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A rush of wind, flash of silver, and the familiar colors of a uniform was his only warning before a shroud of white flew out and blanketed him, cutting off his vision for a brief moment before Clover wiped the snow from his face and ruffled his hair to dislodge the powdery cold substance.
Before he had the chance to blink the snow completely from his eyes and brush it off his clothes, Harriet stood infront of him, Elm, Vine, and Marrow looking none too happy.
Her speed Semblance had resulted in a wall of snow being thrown over them, and none of his team looked thrilled about it as they brushed it off, with the exception Vine absentmindedly flicking it off with little emotion, similar to how one would react to brushing a stray piece of hair into place. Marrow however looked the must annoyed of the group.
"Watch where you're doing, Harriet. I hate when my fur gets wet, much less my clothes. Nor do I need frost stiffening my hair." Marrow whined.
Beside him, Elm huffed out a laugh. "I thought you of all of us would love the water." She flicked his tail while he glared.
Clover smiled briefly at the playful bickering between the two before turning back to Harriet, resting a fist on his hip. In the background he heard Marrow growling and muttering under his breath as he wiped the cold powdery snow off.
"Any sign of the reported Grimm? We've found nothing on this side so far."
"No, actually. Interesting though since I did happen to spot some black dust particles in the air from decayed Grimm. Someone beat us to the punch." She looked none to pleased at the admission. He glanced over his shoulder, glancing at his team as Vine sighed and Elm deflated and muttered under her breath.
He frowned. Adressing his teammates behind him, he asked, "Has anyone seen any signs of Huntsmen as we came through? Maybe they passed by here and did our job for us."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his scroll, before pulling up a list of recent missions and current Huntsmen locations. The most recent, and closest one, was designated to a familiar Huntsman. "Most recent mission near this site was with Qrow." He scanned the mission listing. "It was a simple search and destroy one like ours, a few clicks east of here."
Elm came up behind him and peered at the scroll page too. "You're right, it isn't far from here. He may have passed through, saw our targets, and decided to go ahead and get rid of them."
Clover scanned the page again, glancing at the picture of Qrow, taking in the man's familiar features. Qrow Branwen, his not quite boyfriend, but not quite friend. He sighed before looking back up at his team. "We'll go ahead and list it as finished. Just as a precaution though, we'll keep searching the area before we head back to Atlas. Whether it was Qrow or another Huntsman, we need to make sure they left no stranglers. Let's go, team."
He closed his team's mission listing, marking it complete before he closed the scroll and tucked it back into his pockets. He and his team skirted the outskirts of Mantle's walls and borders, straying a little from the designated area they'd supposedly were suppose to dispatch Grimm until they met the tree line and went in deeper.
Soon, trees loomed over and around them, coated in snow and ice. There was no noise other than the soft crunch of his teammates footfalls on the brittle snow that littered the ground.
It took only a few minutes of exploration and searching before they came up on a small clearing. Around the area, fresh Grimm forms were decaying into black dust that floated in the air, hovering for a moment, before flickering out of existence.
Harriet glared at the scene, eyes narrowed in anger as they all took in the image of the corpses. "Looks even fresher than the ones I found awhile ago." She spat.
Clover and his team glanced around at the carnage in mute appreciation and annoyance before he glanced around.
Along with the rapidly fading Grimm forms, footsteps littered and were imprinted into the snow in the surrounding parts of the clearing with precise, well detailed footprints marking out the steps where the Huntsman or Huntress had fought, even imprints of skidding were still preserved in the snow.
He frowned down at them, trying to pick out clues from the scene. He glanced over at the rest over his team. "Anyone see where these footprints leave the scene?"
"No, nothing." Vine reported, frowning in confusion himself. "For as deep and sure as these footprints are, I don't see any sign of where the-"
A small, almost mocking in nature, 'caw' from above had all of the Ace Ops on alert, weapons pulled within a heartbeat as they all took up defense positions and looked for the noise's source.
Another caw had Clover jerking his head up to examine the treetops. When he found the source, it wasn't a Grimm like they had all feared.
