wanderer's lullaby

Winter headed downstairs and saw Qrow sitting at the coffee table, dealing with whatever he was dealing with. It looked like paperwork of some sort. He smiled and looked up at her when she came down. “Mornin’ snowdrop.” She felt her cheeks warm at the nickname once again. Would she ever get over that embarrassment? She had no idea. She just wasn’t used to someone referring to her so casually. It was one thing when it was the Atlassian military or Weiss; it wascompletely differentwhen it was Qrow for some reason. He justexudedhis naturally casual nature. “Good morning.” She tried to hide everything that was going on in her head right now, but she wasn’t sure if she was successful. Then again, he could read her thoughts more or less. She still hated that there was no way to easily shield to keep him out from her mind. It was the only shelter she’d had in Schnee manor and that had gone… Her only sanctuary, completely torn open by a set of odd abilities she hadn’t even known existed until recently. How was advanced aura so hidden though…? It didn’t really make sense to her. “Well, seems like you have plans for today,” he said. Winter nodded. “Yes, I do. I’ll be meeting up with some people in a few hours and be gone for a decent chunk of the day it seems like.” She wasn’t sure how long she’d be gone, really, but it was best to just say she might not be home for dinner or anything like that. She would have to fend for herself and find a restaurant nearby if she was gone the whole day. But it looked like she was going into the city, though not full-on downtown. She wasn’t sure what to really do with all of this free time still… “Warrant Officer Bree put me in contact with some friends of hers.” “Friends, huh? Well, do you want me to come or do you want to handle it on your own?” “Warrant Officer Bree likely only told them I would be coming. One of said friends is trans and getting treatment for it here in Vale. I don’t want to overwhelm said friend by bringing another stranger to them.” It just seemed like it would be rude to bring Qrow with her. They would probably be fine with him, but things would be rather tense withjusther there. She didn’t want Qrow to do something that might screw it up for her. She knew he was a kind man with a warm heart, but yeah… People could sometimes screw things up without meaning to. She just didn’t want to risk that happening. She wanted things to be as clean as possible. Qrow nodded. “Yeah, that would make sense… I consider myself Valian at this point rather than Mistrali, but I can definitely see why you want to do it on your own now. Don’t upset people who have already been through hella discrimination and transphobia. What time are you meetin’ ‘em?” “About eleven.” “You still have some time before then.” Winter nodded. “I do. Though…I am getting hungry.” She flushed hotly when she heard her stomach let out quite the roll. She normally didn’t let it get to this point, but she felt like it was important to not impede on others. “Winter…you don’t have to sacrifice like that. Just move around the house freely. I mean I’m a pretty light sleeper, but I’m also someone that gets up with dawn. It’s how I grew up. I can’t really sleep past dawn. The girls are pretty heavy sleepers, at least right now. Though that’ll change once they become Huntresses. I’m sure you know all about that transition.” Winter frowned. “I’ve never been a heavy sleeper.” Though, now that she was on sleep aid medication, she was sleeping a lot deeper. “I had to be on my toes at all times in Schnee manor.” She couldn’t even call it ‘home.’ It wasn’t home. There was no warmth, kindness, nor much positive aside from Weiss. It was cold and desolate, just like the rest of Atlas. The place she could come closest to calling home was when she stayed with the general. There was warmth, kindness, support, andrestthere. She felt safe there. It was the only place she’d ever felt truly safe… She sighed. She would never stay with him again, not unless she made the trek up to Atlas forsomeHoly Father-forsaken reason. “Well, for now, how about we get you some breakfast? I already ate, but still. I can sit with ya.” He smiled at her and rose, offering her his hand. She rested her hand in his, the warmth from it radiating through her. He was so warm and gentle… He was a lot like the general in a lot of ways, but he wasmuchmore expressive with his emotions in ways the general wasn’t. Ironwood wasn’t the cold, calculating man a lot of people thought. He could be warm, gentle, and kind to people. He just…didn’t show that side of himself a lot was all. He didn’t want the people of Atlas to think he was easily pliable and able to be manipulated. She could understand thatalltoo well personally. They headed into the kitchen and she sat down. He popped her