The drive back to Vale from Atlas was awkward. It had been a lot of James and Qrow sitting there in almost absolute silence with nothing but the radio between them to create any sort of buffer in the awkwardness. It hadn't helped at all. Qrow knew why James wasn't talking to him about things, and he couldn't help but feel a little upset by it.
He'd thought that they'd shared a nice time together, but apparently they weren't going to talk about things. It left Qrow wondering whether or not James was angry at him again. This time it had been different, James had kissed back.
There wasn't a single reason that Qrow could think of to explain why James was now acting his usual cagey self.
He was only slightly frustrated by it.
Qrow got out of James' car within seconds of the two of them pulling into the Xiao Long-Rose house's driveway. He was glad for it. It meant that he could finally get away from some of the awkwardness and start feeling like himself again.
He didn't look back at James over his shoulder, instead he decided that it was probably in his best interests if he just got inside and went about his normal business. If he could come back in and act like nothing was wrong- like there wasn't an active manhunt in Atlas for people involved in that robbery, like had and James hadn't accidentally ruined their friendship again, then maybe people wouldn't notice something was wrong. Maybe then Taiyang and Summer wouldn't speculate too heavily on his absence and just assume that he missed being home with them.
That was all probably wishful thinking though, Qrow reminded himself.
He went to the front door, pushed it open, and was met with absolute chaos.
The living room that Qrow normally called home was an absolute mess. The couch had been dismantled and turned into a large pillow fort, though there were no children in sight. He was only greeted by the sound of Zwei's barking, and then the sound of Summer trying to tell the dog not to bark. It wouldn't work. Zwei liked saying hello.
"Hello?" Qrow called, squinting slightly and peering deep into the house.
"We're in the kitchen!" Summer called back as Zwei emerged from the door to the kitchen and stared down Qrow, wagging his tail the entire time. The corgi was a lot of things- an intimidating guard dog was not one of those things.
Qrow raised an eyebrow to what Summer had said though. He dropped off his things on the dismantled couch before going to join everyone in the kitchen.
The kitchen was almost as chaotic of a scene as the living room was. Taiyang and Summer were at the counters trying to clean up a massive mess, while Ruby, Yang, and a familiar orange bob of hair that Qrow quickly recognized as Penny's were sitting at the table putting frosting and chocolate jimmies on cookies.
It seemed like he was arriving home to the tail end of a sleepover.
Not that he really minded that.
But seeing Penny there was the only thing that he could think to. He backed out of the room and almost sprinted to the front door before he could even give a proper greeting to anyone. He knew that was going to look weird to everyone else, but that didn't really matter that much.
He needed to get to James. If he wasn't still there, then Qrow was going to have to make a phone call and he was going to have to hope that James actually bothered to pick up for him. In that moment, it had become his life's mission to make sure that he got to James.
To his surprise, James' car was still in the driveway. It looked like James was just trying his best to make sure that he was ready before he left. Qrow knew that James had been feeling a bit off before they'd left, after all. The presence of James' car meant that Qrow had time.
He sprinted up to the side of the car and knocked on the window, probably a bit harder than he strictly needed to.
"Jim!" He called.
Almost as soon as Qrow had hit against the window with his knuckles, he saw James visibly jump. He supposed that he shouldn't have gone ahead and read into it. It only made sense that James would startle over it, after all. Most people weren't constantly prepared to have someone knocking on their car windows.
There was a long pause before James looked up at him, looking a bit more than just annoyed. He saw James exhale heavily, and then the window was being rolled down.
"What do you want?" The annoyance on James' expressions stretched all the way into James' voice.
"Penny." Qrow panted.
"Penny?" James asked, looking a little bit dumbfounded by the fact that Qrow had come and didn't try to explain himself at all. "What about her?"
"She's in the kitchen."
James' expression changed completely. His mouth dropped open slightly, and that was it. Qrow heard the sound of the engine being turned off, and then James was getting out and smoothing down his clothes and his hair.
"Bring me-" James didn't get a chance to finish before Qrow was reaching out to grab James' hand to tug him inside. He felt James physically recoil before pulling away entirely.
"Right." Qrow mumbled, looking to the door. "Follow me."
Qrow led James inside of the house, and caught the way that James' expression changed with every motion that the two of them made through the house. He led the way to the kitchen, even though he knew that James didn't need to be led. It just felt right that he led right now. Like maybe James needed it.
