The bell rang and the students rushed to grab their things and run out the door. Oscar sat at his desk watching the students leave. For the first time in months, no papers sat on his desk. It was almost liberating seeing the empty desk. A few students called out, "see you next year, Mr. Pine!" as they left the room. He responded accordingly.
"Thank you for everything, Mr. Pine." Jett approached the desk.
"Of course, Jett. I hope this good streak keeps up next year. If you ever need anything, you know where to find me." Jett let out a quiet 'thank you' before shuffling out.
Oscar stretched, grateful for the end of the school year. While the students ended the year, the teachers still had a few more days of work. The entire room had to be cleaned out over the next few days. It was always a lengthy process, but always worth it.
When the hallways began quieting, he began the process of tearing down his room. He started with the grimm posters hanging around the room. He stood on a chair, working to peel the tape off the wall.
"Hey Oscar!" He let out a little shriek at the unexpected yell. He felt himself losing balance on his chair and falling.
He didn't hit the floor. When he looked up, he found himself staring into silver eyes. Ruby had caught him and was supporting him under the armpits. There was an amused smile on her face as she tried not to giggle.
"Still startle easily?" she smiled.
"I expected a pick-up line like 'I see you're falling for me.'"
"You win, that was better." Ruby gave him a little shove to his feet.
"What are you doing here? You should be in bed! You fainted yesterday." Ruby rolled her eyes a little.
"I was feeling better this morning so I came with Dad."
"Why haven't I seen you?"
"Probably because I've been avoiding you. I knew you'd be mad if I came and send me home, but I got bored and came here anyways."
"Well that's why I've seen so many rose petals today. I thought some students were bringing in roses or something." He began crumpling up the now torn poster. He chucked it in the trash across the room. Ruby cheered when he got it in. "I won't send you home if you don't want to go. I know you well enough to know that you'd mysteriously find your way back."
"You know me pretty well." Ruby went across the room and sat in his chair. Oscar began working on the posters again. "Are you excited?!"
"About what?"
"Ren and Nora's wedding, dummy!" she cheered. "We're heading to Vale tomorrow, remember?"
"Wait, tomorrow?!"
"Don't tell me you forgot."
"Sorry, Rubes, I kinda did. I have a staff meeting tomorrow morning."
"Our friends are getting married next week! I can't believe you forgot!"
"I just didn't realize we were leaving on the same day as the meeting. Either way, you should go on ahead. I'll take a later airship and meet you at the hotel."
"Boo!" Ruby pouted.
"I'll make it up to you, ok?" Oscar laughed. "Dinner's on me."
"Fine, but I get to pick the place. There's a restaurant I've been wanting to go to in Vale."
"Deal. I shall see you there, milady."
"I'm not too happy about how much you two are acting like a couple," a new voice joined the conversation. Tai stood at the door with his arms crossed. "Hey Oscar, can you help me with the projector in my room? It's not turning off for some reason."
"Yeah, give me a minute." He started putting aside the posters he had taken down.
"You could've asked me," Ruby said.
"Well you disappeared, and now I see why."
"Sorry, Dad," she smiled awkwardly. Tai chuckled.
"Excited for your trip to Vale?"
"Of course!" Ruby jumped up. "Ren and Nora are getting married! And we're both part of the wedding party! I'm so happy for them!"
"Nora's pretty excited," Oscar laughed. "For the past week she's been calling me to talk about the wedding."
"And we're all going to be together again!" Ruby cheered. "I can't wait to see everybody!"
"Yeah, I know. It's all you've been talking about lately," Tai chuckled. "So… projector?"
"Oh, right." Oscar rushed to the door where Tai was. "Ruby you can hang out here if you want. It'll only be a few minutes."
"Roger that!" Ruby saluted before making herself comfortable in his swivel chair.
"I see you're pretty excited for this wedding," Tai said as they walked down the hall.
"Yeah. That reminds me, you're still taking notes for me for tomorrow's meeting, right?"
"'Course, buddy. It's just wrapping things up and asking what we need to clean up the rooms. You've been there."
"Thanks."
"No problem. Also make sure that my girls don't do anything stupid while they're in Vale. You know how they can be."
"Well I'll do my best," Oscar laughed. "But there's little I can do to stop an overly-determined Yang."
"Also make sure Qrow doesn't do anything stupid. I do not want to have to go all the way to Vale for getting too drunk."
"I'll look out for him, don't worry."
"Thanks. I'm counting on you, bud."
###
Ruby groaned as she watched tv upside down. There wasn't anything interesting on so her idea of making it interesting was sitting upside down. The program just kept talking on and on about some kind of reality tv show drama. Ruby had no idea what was going on.
There was a knock at the door and she turned herself around. She checked her scroll to see if Nora said she would be visiting. After seeing nothing, she thought to stay put until they went away. The knock happened again. Ruby groaned and opened it.
"Oscar!" Ruby hugged him when she saw him in the doorway.
"Hey. The meeting finished up early so I was able to catch an earlier train."
"I'm so glad to see you!" Her voice was muffled by his shirt. "Come on in! I was reaaallly bored!"
