No Place Like Home – Chapter 9 – Reconciliation

Sitting with their backs pressed against Taiyang's garage door, the two Schnee sisters let the fact that they were in each other's presence after all these years finally begin to sink in. Looking down at Weiss, Winter sat with one leg out and one bent up, an arm resting on her raised knee and her eyes taking in all that her sister had grown to be. It both surprised and disturbed her just how slight a thing Weiss was…she looked like a shadow of a person, an afterthought that had only been given a body as a passing gesture. She guessed that this was the work of their parents…and the very reason she left like she did.

"You throw a mean punch…I swear you almost knocked me out back there." Winter said lightly, rubbing her jaw as an accompaniment. Weiss simply shrugged, looking down at the ground and nudging a rock with the tip of her shoe, her entire body seeming to sink along with her expression. "Weiss, I…" Breathing out, Winter straightened her back against the door and turned her eyes up to the sky, its clear blue a color she thought was completely unbefitting of this situation. Too pure a color for just how muddled things had really become. "I…didn't mean to run into you this way."

Cutting her off, Weiss looked to the side, her emotions riding on the edge again. "What were you waiting for…?" She asked weakly, the words feeling foreign in her mouth. The way they tumbled out, she wasn't even sure if Winter heard…but the woman perked up and slumped forward slightly whether she did or not, closing her eyes.

"Weiss, I…was just so angry... All those years ago…I was furious, I wanted to burn that damned house to the ground, not only for what our father was doing to you, but for what he was doing to mother as well. I was…I…" Putting a hand to her head, Winter breathed out, dragging her fingers across her bruised skin. "I deserved this…I know I've done you so, so much wrong…" Leaning back and letting her hand drop to her side, she took in a deep breath. "…I overreacted, Weiss…I'll admit freely that I was running all the time…from them, from the house…this town. I wanted to come back, but by the time I looked behind me I just felt in my heart that you were never going to accept me again…"

Scoffing, Weiss pressed the heel of her hand to her face, glancing at Winter again but shying from the sight. "You have no idea what I've been through…" Her shoulders raised, Weiss slumped back against the garage door and rested her head against it, closing her eyes tight.

Winter stared deeply at her own palm, holding it away from her face and studying its creases, almost as if she hoped some answer could be found there. Finding nothing, she then turned her eyes back to her sister, the girl seeming so small and distant that she may as well have not even been there…her gaze once again finding nothing.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Whenever I first told her that enough was enough, she gave me eyes like an animal. Couldn't tell whether it was fear, rage…mixture of both. Even today, I can tell you that those eyes she had back then weren't hers." Pursing his lips, Qrow examined his own palm, seeing a lifetime in the creases there. "I gave her a place to stay, to cool down. I didn't have to ask her where she came from, or why…I could kinda tell. After a certain time seeing a whole bunch of different people, it's almost part of the job to read 'em." Raising his hands in a half-shrug, he closed his eyes and tilted his head a moment. "After a while…she told me herself, anyway."

Leaning on the hearth and observing his brother-in-law ramble, Taiyang made a small noise in his throat, accompanied by a smile and a nod towards Ruby. "I think you saved that woman a whole lot of trouble by getting attached to Weiss like you did. Qrow's been calling me for years on her behalf."

"Actually, it's thanks to you, Yang." Nodding, Qrow waved a hand, extending his fingers vaguely in her direction as his speech continued on.

Scowling, Yang narrowed her eyes and looked at Qrow intently, then shifted her gaze to Tai. Cutting in, Ruby sheepishly looked at the ground, kicking her feet back and forth. "I get it…Yang's Weiss' age, and you told Winter about it, so…she thought it was possible for Yang to know her?" She asked in a low voice, her legs slowing to a stop as her eyes moved between her dad and Qrow once again.

Giving her a thumbs-up, Qrow nodded again. "Right. She didn't wanna come back into town unless she had solid proof that her little sis was still here, and it just so happened that it was me who she ran into, the one person with the best chance to find her that info. I can't believe that she wound up there…the bar's a few states over from here and pretty outta the way. Small world, I guess."

