My mother is home today, which is a relief. Hospital has sent her out with 10+ prescriptions and a half-hearted apology for the experience she had, but you can tell it's an apology they've given a hundred times before and it's just delivered because of necessity.

If anything, she's more haunted from the other patients she was kept with, many of whom were on death's door and couldn't perceive the world around her, some crying, screaming, and just not knowing where they are or why.

It feels unbearably sad when the first words out your mother's mouth when you help her home are, "There's such a thing as living too long. I think I'd rather die here and now than live long enough to become like them."

Thanks, hospital.

Cover Art: Aristeo Storm

Chapter 23

Qrow would have liked to say this wasn't the first time he'd been dragged on an impromptu date by a woman, but he'd sadly be lying. One didn't earn a nickname like the "eternal bachelor" without living up to the name. Most of his experience was gained vicariously through watching (being subjected to watching) Taiyang and Raven, and later Taiyang and Summer. Oh, he'd kissed women and slept with them, but it was always casual and usually with other huntresses who themselves accepted it was a fling to let off stress after a particularly close or emotional run-in with Grimm.

Or after failing to save people and needing something – alcohol, drugs, sex, all three – to distract them from it. He was not the right person to talk to there, given his descent into a bottle after Summer's death, but those women hadn't been looking for therapy or answers; they'd been looking for a night to help them forget, and then to forget about in turn.

Looking back, it was kind of sad that his most intimate encounters were forgettable by design. He was the guy they could have one night with and walk away from, and that was how he'd liked it. Too much fear of loving someone as much as he'd loved Summer and losing them. Pathetic in hindsight, but they said it was 20-20, and it was easy to think himself stupid when Summer was alive here.

Qrow knew he was rambling within his own head, and he knew why. Him, underage girl, kissed, date. It was a recipe for a disaster-pie and this fairground might as well have been a pre-heated oven. He really hoped Willow didn't actually have feelings for him, because he just didn't think he could return them while she was… well…

A child.

Uncle mode engaged. Pretend this is Yang or Ruby.

The safe choice. Qrow grinned and felt a little calmer as Willow dragged him deeper into the crowds, away from Taiyang and Summer and Raven. He did feel bad for the guy, but this could work out. They'd always connected well in the future so having Summer befriend Taiyang now was by no means a bad thing.

As for interrupting their date, he wasn't dumb enough to think the "date" would go anywhere. Raven just wasn't interested in romance yet. He'd consider it a win if she and Taiyang got along as friends, or if she even admitted he didn't "suck as much as she thought he would" at the end of the day. Boyfriend and girlfriend could come in Beacon like it had before.

"This is my first time in a fairground on my own," Willow said, finally letting go of his arm and facing him. She wasn't blushing or stammering or shooting him nervous glances; that was a good sign. "I've been with an escort to one or two in Atlas, but it was never the same. We would be hounded by reporters and paparazzi, and everyone was nervous around us. Stall owners would give me prizes without letting me try the games."

"A lot of them are scams. They were probably worried of being caught out."

"I'm aware of that. The chance-based ones are the worst. I don't even see why a child would want to play one when they could try one of the others, but isn't that the point? People pay to play. Not necessarily to win."

"Huh. I guess you're right." It was surprising insight from a girl Ruby's age – which sounded insulting to Ruby, but she'd been mature as well. Most kids just wanted stuff, but now that he thought about it, Ruby and Yang had only cared about the prizes because they had to win them. It was as much the challenge and atmosphere as the material product. "Still doesn't make it fair for these people to make money off kids."

"No. It doesn't. Father always tells me I should be aware of how some families don't have it as easy as ours – and it seems exploitative of these people to prey on those families through their children."

That was, again, surprising to hear her say, but less because of her age and more because of her name. While he'd never really known the Schnee family beyond Winter, he knew how Jacques was with money. Who didn't? This kind of awareness wasn't something you expected to hear from a Schnee, which only went to show how far Jacques dragged the family down in the name of making profit.

"This is the wrong kind of conversation to have," she decided, not incorrectly. "The point I was trying to make is that it will be a new experience to be here with someone on my own."

Risky, too. The White Fang shouldn't have gone violent yet, but they hadn't been the only bad people in Remnant. Still, she was more likely to face pickpockets than kidnappers in a busy place like this.

I'd better look after her either way. Willow is important to Ruby getting one of her best friends back. Though that requiring me to doom her to Jacques is… No. The future doesn't need to be identical. I can help her be confident enough to stand up to him.

Or, given the confidence she was showing already, help her withstand whatever had damaged it in the first place. Willow could have a happier marriage, Winter and her siblings could have a happier childhood, and Jacques could take a jump of a cliff. Everyone won.

