Cover Art: Aristeo Storm
Chapter 40
As much as she wouldn't admit it – mostly because Raven would feel betrayed – Summer kind of liked Taiyang. He was silly and over-the-top, but in a fun and friendly way. He could have been the exact opposite given his tanned complexion and muscles, just another arrogant meathead who thought he was a gift to women everywhere. He wasn't, though. His every flirtation carried with it just a little bit of jest, just a little bit of exaggeration that told you it was okay to laugh and smack him around the head if you felt he was being too forward.
Maybe it was a defence mechanism.
Summer sometimes felt like she wanted to do the same with Qrow, tell him she liked him – but always with a tiny bit of jest, so that she could laugh it off as an elaborate joke if he rejected her. Pretend it was a prank and that she wasn't breaking up inside. Summer felt her smile cracking and mentally shook herself back to life. He hadn't even rejected her yet, so getting upset about it was so stupid.
Seriously, girl. Get a grip!
In the arena, Raven was losing. It wasn't that Taiyang was better than her – though he came close. It was more because Ray was panicking and getting worked up by his attitude and flirtations. Raven normally thought without fear of consequence because it was just a spar and there were no costs to loss. Here, she knew a date potentially hung on the line and that was making her antsy. It was making her clumsy and over-aggressive.
A tiny part of Summer had to wonder if that wasn't on purpose in some way. Raven talked a big game about hating Taiyang's guts, but the guy was handsome, into her, and she never really gave any other boys the same kind of attention. Aside from Qrow, obviously, but he was her twin brother so that didn't count. No other boy was worth remembering by Raven, and no other boy held his own quite so well, nor dragged such emotional reactions out of her.
Raven obviously did believe she hated him, but did she...?
It was intriguing enough to wash away Summer's irritation over Qrow and have her paying more attention as the fight reached its climax. Taiyang had managed to trip Raven, then catch her with an arm around her waist. He said a line she couldn't make out, but which had Raven going bright red and turning into a murderous whirlwind of a blender, her dust blade slicing out in every direction. They were going to get banned from the gym at this rate, and then Ozpin was going to have more words with them.
In the end, Raven's uncharacteristic anger proved to be her undoing, as the blades she used, being made of dust, were finite in duration. Raven launched another fire attack and the blade cracked, necessitating her to sheathe, rotate and draw another. Normally, she was good at keeping on top of that, but Taiyang had gotten under her skin and she lashed out with a sword that didn't have a sword blade.
The dumb look on her face had Summer snorting.
Taiyang took full advantage, sweeping in, disarming and pinning her. "Yield!" he ordered.
Raven kicked her feet. "I CHOOSE DEATH!"
"Raven loses by submission!" Summer called, not really wanting to see how far she'd push that one. Raven's unarmed skills weren't bad, but they obviously weren't going to match Taiyang's when it was his whole fighting style. "The winner is Taiyang!"
"TRAITOR!"
"I'm the judge. Deal with it."
Raven growled furiously and stomped off to the changing rooms, shooting Summer a glare that promised a poor night's sleep tonight. Taiyang was smart enough not to follow and sauntered over to Ruby. His skin was glinting with sweat in a way that made it look like he had picture-perfect lighting shone down on him. If she wasn't into Qrow, Summer thought she might be starstruck, but Taiyang looked just a little too perfect, just a little too plain. Stupid as it sounded, she liked Qrow's imperfections, his surliness, the way he would wander off into his own thoughts and just blank the world out.
Which made no sense whatsoever, but then no one ever claimed the heart did.
"Hey Summer." Taiyang plopped down on his butt beside her, kicking his legs out to rest. "Good fight, eh?"
"It was a good one," she agreed. The fact that Taiyang was never weird around her also made it ridiculously easy to like him. "How have you been since the Vytal Festival?"
"Good! Good. I've been working hard to get into Beacon, even managed to hit the top of my year in Sanctum. Not much competition, though. After sparring with you guys, it really feels like the quality back home was lacking."
He was humble, too. Sheesh. Raven didn't realise how good she had it with him.
"So," Taiyang said. "How are things between you and Qrow?"
Summer let out an explosive sigh.
