RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC126: Talk (Birdhouse & Co.)

[Opener: AMV to "Stand in the Rain"--Superchick, by Captain Dystra]

Winter found Raven outside, kicking at pebbles.

The cold was biting by now.

"Won't you come back inside?" Winter asked, in what was, for her, a gentle voice. "It's freezing."

"It's freezing in there also," Raven replied.

She meant the mood.

"They were surprised, but that's no reason to spoil the party," Winter said.

"I'm glad that's what's so important." Raven was peevish.

"That is enough self pity." Winter resumed her usual tone of voice. "You will have to face them sooner or later, and the longer you wait, the more they'll worry. Is that what your pride would want?"

That had some more effect.

Raven turned with a cross look. "I know what they're all thinking," she said, sounding just like her old self, hard and bitter.

"I don't think you do," Winter said. "But it's clear what you're thinking."

"Don't try those word games with me. Shine does it better," Raven said. "I'm surprised she's not out here."

"I'm sure she will talk to you when she thinks she should, but she's been expecting us to deal with our own problems lately."

Raven raised an eyebrow, then she said, with her typical bluntness, "Shine is the only one who has never judged me for my decisions. Her and Wally, but he wouldn't have anything to say about this."

"He might actually. You know, he's been raised by a single parent," Winter said. "But if he's chosen not to say anything, I think you know why."

"So you're just going to bring that right up."

"You did," Winter shrugged. "I'm sure this news was overwhelming, and we don't have to discuss it now. But sulking out here is not doing anyone any good. Either come inside or go home. You might as well not spoil our fun if you're determined to spoil your own."

"Fun?" Raven snorted. "You realize how difficult this will make things."

"There will be some way around it," Winter said. "There always is."

"Is that really Winter Schnee saying that? The uptight one?"

"Lashing out at me is not making you look or feel any better." Winter didn't bother to get offended. "And I've learned that solutions generally present themselves when you need them to."

Raven shook her head. "It's fine for you, Schnee."

"Why?"

"I know you and Qrow didn't plan to have kids so soon, but you were in love. You were older. Qrow has had experience with kids already. It wasn't the same thing." Raven tired of dodging the problem. "I was too young before. I skipped out on the learning stage. Now I'm too old. I can't possibly relearn all this now. Even if I wanted to."

"Raven, we've never spoken about your abandonment of Yang." Winter did not mince words. "Not at length. I decided it's not any of my business. I understand that Ozpin made it complicated."

"Probably would have done it even without Ozpin's secrets," Raven said. "But it was an excuse."

"I find it curious, though, that you once offered to let Yang stay with you, at the Tribe," Winter said. "Surely you weren't avoiding her exactly. You watched her. I'm sure you loved her, in your way."

"Of course I did." Raven said that more easily to Winter than she would have to Yang herself. 

She paced a little and then smiled oddly. "You should have seen her when she was born. She was so...tiny. She looked just like Tai then..."