Inspired by that day all of my coworkers were hungover along with being super irritated with people in general. I tried my hand at writing angsty, academy era Taiyang/Qrow.
A splitting headache and the need to vomit forced Qrow's eyes open. He couldn't remember what the alcohol tasted like going down, but it was like fire coming back up. Stealing that bottle of beer last night, drinking all of it in one sitting, had been a mistake, maybe the biggest mistake he'd ever made aside from the reason he'd started drinking in the first place.
"I'm never doing that again..."
His throat felt raw and a thin stream of saliva invaded his otherwise parched mouth, threatening a repeat performance. There was a bucket next to his bedside, somehow? With no memory of the last several hours, Qrow couldn't explain how it had gotten there, let alone how he'd even made it back to his dorm room last night. He must have started drinking after he'd gotten back, but that hardly made sense – Summer never would've allowed it.
The light, minimal as it was from his spot in the corner, was too bright. He couldn't open his eyes beyond a squint without a stick of dynamite going off behind them. That alone was enough reason for him to go back to sleep, except he hadn't anticipated a response to his sincere, heartfelt declaration.
"Are you going to stay awake this time?"
"I was awake before?" Qrow slurred.
Wasn't the slurring supposed to stop after he stopped being drunk? Or was he still drunk? Maybe it was the headache's fault. His muscles gave out and he was partly falling off his bed, all the strength in his arms suddenly drained. There was a streak of barf drying on his chin, amplifying the acidic smell tenfold. The whole room smelled awful at the moment, acid and dust and alcohol and metal polish. He wondered how he'd never noticed it before, then a particularly sharp flash of pain stopped him from wondering anything at all. Thought was no longer a priority.
The voice was Taiyang's voice though. Even possibly drunk or maybe not drunk (which was it?), Qrow recognized it instantly. He sounded annoyed, too. That was unfortunate. Taiyang was pretty when he was angry – or, well, he was pretty all of the time actually, but especially when he was angry.
Two losses, and Qrow hadn't even been awake as many minutes. Since pretty Taiyang was the last person he wanted to be around right now.
"You're hungover," Taiyang replied, which was not really an answer but at least provided an explanation.
"Oh," said Qrow.
He made a mental note to look that word up in the dictionary later. Appearing ignorant in front of Taiyang was not something he preferred to do...
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you could have gotten yourself in? The rest of us?" He threw his arms open in exasperation. Qrow shut his eyes against it, so he wouldn't have to see. "And you owe me a huge favor! Covering for you, cleaning – "
Taiyang cut himself off, biting his lower lip like he expected a snappy retort – "what are you, my mom?" or something to that effect. A proper mother was just another item on Qrow's list of wants, although he wouldn't possibly object to the idea of calling Taiyang Daddy.
The blond heaved a sigh that drained all the rigidity from his shoulders. Slumping like this, with his forehead resting in his palm and his lips parted, Tai looked tired to remind Qrow of why he'd started drinking in the first place. For some reason, he'd assumed everyone else in STRQ, probably the entire academy, was immune to that kind of fatigue.
"There's a reason for this," he rationed. In Tai's perfect world, finding the reason for a problem lead to a solution every time.
"There is no reason, Tai – I mean, it's just school stuff. Bandit stuff. Stress."
As long as Taiyang was going to pull out his wallet, Qrow didn't care which of those excuses he bought. He received a wary side glance for his efforts.
"Then maybe I could help you balance it all. Summer, Raven – they would agree with me."
Qrow, who had no interest in hearing Taiyang's voice cracked, clamped his eyes shut even tighter. Besides, Tai had no idea what his sister agreed with.
Normally, in situations like this, he thought about Tai. The shape of his face, the muscles in his arms and shoulders... What Taiyang's mouth would feel like pressed against his own, whether his lips would be chapped or deceptively soft. Whenever Qrow tired of one fantasy, he could easily replace it with another, but fantasizing about Taiyang at all right now felt inappropriate.
"I just, I wish I knew what you wanted," Taiyang mumbled.
'You,' Qrow thought.
He wanted to say it, really. The word buzzed inside his dry mouth, danced on the tip of his tongue. Qrow's tongue swiped across his lips, and he forced himself to speak:
"Water would be nice."
His tongue felt like sandpaper in his mouth, and Qrow hoped that re-hydrating might douse the fire behind his eyes and his throbbing headache as well. There was nothing he could do about that crush.
And two weeks later Taiyang started dating his sister, hahaha-