Work Text:
teddy bear reflections
Yang laughed. “Dad, it’s not like we’re going away forever,” she teased, watching him putter anxiously around her room. He had been doing it every day for the past week, ever since it was decided that Ruby would be going to Beacon two years early to join Yang’s cohort.
“I know,” Tai groaned, “but you’re my little girl! My sunny little dragon! How can I not be worried with you going off to Beacon?”
She rolled her eyes, crossing her legs as she sat on her bed. “In that case, shouldn’t you be fussing about Ruby?” she pointed out. “She is the younger one.”
He waved off her words. “No, no- don’t even mention Ruby.” His eyes were already misting over slightly, and he sniffled, biting back tears. “I don’t even want to think about her going to Beacon with you.”
“Pft, you know I’ll make sure my baby sis is alright,” Yang said fondly.
Tai sighed, but his expression was trusting. “I know. It’s just… Beacon’s far, y’know? What if you need something?” He gasped, pulling out his Scroll.
Yang immediately moaned in annoyance as her father held the Scroll away from his face, squinting at the screen as if the technology had aged him thirty years. “Oh my god, gramps, what’re you looking for?”
He frowned, still awkwardly looking through menus on his screen. “Beacon’s mailing address,” he mumbled. “I know I have it saved somewhere-“
“You know you can just search it up on the CCTS whenever you need it?”
He paused, taking that in for a moment. “…oh. Right.”
Yang tossed an old, long-since abandoned teen magazine from her table at the man, laughing heartily when he caught it, only to immediately sneeze from the puff of dust the pages carried landing in his face. “I’ll be fine, dad. Besides, we still have like, a week before we head out. You don’t need to worry so much!”
When he had righted himself. Tai pouted, crossing his arms. “Okay, young lady- when’s the last time you cleaned this place?”
She glanced around, shrugging benignly. The entire room was covered in clothes and books and magazines and strewn about items. “I mean… I had to sell my vacuum…”
“Yang, you don’t own your own vacuum-“
“I used to, but it was just… collecting dust!” When he only sighed disappointedly, she scowled. “Hey, that was pretty good! And look, packing was rough, okay?” she mumbled, avoiding his gaze. “It got a little messy, maybe.”
He still said the words she didn’t want to hear. “Yang Xiao Long, you’re not going anywhere until this place is cleaned up a bit. I mean,” he held up the magazine in his hands, shaking little dust bunnies from its surface, “you don’t need things like this, right? You’re old enough to go to Beacon, so you might as well-“
The man’s eyes suddenly lit up, an idea sparking. Yang immediately frowned, suspicious.
Tai suddenly darted out of the room, only to come back with a large box in hand. “I know what you can do today!” he cried excitedly.
The girl gulped. Whenever her father got that particular lilt in his voice, it was never good news.
As it turned out, that ominous feeling was correct. Within a few minutes, Tai had left the room wearing a wide, satisfied smile, leaving Yang with a box labeled ‘For Donation’ by her bedside. “I’m expecting everything you don’t need anymore or want to keep to be in that box by tonight, got it?” he had announced sternly.
She rolled her eyes, pulling out her Scroll and lying back onto her bed. She had some baddies to crush in the latest RPG she had downloaded. She didn’t need to sort out her stuff- why couldn’t she keep it all? It wasn’t like anyone was going to be using this room when she went off to Beacon.
Tai was less than pleased when the sun began to set and the room was just as cluttered- and just as dusty- as before. “Yang, what did I tell you to do after lunch today?” he said exasperatedly, all slumped shoulders and weariness.
She sat up, finally pulling herself away from the screen. “Dad, it’s all good,” she said dismissively. “I think it’s fine-“
“No, it’s not. C’mon. A little organization never hurt anyone.” He stepped into her room, walking towards the shelf. There were numerous little knickknacks and decorations and toys she had gotten over the years, ever since she was a little girl, proudly on display on those shelves. “I mean, when’s the last time you donated any of this stuff, Yang? If you’re not using it, then you might as well give it to someone who actually would use it.”
She sighed, rolling over to lie on her stomach, watching him as he inspected her old toys. “I’m not opposed to it, necessarily,” she muttered. “It’s just kind of a pain to sort, y’know?”
He raised a brow, unimpressed. “Mhm. Well, in that case, I guess you wouldn’t mind if I clear some things out?”
She shrugged. “Be my guest,” she said airily. Better you than me.
