ᴡʜᴏ: Clover Ebi & Qrow Branwen ᴡʜᴀᴛ: Arriving in Tumbleweed, as dramatically as they possibly can ᴡʜᴇɴ: February 9, 2020 ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ: The Portal, then Medical Services ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢs: Violence, near death
Clover hadn’t expected the knife going through him. He’d known he would eventually die one day, but he hadn’t expected to go out by the hand of someone like Tyrian or with Qrow’s weapon as the thing protruding from his chest. He knew there was no saving him and he knew how it would look for Qrow. He felt a hint of guilt mixed in with everything else. All of which was growing more and more numb as he lost more blood. But he didn’t take his eyes off Qrow. He couldn’t let his fussing and worrying be the last thing that they said to one another or the last memory.
Just as he was opening his mouth to say something about it, he felt himself falling through space, felt his body seemingly stitching itself back together, the wound closing and healing itself. He wondered idly if this was just what dying felt like after you were finished with the living part of it - just an endless feeling of falling as your body stitched itself together until you lightly landed. Except his landing wasn’t light and he felt it as he crumpled to the floor, Kingfisher and his clover emblem clattering to the ground next to him. He tried to push himself up, but the loss of blood hadn’t been healed with everything else and he felt dizzy, so he just stayed there, wondering when the feeling would pass. “I feel horrible,” he said to no one in particular, not entirely aware of his surroundings or who was in them. “I thought that was supposed to stop when you died.”
The first response he got was a groan; Qrow hadn't landed any easier, little embarrassing. Could have been worse, though. One of the kids could have been there to see it. Sure, he could have gone easier on himself. Last time he'd gone anywhere on purpose it had been to drop to his knees beside Clover, already knowing there wasn't anything he could do. Then there'd been a fall, Harbinger coming down with a swish and a thump beside him, and he'd almost hit the ground in a crouch before he'd overbalanced and gone to his knees instead, hands shooting out to catch himself before he faceplanted on the floor. It hadn't hurt exactly, as far as he could tell his aura hadn't shattered, but it hadn't felt great either.
Then… Qrow raised his head and squinted over at Clover. "Don't think you're dead. That or someone sent me with you."
And Qrow didn't have that kind of luck. He wouldn't have been able to leave Clover. Not like that, alone in the snow. Not when Clover never would have left him. But he'd been expecting to be walked away in cuffs when Ironwood's men came to find them.
The sound of Qrow’s voice close by made him feel a little less worried even if that meant they were possibly both dead. Only this felt too bad for him to believe he was really dead. He looked around at the room around them, hands feeling around on his torso to find the injury that wasn’t there, but there was a scar. He groaned, trying to move, but he was too dizzy.
“Told you I was lucky,” he said quietly, the amusement evident before he promptly passed out.
For a second, Qrow thought it had just been a temporary reprieve, that he was… he scrambled over, reached for Clover like a touch would do anything to help him at all.
He was covered in blood, pale, but breathing. Alive. Qrow closed stinging eyes and forced a breath through a throat that felt like it was being squeezed by some giant hand.
There wasn’t too much time to be grateful, though; Qrow hadn’t noticed the approaching footsteps (sloppy) until there was someone right next to him. Clover’s luck must have been winning out, after all.
When Clover woke up again, he was in a different room. He still felt a little weak, but he blinked a few times before peering at his arm, noting an the needle in his arm and the bag that looked like blood. Off to the side, he noted someone else milling about and doing something off to the side. He seemed a little more thin and sickly than the people that he saw around Atlas. Perhaps a little closer to Mantle. He looked for Qrow, wondering if the man was just an illusion before finding him sitting on the other side of him.
“Hey,” he said softly, smiling a little. “You got any more of an idea of what’s going on?” Because he didn’t like to be in the dark for too long. He looked around again, noting the man that was off to the side glancing over.
“You’re awake,” Victor said. “I’m Dr. Frankenstein.”
