Two days passed where Qrow mostly just existed in James' home. It wasn't that he didn't have anything to do, or that he wasn't doing anything while he was there. He mostly just wanted to stay out of the way. And for the most part, that had been possible and he and James had both been happy with the normalcy of it all.

Besides, Qrow had other things that he'd needed to get done before he was going to be able to really deal with the problems that needed to be looked after in his own life. Namely what that meant, was getting in contact with Raven.

He'd given her a phone call, and the two of them had agreed that they were going to be meeting on Wednesday night- that night, after Raven had gotten off of work. Qrow was going to be meeting her outside of the club, and then the two of them were probably heading off to her apartment so that they could talk for a bit.

James had agreed to make sure that Qrow got there for the meeting with Raven on time, and had also agreed to come and get Qrow once everything was said and done, though he had been reluctant when he'd found out exactly what part of the city Raven lived in.

But James had agreed nonetheless.

And that was why Qrow was now waiting outside of the front door of Junior's bar. No more than twenty feet away, James was waiting in his car silently, just in case something went wrong or Qrow ended up needing to leave for some reason.

Qrow had insisted that he didn't need it, but James had insisted otherwise. Apparently making sure that Qrow was going to have a safe way out of there was going to be important to James.

Not that Qrow knew why James felt that way. Not that he'd question it. He was starting to think that James just had some quirks about him.

He may have been standing there outside for close to ten minutes when the door to the bar finally swung open and Raven emerged, dressed in all black, high heeled boots, and in the process of buttoning her shirt.

Qrow looked over at James' car and nodded. James would leave whenever he and Raven did.

"Rae." Qrow announced his presence and she just looked over at him and smirked.

"Hey little brother."

"Hey." Qrow greeted her, frowning over the jab. He kept his hands down in his pockets, partially because it was a chilly night, and partially because it was a way that he was going to be able to keep himself calm while the two of them met. He could feel the envelope with the money that he intended to give to Raven with her rent in it under his fingers this way.

He wasn't worried about whether or not his sister was going to accept it or not.

Mostly, Qrow was just worried about what came after.

Raven gave Qrow a quick look up and down and just nodded at him. It was a signal for him to follow after her, and Qrow was able to do that until the two of them were beside her motorcycle. Raven took her time making sure that everything was in order before climbing on, and once she was ready Qrow climbed on behind her.

There was a small part of him that was very glad that James wasn't the type that would go ahead and laugh at people, regardless of what was going on with them.

If he was being watched by Taiyang, Qrow knew that he would have been laughed at. But James didn't do that sort of thing.

He and Raven didn't say anything to each other before the two of them were off to Raven's apartment. When Qrow looked back at the bar parking lot over his shoulder, he saw James pulling out so that he could begin the drive back to the house until Qrow needed him there.

After that, Qrow was able to just turn his brain off to anything and focus on keeping his balance as in line with his twin's as possible, and making sure that he had a good enough grip on the motorcycle that he wasn't going to have anything to worry about.

The drive across Atlas wasn't too long, mostly because Raven was entirely too comfortable with going ahead weaving in and out of traffic and taking side roads to make sure that they made it to her building quickly.

Neither of them said anything until the two of them were stepping through the door to Raven's apartment themselves, and Qrow was comfortable with it.

The apartment hadn't changed since the last time that he'd been there, and that was something that Qrow supposed he was glad for. It still could have afforded some cleaning up probably, but he wasn't going to judge too much. He mostly didn't have the right to, seeing as he slept on Taiyang and Summer's couch when he was home, and if he wasn't he was sleeping in James' immaculately kept guest room.

Raven closed the door to the apartment behind the two of them and turned to give Qrow a quick look up and down before crossing her arms over her chest and relaxing slightly. "You look good."

"Could say the same to you." Qrow said with a slight shrug as he took the moment to step out of his shoes. "I just wanted to see you, you know?"

"I figured." Raven said with a slight shrug of her own, very much mirroring her brother's motions like she had done a thousand times before when they were younger. It was just normal for the two of them. "Have things been better since-"

Qrow winced, but tried not to let it show. The last time that he and Raven had talked, it had been a little bit different. He'd been upset and angry because he was getting to the end of his rope in regards to what was going on with Summer and Taiyang. He couldn't pretend as though he was okay with everything that was going on, but that didn't mean that he couldn't want to be able to just take things one day at a time at this point.

"Kind of." Qrow said with a shrug as he and Raven walked over to the couch and made themselves comfortable there, just like the last time that the two of them had a visit like this one. He reached down into his pocket and removed the envelope and offered it to Raven. "Figured I could help you out with the rent thing."

