Chapter Text
“C’mon! Just give up!” Ruby's drunk uncle yelled as he sat on her dorm floor next to her. He leaned left and right, believing that if he actually moved himself it would also move his ninja warrior.
“You’ll never beat me, old man!” Ruby jumped up on her knees and screamed at the translucent TV.
“You’re nothing but talk, kid!” Qrow pressed the controllers buttons furiously, punching in several combos. A-B-B-LEFT-RIGHT-UP-UP. Ruby was a worthy opponent, even though she kept spamming the same moves over and over again.
“You can do it, Ruby!” Ruby's older sister, Yang, screamed out her support. She sat on the floor next to Ruby, legs criss crossed and she was slightly jumping up and down from excitement. The two girls haven’t seen their uncle in what feels like forever. He was usually away off on missions and it didn’t help the two girls nerves when he would take longer on the missions than he was supposed to. His last mission he went away on, their dad told them that Qrow would be gone for like ever!
Ruby groaned as she watched her uncles ninja decapitate her own with a sword. Then the game announcer gave out a hardy laugh and said,”SOARING NINJA WINS! TOTAL ANNIHILATION!” Qrow grinned and turned to Ruby who had her head down in shame.
“Ouch.” Yang whispered. Qrow chuckled, but then gave Ruby a slightly serious face.
“And by the way, don’t ever call me old.” Yang gave out a slight chuckle at her uncle's comment.
“My turn!” Yang quickly pushed Ruby out of the way and ripped the controller out of her hands.
The game began again and the announcer spoke,”NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES!”
Ruby silently watched her sister. Yang was better at video games than her, and she could tell Qrow was having some trouble trying to beat her.
“Uncle Qrow?” Ruby squeaked, not really wanting to disrupt his concentration.
“Yeah, kiddo?” Qrow didn’t even look over at her. His eyes were glued to the TV. Zwei was also trying to get Yangs attention by nudging her arm slightly with his nose.
“You and dad have told us hundreds of stories about your old team, but we haven’t really heard the story about how you guys all met during initiation.”
Qrow stiffened and stopped focusing on the game. While Qrow was spacing off, Yangs Ninja used it’s finishing combo, killing Qrow.
“CRIMINAL NINJA WINS! TOTAL ANNIHILATION!”
“Oh c’mon, Qrow. You let me win!” Yang chuckled as she elbowed Qrow. He didn’t respond, he was just staring off into space.
The two sisters looked at one another, both gave each other nervous looks.
“Uncle Qrow?” Ruby spoke, the silence from her uncle was getting weird.
“Oh shoot, sorry bout that,” Qrow shook his head, getting back to reality.
“I was just thinking is all. I’m kind of not proud of how I acted when my team was formed. Me and my sister were overly confident in our skills and we thought we didn’t need anyone but each other.” Qrow set down the controller and scratched the back of his neck.
“You can’t have been that bad.” Yang chuckled as she leaned back, having her arms support her. She finally gave in to Zweis attempts to get her attention and she picked him up and let him lie on her lap.
Qrow went silent again. No witty remarks, no jokes, and no backstories about how he used to pick up all the ladies at Beacon. The feeling in the room was awkward and it didn’t help that the annoying music from the game was still playing.
“Sorry I asked. If you don’t want to talk about, you don’t have to.” Ruby gave out an awkward giggle and shut off the TV with a remote sitting next to her.
“Nah, I can tell the story. I know you two won’t care.” Qrow positioned himself on the floor, so he could look at his two nieces while he told the story.
“Me and Raven were um, trained by our parents our whole lives to become huntsman, so when we were finally accepted into Beacon, we blew all the other kids out of the water. We knew we were better than all of them.” Qrow spoke in his old rusty voice and the girls listened intently.
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“Why are you walking so slow?” Raven turned around to see her brother staring at the courtyards fountain. He had both his hands sitting in the pockets of his pants.
“Seriously?” Raven put a hand on her hip, realizing what he was staring at.
“Hey, I think it looks cool.” Qrow chuckled and shrugged. The two continued walking towards Beacon Tower. They walked past several groups who were acting like they knew each other. They were laughing, hugging, some were even crying.
Qrow groaned, feeling sort of disgusted.
“These are the people who we have to look out for?” Qrow was referring to all the children surrounding them.
“All hunters start out like this; naive, young, and foolish.They are the only things standing in the way of our tribe, so don’t underestimate them just yet. You haven’t had any run ins with them.” Raven continued walking, pushing anyone who was in her way. The twins’ intimidating demeanor also caused people to step out of their way, avoiding to be anywhere near them.
“They sure do enjoy staring.” Qrow mumbled to his sister as he shoved a young girl out of his way.
“I thought I couldn’t hate hunters anymore than I do now. I guess I was wrong.” Raven groaned, preparing for the long journey ahead. One twin would sometimes even push the other while they walked. Even though the two siblings cared and loved one another, they were always trying to outdo the other in anything.
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Qrow and Raven listened as the headmaster of Beacon spoke in the main halls. He introduced himself as Ozpin. Qrow recognized him from the day he and his sister took the admission test.
Ozpin watched them like a hawk that day. He seemed suspicious and Qrow told himself to keep a close eye on him.
