Qrow Branwen is a bad luck charm (scareqrow) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-06-22 19:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, qrow branwen, yang xiao long |
Who: Qrow and Yang
What: Bonding time with Uncle Qrow
When: Earlier this month
Where: Qrow's condo
Rating/Warnings Family Friendly
Status: Complete!
Qrow had a modest but comfortable two bedroom condo not too far from the university in Irvine. It was two stories with a garage. A living room and kitchen with a dining area occupied the first floor, and two bedrooms on the upper floor. One of the bedrooms, technically the guest bedroom, was used as an office, with a desk, computer, filing cabinet and two bookcases stuffed with various books. A full-sized bed was against the far wall under a window, kept purposefully for the use of Qrow’s nieces, should they want or need to spend the night. Downstairs in the living room was a decent sized flat screen TV, a gaming console (which he claimed he’d gotten for Ruby and Yang to play with when they visited, but got just as much use when they weren’t there as they did when they were there), a well used couch, coffee table and recliner.
The space was cluttered, well-lived in, perhaps a bit hodge-podge as none of the pieces of furniture actually matched, but comfortable. He liked where he lived, that he could call it his own and most importantly, it was always open to both Yang and Ruby whenever they wanted.
This evening Yang had come over for a few slices of pizza, some wings and video games. Qrow hadn’t seen much of Yang since her accident and he felt bad about that. He should have been there more. Yang was a tough girl though, a lot like her mother, but not completely. She had bounced back as Qrow knew she would.
It had just been so strange, the idea of seeing him. After her dreams, and knowing he was there. At least he wasn’t as bad an alcoholic. That she was aware of anyway. Still, she wasn’t going to bring anything up, and hoped her generic explanation for her arm would suffice.
She hopped off her bike and let herself in. “I’m gonna make you cry uncle at Tekken!”
For the most part, Qrow had kept his drinking away from his nieces, as he did a lot of things they really didn’t need to know about. He knew he drank probably more than he should, but he didn’t consider himself an alcoholic. Not really. He could stop anytime he wanted. He just didn’t want to.
No drinks tonight. He and Yang were going to hang out, eat themselves silly with pizza and wings and trounce each other with a good fighting game. He wanted to get a look at the prosthetic she had gotten to replace her arm. When he’d first learned she had lost it in the accident, he’d done some research about prosthetics, what was the best of the best, what kind of tech they used, how they worked, how close to a natural arm they were. It was amazing how far a prosthetic had come. Instead of looking like a mannequin's limb had been attached to a body, prosthetics these days actually functioned, could move and grip and act like an actual arm. He had started to save up to get Yang one of the super fancy ones when she had said she had already gotten one of her own.
He heard Yang’s bike as she rode up. Had to give the girl credit for getting back on one after her accident. The idea was probably giving Tai stones of some kind. He grinned when he heard her voice. “Nah, the only one who's going to cry uncle tonight is you, squirt.”
She hadn’t even known he’d been saving up. She wouldn’t have expected it and would be really touched if she ever found out. As it was she’d been looking into modding the bike for one hand. They made things like that. Luckily she hadn’t needed it.
“Uh uh, I’ve been practicing.” She did her trademark fist punch, then came over and leaned over the couch to hug him.
The money Qrow had been squirreling way for Yang’s prosthetic still sat untouched in an account, while he decided what should be done with it now that Yang had solved the issue on her own. Maybe he could use it to mod the prosthetic if she wanted. His degree may have been in history, but he had been “tinkering” a great deal of his life. Granted, a lot of it had been in the form of weapons modification, and one didn’t tend to get a degree in that (and let’s ignore the fact that it was his penchant for modding that had gotten Ruby interested in engineering in the first place), but Qrow knew exactly what he was doing. His single-car garage had been converted into a workshop so he could pursue his “hobby”, with a few projects in various states of complete, and he was doing as much research as he could on prosthetics, having ignored (until recently) the research he was supposed to be doing as a part of his tenure.
“Tch.” He smirked at his niece. “I’ve been practicing too and I also have the added benefit of years of experience.” He returned her hug, a tight affectionate embrace.
It was all Qrow’s fault and everyone knew it. But it kept Ruby out of trouble, even if she desperately needed to have friends that could actually talk back. Blake wasn’t enough, especially since Blake was the quiet one.Who also inadvertently ruined Yang’s relationship with Evie but that wasn’t Blake’s fault, just Yang’s for having feelings.
“So you admit you’re old.”
“I didn’t say that,” Qrow waved her off. “Just older than you.” He gestured to the seat on the couch next to him then towards the still-warm pizza box and wings. “Pizza,” he said. “I’d feel bad beating you on an empty stomach.”
“Yeah yeah.” She hopped over into the couch, making it bounce as she landed. The pizza was grapped with her left hand while she picked up the controller with her right. She’d learned how to play with just one hand, but it was nice to not really need to.
It was a skill she kept up though. Just in case something ever happened. If there was one thing she learned in her dreams, it was to prepare for anything. “Prepare to suffer eternal defeat!”
Qrow snorted a laugh. “Whatever you say, squirt.” So, yeah, ok, he was nowhere near good enough at any video game to play one handed. Tekken, as with most fighting games, required a specific combination of buttons and controls pushed in a specific order and there was no way in hell Qrow had the time to figure out how do that with one hand, even if he did have the time. So, Yang’s ability to play and hold her own against him while munching on a slice of pizza was impressive as hell. Even attempts to distract her with one of his stories didn’t even seem to turn the tables in his favor. Well, good for her. Maybe they could actually enjoy an evening together without any bad luck harping on them.
