Qrow Breaks it to the girls.
As you stand in front of the door leading to your niece's room, you can't help but wonder what gods cursed you with the task of cleaning up after your very estranged and very irresponsible older sister.
'Probably the same ones that thought it would be a great idea to make a semblance bring nothing but bad luck to people,' you think to yourself with a scoff, reaching for your flask.
"Might need a bit of liquid courage for this bombshell," you mutter before taking a hefty swig from your flask. You sigh as you feel the pleasant burn of the alcohol in your throat. "Not every day that you have to let someone know about their long-lost younger sister after all." Or potentially older sister in Ruby's case. Maybe? You never really got around to asking about Taylor's actual birthday beyond figuring out that she was apparently the same age as your younger niece. Er, other younger niece? Known younger niece??
"Damn it Raven. Can't ever make things simple, can you?" You sigh for probably the twentieth time today before putting your flask away. "Might as well get this over with then." You raise your hand to the door lazily, knocking on the wood a few times with your knuckles before settling in to wait.
Fortunately, you don't have to wait long.
"Coming," You hear the voice of your youngest (?) niece call out. After a few moments the door opened to reveal a slightly damp looking Ruby poke her head out of the door. "Sorry for the wait Yang was being laz-Uncle Qrow!" You wince slightly at the high-pitched squeal of joy, bracing yourself before catching the girl as she slams into you at full – though thankfully not semblance assisted – speed. Her silver eyes gleam as she stares up at you.
"It's so good to see you! How have you been? Where have you been!? Did you miss me?" You blink at the rapid-fire questions before smirking wryly.
"In order: alright, around, and" you pause before raising a hand to pat Ruby's still wet hair, "Nope." You chuckle a bit as Ruby gives you an exaggerated pout before giggling herself. "Is this a bad time or something?" You glance at the towel around his PJ-clad niece's shoulders pointedly.
"Nah, it's just me and Yang in here right now. We both already washed up and we're just waiting on Blake and Weiss to come back, so you can come hang out if you want. Oh, but Yang's kind of in a weird mood right now and she's got her headphones on, so I doubt she heard anything." Ruby says before squawking indignantly as she's poked in the side by headphones wearing older sister.
"I'm pretty sure the whole building heard your Rubes. You weren't very quiet after all," Yang chuckles, before wrapping an arm around your side to slide into the impromptu group hug. "It's good to see you though Uncle Qrow. You would not believe the day we've had."
"I can take a guess. Anyway, while I would like to stick around and catch up, I do have something I need to talk to you two about that I'd prefer not to say while out in a hall. The acoustics aren't all that great out here and all that." Both of the girls blink and glance at each other at that, before Yang turns back to you with a quirked eyebrow.
"I mean, you can come in sure. Probably won't have a lot of time to talk in private here since Blake and Weiss should be here in a bit but I'm sure they won't mind you being here." Ruby nods at that but glances up at you with a curious and somewhat worried look in her eyes.
"What's up though Uncle Qrow? This isn't anything bad, is it?"
You sigh again – for the twenty second time? Twenty third? You've lost count at this point honestly – before patting Ruby's head in a comforting manner. "Honestly Ruby, it depends on your definition of bad. It's definitely…not something that I thought I would discover today, that's for damn sure."
Yang tilts her head at that, before shrugging as she lets go of you to walk back into their dorm room. "Well, you might as well come in then. I'm sure whatever you're worried about can't be that bad."
'You have no idea kid.' You think to yourself, before walking in with Ruby, who was still attached to you in a tight embrace, in tow. Idly, you gently pry the small girl off you and set her down near what you assume to be her bed, before walking over to one of the free chairs and plopping down heavily. "Well like I said, it depends on your definition," you say as you scratch your chin. You glance at the two girls for a long moment, before continuing. "Anyway, before we get into the not fun stuff I heard that you met some interesting folks today, yeah?"
Yang gave you an – understandably – odd look at that, but Ruby was quick to reply, "Oh yeah you mean the big group with Mister Trainwreck and his 'Boss'? They were kind of weird but Mister Trainwreck's armor was super cool and I've never seen anything like it it was so much more modular than Crescent Rose but it was steam powered and I've never seen anyone use steam like that oh and his Boss just instantly destroyed like hundreds of Grimm at once but her naming sense could be a bit better I mean who names something 'Kill everything in that general direction' there's just no soul in that name at all and so bori– GAH! Hey!"
