NOTE: THIS CHAPTER'S END (STARTING AT THE LAST PAGE BREAK BEFORE THE CLOSING A/N) HAS BEEN HEAVILY EDITED- 1/5/18.
A/N: Happy New Year- have some angst. Questions from reviewers will be addressed at the end of the chapter.
The CPS check-up was on the Friday following Lumi's birthday but she wasn't worried about it because she was freshly seventeen and no longer a minor. She was so unconcerned about the check-up in fact, she forgot that Mrs. Huang would be the one to do the inspection.
Lumi let the orange-haired woman into the house and bit back the sour look that rose up on sight of her. They'd never gotten along and although she couldn't remember how it all had started, she knew that Huang had it out for her so she stuck to the counselor's side as she ticked off boxes and jotted down short comments on the forms while they toured the house.
As it was wrapping up (which was to say, as Lumi not-so-subtly hinted for her to leave) she managed to gleam one surprising tidbit from the older woman; Mr. Xiao Long been the one to call CPS.
She smiled and shut the door behind the counselor, then flared her Semblance as dark as it would go and sank into the shadows.
Lumi's temper had a tendency to turn inward rather than outward, but even she couldn't deny how cathartic it was to push her body to its limits and slaughter Grimm left and right, alone in the Emerald Forest.
She'd first fled from her house to her favorite rooftop, then after half an hour of stewing in her own vicious thoughts she'd gone home to grab her weapon and jacket and ended up in Forever Fall. A dozen Grimm later, she was at the edge of Beacon and shadow-stepped further into the green gloom of the trees.
She slammed her feet against the spine of a Nevermore and unloaded a trio of arrows into the base of its head. The inky black smoke of its body billowed around her like a monstrous cloud as it died and she stepped out of the way. In her right hand Polaris reverted to baton form and Lumi wiped her forehead as the day caught up with her.
After the initial shock, it hadn't taken her long to connect the dots between her trip to the movies with Yang and Ruby while injured, their dad, and the sudden CPS visit. It had, in hindsight, been somewhat obvious and she wondered why she hadn't realized it sooner (then she remembered the weeks of fitful sleep and tension between her and Branwen which had drained her and made it near impossible to dwell on the question of who called in order to focus on surviving the incident).
While it was true that her initial suspicions had been aimed her Weapons teacher, he hadn't confessed to it when they'd argued and was completely unsurprised that someone would call social services on her. What was it that he'd said about her? Oh yeah, that she "looked like the poster child for abuse."
Something ugly and dark rose in her stomach at the memory and she surveyed her surroundings for any Grimm. None appeared, but she wasn't fool enough to think they'd stay away so she shadow-stepped back into to town and made her way on foot to the nearest Stirbucks with the help of her trusty Scroll.
For all that she was small and not particularly strong, she wasn't weak and she hated that Branwen of all people would think she was so pathetic and helpless. That thought burned more than the fact that Mr. Xiao Long, whom she had no notable interactions with, had called CPS on her. He'd likely only called because his daughters let something just damning enough slip- she couldn't even find it in herself to be mad at Ruby and Yang for that and that was entirely the source of her new year woes.
Lumi grabbed up her order from the pick-up counter and limped over to an out of the way armchair. Caffeine wasn't going to untangle the knotted black threads of thoughts and feelings she'd ignored for months, but hell if it the warmth and familiar taste wouldn't make her feel better for as long as the drink lasted.
She was halfway through the hot, bitter coffee and in somewhat a better mood when her Scroll rang. She hit tapped a button to mute the vibrations and finally noticed the time- nearly nine o' clock. A heavy sigh broke past her lips.
She didn't have a curfew, so to speak, but her dad usually wanted her to be in the house by eleven and was probably worried because she'd left before he even got home. There was also the fact that (unbeknownst to the two of them) she'd lied to both her parents about why she wasn't going along with her mother's weekend custody visit and well, it was a Friday night. Her dad had been young once, too.
