Holiday special

Ruby clung tightly to her cloak to block out the bitter wind. She was shivering profusely and her wet boots from the snow did not ease her mood. Nonetheless, she was as cheery as can be. The night was lit up with thousands of Christmas lights as far as the eye could see. Everyone had taken time away from their busy stress-inducing lives to come together and be merry.

Ruby was leaving her sister's Christmas party and was heading back home to her apartment. Yang always threw fantastic Christmas Eve parties and while Ruby would've liked to stay longer, Yang started to spike the eggnog. Past experience told Ruby that things never went well from there. So she said her goodbyes and left for her new home.

She was able to blot out most of the feeling of the cold by becoming entranced in the wide array of flashing lights and colors. With everything so bright and cheery, any darkness looked out of place and unnatural. So when Ruby was passing a small road and saw absolutely nothing out of the corner of her eye, it caught her attention.

Looking over at the thin, barren road a single light stuck out. She couldn't see the source of the light directly but could see it on the side of a brick wall in an alley with a moving shadow swaying in it. Childish curiosity drove her forward, but four years of Beacon training prepared her for any possible dangers.

Creeping forward silently, she had to put a hand over her mouth to hold back a gasp when she saw who it was. Her brain ran through hundreds of strategies in a minute and eventually she chose one that would suit her best.

She threw a rock as a distraction and made sure it landed on the concrete by the entrance to the alley. Then she used her semblance to run up the side of the building closest to her. From the roof she jumped across a few buildings and landed silently behind the alley. In a whirlwind blast forward she put out the fire and submerged the alley in darkness. Fully prepared for any possible attack, she held the blade of Cresent Rose against the throat of her new captive.

Looking over his shoulder he spoke in a monotone and dreary voice. "Good evening Red. What made you decide to pay a visit to little old me?"

Torchwick's attitude surprised her and made her lower her guard. She could tell instantly that he recognized her falter, yet he surprised her again when he didn't act on it. Utterly dumbfounded but trying not to sound like it she said "What are you doing here? I thought you were going to serve a life sentence after what happened three years ago."

He let out a small "humph" from the back of his throat and stared up at the sky seeing that it was starting to snow again. "You and me both."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Nor do I have any intention to while there's a blade as long as I am tall against my throat. If you'll just kindly remove it, I'll be a tad bit more civil."

She warily did as he asked but kept her scythe facing him and a hand on the trigger at all times.

He let out a barely visible breath in the cold. "Thank you. Now if you excuse me I have business I need to take care of."

"I'm not letting you walk away from this. I need to know what you were doing this instant."

He turned around and walked right past her, muttering something about "trying to get some sleep" while he walked to the back end of the alley. She watched him and when her eyes began to adjust to lack of light she gasped at what she saw.

He laid down on a small dry patch of dirt and covered himself with a thin sheet of cloth that could barely be called a blanket. Beside him lay the smoldering embers of the warmth giving fire she just put out. By his head lay several empty cans of foods like beans and corn. Just then she noticed his clothes. He still wore his white trenchcoat but it was blackened from dirt and torn to shreds. His pants were in the same condition and his shoes were falling apart on him. His hair was significantly longer and he had an unkempt beard growing on his shallow, malnourished face.

He closed his eyes and through a shiver and the clattering of teeth he said "You don't need to bother yourself with me anymore. Within the next month I'll just fade out of existence. That'll make you happy, right Red? Think of it, no more meddling from Roman Torchwick. I'll just go and then you can wipe my blemish from your memory. Sounds like a jolly good time."

"What happened?" She whispered.

"Please, just leave me be."

She pitied him but she followed his request. "As you wish," she said turning around and walking back out of the alley. Just as she made the exit could see that the snow was going to turn into a blizzard. Some pang in her heart forced her against her will to make one last look at her once mighty foe.

She could see the snow landing on his thin frame and he made no desire to remove it. It landed on his eyelashes and mouth with no rejection from him whatsoever. She watched his visible breath occur less and less frequently until it stopped completely.

Her blood ran as cold as her surroundings as she ran to him and started pressing on his chest hoping to revive him. Her instincts to help others overcame her grudge with him as she worked to bring him back. At last he started to cough and she stopped and stood back looking at him for a moment.

