Qrow Branwen is a bad luck charm (scareqrow) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-02-01 19:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kala dandekar, qrow branwen |
Who: Qrow Branwen and Kala Dandekar
What: Kala tries her hand at going to a bar
When: Backdated to early November
Where: Local bar
Rating/Warning: Low
Status: Complete!
Qrow didn’t know how to describe the last few days of October. Between his office computer deciding to play Hide and Seek with his students’ assignments, the elevator holding him hostage for three hours and his car apparently driving itself to his brother-in-law’s house and parking on his front lawn, nothing had physically tried to harm him, his family or his students. Compare that to a couple of Halloweens ago when the Grimm had attacked…eh, Qrow would take it.
Things had seemingly returned to normal now, though, and Qrow was in a bar at a table by himself nursing his second drink of the evening. The bar was getting fairly busy and fairly noisy. It looked as though Qrow wasn’t the only one looking to put the last week behind him by way of alcohol. He recognized a few of the patrons as students, both current and former, but kept his distance as he usually did and they kept their distance as well. It wasn’t unusual for him to cross paths with his students when he was out drinking. There had been times when they’d approach him and make small talk or ask him to join them for a shot or two. Not anymore. Rita Skeeter had put an end to that with her article falsely accusing him of fathering Alice Liddell’s child. None of his students had believed it. They all had brains enough to spot a sham when they saw one. The top brass at the university, however? Well, even if they hadn’t personally believed the article, an investigation still had to have been done to be sure there were no inappropriate relationships between Qrow and his students and of course they had to suspend Qrow indefinitely until that was resolved.
He was back in the classroom now and his students, while happy to have him back, kept their distance. None of the approached him when they saw him out in a bar like this. Qrow wasn’t sure if they were trying to protect him, or maybe themselves, but what was going on was obvious. He caught a few of the sorry looks thrown his way.
It was just as well, as far as Qrow was concerned. He chuckled faintly before draining his glass and motioned for the waitress to bring him another.
Kala wasn’t much of a drinker. Back in Mumbai she had the occasional girls night with her friend where she would have a drink or two. But other than that she stayed sober. Kala never felt the need to go to a bar on her own.
That was until she moved to Orange County. There always seemed to be something strange going on. And then there were the dreams. Not that hers were all that bad. It was mostly just the life she left behind. With a few additions. But the point was it was a life she was trying to leave behind.
After her day at the lab Kala decided to head to the closest bar. Maybe a drink would help. She had to admit she was a bit nervous but she sucked it up. She was an adult. She was perfectly capable of going to a bar in a new place on her own.
Walking up to the bartender Kala tried to get his attention to no avail. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe she should just give up and go home.
Qrow was having a little difficulty flagging down a waitress too. With the amount of people who decided to come out tonight, the bar itself seemed short-staffed. The only waitress Qrow had seen all evening was bouncing back and forth between tables and the bar like a pinball gone wild. Qrow decided to cut the poor girl a break and go to the bar himself. If he gave up his table, just as well. It was only him tonight, he didn’t need to take up four much-needed seats that could be used for an actual party of four.
Glass in hand he made his way to the bar, coming to stand beside another poor girl who seemed to be a little lost in the sheer bustle of the place. She was fruitlessly attempting to get the attention of the bartender, who was equally as busy as the waitress. He was moving quickly behind the bar, frantically attempting to fill orders as quickly as possible and was either ignoring or just didn’t see the young woman attempting to get his attention.
She looked out of place, poor girl, as though she hadn’t ever been in a bar before and rather than becoming increasingly frustrated by being continuously passed over, looked more and more like a deer in a headlight. Despite his better judgment, Qrow took pity on her.
Leaning his lanky frame over the bar, he finally managed to grab the bartender's attention. Considering he was something of a regular here and had been known to drop good money on a night’s bender, the bartender stopped immediately for him. “Ha, sorry,” the man said, sounding every bit as breathless as one would who had basically been running a marathon. “Two of our staff called out tonight. What can I getcha?” He glanced down at the empty glass on the bar, “another whiskey?”
“Make it a double,” Qrow said then motioned to the young woman standing next to him. “But first, take this poor girl’s order. She’s been trying to flag you down for the last ten minutes.”
Kala gave the man a grateful smile. She truly was out of place. This was probably a bad idea. Besides she didn’t even drink much anyway. What had possessed her to enter a bar alone? Oh right, the dreams, the constant reminder of the life she had left behind. Of Rajan, a perfectly nice man, just someone she simply wasn’t in love with, did not wish to marry. And then there was the Wolfgang of it all. Okay yeah maybe she did need a drink.
“I’ll have a cosmo,” she told the bartender only to get a laugh from the man.
“We don’t serve those here,” he replied.
Oh. Well now Kala didn’t know what to order. That was what she always got when she went out for a girls night back in Mumbai. “Oh, okay,” Kala said looking a bit defeated. “You can just take his order,” she added referring to the man that had flagged down the bartender.