"Seems like a lot of trouble to go to…" Ruby murmured, her head slightly tilted in curiosity. She understood Winter wanting to search for her sister, and with what she was told by Weiss and what she could simply infer, her reason for leaving, but the circumstances just didn't seem fair to Weiss, or even to Winter.

Holding up a finger, Qrow smiled and shrugged. "I dunno…after some of the things she told me, I'm not surprised that she'd want to be so careful. I'd say it worked out well in the end, though. Well…somewhat." Snapping his fingers, he pointed briefly at Ruby and closed his eyes. "Y'know, she was actually gearing up to explain some things, and ask you if you had Weiss' phone number before she got herself slugged."

xxxxxxxxxx

This wasn't how I thought it would go at all…but what right do I have to think a thing like that? "Weiss…I came back because I wanted to offer you something." Winter wasn't sure if she had a right to say any of this, but with a clenched fist and a bowed head she waited to hear some sign from Weiss to continue, a signal that would confirm, even in the most distant sense, that she was allowed to even suggest the thing she was thinking.

Lowering her shoulders, Weiss turned, looking over her shoulder at her sister and wearing a look of shallow confusion. With the sudden appearance…she knew that Winter must have had some sort of "plan". In the past, she always seemed to have a rhyme and reason to everything she did. Every movement was planned in such a way that she never stepped a foot out of her own lines. Of course…with the time that had passed, Weiss wasn't sure just how much of that the woman had retained. "Have you seen…them…?" She asked, her hesitation to even indicate her parents so prevalent that she was confident Winter would understand.

The woman just shook her head. "No…I only came to see you, Weiss. I came back…to see your face and nobody else's…to talk to you alone." Running a hand across her face to wipe away the rogue emotion that threatened her, Winter turned her head and half her body in Weiss' direction, her eyes narrowed and her mouth slightly open. "At first, I was horrified of you…of returning to you…but now that I've seen you, I see just what a colossal mistake I made…" Catching eyes with her for a brief moment, Winter could see the spark of retribution in her sister's eyes flicker out, replaced by what could only be described as great fear.

Suddenly, emotion hit Weiss like a tsunami crashing down on a pebbly beach. Convulsing and falling to the side, she clutched at her chest and curled into a ball, amazing herself for a brief moment that she had so many tears to lose, feeling almost as if she'd drown in them…and partly wanting to. Her words barely audible between her body-wracking sobs, she tilted her head so that her mouth was uncovered the tiniest bit. "I…th-th…I th…" Taking a deep, choppy breath, she tried as hard as she could to force her body to speak with a gasp. "Ithoughtyou…I…thought…I th-thought tha...that y-you hated me…that was why…y…you…l-left me alone…" Curling tighter, Weiss wrapped her arms around her body and rocked back and forth on the ground, her mind incapable of piecing itself together in any capacity after the load the day had laid on it. She wanted to wail, to sob, to get it out of her and just be done with it all, but it seemed like every time she really wanted it…she couldn't. She only seemed to cry in the least opportune times, when there was someone whom she really didn't want to see it hanging around her, or when she'd much rather have been expressing some other emotion. Now, however…it was a different feeling tearing her apart. Seeing her sister for the first time in almost ten years had opened up over half her life's worth of questions, regrets, lies, memories - a whole score of things that she had no mental space left to comprehend. There was no Ruby to keep her safe from her thoughts, this time. There was no music, no writing, no art to forget herself in, and no dreams in which to take shelter from this fucked reality.

The empty space between her and Winter was the only thing Weiss could focus on, the only thing that was real, that was undeniable. Though hardly a foot separated them now, there may as well have been a light-year between them due to the lost time…the time that was stolen, in Weiss' opinion. If they had normal parents, if she was a normal child, Winter never would've left like she did. It wasn't her big sister…it was she who'd stolen that time.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Why do you think the sky is blue, sis?" A young girl asks an older one, as they sit in the boughs of an old tree.