Insead, up on a thin, extended branch, a fairly well sized black bird watched them with its head cocked to the side, red eyes peering down at them.
"Stupid bird." Marrow muttered, walking up behind Clover. He shooed at it, hands motioning for the bird to fly away. "Get out of here." Marrow called up to the black feathered avian when it simply clicked at him.
It cawed once, seeming to mock Marrow as it puffed out it's chest and flapped its wings, cawing again with a small tilt of its head. Clover could almost swear, looking up at the bird, that it had a amused look in its eyes.
He heard Marrow growl, before his only warning of a weapon being thrown was the movement of wind brushing his face before he saw Marrow's weapon striking out at the bird.
The bird saw and screeched in panic before it threw its body hard to the side, slamming against the tree that its branch had been connected to.
Thankfully, Clover noticed, Marrow missed hitting the bird head on, but the bird, still clinging onto the tiny portion left of the branch swayed before plummeting off and landing, wings sprawled, in a pile of snow on the forest floor.
Before he, Elm, Harriet, or Marrow could make an move, Vine used his Semblance to gently pull the concussed, and possibly injured bird out of the snow and slowly brought it towards him, careful not to squeeze its tiny chest, or jostle its wings.
The bird didn't fight much at all. Even when Vine brought it up to his actual hands and gently tucked in its wings, before moving it to rest carefully against his chest, careful to not smother it and made sure to keep his fingers away from the bird's beak.
" 'Course Vine is the animal savior." Harriet grunted.
Vine pointedly ignored her in favor of examining and admiring the bird in his arms. "It appears to be a crow. It's a very beautiful one." Vine watched its color shifting feathers for a moment before frowning. "It's cold."
Elm held her fist on her hips as she leaned over the bird. "Must be freezing out here. It's pretty thin too."
Clover eyed the crow curiously before pulling at the know that held the band of fabric on his bicep in place, letting it come loose, before pulling it off and walking up to Vine. "Let's not suffocate it by wrapping it up completely, but maybe tuck it beneath."
Vine eyed the bird, twitching his arm a bit to see if the crow would respond at all. It didn't move or retaliate at all, even as Elm brushed a curious finger over its wings, smoothing over the feathers gently. Vine glanced back up at him and nodded. "It is still unaware, it seems."
Together, they wrapped the fabric beneath the crow's feet and chest, creating a sort of nest for it. Clover admired it for a moment, watching as its feathers shirted subtly from a purplish black, to a pretty black colored with green and blue.
When he reached out a hand, the crow still didn't lash out, even when he gently parted the small, soft feathers that coated its face, searching for any visible head wounds when it had thrown itself against the tree.
It was just his luck when the crow woke up as he began to pull his hand away. "I don't see anythi-Ow."
He winced at the beak that had latched onto his pointer finger, pressing down hard enough for it to hurt, though he noticed the crow didn't seem hellbent on hurting him. It seemed more like the bird was warning him.
Ignoring the hard throb and the sharp feeling of the beak digging into skin, he softly murmured to it, complimenting its feathers, or telling it that it was alright and safe. He knew it wouldn't do much, none of his words could have been understood by the bird, but he didn't want to scare it by pulling his hand away forcefully. He's had worse pains before, far worse that the hard pressure that the crow put on his finger, this, he could handle.
He doubted it was due to his words, but the crow tightened its grip for a moment before his finger was released. The skin hadn't broken at all, and there was no damage done thanks to his aura, but he didn't take his chances on petting it again, even Elm had moved a few steps away after Clover had gotten his finger caught. The stink eye the crow gave him was warning enough.
He let out a joking "ow" as he rubbed his finger, before giving the avian bird a few small steps of space.
The crow eyed him again for a moment, before its blazing red eyes took in its surroundings by jerking its head around.
The first thing that caught its attention was Clover's armband beneath it, acting as a bed or nest. It froze for a moment, and Clover bit back the laugh of imagining the wheels in its head turning, realizing the bird was still just in shock mode and a mysterious cloth under its belly was probably a cause for confusion.
