Mika ~ So, here's my first self-published story. I've lurked here on Fanfiction for a reasonably long amount of time without one. I'd like to thank Twisted Fate, my mutual cowriter and editor, for… Well, editing.

Twisted ~ Aww, you're embarrassing me, Mika-chan. Anyway, you did most of this I just fixed grammar.

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The forest was eerily quiet, today. That was the first thing she remembered noticing. Year upon year of ingrained instinct set her on edge, with that small thing.

Raven Xiao Long kept a hand on her sword on her hip, looking around for anything that might change that. She had gotten reports of Grimm here in her hometown of Patch, something that must be dealt with before it became a problem, and had unfortunately been the only one on-hand able to handle it at the time. It was simply too dangerous to wait until Taiyang or Qrow came home. She heard a sound and took a step to look for something on the town's edge. A brief wave of nausea hit her, making her stop in her tracks as she shook herself out of it, hearing the sound again.

Raven's hand tightened on her sword as she heard a branch snap and slid instinctively into a defensive stance, and a young Beowolf leapt out of the brush with a snarl. Raven drew her sword, slashing the beowolf in half before sheathing it again all in a flash of red. It collapsed, whimpered once in pain, and died with a pained snarl. And the forest came alive with snapping claws and snarling jaws.

An ambush, the very last thing she had needed. Obviously, there were Vulpes here, and the Beowolf had gotten impatient and attacked ahead of them. It was, after all, a young one and those tended to be impatient and impulsive.

Twenty Vulpes, smaller, more vulpine cousins to the Beowolf, leaped out of the bushes, jumping at her. Mentally, Raven remembered what her teachers had told her, a mere three years ago- Vulpes were quick, and much smaller than beowolves, but had weaker armor and strength. They were also capable of at least basic tactics, leading many to believe that they were sapient to some extent once they got to a more advanced age, much like the Goliaths and Nevermores.

Raven drew her sword, stabbing at one and slashing two more as the mob hit her in force. These were young ones, inexperienced and foolish much like the young 'Wolf she had slain momentarily. She dodged a claw and countered, scoring a hit that killed the Vulpes instantly. She didn't stop, stabbing, cutting, and dodging, a single mistake easily able to cost her her life.

And then it went wrong. Her sword was made from pure Dust, giving it several different properties. However, "pure" dust was weak, easily breaking due to it's unmixed state, making it a dangerous if powerful weapon to wield in prolonged melee combat She had just killed eighteen grimm, and two were still alive, but she could feel the exhaustion kicking in. And something felt… wrong.

One of the grimm clawed at her, and she brought the sword up to block, which turned out to be a mistake. Grimm claws met the weakened pure dust of her blade, and Grimm claws won out after a moment. The shattering sword knocked the Grimm off balance for just a moment, and Raven took advantage of the momentary balance issue. Raven stabbed the broken sword into the Grimm in partial desperation, killing it quickly. As she turned to meet the second, however, she felt a sharp pain in her side as she was tackled to the ground hard enough to drive the air from her lungs, her sword falling to the side and skittering away a couple inches.

The Vulpes Alpha's teeth snapped shut with an enraged snarl, inches from her face, as she reached for her sword, her sheathe, anything to beat off the black monster, as she managed to get a hand around the Grimm's neck. Her left arm felt wet and distant, much weaker than her right and much weaker than usual, in fact. Of course, Vulpes or not, she couldn't break an Alpha's neck bare-handed, even if she were in peak condition.

Her fingers found her sheathe, and she brought it closer to her, slamming it against the grimm's head in desperation. Then, she remembered the knife. Six years ago, with Taiyang, Summer and Qrow, her team, Summer gave her a personalized combat knife as a present. Under Summer's urging, she had put it on her sheathe and only used it for simple, non-combat related things in the years since.

But it was a big knife that Summer had intended for her to use as a weapon, fearing a day her blade would break in the midst of a fight as had happened now.

So Raven unsheathed that very knife, slamming it into the Vulpes' side with as much force as she could muster. It gurgled a bit, and Raven pulled out the knife and stabbed it a second time and a Vulpes stopped struggling as it slumped limply against Raven, it's body beginning to fade away as the bony plates clinked against the ground beside her. Raven pushed the Grimm off her, putting a hand on her side as she gingerly picked herself up and staggered a couple steps away.

Her hand came back covered in blood, and she looked at the wound, hissing a bit due to the pain she only just realised she was feeling. Adrenaline was funny that way, sometimes. Three gouges were easily apparent, the rusty-grey hint of living rib showing in the deepest one, and each were more or less straight cuts which she supposed was lucky. Her aura probably was the only thing that was keeping her alive. Her arm was similarly gouged, though thankfully the bone was not visible.

"That does not look good…" Raven detached her broken sword, putting the hilt into the sheath and letting a new blade cycle. Reaching into her pouch, she grabbed a few field dressings and slapped them onto her wounds gently but hurriedly. As if to answer her earlier question, she suddenly felt lightheaded, tired, and weak, the adrenaline of the fight wearing off.