Ruby practically dragged him inside. She shut the door and took off for the bed. She jumped on it with no troubles or worries.
"What do you want to do?" She bounced a little on the bed. "We can watch tv, play videogames, play cards, truth or dare, chicken, oh! Maybe truth or dare mixed with cards! Loser has to do a dare!"
"So basically just cards with punishments?"
"Well if you put it that way it sounds less fun." Ruby bounced once more before landing on the bed in a sitting position. "I've been by myself all day! I'm really bored!"
"Really? What do you do at home then?" Oscar laughed. He sat down on the edge of the bed next to her.
"Mostly play videogames until I'm bored. Then I go to your house and play videogames until you get home. Sometimes if I'm really bored, I switch your plants around."
"Well that explains a lot," he rolled his eyes. "We could go to the movies."
"But we see movies every week together! That's no fun!" Ruby flopped onto her back. Suddenly she sat back up. "I have an idea!"
After knowing Ruby for so long, Oscar felt that he should know how unpredictable her ideas were. While this was one of the things he liked most about her, it also made things very difficult for him. This included following Ruby through fenced off areas.
"Ruby! Come back! We're huntsmen! We're supposed to be following the law!" Oscar hissed just loud enough so that Ruby could hear from the other side of the fence.
"Oh? If I recall, we're far beyond that point of civility. Besides, it's fine! I came here plenty of times when I still lived in Vale! Never got in trouble! Now hurry up!"
Oscar groaned. He took a deep breath and climbed the fence after her. He muttered under his breath how illegal it was the entire time. Ruby smiled when he jumped safely to the other side.
"Come on!" She grabbed his hand and took him through the lot.
They walked past abandoned and ruined buildings. The marks of the Fall of Beacon still prominent as ever in this marked off area. Oscar saw robot soldiers littered in the streets, never cleaned up once the battle was over.
Ruby lead him to the center of a destroyed plaza. The rubble looked to be mostly cleaned up. In the center of the plaza was a mound. Two identical swords stuck out of the dirt. Oscar couldn't stop the tears from his eyes. He recognized them, but not from his own memories. From Ozpin's.
"Ruby? Where are we?" Oscar asked. Ruby herself wiped away some tears.
"I helped out in the rebuilding of Vale," she explained. "My job was mostly taking out any grimm that could harm the workers, but I also helped out in cleaning up some of the ruins. While I was working, I found some of Penny's swords and parts. They must have fallen off the arena sometime after the attack. So I buried them here and marked it with her swords. It's her grave so to speak."
"I'm… sorry…"
"It's ok…" Oscar saw her sad face and grabbed her hand. Ruby looked up at him then smiled. "You know, I think you two would have gotten along."
"Really?"
"Yeah! Penny was super kind, but lacked some social grace. Kind of like you!"
"Me?!" Oscar laughed. "I know that I used to be really socially awkward, but you're the one that tried fighting a nevermore to get Weiss to like you."
"Hey!" Ruby blushed. She batted at him with her free hand. "That was a long time ago! Ugh! No fair using Professor Ozpin's memories against me!"
They laughed together for a few moments. Ruby continued trying to bat at Oscar who easily deflected her attempts. Their laughter subsided and a silence settled in. Oscar felt Ruby's grip on his hand tighten around his. He looked at her expression again. He was surprised to see a little smile on her face.
"Ruby?"
"You know, I miss Penny a lot. I miss Pyrrha too. But I'm glad for the little time I did get to spend with them. And they would be happy that I've grown so much. They would be happy that I've been able to continue making new friends, like you. I guess I just can't wait to see what they think of me now when…" she trailed off.
"Don't… please don't say that…" Oscar whispered. Ruby didn't reply. She turned away and started walking away.
"Let's go before we get in trouble." Oscar gripped at the air where her warm hand had been.
When Ruby was a length away, Oscar bent down to the height of the grave. He touched the cool metal of the black swords. He remembered the little red-haired girl that would trail behind Ironwood. He couldn't remember what Ozpin had thought of her, but it was closer to a stranger than a friend.
"Don't worry, I'll watch over her," he whispered to the grave.
"Hey Oscar! Are you coming?!" Ruby called to him from behind a nearby building.
"Yeah I'm coming!" he called back. Oscar stood up, looking down once more at the grave. "Rest well, Penny."
Then he turned and left. When he met Ruby at the fence, she didn't cry. She didn't even look sad. She only smiled at him.
"Were you talking to Penny?" she teased.
"So?" Ruby giggled at his response.
"I knew you two would get along!" she chirped as she began climbing the fence. She jumped safely down to the other side and waited for him to do the same. "You know, Penny and I used to talk about cute boys!"
Oscar sputtered and nearly fell off the fence. Ruby laughed at his reaction.
"Just kidding! But we probably would have talked about you a lot." Oscar jumped down, landing beside her.
"Oh? Good or bad?"
"Hmm~ I'm thinking good. C'mon! We have a dinner reservation to get to. I'll race you back to the hotel!"
"Ok! But no semblance!"
"Boo! You're boring!" Ruby laughed as she stuck out her tongue. Oscar laughed along with her. He could almost hear a third, excited laugh beside them.