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The Story

"Hey girls, I have a story for you." Qrow leaned up against the bedpost in team RWBY's dorm room. Weiss and Blake were out for the day, Weiss training and Blake making large purchases of tuna and other cat products with the excuse of owning an extensive number of felines. In the meanwhile, Ruby and Yang had stayed back with their uncle to catch up. He and Taiyang were responsible for most of the girls' upbringing and he felt like he had left Taiyang with a much bigger responsibility, so he at least owed them a story about his old team. Ruby poked her head up from her bed with a big smile on her face. She enjoyed it when her uncle Qrow had a story, whether it was a true one or just flat out made up. Yang set her scroll aside and also sat up from sitting on Blake's bed. Qrow always had little stories for them but most of them were about his encounters with mini skirts or excitable female bartenders. Yang figured that this ought to be some good entertainment until the rest of their team came back.
"Alright, so there I was-" Qrow was cut off from a sudden attack from behind. It turned out to just be Ruby launching forward to wrap her arms around Qrow's neck. Yang giggled from how much Ruby got excited about these little stories Qrow had.
"Gah, okay, I see someone's ready." Qrow just laughed it off and pulled out a small black book that had a picture of a raven on the front. The girls had seen the notebook a few times before but never got a chance to look inside. Qrow directed his attention towards the older sister.
"This book is a personal journal that your mother and I kept. There's a reason I say journal instead of 'diary'." Qrow dragged out the last word as though it was a pain to even say.
"It's 'cuz you don't want to sound girly." Ruby instantly quipped from behind.
"Hey, girls keep diaries, men keep journals of their adventures. There's a difference, ya know." Qrow quickly exclaimed. He regained his stature against the bedpost and flipped open the journal. The pages were slightly wrinkled and warped as if the entire thing had been dropped in the water once or twice. Qrow cleared his voice and began telling his story.

Summer quietly closed the thick oak wood door, careful to make sure that it shut without a noise. As soon as it was fully shut, she turned around to face the rest of her team: Taiyang who was sitting at the kitchen table, Raven who was anxiously standing by the front door, and finally Qrow, who held a baby bottle with milk. Three of them were in their earlier twenties with Summer being an exception of exactly twenty. Her eye color made her an exception to a lot of things.
"So what's your grand plan, little Rose?" Qrow jokingly addressed his leader. She frowned at the idiotic nickname but immediately ended up sighing in exasperation.
"The little one is asleep. Though I don't understand why Raven and Tai insist on having the four of us take on their parenting responsibilities." Summer pointed out.
"Because we're a team. We've always done things as a team. Plus you make a really good mother, Summer." Taiyang responded with, giving Summer a reason to smile and Raven a reason to frown.
"Oh, and I'm not?" Raven lashed out, forcing Taiyang to scoot his chair back.
"No no, I didn't say that! You're an excellent mother! Though I do have some questions about your...baby toys." Taiyang remembered a scenario in which Raven went out of her way to ask a man in town to build a few toys for her child that were shaped like weapons.
"Growing up around us, it's a good idea for them to start young." Qrow suggested, looking quizzically at the bottle in his hand. He didn't remember why he had picked it up.
"Start young? What are you implying that we're starting them young for?" Taiyang exclaimed.
"Please calm down..." Summer spoke up in a hushed voice that reminded them all of the sleeping baby. Taiyang shook his head in frustration.
"Each and every one of us is now a certified huntsman or huntress. We work under Ozpin and his associates now. The life of a huntsman and the life of a parent don't mix. That's why we decided to stay all the way out here and raise little Yang. Away from the fighting and the dreams of being a huntress." Taiyang explained what they all already knew. Qrow exchanged the bottle of milk for an apple.
"And what are we going to do when Oz decides to call us in on a mission? We can't tell him about the baby. And we certainly can't send only one of us in, we'd get killed." Qrow indiscriminately pointed out. They all secretly agreed, but it was something they wanted to forget.
"We weren't thinking when we agreed to go out." Raven blatantly referred to Taiyang. The team knew about the relationship, but tried to not let it affect them. A few months after graduating, Tai and Raven got more serious. Summer and Qrow were clueless until Raven's pregnancy started showing. They were quick to come to a temporary solution of building a cabin on the isolated island of Patch. There, they figured they would live until ultimately coming to a conclusion about what to do with the baby. Qrow kept in touch with Ozpin, telling him that they needed time to work on their teamwork among other things required by a full team of huntsmen. Ozpin's patience was running thin fast, which worried them all.
"She's asleep for now, so let's keep it that way." Summer reminded them. Her teammates seemed to have short fuses. She constantly kept them in check and made sure to give ample reminders about a lot of things.