Its head jerked up to glare at him again before glancing around at the rest of the humans and the Faunus. The crow flapped its wings, letting out a odd hiss, as it spotted Marrow, before it noticed where it was, settled snugly against Vine's chest. It squawked, alarmed and battered its wings, squirming to get out of the Huntsman's open hold.
Vine extended his arms willingly, the crow wasted no time taking flight, wings beating erratically as it flew over and below branches before it disappeared from Clover's sights. As it flew off, Clover thought he could see anger and rage burning in it's vermillion eyes. Absentmindedly, it reminded him of Qrow Branwen, and how his eyes would sometimes flare when he and the General got into heated discussions.
He hadn't expected the bird at act as a domesticated one would, but it was uncanny how humanlike the emotions that it showed were.
When he glanced bewildered back at Vine, he noticed the Huntsman looked a little disappointed. Vine handed him his arm band back, which he quickly tied back into place, before glancing back at his team. "Let's search for a few more minutes, scan the area for any signs of more Grimm.
After another ten minutes of searching they gave up and reconvened at the open clearing before since it had enough room for a ship to land and return them back to Atlas. After a quick conference, they all confirmed that all the Grimm were cleared out, with minimal signs that a Huntsman had passed through. Some prints matching from the clearing, or a few piles of disturbed snow, but nothing else. Clover sighed, but conceded. No point freezing in the weather if their job had already been done for them.
"I believe we should head back to Atlas now. I think we've had enough odd encounters for one day." He glanced at the now desolate clearing. No signs of the Grimm remained other than prints in the snow, but soon, in the next few hours, the next fall of snow would cover them too. He glanced at the imprint of the mysterious Huntsman's boots one more time, before turning to his team.
A few minutes after Elm called in for pick up, they were in a ship, homebound for Atlas. Marrow was sulking in his seat still, while Vine searched through a window, eyes scanning Mantle as they flew over its streets and buildings.
Harriet growled under her breath for a moment, before snapping at Vine, not unkindly, but not consoling him either. "It was a bird. It flew away just fine, Vine. It'll survive."
"It was thin, I could feel its ribs, even under the scarf. I hope it'll be smart and fly to a warmer climate soon. I was rather surprised that it hadn't already. Bird don't normally live around here, even when the snow isn't falling." Vine said. After a moment of searching through the window, he gave up, eyes dropping to look sternly at Marrow.
Marrow glared back. "What?"
"Was it really necessary to throw your weapon at it?" Vine said. Clover could see the tension in his teammate's shoulders and put a hand on his shoulder. Vine glanced at him, and deflated a bit.
"It was mocking me! I could tell." Marrow sank in his seat.
Elm laughed, slapping Marrow square in the shoulders, hard enough that even he and Vine winced at the impact. Clover bit back a shudder and was suddenly glad he sat between Vine and Harriet.
"Oh? And how exactly could you tell? Because you're a-" Marrow was on her in a second. Clover was about to intervene until he saw that, while both were being rough, it was a more playful sort of brawl. It lasted a short minute before he noticed they were at the landing pad of Atlas Academy.
"Alright you two, knock it off. We're here." They landed quickly, and Clover was up and standing as the doors opened, and stepped off the ramp. Above him, Atlas loomed above, all glowing beauty and with the familiar sense of home. He turned to the rest of his team.
"Feel free to train, take on some solo missions, or even some time for yourself. I have a feeling today was our lucky day off." Before he stopped speaking, Harriet was speeding past him and into Atlas's hall. He looked bewildered at the remainders of his team before shrugging and following.
Vine caught up to him, keeping pace beside him. "What exactly do you plan to do for the rest of the evening?" Clover frowned, before pulling out his scroll. The memory of Qrow being the nearest in their vicinity at the clearing sight popped back into focus.
"Hmm. I might just see if Qrow has returned yet and ask if he saw any additional Grimm around his area and whether he dispatched them, after that? That remains to be seen."