"Oh, I don't know…it could be the sea reflecting onto space." The older girl suggests, pointing out at the patches of clouds in the sky.

Shaking her head, the younger girl puts her fists up. "That's boring, though! Why is it REALLY blue?"

Planting her hands firmly on the branch she was sitting on, the older girl shrugs and pushes, falling to the ground but keeping her footing. "Why do YOU think it's blue?" Extending her hand, she helps the little girl down as well.

"Probably because of the seas reflecting, or something like that." She says with a sly smile.

"Oh, you're so funny! Such a cheeky little girl!" Holding her hands out and chasing her sister around for a little while, the older girl slows to a halt and lays down in the grass, tuckered out. "I guess it doesn't really matter though, does it? The sky is sky, the earth is earth. It is what it is, and it's fine like that, so…why try to bother with explanations? I'm pretty sure you could come up with a great explanation if you wanted to, anyway."

Nodding and laying down beside her sister, the younger girl shrugs. "You're probably right. Mom always says I have a good imagination."

"That you do. Don't let anybody change that, okay? If mother ever changes her mind, don't listen to her!"

Again, the little sister nods and lets out a laugh befitting of her size, cuddling up to the older girl. "I wish we could sit like this forever…no mom, no dad…" Looking up at her sister, the girl felt tears start to well in her eyes and she grabs her tighter. "You make me feel safe…You could protect me from anything…you would, right?"

Wistfully looking up at the sky, the older girl lets out a long breath, feeling tears of her own start to well up. She remembers the way her father had hit her mother just hours earlier, the flow of tears never ending. She remembers her room, her packed bags, the little bit of money she'd saved from her small job, and the keys to the car she'd gotten for her eighteenth birthday nearly a year prior resting in her pocket. Looking down, she meets her little sister's eyes and smiles despite the tears. "You know I'd protect you from anything…you know I would, right?"

Weakly giggling and burying her head into her sister's side, the younger girl lets out a hot breath that makes her sister feel instant regret for an action she hasn't taken yet. "I know you would…no matter what."

"No matter what."

xxxxxxxxxx

As she walks onto the porch and towards the door, she can already feel the pit in her stomach growing. Her sister asleep and cradled in her arms, she just can't back out now. It's too late. For a brief moment, she considers placing her sister in the car as well, but…something stops her. A feeling stemming from that thought that's even worse than her current strife. Steeling herself and taking a shaky breath, she opens the door and walks inside, the smell of alcohol hitting her immediately. The first sight she takes in, a smashed whiskey bottle on the floor, its contents spilled. The first sound, an indiscernible shout. She holds her sister close to her chest and rushes past the shards, taking a hard right into the hallway, and then a left at the end of the hall, placing her sister in bed and wrapping her up in her own covers as tight as she can.

"I love you."

Making her way to the door, she hears a suppressed sound coming from the bed, and an eye looking out at her in the dim lighting. "…Sis…"

The older sister makes brief eye contact with the girl before turning in a flurry, forgetting to close the door before rushing into her own room and gathering any last minute supplies she can think of. Bags in hand, she turns into the hallway only to come face to face with her mother.

The younger sister stands at the door of her room, blanket wrapped around her body, watching in youthful horror as her mother staggers back and closes the door to her own room, a bellowing coming from the other end of the relatively small house. Looking up, she sees her older sister's back and somewhere, deep down, realizes what is happening.

Taking a step forward, and then another, the girl with her bags packed tight is almost able to turn out of the hallway when her father comes rushing out, pauses for a moment, then straightens up, his brow drawn and his scraggly face taught. He looks her over once before giving a look almost of sympathy that soon turns to understanding, and then rage. He points a finger at the floor. "What the Hell do you think you're doing?"

"What does it look like?"

Dumbfounded, he takes a step forward, as does she, and he raises his arm. "Are you going to hit me, father? Be a man for once in your fucking life!" The older girl shouts as she ducks a mid-sentence blow and dashes towards the door.

