Apparently Miles confirmed that Ruby's birthday is on Halloween. Guess what falls on a Tuesday this year. Gonna have some fun with that...in the author's note.
Summer opened her eyes and immediately closed them. She groaned and turned over. It was too bright. Her headache wasn't helping much either. "Stupid hangover…" She raised her head. What alley did she end up in last night?
As her eyes adjusted to the harsh light, she blinked rapidly. This couldn't be right. She never stayed at a hotel. The few creeps that tried to get her in one probably weren't basses anymore. And why did this headboard look so much like her own on Patch? Summer looked around the room. She slowly extended her neck as she realized where she was.
This wasn't some nice-looking hotel. This was her room, in her team's house.
One thought took prominence in Summer's head. "How did I get here?" She tried to dig through her memories, hazy and scattered as they were. The last clear thing she remembered was walking into Appletree's and sitting at the bar there. After that, nothing was clear. Everything blended into one solid color. Maybe the others could help her put this together…
Summer buried her face in her pillow. Why didn't she go to her team? She went and did everything she didn't understand why people did it when depressed…Because she killed someone. She stole someone's life. In a custody battle gone wrong, she took the life of that poor girl's father…
Why couldn't she forget? Alcohol was supposed to do that, right? It sure as heck made sure she couldn't remember anything she did while under the influence, but what about all of this time?...Where did the others keep their booze? Maybe some of that could help where others couldn't.
Summer pushed herself off the bed into a sitting position. The action alone made her head swirl. She stayed in that position for a good minute. After the world leveled, she stood from her bed. This time, she didn't lose balance and she sighed in relief. The less of that she had to go through, the better.
As she walked to the door, she noticed something on her computer desk. Her combat outfit sat folded on her keyboard, with a note pinned on top of that. A glass of water and what looked like a pill sat beside them. Summer walked to the desk and read the note. 'Fresh out of the laundry, and the water was cold when I brought it and the antacid in. -Qrow'
"That'll work." Summer put the antacid tablet in the water. It fizzed all the way to the bottom. Summer picked up the glass and chilled in in her hand. She took a small sip, then chugged the rest. It tasted so much better than that junk that was supposed to help her forget.
With that gone, Summer changed into her combat outfit. She sniffed her hood as she put it on. After not being machine washed in…well, her team probably knew how long, it smelled so good. No more alley dumpster smell.
Before Summer left her room, she looked at herself in her full-length mirror. She normally didn't care about how she looked, but for special occasions, and apparently situations like this, she wanted to know if she was presentable. Unlike the past month, her clothes didn't have a speck of dirt or mud on them. Her hood almost sparkled, even in the faint light. Her hair wasn't as straight as it could be, but most of it didn't run off in random directions. No red or other dark spots made themselves known anywhere on her face…Hopefully only Raven helped her wash up. Otherwise, she'd have to have a looong talk with Tai and Qrow.
Summer took a deep breath and left her room. She heard something from one of the projectors downstairs. It sounded like VNN, so that was probably where Tai and Qrow were. As she passed the closed door to the bathroom, she found out what Raven was doing. The sounds of retching followed by a splash came through the door. Summer winced. "Screw this," Raven groaned, right before more retching. That didn't sound good. Hopefully whatever it was wasn't too bad.
She walked down the stairs to the living room. As she guessed, Tai and Qrow were watching the news. It looked like 'Saint Nick' Nickolas Schnee had passed away in his sleep. Summer shoulders slumped. She met the guy once after she helped guard a train with replacement CCT equipment. He was every bit the Saint as he was made out to be. Summer didn't know about Jacques to know if he was a good fit or not.
The story changed to one about a White Fang rally and the two guys on the couch turned to each other. "How long until the price of Dust is going to skyrocket?" Qrow asked.
Tai shrugged. "He doesn't have a monopoly. He's still got Shoal and Sawe Dust to deal with."
"They'll be bought out soon enough." Qrow shook his head. "Like Raven said, the guy's a Jacqueass."
"Language, Qrow," Summer called as she reached the bottom of the steps. Both guys snapped their heads to her. "Also, it's not nice to call people names."
