Disclaimer: Elderburn Week Day 4 prompt: Family. Monochrome and Strawbana in the background, if you squint.
Winter sipped her cup of coffee, trying to settle her nerves. Really, prior experience should be enough to calm her but something could always go wrong and it clawed at her heart every time she heard Yang's muttered curses escalate into a roar of pain. Eyes flashing red, hair aglow, Yang looked like she often did in the midst of a battle, except absence her usual cocky smile and brash banter. It got bad enough that she didn't even seem to notice when the door opened and their sisters hustled inside, a cranky two year old squirming in Weiss' arms.
"Yang! Not in front of your daughter!" The younger Schnee chastised, doing her best to contain the child in her arms.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?" Yang rounded at the woman, one hand on her lower belly and the other gripping a nearby counter top for support. The hospital room, while small, managed to fit the four of them comfortably, though they were still awaiting Blake's arrival. Once the process started in earnest, they'd all be ushered out to the waiting room to await the results while doctors and nurses filled the space, alongside Yang and Winter, of course.
"Sis, I thought you were going to get the epidural this time?" Ruby's brows knit together in confusion, doing her best to calm the child with one hand.
"YEAH, GUESS WHOSE SEMBLANCE EATS THROUGH THAT-" Her response was cut short as yet another contraction tore through her, turning words into a guttural roar.
"Yang. Sit down," Winter said, rising from her seat and going to her sister, accepting the now crying child and shushing her. "It's okay, Zephyr. Mama's fine. She's just being a drama queen."
"Snowdrift, I love you, but say that to my face." Although it sure sounded like her wife was furious, Winter could tell that any aggression stemmed from the pain of preparing for childbirth and had less to do with her words than a general discomfort. Huntresses didn't register the pain the same as civilians, their auras typically activating to lessen the agony of it, but the energy build up brought with it an entirely different set of problems. "This is torture."
"Yes, it is." As the child calmed down, Winter took the few steps over to her wife and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, carefully guiding her back towards the bed. "But we both agreed on this and you absolutely refused to let me carry."
"You know what the odds are," Yang said, voice tight enough she couldn't tell what caused it as her wife wrapped one arm around her waist and put the other on her belly. It seemed to be an unconscious action, as if constantly checking to ensure the child within still moved. Once she got into the third trimester, the blonde almost always had a hand pressed to the flesh, though she admitted it didn't make a lot of sense; it wasn't like she couldn't feel every time their unborn child moved already, but the extra sensation just satisfied some unspoken need. "I had to carry."
Distracting the woman with realistic considerations always seemed to ease the process, though only in certain amounts. Before Winter could open her mouth and try to continue the conversation, another contraction wracked her wife and the arm around her waist squeezed, quite nearly pulling a pained cry from her lips as the woman's superior strength threatened to snap something. Thankfully, Zephyr didn't seem to notice, suitably entranced by grabbing onto the dangling sapphire earring in Winter's ear and lightly batting it, admiring the way the lights played off the gem.
As long as she didn't start tugging, everything should be fine. "Just remember, you'll pull through this." She did her best to suck in air, ignoring the way her aura flared along her sides to protect her from another devastating squeeze. "And we'll have our second little one in just a few short hours."
"They're gonna be the longest of my life." Yang groused, though they'd finally made it to the bed, allowing her to sit down and at least calm herself enough that her hair stopped glowing. "Are we sure it's worth it?"
Rolling her eyes, she let go of her wife and switched her grip on their toddler so she could hold the child out, pleased when Zephyr immediately reached out towards the other woman.
"Mama!"
Instantly, wide smiles broke out on their faces as Yang leaned forward to press a kiss against the child's forehead. "Hey, Zeph. Sorry for scaring you."
"Why Mama yell?" A little frown tugged at her pudgy face, raising one hand to her mouth to bite at her fingers- a nervous habit she seemed to be developing, though none of them could figure out where she'd picked it up from.
"Because Mama's getting ready to bring your sibling into the world," the pregnant woman replied, motioning down to her belly. "You're gonna be a big sister!"
Blue eyes sparkled, turning a shimmering lavender around the edges as tiny hands started reaching for Yang's belly. "Sister!"
