The way Qrow saw the entire situation in Patch at the moment was horrid. Tai was taking the news of Summer's case hard and Yang was at an age where she could more or less understand the context, making everything worse.
It was gloomy, everything just seemed so bleak to the point that Qrow found it almost unbearable. He couldn't believe it, and perhaps he didn't want to. Summer was the mother of Ruby and the surrogate mother of Yang. On top of that, she was an outstanding Huntress, better than him even, and he and Tai were on a class of their own.
STRQ of Beacon Academy. The old team of the Golden Days.
It wasn't hard to bring up old memories, yet it was because of them that it made it impossible for him to acknowledge that anything could have had gone wrong on Summer's mission.
The sound of the wagon he was pulling echoed in his ears, along with a gurgling sound as Ruby entertained herself by blowing bubbles with her saliva, the brat. She couldn't take the silence and had to distract herself, and the scenery had been doing little to alleviate her boredom. Simple trees and shrubs lead to the path home, something that she must have had seen numerous times already accompanied by her mother or father.
She was too happy, her personality making it difficult for her to remain sad for too long, and yet Qrow knew that things would change when she eventually realized that her mother wouldn't be coming back.
His hands balled into fists, the world really was a shitty place; it didn't help that for some reason it felt as if a still wind was following him all the back to Tai's house like a cloud over his head.
Then again, it was probably just his imagination induced by too much stress.
He scratched at his head, expression bleak but determined.
The alcohol could wait, what he needed to do now was go and find his own answers.
Barely two hours had gone by before the tiny home he was familiar with came in view. It wasn't large, nor was it small, instead it was homely, having just enough space to support its occupancy. The walls were made of stacked logs and supported by thick beams that ran throughout the infrastructure. A dirt path led to the front door where the four-panel windows were placed on adjacent sides, flower beds beneath them with wilted petals.
To Ruby, the sight was home, the brat shutting up and staring.
It was a pleasant change in his opinion. She had begun droning on and on about things he could hardly relate to after her mouth grew tired from blowing bubbles. It was to the point that he was considering just giving her a weapons magazine to at least stem some interest in her regarding objects with a practical world use. Summer had spoiled her with too much talk of roses and flowers.
While considering the idea, he rolled the wagon by the house's storage before tying it securely to a metal hook so that Yang wouldn't be able to pull it out again. Thereafter, he gingerly picked up Yang and Ruby in his arms and walked them towards the house.
Opening the door, he wasn't surprised that the place was empty.
The musky, yet cozy smell of wood permeated around within the house; the clutter of toys and crayons on the floor making it all the more depressing that neither the father or the mother was there to clean it all up.
Qrow wasn't in a pleasant mood as he navigated through everything before entering Yang's room where he deposited her on the bed. Thereafter, he placed Ruby down before tucking Yang in, gently ruffling her head in a mix of concern and relief.
Ruby watched silently, a thumb making its way into her mouth before Qrow remembered that he wasn't alone and took his hand away from Yang. He coughed dryly before he picked Ruby up and walked her towards her room where tucked her into bed in a similar fashion as Yang.
YOU ARE READING
The Huntsman of Red V2
AdventureGuardian, Protector, Hero, and perhaps something more, that was what he had always meant to her, but to others he was simply known as the Huntsman of Red, Remnant's final hope. This story is not mine, it belongs to Parcasious
