Who: Katou and Qrow What: Shit gets cold, and Qrow brings his favourite homeless student home When: First day of the Great Freeze plot Where: Qrow's place and then a hotel once Qrow loses power and his pipes freeze Rating/Warning: Teenish. Language, some vague, lightly implied drug use Status: Complete
When the temperature had dropped, Katou hadn’t initially thought much of it. While it didn’t often snow in Vegas, the temperature did drop below freezing - especially in the evenings - during the winter, and Katou had managed just fine on his own the last two years. His squat wasn’t insulated and it wasn’t heated, but it kept the wind and the worst of those winter chills out, and he normally did just fine wrapped in his leather biker jacket and wrapped in a thick blanket.
But the temperature kept dropping, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that a thick blanket and four walls wasn’t going to be enough to make sure that Katou made it through the night with all his fingers and toes - assuming he’d make it through the night at all.
He’d tried to hint to Youji when he’d seen him that afternoon, but Youji had just said “Jeez, would not want to sleep in that squat of yours tonight; sucks to be you,” had taken his drugs, and had fucked off. Katou had enough pride that he wasn’t about risk getting the same kind of rejection from anyone else, and so he didn’t bother asking if anyone else had any space for him.
There’d been one desperate moment when Katou had considered lighting a small bonfire on the concrete floor of his squat, despite the lack of ventilation. Maybe he’d die of smoke inhalation, but that probably beat out dying by freezing to death, and he’d still been contemplating it - would the smoke damage his guitar? Would it be better or worse than freezing? - when Qrow had shown up. Katou hadn’t hesitated to grab what he needed and go with Qrow.
“You got any hot chocolate or something?” Katou asked from where he was sitting on Qrow’s couch, knees curled up to his chest, exhaling on his fingertips. His fingers and toes hurt any time he moved them as blood and warmth began to flow back into them, but he figured that was probably a good sign. Any sort of feeling was better than having to get them fall off, or whatever it was frost-bitten limbs did.
“Probably,” came the answer from somewhere down the hall. A moment later, Qrow appeared in the doorway of the living room with a thick (and more importantly clean) blanket. He set it down on the armrest of the couch for Katou to wrap up in. The heat was on in the house, cranked up a little higher than Qrow would have normally set it for the kid’s benefit. With any luck he’d warm up soon.
“Ruby was here a week ago,” Qrow went on. “So there’s probably mix of some kind in the kitchen.” It wasn’t unusual for Qrow to find sweets stowed away in his pantry after a visit from his younger niece. To be fair, it wasn’t unusual for him to find food in general after any of Ruby’s visits. He hadn’t yet decided if it was food she brought and left because she forgot, or if she was trying to take care of him. “I’ll go check.”
Sure enough, Qrow found a container of hot chocolate mix in the pantry in his kitchen. The good kind too. Knowing Ruby wouldn’t mind if he used some of it for his half-frozen student, Qrow warmed up enough for two mugs. He doctored his own with whiskey before returning to the living room. He handed Katou’s mug to him. “Go take a hot shower when ya got feeling in yer feet again.”
Katou waited until Qrow disappeared into the kitchen before he scrambled forward to grab the blanket, wrapping it around his shoulders. He felt like a little kid, curled up in the corner of the couch, wrapped snugly in a blanket, and when Qrow handed him the hot chocolate mug, the feeling only intensified. He didn’t especially care though.
He hissed through his teeth as the heat from the mug seened to burn his hands. He was sure that the mug wasn’t as hot as it felt, that it was just the difference in temperature between his skin and the ceramic, but he still carefully pulled the sleeves of his oversized sweater over his hands to act as a barrier. He took a sip of his hot chocolate and then looked balefully at the mug Qrow had. No doubt Qrow had put a little something extra to warn himself up in his own mug. Normally, Katou might have complained about a lack of hospitality, but he found that he couldn’t bring himself too. He was just too grateful to be sitting here in a nice warm house, wrapped in a nice warm blanket, drinking a slightly-too-hot cup of chocolate.
