Qrow was woken up bright and early by the morning buzz of the Torchwick-Xiong household, which shook him out of his sleep. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes, taking just a moment to figure out his surroundings. In the kitchen, Junior was getting breakfast ready, while Roman was loudly trying to corral their three children.
Roman's head snapped straight over to the couch Qrow was on at the realization that Qrow was up. He flashed a too-bright smile in Qrow's direction, and Qrow had to momentarily stop himself from wanting to punch the redhead.
Morning people were the worst.
Instead of saying anything to Roman, Qrow just rubbed at his head and blinked his eyes, as though there was actually a chance that he'd be able to wake himself up a little bit that way.
"Good morning, birdy." Roman called from the kitchen, slowly making his way into the living room where Qrow was sitting. "You know, I've been meaning to talk to you-"
Qrow cocked his head to the side, not feeling exactly sure what Roman was talking about and just a little afraid to find out. The ginger just smirked and flopped down onto the couch beside Qrow, not even giving a chance for Qrow to move his legs out of the way before Roman landed. "Why?" Qrow asked, pulling his legs up close to his chest so that he didn't get hurt. "What's-"
"We and I have a meeting tonight, birdy." Roman started. "And you are going to have to come along. From what James said, it sounded important."
"What're we meeting for?" Qrow asked, scratching at his jawline and frowning at the realization that he still really needed to go ahead and shave at some point.
Some other time.
"Baby Bear needs his training." Roman answered, curling into the couch alongside Qrow. There was a moment where Qrow didn't know how he was supposed to react to what Roman had said. He swallowed, and shifted a little bit uncomfortably as he felt Roman rest his head against his arm. "And Jamesy-"
"He lets you call him Jamesy?"
"Not when he's around." Roman chuckled. "James invited me and Junior over, and I figured that it was best that we bring you along for some training of your own. And besides..." Roman's voice trailed off slightly, like he knew something he wasn't supposed to.
Qrow didn't need to even think about what that meant before the sinking, sick feeling began to develop in his stomach. Roman didn't know what he was getting into, and Qrow had a very strong feeling that there was no way to go about making this happen without there being a fight at some point.
Even worse, he had the strong feeling that Roman probably hadn't cleared bringing him along with James. Right now, there wasn't even a slight possibility that James would welcome him into his home. Not with the way that things had been last time.
It made Qrow wonder whether or not Roman was taking personal stake in them. Either way, it made him worry. Oh, how it made him worry.
"I... I guess I could come along." Qrow finally said as he resigned himself to the fact that it didn't look like he was going to be able to get away with saying no at this point.
Especially when it was involving work and much harder to work through. Despite all of this, that wasn't going to be anything close to what Qrow needed to soothe the feeling that was building up in his stomach that told him in quite plain terms that going to James' right now was a very bad idea.
"Alright then!" Roman said cheerfully, standing up and smoothing his shirt down in front of him. He looked over his shoulder to see that Junior was serving the kids breakfast at the table, then looked back at Qrow. "Join us, would you?"
Qrow nodded and stood up. He scratched at his chest for a moment, and frowned when he realized that he was wearing the same thing that he'd worn the night before to the meeting. In the back of his mind, he knew that he probably could have gone ahead and asked Roman for something to wear to bed, since he was fairly certain that he and Roman were about the same size clothes-wise. Asking for Junior's clothes would probably leave Qrow looking scrawnier than ever.
On the way out of the living room, Qrow stopped. His phone was sitting on the coffee table, screen facing up. He frowned, when he realized that there probably wasn't going to be any new messages there from James that were looking for apologies. When he went to check it, it would probably be Taiyang or Summer, maybe even Raven.
But James?
Almost definitely not.
It wouldn't do. Qrow tried to push it back out of his head and seated himself at the kitchen table, once again across from Neo. Internally, Qrow couldn't help but hope that the girl's attention wouldn't be turned onto him this morning. The night before with the chicken-stabbing had been unsettling enough, and Qrow was relieved to see that this morning, Neo only had some waffles for breakfast.
Seeing a waffle get stabbed was at least slightly less unsettling.
Junior came in with two extra plates of food, and looked between Qrow and Roman, holding them out. His face was flushed, like he'd been working for too long over a hot plate. Qrow almost felt bad for the guy, but he took his plate and seated himself down at the table across from Neo. He couldn't really concentrate on the meal though.
His mind kept on drifting back to his phone and the fact that he was inevitably going to have to face James later on that day.
