(ง •̀_•́)ง (ember_celica) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-04-17 00:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, qrow branwen, yang xiao long |
Trust me, none of them look much better.
Who: Yang and Qrow
When: Before they came back
Where: Pahrump, NV
What: Yang realizes another reason her mom is a jerk
Rating: PG-13 for Qrow looking like he got put through the ringer
Status: Complete
Raven had offered her hand, and Yang had taken it. Even now, days later, her head was still spinning. Yang had felt like she didn’t belong anywhere and wanted to actually know her mother, unfiltered through the eyes of others. But she’d been torn. She couldn’t leave Ruby, she couldn’t leave Blake, or any other of her friends. Despite feeling like her family was still tattered and broken, they were still more of a family to her than Raven had ever been.
And yet, she wasn’t looking for Ruby. She didn’t need to use her mother to find her and Qrow, she didn’t have to worry about that. So she hadn’t taken her mother’s hand, but she’d gone nonetheless.
Besides, she’d told herself it was to find out more about her other mother. Summer Rose, the woman that Yang considered her mother more than Raven. For as much herself as Ruby, she’d wanted to know more. And she wanted to know what her mother actually was like.
She hadn’t known what had happened to her uncle after that. Raven had told her that he’d been staying close to the motel, and kept insisting that they should leave this town and go north. Only once had Yang been able to sneak away from Raven or those watching her to get a chance to talk to Summer alone. There might have even been a flicker of recognition in those silver eyes, but Yang couldn’t know for certain. She only knew that she going to be leaving with more questions than answers and a new, bitter disappointment.
Her mother had tried to manipulate her. Just like in the dreams Yang had had just the night before. Some things were the same.
Yang hated it. At least Raven had let her go - though a couple of her lieutenants now had broken noses for trying to stop her anyway.
She pushed open the door to the room, “Uncle? I’m back.”
Qrow never did go to the hospital. He had wanted to be at the motel when Yang returned. So he hadn’t dared leave. Time had passed, but not enough that any of his injuries had healed. His face and body were still a mess of mismatched bruises and abrasions. He’d medicated himself with alcohol and the aspirin Raven had left, both of which were nearly gone. Eventually he had managed to wrap his ribs to keep those that had been broken (which he was discovering to be more than he’d originally thought), set and not risk re-injuring them, even by just moving about the room in an effort to keep his body from stiffening too much.
His days and nights were spent waiting and listening to everything and anything outside the motel room door. He’d been warned to stay away from the camp, but he doubted Raven had warned Leif and the others to stay away from him. Every noise outside the door made him jump. He was half on his feet, his hip and knee both threatening to give out when Yang entered the room.
He was relieved to see his niece come through the door. “Yang,” he breathed and he couldn’t help the smile. “I’m glad to see you.”
“Yeah well….” Yang trailed off as she got a good look at Qrow. Any lingering doubts about not staying vanished as she saw him. She couldn’t even muster up some kind of joke to ease the pain, she just came over and sat next to him, “Which of them did this.”
If she had to drive back out there and wreck the whole camp she would.
Qrow sat back on the bed before his leg had the chance to quit. He’d been waiting so anxiously for Yang to come back and tell him she was ready to go (or, god forbid, that she wanted to stay), that he hadn’t put any thought into explaining the way he looked, much less what her reaction to it would be. Clearly Raven hadn’t told Yang everything, if she had told Yang anything useful at all.
“It was ten of them, actually,” Qrow admitted. The rueful smile came more easily now that she was back and he wasn’t constantly worried about where she was or who was trying to pull what kind of con on her or what would happen if she met Summer face to face after all this time thinking and believing she was dead. “It looks worse than it really is.” Little white lie, maybe, but he’d say anything to get that look off of her face. “Trust me, none of them look much better. Your old uncle still has plenty of fight left in him.” Naturally, that was the same moment the last round of painkillers (literally the last round) decided to wear off, and a new wave of pain set in causing a wince to interrupt that rueful look.
“Ten.” Yang looked like she was considering that. She’d handled, what, 4 of them in her dreams without breaking a sweat? Or getting pissed off. She’d been in control of herself, something that she hadn’t actually been feeling as much while awake as she’d like.
Still, she could probably handle 10. “That’s good, cuz I could go right back there and show them Ember Celica up close and personal.”
As much fun as that would have been (and wouldn’t Qrow just love to see the looks on the faces of Lief and the others the first time they saw Yang’s gauntlets) going back to the camp now wasn’t a good idea for many reasons. “You could,” he agreed. “But you’re not. You’re Raven’s daughter and that automatically gives you more leeway than most, but the clan does have laws. If you were to go back there and throw down, even with just one of them, it’d be as good as declaring war. Believe me, we don’t want that. I knew the consequences for leaving when I refused to go back with Raven. I’m a traitor, Yang, and this, unfortunately, is how traitors are dealt with. The bright side is that their business with me is done. It won’t be if you go back looking for revenge.” And worse, the clan’s brutal retribution may have even been transferred to Yang, regardless of whose daughter she was. The last thing Qrow wanted was for Yang to pay for his mistakes.
