Chapter Text
James Ironwood sat behind his desk, staring at the young woman at attention before him. He listened patiently to her report, which was a rather too long-winded, entirely too personally-taken tale of an attack by The Scarecrow, the most notorious highwayman in Vale.
When she was done, he dismissed her with a wave of his hand, then stood and made his way over to the balcony doors, pushing open both of them and then turning to go back to his desk. By the time he’d returned to his desk, there was a man sitting on the balcony railing, clearly posing, watching him from behind the glass lenses of a plague mask.
The man pushed off of the railing and into the room, closing the doors behind him while he made his way over to James; James turned to lean back on his desk, giving the man a stern look that didn’t mask the fondness in his eyes.
“Take off that ridiculous thing when you’re with me,” James ordered. The man in the mask just moved closer, stepping into his personal space and leaning forward, head tilted back so that the end of the mask’s beak was less than an inch from James’ face.
“Qrow,” he said, a warning in his tone. There was another silence, and then the man reached up and pulled off the mask, to reveal a pair of red eyes and spiky black hair. He grinned up at James, cheeky and expectant. His eyes were glittering with mischief.
“I didn’t think she’d ever stop talking,” he said. “I know you don’t like me questioning your taste in proteges, but I gotta question your taste in proteges.”
“Schnee can be enthusiastic in giving reports, but she’s a capable woman and will make an admirable Commander when the time comes.”
“Not as good as you,” Qrow said. He stepped further into James’ personal space until they were toe to toe, and pushed his hands through to wrap around James’ waist. He leaned forward until they were flush against one another, resting his chin on James’ chest and looking up at him. “Anyway, I only have the night, I don’t want to talk about her. She’s not important.”
“What shall we talk about, then?” James said. “How about the trade coaches you attacked today?”
“What about them?”
“We had an agreement, Qrow.”
Qrow waved that away with one hand. “I didn’t hurt anyone. Not even their livelihood,” he added, when James opened his mouth to protest. “The Schnees have more money than they know what to do with. Instead of using it to get more stuff, they should be trying to help the town. Some of their dependents who won’t have enough to get through the winter without help. Your precious protege only cares so much because it was her family that got held up.”
“We still had an agreement,” James said. There was a growl in his voice that made Qrow’s blood sing. When James caught one of his wrists in one hand, he grinned cockily up at James before pulling away, not pulling his arm free.
“So what are you going to do about it?” he taunted. “Come on, Jimmy, don’t take it so seriously.”
His words, carefully calculated, were enough to have James pulling Qrow back against him with a growl, still clutching his arm with one hand, his other arm wrapping tight around Qrow’s waist and nearly crushing him.
“We’ll see,” he said, claiming Qrow in a kiss, deep and needy and rough and possessive. Qrow tugged his hand free and wrapped his arm around James’ neck, pulling him impossibly closer. James’ other hand, now free, came down to knead at Qrow’s ass, and then he hoisted Qrow up; Qrow obliged by wrapping his legs around James’ waist, and James spun them around so that Qrow was partially supported by the desk.
“I’m not seeing the down-side yet,” Qrow said, when James broke the kiss so he could move to sucking marks into Qrow’s neck. He wriggled against James, bucking his hips slightly so James would get the point.
“You will before I’m done with you,” James growled against his neck. “Where shall I have you first, my Qrow? Here on my desk, or shall we try to make it into my chambers first?”
“Jimmy, it's been a month since I've seen you. If you make me wait for you to drag me up into your chambers just so you can fuck me on that unnecessarily large bed of yours, I swear I am leaving you.”
“You won’t,” James said, and grinned. He pushed Qrow back until he was pressing him into the hard wood of the desk. “But desk it is.”
o/o
When James woke the next morning, sun streaming into his chambers, his unnecessarily large bed was empty, but still warm where Qrow had lain beside him. Nearby, pinned to Qrow’s pillow, was a silk pouch. Inside was a note and several small objects: pins, buttons, bright foil, a string of beads. James ran his thumb over the objects in one hand, while he held the letter in the other. It was Qrow’s usual nonsense, words of love and devotion interjected with snark and sarcasm. In between all of those, unsaid but very much there, was the reassurance that he’d be back at the next moon, that his leaving was not for good.
James looked at the tokens in his hand with a fond smile, then stood and moved over to his dresser. He pulled aside a secret door, which revealed a hidden cubbyhole containing a small wooden chest and a second wooden box. Into the chest went the shiny tokens, into the second box the letter, set at the top of the stack of more such letters. The silken pouch was set on his dresser, where for the next month it would catch his own tokens.
