7 Chapter 5

Hey, Firecracker. You up yet?"

The 9-year-old blonde sat up on her bed and rubbed at her eyes tiredly as she stared at the blurry figure of a black-haired man.

"Uncle Qr-" Yang didn't quite manage to stop the yawn from escaping as she stared at the only role model she had. Aside from her dad, of course. "-ow? What time is it?" A quick glance at the alarm clock on at her bedside table only made her gaze whip back towards the red-eyed man. "5:30?! Why!!" Yang groaned with all the indignity a 9 year old could muster up as she collapsed back onto her bed. "Uncle Qrow, it's 5:30 in the morning. Go back to sleep!"

Qrow just chuckled at his niece's antics. At the back of his head there was another scene of him waking someone else up at this time of day. A certain someone with black hair and red eyes. She might've grown up to be someone that woke up at the crack of dawn, but she'd hated waking up this early when they were kids. Just like her daughter did now.

He quickly pushed that thought out of his head though before he went back down that road. Reminiscing was for old folks with nothing left but time. DIdn't matter if he'd found a grey hair earlier that morning as Qrow refused to be old.

Crossing his arms, he arched an eyebrow as he looked over the small figure that was trying desperately to go back to sleep. "Ya know, I remember a certain someone who practically blackmailed me into promising to bring her to 'Bring Your Kids to Work Day'." If he hadn't been a spy that was trained to understand body language, posture, and decrypt some of the world's toughest coded languages, there would have been no way that he'd have been able to understand the series of grunts, groans and mumbles that came out from under the pile of sheets that Yang had piled on top of herself.

Fortunately for Qrow, working for Ozpin had given him the skills he needed to decode the jumble that was Yang's barely recognizable speech.

It went something along the lines of, "Bring your kids to work day was 2 MONTHS AGO! You weren't even back from your mission yet, so you couldn't take us. Besides, it's Saturday!"

"Alright, so I feel bad about not being able to keep my promise in taking you guys to Signal. That's why I'm here now." Seeing no response from the pile of tangled sheets, Qrow decided that it was probably time to drop the bomb. "So… There's a ship that usually sets out around 6:30 in the morning from here…" In a flash, the entire pile of sheets practically exploded as his blonde-haired niece practically burst with excitement, her arms up in the air with joy. His eyes crinkled in amusement. 'Boom. Knew that would work.'

"YOU'RE-REALLY-TAKING-US-TO-VALE?! ON-A-SATURDAY?!! AND-WE'RE-SPENDING-THE-WHOLE-DAY-THERE?!!! I-GOTTA-GET-RUBY-AND-KIT-READY!!!!"

Quick as a flash, Yang disappeared from her room as she went to wake up her siblings, which left Qrow smirking in amusement. 'You'd never know that she and Ruby weren't full sisters with how alike those two can be.'

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Kit's eyes were wide open as he stared out at all the tall buildings and people that they passed. His black-haired twin was the same, her eyes glued on anything that was colorful. Of course, since the world shared a culture that celebrated individuality, that meant she was staring at practically everything.

The boat ride from Patch had been fun at first, but it got boring after awhile. It was only after they'd reached Vale that the twins' eyes had really popped open. It was a first for the 2 younger siblings to actually leave the island. While their dad and Uncle Qrow would head towards the mainland every now and then, they'd always have some kind of reason why Kit and Ruby couldn't go.

The two of them didn't like it. Even their big sister Yang got to go once with their dad!

Right now though, Kit didn't care. He was finally in Vale!

Before he could get any further caught up in the awesomeness that was the capital city of the kingdom, his uncle's voice snapped him out of his trance.

"Now, before we get going anywhere, there's going to be some ground rules."

Kit could almost swear he saw his sisters deflate right then and there. He just shrugged though. He'd kinda figured that something like this would happen.

Qrow took in the decidedly less-than-happy expressions on the girls' faces and just chuckled. "Yeah, yeah I know. I'm not normally the guy that's all about the rules, but I had to do a lot of convincing to get your dad to let me bring you kids with me into town. If nothing goes wrong, I might even be able to talk him into doing this more often."

""YEAH!!"" Yang pumped her fist in the air as Ruby yelled out excitedly.

"Alright, alright. Calm down, we still haven't even gone over the rules yet. Besides, I think you've drawn a little too much attention." Qrow really regretted not bringing a camera at that moment, as the kids realized how many people had started to stare at them. Ruby's cheeks were flat-out red with all of the attention, and even though Yang still wore a cocky look on her face, he could tell that she was just as embarrassed.

