The Take Of A Lifetime

by mantisbelle

It was supposed to be a normal job. Well, normal for someone who usually robbed banks. James Ironwood is returning to his line of work, but painfully aware of everything that was on the line. With a troublemaking red-eyed rookie under his wing, the stakes seem higher than ever for James. But that's the least of his worries when there's a quarter million dollars on the line. Right?

4. Custodians

Located in the center of the city, Vale Memorial Park stretched for nearly an acre, with every inch carpeted in plush green grass. It wasn't unlike most parks, with picnic areas and a soccer field available, and there was even one section of the park that held a playground, which was surrounded by a fence and a number of benches.

For the Xiao Long-Roses and Qrow, this was their main destination as opposed to the rest of the park. Taiyang and Summer walked in front of Qrow, who walked with a near permanent slouch. Spearheading the walk towards the playground were Ruby and Yang, charging ahead and ready to take on the world.

Qrow on the other hand was apprehensive, all because of the fact that he'd seen James' car there in the parking lot. He wasn't sure whether he was even allowed to see the man outside of 'business' meetings. If there were any rules about such a thing, Qrow certainly wasn't told them. All he knew was that James had said he'd call when it was time to meet.

Qrow's rusty eyes scanned the playground the entire time, looking for James , mostly so that he would be able to avoid the larger man. Just in front of him, Taiyang walked with Summer, her hand clutched in his. Unable to see James and slightly unhappy about that fact, Qrow shoved his hands deep into his pockets, deepening his slouched gait in the process.

Summer looked back over her shoulder at Qrow before asking quietly. "Something wrong?"

In one motion, Qrow straightened up. though his hands remained buried in his pockets. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine." His eyes flashed to the right, widening when he caught sight of a broadly-built man dressed in jeans and a sweater standing towards the side of the park, arms crossed over his chest as he watched someone on the slide. Why was the man dressed like that in the middle of summer? For just a moment, Qrow became painfully aware of the fact that he shouldn't have worn jeans. "I just wasn't expecting that it would be so hot."

Summer smiled, rolling her eyes. "Your fault." She laughed as they entered the playground area where Ruby and Yang were already climbing up on the jungle gym. Taiyang leads the way over to a bench where he can Summer could sit together, while Qrow took a seat on the fence behind them, once in a while looking over at the man who was still turned away from him. It had to be him.

A girl with bright orange hair emerged from the covered slide, jumping out a bit before running to the man in the sweater. Qrow watches as the girl took the man's hand, and looks away when he realized that the man was wearing a glove on his right hand. It was James for sure. Qrow catches himself inhaling sharply at the realization, and finds himself growing nervous. It all got worse with the realization that Taiyang had heard him.

The blonde turned on the bench, looking up at Qrow. "What's wrong little bird? Bees?" Taiyang looks away from Qrow, looking around the playground to figure out what it was that had made Qrow inhale so sharply and deeply. "Did you recognize a bartender? Waitress?"

"My new partner." Qrow corrects the man, silently wondering why it was that Taiyang seemed to think that he only knew food service workers. He keeps his volume down, letting his eyes flash back over to James, who was letting the tiny copper-haired girl drag him towards the swings. "The guy wearing a turtleneck in the middle of summer."

"Ugh, who does that." Taiyang looks around, seeing the man. "Huh."

Summer cranes her head slightly, trying to get a good view of James, who was pulling the girl back on the swing as far as he could before letting go, sending the girl forward. "That's your new partner?"

"Yup." Qrow watched James, crossing his legs at the ankles nonchalantly in an attempt to hide his discomfort with the situation at hand. "I just don't want him to notice me."

Taiyang scoffed, wrapping an arm around Summer's shoulders as he stretched out where he was sitting, back arching slightly as he made himself more comfortable in a position where he could still watch the girls. "You know you aren't going to be able to hide from him, right? It's kind of a public place." Taiyang's blue eyes flashed over to Qrow. "And if he does security or whatever you do, he's probably smart."

