[OP: "Suitcases"-- Dara Maclean]

Sun and Blake's stay in Menagerie passed uneventfully--rather to their disappointment.

They didn't catch any thieves.

All that Blake accomplished there was that she got the names of some of the ships that had the supplies that got jacked by the pirates...or whoever else they were working with. 

All she could do was give them to Raven and tell her to keep an eye out for any more odd activity there.

To be fair, there could still have been suspicious characters in Menagerie, but Blake and Sun would never have been told.

Illea did her best to snoop around, but just sneaking didn't do it, and she couldn't open crates on ships to see if they really held what they said, not without some kind of warrant.

But Blake had more success in her other project. She was able to get the contract signed to turn her house into a shelter and to arrange for any necessary change to its layout along that line.

Some Faunus workers, when they heard about it, even volunteered to do work free of charge, out of generosity.

They said they liked what Blake was doing for those orphans.

It wasn't really just Blake, but when she mentioned Emerald, she got blank looks, like they couldn't imagine that a human would care about Faunus orphans also.

Some things still were hard to change.

Weiss and Meridian didn't catch anyone either, though Weiss swore that she thought some of the sailors were up to no good--but she couldn't prove it.

They went on their cruise, and Blake and Sun went back to the Capital to keep up with their work there.

Months passed after that of nothing much new.

Emerald kept track of the progress with her project.

About the 3rd month after the shelter on Menagerie was started, Raven called Mercury and Hazel to her office.

Marrow, who was still struggling to fill in for Winter, nodded at them.

Robyn, who was visiting Argus at this time as she usually did every few months, waved.

Mercury ignored them, and Hazel just nodded curtly, never much of a talker.

"Hazel," Mercury said, as they walked up the hallway towards Raven's offfice, " are you and Raven seeing each other, like, officially?"

Hazel didn't answer right away--which was surprising.

Then finally he said, "I'm not sure."

"How are you not sure?" Mercury said.

"Well, the thought has crossed my mind that it could look that way." Apparently even Hazel was not that out of touch--no doubt he'd heard a lot from the people he worked with also. "But she's never said it."

"Yeah...okay, she doesn't say a lot of things," Mercury said. "But would you actually do that?"

Hazel was silent for a long moment, then he said, "Mercury, sometimes you don't expect certain things to happen, but they do."

That was all he said, but it was more than enough to make Mercury's head spin.

"Come on," Raven said, when they were in her doorway.

They came in.

Ravee had her computer screen open. "I hate these things," she said. "Give me a real map any day. I touch the slightest thing on this, it zooms on the picture and changes things."

[My frustration exactly with map apps and touch screens.]

"So use a map," Mercury said.

"I find this resonates better with the younger recruits," Raven said, waving dismissively. "I need to talk to you, Black."

"I'm here," he said.

Raven noted that in the last several months his tone had lost a lot of its scornful tint.

It had also been months since she'd gotten any complaints about him mouthing off to his teammates.

All things considered, she'd decided to risk something.

"There's something we need to discuss that's not exactly plans, but--" She stood up straighter. "--there's a need, and we could meet it. The Belladonnas and other Faunus and even some officials in Mistral itself have decided that we need a bigger solution for the homeless children and young adult problem than just Emerald's housing project. The project is working, but there's still not enough people in it. And...unfortunately it's not just the refugees--there's a lot of kids out there on the streets. We actually didn't realize how many till we took stock of them because of this. It's in the 10,000s if we total it up between all the kingdoms. Maybe more."

"That many?" Hazel seemed actually surprised.

"They hide." Raven shrugged. "Avoid being noticed so no one thinks about how many of them there are. But Emerald's story is just one of many. Some are ditched on purpose, some run away from home.... Pretty much all of them are criminals by the time they're 10. Little kids get handouts sometimes, but after a while, people just look away. No one's ever done anything about them other than Ozpin accepting fighters into his schools for free.... That's a tiny amount."

"What does this have to do with me?" Mercury said.

"To build shelters, we need places to build them," Raven explained. "The city is packed already.  The Belladonnas also are thinking to branch out. They're making one in Menagerie already, but we need one for humans and Faunus both. We need a bunch, but if we start with one, it'll be easier to convince people to build more. Ideally I'd want a few in each kingdom at least."