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It didn't take long for the crowd to find something else to look at, which was one of the good things about people's shrinking attention spans.

It didn't matter to Ruby though. Her cheeks were still burning and whycouldn'tshestopandnowshejustwantedtogohome-

Before she knew it someone practically tackled into her, arms encircling her, as the force knocked the hood that hung loosely behind her onto her head. Looking down, she saw silver eyes staring straight into her own.

'C'mon big sis! You can't leave your lil' bro alone in Vale!' Kit whined with a pout. Funny enough, the sight of her younger twin pouting somehow managing to set off a chain of non-stop giggles from her.

Ruby's burning red cheeks faded back to their original color as she stared back at Kit. She sent a thought back to him with a smile on her face. 'I'm not leaving, dummy.'

'Hey!' Kit thought back, annoyed.

This just set off another fit of giggles from the black-haired 7 year old.

'Hmph!' Her brother spun around in a huff before walking back to their uncle.

'Thanks, Kit.' She thought as she watched him huff away, knowing that he wouldn't hear it. They couldn't hear what the other person was thinking unless they were looking into the other person's eyes, after all.

Neither of them knew that Yang was standing behind the both of them, a proud look on her face.

"Now, there aren't a lot of rules, so the whole trip will still be fun." Uncle Qrow began. "Rule number 1: Everybody sticks together. That means no running off into bakeries just because they have cookies," the black-haired uncle stared at the two younger twins who couldn't help but blush, "and no running off to go and fight people at nearby boxing gyms!" At this, everyone turned to stare at the 9-year-old blonde boxer. Yang looked like a fish, her mouth opening and closing in disbelief; various undecipherable sounds burst out of her mouth stutteringly as she sputtered.

"Wh-Bu-tha-," Was all she managed to get out before Qrow held up his hand.

"I don't want to hear it, Firecracker. No excuses. I don't want to have to pay for another kid's hospital bills just because you didn't remember to hold back." Yang definitely lived up to her nickname as she kept sputtering before she finally fizzled out. Qrow wasn't the only one who rolled his eyes when Yang muttered, "I don't do that all the time."

Qrow continued on as if Yang hadn't said anything at all. "Rule number 2: if we do get separated, Yang's in charge." Whatever complaints that the twins were going to voice were quickly put out under their older sister's scary glare. The red-eyed uncle took it in with a smirk. "No complaints? Good. Yang, here you go." Qrow passed something over to his blonde-haired niece, who yelped in surprise as two of the sections split apart after she pressed a button, a transparent screen now in-between the separated pieces. "Your dad and I thought that you're finally old enough to get your own scroll. My number and your dad's are already in there. If anything happens, make sure to call me right away. Got it?" Yang could barely manage to nod back at him as she fiddled around in awe with her new scroll.

In fact, she was so busy fiddling around with it that she walked straight into a nearby pillar, giggles breaking out from a certain fox and red-hood.

A loud SMACK could be heard as Qrow facepalmed. 'At least Tai wasn't around to see that. It took me a long time to convince him that she was ready for a scroll. Wouldn't take 2 seconds for him to find a reason to take it back.'

The reaper looked over at his sister's daughter, marveling at how different she was from her mother. 'It's probably for the best.' He thought to himself. 'The world can barely survive one Raven. Brothers help us if Yang grows up to be exactly like her.' A silent shudder went through him at the mental image of a darker, grim Yang. A tall woman with long-flowing blonde hair, a permanent scowl on her face with a hand always ready to cut down her enemies, trusting no one but the blade at her side.

"The weak die, the strong live."

He blinked, and the image disappeared.

That twisting sensation in his gut stayed, though.

'The hell is wrong with me today?' Qrow subtly shook his flask, the contents inside swishing. 'Nope, haven't touched a drop yet.' Even though he was what most people would call addicted, the black-haired reaper had made sure not to even touch his flask today. Not while he was still trying to be a "responsible" uncle for his nieces and nephew on their first trip to Vale together. 'This can't be a good sign. Haven't thought of Raven for a long while now, and suddenly she's popping up in my head more times than I've actually seen her in-person.' He made a mental note to keep his eyes open for anything even remotely suspicious. 'Would be just my luck that she'd show up today of all days, too.'