Then James went to get ready for the day, thoughts of Qrow pushed from his mind.
o/o
Outside, on the fence, a pair of crows sat in the dull grey morning chill, watching the General's manor in between arguing with one another. When James appeared, dressed in his full uniform and looking happier than he often did, the two crows squawked raucously before taking off in flight, still arguing as they flew through the air toward the forest. James paid them no mind, having better things to deal with than the mischief of corvids.
o/o
In town, Winter Schnee paced the floors of her study, pausing from time to time to stare at the charts on her wall. There was a pattern, there must be. The Scarecrow only appeared the days between the old and new moon, but never in the same place. But there had to be a pattern to how he chose his marks… didn’t there?
There must be.
And Winter was determined to find it, since the General seemed to have no interest in tracking the Scarecrow. If he wouldn’t, then Winter would.
o/o
Outside of Vale, a coach ambled along through the forest. Inside a young girl slept, clutching a locket in one hand while her guard looked over her with watchful eye. Her name was Penny, and she was the daughter of his boss. It was more than his life's worth to let the girl come to any harm while he was delivering her safely home to her father.
o/o
On the hill, a tower overlooked the city. This tower was dark and foreboding, grim. Two crows, the same two arguing outside of James' manor, winged toward it, settling neatly on the table under the open window. A man clad in green approached them when he saw them, waving a hand over both. There was a squawk, the sound of glass shattering, and where the crows had stood a pair of humans sat instead, a man and a woman. Before he could greet them, ask them questions, the woman was already yelling at the man.
"Another month gone!" she said, pushing off of the table. "You said it would work this time!"
"I don't know why it's not working!" he shouted back. He reached into his pocket and took out a silken pouch, half-dumping the contents into his hands. This month's offerings included a button shaped like a bear, a beautiful red ribbon, a hatpin. Tokens of affection and love, given to him by the General. Collected to show that he was thinking of Qrow, even when the other was not there. Also tucked away in his jacket was an envelope, stuffed thick with the letter he'd spent the month writing. Qrow didn't mention that- he didn't want either his sister or the green-clad man to see its contents. That was personal. "Anyway, I don't see you going out and trying to find a pure heart," he added, closing his fist tightly around the objects in his hand. "You should be trying just as hard as I am but no! You just sit around watching your husband moon over his new love! At least I'm trying, Raven!"
The woman- Raven's- eyes flashed red at his words, and the two would have surely come to blows were it not for the green-clad man stepping between them, holding out his hands to both.
"Both of you, please," he said. "This is not helpful, and I can only keep you in these forms for so long. Tell me about last night. What happened?" A blush spread across Qrow's cheeks, unbidden, so the man added, "You can leave out the sordid details."
"Heh." Qrow smirked. "It was the same as usual, really. Lots of sex. Tender words between. He doesn't want me attacking people anymore but he doesn't want to tell me to stop altogether or give me an ultimatum because he's afraid I won't come back if he does."
"You're not being devoted enough, then," Raven said. "If you were more devoted, then perhaps-"
"It doesn't work like that!" Qrow snapped. His eye flashed, and he turned his attention back to the man in green. "Why isn't it working, Ozpin? You said- if he loved me-"
"Maybe he doesn't love you," Raven said. "Maybe he's just using you. Perhaps if you hadn't rolled over for him the first time he smiled at you-"
"Get out!"
Then they were almost at blows again. Ozpin sighed. "If you are going to keep fighting, I am not going to bother keeping this spell going. Raven, please, do not antagonize your brother when I'm trying to get answers out of him. It doesn't help."
"Fine." Raven huffed, and turned to storm off toward the door, slamming it behind her as she headed up the stairs to the tower instead. Once she was gone, Ozpin turned back to Qrow.
"Perhaps there is more to the spell than I realized," he said kindly, resting a hand on Qrow's shoulder. Qrow didn't answer, just looked down at the tokens in his hand. Ozpin's face softened. "Would you like me to keep the spell going while you read your letter?"
"That would be appreciated," Qrow said quietly. "Raven'll probably like a little bit longer as a human anyway. You sure it won't take too much out of you?"
"I'll just have a big breakfast to make up for it," Ozpin said, turning toward the door. "I'll leave you alone, now. When you're ready, let me know."