"You're in on this now," Hazel noted.

"Well--" Raven sat down again and rubbed her hair. "--I guess I've finally realized that, if not for the bandit tribes, my brother and I would have been another one of these statistics.... And the bandit tribes will still recruit these kids, if they can. They won't do as well as they did when I was in charge. Most tribe leaders are...well, ruthless, to put it bluntly. And you know, that Baba tribe? It's still causing problems. We haven't been able to catch them yet. They aren't the only ones. If we don't do something, they'll only increase their numbers."

"But what does this have to do with me?" Mercury asked yet again.

Raven cleared her throat. "You've been sitting on something for soon to be 4 years now. I found it in your file."

She pressed a button.

Mercury's name came up.

On his page were listed his material possessions.

Then he saw what she meant.

"The house?" he said.

His whole tone became distasteful, even if his expression didn't change that much.

Raven knew this was a tricky subject.

She kept her tone neutral. "You've never made a move to sell it in all this time or use it."

"Because I didn't want to think about it," Mercury said flatly. "I don't care about it. They gave it to me just as some consolation prize, or because no one else wanted the house of a murderer, but I don't want anything to do with that place. I wish I'd burned it down when I had the chance."

"So burn it down," Raven shrugged. "If you like. We don't really want the house. Just the property.... No one is using it."

"Because no one would ever want to. It's blood land," Mercury said. "People feel weird about it."

"I'm aware people can be superstitious about it," Raven said. "But I don't believe in superstitions. I do believe in materials. We need collateral. If you don't want it, why not just give it or sell it to us?"

Mercury didn't know why he'd never tried to do this--but somehow even if he didn't want it, he felt weird just signing it off to someone else.

"I don't know," he said.

Raven seemed to read his thoughts.

"I suppose it's a shock to think about it so suddenly," she said, "but it's not helping you to hang on to it. Any of it." Meaningfully. "Maybe letting it be used for something actually profitable would be the best move. We can work on the blood land part--we're aware of how to fix that now, thanks to that little escapade in Eurus, in fact. I've already written to Shine to ask her how we could go about it. She thinks it's a good idea. Apparently in her world some people have used death camps for rehabilitation centers...turning the evil into good. Sounds a little unchancy to me, but maybe I'm just too sentimental."

Not a thing people accused Raven of.

"But you wouldn't have to worry about it anymore," she said. "Why just let it sit here in your record and do nothing?"

Mercury scowled.

"He can think about it," Hazel said. "Not decide right away."

He glanced at Mercury. "Even if you feel like you don't want to now, that could change in a few days. Sometimes our first reaction isn't reliable."

What did he know about that? Mercury thought grumpily.

"Yeah, sure, take some time." Raven knew not to push her luck. "But now is a good time to work on it. More workers are going now that summer's ending and there's less going out of  Argus. I could start working on funding for it with Emerald, if you agreed...and if not, I've got to decide something else."

"Fine." Mercury wanted this to be over. "I'll think about it. Happy?"

Raven let his insolent tone go for once. "I'll take it."

* * *

Mercury did think about it--he couldn't help doing that.

He didn't think it was right to just throw this at him. He'd not put any thought toward what he'd do with the place. He'd never planned to return to it.

And he wasn't being asked to, but...

This stirred all his memories of his dad he'd been pushing aside more successfully lately. Since talking to Cinder, some of his anger had passed.

As if the act of letting one person off the hook had put things into perspective, he'd begun to see that other people might not always be out to put him down as much as they might be scared.

He'd been in less fights with his teammates. In fact, he'd mostly just left them alone. He wasn't actually friendly, but he wasn't hostile.

Kip and Penny, who he sometimes worked with still, said he was in a better mood, in their blunt way.

Even those stupid friends of theirs, team DAPA, had noticed.

He wished that right now he could talk to Emerald. He felt like she'd have made him want to do the right thing more than just focus on being pissed off.

He didn't notice that this was kind of a new thought for him--acknowledging that Emerald did that.

