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Winter, wincing slightly, carefully adjusted her perfectly white collar. Unfortunately, the gray-black fabric on her pants was already stained with dark red, and even the handkerchief, which she always wore in her pocket in accordance with the requirements of etiquette, could not help.
"Scum..." a voice hissed from somewhere below.
Winter, bowing politely, stood on the chest of one of the unfortunate muggers with all possible elegance and silently waited for twenty seconds until his whistling breathing subsided. She adjusted her collar once more and finally reached the doors leading to the bar.
She believed that the entire outskirts of Vale should have been patrolled for a whole month, according to all the rules of Atlas’ martial law, so it could be at least a little more pleasant to walk around here, but that was beyond her capabilities. Therefore, Schnee moved further to the bar with great caution, maneuvering between all kinds of visitors and controlling her impulses to summon her icy Nevermore. Although, probably, even her summon could not stand the smells here.
By the time Winter began to feel dizzy—even in the hardest training there were no such conditions and a ban on using weapons at the same time—she finally noticed her target... regretting just a little that the word "target" in this situation was not used in literal sense. Silently going behind Qrow’s back, who was hunched over a glass, Winter pulled a pill out of her pocket, tossed it with her finger and made it hover in the air with a miniature glyph.
“With that much alcohol in your blood, you will soon be taken to a museum as an exhibit, because you already can't decompose,” Winter muttered, sitting down on a chair next to him and touching the bottle on the counter with her hand.
"So, uh, lady..." Branwen finally responded with a blink. “For such impoliteness, I can send…” his gaze reached the level of the guest's face. “Oh, Schnee, such amazing people… Go fuck yourself.”
"I'm afraid this is the best place for such things in the city."
“There is just the right one in Atlas... For all of you…” Qrow drunkenly waved his hand.
Winter, who was waiting for him to be distracted, silently dropped the pill into his glass exactly a second before he grabbed it again and emptied it easily.
“And in general…” he hiccuped, “I'll tell you..." Qrow stared at Winter, who was smiling at him, carelessly folding her hands under her chin. “I'll tell you…” suddenly his face distorted, and he gasped loudly, covering his mouth with his hand.
And even if General Ironwood had asked Winter about her feelings at the moment, she would not have answered. But in fact, the sight of Qrow, who managed to cover the distance to the restroom in three and a half seconds—the experience of working in such conditions was really evident—gave her pure pleasure.
After another couple of minutes, Qrow, already almost sober and therefore very dissatisfied, frowning menacingly, returned to the table and sprawled in a chair, arms crossed.
“You deprived my mortal body of half a liter of good whiskey, so I'm waiting for a very impressive reason for this, or I'm shoving the bottle with the remaining whiskey in the places inside your body you can't even imagine.”
"A lot of people have already tried, you know. But I still had to talk to a person who could put words into sentences," Winter chuckled. “Actually, our conversation will be about my sister.”
“Sister?” Qrow arched an eyebrow. “Ah, yes, the Ice Queen Junior. So far, the bottle option is closer to me. Why should I care about her?”
“Well, she's on a team with your nieces…”
“It's completely their own business. Come on.”
Winter sighed heavily and looked away.
“When I arrived here… Weiss, of course, came out to meet me, but she didn't come out alone.”
“Amazing.”
"She came with Ruby Rose.”
“People can walk together, holy shit.”
“And their behavior, along with some innuendos, led me to believe that they share some... um... Relationships.”
“It's called ‘teammates’, yes.”
"Relationships," Winter emphasized the word with her voice and gestures.
Qrow stared blankly at Winter's face for about five seconds. He raised his eyes to the ceiling in thought, sipping the whiskey he poured into the glass again…
Winter easily dodged the flow of liquid, which Qrow spat out, coughing hollowly. Sighing heavily once more, she patted him on the back.
“What?!” the man only managed to squeeze out, trying to catch his breath.
"You heard," Schnee shrugged.
"Damn," Qrow drawled, rubbing his forehead. “Ruby-Ruby, it was the only opportunity out of hundreds to ruin your life, and you managed to pull it out…”
“Hey! It's actually Weiss who is wasting her endless prospects on this careless, clumsy... child! Her training is not over yet, by the way!”
"You're just jealous that you don't have such a cool niece," Qrow leaned back in his chair contentedly. “So, okay,” he interrupted Winter’s speech with a wave of his hand, “what do you want to do?”