They entered Atlas Academy's door, empty halls greeted them as they did so. Vine gave him a polite nod, before breaking off to a side hallway and disappearing from view. Alone now, Clover took a breath and looked trough the scroll in his hands.
Qrow hadn't signed up for any additional bounties or hunts, the latest being the mission near Clover and his team's designated one, though it had been empty. With that knowlege, he looked for Ruby and her team's location, and was glad to see it was in one of Atlas's training rooms. He put his scroll away, and made for the training rooms.
Just as he entered, he was met with waves of chaos as trumpet noises resounded through the area. He caught quick glimpses of colorful hair, before a swirl of petals came rushing in, chasing after with a alarming rate.
He made his way to the observation platform, and was met with some of the kids from Ruby's team. Jaune, Nora, Weiss, and Yang were sitting in some of the seats panting, while Oscar and Blake sat in a corner, animatedly chatting about something. Jaune noticed him first.
"Were you watching us? We totally kicked butt! Yang was all, "Pow! Pow!" And Blake was like, "Not on my watch!" We were amazing." He sat back pleased for a moment, before jolting upright, apologetic, and frantic. "Well, sort of amazing. We're getting there." He looked down, disappointment clouding his eyes.
Clover let out a small chuckle. "Sad to say that I missed all that. My team and I just returned from a mission. Also, improvement doesn't happen in a day. I know you all are doing amazing. With their help," He gestured to where Neon and Flynt were currently in a ongoing battle with Ruby and Ren. "You'll get to that point. You've all improved yourselves much from when you first got here." Jaune eyes widened, and Oscar looked pleased while the rest of the team looked proud and slightly embarrassed.
Clover glanced around, and spotted no signs of familiar greying black hair or a red cape. "Where is Qrow? I thought he would have joined you all here."
Oscar looked up. "He did come by for a few minutes to check in on us. He looked. . .upset?" Oscar lifted a furrowed brow, arms shrugging in confusion. "He said he needed some rest, and just kinda left us."
"He was angry, if I had to guess. Not at us, I think. He looked proud to watch Ruby and Yang, but he did storm off." Weiss said, hands held primly in her lap that looked all too much like Winter.
He hummed, glancing back to where Ruby was celebrating and blowing raspberrys at Flynt from where she stood over a defeated Neon. "I think I'll go check up on him." He turned back to Jaune. "Keep up the amazing work." He gave them all a wave goodbye, receiving a enthusiastic one from Jaune, and a few short ones from the others, before he made his ways to the single occupation barracks where Qrow was placed.
After navigating the halls, he made his way to Qrow's door, and stood for a moment, listening for any noises. In the background, he faintly heard the noise of a tv, and decided it was safe to knock.
After a moment, the noise paused, and he heard footsteps approach the door. Politely, he took a step back as the door opened, and the first thing he noticed was Qrow's disheveled hair sticking up in all directions, then, the large bruise only just peeking out from the messy bangs.
Red eyes narrowed at him as he looked back at Qrow's face. He had enough control to respect the Huntsman's space, but it was a near thing to not brush the hair aside and examine the bruise. Still, he asked, "Are you alright?"
Vermillion eyes flicked down to his armband, before Qrow raised a hand to the back of his neck, and his eyes looked at anywhere but at him. Clover frowned again, confused before Qrow looked back at him and nodded, eyes still bewildered, and glancing every now and then at his arm, where the fabric sat snug on his bicep, until he looked back into his room.
Qrow dropped his arm from his neck, gesturing to his room. "Uhh. . .Would you like to come in?" Clover glanced inside for a moment, before nodding.
Qrow looked at the ground, nodding twice before turning and walking into his room, with Clover following at his heels.
Clover took in the surroundings. The room wasn't nearly as lived in as his was, there was little evidence that Qrow had been staying here other than a faded picture lying on the bedside table next to Qrow's bed, and a tv that was currently paused on some video game.
He paused at that, looking over at Qrow, who had caught his line of sight. Qrow let out a small chuckle and shrug. "Got to stay on top of those brats somehow. They always try to beat me at this game, or any of them really, but they never quite win. I think they finally noticed I may have used my semblance to tip the scales a bit."
