"Er, Tai?"

"Yes, Jaune?"

"How did you deal with Ruby and Yang asking you for things you couldn't give them? Or to let you do things that you couldn't let them do?"

Tai pondered the question. It was a good one; he wanted to make sure he gave Jaune an equally good answer. "I think the most important thing for me was learning to tell the difference between things I couldn't support, and things I didn't want to support. Telling the difference usually came down to finding a reason why I was reluctant. Eventually, I started to make sure I gave them a legitimate reason for every request they made."

He chuckled. "I think it kept me accountable as a parent. If I couldn't give them a reason, it forced me to reflect on why I was really saying no. Was it just because something would be more work for me, as opposed to actually being a bad thing for the kids? I can think of one time that was the case…"

"Dad, I want ice cream!"

"No, Yang, we can't get ice cream."

"But daaaaaaad…. hey, Rubes, they have cookies and cream!"

"Really? Oh, please dad, pretty, pretty please, with a cherry on top?"

Tai stopped himself from letting out a sigh as he turned from his eldest daughter to his youngest. After an exhausting day at work, he'd decided to change up his routine by bringing along Ruby and Yang with him while grocery shopping. What he hadn't counted on was Ruby and Yang being particularly excited about the various unhealthy options littered throughout the store. The layout of the building wasn't doing him any favours; he had to walk through the baked desserts section to get to the bread, and the frozen desserts were between that and the vegetables. Maybe they lay it out this way on purpose…

Looking back and forth between Ruby and Yang, he began to repeat the same lecture he'd given when Ruby had asked for cookies. "Girls, it's important to be healthy. You two both want to be huntresses, right?"

Both girls nodded vigorously.

"Right. Well, to be a huntress, you have to be in good shape. You can't beat a Grimm if you can't outrun it; since they are bigger and stronger than you, your best chance to beat them is to be faster than them. Do you two agree?"

Two nods of agreement.

"Yeah. And a big part of being in good shape is making sure that you're putting the right things in your body. Of course, you can have unhealthy things sometimes, but you shouldn't do it too often."

"But dad, Uncle Qrow is always drinking that juice you said is really bad for us, and he's a really good huntsman, right?" Ruby's voice was full of hope.

Ugh, I know he's your uncle, but please don't use him as a role model in this area. "Yes, but Uncle Qrow only started doing that once he'd been working for a few years. Once you're a licensed huntsman or huntress, you have a better understanding of your own health."

"Okay, dad." The disappointment in Yang's voice was palpable. Tai hated to leave things like this, but he didn't feel like he could explain Qrow's situation any further in the middle of a grocery store. As he walked out of the store, he began to think about how he could approach the topic.

He was still lost in thought when Ruby suddenly grabbed his hand. "Dad, look! They're having an adoption fair! Look at all the puppies! Can we go look at them?"

Reflexively, he shook his head; he was still thinking about the earlier conversation. "No, we can't."

"But why?"

Something about Yang's tone shook Tai out of his thoughts. Her voice sounded…sad, but also confused. At that point, he realized that he'd answered every single question the girls had asked that day with a firm no. With that thought, he decided to give Ruby's question a second look.

Well, a pet would be another strain on the budget. But I don't think it would be all that much…the store has those huge bags that are on sale pretty often. What about room? I guess we could make the space; there's that little nook in the living room. I'd have to teach the girls how to take care of a pet…he took a second to look at the faces of his daughters…they seem like they'd be willing to put in the work.

Well, Summer did always say she wanted a dog…

"Sure, why not? Let's go take a look."

"You've met Zwei, of course. He's been such a great influence on all of our lives, and I'm so happy he's with us. But I don't think that would have happened if I didn't genuinely ask myself what my reason for say no to Ruby was." Tai smiled fondly. "I'm very glad I did."