"Oof. That bad?"
Of course he knew, it wasn't like she'd been subtle in her attraction to Qrow even back in Mistral, and it wasn't hard for Taiyang to piece it together when she'd been so jealous about Qrow going on a date with Willow. He'd have had to be stupid not to notice – Qrow levels of stupid.
"You know, I could tell him..."
"No. No, don't. That's the cowards way out. I'm going to tell him myself."
Taiyang stared at her.
"O—One of these days..."
"Hmhm. And when will that day be?"
"Sometime soon." –ish. "We have four years in Beacon. It's not like he'll stay ignorant forever."
"He's talking to a girl right now, though."
"That's Gretchen. She's cool."
Summer didn't let Taiyang get a rise out of her. Gretchen had spoken to them before and asked for spars, and she was fairly nice. A bit of an obsessive older sister, but a good person. Gretchen had also expressed no real interest in Qrow that way and, if her eyes darting their way now were any indication, liked her boys a little more buff and sweaty.
Qrow was obviously teasing her as well, while her younger brother looked on in despair.
"She's going to be joining us at Beacon," Summer said. "I guess it makes sense we'd run into more first years around now. This is when people who got accepted into Beacon are starting to come to Vale."
"Yeah. My mom and dad wanted me to put it off longer but I really wanted a chance to explore Vale before term starts."
"And see Raven again."
He laughed, blushed, and looked away.
So cute!
"Maybe..." He glanced back at her. "Do you... Do you think I have a chance?"
So damn cute!
"I'll be rooting for you."
"Even when Ray doesn't want you to?"
"Sometimes you have to do what's best for a person even if they don't like it. You'll be good for her."
Taiyang's beaming smile was almost blinding. "I'll be rooting for you as well!" he told her. "And if you need any help, any at all, just tell me. As far as I'm concerned, you and Qrow are meant to be together."
"Awww, youuu!"
Summer couldn't resist lunging at him for a huge hug, and Taiyang returned it with a merry laugh. Sweaty as he was, he gave awesome hugs. If the four of them ended up on a team together, Summer couldn't help but think it'd be the best team ever.
/-/
Yesss...
Perfect.
Summer and Taiyang were already so close, and Qrow felt an almost evil laugh in his head – which didn't make sense because he was plotting relationship goals and not world domination. Still, it was the sound he made.
The sound Gretchen made was more of a cross between a steaming kettle and a jealous whine.
"He's out your league."
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean!?" she cried, rounding on him. "What the fuck, Qrow! You're supposed to be my friend!"
"I am."
"Then boost my confidence here!"
"You have a long and successful career ahead of you at Beacon."
Gretchen looked horrified.
"What? That's a good thing."
"Long and successful career," she whispered, staring into the middle distance. "Focus on my career. Successful huntress. All alone. Ahah. So many cats, a house with a thousand cats and my brother..."
Hazel leaned back. "I'm kind of hoping to meet someone and marry..."
"A house with a thousand cats and even my brother finds someone when I'm all alone and focused on my career..."
Qrow waved a hand in front of her face but there was no reaction. Hazel shot him a glare that seemed to say he'd broken his sister and should therefore fix her. Man, I'm bad at this, thought Qrow. He hadn't meant to sound like such a prick, it was just that he was defensive over Taiyang staying with Raven and Summer for obvious reasons.
"Hey, I'm not saying you won't ever meet someone. I'm just saying you're very career-focused..." There was another sad whine from Gretchen. "I'm sure you'll meet someone just as career-focused who will sweep you off your feet."
"Will... Will they be as handsome as he is...?"
"That's kind of a high bar, Gretchen. The world could not survive two Taiyang Xiao Longs."
There was a reason Yang had been born a girl. It was a cosmic law, Qrow assumed, some way of keeping the world in balance so that the Xiao Long genes did not take over. This wouldn't be the first heart Tai had unknowingly broken. Hell, he'd probably left a graveyard full of them back in Mistral.
"Can't you be my wingman...?"
"Do I look like I'd have any experience in romancing people?"
Gretchen tore her eyes from the sculpted god in the gym and looked back at Qrow. "No. I guess not."
