Chapter Text
Uncle Qrow was on a super secret mission again. Dad had explained it to them when Ruby started asking, the way he always did. He was on a very important Huntsman mission, and he couldn’t call or send letters for a long time, but he would call when he could, and send them a picture when he was finished, just like always.
So Yang wasn’t expecting him when someone knocked on the door.
“Could you get that, little dragon?” Dad asked, hands full with the tray he was navigating out of the oven. Yang hopped out of the chair and ran for the door, because if she was too slow Ruby would somehow manage to eat all the cookies even before they were finished cooling off.
She kicked the shoes by the door into something closer to a neat pile and swung the door wide.
There was a familiar face filling the empty space, still scraggly and unkempt and with eyes just like hers when she got angry, and the last time he’d had been here he’d been consoling Ruby with promises of weapons training and telling Yang he’d bring her back a cool souvenir.
Yang brightened.
“Uncle Qrow!” she started to shout, then stopped, excitement sliding off her like oil on water. Uncle Qrow didn’t look like that when he got home. His face was pinched, closed-off. Yang had seen him look like that before, but never when he was facing her. Like he didn’t even see her.
“Uncle Qrow?”
His eyes did focus on her then, and he smiled at her, but it wasn't right. After Mama had died, she’d gotten enough experience with fake smiles to know one on sight.
“Hey, Blondie. Still making trouble?”
She crossed her arms. “Not as much as you,” she retorted, not liking the way the Wrong Feeling settled into her stomach and stayed there. Uncle Qrow laughed uneasily and rubbed the back of his neck and the feeling intensified.
“Well, you’re not wrong, kid.”
“You lose your key in another bet?” Dad asked, still in the kitchen, “I thought that you were trying to give me a heart attack, letting yourself in through the door like a normal person. Don’t start being polite now.”
Uncle Qrow winced. “Er…Tai.”
Something in his tone made the kitchen go quiet, and then there was a clatter and Dad was in the hall, a step away from panicked. Ruby started wailing about the spilled food, but he didn’t even glance back, staring at Qrow like he was looking for blood.
Staring past Qrow, at the boy who was tucked against him, watching them all through narrowed eyes.
Yang’s first thought was that he was made up all of angles, the way he was hunched like that, silvery-grey hair shooting everywhere, the way his elbows jutted out from where he’d jammed his hands into pockets. The sharpness of his frown. Then she realized that he was skinny, and not just because the jacket he was wearing was so big on him. His hair was dirty, and so was his face. No, Yang frowned. It was like that because of the fading bruises climbing up his cheek and around his left eye.
He backpedaled at the sight of Dad, and Yang realized the reason Uncle Qrow’s arm was tucked around the kid was to keep him from running. The way his hand was pressed against the back of the kid’s neck, he couldn’t go further than one step.
He twisted to glare at Uncle Qrow, betrayed, and leaned hard against the arm in the opposite direction.
“Tai’s a friend,” Uncle Qrow told him quietly. The boy remained unconvinced. Dad was staring, mouth open. Uncle Qrow looked back at him apologetically. “You, uh, you still make too much dinner?”
Dad had made chaofan three nights ago and they were still eating it for dinner. He took two containers out and started to heat them silently. He didn’t take his eyes off Uncle Qrow the whole time. Yang knew that Look. That was the Look he gave Yang when she got in trouble fighting in school, or when she hid a salamander in Ruby’s bed and made her scream. He’d keep Looking like that until he got an explanation.
From the way Uncle Qrow was slouching, he knew that too.
“Later, Tai, ok?”
“I’m reserving judgement on whether or not the word ok is applicable to this situation,” Dad told him. Qrow muttered to himself, rubbing his neck, but nudged the kid forward when Tai stopped the microwave.
“Mercury. Eat.”
The boy had been standing in Uncle Qrow’s shadow, so close that he was almost touching, glowering at them all in turn. Uncle Qrow’s insistent prodding forced him forward.
Dad smiled at him, holding out the first container. “Your name is Mercury, huh? I’m Taiyang Xiao Long, and these are my daughters Yang and Ruby. It’s nice to meet you.”