“To begin with, as the military regulation says, to conduct a reconnaissance,” Winter raised her finger. “That is, in this case, to understand whether my suspicions are correct. And then… According to the situation.”
“According to the situation, uh-huh…” Qrow muttered. "I'll kill Ruby if they choose Winter and me as bridesmaids at the wedding."
“What?”
“I agree, I mean.”
***
“Damn, I should have at least taken a blanket, it's not healthy to lie on concrete,” Qrow sighed, crawling closer to the edge of the roof.
"Well, you're an experienced hunter, consider this a training for possible conditions of future missions," Winter chuckled without any condescension, twirling the binoculars in her hands.
The man just shook his head, cautiously looking out at the view from the height of the five-story building. Even if he could turn into a bird, such conditions never added to his peace of mind. Especially at five-thirty in the morning under the rising, but already hot sun. Especially at five-thirty in the morning, when he usually didn't even open his eyes before ten. Unfortunately, Winter and her ice blades, which were exactly as long as his hotel room, had a strong power of persuasion.
“Actually, I suggested it somewhat jokingly. A legendary hunter and an Atlas military officer are sitting on the roof of one of Beacon dorms in the morning. And they also broke through the door. And all that just to look at the room of the freshman team through binoculars—it sounds like a bad joke.”
“Firstly: you flatter yourself. Secondly… Unusual situations call for desperate measures.”
Winter impatiently thrust her scroll into Qrow's hands.
“Here, it is connected to my electronic binoculars, you will also look, the time has come, it seems.”
The couple stared at their screens, eyes locked on a single window on the fourth floor of the dorm. At exactly thirty-one minutes past five, a broken alarm clock flew out of the left side of the window, and after it, a half-asleep Yang jumped off the upper bunk, almost demolished the nearby closet with her own body and went to the bathroom. Ten seconds later, Blake got up, rummaged a little through the drawers of the table, took out a cookie, threw it somewhere on the opposite bed, and with a change of clothes—yellow, for some reason—she also went to the bathroom.
“And in Atlas it is customary for everyone to wake up together…”
“It's kinda inconvenient.”
“We have mostly same-sex teams.”
“What a bore.”
After another five minutes, Weiss got up from the other side of the room, stretching quickly and doing a few short exercises. Then she performed a graceful kick at the bathroom door, almost knocking it out of its hinges, which forced Yang to leave the abode of purity already with Blake in her arms. And Ruby was the last to get up: with a cookie in her mouth, eyes closed and legs staggering, but already looking for her precious cloak with her hands. She ran into a wall once, but also managed to go into the shower.
"It doesn't seem to be anything..." Winter muttered.
“Hmm…” Qrow was thinking really hard, feeling with his intuition that something was still wrong here. “Yeah!” he knocked on the edge of the roof out of emotion. “Winter, they have bunk beds!”
“And?”
“And only Yang jumped off the top one!”
Winter and Qrow suddenly looked at each other in surprise, realizing what had been said. Winter’s hands rushed to the sword hanging on her belt.
“What's she doing with my sister!..”
Qrow, having assessed the situation, leaned on top of her, holding her hands in place. After several attempts to free herself, Schnee quieted down, huffing discontentedly.
“Let me out!”
“Maybe they just studied together and fell asleep after that!”
"Okay, I'm not going to kill her yet. Well, if I will, it won't hurt.”
***
“What do you mean, you've never attended his lectures?!”
“I mean, he constantly talks nonsense and stories from his life!” Qrow defended himself. “I didn’t want to waste my time!”
“And now we are not on time!”
Despite the fact that the bell for the beginning of the lecture had already rung half a minute ago, the couple was still trying to find the right office in the confusing schedule table, completely ignoring the very quiet crowd of late students right behind them.
“Here, 237!” Winter was the first to find the entry.
“Well, let's go then!”
“‘Well, let's go’, of course!” Schnee threw up her hands. “How inconvenient everything is here, not even in electronic form!"
“If it's necessary, you can buy some screens and wires here yourself!”
Qrow and Winter left in hurry, accompanied by a whole stream of wind from the relieved sighs of the poor students.
After overcoming the maze of corridors and scaring off a couple of truants, they soon stopped in front of a more serious obstacle: the door of the classroom, behind which Professor Port's rollicking speeches could be heard. Winter was silent for a while, trying to hear something interesting.