He looked up at her with dead eyes and muttered "Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

"Why didn't you let me die? That's what you want, right? You shouldn't have come back."

"You stopped breathing! What else was I supposed to do!"

"Kill me."

"What?!"

He began to laugh a hollow laugh. "How poetic. The good guy kills the bad guy and all live happily ever after. So all you need to do is do your part. So please, kill me."

Ruby just stood there looking at the broken shell of what used to be a man so full of life, wondering how such a thing could happen. Enemy or not, he was in no position to fight her and he needed her help.

She stepped forward, grabbed his sides, and flung him over her shoulder without saying a word.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm getting you help. I don't care about the things you've done long ago, you are on the brink of death and I refuse to allow someone to die if I could've prevented it. Now be quiet while I take you to a place you can warm up."

Thus began a long walk with an exceptionally vocal Roman going on endless tangents about how this was demeaning to him, that she shouldn't even bother, and that he should be left to die. But yet he lacked the strength to oppose her grip so he was stuck there. Meanwhile, Ruby had to walk back to her apartment through the precursor of a blizzard with the equivalent of a whiny toddler over her shoulder.

Eventually she made it to her home and she sat him down in a large, comfy chair of hers. Since being a huntress of her caliber earned her good money, she had a suite that came with a fireplace that she promptly lit. She grabbed four blankets and threw them onto him while she pushed his chair right up near the fire. He tried to get up once but she pushed him back into the chair and sternly told him to stay. When she saw him submit she left the living room to go to the kitchen to make some hot cocoa.

When she came back she saw him having wrapped all of the blankets around him up to right beneath his chin. She held out his mug of cocoa for him and he just stared at it with a confused expression.

"Just take it. I'm not going to hurt you."

Slowly but surely, he lifted his arms from underneath the blanket and took the mug into his hands. He didn't drink but just stared at the steam gently rising from it.

Ruby pulled up another chair and coffee table and sat close enough to speak but far enough away she could react to anything he would try. After she took a long drink from her own mug she looked over at him just staring at the mug in his hands. "It's not poison you know," she said.

"That's why I'm not drinking it."

Ruby tried to study him to figure out what led to such a cataclysm in a man so vibrant. Nothing made any sense. "You shouldn't say things like that. Especially around this time of year. You should be with your family and loved ones."

"Then why aren't you?"

"I was coming home from my sister's party when I found you. She's nice but once she starts drinking then it's best I'm not associated with her. She can get out of control with that kind of stuff."

She waited for a response from him but only got him to whisper "Why are you doing this to me?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you wanted to sate that heart of yours by opening up your home to a misfortuned person then you could've chosen so many people over me. Why me? Why do you care if I live or die?"

"I don't know. I just felt…. I felt like you needed help and I refuse to let a preventable death happen, even if it's for someone like you."

He chuckled. "This is why you always beat me. I never know what to expect from you."

"If you want me to switch you out with another person in need then tell me and I'll do so."

He turned to face the window and saw the blizzard raining sheets of snow upon the ground. He looked at the ground in defeat.

"That's what I thought. You should accept my charity more than you should question it. Alright?"

He made no response. Her mind began to wander aimlessly and with the crackling of the fire, the blinking Christmas lights on her tree, and the smell of scented pinecones, she thought about fond memories of the holidays.

"You know this reminds me of when I first got Zwei."

She got his attention but he still remained silent.

"I found him all alone in a snowstorm too. Dad didn't like that I picked up a mutt off the street but Zwei was in such bad shape that if we didn't help he'd die. So we warmed him up, gave him some food, and tried to let him go because Dad wouldn't let us keep him. Little did we know that Zwei imprinted on Dad and nothing he could do would get him to leave. So we kept him and he's been a fantastic dog.

He would always lay here in front of the fire and stare at the lights on the tree. Some of those memories are my favorite. I remember running into the living room on Christmas morning and what stood out the most was not the presents. It was the lights on the tree filling both it and the room with warmth. It was always so lovely.

Oh, I'm sorry I've been rambling haven't I? If you want to say anything you can."