Ruby waved from her chair, feet kicking. She’d taken advantage of Dad’s distraction to grab more of the cookies than he’d usually let her eat. Yang hadn’t reached for any (they weren’t as good as Mama’s anyway). She was leaning against the door where she could watch everyone without difficulty. She crossed her arms, not at all sure she liked this new intruder.
He didn’t smile back at Ruby. But the food had caught his interest; he grabbed the container out of Dad’s hands and started shoveling food into his mouth as fast as the fork could get it in there. Even Ruby didn’t eat so fast.
Yang saw her dad give Uncle Qrow another long Look.
Uncle Qrow pretended he couldn't see it. “Mercury’s going to stay with me for a while,” he announced airily. He took the other container and started eating standing up too, leaning on the counter.
“Really?” Dad said, in the voice he wanted to use to trick people into thinking they weren’t in trouble, “And where are you staying then?”
His fork faltered here. “Uhh…”
The boy took a big step back, covering all the space between Dad and Uncle Qrow, and wedged himself back under Uncle Qrow’s arm. He was watching Dad intently even though he didn’t stop eating, eyes sharp with…with something Yang didn’t know how to read, something unfriendly and cold.
Dad blinked, startled, then looked between the two of them. Uncle Qrow’s expression closed off again, staring down at the boy backed up against him. “Tai just likes giving me a hard time,” he told the kid, “He doesn’t mean anything by it.”
“I might mean something,” grumbled Dad, but most of the heat was already taken out of his words. “Alright, fine. I want to say this is a one night thing, but I have a feeling that’s out of my hands now.”
Uncle Qrow winced but didn’t disagree. He swapped his half-full container with Mercury’s empty one. The boy looked up at him, surprised. Uncle Qrow tilted his head, and Mercury went back to scarfing down food. He was leaning into Uncle Qrow’s side again.
There was something off about the way Dad was handling this. Dad didn’t let Qrow get away with serious things, like drinking too much in the house. And this was serious, because unless Yang was confused, it sounded like Mercury was going to be living in their house.
“Where’s he going to sleep?” Yang demanded, aghast, because she’d waited forever for Dad to decide she was big enough for her own room and she wasn’t going back to having to share thank you very much.
“Yang, we’ll sort it out.” Dad didn’t sound happy about it, but he was still taking Uncle Qrow’s side, to Yang’s absolute outrage. This betrayal was compounded by Ruby, who finished her fifth cookie just in time to say “He can stay with me!”
Mercury made a face at that and opened his mouth. Before he could say anything, Uncle Qrow stepped on his foot. When Mercury twisted to look at him he shook his head once. Mercury scowled but he didn’t say anything.
“We’ll find somewhere else,” Dad was telling Ruby, and Yang crossed her arms again. She was old enough for her own room and if she wasn’t going to share with Ruby she definitely wasn’t going to share with this weird angry-looking kid who didn’t even say hello when he waltzed into her home with her uncle.
Ruby started asking Uncle Qrow about when she could start training with a scythe and Dad and Uncle Qrow fell into the usual debate about whether she was too young for practical weapons training or not, and it should have felt like every other day Uncle Qrow came home except it didn’t because there was this stranger in this house who was going to be living there now, and was Yang the only one who remembered that?
Unnoticed by the others, Mercury glared at her over the container. With both the adults occupied, Yang stuck out her tongue at him. It wasn’t like she wanted him to here.
Mercury ended up in the bedroom Uncle Qrow used when he wasn’t on missions. Uncle Qrow ended up on the couch.
“Only because the doghouse is full,” Dad muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
Uncle Qrow ignored him, but that wasn’t anything new. He only crouched down next to the boy, who was watching him with his lips pressed together tightly.
“I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”
“’m not a baby,” he muttered. It was the first time Yang actually heard him speak.
Uncle Qrow’s expression didn’t change. “Well. Just so you know. Door locks from the inside. If you don’t let me in in the morning, I’m going to climb through the window.”
Something that was almost a smile flickered across the boy’s face.
