Falling In Love With My Target

Chapter 3

Hiding under his target's bed, Qrow listens to Punzie and Clover's conversation.

"What was your nightmare about, Punz?" Clover asked.

"It was about my birth mother. She took me and locked me in a room with no windows. It was so dark...and empty...and I was all alone. I was isolated from the world, unable to see it or experience it...just like back then. And she hit me and said cruel things to me like she did before Mama JoJo and Papa Trevor adopted me. A-and I kept calling out for you to help me...but you weren't there to protect me." Punzie explained, tearing up.

"Hey, don't cry, it's okay, it was just a dream. I would never let anything bad happen to you ever." Clover assured her.

"Man, I wish my sister cared about me the way these two cared about each other." Qrow thought.

Qrow's sister, Raven, never protected him or helped him in any way, unless it benefited her somehow. Last year when Tyrian did what he did to Qrow, all Raven did was berate him for not being strong enough to protect himself. It was that moment Qrow finally came to terms with the fact that he could never count on or trust his twin sister...and that realization broke his heart completely. An hour passed and things were very quiet. He gets out from under the bed and sees that Punzie and Clover were asleep. Punzie had her head on Clover's chest and he had his arm wrapped around her. Her very long blonde hair almost covered her like a blanket.

"I'm gonna have to wait for a different opportunity to kill him. I can't do it with his sister in his arms...I'm not that cruel." Qrow whispered to himself before climbing out the window and sneaking back to his hotel.

He flops onto his bed and groans into the mattress. For some reason, Qrow couldn't get Clover's beautiful face out of his head, nor his big muscular arms.

"Does that guy ever wear sleeves!? Like...wtf dude!? Doesn't he get cold in this frozen wasteland? Also...why does he have to be so kind and caring!? It would be so much easier to kill him if he was an a**whole like my previous targets!!" Qrow grumbled.

"I can't get attracted to this guy, I can't! He's my target, I have to kill him!" he mentally told himself.

Qrow then decides to get some sleep and gets under the covers. In the morning, he'll have to come up with a different strategy to get Clover alone so he can off him. Back at Clover's house, he wakes up with his sister still asleep against his chest.

"Rise and shine, sundrop." Clover said, gently nudging Punzie's shoulder.

Punzie sits up and rubs the sleep from her eyes.

"Thank you, Clover, for comforting me." Punzie said.

"Well, that's what big brothers are for." Clover chuckled.

"You're only four months older than me." Punzie huffed folding her arms.

"Whether it's four months or four years, I'm still older than you, so that makes me your big brother." Clover replied smiling smugly.

After breakfast the two of them hang out in the den. Punzie sat cross-legged reading a book while Clover braided her hair.

"What are you reading there, Punz?" Clover asked her.

"It's a book about magical artifacts and plants." Punzie answered.

"Is Mama JoJo okay? She seems tired and stressed." she asked.

"Yeah, she's just overworking is all. Don't worry, Dad will make sure she doesn't run herself into the ground." Clover said finishing off Punzie's braid.

Then he grabs a few flower clips and puts them in her hair.

"It's Councilmember Logan isn't it? They keep giving Mama JoJo trouble, right?" Punzie asked, turning around to face her brother.

"Yeah." Clover sighed.

"I really don't like that person. I'm not sure what it is...but for some reason...I feel like they're up to something." Punzie said pouting.

"What kind of something do you think they're up to?" Clover asked.

"Something sinister. I just have this deepgut feeling that Councilmember Logan is untrustworthy." Punzie explained.

"Well....your intuition's almost never wrong, so...what should we do?" Clover replied.

"Hmmm....I don't know. Without physical evidence...I can't prove that Councilmember Logan is planning something terrible." Punzie said frowning and furrowing her eyebrows.

"Should we tell Mom?" Clover suggested.

"No! She's already got too much to deal with, I don't want to add to her stress." Punzie argued.

Seeing that determined look in his sister's eyes, Clover knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Punzie, no! Don't even think about investigating them yourself! If you get caught, you'll be in so much trouble!" Clover told her.

"Sorry, Clover, I've already decided." Punzie said.

"D*mn it, I can't stop you once you've made up your mind, so...just please be careful." Clover pleaded, holding his sister's hands.

"I will, I'm much stronger than I appear...you know this." Punzie replied squeezing Clover's hands.

"Yeah, I do." Clover chuckled lightly before kissing her forehead.

Sure, Punzie may be a strong, smart, and confident young woman, but that didn't stop him from worrying about her. On one hand, Clover just wants to keep his little sister safe and out of harms way; but on the other hand, there had been more than enough occasions where she had to pull his butt out of the fire, so if anyone was capable of finding out the truth of what Councilmember Logan is up to, it would be her.

"This conversation stays between us, okay?" Punzie said holding up her pinkie.

"Hehe...what conversation?" Clover laughed, hooking his pinkie with Punzie's and winking.

In Qrow's hotel room, he's talking on the phone with Taka.

"Why isn't your target dead yet?" Taka asked bitterly.

"I...haven't found the right opportunity yet, sir. But, I plan to stalk my target so I can get familiar with his daily routine, that way I can figure out what the best time to strike would be." Qrow replied.

"Alright. But just remember...if you fail...I'll send someone else to kill your target...and you." Taka told him.

That threat strikes fear into Qrow's heart. He knows that if he fails, Taka would find the most torturous way to kill him. He knows that he would send Tyrian to do it, cause Taka knows how much the sick b*stard scares his son. After all...he too blamed what happened last year on Qrow for being "too weak to protect himself".