arms were crossed, finger tapping slowly in agitation. “... Do you know what she said to make him stop... you know?”

Qrow shook his head. “No clue. But whatever she said, worked. And well. She took over training me – and good thing too. That final beating had awakened my semblance. While before, my semblance had been, like, asleep? If that’s the word? It was now awake, by any means, which meant the bad luck thing was now worse... but it also meant that I could learn to control it, like I do now.”

Frowning, Summer raised a hand. “Why was bad luck the semblance you awakened? And why, if semblances are a thing that’s supposed to suddenly appear to save you in life-or-death situations, did it affect you before it was awakened?”

“I don’t know about the second one, but my answer to the first question is pretty awesome.” Qrow grinned maliciously. “When my semblance awakened, the first thing that happened was that Dewi’s stick broke. Right after, a guy burst into the chamber of evil,” he practically spat the words out. “and told Dewi about an attack on the Tribe. So,” He smiled thinly. “That’s how my semblance saved me.”

Summer nodded. “Was everyone all right after the attack?”

“No, not really. We had, what, a couple hundred deaths? Our numbers were about halved.”

Summer paled. “That’s... a lot.”

“Yup.” Qrow said grimly. “That’s why I keep my semblance under control at all times.”

“... I assume Raven was also the one who taught you how to manhandle it?”

Qrow nodded. “10 points to you, boss.”

Summer sighed heavily. “Gods, please tell me this is almost over.”

“Uhhh, want me to lie to you?”

“Damn it!” Summer snarled, and he wouldn’t lie, there was nothing quite as scary as an angry Summer. He recoiled, shoulders curling in, pressing his back against the chair behind him. “I hate not being able to do anything for you! Or, well, past you- you understand!” She flopped onto the bed, heels of her palms pressing into her eyes.

Blinking down at his friend, Qrow wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing his shoulders (trying to find comfort, even though it wouldn’t work). “I-It’s okay, promise!” He flinched at the tremble in his voice, and his reassurance sounded weak even to his own ears. He could feel his hands shaking slightly from where they squeezed his upper arms, and he scowled out of habit.

Summer sat up straight, staring right at him. “Sorry, I... I didn’t mean to yell.” she said softly. She patted the bed beside her invitingly.

Qrow studied her for a second before standing up and sitting down where she had motioned. She quietly wrapped an arm around his back and pulled him in, resting his head on her shoulder. “I wish there was something I could do to help right now...” she whispered, heartbreak obvious in her tone.

Qrow shook his head, allowing himself to relax into her. He wrapped his arms around her stomach, squeezing gently. “Just treat my sister well so I don’t have to kill you, yeah?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They rested there for a few minutes, Qrow content not to continue his story and Summer okay with not knowing the rest for now. The silence was eventually interrupted by the tap of boots against the floor. Most likely Raven, done with checking on the kids.

“You okay Qrow?” Raven’s soft voice questioned gently. The footsteps came closer, eventually ending beside him. She plopped down next to him, the bed creaking as it dipped under her weight.

He felt a gentle touch on his back as Raven rubbed circles there soothingly. “Qrow?”

And that was his undoing.

A simple call of his name reduced Qrow to tears, and he practically dragged Raven by her arm so that she was laying on top of him. He wanted to shout that he should be the one comforting her, not the other way around, but his throat was clogged by quiet tears.

He never cried loudly – another habit he had yet to break, he supposed – and usually, he was thankful for that ability. Today, though?

He felt ashamed. And the worst part was that he didn’t know why.

Was it because Summer was there? Was it because his mind knew that there was no point in hiding his tears when both Raven and Summer already knew he was crying, and his body just didn’t get the memo?

(Their bodies always gave away the pain they had deep inside them, didn’t it? Either with physical scars, or with mental torture, or with the uncontrollable flinch that people who had been hurt before always had. How cruel.)

And through it all, all his internal turmoil, Raven just kept rubbing his back. Eventually, she started to hum a quiet song that burned his mind with its familiarity.

He remembered them well, the songs Wren would make and use to sing them to sleep. They were always unpracticed, for he had never had a proper tutor, but they contained the emotion that easily made up for it.

Huh.

Qrow had never realized how much he had missed them till now.

The sound of her singing brought forth the first noise he had made since he started crying – a heartbroken sob that made Raven pause.

He almost whined in fear that she would never start her song again.

Qrow turned blurry eyes in Raven’s direction, and something in his face must have told her all she needed to know because she started singing again.

And his very soul began to relax.

After a while, he was finally able to dry his tears, sitting up straight between the two of his teammates. “Uh... w-well,” he started, voice slightly raspy even though he hadn’t used it much. “That was embarrassing. Sorry you had to see that-”

“You did not just-”

“Oh hell no!”

The shouts of fury made him flinch slightly, and he dipped his head down to rest on his chest. He could feel their glares boring into the sides of his head.

The glaring continued for a while until Raven broke the silence with a sigh. “Okay, listen up, Qrow. You are allowed to cry. You don’t really need a reason to, and you don’t need to apologize for crying either, okay?”

“... okay...”

Satisfied, Raven clearly didn’t see the need to scold him any longer, so she mercifully dropped the topic. She got up and walked away, towards the kitchen (and some part of him was scared that he’d finally pushed her far enough that she was leaving forever). She wasn’t gone for long, though, and soon he was forced to look up. She was waiting in front of him expectantly, a white mug held out in front of his face, waiting for him to grab it.

Ever hesitant, he took hold of the steaming mug and blew on it a couple of times before bringing it to his lips and taking a small sip. A smile soon stretched across his face at the taste of hot chocolate. It was something Raven did anytime he was feeling down, making him a drink he enjoyed.

Something about the gesture never failed to make him happier than before, so clearly Raven knew what she was doing.

Soon Raven sat back down and quiet conversation started up. Qrow gave Summer the promise of continuing his story later, but otherwise they just chatted about nothing, and that was enough for him.

He had both his sisters beside him, after all. Who would dare come after him now?

Chapter Text

Raven was angry.

There was only so many tests a girl could take before she started to contemplate murder, and she was well past her limit by now.

Raven groaned in frustration, hands rubbing her temples as she fought against the incoming headache. From behind her, Summer let out a small hum.

“You good?”

Glaring at her partner, Raven fought back the urge to teleport away. “Do you know,” she started in a devastatingly calm voice. “how many times I’ve been stabbed with a needle by now?”

Summer grimaced. “... how many?”

“Well over a hundred times, my dear.” Raven glowered at her partner, blaming Summer for all this. “This is why I hate hospitals!”

Raising her hands in a pacifying gesture, Summer tried to calm Raven by explaining the situation again. “Raven, my love, this is very important. We need to make sure your child is okay, remember? The fact of the matter is that sometimes, a semblance can kill the child. We just have to make sure that that isn’t the case here.” she said in a calm, pacifying tone.

... she hated that the words worked.

Raven felt all the fight she had leave her body at once, leaving her utterly exhausted. “What time is it?”

Summer took the change of topic for what it was worth. “Around 6:30. Why?”

Sighing, Raven just shook her head. “As soon as we’re done here, I’m going back to bed.” she grumbled. Before Summer could say anything in response, Raven sat up straight, a strange expression on her face.

Grabbing her water bottle from underneath her chair, Summer let out a curious hum, a silent question of ‘what’s on your mind?’

“... Do you think pickles dipped in chocolate would taste good?”

... What a horrible time to take a sip of her drink.

Summer choked a couple of times as the water went down the wrong pipe. “... I’m sorry?”

“Pickles dipped in chocolate.”

“Got that part.”

Raven reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her scroll. Getting up, Summer peered over her shoulder to see what she was doing.

And for some reason, texting Qrow was not the thing she expected.

Nor was what Raven was writing.

“... please tell me you’re not asking Qrow to make you pickles and chocolate.”

“Pickles dipped in chocolate.” Raven corrected absentmindedly, still focused on her scroll.

Before long, a ding signaled that Qrow had answered, and Summer didn’t have to think very hard on the answer he had given. Raven beamed at her scroll before putting it away and looking at the ceiling.

It was no surprise she was bored – Summer was too, if she was being honest. While she hadn’t expected the tests to be quick, she certainly hadn’t thought that they would be this long.

From having blood drawn (“Why is this necessary, again?”) to being connected to multiple machines that Summer didn’t know the name of (“What is even the point of these?!”), to being subjected to multiple physical examinations (“I swear to the high heavens, if one more fucking person touches me-”), it was obvious Raven had had enough.

But she powered through all the discomfort for one simple reason.

A reason that was obvious if you looked at her for a few seconds as Raven rested a hand on her stomach, another smile – smaller this time – resting on her face.

Summer shook her head softly at the sight. If, at the start of attending Beacon, anyone had asked her if this would be the sight she saw, the answer would have been a resounding ‘no.’

... Not that she was complaining. In fact, the scene in front of her made her heart happy... and brought a slight blush to her cheeks ‘cause damn her girlfriend was gorgeous.

Her daydreaming was interrupted by the door opening, the doctor coming in with a clipboard and absentmindedly flipping through the pages.

“Well, Ms. Branwen, everything is looking good...” Summer didn’t bother listening to what the man was saying, instead studying Raven and how she hung on every word. Her face was serious, red locked on the doctor in a way that would have made a lesser man run away in fear.

Before long, the doctor was done. Raven was humming to herself as they left the office, a look of joy not often seen clear on her face. Summer smiled at the sight. After all, when Raven was happy, everything definitely was going well.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Raven asked, turning toward her.

“The world.” Summer answered, quickening her pace so their steps matched and offering her arm.

“Oh? Planning on saving it, perhaps?”

Summer shrugged. “If she wants me to.”

To that, Raven raised an eyebrow, but her smile didn’t go away, to Summer’s relief. Raven looped her arm through Summer’s as they walked, slowing down a bit so they could talk more comfortably.

As they left the doors of the hospital, Summer saw some movement out of the corner of her, compelling her to take a look to the left. “Oh, hey. It’s Miss Willow... with a mini-Willow?” She tilted her head to the side in confusion, Raven following her gaze.

The white-haired huntress was standing near one of the bus stops, holding the hand of a child that looked just like her, albeit with shorter and spikier hair and two small, black-speckled white wings on her back. The child broke their linked hands in favour of chasing a butterfly that had caught her eye, leaving Willow to stare after her in amusement.

Turning to follow the child, Willow soon saw the two of them and waved them over. Sharing a shrug with her partner, Summer led them over to have a conversation with the other off-duty leader.

“Fancy meeting you out here.” Willow greeted, motioning to the bench beside her in an invitation to sit down. Taking her own offer, Willow sat down and tossed one leg over the other, hands resting comfortably in her lap.

“Indeed. How have you been?” Summer asked, tossing her cloak over the bench where Raven would sit before taking the seat beside Willow, patting the area she had prepped for her partner.

“I’ve been alright, I suppose. You? Any particular reason for the visit to here?” Willow made a vague motion to the hospital, keeping her eye on the child. She had switched from a butterfly to chasing crickets, catching them and letting them go before finding a new victim.

Summer tossed a glance at Raven, seeking permission to which Raven gave readily. “Yeah, we’re here ‘cause my partner’s pregnant. And you?”

Willow nodded. “Same. Well, not my partner, obviously, but could you imagine?” Smirking, Willow turned her head just so, allowing her to look at them the barest bit. “I’m with my second, so I’m not too worried.”

Raven leaned forward, clearly interested. “Oh?”

Sending her a smile, Willow leaned back against the wall behind the bench. “Yup. My first is over there. Her name’s Winter, age seven.” Resting a hand on her stomach, she continued. “We’ve decided to call our second kid Weiss. Have you decided on a name, Miss...?”

“Oh, sorry! I’m Raven, and no, not yet.” Flustered at her mistake, Raven looked at Summer pleadingly. Summer shrugged, slightly unsure of what she wanted her to do.

“I see... well, it’s good not to rush into these things, I suppose.” Willow said, turning back to where Winter was still playing in the grass. “Would you like to ask any questions, while we’re here? I’ve got a while until my appointment.”

Summer watched as Raven lit up like the sun. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not. Fire away!”

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Summer dropped her bag of books onto the bed, groaning at the soreness in her arms.

“Have a fun weight-lifting session?” Qrow asked, clearly amused, from where he sat in the chair he had claimed as his own.

Shooting him a scowl, Summer crossed one arm in front of her and stretched it out the best she could. “Why yes, I did. And after I change, I will have lots of fun going through baby names with Raven. You, my dear friend, are no longer invited.” Summer scoffed, moving back to the doorway to take off her boots.

“Wait, what?! No, let me in! That sounds fun!”

Summer stuck her tongue out at him before grabbing some clothes from her luggage and moving to the bathroom. Closing the door behind her, she dropped her change of clothes onto the toilet lid, letting out a long sigh.

Raven’s talk with Willow had taken over three hours, continuing after Willow’s appointment, and still Raven hadn’t been done! Eventually, Summer had offered to go home early and let Raven walk Willow and Winter back, but honestly! Who talks that long? And about what? No, seriously.

(Although... women who could hold a conversation for that long about something they were interested in were hot, and she’d fight anyone who said differently.)

Shaking her head to get rid of any lingering thoughts, Summer started taking off her shirt, preparing to hop into the shower to finish up the day. Or, well, she was.

“So, Su- OH MY GOD, I’M SO SORRY-” Summer whipped around, hands covering her chest, to look at the raven-haired woman who had just portaled into the bathroom with her.