Sure, they'd talked.... They'd tried to be less awkward than before. And at least their friends had seemed to find it helpful. There wasn't as much tension when they did hang out now.

But it wasn't like before--Mercury knew that. And by now he knew that it bothered him.

He also had become aware that he wasn't without competition, if he had still been in the running.

Emerald had a lot of admirers. Once more people knew that she and him weren't together anymore, a lot of the guys around the base got more confident.

Emerald might not have realized they were flirting with her--she could be kind of oblivious about things like that when it didn't interest her--but she knew she had lot of company.

She never sat alone when she ate in the mess hall.

Some of the girls did act as a bit of a buffer for her out of sympathy, or blissful ignorance in Penny's case.

Most of the guys would not have dared to ask her out or anything, since she was a famous hero and a go-getter now, but they wanted to bask in the glow.

Yang probably would have gotten similar treatment if she hadn't been married, which she told the others was a good thing, as it annoyed her to get hit on now that she was taken...which didn't stop everyone, apparently.

Neptune said that was dumb, but the same thing happened to him with girls...not once they saw his partner. Yang scared them.

And Yang and Neptune were there today.

"Hey." Neptune waved Mercury over.

Mercury had stopped picking on him for the most part--it wasn't really fun anymore--and Neptune had apparently decided to bury the hatchet.

Mercury came more because he wanted a distraction from his own thoughts than out of any desire to socialize with them.

But they guessed that.

"Sit down." Yang waved at him with her metal arm.

"Did you spray paint that sucker again?" Mercury asked, sitting.

"This is the new model." Yang held it out.

It was even more lifelike than before, kind of weird.

"I wasn't sure about getting one not made by Pietro, but after I tried it, it worked well." She shrugged. "The old one was getting worn down at the gears. And it had scratches all over it. It was time to move on."

"I like the new one," Neptune said. "It has a lighter function."

Yang made some kind of adjustment, and a flame tip popped out of it.

"Aren't you the lighter?" Mercury asked.

"This way I don't have to get riled up." Yang shook off that jab. "So what's new with you, Metal Gear? Have you switched those pumps yet?"

"Just the gears. I like them just fine." Mercury eyed his metal shoes.

"Men." Yang rolled her eyes. "They never care about fashion."

"Hello." Neptune gave her a look.

"Right, right, most of them," Yang said. "Why the long face, Merc? Did you kick a puppy?"

Mercury glared at her.

"It was a joke...but seriously, you look like a stormcloud--more than usual."

Mercury shook his head. "I don't want to think about it."

"Hmm, did my mom ask you for a favor?" Yang said.

Mercury looked up. "Well, she sure runs her mouth these days."

"Hey, we're tight. She tells me stuff," Yang said. "It's not like it was some big secret. I thought it was a no-brainer. Might as well use that dump for something.... Are you attached to it ?"

"It's not really your business, is it?" Mercury said.

"I guess not." Yang went quiet.

"Look at Emerald." Neptune nodded toward her. "She's Miss Congeniality."

Emerald was at a pretty full table.

"It's inspiring," Yang said, "going from being the social reject to everyone's favorite. I mean, start your own charity, beat some Mind Grimm, and you're in."

She glanced at Mercury. He was scowling.

"You ever think about to get back together?" she asked.

"No," Mercury said.

This was not entirely true.

"Never?" Neptune said. "I think I would. If it happened to me."

"It wouldn't happen," Yang said.

Neptune smiled, but then he said, "I guess you didn't really like her then."

"Hmm?" Mercury was startled enough to respond. "What does that have to do with it? It's over."

"It's just that some of us thought maybe it was one-sided," Neptune said. "I mean that you just went out with her because you didn't want to be alone. It's a real thing. That used to be why I wanted to date--that and other stuff."

Yang kicked him.

"I'm just being honest," Neptune said. "But I didn't know that it was much better when you really care about someone in that way. I think I was aiming too low."

"Knowing you, I'd bet on that," Mercury said. "But it wasn't about that for me. I didn't take advantage of her or anything. She made the first move. And she ended it."

"So she was in control of the entire relationship?" Yang said. "That's kind of lame."