To soothe her dad's potential concerns, she waited until the random call ended then snapped a quick pic of her Stirbucks drink and sent it with the tagline "grabbed something to drink after group project- will take next airbus home see u soon." It was apparently enough for him, because he sent back "going 2 bed, love u." She smiled at the cute message despite the knot in her stomach and gathered her things.
It was easy to walk between the long shadows that crossed the streets and the still darkness that encompassed her room. She plopped onto her bed and undid the laces of her boots while she listened to the distant sound of running water of her dad's shower and the classic rock he liked to listen to drift through the air vents.
Lumi spent the weekend in self-reflection, for lack of anything better to do and because she desperately needed to work through all the shit she'd been pushing aside. It was eating her insides and quite frankly, she was sick of it. The hazy hours spent fighting Grimm had done well to calm her temper, but her heart and her head were off-kilter and that made it difficult to do focus on anything other than her thoughts. She did, eventually, parse her problems into a few distinct categories and came to a few realizations.
Realization number one: she liked Branwen- a lot- and despite the fact that she didn't have good experiences with adults, she might even say she loved him
Realization number two: Outside of her family and Calypso, his opinion mattered the most to her out of all the people she knew (and wasn't that just fuckin' sad? He was her teacher and had given her detention but he was also her closest friend). Also, she should probably come clean to him about what was actually going on just to set the record straight.
Realization number three: she was (legally) and adult and needed to drop her toxic mother as soon as she could safely extricate herself.
Which, yeah- duh. It only made sense that the two-ish major revelations of her weekend were about the two biggest stressors in her life, but she'd been running herself ragged to balance them until she was in a better position to do something and that wasn't conductive to long-term planning or rational thought.
That said, she was not looking forward to the conversation with her mother about cutting back on weekend visits and she wondered if it was more likely that she could gradually disengage or if she could just stop showing up cold turkey.
Ugh, she was going to need another weekend to tackle that problem.
As it was, Monday rolled around before she could sludge through the rest of her issues so she tucked them away and focused on her classes. Well, she tried to anyways. Thoughts of emotional confrontations with your mother didn't exactly like to wait idly in the back of the mind.
It wasn't until mid-way through her Wednesday detention that she realized both she and Branwen were quieter than usual. Friday, Monday and Tuesday had passed with minimum words between, almost reminiscent of her first few weeks of detention except neither of them had stepped up to be the designated conversationalist. Today, too, was shaping up to be the same way but that didn't exactly sit well with her.
"Hey, Branwen," she called gently. "I got a kitten for my birthday."
"Good for you," he said and swept beneath a table.
That… wasn't encouraging. Had she done something to annoy him?
"Do you think you can guess his name?" she tucked a lock behind her ear. "He's mostly black with a little grey. Oh, and he has blue eyes."
"No idea," he shrugged.
"I named him after my favorite teacher," she hinted with a small smile.
"Ember?" he flipped a stool onto the table.
"No," she grimaced. "I would never wish that on him."
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, but there was no familiar grin, no playful eyebrow raise.
Lumi waited a beat for him to guess, but he didn't respond and her heart skipped. "His name's Kuro. It kind of sounds like 'Qrow' if you say it right- and it means 'black'." Her smile was weak and strained. "I thought it fit because he's a black cat even if it's not very original…"
He hummed but didn't otherwise react and kept on cleaning. It felt to her that she was being an annoyance and that given the choice he would gladly be far, far away. Thinking back on it, this wasn't the first time she'd ever felt like that with him.
It hurt. Her stomach dropped to her feet. She tried to think why he'd changed, but nothing jumped out at her. The "coincidentally finding" a bottle of bourbon on the roof things might have displeased him, but the day after he was fine and they were back to normal so it couldn't have been that.
So what was it? The CPS check had nothing to do with him, and in any case that had gone down perfectly. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth and kept her head down for the rest of the hour. On the trip home she grabbed Stirbucks as consolation and set her mind to figuring out what was up with her teacher. By the next day's detention, she hadn't figured it out and was quickly coming to the conclusion that there was nothing to figure out.