As he spoke his good hand had grasped hold of her arm, not tight enough to hurt. He kept the urgency, the desperation to keep her safe, out of his voice. However it was very present in his grip.
A year ago, Yang would have been all for declaring war. These were bad people, and she didn’t even need to see Qrow like this to know it. There was a part of Yang, beyond the thirst for adventure, that wants to help people and make the world a better place. The part of her that saw what cults could do to people, and the clan was no better than one.
But she’d changed, a lot, so she stood down, even if she did reply, “They’re gonna hurt other people. We can’t let that go on forever.”
She put her hand over Qrow’s, unsure how to bring up the other thing that she was thinking about. A big reason why she was willing to wait and see. “Uncle, I saw Summer. I saw my real mom.”
Yang was right. The Branwen Clan had been hurting people in one way or another for generations and unless the clan died out, they would continue to do so for more generations. Qrow knew that, he’d always known that. What he didn’t know was how to stop them, or if that was something he was even capable of doing. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the “we” aspect of attempting it, either.
However, before Qrow could even start to tackle that, Yang had uttered Summer’s name. She had no way of knowing about the newly ripped open emotional wound in her uncle. Nor did she have any way of knowing that she’d just jammed a finger straight into it. And she didn’t need to know. Things were complicated enough as it was.
He buried that hurt with a deep breath, his lungs pressing against damaged ribs caused a different pain to concentrate on. “I saw her too,” he said. “She didn’t recognize me.”
“There wasn’t even a… flicker.” Yang said, unknowingly twisting the knife even more. “Raven wouldn’t even let me talk to her, so I snuck out. She was… there was nothing.”
Yang hugged herself. “She was a stranger. I don’t know how I’m gonna tell Ruby. Or god, dad.”
She thought maybe they could keep it a secret, but … “They’d never forgive us if we didn’t tell them and they found out.”
Qrow’s chest ached. This was his fault. This had been his great idea. An attempt, however vain, for Yang to finally meet her mother and get answers to the questions that had plagued her her entire life. It was one thing for him to face certain consequences that had been long overdue as a result, causing his niece to experience a whole new pain was another matter all together.
He straightened enough to pull her towards him for a hug, the way he had when she had been a little girl. His bad arm couldn’t tighten around her, his hip violently protested the twist of his body and the pressure of her against his broken ribs reminded him of the haphazard way he’d been able to wrap them. But he held her as tight as he could anyway.
“I’m sorry, Yang,” he said softly. “I’ll tell them.” She shouldn’t have to shoulder that responsibility.
It wasn’t Qrow’s fault. He couldn’t have predicted Summer would be there, or really warn Yang what kind of person her mother was. Chances were Qrow had his own thoughts and hopes about his sister that had been dashed to. She hugged Qrow back, shaking her head. “I gotta tell Ruby. That’s… that’s my responsibility.”
Ruby would always be Yang’s responsibility. She might be the leader, but Yang would always protect her and defend her, even if she’d follow her order and lead without question.
Qrow understood. The sisters had a very special bond. Yang had always protected Ruby, ever since they were little. It was only natural that she would want to tell her about Summer. It was probably better that she did. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll tell your father.” It was probably better that way too. There was no way to know exactly how Tai would take the news, it would be better if Qrow was there to stop him from doing anything reckless and stupid.
She just needed to figure out how to say it or what to say. Yang just knew she wouldn’t be able to handle telling both of them, so she was really grateful Qrow had offered to tell her dad. Qrows pain hadn’t gone unnoticed, either, and Yang asked, “Do you want anything? For the pain? Do you need a doctor?”
He probably should should see a doctor and have his injuries properly looked at, but he didn’t trust anyone in Pahrump, not with how quickly Raven had found them. He’d said that the clan’s business with him was over -- and by rights -- it should have been, but that was a risk Qrow really didn’t want to take.
He let her go so he could lean back against the bed’s headboard. “I’ll see a doctor once we get home,” he promised. He didn’t try to lie to her and say that he wasn’t in any pain. Yang was an adult and an intelligent woman, treating her like a kid would have been insulting, especially after what she’d already been through. “I could use more of these,” he gestured towards the empty aspirin bottle.
“Okay,” Yang nodded at him. She was switching into mothering mode, which was easier to think about than everything else. Get Uncle Qrow pain meds, maybe something for him to eat. And then they could get out of this town and go home. Yang wasn’t entirely enthusiastic about that, but it was better than staying here.
Letting Yang settle into mother-mode was the best for her at the moment and to be honest, it was probably better for him as well. The less he had to move around was probably the better. He wasn’t so sure about the ride home, and he wasn’t looking forward to the talk he was going to have to have once he got there, but he didn’t want to stay in this god forsaken place any longer than they absolutely had to.