Winter Schnee walked into the Mistral tavern and had to fight an instinctual inclination to turn up her nose at the sour stench of stale beer and boiled peanuts. It wasn't exactly the sort of establishment that she'd find herself in of her own volition– she had a sneaking suspicion that the barkeep would think a "Hot Toddy" was a woman– but she was here on what could best be described as matters of "Family Business." Her crystal-blue eyes traveled across the expanse of the tavern to find the man that she'd been here to search for, seated exactly where she thought she'd find him, hunched over a drink and brooding. He was very good at those two things. They were among the only things, as far as she could tell, that he was good at.
"Hello, Qrow," Winter greeted the older Huntsman politely. She pulled out a stool with the toe of her boot to sit down beside him and the red-eyed man seemed to roll his eyes with his entire body before hunching forward again, not doing the courtesy of sitting up straight and barely turning to look at her. Not that she was surprised, their relationship had always been… icy. 'Icy,' she thought to herself with a look of mild concern. 'Oh Gods, I've only just met Taiyang and I'm already noticing puns.'
"Hey, Ice Queen," Qrow grumbled back to her in greeting before knocking back his drink. It was probably rum, but by the smell of it, it might very well have been paint thinner. "To what do I owe the pleasure? Ironwood need me for a job? Or was Atlas military just passing through and you could smell me so you decided to give me a lecture?" He signaled to the bartender as Winter took a slow, composed breath through her nostrils. She had to remain civil, despite how Qrow loved to push her buttons. She knew that was just his way.
"As a matter of fact, I'm not here on any official business–" Winter began to say before the bartender sidled up to them with Qrow's drink. At first, she thought he was merely a heavyset man with a large mustache. However, as soon as she saw his enormous webbed hands, it was obvious that the man was a Faunus, and a Walrus one at that.
"If you're gonna take one of my stools," the man said brusquely, "You're gonna need to buy a drink." Winter grimaced and wondered what she could ask for that wouldn't kill the bacteria in her stomach lining. She highly doubted that he was willing to sell her water. She didn't even know if she trusted the water not to have alcohol in it. Qrow waved the bartender off.
"Ah, leave 'er alone, George," he muttered in Winter's defense, which was a bit of a surprise. "I'm drinking enough for the both of us, ain't I?" George, apparently, looked at Qrow for a moment and shrugged before walking away.
"Do you frequent this particular establishment?" Winter asked. "Or do you have a secondary Semblance that lets you know every bartender in Remnant on a first-name basis?" Qrow chuckled and shook his head.
"I like to know the names of the people who serve me," he explained. "Makes me think of 'em as people. Must be weird for you, I know." Winter scoffed a little and Qrow smirked. "So if you're not here on business, what're you here for?" he asked. Winter sat up a little straighter in her seat again, her hands folded in her lap.
"As you know," she began, "My sister and Ruby have begun dating. As a concerned sister, I decided to do a little look into Ruby's background. To make sure she's trustworthy and deserving of my sister, of course." Qrow scoffed, frowning a little.
"So how much of Atlas's resources did you waste on making sure my niece managed to fit the high Schnee standards?" he asked, his tone slightly offended. Winter opted not to answer that question.
"That's actually what I want to talk to you about," she said instead. "While I was studying Ruby, I couldn't help but noticed a rather telling chain of traits about her. The red cloak, the dark hair, the weapon you helped her create…" While Winter was speaking, Qrow sipped at his drink. "Is Ruby Rose your daughter?" Qrow's red eyes bulged wide and he inhaled his drink, hacking and wheezing as he bent forward, pounding his fist on the bar as he held it with his other hand to keep from falling flat on his face.
"Wh-what?" he managed to gasp out. "What did you just say to me?" Winter winced slightly at that particular question. Perhaps she'd struck a nerve.
"It only makes sense," she surmised. "How much she models herself after you, the way you watch over her so closely, how little resemblance she bears to her… sister and to Taiyang. I know that you were close to Summer Rose when you were younger," she continued, "Although I don't know why you let Taiyang raise her as his own-" Qrow held up a hand as he sat back up and squared his shoulders.
"Stop," he muttered as he wiped the corner of his mouth. "Lemme just… stop ya right there. Before you say anything else really, really stupid." Qrow closed his eyes and his whole body seemed to seethe as he grit his teeth, grinding them as his lips curled back in a snarl. He actually growled, the sound coming from low in his throat. When he opened his eyes again, they were glowing, as well as sharp and focused. His skin also seemed to be a little clearer and his face didn't look quite so haggard.
"What… what did you just do?" Winter asked as she leaned back slightly in her seat, one eyebrow raised in a mixture of confusion and concern.
"Little trick I picked up during my wanderings after leaving Beacon," Qrow explained. His voice was clearer than Winter could ever remember hearing it. He didn't slur, he didn't grumble, he was actually opening his mouth. Was he… was he… "When I want to, I can basically brute force myself to be sober by getting angry enough." Winter's mouth dropped and hung open at that particular revelation. Sober? Qrow? "I did that," Qrow continued, "So that you can understand that when I tell you that this is the stupidest fucking thing you've ever said, you can know I'm being stone-cold sober and deadly serious."
