There isn't a moment of rest, during the day now. She is training from before sunup, and any spare moment is filled with some other task. She isn't allowed to be part of the scouting crew now, so the next move brings them a farther distance from her and Oscar's normal meetup spot. It's either a long walk, or waste aura to use her semblance.

She's tired by the time she gets there no matter what.

It rarely shows on the surface, but it's clear when they fight.

She's not quite as fast, doesn't hit quite as hard.

It's so deeply frustrating.

For the first time ever Oscar has the high ground without her handing it to him. He's managed to actually get her in a bind well enough to remember not to give her room to kick free either, he's made that mistake before. He seems as shocked by it as she does. There was no way he would have won if she wasn't already so exhausted, but he did just win and that's what matters. He's got this proud grin on his face as she struggles just once more to try and escape before giving in and giving him a daring glare. He laughs quietly before leaning in and stealing a gentle kiss, pulling away before she can make anything else of it.

There's a playful glean in his eyes as she growls in annoyance.

He eases away from her just enough for her to move him, and just as he was expecting she takes all control into her hands the instant he gave even a little.

He doesn't fight back, maybe just to annoy her a little more.

Their next meeting is marked by rain coming down in heavy sheets and lightning crackling in the distance. It wasn't the first time the weather was rough on a night they planned for. Normally they would both just ignore the rain, but tonight Ruby is already swaying on her feet by the time she gets there, and somehow fighting in this downpour sounds completely unappealing.

"Wanna go somewhere else?" She asks, raising her voice to speak over the sound of the downpour that already had them both drenched.

Oscar nods, letting her lead the way, not questioning where they were going. She could tell him she was leading him to his death, and he might take a step to follow.

The ground is spongy, and difficult to navigate in areas as they weave between trees and through marshland. Even with their pace slowed, they arrive only an hour or so later.

There are lights in the distance, the glow of lamps from inside houses, a small village. Small, but strong because of its proximity to the larger city, and its safe trade routes, Ruby happens to know. She pauses to slip her mask on. She hasn't worn it around him since that first night.

The streets are quiet, no one is out in weather like this.

Yet there is a small hum of soundless anxiety that hangs in the air.

People were glancing out their windows from behind curtains, waiting, watching.

The beast who prowls in the night is a blessing alone,

and a curse with her pack,

but what is she when she brings only one other with her?

She hardly notices them, anymore, in their staring, in their praying.

Oscar notices, but can't understand.

They veer off to a building finally, and if the sign wasn't there then the distinct smell of old pipe smoke and ale was good enough indication this was a pub. It's no different than in many other small trade villages, a homey bar on the ground level and an Inn upstairs.

She likes this place because no one in town asks questions, and the owner is both kind and willing to make very sweet drinks without some tinge of judgement on his face.

It's near empty inside, a few men sat at the bar, laughing with the owner who was bartending.

Laughter lowers to hushed whispers that quickly turn to silence as all the men other than the owner excuse themselves, avoiding looking directly at Ruby in particular.

When all of them have left, she slips the mask off once more and the old man, giant and greying as he is, smiles in greeting.

"Moon child! Long time no see, and ya brought yourself a friend too," He's less cautious around her than the others, by far.

She waves in the man's direction with a disinterested greeting, picking out a spot in the corner, near enough the hearth with a fire burnt down to orange embers that they both might have a chance to warm up.

Oscar slides in next to her, quiet too, taking in this odd change of pace in all it's details.

The man comes by with a couple of towels, old and nearly stiff, but still useful to dry their dripping hair.

"Jus' your usual for ya?" He asks Ruby. Her eyes flick over to Oscar briefly before nodding. "An' for your friend?" She glares at the odd way he says the word 'friend'.

"He'll have the same," She answers before Oscar can even think to.

Her eyes follow the man until he is acceptably far away again, before turning her attention back to Oscar. "Have you drank before?"

He'd be of age to anywhere in Mistral now, not that any of these small towns cared to check anyways.

"I- yeah I have. Never play a drinking game with Nora if you want to survive. Actually no, never let her play a drinking game in general, if you want to survive." And neither can pinpoint when they reached this point, but she doesn't freeze at the mention of her old friends. She even laughs a little, imagining it.

"You drink then?" He asks in return, the answer was obvious but also still somehow surprising to him. The very first time he had met her, it was in getting her very drunk uncle back home safe. Somehow that, plus her hatred of bitter flavors, and her constant vigilance now didn't lend to the idea that she would want to drink. "Mm, sometimes, occasionally." She nods. It's never truly safe to be that unguarded, she only really drinks when the other tribe members pester her about it, or when she can't find it in herself to care enough.