Qrow sighs. "Yeah, I know." Qrow drops his arms down to the fence he was sitting on, holding himself in place as his eyes flashed over to Yang and Ruby then over to James and the redheaded girl. He shakes his head, pushing back the feeling that he should get up and talk to James. There were a lot of reasons not to, including but not limited to the night before, the fact that James was there with a child that was presumably his, and the fact that Qrow seriously doubted that James would even want to see him.

James stepped away from the swingset, watching as the redhead pumped her legs harder and harder to propel herself higher and higher. He says something to the girl, but Qrow isn't able to make it out. A moment later James was walking towards a water fountain that wasn't too far off from the bench where the Xiao Long-Roses and Qrow were.

With a push of his arms and legs, Qrow got off of the fence and tried to shift closer to a nearby bush so that he could avoid a run-in with James when he heard the sound of Ruby shouting for attention. "Mom, Dad, Uncle Qrow!" Ruby was at the very top of the jungle gym, standing triumphantly with her hands on her hips. "Look!"

"Looks good Ruby!" Taiyang shouts back before looking up at Qrow, then back to his daughter, then back up at Qrow. When the blond spoke, he dropped his volume significant so that Ruby wouldn't be able to overhear. "Please go make sure she doesn't fall. You might be able to avoid your boss."

"On it." Qrow muttered back to Taiyang before he walked over to the jungle gym, still slouched over and looks up at Ruby, who was standing a bit over his head. "Hey kiddo."

"Hey Uncle Qrow." Ruby answers. The girl doesn't do anything to get off of the jungle gym. She only sat down, holding on to the bars so that she wouldn't be able to slip off or fall. Her head cocked to the side, red hair swaying with the motion as she examined Qrow. Her silver eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Dad sent you didn't he?"

Qrow nods, standing back so that Ruby wouldn't feel like she was being crowded at all with him there. Ruby's legs kicked for a moment before she was standing up on top of the jungle gym, leaping off and flying towards Qrow, who has to brace himself to catch the girl. He quickly shifts into a fighting stance, opening up his arms so that he could make sure she didn't get hurt on the landing. He catches the girl at chest-level, stepping back so he didn't lose his balance. In one motion, he dropped Ruby to the ground on her feet with a sigh. "What's next, Rubes?"

Ruby lands effortlessly, bouncing a bit on the landing. However, once Qrow had asked his question, her face screwed up in thought as she thought of a good answer for what she wanted to do. She put a finger on her chin, scanning the playground for something fun. Qrow takes the chance while she's looking around to look around the playground as well, though he was looking to figure out exactly where James was in relation to him. His eyes fell on James, who was walking back to the swingset, an unreadable expression on his face.

He almost wanted to call it emotionless, but that didn't seem correct. Not for James.

Qrow quickly averted his eyes back to Ruby. All at once, her eyes lit up at the sigh of the swingset, and she looks up at Qrow with a glint in her silver eyes. "I really the swings. Maybe I can get over the top bar!" Ruby was looking at the swings, holding a hand up to shield her face from the sun despite the fact that she was wearing a hood that could have served the same purpose. Qrow smirked, he'd seen Summer do the same thing a thousand times.

Sighing internally, Qrow looks back at the girl, then at the swings. "I'll push you if you want me to." Anything for his girls, Qrow reminds himself. Besides, it was a chance to fix things with James at the worst.

"Yes!" Ruby's voice is high in volume and pitch, full of energy. "This is why you're the best Uncle Qrow."

"I know I'm the best." Qrow smirks, stepping out of the way as Ruby broke into a sprint so that she could get to the swings and get the one on the far left, which she claimed was the best one. By the time that Qrow was shoving his hand into his pockets and beginning the walk over, Ruby had already clambered into a seat and was ready to go, feet kicking in excitement.

He's only a couple of feet way when he lets his eyes shift over to where James was. The man was nearing the swings, and for a moment Qrow found himself thinking that James was coming to talk to him. It doesn't register in Qrow's mind immediately that the man was coming over in his direction because Ruby had just taken a swing that was only two away from where the little redheaded girl was till swinging.

