The Burning Rose

Chapter 18: Shinning Beacon

Cinder sat at the table of Tai's apartment eating breakfast. He lived here during the school year, and while it was mostly meant for one, she had been given the bed.

She glanced up at the tv, the headline was about vegan goat cheese that could be mass produced on the cheap, causing her to let out an angry sigh. It had been two weeks and still no news on the masked man.

Annoyed, Cinder went back to eating her toast with additional aggression.

"You know that attacking your meal won't make the police find the guy any faster, right?" Cinder looked up at Qrow who sat across from her. She gave him a pointed glare, before returning to her food.

"Oh come on. You shouldn't beat yourself up over the masked lunatic. He's probably strong enough to force me to go all out, so there's nobody who could have stopped him once he disappeared." Qrow said, taking a pointed swig from his flask. "Once you graduate, you can have the cream of the crop of hunting mad men like him."

"Were you even listening to what I've said?" Cinder asked coldly. "That masked lunatic has history with Summer. So he might target Yang or Ruby! I can't wait! I need to be stronger now!" When Qrow didn't even look up from his flask, Cinder felt her blood boil.

"He has a mind reading semblance or something! Meaning he'll know what you're going to do at the same time you do!" Cinder yelled. "Don't you understand how dangerous that is!? How does that not bother you!?"

Qrow continued to drink in a loud manner Cinder was sure he did just to piss her off. Then he finally lowered it, he took even more time to wipe his mouth, something he never did, before replying.

"Kid, grow up." He said calmly. "You can't afford to get this rattled after one lose. No matter how much that loss hurts."

"One loss? One Loss!?" Cinder bellowed, leaping to her feet knocking her chair over. "Someone died! And you're telling me to just get over it!? Well excuse me for having emotions and actually caring about someone else! Maybe you don't understand this, but some of us like having something other than alcohol for company!"

Qrow looked up at her with an annoyed expression. "Low blow, kid. Low blow." He said dryly, then picked up his flask and began drinking again, causing Cinder's to narrow. She actually missed him disappearing on long missions.

Wait a minute.

"Say, why are you even back in Vale?" Cinder asked, studying his face carefully. "I thought you were on some big important mission for Ozpin. What? Did you screw up so badly he kicked you off the job?"

Much to Cinder's annoyance, Qrow didn't react at all. He just continued to drink for several more minutes before answering.

"I was hunting a power Grimm. I killed it, when something weird happened. I just found out what it was and was returning to report it." Qrow still spoke like he was looking down on her, making her even more pissed off then before. "Huntsmen duty isn't all gilts and glamor like you kids think. Sometimes, you have to do really annoying things to get the job done. Believe me, I've done some incredibly annoying things in my life, but I guess you kids wouldn't quite get it."

Cinder glared at Qrow and crossed her arms. "Then enlighten me, oh great and might huntsman." She said mockingly. "What did you unearthed that was so important you had to come running back to Vale and not use the global communication network that was set up two years ago."

Qrow gave Cinder an annoyed look, then tried to drink more, but found his flask empty. With a sigh, he got up and walked over to Tai's alcohol stash. "It's called non ya business." Qrow said sarcastically, causing Cinder to bristle.

"Haha. I haven't heard that one before, you dirty old man." Cinder snarled. "Got anymore jokes that went out of style last decade? Or are you too drunk to think of anything?"