This was going to go poorly.
Lucky for Qrow, once Junior joined the table, the family began what probably was their normal morning conversations. Based on what Qrow was hearing, it sounded like Junior's mother- and she sounded like an absolutely lovely woman, had arranged to take the girls out for the day. Something about a teddy bear picnic and a carnival.
Qrow wondered whether he'd be able to bring his nieces along for something similar. Whether Yang and Ruby would like something like that.
Maybe sometime he would be able to convince Tai and Summer into bringing them to something like that.
However, for Qrow, he was glad to be able to just be quiet, and listen. When it was time for the girls to say their goodbyes and leave for the day, Qrow said his polite goodbyes, and then he was left alone in the apartment with Roman.
The door swung shut behind Junior, and the apartment was silent for almost a solid minute. Qrow didn't say anything to Roman. Instead, he went over to the couch where he'd slept the night before and seated himself. Roman soon joined him, choosing to sit on an armrest before flopping back onto the couch to look up at Qrow.
Roman landed with a soft bounce. Qrow and him exchanged a look for just a moment, and Roman smiled gently. Qrow tried not to act weird as he picked up his phone and checked the messages there. To his surprise, there was one there, sitting in his inbox and waiting for him to answer it. From James, of all people.
Qrow felt his heart skip a beat in his chest and he almost felt like he was going to drop his phone. To Qrow's dismay, Roman seemed to pick up on that. The thin man twisted a little bit, the rest of his body making its way onto the couch before Roman looked up at Qrow as directly as possible. If he looked over, Qrow would have been able to watch the way that Roman's emerald eyes flicked between Qrow and the phone.
It was silent.
Too quiet.
Qrow almost felt like the world was going to stop, and then to his surprise, Roman said something. Something that was entirely too welcome for Qrow to hear.
"Well..." Roman said, quietly. "Are you going to open it?"
The million dollar question. Qrow silently cursed Roman for daring to ask it.
He stared down at the screen, with its message alert showing in an all too bright blue. There were no words in the preview, just a singular period that told Qrow quite plainly that if James wanted to say something, he didn't want for anyone else to be able to see what it was about. Whatever this was about, James was worried.
That just made Qrow worry.
Qrow swallowed and pressed his thumb to James' name. The lock screen for his phone was brought up, and Qrow had to angle his body so that he didn't have to risk Roman leaning how to break into his phone for the future. He liked Roman just fine, but that didn't mean that Qrow trusted him that much. He knew too much about how Roman could be, unfortunately.
The message opened up, and when he read it over, Qrow couldn't process what it actually said. There wasn't anything wrong with the message. It sounded like James, the text wasn't scrambled at all, but there was something about it that came off to Qrow as being extremely off. Like James had been afraid to send it, or like maybe there was something that had spooked him.
Either was possible.
Slowly, the words began to make sense in Qrow's mind. Something about a meeting.
Roman leaned over his shoulder, and Qrow heard the sound of Roman's breath hitching. Then Roman's voice followed soon after. "He... Qrow, we have to meet him tonight."
"What?"
"Qrow, he met Ozpin." Roman said, his voice somewhat insistent. "If he met Ozpin..."
"That's..." Qrow started. "That's never happened before, has it?"
Roman shook his head. "No, Ozpin doesn't come to us directly. They only talk to Glynda..." Roman swallowed, and Qrow got the strong feeling that there was the possibility that the other man was afraid of what this could mean. There was a moment, though, where Qrow realized that something was off.
Why would James message Qrow of all people?
Roman nudged Qrow's shoulder, albeit gently. "You should answer him." Roman said, his voice soft. "Tell him that you're going to be coming over with me and Junior and that we can talk about this there." Qrow sighed, realizing that Roman was right. Going and talking to James was definitely the correct course of action, but there was just still something about the whole situation that came off as feeling very off to Qrow.
So Qrow just tapped out a quick response to James and turned off his phone once it was sent. He looked over at Roman, and their eyes met for just a moment before he finally managed to think of something to say to the other man. "So everything just changed, didn't it?"
"Yeah." Roman said. He sounded like he was almost upset, and that was perhaps the one thing that left Qrow feeling really worried. Roman was always the confident, bouncy one. But now, it was like that person had disappeared and that made Qrow scared. If Roman was upset, something was seriously wrong.
What the hell was going on now?