His brow twitched. "Oi. You don't have to sound so sure of that!"
"Yeah?" Gretchen leaned in. "Payback's a bitch, huh?"
Hazel sighed. "You two are... I can't even say you're perfect for one another because that feels like a nightmare. You're perfect frenemies."
"With him?" Gretchen snorted and crossed her arms. "He's a loser."
Qrow laughed back. "I'd think she's too busy being frenemies with her training bra to worry about me."
Hazel sighed.
Gretchen snarled and pushed her forehead against his. She and Qrow engaged in an immediate forehead wrestling match, pushing back against one another to try and make the other give ground. With a shake of his head, Hazel went back to weightlifting alone, hoping he'd drop the barbells and end his own life to escape this nonsense.
/-/
Qrow hadn't given up on his plans for a new weapon even as he focused his efforts on Mountain Glenn. And with Ozpin having promised to look into things, it gave him time to decide on what exactly to do with his weaponry in the first place.
He'd wanted a change from Harbinger both for the sake of avoiding boredom for four years in Beacon – four years he knew from the future would not be interrupted like Ruby and Yang's had been, so he was going to be in for the long slog – but also because he wanted to change himself as well.
The Qrow of the future had been cynical and unhappy, only ever really feeling alive when he was with his nieces and Taiyang, and otherwise living a half-life. That wasn't him now, and he didn't want it to be him again, so Harbinger would be consigned to history. The weapon had served him well, but a new life meant a new change, and a new change meant a new weapon.
Two weapons, he eventually decided.
It was indecision which led to it, but after thinking on it he realised it was just a good idea. A big part of why people didn't rock in with two weapons was a) the cost of maintaining them and b) the cost in having to practice with two different weapons. Since most kids came to Beacon being rather shit in combat, at least compared to a huntsman like him, it slowed their progress down. He wouldn't have that problem, and he also wouldn't have a problem maintaining two weapons since he would be the one who built them.
With two weapons in mind, there was a strong temptation to call them Yang and Ruby, an overpowering temptation. The names didn't really make sense, though, and he also imagined a future in which Raven, Summer and Taiyang decided that naming their daughters after their teammate's weapons was a little too cringe. Sure, they'd be the same people, but having to call Yang and Ruby by different names would confuse his brain. Sally Xiao Long and Beatrice Rose really didn't do it for him.
So, he'd keep them in his heart, at least until they were born, and call his weapons something else, but only after they were built. He'd also considered making a scythe and gauntlets called Crescent Rose and Ember Celica, but also discarded that idea as well. Stealing his niece's weapons to remember them by was cute and all, but also self-defeating. They'd be happier if he made actually useful weapons to him and used them to prevent their suffering in the future from ever happening.
So, he went boring.
A sword for one weapon, because he already knew how to use it and wouldn't have to adapt his style too much, and then a knife-gun combo for the next, partly because ranged was always a good idea, but also because Winter had impressed him a little with her sword-knife style, and he felt he might be able to ape it with a little practice.
The sword would be the simpler construction, slightly curved like Harbinger had been, and much thicker and heavier than Raven's Omen. This time, it wouldn't have mechashift to extend and become a scythe like Harbinger, but rather a mechashift component to store and carry his secondary weapon, and to discharge it when he needed it. Designing parts hollow, he could even make it so that the sword could fire bullets from the knife-gun inside, but only when the secondary weapon was locked into the first.
As for the second, he took some small inspiration from the Mistralian kid's weapons from Arc's team. Not quite the same, as they weren't anything like one another in fighting style, so instead of curved blades on the grip, Qrow went for a straighter knife that could be gripped normally or in a reverse grip, with a narrow channel up the centre which dust rounds could be fired out of. It'd be hellishly inaccurate at long range, but that was where placing it in the sword would help, essentially giving it a longer barrel. As a knife, it'd be more useful in close range, especially to stab and discharge a burst straight into the body of a Grimm.
Or a treacherous scorpion faunus.
Summer and Raven approved, especially Raven who decided he'd look "badass" dual wielding, even though Qrow never really intended to do much of that. Dual wielding was for idiots who watched too much TV. He'd be fighting normally with his sword, and then stabbing very occasionally with the knife, more alternating between two weapons than using both at the same time.
