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Despite the early hour, the air across the Beacon grounds was already comfortably warm. Summer could tell it was going to be another heavy, humid day by the time the sun was high in the sky, but for the time being, she enjoyed her usual walk down to one of the eastern sparring fields in a relaxing, gentle heat. Besides , she grinned to herself, today is a special day.
She could see the sun just rising over the horizon, painting the tiny, distant buildings in a deep yellow hue that was blinding to look at for long. Today however, she persevered and squinted into the bright vista, hoping to catch every detail of every puffing cloud and every chirping bird to store away in her mind. She half wished her team was there with her to appreciate the enormity of the day. Instead, she chuckled to herself, picturing Qrow and Tai dozing messily across the floor of their dorm after the previous night’s party. The ‘Party-to-end-all-Parties’ Tai had called it, and they had certainly made it memorable… at least, memorable to everyone else who hadn’t cracked into Qrow’s secret liquor stash. In all honesty, Summer wasn’t feeling one hundred percent the morning after either, but a daily routine built over four years wasn’t so easily broken.
Not that she would even have wanted to break it today.
Summer easily hopped over the training field’s short fence and gave out a little hum of satisfaction as she landed firmly on the familiar dirt grounds. She strode out purposefully into the middle of the empty, restful field, and dropped to the ground when she reached the centre; waiting patiently. Raven never came down with her.
For the first few months of their one-on-one training sessions it was because Raven had held a deep resentment towards Summer for her woeful lack of combat skill, and would deliberately minimise their interaction. Ironically enough, it was this very shortcoming that drove Raven to organise these extra training sessions that would eventually result in their uniquely close friendship. For the next three years, that bond then meant Raven no longer needed to walk anywhere to get to Summer. And as she had so aptly phrased it, with a self-satisfied smirk upon her lips: ‘Why should we both have to walk if you can do it for me?’
And so Summer waited for the familiar humming sound and strange tugging sensation in the air that always accompanied a portal; leaning back on her hands while she gazed up at the sky as it ever so slowly shifted through the shades of the morning. She idly wondered whether Raven would also be far too exhausted from the previous night. But Summer hadn’t seen her in the dorm when she left, and Raven had never missed a session before anyway, it seemed unlikely that she would start on their very last day at Beacon.
Graduation day , Summer thought to herself with a smile on her face, closing her eyes to the warmth. We did it.
She felt the hair-raising tingling that preceded Raven’s arrival along her skin. By this point, it had become a sixth sense to her; so frequently used as a tactic in battle that they moved between each other’s space with a fluidity that was hard for enemies to follow. And as a result, Summer was always hyper aware of Raven’s presence.
‘Can you believe it?’ Summer murmured out loud, hearing Raven’s feet crunch along the dirt a few metres away. ‘After all those years of training, we’re finally graduating?’
‘About time,’ came Raven’s reply from somewhere behind where Summer sat. She sounded tired, and something else that Summer couldn’t yet identify.
‘How’s your head?’ Summer asked with a laugh. ‘You’re not finally succumbing to the side-effects of heavy drinking are you, like us mere mortals?’
‘I don’t get hungover,’ Raven’s voice floated over her; sulky at the insinuation. ‘Especially not when I haven’t been drinking.’
Summer finally opened her eyes and dropped her head back to look at an upside down Raven, who was gazing out over the training field in the opposite direction. Summer pursed her lips thoughtfully. ‘I suppose I didn’t see you drink anything last night.’ She turned around to look at Raven more fully. ‘I didn’t see you much at all last night.’
Summer stood and approached Raven, taking note of the wary glance that was thrown her way. Raven wasn’t being her usual brilliantly sarcastic self. More standoffish, guarded. ‘Hm.’
Raven shot another glance at her. ‘Hm? Hm what?’
Summer raised an eyebrow as she came to stand beside her friend. ‘You know, this is our last day at Beacon. A place you have described as a “prison for people who committed the crime of being boring”. Or a “perpetual hell where the punishment is wearing starched collars”.’
‘So?’
‘So you should be ecstatic. But instead you’ve been weird all week, barely present last night, and now you’re not looking at me.’ Summer pouted. ‘I feel like a week was enough time to let you brood about whatever it is. Now it’s time to talk.’
‘Yeah, I know. I just...’ Raven wrapped her arms around herself as though cold, and Summer gently placed a hand against her shoulder.
‘Are you worried about what happens after graduation? Being a huntress?’ Summer guessed, throwing the least likely option out into the open. It was a tactic she had developed with Raven over their years together; to slowly coax her into confronting whatever it was that she was suppressing. It seemed Raven often had to go through a process of elimination to get to the source of her problems. ‘We talked about spending our first year in Anima, right? Team STRQ can get some real experience as huntsmen...’ Summer watched Raven’s face for any hints, but it maintained a carefully neutral expression. ‘I mean, we all have enough savings for a few months, so if you’re worried about us finding work-’
‘I’m pregnant, Summer,’ Raven abruptly interrupted, and immediately tensed her muscles, seemingly closing in on herself.
Summer’s thoughts stalled so suddenly that she didn’t even have time to mentally congratulate herself on successfully getting to the root of the problem. ‘You’re… what?’
Raven closed her eyes and suddenly appeared much more exhausted. She dropped down into the sand despondently. ‘Don’t make me say it again.’
Summer slowly lowered herself back down to the ground. ‘You’re… pregnant? What… ? Is it Tai? It’s got to be Tai, right?
‘Yes, of course it’s Tai,’ Raven replied, and drew her knees up to her chin.
