Chapter 4

When Ruby quietly re-entered the hotel room she and Weiss were sharing, having spent a fair amount of the afternoon wandering Vale with her sister, she witnessed a pleasant sight. Weiss was sat on the bed, smiling at her scroll, work documents put aside, speaking softly to the person on the other end of the call. Ruby could tell, just from the tone of Weiss's voice, who it was on the other end of the line.

Weiss looked up when Ruby entered, the smile on her lips intensifying for a brief moment, "Oh, hi Ruby."

"Heya Weiss."

"Mum?"

Ruby grinned when she heard the voice from the scroll, "Hey Argent."

She dropped herself down on the bed, next to Weiss, turning her smile to the scroll and the video feed of their daughter. Argent was, at least to her parents' minds, a beautiful girl. Now about eight and a half years old, she was starting to gain some of the refinement that her mother bore, while retaining the cuteness her mum had had in youth.

She had silver eyes and hair, which had instantly earned her name. While her appearance was generally more alike to Weiss, both her parents could see a little of each other in their daughter.

Argent wore a joyous smile, which she almost exclusively kept for her parents. "Hello Mum."

"How're you doing Sweetie? You are behaving for your grandparents, right?"

"Of course Mama," Argent slipped into a past version of her speech, revealing the little girl behind the refined exterior. "I'm on my best behaviour, unlike Lance."

"Now, now Argent, be nice to your cousin," Ruby gently chided.

"But he keeps running around, and tries to drag me along."

"He probably just wants to play with you. You should follow along sometimes."

"But Mama, he always wants to do such stupid things."

Ruby shook her head, "Then find something you can both enjoy."

Argent subconsciously pouted, making Ruby internally squeal, so overloaded with cuteness that she was. "I suppose I can try."

"Good girl."

Over the scroll, a call was heard, and Argent turned and called back "Coming Grandma." Turning back to her parents, she smiled "I have to go."

"See you later then Argent," Weiss said, giving a small wave.

"Um... is it okay if I call again tomorrow?" Argent looked at the floor as though it was the most interesting thing ever.

"Sure thing Sweetie, we'll see you tomorrow then, okay?"

"Okay! Bye Mum. Goodbye Mother." Argent beamed and gave an excited wave, before hanging up the call.

Weiss put down the scroll and turned to her wife, "It's nice to see she and Lance are getting on well."

"Didn't sound like it."

"Well it never sounded as though Yang and I got on well. Quite the contrary, but in reality, we got on like a house on fire."

"Hey, she only set your house on fire once!"

"That... was not at all what I was referring to, and it was twice. But the point is that we got on even though it didn't look like it."

Ruby giggled, "True that."

"So speaking of your sister, how is she?"

"Eh? How'd you know I was with Yang?"

"Oh come on, where else would you be?"

"With Blake?"

"And Yang wouldn't be with you both? It's not like you two are her two favourite people in Vale, heck, in Remnant."

"Er... I guess you have a point." Ruby leaned back a little, looking up at the ceiling. "I think she's all right, just about. She was visiting Jaune and Pyrrha when I ran into her."

"I see..."

"Apparently she's going to be staying with Blake for a while, to 'look after her.'"

Weiss nodded, "Why am I not surprised?"

"You expected it?"

"It was a distinct possibility."

"So what do you think about them?"

"Yang and Blake?"

"Who else?"

Weiss rolled her eyes, "Well I think that in a year or two they'll make a nice couple."

Ruby nodded, "Yup, just what I thought."

Weiss chuckled, "Maybe we've rubbed off on each other too much."

"Well we've definitely done it a lot," Ruby smirked, "but you can never have too much of a good thing."

"Spare me your sister's level of puns. Besides, I swear I've heard that one before."

Ruby giggled, "Probably. But anyway, I just hope the two of them are okay."

"You mean you hope Yang doesn't rush everything and break their relationship?"

"I never said that."

"You didn't need to, I know you pretty well by now."

Ruby frowned, "Since when could you read my mind?"

"Since about our third wedding anniversary."

