God, I almost couldn't write today lol. I thought I'd fixed the work situation with a load of big meetings. All seemed well. Spirits were rising.

Then the owner decided to privately email every employee and "correct some misconceptions" while also criticising to those same employees the Sales Director I had managed to convince to stay.

Naturally, the team having much more loyalty to their manager than a boss they never see, took all those emails TO HER and showed her. Now I'll be surprised if all my work isn't undone come Monday.

Meanwhile, the owner is showing some peak boomer energy with "I thought the staff would show some loyalty to the company. What do I pay them for?"

Idiot! You pay them to work! They work!

Loyalty is built through interaction, involvement, and support. Not the basic payment they're legally entitled to as an employee. Ffs. Arghhh. I feel like screaming and I've had to set my phone off for the back-and-forth texts and emails he's sending me.

Cover Art: Aristeo Storm

Chapter 31

If there was one good thing about being a guy, aside from not having to bleed once a month, it was that going shopping for a suit was so much easier than a dress. Taiyang had once complained that there weren't as many opportunities with a suit for a man to show off, but then Taiyang was good at looking… well, good. Qrow was more of a "throw the closest piece of clothing on and call it a day" kind of guy.

The suit rental on Patch was limited, mostly saved for weddings and the like, but they had an agreement with another store in Vale for when graduation came around, and so the owner had a lot more suits on hand. Qrow got measured, tried on a few sets of pants and jackets to find a set that fit him, then got asked a few simple questions on colour – red, since Summer had made that clear – and was sorted with a crisp black suit with a pale red (not pink) waistcoat over a white button-up dress shirt. He had a bowtie and cuffs as well as a pair of shiny black shoes, all neatly bundled up in a long protective case with the suit on a coat hanger.

It took less than thirty minutes.

That was a stark contrast to Ruby and Summer and a few of their female friends, who had pretty much taken the entire afternoon off to try on dresses. Hours and hours. He was honestly surprised Raven was willing to put up with it. Fashion had never been her thing, nor had patience, but he assumed she was forcing herself to go for Summer's sake. Or maybe graduating had made her cheerful enough to put up with a boring day out.

Either way, the prom was set for the following day and one of Signal's halls had been sealed off while the teachers got it all ready. In Beacon, a team or two were selected to arrange it – something about teaching responsibility – but no one did that here. These were kids between sixteen and seventeen, on the cusp of growing up, and Qrow personally thought it was best to let everyone have fun and not have to work.

Plus, who were they going to trust? He was the top scoring student and yet the thought of leaving it in his hands was ridiculous. He'd just slap a bunch of booze and store-bought snacks on the tables and call it a day.

Ozpin had gotten in touch with them since his last meeting and let them all know they'd be sharing two hotel rooms in Vale. One for Raven and Summer, and one for him. The hotel was one he didn't recognise but it was on the lower end. Not dangerously low budget, but one of those affordable places you might stay at when you didn't want to splurge. More than good enough for three students waiting for Beacon to begin.

Summer was thrilled, anyway. Being away from Patch and in the city would be a breath of fresh air for her, and Qrow was looking forward to it as well. Raven was mostly just curious and wanted to see if there were any tournaments there she could sign up to, but he knew she'd come to love the city as well. She had in the past. Or future. However it all worked.

Patch was nice and all, and a great place to raise a family in Taiyang's case, but it was just so limiting. There were few bars, no actual nightclubs (more a flaw in Yang's mind than anyone else's) and typically only one of most stores. One dust store, one mechanics store, actually no weapon stores though you could buy some parts from the mechanic and get them shipped in.

Vale had more of everything, and even if the price of living there was higher, the price of buying stuff was ironically cheaper. You wouldn't think so given it was the capital city, but a lot of the prices that went into markups in Patch and other places were down to transport. Stuff was often made in Vale and then had to be shipped out, and that was expensive. Not to mention having more competition made the stores cheaper. Given that the few bars on Patch had been "politely warned" not to serve him, he was looking forward to finding some dive bars that the teachers hadn't gotten to first.

His scroll buzzed and Qrow answered without thought. "Yo."

"Yo? Is that how you greet me?"

Qrow blinked, checked the caller ID then answered. "Ah, Willow. Sorry, I didn't realise it was you. My sister is out renting a dress for the prom so I kind of figured it'd be her complaining to me about dress fittings or measurements." He hadn't expected Willow either way. "How are things?"

"Very good, actually. Things are going exceptionally." There was a smug note to the way she said that. Something had her more than pleased. "But that's not why I called. Not exactly. I shall be coming to Vale in the next week with father. There's a business deal he needs to conclude in person. I wanted to meet you in Patch to discuss a… modification to my weapon."

Ruby would have been horrified at the idea of changing her beloved weapon. Qrow knew better. A weapon was a tool, nothing more, and it should evolve as you did. If Willow's style had adapted and she wanted to request some small changes, that was more than fair. Clinging to something that no longer worked was recklessly stupid.

"I'll actually be in Vale," he told her. "Since Signal is closing for the holidays and we want to get used to the city before Beacon starts, so I'll be available whenever you need me."

"Even better. We'll make a date of it."

Qrow chuckled away from the scroll, making sure she couldn't hear. Though Taiyang teased about Summer, it felt much more likely that Willow might have some feelings for him. Crazy, given her marriage to Jacques Schnee, but it was hard for him to comment since he'd only ever seen the broken and defeated version of her in the future.