“Oh, shit! Raven?!”

“I’MSORRYGOODBYE.” Raven proceeded to portal out of the room again, leaving Summer to wonder what the hell just happened.

Letting out a snort, Summer just shook her head slowly. Ah, well. She’d deal with that once she was done her shower.

Chapter Text

A month later, and everything was going horribly, thank you for asking.

Raven huddled in the small crack in the cliffside, feeling like she was being punched in the gut every five minutes, watching as the six-legged ancient stalked around the entrance. Just waiting for her to come out.

Not only did the ancient have six legs, it was also bipedal, looking more like a humanoid spider. In both of its hairy arms it held a halberd, the blades chipped and rusty. Its thick fur had blocked all of Raven’s attacks before eventually growing and tangling around Omen, making her unable to pull it out.

All in all, things were not looking good.

Raven let out a strangled grunt, half curling around her abdomen as another shot of pain went through it. She forced herself to straighten out again, placing both feet on the other wall as a brace.

Not only was this her situation, she also hadn’t found anything out about Mercury’s story!

Taking another glance outside, Raven watched the ancient pace. If she was lucky – which she wasn’t, to clear up any confusion – the ancient would lose interest soon so she could make a run for it. Or Summer and Qrow would show up from where they were patrolling. Or perhaps even her aura would come back and she would be able to teleport to them. It would be difficult to leave Omen behind, but she could always come back later with backup. Or maybe her scroll would suddenly have signal again.

Worst case scenario, she’d have to fight the ancient while in this absurd amount of pain... actually, why was she in this much pain in the first place? It had only been four months... unless something was really wrong with her baby- nope, not going there. There would be time for that later, but she would have to actually survive this situation to do that-

Raven’s thoughts were interrupted by another shot of pain – and the intervals between debilitating agony was down to three minutes. Also not good.

She’d have to wait until the pain went away or went back to being more strung out before she could make any move.

Shifting awkwardly, Raven took off her coat and put it beside her leg, at the same time grabbing a dagger from her left boot. It wasn’t a pleasant movement, but Raven was an expert at doing things even when she really didn’t want to.

She got the feeling she’d need that ability very soon.

She left the small box with a broken half of one of her fire dust blades in the pocket of her shirt. She wouldn’t be able to use it anyway, not to mention the fact that she didn’t have a use for it.

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Raven stared down at the little bundle in her arms. The good news was that nothing seemed to be wrong with her baby. The bad news was that she was in insane amounts of pain, her legs were shaking so bad she doubted she could stand up, and she now had to fight the ancient with a newborn in her arms.

She was having tons of fun, thanks for asking.

Taking a quick glance around, her gaze lingered on the floor, where there was... quite a bit of blood. She hoped there wasn’t too much, cause that would lower her chances of victory significantly.

Changing from looking at the blood to the baby in her arms, Raven gently took one tiny hand in hers, looking at the wrist. A ring of golden scales wrapped around it, soft to the touch. From what she had seen of the baby before she had wrapped it in her coat, her neck, other wrist, and both ankles had a ring of scales on them as well, equally as soft and pliable.

Letting out a shaky breath, Raven tried to ignore the ancient outside, the fact that more Grimm might show up (she had been a tad angry earlier, as soon as she had found out what was happening), and all the pain. Instead, she wrapped her baby in her coat a little tighter, hugging her to her chest, kissing the top of her head.

It... was a little gross, she wasn’t gonna lie, considering the fact that her baby still hadn’t been washed – or probably dried properly, for that matter.

Raven tried really hard not to worry about that, although the best she could do was temporarily shove that worry to the side in exchange for a different worry.

“You know,” she said softly. This was a moment to be treasured, even if she had no idea what she was doing. “I recently picked out a name for you, and I hope you like it.”

She bent down slightly to whisper the name in her ear, as if it was a secret for just the two of them. “Yang. What do you think?”

Despite being half asleep, Yang gave a small noise, a tiny smile on her tiny face. Actually, Yang wasn’t that small – at least not small enough for four months. Probably bigger even than kids who went the full nine months, but that didn’t matter. No matter how big Yang got, Raven had no doubt she’d always think she was small enough for protection. After all, Qrow was still under her protection, so...

A loud roar broke through Raven’s tender thoughts. The noise was soon followed by the scraping of stone, which brought Raven’s attention straight to the entrance of her little haven.

Meeting glowing red eyes set in an off-white mask.

“You bastard-”

The ancient, it seemed, had grown impatient with waiting for her to come out. To... encourage her departure, it had started to claw at the entrance, trying (and succeeding) in widening it so it could get through.

Yup. She was not lucky.

She also wanted a vacation.

“Fuck!” Raven snarled, adjusting the coat around Yang and tying it arms around her body so she would be able to use her arms freely. Grabbing a hold of her knife (still bloody, she hadn’t gotten a chance to clean it off yet), she forced herself to her feet-

-and nearly fell down again at the sheer agony that shot through her.

She stayed standing only because of the deadly cocktail of willpower and spite, clenching her jaw and exhaling harshly through her nose. “Next time I have a child- actually, make that if I have another child – I'm doing it in a hospital. Imma stay in that hospital for all nine months, and I’ll make sure Qrow gets everything I need.” she ground out through gritted teeth.

Pressing another kiss to the top of Yang’s head just because she could, she turned and looked the ancient straight in its eyes, trying to ignore the lick up fear up her spine. The fear wasn’t for herself, no, it was for Yang.

Shaking it off the best she could, she pulled her foot back and kicked the ancient, aiming for one glowing red target.

The ancient reared back, howling in agony, one clawed hand coming up to cover the eye. The momentary pause didn’t last long before the creature snarled and picked up both halberds again.

Before the ancient could strike, Raven darted out of the cave as fast as she could (which, admittedly, was not very fast – just a slightly faster hobble), just barely avoiding the left halberd coming down and destroying the cave. She started to wonder why it hadn’t done that before, but that question was quickly answered when the smoke cleared.

The halberd’s blade had broken off completely, leaving just a jagged piece of metal to contend with. At least now she didn’t have to worry about getting sliced in two? From one side, anyway.

The ancient turned to where she was hobbling away, an ugly sneer twisting the lower half of it’s face, and Raven kinda wished it had a full mask instead, but as already proven – she wasn’t that lucky.

Letting out another roar, the ancient started to come after her, earth shaking under every heavy step. Raven managed to reach the treeline before the ancient could catch up, shifting behind a tree and hiding in the shadows. She scrutinized the ancient, trying to see if there were any weaknesses she could exploit.

The front and very back pairs of legs seemed to move in tandem, but the gait was... weird, to say the least. Instead of a normal way of walking – left, right, repeat – it was front pair and back pair move forward, pause, front pair and back pair move forward, repeat.

In that case, Raven had a pretty good idea of what to do next – get rid of the pairs that moved, and hope that the middle pair didn’t do anything.

But by the Gods, she didn’t want to move!

Gritting her teeth, Raven adjusted her grip on the knife. It probably wouldn’t do much damage, but she had to try. She couldn’t leave the area very fast, and no doubt the ancient would just follow her wherever she tried to run.

She searched the area, seeing if there was anything, anything, that could help.

There wasn’t much, just an old, rusted bear trap and a few weak vines.

“Shit.” she muttered under her breath.

Taking another glance at the ancient, Raven studied it harder, as if by looking at it she could make new weaknesses pop up.

Fur... sword... fire.

In that case, she’d just burn it alive. She’d have to make some pretty big repairs to Omen, but she’d like to live, thank you very much.

Exhaling to quiet her nerves, she moved over to a vine and cut it down, moving silently so as to not alert the ancient to where she was. She repeated the process three times, then went over to the bear trap, crouching beside it, checking to make sure the trigger still worked.

She pressed another kiss to the top of Yang’s head.

“I love you.”

With shaking hands, she twined the three vines into a braided rope. With another shaky exhale, she reached for the rusty piece of metal, gently picking it up and balancing it on one hand. With her free hand, Raven picked up the rope and tied it to the bottom of the trap, hoping and praying for whatever God was listening to let her not trip the trap.

Once she was done, she slowly stood up, trying to fight off the incoming dizziness. Gods, she was so tired.

The ancient was still looking for her, but instead of using its eyes like it was before, it started to tear up the forest. Although that would soon make all the hiding places disappear, it also made it easy for Raven to locate the creature.

Gripping the trap in one hand and the rope connected to it in another, Raven quietly made her way over to the rampaging ancient, taking a moment to study its trajectory.

Making a guess as to where it was going next, she started to climb up a tree, tossing the contraption she had made over her shoulder and using her now free hand to cover Yang’s head. Raven made her way up the tree, only using one hand – and it was good she did. Every so often, she would slip, and the hand protecting Yang’s head would bump into the tree, causing a scrape and making the back of her hand raw and bloody.

Once she was at the top – or as high as she needed to go, anyway – she took a second to breathe through the pain. Gods, her body was going to hate her tomorrow... and probably for the next few days after.

Taking another look for the ancient, Raven barely managed to stay in the tree as red met red, with the ancient’s half mask only a few centimetres away.

Raven immediately went for the rope, taking as long as she dared to search for where Omen was sticking out of the ancient’s fur. Readying her hand, she punched the ancient in the eye again, but it didn’t rear back this time like she had been hoping. Instead, it just closed the affected eye, reaching one hand up to make a grab at her, letting loose a loud snarl.

Raven snarled right back, jumping out of the tree and throwing the trap as she fell.

She smirked as the trap fell right where she needed it to, closing on her weapon. What she didn’t need, however, was the extra fur that wrapped around Omen, preventing the blade from switching to fire as she had hoped.

Cursing, Raven dropped into a shoulder roll, hearing the distinctive crack of bone as she landed wrong, still cradling Yang... who was still asleep, despite everything that had happened. That was worrisome, and Raven would have stopped to check on her if staying in place hadn’t been more dangerous.

As it was, she could only swallow her worry along with her cry of pain and keep running. Belatedly, she wondered if her legs would just give out, at some point, but she forced that thought away too.

Next plan, then.

She started to run for the cliff where she had kept herself safe was, but instead of running to the face of it, she took a gamble and went up the hill to the top of it, hoping she’d be able to get there before the ancient did.

She wasn’t hobbling as much anymore – not that she wasn’t in as much pain or more then she was before, it was just that her body seemed to realize just as much as she did earlier that if she didn’t move as if she was unaffected, Yang would die and so would she.

Ignoring the agony best she could, she raced up the grass and tried not to slip. She managed to make it to the top like she wanted, but unlike what she wanted, the ancient was still hot on her heels.

Using the arm with the injured shoulder to cradle Yang, she turned to face the ancient with her dagger in the other one.

The ancient raised the broken halberd above its head and started to swing down with a roar. Raven jumped to the side, landing in a crouch that made she grit her teeth in pain. Not giving herself a breather that could possibly end the fight in the ancient’s favour, Raven rushed forward and aimed for one of the creature’s front heels, slashing the back of it to make it go limp.

It didn’t seem to do much, only making the ancient growl in anger. It started move away to strike at her again, but Raven wasn’t done. She moved straight forward to the other front leg, taking it right out at the heel as well.

Unable to support its body like it had been, the ancient started to topple right over the edge.

Slipping in between the rest of the legs to avoid getting hit, Raven waited until the creature went fully into the air before making her next move.

Moving away from the edge of the cliff, Raven dug a small hole in the ground, pulling out the small box and opening it, removing the remnants of the fire blade with a shaking hand and please do NOT blow up.

She placed the crystal in the hole. Then she paused.

How was she going to explode this thing?

Making a frantic search of her pockets, she found a crumpled up and used aura booster, most likely the curtsy of Qrow. He wasn’t... the cleanliest of people, although right now she could kiss him for it.

Pulling out the wrapper, she placed it so the chemicals inside would be touching the crystal, then buried it and ran away; and just in time too.

From behind her, she heard a massive explosion that she soon felt as well as the aura booster activated the crystal.

Twisting in mid-air as the explosion blew her forward, she shielded Yang as she rolled across the ground, finally stopping as her back hit a tree. She coughed a couple of times, winded, before slowly getting up.

Walking back over, she peered over the new edge and was satisfied to see that her plan had worked. The ancient was trapped under the rubble, arms and legs pinned and unable to move.

Raven let out a shaky exhale.

“Thank fuck.” she breathed, legs nearly buckling where she stood. She forced herself to stay up – she wouldn’t be safe until she was back in town.

She turned around, ready to hobble her way to the hospital, but was interrupted by yet another explosion. By some miracle, she managed to avoid going flying by dropping to her knees, hunching over Yang.

Unable to risk turning around, she felt several cuts open up over her back as sharp pieces of rocks hit her and bounced off.

Once her ears stopped ringing, Raven slowly sat up and turned to face where the explosion had come from – where the ancient had been trapped.

It seemed like her original plan had finally worked. The rubble had hit the blade still stuck in the fur of the creature and caused it to finally go boom.

Ah well. She could deal with all that later.

Standing up again, she made her way over to the tree she had hit earlier, leaning against it for a few minutes to try and rest a bit.

While she did need Omen back, it wouldn’t be possible to get it while it was under all of the rubble, at least not right now, weak as she was. However, the trip back would be dangerous as well, since she was injured and with a child in a forest full of Grimm.

Either way, things weren’t ideal.