breakfast into the microwave and brought it over to her. She blinked as she looked around. “Why does it look like someone’s been in here already? The cabinets are all upended…” Everything was open and it looked like they’d been rifled through. “This…doesn’t seem like something you’d do, Qrow.” He would respect people’s space and this wasn’t something he’d do. That meant… Yang? Taiyang? She wasn’t sure who. Qrow nodded and sighed. “Unfortunately, the girls still get up pretty early on weekends. Yang gets up at like five and starts budgeting for the week and she’s already gone to the general store to go shopping. She’ll be back in a few hours to start meal prep for the week.” Winter frowned. “I see… I stayed in my room longer than I normally would so I could let them sleep. I suppose it was futile.” She could’ve gotten breakfast much earlier which…definitely sucked. She was at leasttryingto give them a chance to sleep in. This did make some sense, she supposed. Yang was only one little girl and had to try to keep an entire household running on her own. She’d probably figured out how to run things down to a relative science. “You’re going to let her keep doing this, though?” “At least until we get our house, yeah. I hate to admit it, but it’s justeasierto let her keep doing this since it frees up time for me to focus on what I need to focus on. Though once we move out of the city, it’ll be a big change for all of us. I’ll have to figure out grocery shopping and all of that. Not gonna be fun, but we’ll have to do it. How did you handle shopping, Winter?” “I went once a month. It was just easier for me with as busy as my schedule was.” She sighed. “Until I get a license, though, I won’t be going anywhere.” She had never been behind the wheel of a car before, so she had no idea how any of it worked. Of course, she was getting basics covered in driver’s ed, but it’d be another thing entirely to have dozens of other people pelting at her at high speeds. Especially down darkened country lanes… She’d never really been out of the city too much aside from a couple of missions until she’d ridden Qrow’s old horse and spoken to her… It was breathtaking just how many stars there were in the sky. “Yeesh, that sounds like a form of torture. How many hours did it take you?” “About two and a half.” Qrow shook his head. “Yeah, not happening here. Though, once we move, until you can get your citizenship, do you think you could handle at least cooking?” Winter nodded a bit. “I could, as long as Yang teaches me how to make meals. I remember her mentioning Ruby doesn’t take well to change and won’t eat anything she’s unfamiliar with. Though…that’ll have to wait until next week. I have plans today.” She could probably cancel but she didn’t want to make Harriet’s friends think she was flaky. She was the farthest thing from. There was justa lotgoing on in her life right now was all… Somehow she both had almost too much to do and not enough. It was very strange. “Well, we still have a fair amount of time until we move. Though…we should probably start packing up. The house sale seems like it’s going through pretty well from what my agent has said. The people just want it off their hands asquicklyas possible, but we still have to go through the normal processes. It’s rough… I just wish we could move out there already.” He sighed and shook his head. “Thankfully, I do have driving experience despite Summer doing everything she could to try to push me and Rae away from driving.” He shook his head. “Rae at least still has her Valian citizenship, but she really doesn’t have a lot of transferrable skills… She’d have to go to college if she wanted a job.” “Why not have her be a teacher or teacher’s assistant or something similar?” That seemed like it was the easiest thing. Let Raven do something just like Qrow. Granted, Winter wasn’t exactly how well she’d do with something related to kids. Ravenhadstraight-up abandoned Yang from the sound of it. Did she even like kids? Raven was no doubt quite the skilled fighter due to all the time she’d spent in the field from her youngest years. Just like Qrow. Winter just… She didn’t know Raven well enough to suggest something she could do. Qrow sighed. “Raven’s not the most patient of people. She’s cooled down a lot since we were younger, no doubt thanks to…what happened to her to make her leave. But still. I don’t think she’d have the patience for something like teaching. Too much paperwork in her opinion. And she wouldn’t do well in retail either. Shecanbe patient, but she has no patience for stupid and working in retail exposes you toa lotof stupid. I mean I can easily support Raven if she doesn’t get a job, but it’d still be useful for her to have an income.” He scratched his chin. “Maybe she could take up abatement with the falcons. Or we could