They stepped into the kitchen side by side. All three of the girls had picked up their heads and were looking at him and James.
Penny's eyes went wide and she hopped down from her seat, though she had some green frosting on her. She rushed at James, and Qrow saw James just drop down to one knee to receive Penny's hug with open arms.
"Hey there, princess." James said quietly into the top of Penny's head. "I missed you."
Qrow stepped back out of the way and arranged himself alongside Summer. He knew better than to get into the middle of these sorts of things. There was a part of him that said that he should have gone ahead and apologized to Summer and Taiyang for just bringing James in unannounced, but at the same time. he partially expected that he shouldn't bother.
They would understand James wanting to see his daughter, surely.
James was mumbling quietly to Penny. She pulled away from him and led him to the table before taking her seat again. James bent over the plate that she had in front of her that was half-filled with partially decorated cookies. Qrow watched and felt his heart clench at the realization that what he was seeing was frankly adorable. It wasn't likely that James was going to go ahead and welcome anyone into his life so easily like that.
But seeing James like that was sweet. There was a domesticity to it that Qrow wasn't used to seeing from James. One that he wouldn't mind being able to see again.
James pressed a kiss to the top of Penny's head and then he stood up to look at Summer and Taiyang. "I'm sorry." He mumbled, stepping out of the way and leaving Penny to her own devices for a moment. "I don't mean to intrude-"
"It's quite alright." Summer said, stepping close to James. She looked between James and Penny, then at Qrow, who did nothing but shrug in Summer's direction. Her mouth opened for a moment, and Qrow watched the way that her eyes changed. He couldn't help but to dread whatever was coming next, mostly because Summer tended to be unpredictable a lot of the time. "We didn't know that you two were going to be coming tonight."
Qrow tried not to think about the fact that Summer had referred to them as though they were a pair. Where he was standing, James almost flinched at the words.
It almost sounded like Summer was implying that the two of them had arrived together for some reason other than the fact that Qrow needed to get back home. While it was definitely awkward, Qrow wanted to just believe that it was just a poor choice of words on Summer's part. Not worth reading into.
Qrow inhaled deeply and tried to relax.
Summer's eyes flicked between them for a moment before she spoke up again. "I'm sorry."
James crossed his arms over his chest in an obvious sign of discomfort but didn't say anything, like he couldn't quite find the words that he needed.
Qrow shrugged. "It wasn't a big deal." He said, shrugging. "So what's going on here, sleepover?"
"Yeah." Taiyang said, pulling another sheet of sugar cookies out of the oven and setting them down to cool. "Penny was here all last night." Taiyang turned and shot James a look with his blue eyes almost looking impossibly sad. Qrow couldn't help but feel bad for James at the sight of it. He couldn't help but feel like James had ended up missing out on something because they'd spent the night curled up on James' couch together after a few too many drinks.
James looked down at Penny. "Have you been having fun?"
"I have!" Penny exclaimed, he green eyes impossibly bright with joy. "We played games all night, and had pizza!"
James nodded and smiled, seemingly happy to be able to just hear Penny so excited about something. "That's wonderful." Qrow watched James' gloved hand reach up to stroke Penny's hair before James locked eyes with Taiyang again. "Has everything been alright?"
"She's been great." Taiyang said, slipping out of his oven mitts finally. "I wish we could have gotten a hold of you two last night though, we would have loved to have a full house again."
And there it was, the unrelenting feeling that clutched at Qrow's chest and told him that he'd ruined something great. He shouldn't have bothered to keep James at the house like that, he should have just told Ozpin that he wanted to go home, he should have...
It wouldn't have mattered though, Qrow realized.
No matter what, he wouldn't have been able to make it back to Vale at a reasonable time. The job had taken too long, and even then, the nerves that had been built up over the course of the night would have been too much. It wouldn't have worked out, they wouldn't have been able to enjoy themselves together- regardless of the kids. They both would have been too tired and nervous.
And they also wouldn't have had the night together that the two of them did.
Thinking about that was selfish, but Qrow couldn't just pretend that it wasn't a factor in how he was feeling at the moment.
"We were busy." James said, writing off the entire comment that Taiyang had made. "And since work went late-" He shrugged and that was it. James looked down at Penny again, and then back up at Taiyang. "How much longer is she here for?"