With an edge of instability he said "Why do you have me of all people here on a day that's so special to you? It means nothing to me. There is no God. There is no savior. It's just another day of winter. Why me?"

"Well, nobody deserves to spend Christmas night out in the cold, even someone like you, a criminal and nonbeliever."

He went silent again and she realized he wasn't going to respond. Trying to break the silence she asked "What Christmas memories do you have, if any of them are good I mean?

"None."

"Well surely you have family?"

"They're dead."

"Friends?"

"Dead."

"What about that pink haired girl? What was her name again?"

"N-Neo," he croaked.

She looked over to see him trembling. He pulled the blanket he was holding tighter and let a whisper leave his lips.

"She's dead too."

She could almost hear him break. She could tell he was doing his best not to but he started to softly cry. She could see a few tears start to streak down his face washing dirt away.

She got up to go over to him but he began to yell out through raspy breaths "Get away from me! I don't need your pity. I don't need anyone or anything. If you're going to turn me in then do it now. I'd be going where I belong. Or better yet you could kill me. You'd be doing both me and the world a favor."

Following her instincts and not logical reasoning she grabbed his mug from his hands and set it down. Then she sat down in the chair and hugged him. He went stiff and asked "What are you doing?"

She blatantly said "Sometimes everyone needs a hug."

"But I'm not deserving of your kindness and hospitality!" he harshly whispered. "I've acted like an ass and have ruined everything."

"Not you haven't and I don't care if you're deserving of it or not. Nobody deserves to be this way."

"You could've taken anyone else in. Why me?"

"I felt sorry for you. But that doesn't really matter."

"Why?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"Yes!" He said louder than he intended. Returning to a suitable volume he said "You of all people taking me in and showing me kindness? It sounds like something out of a poorly written novel. This is all just so strange. I don't get any of this. I don't understand how you can see me as anything more valuable than the dirt I tracked in. Yet you see me fit and worthy of a hug?!"

"Well… you seemed like you needed one. Do you like it?"

He paused for a moment never taking that into consideration. His icy barrier began to melt from the warmth and he took a deep breath. "Yeah… I… Actually I do," he grudgingly muttered.

He slouched down a bit and brought the blanket up over Ruby. In his position the two were the roughly same height. The silence ensued with Ruby questioning why she was doing this only to be surprised by something she never expected. He put his head on her shoulder and fell asleep. But then her mind began to panic at what he did next.

He unconsciously rolled over onto his side but in doing so he hugged her back and continued to sleep while embracing her. She prepared her body to fight but after fifteen minutes of silence she began to calm down. This was so strange of him to do but she could detect no malevolent intent. She tried getting up but to no avail; it would disturb him too much and he looked like he needed sleep more than she did. While still a tad bit uncomfortable with it all, she began to grow used to it. When after an hour it became clear that she was going to have to stay there for the night.

She sighed in reluctance and whispered "It's okay. Nothing's going to hurt you."

She then resigned herself to the chair for the night and fell asleep too.

Ruby awoke with a start as the smoke alarms started screeching. She jumped out of the chair and immediately followed her instincts to find the source of the smoke that was filling the room. Her pursuit led her to her kitchen to find a plume of smoke coming out of her oven. She grabbed a fire extinguisher and blasted the entire area. When she was done she could see an even dirtier Torchwick wearing oven mitts and holding a tray with a dozen lumps of coal stuck to it. He held it out to her and with a smile said "I made breakfast. Would you like to try one?"

She proceeded to blast him in the face with a puff of the extinguisher.

After a small cough he muttered "So that's a no."

Grumbling she sternly said "Stay right there and don't move a muscle."

Ruby then was required to shut off the smoke alarms as well as contact the front desk to assure the clerk that there was not an actual fire and that things were under control. When she was finally done with all of this she stormed back to Torchwick, who was still standing there as she told him to do, and shouted "What the heck was that?!"

"I wanted to give back considering you took me in. I thought that cooking breakfast could be the least I could do."

"Do you even know how to cook?!"

"Not in the slightest but no time is better than the present." He said with a weak smile. After a few seconds of her unceasing glare his smile faded and his face became loomed with guilt. "I'm sorry. I just thought that I'd be of some use and look where it got me."

