Ruby Rose | Team RWBY (eyesofsilver) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-06-19 14:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, qrow branwen, ruby rose |
Who: Qrow and Ruby
What: Ruby aggressively caring doing Father’s Day stuff for Qrow
When: Father’s Day (June 16th)
Where: Qrow’s condo
Warnings: Lowish, references to alcoholism/depression/excessive drinking
Status: Log | Complete
It wasn’t unusual for Ruby to do things for her uncle when Father’s Day came around but there was just something different this time around. Mostly because of the Dreams and how Qrow was acting in them and here thanks to the Ozpin revelations. And Ruby was still worried and she still didn’t know what to do. Besides pick up groceries for her uncle (even if he was annoyed by it) and make sure he at least ate something.
It was just a lot but maybe if she just continued to be there and help out, her uncle would at least maybe start talking? Processing? It was a hope at any rate.
As it was though, she had plans to do stuff for her dad later that day which meant right now was for her uncle. When she got to Qrow’s condo, it was clear that her uncle was still asleep which….okay. That wasn’t uncommon with how much he’d been drinking. Something she wasn’t sure how to deal with or how to help him.
“Okay...what to do…”
Part of the plan was definitely breakfast but a quick look around told Ruby that there was something else that needed to be done. Cleaning. Well. Okay then. Giving a nod to herself, the engineer put her hair up in a bun and went to work on cleaning up the place. Mostly empty bottles which...yeah okay some frustration but Ruby pushed it down because it wouldn’t do any good. There were no life or death situations like the Dreams.
At least she had gotten groceries earlier in the week so she would be able to make breakfast once she finished cleaning.
Qrow was not a messy man by nature. At least not intentionally. The townhouse was usually kept in a state of lived-in cleanliness. Lately, however, the drive to pick up any kind of clutter that accumulated had been non-existent. In fact, Qrow wasn’t even sure how the clutter accumulated in the first place. Most of his hours not spent on campus were spent at one of two bars. Last night had been the Double Tap. He’d spent the night drinking, had flown home, drank a little more andpassed outfell asleep on his couch, still in the clothes from the day before. All in all, his normal routine.
He was still on the couch when Ruby arrived and didn’t so much as stir when she let herself in and began her cleaning crusade. Again, his townhouse wasn’t messy. Some papers and books were scattered over the coffee table. His messenger bag tossed carelessly into one of the chairs, his jacket left hanging over the back of another. His car/house keys had been abandoned somewhere in the kitchen. A collection of empty bottles and glasses could be found in the living room, kitchen and upstairs in his office. It was the clinking of those glasses that brought Qrow groggily back to his senses with a pounding headache.
He rolled over with a groan, but there was no going back to sleep now.
There was definitely something to be said about the fact that at least most of the necessity for cleaning was related to the empty bottles and not things like food that had gone bad or things of that nature. So the items that were scattered about were put in more order and where they usually would be if not abandoned to counters in random rooms or backs of chairs.
Still, Ruby was slightly worried that Qrow hadn’t even made it to his room and was on the couch yet again - something she’d become aware of on the nights she stayed at the townhouse. But it was again one of those things she didn’t really know what she could do to help with. So for now it was just cleaning the townhouse.
Which did include cleaning down surfaces as well. They may not be a mess but if she was going to clean, she was going to do it properly. She at least was trying to keep quiet, but the whole empty glasses and bottles made that difficult. And cleaning said glasses once the bottles were in the recycling.
As Qrow swam up from unconsciousness he became increasingly aware that there was someone in his house. That should have been enough to bring him fully to his senses, if not completely to his feet to confront the intruder. But he really didn’t care. The clinking glasses, though, were annoying, and not doing anything to help his head.
Another groan and Qrow forced himself to sit up. Rubbing at his eyes, he looked around his living room, blurry vision finally settling on Ruby as she was straightening the mess on the coffee table. He stared at her for a couple of moments trying to remember whether or not she had spent the night. He was fairly sure she hadn’t. “Ruby?” His voice sent a jolt of pain through the back of his head. “Ugh. Kiddo, whaddya doin’? What time is it?”
Ruby definitely had not stayed the night before, and she had been meaning to put advil and water on the table beside her uncle before he woke up. But...too late for that now. Well to do so before he woke up at least. She could still get him. Though it definitely would have been awkward had her uncle attacked her thinking her an intruder. Instead she was a cleaning intruder.
