This takes place in an AU before the events of canon. You'll see why - I don't want to ruin the story in the warning.

Cover image source: hiwonoafu (dot) tumblr (dot) com / post / 141567360529 / another - commission
Credit to the original artist

All she could utter at the sight was a single word: "Wow."

Raven Branwen had never been one for expressiveness. Especially of this positive magnitude. When she first arrived at Beacon, everyone else was gawking at the sight of the illustrious Huntsman Academy of Vale, she and her brother were looking and seeing who would be easiest to kill once their time was up here. They even bet most of what little money they'd brought with them on it.

When being informed of the sleeping arrangements on the first night, Raven opted to "sneak out" and train under the security of darkness, only to be asked politely to return to her sleeping bag, then forcefully requested to do so when not complying, then eventually physically returned by Fourth Year Team GLTR {Glitter}'s team leader, then 20 year old Glynda Goodwitch, by means of telekinesis. Even then, her expression was only mild annoyance.

On Initiation, students were all flung into the Quadling Maze - a giant 1km by 2.5km labyrinth of hedges and trees - to make it to the centre to retrieve the artefacts sent there by Professor Ozpin and the late Deputy Head, Dr. Hawk Stephens earlier that day. When Raven's eyes locked onto those of shy, unsuspecting Summer Rose, her response was to grunt in frustration at not finding her brother and being stuck with a girl who probably saw more of the underside of her hood than the outside world.

To most, Raven's mouth never curved upwards to any degree. You might be lucky and get the smallest of smirks, but nothing more.

But that wasn't the case.

The first time Summer saw Raven smile was in their sixth Combat Class under Professor Schwartz's tutelage. Although the heavily accented, brick house of a Huntsman reminded them that the Vytal Tournament wouldn't be until next academic year, slacking on their physical training would almost certainly be detrimental to the individual and the team as a whole. Raven faced against a kid named Llyr Li Fodder, and promptly brought his Aura from full to seven in nine well placed hits. Summer saw Raven's smile for the briefest of moments, and that little sparkle of hope that this unflappable woman could be human like her brother, who had started getting along really well with her and Taiyang - the fourth member of Team STRQ - since joining.

She didn't even crack a smile at the Beacon Ball. Her dress, fitting with her lack of expression, was a simple black number that covered her top half modestly, but had concealed slits down the sides on the off chance that she needed to fight in this thing. Many people complimented her on the look, and more often than not the response was either "get lost" or "the sooner I can get back into my clothes as opposed to this, the better."

Summer remembered how one of their fellow students tried flirting with her, hearing her comment about how she'd like to be out of the dress and offering her a proposition to get out of here and relieve themselves of their clothes. She remembered Raven's exact words and response like they were playing out in front of her shining silver eyes over and over again.

"Are you trying to hit on me?" she asked, stone faced at the boy's offer.

"I am, yeah," he grinned. Someone had spiked the punch (big surprise there) and this guy had clearly too much of the special alco-brew. "Thought I could get you to open up a bit. Y'know, by opening up a bit, eh?"

That was another moment she remembered a genuine reaction from Raven. Almost at the same time, the women of Team STRQ shuddered at the openly provocative and direct question from the boy, even if the offer - if you wished to call it such - wasn't aimed at Summer.

"Well, let me tell you something," Raven replied much to Summer's horror, a sultry tone on play. "That's not how you hit on someone."

"Oh yeah?" the boy giggled drunkenly. "Then how do yo-" Fist met face before the question even ended.

Summer felt something in that moment. Something that had solidified itself after roughly a month of letting it stew. She had a crush on her partner. The stoicism that gave way to a sense of pride and loyalty, if you managed to earn it, was endearing to the leader in a way she'd never quite experienced before.

But not even that brought about a happy response from Raven. So over the break a few weeks later, Summer Rose played her Team Leader Card and her Trump Card all at once.

Tai grinned as she mumbled nervously to herself about it a day before the break.

