Chapter Text
We certainly have our work cut out for us now.
Ozpin looked around his new office with the sense of excitement and dread he had come to associate with starting something new. Unpacked boxes were stacked all along the walls, on his desk, and on the couch. It was going to take a lot of work to make this place feel like home.
One step at a time, Ozpin thought to himself.
Never would he have dreamed that Beacon would grow at such a rate. A new location marked a momentous occasion in the organization’s history, providing the kids with more space to grow up, have their own rooms, and feel more comfortable than before.
Now Ozpin even had his own space to curate. He gently laid a hand on one of the unopened boxes on his desk. With a little luck and a lot of hard work, he’d be able to set up his office in a way that was both professional and welcoming. Although, perhaps that would be easier said than done for him.
A soft rapt on the door made Ozpin jump.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Oz,” Pyrrha said. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No worries, Ms. Nikos.” Ozpin cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. “Are you getting ready to leave?”
“Yes, sir. I have classes soon. But I wanted to ask if there was anything else you needed before I left.”
Ozpin smiled at the intern’s enthusiasm. “No, dear. You’ve done an excellent job today. You are free to leave.”
“Are you sure? We have a new volunteer coming in today. If you’re too busy, I’d be happy to stay and make sure-”
“No, no, no, there’s no need for that. I can handle it. I wouldn’t want to keep you away from your studies.”
“Of course. Thank you, Mr. Oz. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Pyrrha handed him a file so thin it looked empty.
“See you tomorrow, Ms. Nikos,” Ozpin nodded as he took the file.
Pyrrha offered a small smile before grabbing her backpack and heading out the door.
Ozpin flipped open the file to review the one page summary and volunteer starting paperwork.
Qrow Branwen. Referred by his alcoholic recovery sponsor. History of criminal activity for theft, however he served his time and has been out for almost fifteen years. No history of employment or previous volunteer work.
An interesting candidate. Ozpin was eager to meet him, assuming he showed up. Volunteers have a tendency to be inconsistent.
Ozpin checked his watch. Mr. Branwen should be here any minute.
With a second to himself, Ozpin decided to carefully make his way downstairs and prepare himself a mug of hot cocoa as he waited for their newest volunteer.
As he took the first sip of cocoa, a loud knock reverberated through the first floor of the house.
Perhaps that’s Mr. Branwen. Right on schedule.
Ozpin put down his mug and went to answer the door.
When the door swung open, Ozpin was met with a man who stood a few inches shorter than himself, dressed in a red short sleeve button down shirt, a white tank top underneath, faded gray jeans, and black heavy work boots.
“Uh… Hi…” the man hesitated. He glanced at a crumpled piece of paper in his hand. “Is this ‘Beacon of Hope’?”
“Why yes it is. You must be Mr. Branwen. Please, come in,” Ozpin greeted, stepping aside to let his guest in.
Mr. Branwen looked around with a fascination as if he were examining artifacts at a museum. He let out a loud, impressed whistle. “Looks like you’re not quite done moving in.”
“Indeed, that’s why you’re here,” Ozpin said. “We have quite a lot of work to do before we can really call this house a home.” Ozpin gestured towards the stairs in front of the door. “My office is just upstairs.”
“Lead the way.”
As soon as he took the first step, Ozpin could feel his back start to tingle. It fully ached by the time they reached the top. Not a surprise given that Ozpin had been on his feet all day, preoccupied with unpacking and completing the move, although he was a little self conscious about how slow he had to walk to make it upstairs. Hopefully Mr. Branwen didn’t mind too much.
Ozpin led the new volunteer through the upstairs family room and into his office. He gestured towards the open chair facing his desk as he insisted, “Please, have a seat.” He closed the door behind them before taking his own seat at his desk.
Mr. Branwen casually reclined in his chair and sighed, “Thanks- uh- Sorry, I didn’t quite catch your name.”
Ozpin sat forward and folded his hands in front of him. “Of course, how rude of me. My name is Ezra Ozpin. I’m the executive director here at Beacon.”
“Oz, huh? So you’re king of this castle.”
“Not exactly how I would phrase it.”
“So what- uh- what do you guys do here, exactly?”
