Ruby Rose | Team RWBY (eyesofsilver) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-10-11 14:44:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, qrow branwen, ruby rose |
Who: Qrow and Ruby
What: Qrow’s de-aged
When: First day of the de-aging plot
Where: UC:Irvine Campus
Rating/Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
The day had started out normally enough. Qrow had easily fallen back into a normal routine now that he was back teaching. Two lectures that morning followed by the weekly department meeting, his morning office hours, lunch, another two classes that afternoon, a committee meeting (which since he was a tenured professor, he was required to attend) his afternoon office hours and then whatever research and writing he could squeeze in on the paper he was supposed to be doing.
It all seemed so mundane and normal. That is until right before lunch, when Qrow closed his office hours. It was then that something changed. He had no idea what it was at first. His clothes felt looser, as though he was suddenly wearing a size or so too large for him. That was weird in itself considering finding pants to fit his long legs or shirts that fit his lanky torso could be something of a trick.
Then he noticed his office seemed different. Everything was still in its spot, nothing had moved, but it seemed to Qrow that the bookshelves behind his desk seemed taller. He could always reach the top most shelf, but now as he looked at the books up there, he very much doubted he could reach. The longer he stood there the more it felt as though he shouldn’t be there, as though he were trespassing and at any moment he’d be caught and suffer some kind of punishment. He hadn’t experienced a feeling like that since he’d been a kid.
It had been weird once her uncle had been put on ‘extended vacation’ because of that Rita Skeeter woman so they could investigate because there were certain things that Ruby had always held onto while she’d been a student at UC Irvine. Like lunch with her uncle. And then she had graduated and that was something else different because even though Qrow was teaching again, she wasn’t a student.
But despite those changes, Ruby wasn’t about to forego the tradition she’d had where she would go and have lunch with her uncle at least once a week. Especially since there wasn’t all that much going on at work at the moment. Though she figured in those instances, it wasn’t like she’d have time with or without Agency work to meet up on campus for lunch.
She hadn’t paid much attention to the network or anything like that in the past few days and so if something weird was going on and while she hadn’t noticed Cosima that morning, that wasn’t always unheard of since she did more biology and genetic work as opposed to Ruby’s engineering. And so, she had taken her lunch and gone to UC Irvine and her uncle’s office. Entering it, she wasn’t initially aware that something was off about her uncle, as she’d seen an interesting factoid earlier that she just needed to share and showing up with random factoids was just a thing.
“Did you know that--”
It was then she noticed the teen in the office who looked like her uncle but…
“Uncle Qrow?”
Because this was Orange County. Though whatever she’d been about to tell him was since forgotten in the midst of why was her uncle a teenager?
Ruby’s voice made Qrow jump and he whirled around just as she came into the office, ready to tell him about something. But she had stopped in mid sentence and was staring at him. His brows furrowed together. Was something wrong. The way she was looking at him was as though she knew him, but didn’t know him at the same time.
He tried to give his niece an easy smile but knew it looked as forced as it felt. “Hi, kiddo.” And that was as far as he got. His voice sounded different. Younger and free of the influence of 20 years worth of drinking and smoking. He tried to continue his train of thought (something along the lines of “Is it lunch already? Whatcha bring me, squirt?”), but he almost didn’t want to hear the sound of his own voice again.
The silence that followed was awkward at best. “Uhm,” he started, and again his voice sounding like that of a teenager was unnerving. He rubbed at the back of the neck and couldn’t help the sheepish look that crept over his face. “I take it from the way you’re staring at me that something isn’t right. You mind, uh, telling me what that is?” Though he could venture a guess.
And it seemed that Qrow seemed to both know her but not what was going on. That was good. Definitely good because Ruby didn’t really know how she’d react if he didn’t know her. Ruby held way too tightly to her remaining family because losing them was not an option. Being forgotten by Qrow as well as her mom? That would be too much. Even if it was temporary. Hopefully temporary. Because most Orange County things were temporary.
But the question did get her to snap out of her shock and focus on the question at hand.
“Definitely not right. Not bad, just not right.” Because Ruby did try to always find the good or at least, not the complete worst of situation. “You’re um….you’re younger than me?”
Qrow’s brows furrowed together. Younger? That would definitely explain a few things. Not the how or the why, but those were rarely explained in these situations anyway. He let out a breath. “Great,” He muttered under his breath as he ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t enjoy being a teenager the first time around.”
He glanced at his niece, who was still staring at him. It was kind of weird looking at her with younger eyes. She felt more like a cousin than a niece. He’d grown up with plenty of “cousins” around. This was definitely one of the weirder Orange County experiences.
