So it is done

Yang was awake despite the early morning hours, during which she would have preferred sleep into all other pursuits. Worst of all, she wasn't doing anything fun, she was just lying in her bed not, unmoving, eyes closed – Yang couldn't sleep. Instead, she continued to lure her unsuspecting victim to her.

This was not the first time that Yang tried to lure in her prey, not in this house, not in the last week.

Closer, closer, a little closer still, until the light footsteps stopped just centimeters from her face and Yang could hear the quiet breathing… Now!

Like a compressed spring, Yang lunged forward, instantly grabbing her target in an embrace. Yang's hands closed around the victim's body, pinning their arms to her sides, and then, with an outraged and surprised squeak, Yang opened her eyes slowly with a cheeky and triumphant smile on her face. "Good morning, Ruby. Did you sleep well?"

"Yang!" Ruby, the victim clutched in Yang's powerful arms, tried to wiggle from side to side to free herself, and then, finding that she couldn't even find a purchase in Yang's strong grip, stopped moving and glared at Yang judgmentally. "You should release me right about now!"

"Maybe…?" Yang gave Ruby a sly glance, then rolled her eyes in mocking contemplation.

"Or maybe not."

"Yang!" Ruby tried to make the most menacing expression she could at the moment. But because of her features, it was more like a petulant little hamster than something menacing. And Yang, unable to resist her little sister's cute expression, burst out laughing, releasing Ruby from her grip.

Ruby instantly landed on her feet and took a step back from her older sister, then defiantly stood her ground, pointing at her older sister with an affronted look. "You're acting like a child!"

"Oh, my little sister has decided to accuse me of being 'childish'!" Yang could only laugh at the accusation. "Should I remind you why you came to my room, is it such an 'important' and 'adult' reason? Wasn't it to doodle on my face while I was sleeping, just as you did for the past week?!"

Ruby, caught red-handed, automatically tried to hide the hand clutching several felt-tip pens behind her back, then stared at Yang indignantly, as if offended by Yang's suggestion that Ruby might be doing something so childish… Then, faced with Yang's sly smirk, as if to say, 'Well, tell me I'm wrong', she exhaled irritably and rolled her eyes.

Yang only gave her an even more sly smile in response, which turned into a small smile a moment later, Yang understanding why her sister was acting out. "Ruby, it's just the Academy. I'll be coming home for all the holidays and weekends..."

"You say that now!" Ruby looked at Yang with a childish indignation, a pout on her face, not serious, still looking cute, but the hurt in her eyes was unmistakable. "First it'll be once every one week, then two, then three, then a missed celebration, and finally, in the end, we'll see you once every six months!"

"Don't exaggerate, Rubes," Yang rolled her eyes. Maybe Yang hadn't really planned on coming home every week, she has no doubt that she would be busy with classwork. She doubts that the Academy would provide much free time, but going home only once every six months? It was too much. Especially considering that even without teleportation, the trip from the Academy to her home would only take twenty minutes – with teleportation? It was literally three minutes away.

"Pfft," Ruby eloquently objected to Yang's words, blowing a raspberry, before stopping when Yang didn't react. Finally, deciding to take mercy on her sister, squinted her eyes before deciding to tell her sister what she was told to do in the first place. "Mum made cookies, so if you don't come down, don't blame me for eating them all!"

"You won't even have time to count them all before I get downstairs." Yang smirked at her sister and her addiction to cookies.

"Bring it on!" Ruby smirked back, and then, barely a moment later, she was out of the room, hurrying to the stairs downstairs where the sweets were waiting for her. Yang, however, relaxed the sly grin on her face and plopped down on the bed a moment later, then, unable to contain her impulse, let out a loud yawn. She had accomplished her mission, so it was hard to beat back her sleepiness, cookie or no cookie

Despite how much it would mortify Ruby, Yang wasn't actually particularly fond of the chocolate chip cookies that Ruby liked so much, not that she didn't like them, but she just didn't see them as anything special. But Yang knew that by teasing Ruby, as if they had a serious competition about the sweets, she could make Ruby enjoy them even more.

Who wouldn't want to get more when sharing their favorite sweets, and beat their older sister at it?

