AYangThang: Ready for the feels train? For your pairing pleasure, we have established Ladybug, and slow thawing freezerburn. First though, we have a prologue.
A Daughter's Road
Prologue
Look at you, growing up before I noticed, little shit.
Hey, listen, Yang…
I know that as far as you're aware, I haven't been around. I have reasons, and that's just it, they're mine to have. I won't lay them on you, they'd probably seem like excuses. Maybe that's all they are. Time changes my perspective a lot. In my head, there are a lot of dusty arguments that float around in the quiet. There are countless things that I can't even begin to describe. Honestly, I don't think you'll take that at face value.
If you're smart, and anything like me, you won't.
So, I took some time, thinking about what you would take. I thought about what I could give you. I have no need for apologies, so I won't give you that. Despite what you may think, that's not a cruelty. It just… is what it is, I guess. That's the hand life dealt us, and yeah, it's shitty. I can't do anything less to make it less so. If I could, Summer Rose would still be alive, your dad and I wouldn't have fallen apart, and our lives would have been relatively peaceful.
You're twenty, I left only a little while after you were born. Believe it or not, that's how I count the years. I can't condense all that time into anything justifiable. I won't disrespect you by trying. The only thing I can tell you is that I have my regrets.
We all have to go to hell in our own way. I chose my hell, and you have to choose yours, whatever that may be.
I know you have questions, and, that you want answers. I wish I had a few of them myself, but I don't. I doubt I ever will. There's only one thing I can give you now is a glimpse into what happened. Honestly, it'll probably just give you more questions than answers. Enclosed in this envelope is a key to an apartment, and a bank account I set up for you years ago. The apartment was the first we bought as a team right out of Beacon. A single bedroom, one bath monstrosity. It put a roof over our heads when we had none.
Your dad thought I had gotten rid of it when we moved into the house. I lied. Instead, I put the apartment in my name, and now, it's in yours.
As for the money, you're not rich, but it'll get you by. As a huntress, you're going to learn that a lot of nights you'll be cold, and hungry. You're one person of thousands, and when you're young, you'll barely manage to get food on the table. The ones that can pay will look for those with experience, something you won't have. It's a thankless job, and the people who would want to show the most gratitude often have almost nothing. You'll be lucky to get a dinner and a warm bed for the night.
That's why Tai and Qrow went into teaching. We would have been on the street otherwise. Some teams are fine getting by like that, we would have been too.
But…
Well, you were already on the way. It came down to a choice. Since you're here now, you know the one we made. What you might not know, is that it was a close call.
I was scared that I had upended all of our lives, and I was ready to do the worst. Qrow was angry, he didn't think we'd be able to manage keeping a roof over our heads as it was. As for Tai… he was against it most of all. He wasn't sure you'd be okay… He was terrified that if we brought you into this world, you'd suffer for it.
We'd been on the road for months, there was no way any of us could have known. I was a heavy drinker, we mistook morning sickness for constant hangovers. After my aura took a dive in the middle of a fight, it land me in the hospital. That's when we found out that it my aura wasn't broken. It was that I was pregnant, with you. My aura had centralized around my womb to protect you.
My actions in not knowing…
All the drinking, all the fighting, well, it could have severely hurt you. Tai and I didn't want to risk that, Qrow was sure that his semblance was to blame. He calls himself a bad luck charm, and not knowing you were there, that was definitely the luck of the draw.
Summer Rose was different, though. She was so happy. It was like she knew you'd be okay. She wanted you to come into this world so badly, and, she was our leader. For someone like me, a leader is the law. What they say, goes. If she wanted you, then I'd have you. It was just that simple in my head. As a team, we trusted her. We made the choice to keep you, and we made a lot of sacrifices to give you a home.
I'm not proud of most of them.
I could be a lot of things, but, I realized pretty early on that I could never be your mom. When you boil down every dirty detail, in spirit at least, you were Summer's from the start. I was just the woman that carried you. Summer loved you from the day she knew. I guess that's all that really needs to be said about the matter.
Stop looking for me, Yang. Stop looking for answers that none of us have. We tried to keep it together. We did the best any of us could do, and it wasn't good enough. There's nothing left for you in that past. It died with Summer, and nothing any of us do will ever bring her back. The only thing you can do now, is live the life she wanted you to have.
So do that…
Go to hell in your own way, Yang.
Live your life with good intentions, and never look back…
-Raven