"That's right, little one." Winter shifted the toddler around so she could touch her Mama, the child doing her damnedest to wrap her arms around her unborn sibling. That drew an appropriate amount of cooing and awing from the assembled adults. However, another contraction had Yang muffling a curse into her hand and her shoulders shaking, prompting Winter to pull their daughter away and entrust her to the care of her aunts for the time being. "It probably won't be much longer now."
"I'm here!" Blake burst into the room, out of breath and more than a little surprised when Weiss put a hand on her shoulder and quite nearly pushed her right back out. "Wait, I-"
Another, protracted but muffled scream from Yang changed the Faunus' mind, leaving the married couple alone as a nurse came in to check on the blonde. Winter did her best to try and keep the woman calm as they checked how far she'd dilated, letting out a sigh of relief when they'd determined she could begin trying to push and directing the pregnant woman into the stirrups.
To ensure nothing went wrong, Winter detached her wife's prosthetic arm and set it aside before being ushered away to clean up and change into scrubs. Although something of an argument at first, they'd eventually agreed to both be present for the birth of their children, when the situation permit. Considering General Ironwood was very sympathetic to that wish, she'd been on leave for the past two weeks, just in case, but those thoughts were pushed from her mind as she donned the medical scrubs.
She had to remain calm and focused and cool so she could help Yang, which she could absolutely do, of course.
She was Winter Schnee, after all.
Hours later, Yang lay back with sweat plastering blonde bangs to her forehead and holding the newest addition to their family, a small baby girl with the faintest wisps of platinum blonde hair on her head. She hadn't actually opened her eyes yet but Winter doubted they would be much different from Zephyr's; Schnee genes ran strong, though Branwen traits could still be seen in the width of tiny hips and shoulders. Personally, Winter found it a blessing, but she didn't have much time to vocalize that as she traced a finger lightly along their daughter's cheek.
"Wisteria? Walnut? Walter? Wendy?" Yang tried name after name but got no reaction from the little girl nestled in the crook of her arm. "C'mon. Wisteria's a good name!"
"Have the waterworks stopped yet?" Weiss offered glibly as the rest of the extended family entered, finally permitted to meet the newest addition to an ever growing clan. Blake and Ruby followed, with Zephyr in her latter's arms.
Yang laughed. "Nah, she's still crying."
"I am allowed to express my happiness, thank you both very much," Winter replied, absolutely no heat behind the words as she cooed at the newborn, tears of happiness streaming down her cheeks.
Perhaps she did go a little overboard with expressing her emotions at times like these but, after having grown up in an environment devoid of such, was it any wonder she cried with joy when gifted with children of her own? Or when she married her wife? Or when they exchanged presents? Or when they- okay, maybe she went a little over the top, but Yang had often said she wasn't to the 'standing on a wobbly chair' level yet, whatever that meant.
"Has she reacted to a name yet?" Ruby came over, carefully setting the toddler on the bed so she could see her new sibling.
"No." Yang sighed, shaking her head. "Not even Wisteria!"
"Why are you do hung up on that one?"
"Because it's pretty and it starts with a 'w'! It's, like, a perfect Schnee name!"
Another agreement that had been difficult to reach, at least at first. Opting for a hyphenated surname- a painfully long one at that, though they both acknowledged it could be worse- also brought them to another slight hiccup: what to name the children. Winter, frankly, had no desire to continue the Schnee family tradition of 'W' names, seeing as they'd stripped away many of the impractical restrictions placed on their families the moment it was within Winter's and Weiss' power to do so. Continuing the tradition just seemed… strange.
Yet, Yang had insisted on it. Very vocally. Something about their children having ties to both sides of the family; Yang's name was derived from her father's, after all, and though she'd never quite patched things up with the enigmatic bandit leader who gave birth to her, Raven had stopped by enough in recent years for the blonde to give a little bit and let Zephyr know her Grandmother.
The compromise they'd come to amounted to throwing names out until the little one reacted to one. Maybe the newborn wouldn't be able to understand it or just something of the like but waiting for a reaction seemed to be as good a naming convention as any. Zephyr, of course, hadn't reacted to any of the 'W' names Yang had suggested. In fact, Weiss ended up being the one to suggest her name, something the little girl's Aunt took an exceptional amount of pride in, when there wasn't another little bundle of joy to consider.