"Summer!" Both guys yelled at the same time. Tai ran around the couch while Qrow jumped over the back. Qrow collided with Summer and brought her into a tight but not rough hug. Tai came in from the side and joined in.
Summer melted into their arms and returned the hugs as best she could. "I missed this."
"We missed you," Qrow returned. "You had us worried."
"I can take care of myself."
Tai shook his head. "That's not why we were worried,"
Summer's head sunk. "All the other stuff."
"Spot on." Qrow pulled away, causing Tai to as well, but Qrow kept his hands on Summer's shoulders. "Summer, the first thing I learned from you at Beacon was to keep in contact with family, no matter how hard it is. Not hearing from the team mom for a month had us all scared to death."
"Can..." Summer felt her eyes welling up. "Can we talk about this when Raven is here?"
Tai and Qrow exchanged a look and both nodded. "We can." Qrow removed his hands and both guys returned to the couch.
Summer stayed roughly where she was. "What's wrong with her, anyway? The flu?"
Tai raised an eyebrow. "We told you in person yesterday."
"I was kind of drunk, okay?" Summer winced, not only at her tone of voice, but what she said. "I'm sorry. It's…hangover…" She rubbed the back of her head.
"You're good." Tai waved her off. "Anyway, it's not going to go away for a while."
"This isn't like when she got chicken pox, right?"
Qrow shook his head. "Our tribe apparently had no contact with that strain. Nah, from what I've seen on a few CCT sites, this is normal."
Summer sighed. "That's good to hear. How long has she had this?"
For whatever reason, Tai's cheeks turned red. "Uh, two weeks, at most." Qrow snickered too.
"Qrow!" Summer scolded. Qrow stiffened. "Your sister is up there losing her last three meals, and you're laughing at that?"
"He's okay, Sum," Raven said. Summer whipped her head up and to the right. Raven stood at the top of the stairs, her face looking more than a little green. "Honestly, I'm laughing at me too. It's my own fault."
Summer bounded up the steps, ignoring the increased headache. She grabbed onto Raven's arm and helped her down the staircase. She thought she caught Raven smiling. "How you feeling?"
"Right now, terrible. It looks like I'm going to be dealing with this and a few other things for the next nine months."
"Nine months? The flu doesn't stick that long. What lasts nine…months…" Summer blinked and stopped at the bottom of the steps. Pieces started clicking together. Raven was throwing up in the morning, Tai's face turned red when asked how long Raven had this, and Raven would have this for the next nine months. "Raven, what's your condition called?"
Raven scrunched her eyes. "I think it's ancient Valic, not easy to pronounce. What was it? Present? Pergerent? Prefernt?"
"Pregnant?" Summer offered, her own lips curling up.
"Yeah, that's it."
Summer's smile threatened to break her face. "Raven, you're going to have a little chick?"
"Yep." Raven cocked her head. "I don't know if I'd rather give birth normally or lay an egg."
"CONGRATULATIONS!" Summer threw her arms around her partner. She picked Raven up and spun in a circle. "You'regoingtomakeagreatmom! Ibetheorsheisgoingtobethecutestthingever! Ooh! CanIbeAuntieSummer? I'dtakethejobveryseriously." Summer set Raven down and set her sights on Tai. She grabbed him and brought him into a hug tornado as well. "Dadoftheyearrighthere! Ifyouneedanydadjokesjsutaskme!
Summer set Tai back down and tried to stop spinning. But if she stopped, the rest of the world kept spinning. Then everything wobbled at random angles. Her head threatened to explode like an overstuffed grenade. The world tilted backward and wind rushed past her. Something or someone caught her shoulders before the ground hit her back…wait, that made no sense.
"Easy, Summer, don't overdo it," Qrow soothed.
"That's kind of my thing, Qrow." Summer felt the floor dragging against her feet…no, the other way around. The loveseat appeared underneath her, and she was perfectly fine with that. If lying down made the world stop spinning, so be it. "But hangovers suuuuuuck. Raven, how do you do this?"
Summer didn't get an answer for a few seconds. "I've never been drunk every day for a month," Raven said.
