September IV

"What?" Raven asked, as Summer ignored her instincts to frantically grab Yang and instead just gently picked her up, cradling the neck as carefully as she could. "What's wrong, Summer? Look, I learned from my mistakes and put a bunch of blankets around her to cushion her falls."

"From…From your mistakes?" Summer asked, unable to keep the morbid curiosity out of her voice. She knew she would probably be better off not knowing, but she felt obligated to ask.

Raven doesn't seem to know what she's doing. I assumed she would struggle, but never in my wildest nightmares was it this rough.

At least Raven seemed abashed by the mistakes she'd implied she'd made. "Th-The doctors looked her over and said she was fine. They said infants, especially littler ones, bump into stuff in spite of how much we try."

But are you even trying? Summer wanted to scream in frustration. Do you even know what that means, to 'try?'

Instead, she went for something more political. "Raven, um…how familiar are you with concepts like…uh…child-safety? And parenting in general?"

"You feed the baby, you hospitalize it when it's sick, and you put it in bed." She kicked a half-sawed plank of wood. "Like I'm trying to do right – oh, and they need water."

"R-Raven…"

The time for correction could come later. Right now, Summer needed to clean the baby off before it got any more…before she got any more sawdust into her tiny little lungs.

I think she's unharmed. Her mouth is probably dry, but if her throat were truly agitated, she'd probably be shrieking her heart out onto the carpet.

Yang was wearing a tiny set of toddler clothes, little blue pajamas that hardly fit her, so Summer slipped her out of those before setting her down in the tub. Carefully testing the water for its temperature against the inside of her wrist before she even turned up the flow beyond a trickle, she plugged the stopper and let the bathtub fill up to just barely more than a quarter. It was enough than there was next to no risk of Yang's head being submerged, short of her trying.

But I'll still keep an eye on her, because unattended babies are suicide machines if you let them be. Gods, the saw, the wood, the dust…oh gods, thank them for letting me get her when I did.

"It's not that bad," Raven said, her voice placing her roughly in the doorway to the bathroom. Summer dared not turn around, fearful of both her own explosive temper towards her teammate or of an accident with the water putting Yang in greater danger. "It's just like snow, Summer."

"Babies can't go in the snow!" Summer nearly shouted. "Gods, Raven, gods! She can't inhale sawdust! It could k…it could seriously harm her. Potentially lethally, if it's bad. Her immune system is practically nonexistent right now."

Yang had been gently rinsed clean from the lukewarm water, so Summer carefully pulled out the stopper all while keeping one hand on the squirming infant that had now begun to cry.

"Awww, she wants her momma," Raven cooed, coming over.

Summer didn't have enough hands to block Raven, so she barked out a curt order. "Stop."

Raven instinctively halted, recognizing her leader's authority. Summer should probably have been happy that her intrinsic submission to Team Stark's pecking order hadn't degraded over time, but she lacked the brainpower to focus on anything but Yang's every move.

Her hands are coated in dust, and so I'll be the one to towel her off. The pajamas are also ruined until I can wash them. This place has a washing machine, right? I could probably make do with a well if I boiled the water…

"Have you got any other clothes for Yang?" Summer inquired. Picking Yang up with one hand under her back and another cradling her neck (habits worked best when one never deviated from them, making them routines), Summer looked around for a towel with which she could dry the dripping child.

"Uh…maybe. It was some baby clothes that Tai and –" Raven winced, and so did Summer at the same time. "She was wearing clothes I'd bought before she was born. I mostly just wrapped her up in a tablecloth before the hospital visit."

"A tablecloth?" Summer asked.

Raven shrugged. "I dunno. Some kinda sheet. I put it on the table when I got Yang into the pajamas."

"And I assume you didn't wash it?" Summer asked.

"Nah, it had baby shit on it, so I kinda did."

"Baby poo," Summer corrected. Long-ingrained habits of never swearing in front of kids probably didn't matter to a nonverbal baby who couldn't even spell, but it was better to start Raven early.

I think I'm gonna have to teach her motherhood from scratch. I mean, I don't have a kid so I technically don't know it, but I've handled enough little ones back when we volunteered at the orphanage to know what to do.

It was roughly then that Summer realized her parents may not have solely had altruistic intentions when they'd signed themselves and their daughter up for that particular act of community service.

Dang. I guess I kinda do know motherhood, then.

"Okay. Find me a clean sheet, at least two square feet. Cotton is best, but I'd take batiste fabric or linen in a pinch. This matters, Ray – babies have soft skin, especially when they're young."