Qrow did his best to relax back in the couch. He rested his head against the back of the couch and couldn't help but stare up at the stark white ceiling as though there would be answers there. He knew better than to think that anything was going to be able to fix things at this rate, though. He closed his eyes and raised his hands up to his face, which he covered in them.
Neither him nor Roman said anything. It was like there was suddenly a wall that had been constructed between the two of them and it was going to be there for as long as they knew each other.
It could stretch for lifetimes.
Time started to fade away for Qrow. He didn't know for how long he sat there on the couch staring at the ceiling. He was only snapped out of his own thoughts by the sound of the door to the apartment opening, followed by Junior's low voice giving a greeting.
At Qrow's side, Roman lifted his head up to look over at Junior, who was looking a little bit concerned for them already. Junior stopped at the edge of the living room, and looked between Roman and Qrow with a very obvious look of worry upon his face.
"Did something-"
"We have to go to James'." Roman interjected and stood up, brushing down his clothes so that they laid on his body properly. He made direct eye contact with Junior, and for a moment Qrow was almost certain that he saw Junior shrink back a little bit. "Now."
"Something new come up?" Junior said, keeping his voice level despite the fact that he almost seemed a little bit scared.
"It'll get explained when we get there by the looks of things." Roman said. The thin man was already on his way over to the door, and it was then that Qrow realized that Roman was very serious about them leaving for James' right then. "But we have to go."
Junior inhaled deeply and nodded. "Okay." His arm dropped down to his side. "Okay. Get ready to go."
"I'm ready." Roman said. The ginger looked over at Qrow and raised an eyebrow. It was then that Qrow realized that he probably had to say something himself. He was ready, really. He had everything that he'd worn to the meeting the night before, it was just that he needed to put on his shoes and then he could leave.
The only thing he didn't have was the courage to go ahead and make this all happen. The courage to face James.
"Yeah." Qrow finally said, shrugging as though he wasn't bothered, despite the fact that the exact opposite was the truth. "I just need my shoes."
Junior nodded, and went back to the front door, opening it up and stepping just outside of it so that there would be room for Roman and Qrow to do their things that they needed to do. Taking the cue, Qrow went to the door and slipped into his shoes without bothering to do anything to tie them before stepping outside, while Roman carefully slipped into a pair of shoes that had to have been rather expensive.
Silently, the three of them went down to the car. Junior took the driver's seat, and Qrow had to slide into the back seat where he had to try to avoid the blankets and things that had been left there by Roman and Junior's kids. He crossed his arms in front of him and huffed a little bit, feeling a bit miffed that he was once again being relegated to back seat status with his co workers.
He knew that it was dumb, but he'd gotten to like riding up in the front with James all the time instead of being stuck in the back like a useless child.
None of them spoke for the entire ride over, and since it was just across town it wasn't too worrisome. Junior seemed to be wearing his nerves, and Roman seemed like he was also a little more wired than he should have been otherwise. There was a certain electricity that flowed through the entire car. Something that told him that he wasn't at all the only one that was feeling about this meeting.
For Roman, it was fear of what Ozpin meant.
For him, it was James.
For Junior, it was probably him and Roman making things worse for him. Qrow couldn't imagine the guy being afraid of anything, and yet...
They pulled up in front of James' house. The first thing that Qrow noticed was that James' car was parked there, and looked like it hadn't been touched since whenever James got home. Junior pulled in alongside it and parked. The giant unbuckled his seatbelt and exhaled slowly before looking over at Roman, who seemed to be almost squirming in his seat.
"Ready?"
"Always am, Baby Bear." Roman said, flashing Junior a smile that looked more than only a little forced. Junior turned his head and looked back at Qrow, silently asking the same question.
Qrow just nodded and did his best to swallow his fear. He looked up at the house, and he could the silhouette of a man at one of the outward-facing windows of the house. James was there. James wasn't only there, James knew that they had arrived, which meant that James probably knew that Qrow was there at this point.
Junior got out of the car first. The silhouette in the window disappeared, and then Qrow was getting out at the same time that Roman was before the three of them went to the together. They stopped there, and Junior was about to raise his hand to knock at it when the door opened almost by itself, to reveal James standing there, in a thick black sweater that couldn't possibly have been comfortable this time of year and stubble covering his jaw.
It shouldn't have been a good look.
James' blue eyes shot between the three of them, and then he stepped out of the way of the door to let out a quiet "come in." Together, the three of them stepped inside of James' house.