Ruby laughed, then leaned on Weiss, "Yeah, figures. You did give me the best anniversary present that year though, so letting you read my mind seems like a fair trade."

"I gave birth to her two days later."

"Still counts."

Weiss smiled, placing her hand on Ruby's, "Well I do hope you liked my gift."

Ruby giggled and leaned in close to Weiss's ear, "Best, gift, ever."

"So here we are." Blake opened the door to her house, holding it open for Yang to step in.

Looking around the front hall, Yang nodded, "Nice place you got here."

The house, as Yang had seen from the outside, was a two-floor end-of-terrace home in an older part of town. Inside it was as one would expect, with the front hall a little bit of a mess, but not too much. Two children's sets of shoes sat next to their parents', and a chest of drawers sat nearby.

Yang bent down to help Blake pick up a few weeks' worth of mail. Fortunately, most of it was unimportant advertising, which they dumped in a heap to be dealt with eventually. Blake took the actual letters through to the kitchen, with Yang following her, dropping her bag by the foot of the stairs.

The kitchen was large enough to fit four comfortably, and six cosily. A dining table was the centrepiece, with all the usual cooking apparatus around it, all quite clean, with a very fine layer of dust the only thing blemishing them.

"So when are the kids coming?" Yang asked.

"Ren will be bringing them over after dinner," Blake replied. "So I'd guess a couple of hours."

"Cool," Yang returned to giving the place a quick look-over. From the window in the kitchen, she could see out to a small garden area, little more than a lawn really. She look out at the low Sun in the sky, the Autumn light determine to last a little longer before it fell away.

Her scroll rang, startling her. She took it out and smiled when she saw the ID displayed. Hitting the 'receive' button, she smiled as the face of her son appeared on the display. "Heya kiddo, what's up?"

"Hi Mum. I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Not so bad Lance. How about you? The Schnees bored you to death yet?"

"Eh? No, their house is really big. Not as big as Aunt Weiss's, but there's still a lot to explore."

Yang chuckled. She had been to the house Weiss's parents had retired to. Lance's comments were very accurate. Yang wondered why a retired couple needed such a large home. They were not all that old, being in their early sixties, but it was just the two of them and four servants. They did hold parties from time-to-time, but anything really big was normally held at the Schnee Mansion.

Maybe the couple just wanted a large place for the younger generation to explore.

"So you've been looking round it? Have you found where they keep all the money yet?"

"Mum! Aunt Weiss will scold you again."

Yang laughed at the son shaking his head in sadness. "Don't worry, she's not around."

Yang noticed out of the corner of her eye that Blake was now watching her, a sly smile on her lips. The woman had put down the letters and just sat there, ears perked to the blonde's conversation.

"Something wrong Mum?"

Yang realised she had been staring at Blake, and her son was now looking confusedly at her from the scroll.

"Ah, no, just Blake giving me a funny look."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realise you were busy..."

"Not really," Yang turned the scroll so that Blake and Lance could see each other. "Say hi guys."

Lance looked curiously at the faunus, then waved, "Hello Miss Blake."

"H-hi," Blake replied.

Lance stared at her for a few moments, then nodded sagely, before speaking again, "Mum!"

"Yeah?"

When Yang turned the scroll to face herself again, Lance smiled and gave her a big thumbs-up. Yang raised an eyebrow, to which Lance gave the most knowing look an eight-year-old could muster. That is, the most knowing look an eight-year-old who was not a blood relative of Weiss could muster.

Yang, for her part, turned very slightly red, catching on to her son's meaning, but managed to shake her blonde locks to obscured the colouring from Blake, who looked on curiously at the little silent interchange.

"Anyway, I just wanted to check up on you Mum, so I'll be going now."

"Check up on me? Watch it kiddo."

Lance laughed then waved, "See ya Mum."

"Later." As Yang put away her scroll, Blake started chuckling. "What?" the blonde asked.

"Your son is 'checking up on you,' why does that seem so appropriate?"

"Hey, not you too!"

Blake tried, badly, to control her laughter, "Sorry... but he's so much more mature than I expected."