... and she was desperately in need of a nap.

In any other situation, Raven would just climb a tree and wait till her aura was back – but she was still worried about Yang.

So she started dragging herself in the direction of Sudberry, trying not to think of all the reasons this was bad – and miserably failing.

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Raven’s legs finally buckled, finally giving out after so much abuse. Thankfully, she could see Sudberry’s walls in the not-so far distance, which meant...

She pulled her scroll out and checked the signal, a wide grin splitting her face as she saw a few bars at the top.

“Thank Gods.” she muttered, not hesitating in dialing Qrow’s number.

After four rings, she started to lose hope that he’d pick up, and she was just about to hang up on the sixth when he picked up.

“Raven? Is something the matter? You don’t usually call.” Qrow’s voice came through the speaker, and Raven immediately felt like crying in relief.

“... hey.” she whispered, voice shaking slightly.

Qrow was immediately on high alert. “Do you need help? Actually, scratch that, just tell me where you are-”

“Yeah, I need help.” Raven admitted quietly, bringing Qrow to a pause. It was rare that she ever admitted she needed anyone’s aid, let alone asked for it.

“Alright then, where are you? I’ll come find you right away.”

Taking a second to look around, Raven looked for any landmarks she could use to tell him her location. “Well, I see a large, crooked tree... I don’t think that helps you though, does it?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Damn...” Raven glanced at the sky. “The sun’s in the west – jeez, how long was I fighting that ancient? Anyway, I-”

“I’m sorry, what?!”

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This bed was soft.

Like really soft.

As in, the softest bed Raven had every slept in. Although perhaps that was just because of how tired she was. Also, everything hurt.

After Qrow had managed to find her, he’d brought her straight to the hospital. The doctors had freaked out, asked her about a thousand questions – most of them just different ways of ‘what the FUCK?!’ - stitched up her back, then promptly tossed her in a bed and told her to get as much rest as possible.

Qrow had gone to talk to Summer, and Raven was debating getting out of bed to go check on Mercury and Yang. Speaking of Yang...

Turns out she was completely fine. Due to her being a wereanimal, Yang apparently grew much faster than expected and was just a deep sleeper. Raven had a feeling Yang was going to continuously give her heart attacks as she grew up – and honestly? She couldn’t wait.

Taking a quick glance around the hospital room, Raven was just glad that she didn’t have to share with anyone (yet, at least). It was on the smaller side, and while she thought the beeping machines would have been annoying, right now they just managed to reassure her that she had made it back.

Shifting to lay on her side – and trying to ignore the pain that the simple movement caused – Raven heard the door slam open.

“Raven, I swear to the fucking Gods-”

Raven jerked her head and let out a small curse when that hurt too. “Summer, can you come over here please? It’ll be easier on me.”

Summer let out an aggravated sigh. “Fine.” She stalked over to where Raven was facing, dropping to crouch on the ground so she wouldn’t have to crane her neck to catch a glimpse of her girlfriend’s face-

-and wow, she did not look happy.

“Raven, what the fuck were you thinking, you beautiful idiot?” Summer said in a deceivingly calm voice.

“That I really wanted to do home.” Raven stated dryly, yawning immediately after saying the words.

Summer’s face softened a bit. “And why couldn’t you run, love?”

Raven turned her face into the pillow, almost giving into her desire to just fall asleep even as she explained why. “Hey Summer. Can you do me a favour?”

Sighing, Summer rubbed a hand over her face. “Yeah, what do you need?”

“Can you make sure all the kids are okay? I would do it, but I’m also three seconds from falling asleep, so...”

“... alright, I can do that. You get some rest, okay?”

Raven didn’t bother trying to answer, already halfway asleep.

Chapter Text

Her body still hurt, but at least she wasn’t being chased by an ancient right after giving birth, so... improvements?

Although, Raven felt like squealing for another reason entirely.

“Look, look, Qrow!”

Qrow let out a small sigh that completely contradicted the smile on his face. “I’m looking, Raven.”

“Isn’t Yang just the cutest?!” Raven beamed down at her sleeping child, kissing the top of her head. It wasn’t gross this time, which Raven was grateful for.

“Raven, are you sure you shouldn’t still be resting? It’s only been about a week since everything happened.” Qrow questioned gently, not wanting to accidentally provoke her. That was probably for the best, if she was being honest, since when she was in shit-tons of pain, she tended to be a bit... snappish.

But Qrow didn’t have anything to worry about. Raven was on cloud nine, and no agony could possibly bring her down from it! After all, Yang was in her arms, Emerald and Mercury were doing extremely well, with the latter even starting to poke around using his new legs. And Cinder was doing extraordinary! She had decided she wanted to focus on using a sword as her main weapon, and when Raven had asked why, she simply said it was ‘because of someone she admired.’ Which- ominous, but Raven didn’t think she had anything to really be worried about, considering how well-behaved Cinder was – which she wasn’t expecting, to be perfectly honest.

Generally, people – kids, especially – with traumatic pasts tended to lash out in safe areas, trying to handle all the new things (like nightmares, new ways the body had been changed, new fears, etcetera), but Cinder simply... hadn’t. And Raven didn’t know why, or whether or not she should be worried. Because if Cinder wasn’t lashing out, did that mean she didn’t feel safe? If so, how should she go out dealing with it? What would be too much, and what wouldn’t be enough? Was she even the right person to deal with it? Actually, did she even have the right information? She didn’t have a lot of people to base it off of, nor had she ever actually done any research on this sort of stuff, so....

Letting out a sigh, Raven leaned back against the bed, still hugging Yang to her chest. At least her daughter didn’t seem to mind the constant cuddles, so that was a plus. What would she do if Yang grew into a rebellious teenager phase and didn’t want hugs anymore?

Ugh. Best not the dwell on thoughts that made her want to cry.

Raven glanced over at Qrow, who seemed not to mind being ignored. He had his scroll out, staring at it intensely, with his brow furrowed. She was pretty sure that was the closest Qrow could come to glaring – at least, that she knew of.

“What’s got your face in a twist, Little Brother?” No, she was not nosy, she was a big sister, and while sometimes those things might seem intertwined, she could assure you that they were very, very different.

Qrow jumped slightly, turning back to face her from the chair he had claimed. There weren’t a lot of chairs in here, only two, actually, and the other one was communal, being shared between Summer and Cinder. Emerald hadn’t come in yet, but that was fine. Raven would be there (eventually. You know, when she could walk) to start taking the first steps to building a connection.

“Ah, well... I was just doing some research on the surrounding area and stuff and... the data doesn’t really make sense.”

Raven furrowed her brow, concerned. “How so?”

Shaking his head, Qrow continued his not-glare at his scroll. “Well, you remember what Willow said, right?”

“About raising toddlers?”

“Uh, no. I meant in the meeting we had, before we switched off the teams. She said that there ‘ll be a Grimm... surge? I don’t know, that’s what I’ll call it, I guess. Anyway, she said that that’ll happen in April and December, and that the warning signs of it happening is a decrease in Grimm in the surrounding area.”

Raven nodded along. “Right, yeah, I remember. And why does that have you worried?”

Qrow leaned back against the back of his chair. “Because there’s not a lot of Grimm in the surrounding area.” he stated, as if that meant something to her.

She quirked an eyebrow. “So we’re facing a surge?”

Sighing, Qrow rubbed his face tiredly. “Maybe. But it’s October. That’s nowhere near when the surge should be happening. We should have at least another month or so, not a few days.” He grunted.

“You’re right... that doesn’t make much sense.” Raven muttered, frowning.

“The only thing I can think of it that external forces are at play, though what forces, I’m not sure.” Qrow admitted, shaking his head.

“Then should we do some research? See if the locals have seen anything strange?” she suggested, resting her cheek on Yang’s head.

At that, Qrow looked slightly victorious. “About that! I’ve already been poking around a bit, and I have a few leads that I’ll get Summer to check out with me later. Want me to tell you about the rumors, since you can’t actually go anywhere?”

“Duh! Spill the beans!” she ordered, only half joking.

Qrow smirked, shaking his head in amusement. “Okay, so. From what I’ve heard, there’s been a black-cloaked figure skulking around in alleyways and asking for information about suspicious things.” He wiggled his fingers dramatically as he finished his sentence. “The suspicious things in question are things like;” he held up his hand and started to count out fingers. “Guard rotations, how many hunters are around the city currently, if there any plans to get more hunters in the city, and questions about us, in particular.”

At that, Raven shot him a slightly concerned look. “And what does that mean?” she asked warily, hunching over Yang as if she could protect her from any future danger right now.

He frowned, crossing his arms and leaning back, clearly agitated. “... our weaknesses, weapons, fighting styles and tactics, and... if we have anyone we brought with us and our relation to them.” Qrow said softly, as if regretting saying anything at all.

“... Take the beans back please, I don’t want them anymore.”

That managed to bring out a weak chuckle from her brother. “Wish I could, Sis, but the only thing we can do at this point is try and be prepared for anything and everything. And I have a few ideas for that.”

Raven tilted her head to the side. “You have my attention.”

Although he had sounded sure earlier, Qrow looked nervous. “So, I know we all hate Tai right now-”

“I don’t hate Tai?” Raven raised an eyebrow. “He was just being stupid, which I’m not surprised about. I mean, it’s Tai. Asking Tai not to be stupid is like asking a Grimm not to kill people. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Qrow opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking unbearably sad for a moment. “You know, you’re way too loyal.” he muttered. He continued just as Raven was about to ask him what he meant, so she just kept listening. “Anyway. I figured we could send them to Tai’s place like we were thinking of before...” Qrow waved a hand in Yang’s direction.

Raven narrowed her eyes. “That was a poor choice of actions, but I still agree. I’ll talk to Tai again and sort it out.”

“Are... you sure that’s a good idea...?” Qrow hedged.

Letting out a huff of indignation, Raven made a few adjustments so she could wave dismissively with one hand while refraining from disturbing Yang. “It’s not like we can just go the rest of our lives not talking to each other-”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s called ghosting, but okay.”

Raven stuck her tongue out at him, as mature adults do. “Anyway, I had a few questions I wanted to ask him anyway, so it’s no skin off my back. I’ll try and call him... tomorrow, at the latest. Figuring out what I’m going to say will take up the rest of today soooo...” She stared at Qrow with a gleam in her eye. “You should go get me some food.”

Qrow shot her a deadpan look. “What are you, a baby bird?”

Raven gave him an evil smile. “Crow, meet raven.”

“... How long you been waiting on that one.”

“You don’t want to know, Little Brother.”

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With Yang back in bed and visitation hours over for the day, Raven was left to herself – which was a terrible decision, really. Who allowed that to happen?

Anyways, Raven decided to go talk with Mercury for a bit with her newfound freedom. They hadn’t really gotten a good chance to figure everything out, so maybe that’s what they would talk about today. After all, Raven was all for adopting both Emerald and Mercury – and Cinder had already ordered her to do that for her, so...

The hospital was pretty creepy at night, now that she thought about it. The halls were still brightly light, of course, but it was almost completely silent. Well, save for when she passed by a patient's room and heard the rhythmic beeping of heart monitors.

Which made the sudden burst of noise cause Raven to freeze. Her eyes narrowed. That noise came from the direction of Mercury’s room – and while there was no certainty that he was in danger, Raven still took off running.

She ignored the pulling at her back and the complaints from her legs from disuse as she ran. It didn’t take long for her to get where she was going.

Opening the door to Mercury’s room, she froze again, eyes locked on a hooded figure standing over the boy she swore to protect. From the way one prosthetic leg is beside the wall and the other in Mercury’s hand, the noise that had alerted her was most likely from whoever the hooded guy was kicking the advanced piece of metal. Mercury’s against the window wall, pointing his prosthetic at whoever broke into his room.

The hooded figure turned toward her, and the cloak shifts as they place one hand on their hip. “So. You’re the one that stopped my son’s punishment.”

Raven’s eyebrow twitched. “Punishment?” she responded, adjusting her stance so she was more in the room.

The man – who isn’t wearing a voice changer for some reason – spread his arms wide. “Indeed! You see, Mercury is, to put it simply, a disappointment. He has none of my combat abilities, and he struggles to even kill a dog. So, at first, I did the logical thing – try to beat the weakness out of him.” He made a motion toward the leg by the wall. “I suppose I got a bit carried away, though.” Without any fanfare, the man casually took his cloak off, tossing it onto Mercury’s bed. “I tried to toughen him up by putting him on the streets, but you prevented that.”

The man ran a hand through pale grey hair, so pale it bordered on white – but as someone who’s seen true white hair (see Willow), Raven didn’t particularly care. "Now, my name is Marcus. Before we fight to the death, tell me yours.” Grey eyes the same colour as Mercury’s locked on hers, and Raven really wants to punch him now.

Raven grit her teeth, making a small motion with her hand to open a portal behind Mercury for him to fall into. He fell in with a quiet squeak, but either Marcus didn’t hear it or didn’t care. “Raven. Care to take this outside? Wouldn’t want to upset the staff.”

Marcus let out a small hum. “True, true. We’d be able to fight to the best of our ability... Very well. Lead the way, then, my dear new friend.”

She tried to keep her face from twisting in disgust at the term – she probably failed, but whatever – as she turned and walked out the door. “Follow me, then.”