“Well, Mr. Branwen-”
“Qrow is fine.”
“My apologies. Well, Qrow, Beacon is a temporary home for children who need a safe place to stay. Some of our residents are escaping harmful home situations while others have no one in their life to take care of them at all. We take care of them for as long as they need.”
Qrow nodded, “Like a five star homeless shelter.”
Ozpin cringed. “Again, not the words I would use, but yes. We do what we can.”
“You got a nice set up here,” Qrow nodded, his eyes wandering around the room again.
“Indeed. A generous donor gave us the funding we needed for an upgrade as it were. This location allows us to house almost double the residents we had before.”
“Sounds like you need all hands on deck.”
“I suppose we do,” Ozpin smiled. “Shall we start with a tour?”
Qrow shrugged, “Whatever you say, King. You’re the ruler of this kingdom.”
Ozpin awkwardly smiled at the nickname. As he carefully stood up, he winced at the pain in his back and reached for his cane.
“You alright?” Qrow asked, concern flashing behind his eyes.
“Hm? Oh, yes, I’m fine,” Ozpin grimaced. “It’s from a childhood surgery I had, once upon a time. Never healed quite right. Comes back to haunt me every now and then.”
Qrow nodded, his expression still weary, as if he could tell that Ozpin was downplaying the pain.
Ozpin gestured towards the door. “Right this way.”
Ozpin took his time showing Qrow around. They started upstairs, in the large living room his office connected to. Although there were still boxes strewn about the room, the basic layout was obvious. Half of the space was going to be an entertainment center- complete with a TV, large couch, and games- while the other half would be a play area- set up with toys, play mats, and a small chair and table for younger kids. A little something for everyone.
Ozpin didn’t spend too much time on the kids’ bedrooms, as they weren’t quite set up yet, but he did indicate their location, two down the hall on the second floor, and five downstairs on the main floor.
“A lot of renovations went into turning these rooms into bedrooms,” Ozpin added as they toured the downstairs, referring to two rooms that used to be one large dining room. They had to get creative with the space.
He also highlighted the fully stocked kitchen, first floor family room, and additional closet space, just in case. “You may find yourself in need of some of these items on occasion. You never know,” he shrugged while gesturing towards the extra sheets, pillows, and blankets they had stored.
Finally, the tour ended in the basement.
“Pardon the mess down here,” Ozpin said as he cautiously descended the stairs. “We suspect it will be a very long term project.”
The light flicked on, revealing towers of unmarked cardboard boxes, some so high they reached the ceiling.
“Yikes,” Qrow teased. “These towers are starting to become a safety hazard. What is all this stuff anyway?”
“Donations. Some more useful than others,” Ozpin explained, his eyes wandering. “We had a large supply drive right before we moved everything in. People were awfully generous in their donations to our cause.”
“Huh…” Qrow peaked into one of the open boxes sitting on the floor. “Looks like you’ll be going through this stuff for months.”
“Most likely. Another large delivery was actually left on the porch this morning. I was thinking we could start by logging the items together and bringing them down here with the rest.”
Qrow shrugged, “Yeah, whatever you wanna do, it’s all the same to me.”
They traded a timid smile as they turned around and headed out to the porch together.
The rest of the afternoon was spent going through donations together, finding some very odd things, some very useful things, along with some very very useless things. Having Qrow around definitely made the task more interesting since he always had something clever or quick witted to say about each donation.
As they worked, Ozpin instructed Qrow on how the staff log donations and how they are trying to keep things in the basement as organized as possible- to varying degrees of success. It was obvious that organizing the room would be a very long term project indeed.
Although, perhaps with Qrow’s help, it wouldn’t be as painful as Ozpin thought.
“Looks like our work here is done,” Qrow brushed his hands together as he stood on the now cleared front porch.
“Indeed. Thank you for all your help today, Qrow. You saved me a lot of time and struggle.”
“Don’t mention it. I’ll see ya around, Oz,” Qrow waved goodbye and sauntered off the porch. Ozpin waved back, a smile lingering on his face as he watched Qrow pull out of the driveway. As Ozpin stepped inside and closed the front door behind him, he couldn’t help but hope that Qrow meant what he said.
