#Raven x tai | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

midnightechoes · 4 months

Text

A Bridge Chapter 1 of 2

Read on AO3 here!

A Bridge is the third part in my post-RWBY volume 5 STR-Crossed Lovers fic series, Kintsugi. It was originally posted on AO3 back in February 2023.

Kintsugi Part 1, A Visit, taking place immediately after v5 and written by me, can be read on AO3 and Tumblr.

Kintsugi Part 2, A Dream, part flashback, part sequel to A Visit, was written by my friend @shera-dnd and can be read on AO3 and Tumblr.

Tai let out a sigh. Two days ago Raven had shown up after almost twenty years, a broken, defeated shell of the woman he had known and loved. After a tense first night, and a long day where they had visited Summer’s grave, he had been hopeful of the progress they had made. Granted, he still wasn’t entirely sure what they were making progress toward, but nonetheless, he was hopeful.

Was.

It was early in the morning, and Tai was leaning against the doorway to the guest room Raven had spent the previous two nights in. A guest room that currently had an empty bed. Tai simply let out a second, long sigh as he stared at it.

Two days ago he wasn’t sure what to think when he first saw Raven land on the roof of his house, but the days had gone better than he could have hoped, rebuilding some small hint of the connection he and his ex-wife used to have. But he’d be lying if a part of him wasn’t expecting to eventually walk into a room and find that Raven was gone. There was a certain inevitability to it, even if it did sting a little more than he had expected it to.

With a heavy heart, Tai pushed himself off the doorframe and took a step into the empty room. He stopped suddenly when he heard a loud slam coming from inside the house. He spun around and hurried down the hall, glancing into each room as he went until he got to Yang’s. There he saw Raven, standing next to a closed window, holding a picture frame that had been sitting on the desk.

“Oh, hey,” Tai chirped, the excitement in his voice noticeable.

“Morning,” Raven murmured, barely looking up.

“Did you hear that slam?” Tai asked, taking a couple of steps into the room.

The question prompted Raven to raise an eyebrow as she finally diverted her attention to him for a few seconds before turning to glance at the window behind her.

“I closed the window,” she said, almost breathless. “It felt…” Raven took another look at the photo in the frame, a family portrait that was taken some years ago that featured a young Ruby and Yang, along with a proud Tai and excited Zwei. “...It felt like the right thing to do.”

“That was taken on Ruby’s first day of school,” Tai said, answering Raven’s silent question. “She was so excited, it took me almost ten minutes to get her to stand still long enough for Qrow to take the picture.”

Raven let out a chuckle that died almost as soon as it started. She ran a finger along the glass, tracing a line between Ruby and Yang. “The kids, were they…happy?”

Tai draped an arm over Raven’s shoulders, making her jump slightly at the contact. Tai quickly lifted his arm but set it back down when Raven made no effort to push him away.

“Yeah. Yeah, they were,” Tai answered. “Zwei made sure of that.”

That got a hearty laugh from Raven as she slapped his chest with the back of her hand.

After feigning injury, Tai slipped the portrait out of Raven’s hands and returned it to its home on the desk.

“Why don’t we start our day on a better note? How about some breakfast?”

“The last time you tried to cook breakfast for Summer and me, you nearly burned the house down,” Raven cracked as she and Tai began making their way out of the room.

“That was a long time ago!” He shouted in protest. “I’ve gotten a lot better at cooking, you’ll see.”

---

Much to Raven’s astonishment, Tai had gotten better at cooking. It was a simple dish, but it was warm, the tea was hot, and the company was pleasant. Tai had spent most of the time boasting about his cooking skills, and admitting to all the glorious failures he had suffered in order to get them. What Raven was most entertained by was hearing of how Yang used to tease the poor man mercilessly for his failures, even though apparently she still always ate it in the end.

A good two hours had somehow slipped by, during which they drained an entire tea kettle. They had forgotten how easily the two of them could lose time when they got going; Summer was the only reason they were ever on time for anything.

The banter might have continued on for even longer if it wasn’t for an alert on Tai’s scroll going off. He tried to give it nothing more than a passing glance, but the info in the little notification box drew his attention.

“What is it?” Raven asked.

“Oh. It’s just… I forgot that I have some things to do at Signal today.”

Raven leaned forward, propping her head against her hand and gently swishing the dregs of tea that were in her cup. “Ah yes, the job. How boring,” she playfully teased.

“Have to earn a living somehow,” Tai chuckled, throwing his hands up.

“Why?” Raven leaned a little more forward towards him, lifting her free arm and then quickly snapping her hand shut into a fist. “I do what I want, and take what I want,” she confidently boasted.

Tai met her zeal with a flat expression. “Yeah, well, I live in the real world, Rae. And here things cost money, and there are consequences for thieving and stealing.”

“Thieving and stealing is my world,” Raven muttered as she leaned back in her chair. “It’s the world I was born into. It’s the path I still walk.”

“Look,” Tai began, reaching forward and rested his hand on Raven’s. “We all knew where you came from, and we never judged you or your brother for it. We still don’t. But…” He paused to take a deep breath before continuing. “...For a while there you tried walking a different path, with Summer and me. And I like to think it went pretty well.”

Raven stared at the hand resting on hers for a moment before tugging free of the loose grip. “Until I ruined it.”

A silence fell over the kitchen.

Tai leaned back in his chair. He thoughtfully regarded his empty cup, taking a moment to sort out the myriad of thoughts that were racing through his brain.

“I don’t care about any of that,” he finally said. When Raven found the courage to look up at the man across from her, she found a confident smile beaming at her. “All that matters right now is that you’re here. That you’re trying.” Tai slid his hand across the table, palm up, and waited. After a few seconds, Raven found it with her own hand and gave it a squeeze. “It means the world to me that you’re here.”

After another squeeze, Raven let go of Tai’s hand, and wiped away a tear that had been threatening to fall. “I can’t stay.”

“What?”

“My tribe still needs me. Salem knows where our camp is, we have to get on the move again.” Raven met Tai’s gaze, her eyes glassy. “They’re my people, Tai. I’m their leader, and it’s my responsibility to get them to safety.”

“I’ll come with you,” Tai immediately suggested, possibly before he even had a chance to think the idea through.

“No,” Raven flatly stated. “No, Tai. The Branwen tribe is my responsibility, not yours.”

“But…”

“I said no,” Raven firmly said. She rose to her feet, but barely even managed to push her chair in before Tai grabbed her forearm.

“Don’t leave yet,” Tai blurted out, his voice hurried. “Please.” Raven simply looked down at the hand on her arm, then back up at the man it was attached to, and raised an eyebrow. “What’s one more day?”

“I thought you had your job to get to,” Raven smoothly responded.

“Er, well, yeah,” he conceded, before a grin formed on his face. “But, I was supposed to meet up with a few friends after work. Come out with me.”

Raven furrowed her brow at him.

Tai knew that face. It was the face she gave whenever she was on the verge of giving in but didn’t want to admit it.

“Just one more day. We can get out of this house, and just have a little fun. I promise, tomorrow I won’t try to stop you,” Tai pleaded.

“What would I even wear? I certainly couldn’t go into town like this,” Raven said as she gestured to her clothes.

“Why not?”

“Because I look like ‘Raven Branwen, the Bandit Queen’!” she let ouf in a huff. “If I’m going to go out I’d rather not draw any more attention than necessary.”

“Most of your old stuff is still up in the attic, actually. Should be able to find something in there,” Tai quickly answered.

Raven took another moment to answer, mostly just to make Tai sweat a little longer. Slowly, a slick grin grew on her face. “Alright, fine,” she chuckled. “Just write down when and where, and I’ll meet you there after work.”

“I’ll send it to your scroll,” Tai suggested. He let go of Raven and pulled his own scroll from his pocket.

“I don’t have one,” she answered, smirking.