But forcing himself to fight in spars with the knife would give him something to sink his teeth into in Beacon, because otherwise it was going to be very boring steamrolling kids when he had all the experience of twenty years in the field. This would put him more on their level, while also letting him train up a second skillset.
Naturally, Raven and Summer had ideas for names.
Naturally, they were awful.
"Night and Day!"
"Dawn and Dusk!"
"Ebony and Ivory!"
"Cloak and Dagger!"
"It's a sword, though. Rip and Tear!"
Qrow groaned. "Can you stop with the matching names? That's so... so..."
Juvenile. Teenage. Edgy. It was all of the above, and yet he was talking to edgy teenagers, so they probably wouldn't get it. Names like that were so awful, though. They were the types of names given to videogame characters, especially those with two guns which would – without fail – be alternating colours as well. Black and white guns given names like Ebony and Ivory or Yin and Yang. Ugh. It pained him just thinking about it.
"But they're twin weapons," Summer whined. "They need twin names."
"Raven and I are twins and we're not... well, I mean we're both named after birds—"
"I'm named after a bird," Raven pointed out. "You're named after a misspelling."
"Yeah, well, our parents didn't exactly have a conventional education." He'd never had a chance to ask, but Qrow did suspect that their parents had actually believed Crow was spelt as Qrow, because it sounded like it was said with a Q— to people who didn't know how to read and write properly. "But we do. And I'm not giving my weapons some angsty, emo name like that. I just want a nice, normal name for the sword, and a nice, normal name for the knife-gun."
Raven rubbed her chin. Her eyes widened. "Midnight's Roar and Bloody Whisper."
"Oooh, that's good!" Summer gasped.
"No. No, it isn't!" Qrow slammed his hands in front of him, crossing them over to make a big X and deny the idea. "It's an awful name and you should both be ashamed!"
Damn huntsman culture and its stupid naming. He'd been no better, calling a scythe Harbinger like he thought of himself as some dramatic reaper. He actually respected Ruby and Yang for just picking pretty names, as opposed to deep, meaningful garbage like Team STRQ had. For crying out loud, Ozpin called his weapon "The Long Memory". Torchwick had called his "Melodic Cudgel". Like, what...? One word about music and the other to describe a freaking lump of wood used to cosh someone over the back of the head. Call a sword a sword, for crying out loud.
"I'm going to call it Sword and Gun-Knife."
"NOOOO!" Raven tackled him onto the bed, as if she thought she needed to protect his new weapons from him. "No! I won't allow it!"
"They're just weapons—"
"They're more than just weapons! They're... They're... They're weapons!"
"Real clever, sis."
"Raven is right," said Summer, also being very wrong as she said it. "And you can't just give them crappy names like that. If you don't want cool matching names like we came up with—"
"I'm fine with cool names. Yours ain't that."
"—then use something different," she continued, ignoring him. "Like, pick something bird-related if it fits your name. Call the knife Talon and the sword something else. Not Claw, though. That's stupid."
"Qlaw? With a Q?"
Summer raised her fist threateningly.
"Okay, fine. Talon is good."
It was a simple name, suggestive of the method in which he'd be using it to stab people and, importantly, it didn't sound like it was picked by some edgy teenager who thought they were going to become a superhero. He could live with Talon, and if people elongated it to Qrow's Talon then it'd still not feel too awful.
"How about Talon for the knife and Wing for the sword?"
Summer cringed. "How about Wingspan? Wing is too short. It shouldn't be a shorter name than the shorter weapon."
Again, pointless, but it at least made a little more sense.
"Fine. How about Talon and... Eagle...?"
It didn't make sense with his name, but it fit the bird theme, was a little longer, and eagles were traditionally seen as brave birds. Qrow didn't really understand why, since there wasn't much brave about being genetically better equipped than other birds. Take a finch now, and those damn things were brave. Tiny, weak, no offensive capabilities, and yet they'd hurl themselves at much larger threats to protect their young.
Finches were fucking badass. Eagles were pussies.
But he had the feeling Raven would strangle him if he called the sword "Finch" or "Budgie".
