Chapter 9: Thus Kindly I Scatter

Chapter Summary: "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away"
- Song by Johnny Cash

Alt title: Lauriam's Emotional Rollercoaster -Part 2-


When Ruby walked downstairs the next morning she was greeted by the sight of Lauriam passed out on the couch, covered in a blanket, looking as if he had been, and perhaps was still being, plagued by nightmares. The teen felt her heart twist with sympathy. She walked into the kitchen to find Taiyang cooking breakfast.

"Dad_" she started before an amused but prompting hum from the man made her pause with a sigh and an amused eye roll. "Bà*, is… Is Lauriam alright?"

It seemed the blonde man had been anticipating the question as he looked over his shoulder at the young reaper, the expression on his face sad, before he turned back to his cooking. He was silent a few moments, finishing the bacon in the pan in putting it on a plate before starting to cook more bacon. Once he was cooking the next lot of bacon he answered.

"No Ruby, he isn't," Taiyang replied quietly. "He's broken and doesn't know how to fix himself. Lauriam wants to deny being Marluxia, but all he remembers is being Marluxia, and he followed his memories as Marluxia to you. You, Ruby, are all that he has left to cling to. I'll be offering him a bed here once he wakes up; I would feel bad just leaving him at one of the stay houses after last night."

Ruby beamed up at him, grateful for the indirect and implied confirmation of his trust in the pink haired man currently on the couch. She sat down at the table and watched Taiyang as he continued to cook breakfast. Silence wreathed around the room for a few moments more before the cook spoke again.

"I should apologise to you Ruby," he said. "The lies around you are partially my fault."

When Ruby opened her mouth to interrupt, the man held up a hand. The stove was turned off and Taiyang turned to face the young reaper with a tired smile.

"Through her pregnancy, you mum never knew how far to take this deception," he explained. "She wanted so badly to believe that Marluxia would come back. So I told her that she should keep believing that, believe you didn't need a father when you'd have two uncles like Qrow and me, believe that Marluxia would come back. I wasn't meant to be your father. However when Summer died… I couldn't let you get taken by the Vale Council."

Ruby tilted her head in confusion, not understanding why the council was an issue. Taiyang walked over and rested a hand on her black-red hair. His easy smile twisted into something closer to contempt.

"Since I am not a blood relative, you would have been taken from me, I wasn't your official guardian at that point either," he sighed, sitting beside his daughter, adopted she may have been. "So Ozpin helped me with the legal stuff, hid your real birth certificate under more documents than I could care count and gave me a document that basically proclaimed me as your father. I don't know how he did it, but I never questioned it. It gave me what I needed to be able to protect you. Personally, I like to believe that Ozpin hacked into the city archives from his desk at Beacon."

Together Ruby and Taiyang laughed at the thought of the Headmaster sitting behind his desk with all the cogwheels ticking above and below him. For some reason, Ruby pictured Ozpin wearing a high collared black jacket with a fedora and black glasses while he did it. It was an amusing thought to say the least.

"Ooooh bacon and eggs!" Yang's voice chirped from behind them, making the two in the room look up. The brawler walked casually into the room and took over the cooking, winking at Taiyang and then nodding to the living room. "You may want to wake Uncle Lauriam; else he'll get tangled in the covers."

If Taiyang was surprised by Yang calling the pink haired man 'uncle' he didn't show it as he stood up and pressed his lips to Ruby's temple before walking out of the kitchen to assist his guest. Ruby grinned as Yang placed some food in front of her. The two sisters began talking together quietly, laughing as Ruby recounted the image of the hacker Ozpin. Yang had put out breakfast for both Taiyang and Lauriam by the time she herself sat across from her sister.

They looked up when the blonde man who had raised them returned, supporting a hungover Lauriam in walking over to a table. Yang wordlessly placed a plate of food in front the pink haired man, not entirely expecting the food to be eaten. Lauriam honestly looked sick, if the way that his hands came up to weakly support his head was any indicator.

"You look like you didn't sleep well," Ruby hummed softly, as she picked up her empty plate and placed it in the sink to be washed up later. "Are you alright?"

"… unfortunately nightmares robbed me of proper sleep," Lauriam admitted, lifting his tired eyes to look at the black-red haired girl. "Not that I can remember the dreams. I feel like… I remembered something in my sleep… but the memory was stripped from me the moment I woke up."

Taiyang rested a hand on the man's shoulder and smiled, almost understandingly. The pink haired man groaned as the light started to make his eyes hurt. He laid his head on the table, beside the plate of food, and covered his face with an arm. Ruby's gaze softened, and she decided to ask Taiyang a question.

"So what's happening today, Bà?"

"Well, I was going to ask you and Yang to head down to the markets," Taiyang replied. "As always, the first day off from school it's you and your sister's turn to make dinner tonight."

"Sweet!" Yang exclaimed, bounding out of the room and collecting what would be needed to go shopping, coming back with two bags and a basket. "Uncle Lauriam, would you prefer fish or steak?"