"Where are you going to go? NOBODY is going to provide for you but THIS house!" Staggering after her, he sneers, teeth clenched, gnashing. "Once you leave that door, you're never welcome here again, you bitch. YOU'RE NO DAUGHTER OF MINE!" He shouts as she darts out of the door, drunkenly throwing a piece of the broken whiskey bottle in her general direction and falling to the floor, passed out.

The little girl left behind hears a car door slamming, and an engine starting. She returns to her room and cries herself to sleep that night. In fact, she can swear that she hears the house crying too.

xxxxxxxxxx

Flopping over beside her sister, Winter laid against the girl and began to take on her sobs, wrapping her arms tight around Weiss for the first time in as long as she could remember. She was a much older woman then, but with her body pressed against that of her younger sister, she was able to cast her mind back to the days when times were good…or at least better than they were now. There was nothing she could possibly say that would undo all the years of guilt and regret, but the one thing that she had to offer was, after all that time…her arms.

Feeling Winter's presence, Weiss rolled over and buried her face in her sister's chest, trying to get as close as she could. Shaking her head, she felt as if she was going to disintegrate at any moment, her body like a lone rowboat carrying her in the maelstrom of her emotions. "I-It…it's…m…my f-fault…i-i-i-if I…j-ju…st…hadn't be…en b-born then…m…m-mom…d…ad would've…be…en f-fine…with…y-you…"

Shaking her head vehemently and bringing up a hand to hold Weiss' head to her body, Winter pressed her face to the top of her sister's head and spoke in hushed but urgent tones. "No…no, that's not true…that's not true at all, Weiss…" Firmly stroking her hair, keeping her in place by the motion, Winter closed her eyes tight, her lips pressed against Weiss' crown. "Dad was never a good man, not ever…you're worth more than that, worth more than me. So much more…" Continuing to stroke Weiss' hair, she pushed herself back up to a sitting position but pulled Weiss with her, scooping the girl into her lap and letting her rest all her weight wherever it fell. "I'm sorry Weiss…I've been so sorry…I'm sorry…"

xxxxxxxxxx

Her hands tight in her lap, Ruby looked up at Qrow with a bit of an inquisitive gaze, her head slightly tilted. "Ahhhh, soooo…how long've you two been…together?"

Perking up, Qrow let a warm smile cross his lips, glancing to the side and running a hand through his hair. "Well, once I managed to convince her to drop drinking, she told me that she figured she owed me something. Said she'd gladly live in the back of the bar if I'd let her work for me as a waitress." A small chuckle escaping him, he smirked, his arms resting on the back of the couch. "To that, I told her bullshit, gave her a right paying job and let her stay in the bar, on the condition that she look for another place while she was at it. I think about...a year or so passed, and we just warmed up to each other. I offered her a real place to stay, and she took it. So, say…a couple 'a years." Sitting forward, he threaded his fingers together and glanced at Yang. "You've been eerily quiet today, firecracker. You alright?" He asked lightly, though he very well could figure her answer.

At first, she was silent, but after a while of sitting still, Yang crossed her arms and turned to look at him. "All these secrets…you're telling us all of this now? Some girl wanders into your bar years ago, you get with her, and you only think to tell us now?" Giving him a pointed stare, she threw in a scowl for good measure.

Taking a breath, he tilted his head to the side. "She didn't want to come back to this town until she could be sure her little sis was still here. That's why I haven't talked about her, because I figured I'd just introduce you whenever she was ready. That can't be too hard to believe, can it?" He asked in return, tilting his head in Yang's direction.

"Ooh, I've had it!" Pushing herself to her feet, Yang pulled up her boxers with one hand and stormed out of the room, a flurry of bouncing blonde locks exiting through the door to the backyard. Though she was practically undressed, the chilly air didn't seem to bother her, as it was likely the last thing on her mind.