Ruby only sighed and shook her head side to side. "Just set the tray in the sink and I'll clean it later. We can discuss this and more over breakfast. Just sit down by the table and I'll make something.

He did as he was asked and it wasn't long until she joined him at the table with iced cinnamon rolls. "Here, these are a tradition in my family. We always eat cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning."

He looked at the meal placed before him with an insatiable hunger and hastily asked "What level of manners do you prefer in this household?"

Ruby a little perplexed said "Not too much but not barbaric either. Just decent I guess. Why?"

"No reason."

He looked down at his food longingly and began to use a fork and knife although he looked like he wished to shove the entire plate down his throat. Immediately upon taking a bite his eyes bulged briefly and then he began wolfing it down.

"So is it that good or were you just hungry?"

With an empty plate he looked up at her with mild embarrassment. "It was divine."

Ruby didn't expect such a compliment so she muttered "thank you" and began eating her own breakfast. To fill the silence she decided to ask some much needed questions. "So, Torchwick, what happened to put you in the position that I found you in yesterday? How does someone as powerful as yourself become impoverished and yet walks away free from what they'd done?"

His eyes drifted away from hers in shame. "I… I hit a bit of a rough patch."

He looked at her with a face that expressed his hope of her to drop the subject but when he saw no such thing would happen, he sighed and continued.

"To understand how I got into my predicament you must first go back to the results of Cinder's coup. You remember that battle don't you?"

Ruby became solemn at the memory of many good friends lost in that battle. "Unfortunately, but I was the one who tackled you and stopped you from killing Ozpin. You should've been sentenced to life."

His face became enlightened by a small smile. "So they never told you the full story?"

She froze and warily asked "What do you mean?"

She could see the smile fade as the memories played before his eyes. "What I mean is the background of it all. After the battle was over and the coup failed they took into account everything that happened and all evidence before dishing out sentences. The record showed that after I killed Cinder-"

Ruby almost choked on her food. He had to hold up a hand to tell him to wait while she made sure that she could breathe again. "You killed Cinder? I thought it was just another soldier. How could you have done so? She was alive when I knocked you out."

"It's because you knocked me out that she died. She was standing over Ozpin about to deal the final blow and I thought to myself that why should she get the credit for that? So I fired at him. Of course you came along right then and the collision between us led to my aim being a tad bit off. Instead of Ozpin, my round hit Cinder in the base of her skull."

Ruby thought about that and couldn't find anything in her memory that denied his statement. "Alright but that wouldn't be enough to get you out free."

"You're right it wasn't. They found her base of operations and after looking through her files they discovered how she forced me to work with her. With that they had to consider that what I was doing wasn't what I wanted to be doing. Between that and ending Cinder in time to save Ozpin it reduced my sentence to two years."

"Then how do you get into poverty in a single year?"

"They found Cinder's base of operations, you didn't think they found mine? They did and everything I worked on for my entire life was taken away. All of my associates are either in prison or broke contact to save themselves. I was abandoned by those I took in, people I considered my friends. After my two years I was given a five hundred lien sum to survive off of until I could restructure my life."

"That's… That's hardly anything."

"You don't think I realize that? And now that I had no allies to cover me and a reputation that was irreparable, I couldn't find a single person who'd hire me, rent me housing, or even give spare change on the street. That's how I got into the situation I was."

Ruby remembering a small detail that didn't add up said "But you had to have had some friends who stuck with you. What about that Neo girl? What happened to her?"

His face took a grave and solemn turn and it looked like he was having a war flashback. Immediately Ruby realized her mistake and said "Look I shouldn't have asked that. That wasn't my place. You don't have to tell me."

His face became one of disgust and he muttered "Don't worry about it. She was killed in a way I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy."

The rest of the meal was spent in a thick, unbreakable silence. At the end Ruby asked for his clothes sizes. Seeing his confusion, she elaborated. "I want to get you some fresh clothes. Nothing expensive but practically anything would be better than what you're wearing now. So tell me your sizes and I'll go buy you some. In the meantime you can take a long bath here. There's a few unused robes the landlord gave as a gift that you can wear till I get back."