Besides, Yang knew that Ruby wouldn't eat them all anyway. Even with Ruby's second stomach prepared exclusively for desserts, there was no way Ruby would be able to eat all of Summer's cooking, who always cooked triple portions for her family. And besides, Ruby would always leave a portion for Yang, just because that was the way it was between the sisters.

So, not really caring to rush to the promised sweets, Yang flopped back on her pillow and yawned again, looking around her room with lidded eyelids. Soon, she would be leaving it for her own room in the Academy.

Her gaze was involuntarily attracted to her gloves – her weapon, Ember Celica. Ruby and dad had designed the gauntlets together as her graduation present… Next to them, this time much more hidden, something that would be much to her father's chagrin and her mother's complaint should they find it, was a small hip flask. As Qrow had said, winking at her as he had given the graduation present, her parents didn't need to know about this gift.

Though Yang was pretty sure they had at least suspected it, Raven had eventually made them limit their suspicions to just that…

Raven, huh…

When Yang was young, very young, maybe about five or six years old, was when she first learned that she wasn't really Summer's daughter. To her young mind, such information was a world-shaking revelation, she hadn't even considered the possibility of such a thing until then. I mean, as she grew up, maybe she was a little different from Summer, but Summer was her mother, wasn't she? And Ruby was her little sister, and she was Summer's daughter and looked like her, with Yang taking more after Taiyang.

The discovery that she wasn't Summer's daughter turned her whole world upside down, and with teary eyes, she asked if that meant that Summer didn't love her. She remembered Summer's panicked explanation to be quite funny in hindsight, though maybe the complex explanation that Summer gave was quite too mind-boggling to the young Yang.

The discovery that sometimes things in the world were a little more complicated than one might think at first glance was hard for her, rather incomprehensible, even. How was a child supposed to react to something like this, not yet knowing what kinship actually meant and when people, after having kids, just kind of leave each other?

Yang then gained the idea that she wanted to meet her real mother, to meet Raven…

Yang couldn't imagine how much pain she had caused Summer and Taiyang with her antics back then, Ruby had been very young then and didn't understand what Yang was arguing about. Although, Yang herself wasn't much older than Ruby.

But contrary to expectations, Yang did meet Raven in the end, not out of any effort on her part, but simply due to luck. Years later, but at one point, having moved to Glenn due to a job offered to her parents, Yang finally met Raven… And their first meeting could only be called a disaster if one were charitable.

At least, Yang could call it one now, back then Yang was too shocked at their chance meeting to actually figure that out. At their first meeting, Yang had been rather more shocked that here was this, unknown to her, a woman who was her mother, biologically speaking, while Summer was not. The opportunity to look at Raven, to reach out and touch her, had broken her childish mind for a long time, so much so that she didn't take that chance the first time they met.

When her initial shock wore off, she still wanted to meet Raven again, and then again, and again, and again…

And then Raven started showing up at her house. At her birthdays. She even came to her graduation from the Hunter Preparatory School, and even promised to come to her Academy enrollment.

Raven Branwen, considered one of Remnant's most wanted criminals only a few years ago, and now actually the top leader of Glenn's military forces, her birth mother – now a frequent visitor to her parents' home.

Yang was aware that Raven was her biological mother, but there was no way she could call her her mother. Summer was her mother, and Raven… Something else. But what exactly… Yang had a hard time telling.

No, in the end Yang wasn't hostile to Raven, but it was extremely difficult for her to unequivocally put her finger on what kind of relationship the two of them had at the moment. Definitely not parental and clearly not friendly. Maybe… Sisterly? No, more like Raven was an aunt to her, like uncle Qrow – just a little more blood-related than he was.

And now she had her childhood wish, Raven had come into her life, even interacting with Ruby a little – how exactly her relationship is with her parents and uncle Qrow, Yang wasn't entirely sure. But it must be at least cordial, she'd seen them sitting together a couple of times, reminiscing about their team's past events. Not perhaps like how close old friends do, sometimes having bouts of uncomfortable silence… but that was already progress.

Raven had never seemed too prone to big noisy celebrations to Yang anyway.

Yang yawned once more, covering her eyes for the time being, wanting nothing else but to fall asleep, but continuing to sleep after trying to stop Ruby's prank would just be weird right now. So, after lying down for a bit, Yang got out of bed with a reluctant sigh, heading towards the toilet to brush her teeth and take her shower. This time, thankfully, without having to wash off the results of Ruby's creativity.