"Uh…Sum, uh…" Raven looked both ways, like a deer Faunus caught in the headlights. "…what…what are those?"

"You know what fabrics are, Ray," Summer said with a roll of her eyes.

"Yeah, but how do I tell what's what?"

"Don't you live here?" Summer asked.

"No," Raven answered almost immediately. "Well, yeah, but it's not my place. Taiyang did the clothes and the sheets and the laundry. And the cooking. And the cleaning. Dusting. Dishes. Lawn care. Heat. B-Bills…he bought us groceries a-and essentials, a-and…"

"Oh, Ray," Summer whispered, not realizing just how bad her teammate's crash out of the hunting industry had been. She'd known it was Raven's weakest moment, but never had she realized that her state of depression had impaired her so deeply.

"M'not weak," Raven got out through her tears. "M'not."

"You aren't. You're stronger than anyone, and you're going to keep being strong for your little Yangling, and I'll be here to support you in whatever capacity you need." Summer nodded. "I can't hug you 'cause of the baby, so pretend I did just now."

"'Kay." Raven wrapped her arms around herself and lulled side to side. "Thanks for the hug, Summer."

It was impossible not to grin; antics like this, just simple kindness that a banditress/bruiser had never experienced before, had been what originally got through to Raven, all those years ago.

"Here, how about I take Yang and you –"

Summer pulled away before Raven's grubby hands could contaminate her clean child, and she immediately regretted the implications it had. Raven's expression dropped, the happiness of their games immediately forgotten in the wake of Summer suggesting she wasn't fit to handle her own kid.

"R-Ray, it's only because your hands are dirty."

"Y-Yeah. No, yeah, no, I get it. Hands."

Summer forced herself to breathe. "It actually is just your hands, though. To prove it, I'll ask you to wash them. Then, you hold her while I find a towel and some clothes."

Babies didn't actually like to be left out in the open. Most preferred swaddling, where they were tightly held in some sort of fabric bundle. That was the reason especially fresh youngsters tended to be wrapped up in their little baby cocoons. Too much tightness was wrong, of course, but the benefits (soothing tantrums and keeping them upright, which was a better sleeping position) were worth it.

Yang, to Summer and Raven's elation, was a particularly pleasant and agreeable newborn. Summer knew that she could have been crying 24/7 if she wanted to, but Yang was the type to only cry when something bothered her. She seemed to have a fascination with watching the world around her, so just setting her down in a safe spot with a view was usually enough to occupy her toddler-sized attention span for a little while.

"You want a crib, right? And before you say something silly, that's a baby bed."

Raven nodded, looking over at her little one who was currently sat down in a clean, Summer-approved heap of soft window drapes (the best materials she could find on short notice, aside from the cotton cloth Yang was wrapped up in).

"Building one that's sturdy enough to support a baby's weight requires skills in carpentry beyond either of our levels. I think buying one might be better."

"I can't," Raven said. "I have no money, and going to town ended in disaster when I left Yang alone."

It had, likely because Raven had had no crib to store the baby in. Fortunately, that was where Summer came in.

"I can watch Yang while you go out for anything, or I can go myself – actually the second one's probably better, since my credit card has funds attached to it."

Raven's lips sucked inwards, as though she'd just touched her tongue to the tip of a sour citrus fruit. "S-Summer, I don't know for sure that I'm exactly…uh…trustworthy enough to look after Yang on my own."

"I know," Summer agreed. "That's why we're going to be doing a crash course in babyness and motheritude. It's called Summer's Basics 101."

"Isn't 'mothering' a real word? Or also motherhoo–"

"Lesson one!" Summer said loudly, only to regret it when Yang whined a little. She lowered her voice. "Lesson one: how to hold a baby."

A sack of flour or potatoes would have been better, but Raven had next to no food in this darnable house (lesson eight in Summer's Basic's was no swears), so the pillow she'd found would have to suffice for the lesson. A few sticky notes with faces or limbs drawn on them later, and Summer's masterpiece was complete."

"Okay. Pretend this pillow is Yang. Now, Yang's neck is easily one of her most fragile –"

"Yang's arm fell off." Raven pointed to the sticky note that had lost its grip and dropped down to the ground.

"Ignore that. We're focusing on –"

Raven took out a notepad that Summer hadn't even seen her bring to the lesson and clicked a pen. "Step one – ignore dismembered limbs. I'm already learning so much; I never knew babies were like geckos…"

"It's skinks you're thinking of," Summer corrected. "And by skinks, I mean starfish. Or planaria. Raven, I want to assume you're screwing with me, but Poe's Law is a thing."

