The first time Blake checked in on Ruby, she found her in one of the sitting rooms, cross-legged on the floor. Zhu was happily nestled in her lap. Together, they looked at a book that was clearly part of Ruby's collection. It was old, colored on, well-loved and plenty used.

The second time Blake checked, the scene was much the same. They'd been like that for hours. The boy in question was now asleep, but that didn't keep Ruby's soft voice from wafting into the room, a low, constant drone. Blake was sure Ruby could have probably recited the passage even if the book was closed.

Some things from childhood never faded, and Blake had a few books she could recall from cover to cover as well.

Sitting on the floor wasn't the least bit comfortable, so Blake made her way to the chair nearest the fireplace, putting a pillow behind her back. Ruby closed the book then, grey eyes seeing the knowing reflection of gold. "You weren't going to torture yourself like this for a full six months, were you?"

Ruby looked away, shrugging. Her eyes fell onto Zhu. "The doctors recommended it. What else am I supposed to do?"

Blake sighed, pulling her lower lip in-between her teeth. "Are you sure you're not hesitating?"

"No." Ruby scowled defensively.

"Did you forget about the video camera in your office?" Blake asked. "Weiss…came across the footage from today by accident. They've been at the office stewing about it for hours. They just got home...I thought I should warn you."

"Alright, I'll keep that in mind, but I'm not hesitating." Ruby pressed. "There are just some things I just needed to sort out in my head. On my own, without anyone else trying to force their opinion on me."

"Okay…" Blake began. "That's fair…" A deep intake of breath filled her lungs in an attempt to form some sort of rationalized speech. Instead, Blake found her gaze dragging itself across the room. A huge square marking another gigantic room within the too large house. "Yang's…not as angry about the new arm as she seems."

"I know my sister pretty well by now, Blake." Ruby said. "I know that's not why she's upset."

"Then…I suppose the true question is, why are you?" Blake finally managed to say, finding that her throat constricted quite uncomfortably to force such a heavy handed question out into the open.

"Because I think…" Ruby looked down to Zhu, the way he slept in her lap. "That I don't have to sacrifice anything. I think that I can have both…that one lifestyle doesn't have to exclude the other. I know…there are risks involved with that…but Yang doesn't have the right to get all bent out of shape about my choices…" Ruby looked down at the boy in her lap again. "And I also think she feels as if she can somehow protect Zhu by convincing me to put down my scythe…"

"And you don't believe that?" Blake finished for her.

Ruby shook her head. "You're a smart person. Take it to Yang's worst fear...like, for example, what'll happen if I go back out there."

"I'd…rather not think about that." Blake admitted.

"I'm not Summer." Ruby said quietly. "Not any more than Yang's Raven…but even if I did repeat my mom's mistake…even if I died and didn't come back…that's something Zhu has to learn one day anyway. Loss happens. Death happens…that's just part of life."

"Some lessons are best learned later." Blake offered gently, ears twisting like tiny radars at the thought. Finally, she swallowed hard. "Much, much...later."

"I can't just tuck him away in my cape." Ruby said. "I can't hide him from every bad thing he'll come to face as he gets older. Even if Yang wanted me to, I can't." Huffing a breath, she closed her eyes. "So, if I can't do that, I might as well try to do what makes me happy. I don't want to look back on my life and have regrets. If Sun or Zhu comes to hate me for that, then I'll answer for it…but only to them."

Blake saw both sides of the coin. The dark implication Yang feared, and the hopeful future Ruby wanted to reach for. She wondered which one was more outrageous. When she couldn't decide, she merely accepted it. Each theory was drowning its own bullheadedness. "Yang just worries...she always had. Some part of her always will."

"Don't make excuses for her." Ruby said, rolling her eyes. "She's my sister, not my mom…and she needs to cut the crap. I know I've been biting her head off a lot recently, and trust me…I hate fighting with her…but I'm not going to just sit there and listen to her tell me how to live my life."

"I don't think that's what she's trying to do…" Blake replied slowly. "It might seem like it, but Yang's not vindictive." Or particularly proactive for that matter, but Blake chose not to voice that thought. "She's just upset because she knows she can't provide a helpful solution to this whole mess."

"Deep down, Blake, I know that…it's the only reason why I'm going to keep trying to pick up that stupid little coin for the next six months…"

"Why not at least accept help while you recover?"

"Because if I keep at this, at least then, I can say I tried…that I didn't just give up." She brushed ruddy hair out of Zhu's face and regarded him thoughtfully. "But if I'm going to keep doing that, it has to be for me. Not for anyone else. That's why I do it in the office. I can lock the door and do what I need to do, and deal with it in my own way."

Unbeknownst to Ruby, Yang had heard everything. It was by accident, as everything seemed to be these days. All she was doing was nursing some brandy, waiting for either drunken sleep to take her, or for some sort of bright idea to dawn from the recesses of her addled brain.