"C'mon uncle Qrow, I wanna swing." Ruby drags Qrow's attention back to her in one sentence. She was kicking her legs impatiently, gripping the chains next to her.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Qrow answers, stepping up behind the swing to grab the chains in the same way that he'd seen James do earlier. He pulls back, walking back as far back as he could before releasing Ruby, pushing her forward again as soon as she swung back in his direction.

To his right, Qrow hears the quiet sound of the redhead's voice as James stepped back up to the swing, leaning against one of the support beams, crossing his arms, and watching the girl. The copper haired girl had stopped kicking her legs, and Qrow hears James say something to her.

"Why did you stop swinging?" James' voice is impossibly soft. "Penny, you don't have to get off if you don't want to."

Qrow takes the moment to easedrop on the pair, picking up quickly on the fact that the girl's name was Penny. He looks over at the two of them from the corner of his eye, trying to figure out what was happening beside him.

The little redhead is quiet, looking down at her feet. "I was afraid you were going to go away again." Qrow watches silently as James steps in front of the swing, kneeling down so that he and the girl could match eye level.

"I'm not going anywhere, Penny." James mumbles the words, gently cupping the back ot Penny's head and pressing a soft kiss to the girl's forehead. "I promise."

She must have been Ruby's age, Qrow thinks.

Penny reaches out, wrapping her arm around James' neck in a tight hug. James returns the embrace, but takes the chance to make eye contact with Qrow. The look says everything.

Back. Off

"Would you push me again father?" The girl's voice is meek as she detaches herself from her father, but James smiles and nods, stepping behind the girl so that he could push her on the swing as high as he possibly could.

"Of course, Penny." James' hands reach out, and Qrow realizes that James was grabbing onto the chains of the swing and backing up, pulling the girl back with him. "Ready?"

"Yes sir!" Penny braces herself, holding onto the chains tightly.

James releases the chains. Penny swings forward, kicking with the motion of the swing. Whenever she came back James' way, he wold push her higher. ,After a bit, she was doing all the work on her own, swinging up higher. Once he was confident that Penny was safe, James steps back a foot or two, placing his hands in his pockets so that Penny could swing.

Qrow looks at James from the corner of his eye. He opens his mouth to speak, but James speaks first. The man's voice came out quiet. Painfully so.

"Qrow."

Qrow blanches. "You come here often, Jimmy?"

"It's James." The man's voice already was tinged with the sound of frustration, which made Qrow smirk. "And no, not usually."

Qrow nods, watching as Ruby waved at her mother and father from the swing. He then looked over to see Penny climbing higher and higher on the swing herself. "She's cute. Yours?"

James seems a bit surprised that Qrow was asking about Penny, but sighs. "Yeah, she is." His eyes travel over to Ruby for a moment, then back down to Qrow, brow raised. "Yours?"

Qrow shakes his head, raising a hand to wave away the question a bit. "Nah, she's my niece. I got roped into a family outing." Qrow drops his volume, not wanting to draw too much attention to him and James from the girls, or from Summer and Taiyang. "I'm sorry about last night, Jimmy. Little too much to drink at Roman's."

James seems to go rigid, clearly reluctant to discuss the events of the night before. The man reaches up with his left hand, rubbing at the space where his neck met his shoulder. "Hopefully next time I see you at the office you'll be better behaved." James sidesteps Qrow's comment carefully. Qrow doesn't need much to pick up on the fact that this was what James was doing.

"Right." Qrow answers the taller man. "I'll do my best, cut down on the coffee and whiskey." He steps a bit closer to James, hoping that he could talk to the man a bit more directly, though he seriously expected that James would shoot him down like a crow in a cornfield. Not entirely unlike how James had shot him down the night before when asked about a ride.

