Who: Leon Orcot and Qrow Branwen What: Drinking at a new bar When: June Where: A bar Rating/Warnings: Low/none, some language Status: Complete
As much as Leon liked drinking at the Double Tap, he knew that he couldn’t go there every day. For one, Dan would probably start asking questions that Leon didn’t especially want to answer. Not that Leon’s answers would be anything that Dan didn’t know. Hell, he and Liv were the only two people who could probably venture a guess as to why Leon was drinking so much these days, aside from Damon himself (and, Leon wondered, Alex. Sometimes he wondered just how much Alex knew about what Damon had done). But Leon’s trying to drown out the voice that was telling him he was a crooked cop wasn’t something he especially wanted to discuss with anyone.
Either way, sometimes drinking where nobody knew your name was just fine. He was only stopping in for a couple of quick after work drinks before he went to get Chris from the babysitter, anyway. He glanced over at the door when it opened, more out of instinct than anything, and then did a double take when he saw Qrow. Part of him wanted to find some dark corner of the bar to relocate to before Qrow saw him, but it was already too late for that. Qrow had already seen him, and so he raised his whiskey glass in something like a greeting.
Qrow had never been a social man. The whole bad luck thing made making and keeping friends difficult. Though, to be honest, a lot of his isolation from others was self-imposed. Both he and his sister had been raised to distrust people, if for nothing else then for the sheer fact that their family was heavily involved in illegal activities. Those activities made trusting others outside the family nearly impossible. Even extending trust to his own flesh and blood was challenging.
His mood lately had only made things worse. His most recent dreams had drudged up feelings of worthlessness and self-loathing he’d spent the better part of 20 years burying as far within himself as he could.
So when Qrow spotted Leon Orcot sitting at the bar, his first instinct had been to turn around and walk out the door. He would have if not for two things: first, Leon saw him as well and raised his glass to him in greeting. Second (and perhaps more importantly), Qrow wanted to drink. The desire to do so overpowered his desire to be left alone. It was the only thing he knew that brought him even close to feeling alright again.
With an inward groan and a roll of his eyes, Qrow let the door close behind him. He made his way to the bar and ordered himself a whiskey and a beer. There was a large part of him that didn’t even want to acknowledge Leon sitting there a few stools away. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be forced to actually talk with him. On the other hand, not acknowledging Leon made him feel increasingly awkward and embarrassed.
“Leon,” he said finally as the bartender handed him his drinks. “Didn’t expect to see you in here,” he said as he raised the whiskey glass to his lips.
“I could say the same to you,” Leon said. He hadn’t, in fact, thought he was going to see anyone he knew. “This one of your regular haunts?” he asked.
Qrow knocked back the whiskey first, taking it all in in a single shot. He quickly chased it down with the beer. “They’re all my regular haunts,” he responded after setting down the whiskey glass down.
Leon smiled grimly, not that he was judging. “Variety is the spice of life and all that,” he said after a moment. He generally stuck to two or three, his main bar obviously being The Double Tap (getting to smoke indoors was a huge plus, not to mention the fact that the place was owned by one of his best friends), but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t start to branch out sooner or later.
As far as Leon was concerned, the required polite conversation was done, and he turned back to his drink, finished it off, and signaled the bartender for a refill.
When it appeared as though Leon wasn’t going to pushing for more conversation, Qrow relaxed. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. The two of them had whiled away many hours sitting next to each other at The Double Tap, why should this be any different?
Qrow settled onto the barstool. He dug out his wallet and handed the bar tender his card to open his tab for the night. With that done, Qrow hunched over his beer, settling in for the evening.
First came the hard push to get to that point beyond buzzed. Once he got there, he could easily maintain a steady level of desired drunkenness for the night. This night was no different. He almost forgot about Leon entirely. Occasionally the blond detective caught his attention getting his own refills. As closing time approached, it struck Qrow that something wasn’t quite right.
Leon had only meant to stay at the bar for a short while, and so when he ordered another beer and the bartender told him it was last call, Leon started. “That’s not right,” he muttered, his voice thick, and then checked his watch. “Shit,” he swore to himself. Ozma was going to kill him.
Of course, she was probably already asleep by now, and Chris definitely was (or had better be. Ozma would get an earful if his eight-year-old brother was still awake in the middle of the night. There was nothing he could do about it now though. He shot Ozma a text apologizing for the hour and wondering if she was still awake, and then turned to Qrow.
