Sick as a dog. Just very, very sick.

Cover Art: Aristeo Storm

Chapter 30

"We'll end up on a team in Beacon, won't we?"

The question from Summer came out of nowhere, late one night while they were revising. Or while he was helping her revise by quizzing her like he and Taiyang had Yang for her driving test all those years ago, firing off questions she had to answer. While it would have felt proper for Summer to be doing a lot better than Yang given how much his niece liked to slack off, there'd been a motorbike on the line and Yang had aced the tests.

Not that Taiyang would have followed through on his threat of returning the bike to the dealership if she failed, but Yang had believed it and studied so hard she could recite page numbers as well as answers. Summer was equally as clever but also distracted. It was hard not to notice when she'd interrupt them to ask questions like this.

"Of course we will," he said, keeping the book open in a clear sign they weren't done. He was in teacher mode now, and he'd be damned if he let her get off studying. "You, me, Raven and Taiyang are going to be on a team together."

"You're awfully determined about a guy we met once in Mistral."

"I get a good feeling about him."

"Hmmm." Summer eyed him oddly before smiling the moment away. "So, um, do you have any plans for graduation?"

"From Signal?" He'd kind of forgotten it was a thing, but then graduating from here didn't feel like an accomplishment worth celebrating when you were forty. "I hadn't thought of it. I guess I'm more focused on the exams first."

A not-so-subtle hint.

That Summer not-so-subtly dodged. "Yeah, but we're going to pass. That's not in question. What about after? We've got a whole month off school before Beacon starts, and there's the graduation party and prom. What are you going to do between Signal ending and Beacon starting?"

That was a good question. He and Raven were functionally homeless, though he doubted Ozpin would let them end up like that. Maybe they'd be allowed to keep their dorm in Signal during the holidays. If not, Ozpin would almost certainly set them up with hotel rooms or an apartment in the city itself so they could get used to Vale. He was good like that and would obviously want to keep them close by.

"I guess it'll depend on Ozpin," Qrow said. "What about you? Do you even have anywhere to go?"

With her family dead and all.

Summer smiled. "My grandpa left the house to me, so I have that, but I don't think I want to stay there." She prodded her fingers together. "I was thinking we could stay together. If it's not too much trouble."

"None at all! That sounds great!"

Nothing seemed odd about it. This was Summer, his teammate and friend, and they'd been a team for years in the future. When they'd lived in a dorm together for four years, the idea of her bunking with them in Vale wasn't exactly unusual. It felt more normal than them going their separate ways.

Ozpin would get them a place with separate rooms anyway and she could bunk with Raven. It'd be a good excuse to get them used to living together before they ended up sharing a dorm once more.

And as much as I'm looking forward to Beacon, I'm really not looking forward to those dorms.

They'd seemed spacious enough at the time but now, as an adult, the thought of moving into such a cramped student dorm was painful. He'd gotten used to having his own bathroom and his own cupboards. It'd take some getting used to moving back into something so small. They wouldn't even have a kitchen like his and Raven's orphan-status dorm here in Signal did.

"Have you asked Ray?"

"I wanted to ask you first," she said.

"Well, you have my approval. We can explore Vale together." Summer's smile was almost too bright, and she clenched her hands into fists before her and shook them cutely in excitement. Ruby shone through in those little mannerisms. "You must have been worrying we'd split up after Signal, yeah?"

Summer froze. "Ah. Um. Y—Yeah."

"Thought so. There's no need to be like that, though. We're gonna be a team. I've said that before."

"I know. I just… four or five weeks is a long time. You and Ray could make new friends in Vale. And it'd be boring being stuck on Patch in my dead grandfather's home. It'd make me feel miserable – and the ferries are so expensive."

Were they? They'd been cheap in his—

Ah, right. Different owners. The current ones would go bankrupt a year or two into Beacon.

Assholes deserved it with their pricing strategy.

"I'll ask Ozpin when I next see him," Qrow promised. "He probably has something planned but I don't know if it'd be hotel rooms or an apartment. If he knows the three of us want to stick together, it might be cheaper for him to rent us our own place then get two or three hotel rooms." The man was loaded anyway. "We'll sort something out."

"Great! And graduation!" she said, urgently. "There's a big party and I don't want to go alone. W—Will you come with me?"

"To prom?" Qrow was surprised she wanted to go with him, but then Summer didn't have many friends outside their circle, and it wasn't like she had a boyfriend. She wouldn't start falling for Tai for a year or so yet. "Yeah, sure. I guess I can."

"Yes!" Summer shrieked and hugged him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"No worries."