James sighs, removing his phone from his pocket. Qrow recognized it as the one from the night before. James goes to his messages and sends a message to someone. Qrow wonders who that message went to, but whoever it was, they were connected. "I've been looking to schedule a meeting, you know." Qrow perks up a bit when James says this. "But Ms. Schnee is having difficulty finding a space in her schedule for it."

Qrow looks up at where Ruby was swinging to check that she hadn't noticed they were talking, then back to James, continuing the conversation in code. "Well, if you needed me to, I could try to make it to the office soon. Sober too."

James' blue eyes narrow a bit, and Qrow realized that the taller man was looking across the playground to where Taiyang and Summer were, squished together on the bench. In one motion, cobalt flashes back to meet Qrow's eyes. "I suppose I could schedule a
meeting for tonight." For just a moment, Qrow sees a flash of sadness cross James' face. Sees James' eyes travel up to Penny. "But it'll have to be late."

For just a moment, Qrow is silent, unsure of what he was supposed to say. He didn't really want to ask James about what was going on, if only because of the risk of making things worse. "If you want to spend your time with your family, I'm alright with waiting. I think mine might want me to stick around for a night anyways."

James looks back up at Penny and nods. "I think that we could schedule a meeting for Monday night and everything could work out well that way." His eyes flick back to Qrow. "Besides, we should be able to get Schnee to join us if we do it then."

Qrow nods. "That sounds good." He keeps his tone controlled, watching as Ruby reached the absolute peak of how high she could go on the swing before flying off into a pile of dirt that was nearby the swings with a loud cheer. He's barely aware of the fact that James seemed to go into a mild frenzy at the sight. He saw the way James' eyes shot up to Penny to make sure that the girl wasn't about to pull a similar stunt.

"Uncle Qrow, did you see?!" Ruby rushes back over to her uncle, leaping at him and attaching herself around his waist in a hug. "I got to the top and then it was like I flew, it was so cool." The girl releases Qrow after receiving a quick pat on the top of her head. She steps back, looking up at her uncle, then over at James.

Qrow looked between them. "Oh, Ruby, this is Jimmy. He's the partner I told you about."

James seems a bit shocked opening his mouth to correct Qrow, looking down at Ruby, then back at Qrow, pure surprise reading clearly on his face. Qrow almost thought that he'd broken through James' tough exterior, but barely three seconds later, James was straightening up. "It's James, actually. Hello, Ruby." James smiles gently down at the redhead, his voice so soft that Qrow found it hard to believe that it was coming from the same man that he'd met the night before. "Qrow didn't mention he had a niece."

Ruby looks up at James, grinning widely at the man all the while. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Jimmy." Ruby reaches out, offering James her left hand to shake. For just a moment, James hesitates before taking her hand with his right one and giving it a quick shake, visibly uncomfortable. Ruby seemed to pick up on it, pulling away once the shake was done.

There's a squeaking sound as the remaining used swing slows to a stop, with Penny approaching James from behind. She reaches out for him, and James doesn't hesitate a second to take the girl's hand in his left. "Are you alright, Penny?"

Penny nods, looking up at her father. "I was wondering who you were talking to."

James nods, standing up straight and gesturing to Qrow. "Well, Penny, this is Qrow. He works with me and Winter."

The girl's wide green eyes shoot up to Qrow, for for just a moment, Qrow realized that she was ready to shrink behind her father's leg. "Salutations, Mr. Qrow." Penny says the word, with quite a bit of pep in it before looking at Ruby and titling her head. It's quiet, but Ruby breaks the silence.

"Hi!" The girl reaches out for her hand for Penny to shake, smiling widely. Penny looks up at James for just a moment, with James only nodding to her. Feeling reassured, Penny reaches out, taking Ruby's hand and shaking it. "I'm Ruby."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Ruby looks at Penny, smiles widely, then looks around the playground for a moment. "Wanna go play on the slide?" Ruby's gaze snaps back towards Penny, and she puts on the widest grin that she possibly could.

Penny seems to perk up a bit, her orange bobs moving with her head. "I would love to, but-" She detaches her hand from James'. "Father?"