"Yeah you mean those guys with the weird 'alien' girl with the hat right? Their 'Boss' or whatever," Yang says, ignoring the indignant cry of her sister who was just the victim of pillow assault. "Interesting isn't really the word I'd use for them, but they helped us out a ton yeah. Why do you ask?"
You hum in thought for a bit, leaning back and glancing up at the ceiling to avoid the blonde's suspicious gaze as you figure out how the fuck you're gonna break it to them that they have a long lost sister that they never knew about because of a certain sister of yours. A certain irresponsible and selfish sister that apparently thought that it would be a great idea to never let her family actually know she exists–
"Uncle Qrow? Your aura is…" Ruby trails off, knocking you from your thoughts as you glance at her questioningly, before looking down to see that your aura wavering in agitation from how tightly you clenched your fist. You slowly take a deep breath in, unclenching your fist as you try to calm yourself down and exhale softly. You send an apologetic glance to Ruby and the equally worried looking Yang.
"Sorry kids, it's just…you know what, to hell with it. Might as well rip the band-aid off." Taking another deep breath in to steady yourself, you look at Yang and Ruby. "So you remember that girl with the hat right? That killed all of those Grimm?" At their uncertain nods of affirmation you continue. "That girl's name is Taylor and well, congratulations girls. You have a long lost sister."
"What." Ruby and Yang say.
"What." You hear two muffled voices say.
A few things happened in the next moment or so.
You watched as both Yang and Ruby alternated between states of visible confusion and disbelief. You watched as Yang lowered her head in thought, fists clenching at her sides slowly. You watched Ruby glance at her sister in concern before forcing herself to chuckle in obviously faked amusement.
"That's a good one, right Uncle Qrow. Not…the best joke you could've told but points for the attempt at shock humor I guess," she says, giving you the brightest and fakest smile you've seen from her in a while.
You ignore it, instead looking at the silent Yang. "The first time you saw her, how did she look to you? Coming out of that portal with that katana was familiar, wasn't it? Kind of reminds you of someone, I'd imagine," You state more than ask. You both know who you're talking about after all.
And by how you can see your niece's hair go from a golden blonde to a slowly flickering flame, you know that your words have had the intended response.
"B-but they said that they were aliens! And Mr. Trainwreck said that he's actually a mass of tentacles or something under his power armor, and I've never heard of a faunus like that…" Ruby trails off, glancing nervously between you and the silently fuming Yang. "O-oh! She also called that older guy with her dad a lot so it's possible that you might just be mistaken right?" At this point she looks at you with pleading eyes, as if begging you to not talk about this anymore.
You file that bit of information away because you didn't know that tidbit before – gotta see who this 'Dad' of Taylor's is. He may not be family but he has to be something to have a kid with Raven – before replying to Ruby. "You've seen pictures of Raven before, right Ruby? Basically an older, dark haired version of your sister with a fondness for black and red and a penchant for weapons of the katana variety. Now compare your sister Yang here with Taylor. While it may not be 100% because genetics are funny like that, you can't tell me that you didn't see an odd resemblance between the two."
"W-well I–" Ruby starts, but Yang interrupts her before she could gather her thoughts.
"How old is she," the blonde says with a calmness that doesn't match the blazing anger that you can see in her blood red eyes.
"…She said she's fifteen, apparently," you eventually say, meeting her piercing glare with a tired, understanding gaze. "Fits all too well for it not to be a possibility, I'd say." After a few moments she nods her head silently before standing up abruptly and walking over to her drawers. Yang jerks them open forcibly, earning a small wince from Ruby as she reaches in and grabs the bracelet form of her weapons and quickly slipping them on her wrists. You watch as she stalks over to the door silently.
"Yang? What's, where are you going with…" Ruby begins to ask, but trails off as she sees her sister activate her gauntlets.
"I need to go hit something," Yang says, before forcing the door open and stalking past her two sheepish looking teammates.
'Well that could've gone better. Then again, it could've gone much worse,' you think to yourself with a sigh.
"…So am I the older one or is she?"
You sigh again. Damn it Raven.
Because while Taylor is garnering amusement from this, a family is having a not so great time considering the concept of them having another member that they had no idea about for 15 years of her life.