get her another bird that would be specifically for abatement. That’d be something she could do pretty easily.” “Abatement?” Winter had no idea what that was. “Basically you use raptors to keep birds away from places where they shouldn’t be or people don’twant‘em to be. Sometimes construction sites and such. The only thing is we need falconry licenses and… There’s a lotta headaches that come with what we did. The government ain’t gonna be too happy about what we did, but they’re also gonna turn a blind eye when it’smethey’re dealing with. No government wants to pissmeoff.” “That sounds like something I might be able to do once I learn to fly the birds more effectively.” But she still needed citizenship for any sort of official employment. It was so frustrating. Her hands were completely tied due to bureaucracy nonsense. She needed something to do with her life, but she had no idea what to do. Again, somehow she felt like she didn’t haveenoughto do and, yet, somehow it felt liketoo much.She was so incredibly frustrated at this point. She just wanted to get to the point where she could function in society fully instead of being stuck in this house entirely. She just wanted to be able to earn her own money and be independent instead of relying on Qrow and her savings. She knew he didn’t begrudge her but even so… She just wanted to be her own person. She didn’t feel like herself, being so constrained. “Honestly, as long as we weren’t imprinting a bird, it’s definitely something you could do as long as you had a trained aura breed. I’m sure there are people out there sellin’ their raptors. You already know the basics of handling and such. It’s the hunting season right now, so we couldn’t start imprinting anything until next year. But something easy going like a Harris hawk aura breed would do well with you. Though, again…there is the issue of the government.” He sighed. “I’ll need to get mews built even though we have the pool room which isn’t entirely complete and can easily be hosed off to clean their mutes.” “Mutes?” “Their fecal matter. Technical term for it.” “I see.” Well, that certainly was one thing, she supposed… But it was good to know technical terms so that way, if she ever did encounter another falconer, she could communicate with them effectively. She did have Star of Hope and would hopefully take Sarah there tomorrow. For today, though, she was going to stick with meeting Joanna and Fiona. She wasn’t sure what time she’d be home. Though… “I do need to go to the general store and apologise to the owner for missing last night.” Qrow blinked and paled, then rested his head in his hands. “Winter. I’m sorry. That was my fault… But I don’t think you really have too much to worry about, at least… The people of Patch are pretty relaxed and don’t hold to strict standards really. As long as you aren’t consistently missing, ole Jeb should be fine with it. No, you won’t get paid for it but…I think it’ll be fine. If you want, I can come with you and be the one to apologise. I was the one that suggested dancing in the first place. I should’ve been more sensitive to the day and time. I’m sorry.” Winter shrugged. “It was a mistake. If anything, the fault is mine.Ishould be paying attention because it’smyjob. I just…got caught up.” She’d never had a partner like Qrow before when it came to dancing. She had no idea people couldactuallybe good at it and she could enjoy it as much as she did. She thought all men were horrible at dancing and didn’t have any idea how to do it. Or they put in the minimum amount of effort to appear at least decent. He legitimately loved the artform and took pride and joy in what he did. It…was really refreshing to have somebody that loved dancing as much as she did. Though she knew it was a sore point with him due to Summer… “How about we just agree we both have some fault in it? I really don’t want to argue about it.” She nodded a bit. “All right…” She really felt like it was allher fault.She was the one with the job.Shewas usually the one on top of things, hounding people along. She wasn’t used to this sort of relaxed lifestyle without any real goals or anything like it. She just…really wanted to make sure she did everything she had committed to. She had promised to be there and she wasn’t… She knew that was more than enough reason to fire somebody. It really was. Especially under the table payment like this… She hoped that it wouldn’t negatively affect her other than having some pay docked. “We’ll both go and apologise to ole Jeb once you’re done eating…and it seems like you’re pretty close to done.” Winter nodded. “Yes, I am. Just give me a few more minutes.” She finished up and and put her plate in the dishwasher. “Let’s go.” “All right then.” Qrow led the way out of the house, but her brows furrowed when she noticed he didn’t