"Must be a pretty big crush, if your pulling out all the stops for this," he observed, earning a hefty blush and a pout from their team leader.

"Shut up!"

Tai scoffed, making his way over to her and gently patting her on the back. "It'll be fine, Sum. Raven will love it." Both Tai and Summer grew up on the Island of Patch, so when they first saw each other at the Team Ceremony after initiation they were ecstatic to know they had someone they knew on their team. They later told the Branwen twins (well, they told Qrow and Raven was there too - whether she listened or not only she knew) that they'd seen each other around Patch a few times, but never really interacted before.

And both being from Patch meant that Tai knew what Summer was planning, and the confidence coming from the blond boy gave her the perk she needed to get going and go along with what she had planned.

~0~0~00~0~0~

"Must we do this?"

"Yes."

"Okay, but must we do this now?"

"Yes. You're going to like it, now come on."

"But there are other things we could be doing right now."

"Such as?"

"Sleeping would be nice."

"Raven…"

"Summer."

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"You know what you're doing, don't play coy."

"I'll play whatever I want, Summer. You can't stop me. I'm stronger than you."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I am. I could lift you above my head without breaking a sweat."

"And Tai would then proceed to lift both of us over his head like it was nothing." Raven's playful expression dropped at being reminded of Tai. She really disliked being reminded she wasn't the strongest person in the team. "And do you know what else?"

"What?"

"I'm faster." With that she spun in a circle, her cloak whipping up around her, and she vanished.

"That doesn't make you faster, Summer," Raven cried after her partner, who had reappeared halfway up the hill with her hands on her hips, "it means you have a semblance that allows you to practically teleport."

"So do you," came the gentle yet teasing reminder.

"Mine's cooler than yours."

"Mine doesn't need me to be bonded to anyone for it to work I can just-" *whoosh* "-DO IT WHENEVER!" She had to shout the last part having shot even further up the hill, grinning and running the rest of the way up normally.

"Oh it's on." Never going anywhere without her weapon, Raven unsheathed it and focussed on Summer's energy. The white ball of light jumping around in her vision was climbing higher and higher, so she adjusted where she wanted her portal to appear up there. Locking on, she took a slice at the air and cleaved open a rift in space, running and jumping through before it had even stabilised itself. Raven's feet met nothing as she had made the high in the air above Summer, falling towards the white caped young woman.

"Gotcha!" she cried when he was within earshot of her team leader, drawing an "Eep!" from her as she zoomed into the hillside, her arm looping around Summer's waist and pulling her down with her. Raven took the brunt of the impact, but Summer still ached from suddenly going from running to a complete standstill in a second.

"Raven, what was that for?"

"That was for leaving me at the bottom of the hill. I needed to make up ground."

"By being on the ground?"

"Don't question my methods!"

"Only if you don't question my leadership."

"…you drive a hard bargain, Summer Rose."

"Yeah, well-" Summer gasped as she looked upwards at the sky. "We've got to hurry!" Pushing Raven off of her and clambering up, Summer instinctively grabbed the red eyed Huntress-in-Training's hand and started running up the hill in a panic. Raven just eyed her partner fondly, being dragged along and smiling about it the whole time - not that Summer could see that. "Tada!"

There wasn't much to see at the moment. The sight was pretty good, sure. But in the pre-dawn light, the blues and deeper blues of the ocean and cliffs weren't very visually pleasing. "Is that it Summer? You brought me out all this way at…" she looked at her Scroll, "… ten past five in the morning on a holiday break to look at the cliffside? We could have done this at noon or something."

"Not this you couldn't," she teased. They waited for another minute before the Sun crested over the horizon. The moment it did, the water below them began glowing with an orange light, and the cliffs that were bland a moment ago suddenly became vibrant with colour, sparkling as the Sun's rays hit them.

Raven had not seen anything this beautiful before. All she could utter at the sight was a single word: "Wow."

