Happy father's day everyone. as someone who is proud to have had a strong and honorable father to guide and protect my life, I give you a father's day one-shot. in addition, this one is going to be more jovial since I made mother's day so sad.
as always please leave a review it means a lot to me to know if the holiday specials are worth continuing.
-Noruas Bombadil
Father's day.
It was early father's day morning when Jorge looked into his closet. Isabao and the girls were making breakfast in the kitchen. They started three minutes ago so Jorge had a few minutes to pick out his clothes. One of the side effects of having married Isabao was that he had to attend a little over half a dozen father's day dances with his various stepdaughters. He loved them all but he still had to wear his dress clothes for the event.
He had already selected his pants and shirt, all that was left now was the vest, jackets, and tie. Looking into the closet Jorge saw the hanger that held all of his ties. Each tie was held to the hanger by a clothespin but there were eight clothes pins and only six ties.
Starting at the far right Jorge saw a narrow red tie that was closer to dark red than it wasn't. It was given to him by Pius and meant to be worn under a vest. Even to this day Pius still wore a tie similar to this in his civilian life. Jorge closed his eyes and remembered the day he received this tie. It was many years ago when team JSPR were in their first year at Beacon.
…
Pius had been following Jorge around all day. It was like having an annoying shadow. One that didn't know how to shut up. It started out small just a few more minutes of standing around after the breakfast. Now he had followed Jorge around all day. They were currently in the library and Pius seemed to be absolutely unshakable.
He was hanging over Jorge's shoulder and listening to everything he said. Even the things that weren't meant to be listened to. By lunchtime, Jorge was getting ready to kill the boy. He just didn't seem to understand the idea of individuality and personal space.
"Hey, Jorge?"
Jorge gritted his teeth. If he needed to listen to one more asinine question then he was going to lose his shit. "Pius what the hell do you want. Every three seconds you ask me another stupid question. Just. Go away."
Jorge had seen many things in his life including an actually kicked puppy but this was arguably more pathetic. The teen's eyes welled up and he just sort of shuffled away.
"Finally, some peace and quiet." Jorge leaned back and closed his eyes. He was completely unaware of the storm heading his way.
A firm hand slammed down across the back of his head. "Jorge Telmaravak what is wrong with you, that boy has done nothing but care for you. And you just turned him away. How could you." The woman who was currently yelling at him was Summer Rose. the leader of team STRQ and also the universal mom friend. She was not happy with him.
"What do you want Summer? I am trying to read." looking back to his book only be struck once more. Summer asked.
"Do you know what day it is Jorge?"
"Today is Sunday," Jorge said. "Why do you ask?"
Summer somehow looked more disappointed. "It is more than that." Summer said, her hands on her hips. "It is father's day you ignorant fool. You are the closest thing that boy has to a father and now on father's day you send him off like he is a virus"
It was true that most of the students here had no parents. And Pius was basically adopted by Jorge at the age of twelve. But Jorge had never thought of himself as a father figure. "Summer he sees me as his team leader. Nothing more."
At least Jorge thought that he did. But the more he thought of it the more it made sense. He was the closest thing that Pius had to a father. But he never would have figured the boy to see him as a father. After all, he knew better than most just what Jorge was capable of.
The first time that Jorge had to kill someone while he was caring for Pius he tried so very hard to keep him from finding out. And when he found out Jorge even tried to lie about what had happened. He didn't want the boy to fear him. Yet the youngster seemed to understand. He acted quite a bit like Jorge. when he was younger than a lot of folks that knew him then would often call him J.J. or Jorge Jr.
Giving a sigh, Jorge rose to his feet. He had put his foot in his mouth and now he needed to go extract it. He figured that Pius would head back to the team JSPR dorm room. When he arrived he found Pius sitting in his desk chair.
"Hey, you got a minute?" Jorge asked this as he pulled up his own seat sitting reversed next to his teammate.
"Yeah," came the answer. It was clear that he was still hurting from what Jorge had said.
"I know that I messed up. I wasn't paying attention and I forgot who I was and who you are. I am sorry." While saying this Jorge placed his hand on teen's shoulder. "I want you to know that … well, I want you to know that if you see me as a father then I will do my best to live up to that honor."
