There are small headcanons littered throughout this fic, a few of which came directly from the story Love, Lose, Repeat, Prioritize by xT-Zealot. It's not required reading because everything in this fic is pretty self-explanatory, but it is a really good story that you should definitely go read if you like Rose/Xiao Long family stuff.

Yang could count on her hands the number of times her mother had been mentioned throughout her life. She'd asked people about her more times than she could possibly count, but that only ever resulted in vague and evasive answers. She only ever got any meaningful information when others brought her up of their own volition.

The first time was of course the clearest in her memory. When her distraught father had blurted it out unthinkingly and sent her whole world crashing down even farther than it already had. She distinctly remembered those first few moments after he'd spoken when she'd completely forgotten how to breathe. She remembered the way her stomach churned when the meaning of his words hit, and she realized the woman who raised her, the woman she had been mourning, whose loss had torn her heart open, wasn't even her real mother. She remembered wondering if she even had any right to mourn her anymore. Most distinctly though, she remembered the conversation she'd had with Ruby afterward.

She'd run to her room, emotionally overwhelmed and unable to even look at her father anymore, and had huddled herself up at the head of her bed, sobbing into her knees. Ruby had come in to find her like that and asked what was wrong. She'd tried to explain it to her, but the little girl had been very confused as to how it was even possible for them to have different moms. Yang's knowledge on the birds and the bees hadn't been much better, but she knew enough that she was able to think of a way to help her understand. She'd gone and dug out an old photo album and found pictures of Summer when she was pregnant.

"See how her tummy is all big?" Ruby nodded with some degree of fascination. "She was growing you inside her tummy. That's what makes her your mom, you came from inside her. But a different lady grew me in her tummy, so that lady is my mom."

"But I thought daddy loved mommy." The younger girl's face was scrunched up in confusion.

"He did love mommy, and he still does, he just loved my mom first. But she left after I was born, then he fell in love with Summer and they got married and had you."

"Mommy," Ruby corrected her with a tiny scowl.

"Huh?"

"You called her Summer. She's mommy."

Yang sighed sadly. "Ruby…"

The little girl interrupted her angrily before she could get any more words out. "She's still your mommy Yang! She baked you cookies, and read you bedtime stories, and sang your sunshine song, and she gave you lots of hugs and kisses and told you she loved you all the time! She did all the same stuff for you that she did for me. Just 'cause she didn't grow you in her tummy doesn't mean she wasn't your mommy too."

Yang didn't know what to say to that. She'd barely had time to process any of this herself, but here was her tiny sister frowning at her with a look her determination and seeming to totally understand what she hadn't been able to put into words until now. Just because Summer hadn't been her mother, it didn't mean she hadn't been her mom.

She felt her throat choking up and gulped it away while she blinked the blurry tears from her eyes. "Yeah, you're right," She said with a furious nod.

Ruby gave a curt nod of her own before flopping sideways on the bed and wrapping her arms around the blonde's waist, resting her head in her lap. There was a thoughtful silence before she spoke again. "So, you have a different mom, but we're still sisters, right?"

"Of course!" Yang reassured hurriedly. "We have the same daddy, so we're definitely still sisters."

"Good. 'Cause we already lost mommy. I don't want to lose my sister too."

She'd asked around a lot after that, but the next time she'd found any real information on her mother had been due to another slipup on her father's part. When she'd found the photo that led her to drag herself and her sister out into the forest, and nearly to their deaths.

She remembered the panicked racing of her heart as the glowing red eyes of the Grimm seemed to burn themselves into her very soul. She remembered her mind screaming at her to run, to grab Ruby and run as far away as possible, only to have her leaden limbs ignore the command. She remembered the tears that sprang to her eyes as the sharp fangs raced towards her, and she became certain that this was how she would die. And she remembered the way the air sang as her uncle's scythe ripped through the monsters before they could touch her.

She'd been frozen on the spot, but as soon as Qrow had cleared out the Grimm and turned back to look at her, her knees gave out and she dropped to the forest floor as those same initial tears clung to her lashes instead of falling with her.

The huntsman kneeled down in front her to inspect her for any serious injury, asking what in the world she had been doing out here.

She'd hiccupped out a response as best she could. That she had just wanted to find out more about her mother.

Her uncle had placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, turned her head up to face him and looked her in the eyes as he said, "She's not worth this, sunshine."

When their father had come home that night, she'd been absolutely certain she'd be yelled at. How could she not be in trouble after what she had done that day? But when he'd walked into the room and seen her, panic on her face, cuts and scrapes and bruises littering her small form from her long trek the though the forest, he'd dropped to his knees and crushed her into a hug, sobbing over what he'd nearly lost that day.

After that, they'd had a single short but heartfelt conversation about her mother, where he explained that he didn't know why she'd left them, but that he'd loved her very much. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to keep her from doing anything so reckless again.

