A/N: Important information regarding why this took so long at the end, so you may wanna read that.
"Uncle Qwow, when is mommy coming home?" Asked Ruby, tugging on Qrow's cape.
"Soon Ruby. Probably by noon. Now go play with Yang." Qrow said, turning to look down at the now 5-year-old Ruby.
"Yeah, come on. Let's play boxer!" 7-year-old Yang called out to Ruby from the other room.
"Awww, sis. Dew I have to?" Ruby said in a defeated voice as she walked over to Yang. "You always beat me."
"Well maybe if you chose to take the advice I give you on how to play, maybe you wouldn't lose every game." Yang said in a semi-serious cheerful voice.
Qrow just smiled to himself and shook his head. He always enjoyed the small, meaningless arguments the two sisters had, even if they weren't really sisters. Qrow had grown so accustom to Ruby calling Yang her sister that the often forgot that the two weren't actually related. Qrow tried to be around as much as possible to see his little girl grow up. But with his semblance being bad luck in all, he could only be around for short periods of time, sometimes less than a day. He spent most of his time on missions, earning money to help Summer out with bills and whatnot. Plus, whenever Summer had to go on a mission, it was usually Taiyang that was in charge of the two girls. Qrow always offered to watch over Ruby and Yang while Summer was away, but was usually shot down by Taiyang who reminded him the last time he watched the girls for an extended period of time, a Boarbatusk broke into the house and almost killed Ruby when she was still a baby. Taiyang did this not because he hated Qrow, he just wanted what was best for the girls, and Qrow understood, even if he didn't like it.
However, this time when Summer went away on a week-long mission, Taiyang could only watch the girls for the five days before going on a mission himself since he was a single dad that had to support the family. So, for the final two days that Summer was away, Qrow was tasked with being the babysitter. And for the most part, he enjoyed it. He loved being around both Yang since she reminded him or Taiyang and Ruby because, well, she was his kid.
All of this thinking reminded him to check his scroll. Qrow was tasked to watch over the kids for the final two days on Summer's mission. Today was day five. Summer had texted him saying she would be a day or two late but now Qrow was beginning to worry. It was uncommon for Summer to be gone this long past the return date for a mission. Qrow looked at his scroll. No new messages from Summer. Maybe her scroll just died Qrow thought to himself, trying to calm down.
Summer was a very skilled huntress, capable of killing even the most powerful of Grimm. Deathstalkers, Nevermores, even the baddest Beowulfs stood no chance. Plus, this was a very easy mission. Clear out and protect a small village near Vale of Grimm for a week. Something simple and easy. She even had a small team with her, so it was a piece of cake. Yet nearly half a week had passed, and she still heard nothing.
I'm just overthinking things Qrow thought to himself as he finished cleaning the dishes from the morning's breakfast. That's when he heard a commotion coming from the living room. Qrow sighed and walked out to find Yang trying to punch Ruby in the face while Ruby hid in fear on the ground.
"HEY!" Qrow said loudly to get both girls attention. Yang stopped throwing punches and Ruby looked up. "I take it Yang's winning." Qrow said with a small smirk.
"Qwow! This isn't funny anymore. Yang is begiwwing to hurt!" Ruby said quickly while standing up, shifting the blame to Yang.
"She needs to learn how to block!" Yang said in defense, trying to shift the blame back to Ruby.
Qrow just shook his head and giggled silently. "While I do think you're right yang, you're doing it all wrong." Both Ruby and Yang gave Qrow a confused yet intrigued look. "Let me take over." He said before walking over to the two girls.
"Yang, extend your arm like you're going to punch Ruby in the face. But don't actually hit her, just pretend you are. Ruby, using the opposing arm to Yang, bring it up front of your face." The two girls looked confused at first but soon understood. Yang extended her right arm like she was going in for a knock-out punch to Ruby's head. Ruby at the same time, raised her left arm up in front of her face. Yang's fist met the middle of Ruby's forearm, stopping the punch. Both girls looked at each other with glee.
"Now, there are many other ways to block and even counter attack. I could teach them to…" Qrow was cut off by the sound of the front door opening.
"Sorry I'm late." Summer announced herself as she entered the house.
"Mommy!" Ruby yelled.
"Aunt Summer!" Yang said at the same time. Both girl ran to hug Summer as she knelt down. The two under girls collided with Summer as she embraced them. However, Qrow noticed that Summer seemed to wince when they collided, but the two girls didn't seem to notice. Plus, she played it off pretty well.
"So, what did you two do while I was going?" Summer asked Yang and Ruby.
The two girls started talking over one another about the last 10 days, making it impossible to make out what they were saying.
"Well, you're going to have to tell me that again, separately." Summer said once they finished. "And what about you?" Summer asked Qrow, "How did they act?"
"They behaved very well, but I was only here for the second half." Qrow said, before giving Summer a subtle stink eye.
