Author's Note: When you get a shippy little idea that won't fit anywhere else, you know what time it is? That's right, it's time for another RWBY Romance Drabble! This entry takes place in an AU where the nefarious plot of Volume 3 was foiled without casualty. Today's episode: Taiyang's got his groove back.

Entry 6: Lovedaddy Strikes Again!

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You know, it wasn't every day Qrow Branwen bothered to actually ask a woman out. Oh sure, there were flings across Remnant with barmaids, fellow drunks with poor life choices, the occasional professional companion, and once, an entire bachelorette party, including the bride-to-be. So yeah, Qrow had got around his fair share, maybe a bit more than his fair share even, but… well, it's not like he ever even knew their names or anything. No one had ever meant more to him than just a warm body for the night since, well…

He tried hard not to think of silver eyes softly gazing in love and adoration as she fell for someone who wasn't him.

But that was then, and then had been a long damn time ago now. So when he'd met a woman that actually got him feeling, well, anything again, it wasn't so hard a decision to try and find out if there could be something to those feelings. On paper, it made no damn sense whatsoever. Winter was the very model of a major modern soldier, disciplined and precise, and Qrow was, well, Qrow. But anyone who had seen the two of them fighting each other had all been able to see the chemistry between them. And sure, that chemistry was volatile and likely to explode, but what fun is chemistry without a little kaboom?

He shuddered as he remembered the little smirk on her face as she balanced on his sword, sending him an arrogant challenge before kicking off into a flip. It wasn't something that she would have done consciously; it was a sincere emotion, a little taste of the fire she had hidden under all that ice. What made it even better was that he was the one that brought that out in her, reaching the defiant woman beneath the facade.

Qrow hadn't even looked at another woman since that fight.

So, that's how he found himself dialing up Winter Schnee, of all people, on the Scroll. A moment later, and her image manifested on his screen. Gods, she really was beautiful. He must have caught her after a shower, because her bun was untied, the silver hair falling loosely around her bare shoulders, her soft smooth skin glistening with a watery sheen. Qrow gulped.

"Yes, Qrow, what is it? I trust you're not wasting my time with another juvenile prank?"

He cleared his throat. "Actually, since I heard you were going to be in Vale this weekend, I thought I'd ask if you'd let me take you out on the town. You know, bury the hatchet, facilitate, uh, interagency cooperation, that sort of thing."

Winter stared at him for a long moment. Finally she said, "As it just so happens, I have an upcoming social engagement for the evening, dinner and dancing with a charming man that my little sister introduced me to."

"I...what?" It never occurred to Qrow that Winter might go for someone else. I mean, have you met the girl? She had all the warmth and charm of an ice cube!

On the screen, Winter looked pleased by his consternation. "Indeed. He's a handsome, mature Huntsman. He's also quite pleasing to the eye, I might add."

Qrow actually pouted. "But… I'm a handsome, mature Huntsman…"

Winter laughed then, and hard. "You're not mature, Qrow, you're just old." She ignored the sudden, wheezing sound of Qrow recoiling as if he'd been hit right in the solar plexus. "This man is a dedicated, professional instructor, and a single father with an innate sense of responsibility. It's actually how Weiss knew him, as he raised two of her teammates on his own."

Wait. No. She couldn't mean…

"In fact, you two probably know each other. Tell me, have you met one Taiyang Xiao Long?"

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Taiyang whistled cheerfully as he walked down the stairs. It'd been a long time since he'd had occasion to wear his suit, and he looked rather sharp, all things considered. As he adjusted his cufflinks, his Scroll rang. He fished it out of his pocket as he passed by the kitchen, where Ruby and Yang were eating the dinner he'd prepared for them. Yang gave him a thumbs-up as he raised the Scroll to answer.

"Hello?"

Instead of the white-haired woman he'd been expecting, the Scroll showed him a decidedly pissed-off Qrow Branwen.

"Tai."

"Oh hey buddy, what's up?"

Qrow looked like he was wrestling to find the right words, before he finally settled on "The fuck?!"

"Woah, hey, the girls are here, watch the language!"

"Tai, why do you have a date with Winter Schnee?"

Tai raised an eyebrow. "Uh, because she asked me to dinner? Nice girl. A little too tense, but she may just need to relax a little. Wait, how do you know her?"

He could see a vein throb in Qrow's forehead. "Damn it, Tai, how come everytime I meet a woman, she goes for you?! What have you got that I don't? Just… what the f-frag!" Despite his outrage, Branwen managed to catch himself before he dropped another f-bomb where the girls might hear.