Tai cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Those things can be easily tracked,” Raven gravely informed Tai. He simply shrugged at her then made his way over to a drawer and pulled out a pad and a pen.

“And Tai,” Raven began, her arms folded, her smirk growing. The man gave her his full attention, prompting Raven to motion towards the doorway. “You do know that I wasn’t planning on leaving just then, right? I just have to use the restroom,” she informed him, a smug tone in her voice, before walking out of the room, leaving Tai in the kitchen alone, blushing slightly.

“Um, yeah, I totally knew that,” he mumbled to himself.

---

Raven stood in the middle of the second-floor hallway, staring at the ladder in front of her that led to the attic. It had been almost two minutes since she pulled the ladderway down, and yet, the best she had been able to do was grip one rung with her hand, her feet still firmly on the floor. Above her, through the opening, was a bright, dusty void that teased the edges of a room that awaited her with promises of the one thing Raven had, up until the last week, been running from for years: her past.

She took a deep breath and planted one foot on the bottom rung. It took all of her might for Raven to hoist herself up to the next.

One, and then another. With each rung, her body felt heavier, yet there was pride sprouting inside of her with every step.

Raven hesitated after the fourth rung.

The opening to the attic hovered just above her. With the next step she would crest over the lip of the opening, and there would be no turning back after that.

She took another deep breath and willed her way up the rest of the ladder.

Truth be told, Raven wasn’t sure exactly what she was expecting to find at the top of the stairs. Her brain had conjured visions of overwhelming altars to her past and her sins. Each version more dire, and more judging than the previous.

A mundane, normal attic was the last thing on her mind, but it was exactly what she had found. It was a long room that ran the length of the house. The walls, ceiling, and floor were plain wood, grayed by the amount of dust present. A window at the back end of the house provided the only light in the room, with a hanging light in the center of the room there to help. There were boxes and boxes stacked up around the attic, all of them haphazardly placed, with a winding pathway between them.

Raven chuckled at the sight. In hindsight, she knew that this was what she should have expected if she hadn’t let her anxiety get the best of her. There was no altar. No towering stack of boxes labeled “Raven’s stuff” with skulls and crossbones on it. In fact, there weren’t many labels on anything, and nothing was neatly stacked or organized.

“Really, Tai?” Raven huffed to herself as she snaked her way through the room. Towards the back corner, back where the light from the hanging bulb barely reached, the level of organization rose sharply, and almost all of them were labeled.

A melancholy smile came over her face. Raven knelt down in front of an old stack of boxes and traced the mundane words scribbled on them with her finger, words written in a way that looked all too familiar.

“Summer,” she murmured, followed by a sharp sniffle. Raven allowed herself a moment to admire her wife’s handwriting, swooping and playful, conjuring memories of her own name at the top of handwritten notes passed during classes. She silently thanked Summer for always having been the coordinated one of them. A dark realization came over Raven. She stood up and glanced around, noticing just how much of the attic was disorganized, creating a sort of map of just how long Summer had been gone.

A shiver ran down her spine.

It took Raven a couple of minutes to recenter herself so that she could return to the task at hand.

About ten minutes of rummaging passed before Raven finally found a large, sealed plastic container with her name on it. Popping the lid off revealed it was stuffed full, brimming with a part of Raven’s life that she had put out of her mind for so long. She quickly rearranged some of the containers in the attic to give herself room to unpack hers. There were all sorts of items and trinkets of hers that had been meticulously wrapped and stored, along with plenty of clothes. It didn’t take long for Raven to find what had, once upon a time, been her favorite pair of pants: a pair of black jeans with huge cargo pockets. Pulling them out of the container revealed a major problem, though: both of the legs were severely torn around the mid-thigh area, to the point that the rest of the legs dangled as if they were about to fall off.

Memories of the over-zealous training exercise that had caused the rips flooded back to Raven, bringing a small smile to her face as she recalled one of the few times Qrow had been able to land a solid blow on her.

If Qrow’s blade hadn’t torn her pants, she’s sure something else would have. They had been her favorite pair, and she had worn them so often that both Tai and Summer complained more than once. She had made it something of a game, if her boyfriend and girlfriend didn’t want to see her in them - well - it was their job to take them off of her.

There were plenty of other pants in the container, a few skirts, and even a couple of dresses too, but as Raven sat there holding her ripped black jeans, smiling and blushing just a bit, she made a decision. One of the mottos of the Branwen tribe had always been “repair over discard”, an essential mindset when one could go weeks, even months without access to new supplies.

Raven grabbed an orange tank top out of the container, resealed it, and made her way back down into the house. It didn’t take long to find the sewing supplies, a must-have for any parent. She selected a thick, gold thread and got to work

---

Truth be told, Tai didn’t love going to Vale. The barebones-college town vibe of Patch had always been more his speed, he’d take dirt roads lined with trees over the metal and concrete of the big city any day. Vale did have its advantages, though. Primarily, more places to spend an evening with friends.

It had been some nine months since the Fall of Beacon, and most of Vale had recovered exceptionally well in that time, save for the school itself. One could barely tell that any of the city had suffered so much as a scratch, let alone a massive invasion.

Punctuality had never been Tai’s strong suit, going against the free-spirit brand he worked hard to maintain. Which made the fact that he had been the first one of his party to arrive all the more amusing. He paced along the sidewalk for another few minutes, taking in the sight of the newly rebuilt entertainment district as the setting sun glistened off of the buildings, until a raven swooped in, soaring just over Tai’s head, and kawed to get his attention. He turned just in time to see the raven veer into an alleyway at the end of the block. Letting out a light chuckle, he began jogging after the bird.

Raven emerged from the alleyway just before Tai could reach it. She was wearing a plain, orange tank top and her black pants, now being held together by gold stitching around the thighs. A smile washed over Tai as soon as he saw her, which turned into a fit of laughter as his eyes drifted down.

“Oh brothers, I thought we burned those!” Tai chuckled

“Summer would have never! She loved seeing me in these,” Raven smugly proclaimed as she folded her arms.

“Well, yeah, but not because she actually liked the pants,” Tai cracked.

The statement only made Raven’s smugness grow. “My point stands.” The playful standoff between the two quickly gave way to laughter, and something Raven hadn’t done since she arrived in Patch: flash a carefree smile.

“So, where are these friends of yours?”

A nervous grin came over Tai. “That is a good question. I’m sure they’ll be here—”

“—Taiyang!” a hearty voice boomed out from across the street before Tai could finish his sentence.

The familiar voice made Raven go stiff as her eyes widened, the grin on her face disappearing in an instant. She and Tai turned in unison to see a jovial Peter Port jogging across the quiet road. Just behind him were a stunned Bartholomew Oobleck and Glynda Goodwitch.

“What is happening?” Raven hissed before they were joined by Port, Oobleck, and Goodwitch.

“Tai! It’s so excellent to see you again!” Port boasted as he reached them. “And you brought a friend!” Port exclaimed as he turned to focus on Raven for the first time. “...Oh!”

“‘Friend’ isn’t the first word that comes to mind,” Glynda grumbled, staring daggers at Raven.

Raven immediately took a defensive stand, her hand instinctively reaching for her sword that wasn’t there. “Well I certainly regret not bringing Omen,” she growled.

“As if I don’t already have enough reasons to arrest you right here on the spot,” Glynda retorted.

Oobleck was the first to jump between the two. “Ladies! Please!” he said with his trademark lightning-quick voice. It was enough to prompt Glynda and Raven to pause their verbal sparring match. Oobleck took the chance to turn to Tai and smile. “It is good to see you.”

“Yeah, likewise,” Tai answered.

“I must say, it is quite the shock to see you tonight, Miss Branwen,” Obleck continued, his attention fully on the bandit queen.

“I don’t want to cause any trouble,” Raven responded.

“Well that would be a first,” Glynda was quick to remark.

