If there was one thing that Qrow could give Patch, it was that it seemed to be peaceful. Or at the very least as peaceful as any place on Remnant could be, as shown by the couple of times they had to deal with Grimm during the walk. Despite that Qrow was enjoying the walk just as much as Summer seemed to be, judging from how often her hooded head was looking around at the forest they were walking through, but he still couldn't help wondering why they were there at all. A sentiment his sister was more than happy to voice.
"So why are we on this shithole island again?" Raven asked in her own charming way.
"Patch is not a shithole!" Summer said angrily as she looked back at Raven and Qrow.
"Sure it isn't," Raven said with a roll of her eyes, "and my question?"
"We're here because I want to spend our first two week break as a team with my folks here instead of at Beacon doing nothing," Taiyang said rubbing the back of his head. "Besides, they've been wanting to meet you all for a while. Hopefully they'll calm down a little when they actually meet you."
"And we had to take a ferry instead of an airship because…?" Qrow asked.
"Because it was cheaper, so stop whining," Summer said and shook her head before she looked back up at the trees. "I'm actually kind of glad to be back here. I've never really cared to explore beyond Signal before." That got Taiyang to look back at her with a grin and moved to throw an arm around Summer.
"Well we can fix that easily! How about I take all you guys into town tomorrow and show you around. There's this awesome barbeque place that you guys will love!"
"Free food?" Raven asked with a small chuckle, "I can get behind that,"
"That's the spirit Rae! And when we get to my house you can try Mom's cooking! She's great at making-"
"What was that?" Qrow said suddenly and stopped to stare into the woods. Everyone else stopped as well and stayed quiet, with only the sound of wind blowing through the trees until they heard a low growl. "Yup, they're back."
"I'm getting real sick of this," Raven said as her hand drifted to her sword.
"Let's keep moving," Summer said and gently moved Taiyang's arm off her and pushed him forward, "keep leading us Tai. Rae, keep your eyes to the left, I'll take right, and Qrow keep an eye on the back. And try not to group up, got it?"
"Got it," everyone replied and spread out, with Taiyang leading the way with his fists balled up while Summer, Raven, and Qrow drew their weapons and watched their respective sides. It was a tense couple of minutes as they walked through the forest with the growls of Grimm sounding through the trees until they reached a bend in the path where the growling was much louder than before.
"Guess we take them on here?" Qrow asked and readjusted his grip on Harbinger.
"It's as good a place as any, unless we're close to Tai's house," Summer said and lowered her stance.
"Nah, it's too far from here," Taiyang answered while getting into a fighting stance, "but I don't think there's many around, so we should be able to-"
"Sum, dodge!" Raven shouted. Summer Blinked up and spun around to see the Beowolf that had lunged at her below her. With a grunt she swung her sword and cut it in half, the top half flipping and landing on its back while its lower half went flying into the forest. Summer landed and looked at the Beowolf as it growled and reached out at her only to get a bullet in the head for its trouble.
"Here they come!" Qrow shouted and held his sword up as several Beowolves rushed out of the trees to circle the teens. The four of them looked around as the Grimm watched them, saliva dripping from their mouths and bone white claws digging into the ground, and counted them all.
"Not even ten," Raven said and gave a small huff as she readied her sword, "this'll be easy."
"Just don't treat them like their easy Raven," Summer chided and twirled her sword, "they're still dangerous."
"Sure." Raven let out a breath to ease the tension in her body and watched the Beowolf in front of her, both parties still and waiting for the other to make the first move. They didn't have to wait long before the one Raven was watching decided to try its luck and lunge at the girl, only for her to dodge out of the way and strike it along its side with her sword leaving a massive cleave in its side.
With the standoff broken the Grimm charged at the teens, though it was like Raven had predicted in that they weren't much of a threat as long as they kept their guards up. With the clangs of swords against bone and the occasional gunshot Qrow knew he didn't have to worry about his teammates too much and focused on his own problems in the form of two Beowolves.
The first charged at him while the other hung back, which left Qrow with the space he needed to jump and give it a spinning kick to the head. It got knocked off course and toward the blender that was his sister and unfolded Harbinger into its full scythe form when he landed on his feet. He heard a crunch behind him and smirked as he fired his scythe's guns into the Grimm behind him and launched toward the last Beowolf in front of him. It barely had enough time to lift onto its hind legs and prepare to swipe at Qrow when he hit it dead on with a shoulder, landed and sliced its hind legs off with a single blow with two vertical spins following to sever its main arms, and finally hooked the scythe's blade around its neck to decapitate it with a gunshot filling the air.