He rubbed her back awkwardly. Had she been that worried about having to go alone? It didn't seem normal for her, but he had to remember he hadn't known Summer before Beacon. Maybe she had been like this, and he'd just never noticed. He and Raven hadn't exactly been perceptive back then, too focused on learning the "secrets" of Beacon and bringing them back to the tribe.

I guess it's not bad that I'll get to play wingman for Tai, either. Don't worry, buddy, I'll keep any strange men from making a move on Summer.

But damn, Taiyang owed him for this.

/-/

"He said yes! He said yes!"

Raven rolled her eyes as she pushed Summer's face out of hers. As happy as she was for her friend, she didn't share Summer's same appreciation for "skinship" or whatever it was she called it. Personal space had always been valued, and staunchly defended, back in the tribe, and it was just as valuable in an orphanage.

"Good for you." Raven didn't mean to sound so glum. "But just to check, you asked him on a date, right? You made it clear this was a date."

"Of course!" Summer crossed her arms and gave her the side-eye. "I asked him to the graduation prom, Raven. What is that if not a date? He'll be wearing a suit and everything." Summer froze. "I need a dress."

Raven grabbed her arm before she could bolt.

"You need to graduate first, idiot. And I bet you learned nothing because you were too busy staring into my brother's eyes or some shit."

"That's not true."

Raven stared.

Summer broke eye contact. "It was his jawline."

"You're hopeless. And I'm stuck dealing with you." Raven cracked open the textbook. "I can't believe you and Qrow are turning me into the responsible one. Right, you come across a wounded villager who claims their home has been attacked by the Grimm. What is your first course of action?"

"Do you think I should wear red?"

"The villager dies cursing your name."

"Raven!"

"Next question—"

With a grumble, Summer crossed her legs and sat on the bed, surrendering to the study lesson that was going to be forced on her one way or another. Raven supposed it wasn't too bad to end up playing wingman – or wing woman - for her brother. He'd done enough for her over the last few years.

But damn, Qrow owed her for this.

/-/

The exams themselves came as they were expected to. It almost felt anticlimactic that nothing happened. No White Fang, no attack on the school, no conspiracy from Salem – but none of that had happened the first time. Like Ozpin, Salem was currently collecting her pieces, recruiting them one by one and preparing for the power move that would destroy Beacon in a little over twenty years.

Put like that, she might as well be patient. The destruction of Beacon was a huge victory for her, and the fact her agent stole the maiden's powers even more so. The impetus was on him to change things for the better, not for her to make things worse.

That'll come in time, he thought to himself, as he filled in the answers on the test paper in absolute silence. Everyone in the hall was stuck to a tiny desk with at least five feet between them and the next person. I'll make sure to help Amber out more, teach her, involve her, convince Ozpin to go easy on her. At the very least I'll make sure she doesn't die to Cinder, but maybe I can do even more than that. Knowing the name `Cinder Fall` won't make any difference now, but if I wait until a year or two before Ruby and Yang get into Beacon and hunt her down, then she'll definitely be Salem's agent by then.

And cutting her off before she could attack Amber would throw Salem's plans into disarray. Of course, those were future plans. More immediate was getting Team STRQ together and making sure Summer absolutely did not die, and that Raven didn't feel pushed out of the team to the point she'd run away.

Dealing with Salem would be even easier with a team at his back.

He finished the first page and flipped to the second, filled in more answers and moved on. It was all so basic, but that was unfair. He'd prepared revision sheets on this in the future, so it was like he'd sat through this exam a hundred times already. It'd be shocking if he got less than 90% and humiliating to boot.

There were questions he was bound to get wrong, though. Recent history stuff that he'd never known in his past life. History was something he had to learn after leaving the tribe, and while he had the major events down, the rest was spotty at best. Luckily, history made up an incredibly small part of their overall curriculum.

Sorry, Bart. It's useful to not make the same mistakes but not nearly as useful as being able to kill as many Grimm as possible.

The bell rang. Chairs scraped back. Students sat straight and nervous as teachers came down the aisles and collected their papers. Lips were gnawed upon, fingers fidgeted, and feet tapped nervously on the floor. It was annoying to him, but he put up with it the same as he had with Yang having her own panic attack when she went through her finals. Ruby had been fortunate to get to skip all that because of Ozpin.

Physical exams and combat tests had taken place over the last three days, dominating the written portions in length and difficulty. Beacon, being a school and all, could continue patching up theoretical holes in a student's knowledge, but they couldn't make something from nothing.