Having said this Jorge did something he rarely did. He stood them both up and pulled Pius into a hug. There was a moment of stiffness from Pius before he seemed to settle into the idea. He, in turn, wrapped his arms around Jorge and there they remained for a moment before they separated. Once they were back at arms reach Pius reached into his desk and pulled out a box. Handing the box to Jorge he then promptly left the room.
Jorge looked down at the box and then opened it. Inside was a red necktie. It made sense. Ties were a staple father's day gift. Walking over to his dresser Jorge opened up one of his drawers only to see that it was filled with seven more boxes all of them almost the same size as the one Pius had given him.
He was afraid of where this was going when an unnerving thought set in. out of all of the teams he knew and all of the people on those teams they were almost all of the orphans. It was understandable that all of the children that have a good heart and no family would turn to hunting. After all, some would see it as a way to make a family. And to others, if they died no one was going to miss them.
So it was with this in mind that he lifted the first box. It was tied to another and then tied closed by a ribbon that told Jorge who it was from. The first box that Jorge opened had a purple and black with white trim western style bow tie. "This came from Glynda," he said. He could tell from both the color scheme and the style. The western tie was as the name implied poplar in the wild west Jorge often told them of. And Glynda often referred to Jorge as a trigger-happy cowboy for all of his battle heavy tactics. He still remembered the day that he had to help both Saint and Glynda.
It was one of the worst kept secrets of the school that Glynda and Saint once had a strong relationship. And that this relationship almost fell apart after a tough mission where Jorge was forced to step back and allow Saint to lead, and had Glynda taking Jorge's slot to keep the team fully staffed.
On the mission, Glynda made a tactical mistake and it would have cost her her life. Instead, Saint did the stupid heroic thing and saved her at the price of his own safety. He came back with his entire right side destroyed. To this day he had cybernetic limbs, lungs, and even an implant in his head that allowed him to control everything better.
Glynda was appalled that Saint would put himself in so much danger to protect her. It didn't help that he said he would do it again in a heartbeat. Glynda had left the room screaming and crying. She was having a very bad day and he wasn't helping.
Jorge found her sobbing in the kitchen. It sounded cliche but she was halfway through her third pint of ice cream. Sitting next to her on the floor Jorge opted not to drop his arm over shoulders like he normally would have done. This was because Jore knew what had happened. The last thing she needed was for him to do something that Saint often did.
"Glynda, what's wrong?" Jorge applied subtle hints of persuasion through the force. Just enough to get her to open up without her feeling like she was being pressured.
"James almost died and it was my fault. I almost got him killed Jorge. And he still acts like it was his fault. Jorge, I'm scared. I don't want to lose him like this." she was afraid. That was all that Jorge needed to know. He also elected to ignore that James had used his name instead of his call sign.
"Shhh." as he spoke Jorge now wrapped his arms around her and ran a hand through her hair. "Listen, Glynda, James loves you. The fact that he was willing to die wasn't because he loved you but because he was the one leading the team. It was his responsibility to get you all home safely. What did I teach you all?"
On instinct, Glynda repeated the mantra he had drilled into them. "The leader is the first to enter and the last to leave." this was to both ensure that any traps to be triggered would affect the leader. And so that the leader could ensure that every soldier that could return home did.
"That's right," Jorge said. It wasn't entirely true. After all, James had been injured so that Glynda wouldn't get hurt so that meant that he clearly loved her but the last thing that she needed was to be told that he would allow himself to die for her even if it was true.
Slowly Glynda stopped her crying. And then Jorge stood gave her a gentle rub on the head and then he went to talk to James.
He found James in the infirmary getting his limbs recalibrated. This needed to be done once a week for several weeks until it was finally set to the exact level of sensitivity.
"You stepped in it James." as he spoke Jorge reached out and put his hand on James'/ Saint 's shoulder. "She thinks that you value her life above your's"
"But … I do." James was confused now he thought that this was obvious. "I love her, of course, I would hold her life in higher worth than my own."
