The Visit [1]

"You know, you two look adorable like that." Yang mirthfully chuckled as she cast a look over her shoulder towards Ruby and Weiss. They were huddled close to the other practically locked at the hip as their scrolls spun around at every dripping noise to lighten up the dark stone brick clad hallway.

"Has… has this place always been so scary?" Ruby whimpered.

"Well, normally we don't come here in the middle of the night. So, yeah. I think so." Turning her gaze back down the way Yang could see the large dark veneered doors leading into the professors subterranean compound where their mother also lived. She didn't so much as fear the dark as found it subtly unnerving, especially whenever her whispers would echo back and forth against the walls growing increasingly distorted the more, they did so.

Casting a sidelong look to her side she could see the barest shape of Blake, calm as could ever be as her special faunus eyes gave her a sort of night vision. 'Lucky bitch,' Yang huffed amusedly.

As they drew near Yang wasted no time in lifting her hand and sending a few swift raps against it. Hearing a harsh 'thud-thud-thud' as it filled the room it lead into and drew the attention of whoever it was coming to open the door.

"Please hurry, please hurry," in the background Ruby's wilful whispers rumbled at twice the volume. Each laced with a shifting of her pale face head.

Soft bootsteps muddled by the thick door were faintly heard, soon followed by a click and a twist of the handle that belied the smooth and silent opening.

"Girls!" Summer beamed at them from the door way. Her hair tied up into a neat pony tail and dressed in the simplest attire she could find in her wardrobe. A shirt with a wide collar that hung off one shoulder unabashedly showing off the black bra-strap keeping her boobs supported as well as a pair of off white men's pyjama's she had to roll up as they were too long for her legs.

"Come in, come in," just as quickly as the door had opened, Summer had stepped out of the way allowing Ruby and Weiss to practically rush in like bulls seeing red. She followed them with tired blinks and a half-hearted chuckle before turning back to Yang, muttering, "I take it they didn't like the darkness?"

Yang met her mother's eyes and saw slight dark rings beneath them, "they got themselves all creeped out with echoes back in the classroom." She threw a pointed thumb over her shoulder before entering right after Blake whose head nigh immediately began wandering, nose flaring all the while sending her cheeks scarlet.

"Yeah… those can be…" Summer diverted her gaze gaining her own flush. She was more than just loosely accustomed to those hollow voices, though unlike her daughters and their friends, her echoes were more lascivious than anything. "Creepy."

Shutting the door after them Yang sidled past her sister with Summer just on her heel. Soon passing by before Yang got to the doorway leading to the lounge. "So, a baby huh?"

Summer weakly laughed, "yeah. It's uh, a bit of a thing, isn't it?"

"Mom, I have literally no experience with babies. That's something you should be telling me."

"Oh-oh, right. Er, sorry. Been a little out of it for a while." Summer's gaze darted to the side. It was clear for Yang, even Blake to see that she was lost in her mind.

"You alright mom? You're acting all out of it?"

Summer met Yang's concerned gaze and smiled, "oh, I'm fine. Peachy, perfect. Maybe a little tired with the new baby but I'm fine, absolutely perfect."

"I counted five repeats of words that basically mean the same thing." Stepping around Summer, Yang spun and forced her still, her gaze now more determined and worried. "Somethings up with you and its more than just a baby."

A soft smile grew on Summer's lips and she shook her head, "honestly Yang, it's nothing. I'm just a little tired helping Parc with the baby…" as if hearing's its moniker, harsh infantile bawls drew the five girls attention to the lounge door. Summer quickly pushed off the door and circled easily around Yang, "come on, she's in here. Just," she paused and waved her hands in a way to tell them to keep their voices down, "just use your inside voices, okay?"

Yang strained, displeasured that Summer had chosen to avoid the conversation but nodded nonetheless and followed her as the second to enter the room. Already feeling a strange blend of warm and cold all twisting together in an unsettling void of proper heat regulation.

Seated atop the large couch nestled like an island off to the left was the professor. His eyes wide and glued to the bundled in blue and bawling babe in his arms. Rocking her with as gentle and rhythmic a motion as he could. His efforts appearing in vein as the blue haired infant was intent on telling him her woes.

"Honestly," Summer huffed and was quickly passing by the second form seated by the couch. Esdeath, Yang recalled her as being. The woman who seemed eternally pissed at everything though now had a much slimmer belly compared to the last time Yang had seen her. Compared to Parc she was hunched over, head buried in her hands and hands blocking her ears as her lips rapidly moved to make silent, hating words at the noise. "I leave you for one second and your already making her cry."

"I did exactly what you told me to do." Parc willingly released the baby into Summer's grasp, and she nuzzled her close to her chest. "It just doesn't work."

"You don't work!" Summer spat and began to rock the child into silence. Doing so in the seconds after the babies cheek pressed against her chest and began to listen to the slow thumping of her heart.

As Summer lowered herself with a sigh, Esdeath pried her hands off her head and lowered them to her neck. Silently the woman looked up to her baby and scathed with cheek twitching. "Why is it. That you are better at calming my own blood than I or the child's father." She hissed.

"Because I'm not a frigid egomaniac with a superiority complex. And you can sense that can't you Khione, you can tell Sumsum's a good mommy can't you." Numerous sets of eyes widened in tandem with the appearance of Summer's baby voice.

"Sum… sum?" struggling to hold herself from laughing, Yang plastered a hand over her mouth and turned away to start heaving. Meanwhile as if pulled by the gravitation a newborn had over women, Ruby and Weiss were already crossing the distance separating them, Ruby skirting to the back of the couch while Weiss found space just off to Summer's right.

As they looked down at the loosely bound infant, they could see her pudgy, baby fat filled cheeks and bright blue sparkling eyes that wandered about and let out numerous puffy noises and garbled goo's.

"Awwww. She's adorable," the girls were utterly enthralled as the little ones eyes wandered over them causing them to fawn.

"I know," Summer beamed.

As they were Summer was busy nuzzling Khione against her chest, Parc chuckled and pushed himself up, "you girls want anything?" he asked turning his gaze to them.

"Just water is alright," Summer replied, and Ruby turned her eyes up.

"What do you have?" she asked.

"Just about everything."

"Cookies?"

"I mean," he hesitated at the slight sparkle of the girls eye, "maybe not cookies." Ruby sighed, mournful that her cookie craving would once more go unfed.

"We have some biscuits in the snacks drawer." Without even raising her head, Summer spoke. "And we have cookie dough icecream in the freezer. Actually," finally she looked up from the bubbly infant, "could you make me some tea?"

"What kind."

"The usual please."

"Got it. Esdeath?" in response Parc was sent a ornery hiss. "Okay, nothing. I get it." Throwing his hands up he skirted around Summer and Weiss' legs allowing Ruby to lunge herself over the backrest and onto her mother's left. Coming to Blake and Yang he could see Blake doing her utmost to not squirm uncomfortaly while Yang gave him the simplest set of narrowed eyes she could produce. "What about you two?"

"I'm goo-"

"Nyaa-ghk-" All eyes pulled to Blake at first for the unusual yowling noise she made and then for the harsh jab she sent into her own stomach that made her buckle and fold in half. "I'm… fine." She said clutching her now aching stomach.

Somehow, Parc doubted that.