It had been a week since Taiyang's return. Naturally Yang and Ruby pretty much freaked out, when they saw their shared father in such a messed up state. Their screaming was loud enough to wake up Summer, who too had a little freak-out session when she initially saw her shared husband. So it was pretty much up to Raven to calm everyone down. Taiyang would have helped if everyone else wouldn't have been busy being all over him.
Luckily everything had calmed down by now. Taiyang's recovery was going smoothly, the children were happy to see their father again and overall the Shao-Long-Rose family was living a happy, quiet life. Taiyang had been pretty surprised when he heard that Yang managed to unlock her aura and semblance all on her own and at such a young age. Like Summer, he initially suspected Raven of having something to do with this, but the woman vehemently denied having anything to do with this. The blonde however one hundred percent disapproved of Raven training her daughter already, even if the woman did it in a fashion that it would come over as a game. Surprisingly for the man, it was Summer who defended this course of action.
"Look, Tai," she said "I like this course of action as much as you, but" the woman had looked to the floor "it's better to start early. Sooner or later she will come after me again and there's a good chance she would target my family in order to get to me."
Of course, when Summer spoke of "she", Taiyang knew that his second wife was referring to Salem. And as much as he loathed to admit it, the woman in the white cloak had a pretty good point. There was virtually nothing the "Grimm Maiden" and her ragtag band of lunatics weren't ready to do in order to achieve their goals. Going after someone's family? That wouldn't even make it in the top twenty of worst things they had ever done to anybody.
Sighing in defeat, Taiyang had slumped down in a patch of grass and watched as his two daughters were playing tag with one another. Of course Ruby had trouble keeping up with Yang, given that the smaller girl was still learning how to properly run. Summer placed herself right next to her husband, who was wearing fresh bandages and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Raven in the meantime was leaning against a tree, busy carving a stake out of a thick branch, which had fallen off the tree she was leaning against. When the children came near her, she held up her arms, as to not accidentally hurt them. Yang just happened to jump out of the way, as Ruby was throwing her tiny body against her sister. Missing her target completely, the small redhead stumbled over her own feet and landed with an "oof" on Raven's stomach. The woman rolled her red eyes, placing the tools she had been holding on the ground, before helping the redhead back up to her feet.
"Come on, Ruby. Go get her," Raven told Summer's daughter, sending her off with a light shove. The girl stumbled but managed to catch herself in time. She laughed while chasing after her blonde sister, who just grinned and waited for the last possible moment, before running away again.
Taiyang, having watched his first wife's action, couldn't help but frowned a little. "This still weirds me out, you know?" he told Summer. "The words Raven and family just don't fit the same picture, no matter how I twist and turn it."
"Oh Tai." Summer laughed lightly. "Raven may act all tough and she is pretty tough. You have to be when you live together with bandits." A small sigh escaped her lips. "But family has always been the most important thing to her. Previously her tribe had been her family, one she owed her life to."
Taiyang winced at the mention of the now non-existent bandit tribe. It brought up memories about a certain "incident", something that the entire family avoided talking about to the best of each individual's abilities.
"And now, the only ones she has left is us?" Tai asked rhetorically, to which Summer nodded none-the-less.
"Having a what we consider to be "normal life" is still new to her, but she's adapting fairly well. We should be happy that she is actually giving us all a chance to show her that strength can come from many places."
Another sigh escaped Taiyang. "Always the optimist, huh?"
Summer giggled and gave her husband a quick peck on the cheek. "I don't remember you being a pessimist?"
The man smiled lightly, scratching the back of his head. "I guess all the itchy bandages are souring my mood." He raised his left arm and looked down on the white wrapped limb. "Kinda reminds me of the old days. Remember that one time, where we got sent to Mistral?"
Summer facepalmed while laughing. "Oh god, why? Why do you have to bring that up?!"
Taiyang smiled evilly. "Hey, it wasn't my fault you lost the bet! Besides, it was your idea in the first place? And I gotta admit, it was pretty sexy seeing you two fighting in nothing more than lingerie." Tai rolled over laughing. Summer in response pulled her white hood over her head and hid her blush under it.
Raven, who had listened in to the conversation, blushed a little herself. Looking back, she blamed stupid teenager hormones for even going through with this. And probably just a spark of overconfidence had something to do with this as well.
Shaking her head, the black haired woman looked over at her daughter and watched her play with Summer's child. Yang's overall mood had gradually increased over the week as well. She wasn't as frowny as she had been seven days ago, but there were still differences in her behavior compared to the usual. For one, the girl appeared to be… "toned down" was the phrase Raven was going with. The blonde appeared to be toned down, whenever she and her mother were alone together. And the mother couldn't just excuse this behavior with a single nightmare anymore. Something was up with her daughter, at least Raven assumed something was up. Raising a single child was still completely new to her, so this might just be a little phase or something. Besides, everywhere else Yang was acting completely normal and she even went along with the training that Raven was slowly laying out for the girl. Granted the hardest part was still far away, as the woman knew she couldn't just bring the girl to start pulling boulders around. At least as long as either Tai or Summer were in the house.