It might be nice to beat Qrow. Yang had a bad history of losing to him and it always pissed her off. But her practice helped a whole lot, and she wasn’t about to let him distract her. “Okay did I ever tell you about this fight I got in once? Uh, don’t tell Ruby about it she’ll be mad, but it was like two years ago and it was this guy that was picking on her.”
“Nope, I don’t think you’ve told me this one,” Qrow answered. He kept his focus on the game, but was paying attention to the story. Yang and fighting wasn’t exactly news. Nor was someone picking on Ruby, either, if Qrow was being honest. It was heartwarming that Yang was protective of her little sister. One might assume most siblings were like that, but it wasn’t always true. “Go on,” he prompted. “I promise not to say anything to Ruby.”
“Yeah, he was picking on her. And she just wanted to be left alone but unless he started picking on someone else I didn’t think she’d do something.” Ruby would protect other people while ignoring her own problems.
“Anyway, when I found out about it I was livid. So I kinda stalked her for a day until I saw it happening. After Ruby was gone I rolled up to him and just gave him a smile. Flashed a little cleavage, got him all excited about the hot chick.”
Qrow really didn’t need to know about his niece flashing cleavage to lull a boy into a false sense of security. It wasn’t a bad tactic. It was using an asset to gain the upper hand. Nothing wrong with that. It was just a little weird to hear his young niece say.
“Uh huh….” he raised a brow. “And that worked, I take it? Then what?”
“I punched him. Broke his nose and a few teeth.” Yang grinned like she was proud of that. “Told him if he ever bullied Ruby or any other girl again I’d find him and make him wish I’d knocked out the rest of his teeth the first time.”
Qrow finally glanced in Yang’s direction, a brow raised. He probably should tell her that was not the right way to have handled the situation. Probably. But the truth was, he was proud of her. It was something he would have done (and had done) when he’d been her age. Hell, he’d probably do it even now. “I probably should tell you it’s wrong to go around breaking people’s noses and knocking out teeth,” he said, and then smirked. “But good for you, squirt.” He let go of the controller just long enough to feign ruffling her hair. “Did you do that with your new arm?”
Yang’s left hand went subconsciously to her metal arm. It had been a year in early June, and sometimes she could still remember everything, down to how it all felt. The flashbacks still happened. She’d never be okay, and that was okay. “No, this was like a year before the accident. I have to be more careful with this thing. And I like to think I’ve got my temper in check.”
Mostly.
Qrow watched his niece carefully, the way she reached towards her arm. He’d (hopefully) never know or fully understand what it was that Yang had to go through after losing it, but damn, he was proud of her. She was an amazing kid. She always had been.
“You’ve come a long way,” he said. “I still remember your first full blown temper tantrum,” he nudged her playfully. “I still say the neighbors a block away could hear you.” He paused a moment before adding thoughtfully, “you know I’ve got a little money put away. Originally I was going to use it to help you buy a prosthetic, but since you did that on your own, I could use it to modify what you have. You’d have to let me see it first, though.”
In both lives it had involved a haircut. Yang’s hair was one of her rage buttons (and kinks if she was honest but she would never, ever in a million years be that honest with her Uncle gross). She looked at him, touched that he’d even thought of that.
While she didn’t he could beat Atlastech, Yang still unhooked her arm and offered it out, right as she said, “Well, I have to hand it to you, that’s really nice.”
“Christ, Yang,” he laughed. Their game was put on temporary hold while Qrow took a look at the arm. Even with just a cursory look, the prosthetic wasn’t like anything Qrow had ever seen before. Granted, most of the prosthetics he’d seen had been in photos posted on line and in the multitude of articles and papers he’d read on the subject, but he had gotten a chance to see a few in person. Even at first glance at Yang’s arm, he could tell the technology in this thing was way different than the tech currently available on the market, legit and underground. Qrow wondered if he even could modify it. He wasn’t even sure if he dared to try.
Curiosity got the better of him. “Where did you get this?” He asked.
“Ugh… “ Yang scratched her cheek. “There was this experimental program I signed up for. You know, advanced prosthetics. With uh… “ Stark was too easy an answer, but it was the first thing to come to mind. “Stark Industries.”
Qrow eyed his niece carefully for a moment. Stark was cutting edge in...everything. They always had their hands (no pun intended, leave that to the professionals in the room) in He should have believed that was where Yang had gotten it. It wasn’t as though she had ever lied to him before. But he didn’t know how to call her out on it either.
“Stark’s a good company,” Qrow said. He would have liked to have looked the arm over more, but he also didn’t want Yang to sit there without it too long, so he gave it back to her. “I’m pretty good at modding, but I probably shouldn’t dick around with Stark property.” Which was disappointing.
“First time I ever put it on, burned like hell.” But it didn’t seem to bother her when she reattached it. It still stung, but it was quick and manageable. “Was surprised at how light it is. And not even just in weight…”
It had felt light, much lighter than it looked and again, Qrow wondered if it was really something created by Stark. It had to have been. Where else could it possibly have come from?
“I like it,” he said as Yang reattached the prosthetic. “The yellow is a good color for you. I probably can’t mod it, but we’ll figure out what to do with that money.”
“Maybe use it to help someone else,” Yang suggested. She’d feel better about that. There were a lot of people who weren’t as lucky as her. And sure, sometimes The Depression(™) could hit, but she still knew she was lucky. It had taken her less time to accept it awake than it had in her Dreams. But she’d let herself have more support, too.
That worked for Qrow. Give it to charity or as a donation. He’d let Yang decide, the money was her’s after all. “Whatever you want, squirt.” He picked up the controller and gave her a playful smirk. “Now you ready to get back to me kicking your butt?”
“Nope, but I’m ready to get back to kicking yours!”