6.

Blake paced the length of the living room, back and forth. The heels of her boots scuffed against the floorboards, which was something she regularly reprimanded Yang for, but she was completely unaware that she was doing it. Her arms were crossed firmly over her chest, fingers agitated and tapping a staccato beat against her arm as she walked, back and forth. She carefully placed herself onto the couch for a moment, her hands dropping to grip at the edge of the seat, before standing again and pacing in circles with one hand on her hip and the other buried in thick, dark hair. Yang could only stand and watch, simultaneously amazed and disturbed that her usually calm and collected wife could radiate such overwhelming and tangible anxiety.

"What if there's no heartbeat?" She blurted, stopping in her tracks and spinning on her heel to face Yang, her eyes wide with fear. Ice filled her belly but she finally felt brave enough to give voice to the words that churned so painfully inside her. "And they have to take it away?"

"There’s nothing to worry about, you're just getting stressed out." Yang said gently as she stepped forward so Blake was within reach. Her smile was wide and comforting, warm and sweet and all Yang. She stroked the bare skin of her arm, aware that one of her regular bear hugs could spook her skittish partner. In all honesty, Blake had every right to be worried. Three lost pregnancies and seemingly endless tears had left the woman terrified, convinced that there was no way she could carry Yang's baby to term. Yang had grieved with her and consoled her, and when she suggested one more try Blake couldn't deny her. "Let's go," Yang kissed her forehead lightly and Blake's lips gave a strained attempt at a smile. "You’ll be happier tomorrow if you wear out the hospital floor instead of ours."

-

"Blake Xiao Long?" At the sound of her name, she snatched at Yang's hand and froze. Yang stood and tugged lightly, helping Blake to regain some of her senses and realise she had to stand up. She stood slowly, not trusting her weak knees with her own weight. After a breath to steady herself her feet started to step, one in front of the other. Easy. She walked forward cautiously and Yang followed closely behind into the examination room. As they crossed the threshold, Blake’s ears flattened against her head and pulled at her bow awkwardly. Her need to pee was intense, but their doctor had told her the ultrasound would work better if she had a full bladder, so she held off and tried to ignore the uncomfortable pressure in her pelvis. Their technician, May, gestured toward the exam table, and Blake crept up onto the surface without letting go of Yang's hand. She lay back against the recline and took a few deep breaths, tugging the waistband of her pants down with her thumbs as Yang gently used her free hand to ease the hem of her shirt up and out of the way.

May snatched a bottle and some tissue from under the scanner, and tucked the soft paper into Blake's pants with careful fingers. She inverted the bottle and cold jelly squirted onto the barely there rounding of Blake's belly, her abdominals tensing at the shock and a tight shiver rippling through her. She closed her eyes and shook her head as the wand rolled over the jelly, spreading it around without a care for the disgust so firmly set on Blake’s features. May looked carefully at the screen. She moved around a few more times before settling the wand in one spot.

"There- look Mommies." She tilted the screen and Yang smiled as she saw the tiny lump on the screen that didn't look at all like a baby in any capacity. Blake kept her eyes shut tight, clamped against the light, refusing to look at the screen until-

A quick rhythm echoed through the room, and tears leaked from the corners of sealed eyes. "And there's the heartbeat." May smiled, and Blake pulled her palms to her face and sobbed into them, hot relief pouring down her cheeks as her muscles relaxed for the first time that day. "It's a little fast, but that's nothing to worry about."

Yang gently stroked and Blake's hair as the sobs slowed. "I did it...." She mumbled into her hands. Relief and fear coiled in her belly with the patient power of a King Taijitu, she had got pregnant and stayed so until the first scan, but there was an entire mountain range ahead of her just waiting to trip her up and eradicate the life inside her. Yang nodded furiously when asked if they wanted a picture, and Blake's teary eyes finally opened to look at the screen as it printed out, her golden gaze flitting across images in black and white showing a hazy curved lump. A small hiccup was followed with a desperate whisper. "We want to meet you so very much."

--

7.

She had wanted to keep it a secret longer, keep it folded and close to her heart like a love note until they'd passed the entire of the shaky first trimester, but it was almost as if Ruby could smell the changes in her hormones as acutely as she could, as if they slapped her as soon as she walked through their front door.

"Hi Blake!" She moved to greet her sister in law with a hug but her body stopped dead on the spot, boots shuffling against the hard wooden floor beneath the soles. A beat passed between them, Ruby’s brow furrowing in an entirely alien expression for the bubbly woman. The expression softened into one of joy almost instantly, as if the querying look had never existed. "Oh my gosh you're pregnant!" Her mouth split widely into that Xiao Long grin, and Blake's eyes went wide with bone-deep fear, her gut clenching and her hands shaking. Nothing was set in stone, nothing was certain, and nothing could convince her that her whole world wouldn’t collapse in on itself in that very moment.