She tried to pick the pieces into tiny details. Tried to make sense of all the shared words that they'd spat like venom between them. Hours went by, but Yang couldn't bring herself to find the reasons for her actions… or for Ruby's…anymore. But for all that the blasted computer screen had glared in her face, Yang was no closer to keeping her justifications as she was to throwing them away.

It was all just one big mess. Hell, it was always a big mess.

And when Blake's encouragement failed, Yang finally found herself padding into that living room, and standing over the fireplace. She chucked the glass, booze and all into the flame. If anything, it would keep her from being her uncle...it would keep her from doing this drunk. She needed to face it down, needed to look her little sister in the eye and not yell...needed to find real words.

Yatsuhashi was right, she needed to accept that this was something they might never agree on...

So why couldn't she speak? It was just Ruby. Just her little sister. They used to talk about things all the time. But then, that was the entire crux of the issue, wasn't it? Forcing out a shaky smile, she looked over at her pregnant friend. "Hey, Blake can you give us a sec?"

Blake nodded, standing with hesitancy. "I'll be with Weiss in the study if either one of you need anything." Blake was sure they heard her, but silence had already filled the room again. She didn't wait around, refusing to linger.

"What do you want from me, Ruby?" Yang asked, leaning over that hot fire. "What do you want me to do?"

Ruby really only wanted one thing. "I want you to live your own life, Yang, not mine."

"I'm not trying to control your life."

"Except when you are."

"I'm not that bad."

"No, you're not…you're just not happy."

Yang turned, "What?"

"Yang we…" Ruby shook her head. "We can go around, and around, and around, about this…the fight's always going to be the same." Ruby's voice became eerily soft. "I don't want to fight with you anymore…but we're always going to, because it always comes down to the things you might lose. It comes down to fear...and I can't make you stop being afraid no matter how hard I try."

"Ruby, you're my baby sister. That will never change. I'm just trying to keep you safe."

"Okay…" Ruby shrugged despondently, "But this isn't about monsters under my bed, or Grimm in the windowsills….or a rainstorm….or…" Ruby sighed. "A-anything that you can chase away…you don't have to fix me…I'm a big girl. You don't have make everything right the instant something goes wrong anymore…you can stop now."

Could she? Yang swallowed hard. "I..." She hesitated, unsure of she was really ready to give a voice to the denial that had been building for years. "I don't know how to stop."

Ruby closed her eyes and sighed. "Then figure that out."

"Ruby-"

"No…" Ruby cut her off gently. "Listen to me. I love you, you're my sister, and that bond will never break…but team RWBY isn't a thing anymore. It's gone. Just like so many other things in our lives, it's gone and it's not coming back. it can't come back…but we're all a family now, and that's even better. You don't have to cling so hard, we're not going to just disappear on you."

"And what if one day, you do? What if you just...vanish?"

"Then, so what?" Ruby murmured, understanding the real word Yang was avoiding. "If I die, I die. Happens to everyone some day, you can't keep being afraid of it. You're not alone, Yang." Ruby said then. "So…live your life…and do it for you, not anyone else. If you do that, I swear, you'll be happy."

"Ruby...I've never done that...I don't even know if I can."

"So go take an extended vacation, and figure it out." Ruby said as exasperation edged her voice. "That's what I'm going to do. Sun wants me to go with him to visit his extended family, so I'm going with him to do just that. Maybe you should take a break of your own...get out of Atlas for a while...or at least get out of this house. You can do that, you know...it's not a crime to choose to be happy..."

"...I don't know, Ruby..."

"Sis, you don't have to know." Ruby said with a roll of her eyes. "You just have to do it, and see where it takes you."

Weiss was surprised when she didn't hear another war break out from the two sisters. It was a pleasant, if not slightly strange occurrence, but she was going to bask in the mild victory for what it was. In slightly higher spirits, mollified that Yang seemed to be taking care of the situation, Weiss decided a little alone time with Blake would be in order.

She didn't find her wife in the bedroom like usual. Instead, a light from down the hall glared brightly in the otherwise unlit hallways. Weiss followed it to the nesting room. Inside, Blake was fussing over a bunch of thick cotton squares for the umpteenth time. She counted them, stacked them, folded and re-folded them. Weiss leaned on the open frame of the door, watching as the time ticked by.

Blake could have sorted the drawers for hours, fussing over all of the baby clothes.

Even all of the clothing, Blake had meticulously chosen. All of the apparel was unisex and the same designs, but all of it was color coded. She'd ordered them from a special website that catered to those having litters. You could choose the size of the litter, the number of outfits, and the color scheme. Weiss had laughed at the time, but Velvet used a similar system for her little ones, so Weiss merely let the oddity slip on by.

The distinct lack of formal attire was a bit confusing, but Blake had said something about it being impractical anyway…Weiss had shrugged it off at the time. Infants weren't allowed to attend SDC related affairs anyway.

