wanderer's lullaby

Winter roused when the alarm went off and groaned. The medication made herincrediblygroggy when waking up so early. She was used to being able to snap awake at any moment but the medication really did make it difficult to do that. But she needed it. If she didn’t, she would be subject to nightmares and being awake half the night. She wasterrifiedat what would be happening to Weiss now that she wasn’t there in Atlas to protect her. She had handed the case over to Kali and Sienna, but that didn’t make things anyeasier.She trusted the women as they seemed to know what they were doing, but even so… Gelé wasn’t a man to cross easily. They would be defending themselves… Kali said she had a massive memory of over a thousand combined years of kingdom law in her memory, but even so… She really just wanted Weiss and hopefully Whitley away from that madman. If she could only get Weiss, she would count that as a victory. She went through her morning routine then grabbed Ein and went to the bakery. She did her usual stocking and giving of orders to the people. They were obviously none too happy to have someone so stiff and lifeless as the cashier, but the owner and his wife seemed more than happy to have her. She didn’t let a single penlen be out of place. She keptverycareful track of each single penlen and everything always came outperfectly. She returned to the house where everyone had already left for work or school, leaving Winter alone with Ein. She put her breakfast in the microwave and sat at the table alone. She wasn’t sure if Summer was hanging around or not, but she didn’t exactly feel like talking to the nosy woman at the moment. She just didn’t know what to do with her day now. She was still too used to spending every waking moment working in some shape, way, or form. Having only a couple of hours of work per day frustrated her beyond words. She just wanted to work… She put her dishes in the dishwasher after finishing and went back up to Summer’s room. She opened the laptop and the AI greeted her with fingerguns and a cluck. “Hey Winter, what’s up? Need any help with anything?” it asked. “I’m just really not sure what to do today… I know I need to study for my GED and such… I should do that for at least an hour or two, but besides that and talking to Raven…” She sighed. This lack of structure was really getting to her at this point. She hated it. And she couldn’t take aproperjob until she got her citizenship. “Do you think you can help me look into the women’s protection program here?” “What exactly do you need?” “Basics on how to apply and such.” That would be important most definitely. It was then that her scroll pinged and she took it out to look at it. “Hey, why are you relyin’ onthatthing instead of me?!” It was Coco. Granted, she could tell there was no actual heat behind Coco’s question. “If you needed anything looked up, you askedmebefore!” Winter frowned. “Sorry Coco… It is just easier to ask the AI to do it instead of you. It takes you time and you have to be in lessons shortly, don’t you?” Yeah, Coco would need to attend her lessons soon enough… It wasn’t like Coco could just completely shirk them day in and day out. It was one thing if it was an investor event at the SDC or something like that. But just for day-to-day issues? No, Coco couldn’t afford to shirk her lessons or else her parents would get frustrated. They were payingprivate tutorsthrough the nose in order to teach Coco. Coco sighed. “You do have a point, Wint… It’s just so frustrating. I’ve barely doneanythingfor you since you arrived in Vale. It sucks so hard.” She folded her arms and bowed her head a bit. “If you want to talk to me, you know you can do that, Coco. It’s just hard with the time zone differences…” They were closer now than when Winter had been in Atlas, but even so… Evening was really the best time for them to talk, but Winter was busy in the evening. And she wanted to spend some time with Qrow… He was actually a good man that didn’t want to hurt women, not like Atlassian men… She was glad he was so kind and warm to her. “Well, if you aren’t busy over lunch, maybe we can talk then?” Coco asked. “We’ll see. I need to talk to Miss—” She sighed. “—Raven for a bit.” She was so used to addressing people by their last names along with a title. But Vale very clearly didn’t like that, so having to transition to use first names annoyed her beyond words. Plus, Raventechnicallywas family at this point… “And I need to study for my GED for a while too.” “All right. Well, if you’re free around four your time or after…” “I’m honestly usually not. Sorry.” Their schedules really made it hard to talk as of late… Not that Winterhadmuch of a schedule, but everything was crammed into the evenings with mornings and afternoons free. Coco was four hours behind her now… It did make it easier than the eight hours apart of Atlas but even so… Guh. She wished she could go be in Vacuo with Coco sometimes. But for right now, it was best to stay in Vale. Coco sighed. “Anyway, talk to you later.” The video clicked off and Winter sighed as well. “Anyway, yes, I need help looking into the women’s protection program…” The next several hours were filled with forms and lots of online paperwork. Thankfully, a lot of it could be done virtually unlike Atlas