“You saying I stink?” he said, raising an eyebrow, though there wasn’t any real heat in his voice.
“A hot shower will help warm ya up faster,” Qrow answered. He sank into the chair next to the couch and set his feet on the coffee table. “Just make sure you don’t stand under the water fer too long. The last thing I need is fer you to keel over because yer blood pressure’s all outta whack.” He took a drink of his whiskey-and-cocoa and winced when it burned his tongue. He scowled at the mug before shaking his head and looking at Katou. “Are you hungry at all?”
Katou snorted. The last thing he was worried about was his blood pressure, and if he was gonna take a warm shower, it was going to be a long one. Just about the only thing better than a long, hot shower was a long, hot bath. Just thinking about it made him wish his toes would hurry up and stop hurting any time he moved them.
“I ain’t gonna turn down a hot meal, if that’s what you’re offering,” he said. He wasn’t especially hungry, but he wasn’t not hungry. He hadn’t eaten yet that day.
Qrow rolled his eyes at the snort. Katou may not have been worried about the consequences of a hot shower, but Qrow was supposed to be the responsible adult here. Emphasis on the “supposed to be” part. If his “new” memories were anything to go by, he was pretty shit at that. But, hey, he sure as hell didn’t tell Ruby and her ragtag group of friends to run off on their own to Mistral. Not directly, anyway. How was he supposed to know that Lionhart had switched sides, much less Raven setting them up. He’d tried to keep the peace. Not that he did a stellar job there...
Qrow shook his head, snapping out of his dysphoria. He glanced at Katou, vaguely realizing the kid had said he’d eat a hot meal if offered. “Yeah, sure,” he said before taking a more-than-healthy gulp of his still too hot cocoa. He got up from the chair. “I’ll see what I got.”
Katou frowned at that. “Wait, you don’t mean you’re going to make it yourself, do you?” he asked. He had no reason to think that Qrow was bad at cooking, except for the fact that he’d never actually seen Qrow cook anything and he never seemed to have much in the way of actual food in his house.
Qrow paused halfway from his chair and looked back at the young man huddled on his couch. “That’s the idea,” he said. Then he remembered the debacle involving his microwave the last time Katou had crashed at his place. Well, it was too late to avoid any bad luck now. Katou was already in the house. He gave the kid a smirk. “Believe it or not, I can cook. It won’t be gourmet or anythin’, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be able t’ choke it down.”
Katou eyed Qrow suspiciously for a moment, and then shrugged. He wiggled his toes, and was glad to note that they weren’t quite so painful as they had been before. He swung them down to the ground, and tested his weight on them. “Well, I’m sure it won’t be the worst thing I’ve ever eaten,” he said after a moment, grinning at Qrow. “I’ma go shower. Try not to burn your house down in the meantime.”
The smile turned forced at the mention of not burning the house down. “I’ll do my best,” he said dryly. “Try not t’ pass out in the shower.” With that, he left the living room and made his way to the kitchen.
Qrow eyed his pantry with a frown. Dragging Katou out of the squat had been a snap decision and he really should have hit the grocery store before coming back to the house. The pantry wasn’t bare really, but it wasn’t exactly prepped for a teenager either. Qrow drummed his fingers on the open door as he eyed what he had. A box of dried potato flakes caught his eye. That was a start. He pulled out the box and set it on the counter. What to go with it, though?
He opened his fridge next. His eyes fell on a package of kielbasa he’d taken out of the freezer the day before but had never done anything with. Kielbasa and potatoes? Sure...that could be ok...did he have any vegetables to go with it?...did Katou even like vegetables? Well, whatever, Qrow was cooking, if Katou didn’t like it, he didn’t have to eat it.
A few minutes later the smell of cooking meat wafted from the kitchen.
Despite Qrow’s advice, Katou stayed in the shower longer than was strictly necessary, though he did need to sit in the bottom of the tub for a while. It was worlds better than needing to use the showers in the school gym, and dammit, he was going to take advantage of it whether Qrow liked it or not.
Besides, there was something about being told not to take too long of a shower that made Katou want to take an extra long shower.