Raven played around with the idea of trying to portal Summer or Qrow here, but ultimately discarded it as she walked away from the room. If she did try and get their help - and actually succeed, mind you - things could get messier than they already would. If she tried and failed to summon them, Marcus would figure out she wasn’t playing ‘by the rules’ anymore, and might try and attack her right then and there, putting the other people in the hospital in danger.

Guess she would have to do this on her own – and Gods did she hate it. She was still in pain, for fucks’ sake!

Well, not like she had any choice.

As soon as Marcus cleared the door and they were both outside, Raven spun and shot a kick right at his head.

The man simply smirked at her as he blocked with his forearm.

“Let the games begin then, Miss Raven.”

Chapter Text

She was losing. Horribly. And there wasn’t really anything she could do about it.

Marcus was an impressive opponent, to say the least. He twisted around any and all attacks she made with the grace of a dancer, only to hit her right after with the force of a truck.

They’d barely been fighting for ten minutes – man, did it feel longer than that – and Raven could tell that several ribs were definitely broken. Hopefully not causing any more damage, but, well... she wasn’t lucky.

Raven barely managed to jerk her head to the side of a punch that left a shallow cut on her cheek, right beside her eye. Bringing her knee up and putting it (or attempting to, rather) into his gut, she watched as he once again twirled away. It succeeded in giving her some space to think, however, and she jumped back to make the most of it.

“Well, this has been fun.” The words drowning in amusement easily made their way to her ears. “But I think it’s time to stop this warm up, yeah?” Marcus brought two bronze pieces out of his coat pocket and slipped them onto his knuckles. Brass knuckles, then. Dammit.

As if this couldn’t get any worse, he reached down into the side of his boot and pulled out a knife, casually flicking it between his fingers. He tapped the tip of the blade to his lip once, twice. “Hmm, you know what? I haven’t had this much fun in a while. I’ll go all out, only cause you seem like you can take it.” Marcus giggled, like a giddy fucking child as he tapped the soles of his boots onto the ground one at a time.

Raven watched in mild horror as her night got worse. Because of course – of fucking course – this man had knives in the bottoms of his shoes. This was bullshit.

She wanted a nap – or chocolate. Or, better idea, both.

With a speed unlike what she had seen before, he crossed the small distance between them, taking the knife and plunging it over her collarbone, too close to her neck for any sort of comfort. Before she could even cry out in pain, he twisted the knife into her skin as he grabbed the collar of her hospital gown. Using the cloth to secure her, he raised his other fist and punched three times in quick succession.

Releasing her with a final knee to her sternum, Marcus jumped back, and she could feel the way he smirked at her as she stumbled. Blood dripped from her nose – which was probably broken – and she struggled to take in any sort of breath. Blood started to soak the gown from where she had been stabbed, and she made a mental note to apologize for it later.

Forcing herself into a standing position, Raven tried to casually wipe at the blood coating her upper lip – and not quite managing to hide the flinch as her movement aggravated her broken ribs.

Fuck. She really hated tonight.

Raven brought her fists up against her chin (keep your hands up, you brat, and your eyes focused on the opponent's chest. Fists press against your face, so they don’t knock you out with your own hands. Why do I always have- she shut that thought off as soon as she no longer needed it). Why oh why did she allow herself to walk into this weaponless? After all, Marcus had a weapon! Why couldn’t she have one?!

“Yo, Marcus.”

The grey-haired man let out a curious hum, bouncing on the balls of his feet as if excited, not in the way that predated movement. “Yes, Miss Raven?”

Well, if there was one upside, it was that he was fairly polite even as he was beating her ass. “Don’t suppose you have another knife on you? ‘s just not fair if you’ve got the only weapon.”

Marcus blinked owlishly at her before glancing down at the blade in his hand. “... yes, I suppose you’re right...” he murmured.

Raven waited for a minute to see what he would do – and she really hoped his ‘fair’ fighting would extend to this but-

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” he said, sounding genuinely apologetic even as his hand tightened around the hilt.

- like she said, she’d never had the best luck.

Damn. Well, time to fight like the cornered animal she was, then.

Suddenly, Marcus’ body twisted as the sound of a gunshot rang through the air. Letting out a furious cross between a hiss and a growl that Raven hadn’t even realized was a noise possible to make, Marcus jerked his head towards where the projectile had come from, one hand coming up to press against his shoulder. Gone was the childlike expression (that was terrifying on the face of someone trying to kill her), replaced by a monstrous expression, full of bared teeth and glaring eyes.

Following his gaze to the top of the hospital, Raven saw a man dressed in Atlas military whites, a handgun raised in their direction.

With practiced ease, the man jumped off the building – which was super fucking high, by the way – and rolled to reduce the momentum. As soon as he was up again, he raised the gun back in Marcus’ direction.

“Marcus Black,” the man greeted. “You are under arrest by the order of the government of Atlas and Anima for the assassinations of multiple government officials. Including but not limited to, Pri-”

Marcus let out an inhuman snarl and rushed forward without letting the new person finish. With what appeared to be little to no effort, the man shot into Marcus’ leg, causing him to fall at his feet.

The man raised his foot and pressed it into the middle of Marcus’ back, trapping him against the ground with no fanfare.

Without sparing the... assassin, apparently, another glance, the man looked at her. “Hello, Miss. I apologize for being late. My name is James Ironwood, a member of the Atlas military, and if it is no inconvenience to you, I will be taking this man into my custody.”

Raven blinked. She blinked again. “... yeah, sure. If you need me for something later regarding... all of this,” she motioned at the still pinned Marcus, “go ask the hospital staff for me, cool?”

At that, Ironwood frowned. “Are you injured?”

She waved dismissively. “Ah, it’s nothing serious.” She started to hobble towards the door – which was behind Ironwood, for some stupid reason – which meant she had the perfect view of Ironwood’s mouth opening slightly as the light hit her face. “Damn, that bad?”

Ironwood glanced down at Marcus before making a split-second decision. He put the gun away and pulled out a taser instead, pressing it into the criminals back for a few seconds before his thrashing stopped. He pocketed the taser and switched to some handcuffs, wrapping them around Marcus’ wrists before just picking him up and slinging Marcus over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

With Marcus secure, Ironwood offered her a hand. “As an apology, allow me to help you inside before I take care of my other task.”

Raven eyed him for a moment, before shrugging and grabbing his hand. “Sure. My ribs hurt enough without aggravating them more.”

With Ironwood’s help – which really meant he was more or less carrying her – she managed to make it to the receptionist's desk.

“Hey Slate. I’m back.” she greeted the nurse, who was just staring at her with wide eyes.

Slate let out a long sigh, shoulders slumping in his chair. “... Miss Branwen, I would like to put you on bed rest for the next while after we finish patching you up,” his eyes narrowed at her. “Again.” Slate stood up and radioed for a gurney, muttering under his breath ‘hunters.’

Ironwood glanced down at her. “May I ask what happened tonight? How you were the person who was fighting Black?”

She shrugged, wincing as her ribs and stab wound got mad at her. “Yeah, sure.”

After detailing her side of the story, Ironwood just stared at her for a full minute. “... you’re insane.” It was said full of awe, and Raven just snorted in amusement.

“Yup, that sounds about right.” she muttered before freezing. “Oh Gods. Summer’s going to kill me.”

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Summer did not, in fact, kill her. The disappointed stare was worse though.

Qrow brought her some donuts and said Summer paid for them.

Raven was very confused.

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“... oh you’re hot.”

Raven burst out laughing at Qrow’ stupefied expression. He gave her a glare. “Raven! You should have warned me the military dude looked so... ridable!”

In the chair across from her bed, Ironwood’s ears slowly started to turn red. He cleared his throat to get their attention. “Ehm. Miss Branwen? How are your injuries doing?”

“Eh, I’m good. I didn’t get hurt too bad during that fight, after all.” Raven shrugged dismissively. “Thanks for your help, though, Ironwood.”

“Oh, please. Just call me James.”

“Oh I will.” Qrow murmured under his breath, looking at the other man as if he could undress him with his eyes alone. James' blush spread to his cheeks.

Raven gave Qrow a disappointed look. “Qrow, ask him on a date first.”

“Happily.” Qrow gave James a devilish look. “Hey Hot Stuff. Wanna go out to eat with me?”

“U-Uh, I s-suppose I wouldn’t be opposed to that. But, and I apologize, Mr...”

Qrow grinned, about to make another inappropriate comment, but Raven glared at him before he could say anything. “Qrow, sir with the tree-trunk arms.”

Raven face palmed. Hard.

James coughed again. “Right. Mr. Qrow, may I please finish my conversation with Raven?”

Her brother groaned. “Ugh, fine. Raven, talk fast.”

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(The next day, Qrow came back to her hospital room with the most blissed out expression on his face.

To her regret, she ended up asking about what happened. She should have known she’d get way too much detail when he started with “I couldn’t feel my legs for hours, Raven. Hours.”)

Chapter Text

Stretching her arms above her head, Raven inhaled the fresh air deeply. Not only was she finally out of the hospital, but she’d also just come from the courthouse and finally finalized the adoptions!

Mercury Black was now Mercury Branwen, Emerald was Emerald Branwen, and Cinder was Cinder Branwen.

Today might just have been the best day she’d ever had.

Humming to herself, Raven started down the street, heading to the grocery store to get some ingredients, her Omen a returned and familiar weight on her hip. To celebrate, she might as well make some food – and a cake. She passed the bookstore Emerald had taken a liking to (on one trip, Raven had gotten her over 20 books – by the next day? Emerald had been done all of them), the blacksmith’s shop that had they had gone to for Cinder’s sword. The Master Smith there was a nice guy, named Kyanite, who’d offered to let Cinder help make it – an offer the girl had happily taken him up on. Mercury had been content to just laze about with Qrow, though – not that he seemed to be complaining. In fact, more often than not Qrow could be found asking Mercury if he wanted to come with, wherever he was going.

Raven pace stuttered a bit as she thought a bit more on her son (and oh, that title? She immediately felt happy). He despised training – even the mere mention of it. Whenever Raven and Cinder would go out and work through some basic strength building exercises, he would look at her with mistrust and hurt in his eyes.

... Raven still didn’t know why, to be honest. She supposed she’d just have to figure it out in time.

She stopped walking as a clang of metal clashing against concrete burst out of one of the alleyways. Hesitating for only a moment, Raven started off in that direction, keeping a wary watch on her surroundings. Before long, she stumbled upon a dead end that opened up a bit. Two people were there, a boy on his hands and knees, his ragged bowler hat on the ground in front of him, and a blonde girl looking down at him with a sad expression.

The girl’s emerald green eyes blinked down at the boy. “Roman,” she said gently, bending down to rest a hand on his shoulder, “I know you’re upset, but this won’t help Trivia-”

“Neo!” the boy – Roman, snapped. “She prefers Neo...” he continued softly.

The girl sighed. “Okay, look. There’s nothing we can do. She’s not an alley rat like the two of us. She has a family, Roman, even if they aren’t a good one.”

Roman scoffed, glaring up at the blonde. “Family? Glynda, you saw those bruises! Family doesn’t hurt each other! They love and cherish their own, help each other when they’re down, they don’t fucking beat a six-year-old half to death.”

Raven sucked in a harsh breath, accidentally getting their attention. Roman’s eyes shot up, locking onto her face with dawning anger. Glynda stared at her with mistrust, hand slowly going over to her side where a... worn riding crop rested on her hip? Odd choice of weapon, but okay.

Hands flying into the air, Raven quickly sought to make sure they didn’t feel as if she was a threat. “Wait, wait, wait! Not an enemy, not an enemy!”

That brought Glynda to a pause. Still, though, she stared at her with suspicion. “So why are you here then, if you ‘aren’t an enemy?’” Green continued to bore into Raven as if she could decipher all her secrets the longer she stared at her.

“I heard a commotion from the main street. Figured I’d check it out.” Raven kept her arms in the air and words to the point.

Roman decided that this wasn’t worth his attention and just put his forehead on the ground, as if defeated by life. As if he just was done. As if his heart was so broken that he just couldn’t handle it anymore.

Raven felt her heart ache at the sight of it. Sparing a glance at Glynda, she slowly let her hands come down and began to move over to Roman, kneeling beside him, trying to put comfort into every movement.

Since Glynda didn’t slap her with the riding crop, she assumed she was in the clear.

“Hey, kiddo. What’s the problem?”

Glynda and Roman scoffed in unison. “You wouldn’t get it.” the boy on the ground spat.

“You’re right,” Raven agreed, “but maybe talking about it could help?”

Roman’s head turned just slightly so he could glare up at her. “You know what, sure.” He sat up straight so he could glare at her. “My little sister, not by blood, just by love, is getting abused by her family and I can’t do anything about it.” Roman snarled, hate dripping from every word.

Raven looked at him for a moment, not at all moved by his outburst. “Guess what?”

Glynda glared at her. “Don’t play games with us.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I’m not playing games, but okay.” She turned back to Roman. “Kid, I do understand. My brother got beat by our parents all the time.” She rose to her feet with all the grace of a predator about to lunge. “So, why don’t I help you do something about it?”

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Roman – who she was starting to think was a bit of an idiot – teetered on the ledge of the building they were on. Thankfully, Glynda used her semblance to catch his feet and make sure he didn’t fall, a purple glow outlining his legs.

“Careful kid.” Raven muttered, although she didn’t put any real heat in the words since she knew they’d be ignored. Letting out a sigh, she joined the boy at peering over at the target mansion Neo was in. “The Vanille's, eh?”