With the Grimm disintegrating behind him, Qrow crouched and watched the rest of his team finish their respective fights. Raven had already finished her Grimm and moved to help Summer while Taiyang only had one Beowolf left that he flipped over his shoulder and kicked towards Qrow with a shout of "Catch Qrow!" The scythe-wielder rolled his eyes and stood up as the Beowolf flew toward him and turned sideways to spin his scythe vertically to bisect it from the head down, both sides of it flying on either side of him before disintegrating.
Taiyang gave Qrow a thumbs up and looked at the girls fighting the last Beowolf. Raven sliced one of its hind legs off and stabbed it in the chest, giving Summer the opening to press the barrel of her gun to the side of its head and pulled the trigger. Raven threw the dead Grimm to the side and it disappeared while Summer caught her breath.
"Ok, I think we got them all," Summer said as she looked around the forest.
"I hope," Raven said and started to sheath her sword, "I'm sick of fighting these annoying-"
"MAJOR!" Taiyang shouted and dodged a tree crashing down where he had just been standing. The Ursa Major roared before it charged at Taiyang, who barely had time to plant his feet and charge his limbs with Aura before he caught the Grimm's head. The force of the monster pushing him back a few feet before he stopped and held it back as it tried to bite down on him.
"Shit! Guys, go for its front legs!" Summer ordered and pointed her sword forward, "Once it's crippled we'll-!"
Summer was interrupted when a woman shot out from the woods behind the Ursa and landed behind it to deliver a strong kick to one of its hind legs out from under it with a loud "Ora!" With its center thrown off, Taiyang tightened his grip on the Grimm and brought its head down on his knee. The woman jumped and kicked off one of the Ursa's bone spines toward the Ursa's head as it was launched up from the blow.
Taiyang spread his legs and focused his Aura into his arm and threw an uppercut when the woman kicked the Grimm's head back down. His fist met the Grimm's chin and, suddenly being caught between two strong attacks, the Ursa gave a small growl as its bone plating cracked before it's head was smashed completely.
"…You were saying?" Raven asked as the woman kicked off of the Grimm's head into a backflip and landed as the Ursa disintegrated.
"What matters is that it's dead, not how," Summer replied and holstered Soleil before sheathing York and started walking over to Taiyang with the twins following suit in putting their own weapons away. "But man, that woman is such a badass."
"Are you blushing?" Qrow asked.
"A better question is why aren't you?"
"Ha, finally caught you!" the woman shouted and spat at where the Grimm used to be before she turned to the teens, her eyes widening when she saw Taiyang crouching and holding his steaming arm. "Tai, is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me," Tai replied, his voice a little strained as he shook his hand a little, "yep, still smarts."
"Still using your Semblance excessively huh?" the woman said disapprovingly and crossed her arms, "I thought you said you were calming down on that?"
"That was an Ursa Major Mom! I had to use it!" Taiyang rolled his eyes and stood up, flexing his fingers to test them. "See, it's already better."
"You also used it unnecessarily," Summer added, "your legs were still glowing when you punched that Ursa. You could have hurt yourself if you weren't careful."
"Yes, I got it! Thank you!"
"So… Mom?" Qrow asked tilting his head to get a better look at the woman now that things had calmed down. He could immediately see a resemblance between his partner and the woman, between the blonde hair, blue eyes, and shared physique of a martial artist. She had two stripes of blue running down her hair on either side of her eyes that were just a shade lighter than the vest she wore over a white shirt, and brown pants and boots to round out the outfit. Just on looks she seemed the type to be strong enough to manage Taiyang.
"Right, introductions," Taiyang muttered and rubbed his eyes before he faced his team. "Let's get the easy one out of the way first. Guys, this is my mom Qing Xiao Long." Qing gave the group a smile and wave as Taiyang gestured at his teammates, "And mom, this is my team: our leader Summer Rose, my partner Qrow Branwen, and his sister Raven."
"The pendant girl? Huh, will wonders never cease," Qing said with a chuckle while Summer sighed.