Summer turned to look at her partner on hearing that, and she saw the taller girl absolutely gobsmacked, a small smile of appreciation on her face.

"Told you you'd like it," Summer said, pride in her voice.

"Like it?" she clenched her fists in order to contain her excitement, forgetting that she had Summer's hand in her own. "I love it! Summer, I-" Okay, now she noticed. Red faced, she glanced up at her partner, who was just as red as her namesake. Neither broke eye contact for a few seconds, and those few seconds turned into many, turned into a minute or two. Realising what she was saying and doing, Raven smiled. "I love it. Thank you for showing me this."

~0~0~00~0~0~

The hilltop became a regular spot for the two Huntresses-in-Training. They returned once more before they left for Beacon again that term, and that was their ritual. Every time the pair of the travelled to Patch - with the exception of one time, where they were on a mission and didn't have time for such pleasantries - they would come up here and watch the sunrise on the morning of the first full day they stayed and on the morning that they were to head back. Each and every single sunrise was just as glorious as the last. And as little as it meant to Raven, to the leader of the team, having her there all this time brought them closer together.

Until the final break before Graduation, where she needed to speak with Qrow and Tai beforehand.

"Is this about my sister?"

"Yes," Summer admitted to Qrow.

"And about the crush you have on her?"

"I… yes," she admitted to Tai.

"So is this about asking her out?"

"..." Summer's silence, along with her growing blush, was all the confirmation they needed.

"Look Summer, I can't speak for Raven as she is neither my partner nor my older twin sister," Tai began, "but I will say that she's grown so much since Initiation. And it's all thanks to you Sum."

"I'm with Tai on this one, Short Stack. Rae's never been happier than in the years she's been here, and you're the one to thank for that. Now go, sunrise is soon." With a nod and a brief hug from the pair of them after probably Remnant's help session, Summer sped her way to the cliffs, intermittently teleporting herself to beat the ever approaching dawn.

Sadly, the sunlight broke the horizon before Summer even made it halfway up the hill - her semblance out of juice due to overuse in such a short time frame.

Fortunately for her, what she saw was even better.

Raven, clearly being apprehensive of Summer missing her first sunrise since they'd started three and a half years ago, was peering over the crest of the hill to look down for her partner, despite being told by the young woman years ago to keep staring at the sunrise even if she's not there - she'll be along soon enough. But this time, because it was their last sunrise as Huntresses-in-Training, Raven wanted Summer to be there with her to cap of a tradition spanning every week long break they went to Patch, every long weekend, every Winter Solstice, every summer vacation.

She needed her to be there. It wouldn't have felt right otherwise.

So, she peered over the crest to spot if Summer was indeed coming up, instead of standing her up on the last day they may ever do this.

She (thankfully) saw Summer running up as fast as she could. She didn't expect the woman to freeze in her tracks the second she saw her though.

What Summer saw (in her eyes at least) was the most amazingly beautiful girl in the world standing atop a hill with an early morning sunrise backlighting her and illuminating her in an ethereal light. The once socially awkward leader literally gasped when she saw Raven standing there, extending her hand out to Summer like a literal raven haired angel.

"Summer, are you alright?"

"Will you marry me?" the hooded woman mumbled out, hypnotised by her best friend's beauty, aided by the natural light of the morning sun.

"What?"

What she just said suddenly dawned on Summer (pun entirely intended). She just asked Raven to marry her!

'It's fine,' she thought to herself, 'just play it off. You can save this.'

She steeled herself to say what she meant before speaking again. "I asked if you would marry me." 'You're making it worse!'

"Summer…"

"Sorry! Sorry, let's just… sorry. I was going to… argh! Sorry!" The young woman turned to leave before heavy footsteps followed, finishing up with Raven grabbing ahold of her arm.

"Maybe not right away," came the soft tease of her partner.

"I knew I shouldn't have said any-wait, what?"

Raven looked back at Summer with a fond smile. Summer was one of the people - if not, the only person - to ever see such an expression from Raven. "You missed a lot of steps there Sum," Raven clarified. "We'd need our own place first. But to do that, we'd need to be okay with living with each other."

