A/N: It's Sera with a new chap for you!

This chapter honestly went a very different way than I had originally planned for this story. However, I'm much happier with this turn of events.

Just a quick reminder for those who did not see the updated version of the last chapter, we are now in the story arc that is replacing the Forever Fall Forest arc from canon. I'm sorry for those who wanted to see it, but this is a RWBY-centric fanfiction. I will make mentions of the events in the original arc, but that's it.

Without further adieu, please enjoy!

I do not own RT or RWBY.

Guilty Rose Chapter 12

"Come on! Come on! Faster!"

Raven's semblance gave her near instantaneous access to anyone she bound it to, but sometimes it wasn't fast enough for her. This was one of those times.

All Raven wanted was to get to Sum's side and any delay was too long for her right now. As to why she wanted to be there, well that was for her to know and Sum to hopefully figure out soon.

But that was irrelevant, Right now Sum needed her best friend.

Finally, reality came into focus and Raven found herself in Sum's apartment. It was a smaller apartment, one bedroom and one bathroom, the rest was a combined den and kitchen.

Raven was immediately greeted by the smell of her fresh backed cookies as she stepped out of her portal. The same cookies that were so delicious that if Sum was not married to Taiyang, the former huntress would take the faunus as her wife on the spot.

"Wait a second...No bad Raven, you need to wait for the papers to be signed, or her to make the first move. You are not an animal."

The dark haired woman immediately searched for Sum and found her on the couch with her face buried in her hands. Sum didn't seem to have noticed her entrance, so Raven heard her crying.

Raven felt the rage boil in her blood as she gripped the handle of her odachi so hard it made a sound. A sound which alerted the room's other occupant to her presence.

Summer's head shot up and she met Raven's furious stare. She knew the anger wasn't directed at her, but her soon-to-be ex-husband. That both made her heart flutter and sink at the same time.

This mixed feeling might as well describe her entire relationship with her best friend and partner. Rae and her had a rocky beginning to say the least, which may or may not have been because Summer landed on top of Rae at the beginning of their initiation.

She fought a blush down after thinking about the position they landed in.

Though what made their relationship so complicated was when they got to know eachother. Summer came from a long line of huntsmen and huntresses, and finding out her partner was from a bandit tribe, and planned to go back to it, was not an easy thing to accept. Though she could never bring herself to resent Rae. Rae cared deeply for people, in her own way, and she would lay her life down for any of her teammates without hesitation. She even had the scar to prove it.

Summer sighed and composed herself as best she could before giving the woman a welcoming smile.

"Don't you dare do that Summer."

Sum recoiled in confusion when Raven barked at her for doing that.

Raven always admired Sum, even if their partnership started out with her finding out what the woman's favorite underwear was at the time. She admired the faunus because Sum was one of the strongest people she knew in every sense of the word.

But right now, Sum didn't need to be strong. She didn't need to put on a happy facade. She needed to cry and be comforted. She needed to let herself be weak for a while. Just like the day when she walked into the Branwen tribe camp after Ruby was taken.

"Do what?"

Raven sighed, dropped her weapon and duffel bag, and sat next to the smaller woman without breaking eye contact.

"Don't you dare try to act like everything is okay, especially not after that phone call."

"I wasn't trying to."

Raven sighed again and hesitantly put a hand on Sum's shoulder, giving it a gentle, but firm, squeeze.

"I know you're not trying to, but you are doing it. You always do it."

Summer leaned over to put her forehead on Rae's shoulder, letting her emotions surface again while Rae slowly wrapped her arm around her. There was a long silence, neither awkward nor comfortable.

"Everything really isn't okay, is it?"

"What Tai did wasn't, nor will ever be, okay. As rich as it may be coming from me, you never make a parent choose between you or their child."

Raven let out a squeak when Sum pinched the loose skin on her hip. Then Sum raised her head and glared at her, which was far more adorable than intimidating.

"We've talked about this, Rae. You did what you thought was best in that situation. Besides, Yang still got her mother, admittedly not for the best of reasons-"

Raven put a hand over the faunus' mouth to stop her from talking.

"I wasn't talking about Yang. It's hard to admit, but you dragging me back into her life was one of the happiest days of my life. I still remember that huge smile when she wrapped her little head around having 'not one, but two mommys'."

Rae snickered at the memory, but now Summer was thinking of what she actually meant.

"I still can't believe that worked...I seriously thought things just got really wild that night with all that we drank. But we got Ruby out of it."

"Yeah, I didn't know that technique would work either. But that sound you made-GEEE, STOP THAT!"

Raven rubbed her hip as the faunus glared at her again.

"How about I do it to you, and we see what sounds you make!"

Raven mockingly recoiled in shock, making sure to dramatically gasp. This didn't last long as her whole expression devolved into a patronizing smirk.

"Is the Tracker Huntress, Summer Rose, actually asking the infamous bandit leader, Raven Branwen, to have her babies. I am honored that you'd pick someone as lowly as me."