"Is that really how your family knows me?" Summer asked and glared at Taiyang, who could only give her a shrug. "Well, I guess I have no one to blame but myself for that," she added while shaking her head, "Putting that aside, it's nice to meet you Mrs. Xiao Long."
"Likewise."
"So did you really chase an Ursa Major by yourself out here?" Raven asked and crossed her arms.
"Oh, that thing? It's been causing trouble around the island for the last few days. We usually catch them before they become so dangerous, but it must have slipped through the cracks." Qing crossed her arms and looked at where the Ursa had died, "Me, my husband, and some of the other Huntsmen got together to hunt it and a few other packs down. So thanks for helping with that Tai, I'll be sure to keep your portion of the reward for safe keeping."
"Thanks a lot Mom," Taiyang said shaking his head and trying to ignore the laughs from both his mom and Qrow, "so can we get to the house now?"
"Sure Tai. I'll call your father on the way to let him know the job's done and that you're here to visit." Qing started leading the way down the path with STRQ falling behind her.
"We're here for the whole break by the way."
"Even better. The house is way too quiet with you gone, so it'll be nice to have it be lively for once." A burst of white petals came from Qing's side and she looked over at Summer now walking next to her smiling and with a few petals coming off her cloak.
"So… what do you do when you're not being awesome?" Qing blinked at her before she laughed softly and put hand on Summer's head.
"Oh, I knew I was going to like you."
"Well, Sum's got a new crush," Qrow said, shaking his head at Summer.
"What, are you jealous or something?" Raven asked.
"Nah, not really."
"Guys…" Taiyang said with an exasperated sigh and looked back at the twins to see them both smirking at him. He could only groan at that and drag a hand down his face. "This break is going to take forever."
It only took about ten or so minutes of walking for the group to get to the Xiao Long house, a sight that caused the three members of STRQ who hadn't seen it before to stop and take it in. Even though it was just a simple two story wooden house, like several other houses on the island they passed on the way in, something about the house situated in the middle of the woods seemed to have a more calming effect than one would think.
"It's ok, I guess," was Raven's response to seeing it, which naturally got an eye roll from her brother walking next to her.
"Stop being a sourpuss Raven," Summer chided and looked back at her partner as Taiyang and his mom went into the house. "I swear, I will make sure you have a good time here. I will do everything to make sure you smile even once!"
"Yeah, that's not going to happen."
"Hey, get in here!" Taiyang shouted and waved inside, "And leave your weapons at the door. House rule, sorry." Summer gave him a thumbs up and gave a nod to both of the twins before leading the way inside as Taiyang held the door open for them. After leaving their weapons in a set of stands near the door (Raven a little more reluctantly than the others) the team scattered through the house to look around with Qrow making a beeline for the couch the moment he saw it.
"This is my home now," Qrow said as he flopped onto the couch and stuck his hands under his head.
"What, a bed isn't good enough for you?" Raven asked as she walked over and glared down at him.
"They're fine, but I've already claimed this spot," Qrow replied and rolled to face away from Raven.
"You lazy piece of-"
"Is Dad not back yet?" Taiyang said loud enough to drown out Raven.
"He said he was going back to town with the other Huntsmen to report those kills," Qing shouted back from the kitchen, "but he said he'll be back by the time dinner is ready. Can you help me with that?"
"I can," Summer called and moved to the kitchen door, "I'm actually really good at cooking."
"Thanks, I'll let you know when I get started. Tai, check on your little brother! He's been missing you."
"Ugh, you're still calling him that?" Taiyang groaned out and buried his face in his hands.
"Brother? You have a brother?" Summer asked and looked at Taiyang as he shook his head.
"It's a stupid joke that I don't understand how is still alive. You'll see." Taiyang dragged his hands down his face and asked, "So where is he?"
"He's around somewhere. Just call him," Qing said.
"Fine," Taiyang said with a sigh and shouted, "Hey Zwei, come!"
"Zwei?" Raven asked just as a dog barked from upstairs. Summer stiffened up at the bark and the patter upstairs and everyone's eyes snapped to the stairs as a black and white corgi came down and ran to Taiyang and jumped at his legs.
"Hey boy," Taiyang said to the dog and knelt down to pet him, much to his joy, "good to see you're doing well. Did you miss me that bad?"
"A pet…" Raven said, staring at the dog and it spun in a small circle in front of Taiyang, "Oh, 'little brother'. I get it." Raven then glanced at Qrow, who was squirming on the couch to get comfortable, and sighed. "I understand where the comparison comes from."