"Let's try a few of these games, then," said Qrow. "Though I should warn you I'm not much more experienced than you."

"Haven't you lived in Mistral before?"

"Only for a year or so. Raven and I lived with our family in the wilderness." Though he'd grown up outside it in his older life and been with Ruby and Yang once or twice. "These places were never my kind of thing – though I can make an exception for a cute girl."

Willow blushed and Qrow cursed himself. He'd meant cute girl as in cute little girl, like a niece. A child who— well, it wasn't hard to see what she thought he meant. Damn it. He ran a hand through his hair and looked around for an escape and found it in a stall nearby. It was one of those ball-toss games with stacked cans you had to knock over, and great big stuffed toys for the winner.

"Want to test your luck?" he asked, prodding her toward it. Willow looked like she'd rather talk about what he'd just called her, so he pulled out the big guns and went for something he knew would have pissed Winter off. "I bet you can't pull it off."

Blue eyes widened and then narrowed, and her teeth were bared in a snarl. "Excuse me!?" she hissed. "Are you saying I can't knock a bunch of cans over with a ball? Get out my way. I'll show you how it's done!"

Mission success. No Schnee could take an insult to their pride laying down, and no huntress would accept someone questioning their skills. They got that a lot already. It was a thing, or it had been in the future, that some losers would question how many huntresses really earned their positions. Namely because huntsmen were often big and burly, and huntresses were typically slim and lithe.

Which didn't matter when aura, mechashift and Semblances came into the mix, but you could always trust jumped-up civvies to think they knew best. Huntresses were commonly very beautiful as well, but then so were huntsmen. It was just a typical result of their extreme exercise regimes and aura regenerating skin tissue to give them an ageless beauty. Both huntsmen and huntresses were often fetishised for it.

Yet another reason huntsmen and huntresses preferred to date among one another. The other reason was simple power dynamics; try as you might, relationships where one side could break the other if they weren't careful always had an element of implied threat to them, even if you never meant it that way.

The deep analysis on huntsmen/huntress relations with civilian bodies helped keep his mind centred, letting him follow after Willow without freaking out over the fact he was on a date with a child. Was this grooming? It felt like grooming. Brother Gods, just lock him up and throw away the key. Though… being able to say "your mom" to Winter would have been fucking amazing some twenty years in the future.

That was twenty years in the future, though. He'd gladly entertain a night with grown-up Willow Schnee looking like the deeply repressed married woman she was, in need of a rough and tumble huntsman to make her see stars.

Less so with child Willow, for obvious reasons.

"Fifty lien for three balls?" said Willow, slapping a hand on the counter. "I'll only need the one."

The pudgy man pointed to a sign. No huntsmen/huntresses.

"Do we look like we're adults?"

"You look like students at Haven," said the man. Somehow, he didn't appear to recognise Willow Schnee. Qrow guessed it was because the Schnee family wasn't quite as infamous as it would soon become. "It's the same thing."

"How interesting. I was under the impression that Mistral had made price discrimination illegal. I wonder what the officials here would say if they knew someone was attempting to deny service to an entire subset of the population."

"What!?" The man was sweating. "I'm not providing a service. This is a game."

"You're providing entertainment and distraction to people here for the festival, and there are plenty of huntsmen and huntresses, not to mention students competing who have come from every corner of Remnant." Willow was in full swing now, and a few people who had been playing were listening in. "How are they to explain to their children that they can't play the game because their parents are huntsmen?"

"I… I…"

"Must be painful," said Qrow, stepping up beside Willow with a shit-eating grin. "Imagine risking your life day-in and day-out, and you finally get a weekend off to take your child to the fair, only to be told you're not welcome."

It wasn't just about backing her up, either. He'd felt this with Ruby and Yang. They'd often let the tykes play, but never him. And they only ever let Ruby and Yang play once. Enough to see they were skilled. Sometimes it'd only be one of them at all.

That was always Yang who lost out. Yang, who would know the stall owner would only allow them one chance, and that Ruby was the younger sister. She'd hold her sister up as Ruby threw a ball with a sniper's accuracy and won a prize, only to be told Yang wasn't allowed a go because they were obviously too skilled for carnival games. Ruby would always donate half the won prizes to Yang, but he'd known even then how much it smarted to be denied the same fun every other kid got.

"Is this how Mistral wishes to thank those who risk their lives against the Grimm?" asked Willow. Those around had begun to close in, faces like thunder, and the man running the stall was in a frantic panic. "To think greed would win out over the spirit of the Vytal Festi—"

"Here!" The man yanked down a unicorn plushie and shoved it into Willow's hands. "Take it and go!" he spat, shooing her away. "I'm just trying to make a living!"