‘Oh... wow.’ Summer felt an odd sensation in her stomach that she couldn’t name. Raven and Tai had been seeing each other for the last year and while for the most part it had been casual, Summer had seen Raven grow more tolerant of him, and witnessed the way his feelings had grown more serious for her. It was nice and simple, them being together, and so Summer had stepped back and cheered them on from the sidelines. Pregnant? ‘This is… really something.’
Raven scowled at her from beneath her fringe and Summer cringed at the stupidity of her words. She shook her head to clear her mind and turned to face Raven full on.
‘Okay, so… where do we go from here, Rave?’
‘God, I don’t know!’
Summer bit her lip and moved in closer to the huddled form. ‘Is this what you want? You and Tai… you seem to be getting to a good place.’
‘A kid, Summer! This is a baby! And we’re going to be huntresses, fighting grimm.’ Raven’s voice climbed rapidly and Summer began mentally running through her various tried-and-tested Raven-calming techniques. But the fight seemed to leave as quickly as it came, and Raven shoulders dropped back down again. ‘I don’t know what to do, Summer.’
‘Have you told Tai?’
‘No, of course not. You’re the first person I’ve told. He’ll be so excited and it’ll just be worse.’
Summer sighed and reached out to toy with Raven’s sleeve, knowing better than to directly engage in physical contact when she was distressed and flighty. ‘Raven, you have to tell him.’
‘What if this isn’t what I want?’ Raven’s voice came out muffled from behind her knees.
‘Is that what you’re feeling?’ Summer asked quietly, as if the conversation would be easier if the breeze couldn’t hear them. ‘You don’t want to have a child?’
‘I…’ Raven hesitated, raising her head to look out at the horizon, as though there might be an easy answer hidden in the distance. Summer could see the deep frown lines across her forehead and felt a sorrow at knowing Raven must have been turning the problem over in her mind for the past week.
Summer gently let her hand come to rest against Raven’s shoulder. ‘If you did want this kid, you know that we’d all be there with you. Tai would love being a father, Qrow will always pitch in for the team, and you know me, I will always be there for you, one hundred percent.’
Raven didn’t reply but her expression grew more thoughtful, less concerned.
‘If you’re afraid of doing this alone, you know I will always help you, right? I promise I can be there as much as you need me. Maybe the kid will even forget which one of us is mom,’ she tried to joke, but Raven turned to face her with an unreadable expression, and Summer’s stomach tied in knots as she tried to work out if she was saying the right things.
‘Do you mean it?’ Raven asked, and Summer couldn’t pick up any clues from her blank tone. There were no more crinkles of anxiety in her forehead, just a curious calculative look in her eyes.
‘Yes,’ Summer replied slowly, still puzzling through Raven’s guarded thoughts, ‘of course.’ Raven’s gaze had grown piercing, and Summer felt a little exposed under the scrutiny. ‘Is that what was worrying you? Being alone? You must know that Tai would never abandon you over this. He’s loyal. He’ll stand by you, no matter what.’
Raven’s expression grew sharp, and Summer had the distinct feeling she’d finally caught on the hidden hook at the crux of their conversation. Raven looked away then. ‘Maybe I’m not concerned about having a child, so much as concerned that it ties me to him.’
Summer drew in a sharp breath at the unexpected words, and edged closer still to Raven, though the cool mask had settled once again over her face. ‘I thought things were good with you guys? You seemed… happy?’
Raven grimaced at the words. ‘I was content. With things as they were. But this? This is so permanent.’ She worked the muscles in her jaw. ‘It was never meant to be anything serious. It was just… simple, uncomplicated, unemotional. And now what? He’ll probably propose or something.’
Summer hesitated. ‘And you don’t want that?’
‘No,’ Raven said with a finality, having at last reached the source of her consternation and showing a visible sense of relief at having identified it, ‘I don’t want that. I don’t want… him.’ At these last words, Raven’s glanced to Summer from the corner of her and for a moment, Summer could finally read the message written in her gaze. She held her breath and lifted a hand, only to let it drop uselessly again to her side.
‘Are you…?’ The words were dangerous; a loaded gun when faced with Raven. Spoken at the wrong time could mean months, maybe years, of repair. Summer pursed her lips against her shaky breath and struggled in herself, wishing that just for once Raven would make the opening instead of forcing Summer to break in.
And then Raven surprised her. She turned to face Summer with a cautious expression, repeating herself carefully and with purpose. ‘I don’t want him .’
‘Raven,’ Summer felt the words come out as whisper, lifting her hand again, almost close enough to touch Raven’s face, ‘You can’t take this back. You have to mean it. Completely.’
‘And if I did?’ Raven voice was shaky; nervous even.
‘Then I told you, I’m with you one hundred percent. If you really mean it… then I don’t want you with him either,’ Summer finally admitted, feeling a year’s weight of suppressed heartache and wretchedness break out from under the forced cheeriness.
‘Okay,’ Raven said, and her expression was so uncertain that Summer nearly laughed, because uncertainty on Raven looked a lot like aggression. Instead, she pushed forwards and kissed her, tangling her fingers in the dark curls that draped around Raven’s face. The kiss was a sigh of confirmation, and Summer pressed closer when she felt Raven’s thumbs against her jaw, letting herself get lost in the dizzying sensation that was Raven without her defences.
They eventually slowly parted, but Raven’s reluctance to let go had Summer leaning back in to rest their foreheads together. She took comfort in the way Raven clutched at her shirt and tugged them closer and closer.
‘I want to do this with you , Summer,’ Raven murmured in hushed tones. Summer had to steady her breath and shaking hands at the confession, knowing that honesty like this came from Raven so infrequently that it was all the more precious.
‘I want to do this with you too.’
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