"Life won't stay so simple." Qrow was seriously about his statement. He took a loud, crunchy bite of his apple before storming out of the cabin, leaving the door wide open.
"Wait!" Summer dashed after him, quickly but softly closing the door. She followed him closely. Taiyang and Raven stared at each other in confusion. Qrow had always had the shortest fuse out of them all, wanting things done right the first time and permanent solutions. Summer tried her best to remind him that temporary solutions work as well, but he never wanted to listen. A few moments later, the cries of a baby erupted from the room Summer was in earlier. Raven sighed once she heard the noise.
"I'll get it." She simply offered and turned towards the room.
Outside, Qrow had stormed away towards a creekside meadow not far from the cabin. It was early in the spring, but the cold weather didn't bother him. The flowers and wild grasses were just starting to pop up all around. The creek itself ran constantly, fed from a river that ran between the island and mainland. It flowed about eleven months of the year and today was no exception. Qrow tossed his apple aside and slumped down beside the creek.
Summer felt a mild breeze fluttering her cloak behind her. She did what she could to keep it close to her instead of freely blowing around. She wasn't sure what had gotten into her teammate so suddenly and was careful to approach him. He was fully aware of Summer's presence.
"Sit down." He beckoned without turning around. Summer had always been his favorite. His sister got annoying quickly with her peppy always-happy attitude, although recently that had been dwindling. And Taiyang was boring and studious, always worrying about one thing or the other. But Summer...
She sat down beside Qrow and pulled her knees up to her chest. Qrow looked over and noticed she seemed kind of scared. He gave her a small smile to show her that everything was alright.
"Hey there, little Rose. I'm not gonna bite. Although there are a few people who I'd more than gladly bite in the a-"
"Qrow!" Summer stopped him as he continued to smile.
"Well it's true...anyways, why'd you follow me out here? Don't you have some motherly duty to do?" Qrow watched the younger girl stir uncomfortably, loosening up only a tiny amount.
"Taiyang and Raven are fine by themselves. Besides, they are the parents." Summer quietly suggested.
"I guess you're right...but they can't be that great of parents if they need us around, supermom." Qrow chuckled at the new nickname he came up with on the spot. He also earned a swift but light punch from Summer. She didn't want to be a mother, at least not yet. She was young and wanted to explore the world a bit more.
"Well, we're only helping them until they get better at, uh, parenting. It'll be alright in time. Trust me, we've been through worse together as kids." She smiled warmly, reminiscing their time at Beacon Academy as students under Ozpin. Qrow knew exactly what Summer meant.
"Tai is a little, whaddya call it, too serious. And I'm pretty sure my sis is starting to get cranky and old as a new mother. They won't get along if things keep going this way." Qrow was starting to loosen up himself, leaning back slightly and holding himself up with his hands. Summer watched him and somewhat mimicked what he was doing. But her natural clumsiness caught up to her and she fell backward with a cute yelp. Qrow tried his best to avoid giggling out loud, helping Summer back to a sitting position.
"Don't laugh at me..." Summer looked away, but she herself was trying hard not to burst out laughing. Qrow subconsciously put a hand on Summer's shoulder out of kindness. It was sudden, causing Summer to slightly jolt from the touch.
"Hey now little Rose, we ain't kids anymore. But that doesn't mean we can't laugh at each other every once in awhile. It's no fun and games out in the field. Like I said, loosen up. We'll be done helping with the kid and then we'll be out there fighting side by side. I promise." Qrow started to stand up and stretch.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. The other two will be fine soon enough. I'm gonna go back and see if they need anything." Summer jumped up to her feet and before Qrow could say anything or move, Summer was gone.
"She's...something. Can't quite put my finger on it yet, but she's something alright." Qrow admired the girl as she ran back to the cabin.
Summer, who knew her way well around the area, worked her way back easily. There was a small section of trees, then a rocky patch, and finally there was the forest that made up the back part of the cabin. She paused in front of the door, however. Her mind wasn't on Raven or Taiyang, or even the baby. She was thinking about Qrow. He was so nice to her, and has been like a protector. Her mind wandered back to when she was on a joint mission with Team CYAN back in the day and she twisted her ankle. The first one to come to her rescue was Qrow. He fought off the oncoming Grimm assailants and helped her to her feet, even carrying her part of the way. And it wasn't the only time he had been the first to her side. He cared about her a lot. And she didn't have much of a way to repay him. She never could. And now that they were adults, she wanted more than ever to return the favor. She placed her hand on the doorknob and before she could turn it, a loud crash came from inside.
Summer flung the door open to see Raven holding Yang while Taiyang was grabbing plates. On the floor in front of Taiyang was a shattered glass mug sitting in a pool of juice.