Her mouth started moving and words poured out in no particular order, trying to figure out how this could happen, how her carefully guarded blessing could have bloomed into the mind of someone outside of her home. "No no, you're not supposed to know yet, how do you know? Did Yang tell you? She promised-" The words rushed past her lips, pushed by hastening breath and a keening ache to take the knowledge away from Ruby.

"Yang didn't say anything I swear, you're just glowing." Ruby smiled and booped Blake on the nose with a soft fingertip. It almost calmed the faunus, but her body still twitched with nerves and adrenaline. "It suits you."

--

10.

"Ten weeks, ladies! We should be able to get a clearer picture now, especially since baby seems to be doing so well." May was excited, Blake's bump was a good size which indicated excellent growth. She felt it now, even though it was true when Ruby had said it before, Blake really was glowing. Her hair was braided lazily over one shoulder, her face a little rounder, and her smile soft and content. The past few weeks of watching her body change and measuring her growing belly had reassured her, their baby was fine and healthy and most importantly, still there. She was calm, settled, and so deliriously happy. She had made a habit of lying on the couch stretched out just to revel in the luxury of the new curve to her body, to let her fingers trace lazy patterns over her skin and wait for bubbles and flutters to arrive. Silently, she slid onto the exam table and laid back, tugging her pants down to her hips and her shirt up to her ribs before placing a palm on the tightening skin and smiling.

"Watch out." May tucked the paper towel into her waistband again, and even though Blake expected the cold as she moved her hand, she still flinched at the contact of chilled moisture against her skin. A quick drumbeat of thumps echoed around the examination room as the scanner searched, and May quirked her head at the sound. She moved the wand around, trying to find a good spot. "That's odd."

Blake's calmness evaporated immediately with those words. It was going wrong, she knew it was too good to be true, too soon to have convinced herself it would be alright. You’re going to lose it again, you’re not a mother, you never will be. You were made to destroy lives, not create them. She sat up, her eyes wide and searching the screen for answers she knew she wouldn't be able to decipher.

"What is it, what's wrong?" Blake's voice raised in volume and pitch, laced with panic. Yang's hand came up onto her shoulder to gently push her back down onto the table, and Blake harshly shifted to shrug her off before allowing the pressure to ease her back down, eventually realising that sitting up had knocked the ultrasound wand off her belly and the image had vanished from the screen.

"Nothing’s wrong, I'm just surprised I didn't see last time." May ran her wand over Blake's belly as the woman lay back down, and pointed at the screen. "Here's number one," she tapped, before moving her finger over, "and number two."

"Two?" Yang mumbled, staring at the little curled cashew nuts that she could see were growing inside Blake. Her face blanched and her voice shook, restrained excitement turning the edges of her words to jello. May nodded with a soft smile. "It explains why the bump is a little bit on the large side for this stage."

"Twins?" I couldn't keep one, how am I going to keep two? Blake's heart raced and her stomach flipped over, her face turning pale. The need to vomit crept up her throat and ravaged the back of her mouth. An acrid flavour flickered over her tongue and tainted the lips that had held a smile moments before. There was no way she would be able to carry it- them. How could she possibly keep them safe? They relied entirely upon her body, which had betrayed her and her children so many times before without a second thought. There was nothing stopping it from tearing them away from her.

Yang pressed a kiss to Blake's cheek, snapping her from her reverie. "They're right there and they're fine, just like they always have been." She pressed another to her forehead, and Yang’s hot lips and warm words comforted and grounded her, tearing her attention to the present moment, where her babies were fine and growing inside her womb just as they should be. "You're doing a great job, Blake. I'm so proud of you."

"There's nothing to worry about," May said, taking note of measurements and details and jotting them down onto a pad in front of her, "they look perfectly healthy. A little small, but twins usually are. There's a few extra risks but we'll keep a close watch on them. Let me print you a picture."

Blake took deep breaths to steady herself, silently cursing her heritage. She knew twins were likely, faunus mothers regularly carried multiples to term with no more difficulty than a human with a single baby, but the doubt crept back into her mind. She wasn't like other faunus mothers. She was defective, unable, incapable.Twins had been so far out of her mind that she hadn’t even mentioned the possibility to Yang.

She listened carefully with both sets of ears, committing the sound of her children's heartbeats to memory. Just in case.

--

15.

"Mrs Xiao Long, there is really no need to have another scan so soon. Your doctor hasn't expressed any concerns, and monthly ultrasounds are hardly-"

"I won't risk it, I can't." Blake snapped into her scroll, her patience wearing as thin as the well-loved, threadbare socks on her feet. "Give me the appointment. I'll pay in cash if necessary!"

The secretary on the other end of the call sighed, sympathy and irritation rolling through the sound in equal measure. A few moments later, Blake could hear the sound of fingers tapping a keyboard. Beats passed and a few clicks later, the words she craved passed through the speaker. "I've booked you in for three weeks tomorrow, two thirty."

"Thank you," Blake breathed into the receiver, her relief palpable, "thank you so much."

