Hello all, here is lonelysand.
I am a new shipper of rosewick and I just love them so much that can't help giving them a different story, in which they can get to know each other and finally be "together" together. Hope you can all enjoy it, since I enjoy it so much during this progress.
I want to claim that English is not my mother language, and translating my work into English is a little bit difficult, so I found a translation service and did this first chapter, then checked and made some amendments. And it's the result. it's not as good as I want it to be, but I did my best.
However, it's a little bit expensive with the translation and it's difficult to afford it, I need to figure out how I do this work later, maybe I will try to translate it myself, anyway my speed of update can not be fast. Maybe a month, or longer. So just mention this in case if you do not want to wait for such a long time.
Oh and I need to tell you there would be content of Baked Alaska, not so much but there would be.
Again, hope you like it and enjoy it.
P.S. I don't know if the rate of K+ is enough, but in this work there will not be any adult content, what I worry about is some fight or threatening stuff. If I did anything wrong, please just tell me.
Chap.1 An Unexpected Encounter
In fact, Ruby has a secret, which she has told to no one.
Since she told no one, at least it won't affect others, maybe. But after all, if you don't want to tell others about one thing, it would be something special for you.
This is a little secret. But sometimes, a little thing has countless effect to future, though it just happened in one second.
It was a weekend. Ruby was walking on the street idly.
A precious weekend time, while her friends were occupied all various things.
Yang went to fight…in fact, she had been arguing with Nora about ways cooking meat and which makes them taste better during the whole breakfast time. However this topic started from Jaune but now were these two girls trying to fix it in the training ground. Ren, no doubt, followed Nora to watch them fighting. Janue was also dragged by Pyrrha for an excuse of learning. Weiss had disappeared since the morning, nobody ever knew where she had gone and what she had done… while Blake… was reading, yeah.
She also wanted to hang out with Penny, but she had no idea where to find her because she was so mysterious.
Ruby wandered aimlessly in the city. Imperceptibly, she walked up to a very biased alley. She had somehow recovered herself during the walking time, and started to study all kinds of graffiti on the wall, which she began to feel interesting.
She laughed about some vituperation words, and then sticked out her tongue and looked around to see if anyone had found her doing that. Then she shrugged and thought about what if she'd been discovered. Anyway, nobody knew her at all here. Then she began to study with interest about those loving, affectionate words, some of the writing was very beautiful and moving. She wondered whether the object of those confession had seen it or not.
She studied and studied, suddenly a cute little pattern which nobody knew who painted came into her view, it was a small candle. But the candle light on the top….it was more like a…well. Ruby studied for a long time, finally decided she was right, it was not a candle light, but an ice cream. What a strange combination of the ice cream on the candle! She made a face and sketched out what kind of person would paint such a strange thing in her head. Well, that image just didn't come out, and she shrugged and walked down the alley.
She did not expect that, after a while, she saw the ice cream candle again. This aroused her interest. She simply no longer concerned about the wall graffiti, but to find this special logo along the way.
And she did find it.
Third, fourth, and fifth, the farther she walked, the more she found. Finally, after running around a few times, she knew she had found the last one while making sure there was no more.
She had no idea where she was going, it seemed gruesome and desolated around. Here she found the last ice cream candle painted on a small door in the desert.
Ruby listened carefully, there was nothing voice heard from it. Was anybody here? She hesitated at the door, and rubbed her feet for several times. She turned to leave and took a few steps, but then stopped, looked back again at the door. She stared at the little picture for a few seconds, somehow, out of inexplicable curiosity, she eventually went back to the door.
She knocked.
The knock sounded loudly in the remote silent alley and made scary echo loud. Ruby 's neck hair was flushed a little. She waited for two seconds, and the lane was quiet again. Sure enough… No one. She was a little disappointed and turned to leave.
"Come in."
However, as she turned around, there was a voice in the door.
She turned again to the door, took a deep breath and pushed it away.
In the moment, she suddenly felt… the sound just now, wasn't a bit familiar?
Roman was lying on the lounge chair, his arms resting on his eyes. He heard the knock at the door, thinking when Neo had learned to knock and shouted, "Come in."
He heard footsteps approaching.
"Neo, what's wrong? I've told you not to come here. Is there an urgent task?"
When he heard the footsteps stop, he suddenly felt something was wrong. Neo! Neo, she's not here. She's not in the city!
As he put his arm down, sat up and looked in the direction of the door, he heard a loud in-breath sound.
"Roman Torchwick！"
His pupils were magnified in a moment, watching the frightened girl take a step back and put on the alert posture and pulled out her scroll.
