Just then, a knock came at the door. Ruby jumped and Roman swore under his breath. He turned to Ruby. "Go hide in the closet in the bedroom. I'll try to get rid of her."

Ruby frantically looked to the door and back to him. He nudged her arm and quietly whispered, "Now! And don't use your semblance."

Quickly enough that made Roman believe she ignored what he had just said, Ruby turned on her heel and took silent strides to the other side of the room, opening and closing the door as quietly as possible. Roman performed a quick sweep to check that she left no petals on the ground, of which there were none. Sighing, he stepped to the door and opened it without looking through the people.

Shit, Roman thought.

Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald stood in the doorway.


Ruby slowly pulled the sliding door shut and flipped the light switch off. She immediately noted the smell of perfume, much stronger than it was in the bathroom. Ruby looked along the shelves above the shoe racks and found a collection of cologne bottles. He had quite a few, and all of the caps were removed from the bottles. When she stood on her toes, she could see that all of the caps were shoved to the back corner of a shelf. The brands were all high-brow things that Ruby couldn't even afford. And they were all women's perfumes. Ruby lowered back down onto her heel, confused. The general aroma that hung in the air didn't smell like what Roman usually wears at all, and he must not have lived here long if there wasn't a lot of food in the fridge.

Does Roman not have a place of his own to stay? Or is this an apartment that he stole?

On one hanger, Roman's classic white coat hung. She stepped closer and held the cuff in her hand. She brought it up to her nose and inhaled deeply through her nose. She immediately recognized the smell. It brought up memories of the time when Roman placed the end of his gun under her jaw, and then of the time she had broken out into tears and the moment when Roman kissed her. The smell itself, which used to set her on edge, was now comforting, and it eased the rolling anxiety in her stomach.

Ruby dropped the sleeve and sat down with her legs crossed, trying to stay as quiet as possible. In the relative darkness, the sounds from the next room became much clearer. She picked up a few phrases here and there, but mostly just Roman when he said, "None of you told me that you were coming today."

She scooted across the floor and pushed the dangling pant legs out of her face, pressing her ear to the wall to better hear what was happening on the other side of it.

A masculine voice Ruby didn't recognize spoke next. "Well, I mean, what better do you have to do."

"Quiet," another one said. "Roman, unless you have somewhere to be, sit down."

A moment later she spoke again. "The room is still being set up. The account has to transfer or something else along those lines. So until that happens, we meet here instead."

"Can you do me a favor and let me know next time? Neo is going to be over soon."

"Perfect. She should participate in this discussion, too."

"How long is this going to take?" Roman's voice again, but this time a little bit louder.

"A few hours."

Ruby sighed in an exasperated manner. She pulled out her scroll and a pair of headphones, backing up to the furthest end of the closet. Deciding she would watch a movie, Ruby settled in, trying to decide on one that wouldn't make her laugh.

I guess it'll be a while.


"Okay, we can move on from the few technical difficulties involving the Vytal Festival," Cinder announced. "Now we need to consider another problem."

"Ruby Rose," Emerald scowled.

Roman's heart skipped a beat. "Wait a second, why are we talking about R-Red?" He mentally kicked himself for nearly saying "Ruby".

Cinder quirked an eyebrow. "She is becoming increasingly involved with our operation. If she continues to interfere, we may face bigger challenges in the future. In addition, I have finished reviewing the file you composed, Roman."

Mercury didn't bother to finish the bite of his sandwich in his mouth before speaking. "But what can we really do about it? It's not like we can off her. Team RWBY is lined up to compete in the festival, and if they decide to delay it because of a murder, then," Mercury finished his thought with a gesture: a thumb dragged horizontally across the skin of his throat.

"Well what if she has an 'accident'?" Emerald proposed.

"Oh please." Mercury swallowed. "All she'd have to say is 'I was set up,' and an investigation is opened. People will probably speculate in favor of cheating to get ahead in the tournament."

"I don't mean injury," Emerald concluded.

Cinder rolled the thought over in her head. "Like Mercury said, they might delay the tournament if she were to be murdered now. But if we did something about her after it begins…" Cinder paused to gauge the reaction of her audience. Roman's stomach lurched, but he decided not to say anything. "…then maybe we won't have a problem after all."

Roman chose his words carefully. "Is she really worth that much trouble? I mean, the bitch screwed around with the train operation, but I'm inclined to believe that when all of this goes down, she'll be curled up in a corner like all the rest of them."

Cinder took a breath, maintaining eye contact with Roman as he fell back in his seat and quietly hoped that she didn't suspect anything. Cinder narrowed her eyes, but if she was suspicious, she didn't say anything. Roman could never see anything in those eyes. They may be beautiful, but they're as dead and lifeless as his parents.

