Taiyang struggles during his first Halloween without Summer. Qrow's there, for better or worse.

Chapter Text

Yang Xiao Long - Age 7

In one of those mysterious ways that the world worked, Taiyang was watching a kettle, waiting for it to boil, when he heard Qrow begging for his life.

“No, wait, I surrender!” Qrow cried out, his voice distinct even when laced with fear. There was a loud thud, the sound of a body collapsing at the foot of the landing. “We can talk this out!”

Tai rounded the corner from the kitchen, still clutching a faded dish towel. He blinked at the sight of Qrow Branwen prone on his back, hands raised in surrender. “Please! Just tell me what do you want!” The Huntsman unconsciously reached for the small of his back, but of course he had left his scythe at home, tonight of all nights. “Money? Information? Power?”

His assailant towered over him, the tip of her sword poking into his neck, an inch below the carotid. She paused, staring into his eyes for one long, triumphant moment. “Your head.”

“Wait, please, I have gaaaargraaahhhhhhhh-” Qrow clutched at his neck where the sword’s tip had jutted in, choking and sputtering for several slow, agonizing seconds. Then his arms became leaden, his body went limp, his eyes rolled back…

“Qrow what the fuuuu- fudge is going on?” demanded Tai, glaring at the body on the floor beneath him.

“I slayed Uncle Qrow!” declared Yang, waving her plastic sword over her head with glee. “Now he can’t threaten our Kingdom any longer.”

Taiyang let out a weary sigh. “If only we were so lucky, kid,” he muttered, before collapsing in an overstuffed recliner. It doubled as his bed more nights than not nowadays. Yang couldn’t quite discern the meaning of her Dad’s words, but she recognized his tone readily enough. Her smiled wavered slightly.

“Hey, good job, firecracker,” Qrow said, pushing himself up from the floor. He rubbed the spot on his neck where Yang had jabbed her plastic sword just a little too enthusiastically. “You’re becoming quite the Huntress.” Yang’s smile exploded again at the compliment, and Qrow ran a hand through her unruly mane of hair. He was still getting used to the absence of pigtails. When it was free like that, the resemblances were…

“Hey, isn’t it almost time to head out?” Qrow asked, interrupting his own train-of-thought. “Go use the washroom and grab your coat.”

“Don’t need a coat,” Yang declared, folding her arms defiantly across her chest. She avoided poking herself in the eye with her own sword, but only barely.

“Yeah, ya do,” countered Qrow, pulling himself to his feet. “You want to get a fever like Ruby?”

“But I’m always warm,” Yang pouted, stomping her foot for emphasis. Qrow had to admit that. No matter how long she played in the snow Yang’s skin never chapped nor blued, for some reason. Of course, he didn’t have to admit that out loud. Certainly not with Tai in the room.

“Don’t care,” Qrow answered, knowing better than to try to convince a child with logic and reason. “Get your coat and then we can go.”

Yang made the rudimentary calculation - that more arguing now would only lead to less candy later - so she scurried up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Leaving Qrow alone in the room with Taiyang.

“What are you doing here?” demanded Tai, as soon as his eldest was out of earshot. He was back on his feet, as much as he looked ready to sleep for a year in that recliner.

Qrow shrugged, unapologetically. “What, I can’t stop by to visit my two favorite people in the world?” Taiyang continued glaring at him, eliciting a second shrug. “Heard you needed a hand on Halloween, s’all.”

“Uh-huh,” Tai replied. “And how exactly did you come across that morsel of information?”

For the first time something vaguely resembling guilt crossed Qrow’s face. Taiyang quickly reached the natural conclusion. “Of course Ozpin has you all keeping tabs on me,” muttered Tai, his voice low and bitter. “Wants to make sure he hasn’t lost any of his precious pawns.”

“Come on, Tai, we all know Oz’s methods are a little… unorthodox, but he’s trying to do the right thing.”

Curling fingers into a fist was a poor substitute for punching Qrow’s stupid face in, but with Ruby fast asleep in the next room over it would have to make do. “You know for such a jaded misanthrope you’re willing to make an awful lot of excuses for him.”

Qrow said nothing, just stared down at the floor, back hunched, hands in his pockets. In that moment, in the absence of anger or confrontation, the fight left Taiyang. His head drooped, and he lowered himself to the edge of the couch. “It was Oobleck, wasn’t it? I asked him to stop by this morning to check on Ruby, and then he filed his report with Ozpin. Right?”

Qrow toed at the edge of the carpet. He hated that carpet. Summer Rose had been many things, but interior decorator was not one of them. And there was a snowball’s chance in hell of getting rid of it now. “I know Barty’s excited about getting his PhD, Tai, but you do know he’s not that kind of doc?”

Taiyang snorted a little, despite himself. Then he sighed. He was just too tired to be angry about this kind of shit anymore. “How’d you get in, anyways?”

Qrow inclined his head slightly. “Let’s just say your chimney could use a little sweeping.”

Tai almost growled. “Because - and call me crazy - I guess knocking like a normal human being would have been such an inconvenience for you?”

The padder of Yang’s feet on the staircase aborted any further bickering between the two grown-ups.

“Ready!” Yang triumphantly declared, dragging but not wearing a dark green jacket she was already outgrowing. Qrow and Tai let out defeated sighs in stereo.

“Alright, kiddo, so what's this Patch Island Halloween Circuit I’ve heard so much about?” asked Qrow, making his way towards the front door.

Yang remained rooted in place, though, her eyes still on her father. “Can… can you come, Dad?” Taiyang had remained planted on the couch, and Yang wasn’t old enough to know how to mask her disappointment. “And Uncle Qrow can watch Ruby?”

It wasn’t often that Tai asked Qrow for help, but when he glanced at his former teammate he was clearly looking for a lifeline. There was a desperation in his eyes. The anguished pain of a still-open wound...

Qrow knew it would have been easy for Taiyang to find someone to watch Ruby for a few hours. Even overlooking the fact that practically everyone on this island owned Taiyang for some favor or another, Tai had a list a mile long of people who would drop everything to lend him a hand. The problem wasn’t that Taiyang couldn’t find a babysitter. The problem was that Taiyang couldn’t spend hours walking up to every door in the neighborhood.

It had started at Summer’s memorial service, and only snowballed from there. The pitying looks. The murmured whispers. The charity and sympathy that only reminded him of what he’d lost. He just couldn’t do it. Couldn’t put on a brave face and pretend everything was going to be okay. Doing that just for his daughters, day in and day out, was almost more than he could manage. Doing it for all of Remnant…

“Your old man knows what kind of medicine Ruby needs,” Qrow supplied, neither a bald-faced lie nor the complete truth. “So you’re stuck with me tonight.”

Yang nodded at that, a little glumly, but understandingly. If she still remembered it in a few years, Qrow fully expected her to call him out on his (tactful) bullshit. But to a kid it made sense, so Yang followed him to the door.

“Hey, Qrow!” Tai’s voice called out, just as Qrow was moving to close the door behind him. “...Thanks.”

The two locked eyes. They’d been partners at Beacon. Teammates for years. Neither was sure if the other still counted as a brother-in-law, but both assumed so. For better or for worse, they knew each other.

“Don’t mention it.”

The door swung shut. Yang looked up at him, a costumed Huntress in miniature, eyes once again wide with excitement. He engulfed her hand in his. “Come on, dragon. How long’s this Halloween Circuit, anyways?”

Her jacket trailed behind her the whole night.