"Why? Don't you control yours?" Mercury said meanly.

"Hey!" Neptune said.

"I guess I'm more outgoing," Yang said. "But that's not the same thing, is it? It takes two to tango. No wonder she dumped you. You didn't actually love her."

"Love is not a word I use, Angry Girl," Mercury said sullenly.

"I'm not angry anymore," Yang said. "I thought maybe you'd left off being angry finally."

Pause.

"Why would you think that?" Mercury said.

"Just you've been a lot nicer lately," Neptune said. "I mean, not Jaune levels of nice but, like, not so far behind Sun and me. I mean, you haven't been such a prick. We thought maybe you'd taken it to heart what people said. I think that's why Raven asked you for a favor. She wouldn't have done that if she didn't think you earned some trust."

"What risk does it take to ask someone to give you a s----y piece of land?" Mercury said.

"It's not just land, is it?" Yang said, oddly lucidly. "It's a piece of your past. Something you don't want anyone else to see...but you know, we can't hide our past. I used to be really open about wanting to find my Mom--till I found her. Then I wanted to hide how I felt with anger. I realized that once you're face to face with the person who hurt you, it's not as easy to be honest. Maybe it's the same with facing a piece of it. Why else would you be upset?"

"Did I ask you?" Mercury said.

"Just now, you did," Neptune said. "And we're not judging.... I can't imagine how it would feel for me to think about it if I had that. I mean, what if I got a letter from my dad, who I don't remember? It'd be weird to open it. But weirder not to."

"I'm not trying to be mean here, Mercury," Yang said, more gently than she usually spoke. "But maybe you'd feel better if you took this head on. You're the kind of guy who has to face stuff to get a clear head. You didn't decide about sparing Emerald till you came right to the edge of doing the wrong thing. Same with your Silver Eyes. You aren't going to get clarity if you avoid it."

Mercury clenched a fist.

But after a few moments of seething, he realized she might have a point.... What was dodging this thing going to do? Raven wasn't going to let it drop.

"How would I face it? He's dead, and it's just a piece of dirt," he said. "It's just not one I want people poking around. I guess. I mean, they weren't there. And the idea of using it to be a nice shelter, when it was a hellhole, just pisses me off."

They nodded.

"Dang, that's some honesty right there," Yang said.

"Is this some kind of joke to you?" Mercury said.

"No, we just think it's good that you're admitting this is bugging you," Neptune said. "Not...you know...attacking us."

Huh?

Oh, yeah...he'd normally do that.

"Maybe if you went there," Yang said, "just...looked at it. Like I did with my mom.... It wasn't pleasant, but if I hadn't, I doubt we'd be where we are now."

"Didn't you get pissed off at her about that?" Mercury said. 

"I did," Yang said. "But after that we clear the air. It took a while.... Hey, I'm not saying it's going to be a piece of cake or anything. But it could start something. If you don't, nothing changes, right? You want to carry this for the rest of your life? Trust me, that won't feel good."

She tapped her chest. "Anger eats you inside."

"Yang's right, nothing changes if you leave it there," Neptune agreed. "Maybe you're right that it's a little weird to think of it being used for something else...but you could go, see what you think. Maybe you'd just decide to destroy the whole thing. That could be cathartic, right?"

[Like in Forrest Gump.]

Mercury bristled. It wasn't like it was some nice, little thing he could stamp on his passport.

"I swore I'd never go back there," he said.

"We all swear stuff we think is a good idea at the time," Yang said. "Maybe the book is right--'Let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no.'"

"We shouldn't push him," Neptune said. "It's his life. I'm not sure what I'd do if I were him."

"I would go," Yang said. "But that's me. I've lived it already. Maybe I wouldn't go alone.... Grimm could show up. I doubt your Silver Eye thing would work if your head was...well, full of all that. But I'd still go. Maybe with a match and gasoline."

Mercury wasn't sure she was actually joking about that.

They went quiet after that.

* * *

Emerald thought Mercury kept glancing at her, but she tried to ignore it.

Finally she got up to leave the cafeteria.... Sometimes having so many friends now was exhausting. She missed only having a few when it got too noisy.

