Nekopara fanfic

Chapter 75

(Vanilla's perspective.) (Winter.) (Two months after Qrow's disappearance.)

As December grew closer and closer I tried to come up with a list of things I wanted. Tears welled up in my eyes as I immediately wrote down the first thing. At the top of the list... I wanted Qrow back... I missed him more than anyone could imagine... He had been missing for two months now, and I was very worried about the possibility of him being dead or being somewhere he would never be found... He could be hurt, he could be lost, or any other number of horrible things, and I had no idea where he was, or even if he was okay. I pulled my knees into my chest and rested my head against my knees as tears streamed down my face and I began to sob quietly. After a few minutes, I recollected myself and stood up, about to head back home when the piece of paper I had been writing the list on blew out of my hand. As it blew off into the distance I knew there was no use chasing it as I turned and headed back home. As I went upstairs, Kashou handed me a mug of hot chocolate and sat down on the couch with me, his arms wrapped around me in the warmest of hugs he could possibly have given me in an attempt to cheer me up, but even that could not thaw my thoroughly frozen heart.

(Cross' perspective.)

I noticed a paper blowing in the wind that soon landed at my feet. I picked it up and read it.

"Vanilla's Christmas List... All I want this year is for Qrow to come back... I miss him so much..."

The rest of the paper was blank, and it had several small wet splotches on it. Vanilla was probably crying when she was writing it. A feeling of determination grew inside me. I was going to find Qrow for Vanilla, and I would bring him back to her, safe and sound.

(One week later. Cross' perspective.)

I had been working day and night without a single second of sleep as I worked harder than ever before, trying to solve the case and find what happened to Qrow. After working a bit more thoroughly with other officers in the department we finally had leads which would guide us to an abandoned insane asylum. The very thing nightmares were made of... My squad and I built up our courage and busted in. After what felt like forever in hell, we finally found a cell that had a door shut, the door was not only heavily secured, like max sec solitary confinement levels of bolted shut, not to mention rusted shut. A demolition charge was placed on the door and we all took cover. Once the door was blown off I saw Qrow laying face down in a sea of blood with his mechanical limbs missing and LOTS of stitches on his back. Next to him lay a very suspicious skeleton with its skull missing as well as its arms, at the shoulder, and its legs, from the bottom of the knee down. I gently poked the unconscious Qrow. He was unusually squishy. It only took a second for me to put two and two together and realize that the skeleton laying on the floor next to him was his own. The few bones the poor man had left, except the skull, had been removed from his body. In all my years, I had seen some messed up things, but this, absolutely no contest, it took the cake as the most disturbing thing I had ever seen. I heard Qrow moan in pain.

"He's still alive!?! Quickly! We need to get him to a hospital!" I said, slightly frantic.

He was brought off to a hospital as quickly as possible and was left in the care of a surgeon who said he had known Qrow for a long time, as well as an engineer. In one corner of the giant hospital room, the engineer worked on... Some mess of wires and machinery, while the surgeon was working with large containers of a strange powder. They said they'd give me a call once they were finished.

(Engineer's perspective. One week later.)

I finished the robotic skeleton just in time, Qrow's limbs had regrown 

(I wasted so much time dismembering the poor man, it's the least I could do...) 

through the use of some sort of miracle powder the surgeon had been patenting. I handed my creation over to the surgeon and he carefully put it into Qrow. Once it was in its proper place I wired it all up and the surgeon stitched Qrow back together again.

"Alright, that'll take about a week to heal up properly, then we're going to need to put him through quite a lot of therapy, about a week, to make sure he's still functioning normally, not to mention finding out if he even possesses a shred of sanity." The surgeon said.

(Cross' perspective. Two weeks later. Christmas Eve.)

The therapists all said Qrow was in better than perfect condition, but he possessed no memory of what happened to him, but other than that, all his other memories were still intact. Perfect. We had gotten him fixed up not a moment too soon. By the time he was done it was December 24th, 10:00 PM. The only abnormality was the fact that Qrow was now 6 feet 10 inches tall, nearly a foot taller than he used to be, and only weighed 90 pounds, as compared to his previous 215 pounds, as much as a heavyweight boxer. Perhaps his light weight was because he was made of muscle, now not steel, seeing as he had his arms and legs back. Except, of course, his bones, which were made of some kind of lightweight unbendable unbreakable superalloy designed to mimic bone, except way sturdier, or something, I couldn't really understand the mechanic's ramblings, nor did I particularly care. 

After eating, Qrow slept across the back seats of my car, curled up inside a sleeping bag that looked oddly similar to Christmas wrapping paper, that he completely zipped shut. As I drove him to the patisserie an idea formed in my head. I parked outside the shop and used Qrow's keys to get in, carefully carrying him over my shoulders. I crept upstairs as quietly as I could and lay him down on the couch, then went back for the sleeping bag Qrow had been laying in. I put it on the floor and Qrow seemed to wake up for a moment. He slid into the sleeping bag again and zipped it shut. I stuck a ribbon to the outside half of the zipper. (There's a zipper pull on the inside and outside that allows it to be unzipped from the inside if it were to be completely zipped shut) I grabbed an envelope and some paper, then began writing Vanilla a heartfelt letter. Once I was done I put Vanilla's name on the outside of the envelope and put my letter inside, then sealed the letter and stuck a ribbon on it as well, and used a small piece of tape to stick the letter to the outside of the sleeping bag, Qrow still completely hidden and sleeping inside. I gently pushed it off to the side and then left around about 11:30 PM.

(Christmas day. Vanilla's perspective.)

I woke up and slowly shuffled into the living room in a very depressed manner, my head hung low. As everybody else went through presents I tried to act as happy as I could but without Qrow here, I wasn't able to hide the fact that I had been very depressed. By the time we were done the only presents left were the ones that would have been Qrow's. My sadness grew even deeper. 

"Wait, there's one more, it's for you Vanilla, it doesn't say who it's from though, and I think I would've remembered if one of us got something this... Huge..." Shigure said.

I turned toward it, Shigure wasn't wrong, it was huge. My interest was piqued as Shigure brought me a letter opener and I started to unzip the... Whatever this giant thing was... I tried to read the letter, but it was written in some unrecognizable language... Setting the letter off to the side, I finished unzipping the gift and pulled it back. I braced myself. A huge black shadow-like figure was curled up, asleep. It yawned, stretched, and sat up. It rubbed its face and stretched again. After a moment it pulled down its hood and I saw a familiar face... I began to cry, but this time not with sadness, but with joy as I realized I wasn't dreaming. 

"Hey Vanilla, been a while," Qrow said with a smile. 

I was about to jump into his arms when I realized that was a very bad idea. 

"Oh my goodness, you're colder than the snow outside itself," I said as I shivered. 

I didn't even need to come within my arm's reach of him to feel how cold he was. Kashou brought him a mug of hot chocolate and after he finished it, he went to go take a very hot shower. Once he had a normal body temperature again I gently cuddled up against him as he went through his gifts quickly. After he went through his gifts I handed Qrow the letter I got and asked him if he could read it. Qrow chuckled.

"It's written in English, but it's done in cursive, very very bad cursive, and very very bad English, so butchered I can't even begin to read it," Qrow said, setting it off to the side. 

For the rest of the day, every minute I didn't spend eating, I spent cuddling with Qrow.

(I guess this is what ended up coming out of a chapter supposed to involve my dropping off the face of the internet for a couple months, I like it though, so I'll publish it anyway.)