At the question on what she was doing and the time it was, Ruby looked up.
“Cleaning. It’s...11:30 right now?”
Definitely late morning. She had brought a project to work on with Qrow, one of those things they had talked about as a theory of something that would be neat to try - before the Dreams and all the stress that came with them - and it had seemed a good addition to this year’s Father’s Day.
“Then I was going to make you breakfast. But first…” and in a burst of rose petals, Ruby went to get the glass of water and advil that she’d meant to have prepared before Qrow woke up, which were placed on the table in front of him and back to where she’d been cleaning.
Qrow squinted at his watch, focusing through the throbbing in his head to confirm that it was indeed 11:30 in the morning. Huh. He looked back up at Ruby, but before he could mention that it was closer to lunch than breakfast, she’d rose-petal’d herself to the bathroom and back and produced the water and pain killers. The whirlwind of motion made his stomach lurch slightly.
“Thanks,” he muttered softly. He shook out a few of the pills and downed them with the water, then proceeded to drain the rest of the glass. When he was finished he sat with the empty glass in his hand and watched his niece as she continued to straighten his living room. There was something about this that felt weird to him. Cleaning his house, making him breakfast, bringing him Advil and water. He knew she was trying to be helpful, showing how much she cared through her actions as Ruby always did, but it didn’t seem right. Especially considering lately he hadn’t been much good for her. He wasn’t much good for anyone. Ruby of all people shouldn’t have to pick up after him, she shouldn’t have had to be taking care of him.
Qrow grimaced and ran a hand through his hair. “Ruby, stop. I know you’re trying to help, but you don’t need to clean the house.”
Well it wasn’t like breakfast needed to be served at a specific time. Well….in theory. Yes there was the whole order of meals in the day - so first meal of the day was breakfast no matter the time. Or you could make breakfast foods for dinner! It was the thought that counted. Besides it was tradition. Ruby did breakfast for her dad and Qrow on Father’s Day. Okay so because Qrow was having issues and all, it wasn’t like it was like previous years where he’d be there but she had planned for that.
And the fact she would sometimes make a lighter breakfast on the mornings she was there and it was clear her uncle was hungover and needed something to be more focused when he went to teach.
As she was told to stop, the twenty-one year old did come to a stop and shifted her weight awkwardly. She really wasn’t sure what to do. Because there wasn’t some larger picture and mission here, it meant that she could try to find ways to help her uncle here. So even if he didn’t think that he had been any good for her lately, Ruby wanted to help. Just because he was struggling didn’t erase everything he meant to her.
“I know… It’s just it’s Father’s Day so I figured it’d be a nice gesture.” That was at least part of it.
Father’s Day. Qrow groaned again. How had he forgotten? Well, Ruby currently had the empty bottles that had once contained the reason in her arms. Qrow felt like shit, and not just from his hangover. God bless Ruby for trying. It was more than he deserved.
Qrow sighed and rubbed his face. As awkward and bad as he felt, he did appreciate her efforts. He needed to show her the same. Try to make up for the dumpster fire of a person he was becoming. “Forget the cleaning for now,” he said. “Let’s just, uh...let’s just do breakfast, alright?”
Ruby wasn’t really sure how to react to the groan when she mentioned what day it was, so it was a matter of seeing more of Qrow’s reaction. It would be a lie to say there wasn’t some concern on how it might go. After all, Ruby had seen how dismissive of everything Qrow was in the Dreams at the moment. Comments that even cut into her though she pushed them aside because she knew he was hurting and because there was still a lot that needed to be done.
But thankfully it didn’t end up being the same as it was in the Dreams where she was just brushed aside and that it didn’t matter or whatever. And so she just smiled and nodded.
“Okay!” It was probably a bad sign that she was genuinely relieved by Qrow’s reaction, that it wasn’t what a part of her had anticipated but she would take it. She just wanted her uncle to be okay and not brush everything off and lose himself so even if it was just agreeing to breakfast right now? She’d take it.
Being okay seemed so simple. It should have been easy to get his shit together and move on and Qrow couldn’t figure out just what the hell was wrong with him that he wasn’t able to do that. If not for himself (because honestly, he didn’t believe he deserved that kind of relief) then at least for Ruby and Yang. They needed him -- or at least, needed to not have to worry or put up with his shit. Maybe if he acted like everything was fine, everything would be fine.