“This was a mistake, Tai,” Raven scoffed, then turned around to leave. She barely got a step before her ex-husband had his hand around her wrist. She snapped her head to him, piercing eyes intending to convey a stern get off me, but her resolve quickly melted when she was met with the most pleading face Tai could make. A long sigh came out of Raven as she turned back to the party. “I’m willing to give it a shot if they are.”

The very loud, very distinct sound of Port clearing his throat cut into the conversation. “Miss Branwen, you have to understand, since you left, all that we’ve heard about you have been from your brother, which hasn’t been… the most flattering of portrayals.”

“Thieving and killing your way across Anima, if I recall!” Oobleck blurted out, extending his pointer finger up as if throwing out a random fact during one of his lessons.

It made Raven’s jaw clench. “We aren’t killers, we’re survivors,” Raven growled. She glared at the three of them. “Not all of us were so lucky to have fancy jobs and cushy lifestyles handed to us. Some of us have had to fight for every scrap we have. I’ve done what I had to in order to ensure the survival of my people.”

“Sounds like a lot of justifying bad deeds,” Glynda shot back.

“Glynda,” Tai bemoaned.

“Well I’m sorry, Tai, but how am I supposed to feel? She just shows back up, after almost two decades, and expects everything to be fine?”

Tai stepped forwards towards Glynda. “No, everything isn’t fine. My daughters have had to deal with losing friends, people that they cared deeply for. I had to take care of Yang while she processed having one of her arms chopped off. Now there’s a giant Grimm turned to stone atop Beacon, while my girls wander around Anima trying to figure out how to stop an unstoppable force. So you’re right, there are a lot of things that aren’t ‘fine’. But right now, all I want is to have a nice evening with my friends. Including my wife.”

“Ex-Wife, technically,” Raven automatically corrected. Tai shot Raven an annoyed look, which seemed to bring satisfaction to her. Tai’s attention was pulled back forward when he felt an arm on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Glynda sighed. She let go of Tai and moved to address Raven directly. “At the very least, it’s not like we have to worry about small talk all night.”

Raven raised an eyebrow at the statement.

Glynda turned back to Tai and smirked. “You didn’t tell her?”

A very nervous grin came over Tai’s face as he glanced between the two women.

“Tell me what?” Raven snarled, her eyes squinting at her ex-husband. Tai pointed at the building that they were all standing in front of. The signage above the door was a bright neon sign that flashed “Vale Karaoke”.

Raven whipped back to Tai, her eyes wide. “This was definitely a mistake.”

---

It took two beers before Raven was willing to sing. When she finally did, she picked the hardest, fastest song in the library, and screamed through most of it as Port and Glynda covered their ears, but still got a round of enthusiastic applause from Tai and Oobleck when she had finished.

Despite everyone’s initial hesitation, the evening seemed to be going smoothly. They rented a private room for two hours. A soft, gray couch lined three of the walls in a U shape, with a low, wooden table in the middle on which the song selection machine sat. The fourth wall was taken up mostly by a TV screen. Tai and Raven were on the side closest to the door, with Oobleck and Glynda opposite of them, and Port in the middle.

Raven’s metal performance happened about forty minutes into the night, and from there she seemed to mostly settle into enjoying herself. She clapped along to a few of the songs Tai sang, mostly upbeat rock and roll songs, and cheered on Port’s eclectic selection of songs. Somehow, Oobleck convinced her to sing a duet with him, some kind of silly pop song. Every once in a while, Raven and Glynda would needle each other during the lulls between the music. Mostly just small stuff, a backhanded compliment here, a note of skepticism there. Each time it began happening, Tai would hurriedly start the next song and shove the mic at whoever’s turn it was, paying little attention to what he was selecting. This is what led to Port singing a very lusty love song. What couldn’t be explained was why he was getting so into it.

As if her prayers were answered, it was during this song that the notification came that their food order was ready. Raven immediately jumped at the chance to go get it. She quietly slipped past Tai and exited the room, doing what she could to not distract from Port’s fun. To her surprise, Glynda slipped out right behind her.

“Keeping an eye on me, warden?” Raven smirked.

Glynda shot her hands up. “We ordered a lot, I just thought you could use the help.”

Raven answered with a faint hum, then began making her way down the hall, with Glynda following just behind. They walked in silence up to the food counter, where Raven turned in their ticket to one of the clerks, who promptly nodded and disappeared to the back.

“I didn’t know you could sing,” Glynda offhandedly commented as they waited. Raven simply shot her a raised eyebrow. “Not that wailing you did, mind you. That was utter nonsense, but when you sang with Bart, that actually sounded nice.”

Before she could reply, the clerk returned and set their order out onto two trays. Both women gave the clerk a nod and began to head back, trays in hand.

“Well, you were always more Summer’s and Tai’s friend,” Raven stated casually, “I’m sure there are plenty of things you don’t know about me.”

“You’re right, there’s a lot I don’t know about you. That’s what happens when someone’s not around,” Glynda shot back.

The comment made Raven stop in her tracks. There was a silence between them before Raven whipped around as fast as she could without spilling anything on her tray. “Is there something you wanted to say to me?” she snarled.

“I made a promise to Tai. And I don’t break my promises,” Glynda cooly replied, which just seemed to infuriate Raven even more.

“Well he’s not here, now is he. You’ve been peppering me all night, so why don’t you just spit it out!”

A sardonic smirk grew on Glynda’s face as she weighed her options. After a moment, she seemed to come to a decision as she set her gaze firmly on Raven. “Here’s what I know about you, Raven. I know what it feels like to have to comfort your sobbing wife because one morning you just up and disappeared. I know how pained Tai was that he couldn’t grieve the loss of Summer with you, that he didn’t even know how to let you know. I watched your family fall apart. They needed you, and you were nowhere to be found.” By the time Glynda had finished, she was huffing from long-suppressed anger that had come bubbling to the surface.

It took a few seconds for Raven to recover. She looked livid, but a closer inspection would have revealed bloodshot eyes on the verge of tearing up. “I had a responsibility to my tribe,” she seethed.

“What about the responsibility to your family?!” Glynda immediately shot back. “You couldn’t even show up for Summer’s funeral. Did you even care? Did you ever care?”

“Of course I cared!” Raven cried. “I… I…”

The sudden sound of a door opening froze both of them. “Everything alright out here?” Tai’s voice called from behind Raven, some ten feet away.

With a deep breath, and a quick glare at Glynda, Raven turned back around with as much of a smile as she could. It apparently wasn’t very convincing because as soon as she turned, Tai’s face contorted into a worried expression.

“We’re fine,” Raven snapped as she strode into the room past him.

“Just lovely,” Glynda coldly affirmed.

Tai closed the door behind them. They had returned just as Port and Oobleck were finishing some sort of duet, and having a good laugh over it.

“A-ha! The food has arrived!” Port gleefully declared, wrapping his arm around Oobleck and shaking the man violently.

The group took a brief break to dig into the food while the synthy, generic waiting screen music filled the room.

“You know, for what’s basically bar food, this is pretty good,” Tai said as he stuffed more fries into his mouth.

“I’ve survived on a lot worse,” Raven chuckled.

“And here I thought bandits ate like kings,” Glynda mused, loudly. She was focused on her sandwich, but a satisfied smile grew on her face as she could feel Raven glaring at her again.

“I already told you that we didn’t, are you calling me a liar?,” Raven growled back. Tai tried to place his hand on Raven’s arm, but she yanked it away quickly.

“I’m sure that’s not what Glynda intended, Miss Branwen,” Oobleck tried to insert, but instead just had Raven’s ire redirected to him.

“Oh really? Because it sure as hell sounds like that’s what she meant,” Raven barked.

“My only question is why you thought living that way was necessary,” Glynda stated, returning Raven’s glare with one of her own.