"…Oh." Summer winced. "It's been that long?"
"A few days over, actually," Qrow said. "We were beginning to worry if we'd ever find you."
"I called you yesterday and told you I was pregnant." Raven shook her head. "I guess you were listening to my messages."
"You…left messages?" Summer fished her Scroll out of a pocket. She opened her voicemail box and looked through the three dozen messages, all of them from Raven, or the occasional salesman. All the ones from Raven were marked as listened. "I…guess you didn't call when I was sober."
"Summer," Tai started, "why did you stay away in the first place?"
"I…" Summer let her head sink into the armrest. Her sight became even more blurred as water filled her eyes. "I killed someone, Tai…That's something I can't just walk off. I needed some time to think it over."
"At a bar?" Qrow asked, sounding sad, not angry.
"His gun was empty." Summer shook her head. "Suicide by cop. That was bad enough, but now Raven's taking the heat…" She turned her head away. "I thought you'd hate me. I…I wanted to forget it all happened."
Summer waited for the hammer of judgement to come. They'd say she was an idiot. There were plenty of other ways to forget things. Raven would slam her for sticking her with the blame.
A hand fell on Summer's shoulder and squeezed it. Summer braced for impact. "Sum," Raven whispered, "don't you dare forget. Don't you dare turn into me." Summer blinked. She didn't expect to hear that. Another hand cupped the side of her face on the armrest and slowly tilted her head the other direction. Summer found herself staring up at Raven. "If you forget it, you'll keep on doing it. Trust me, I know. And I'm pretty sure you don't want to be involved in the things I have been. It's too late for me, but not you."
"But…" Summer blinked some of her tears away. "Aren't you mad at me for putting the blame on you?"
"More like I took it off you. I can handle that kind of crap. I'm used to it being from a bandit tribe." Raven gave Summer a smirk, but it wasn't cocky at all. "You may think I'm looking for other people's approval, but you wouldn't survive if people didn't like you."
"You're…not mad at me?"
Raven shook her head. "No. I'm disappointed you didn't come to us first."
Summer blinked rapidly, but the new tears stayed in place. She remembered she told Raven something similar the day she disappeared. "Thanks, Rae." She reached her arms out and pulled Raven down into a hug. "You're the best partner ever."
Raven's arms forced their way in between Summer's back and the loveseat. "I try."
Summer looked past her partner's head to the two guys on her team. "You two agree with her?"
Tai and Qrow exchanged a look. "Every word," Qrow said.
"She's been beating herself up for a month over this," Tai added. "This is the best personal advice I've heard her give."
"Then get over here." Summer jerked her head into the couch.
Qrow smirked. "You want the honors?" He gestured at the loveseat.
Tai bowed to Qrow. "It would be my pleasure."
Raven stiffened on top of Summer. "Oh no." Summer saw Tai jump for the loveseat. He landed on top of Raven's back, making her the filling in a Summer-Tai sandwich. Raven gasped for air. "Dang it, Tai! Lose some weight."
"Coming in!" Qrow shouted. He jumped and Raven braced herself again. More weight added to the pile, driving the breath from Summer's lungs. She didn't care. She pulled her arms out from in between Raven and Tai and tried to get them around Qrow's back. Normally she'd join in with Raven making comments about the guys' weights, or not because she was usually on top of the pile. She missed them so much and didn't want to let them go.
After a while in the hug pile, Raven pushed the two guys off. "Okay, I actually need to breathe now, and Summer's turning white."
Summer blinked. She felt fine. Wait, no. "You had to say it, Raven." She brought a hand to her head as her headache resumed and she took several deep breaths. "When will this go awaaayyyy?"
"I'll get you some more antacid." Qrow walked toward the kitchen.
"Oh, Summer, I have something else for you." Raven stood up and walked toward the front door. Summer sat up and watched her partner. Raven picked up something on the floor and brought it into Summer's line of sight.
Sun's Light in her sheath. Her baby. Her first partner. Her sniper/sword that never failed on mission or otherwise…The weapon she used to kill someone. "Actually Raven, I think I'm going to try some new weapons for now. It's a good idea to be trained in multiple weapons in case something happens."