"Have you decided on their names yet?" Blake asked, not bothering to look over her shoulder as she examined one of the pajama sets. Their first born would be in white. Their second born, in black. Their third, in grey. "As their sire, it's your job to name them."

"I thought that perhaps we'd discuss that a little closer to the time." Weiss said, toeing off her slippers and stepping into the room, closing the door behind her. "Do you have any names you like?"

"Mm…I haven't thought about it. As their mother, it's not my place." Blake said slowly, thumb brushing over the fabric as she set it aside. "It might seem like a silly tradition for Faunus to have, but, it's similar to claiming what's ours. Did you know that families who adopt will almost always change the child's entire name?"

"No…why would they do that?" Weiss replied, sitting on the soft, thrice padded floor. It might as well have been deemed a bed in and of itself.

"Well…" To be honest, Blake wasn't exactly sure. She had been born Blake Belladonna, and even after her parents passed, she had never been formally claimed by another family. "It's a way of saying 'you're ours now' or something like that. Anyway, I want you to name them. It'll mean the world to them to know that you claimed them as yours...you won't have many opportunities to do that as a Faunus might. This is one way that you can...and...well...it's one of the first acts of love a parent can give to their child."

"Well, when you put it that way, I don't know what I would name them." Weiss said with a little shrug of her own. "Obviously, it makes perfect sense to follow the classic naming convention. Every one of them starting with a W, but the more I think about that, the more I realize that's just a perfunctory acceptance. A pointless tradition, just like everything else."

"What do you mean?"

Weiss reached out, taking the soft white sleeper from Blake's hands. She took a few moments folding it up, and setting it off to the side. "Wait here a moment. I'll be right back." Weiss did eventually return, carrying a small folder with her. "These just came in a few days ago. I was going to wait a little longer before telling you. I thought that it might be prudent to plan a romantic dinner or something, but seeing as we're on the topic of names, now will be the perfect time."

"Don't tell me you're changing one of the departments again." Blake sighed. "Last time you did that, you nearly gave the legal department a heart attack."

"Try the company."

"Weiss!" Blake laughed. "That's really not funny."

Instead of laugh, Weiss sat back down, taking Blake's hands in hers. "When I was younger, I was too focused on beating out my father. I kept thinking that if I could fix all of his mistakes and flip the company around, I could wash my hands of years and years of blame that was never my fault…but, then I started digging…and…I found things…and then I dug deeper. Eventually, I had the opportunity to put into perspective all of the wonderful things my father did as the head of the company."

Suddenly, just like that, the joke wasn't a joke anymore. Golden eyes looked at the thick stack of paperwork, cogs slowly turning in her brain. The dark print on the label made itself known. "You know, don't you?" Blake said, finally putting the pieces together. "About your grandfather…"

Weiss bit her lip and nodded. "For years now, from a purely business perspective."

"Oh…" It was really all Blake could muster. "Should I ask…what it was you found?"

"Let's just say that, if my father's business practices were questionable…my grandfather had methods that were deplorable. Look at enough paperwork, numbers, and nullified contracts..." She shrugged. "Things start adding up."

"I'm sorry, Weiss."

"No, I'm glad, actually. It's a comfort that I don't know." Weiss murmured. "I could have drilled my father about it, but then I sit back and I realize we're cut from the same cloth. He just doesn't want me to hate my grandfather…and, at the end of the day…I don't want my children to hate theirs. The other thing is, the more I look into it, the less I feel the need to change everything immediately." Procuring an envelope, Weiss placed it in Blake's hands. "Eventually, the company will change itself…it has no choice now."

"Weiss?"

"Open it." Weiss said softly.

Inside was a set of three new identification cards. One was the standard Atlas driver's license. One was a renewed huntress identification card. Allowing Weiss to carry her weapon everywhere she went, unless otherwise specified by the venue. The third was an SDC card key that doubled as an I.D. badge. All of these items were things were normally found in her wife's purse, or her small wallet.

What was so strange though, was the strange addition. A hyphenated last name of Schnee-Belladonna across the top.

"Before, you ask, they're legal. I've been fighting with the legal departments in Atlas for about a year now, trying to get everything in order. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to force some of the paperwork through...and making sure it didn't get back to you was near impossible…I was so afraid Yang would ruin the surprise, that I put her under an NDA when she was snooping around and found out."

"But…" Blake was speechless. "I don't…I don't understand why you would…"

"On our wedding day, I promised my father that you would never become a Schnee…but I never once said a word to him about the reverse."

"Weiss, we talked about rash decisions before and-" A sweet kiss silenced her, a finger lingering long after those dainty lips left hers.

"What can I say? I'm a Schnee, and I always get what I want. More than that, though, I did this for them." Weiss began as she slowly moved her finger to lean in once more. "I don't want them wondering if they're a Schnee or a Belladonna, or worrying about it. Now, they don't have to, because I'm a Belladonna too."