With their clothes drying enough to stop clinging, and the warmth of this place leeching the chill from her body, her exhaustion is creeping back up on her quickly. She is nearly startled then, when two glasses are set on the table, she hadn't noticed anyone approach.

Oscar picks up one glass with a certain amount of suspicion, sniffing it before trying it.

It's almost painfully sweet, some sort of strawberry and cherry blended thing. He might not even guess the sheer amount of alcohol packed into it, if it didn't leave a burning sensation crawling down the back of his throat.

Ruby snorts at his cautious approach. He raises an eyebrow at her, to which she takes her own glass, and while maintaining eye contact the entire time, drinks half of it. It's an intimidation tactic of sorts, or a challenge, a thing she's picked up from the tribe. His eyes widen, less out of intimidation and more out of this odd mixture of concern and interest that makes it impossible to look away.

He sighs then, drinking more of his own. It's not bad really, but even a quarter of that glass and it's making him feel a little bit fuzzy headed quickly.

On some level, in some vague way he understands this as a show of trust on her part, that she is willing to lower her defenses this much.

Ruby hasn't even thought that far, all she knows is being tired only seems to make being around him a more sharp, in focus experience that she would literally kill to make stop.

Alcohol seems a better alternative, at the moment.

She finishes off the second half of her glass as quickly as the first half.

Which is probably– most definitely a mistake. It softens everything though, and that was all she was asking for. She's resting against him slightly, and doesn't even realize it at first, just as she doesn't realize she's started fidgeting with the sleeve of Oscar's jacket.

"Hey, are you...okay?" And oh what a well of a question that really was, if only he knew.

"Mhm, just, tired, mostly." She mumbles, more of an admission than he was expecting.

She lays her head against his shoulder, sighing, aware enough to know she's feeding into whatever sweet notion he's got in his head, yet again.

The buzzing warmth in her stomach wards off any twinge of remorse that might normally find its way in.

Where she would normally shy from more pleasant things, she leans in, for now, for one bizarre and surreal moment in time she refuses to care, she's too tired to care.

Oscar has no clue what to do with any of this.

The rituals he's come to expect are absent,

and he misses the direction that her usual demands gave him,

and he misses the pain and thoughtlessness of it all,

and maybe any hope of bringing her back had always been a hopeless one,

and maybe he's known that, and doesn't care,

and maybe he's become too comfortable knowing he's fallen for a wild thing.

Ruby finally lifts her head, stretching and sitting up straight, trying to keep herself awake. "So," She yawns. "Whatcha going to do, when you're done with the whole saving the world business?"

It takes Oscar a bit to sort out the fact that Ruby just asked that, and a bit longer to try to answer. It strays so far beyond any line into personal business they avoid talking about.

He shrugs. "I... don't know actually," Careful with his words, even if she wasn't being careful with the questions she's asking. She looks at him, for once waiting for him to elaborate. "I don't think about it much? There's not really a point, thinking about it, yet."

Even a little hazy at the moment, Ruby catches something familiar in his tone that makes her frown. She reaches up and flicks him on the nose.

He winces, "Ow- hey what was that for?"

"Cause you're being stupid," She says simply. "You are your own person, so pick your own way you want this to end,"

As if that were an easy thing to do, as if his life wasn't intrinsically tangled in something bigger than himself that he has no choice in.

He can't run away from the end of the world because it will follow him into death, it will consume him in death.

He might be able to live as his own person, but he doesn't have the freedom to die his own person.

He hasn't made peace with that, quite yet.

She makes a realization then, small and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. If he has no plans then he has no expectations here, with her.

Maybe she's not been feeding a delusion of romance for him, but rather she's been letting him run, if only in small moments, from the future.

"Nobody gets to pick their own ending, completely though, right? Can't force people to stay that don't want to, for instance," He asks, watching her carefully.

Ruby frowns again. "Y...Right."

"What about you, what's your future look like?" It's a risk, it's always a risk asking her questions, but tonight is strange.

"I- huh, guess I don't think about it much, either," She mumbles, because it sounds hypocritical to get on his case about it when she gives it no thought personally.

It isn't though, she could argue, because Oscar deserves a future, a happy ending to this all, and she doesn't.