Qrow mustered up a smile for his niece and pushed himself up from the couch. “Let’s see what we’ve got in the kitchen.” Though it was likely Ruby already had an idea considering the last time she’d been over, she’d snuck in a grocery bag or two worth of food.
Ruby wished she knew how to help her uncle in a more substantive way. Yet it seemed she never quite knew how to help someone separate their feelings from the Dreams to here, that even if they hurt initially and could be overwhelming - Ruby dealt with that herself when it came to guilt and confusion and trying to make sense of things - that at the end of the day, it was Orange County that mattered, their lives here. She apparently ‘didn’t get it’ or whatever else someone might say.
Which really just meant she didn’t know how to help those she cared about even as she tried her hardest to be there even if she didn’t get it.
Which was what this situation seemed to be turning into. Ruby had dealt with her confusion and old doubts and uncertainty about what had been revealed by Jinn, what it meant for the mission at the end of the day. She knew where she stood and was getting there in the Dreams as well. But she’d just gotten there sooner here because of the break between them. But just because she had dealt with it didn’t mean others had and so she had to tread water carefully. Which was why she tended to go with normal and just being there because it was who she was and hopefully it would be enough. That she would be enough even when it seemed that she wasn’t.
So when Qrow pushed himself off the couch, the engineer nodded and headed to the kitchen to deposit of the glasses and bottles in their proper location of recycling or the sink (but at least kept from any actual cleaning she might otherwise have done) and did a checklist of the groceries she had managed to bring over earlier that week.
She had done loaded french toast the previous year, so obviously she needed to switch it up some.
“Let’s see, I can do omelette waffles,” totally a thing, “or a breakfast skillet or breakfast quesadilla” all of which didn’t take too much time to cook. But also options!
“Omelette waffles?” Qrow repeated as he put his glass in the sink. Okay, despite everything else that did sound interesting. And it was something to do, which he needed. Maybe Ruby did too. “Yeah, let’s go with those. I think the waffle iron’s in there,” he pointed towards one of the cabinets. Technically it was Tai’s waffle iron, but the other man hadn’t seemed to have missed in the six months since Qrow had “borrowed” it from his kitchen. “How do you make omelette waffles? I’m assuming you need eggs…”
Something to do was always a good thing. Get stuck too long in your head and things became bigger than they probably were. In theory. Either way, omelette waffles seemed to be the choice - which was totally fine by Ruby, they had definitely piqued her interest when she had found the recipe - and so went to where Qrow had told her to get the waffle iron.
“Pretty simple actually. You use three large eggs for each one, so beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper and mix in what you want in them, then spray the waffle iron with cooking spray, pour on the batter and cook on low for four to five minutes and voila, omelette waffles!”
That was also a benefit of the choice. Real simple to make. And eggs had definitely been involved in her grocery run from earlier that week.
That did sound ridiculously easy and Qrow wondered why the idea had never occurred to him before. Then again, he’d only used the waffle iron once since he’d “borrowed” it. “Eggs, alright.” Did he even have any eggs? While Ruby got out the waffle iron, Qrow opened the fridge and sure enough, there was a fresh carton of eggs. Qrow got it out and then looked over the other things in his fridge that Ruby had brought earlier in the week. His appetite had been so non-existent lately, he was a little concerned the produce would go bad. This seemed like a good opportunity to use some of it.
“You want cheese, kiddo?” He asked, glancing back in her direction. “Peppers, tomatoes…?”
Waffle iron procured, Ruby moved to the counter to wait for Qrow to get the eggs. That was indeed the glorious thing about omelettes, the ability to put what you wanted in them. Still, it was also important to have a balanced meal and so produce was definitely a necessity.
“All three sound good to me!”
“Okay.” Qrow turned his attention back to the contents of his fridge. There were a few other items in there that he wasn’t sure should be left, so he got those out along with the eggs, cheese, peppers and tomatoes. He deposited everything on the counter. He took a step back to get a better look at what they had available to them: eggs, cheese, tomatoes, peppers, a few onions, spinach, some meat. He thought maybe he had a jar of salsa somewhere. Maybe they could go southwestern with these.
He glanced over at Ruby and gave her a smile. “Shall we get started?”