29

Yang felt like a princess. Ruby looked like one too.

The adults were dealing with other adults and currently mom Summer and dad were having a little dance under the dimmed lights after dinner service.

Mom Raven had fussed softly over Yang's hair and dress under the sound of music. Her normal hawklike intense eyes were pretty and smokey after she'd let mom Summer go over her face with make up, though she'd only allowed it if she sat in her lap, even if mom Summer was heavy.

She'd never say that to mom Summer's face though. She'd joke about it, but sometimes she'd get a little upset, even if she pretended it didn't hurt.

Still she'd given Yang permission to go off and explore, even though Ruby had to stay on mom Raven's lap. But she'd already begun to snooze away after the food, double helping of fancy cookies that almost were as good as the ones Jaune made casually, and the warmth of mom Raven's lap.

A year ago she might have been jealous, even of Ruby, but Yang was bigger now and could share mom Raven's attention.

She saw Jaune's sister Clarent (somehow) playing the part of a perfectly polite and prim girl (channeling a LOT of Robin) as she smiled prettily and kept up a polite conversation with a tall and thin man that looked sort of like Winter, even though his hair wasn't the same color. The top of it was dyed or bleached white, and she knew that because his mustache and the sides of his head were still a dark gray.

Winter was standing next to her, also keeping in conversation, looking both a little nervous and fully befuddled that the roughest of the Arc sisters were acting the part of the perfect lady.

Honestly it was weird for Yang as well.

She met eyes with a mini-Winter that looked her age and just gave her a casual nod.

The mini-Winter looked a bit surprised, but gave the most briefest of what Yang thought was called a curtsey back, before turning back to her older sister and Clarent Arc.

But Yang's hair was done up in a nice fancy set of braids from a salon and was dressed in a pretty yellow ball gown that made her feel as if a sunflower had become a princess. She was going to go and enjoy that and not worry about what sort of weird science thing Jaune must have given Clarent so she'd be… that.

Speaking of Jaune, where was he?

She wandered about seeing other kids that stuck to their own groups, Robin trying to teach Amber to dance with the older girl holding onto Robin's hands like if she let go she'd fall through the floor for dear life, Ren trying to keep Nora from raiding the dessert table again for the fifth time, Mr and Mrs Arc sharing a dance as well.

Where was… ah! There!

Yang grinned, her heart beating excitedly as she saw him quietly enjoying a cup of the spiced apple cider that she thought was weird without cinnamon as he leaned back against a wall.

"Sup, Jaune. What're you doing in a corner all alone?"

Honestly Yang was surprised that he was. Before the meal he'd been dragged in each and every direction talking with just about everyone that could get within hand-shaking distance.

Maybe it was because he'd fished his beanie out of his Semblance and was just quietly mulling over a drink?

Jaune looked up with a bright smile, his eyes glimmering softly in the dark.

"Mmm heeeey Yaa~ang." He sang softly, making her skin heat up for some reason. "Have you tried the spiced apple cider? It's so gooooood."

"It's alright." She replied, "How many cups of that have you even have?"

"Hmmmm. Eight? I donno." Jaune shrugged, then he giggled as if something was funny, "You look pretty tonight. Like a sunflower."

Yang couldn't stop the grin that erupted from her lips, not even caring about how her teeth were growing in a bit crooked.

"My moms picked it out for me together. Isn't it great?" She spun around once for him, the dress twirling gently in the air. "It's amazing!"

"Mmm? The dress? Oh yeah, the dress. Yeah the dress is pretty too."

"It's-" Yang felt her heart beat funny, like she'd been running a lot in training. "Uh, yeah. It is. Doyouwannadance?"

"Sure." Jaune chirped, his back leaving the wall and taking a briefly stumbling step. "Whoa."

Yang frowned. Jaune was usually not clumsy like that. He had a sense of balance that made her jealous. Mom Raven always said it was some sort of magic bullshit. And Jaune was sort of magic, so that made sense.

She remembered that there was alcoholic apple cider too, sniffing his cup. It didn't smell like Drunkle Juice (he drank a lot of rosewater and cucumber water nowadays instead though) so she didn't think he'd had any alcohol.

"Jaune? Are you ok? Do you need-"

He laughed lightly as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and squeezed gently making her skin buzz as his Aura, spiced pine and fruit.

The scent and taste of Juniper berries filled her senses. It felt extra warm and strong, melting into her own, filling her with sunlight as her Aura buzzed with power as his cheek rubbed softly against hers.

"Yaaaaaang you're waaaaaaaarm."