He did as she asked and gave his sizes and then Ruby left to go shopping. Just before she left she turned around and yelled back "Oh, and if you steal or break anything of mine I will know and I will hunt you down to get whatever it is back."

Time passed quickly for Ruby. She got him some reasonable clothes that included some jeans, a few long-sleeve shirts, a jacket, and some other assorted items which included things like a razor and shaving cream. Coming back to her home everything was as it was earlier and Torchwick was in a robe.

After he was dressed and took care of his personal hygiene he looked presentable again. Ruby would've thought he looked a bit attractive if it wasn't for the fact that the rest of the day he was always goofing up. He tried ironing, dusting, and even cooking again. All were catastrophic failures.

When Ruby finally had enough she snapped and said "What is wrong with you?! Why are you so obsessed about helping me around the house?!"

"I feel like I have to pay you back," he said solemnly.

"If you want to pay me back then prove to me that I wasn't wrong putting a little faith in you that you'd turn around and restart your life!"

That night before Ruby retired to her bed and Torchwick to his chair she had a chat with him. Looking down at him while he was sitting in his chair she said "Look, I've made my decision. You can stay here till New Year's but afterwards you need to go. I'm trying to be a good person and am going out my way in hopes that you'll become a functioning member of society. Don't abuse my kindness."

"Of course."

Ruby began walking to bed but before she could he called out for her from behind her.

"Red?"

Preparing for a sarcastic comment she said "Yes?"

He coughed awkwardly. "I just wanted to say thank you. Nobody's ever been willing to show me kindness. It means a lot that at least one person doesn't think of me as a lost cause. I also wanted to apologize for all my screw ups today. Just know I'm trying, I really am. Anyways, I don't think I've said it yet but you should hear it before you go to bed. Merry Christmas."

Ruby was surprised and didn't know what to say. "Well… Y-You're welcome and merr-ry Christmas to you too."

With that she left for bed with a sense of ease that she could've been right helping him out. Yet another part of her was curious to see more of this side of him.

The following days surprised Ruby. Torchwick may not have known much about house maintenance but he learned fast. In fact he learned everything fast. By the end of the week he was earning his stay by house work and had a new identity prepared. A haircut, change of clothes, and new documents were able to be crafted using Ruby's resources that he could've only done when not worrying about getting enough to eat. He had a complete new identity prepared of "Romeo Arancia" ready to join the workforce.

Eventually New Year's Eve arrived and he had packed everything in order to try his chances at honest work. But since it was his last night there he told her that he wanted to do something special for her. When she asked what it was he gave the smile of a child and told her to follow him.

He grabbed his coat and opened the door gesturing for her to go ahead. She did as he asked and bundled up to go to this new location that he wanted to show her. She looked up at him to see a skip in his step which reflected his inner state of happiness. With that in mind she spent the entire way there thinking about everything that had happened in the week.

She was pleasantly surprised to say the least. She could see in such a short time his physical health returning but also his mental too. He was driven by a motivation that nearly matched her own but whether it was to fix is life or impress her she didn't know. Nonetheless, he was downright determined to fix his life and turn it into one more honest.

With the amount of time they spent together Ruby began to see a side of him that she never knew existed. When his life was not in danger he was actually kind. He was kind, appreciative, smart, and never ceased to make her laugh. While he tried to shrug it all off she could see why he was really doing it. He was doing it because he wanted too. He was doing it because it was who he really was.

She didn't know if he had changed or if this was how he always was. Either way through his actions and stories it was clear that crime was not his intended path of life but was forced to in order to survive. Now that he was finally free and had a foundation to stand on he could be himself, a good man and a very close friend.

"We're here."

She was brought back to reality by the sound of his voice and looked at her surroundings. She recognized the structure but failed to see how it was important. It was just a watchtower on the mountain side of Vale.

"Follow me," he said opening the door to the tower.

"I don't think we're allowed to go in there."

He chuckled lightheartedly. "And when has that ever stopped me?"

Reluctantly, she followed him inside and made the way up the several sets of stairs. It was tiring but when they finally made it to the top they stopped just before the door to the floor. He had the composure of a child on Christmas morning he was so excited. With one last pause for dramatic effect, earning a glare from her, he opened the door and unveiled the view.

