Clover Ebi (aceoperative) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2020-02-14 01:29:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, clover ebi, qrow branwen |
ᴡʜᴏ: Clover Ebi & Qrow Branwen
ᴡʜᴀᴛ: Settling in, realizing nothing's settled at all
ᴡʜᴇɴ: February 10, 2020
ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ: Their apartment
ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢs: More references to violence and near death, traumatized people deliberately not talking about their trauma
Clover woke up early, the sound of Tyrian’s laughter still in his ears. He squeezed his eyes shut against it, taking in a steadying breath before opening his eyes. That was another adjustment. Everything that happened wasn’t a dream. He let himself lay there for a brief moment before sitting up and getting to work on getting ready. He took a quick shower, got dressed, and carefully avoided overthinking the fact that he was living with Qrow.
In an effort to keep his mind distracted, he decided to make breakfast. He didn’t know what Qrow liked or if he was a breakfast person, but they’d need to eat before their meeting with the Bureau. He calmly went over possible questions they might ask and how to answer them efficiently. As he did so, he carefully made coffee, eggs, and bacon, setting two plates and to mugs out without even really thinking about it.
When he did, he paused, staring at the table. He didn’t know if Qrow would be up soon or not and so he didn’t put his food on a plate, instead putting his own food on his plate and putting something over the food he had made to keep it warm. Then he poured coffee in his cup, sighing after he sat down. Maybe he should have left the rest of the stuff on the counter.
Mostly, Qrow wasn't a breakfast person. He wasn't much of a morning person in general except when he had to be. Which was usually. If he did have breakfast, it was usually out of a flask… or at least it had been. Back before they'd flown into Atlas.
The smell of coffee was what dragged him out of bed while he laid there contemplating trying out that whole sleeping in thing. He'd replaced booze with caffeine and while it probably wasn't great for him in the quantities he'd been downing it, at least it was a safer kind of vice. One that wouldn't hurt anyone but him.
He only remembered to put his clothes on before he stumbled out of his room because he'd gotten used to being surrounded by teenagers. It didn't occur to him to put in any more effort than that. His hair stuck up like ruffled feathers, his eyelids still heavy and his face still soft with sleep.
"Mmm, morning." Clover, Qrow noticed, looked presentable already. It made him a little self-conscious, but not enough to make him turn around and get ready before he downed some coffee.
Clover had mentally prepared himself for multiple versions of Qrow's appearance. He hadn’t fully prepared himself for the reality of it. It hadn’t been anything similar to the appearance and he had to clear his throat and avert his eyes briefly. As much as he'd teased Qrow about his appearance, he liked the slightly disheveled look on him. This was a whole different version of disheveled and he wasn't going to be the one staring semi starry-eyed at a man who’d recently tried to kill him.
"Good morning, Qrow." He finally willed himself to look at the other man, putting his best confident and friendly face forward and trying to ignore any unusual feelings in his chest.
"Wasn’t sure what you liked for breakfast or if you really liked anything, but you’re welcome to what’s left if you’d like." He was quiet for a moment, trying to fight the unreasonable urge to explain himself even further. He wasn’t going to let himself ramble.
"Did you sleep well?"
Qrow could sleep pretty much anywhere; perks of spending most of his life on the move without a bed, comfortable or not. Sleeping well, though, that was a different story. "Fine. You?"
Even though he really didn't like anything for breakfast, Qrow grabbed the extra plate and started dishing some food up. Smelled good, at least. And he didn't know how long this meeting they had was going to take, especially if they ended up having work for them right away. No telling when his next chance to eat would be.
"Shoulda known you could cook," he added. Because of course Clover was as good at that as he was at pretty much everything else. Except thinking for himself, anyway.
"Yeah." Which was a lie. Still, he didn’t really want to get into the nature of his sleep. But maybe later. As long as it didn’t become an issue and he found a way to deal with it, it would be fine. He was sure Qrow didn’t need an extra reason to be concerned.