“Yeah. Little bit fuzzy on the details after a bit, but it seems that way,” Clover said, glancing back over at Qrow. He tried not to move while the other man looked him over, flashing a light in his eyes and checking his vitals. He breathed when asked, answered the questions he was asked.
“I think you’ll live,” Victor replied, a hint of a smile on his lips. “Try not to be in my medbay too often.” He glanced up at the other man. “I’ll keep him for a little longer, but once he feels up to walking, I think we can give him one of the potions to help him. There’s still some paperwork to fill out and they’ll want to give you keys to wherever you’re staying.” That being said, Victor offered them both a polite smile and made his way back to what he was doing before.
It didn't seem like the doc was paying much attention to them, but Qrow kept his voice low anyway. "Got filled in before you finished your beauty sleep. Place is called Tumbleweed, Texas, alternate universe, our whole lives are fictional, blah, blah, blah. We get a free place to live out of it.
"Ah, and I guess our Semblances don't work in this building." Qrow's voice was remarkably even, for someone who'd gotten something he'd wished for as long as his Semblance had been unlocked at all. "Come back on once we're outside, but, yeah. Like we never even had 'em, right now."
There were more details, but everything else had turned to white noise once he'd heard that part, and learned that Clover was going to be alright. Other things would matter, later. Later, Qrow would have to think about the kids, what kind of mess Yang and Ruby were in without him there to clean it up. How James had screwed them all over. And he'd have to start figuring out what he was doing here, without Grimm to fight against or a cause to fight for. That could wait until Clover was back on his feet, though.
"Still gonna try to arrest me?" There wasn't anyone here to give Clover orders, either, and no one to take him to if he did catch him. Seemed like a good time to just… stop. Figure out what the hell was going on.
Clover listened to what Qrow said, doing his best to hide the uncertainty that came with all the new information. They were in an alternate universe in a place he’d never heard about. Their lives were fictional? What did that mean? They were just stories? This wasn’t Remnant. Ironwood wasn’t here. It was just him and Qrow. Unless his team or Qrow’s group of kids was hiding somewhere.
Shit. His team. He knew this would affect them. They didn’t have someone to lead them. He was dead, though, so what did he really have to go back to? He frowned at that thought, brow furrowing slightly. “Shit.” The word came out as quiet as he could, eyes closing. This was a mess.
But Qrow’s words dragged him out of his thoughts and he looked up at him. “Looks like you’re getting out of it for now.” He hadn’t wanted to do it in the first place, but an order was an order and Ironwood had earned his loyalty and he didn’t ask questions. Not when it came to Ironwood. And he’d have to figure something out if he was stuck here. He had no back up plan, nothing else to do. “This is a real mess, isn’t it?”
"We sure this one isn't my fault?" Seemed like the kind of thing that would happen to Qrow, except for the way it'd kept Clover from being dead, and Qrow from being thrown in a cell somewhere. He wouldn't have been much use to the kids there, either.
Qrow buried his face against his palm and sighed, shoulders heaving. "Seems like they do this a lot. Should know what they're doing. We just…"
They did what? Got some kind of job, settled in like they belonged here? The longest Qrow had stayed in one place was when he'd been going to Beacon. The tribe didn't do much settling down, and it was hard to have a permanent address when you were off gathering information more often than you were… he wasn't sure he could even call it home.
He shrugged. Clover's guess about what they did next was probably better than his.
Clover nearly rolled his eyes. “Don’t know if we can blame either of us for this one.” If he hadn’t felt so out of it, he might have hit him just to make a point, but he didn’t really feel like moving at that point and he wasn’t sure he was going to make it out of this place on his own anyway. Even if he desperately wanted to get out of the building they were in and into the fresh air. He wanted to figure out where they were and gather as much information as he could before too much time had passed. He wanted to know what they were in for and what to expect. He didn’t like how little information he had.