Tai shoved the handful of fries into his mouth, and quickly pulled the selection machine towards him. With his attention still mostly on the growing argument, Tai punched in a number at random. “Oh look, it’s your turn, Rae,” he hurriedly said as he stood up and pulled Raven to her feet. She shot him a death glare, one that he did his best to ignore as he shoved the microphone into her hands. “Your turn to sing, Rae!”

Raven kept her eyes focused on Glynda as she let Tai pull her to the front of the room where they had been performing all night. It wasn’t until both of Tai’s hands were firmly on her shoulders that she turned her attention back to Tai.

“You got this,” he beamed.

“What am I even singing?” Raven asked, a confused look on her face.

“No idea,” Tai admitted. “Does it really matter? We’re here to sing, so just sing. Please?” he begged. Raven sighed and nodded, giving him a faint smile, one that he returned.

The music of the selection began, instantly wiping Raven’s faint smile away. It was a simple piano melody, but as it played, working its way to the beginning of the lyrics, Tai and Raven stood frozen staring at each other with widening eyes as their jaws went slack.

A quiet gasp came from Glynda, but it was enough to shake Tai out of his stupor. “No no no no no!” He stammered as he tried to make his way around Raven so he could turn the song off. But before he reached the machine, Raven’s arm shot out and grabbed his. “Rae, you don’t have to,” Tai croaked, but Raven just pushed him down onto the couch. She stood there for a couple of seconds, staring straight at the screen, posture stiff, clutching the microphone as tightly as she could with both hands as the lyrics slowly began scrolling up on the screen.

“Once,” Raven began, drawing out the “o” as her voice cracked slightly. “Like a dream, you looked at me, and everything felt new,” she continued.

It looked as if she was trying to strangle the microphone, her grip twisting around it, growing tighter and tighter with each word. “Time slipped away, the past seemed to fade, my hope restored by you.” Raven’s voice cracked again on the “you”. Throughout her tone had been swinging from hollow, to putting everything she had into the words, sometimes shifting between tones in the middle of the words.

At the far end of the room, Glynda and Port sat on the couch set against the back wall, with Oobleck off to the side. The doctor sat there, hand over his mouth, seemingly entranced by Raven.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand what is happening,” Port whispered as he leaned toward Glynda.

“This was the song that Summer sang to Raven and Tai at their wedding,” Glynda murmured, a look of horror on her face. Even from behind, it was easy to see how uncomfortable Raven was by her posture and rigid lack of movement.

Port returned his gaze to Raven, and with this new knowledge, sighed. “Oh no.”

“...always be, it's my destiny, to… to…” Raven stuttered. The cold determination she had been clinging to was beginning to crumble. Her entire body shook as she tried to force the words out of her mouth.

“—to be in love with you,” Tai’s voice softly finished. Raven slowly turned to see Tai standing just next to her, a microphone in his hand, a furrowed brow, and a slight smile on his face.

Raven herself had an expression of deep sorrow on her face, but with Tai’s help, she turned back to the monitor to continue. “Some people fall in love for life,” the two sang together. “Others never get it right, love's fickle when it calls, one thing that I know for sure, longer than our lives endure, you're my…” Raven began stuttering again, throwing Tai off.

“...My…” Raven stammered. “...My fore—” she stopped suddenly mid-word, her entire body seemed to almost buckle as she hunched over. “I can’t!” she screamed, accompanied by the sound of the plastic microphone shattering in her hand. “I can’t!” she repeated.

Before anyone had a chance to react, Raven slammed her body into the door, bursting it open.

“Shit!” Tai yelped, following her out the door as fast as could. He got into the hallway in time to see a raven soaring through the halls. “Shit shit shit!” he huffed, giving chase as quickly as possible.

What little hope Tai had of catching Raven in the building was dashed when another patron in the entranceway kindly opened the door so the wild bird could fly out. He was running so fast that he almost ran said patron over on his way to violently shoving the door open.

Once outside, Tai could see Raven soaring down the block. He immediately gave chase, trying his best to not lose her completely, lowly cursing between increasingly haggard breaths. Hope came back to him when he saw Raven turn into an alleyway just a block away.

By the time he got to the alleyway, Tai was exhausted, his legs were burning as he gasped for breath. Bent over, his hands pressed firmly on his knees to hold himself up, he peered into the alleyway and was grateful to see Raven standing some twenty feet again, human once more, with one arm wrapped around her waist and the other hand covering her face as audible sobs echoed in the alley.

Something, perhaps it was a connection made long ago that despite years of fraying still held, or perhaps it was just how loudly Tai was huffing for air, but something made Raven look up. Her bloodshot eyes found Tai’s, and for some reason, seeing that man, hunched over on the sidewalk, sucking in oxygen after chasing her for almost a whole mile, made her smile.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to run, I just needed to get out of there,” Raven hoarsely called out. “And flying’s a lot faster than running.”

Tai forced himself back into an upright position and took a few steps into the alleyway. “Y-Yeah, I can see that. I could barely keep up, and I have great calf muscles,” he boasted, a cocky smile on his face doing his best to ignore just how much those calves were screaming in pain.

Despite her state, Raven couldn’t help but giggle. She took a quick glance at the man’s legs, then glanced back up at him, a teasing smile on her face. “You really do have great calf muscles.”

Thankfully, Tai’s face was already red from the running, hiding the blush that came from the compliment. He awkwardly scratched the back of his head as he averted his gaze and let out a faint chuckle.

Once he was able to recover, Tai took another couple of steps towards Raven, still leaving seven or eight feet between them.

“I am so sorry, Raven. I was just trying to distract you from fighting with Glynda. I was being careless, and I should have checked what I was punching in.” He paused to let out a long sigh. “I should have stopped the song as soon as I heard it.”

The admission and apology didn’t immediately elicit a response from Raven. She simply stood there, no longer sobbing but with tears still running down her cheeks, both her arms wrapped around her waist, staring absently toward the ground just in front of her.

Despite having been pretty loud, even with his throat still burning from gasping for air, Tai was starting to think that Raven hadn’t heard him. Until she shifted slightly. Her eyes shot to him for just a brief second before dropping back to the ground.

“My semblance,” Raven murmured, her brows knitting, “it doesn’t attach to people’s bodies. The connection made attaches to one’s aura… one’s soul.”

A pregnant pause fell between them, Raven struggling for the strength to get to her point, a dim horror washing over Tai as the flicker of that point began to glow in his mind.

“So when someone dies, and their soul leaves their body, that connection is severed,” Raven pushed on, each word getting a little less sure as she went. “It-It feels like a piece of my heart being violently torn from my body.”

With all her effort, Raven forced herself to meet Tai’s gaze, her eyes looking haunted. “I knew the second Summer died,” she cried, a loud sob escaping her. Within seconds, Tai had his arms wrapped around her as he pulled her into a tight hug. Raven sank into him, her body going slack, letting Tai’s solid frame hold her up.

They stayed that way for a moment, Raven letting out little sobs every handful of seconds. Finally, after settling down a little, she regained some of her posture, pulling out of the hug slightly to look Tai in the eyes, something she was only able to do for a few seconds before dropping her gaze to the side. With Tai’s arms still draped around her, Raven seemed to shrink, hugging herself as if to take up as little space as possible.

“I don’t have an easy answer for why I didn’t come back,” she murmured. “I guess there was a part of me that was still trying to convince myself that I made the right choice. That my life and this one were incompatible, that going our separate ways and staying far apart was what was best for everyone.”

Raven sucked in a deep breath before continuing. “There was a part of me that was ashamed... I ran away from everyone… I didn’t deserve to be a part of this family…” With some struggle, Raven managed to look up at the man still holding her. “... I didn’t think you’d want anything to do with me.”

Tai simply looked into her eyes and smiled. “Well, that’s obviously not true.”

“Obviously,” Raven faintly chuckled.

“Come back to the bar, there’s still almost an hour left. We’ll find something better to sing,” Tai promised.

That got a louder chuckle out of Raven. “Only if I get to pick the songs.”

