This is the moment I've been waiting so long for. I'm going to see her, for real. My daughter, after so many years…

My heart's hammering in my chest. My face feels hot and I kind of feel sick. I laugh at myself; you can stare down monsters and not flinch, but you're terrified of meeting your daughter.

The door squeaks open into the dimly lit room, and I can see her ombre outlined by the golden, gleaming hallway lights. She steps in, golden hair long and wavy. She was beautiful, truly beautiful. She had a strong physique, well defined by years of hard training, and soft but strong cheekbones under brilliant lilac eyes. There was steel in them as well, and a spark of pride flares in my chest.

I stand, crossing the dimly lit room, not much more than a couple of chairs and a bedside lamp. I stop just across from her. I want to reach out, touch her cheek, hug her, smell her hair, hold her the way a mother should…

"You suck."

My brain stops. What?

"What?"

"Yeah, you really suck."

"Excuse me?"

"You've been gone for literally my whole life."

"That's not entirely true…"

She cocks an eye at me.

"There was the train. I saved you, right?"

"Oh, yeah, that makes it better."

"Doesn't it?"

"Well, maybe a little bit." She conceded. "But I'm still mad."

"But.. I'm your mom?"

"Wait, I'm supposed to give a shit?"

"You could try. I'm trying to have a serious conversation here, and you're just blowing me off." This is not going how I expected. Or hoped.

"Sorry, I'm trying too. I'm just failing. I guess it's because I'm trying to cram my whole rebellious phase into one five minute conversation."

"That's-"

"You know. Because you weren't there."

"Well now, that's just a little harsh."

"Do you know what else is harsh?"

"…"

"Walking out on a little kid."

"Yeah…"

"Bitch."

"…"

"How the hell did you ever bag dad?" She muses aloud, perplexed.

"I mean," I gesture to my very shapely form, accentuated nicely by the skin tight clothes. "You know you get that body from somewhere, right?"

She looks at me with the ghost of a smile on her face and nods in approval.

"Alright, maybe you're not so bad. Okay, big question time: Why'd ya leave?"

I take a second to think.

"Well, I mean… You were an accident."

"Wow, really? Really?! That's what you're going with? And here I was thinking you had already locked down mother of the year award."

"I just mean there's a lot of stresses that come into play and… And…"

"Mom."

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Okay." I mutter sheepishly.

"And now you're still talking."

"Can we start over?"

She looked at me, completely dumbstruck, then folded her arms - one of which I noticed was metallic - and cocked her hips.

"Fuck it, fine. Go for it." I took a deep breath. Okay. How to start things?

"So… How's becoming a huntress going?"

"Dandy. Got my fucking arm lopped off. Guess the new one's kinda handy though."

"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that. But I mean, you could have trained harder."

"Wow."

"It's true!"

"Just… Wooooow."

"Okay, we're going to forget I said that."

"Sure! We'll also forget the abandonment and all that!"

"Very mature of you Yang." I think maybe we can get on track here.

"I guess sarcasm isn't one of your forte's. Along with being a decent person. Funny. Didn't know those were correlated. Good to know!"

"Okay, um… Alright, is there anyone special in your life?"

Her eyes light up, and I'm thinking maybe I did something right. I can feel a smile starting to creep into my eyes.

"Actually yeah! Blake, we just became official!" I can't say I've ever met a guy named Blake, but the twinkle in Yang's eye makes me happy. So I smile.

"That's great!"

"Yeah! You'd love her, she's-" Yang breaks off when she noticed my frown. "What?"

"Nothing!" I chirp through a very thin, very fake smile.

"Oh my god! You're homophobic too?"

"No! I'm alright with that!"

"So what, then?"

"I just… You know, I always kind of saw myself as a grandmother."

She glares.

"What?" I wither under her silent glare.

Eyes narrow.

"You've got. To. Be. Fucking. Joking." She spits through gritted teeth.

"Well… I mean, when I'm older and settling down, I always kind of thought you might have little grandchildren for me and I could read to them as they fell asleep, and make them cookies, and tell them stories and hug them. I could watch them grow up, y'know?"

She looks at me in a way that makes me feel like maybe I might've said something possibly a little bit wrong.

"I… Um…" She's just looking at me, thoroughly pissed off now. I pat my pocket, reach into it and pretend like I'm looking for something. Her eyes are red. "Wow, would you look at that?" I pull out the inside of my pocket, showing its emptiness. "I'm out! I'm just going to go, um, run down to the corner store." I need to get out of here. I brush past her, stopping at the door to look back.

"Um, yeah, I'm going to go buy cigarettes!"

A/N

Daily fic #2! Was going to save this for tomorrow due to the moncon, but hell. It was fun to write!

Raven is best mom.

-Unjax