He lifted his Melodic Cudgel subconsciously and shot the head of it to knock out the scroll. At the same time, a stride forward to grab, he pushed her on the ground before Ruby could escape by semblance.
"How surprise… it's my Little Red. How did you find this place?"
His hand was holding her neck, and the girl pressed on the ground was struggling under his hand while her face flushed. Roman found her hand secretly reaching to the scroll on the ground. With a sneer, he pushed her last hope further with his cane.
"Very clever. Let me see… Weren't you good at fighting, Red? How could you get into such a mess? Oh, I guess, without that oversized gardening tool, the empty handed weeding will cut off your delicate little hand."
Ruby ignored his sarcasm, partly because she was a little desperate. As soon as she recognized the orange haired criminal, she realized that she had not brought Crescent Rose with her today, and yet she had no time to call the locker. Maybe she should run away with semblance first and then call the locker… But she was just too surprised to think of that. She swore to bear arms when went out in the future, after all her combat ability had lost like… 95% without this best friend of hers. She's really not very good at hand-to-hand battles. And her second swear was, when there was no weapon, first fled then fight. At the moment, however, she was not sure whether she would be given the opportunity to complete the promise… after all, the other part of reason for she ignoring his sarcasm, was that she had been pinched speechless, she tried to push the grip on her neck, but hypoxia had made her lost much energy.
Roman looked at Ruby, in a cold hum, and loosed a little control of her, but still pressed her to the ground firmly. Ruby coughed violently at his hand and sucked in the fresh air greedily.
Roman didn't let her relax for a long time, he quickly tightened his hand and got close to her face then said, "How did you find here?""
Ruby screamed before she couldn't breathe again, "That, that sign!"
Roman raised his eyebrows, stopped increasing the strength of his hands. "What sign? Make it clear."
"Can, candle, candle with ice cream on it. I casually found it, it's interesting, then I found a second one, and searched for it here. I didn't expect it was you…"Ruby finished in one breath, looking at the man's eyes so close to her, her silver eyes were filled with fear. She would never be scared of a fight, but in this case… She did feel scared.
Roman relaxed a bit after hearing it. It seemed that this was just a coincidence. He continued, "Who else with you?"
"None, I came out alone."
Roman breathed a sigh of relief, squinting his eyes. Since no one knew she's her… In other words, her life was no need to stay. What's more, she saw the sign between he and Neo which was only known by them… even that woman, Cinder, had no idea about it. Now it was broken by her accidentally interest. To tell the truth, he was not happy at all.
In his eyes, the meaning of killing was clearly passed to Ruby. She was so frightened at the time that she didn't even think about it but cried out, "I won't speak it out!"
"Hum?" Roman raised his eyebrows. He certainly wouldn't have let her off so easily, but since she said so, it was good to have fun. He looked at the girl in front of him, full of fear, and recalled the reason why he relaxed here today. His mouth could not help but raise a not-so-friendly smile. "Tell me your thought, Red."
Ruby, with a little bit surprise, stared blankly for like five seconds, then stumbled out, "Uh, I mean, uh, that is, I will not put you out, that today meeting you here, and… that thing, the sign, I swear I won't tell anyone."
"Ha." Roman chuckled. "You seem to underestimate my intelligence, I - what? Oh yes, 'I swear,' I'm not as stupid as you think, Little Red. You are expecting me to believe what you say? Trust your… Oath?"
Even in this case, Ruby would like to protest, "I never lie! All I want to do is to protect justice and protect the weak. I'm not like you as a… Er…" Ruby swallowed the last words.
Roman almost laughed out. This was the most ridiculous thing in the world. "Me as what? A thief? A liar? Or a criminal? Oh My Little Red, you always surprise me, let me know how naive you are - no, let me know how stupid you are. Protect justice, protect the weak… 'hero', isn't it? The spirit is commendable. But as you don't think a 'hero' would lie… I doubt it. Listen, trust is a good thing, but unfortunately I don't have this good quality." He suddenly recalled the words of Cinder [1], with a sneer. Have a little faith - oh, even that two damn kids can scorn him. Like when they had trusted him.
Roman, for a moment, couldn't conceal violence in his eyes, but then catching a glimpse of a little fear hidden in the girl's eyes. And—seemed like it was more difficult for her to hide her resistance against him, since her eyes showed clearly that she was trying to refrain from refuting him. Oh... He suddenly narrowed his eyes and raised eyebrows. "Red, tell me, are you scared of me?"
Ruby froze for a moment, and apparently did not expect him to ask this question, but she answered quickly. "No."
"Huh? Even so?" Roman slightly tightened his hand.