“We get out of here as soon as we can and get as much information on this place as we can.” He kept his voice quiet, glancing toward the doctor, who didn’t seem overly concerned with their conversation. Still, he didn’t trust anyone he didn’t know. It wasn’t to the level that Ironwood would treat it. He’d make nice, get to know the people here, and find out as much as he could. He just needed to figure out where his scroll was and then see what he could pull up on that.
“After that? I guess we’ll figure it out. If we’re stuck here, we’re gonna have to acclimate ourselves to this place and figure out what our part in it is.”
"Yeah, I was afraid you were gonna say that." It wasn't like they had much of a choice, but Qrow had been hoping for some brilliant idea that hadn't crossed his mind yet.
Information, though, that was something Qrow could handle. "You handle asking the questions, I'll do the looking around."
Made more sense than the other way around. Qrow was in better shape, could stay on his feet longer… and he could get a bird's eye view of the place, but Clover didn't know about that little trick yet. And people actually liked Clover. He'd have them eating out of his hand in no time. If that easy charm had worked on Qrow, it'd work on anyone.
"I, ah, I didn't ask too many questions about the whole living arrangements part. Didn't know if you'd wanna room together or…" Qrow wouldn't blame him if he didn't. He wouldn't want to live with himself either if he had a better option.
“Can’t say anything else when I haven’t investigated anything yet.” Once he had more information, he could make a more informed decision about what they had to do and see if they could find a way to get Qrow back home. He would also make the decision as to whether or not he was going back later.
He nodded at Qrow’s words. “Figure I can get the people here to answer my questions. We’ll see how open they are with things.” He knew the kind of ship Ironwood ran, but not these guys. He’d figure it out from there.
The way Qrow said the part about living together...Clover hadn’t considered it, but now he was thinking about it. Qrow seemed hesitant, like he usually was. Like he expected someone to say they didn’t want to be around him. “I’ll probably need someone to look after me until I’ve stopped feeling like shit.” Cause the pain and weakness likely wouldn’t pass quickly. “So I figure we can revisit it if we have to later. You gonna be okay with that?”
Some of the tension in Qrow's chest eased, but it was replaced almost instantly by a sinking feeling in his stomach. Even after all this, Clover was stupidly optimistic about how tying himself up with Qrow would turn out. Sure, it had ended up… alright… this time, but what happened the next time Qrow's bad luck put him in danger? Might not be another alternate universe ready to open up underneath them.
"Yeah, 's fine." Qrow wasn't exactly the guy you wanted playing nursemaid, but he was the only one Clover knew in this joint. Anyway, least he could do when it was kinda his fault Clover needed nursing in the first place.
Mostly James's for giving that damn order in the first place. Couldn't even blame Tyrian Callows, he was just doing what Qrow ought to have expected him to in the first place. But… yeah. A lot of it was on Qrow. For accepting even a temporary truce with a damned serial killer. For not keeping track of his own weapon. For getting distracted talking to Clover once he'd beaten him instead of turning to put the scorpion asshole down immediately. For being the same bad luck charm he always had been.
"There's probably some other stuff I missed," Qrow admitted. It was sloppy, tuning out the details like that. His fault again, if it popped back up to bite them in the ass. "Little much to take in all at once."
Especially the part where Clover wasn't going to die after all.
Clover could practically hear Qrow’s mind working overtime, so he reached out to touch his arm. “Don’t worry about it.” He offered a small smile. “I’m sure there’s someone in charge that won’t mind going through it all again. Got luck on my side after all.” It was all a ploy to make Qrow look less serious, but it was never untrue.
To be fair, a lot of it was him, too. He was following orders. No one ever liked it when following orders meant they were going to be locked up. He didn’t really anticipate the part where Qrow teamed up with Tyrian, but he also wasn’t surprised to have to fight two people at once. His training held up well and he was up to the challenge. Then Qrow started talking and he got distracted by that, too. He hoped Robyn was okay.