where basically everything had to be done physically and signed in triplicate. Despite being the world’s leading kingdom technologically, Atlas should could be backwards a lot of the time. She hated it, but she had learned to put up with it. She was justsoglad that Vale was allowing her to basically cut lines out completely and just do everything online. Her tablet made things even easier because she could just put her signature on that rather than attempting to use a mouse to create an ungodly messy signature. She finished up with the basic applications and then looked at her scroll. It was getting close to lunch already and her body was telling her she was hungry. She frowned as she remembered the fact she hadn’t really done much in terms of training lately. She was just so off of her usual schedule. Training was important but… She frowned. Did she really need to keep up on her combat training at this point? She wasn’t Atlassian military anymore and there was no way she’d be able to go to Beacon. She couldn’t be a Huntress. She could probably skirt past the need for going to Beacon and getting a Huntress license, but by the same token, she probably would never use it. The military had been a means to an end for her. It had been a way to attempt to try to get Weiss out of Schnee manor. However, with that now not on her plate anymore, did she really need to continue with it? Even if she didn’tneedto continue, not being able to protect herself didn’t feel good either. She just… She really didn’t know what to do. She went back downstairs and popped her lunch in the microwave, eating in the silence and seclusion of the house. She was used to being alone, but for some reason, it was getting to her today. She didn’t like being alone now somehow… It wasn't like she’d ever been surrounded by people. But now that she was…she actually did feel kind of lonely. She wouldn’t callanyof the people near her a friend—hell, she wouldn’t even call theAce Opsfriends—but they were kind people and legitimately did care about her. Well. There was Taiyang but she barely interacted with him. Even Sarah was kind. She did want to learn to do needlework to sell at the craft show, but she wouldn’t really call those ulterior motives… Sarah just seemed to caring to try to abuse Winter for different purposes. She wasn’t sure how to quantify that, but the people of Vale just…feltdifferent from Atlassians on the whole. At least from what little she’d interacted with them. She put her dishes in the dishwasher then texted Raven.Are you free? Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be? Fair. What do you need? I need to talk to you. Can you come over? Yeah, sure, just give me a minute. A couple of minutes passed and the intimidating black and red portal opened up, Raven stepping through. “All right. What do you need, Winter?” she asked. She frowned. “Shouldn’t we get the birds checked out by vets and such? I’ve been looking up falconry laws in Vale and we’re breaking all of them…” It just bothered her to know how they were completely bypassing laws. No, laws were not always moral; she knewthatmuch. The way the laws treated Faunus and women in Atlas were abhorrent things and should’ve been abolished. But in this case…she could understand why the laws were so restrictive. It was for the health of the animals as well as making sure no random person off the street would be able to obtain a raptor without proper inspection. Especially an aura raptor. They were sensitive things. Raven sighed and put a hand on her hip. “Do youreallythink that going to the government would be a good idea right now, Winter? They might seize Mono and Kiyay because Qrow and I aren’t officially licensed falconers and they weren’t imported with proper quarantine procedures. Same with Pechicha and the horses. Do youwantto lose them?” Winter sighed and shook her head. “No, I don’t…” The thought of losing Kiyay broke her heart. And the idea of separating him from Mono… They were a mated pair and clearly cared for each other. She couldn’t imagine the negative psychological effects it would have to separate them like that. She was pretty sure normal raptors wouldn’t care if they were taken from their mate, but these were aura breeds. They were more human-like than animal-like. To take them away from each other… She couldn’t imagine it. “Youaren’t an apprentice by law and so you wouldn’t be able to work with the birds legally either.” Raven sighed. “Look, just let us deal with it. Or, better yet, let Summer’s AI deal with it. Ifanyonecan find a loophole in the laws or ways to circumvent them, then it’s the AI. Where is that bugger anyway?” “Upstairs.” They headed up to Summer’s room and she could see the pang of pain in Raven’s eyes. She wasn’t sure what it was aside from missing Summer. Clearly something she wasn’t privy to and didn’t know. But it really wasn’t any of her business either, now was it? Raven walked over the AI and worked with it for a bit, then stood up. “All right, that’s that. It’s set to work on it while you’re asleep. Summer was never a law person, but it’s Summer. That thing is an AI so it has all the time in theworldas long as it’s not shut down. It’s not a person. So yeah, just leave it to work its magic as long as you don’t need it for something.” “I might need