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Requested By : Polemoduke

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Qrow spent the last few days of the week at the house, taking the ‘afternoon shift’ watching the girls play outside. And teaching them about Grimm, too, of course. Neither of them were crazy about either of the girls taking up ‘the family business’, of course, but… Well, Ruby had her mother’s eyes, and that meant she needed to know a bit about how to defend herself. And Yang? Well, Yang was hardly the type to just sit on the side-lines if someone was bullying her sister.

And her birthday had made that even worse…

Shaking the thought off he fished out his flask, stole a sip, and called out in the little game they’d made up, “Barrel roll!”

Both girls stopped their little game of stick tag - which really just looked like Ruby flashing around her sister and thwacking her with a stick while Yang tried to defend herself - and leapt up and away from each other. They hit the ground, rolled and bounced up on their feet in what passed for ‘action stances’. At least, according to Ruby. Which meant Yang fell into the boxing style she’d been picking up from Tai and Ruby…

Well, Ruby squawked as she stumbled and her Semblance flared unconsciously, sending her flying another foot back where she lay in the dirt.

And giggled like an idiot.

Smiling, he called out the next random thing that came to mind, “Hand-stand!”

Yang was more athletic than her sister, more balanced, thanks to her age and rolled onto her hands easily. Ruby, though, spent thirty seconds trying, failing, and flopping on the grass before Yang rolled back to her feet and laughed, “You’re so clumsy, dummy!”

“I’m not a dummy!” Ruby stood up, protesting and pouting and tugging her little red shirt straight. Yang just laughed and Qrow did, too, before he could catch himself. Turning to him, she squawked indignantly, “Uncle Qrow! You traitor!”

“Yeah, yeah.” He waved her off, nursing his flask and smiling. “Bite me, kiddo.”

“I’ll do it!” She stomped her foot, rushing over to him in a flash and nearly clambering up him with one arm, hooking a finger into her mouth to show him her teeth. “Shee! I gotsh my sharpiesh back!”

“Yeah, yeah, buzz off, twerp.” He laughed, getting a hand between them and against her sternum so he could shove her off and up, into the air. It was an old trick, and she laughed as he did it, petals already flowing off her as she went to catch herself-

Then her eyes widened, and Qrow felt that tiny, gentle little burn that told him his Aura was working, and dropped his flask, fumbling for her-

Only for her to flutter away and reappear, her panic driving her Semblance to carry her away as she collapsed, clawing at her throat and seizing in the dirt under a window. Tai was inside, in the kitchen doing dishes right there, and saw her go down. Saw Qrow leap to her and scoop her up into his arms. He didn’t even use the door, yanking the window open and pulling himself through, kicking off with a foot and turning in a move only a Huntsman could. He came down on Qrow’s side and shoved him away, all animalistic, paternal fury as he cradled his daughter.

“Shhhh.” He murmured as he rocked on his knees and the tremors stopped, Ruby sucking in deep breaths while Yang came over and reached for her. Wary of Tai’s temp, Qrow tugged her into a hug while Tai murmured. “You’re okay, Rosebud, you’re okay.”

“Rubes…?”

“She just needs a sec, Yang.” Qrow grunted, tugging her onto his hip as he stood and turned, carrying her into the house. “Finish up dishes while your dad helps your sis?”

“Sure…”

He flicked her a look as he sat her down and she padded into the kitchen, carrying the little stool she used to clean the counters and whatever else whenever Qrow wasn’t around and Tai wasn’t… All there. She put up a tough front, she was used to it, but he could tell she was confused. And scared. And angry. And, hell, who was he to even say anything?

He was murderous…

He watched Tai come in a second later, headed straight for the bedrooms with a sniffling little girl in his arms. Then he slipped out, leaned against the wall by the door and crossed his arms, and frowned. “I know you’re there, Rae.”

The woman appeared around the edge of a wall, dressed for combat and with her hand wrapped so tightly around her sword-hilt what knuckles he could see with her glove were white. The other flexed and relaxed, curled and uncurled, in an old tic of hers that told him she wanted a head on a pike, too.

“It’s mid-afternoon.”

“What?” Given the way she snarled the words, he would have thought someone suggested she play house maid for Ozpin himself. Shaking his head, he grunted, “So?”

“The first shocks came when?”

“Early afternoon…” An hour behind now, in fact. It had been dark by the time everything settled, by the time the girls were in bed and Raven showed up, but it had been close. Close enough his eyes narrowed at the coincidence. “You think it’s important?”

“Don’t you?”

