"Think we should land?"
"No."
"What about all the others?"
"Don't need them."
"I'd like to land. Lock eyes."
"And find a partner?"
"Hopefully someone with a skirt."
"What about me, brother?"
"Not into your skirt, sis."
"Not what I meant, idiot."
"Whatever, I'm gonna go find a partner."
Two black birds flew over the tops of Emerald Forest. The crow peeled off to the left, circling back and descending into the greenery. The raven only flapped harder, continuing over the trees.
"Whatever." the raven squawked out.
With a thud Qrow's sole's planted onto the lower branch of a tree, looking back through the dense, Grimm infested, forest. "Let's see, gotta make eye contact with a cutie." 'In a skirt.' His pink eyes, that he'd demanded were a lightish red, scanned along for anything. He caught movement farther down, in leaves rustling, but no one close to his position. With a sigh, he took a seat on the branch and began to wait. He'd already begun to regret his insistence on waiting. "Maybe I should've just paired up with Raven." the thought was immediately forgone as he imagined the drama that'd come with his twin sister as his partner. The thought even invoked him to recall a flask he hidden in the inner pocket of his jacket. Raven may have been the one to aid him in the acquisition of his first beer back in their tribe, but he'd taken to the drink much more so than her.
"Aren't you under aged?" The voice caused Qrow to choke on the poison in his mouth, trying to spit it back into the flask. Once he'd regained his exposure, he looked around in a panic. He couldn't see a soul before, or under him. He looked in the direction he should be racing for with Raven to see a white blur rushing through the trees.
"The hell…" Clearing his throat, Qrow pocketed the flask once more. He rose to his feet, palm pressed to the trunk as he watched the white blur race off out of his sight. With a leer he attempted to get a better look at the anomaly, only to be interrupted again.
"Hey, buddy!" With that, the branch gave way under Qrow's weight. "Aaahhh!" The guy that'd called out to Qrow was met with a thick branch, and Qrow's body, crashing into him. The two groaned heavily.
"Sorry, man." Qrow rolled off of him, picking himself up with ease.
"No worries, no worries." The crushed young man laughed straining his back as he brought himself up. They locked eyes. "Guess we're partners, then, huh?"
"Yeah...great." Qrow feigned a smile, which his new partner returned with the genuine article.
"I'm Taiyang." The blonde extended a hand.
"Qrow." The handshake was not even. Qrow's knuckles ground together under Tai's immense grip. "I need that hand." Taking back his hand with force, Tai only laughed.
"Just think of it as payback." Tai limply kicked the broken branch at their feet. "So, ready?"
"For?"
"We gotta head out, get the relic." Tai nodded in the direction. "Come one." The blonde began to jog, leaving Qrow to stumble after him.
"Why run?" Qrow barked.
"It's faster."
Qrow knew the only two ahead of them were the white blob that rushed past him, judging him for his drinking habits, and his sister. He wasn't alarmed by any of the Grim that blocked their path, only surprised that Tai was the one to put them down before him. Each with a single punch, Tai toppled Ursa after Ursa. The trek to there was uneventful. That was until, they broke into a clearing. Qrow skid to a halt, which Tai reacted to late landing himself far ahead of Qrow.
"Just our luck. Ready?" Qrow heaved, readying his scythe.
"For?" Tai looked at him quizzically. His expression quickly changed as he was sent flying into a tree from a tail whip. A King Taijitu had sprung from its hiding place, now attempting to make a meal of Qrow. "Hey, Tai!" Qrow effortlessly dodged a few snaps of the Grimm's jaw, getting in a few slices for good measure.
"Ye-yeah!?" Tai straightened out his back, again, and readied his gauntlets, finally.
"That." Qrow made sure to land next to his new partner. "Get ready for that."
"You're an asshole."
"Thanks."
The King Taijitu wasn't able to cause them any further injury, as Tai was able to release his anger out on one of the heads as Qrow decapitated the other. Relaxing their composure, the two looked at each other over the Grimm's corpse, vaporizing into black mist.
"You're actually pretty good."
"You, too."
The ogling of their eyes broke with a third voice, "I think you're both shitty."
"Sis" Qrow feigned enthusiasm. He and Tai looked up to Raven, in her human form, and another girl, standing on a tree branch.
"You're slow." Her insult held little weight, since she opted to skip the trek towards the relic to begin with. The girl adorned in a white cloak was another story. "Looks like we both found partners… our own way." Qrow didn't pay much attention to Raven's jabs. Instead, he was too intrigued with the girl in white, and her 'dangerously small skirt.' Only did the white chess piece, a knight unit, in her hands catch his attention after he abandoned the prospect of spying up her skirt. "Oh, and we left you something."
"What's that me-" The girls scampered off without hearing him out. Qrow only grumbled and looked back to his partner, who was staring back at him. Much too intently staring. "Yeah?"
"That's your sister?"
"Yep…"
"Nice." Tai had a smirk on.
"Oh no…" Qrow needed a drink. Without much thought, the man reached for his flask once more.
"Whoa, that what I think it is?" Mid sip, Tai had caused Qrow to halt and eye him. The flask tilted back down slowly. A silence hung in the air.
"Want some?"
"Hell yeah." And so the partners shared their first drink.
