"Observe" (but only if you want. 💜)
send “OBSERVE” for a mini-drabble of how MY MUSE sees and/or thinks about YOUR MUSE while they do something completely ordinary
Meetings in Beacon’s tower quite tended to never go as easily and smoothly as James wished them to. In fact, he usually counted two extra days for his travel, just to have some buffer time for a headache, he knew he was going to get.
Jet lags were nothing compared to Qrow Branwen. The most infuriating, overly confident and blunt person he got to know. James wished he could say he was able to deal with Branwen like with any other nuisance, but in truth he spent most of the meetings glaring at whatever display of blatant disrespect for everyone and everything Qrow put up and trying to keep his own temper in check.
It never went as planned. Sooner or later the glove thrown in challenge was just too... challenging. And sooner or later James gave in and joined this ridiculous mental duel over whatever they were discussing. Ironically enough, conclusions they drew out of it, with Ozpin’s little spins around the topic, were incredibly valuable points in overall strategy. James with a bit of mixed feelings, caught himself enjoying these discussions, despite they tended to take unpredictable turns. Or maybe because of it.
He caught himself not only glaring at Qrow and his cocky abuse of savoir vivre. He caught himself observing and searching - curious, slowly learning to read the little tells that he never suspected to find. Like it was another challenge, but one Qrow didn’t seem to consciously put out there. He saw how his eyes flicked to Oz, whenever he talked. So there was an exception to not authority rule. He saw tremble in the thin fingers and turning on rings. So he wasn’t as confident in everything as he posed. He saw nervousness, uncertainty, covering lacks in courage with alcohol, maybe covering for other things too. But he also saw pushing on, going on despite the obstacles. That wasn’t something he could just shrug off and pretend he didn’t see.
He saw a method in all this chaotic madness he couldn’t understand. An effective method, a whole complicated strategy that got Qrow what he wanted. Presumably, because James couldn’t really tell what Qrow wanted nor how much of his actions were planned as opposed to spontaneous. All the lines were blurred, but the more James saw, the more he wanted to learn and understand.
Then the more he understood, the more of his attention it occupied, no matter how far off his mind he pushed it to focus on the meeting, it kept coming back. James could keep claiming that nothing changed. Qrow still was annoying and annoyingly distracting, and yet...
He wouldn't want it any other way.