Taiyang looked back at Summer over her shoulder and the two of them seemed to share some sort of a silent conversation. Qrow hoped that it wasn't going to be a big deal. He had a feeling that he knew what James was actually trying to ask Taiyang instead of just asking when Penny was supposed to go home.
He was probably asking so that he would know how long he had to spend with Penny without having to run into his ex wife.
"It'll be a few hours." Taiyang said. "I think her mother wanted to get her after dinner?"
Summer blinked and looked between James and Qrow, then spoke up finally. "James?" She asked, catching the tall man's attention. "How about you stay for dinner with us?" Her eyes flicked over to Taiyang for confirmation that the invitation was alright and was rewarded with a quick nod. Qrow didn't want to speculate on how much his presence played into Summer's choice to make the offer.
James looked down at Penny, his expression tight and then looked between Taiyang and Summer.
Qrow tried very hard not to be hurt by the fact that James had very intentionally avoided meeting his gaze. Being avoided was never fun, and this was no exception to that rule, Qrow thought. Somehow, even despite the night before, and the fact that they'd literally arrived together, and despite everything that he and James had gone through and done together, James was still trying to avoid him.
It was only slightly infuriating to have to think about and deal with.
"If I'm not imposing." James said, finally, smiling gently and raising his hands in front of him in a slight surrender. Qrow noticed that everyone made a point to ignore the gloved right hand. "I could try to help with getting it ready or cleanup or whatever you need help with."
Taiyang and Summer exchanged a look, silently asking each other whether or not there was anything that James could do to help them out.
"I think we'll be fine." Summer finally said, sounding confident.
James seemed to let out some sort of silent sigh of relief. Qrow watched as some of the tension eased out of the man's shoulder's all at once, and the way that he even lightened how he was moving his body. It was almost like he was seeing something entirely different out of James.
He hadn't noticed anything about how James had been moving the night before. It hadn't been the question, and since he had mostly been watching James just as they'd gotten out of a high-stress situation, that didn't mean that James was likely to relax like this.
A small smile creased James' face, and then he spoke up, his voice quiet. "I'd love to stay for dinner, in that case."
Qrow hadn't been expecting for James to say yes, but that was it. That was the end of the entire discussion, right there. He was glad for it, but there was a fairly loud part of his mind that told him that this was probably going to end in disaster.
He'd end up doing something that crossed the boundaries of what they were again- not that Qrow even knew where those boundaries actually stood anymore. He partially suspected that James didn't know where those boundaries were anymore either, but was too afraid to ask about it.
There were a lot of possibilities for what that night could go like, though. Maybe he'd end up getting teased by Summer or Taiyang so relentlessly that James just never set foot there again. Maybe he and James would actually be able to talk and start to work things out properly instead of continuing to dance around each other.
But, Qrow reminded himself, there were still things that kept him safe. There were buffer zones- the kids did a lot for that, and the James that he knew wouldn't dream to step out of line with Penny around.
Or any kid, for that matter.
As for Qrow, he didn't want to mess things up either.
He looked around the kitchen and nudged Taiyang with his elbow. "Anything you need help with?" Qrow croaked the words out, hoping that he'd come off as less awkward.
Taiyang blinked and craned his neck slightly so that he could peek out of the kitchen and down the hall towards where the living room was waiting- along with what normally made up Qrow's bedding.
Which Qrow wasn't exactly happy about having to fix.
"I don't think so." Taiyang asked, though he didn't sound particularly confident about it. He cast his gaze between Qrow and James like he was trying to think of literally anything that he could say to the two of them.
Maybe it could like like last time when the two of them had gone grocery shopping, Qrow thought.
That had been a mostly pleasant experience.
Summer spoke up. "Well, we have a living room that needs putting back together, and we could probably use something extra for dinner..."
Her lips pursed as she watched the children as they decorated their sugar cookies. Qrow partially suspected that they weren't going to be allowed to eat them until later on in the night.
"We can get something." James offered, raising his voice just enough to draw the attention over towards him. "It won't be a bother. What are you planning on dinner being?"
"Well, barbeque chicken was in the plans." Summer explained. "Think you can work with that?"
James nodded. "I know I can work with that." James looked over at Qrow. "Join me?"
Qrow scoffed quietly. It was mostly a self protective measure at this point. "Yeah, sure."