"But that's not why you're hesitating." Raven shook her head. "Remember how you acted when Professor Blackwell first made us use other weapons for a week?"
"I was young…and Tai was using her. I can trust him."
"Yet you chewed him out for getting a scratch on it, then you cradled it like a baby the rest of the day."
"She's my baby…" Summer pouted.
"Exactly. You wouldn't write off one of your kids if they made one mistake." Raven shifted her grip on the blade and held it hilt first toward Summer. "You didn't for me. Why should you for this?"
Summer stared at her sword. She reached her right hand toward the hilt and grabbed on. Instantly she felt better. Raven let go of the blade and Summer pulled it toward her. She hugged her baby close. "I missed you. I didn't mean to throw you on that roof. I didn't mean that I was going to use another weapon. You're the only one for me."
"That's the Summer I know," Qrow said as he returned with a cup of fizzing water. "Surprised you haven't kissed it yet."
Summer glared at Qrow. "I'm not drunk anymore, Qrow. I know Sun's Light is just a sniper/sword, not an actual baby." Still, she stroked her weapon's sheath.
Qrow smirked. "Sure you do." He handed over the water.
Summer took it and focused on Qrow's feet as he turned away. The room brightened as she let her Aura flow. The second both of Qrow's feet touched the floor, ice grew up to his ankles, trapping him in place. "Don't insult my intelligence. You should know this by now." She downed the whole cup of water in one go.
"I didn't." Qrow's smirk turned into a full smile. "It's good to have you back, Sum."
"I don't think she's back quite yet." Tai crossed his arms as he sat on the couch. "Team mom Summer is back, but is Huntress Summer back?"
Qrow stared openly at Tai and Raven looked down from the stairs. "May God have mercy on your soul," Qrow said.
"No. He's right." Summer stood up and clipped Sun's Light and its sheath onto her belt. "I'm out of practice. I need to get back out there. Those young Beowolves keep popping up around here, right?" She set the water glass on an end table.
The rest of her team stared at her. "You want to go out now?" Qrow asked. "What about your hangover?"
"A Huntress needs to be able to fight in any condition. Her life may very well depend on it." Summer cocked her head. "Actually, the few things I do remember when I was drunk involved me kicking a few guys' butts. I think they were trying to force themselves on me."
The guys exchanged a nervous glance. "What happened to those guys?" Tai asked.
"Let's just say they'd fit in with an all-woman choir for a while, if not the rest of their lives." Summer took immense pleasure watching Tai and Qrow pale and clench their legs. "I'm just kidding…Maybe a week or two…from now."
Raven smirked on the stairs. "Wow, Sum. I didn't know you had it in you."
Summer swung her arms in front of her. "When someone's after my special bits, the gloves are off. I don't care what I have to do. They're not getting anywhere close." She walked to the front door and faced everyone on her team once more. "Well, what do ya say team? One last full team hurrah before Raven's sidelined with her chick?"
"I'm not laying an egg, Sum." Raven rolled her eyes. "I'm not even going to risk birding at this point. I don't know what that could do to my baby." She paused. "But to answer your question, one last time out there would be nice. I'm not looking forward to sitting back and watching everyone else go on missions without me."
"Been a while since I've been out there myself." Qrow punched his feet free of the ice. "These Beowolves won't be much, but they're something."
"My students are heading that way in two days." Tai pushed himself off the couch. "They're getting their first Grimm combat experience. I'd like to know how concentrated the packs are."
"Works for me!" Summer ejected the magazine from Sun's Light and looked inside. It looked like only one bullet was missing. The one that…Summer shook her head. Don't go back there, Summer. Stay happy. Don't leave again. "I don't care if it's just young, armorless Beowolves. Load up. The second you underestimate your enemies is the second you die."
Summer walked up the stairs, nodding at Raven as she passed. She entered her room and opened her ammo drawer in her dresser. Since it was only young Beowolves, she'd save most of the high-quality magazines for later. Burn and Ice would do just fine. To be on the safe side, she also took one Lightning mag. Gravity…experimental, expensive, and overkill on pretty much everything smaller than a Deathstalker. It was better to save those for when she really needed them.