bother to lock up. He looked at her. “We’ll only be gone a little bit. Not like we’re goin’ to sleep for the night. Granted, most people wouldn’t come out here due to the Grimm…” “Thosebabies?They’re not even a threat.” “Maybe not to you, but for an untrained civilian, it’d be deadly dangerous. The Grimm avoid the main village and this house. But yeah, we ain’t gonna be gone long, so there’s basically no reason to lock up.” Winter looked at him skeptically but she didn’t say anything and just started walking. It was…different to be in the forest when it wasn’t night. It felt like an entirely different atmosphere. “It’s odd to be out in the daylight like this… Though it’s still somewhat dark.” The forest was hot and humid compared to the forests she was used to in Atlas. The evergreen ones were so barren and bereft of life. Here, she could hear animals around. She was pretty sure there were rabbits, possibly deer, and a lot of songbirds. Definitely a lot of songbirds. They were constantly chattering and singing. What an odd change from the forests of Atlas that she was used to. She wasn’t really used to this sort of life being around her especially in the city. Not much lived in the upper recesses of Atlas or the lower recesses of Mantle. The high heights of Atlas made it difficult for a lot of life to thrive there, while Mantle was so smoggy and polluted that she was pretty sure it wasn’t safe for humanorFaunus to live there… It was disgusting, but it wasn’t like she could make an institutional change as a mere major in the Special Forces. “Yeah, trees do block out a lotta light.” He paused for a moment. “You ever been out on a fox hunt or anything like that before? Though there ain’t a lotta falconry in Atlas on the whole… It seems more focused around dog and gun hunts as far as I’m aware.” “Actually, I believe we do use abatement in the military, now that I think about it… I’ve seen people flying raptors out near our airship fields. Not much lives in the upper part of Atlas, but on other bases, I’ve seen people doing that. Likely to keep the small birds out of our engines. But no, I’ve never been on a hunt like that before. It’s all done on horseback; I was barred from horseback riding due to attempting to make a break for it every time I was on one.” In Atlas, it had been a scandal that she tried to take off on a horse and the fact that she couldn’t ride sidesaddle was another reason she was seen as unmarriageable. But Gelé had barred her from riding lessons due to her making a break for it on a swift animal. She wasn’t sure what had become of the horse that had been reserved for her… “You know you probably would’ve died in the countryside, right?” Winter sighed. “I was much younger and desperate to get away.” She paused. “Your mother told me some of what you’d been through but…I don’t think you understand everything Gelé did to me. It wasn’t just physical; it was mental and emotional.” She didn’t want to say someone that hadn’t been through abuse didn’t understand but…most people outside of the Atlassian upper classwouldn’tunderstand whatsoever. They didn’t understand the isolation and howeverythingin her life had been so controlled.Everythingin her environment had been constructed to try to make her meek and to just outrightbreak her.The only thing that she held onto was the fact shesomehowknew most everything coming out of Gelé’s mouth werelies.And that was evenbeforeshe’d met Coco. Something about how he treated her and the way he talked about othersdidn’tsit right with her. She shouldn’t have been so smart, but she justwas.Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like Weiss was quite on the same level… She still believed a lot of Gelé’s and Atlas’ lies. “I mean I do understand getting beat down like a dog for mistakes and being verbally berated. So I get that much. What all do you think I don’t understand?” Qrow’s tone wasn’t aggressive or accusatory; it was simply interested and questioning. He was just trying to understand what she meant by it. “…The isolation.Youhad people around you. You had your sister, your mother, other people in your tribe. I hadnobodybut myself. I had to rely solely on myself. I couldn’t talk to Weiss. She didn’t need the burden of knowing what was happening to me.” She shook her head. Of course, Weiss probablyknewthat Winter had similarly been beat like a dog. It was just what Gelédid.Though, for some reason, Coco had been through the footage from Whitley’s room and she hadn’t foundanyphysical violence against her little brother. It was strange. Why change tactics? She didn’t get it. “Atlas is all about isolation and conformity. I was completely isolated. I had nobody…at least not until I met Coco.” She really should talk to Coco more often… The AI was just easily taking the place of a lot of what Coco