At least there was the fact that he could cook to talk about instead. "Don’t get to do it too often, but I figure no one else is going to while I’m here, so I might as well. If you’ve got any preferences on food, let me know. Then we can have it around. If we have late nights, we can just get food out."
He took a sip of his coffee, letting himself think again. "I’m curious to know more of what’s going on with this witch or fairy and what they’re hoping we can do about it." He glanced up at Qrow. "Whatever happens, we’re gonna do this together."
It was on the tip of Qrow's tongue to ask if he was sure about that. He knew what Clover would say. Something about not being so hard on himself. Something about luck. It'd been… not easy to buy into, before, but easier. There'd seemed to be a chance, at least, at this maybe being safe. At Clover being one person whose life he couldn't ruin.
He frowned at his plate, instead, avoiding meeting Clover's eyes. It was all starting to itch under his skin already. This house. This easy domesticity, like Clover hadn't been trying to arrest him the day before. Like it hadn't been Qrow's fault that Clover had almost died. And now Clover was making him breakfast and talking about going out to dinner together and Qrow wanted to dive out the window, or something. He'd never been the kind of guy to play house, not even when the girls were little.
This wasn't for him.
But for now, it was going to be. He'd ruin it eventually, anyway. "Not sure what he thinks we'd know about her that they don't, but hey. Maybe we'll get lucky. After all, you're here."
Clover allowed for a hint of a smile at the words, but he was studying Qrow all the same. He’d gotten used to who he was and the way he interacted. He knew he was hard on himself, knew that it probably didn’t help that his semblance made things more difficult. He wasn’t completely free of concerns, but he was better at covering them up, acting like the soldier he was supposed to be and putting aside things to make things work.
This place was different. “One condition,” he said, after a moment. “If we’re going to do this, we have to be open and honest with each other.” Which felt like a sham since he’d just casually kept something to himself. He knew they were both keeping things from each other in a way, but they’d have to work on it. Find a way.
“We have to rely on each other because we’re the only ones here. Whatever happened back home isn’t here. Doesn’t mean we’re not both thinking about it and we’re not both gonna have to figure that out.” He let it sink in for a minute, taking in a deep breath and letting it out. “Think you can handle that?”
"I've handled worse," Qrow told him. It was true, mostly. If you looked at it objectively, what had happened between them wasn't even in the top ten as far as shitty episodes in Qrow's life went.
It was hard to be objective when it came to Clover, especially when he took a second to really think about it. There was the guilt, yeah, and that was the deepest part of it, the part Qrow was likely to drown in if he let himself sink into it. There was the anger, too, that Clover hadn't been willing to just listen for a minute when Qrow had never wanted to fight at all. But at the very bottom of all of that, buried far enough that he'd probably never end up dealing with it because that, that was how Qrow still kept moving after all these years, that was where it hurt. Picked last again, just when he'd started maybe buying into what Clover had been trying to sell him.
Yeah. Like he was gonna be open and honest about all that.
He sat his plate down on the table with a clatter, took a long drink of his coffee before he went on. "I'll do what I need to do. Always have. You don't have to worry about me."
Clover wasn’t sure what to say to any of it. Wasn’t even sure what he was saying helped or hurt. At least it was enough to distract him from the other distractions that the morning had brought. But it brought up more things to think about and he’d have to take the time to do that.
So instead of allowing any of that to show on his face, he kept himself neutral and nodded. “Yeah.” It wasn’t really a very Clover response, but it was all he had at the moment. “We both do.” A pause. “We’ve got some information to get at the meeting. As much as we can on what they know about this fairy-witch. Cause if we have to fight her, we need to know what we’re up against. And we need to decide if that’s even the right course. Cause I don’t know. This place is a whole different set of things that I’m not fully certain of.”