She hadn't done anything to irritate or piss him off, not more than usual anyways. If anything, she'd been better behaved this week because she'd been so caught up in her own thoughts. Unless she'd missed his birthday (and a quick text to Ruby assured her that it was still a ways away) then there was nothing else she could think of.
Maybe he was tired of her? She generally tried to stay out of his way and not bother him too much aside from teasing (and being teased by) him, but maybe he didn't like the recent turn in their relationship? She wouldn't exactly describe grocery shopping as an intimate, personal affair but it wasn't like just anybody would do that together so perhaps she'd overstepped some unknown boundary?
Or, some vicious voice in the back of her mind pointed out, maybe him thinking she was weak, annoying and overbearing wasn't a new thing. In the beginning, he might've just acted like he cared to avoid problems and now that she had a week and a half left of detention, he didn't feel the need to put on airs anymore.
The thought was… painful, especially after her weekend revelations (and Oum, she should have known not to put her tender heart out there like that) but Lumi wasn't one to stick around where there was no love to be found.
She packed her bag and left quietly after she finished grading- her teacher didn't even say bye.
Qrow was miserable. He knocked back a swig from his flask and slumped further into his seat. It wasn't in his nature to mope and aside from the hour he'd allotted to doing so when his Semblance reared its ugly head on Lumi's birthday, he hadn't.
But Lumi could be remarkably easy to read sometimes and she had somehow looked more downtrodden today than she had yesterday when he brushed aside her attempt at a conversation which dragged his traitorous heart through the mud.
It would be better, he reassured himself, if she could start to distance herself from him now, before something too bad happened. Her birthday had been a warning, and a reminder him of one vital fact he'd allowed himself to brush aside; he brought misfortune. He shouldn't be endearing sweet young women with bright futures to him, especially not to the degree he had with Lumi (who already had a laundry list of problems that could easily turn lethal if he lingered too long without an entire school of kids to dilute his bad luck).
Lumi walked up to his desk the next day during class with her partially gutted weapon in hand because the Universe was a cruel, cruel bitch and had to really drive the point home with an obvious metaphor.
"Mr. Branwen?" she queried politely with that annoying, polite tone he hadn't heard in months. "I'm doing maintenance on Polaris and something keeps getting stuck when I try to swap back to baton form, but I can't tell what. Can you help me?"
He shrugged and held out his hand for it. She placed it in his palm and made sure to not touch him. He fiddled with it for a few moments, then banged the bow against the table a couple of times and put his eye up to the scope from the wrong side. As he hunted for the issue, he flipped the weapon a few times and pressed the buttons he knew should transform the bow to a baton.
It whirred in his hands then emitted a sharp crunching sound, followed by a low grinding hum as Lumi shrieked. His eyes snapped to her terrified face as the bowstring sliced a shallow line through her cheek. Before he could so much as blink, she melted through the shadows at her feet- leaving him with her weapon and a nosey bunch of kids chattering about what had just happened.
Great, like he needed another example of why he shouldn't try to get close to people.
She reappeared a few minutes and quietly collected her still malfunctioning weapon. "Thank you for trying," she said without looking him in the eye and walked back to her seat.
Detention was more of the same, and aside from saying hi and bye, she didn't speak to him. She worked on grading (and didn't look at him) or her weapon (and didn't ask for help). Part of him was happy that his plan to put distance between them had worked, but despite the danger to her he missed their easy camaraderie and teasing.
He sighed and shrugged on his jacket (the one she found for him, he thought and vowed to leave it in his closet). It was Friday, and about thirty minutes until happy hour. There was a bar stool somewhere with his name on it.
"Kuro, Kuro, Kuro!" Lumi called and made cutesy clicking noises to draw the kitten from wherever it was hiding. "It's time to eat- where are you?"