The man lifted his hand and waved in a manner that conveyed the fact that he didn't particularly care which. Yang grinned and dragged Ruby out of the house proclaiming something incomprehensible about homemade fish and chips, the black-red haired reaper laughing as she followed behind. The two sisters made their way to the markets on Patch, where fresh produce was sold, fish, farmed meats and vegetables, in season fruit, and grown herbs.

"Oh, I was texting Blake last night," Yang mentioned suddenly while they were looking at fish to purchase, as if the act of looking at the fish had reminded the brawler, which… it probably did. "She said she found something in a book which she wanted to show us once we got back to Beacon. She won't send a picture, apparently it's a book with stiff pages so she can't hold it open and take the picture."

"What is it?" Ruby asked curiously, pointing at one fish which looked good enough. Yang purchased the fish and placed it in one of the bags. They moved on.

"Some flower I think?" Yang replied. "She called it the bird of paradise."

"A flower?" Ruby laughed quietly. "Does it look like a rose? I know mum was fond of flowers! We'll see what flower this is when we get back to Beacon."

Yang readily agreed, and the two continued their little shopping trip. They ended up grabbing the ingredients for a fish pie that they would prepare later, instead of the fish and chips that the blond brawler had suggested when they had left.


Meanwhile, back at the Xiao Long-Rose household, while the girls were shopping, Taiyang was coaxing Lauriam into sitting. He eventually succeeded, though the pink haired man was mutinously glaring at the blonde.

"I have to apologise," Taiyang said, gaining a more interested expression from Lauriam. "Your hangover is totally my fault; I tricked you into drinking an entire bottle while I was drinking sarsaparilla."

Lauriam was silent, staring at Taiyang with burning blue eyes, which seemed to speak to harsh words which wanted to escape the pink haired reaper's mouth. However, eventually Lauriam looked down, sighing as he did so.

"Feel lucky my head hurts too much to insult you," the man grumbled, earning a laugh from Taiyang. The blonde stood up and started going through the draws of the kitchen. All was silent for a few minutes, the only sound coming from things rattling around of searching. Lauriam was curious to know what the man could be looking for with such intent, but he didn't ask. Instead, several minutes of silence later, he asked a different question. It was more of a statement but the question behind it was clear.

"Tell me something I don't know about Summer…"

Taiyang hummed as he continued searching, before he made a sound of achievement and pulled out a decorated plate from the cupboard and set it down in front of Lauriam. There was another drawing imprinted on the flat surface, a scene that had never happened, a picture of Marluxia holding baby Ruby.

"Summer was a dreamer," hummed Taiyang. "Perhaps you knew that, but she would always try and insert you in places, saying that you would come back once it was safe. She was also a firm believer in everyone; she'd always try and see the good in everyone. She had this habit at home where she would change the pictures on the walls every weekend, the one time she didn't she freaked out."

Lauriam, who had been staring at the plate, looked up at this with wide eyes before he started to chuckle lightly. The blonde grinned at the sound.

"She also didn't like rats," he continued with a smirk, causing the pink haired man to snort. "She'd slay Grimm left right and centre, but if she saw a mouse she'd screech and try and get away from it. And…"

Here, his tone became sombre, as he looked out the window. It was a few moments before he spoke again.

"There's no body buried in her grave. No one found anything. She was just…. Gone."

Lauriam's mouth went dry, but he didn't say anything, because it looked like Taiyang had more to say. They sat together in silence, neither speaking, before Taiyang gestured to the cliff that overlooked the house, just seen through the trees.

"That's where her grave is, if you wanted to visit," the blonde said quietly. Faintly Lauriam could see a path up. "Ruby and Yang won't be back for a while. I can show you the way there, if you would prefer."

The nod of agreement from the pink haired man was small, but they both stood and began to slowly walk the path up the cliff. They continued to talk about Summer as they walked. Lauriam spoke about the Summer he knew when on his mission as Marluxia, and Taiyang spoke about the Summer he knew at Beacon. Eventually they reached the top of the cliff and Lauriam was able to see the white stone gravestone.

Thus Kindly I Scatter

That was what had carved into the stone, etched as an epitaph to Summer Rose. Taiyang pushed the pinkette into movement, leaving him to approach the grave alone. With hesitant steps, Lauriam approached the stone. He stared at it without a word for a long moment, taking in the details of the stone, the rose, the words and finally… her name.

"I'm sorry Summer…" Lauriam murmured, falling to his knees. "I said that my heart would be yours once I got it back, but now I can't even give it to you properly. I tried so hard to keep Xemnas away and I still failed to come back to you. I am here now Summer. I finally got to meet Ruby, I got to see the wonderful person she has grown to be. But I missed fifteen years of her life… Sum… What do I do now?"

A gentle breeze brushed past him, as if providing an answer. Lauriam laughed quietly.