Taiyang gave a little shrug, one paired with a wry, sad smile. "Have you tried sobering up? Your habits put Summer off, and that was almost twenty years ago. Drunk and moody might have worked for short, uh, 'entanglements' when we were boys, but at our age… well, it's more sad than sexy."

On the screen, Qrow looked like he had just bitten into something sour. "I just… damn it. You better treat her right, okay?"

"Hey man, it's me."

Qrow sighed, dejected. "Yeah. Yeah, I know."

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Taiyang waited at a booth at the ritziest restaurant in Vale. He'd never actually been there before, but then, he'd never had cause to before. He'd certainly never been waved in to a VIP lounge before, not for anywhere he'd been in his entire life. The benefits of a Schnee as a date, he supposed.

"Professor Xiao Long."

Speaking of dates…

He stood to greet Winter Schnee. The young soldier truly was a stunning beauty. She'd opted for a low-cut sheath dress in shimmering blue silk, and wore silver and blue earrings paired with a matching necklace. Taiyang caught himself at the necklace, though, making sure to keep his eyes up and in the proper place. She regarded him with a slight smile.

"I almost had you there."

He gave a slight bow. "What can I say, Specialist, I'm a lonely man."

"Well, hopefully we'll fix that tonight."

"Hopefully, we'll fix a lot of things tonight."

She arched an eyebrow before she took a seat, Taiyang sitting across from her. "So, I take it he called you as you thought?"

"His exact words were, and I quote here, 'Tai, the fuck?!'" Tai chuckled at his best friend's expense. "I basically told him to grow up if he wanted women to take him seriously."

Winter glanced at the table. "That's good to hear." She flushed, looking awkwardly shy. "I… I don't want him to completely change, I just don't want him to keep destroying himself."

Taiyang waved his hand. "He'll be fine. He's a tough old bird, and once he stops moping and realizes that I'm right, he'll come around."

"I hope you're correct, Professor."

He gave her a smile. Nice girl, under all the ice. He could see how she and Qrow could mesh well together, with him helping her to loosen up and her helping to give him the structure he needed to keep himself together. Faking a date with her was a good way to help slap Qrow into getting his life together, but he had his sights set on someone a little closer to his own age. Speaking of which…

"Ah, Glynda!"

Tai and Winter both stood and waved down their third for the party. Glynda Goodwitch was almost unrecognizable, with her hair down, glasses replaced with contacts, and clad in a classic halter-style Little Black Dress. It was through an act of iron will that Taiyang kept his wandering eyes from devouring her form. Others were less restrained, and a chorus of wolf-whistles and catcalls followed her as she made her way to their booth, only silencing when she turned and levelled one of her world-famous death glares at, well, everyone in the general vicinity.

"You've still got it, Glynda," Taiyang greeted her.

She rolled her green eyes in exasperation. "It's good to see you, Mister Xiao Long. I will confess, though, sometimes, I rather wish I didn't still have it. Honestly, you'd think these men had never seen a woman before."

"The curse of beauty," Winter commiserated. "You'd be stunned how often I have to remind junior officers to keep their eyes on their charts, not on my chest."

Glynda scoffed. "I teach teenagers, Specialist. Half the reason I have to scare them so badly is because I'd never get them to stop proclaiming their adolescent love for me otherwise."

Taiyang paused as he remembered something. "That reminds me, my girls haven't been giving you any trouble at Beacon, have they?"

Glynda then did something so unexpected that no one who knew her would ever believe Tai or Winter when they told them; she laughed. It wasn't that the laugh itself was scary - on the contrary, it was rather musical - but the fact that it was Glynda Goodwitch making that sound was still profoundly disturbing. "Oh, Mister Xiao Long, you haven't the first clue about the trouble those girls can cause. Remind me to tell you of the Great Beacon Food Fight sometime."

"My girls were in a food fight in Beacon?" Tai scratched his chin. "Well, I guess that's not so bad."

Winter smirked. "Don't worry, Professor, I'm sure that Beacon can provide all the discipline that your daughters require."

At this, Glynda rounded on the younger woman. "I wouldn't be so gleeful, Specialist, as your little sister was involved too."

"What?!" Winter looked aghast.

"Indeed. Substituted ketchup for Dust, and was, at one point, wielding an entire marlin as a substitute for her rapier." Seeing the look on Winter's face, Glynda couldn't resist a smirk of her own as she went for the kill. "Of course, considering her role model, I shouldn't be so hard on young Weiss. Maybe inappropriate and uncouth fighting on Beacon grounds is simply a trait of the Schnee women?"

