Everyone had a reason to drink.
He heard that some drank to forget.
That others drank to remember.
He wasn't quite sure why he did.
It had all started when his sister left.
She was his twin, his other half.
They had always been together through thick and thin.
They had promised.
That no matter what happened, they would be inseparable.
That no matter what happened, they would have each other.
But she was gone.
He was angry at her.
He was angry at her for abandoning her team, her husband, and even her daughter.
He was angry at her for breaking her promise.
He was angry at her for abandoning him.
He was frustrated with himself.
Frustrated that he had been unable to stop her.
Frustrated that he had been unable to convince her otherwise.
Frustrated that he hadn't been important enough to her to make her stay.
He needed something to cope with it.
He needed something to help him forget.
So he went to a bar to drown it out.
One drink became two.
Two drinks became four.
Four drinks became twelve.
He might have let it consume him had she not been there.
She had come for him with her beautiful, sad smile.
She had come for him with her soft melodious voice and her warm embrace.
She had come for him with her everlasting love.
She prioritized him in her own time of grief.
She laughed, she smiled, and she was so infectious he couldn't help but join her.
She pulled him up from his pit of despair and surrounded him with happiness.
And with people that he loved.
He felt like he could stare into those soft twinkling eyes so filled with love forever.
His sister had left, but he had been given a new family to replace her.
A family filled with unending warmth.
A family filled with laughs.
A family filled with smiles.
A family filled with hugs.
A family filled with love.
He stopped drinking after that; after all, why would he need a drink when he had them?
Why would he need a drink when he had her?
He would have stopped forever.
But then she died.
And he soon found himself in a bar once again.
This time, however, she was no longer there to save him.
This lasted for months.
No matter where he was or what he was doing, the drink was with him.
Until one day, in a drunken haze, he stumbled to a cabin in the woods.
He wasn't quite sure why; maybe he was hoping, just hoping that if he wanted it enough, he would open that familiar cabin door and be greeted with her beautiful silver eyes just one more time.
He opened the door and was greeted by a pair of silver eyes, just not the ones he wanted.
A little girl about five years of age sat on the couch, all alone, looking through a picture book.
Only one thought ran through his mind.
Why was she all alone?
He found the answer to his question as he looked through the house.
Her sister was asleep in her room; her face pressed into a tear-stained pillow.
While their father, one of his closest friends, was in a state not too dissimilar to his own.
Passed out on a chair in his room, consumed by the drink.
He returned to the living room, and only then did the girl notice him.
As soon as she saw him, she jumped off the couch, eyes full of excitement.
"Uncle Qrow?" she asked with innocent eyes, ignorant of the tragedy around her.
"Yeah, kid?" He replied, his voice so raspy it could barely be understood
"Can you play with me? Mommy hasn't come back yet, so I tried to ask Dad, but he doesn't hear me anymore, and Yang won't come out of her room."
She looked at the floor sadly and sniffled, "I'm lonely."
Such a simple request stole his breath away.
What the fuck was wrong with him?
When had he become so self-centered that he couldn't notice the obvious?
She had been his world, his everything.
But she wasn't just his best friend; she was also a wife and a mother.
How had he not realized that their sadness, their grief was equal to perhaps even more than his own?
She had been the one to lift their family out of dark times.
Who had he expected to take her place?
Was it Tai the man who had lost a wife for a second time, who had lost the love of his life, and the woman who held together his damaged heart?
Was it Yang the girl who had lost her mother at such a young age and whose father had shut down?
Or was it Ruby, the little girl who was too young even to comprehend what she had lost, the little girl who felt confused and alone?
No, it should have been him.
He should have been the one to return the favor she had given him and lifted her family, their family, from this darkest of times.
Why was he moping around in a bar when his friend, the last of his team, and their precious little girls needed him?
He crouched down and wrapped his arms around the girl as tears started to pour from his eyes. "Sure, kid."
"Uncle Qrow, why are you crying?" She asked, confused, worried, and full of love.
"It's nothing, kid; I'll make you some lunch, and then we can play, alright?"
She looked at him and smiled a truly beautiful smile.
A smile that was all too familiar.
A smile just like hers.
"Thank you, Uncle Qrow."
It was then that he decided that he would never abandon them again.
He laughed with them.
He smiled with them.
He hugged them.
He gave them his love.
And returned that favor she had given him in the time that felt like so long ago.
But even then, he could still not find it within himself to give up the drink.
He tried giving it up, but it somehow always found a way back to him.
He supposed Tai had him beat in that regard.
While he had had to drag him from his pit once Tai was out, he never touched a drop again.
In the end, he wasn't sure why he still drank.
Was it to forget the pain or remember the joy?
In the end, it didn't matter because one thing was certain.
He would never let it consume him again.