"That's not a problem, Mrs Xiao Long.” The woman sounded pleased to have parried the rage of at least one pregnant woman that day. “Have a nice day." The dial tone sounded, and Blake jumped as Yang's arms snaked around her waist.

"You know, you didn't have to go and use your 'huntress voice' on her." The blonde kissed the hinge of Blake's jaw, and smiled against the skin when a gentle blip of a chuckle rumbled against her.

"I know." Blake conceded, placing her hands over Yang's and letting her fingers stroke at skin and metal, the contrast in temperatures reassuring her just whose arms were wrapped around her. "I just can't take any chances with them, they have to be okay." They have to be. I can’t lose another.

"And they will be." Yang pressed another kiss to her neck and a ripple of warmth and love danced down Blake’s spine. "Textbook pregnancy, the doc said. You're perfect, and they're perfect."

Blake turned in her wife's arms and smiled. She wrapped her arms around Yang’s neck and kissed her lips gently. She dragged one hand down and fingers traced delicately over a collarbone before one prodded the blonde in the sternum. "I'm still not waiting longer than a month."

--

18.

"I still cannot believe you're having twins." Weiss stared at the ultrasound image pinned to the refrigerator, sipping at the tea in her hand. "I'm so happy for you." She turned and smiled at her teammate. Weiss' shoulder length white hair skimmed at her collarbones as she walked over and delicately sat down at the small table in Taiyang Xiao Long's kitchen. Her hand slid across the wooden surface and squeezed at Blake’s.

"I still can't believe it. I don't think I really will until they get here." Blake stared down into her tea with a careful smile on her lips. Soft and unbound ears tilted upwards in a show of tentative excitement as she tried to imagine whose nose they would each have, what the colour of their eyes would be, and attempting to ignore the possibility of ears and tails.

"They will get here, you know." Weiss squeezed the hand in her own again, and the faunus lifted her head to look into Weiss's clear blue eyes, not an ounce of doubt anywhere in the face of her teammate.

"Gods, I hope you're right. More than anything." She took a careful sip of her tea, then stopped dead for a fraction of a ssecond. Her hands put the cupcdown on the table with less care and attention than usual, and the contents sloshed in a violent wave. Dark, stormy droplets rolled down the side of the porcelain and onto the table. Her spine snapped upright and her hands flew to her midsection, palms slid around the bottom and left hand side of her bump with urgency, but no hint of panic. "Yang!" She barked, and the single syllable echoed sharply around the kitchen. The blonde in question appeared in the room immediately, as if she’d borrowed her sister's semblance but neglected to trail rose petals behind her.

"What is it?" Violet eyes were wide and worried as Blake grabbed her hands and wrenched her forward. She pinned rough palms to her stomach and waited. Yang stayed perfectly stationary, her hands held still by Blake's grip until she could feel it. Little flutters and fidgets and nudges against the flesh from the inside. "Oh, hey." Yang cooed, her body relaxed and the worried edge dropped from her voice entirely as she placed herself onto her knees, closed her eyes, and concentrated on the babies as they moved restlessly within Blake's womb. "There's my girls," Blake smiled as Yang spoke to her bump, "Mama's been waiting for you to say hi."

"Has she felt them before?" Weiss asked with a soft, nostalgic smile quirking her lips as she watched Yang's face fill with awe and adoration. Blake shook her head and lifted one hand to Yang's hair, golden locks now pressed against her along with an ear, as if she was waiting for them to reply to the mumbles against the skin.

Blake leisurely combed her fingers through the thick blonde hair. "They always move more when they can hear her, but it's never been enough for her to feel it." Her lips parted in a grin, and she tilted her head up to look to the ceiling in a silent prayer to stop the tears slipping from her eyes. The gods know I have cried enough.

Taiyang walked into his kitchen, having followed Yang from outside. A worried 5 year old was slung on his hip. "Is Auntie Blake okay, Yéyé?" She mumbled, tugging at the collar of his shirt. He reached up and ruffled pale strawberry blonde hair whilst watching his eldest daughter chatter lovingly to her wife's abdomen.

"She looks fine to me, Poppet. Let's go find your Ma." He walked back out, and Weiss followed, leaving Yang to mutter soft words into rounded flesh, and Blake to continue her gaze to the heavens and mouth thank you to anyone who may be watching.

--

24.

May smiled warmly as she led Blake into the examination room and patted the table. "No Yang today?" She asked, and Blake shook her head as she sat down on the edge and then shimmied further on.

"She's on a long deployment in Vacuo." Blake explained, trying to ignore the slather of cold jelly this time. "She's calling in favours so she can take more time out when I'm closer." Her voice still hitched as the chill touched her flesh.

