Who: Qrow and Katou What: Katou’s movie night gets derailed by popcorn fire When: May 7, 2021; evening Where: Qrow’s home Ratings/Warnings: Lowish: Rough language - Trigger warning: implied drug use Status: Complete!
Katou couldn’t believe his luck. Normally if there was a new movie that he wanted to see, he generally went to the theatre to see it, either sneaking in through the back or, if he was desperate, actually buying a ticket to it. The problem was that a lot of the movies Katou liked to see were on the fringe side of things. Sure, he’d go see a popular Hollywood hit if he was looking for somewhere to just chill out by himself for an afternoon, but the movies he really wanted to watch generally had like, one midnight showing at a select theatre in town and the whole thing was kind of a pain in the ass. He hadn’t even had that chance with the new Nic Cage movies that had come out this year, which was a real bummer.
But now, now he could stream movies over at Qrow’s place, which got rid of a lot of the hassle of trying to find obscure movies when he didn’t have access to the internet to download them, or anything to play them on if he did manage to download them. Libraries generally weren’t cool with you downloading a movie on the library computer, lighting a joint, and then sitting there watching them for three hours.
He texted Qrow to let him know he was on the way, stopped by the store to stuff some “free” microwavable popcorn, butter, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and cocoa powder into his backpack - he didn’t trust that Qrow would have any of that in his cupboards - and made his way over to his teacher’s house.
He’d only smoked half his joint by the time he strolled up to Qrow’s front door, and when Qrow answered, Katou offered it to him. “Want some?”
Qrow glanced at the joint being offered to him and shook his head. Pot had never really been his thing. He could be goofy enough on alcohol. “I’m good, thanks,” he said before stepping back to let Katou inside and then closed the door after him.
On the one hand, he was surprised to find Katou back so soon. Actually, he hadn’t expected to hear from the kid at all unless some other rather unpleasant “guests” decided to invite themselves into his squat. On the other hand, what teenager wouldn’t take advantage of having streaming services at their disposal?
Trouble was, this really wasn’t a great time. Qrow had felt a little…off the last couple of days. He knew what it was thanks to those nagging little memories that liked to flutter across his mind at all hours of the day and he didn’t like it. But, he’d promised Katou that if the kid called, he’d answer.
“What movie did you say you wanted to watch?”
Katou shrugged, sucked back the last of the joint, and entered Qrow’s place. “Just gonna say now, Nic Cage movies are best when you’re stoned,” he said, but he wouldn’t push it. Just meant more for him later.
He slipped off his shoes at the door and beelined for the kitchen so he could get started on the popcorn. “It’s called Willy’s Wonderland,” Katou said. “Just came out a couple months ago. You ever wanna see Nic Cage murder a bunch of homicidal, animatronic puppets?” he asked.
Because boy, did Katou ever want to see Nic Cage murder a bunch of homicidal, animatronic puppets.
He paused, frowning. “You like horror comedy, right?”
Qrow followed Katou to the kitchen, but came to a stop at the doorway. He watched as Katou set the popcorn bag into the microwave. “I can’t say as though watching someone murder a bunch of homicidal puppets has ever made it to my bucket list,” he said. “Then again, it sounds kinda cathartic.” He shrugged. “Sure, why not? I’m down for...what did you call it? Horror comedy? Yeah, I could be down for that so long as it’s not happening to me directly.”
“Pretty sure once it starts happening to you, it loses the ‘comedy’ aspect of the whole thing,” Katou said, grinning. He punched in the timer for the popcorn, grabbed a bowl from the cupboard, and mixed together a pile of the cocoa powder with a couple spoonfuls of cinnamon and a dash of the cayenne pepper.
“But trust me. Totally cathartic. You’re gonna love it. You got like, an empty salt shaker or a fine mesh strainer or something?” he asked.
There was a loud pop from the microwave, though Katou ignored it, assuming that it was just the popcorn.
Qrow, however, was more familiar with how his microwave should sound and that pop was a little too loud to just be popcorn. “Shit,” he muttered as he quickly crossed the kitchen to the microwave. He yanked the door open and smoke billowed out from inside the appliance, the smell of very burned popcorn soon followed.
“Shit, shit!” Qrow swore, grabbing the very hot bag from the microwave. Fortunately, the fire itself was contained to just the bag and not the microwave itself. Still swearing, Qrow quickly brought it over to the sink where he tossed it in and turned on the water. The bag hissed and more smoke gushed up from the sink’s basin.
