Chapter Text

“Her name was Summer Rose. And she was like… Super-Mom . Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters.”



I.

Yang had always loved the weekend. As a child, the weekend meant watching new episodes of her favorite cartoon shows while eating a plate of fresh pancakes. It meant going outside and playing games with Ruby. In her early years, it even meant helping Summer Rose cook a fresh batch of cookies after dinner.

As a teenager, the weekend became synonymous with time away from classes and homework. With freedom . The weekend was Yang’s time. The blonde loved blazing out into the city on her Bumblebee and meeting with her friends at Signal and then Beacon after she’d graduated. She wasn’t rebellious, per se. Rather Yang felt more herself on Saturdays and Sundays than normal.

When Yang and Blake finally became a couple, the weekend took on a whole new meaning to the huntress. Suddenly the pair of days became more about those simple, quiet moments Yang got to spend with her girlfriend-turned-wife. Those morning hours when all that mattered to Yang was the happiness of just being close with the faunus woman by her side. She found herself lost in the careless whispers she would share with Blake. The lame puns, the senseless teasing and intimacy… Yang coveted her newly defined weekends.

It all came full-circle after Yang Xiao Long became a mother.

II.

“Mommy?”

Yang yawned.

“Mommy, wake up! ”

The blonde stirred just a little and began to shift in her bed. Yang could feel someone tugging on her shirt- and it wasn’t Blake. In the scrambled thoughts of her mind, Yang thought it disappointing. There was another tug.

“ Mommy ,” Summer giggled. “You gotta wake up!”

Oh shit, that’s right. They had a daughter now.

Yang snapped up, suddenly being very awake with that thought. She was a mom . The blonde turned to see her newly adopted little girl standing tippy-toes by the side of the bed. Summer beamed, excited to finally have her mother awake.

Well, one mother at least. Yang pressed a metallic finger to her lips, signaling for the child to be quiet and let Blake continue sleeping. After all, the blonde could hear her wife gently purring in her slumber, presumably having a very pleasant dream. She doubted the Missus would appreciate being separated from that. Nor did Yang ever know Blake to be much of a morning person.

“I’ll meet you in the living room in just a sec,” Yang whispered. She rubbed her daughter’s floppy dog ears affectionately. “Okay, Summer?”

The young faunus girl nodded and scrambled out of the bedroom. The huntress chuckled as her wife woke up with a groan. Blake gave a weak glare in response, to which Yang offered an apologetic smile. After a slow yawn, the faunus asked, “What time is it?”

“Eight o’clock. I promised Summer that I’d watch those cartoon shows with her again, so I’ll be in the living room. You can go back to sleep for another hour or two, if you want.”

“Good. In the morning, Summer is your daughter,” Blake grinned sleepily.

“Heh, well, I can’t argue against that.”

“So the cat’s got your tongue again, hm?”

Yang beamed at the pun. God , she loved this woman. “Exactly. Can you make breakfast when you wake up?”

“Sure, sure. Just give me another hour of sleep,” Blake smiled lazily and shut her eyes once more. “Love you, firecracker.”

“Love you too, Blakey.”

III.

Yang entered the living room to see that Summer was already glued to the cartoon show on their TV screen. Zwei, ever the loyal friend of the Xiao Long family, rested beside her. Upon closer inspection, Yang found that the girl was watching a superhero show. The blonde smiled as she sat down on the floor next to her daughter. “So we’re starting with X-Ray & Vav , huh?”

Summer nodded, her eyes still fixed on the show. Yang decided to have some fun.

“Hmm. So which bad guy are they beating up today, Summer?”

“Mab King.”

“Ooh, the Mad King? He’s my favorite .”

The reddish-gold haired child whipped her head over to face Yang, her eyes bursting from her tiny head. Zwei just barked. The super duo on the screen babbled and argued in dissonance as Summer continued to look at her new mother. The blonde kept up her poker-face as she watched her daughter trying to reason how someone could say something so taboo. “W-why, Mommy? Mab King is a bad guy !”

“ Because! ” Yang gave a crooked smile. “He’s smart! In fact, he’s so smart that he reminds me of your Mama.”

Summer blinked.

“So Mama is a bad guy?”