He dressed in his same clothes and headed straight to the kitchen once he’d finally emerged, toweling his hair dry as he walked. “Well, it doesn’t smell like yer tryinga poison me,” he said.
Dinner was ready and plated by the time Katou ventured out of the shower. Qrow had already started eating and glanced up when the kid came into the kitchen. He raised a brow at the comment. “Yer confidence in me is overwhelming,” he said and then pointed at the plate across from him at the small kitchen table. “Help yerself.”
Katou sat down, trying not to think of how weird it was to actually eat dinner sitting across from someone at a kitchen table. He didn’t think that was something he’d done since before he’d left home. He poked at the food as if expecting it to leap off his plate and onto his face, more to poke fun at Qrow than because he actually expected it, and then took a tentative bite. Deciding was edible, he dug in. “Whatdya wanna watch tonight?” he asked after he’d taken a few bites. “With all this snow, I’m kinda thinking The Thing if ya can get it.”
Qrow grunted a soft chuckle as Katou poked at his food. It reminded him of his nieces when they’d been young and trying to decide if the food in front of them was something they really wanted or not. Not that either had been especially picky eaters, but kids will be kids.
Once it appeared as though Katou was satisfied the food wasn’t going to kill him and had started eating, Qrow turned his attention back to his own plate. He ate quickly, a habit he’d picked up in his youth and had never been able to shake. He glanced up only when Katou spoke, asking about what they were going to watch that night. “I think I own The Thing,” he said thoughtfully before immediately turning his attention back to his plate. “And The Shining too. That’d be pretty fitting given all this damn snow.”
“Been a while since I’ve seen The Shining,” Katou said. “Good movie, I could watch it again.”
He finished off the rest of his food relatively quickly, eager to get to watching the movie. He briefly - very briefly - considered making popcorn, but remembering what had happened the last time he did, he wiped the thought from his mind, making his way instead back to the living room to take his seat on the couch.
Dinner over and the dishes in the sink to be cleaned later, Qrow found his copy of The Thing in the bookcase among his other DVDs and loaded it into the DVD player. He handed Katou the remote while he poured himself a drink. Then he settled into the armchair, a foot resting on the coffee table.
It was a good evening for a double feature and when The Thing was finished, they queued up The Shining. Qrow was a couple of drinks into the night and was feeling pleasantly relaxed. However, only 20 minutes into the movie, the power suddenly went out, plunging the house into darkness and silence.
Katou started at the sudden darkness and silence, and then scowled to himself. “Hey, what the fuck? Your breaker go or something?”
He hoped it was the breaker. It was way too early to go to sleep, for one, and for another, he’d been looking forward to the actual good parts of The Shining.
Qrow uttered a few choice words under his breath as he got to his feet. “Maybe,” he said as he dug out his phone. “Hang out here, I’ll go check.” Using his phone as a flashlight, he made his way up the hall to the small utility room between the kitchen and his bedroom where the breaker box was. After catching his toe on a box he’d forgotten he’d shoved in there (and uttering a few more choice words), he opened the breaker box and examined the fuses. Everything looked fine, though Qrow was no electrician. He tried flipping a few of the switches to no avail. He grabbed a couple of flashlights out of the box he’d tripped over and came back down the hall. He handed one of the lights to Katou before moving to the front window.
It was late enough that the streetlights should have come on, but they hadn’t. There weren’t any lights on in the house across the way, nor at any of the neighbors. Qrow sighed and turned back to Katou. “Looks like the whole street is out,” he said.
Katou switched on his flashlight, and let out a heavy sigh. “It’s always something at Mr. Branwen’s house, huh?” he asked, his tone half teasing, half exasperated. “So, what do we do now? Just… sleep or something?” He didn’t always have reliable electricity in his squat, either, but then, half the time when he was in his squat, he didn’t notice time passing in general.
“You can if you want,” Qrow answered with a half-shrug. “Or, you could play your guitar, read…” His thought trailed off. Katou didn’t strike him as a reader. He folded his arms and cocked his head. “I probably got some games somewhere,” he said thoughtfully. “I think I gotta deck of cards in the junk drawer.”