A tug at his shirt quickly drew his attention, and he noticed a pair of orange fox ears attached to a pair of silver eyes worried looking at him. "U-Uncle Qrow?" His adopted nephew hesitantly signed. "What's wrong?"

Without even realizing it, the black-haired reaper had tensed up sometime during his thoughts, a hand straying towards his weapon out of habit for security, a habit all Hunters picked up. The ones that survived, anyway.

"It's nothing, kiddo." Qrow was quick to reassure. "Just your dad's cooking coming back to bite me in the butt." He said with a wink.

Kit's silver eyes widened in panic. "NOOOO! Don't die, Uncle Qrow!" The reaper read through the blur that was his nephew's signing before he suddenly had a bad feeling come over him. "YangYangYang!! Uncle Qrow ate dad's cooking!"

'Crap.'

That was all the time he had before his 9-year-old niece's fist crashed into his gut, making him double over.

Let it be said that breakfast never tastes as good going through your mouth a second time.

"Thanks." He said dryly as he straightened up, the sarcasm flying far over their heads as the 3 kids looked up at him in relief.

The blonde responsible just smiled. "Anytime Uncle Qrow! I just thought you'd have learned not to try dad's cooking again after last time."

Ignoring that last comment from his oldest niece (and the horrifying memories that it threatened to bring up), he pulled out his scroll and checked the time.

8:30am

"C'mon, kiddos. Let's get a move on!" Qrow just hoped that terrible feeling in his stomach was just an after-effect of being punched in the gut.

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Qrow's gut feeling didn't go away. In fact, despite nothing having gone wrong and the kids having a good time, it only got progressively worse.

8:45am: Vale's Aquatic Odyssey

An Aquarium housing many of the local marine life from the seas around the kingdom of Vale. Kit and Ruby took turns making funny faces at the fish. Yang somehow managed to make friends/rivals with sharks. Everybody had a great time. Qrow's stomach rumbled as his gut feeling stayed, so they decided to go for food afterwards.

10:45am: Mick Dawnold's

A fast food chain that was originally popular for their great food, great prices, and good service. Even after the quality of the food went down, prices skyrocketed and the service quality fell faster than the time Yang knocked out a barber for daring to touch her hair (there was a reason her dad now personally did her haircuts), it was still a place that many people ate at frequently. It'd been around for so long that it was part of the culture. Ruby and Kit staged a fight between their chicken-saurus' (i.e. chicken nuggets), while Yang stuck some of her fries in her burger and dipped the rest of them in her milkshake. The food didn't help Qrow's stomach at all.

11:45am: Deez Knee Land

A popular theme park that opened up after the massive success of the original company's many kids' films. The twins ran around finding all of their favorite characters from different movies, while Yang managed to drag them all into a picture with her favorite kick-ass princess with long-flowing hair. After going on many rides and several roller coasters with the kids, the reaper's gut feeling had gotten so bad that he was now actively keeping an eye on whatever and whoever looked suspicious. At this point, he really wished that it was just nausea from the several loops that the ride had done. Looking for suspicious activity was easier said than done when in a theme park. EVERYONE was suspicious. That was a given, considering how crowded it was and how many people in costumes there were.

'Hmm. Maybe I really did eat Tai's cooking and just forgot about it.' He mused. Of course, he knew that wasn't the case. No one would forget eating the cooking that the father of three would whip up every now and then.

No one.

2:30pm: Deez Knee Land

The Reaper of Grimm finally realized one of the biggest signs that he'd been missing. Nothing had gone wrong the whole day.

And when your uncontrollable semblance was bad luck, that was never a good sign. This didn't make the sight of a single, black feather falling from the sky any more reassuring.

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"Yang," Qrow said as he eyed the falling feather. "Why don't you stay here with the twins for a few minutes. I'm gonna go take care of that stomach problem I've been having."

"Eww!" Yang's face scrunched up in disgust. "Uncle Qrow. Seriously. T.M.I!" She called out after him as he walked off in the general area of a bathroom.

It wasn't long before he turned a corner and came face-to-face with someone who'd recently been in his thoughts in the past few hours more than he'd actually seen her in the past few years.

Standing there in her red-and-black tribesman outfit, katanas strapped to her waist, was Raven Branwen. Taking off her Grimm mask, her raven-black hair and red eyes being revealed as she did, she said the words that he'd always hated to hear.

"Hello, little brother. We need to talk."