Leon Orcot (![]() ![]() @ 2021-02-17 21:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | psoh: leon orcot, rwby: qrow branwen |
Who: Leon Orcot and Qrow Branwen
What: Meeting one another during the baby bliss plot
When: Saturday, February 13th
Where: A bar
Ratings/Warnings: Low/none
Status: Complete
Leon did need to expand his drinking-horizons in Las Vegas. So far, he’d spent most of his nights at the cop bar near his precinct, but every now and then, it was nice to go somewhere where you wouldn’t be recognized. Besides, it wasn’t like he could pick up chicks at a bar where all the chicks were his coworkers.
He wasn’t sure if he was likely to find chicks at this bar, either. But he was here, so he made his way to the bar, ordered himself a shot of whiskey and a beer, and glanced over at the man sitting a couple of stools next to him. When their eyes met, Leon’s breath hitched in his throat for a moment.
He normally wasn’t the type of guy to just randomly strike up conversations with complete strangers, but there was something about this one… He moved down a couple of stools so he was sitting on the one next to the man. “Hey,” he said, offering his hand. “Leon Orcot.”
Qrow had been at the bar for a few minutes already. He noted the blond haired man when he came in, but didn’t pay particularly close attention. He was used to seeing people he both knew and didn’t know whenever he went to any given bar. Sometimes they were chatty. Sometimes they weren’t. So it shouldn’t have been so unusual for Leon to slide over to him and introduce himself. But there was something unusual about it. For all the random people Qrow had met in bars, he’d never felt a strong connection with any of them. Leon, apparently, was different.
“Qrow Branwen,” he introduced himself and took the offered hand. “Nice to meet you, Leon.” He smirked casually, “I’d say pull up a chair, but it looks like you’ve already helped yerself.”
“I figured if it was a problem you’d tell me to go fuck myself,” Leon said with a bit of a wry smile. Qrow looked like the kind of guy who wouldn’t have an issue telling someone to fuck off if it was needed. “We haven’t met before, have we?” he asked after a moment. Because it felt like they had, except he was generally pretty good at names and faces and didn’t think he recognized Qrow’s.
Oh, yes, Qrow had no issues telling people to go fuck themselves when he wasn’t in the mood to make polite small talk. But tonight he was in the mood. Maybe it was the fact that he’d already had a few drinks in him. “Nah, I don’t think so,” he said in response to Leon’s question. But it really did feel as though he knew him. Or at least, felt really comfortable with the guy, which in itself was odd. Qrow didn’t have that feeling with a lot of people.
“Maybe we’ve seen each other around town?” He suggested. “Where d’ya work?”
"LVMPD. Homicide," Leon said. He was pretty sure he hadn't seen Qrow through his work though. Leon has a pretty good memory for the people he ran into through police work, and since he'd never worked the best in Las Vegas, most of the faces he remembered were connected to homicide cases. "How about you?"
Oh, so the man was a cop. Qrow’s eyes squinted a moment. Leon didn’t look old enough to be on the force back when Qrow was still working for the Family. Actually, the guy looked like he was in his mid twenties, maybe late twenties if one were to push it. So it was probably safe to assume he was still a little kid in the 90’s when Qrow was neck deep in illegal shit -- if he’d even been alive back then. Well, that was a relief. Nothing soured a friendship like meeting up with some dude that arrested you 20 years ago.
“I’m a history teacher for the Clark County School District,” Qrow said. “Considering you work homicide, I doubt you’ve been to the high school…” he paused to squint at Leon again, “and I certainly hope you haven’t, then I doubt we’ve met each other through work.”
“Not for work, at least,” Leon said, grinning a little. “Actually, not for any reason. Neither of my cousins are quite high school age.” Josie had graduated two years earlier, and Sam still had another two years to go before she joined the hoard of high school girls - not that she wasn’t just as bad as some high school girls already. He still hadn’t really forgiven her for the trouble she’d put Chris through two years earlier, even if Chris hadn’t.
The whiskey and the beer that he’d ordered were laid in front of him, and he knocked back the whiskey and washed it down with a mouthful of beer.
“Don’t envy you that, though. I think I’d rather go to prison myself than need to spend all day surrounded by a bunch of teenagers. You gotta have the patience of a saint.”
The statement made Qrow laugh. “Dude, yer a homicide detective, you deal with legit psychos all day. I’ll take a few moody teengers over that.”
It was still a little odd that he’d never met Leon before and yet felt a connection with him. It was even stranger that he’d feel this connection with a cop of all people, given his own background. But, it wasn’t odd enough to change just how comfortable Qrow felt, though, so he just shrugged it off and downed the rest of his drink. He’d chalk it up as a win. Gotta take those wherever you could find them.
He motioned for the bartender to refill his glass. “Whaddya do when yer not out catching the bad guys?” he asked.