its help with GED stuff as I intend to work on that today.” She hadn’t sat down to study at all yet which was frustrating and annoying. She needed that certification in order to even get abasicjob… She knew Gelé wouldn’t release her transcripts to herperiod.Not unless she accepted coming home and being subject to his whims again. She couldnevergo back to that. Plus, shewasmarried legally, so it wasn’t like he could marry her off to the highest bidder like he had attempted in the past. “I just wish I had my transcripts from Schnee manor… Then I wouldn’t have to study like this.” “You know there’s an easy way to bypass that, riiiiiiiiiiiight?” the AI asked. Winter blinked. “What would that be?” The AI snickered. “Give me a few days and I can probably have your grades. I imagine the SDC has good security, but it’s not like they’d be expecting a full-blown AI.” Winter pursed her lips together. “I’ll have to speak with Coco. She knows the SDC systems inside and out. She could probably help you figure out where our grades are stored without too much issue.” Well, at least it would give Coco something she could do in order to help. That woulddefinitelymake Coco happy, considering the conversation they’d had not that long ago. The AI clicked and gave a double thumbs up. “That actually sounds great.” Winter took out her scroll and texted Coco about it. “I let her know. You two can work together tonight when she’s free of lessons.” It would put her behind on the falconry stuff, but it wasn’t like anybody was overseeing that. They were far removed from the government’s eye with as far out as the land was. Unless one of the neighbors on the lake reported them, but she hoped that wouldn’t be the case. It wouldreallysuck if that were to happen… “Well, until she contacts me, I can work on the falconry stuff then work with her.” “…Did you read my aura?” “No. But considering the context of everything, itonlymade sense that would be on your mind. The falconry thing will be a project while I’m not working on other things. I can just put it into a separate workspace and you won’t see it.” “…Workspace?” She really wasn’t the most familiar with computers. She used one for work, sure, but that was about as far as it went. She’d never had unrestricted access to computers and only used them for what was necessary. She really only knew a handful of programs and had no idea how to work them beyond complete basics. The AI nodded, folding its arms. “Yep! You know what a desktop on the computer is, right?” Winter nodded. “It’s basically just separate desktops. Granted, this thing is pretty flimsy when it comes to processing power considering it’s a laptop. I wouldreallyprefer a nice, beefy desktop rig. A high-end gaming PC would besoooooworth it if you want me to be able to run multiple large projects at once.” “I…have a decent amount put away in savings. I didn’t really spend much beyond necessities. How much would a gaming PC be?” “I’d need time to look up specs and what all I’d want. We’d probably need a pre-built rig. Summer could easily put it together, but you don’t feel comfortable with her cohabing, right?” Winter shook her head and the AI shifted its gaze, obviously toward Raven. “What about you?” Raven raised her arms and sighed. “I mean, yeah, I technically could. It’s Summer. I’d feel comfortable with it to probably a disturbing degree. It’d feel weird but I could easily do it. I just don’t know a damn thing about computers or the like.” “Well, you wouldn’t need to. We’d need to order components or maybe you could go out shopping one day. I think there’s a gaming PC store somewhere in downtown Vale… Give me a minute.” The AI brought up a window and the tabs sifted through almost quicker than Winter could process. Then it settled on a single tab with directions from Patch over to a store in downtown Vale. “Actually, this place seems like it would work perfectly. I saw that it had top-of-the-line components. The only issue is you’ddefinitelywant to get a private car there. I wouldn’t trust cabbies ofanysort with such high-end components.” “It’s only around noon; Persia probably isn’t too busy right now. She only gets busy in the evenings,” Raven said. She took out her scroll and texted someone, getting a response several minutes later. “Yeah, she said she’s not busy.” The AI clucked and winked, arms still folded. “Well, there you go. Let her get here and then you can head out. Just be sure to let Summer cohab with you when you get there. I can send the directions to your scroll, Raven.” “All right; sounds good.” A moment later, Raven’s scroll pinged. They headed downstairs and out to the ferry, crossing the strait over to the mainland. They had to wait a little while for Persia to get there, but once she did, they got into her car. “So what’s this all about, Raven? You said you wanted to go to a technology store? You were never the type to be heavily invested in technology…” Raven sighed. “The truth of the matter is that Summer made an AI of herself before her death and requested a beefy computer rig and said a gaming PC would work wonders instead of the little laptop it’s currently installed in. Considering how messy that thing’s programming hasgotto be, it only makes sense that it would need more power. And we keep asking quite a bit of