"Wynn? Westeria?"
Winter's brows furrowed. "Did you just mispronounce Wisteria or were you trying to pass that off as a name?" Lilac eyes shot towards her and she wisely dropped the question; although past the 'hard' part, her wife obviously needed rest to completely recover, and pushing her buttons now just might be an unwise decision. "What about Wendel?"
Nothing.
Yang groaned. "Well… looks like we're gonna have to open up the floor. Suggestions?"
"Talia?" Ruby put forth, to no effect.
"Francecsa?" Weiss said, meeting the same result.
"Zise?" Blake offered.
Suddenly, the baby started squirming, tiny, pudgy face screwing up in preparation for a cry.
Everyone in the room pressed closer, Yang and Winter exchanging a glance before they tried again.
"Zise?" The single word left her wife's mouth tentatively and Winter watched as their daughter squirmed again, then began to fuss. While the others cheered, Yang let out a groan and laid her head back. "Wisteria's a nice name though! We really couldn't get a 'W'?"
Seeing her chance, she took it. "Well, if we couldn't get a 'W' or 'X', why not 'Z'?"
"Oh Maidens now there's two of them." Weiss muttered in dismay, putting a hand to her face and sighing while Yang burst out laughing, almost enough to upset the tiny little bundle in her embrace.
"This is why I married you." The shine in lilac eyes convinced her to lean over and kiss her wife, the moment brought to an end when the newly dubbed Zise began to cry in earnest. "Time for someone's first meal!"
"Zephyr, come here." Winter took their other daughter into her arms. "Can you say your sister's name?"
"Zise?"
"Very good!" She smiled, pressing her lips to the little girl's head. "And you know what this means, right?"
Zephyr nodded. "I gotta look out for her."
"That's right. You're a big sister now, just like your Mama and I." She looked over at Ruby and Weiss. "It's a big responsibility." Almost immediately, the toddler leaned forward and buried her face in the woman's chest and whined. Winter couldn't help but laugh right along with everyone else. "It comes with time, little one."
A knock on the door preceded Taiyang popping his head in, excited voices in the hall belonging undoubtedly to an excited Kali and a pacifying Ghira. "Safe to come in yet? We're not sure we can keep Gramma K away much longer, and the kids are feeding off it!"
"Yeah, come on in," Yang said, fully focused on the newborn. "I'm just feeding her."
Tai started to push the door open but then Kali brushed past him, eyes alight as the self proclaimed grandmother of any Team RWBY child found her target. "Oh, there she is! What's her name?"
"Zise," Yang said, becoming a little more comfortable with admitting as the minutes passed. "So we're oh-for-two on the 'W' names."
The Faunus ears perked up, her head tilting to the side slightly as a sly smile claimed her lips. "However, two-for-two on 'Z' names, correct?"
Winter's brows rose, watching her wife's reaction as the blonde frowned. "Yeah, but… that's not the Schnee thing."
"And they- we aren't Schnees." She pointed out, favoring the other woman with a soft smile. "We're Xiao Long-Schnees, and we can have whatever traditions we want."
With a slow nod of her head, Yang began to smile. "Yeah. Okay. But, wait a minute, I thought we agreed-"
"We are not changing our names to 'Mrs. and Mrs. Schlong', Yang."
"Oh, fine." Her wife pretended to pout, eyes fluttering closed slightly. She'd need at least a nap before being released from the hospital, but they still had quite the extended family to introduce to the newest member. "Ready to meet Gramma and your cousins, Zise?"
Zephyr perked up, squirming herself at the mention of the cousins, likely still out in the hall with Sun and the others. Pretty soon, the room would be packed to the bring with three generations spanning four kingdoms.
Winter truly couldn't imagine any place she'd rather be than here, among the family that had stitched itself together after terrible battles, forging the way ahead together. She pressed another kiss to their daughter's head, watching as her wife held their other daughter. They still had a long day ahead of them, but they'd be alright.
As long as they had each other, they'd be alright.