"Oh, another important thing is to find activities to do together with them." Tai said. "Naturally, it's difficult to find something where you are all around the same skill level, since you're so much older than them and have more experience with things like games and sports. But you might find one or two activities where you'll feel like the kid…

"I played the older version of this game when I was younger," Tai said as he popped the game disc for Maiden Duel 6 into the girls' brand new game console. It was Christmas afternoon; the presents had been opened, the stockings had been emptied, and now it was time for the kids to put their gifts to good use.

Tai had been saving for the previous two months to afford the console. After all, his postdoc stipend wasn't exactly generous, and he needed to save what he could for the girls' educations. But ever since Ruby had pointed out this particular console to Yang in the weekly flyer, he'd done anything he could to get one. It hadn't been easy, since the console was the hottest gift of the season. Tai had to wait out in the cold at 4 am the week before, outside the local game store, and he still only got the third last console that had arrived that day.

Seeing the smiles on his girls' faces made it all worth it.

"Really! Wow, what were video games like when you were a kid?" Ruby asked as she climbed up beside her dad on the couch.

"Mostly the same. But the graphics in games these days are much better," Tai said as he handed one of the controllers to Yang. "I was the best person I knew when it came to Maiden Duel. Me and your Uncle Qrow would play Maiden Duel 3 during our spare periods in Beacon – I definitely won more often."

"I bet you aren't better than me!" Yang said as she hopped up on Tai's other side. "I played that one with Uncle Qrow last time I was at his house, and I beat him ten times in a row!"

She's got to be exaggerating, Tai thought to himself. Qrow was pretty good at this game, so there's no way she actually beat him that many times. He probably just let her win once and she let it go to her head. "Well, if you think you're such an expert, why don't the two of you team up against me?" Tai said with a teasing grin. "Here, let me set it up for you." After booting up the game, he grabbed the other controller, selected "Options", and began tweaking the settings. "There, now you two have two lives, and I only have one. Yang, when you die, you can hand the controller off to Ruby, and she can keep playing against me. Sound good?"

"Ugh, stop talking and let's fight, dad!"

Tai smiled to himself. This should be easy.

…

Game, Set!

Tai looked down at the controller in his hands helplessly. Yang had just beaten him for the fifth time in a row – all without dropping a single round.

I thought that Spring had a good matchup against Fall…what happened?

Noticing a tapping on his shoulder, Tai turned to see Ruby giving him a concerned look. "Hey, dad, did you mean to give Yang the controller with one life? Cause I really want to play, but I haven't gotten a chance to yet, since she keeps beating you. I know she's really good at this game, but if the two of us work together, I'm sure we can beat her!"

Tai looked at his two daughters in turn: first Ruby's earnest expression of hope, then Yang's smirk of victory.

Allowing himself a humbled smile, he quickly swapped his controller with Yang's. "I think you're right, Ruby! She's powerful, but with our combined strength, the two of us are totally strong enough to win!"

"Yang beat us another 10 times in a row after that," Tai said with a laugh. "She's very talented when it comes to Maiden Duel – it's worth playing against her if you ever get the chance. Ruby's gotten quite good as well, I'd say she's better than me now."

"I think we played that game back at Beacon," Jaune mused to himself. "Nora would practice all the time, but Pyrrha would always beat her, even though she didn't play nearly as much. It's incredible how talented she is at, well, everything. For some reason, though, she'd always lose to me whenever the two of us played. I wonder why?"

She was probably distracted by something she liked, Tai thought to himself. Even he'd been able to pick up on Pyrrha's feelings in the limited time he spent around the two of them. In all fairness, he couldn't give Jaune too much flak for his obliviousness when it came to Pyrrha. Raven had basically dragged him out on multiple dates before he noticed her interest, and things with Summer hadn't been much different. Tai had gotten lucky enough to have both the women he loved eventually express their interest directly; he could only hope that for Jaune's sake, Pyrrha would, in due time, do the same. Goodness knows he won't. "I'm not sure, Jaune. But back to the matter at hand – do you know of any activities that Adrian and Julianne enjoy doing?"

"Well, I've seen the two of them go out on their bikes from time to time. Maybe I could go with them," Jaune said. "I know that Saphron would go with them sometimes, so I could probably borrow her bike."

Bad idea, Jaune. Baaaad idea. Jaune thought to himself as the ache in his back progressively got worse. He hadn't accounted for the fact that Saphron was both lighter and shorter than him, with a smaller bike to match. Adjusting to her bike had been…a challenge, to say the least. I'm going to feel this tomorrow.

"Come on, Uncle Jaune, we're waiting for you!" Adrian called from the next block. Him and Julianne had initially slowed down to accommodate Jaune learning to use Saphron's bike. However, the kids were used to going at a much faster pace and had eventually grown bored of waiting for the adult to catch up. They'd made a game of racing each other to the end of the next block, followed by calling out to Jaune while they waited for him. When he caught up, they'd race off to the next block.

Pedalling through the neighborhood, Jaune took a moment to admire his surroundings. Spring was just beginning in Mistral, and Argus had changed to reflect the new season. Flowers were beginning to bloom on many of the trees that lined the streets, mostly in shades of white and yellow. Many young couples had taken to walking in the warm spring air; Jaune had counted no fewer than 6 strollers in the short time he'd been out biking. It seemed like Argus was quite a popular place to start a family.

"Let's go, Uncle Jaune! We're tied, and I want to see who's faster! But we can't start until you get here!" Julianne cried from down the street. Hearing her call, Jaune shook his head to clear his thoughts and pedalled faster. In addition to the small frame, another problem he'd found with Saphron's bike is that the pedals were placed in a position for someone with shorter legs than his. Since he had to bend over quite a bit to properly grab the handlebars, he'd often end up having to bring his knees up into his stomach while pedalling. If the contract for that group from Solitas works out, the first thing I'm doing is buying a bigger bike…

Idk, do postdocs exist in the RWBY universe? Tai's a professor in the present, so I'm assuming he had to get some experience before that. Something about Tai raising Ruby and Yang on a shoestring budget and still doing his best to make sure they were well taken care of just makes sense to me. Maiden Fighter isn't based on any particular fighting game, though the 'Game, Set!' is taken from Yang's astral finish (instant kill) in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle.

For Jaune's part, since Argus is based on San Francisco, I looked up what kind of trees were planted in the streets there. Bronze Loquats, Grecian Laurels, and Jacarandas are the three types of trees I could find that had flowers bloom in the spring, so I made sure the flower colors I described lined up with flowers you could actually expect to see at that time of year.

Writing the story is making me want to be a stay-at-home parent, lol. Thanks for your support! See you next week!

-Linen