Qrow was waiting for her when Ruby walked in and asked him. "What the hell was that?"
"Jaune can't kill an unarmed man, a wise man once said killing a helpless person kills two people, it just takes you a little longer to die than them" Qrow replied, reaching for his flask only for Ruby to swat it away from his hand.
"You are NOT drinking yourself to sleep until you give me some damn answers!" Ruby yelled in frustration.
Qrow honestly looked hurt but he understood. "You kill someone who needs it, you shoulder the burden but you accept it and move on with your life. You kill someone who doesn't need it then you never move on, you always carry it and it breaks you. Killing the innocent kills your victim and yourself, Jaune is a good man and he can't do that."
"And you aren't, '' Ruby snapped, stopping when she realized exactly what Qrow was telling her in a roundabout way.
"No, I'm not." Qrow bitterly muttered back.
Ruby was about to try and back track when Qrow cut her off.
"Do you know why Raven and I went to Beacon, it wasn't to help people, we learned to be hunters so we could kill hunters" he said in a sad tone. "I killed my first hunter when I was 11" his tone was escalating now, getting more aggressive. "She was investigating us for some shit we did and my mother beat the shit out of me and took me in so that she would try and help me."
Qrow's voice had again shifted from anger to pain as he continued. "Her name was Ember," Qrow said, tossing a small wallet Ruby had never seen before. She opened it up and saw an ID of a young woman with dark skin and vibrant red hair.
Ruby thought the words as Qrow said them. "She was beautiful. I almost disobeyed my mother for her. I wanted to so bad but…" Ruby had heard of what she was seeing. After enough time as a helpless victim people just changed. Qrow had never spoken of his mother before and now she understood why.
"She brought me into her apartment to get me away from them, all the love and care that my mother was supposed to show her children she showed me." Ruby's expression lightened reflexively at that only to fall when Qrow continued.
"So I waited, until she trusted me. It took me a week but she did. One night I stole a kitchen knife and went to her room. She was asleep and it was so simple." By now Qrow was blankly staring out at nothing in a thousand yard stare as his left hand closed like he was holding a knife. "She sat there and she slept until I jumped onto her bed. Even then she thought I was scared or that I needed help. She tried to talk to me but I… I…"
Qrow's words failed but his hand mined a stabbing motion as he tried to find the words. "She didn't understand that I was attacking her, she must have thought that the house was being attacked by my mother because she rolled over and tried to cover my body with her's."
Qrow was trying not to cry now and so was Ruby, seeing her uncle like this was hard for her. "She died like that, trying to protect me while I was killing her"
Qrow finally broke his head sinking to his crossed arms on the table and sobbing into them.
"Uncle Qrow you were a scared child you only did what…" Ruby started only to be cut off again.
"YOU DON'T GET IT" he yelled loud enough that Ruby heard Adrian wake up and start crying upstairs. "That was the FIRST hunter I killed, not the last, not even close, you have no idea the things I did for Ozpin, the people I…" Again Qrow's voice rose and then fell as he lost his words.
"Uncle Qrow you can tell me, I want to know" Ruby said, trying to get him to open up so she could help him. Qrow seemed to hear her and almost said something but instead he just went back to sobbing and Ruby accepted that she wasn't going to get anywhere tonight so she went to bed, noting that Yang was gone and knowing by the open window that she had gone after Jaune.
She considered going after them but she knew that they could take care of themselves so she closed the window and tucked back into bed longing for a dreamless sleep but knowing she wasn't going to get it.
…
Jaune found himself at the statue of Pyrrha again, he wasn't sure when he started this way but he was here now. The statue now had a slightly heavier dusting of snow on it and Jaune returned to the bench he had sat at brushing away the snow from the entire bench in two deft swipes.
He wasn't sure when he started this way but he knew what he was here. His hand ghosted over the spot on his cheek that still felt warm from Yang's kiss. People thought he was emotionally dense and to an extent they were right but he wasn't blind.
"Hello there" a sweet voice said from his left, Jaune looked and he saw the woman from before. Yet again she seems a little younger and even more like Pyrrha. Jaune almost asked her right then and there who she was but he stopped himself.
He didn't want to risk being wrong. "you're troubled by something, what is it?" she said sitting down next to him.
"I, I'm worried" Jaune said, not looking at the woman. "Last time I thought about the things I'm thinking about and felt the things I think I'm feeling, it ended badly"
"And that was your fault?" she asked him with an accusatory voice.
Jaune wasn't sure how to respond but she must have known that. "Oh Jaune, what happened wasn't your fault" Jaune was about to say something when his breath froze in her lungs and his heart stopped as she laid her right hand rested over his right and her head leaned into his shoulder. "I loved you, I still do," she said. "But that time is long gone and isn't coming back. Yang loves you now. Probably just as much as I do. If you love her then you shouldn't make the same mistake twice"
Jaune leaned his head down to rest on her's saying " But, what if I…"
"Jaune, if you refuse to move on from the past I will never forgive you" She responded somehow both serious and not. Just as Jaune knew she was right he heard Yang coming and noticed that somehow Pyrrha had vanished from view and he stood up to face Yang who was running at him.
She was about to say something when Jaune held out a hand to stop her. "I need to do something that will either end really well or really, really badly." he said walking over to her.
Yang tilted her head to the side about to ask what he meant when Jaune leaned in and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. Yang went stiff for a moment and then seemed to melt into the embrace as the snow fell on them.
Jaune pulled back out of breath looking into Yang's eyes for a moment before saying. "I think I might love you, and I want to see where this goes"
He was going to say more but before he could Yang wrapped her arms around him kissing him this time before grabbing him and dragging him back to the house so she could introduce her new boyfriend to her team.
Hello, Noruas here. (some of you got that). this story is winding down now, I have posted a poll for my patrons about what I should do next and while the say of everyone else is not as important as the people paying me to write I would still like to hear what you have to say. Do you think I should accept commissions, or should I do something of my own design?
If you would like to vote in that poll you could join my patrons. Or not it is your money, and you should use it responsibly. As always, have a nice day and God Bless.