A/N: Qrow=Cinderella, Clover=Prince Charming.

Qrow Branwen is miserable, his twin sister and their adoptive father treat him horribly. He's forced to do all the chores around the house and wait on them hand and foot. Qrow feels more like a slave rather than a member of the family. And he's treated as such, his bedroom is a cold attic, and his bed is just a worn out mattress stuffed with hay. The only thing that makes Qrow happy are his birds. He has seven little birds that he feeds at his window everyday. There's Ruby, a red and silver bird; Weiss, a white and blue bird; Blake, a black and purple bird; Yang, a yellow and orange bird; Jaune, a yellow and white bird; Nora, a pink and blue bird; and Ren, a green and magenta bird. And what's weird is...he can understand the birds. After a busy morning, Qrow heads to his room and sits at his open window to feed his birds.

"Hey, where's Ruby and Yang?" Qrow asked the other birds.

"QROW! QROW!" Ruby and Yang shout frantically hovering in front of his face.

"What? What's wrong?" Qrow asked.

"There's a hurt bird down there!" Ruby told him.

"And your sister's stupid mutt is trying to get it!" Yang added.

"Show me where it is." Qrow told them.

Qrow follows the two birds to where his sister's dog was trying to wedge it's head in between two barrels, barking like crazy. He grabs the broom and chases the dog off.

"Get out of here, Omen! Get, ya d*mn dog!" Qrow said.

When the dog was gone, Qrow crouches and looks to where he was trying to get to. Curled in a ball trembling was a little brown, green, and orange bird with a broken wing.

"Hey there, little fella, it's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you." Qrow said gently scooping up the small bird.

He puts the bird in the pocket of his apron and goes back up to his room. There he bandages the bird's wing and uses a couple of soft towels to make a little nest for the bird to rest in.

"You can stay here until you're all better or for as long as you like. What's your name?" Qrow said giving the bird a chunk of bread.

"O-Oscar." the little bird replied.

"Well, hello, Oscar, I'm Qrow." Qrow told him.

"QROW! GET DOWN HERE!" Qrow's adoptive father, Taka, shouted.

"*sigh*, you guys keep an eye on him." Qrow told the other birds, groaning.

He goes downstairs and heads into the living room where Taka is.

"Why isn't the laundry done? You were supposed to do it yesterday." Taka asked grumpily.

"Well, we're out of detergent, so I was gonna go out and get some today. Also, I've just been sick for the past few days, so I couldn't really get much done." Qrow replied.

"Seriously? Again? Geeze, Qrow, it's almost like you get sick on purpose just to have an excuse to be lazy and not do your chores." Taka said frowning disapprovingly.

"*sigh*...Sorry, sir...it won't happen again." Qrow sighed.

"It better not, or you'll be sorry. Now, get to work, you have a lot of catching up to do." Taka told Qrow.

"Yes, sir." Qrow nodded.

"Maybe I won't get sick so often if I had a proper room with a proper bed and heating." he bitterly thought.

Once Taka was gone, Qrow gets to work. Right now, he's cleaning the kitchen.

"Hey, Qrow, what was Omen barking about earlier?" Raven asked walking across the floor Qrow had just mopped.

Qrow glares at his sister as she hops up and sits on the counter.

"There was an injured bird your dumb dog was trying to eat. You gotta start keeping that mutt fenced up and away from my birds." Qrow told his sister.

"So what, he's a dog, dogs hunt birds, that's just how things are, don't be such a baby about it." Raven replied rolling her eyes.

"Uhg, why do I even bother asking you for anything." Qrow grumbled.

"And get your a** off the counter!" he ordered.

"Excuse me!? Who the h*ll do you think you are talking to me that way?" Raven asked angrily.

"You better apologize." she growled getting off the counter.

"Or what?" Qrow scoffed.

Without warning, Raven shoves Qrow to the ground then grabs the mop bucket and pours the water all over him, soaking him completely.

"Don't disrespect me again." Raven said throwing the mop bucket to the side.

She then exits the kitchen, leaving her twin brother on the floor covered in dirty mop water. When Raven was gone, Qrow gets to his feet then rings the water out of his apron and the end of his shirt. Then the front doorbell rings, so Qrow trudges into the living room and answers the door. It was the mail deliverer, he hands Qrow a couple things addressed to Taka. As he went towards Taka's office, Qrow sifts through the mail a bit to see who they were from...Taka hates getting junk mail. Qrow pauses a bit when he sees that one of the letters had the king's seal on it. 

"Why would Taka be getting something from the king?" Qrow asked himself.

Taka isn't that much of a well known man, there's no way this is a personal letter. This must be something the king had sent out to everyone in the kingdom. If that's the case, what's it for? Qrow knocks gently on the door to Taka's office.

"Come in." Taka said.

Qrow walks in and lays the mail on Taka's desk.

"What the h*ll? Why are you all wet? You're getting water everywhere, you idiot!" Taka scolded.

"Sorry, sir, I'll get that cleaned up right away." Qrow sighed in defeat.

Just as he was walking out of Taka's office, Raven was walking in...glaring at him as she passed.

"What's that there?" Raven asked him.

"Not sure, but it's from the king." Taka replied.

"Ooooh, the king?" Raven said intrigued.

"There's gonna be a ball celebrating the prince's birthday, and the king is inviting the whole kingdom to attend. This...could be a great opportunity for us." Taka said after reading the letter.

"How so?" Raven asked.

"If we can get you to meet the prince and have him fall in love with you, we could become royalty and live the high life." Taka explained, smiling sinisterly.

"Mmmm, that sounds amazing, I'm in." Raven replied giggling.

Outside the door, Qrow stood there listening in. He heard everything about the ball and their plan to manipulate the prince. Qrow couldn't let them do this to the poor young man, his family is awful and the prince shouldn't have to be a part of it. The dark haired man knew what he had to do, he had to warn the prince, but the problem is that Qrow doesn't even know what the prince looks like. The other, and more important, problem was...how Qrow was going to convince his family to let him go to the ball with them.