"Mrmrmgh?." She replied into his shoulder, her eyes wide as he rubbed his soft cheek against hers.

Her heart felt like it was roaring fire and heat.

"Oh. A dance. Yup. Yeah. Let's go dance." He laughed again, pulling her along by the hand, "Let's go dance, Yang! That sounds fuuuun~"

Yang just nodded wordlessly as his fingers wove together with her own, their feet carrying them to the edge of the dance floor.

Raven played with Ruby's hair as she watched Yang and Jaune attempt a waltz.

They were awful. Doubly so over the dumb kiddie gigglefest fucking bullshit they were doing.

At least whatever her daughter had said or done seemed to have brought the boy's mood up. Or that he'd felt better after having a good meal. Qrow'd looked like he was going to go and secretly assassinate the General of the Atlasean military when he'd come back with Jaune and the kid looked on the verge of crying.

Qrow'd taken 'Jimmy' for a private conversation in another balcony and came back minutes later, the both of them looking as if they'd come to an understanding.

Qrow claimed that his friend (boy wasn't that odd, a bandit kid growing up to be drinking buddies with the General of Atlas, even if they'd only come to know each other because of the parasite) had accepted a punch across the jaw as an apology for his bluntness. Actually Qrow said he'd offered his other chin as well, even as the General had reeled from Qrow's extra-lucky crack to the jaw.

Raven said he was a pussy for not taking that offer, but Qrow disagreed and said it wasn't necessary, even if he was still faintly fuming.

Apparently it seemed that their favorite brat's rough mood was over something heavy and not directly malicious.

Something about saving the careers of some of his soldiers that wouldn't survive the end of summer without Jaune's expertise and that he might have been too heavy handed out of concern for his soldier's lives.

Whatever.

That was something she wasn't interested in looking deeper into. Especially when Raven now could understand a bit of what that felt like after running herself into the ground back when she'd finally gotten around to unlocking the Aura of all the remaining Branwen Tribe, now Parabellum.

Unlocking Aura was deeply personal, it was something you didn't do easily. It'd automatically created bonds via Kindred Bonds that didn't exist for her Semblance before. Somehow her clansmen mostly had never qualified for it before. Most Huntsmen and Huntresses only ever unlocked two, maybe three Auras in their lifetime.

Not because they didn't want to. Rather they couldn't. Or couldn't bring themselves to do so. Mentally, physically, and… Aura-cally?

Regardless, it wasn't easy for the soul to accept such a burden of awakening another. Frankly some couldn't even awaken Aura in the first place. No-one truly knew why.

It was probably one of the reasons why Huntsmen were always in a bit of a short supply, as few could be as ultimately utilitarian about the imparting of a portion of their souls to awaken another's.

Even in Atlas it was uncommon for most to unlock more than one, maybe two, though it was mandated by the government that every Aura awakened individual, regardless of their status, to have to unlock at least one person's Aura.

Frankly, her unlocking the Aura of the remaining forty or so members of her clan (having already unlocked Vernal's) was the sort of thing that only happened in myths and legends. A King creating an army overnight to combat a great evil.

Something that'd put her somewhat dangerously on more maps than she'd already been as the Great Khan of Sanus.

Oh she'd only ruled over her bandit tribe, but if her tribe wandered in, you cleared out or died. Every bandit on Sanus knew that. Though she demanded no tribute she had been the Empress of bandits. And that title she had gained in merely half a decade, even with the frontiers being more sparse in their communication.

Her unlocking the Aura of everyone in Parabellum was unheard of. Supposed to be impossible.

Only her burning desire to prove to Summer and Taiyang just how serious about being part of their family again kept her from breaking from it. Nothing more than a display of the strength of her sheer force of will.

It was an actual world record. One that'd now put her on the list of most dangerous Huntresses alive. Because she'd become a kingmaker.

When Parabellum entered the public eye from the Glacial Incident of Menagerie, and the knowledge of what she'd accomplished became public knowledge as every clansmen under her WERE AWAKENED and had their Aura Awakener listed as Raven Branwen she was titled the Suzerain of Sanus in hushed whispers.

Even if they weren't all on the standard of Huntsmen, forty four skilled Aura awakened fighters were nothing to sneeze at. Most gangs had grunts gang-press awaken each other like dominoes once awakened, but they usually had small amounts at best and were also rarely skilled at all.

In the end, none of that really mattered to Raven.

All she cared about was that Taiyang had looked at her with genuine hurt and wonder when he'd seen her in the aftermath of what she'd managed during the first summer with the brat. Her conviction. Her love, as imperfect and twisted as it was.