“I’m blaming you for this,” Leon said, without any heat in his voice. It wasn’t like Qrow had been keeping him engrossed in conversation, and he didn’t really believe that Qrow was to blame at all, but it did make him feel a little better that he could technically say that he was drinking with a kind-of-friend and loss track of time instead of just sitting at the bar by himself.
When the bartender said it was last call, Qrow downed the remainder of his drink (he’d lost track of what he’d been ordering a while ago) and signaled the bartender to ring him up. He blinked, a little surprised to hear Leon’s voice next to him. He glanced at the other man, a little surprised to see him there. He also wasn’t sure what exactly Leon was blaming him for: the bar closing, or the fact that he’d wasted an entire night drinking. If Qrow had been sober, he would have asked, and then argued against both points. Instead, he simply shrugged and muttered, “you and everyone else, Orcot. Welcome to the club.”
Leon paid his bill, and chugged back the rest of his drink. He snorted at Qrow, and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Smoke,” he asked, tilting his head toward the door. Actually needing to go outside for a cigarette was a pain in the ass but, well, not everywhere could be The Double Tap and its cavalier attitude toward city ordinances.
A cigarette sounded good and Qrow nodded. The night air was good to bring him to his senses enough to remember where his car was parked, seeing as he wasn’t going to be driving it home tonight. Such were the benefits of being able to turn into a bird whenever the hell he wanted. He was going to have to get Harbinger out of the trunk along with his bag, though. He had a vague memory of papers being in there that needed marking. And even drunk, he wasn’t so much of an idiot to leave his weapon behind.
After paying his tab and reclaiming his card, Qrow ambled out of the bar with the detective. Once outside, he paused a moment to light a cigarette. He offered his pack and lighter to Leon as he took a deep drag. “Out kinda late, t’night, ain’tcha, Leon?” He asked, exhaling a cloud of smoke.
Leon took one of the proffered cigarettes with a thank you, and took a drag before answering Qrow. “Yeah,” he said, frowning to himself and checking his phone. Still no word from Ozma, so maybe she really was already asleep. “Kind of lost track of time,” Leon admitted sheepishly. “But Chris is with the sitter tonight, staying at a hotel. He’s a big fan of actually being able to jump on the beds.” Which, while not exactly an excuse, almost alleviated some of his guilt. Anyway, as far as Leon was concerned, Chris was probably better off the less time he spent with Leon. “I could say the same to you.”
Qrow glanced at Leon out of the corner of his eyes. The mention of Chris brought to mind memories of when Yang and Ruby had been little and Qrow would watch them while Tai had been away. They were fond memories, though intensely bittersweet. There was a part of Qrow that very much wanted to go back to those days before Dreams. Life hadn’t been simple back then (anything but, really), but at least Qrow had had purpose and direction. Now? Not so much.
“No one’s waitin’ fer me at home,” he answered dully. He exhaled another cloud of smoke. He glanced at his watch. “The sitter’s gonna be chargin’ you an arm an’ a leg.” He looked back at the detective. “you okay to drive, man?”
“Ozma’s pretty good about keeping it affordable,” Leon said. He had the feeling that she just liked Chris’ company, which he couldn’t blame her for. Chris was a pretty great kid. He frowned, taking a mental inventory of himself. “If I don’t hear back from Ozma, I’ll probably just take a power nap in the backseat,” he said after a moment. He might have gotten away with driving; a lot of cops let that kind of thing slide when it was their fellow officers. But he’d done enough damage to his pride as an officer without willfully breaking the rules.
Ozma….that name sounded familiar, though at the moment Qrow couldn’t quite place it. The Oz part of her name drudged up a few things Qrow had spent the better part of the evening trying to bury deep, so he gave up trying to figure out why he should know the name.
Another drag of his cigarette and Qrow dug his keys out of his pocket. Leon was a grown-ass man and as a cop he knew the consequences of driving inebriated better than most. If he thought sleeping it off in his car would result in him being ok to drive, then Qrow wouldn’t question it. “I got a standin’ thing with a dude who drives for Uber,” he threw out. “If ya wanna ride, I can call’im. If not…” Qrow simply shrugged.
Leon frowned, glancing off in the direction where he’d parked his car. He was going to need it to pick up Chris in the morning, but, well, the idea of being able to sleep in his own bed instead of in some sort of impossibly uncomfortable pose in his back seat, only to be woken up when his car would inevitably get swelteringly hot in the morning sun, was a tempting one. He took a drag from his cigarette, looked back over at the direction of his car, and sighed. “That might be best,” he sighed.