"Smart girl, I hope she uses that time well to dote on you." May winked and ran the wand over and around, smearing gel all over and making Blake shudder with the unpleasant wetness. She watched the screen, trying to ignore how empty her hand felt without Yang there to hold it, how quiet the room was without her little excited gasps and chuckles. She tried to focus on the process of the appointment, the images in front of her and the soft beats over the speaker. "They are looking fantastic, big, strong and healthy." May tilted the screen and Blake gasped at the view. So much less like fuzzy blobs and more like babies, tiny heads and bodies and limbs pressed up against one another. Blake jerked as the one on the left jabbed at the one on the right. "Oh, fighting already, I see." May smirked.

Blake let out a small laugh and couldn't help but think how Yang would be both delighted and saddened by the tiny punch, a brawler just like Mama, but getting prenatal practice on her sister.

After the gel was cleaned off and the image was printed, Blake sat in her car in the hospital parking lot, the seat far more comfortable than those inside the hospital. She laid the picture on her lap and snapped a picture with her scroll, then tapped lazily at the on-screen keyboard.

- Peanut likes to hit Pickle. I don't know where she gets it from.

She sent the message with a smile and tugged the bow from her head as she started the car and pulled away.

--

26.

-Send me another one, please?

-Why? It's not going to have changed in two days.

-I know, but I miss you and your cute belly :3

-We miss you, too. Attached: 26+3.png

--

28.

"Yang, I... If you can't get home I'll understand. Ruby said she'd come with me this time so I don’t have to go by myself." Blake pouted, one arm resting on her bump and the other holding her scroll to her ear. After postponing her next appointment for two weeks so Yang would be back from her mission, it was immensely frustrating that the tour had been extended due to increased Grimm activity, and Yang was now due back the same day.

"I will be there, I know how much it means to you. It means a lot to me, too." Yang assured her. Blake could hear bustle in the background of the call. Yang was somewhere busy and filled with the chatter of people. That put her well outside of the mission zone, but she could have been anywhere between Vacuo and Vale.

"I want you to see them so much. I've been rocking them all day to keep them asleep, and I bought soda so we can try and wake them up when we're there." Blake had planned everything to increase the chances of Yang seeing their daughters move, reading multiple articles about the best ways to encourage and discourage movement. She wanted terribly for Yang to appear at the door right then with a hey, baby and a smile, but even her timing wasn't so perfect. It had been so intense to see them in motion before, and being unable to share that with her wife was unexpectedly upsetting. It made her even more determined to show her this time, but fate didn’t seem to be on her side.

"I'll be there."

-

Yang rolled up outside the hospital on her motorcycle and killed the engine as she parked up in an empty spot in the crammed lot. She dumped her helmet on the bike and jogged in through the automatic doors, boots followed the path she knew well towards Maternity. Her mind raced, praying she hadn’t missed it, that they were still sitting in the small waiting room outside the examination rooms. She pushed through the swing doors and looked around, spotted dark red hair beside pure black, and sighed with relief.

"Blake!" The two turned their heads at the same time, smiling as Yang walked over to where they were sitting. "I'm sorry I'm late."

Blake launched herself remarkably nimbly from the chair into Yang's arms. "Not your fault. Kiss me." She pushed her lips into the blonde's. Her arms wrapped around Yang's neck as much as she could considering the bulk wedged firmly between them. She had missed the blonde horribly, but the extension of the tour had let butterflies run riot in her stomach and of the worst ideas stampede through her thoughts and dreams. She worried that the blessings growing inside her had to be paid for, and that their previous losses wouldn’t cover the bill. That Yang would be injured, or worse. In sleep and consciousness her mind led her to that place, where the blonde lay unconscious on the floor of the broken and burning cafeteria in a pool of glittering crimson. She lost so much in protecting Blake, and that made the faunus wonder if she would have to lose more in doing the same for their children. She knew that Yang would lay down her life in a heartbeat if it meant keeping them safe, but she shouldn’t have to. They deserved to be happy, but Blake knew that not everyone gets what they deserve.

Ruby coughed and snapped an arm out to slap her sister in the thigh. "Get a room." She sing-songed, her long legs crossing over each other as a grin met her lips, watching the pair separate with a torrent of emotions pouring through the gaze they shared.

I love you-

I missed you-

You’re here-

I'm sorry-

We missed you-

I love you-

You made it-

They caged their words with tight throats that promised to set them free later, and Yang helped Blake sit gently back into her seat. She dropped to her knees on the floor in front of Blake; none of the available chairs were anywhere near close enough to the woman for her liking. Yang kept her left hand on her wife’s ankle, stroking lightly. She wasn't sure if it was to comfort Blake or herself, but it was a show of affection that had been absent from both of their days for far too long. She tilted her head and laid her cheek on Blake's lap, her thick hair pillowing her new resting place. She let her eyes drift shut as fingers combed and scratched absently, and Yang felt a calmness wash over her with the scent of her wife surrounding her. The weeks had been gruelling, and to say that she hadn't been in danger would a lie - hunting was a dangerous calling that had taken many lives and broken many families. Her bones ached with exhaustion, the extra push at the end of the tour had taken its toll on all who participated, and Yang's insistence to leave immediately to make her way home had cut out any rest she might have had between signing off and making the trip.