Ozpin then told all the first class students that the choosing of teams would begin tomorrow and everyone would be sleeping in the halls for tonight. He also spoke about a lot of other stuff like responsibility, but Qrow didn’t listen to any of that. He was too busy staring up the girls skirt in front of him. She was asking for it since she decided to wear a skirt that barely reaches her thighs. How was she supposed to fight in that anyways? She did have the legs for it though. Raven elbowed Qrow in the side, causing him to give out a low chuckle in the back of his throat.
“I welcome all of you and I hope you enjoy and learn from these next couple years. You all are excused to put your weapons in your locker and get to know the campus properly.” Oz finished up his big spur and all the students went off in different directions after applauding.
Raven and Qrow didn’t want to know where their lockers were. They weren’t planning on going anywhere without their weapons. If things ended up going south, they could easily fight their way out. Who was gonna stop them? A bunch of teenagers who can barley protect themselves?
Qrow followed Raven out of the foyer, but she stopped him quickly.
“It’d be better if we split up, get more information on this place. Look for quick escapes if our cover is blown.”
Qrow groaned, but agreed, following his sisters orders and parting ways.
Qrow tried to hide it, but Beacon was pretty nice. He tried to follow his sisters orders, but he got easily distracted by all the new things all around him. New architecture, new sounds, new everything. He ignored anyone who tried to speak to him about forming teams. He just kept walking and looking around.
He knew why people wanted him on their team. He was scary looking and very tall. Even at such a young age he was tall and he always had dark circles around his eyes, which didn’t go well with his crimson red eyes. Even people in his own tribe were sort of scared of him and his sisters sinister appearance. Many said they resembled the Grimm. Sure did piss him off.
He heard a loud noise, which caused him to try to reach for his weapon out of instinct. He looked to the left to see the aftermath of a faunus girl accidentally bumping into a upperclassmen. The boy dropped all the luggage he was carrying. Clothes were scattered everywhere and some were even starting to blow away. The young faunis girl who bumped into him gasped and tried to pick it all up, resulting in the older boy pushing her away.
“Piss off would you!” The boy screamed. He was probably hoping to draw the passerbyers attention. It worked because a slight crowd was forming.
“I was just trying to help, I’m sorry. I’ll go now.” The young faunus girl squeaked.
“Hey! You think you’re so special just because you were let in a year early! All you dirty faunus are all the same!” The older boy grabbed a hold of her floppy dog ears as she tried to walk away. She gave out a yelp just like a dog. Qrow sighed as he watched people join in on the abuse, screaming words like ‘freak’ and ‘monster’.
“Just leave me be! I’m sorry!” The young girl cried out as the older boy continued to forcefully pull her floppy bloodhound ears.
“Hey!” Qrow slowly pushed through the crowd that was quickly growing by the second. It got the dopes attention.
“She apologised you big headed oaf. Why don’t you run along a find an Ursa to play with.” Qrow slightly lifted his coat, revealing his masterpiece or it’s nickname, Harbinger. He knew he wasn’t going to be taken seriously by an upperclassman, since the boy had more meat on his bones. Okay, a lot more meat on his bones.
“How cute. Bet you’ve never even seen an Ursa before, Faunus lover.” he said the word ‘Faunus’ like a curse. The older boys grip on the Faunus girls ear losened, and she quickly ran off, retreating into the large crowd. Qrow watched her run and he tried to walk away too, knowing that fighting on the first day would cause attention from the staff. He wasn’t in the mood to practice his combat with a big headed dope like him anyway.
“Hey! You started this, you think I’m gonna let you walk away so easily.”The older boy stepped closer. His armor looked uneven and homemade. Qrow looked up and down at him, sneering at his poor excuse of armor.
“Nothing to say, freak.” Like many people, he believed words would persuade young Qrow to fight.
“Not really no. I’ll be off now. Nice chat.” Qrow turned around, but before he could part the crowd, he fell back due to the forceful pull on his red cape. He quickly kicked out as his legs while he hit the ground, causing the bully to fall down with him. Qrow got up quicker than the older boy and he raised his arm and brought it down roughly on the base part of the boys skull, also known as the Rabbit Punch. He used this technique on rabbits when hunting. It hurt like hell and it could cause a lot of damage.
The boy stayed on the ground, groaning. He wasn’t dead or unconscious. Qrow made sure not to hit him that hard. He didn’t want to kill someone on the first day. Sadly, humans are tougher than rabbits.
Qrow walked away from the crowd quickly surrounding the hurt bully. Qrow didn’t care if someone was faunus or human, so long as they didn’t piss him off or make fun of his hair.
While he walked through the courtyard, ignoring hurtful words being flung at him, Qrow has the feeling that someone was watching him. His senses began to tingle slightly. He never not trusted his gut before. He stopped and looked to his left to find a small girl with a white hood staring at him. She was leaning against a tree and he couldn’t see much of her body or her face. He couldn’t even see her eyes, so many wouldn’t even know if she was looking at them, but he knew. He felt it.
The hood looked liked the girls protection, her shield from the outside world.
Qrow stared at her and she stared back, not shrinking or retreating. That’s what Qrow liked.
In the shadows, Qrow could see the corners of the her lips rise. She was smirking. Why? Did she enjoy the show that Qrow put on?
Qrow scoffed and was about to focus back to his sisters orders, but why the hell was he taking orders from his sister? She was only older by like 11 minutes and he wanted to get back at her for putting lizards in his bedroll last month.
Qrow marched towards the hooded girl and she didn’t move an inch as he approached.