"What about you, Oscar? What do you want from your future?"

He'd had dreams for his life, before Ozpin, before all this. Lots of them, some of which had even contradicted the others. He'd thought he'd have his whole life to figure it out. But now…

Glancing at her, sitting barefoot in the grass beside him, arms wrapped around her knees, the moonlight catching in her dark hair, all he could think in that moment was…

You. You're the future I want.

But he couldn't say that. Gods, it felt too self-indulgent even to think it to himself. So instead he looked at the ground, buried his own bare toes deeper into the grass, tried to remember what had even mattered to him before that day he'd looked in the mirror and seen someone else looking back out of his own eyes. It felt so far away, like another life.

He was getting awfully maudlin for just fifteen years old.

Perhaps Ruby sensed that the question upset him on some level, because she didn't press it, even as the silence dragged on.

Faint strains of music wafted over the night air from the distant party, and Ruby began to sway a bit, her foot tapping in time to the beat.

"Ruby, do you… actually want to dance?" He'd thought she hadn't liked these sorts of things. Wasn't that why she'd slipped out back to these gardens, to get away from the people and the dancing?

She started in surprise, laughed when he pointed at her tapping foot. "Oh no, I… honestly haven't the foggiest idea how. I'm not fancy, like Weiss. It's just… it sounds nice." She looked a bit wistful.

Oscar wasn't sure what came over him. Perhaps it was the fancy clothes, or maybe he just wanted to avoid thinking about the looming future that was no longer his, but he took a chance.

He stood up, brushed the grass off his pants, and extended a hand. "Well, neither do I. Can't even squaredance. But out here, no one has to see us floundering, so…"

She regarded his hand for a long, breathless moment. "Can't even do-si-do?"

"I know. I'm an embarrassment to the Pine family name," he said dryly.

She laughed. He tried to ignore his heart hammering in his chest as she took his hand, tried to pretend he wasn't breaking out in a cold sweat as he settled a hand nervously on her waist.

Ozpin, if you're listening in there… I know this isn't exactly a plane-crashing emergency, but if you wanted to imbue me with thousands of years of dancing knowledge, now would be the time…

He waited.

Nothing.

Floundering it would be.

And floundering it was, as it became abundantly clear that Ruby had not been exaggerating her lack of prowess on the dancefloor. It took all of 10 seconds for her to plant her foot solely in the center of his, and he was quite glad that she'd removed her heels.

But even as clumsy and artless as it was, it was exhilarating, and it was new, and it was theirs. Neither of them knew how to lead, or even what leading meant, so instead they just made it up, spinning and twirling in the cool grass, their laughter drowning out the music, making it impossible to keep time.

Oscar didn't know a waltz from a samba, but he tried as best he could to imitate what he'd seen the dancers inside the ballroom doing. How were you supposed to know where to put your feet?

By the second song, they'd almost found a rhythm. It wasn't remotely like any dancing Oscar had seen before - in fact, an outside observer might be loath to call it 'dancing' at all - but at least now they were keeping time with the music.

"Oooo, maybe try a dip! Those always look fun!" Ruby said breathlessly, twirling under his arm - a little awkwardly, since she was taller than him.

It seemed a bit of an advanced move, Oscar supposed, but they were starting to get the hang of this. Plus… he couldn't really tell her no, not when she smiled at him like that, cheeks flushed with effort, looking absolutely radiant…

So he tried.

Dancing barefoot on damp grass was difficult enough, but only a fool would attempt to dip a girl for the very first time, on said damp grass, when that girl was also bigger than him.

Ruby's giggle of delight turned into an awkward squawk as their feet slipped out from under them, and presently Oscar found himself sprawled above her, redfaced, arms still wrapped loosely around each other.

"Oh gods… I'm so sorry-" he mumbled, trying to extricate himself.

She cut him off with a snort that turned into a peal of uncontrollable laughter, and in moments, he was laughing too.

"S-sorry…" she managed, as her giggles died down. "We just really suck at this."

"What do you mean? Throwing people on the ground is the latest craze, that was my best move," he countered, and she threw her head back and laughed again, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes.

The laughter caught in his throat as he watched her giggling in the moonlight, hair splayed out haphazardly on the grass, and he thought, I've never seen anyone more beautiful.

It must have been the look in his eyes, or maybe he'd unconsciously dipped his head just a smidge lower, but she stilled suddenly. Wide silver eyes blinked up at him and for a long moment, there was no sound save for the music that still hung in the air. She was so close.

"Oscar," she began, and he couldn't tell whether the tone of her voice was apprehension, or invitation-

BOOM.

The music disappeared as an explosion rocked the air from the direction of the Schnee Manor, mixed with screams and the sound of shattering glass.

They scrambled to their feet immediately, the stillness of the moment gone.

"What-"

"An attack? Who-"

"Dammit, where are my shoes?"

They rushed back across the gardens towards the manor, where loud crashes made it clear that a fight was well underway. Oscar thought he could hear the telltale sounds of Yang's gun-arm firing.

What the hell was that? Did I just almost… He knew it was stupid. It wasn't the time to worry about such things, not when bigger catastrophes were clearly happening. But…

He spared a glance at Ruby as he hopped awkwardly along, trying to shove his foot into a shoe. Her expression was indecipherable, flustered and shocked and worried all at once, but he couldn't tell how much was because of what they were running towards, or… what they were running from.

I'm such an idiot…

For Rosegarden Week 2021 (spring edition). Prompt was Atlas Ball.

Someday I'd like to expand this little snippet into a fuller fic. But I've been thinking of writing this since V5 wrapped and I finally got it out of my system. But for now, consider this an excerpt of sorts.