Woohoo! I told you I'd be here. For those just now joining us, this is a double-upload – so go back to the last chapter to check that you've read that one.
Now that all of those guys have gone, I can square with you.
This is it. The last chapter (barring the epilogue and xmas special). It's been a ride, folks.
Without unnecessary ado…
Enjoy!
To Steal from the Cookie Jar
A Rosewick Story
Chapter 18 – Resolution
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Roman's world slowed. Of all the things he had expected, this was not one of them. Ruby's lips were soft and warm, and he found himself leaning into her as she wrapped an arm around his back. A part of him warned that she was too young for him, that it was too dangerous to be near her and her friends, but he inwardly told that little voice to go fuck itself. Ruby wanted him – and he wouldn't disappoint.
Ruby pulled a little closer before the two came apart again. She smiled, licking her lips. "Like that."
Roman was still stunned. He stared into her pretty silver eyes in confusion and awe. "Oh."
She giggled. "Is that all you can say?"
Roman tried to get his bearings. "You- your too young-"
"I'm legal."
"And I'm twenty-five!"
"I don't care."
Roman huffed, looking around. The fight, which the two had somehow forgotten, seemed to be wrapping up. Atlas robots were rounding up the White Fang, with the only audible gunshots being sparse and far-off. He looked back at Ruby.
She kissed him again, this time shorter and sweeter. "We'll figure it out, Roman. We're okay."
Roman let out a sigh. His mind rebelled, but his heart knew what it wanted. "Okay. I don't like it, but… I'll try."
Ruby smiled and hugged him closer. By the time the two had separated, Roman spotted Yang approaching with a stormy expression. Ruby stepped away from him, but it was clear that Yang had seen them kiss.
"Crap." Roman braced for impact.
Yang stormed up and slammed a fist into his face. He stumbled backwards a few paces, cradling his face. She scowled, her eyes glowing. "You stay away from my sister you creep!"
"Yang!" Ruby admonished, taking her sister aside. They talked quietly, Yang glancing occasionally at Roman in suspicion and mounting surprise. Half a minute later, she stalked back over to him. He flinched, but she didn't hit him this time.
She glared up at him, a finger raised. "You hurt my sister, you're dead, got it?" It was more of an instruction that a question, but he nodded anyway. Yang huffed and stormed away to comfort Blake. Roman looked over at Ruby, rubbing his bruised face.
"I expected that to go a lot worse."
Ruby smiled a little. "My whole family are huntsmen and huntresses. Age gaps aren't as much of an issue for us." She motioned over to where Qrow was talking to some Atlas official – one that looked eerily like an older Weiss. "Honestly, it's less your age they're worried about and more your criminal record."
"Right." Roman shook his head. He'd spent so long on the streets that he'd forgotten how weird huntsmen families were. He wasn't complaining, though. He noticed Jaune walking up to the both of them.
The blonde boy stopped in front of both of them, looking between them both. A second later he turned to Ruby.
"You sure about him?"
Ruby nodded in response. Jaune looked at the both of them before smiling.
"I guess a lot happened over the past two weeks, right? Well, if that's your decision… then know that Team JNR is with you." He motioned behind him, where Ren and Nora stood. The latter was waving frantically, standing on the former's head.
Roman looked back towards Jaune with a confused expression. "You're not angry or something?"
Jaune grimaced and shook his head. "I may not trust you, but… I trust Ruby. And that's enough for me." He turned around and walked away – perhaps to avoid saying anything stupid. Roman looked at Ruby again, her silver eyes sparkling with happy tears. He smiled.
He turned around and had only a second to see the fist coming his way before it hit his face. As he stumbled back, Qrow Branwen shook his hand out.
"Qrow!" Ruby was about to shout at him when he held up a hand.
"Yang already told me, kid," said Qrow. "I just wanted to get a punch in before it would be impolite."
Roman laughed while Ruby pouted. He rubbed his face to alleviate the pain of being punched twice, looking over to see General Ironwood walking up to them all.
Roman rolled his eyes. "I sure am popular today." The General walked up calmly before taking out a gun and pointing it at Roman's head.
"Roman Torchwick," said Ironwood, "you are under arrest."
Roman sighed. He had known that this would happen. Ruby stood in between them, eyes glistening again.
"You can't! I-"
"I'm sorry, Miss Rose, but this isn't optional." He adjusted his grip. "I don't know what relationship you have with him, but Mr Torchwick is an enemy of the state."
Ruby looked like she was going to argue further, but Roman raised his hands in surrender.
"It's fine, Ruby. This was always going to happen."
Ruby was crying properly now. "But- we just- and I-"
"Shhh." Roman smiled. "I was fun, Red, but I've got a date with destiny. And by destiny, I mean the law."
Ruby, wiping away her tears, reluctantly stepped aside. General Ironwood took out some handcuffs.
"Actually," said a familiar voice, "I beg to differ."
They all looked up to see Crimson waltzing up to the group. Ironwood frowned.
"What do you want, Crimson? I know he's your friend, but…" the General motioned around them.
"Well, I don't think he's committed any crimes."