"At all?" He's pushing his luck, but she doesn't seem bothered by it with the way she's resting her head against his shoulder yet again.

"Mm, nope, not at all." She's thought so little of the future for so long that she doesn't bother keeping track of time in any meaningful way. There were stories she loved as a child, but she rarely loved how they ended even back then. Happily ever after is so vague, and the domestic endings of so many romance novels seems hellish to her now.

"You haven't thought about it at all either?" If he is going to push, she'll push back again too.

"Not- not really. I thought for a while that maybe if this all ends well, maybe I'd go back and live on the farm again for a little bit. But I stopped by last year, I hadn't really told my aunt that I was leaving to begin with you know? Guess I was too late, it was all gone when I got there."

She tilts her head on his shoulder enough to look up at him. "Gone?"

"Abandoned, I guess is a better word for it, the farm was at least. The nearest town though was completely burnt."

She had thought the alcohol had softened the edges of all feelings.

Apparently not.

An icy blade of realization runs the length of her spine.

She tenses and it doesn't go unnoticed. "Where- where's the town, does it have a name?"

It confuses Oscar, he hadn't expected her to show that much concern about it. "It doesn't have a name, no. It is- was a very small town, west of Mistral City, and pretty far from it too."

Ruby bites her tongue, trying to filter through a blur of memories to see what towns fit that description, so many do. They are all so very similar, and all the same in their destruction. "Your aunt, you don't know what happened to her?"

"No," He shakes his head.

There are, for once, so many words Ruby wants to say, questions she wants to ask.

Without knowing it, he has handed her the most perfect and terrible way to destroy this all.

It has to end eventually, whatever this is, and it won't end well no matter what they do.

If she's going to destroy something, might as well do it in the most thorough, quick, and painful way possible, that sickening rage in her says.

It whispers that to her, because he has been more than she ever deserves already.

She can't, not yet, not now.

In one small rejection of that terrible loathing, she forces herself to relax, and to tuck herself closer to him and nuzzle against the crook of his neck. For once, she will let herself enjoy something. Maybe she only lets herself do that because she knows it will only make inevitable more painful when it comes.

It was Oscar's turn to be tense, because he's completely unaccustomed to having Ruby this close to him without a whole lot of bruising and biting. Feeling her breath against his neck is exceedingly distracting in a way he normally has no time to pay attention to. Slowly, hesitantly, he winds an arm around her waist. She doesn't pull away in the way he's expecting either.

"Uh, Ruby?" He finally speaks, quiet and not wanting to completely ruin this moment.

"Wha?" She doesn't lift her head to speak, she sounds a little irritated at having to speak at all.

"Are you falling asleep on me?"

"Maybe, why not?" She curls closer still, as if to make a point of it.

"Because, this isn't exactly a place to sleep?" He's smiling, glad she can't see it.

"Sure is, upstairs 's. They don't care what I do around here." An odd way to explain it, but it's true, drinks and a place to stay is something they ask no money from her for here.

"Well, we aren't exactly upstairs." Oscar points out, earning a grumble from Ruby as she pulls away.

"You are being so annoying."

"And you're not stopping me." A flash of a more familiar gaze of a predator out for blood shines in her eyes for just a moment after he says that.

"I will, tomorrow. But tonight? Quit being annoying, be nice," That threat, or promise, and the near whine in her tone by the end makes his face burn.

He ducks his head to hide that as they stand, but she's already off to grab a key from the man at the bar anyways.

Upstairs she takes off her cloak, and weapon, and all other sharp things. Oscar does the same with his jacket, and weapons, but where Ruby is content to crawl under the covers quickly, he hesitates.

Whatever he is thinking is quickly interrupted by a hand around his wrist and a quick tug that trips him into falling sideways onto the bed. It leaves him awkwardly half crushing Ruby, with his elbow jabbing into her stomach. When he looks at her she doesn't look like she regrets it, not even a little bit. "You're overthinking, lay down," She says. It's not as if she doesn't understand why he's hesitating, or the implications associated. She very nearly wants to remind him of what they frequently do when they meet, and that her intentions here are much more innocent, but that would be admitting that she sees what they do as anything more than a fight.

He gives in then and pulls back the covers. It takes all of two seconds after he's settled in for her to lay on him despite there being plenty of room on the bed. For as adverse as she normally is to touch that isn't in context of a fight, sleep is one exception. She's used to having a dog or five piled up with her anyways, having something warm and alive near her seems to allow her some amount of peace in dreams she can't control.