Tiny little Chloe Torin kept staring at the oddly dressed people in predominantly white clothing that were coming in and out of the room. The man she had come to know as "dada Chad" in the last few months was standing beside her in his military scrubs. He had taken her on base for another medical exam, primarily because the first one had been deeply troubling. The little girl had been severely underweight and was probably going to suffer some stunted growth because of it. Chad Leviner has never been so angry on the behalf of another. He was thoroughly disgusted by all of the people he knew must have once hurt his little girl and he hated the knowledge that many of them had probably felt nothing in hurting her because she was a faunus. Chad frowned at the clock in the small room in the doctor's office. Money was incredibly tight for his family at the moment, given Chloe's need for medicine (due to the seizure disorder she had developed, likely from years of malnutrition) and his wife losing her job in the Manchester City Dust Refinery. For the longest time, Chad hadn't imagined himself as capable of hatred but now he knew he was. He hated the people who had hurt Chloe, and he hated Jacques-fucking-Schnee for causing his wife's firing.

"You're doing good, Chloe," Chad told her, seeing how she was whimpering. He reassuringly patted her shoulder. "It's almost done, okay?"

He breathed a small sigh of relief when the little girl nodded. He thought briefly of his five year old at home, hoping his other child was also doing okay. Things certainly had been rougher since the damned Mountain Glenn fiasco but Chad knew they were probably going to become much worse in the coming weeks. His wife's severance pay check hadn't been much larger than her usual month's pay, and it was possible they would have to find a cheaper place to live. Under his breath, Chad prayed for his upcoming orders to be to somewhere like Argus that was far cheaper to live in than Manchester or the Atlesian capital. Shit was bad enough without the possibility of having to live under a slum lord hanging over their heads. Chad took in a deep breath to calm himself, knowing full well that Chloe would become upset if he did. Silently, he prayed that she would eventually learn to think more for herself because he saw every day how easily she tried to conform to everything and everyone around her. He knew it wasn't particularly surprising but it was utterly heartbreaking to him nonetheless.

The other thing that worried him had little to do with the situation with his family, however. Since all that had happened at Mountain Glenn, he had known things didn't look good for Atlas, especially given the fact the Council had their hands in parts of it. No, the Atlesian government couldn't be held responsible for the Mountain Glenn incident but everyone knew they had funded Merlot via grants for scientific research. Just as bad for the Council were the increased rates of violence in the kingdom, not even including the wars they were fighting worldwide against terrorists. The latter Chad saw as justified the former, of course, he did not. He hated that, seemingly, every day brought yet another mass shooting. He hated that the legislature simply could not get a damn thing done because they were too busy arguing over trivial matters. Even more so, he hated the way every one seemed to be becoming resigned to the threats that plagued the kingdom's future from the inside. Sighing heavily, Chad forced a polite smile when the doctor returned and forced himself to see at ease. Even to Chloe, this was clearly an act. He couldn't admit it to himself, though. If he didn't have to protect his children and wife, then Chad Leviner was certain he would no longer have anything worth fighting for.

Felix Shiro Branwen was a number of things, but a well behaved toddler was not one of them. Admittedly, he was only a year and four months old but he could walk (most of the time) and his father had deemed that to be toddler hood. Regardless of his vaguely mischievous tendencies, the little boy was cute and mainly aloof. He certainly didn't pick up on his father's constant annoyance (likely because he would come to think of it as simply his father's personality) but Qrow had become more and more irritable since Summer Rose, too, had passed. Likely, this had something to do with the fact that both he and Tai were without (as the latter had put it upon his return from his disastrous trip to Atlas) "female companionship." For a variety of reasons, this bothered them. One of those reasons was because they felt (read: knew) they were questionable parents to their respective children at best. Tai, for example, let his nearly four year old daughter Yang try caffeinated soda and she spent the subsequent twenty four hours bouncing off the walls. With his barely year old daughter, Ruby, Tai had gotten distracted and let her play in ice cream; as in, he didn't notice (somehow) Yang thaw out ice cream, dump it on the floor, and then proceed to roll around in it with her baby sister.