That made two of them, but that answer, that set Qrow on edge. He'd never heard Clover less sure of himself; it felt wrong, more than anything else since they'd arrived had felt wrong, so far. Except Qrow guessed it made sense, in a way. Sure, Clover was the leader of his team, but Qrow wasn't sure he'd ever had to worry about making that big a decision, to fight or not to fight, for himself before. He'd always had Jimmy—Ironwood, making that call for him.
It felt a little too familiar. Like learning everything you thought you knew, everything you'd lived for, was a lie.
"Guess you've got something to learn from me after all, Alpha." Qrow sank down into a second chair, running his hand through his hair to try to get it into some semblance of order at last. "When fate messes with you no matter what you do, you learn how to move without ever really being sure. Long as our weapons can hit her, we can fight her."
Odds couldn't be as helpless as they were against Salem, at least.
Ironwood was the person they followed, someone he trusted. Leading people was effortless when you knew what the task was. A real fight was also easy to lead his team through. They knew each other, understood the way they each fought and their strengths and weaknesses. This was different.
There was a hint of something that might have been a smile at what seemed like a nickname, but he didn’t let it linger. “Is that the lesson to learn?” He found himself briefly distracted, watching as Qrow fixed his hair, the casual way he slouched in his seat. It took all of his effort not to let his eyes wander along the lines of the other Huntsman’s body, forcing his eyes back up to Qrow’s face.
“I’ll keep it in mind. If this woman is a criminal, I don’t think I can sit around and do nothing, but…” But how could he put his trust in strangers? “Still better be prepared for whatever might happen.”
"Can't prepare for everything," Qrow cautioned him. Not like they hadn't just seen the proof of that for themselves.
Not that Qrow was saying they had to blindly trust these people, either. Just seemed a lot easier to make that call, when you'd spent as long going it solo as Qrow had. No one else to ask when you were deep in enemy territory.
Once he started eating, Qrow realized he might have been hungry after all. He didn't bother waiting until he'd swallowed to keep talking though. "There's your lesson. So stop trying to plan out our entire strategy before you've finished your coffee. Not that kinda op. We're gonna have to wing it a little."
He hid his smirk behind his cup. If Clover had known about the whole bird thing, he would've appreciated that one.
“Can’t hurt to be somewhat prepared.” Because that was how he did things. Going into the caves had come with a hint of preparation, but it had taken some adjustments, so he knew that Qrow wasn’t wrong. It helped to be flexible in some situations. But he was in new territory.
“I’d at least like to know more of what we’re up against. We’re probably not lucky enough to get to know her weaknesses, so that we’ll have to figure out by fighting.” He offered Qrow a hint of a smile. “But you’re right.” Let that be a surprise for him. “I can’t have it all planned out before I’m finished my coffee.”
It was, in fact, a surprise. That showed on Qrow's face, a momentary widening of his eyes before he returned that almost smile. "If you can hold off on the planning until we meet the guy at the Bureau, promise not to even try to make him hate me."
Didn't mean he wouldn't anyway. Just that he wouldn't intentionally antagonize him.
Clover couldn’t push down the smug feeling of satisfaction that came with actually surprising Qrow. His smile grew as he watched him, trying to disguise it by eating something and drinking more coffee.
“I knew you did it on purpose.” A beat. “But I guess you’re in luck. I’ll put off my planning till after our meeting has started.” He winked at him over the edge of his coffee mug as he took another drink.
"Lucky me," Qrow said, voice flat and dry. It covered up the fact that his heart had done one of those uncomfortable little leaps it always did when Clover winked at him. Mostly.
The man was ridiculous. Qrow just shook his head and took another drink. Good thing he knew better than to take him seriously. The flirting, he figured, was just another part of Clover's weird plan to build up his self-esteem. Even with it all figured out, it sort of worked
"Course, not like I'm asking you to wait more than, what, an hour?"
Qrow’s tone only succeeded in making him smile wider. “A very long time.” But he couldn’t keep the amusement out of his voice. “Until then, let’s focus on finishing our food and try not to slip into mundane topics like how the weather is.”