Ever since Yang had said she would be going to the Academy, Ruby had taken that fact as a personal insult. She had tried every morning since then to paint Yang's face or eat more of the cookies than she was supposed to. Childish revenge, pure and unadulterated…

Luckily, Summer was there to calm Yang down the first time it happened and talk to her before she could do or say something that she would regret later. From then on, Yang took Ruby's antics quite calmly. After all, it wasn't the end of the world, she could always see Ruby over the weekend! Besides, in a couple of years Ruby herself would have to go to the Academy, so it wasn't a big deal….

She didn't have to tell Ruby that, though. As Yang had learned from Summer's example, it was a bad idea to tell her some of the more uncomfortable facts.

And Ruby had definitely taken after Summer in that regard.

So, having spent the morning rinsing and fluffing her hair, putting one large strand into a high ponytail… Like Raven did, and it was not out of a desire to copy her biological mother, no matter what Uncle Qrow says! What could she do, it really suited her.

Yang slowly made her way downstairs to the kitchen. Maybe she didn't like chocolate chip cookies all that much, but that didn't mean Ruby was allowed to eat all of Yang's portion! Besides, what morning could start without a little conflict between the sisters? After all, that's what sibling relationships were all about.

***

Summer took a big sip from her tea mug, then gave a sad expression as if she had just faced the most horrifying event of her life. And Taiyang, the one who made her tea, instantly realized that he had just made a terrible mistake. "What's wrong!?"

Summer looked at her tea mug, like it had just betrayed her, practically crying, with an expression of childish resentment, and looked up at Taiyang, before confessing in a sad voice. "It's bitter…!".

Hearing it, Taiyang sighed, it was something that Taiyang could not help Summer with, as the reason for this was due to Summer's own actions, "You shouldn't have left the tea unattended for so long. It had grown cold and bitter."

"But I was busy!" As if a small child making excuses to a parent, Summer looked at Taiyang in an expression of universal resentment.

"Cookies-speed-eating contest with Ruby is certainly an important activity, but tea doesn't care about the reason you left it out. It got cold, and steeped for too long." Taiyang sighed, then smiled warmly as he looked at Summer. Sometimes, especially after her interactions with Ruby, had awakened her inner child, though an inner child that is more prone to awakening than the normal person's.

In moments like these, Summer seemed to drop all her adult obligations for a few minutes to dive back into her childhood, making Taiyang think for a moment that he had three daughters – and the oldest of them was Yang. But that was why he loved Summer.

So, rolling his eyes, Tayang turned away from his wife and flicked the kettle switch, "Okay, I hear you. I'll make a new mug of tea now…"

"Three sugars!" Summer instantly replied from behind him.

"Two, you've already eaten what, twenty cookies?" Taiyang snorted at Summer's antics, as he reached for another mug.

"Eighteen," Summer said with unmistakable pride in her voice, as if she was seriously proud of her action, no matter how childish it might've seemed.

Taiyang could only snort, cutting off his blooming laughter, placing two spoonfuls of sugar into the mug, a tea bag, and hot water over it.

Not every morning started this way, but it was a common enough occurrence. Before Summer had retired from combat missions and turned her full attention to teaching at the Academy – medicine and wilderness survival - she'd managed to miss more than one such morning, to her mortification. Taiyang could imagine Summer marching to the Headmaster's office to demand her hours be changed, though she hadn't heard any rumors.

After that she'd made the full-time transition to a stable job at Glenn, she'd sort of vowed to make up for it. Sometimes, of course, work did take her out of her usual routine, exam meeting, tests, preparing for practicals. But relative to the past, especially the times when Taiyang had escorted her to every mission, diligently trying to fend off the worm of doubt in his mind that his wife would not be coming home? The current situation was quite incomparable.

After waiting for the water to become tea-colored but not bitter, Taiyang took out a tea bag, stirred the sugar, and then turned to Summer and held the mug out to her.

"You're the best husband in the world!" Summer couldn't resist the gesture and moved closer to him, kissing him on the lips. It wasn't a passionate kiss, though, the kids were home, and they both had to get ready for Jonathan's birthday…

Jonathan, hah… The thought of that man brought complex emotions in Taiyang.

