Snowbird Week 2025

I am open to the idea of translations. Please contact me if you want to translate this work. However, I only want translations on sites I've already posted to, so this means they must be posted to AO3, SquidgeWorld Archive, or this site. You must fully attribute me and send me a link.

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“Whaaaaaat? What do you mean you’re moving away?” Winter looked at Qrow and Raven. Why would Dove do this to them? Raven and Qrow were her best friends at this point! They’d been playing everyday for months!Yeah it was getting colder now, but she didn’t mind playing outside! “I don’t want you guys to go anywhere!” Dove was practically a second mother to her. She had no husband, but she was such a sweet woman! Why would she move away like this? She didn’t understand. She wanted Qrow and Raven to stay with her forever! They were such good friends! Qrow frowned. “She wants ta move out ta the country. Said she doesn’t like the city and never has. She misses being outdoors around nature. She said something about falcons?” “Do you know where you’ll be going?” Winter asked, voice wavering. No… She didn’t want them to leave. For what? Birds? Why would they leave just because Dove wanted birds? That was a silly reason to leave! There was plenty of nature out here… There were parks everywhere. Why couldn’t Dove get enough nature in that? She didn’t understand. Why were adults so deadset on moving them apart from each other? She just… She wanted to go with them, but she was pretty sure that her father wouldn’t let them. He already hated her going out and was tightening the reins more and more… She had to dodge out and escape to come play with them. Without them…she wouldn’t haveany friends. And Weiss… She would hate to see what would happen to Weiss now that things were getting worse. “I have an idea!” Winter looked at Raven. “Why don’t you two get married?” Winter and Qrow looked at each other, each of them blushing hotly. “What? I mean you two like each other? Right? Why not do it? It’ll be fun!” “O-Okay… But there aren’t any rings or anything…” Winter pointed out. “There are some flowers over there! How about flower crowns instead of rings?” Raven suggested. It was mid fall, so there were still some fall flowers available. It might not be a ring, but something to symbolise their friendship… That really did sound nice. “Okay, let’s do it!” Raven had taught her to make flower crowns, but she still wasn’t greatat it… She followed Raven and Qrow over to the field of flowers and they picked enough flowers until they could make really nice flower crowns. By time they were finished, both her and Qrow wore beautiful, full flower crowns bursting with color. It made her feel actually pretty for once. She wished she could see herself, but there was no way to do that… They were too young to have phones and her father definitelydidn’t want her to have one… Not that she had any people to contact. Her grandfather was long dead, before she’d even been born… The only people she really had were Qrow and Raven which was upsetting. Other kids treated her badly for some reason, especially the Faunus kids. She didn’t really get it and they didn’t wanna answer her questions when she asked why they were being so mean. “Um… Does anyone know how to do this?” Winter asked. “I’ve never been to a wedding before.” She knew Qrow and Raven were much more social and had a much larger social circle than she did. Maybe they’d been to one before? All she knew was that it was a way for two people to be husband and wife…or wife and wife…or husband and husband. “Um… Not really!” Raven smiled brightly. “I think there’s kissing involved?” “A-Are you okay with that?” Qrow asked. “S-Sure…” Winter said. She kissed his cheek and he kissed hers in return. Raven giggled. “There, now you’re married!” “Qrow, Raven, come on! It’s time to go!” a voice from far away called. The twins frowned and scampered off, leaving Winter alone. She had no choice but to go home now… Nobody would want to play with her now. The only people that did were Qrow and Raven. She would never see them again after today. She hated it. She would miss them so much…They were her only friends… With a sigh, she started trudging home. She knew that it wouldn’t be good and she’d only get yelled at for leaving… At least, she thought she had a promise… Maybe, just maybe…she’d meet Qrow and Raven again. -years later- Winter held Weiss’ hand and her little sister looked around warily. “It’s okay, Weiss; nobody’s going to bite you.” It was mid May. Winter had had quite the time scrounging up enough money to get this particular gift for Weiss, but she knew it was everything her little sister had dreamed