"Yeah, it's always funny at first. But yeah, this is our hunting dog Zwei. He may be small, but he packs a punch." Taiyang picked up Zwei and stood up to show his team, which was when he noticed that Summer had moved to crouch in a corner of the living room. "Er… are you ok Sum?"
"I'm fine," Summer said quickly and shivered a little.
"Are you sure?" Taiyang watched Summer for a moment before he blinked in realization and looked down at Zwei in his arms. "Wait, are you afraid of dogs Sum?"
"No, I'm not! I just… dogs…"
"She's acting weird again," Raven whispered at Taiyang, only to get shushed from the blonde before he walked over to Summer with Zwei. Qing appeared in the kitchen doorway and shared a look with her son before he reached Summer and crouched next to her.
"Hey, it's ok," Taiyang said gently and set Zwei down, "Zwei is really friendly, so there's no need to be scared."
"I'm not scared of him!" Summer said forcefully and turned her head to look at the corgi. "But… is he?"
"Oh yeah, as long as you're not a Grimm that is, but you're not!" Summer stared at Taiyang for a moment before her eyes shot down at Zwei, sitting and happily panting as he looked up at her, and pivoted her body around to face the corgi. After a moment of silent staring between the two, Summer held out a hand to Zwei and watched the dog tilt his head at the action. Soon he stood up, walked toward her, and started licking her hand.
"Wha-!?" Summer stammered, her eyes wide and her head snapping between Taiyang and Zwei a couple of times. "Uh… uh…"
"See, he's really friendly!" Taiyang said with a large grin, "And I think he really likes you too! He hardly licks people right off the bat like that.
"He… does…?" Summer whispered and looked at Zwei, who stopped licking her hand and looked up at her with his tongue lolled out. After a second of staring into his adorable eyes, Summer did something nobody expected.
She started crying, loudly.
"Whoa!" Taiyang shouted and backed away as Summer started bawling loudly. He looked back at the room to see Raven pinching her eyes in exasperation, Qrow watching tiredly from the couch, and his mother watching calmly, and looked back at Summer as she started wiping at her eyes even if it didn't stop her crying. "H-hey, don't cry Sum. It's making me feel bad and I don't like it. If Zwei's the problem, then I can-"
"I love him!" Summer interrupted in a sharp cry.
"…Huh?"
"He's such a good boy… I can't help it!" Summer cried again, not noticing the amazement from her teammates, and reached out to Zwei to pick him up and pull him into a hug. "He's so fluffy and full of love and goodness. He's such a good boy!" With the newfound attention Zwei started licking Summer's face, which turned her crying into laughter as she leaned back into the wall with the corgi still held tightly to her.
The whole time her team was silently staring at her with wide, unbelieving eyes, up until Qing started giggling and drew their attention. She quieted her laughter and pointed at Taiyang with a knowing smirk. "I told you Tai, and I'm always right. I told you a long time ago you'd get to know the real her if you gave her time." Qing pointed at Summer and added, "And there she is. Not a girl that rages at the world, but someone who wears her emotions on her sleeve. A simple soul, if you will."
"Oh she's simple all right," Raven muttered and looked back at Summer fawning over the dog.
Once they had managed to pry Summer away from Zwei and put her cloak away she was more than happy to help make dinner while the rest of them watched TV in the living room. These respective activities went uninterrupted until Taiyang's dad came home and pulled all the members of STRQ into a hug with only Summer barely escaping thanks to being busy in the kitchen. Once that less than stellar first impression was done, dinner was finished and served.
The Branwens were more than happy to sit quietly and eat while Taiyang told his parents all about the adventures of Team STRQ (good and ill) with Summer occasionally interjecting to correct something or tell her side of some of the bad stories when she wasn't busy sneaking scraps off her plate for Zwei.
Qrow was the first to finish and went back to lying on the couch after he put his plate in the sink. He had barely settled in and was almost asleep when he felt something poking him relentlessly in the leg until he shifted and opened an eye at who was bothering him.
"Oh, so you are awake," Summer said, taking her hand away from Qrow's leg. Qrow groaned and pushed himself up a little to get a better at the girl leaning over the couch. "So, I know it's weird to ask since we've been sleeping in the same room for a while, but are you adverse to waking up early?"