Willow looked absolutely furious and about ready to tear the toy in half. Qrow plucked it out her hands and gave it to a small girl nearby, ignored the way she gasped in delight, and took Willow's arm, dragging her away. "Leave it," he said. Loudly. "This huntsman-hating guy isn't worth it. "I guess we know when we're not welcome."

They escaped as the angry crowd descended on the man to chastise and harangue him, and the crowd would surely draw attention from officials. There were no rules against it, sadly. He knew from him and Taiyang trying in their day. But it wouldn't matter. The officials would be angry enough at the disturbance that they'd probably fine the man. Denying them a chance to play was shitty but allowed. Insulting them was a cultural faux pas.

"I can't believe that man!" she spat. "And I left the fifty lien on the counter, too."

"Isn't money meaningless to you?"

"It's not about me! I don't want him to get anything if he's going to act like that!" Willow huffed. "Let's just try another stall."

Qrow could have told her it wouldn't work out.

This was the Vytal Festival. Sure, in a normal carnival you might have found a few stalls willing to stomach a loss and let the huntsman kids play, but this was an event where there were hundreds of them around. You had students from every major academy, not to mention Sanctum's brats out in droves.

He tried anyway, and even attempted to reason with some by saying they just wanted to play and wouldn't expect a prize for it, but rules were rules, and the stall-owners were worried that others might get ideas if they saw him and Willow playing. He'd have suggested they dress up as civilians, but how did one actually go about that? Qrow had never been one in his many decades of combined lives. They could toss on some hoodies and rough up their hair, but he didn't think that would help.

Civilians just looked and acted different. They walked different, talked different, felt different. It wasn't something he could place, and he was sure they felt as alien to the civilians. In the end he and Willow slowly meandered out the carnival, feeling like they weren't welcome. That the festival was only meant for normal people, and that they were the attractions – a freak show meant to fight and perform for the audience, but not to be counted among them.

At least the cotton candy stall wasn't afraid to serve them for fear they'd somehow ruin his business. Qrow carried back a stick of the obnoxious stuff back to Willow and handed it to her. It tasted nice, but he'd developed a true hatred for the mess it could leave on Ruby and Yang's faces and clothes. The stuff was freaking evil. Or maybe it was kids that were evil, able to make a mess out of anything.

Willow was old enough to make sure the food went in her mouth and not all over her face and clothes. He was grateful for that. Sadly, she was also young and adorable and sad enough to hit every single one of his uncle buttons, and he was a hair's breadth away from showing the carnival some Branwen hospitality.

Damn this future MILF looking so adorable and unhappy.

"Hey…" He knew it was a bad idea, but he couldn't do nothing, so he slipped an arm around her shoulder and tugged her against him. A comforting hug, the type he used to give Yang before she became too cool for hugs. "I'm sorry it didn't work out. This is probably why a lot of kids from the academies just go on the rides and do the lottery stalls." He chuckled. "Maybe that's the reason those random luck stalls exist at all. You can't fudge luck with skill."

Unless you were named Qrow Branwen and had his Semblance, which was something he was glad had gone back to being locked. At least, he assumed it was locked, but between being on Ozpin's radar and having a date with a child, he wasn't sure. The bad luck from his Semblance tended to be a lot more dangerous, though. It didn't manifest in harmless and embarrassing ways, but more in the sense of tripping him or someone up in a fight and nearly getting them killed. It was safely locked away for now, and he'd be doing his best to never unlock it.

"I suppose so." Willow still looked upset, and he was reminded of her age once again. An older teenager would have brushed it all off. Willow was fourteen. "I just wanted to see what it was like to be a normal girl…"

Younger than Ruby.

And upset.

Qrow wanted to smash heads.

It was always like this. A girl upset, him not knowing what to do, and usually having to deflect and distract instead. Ruby was easily distracted with comics and guns. With Willow…? He had no idea.

Jumping up, he ran over to a nearby dustbin. It was unhygienic, sure, but he had aura and delved in, fishing out a couple of discarded cans of soft drink. Six in total. He rushed over to a raised bit of wall and stacked them up in a pyramid, three, then two, then one on top. It was a pathetic display, but he picked up a rock and bounced it in his palm, then sauntered back to Willow and offered her it.

"You said you only needed one shot. Let's see if you're as good as you think."

