Strangers: Become Lovers

Act I

B74NW3N

18:30

TUESDAY

FIRECRACKER: Distant

SQUIRT: Neutral

His red eyes narrowed, but he made no indication that he knew something was up with his two favorite humans.

He…

He had a directive he needed to fulfill.

A very important directive.

He kept stirring the pot full of chili, knowing how much the sisters loved it despite it being hazardous to their health.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched them.

The older human propped up her head with her hand, absentmindedly picking on her plate of spaghetti. He didn't need to analyze her to know that something must have happened.

The younger human was, thankfully, doing okay, bouncing in her seat, humming as she ate bits of her spaghetti - not having enough patience to wait until the spaghetti wasn't smoldering hot… and she did not have enough endurance to swallow her smoldering hot spaghetti.

Tsk.

Brats.

"So… how's the Schnee?"

His niece gasped and looked at him, food still in her mouth. "Whut? Hhw du yu knw therr cll hrr tht?"

He could barely understand her and rolled his eyes; both at her ridiculous lack of food manners and her question. "C'mon. SCHN33. Schnee." He scoffed. "Thought it was pretty obvious. And clever too." He smirked, not needing to look at the pot to know the spice was ready. "You know… 'cuz of the hair."

She frowned and reasoned, "But you people can change that."

"Yup." He grinned as he took the pot, smirking when both of the girls looked at him worriedly. Sure, hot steam was pouring out of the pot, but it wasn't as if heat could damage his artificial skin. He was an android - even if he could easily and glamorously pass as super-awesome human with his speech pattern and personality. "And it's pretty useful."

"Rubes," his other niece said, finally joining in on their conversation, "you do realize we can change our hair color too, right? Just…" She made a face. "It takes a bit longer."

"And it's not as cool as when Uncle Qrow does it!" cheered the brunette, throwing up her arms, strands of spaghetti awkwardly dangling on her fork.

Him, being the awesome and rad Uncle that he was, did the only thing any rational person would do… He made a show of changing his hair into a multitude of colors.

Squirt, his favorite cheerleader, was the definition of awe.

"So cool…"

Firecracker simply stared at him with a weird expression. Ungrateful brat.

"Eh… I don't know." She grabbed a huge chunk of her boring, bland yellow hair and caressed it like it was her prized possession. "I really like my hair the way it is."

He scoffed as he put down the pot. What was up with Firecracker and her obsession with hair?

... Must be a human thing.

A weird, useless human thing.

He watched as both of the girls scooped in the chili and put it in their plate. Firecracker had more chili than her sister… Understandable. He waited until they swallowed before asking, "So… How'd it taste?"

Squirt smiled and gave him a thumbs-up.

Firecracker made a gesture with her hand, unimpressed. "Eh… not spicy enough."

Well, he knew who his favorite niece was.

He then grabbed a flask from the table and took a sip from it, sighing as the familiar taste of 'alcohol' poured down into his system.

"Sure, yeah, keep complaining." Did they have any idea how hard it was to cook these human foods when he had no idea whether or not he was even doing it right? Unlike some newer androids (lucky them), he had couldn't 'taste' food the way humans did.

He turned to his favorite niece."You didn't answer the question, Squirt."

"What question?" He stared at her, cocking an eyebrow. Squirt was never good at keeping things from him. Or maybe that was just because he was able to detect lies…

-[CALL HER OUT]-

-[WAIT FOR HER TO SPEAK]-

Hmm…

He should probably choose the latter. Who knew? Maybe she just wasn't ready to talk to him about it.

"She doesn't remember what happened…"

… Nevermind.

He scratched his beard - he didn't need to, but it was one of the many things human seemed to do… why not copy it, right? "Squirt, are you sure she's… like me?"

There was no hint of doubt in her - not that he was able to detect, anyway. "I know it, Uncle Qrow. You weren't there; you didn't see her… She tried to save me, and- and the way she did it…" She looked down for a moment, biting her lip. He sensed her panic-level rising, but didn't mention it. "She was alive, I saw it in her eyes," spoke the girl in a softer, more truthful tone, still not meeting his eyes.

"And what do you see in her eyes now?"

His question made her look up at him.

"... She's still alive; she just doesn't know it yet."

"And your plan is…?"

"To help her." Simple. Straightforward. No explanations needed, just the end goal.

Heh. That was her little rose.

He felt his pride bubbled in his chest, soaring mightily.

"I don't know, Ruby," the blonde said suddenly, putting her fork down, "maybe you should just leave her be."

"What?" She stared at her 'Big Sis' aghast as if she'd just ask her to kill a small kitten. "Why?!"

"Maybe she doesn't want to be alive. Maybe she just wants to be left in peace, doing what she wanted to do." That was… detailed. Very detailed.

He took another sip from his flask, watching with intrigue.

"But… But… But…" The kid turned to him helplessly. "Uncle Qrow!" she wailed. "Yang's being a butt! Tell her why we should help people!"

… Sometimes he wondered if she really was fifteen, or if the mind of an immature five-year-old got trapped inside the body of a teenager.

He looked at his other niece, the one that'd been unusually quiet.

-[STAY QUIET]-

-[ASK]-

He didn't hesitate. "Everything alright, Firecracker?"

"No, well, yes… I… I think I messed up." He waited for her to speak, and when she didn't, he leaned into his chair, shrugging.

"Okay." She turned to him, jaw open in disbelief. He shrugged again, with a smirk this time. "What? You mess up in life, it happens. Hell-" He looked at the young, innocent child and corrected his mistake with a cough. "Heck, even I mess up from time to time, and I'm the coolest android ever."

Firecracker scoffed. "Yeah, right. You're also one of the oldest models ever."

"Which means I have the pleasure of personally being built by Ozpin himself." He winked. He caught her there.