Pulling away from Summer, Taiyang flicked her nose lightly, causing her to pull away from him as she tried to reach up to continue the kiss. Summer looks affronted at the act, making her look like the older twin of Ruby. "You still have to take Yang to Amber and Ruby's section at nine, and then Jonathan's birthday party. You can have more tonight."

"I'll take your word for it!" Summer winked at Taiyang, managing to combine the childlike spontaneity and seductiveness that had once charmed him completely. The important thing was not to be too specific about how those things combined in his wife. The last time Summer had forgotten to hide her old uniform from Beacon after Qrow's arrival, Taiyang couldn't look him in the eye for another week.

The shit-grinning look Qrow gave him persisted even after that.

Realizing that such thoughts weren't going to lead to anything good, Taiyang turned away from Summer, reaching for a new mug and began pouring coffee. It was his own stash, as no one in the family drinks coffee, his daughters having a sweet tooth, though Yang would complain about it, with Summer being the biggest offender. Qrow would just add a copious amount of alcohol to his cup, wasting the good beans.

Taiyang knows that he's trying to shift his thoughts from the intimate life he didn't have time for right now, to the reason he didn't have time for it.

Jonathan Goodman.

When Jonathan had announced the creation of the monarchy in Glenn, Taiyang had been in… Not in a state to pay attention to the political events of Remnant. The wounds that Raven leaving had given him were still fresh in his mind. The only thing that had kept him from taking the most disgusting and reckless steps was Summer Rose, his team leader, the huntress who seemed to want to be a mother to the whole world, who had room in her heart for all of Remnant… And a little more for him, little ol' Taiyang.

Taiyang still couldn't believe it had even been that lucky, years later, he'd learned that Summer had always had her eye on him, from the first day he'd met her in fact. But fate had it that he'd fallen head over heels in love with Raven Branwen, so Summer had stayed her hand.

He could still remember it, their first meeting.

The encounter was so incongruous for the teenage Taiyang, a fresh graduate from a Hunter's preparatory school meeting a silent mystery girl in Beacon without formal hunter's training. He then decided to play the knight, and promised to protect her from all the dangers of the world… Raven took his attempt to protect her as a terrible personal insult, and gave him a beating that he had not experienced in any sparring session since that day.

Except when he had once tried to drag away Summer from demolishing a diabetes-inducing amount of cookies, who then had used her semblance in retaliation. He had to run for six hours to escape her. That day, Taiyang had discovered reserves of power he hadn't even realized existed.

And so, one word after another, one broken limb after another, Taiyang ignored Summer and fell head over heels in love with Raven, determined to win her over with his charm, intelligence, and fighting skills. And Raven, who was cold to his attempts at first, gradually accepted Taiyang, at least he had thought so.

For a short time after graduation, when Raven was pregnant and Taiyang thought he had found his little slice of happiness, everything was fine. Until Professor Ozpin's gray hair flashed outside the window of Taiyang's house.

That was when Taiyang refused Ozpin's offer, which he had refused for the entirety of STRQ, Taiyang didn't want to ruin the little slice of happiness he had found in his life. If there were secrets and mysteries in the world that he didn't know… Well, then they weren't that important to his simple life.

But Taiyang was the only one of the entire STRQ team to turn down Ozpin's offer. He went home to his infant child, to his little Yang, waiting for word from Raven that she had been delayed with Professor Ozpin… That was when all of it went wrong.

To see Raven, his Raven, cold and aloof, allowing herself only a smirk in lieu of smiles, allowing the rare small smiles when she looked at Yang, on the verge between sobbing cries and hysterical laughter? Taiyang almost thought that the world had ended, though, in some manner, it did.

Taiyang tried to comfort his wife, to share her pain, to ask what was wrong, but it was too late.

Raven got drunk to the point where Taiyang simply couldn't make out her speech and exclamations, even Qrow had never been so sloshed. The brother and sister were more alike to each other than they were willing to admit… Perhaps it was then that Raven decided that she needed to leave.

Summer tried to stop Raven, the strongest huntress of their entire generation and the second Grimm Reaper in Remnant, Raven had no chance of beating her in a fight.

But running away? Raven had no equal. And so Raven ran away. Drunk, almost hysterical, nervous and angry at Ozpin, she ran away.