"I like sleeping in, especially on break, but no I don't really have a problem getting up early. Why?"
"Because I just talked to Qing and convinced her to let me make breakfast tomorrow. And I might need some help with that! Eh?"
"So ask her to help you," Qrow said and went back to his nap, "She's the other cook right?"
"Read the room Qrow." Qrow sighed and knew he didn't even have to look at Summer to know what look she was giving him. Ever since that camping trip they were forced to go on to keep from being expelled, they had basically gotten their act together in actually getting along as a team. Summer especially had started trying to be a better leader and teammate, often verging on overcorrection given how her idea of getting to know her teammates was basically kidnapping them for a day of 'hanging out'.
Taiyang was fine with that, friendly guy that he was, though Qrow and Raven weren't quite so enthused and tried to avoid the situation as much as they could. Qrow was silently happy that he was more successful than his sister in escaping from Summer; no matter how hard she tried, it always seemed that Summer would always find Raven and drag her away.
So such luck this time it seemed.
"Fine, I get it," Qrow said and cracked open an eye, "Just be gentle when you wake me up, ok?"
"Gentle as a kitten. Thanks Qrow. Welp, back to playing with Zwei for me!" Qrow smiled as Summer disappeared behind the couch and crawled away from him if the shuffling was any indication. He shut his eyes and went back to his nap, the smile disappearing as he thought about what might happen tomorrow.
The rest of that day passed like that for Qrow: napping on the couch, being woken up by Taiyang so they could move to his room, and then sleeping through the rest of the night there. It was, thankfully, a dreamless sleep without any nightmares about Her until he was woken up by being poked in the cheek. After a few pokes he slapped the hand away and opened his eyes to the slightly worrying sight of Summer grinning at him in the early morning light.
"Morning," she said quietly.
"What time is it?" Qrow groaned out and rubbed his eyes.
"It's time to make breakfast." Qrow and Summer stared at each other for a moment and Qrow sighed and sat up.
"Fine, I can't go back to sleep after that anyway. Just let me get dressed ok?"
"Oh sure thing, just pretend I'm not here." Summer disappeared below the bed line and Qrow heard shuffling as she crawled along the ground. Deciding to ignore his leader's oddities for the moment, Qrow got out of bed and started collecting the clothes he wore the day before and started putting them on. He had barely got his pants on when he heard a sound behind him and looked back to see Summer kneeling next to Taiyang and spraying whipped cream into his hand.
"Uh…?"
"Shh," Summer said, putting a finger to her lips and holding up the can, "you didn't see anything, ok?" Qrow stared at Summer for a moment before nodding, which she returned and sprayed a little more cream into Taiyang's hands. When she was done she nodded and started crawling out of the room while Qrow followed after her buttoning up his shirt. Qrow shut the door behind him and watched Summer get to her feet and start spinning the can in her hand. "You go down to the kitchen Qrow. I'll meet you there after I take care of something."
Qrow nodded and watched Summer sneak back down to the guest room where she and Raven were sleeping and shook his head as he started going to the kitchen. 'She's nothing if not bold,' Qrow thought on his way down the stairs. He did think about stopping Summer, but the idea of Raven covered in whipped cream and pissed beyond belief was too good to pass up on.
Qrow waved at Taiyang's dad as he left the house on a Grimm patrol and entered the kitchen to awkwardly stand around and play on his scroll while waiting for Summer to come back. To her credit she was gone for barely a minute before she came back giggling madly and put the whipped cream away.
"Right, now that the fun is out of the way, it's time to be serious," she said and slapped her cheeks twice to psyche herself up. "Now, what should we make Qrow?"
"Please just let it be something simple," Qrow replied as he put his scroll away.
"Simple sounds good, especially since you and Raven have never cooked anything if it wasn't over a fire right?" Qrow shrugged, but didn't otherwise deny it. "And no one else said anything otherwise, so… omelettes it is! Oh, and we can have sliced strawberries and bananas and anything else they would like as additions! Good idea Qrow!"
"Sure thing. Can we just get this over with?"
"Of course. Get the eggs while I get the stove going ok?" Qrow nodded and the two separated with Qrow going to the fridge. He opened it and found a carton of eggs on one of the shelves. After smelling them to make sure none of them were spoiled, which had spontaneously happened before, Qrow took them to Summer who was busy preparing a pan on the stove and set them on the counter next to her.