For so many reasons, this was a prime example of the massive improvement that a woman (any woman, really) had in Tai's ability to properly parent and supervise his own children. Sadly, this was made vastly apparent by the fact that it wasn't until little Ruby started licking the floor that Tai realised something wasn't quite right. He still wasn't as questionable a parent as Qrow, who had dipped his son's binkie in whisky and had him suck on it to get Felix to chill out and fall asleep. All and all, neither of them were better off without women in their lives but Qrow was still deep in grief regarding his wife's death and Tai was not exactly in the right state of mind to pick up women as easily as he had before he had fallen for Summer. Tai also hadn't admitted to anyone that, whenever he saw Arwyen Morell on the news (as she often was these days due to Atlas' increasing involvement in any number of provinces in Vacuo), he felt both angered and attracted to her. He hated how he imagined Qrow would react, given that the man would probably tell him to "just accept you wanna hate-fuck her." Tai clenched his fists for a moment at the thought. Arwyen Morell pissed him off, but she was a very desirable woman. Under his breath, he cursed at the thought.

Tai supposed, if anything, that hooking up with her would get Qrow to shut up. Briefly, he glanced over his shoulder to where his four year old daughter, year old daughter, and year old plus change nephew were asleep. He doubted they would wake up just because he got on the phone. He hesitated, however, when another woman came to mind. Tai felt himself physically repulsed at the thought of Emmeline Ciel, in part because she was married but mainly because he was terrified of her and knew she was close with Arwyen. His hesitation did not last long, though, especially when he remembered the lady at the only real supermarket in their part of Patch had been sure Qrow and Tai were gay. He shuddered at the memory and quickly dialed Arwyen's personal phone number, which he knew she had only given him because she was tired of him calling her at work and "wasting her time while taxes paid for her entire (in Tai's opinión ridiculously large) salary." The line was slow, and Tai almost thought she would never answer. Then, it suddenly clicked to life, briefly startling the huntsman.

"What?"

"Meet me the weekend here on Patch."

"Are you high?"

"Maybe...but you'd be worth it."

Zoey Ironwood screeched excitedly upon seeing one of her best friends from home in Atlas and nearly tackled the equally-little Weiss Schnee over when she hugged her. A little down the hall, both her big sister and Weiss' big sister shared a look that could only be described as "smugly mature." While Zoey and Weiss ran down one of the many corridors in the Schnee manor to play dress up and find some sweets, Winter motioned for Caitlin to follow her. The two eight year old girls slowly started to tip toe down the hall, but stopped suddenly near Jacques' study. Winter pulled Caitlin aside, startling her, and then began to try and explain what they were doing. Jacques, according to Winter, had been keeping a lot of secrets and the young heiress wanted to know what they were. Her best friend was immediately interested. Caitlin started bouncing on her toes, excited that they were doing something "naughty" because she rarely got the chance to (so she thought) at home. The eldest daughter of James Ironwood and Glynda Goodwitch had yet to realise that she got away with quite a lot.

"I want to know why my grandmother is locked up," Winter told her, whispering quickly. Caitlin nodded earnestly. "No one wants to tell me."

"Lillian's mean," Caitlin remarked, trying to keep her voice down. She wasn't very good at being quiet in the first place, let alone whispering. "Mommy said she's evil."

Winter shuddered. "She always scared me. Grandfather wasn't scary but she really is. She yelled a lot."

Caitlin immediately moved her hands up to cover her ears but then felt silly, realising that Winter wasn't going to demonstrate.

"Okay…" Winter said, her voice lowering even more as they sat down on either side of the door to Jacques' study and each pressed an ear against the door. "I wonder what they're taking about…"

Caitlin pulled away from the door a little upon both hearing increasingly raised voices and smelling cigar smoke, both of which the little girl didn't like. They impeded on her preferred low-sensory life.

"...you're going to bribe her? Have you lost your fucking —"

"...Emmett!"

