RWBYond Hope

AN: One thing I wanted to ask before we get too far into this, how do you guys like my portrayal of Summer? Especially those who read my STRQ story, what do you guys think? Do I make her too perfect? It's hard because all we know about her is what we've been told, and the characters telling us obviously idolize her beyond reason. It makes her a weird character to write.

Chapter 6: Sibling Rivalry

Tai sat on his front porch watching his two little girls playing in the yard. They were playing with some dolls and toy cars. Ruby was making little vroom sounds as her toy car skidded along the ground. Yang had a robot toy that, as far as Tai could tell, was trying to destroy the car.

"Ha, your car has been destroyed." Yang cheered.

"Nah-uh." Ruby protested. "My car is imdestcukable."

"There's no such thing."

"Is too."

"Is not." Yang stuck her tongue out at Ruby. Ruby retaliated by grabbing the robot for herself. "Give it back."

"No!" Ruby clutched the robot close to her chest.

"It's my robot."

"It's mine."

"No, it's mine!" Yang pushed Ruby to the ground and tried grabbing from the robot. "Give it back."

"No! It's my turn to play with the robot."

"No, it's my toy, my rules."

"But you always get to play with it."

"That's because it's mine!" Yang got on top of Ruby, who still refused to let go. Yang got a devious smile on her six-year-old face. She started tickling Ruby.

"No, Yang, stop, please." Ruby said between breaths.

"I will when you give me my robot."

"Never." Ruby was laughing. "Stop…Yang…I can't breathe." Ruby finally lamented, realizing she had been beat and Yang ripped the robot from her hand.

"I win again." Yang said holding the robot up in the air in victory.

"Meanie." Ruby threw a handful of dirt at Yang.

"Hey!" Yang shoved Ruby to the ground. The four-year-old hit her head and started crying.

"Yang Xiao Long." Tai stood up. Perhaps he waited too long to intervene.

"She started it." Yang crossed her arms.

"But you're the big sister." Tai helped Ruby off the ground and checked her head. Ruby was still crying and sniffling pathetically. "You shouldn't have acted out like that now apologize."

"Not until she does."

"Yang." He gave her a punishing stare. Yang stood defiantly. She looked so much like Raven in that moment that it made Tai's blood run cold. Thankfully it was just the eyes and the general facial features.

"No." She said flatly.

"Go to your room."

"Why should I…"

"Now." Tai said firmly. "We'll talk about this later." Yang stormed off. Tai kissed the bump on Ruby's forehead. But he didn't miss his youngest sticking her tongue out at his oldest. "And you." Tai turned his attention fully on Ruby, so much so he could feel her heart skip a beat. "You have plenty of toys of your own, and you know better than to throw dirt."

"I'm sorry daddy."

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Yang."

"But she's a big meanie head." Ruby crossed her arms.

"That doesn't mean you should treat her any differently." Tai pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're family, and I know we all love each other. Yes, sometimes that means you fight sometimes but…"

"Like when you fight with mommy…or Uncle Qrow."

Tai and Summer didn't fight all that much. Summer was a people pleaser who was passive aggressive in a way that should be illegal. So when she would call out someone, they were in for a world of hurt. Usually it was little things that annoyed Summer, like the toilet seat being up or the house being dirty when she came back from a mission. Tai had just learned to count his blessings with her. Which is why every time she went on a mission for Ozpin, as the Argentware, he would protest. Those were the only times that they really fought. Summer put her duties as a huntress above all else. An argument could be made that motherhood was more important to her, with the fight against Grimm being a close second. But Tai wasn't so sure. And he definitely didn't like having fourth place in her heart, behind hunting and the two kids.

Qrow on the other hand brought it on himself. Unlike Summer, he didn't have some special trait that made him the only man for the job. He neglected his friends and family because he wanted to. When he did show up, he was a pretty good baby sitter. The girls enjoyed him a lot. He seemed to favor Ruby. Tai didn't know if that was because of his previous feelings for Summer, or him feeling abandoned by Raven and Yang being a constant reminder of that. It was probably both. The worst part was, he would usually be drunk, and swear and make lewd comments, just being a generally bad example for the girls. That's why they fought.

"Yes Ruby." Tai finally answered. "Just like we do." He stood back up. "Come on, you need to apologize for each other. As they walked into the house, Ruby decided to ask a question.

"Daddy, an uncle is a brother of a mommy or a daddy… right?"

"That's right." He decided to stop. He had been dreading this question, but he did have an answer, one that would satisfy Ruby at least. Yang on the other hand was getting old enough to question why she doesn't look like Summer, but doesn't look all that much like him either.

"Then who is Uncle Qrow a brother of?" Ruby pondered.

