The Orphan

Taiyang Xiao Long lived in a house on a hill.

A quaint little abode that was far from the greater Patch community. Its foundations were aged but as sturdy as the day they were laid. Thick beams of cedar composed the house's frame and walls. Instead of glass, traditional Patch paper was used to allow the smells of the neighboring forest. A hardy house, in tune with nature and tradition.

Many would have found the estate of a picturesque quality. The product of an architect's country dream, or the cottage of a whimsical millionaire. Those of a more observant nature, however, would find troubling discrepancies that painted an altogether darker picture.

Half a dozen garden boxes next to the house lacked the care and attention given to the front lawn. The wooden boxes were either empty or full of chocking weed. Gardening tools sat leaning against house's outer wall, abandoned and unused. Nearby a swing set and a toppled tricycle lay forgotten on the grass. The seat of the swing detached and hanging freely from a single vine of rusted chain. Amidst the grass was a tea party attended by stuffed animals stained with dirt and mud.

The empty wooden porch was marked in several places where chairs likely had been placed. A welcome mat was explicitly absent. Starkly contrasting the fading cottage walls was a sign hung from the doorway, a new sign in angry red that exclaimed 'No Visitors'.

Qrow absently noted the general disrepair of the yard but proceeded unperturbed. As a sign of goodwill he grabbed the mail from the stuffed mailbox before approaching the porch. His charge in tow, he rang the doorbell.

Taiyang could easily be described as fairly handsome man. He was a man constantly at the peak of fitness due to his profession as a hunter. Taiyang was also blessed with a natural rugged masculinity, as well as exuding an aura of understanding and calm unmatched. Under normal circumstances that is. As Qrow regarded his teammate and brother-in-law, Taiyang looked anything but attractive. Bloodshot eyes sat above dark bags that marked nights of restlessness. His skin was of a pale and unhealthy pallor while his frame seemed oddly thin. The man looked to be at the edge of death, or someone who had just crawled out of the grave.

"Hey brother," Qrow greeted carefully. Some rather harsh words had been exchanged between the two of them recently. No doubt the last person Taiyang had expected to see was his teammate standing on his porch with a little girl in tow.

As expected, Taiyang's eyes narrowed and quickly passed over the cloaked hunter. His stare falling instead on the girl porch as his face scrunched up in confusion. The small girl stood mutely in a drab wool outfit. The tips of her dark hair just under Qrow's waist. She seemed just about Yang's age, if far more frail looking. A black bow adorned her head and she carried a backpack whilst staring at the two men with an intense expression of uncertainty.

Taiyang coughed purposefully, "Qrow… who is this?"

Taiyang did not quite have the deer-in-headlights look Qrow had expected. But he was evidently caught off guard, which played perfectly into the cloaked hunter's plans. Donning his trademark grin he bowed extravagantly.

"Congratulations! It's a girl."

"What is the meaning of this?!"

Qrow raised an eyebrow at his teammate before taking a prodigious gulp of his tea, "Ah… hits the spot."

After letting himself into his buddy's abode Qrow had raided the cabinets for some of Patch's best. It helped that Taiyang himself seemed to be half in shock. The girl sat on a bar stool at the far end of the marble white countertop. She was watching the proceedings quietly, with an impassive look on her face.

Taiyang. Taiyang was pacing and wearing out his floors needlessly.

"Qrow! I demand an explanation! I-"

"Bro. It's so very simple," Qrow rolled his eyes as Taiyang continued to fume, the papers in the teacher's hands crinkling into little wads, "Let me spell it out like you do for your kids."

He took another sip, "Qrow went to city. Qrow visited orphanage. Qrow adopts kid for Taiyang," the grey huntress smiled in satisfaction at his teammate's darkening expression, "And now… Qrow delivers kid to Taiyang. Free of charge."

"Qrow you- you can't do this! You can't adopt some kid in my name!"

Hopping off the stool, Qrow walked along the counter before rubbing the kid's hair affectionately, "Sure I can, can't I?" he leaned down at the girl, who responded with an angry scowl.

"Yeesh. Well, the head caretaker seemed pretty excited anyway. You must have been some troublemaker huh," Qrow smirked as he waved his fingers. He laughed as Taiyang and the girl gave him matching exasperated looks.

"You need to take her back. I can't take care of her."

"Sure you can!" Qrow was at his friend's side in an instant, patting Taiyang on the back heartily, "No one else is more qualified! You take care of kids at Signal don't you? What's another one?"

"Qrow. You know what I mean. I'm busy. I have responsibilities."

Releasing himself from his friend's embrace Taiyang calmly moved towards the kitchen window. His back turned, Taiyang looked as peaceful as a man ever could with their profession as hunters.

It was a disgusting façade that grated Qrow to know end. The grey hunter growled in displeasure, "Responsibilities? Such as your extended sabbatical from Signal? Or the fact that you haven't left your home for the better part of half a year? Taiyang. You aren't busy," his voice dropped to a whisper, "You're dying."