"Uh-huh..." she squinted. "Nevermore's fangs, then… And straight into the stone… And the fragments of stone shot into three Grimm nearby at once..." Winter facepalmed. “No, I can't listen to this nonsense anymore, Qrow, your turn.”
"I told you," he shrugged. “But let's be honest, he says something useful sometimes. It may snow even in Vacuo once a year.”
"I didn't see anything particularly useful in Beacon yet," Winter crossed her arms. “You graduated from here.”
“Hey, I'll ask you to dispense baseless… insinuations," Qrow protested. “I am quite high in the rating list, actually! And anyway, if it was your favorite Atlas, you and I wouldn't be playing spies here like two fools.”
“Because they wouldn't let you through the border?” Winter allowed herself a frosty smile.
"Because your little sister would finally become a smaller version of you," Qrow chuckled. “And no Ruby would have helped. And Weiss would not have slept in bed with anyone, waking up in the morning with pleasure. Probably never again. Would’ve got a cat for herself or something…”
“That’s rich coming from you, Qrow. Do you have at least something in your life, except for one-night stands and drinks? And what suddenly happened to ‘ruin your life’?”
“Well, Ruby is an adult girl, let her step on her own icy rakes,” he looked at Winter.
"They're both still underage," Winter protested in response, but kind of sluggish. “And certainly without experience... in this. You never know what may happen…”
Qrow was about to object, trying to look through the keyhole, but suddenly he jumped aside: a few seconds later the door swung open, letting out a clearly not too happy Blake, her ears twitching under the bow. The faunus walked slowly to the opposite side of the corridor, leaned against the windowsill, crossed her arms over her chest, and silently stared at the couple.
“Uh-uh… We, uh," Qrow began gracefully.
“Can we help you with something?” Winter helped him.
“You are talking very loudly, and I would like to know the reason. Of course, you are more interesting than Professor Port, but still.”
Winter and Qrow quickly exchanged panicked glances, not expecting such a direct question.
“We, ahem, are worried, here…”
“About the safety of our dear relatives!”
"Well," Blake nodded gently, "I guess I should let Weiss, miss Schnee," she nodded to her, "and Ruby and Yang, mister Branwen," nodded to him too, "know just how much you care about them so they wouldn't worry about anything at all, I'm sure that's exactly how they will react," a smile flickered in her amber eyes.
Winter and Qrow sighed in unison, filling the air with despair.
“Okay, what do you want?” Qrow muttered.
“Oh, why,” Blake raised her hands, “nothing at all. Unless Yang will probably have a question..." she moved her eyebrows.
Qrow silently took out his wallet from his belt and counted out a few bills.
“Here, this is for Yang, and now shoo back to class. Not a word about that thing.”
“Thank you, mister Branwen,” Blake, taking the money, walked to the door calmly. “It's actually amazing, I guessed right from nothing. No wonder that Yang told me so much about you.”
Qrow's hand passed unhindered through the shadow copy of Blake, while the real one disappeared behind the door in a blink of an eye, hiding a chuckle.
“Well, what a family, Grimm damn it,” Qrow leaned against the wall with a sigh, lifting his gaze to the ceiling. “That one does hanky-panky stuff with a Schnee, of all things, the second one is involved with a fraudster. Their taste is just incredible. Tai, what an example you set for them, huh…”
Winter gracefully covered her mouth, stifling a giggle.
***
“Oh my God…” Winter could not contain her surprise.
"I didn't even allow myself to do that..." Qrow said in a half-whisper.
They carefully closed the parcel and pushed it back into the crate.
“Wait, there's a writing on the corner,” Qrow suddenly squinted. “It's a package addressed to Yang. My God, they'll give me a heart attack while I’m still young, seriously.”
“So you are comfortable with the fact that your eldest niece is such a pervert?”
"Well, it's not like she's going to teach Ruby anything... Yeah... Probably… At least there was only a nurse outfit, it could have been worse, you know?”