"You really feeling better, Summer?" Raven asked.
Summer turned to her doorway and saw Raven leaning in it. "Kinda, sorta, not really." She shrugged. "Something tells me when the first shot's fired my head's going to want to split in half."
"I can tell you from experience, that's exactly what's going to happen." Raven pushed herself off the doorframe. "I'm just checking you're not pushing yourself too hard."
"So the bandit's making sure the city girl doesn't hurt herself?"
"To me, you weren't a pampered city girl after you saved me and Qrow from that King Taijitu first year. Anyway, there's a difference between fighting through an injury and trying to get yourself needlessly killed. You don't need to prove yourself to any of us. Just say the word and I'm sure the other two won't mind putting this off till tomorrow."
Summer let her eyes fall. "I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think I could take it. When it comes to Grimm, I never do." She looked at Raven and she smiled. "Besides, I have the best Huntsman team on Remnant with me. If something does happen, none of you will let anything happen to me."
Raven smirked. "Please, don't let anything happen to you again. I don't want to take orders from Qrow again."
"He is older than you." Summer punched Raven in the shoulder as she passed.
"By twelve minutes. That doesn't count." Raven shrugged and followed Summer. "Enough of this. Let's go hunting."
"I couldn't agree more!" Summer marched down the stairs, fighting her hangover wobble the whole way. "Okay team STRQ, are we ready to move out?"
"I'm always ready." Tai slid his spiked gauntlets over his wrists. "The question is, are the Grimm?"
"They're never ready for us." Qrow counted his own mags and hooked them to his belt. "They won't know what hit them."
"My blades are ready." Raven hefted her large sheath filled with two dozen Dust blades. "Let's kick some Grimm ass."
"Language…" Summer scolded, then smiled. "Okay! Let's get going!" Summer led the way out of the house. She stopped near the center of the front yard. "Raven, a portal please."
The sheath of Raven's weapon rotated. She pulled a red blade halfway out before stopping. "Uh, Sum? Last time you went through one of these, you puked up like a week's worth of food."
Summer blinked and looked at her stomach. "Great. Now I'm hungry too. Thanks for that Raven. I can take care of that when we get back."
Qrow pointed at Summer. "But if you look even slightly green when we get there, we're coming back."
"Fine with me." Summer faced Raven again. "Now, the portal?"
Raven hesitated then fully drew her blade. She turned around and swiped the air. A red and black portal hissed to life. She walked forward and stepped halfway through. The hand that didn't go through the portal stuck a thumb up. Raven's body fully disappeared into the portal.
"LZ's clear. Let's jump." Summer pointed Sun's Light toward the portal and charged forward. She jumped through the portal and into a clearing on the wild side of patch. With what Raven said earlier, Summer expected to feel woozy. If anything, her headache got worse, but not to the point of dehabilitation.
"You good?" Raven asked.
"Ask me again when the first shot's fired." Summer rubbed the side of her head. "I'm fine right now." As she spoke, she heard several Beowolf howls.
"I think we've gotten their attention," Tai said from behind Summer.
"It's still probably me." Summer shook her heads. "Haven't slain my demons quite yet. For once, you can blame me for attracting the horde."
"Okay then," Qrow started. "Summer, I blame you."
Summer rolled her whole head. "Gee, thanks Qrow." Several red eyes appeared in the trees in front of her. "Okay team. Here we go. Phalanx formation." Qrow stepped to the front and Summer and Raven took up positions on either side of him. All three of them held their swords pointing toward the eyes. Tai protected their flank.
A Beowolf that was just growing its bone armor jumped out of the trees and roared at the Huntsmen. If it didn't do that, it might have lived long enough to become an alpha. Summer flicked a switch on Sun's Light and the blade spun in the middle. The point inserted itself into the hilt and the base was now the end of a sniper barrel. A small sight popped out of the crossguard. She took aim at the Beowolf's open mouth. Her trigger finger twitched, and a Burn Dust round flew out the end of Sun's Light. A second later, the Beowolf had a new, singed hole in the back of it's throat.