"Oi! Don't call me a fascist!"

"That's Godwin's Law. And before you ask, that's Murphy's Law. Raven, if you wanna play games, then I advise you do it somewhere else. Your kid's safety is on the line here."

Raven nodded, scribbled over her writings on the notepad, and looked at her seriously. "Okay. You're right. Back to holding the kid."

"Okay. Never grab by a limb or by the head. Have a hand under their back to bear the weight, and keep the other under the head at the same height. When you've got that down, you may eventually be able to hold them with one hand using careful placement of the forearm, but start with two. If they're upright, you can support the bottom and the back, but don't lose your balance. No squeezing."

Raven finished writing and nodded. "Okay. The last thing I got was never grabbing by a limb or head. Can you repeat the rest?"

It was obvious, in hindsight, that Raven would be like this. She failed all of her tests in the first year and only succeeded when Qrow and Tai (mostly Tai, in an effort to get into Ray's good graces) had slipped her an answer key to the finals. Summer had turned a blind eye to it in the name of not shaming herself by losing her teammate or entire team to expulsion before the first year was out, and Raven had just crammed before each test for the other three years.

The problem with cramming was that a) it didn't teach you the material properly and b) it served as a crutch to prevent you from having to learn real study habits. Raven was still at the level of a ten-year-old when it came to rote memorization or genuine schoolwork.

Sadly, there was no way to get around that other than brute force. Summer repeated all of the lecture about carrying Yang, demonstrating multiple times with the pillow and then handing it off to Ray. Every now and again, she cast a glance over to the genuine article just to make sure she hadn't wandered off (Raven insisted she was mobile, even if Summer doubted it at such a young age).

How is it possible that Yang is the better behaved of the two?

They only moved on to Lesson 2 after only a solid half-hour, and Summer began to wonder if they might actually succeed at this. Sure, she had already thought her way up to Lesson 23 and was mentally working on Lesson 24, but maybe Raven's mothering skills were like a fine wine – they would improve as time passed.

"Lesson 2 – how to feed babies. Alright, let's start at the basics."

Raven lifted her shirt above her head, revealing both breasts. "No cap."

After staring for far too long than was appropriate given that Raven was a f̶o̶r̶m̶e̶r̶l̶y̶ married woman, Summer averted her eyes to avoid making things weird. "Cover up, Ray. You only need one breast."

"Whuh – for real? I thought you were gonna, I dunno, talk me through the hypotheticals."

Summer shook her head, still refusing to look for propriety's sake in spite of her words to the contrary. "It's nothing I haven't seen before. I've seen Qrow and Tai naked too, and they've seen both of us. But don't expect me to do a demo or anything."

Raven snickered and lowered her shirt. Taking in a deep breath of air to get her through her teammate's idiocy, Summer forced her eyes down.

"Okay. As Yang isn't a shriveled-up ball of malnourished bones, I'm assuming you've been feeding her with mild success so far?"

Raven's hand jiggled her right breast a little, and Summer had to look away again, her patience beginning to wear thin. "I've received no complaints over my home cooking so far."

"Raven, please. You came to me. Don't make this difficult."

The dry tone was enough to evaporate Raven's childish misbehavior. Summer hadn't gone so far as to chide her in a way that was 'leaderly,' but she'd injected enough sobriety into her words to convince her teammate to tone it down a notch.

Yang was hungry enough to feed again, even though Raven said she'd done it once before this morning. Summer was no expert on the technique of breastfeeding, but she'd looked it up on her scroll on the ferry ride over, knowing it would inevitably come up (since if Summer didn't know, there was no way Raven possibly could). Her name was probably now on a government watchlist given her searches, but Ozpin could wipe that clean, she was sure.

Man, I was born a nepo-baby and now I'm a nepo-adult. The rich certainly do get richer.

Raven had already quit drinking (more of Tai's doing), so there was no danger of alcohol consumption to endanger Yang's health. Having freshly gone over how to hold the baby, Raven had a chance to demonstrate how much she'd learned by lifting Yang up to chest height and helping her latch on.

Summer narrated from afar as the child suckled at her mother's breast. "I know you've already done this before, but there's technique to it. Mind you, I'm just as inexperienced, so…yeah. It's not all that different from the neck-cradle when they latch, but you will have to practice the upright hold when burping them. We can get you pumps if –"

"I'm not a cow, Sum. Besides, you're good at math. We'll just have you do it."