***
An hour and a half of moving around the city in ‘stealth’ mode, accompanied by the surprised looks of absolutely every passerby—of course, except for Ruby and Weiss, who were enthusiastically chirping about the advantages of cutting weapons against blunt ones—Qrow would have preferred to forget all that as soon as this day would be over. Definitely, people of their caliber could no longer normally relate to crowded public transport and large crowds of people—he still felt a little sorry for the dog, which, yes, barked very annoyingly, but still did not deserve to be frightened by a pack of Winter’s summons. Therefore, as soon as they got to the cafe chosen by their suspects, Qrow collapsed at a corner table contentedly and relaxed with his favorite flask, watching with almost paternal pride through the Winter’s newspaper that covered them both, looking at his sister through the holes Winter made in the paper. Her extremely serious face made him nostalgic for the films he had seen once. And also made him laugh.
"Well, I don't know, I would have chosen some nicer place for a date," Schnee muttered.
“And in my opinion, Ruby made the only right choice: she chose a place where you can eat some delicious stuff.”
“‘Delicious stuff’, yeah,” Winter rolled her eyes in displeasure, “I am amazed that she does not treat my sister with instant noodles with that kind of background.”
“They are very tasty, by the way.”
"Mmm, look at this..." Winter sighed. “Blueberry pie. How smart she is, she knows that my sister loves…”
“But it's good, right?”
“Yes. But it is not enough.”
"Well, I don't know, I can see that Weiss is awfully glad that Ruby is trying to spoon-feed her," Qrow shrugged.
“Do you think reddening to the very ears is good?” Winter didn't take her eyes off them.
“It's really obvious that you don't understand a thing about relationships,” Qrow patted Winter condescendingly on the shoulder. “When a girl blushes like that from your actions, it means that you are on the right track. But if her hand squeezes slowly and involuntarily on a fork, it means that you made a mistake somewhere. I've also taught Ruby how to handle a scythe, good girl, and she applies lessons in life. As they say, the main thing is to lubricate the blade well, and then the prey will land on your blade by itself.”
“You're just awful.”
“Maybe. But your sister is already meekly finishing her pie, looking at my niece like she is head over all damn heels in love with her. They have that in common, though.”
“Well... Hmm... Isn't that how it works…” Winter hesitated a little, “you know, romance?”
“Apparently, we both shall ask them. Although I don't aspire to this—romance is hard and unpredictable.”
"It's snowing somewhere in Menagerie now, since I agree with you," Winter sighed. “But I have an important job, unlike some.”
“Moving papers from one Ironwood’s desk to the other?”
Winter ignored his answer, watching Ruby and Weiss cautiously as they got up from their seats. When they suddenly rushed to the exit, Winter had to drag her relaxed accomplice by the hand so as not to lose sight of them. However, when they both also left the cafe, only a hurricane of scarlet rose petals appeared in their view, flashing between people about a hundred meters to the south.
“We can't lose them!” Winter proclaimed.
“Do you also know how to run at car speed?” Qrow shoved his hands into his pockets.
Winter looked at him with displeasure, took out her scroll and pressed a few buttons. A dozen seconds later, to Qrow's surprise, one of Atlas' small warships started to hover over them.
"So where could they have gone?"
"Well, if you take into account what Ruby likes and the direction..." Qrow scratched his chin in thought. "The amusement park, I suppose.”
“So, private,” Winter has already gone inside, “please take us to the amusement park of Vale, and quickly.”
"Yes, sir," the man saluted, "but can I find out the identity of the second passenger? As you know, Specialist Schnee, we are prohibited from transporting anyone not from the Atlas military.”
"That's..." Winter looked Qrow up and down. "This is Lieutenant Smith, undercover.”
"Colonel," Branwen corrected her in an undertone, his hands on his hips.
“...First Lieutenant,” Winter turned her back to him, leaning towards the pilot.
“Oh, come on…”
***
Qrow was finishing the third potato pie out of five with sincere pleasure—he won all of them in one of the contests at a local bakery, where he easily made a duck figure out of darts after drinking five shots of vodka—when Winter finally returned to his bench, clearly tired. The woman sat down next to him with a sigh, automatically grabbing some popcorn out of his bucket standing between them.
“So?” Qrow asked out of pure sympathy for her.
“Seven rides!” Winter abruptly raised her hands to the sky. “I even had to go to the haunted house for them! I pierced four mannequins... ahem. And they were kissing! More than once!”
"Oh, gods," Qrow said, as monotonous as possible. “That's it. Now they will have children.”
"Very funny," Winter crossed her arms. "And anyway, I haven't forgiven you for that sloppy kiss yet.”
