#dreadpoured

The error messages kept flashing, kept screaming in his mind, and he sort of just wished they’d stop. Of course his right arm would be throwing off warnings: he was looking at it twitching on the ground several feet away, useless and sparking against the center platform of Amity Colosseum. If he had the strength to search for it, he’d see his right leg not very far from it. It had stopped sending him warnings a few minutes ago. He wasn’t worried about that. Watts had dug at his transmitter, but hadn’t managed to dislodge it, that was why he was even still receiving warnings. He wasn’t worried about that either.

[ TEMPERATURE WARNING : SEEK SHELTER ]

What should have been worrying him was what he couldn’t see, but what he could feel. Not just the warmth of the blood, but the cold around him. The walls helped to shield him a little from the arctic air, but he wouldn’t last long enough for his aura to come back and protect him. Though, even that didn’t bother him, not really. He was pretty positive that there wasn’t a living soul who could put him back together this time. It was a little foolish to worry about the cold now.

[ BLOOD PRESSURE WARNING : SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION ]

He had tried to send a distress call, a few times. His left arm was in bad shape, but he could still move it, the fingers still worked on his scroll’s emergency button, even if his fingerprints were gone and unable to properly unlock it. But the signal was jammed, most likely by something that Watts had done. People knew that he had come here, but he was sure that no one would notice that he hadn’t returned to the academy until it was too late. It probably already was, actually.

[ SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION ]

James wasn’t sure how bad the wounds actually were. He couldn’t inspect the worst one by touch, his remaining hand could barely feel anything but pain, with its flesh burnt away. And he didn’t really have the strength to move it. But he could feel the pain of the torso wound, splitting him from collarbone to groin like the seam that Watts had reopened. It hurt more than the bruising, than the burns his arm and forehead had suffered.

[ SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION ]

He didn’t hear the light footsteps until they were pretty close, but couldn’t turn his head to see who it was. His right eye was useless, with Watts having overloaded his transmitter and damaged the other sensitive connections close to it. There was no relying on peripheral vision now.

[ SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION ]

Bork bork.

Qrow lifted his head slightly from where he'd been napping, and opened one eye, looking down at the dog on the floor beside the couch. Zwei was looking up at him expectantly, wagging his tail so hard that his whole body wagged with it. He shut his eye, turning over to face away from the dog.

"Go away, fuzzball."

Bork!

"Where's Tai? Go find Tai."

Bork! Bork bork!

... wait, were Tai and the girls not back from town yet? Qrow checked the time on his scroll, frowning. They could have been back by now, but since Zwei was bothering him, he assumed they weren't. The hunstman groaned, sitting up and popping his back. At the movement, Zwei waddled away, toward the front door.

Okay, apparently he just needed to go out. Fine.

Qrow hauled himself to his feet to follow the dog. Once he caught up, Zwei barked again, hopping in a tight circle and continuing to wag his entire stubby little body. Qrow opened the door to let Zwei outside, frowning when Zwei just sat down on the step. What was he doing?

"Hey, go do whatever you're gonna do." He nudged at Zwei's back with his foot. "Go on."

Zwei just barked, not getting up. Qrow rolled his eyes, stepping out behind him and closing the front door. As soon as Qrow was fully outside, Zwei hopped down to the ground, waddling away toward a tree to take care of business. Qrow just sat down on the step to watch him, pulling out his scroll to flip through photos while Zwei did his thing.

All of a sudden, Zwei began to growl, barking loudly and aggressively. He couldn't remember the last time he'd heard Zwei bark like that. But it sent Qrow's muscles tensing. He stood and edged backward toward the door to grab Harbinger from where she'd been resting just inside of it just as Zwei came running back toward the house. He hopped and turned, standing in front of Qrow and growling out at whatever threat he was sensing as if he, at a little over a foot tall and a little fatter than he probably should have been, could protect Qrow from it.

The bushes nearby rustled, and Zwei continued to bark, louder and louder, as the fur along his spine raised. Okay, not big enough to be a grimm, so what could it be? He aimed at the bush, taking a shot toward it. The bushes rustled again, and a large black bird took off from within them, vanishing into the trees overhead.

Oh. Great.

"Fuck off," he grumbled, straightening Harbinger back out. As soon as the bird disappeared, Zwei stopped growling, looking up at Qrow and wagging his tail. Qrow actually cracked a smile, stooping down to one knee to scratch the dog behind the ears. "... good job, fuzzball."

Zwei sat down, tongue lolling out, and Qrow glanced around to make absolutely sure that they were alone before he set Harbinger aside and reached down to start squeezing at Zwei's cheek pockets. He grinned a bit when Zwei just continued to wag. Zwei was protecting the house and the family. And it was better that he'd caught it before Tai and the girls had gotten home, because that would've been... way worse if Tai had seen.

"Hey Qrow!"

He immediately sat up, raising his hands as if he'd been caught doing something wrong and turned toward the small crowd that had walked up while he was squishing the dog's cheeks. Yang was snickering, making no effort to conceal her grin. He rushed forward to help take groceries as needed, and shot Yang a sideways look, though it did nothing to deter her grin. Tai was chattering about how James would be getting in earlier than they thought, and they'd have to go back into town to pick him up later. Yang could keep snickering as much as she wanted.