XXX
After playing tag for who knows how long, Ruby had felt the sudden need to "go potty". While Summer went with the younger girl inside the house, Yang was left outside waiting with her biological mother for the others to return. Her father at some point had fallen asleep during the game and was snoring lightly, as the sun was shining down on his body. A small smile graced Yang's lips when she saw her dad being so carefree, despite the injuries he received during a mission. Sadly, Yang was kind of used to seeing her dead come home with at least some minor injuries. As an experienced huntsman he would often get the more dangerous jobs and at times was away from home for weeks. It had the side effect that Ruby and Yang learned first aid, while they patched up their father in the past.
The blonde girl frowned when the words "in the past" crossed her mind. At this point, she couldn't refute it anymore. The chance that everything she was experiencing was nothing more than a dream was slim to none. She got hungry, she felt pain, she needed to use the bathroom, she could make out individual leaves on a tree, her mother's hand felt warm on her forehead, whenever the woman woke her up… There were a lot of things that one usually didn't experience in a dream. Plus there was the fact that it had been seven days. There was no way she was capable of sleeping for that long. Something weird was going on. Something beautifully weird, even if that wasn't a real term in any way shape or form.
She looked over to her mother, who appeared to be busy sharpening a butterfly knife. Raven was something that caused Yang to have a wide variety of feelings. After all, this was the same woman who just left her for no apparent reason and now all of the sudden she was here right in front of her. Only a couple of meters away. If it weren't for the fact that Summer Rose of all people was alive and well, Raven being here in Patch would be on the top spot of weirdest things that Yang had ever experienced in her entire life.
The girl looked up at the sky, watching a cloud passing by. As mentioned, she had no freaking idea what was going on. Even when she overcame the initial shock and started thinking about everything that was going on, Yang found herself still being none the wiser about anything, really. So far she had been going with the flow and if she was honest with herself, she really started enjoying everything. Just now, playing tag with little Ruby. It was a ton of fun simply playing this mindless game and forgetting everything and everyone for a short amount of time. It was easy too, given that the past days and weeks had been hell, everyone would be tempted to simply accept this new reality.
The young girl walked over to her mother, who was eyeing the sharpened knife with a critical eye. When the mother noticed her daughter approaching, she sheathed the knife back into the sheath, which she had attached beneath the clothes on her leg and gave the blond a small smile.
"Hey, little dragon," Raven greeted her daughter, who stopped as soon as she heard those words. For a couple of seconds, all Yang did was looking at her mother with an unreadable expression. Raven's smile disappeared and was replaced with a questioning gaze.
"Is something the matter?" the mother asked her daughter, tilting her head.
Yang didn't answer verbally. Instead, she looked at her mother for a couple of more seconds, before moving over to the older woman. Raven watched with interest as her daughter not only sat down right next to her but also leaned her tiny head against the black haired woman. A smile reappeared on the mother's face and she put a hand on the blonde's head. Raven could feel Yang tensing up from the touch, which wasn't a surprise anymore at this point. With how often Raven had messed up Yang's hair this past week and given how riled up the girl had gotten every time that happened, it was easy to deduce that the little girl was rather fond of her golden crown, so to speak. Slowly and methodically Raven went with her fingers through her daughter's hair, which only appeared to make the four-year-old even tenser. At least that was the case for the first couple of seconds. Raven had been sure she would get some kind of complaint from her daughter, yet surprisingly the blonde began to relax under the touch of her mother. The young girl wrapped her small arms around her mother to the best of her abilities.
"What, are you tired already?" Raven asked in a teasing tone. Yang let out a grunting noise and placed her head on her mother's stomach. Said mother went from stroking Yang's head to stroking the back of the young girl.
"I'm really growing soft," Raven silently muttered to herself. "If I don't get some action soon, I'll-"
The tender moment was suddenly interrupted by a loud roar coming from the nearby forest. Both Yang and Raven jumped up, upon hearing the all too familiar scream. It was followed by another roar and an Ursa Grim coming out of the forest. The creature was headed directly towards the house.
"Speak of the Grim and he shall appear," Raven amusedly spoke out loud, dusting off her pants. "This shouldn't take long." Since Raven had left her sword in the house, a mistake as she mentally noted, she could either kill the Grim with a butterfly knife or her bare hands.
The Ursa roared at the approaching woman and charged right at her. Raven decided to give her daughter a little treat. When it looked like the Grim was about to hit Raven, the woman turned into a bird of the same name and took off into the sky. The swipe attack from the Grim went nowhere. As the creature was still wondering where its supposed prey had disappeared to, Raven already had acquired significant altitude. Once she reached a certain height, she transformed back into a human and dropped back to the ground. The Ursa looked up just in time to see a boot falling directly onto its face. With a sickening crunch, Raven pressed the face of the creature into the neck, after which she jumped off the thing. The rest of the body fell to the side and soon began to disappear into a black mist.
Inside the house, Ruby was cheering on her second mother from a window, while being held by her mother. Summer noted that Tai had slept through the entire ordeal. Oh well, it's not like Raven would need any help with a single Grim. Shaking her head, Summer carried Ruby back outside, the little girl still cheering on her "second mother".