He did, now that she’d pointed it out, and he reached for his flask before he realised he’d dropped it when Ruby had fallen. Sighing, he paced around the corner to the little garden - or what had been one, but was now little more than a few fallow fields, and had been since Summer died. Raven followed him, trailing along with steps that were purposefully just loud enough for him to know, and he grunted as he sat back in his spot and checked to see how much of his whiskey had spilled. Not much, as it turned out.

The good luck somehow only pissed him off…

“It has to line up with something.” Raven pointed out lowly, leaning against the wall and watching the open window warily.

Sighing, Qrow called out, “Yang! Close the window ‘fore bugs get in!”

“Fine!” Her quiet voice chirped back, muted by the wall, the distance and the counter and sink. He turned to give Raven an unimpressed look after the window slid shut and the woman sighed and muttered her thanks.

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“When, though?” He asked, ignoring the brief distraction to get back to the discussion. The math was quick to run in his head and he frowned, “Mantle is too early for anything daily, Vacuo way too late, and Atlas and Vale are a few hours off dinner. So short of some random fucking festival, or ceremony or some shit that happens weekly-”

“Which you don’t know any of.”

“-the time ain’t helpful.”

“Hmm… Actually…” Raven's face relaxed and she started tapping her hand on her armored corset, more ways to tell she was thinking. And hard, too. Finally, she muttered, “High class start their dinners early… Not this early, but closer than dinner. People get off work now, too. In the cities, at least.”

“And already are in Vacuo, so that last bit adds a whole Kingdom back in.” He grunted, waving it off. Even then, it was a weak point - it assumed way too much, more than even it being set to time did. Even that didn’t have enough and he frowned deeply, “We don’t have enough pieces… Two attacks in a week ain’t enough of a sample size.”

“We need more…” Raven growled, letting her head rock back against the wall with a sigh. “Ask the kid?”

“Ask her what?”

“Bonded can share feelings.” She shrugged, turning to meet his gaze and then sighing as the door closed and Tai appeared around the corner. He looked confused for a heartbeat, before he processed Raven, scowled, and then schooled his emotions and paced a few pointed steps away from her. Enough for Rae to relax and say, “Maybe she can… Get something out of them.”

“Her.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Ruby keeps saying it ‘feels like a girl’.” Qrow shrugged, stealing a sip and adding. “Whatever the hell that means.”

“Her, then.” Raven sighed, shaking her head, “As if it matters…”

“It matters to Ruby.” Tai snarled and Qrow couldn’t help the little spark of amusement that burned to life when Raven - Raven fucking Branwen - actually shrunk in on herself at it. Tai shook the agitation off and sighed, “And… It’s a good idea. But Bonded aren’t always so open with each other.”

“You mean we aren’t…”

“First, we aren’t. Not anymore. Not since… Not. Anymore.” Tai nodded, frowning and turning to watch the wind in the trees with a wary, practiced eye. “Second… I meant that Ruby is still young, and this is all fresh. I don’t know what she’ll be able to get out of her ‘Mate.”

“Anything would be good.” Raven hummed, “We think there’s importance about the time.”

“We do?” Tai raised an eyebrow, hands on his hips, and turned to Qrow in a silent question.

“We don’t think nothing.” He grunted, ignoring Rave’s unamused scoff. “But… Rae thinks there’s something to it. And more details could lock it in. Or knock it out.”

“Either way, we have to ask her.”

“So you’re saying…” Tai grunted, and Qrow could understand the dislike in his voice. And written across his face, too. Finally, after a minute he sighed and gave Raven a look that was resigned but with the faintest, tiniest little dusting of hope on his face. “Will you come in? Eat? See our kid?”

“Tai…”

“Yeah, I figured.” He sighed, shaking his head as he left and grunted a parting, “We’ll talk to her tomorrow. See what she can give us.”

Raven nodded and stepped forward, arm drawing and swinging Omen smoothly to open up a portal home. Or at least, back to the tribe, he was sure. He waited for it to fade before he relaxed back against the wall and stole another sip of whiskey.

Quietly, he held up the flask towards the vague direction of Ruby’s room and grunted, “Just hang in there, kiddo. We’ll get this mess sorted.”

Eventually…

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Ruby woke up with a headache and a dry throat, but she realized pretty quickly it wasn’t hers. It was too… Different. Weird, somehow. Like she could feel her own head, knew she was fine, and felt the water she sat up to sip, too. She could close her eyes, take a sip of water, and feel better and thirsty at the same time. Like when she ate and felt full and hungry at the same time. Or when she played with Yang and felt happy and sad at the same time. She always felt happy and sad when she thought of Yang, honestly. Did She have a sister? Family?

Were they the ones hurting her…?

She pressed a hand to her chest and smiled in the early morning light, murmuring, “You’ll be okay… Promise.”