"Thanks Qrow. If you can handle it can you start cutting the fruits?" Summer asked and gestured to the other end of the kitchen as she swiveled the pan around to make sure the melted butter inside got around evenly. Qrow gave an affirmative grunt and started to walk away when he saw Summer open the egg carton only for one of the eggs to somehow have gotten stuck to the lid of the carton long enough to get launched away.
"Oh shi-!" Qrow nearly shouted and tried to catch the egg, only for it to land on the floor and splatter across it.
"What was that?" Summer asked and looked back at the egg spatter on the floor and huffed in agitation. "Oh come on, now how did that happen? That's one less omelette I guess. We'll have to see." Shaking her head Summer moved to grab a paper towel and went to clean up the mess.
"Sorry," Qrow muttered and looked away as Summer finished cleaning up the egg shell and yolk.
"Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault, accidents happen." Qrow couldn't dare look at her as she threw away the egg mess and went back to the stove. "Those fruits aren't going to cut themselves Qrow."
"Hey, maybe I should get out of your hair so you can do your thing and-"
"Qrow!" Summer lightly pounded a fist on the counter and glared at Qrow, her silver eyes boring right into him, "You are not getting away from this. You agreed, remember? Now cut fruit." Qrow thought about arguing with Summer about this, but he could tell from the way she was looking at him that he would not win that argument. So it was with a heavy sigh and a nod that Qrow moved to where Summer had pointed him and left her to the eggs.
He might as well try to be useful before he screwed it up again.
That ended up not being the case as the next few minutes showed. Just as Qrow feared misfortune was abound through the kitchen as he and Summer made breakfast. From the innocuous like the time a whole strawberry somehow slipped out of under the knife and shot out of his grip to ricochet off a cupboard and hit Summer in the ear, to the much more serious like when Summer trusted Qrow to watch an egg while she went to get something from the fridge and the moment he touched the pan the burner under it blew up into a pillar of fire that Summer had to rush to put out.
While Summer took these events in stride, they were all starting to get to Qrow as they kept happening. The last straw in the whole ordeal was when the first omelette was done and Summer encountered an impossibility.
"How is the center still raw even with the surrounding egg burnt to hell?" Summer wondered as she poked at the omelette with a fork. "I'm sure I cooked it evenly too, even with that pillar of fire earlier. So how did that happen?" It was then that she heard soft thumps coming from behind her and turned to see Qrow banging his head on the edge of the counter. "Uh, Qrow? Are you ok?"
"You know what, no I'm not fucking alright!" Qrow said angrily and hit his head one more time before he fell onto the floor and turned around to put his back to the counter. "I'm so sick of this happening all the time!"
"What are you talking about?" Summer asked and set the fork down, "this was just an accident. One of many admittedly, but still just an accident."
"Oh, it's always 'just an accident'." The bitterness in Qrow's voice as he ran his hands through his hair gave Summer pause and, after checking to make sure the burner was off, moved to sit next to Qrow.
"This has been eating at you huh?" she asked.
"It's fine."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No."
"Ok. Just take a few breaths and calm down then. If you want to talk, I'll listen." Summer shifted her legs under her and let out a small sigh while Qrow continued to run a hand through his hair and think. It was true that Summer was good at listening even before the whole camping trip, even if she had been almost impossible to approach otherwise. That apparently only got better after that, something that she and Taiyang seemed to share considering their reactions when he and Raven explained their pasts to them.
'I mean, if she can take 'we used to be bandits and totally would have ratted out Huntsman secrets' and everything else about the tribe well, I don't see why she wouldn't understand my problem. And even if she doesn't understand, she still deserves to know. It affects all of us, not just me.' With that in mind and his resolve set, Qrow dropped his hand to his lap and heaved a heavy sigh.
With one last look at Summer, seeing she was busy looking patiently up at the ceiling, he looked back down at his hands and started talking. "You know crows are a symbol of bad luck. It's an old superstition, but it's how I got my name."
"…Then where did Raven get her name?" Summer asked.
"I don't know, I didn't fucking ask! That's not important anyway." Summer rolled her eyes slightly and motioned for Qrow to continue. "I can't speak for Raven, but I know my name is very fitting. It's because… because of my Semblance." That seemed to get Summer's attention given how she shifted a little.
"Your Semblance? You never do talk about it."