did. Winter…honestly wasn’t that skilled with computers and navigating them. Coco helped her deal with that and find thingsmuchquicker than Winter ever would be able to… She felt bad for outright abandoning her best friend. “Yeah, that’s entirely fair. Idon’tunderstand the isolation that came with being Atlassian… Ididhave entire community around me.” Qrow’s voice was soft and he extended his hand to her. She gently placed hers in it. “But you don’t have to worry about that anymore. I know trusting isrealtough after the shit you’ve been through. Aside from a few people, Atlas has proven itself to live up to your beliefs of people only wanting to hurt and use you for their own ends. But Vale ain’t like that. I can promise you that. You should really go out and try to find some sort of community. Maybe a chapel or something. Most chapels in Vale aren’t actually religious and are secular. It’s all about community there. There are plenty around Vale to choose from. Yang goes to one on Saturday nights. Are you religious at all, though?” Winter shook her head. “No, not at all. I was forced to go to services once a month on Tuesdays and we adhered to some holidays and such, but that was the one thing Gelé never rammed down my throat, oddly enough. Though we did have a priest for Agat working solely for us. But no… I’ve never been partial to religious ideologies. It’s odd to hear that chapels can be secular…” She sighed. “I’m not sure I’d find community there, though.” She just… He was right. Trusting people was soincrediblydifficult for her. She was spending time with Sarah, but spending time with someone and being their friend were twocompletelydifferent things. Sarah needed someone to take her under her wing and expose her to the world which she really hadn’t seen due to her mother’s ‘protective’ nature. Controlling in her mind… Qrow squeezed her hand. “Justtryit, Winter. A lot of chapels have things like choir and such. Or maybe try an FHA or Band meeting.” Winter frowned. “Because aSchneeattending a Faunus rights meeting wouldn’t cause some serious uproar.” People would absolutelyhate herand she knew it. Gelé had done someseriousdamage to the reputation of the SDC and its relationship with Faunus. Nicholas had beenincrediblyfair to Faunus and treated them just as he did his human workers. But Gelé had stripped Faunus of many of their rights and reduced their pay to legal allowable levels so that way he didn’t have to pay as much. And then there were the brandings… She’dseenFaunus branded with the SDC mark. She was never without protection when going down to Mantle and more than one angry Faunus had come up and started shouting in her face about what Gelé had done to them. She actually usually stopped and listened unless she had to be somewhere immediately. She had managed to change more than one Faunus’ mind on her personally…but they remained hateful about the SDC which…was understandable. It had caused them irreparable physical harm. She hoped to take over the SDC one day and try to undo the harm he’d done to the community on the whole… “Itwouldcause some uproar but you could use it to your advantage.” Winter raised an eyebrow as she looked at Qrow and he grinned. “Use it to start cultivatingyouridentity away from Gelé. Show people the wayyouare rather than lettingthemdictate what your image should be.” Winter tapped her chin with a finger. “That…does actually sound like it could be useful. I do legitimately wish to help people too… I’d just feel bad using that for PR.” “Well, you wanna take over the SDC one day, right?” She nodded. “Start building that good PRnowso people will start to associate you with the good you’ve done. Yeah, there are ulterior motives there on your end, but a lot of people have ulterior motives on a lot of things. Though…don’t misconstrue that. I legitimately want to help you be the best version of yourself you can be.” Winter nodded again. “I know… You can definitely have ulterior motives, but they’re rarely malicious. You do truly just want to help people. In my case, though… Yes, it would be for good PR. But Iwouldbe helping people… I can offer a lot to any organisation due to my abilities with leadership, logistics, and organisation.” She wasn’t trying to sound egotistical; she was justverythorough and systematic when it came to pretty much everything. Sarah and the bakery owner had commented on it themselves. She was justgoodwhen it came to organising things. She knew where things went and how to handle them once she understood the systems. She was as on point as pretty much anybody could be. She didn’t tolerate mistakes and would happily take the fall for her own missteps. Qrow let out a breath. “I just didn’t want you to think I was doing something to try to butter you up then hurt you…” “I still don’t trust