"I told you to be more careful!" Raven commanded as the young baby in her arms giggled from the sight of the chaos. Summer sighed and reached for the broom and mop which were both leaning against the wall near the door.
"Hey there, Summer. Oh, you don't need that, I can get this." Taiyang friendly voice rang out through the small cabin. He then closed his eyes and focused his energy into activating his semblance. Raven always had a slight appreciation for the blonde's semblance. The simplest way to describe it would be combustion. Within a few seconds, the shards of glass and the juice ignited into a small, controlled flame. The aura in Taiyang's body melted the substance away into dust, which casually floated away. Summer stood in the doorframe and admired the show. A couple minutes later and both the glass and juice were nothing more.
"There we go. We can always just buy more mugs if we need to," Taiyang then turned towards his child and made his voice more playful, "we wouldn't want wittle Yang to pway in the glass and get hurty boo-boos." Which was extremely effective at making Yang laugh in excitement. Summer and Raven both smiled to see the child so happy.
"So I'm guessing my idiot brother is off doing what he does best and 'thinking things over' again?" Raven rolled her eyes at the mere thought of Qrow. Summer just shrugged her shoulders.
"He's alright. He should be back soon. Then we can talk about what we're going to do. You know Ozpin called again this morning. He needs us back now." Summer's tone was urgent. She desperately wanted to change Team STRQ's status back to 'in service' as quick as possible. Qrow laxfully strolled up behind Summer and made his appearance known.
"Well now, Ozpin can go screw himself, we've got a baby." Qrow's voice was loud enough to turn all heads.
"A baby he doesn't know exists, you know that right?" Taiyang was now holding Yang, very carefully bouncing her up and down to keep her occupied.
"I say we give in and tell him about Yang." Qrow and Summer both herded themselves inside in order for the front door to be shut. Raven crossed her arms and shot Qrow a cold glare.
"That's an idiot way of handling this. Or we could have someone stay here and watch Yang while the rest of us go and be huntsmen, like we signed up for." Raven was quick to suggest.
"Qrow is right, we need to tell Ozpin about the baby. He's an understanding person, he'll be reasonable." Summer concluded, standing close to her dark haired teammate. Summer never wore her hood inside the cabin, making it easy for Qrow to reach up and ruffle his leader's hair.
"Oh come on, you're taking his side? What did you two do while you were gone, make out?" Raven blurted out, not wanting to listen to anyone else's opinion.
"Can we not fight in front of Yang? Please?" Taiyang pleaded, still holding his baby. He would put her back to bed if she hadn't already been sleeping the majority of the day.
"We're ending this right now." Summer took the reins in the conversation, immediately pulling out her scroll and calling Ozpin. Nobody dared to move. They learned over the last few years that Summer developed a great sense of decisive thinking. Once she had her mind set, she wasn't likely to change it. The small device rang a few times before the somewhat annoyed voice of Ozpin was heard back.
"Hello headmaster, this is team STRQ, as in all of us this time. We have a small confession that we would like to make..." Summer felt her voice becoming progressively more nervous. She heard Ozpin grunt on the other side, waiting for Summer to continue. But she didn't get a chance to say a word before Yang loudly shouted gibberish as though on cue. She wasn't old enough to speak actual words yet, but she picked up enough from the four adults to at least try to communicate. Ozpin heard loud and clear, completely taken aback.
"Surprise, we have a baby...heheh..." Summer tried to lighten the mood. Ozpin still lacked a response.
"It's mine and Raven's, actually!" Taiyang spoke up, believing he was helping. Summer waited a while before Ozpin replied.
"Well, I can't possibly be mad at you for harboring a child. Why didn't you just tell me to begin with? Children are the future of this world. They are just as important as the huntsmen and huntresses protecting the cities from the creatures of the wilderness. In fact, huntsmen and huntresses just like you four. Here's what I can do, you can take shift's reporting into me for missions. Two at a time while the other two stay back and parent the child. You obviously didn't train at my academy for four years just to be mothers and fathers." Ozpin broke from speaking to give the team a chance to say something.
"That's actually a really good idea, headmaster. When would you like us in?" Summer excitedly reported back.
"As soon as you can get here." Ozpin finished his statement and ended the call. Summer lowered her scroll and stared at her team with a big smile.
"He said we can take turns...two at a time while the other two stay here. How does that sound?" Summer recited what Ozpin told her.
"That's real amazing. I call being one of the two going in first." Qrow was quick to volunteer. Summer was, to no one's surprise, the second to vote herself in. That way, the birth parents had time to themselves to figure out a way to effectively raise Yang.