"Well…he's sort of an adopted brother…to both of us."

"Really?" Ruby said. "I didn't know Uncle Qrow was adopted."

"We were on a team together. A superhero huntsmen team. The best one at that."

"Wow." Ruby's eyes were wide.

"And after…things happened…we were the closest thing to family each other had." He put a hand on Ruby's head. "So for a while now it's been the three of us together. Then you and Yang came along and made it five."

"Huh." Ruby counted on her fingers to try to check his math. "So what about aunt Raven?"

"What?" Tai's heart sank. Thank goodness Yang was in her room, probably being all moody and brooding. "Who told you about Aunt Raven?"

"Mommy told us about her in one of her stories. Then Uncle Qrow told us about her. He said something about her being family too."

"Oh." Tai swore under his breath. "Well…Aunt Raven is…she's not around…and never will be. She doesn't want to be part of our family."

"How come?" Ruby looked at him sadly. He prayed that she wasn't able to see the tears welling in his eyes.

"I wish I knew Ruby…I wish I knew." That seemed to satisfy her. Bullet successfully dodged. They walked into Yang's room where she was hitting her four-foot-tall balloon Grimm with her boxing gloves. Her headphones were in and on full blast. Tai rubbed his brow. She was only six, yet she was acting twice that age.

"Yang." Ruby tugged on her shirt. Yang stopped and looked at her with anger. Her features softened up when she saw how sad Ruby looked. "I'm sorry I threw dirt at you. But…"

"No butts Ruby." Tai said. Ruby just stayed silent.

"I'm sorry I pushed you to the ground." Yang said. The sisters hugged and quickly kissed each other.

"Ok." Ruby shoved her backwards. "Let's be a team and play Heroes and Monsters."

"Who's the monster?" Yang asked.

"Umm…" Ruby put a finger to her lips. "Daddy." Yang smiled and tightened her gloves. Ruby grabbed her rubber sword from the pile of toys.

"Let's get him." Yang cheered. Tai quickly ran outside.

"Wee-ooh, wee-ooh." Ruby beeped. "We found a giant monster."

"We have to save the princess." Yang said.

"Wait, who's the princess?" Ruby asked.

"Beo." Yang said referring to the giant stuffed wolf Ruby slept with. Ruby nodded in agreement.

"Die monster." Ruby swung her sword at Tai but he caught it and skillfully picked her up. She yelped in joy at the sudden skyward movement.

"Let her go." Yang said, punching him in the back and butt as he ran away. Ruby hit him in the hand with her weapon and he set her down. She then swung at his legs. He dropped to his knees and grabbed Ruby's hands.

"You'll never stop me." Tai said.

"Daddy…monsters don't talk." She crossed her arms.

"This one does." He started tickling her.

"I'm going to stop you and save the princess." Ruby fought back.

"Not if I stop him first." Yang said, unleashing a surprisingly strong jab to his face. She was taking their play fights pretty seriously.

"No, I'm gonna be the hero."

"Don't I get a say?" Tai said.

"No!" The girls said together as they both hit him in the stomach. As the girls bickered over who was the hero and who was the side kick, Tai slipped over by the door.

"I'm going to kidnap the princess." Tai said.

"But Ruby, I'm older, I make the rules."

"Nuh-uh. I have the sword, that makes me the hero."

"A sword doesn't make you a hero. You have to be tough like daddy."

"You're too mean to be the hero. You have to be nice to save people."

"But you're still a baby. I'm the hero and you're the sidekick."

"I don't want to be the sidekick." Ruby pouted.

"I'm sure Princess Beo will be real scared." Tai tried cutting in.

"Well too bad. I'm bigger and stronger so I get to be the hero." Tai decided to try something different. He walked over and picked up both girls and they both yelped in surprise.

"While you two were arguing, I won. I gobbled up the princess and I ate the both of you."

"No fair, that's not the rules." Ruby protested.

"Well if you want to be heroes, you can't argue when you're fighting a monster. You have to work together to stop them." Tai said, channeling his inner teacher. Who knew this would be quite the learning experience for the kids. "Now you two have been fighting all day. So how about this. You two work together…and work on a way to trap Mom when she gets back from her mission tomorrow."

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered.

"But what if we get in trouble?"

"I'll say it was my idea. It's the truth after all."

"Yeah, and Mommy always says to tell the truth."

"Yes she does." Tai said longingly. "Now you two go on in and get cleaned up." He set them down. "I'll make dinner pretty soon."

An: A little game time between the dad and the daughters. As well as some clever pre-shadowing (a term I just made up to describe foreshadowing of events that occurred in a previous story that takes place later) for a certain set of subplots in RWBYond Vale. Thanks for reading. Please review, follow, favorite and stay classy.