“Kid. Don’t make me climb through the window.”
“I won’t,” he said eventually. Uncle Qrow stood, running his knuckles through the boy’s hair until he squirmed away, batting at his hands.
“Good kid. Go to bed.”
Mercury disappeared into the room, slamming the door shut behind him. A handful of seconds later, the lock clicked. Uncle Qrow ran a hand through his hair, sighing, and then turned back towards the stairs. He made a funny face when he saw Yang and Ruby watching. Ruby giggled. Yang did not.
“Who’s the kid?” Yang demanded as Uncle Qrow tried to get her in bed. Dad would read them bedtime stories sometimes, but Uncle Qrow usually begged off in favor of telling them parts of his missions. Dad didn’t get the voices right like Mama had anyway, and it bothered Yang but the first time she’d complained about it Dad had gotten really quiet and sad. She hadn’t complained again.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
She shoved the blankets down when he tried to pull them up to her shoulders. Yang wasn’t tired. She wanted to know what was going on.
“Uncle Qrow!”
He sighed, dragging a hand through her hair. “Look, Yang, can’t this wait until the morning? I have a headache bigger than you-”
He tried to leave, and hurt slashed through her. Uncle Qrow had been home for hours now and he’d barely spent any time with her at all, just with that Mercury kid, and he just glared at everyone and didn’t say anything at all. And now Uncle Qrow was leaving the room just like he always left, and it wasn’t fair.
“You never tell me anything!”
Yang knew she’d gone too far the instant the words left her mouth, but it was too late by then to take them back. Uncle Qrow didn’t answer. He just looked tired, and sad.
Yang’s hands curled into fists in the blankets, looking away. It wasn’t fair. He didn’t tell her anything. Dad didn’t either. Everything important just got brushed aside until she was older, and Yang was tired of waiting until she was older to learn anything. It wasn’t fair that she had to feel bad for telling the truth.
She wouldn’t have even known that Ma-that Summer wasn’t her mom if she’d waited for them to tell her. She had to find out when one of Dad’s work friends mentioned it at the funeral.
Uncle Qrow put his hand on her head.
“Hey, kiddo. Look at me.” Yang didn’t. Qrow steered her chin up. He was smiling, but he looked tired. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not fair. But I need to talk to your dad first, alright? This is a partner-first type situation. You know how he gets; he’d never let me hear the end of it.”
Yang grumbled and shoved his hands away, but she leaned into his side so he wouldn’t leave. Uncle Qrow didn’t understand that people being mad didn’t mean they wanted him to go away, so she had to make sure he didn’t get up.
“You said that you were going to bring back a cool souvenir,” she complained, crossing her arms. “This doesn’t count.”
“Yeah, that’s fair.” He pulled the blankets over her but didn’t step away. Instead he let her lean on him, his cloak surrounding her in a way that was safe and warm. Yang hadn’t had anyone swing a cloak around her shoulders so she could pretend she was hidden and warm and safe for a really long time. She pulled it closer, ducked her head under the gap, and tucked against her uncle in the warm darkness of it. Uncle Qrow smelled like gunpowder and booze, not like M- like Summer- but it was still warm and safe.
“What if I get you two souvenirs next time?”
“Hmph,” she said, mostly to see if she could wrangle any more souvenirs out of him. He hooked his elbow around her head and ruffled her hair, laughing as she kicked at him. “Hey!”
But she couldn’t stay mad after that, and Uncle Qrow stayed until she was half-asleep, telling her old stories about missions he’d taken with Dad after they graduated Beacon. It was weird that he wasn’t telling her about the mission he’d just taken- usually that’s what he did when he came home, as much as he could tell her anyway- but Yang was too sleepy and content to puzzle over it just then. Besides, if this random kid was going to be part of the story she wasn’t at all sure she wanted to hear it.
She was drowsing when Qrow carefully started extricating himself from her blankets.
“Love you,” she said sleepily, and the hand pulling the blankets up faltered, then brushed her bangs out of her face.
