Meet and Greet
"Raven, for the love of Oum, please stop pacing."
What was she going to do when the scouts returned with the prisoners they'd taken? How should she present herself? As a caring leader, in the hopes of bringing some new members into the tribe, strong members that knew how to fight? Or cruel and callous, like the previous tribe leaders had so often acted? Which approach would be better for dealing with a captured Huntsman and Huntress?
"Raven. Raven, stop pacing. You're stressing me out, Raven!"
And oh brothers, what if it was Glynda and James? What if they'd come at Ozpin's behest, to drag Qrow and Raven back to Beacon, where they would be forced to spy on Ozpin's immortal wife for him, very likely giving up their lives in the process? What would she do then?
"Rae, the camp is on fire."
She would fight, she knew that. Qrow would too. Neither of them intended on returning to Beacon, ever. (She fought off the heartache that always threatened to swamp her when she thought about Beacon, about who they'd left behind. It wasn't the time to grieve.) But could they really take on Glynda and James? They could, and they would almost certainly win, but what if someone from her tribe got hurt? She didn't think she would ever be able to forgive herself if she was the cause of someone from her tribe getting injured, or worse, someone from her tribe dying.
"Oh brothers." There was a loud, dramatic sigh, and then Raven felt something shove at her shoulders. Startled, she spun around, only to trip and fall into the chair which was luckily right behind her.
"Qrow?" Raven blinked up at her brother, silently asking him why he had forced her to sit down. (Because there was no doubt in her mind that Qrow had planned her graceful fall into the chair. He was too cunning for something like that to happen by chance.)
"You were stressing me out," Qrow grumbled, shoving a cup of sweet-smelling tea into Raven's hands and lounging against the desk she'd set up in her tent, a frown tugging at his lips as he cradled his own cup of tea. He rolled his eyes when Raven gave him a look, scowling right back at her. "Don't try and glare at me, Rae. You needed to calm down. You've been pacing and muttering for the last five minutes. You didn't even react when I told you that the camp was on fire!"
"What?" Raven glanced up sharply, paling slightly. She would have leaped to her feet and immediately run outside to make sure nothing had been damaged and no one had been hurt, if Qrow hadn't looked like he was fully prepared to tie her down to her chair until she took a few moments to calm herself down. (He would do it, too. That was a threat that Raven, unfortunately, knew that he would carry out on. Last time he'd seen fit to tie her to her chair, she'd been there for over three hours. And he'd taken all of her knives, so she hadn't even been able to cut herself free!)
"It was just a small one," Qrow rolled his eyes, taking a sip from his tea even as he pointedly stared at Raven's cup. She took the hint, raising the cup to her lips and sipping the sweet liquid within. It was delicious - Raven fully believed that no one made tea better than the Branwen tribe. She could go anywhere in Remnant, and the tribe's tea would still always be better than any swill the kingdoms tried to make. "Someone's cloths were hanging too close to the fire. Bad luck, right?"
Qrow laughed bitterly, staring into his cup as though it held all the answers in the world, wishing he had added a decent amount of alcohol into it, even though that would have destroyed the delicate flavour of the tea. Knowing where her brother's thoughts were going, Raven scowled, reaching out and smacking him on the arm as hard as she could.
"Ow! The fuck, Rae? You can't even let me curse my semblance in peace now?" Placing his cup on the table next to him, Qrow pretended to faint, dramatically landing on the table with a loud thump that had Raven rolling her eyes. "How could you do this to me?" Her embarrassment of a brother wailed, smirking at Raven when he saw that she looked about ready to die rather than deal with him. "I thought you loved me, Rae."
"I'm reconsidering," Raven stated dryly, draining her cup of tea and deftly stealing Qrow's cup, which still had some tea in it. Ignoring her brother's gasp of offense at her actions, Raven cradled the cup in her hands, grinning at the wounded noise her brother made when he saw that she'd stolen his tea. "I wonder if one of the tribe members might make a better brother?"
"Pssh, yeah right." Qrow snorted, pulling himself back into a sitting position and eyeing the cup which Raven was clutching with both hands. "I know you better than all of them. And besides, we're twins. You couldn't get rid of me if you tried. Now give me back my tea, Rae."
Slowly, Raven raised the cup to her mouth, staring her brother dead in the eyes as she finished the tea. Qrow snarled, readying himself to lunge at her, intent on getting her back for this betrayal, only for the impending fight to be interrupted as Asprey peered into the tent with a grin.
"The scouts and the prisoners have arrived, Chiefs Branwen."
"Thank you, Asprey." Raven nodded, getting to her feet. Abruptly, all of her nerves rushed back - she'd almost forgotten about them while bantering with her brother. (Which was what he had intended, she was sure.)
"Hey." Qrow stepped in front of Raven as she attempted to exit the tent, a warm look in his eyes as he gazed down at her. "You're gonna be fine, okay? This is just like any other prisoners interrogation. You just need to talk and look menacing - which basically means you only have to focus on talking, since the intimidation factor is something you've had since birth. Yes, exactly, glare at them just like you're glaring at me right now. There's the intimidating Raven I was talking about. And then, when we're finished with this, you and I are going to have a little chat about stealing other people's tea."
Raven rolled her eyes, but smiled, one of the rare, genuine smiles which only three people ever got to see. "Thank you, Qrow," she murmured. She wasn't entirely sure what she was thanking him for - the tea, the conversation, him always being there for her - but like always, he understood what she meant, eyes softening from their playful glare.
"Always," her brother promised. And then, because the whole conversation was getting far too sappy for the siblings, Qrow reached out and ruffled Raven's hair with a smirk. "Now let's go terrify those prisoners, shall we? You stand there and look menacing, I'll stand behind you and look even more menacing, and there'll be no trouble at all!" He paused for a moment, then, still smirking, said, "and I'm going to get you back for stealing my tea, Rae. Sister or not, that is an inexcusable crime and must be punished."