It had been the biggest reason he accepted truly and finally that she was putting her all into changing. That it was safe to love her once more. That she really, truly wouldn't run from him again.

He'd told her that her Semblance, Kindred Bonds, truly meant that she was a woman that desired, deep inside, true connections with people as he'd kissed her, making her cry like a fucking schoolgirl.

How did Tai and Summer know her better than she knew herself?

Raven looked down at Ruby drooling softly over her red velvet dress. Hers and Raven's black silk both. She just quietly leaned over to grab a napkin and use it to softly rub it off, before crumpling it into a sort of bowl to catch the remaining dripping drool.

The 'Suzerain' reduced to a drool-wiping mother. Ha.

She still wasn't exactly sure what to do with kids. That was always more Summer's job as a result. In return Raven just did her best to spoil the two as much as the other two parents allowed her to.

She knew that… she didn't exactly understand what 'reasonable limits' to anything was.

With Vernal she could just smack the girl and tell her off, even if she'd stopped doing that so much because of Summer and Tai's insistence. She didn't understand, because the girl had Aura, but eh. What her husband and wife wanted they got. She… she trusted them and their requests and decisions, even if she didn't personally understand. Or even thought, sometimes, that they were wrong.

Maybe that was what it meant to love.

But she couldn't ever do that to Ruby. Even if she had Aura. Would have Aura, one day.

She just… looked so much like Summer. Pretty and perfect. The last thing she had of her old body.

Not that her new body wasn't beautiful or that Jaune had done a poor job. In… certain regards he'd done too good a job. Summer didn't look herself, but her every pretty reaction, the cute gasping, the flushing skin. She was perfect in all ways that mattered.

Plus, in hindsight… she hadn't exactly made any requests of him and the boy'd clearly done what he could to put her back together the best he could. Plus it was his first attempt at a Nikke, he said.

They'd been lucky that Summer was even alive with Raven getting in his way out of fear for her love.

What a little miracle, that brat.

Speaking of little miracles, where the hell had little Ruby gotten the red hair from?

Sure, it was so dark it appeared black but it was something that flew by the heads of Team STRQ, but Raven liked it. It matched her own chosen Huntress colors and even sometimes made it feel like Ruby was hers and Summer's instead of Summer and Tai's.

Yang was perfect and beautiful, but Raven would be lying that she wasn't a little disappointed that the girl hadn't inherited her own black hair. In that regards Ruby would have to do, she supposed with a snort.

What was Summer's was also hers. And vice versa. Same to Tai, that hot piece of ass.

Still… Raven eyed Jaune and Yang attempting to follow the adults waltzing.

Something about the way the boy was laughing put her on edge. It was too much of a one-eighty from his previous mood.

Raven couldn't put a finger on it, but something fucking STUNK. And she hadn't been elevated to Great Khan from not being able to smell shit when she'd stepped in it.

He was their brat. Hers, the Arcs, and every one of Team STRQ. That meant that whatever the fuck dared mess with him was their problem as well.

She focused on her bond with the brat, feeling his location in front of her eyes. She'd keep eyes on the dumb brat all night if she goddamn had to. Something wasn't right.

Her instincts served her ultimately correct against the Parasite, even if her… reaction to the truth hadn't been exactly the best of, well. Gods, Raven hated having to admit to her faults, but it was true that she'd been unfair to her husband and wife. Not to… not to mention their children.

She knew the kind of woman she was though. She had to remember to mentally smack herself around at least once a week or she'd do something to ruin what had gotten fixed because of the brat. The bandit logic that she'd been raised on for the most formative years of her life were now too ingrained in her for her to operate in 'normal' society without being forcibly made to change perspective.

But Tai and Sums would both put up with her as long as they could see she was trying her damndest. And she was. Every fucking day. She almost saw Summer die.

Never again.

It was something that she'd probably have to live with until she died, by Grimm or old age. Preferably the latter, so she could see the brat and Yang get together. He didn't deserve her daughter, no-one probably would, but he was good enough. That'd have to do.

Even if nothing happened, she kept her senses sharp. She wasn't suited for dancing anyways and knew that both Summer and Tai had given up on trying to get her to learn ages ago.

She couldn't place where any of her bonded were unless she'd focused on it, and so sometimes she'd check in on the brat just because of the last time he'd run away.

So she knew that he was keeping his weekly promise to Yang to brush her hair, even after Noelle (now just a mother like her and no longer the upperclassmen that Raven remembered) had come to pick him up at the end of the summer about two years back.