"Good thing that's settled. Okay, I was wrong, before anyone else has a chance to say it." Raven rolled her eyes and admitted what she need to.
"I'm gonna head back to my room and get my stuff packed. You should do the same, Qrow." Summer calmed herself a little to be the team leader and get things organized. They had a long trip ahead of them.
Summer made her way to the room she had been using as hers. When Qrow and Taiyang had been building the house, they made a few extra rooms to use as guest bedrooms considering Qrow and Summer were going to be staying there as well, and Yang needed her own room. In total, they set aside four bedrooms which took up most of the cabin. But they didn't feel it was unnecessary. Raven figured that once the others were out of the place, they could use the extra space for more recreational purposes.
The young team leader looked at her things that were strewn across the bed in a sort of orderly fashion that made sense to her. She carefully folded extra clothing and picked out various objects, stacking them next to a black bag that she was planning on taking with them. She wouldn't take everything, just the things she thought she needed.
"Knock-knock, little Rose." The rough voice announced from the doorway. Summer quickly spun around to greet the uninvited guest.
"Shouldn't you be packing for the trip to Vale?" She questioned without missing a beat. Qrow fully entered the room and shut the door behind him
"Everything I need is right here." He pointed to himself, then in an attempt to sound desirable, gently bopped Summer's nose. It made her giggle as she realized what he meant.
"You're funny. Wouldn't you rather be going with Taiyang or your sister?" Summer tried to control herself, which only made her giggle more.
"Nah, those guys would only cramp my style. There's no one I'd rather be fighting beside than you." Qrow answered honestly, finding a flat spot to sit down on the bed. Summer felt her face start to get hot from the compliment. She decided to sit next to Qrow and take a break to just talk with him.
"So why are you in here disturbing me anyway?" Summer asked in a hushed voice. She wasn't quite sure just yet why he liked to be around her the most.
"Maybe I'm jealous of Tai and Raven, maybe it's just because you still have your innocence. You're different, and not just because you're 'special' special, with those beautiful silver eyes of yours." Qrow smirked as he slipped yet another compliment into the conversation. Summer shoved Qrow enough to move him, but not enough to push him off the bed.
"Oh, stop it with the flirting. I know what you're trying to do." Summer looked away while crossing her arms, giving an impression that she didn't appreciate Qrow's little quips. He just shook his head and put an arm around the younger girl.
"I like you. And you like me." Qrow said what they both were thinking. Summer felt her face burning up, her shyness becoming extremely apparent. She pushed her hair out of eyes and turned to face Qrow. She knew that she was blushing wildly but she didn't want to hide it anymore.
"So what does that mean?" Summer nervously tried to work out, instead ending up speaking in a quiet, high pitched voice. Qrow leaned forward and whispered into her ear.
"It means love, little Rose." For once, Summer didn't mind the possessive nickname. She actually enjoyed it coming from Qrow's voice. Then before she could react, her lips were met with a forceful kiss. It was a quick but drawn out movement, and one that Summer didn't complain about. To her, it was the blossoming of a romance. She returned the kiss with less force but with a loving push. The two locked lips for as long as they could, pulling apart once neither could hold their breath any longer. Even as they were panting for air, Qrow leaned forward even further and pushed his forehead against Summer's, a few tufts of blackish-red locks between them. They sat against each other for a few minutes, enjoying each other's company, until Qrow broke the peace.
"I probably should go pack..." He was quiet and relaxed, standing up slowly and stretching. The stretching part was just for Summer's pleasure, however. Once he was fully up, he exited the room without any further words.
"Qrow Branwen..." Summer whispered to herself with the image of him fresh in her mind and the thought of the kiss lingering in the air. It had taken them years to get past the idea of just being teammates and to finally admit how they felt. And she felt like a huge weight was suddenly lifted. She fell backwards and laid on the bed for a while, blushing uncontrollably and giggling softly. She couldn't wait for what the future would bring for them, but whatever it was, she was ready and willing to take it on.
Once the ecstasy had worn off, Summer went back to work on packing her things and picking the bag up. It seemed a little too heavy but she was sure the extra things would be necessary. Next, she set the bag on the floor beside the bed and walked back out to see if Taiyang and Raven needed any assistance as they usually did.
"Everything's under control out here. By the way, what did Qrow need? Before he went into your room he told us that he was getting something he let you borrow." Taiyang innocently asked as soon as he saw Summer.
"Oh it was nothing. Don't worry about it. We leave tomorrow morning. Just thought I'd let you guys know." Summer smiled enthusiastically. She picked up Yang from where she was sitting on the counter and began playing with her. From around the corner, Qrow peeked out and watched with a happy facial expression.
"Supermom..." He whispered to himself.