She peeked beneath the couch and checked her dad's study for the third time. At twelve/nearly thirteen weeks old, Kuro wasn't quite big enough to climb the stairs yet, but that didn't stop him from trying so she made her way to the second floor.
"Kuro, Kuro," she pushed open Ash's bedroom door and clicked a few more times.
"Did you lose him?" Ash asked without looking up from his sketchbook.
"Mm, more like he's hiding from me," she said and tried not to flinch at the parallel between her kitten and the man he was named after.
"Try opening a can of tuna," he suggested when Lumi wrinkled her nose and poked at the pile of dirty clothes in the corner of his room.
She side-eyed him. "I've only fed him kitty kibble. Why would he be attracted to tuna?"
"Oh wow, I'm so into this drawing," he said and buried his nose into the pages.
Lumi hummed, flicked his forehead then strolled downstairs to get a can of tuna. From her few readings about feeding kittens, a little tuna every once in a while wasn't the worst thing for him but it was definitely a once-in-a-blue-moon treat and should not a staple part of his diet. She marched back upstairs and waved the can around until a flash of wooly-black fur shot out from her dad's room.
"Mrow," he whined pitifully and tried to climb her pant leg.
"You sound like we don't feed you," she scowled and scooped him up with one hand. He tried to squirm closer to the half opened can, but Lumi held him firmly and made her way back to the kitchen.
"I'm going to have a tuna sandwich," she told him. "And you're going to have kibble, you little brat."
He meowed in protest.
"Hmpf, fine. You can get a little, but that's it," she set him on the floor and hunted for a clean spoon. "Remind me to bully Ash into doing the dishes," she murmured and plopped a heaping teaspoon of tuna into his kibble.
He purred in delight and Lumi smiled at the greedy noises he made as he devoured everything in sight. She watched him a little while longer then rose and made her sandwich. Kuro mewled at her ankles, but she (somehow) maintained her resolve and resisted the urge to feed him. Her only weakness was cute things (and cute people) but after years of suffering puppy-dog eyes from both Nocte and Ash (sometimes at the same time!) she had built up a healthy resistance to pleas for extra food.
She plopped down onto the couch and turned on the TV. Kuro meowed imperiously and Lumi took a bite of her sandwich with vicious glee. "Oh look, What To Wear is on," she said and snickered at the affronted look Kuro fixed her with.
Ten minutes later, the round-bellied beast stalked off. She texted her siblings and told them that they were, under no circumstance, to feed the cat tuna unless she had given express permission then returned her attention to the wardrobe makeover miracle on-screen.
The doorbell rang during the opening of the next episode. She rose and answered it- and immediately regretted it.
"Hi, mom," she said with a strained smile.
"Where are your bags?" Verbena raised a brow.
"Didn't you get my texts?" Lumi frowned and shifted in place. "The little ones got me a kitten, and we can't leave him alone for a while. The vet says for up to a month, if he's not settling well."
She hummed and pursed her lips. "That's a long time to miss training."
"I've been staying afterschool to train," she explained (lied) quickly. "An extra hour every day."
"Signal keeps Grimm on campus?" She asked and placed her hand on her hip.
"No," she resisted the urge to sigh. "But they have simulations and archery ranges. Teachers stay behind and give pointers sometimes too, or they oversee spars. I can probably get dad to watch the kitten for a few hours tomorrow so I can train at campus, but well, you know how he is." She rolled her eyes and motioned typing with her hands.
"Very well," she said and dug into her pocket for her Scroll. "Get your brother and sister, then."
With a bob of the head she turned on her heel and left to do as told while wishing she could tell the other woman to kindly fuck off. Unfortunately, that wouldn't go over well and might actually earn her a broken jaw, so she knocked on Nocte's door with the three-two pattern they all used to indicate that their mom was there for them.
She repeated the knock on Ash's door and then leaned against the wall to listen to them scramble for their shoes and jackets with a chuckle. After years of weekend visits, one might expect them to be ready to go before their mother got there, but her darling little siblings never seemed to learn and always left a few things to the last minute. She consoled herself with the fact that at least they'd packed their bags after they got home from school.