youfully,but…you’ve done your fair share to earn a great amount of it.” No, she didn’t trust Qrow fully and that would still take more time. Her fear of men just…made it hard for her to trust them. Her mind and body still feared him to a degree, but she consciously could accept the fact that he was a kind, warm, loving person that really only wanted the best for everyone around him. She knew she could trust him; it would just take time for that trust tofullysettle in. She’d only known him a few weeks, so the fact she trusted him as much as she did… It was a testament to the sort of character he had. They arrived at the general store where a little motorcycle was parked out front with a small trailer on it. She hated that Yang had to continue to do this, but for now…it was for the best. Winter wasn’t there to cook breakfast for everyone once they woke up most days of the week right now. So having the meals prepped to just pop into the microwave made things a lot easier. They walked into the store and went up to the counter. A man stood behind it. “Oh good mornin’ Winter, Qrow. What’s up?” Winter bowed her head and clasped her hands in front of her. “I wanted to ask a pardon for accidentally skipping last night. I completely lost track of time. I was spending time with Qrow and forgot to check what time it was.” “Well,Iwas the one that suggested we dance,” Qrow put in. Jeb rubbed his bearded chin. “Eh, don’t worry so much girlie. Kids dip in and out of helpin’ us all the time. Obviously, if you’re missin’ a week or more, that’s somethin’ you should tell me about beforehand, but one night here or there? I ain’t so worried about it.” He flapped his hand. “You coulda just called me if that was what was botherin’ ya. Ain’t no reason to worry so much.” Winter blinked. It was that easy? She was used to there beingmajorconsequences for missing something. Why was he so permissive? It was crazy to think about it… She really was used toincrediblysteep consequences for missing something. But to just let be off the hook like this…? She almost couldn’t comprehend it. “Anyway, why don’t we go help Yang out?” Qrow asked. Winter nodded and they slipped away from the counter. Thankfully, with the store as small as it was, it wasn’t hard to find Yang. She blinked when she saw them. “Uncle Qrow? Winter? What are you two doing here?” she asked. The cart was almost full and she had another one behind her. “I can handle everything on my own.” “Well, we’re here so we’re gonna help you out all right, kiddo?” Qrow ruffled Yang’s hair and she lookedincrediblyput out. “You’re just gonna have to deal with it.” She sighed. “Well, here’s the list. I still haven’t done the frozen stuff yet, so here’s that. You two handle that.” She pushed the second cart at them and pulled a page out of the notebook. She handed it to Qrow and Winter and started walking off. Winter sighed. What a tragedy… A little girl shouldn’t have to be grocery shopping on her own like that. But Winter knew that if either of them helped, her or Qrow, that they’d honestly just slow Yang down… It was hard to think about. Adults should’ve protected her in the same way they should’ve protected Weiss and Whitley…but the adults in their life had only hurt them horribly. Qrow took the page and looked at Winter. “Well, how about we pick all this up?” She nodded and they went to the small freezer section. They managed to get everything they needed in a relatively short amount of time, focused entirely on just getting things done quickly. By time they finished, Yang was already at the front of the store, obviously waiting for them. She grabbed the freezer cart and started checking everything out. Checking out took quite a while, but once they had, Yang led them out to her motorcycle and started packing things up on the trailer. “I’ll take it all home.Don’ttry to help me when you guys get back. You’ll only get in my way.” Her tone wasn’t curt or aggressive; it was just an observation. “I use Mom’s system; if you don’t know it, then you’ll only slow me down.” “Eh? You use Summer’s insane system? I never cracked it… I just let her have free rein of the kitchen.” Qrow rubbed the back of his neck. Yang nodded. “Yeah. I figured it out. Took some time, but I did. It makes sense once you’re used to it. Like everything of Mom’s, it has her weird-ass logic behind it. There is logic, but it’s weird.” “That’s putting it lightly.” Qrow shook his head. The finished putting everything on the trailer and Yang revved the engine. She waved and headed off to the house again. Qrow looked at Winter. “You wanna head back now?” “Might as well.” Winter shrugged. She didn’t have anywhere else to go right now, so it was best to just head back to the house. Qrow offered Winter his arm and she wrapped her arms around his, heading back into the forest together.