"Blame Weiss," Yang muttered with a hint of venom. "She took it upon herself to make sure he 'has a more diverse education.'" Yang pouted, "It's like she doesn't trust me to raise my own kid."

"Well... I can't imagine it was an easy task, by yourself."

Yang smirked, "Yeah, it wasn't easy. Especially at the beginning. I was still a bit of a mess, I had no idea what I was doing. I was kinda lucky Ruby and Weiss had just had Argent, so they were going through the same sorts of things a few months earlier. They were great about it all."

Blake stared at the table, sighing, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I never even called you, while those two..."

Yang stepped forward and put a metal finger to Blake's lips. "Stop. No self-loathing allowed in this house while I'm here."
"Wha...?"

"Look, Blake, we both know why I left, and why we weren't in contact, and why everything between us kinda went to shit. Let's not start blaming ourselves for everything individually. I never called you either, I never knew what was going on with you, other than what Ruby or Weiss would occasionally mention."

Yang smiled, "What I'm trying to say is... don't be angry with yourself on my account. Okay?"

Blake nodded, "I'll try."

"That's all I'm asking." Yang patted her friend on the back. "Now, could you show me to my room? I should probably unpack a few things."

"Sure."

As Yang would discover, there were four bedrooms upstairs: the master bedroom, the children's, shared, room and two guest rooms.

"We were going to split the kids up soonish, so they each have their own room," Blake explained. "But I'm kinda glad we hadn't got around to it. I'll be in this one," she indicated one of the guest rooms, "and you'll be here."

"O-kay..." Yang found Blake's comment about her own sleeping arrangements strange. 'Why's she not going to use her own room?'

Of course she was not going to, Yang realised. After all, it was 'their' room, not 'her' room.

The small frown on Blake's face, as she glanced in the direction of the master bedroom, told Yang everything she needed to know. She remembered how she had difficultly sleeping in her own bed for weeks, cold, without the feeling of another by her side, alone save for the unborn Lance.

Yang smiled, "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Blake did not manage a smile, but she was trying to look less miserable, Yang could appreciate that.

Yang pushed the door of her room open enough to chuck her bag unceremoniously inside, then turned back to Blake, "You wanna go have a lie-down before the kids get here?"

"But I need to go shopping."

"I can go, you can have a rest, okay, just tell me what we need."

Blake sighed, knowing Yang would never let her go, "Well we need some tuna for me and Hari, some kind of meat for Taiyo, he won't eat fish unless it's battered, and you'll probably want some too, then we'll need all the obvious things like bread, and..."

"Whoa, whoa, Blake, don't go full mother on me, please. Just... write a list maybe?"

Blake paused, clearly thinking, then nodded, "Sure... thanks Yang."

Yang waited while Blake wrote everything down, then glanced over the completed list. 'So much fish and meat... I guess they all faunus of carnivorous animals... eggs, vegetables, bananas...'

Yang blinked, then looked up at Blake, "Er... Blakey..."

"Yeah?"

"Er... just one thing," Yang pointed to the entry in the list, and Blake paled.

"Oh... silly me. Yeah, you can ignore that..." Blake was not looking at Yang, and the blonde could see Blake's eyes were shining with the beginning of tears. "It's just me being stupid, nothing to..."

Yang hugged her friend tightly, one hand pressing the faunus's body close, the other guiding her head towards Yang's shoulder. "It's okay Blakey, it's okay. You have no idea how many grapefruits I had to chuck out."

"He liked them?"

"And I hated the damn things," Yang could feel a small trickle down her cheek. "I could always tell when he'd been eating one before he kissed me. I had to tell him not to so many times..."

"I know your pain," Blake said, a small smile forming in spite of her tears.

"So yeah, it's okay to make mistakes, that's why I'm here to... to help. Right Blake?"

The two women stood there hugging tears running down their faces, but small smiles fixed on their lips.

A/N: So here, have some kids being cute and stuff.

I have not much to say, except that, for everyone asking questions about Lance's father, I'm getting to that... eventually. It will happen, just not immediately. You'll have to wait a little bit until it's dramatically appropriate for the reveal.

Anyway, see you all later.

'Til Eternity Ends

E.D.