Authors note: This refers to some ATD events that are plot integral, so may get revised when I finally nail things down in the main story.
They saved the world, so us other poor bastards have to keep it running. Qrow was hunched at the bar. It was quiet times like this he found himself remembering the bad moments, some more recent than others. He'd been too late. Two of the the most horrible shocks in his life sandwiched back-to-back in the same instant. That massive gun firing, and-. Despite efforts to keep his distance he was quite familiar with the basics of small children. Toddlers fell over, bumped into things and generally had a hard time getting from one side of a room to the other unscathed. They were sticky, things stuck to them, they didn't bounce cleanly off; one way or another it always ended in bumps, scratches and tears. HK rounds on the other hand shouldn't bounce off anything, they were known for it; shatter, maybe, if you were lucky and had an aura like heavy armour. Who even thinks to use an anti-hunter weapon against little girls? What secret knowledge was in his brain before it was blown all over the countryside by the ricochet. He liked the girls, their appearance was a little disconcerting but they had attitude, you could go a long way with attitude. Big kid tried to bully them and got bullied back harder. Fanatic tried to kill them... It was impossible, but callous and unexpected poetic justice was exactly the sort of stunt they would pull. Sure, Oz had his tricks, but the idea lurking in his brain was in a whole other league. He took a gulp from his glass and grimaced.
"Hey 'Great Uncle'"
The media had loved that pun, "Great Uncle Rescues Girls"; the girls themselves had blurted out that story before he could say anything different. Their mama thought she was buttering him up. His family had too many bloody secrets, or possibly, not enough.
"What do you want?"
"Tell me. I want to know" Yang flopped down on the stool.
"Uh. Wednesday I think" Qrow hazarded, staring angrily at his drink.
"It's Tuesday. And I wasn't talking about what day it is"
"Off by one isn't bad. Still not used to being able to remember yesterday"
Yang scowled. Even drunk, Qrow was a lot sharper than he let on and he hadn't touched a drop in years.
"I want to know how it happened. How Mo- how Raven died"
"Listen kid, sometimes not knowing things is a blessing. Trust me"
"I'm not a kid, I'm a grown woman. I have my own kids. Don't I get to decide?"
"It was years ago. You didn't ask many questions at the time."
"I'm ready now, I can handle it"
"Says the woman" he mockingly emphasised the word, "who has spent years too afraid to ask her wife if she was cheating on her"
"We talked that out ages ago"
Qrow was shocked into looking up for a moment.
"You did? Nothing happened, right? I told you Ice Princess would never stand for Ruby playing an away game"
"Only if she was being left out" Yang immediately regretted the words. The statement was nothing new in general, but had an unfortunate implication in context. She was here to grill Qrow, not the other way around.
"Woah. I mean, Velvet, yeh, we both saw that little walk of shameless, but I never thought your kitty-cat would-"
"She didn't. She wouldn't. It wasn't what I thought, and anything else is none of your business"
The Velvet thing didn't get the flinch he expected, she really was getting less sensitive about Ruby. He wondered if he should bait her by seeing what she knew about "Snow White" and her film career, but back when that happened blonde buzzkill senior had somehow made it into a critique of his behaviour. It wasn't like he had been on that Schnee special interest list for announcements of new Weiss themed porn.
"Well-" He took in her expression before backing down "fair enough".
"Now tell me"
Qrow sighed.
"How would you define loyalty?" When Yang narrowed her eyes he hastily explained, "Hey, it's relevant"
Yang thought for a moment before answering
"Being there, even when it isn't easy. Holding on for the long haul"
"Yeh. I reckon Tai would say that too, but my sister saw it differently" he paused, gathering his thoughts. "In our tribe they made a big deal out of the headline stuff, grand gestures - honour, blood debts, blood feuds, saving lives killing foes. The tribe before outsiders. Your standard overwrought battle epic stuff. And that suited Raven just fine, she wasn't the long haul type."
"Ok. But-"
Qrow held up his hand to silence her
"I'm getting there! But what I'm trying to say is your mom wasn't a bad person-"
"-she was just loyal to bad people? It doesn't work like that!" Yang's eyes flared red briefly
"No it doesn't, not if you think about it. But it was enough for Raven"
Yang was getting impatient. "So they were arresting some bandits, and Raven got involved. You were there right?"
"I was. It wasn't an arrest it was a surrender. These guys were going to testify against their leaders"
Yang continued her prompting
"And she tried to stop them." Yang paused briefly, frowning, "To kill them. I know Ruby and Weiss were front and centre in those round-up operations-"
"Yeah. They asked me to be there. They expected Raven to make trouble, and they were hoping I could handle her. It should have been me-"
"But it wasn't. Ruby killed my mother didn't she? I-I understand, sometimes they had to make hard choices"
"They stopped a lot of people who needed to be stopped." They were good at it, too good at it. Winning every time was unnatural and the greater the odds, the more bodies they dropped. At least this case was simpler. "But this was an accident. Those damn portals! She popped out right on top of the prisoners before any one could react"
"Except Ruby."
Qrow nodded.
"She came in and blocked her sword. Broke it."
"And?"
"The portal collapsed with Raven inside"
"If you didn't find a body-"
"We found the body. Most of it, anyway. Enough. It wasn't pretty"
Yang slumped
"Why didn't she tell me?" she whispered.
"That was on me. I made her promise not to"
"I could never hate Ruby"
Qrow shrugged
"It was a bad time for you, and Ruby had enough on her plate. Maybe it wasn't the right call but it seemed like that at the time"
Yang poured herself an orange juice to match his.
"To hindsight"
"I'll drink to that" Qrow raised his glass with enthusiasm that faded significantly as he remembered what was in it.
Yang swallowed the drink, got up and walked to the door, pausing as she held it open to leave
"Thanks, I guess"
"The truth will set us free, or so I'm told. So, about that kitty filled sandwich?"
"There was no sandwich, and it is still none of you business" Yang slammed the door behind her.
Qrow chuckled to himself, raising his glass to the empty room
"Lucky if I ever find out a quarter of the shit those two pulled" And lucky if he could ever discuss a tenth of that in polite conversation with someone who lacked highest level security clearance...