At the time, Taiyang had thought she'd come back, that she only needed a few days to clean herself up to gather herself. Raven, his wife, the mother of his daughter, couldn't just run away from him like that, could she?

But Raven didn't return, not after a day, not after two days, not even after a week. Years later, when he had finally met her again, Taiyang wished he could ask Raven, why? Why did it happen like that, why did she just leave him, why didn't she come back?

But Taiyang never asked that question, and Raven never answered it. Shame, duty, fear, what exactly made Raven run away? Taiyang didn't know. Perhaps Raven herself didn't know either, after they're reunited, they hadn't brought it up.

When Raven ran away, Taiyang was calm at first, Raven knew how to stand up for herself being a trained hunter, one of the strongest in fact, she wasn't a damsel in distress. When Raven didn't return a week later, he started to become worried, thinking that the only reason why Raven didn't come home could be tragedy. Maybe an encounter with a Grimm, rare as it was but Grimm grows more dangerous as they age, and there are some very old Grimm out there, maybe Raven had encountered one of them.

Taiyang could barely stop himself from running into the woods to search for his wife, remembering only at the last second that his daughter needed him.

Weeks passed, and gradually the reality of the situation settled into his mind. Raven was… Gone, she was either dead or had just left him and Yang altogether. Only Summer remained by his side, when Qrow continued to try to distance himself from Taiyang, fearing that his Semblance would hurt Yang.

At first, it was all just the small things. Summer decided to help him with Yang, Taiyang thought about the fact that the child required a mother, a well-meaning calculation that eventually made Summer remember her crush when Taiyang gradually forgot about Raven.

Meetings with Yang began to turn into dates, then at some point Summer's shower shelf appeared in the bathroom, and then they married and Taiyang's family got a little bigger. He had even gotten a new daughter.

Summer turned out to be a wonderful mother, childishly naïve and good-natured, and so good with her children, and at the same time, balanced, calm, wise. Always ready to help, and at the same time to sink her teeth into the throat of anyone who tried to look at her daughters in a funny way.

Summer's only problem was that she was too perfect.

After learning about the underbelly of the world from Ozpin, she hadn't run away like Raven had. She stayed, for everyone's sake – everyone but herself. She ran herself ragged to save the world.

No matter how many times Taiyang told her, how hard it was for him to send Summer on every mission. Of how terrified he was to hear every news of Grimm hordes and attacks on settlements. How Summer was more precious to him than anything in Remnant, that there was always a family waiting for her at home, a husband and two daughters… None of it could stop Summer in her pursuit of saving people.

Not until one day.

When Raven had left him, when Summer had just given birth to Ruby, when Taiyang had been re-learning how to live his life, he hadn't cared much for the tectonic shifts on the Remnant world stage. So, he'd learned of the Kingdom of Glenn's creation by the time Glenn meant something in this world. At least, it meant enough to start a war with the Schnee megacorporation, and win.

Taiyang had always been extremely apolitical, he wasn't interested in the complexities of monarchical restoration and other diplomatic intrigues. He had a family, a wife, two daughters and a job. Did he really need to pay attention to what the jacket-clad people on the screens were saying?

So when once again, back from Vacuo, Summer announced that she had met Jonathan Goodman, the King of Glenn, Taiyang didn't even immediately realize who exactly his wife was talking about.

However, about her meeting with Raven, Taiyang listened impeccably.

The monumental incidents in Remnant's world politics suddenly became much more interesting to him now. Especially when one of the newest and perhaps greatest mover, Jonathan Goodman, was employing his ex-wife. It was this event in Taiyang's life that marked Jonathan Goodman, the man who had turned the world upside down, as someone to look out for.

As paradoxical as it was to say, it was the meeting with Raven through Jonathan's actions that turned Taiyang's world upside down far more than any of Remnant's political events.

So it wasn't the news, armored limousines and unknown teleportation technology that convinced Taiyang that Jonathan was one of Remnant's most powerful men, but the fact that Raven had appeared on his doorstep. For someone that had thought that Ozpin was too weak to work for, Raven had easily joined Jonathan's employ, even turning her bandit clan into a legitimate force.

After the events of Vacuo, Summer had returned home with Raven and… And nothing. Nothing happened. Taiyang met up with his estranged ex-wife and, on automatic, as if not realizing the meaning of what was happening, invited her home for tea.