“You have terrible taste,” Qrow told her, voice wry but fond, “Love you too. See you in the morning.”
The door swung closed behind him. Yang sank into the warm, safe feeling for a minute longer, and then shook her head to clear it of sleepiness. She shoved off the blankets again and made for the door.
Eavesdropping was hands down the best way to get information. Dad had swatted Qrow on the back of the head for telling her so, but Yang agreed. Eavesdropping was good for learning what teachers were planning on going over and what presents she was getting for Nondescript Winter Holiday.
It was the only way she’d ever hear anything about her mother.
So she slid down the hallway in her socks and crept down the stairs. Uncle Qrow was always in and out of the house, and Dad liked to say that he left a wake of chaos in his path, but there was a system to it, and Yang had pieced it together by now. No matter what time Uncle Qrow got back, the next night he and Dad would sit at the kitchen table late into the night and talk while they drank.
Well, Uncle Qrow would drink. Dad usually didn’t, but from the number of clinking bottles, Yang guessed he might be too. That or Uncle Qrow was really going crazy this time.
The stairs were fine for hearing what was happening, but it was more fun to sneak right up to the door. More daring. Yang was going to be a Huntress one day, and she was going to go on covert information gathering missions just like her uncle, and one day she was going to gather enough information to figure out where Mom was.
“I feel like I’ve been pretty patient,” Dad was saying as she inched towards the doorway, careful to not let her shadow give her away like last time, “But when you show up unannounced with a kid, you really need to have an explanation, and it really needs to be a good one.”
“His name is Mercury,” Qrow said, but they already knew that. He’d told them already. That wasn’t new information, and it wasn’t worth eavesdropping for. “Mercury Black.”
“And he’s staying with you from now on, huh? Is he yours? Why didn’t you tell me before; Yang could have had playdates.” Hidden, Yang wrinkled her nose. Uncle Qrow didn’t say anything. He just made a noise like a tire deflating. “Or did you just find out about him? What, the mom finally tracked you down?”
“I didn’t know about him until a week ago.” Uncle Qrow’s voice was muffled, like he was covering his face with his hands.
“I knew all those years of chasing skirts would catch up to you eventually. What did you think-”
“He’s Raven’s.”
It was dead silent in the kitchen, so silent that Yang was sure they had to be able to hear her heart, beating as loudly as it was. If Raven was his mom, that meant he was her brother.
“Raven’s?” Dad said, and. Yang didn’t like that tone. It had finally started going away again, and now it was back.
Uncle Qrow grunted, which wasn’t an answer except that it was because if he was wrong Qrow wouldn’t have told Dad that. He was the one who got Dad back to normal after Mama- after Summer- hadn’t come home. He wouldn’t risk sending him back into the silent, joyless ghost he’d been before Qrow had rescued her and Ruby from the Beowolves, not for a joke.
“Did she know-”
“I’m pretty sure it’s the general way of things that the woman knows, Tai. It’s a little harder for her to miss it.” A clink of glass against wood. “I was working a job with an old associate of mine. Name of Marcus Black. He brought his kid along on the mission for training. Only mentioned his mother to me in passing, since he figured I would have heard about her in my line of work. Didn’t know we were siblings. Thought I’d be impressed.”
“I see,” Dad said at last, but Yang didn’t; she didn’t see how her mother could leave her and just run off and have another kid somewhere else and not come back.
“He’s nine.” That was a year younger than her. A year older than Ruby. Dad made a noise.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Dad asked, and Yang was glad that he sounded angry. It was better than the quiet. Uncle Qrow sighed.
“Yes. No. I don’t know. I panicked. This was the only place I could think of.”
Dad was quiet for a long time. Yang hated it when he was quiet. It reminded her of after Mama had died. Dad had been really quiet then too, quiet in a way that sucked the noise and light out of everything around him too so that everything was too quiet and Wrong.
“And Raven was involved-”
“Ha, don’t make me laugh. She left him, just like she l-” Uncle Qrow cut himself off abruptly, but everyone knew what he meant. Mom had left, before Yang was even old enough to remember what she looked like, and she hadn’t left like Uncle Qrow did for his missions. Mom didn’t have a mission and she hadn’t come back, and apparently she hadn’t even missed Yang because she’d gone off and had another kid.