Summer froze for a second, stunned at Raven's boldness, before realizing it was actually doltness. "Good at…math? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Yeah. Just solve the baby formula to get free milk, and we're all set."

The baby formula…

If Summer didn't know for a fact that Raven wouldn't have cracked a joke after being scolded just moments prior, she wouldn't burst out laughing. Qrow and Raven's mixture of idiocy and innocence had often been a source of humor on Team Stark, one that they'd often gotten quite offended about in the past (seeing any mockery as humiliating and a reminder of their rough starts at live), so Summer held it in.

Solve the baby formula…I'm gonna have to tell Oz that one when I get back.

"Lessons 3-5," Summer frowned slightly. "Baby safety."

There was going to be a lot to go over here, and Summer knew she would be starting at ground zero given the sawdust-rich scene she'd walked in on when arriving. Raven barely knew hunter safety, let alone non-aura-user safety, let alone alone baby non-aura-user safety.

"So. We're gonna start simple," Summer explained. "I'll say a word, and you'll tell me if it's safe for babies."

"Simple," Raven repeated robotically.

"Yes, exactly. Nice and simple. Alright, first word: saw."

Raven merely nodded.

Summer waited for her to continue on and give her answer, but she never did. "Ray?"

"Yeah, I nodded."

"Oh. I thought you were maybe just acknowledging that you'd heard me. So…a nod is a yes?"

Again, Raven nodded. "A nod is a yes."

"No. No, a nod should be a shake of the head, because saws are a no-no."

"Really?" Raven's brow furrowed. "But how am I supposed to…huh. Dang, that really knocks a lot of maternal bonding ideas out."

"Just to be sure we're not mixing ourselves up, I mean saws like handsaws, buzz-saws, chainsaws, and other tools for cutting wood," Summer added. "Not seesaws. Which...Which aren't great for newborns either..."

"I totally get it, dude – you mean like the one I had this morning." Raven looked around. "By the way, where did you put it?"

"I thought you put it aw–"

Summer's eyes shot to Yang in her little blanket fort, but the child was still just lazing about. No saws were in her hands or otherwise endangering her.

One saw-hunt later (it got kicked under the kitchen sink), Summer returned to the baby safety lesson.

"Okay, so saws are a hard no," she explained, even though she couldn't even comprehend how someone could need it explained to them. "Let's…Let's try something easier."

Except what could be easier? What could be more obviously dangerous to babies than serrated blades made for the express purpose of ripping and tearing?

"Batteries?" Summer tried, even though she could immediately tell she'd failed when Raven's face lit up.

"It'll energize my Yangling!"

"N-No, it won't. Ummm…bodies of water."

"Babies can swim. I saw one doing this sick freestyle on the cover of a music album."

Summer could've screamed.

"Hard drugs? Needles? Please tell me you at least know this one."

"Safe." Raven proudly folded her arms. "Hospitals do it to babies all the time, so if I just perfect imitate the way th–"

"No!" Summer shouted, unable to contain herself. "No, Ray, no! You can't submerge babies for breath-holding contests or put them behind the wheel of a car or play pinfinger or let them inhale asbestos or…aaaauuuugh!"

It should've been sarcasm. There should've been no way a grown woman, let alone a mother, though this stuff was okay. But it wasn't. Raven had no idea what she was…

She isn't cut out for this. Damn it all, fucking Lesson 8 be damned.

If Summer told her best friend the truth, it would crush her. Over the scroll, Raven had begged Summer to come over and fix this, with her two primary fears being harm coming to Yang and the loss of her baby to the state. Admitting that the latter was probably for the best would be the end of everything: her friendship with Raven, the fate of Team Stark, little Yang's last connection to a blood relative, Raven's self-esteem…the list of ways Summer could balls it all up went on and on.

I can't do that. I've let her down too many times before. I can't, not again.

But Raven couldn't hack it.

…Summer could.

I won't steal her baby away from her, but if she's willing…I certainly know I am. I know for a fact that nothing in life, not Ozpin or missions or backing up Qrow in the field, can matter more than this little shack and the brainless Branwens within.

It would be fundamentally the same as desertion, but Summer could live with being branded as a coward. Raven had already pulled out of the fight, so the avenue for quitting was an established one.

"Ray…I have an…an idea." Summer swallowed and turned around to pretend to face Yang. She didn't trust her face to not betray some of her inner turmoil. "There's…I don't think there's any reason why it would have to be me who, you know, goes to the store or the hospital or picks up a crib from town."