A pounding ache resonated in her skull, eased by the gentle and loving touch roaming across the top of her head and running circles over her brow. She sighed softly, this woman knew instinctively how to erase her pain and woes with well-placed touches and kisses and whispered words of love and adoration. There was no doubt in her mind that Blake would be able to do the same for their daughters, even though the faunus didn't believe it herself. Blake was filled with confidence in Yang, how as a child herself she had raised Ruby to be strong and optimistic and hopeful, how she interacted with their nieces with effervescent encouragement and firm discipline. Yes, Blake knew that Yang would be an incredible mother, but doubted herself entirely.

A soft smile crept onto her lips as she thought back to the previous summer, playing hide and seek in the forest around her old home in Patch. Ruby counted, eyes screwed shut and her face against the wall of the house. Blake snatched up Poppy, pulling her close to her chest and running away into the trees while Yang slung Coralie over her shoulder and sprinted in the other direction, their raucous laughter giving away their position. Later, Yang had watched as one of Blake's shadow clones tricked Ruby into climbing a tree, before letting itself fall backwards from the branch it was perched on, and waving at her as it disintegrated into smoke in the air. She also saw Poppy and Blake silently giggling together from a much stealthier hiding spot, the girl tucked under Blake's arm and holding tight to her aunt's shirt. There was not an ounce of doubt in Yang when it came to how wonderful a mother Blake would be.

"Blake?" May called from the open door of her exam room, and comforting fingers stopped playing in golden hair. Yang jumped to her feet and helped Blake up too, pecking a kiss to full lips as she stood to her full height.

"I'll wait out here." Ruby smiled, moving to pull her scroll out of her pocket.

Yang grabbed her little sister's hand and pulled her up with some success, but mostly just managing to tug her forward, sprawling out of her seat like a fawn on ice. "Don't be a dummy."

--

33.

"Once upon a time, an enchantress visited a large castle in the middle of a storm, looking for shelter for the night. The prince who lived in the castle turned her away, sneering at the woman in her wet and ragged clothes. The enchantress was furious at his selfishness, and using her magic, she turned the handsome prince into a terrible howling beast. She left behind an enchanted rose. If the prince did not find true love before the last petal fell, then he would remain in his beastly form forever.

"In a village nearby lived a wonderful girl who spent every moment reading and learning. More than anything, she wanted to go on adventures, like the heroes in the books she poured over every day. While reading in the market square one day, she was interrupted by an arrogant man who considered her no more than a lovely item to be possessed. He asked her to marry him, and she refused. In his anger, he took his bright red sword from its sheath and stabbed her in the-"

"Yang!"

"What?"

"That is not how the story goes." Blake lay prone on the couch, poking the blonde head of hair resting against her lap. The golden mess moved and the book shifted down. Yang looked up to Blake's face, a soft smile on her lips.

"It's how our story goes." Yang turned her head and kissed the bump, gently rubbing the tight skin with her left hand. "And our story brought us right here, so it's my favourite."

Blake sighed and muttered under her breath, quiet chastisements rumbling off her tongue as her heart fluttered with the heartfelt words.

-

36.

She was heavy. Her mind was leaden and her body was concrete. Full and bursting at the seams, steel threads of expectation, excitement and trepidation braided together and woven into her bones. True comfort came infrequently. The perfect position in a bath. Her spine being cradled by her lover in a blissful post-coital haze. Sitting in the old tan leather recliner in Taiyang's living room.

She lay in the soft grass, the warm May breeze lifting strands of hair and flicking them across closed eyes. It curled around her bare stomach and thighs and tickled lush blades of green against her feet. An abandoned book rested near her head, the spine reaching for the sky as it lay carefully splayed open at the most recent page. It was forgotten in lieu of the few moments of relaxation that settled in her body, the mere sensation lifting a smile to her lips. The smile only grew when she realised what she had managed to do. She was only a few short weeks shy of her due date, and as much as she regularly trembled with anticipation she knew that she would miss carrying her daughters inside her, and that all the physical discomfort in the world couldn't brush aside the fact that she would carry them another nine months without complaint if she had to. She hadn't griped about being pregnant in any capacity, her mind always acutely aware that it could have never happened, that she could have stayed barren and hollow and never had the opportunity to feel the tired creaky ache that now chewed through her body on a daily basis. She felt a firm wriggle, and a kick, and winced. The bump had dropped and she could feel the two of them sitting very low in her pelvis. As a result, every stray limb or rough jostle connected in a place she wasn’t accustomed to and would occasionally bring tears to her eyes. She let out a tight breath between her lips that turned into a shush, and rubbed low down to try and still her unsettled daughter. Despite Blake's efforts the child kicked, punched, and landed a perfect shot into a kidney. "Fuck!" Blake's eyes shot open and she nearly sat up with the need to curl in on herself.