Unless your name was Jaune Arc, apparently, but Qrow had long since decided the kid had a whole lot more than "nothing" to him. There must have been a lot of potential to go from not knowing what aura was to fighting alongside Ruby and Yang like he had. The boy's father had been a fool not to teach him.

Either way, failing the written exam didn't necessarily mean anyone would be barred from progressing. It'd just make them less desirable when it came to the academies accepting them. Useful for getting your first choice, but not a dealbreaker.

Summer and Raven had better of aced it.

He'd run them into the ground if they hadn't.

He needn't have worried.

Summer had graduated without him or Raven the first time, and his presence and help sure as hell hadn't made her stupider, so it was no surprise when her name was in the "pass" column. In the top half but not especially close to the top where Qrow lay.

Raven was a little above Summer but far below him, too competitive to lose to her friend but too uncaring of study to make a play for the top. Other students were split between celebrating and looking crushed, and Qrow dragged them away, not wanting to see a repeat of the tears and broken dreams he had to sit through every year with his students.

Because no matter how well people tried, there would always be some failures. There had to be. Otherwise, the academies would become over-filled and have to bump up requirements, artificially creating a new level by which people would fail. It sucked, but it was just the way the world worked.

And better to find out you weren't cut out for it here then under a Grimm's claws.

"We did it! We did it!" Summer cheered, reminding him ever so much of Ruby. "We're the best! Yes! Beacon, here we come!"

Having achieved their predicted grades, they were now essentially accepted into Beacon. Barring a failure at initiation, that was, but he was confident that wouldn't happen. He could hunt them down if needs be during it, and they were each capable of defending themselves. His best bet would be to hunt down Taiyang, since Raven and Summer might otherwise ignore him. Sure, that'd make it Team SRTQ instead of STRQ but the exact lettering really didn't matter.

"Graduation!" Summer exclaimed, pointing at him. "Studying is over, so graduation prep begins now!"

Qrow sighed. "Fine. I did say we could. I guess I'll go rent a suit."

"Raven and I need to go for dress try-outs!"

"Are?" grumbled Raven. "You know I don't know shit about fashion."

"Just wear black, red or purple," said Qrow, recalling Raven's fashion from the future and also the dresses she'd worn in the past. "Those will suit you."

"Not red!" Summer hissed. "I'm wearing red! You can't wear the same as me!"

"You can't call a monopoly on a colour."

"Can and did." Summer was far too excited about this in Qrow's opinion, but it wasn't like he was entirely against it. Prom meant something beyond celebrating and remembering their time here.

It meant coming of age.

Alcohol.

Soon, my liver. Ozpin won't be able to keep us sober once we're of age. Mwahahahaha…

"I don't like that look on your face," Raven hissed.

"Oh, it's nothing." Qrow looped his arms around their shoulders and squashed their cheeks to his. Raven scowled and Summer blushed. "So, are we going out for prom outfits together? I'm free tomorrow—"

"No!" It was Summer who answered, and in a squeaky voice. "It's a girl's day out. You're not invited."

"Seriously? I mean, I'll wait outside the changing rooms."

"You can't come! You're my— I mean, you can't see me in my dress until the day." Summer was stumbling over her words. "It's just the way it works. And don't let me see you in your suit until the prom either. It has to be a surprise."

Was that a thing? They'd had proms in Beacon, but it'd been a little hard to hide dresses when they were sharing a room. Maybe this was just the way it was supposed to be done. Ruby never liked them, and Yang was always "too cool" to ask her uncle for help, so his experience was limited.

"Fair enough. I guess I'll go on my own."

/-/

"I hear you all passed," said Ozpin, coming to visit a few days later. "Congratulations."

"Thanks. You out of work now?"

"The school year has ended for us, but you'll find that work for a teacher doesn't end when the students leave." Ozpin was preaching to the choir. "I do have the day off, however, and thought I'd come by to check up on you all."

"I'm glad you did. I've got something to ask."

Ozpin smiled. "Oh?"

"What's going to happen to us and our lodging before Beacon? I figured you'd want to do a hotel for us, but Summer wants to bunk with us if we go to Vale. Thinks it'll be too lonely here on Patch. I thought it'd be best to ask in advance if we could have a place."

"Hmm. I had planned to put you both up in a spare room at my place in the city but three children sounds a little too much even for me. I'll make arrangements."

"Can we get an apartment?"

"Not that I doubt your maturity, young man, but… well…"

"You doubt our maturity?"

Ozpin shrugged. "Three teenagers looking after an apartment together sounds like a recipe for disaster. I think I'd be much more comfortable if you at least had room service to clean up for you – and I'm not hiring you a maid."

"Damn shame. I'd have loved one with the full uniform."