So, the man sighed and began to pull things off the shelf. He tackled the books first- she was more than happy to get rid of those, since they had all been used at Signal. She didn’t need them anymore, since Ruby had kept all the cool or nostalgic ones in her own room.
Next, he went to the little decorations and such. She stopped him from removing some of the smaller trinkets on her shelf. Whenever he asked why, however, she was quick to remind him, “Ruby made those. Want me to tell her you got rid of them?” after which he quickly replaced them and heaved out an overdramatic, heavy sigh, but his smile didn’t fade at his older daughter’s care for the younger.
Her closet was an easy fix- most of her old clothes wouldn’t be going to Ruby no matter what, since their styles (and sizes) were so different, so they could get rid of most of the things she hadn’t packed away to be shipped to Beacon. Shoes received the same treatment, and her accessories were already tucked away in a box underneath her poster collection, stacked downstairs by the rest of the luggage, ready to go to her new dorm room.
However, when Tai got to a little section on her table that had a few stuffed animals, something in her stirred. She glanced over all of them- one had been a gift from Tai when she was a little girl, still dyed blue from when Ruby and Yang had gotten their hands on dye for dogs and needed to test it out. Zwei never ended up getting that blue streak down his sides like racing stripes, but the bear certainly did.
A larger bear beside it had come from one winter solstice when she and Ruby had begged to get one of the giant teddy bears from the market in Patch by the docks. They begged for so long that Qrow had bought them the coolest one he could find (it had plastic sunglasses that they had promptly snapped in two and later taped back together, and Yang still thought it was the coolest thing ever).
A couple of little toys were from her friends, all of whom she was excited to reunite with at Beacon, each one carrying its own heartwarming (or more often-than-not, fairly inappropriate) story.
And then, there came the one from Summer Rose. It was a mangled old thing- a little too torn to donate, from an objective lens. She had gone through hell and back with that little bear; the fur was matted after being washed one too many times; one eye was so close to falling off it may as well have been floating on the bear’s cheek; one of its arms was covered in patches from when she had gotten too anxious as a child and accidentally activated her Semblance, destroying the arm when trying to cuddle it.
Tai picked up the large bear from Qrow, smoothing its fur out for a second. “You don’t really play with these anymore, right?” he asked offhandedly.
She admitted, “No, but would there be any point in giving those away? I mean, how much have Ruby and I drooled or snotted all over that thing?”
Tai laughed, walking towards the box. “It’s called a washer, honey,” he chided in mock condescension. “We’ll make it as good as new.”
Suddenly, a wave of anxiety washed over her, so incalculable that she couldn’t stop the hysteria in her voice as she cried, “No, wait!”
Her father froze, looking back at her in alarm. “Yang, what is it?” he asked, utterly confused.
She paused, eyes wide. Why had she yelled?
A few moments later, the man relaxed, chuckling as he shook his head in amusement. “Yang, sweetie,” Tai laughed, “you’re going to give me a heart attack. What was that even for?” As he spoke, he moved to put the large toy in the box.
For some reason, her heart was beating wildly in her chest, almost painfully-so. Still, she bit her tongue and let him place it in the box. He did the same for the ones from her friends at Signal, and even the one he himself had given her.
When he turned back and picked up the toy from Summer, however, she had had enough. In the blink of an eye, she was in front of him, the world tinted red as she yanked the bear out of his hands and placed it roughly back onto the shelf. She could feel her Aura sparking through her veins, her fists trembling in barely contained rage.
Tai immediately stepped back, holding his hands up in peace. “Woah, what happened?” he asked, seeking to understand.
She wordlessly went back to the box and pulled out the other stuffed toys, plus a few other items at random. After haphazardly dumping them onto her desk, she pointed at the door. “We’re done, Dad,” she growled in warning.
The man refused to comply, closing the door rather than leaving the room. He walked over, pulled up her desk chair, and took a seat, gesturing towards the bed. Calmly, he said, “Yang, sit down.”
She seethed, feeling her rage glowing white-hot within.
He didn’t move. “Yang,” he repeated, voice just as firm and kind as before, “come join me, okay?”
His soothing tone reached the tiny part of her brain that wasn’t focusing on her sudden, explosive, Aura-fueled anger. Wordlessly, she complied, sitting criss-crossed on her duvet and glaring up at him.
After moment of silence, Tai murmured, “Yang, what is wrong-“
“Nothing. We just don’t need to get rid of anything.”
