The prompt for this week was "Taiyang's reactions to Yang injuring Mercury and Qrow bringing back his daughters post-Fall of Beacon."
Taiyang stood up and cheered as his daughter's victory was announced. All around him, the rest of the bar burst into applause. The blacksmith sitting next to Tai clapped him on the back.
Some of the villagers had been getting slightly annoyed with Tai's constant gushing about his daughters, but his enthusiasm was infectious, and they were always happy to see a win for Vale. Besides, Tai had come to help the small village north of Vale with their Grimm problem; he could brag about his daughters if he wanted to.
"Next round's on me!" shouted Tai, pumping his fists in the air. The cheering of the bar patrons nearly drowned out the gunshot that came from the TV. But everyone heard the Mistralian boy scream.
Tai had been looking right at the TV when it happened. His mouth fell open, and his arms dropped to his sides. He stared at the screen even after the feed was cut. The entire bar had gone silent.
"So… are you still paying for the next round?" asked the smith. Tai glared at the man, who held up his hands defensively. "OK, sorry, bad time for a joke."
Tai turned and stormed out of the bar, ignoring the stares of the villagers. He paced back and forth for a few minutes, trying to reign in his thoughts.
A part of him knew he should be angry at Yang, but he couldn't be. That would mean believing that his daughter had just broken a defenseless boy's leg. Tai couldn't bring himself to accept that, even after seeing it with his own eyes.
But that still left a whirlwind of emotions surging inside of him, not the least of which was fear for his daughter. The entire world had just seen her potentially cripple a boy for no apparent reason. Even aside from the immediate consequences, that could follow her forever.
Once Tai had himself under control, he took out his scroll and pulled up Yang's contact information. He typed a quick text message, then deleted and rewrote it a couple of times. Eventually deciding that there was no way to make it sound good, he sent her "Please call me as soon as you can." After a moment's consideration, he sent Ruby the same message.
Then he pulled up another contact and hit call. After a couple more rings than he felt he could stand to wait, Qrow answered.
"Tai-"
"You saw?" interrupted Taiyang.
"Of course I saw," answered Qrow irritably. "There isn't exactly a whole lot I can do about it."
"What the hell does that mean?" demanded Tai.
"It means that Yang is an adult now. She's responsible for her own actions."
"You should still be there!"
"Of course I'll be there," barked Qrow. "But Ironwood's in charge of security. It's his call what to do now."
"You know him," pointed out Tai. "Go talk to him!"
"And say what?" demanded Qrow. "Unless Jimmy does something crazy, there's nothing for me to say. Even if he does, I'm not sure what I could do about it."
"I'm coming to Vale, now," said Tai, fuming.
"You're still in the middle of job," Qrow reminded him. "And there's really nothing for you to do here."
"You expect me to just stay here?"
"Tai, I promise I will keep you posted. If there is anything that you could do here, I'll let you know and you can get to Vale in a few hours."
Tai sighed and considered the situation. Everything in him screamed that he should be with Yang right then. But Qrow was right, there wasn't much he could actually do for her. On the other hand, the villagers here needed his help with some Beowolves, and that was something he could actually help with.
"Fine, but I want to know the instant something happens."
"You got it," answered Qrow.
Tai hung up and glanced around. A few of the villagers were watching him with concern on their faces, but they kept a respectful distance. Tai ignored them and headed back to his hotel, figuring he'd pay his bar tab in the morning. He wanted to be alone, though he didn't expect to sleep much that night.
Tai finished the job like Qrow had told him to. Then he'd gone back to that same bar just in time to see his daughters' classmate rip apart an Atlesian girl on live TV. The girl turned out to be an android, but in a weird way that only added to the horror of the villagers. Then some strange woman started ranting about how the Huntsmen academies couldn't be trusted.
A minute later the TV started showing Grimm and Atlesian robots marching through Vale attacking anyone in sight. A few minutes after that the CCT went down.
Everywhere.
That was in contention for the worst day of Tai's life, right behind the day Raven left and the day he found out Summer was dead.
Tai left for Vale immediately, ignoring the villagers who begged him to stay. He'd taken care of all of the Grimm in the area, and no matter how scared the people there were, the people in Vale were in more trouble. More importantly, Vale was where his daughters were, and nothing would keep him from them.
So now Tai was storming across the makeshift refugee camp in Vale, using anger to mask his fear. He headed for the apartment building where he'd been told the injured Huntsmen and Huntresses were being cared for. The people mulling around the area gave him a wide berth, and Tai doubted he was the only worried parent they'd seen that day.
As the large building came into view, Tai also spotted a disheveled man standing outside, and felt his anger come to a boil.
"Qrow!" he shouted as he approached his former teammate. "What the hell are you doing out here?"
Qrow turned to meet Tai, an annoyed look on his face.
"Tai, you know damn well why I can't set foot in a hospital. You want me around a bunch of people already on the brink of death?"
"I want you looking after Yang and Ruby!" Tai shouted back, pressing his face into Qrow's. "I'm not sure I give a shit about anyone else."
Surprised by his own words, Tai took a second to breathe and stepped back.
"Where are they?"
"They're both in there," answered Qrow. "Ruby's still asleep. Things would have been a lot worse here if her eyes hadn't gone off."
Tai took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. He thought of the first time he'd seen Summer use her power. He'd known this day would come from the moment Ruby had been born with silver eyes, but that didn't mean he was ready for it.
"What about Yang?"
Qrow hesitated, and Tai nearly broke down. But after a second that felt like an eternity, he spoke.
"You're going to want to see her yourself. She'll be OK… but it's not good."
Tai pushed past his brother-in-law without another word, his choler rising again. He walked into the building to find a tired looking woman sitting at a desk by the entrance. She started to speak, but Tai cut her off.
"Xiao Long and Rose. Where?"
"Oh um," gulped the woman, scanning the clipboard in front of her. "We put them together in 2-B. It's on the second floor to the right."
Tai dashed towards the stairway without saying anything else. He took the stairs two at a time and reached his daughters' room in a moment. As with most of the rooms, the door was open, giving Tai a good view of his girls even from the hall.
He saw Ruby first. She looked perfectly peaceful lying in the commandeered bed. It could have been any lazy weekend morning if not for the EKG beeping away on the nightstand next to her.
Then Tai saw Yang. She lay in bed facing away from the door, but from the rise and fall of her chest Tai could tell that she was awake, and she was crying. It had been years since he had seen his older daughter cry, but it wasn't hard to understand why she was now.
The bandages covering the stump of her right arm were completely clean. Her Aura had likely stopped the bleeding some time ago, but, as amazing as the powers of a Huntress were, they couldn't restore a lost limb.
"Oh Yang," breathed Tai. His daughter turned her tear-stained face to him. Her right arm lifted for a moment, and then her whole body flinched as she realized what she had tried to do. A second later she lifted her left hand to wipe the tears from her eyes.
In an instant Tai was kneeling by her bedside, clutching her as tight as he could and struggling not to cry himself.
"I'm so sorry, Yang," he whispered to her. "I got here as quick as I could, but… I'm so sorry."
The Xiao Longs held each other for several minutes, each supporting the other, but finally Tai broke off the embrace and rose to his feet.
"I'm taking you girls home," he said firmly.