Taiyang turned with a guilty sigh, and Qrow could see the undertones of grief on his friend's normally impassive face. The shame, the anger. It was the same expression he had held all those months ago.

"And so what if I died? What do I have to live for?"

It hurt Qrow to see his friend - his brother - like this. He had his own demons to face, but at least the hunter had his drink. Taiyang… he had nothing, not anymore.

"You have their memory. You have your students. You have your responsibilities to Signal, to Vale, to Remnant as a Hunter," Qrow sighed, "And you have me. For all that's worth. I will not stand by and see my teammate waste away in a little hovel on Patch."

"…not a hovel," Taiyang grumbled as Qrow's eyes brightened with hope at the man's attempt at levity.

"What I don't understand Qrow, is how this…" Taiyang gestured to the orphanage papers and then to the girl at the counter, "How do you expect me to take this? What am I supposed to do here? How could you even think about-"

"Because you owe it to them T," Qrow took a breath, "You are the best damn educator I ever saw. And you do so well with kids that sometimes… well-"

"Hey!"

"The point is. I have never seen you happier then when you're teaching or taking care of children. I have my drink, you have your… whatever you would call it," Qrow crossed arms defiantly as Taiyang attempted to protest, "They would want you to do this. This is the right thing to do."

"Qrow… I can't. I've failed too many times and it isn't fair for this poor girl," Taiyang glanced at their bystander, who was shifting awkwardly and adorably in her seat, "She deserves more than a broken home and a failed guardian."

Qrow only nodded his head, "She does… and what if I told you that if we sent her back there would be no home to go to?"

Taiyang and the girl gave him surprised looks.

"The caretakers told me. Full occupancy and she has come of age. If she doesn't get a home now… it's to the street for her."

The Signal professor clenched his fists in anger as he stared at the girl, who looked perfectly bewildered. She couldn't be more than eight years old, maybe nine. He knew the streets of Vale well. It was a monster. A monster that swallowed the poor and lost whole in its great maw of greed before spitting them out to die from violence, hunger, or whatever peril awaited around the next corner.

She wouldn't last a week. Or if she did… she would never be the same again.

"This is…"

Qrow nodded grimly, "Unfair? Impossible? Are you filled with righteous anger?" You'd better be, were the unsaid words between the two men.

"The fact still remains Qrow," Taiyang sighed, "I can't take care of her. Can't you?"

"And why can't you? It's not as if you accomplish much these days."

"Oum damn it!" the girl gasped as Taiyang flew to Qrow, lifting him by his shirt color as his face contorted with anger, "Don't act stupid Qrow! How can you forget their deaths? How could you ask me to take care of one Vale's helpless… when I can't even protect my own daughters?"

Taiyang had the strength to lift a dozen beowolfs. The ferocity to tear a boarbatusk into a hundred pieces. He was one of the most powerful people in the world.

Qrow merely stared down at him, his lips a thin line of contempt, "Ruby and Yang were dear to me too. Of course I haven't forget my nieces, or the pain you and I both share. The judgement. The shame," Qrow's expression softened even as Taiyang's grip on his collar tightened, "… but I can't do it T. I could never be a father, only an uncle. I've asked Ozpin for a solo mission outside of Vale. Long-term. Permanent."

In an instant, Qrow was released to the hard wood floor. Bewildered, Taiyang took a step back,

"What?"

The grey hunter hunched his shoulders melancholically, "You have your kids… I have my drink and my missions. I can't stay in Vale T. I'm think I'm going to do what I was always best at," Qrow's flashed as he stared challengingly at Taiyang, who didn't meet his gaze, "I'm going to fight Grimm, and if I fall somewhere out there in the jungle… well…"

Taiyang watched as Qrow unscrewed the cap of that Oum damned bottle of his before his teammate gulped his unsavory liquid down.

"Qrow… I-"

"Do you feel the guilt?"

Taiyang paused, before nodding.

"So you know… that gnawing guilt. The "If I hads" and the "I should haves"," Qrow took another swig before continuing, "The others… they'll tell you it wasn't your fault. That you had no part in it. That nobody could have foreseen this."

Seconds passed before Taiyang realized Qrow was looking for an answer. Tentatively, he nodded.

"It's a load of crap. You feel that guilt? This is how you repay it," Qrow's eyes narrowed, "You do the best you can. For them. I'm going to kill Grimm for them. And you," the grey cloaked hunter poked the taller huntsmen in the stomach, "You're going to do what you've always done best. And maybe you might just save a life in the process."

Taiyang recoiled as if hit by a punch, but before he could muster the anger Qrow was already walking away.

"Qrow!"

The hunter was already at the doorstep. His grey cloak starting to turn white from the falling snow. He turned as Taiyang called his name, "I'm counting on you to do them right T, and to do this girl right," Qrow commanded, stepping backwards into the snowdrift. Less than a second later, Taiyang could barely make out the man's lithe form in the cascade of white.

And then his teammate was gone.

