Can I buy you a drink? Who: Qrow and Xena What: The Huntsman and the Warrior Princess are both struck by "cupid's arrow" When: Around Valentine's Day Where: Local bar Rating/Warnings Low; it's pretty tame Status: Complete!
Sure, he wasn’t Gabrielle, but he was certainly her type when it came to men. Scruffy, morally dubious… in other words, he was perfect.
Xena wasn’t sure where these feelings came from. There’d been a feeling like a prick, or a stabbing, and then she’d been overwhelmed by feelings of love and affection.
She had a brief moment to curse Aphrodite before she lost all sense and walked towards him. “Hello sweetheart.”
It was just another night for Qrow. Or at least it had started that way. Drinking alone in a bar. It was a little rough and tumble, but not a total dive. At least the beer was good and cheap and it wasn’t a place he was likely to run into his students. For the most part, Qrow kept to himself. Occasionally he’d join a conversation if anything was directed at him, but usually he was left alone, except for the bartender who kept him well liquored.
So it was a little bit of a surprise when he heard someone call him “sweetheart”. He looked up from his beer to see a woman standing next to him. She was attractive, but had that kind of rough-and-tumble air to her. Dangerous. When he’d been younger and far less responsible, Qrow had gotten mixed up in her type before. Many times. And he knew better than to get mixed up with them again. Then he felt something almost like a prick between his shoulder blades which was immediately followed by a feeling that could have been only described as affection for this women he didn’t even know.
He smiled at her. “Hi,” the smile grew, “and what can I do for you?”
“You can start by letting me buy you a drink.” Xena sauntered up to him, and ran her hand down his arm. Yeah. Definitely her type, at least when it came to men. He looked like he’d been through the ringer a few times and come out of it mostly alive.
She liked her men mostly alive.
Qrow would never turn down alcohol, especially when said alcohol was being provided by an attractive woman. He still couldn’t explain what it was that was drawing him to her. Like, even without the offer of booze he would have wanted her to come over. And the hand down his arm was pretty enticing.
“Sure,” he said, that smile never leaving his face. “But only if you join me for a little while.”
“I think that can be arranged,” Xena drawled. She had a way of speaking like she was at ease with herself and the surroundings, and yet could command the room if she wanted to. She turned to the barkeep, “Two of whatever he’s having.”
Two of whatever Qrow was having turned out to be two more draft beers, which came at just the right moment, since Qrow had just finished the one he was currently drinking. He’d had a couple of fingers of whiskey earlier before switching to something a little less hard. Easy night tonight, and as it turned out, he’d made the right decision.
The bartender filled their orders quickly before moving on and leaving the two alone with their drinks. Hand on his glass, Qrow turned his full attention towards the woman. He was lost a moment just looking at her. Beautiful with that dangerous air. Ooooh, he was in serious trouble here. He knew it, but he honestly couldn’t even give a damn. Introductions. Yes. Those seemed important. “Names Qrow,” he said, “and what should I call my generous benefactor?”
It was a good beer, and Xena took a moment to savor it, her eyes closed as she drank. Setting the glass back down, she eyed Qrow. It wasn’t her usual dangerous side-eye. It was actually kind of googly eyed. “I’m Xena. Warrior Princess.”
Under normal circumstances the moniker “Warrior Princess” would have caused Qrow to do one of two things: laugh right out loud at the sheer hokiness of it, or shrug and dismiss her as either crazy, or desperate for attention. This not normal circumstances, however. Xena, Warrior Princess sounded damn exotic and powerful right at that moment. The perfect compliment to her overall look and quality of air.
The googly eyes weren’t lost on him either. Whatever he was feeling towards him, she seemed to be experiencing for him as well. Well, wasn’t that just stroke of well deserved luck. “Warrior princess,” he repeated. “Imagine that.” A smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth, “only in Orange County.” He took a drought of his beer before placing it down on the bar and moving a little closer towards her. “Would you believe me if I told you I’m a huntsman. Not nearly as cool sounding as ‘princess’, but a kind of warrior anyway.”
“Yeah, only in the OC,” Xena agreed.. She pulled a knife out, flipping it open to use it to pry apart some peanuts. Because apparently that was supposed to be attractive in Xena’s world. “Huntsman sounds a lot cooler to me, honey.”
She popped her freed peanut into her mouth, grinning as she chewed. “So what do you hunt?”
Let’s be perfectly fair here, in this world there were those who would find prying open a peanut with a knife to be incredibly attractive. And as long as we’re being honest, Qrow was one of those people, strange Love Pricks or not. Red eyes watched her hands expertly work the blade between the seam of the shell and deftly maneuver it open to get at the treasure inside. His eyes then followed her hand up to her face, lingering a little on her mouth. The smirk playing on his features grew into a grin. “I hunt monsters,” he answered, perhaps in an effort to maybe impress the dangerous princess next to him.
“What do you know, so do I.” Xena’s monsters weren’t always monsters, though there’d been a few of them. They were mostly people, bad guys who were the kind of monster she’d been in her youth. That whole tortured atonement angle.
“Something tells me your monsters have to be real scary.”
The monsters on remnant, generally speaking, were just that: creatures that wanted nothing more than to kill and destroy everything they came into contact with. However, Qrow’s own clandestine missions usually revolved around the humans (or whatever Salem was) who were working behind the scenes and pulling some pretty major strings.
At that moment, however, Qrow wasn’t really thinking about Salem or her little band of minions. His attention was solely on Xena. “You do?” He raised a brow. “Well, it looks as though we have that in common.” His hand left his beer and reached for one of hers. “They can be,” he said about his monsters, “but I’d rather talk about you.” Or maybe they could skip the talking and just make-out for a bit. That’d be pretty good too.
If asked, Xena would say Salem reminded her of Hera or any number of the Gods. Corrupt, vain, and meddling in the affairs of mortals. And she’d hate her every bit as much.
She let Qrow take her hand, and as if reading his mind said, “I don’t know about you, but I can think of some other talking we could do.”
Qrow was very much interested in that “other” talking. He was smirking again as he ran his thumb over the backs of her fingers. “I can as well,” he said lowly before leaning in closer and kissing her. Nothing aggressive, but subtle enough to make her want more. “A conversation kind of like that,” he said. “What do you think? Should we have our conversation somewhere else a little more private?”
“I know a place,” Xena replied, eyes flashing with mischief and undeniable love. “Hope you don’t mind motorcycles.”