The howls stopped, but the gunshot kept ringing in Summer's head. "Okay, that hurt." As far as she could tell, she wasn't seeing double or triple, so she was fine for now.
"You good, Summer?" Tai asked
"I'm not evil, if that's what you mean." More Beowolves burst from the tree line. "Affix bayonets!" Summer switched Sun's Light back to sword form. Qrow and Raven dug their feet into the ground. "Charge!"
The front line ran as one toward the incoming Grimm, each member with their own battle cry. They met the first Grimm and parted the Anima sea of Beowolves. It turns out, without the bone armor, the team's momentum carried them all the way through the pack. Summer turned around and saw Tai smacking down a few stragglers, but there were still plenty around.
"Tai! Shockwave!" Summer yelled.
Tai nodded and jumped high. He came down and punched the ground. Dirt rippled and cracked with electricity. Everyone else jumped as the wave approached them. While in the air, Summer watched all the Grimm in the clearing fall. By the time she landed, there were none left.
"Well that was easy." Raven sheathed her sword.
"No more waves?" Summer asked, straightening her back.
"There hasn't been for the past few weeks." Qrow shrugged. "We can go for a stint in the Emerald Forest if you want. There's not much out around here."
"Or we could walk back home and see if there are stragglers. There's always some of…those." Summer blinked and she looked down. Why was the ground moving beneath her? "Actually I think we should head back. I'm not well balanced right now."
"That's…not you." Raven crouched down and put a hand on the ground. "There's something big coming." She stood up and grasped her sword's hilt. "It's coming from the east, don't know if it's above or below ground."
Summer looked east and narrowed her eyes. She didn't see anything moving, but her sensitive ears picked up cracking trees and…slithering. "King Taijitu? How'd one of those get here?" She moved Sun's Light into a defensive position.
"You feeling good enough for a plan?" Tai asked. The sound of trees cracking grew louder.
"Raven, Qrow, be ready with Wingman." Summer paused. "Well, as much as you can, Raven. Tai, Javelin's right after that."
"Javelin?" Tai looked at Summer like she had two heads. "With your headache?"
"I'll be fine. We've done this a thousand times." Summer bent her knees and stared into the tree line, waiting for the Grimm to show itself. She saw something big moving in the trees. "Wingman! Go!"
Qrow jumped and turned into a bird and flew higher. Raven opened a portal in front of her and dropped into a running position. The black head of the King Taijitu burst into the clearing and roared at Tai and Summer. Qrow dove and turned back into a human, and Raven ran through her portal, appearing by her brother's side. Qrow also switched his sword into a scythe. He slashed at the snake's neck with Raven right behind. The black head fell to the ground and evaporated.
As always with this type of Grimm, there was always a second wind. The white head slithered out of the trees and roared even louder than the first. Summer locked eyes with Tai. "Javelin." She ran at her teammate and Tai retracted the spikes on his gauntlets. She jumped and spun in the air so her back faced the ground. Tai caught the center of her back and Summer stiffened her whole body. Her hood hadn't been a problem since second year.
Tai brought Summer back, then threw her forward. The world blurred, then came back into focus when Summer buried Sun's Light into one of the King Taijitu's eyes. It screamed, then Summer switched her weapon's form while it was inside the Grimm. The blade separated from the hilt as it tried to spin. With a little resistance, Sun's Light rotated and locked into position. Summer pulled the trigger and a Dust round burst out the other side of the Grimm's head.
Summer put her feet on the dying Grimm and pushed off. She back flipped and landed before the dead creature hit the ground. Summer smirked and faced her teammates. "And that's with a hangover. What can I do while completely fine?"
The rest of her team exchanged a look. "All hail the first Queen of Vale," Qrow joked.
"Thank you, my loyal subject." Summer used her best royal voice. She wobbled on her feet as her headache came back full force. "Now, escort me to my chambers. This past month has not been good for my health."
Just...wow...Vegas...not good at all. Hearts, minds, and prayers directed there.