it. Winter does need that laptop in order to study for her GED and just…generally work on things.” Winter saw Persia shake her head. “That’s incredible… But, at the same time, itisSummer. Expecting her to do crazy things is just the norm. Evenwhileshe’s dead.” “I mean she’s a ghost too.” Persia laughed. “Now that doesn’t surprise me too much somehow…” Raven and Persia started talking about memories related to Summer which Winter completely tuned out as she watched the traffic and city go by. They had to park in a parking garage which was quite annoying to Winter. She wasn’t entirely used to it, but at least it wasn’t like Atlas where it was cold all but a few weeks out of the year during summer. It was frankly still way too hot for her liking, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. They needed to make the walk to the store. Persia stayed behind in the car so that way she could come and get them after they did their shopping. She looked over at Raven. “So you’re really going to let Summer take you over?” Raven shrugged. “I am used to having her in my body to some degree. I let her into my dreams so that way we can continue training. Sure, that isn’t a full possession, but it’s close enough.” Winter heard a snicker in her head.We might wanna switch over now so the employees don’t get confused. “That…is a good point.” Raven stopped walking and her head shook. Her body languageentirelychanged as did her eyes.Thosewere Summer’s eyes. The AI was surprisingly good and in-depth with the detail on its eyes. They wereincrediblyintense and Raven’s eyes looked pretty much the same as the AI. “Raven’s completely exhausted. I donotmiss that feeling. Or being hungry.” Yeah,thosewere definitely Summer’s inflections,notRaven’s. The cadence of her voice was the same as the AI’s. It was creepy to see Summer’s soul puppeting Raven around like a meat suit. But it was what they needed to do without raising any suspicion. The employees wouldn’t haveanyidea what they were dealing with orwho.Summer was an absolute force of nature in her own right, very befitting of her name. “All right, Winter; let’s go.” “All right.” Winter fell into step beside Summer who had her nose buried in her scroll as they navigated through the downtown. They eventually reached the store and one of the employees approached. Summer started grilling him and askingveryin-depth questions that flew completely over Winter’s head. It was all about computers and she was certain Coco would appreciate Summer’s knowledge of computer specs. Eventually, they rounded everything up and Winter sighed when she saw the total bill. Thankfully she hadplentyput away… She swiped her card and paid. Summer called Persia and they got back in the car after putting everything in the trunk. They made their way back to Patch and got everything moved up to Summer’s room and she let out a breath. “Actually, Winter, something did just hit me… If you want to take all of my notes and put them on the scanner, then the AI’s OCR could take care of digitising them for you.” “OCR?” “Optical Character Recognition. Basically it’s software that translates handwriting into workable digital files. I used a base OCR but then modified it pretty heavily. It’s not a program I used often, but it’sthereif I needed it. And, well, considering the amount of dust notebooks I have filled, you could scan them.” Winter nodded. “That…would likely be more useful to me than attempting to fully organise these notebooks.” She paused. “Will your AI be able to tell when you wrote the notes?” “I actually did date my notebooks on the front, using my own system. I tried to make them as esoteric as possible to keep people from accessing them.” “They…definitely are difficult to read at the best of times.” She hadn’t sat down with them in depth yet, but what little bit she’d seen was a nightmare. It was definitely Summer’s handiwork. She was pretty certain Weiss would enjoy them, but dust wasn’t something Winter herself really enjoyed digging into. She did the basics of what was needed and that was all. She did understand it to a high degree but Weiss had no doubt outstripped where Winter’s knowledge had been by now. “I’ll get to building the new rig and you can take the laptop and such downstairs. The scanner I bought is downstairs in the kitchen. The AI should be able to walk you through figuring out how to connect it. And take some of the notebooks.” “All right.” Winter went to the filing cabinet and grabbed an armful of notebooks, heading downstairs. No point in getting in the way… She sat at the table and looked at the AI. “So where is this scanner?” she asked. “One sec.” The avatar folded its arms and tapped its foot, the cloak swaying in a false wind. After a moment, a program loaded and showed it was connecting to the scanner. “Based on its location in the network, I think it’s probably due southwest of you by less than twenty feet.” Winter looked and found a small machine. She wasn’t really used to home printers, so that had to be it. She got up and opened the top. It definitely looked like a scanner, just very small. “I believe this is it.” “Honestly, you might wanna think about replacing it at some point… It’s pretty old now. But for scanning? It should work just fine. With me handling the scanning, you should be able