@ozqrowweek Day 4: The Beach Episode 🏖️
(just gonna jump straight into it because it's longer than I anticipated.)
The minute the car stopped, Ruby sped out of the backseat in a flurry of rose petals with her little red boogie board in hand and her trusty companion Zwei speeding right behind her in his little beach ball shorts. Weiss followed after her, trying (and failing) to scold her significant other on the mess she left in her speedy exit. Blake and Yang crawled out of the back with the cooler and Yang’s much longer surfboard as Taiyang went to pick up everything that Ruby had dropped.
Qrow and Ozpin pulled up soon after. They managed to catch Ruby flying up in the air, shouting “THE BEACH!!” at the top of her lungs.
Ozpin chuckled. “She seems excited.”
“Don’t see why she shouldn’t be. Been awhile since we’ve been back here all together like this,” Qrow said, turning back to his teens cramped in the back, “What about you guys? You excited to see your cousins?”
“Mmhmm!” Maylea exclaimed, chomping down on the last bit of her orange creamsicle.
Oscar was too distracted with all of his beach things and their youngest, Garnet, had her face buried in a book but by the way her shoulders scrunched in and how her knees were pressed to her chest, she didn’t seem too pleased to be there.
“Garnet? Are you okay, love?” Ozpin asked.
“Can I stay in here until we go back to the house? I can walk too if that makes it better.”
“G, we’re not leaving you in a hot car and we’re for sure not letting you walk all by yourself. That’s like basic parenting 101.”
“Please?”
“I thought you were excited to see Ruby and Yang again?” Oscar said, “Haven’t seen them since the Vytal Festival in March.”
“I was until I realized they were bringing all of their friends and junk with them,” She pulled her hood down lower on her face.
“You’re lucky it’s just JNPR. I heard Ruby wanted to invite team SSSN, team CFVY, team–”
“Not helping, May.”
“Right, sorry.”
“Why don’t you at least say hi? We’ll be right beside you the whole time.”
She sucked her teeth, “I don’t know. They’re all going to be romantic and sweet and stuff–”
“I’m sure they will have enough restraint to say hi and spend time with their cousins, '' Ozpin said, adding a small, “At least, I hope they will.”
“Mmm…okay. I’ll…I’ll go.”
“Yes!”
“Alright, family beach trip back on track! Oscar, you get the cooler, I’ll get the grill, Nettie, try and keep your sister away from the rest of the ice cream ‘til after lunch.”
“Hey!”
The Branwen-Pine family finally piled out of the car. Team Rwby had already gotten settled in their respective areas. Ruby was having a water gun fight with Weiss (who was losing miserably), Blake was under an umbrella with her favorite fantasy book, and Yang and Taiyang were busy setting up the volleyball net.
Oscar and Maylea ran ahead, dumping all of their belongings onto the sand and only grabbing the ‘important’ items before running into the water to join in the water fight.
Ozpin rolled his eyes as he collected whatever they had dropped and set up their stuff beside Taiyang’s.
“Uncle Qrow!” Yang exclaimed, “Uncle Oz! Good to see ya!”
“Took you guys long enough,” Taiyang said.
“We had a bit of trouble getting Nettie outta the car. You know, a lotta people coming and stuff.”
“Is that why she isn’t here?”
The two exchanged a puzzled glance before looking behind them. Garnet was still standing on the hill where their cars were parked. Her still state however didn’t seem to be from a place of anxiety but a place of new found serenity.
“Looks like she’s feelin’ better already.”
“The ocean air did always clear her senses. She’s been needing to go out somewhere that isn’t the school or our land.”
“YO! G! You wanna play volleyball when Nora and them get here!”
Garnet gave an unsure thumbs up before starting to make her way down to the sand.
Qrow slinked his arm around Ozpin’s waist and pulled him close, “See? She’s getting out of her shell more. Pretty soon, once the whole ‘Salem being a thing’ thing dies down, she’ll make more friends of her own.”
Ozpin hummed, “I hope. She’s a good child. Anyone would be lucky to have her around.”
“The others seem to like her a lot. Nora especially.”
“Are we so sure that’s a good thing?”
Qrow chuckled into the crook of Ozpin’s neck. “C’mon, cut the kid some slack. Yeah she blew up the dust lab a couple times–”
“12. 12 times, Qrow.”
“But, hey. She makes Nettie laugh.”
Qrow pressed kisses up and down his neck. Ozpin laughed while Tai sighed.