"You okay there, baby?" Yang called over from where she was doing squats in the shade of a large tree. She continued the exercise, counting her reps internally, as Blake dropped her head back to the ground.

"I'm fine, Peanut just thinks my insides are a dojo again." She pouted, pointing at the left side of her belly. She watched with lazy eyes as Yang finished her set and walked across the yard with bare feet, her toes gripping at the grass as she stepped. She leant down and picked up the lost novel, saving the page with a bookmark from the back before closing it with a soft snap. Blake heard her wife drop to the floor behind her head and smiled as gentle hands helped her raise her head from the ground and place it into a slightly sweaty lap. Fingers raked through her hair, and she smiled smugly and nuzzled her cheek into Yang's knee as light scratches started at the base of her skull and spread into a careful massage over her head. A soft, pleasured moan dripped from her lips and rumbled through her chest. After a few moments the rough kicks faded into flutters and then nothing, her mother's comforting sounds quickly soothing and stilling her. Yang continued to scratch and stroke, Blake's smile and noises amused her to no end. She felt her wife's body relax, the muscles losing their tension as the need to anticipate hits evaporated, and a small chuckle left the full and parted lips she loved to kiss. "She hits harder than you already."

Yang's jaw dropped in mock indignation. "The nerve! Just wait until you're training again, I'll kick your ass." She took her hand from Blake's head and placed it on the grass beside her.

"Not if I have Peanut on my side." She smirked up at Yang and reached out to her left. She grabbed a wrist with artful fingertips and placed the hand back into her hair. After a beat, fingers and nails resumed their massage and wrung short happy whines from the back of Blake's throat.

--

37.

"Do you want some tea? I could make you tea." To her credit, Yang did ask, but she still walked straight into the kitchen and put the kettle on to boil without actually waiting for an answer.

"Yang, I don't think tea is going to make this better!" Blake started calmly but by the end of her sentence an intense pain in her abdomen forced the words out as a low groan. She'd felt similar cramping before, and experiencing it again made her agitated in ways she should have prepared herself for, but instead she paced the length of their living room with her hands pressed into the back of her pelvis, her mind telling her over and over again you're going to lose them. Yang appeared at her side and paced with her, her terror as obvious as her complete lack of joviality.

"Are you sure you don't want to go yet?" Her voice was sharply edged with concern, the sight of Blake in pain was agonising and this time the cause wasn't something she could tear apart with her bare hands. Instead, she wrung those hands together and set them about destroying themselves, picking at nails and loose skin absentmindedly.

"There's no point," Blake breathed as the tension passed, and she sat down on the couch leaving Yang to walk back and forth by herself, "they'd just tell us to come home." She let her eyes fall shut and pushed her bangs back with her palms, flattening the hair against her scalp. It could be hours yet, but her skin was prickled with sweat and her bones were already tired. She tried to take her mind off the c-section she would probably end up having by imagining the outcome. Two small serene faces looking up at her. Yang rocking a swaddled bundle in her arms. Finally giving real names to Peanut and Pickle.

She took a deep breath to steady herself, and as her lungs reached capacity she felt a small, sharp pop. Her eyes snapped open and she forced herself off the couch as gravity took hold and pulled liquid from her insides. She desperately tried to look down at herself, at her pants slowly soaking through and stuck to her inner thighs. It felt odd, like someone was leisurely pouring a glass of warm water into her lap, and her brow crinkled with how peculiar it was. The moment of contemplation was shattered when her uterus contracted hard and forced a strangled cry and more moisture out of her body. How the pain could escalate into full body agony so quickly was entirely beyond her, and her legs shook with the effort of holding herself up. Yang caught her elbow to steady her, and Blake's hand gripped desperately at the metal limb, a deep roar still being ripped from her throat. "I changed my mind I changed my mind we're going!" The low words erupted as one long, low sound, pushed out from deep inside her body by tense, crushing muscles and followed out by a sharp snapping squawk.

"Okay, baby. We're going." Yang's knees trembled but she didn't move, her brain telling her legs to start walking but the message getting lost along the way. She held Blake up, staring at the moisture soaking its way down black pants, and could tell from the way that her belly was visibly clenching that the situation was getting serious very quickly.

"Yang!" The desperate shout shattered the mental blockade and her body snapped into action, the only thing in her mind to get her wife to the hospital as quickly as possible.

-

Ruby rounded the corner of the corridor and Yang saw her immediately, her expression shifting from blank shock to pure fury in a blink. "They kicked me out! She looked so fucking alone, they made me leave her to do this alone!" Yang's voice rung, reverberating discordantly against the sharp corners and harsh edges around her. A swift fist pounded into the wall, leaving a dent that in all honesty could have been a lot worse had she not held herself back. Ruby crossed the short distance quickly, pulling her sister into a tight hug. "She's going to be fine, they just need to be careful. They're all gonna be fine."

They both snapped their heads towards the door. Blake's pained caterwaul carried easily through the wood and Ruby's jaw clenched in unconscious empathy. "How long has she been in there?" She released Yang from her grip and busied her hands with the edge of her sanguine cape, trying to calm herself for her sister's sake.