Roman let out a scoff. “Hope they weren’t your idols, cause they’re a bunch of dickheads.”

“Oh yeah? How so?”

“Well, for starters, the supposed job for Mr. Jimmey,” Raven blinked in surprise. She hadn’t thought in possible to inject that much hate into a name and signal of respect. “is a political activist, right? Fighting for the kids on the street, people who can’t afford to put food on the table, and all that. And sure, less and less people have been complaining about subpar living conditions, at least from what I hear, but he hasn’t actually been doing good things to achieve that.” Roman paused for a second, hands clenching into fists. “He’s been taking people off the streets, sure, and paying for food for some, but you know how he does it?” He turned his glare on her.

“No, I don’t.” And she wasn’t sure she was going to like the answer.

“He sells them to the Atlas and Mantle prison camps.” he spat, eyes starting to water. “There’s a reason it’s just us two and Neo. Everyone else in the mines or worse.” His body sagged, exhausted of his completely justified anger. “... I had a friend. Guy named Adam. Red hair, blue eyes, the kindest guy you’d ever meet. Natural charisma, good leader, cared for everyone he could. One day, I woke up and... he was just gone.” He straightened up. “I won’t let another person slip through my fingers!” he stated firmly, more to himself than anyone else.

For a moment, Raven was still. She felt... numb? No, that wasn’t the right word. Overwhelmed might be better. She forced herself to breathe, rancid air burning her throat on its way out. “... If I didn’t have a reason to help you kidnap the kid before, I certainly have one now.” she said, attempting to make it a joke but her tone was a bit too flat still for it to land properly.

She rubbed her face with both hands roughly. “Okay. Okay, I can deal with this. Uh huh, definitely. You know what, let's just get this over with. Let’s go kidnap a six-year-old!”

Glynda scoffed from behind them. “And how, exactly, are we going to do that?”

“Fake it til ya make it!” Raven called out, vaulting over the raised edge of the roof and dropping to the ground. She smirked up at the disbelieving faces of the kids when she rolled as she landed. The two slowly looked at each other, then back down at the gap between the top of the building and the alley some 20 floors below.

Chuckling, Raven made a motion with her hand, a portal opening up behind her and connecting to where the kids were. It took a moment for the two of them to walk through, Glynda giving her an incredulous look. “If you could do that, why did you jump?!”

“Dramatics.” Raven grinned, giving the blonde a wink. “Alright, onward!”

She took a quick glance around, noting that most of the guards were near the front gate rather than the back or sides, making it an easy task to climb over the fence and open another portal for her charges to go through.

Raven patted Glynda and Roman on their shoulders, carefully placing her mark as she did so in order for her to easily reach them later. With that done, she scanned the wall closest to her.

After a few seconds, she found an open window, five floors up. “Completely doable.” she mumbled.

Glynda shot her a confused glance that she ignored, instead running forward and up the wall, grabbing onto the white trim every so often when she needed more momentum. She made it to the opening in under six seconds, meeting the kids' incredulous faces with another wink before ducking inside.

Landing in a crouch, Raven glanced around the room she had chosen as her entry point, hand resting on Omen’s hilt. It was quaint, cozy even, warm browns and beiges. It appeared to be an office of some sort, and on the far side there was a desk, a sleeping man in the chair behind it. There were a couple of alcohol bottles on the desk, and some files on the floor.

Raven quietly shuffled over to the closest piece of paper, picking it up so she could read it. Her eyebrows slowly rose as she took in the words, huffing out a sigh as she pocketed the sheet. “These guys are damn idiots, leaving stuff like this out.” she muttered under her breath.

She stood up, the only sound in the room the rustling of her clothes. The man snorted, shifting in his sleep, and Raven stilled, waiting though not worried.

Just as she figured, the man didn’t open his eyes, though it left her at an impasse on what to do. On one hand, she could just leave him and hope he didn’t wake up, or...

Sighing, Raven stalked behind the chair the guy was in, wrapping an arm around his neck and squeezing. He struggled sluggishly, clawing at her arm with weak fingers before passing out again. She held him for a couple more seconds before deeming it good enough and walking away.

She went to the door, pressing an ear to it for a long moment. When she heard nothing, she slowly turned the knob and stepped out, glancing down both sides of the hallway. The carpet was red, and fire-Dust candles lined the brown dark oak walls, providing dim lighting that would hopefully hide her better.

Letting out a slow breath, Raven started to make her way down the hallways, checking doors as she went. To her surprise, the mansion was mostly empty. In her time wandering, she’d barely seen five people – four of whom were cleaning crew and the fifth being the man she’d strangled.

Finally, after looking through about 50 different rooms – did they make all mansions this big or was it just this one? - she stumbled upon a door with a sheet of paper on it, words scrawled in black ink marring the white, reading ‘do not disturb’ in... creepy letters. The door was made of glass for some reason, although at the moment the back of it was covered in cardboard.

Raven frowned, studying it for a second, before mentally shrugging and knocking on the door, over the message taped to it.

No answer.

With a flick of her wrist, she opened up a portal behind her and waited until Roman and Glynda walked out before shushing them and pointing to the still-closed door. “This the one?” she whispered.

Glynda rolled her eyes. “How would we know-”

Roman placed his hand over her mouth, nodding. “Yeah. I never realized it was made of one-way glass, though. That’s just creepy.” he finished with a shiver.

Grimacing, Raven reached into her coat pocket and brought out her scroll, taking off the case and pulling out her lock-picks. Putting away her scroll again, she knelt down near the doorknob and jiggled it, just to confirm if it was locked.

It didn’t take long for her to unlock it, just under 10 seconds, which led to another round of staring from the two behind her.

Letting out a sigh, she stood up and pushed open the door, sign fluttering to the ground as she waved the kids in. Roman went in ahead, to Glynda’s chagrin. She swore she could hear the blonde mutter something about how the ‘stupid boy didn’t even have a weapon,’ and Raven gave her a sympathetic smile. She knew what that felt like, after all.

There was a quiet shout of happiness, and Raven waved Glynda ahead while she inspected the room. Since the noise had been positive, she didn’t feel the need to hover while the reunion happened.

The room was... bland, to say the least. To put it in a more detailed way, it felt as if the room had been entirely doctored to be shown off. Although, that could just be the first area. Perhaps the three kids were in the bedroom area, and this was the living room?

...

It still felt weird. Not like a kid lived here at all.

She shuddered. Best to get the three out as soon as possible.

... After she took another look around for more evidence, of course.

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Raven really should have thought this through. Like, maybe she should have brought Summer and Qrow into this instead of just jumping into politics? Perhaps, and just hear her out here, she shouldn’t have been breaking and entering and kidnapping? (Okay, maybe she didn’t feel as bad for those three, but she could have gone into this with a plan!)

“Shit shit shit shitshitshitshit-” Raven swore under her breath as she ran, a small brunette hitching a ride on her back, Roman tucked under her arm, and Glynda perched on her shoulder as if she wasn’t running faster – way faster – than a normal person could.

Like the little bastard he was, Roman laughed.

Neo stared at her with wide, mismatched eyes.

Glynda smirked.

“I think I hate you.” Raven grumbled. Roman cackled harder.

Ducking into an alley to try and escape her pursuers, Raven set the kids down so she could take a breather. Once she was able to reach the ground, Neo made a dash straight to her brother, throwing her arms around his neck and making Roman stagger.

“Oof! Hey brat.”

Neo didn’t respond, too busy nuzzling into his neck. At the lack of sound, Glynda frowned, moving forward until she could tap the younger girl’s shoulder. “Hey, Neo? Can you turn towards me for a second?”

Blinking up at her like a doe in headlights, Neo pouted but ultimately let Roman go, latching onto Glynda’s hand instead. With her free arm, Glynda slowly shifted Neo’s collar down so she could look at her neck.

The blonde sucked in a sharp breath at whatever she saw. She moved the collar back up and pressed a kiss to Neo’s forehead, patting her back gently. Glynda shuffled over to Raven, pressing her face into the woman’s arm. Trembling.

Raven frowned. Although she hadn’t known these kids for long, she already had a basic idea of who they were. Roman used louder emotions, like anger, cockiness, snark and sass to cover up the feelings he didn’t want anyone to see. Glynda was protective and mistrustful – she didn’t know why yet, but she was planning on finding out – deeply protective of who she considered family. Neo... was harder to get a read on, admittedly. Although, that did make sense since she’d only just met the girl... what, an hour ago? But she seemed like someone who poured all her love into her people, which was something Raven could respect.

Her basic knowledge for her- the kids was telling her that Glynda usually wouldn’t react like this.

Not really knowing what to do, Raven used her free arm and gently wrapped in around Glynda, rubbing her back in a way that she hoped was soothing. The girl tensed for a second before adjusting herself so she could receive a better hug, perhaps the first one she’d ever asked for.

Due to her height, Glynda had seemed to be the same age as Roman before, but that turned out not to be the case, instead being eight years older than the boy – who was actually the same age as Cinder, to Raven’s surprise.

Tossing all those thoughts aside, Raven tightened her hold on Glynda. Inhaling deeply, she rubbed Glynda’s shoulder before pulling back a bit. “As much as I would love to let you guys take your time, we need to get a move on before we’re found by those guards.” she said firmly, looking over the three kids she had accumulated.

Glynda let out a soundless exhale, shoulders dropping, before removing herself from where she had hidden her face in Raven’s chest (and wiping her face a couple of times for good measure, the brat). Neo finally allowed Roman to peel her off of him, resigning herself to clinging to his arm like a brown-haired koala. She let out a loud sigh before peering at Raven apprehensively.

Raven gave Neo a look. “Same, kid.” she stated, smirking.

“So. What’s the plan?” Roman asked, hand resting on Neo’s as he glanced at Raven, the impromptu adult in this situation – much to her dismay. Sort of.

She grinned, rather evilly, and Glynda took a step back warily, observing the woman she had just been leaning on to cry silently (her coat had a damp spot to prove it, so there!). “Well, you remember when I left you three together while I looked for a way out of the mansion?”

“Yes...”

“Well, it just so happens that I may or may not have grabbed evidence of the esteemed Vanille family’s misdeeds.” She smirked, patting one of her inside pockets. “I do wonder... what would happen if we turned this over to the police? Anonymously, of course.”

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“I can’t believe that fucking worked.” Roman stated flatly, staring at the television with something akin to horror in his eyes. He mechanically turned his head to face Raven, looking so utterly confused it was honestly adorable.

“I may or may not have pulled in a favour or two.” Raven said casually, sliding a piece of paper into one of his hands. “By the way, the three of you are my kids now.”

“WHAT?!”

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(She owed Ironwood for that so badly it wasn’t even funny. Not only did he take responsibility for the Vanille’s, he also made sure that none of them would even be considered a part of that whole shitshow, somehow. He was a godsend.

...

... Perhaps she should help Qrow plan his wedding.)

Chapter Text

Duck. Parry. Block. Counter. Dodge. Repeat.

With a downward swing of Omen, Raven cut cleanly through the neck of one of the surrounding Beowolves, beheading it and stepping out of the way before it could fall on her. The only warning she got before two more lunged forward were twin growls on either side of her.

Sliding back, she managed to avoid the collision of the two Grimm by a millimetre. They slammed into each other hard, cracks sounding from their masks as they broke apart. Yelps sounded as they fell to the ground in a heap, dazed but not dead.

Raven let out an annoyed huff, questioning – not for the first or last time – why she hadn’t trained with a gun. As it was, she stabbed down, straight into both their foreheads. It was an awkward movement, one she resolved not to make again at any cost.

She dispatched the rest of the pack in quick order – taking off the head of one, a stab through the heart of another, and a final strike that sliced the thirds’ head and chest in half.

Normally, Raven would never be tired by this point, but, well... it’d only been a couple of weeks since the fight with the ancient, so she still wasn’t in her best fighting shape. This was only made worse by the fact that the Surge was in full effect, and she had already been fighting for almost the entire day at this point.

She was... exhausted. And wanted Yang cuddles.

Letting out a sigh, she admitted to herself that she might be getting a little distracted from the events at hand. Ah well. If she was going to be daydreaming in battle, then she should probably find Qrow, so someone was watching her back at the very least.

It didn’t take long to finish off the rest of the Grimm in the area – they were all weak and/or young, so she didn’t need to spend too much time on them.

She looked around at her surroundings slowly, just to see if she could relax before finding one of her teammates (and it was REALLY stupid that the town’s only defenders was her, Qrow, and Summer. No one else).

Raven squinted at the splash of colour in front of her, a stark contrast to the brown rocks and dirt. Shrugging, she kept a tight grip on her sword before heading off in a jog towards the unknown... thing.

Getting closer, she could see a... was that a person? The lady (at least, from this distance they looked female) was wearing a white skirt that faded to blue at the bottom, light blue patterns lighting the trim. The shirt was tucked into the top, a bit like a vest, actually, with a darker blue underneath it all. Long blonde hair cascaded down her back and over her shoulders, looking like it once might have been regal. Now it just seemed to add to her overall ragged look. From up close, the dress had tears in it, mud and black goo covering parts of the skirt – half-dress? Whatever – all the way up to her knees. Her hair was matted and disheveled, and Raven could see blood on the corners of her mouth and eyes.

Seeing the woman sent off alarm bells in her mind, soon followed by those same bells turning off and on again. Raven frowned. This sort of thing had never happened before, so she decided to tread carefully.