Penny left. Maybe she could tell Emerald was socially tapped out.

"Hey, Emerald." Darren, one of Penny's sometimes teammates, followed.

He was a nice guy, funny. Emerald liked him--so she tried to suppress her reluctance to have a conversation right now.

"Hi. What's up?" She turned back.

Darren looked a little sheepish. "Oh...well, our team is going to go out for some fun later. We wondered if you'd like to...join us?"

It wouldn't be the first time she was invited to do this in the last several months, so why did he look nervous?

"I don't know..." Emerald wasn't sure she felt like partying.

"It won't be a big thing," Darren said. "We're each just inviting one friend, if we can get one to come."

It didn't sound so bad.

"Maybe if I don't have anything else to do," Emerald said.

Trixie had moved out finally, and Emerald did get a little lonesome at times in her apartment. It was just so quiet.

"Okay, cool," Darren said. Then he looked up and backed up. "I'll see you later."

Emerald turned.

Mercury had walked up.

He didn't usually talk to her unless they had to be in the same place, but she supposed it was okay to talk...

Darren sure seemed nervous around him, for some reason.

Mercury was glancing after Darren with a kind of cool expression.

"Was he hitting on you?" he asked.

His tone didn't seem like it bothered him, but Emerald felt embarrassed anyway.

"I...don't think so," she said.

Why does it matter to you? she wanted to say, but didn't.

"He looked like he was," Mercury said. "The look in his eye. But whatever, none of my business. I had a different thing to ask about."

Emerald wondered what it could be.... Her pulse raced a little, but she knew it wouldn't be personal--still, Mercury never asked her anything.

"Yeah?" she said more calmly than she felt.

"I don't know if Raven mentioned it to you, something she wants me to do..." Mercury said.

Raven had, in passing, but Emerald hadn't quite realized she meant to ask Mercury directly about it.

"I think I remember something about that," she said carefully. "Why?"

"They think I should do it," Mercury said. "But would you feel weird, using that place for your project?"

"I think this one is more the Belladonna's project," Emerald said. "But...you think it's creepy?"

"It could be."

"I guess it could be." Emerald thought of the old house she'd seen. It hadn't looked like a nice place even from the road.

"Built on blood money, no doubt," Mercury mused.

Emerald thought more.

"I don't know if I'm the one to really know. I've never owned anything like that," she said. "It might freak me out.... Other than that, I think I'd probably just use it anyway because I used all kinds of stuff. Whatever you find you use, even if it's someone's you don't like. It's like...taking it from them makes it yours, not theirs. But that's the perspective of someone who stole stuff from punks who tried to beat her up."

"That applies more than you might think," Mercury said, in a sort of hollow tone like he didn't like that about it.

Emerald knew it was a touchy subject all too well and didn't want to step on it.

"It's different for me. Maybe you should ask someone who's...more of had that. I mean...what would Weiss or Whitley do with their house if they still had it? It's not just their dad's house--it's also their house, and their mom's, and her dad's," Emerald suggested. "If you look at it that way, it's not as clear. Where did your dad get it from?"

"Either he bought it or he killed whoever lived there and stole it," Mercury said.

"I'd still take it back, then," Emerald said, "if I were you. But you're not me, so...do whatever you want, is all I could tell you. Why would you ask me?"

"I asked if you'd feel weird about it," Mercury said.

"Oh..." For a second Emerald had gotten the idea that he wanted to know what he should do.

Her intuition was better than she gave it credit for.

"But I guess you don't see it that way," Mercury said. "At least that's less wishy washy than what Yang said. I just don't know..."

He walked away without another word.

Emerald wasn't sure what to make of it.

* * *

Another couple months slid by. Mercury didn't make a decision but knew that he needed to; Raven had wanted one before fall was over.

Once he had some more space from the thought, he realized it really didn't seem like such a big deal. It was just a house.

Why it bothered him was a mystery.

The baby shower for the three ladies expecting happened about the 7th month for all of them.

By now you could tell all of them were expecting. Nora complained about getting so much bigger and not being able to wear her clothes.

The other girls just doted on them though. Maybe they all were wondering what it would be like when it was their turn.