Yang’s stomach hurt. She pressed one arm against it.
A creak made her look up. It was the- her bro- the kid. He’d gotten most of the way down the stairs and frozen when he’d stepped on the squeaky step. He hadn’t even changed into pajamas. Yang knew from experience that it was a prime eavesdropping site. He locked eyes with her, and Yang knew instantly that neither of them was going to say anything about this. He was here to eavesdrop too, and if either of them tattled on the other, they would be exposing themselves.
Yang stuck her tongue out at him. Mercury made a gesture that Yang wasn’t allowed to make. If she wouldn’t get in trouble for eavesdropping, she would so tattle on him.
Yang turned her nose in the air and leaned back towards the door. This was still her solo mission. It didn’t matter to her if he was there or not. It didn’t matter if he was her brother or not. It didn’t matter if Mom had another kid and maybe even loved this one.
“Last I heard, she’d gone back to the tribe. No telling where they are now.”
“Mm.” Yang wasn’t sure she liked that tone, but at least it wasn’t the Quiet.
“I can’t take him there, even if I knew where it was. I- she isn’t fit to be a mother. You know that better than me.”
There was a pause. Yang didn’t like the way it hung in the air. Restless, she glanced back at the boy, slumped over himself on the stairs. He was glaring down at the steps below him, mouth tucked down. His arms were crossed around bony knees. He looked like he had a stomachache too.
“I shouldn’t have said that. Sorry.”
Dad sighed. There was another clink of bottles. Yang wanted to peek around the doorway, but she’d been practicing stealth since the last time Uncle Qrow had been home and she didn’t want him to catch her again.
“I know it isn't fair to ask it of you. I know. It’s just…ugh. I didn’t know where else I could go.”
“Won’t his father be looking for him?”
There was another pause.
“His dad’s not in the picture anymore.”
Yang twisted around to look at the boy again, but he was gone. The staircase was empty, like he’d never been there at all. She hadn’t even heard him make a sound. How long had he been gone?
“If he hadn’t mentioned it to me, I wouldn’t even have known. I would have gone off and never seen the kid again.”
Yang had never heard her uncle sound like that before. He sounded sad sometimes, sure. There were times that he would go quiet, and his face would get tight, but not like this.
“Qrow-” Dad started, but he trailed off too. Yang didn’t think she’d ever heard them both sound so upset. She didn’t like it at all.
“He’s my responsibility. I couldn’t just leave him. I can’t.”
“Of course you couldn’t. We wouldn’t be partners if you could.”
“You don’t understand what it’s like, Tai. The girls…this is easy for you.”
“No, it’s not. But nothing that’s worth it is ever easy.”
Uncle Qrow made a soft sound. It was a sound Ruby made when she saw a dead animal in the woods, right before her eyes flooded with tears. “I wouldn’t even have known,” he repeated again, and Uncle Qrow’s voice didn’t sound like that, it never sounded like that, Yang was never going to forgive Mercury Black for this.
There was the noise of a chair scraping over linoleum. Yang glanced back at the empty stairs to make sure no one would see if she got caught and then peeked around the door. Uncle Qrow’s head was in his hands, the heels of his palms pressed against his eyes. Dad had thrown an arm around him and was awkwardly rubbing his back. “You know now,” he said softly.
“He’s my responsibility,” Qrow repeated, then sighed. “Shit. Poor bastard.”
“I’ll make sure you don’t screw him up too bad.”
“Oh, you will? Not going to kick me out after all?”
“He’s your nephew,” Dad said, “Of course he has a place here. Of course you both do.”
There was another pause, but it didn’t feel as sharp as the last one. When Uncle Qrow spoke again, his voice sounded funny. “I don’t deserve a friend like you, Tai. Neither of us did.”
“Yeah, well.” Dad cleared his throat. “We’ll make you earn your keep.”
Another sigh, this one mournful.
“I was afraid you would say that.”