Ironwood's mouth gaped in confusion. "What do you mean? We have tons of evidence!"
"Correction: you had tons of evidence." Crimson raised a finger. "All stored on the Vale CCT Tower in Vale, right James? Which fell during, well, the Fall." He pointed to Roman. "Officially, you have no warrant or mandate to arrest this man."
Ironwood stared in surprise before sighing. "And I suppose you made sure that nothing was left on our systems either."
"Oh, James, you wound me! I would never do such a thing. No, I got somebody else to do it for me." Crimson smiled. "Roman Torchwick is a free man."
Ironwood grimaced, turning back to Roman. "Don't think this means I'm letting you go! I'll be watching." With that, the man stomped away with an odd metallic clang. Perhaps the rumors about his cybernetics were true. Roman turned to Crimson.
Crimson smiled back. "Roman." He looked at Ruby. "Miss Rose." He looked back. "Don't get into too much trouble. I won't be able to pull this off again."
"Actually," said Roman, "I think I might go legit this time."
Crimson smiled proudly. "Somehow, I thought you would. Good luck you two." He walked away, leaning slightly on his cane. Roman found himself alone with Ruby again. She decided it was a good moment to kiss him again.
"Well I'm glad to see you two are getting along."
Ruby and Roman jumped as the voice, turning to see Oz-boy standing there, resting on his cane. A sly smile graced his lips.
"Professor Ozpin!" Ruby blushed while Roman laughed. The old-man-turned-boy smiled at her embarrassment.
"Ah, young love. How long it has been since I have seen it so potent." He looked towards Roman. "Would it be too presumptuous to assume you will be joining us in Atlas?"
Roman stopped. His mind told him that it was stupid, that it was suicidal – that Salem would be way harder to beat than Cinder had been. It reminded him of how Neo was still so young, how risky it would be. But he suspected that Neo wouldn't want to let Ruby go without them – and he was certain that he couldn't stomach it either. "Sure."
"Good to hear. I suppose it is lucky that we have James' fleet here. We brought all of your things with us, so there is no need to backtrack to Mistral. Be ready to go soon." Ruby and Roman nodded, and Ozpin walked calmly away.
Roman felt like something was missing. He wracked his brains in thought. Suddenly it hit him. "Neo!"
He felt a finger tap him on the shoulder and he turned to see Neo standing there, smirking cheekily. She looked from one to the other, smirk growing.
"You kissed yet?"
Ruby blushed again. Roman leaned down and kissed her. Neo nodded with a smile and skipped off to… do whatever it is she did in her free time. Annoy Blanche, probably.
"So that's what you meant when you said she 'adopted' me."
Roman nodded. "Like I said, you get used to it." He looked over to Ruby. "You ready to go?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Just one thing." She kissed him hard again, then looked him in the eyes. "What exactly are we?"
"Oh." He looked back at her as he thought. "Whatever you want, I guess. I'll go at your pace."
She smiled. "Boyfriend and girlfriend it is then."
He chuckled. "Sounds good to me, Red."
They both looked over at the others, who were getting treatment for their injuries. Roman looked at Ruby one last time before they started to walk over. It had been a long road, but Roman was finally in a place where he was happy. It had been an arduous journey, but even through all of the near-deaths and the risk-takes…
He'd survived.
Bada bing, bada boom. We got through this.
That was the last proper chapter. Please, tell me what you thought in the reviews, I love the feedback. Else, you can expect the Xmas special on the 25th and the Epilogue on next Thursday.
Over the course of writing this, I've been increasingly worried about the reception of this due to the age difference in the characters. Some of this worry had abated, however, when I realised a few things:
One – the fandom doesn't seem to have trouble shipping Ruby with people older that her even when she's underage (which she isn't here), so it doesn't seem like that much of an issue with you guys.
Two – One of the most popular RWBY fanfics I can think of, Professor Arc, ships Glynda and Jaune – which I'm pretty sure is a larger age difference than in this fic.
Three – I realised that Huntsman probably don't view the issue in the same way. I ran some calculations on it, even. If we make the (I think reasonable) assumption that each huntsman academy year contains 20-40 people accounting for differences in class sizes in each school, and taking the average age of death for a huntsman to be 45 (Qrow being around 40 by my calculations and yet Ruby calling him an 'old man') which make sense because huntsmen would die earlier than the average due to their dangerous job, we can calculate that huntsmen operate on average for 24 years and therefore there are 480-960 huntsmen available in any given area (1920-3840 Remnant-wide in total). Assuming that 1/24th of the people are in your year, this results in a 96% chance that a huntsman you meet at random being not your age and a 67% chance that they are more than 4 years older or younger than you. Therefore, a huntsman/huntress who A – wants to get with a huntsman/huntress, B – isn't dating within their team, and C – hasn't dated during their education is fairly likely to end up with somebody significantly older than them. This would mean that huntsmen would have a different view of age differences in relationships than regular folk.
Okay, that was a bit of a rant, but I got my point across. Still, no Next Time today; the story is over, baby! I hope you enjoyed, and please consider reading some of my other works if they interest you.
See you dreckly!