“You two always find ways to rub your relationship in my face, huh?”
“Oh, you know it,” Qrow said, trying to playfully smack Ozpin’s ass but he quickly grabbed his hand.
“Not in front of the children, dear.”
“Right. Kids. We have those now.”
Tai rolled his eyes, “Now that you’re done with whatever that was, can you please help me set up the grill.”
“Of course, Tai.”
And so, the day went on. Team JNPR finally showed up – apparently when they stopped at a nearby gas station, Nora just had to grab every snack on the shelves. Tai and Ozpin got the grill started up (mainly thanks to Ozpin and his magic) as the kids began their volleyball game. Garnet was more hesitant than before but after some coaxing from Yang, she left the beach blanket with Blake and joined the others. It ended up becoming a 1v1 with Yang and Nora the entire game (they were always so competitive when it came to each other) and it continued on to lunch with a contest of who could gorge themselves on the biggest rack of ribs after the volleyball game ended in a tie (or at least that’s what they had to tell them so they wouldn’t rip each other’s heads off.) Most of them went in the water to escape Tai’s awful dad jokes. Nora got a cramp and nearly drowned. Blake, Yang, and Garnet were chilling out on land but Garnet must have sensed that they wanted to be alone so she decided to head off to the other side of the beach, much to the chagrin of her fathers.
“I’m just going to check out the other side of the beach for a few minutes. I’ll be fine.”
“I dunno, G…”
“You let me go out on my own all the time back home.”
“Well, Garnet, that's because we have people nearby to ensure your safety.”
“And? There are people here who are trained to attack on sight if anything goes wrong. I’m trained to attack on sight if anything goes wrong.”
“I suppose that’s true…”
“So, I can go?”
They exchanged a glance before sharing a nod. “Yes, you may go. But only for 10 minutes.”
“And keep your scroll on you.”
“And yell if something happens!”
“I will!” She took off running in the other direction with an odd amount of enthusiasm that she didn’t initially have.
“She’s hiding something, isn’t she?”
Qrow nodded in agreement. “Yep. Don’t know what but hey, at least we know she can’t cap size the place even if she wanted to.”
“Should we follow her?”
“In a miinute. I wanna walk for a second.”
“Okay? Lead the way.”
Qrow took Ozpin’s hand and led him away to the opposite side until the group became just mere dots.
“It’s pretty nice out here, huh?” Qrow said.
“It is. Almost makes me want to stay for a couple months. Not go back to school for a while. Though I doubt it would sit well with Glynda and the others.”
Qrow shrugged. “She’s done better with worse.”
Ozpin chuckled. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”
They stopped. Qrow moved in front of Ozpin, taking both of his hands. “Hey.”
“Hi?”
“So, I uh, wanted to ask you something…kinda important.”
“Okay? And that would be?”
Qrow caressed his knuckles, “So…you know how we’ve been together for a while now, right? And we have these kids and the war’s pretty much over and–”
“Qrow,” Ozpin raised a brow, smirking, “Are you trying to ask me to marry you again?”
“Ah, pretty much? With everything that’s happened and all the shit we went through, well–I thought we could use something like this,” He dug into his short pocket and pulled out a silver wedding band engraved with intricate leaf designs. Ozpin’s smirk curled into a sweet smile as Qrow got down on one knee, “Man, I’m more nervous than when I first asked you this.”
“Take your time, dear.”
Qrow took a deep breath, “Okay; Ozpin Pine, father and occasional teacher of my children, love of my life – will you marry me? Again? Until the next threat to the world comes and tries to rip us apart both literally and metaphorically?”
Ozpin laughed, “Yes, yes! Of course I’ll marry you, my dust old Qrow!”
He lunged forward and threw his arms around him. “H-Hey! Careful! Your ring!” Ozpin didn’t listen. He instead peppered his face with kisses until he settled on his lips with a long, soft kiss. Qrow laughed, pressing his forehead to Ozpin’s.
“So we’re really doing this again, huh?”
“I suppose we are.”
“Should we tell the kids?”
Ozpin looked behind them, seeing Maylea running towards them with Garnet and Yang following in tow. “I believe they have something to tell us.”
“DAD! PAPA! Garnet has a girlfriend!” Maylea screamed.
“DO NOT!”
“Oh, you so have a girlfriend!” Yang replied.
The two exchanged a surprised glance.
“So…we tell them after we deal with this?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
(thank God it managed to fit. Had to cut out a bunch of stuff before posting so if it seems kinda unfinished that's why.)