Chapter 16

[Qrow Branwen]

"I just don't understand her, Qrow. I asked one thing from her. One!" Taiyang ranted, running his fingers through his blond hair and pushing it back. "Call me to tell me where she is and answer when I call her. It can't be that hard," the man groaned. He had been drilling his ear off since his spat with the little dragon went sideways. The girl had been grounded for three months. Everyone lost, even Qrow, who now had to offer his metaphorical shoulder to one of his few friends. "What do you think?"

The whole thing ended on a very sour note after very uncalled-for things were said and the girl earned herself what was basically house arrest. She'd be cooped inside until it was almost time for her to leave for Beacon.

Not that he thought Yang would stay put. She simply wasn't the type. His niece was far too rebellious and too much of a free spirit to take that without at least a breakout attempt… or five. The girl could be surprisingly stubborn when she didn't think she was in the wrong.

However, he did notice she was far more emotional than usual. Qrow mulled over his thoughts as he closed the half-open kitchen window, stopping the chilly current of wind. The sky was clear and starry that night but that didn't make the winter breezes any less colder.

Qrow wasn't stupid, he was just often drunk. Despite that, even he knew what she was looking for during her little escapades to Vale. The fact that her attitude was so different meant that something changed from all the other times… and he knew Tai noticed that too.

"Well, I think those are two things," he snarked, trying to change the mood as he stood on his toes to reach the tall cupboards. Why did Tai have to build the damn things so high?

He understood that Ruby's cookie storage wouldn't be as safe if it was at hand-distance from the little red. However, that strategy wasn't working anymore after all her huntress training. The girl had long since learned how to use her semblance to sneak her treats away. There was no point in those things being so far up other than being annoying to reach.

"Fuck you, Qrow," his old teammate huffed. "I'm trying to have a serious conversation here."

"And I'm trying to get a drink in peace but it seems neither of us are going to get what we want today, huh?" he asked, straining as he stretched more. His fingers scraped against the wide glasses used for bourbon, unable to hook around the ridge. It took him a few tries to be successful, especially since he refused to emasculate himself and get a stool. "Yes!" Qrow cheered, grinning as his hand managed to latch on two of the glasses.

The glee was short-lived when the cupboard door decided to come apart at the hinges and fall on top of his head a moment later. The unexpected misfortune made him drop the two glasses and fumble with them in the air for a few seconds. By some unlucky miracle, all his decades as a huntsman seemed to fail him and he only managed to grab one and watch in tired acceptance as the other crashed against the wood-tiled floor into a dozen shards.

"Fuck," he hissed, eloquently.

"...I'll get the dustpan," Tai sighed. The sound of the chair scraping against the floor filled his ears as he glared at the biggest piece of transparent glass. 'Just my luck,' Qrow thought with a bitter smile.

He hated his semblance so much.

Five minutes and a swept floor later, they sat in front of the table. The faint ticking of the kitchen's wall clock almost echoed in the otherwise quiet room. The mood was still filled with the leftover tension from the verbal spat. Hence the reason for the drink. It always helped him move past the bad vibes.

Qrow handed the glass to Tai while he himself settled with a ceramic cup. It was better than breaking the remaining expensive glass after all. He just hoped it didn't belong to one of the kids. He'd make sure to wash it well later, just in case.

"So, now, are you done breaking my home apart? Are you going to be a friend now and listen to me-?" the blond dad asked before he was interrupted by a raised finger.

Qrow filled the coffee cup with some of Tai's preferred bourbon. The amber liquid poured into his cup, filling his nostrils with the familiar smell of alcohol. It wasn't his favorite brand by any means, but he wasn't drinking for the taste anyway.

Once he got it half-full, the disheveled huntsman rummaged his pocket for his metal flask. The latch came undone in one swift, practiced, movement and he poured the alcoholic blend inside, filling the cup to the brim. Qrow used a small teaspoon to mix it all before he grabbed the mug and drank it all in a few loud gulps. The burn of the drink spread from his mouth through his full body, mixing with the lingering warmness of the kitchen.

"...Are you done?" Tai asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hold on," Qrow answered, repeating the previous steps and downing yet another cup. "...Okay, carry on."

"...That's going to kill you one day…" the blond huffed, but there was no hiding the hint of worry directed at him in the man's eyes.

It made Qrow feel like shit.

Which, in turn, made him crave to fill his body with even more alcohol. His fingers half-consciously twitched towards the bottle, but Tai took it for himself and away from his reach. The man poured himself a bit of the beverage, a far more humble amount than him. He was sure that'd been done just so he wouldn't drink more.