Not a surprise, though. Even Qrow wasn't sure how it'd go if the three of them had a place to themselves for weeks. He might be much older than Raven and Summer, but he wasn't called the eternal bachelor for nothing. His place had always been a mess.

"I've no problem with the three of you spending the holidays together, however. I'll make something happen."

"Appreciated, old man."

Ozpin grumbled something. "I have to ask, though. You'll be coming to Beacon and yet still no weapon…?"

"I'll make it on the holidays, don't worry. I'll have something in time for Beacon."

Reforging Harbinger just hadn't been necessary so far, not when their only interactions with Grimm were in controlled environments. It was more important to make sure Raven and Summer did well than worry about himself. Now that was out the way, he could afford to take a little time for himself.

"I'm looking forward to the year ahead," said Ozpin. "There are quite a few surprises – one or two of which might even surprise you!"

Qrow highly doubted it but gave the man a smile anyway. Knowing the future meant very little about Beacon could catch him off guard, but he'd let the old man have his fun. Maybe he was officially becoming headmaster, or maybe he just meant Taiyang and didn't realise Qrow was in constant communication with him over scroll texts.

He knew Taiyang had been accepted and would be coming to Vale by the end of the holidays. Too late to spend summer with them, but that was understandable. Taiyang had his life in Mistral.

As if summoned by the thought, a text came through from the man.

"Didn't anyone ask Raven to the prom?"

Qrow smirked. He'd known Taiyang would be interested in the fact Raven had no date, even if he would never come out and admit that was why. Qrow opened up his scroll and told Ozpin he had to call someone. The old man nodded and excused himself to get a drink.

"Hey man," Qrow said once Taiyang picked up. "Good work on passing."

"You too. I'll see you in Beacon, but we have prom first."

"Got a date?"

"I'm going alone. But… uh… why is Raven? It's not like she's taken or anything."

"You sound happy."

"No way. I want her to be happy."

Hah. Sure. "Well, there were plenty of guys who asked her out, but she blanked them all. Didn't even do them the service of rejecting them to their faces. None of them are good enough for her, basically. Raven is interested in skill and strength more than looks."

"Yeah?" He could imagine Taiyang taking notes. "Like, muscles?"

"I'm sure those help but a guy would have to be able to back it up. I bet she'd fall for someone who could beat her in a spar."

"I've been training pretty hard. Not that— Uh." Taiyang panicked. "You and Summer, eh? When were you going to tell me you two were a thing?"

Qrow snorted. "Maybe when we become a thing. Nah, this is just a case of friends going out so no one looks like they couldn't score a date. Not all of us have Raven's reputation to protect us from the pitying looks."

"Oh. It's not an actual date, then?"

"Not even slightly." The idea alone made Qrow smile. Sure, he'd crushed on Summer way back when, but she'd only ever had eyes for Taiyang. He knew the future, which made it easier when it came to not getting the wrong idea. "Summer just feels relaxed enough around me for us to go together. We'll stand around awkwardly making small talk, do a dance or two for appearances, then go on as normal."

"Really? Huh. I thought for sure she had the hots for you."

Qrow snorted a second time. "Based on what logic!?"

"The way she looked at you in Mistral."

Ha. Well, Taiyang was still in his idiot stage by the sounds of things. He was young, not even properly in Beacon yet, and he'd wise up soon enough. "I think you're letting hormones cloud your brain, man. Summer and I are friends. Nothing more. You should focus on your own love life before you try and push into mine."

"Hah. I guess so. Is there no one you're interested in, then?"

"Not here." Signal students were too young. "Maybe I'll keep my eyes open in Beacon, but it feels like a bad idea to develop feelings for someone this late. What if they go to a different school on a different continent? It's not like you knowing you're coming to the same place as Raven."

"I guess not. And yeah, it'd be a mess confessing to someone before prom, getting together, then having to split up in a couple of weeks so I suppose you're right. I mean, long-distance and all, but I can't see it surviving four years of schooling."

Neither could he. Beacon, or any academy, was too much a part of your life, with new bonds, new teams, new people, and new faces. It was all so new and intimate, with people getting to know one another closer than they ever had before. It would be hard to keep a relationship up with someone outside all that.

Summer, though? Taiyang had love on the brain if he thought she was into him.

As if being sick isn't enough, my sales director has called me on my weekend to let me know she's sick of the company owner (not me, obviously) and is quitting effective immediately.

Now I'm stuck doing crisis management on a weekend while ill. Yay. This'll probably roll all over the weekend and into next week as well. Rip me.

Next Chapter: 18th May

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