Naturally, her first idea after this decision was to run closer to the stranger in the middle of the warzone.

“Hey, Miss? Are you alright? Can I help you get back to the town?”

The woman stared at her for a couple of seconds, horror growing in her blue eyes. “You need to run!”

Raven stopped where she stood, still a couple of pacing away from the blonde. “Excuse me?”

“I can’t keep her away forever – so you need to run!”

“Run from what?” Raven pressed. “What do you-?!”

Without any sort of warning, the lady doubled over and coughed up blood before the black goo on her skirt started to move, crawling up her body and converging into a large mockery of the woman that hovered just behind her. It had the red, white, and black colours of a Grimm, yet still looked vaguely human. “Now, now, Salem.” the thing admonished, an echoey effect on its voice, letting out a giggle a moment later. “Don’t ruin the fun.”

The thing’s face spilt in a grotesque smile, teeth as long as her forearm revealed from what had looked like a head.

Raven blanched. She had not signed up for this. Before she could even get a word out, the mass of black crashed down onto the lady – Salem? - wrapping around her so tight she coughed out the rest of the air in her lungs. The tar sank into her skin, black cracks lighting up her veins, and Raven figured out where the warning bells came from. It wasn’t from Salem; it was from whatever monster this was.

Between one second to the next, Salem was gone, a tall humanlike Grimm in her place – and it still looked so much like her that Raven felt insulted on her behalf.

“Now then, I think it’s time to play a game, shall we?” the creature asked, the effect on its voice now gone. “Your objective is to survive.”

The bottom of the things dress expanded (and it looked just like one of the spawning pools. She felt sick at the sight) and a Grimm rose from the substance.

“What the fuck is that?!” Raven took an instinctive step back, Omen going in front of her as she watched the creature grow... and grow... and grow. It looked like two Grimm had been fused together, a human-like one and horse shaped one. Instead of four hooves though, the front two legs ended in clawed hands that dug deep grooves into the ground. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck-” She opened up two separate portals (since when could she do that?) and Summer and Qrow jumped out, Summer killing off the unfortunate Beowolf that had managed to follow her through.

The humanoid Grimm shrugged. “Well, I was going to send this guy over to – what's it called? Kuroyuri? Ah, whatever, Human cities all look the same anyway.” The creature did a theatrical bow, mocking in its nature, before sinking into the ground in a puddle.

“What the fuck was that?! And what the fuck is that?!” Qrow called out from behind her, staring at the fast-disappearing liquid. Raven could only shrug, still reeling from... the first that.

Before Raven could answer him, the new Grimm charged, left arm swinging at her as the horse part bowed down so the “human” part could reach.

Summer grabbed a hold of Qrow’s cloak and Raven’s collar, dragging them both out of range before triggering her semblance. The feeling of light passing through Raven’s body was still a strange one – though not unwelcome, in this sense.

The creature tilted its top head in confusion, red eyes roving over where it had last seen them – and technically where they still were.

Before Summer could administer orders or figure out what to do, the Grimm reached down to the equine’s shoulder, digging in and ripping out a chuck of bone. With its newly acquired projectile in hand, it’s gaze turned back to them – thankfully still hidden, but Raven had her doubts they would remain that way for long.

Raven watched, wide-eyed, as it threw the fucking bone fragment?! It bounced off her chest and hit the ground, five pairs of eyes following it before slowly panning back up to lock together.

Summer cursed as she dropped the invisibility, all three darting away from where they had just been. Qrow rushed to the right, Summer to the left, and Raven prayed to whatever god was listening as she ran forward, bringing Omen up to counter the equine muzzle aiming straight for her head.

The horse opened up its mouth, teeth clamping down on Omen, and Raven had two thoughts. One, she was glad that she was using her normal steel blade and not, say, a fire or wind Dust blade. Two, this Grimm really did NOT need to have such long and sharp teeth on top of everything else. Like, at this point it was just overkill, really.

She grunted as the horse pushed her down, teeth making an awful scrape against her sword as its mouth slide down to the guard – and closer to her hand. Making a hasty decision, Raven twisted the sword so it was straight horizontally, live hand coming up to press against the flat of the blade and re-bracing.

Unfortunately, her gamble didn’t pay off – although had it just been the horse she was fighting, it totally would have (let her have that, at least, dammit!). As it was, she’d forgotten about the human thing on the back, which took the opportunity to swipe at her with its arm, two clawed fingers coming waaaay too close to her face for comfort as she ducked down under them.

The equine took that exact moment to press down harder, and Raven was forced down to a knee – not a position she wanted to be in.

Out of nowhere, the human part let out an ungodly screech, and Raven watched as the arm it hadn’t used to attack her fell to the ground and began to... melt? Strange, but she had other, more pressing concerns, at the moment.

“Fall back, Rae!” Summer shouted from the side of the beast she had just maimed, landing hard and rolling with a grunt.

Grimacing, Raven pushed up hard against the horse’s mouth, managing to get up to both feet before taking another gamble and using all her strength to twist into a kick, foot landing clean on the side of the equine’s face. She used her momentum to roll to the side, feeling the rocks underneath dig into her shoulder and side.

She popped up beside Summer, shaking off the remaining gravel on her clothes. Frowning, Raven looked around, trying to spot Qrow. Before she could panic, the horse fell to the side, hooved leg flying off and landing... somewhere. Her brother jogged over to them, twirling Harbinger nervously. “That almost seemed too easy...” he muttered, glancing over at the Nuckelavee on the ground.

Summer shot him an exasperated glance. “You motherfucker. You realize you just jinxed it, right?” she sighed, placing Sundered Rose’s head on the ground and leaning on the handle. Raven took the moment for what it was worth, sucking in a couple of deep breaths in preparation for whatever might happen next.

Qrow scoffed. “There’s no wa- Raven! Watch-”

Before Raven could try and decipher what her twin was saying, or rather shouting, something slammed into her back, knocking her away from her teammates and closer to the Grimm writhing in the dirt.

She didn’t hit the ground.

Instead, the Grimm shot out its remaining arm, wrapping it around her stomach fast and hard enough to knock the wind out of her. She struggled weakly against the restraint.

Her dazed mind tried to figure out what the hell had just happened to no avail. The thing that snapped her out of the confused haze was a searing pain in each shoulder. She cried out, gritting her teeth before twisting her head to look.

On one shoulder, the equine had clamped down hard with its mouth, making jerky movements as if trying to tear out the flesh there, albeit slowly. On the other, the human part had bitten down as well, boney teeth of the mask shredding skin against the bluntness of the bottom jaw. It was gummy and weird, but also very painful, and Raven contemplated just passing out and letting Summer and Qrow deal with the rest of this.

... the feeling of blood running down her arms gave her enough clarity to realize that she would probably be dead long before her teammates could do anything if she didn’t somehow get out. That... was really a tall order, at this point.

Raven inhaled deeply, fighting off the sleepiness with the cold but not clean air, trying to figure out what to do. She couldn’t make her arms listen to her, so she let them just dangle there. Her legs were willing to cooperate, though, so she kicked out behind her. While she did manage to hit something, the human part simply grunted – then let go of her shoulder, so that was a plus!

She screamed as the human bite down again, closer to her neck this time. Her aura flickered once, twice, before shattering in a sea of sparks and- wow, it could get worse. The pain increased tenfold as both heads pulled back while tightening their jaws.

The human head jerked, heat radiating down her arm, before the pressure abruptly disappeared. Blearily opening one eye (when had she shut them?) she watched the black smoke dissipate into the sky. Before long, the equine disappeared as well, and Raven slumped onto the ground.

Before she could faceplant like she so wanted to do, something warm wrapped around her stomach, bringing her back into more heat that pressed against her side. A gentle hand pulled her head to rest in a little crook that felt like home.

“I’ve got you.” a soft voice whispered, although it shook a little.

Raven started at her recognition of the voice, trying to tell Summer she was okay, but her mouth wouldn’t move the way she wanted it to. All that came out was a weak groan that made Summer’s arms tighten around her.

Before she could give into her inclination to go to sleep, the ground shook. Raven forced her eyes open, waiting until the blurriness faded to look around.

She immediately wished she hadn’t fought against passing out.

Over where the strange Grimm’s arm had gone was a new monster. Two guesses to what it looked like and the first one didn’t count.

The new guy looked like a massive, mutated hand with six fingers. Two of them were longer than the rest, covered in some sharp, bony plating. The rest were gooey and dripping on the ground as it slowly approached.

Raven grit her teeth, twisting her hands to see if they would cooperate. The right one didn’t so much as twitch unless she really forced it, while the other moved fine enough to hold her sword. Sucking in a breath, she shifted onto her knees, Summer making a small noise behind her.

“I’ll be fine,” she murmured. “Watch my back?”

Summer tsked. “I should get Qrow to take you back to the town and bring back some more people.” her partner grumbled but ultimately helped her to her feet.

From his place beside them, Qrow readied Harbinger, the long blade of its scythe form raised above his head and ready to strike. “Are you sure you don’t want to head back? You’ve done enough today.”

Raven nodded, grabbing Omen from Summer’s outstretched hand. She hesitated before sheathing it, taking off her coat and wrapping it around her torso and arm so the limp one wouldn’t get it the way. It would throw off her balance a little, but Raven was confident enough in her skill to bypass that.

Exhaling to get rid of her nerves and leftover weakness, Raven flicked Omen’s blade to Water. Glancing at Summer, she watched as her partner took in their new opponent.

“Okay. Qrow, Raven, pincer maneuver. I’ll rush it.”

“... That’s it?”

“I mean... don’t die?”

Qrow scoffed, muttering a curse or two under his breath before charging forward with Raven. He took the right, aiming a slash at one of the gooey fingers. Raven went left, going for the closest plated finger. Summer followed suit, aiming for the base of the entire Grimm.

As Raven jumped up to attack, she managed to see behind it and aborted her strike last second, landing hard on the ground. “Wait-”

Before she could explain, she heard Summer curse in shock as Sundered Rose dissolved in the goo of the Grimm. Raven grit her teeth as she studied the path that the creature had taken – oh so visible now that she was in position to see it.

Everything in a straight line behind the thing had deteriorated, rocks bubbling as they melted into what looked similar to lava. Raven had thought that it would make some sort of sound, but it didn’t. It was eerily silent, which just felt wrong.

“Qrow! Watch out!”

Raven turned to where Qrow was still in the air, mid-jump to get back, away, from the tendrils of mud reached out to grab him. He twisted and slashed at the appendages to no avail. Before long, they wrapped around his body and dragged him back towards it.

The last thing she saw was the terror on Qrow’s face before the Grimm swallowed him whole.

Chapter Text

Raven froze.

(A boy, no more than three years older than her, was lying on the ground, using the crumbling wall of what used to be a house to prop him up. Raven pressed down hard on the gaping wound in his stomach, trying to ignore to heat from the blood and how sticky the liquid was.

Wren let out a gurgle, trying to work past the blood in his throat to speak. “A-Alright,” he gasped, “listen up, Little Bird. We don’t have much time, so I need you to listen. C-” he coughed, once, twice, before tilting his head to the side to spit out some congealed blood. “Can you do that for me?”

She nodded desperately. Young as she was, naive as she was, she decided to believe in the thought process that said that if she listened, her big brother would be fine. He’d pop right back up and sing one of his favourite songs for her, then they’d go get Qrow together. At least he was out of the camp, she thought bitterly. He wouldn’t have to see the way the corpses burned, the flesh pulling right off the bones in the heat. He wouldn’t have to try and guess what was running down his neck – was it blood, sweat, tears? She didn’t dare look and find out.

“Okay, good. I need you to h-head back to our home, alright? G-Grab your weapons, go find Qrow. Keep him safe, alright?”

Raven opened her mouth to respond, only for the wall Wren was leaning against to suddenly explode out. Her brother was tossed like a doll, hitting the ground some feet away. Clutching her arm as the debris hit it, Raven scrambled away from the Grimm that had burst through the wall like cardboard, feeling hot rocks burning away in her hurting limb. She whimpered, staring at the creature standing above the rumble. It’s head slowly turned in her direction – away from her unmoving brother – and she had the horrifying realization that it was holding a person in its mouth.

She had known him – no, not just known him. Pepper had often been her sparring partner – and was good, whether he won or lost, he accepted the result with dignity.

Then, Pepper’s hand twitched from where it hung limply. The man with black and white hair slowly looked at her, blood trailing from his open mouth down to his forehead. She watched the flicker in his eyes, watched as he mouthed a weak ‘run.’

She didn’t move.)

She didn’t move. Couldn’t move.

Just like before, it was just like before- a hand on her shoulder (a hand on her shoulder, a bloody Wren barely managing to stand. Shouting for her to leave, don’t look back, don’t look back, don’t look back-)

“Come on, Raven! We need to get him back!” Summer squeezed her shoulder gently, but enough that Raven was reminded of the bites from earlier.

She ignored it.

Shoving herself to her feet, Raven jammed Omen back into its scabbard, flicking the blade to fire before running at the (Sphinx, her older brain filled in the blanks as she stared at the textbook. To have the thing that had torn apart their lives discussed so clinically in a book meant for kids – did these people not know what it was capable of? Did they not care?!) hand Grimm, going straight in. Gone was the time for tactics or decorum. No, now was the time for rage, brutality, and victory. She’d accept no less.