Oz was looking forward to seeing Qrow again.
Luckily for Oz, Qrow did mean what he said.
A few days later, Oz got a call from his newest volunteer asking if he could come back every week. Oz was happy to add him to the schedule and he even saved specific tasks for Qrow- Brothers knew there was no shortage of work to be done.
Oz was grateful for the pleasant company and admired Qrow’s eagerness to help out. Between Qrow’s help, Pyrrha’s attention to detail, and the volunteers that showed up here and there to lend a hand, unpacking and setting everything up was going to take half the time Oz expected it to.
Thank the gods.
Oz sat in the kitchen, nursing his third mug of cocoa for the day. He was picking at his lunch while scanning over some progress notes provided to him by his staff. It was the first time he had eaten something all day, but he had too much to do to take a full break.
Oh well.
He was so wrapped up in his work, he didn’t even notice that someone else had walked into the kitchen.
“Hey, Oz,” Qrow prompted.
Oz looked up, surprised to see Qrow back so soon. He had just given him his newest task not an hour ago. “Ah, is something wrong?” he guessed.
“Uh, no,” Qrow shook his head, “I just finished up.”
“You-” Oz put his mug down and laughed. “Wow, you work rather fast. I was expecting that to take quite a while.”
“What can I say?” Qrow shrugged. “I get shit done.”
“So it would seem,” Oz smiled. “Well, since your ‘shit’ is done, would you care for a drink?”
Qrow’s eyes went wide. “Uh- what?”
“Of cocoa, Qrow.”
“Oh,” he sighed. “Eh, sure, why not.”
Oz stole a private smile as he got up and rummaged through the cabinets to grab a new mug for Qrow.
Qrow took a seat at the kitchen table and grunted, “How are the kids settling in?”
“Very well,” Oz said, focused more on stirring in the chocolate than answering the question. “Yes, they are all very excited for a chance to curate their own bedrooms,” he added as he popped the mug into the microwave.
“Glad to hear it,” Qrow nodded. “Kids need their own space.”
“Agreed. I’m grateful to have the resources to let them express themselves.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Oz started as he set the fresh mug in front of Qrow. “It’s not uncommon for children in organizations such as ours to be forced to ‘take what they can get’ due to their circumstances. We’re fortunate enough to have the ability to let them choose.”
“Huh…” Qrow stared thoughtfully at his drink.
“Something wrong?” Oz asked as he resumed his seat at the table.
“No,” Qrow blinked, “I just- guess I never thought of it that way. I mean, I didn’t have a lot of options when I was a kid, either. Mostly I just tried to survive. Any help I got came with the caveat of ‘taking what I could get.’ Guess it could have been nice to have a place like this to go to. Maybe then… I don’t know. Maybe things would have been different.” The thought faded out as Qrow took a sip from his mug.
“Different how?” Oz wondered aloud.
“Like ‘I wouldn’t have ended up on the streets at 15’ different. ‘Maybe I’d have a real job by now’ different. Hell, maybe I wouldn’t have ended up in jail.”
Qrow cut himself off, his eyes locked onto his mug again, but they weren’t focused. They were distant, thinking about another time and place.
Qrow snapped himself back to the present and shook his head. “Sorry, I- I dunno why I’m dumping all this on you.”
“No, please, I don’t mind at all,” Oz said with sincerity. “Whatever you’re comfortable sharing.”
Qrow scoffed, “Not sure you’d want to hear it. My life hasn’t exactly been all roses and sunshine.”
“That much I was able to piece together,” Oz nodded. “But I’m still willing to lend a listening ear if you wish to share more.”
Qrow ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know… It’s not like there’s much worth talking about. I grew up in Mistral, some isolated village in the middle of nowhere. Well- that’s how I usually describe it when people ask. Sounds better than ‘a dangerous tribe of blood-thristy murderers and thieves.’”
“Less wordy, too.”
Qrow laughed through his nose. “Guess so. Took me years to figure out the true nature of the Branwen Tribe. Only wish I’d have left sooner.”
“When did you leave?”
