I'm taking a bit of a break from the WhiteRose story so I can get past some pretty bad writers block, so I'm going to start my other Fic I've been wanting to type, a Qrow x Winter fic. Just a note, don't ask when this takes place, because there are a lot of flashbacks, and I don't even know yet, without further ado for you my lovelies, chapter Unum.
Prologue
The sky was charred black, and ash rained from the sky, blanketing the area in a deep, dark grey, skin. In the distance, the new Atlas airship "Valkyrie" burned on a mountain side. The forest appeared dead, if not for the sounds of animals calling out in pain.
Qrow Branwen emerged from the thick grey blanket, coughing, wheezing, and gulping down as much air as he could before turning and vomiting.
He looked around franticly, and winced. He placed a hand to his chest and pulled it away to reveal a large amount of blood, ash soaking in the crimson liquid.
He gritted his teeth and pulled his sword free, stabbing the ground and standing, using it like a cane.
He looked up at the ship's wreckage, and he felt a pang of guilt in his chest, but he pushed it aside, his thoughts focused on one thing only.
'Get your dumbass moving Qrow. Time to save a Schnee.' He ordered himself, taking in a sharp breath before slowly beginning to limp in the direction of the wreckage.
4 weeksEarlier
She heard them coming before they were even close to the door. She stood straight, and dusted her outfit off, her ice blue eyes locked on the door.
The large mahogany double doors were opened from the outside, and the two men entered the room, finishing a conversation they had been having on their way here.
Winter Schnee, first born daughter of the Schnee dust company, recognized the first man, her commanding officer, General James Ironwood, the leader of the Atlesian military, and the headmaster of Atlas's huntsman academy. The second man, was a mystery to her, he had black slicked back hair, piercing red eyes, and wore a notably form fitting shirt, a maroon cape, and a large sword.
She saluted to Ironwood, and he nodded to her as he made his way to the head of the table. She turned to Qrow. "Good Morning sir, my name is Winter Schn-"
"Yeah yeah, cut the formal bullshit. The names Qrow (But you can call me daddy {Kill me})." He interrupted as he walked past her, pulling his flask from his coat and taking a gulp before sitting down and placing his dirty combat boots on the stark white marble table.
Winter was wide eyed, and mouth agape in utter disbelief of how rude this man was. "How dare y-"
"Winter." Ironwood interrupted. "Leave it. Just have a seat." He gestured to the one across from Qrow. She looked between the men before letting out a surrendered sigh, and sat down.
"So Jimmy…" Qrow said before taking a sip from his flask. "Why the hell am I here?" He asked in his gritty tone. His voice sent chills down Winter's spine, and she hadn't the slightest clue why, she'd probably figure it out sooner or later.
James looked to Qrow and then pulled a remote from the table, and hit a button. On the table a holographic image of a ship appeared between Qrow and Winter.
Qrow put his feet down and leaned forward. "Okay, fancy toy. What about it?"
"This, is the Atlesian Valkyrie heavy cruiser. It's the largest ship ever built, and is currently in dry dock. It's powered by a crystal that is the combination of lighting, fire, and conducting dust." Ironwood said.
"Something like that would be extremely volatile and an extremely valuable item." Qrow said softly.
"Yes, it is. The only problem is, that, we have yet to transport the crystal to the ship, and lately due to the increased White Fang activity, we can't transport the crystal by ship, air and sea. Our only option is to have it transported by ground units."
Qrow furrowed his brow. "That still doesn't tell me why I'm here….do you want me to take it there?"
"No. Winter is. I need you to be part of her escort." Ironwood said with a small smirk.
"General that isn't needed, me and my men can handle ourselves perfectly fine." Winter said softly. 'And honestly I'd rather not spend time with this neanderthal' She thought to herself.
"I agree with everything but that first part. Qrow here is one of my most trusted friends, and one of the most impressive warriors I've ever met, he is easily worth 50 men." Ironwood said with a growing smile.
"Aw shucks, you're making me blush." Qrow said sarcastically.
"Bite your tongue brute." Winter snapped at Qrow.
"Winter!" Ironwood yelled.
"Ooh, nippy. Ice queen here is definitely a Schnee." Qrow said slyly.
Winter stood, fist balled. "Watch what you say Qrow." She spat his name with venom. "You may be an outstanding warrior, but I can make you into ground beef."
"Try it and you'll end up six feet under Ice queen." Qrow said with a chuckle.
The forest
Qrow wheezed and dropped to his knees, he felt blood running down the corners of his mouth, and his shirt was soaked in the crimson liquid. He winced as he stood. "I...have to find her." He said between his shaky breaths.
He tried to take a step but fell again, a loud crunch came from his leg. He gritted his teeth and looked ahead. He saw something he never thought he'd see again. He saw a long strand of silky white hair sticking to her pale face.
His eyes went wide and he stood once more, pulling the sword from the ground he did his best to limp as quickly as he could to her. Halfway to her he felt another crunch and howled in pain as he dropped. He didn't stop though, instead he began to crawl to her. His vision was becoming blurry, filled with ash, but for Qrow, all he could see was her.
4 weeks earlier.
Four days. Four days of silence. That's how long the two had been in eachother's company and not a single word was spoken between them, only glares and mumbles, occasional glances but that was all.