Surprised, Clover laughed too. He nodded towards the tv, "Mind if I join you for a round or more?"
The mirth was replaced with a guarded look as Qrow eyed him, brows furrowed, before he winced. Clover watched, a bit worried when Qrow's hand darted up to his temple and rubbed lightly at the bruise there.
"I've been meaning to ask, what happened? I didn't receive a notification saying your aura had depleted." Still, Clover didn't make a move towards Qrow, afraid of startling the man. Faintly, he was reminded of the crow from earlier.
Anger burned in Qrow's eyes as he glared over at him, and Clover patiently returned the look with a unamused raise of his brow. Qrow huffed, before walking over to the couch in front of the tv, and plopping down onto it. "I fell, and it felt like I was being mocked by the people who had seen it."
Clover had barely heard the words, softly as Qrow had murmured them, before frowning again. Silently, he pulled out his scroll, and set it up to connect with the game, letting it act as a controller.
"You fell? Why didn't your aura protect you?" Qrow remained silent, and Clover sighed, not daring to push his luck. From the corner of his eye, he saw Qrow visibly relax when no further questions came up, and pulled up the menu screen to set up a two-player map.
Neither of their semblances flared up during the round, and all the ones that came after it. After a tense spell during the first few matches, both men eventually opened up to talk as they played. It was nice, Clover noted, to see Qrow unbothered by his surroundings, carefree and most noticeably, happy, as Qrow bragged about his nieces, or told stories of his days at Beacon when he was a student himself.
Then Clover opened up with stories of his own. Clover told Qrow about some stories from his previous missions, until the mission from earlier today crept back into his mind.
"I was curious. On your way back to Atlas, after your mission earlier, did you run into and dispatch any Grimm? Me and my team ran into Grimm corpses decaying, but we didn't run into the Huntsman or Huntress responsible. We thought, since you were the nearest to our location at the time, that you might have gotten there first, and just missed you."
Qrow stiffened for a moment, before shrugging. "No, was that all that happened?"
Clover raised a brow at the obvious prodding for information, but nodded.
"We met a strange bird, a crow." Clover let out a small chuckle. "It actually reminded me of you. It was none too pleased at being held, probably on account of Marrow. But it's feathers were so soft, like the false ones in some pillows. It was pretty cute, though I'm glad it was okay enough to fly off. Vine was worried about how thin it was, said he could feel its ribs."
When he noticed Qrow's silence again, he glanced over at him, brow raised at Qrow's wide eyes and lips parted as he stared at him. Clover gave him a small smile. "What is it?"
Qrow glanced away, frowning at the floor. "Nothing."
As much as Clover wanted to get the information out of Qrow, he decided he wouldn't push. He wanted to earn the man's attention and trust slowly, without force. He only hoped one day, Qrow would trust him enough to tell him.
Qrow let out a low chuckle, and Clover turned to glance at him expectantly but confused. "Are you saying all dusty old crows are cute, Cloves?"
Clover broke out a smile at the nickname before humming. "Fishing for compliments, Qrow?"
Qrow curled onto the couch, legs tucked underneath him as his playfully rolled his eyes at the pun. "Not quite, though I know you tend to hand them out freely." Clover let out a laugh, before picking his scroll up again.
Clover waited until Qrow resumed the game before glancing over at him, daring to take his eyes off the screen, before grinning. "I don't see them too often, but I have to say yes. I do think they are all cute." He caught Qrow's surprised look, and winked at him.
He turned back to the tv's screen, biting back a amused smile as Qrow faltered, and stuttered. He laughed when Qrow swatted at him, his grin unrepentant and amused as Qrow huffed at him.
A sudden movement beside him had him quirking a brow at Qrow, before staring as the older Huntsman leaned in, eyes playful. "See? I don't need to look for complements when you give them so freely."
Clover laughed, setting his scroll aside. "Fair enough."
