Ozqrow Week - Day 7 - Alternate Prompt - Summer Vacation
“I am still uncertain whether I can truly afford to take the time off, Qrow. The reports I still need to fill are important, I can’t really leave them particularly easily.”
“Nuh uh, Oz, you don’t get to play that card, Glynda already agreed to take over the paperwork for a week and Tai and the girls are looking forward to meeting ya. Well, the girls are, at least.”
Oz just blinked at him, raising one eyebrow suspiciously. He already knew just what Tai thought of him, would he really let him anywhere near his daughters? He suppressed the thought of Ruby and his real relation to her, but then he was used enough to having to do that. She was Summer and Tai’s, she’d even been altered via semblance to take after them. She was safe, for all he still wished that the process hadn’t given her Summer’s silver eyes. Whether they’d work the same way was something he hoped none of them would ever have to find out. He hadn’t seen her since she was very, very young, after all. It was safer that way, but at least Qrow could still be her uncle?
Had Tai actually agreed to this? He knew the terms on which he had given her up in the first place, he wasn’t to have contact with her without his prior consent. If Salem found out about her, everybody would be in danger but Ruby especially. Especially now, with the added complication of the silver eyes. If, of course, that had actually even been Summer’s contribution to start with. If, if, if. Ruby was growing well, apparently, had hit all the milestones expected for a four year old, but she was too young, really, to remember him yet. Even if he could see her, and he was rather doubtful of that.
Tai was far too protective of the girls for that, really, although the thought still made him smile. He couldn’t think like that, though. After all, this was meant to be a time to relax.
“And what precisely did you promise Glynda, in exchange for the paperwork, Qrow?” He asked, suspicious.
“Oh, not much. Merely my services to continue to annoy a certain hidebound idiot of our mutual acquaintance, if he continues not to take no as an answer.”
Ozpin sighed, but that was fair enough, James really did need to learn that no was a full sentence and that he couldn’t just get anything he wanted by trying to play nice. Especially around Glynda, since she was the sort of person to hold a lot of grudges. He had thought, once, that his two friends might be happy together, but no. No, they’d probably kill each other. Well, Glynda would kill James, then he’d have to spring her from prison and it would be a whole mess. Far easier not to deal with the paperwork to deny extradition to Atlas, much less trying to find another man to act as Atlas’ Headmaster in James’ stead. Knowing his luck, Jacques Schnee might try for it and that was a disaster waiting to happen. No, better to keep the status quo for now, it wasn’t like James was ever going to do anything stupid like shoot him, or anything. He was too much his friend for that, surely?
He held out a hand for the scroll, sighing as he scanned the message. He was pretty sure it was meant for Qrow, specifically, not the both of them, but his name was actually mentioned. It was strange, though, considering all the precautions they’d taken over the years. Ruby was Tai’s, after all, not his. Not truly, not now… not ever again. She had Tai, had Yang. Even hypothetically had Raven if she ever actually bothered to show up again. She had Qrow as an uncle so at least one of them was keeping a close enough eye on their little girl. Why now, seriously? It made no real sense… was this delayed grief over Summer’s disappearance? But Tai blamed him for that, he knew that he did… he’d never let him anywhere near the girls in that sort of circumstance. He itched to call him, but the idea that Tai would just laugh and tell him that it was all a joke made him freeze, paralysed by his own indecision.
“What do ya say, Oz? Tai said it was okay. He set conditions, but they’re the same ones we set, so it isn’t like it’s particularly hard. Care to be Uncle Oz for a few days? After all, ya did marry me for some reason.”
“I married you because I love you, Qrow.” Oz stated, sharply. “You know that. I just worry that no matter what we do here, it will leave them in more danger than they were in when this started.”
“Ya worry too much, Oz. It’ll be fun, the girls have wanted to meet ya for awhile now.”
“They… have?” Oz sounded confused, just what exactly had Qrow told them about him to warrant that reaction?
“Well, yeah, course they have. You’re my husband after all. They’ve known I had one for years, they’re old enough to meet ya now.” He sighed. “Besides, it’s easier ta see Ruby as Tai and Summer’s when ya meet her, she even got Summer’s semblance out of the deal.”
Oz blinked in shock at that, eyes wide behind his spectacles. “She has? Really, how very remarkable. Semblances don’t really tend to run in families, after all. I think I’ve only ever heard of one other that works like that?”