Sitting back once more, Qrow let out a deep breath and put both hands on top of his head. "I know what this is about…I'm sorry, Tai, Ruby. I should've just told her from the start…" Planting his hands onto his knees, he stood and stretched. "I'll go talk to the kid."

Slumping in her seat, Ruby groaned and threw her arms up, her head resting back as she launched into a ramble, her words starting slow but gaining traction. "Can't things be normal for like, one second around here? Eaugh…I have no idea what's going on. First I get this whole load of stuff dumped onto me, then I come home and you're back so I get all happy, but then my girlfriend's long-long-lost sister shows up and she punches her in the face and I'm just sitting here like 'WHAT' and then Yang shoots out of the room and I'm just so euuuuuughhhhhh." Stretching out all her limbs, Ruby finally rests them down, looking up to see the two other faces in the room looking inquisitively down at her.

Slumping a bit with his hands in his pockets, Qrow eyes her suspiciously, but with a very faint mischievous smirk. "…Girlfriend, eh?"

Grinning and suddenly turning red, Ruby began touching the tips of her fingers together, nervously laughing. "Wh…pshhhhhh, what? What I meant was that she's my friend. Who's a girl. H…hehe…" Sinking down further with every word, she almost hoped the couch would swallow her before Qrow flashed her a proper smile.

"You could do worse, Red." Shooting Tai a little smile, Qrow then gave Ruby a brief nod and stalked out the back door after Yang, looking to correct at least one wrong before the morning was up.

xxxxxxxxxx

Cradling her sister and rocking slowly back and forth, Winter coaxed the last sobs out of Weiss' body with her movements. Examining the girl another time, but closer, she saw something that she'd missed before, something in the slight nuances of Weiss' tone, the curves of her face, the little details in her that would be missed upon a first glance. She saw pain that would break any normal human being.

"Winter…" Weiss whispered, opening her eyes a crack. Wiping away of her sister's few remaining final tears herself, Winter met eyes with her and tilted her head in an inquisitive sort of way. "Where did you go…when you left…?" Weiss asked quietly, breathing out and letting her head rest on the woman's shoulder.

Looking up, Winter seemed almost to search the sky for an answer with the light movements her eyes took, their fixation on a certain point suggesting a found answer. "I drove…I drove for a long time. I had to pull over a few times…because of my crying, but fear kept pushing me further. I wound up a few states over before I just…couldn't go anywhere else. I looked for jobs here and there…I couldn't really find anything, so I started asking people for money, living out of the car…" Breathing out, she closed her eyes and shook her head, resting her lips on Weiss' forehead. "It's not important, Weiss…none of that is important. Your suffering shouldn't be downplayed…you've had far too much of it."

Putting her legs underneath her body and coaxing her sister to stand as well, Winter got to her feet and moved her head in a vague gesture towards the door. "Do you feel like going back inside?" Nodding, Weiss closed her eyes and took a breath before nodding a second time with a bit more confidence.

Nodding her own head in response, Winter put a hand on the small of her sister's back, guiding her along as they came to the door. Looking up at Winter, Weiss saw a different woman than the one she'd met earlier. Her feelings for her sister were conflicted…and they'd remain that way for a very, very long time…but she'd at least gotten a partial explanation. Well…not even a partial explanation, in fact, hardly an explanation at all, but she'd have a longer, less one-sided talk with Winter in the future. Taking in a deep breath, she nodded again as Winter motioned towards the wooden portal, opening it herself and taking a small step inside.

"I'm sorry, dad…I…should've told you sooner…" Ruby said quietly, bowing her head and looking up at Taiyang. Her face felt as hot as a stove burner, and she felt almost sick inside, a mixture of regret, trepidation and embarrassment, though she didn't know why.

Simply letting out a small laugh and moving to sit on the couch adjacent to Ruby and resting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Ruby…it's alright. I do wish you'd've let me know a bit sooner so I could've given Weiss a better welcome, but that's alright, I think. You don't have to be scared of telling me things, especially not like this. I love you more than anybody, alright?" Finishing with a smile, he leaned forward slightly and tilted his head, patting her shoulder.