“When I was about 15. One night, my sister and I, we grabbed a friend and we just ran. No plan, no resources. Just the clothes on our back and some food we grabbed on the way out. Not the most well-thought out plan, but we couldn’t stay. Not after…” Qrow cleared his throat, his eyes casting down at whatever thought was refusing to come out. “Not after what they did,” he sighed.
Oz leaned in, chin in his hand, rapt with attention. “What happened after that?”
“It was just about survival, then.” Qrow re-established eye contact. “Walked from village to village gathering anything and everything we could. Usually not very legally.”
Oz smiled.
Qrow continued, “We ran schemes, tricked people, stole stuff. Got lucky a couple times with the people we were scamming. They realized what we were doing and helped us out. Sometimes.”
“Sounds like you were all very resourceful.”
Qrow scoffed, “Sure, you could say that. Even if the resources weren’t ours.”
Oz shrugged. “You did what you had to.”
Qrow laughed without humor. “I guess. Eventually, we haggled our way onto a boat and made our way here. Tried to start over- you know- as much as three street kids could. But we got a little too cocky. Tried to pull our usual scams. Didn’t quite work in our favor. People lose sympathy the older you get, I guess.”
“You got caught?” Oz leaned back, relaxing as the story went on.
“‘You’ singular. I got caught. My sister, she… she got away,” Qrow said bitterly.
Oz nodded, but didn’t pry. Seemed like it could be a sore subject.
Qrow’s tone lightened, “Talk about hitting rock bottom.”
Oz barely said a word for the rest of the afternoon. Qrow shared almost every detail of his life since coming to Vale, starting with his arrest. After he got out, he found a job working for a store owner who was willing to take a chance on him. Under the table, of course. Didn’t last too long, though. Not after he fell hard into his drinking habit and was let go for showing up to work drunk one too many times.
“Can’t blame the guy for giving me the boot,” Qrow said. “I would have given up on me at that point, too.”
“You must have done something right, given where you are today,” Oz pointed out.
“Not sure I can take much of the credit,” Qrow crossed his arms. “Just met the right people. They pushed me to get the help I needed. They’re actually the reason I decided to do my community service here. Said they knew you once upon a time.”
“Really? Who would that be?”
“Taiyang and Summer.”
“Ah, the Xiao Long-Roses,” Oz nodded. “Yes, I worked with Taiyang back when I was still teaching.”
“A teacher, huh? That makes sense.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Qrow shrugged, “You seem like the type.”
“I will choose to take that as a compliment,” Oz clarified as he took a sip of cocoa- his fourth mug of the day.
Qrow laughed without comment.
“So- uh-” Qrow hesitated, “how did you end up running this place?”
Oz pursed his lips. “I founded it.”
Qrow raised his eyebrows, “No shit. That’s quite a career shift. How did that happen?”
“I discovered that two of my students no longer had a home and…” Oz stopped, choosing his next words carefully, “decided to do something about it.”
Qrow smirked, “Spoken like a true altruist.”
Oz awkwardly smiled and took a sip from his mug.
“Let me guess,” Qrow teased. “That’s not how you would say it?”
“Not quite,” Oz admitted.
They traded a knowing smile.
“Alright, I’ll let you get back to work.” Qrow grunted as he got to his feet. “I’ve wasted enough of your time.”
“On the contrary,” Oz said. “This conversation was anything but a waste.”
Qrow nodded. “See you next week?”
“Looking forward to it.”
Qrow’s smile grew bigger just before he turned and exited.
Oz couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it felt like there was something special about their afternoon together.
A part of him hoped that Qrow thought so, too.
Qrow could have stayed at Beacon all day. He very well might have if he didn’t have to pick up Ruby and Yang from school to help Tai and Summer out. It was probably for the best that he had to leave, though. He didn’t want to bother Oz anymore than he already had.
His heart fluttered at the memory of Oz’s gentle smile and soft eyes.
“Looking forward to it.”
Knowing Oz, the guy was just trying to be nice, but it made Qrow excited for his next visit all the same.
I’ll never hear the end of this, Qrow thought as he shuffled through his keys to find the spare he had to the Xiao Long-Rose house. As he stepped inside, he could hear movement in the kitchen.