“Sure,” Qrow said. He reached for his phone, and frowned when the item he produced from his back pocket turned out to be his scroll. It was reliable enough to contact Ruby, Yang, and the other Remnant folk, but calling a random Uber driver? Probably not. Qrow swore under his breath and put the thing away.
He started towards his car and motioned for Leon to follow him. Once there, he unlocked his trunk, where he’d put both his bag and Harbinger for safe keeping. Cigarette gripped between his lips, he rooted around in his bag until he finally found his cell phone. The Uber Guy’s card was in his wallet and he dialed the man. As always, the guy picked up after a few rings, and (after Qrow promised that Leon wouldn’t barf in the man’s car) agreed to take Leon home on Qrow’s dime.
“He’s on his way,” Qrow said once the call was over. He pulled his bag from the trunk and slung the strap over his shoulder before glancing at Leon. He probably shouldn’t leave him standing alone in the parking lot.
Leon frowned a little when Qrow mentioned to the driver that his ride was on him, but Leon wasn’t in the mood to argue it. He just made a mental note to pay for a few of Qrow’s drinks next time they were at the bar together.
He noticed the look Qrow gave him after he’d donned his bag, and Leon offered him a bit of a smile and lifted his hand. “I’m good,” he said. “You go to wherever it is you’re going,” he said after a moment. Standing alone in the parking lot wasn’t such a bad thing.
“I’m not leavin’ you here by yourself,” Qrow grunted. Besides the two of them the bar’s parking lot was virtually empty. “It’s not like I think you need a babysitter or anythin’, but shit happens to people this late at night.” He pulled Harbinger out of the trunk next and attached it to the back belt loop of his jeans. “Coupla weeks ago some thugs tried mugging a girl on fucking campus. It wasn’t even after nine in the evening. Besides--” He closed his trunk again. “--I already told you there’s no one waitin’ for me at home.”
“Cop, remember?” Leon said, placing his left hand on his right bicep and giving a bit of flex to punctuate his point. “I think I can handle myself.” Not that Leon particularly minded the company. And, well, it didn’t seem like Qrow especially wanted to go home either. “But if you’ve got nothing better to do…”
He didn’t miss the whatever it was that Qrow had attached to his bag, and he frowned at it, not quite being able to make sense of it. “What is that thing?”
Qrow raised an unimpressed brow at Leon’s attempt to flex at him. Yes, Qrow was fully aware that Leon was a cop, uncomfortably so sometimes. Nevermind that the two had actually fought together and in the not so distant past, either. So, yes, Qrow knew that Leon was capable of handling himself should anyone or anything want to mess with him.
There may have been something to the detective’s assumptions that Qrow didn’t want to go home, but that was something -- among many others -- that Qrow wasn’t ready to admit to himself just yet. So, for the time being, he used the excuse of Leon being drunk and the hour being late to invite himself to say with the man until Uber Guy showed up.
He flicked the burnt out butt of his cigarette away and shrugged. “Nope,” he said. “Got nothin’ better to do.” His eyes flickered down to his weapon when Leon asked about it. “This? It’s my sword.” Ok, so it didn’t look like a sword at the moment, all folded up in its inactive mode. It didn’t really look like much of anything other than an amalgamation of metal and gears with a handle protruding out the other end. “It’s also a gun. And a scythe.”
No, it definitely hadn’t looked like a sword, or a scythe, or a gun, and Leon’s eyebrows came together in confusion. How the hell could those three weapons be in one anyway? He guessed bayonets were a thing, but he’d hardly call them a sword. He wanted to ask, but what he asked instead was “is that thing legal?”
“Probably not,” Qrow answered with a disinterested shrug. It’s not like he could register it, not that the idea of doing so had even crossed his mind. He’d worked for a time modifying weapons to supplement his income while he put himself through school and support Tai and the girls. It hadn’t been exactly legal either. Not that he was about to tell Leon that. “I got it from the dreams,” he went on. “The version of me there made it. Most Huntsmen craft their own weapons.”
He looked up and caught the look of confusion on Leon’s face. He smirked a little. One of the few things he could be proud of anymore was Harbinger. He reached back and unhooked it, bringing it forward. A click of the lever attached to the handle sent the gears near the hilt whirring and grinding. The blade snapped into place, forming a long broadsword.
