RWBYond Hope

AN: A few things, first, to the Guest Reviewer last chapter. That's not going to happen yet. Trust me, that thing is going to be in pretty high detail later in this story. In fact, that particular mission is going to play out over five chapters. Next, this is another short chapter. These more filler like moments are just cool little ideas I had for various interactions. Now, onto the actual chapter.

Chapter 7: Baker of Cookies

Summer trudged up the path leading back home. Saying she was exhausted would be an understatement. It's not every mission that one would fight a leviathan. They were the largest and most deadly of Grimm. Their heads alone were the size of a goliath. But just when the leviathan had frozen under Summer's power and eviscerated by Tethys' attack…BOOM…a second leviathan. Thank God Tethys more or less specializes in fighting the serpents. And Summer got to finally meet his incorrigible nine-year-old boy.

But now Summer had her own six and four-year-old to get back to. She finally arrived and was a little puzzled at the lack of children in the front yard. They were probably inside watching TV. She looked forward to bouncing Ruby on her leg while Tai massaged her shoulders.

She opened the door. The second she stepped foot into the living room, her senses flared. She put her hand up just in time to stop the water balloon as it popped in her hand. Her eyes darted around the room. She was way too tired to deal with this kind of childishness. Then, Ruby spun from behind the couch with her water gun.

"Bang, Bang, Mommy." Ruby said as she squirted her mother. Summer took a second to register her now damp clothes.

"Oh no." She swooned and dropped to her knees. "Even…my legendary strength…was not enough to defeat…such…power." She fell to the ground. "Everything…getting…dark."

"Mom?" Ruby said. "It wasn't a real gun." The four-year-old walked over to her.

"Mom." Yang pouted. "You were supposed to stay standing until I came up and sneak attacked you from behind." Yang stepped over her body.

"Unbeknownst to quick-draw Ruby and fire-starter Yang…" Summer said in her reading voice. "Slippery Summer was only playing opossum." She shot up and grabbed both girls causing them to squeal and laugh in excitement. She started shaking them around as she crashed on the couch.

"I missed you mommy." Ruby said with a kiss.

"I missed you too baby girl." She rubbed her nose against Ruby's.

"Did they get you?" Tai said as he walked in with a cup of coffee ready for her.

"They got me good, mind reader." She grabbed the cup from his hand. "Let this be a lesson to you girls, if you ever want to hang out with boys, then they have to be boys who are willing to do what you want."

"Yuck, boys have cooties." Ruby said.

"What about your dad?" Summer mused.

"He's not a boy, silly Mommy." She sat across Summer's lap. "He's a Daddy."

"Yes he his." Summer looked deep into the eyes of her lover for a second. "And a good one at that."

"Ruby, give me room." Yang said with a push to her sister.

"Yang, be nice. There's plenty of me to go around." She kicked her boots off.

"So are we going to bake cookies?" Yang asked.

"Maybe later sweetie. But Mommy's real tired right now."

Tai took his cue to kneel down at her feet and give her a foot massage. Summer loved the feeling of his skilled and strong hands kneading the muscles of her foot. Ruby and Yang curled up in her arms and lap as if they had been out in the freezing cold and she was their only source of heat. And for just a second there, Summer thought about what would happen if she had another one.

"So how was your mission?" Tai asked.

"Yeah Mom, tell us about it." Yang said. Summer noticed Yang's hair was all messy and undone.

"I will some other time, definitely before I go off on another mission." Summer said. "But right now I don't want to think about my mission or a story. I just want to lay here and think about how much I love this couch, this coffee, this house, and this family."

"Awww, but I want to hear a story." Ruby pouted.

"I said I'll tell you it, but I need to prepare first. You can't rush into a story with no plan and expect it to turn out good…Tai."

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing." Summer smiled. She dropped her voice so that only her daughters could hear. "Just saying why you suck at telling stories." Yang and Ruby laughed.

"What is it now?"

"Nothing dear." Summer lied. "You're doing good by the way." She sighed in relief and closed her eyes as all the tension in her feet evaporated. Tai then focused on popping all her toes. "I'll give you girls a little preview though. Leviathans…plural."

"What!" Tai said shocked.

"Oh don't look at me like that, I had half the Azul family with me." Summer said. She then turned her attention to Yang. "Your hair is all messy." She pulled Yang more squarely on her lap. She grabbed the brush from the end table and started fixing it.

"It's not that messy."

"Yes, it is."

"So?"

"Oh Yang, you have the most beautiful hair in the world. Why do you keep messing it up?" She continued to brush it.

"I don't do it on purpose."

"I know, but when you're done playing you should always fix it. When it's all nice and brushed…I'm actually jealous of it. It's so smooth and fluffy. Not at all oily or dark like mine and Ruby's. You can't even tell that we're redheads unless you squint."

