Grow together,whatever the weather.

Chapter 5

Qrow wasn't sure what to expect as he admitted it, the weight in his chest lifting to make room for dark emptiness. But he sure as hell wasn't expecting Clover to smile.

"...What? What is it?" Qrow asked him uncomfortably.

Clover softened. "You really don't have a clue how wonderful you are, do you?" He knocked their heads together affectionately. "Gods, maybe I've been slacking. I need to remind you just how brilliant you are more often."

"What – what are you talking about?"

"Qrow... Qrow, you silly bird." Clover shut his eyes and landed a chaste kiss on Qrow's lips. "You'd be such a great parent. You're so loving to your nieces, and to their team. And all the ragtag kids they brought with them to Atlas. I still remember how worried you seemed about them the first time I saw you."

Qrow pulled back instinctively, before sighing. It always felt wrong for him to accept compliments, much less ones relating to such a topic.

"Qrow... love, you might not see it, not yet, but everyone around you can't see anything else. You're incredible."

"Alright, alright, are you trying to make me tear up here?" Qrow looked away. After years of being told he wasn't much of anything, it was hard to be anything else.

Clover sighed, before squeezing his hand. "Let's go inside. We don't have to rush into anything."

Qrow looked out at Zwei, who was now staring right at them and wondering when he was going to be let back inside. Qrow smiled a little, trying to be encouraging, and nodded.

————

Qrow curled around Clover that night, as he did most nights, one hand on his chest to keep track of his heartbeat. Clover laid his own hand lazily over Qrow's, wrapping an arm around his birdie. He looked out the window as rain splashed over the glass, obscuring everything in ribbons of blurred colour. And he wondered about children. And Clover, and him.

Maybe some way, it might work. Even with Clover's job, even with the world as it was, even with... himself. Visions swam behind his eyelids like half-forgotten daydreams, the thoughts of nursery schools, of stuffed animals, of faceless children he couldn't quite see smiling, laughing.

The thought of reading to them at night. The thought of them falling asleep as he carried them in his arms. The thought of them unlocking their semblances and showing off their new powers.

The thought of them at school, with friends of their own. Of Ruby and Yang suddenly having cousins, of Tai being an uncle, of him and Clover coming home to be greeted with tiny hugs.

He smiled to himself a little.

The thought of them going missing, or being bullied, or hurt, or attacked by Grimm –

He clenched his fist, burying his face in the crook of Clover's neck. These theoretical children didn't even exist and he was already so worried.

"Hey..." Clover breathed, turning so he could hug Qrow, see his face, "you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm, I'm fine." He replied, although he was not fine, "just thinking about what you said."

Clover's eyebrows smoothed out, the furrow lines in his forehead vanishing. "Lien for your thoughts?"

Qrow bit his bottom lip. "I'd worry about them so much."

Clover smiled. "Me too. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't make us happy. If you never worried about your kids, can you really say you were a good parent?"

Qrow grunted in quiet agreement. "I don't... I'd like to. I just... Don't know if I would be good. We'd have to adopt, obviously, and I don't know if a baby would be a good idea, or an actual kid, or..."

"One step at a time, birdie." Clover stroked Qrow's cheek. "I'm not exactly asking you to march down to the adoption centre tomorrow morning. The fact that you're willing to think about it is enough."
Qrow couldn't help but cuddle up to Clover again.

"And for the record, you're not old. Not too old for this, for anything. Okay?"

Qrow chuckled. "If you say so."

"I do say so," Clover kissed the top of Qrow's head, "now, get some sleep. I want to spend all day with you tomorrow."
"Like you did today? And yesterday?"

"And hopefully the rest of my life." He smiled, shutting his eyes.

Qrow sighed, but his heart felt lighter as he fell asleep that night, lulled by Clover's heartbeat and the hailstorms outside.
Patch didn't really get snow. But it had everything else for Qrow to be content for now.