"I reckon some Grimm or a Titan out there will get the job done far earlier than a few drinks. Who knows?" he slurred, feeling the alcohol starting to take its course, the pleasant buzz and numbness spreading in his head. His flask's contents were barely enough for a last cup so it seemed he would have to drink it sparingly.

Annoying.

"Well, carry on then," Qrow acquiesced, unwilling to talk about his drinking habits with that man, of all people. "Your teenage girl didn't answer the phone when out partying… you realize that's every teenager out there, right?" he asked, doing his best not to address the elephant in the room.

"I-I get that. I get that I can be a bit overbearing with that, but I need to know they are safe and what they are doing. I'm their dad," Taiyang said, half spitting out the words.

"Yang is joining Beacon in a few months. You of all people know how well she can defend herself," Qrow pointed out the obvious. An odd sense of pride filled him with the memories of his oldest niece kicking ass in class. It was always great entertainment for when he acted as a teacher in Signal.

"I understand, okay?" the blond man complained. One of his hands went back to messing with his hair while the other swirled the glass of bourbon. "But- I still need to know, you know? After…" Tai started, cutting himself off.

This wasn't about the girls only.

Both of them knew that. Both of them had been hurt- were still hurt, but while Qrow found his peace at the bottom of a bottle, Tai found it in his girls. Seeing Yang leave every time to find her, opened some old wounds he never managed to heal.

Blue eyes stared at the swirling amber liquid, losing themselves in memories that Qrow could only guess. A blink and the haze in his stare was gone, his former teammate returning to the present. With a sigh, the man downed his glass and served himself another one.

The ghost of lyrical tittering and cutting pedantic remarks made themselves known in the heavy silence. It was always the same when they were alone. When his nieces weren't there to distract and fill it with life. Like something was missing. Torn from them.

Qrow craved a drink more and more by the second.

"I understand I'm being overbearing, but… every time they go out there, and I'm here, alone I just-... I'm their dad and I understand they are growing and they'll leave eventually but is it really that bad for me to want to still be part of their life?!" Taiyang ranted while his cheeks gained a rosy tint to them.

He had always been a lightweight, especially when he drank too fast.

"... They are so much like them, you know?" his head cast down, making it impossible for Qrow to see his expression.

He felt parched.

"Not only in looks, I mean. Ruby has the same hero bone Summer did," Taiyang snorted. "She has the same dimple on her cheeks when she smiles and the same untamable bad hair. She doesn't like apples like Sum' did, but she is just as enthusiastic as her mom was when cookies are nearby."

The man sounded amused, melancholic, and wistful as he poured himself another drink.

"The other day I caught her humming that old song Summer liked. You know the one I mean? The one she wanted as her opening for her future Mistralian anime about her adventures." Qrow remembered. She wanted him to do voice lines. Even wrote him a script. It was awful, all of it, but more so the fact that he never got to speak those lines to her. "Ruby didn't know where she got it from. I imagine Summer probably sang it to her at some point." His voice came out softly.

Their team leader had always had a thing for music. She'd even had the talent for it. Qrow thought that if she hadn't been as set on becoming a huntress, Summer would have been a great singer.

A part of him wished she had followed through with that instead.

"Thank you for watching out for her, by the way," Taiyang said. His downcast eyes finally rose and met Qrow's, who returned the gratitude with a nod and a raised mug.

It hadn't been too hard of a job to find his little niece in Vale after Tai sent him her last known location. All he had to do was to check for any weapon-related shop in the general area and more often than not, she'd be there. A quick flight on his crow form and a stolen flier from an orange girl in the process of being arrested close by was enough for him to find his niece.

The reminder of her location added yet another sour note to his mood.

He wondered if it had been a particularly powerful bout of his Semblance that led to Ruby ending up exactly at the store of one of the two people Ozpin had told him to keep a careful eye on. Sometimes, his bad luck tended to spike uncontrollably and he cursed his lost ability to control it.

Still, though, a clue was a clue, no matter how annoying and worrying. So, he'd have to remember to take the info of those two kids that were spreading the fliers. He'd swing by the police station and see what he could get.

Qrow took another swig of his cup, ending the remaining drink in one go. His hand instinctively went to the flask. He shook the metal container to see if there was anything left. A pleasant light sloshing was his answer, making him drink from the open neck of the bottle to get the last of the dredges of his special mix.

Nothing terrible happened this time, at least. Though, he'd have to keep an eye on things in that regard. He didn't miss the eager skip on Ruby's step as he followed her and her sister back home from Vale. Nor had he forgotten his encounter with his other target shortly before Ruby left the store.

"Yang…" Tai mumbled softly suddenly, bringing him back to the present. The tanned man looked far more inebriated than before, the rosy pink had given place to a striking red and his eyes had gone slightly blurry. It seemed Qrow had lost himself for a bit there. In his defense, he was a bit drunk already.

