#wegowayback

@thygoodluckcharm​ sent:  “Nobody fucks with my friends. Except me. But that’s different.”

@thygoodluckcharm​ sent: ◈

How many times had he been to Atlas at this point? How many times had he strode into ol’ Jimmy’s office to find the Ice Queen and Mr. Living Luck flanking him? Qrow couldn’t remember now. Special Ops, Ace Ops... all friggin’ lap dogs if you asked him... but hey, this dog and pony show was what made Ironwood and the people of Atlas sleep a little better at night. He just hated having to be here for it. Well... most of the time.

This trip had seen Qrow playing errand boy, delivering a message from Ozpin and also checking in on the status of the Winter Maiden. As good as the CCT network was, there were still some things that weren’t to be trusted to send over the lines. Plus, there were some things that Ozpin had asked Qrow to keep an ear out for in his travels at Ironwood’s request. 

While he and James had their ‘meeting’, of course Winter and Clover had been dismissed. They weren’t inner circle after all and Ozpin had made it very clear that wished for them to keep business that involved Salem to themselves. That was fine and dandy with him honestly. But... over these trips to Atlas, once business had been concluded, Qrow had started to run into Mr. Living Luck more and more when he’d stop to grab something for the ‘road’ in the Academy’s cafeteria... and they’d started talking.

Little by little, just quick, snarky chats had turned into actual conversations. There were even a few times that Ironwood had asked Qrow to tag along with the Ace Ops while he was in the kingdom, give them a hand. Having an extra elite huntsman around never hurt right? And the team was an odd number so it made sense that Qrow go along and partner up with one of them... always Clover by the cocky son-of-a-bitch’s insistence. Not that they didn’t work well together, quite the contrary, it was more the fact that the more Qrow was around Clover, the more... uncomfortable... he became and in a way that was only really bad to him.

After this particular meeting with James, the two of them had met up just to shoot the shit. Most of it was vague stories of things that had happened on their latest personal adventures, but it also had Qrow feeling that damned uncomfortable, antsy feeling. He knew this feeling and it spelled disaster for him, it always did. (Not that he’d allowed himself to indulge it much in his lifetime) 

Clover must have had a sense for it though, given that Qrow was a bit more antsy than usual. The act had been innocent enough, a gloved hand reaching out to cover his as they sat atop one of the many walls that framed Atlas Academy just looking out over the soft glow of the floating city. It had a wash of bravery, or maybe utter stupidity, wash over Qrow as he looked at the hand on his and then up to unexpectedly meet Clover’s eyes. Leaning in, he simply kissed Clover, not knowing what he was thinking or what he was expecting. The worst really, but once he’d done it, he couldn’t take it back...

Reports had come in to the stationed Atleasian forces, to Winter about a man who had a surprisingly high level of venom, levels that had never been seen before and somehow the man in question was still alive. “I had heard what happened from the reports Winter sent back.” He admitted trying to move himself even closer to the bed if that were even possible. When Qrow moved to sit himself up Clover instinctively moved with him. “Hey easy now...Of course I was worried... Especially when I heard how bad you were.”

Sitting back in the chair instead of on the edge Clover let out a small sigh. “The medics here weren’t even sure they could naturalize the poison. I practically had to beg the General to let me come all this way.”

It was a bit odd to him that anything about what had happened to them would have gotten to Winter... or that she would even give a shit enough to include it in anything sent back to Atlas. Though, if they were out looking for anything that might have been perceived as a threat... or had she been instructed to report back anything that had to do with the group... Maybe it made a little more sense to him after all. 

“Did you really think something that stupid would keep me down?” he laughed, coughing a bit as the muscles moved and sent a bit of a pain through him. “Ya can’t get rid of me that easily, trust me.”

As Clover moved back away from his place on the edge of the bed, Qrow’s expression subtly saddened, a small pout pulling at his lips. Yeah, he’d known how bad off he’d been when they arrived in Mistral, knew how close to dying he’d really come... that’s why he didn’t want that distance between them now. Those slight hints would be the only ones he’d give of what was going on his head though, it wasn’t like he’d really expressed his emotional standing after all...