Ash was first out and he threw his arms around her in a quick hug before he thundered down the stairs. "Bye!"
"Lucky," Nocte scrunched her nose but also gave Lumi a hug. "See you Sunday, I guess."
"I love you too, brat," she said and hurried her away. "Be good."
The white-haired girl rolled her eyes and waved over her shoulder. The front door closed with a firm click and Lumi allowed herself to slink back into the living room and stretch out on the couch. Aside from the TV, the house was silent and she basked in the quiet for a good while before she turned back to the on-screen makeovers.
Another weekend, alone with her thoughts- and she hadn't even broken her arm to get it! She rolled her eyes at poor joke then let the soothing drone of the TV personalities wash over her. Maybe she'd hit the mall tomorrow…
Lumi ended up hitting the gym and Emerald Forest rather than the mall after she put the finishing touches on Polaris, and was rewarded with a dislocated wrist, an ugly set of bite marks from a Beowolf along one hip and claw marks on the opposite shoulder and thigh. The wrist was easily set and healed, but she spent the rest of the weekend working on the rest and by Monday she only winced when she walked, sat, or got up.
Basically, she was always wincing and grimacing in pain and she chastised herself for doing something as stupid as fighting Grimm on her own. What did she expect to happen, with her thoughts all cloudy and no one to orient her steps against? She was lucky that she was so good at controlling her Aura or the Grimm's claws and teeth would have torn her to shreds before she was able to shove an arrow through the soft palette of its mouth into its brain.
"I'm a big dumb idiot," she hissed at herself and bit back a groan as she settled down to lunch. She ached, but not enough to justify taking another round of Tyrianols so she listlessly shoveled fries into her mouth and tried not to think too hard about any one thing.
Of course, Yang had to choose that exact moment to slide into the empty seat to her left with a suspiciously bright smile. "So," she began and drew out the sound. "How close would you say you are with my uncle?"
Lumi felt the look of suspicion and disgust make its way onto her face without conscious direction. What the fuck? There was no actual Grimm-damned way there was another rumor about them- once was enough!
"Why?" She pushed her plate aside and focused her full attention on the blonde.
Yang looked around. "He got drunk this past weekend- like, super drunk, to the point where my dad had to drag him home from the bar. He hasn't done that in a while, so yeah…" she rubbed the back of her neck. "I mean, you're like his, assistant right? So d'ya think you might know why?"
Okay, so not another rumor. On the other hand…
"Isn't he always drunk?" she bit a little sharper than she intended and stuffed her mouth with a handful of fries to prevent herself from saying anything more.
Her eyes narrowed. "Not to the point where he can't get home on his own."
She shrugged.
"Are you going to help me figure this out or not?" she huffed.
"Look, Yang, I'm probably not the best person to ask about this." She admitted with a bitter grin. "I may grade his papers, but he and I aren't exactly buddy-buddy, ya know?"
"Uh-huh," she said with a tone of disbelief. "You're not 'buddy-buddy' but you bought him a coat? And cooked for him? Right. Anyways, when you're done with… whatever's up with you, text me." She stormed off.
Lumi felt like scum of the earth, but that was tempered by a hearty dose of irritation and anger. What the hell was Yang expecting, a detailed account of Branwen's mental health and some entries from his diary? She had no more idea of what was wrong with him than she did.
And it wasn't like they were arguing or anything as clear cut as that- if that had been the case then she could make up with him and they could go back to normal and she might be able to piece together what the issue was. But for some Oum-forsaken reason he had suddenly turned a cold shoulder to her and that wasn't conductive to prying into his life.
Ugh, this whole thing was a fuckin' mess. She consoled herself with the fact that she hadn't caused this particular mess (unless this was about Branwen thinking she was a pathetic weakling and distancing himself, but somehow she doubted he'd drink himself into a stupor over that).