He turned to Qrow with a crooked smile, eyes bright for a moment until the familiar death noise from the game came, followed by the victory screen on Clover's scroll. Qrow's head jerked towards his own, frowning at the loss screen on his own scroll. Qrow glowered at him, betrayed.
"Looks like a win, birdy."
Clover watched Qrow set his scroll down, before letting his head fall over the couch, head tilted towards the ceiling as he huffed at the nickname. Clover admired the long planes of the Huntsman's neck, before glancing at Qrow's bird nest of hair.
He frowned when he saw the wetness of it, along with pieces of bark and dirt. He raised a brow when he noticed a tiny clipping of a branch caught in greying-black hair. Without thinking, he reached over to pluck it from Qrow's hair.
He must have startled the Huntsman, the one thing he was trying not to do the entire time, the second he moved to pull the twig out, Qrow jerked, and Clover felt his hand tangle in messy raven hair before Qrow was tugging his hair away, trying to escape.
"Qrow, wait!" He placed a firm hand of Qrow's shoulder, stopping the man's panicked movements. "Let me untangle my hand real quick. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He murmured.
Qrow let out a weak chuckle.
"Warn a guy before you grab his hair." Clover huffed as he gingerly tugged and winced as Qrow's head followed. He frowned again.
"This wouldn't be such a issue if said man would brush his hair. Seriously, why is your hair such a bird nest? I know your name resembles a crow, but you don't need to nurse birds in here." For emphasis, he flexed his fingers still caught in Qrow's hair.
Qrow rolled his eyes. "Someone barged in before I could relax and get to it. There might be a comb in the bathroom. I'll go-" He moved to get up, forgetting how Clover's hand was practically wrapped in. There was a sharp tug, and Clover winced when Qrow let out a sharp hitch of breath as his head was jerked.
"Qrow, sit down and I'll get my hand free. Then you can get the comb so I can brush this mess. Do you take care of it often?"
Qrow complied, but huffed at his last comment, eyes soft as Clover set himself on the take of gently prying the strands of hair from around his fingers, utilizing his other hand to gently comb through the hair with his fingers.
"Today was just a bad day, so I didn't bother to take care of myself immediately. I just was planning on relaxing, until a certain man barged in." Qrow looked at him, laughter in his eyes, and Clover returned the look, sighing in relief as his hand loosened and slipped out of the knots in Qrow's hair.
He winced at the small strands of hair that came with it. Qrow, however didn't seem to miss them as he shook his head before getting up and walking to a side room that Clover had to twist around to notice. It took a moment before Qrow reappeared and sat next to him.
Qrow shot him a look, perplexed, as Clover took the comb from his hand. "What, seriously?"
Clover smiled, nudging Qrow to turn and sit cross-legged, and Qrow moved to do so.
"I'm already here, and besides, not sure I can trust you if this is always how it is." He winced when the comb hit a knot, but settled on gently combing at the ends until the knot untwined. After about five knots brushed out, Clover was surprised at how silky and feathery Qrow's hair was, especially how it would fall and form almost like feathers.
The texture was almost the exactly the same from the strange little bird he had pet earlier. Qrow was almost docile on how he would almost occasionally nuzzle back into his touch as Clover would comb through the already smoothed parts to give the older Huntsman a reprieve from the painful tugging and pulling.
Clover smiled at the domestically of it all, happy when Qrow's back eventually rested against his front, as he finished up his work, shifting his fingers through now silky and feathery clumps of hair.
When he finished, Qrow turned around, a smile gracing his lips. With all the stress and anxiety the man normally stemmed off, it was nice to see Qrow like this. He hoped he could always be the one to help create those moments for him.
"Thanks, Lucky Charms. Ready for me to get back to kicking your butt?"
Clover glanced back at the Huntsman's hair, the image of the thin, strange bird oddly popping back into focus the longer he thought on it. Slowly, he let the image go, and smirked at Qrow, grabbing his abandoned scroll from the place on the table before winking at Qrow, happy at the playful roll of red eyes.
"You can try, birdbrain." The loses and the pillow thrown at his head was well worth it for the blush that the nickname elicited from the avian named man.