None of that was here, however, so he’d figure it out the best way he could. It meant not letting Qrow spiral into a mess of complicated emotions and self loathing. “I’m ready to get out of this place and see what counts for a clothing store. I don’t think what I had is going to be a suitable outfit anymore. And I don’t relish the idea of going out in whatever this is.” He picked at the hospital gown slightly. “I guess one or the other will have to do until then.”
"Your luck, there'll be something here for you to borrow. Your size, too." So Semblances weren't supposed to work in the building; still seemed unthinkable that the world wouldn't rearrange itself just for Clover.
Qrow would never know how Clover did it, but the joke wiped the beginnings of a frown off his face. Lame jokes about luck were good. Like they'd gone back to earlier that day, when they were friends who didn't have to worry about whether they were on the same side. Qrow wanted to be on the same side as Clover, but not over Ruby and Yang. They were first. They had to be first. And they were usually the ones that turned out to be right, too.
Patting Clover on the shoulder still felt awkward, but that wasn't anything that hadn't been true the day before, too. "Doc'll clear you soon. You can ask about it then."
The sight of the smile was nice to see. Even if he wouldn’t admit it. He’d seen the looks on his face and today it hadn’t been any different. They’d fought, and it was there. It was there before as well. The other expressions were rarer, but at least he got to see them occasionally.
“Let’s hope so. I’d like to have something that won’t give people pause when we’re trying to get information.” He would and could still be his same self no matter what he was wearing. It would take more than pain, wooziness, and an unusual wardrobe to keep him from being who he was.
“I’ll just be mildly impatient until then.”
"Thought you soldier types were supposed to be stoic about this kinda thing." Qrow settled a little more comfortably into his chair; nice to be able to do that without worrying a leg was going to break underneath him. Equally nice was Clover taking a break from being a perfect little tin soldier.
Qrow wanted to flatter himself by thinking he helped bring it out in him. Probably just wishful thinking, though.
Weird, but Qrow really wasn't all that impatient himself. Or maybe not weird… it'd been a hell of a day, he thought they deserved a break. Both of them.
“You’ve met…” he trailed of not knowing if bringing up James was the thing to do now. “My team.” Yes. Not weird at all. “Patience isn’t really what we were trained for.” Well, in some instances, they were, but they were highly trained and more equipped to high energy.
Still, he didn’t move to get up. He could already feel the pain of movements just with the little he’d done. He was loathe to admit the fact that he was actually tired. They’d all been on high alert since Beacon fell and now that they didn’t have any of that? Well, he had time to decompress and actually feel the exhaustion.
“I’ll be fine after a good sleep and maybe a shower.”
That was almost enough to make Qrow groan again. Sure, he'd gone longer within a decent shower. Recently, even. But after everything, it felt like much longer than a day, or not even that, since he'd had one.
"Ya know, I hadn't thought about that part yet, but now I'm not gonna be able to stop thinking about it." Not until he got one at least.
Clover had dibs, though. He was the one who really needed it. He was the one who'd been completely soaked in blood.
Clover smiled. “I’d say I was sorry, but I’m not.” Because blood and sweat made for a great deal of discomfort. “Plus, now it gives you something to look forward to. Maybe we can even find you an outfit that doesn’t look like it was half eaten by a Grimm.”
Qrow huffed a laugh at that, face ducked and one hand lifting to rub at the back of his neck.
Not that he minded Qrow’s aesthetic. He pulled off disheveled very well. That didn’t mean he hadn’t wondered why he hadn’t gotten something new like the kids.
“Until then, I might just let myself relax a little. Don’t know if it’ll work, but I guess I can try.”
"Yeah, you should get some rest," Qrow agreed. "Might not be much of it once we're outta here. I'll shut up and let you…"
Probably not sleep. Qrow couldn't see him relaxing enough for that, not even with Qrow there to watch over him. But even dozing a little would be better for recovering his aura, or whatever the equivalent was if their auras were as shut off as their Semblances.
He shrugged it off. No sense in reminding Clover to worry about all that. For now, that could be Qrow's job. "Sweet dreams."