He might need another drink to focus again.

"Yang has the same stubbornness Raven did…" his former teammate slurred, words coming out with a slight sloppy lisp. "Though she is a lot more hot-headed, she must have gotten that from me. Raven was always the calculative one out of all of us. Always pragmatic. You never knew what she was thinking, only that whatever it was, she wouldn't compromise on her opinion without a fight…"

Qrow felt both sadness and anger as his twin sister was brought into the conversation. His teeth clenched together as he felt a vein throb. The haziness of the alcohol diminished when he unconsciously let his Aura flare up.

The veteran huntsman let out a slow sigh as he closed his eyes. Power receding and inebriation returning. He'd promised himself he wouldn't be angry at her mention anymore. She wasn't worth it.

It seemed they would be addressing the main issue after all.

"I never managed to make her budge on anything. Not even the slightest bit. I thought that it was okay to respect her lines. To let her set the pace, just so she would be comfortable."

Silence filled the room, only accompanied by the crisp clicks of the wall clock, the clink of a bottle against a quickly filling glass and the whistle of the winter gales as they passed through the tree crowns. He could see the first snowflakes falling from the dark low clouds from where he sat.

It seemed a storm was on its way.

"I... I still wonder if it was my fault at times, you know? Maybe if I had tried a little harder, if I had pushed a little more, then maybe she wouldn't have left. Maybe she would have stayed and been happy with all of us… with me. Maybe she'd love me," Taiyang continued, his voice wavering. "If I had been better back then maybe she'd-"

"Fuck that shit," Qrow cut through the man's thoughts instantly. "Raven is a cold-hearted bitch. Period. Calculative, you called her? More like a sociopath," he ranted, despite his previous promise.

He couldn't take it anymore. Perhaps he had drunk too much.

"Don't try to take the blame for her mistakes. She is not some sort of… misunderstood victim in all this. You're not the one that left her husband and daughter and team behind without even a goodbye, she was," he spat with vitriol.

"You know you are talking about my ex-wife, right? I should beat you up for insulting her," Taiyang chuckled at his tirade. It was soft and unenthusiastic, but it was something. A little raft of humor in a sea of shit and depression but that was good enough in his books.

Sometimes it was all you could afford to keep you going.

"Well, the joke's on you, she is my twin sister. I am above you in seniority so I can call her a bitch as much as I fucking want," Qrow said with a grandiose gesture. He felt his vision swim a bit with the movement. How much had he drunk again? When did he fill his cup with bourbon again?

Qrow shrugged and downed his newly apparated drink. The burning sensation of alcohol spread through his tongue and tonsils. It tasted awful, but he needed it right now.

"...She is not like her, by the way," Qrow shared what had been on his mind for a while.

Taiyang just hummed questioningly, barely aware of what was going on, it seemed. Qrow wasn't surprised. He looked about done, with his head resting against the table and one of his hands fidgeting with an almost empty bottle.

"Yang, I mean," he clarified. "They look alike and have similar attitudes, but… Yang's not her. She cares. Raven never did. They love you, her and Ruby both. I know the spitfire and know she won't ever leave family behind."

"...I just can't lose them too," Tai's voice sounded almost like a plea. His cloudy eyes closed slowly as alcohol ran its course and delivered him to blissful sleep. Qrow allowed himself another curse towards his sister in the privacy of his mind before comforting his friend.

"You won't. I'll make sure of it," he promised, his words echoing in the room and inside him.

His only answer to his vow was the soft snores of a sleeping father and the weeping winds from the storm outside. Idly, Qrow went to take another gulp, looking towards the window as he heard the flapping of wings in between the snow. That was one unfortunate creature, he thought, shaking his head.

'Sorry if you got caught in my semblance,' he thought, raising a toast for the poor bird and finishing his new glass faster than he'd served it.

[}-o-{]

[Yang Xiao Long]

Her mind was a mess.

Her purple eyes stared straight at the ceiling from where she laid on her bed. The storm outside, with harsh winds and blurry sights from all the snow, seemed to have decided to imitate her emotional state. Yang couldn't quite focus on any of that though, as distracted as she found herself with her own musings.

It had been a long, long night and not just because of how much her father and her had shouted at each other. That wasn't a cheerful thing to remember. For a moment, she remembered all the things she shouldn't have said and all the better comebacks she should have.

Changing trains of thought didn't really help.

"What I propose is that you make her care."

Sleeping on it hadn't made the night she'd had at Junior's club any better. She could almost feel those black eyes staring at her from across a non-existent bar table. The shadows of her room seemed to come alive as soon as her mind got distracted, only to return to normal whenever she actually looked. It was… very annoying.