Another breath followed by a much easier smile. “Well, alright then. This is going to be life for the next couple of days.” A frown threatened the corners of his mouth, but he fought it back making his expression turn more thoughtful. “Can’t teach my classes like this.” Which was going to be a hassle considering he’d literally just come back. He shook his head again. “May as well make the best out of this, right?”
Ruby wasn’t really sure how to respond to any of this. There were no answers to the how or why, who got chosen to get young again and who didn’t. At least no real answer that couldn’t be summed up as ‘Orange County is being Orange County’, which really was the go to answer in these sorts of situations. She also didn’t know what most teenagers did either as she usually was hanging out with her uncle or building things and left high school early.
She might not have had cousins but Qrow was family and that was all the really mattered in Ruby’s mind. He was still her uncle even if for him it felt more like she was a cousin. Family was family and no one gets left behind. And as it seemed he was okay-ish with it, Ruby relaxed some as well as she was basically taking Qrow’s cues on how to react. Though she would need to let her dad and Yang know.
“That is the way it usually ends up being!” And at least it wasn’t an invasion or something. “But yep. Might as well make the best of it!”
That at least was definitely something Ruby was familiar with, finding a way to make the best out of weird situations.
Alright. Make the best of being a teenager again. Ok. That sounded easy enough. Only, the last time Qrow had been this age he hadn’t exactly been doing normal teenager stuff. At fifteen he was already working for the Syndicate committing petty theft, breaking and entering, learning the tried and true racket of extortion. In a couple of years he and Raven would get arrested and spend a year in juvie. Hm. Maybe being a kid again wouldn’t be that bad. He had none of that shit hanging around his neck now.
He actually felt a little excited. “Let’s get out of here,” he said. “I probably shouldn’t be hanging around in a teacher’s office. Or...on campus for that matter.” And a part of him -- the teenaged part -- really didn’t want to be there.
Definitely not the way she had expected this lunch to go, but that was fine by Ruby. She tended to be fine with just rolling with whatever Orange County threw at them. Especially when it wasn’t something super serious.
“Probably not.”
Because that would be hard to explain. If it was someone from the network who showed up, then it would be one thing. Trying to explain this though? Ruby wasn’t a good liar and so it would just be even more suspicious.
“Where do you want to go?”
Where did he want to go? He could go literally anywhere he wanted and it’d be interesting to experience life as his nieces did. Sort of. Minus the whole being younger than them...and a boy. Still, it could be fun.
“Let’s get lunch,” he said. “I’m starving. Breakfast feels like it was a long time ago.” He grabbed his bag off the floor. “After that…” he shrugged. “I dunno. Anywhere, I guess. Do you have to go back to work?”
Lunch. Lunch was probably a good thing since that was why Ruby had shown up at Qrow’s office when she did. And it was probably a good thing as well since who knew what might have happened otherwise.
“Lunch sounds good to me!” And then the question about if she had to go back to work, which was met with a shrug of her own. “Dr. Simmons will understand.” Definitely a benefit to working for people on the network. Her uncle suddenly being younger than her? That was actually a thing that could happen and so if she had to be late or not come in? Then it wasn’t that big a deal. Especially since there weren’t any pressing projects she was working on.
Forty-Year-Old Qrow would have given Ruby a skeptical look and cautioned her that she might want to call Dr. Simmons and explain what was happening and that she was going to take the afternoon off. Fifteen-Year-Old Qrow on the other hand? Pft. Naaah. What was the harm? Asking for forgiveness was so much easier than asking for permission.
He smiled at her brightly. “Great!” He slung the strap to his bag across his shoulders. The idea of spending an afternoon with his niece with zero responsibilities and zero worries was exciting. He’d probably never get a chance like this again.
“Let’s go,” he said, motioning towards the door. “I got my debit card and we can literally do whatever we want.” Let Forty-Year-Old Qrow worry about the damage done to his bank account.
Well, it wasn’t like Ruby was just going to not call Jemma to let her know. Most likely. She just...wasn’t going to right at that exact moment. Partially because she wasn’t thinking about it since there were things in the immediate time that she was doing, and also because...well there wasn’t really any other reason. She could of course say she needed to call but there would be time to do that when they were in line for food or whatever else they chose to do.
There was a brief moment of pause at Qrow mentioning his debit card and them doing whatever they wanted to do because...that would be something not fun to deal with later on but the moment passed and she nodded.
“Awesome!” So okay, sometimes she was still easily swayed into doing things. But so long as she kept her uncle out of too much trouble, she’d call it a win.