Chapter 1
"Qrow. Qrow." Every now and then Qrow dreams of Summer. She is usually a faint silhouette, reaching toward him, and calling out his name. In the dream he always hesitantly reaches out to take her hand. But it never reaches. There is always a loud static noise that breaks through and destroys everything around, sweeping Summer away as dust, and leaving him in complete darkness.
Qrow falls onto the floor, jolting him awake.
"Uncle Qrow, are you okay?" Ruby came rushing over to his side, with a hint of panic in her eyes.
"I'm okay Ruby, just fell asleep sitting up again that's all." Ruby helped him back up to the rocking chair he had been sitting in, and quickly ran over to the kitchen. She came back with a piping hot mug full of ginger tea.
"I knew you would probably have a hangover this morning too, so I prepared you some tea to make you feel better."
"Thanks kid." Qrow took the mug from her and took a sip. Then he noticed the bandages around her fingers. "What happened to your hand?"
"Oh this?" Ruby giggled nervously. "I was just being clumsy ol' me, and I accidentally dropped a plate, and when I went to catch it, my hand brushed up against the hot kettle." She paused for a second before adding in, "It's okay though it was barely a first-degree burn, it doesn't even hurt."
Qrow did not know how to react, because only he knew why that had happened. "Ruby, Taiyang has trusted me with you to keep you safe. Kitchen appliances can be dangerous, so don't go using them when I'm not there to help you." Qrow grimaced at his own words.
"Okay… sorry…" Ruby mumbled. In her head though, she thought about how all the hunters and huntresses in her favorite storybooks deal with a lot more dangerous things than hot kettles.
"So, Uncle Qrow," Ruby hid her hands behind her back to move onto another subject. "when are we going to start training today?" The glimmer in Ruby's eyes couldn't help but make Qrow smile a bit.
"Well kid, I have a killer headache right now, but let me go wash my face really quick, and we'll see from there."
"Okay!" Ruby went running back to her room, most likely to add the finishing touches to her new weapon she had made.
Qrow sighed a bit and slowly summoned his strength to stand up and go over to the bathroom. After closing the door behind him, he carefully pulled out a battered old photo from his pocket. It was a photo of Team STRQ. He couldn't seem to get rid of the photo, even though it gave him a feeling of regret every time he looked at it. It showed the happiest time of his life, with Summer, Taiyang, and Raven. Qrow ran his finger over Summer's face. These days he was having trouble remembering what she looked like and that made him feel even more guilty. "I know I can't be around her that much. I know I'm gonna hurt her just by being with her. She got burned this morning because of me, what is it gonna be next…" He stared blankly at himself in the mirror. "But can't I have just a little more time?" He then remembered Summer coming to him in his dream. He looked down at the photo again and mumbled, "Are you trying to tell me to stay away from her?"
Qrow shook his head. No, Summer would never do that. He quickly tucked the photo back into his pants pocket and turned on the water.