"Eagle and Talon. Eagle's Talon when they're combined." Summer tried it out, yet again feeling the overpowering need to make the names match and work as a pair. "I shall accept it! Raven?"
"Hngh. It'll do."
Qrow rolled his eyes. "I'm so glad the name of my weapon passes muster. Can you let me up now?"
"Depends. Will you keep Taiyang off me?"
"No."
Raven crossed her arms and legs and proceeded to sit on Qrow' chest. "Then I am going nowhere."
/-/
"Justice for faunus!"
"Go back to Menagerie!"
"Faunus are people too!"
"Look out!"
Qrow caught the rock before it could hit a faunus child of no more than eleven years and fixed the blonde woman in the crowd with an evil glare. Others turned to her, as even those shouting abuse weren't quite prepared to launch rocks at children – not yet, anyway. The woman ducked her head and fled, and Qrow let the rock fall with a low growl.
It was oh so tempting to mete out justice but Ozpin was right to tell them not to make matters worse. Violence would just serve as an example to the White Fang of an alternate path, and he'd be damned if he ended up being the reason Sienna Khan and Adam Taurus twisted it in another direction. Qrow spared a glance for the kid, for a moment worried it would be Adam, before realising that was stupid. The kid was nothing like him and Adam probably wasn't even born yet. He'd been around Blake's age or a little older, and Kali and Ghira still hated one another.
Not unlike Taiyang and Raven. The thought made him smile.
Taiyang was here today as well, joining in solely because he was an awesome guy who listened to what they were doing and instantly decided this was something he wanted to support. Raven accused him of doing it just to impress her – which was wrong, but also amusingly made it sound like she was a little impressed with him. Raven would die before admitting that, though. As it stood, Taiyang was handing out fliers and talking to humans in the crowd to explain why he felt faunus needed equal rights.
And a lot of people were listening to him.
"He's good at this," Kali whispered to Qrow.
"He's good with women," Qrow replied, pointing out the fact that every single person hooked on his words was female. "I wouldn't hold any hope on his words actually reaching their brains. They're just watching his lips form them and imagining what else they could do."
"Crass." Kali slapped his arm.
"Oh, like you're not interested."
"Heh. A little, but I'm not one to share and him... well, he looks like someone I'd be beating every woman off with a stick. That's way too tiring." Kali hefted her protest sign over her shoulder like a crook would a baseball bat, managing to look every part the violent delinquent that would give birth to Blake in the future. "Your sister can't keep her eyes off him."
She certainly could not.
Though glaring and grinding her teeth together wasn't quite what Qrow was aiming for.
"Yeah, that one's a work in progress. But she is noticing him."
Kali snorted. "You're not one of those weird guys who thinks a girl likes them if they're constantly insulting them, are you? If that were true, Ghira and I would be fucking like rabbits."
Qrow stared at the woman.
"Hey, what's with that look? I'm being sarcastic here. Me and Ghira? Not a chance."
Qrow stared.
"Oi! Oi! I said not a chance! He's so pathetic. I bet he can't even get it up."
A placard smacked down atop Kali's head, right between her ears. "We have a bigger cause to champion than my penis," said Ghira, causing a few faunus around him to laugh at Kali's expense. The woman's face burned bright red. "Though I'm flattered it's something you can't get out your mind."
"As if it'd be visible to the naked eye anyway! You probably have as stupid a beard down there as you do on your ugly face. I bet you haven't seen it in weeks."
"Mommy and daddy are flirting again," a faunus protestor teased.
"OI!" they growled in unison.
"You're both getting distracted," Summer said, trying to hit Ghira over his head with a sign as he had Kali before realising the incredible height discrepancy and just poking hers into his back instead. "How are the humans here the only ones doing any work. If you have time to wag your tongues, wag those signs instead!"
Chastised, the faunus stomped off, though Ghira and Kali picked opposite directions.
"Those two will never get along..." Summer lamented.
Qrow snorted. "Bet."
"On what?"
"That they marry and have a kid."
Summer looked at him askance. "You're really bad at reading signals, Qrow."
"I'll bet on that one too."
Next Chapter: 27th July
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