Raven paused and just watched Qrow for a moment before reaching out and cautiously taking the envelope from Qrow. He just watched her as she opened the envelope and took a look at the money inside, counting how much there was there inside mentally. "You didn't have to do this." Raven said before levelling a red eyed stare that Qrow never liked being on the receiving on the end of on him. "Qrow-"

"I wanted to do it, Rae." Qrow corrected with a slight shrug. His gaze strayed over to the coffee table. It was still covered in bottles, but unlike his last time that he'd been there, the bottles had been joined by an ashtray that looked like it needed to be cleaned out.

"Well." Raven sighed and tossed the envelope down onto the coffee table beside her. "Thanks for it." There was a pause and she just continued to stare at Qrow, like she was definitely looking for something there that he was afraid she was going to try to name somehow.

He was pretty sure that Raven had figured him out at this point. There was no way that she was unaware of what he was up to at this point.

"Raven-" Qrow swallowed and brought his hands together in front of him, weaving the fingers together in a way so that he wouldn't end up making himself too uncomfortable. It was a way that he was going to be able to hide some of his nerves, at least in theory. Qrow sucked in a deep breath, steeled himself, and continued to talk. "They've figured out what's going on."

"They-" Raven started and then her eyes narrowed dangerously. Qrow swallowed and gave a quick look over his shoulder, just to make sure that he had an escape route if he needed one. He didn't want to have to take it, but if he needed it-

"Raven, don't be-"

"They know?" Raven's voice was somewhere between pure disbelief and anger. It was a hiss, it was spitting venom, it was her probably thinking over the many ways that she could lash out and kill him if she wanted to. Qrow was afraid that she was going to take that chance if she got it.

Deep down, he was glad for the empty bottles on the table just beside them. If things got to be really bad, it meant that he had something that he could use to defend himself from her.

"Yeah." He finally admitted, though he needed to wait it through. He needed a drink, this was going to probably be the hardest night that he was going to go through in a very long time. "They know."

"You told them?" Raven's eyes narrowed and she leaned in towards him, almost threateningly. "I told you not to-"

"I didn't get much of a choice in the matter!" Qrow leaned back in towards Raven, deciding that it was probably for the best if he tried to exert his own physical presence there. "They found out, I owned up to it."

"And is that why you're staying with your little friend here in Atlas?"

"How do you know about that?" Qrow's voice changed tone so that it was almost a growl. "I haven't-"

"I saw the car, Qrow." Raven replied. "If they kicked you out because-" She reached up with her hand and pushed her too wild hair out of her face in an attempt to calm herself down. "I can't believe you."

"Hey," Qrow barked to get her attention onto him. "They haven't kicked me out. I'm staying with a friend because someone broke into his goddamn house and he doesn't feel safe being there alone these days." He swallowed. "Everything I do doesn't revolve around you, Raven."

She stood up, so abruptly that she actually ended up forcing the couch that the two of them were sitting on back just a little bit. Raven turned his back to him and walked to the other side of the room so that she could stare at one of the many drawings on the butcher paper that decorated her apartment.

He knew exactly what this was- this was Raven doing her absolute best to force him out so that she would have a little bit less to be angry at him about. So that she would have less to do with him in the long run.

When she spoke up, Qrow almost had to strain himself to be able to hear what she said.

"I can't believe that you've done this." She growled at him. "I can't believe that you've-"

"Nobody's mad!" Qrow exclaimed as he stood up himself. "Nobody's been kicked out." He dropped his hands down to his sides. "Summer and Tai are kind of upset, but nobody's angry."

"And?"

"And they want you to come to Yang's birthday party." He paused. "You know that's coming up."

"That's not-"

"Don't act like you don't know it." Qrow growled again.

This was going poorly. It was going beyond poorly, but Qrow couldn't just let this go. He needed to come to some sort of conclusion that was going to actually be useful to him and to everyone else that was involved.

At the end of the day, this wasn't about him. It wasn't really about Raven either.

It was about family, specifically a family that Raven had decided to leave behind without a single word to anyone else involved. A family that she had decided to leave behind because she couldn't stand to deal with whatever was going on in her own head.

He couldn't blame her for not being able to deal with those problems, but that didn't make the situation better in a lot of ways. There wasn't any cure for a broken family. Not one that would actually work and wouldn't just serve to make things worse.

At this point, everyone involved in the Xiao Long-Rose-Branwen family was at the end of their collective rope, but that wasn't what mattered. The drama between himself, Raven, Summer, and Taiyang wasn't what mattered the most anymore.

No, that honor went to the two little girls that were so proud to call him their uncle. To the two little girls that he made breakfast for most days.

And so now, when he had Raven standing directly in front of him and refusing to deal with what was going on, it made things much harder on Qrow. He needed a drink, anything to distract himself away from some of the things that were going on in his head.