Raven smirked, a mirror image of her brother's expression. She'd been debating whether to act nicely for the prisoners, but Qrow was right. It wouldn't do for them to think of her or her brother as weak. They'd have to be deadly, and terrifying, in order to assert their dominance over the prisoners.
It was good that they naturally looked terrifying.
"You know," Raven called over her shoulder as she strutted out the tent, head held high and smirk still on her face. She knew what she was doing - talking to her brother made it seem as though she had more important things to be doing than talking to some prisoners, and was exactly the impression she wanted the prisoners to have. (She also really wanted to tease her brother a little bit. But that was besides the point.) "If you don't want me to steal your drink then you shouldn't leave it unattended on my table next to me."
"See, there's this thing called basic decency," Qrow rolled his eyes. "You haven't heard of it, I know, but basically, it's where I put something of mine on our shared table, and because it's mine, no one touches it. It's like manners, although I doubt you know what those are, either."
"Funny," Raven deadpanned, before spinning on her heel to greet the prisoners the scouts had brought into the camp.
And then, for a moment, Raven forgot how to breathe.
"Hey, guys," Summer Rose greeted them with a trembling smile, tears brimming in her gorgeous silver eyes as she stared at the Branwen twins, drinking in the sight of them hungrily after so long spent without them. They looked good, she couldn't help but note with relief. In fact, they looked better than they ever had at Beacon. There was a spark in their eyes that she hadn't realized had been missing; now that she saws them with that spark, looking so wonderfully alive in the midst of their tribe, she wondered how she had ever thought they were truly happy at the Huntsman Academy.
"S-Summer?" Qrow stammered, eyes wide with shock as he gazed at his teammates, who he thought he had left behind forever. He could hardly believe what he was seeing - he had been so sure that he would never see them again, so sure that he would spent the rest of his life missing them, mourning for the friends and family he could have had if he and Raven hadn't had to flee. And now, they were standing right in front of him. "Tai?"
"Glad to see you still remember my name," the blonde brawler tried to joke, although the attempt was ruined by the tears which had begun to spill down his cheeks. At the sound of Taiyang's voice, Qrow couldn't stop his breath from hitching slightly, just as it had at the sight of Summer - at any moment, he knew, he was going to burst into tears, purely because he was so damn happy to see his friends again.
Forcing himself to tear his eyes away from Summer and Taiyang, Qrow glanced at his twin, seeing her standing frozen in place, staring at Taiyang and Summer with a lost expression on her face. Swallowing the sobs that threatened to choke him, Qrow reached out, grabbing his sister's hand gently as he took charge of the situation. (She didn't pull away from the contact, which Qrow was unbearably relieved about. He needed the stability Raven provided - and, he knew that she needed him just as much. They both needed to be reassured that the other was there.)
"Scouts, thank you for escorting them to the camp. You are dismissed - my sister and I will deal with this situation. Go and get something to eat. You've certainly earned it." The scouts cheered and rushed off, although a few of them cast Taiyang and Summer wary glances as they passed them. Mentally, Qrow made a note of who seemed cautious, understanding that the tribe would need to be assured that his teammates were trustworthy.They didn't know Taiyang and Summer like the Branwen twins did. "Come on," Qrow said to Summer and Taiyang, putting an arm around Raven and gently steering her into the tent. He wanted nothing more than to leap at his teammates and hug them for the next week, but he had to put on the face of a leader for his tribe. For the catching up that desperately needed to happen between the four members of team STRQ, they would need privacy. "We need to talk."
Putting an arm around Raven's shoulder, Qrow gently turned them both around, steering his sister back into the tent they'd walked out of just minutes before and trusting that Taiyang and Summer would follow behind them. Qrow felt half-giddy with relief at seeing his teammates, and half-terrified as he thought about what this meant. Because nothing good ever happened around him, not with his semblance, and he couldn't help but expect the worst whenever something good happened.
"Qrow? Raven?" Summer spoke again as soon as they were inside the tent, voice soft and unsure in the face of her teammates less-than-enthusiastic response to seeing her and Taiyang again. Hearing the unusual lack of confidence in her friend's normally chipper tone, Raven was abruptly torn from her shock, the shock that had enveloped her at seeing her teammates for the first time in three and a half months. Shaking her brother's arm off her shoulder, Raven spun on her heel and, in an unusual show of emotions, flung herself at Taiyang and Summer, clinging to them desperately even as they embraced her back, the latter two bursting into tears as they hugged their friend for the first time in far too long.
Qrow, from where he stood on the side, smiled slightly at the scene. He reached out, intending to join in the hug, only for his self-confidence issues to get the best of him, prompting him to curl into himself as he stared at his teammates warily. Would they still want to be friends with him still, after so many months apart? They had been separated for so long - what if, in the months apart, his friends had decided that they wanted nothing to do with Qrow and his unfortunate semblance? What if they'd decided that Qrow was too much trouble to deal with?
"Qrow," Summer glared at her friend, seeing the distant look in his eyes and knowing that he was overthinking things again. "If you don't get your skinny butt over here and give me and Taiyang a hug, I swear to the Brothers that I'll prank you for the next month."
Narrowing his eyes at the very real threat, Qrow opened his mouth to snap something, only for his yet-unsaid words to become a startled yelp instead as Raven, fed up with her brother's mistrusting nature and self-confidence issues, reached out and grabbed his wrist, dragging him into the group hug. Immediately, Taiyang and Summer curled themselves around him, forcing him to join his twin in the middle of the group hug, until it was impossible to tell where one person ended and the next person began.
There were tears. There was laughter. There were smiles. And most of, there was a feeling of Home which all of them refused to lose again.