"Go ahead, Penny. Go have fun. I'm not going anywhere." James' voice is impossibly gentle, Qrow notes. Penny focuses back on Ruby before nodding excitedly, the two girls running off to play on the slide. James shoves his right hand and phone into his pocket as the two girls ran, watching them both the entire while. "Ruby seems sweet."

Qrow looks around the playground, pointing out a spare bench that the two of them could use. Noticing the gesture, James nods, beginning to walk with Qrow over to the bench. "Ruby's great. Her sister Yang is around somewhere, I'm sure Ruby will introduce Penny to her."

James takes a seat on the bench, angling himself so that he could keep a close eye on Penny and Ruby. "I'm just glad Penny gets to spend time with someone her own age." The man shakes his head, raising a hand to push some unruly hair out of his face, only for it to fall immediately back into his face. "I apologize for the speaking in code, it's just..."

"You don't want your kid to know." Qrow finishes James' sentence, looking across to see that Taiyang had left the bench he was sharing with Summer and was hanging upside down from the monkey bars, showing off for Yang and a blonde boy. "I get that."

James nods. "Do you think you can go on Monday?" He keeps his voice restrained, Qrow realizes. For just a moment, he wonders where the gentle man talking to the children had gone. "I'd like to get our part of the job done sooner than later. Causes fewer issues down the line."

Qrow leans back on the bench, making himself comfortable there. "Yeah, I know. I think I can do Monday, but whether I can get into Atlas that day depends a lot of my brother-in-law." He looks back at James. "I don't drive much." Deep down, Qrow hopes that James wouldn't be able to read between the lines and figure out that he had a suspended liscense. Or that he'd sold his car when his liscense was suspended.

James nods in understanding. "Well, if you need a way into the city that night, I can drive out here and get you." James shrugs. "You have my number."

Qrow thinks for a moment, something dawning on him for the first time. He was about 90% certain that James lived out in Atlas. "What are you doing in Vale anyways? I doubt you drove out here just so that you could go to the park."

James chuckles. "I promised Penny we'd go to the Beacon Institute Museum today since it's our first time together in-" James hesitates a long moment. Involuntarily, his right hand balled into a fist. "In a while. She wanted to see the exhibit on robotics that's usually in Atlas, but it's on loan right now."

Qrow looks back in the direction where Ruby and Penny had run off, almost curious about what James had just said. "So have you?" He sees James raise an eyebrow. "Gone to the exhibit."

"Oh." James mumbles, doing his absolute best to hide his discomfort. He personally wouldn't have wanted to go to such an exhibit, but Penny wanted it. He'd worked in the robotics industry for a while so everything in the exhibit was stuff he'd seen a thousand times before. But considering his recent repairs, Penny was eager to learn everything she could about robots. He'd do anything for Penny, after all. "Yeah, we were going to see it this afternoon. We decided to stop here so that Penny could play first." He folds his hands together in his lap, watching his daughter laugh happily and play with Ruby. "I didn't expect to run into you anywhere outside of the meetings and planning."

Qrow nods, watching the two girls, smiling as Yang joined them. "Yeah, neither did I." Qrow leans back, and for a moment, his mind flashes back to the night before and the gas station. "So about last night."

"It was work." James mutters the words. "And we have to go back in, check on the area again. Everything has to be..." his hands clench, and for a moment James realizes that his metal hand was too strong, right making left ache. In one motion, James relaxes his hands, pulling them apart and reaching into his pocket to find his keys, which he found himself fiddling with as he sat there next to Qrow. A low sigh. "Everything has to be perfect. The risk if it isn't is too high."

Qrow shifts in his seat, James' discomfort radiated over to him, and he didn't even know why. "Yeah, I get that." He turns his head, looking over to see that Summer and Taiyang seemed to be laughing about something, Summer shooting a look at him once in a while from across the playground, smiling devilishly. "So you're never going to tell me what happened last time, huh?"

James' eyes narrow, and he stands up distancing himself from Qrow in two steps. "What happened isn't your business." All at one, all of the kindness and gentleness of his voice seemed to leave in one wave. "And I highly doubt it ever will be."