“I would take psychopaths over teenagers any day of the week,” Leon said, shooting Qrow a toothy grin. “Drink, most of the time,” Leon said, lifting his beer in a mock salute before taking a swig. “Kidding.” Mostly. It wasn’t like Leon had friends to do things with. “I try to hang out with my little brother when I can. My aunt and uncle - his parents - aren’t exactly my number one fans, so I don’t get to see him as often as I’d like, but I moved out here from California so I could be closer to him, and a little’s better than nothing. Other than that, I don’t know. Sports, working out, watching movies, reading. The usual sort of thing.”
That was probably more than any of his coworkers knew about his personal life at this point, but it was surprisingly easy to talk to Qrow. “What about you?”
Qrow raised a brow trying to figure out how Leon’s aunt and uncle could be his little brother’s parents, that was an odd fork in the Orcot family tree. But it wasn’t any of his business and probably not something he should poke at if he wanted this conversation to keep going, which he did.
“Pretty much this,” Qrow answered, making a vague gesture at the bar. He gave Leon a lopsided grin. “I’m not real popular with my family either. Except fer my nieces, but they’re both grown women now and don’t really need their uncle crampin’ their style. But, we make time fer each other when we can.” Especially now that Yang was out of the military. “Other then that,” Qrow shrugged. “I try to stay outta trouble. Catch some shows here n’ there.”
“Family can be nice to have, even if you are cramping their style,” Leon said, grinning a bit. It wasn’t something he’d really learned until Chris had come to live with him. “Luckily, my brother’s still young enough where I’m his cool older brother instead of the Way Too Old Older Brother Who’s Always Hanging Around, or something.” Chris was a good kid; he didn’t think Chris would ever think that. But now the idea was in his head, and he wondered what it would be like when Chris was 15 and Leon was in his 30s.
“Shows? You mean like, music shows? Shit, I haven’t been to one of those in a while.”
“Yeah, mostly,” Qrow answered. “Not at the casinos, though. Way too expensive for my blood. But a lotta the local bars have live music and most of the time the acts ain’t bad.” He shrugged and picked up his glass. After draining it, he set it down and nudged it forward for a refill. He turned his attention back to Leon. “How long ago didja move here from California?” He asked curiously. “D’ya miss it at all?”
Leon still had about a third of his beer left, but not one to be outdone, he downed it and gestured for the same.
“Moved out here… two? Three months ago now,” Leon said, frowning a little to himself. “I miss surfing, I guess, and Californai’s warmer,” at least, it had been, so far. He was expecting that to change once summer rolled around though, “but other than that, not too much. I didn’t really leave much behind when I left. My job, I guess, but I’m doing the same thing here.” And other than getting razzed more for being the new guy, his relationship with his coworkers was pretty much the same as it had been back home - friendly, the kind of people you’d have drinks with and play a couple hands of cards with, but nothing he’d go so far as to call a friend.
“You ever been to LA?”
“A coupla times,” Qrow answered. Doing so made him think back to the days he and Raven occasionally took off to California when things got a little too hot for the Branwens in Las Vegas. Then, oddly, he had a sensation that he’d traveled elsewhere, but where, when and why was elusive.
Qrow shrugged it off visibly and focused his attention back on Leon. “The beaches are nice.” He smirked. “The views there are even better.”
“I hope you mean the beach bunnies,” Leon said, grinning wolfishly. Sure, sunsets and mountains were fine and all, but nothing could hold a candle to getting to watch all the bikini clad girls. “I guess it’s too much to hope that Nevada girls like to wear bikini tops in the summer.”
Qrow laughed. “If you go to the right places you probably will,” he said. “We don’t have beaches, but the hotels all have pools.” He made a vague gesture with his hand. “And they’re not that hard to get at, if you know how to do it.” Not that he’d recommend trespassing at one of the posh hotels to a cop, but Leon seemed chill. “And if you’re really hard up, there are some classy lounges and clubs around town.”
“I mean, I’m not going to go to a hotel just to stare at poolside girls,” Leon said. “That seems a little sketchy.” If they were out there on the beach when he was out there on the beach, that was one thing. Actually going somewhere just to ogle, well, that seemed like a different kind of line that was being crossed.
He was just about to mention that he didn’t think he could afford to go to any of the classy lounges and clubs around town - paying $20 for a drink was way out of his budget - but he paused when he caught sight of something on Qrow’s arm. He hadn’t got a good look at it, but it had almost looked like some sort of cog.
“Hey, is that a tattoo?” he asked, gesturing toward Qrow’s arm. He didn’t normally talk to guys about their tattoos, but Kennedy had shown him a website with a guy talking about a cog tattoo earlier that week.
Qrow chuckled. “Oh, it’s sketchy as hell.” He smirked at Leon teasingly, “but you were hopin’ Las Vegas girls liked to wear bikini tops.” His grin turned into a smile that was almost apologetic. “I’m just giving you shit,” he said.
