Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.
Taiyang Xiao Long was a broken man.
Three months. He thought to himself. Three months.
Three months since the love of his life, Summer Rose, had died in action. Three months of struggling to hold it together for his daughters. Struggling and, he knew, failing. He was trying to hold himself together, to be strong for his daughters, but it hurt so much. He could barely bring himself to even look at Ruby, she looked so much like her mother. His brother-in-law, Qrow had taken over so many of Taiyang's day-to-day responsibilities, trying to take the burden off of the shattered father, but in many ways that only made it hurt more.
Yang, little five-year-old Yang, was growing up faster than he'd ever wanted her to. When Qrow wasn't around she was the one taking care of Ruby. She was so brave, and so strong. Why couldn't he be like that? Why was his daughter so much stronger than him? It filled him with shame that she had to take care of Ruby like that.
And Ruby, the three-year-old baby of the family, she'd barely changed. Sometimes Taiyang wondered if she was even old enough to understand what had happened. The only thing that had changed about her was that she carried a bag with her everywhere she went. Whenever she found a coin she put it in the bag, never letting the bag out of her sight for even a moment. She slept with the bag of coins under her pillow like she couldn't bear to lose it. Taiyang didn't understand it.
He fought back the pain that threatened to overwhelm him again. Today was the last day of Summer. He couldn't be the father his children needed right now, but he would be damned if he couldn't do something for them. Summer had always taken them to a small park during the Summer. He couldn't be a father for them, but he could at least give them a trip to the park.
Yang was ready to go, making sure Ruby had her shoes tied and her cloak properly attached. Ruby herself made sure the bag of coins was in her pocket. After three months she had a lot of coins in it, but she didn't complain about the weight.
Taiyang drove them to the park, then watched them as they ran off to play. He sat down on a bench, memories of his wife threatening to overwhelm him again. It wasn't even the first time he'd lost a woman he loved! Why did this time hurt so much more? He shook his head, pushing back the memories. They would overwhelm him again later, and he would return to the empty shell of a man that he had become, but not today. Today he was going to be strong for his daughters. Today, he was their father again, if only for a little while.
He glanced around. Yang was playing by a swing set, but Ruby wasn't with her. That was strange, Yang almost never let Ruby out of her sight. Taiyang looked around and found Ruby over by the fountain in the middle of the park. The little girl had managed to pull herself up onto the bench that served as the edge of the fountain. She had the bag of coins open beside her and as he watched, she reached in and pulled out one of the coins she'd collected. She held it for a moment, then dropped it into the fountain.
Taiyang found himself on his feet, walking over to where his younger daughter was dropping her coins into the fountain one by one.
"What are you doing Ruby?" he asked.
"Wishing," Ruby said. "Wishing for mom to come back."
Taiyang sat down hard on the bench beside her, the grief threatening to crush his spirit again. "Ruby... Not every wish comes true."
"I know," Ruby said. "That's why I brought a lot of wishes." She pointed at the bag. "I'm gonna keep wishing until I run out of wishes. Maybe one of them will come true."
Taiyang struggled to hold back his tears. "Maybe... maybe one of them will," he said. "Do you want some help?"
"Yeah, you can wish too!" Ruby said.
"I guess I can," he said with a weak smile. "Until we run out of wishes."
A/N: I'm currently dealing with a family emergency that has left me without the energy to write my usual story, so instead I wrote this. MRLD is, as of this moment, officially on hiatus for an unknown amount of time. I'll get back to it as soon as I can, but that could take a while. I'll have to see.