A/N: This pandemic is a wild ride. As I said in a different update, if social distancing is making you feel isolated and you want to chat/stream, feel free to hmu on Discord.

Let me know what you think of this little rambling fic!

Cozy

It's warm.

When lying in bed, there were different kinds of warmth experienced unanimously across all human (and Faunus)-kind. There was the overbearing, stifling heat; the kind that left behind tossed covers and a foot hanging out from underneath the duvet, struggling to breathe easy the whole night through. There was sticky, sweltering heat, caused by one-too-many blankets or a thermostat left too high, with nothing but regret and washed sheets the next day. And then, there was the kind of warmth that felt like a loving embrace, the air underneath the blankets perfectly caressing every inch of skin to nestle it in a cocoon of heat and safety and tenderness. That was the ideal, the dream, the goal.

Tai was often the first kind of heat, having always been too warm for his own good. Occasionally, the second kind of warmth got him in his sleep for reasons unknown (no matter how many times Qrow said that it was because he was 'too pathetic to watch horror movies at night', that didn't make it true- maybe he just wanted to keep his feet tucked under four blankets to hide from ghosts, okay?) and he was left with nothing but sweat-stained sheets and a slightly runny nose at the end of it all.

And sometimes, he got something else.

In the bleariness that could only come from sleeping in late, he dragged open one eye, only vaguely wincing when rays of sunlight streaming through the blinds hit his pupil. He merely let his eye fall back shut, curling onto his side- back into the fluffy haven which was his bed. He felt languid, relaxed. Utterly contented amidst the haze of slumber.

After all, that day, Tai was experiencing the third kind of heat.

He shifted, his hand meeting a slender body next to his. Instinctively, he wrapped his arm around that body's waist, pulling it close to him. It moved with surprising lightness, and he smiled, nestling dreamily back into his pillow with the security of another person's body in his arms.

Thank Gods you're here with me-

For just a moment, everything was perfect.

"Daddy?" a tiny, sleepy voice called from the door.

And just like that, the moment was gone.

Tai's eyes sprung open, blurry and unfocused. He lurched up in his bed, a chill running over his skin, raising gooseflesh. There shouldn't be anyone in his bed. There hadn't been anyone there in a long, long time- so why-

Yanking the blankets back, all he could do was hang his head in his hands and let out a bitter, wry chuckle at his own idiocy. It was one of Yang's large teddy bears. It wasn't anyone else.

…who had he wanted it to be?

"Daddy? Um…" the voice called again from the door.

Rolling over in his bed, Tai smiled ruefully at his younger daughter, waving her into his room. A large yawn slipped through his lips as she complied, climbing onto his bed carefully with her petite frame.

Wrapping up the four-year-old in a big hug as she climbed onto the bed, he pressed a noisy kiss onto her hair, eliciting giggles from her. "What is it, Ruby? Whaddya need?" he murmured in a raspy voice, trying to push past the unease in his heart with a goofy smile.

"Can we have breakfast soon?" Ruby asked hopefully, giant silver eyes peering up at him underneath a messy mop of dark hair.

He paused, running his calloused fingers through her hair. Ruby was warm, he noticed idly as he sorted out her bangs methodically, despite her fidgeting and growling stomach. It was a unique heat; one that spread from her little form through his fingertips, reaching up through his nerve endings and down his spine with each brush of his fingers against reddish-brown hair, the colour so stark against his own tanned skin.

It didn't matter who he had wanted to see beside him. This? This felt right.

Kissing Ruby's forehead again, he snickered as the little girl shied away from his morning stubble. That immediately devolved into rubbing his chin against her cheek, which devolved into giddy shrieks and tickling until the little girl was calling for her older sister through her breathless giggles.

And when Yang came running and launched herself up onto the bed and into his arms, he wasn't uneasy anymore. This was all he needed. Tai was warm.