"She has to let me in before I can truly become close to her, Summer. That place isn't mine anymore, no matter how much you wished it to be so. I… miss you Summer, I think I missed you all along, every day in the Organisation I waited for the day I could escape… if I'm honest, I think it was partially because of you that I betrayed the Organisation…"

Taiyang left Lauriam to say what he needed to, and walked back down to the house, confident that the pink haired man would be able to find his way back.


An hour later and Lauriam had come back, and his calm demeanour had returned, his face back to its mask of confidence. Yang and Ruby had also returned and were introducing the man to the concept of video games, a challenge which Lauriam took in stride. Taiyang joined the trio after a while and it eventually became a two on two fight with the adults verses the teens. Lauriam was terrible at the game they were playing, but everyone was laughing.

Eventually the games had to end and Yang and Ruby went into the kitchen to start preparing their chosen dinner of fish pie, Ruby preparing the fish, while Yang worked on the pie crust. The finished pie was put in the oven to bake. The two sisters were chatting in the kitchen while Ruby sat in front of the oven, watching the pie cook. Yang seemed to be typing something on her scroll.

"Well, I smell fish, but no chips," Taiyang commented as he entered the room, grinning. He received twin looks of poked out tongues and met the indignation with laughter. "Fish pie? Interesting choice, but I'll take it."

"Next time you look at the potatoes and tell me that the good ones weren't raided first," Yang snorted at her dad.

"Really?" asked the older blonde with disbelief. "That early? It wasn't even mid-morning when you two went."

"Someone obviously REALLY likes potatoes, Bà," Ruby grinned. This set the three off into joined laughter, which is how Lauriam discovered them. They all quickly found themselves around a freshly cooked pie. The conversation turned to Beacon, missions that the two girls had been on, a recap of the Heartless mission, and Taiyang even clapped Lauriam on the back with a grin when Ruby recounted how he had yelled at Ozpin for several minutes when returning from fighting the Heartless.

"Lauriam was great, da_ Bà," Ruby was saying excitedly. "Though I couldn't hear half of what he said because Jaune decided to cover my ears, but I swear Professor Ozpin was trying to shrink into his chair. Of course he tried to look unaffected, but then he asked me and Jaune what we thought."

"And what did you think, Ruby?" Taiyang asked with a smirk. The young reaper placed down her fork and looked up.

"In more polite terms we said it was stupid to send us out on that mission that we weren't trained for. Had I not been a student I may have added my own choice words, if only to prove to Jaune that he didn't need to cover my ears."

Silence fell over the table. Three sets of eyes landed on Ruby, as the words she had spoken echoed in the sudden silence. It was the deadly serious tone that the young reaper had used that broke the silence into laughter. The rest of dinner was filled with light-hearted conversation.


Later that night, in a bedroom, a scroll lit up the darkness and buzzed quietly with a received message. A hand stretched out and picked up the scroll.

PANCAKES (11.09 pm): HEEEEY! So how's the POI been?

Sun_Dragon (11.10 pm): POI came clean. Well, I dunno how clean making drunken confessions is. Dad has him staying here now. He doesn't know that RoseReaper and I were listening.

Silent_Darkness21 (11.15 pm): Do we need to worry about him? You three weren't certain when we spoke in Vale.

Polaris (11.15 pm): Guys, it's almost midnight, we should be sleeping. We can ask Sun_Dragon in the morning.

Sun_Dragon (11.17 pm): Nah, it's fine. POI is cool. Gave him the Uncle title. Dad wants RoseReaper to call him Bà.

Polaris (11.18 pm): Isn't that Mistrali for "dad"?

Sun_Dragon (11.20 pm): Yup! Dad apparently knows Mistrali, not that well but he seems rather obessed with the idea of me and Ruby learning his limited knowledge.

PANCAKES (11.21 pm): OMG that is AWESOME! Lotus and I know Mistrali if you wanted to learn! Polaris probably knows too!

Polaris (11.21 pm): I do.

Silent_Darkness21 (11.23 pm): That seems to have a few advantages actually, if we could go about missions in Vale talking in Mistrali.

Sun_Dragon (11.27 pm): Right, well, we should raise that with the rest of our teams, so why don't we save that thought for when we're all back? I gotta sleep.

PANCAKES (11.28 pm): Sleep well!

Now silent, the scroll was placed back on the night stand. Yang smiled in the dark before going back to sleep. Tomorrow was another day.


*Bà - Chinese for Father/Dad (in this instance - Mistrali)

The main question that should be noted this question would beeeee: WHY would the Vale council have taken Ruby away from Tai? Qrow will answer that! Later

Hey all! I was bored, and kinda want to catch this fanfic up with where I have it on AO3. So I'm uploading the next chapter now. Let's see how this works. I just finished typing chapter 15 of this story today, started chapter 16, and AO3 is on chapter 14 (Uni, and then COVID hit my fanfic typing dramatically. But for now, as I am typing, and getting past where I was getting stuck, weekly updates are becoming a thing again.) So here we are with chapter 9! Hope you enjoy a bit of down time with the Xiao-Long-Rose household!