"I know James. But she needs to feel like you hold value to your own life as well. She is worried. Can you try to take care of her? She needs you and you need her. If either of you forgets to try to live for the other then the world we live in will tear you apart." Jorge knew that these words were what they needed to hear. But he also knew that they would never truly be able to live for each other because they needed to put what they needed aside and serve their people beyond they own feelings.
This was just a part of who they are. They love the world more than themselves.
...
Coming back to his dorm room. Jorge opened the second box and already knew who it was from. It came from James. Who went on to abandon the callsign Saint and began to use his true name. James Ironwood. While he would keep his past concealed he never forgot his teacher and team leader. As such he gave him a cravat style gunmetal gray tie.
The next set of boxes clearly came from the Branwen twins. The boxes were both very dark black. That being said one box was the color onyx and one was the color of black olives. They were very similar but still different.
The onyx box was from Raven and it contained an onyx seven-fold tie. While the other box contained a black olive colored skinny necktie. Raven's tie seemed to be of a very high quality. And was most likely stolen. And Qrow's tie seemed to be all that he could have afforded.
The times that he needed to show the first year students the role of a man in the world as both role model for Qrow and what Raven needed to look for in life. The most important time for Raven came when she was caught killing John Mcmurray. Jorge had taken her aside and asked her.
"Why, Romerean and I have always been here to help you and your brother. So tell me. Why, what does Ozpin have over you?"
Jorge's tone conveyed no anger. He was simply disappointed in her for not going to him for help.
"He has Qrow, Qrow is sick and the only one who can help him is Ozpin. If I don't tie up loose ends the Qrow will die." her voice was weak. She thought she had failed. She was going to be disavowed and then Qrow would die.
The cuffs that were on her wrists suddenly came off. She looked and saw Romerean holding the cuffs. His face was downtrodden. And he couldn't look her in the eye.
"Go," he said. After they waited for a moment he spoke again and raised his arm to point "get the fuck out of my sight. I am letting you live this one time. Only because you are doing what you do for the sake of someone else. And never forget the life you took and the family you ended."
Ever since that day Raven had never forgotten the mercy she was shown. On that day she was shown the actions of three kinds of men. John McMurray was willing to die for his child, Romerean was willing to kill for his friends, and Jorge was willing to forgive her for doing the unforgivable.
Qrow never knew about that but he did see the way that Jorge would treat both Glynda and Summer. And even the way that he treated his own team and others. The man that Jorge was respected women and was an equal to all people. Somewhere along the way, Qrow lost that but Jorge still had hope.
Then there was a box that screamed pun. It was tie-dye in design. And inside of it was a tie-dye bow tie. This had to be from Tai-yang Xiao Long. they had gotten into several puns and bad joke battles most of which Jorge won. That being said he gave Tai a few here and there.
Then came the red and white bow tie that must have come from Summer. She always talked about how much better a bowtie looked than an ordinary tie.
He wore both of those ties to their wedding. He even managed to wear both of them at once and the change from one to the other so fast that no one knew how he did it.
He also buried Summer with her tie. Now the clip that held her tie to the hanger was now empty.
Then there was the box in the bottom of the stack. It contained a very high quality seven fold tie with the Telmarvak crest and the Arc crest overlapping each other. This was from Romerean. He had inherited a vast fortune when his parents passed and then he headed to Beacon as soon as he could. Jorge had more impact on him than on any other person in the school.
…
Coming back from his flashbacks Jorge looked at the hanger full of ties. He had to choose one.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. And when Jorge opened it he saw Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren standing awkwardly. Ren had a box in his hand that had to contain a tie. This was something that Jorge hadn't predicted. He had technically adopted them both but he didn't think anything like this would come of it.
They must not have been given the memo that Jorge didn't want ties so here they were. Taking the box when offered the shy boy and shockingly calm girl each said their own version of happy father's day before they ran off.
Opening the box he saw a dark green and pink striped four in the hand tie. It was bold but it matches both of them well. Quickly looping the tie around his neck and tying it in a standard knot.
Heading to the kitchen Jorge knew that now he had two more souls that he had to show the true meaning of what a man is. After all, it was his job to tell them a secret about a father's love. and if he need be he would even use his words to do it.