“Come on, I apologized! What can I do, you are, well, the rich people, but couples get twenty percent off here! We had to go to that ferris wheel anyway! Besides, you're worried about their relationship, when you can actually develop them from scratch to a similar level in a day, you know," Qrow nonchalantly continued to munch on his pie.
“But their relationship goes for much longer than one day!”
“Well, that is good.”
"Maybe..." Winter admitted. “But still… I don't know… Your niece could at least come for some kind of blessing.”
Qrow almost choked.
"Would you approve?"
“Of course not,” Winter leaned back, her hands behind her head. “But that's what would have prompted Weiss to try to convince me—very loudly and persistently—and in the process I would have learned even more about Ruby than I could from a personal conversation. And then I could have really agreed. Perhaps.”
“To be honest, not a great plan.”
Winter shrugged and helped herself to more popcorn.
“Hmm, salty. I haven't tried this one. Seems like an insult to the taste of a standard popcorn.”
“And she is telling me about her concern for her sister's relationship, when she didn't even try salty popcorn. Haven’t lived a life, you might say!”
“By the way, I almost approved of Ruby!” Winter objected. “She hit twenty targets out of twenty in the shooting gallery, this is a worthy argument! However, I would not choose a stuffed octopus as a reward… And in general, be grateful that I do not adhere to the Atlas traditions.”
“Which ones are these?”
“Well, let's say…” Winter twirled a piece of popcorn in the air. “I didn't throw a ball in honor of their acquaintance. Without a banquet, you know, without a bunch of dressed-up guests, without fireworks, without a chocolate fountain three meters high…”
"Sounds... scary. But on the other hand, maybe I'd finally see you out of shape," Qrow grinned. “I'm not even sure if you even know the words ‘dress’ or ‘cleavage’.”
A few more pieces of popcorn flew into his forehead.
“By the way, unlike your sister, do you know how to dance?”
Winter blushed faintly.
"Fuck you, Qrow.”
***
Winter and Qrow, almost without hiding, trailed about a hundred meters behind the same energetic Weiss and Ruby, who were holding hands, and in the same mental voice wondered if they themselves were also like that in the past.
"Why are we following them straight to the dorm?" Winter suddenly asked herself aloud.
“To wish them good night, of course.”
“Really?”
“Well, firstly, to make some fun of them. Will you join me?”
“It's beyond my sense of self-importance. But I'll look.”
The couple snuck around the corner of the first floor corridor... And they even almost managed to grab their weapons, but the glyph with the effect of Gravity Dust managed to overpower them—and Qrow had to stop grabbing the wall with his hand when a huge scythe cut through the wall an inch away from it. A second later, the door of the cleaning tools storage room slammed shut, leaving them in complete and very cramped darkness.
"End of the line," Qrow commented.
“Weiss! Open the door!”
“It shall open itself! As soon as the glyphs on the door disappear, that is. In about three hours.”
“Ruby, have some conscience!” Qrow knocked on the door.
“Nah, Uncle Qrow, it won't work like that!” Ruby's voice rang with joy. “We are now, by the way, Huntresses, and we also have the right to pass sentences on guilty people!”
“Who are prying into my private affairs, yes!” the younger Schnee confirmed.
“In ours, snowflake.”
“Ah, yes, yes, of course, my cookie. So what were we talking about…”
"We wanted to wish our beloved family members a pleasant night," Ruby could barely contain a giggle.
“Good luck to you!” Ruby and Weiss said in unison from behind the door before their quick footsteps disappeared around the corner.
Winter and Qrow sat opposite each other in almost complete darkness, with their heads resting on their hands in exactly the same way—as if they were in deep thought.
"It didn't work out very well," Qrow said quietly.
“Yes…”
“But we were convinced?”
“Indeed, we were convinced. But there is still an important conversation waiting for them.”
“And very serious. Damn, these pipsqueaks..." Qrow sighed.
"But on the other hand, it wasn't the worst day of my life..."
“Really?”
“Perhaps it will even be possible to repeat it sometime…”
Even though Qrow didn't see Winter, he still looked in her direction in surprise.
“If you can bring yourself to look proper, of course.”
“Hey!”
“And shave.”
“Actually, my stubble is one of the pillars of my image of an elegant and handsome, but experienced man!”
“Sometimes you look like a young homeless man with a stolen sword.” Winter snorted.
“Yeah… Apparently, Ruby, I will still sympathize with you with your choice..." Qrow drawled in an undertone.
“What?”
“What?”