"No, no, not scared…" Ruby said with difficulty, "I was… scared if I cannot do anything… in this case of useless… Cough…"
"Chi!" Roman unconsciously added force in his hands, then reacted to relax them. And Ruby had been feeling a little dizzy. "You mean, if not in this case, but you taking a weapon and we fight, then even if you die, it doesn't matter?"
Ruby had a vague sense of what he was saying, but she could not understand it at the moment. She did think so before, but unconsciously she felt something of that was wrong from his tone, and finally struggled to shake her head.
Roman realized he said too much, so he back to their topic. He stared at her eyes which were now with tears, paused for two seconds, then asked that important questions. "Red, tell me, do you look down upon me?"
After a small silence, Roman never thought his reaction would be confused, that's right, because the girl in front of him, was clearly in confusion.
"Er…?" Ruby finally made clear of this question, still confusedly said, "I… I haven't thought about that before…? You… are a criminal, and have done lots of bad things, so I'm gonna get you. Then… Well, I mean, I guess, I… don't know?"
Another silence.
Roman suddenly covered his face with his free hand and couldn't help laughing.
Ha, Roman Torchwick! You have been shaken, and you were trying to threaten a little girl to regain your deserted dignity? That's a shame. He laughed at himself and despised his momentary loss of mind… Should not ask such a question. It seemed a right decision to come to this hidden place to relax, or he couldn't imagine to complete tasks with this abnormal state. That's a shame, Roman Torchwick. Did you think you were still that foolish boy ?
Roman stopped laughing, licking his lips and regained his status. His mouth evoked a smile, while eyes without any smile, loosen the hand on Ruby's neck, but put the cane on her throat.
"That's all for joking time, now back to serious. Red… Our life-and-death situation happened more than once. You wanted to catch me, and I was about to kill you. It is a pity this simple task I failed several times… So, last chance, give me a reason not to kill you. Otherwise…"
Ruby had no doubt about that, otherwise, he would immediately launch a bullet to open her neck. Sweat from her forehead wet her hair. Her mind was spinning rapidly…
"Well, the… the first time… when we met, at the beginning, I mean not later on top of the roof, the beginning beginning, I thought that time you… didn't want to kill me?"
Roman looked at her silently for a moment, and finally couldn't help grinning. "You mean, there was one time that I had no intention to kill you?"
"Yep." Ruby nodded slightly, trying to squeeze out words from her dry throat, "So today can also be it… just like we haven't met at the first place, you… you…" She recalled his words when she entered in, although she didn't know who he was speaking to, it was clear that he had no task with him today, "You do not intend to do bad things today and so do I without tasks. We can… as if nothing happened today. I have not seen you, and you have not seen me."
Smile finally unbearable flowed over Roman's eyes. The cane he put on Ruby's throat slightly loosened, she immediately found it and added eagerly, "I will keep the secret! Your that, pattern. I swe… I promise." She switched it to another word.
"I guess maybe I can take back what I said before. You're not as stupid as I thought, Little Red." Roman said slowly. He knew he shouldn't do that. He knew that this decision was a little bit irrational. He knew it would be dangerous. He knew he couldn't trust her. But she did please him. His cane slowly retreated. He stood up, and no longer held the red girl. Now she can escape from him with semblance.
But she did not run away immediately. Roman glanced at her surprisingly, and considered she would make some stupid move again, or say some stupid words. Fortunately, she did not ask him whether he really would comply with the agreement to let her go, or some other stupid question like that, which confirmed Roman's conclusion again for her - she is at least not so stupid.
This girl, just escaped from hell, pinched her clothes corner. Her face was floating a touch of blush. Her eyes were turned away from Roman, with a few more times, and finally came out some voice.
"Well, ugh, I mean... that pattern... pretty cute." She paused, took a quick glance at him, and made up her mind —"good-bye."
The next moment, rose petals fell in the small courtyard, and that same-colored girl disappeared.
Roman's eyes were a little twitching, and he was frozen in a while. Then, he stepped forward to pick up the girl's fallen scroll and put it into his pocket. He went back to his lounge chair and put his hat on his eyes for a rest.
"Neo." He squeezed a name from his clenched teeth. If it wasn't for the damn thing she had designed, it wouldn't have been any trouble today.
Sure enough, change a sign. This place could not be used any more.
After all, he couldn't trust her.
And today, nothing happened. So the next time they meet, nothing would change.
He had not seen her, and she had not seen him. She still wanted to catch him, so did he.
Well, everything can keep the same, without any trouble.
However, if he did not trust her, then this promise thing could not be trusted either.
The man made a snort of contempt and left the question behind him.
What if it was false? The result would never changed.
He would be the one who survived.
Chap.1 FIN
[1] The first episode, second volume, of first season, Cinder said to Roman, "Oh Roman, have a little faith".