FALL

    ;;  Okay, take two!!    [  Reblogs only.  ]    -  It’s North, once more!    This is a AU/Headcanon heavy Summer Rose blog;

Bop bop bop to the Butt Bongo song.

Well? What is she waiting for? This booty is ready for playing.

The booty bongos call.

  “Oh sure let me just-”

“heh, we can close the curtain on it, then.”

“i’ll always prop ya up, don’t worry!”

“fine, fine. i’ll screen some better candidates for ya.”

“you sound more interested than me, Sum. I could hook you up.”

“you’re right. i could see all too clearly it wasn’t gonna work out.”

ugh, he had meant to end this awkwardness, not to drag out a lecture in right and wrong. Summer forces him from the realm of physical to the realm of feelings, and only the growing fondness and respect for the girl keeps him from outright rolling his eyes. he rolls his shoulders back instead, squares his chest, widens his lap. opening up again, little by little.

“whatever, Summer,” he shakes his head, brushing off her confessions and assurances. qrow knows he doesn’t have to, which is why he didn’t at first. apologies twist in his gut the same as true touches do. he has no training in that particular social skill - not doing it, not responding to it. the strong win, the weak lose leaves no room for remorse.

and maybe instilled rules of his own upbringing make him a poor player of her games in the first place. he simply doesn’t like being told what to do, nor losing in the face of someone’s insistence over his own agency. raised to put up a fight and born with the undying urge for freedom.

“look, like i said, s’fine.”

but clearly she still seeks something from him. in the way she draws nearer again, meets him at his level, looks earnestly into his eyes. that type of expression feels more familiar. the want to get closer, the comfort of his softness in one way or another. and it asks rather than demands. offers a vulnerability he can choose to step into or leave hanging. it is as tantalizing and terrifying as always, if only for the fear and guilt that he will inevitably ruin something so precious. 

and she will see every flicker of those thoughts running through his face in the intensity of connected gazes. qrow does not want to hurt Summer, but he will either way. whether he pushes her away or allows her close. by distance or by semblance equally, eventually, she will hurt. and so, will he.

he sighs, separates his legs and pats the floor between his knees, beckoning her to sit down, “how ‘bout I play with your hair first?” 

qrow finds giving affection far more comfortable than receiving it.

for then it cannot later be taken away again.

  She waits, for his response and she waited so patiently. He’d been so vibrantly different from the many people she’d come to meet so far - he had laws to himself, clear that he strained himself and kept to either the whispering shadows or his sister, who she also liked to bother. A nervous swallow, as a Team Leader she were to learn that she influenced their capability, their emotion as a whole.

To learn of them, even though it meant she had to stand against walls and witness the harshest of words. She’d like to think so far she’d done well, enough so that Raven speaks to her better more than what she had once used to, and Tai was becoming physically friendly, the playful headlocks and so much more. As for Qrow, her attemps were slower. She never wanted to walk too fast for him, opting to give him the space he desires to find room for himself, or to even find himself before he’s approached with anything.

Suppose she can name it a lack of social interaction; but she were no better. Summer was friendly in her own term, but rather she was quite shy but still so loud and amibitous. His movement caught her attention, eyes blinking a few times in curiosity at his pat - had he insisted or offered her to sit between his legs on the floor? Was he so sure of this?

Again, she glanced back - there wasn’t that discomforted look much more, a conflicted one perhaps but confliction seemed more better than a strained discomfort like before.  

His next - words, caught her so quickly from guard, eyes widening slightly, cheeks finding a small flush even if the offer was as innocent given as she’d try to offer him.  “M.. My hair?”  Her hand idly raised up to the loose braids at the side of her head, trailing back behind with a wornout hair tie keeping it in place.  “There’s.. not much you can do with it, but if that’s what you’d like, then I don’t mind.”  Baby-steps, wasn’t it?