"Like, ninety minutes?" Yang's fingers laced together behind her own head. Ruby nodded, and they both acknowledged that there was a long way to go. It was likely that the staff were prepping her for surgery, and that's why Yang had been removed from the room, but just because she understood didn't mean she had to like it. She looked down at the floor and her boot kicked at nothing, trying to block her wife's sobs and cries from her mind.

"Yaaaaaaaaannnnggg!" She pricked her head up and stared straight at the door, the force of contraction elongating her name into a long alto wail, which made her feel even more useless. They wouldn't let her in. She couldn't hold her hand, or pull back her hair and kiss her forehead, or take the blame for every painful spasm that tried to force two babies out of her partner's slim frame. The colour drained from her face and she swallowed. Her bottom lip trembled and she dropped her arms limply to her sides. She was the proverbial chocolate teapot- entirely without use or purpose, and it was harrowing.

The door clicked open and the head of a dark-skinned woman with small white antlers popped out. "It's happening now." The faunus said before disappearing back into the room and leaving the door ajar. Yang did not even spare a moment to look at her sister, rushing through the door and swerving around every medical professional between her and Blake's side. A clammy hand grasped at her metal one and squeezed so hard as she pushed that Yang was glad her prosthetic was only equipped with pressure sensing technology and not artificial pain receptors. Still, she winced. "I'm here, you're doing so great, you're incredible." Yang muttered against the top of Blake's head before pressing a firm kiss against damp hair.

Blake sucked in a deep breath and loosened her grip. "This is the worst." She said, head rolling back onto the inclined bed. Every ounce of her usual eloquence had evaporated when her contractions had started rolling closer together, and Yang smiled at the complaint. "I'll bet, but when you're done it'll be the best." Ears and lips twitched simultaneously and Blake nodded.

"Okay Blake, she's right there and waiting to come out so I want you to breathe really carefully and do your best to not push, okay?" Their consultant asked from between Blake's legs, soft floppy dog ears atop her head. Blake nodded again. "Good girl, it'll help her get in the right place." A few moments of calm passed before a contraction tore through her body again. Blake breathed and her ears flattened against her hair. She ignored what her body was imploring her to do and focussed on Yang's hand in hers. "That is perfect, Blake, just hold on a little longer." The tension in her gut made her want to vomit, but little huffing puffs of breath escaping her lips got her through it. The pressure receded and the consultant smiled. "Next one you go all out."

"Thank god," She wiped the back of her free hand against her forehead, and smiled. A little more effort and she would have a daughter. Again the pain washed through her but instead of resisting she worked with it. A thick groan pushed out of her mouth and she barely noticed the consultant telling her that the head was out. A short tug was followed by a glorious relief of pressure and a screaming, squirming, pink baby was lifted away from her thighs and wrapped in a towel.

"Ears." Blake mumbled, her lips turning down into a cautious frown.

"They are such beautiful ears, kitten." Yang's voice was filled with awe as she looked at the towelled bundle. A midwife unwrapped the baby and placed her onto Blake's chest, so soft new skin could brush against her collarbones. Yang was right, they were beautiful ears. Black fur at the base that met with short puffs of black hair, and tufts of blonde at the tips. She was barely given a moment to appreciate the small face in front of her before her body tensed again and she felt another pop. Her second water was released in a burst with her contraction, and in an instant her eldest daughter was swept from her chest, severed from her cord, and taken to the other side of the room. "Come on Blake, one more and then you can hold them as long as you want." Yang squeezed on her hand and Blake let out a broken sob, torn between her need to hold one daughter and birth the other. Her body decided for her and clenched hard to rid itself of the second.

"She is ready and waiting for you, Blake." The faunus consultant said, and Blake caught her breath in the few moments respite. "Get ready to push." She pushed hard, and just three minutes after her sister, the second of Blake's twins entered the world. The baby gasped but didn't cry, and she was dried swiftly by a midwife before being placed naked on her mother's chest, in the spot her sister had occupied moments before. Blake let go of Yang's hand and cradled their baby with gentle fingers, the tip of one reaching out to trace the edges of a thin ear covered in sandy fur.

Somewhere in the periphery of her mind she was aware that Yang had been asked to cut the second cord, but Blake’s eyes were focussed on the little ones that opened in front of her. "No way." Fell from her lips, her vocabulary still entirely failing her despite the happiness that swelled through her entire body, something that Weiss would later insist was 'just hormones'. "Yang, look." Yang did. She peered down at the tiny baby on Blake's chest and her eyelids peeled open wider at the sight of two bright eyes staring up at nothing, one a pale lilac and one gold. "It's like those flowers in your dad's yard."

