Catching Up
It was true that she hadn't expected confetti and streamers when she mentioned Torchwick to her former teammates. Ruby simply supposed that she hadn't foreseen Yang and Blake being so adamantly opposed to the idea that he was alive, or for Weiss to be…remarkably quieter than Blake about it. Of course, Weiss was a lot more reserved these days, she simply had expected a word or two from the ever quiet woman. She stared at the heiress a little longer before it came to her attention that Blake had stopped ranting and was now waiting for Ruby to answer her.
"Uh…what was the question?" she asked.
Blake stared at her incredulously before repeating herself. "Do you really expect me to believe that Roman Torchwick managed to escape a burning warehouse while he was unconscious, betray Cinder's faction before the war ended, and then start working for the government in secret?"
"Well…yeah, he apparently did, so…" Ruby trailed off and pulled a strawberry out of the fruit bowl she'd gotten with her lunch. "It was definitely him and I can't think of another explanation…"
"Your new broker is a ghost?" Yang offered.
"Besides that," Ruby gestured to her sister with the strawberry before biting into it.
"Well at least you can request a different broker from the council, right? It might be a while before you can go on missions again, but it's better than being stuck with Torchwick." Ruby chewed her strawberry slowly and turned her eyes towards the mall plaza where they were seated; as the pause became apparent to Blake, so did the reason for it. "You can't be serious. Are you actually considering keeping him as your informant?!"
"The information he gave me was really good!" Ruby whined defensively.
"So what?!"
"No I mean, seriously, he had everything I could have ever needed for my last mission," Ruby leaned towards Blake with a grave look on her face. "Every possible map and blueprint, a complete list of every type of Grimm in the area, with all their attacks and weaknesses, and then plenty of notes about the criminals I was after, what they were transporting, he even had an estimate about how high their bounty would have to be and notes on their relationships and blind spots! And every bit of it was useful!"
"It's Torchwick! He's a sociopathic anarchist with a history of violence and murder! How can you trust him at all?!"
"I somewhat doubt that Roman would still be a broker after nine years if he couldn't be trusted to do it properly," Weiss spoke up suddenly.
"That doesn't change the fact that it's Torch…" Blake trailed off and turned slowly to Weiss; Yang and Ruby followed suit, and for a few elongated moments, all eyes were on the heiress.
"It's funny," Yang noted, "but I could have sworn that you just defended Torchwick."
Weiss shrunk a bit at that. "W-Well I'm not defending his criminal activities, just his capabilities as a broker…"
"And you said that he's been a broker for nine years," Blake added.
"T-That's a logical assumption, I mean, what else would he have done after he disappeared?"
"You referred to him by his first name too," Ruby pointed out, and Weiss withered at her words.
"That's—it's just an identifier…" she squeaked.
"How long have you known that he was alive?" Blake asked in a soft, demanding tone.
Weiss bit her lip slightly before squeaking out a barely audible response. "It's been a year and a half now…?"
"Oh my god," Yang pronounced irritably as she looked away and threw her hands up in the air.
"Perry made me swear not to tell you guys!" Weiss whined.
"And you listened?" Blake stated incredulously.
"I—I…it was Perry's…he can be very persuasive you know."
"What about me being persuasive?"
A pair of light brown arms wrapped themselves around Weiss, drawing Ruby's attention up to the green haired man that owned them. Weiss jumped a bit at the sudden contact but relaxed back onto him a mere moment later. "Uh…it seems that Ruby met one of your male friends," she replied lightly.
"What kind of male friend?"
"The kind you remember by name instead of bedroom layout."
"I have one of those?" Perry inquired with a bemused smirk as he rested his chin on the crown of Weiss's head.
"She found out that Roman's still alive," Weiss clarified.
"Ahhh," the faunus man smiled a little wider. "That's right. He mentioned his meeting with you on the phone the other day. Apparently you were very entertaining."
Ruby wrinkled her nose in disgust, and Perry laughed as Blake's scroll started buzzing.
"Well that's my cue…I have to go get Wit from daycare…Yang, that means you too."
"Huh?" the blonde stared at her former partner in confusion, soliciting a sigh from her.
"I'm dropping you off at the docking stations on the way, remember?"
"Oh, right," Yang stood from her seat at the table and did a tiny stretch. "I completely forgot."
"That wouldn't be the first time this week…" Blake muttered as she made her way for the plaza's exit.