“Jesus, Buddha and Krishna,” Leon swore, taking a few steps back. He had nearly failed physics in high school, so he could have been wrong, but such a giant fucking sword should not have been able to fit into the metalic rectangle it had been before Qrow had extended it.
“Why the hell are you carrying a thing like that around?” he asked, not taking his eyes from the sword.
The look Qrow gave Leon was clearly of the are-you-kidding-me? variety. “Gee, Leon, I don’t know. It’s not like Orange County is being invaded every other month by something, is it?”
Leon had the decency to look at least a little abashed at that. He kept his own side-arm on him at nearly all times, or, at least, nearby. Even if he didn’t have it on him, he’d keep it in his glovebox. “Doesn’t mean you have to just carry it around,” Leon muttered, more to himself than to Qrow. “Just make sure no one gets hurt with that thing.”
“Actually, it kinda means that I do,” Qrow bit back, but his words lacked any real venom. Leon was right to be wary of both the sword and him. Qrow sighed and clicked the lever on Harbinger’s handle. Another whirring and grinding of gears and the sword folded up again and Qrow reattached it to the back of his belt. “I will,” he said quietly. “I just want to protect my students. Most of’em aren’t on the network. They don’t know why things around here happen they way they do. Fuck, I don’t even know. The least I can do is make sure they get to safety when things get weird.” Though, lately, Qrow was beginning to question his ability to do even that.
Another sigh and a quick shake of his head to clear his thoughts. “But things have been kinda quiet lately,” he mused out loud. “You think its too much to ask that shits finally settled down for a while?”
Leon sighed. As much as he wanted to go on about laws meaning something, and it being Leon’s job to uphold them, those words seemed to fall a little flat these days. “Well, that’s good of you,” he said instead. He tried his best to do the same with civilians when stuff went down, though all he could fight with were his hands and a pistol and those didn’t always cut it when things like dragons rolled into town. He wished he knew why some of this stuff happened. He’d tried to look into it, and while he hadn’t exactly given up per se, running head first into dead end after dead end tended to discourage a guy from looking for more.
“Oh probably,” Leon said. “We can hope though. Honestly, all I want right now is to go back to my normal life.”
Qrow snorted. “There’s no such thing as ‘normal’, Leon,” he said as he reached for his cigarettes again. “Even without the magic or whatever that makes the county do what it does.” He lit his cigarette and took a drag. He exhaled and watched the smoke slowly dissipate under the street lights. “I guess we could always leave,” he mused out loud. “The dreams don’t follow you once yer outta the county.” It was a thought, but not one Qrow had ever entertained. Yang and Ruby were here.
“I don’t think I could leave this place even if I wanted to,” Leon muttered. He’d thought about it, but it was never something he entertained seriously. The Orange County was his home; it was where he had been born and raised, where his career and friends were, where his parents were buried. Packing up and starting over somewhere else, well… Leon didn’t think he could do it.
A set of headlights rolled into the parking lot, and Leon shielded his eyes with his hand to get a better look at the car, briefly wondering if it was some sort of threat before remembering that Qrow had called him an Uber. “That one for me?” he asked.
Qrow squinted as the car’s headlights swept over them. Like Leon, his first instinct was to see the car as a potential threat. He shifted his weight just slightly to reach back and place a hand on the release that would free Harbinger from his belt. As he did, his pale red eyes watched as the car turned to park lengthwise in front of them. In the lot’s orange-aid-colored lights, he recognized Uber Guy’s older model sedan.
His body relaxed and his hand moved away from his weapon. “Yeah, that’s him,” he confirmed for Leon. He lifted a hand to wave at the guy, who rolled down his window to wave back. “You better get goin’, Leon.”
“Yeah,” Leon said, clapping Qrow on the shoulder, and then glancing at Qrow’s own car and frowning. “You have a way home too?” he asked, wondering if he should split the cab ride with Qrow.
Qrow chuckled dryly. “I’m not gonna be driving, Officer, don’t worry. I got a way home.”
Leon hesitated for a moment longer, and then pulled open the back door of the Uber and stepped inside. “Get home safe, Qrow,” he said, before closing the door, ready to go home for the night.
Qrow nodded his head and watched Leon get into the sedan. If Leon looked back, rather than seeing his drinking partner, he would have seen a large black crow taking flight and disappearing into the night sky.