The blonde nodded in recognition, her mind flashing to memories of Summer kneeling beside her, telling her they were purple lotus flowers after Yang had realised that the petals were the colour of her eyes and the centre glowed as golden as her hair. Her father whispered that they were lian, and that they only came into the world after Yang was born to celebrate her. Of course, she knew that was a story on her father's part, but the flowers matched perfectly to the hues in the eyes of the tiny child atop Blake’s ribs.

"Lian" Yang said quietly, hoping that Blake was thinking the same painfully obvious thing as her. "How does that sound to you?"

Blake laughed and the sound echoed around the room in a much sweeter way than her screams had. "I think it sounds perfect."

-

The room was empty, save the new family, Ruby, and Weiss, who had arrived after the whole thing was over. The red and white teammates were beckoned in by the enthusiastic blonde to meet their nieces. Blake looked exhausted but so content, gazing from her bed down to the small crib where the tiny girls lay side by side, dressed and nursed, cooing and fidgeting into each other. Weiss went to the side of Blake's bed and took her hand gently while Ruby walked up to the side of the crib and looked over at the girls in their too-large onesies. "Oh my gosh they both have kitty ears this is too cute!" She practically squealed. The moment was so reminiscent of the girl Blake met in their first year at Beacon that she laughed, dropping a palm onto her face. "They're both faunus?" Weiss asked, the edge of her voice worried for the difficult lives the innocent children would have to traverse.

"And they're so little! Teeny tiny! I'm your Auntie Ruby and I am going to spoil you so-" she stopped her word-vomit mid spew as she noticed three amber eyes and one pale bluish lilac peering up at her, "well that's a thing."

"What is it?" Weiss let go of Blake's hand with a squeeze and walked over to stand beside her partner, her hand resting lightly on the edge of the crib. She looked down and a small gasp fell from her smile-curved lips. "Heterochromia, that's incredible."

"Her name's Lian." Yang told them through a huge grin, pride and excitement plastered all over her face, and anticipation bubbling in her gut at whether Ruby would remember.

"No way! That's so perfect." Ruby dropped her hand cautiously into the crib and stroked Lian's ear before dancing over to play with the blonde tips of the other twin's ears. "What about tufts over here?"

"Mica." Blake replied, a soft sleepy smile on her face, satisfied that her favourite of all the names they had deliberated on had made it into use.

"Do you want to hold them?" Yang asked, careful to temper her volume to avoid startling Lian and Mica and breaking Blake’s relaxed demeanour. Her wife deserved the peace.

"Uh, yeah!" Ruby shot across the room like a bullet from Crimson Rose and sat down in the soft chair by the window, holding her arms out. "Lay one on me!" Yang bent over and wrapped her arms delicately around Mica, lifting and carrying her like the precious cargo she was and depositing her into the cradle of her sister's arms.

She went back to gather Lian and gave her to Weiss, who was fascinated and filled with adoration for the little cat-eared girl in her arms. She couldn't believe that for years she had been so callous and ruthless in her attitude towards the faunus, and a fissure of regret split her open, filled with every harsh word and thought that had ever existed thanks to her. Now, she had Blake and Lian and Mica in her family, and it was so far separated from anything that she ever thought possible as a girl, but so much better than living her entire life filled with such hate instead of the abundance of love in her chest. "I will never let anything bad happen to you." She whispered to Lian, lifting her up to place a soft kiss on her forehead. Yang whipped out her scroll to take the first of many pictures of her daughters and their aunts. "How long was the labour?" Weiss asked, tearing her eyes away from her niece to look over at Blake.

"Like, three hours start to finish?" Blake replied, her eyes lazily moving to Yang for confirmation.

"I'd say closer to two." The blonde replied, snapping a few more images before putting her scroll back into her pocket. She walked over to the side of the bed and pressed a sweet kiss to Blake's lips. "You were incredible."

"Seriously? You make it look so easy." Ruby cast her mind back, recalling the seemingly endless hours of pain and discomfort brought her children into the world. Tearing, hideous pain, screams and cries that had lasted long through the night and well into the morning as her body fought its hardest battle.

"It took so many years to get them, it's only fair they arrived with no hassle." Blake mumbled, she was so tired and all she really wanted was to go home with her family and sleep for days, but the thought of closing her eyes and missing anything was heart-wrenching. She smiled and watched her family together, and disbelief washed all around her. One year ago she would have never have even entertained the thought that she would be able to stay pregnant beyond morning sickness, never mind stay the course and deliver two perfect girls who would be showered with love and adoration from all directions, protected from vitriol with fierce strength and sharp weapons. She couldn't wait for everyone to meet them, to show them off and tell people look what we did, to place them into Taiyang's arms and watch his face light up like his namesake, a surge of pride visibly rushing through him at the newest pair to join the strong women he called his family.

Soon her eyes wouldn't stay open any more, and Ruby bade them farewell, leaving the tiny twins in their tiny hospital crib and scooting off home with Weiss to hug their own children. Yang kissed Blake on the lips and sat beside the crib, staring down and starting the first of many years worth of watching, attempting to keep her girls quiet while their beautiful and grateful mother slept.