to get through things pretty quickly. Just be sure to scan the cover because I can decode the esoteric dating system.” “Very well.” She loaded up the first notebook and the AI let out a small ringing noise whenever it finished scanning a page. This went on for quite a while, Winter just flipping pages whenever the AI let her know it was done with a specific page. She moved onto the second notebook and got halfway through that before Raven came down. “It’s starting to get close to driver’s ed, so we should pick up Qrow then go,” Raven said. It was definitely Raven. The look in the eyes and the body language wasentirelydifferent. Summer…was definitely a unique person that wasn’t hard to pick out in a crowd whatsoever. Winter couldeasilytell the difference in body language. She didn’t know Raven well yet, but Summer was one of a kind, really. It wasimpossibleto mistake her for somebody else even if she was possessing another person’s body. “Did you finish building it?” Raven shook her head. “No, the rigs take a while to fully set up and Summer wants to put the OS on Rainbow instead of Iris. The AI was built on Rainbow but it can function on any OS because that’s how Summer designed it.” Raven shook her head. “She’s insane.” “Yes, yes she is.” With that said and done, they hopped over to driver’s ed and that went on for a droll hour. Then they hopped back to Patch where Raven headed back upstairs and it left her alone with Qrow in the kitchen. “Want me to heat up dinner for us?” he asked. “Yes, I am a bit hungry…” She was at least getting used to the eating schedule and her body was adapting to that. She…rarely ever ate three square meals a day to the standards she needed. She always worried about calories and she’d never gotten enough to eat even under her own supervision. But she didn’t want to make Yang’s life annoying by any means, so she just accepted the meals for what they were. They weredefinitelyaura-user portioned. The entire freezer was just the frozen meals, prepared earlier in the week. She had seen the chest freezer in the garage which was where Yang kept all the additional frozen items. She sat down at the table with the laptop. “Could you shut down or sleep or whatever for now?” she asked. The AI gave finger guns and clucked before the laptop seemingly shut down. She was pretty certain it was still monitoring them, but it at least gave the illusion of not being watched and listened to at all times. Plus, Qrowdidhave the lite version of the AI on his scroll, so it was listening anyway. Qrow sat the plate down in front of her then sat across from her. “So what all did you do today?” he asked. “Not a whole lot… I started applying for the protection program here in Vale and that took up most of the morning. Then the AI said it wanted a whole new rig, so Persia took me and Raven to a store that specialises in gaming PCs. I don’t know much about gaming… I’ve never played a video game in my life.” She shrugged. “I had to pay though.” That had taken a bite out of her savings, but it was still better than having to take out credit or something… She didn’t want to have to deal with the nonsense of credit cards. Shehadthe money and, within a few months, it’d be back in her account due to the stipend that the general was giving her. Qrow winced. “If you’d have asked me, I would’ve paid. Why did it want a new rig?” “Just to run better,” came Summer’s voice from Qrow’s pocket. He pulled out his scroll. They now had two versions of the AI, but it’d be three pretty soon. “A scroll is more limiting than a laptop, but if you’re trying to use a laptop to run multiple, large-scale searches, what I can do is more limited. Between Winter studying for her GED, Raven wanting loopholes in the falconry laws, and more, I neededwaymore power to be able to run everything in an efficient way without sacrificing anything. So a high-end gaming rigonlymade sense with as much as they’re asking me to do.” “Winter, if you want to, I could pay you back. Five grand isn’tthatmuch to me, I mean considering I’m paying the 250 grand for the house outta pocket,” Qrow said. Winter shrugged. “I’m not spending much right now and General Ironwood is giving me a stipend every week. I don’t need you to pay me back. It’ll come back soon enough.” Five grand was steep, but she did have it in her savings account. The general madewaymore than five thousand every two weeks and she’d really put most of her money into savings… She only spent what she needed and nothing more. She didn’t need Qrow to pay her back. She wasn’t exactlyrichbut she had saved more than enough from her time in the military to cover this cost. She couldn’t do it every time, but with the general giving her the stipend…she didn’t need Qrow to pay her back. “If you’re sure…” “I am.” “So how are things going with Kiyay?” “I haven’t seen him today. I’m not spending every day with Raven.” She did have other things she needed to do like study for her GED and such. She would have to finish applying for the protections program because that needed to be done sooner rather than later… And she needed to meet with Kali and Sienna about seeing what releasing the videos of her own abuse would do for the case. Shereallyneeded to put a light under the ass of the government in order to get them to work with her. But