The first thing that Qrow noticed was the fact that today James' home looked like it had been lived in as opposed to being left unnaturally clean as it always seemed to be. It was almost like James may have had company at some point, which was very odd. If James had truly spoken to Ozpin in person, was it possible that they had been here.
"Junior." James said, his voice almost sounding like it had gone completely ragged at some point over the course of the morning. If Qrow knew the man better, he would have thought that James had been drinking, but that wasn't how James was. James wasn't like him, James was responsible. "You made it." James finished, almost sounding relieved.
"Are you okay?" Junior asked, keeping his voice low as he walked deeper into the house, side by side with James. "What's going-"
James' eyes tracked their way over to Qrow, and for a moment, Qrow wasn't sure whether he was going to get yelled down or not. He still didn't know why James had decided to contact him as opposed to contacting anyone else about what had happened and his little encounter with Ozpin. Even though Qrow didn't know what had happened beyond the fact that something had apparently happened, he was still very much confused.
It sounded like he'd contacted Roman and Junior but hadn't given a full story, like he'd just given them a reason to show up because they were on a time crunch.
Why would James choose him instead of someone else to talk about Ozpin? Why would James do that when he already was angry at Qrow for other reasons?
None of it made any sense.
Qrow didn't say anything. He decided that it was probably for the best if he just stayed out of the way so that James wouldn't notice him too much.
Together, the four of them went to James' living room. Qrow found himself squished between Junior and an armrest, just across from James as he pulled up a seat of his own before leaning forward to clutch his hands together in an obvious sign that his nerves were at some sort of peak right now.
Qrow wondered what was going through James' mind then and there.
He tried to ignore the half-empty bottle of liquor on the coffee table between them.
"James." Junior started the conversation, leaning forward himself slightly so that he could make direct eye contact with James instead of being stuck in such an awkward position as he was now. "What happened?"
James pursed his lips, and looked away from them. Like he was afraid of showing his vulnerability to the rest of them. "After the meeting, I brought Winter here. We had dinner and I drove her home."
"Okay?"
"After that I couldn't..." James inhaled deeply and looked away from them again. It was then that Qrow recognized that James was all nerves right now and he didn't seem to have a good handle on what he was feeling and thinking. "I couldn't bring myself to come home to an empty house. Ended up driving out to Vale."
Those words left Qrow feeling absolutely stunned. Why had James gone to Vale? Had he been hoping to get to talk to him? Or to Penny? Why would James-
"I went to this one old memorial. I used to go there to think when I was younger, and then Ozpin they just..." A pause. Inhale slowly. Exhale slower. James clenched his hands together in pure agitation. "They just appeared."
Qrow didn't know what that meant, and when he looked over at Roman and Junior, he got the strong feeling that neither of them really knew what James was talking about either. He wanted to ask the questions to try and get James a little bit out of his shell so that they could figure all of this out, but Junior beat him to the punch.
"Why do you mean they just appeared?"
"I don't know." James admitted. "I was alone one minute, and then they were there. No car in the lot, nothing. They just showed up."
Roman was quiet, but he shifted his position. He leaned forward slightly so that he could look at James from a much more direct angle than before and then spoke up for himself. "So they just..." James nodded. Roman's eyes widened, and then he asked another question, much quieter this time. "What did they want?"
James' body seemed to go stiff, and the man got up, leaving behind his chair as he walked to the window so that he could stare out at the street instead of feeling like he was trapped under the scrutiny of the rest of the room. Qrow figured that it was just a James thing to do. When things get hot, run and hide so that nobody can question about it.
Very James.
"They wanted my trust." James said finally, his voice and expression equally solemn. "They wanted my trust, but I don't know that's even possible after-"
The room went silent. Taboo territory. Uncharted topics and discussions. No, they weren't going to talk about what had happened to James. Qrow got the feeling that none of them ever would have a truly frank discussion of it.
On his side of the couch, Roman seemed to go completely rigid at the mere thought of it.
Knowing what he did about the whole thing, Qrow couldn't exactly blame the guy for it. He hadn't been there to witness the crash when it happened, and he couldn't say for sure whether Junior had seen it either.
But Roman?
Roman had seen the whole thing. Qrow doubted that he managed to sleep a lot of nights because of it.
It was quiet again. Too quiet. Roman spoke up now, deciding that it was for the best if he prodded James with another question. "So what did you say?"
"That it wasn't..." James hesitated and swallowed again, like he was doing his absolute best to push back his nerves, despite knowing that such a thing was ultimately impossible. "That it wasn't really possible. I essentially left them with something along the lines of needing a presence in meetings if they will gain my trust."