Raven quickly put her arms to guard herself from a flurry of blows from a scarlet faced fuanus.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Raven couldn't help but laugh at the smaller woman, who continued beating on her arms for several more minutes.

Finally, the two women fell over, faunus on top of human. Raven looked down at the woman to find Sum still blushing up a storm, and decided to see how much more she could get out of her.

"You know, I remember us being in a similar position when we became partners. I got to ask, are you serious this time? I mean, you did ask me if I wanted to have your children a moment ago."

Sum's face went blank as she looked at the position the two women landed in. Raven couldn't help but smirk in self-satisfaction as the faunus on top of her turned beet red and began scrambling to pick herself up off Raven.

Once the two separated themselves and sat up properly, there was silence. The silence didn't last long though as Summer started laughing wholeheartedly.

"Oum, I love that laugh."

Raven started cracking up too.

"I missed this Rae, thank you for coming over."

Summer checked her scroll and frowned, it was getting late, but really didn't want Rae to leave yet.

"Hey, Rae, it's getting kind of late here, you can stay the night if you want."

The faunus internally slapped herself for stupidity after she asked the woman with a teleportation semblance to stay because it was getting late.

"I'll move in if you'd just ask."

Rae, in one of her few glorious moments, turned bright red in embarrassment.

"I mean sure."

Summer gave the woman a deadpan look.

"Rae, this place isn't big enough for two people. kinda why I chose it."

"Well Raven, you've dug yourself in this far."

"Hey, even a twin sized bed is big enough for two people if they snuggle close enough."

"And now you want to share my bed, too? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you wanted more out of our relationship."

Raven just looked down and wrung her hands out in her lap.

It wasn't much of a secret how she felt for the other woman. It is hard to hide anything from your best friend for a long time. Especially, when you're head over heels in love with them. But they agreed to ignore this because Sum married Tai.

After a long minute of uncomfortable silence, Raven finally looked up expecting to see Sum with some kind of expression that would let her know she was about to be rejected. However, what she saw was Sum looking over at her kitchen table, specifically at a legal envelope on the table.

The silence continued for another minute until the faunus got up and walked over to the table. With a final moment of hesitation she pulled the divorce papers out of the envelope and grabbed a pen. She went through the papers and quickly signed everywhere she needed to before putting down the pen and letting out a long sigh.

Silence once again reigned in the apartment.

"This...is not a 'yes' Rae. But I will try."

"Just like that?"

Summer turned to look at Rae with a somber expression.

"No. This should never have happened."

Sum's gesture towards the recently signed papers made Raven's heart sink. She bowed her head in acceptance that the faunus had genuinely loved her husband. The sound of approaching footsteps made her look up at the other woman who was now just two feet away. Before she could react, the smaller woman sat across her lap and cupped both of Raven's cheeks in her hands.

"Because this should have happened all those years ago."

Raven's mind went completely blank as she was pulled into a loving kiss.

….

It had been two weeks since Cinder and her team came to Beacon. Yang had been keeping a close eye on her sister and Cinder. Though she discovered that she might not have much to worry about because even though the two met each other once a day, they only made awkward small talk about classes and teammates. The blonde was starting to get embarrassed for them.

Besides the circumstances of Cinder and Rose's meeting, Yang found nothing too suspicious about Cinder. It was the rest of the team that acted weird.

The green and gray pair, Emerald and Mercury, always seemed to hang back and commentate on Cinder and Rose's interactions. Yang almost thought the two were dating until she caught a glimpse of Emerald's private journal in class.

The last member, Neopolitan, was the wild card. Sometimes she would hang back and play peanut gallery with other two. Other times the girl would get bold and try way too hard to talk to Rose. Well, not talk but communicate, apparently she was mute.

On the topic of trying too hard, Yang actually laughed when the multicolored girl came knocking on the dorm door with a huge box of cookies from the most expensive bakery in Vale. The box was nearly as big as the girl herself. Though when Rose gave the ridiculous girl a raised eyebrow, she immediately produced a receipt. The only unfortunate thing was that no one's cookies were near as good as her stepmom's, and that whine Rose let out when she discovered this was heartbreaking.

Today, teams RWBY and JNPR were eating lunch together as they had been for the last three weeks. Rose sat firmly between Yang and Weiss for her protection, mostly.

"So, Rose, there's a long weekend after the field trip to the Forever Fall Forest in a few weeks, I was wondering if you would want to go for a ride on our bikes?"

"I'll have to go into Vale before that. I did a check on my motorbike, there are a few pieces that need to be replaced."

"You can't get them delivered to Beacon? I'm sure I could use some Schnee connections if you want?"

"I can't get them delivered and I'd rather you not."

"It's no imposition Rose, I'd honestly be more than happy to help."

"It's not that, I just like the excuse to go into Vale."

The way Rose trailed off and went quiet for a moment concerned everyone at the table. Her teammates knew whatever this was, it was about her past.

"I know it might be bad if someone recognizes me, Glynda warns me every time. But going into Vale...it makes me feel...like a normal girl...with normal knees."