The two passed it off on their walk to the Relic. Qrow hadn't wanted to expend all the contents of the flask during the day, but, with Tai's help, it ran dry within minutes. Qrow surely needed the poison in his veins, and infecting his brain, since Tai was still enraptured in his sister's beauty. With the floor was open for such airs, Qrow confessed he was interested in the 'cutie' that his sister had partnered up with. Yep, these two were going to get along just fine, despite Tai having the hots for his sister. But 'She'll probably destroy him,' anyways, so Qrow wasn't too worried about any serious relationship between those two.
They arrived at a not so inconspicuous stone area, adorned with several relics. Not a Grimm was in sight, however.
"Looks like your sister was just trying to freak you out, man." Tai brushed off the lack of danger, sauntering on up to a relic, a white castle piece. He picked it off it's stand turning to Qrow for acknowledgment of their task's completion.
Qrow took the fact that Tai wasn't being ripped apart by Grimm as evidence enough that it was safe, and walked over. "Hold on. Get the yellow horse."
"Why?"
"My sis, and her partner had a white horse. Want to be on the same team as her, or not?" Tai snapped a finger gun at him with his free hand turning back to be met with a small Deathstalker sitting atop the podium his Relic once stood on. Suddenly an outpour of tiny Deathstalkers burst from the cracks and crevices of the stones around them.
"Qrow!" Tai quickly back peddled to his partner struggling to get his bearings.
"Yeah?" Qrow questioned, readying his scythe for the swarm.
"I think I know what your sister was talking about."
"No shit." Qrow shook his head before looking at the relic in Tai's hand. "Why didn't you get the yellow horse!?"
"There's a shit ton of Grimm, Qrow!" disregarding said Grimm the two began to bicker. A few got close enough to nip at them, before being batted away in annoyance.
"Damn it." Qrow swept along the ground, trying to get as many Deathstalkers as he could in his motion. Tai took to less effective methods, individually slamming one by one into the ground. The swarm was seemingly endless, however, with more Grimm taking up the rear.
"Could this get any worse!" Tai yelled into a dense fob of black mist that had enveloped him from his massacre of tiny Deathstalkers.
"Please, don't-" Qrow, entrenched in his own black fog party, felt his sight further darken. The two looked up to the sky to see the sun begin to black out behind a flock of Nevermore. Again, a large group of tiny Grimm descended upon them.
"I think, I hate your sister, now!"
"Yeah, that cutie in the skirt ain't soundin' too nice anymore, either!"
The two were forced to retreat into the forest until no more Grimm, no matter the size, were in sight. They huffed, and hacked black smoke, for air. Hands on their knees in exhaustion, they looked to each other. "I do have this." Tai waved the white castle between their vision.
In a moment of careful consideration, Qrow took the Relic from Tai. "Fine, fuck it."
"Good, because I ain't going back there."
"Let's just go, leave all those bastards for the others." Qrow waved him off as he strutted back to Beacon.
"Fine by me, man. Feel kinda bad though." Tai scratched his head, now pondering the safety of the other students.
"I don't. Plus those Grimm are probably still coming for us." As if on Qrow's words a pack of Ursas barrelled out from the foliage. "Are you kidding me?" without much anger, pure amazement, Qrow gawked at the newest Grimm to block their progress.
"Wow, Grimm really hate you." Tai took a moment to look around, turning back to Qrow. "I think I want a new partner."
"Just punch them, Tai."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Summer. My brother can take care of himself. No to mention, he had a very competent looking man with him."
The two girls had made tremendous progress back to school grounds with their relic. The white knight chess piece rolled in Summer's hands as she fiddled with it. Despite her previous speed she lagged behind Raven.
"Do we have to be first?"
"What?"
"Nothing is stopping us from helping them…" Summer had stopped, and turned to look in the other direction.
"Nothing is making us either." Raven's quip was quick, not taking the time to look to Summer. She just kept walking.
"Come on, Raven." Summer had grasped the girl's hand. Raven cocked her head just enough to catch Summer's silver eyes, and the stern look such a face could portray. Raven would insist that She didn't want summer going back alone, being her new partner, but Qrow knew.
The girls arrived on the scene, bewildered by Qrow and Tai's position. The two stood, back to back, at the center of, what they'd go on to describe as a "flood" of Grimm. This team was going to have the worst luck. Not to mention Qrow losing the Relic they'd snatched.
"Really!" Tai yelled, soon abandoning his anger from sheer exhaustion. "Why do you suck, Qrow…"
"Let's just go get that yellow horse now." Qrow spoke out the side of his mouth, eyeing up Summer. And his sister.
"I think everyone probably has their Relic by now…" Summer chimed in, with a sympathetic grimace.
"Well, we aren't helping you find your Relic anyways." Raven huffed, sheathing her blade and buckling Summer under her arm.
"Sorry!" Summer waved, being dragged away by her partner.
"I like your sister again." Tai spoke up, after the girls had gotten out of earshot.
"Yeah, well let's hope all my misfortune ran out, and that yellow knight unit is actually left."
With all odds against them, and Qrow's semblance, the two were able to get that oversized chess piece. That yellow horse Relic ensured Tai and Qrow to be on Raven and Summer's team. At the time, they counted themselves lucky, fortunate. From there, all the great memories they hold were born. It should be pondered, however, whether all the grief they would suffer could have been avoided if Qrow had just been able to hold on to that white castle piece. Looking back, Qrow and Tai returning to the Relics to find the yellow knight piece still on its pedestal could be seen as the greatest long con of Qrow's misfortune.