It was a bit of an open secret to Team STRQ who all thought that it was sweet, even if Taiyang kept pulling at his hair and asking the rest of them if this was how it felt with him back at Beacon.

Naturally they'd all replied with a resounding yes.

Hell he was worse before he'd found himself in a Raven-Summer sandwich.

They were all sick of how he'd get caught with his hot ass hanging out as he brought all sorts of women back to the dorms back in the first year and a half of Beacon.

Hell she even knew about Jaune's weird cross-dressing galivants in Vale with those weird illusion Semblance sisters that were too old for him. Still they'd probably start crushing around kids their own age soon enough and they'd distance themselves as a result, so that was of no concern to Raven.

That one she kept to herself. She had plenty of blackmail photos though. Just for a rainy day.

Either way. She was going to keep tabs on the kid all night.

He was her-their brat. Nobody got to fuck with their brat but her.

This was a dream.

Robin giggled as she kept up the simple chant of "One and two and~ one and two and~" again and again as they performed a simple waltz.

The fact that the guards hadn't even checked her for identifications when she'd attended with the Arcs was mind-boggling.

This was supposed to be Atlas. The best military (and only military) and security in the world.

But this? This was a… a joke.

She was scared of this?

She laughed as they rotated again in this weird box movement that felt restrictive and dumb. Still it was fun because of Robin.

"See? You're getting it!" The small fairy in her arms smiled, the blue streak weaving elegant curves in her blonde hair as it wove through a fancy braid that Jaune'd woven.

He offered to help her do something with her hair too while avoiding her eyes.

Despite every instinct screaming no, she'd just closed her eyes and nervously let him style her hair somewhat too, if only to feel more like Robin.

Her shorter locks hadn't left a lot for braiding or the like, but he'd treated it quickly with some small ties of ribbons and flowers as he wove a small wreath of wildflowers and ribbons through her locks that made it seem that they were simply somehow sprouting from the crown of her head.

She felt beautiful.

Though she still was conflicted and murky inside, she'd given him a shy hug, making Robin squeal in joy and join in. It was the only thing that'd kept her from having another poor reaction, as his Aura was like old spiced pine and berries. Like the scent of Rhode's cologne.

And more than the act of thankfulness, she'd felt more joy at Robin's touch even then. It kept her stable and in control as that trigger almost caused her another issue.

She'd even gotten over her distaste for blonde hair thanks to Robin.

Truly what was she planning on doing, being afraid of blonde hair forever?

…was it bad that she thought it was beautiful now?

"Ah, that was fun!" Robin giggled, her arms resting on her waist like it was natural. "Should we go get a drink and rest our feet?"

"Your feet would be fine if you chose platform shoes like me." She replied with a small grin.

"Phewy. Maybe, but I can at least get close to reaching your shoulders with these on." Robin lifted her leg up slightly to the side, craning her elegant neck to look at her ankle. "Better for dancing even if it's awful for my feet."

"I don't really understand why heels exist."

"Did you know they used to be for men? Centuries ago?"

"Really?"

"Yes, actually. Men and their egos." Robin laughed again like tinkling bells, "Shorter men wanted to look taller, but it didn't take long for them to realize that it was uncomfortable. Then before you know it, it was redesigned to be for women as it better shaped their calves and made shorter women match up to taller men's heights. Ridiculous, isn't it all?"

She nodded in agreement.

"At least women's calves are prettier, I guess. Definitely less hairy."

Robin laughed again, making her smile a bit more.

"Oh, no that's true, but-" Robin held a hand in front of her mouth, likely to do her best to prevent a most 'unladylike' snicker. "Hmmmrm."

She wanted to push Robin past that into full laughter, having only heard such a genuine joy one time she'd seen the girl engage in a three way 'tickle war' with Clarent and Jaune.

She wanted to hear that one more time.

"I mean…" She leaned into Robin's ear, smelling her lavender shampoo, "Imagine General Ironwood in a skirt and heels."

Robin's laughter was quiet but rang in her mind like windchimes and tinkling bells.

"Pft! No! Aha ha ha! Bad, no!" Robin's small hands tapped against her arm so gently, making her heart roar in triumph. Even the words she spoke didn't trigger anything as the sound of her giggling gasps in between filled her ears. "Please never put that in my mind again."

She just smiled.

"Ok."

"Come on, you, you jokester." Robin shook her head weakly. "I saw my little brother enjoying the spiced apple cider earlier. Let's go see if it's as enjoyable as he made it appear."

"That sounds good." She agreed.

There was still time until the fireworks. Still some more time. To be with Robin. To live this magical dream.

Time until the clock struck midnight.