Qrow stands up himself, eyes flickering over to Summer and Tai to figure out whether they were watching him and James or not at the moment. "They don't talk about it, and all anyone will say about it is that it was bad." Qrow steps towards James, pushing into the taller man's space and forcing direct eye contact with James. For just a moment, Qrow realizes how impossibly blue James' eyes were. "If it was that bad, what are you even doing back?"

The taller man reaches up, putting his flesh and blood hand between the two of them and pushing Qrow back away. "That's not your business. And it never will be."

For just a moment, the red-eyed man's eyes narrow, and he's about to open his mouth to say something when he realized that James had turned, and was walking away from him, right hand shoved angrily into his pocket as he walked over to where the three girls were playing.

James stops.

Turns.

Cobalt eyes narrow.

"When I need you to work, I will let you know, understand?"

"Yeah." Qrow snarls the word out, already realizing that he had just set himself back in getting on James' good side when he'd been making some progress on getting the man to open up to him. "Fine."

"Good." With that, James walks over to where Penny was just climbing out of the slide. Qrow doesn't know what James is saying to her, but he sees that James had offered her his hand, and she'd taken it reluctantly. It looked like Penny was saying her goodbyes to both Ruby and Yang.

With a sigh, Qrow plops down on the plush grass next to Summer and Taiyang's bench. Taiyang looks down at him, and grins. "Trouble?" The blond looks in James' direction, the back to Qrow. "It's funny, this one doesn't look like a waiter, or a bartender, or a cook or anything."

Qrow finds himself groaning internally at Taiyang's joke. "He's my coworker, so he's not a food service worker. He's just a-" Qrow cuts himself off, realizing that Ruby and Yang were seemingly dragging James and Penny over in the direction of the bench. Penny was dragging her father behind her like he was a stuffed animal.

"Mom, Dad!" Yang raises a hand over her head in a lazy half-wave, catching all of their attention. "Mom, Dad, we want you to meet Penny!"

Summer looks at Qrow for a moment, then lets her eyes flick to James' face for a moment, then back to the girls. She leans forward in her seat, offering Penny her hand.

Penny half tucks herself behind James' leg. In one smooth motion, James releases her hand, giving Penny the space to decide what she wanted to do. Her green eyes widen for a moment, and Summer is able to recognize the flash of anxiety across the girls' face.

"Hello Penny." Summer keeps her voice soft, still offering the girl her hand. "I see you've met Ruby and Yang."

"They're very nice." Penny answers, relaxing a little bit and stepping out from behind James. "Thank you for letting me play with them."

Summer smiles at her daughters before her eyes flashed back to Penny. "It's very nice to meet you."

Penny perks up, and Qrow is able to see some of the tension leave James' shoulders. Penny looks up at James, then back to Summer as though she wanted to say something particular but couldn't think of anything to say. James, realizing Penny's discomfort offers Summer and Taiyang his left hand to shake, right shoved into his pocket and out of sight.

"I'm James, Penny's father."

Summer takes James' hand, giving it a quick, strong shake. "I hear you work with our Qrow."

"That is correct." James chuckles, eyes flashing down to Qrow for just a moment. They refocus on Summer quickly, and Qrow is simply left wondering how James was able to switch demeanor so quickly. "And it seems our girls get along quite well."

Summer nods, smiling at Ruby and Yang, then Penny. Her eyes meet James', and without a word passing between them, James looks down at Penny, nodding to give her permission to run off and play with Ruby and Yang. "Five minutes then we're going, ok?"

"Yes, Father!"

Penny snaps James a quick salute, before she ran off with Ruby and Yang to play a bit more. James readjusts his focus back to Summer, Taiyang, and Qrow. He seems to think for a moment, before looking back over at the three girls. From where he's sitting, Qrow realizes that James seemed to be sucking in his cheek a bit. The taller man's blue eyes refocused on them all at once. "It's good to see Penny getting along with kids her age."