of. A falconry experience day. Despite how separated they’d been growing up, Winter still managed to see that Weiss was absolutely fascinatedby birds. There weren’t many places that did falconry experience days, but there was surprisingly one nearby. Winter had had sole custody over Weiss for a little while now. The abuse had only escalated once Willow had turned to alcohol and sleeping pills to cope. As soon as Winter had turned eighteen, she’d filed for custody over Weiss and a court battle had ensued for months against her father. But she’d won. She was barely over nineteen now and life was tough. All she could find were minimum-wage jobs and worked two jobs to keep them afloat. Part of the settlement with Gelé had been he pay for any school Weiss went to. Winter had taken full advantage of that agreement, and had sent Weiss to the best private school that was within a reasonable distance. Weiss got a good education, but the years of isolation and lack of proper socialisation had left her unable to really cope with people. Unfortunately, Winter didn’t have insurance so she hadn’t been able to get Weiss anyform of therapy for the abuse. She tried her best to provide, but she knew it was subpar… Still… A home with love, even if struggling, was better than a high-class home filled with abuse. “Okay…” Weiss looked around anxiously. Winter had moved away as far as she possibly could. She moved to Mapleton in New Albion which was several states away. Gelé had a no-contact order and a restraining order with them and they could only talk through lawyers which, generally, was about schooling funds. Mapleton was known for its nature and being rather rural in an agrarian state. New Albion had a low population density and was quite spread out. She was glad Weiss got to experience nature when Winter never had herself. Weiss definitely enjoyed it, and she thought that the falconry experience day would be excellentfor her. They approached the raptor center. Several other people stood nearby, chatting with each other and waiting for the class to begin. She joined the crowd with Weiss, waiting politely. A young man with black hair and light red eyes approached with a clipboard. He looked down at the clipboard, then back up at Winter, and did that several times. Winter blinked. “Is…there something wrong?” she asked. She thought she hadn’t done anything wrong… They were just standing there. She had paid for this day and hoped they wouldn’t be turned away. For her, this had been incrediblyexpensive especially with the gas to travel a good 45 minutes one way. Would he turn her away for some reason? “Are you Winter Schnee?” The young man seemed around her age. “Yes… Why do you ask?” She blinked a bit. “Have I done something wrong? I bought the vouchers for this day monthsago and arranged this date.” Getting the time off from both jobs had been a nightmare even months in advance. At least it wasn’t around the holidays when both jobs had reallystrict guidelines about who could take time off and who couldn’t. “I…just once knew someone with that name. You look a lot like her, but you couldn’tbe her. She lives in Arlington.” “That’s…where I moved from with my little sister.” She narrowed her eyes. “What’s your name?” Who wasthis guy? It wasn’t like ‘Schnee’ was a very common last name in her experience. Once a Schnee, always a Schnee. She wanted to change her and Weiss’ last names, but that was an expensive, difficult process—money she couldn’t afford to give up right now. She wanted to separate from Gelé as much as she could. “Qrow.” “…Wait… Does that start with a Q?” There was no way in hell.No way… He nodded. “Qrow… Qrow Branwen.” Her eyes widened and she wanted to fall over in shock. “Qrow, it isme! It’s Winter! Are Raven and Dove here too?” He stared at her. “No way in—” He looked at Weiss. “No fricken way! It isyou?” He paused before laughing. “Do you remember our last day together? When we got ‘married’?” Winter’s cheeks heated up and she heard a small noise of amusement from Weiss. “You’re married and you didn’t tell me?” Weiss asked softly. “We were five!We didn’t know what we were doing!” “It really isyou!” He shook his head. “I can’t believe it… Winter Schnee… Long time, no see. I never thought I’d see you again.” “Same.” She dropped Weiss’ hand and opened her arms. “C’mere you!” He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her. “Good to see you… Good to see you.” He pulled back after a few minutes. “Wanna exchange numbers so we don’t lose contact?” “Sure!” Winter pulled out her phone eagerly. She couldn’t believe it! She’d met Qrow again… Her two best friends in the world. They hadn’t forgotten her… She was glad. She was soglad… Maybe life would start looking up now…