“That’d be the Schnee one, right?”
“Indeed, they all appear to have inherited glyphs. It is an incredibly useful semblance by all appearances, though also highly identifiable of course. How very interesting that Ruby got Summer’s, I wonder what her original one might have been?” He thought for a second before shaking his head, since it was not outside the realm of possibility that she could have inherited Qrow’s, had things gone differently enough.
He was almost looking forward to this, actually… playing Uncle for a few days or at least until Tai grew tired of them being there and tossed them out. What on Remnant had prompted the change, though? He did hope Tai was okay.
Tai was not, in fact, okay. He had taken Summer’s disappearance far worse than Oz had been informed and the clothing he answered the door in was sloppy and looked like it hadn’t been washed in a few weeks. The gaze he shot Ozpin seemed strangely empty and Oz couldn’t quite suppress the wince that crossed his lips. He knew what loss was like, had been in Tai’s exact situation rather more times than he cared to analyse too closely, but… it felt rather different this time, watching that same grieving process taking over a man that he called his friend. Would still call his friend, even after everything that had happened between them.
At least the girls looked relatively okay, though it had been a few years since Summer had vanished. He just wished he knew what had really happened to her, since they had never even found a body to bury. Had it been Salem, had it been something else entirely? Tai had ranted about a mission he had supposedly sent her on, but there had never been a mission. He knew that she was too protective of the girls to ever send her on a mission alone after they had arrived in their lives. He knew too well what that was like, too, sitting and waiting for a parent or spouse or child to come home, knowing in his bones that they never would. He didn’t like to think about the times when it had been a child, though they were rarer than they might be. Thankfully, the incarnations with children were few and he tended to avoid creating more after the merge was initiated. Well, most of the time, at least. He couldn’t regret Ruby, though, couldn’t regret Qrow for the time he would have him. As all things with the balance though, he was very aware that they were temporary, but as the girls blinked up at him in curiosity, he couldn’t help but smile.
Yang looked suspicious, bless her, a miniature Raven already although hopefully slightly less volatile. He might have hoped that she had inherited Tai’s temper, but then that wasn’t exactly gentle either. None of them were, the Gods alone were going to be able to help Remnant once Yang was old enough to take on monsters. He’d heard about all her plans, how she wanted to be the best Huntress around. Ruby echoed them in a way that only younger siblings ever managed to do, but judging by their parents… well. Tai was sure to teach them well, even if he had rather seemed to forget what a washing machine was for.
He smiled at them gently, squatting down to be in easier reach. Ruby babbled at him excitedly, though Yang seemed content to watch for now, as though judging his suitability as a partner for their beloved Uncle Qrow. Why did that hurt, really? He’d known what he was getting into a long time ago, long before anything had even gotten this far. He’d known that they would have to give up their child, if they had one. And so they had, but Ruby was more than that now. He saw Summer in her smile, Tai in the excited babbling of her voice. He saw Qrow, too, in smaller ways. Small mannerisms, gestures that she’d either learned or inherited from him. He didn’t see himself, but then maybe that was a blessing, in a way. If even he, who knew what to look for, couldn’t see it then maybe she truly was safe from Salem.
Or as safe as any of them ever truly were.
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EAH X Rwby
Ruby Rose (Royal) daughter of Summer Rose and Taiyang Xaio long.
Dreams of being the next Summer Rose, although the pressure gets to her very much.
Knows her mother's story ends in tragedy but wants to follow her anyway.
.
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Weiss Schnee (Royal turned Rebel) daughter of Jacques and Willow Schnee.
Initially was very much trying to be just like her father to follow his legacy.
But has since changed and actively rebels against becoming like him and to change her and her families legacy.
.
.
Blake Belladonna, daughter of Kali and Ghira Belladonna (Roybel)
Actively rebelled against her parents legacy, wanting the White Fang to fight against humans.
Has since started following Ghira's legacy to make the Fang what it had been, for peace.
But even so she wants it to be her own, fighting against the ending and breaking the cycle of it falling into darkness.
.
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Yang Xaio long (Rebel), daughter of Raven Branwen and Taiyang Xaio long.
Actively fights against bring the next Raven Branwen.
And rather than following Tai's lecacy, she wants to forge her own.
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