The alarm clock dutifully blared it's obnoxious sound through the room, perfectly disrupting the peaceful slumber of the occupants of said room. As a response, Raven Branwen smashed the annoying invention with her fist, perfectly silencing it forever.

"That's the third one this week, Rav." mumbled the woman lying next to she couldn't care less about the now in pieces lying machine. Why humans just didn't orient themselves after the sun circle, she didn't know, but it would be a hell of a lot better to wake up by rays of sunshine than an annoying beeping sound.

"Shut up and get up Summer," Raven replied, burying her face into her pillow. "It's your turn."

"It's Taiyang's turn."

"Taiyang is on a mission." the black haired woman reminded the redhead.

Summer Rose groaned upon remembering that particular piece of information. Reluctantly the girl pushed herself off the bed, her shoulder length hair immediately obscuring her vision, falling all around her head. With a huff, she pushed her hair behind her shoulders. The woman threw the blanket off her body, revealing a light pink nightgown covering her body. Still groggy, Summer got off the bed and walked barefoot towards the door, which led to the hallway. Once there, she needed to blink a few times, as her eyes adjusted to the light shining through the window at the end of said hallway. They rarely put the blindfolds down outside of rooms where someone slept. The family lived pretty isolatedly, making invasion of privacy, not an issue. As for the Grimm, if they ever bothered attacking their little shack, blindfolds wouldn't really stop them.

Arriving downstairs at the kitchen, Summer firstly opened the window, allowing the fresh Summer air to come in. The irony of words wasn't lost on her and she chuckled a little over the fact. After inhaling some of the outside air, the woman started preparing breakfast for the rest of the family, minus Taiyang of course. Since the children were both heavy sleepers, Summer didn't bother being quiet, while preparing the table. Raven would probably complain again, but the redhead didn't care. She and Raven have fully fledged Huntresses, trained to kill at a moment's notice and always battle ready. A little bit of noise should be nothing to them.

About thirty minutes later the scent of coffee filled the kitchen and went all the way up to the second floor. Summer checked the time and saw that it was almost time to wake up their daughters. Almost. It wasn't like the little ones needed to go to school, no they were way too young for that. It was just a good idea to not spoil the children too much, even or maybe especially at such a young age. Well, to be honest, if things would go Summer's way, she'd spoil the children to death, but Raven had made some very good points (and threats) about what might happen if Ruby and Yang grew up that way. Worst case scenario, they'd act like the spoiled brats from Atlas.

Summer turned her head towards the stairs, when she heard Raven coming downstairs, still only wearing her own black nightgown. The scent of the coffee appeared to have done its work. The black haired woman walked towards the coffee machine and poured herself a cup of the black liquid, only to drink half of it almost immediately.

"I needed that," Raven said, letting out a content sigh. She leaned herself against the kitchen counter, looking over to her old friend.

"Got any plans for today?"

"Not really." Summer shrugged. "I've hoped Tai would be back by now. At this rate, one of us will need to take over his position at Signal until he comes back."

"I'll leave that one to you. The two troublemakers we have here are more than enough to keep me busy." Raven deadpanned, causing Summer to giggle.

"Aw, don't be like that." the red head lightly punched her longtime friend. "They're the best and you know it."

"Of course they're the best." Raven scoffed. "They're our kids, after all."

"True, true." Summer giggled. "But that doesn't mean that you have to train them every day until they can't walk anymore."

"I don't need to do that. They're both doing a pretty good job themselves. By the way, you aren't feeding Ruby secretly cookies, are you? Because I don't remember Yang being this active, when she was two years old."

"Of course not. My little gem just takes after me, that's all." The redhead winked.

"After you?" Raven raised an eyebrow. "The first year I knew you, you barely took off that cloak of yours, because you were so damn shy. I still don't get why they thought you would be the perfect candidate for being the team leader."

Summer pouted but didn't comment on it. She took another glance at the radio clock and saw that it was time to wake up the children.

"Well, wanna go up and wake up the beasties?"

"It's time already?" Raven asked, looking at the clock herself. "Wish time would slow down at least once a year." The woman commented, drinking the rest of her coffee. She placed the mug on the counter behind her and was about to go upstairs when she noticed someone already standing on top of the stairs. Through the wooden bars, the small half-sisters Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose were watching their respective mothers.

"Look who got up early," Raven commented with a small smile. Summer followed her partner's gaze and smiled as well upon seeing the children upstairs, still in their pajamas. Raven decided to walk upstairs and get the two to the breakfast table. Once there, she noticed that her own daughter was looking up at her with wide eyes as if she was surprised to see her. Ruby in the meantime was hiding behind her older sister, her tiny head ever so slightly sticking out from the side.