"Yeah, I love you too, dad…I just…" Pausing, Ruby let out a long breath, ending it with a smile to match his. "She's the first person I've…felt this way about, and…I just didn't know what to say, or how to tell you." Puffing up her cheeks, she glanced the other way and silently cursed herself for having a mouth quicker than her brain. "I'll tell you things like this from now on, though…I promise."

Taking a breath and standing up, Taiyang flashed her a soft smile and tousled her hair lightly. "I'm just glad you're finding someone to care about so fast. People like that…they're special, Ruby. Show her what makes you a Rose…be happy." Swallowing, he turned and noticed Weiss standing halfway in the door with a total deer-in-the-headlights look on her face. Tilting his head, he smiled wide and nodded to her. "Hi there, Weiss. Get things on the straight-and-narrow with your sister?"

Frozen, Weiss breathed out, looking every direction but directly at him. He knows, he KNOWS we're together…oh God, what's he going to do to her, what's he going to do to me? Standing still with a flood of thoughts whirling around in her head and panic coursing through her veins, she frantically searched for points of possible escape, her mind blocking out his existence until she could figure out what to do. Her heartbeat tight in her chest and her breathing coming in short bursts, Weiss began to tremble as Winter opened the door all the way, her eyes turning down to her sister as she tried to assess what was wrong.

Leaning forward just enough to see around the corner, Ruby's eyes fell on Weiss and she knew what was happening in an instant. Getting up swiftly but steadily, she touched her father to get him to look at her and whispered. "She gets panic attacks, I can help." Nodding, Taiyang took a step back for her as she motioned for Winter to do so as well, carefully moving to Weiss' side and wrapping her arms around the girl, pulling her gently to the wall so that she could lean against it and begin to calm down. Whispering words of comfort against Weiss' ear, Ruby also reached up and gave her hair several long, slow strokes, closing her own eyes and deeply breathing.

Eventually, Weiss felt the stiffness leave her body, the tightness in her throat subsiding as Ruby's presence brought her back to reality. Lifting a hand to her face, she rested it over one of her eyes and buried her face in Ruby's shoulder as the girl wrapped her arms around her, softly rubbing her back and continuing to whisper too low for anybody but her to hear.

Winter quietly wandered over to Tai and crossed her arms, standing next to him and watching this unfold. Glancing up at him with a small smile and an almost pained look in her eye, she let out a breath. "Wow…it looks like they've been together for a lifetime…"

Nodding briefly, Taiyang smiled as well, his eyes narrowed with a different sort of pain as he finally began to see just how much of Summer had made her way into his daughter. "Yeah, it does. Comforting…it just comes natural to that girl."

xxxxxxxxxx

Tightening a wrap around each of her fists and ankles, Yang narrowed her eyes into a twisted glare, striking a stance and circling the punching bag hanging in the center of the cellar under their backyard. Flaring her nostrils, she focused on the bag, rolling her shoulders and throwing a preparatory punch before dashing forward and impacting the bag with two quick left hooks and a hard right, hitting again and again with growing intensity each time her knuckles made contact with the leather surface. Gearing up for a kick, she let out a growling wheeze and nailed it with the flat of her foot, a loud report reverberating through the room as she threw another punch, bobbed, then threw another, and another, her knuckles not relenting for a moment. Though the ambient air chilled her to the bone, sweat still began to bead on her forehead, her body like a flurry of fists attached to a golden blast furnace.

Moving with speed channeled by her raw anger, she pounded the bag, letting out sounds of effort with every connection and hardly stopping to catch her breath for a moment between barrages of knuckles and kicks. Finally, after minutes of assaulting the bag with all her strength, she delivered a few final blows with her last bit of bravado and held it steady shortly after, resting her head on the rugged leather and breathing in shaky bursts.

She didn't move, even as she heard a short, low whistle of admiration behind her. "Here…you're probably gonna want this, kiddo."