Raven slashed where Qrow had disappeared, anticipating that her sword would be dissolved, not to hit anything – so when Omen made contact and the Grimm let out a shriek, she stumbled.

The palm spun toward her between seconds, a mouth now opened up on the palm-face and letting out the same ear-splitting sound. Fire burnt up the goo for a moment before dying out, and her blade disappeared.

The Grimm struck out, whole head-hand slamming forward to trap her underneath it. Waiting until the last second, Raven jumped up and to the side, changing out her blade to its former water form.

Again she struck down, achieving much the same results. Water splashed against the goo – some of it washing away, revealing a dull red cape – before the sword vanished. It wasn’t disintegrating like Sundered Rose had, but just straight up not there anymore.

Raven kept at it, switching blades, having them disappear after a flicker of power, until she was down to her steel blade again. The most useful were the wind and water blades, forcing the goo away from the rest of the Grimm.

Jumping away from the creature, Raven landed beside Summer, who had been stuck watching the fight from the sidelines with frustration in every hard line of her body. As soon as Raven was in range, Summer drew forward, placing herself between her and the Grimm. She formed a human wall while Raven caught her breath.

“Any ideas?” Raven panted, staring over Summer’s shoulder.

Her partner sighed. “No-”

Summer stopped talking in the middle of her sentence, and Raven glanced at her in confusion. Her eyes widened. She was caught, unmoving, in that same expression as before, mouth still open.

In a slight panic – only slight, Raven was a professional after all – she jerked her head back to look at the Grimm, expecting it to start moving towards them again at any second, only to find it frozen too. Pieces of goo where stationary mid drop, hanging in the air. There was no breeze, no sound, nothing.

Tensing, Raven slowly turned around, trying to figure out what was going on. Once she made it a full rotation and was back to facing the Grimm, nothing amiss, a dark fog rolled in, covering everything so fast that she only had time to cover her mouth and nose with her sleeve before she was engulfed.

Blinking a couple of times, trying to clear her vision, Raven watched as the fog left as soon as it had come. She grit her teeth as she realized her surroundings had changed. Instead of a torn-up battlefield, she was in a hall, fancy candle holders hanging high up on the columns. The walls were a light navy, the floor a galaxy of stars underneath her.

Raven swallowed, fighting against the instinctive unease of the situation. A peal of laughter sounded out from behind her, musical and light with melancholy and joy mixing together in harmony.

Spinning around, Raven saw a throne, a small figure in a cloak resting upon it casually.

“Raven Branwen, the Omen.” the figure said, bringing one foot up to rest against the edge of the throne. “Welcome to the Realm of the Gods. Unofficially, though, we just call it Bob.”

“... Bob?” Raven’s confusion won over her caution, letting the word- name? - just slip out.

“Yup,” the figure popped the word before sliding off their ornate chair in one smooth movement. “Anyway, my name is Bone, which is a rather fitting name for the God of Death, no?”

She blinked a couple of times, waiting for the world to make sense again. When nothing changed, Raven chanced a question. “... I thought the God of Death was, well. The God of Darkness...?” She didn’t relax, though, instead tensing as the... god? came closer.

“What, that kid? Nah. If we were being technical, he’d be one half of the God of Balance, the other half being...” They trailed off, waiting for Raven to fill in the blanks.

“... The God of Light?”

“Bingo! Ten points to you, dear.” The god- Bone- Lady- Lord- whatever, they stopped in front of Raven, just a few paces away. “So, the reason why I’ve called you here. And no, before you ask, you’re not dead.”

Raven nodded. She’d kind of figured that, but it was nice to have confirmation – even if she didn’t entirely trust the being before her – or was she before them? Questions, questions.

“I’ll cut straight to the chase. I’ve chosen you as my, well, Chosen.”

Blinking, Raven tilted her head to the side. “... explain... please.” she tacked on as almost an afterthought.

“A Chosen is someone a God chooses to fulfil their will on a world – in your case, Remnant.” Raven chose to ignore the multiple world part that wasn’t said but implied. She really didn’t need this right now. “Being a Chosen comes with certain perks, which mostly depend on who your Patron is. The general perks are a quick wardrobe change, immunity to whatever element your God controls if it’s dangerous, the ability to come to Bob whenever – as long as you have permission though, so don’t do anything stupid – and to have a voice to talk with if you have any questions. For example, your God might tell you that a cliff is within 10 metres of you, and tell you to avoid it. Or they might help you work out plans. However, Gods cannot do everything, despite what many think. We can do a lot, but there are... certain limitations that come into play at times.”

“O... kay.” After deciding that the god was not a threat – to her at least – Raven sheathed her sword and slowly sat down. A bottle of water showed up in her face, and as she reached up to grab it, she looked over at the being offering it to her. “... thanks.”

“’Course!” the being chirped. “By the way, don’t think I didn’t notice your hesitance to use my name. So, unless you’ve got a bone to pick with it, you’ve got full permission.”

Raven stared at the... Bone for a couple of seconds before slowly curling into a ball on the floor. “Just kill me.”

“Nope!” Bone’s evil grin faded. “Now, moving on, so sit up please.”

Grimacing – because she knew, she just knew, that she’d be getting some more mind breaking information – Raven sat up, turning her attention back to the god still looming over her – at least, until Bone sat down as well, cloak disappearing in a shower of sparks.

Bone was rather unassuming, pale skin and green eyes, with black hair that spilled against the ground. Several braids were in it, more appearing and then disappearing between blinks. Before Raven could really finish observing, their appearance changed to black eyes, green skin, and blue hair cut off just above the shoulders.

Raven opened her mouth, paused, and closed it again.

Smirking at her reaction, Bone started to talk again. “So, I’m about to tell you a few things, and then, once you’re done on that battlefield,” Raven felt her heart squeeze her chest, thinking of Qrow. “I want you to go straight to Onyx, and give him this information. Okay?”

“Professor Onyx? Why?”

“I’ll leave the exact details up to him, but basically, the God of Light cursed him.”

Raven wanted to go home.

Bone tilted their head, waiting for Raven’s brain to finish buffering.

“... Right, I guess if the God of Death is currently talking to me, I guess other gods exist too. That... makes sense.” Raven nodded once to herself, looking back at Bone. “Okay, so what did Onyx do?”

The god shook their head sadly. “That’s the thing, he didn’t do anything. Tell me this,” they said, interrupting the question Raven was about to ask. “Have you ever heard of the Girl in the Tower?”

Raven nodded slowly, and Bone made a motion at her for her to tell it. “Um, so this guy had a daughter, and his wife died in childbirth. The man locked up his kid in a tower to keep her safe, and made sure to give her anything she desired. When she asked for her freedom as an adult, he said no, so she sent out a message for knights to come save her, only for all of them to fail. Eventually, this one hero shows up, saves her, and they get married. They live happily ever after... right?” Raven questioned, noticing Bone shaking their head.

“For a little while, yes. They were happy, until the hero got sick. Ozma was his name, and as for the woman... her name was Salem.”

“... what.”

Bone nodded. “Blonde hair, blue eyes, fairly tall-”

Raven clenched her hands into fists. “Stop. Stop this-this messing around!” There was no way – no way – that the woman on the battlefield was this- this ancient prisoner! After all, it was just a fairy tale... right?

Sighing, Bone reached out and rested a hand on Raven’s knee. She felt all her emotions drain away, and she had a flash of panic, remembering the way the Apathy killed, before that feeling faded away too.

“I wish I was messing with you, but I’m not. Let me tell you what happened after.” Raven nodded slowly, still a little disorientated. “Ozma got sick not long after, less than a year, actually. And despite all his strength, the hero’s time had come, and his soul was ferried to my domain. Salem was upset, understandably so. Remember, all her life, she had never wanted for anything, so she was unable to move on. She had never lost anyone; she didn’t know how to deal with it.

“Being the desperate woman she was, Salem went to the God of Light and begged for him to bring Ozma back. However, there are rules in place, and he was unable to do so, since death is my domain. Changing tactics, Salem went to the God of Darkness and repeated her plea. Happy at the chance to prove himself to a follower, he complied, borrowing some of my power. Then, Light showed up.

“A fight happened between the two, with Ozma being killed and brought back to life multiple times in front of Salem. Eventually, Light brought it to a close, and told Darkness how Salem had come to him first. Hurt, Darkness returned Ozma’s soul to me. Salem was cursed to be immortal until she understood the importance of life – which is stupid.”

Raven jerked in place, surprised at the sudden break in storytelling. “... How so?”

Bone frowned, crossing their arms. “The fact that Salem came to ask for Ozma back means she already perfectly understood the importance of life. What she didn’t understand was the importance of death.” they said. “Like I said, stupid.”

Raven nodded slowly. That... made sense. “What was the information you were going to tell me?”

Bone shook their head, letting out a tsk. “So impatient. Ah well, let’s get to it then. You can get the rest of the story later, I suppose.” Their face turned deadly serious, a frown playing on their lips. “The high gods, Lady Moon and Lady Sun have decided to have the God of Light removed from his place.”

Studying the god in growing confusion, Raven pressed a little. “And what does that mean?”

“It means he’s going to die. Or, rather, be killed by a certain person.”

Paling, Raven stared for a long moment. “What?!”

“So, here’s the plan. Or, actually, do you want me to tell you after you go back to Beacon?”

She nodded slowly, trying and failing to understand everything that had happened in one night.

Bone started talking again. “So, I’ll be sending you back in a moment then, and I’ll lend you my power so you can finish off that Grimm, alright?”

Raven opened and closed her mouth, then sighed, resigned. “Okay, sure. Do whatever, I guess.”

Snorting in amusement, Bone shook their head before standing up to their former full height – which actually wasn't that tall. Then their appearance shifted again, and they loomed over Raven, who was still on the ground.

Feeling a little sick at the reminder the height difference gave her, Raven scrambled to her feet. She warily eyed the god, hand moving to Omen’s hilt for a semblance of comfort.

“Alright, ready to go?”

She hesitated, but really, was there anything she could do? What, say no? Then what?

Raven nodded. Everything was fine. She’d gotten an existential crisis, learned gods were real, had information dangled in front of her only to be taken away again, and now she was just going to go back to fighting the strangest Grimm she had ever heard of.

Yup. Fine.

Bone smiled. “Off you go then.” The room started to disappear in bursts of fog, the candle holders the first to go. “Oh, before I forget, you being my Chosen means you get special powers! Have fun figuring those out. Also, your brother’s alive!”

Her eyes widened, slightly horrified and confused – also relieved, cause that last part? - at the words coming out of the god's mouth. Before she could snipe something back, the Realm of the- er, Bob was already gone, and she was back on the battlefield, facing away from the Grimm.

“- but I think if we find a bunch of water or something, we can take it down.”

Raven spun around, staring at Summer’s back while trying to process her words. “... what?”

Summer frowned. “Does it really sound that improbable? I thought if done right, we could do it. “

“Oh, no, that’s- sorry, I zoned out.” Raven tried, desperately shoving any emotion that Bone had caused down to the deep recesses of her soul. “We can do that, yeah.”

Her partner stared at her in worry for a moment, before the shrieking Grimm brought their attention back to it. “... Give me a minute to try and find a stream or... something. Can you hold it of for a bit?”

“Yeah, sure. I can do that. Uh huh, no problem.”

Summer raised an eyebrow, staring Raven down like she could get all her secrets if she glared long enough. Raven gave a weak grin in response.

Letting out a haggard sigh, Summer just shook her head. They both knew they’d be talking about whatever was going on with her as soon as Qrow was back with them, but they didn’t have any time right now.

Raven watched as Summer compartmentalized, shoving everything she couldn’t deal with into little boxes out of the way so they couldn’t interfere.

“Let’s finish this up.”

Chapter Text

Summer darted off to the side, the Grimm turning with her for a moment before Raven slapped her unbound hand against her thigh to get its attention.

“Hey ugly! Over here!”

For some reason, it worked, and the creature focused on her. This meant that she had the unnerving experience of watching it grow an eye inside its mouth and glare at her with it.

Shuddering, Raven shook it off the best she could, shoving the twinge of fear down in the same box of feeling she had put... everything else into. She drew Omen, pointing it at the Grimm with her mouth pressed into a thin line.

Trying to figure out how to keep its... eye – gods that felt weird – on her, she made a small figure eight with the tip of her sword, watching as the creature’s pupil tracked it slowly.

“Try attacking it again.”

What.

Raven’s head whipped from side to side so fast she was surprised she didn’t break her own neck. Wouldn’t that be ironic. Raven Branwen, survivor of genocides and legendary Huntress – cause of death, got spooked and killed herself.

“That’s a rather morbid thought.”

“Okay, what the actual fu-”

Before she could finish her thought, the Grimm shrieked – then its ‘skin’ started to bubble, and its form contorted into, frankly, weird shapes and poses. She watched in slight horror (the rest went into that nifty little box she had) as the base of the hand Grimm split in two, forming into goopy legs. From what was now its torso, eight tendrils shot out and formed sharp points that jabbed the ground roughly, looking significantly less goopy and more sharp and deadly. The thing – okay, it really needed a name, she was going to call it Jeremey for now – Jeremey hunched over as more black liquid – tar? - dripped down to the ground and formed into white bone fragments that looked like hands.

Closing her mouth, Raven debated her options.

“If you were a regular person, I would say run. Since you’re not, you’re my Chosen, I say you should go smack it around like the badass you are.”