"Fine. We'll hold off on further action for now. But now that we're settled, then this meeting is adjourned."

Neo lifted up from her chair and sauntered over to the table while Junior stayed seated and took another swig of his drink. Neo signed something at Cinder.

"What does that mean?" Cinder asked with a blank tone, turning to Roman.

"Goodbye," Roman answered. Junior smirked.

"I don't get it. Couldn't she just wave or something?" Mercury asked.

"There are many ways of saying goodbye in sign language, just like there are in the English language," Roman supplied. It was more of a rough translation.

Emerald rolled her eyes and stood up, soon followed by Mercury. Neo, Junior, and Roman remained silent and still as they watched them collect themselves and walk out the door.

"I think you've had too much to drink, Neo," Junior said. It was the first thing he said since he had arrived. He had communicated with Neo via sign language for the next few hours after they made a decision not to involve themselves in their conversation.

"'Later, cunt?' Really, Neo?" Roman sighed.

Neo smiled and finished off what was left in her glass. "You mind if we stay longer? I really wanted to help you clean out your cabinet."

"I was really hoping on getting some alone time, actually," Roman responded, rubbing his forehead and looking down at the floor. Junior scoffed.

"What?" Roman asked. "These things exhaust me."

"She can join us." Neo signed.

Roman stood stunned for a moment. He closed his gaping mouth when Neo started signing again.

"She was snoring when I went to use the bathroom. You're pretty lucky these walls aren't paper-thin."

Roman was actually lucky not to have seen her barge out of the closet in a rage shouting how she'd been sitting there for hours. They'd have both been dead by now if she had. He looked out the window. The sun had set, and her friends were probably worried about her.

After walking into his bedroom, he immediately noticed that the blanket that covered the duvet was missing. Roman opened the door to his closet and saw Red's legs, covered by the blanket, toes poking out from under the edge. Opening the door further, he took in new details: Ruby's boots set by her knees, a scroll and headphones set to the side, and her head, resting on top of his coat.

Biting the back of his lower lip, he kneeled down in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder. For a moment, he watched her, slowly inhaling and exhaling, but every moment he spent was another moment that would raise Neo's suspicion. So he sighed and shook her shoulder gently.

"Ruby, wake up," Roman said. He shook her more vigorously.

Ruby's eyes fluttered open and as soon as she realized she was conscious, she spluttered, "Weiss, I'm awake!"

"What?" Roman asked. He recalled the name of one of her teammates, the skinny one in the white dress.

Ruby took time to regain her senses and looked up at Roman with drooping eyelids. "Oh, sorry. My scroll ran out of battery." She pulled herself up off her bed and lifted Roman's coat off the ground.

"I'll get that." Roman gently removed the coat from her hands and pushed himself up. Ruby sat up and watched him hang the coat on the rack with delicate precision. When he finished smoothing out the fabric, he kneeled down and picked Ruby up and set her on the bed.

"Wait a second, I gotta get back to school," Ruby drawled.

"You can't," Roman said, noting the time on his bedside alarm clock. "Last air taxi leaves in five minutes."

"They have emergency ones. I can just get one of those or something," Ruby pulled the blanket off her body.

"Those are only from Beacon to Vale. They don't have any on standby at the dock in eastside Vale."

Ruby scrunched her nose. "How do you know that?"

Roman picked up her scroll and plugged it into a charger on the other side of the bed. "I did a little research a while ago. Once upon a time, I thought about going there myself."

"Why didn't you?" Ruby asked, curiosity piqued.

"My request for financial aid was declined and my foster parents weren't volunteering." Roman sat down on the other side of the bed and looked at Ruby.

"Oh," Ruby murmured, breaking her gaze and staring at the ceiling.

"Do you want to come in and have a drink with us?" Roman proposed.

"I thought your friend wouldn't be happy if she knew I was over here."

"Thankfully, she's too intoxicated to care. But tomorrow, she will be more than sober enough to tell me how much of an idiot I am."

Ruby mulled it over in her head. "I don't know…I actually really hate low-fat milk."

Roman chuckled. "Yeah, I'm working on that."

Ruby smiled, but it faded as she realized the situation she was in. "I don't have anywhere to sleep," she muttered.

"You can take the bed. Do you want any water or anything? I don't have much in terms of food." Roman stood up.

"I'll take water," Ruby said.

A small grin gracing the features of his face, Roman gave a slight nod and walked out of the room.


First of all, I'm an asshole. For people that know me, that's a given, but some of y'all might have a hard time figuring it out. Don't worry, I have the next chapter all planned out so I'm gonna jump on that tomorrow. Worst case scenario, it hits the press on Friday. Anyway, I'm tired as shit and I need to go to bed. You know how to reach me folks. Ciao!