A couple of years passed then before she was brought up again. Uncle Qrow had come over for dinner, he was roughhousing with Ruby, while Yang sat at the table finishing up her homework, and Taiyang prepared their meal.

Ruby had screeched with laughter when her uncle hauled her up into his arms and pinned her in place for a tickle attack. "Had enough?" He asked as she hung nearly upside down in his grip. She let out a breathless chuckle and nodded, so he plopped himself down on the floor and let her rest in his lap while she tried to catch her breath.

Once she was no longer winded, the girl got a pensive look on her face. "Hey, Uncle Qrow, I have a question."

"Fire away, rose bud."

"If you're our uncle, does that mean mom was your sister?"

The room stilled for just a moment. Taiyang was back to a functional state by now, but bringing up his wife still hurt every time. Ruby was the only one who could get away with bringing her up without him shutting down, because he understood that it was something she would need to work though for the rest of her life.

Qrow smiled and shook his head. "Nah, kiddo. Summer was one of my best friends in the whole world, but we weren't related."

There was a very pregnant pause where he seemed to be debating whether or not he should even say the next thing he wanted to, but after a moment, he spoke very slowly. "Yang's mom is my sister though."

If mention of Summer had stilled the room, it was nothing compared to the effect this sentence had. Yang's head shot up, lilac eyes wide as saucers and mouth slightly agape. Taiyang stopped cutting the vegetables he'd been slicing and turned to his friend with a look that asked what the hell he thought he was doing. Ruby lay unmoving in her uncle's lap, save for her eyes darting between her sister and father, as if trying to decide who she should be more worried about. Qrow, somehow, maintained a complete calm.

The spell over the room was finally broken when Yang spoke. She swallowed thickly and clenched her fists, brows narrowing as she stared intensely at the wood grain of the table. "So she left you too, then. Even her own brother wasn't important enough for her to stay."

Taiyang's face softened immediately. He walked over to his eldest daughter and rested one hand on her shoulder, sweeping her curls aside with the other and placing a soft kiss on her forehead. "Why don't you go watch TV with your sister for a bit, sunshine. I'll help you finish your homework later."

She nodded and slid off her chair, Ruby immediately darting over and latching onto her arm with a reassuring smile. As they left the room, Yang just barely heard Qrow say to her father in a low tone, "She deserved to know, Tai."

After that, people seemed to make a point of avoiding talking about her mother for a long time. The next time she heard her mentioned was on the night of her first school dance at Signal academy. She was wearing a knee-length orange dress that night, which started as a soft pastel color near the top, but shifted into a brighter shade as it went down until it was a fiery orange near the bottom. She'd done up her makeup herself to look extra nice that night, and was even wearing heels for the first time. Feeling confident in herself, she walked out of the bathroom to be greeted by a squealing Ruby.

"Yang, you look so pretty!"

She chuckled lightly. "Thanks, sis. Just wait until you're old enough for your first dance. I'll get you all dolled up just as pretty," she said with a wink.

"Eh, I don't know," Ruby replied, eying her heels suspiciously. "Those shoes look pretty uncomfortable to me. I'm not sure getting 'dolled up' is really my style."

"Right of passage kid, deal with it." She ruffled her hair playfully before marching down the stairs to where she knew her father and uncle were waiting.

"Well," she said when she reached the landing. "What do you think?"

The two men stopped their conversation to turn and look at her, and her father practically stopped breathing. Qrow grinned and said, "Well don't you look pretty as a peach."

"I…" Taiyang stuttered, his mouth continuing to move, but no sound coming out. Eventually he ran a hand roughly through his hair and said, "My god." She watched as his eyes started to get wet before he covered his mouth and turned away so she wouldn't see him cry.

"Wow, dad. I expected you to freak out a little, but this might be an overreaction even for you." She laughed, feeling exceptionally proud of herself.

She heard him mutter something to Qrow, before her uncle's face shifted to a sad but fond smile and he patted his friend on the back. Wait, why would he be sad? She noticed her father's shoulders begin to shake from the force of his barely contained sobs, and realized something was wrong. She really had expected him to cry, he'd always been a proud and protective father, but this was looking like quite a bit more than was reasonable for the situation.

"Hey, is he alright?" She asked, suddenly concerned.

Qrow turned his sad smile toward her and tried to make it look reassuring instead. "You just look a lot like your mother the older you get."

She didn't know how to feel about that.

Now here she stood, the mystery woman in front of her having just removed her mask, and she realized how true her uncle's words had been that night. It was like looking into some kind of bizarre mirror. So many of this woman's features just looked like older versions of her own. Even her red eyes struck an obvious chord. She thought back to times when she would get angry with her father and her own eyes would turn red, how he always looked taken aback for a moment, and her stomach turned as she finally understood why. She could feel her eyes turning red now, as she stared down this woman who had apparently decided she could just waltz back into her life whenever she wanted.

"Yang," the woman said with a small smirk on her face. "We have a lot to talk about."

That was an understatement.