Tai watched her carefully, but didn’t say a word, just silently assessing the situation. It was the smart thing to do- letting her stew in her feelings for a few minutes rather than directly retaliating always made her calm down and rethink things. As much as it embarrassed her to admit it, she had exploded suddenly more times in her life than she could count- and more often than not, it was at him. He knew how to deal with her when she was upset. And, even though she would never intentionally back down, he always managed to find a way to win their arguments. He just knew her too well.
“I’m going to ramble to myself for a bit, okay?” he said, leaning back in his chair. When she didn’t move to stop him, he continued, “I think- and this is just me thinking out loud- that you’re not really attached to the bears.” When she glared at him, he smiled. “Okay, maybe you are. But you threw some other things back on the shelf, too.”
He pointed to the numerous tables and shelves lining the walls of her room. Although they hadn’t truly spent a lot of time going through her belongings, the room already felt starkly different- much emptier than it had before. “I think what you’re attached of is this place, the image- how it looks.”
“Why would that matter-“
He cut her off by holding up a hand, asking her to pause silently. “I’m still thinking to myself. But… it matters because,” Tai offered with a gentle, proud smile, “although you’re a big girl and you’re going off to Beacon and you’re going to be one of the best Huntresses of all time… you don’t like change. And this is a big one, going to Beacon. So I think that you’re scared that when you go after getting rid of some of this stuff, when you come back, it won’t feel like home anymore.”
Home.
Just like that, her anger vanished, and she felt her Aura retreat back into her heart, her eyes undoubtedly turning lilac once more. She felt her lip trembling, then bit down on it, the pain quickly drying the damp which was growing in her eyes.
“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Tai’s smile could have warmed the coldest heart, the affection in his face almost unbearable. “Yang… you know that no matter what, this will always be your home, right?” he murmured quietly, reaching out to grab her hands. “You’ll always be safe here, and if you ever need anything I’ll always be there. That will never change.”
“That hasn’t always been the case,” she muttered before she could stop herself.
The man winced, his grip tightening on her fingers for a moment as if he had been inflicted physical pain. Taking a moment to control himself, Tai murmured, “You’re right. And I’ll never, ever stop regretting that. But that’s why you need to know,” he added, tapping her nose lightly, “that no matter what, this place… this is home, Yang. And I’ll always be here.”
Yang pursed her lips, fighting down the words which wanted to spill forth. How could he say that? Why was he pretending like he knew everything? Why was he asking this when it wasn’t even his business?
…How did he manage to always find the perfect words to label the inexplicable grief welling up in her chest?
“How can you guarantee that?” she said at last.
He cupped her cheek, a callused thumb wiping away a tear that she hadn’t even realized she had shed. “Because you and Ruby are what I call home, dummy,” he whispered.
Her lip wobbled. We’re all that’s left.
Tai stood, pressing a kiss to her hair before heading towards the door. “I’ll leave the box in here, Yang. Donate whatever you like- it’s a good deed to help others. But,” he paused in the doorway, not glancing back, “whatever stays gets dusted, young lady. This cannot be good for my allergies.”
And with that, Tai left her alone to think things through for a bit.
She stood on shaky knees and wandered over to the row of teddy bears. Picking up the one from Summer, she brushed off some of the dust which had been caked on the toy for too long. How long had it been since she had looked at it? How many years had it been since she had held this teddy, her one companion back when she had felt so alone and so vulnerable after Summer’s passing?
She silently clutched it to her chest, letting out an inaudible little cry. She didn’t like crying. She was strong- she had to be, to make sure Ruby was always safe and sound. But the thought of coming back to Patch one day and finding the room she had grown up in to be a foreign place was an idea she had never before entertained, and it terrified her.
After an hour, however, Tai’s voice called her downstairs for dinner. By then, she had finished sorting out her belongings, so she carried the giant box laden with books and clothes and shoes and some little stuffed animals from her friends all the way down the stairs, sitting it down on the floor beside the couch in the living room. Tai watched her, a gentle smile on his face as she stretched and straightened out her back. “You have any aloe?” Yang asked wryly. “I think I might have hives from all that dust.”
“You’ve got my genes, I knew you could be allergic too! You should’ve cleaned it earlier,” he sang, but he waved her over anyways, setting out to find something to soothe the mild rash that had popped up on her arms halfway through cleaning.
And that night, when he went upstairs to hand her a cup of cocoa, he saw the bear from Qrow and the bear from Summer and the bear from him all washed, and dried, and lined up in a row on a recently-emptied shelf, sitting neatly beside a framed photo of her and Ruby, and the smile on his face was enough to reassure her that she’d be alright- she’d always have someone, and someplace, to welcome her home.
-fin-