Speaking, or rather thinking, about him, she had his class next period and she seriously considered breaking her personal code of attending every class and ditching for the day. Her morals, sadly, won out so she hauled her half-healed body across campus and let herself into the workshop.
She was unsurprised to see Branwen already seated at his desk and waved hello but didn't talk. There was a reading assignment on the board so she copied it down and tried not to look his way- which was difficult because her brain kept picking up on subtle details about him and his state of being and that only prompted more looks his way.
Hair; slightly more tousled than usual from running his hands through it- out of nerves or stress? Clothes; topmost button not done- easier access to flask? Skin; somewhat paler than usual, but not as bad as last week's hangover- slight shadows under his eyes (poor sleep?). Posture; normal level of slumped over, maybe a little tenser? Habits; a pen in the pocket- oh, hadn't he lear-
She shoved the thought away. There was no reason for her to chastise him about keeping pens in his pocket. Like she'd told Yang, she and Branwen weren't friendly to each other- not anymore.
Hands in his pocket, Qrow turned a corner and walked down the hall where his workshop stood. Blossom had called him to the office to "discuss" whether or not he'd chaperone another fieldtrip to Beacon. His response had been a flat "no" and that hadn't gone over well, but it would take quite a bit of arm twisting to make him chaperone the spring trip. The only thing that could possibly, maybe make him consider it would be if he could drag a few third years along and make them "group leaders" to avoid responsibility. Even then, he grimaced at the idea of spending any amount of time stuck on an airbus with the first years. He got enough of those brats during class, thank you very much.
He pushed open the door and froze at the sight of his quiet little problem student in front of a tiny, dingy mirror by the sink. Clad in a tanktop that had ridden up to reveal angry claw marks and bruises on both sides of her pale stomach, her hands were alight with Aura as she wrenched her elbow behind her head to get the ragged, mostly healed lines on her shoulder and upper back.
If there ever was a reason to drink, this was it. He dug out his flask and knocked back a swig then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said in a voice much steadier than he felt, "What the hell happened to you?" His long legs quickly covered the distance despite his lazy pace.
"Oh, so now you care?" She quickly dropped her arms and tugged her top into place. "Funny how you don't bother talking to me until I'm cut up and bruised."
He took another drink and wondered exactly how drunk he was going to get by the end of whatever this was.
"I'm a teacher," he explained with a flat look. "In case you forgot, I'm responsible-" she snorted and shrugged on a cardigan. "For you, especially if you're that injured."
"Well I'm fine," she flared her Aura for half a second as proof.
"Uh-huh," he drawled and crossed his arms.
"I am," she insisted and fixed him with a glare.
He returned it with a fiercer one and took a step forward. He'd been a Huntsman longer than she'd been alive- there was no way she could intimidate him.
She didn't back down. "If you really want to talk about people who need help, then maybe we should sit and chat about why you had to be carried out of a bar this weekend."
"Who the fuck told you that?" he drew up to his full height.
Something flickered in her eyes then the shadows darkened around them. "Does it matter? I thought you could hold your drink, Mr. Branwen." She spit his name.
"Watch your tone," he growled. "And we're not talking 'bout me, kid, we're talkin' about what happened to you."
"No, we're not," she lifted her chin defiantly. "There's nothing to talk about."
He jabbed her shoulder and watched her recoil with a hiss. "Nothing, huh? How dumb d'you think I am that I can't tell grimm claw marks on sight?"
"Don't touch me!" She shouted and her purple eyes turned black.
Beneath them, the ground darkened into a depthless, formless void. He tried to move but found his feet stuck. A creeping coldness rose up through the soles of his feet and into his legs.
"You don't want to turn this to a fight," he said lowly. "Let me go, Lumi."
"Then keep your hands off me," she returned with venom and light rushed back into the area like the tide. "If my own mother doesn't get to put her hands on me, there's no way I'd give you that privilege." She kept her eyes trained on him.
"Oh, but you'll let Grimm take a bite out of you?" he pressed. "While she watches and does nothing?"