"Do you really have to go back to Mistral already?" Ruby whined as her sister hoisted her bag over her shoulder.
"'fraid so, sis. It was a fun visit, but my next mission is coming in a week and Neptune's parents need some sort of break from their granddaughter." Ruby puffed her cheeks out a little, and her sister laughed before pulling her hood over her head. "Give it a few more years. Gylden's gonna attend Beacon once she's old enough, I will fight her father on that." Yang hesitated a moment before sending a soft glare towards Weiss and Perry. "If you don't explain yourselves to me and Blake later, you will be in a world of hurt."
"I'm starting to feel some regret in getting Junior to offer you parenting advice," Perry remarked as Weiss shrunk further into his arms.
Yang chuckled in response and followed behind Blake. "See you around guys!"
"Bye!" Ruby waved adamantly as her sister jogged away; she followed with her eyes until both women were out of sight before turning back to Perry and her former partner, who had all but forgotten her presence.
"You were home very late last night," Weiss murmured as she looked up at her roommate.
"Mhm, and?"
"Where were you?"
"Didn't we agree that my nightly activities aren't your business?"
"Only in the case where you don't wake me up with your cold feet when you get home."
"I wanted cuddles before bed," Perry whined softly as he rocked Weiss back and forth.
"And I wanted to keep sleeping."
"I barely woke you up."
"You still woke me up though. Why couldn't you wait until morning?"
"Well I could have. I didn't want to."
"You are such a child, you know that?" Weiss sighed as Perry delivered a small peck to her forehead.
"True," he shrugged, "but I have it on good authority that you actually like that about me."
"To some degree."
"You know, if you two keep acting like this in public, people are going to start thinking that you're dating," Ruby remarked, and their eyes finally returned to her.
"My level of care is not," Perry stated bluntly as he rested his chin back on Weiss's crown.
"How anyone else feels about our relationship is irrelevant," Weiss added, "It's our business. And frankly, the fact that Perry's gay won't change because of a few uninformed morons."
"You still act like a couple…" Ruby muttered as she dug another strawberry from her fruit cup.
"Well, you aren't wrong," Perry replied with a smirk as he pulled his arms away from Weiss and pulled up a chair next to her. "Pretty sure we engage in all the pda that's typical of your average straight couple, besides, you know, sucking face, groping…"
"You've done that before," Weiss interjected.
"It was one time, I was only curious. Oh and motorboating. We don't motorboat."
"Okay, first of all, that is not a public display of affection, second of all, you actually have done that before. In public."
Perry smirked impishly and leaned towards her. "Sweetie, you don't have enough to motorboat."
Weiss scowled a little before stealing a grape from Ruby's fruit bowl and throwing it at Perry's face, making the faunus laugh in the process.
"Hey! This is my fruit!" Ruby pouted and grabbed the bowl off the table. "Assault your roommate with something else!"
"It was the closest round object," Weiss stated dryly.
Ruby frowned before a soft buzzing drew her attention towards her scroll as a new message popped up on the screen. "Oh. Well that was fast," she remarked in surprise.
"What was fast?" Perry asked.
"Well, I sent a new info request to Torchwick about a week ago, and he said he'd need a little time to work on it…and he just sent me a message saying he's got the files ready."
"It took him a week to get back to you? Huh. He must have been pretty busy…" Perry leaned his head on Weiss's shoulder and graced with a small smile. "Well, you can head over now if you'd like. We were gonna hit the movies in an hour anyway, and something tells me that Weiss wants to force me to shop with her first."
"I only want to get a few new sho—" Weiss started, causing her roommate to groan.
"Of course you do."
"Well I'll get you something too, if you want it."
"I have plenty of shoes in perfect condition, why would I buy more?"
"Because more than half of them are starting to fall apart?"
"And? Shoes are for the weak anyway."
Ruby giggled a bit at their banter as she collected the remainder of her lunch onto one plate and pocketed her scroll. "Well I guess I'll get going then. You two better behave yourselves."
Perry grinned at that. "Don't worry, we won't."
oooOOOooo
He could admit to feeling a little too overzealous about seeing Ruby again. He could honestly say that for the most part his interest was based entirely in how entertaining her last visit had been, but Roman was all too aware that it might also have something to with his recently discovered physical attraction to her. True, she'd been easy on the eyes as a teen, but as an adult…if he lacked any more decorum, he probably would have made a more obvious move on her before. And that likely wouldn't have ended well—Ruby had recoiled at an alarming speed upon recognizing him, he could only imagine how her disgust would be magnified if he let on to having a mild interest in her.