Winter gasped at Qrow's words, her shock and confusion giving way to indignant anger. Who was he to talk to her like that? "I don't see why you need to be so rude about it!" she told him hotly. "It was just the most logical conclusion based on the information presented to–"
"Please stop talking before my opinion of you sinks any lower," Qrow told her bluntly. Once again, Winter gave an offended gasp and started to say something to her defense before he glowered at her. "No, seriously. Shut up." She shifted uncomfortably as Qrow fixed his gaze on her. "So, let's break this down piece by piece, huh? First off, Ruby's appearance. In all of your background checks, did you happen to notice that Summer Rose also wore a hood and she also had black hair and pale skin?"
"Well, yes," Winter conceded, "But your sister also has black hair, yet Yang still has more of the characteristics of her father."
"Ruby looks nothing like me," Qrow retorted. "No child of mine would ever be that happy. When she smiles, that's all Taiyang. Her excitement for fighting, her good nature, her quick thinking? That's all Tai, too. And even if," he allowed, "Even if I was Ruby's biological father, which I'm not, calling me Ruby's dad would be a giant disservice to Taiyang. The guy was there for every minute of Ruby's life. First steps, first words, every bad dream and every sick day. If I was her father, I'd be the worst father of all time."
That actually let Winter smirk a little. "Clearly, you've never met mine," she reminded him with a wry chuckle. Qrow didn't even crack a smile and Winter cleared her throat. "But that still doesn't explain–"
"Her weapon? The red cloak? The whole 'guardian angel' routine?" Qrow scoffed. "Those first two are easy. For some godsforsaken reason, because she's a stupid kid, Ruby got this idea into her head that I'm someone worth admiring or even aspiring to be like. Of course I couldn't say no when she asked me to teach her or to help her build Crescent Rose. Taiyang helped Yang build Ember Celica 'cause their fighting styles are the same." Winter supposed that was fair. Weiss had clearly modeled her own fighting style and Myternaster after Winter. That was different, though. "As for why I keep an eye on her…" Qrow sighed and shook his head as if he were in genuine disbelief. "I dunno what's up with Schnees and their lack of any understanding of empathy, but you make me wonder if I should be the one doing a background check on Weiss."
"And what does that mean?" Winter asked haughtily.
"She's still my niece! Why wouldn't I look out for her?!"
"I'd say you've been doing a lot more than just 'looking out for her,'" Winter shot back "You've been watching over Ruby like a hawk since before she and her friends left Beacon. There's more to this than just a concerned uncle."
Qrow's face darkened and his brow furrowed in a scowl. "Okay," he grumbled as he threw up his hands. "Alright. Fine. You wanna talk know? You wanna hear about the life story of Qrow Branwen? Fine. Yeah," he admitted, "Summer and I were together after Beacon. But by then I was already drinking because of my bullshit Semblance. I wasn't the cool guy at school anymore and I couldn't grow up. I couldn't be the man Summer wanted and she didn't wanna stay around me. Fine, I accepted that. But then it turned out that the man she wanted was Taiyang." His face screwed up angrily with old resentment as he balled his fists in his lap. "I thought I was okay with it. Taiyang was a great guy. He deserved to be happy after Raven walked out on him and they were great together." The anger clouding Qrow's face only grew darker as he ground his teeth. "But every time I came over, I saw how much happier Summer was with Tai and how I could never, ever have been the man she deserved. How the life Summer and Tai had was never the one she could have had with me, no matter how much I wanted it with her. So I…" Qrow bent his head down for a moment was silent. His shoulders were trembling and Winter's face furrowed with concern.
"Qrow," she said softly, reaching a hand forward to try and lay it comfortingly on his shoulder. He swatted her hand away and glowered at her as he sat back up.
"Don't," he told her sternly. "You wanted it. You're gonna get it. Don't pretend you feel sorry for me."
"I'm not prete–" Qrow glowered at her again and Winter swallowed back her words.
"So I ran away," he continued. "I just didn't go back to Vale. I wandered Remnant, killing every Grimm I found and crawling into every bottle I could get my hands on with any woman who wouldn't throw a drink in my face. When I did finally come back to Vale…" he shook his head. "Summer was gone. And I just couldn't get it out of my head that if I'd just been there for them, if I'd just grown up, Summer would still be alive. So I tried to stay around more. I did what I could to make amends with Tai. I tried to spend more time with Yang and Ruby. Ruby…" he chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. "She just looked so much like Summer. I knew it was my second chance. My way to make things right. So I decided I was gonna do whatever I could to make sure she was safe. I wouldn't disappear again. I wouldn't let Summer down."
Winter sat there in stunned silence for a moment, absorbing everything Qrow had told her. Then he lurched forward suddenly, falling into her arms as she struggled to catch him. "A-are you alright?" she asked.
"Don't like to do that," Qrow muttered groggily, sounding much more like his usual self. "Messes up my head and the hangover comes like a sledgehammer to the back of the head. Gonna pass out in a couple se–" Then his head slumped forward and Winter looked apologetically at George.
"Did he have a room?" she asked. A few minutes and several hundred Lien later, Winter was carrying Qrow's unconscious body up the stairs and to a room. She unbuttoned his waistcoat, took off his cloak, jacket, and got off his shoes and belt, trying to make sure he rested comfortably. As she filled a pitcher with water and set it beside the bed with a glass, she reflected on all of the things Qrow had told her. There was a tragedy to him that she'd only ever had the hints of before. Something under that drunken bravado and self-loathing that was almost maturity. As she shut the door behind her and went back out of the tavern, she couldn't help but be… interested.