It did still feel wrong to have someone a year younger than Yang crushing on him like this, but it was fine as long as it was just that. There wasn't anything actually going on between them, so no reason to freak out. And hey if I'm here for my whole life then why not? She may just be a little girl now, but she'll be twenty, twenty-five and thirty eventually.

If she still liked him then, he'd be an idiot not to give it a shot.

The fact he hadn't had any lasting romances in the past didn't mean he couldn't try and do better this time. Hell, there'd been some attempts in Beacon that he'd well and truly fucked up. Ones that had him looking back and wanting to strangle his younger self out of sheer second-hand embarrassment.

Though, in all fairness, romance in the tribe had been a joke too, so it wasn't unreasonable for his old self to be a total moron. Not even ignorant, but just… ugh. Terrible ideas on how romance should work, and what he could ask a girl to do on a date. Stupid, terrible, moronic ideas that made him want to scream.

"Qrow…?"

"Sorry, I drifted off. Yeah, sure. We'll meet up." He realised a moment after hearing her delighted gasp that he'd basically agreed to a date. Welp. There was no helping it. "Just message me when you're in Vale." A thought occurred to him. "Also, how's your father?"

"Father? He's doing well. Why?"

Because Qrow wanted to know if he was going to die soon.

How was he meant to ask that?

"Just wondering, I guess. He must be feeling pretty active if he's coming all the way to Vale for a business deal. Isn't he getting on a little in years?"

"He always likes to do things in person. As for his age, he has been talking about someone to take over. I always assumed it would be me, but father asked if I really wanted to and… I'm not sure."

A successor.

Jacques.

It was easy to hear her father was looking and assume it was because he was dying soon, but Qrow couldn't be sure of that. The man might just be thinking of retiring. "I can talk if you like," said Qrow, sitting down. "I've got time."

"I suppose that wouldn't hurt." He heard the sounds of Willow shifting her skirt under her as she sat down as well, then a whoomph as she flopped back on what he assumed was her bed. "I always assumed I would be the one to take over the family business, but father brought me into a meeting recently and asked me if I really wanted that."

"What did you say?"

"I said yes, obviously, but then he made me sit through a day working with him to see what it's like, and he then told it would take up my hours of almost every day, that I would have to give up being a huntress and commit to it." Willow paused, then continued. "And he made it clear hew wasn't asking me to do that. He just wants me to know the costs involved. And then he asked me again if I wanted to run the business, but told me to think on it over the holidays…"

Qrow felt the overpowering urge to tell her to accept, to take it away from Jacques, to prevent the mistreatment of faunus from ever happening and stop the rise of the White Fang. It was so easy to look at the bad in the future and say how to fix it.

But it wouldn't be easy for Willow, would it?

He'd be dumping all that responsibility on a girl who was only sixteen, and who didn't really have any idea of where to begin. Easy for him to tell her to fix the future. And shouldn't he be looking at what was best for her? Not for him and the White Fang? Qrow cradled his face with one hand and wracked his brain.

"What do you want?" he eventually asked.

"I don't know. That's the problem. I want the company and the freedom, but I finally realise how silly an idea that is."

"What's the alternative?"

"Father is talking about finding someone else to run it. The company would still belong to the family, and I'd have controlling shares, but the decisions would be made by someone – or a team of people – working almost like a trust."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"It's not but… whatever I choose is going to end up being final. He hasn't said that, but learning the ins and outs of the business will take a lot of time. It just won't fit if I'm preparing to become a huntress. But I don't want to give that up, either!"

It was a classic case of both wanting your cake and to eat it. Qrow always hated the saying because it made people sound entitled. Willow wasn't that for being sixteen and not wanting to have to make a decision that would impact the rest of her life. It always felt so shit to him that you were expected to make those kinds of choices early on, with little to no world experience, and then have to deal with the consequences for the rest of your life.

"Do you have time or a deadline to make the decision?"

"Father is asking me to think over the holidays."

"Then let's talk about it when we meet up," he said. "I know it must sound like a cop-out answer, but I don't think this is the kind of thing you should decide over a scroll call."

"I know, and you're right. I think… I think I'd like that. Father tries, but he's so biased and he knows it. That's why he keeps trying to tell me I should make the decision on my own. Not that it helps much."

"It's good of him to not pressure you."

"I know. I'm lucky." Willow sighed. "And I know I'm more fortunate than 99% of the population but that doesn't mean I don't feel stressed as well."

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

Because even the best huntsman felt fear, too.

"We'll talk when you get to Vale, and I'll help however I can."

"Thanks, Qrow. I'm glad I called."

That didn't stop her chatting for another thirty minutes, picking his brain on what they'd do in Vale while trying to get him to agree to more before either of them were even there. He got the feeling she didn't have many friends back home, which would make sense if she was being homeschooled by private tutors. Sure, the serving staff probably liked her and were nice to her, but it wasn't the same as having people your age who were willing to talk back to you and whose jobs didn't rely on being nice.

It just went to show that even the luckiest of people still had their problems.

And while he couldn't solve each and every one, he could spend a little time talking with her to cheer her up. Though he was wise enough not to mention the prom and his date. Willow would react before he could explain.

Summer would probably find it funny.

Sorry for the short chapter but my boss now wants me to come to his home on Saturday to discuss the future of the company. Not sure if this is a "wrapping up" scenario, or a case of him backing out and just dumping full command on me so that he can pull the "told you so" if it fails.

Fun, fun, fun either way!

Next Chapter: 25th May

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