she wasn’t sure if that would hurt the case or not. “I’ll probably need to meet with Mrs. Belladonna and Ms. Khan tomorrow.” Qrow nodded. “All right then.” He held his hand out to her and smiled a bit. “You know if you need anything, you can ask me, right?” Winter hesitated before putting her hand in his gently. “It’s…just hard to move past the mentality that was pounded into me while I was held captive in Schnee manor.” She’d been relatively self-sufficient since leaving. She didn’t really rely on the Ace Ops for anything other than keeping up with her combat training, though she did rely quite a bit on General Ironwood… She tried to stand on her own, though. That had beenquite literallybeen beaten into her by Mister Gelé. She needed to be independent and not rely on anybody. He had tried to convince her of the opposite, but with how he’d treated her…she’d known he was lying. She justknewmost things coming out of his mouth were lies. “I know you don’t have ill intents for me, but it’s still hard to get past some of my issues.” “Can I hug you?” he asked. She hesitated before nodding. He stood up and came over to her, then hugged her gently. “I’m not trying to force you to be my wife or anything like that. I don’twantyou to feel like you need to rely on me…but you also don’t have to push me away either. It is up to you how much you want to rely on me, but I’m here if you need me.” Winter nodded a bit. “I know. It’s just hard. Even trusting Mrs. Belladonna and Ms. Khan with what I am is hard…” She didn’t want to see Weiss harmed in any shape, way, or form. Handing the case over to someone else was beyond difficult. But they knew Atlassian lawfarbetter than sheeverwould. If anyone could get at least Weiss away from Mister Gelé, it’d be those two women. She just wished she could do something in return for them. They were sacrificinga lotto try to help her. She just wished she could help them in return. But, as far as she was aware, there wasn’t much, if anything, she could do. “Well, I’m always here if you need me.” His tone was gentle and she closed her eyes. She’d never had gentleness shown to her by anybody like this before. The general’s gentleness only went so far. He really struggled with emotions. But with Qrow…it feltcompletelynatural and it wentbeyonddeep. It was as if he had an endless ability to be warm, soft, and kind. She still wasn’t sure if she wanted a romantic relationship with him or not, but she didn’t mind being close to him in some regard… It was just hard to do when she wasn’t used to any sort of intimacy, be it physical, mental, or emotional… She’d had to remain steady for Weiss which didn’t allow for much emotional intimacy… She stayed tucked up against him for a few minutes before looking back at her dinner. “We should finish before it gets cold.” She had eaten cold food before and it wasn’t her favorite thing. Qrow nodded and he moved away from her, going to finish his dinner. Unfortunately, the food was already lukewarm by time Winter returned to it and she sighed internally. She really didn’t like cold food, but she had also learned she couldn’t be picky. Any time she complained to Mister Gelé, she was beaten. Food too hot? Too bad. Food nasty? Too bad. It was his way or nothing at all. Even if she didn’t like the food, then there was nothing she could do about it. She had to eat it. And she’d had to eat plenty of MREs as well, so she doubly had learned to not be picky about things either. It was annoying, but she simply shut up about food and didn’t complain about anything. She put her dishes in the dishwasher and stretched a bit, not entirely certain what to do next. Qrow walked up next to her and offered her a hand. “Want to dance a bit?” he asked. Winter hesitated before nodding. “All right. To the living room?” He nodded. “Let’s go.” They headed into the living room and moved the coffee table aside so that way they had a larger area to dance without worrying about hitting something. “I know you hate the Atlassian waltz, but how about an Argisi waltz? It’s a much more free-flowing dance than the Atlassian waltz.” Winter blinked. “I didn’t know there was an Argisi version.” Then again, it wasn’t like she was trained in many dances aside from the basic Atlassian waltz. She had seen the bolero before, but it wasn’t something she had ever learned. It still felt too intimate to do with anybody, but if she could do it with anybody, it’d be Qrow. Maybe one day but definitely not today. “You already have a solid basis in the Atlassian waltz, so it hopefully won’t betoohard for you to pick up. But itisdifferent, so it may take some getting used to. Regardless, it’s much more free flowing and open than the Atlassian waltz.” He smiled at her and put some music on, then took up the lead position. He started with the basic steps which were similar enough to what she knew. But the differencesdefinitelytripped her up quite a bit. Her muscle memory wasveryfine tuned to the Atlassian waltz and the differences were difficult to deal with. She sighed, frustration bubbling up. “Sorry. I didn’t realise I’d be so useless—” “Nuh-uh, stop right there. Youaren’tuseless, Winter. When you’re tuned to one thing, learning a variance of it can bereallydifficult. I promise you that much. It was difficult for me to learn other