“Uhh-”

Suddenly an energetic tune blared out from the television as a familiar face swung into the frame on a long rope. Scarlet David, aged by nearly a decade, was there center-stage of a new commercial for a popular grape soda brand. He was surrounded by a mob of ballet dancers dressed as some sort of pirate-grapes. All in leotards and spandex. As he swung around his old cutlass in combat with the sword-wielding, dancing grapes, Yang heard his accented voice speak, ‘ Take a page from Scarlet David’s book and remember- PEOPLE LIKE GRAPES! ’

Summer stared at the screen, her head tilted in confusion by the commercial she’d just seen. The child first looked at Zwei for some sort of explanation. She received no response. The faunus girl then turned to her mother, with hopes of a different answer. Yang shrugged, “Well, that was weird.”

“Uh huh.”

“I actually used to be friends with his old team, y’know.”

“Who?”

Yang laughed, “That weird pirate guy! Mama and I used to be friends with him.”

“Wreally?”

“Mhmm. It was a long time ago though,” the blonde teasingly grinned, “They were all a bunch of dorks .”

Her daughter giggled at the remark for a few moments, before taking a look at the blonde’s cybernetic arm resting beside her. Yang resisted the urge to flinch as she saw her daughter’s tiny hands touch the obsidian metal of her right forearm. The mother remained still and allowed her child to look and feel that part of her. Summer had seen the prosthetic limb briefly throughout the two weeks since she had been adopted into the Xiao Long family, but had never opted to really look at her Mommy’s funny arm.

The old phantoms started to ache again.

‘ X-Ray, what are you thinking?! ’ Vav suddenly cried out from the television.

Summer immediately resumed watching her cartoon show and petted Zwei as she did so, her previous curiosity discarded instantaneously. Yang sighed in relief. After a moment, she ruffled her metallic fingers through her daughter’s reddish-gold locks and resumed viewing the show as well. There would be another time for them to talk about her amputation .

IV.

True to her word, Blake emerged from the master bedroom an hour later. Yang heard her wife descend down the stairs and head towards the kitchen to start cooking breakfast. The blonde turned to her daughter. Summer was transfixed by the episode of Achievement Hunters that was now airing on the television. And to think that Team RWBY had had a poster of the group hung on their old dorm-room wall almost an entire decade ago…

“I’ll be right back, okay, honey?” Yang smiled.

“Okay!”

The dog faunus youth beamed at her mother, before returning her attention to her show. Yang gave a quick peck on Summer’s cheek before rising up to her feet and made her way to the kitchen.

“You’ll never guess who we saw on the TV earlier,” Yang teased as she approached her wife.

“Scarlet,” the Missus stated matter-of-factly. “Neptune mentioned he was in the acting business now.”

It was hardly uncommon. Most of their old allies, at least the ones who survived, walked away from the War completely disillusioned by their occupation as hunters and huntresses. Too many had died. Too many had been scarred. Yang sympathized.

“Well, I guess you could call it acting,” the blonde chuckled. “It might have been the dumbest commercial I’ve ever seen.”

“ Really? Do tell.”

And so she did.

Blake blinked. Yang felt her lips curve up as she watched her wife process the description of Scarlet’s commercial. The faunus woman blinked again, this time accompanied by a brief twitch from her cat ears. She looked at Yang once again, confused, and silently asked if she’d heard it right. Yang nodded.

“ Wow . That’s…”

“It’s dumb, right?”

“To put it mildly. A ‘People Like Grapes’ commercial where they have people fighting the grapes? It’s self-contradicting. On top of it sounding so ridiculous.”

“Ah well. We all gotta make a living, after all,” Yang smiled and shrugged. “I just hope that old pirate gets better gigs soon.”

“Mama! Mama!” Summer bumbled her way into the kitchen and latched herself onto Blake’s legs. “Are you a bad guy?”

Uh oh .

Yang held back a gulp as her wife raised an eyebrow at the question. She was doomed.

“A bad guy?”

Summer nodded excitedly, “Uh huh! Mommy said you were like Mab King!”

“Did she now?” Blake looked over at Yang for a moment, before returning her focus to their daughter. The faunus woman feigned thinking it over for a moment, before she plainly answered, “Yes. I’m pure evil .”

Yang blinked at the answer, while Summer broke into a fit of giggles. Immediately the raven-haired faunus scooped up her little girl and began to tickle her. Something between shrieks and laughter roared out of Summer. Blake smiled, “See?”