"Mom." Yang blushed and squirmed to herself.

"What about me?" Ruby said.

"What about you?" Yang stuck her tongue out.

"You're beautiful too." Summer said.

"Just like your mother." Tai came in for the save. "Both of you…" Tai bit his lip to stop himself.

"You, little miss sunshine, take after your dad's side of the family." Summer said. "Your dad's hair is just as smooth and soft as yours." Summer wasn't exactly lying. But Yang's was much better than Tai's. It has his gorgeous coloration. But the texture and consistency was strictly Raven.

Tai took a seat on the couch and grabbed Yang. Summer turned on the TV. They watched a kid's movie about a girl stuck in a bathhouse trying to get her parents back. Summer had seen the movie before, as had Yang, who was enjoying it a second time. Ruby was absolutely enthralled with it.

Yang and Ruby then talked about their last few days. They had played tag and played with friends. They had pizza and ice cream and went to the park. Every little mundane little chore or errand was like some big adventure. She wondered if she was like that, when she sat on her mother's lap.

"Anyway…" Summer said. "I'd better get dinner started. And then we can bake some cookies for desert."

"Yippee." Ruby cheered.

Summer wasn't in the mood to slave over a stove. So she just made the four of them Ramen. The meal went by quick. She was dreading what happened next. Why did she have to promise them cookies? Then she got a perfect idea.

"Yang, want to learn how to make cookies?" She asked. Yang's whole world lit up.

"Really?" She gasped. Summer nodded her head.

So Summer walked her through the steps in how to make a batch of cookies. Obviously, she didn't expect Yang to get it, which was why she would be there every step of the way. Baking really was an art, not a science. It took a decade of cooking side by side with Granny Glens in order to get as good as she was. And maybe it was the nostalgia talking, but she didn't consider herself as good as the old Matriarch of Patch.

The cookies turned out well enough. Summer was so proud of Yang, who just stood there with a big, dumb, toothy grin at her success. They ate their cookies and milk. Then Summer tucked them into bed and read them a fairy tale from one of the collections sitting on the bookshelf.

After they were tucked into bed, Summer jumped in the shower. It had been too long since she had a nice warm shower and just got to let the water soak into her skin. After washing and drying, she put on her robe. It had been a week since she's slept in her bed and she was ready to reap all the benefits. As she walked into her room, she saw one of those benefits. Oh, what a sight it was. Taiyang Xiao Long reading student papers by the lamp light. She held back a laugh.

"Ready for bed?" He asked. She flopped down next to him.

"Not quite yet." She scratched her bare thigh with one hand and poked his arm with her other. "What are you reading?"

"Just some English papers." He answered. "They are pretty hard to grade. Math is so much easier."

"I bet."

"So…you think something's going on with Yang?"

"Something's always going on with Yang. She's tough. She's different. And we love her for it."

"I know it's just…Ruby actually asked about Raven yesterday."

"Oh." Summer drifted her hand away.

"I think Yang overheard. Because all day today, she's been a little…off. Until you came home that is."

"Do you think we should tell her?" She turned to his side and stroked his thigh.

"No." Tai said. "I mean, we will when the time comes."

"Tai, I know you're scared." Summer leaned up and held his head close to her chest. "I'm scared too. I'm scared that when she finds out I'll lose her forever. I'm scared that if we wait too long, she'll use it against me when she's a teenager or an adult.

"Summer." He nuzzled into her chest causing her heart to be a firework of emotions. "You are their mother…no matter what. They better not forget that."

"You're right." She kissed his head. "We shouldn't be thinking about Raven in a time like this." She flipped over to lay on top of him. "Tai...I love you." She kissed his lips. She could feel him moan I love you into her mouth. In moments like these, more than any other moment, Summer knew, what she would do if Raven tried coming back into her life. They would fight. Summer would fight to keep Yang, but Tai, she'd fight even harder. She'd do her best to keep both. The fact that Ruby was his daughter made it easier. He was the lynch pin in their whole big stupid family. And he was hers. She'd prove it here and now. A little incentive never hurt anyone. Neither did a little extra insurance.

An: A little callback to chapter 44 of RWBYond Vale. So, I feel like there's a substantial lack of Qrow in this story. Which is more a thing with my foresight, since in RWBYond Vale, I had someone say that Qrow came around often, but wasn't a constant staple until after Summer was gone. So that's why he's not in these earlier chapters. Keep in mind, this will go 25 chapters with 5 of them dedicated to that one mission that's been glimpsed at in a couple of my stories. So the last 10 will be about Qrow and Ruby's relationship as much as these first ten are about Summer and Ruby. Please review, follow and favorite.