They finally separated from the hug. Tai lifted his arm, allowing Raven to curl hers around it. “You drive a hard bargain, Branwen.”

“A code of the Branwen Tribe, always maintain the upper hand.”

Tai let out a laugh as they walked. “You really gotta teach me these codes some time.”

---

When Tai and Raven returned to their private room in the karaoke center, Glynda, Port, and Oobleck were standing at the front of the room. It was clear by their movement that they had been huddled and talking just seconds before the door had opened. Raven stepped in first, with Tai just behind them. Three pairs of eyes immediately trained on them, but to Raven’s surprise, none of those eyes were filled with anger. There was something in there, something Raven couldn’t quite put a finger on. Undeterred, she pressed on, taking a deep breath before addressing the small crowd.

“I am sor—” was all Raven got out before she found herself suddenly being pulled into a tight hug by Glynda. They both stood there for a moment, Raven in shock as Glynda’s arms constricted around her shoulders. Once Raven was able to shake out of her stupor, she reached her arms up, clutching at the blonde woman’s back as she basked in the warmth of the hug.

They stayed that way for another moment, neither saying a word, instead just letting the hug say everything that was needed.

---

It was almost midnight when Tai and Raven returned to Patch. After the karaoke bar, the group decided to go and get a proper dinner together, although it seemed that Port and Tai had decided that the karaoke would follow them wherever they went.

Tai burst into the house, full of energy and song, and jovial from a good night and a few alcoholic drinks. “Can't hold me now! And you're not stopping me!” he blurted out, slightly off-key and voice more than slightly hoarse.

The commotion startled Zwei, who had been asleep in his doggy bed that was a few yards from the door. The pup immediately jumped from his bed in excitement, and scurried over to greet Tai and Raven, who was just closing the door behind her.

“Hey, little buddy!” Tai enthusiastically called out as Zwei jumped up and began licking his face. Raven simply giggled at the sight as she slipped past him and disappeared into the kitchen. “Who’s the best guard dog in the world?” Tai playfully teased as he cradled Zwei like a baby and scratched his belly, making the dog’s tail wag excitedly.

After a minute, Raven returned to the living room, holding two glasses of water. “I put some tea on, it’ll help with the throat,” she announced. She went to hand Tai his water, but Zwei saw the opening and squirmed out of Tai’s grip. Raven was just barely able to pin the dog between her arms as she tried to keep the glasses in her hands from spilling. Tai took the glasses from Raven, allowing her to pull the good dog up against her shoulder. She couldn’t help but giggle as he began licking her face. “It’s good to see you too, buddy.”

“Thanks,” Tai said, holding up the glass of water and taking a sip.

“I assumed you needed it,” she playfully jeered.

“What can I say, I had a fun night,” Tai boasted, flashing a sly smile. “It’s nice to see that you and Glynda are finally friends.”

An involuntary guffaw came out of Raven. “Let’s not go that far,” she argued. There was a brief moment of silence between them, save for Zwei’s happy little whines, as their eyes found each other. “Still, it was a nice night.”

As if on cue, the tea kettle in the kitchen began whistling, seemingly startling everyone out of whatever moment was beginning to develop. Raven set Zwei down and scurried into the kitchen. Tai knelt down to ruffle the hair on Zwei’s head, then followed his ex-wife.

Once there, he found Raven pouring two cups of tea. “Do you really have to leave?” Tai asked, his voice low, somber.

The question made Raven let out a long sigh as she set down the kettle. Slowly, she turned in place and leaned against the kitchen counter, her fingernails digging into the wooden top as she gripped it tightly.“There’s still a lot to do for my tribe. Relocating to somewhere Salem won’t follow us isn’t going to be easy.”

Tai stood there, his arms folded as he stared off to the side. There was a thoughtful expression on his face as he nodded along to what Raven was saying. When she finished, the quiet hung between them for just a few seconds. Tai’s brow knitted as a huff of air came out of his nostrils. “Alright, I’m coming with you.”

A loud sigh escaped Raven as her head fell back. “Tai, no, we talked about this.”

“Well I’m not taking no for an answer this time,” he quickly retorted with an air of confidence in his voice. “I’ve made my choice, and I’m not just going to leave you to deal with your problems alone. I made a vow that I would never do that and it’s about time I started making good on that again.”

“For the last time, Tai, we’re not married anymore,” Raven grumbled.

The statement seemed to make Tai’s confidence falter just a bit.“Well, maybe we’re not,” he conceded. “To be honest, I don’t know what we’re doing, or where this is going, but Summer would want this family to look out for each other, no matter how fractured it’s become. So I’m coming with you.”

“And then what? You become a bandit too?” Raven chuckled. “We both go on the run?”

“No, we both know that wouldn’t work,” Tai admitted. “I don’t know exactly. Maybe we get your tribe somewhere safe. Then maybe we both come back here. Figure out where this is going,” he said, his cheeks turning bright red.

“Here? Back to this house?” Raven asked, her voice almost breaking by the end of the sentence.

“Yeah?” Tai answered, somewhat confused. “Why not?”

“This house is full of ghosts,” she shuddered. “My mistakes, the splinters of the wreck I made are wedged into the seams of every wall.” Raven wrapped her arms around herself as she let her eyes fall shut. They only stayed shut for a few seconds, though, as the feeling of Tai’s hands against her shoulders compelled her to open them. She was met with the sight of the soft smile on his face, his eyes meeting hers.

“No, Rae, not ghosts,” Tai corrected, “it’s full of memories. Summer poured so much love for all of us into this house, you can still feel it in the air.” Tai was met with a raised eyebrow and a skeptical expression. “I mean it, just close your eyes.”

Despite her skepticism, Raven closed her eyes, and let everything wash over. It took a moment, but things slowly began to fill in. A familiar breeze blew in through the kitchen window carrying the scent of the flowers planted in the flower beds in front of the house; flower beds that Summer had started many years ago. The rustling of the trees outside, creaking and swaying as they always had. Little sounds and feelings that Raven had associated with their little corner of the world. Little sounds and feelings that she had thought she had left behind forever.

A little gasp escaped Raven as a tear dripped down her cheek. She opened her eyes slowly, gazing up at Tai through a water film. “I can still feel her combing her fingers through my hair as I was cooking.”

A wet chuckle came out of Tai. “She loved teasing you when you cooked.” Raven nodded at him, attempting to wipe the tear away, only for it to be replaced by two more. Tai’s rough hand reached up to cup Raven’s cheek, his thumb wiping away one of the tears. On instinct, she leaned into the touch.

“I can still hear her,” Tai added. “She’d sing to try to distract you.” The two fell silent, their teary eyes staring at one another.

Still staring directly into Raven’s eyes, he began to sing, barely louder than a whisper, but his voice was sure, soft but confident. “One thing that I know for sure, longer than our lives endure, you’re my forever fall.”

Raven swallowed down a sob. Her tears were flowing freely as she looked up at her ex-husband, and began snaking her arms around his waist. “Taiyang, you big, dumb idiot,” Raven breathlessly said as she reached up and kissed him.

#rwby #raven branwen #taiyang xiao long #summer rose #peter port #glynda goodwitch #bartholomew oobleck #raven x summer #raven x tai #tai x summer #raven x summer x tai #str crossed lovers #sk's writing #rwby fanfiction #str-crossed lovers #sk's 2023 recap

4 notes · View notes

midnightechoes · 4 months

Text

A Bridge Chapter 2 of 2

A Bridge is the third part in my post-RWBY volume 5 STR-Crossed Lovers fic series, Kintsugi. It was originally posted on AO3 back in February 2023.

Kintsugi Part 1, A Visit, taking place immediately after v5 and written by me, can be read on AO3 and Tumblr.

Kintsugi Part 2, A Dream, part flashback, part sequel to A Visit, was written by my friend @shera-dnd and can be read on AO3 and Tumblr.