The Atlesian beauty flushed deeply in embarrassment, as Taiyang coughed awkwardly. Time to change the subject.

"So," he said to Glynda, "I'm guessing James didn't respond well to the news?"

Goodwitch, having thoroughly trounced Winter in verbal combat, opted to go along with the change in subject. "He wasn't pleased, of course, but I'm hoping that the… implications that I may be open to other suitors will galvanize him sufficiently out of his self-pity."

Beacon had, by the razor-thinnest of margins, avoided catastrophe, and the revelation of the havoc that all of his efforts to keep people safe could have wreaked had taken a toll on General Ironwood, his pride most of all. Glynda had neither time nor patience for immature brooding, and so had opted to employ the same tactics that Winter and Taiyang had devised.

For his part, while Glynda was always pleasant, if intimidating, company, she wasn't Taiyang's real date either. "Hey, has anyone heard from Priscilla?"

Glynda frowned. Priscilla Peach, Beacon's Applied Dust instructor, was a shy, mousey woman, and not just because she was a mouse Faunus. The woman was only in her element when researching, experimenting with, discussing, and instructing others on, Dust. Professor Peach was otherwise reclusive. She had a difficult time opening up to others, with Glynda herself being one of her few friends. So when the woman had mentioned that she hadn't had a date in more than a decade, as it just so happened, Glynda knew a kind man around her age who could also stand to get out of the house. If going along to lend moral support also scared James into getting his act together, well, Glynda always did admire efficiency.

The Deputy Headmistress took her Scroll from her purse and gave Priscilla a quick call. After a moment, she answered it, and Glynda heard the same ambient music playing on her call as was playing in the restaurant. "Oh, um, hi Glynda. I'm sorry that I'm late, there's this man here who says that I'm not allowed to enter."

"What?" Glynda frowned. "Okay, stay there, we'll come to you."

"Oh, okay."

"So what's up?" asked Tai, as Glynda put her Scroll away and stood to leave.

"Someone is barring her entry. Winter, you did put her on the list, correct?"

Winter looked puzzled. "Of course. In fact, her name was just behind Taiyang's, and ahead of yours. What could…" Winter scowled as a thought occurred to her. "You two go collect Professor Peach. I'll meet you with the manager."

The pair of them left the VIP lounge, and found Priscilla at the entryway to the restaurant. The professor was a small, slender woman of middle age, though still quite pretty. She wore a cream colored skirt and blazer, and while her outfit looked more appropriate to a professional setting than high society, it wasn't enough to get rejected on the basis of a dress code. No, the most likely reason for the place to refuse her entry was due to the twin brown-furred mouse ears peeking from her sandy blonde hair.

"Oh, hello," she said softly as she saw them. Her deep brown eyes went wide as she took in Taiyang Xiao Long. He was beautiful, tall, muscular, tanned, and ruggedly handsome, with a sharp jaw adorned with stubble and deep blue eyes. He didn't seem at all put off by her Faunus trait, and if anything looked disgusted with the bouncer that had kept her in the entryway. If this all went well, Glynda would never need to buy her own drinks on their nights out ever again!

Taiyang turned from the bouncer, opting to let Glynda deal with him. "Hi there," he said easily. "You must be Professor Peach?"

She felt her cheeks burn. That voice! Who was this man, and how was he single?! "I'm Priscilla Peach, yes," she squeaked. She hated when she squeaked! She coughed delicately. "You can call me Prissy, though. I'm, um, I'm sorry if I ruined the night out."

"Don't be," he told her kindly. "It's not your fault, Prissy. Besides, the night just started. It's not ruined unless we say it is."

For some reason, when he told her that, she found herself believing it.

"I'm sorry, lady, but boss's orders." The bouncer looked nervous, but refused to relent as he argued with Goodwitch. "People with VIP money ain't lookin' to rub shoulders with no furries."

Priscilla stiffened at the slur. Glynda was on the verge of exploding when Winter arrived. Tai was about to ask if she had any luck, when a man in an expensive suit entered the doorway behind them. Winter got right in the man's face with the assurance that only a Schnee could possess.

"You!" She pointed a finger in the man's face. "I was assured that your establishment was non-discriminatory! What is the meaning of this outrage!"

For his part the man held his ground. "I meant exactly what I said! There is a designated Faunus dining area on the veranda, for the more… well-heeled of the Faunus in the area. I merely assumed that you had some servants you wished to reward for good behavior, not that you would be dining with them yourself. I'm sure that you can understand why, with a Schnee on the guest list, we were not anticipating… mixed company."