“Bone, shush for a second!” Raven hissed, eyes flicking over Jeremey’s body to see if she could find any weaknesses. She lowered her sword to save energy, only to immediately regret her decision when Jeremey charged – far faster than it had earlier. It had gone from an exceedingly slow crawl to something almost as fast as Tai when someone opened his cookie jar.

Caught by surprise, Raven just barely managed to duck out of the way. Jeremey’s head followed her, the mouth splitting open at the sides so its eye could track her. Other than being super fucking creepy, it also meant that it didn’t have a blind spot anymore.

That was going to be future Raven’s problem. Current Raven had to deal with the sudden torrent of liquid coming at her from Jeremey’s side – while she was still mid jump.

She twisted her body in the vain hope that the coat wrapped around her side would protect her. It didn’t.

For the first few seconds, she didn’t feel any pain – just the vague sensation of the skin on her right arm being eaten away. When it hit, though, her mind went blank in a way she hadn’t experienced often, only when someone had hit her head against a wall really hard.

Then she couldn’t feel her hand. At all.

The pain traveled to her side – not up her arm to her shoulder and down again, but straight through the forearm to her waist.

She had a feeling she knew what happened, and while she didn’t really want to know, it was kind of necessary. So, she tilted her head to the side slightly when she hit the ground a ways away from Jeremy, ignoring the sting of a couple droplets splashing on her face. They stopped stinging after a few moments anyway, although she didn’t really have the heart to be thankful about it when she saw her arm.

Or rather, what remained of it.

Her right arm cut off just below the shoulder, the stump seemingly cauterized by whatever the liquid had been.

She immediately felt sick, snapping her head away as fast as she could. Then Raven felt something crawl up her shoulder. Bringing her gaze back around, she watched in a detached kind of horror as her veins lit up in black, crawling up over her cheek and stopping just under her eye.

A sort of blankness came over her just as she started to really freak out – hello, her arm?! - and the same voice from earlier talked again.

“Raven, you need to breathe, child.”

It was only after her body sucked in a greedy breath that Raven realized she had frozen, completely and utterly.

... She really hoped Bone would give her some privacy whenever she hung out with Summer. Actually, make that if, since she had no idea if she’d make it out of this alive.

“First of all, I’m not a creep. Second of all, yes you will.”

Raven let out a hiss of aggravation, glaring at Jeremey as the pain radiated up her shoulder and up her neck. She didn’t know if the black veins were doing anything, but that was hopefully a problem for later.

Jeremey turned back to look at her, mouth widening in a grin before its jaw unhinged and dropped open. Raven clenched her jaw, pushing away all the pain she could – at least she hadn’t passed out? - and rolled onto her stomach, pushing up with her left arm to scramble to her feet.

She took a quick glance around through the black spots covering her vision, looking for Omen. Thankfully it hadn’t gone too far away, just far enough that she wouldn’t be able to get to it quickly enough if Jeremey rushed her again.

“Charge it.”

“Ex-fucking-scuse me?!”

“You heard me.”

Raven tsked through clenched teeth, but when the Grimm jumped at her she ignored every instinct that told her to go the other way and darted forward, underneath the thing.

Jeremey’s jaw spilt again, this time down the middle and going through its throat, the red eye staying locked on her.

The creature’s body started to bubble again, and she flinched in preparation for the acid that was about to rain down on her - only for nothing to happen. Instead of flowing down, the goo flowed to the side, spraying in a wide arc around Jeremey’s body. Not even a droplet landed anywhere near her.

“Strike it.”

“With what?!” ... She really hoped Omen survived that, cause if she needed a new weapon, she was going to go on a murder rampage.

“This.”

Raven’s left hand started to glow a bright white, and she watched as a shape formed – wow, she was adapting to this so fast she deserved a medal – in the light. When the shine vanished, a short sword lay in her grasp, a light blue outlining the sharp, deadly edges.

“Well, at least it looks pretty.”

“Thank you.”

Sighing – how did she even get here again? - she drove up with the blade, straight into where the eye had decided to rest above her.

For a moment, she thought it wouldn’t do anything, but to her relief Jeremey let out one last deafening shriek and started disappearing.

As soon as the eye finished vanishing, Raven caught sight of the same dull red cape as before. Before she could even let out a sigh of relief, there was a thud as Qrow fell on the ground unceremoniously in front of her.

He let out a groan, and Raven shot forward, knees taking the brunt of the impact as she tossed herself down beside him.

She gently turned him around, placing his head on her lap so she could assess him. He didn’t look injured, by some miracle, but his hair had gone stark white, and Qrow had the same black veins as she did, except his were centered around his eyes. The skin around the cracks was red and angry, but it wasn’t bleeding, and at this point she’d take any victory she could get.

Grabbing his shoulder as gently as she could, Raven started to shake him. Thankfully, it didn’t take long until he jerked awake, panicked red eyes flying open and one hand coming up to fist in the collar of her shirt.

“W-What-”

“Hey, hey! It’s okay, just- just breathe, alright?” It took a few more assurances for Qrow to relax, but even then he kept his hand on her collarbone.

They rested in silence for a bit, processing everything that had happened in the few hours they had been out here, before Raven saw Summer in the distance, although her visibility was mostly attributed to the cape she wore.

Raven nudged Qrow gently, watching as he slowly dragged his focus away from the rusted metal of Harbinger to her, red meeting red.

“Summer’s heading over. Do need help up?” she asked quietly, just barely above a whisper.

Qrow raised an eyebrow, corner of his mouth lifting just slightly. “Do you?”

Scoffing, Raven pretended to be grumpy to hide the relief she felt at their normal banter. “Brat.” Maybe they would be okay.

“You will.”

... Right. That was going to take a bit to explain. Annnnnd that reminded her she needed to take all of the stuff she’d ‘learned’ and shove it at the Headmaster.

Man, the next few weeks were going to suck, weren’t they?

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“Yay. A hospital ceiling. Where oh where have I seen this before?” Raven muttered, glaring at the bright white that was practically caging her in. Once again, she was stuck in the hospital, on those beds that were super comfy if you were tired but were the opposite when you were wide awake.

Letting out a sigh, Raven almost missed the soft knock from the entrance of her room. Within a couple of seconds, red eyes a slightly different shade then her own peeked in to look at her.

Softening nigh immediately, Raven sat up, wincing slightly as her stiches pulled and a shot of phantom pain went through her shoulder. Ignoring it the best she could, she patted the end of the bed, giving Emerald a smile.

Emerald returned the smile, albeit a bit smaller and shyer, before scurrying into the room and scrambling up the bed to sit where Raven had indicated. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, brows furrowed, and Raven waited paitently while her daughter figured out what she wanted to say.

“Are you... okay?” finally came the whispered question. Emerald immediately shrunk back, as if she could hide from whatever she thought Raven’s reaction would be.

Raven felt a tug in her chest. “I’ll be fine.” she said softly. “Thank you for asking.” The girl’s head jerked up, confused, and Raven gave her a smile. “And you? How are you doing?”

“Ah- well-” Emerald floundered a bit, cheek’s colouring. “I’m f-fine...?”

“Yeah? How have you been spending your free time? Any favourite foods? Favourite person, perhaps?” Raven prodded gently, attempting to make conversation easier but trying not to make it feel like an interrogation.

She did not succeed, apparently.

Emerald stopped breathing, eyes going impossibly wide, before she inhaled sharply and began to hyperventilate.

“Shit-” Raven hissed. Her arm came up, ready to pull Emerald into a hug, to try and get her to calm down, but she hesitated before committing. What if that wasn’t the right move? If it just made her panic more? Gave her flashbacks? What if-

With another quiet curse, Raven pulled her kid into a hug. Emerald tensed for a second before relaxing, her breathing starting to slow a bit. Progress sped up a bit when Raven rubbed circles into Emerald’s back and shoulder.

Thankfully, before long Emerald’s... panic attack? flashback? whatever it was, had subsided, but she made no move to leave Raven’s arms and Raven was happy to let her stay there as long as she was comfortable.

After waiting about 30 minutes, give or take a couple minutes in which she may have dozed off – leave her alone, she’s tired, dammit! - she finally twisted to see Emerald’s face.

Huffing out a laugh when she saw Emerald’s sleeping face for the first time (considering she only slept with the other kids, usually Cinder – who she seemed to absolutely adore – and Mercury – who she had been around for a while, so no surprise there, she supposed), Raven slowly shifted so she was lying on her armless side, Emerald curled into her stomach in an uncomfortable looking ball.

Feeling her heart warm when she saw Emerald’s hand caught in the cheap hospital gown, Raven settled down to wait until her daughter woke up.

Hopefully she was well-rested by then.

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A couple of days passed after Emerald’s visit (she left the room with cheeks the same colour as her eyes), with her only visitors being the nurses and doctors. One of the doctors, a nice young lady by the name of Terra Cotta, absolutely destroyed her at Uno, when Raven asked her to play with her. It wasn’t even funny, actually. Apparently, she had a double major in both Medicine and Engineering, so the more you know, she supposed.

Barring her new friend, Raven had been... lonely. If it needed to be addressed. Which it didn’t.

Anyway.

Summer had been busy making sure the regular population of Grimm didn’t attack anyone while her teammates were Out of Order, and Qrow was stuck in his bed, tired from whatever he had experienced inside that strange Grimm (the few times Summer had managed to call, they had tossed around names for the two Grimm they had encountered – the evolving hand one that had given them so much trouble, and the strange fused one). The doctors were worried about him too, but besides putting on those funny looking white suits whenever they checked on him, they didn’t do much. At least, nothing they told her.

James had called a couple of times after the Surge. Unfortunately, he had been forced back to Atlas to discuss ‘things,’ which, based on the tired but happy smile on his face, was a good thing for him. This supposed good mood did nothing to curb his worry about Qrow – although Raven was surprised to hear the two weren’t dating. James said (with a face-wide blush on his face and a glare that said if a word of this leaked out to anyone, she was roadkill) that he wouldn’t be opposed to dating Qrow, in fact, he would actually like that, but as it was now, they weren’t in a good place for it.

Raven had immediately started to debate the possibility of living in Atlas.

Sighing, Raven dropped her scroll on the bed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She turned and scowled out the window, at the darkness that mock her inability to sleep. Her attempt at soothing the pain in her arm-ghost had failed miserably, which left her both incredibly twitchy, quite annoyed, and also one stubbed toe away from crying.

She wasn’t a crier. Anybody who knew her would tell you that. But for some reason, today – tonight? - was just too much and not enough. She needed someone... not to talk to, maybe, but just someone.

She wasn’t a crier, but she was a cuddler, something that Qrow had only enabled. Raven let a smile curl her lips as she remembered all the times her twin would curl around behind her on the couch, late at night, while she memorized the textbooks his teachers had given out at the start of the school year.

Gods, she had been so lucky to have such a small and out of the way school be so understanding. Sure, they had questioned why Qrow was the only one enrolling, but it only took one simple answer of ‘I can’t go to school and work three jobs at the same time’ for Qrow to get free breakfast and lunch, and come home with dinner for the both of them. Really, she still didn’t know how the staff had swung that.

She’s jolted out of her musings – that were most certainly putting her to sleep, but she’ll lament that part later – when she hears the tap-tap of careful feet in the hallway outside her room. This observation was quickly followed by an equally careful knock on her door, one she didn’t hesitate to answer with a taboo sounding, “Come in.” that was said at a level tone. Far too loud for this time of night, but whatever.

There was a couple of seconds before the door creaked open, and a pair of grey eyes peaked in.

Much like Emerald, Mercury was hesitant to intrude on the space he deemed ‘hers,’ and she forced a smile on her face at the same time as she pushed away hurtful thoughts.

She patted the bed again, mirroring what she had done with her daughter, and Mercury strode with practiced calm to jump on the bed in front of her.

“Hi.” she said softly, eyes searching Mercury’s face for any reason that might give her a reason that he’s here.

“Hi.” Mercury echoed, studying her as well. She kept herself open to his scrutiny, waiting for his judgement on whether or not they would be opening up to each other tonight.

“Can I help you?” Raven eventually offered after a couple minutes of silence.

Mercury was silent, still staring at her before nodding just slightly. “You go out and train with Cinder, right?”

“Yes?”

“When are you going to start bringing the rest of us into your training sessions as well?” It’s said so coldly, yet at the same time so resigned, that Raven has to take a beat to process it.

She hummed to organize what she was going to say. “Unless you want to start learning how to fight, then never.”

Mercury jerked back, eyes blown wide before narrowing in suspicion. “What do you mean?”

Raven tilted her head to the side before sighing and leaning back against the bed. “I mean that you don’t have to do anything anymore. Well, within reason,” she amended. “like you need to shower, brush your teeth in the morning, change out of your clothes and keep your room tidy. But other than that? I won’t force you to go to school, fight, heck, if you wanted to just be a stay-at-home adult, I’d find some way to swing it for you. I want you to be comfortable with me, which involves teaching you what you want to learn.” Raven took a breath, keeping her gaze locked on her son. “But the reason why I’m teaching Cinder how to fight is because I’d rather bail her out of jail then identify her body at a morgue.”

“... oh.”

Raven gave him a smile. “Yeah.”

They sat in silence for a moment before Raven asked, “Wanna sleep here for tonight? I relax easier with a buddy.”

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(Raven found she slept even better with Mercury there then she ever had with Qrow. She resolved to attempt the same experiment with each of her other children as well.

You know, just in case.

No ulterior motives at all.)