And then Summer made him invite her again, and again… At some point, Raven started talking about work, about Jonathan, about Glenn, then Jonathan made an offer to the remaining three members of the STRQ team to move to Glenn. An opportunity to meet Raven again, to connect with her again, to get Summer out of her fieldwork, for her to become a teacher. Safe

Taiyang had been trying to convince Summer for so long to retire from active duty, only for Jonathan to convince her to do it, even after only a short meeting. From reports later, Taiyang realized that the only reason why Summer had accepted was the fact that Jonathan was willing to shoulder Summer's burden. That he had shown her a weapon of incredible power, the effects of which could still be seen in Vacuo.

Jonathan was willing to be the savior of Remnant rather than Summer, but only if Summer stayed at Glenn, as a teacher.

Taiyang, having longed for so long for Summer to become a teacher like him after all, couldn't pass up the chance, and Qrow reached out to follow the newly assembled full STRQ team. And so, Taiyang changed workplace, a promotion even, as deputy director of the Hunter Preparatory School, after the old Star retired, most likely becoming the principal next.

Summer became the deputy of the practical classes at the Academy, Qrow became a teacher of combat training, and Raven, after a long and thorny path, joined Glenn's ministry, becoming, in fact, a Councilor responsible for the army. Though there was no Council as such in Glenn.

Could this be called a happy ending for the STRQ team? In a way, now, years later, the team that had fallen apart had come back together. They met, not infrequently at that, discussed the past, drank during the holidays, even Qrow and Raven had gradually moved from cold reticence to sarcastic and insulting jokes.

They had socialized like that in the past, when Qrow had managed, thanks to Beacon, to step out of Raven's shadow, all they did day in and day out was bicker over all sorts of trivial matters. Summer became a teacher, as he and Qrow had, and with Raven serving as, effectively, a general, the danger of a Hunter's life for all four were minimized, and they all interacted with each other almost as friends.

One could say that this was part of the 'happy ending' of Taiyang's life, all thanks to Jonathan. The job, the house, the help with the move, whether it was done out of self-interest or not, Taiyang owed Jonathan for it.

And yet not everything was perfect. Nothing ever was.

Yang had become a Maiden, her life now being in constant danger, Jonathan and Ozpin had chosen her as the heir to the past Maiden, and Taiyang couldn't forget or forgive that.

The secret of her new status was kept under so many locks and jets that the people that knew her status as a Maiden could be counted in one hand. All for her safety – but Taiyang still couldn't forgive the way the two world influencers had painted a lifelong target on Yang's back, no matter how much the cloak of secrecy kept her safe.

He couldn't forgive the fact that after all his attempts to escape the secret wars of this world, he was forced to delve into those secrets. Now not just for the sake of the team, but for the sake of his family, for the sake of his daughter.

Taiyang was not a vindictive or evil man, but neither was he blind. He was thankful to Jonathan for what he had done, his help, everything that had happened in Taiyang's life because of Jonathan. He was even willing to say that it had been Jonathan's intervention that had saved Summer from tragedy on some mission one day.

And knew the fact that for the sake of saving his wife's life, he had sacrificed his daughter. That was something Taiyang couldn't forget either.

"Tai?" Summer's voice snapped Taiyang out of his thoughts, which were slowly turning into something cold and dark. "Your coffee's cold."

"Аh? Well, I suppose it is, couldn't believe I just repeated your mistake." Taiyang blinked, then looked down at his coffee mug and smiled, looking up at Summer, "We're made for each other, aren't we, Summer?"

"Yeah…" Summer smiled back at him and then reached forward and kissed him gently on the lips, at least it was supposed to be a gentle kiss. But suddenly Taiyang responded enthusiastically, causing Summer to pull away slightly, arching an eyebrow at him, "I thought we didn't have much time, and the kids are home…"

"You know," Taiyang thought for a moment, then smiled slyly, "We're not that late, and Yang and Ruby have been wanting to go to the gun shop and have a little fun at the mall without us for ages…"

Summer, catching the glint in Taiyang's eyes, thought for a second, and then smirked even more slyly. "You know, we might just let them go to the cinema then…"

"You read my mind," Taiyang pulled Summer to him, then thought about something for a moment, before he opened his mouth.

"So where did you hide the school uniform, by the way?"