James turned now and looked between the three men that were sitting on his couch. All at once, his demeanor almost changed as James stood up straight and put his arms behind his back as he fell into parade rest.
For the first time that entire day, James held his head high and steeled his voice. When he spoke and there was no waver, that was how they all knew that they may have gotten their James back instead of this scared imposter that had been there before him just moments ago.
"It should be expected that they will be making an appearance at our next meeting." James finally announced, focusing his gaze onto Roman. "I hope that you'll be ready for that?"
Silence.
Roman and Junior exchanged a look, and then Roman stood up. He tried to puff himself up in his stance just a bit so that he could stand a little bit more evenly with James. He stepped towards James and reached out, placing a hand on James' right shoulder.
To Qrow's surprise, James didn't react to that.
"I'll be ready for it, Jim." Roman finally said, putting on his best smile so that he couldn't accidentally betray any fear that was in him.
A slow smile split James' face, and then he nodded. He stepped away from Roman, and looked between Qrow and Junior. There was a minute of hesitation, like he was trying to find something to say.
Qrow tried not to notice the way that James' gaze seemed to settle on him for just a moment too long before it was torn away and focused on Junior instead.
James cleared his throat and raised a hand to gesture towards his office. "I think we had work to do?"
Junior got up, and began on the way to James' office. Roman smiled, and followed after Junior. Surprisingly, James didn't follow after them.
No, instead his eyes settled on Qrow, and when Qrow looked into their depths he saw a swirl of a thousand emotions, each one as unidentifiable as the next.
Qrow got up and shoved his hands down deep into his pockets. He hesitated, not really sure whether or not he was going to be welcome in James' office. He looked at James, asking the question silently.
James nodded. He didn't say anything either.
Qrow took the first step towards the office, then the next. Once he was two or three steps away from James, that was when the other man turned to follow after him.
Qrow stepped into the office, where Junior and Roman were already seated awkwardly and waiting for James to begin whatever it was that they needed to do. His eyes darted around the office, looking for a place that he could sit since he was presumably going to need to be out of the way for things. Finding nothing, Qrow just leaned against a wall and crossed his arms over his chest in what was definitely a defensive measure.
Things were too weird.
James stepped in and sighed heavily. He looked at Junior, then to the desk. Qrow watched him as he moved, the way that the long line of his body moved with every step until he was at the edge of the desk, picking up some of the paperwork that was there and beginning to sort it over. James had a bored expression on his face, and craning his neck just a little bit was enough to tell Qrow that James was working with blueprints.
For what, he didn't know.
Roman sidled up next to Qrow and leaned against the wall next to him, watching as James got Junior around the side of his desk and down by the safe that Qrow now knew contained James' guns. He listened in as James began to walk through everything that Junior could possibly need to know about the safe- it's make, what kinds of locking mechanisms it used, what its outer shell was made from.
Junior listened intently, and Qrow just watched as James began to walk him through cracking the safe open. It seemed like an involved process, one that that James knew like the back of his hand. Qrow couldn't help but wonder where James learned so much about safes. Sure, James had mentioned having a particular expertise in the past that had been enough to make him desirable as a criminal, but Qrow never really asked what it was.
Now he had the feeling that he knew- James had blueprints. James had probably built the damn things.
Once in awhile, Junior would speak up with his own questions. Things about what he should do if he can't get into the safe, what he should do if the mechanism locks up on the way closing it, what he should do if he thought he was running late on his part of the job.
James did his best to answer every question as thoughtfully as he could, if only for the sake of keeping the peace.
Something about watching James and Junior work was almost intimate. Qrow, feeling a little intimidated stepped out of the room. Roman turned his head and cocked an eyebrow in Qrow's direction. Qrow had to try very hard not to react to it too much. He shot Roman his best smile that made it look like he was just slipping off to the bathroom so that he couldn't draw suspicion.
He stepped out of the office and closed the door behind him. Realizing that he should probably at the very least follow through with his alibi, Qrow shoved his hands down into his pockets and began the walk upstairs to the bathroom that he'd grown to know as the good one.
He wasn't prepared for the sight of a broken mirror inside.
Qrow politely stepped back out of the bathroom and closed the door.
Whatever had happened, it wasn't his place to know.
He hesitated for a long time before finally getting the nerves to go back down to the office to rejoin the rest.