Summer tilts her head, thinking for a moment. She shoots a look to Taiyang, earning a wide grin from her husband. "You know, because you work with Qrow, we could work out a time for them to play again."

Qrow's eyes widen, his and James' eyes meeting for just a moment. It almost felt like the two of them were having a silent conversation, but Qrow couldn't exactly pin down what they were saying to each other aside from a resounding "they cannot know." James takes the lead, which Qrow is glad for.

"I'm sure we could arrange something." James' voice is as friendly as ever. "There's always going to be opportunities to take work home so that the girls can see each other." Qrow realizes that James' eyes had lingered on him for a moment. "And I'm sure the girls won't mind us being busy with work as long as they get to play together."

Qrow nods. "Yeah, I'm sure Jimmy here will be able-"

"It's James."

"Right, right." Qrow chuckles. "I'm sure he'll be able to get to Vale more easily than I can get to Atlas anytime." Qrow stands up, brushing some dirt off of his pants as he got closer to James' eye level. He plasters a shit-eating smirk across his face. "Hell, he could even do it tonight if he wanted to."

James' eyes narrowed.

"After all, he's already in Vale. And we have work to do already." Qrow tries to stay light sounding.

James' voice hardens. "This weekend isn't any good." His eyes travel back over to Penny, softening for a long moment. "I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with her lately. I'd rather get some time with my daughter before planning playdates."

Qrow frowns slightly. "Well, then we'll just meet when we can, won't we?"

"Yes, we will." James looks to Taiyang and Summer. He reaches into his pocket with his left hand, and for a moment Qrow realized that the motion looked clumsy. Now that was interesting. From his pocket, James retrieved a black scroll, with silver filigree engravings on it. It must have been a recent model, Qrow found himself thinking. "Is there any good way I can reach you in the future about this?"

Taiyang takes the helm now, standing up and getting his own phone from his back pocket, and for a moment the two exchanged contact information. James was just about to put his phone away when Penny and Ruby ran over, almost perfectly on time. His eyes travel down to his daughter, and James smiles sweetly down at her for a lingering moment. It almost made Qrow want to melt seeing it.

"Would you like to be able to see Ruby and Yang again, Penny?"

Penny's green eyes lit up like fireworks. "I would like that very much!" She looks over at Ruby. "Ruby's my first real friend!"

There's a flash of something in James' eyes, and for a moment, Qrow realizes that the man was swallowing uncomfortably as he put away his scroll. "We'll try to work something out so you can see each other again, ok?""

"Alright!" Ruby squeaks the word out, bouncing into the air a bit with excitement. "Penny, I'm so glad I got to play with you."

"Oh, I am too Ruby! I'm glad you want to be my friend." Penny smiles widely, her eyes crinkling up and moving all of her freckles around with the motion. She looks back up at James and offers him her hand. James takes her hand, her right in his left. "I'm ready to go, father. I don't want to miss the exhibit."

James nods, squeezing Penny's hand gently before looking to the Xiao Long-Roses and Qrow and smiling between all of them. "It was great meeting all of you . I hope we'll be able to get things together soon." His eyes flash to Qrow. "I'll be seeing you on Monday. Don't forget your portfolio."

"Yeah, yeah." Qrow shrugs, looking away from James and reaching for his pocket to find his flask, which earned him a sharp look from Taiyang. He drops his hand back down to his side. "Monday night. Have fun at your museum, Jimmy."

"It's James."

"Whatever. See you Monday."

"Right." James smiles at Taiyang, Summer, and Qrow before focusing a particularly soft smile onto Ruby. "I suppose we'll be seeing the rest of you whenever we see you."

"It was nice to meet all of you!" Penny exclaims from James' side. The Xiao Long-Roses said their goodbyes, leaving Qrow to watch as James and Penny left the park, eyes lingering on the pair for just a moment too long.

Summer grins widely at Qrow's side. "Like watching him go?"

"Shut up."

Qrow suddenly found himself simultaneously anticipating and dreading Monday night.