“Hello, hello, hello. Who’s entering my house unannounced?” Summer’s voice echoed from the kitchen.
“Your brother-in-law,” Qrow called out. “Or- I don’t know- whatever you want to call me.”
Qrow emerged into the kitchen to find Summer doing the dishes. She looked up from the pot she was scrubbing and chuckled, “Don’t worry, Qrow. You’ll always be family to us.”
“Where are the girls? Still need me to pick them up?”
“No. Tai was actually able to do it,” Summer replied, her hands on autopilot as she talked. “He just left not too long ago.”
“Ah…” Qrow tapped the counter, his eyes cast down.
“What’s the matter with you?”
Qrow shrugged, “Nothing, I guess. Just had plans to take them out after. Wanted to surprise them.”
“Well, you still can. They should be home soon.”
Qrow nodded and took a seat at the kitchen island as his not-really-sister-in-law finished cleaning. His leg started bouncing and he picked at the skin on his palms as he waited for her to be done.
Summer flicked off the water and started wiping down the counters with a rag. “You seem rather chipper this afternoon.”
“‘Chipper’? You make me sound like a cartoon character.”
“Well, you’re bouncing like one,” she said, side-eyeing him.
The bouncing stopped.
Summer smiled, “What’s got you in a good mood?”
“Nothing,” Qrow shrugged. “Does it matter?”
Here it comes, Qrow thought.
Summer was the one who encouraged (read: nagged) Qrow to volunteer in the first place. As far as she was concerned, this was going to be like a victory lap.
“Where were you this morning?” Her teasing tone suggested she already knew.
Which she did.
“I told you I was going to Beacon.”
“Mhm,” Summer stopped cleaning and tossed the towel over her shoulder. “You’ve been over there quite a lot.”
“I’ve only gone like… four times.”
“That’s three more times than you said you’d go.”
“What’s your point?”
“It just seems to be going so well,” Summer shrugged. “I’m just trying to remember whose idea it was that you sign up. I can’t quite recall. Whoever she was, she must have really been onto something.”
She resumed her cleaning, now scrubbing down the island, clearly waiting for Qrow to say something.
He wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction that easily.
“More like she must have been a huge pain in the ass.”
“That’s okay, Qrow,” Summer shook her head. “You’ll thank me later.”
Qrow laughed, a sarcastic ‘thank you’ threatening to pop out. The sound of the front door opening kept it inside.
Yang and Ruby appeared in the doorway, their dad right behind them.
“Uncle Qrow!!!!” Ruby shouted, rushing towards him.
Qrow wrapped her in a big hug. “Hey, there, Rosebud.”
“What are you doing here?” Yang asked.
Qrow ruffled her hair, “I’m here to take my favorite nieces out for the night.”
Yang slapped his hand away. “Oh, do you have two other nieces we don’t know about?”
“You think you’re real funny, don’tcha?”
“I know I am.”
Qrow laughed at the young girls’ antics. It was hard to believe that Yang was nine and Ruby was seven already. They had grown up so much in a few short years.
“Be careful,” Tai cut in. “Try not to get into too much trouble, Qrow.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll watch him for you!” Ruby promised.
“Let’s go!”
The sisters raced out the door so fast it was as if they had super speed. Qrow chuckled, “Guess that’s my cue to leave.” He turned to face Summer. “Thanks, Sum.”
“Don’t mention it,” she nodded.
Qrow took his leave and joined the girls in the car. All they wanted to do was go to the arcade for a few hours and get junk food on the way home. It worked for Qrow. He was lucky his nieces were such cheap dates.
At the end of the night, Qrow had to drop the girls off and head back to his own apartment.
“Bye, Uncle Qrow!” Yang chirped as she jumped out of the car.
“We’ll see you later!” Ruby promised, wrapping her arms around his neck over the driver’s seat.
Qrow held her arm for a moment, reciprocating the hug as much as he could. “See ya later, kiddo.” There was a heaviness to his voice Ruby didn’t seem to notice.
As he watched to make sure the girls got into the house okay, he could feel it building- the sense of dread he always got when he had to go back to his empty apartment all alone.
He forced himself to start the car and put it in drive.
I don’t wanna go home.