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Ruby's first impulse was to hug the astral projection of her mother. As the faded silhouette was incorporeal, she collapsed onto the steps, rising quickly with a confused look on her face. "What? I'm...I am very confused right now."
Summer laughed. "Okay. I'm the projection of Summer. I'm a very large hunk of Aura right now--everything that makes me 'me', but minus the handy container that's normally called a body."
"So...you're still..."
Summer rolled her eyes, then dragged a finger across her throat. "Chatting with the ghosts of door knobs."
Ruby shuddered.
"Sorry. I thought it was funny, in my defense." Summer chuckled. "Gallows humor can be tricky."
"Summer," Qrow said warningly.
"It's a lot like a noose. It can be hard to pull off."
Ruby looked up to her uncle, who sighed. "Yeah, that's about half of what she spends her time doing. Makes it hard to keep a straight face when talking to Ironwood."
Summer laughed. "I like to think I'm doing something useful with my time."
"Let's let her keep thinking that," Qrow whispered in conspiratorial tones to Ruby. Ruby chuckled, then turned her gaze back to Summer. "Wow, Mom, I just...wow."
"It is a lot to take in," Summer agreed.
"Why didn't you just appear when I was young?" Ruby asked. "Like, couldn't you have done that?"
"I can't teleport," Summer explained. "I'm stuck walking. And we both know that Anima is a large continent. At the time, I...I just didn't know how to say it. I was scared." She stretched out her knees, then drew one of them into her chest. "Scared, and I thought myself alone."
"You had me," Qrow said with a smile.
Summer smiled back. "Yeah. I did."
Ruby looked back and forth between the two. "Uh..."
"The other thing I've been trying to convince Qrow to tell you," Summer said. She leaned over and kissed Qrow on the cheek. "Technically speaking, you and Yang are cousins, not sisters."
Ruby's jaw dropped. "Oh...my...gods," she squeaked, her voice high pitch.
"Yeah, you broke her," Qrow laughed. "That was a bit much."
"You're my dad?" Ruby cried.
"Surprise," Qrow said with a weak laugh. He couldn't help smiling at her reaction, though.
"Oh my gods! I've been calling you 'uncle for a decade now!"
"Keep doing that. I like the sound of it."
"Okay...dad." After a pause, she shuddered again. "Okay. Yeah, that sounds weird. Uncle Qrow it is." She stopped. "But Dad--"
"I just said, call me Uncle Qrow."
"No, I--that's not what I--"
"You're asking about Taiyang," Summer said with a patient smile. Ruby nodded, so Summer explained. "He and I were never married. When you were born, it was shortly after Raven left. Qrow had just started drinking. So we came up with a lie, so Yang would grow up with her mother, and you'd grow up with Tai as a dad instead of Qrow."
"But why?"
"So you'd have a dad you could be proud of," Qrow muttered. Ruby and Summer looked at him, and he looked away. "I only recently got my act together, kiddo. I wasn't exactly Dad of the Year."
"Uncle Qrow...I..." She shrugged, then threw her arms around him. "You are a dad I can be proud of."
"...Am I missing something?" a new voice asked. Yang strode down the steps, looking from Ruby to Qrow, and then to Summer. "Like, seriously. What the fuck?"
"Let's record it this time, so I don't have to explain it again every time someone asks," Summer said, an annoyed expression on her face.
"Long story short--Qrow's my real dad, he and Summer were married--" Qrow shook his head. "--were a thing, and we're cousins, not sisters." Ruby paused. "Wait, you two weren't married?"
Blushing, Summer ran a hand through her hair, saying, "We...both had our issues, but we're both glad to be parents you can be proud of, Ruby." She beckoned Qrow and Ruby closer, and she wrapped her arms around them, fuzzing slightly from where her form overlapped them. "Hug time," she muttered.
Ruby smiled. "Yeah. It's nice."