"It's a school night," Taiyang reminds him, firmly, and Qrow just rolls his eyes.
"It's Thursday!" he says, throwing his arms wide. Taiyang turns his back on the man, chopping through a row of vegetables and sliding them into the stew for tonight. "She'll miss tomorrow and have a long weekend. Come on, do you really think her scholastic career is gonna be determined by one day of playing hooky with her uncle?"
"I already told her no," Taiyang says. "I have to be consistent with her- and you better not go behind my back and try to play the good cop while I'm the grump who hates fun."
"You are the grump who hates fun." Qrow says it with a good deal of dark humor, his usual carelessness. There are days when Taiyang truly wonders if Qrow intends to hurt people's feelings, or if he just thinks everyone is a calloused, wretched human the way he and his sister are. But in that moment Taiyang doesn't care.
There's a great clattering of dishes and silverware, boiling water splashing onto the kitchen floor and gears whirring as two sets of weapons draw up at once.
He has his forearm pressed against Qrow's throat, and Qrow has the end of his blade piercing through the cloth on Taiyang's back, and there's a moment where Taiyang wonders if how well they know each other will make this a hard fight or an easy one.
Qrow has a lopsided smile. "So you're really grumpy today."
"You gave her up!" Taiyang hisses back, pressing forward and wiping the smirk from Qrow's face. "You gave her up. You gave up the right to decide when and where she goes, how often you get to see her, the conditions that apply to your visits! You gave up the right to be the one to discipline her when she gets out of hand, you gave up the task of teaching her right and wrong and what's acceptable and what's not!"
The muscles on his forearm ripple when he cuts off Qrow's air. He knows that if he strikes, Qrow's semblance will just eat it up. And so the trick would be just pressure, pressure, pressure- assuming Qrow doesn't stab him in the back. He sees it when the red eyes began to waver, nostrils flaring wide as Qrow begins to suffocate, and god help him, in that moment there is nothing more Taiyang wants than to see it happen.
He eases up.
"You," he says, hands shaking, not looking away from Qrow. "Should consider yourself lucky I let you in here at all. You're lucky I don't ship her off to another kingdom to study at some other combat school."
Qrow slouches, inhaling hugely before letting it out in a sigh. "Okay. So what, you'd tear her from her friends and family just to spite me?" Standing up a little straighter, he rubs at his neck with one hand and sheathes the greatsword. "Taiyang. Relax. She doesn't have to hang out with me this week."
"She's not your daughter," is all Taiyang says, still trembling from head to toe.
"I know, I know." Qrow lifts up his hands for peace. "I got it. You're obviously on your period or something, so let's clean up in here before the girls see us fighting."
When he passes Taiyang, he gives him a rough punch to the shoulder before grabbing the mop and the broom.