But that wasn't going to be possible, so instead he had to deal with Raven and hope that he was going to be able to make it through to his sister.

Raven was silent. She didn't turn to look back at him, and Qrow ultimately couldn't blame his sister for that. This was a hard situation for all of them, and the fact of the matter was that they weren't going to be able to heal everything overnight. That wasn't on anyone in particular.

But the least that Raven could do was to turn to him and make it possible for the two of them to actually talk.

She wouldn't do that though. Instead, she stared forward at the wall, at a drawing of a bunch of flowers that Qrow couldn't name. She'd always liked flowers, even back when they'd been young. It was likely that she probably was just looking for something to take herself away from the place that the two of them found themselves in.

"Raven." Qrow spoke again, hoping that he was going to be able to get Raven's attention back on him. "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about." A pause. "I need to talk to you about this, one on one. It's actually important."

"I know that it's her birthday, Qrow." Raven finally answered him. She kept her voice painfully low in volume, so quiet that Qrow actually had to make an effort to actually hear his sister's voice. She sounded like she was almost broken, and Qrow couldn't help that pang of guilt that shot through his chest over the thought.

There was no room for great guilt there thought, Qrow reminded himself.

This had to be managed.

"Raven," Qrow swallowed and got up off of the couch so that he could approach his sister in hopes that he was going to be able to go ahead and offer a small comfort. Just enough of a comfort that it was going to be enough to get her to be willing to talk about everything. "Talk to me."

"I don't want to." Raven murmured.

"I know."

Qrow approached his sister's back, and he reached out to place his hand on her shoulder as gently as he could manage. It almost felt like it was something that he'd had to negotiate and renegotiate with himself to make it happen.

The last thing that he'd been expecting was the feeling of Raven's hand gently touching his.

"They want me to come?" Raven asked, her voice barely edging above a whisper.

"Yes." Qrow said. He didn't move his hand, just gently gripped Raven's fingers in his own in hopes that he was going to be able to comfort Raven with that alone. "They do."

"Why?"

Qrow swallowed- there was no good answer to that question, or rather, there wasn't quite any good answer that he could give her without upsetting her. There were a lot of reasons that he suspected Taiyang and Summer wanted to have Raven around, even if it was for just a little bit of time. It had something to do with a lost relationship, no doubt, but Yang was as much a part of it as anything else was.

He just took a deep breath- probably one that was a little bit too deep, and finally brought himself to a point where he could say something. "I think that they want for Yang to meet her mother." Qrow said quietly. He knew that there was bitterness that peeked through on his voice. He couldn't help the thought that told him that Raven wasn't really Yang's mom at this point.

That honor better belonged to Summer after so many years of Raven's absence.

But he couldn't say that. He couldn't say that there was a lot of him that wished that his friends had found a way to move on from Raven. He wished that the two of them had found a way to just keep going with their lives and move forward.

Raven wasn't likely to come back.

Qrow knew that Summer and Taiyang knew that too.

Raven shook her head, and her hair swayed with the motion in a way that was almost dramatic in nature. "They don't want that."

"They do, Rae." Qrow responded, as quietly and as gently as he could manage. "They miss you. They want for you to be with Yang, even if it's just for a day."

He took in a deep breath, hoping that it was going to be enough to help things along somewhat. Mostly, Qrow just needed the chance to be able to calm his nerves enough that he could actually concentrate on what he wanted to say at this point.

He needed to get through to Raven. He needed to find a way to ignore the frustrations that he was feeling, he needed a way to be able to get by without getting too caught up in the knowledge that if Raven showed up for this party and then failed to ever make an appearance in the future, it ran the strong risk of ruining all of the peace that they'd been able to partially enjoy over the last few years.

What if Raven showing up caused Yang to get caught up in worries about whether or not her mother wanted her around or not? The last few years, they'd found ways to deal with their worries when it came to Yang because she was so content to be Summer's daughter, and so content to be the spitting image of her father.

Qrow wasn't even sure about how much Yang had even been told about Raven over the course of the last few years.

It was entirely likely that they'd managed to raise Yang without her even realizing that she wasn't Summer's, but there was another possibility. It was too possible that they'd hidden it directly from Yang but she'd come to find out about everything by overhearing her parent's conversations. Qrow was afraid that he might have had something to do with that himself.

"Raven." He spoke up again, just in the hopes that he could get his sister back mentally. "It's not a bad thing to want to..." He swallowed and did his absolute best to collect his thoughts over that. ONe thing at a time- he was just doing a good job of upsetting himself at this point and that wouldn't do. "They just want for you to see Yang, and to maybe fix things."

A pause. "I know that's probably not possible." He mumbled quietly. "But I think that they at least want to be able to make an attempt."