The bartender came by to refill their drinks. Qrow was about to down his when Leon asked about his tattoo. At first Qrow looked at him as if he didn’t know what the other man was talking about, but a quick glance at his left inner forearm reminded him that yes, indeed he did have a “tattoo”.
“Oh. Yeah,” he said, setting his drink down. “Its, uh, new.” Though it didn’t exactly look new. It didn’t have the red irritated outline a lot of fresh tattoos had, but it did look pristine, almost shiny when the light hit it. Without really knowing why, he held out his arm so his new buddy could get a look. “I wasn’t really sure about it at first,” he said. “But I’m warming up to it.”
Leon took Qrow’s arm, glancing at the tattoo, frowning a little. After a moment of examination, he let Qrow’s arm go. He wished he could say he was warming up to his “tattoo”, but he wasn’t. On top of it being embarrassing as all hell, sometimes when he thought about it, it disconcerted him. Like something out of a bad dream - one of those dreams where you know that everything is wrong somehow, but can’t figure out what. “So,” he started, trying to keep his voice casual but not quite managing it. “You walked into a tattoo parlour and got it done? Needles and all?”
There was something about that question that didn’t sound quite right. Like how else was someone supposed to get a tattoo? Well, there were the temporary ones, Qrow supposed, he could have said it was one of those -- that he’d gotten it as part of a demonstration for one of his classes. But, no, it didn’t seem right to lie to Leon. They had a connection! Qrow liked him. Qrow trusted him. He just hoped Leon didn’t think he was nuts.
“Not exactly,” he admitted. “It, uh, just kinda appeared overnight.”
Luckily, Leon did not think he was nuts. “I thought you might be the guy from that website,” Leon said, frowning thoughtfully, arms crossed. “I can’t wrap my head around this thing at all. How the hell do tattoos just… appear out of nowhere?”
Qrow stared at him. At first, he though Leon was calling him a liar. In total fairness “liar” was probably among the tamest names Qrow had been called over the course of his life. However, coming form Leon, his buddy, it really hurt. Rather than letting that hurt show on his face (which it may have for a fraction of a moment), he hid it behind a well-practiced look of indifference. He picked up his glass again. “Don’t believe it, if you want,” he said a bit more defensively than he meant to. “But that’s what happened.” With that he swallowed his drink in one gulp.
Leon didn’t miss the flash of pain on Qrow’s face, and he felt his stomach drop. He hadn’t meant to imply that Qrow was making things up, or too far in his cups to know any better. “Aw man,” Leon said, rubbing the side of his head, mussing up his hair. “I didn’t mean that. I mean, I believe you, I think. I got one too.” Whelp, he shouldn’t have said that, and he quickly tried to move passed it, hoping Qrow didn’t notice. “I just mean I don’t know how the hell it could have happened. It doesn’t make any goddamn sense, tattoos appearing out of nowhere, does it?”
Relief washed over Qrow hearing Leon say that he believed him, so much so that his mask of indifference gave way to a smile that clearly showed said relief. He also heard Leon say he had one of his own. They really were kindred spirits! Though, unlike Qrow, who found a strange sort of comfort in the cog wheel on his arm, Leon seemed more disconcerted by the entire ordeal. Qrow didn’t blame him, he’d been disconcerted too the morning it had showed up.
“I’m not really sure if it is a tattoo,” Qrow admitted, looking down at his arm again. “It just seems sorta convenient to call it that. As for the ‘how’s’ and ‘whys’, I dunno,” he went on with a shrug. “I’m not sure we’re really meant t’ know.” Which should have been more concerning than it was.
Leon felt the relief wash over him when Qrow smiled. The idea that he’d upset Qrow bothered him; all he wanted, from now on, was to make his new friend (his new best friend?) smile.
“I don’t like not knowing,” Leon said, frowning. “There’s gotta be something behind this. And if that something’s bad, then we oughtta know what it is. I don’t even know how to start looking into this though. What if you… I don’t know, wind up turning into a robot or something?” he said, gesturing vaguely at the cog.
Though, what that would imply about what Leon would turn into was less clear.
Qrow blinked. He hadn’t given any thought that the mark meant he’d turn into something, much less a robot. It sounded absurd, but the mark in itself was absurd. He looked at it again. He didn’t know how or why, but “robot” wasn’t in the cards for him. “I don’t think I’m gonna turn into a robot,” he said thoughtfully.
His eyes moved back to Leon next to him. Now that the other man had thrown the idea out there, he was concerned that maybe something bad would happen. Something bad always happened and Qrow didn’t want anything bad to happen to Leon. Ever!
He smiled ruefully, trying to bolster his new bestie’s spirits. “You’re a detective,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll be able to figure something out. But in the meantime, I promise, I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
It probably should have been embarrassing to have a guy he’d just met proclaim that he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to Leon, but it wasn’t. Not especially, at least. Leon still flushed, but it was with pleasure rather than embarrassment. “Yeah, well,” he said, scratching his cheek. “I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to you, either.”