Her Emblem didn’t answer, of course, but what she thought and said - what she felt - seemed to reach Her. And, after a moment, she felt something hard. Warm. Comforting. ‘Determination’ maybe? Ruby couldn’t tell. She wasn’t good at feeling other people’s emotions.

Yet.

She’d practice, though! Practice and practice, until she could do it right. Just like her Semblance, and math. Because it was important. And she didn’t need Yang to teach her that! Or uncle Qrow! She could feel how important it was. Like her Semblance was.

Not like math…

She blinked when a little knock echoed out from her door and, after a second, her Dad peaked in and around the edge of it. He had a plate of muffins that he slid into the room when he saw her and came in, smiling, “Hey sweetheart!”

“Hi, Dad.” She smiled, sitting up and scooching back to rest against the wall with her pillow beside her. She watched the muffins coming and brought the pillow around like a table, and he chuckled as he sat them down and she dug in.

After a moment just… Watching her eat, Dad picked up a muffin for himself, frowned, and said, “I… Know things have been bad, since your birthday, sweetheart. Are you-”

“I’m happy.” She cut him off, smiling as she took a drink from her bottle of water and sighed, picking up a muffin and picking at the berries on it idly while she thought. And talked. “I am! Really. It… Isn’t fun sometimes, but… Neither is my Semblance. Ya know?”

“That’s a little different…”

“I mean, yeah.” Obviously. Frowning, she rambled, and she knew she was rambling, but… Dad and Yang always understood her anyways. “But… It’s mine. I thought I’d never get mine, and I got it, and- Like my Semblance. All mine, and I won’t get mad at it. Not cus I broke my arm when I got my Semblance, a-and not because of… Whoever is hurting Her.”

“I…” Dad blinked and smiled and then he sighed and reached out to ruffle her hair. “You really are just like your mom…”

“I-I am?”

“Mhm.” He murmured, “Same drive to… Yeah.”

She smiled and nodded, leaning into the contact, “Okay…”

“So, uh, your Uncle and a, uh, old friend of mine were talking last night. About… What’s happening.” She blinked and nodded, looking up as he reached into a pocket on the inside of his thick combat shirt and pulled out a little leather book. He sat it on the table by her bed and a second later a pen joined it and he said, “I just… We gotta find her, Rosebud.”

“Yeah.” She nodded, “We do.”

“But…” He grimaced, like the first time he’d told her to use her Semblance to run around the house. After she’d broken her arm. But even so, he said, “We need your help to do it.”

“How?” She sat the muffin back on its plate and turned, grabbing the notebook and the pen and fiddling with the cover. It was black, with a little strip for writing on across the middle and the spine. Opening it and closing it she looked up, confused that he wasn't talking.

“You need to… Give us clues.” He finally said, frowning and gesturing at the book before he pressed his hands together the way he always did when something was wrong. “Just write ‘em in there and, once a week, we’ll… Have a little brainstorming session. See what we come up with.”

“Clues…?”

“Bonded can… Feel each other. Like, uh, like your attacks.” She frowned at that - she hated when they called them that - but didn’t argue. Instead, she listened, “Usually, sensations. Like how Yang always feels hot. If someone touches her, you might feel that, too. And when you do, she will. Backwards is the same way.”

“Awesome.” And it really was, to be able to share all that.

“That’s not all.” He sighed, shaking his head. “If you focus, you… Might be able to give us a general direction. Nothing specific, and it’ll get muddier when we get closer, but-”

“That way.” She grunted, pointing up, towards Vale. North. She frowned, though, and added nervously, “Uh… S-Somewhere that way. I think?”

“Don’t second-guess, Rosebud.” Dad said, quiet and low, “Just be sure.”

“I am.”

“Write it down.” He nodded, and she did, scratching out ‘north somewhere maybe kinda’ into her book and closing it with a muted ‘whump’. Nodding again, Dad smiled and said, “Whatever you come up with, even if you’re not sure, put it in the book. Whatever she feels. Alright?”

“Anything…?”

“Anything.” He nodded, “You don’t know Hunter business, not like Qrow and I. Little details can point the way. Just give what you get.”

“I will.” She promised and her Dad smiled and relaxed. So, figuring the conversation was over, she smiled sheepishly and asked. “Uuuuuh, can we have pancakes?”

“You just ate, like, six muffins?”

“Yeah, but…” She smiled, “I want pancakes. And then I wanna run.”

Dad smiled, scoffed and stood, waving her off but nodding gently as he did. When he reached the door he turned and pointed at her, “Teeth, brushed. And get a shower. I’ll call when they’re done, alright?”

“Okay, Daddy.”

“And love you, Rosebud.”

“You, too!”

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