A thick layer of clouds almost completely covered the sky, with just a few specs of blue peeking out here and there. There was a coolness to the air, the kind that signaled that hot summer days were beginning to give way to cool autumn evenings.

The dirt road crunched under the wheels of Tai’s moped as he sped down it at a brisk pace. The mostly orange machine vibrated as it carried its owner through an unremarkable forest, trees whipping by on either side of him.

Tai was dressed mostly as he always did, but he was currently wearing a bucket helmet that was strapped tightly around his chin, and an old-fashioned pair of racer goggles fastened over his eyes. The other notable difference in attire was a new bandana that was wrapped tightly around his right bicep. It was red and had a black-and-white patterning that made it look just like the bandana Raven had been wearing in her hair.

It had been almost two hours since he had passed the last semblance of civilization, a quiet little rest stop on the side of the road, which meant that he was getting close to his destination. Sure enough, before long he was upon the clearing he had been looking for. Tai slowed down and turned into the clearing, following the faint trail for a few hundred yards as it led into a thicker part of the forest before giving way to another open area. The moped rumbled to a stop less than a hundred yards from a large wall made out of twenty-foot-high tree trunks whose ends had been cut into spikes. In the center of the wall was a wooden gate, currently closed and being guarded by three people.

One was a man with long, scraggly blonde hair and a long, unkempt face. Another was a woman with a gray, leather eye patch and brown hair that appeared to have been thrown up into a ponytail without consideration. And the third was another man, his curled black hair kept short, allowing the two scars running down from cheek to chin to be his most prominent feature. All three were carrying relatively simple weapons and wearing outfits that looked like they were pieced together over time.

Powering the moped down and popping the kickstand, Tai dismounted, a smile on his face as he pulled the helmet and goggles off. “Hey there,” he cheerily called out to the trio, slowly making his way towards the gate.

Within seconds, a bullet was flying past Tai’s head, not grazing only thanks to his semblance, Juke, which allowed him to slide out of the way in time.

“Not another step,” the scraggly blonde man called out with a grizzled voice, his handgun pointed directly at Tai. “That was a warning. Now I suggest you get back on that tiny bike and turn around while you can.”

“Look, pal,” Tai responded, a look of smug confidence on his face as he set down his helmet on the seat of the moped, then continued taking a few steps towards the trio guarding the gate. “This is a misunderstanding, I don’t think you know who I am,” he said with his hands raised as a show of peace.

“And I don’t much care,” the blonde man barked back. He tried rattling his gun at Tai in an attempt to intimidate him, a move that did not seem to be working. “I’m warning you! Take one more step, and you’ll be sorry,” he yelled.

Tai stopped in his tracks at the threat. His expression had devolved from smug to annoyed, his blue eyes squinting at the man. He thought about the warning for a second, then exhaled a deep breath out through his nose, and took another step forward.

“Get him!” the scraggly blonde man yelled as he tried to steady his aim at Tai. The other two guards sprung into action as well: the woman charged forward with a basic axe, the kind usually used for chopping wood, while the other man took a few steps back and drew up his simple hunting rifle. All three were scowling, and all three were utterly unprepared for what was about to happen.

In the blink of an eye, Tai activated his Juke semblance, allowing him to move laterally at such a speed that he seemed to leave a trail of afterimages of himself. He zig-zagged forward, crossing the distance to the guards in barely a second. When he came to a stop, he was directly in front of the woman, slamming her with a punch to the gut before she even had time to react, sending her stumbling backward. He juked again, crashing his elbow right into the man with the rifle, getting him off-balance enough for Tai to flip him over his shoulder.

Taking out the man with the rifle had put Tai behind the scraggly blonde man, who had been struggling to keep track of the intruder.

It was about this time that a “kraa-kraa” could be heard echoing softly in the clearing as a blackbird passed overhead.

The blonde man was able to get focus on Tai long enough to fire off a shot at him, one that Tai easily juked out of the way of. Suddenly the huntsman was inches in front of the man. A quick strike to the elbow followed by a chop to the wrist sent the blonde man’s gun flying. Tai elbowed him in the chest, creating just enough room to wind up and slug the blonde man so hard in the face that he pirouetted in place before falling to the ground.

“That’s enough, Tai,” a voice called out. Tai looked up to see Raven standing just in front of the gate, her arms folded and an amused grin on her face. She was still wearing the same orange tank top and black pants with gold seams that she had during karaoke, but now she was missing the red bandana she had often worn in her hair.

“Look, he started it,” Tai chuckled before relaxing his posture and taking a step back from the fallen guards.

Raven strolled up to the scraggly blonde man, towering over him as he lay on his back. “That’s not surprising, this one here loves to start problems he doesn’t know how to get out of.” Raven let out a laugh and shook her head at the man on the ground. “Honestly Shay, is it your mission to get your ass kicked by my entire family?”

“Sorry, ma’am,” Shay weakly groaned.

A hand appeared in Shay’s field of vision. He latched onto it, allowing Tai to hoist him to his feet. “Hey, Shay was it? No hard feelings.”

Shay grunted. “You’re just lucky that the boss lady got here when she did.”

The statement made both Tai and Raven burst out laughing. “Sure I am!” Tai chuckled.

“Alright, enough fun,” Raven commanded as she recomposed herself. She turned to the two other guards that had just regrouped from their beating. “If you would open the gates so my ex-husband can wheel his little bicycle inside.”

“Um, it’s a moped, we already went over this!” Tai huffed.

Raven turned to Tai for just a second before walking into the camp. “Yes, because that sounds so much more impressive.”

Tai grumbled under his breath as he collected his helmet and walked back to his moped. As he wheeled the bike forward by hand, pushing it forward by the handlebars, he caught Shay snickering under his breath.

“Got something to say, pal?” Tai flatly asked. Immediately Shay straightened up and went quiet. “Good man,” Tai added as he strode past.

The Branwen Tribe camp was bustling with people going about the business of breaking it down. Most everything was being packed into the back of six beat-up old pickup trucks that had all seen better days and were in desperate need of paint jobs. There were a couple more trucks and vans designated for passenger transport parked off to the side of the camp. Tai quickly wheeled his moped over to them and parked it.

“Starting to wonder how helpful I’m going to be,” Tai mused as he made his way back to Raven, who had been waiting for him in the center of the camp. They continued on slowly through the mostly barren camp towards her tent, one of the few standing structures left.

“You insisted on coming,” Raven chuckled. “Your help is appreciated, Tai. We’re behind schedule, every extra hand will be helpful,” Raven added, her tone becoming more somber.

“Behind schedule?” Tai gasped. “Looks like everyone’s working their hardest, Rae.”

Raven came to a stop and turned to the man next to her. “It’s been a week, we should already be on the road. But, it took a few days to procure all the vehicles we need, plus I haven’t been here the last few, and… we did lose a day mourning our fallen.”

“Right,” Tai nodded. “That girl that Cinder killed… V… Virginia?”

“Vernal,” Raven flatly corrected. “Her name was Vernal,” She added, never breaking stride as they marched towards her tent.

Once they reached their destination, they both stood there for a moment, taking it in. It was the same tent that the Branwen Tribe leader before Raven had used, as well as the leader before them. Like many things in the tribe, Raven’s tent was something that had been used and reused and passed down for generations, and at the moment, the old canvas fabric that draped down to make its walls was the only thing separating Tai from the last part of Raven that she had left to share: her history, and all the messy, ugly parts of it that she had hoped she’d never have to tell Summer and Tai about.

Raven took a deep breath.

“Sure is modest and welcoming,” Tai blurted out, making sure that every letter was dripping with sarcasm. Raven let out a chuckle despite herself. She looked over to the man next to her that was smiling brightly.

“Come on, it’s not going to break itself down,” Raven said, leading Tai through the opening of the tent.

Tai took a look around once they were inside, and let out a little hum. “I’m glad we didn’t let you furnish our bedroom.”

