A/N: This is the epilogue. There is nothing, absolutely nothing left. Stop following. Leave a review though. I love those. Sorry to the people who this story depressed. You should've known it wasn't going to end well, I mean. Summer's dead and Ruby is Tai's daughter for a reason. I try to make my stories as canonically as possible. GG WP. Come back next time for my next Rwby head cannon as they appear.
The next few years passed by in a blur. Tai and Summer got married on the day Ruby turned one. There was a little ceremony in the backyard of their cabin. A few of our mutual friends went but I didn't. I'd visit every so often, a little more as the years went by. Ozpin sent me out in the field more often. Could probably tell I didn't want to be home.
Summer gave me the flat so I could have a place to come home to, which I did sometimes. Teaching at Signal helped a bit as more time went by. The kids reminded me of the girls. They were growing up fast. Ruby could talk almost perfectly by the time she was three. By then, Yang was making firewood by punching trees. They were good kids for the most part. Summer had been right. They were like sisters.
I'd become Uncle Qrow. The cool uncle they could tell all the weird secrets they couldn't tell their parents. I trained and made weapons with Ruby. I played video games with Yang. On occasion Summer even let me taste test their weekend baking tests. Those days were fun.
Tai hated me with a burning passion. He hated me for what happened with Summer. He hated me for letting Raven leave. He hated that she still kept in contact with me but not him. Nearly six years of friendship had been worn down to cold tolerance for the sake of the kids. It was like a bad marriage.
Summer was better. We'd talk sometimes when it was just the two of us and the kids. Some rare nights, I would stay over and she'd come to talk over a cup of tea or coffee. I drank a lot those nights. It became a habit to have a couple swigs every day after she married Tai. A couple swigs became a bottle and a bottle became more than water. Point is: I drank a lot. It drowned out the noise. When I was lucky, it made me forget.
We never talked about us or what-ifs. At the worst, she told me to drink less and that I was a bad influence on the girls. At our best, we'd make jokes and laugh about our time at Beacon.
"You shouldn't drink so much." Her hands were wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate. A fluffy robe kept her warm. The recliner she sat in was her favorite: worn leather, ripped back. "It's bad for you, you know."
I was sprawled out on their couch; the girls were asleep upstairs. Yang was almost eleven now, and Ruby had just celebrated her 8th birthday. I bought her dust crystals. Tai wasn't happy about that, but the man was never happy these days. He found love notes in Yang's backpack. He'd been nagging her about it for months.
I kept my eyes closed in a poor imitation of sleep. "That's the point." I raised my flask to the air, spilling some onto my shirt. "To bad health". I took a large swig before sitting up to look at her. I tried not to most days, but the liquor had already worn down my resistance to such urges.
Summer looked almost exactly the same. Her hair was almost to her hip now, but she usually kept it in a messy bun tonight. She'd started wearing glasses and she'd gotten a few more laugh lines, but she otherwise, there was no difference from the day I'd met her. Even the baby fat had stayed attached to her cheekbones hadn't stayed. When Ruby got a little older, they could look like sisters.
She shook her head, her long hair falling out of her bun. "How am I supposed to trust you to take care of the family when you're like that?" She smiled, meeting my eyes for the first time in years. It woke me up a bit. At least enough to ask questions.
"What are you talking to about?"
"Ozpin's sending me out for the Winter Maiden". That sobered me up completely.
"Why? Why you?"
"Raven has her. They're in Atlas. I was asked to go. Besides, I want to see her. I want to go back to Solitas. I'm the best person to go. I know the terrain. I know the people."
"Why did Ozpin tell you and not me?" It hurt. I'd spent years working on finding the maidens and now they had a lead and excluded me completely. It was my sister. It should've been my mission. It should've been me. Summer was practically retired.
"I'm a fully-trained huntress, you know. I can go on this mission if I want to." It should've been snooty, but she'd been quiet and there was a smile on her face. She'd matured a bit. Less yelling. She didn't even yell at the kids. Ever. Random outbursts were more Tai's thing.
"You can't go!" My voice had risen above acceptable volumes and it was only getting louder with every word. "What if you get hurt? What if you die? What will I tell-"
She'd leapt from the chair, throwing her whole body over mine, to clasp her hand over my mouth. "Don't yell. You'll wake the kids."
I couldn't even if I wanted to. This was the closest she'd been to me in years. Even at holidays dinners when her hand brushed mine, her body would be around the table, her eyes on one of the girls. She'd sit as far away as possible when we went to the movies or to watch a show.
Her lips were inches above her hand. Her eyes smiled down mischievously at me. My entire face burned. I wanted nothing more than for us to stay like that as long as possible.
She sat up, pulling her hand from my face. I reflexively grabbed her arm, pulling her back on top of me. "Don't go," I whispered.
She smiled that same sad smile that haunted my dreams. It was what I saw when I slept here, when I slept at the apartment. I hadn't seen it since that day she told me she was pregnant.
I brought her face to mine, kissing her once. Softly. She didn't reciprocate, but she didn't push me away. "Please don't go."
"And what do I get if I stay?" Deja vu racked every bone in my body. It would've been nostalgic if I didn't feel so much regret. This would play out differently. It had to. I couldn't let it end the same way. I wouldn't let her leave. I couldn't. It would kill me if it happened again.
I'd found the answer to her question years ago. That scene had played through my head so many times that I could practically recite every detail. "You're the mother of my kid. The woman I dream about every night, and think about every day. Don't go, Summer. I'll give you whatever you want. I'll be whatever you want. Just don't leave." My answer was quiet, but it was whispered into her hair. She should've heard it loud and clear.
I thought time had stopped. She didn't move. After an eternity, she smiled again, but it was the same one I saw in my dreams. So sad. She moved so she could sit next to me on the couch, her head on my shoulder. I relaxed. She wasn't leaving. "Did you know Tai never got over Raven. He still misses her even if he won't admit it. He won't say her name and he's burned all his pictures of us together, but when we go to sleep at night, the name he whispers in his sleep is hers. We sleep in the same bed, but we've never done…that"
The shock from what I was hearing caused all my apprehension to melt away. This had to be a lie. They'd been married 7 years and not once, not that? It almost made a man like me want to cry. For years I'd get jealous for no reason, just looking at him. For nothing. Had he done it on purpose? Had he hoped that I would believe Summer was truly over me? Had he let me believe all that just to spite me? There was no doubt in my mind that he would do just that. The bastard.
"Why…Why are you telling me?"
She laughed, like a twinkle of moonlight. She still giggled like a kid, but now it was more restrained. Maybe because it was late. Maybe because we'd gotten old. "I see the way you look at him. I figured you'd want to know so you don't try to kill him with your eyes."
I laughed too. She always was the one who knew me best. "I love you."
"I love you too."
Ruby woke me up, jolting me out of darkness. She'd been biting my face and it only took me a second to realize why. She had been using both of her tiny hands to hold my flask. I would quit for them. Things would be different.
"Hey kiddo, where's your mom?" I ruffled her hair. She really did look exactly like her mother, but she had my hair. Sort of. Bits of it were turning red as she grew older.
"Mommy left this morning to fight the monsters." Ruby took a sip from my flask and immediately made a face before running off. "DADDY!"
Summer never came home.