"Well I would love to hear more about your week without me, but mommy needs her rest." Summer said, noticing the little gesture Qrow gave her.
"I'll help you unpack and relax." Qrow said to Summer, following her into the master bedroom.
"I wanna help to!" Ruby said cheerfully.
"There isn't a lot to unpack so we can handle it, Ruby. Why don't you and Yang practice those fighting moves I just showed you?" Qrow said with a smile, trying to hide the real reason he wanted to be alone with Summer.
"Ookie." Ruby said happily before practicing the blocking move with Yang. Qrow followed Summer upstairs to the bedroom. The two didn't talk until Qrow closed the door behind them.
"What the fuck, Summer?! Three days past mission end with no communication? What happened out there?" Qrow began to ask.
Summer sat down on the bed, her body turned away from Qrow as she began to take off parts of her outfit. "I don't fucking know! One day, the grimm were almost no existent, the next, war."
"War? With grimm? What are you on about?" Qrow continued to ask.
"The first five days were easy. The grimm were small and in low numbers. It only took a day or two to clear them out. The rest of the time was spent helping out the community. Then, all of a sudden, hundreds of grimm came from everywhere. It was like they had planned a counter attack. There were Beowulfs, Boarbatusks, even Deathstalkers and Nevermores. It quickly went from a walk in the park to a fight for our lives. Out of the 6-man squad I was on, half of them died. The reason I was three days late was because that's how long for backup to arrive." Summer went on as she removed her boots and cape.
"You needed backup?" Qrow was now more curious than angry.
"Well, more of evacuation help. The village was deemed a total loss and all the townspeople that survived needed to be evacuated. The help we got was just emergency services with some huntsmen as protection. Even with the help we barely made it out." Summer continued as she removed her coreset, leaving only her bra and skirt on.
"Well, why didn't you text us? Was it not to worry us?" Qrow continued to ask questions, still growing ever more worried about what his wife had been through.
Summer let out a small sign and laughed quietly to herself. "No. It's because my scroll was destroyed." Summer then pulled out what was left of her scroll from a secret pocket in her skirt before throwing it on the floor.
Qrow sat down on the opposite side of the bed and let out a heavy breathe of air. He then placed his hand on Summer shoulder, trying to get her to turn around. "Summer I didn't know… Holy shit…" Qrow said as he saw what Summer had been hiding.
Stretching from under her left boob across her entire chest and stomach down to about her waist was a large gash that looked like it had been patched up very hastily.
"Boarbatusk got a lucky hit." Summer said as she smirked. Qrow however was no amused.
"Summer, you could have died. That could have easily killed you and it looks like it almost did. Did you stitch this up yourself?" Qrow asked as he traced very lightly over the poorly held together wound.
Summer winced in pain as Qrow did this. "Yeah." She replied, smiling weakly.
"When? And why not let a medic take a look?" Qrow asked, still not amused.
"On the airship ride home when no one was looking. And as for why? Because I knew I would have been gone even longer and I probably would have ended up in a hospital. And I didn't want that." Summer replied.
"And why wouldn't you want to go to the place were people are trained to deal with shit like this?" Qrow asked, a bit ticked off.
"Cause I didn't want Ruby to see me like this. Her badass, invulnerable, invincible huntress mom laying sedated in a hospital bed with a near fatal gash in her. It would have scared her and she's just too young to be around that kind of stuff. So, I patched myself up and came home cause I missed my family. Is that so bad?" Summer asked Qrow.
Qrow just looked at Summer and finally let out a small laugh. "Always thinking of other before yourself." He said.
Summer looked him right in the eyes. "Isn't that why you fell in love with me?" Summer asked.
"Yep." Qrow replied as he leaned in for a kiss. Summer returned the favor and soon they fell on the bed, kissing and in love.
However, unbeknownst to them, five-year-old Ruby was peering through the doorway, watching her uncle kiss her mom. At that age, she thought it was just a kind gesture. But now, as she sat against a large tree in a burnt out and destroyed town with Jaune guarding her and Qrow, who lay unconscious on a homemade stretcher, she thought back to that moment. Thought back to how maybe, it wasn't just a nice gesture, but an act of love. They type of love that can only come from two parents in love with each other. And as she sat there, gently caressing Qrow's face, she contemplated whether or not Qrow actually being her father was such a bad thing.
Author's Note:
The reason this took so long was a couple issues. The first is that I have kind of a bad case of procrastination that I'm working to get over in 2018 as one of my goals I guess. The second was that I've been busy with work and school and that was taking up pretty much half of my time but now I do have the time to work on my stories.
Anyways, I'm in the works of three new stories. Those won't be coming out until I'm close to finishing one of my current stories. So, if you do see a new chaptered story from me, then expect an old one to end soon.
If you did enjoy this, Follow, Favorite, and Review.