“Oh please,” Raven scoffed. She walked over to the large chest in the corner and cracked it open. “Summer would have loved this.”

“That she would have,” Tai agreed as he made his way to Raven.

“Here,” Raven began, pulling out a few sheets of heavy cloth and shoving them into Tai’s hands. “See the tea set over by my bed? Wrap it up before we pack it.” Tai nodded at the command. While he was occupied with that, Raven began taking down and rolling up the various maps and notes that had been pinned up to the back of her tent. In the middle of it, she stopped, taking a moment to look at one of the notes. It was a report of the security measures of one of the villages that weren’t too far from the camp. Raven let out a sigh. There was a familiar tug-of-war in her heart. One that she had felt long ago until fear and panic let one side win, leading her to make a choice that she’d done everything in her power to never question.

That was until Yang showed up at her door. It had taken all of Raven’s fortitude to keep up her guard in front of her daughter. Something made harder by the realization that Yang wasn’t even there for her. Raven was nothing more than a means to an end.

It hadn’t actually hit Raven until that moment that her family had completely, and successfully, excised her from their life. She should have been happy about that, after all, it was what she had claimed she had always wanted: no attachments to that world, the side that had lost the tug-of-war. But there was Yang, staring at her like a stranger with nothing but demands on her tongue and contempt in her eyes.

Raven had gotten what she wanted.

And it had been killing her ever since.

Until finally, after defeating Cinder, after confronting Yang, and returning to the tribe to mourn Vernal’s death for a day, her heart led her back to a dusty cabin in the woods of Patch, to the one member of her family that didn’t currently, and rightfully, hate her…

… To the man that apparently just dropped one of her teacups.

A crash rang out in the tent, pulling Raven out of her stupor. Wet eyes sought out the source of the crash, and quickly found Tai kneeling over a small pile of ceramic pieces.

“I’m so sorry, Raven! I was trying to be careful, I swear, I—” Tai was blurting out, trying to collect the pieces up into one of the cloth towels he had been using, until a gentle hand touched down on his shoulder, stopping his sentence.

When Tai looked up, Raven was kneeling just next to him, her hand on his shoulder, a soft, sad smile on her face. “It’s fine, Tai,” she assured him. Her free hand reached down and picked up one of the bigger pieces. She turned it over and over between her fingers, seemingly studying as her attention was drawn to the jagged dark-blue piece of ceramic that had one flower painted on it. After turning it over a few more times, she shifted her attention back to Tai, her smile brightening as she took in his sad puppy dog expression.

“This can be fixed,” Raven murmured to him.

The assurance seemed to ease something in Taiyang, whose expression softened. He took the piece from Raven and put it with the rest on the cloth before returning his focus to her, a warm grin forming on his face. “Yeah, it can.”

From there, it didn’t take long for the duo to finish breaking down Raven’s tent. Within an hour, it was empty, with everything that had been in the tent packed away in a large chest, and after two hours, what had been Raven’s tent was now nothing more than a large, open wooden platform. While Tai was loading the chest onto one of the trucks, Raven remained on the platform, taking in the progress of the camp breakdown.

Besides the built-up walls enclosing the camp, one would hardly know that an entire tribe of people had called this place home for the last few years. In fact, there was only one tent left. The tent was one of the larger ones and sat less than a hundred feet away from Raven’s. She couldn’t take her eyes off it.

“Hey, everything okay?” Tai’s concerned voice called out from just behind Raven, making the woman jump.

“Gods, Tai! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” Raven huffed, twisting around to slap him in the arm.

“Right, because we all know of my exceptional stealth skills,” Tai chortled. “Your head was somewhere else, Rae. What’s up?”

It was almost disconcerting how quickly the two had become able to understand each other again. In many ways, the eighteen-year gap remained this raw, overwhelming presence hovering over them, but in some ways, they had picked up right from where they left off. Raven still wasn’t sure how she felt about letting someone that could so thoroughly read her back into her life, but she had to accept that some part of her had craved this, had always longed to get this back.

Plus, Tai was already there, his dopey, sincere, concerned half-smile on his face as he stood in the middle of her bandit camp. She had passed the last exit to turn back days ago.

Raven turned back to the tent she had been staring at. “I have to break down the last tent,” she muttered, dread dripping from her voice.

“Huh? I thought you said that it was everyone’s responsibility to break down their own…” Tai’s sentence trailed off as the reality of the situation set in. “Oh.”

A heavy arm found itself slung around Raven’s back, pulling her into a side hug. “Hey,” Tai cooed, “you don’t have to do it yourself. I’m right here.”

They gave each other a nod. Then, after Raven took a deep breath, they slowly made their way over to the last tent. Raven stopped briefly at the entrance, taking a second to compose herself.

Even with all the mental preparation, the flaps to the tent felt heavy, as if the fabric was made of steel rather than thick canvas. Once inside, Raven immediately reached for the lamp that was sitting on the crate just a couple of feet inside the door, near the center of the tent, and lit it using her maiden powers.

Tai entered just after and found Raven standing next to the lamp, slowly surveying the space around them, her shoulders slumping more and more as she did. He made his way towards her, clearing his throat loudly this time before speaking. “Rae?”

There wasn’t an immediate answer. Instead, Raven simply continued staring down at the items scattered around the room, a sneer growing on her face as she did.

“She should be here. She should be doing this. She…” Raven’s words trailed, leaving them there, standing in silence.

“Vernal was special to you,” Tai whispered, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Raven set her gaze on a neatly stacked pile of clothes that was sitting on the bed. “Vernal trusted me, and she was a fool to do so,” she spat out, her body shaking slightly.

“Rae…”

The soft call of her name made Raven snap her focus to Tai, but there was no anger on her face. Instead, there was a look of anguish, her lips quivering, her eyes half-lidded as tears were forming in the corner of her eyes. “She trusted me, and it got her killed. I was supposed to protect her, but I couldn’t, I let her die because I was a coward. If I… If I was braver she would still be alive. And I… I can’t help thinking that leaving was the best thing that I ever could have done for Yang.”

By the time the first sob escaped Raven, Tai was already pulling her into a hug. He held her tight, his hand gently stroking her back while she broke down in his arms.

It was a few minutes before Raven settled down. Eventually, she got control of herself, and simply leaned into the embrace, resting her entire weight against him.

“I think you’re blaming the wrong person, by the way,” Tai mused. The statement made Raven shift around in his arms so that she could glare up at him with a perplexed look on her face. “You didn’t kill Vernal, Rae, that Cinder chick did. Same person that terrorized our girls when they were at Beacon. She’s the reason Vernal’s dead. And Salem’s the reason Cinder did any of those things, not you. They took Vernal from you, they took our wife from us.” Tai released Raven from the hug and took a step back, his hands still firmly grasping her shoulders so that he could look her dead in the eyes when he said “And someday, they’re going to be the ones who pay for what happened to the people we care about, not you.”

A slight, sly smile came over Raven. “So, focus on revenge instead of guilt.”

“Err,” Tai stammered as one arm fell to his side while the other reached up to scratch the side of his neck. “That’s not exactly the point I was trying to get at.”

“I know,” Raven said, letting out a bellowing laugh before patting Tai on the cheek. “I just love watching you squirm, Xiao Long.” Tai joined in the laughter as it cut through the mood of the tent. After it died down, Raven turned back to the bed where Vernal’s clothes were still laid out. “Come on, we have to get this done… I’m not going to leave her behind.” Tai walked up to her and nodded as the two of them began breaking down Vernal’s tent.

---

At daybreak the following morning, the Branwen tribe’s motor caravan pulled out of the little patch of land, and began their journey south, away from the capital of Mistral, and into the vast wilderness of the continent of Anima. Tai’s moped rumbled along at the front, along with a handful of other motorcycles that were leading away. Raven scouted ahead, her bird form allowing her to get a clear view of potential perils and dangers.