Qrow swallowed. He wanted to do a thousand things, to take a moment to just close his eyes and try to calm himself down so that he could get his head figured out. He could only deal with so much Raven before he started to burn out on things entirely.

He'd come to her, he'd told her what he needed to, and now it was up to her to make some sort of decision, Qrow reminded himself. He'd done what he had to- if Raven turned down the offer, then that was on her. It meant that he could rest somewhat easier, at least running on the theory that he didn't end up getting thrown out of the Xiao Long-Rose house for not bringing her back to them.

He knew that was a bit much to worry about, but it was all that he had stuck in his head at the moment. One thing at a time.

"An attempt?" Raven asked as she turned her head just slightly so that she could look back at him over her shoulder. She didn't turn to face him, not yet. He could feel the way that her hand seemed to tighten any grip that was on his hand at the moment.

He tried his best to ignore the way that her nails seemed to cut into his fingers.

"Yeah." Qrow mumbled, just as quietly as ever. This was going to be his best chance to get through to his sister, he was more than just a little bit sure of it. "They just want to try and talk to you for a little bit, and see if that'll be enough to help them fix things..." His voice trailed off, and Qrow had to remind himself that fixing things at this point was probably a pipe dream at best.

"Well, they at least want to see if they can make it a bit easier for everyone involved, I think." Qrow finished after a very long pause. "This has been hurting everyone, Rae."

"I know." Raven whispered, finally turning so that she could face him. "What do you want me to do?"

Qrow paused. He knew what she was secretly asking him, but was so afraid to go ahead and say out loud. This wasn't a plea for advice, this was a plea for him to give her some sort of instruction about what she was supposed to do.

How Qrow hated it when she would do things like this.

"I'm not telling you what to do." Qrow said as he opened his arms up so that Raven could fold herself into them if she wanted to. "But it would mean a lot to me if you came to the birthday party and just tried to talk to the two of them." Qrow couldn't bring himself to look at his sister's face, and so he instead just stared off into the space just past Raven's too-wild hair. Yang's hair in every way but the color, he reminded himself. Yang took after Raven so much.

"Qrow-" Raven swallowed and rested her head on his shoulder. He still couldn't bring himself to look over at her. "What happens if I go, and it ends up ruining everything?"

"It won't." Qrow said, though he wasn't entirely confident in that fact. "Not much more than things are already ruined."

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah." Qrow paused, his voice going all tight and strained at once. "I am."

Raven sighed heavily and just tightened her grip on him, pulling him in even closer to her body for just a little bit. "I want time to make a decision."

"Okay." Qrow whispered his response. "But you need to decide... at least a day or two before the party so that I can make sure that everything's set up, okay?"

"What-"

"If you're going to be dropping in, people are probably going to want a bit of time beforehand to prepare for that." He grit his teeth and tried to push back any bitterness that was touching his voice. "It doesn't mean that we don't want you around, it just means that it's going to be hard after all these years."

Raven nodded, almost like she couldn't think of anything that she wanted to say to him at that moment. If he concentrated, he could almost swear that he could hear his sister quietly sniffling and trying to force back tears that she wasn't going to allow to flow until he was long gone.

Qrow hesitantly reached up and pet down her hair, just hoping that it was going to be the best comfort that he could offer Raven. He was sure that it wasn't going to be enough, but he had to at least try.

"Raven-" Qrow swallowed as he tried to think of anything that he could say to her. "You know that if you need me, you can just ask."

"I do."

"You know that you don't have to be afraid to-"

"I do." Raven answered again, before Qrow could even finish. "I just don't want to."

Qrow sighed heavily. He needed a drink, so badly. "I know." He finally said after a long pause. He reminded himself for a moment that he'd done everything that he'd needed to do. He'd come, he'd talked to Raven, and he'd brought her some money so that he could at least ensure that she didn't end up homeless.

It was all that he could really do, Qrow reminded himself.

The Branwen twins made their way back over to the couch after a long time, and they just sat there for a long while in relative silence while the two of them just tried to calm down. It wasn't going to be enough, Qrow was sure.

He was going to leave, and he was going to go to James' home where he was going to have a guarantee that he wasn't going to be able to get a drink into his system. Raven wasn't going to have that luxury though. If the bottles on the coffee table were any indicator, then Qrow knew exactly what was going to end up happening later down the line. She was going to drink that night.

She was going to be alone.

Qrow knew that he couldn't go ahead and try to invite Raven over to James', because he was already too on edge to be able to do much of anything that was an unknown factor at the moment.

It was beyond his control.

In an hour or two, Qrow sent James a text message to ask his friend to come and pick him up. James came, and the two of them drove back to James' house without a word passing between the two of them for the entire ride.

They were both tired, and wanted to rest.

James would keep his promise.

Qrow couldn't bring himself to sleep that night.