"Good morning, you two." Raven greeted the children. She held out her arm and wanted to go through her daughter's blond hair, however, Yang quickly ducked and sidestepped, which resulted in Raven accidentally touching Ruby's hair. The girl let out a high-pitched "EEEP" and quickly went behind Yang's back once again. Raven chuckled at the children's antics and knelt down in front of her daughter. The blond was still looking at Raven with widened eyes. In fact judging from her entire expression it almost looked like Yang had seen a ghost.

"Is something wrong my little dragon?" the raven-haired woman asked concerned. "Did you have a nightmare?" It was the most logical conclusion. Raven had seen her daughter acting off before and normally that was when her daughter accidentally did something stupid or when she had a nightmare. The blond child looked at her right arm for some reason and avoided answering the question. Her mother couldn't tell whether it was out of guilt or because her daughter was too scared to talk about it. Either way, by now Raven had enough experience as a mother to know that she had to do something.

Slowly the woman wrapped both arms around her daughter and pulled her into a soft hug. Yang gasped when her head suddenly was pressed against her mother's chest. At the same time, Raven began stroking through her daughter's hair.

Footsteps could be heard, as Summer Rose made her way up the stairs. Naturally, she witnessed everything from downstairs, but couldn't make heads or tails as to what was bothering her step-daughter. The younger mother looked over to her own daughter and saw her staring at Yang and Raven. The young girl's face displayed a mixture of emotions, fear, curiosity, and confusion being the most apparent.

"Ruby?" Summer spoke softly, getting the girl's attention. Her eyes widened just as much as Yang's did when she laid eyes upon her mother. If Summer hadn't been bothered before, she certainly was now. She had a few ideas of what was going on with her daughter but didn't want to jump to any conclusions. The woman decided to bend down and picked up her daughter in the process. Ruby didn't complain. She just kept staring at her mother's face, like it was the most unnatural thing in the world.

"Okay, my little Rose Petal. Time for breakfast." Summer announced, before walking down the stairs with her daughter in her arms.

Raven in the meantime broke up the hug, but still had her arms placed on Yang's shoulders. "What's bothering you, my little dragon? You know you can tell me anything."

Yang didn't answer. Instead, she touched both of her mother's hands and went over the back of them gently with her tiny fingers. In the meantime she had her gaze downcast, appearing as if she was lost in thought as to what to say to her mother. Said mother waited patiently for her daughter to make a move or speak up or both. Finally, after a couple of minutes, the blond looked up directly into her mother's eyes with a stoic expression. Inwardly Raven was taken by surprise, but on the outside, her expression didn't change. Years of training had helped her to conceal her emotions, as long as she wasn't angry anyway.

"...Mom?" Yang spoke quietly, her voice quivering a little bit.

"Yes, my little Dragon?"

Yang didn't answer immediately. From Raven's perspective, it seemed like the little girl was studying her face as if the black haired woman was hiding something and the blond was determined to find out what. Raven briefly wondered if perhaps Yang was playing some sort of game and she just didn't realize it. But before she could speak up, there was a high pitched scream coming from downstairs. Both mother and daughter whipped their heads around and found Ruby sitting in a high chair and soaked in chocolate milk, the cup still in her hand. Summer stood a few steps away, her hands clasped in front of her mouth, hiding a smirk. Ruby let out a cute: "Noooooo!", causing Yang and Raven to erupt into howls of laughter.

Summer barely managed to suppress her own laughing fit and took her daughter of the chair. "Looks like breakfast needs to wait. You young lady need a bath." But Ruby was too busy plucking her own clothes, than listening to her mother. And so without any fuss, Summer once again lifted up her daughter and carried her all the way to the bathroom.

Yang and Raven in the meantime managed to catch themselves from the unexpected comedy act, courtesy of Yang's younger sister and looked at each other again. It was like someone had pressed a switch and the blond's expression did an 180. Whereas a second prior the blond's face showed happiness and joy, it now expressed caution, doubt and a hint of fear.

By now Raven was lost to her daughter's behavior. Had she done something wrong? Did she upset her daughter in any way? The woman drew a blank on this category.

"...Are you real?"

Raven blinked a couple of times. Just where did THAT question came from?

"Of course I am." The woman replied, her voice showing a little edge. "Why wouldn't I be real?"

But just as she asked this question, her mind answered it for her. Yang obviously must have had some sort of nightmare. It included her probably not being real or something along those lines. That dream must have felt so real to the little girl that she now was thoroughly confused, maybe even having trouble distinguishing dream from reality.

"So you did have a bad dream," Raven revealed her deduction and wrapped her arms around Yang.

"Huh? Wha-?"

"Shh." Raven shushed her daughter, petting her head. "It's alright my little dragon. A dream can't hurt you. I'm here for you. Come on, let's get you something to eat. That will make you feel better."

In the meantime, Yang was pretty sure that she had lost her sanity thanks to the crippling wound she received during the fall of Beacon.