Winter was currently in the officer's tent which usually housed 10 people, but was only home to her and….regrettably Branwen, who reeked of alcohol and pine. She was messaging Ironwood on their progress when Qrow entered the tent, he was silent, and surprisingly didn't reek of booze.
She glanced at him when he had his back to her. 'Did he run out of liquor already?' Winter wondered.
She thought about making a snide comment about his soberness, but thought better of it. She was about to go back to messaging Ironwood when one of her guards was thrown into their tent, his chest was torn open.
Winter went wide eyed and instinctively reached for her rapier, but only felt empty space. Realizing she was dressed for bed, she swore under her breath, turning from the door. In a flash of movement she was suddenly pressed against something hard, warm, and yet somehow soft. She slowly looked up to see Qrow, his arm wrapped around her, weapon in his other hand, in front of him an Ursa major was split in half.
He looked down at her, his expression was stone cold. "Get dressed, and be ready to leave, I doubt we have very much longer."
She was about to protest when the night air outside was illuminated by a sudden explosion nearby, and she rushed to her clothes. She dressed and grabbed her rapier, as well as the crystal, and ran out the tent to find Qrow beheading an alpha beowulf which was perched above one of her guards.
He looked to her and nodded, before helping the guard up. "We need to leave, the area is swarming with Grimm, and as much as I'd love to stick around, we need you in one piece Ice queen."
She sighed and nodded. "Very well , lead the way."
He smirked and turned, and began running.
Forest.
Qrow shut his eyes tight, as to keep anymore ash from obscuring his vision. He reached frantically, until he found it. He grasped her cold pale hand and squeezed it. He crawled closer and sat up against a tree, pulling her as gently as he could into his lap. "Winter." He said between shallow breaths. "Wake the hell up, wake up ice bitch, I'm supposed to get you home from the prom before 10, or your dad will kill me, remember?" He said jokingly, worry plaguing his joke.
A single tear rolled down his cheek as he held her tightly against him. "Winter, please. Wake up."
He slowly placed a finger on her neck, and he sighed in relief. She had a pulse, though it was faint, it was still a pulse. He felt warm tears begin to stream down his cheeks.
3 weeks ago
It had been a week since the attack on their camp, and they were making good ground. Qrow had become much more talkative with Winter, and seemed...gentler, maybe even kinder towards her. He had told her of a few of his missions, and she told him about how she hoped to change the way people view the Faunus. He seemed to admire that very much, smiling widely every time she brought it up. Today though. Today was different, he was silent again, much more skittish, on edge.
They were walking through a canyon at the time, and Winter was making conversation with one of the six remaining guards of twelve they had brought. Qrow was ahead of them, glancing at every cliff side, and every sound, completely alert.
"Qrow?" Winter touched his shoulder, making him jump.
"Hm?" He looked down to her, his attention seeming to be entirely on her.
"What's eating you? You've been on edge all morning...it's worrying me." She said softly.
He sighed. "This is where the White Fang activity has intensified recently. I'm worried we might be am-"
The loud crack of a rifle reached his ears not a second too late, as he pushed Winter to the ground, pulling his sword free as he did, and slicing the bullet in half. The second crack reached him too late though and he felt an extremely sharp pain in his back, and stomach. Winter covered her mouth and closed her eyes. 'Why am I worried about him?' The thought appeared in her head.
'He's my friend, I worry for my friends is all.' She told herself.
Qrow stood, and his blade flipped forward, his weapon becoming a gun. He started to spray the cliff sides around them, screaming and yelling could be heard all around them, a few more rifles went off, and Winter noticed that every time they did, Qrow suddenly appeared in front of Winter, he was taking the bullets for her, because sh- Wait. She didn't have the crystal on her, it was visibly on the guard from earlier.
'He's protecting me, and not the crystal? Why?' She wondered, her train of thought being interrupted as Qrow dropped to a knee. "Keep moving. I need a minute for my Aura to fix me up." He said softly.
Winter turned to her guards and nodded. They nodded back and ran past Winter.
"Winter, go with them." Qrow ordered.
"I refuse to leave my partner wounded on the battlefield. No matter what you say Qrow, I'm staying here and I'm keeping your lousy, drunk, and sexist ass safe." She yelled, her voice cracking in the middle of her rant.
He chuckled and stood, wrapping an arm around her. "You must have been adopted. You're too nice to be a Schnee." He joked.
She cracked a smile and playfully smacked him. "Let's catch up you idiot, I don't want to get left behind."
The forest
Qrow had fallen asleep an hour ago, his body was ice cold, Winter's was propped up against him in his lap, her white uniform was stained red by his wounds.
In the distance a ship could be heard.
"Atlas-01 to Overlord Actual do you copy over?" A man said over the radio.
"This is Overlord actual, I copy. Have you found them? Over?" Ironwood's voice answered.
"It looks like it, they're in pretty bad shape, going in to recover them now, Atlas-01 over and out."
The ship landed a few yards from the two, and a figure appeared running through the ash, making his way to them.
The soldier shook Qrow who slowly woke. "Bout time you got here assholes." Qrow chuckled and wheezed.
Qrow stood, and carried Winter to the ship, bridal style, setting her down inside before collapsing, unconscious.
End of chapter one. In the next chapter we will find out what happened to the ship, we'll experience a more in depth flashback sequence with the two, and hopefully I'll get past my writers block soon! I hope you enjoyed the chapter my lovelies, have an awesome day!