Feeling a towel land squarely over her head and back, Yang took in and released a deep breath, reaching around behind her head and wiping her face with it. Resting her forehead back on the punching bag and holding it steady with one arm, she held the towel at her side and regarded the source of the voice without turning around. "Uncle Qrow…I'm sorry." She said quietly, her eyes closed but her brow tightly knit.

Putting his hands in his pockets, the man leaned against the wall which held the rack he got the towel from, watching her back rise and fall with her breathing. "You've got a lot of fire in you…Equal mix of your mom and dad both." Seeing her bristle, he quickly held up a hand and corrected course. "I know…part of that's why you came down here. I'm just lucky it was the bag and not my face." Relaxing again and leaning back on the wall, he let out a breath of his own.

Turning and glancing at Qrow from over her shoulder, Yang blotted the towel around her body to soak up what sweat she could before tossing it in a hamper in a corner of the room and crossing her arms, spinning around completely to face him. "I shouldn't've blown up on you like that, I know…especially not in front of Ruby…but it's your fault, old man." Tilting her head, she huffed. "You promised that you'd tell me something…but you haven't said a word about it all day."

Running a hand through his hair, Qrow grumbled and closed his eyes. "Hey, I might not be as young as you are, but you ain't got a right to call me 'old man', sparky." Opening them again and tilting his head, he gave her a tight-lipped smile and shook his head. "I talked with your dad about it…I…figured he'd want to know too. I, ah…I also figured he should've heard what I had to say first. Yang…I didn't wanna bring it up in front of your sister because the news isn't good." Touching a thumb and index finger to his eyebrows, he slid his hand up and scratched his forehead for a brief moment, looking down.

Narrowing her eyes, Yang tilted her head and took a half step forward. "What are you talking about? What do you mean 'the news isn't good'?" She shook her head softly, the tips of her hair just barely swishing around as she looked at him with fearsome intensity. "You can't just tell me…"

Qrow swallowed, the words he was about to say like poison in his own mouth. He tried to get his lips to move a few times before they actually did, their twitching ceased as he ran a hand down his face to his chin. "I've been looking for her since before you could crawl, Yang. I'd call her friends but she didn't have many. I'd call mine, but they didn't know her. I can't find her anywhere…I can't find her anywhere, and you bet I've looked everywhere my reach can go, for as long as I possibly could." He glanced up to meet dark eyes that seemed intent on ripping him to shreds, and he met them with fervor of his own. "Oh, don't give me that look; you think it didn't tear me apart when she fell off the face of the earth? We didn't always see eye-to-eye, but she was my damned sister." Again raising a hand to his eyes, he lowered it and returned it to his pocket, looking at Yang with a soul resigned to defeat. "I never give up on anything…you know that full well, but you've just got to understand that she's either dead, or she REALLY doesn't want to be found. Either way, it's out of my hands…and it's out of yours, too. Raven's been gone for a very, very long time, Yang."

Shaking her head, she let out a quiet breath, clenching her teeth and nodding. "I…" Beginning to fight back again, she realized that this time it was futile and simply hung her head, taking in and releasing another breath. "I understand…I'm…sorry for everything, uncle." Picking at the wrapping on her knuckles and wrists, Yang got them undone and loosely hung them around a pull-up bar near Qrow, looking up at him with tears in her eyes; the only difference on her otherwise stolid face.

Silently furrowing his brow, he removed his hands from his pockets and stood limply for a while before offering a hug which she eventually accepted, pulling her in and holding her in a heavy embrace. It'd been a damn long time since he'd hugged her…been a long time since they'd done much other than bicker and argue, really. The whole business with her mom had kept them from being on good terms for a while, since Yang put it on him to find her. He was the only one out of the two who could freely travel, and Taiyang had never been one to chase after ghosts. However, that moment of tenderness in the chilly air made them both forget about the strife for a little while, instead allowing them to focus on sharing something which they'd both desperately needed for too long…a break from it all.