Tai grimaced when he saw the feather fall from the tree branch. He didn't know why she'd come back to Patch, but he had an inkling… something went awry with her bandits and she had to retreat to one of the only links she had left. If she was coming back to him, it meant she couldn't turn to Qrow, or even Yang. She hadn't merely suffered a setback; she was out of options if she couldn't retreat anywhere but here.

And she couldn't even look him in the eye or step into the house she once shared with him. She had to sit in a tree away from him, licking whatever wounds she'd brought in with her. Tai didn't even know if she'd bother to acknowledge him or she just needed a tactical position to fall back to and she had nowhere else to go.

He looked up at her -sitting in the shadows and leaning on a thick branch- for a long while before returning to watering his flowers and tending his crops just outside the cabin. He lingered outside a while longer, hoping she might eventually come down… but Taiyang knew better. He knew he was deluding himself trying to wait for her.

He stepped inside and started making dinner. He made an extra portion for her in case she joined sometime in the night, though something more Ruby-sized than Yang-sized… he didn't think her eating habits had changed all that much, even all these years later.

Still she did not join. Her food sat cold on the table and Tai settled into bed.

It was dark out, and the ocean winds blowing over Patch would render the night bitterly cold. He still expected Raven would wait outside and sulk rather than stay in a warm house… assuming she was still out there, anyway. She may well have slunk out under the cover of darkness and already made it into Vale and headed back to wherever she'd be going now.

…or she could be sliding into his bed and pressing herself to his back, her ragged breaths on his neck.

…her lips moving up and down and her teeth kneading his collar…

Before Tai could open his mouth to address her, Raven interrupted her actions just long enough to say: "I don't want to talk about it."

She never did.

Tai should've told her to stop. He knew he'd regret it if he just let her continue. He knew that whatever joy she brought him would have a toll exacted… a counterweight to the pleasant reminder of the life he'd had for such a brief time before.

Tai rolled around to meet her eye. Dark, bloody red… they weren't so terrifying when Raven wasn't trying to intimidate anyone. With the right look, with that quiet yearning, that pleading… they were quite beautiful. They drew him in as though he'd never been out of their sight.

He wasn't sure what Raven wanted from him: to remember the life she'd had before when her love for him was as sincere as his love for her, or to forget whatever defeat she'd just suffered and put all her attention on something else.

Or it could be both.

For Tai, it was to recapture the feeling… to remember what it was to share a bed with his wife. He reached his hand up to her cheek, and Raven clamped her hand over his, locking him in place there with her.

The morning would be difficult. But the morning seemed further and further away the longer he looked into those eyes… the longer he looked, the harder it was to believe there was any moment that mattered but the one he was in, and any thought more important than having Raven back, if only for this moment.

Tai kissed her. Raven closed her eyes.

Taiyang expected her to be gone when he woke, after she'd made good use of him. He was absolutely stunned to find Raven still lying beside him, just watching him sleep for several minutes.

She probably didn't want to talk. But he felt he should try. Much as he'd have liked to just enjoy pretending a while longer, he knew Raven hadn't done this only because she missed him. "Rae…"

She shook her head and leaned in, trying to kiss him again. Tai did his best to fight his instinct, to not succumb as he had the night before. But she was right there in front of him, trying to start again, to provide another reminder so soon after the first…

Tai managed to fend her off after a few moments. "Raven…"

She shook her head again. "Don't do this, Tai. Please."

Those eyes again. Tai did his best to power on. "Raven… why did you-"

"I came to bring you away from here… to go back with me to Anima, and the tribe," Raven interrupted. "Come with me. Be my husband again."

It wasn't at all what he'd expected. Tai thought Raven might have some use for him… for a few moments. He never once thought she'd want him around any longer than that. "Raven, what happened at-"

"Stop it," Raven insisted.

She didn't want to debate. She didn't want to think. She just wanted to maintain this fantasy, even if it meant dislodging Tai from the comfortable life he'd known.

Yang had said she was going to find Ruby, putting Tai's mind at ease when she finally left home. But he knew that had been his girl telling him what he wanted to hear. And if Raven couldn't flee back to Yang, it could only be because she didn't want to let their girl know the state she was in…

Or, perhaps Raven already let her see…

"Please, Raven," Tai requested. "I just want to help-"

"You always do," Raven mumbled, sliding up from the bed, all softness leaving her eyes in an instant. "So do it now, Tai. Don't waste your life in this cabin on this island. Come with me."

He wanted to be with her, even after all she'd done to him. He wanted to believe that she'd see her mistake and return…

…but Yang and Ruby would return one day too, and he wanted his girls to know they'd still have their Dad waiting in the house they grew up in. No matter how lonely he felt, living by himself in a cabin far from the rest of civilization, he could always stop and think of his girls. He was never alone when he had them in his heart.

The way love vanished from Raven's eyes in an instant… Tai wouldn't ever allow the same fate to befall himself, no matter how he longed to hold her and remember what once was. The past wouldn't ever change… and it didn't seem as though Raven meant to, only to recapture some little piece of the happiness she'd had before. It was Taiyang the memory she wanted… not Taiyang the father of her daughter.

"And then what?" Tai asked. "Will we find Yang and Ruby too? Will you let them join your 'family' too?"

Raven's expression soured further.

"Why did you come here, Raven?" Tai asked. "Did you really think I'd just leave them for you?"

"I wanted…" Raven began, vulnerability returning for just a moment as he saw her hand rise from her side and reach towards him… only for her pride to reassert itself and forcibly stop her attempt to reach out for him. "…I don't know why I bothered. I don't know why I ever thought you'd understand."

"I understood once," Tai reminded her. "Or I thought I did, at least…"

Doubt in those eyes again. Sadness and regret for the faintest moment…

The surest reminder she really loved him once. More than a kiss or a touch, seeing that sorrow break through all her barriers…

"You're still a fool," Raven harshly told him. "You're just… you can't…"

Her face ran the gamut of emotions. Rage, despair, even longing, but in the end his refusal stoked Raven's wounded pride enough that the anger won out and drove her away.

"Do you need any supplies for… wherever you're going?" Tai asked her retreating back.

"…what do you care?" Raven snapped, not deigning to look back at him.

"I will always care, Raven," Tai told him. "Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I should hate you for what you did –to me, to Yang- but what we shared last night… that feeling was just as real for me as it was when I married you. I can't ever forget that."

He decided to try and be bold. "And neither can you."

Raven stood a little stiffer. She wanted to harshly rebuke him; he knew how badly she wanted to argue and deny ever showing any weakness.

He could never understand why she was so convinced love was a weakness.

"Such a fool," Raven murmured, before stepping out from his bedroom. A few moments later, Tai looked through his window and saw a black bird flap out over the forest, heading east to Vale.

Tai doubted he'd see her for a very long time. He hoped if she ever returned he'd be strong enough to refuse her a second time.

But he was wrong about one thing: he hadn't regretted what he did the night before. The sorrow he felt seeing her leave… was mitigated somewhat in knowing it was getting harder for her to walk out the door each time she did.

Tai headed downstairs to make breakfast. The plate he'd made lay bare save a few crumbs lingering on the ceramic.

He honestly hoped she could find someone to latch onto and bond with; to return to when she felt so alone. It must've been very hard to live like she did, without the thought of children to remind her that no matter how lonely she felt she could always draw strength from something as simple as a feeling or a memory. Recapturing the feeling the prior night had brought him some peace… but it seemed Raven hadn't yet discovered the same.

Tai put Raven from his mind and busied himself in the kitchen. He'd have to return to teaching in a few days, and needed to get back to routine.