Yang said that she hoped she wouldn't freak out over stuff as much as Pyrrha said.

Pyrrha had been hit with the emotional rides of the process more than they expected of her.

Then again, she had the stress of having kids already around, though her parent very nicely watched them as often as they could as she got closer to her due date.

At the baby shower itself the girls had gone a little overboard.

The guys weren't invited. Mostly so the girls could ask all the questions they wanted and it wouldn't be weird.

"Are you scared about what it's going to be like when...you know?" Ruby asked. "I mean, how much it'll hurt?"

"Nah," Nora scoffed. "I have a great pain tolerance."

"I'm a little nervous about it," Pyrrha admitted. "But mostly I'm just ready for this to be over. It's...a little more uncomfortable than I anticipated."

Winter agreed with that. "I'm not that nervous about that part," she said. "We have an excellent doctor here after all. I confess though...I am worried about Qrow. He asked if I wanted him there--and how do I politely tell him I think he'll go to pieces more than I will?"

"Uncle Qrow? Really?" Ruby said.

"No, she's right. He'd lose it," Yang agreed. "Maybe he should just wait.... Do they let guys in that room?"

"If you want it," Winter said.

"Hmm, Jaune promised he'd be there for me," Pyrrha said. "But he hates to see me upset, and I hear it's...intense. Willow told me that she cursed your father out before she even got to the hospital."

"Knowing our father, she had a good reason to," Weiss said.

"He...wasn't so bad then." Willow was stacking presents. "Actually, he was pretty concerned. Jacques changed a lot over time, you know..."

"I can't picture Dad being concerned about us," Weiss said.

"I think every new parent is nervous," Willow said. "It's a new experience after all. But trust me, by the third time, you just want it to be over quickly."

"Oh, dear, you've no idea." Jaune's mother was there of course. "By the 8th time, it took less than 2 hours. I thought labor was nothing after 6 kids. But the first one is awful. My husband was there for me, but I told him I was never going to have kids ever again."

"Hmm, my mom told me she just wanted the pain meds," Shine, who had made it, remarked. "I don't think I'd try to go natural, you know..."

"The nurse kept trying to tell us it was better," Nora said. "She kept saying, 'You know, it's healthier not to use drugs,' and giving us these pamphlets and judgemental looks. Ren kept glancing at me like he wanted to know if I'd want to go all natural. I'm sure he would if he was me."

"Will you?" Blake asked.

"Uh...well, maybe. It might not be that bad," Nora said. "They told my that sometimes the pain's not really so bad."

Willow and Jaune's mom both started laughing.

Raven, who'd popped in for cake, according to herself, also scoffed.

"Well, what's your horror story, Raven?" Shine asked.

"Mine? Never have a baby at home," Raven said. "I made that mistake."

"It wasn't nice to be in familiar surroundings?" Pyrrha asked.

"Oh no, I wanted to punch Tai so bad for most of it," Raven said. "Finally we caved and went to the medical clinic. Qrow was no help. He kept telling me to push."

"Qrow was there?" Shine said.

"Well, he was my only family," Raven said. "Come to think of it, Summer was there too. She kept saying to be positive. I wanted to hit all of them with my odachi."

"Hmm," Winter said. "That's what I worry about. What if I say something completely undignified? I can't picture it, but everyone keeps telling me it just comes out."

"Well, my mother never said she said anything like that," Shine said. "Maybe if it hurts too much you just focus on that."

That didn't reassure them.

"But really it's easier after more times," Jaune's mother insisted. "You'll get through it, don't worry. Once you have the baby, it's all worth it. There's nothing like it, like holding a miracle in your hands. I couldn't believe I carried that little, tiny creature inside me for 9 months. You'll feel the same way, trust me."

"She's right," Willow admitted. "The pain doesn't last that long, compared to the rest."

Raven looked uncomfortable.

"Hmm." Pyrrha looked a little dreamy. "Maybe that's the most important part. I think I could go through a lot of pain to be able to experience that."

"I'd still use pain killers." Emerald looked a little freaked out. "Not that I'm likely to have kids any time soon."

She sighed.

"I didn't think you wanted kids," Blake said.