The bartender turned his attention back up to Qrow. “A double, right?”
Qrow glanced at the young girl next to him before sighing and leveling a look at the bartender. “C’mone, Benny,” he said. “I know you got everything you need back there to make a cosmo.”
“I just said --”
“Yeah, I heard you.” Qrow waved him off. “You kept the girl waitin’ for ten minutes only to tell her she can’t have what she wants? What the hell kind of customer service is that?”
The bartender glanced at the girl carefully, then looked back at Qrow. “If I make one for her, I’ll have to make one for everyone else who orders one.”
Seriously? That was the argument he was going with? Qrow narrowed his eyes at the man. “Alright.” He turned towards the young woman next to him. “C’mone, I know another bar up the street. They’ll make you a cosmo...and anything else you want.” He looked back up at the bartender. “Mind settling out my tab, Ben?”
The bar was completely packed and Qrow was running a gamble that Ben The Bartender would give two shits over one customer taking his business somewhere else. But, Qrow was a regular and the real risk wasn’t necessarily him leaving, but whether or not he’d be back
Finally, after a moment of debate (a moment the other man didn’t really seem to have), he relented. “Fine,” he said. He made Kala her cosmo.
Kala watched in shock as the man and the bartender argued. She hadn’t meant to cause any issues. But after all the trouble the man went through it would be rude to refuse the drink now. All she could do was drink her cosmo and then leave without causing any more problems.
However, it would also be rude not to thank the man who stood up for her. After taking a sip of her drink she looked over at him. “Thank you,” she said softly.
Qrow got himself another drink and left Benny a slightly larger than normal tip for his efforts. He glanced at the girl as she shyly sipped her cosmo and shrugged. “It wasn’t a big deal,” he answered. Movement over the girl’s shoulder made him look up to see a group of boisterous 20-somethings getting a little close with their play-shoving, completely oblivious to everyone else around them. Without having the time to properly warn the girl, Qrow took Kala by her arm and quickly pulled her towards him and out of the way of an errant elbow that would have struck either her shoulder, or worse, the back of her head.
“Gettin’ a little crowded up here,” he told her. “C’mone, let’s get away from the bar and let Benny get back to work.” He turned to head back to his table only to find that it had been taken over by another group.
Kala held her breath when the man pulled her to him. She hadn’t been expecting that to say the least. And it didn’t at all occur to her that he had pulled her in because she was close to being hit by one of the 20-somethings play shoving each other.
“No,” Kala replied at his suggestion. “I should probably get going.” This wasn’t her scene. She shouldn’t have come here at all. Now she knew better at least. “Thanks for the help with the drink.”
Now that they didn’t really have any other place to go, Qrow was wearily eyeing the group of rowdy kids over Kala’s head. They seemed as oblivious to the fact that they had nearly clocked the poor girl as she was. He was about to position himself between Kala and them when he heard her talking. Red eyes flickered down at her and realized he still had her by the arm. Oh, Christ. What must she think?
“Sorry,” he said quickly, letting her go. “I wasn’t trying to – “ Jerky movements out of the corner of his eye brought his attention back over Kala’s head. They were still at it. This time Qrow couldn’t react quite fast enough to stop what he saw was coming.
One of the young men jerked backwards out of the way of his friend’s shove, this time backing right into Kala.
When the young man backed into Kala, she was pushed against Qrow. Kala could already feel her cheeks reddening. This was what she got for going to a bar. Well Kala had certainly learned her lesson. At least Will and Lito weren’t witnessing this, that she knew of. Though she had a feeling if either of them were around they would take over for her.
“I’m sorry,” Kala apologized still pressed against Qrow. “I didn’t mean to- I really should get going,” she repeated. Because really what else could she do? This was all getting to be too much for her.
Qrow grunted softly when Kala was shoved unceremoniously into him. He didn’t really have the room to back up, either, which made the whole situation more awkward than it needed to be. He had half a mind to tell off the group of young men who still seemed blissfully oblivious of their surroundings. However, Kala’s voice stopped him. He glanced down at her and noted her obvious discomfort just being there.
He couldn’t be absolutely sure that this wasn’t his fault either. The girl had been fine until Qrow had come up to the bar. Eventually Benny would have noticed her. Probably. Qrow had just made an awkward situation for her worse by trying to help. He should know better by now.
“It’s alright,” he said. Awkwardly he stepped to the side to give Kala as much room as possible and maybe get her out of range of his semblance, though he was only able to go a couple of steps. Not quite far enough. At least now she had something of an exit route from the bar. “You don’t have to be sorry, it’s…” he shrugged. “It’s fine. You’re fine.”
Kala quickly grabbed some cash out of her purse and set it on the bar for her drink. She wasn’t going to wait around for the bartender to come get it. She just wanted to get out of this distressing situation as quickly as possible. “Thank you again for your help,” Kala said with an apologetic smile before she dashed out of the bar.