The man may not have come right out with the slurs the way his employee had, but the sentiment was much the same. Priscilla looked dejected at the ground. "I'm sorry, everyone. I don't want people fighting over me. We should just go." She looked up suddenly as she felt Taiyang's large, warm hand on her shoulder.

Glynda joined Winter in getting in the man's face, and, wealthy or not, that man began to sweat. "This isn't over," Glynda spat. "I'll have this place blacklisted from Beacon Academy. Schnee's not the only one who knows people! I'll have this place condemned in a week, you hear me?!" With that, she stormed out of the restaurant, Winter in tow. Taiyang gave Peach a reassuring little shrug, and with that, they were off.

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"Oh, but your daughter's an absolute prodigy in class," Priscilla said in between bites of pizza. The group was decamped in a public park with a large pizza, which Winter had stared at balefully before deigning to eat some of the cheesy goodness of the common man. It was sodding good pizza, though. In a more casual atmosphere, and without complications due to her heritage, Priscilla had become more verbal, especially when Taiyang had asked about her work.

"Ruby's an actual genius when it comes to the crafting of supplementary Dust rounds for her weapon," she continued. "Did you teach her that?"

Tai grinned at the small woman. Anyone who called his girl a genius was okay in his book. "Well, a little, at first, but she soon outpaced what I could show her. I mostly slot small Dust crystals into my gauntlets. A little Wind and a lot of Fire for the Sun Dragon Fist style of martial arts."

"Oh, one of the elder Vacuoan styles, very old pre-mechanized Dust technique. I trust you designed the gauntlets so that you don't have the strain of direct Dust injection?"

"Well yeah, I'm the 'reckless rogue' type, not the 'idiot with a deathwish' type."

Winter rolled her eyes as she turned to Goodwitch. "You ever get the feeling you're a third wheel?"

"No. It must just be you." Glynda reached for another slice of pizza, only to discover that they had eaten it all. She sighed, forlorn. "Anyways, I'm just glad things are going better now. Thought for sure it was going down in flames at that restaurant."

"Oh," Winter's pale blue eyes flashed with fury. "Revenge will be dire."

"Dire indeed," Goodwitch agreed.

"Hey, isn't that your older daughter?" they heard Peach ask. As she spoke, they heard the roar of a motorcycle and saw the unmistakable sight of Yang Xiao Long speeding through the city, "I thought she was going to stay at Patch with her sister for the weekend?"

"Yeah," Tai ground out. "I thought so too." He stood. "Sorry ladies, but, you know, parenting to be done."

Even moreso than her earlier laughter, the sudden, sly smile that spread across Glynda's face truly unnerved them all. "Mister Xiao Long, how would you like to truly dissuade your daughter from nocturnal delinquency?"

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Yang strutted away from the dance floor at Junior's club, supremely confident that she held the gaze of nearly all the men there, and quite a few of the women too. Hey, it wasn't her fault she was the hottest thing around. Being beautiful, glamorous, and infinitely desirable was just her natural state of being, you know? Tigers gonna tiger, sharks gonna shark, and Yang's gonna Yang. She rocked up to the bar with nary a care in the world, ordering her usual drink, which came to her almost immediately. Good to see that they'd finally learned who was in charge around here.

She took a sip of sweet, delicious Strawberry Sunrise, only to spit it out as she turned and saw her father seated at a table nearby! What was he doing here?! What was even stranger was that he had Chesty Weiss and… Professor Peach of all people there with him too, one on each arm.

That was just… weird.

Well, whatever, at least the women were keeping him distracted. He hadn't seen her yet, but it was time to skeedaddle, while she still could. She spun around to leave…

And came face-to-face with an angry Glynda Goodwitch.

Yang swore that she could actually feel her soul leave her body out of sheer terror as she beheld the form of Beacon Academy's strictest disciplinarian. Soon enough, she was frog-marched over to her father's table, where he shook his head sadly.

"Yang, what are you doing here?"

Bluff! Bluff like your life depended on it!

"I was just… uh, dancing! Yep, nothing wrong with dancing at a club, just having fun! Woo…"

"And your sister?"

Yang waved her hand. "Aw, she's fine. She's at Beacon now, she needs to be more independent anyway!"

"So you haven't been underage drinking and speeding through the city?"

"Uh…"

At that time, one of those bitchy little sisters, the red one, chose to come up and bring her her drink. "Here you go, sir, another one just like you like it. Will there be anything else, or should I just add it to your tab?"