She raised a hand, forming a portal that slowly but steadily grew and finally stabilized. Stepping through, she instantly met the eyes of concerned doctors and gave off a half-hearted shrug. Then she stumbled, her eyes closing slightly as she felt her knees give way, and fell into a blissful unconsciousness.

"-ven?"

Raven opened her eyes, looking up at the unfamiliar ceiling nervously for a minute. A brief wave of nausea hit her again, and she bit it back before letting out a painful groan. Looking up, she smiled as she recognised the doctor and calmed slightly, settling into her typical polite unprofessionalism.

"Amea, it would've been nice to see you in better circumstances. How long was I out this time?" The woman was average in build and look with shoulder-length dark hair that she reached up to play with nervously. Which caused her small golden ring to glint slightly in the light.

"Two days. Taiyang's been told about your condition, and he's on his way as we speak. Furious too, from what I've heard." She smiled slyly at the brunette, and Raven grimaced. She knew that face well, unfortunately for her. "Someone told him his wife went out to fight by herself. Turns out he doesn't like that."

"Where is he?" She asked impatiently, mainly because she was nervous. She was in so much trouble with him when they got home, he'd probably hide the pickles from her. He'd been doing that lately whenever she misbehaved or did something stupid, which she was wont to do.

"We both know Taiyang, he's very… Passionate. So he's been confined to the waiting room until you woke up and I got to talk to you. Or he calmed down, though he's probably still upset." The young woman pulled a chair up next her injured friend, polite smile fixed firmly in place.

"So, what's the damage, Ammi?" Raven asked nervously, though not for the obvious reason of her actual injuries. she was actually hoping to be mildly hurt, as that would make Taiyang protective of her.

"I won't lie to you. It's bad. You have six large lacerations in total, three on your abdomen and three on your lower arm. The lacerations on your side are ranging from two inches to half an inch." The young doctor grabbed the folder ful of the information, listing off each with mechanical precision which would have amused her if not for the fact she ws the one who was hurt. "The first lacerations were in your ribcage, between the last and the second-to last ribs and broke the second-to-last rib. The second scraped against your first floater rib, exposing it but also saving your life, as well as cutting into your lung. The last, deepest cut, however, scraped against your hip. and there were… complications we found. Your arms were to the bone in every circumstance. I won't lie to you- they chose me because the two of you are my friends. It would be vastly easier for me to tell him that you didn't make it when I'd be holding back tears myself as he wouldn't hit a crying friend."

"Good thing I made it then, I guess. What were the complications though?" He friend actually smiled and stood up, and both calmed Raven's concerns considerably.

Amea put her hand on Raven's shoulder, smiling a bit more in comfort. "Raven, had it been a few inches deeper, I wouldn't have such good news. You're pregnant with twins."

Raven blinked a bit, speechless, as her hand slowly slid down to cup her stomach. "I'm… Pregnant? With... twins?" Then that was why she had been feeling unwell, which made sense when she thought about it.

"Congratulations. Now, we do need to keep you in observation. One of the fetuses may have an issue that might lead to a miscarriage or a condition that requires abortion, especially if we can't get to any problems in time." She grimaced, flipping a page in her folder absently.

Raven blinked, shocked out of the revelation of motherhood by the unsettling statement. "Please don't do this to me, Amea."

Amea gave Raven a slight hug, smiling slightly as she put the ultrasounds onto the table. "Shh, it'll be fine. We just need to keep you in observation until it's clear. No more Hunting for the duration of the pregnancy. Bedrest as much as possible. Expect to become a housewife for a while. I… Haven't told Taiyang yet, I'll let you handle that."

Raven nodded, picking up the ultrasound results and giving a soft smile as she saw the two blobs on the screen that would become her babies. Raven noticed something odd on the one on the left, closest to where staples shone out white on the black background. "Hey, Amea. What's this on that baby..."

Amea took a look at it and smiled, all too familiar with that specific shape due to her own pregnancy a year before. "It looks like you have a faunus baby as well as a human one…"

Raven smiled brightly, looking up to her friend. "I'd like the two of them to meet someday."

Amea Scarlatina smiled, looking her friend in the eyes brightly. "I'd love to introduce Velvet to your kids, Rae. It'd be great."

Taiyang Xiao Long gently closed the hospital door behind him,and turned to smile at the completely exhausted looking Raven on her bed. It had been hours of waiting for him, torture in and of itself in a way, but he knew she'd had it harder. It took something special to have a pair of twins a few months after a fight like that. He'd been worried, stressed, terrified to no end of all of this but the two little mounds curled up with their smiling mother set that at ease almost immediately.

They'd been premature, and both had nearly died as a result, but they were strong little tikes in spite of everything. He'd seen them both in the hospital's natal unit, and eventually they'd been released to their mother in her own room. Her threats to use her portals may have played a part in that, though, to be fair. They were both sleeping, one with two little tufts for ears on top of her head, and he already knew what his father had always meant when he talked about seeing your own child.

If anyone tried to lay a hand on his little angels, he'd cave their heads in. Which, for him, pretty much summarised what loving a person was.