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Did you really think you were worthy of love?
Voices, hissing through his head. Over, and over, until Qrow blinked his eyes back open from where they'd somehow slipped shut without his noticing.
Just a year ago, he would've given in. Would've left the house, wandered the streets, made bad decisions until everything hurt and the thoughts were muted for just a few more hours. But he was older now, better at trusting. Better at telling his brain to shut the fuck up.
And it was with the reassurances that his fiancé had spent months repeating to him that he stood from the bed and headed down the hall. He held them close in his mind, focused on each step forward, until he was staring down the back of the familiar mess of hair that he loved pressing his face into.
"Clover?" he whispered, fighting back the urge to flinch as his head twisted around to look at the doorway. Instead of commenting on the mess that Qrow must've looked like, though, he smiled that soft smile that still sent a wave of warmth rushing through every inch of Qrow's body, raised an arm up to clear a warm area just beside his body.
With just a bit of hesitation, Qrow slipped forward and pressed in to the offered space. "Hey, blackbird," he felt murmured into his head. "What's going on?"
Nothing , he thought. It's fine. But… He wasn't an idiot. Clover hadn't believed that for years, and Qrow himself had promised to be honest about those things regardless. So he just pressed his face into Clover's warmth and shook his head.
"Not today?" Clover crooned from above, and let out a light chuckle. "That's alright, Qrow, do you want to just sit here, or do you want me to talk?"
He twisted his head up and peeked up at his fiancé. "...Can you talk?" he mumbled, and Clover grinned, pulling him in closer to lift Qrow's legs up onto his and wrap his arms more securely around the smaller man's body.
"Of course I can," he said, pressing a quick kiss to the top of his head. "Well, you know how Tai's been driving himself crazy trying to make sure we plan our wedding right , or whatever?"
Qrow muffled a laugh into his shoulder. "We're going to fuck that day over in some way, I don't know why he tries."
"Right! But for some reason, he decided that the best course of action would be to test the sturdiness of this big wooden plank he made, for whatever reason , and obviously the first test subject would be Zwei." Clover glanced down at where Qrow had shifted to rest his cheek against his shoulder, content to watch him ramble. "He wanted to build up to having all of us on the plank, and so he's got Ruby standing up there with Zwei when Yang comes out of the house."
Qrow's eyes widened. "Wait, was this the day that I made that nest-"
"-And wanted me to come in and see if I fit? Yes ."
He twisted to press his face back into Clover's shoulder, the previous mood slipping to the back of his mind as his fiancé's voice shoved out the older, violent ones. "Oh, no," he groaned, and Clover's chest shook underneath him with a nearly-stifled laugh.
"Oh, yes ," he replied, and Qrow could hear the smirk in his voice. It was almost guaranteed to come with that glint in his eyes, he mused, so unlike the glint of violence and pain that he was used to. Because with Clover, everything was safe. All his old memories had, through the past decade or so that they'd been together, been pushed to the side in favour of new ones.
A lucky charm, indeed, he thought, internally snickering at the joke. Maybe his name had been a joke, or maybe Clover had gone through the same process of being renamed for his semblance, but either way, it spoke the truth. The second he'd arrived in Atlas and seen those bright green eyes, his life was changed, set on a course better than anything he'd ever experienced before.
"Qrow?"
He blinked himself back to reality, turning his head to meet those same green eyes. "Yeah?"
A relieved smile broke out across Clover's face, and he had to drag his eyes away from the sight to focus on his next words.
"You feeling better?" he asked, and Qrow twisted his mouth into a matching smile, letting out a hum of confirmation, getting a press of lips against his forehead and a soft, "I'm proud of you, you know that?"
Well. That wasn't fair. Qrow raised an eyebrow, very pointedly ignoring the heat that had risen to his face.
"Would you have done this, two years ago?" he explained, smoothing a hand down the back of Qrow's head. "Would you have even considered coming to me, or talking to someone? You've come so far since we first met, and I'm so, so proud of you."
With a whine, Qrow curled his arms tighter around Clover's torso. "That's not fair," he grumbled, and Clover smiled into the side of his head.
"Maybe not. But what's wrong with wanting you to know that I love you?"
Somehow, even more heat shot up to his face, and Qrow groaned into him. "No, be quiet, you know what that does to me."
"But I love you so much!" Clover teased, nuzzling into his hair. "I can't wait for the wedding, we can share a bank account then and everything! And then we won't have to transfer lien back and forth!"
Qrow groaned again, but turned his head to pull his mouth away from Clover's shirt, cursing out the cold air that made him want to do something else to warm it up. "Does that mean you'll stop stressing about having our accounts perfectly balanced?" Clover hummed and nodded, and Qrow lifted up a corner of his mouth into a half grin. "Then I can't wait for the wedding, either."
When he was met with silence, Qrow pulled back fully and glanced up. "I love you too, though, Cloves, you know that, right? I really am excited. I can't wait to legally spend the rest of my life with you."
Clover pulled him back in, stroked a thumb along his shoulder and pressing a kiss to his temple. "I know. Don't worry, blackbird. I know."