Long Time No See

(Alternative Title: One of The Drunks)

Yang didn't see him at first, her phone on her ear as she chuckled at Blake's irritation. She took a moment to put down the groceries on the lobby's desk and sat down.

"Oh c'mon, Blakey! I'm sure he didn't mean to pour his coffee on your book."

She could hear Blake's fuming as she massaged the spot between her neck and her shoulder. "It's not alright, Yang. And this isn't my book, it's Ruby's!" There was a distant sound of someone meekly saying something, followed by Blake telling that someone to shut up. "It was the original version of Little Red Riding Hood, Yang! Do you have any idea how hard it was to find it!? It's as rare as gold!"

"I said I was sorry!" a voice said, in a distance, and Yang struggled not to break down into laughter.

"Sorry isn't going to bring back the book back!"

Blake sounded utterly pissed off, and honestly, it was kind of hot. Yang knew she should play the empathetic, caring, responsible girlfriend and tell her to calm down, but what she said instead was, "Go get her, kitten."

"Don't encourage me, Yang. I'd promised Ruby to give her the book, Yang. It was going to be a surprise. She would've loved it." Silence answered Blake. "Yang…?"

Yang lowered her phone, standing up, her eyes narrowing in disgust and suspicion and years worth of anger. "What are you doing here?"

"Heya, Firecracker."

Qrow Branwen, the uncle who hadn't been there when she'd needed him, the person who'd ghosted her since she'd been a kid, stood in her apartment building.

Seeing Firecracker press around her jeans, looking for her keys, finding them, uttering curses about how old the lock was and how they ought to buy a new one, then tossing her tie to the couch and slumping into said couch made him feel old.

Technically, he was already old, but still.

A couple of years back, he'd been trying not to fall asleep listening to her talk about how much she aced that football match at school.

Time flew. Or rather, time flew when tragedy hit you like a truck full of mini-trucks.

Qrow unhooked his flask from his belt. Before he could make a move to take a sip of the sweet, frisky Jack Daniel, he saw Firecracker's gaze. Or would it be more accurate to say glare? Either way, he froze.

"Not in my house," she said, her voice a growl.

He grinned and made a show of looking around, seemingly in awe. "Oh? This is a house? I hadn't realized, especially considering how shit-"

Firecracker dragging him up by his collar not only cut off the rest of his sentence, but installed a weird feeling of impressed.

"What. Do. You. Want."

He saw the redness of Raven Branwen in those purple eyes for a second there.

It wasn't a question. It was a demand. And he was going to pay the price if he were to ignore that demand.

"I just wanted to check up on my niece." Vaguely, he was aware that she'd pinned him to the wall. He could, technically, take her down - he may be old, but he still had some fight in him left - but he didn't want to upset her more than she already was, so he said, "Look, if you want, I can just skidaddle out of here-"

"Good. You should." The fingers tightened around his collar, her knuckles digging into the flesh of his neck.

Yup. Totally Raven's daughter.

"Yeah, I-"

She let him go, and didn't spare him more than a glance as he stumbled down and swayed unsteadily. He frowned at her, but realised her attention was somewhere else.

Footsteps. Growing louder. And one annoyingly high-pitched shrieks of a toddler, accompanied by a calmer, more 'mother-ish' sound of a woman.

Seconds later, some emo chick popped out in the front door, carrying a child with a pacifier in her hand. The child's face brightened when she saw Firecracker, exclaiming a loud "Yaaang!" for the whole town to hear.

Qrow expected Firecracker to do many things.

Bending down as that emo chick lowered the kid and let her loose only for her to run towards Firecracker like she was the most delicious cookie ever was not one of those things.

What. The fuck.

Y'know what's weird? The fact that I've written Qrow more times than I've written Ruby and Yang's actual parents. Maybe it's because canon itself shows more of Qrow than of Summer, Raven, and even Tai.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever written about Raven, Summer, or Tai...

Huh...