"Raven, we shared a room with one another for four years."

"Well, that's that covered, at least. But before we live with each other in a way that would make wherever we stay our house, our home, we'd need to be couple. And I think we'd need to go on a few dates before we call ourselves such."

"That's what I was trying to say!" the cloak wearing Huntress-in-Training protested. "The words got lost…"

"Uh huh."

"It was!"

"Sure thing Summer. Whatever you say." Summer just buried her head in her hands and groaned to herself. She was coaxed out of her embarrassed stupor by a hand easing its way into her own. "Come on, you're going to be late for your first date."

In that moment, everything seemed so much better than it was a minute ago. Summer's smile shone as bright as her namesake, and her enthusiasm couldn't be contained. She'd let these feelings fester for nearly four years, with others only knowing of them for 18 months. Well, she figured a few people she had eventually told probably figured it out by themselves sooner than that.

She felt like nothing would change how she was feeling. That nothing would ruin what she was experiencing.

Until one day, when it did.

"Raven, I'm home." Summer sighed in relief as she slipped her boots and socks off, laying the former item by the door and wandering over to the kitchen to stick the latter in the washing machine.

It had felt like so long since she had just come home, kicked her shoes off and wandered around barefoot on soft carpet and familiar wooden boards. She even slid across that one part in the dining room right by the third door on the right side of the cabinet that squeaked whenever too much downward force was applied. A four week solo mission may have been a little too much, but she was back here in one piece, so all's well that ends well.

A hesitant clop of feet shuffled their way across the floor above Summer, so with a smile on her face and her present in her hand, she made sure Midnight Dusk - the name she gave her machine pistol sword combo - was locked in safety mode and stored away, then she bounded up the stairs two at a time to greet her partner.

With a skip in her step, she reached their bedroom door and knocked.

"Oh, Raven~ Guess who's back~?"

"Is it you?" came the sarcastic reply from the other side.

"It's me!" she answered, bursting through the door with a cheeky grin, her other arm still hiding behind her back to keep the surprise present from view.

"Welcome home," Raven responded, the enthusiasm and joy she normally put into the greeting there, but very forced.

Summer picked up on it immediately, her cheery demeanour gone in the blink on an eye. "What's wrong Raven?"

"Why would anything be wrong, Sum?" she chuckled back. "You're home. That's what matters."

"Uh huh. And I was born yesterday."

"Really?" the ex-Bandit replied with genuine curiosity, missing the point of the comment entirely. "Shit…"

"So, spill. What's got you pushing smiles and missing my very clear sarcasm? And don't say it's because of me, because this is the first time it's happened in nearly eighteen months since we've been together." Raven just looked back at her nervously, like a kid with their hand in a cookie jar.

Seeing how she wasn't willing to divulge information willingly, Summer set her present down on the table by the side of the bed and grabbed both of Raven's hands in hers, instantly noticing the sweat that had built up from nerves. "Raven, we can't work through this with the silent treatment, we need to talk."

Crimson eyes noticed the package on the table. "I ruined your surprise."

"You're more important than a special package I brought home for you, it's fine."

With a soft smile, Raven looked back at her partner. "Always in leader mode aren't you?" Summer just shrugged. "I've actually got something I wanted to give you too."

"Sure, but I want to give mine first." Raven nodded, but stopped her once again before she did anything else.

"Just… do you remember what I said, the morning you left?"

"Of course I do. You specifically told me not to forget it."

"What did I say?"

"Raven, what's-"

"Summer, what did I tell you?"

"You… said that you loved me, forever and always. And that as someone who loves me forever and always, you needed me to trust you completely. Seriously Raven, you're starting to scare me now, what is going on?"

"Presents first, explanation later." Silver eyes judged the ravenette, and they judged her hard. "Full explanation. Promise." Not breaking eye contact at all, Summer reached back, grabbed the present perfectly off the table and brought it in front of her, having perfected the art of doing so in the years spent in the ever present company of Tai and Qrow.