Shaking his now burned hand, he used the other one to point to the backdoor just behind Katou. “Yue, open that --” but he wasn’t able to finish his sentence before the smoke alarm just overhead started shrieking.
Katou stared, dumbfounded, right up until the fire alarm started blaring. He grimaced at the noise, and only then started to move to the back door, grimacing again as he brought the bowl filled with what had meant to be his popcorn seasoning fell to the ground, dumping the cocoa powder everywhere. He ignored it for now, headed to the back door and yanked it open. It didn't make sense to him at all. It wasn't like he'd never made popcorn before, and he was pretty sure he'd never caused a fire before.
He grabbed one of the kitchen chairs and brought it over to where the fire alarm was screaming, climbed on top of it,and unhooked the alarm, letting out a sigh of relief once it was silent again.
"Your microwave is possessed," he muttered, hopping down from the chair and bringing it back to the kitchen. He glanced at Qrow's hand and then looked away, trying not to feel guilty. It hadn't been his fault. Even if the bowl had been. He bent down and started to pick up some of the larger pieces, being very careful not to look in Qrow's general direction.
It actually wasn’t Katou’s fault. It was Qrow’s and he knew it. But he didn’t know how to explain that to his student without having to explain semblances and auras, two things he was just barely getting his head around himself. And considering Katou’s overall reactions to the Memories, Qrow was sure he’d just come off sounding insane.
Instead he said, “it’s an old microwave.” Which was actually true. “And it’s been acting funny for a little while now.” Which wasn’t actually true, but Katou didn’t need to know that.
He held his hand under the cold water while Katou picked up the bits of broken bowl. After a few moments when his hand didn’t hurt quite as much, he turned the water off and stepped over to the mess on the floor to shoo his student into the living room. “Go start the movie,” he said. “I’ll finish cleaning this up and order a pizza.”
“Like I said, possessed,” Katou said.
When Qrow offered to finish cleaning, Katou’s eyes flicked toward his hand, still red and angry looking, but then he shrugged. “Yeah, alright,” he said, straightening up and stretching his arms above his head. Where would he be if he started caring about other people’s comfort instead of his own? Worse off, that was for sure.
Besides, it wasn’t like he ever passed up an opportunity to get out of doing work. He headed to the living room to set up the movie, and once it was queued up, he stepped outside for a cigarette.
With Katou out of the kitchen Qrow went about picking up the pieces of the broken bowl, placing the smaller bits inside the larger ones and then tossed them into the trash. He then dug the broom out of the closet and swept up the rest of the tiny shards and the concoction Katou had been making. Burnt popcorn smoke still hung in the air and the smell lingered, imbedding itself inside Qrow’s nostrils. As he swept he tried very hard to not think about Misfortune and what his newly acquired semblance meant for those around him. However, the more he tried to not think about it, the more he couldn’t help the unpleasant thoughts invading his mind.
It only took a few minutes to clean up the mess. Qrow noted the distinct lack of sound coming from the living room. The movie wasn’t playing. Maybe Katou had left. Qrow wouldn’t have blamed him if he did. Honestly, the kid was safer if he stayed away.
After turning off the water in the sink, Qrow looked down at his hand. His fingers and palm were burned where he’d grabbed the bag from the microwave, but not badly. “Shoulda used a pair of tongs,” he muttered. Still, he should probably do something about it. Opting to leave the drenched popcorn bag in the sink for the time being, made his way towards the guest bathroom to get the first aid kit -- he was pretty sure there was something for burns in there. Once he was in the hallway, though, he noticed his front door open and Katou standing just outside, smoking.
Qrow blinked. “Huh.”
When Katou heard Qrow n the hall, he turned to look at him. “Yo,” he said. “Finish up with all the cleaning?” He glanced at Qrow’s hand again, and then let his gaze drift smoothly passed it, trying not to look like he had been looking at it.
Qrow shook off those unpleasant thoughts that, like the smell of burnt popcorn, wanted to linger around him. “Uh, yeah,” he said. He noted Katou’s glance towards his hand and deftly moved it behind his back and out of sight. “I’m gonna order the pizza. Whaddya want on it?”