Katou was definitely not a reader, and he was nearly offended by the suggestion. “My guitar’s gonna sound like shit without electricity.” It wasn’t like he had an acoustic guitar. “I could go a round of poker if you wanted.” Poker was about the only card game Katou actually knew how to play, aside from blackjack.
Qrow grinned. “Poker, huh?” He said then shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
A few minutes later, they had set up the coffee table as a place to play. One of the flashlights provided just enough light for them to see their cards. A box of Lucky Charms was used in place of chips. It wasn’t a bad way to spend the evening, all things considered.
It was a little after ten when Qrow announced he was going to call it a night. Power outage or not, he still had work in the morning and he figured he would need to get there early to grade papers he obviously wasn’t going to do that night.
Katou had definitely had worse nights, especially worse nights without electricity. It was actually one of the better nights he’d had, even with the wind howling outside, and the dark, and the snow (extra bright side: he’d be surprised if they didn’t call a snow day in the morning).
When Qrow called it a night, Katou nodded and he headed to what he was starting to consider his room, even if there was never any chance of him admitting it. He grabbed a couple extra blankets - it was starting to cool off in the house, a little - and, with a little chemical help, managed to fall asleep.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before he woke up shivering under the blankets, the slightest hint of his breath pluming before his face, but it was still dark outside. He tried to go back to sleep, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that was going to be impossible, so he wrapped the blankets around him like a cloak and headed out of his room, looking for more blankets.
Qrow was awake too. He was also cold. There had been a part of him that had hoped that at some point during the night the power would turn itself back on and he’d have woken to a warmer house. His phone told him it was after 2 in the morning and the fact he was still freezing his ass off despite having the bedsheet and his blanket cocooned around him was enough to prove power was something he was just not going to have for the foreseeable future. Of course fucking not.
To make matters worse, he had to piss. With a grunt, he got out of bed and quickly found that without the bed sheets and blanket, the house was even colder. He made his way to his bathroom. Once he was done he went to wash his hands, however, instead of water coming out of the sink faucet, he got a loud clanking sound from the wall behind the sink. “You gotta be kidding me,” he grumbled. But really, it was his own damn fault for not thinking of running a little water in one of the sinks to keep the pipes from freezing, which is what he was fairly sure had happened.
That was the last straw. Qrow spent another few minutes stumbling around his bedroom, pulling on a couple extra layers of clothes. He then ambled down the hall towards the guest bedroom. He wasn’t surprised to find Katou rooting through the linen closet.
“Pipes are frozen,” he grumbled, the natural gravel of his voice deeper than usual. “Grab yer stuff, we’re findin’ somewhere else to sleep.”
Katou glanced at Qrow, bleary eyed and a little out of it, but it only took a moment for what Qrow said to sink in. “That sucks,” he said, frowning. “Where you think we’re gonna sleep? Doubt you got yourself a second house someplace.”
“I’ll find us a place,” Qrow assured him. “Grab yer stuff.”
As Katou gathered his things, Qrow did the same. He jammed a few clothes into a duffle bag and grabbed his school bag with the papers and work he’d need for the next day. After school tomorrow, he’d come back to the house and get the rest of the week’s lesson plans. It may just be better to leave everything at his desk in the History office, but he’d cross that bridge later.
He also grabbed Harbinger, hitching it to the back of his jeans with his belt. He didn’t know why he felt the need to bring the weapon, just that he felt more comfortable having it with him while the weather decided to be freakish.
While he packed up a few things, he was on the phone trying to find the two of them rooms for the night. Finding a room last minute was a little challenging. A lot of the hotels in the area either were full of people also looking to escape the cold, or were experiencing power outages of their own. Finally, Qrow was able to book a room at a mid-priced hotel.
After stuffing a bottle of whiskey into the duffle bag, Qrow met Katou in the hall by the front door. “I got us a room,” he said as he pulled on his jacket.