"Yeah, both Ruby and Yang have talked about how much Zwei means to them, and Yang even talked about how she thought taking care of Zwei made her a better older sister to Ruby. It's incredible to think how that might not have happened." Jaune pursed his lips. "Honestly, though, while I appreciate you telling me about that, I don't know how much that advice applies to me. Since Adrian and Julianne are Saphron's kids, not mine, I don't think I'd feel comfortable making that sort of decision for them, nor would I feel okay with trying to explain to them why it wasn't a good idea. Maybe if they were my own kids, I'd feel differently."

Tai nodded, agreeing with Jaune's point. "True. But explaining your choices isn't limited to big, life-changing decisions. Even just explaining a little thing like if you'll let them play in the rain can go a long way towards making them trust you."

"Rawr! I'm a big, bad, Grimm! I'm coming to destroy this peaceful village!"

"Not if I stop you! And I will! Because I'm a huntress!"

The sight of the two kids playing put a smile on Jaune's face, a rarity in the past few days. It was a Saturday, and the three of them had just finished eating dinner together. It had become a tradition of sorts for the two kids to play together afterwards, while Jaune sat at the kitchen table, doing something or the other on his scroll. Today, he was scrolling though an exhaustive list of cold-weather gear.

After his team had pooled together their research on their next contract location, they'd found that, among other things, the area of Solitas they would be headed to was one of the coldest areas in the entire continent. All four of them had agreed that they would all need warmer outfits, so Jaune had texted Coco, guessing she'd know where to find clothes in the area. He'd received a near-instantaneous reply with more stores than he'd thought existed in the entirety of Mistral.

Frankly, he'd been stressing out a lot about the journey; it would be the team's first contract outside the immediate vicinity of Argus, in an entirely new area. Although he trusted the rest of his team would prove more than capable during the trip, his self-doubt had plagued his thoughts, telling him that he would mess up and cause his team harm. It had gotten bad enough that he'd been having trouble sleeping.

As such, he'd taken to the task of picking out new jackets for the team with far more gusto than the activity merited. Did he need to put so much effort into finding the perfect parka? No, but that hadn't stopped him from reading dozens of reviews on a jacket which, if he was being honest with himself, he'd already decided on buying about 50 clicks ago. It was a much-needed distraction, although it wasn't doing him much good.

"Uncle Jaune, can we go to the park? We're going to play Grimm and Hunters!"

He looked up to see Adrian standing in front of him, holding a plastic Grimm mask. Behind him, Julianne held a foam sword and shield.

Jaune frowned uncertainly. He'd read an article earlier about a small spree of crime happening in the area, so he wasn't entirely comfortable letting the kids go out to play on their own.

"Sorry, I don't think so, it's too late out."

"What if you come with us?"

"I can't, I have work." As if this is anything more than just something to keep busy.

"But you can work later!"

"I really need to get this done today."

"Maybe if we help, you can get finished faster!"

The genuineness in Julianne's voice grabbed Jaune's attention. It seemed like she was really willing to help. Adrian's expression said the same. Jaune felt a pang of guilt. He thought about Terra, taking the remote placement just in case her kids were interested in attending an academy, and Saphron, spending late nights at the dinner table, reworking her budget spreadsheet for the dozenth time to make their monthly contribution to the kids' education fund. It was so clear they deeply cared about their children, yet they'd entrusted Jaune with their care. And here he was, rejecting their simple pleas to go and play, just because he was a little stressed about work.

Looking into the kids' eyes, he was reminded of how his dad described him as a kid, asking to hear about how his granddad slayed a Nevermore one more time before going to sleep.

Maybe this is what I really need right now…

"Okay, we can go play, but only until it gets dark, alright?"

I'm lowkey curious as to how feasible it would be to try something like this as a parent (ignoring crazy requests like a pet Grimm). It would probably be a good chunk of work, but I think that the kids might trust you more for the few times you couldn't give them a reason if you'd built up a history of always justifying your actions to them.

Thanks for reviewing/following/favoriting/reading! See you next week!

-Linen