"...Willow, you know he's got a point. I know my husband and I aren't always fair when it comes to how we feel about her, but at the end of the day —"

"...could you wait for me to finish my sentences before you cut in? Honestly, Emmeline, your manners —"

"...this isn't the time for manners! That bitch should stay in jail to rot! She killed her own son!"

"...Lillian had nothing to do with that!"

"...Jacques' right. My mother may have indirectly influenced what happened that night but —"

"...our mother caused what happened and then decided she wished it had been me, the son she had never wanted!"

"...if that's so true then maybe I'm about to celebrate becoming an only child!"

Vociferous swearing followed Willow's rather harsh words to her only surviving sibling and both Caitlin and Winter pulled away from the door. After a minute and feeling a little afraid, the two of them started running away from the study. They didn't make it too far before they stopped, but neither of them felt great. Caitlin kept fidgeting anxiously. Winter came to the sudden realisation that her parents had been trying keep her safe all these years. She had never thought of it before. Winter wanted to cry, hating what it seemed her family was really like. Were they really bad? She had thought for so long that all they knew was love. Now, she was wondering what any of them knew about love. It was a question she scantly knew would decide to haunt her for years to come.

Ariel Callespi Arc, who was considered by her parents to be the cutest of their kids, enjoyed a number of things but tormenting her twin brother was towards the top of that list. They were nearly five years old, and thus, with the ability to simply do more, were prone to being quite rambunctious. More importantly, they had plenty of other older siblings that were just as wild. The eldest of the Arc children was a teenager (fourteen) and her only hobby was teaching her youngest baby sister the most inappropriate things she could imagine. Her parents had yet to find out about the but Ella Arc was particularly excited for the day they would, largely because she wanted to know if her parents were oblivious or simply just as stupid as she believed they often acted. It was with that in mind that she walked through the mall with one hand holding onto the child-leashes she had attached her youngest siblings to. In her other hand was her purse. She smirked to herself as she sauntered into the "dirty store" (read: bra and panties outlet) for the first time. Her parents had dropped her off with her two little siblings because they had to work on a Sunday (due to their work as Atlesjan government connectors) and about three hundred lien.

"Shh…" She whispered to her siblings who were very confused by everything around them. Ella couldn't wait to get started on her "rebellion" but she wanted to do it with a bang not odd looks from judgemental elderly women. "Jaune, be quiet or I won't get you ice cream. Ariel...well…"

The fourteen year old's eyes lit up mischievously and she whispered what could possibly be the most inappropriate sentence ever uttered to her little sister. Quickly, she bought herself a couple bottles of expensive perfumes (being that was the only thing she actually wanted) and the dragged her siblings out, wondering to herself why body lotions and perfumes would be sold alongside fancy bras and panties. Several minutes later she was sitting on a bench with her siblings eating macaroons (and didn't have the energy for managing her siblings eating ice cream yet) while they waited for their parents to come back. Well before this, however, an older man approached them with his own teenage daughter in tow, looking rather befuddled. He started asking Ella where the hell her parents were and seemed dissatisfied when she told him she and her siblings were waiting. It was then that little Ariel, not understanding a word she was saying, repeated her biggest sister's wildly inappropriate joke.

"Hi Mister Man!" Ariel exclaimed, waving at him and his extremely gothic daughter with pure, sugar-spurned enthusiasm. "I Ari! This Jaune! He spent a looooong time with my legs 'round his head!"

The man took a very large step back, completely horrified by her words. His daughter and Ella, on the other hand, both started laughing. Jaune and Ariel, though they didn't understand anything that was happening, began laughing too. The man quickly dragged his daughter off, looking immensely uncomfortable and disgusted. He completely forgot his initial concerns about what kind of irresponsible parents would leave their young children with a teenager alone in a mall. Long after the moment had passed, Ella was still laughing. She couldn't help herself. She had never felt more clever, plus one of the few things she enjoyed in life (given that she pretended, frequently, to be far more angsty than she actually was to annoy her parents) was making people uncomfortable. Having succeeded on that count, she didn't even care that her siblings got on her nerves more often than not. It was often annoying, being in a family as large (and somewhat poor) as her own. For a little, it seemed that silver linings were real.