Yeah, that was the word.

Honest.

What an offer the absolute freak had made her though. Did he think it was that easy? It'd taken her that long to even get any good information on her mother. She was across the world, disconnected from "polite society" and being… a bandit. Much as she'd like to be optimistic and think there were chances, she'd also been hurt a lot through the years of chasing after her mother.

Yang wanted answers, but she wasn't blind.

"The strong live and the weak die," Blackwood had said mockingly, imitating what the file seemed to emphasize, with bold, italic and underlined letters. Ok, maybe it wasn't that exaggerated, but it certainly seemed to make sure one would know that her mother quite liked saying that. "Funny, huh?"

Funny wasn't the word she'd use.

She didn't know what to think anymore. She tried, she really did, but Yang couldn't find a way to make sense of what her mother did. There had to be something, right? Why else had her father even settled with her first instead of Summer? There had to be something that'd explain… everything.

"Do you think you are strong enough?" Blackwood had asked her and maybe before that night, she'd have been pretty confident. Sure, she wasn't the strongest person around, but she was strong, the strongest in her year. She was growing stronger by the day, her father and Qrow – among other people that were stronger than her – were people she could see herself catching up to.

Except that the situation had changed.

That had all been thrown out the window by the fight with Blackwood. And she was being very generous because it had been more of a… humiliation. It was an unfathomable thing. He was an unfathomable thing. Yang couldn't see how someone like her could approach such a figure. At least when she fought against other strong people, they were understandably strong.

Blackwood seemed unreal.

"Do you think you can be strong?" the man had asked her, wearing a smile that told her exactly what he thought of her chances. It hurt, not only her pride but also her hopes. Because he was right.

The strong live and the weak die.

"I can make you strong," Blackwood had proceeded to tell her, even without hearing her answer. To be fair, Yang wasn't even surprised that he could read her like a book. It had been that kind of night. And besides, she'd been too busy processing that offer.

Becoming strong.

The strong live and the weak die.

"So… Think it over, alright?" Blackwood had finished with, insufferable and confident smile in place. Even then, back at home, hours later and far, far from the club, she could still hear his voice, drilling a hole through her skull.

"Why do you care?" she'd asked in the moment, finally finding her voice.

And in response, Blackwood had laughed.

"I don't," he'd answered as if that were obvious. "But I'm a fan of anything interesting I come across and enjoying it to the fullest. So, how can I let such a spectacle pass me by? I don't even know who you are, but you've quite literally been dropped on my lap, Ms. Mommy Issues. I wanna see how this show goes."

The absolute bastard.

And yet, Yang couldn't take the piece of shit out of her mind.

Turning on her bed once more, she frowned, glaring at the far wall as if it were Blackwood himself. A moment later, she closed her eyes, and yet that didn't help any. Her mind seemed intent on torturing her with the conversation, going over every word, every expression and even the fucking music. She couldn't take it off her thoughts.

Truly, how was she supposed to keep her calm with her overbearing father after such a night?

"I can make you strong."

"So… Think it over, alright?"

And thinking it over she was, much as she'd rather do literally anything else. No matter what she did, nothing seemed to take her mind off. All she could do was consider those words and remember all the time she'd spent chasing after her mother. Now, she had to wonder if there was any other option, because much as she despised Blackwood, he seemed like her only chance.

The only chance she'd come across in all her years of life.

So, could she put up with that and go for it? Could she ignore him and focus on the goal? Yang had been trying to find answers for so long now and she'd told herself that she wouldn't be reckless anymore. She could wait, right? She could be patient and keep looking. She didn't need Blackwood. She didn't.

Now, she just needed to believe the shit she was telling herself.

"Do you think you can be strong?"

Why couldn't the man shut the fuck up even in her fucking mind?!

Yang took a deep breath in and opened her eyes. The room was dark, with the moonlight barely getting through the storm outside. She let out the air in her lungs and the action felt like admitting defeat, which hurt her already bruised pride all over again. Then she chuckled weakly and reached for the nightstand, taking her scroll and turning it on.

She stared at the screen for a long few seconds and then… She started typing, each tap making her feel weak.

'What do I have to do?' she read.

And then she hit Sent.

[} Chapter End {]

Arc: Things brewing in the background. I can feel it!

Adrian: Things are definitely happening. Can't say I expected the Yang line to take up so much, but oh well. I'm not complaining, I don't know about you, guys. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Random Adrian Question: Where did you read this story first? Here or in Kingdom Fables? For those that found it here first, Kingdom Fables is a story collection "story" Arc and I post mostly to test out how a series might do. Go check it out if you enjoy our writing.

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