forms of martial arts at first when I left the tribe. I was used toonestyle andonestyle only.” She was still a stupid, silly little girl for thinking she could pick up a new dance style so easily. She thought this one would be easier than starting from scratch, but she hadn’t realised how hard it would be. She could see how the dance worked for certain, but actually getting her body to do it was difficult. Qrow gave her a soft squeeze. “Winter, relax. You’re tense. That’s not going to help anything.” Tense… Tense was her middle name. She didn’t knowhowto relax. But she took in several, deep breaths and attempted to get her body to relax. It wasn’t much success though. She just…didn’t know how to relax and lean into things. Her mind always ran and it contributed to her being constantly tense. “Sorry.” She looked down. He gave her a soft squeeze again. “Some people are just naturally more tense, but being like this won’t help you to do an Argisi waltz. It’s supposed to be open, floaty, and flowing. Try to just follow me and stop thinking so much.Feelthe flow of the music and the movement.” Stop thinking so much? That was the polar opposite of what she was able to do. She hadneverbeen able to simply stop thinking. Especially when it came to dance. So many of her partners were incompetent and she had to compensate fortheirinability to do even a basic box step… She still wasn’t used to dancing with Qrow yet, so letting go and feeling the motion as well as the beat of the music was still difficult. “I make no promises.” She let out a breath and again tried to get her body to relax. She counted the one-two-three beat the music and let him take the lead again. Unfortunately, she continued to think and found herself stumbling. Learning a new dance from scratch was honestly easier than attempting to learn the Argisi waltz. Her muscle memory wasn’t so attuned to one style of dance, the only style she’d been allowed to learn. Winter, I know you struggle with the idea of cohabbing, but do you think you could try a very lite version of it? I know pretty much every form of ballroom on the planet. I can easily help you feel things more and to stop thinking so much.Winter frowned at Summer’s offer. She really didn’t like the idea of giving up her body at all, but she was struggling and strugglingbadly.She really needed some help. She let out a sigh and gave a small nod. “Huh? Something up?” Qrow asked. “It’s nothing big.” She felt a slight tingly warmth enter her body, filling her from her fingertips to each hair on the scalp. The sensation was…far from unpleasant surprisingly. It felt like a warm blanket had been placed over her entire body, over each inch of her skin. All right, let’s try this now.Summer’s voice rang in Winter’s head. “Let’s try again,” Winter told Qrow. He nodded and pulled her into the basic steps again. Winter felt her brain trying to compensate as usual, but she felt her muscles move differently than they were accustomed. She couldfeelSummer fighting her ingrained muscle memory, but Summer’s influence wasincrediblystrong. Her steps were still rough, but the movements were coming much more easily now despite her mind running haywire and her feeling her muscle memory attempting to kick in. Qrow frowned. “Winter…is Summer helping you?” Winter nodded a bit. “Yes, she is. Is…that a problem?” She knew he was trying to avoid interacting with Summer in a way that wasn’t the AI because he wanted to focus onherrather than Summer. Was he really so attuned to how Summer danced that he could feel the immediate change? She just wanted to try to get over this initial hump. It’d probably take a few sessions in order to work the kinks out. The Argisi waltz was definitely a beautiful dance from what she could tell. She was pretty sure she could feel some frustration from Summer over her muscle memory attempting to kick in, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She just…really needed the help. Qrow sighed. “I thought so… You were suddenly moving too well for it to be anything but Summer helping you. Plus…I can feel her Semblance lightly. I think she’s sealed it off to you but…I would know that feeling anywhere.” His voice was quiet, his heart no doubt dropping through him. She looked down. “It was Summer’s idea. She just wanted to help me.” “It’s fine, Winter. If you need the help, use the help. It’s just…hard. Use all the tools available to you. You’re a resourceful young woman. You’re good at finding ways around challenges including taking them head on. I just really don’t know how to handle dancing with Summer again in such a way…” “I’m sorry…” She looked down. She really wasn’t trying to make him feel bad. She just…really wanted to try to learn the dance quicker. Summer was obviously quite gifted when it came to dancing and it was making things a lot easier and quicker than if she were to just brute force through it like she normally did. Her muscle memory for the Atlassian waltz was really getting in the way here and Summer’s ability to punch through it was really helping her. “I’ll deal with it. C’mon. Let’s go again.” He smiled again, but she could see the pain behind his eyes. She nodded a bit and she fell into step with him. It was still somewhat janky as Summer forcibly overrode her muscle memory, but she was