Since fights loose something in writing I skipped over the epic battle for baby Branwen. It's not the point of this story, but I'm sorry if you were looking forward to it.

Day 3: Safety

Even though it appeared that their enemies had retreated, every one ran like they were being chased. Ruby was in the front, carrying a screeching baby.

Apparently little Jay didn't like the sounds of battle.

The pilot had already started the engine as they charged towards it and he didn't waste any time getting the airship off the snow covered ground.

As the kids took a moment get their breathing back to normal, Qrow scanned the ground for any dangers.

Jay calmed down a little, but was still screaming.

"It's ok, you'll get used to the loud noises," Ruby cooed, "they happen a lot around us."

Yang appeared next to them, "sometimes at us, sometimes from us."

The screaming turned to soft crying as Jay stared up at the friendly faces, confused but not afraid.

"Hey, I know who'll cheer you up," Ruby started moving towards her uncle.

Qrow turned around and shook his head sharply.

"Oh, umm…" Ruby looked around, "Aunty Weiss."

Jay stopped crying as soon as he saw her.

"How did you do that?" Ruby asked in awe.

"He just knows his favourite aunt when he sees her," Weiss held her arms out to take him, using the same tone for the baby that she used for Zwei.

"Or you look like his mom," Yang argued, glancing over at the still preoccupied Qrow.

Qrow watched with metaphorical eagle eyes as Weiss argued with his nieces about who got to hold the baby. He trusted all of them not to drop the kid but still found himself needlessly worrying.

"It's my turn," Ruby insisted, reaching out.

"He's comfortable with me, switching would just upset him."

The kid seemed to like the attention; he'd was completely calm and watching the girls fight over him, Qrow smirked.

Yang glanced back at him, "uncle Qrow should hold him."

"No, no, he's happy with Weiss, and I don't want him crying when Winter sees him."

Yang frowned at him for a few more seconds before her attention went back to her cousin. Qrow sighed and put his hands in his pockets to keep them off his flask.

Ironwood was waiting with Winter, who was on her feet despite not looking any better. When she saw Jay she practically flew across the room to get her hands on him.

The baby started cooing happily as he was returned to his mother's arms, nuzzling into her shoulder and clutching at her shirt as tight as his tiny hands could manage.

Winter didn't say anything as she stroked his dark hair, her smile was small but her whole body radiated joy.

His little blue eyes started drooping almost immediately, he was so tired and now that he was back with his mother he felt safe enough to sleep, but all these new people were so exciting.

"Thank you," Winter said softly, "all of you."

"You don't have to thank us, even if he wasn't family we'd go after him."

"It's impolite to reject gratitude."

"Oh," Ruby stood up straighter, "you're welcome?"

Yang smiled at her little sister's awkwardness and turned to Qrow to see if he was doing the same, but he was gone.

Qrow turned the hallway corner and leaned against the wall, trying to calm himself down.

Seeing her holding their son was too much, it was too hard for him to look at and know he could never be a part of it.

His chest hurt, breathing was hard, and all he wanted was to go back to Winter's side and stay there.

The kid was safe, he told himself over and over, there was no reason for him to intrude on their lives, it would only jeopardise their safety.

He ran his fingers through his hair, exhaling deeply as he stood up.

And saw Yang staring at him, or rather, glaring at him.

"Hey, how're Winter and the kid doing?"

"You'd know if you stayed with them for more than five seconds."

"They're both exhausted; I left to let 'em rest."

"You haven't held Jay once; you barely even looked at him on the way back."

Shit, she'd noticed, "I was a little focused on getting him back to his mom."

"He's your son too."

"I know."

"Then act like it," she moved to stand tall in front of him, "a Schnee is being more affectionate than you are."

"We'll talk about this later, now that the kid-"

"Jay."

"Is safe, we need to focus on the Relic."

"Ok, what happens after this one's safe, are we going after the others?"

He shrugged, "maybe."

"And just leave Jay behind."

Gods, give him strength, or booze, "well, I can't bring him with us; he'd only be useful in a fight if we threw him at someone."

Qrow realised too late that this was not a good time for jokes; Yang started shaking and looked about five seconds away from going red eyed.

"Yang, the whole world's at stake, I can't just stop my mission because of a kid."

"But he's your kid. Why doesn't that mean anything to you?" She was starting to yell, "why is it so easy for you to leave?"

He raised his hands to try and shush her, "it's not easy-"

"Are all Brawen's like this?"

That cut him to the bone, "that's not fair. This isn't like you and your mom. I'll just hurt them if I stay."

"So what, you're just going to pretend he doesn't exist?"

"It's for the best, my semblance-"

Her scoff was cruel and bitter, for a second she was the spitting image of Raven. "You know what, it doesn't matter. Even if you explain it to him one day, even if you have a good reason, all he's going to care about, is that you weren't there to see him grow up, that you left him."

She didn't wait for a response, not that he had one.

His chest hurt again, and experience taught him that the best way to make it go away was by drinking.

Luckily he was well acquainted with the bars in Atlas and one of his favourites was close by.

It was a short walk there, but with every step he reminded himself that it was for the best, that they were safer without him

I feel bad that this is for Qrowin week but Qrow and Winter have barely interacted. It's coming up, I promise.