To say it was breathtaking would be an understatement. By now the last fleeting rays of twilight had left and the land was submerged in darkness, only lit partially by the moon. But the city was what made it worthwhile. From here she could see the entire city, lit up in all its glory with a shining Beacon ever present in the background. The sea reflected the light of the city to create a waving mirror image that looked like the portal to an ethereal realm.

"I know how much you love this city, so I thought that it'd be nice to show it to you in a different light per say," he said smiling at his pun.

Ruby snickered and before she could say anything an imaginary lightbulb lit up above Torchwick's head. "Hold on a sec, I almost forgot something," he said running off into another room to the side. He right back out with a battery radio, two foldable chairs, and a bottle of champagne with glasses.

"If you would so humbly join me I'd love to spend tonight watching the celebrations," he said setting out everything he had grabbed.

Ruby couldn't stop smiling and said "I'd love too."

When the two of them took their seats in front of the window Ruby took a moment to judge her surroundings. She was in a room shaped like a semicircle with floor to ceiling windows. There was not a single light on in the room although the light from the city made things tolerable. It was a tad bit chilly and there appeared to be nobody there at all.

"How did you make this happen?" she asked.

"I discovered that the guards to this tower are dismissed only on this day of the year. They shouldn't mind us visiting or borrowing their supplies."

With that he set up the radio to the holiday station that was going to cover the night's celebrations. They arrived there just in time to be listening to the last minute countdown to the new year. As the number ticked down her anxiety unexpectedly began to rise. She started thinking about how this would be their last moment together and then he was going to leave her life forever. She hadn't been having problems with that idea earlier, why was she now?

"Three…Two…One…Happy New Year everyone!" The announcer said before the traditional New Year's song, Auld Lang Syne, began playing.

With that came the sight of the first of many fireworks being fired up into the night sky. She felt something brush against her hand to see a glass of champagne being gestured out to her by her companion. She graciously accepted and clinked his glass with her own. After a small sip she felt much worse although from nervousness or her low alcohol tolerance she did not know.

Fumbling with her fingers she muttered "H-Hey Tor… Well… Uh, you see…"

"Yes?" He asked raising an eyebrow. Ruby looked straight into his eyes in hope it would help but it only left her more tongue tied. His emerald eyes were sparkling from the light of the city and she could only describe it as beautiful. She felt like she could get lost in them for a thousand years.

A few meager syllables manage to escape her lips. "Well… er… Um… look…"

Immediately his face became one of concern and he asked "Is it the champagne? I'm sorry if I forced you into that I just thought it would be nice and-"

"No, goodness no. No it wasn't that. I only had a tiny sip after all. But Roman?"

All of her emotions that she had been disregarding came flooding back to her at once. During this surge she realized that she referred to him by his first name for the first time.

"I don't want you to go."

The silence became deafening and she felt like she just admitted to committing murder. Roman's face became one of evident confusion. After being stumped for a few seconds but what felt like hours to Ruby, he said "What?"

Realizing how that sounded she clarified in a ramble. "Look it's just that you've been making so much progress lately and I don't know how many people would ever hire you and I don't want you out in the cold again. So I was wondering if I could hire you. As my assistant. You can join me on missions and we'll split the pay. You can stay at my place and we'll work together and see how it works. If it does, it does. If it doesn't, it doesn't. I don't know but I liked you here and I don'twantyoutogo-

He put up his hand to quiet her tangent. Looking at him again she could see true happiness. With a genuine smile that warmed her soul he said "I'd love to."

The two awkwardly shook hands with each other's hands closest to each other. Together they returned their attention to the fireworks booming over Vale. Ruby thought fondly of the future and smiled upon noticing that her hand was still interlocked with his. She gave his hand a small squeeze and felt him give one in return.

On an inner instinct she leaned and rested her head on his shoulder to which he rested his head on her head. Eventually she felt him set down his drink and raise his other hand to cup her face to meet his.

Ruby was surprised but excited and welcomed it wholeheartedly. "This could be the start of something special," Ruby thought as her lips connected with his in a flash of excitement, hope, and love.

Appreciate the little things