The first two days went smoothly, making good time through the rugged terrain, and avoiding any conflict. The third day presented a bit more of a challenge, being forced to confront an unavoidable pack of Grimm. Raven, Tai, and a handful of the tribe’s strongest fighters were able to deal with them, allowing the caravan to pass through with only a few scratches.

That’s how it was for the rest of the week, a good day here, a challenge to avoid trouble there. Luckily there was only one dust-up with local law enforcement. Tai didn’t feel great about it, but he knew what he had gotten himself into, and agreed to it when he insisted on accompanying Raven on this journey. Even still, he did all he could to get the tribe out of the situation with no one getting hurt. But when push came to shove, Tai stuck with the tribe, something Raven appreciated, even if she hadn’t found a way to voice such sentiment. For her part, Raven made sure that the tribe focused on evasion and avoiding conflict instead of violence.

Overall, they were making good time, all things considered. During that week, Tai managed to bond with the tribe. At first, it was slow, mostly finding common ground in everyone’s mutual love to complain about Qrow, but over the days he worked at forming friendships with his fellow travelers. As he did, he began to gain a new perspective on Raven, because to these people she wasn’t a teammate, or friend, or spouse, she was their rock. A guiding light that they all looked to with reverence and respect. For so long Tai had only known what Raven had run from, and how much it hurt to lose her, but his time with the tribe gave him a chance to get to know what she had run towards, and why. In many ways, they were as much her family as he, or Yang, or Summer had ever been.

Finally, Tai saw Raven for what she really was: a woman torn in two, pulled in opposite directions for most of her life. For so long Tai had barely dared to dream what Raven coming back into his life might look like, but in those times that he did, he had always envisioned pulling her away from her life as a bandit. And truth be told, a part of him still wanted to help her get away from a life of crime, but his time with the tribe made him realize that he’d have to give a little too, that if he really wanted this to work this time, if he wanted them to work this time, it couldn’t be an either-or choice. Accepting Raven Branwen meant accepting everything about her, from being a fiercely loyal teammate to being a bandit leader.

This was the thought that Tai found himself dwelling on as they sat around a campfire in the middle of the woods on the evening of the ninth day. It had been a quiet day, and everyone was finishing up the stew that had been made for the night. Raven had been busy while everyone else ate, securing the perimeter, and making sure that everyone was aware of their guard duty rotations for the night. Finally, after just about everyone was finished and most people were turning in to get some rest, Raven sat to have a bowl of stew just next to Tai.

She got a few spoonfuls in before stopping and turning to face him, a look of mild annoyance on her face.

“Is there something you wanted to say to me, Tai?” she huffed.

For his part, Tai’s expression immediately softened, a warm smile growing on his face. “Um, no, why?”

Raven let out a sigh. “It’s just, you’ve been watching me since you sat down.”

The statement made Tai blush slightly, which, luckily for him, was mostly washed out by the orange glow of the fire. “Have I? Sorry! It wasn’t anything bad! It’s just… I don’t know, I guess I’m a little in awe of how you can command the tribe so effortlessly.”

Now it was Raven’s turn to blush. She quickly looked back down at her stew, the warmth of it seeping into her lap. “Oh.” She had another scoop of stew to buy her a few extra seconds to think of how to follow up on that. By the time she had gulped it down, a warm thought had settled in. Raven let her eyes become lidded as they drifted to the fire, a half-smile forming on her face. “Let’s be honest, everything I know about being a leader Summer taught me.”

Tai scooted closer to her so that he could rest his hand on her knee. “She’d be proud of you,” he murmured. In response, Raven leaned over, resting her head on his shoulder.

“Think so?”

“Yeah,” Tai responded. The two of them sat there, wordlessly enjoying their time together until it was time to turn in for the night.

---

The following morning was like every other one since hitting the road, everyone quickly breaking down the makeshift camp, disposing of any evidence that there had been a camp, and lining the convoy up to depart. Tai had done his part just as he had every other day, and was currently buckling his helmet on as he waited for the caravan to rumble to a start. Suddenly, Raven swooped in, standing in front of Tai’s moped, but not looking at him.

“Tribe!” she barked at the top of her lungs. “Get a move on, I’ll catch up!”

With her command, trucks and vans and motorcycles roared to life and began lurching forward in unison. Tai watched in confusion as everyone drove away from the campsite except him, who sat there on his moped, Raven’s hands planted firmly on the handlebars.

“Um, Rae, what’s going on?” he asked, taking his helmet back off.

Raven finally turned to face him, and her face immediately betrayed her, a look of deep sadness painted all over it.

“This is as far as you go, Tai.”

“Hold up!” Tai yelled as he jumped off his moped. “You’re ditching me now?!”

“No, Tai, it’s not like that,” Raven sighed, doing her best to retain her composure.

Tai did his best to let his initial anger pass over him. He took a deep breath before taking a step toward Raven. “Then what is it? I don’t understand, things have been going well.”

“Yeah,” Raven answered. She let go of his moped and closed the distance between them, leaving maybe a foot between them. “Things have been great,” she agreed. “But I can’t let you go any farther with us. We’re going to be hitting the arid lands of Anima soon and it’s going to be extremely dangerous out there.”

“Which makes you leaving behind a huntsman make no sense,” Tai huffed. His arms were crossed as a very annoyed look came over his face.

“Yes Tai, but you’re not just a huntsman.” Raven reached forward and placed her hands on his crossed arms. “You’re also the father of my daughters, and I need you to be safe for them. We’re running from Salem, and if you came with us… if she found out that you know where I am…” Raven gulped down a sob and used all her willpower to keep herself together. “I will not lose any more of my family to that woman.”

There was a beat of silence that felt deafening in the small clearing they were standing in. Finally, Tai let out a quiet hum. “Daughters, huh?”

Raven let out a chuckle, taking comfort in it. That was something she always admired about Tai, his ability to lighten any mood, to be able to focus on the upside of things.

“Well, someone recently pointed out that despite not giving birth to her, Ruby is just as much my daughter as Yang is… Not that either of them would think much of me as their mother.”

Tai unfurled his arms and wrapped them around Raven, pulling her into a tight hug. “They will, you just have to make the effort,” he whispered into her ear.

“I’ll get the tribe to its new home. Then I’ll come back. I’ll put in the effort,” Raven leaned back so that she could stare into Tai’s eyes while cupping one side of his face. “I’m not going to abandon our family this time.”

“Promise?” Tai blurted out almost before he could even think about it. As soon as he did he regretted it, but before he could focus on the regret, he found himself pulled down into a deep, searing kiss. Their arms unconsciously wrapped tight around each other, their bodies craving the warmth and contact of each other, a connection so familiar, yet it had remained dormant for years. Tai found himself lost in that connection just as he always had been, as if every kiss erased another year of separation.

They were both panting when they finally pulled apart, doing so more out of the need for air than want.

“I promise,” Raven replied through red, plump lips. She reluctantly pulled herself from his grasp and took a few steps back. “I promise,” Raven repeated before spinning around and darting off, transforming into her bird form after just a few steps.

Tai stood there, watching as Raven slowly drifted out of view beyond the treeline, all the while with a smile on his face. Raven had made a lot of promises to him over the course of their relationship, and he had to admit that she didn’t have the best track record in keeping them.

But in that clearing, at that moment, watching her soar through the sky, his heart had no room for doubt.

After she was gone, Tai hopped back onto his moped. It rumbled under him as he spun around and began driving back the way they had come. He only got a few yards before he stopped, and took a moment to look back over his shoulders in the direction that caravan had gone.

“I’ll see you soon, Rae.”

#rwby #taiyang xiao long #raven branwen #shay d. mann #vernal #tai x raven #raven x summer #tai x summer #raven x tai x summer #str crossed lovers #str-crossed lovers #sk's writing #rwby fanfiction #sk's 2023 recap

4 notes · View notes