"Yeah… You must be his biggest disappointment."

Okay, yeah, maybe he was only close to catching her.

"What's he like?" Squirt was fidgeting and biting her lip. "Professor Ozpin, I mean," she elaborated, shyly looking up at him.

He blinked, not knowing what to say.

-[HONEST]-

-[COLD]-

-[REASSURING]-

He could never be cold to her - the very option himself made him angry. But… he didn't want to keep her from the truth either.

-PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: PROTECT-

He was reminded of his mission and narrowed his eyes in thought.

"He's… a good man, but… we shouldn't have ever gone to him for help." His nieces were good kids, but sometimes they could be a little too trustworthy.

He looked at each of his nieces' eyes, waiting until they nodded. Firecracker's nod was quick and sharp. She'd always been the more understanding of the two. Squirt's nod was shaky, not sure of herself.

He supposed that was his fault for... not telling them the things he should've told them long ago. The things he made sure they forget. At the time, he believed it was for their own good.

He noticed both of their solemn, almost-guilty looks.

He didn't need to be a mind reader to know what they were thinking.

"You two still wanna go to Beacon?"

The siblings shared a look, doing that weird thing where they communicated with each other without saying anything, almost like telepathy.

It was Firecracker who spoke, though he could sense her nervousness. "We do."

He massaged his temples, gritting his teeth. Such persistent brats. "It ain't gonna be pretty. Many of your friends are gonna hate you."

Firecracker's brow furrowed. "If they hate me for wanting to do the right thing, then they don't deserve to be my friend."

"And I don't have any friends at all! So I'm good!" He didn't think such a sad statement could be spoken so cheerfully. Then, the antisocial human rubbed her neck. "Plus… It's not like everybody hates Beacon."

"Yeah," piped Firecracker, rolling her eyes, "only the government and the people who manufactured androids." Squirt blinked at her curiously, taking a bite out of her food, missing the sarcasm. The older sister turned to him, sighing. "But Ruby's got a point. Beacon's getting larger and larger, and more and more people are joining them - androids and humans." His eyes narrowed. He wanted to speak, but she beat him to it. "Things have changed, Qrow. Deviants aren't uncommon, and not many people really see them as a threat anymore. Not after Ozpin and his protests."

He opened his mouth again, but the little sister quickly said, "We'll be fine, Uncle Qrow." At his incredulous gaze, she chuckled and elaborated. "Beacon is a safe haven. Both the school and the actual city… err… country… err, whatever it is." She stared at him, or rather, his body, with such a longing gaze that made her look older than she actually was. "It'll be safe for you too."

Raising these kids had been… hard. For all of them. Especially in the first few months he brought them out of that place. He was a prototype model with no defined skill sets. When Oz first made him, he wasn't even sure if he expected him to actually come alive. So…

He had no idea how to take care of them.

Neither did he know how to protect them - and himself - from the world, as shown by the many… damages… he hid under his clothing.

But the girls never forgot.

Especially his little Squirt.

He had a feeling he had something to do with her interests in androids. Even her interests in Beacon, a place where everyone could be free.

He shook his head, dread gnawing upon him as he shut his eyes.

If he had never thrown away his LED, he was sure it'd be flashing yellow or maybe red at this point.

"Is any place really safe for me at this point?" The kids cringed and fidgeted in their seat. Too dark? "Plus, it's better for us to just hide and lay low like this. I can protect you better like this."

His eyes opened when a warm hand was pressed against his colder, artificial ones, rubbing circles on his knuckles which soothed him.

He looked up at them.

Man…

Humans sure did grow up so fast.

Once upon a time, they were both weeping toddlers who didn't understand what was going on and couldn't stop crying.

He had been the one to calm him down.

And now…

Now they were all grown up…

And they were the ones calming him down.

"Uncle Qrow…" Squirt looked at him with a sad smile. "Are you really okay with seeing androids being treated the way they are? With Beacon, we can finally make a difference."

"Yeah, we can take care of ourselves, Qrow," said Firecracker with much more confident. "If anyone tries to mess with us, we'll just kick their butts. No harm done." Kicking their butts would actually result to harm being done, but he refrained from saying that.

He stared at them.

He… couldn't really convince them not to do it, could he?

Well…

That was alright, he supposed.

So long as they were together, they'd be alright.

It wasn't like he raised these brats to be whiny spoiled princesses.

"I sure hope so, Kiddo. I'll… I'll think about it."

"Well… That's all we ask of you." For the first time in this whole dinner, Firecracker smiled. In fact, both of his girls were smiling. And, boy, did it make him feel good.

FIRECRACKER: Warm

SQUIRT: Warm

He smiled, taking one last victory gulp from the flask, wiping away a small trail of blue liquid trailing down his lips.

-SECONDARY DIRECTIVE: COMPLETE-

"... Uncle Qrow?"

"Yeah, kiddo?"

"Can you do that hair-changing thing? Just one more time?"

Author's Notes:

Kara...

Is Qrow.

... Surprise?

Honestly, the signs are like, right there. The reason why Yang and Ruby never treat androids like machines is that they are raised by an android! Duh! Sort of like Alice! Except they themselves are not secretly androids.

Heh, I find it cute how Qrow's mission is - from the very start - to make his nieces happy. And he takes it so seriously too.

Androids' ability to change their hair makes me jealous. But then again, if I have that ability, I'd just stand around in front of a mirror for an hour, deciding whether my hair should be maroon red or crimson red. Or both.

Also, I didn't write him drinking blue blood at first because I wasn't sure if androids actually drink blue blood (or whatever that blue liquid is). It had been a while since I played DBH, so when I first wrote this I was like "wait… can androids drink?" but then I found out later that they did and was like "well… shit."