Blake’s bid for villainy was short-lived however, as Zwei finally entered into the kitchen to join the rest of the family. Yang fought the urge to laugh as she noticed her wife tense up for a fleeting moment at the sight of the family pet. Some things would never truly change. “ Well then! Since the whole gang is together now, maybe we should talk about breakfast? Any ideas, Mama ?”

“Well, let’s see here…” The Missus looked at Yang, then turned down to Summer for a moment. After lowering the girl back down to her feet, Blake began looking through the refrigerator. “We had pancakes yesterday, so how about I fix us all some bacon and eggs for today instead?”

“Bacon! Bacon!” Summer beamed.

Zwei barked approvingly.

“ You only get two pieces of bacon, mister,” Blake retorted sternly. “It’s bad for your health.”

The super-corgi whined a little, before shuffling over to Summer’s side for more petting. Yang suspected her daughter would probably share a piece or two of her own with the dog. Her heart melted at the thought. She turned to her wife and answered with a smile, “That sounds fine by me.”

Blake nodded and looked back to Summer. “I’ll have breakfast ready in a few minutes. You and Zwei can go back to the living room and watch your show while I do that, okay, sweetie?”

“Okay, Mama!”

As Summer ran back to the living room to watch more Achievement Hunters , Yang noticed that Zwei still remained in the kitchen with the two new mothers. She knew what he wanted- and the blonde grinned as an idea popped in her head. She loved using this particular age-old pun. It drove Blake nuts .

“Say, Blake, have you fed Zwei yet?” Yang asked innocuously, making her way to the pantry.

Distracted by her own cooking, the faunus woman answered, “No, not yet. You can go ahead and get that taken care of, if you’d like.”

“No problem, Wifen,” Yang grinned as she spotted Zwei’s special bowl. She took a moment to look at the pun etched onto the face of the bowl, appreciating the simple pun. “I’m about to fix Zwei his meal now. With his bowl .”

Blake froze.

“No. No . Don’t you dare finish that pu-”

“ Bowl appetit! ” Yang cheered as she showed off the dog’s dish.

“ Goddamnit , Yang!”

“Shh. Language , baby. We’re parents now.”

The blonde grinned as she watched Blake slap herself in the face, frustrated at both the pun and her new inability to properly vent out her frustrations against it. However, despite her love for puns, Yang knew that she would have to hold back on riling up her family from now on. After all, there was always the rare risk of going too far or using a pun one too many times.

Restraint was a comedian’s boon.

After filling the pun-bowl and giving Zwei his meal, Yang stood back up and admired her wife for a few moments. The sight warmed her heart up. Not because Blake was cooking a meal- the both of them were able to do that and took turns. Rather, it was just the realization that they were a family; her, Blake and Summer. Zwei too.

Yang, do you wanna help Mommy bake cookies?

Memories from two decades back raced through Yang’s mind. Recollections of Summer Rose, her Super-Mom , and all the times that they baked those wonderful cookies together. The bedtime stories, the games of tag or watching cartoons together. It all crashed back in her mind. Yang had thought about her step-mother often, especially since she and Blake first decided to look into adopting their first child, but the memories had never been so strong before.

“ Yang? You alright?”

“Hm?” Yang snapped out of her thoughts. Blake looked at her, a small frown on her face. The blonde suddenly felt wet trails running down her cheeks. She’d been crying. Oh .

“Well? Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah. I’m fine,” Yang replied as she finally wiped the tears off her face. “I just… got a little emotional was all. It’s all still pretty new , ya know?”

“Yes, Yang, I know,” Blake said with a smile. After another moment, the faunus went back to scrambling eggs on the stove. She added, casually, “Just like how I know how I’ll pay you back for that super-villain comment.”

Yang’s cheeks flashed a brilliant crimson. “I said you were smart! ”

Blake didn’t bother to turn around and simply shrugged as a response. Yang knew that her wife had to be smirking. The blonde groaned and raised her hands up, signaling her surrender. “Okay, okay- you win. Punish me how you see fit.”

“Maybe later,” Blake grinned as she faced Yang once more, offering her a plate of eggs and bacon. “After all, you said it yourself, firecracker ; We’re parents now.”