This whole packing twice in one day thing was a pain in the ass, and Katou would almost rather hundle back under his blankets than do it. The fact that he was shivering a little only made the prospect of going somewhere else in the middle of the night a little more appealing. Luckily, he hadn’t really unpacked much of anything yet.
He blinked, slowly and confused, when Qrow mentioned he got them a room, and then once more, a little quicker, when it sunk in. “Like, at a hotel?” Katou asked, more than a little surprised. The idea of someone actually paying money to make sure that he had someplace to sleep was a weird one.
“Yup,” Qrow answered as he ushered Katou out the front door and into the cold of night. He paused long enough to lock the door behind him before he was ushering the kid down the walk towards his car. “Nothin’ fancy,” he said as he unlocked the passenger side for Katou. “An’ we’re gonna hafta share a room. A lotta places are already booked. Sorry, kid. I should have thought of this when the power first went out.”
Once they were both in the car, there was a moment of panic in which Qrow thought the engine wouldn’t turn over. Given what his luck had been so far this evening, he wouldn’t have all been surprised if it didn’t, but really pissed off. Amazingly, after a few attempts at turning the key, the engine sputtered to life. Heat cranked and blasting in their faces, Qrow pulled out of his driveway.
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the hotel. It was a step below a Best Western, but it was clean and, more importantly, it had power. The lights gleamed like a beacon in the night. After a few minutes of checking in, Qrow and Katou found themselves in a small, but warm, room. Two freshly made beds awaited them, as did a TV and minifridge.
Katou beelined for the far bed and threw himself, face down, on to it, staking his claim before Qrow had the chance to. The hotel was warm, which was nice, and Katou was half-tempted to just fall asleep right then and there.
Except now that he was here, there was something bugging him. It wasn’t that he cared or anything. Qrow could make his own damn decisions and if he wanted to up his life or whatever, that was on him.
Even still, Katou made himself roll over onto his side, propping his head up with an arm. “Couldn’t you get into a lot of trouble for this?” he asked after a moment. “Ain’t there… I don’t know, rules or something about renting a hotel room with one of your students?”
It seemed like there should be. And hell, maybe those same rules applied to having students sleeping in your guest room, but there seemed to be a bigger chance of someone seeing this and getting the wrong idea than someone showing up at Qrow’s place.
Qrow dumped his duffle bag on the floor at the foot of the other bed. “You mean rules about a teacher not wanting one of their students to freeze to fucking death?” He asked with a raised brow. “I think I’d be in more trouble if they found out I didn’t do anythin’ about that.” Of course Qrow knew that wasn’t what Katou meant, but honestly the entire idea that anyone would get the wrong impression about their current situation was laughable to him. “Kid if anyone gives me shit about it, I’ll gladly fork over the plumbing bill I’m gonna have once my pipes thaw out. Besides,” he went on as he unhitched Harbinger from his belt. “If this wasn’t the last room available I could find, I woulda gotten one for each of us. But, looks like we weren’t the only ones to lose power tonight.” He cocked a brow at his student, his head tilting a little to the side. “Though, if you’re worried about it, I don’t hafta sleep in here,” he said.
“Don’t be stupid,” Katou grumbled, and rolled over so that his back was to Qrow. If anyone should be not sleeping in this hotel room it was Katou, and he was pretty sure they both knew it. Frankly, the idea that Qrow had considered getting Katou his own room was a lot, let alone Qrow getting Katou a room and not having one for himself.
He didn’t want Qrow getting in trouble from his job, but he figured Qrow probably knew the rules better than Katou did. It wasn’t like he’d ever particularly cared about that sort of thing before. Hell, this school year was the most he’d ever shown up to class since he’d left home, so he definitely didn’t know much of anything about what teachers could get away with.
Back turned safely away from Qrow though, Katou muttered a quiet “Thanks.” He didn’t know if Qrow could hear him - it was probably better if he couldn’t - but it still felt like it needed to be said.
Qrow did hear him and he grunted a quiet laugh. He leaned Harbinger against the wall within grabbing distance then settled into his bed. “G’night, kid,” he said and within a matter of minutes had drifted off to sleep.