starting to get a feel for how the Argisi waltz differed from the Atlassian one. They were both quiet while they danced, Winter focusing hard on her steps so she wouldn’t trip and splatter both of them all over the floor. And she was pretty sure Qrow was fighting with himself over dancing with Summer again. She just… She had no way of helping him through this. Summer was justa fact of life now.She could and would pop up whenever she wanted to. And, well, she was definitely a great help when it came to certain things. She knew how to dance and, when it came to this conflicting muscle memory, it was a great use of Summer’s abilities. After a while, they stopped and Qrow moved the coffee table back to where it’d been. “Good run, Winter. It’s always nice to have a partner that’s willing and able to work with you that loves the art.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Maybe she ought to just avoid the Argisi waltz. The other ballroom styles wouldn’t be so close to it and she wouldn’t have to rely on Summer. Learning a new dance from scratch would be much better than forcing him to face Summer again when he didn’t have closure to her death. “…We ought to just focus on new styles.” She looked away from him, not wanting to cause him any further undue pain. He was helping her in ways that she never knew someonecouldhelp another. She appreciated him and knew he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her if he could help it. So the fact thatshehad hurthimand he wasn’t saying anything against it…it spoke to his character. He just swallowed his issues and tried to deal with things as they came. Qrow frowned. “Are you sure…? I’m willing to teach you.” “It’s harder for me to learn because of my muscle memory and then there’s the complication of Summer…Idon’twant to cause you pain.” She walked over to him and rested her hand on his arm. He looked down and placed his hand over hers. “It’s not your fault, Winter. It’s just…anything relating to Summer is hard. I’ve…never properly facedanyof those emotions. I just drowned it out in alcohol and being alone in the wilds. I’ll…have to face it sometime sooner rather than later. But I still don’t think I have enough strength to do it…” She looked at him, brows furrowed in worry. “It’s not my place to butt into your emotions and grieving process… I imagine it’s hard to have reminders of Atlas—namelyme—around as well as Summer and not have alcohol…” He sighed. “I’m a teacher again and I have both you and the girls to take care of. I need to show the government that I’m a responsible adult that can take care of the girls. And, well, you’re planning on taking your siblings in, or at least your sister, in a litigation case. I need to showbothgovernments that I’m able to stay off the bottle. If I’m getting shitfaced every night, it won’t reflect well on me. And I don’t want to triggeryoueither. It’s better for me to just stayawayfrom alcohol than have the temptation in the house.” She nodded a bit. “I suppose that’s fair…” She had been trying to give him an out, but all of his points were good. He needed to take the girls in. It had to be hard for them to not have a father around and take care of everything themselves. Then to go from that to having someone that was taking them in… Yeah, that couldn’t be easy either. She had no real idea how to handle any of this. She didn’t understand Vale or its policies regarding children as well as how Atlas would respond to her attempting to take at least Weiss. She hadplentyof proof that she and her little sister were in danger if they stayed in Schnee manor. Coco had never reported any sort of physical abuse toward Whitley, though… She wasn’t sure if she’d manage to get custody over him or not. But if she could at least getWeissaway from Gelé, then she would happily do it. She really just wanted Weiss to be safe and not be sold off to the highest bidder… Without Winter in Atlas, she had no ideawhatwas happening in Schnee manor to keep Weiss safe. “Idon’twant to do anything that might hurt your chances of getting your sister back. Shedoesn’tdeserve whatever fate Gelé has in mind for her.” Winter fell quiet and nodded. No, Weissdidn’tdeserve that.Nowoman did. To be raped and produce child after child after child against their will… She had no idea why Gelé had stopped at just three children. He could’ve had five or even ten, but he stopped at only three. Of course, she was thankful she had only one or two siblings to save rather than an entire gaggle of them. It would be so hard to save a bunch of children, but two? That would be far more manageable. “I think I’m going to head to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek then retired upstairs to Summer’s bedroom. She frowned when she looked at the clock. Damn it; she’d missed stocking. She hoped that the boss wouldn’t be upset with her; she’d have to go speak to him tomorrow. She didn’t have bakery duty tomorrow or anything, but still… She wanted to apologise to him. She’d gotten so wrapped up in talking to Qrow that she hadn’t had any idea it was so late. Well, she did, but she’d forgotten entirely. Shaking her head, she got ready for bed and took her meds, then curled up underneath the covers. She settled down and closed her eyes, sleep soon washing over her like Kiyay’s wing.