"This is for you," she began, "I stumbled across this place in a village right on the Mistral border with the northern Anima villages. I asked, and the doctor delivered."

"'Doctor'? Sum, what reason would you need to go to the doctors on your mission?"

"Just open it and see." Finally relenting to her girlfriend's constant insistence, Raven took the package and unwrapped the bow - the only thing that really identified the otherwise normal looking box as a present - before sliding the lid off to reveal a small tube of a strong raspberry coloured liquid. "I know I said that we'd find a solution together, but the villagers had this thing that been using for years now." There was something unsettling about the vial in front of her, enough to make something move inside the ravenette. "These guys have formulated a Dust that stimulates female sex cells in one person to behave just like a male sex cell, giving them the ability to impregnate their partner!" Okay, something was really moving around now, and it was nauseating. "So, I asked why they never went to the SDC with this discovery, but because Nicholas' health is deteriorating, they didn't want to impose, especially with his own daughter pregnant again with her second child, the burden was too great they felt." The mention of children brought about an involuntary convulsion from Raven, one that she managed to conceal from Summer well, considering the woman was looking anywhere but her partner as she spoke. "So they kept this all to themselves, but as a thank you and on my questioning, I was given some. We could have a kid, Raven. One of our own!"

That was all she needed to set her over the edge.

Raven clamped her hand over her mouth and bolted as fast as she could towards the bathroom. She just about made it to the toilet bowl before her body told her to throw up whatever she had previously consumed into the bowl, the sound just as horrible as the taste, the smell, the feeling… basically, it was terrible.

As Summer entered the bathroom after Raven, the brunette spoke to her partner cautiously, knowing how she could be when aggravated. "Raven? Raven, are you alright?" Her answer came in the form of a side eyed look, one the leader of Team STRQ accurately deciphered as "Do I look like I'm alright?!" - albeit a tad more strongly worded, if the rest of Raven's repertoire of insults and side eyes were to go by - before the convulsions came again and more of Raven's previous meals returned.

"You weren't even this bad after you came in from your nights of drinking back in our Second Year, so I don't want to hear any 'it's nothing's from you," Summer sternly mentioned as she handed over some water for Raven to clean her mouth with after a good ten minutes of on-off vomiting. "Is it a bug?"

"No, it's not a bug Summer. It-"

"Food poisoning?"

"I am not that bad of a cook, thank you very much."

"Did you cook every single meal time whilst I was away?"

"No."

"Takeout every night?"

"We're Huntresses, Summer. We have the money and the discount in some places, sure, but our bodies aren't built for excessive junk food."

"Did either Tai or Qrow visit in the last few weeks?"

"Yes. Tai came around and cooked on the second night you were gone."

"Is it food poisoning?"

"It wasn't his food, Summer!" the woman practically screamed. A choice she regretted, as her stomach saw that as an invitation to prove that point to Summer. "Urghhh."

"So what was it then Raven, if not his food?" Raven groaned again, unsure whether it was because of the constant being sick, or the loaded question she'd set herself up for. "I want the truth - you're being cryptic."

"…we'd talked before you left for your mission about kids, didn't we? It was a dream. I… didn't want to wait, so whilst you were gone I called Tai over. We-"

"You slept with Tai?!" she surmised, beating her partner to the punch with how quick she was at deducing things. She was the team leader for a reason, mind. "I wasn't even at the base by that time!"

"I told you that I love you, and that I needed you to trust me. I would never do something like that behind your back out of deliberate spite," she reasoned, "I did it because I knew that chances of finding a method of us having a kid of our own were pretty slim, not to mention time consuming and costly. I realise now that I should have said something, that me wanting it to be a nice, pleasant surprise for you when you returned is probably going to break us apart."