JNPR immediately looked to the older girls of RWBY, only to find them with dark expressions on their faces. They uderstood that it was better not to pry.

Yang let out a growling sigh and wrapped Rose in a hug right as Weiss sighed and did the same.

"Hey, it's okay."

"Yeah, maybe I can come with you to Vale, it'll be like a partner day!"

Rose looked over at Weiss to think over the idea.

"That sounds nice actually."

Across the cafeteria, Cinder stood staring at Rose while holding her tray of food. Just like she has been doing at lunch for the last two weeks.

"She does this every day!"

"I know, I've had to stop betting Neo here on whether or not she'd actually go over and sit with them. I can't afford any more ice cream."

Neo did her silent chuckle while enjoying a one foot tall cone of soft serve ice cream, then she made a motion with her ice cream.

"No, I've already bought you four today!"

The multicolored girl just pouted and went back to her ice cream.

"I can't believe I'm about to do this, but I can't stand this anymore. Come on Merc, Neo grab Cinder and drag her with us if you have to."

Mercury grumbled and Neo nodded happily. Emerald stomped over to the two teams with the rest of the team follow close behind, Cinder was resisting though. She put on her best friendly smile.

"Hey guys, mind if we sit with y'all?"

Rose's head snapped up to look at the green haired girl. She had made the offer, and was rather disappointed when it didn't seem like Cin was going to take her up on it. But now here they were, asking to sit with them.

The faunus quickly looked between her team and team JNPR with a pleading expression. It was apparent that none of them had any real problems with Cin's team joining them. Though Weiss seemed to be watching Cin.

"Sure, you can join with us."

"Greeeaaat."

Cin and Emerald sat across from Rose while Mercury and Neo sat further down from her. The atmosphere got tense, and Rose didn't know why.

Rose's tail came alive now that Cin was sitting at the table and slipped off the back of the bench.

"Whoa, Rose, I know you're happy to see your friend, but you need to keep your tail on the bench."

"Sorry Yang."

"It's okay Rose, I'm sure Cardin learned his lesson, but just to be safe, I'd rather not have a repeat of that incident."

"I know, Weiss."

Cinder cleared her throat to get the attention of the trio.

"Um, what incident?"

Pyrrha was the first one to answer.

"Oh right, you weren't here that day. Cardin is a fellow first year who decided to be petty after Rose here beat him in combat class, and yanked on her tail."

"But don't worry, me and Yang broke his legs good for it. Professors Goodwitch and Greene even threw us a party as a reward."

"Nora."

"Right, we served our detention dutifully for our transgressions."

"I see. Please let me know if similar transgressions are needed in the future. My semblance could be useful.'

To emphasize her point, Cinder produced a small rod of glass and then snapped it in her hand. This made the girl, Nora, smile evilly and nod.

The conversation being held was making Rose rather uncomfortable, so she decided to try and change it. But right as the small faunus was about to open her mouth to say something, Weiss spoke first.

"So we finally meet properly Cinder, I am Rose's teammate and partner, Weiss Schnee."

Weiss introduced herself like that in the hopes of getting some reaction out of the mysterious woman. However, Cinder only gave her a warm smile that looked entirely genuine.

"Yes, Rose has told me quite a bit about you. I'd like to thank you for being so kind and patient with her. I know it's not the easiest to do."

Weiss was honestly caught completely off guard by Cinder's response, and so took a few seconds to process what was just said.

"Maybe I was wrong about her?"

"Um, yes of course, it is my duty after all."

Cinder's expression darkened, but she still held on to the smile.

"No it's not, your duty as a huntress demands something else in regards to your partner. You, however, chose to accept her."

Weiss pieced together the message, and understood why this gratitude was being directed at her. She didn't know how to respond anymore. Suddenly a hand popped up from team JNPR, more specifically Nora.

"I'm confused, is there some thing wrong with the adorableness we know as Rose?"

Weiss could already feel Rose trembling. She knew this wasn't the time nor place to talk about Rose's past in detail, even if Rose wanted to tell their sister team.

"Nothing is wrong with her, she just has a bit of a troubled past."

"Um, okay, what happened. C'mon, you can tell us."

"No, Nora, I can't...not yet...maybe not ever."

Rose's voice came out cold and hurt, and then she shrunk in on herself. The table's atmosphere became tense again. But this time everyone decided to eat their food silently for the remainder of their lunch period.

A/N: And that's it for this chapter.

A lot has happened in this chapter and I regret none of it. I have once again made important plot decision while writing this chapter, decisions which I'm sure you are going to enjoy.

The Stargazer scene was supposed to be so much shorter, but I got really taken in by writing it. So it took up half the chapter with its fluffiness.

And for those who caught the hint, good on ya.

Now for the lunch scene. I've been trying to find a good way to seamlessly set up both trips for Rose as these will be important for the story. Also, everyone has to love the antics everyone goes through to get Rose's attention. Don't worry, there are so many more on the way.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

Please follow, fav, and review!

Seraphimnight out!