Taiyang woke to the sound of kitchen cabinets.

As a professional huntsman and a professor Taiyang was quite used to early rising. His senses – trained through bloody battle – had evolved to a near inhuman degree. He could hear the faintest steps and the faraway howls, his body always instinctively prepared for conflict. Two hours past midnight however, was anything but acceptable, especially in the comfort of his own home.

He sighed, mulling over the consequences if he chose to ignore the noise. An intruder was unlikely. Taiyang had little to steal and he held the reputation as a premier huntsman who did not tolerate visitors of any kind. He had not been expecting any guests or relatives. Thus, there was truly only one suspect. The orphan girl. Did he forget her name? It was so unlike him as an educator...

No. He realized. He had kept himself ignorant. In a subconscious attempt to segregate himself from her.

Taiyang sighed as he pulled off his covers, heading for the kitchen with a yawn.

The girl had been deposited in the guest room. A very spartan part of the house originally intended to be his study before the family had been gifted a spare mattress. When placing her belongings he steered her away from the kids' room which was to remain undisturbed.

Maybe she was hungry? He reasoned as he blinked sleepy eyes, his sight only just adjusting to the darkness. The lights were off, but he could make out the silhouette of the girl in the kitchen staring at him, frozen in surprise. There seemed to be quite a mess, all the cabinets had evidenced of being searched whilst numerous containers and water bottles were lined up along the countertop.

"What is-" he stopped himself as his vision cleared, revealing one of his old backpack's half-stuffed with provisions at the girl's feet. She stared at him in the dark. A guilty expression, with elements of challenge and hesitance.

Taiyang sighed, it was too early in the morning to be dealing with orphan runaways, "Did you pack any lien too?"

The girl slowly shook her head. Foolish girl, he was tempted to say.

"That's no good. Lien makes the world go round as they say."

"I don't steal," she whispered. Taiyang raised an eyebrow in response at her ironic attempt to proclaim a moral high ground,

"And what's all this then?"

The girl shuffled her feet guiltily, "I was going to pay this back. I only needed food… and water," the girl turned scarlet as she dropped her gaze to the floor.

"You seem rather… eloquent for an eight year old girl," he remarked in wonderment. As an educator and a father he had dealt with young kid before, and few were as well-spoken as the girl in front of him.

Her eyes flashed as she abruptly met his gaze, "Nine. I'm nine years old. We grow up fast in the home. We have to."

Taiyang could not relate personally. However, he had seen plenty of foster kids at Signal. They were different - in their own way - with a hardiness he could detect only as an adult huntsman.

He attempted to placate the nervous girl, speaking in a soothing tone that he reserved for children, "I see. However, an orphanage and the street are very different places."

The girl mumbled in response as she turned away. She was defiant, but hesitant, Taiyang could tell. This was a girl who had felt hunger, but not starvation. A girl who had always slept with a roof over her head. She was not ready for the worldly horrors that awaited her ill-planned adventure.

"Would it be so bad to stay?"

The girl stared at him as if he was crazy, "Stay with a man who has just lost his two daughters and kills people for a living? No thank you."

Taiyang winced, "I teach for a living actually. And I only kill grimm," slowly he approached her, before kneeling, ensuring his eyes met hers, "Regardless, I won't stop you if you decide you want to leave."

She bit her lip as she glanced between the door and the huntsman. Her form taut with apprehension as she clutched the backpack in her hands. Taiyang simply waited. Kneeling patiently as she repeated her furtive glances from door to him.

A minute passed. Before her eyes furrowed in concentration, "Could I really stay?"

"Yes," Taiyang sighed, his heart had not died with his daughters after all. There were no real choices in the matter, Qrow had taken them with him into the snowdrift.

"Even if I was… faunus?" she whispered before untying the pretty black bow in her hair, revealing twitching feline ears.

Taiyang gave her an amused smirk, "Young lady, I am a huntsman. I knew you were a faunus the minute you stepped onto my porch."

There was a pause, before the girl plastered a cute frown on her face, "I will never call you dad."

"Fine by me."

"You will never call me 'young lady' or 'dear', only Blake," Blake punctuated her provision by stamping her foot. Her cheeks puffed in petulance.

"A boy's name?" Taiyang coughed to hide his mirth, even as Blake shot him a frosty glare,

"My name."

"Alright, alright. What else?"

"If I ever want to leave. You have to let me."

"Noted."

Blake straightened herself to her fullest height as she crossed her arms. Her ears stood at attention as she attempted to tower over Taiyang's kneeled form,

"And you have to teach me. Teach me to fight."

Taiyang blinked, before cautiously nodding his head.

"I can… agree to such a condition. If you promise that you will fight only upon self-defense."

"Ok, I will."

Taiyang's expression hardened, as he held his calloused hand out to the girl, "Blake. This is serious. If you want to stay. If you want to learn from me. You must always practice self-defense. You must promise me this."

Amber eyes met his brown. A tiny palm met his own.

"I promise."