“I ain’t picky,” Katou said, shrugging. “Pepperoni or whatever, maybe. Whatever you want, really.” Pizza was one of those foods that would be good with almost any topping. And even the worst pizzas were delicious if you were drunk enough.
He finished his smoke, tossing it into the ashtray, and then made his way inside. He stopped dead in the entrance to the living room though, his eyes catching sight of the large scythe that was inside it. He didn’t notice when his hand reached out to the doorway to hold himself up. Not with the memories that came crashing on him.
You have the right to choose your own fate. Whether you want to become Setsuna’s guardian spirit and enter the endless war between Heaven and Earth, or to become a normal human again, to be reborn by going to Heaven.
He’d built him a new body. He’d trained him.
I’m the Angel of the Earth, Uriel. Hell’s Gate Guardian. The Angel of Death.
“Right. Whatever.” Not exactly helpful, but at least the kid couldn’t complain about whatever Qrow decided to order. He’d pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket to do a quick search for local delivery when Katou came to a dead stop in the doorway of the living room. The look on the kid’s face was strange: shock, surprise and something else Qrow couldn’t quite put his finger on. Oh great, what had happened now? Did the T.V. blow up this time? That was going to be a little harder to explain away.
“Yue?” Qrow called to him. “Ya alright?”
Someone called his name, and Katou blinked, rising up from Hell back into the real world. “Uri?” he asked, turning toward the voice, and then blinked again, because no, this wasn’t who he was expecting but maybe he should have. He knew who Qrow was. He had no idea who this Uriel was supposed to be, other than a figment of his imagination.
His forearm was burning and he glanced down at it, a little unnerved to see the rest of the blade of a sword where there’d been no blade five minutes ago. It was the first time any part of the tattoo had appeared when he was either awake or sober enough to realize what was happening, but wrenched his eyes from it and then inclined his head back toward the living room.
“Why the fuck do you have a giant-ass scythe in your living room, Teach?” he asked.
Qrow’s eyes flickered towards the doorway to the living room and then back to Katou. He could explain away the microwave exploding, he might have been able to explain the TV not working properly. Harbinger on the other hand,that was a bit trickier and made even more so because of the “why” aspect of it.
After a moment, he sighed. “I don’t really know,” he admitted. “All I do know is that it’s mine, something I made to hunt monsters with.”
I wanted to see you so much that I crawled right out of the Netherworld. Guess that makes me a real nice monster too, don’t it?
Katou balked. He needed a hit. That was the one thing he’d found that kept these little snippets out of his head, even if it didn’t always work. At least it worked some of the time.
“So what, you some sorta monster hunter?” he asked, managing his trademark shit-eating grin. “That’d almost be cool if it didn’t sound so lame. Lotsa monsters around here for you to hunt down? Or are they just from that ‘life you didn’t live but somehow still did’?”
As Katou spoke, Qrow had stepped forward so that he was standing in the living room entryway. Monsters. Grimm. It was his job to hunt them down; prevent them from taking the lives of innocent people; destroying what had been created. Part of his job.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice taking a deeper gravel. “I hunt monsters.” His eyes moved from Harbinger and back to his student. “Forget it.” He said with a grin and a shrug. “You wanna watch Nicholas Cage kill some puppets.”
“You’re gonna haveta tell me about these monsters sometime,” Katou sad. “And then let me play with your scythe.” Because swinging a scythe that was taller than he was around sounded like a great way to spend the afternoon.
“Hell yeah I’m ready to watch Nic Cage kill some puppets,” he said, taking a step back from the entrance fo the living room. “But first I’m gonna take a dump.” He jerked his thumb toward the bathroom.
Qrow snorted. “Let the teenager play with the deadly weapon? That’s a hard no, kid.” Plus he hadn’t mentioned to Katou that not only was Harbinger a scythe, but a sword and shotgun as well. Considering the microwave incident earlier, the poor kid was likely to shoot himself, or cut off something important.
Then again, he had trained Ruby so…
Qrow shook his head quickly. That was stupid. Who in their right mind would have allowed that to happen?!
“Go take care of business,” he said, waving a hand towards the bathroom. He still had a pizza to order.
"You're no fun," Katou pouted, before he disappeared into the bathroom.
When he emerged a few minutes later, he was feeling calmer, less on edge, his mind blissfully free from those memories or premonitions or whatever they'd been. He turned on the tv, found the movie, and hit play.