The silver eyed leader simply raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think that I'd break up with you over that?" Another loaded question, one Raven wisely didn't answer for fear of the consequences. "If it was anyone off the street, you would have been out of this house faster than a Nevermore could beat its wings. But it was Tai, someone we both trust with our lives. Yeah, the fact you had some no gloving loving to put that bun in the oven is irksome, especially since it was wi-" Summer stopped when Raven started roaring with laughter.

"'No gloving loving'? Did you seriously just call unprotected sex 'No gloving loving'? Oh Gods, Summer, never change for anyone. You're just precious."

"We were discussing how I'm not mad at you for doing this."

"Like, not at all?"

"I said I wasn't mad, I didn't say I was going to let you off the hook." Summer heard the faint gulp from Raven at the prospect. "The child will be ours, Raven. We are going to raise them, as parents. Together. In the grand scheme of things, I'm not angry that the child won't be part me at all, but to deny me from parenthood and you'll see a side not even Team STRQ has seen."

"Alright. We do this together. The kid will be ours. I'll be Mom, as I'm carrying, and yo-"

"Yeah, I'm a better Mom figure any day of the week. We'll just say 'Daddy gave birth to you'."

"I can't see that going wrong at all," Raven remarked. The couple laughed, then stared at each other for a moment, happiness in the other's eyes at what the future had in store for them.

"I love you!" she screamed.

"I love you too sweetheart," came the far calmer response.

"Come on, nearly there. You've got it! Just a little more." With one final push at the midwife's encouragement, she managed to push her baby girl out, giving birth in the wee hours of thee morning. The newborn wailed, but Mom was happy. "You did it."

"Would you like to cut the cord?" a doctor asked of the woman standing by her partner in full hospital garbs, her hair hidden by the surgical hat, but the hat not completely cooperating and nearly escaping under sheer pressure.

"Well, fair's fair," Raven admitted, taking the scissors and snipping the tube that connected the baby to Summer's womb.

"Congratulations, it's a girl."

"Here that Sum?" came Raven's cheery response, "it's a family of four beautiful women. You did great."

"Tell me that after the painkillers wear off - I'd be more inclined to believe you." Raven just laughed, but headed her wife's wishes.

"I've got to go Summer, you know where to." The woman on the bed nodded, letting Raven be escorted out to a place to swap out of the mint green hospital garb to make a quick call.

~0~0~00~0~0~

As promised, Tai and Qrow came as soon as they were called, bringing a 19 month old Yang along with them. She didn't really understand what was going on around her at that age, not really, but what harm would come of her seeing her sister?

"Hey you two," Tai greeted at the door, smiling with a big bouquet of flowers in hand. Qrow came in a moment afterwards, carrying Yang in but not looking at all comfortable doing so.

"Hello Tai. Brother."

"Hey. Can you take your daughter, I feel like I'm going to drop her any second, and she doesn't have Aura to unlock yet. And you'd never let me live that down if I dropped her."

"I'd never let you live if you dropped her," Raven told her minutes younger brother with a straight face and serious tone, and Qrow believed her, handing Yang over to her with equal parts care and haste. "And how's my little Sunflower doing today?~" she cooed.

"Mama!"

"That's right baby!~ It's Mama. And who's that?"

"Summa!"

"Good girl, it's Summer."

"Hello Little Dragon," Summer smiled from her bed, inconspicuous bundle in her arms hidden from the rest of the room. Yang clapped and smiled at the sight.

"Summa! S'mma!"

"Yes, it's me." Yang took after her biological father, not only with her already golden blonde hair, but a smile that could light up a room. "And do you know who this is?" Summer revealed what the blanket was hiding to the two male teammates and the 1 year old; in Summer's arms was a little baby girl, face still scrunched up from the intense light of the real world, but looking near exactly like her Mother in every way.

"Wow. Summer, she's beautiful."

"Yeah. She's a real cutie, just like her Mom." Summer shot Qrow a look of aggravated confusion - she had pushed a child out of her not an hour ago, and her wife, his sister, was standing right there - now was not the time for any kind of flirtatious comment, even if it was said with absolutely zero truth behind it, be it present feelings or lingering honesty from years gone by.