She flinched then steeled herself and stood tall. "I didn't go with her this weekend- not that it's any of your business- I went by myself." She caught his gaze. "I'm not weak, you know."
"Didn't say you were," he shot back and evaluated her with a sharp eye. This was not turning out well and his desire to help her warred against his plan to keep her safe by putting distance between them, but he couldn't just ignore her when she had a grimm-sized bite mark across her hip.
"No, you didn't," she conceded then sneered. "But you sure act like it with all your teacherly concern that 'suddenly' pops up when I'm injured - which is a little fucked up considering that you only just kicked me to the curb- and for what, Mr. Branwen?" She stepped forward. "Did you suddenly get over a savior complex or something? Are my problems not enough to keep your interest anymore?"
"You're really graspin' at straws here," he shot back instead of answering.
"Then explain it to me!" she threw her hands up. "Because your niece certainly thinks I know you well enough to figure out why you drank yourself dumb this weekend and-" she stopped suddenly and it was like someone had thrown a pot of water onto a smoldering fire. "And I'm starting to feel like I don't know you at all."
Keep her happy or keep her safe, he reminded his treacherous heart that ached at the sudden change in demeanor; happy or safe.
"Look," he started and sighed. "I don't think you're weak or anythin' like that, let's get that straight." He turned his sights to the mirror behind her. "But you're not safe around me- not with my Semblance." Ugh, he'd never been good with words but he was going to try at least. "I bring bad luck and you've got problems- serious problems that being around me will only make worse, get it?"
"Wha- I don't-" she shook her head and pleaded with her eyes. "I've been fine so far- I don't get why you're pushing me away now."
"Remember your birthday?" he reminded her with a firm but not unkind tone. "And your weapon malfunction- imagine if that had happened while you were out in the field."
She looked like she wanted to protest but he cut her off. "I don't want that on my hands- would you wish that on me, kid?"
"No," she sighed then ran her hands through her too long bangs. "But-"
"But nothing, I'm not budging," he informed her and turned on his heel. "You can get your things and leave early today- I'm not gonna stick around."
His dismissal had unmistakable tone of finality, and she was so tired of arguing. She gathered her stuff and left quietly though not without a few backward glances.
That was that.
A/N: A guest reviewer asked a few questions, and I have a few answers!
1) Lumi just turned seventeen as of this (in-story) year and will be attending Beacon in the fall. She's she's never been held back though. I've set this story two years before the start of RWBY so when canon happens, she'll be a second year like the members of Team CFVY (coffee).
2) As for Qrow's age, well, let's do some math. Let's say students join Beacon at 17, spend four years training, and graduate at 21. Then, because they're twins, Qrow and Raven were between 16-18 when they started and 20-22 years old when they graduated with Team STRQ (give or take a year because I don't know their birthday). If we assume Raven got pregnant almost right after graduating, then she would have given birth at 21-23 years old (which would mean Qrow was also 21-23). At the start of the show, Yang is 17 so a little addition (17+21 and 17+23) puts Qrow somewhere around 38 to 40 years old.
This story, of course, takes place two years before canon, so in this fanfic he's anywhere from 36 to 38 years old- but he might be older if a few years passed between Team STRQ graduating+ Yang's birth and he might be younger if the Branwen twins were younger than 17 when they started Beacon. Do bandits even celebrate birthdays? Who knows!
Also, to the reviewer who ships Lumi and Qrow- you do you, my dear. As long as you're not like, holding people at knife-point and demanding they also ship what you ship, I don't really mind. I have an IRL friend who switches between shipping them romantically and as a close friendship and it's w/e, ya know?
Also also, thank you lovely readers for so many reviews! It really made my week. :) This story will be coming to a close in a chapter or two so is there anything you all would like to see? The cat's alternate nickname, by the way, was Ironwool (a play off General Ironwood) because American wirehairs (which Kuro is) have fur that feels a little bit like iron wool. It was funny to me, okay?
See you next week! :)