Aw, nuts.

"Oh, you can bring me that tab, won't you? I'll make sure it gets paid, " Dad told the bar worker.

"Of course." The little bitch had the nerve to wink at her as she left. That was just uncalled-for. Okay, sure, Yang had trashed her place of employment, and personally pummeled her, her sister, her employer, and probably everyone she knew, and all for no good reason, but still! Not cool!

In a moment, Dad received a bill, for a large number of alcoholic drinks, and...renovation costs? Well, that squared with what he had heard from the bar's owner. He sighed. "Yeah, see, this is why I worry that I've gone wrong raising you girls. Underage drinking, reckless driving, assault, battery… I can't help but feel like I've let you both down."

Yang fought down tears. She had an amazing Dad, and anyone who said otherwise needed a good punch in the face, even if that anyone included said Dad. " Dad, don't. I chose to do these things. It's my fault, not yours or Ruby's, or anyone else. I just… I didn't think about how it would hurt you."

He shared a glance with the other women at the table. "Well, I still feel as though I could use some help. So, that's why… well, one of these women here could become your new stepmother!"

Yang blinked. Her brain did not compute. "Eh?"

"You have a lovely family, and I'm sure with lots of intensive tutoring, we can get your non-combat grades up to an acceptable standard," Peach offered.

To the other side of Taiyang, Winter huffed. "I know all about keeping little girls out of trouble. Trust me, with me guiding you, you'll be too busy excelling to waste time on delinquency."

Yang gulped. Slowly, trembling, she turned to see Goodwitch. "Good discipline starts at home," she began. "By keeping you and your sister out of trouble early, I can spare myself an untold number of headaches for the next three years. And if doing so has the fringe benefit of warming my nights with a handsome, strong man like your father…" Glynda smiled. She actually smiled!

Yang outright fainted out of sheer terror.

"Jeez, Glynda, think you put it on a little thick?" Taiyang asked as he helped the Headmistress lower Yang into a chair. For her part, Goodwitch was entirely unrepentant.

"Just mentioning the notion that I could be a part of her homelife should the delinquency continue should be enough to dissuade further… incident," she retorted.

Tai shook his head. "You're terrifying, Glynda. I just want you to know that." He then stood, prompting the other women - except for the unconscious Yang - to do the same. "Well, I'm gonna wait till she wakes up and call a cab. I guess this is where we call it a night, ladies."

"Right," Winter agreed. "Would you two like a lift back to Beacon?"

"That would be helpful, thank you," Glynda agreed. She turned to Tai. "This was an… unexpectedly diverting evening. Thank you," she told him.

"Yes, my thanks as well," Winter added distantly as she summoned a vehicle with her Scroll.

Priscilla flushed, and then, before she could talk herself out of it, she impulsively stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. "Call me!" she squeaked, as she pressed a scrap of paper in his hand. With that, all three of Taiyang's dates departed the club, and he was left with his delinquent daughter and a slight smile on his face as he regarded the Scroll number in his hand.

Maybe he would give her a call…

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A month had passed since the legendary triple-date of Taiyang Xiao Long, whom the awed students of Beacon - including a distressing number of crushing schoolgirls - had taken to calling "Lovedaddy," much to the chagrin of his daughters. To everyone's great relief, it had worked exactly as intended. General Ironwood had pulled himself out of his funk, amd was now back to his same, indomitable self. Yang hadn't been to a club since, her weekends spent working a part time job to pay the bill that Junior had given her father. Priscilla Peach was happily humming a song as she did her hair, preparing for a weekend alone with Taiyang at his cabin on Patch. And for Qrow?

Winter heard a knocking on her apartment door. She opened it to reveal one Qrow Branwen, but instead of hunching over, he stood straight. His eyes were clear, his clothes laundered, and the stench of alcohol was nowhere to be found. That was all she had wanted; the same roguish, irreverent Qrow, just not passed out in a puddle of his own vomit.

And people thought she had too-high standards. Ha!

She also noticed the bouquet of winter roses he carried in his hand.

She smiled. "Would you like to come in?"

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Entry Endnotes: Just because you're getting older, that's no reason to stop having fun.

Also, treat the ladies in your life right, or Lovedaddy will sweep them out from under your feet.

"Chesty Weiss" is a nickname pulled from Jiujitsudude's "Fighting Smart" fic. If you haven't read his Fighting series yet, you really should, as its action is great and its snark is the stuff of legend.

TL;DR, Tai's hot.