So he'd capped his enthusiasm with an afternoon catnap, using the file that he was supposed to be handing off to Ruby to cover his face. He'd buzzed her in a short while ago, though it was no surprise that getting to the eighth floor of a building with no public elevator took a bit of time. He smirked at the thought of her discovering the personal elevator that he had in his apartment and wondered if she'd whine about all the trouble.
"Torchwick? Are you in here?"
Roman sighed and lazily pulled the file off his eye a little, glancing over the couch back somewhat to the archway where Ruby was ambling in. "You know, all things considered, I would not be opposed to you referring to me by my given name."
"You still call me Red."
"Because the name still fits as a nickname."
"Whatever," Ruby muttered, "Why'd you leave the door open?"
"Because the front one was locked and I'm the only person who lives here? Matter of security," he muttered as he pulled himself up off the couch and patted the now closed file up against Ruby's front. "The council doesn't want any civilians to get caught in the crossfire if I get traced back to this place."
"Then why do you live on the top floor…?"
"Well I've always had an interest in being on top," Roman smirked wryly as he stretched a little and shuffled towards his kitchen. "In multiple areas of study, mind you."
"I really didn't need to know that."
He laughed. "I didn't think you'd catch my meaning, after all, you'd been so helplessly lost last time."
"You're gross…"
"I try," he shrugged as she followed him into the kitchen.
"Weren't you…didn't you have more facial hair last time I was here?"
"Well I hadn't shaved in a few days last time," Roman remarked as he pulled a carton of orange juice from the fridge. "I hadn't left home, so there was no need to. And not that I mind a little small talk Red, but I seem to recall passing off the file you asked for just a moment ago. Is there a reason you're still here? I was under the impression that you wanted as little to do with me as humanly possible."
"Oh, uh…well, I kinda remembered that I had another info request on the way over…"
"Oh?"
"Well…uh…Beacon kinda offered me a teaching job after my next mission…"
"You? Teaching? Sounds terrifying. Is there room for an audience? Because I would love front row seats." Ruby scowled at him from the doorway as he leaned back on the kitchen counter with his glass of orange juice and a wide smirk. "That was a joke," he noted after a brief pause.
"It wasn't funny."
"Well, personally, I think it was hilarious, but to each their own. What did you need?"
Ruby scowled a moment longer before letting out a sigh. "I was wondering if you could collect some information on the team I'm supposed to be supervising."
He perked an eyebrow at that. "Just one team?"
"It's a senior class. They hire huntsmen and huntresses for individual teams and focus on field work."
"I see. So you want me to spy on the team you've been assigned to? How naughty."
"It's not—can you do the job or not?"
"Of course. Which team do you want me to look into?"
"Uh…Glynda said they were known as team ALRM."
"Team ALRM?" Roman paused to take a sip of his orange juice. "How alarming."
Ruby withered slightly and looked at him with pleading eyes. "Oh no. Not you too."
"I must say, I have quite a few sirens going off about this job."
"Please stop."
"Are you saying I shouldn't be alarmed?"
"Oh my god."
"You could always chime in, you know."
"I'm leaving," Ruby muttered as she stomped towards the door.
"What, you aren't on Red alert?" Roman grinned as he followed her to the door.
"That was so bad," Ruby whined, turning back to him with a feigned look of pain.
"We both know that that was amazing, and besides, I'm allowed to."
"You're just as bad as Yang!"
"Oh? So I'm ringing a few bells?"
Ruby let out an enormous groan as she finally stomped out the door, and Roman found himself laughing hysterically at her reactions a good fifteen minutes after her departure. He'd found himself even more excited about seeing her again.
oooOOOooo
Rosewick trash Peeves reporting in and I'd like to start by apologizing to any of you still reading that don't like puns. I couldn't help myself, it happened. So initially I had intended to leave the aforementioned team out of the picture for a while but I got a plot idea that requires their presence so…be prepared for
A cat leading a pack of dogs
Le moon moon
Rosewick lovechild and
Meme Fucker
Yeah. One of you mentioned a typo in the length…nah. This does take place ten years after the current canon, but in this future AU Roman didn't disappear until a year of those ten years had passed. Hope that makes sense.
Rosewick trash Peeves out until next chapter.