"I didn't give it much thought," Emerald said. "People like me don't usually have kids on purpose, you know...but watching all of you go through this, it's made me feel a little left out. Like...maybe one day I would like that. You seem so happy."

It was true. Nora had gotten used to the idea, so even she was excited.

Shine put a hand on Emerald's arm. "Just give it time," she said.

"Where are all the guys?" Ruby asked suddenly.

"Well, since you wouldn't let them be a part of this shower," Shine said, "Wally said they were all going to go to an arcade and swap nightmare stories about the whole birth process. At least, that's what Tai and Mr. Arc intend to do. And Klein went with them to give them advice that they will probably will forget as soon as it starts."

"Funny," Winter said flatly.

She tapped the table. "There is something you all might want to know...though I'm still reeling from it myself."

Raven looked up. "Oh, here it comes," she said. "Qrow already told me."

"Told you what?" Yang said.

"Well, you know how this shower was for three infants?" Winter said. "It's...actually for four."

It took a moment for that to sink in.

"Are you kidding me?" Ruby finally squealed.

"You're having twins?!!!" Weiss erupted.

"How?" Yang said. "Wait, how long have you known?"

"A while now..." Winter said. "I've been...trying to process it. It doesn't seem possible, but the doctor confirmed it at our third check up. I think they knew by the second or suspected it but weren't sure."

"I take it your technology is not as advanced as ours then," Shine said. "But this is so exciting."

"I thought twins were, like, a hereditary thing," Blake said. "And for Faunus it's common to have twins or triplets a lot more than with humans. I knew a couple of them on Menagerie. But for you, I thought it was rare."

"It's not that rare," Shine said. "Though I'm surprised. It doesn't run in your family, does it?"

"I don't think so," Winter said.

Willow tapped her chin. "Come to think of it, I think your father's father...or his mother, was it? One of them were twins. They died before I ever married him, you know. He was raised primarily by his guardians, so I never think of it much, but he had some old photo albums lying around."

"I never knew that," Weiss said.

"Like I said, it didn't come up often. He never liked to talk about his family. They were poor," Willow said. "But Klein would know. He knows all our medical records."

"Uncle Qrow is a twin," Ruby said.

"It isn't really passed down for your dad though," Shine said.

"I think it was Qrow's Semblance, personally," Raven said. "He manipulated the probability."

"Raven!" Winter snapped. "Stop it."

"Why didn't you tell us before now?" Ruby demanded.

"I thought it would be a nice surprise for this," Winter said. "And frankly, I thought we weren't ready to talk about it yet. Twice the work, you know."

"If it was your 3rd round," Jaune's mother said, "it wouldn't be so bad. Two of my kids are twins."

"I remember Jaune mentioning that now," Pyrrha said.

"Wait, does this mean I'm more likely to have twins?" Weiss suddenly freak out. "I not sure I could handle that."

"It's not so bad," Shine said. "And if you have a babysitter, it's easier."

"I can help," Willow said nicely. "I mean, I was going to be there all the time anyway."

"We'll manage somehow," Winter said.

"But get a load of this." Raven, now that the cat was out of the bag, of course was dying to poke fun at her family. "Qrow is wigging out. I mean, he's totally flipped. You should have heard him. He was all, 'Raven, I didn't think I could handle one, but two? I'm toast.'" She imitated his voice pretty well.

Winter frowned at her.

"I get why he's nervous. I would be," Nora said.

"What did he say when they told you?" Shine asked Winter.

Winter winced. "He went pale and silent for at least 5 minutes while I was trying to process it. Then he just said that was lot to take in. I had to think of all the things I need to buy two of. I hope at least they're both the same gender."

"Did you ask?" Yang asked.

"I didn't really care to know at first," Winter said.

"Jaune and I wanted it to be a surprise also," Pyrrha said.

"Not me," Nora said. "I knew I'd never be able to wait 9 months to find out. We're having a girl."

"That's so great," Ruby said.

"Can't wait," Nora agreed.

"I'm going to check on the guys." Shine wanted to visit them also of course.

[Surprised?

My mom insisted I make it twins. It was a pretty funny idea, so I couldn't pass it up.]