Yang took far longer to process what was happening. This thing looked like Summer slightly, but it wasn't Summer at all. The thing moved, making a soft sound. Yang liked it, so smiled and waved her hands at it, wanting to get closer. "Ruu!" she called, the sound falling easily out of her mouth, especially when associating it to this thing.

"What was thar, dear?"

"Ruu! Ru!" she cried out again, smile on her face as she was reaching out towards the newborn. Raven complied, with Summer's nod of approval, of course, to move Yang closer to the child. Summer took Yang from her partner, cradling her in her right arm as the baby was being looked after with her left. Yang was desperate to reach across and touch her, and when she did the satiated curiosity brought a smile to her face, as well as the face of the baby who seemingly enjoyed the feather light touch. "Ruu."

"I hope you haven't decided on a name for her yet," Tai mentioned on seeing the sight, "because it looks like Yang's settled on one for her."

"As a matter of fact, we didn't. Not yet anyway. What'd you think, Sum? How does the name Rue sound to you?"

"Ruby," she smiled. "Ruby Rose." The girl smiled, happy with the name she was given. "Did you hear that, sweetie?" Summer asked Yang, whose amethyst coloured eyes looked back at her with the same wonder they always did. "You helped us name the baby." 'Baby' seemed to please Yang, who smiled when she heard it. "Yes you did~. Say hello to your sister; Ruby Rose."

"Ruu…bbpb." Well, at least she tried.

"Nice name that; Ruby." Qrow smiled at the sight before him, his sister - the one person on this planet he would never in a thousand lifetimes think would ever be this happy - was sat next to her wife, who was holding their two children in her arms, grinning like it was going out of fashion.

To Raven, there was one definitive day that was the lowest she had ever gone as a person. The day Summer came home from her mission only to find out that Raven had slept with Tai to get pregnant; the day she felt that even worms in the dirt looked down on her.

But that day also began the climb up the highest hill she'd ever climbed. Each step up the proverbial hill was another day of happiness for her. Sure, there were moments of uneven footing that made her slip back down, but when Yang was born, she felt like she had reached the top to see the sunlight reflecting off the water and the cliffs, shining a new light onto a world of darkness and making the trek all the more worthwhile.

But now that Ruby was born, it was something new.

It was like every day was a trek up the hillside. Every day just a simple walk to the top. Some days, the sun would rise as they got there. Some days she started off in a fantastic mood, and the sun had already risen. Sometimes, she felt like crap, and she was greeted with clouds and no sunrise.

But Ruby's birthday, on October 31st, felt like climbing the highest hill on Patch, and staring out onto the coast line, just like before.

Only this time, it was also accompanied by their first kiss.

The memory was still engraved into their mind; she waited explicitly until the pair of them had returned to Patch and climbed the hill to see the sunrise before making the leap to go for the kiss, only to realise that the other was thinking the exact same thing, making their first kisses far more intense than they had planned at the start. But it felt like a thousand suns exploding all at once inside them. A magical feeling that words almost couldn't describe.

Seeing everyone here together like this was akin to that moment. The moment where everything in life seemed to just click into place. The kiss, much like seeing Summer holding Ruby and Yang in her arms, brought tears of joy to her once harsh red eyes.

And all she could utter at the sight was a single word: "Wow."

NEW STORY OUTTA NOWHERE!

I wanted to write a Rosebird story for a while (that is their ship name, right?), and it was only after reading Omega|Infinity's latest chapter of "Linked in Life and Love" did I get the courage to do so. (Yes, that story again. But it is just so good! Read it if you haven't, read it again if you have.) This story draws inspiration from it in the sense of some plot points, but is otherwise its own unique AU. And they mentioned the cover image I used as well as inspiration, so clearly it works.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated

Until next time,
FeugoFox42 :)