She looked at the stone and the cruddy cans with a dismal expression, and for a moment he thought she wouldn't bother, but then she sighed and tried to pretend the barb had gotten to her. "I'll show you who you're doubting," she said, but her heart wasn't in it. She tossed the stone up and down a few times to get used to the weight, narrowed her eyes, stepped forward—

Qrow poked two fingers into her side under her ribs.

"Eeep!"

The stone pinged off to the side, striking the dustbin.

"You missed."

"You poked me!" she cried, red-faced and angry. "T—That was cheating!"

He smirked. "I don't remember there being any rules, princess." He picked up another stone. "Want to try again?"

"Don't call me that!" Willow snatched it from his hand and took several steps away from him. He followed. "Ah! Back!" she said, warning him with the rock. "Back or I'll show you how easily I can hit you with this!"

"So violent."

He stepped back.

Willow glared at him to make sure he would and then started preparing herself. When she was ready, he brought his hand to his mouth and hacked out a violent cough. Willow froze, mid-throw, but managed to keep hold of the stone and glare at him.

"Something in my throat," he lied.

Willow went to throw again.

Qrow made to cough.

Willow paused.

Qrow paused.

Willow raised her arm.

Qrow took a deep breath.

Willow lowered her arm.

He let the breath out.

Fast as a whippet, Willow snapped her arm out and launched the stone, hitting the stacked cans with decent accuracy and sending them spinning. Technically speaking, he could have distracted her faster, but he hadn't wanted her to lose, only to get lost in the competition.

"Ha!" she crowed, bad mood forgotten. "I did it! Eat dirt, Qrow!"

"You hit one shot and think you're all that," he teased. "But you weren't able to hit it with a little distraction."

"I could have! I just wasn't expecting it! Stack those cans up and I'll show you!"

Demanding little princess. Yang and Ruby were much more polite, but he supposed he didn't dislike the character from her. Rolling his eyes, he went to stack the cans again so she could keep playing this impromptu version of the stall game they'd been disallowed from playing in the carnival proper.

But at least she was smiling again.

Small victories.

/-/

"He's smooth," said the woman in a black suit, white shirt, and black shades.

"My brother never fails to impress," said Raven.

Taiyang stood behind them, three sticks of cotton candy in hand. He understood why he, Raven and Summer had ended up stalking Qrow on his "date" but didn't quite get where this fourth member had come from. A grown woman who looked like a secret agent, with a wire tap microphone down the side of her face as well.

Crouched in the bushes right between Summer and Raven peeking at Qrow and Willow.

"Um…"

"Ignore me," said the grown woman. "I'm here to ensure the heiress is protected."

"She's cool," agreed Raven. "Has a gun and everything."

Was that cool? Taiyang would have said that was "concerning" but he didn't want to look uncool in front of his crush, so he agreed instantly. "That is cool."

Summer rolled her eyes at him. Hey, he was trying his best! And it wasn't like he hadn't had to adapt to a lot of weird stuff today. He just hoped he'd earned some points for agreeing to drop his fate to stalk Qrow's. The guy was nice enough to set him up with his sister, and he got the feeling Raven would have bombed their date if he'd forced it to continue.

Better to play along and make Raven happy. Maybe this way he could convince her to let him hang around more. Maybe even squeeze a second date out of her by claiming this one was interrupted.

"I got us all snacks," said Taiyang. Raven snatched her stick of cotton candy while Summer accepted hers with a quiet thank you. Taiyang blinked when the suited woman held her hand out, but ultimately sighed and handed her his.

"Thanks, kid. Um. This is nice."

"Yeah. I bet." Taiyang sighed and squatted on Raven's other side. "What are they doing?"

"He set up a ball-throw game for her because the stalls wouldn't let her play," the bodyguard answered. Taiyang hadn't really meant the question to her. "Damn brat has the moves, I'll tell you that. You could learn something from him, kid."

"I don't think I should take advice from a woman stealing candy from a teenager."

"Isn't it the guy's duty to buy a girl snacks on a date?"

His brow twitched. "I'm on a date with Raven. Not three women at once!"

"Do you want to watch the master at work and steal dating tips to use on his sister or not?"

Taiyang pouted. "I mean… kinda…"

"Then get down here and watch."

With a sigh, Taiyang joined them in stalking Qrow. The guy was so casually good with women that Taiyang had the feeling he'd been the kind to end up with a harem or something, or to end up bedding his whole team. The lucky bastard. People like Qrow didn't know what it was like to suffer to talk to girls. That red-eyed, black-haired bastard!

I must learn from him!

Pot has met the kettle. I repeat, pot has met the kettle.

Also, poor Qrow at having to teach his harem-protagonist teammate how to talk to girls.

Next Chapter: 30th March

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