She could barely remember their initial plan after so many mind-numbing moments with the naïve Raven. The goal had been to get Raven caught up on how to watch the baby so Summer could spend a few lien and get them whatever supplies they needed, and from there life would have gone back to normal, but Summer could now see that that had never been an option.

I can't leave. Not with Raven so underprepared for this and Yang in such dire need of care that her mother can't give.

"I wouldn't mind loaning you my credit card for a little while, if only to –"

"I can't take your lien, Sum," Raven kindly and also foolishly rushed to say. "It wouldn't be right."

"I'm not suggesting you just take it," Summer said. "If…If you go and buy food and whatnot – I'll make a list – and I partake of said foodstuff…well, that's not taking, is it? I'd be availing myself of the expenditure of the…the…you following?"

Raven almost certainly wasn't, if Summer's mental image of her partner and her limited vocabulary was still accurate.

"Summer, what are you saying? You wanna stay for dinner? That's cool with me."

"Maybe I should stay for, you know, a little longer. Until things get sorted out."

"Dinner and breakfast?"

Why must you make it so difficult, Ray?

The key to convincing her was appealing to what Raven wanted, not what Summer knew she needed. With no idea of a household's basic needs, Raven had no frame of reference for the kind of skills that were necessary.

"It's not an admission of weakness, to have some help for…a little while. Everyone has some sort of support network – grandparents, siblings, cousins, friends, y'know, teammates, maybe. I'm a part of that for you. For you and Yang."

"A little while?" Raven's frown was pronounced. "I thought you'd be here for a little while."

"I won't stay if I'm…if you…I won't overstay any welcome I've been offered," Summer tried to say. She didn't want to suggest Raven was kicking her out. "But you need a job, right? And finding one and securing one basically means you'll be out of the house for a little while, at least until you've got some more job security at wherever you go. Maybe Signal could…we're getting ahead of ourselves. My point is, I can babysit in exchange for room and board, and I'll teach you how to take care of a baby."

Summer would be providing the board, in this case, as Raven's funds were insufficient to feed the household, but the important part was phrasing it in a way that beseeched Raven's pride, or at least didn't wound it. Her proposal wasn't to offer a handout but to suggest an exchange. Raven would find work and get back on her feet, and Summer would see to the kid while she did.

Meanwhile, she could transfer more and more of her own child-rearing skills to her single parent friend. There was no way Ray could learn everything in one big hunk of motherly lessons, so Summer would break it up over a few days. Or a few weeks. Or a few months, if it came to that. It might come to that. It probably would, but who knew?

"What I'm saying is that I can stay with you for a little while – as long as we need, and not a day longer. You find your footing, become gainfully employed, put some lien in the bank, and learn the rest of how to handle a kid, while I handle Yang's care in the meantime. N-No, we'll handle her together! Together, Ray, not just me or just you."

Summer had to amend what would have been the last part, as the words 'I can do this' were on Raven's lips, and Summer knew how that would end. Raven would say it aloud, realize she couldn't, and sink worse into her state of malaise. If she accepted, it would be out of obligation, not out of choice.

"I…I don't need charity," Raven said halfheartedly. Summer could tell she almost had her; she just needed to reel this Leviathan in and score the takedown.

"It's not charity. I'll need a room at the cabin, and we'll consider the lien I give you to buy food and stuff rent. It's not even a loan, so you don't need to worry about paying it back. I'm not asking to steal Yang away from you – I would never, Raven, never. We'll do this together, at every step of the way. Any time you feel uncomfortable, just say, and I'll back off. It's your house, after all."

"Tai's," Raven grumbled. "Er, Taiyang's."

"Potato, pot-ah-to." Summer spat on her hand and offered it to Raven. That gesture had been one of Ray's favorites that she'd picked up from Valean culture. "Do we have a deal?"

Raven spat on her own palm and shook. "Deal."

When they separated, Raven couldn't meet Summer's eyes. For a second, concern passed the leader that her teammate was unhappy, but her grateful tone dismissed that notion.

"Th-Thanks, Sum. I'm glad I called you."

Summer smiled. "So am I."

Author's Notes

And with that, we discover our premise and also complete our first month. Spooktober will start next Tuesday.

Summer lore is that she died. Can I Make it to Summer Summer lore is that she's born to an 'upper' household, like Taiyang. Unlike him, though, her parents made it a point to give her the life skills she needed while also giving back to the community and giving her a decent childhood, hence her greater understanding of what needs to be done to raise a kid.

I don't have a kid, so I'm writing this based on research. I apologize in advance for any errors - also, don't take this fanfic as an instruction manual for actual childrearing.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!