"For a good reason. Not everyone gets to make portals, be strong as hell, or… your petal thing. Some of us are just… born unlucky." Qrow paused for a moment to stretch his legs out before he continued. "My Semblance is misfortune. Bad things happen around me all the time, like all the accidents that happened just now. It's great to have in a fight, causing an enemy to slip at the wrong time or making a gun jam," Qrow glanced at Summer and saw her look away remorsefully, "but it makes it really hard to be around friends and family."
"Really?" Summer asked, her eyes drifting up to the pan just barely visible on the stove.
"Yeah, Raven has plenty of stories about that. So that's why I've been trying to get away from this 'activity' with you and why I like being by myself. I've hurt people before just by being around them and… I don't want to do that again. Not here, not with you guys." Qrow gathered his legs up, clasped his hands around them, and hung his head. "But I don't know what I'm supposed to do if I can't even help you cook without getting you hurt."
"Shut up."
Qrow blinked at Summer's response and looked to see her giving him a stern look. "Huh?"
"I said shut up. I might not fully understand how bad it can be for you, but I'm not a stranger to misfortune. None of us are." Summer reached out to pry one of Qrow's hands loose and held it firmly. "If there's one thing I learned from it is that it passes eventually, and even if it doesn't we can learn to live with it and improve despite it. I mean, Raven has stuck with you all this time despite everything, so what does that say?"
"That's different. She's my sister."
"And do you really think that would be different if she wasn't?" Qrow gave Summer a flat look and Summer rolled her eyes a second later. "Ok, maybe she's a bad example, but you get my point right? You're not just some hanger-on who came with Raven; you're my teammate and my friend. I might not have been the best friend before, but I want to change that. Whatever your Semblance throws at us, we can handle it."
"It also gets worse the closer I get to someone," Qrow added, "Family gets it worse than friends and… I don't want to think about what would happen beyond that."
"And do I look like I care? We'll handle it." Summer stood up as best she could while still holding Qrow's hand and he let her pull him up by it. "So no more being by yourself ok? All of us being by ourselves is what got us into all kinds of trouble before. Let's at least try solving problems together for a bit, ok?"
"Well," Qrow started to say and got a look from Summer, daring him to try and fight her on this, and instead smirked and took his hand away. "I mean… I guess I wouldn't mind giving it a try. I'm still worried though."
"That's fine, as long as you don't try to deal with it yourself, ok?" Qrow nodded in agreement and let out a small laugh when Summer held out a fist to him and he gently bumped his own against her. "And I mean it, if you want to talk about anything, you let me know. I'll always listen."
"I might take you up on that later." Summer giggled at that and gave him a small smile that momentarily caught him off guard. The two of them quietly took in the moment of this small step forward until it was broken when the front door opened and closed again.
"Well good news, there aren't any Grimm around. I think we'll be good for a while," Taiyang's dad said and walked into the doorway of the kitchen. He stopped when he saw Summer and Qrow and looked between the two for a moment. "Uh… am I interrupting something?"
"No, just team building. We just got done," Summer said and laughed when Qrow rolled his eyes.
"Team building huh? I remember having to do that a lot back in the academy. Is that an omelette?" Summer and Qrow's eyes widened as they looked at Taiyang's dad moving to the Impossible Omelette and picked up the plate.
"Uh, I was actually going to-" Summer tried to say and held out a hand to stop him only to be too late as he took a bite, "throw that away…"
"Why? It's perfectly fine," Taiyang's dad said and took another bite before he started walking out of the kitchen with the plate. "Good luck with the cooking kids." Summer and Qrow watched him exit and sit down on a couch in the living room and looked at each other with incredulous expressions.
"I mean… as long as he's happy right?" Qrow asked with a shrug.
"I guess… I'm not taking responsibility if he gets sick though," Summer replied holding her hands up.
"Same. Back to cooking then?"
"Yup. It might be for the best if you stay away from the eggs though."
"And so the jokes begin," Qrow said with a sigh.
"Do you… not want me to make them?" Qrow looked at Summer, her face concerned, and chuckled a little while shaking his head.
"Nah, it's fine coming from you." Summer nodded and smiled at him. It was then that the house was filled with a feral roar coming from upstairs.
"SUMMER!"
"Oh, Raven's awake!" Summer said with a grin that quickly disappeared when she heard stomping approaching the stairs. "Uh oh…"