Ruby woke with her cheek plastered across her laptop, legs tangled in her sheets. Her eyelids slowly fluttered, guarding her vision from the cutting glare of unrelenting sunlight. She pulled her sticky cheek off her laptop and pushed herself into a sitting position. Having neglected to put anything on after her bath, Ruby shivered in the cold air of her apartment with nothing but a thin bedsheet to wrap around her body.

She folded her legs over the edge of bed and stood. Her limbs recoiled from the breeze running over her skin, but she persisted and reached for a pair of sweatpants. Hopping into her clothes, Ruby opened her laptop and searched for a weather forecast. Today's prediction called for cloud cover and a cold snap, neither of which Ruby had any clothes for.

Her clothes kept her from getting colder whenever she moved, but they had no effect on the goosebumps prickling her skin. She made small strides to her patchwork wallet, a binder clip holding together her credit card, a fake ID, and barely enough lien to buy a soda from the convenience store down the street. She wasn't too keen on committing credit card fraud, but she needed more supplies. Although, she did have one other avenue to pursue.

She picked up Roman's burner phone and dialed his number.

"Hello?" he slurred in answer. His voice came across groggy and disarrayed.

"Roman, it's Ruby. Did I just wake you up?"

"Yes," he said. "What do you want?"

"Cash. About ten thousand lien." Ruby fiddled with the hem of her shirt.

Her sudden declaration of intent snapped the exhaustion straight out of his voice. "What the fuck do you need that kind of money for?"

"Clothes, shoes, and a high-powered rifle with a scope."

"Jesus, fine. Whatever. I'll bring lien over later today. Give me the specifications of the model you want and I'll find a drop for you next week."

"Got it."

He hung up the phone, and Ruby pulled it away from her face to set it down on the counter. Roman seemed more agitated than usual, and Ruby didn't know whether to attribute it to having woken him up or whatever business he was occupied with last night.

Ruby folded a pillowcase and put it over her eyes, tying it to her face with a strip of gauze. It wasn't comfortable, but it would do the trick. She walked back over to her bed and settled back down onto the mattress.


Ruby jolted in her bed to the loud banging on her door. Her body trembled in shock even as she jumped out of bed and started spewing apologies as she walked up to the door. She undid the deadbolt and pulled the door open.

Roman stood in the doorway with a scowl on his face. "I see you got a deadbolt like I told you to."

"How long have you been waiting there?" Ruby rubbed her eyes, steadying herself on the doorframe.

"A minute. The pins in this thing are worn to shit." Roman pointed to the lock on the door. When Ruby reviewed opening the door in her mind, she realized that she hadn't unlocked the door before opening it. "I'm surprised no one has broken in yet," he continued.

"Day's not over," Ruby said. She walked back over to her bed and sat down on the edge.

He set an envelope on the counter. "There's your cash. Do you have the specifications I asked for?"

Ruby jumped. "Crap, no. I'll write them down right now." She pulled a piece of paper off her nightstand and began to write down details.

He walked over and peered over her as she wrote. "How would you even know that much about guns?"

"If you remember, I have one on my scythe."

"Yeah, but you're a teenager."

"I built it myself."

Roman scoffed. "No, you didn't."

"All students at Signal build their own weapons. Don't you know that?"

He said nothing, but Ruby figured he had made a face or rolled his eyes while she wasn't looking. She finished the list, circling the key items, and held the note out to Roman.

"You better have twenty-twenty vision if you want this loadout," he remarked.

"I actually have above-average vision. Most of my family is far-sighted, anyway." Ruby curled her legs up to her chest, folding her arms around them. The door hung open, letting a cold draft pour into the space around her. It made her shiver, but she could also attribute that to how she just reminded her of Roman's blatant implication of what he was doing last night. She hardly wanted to think about it—the thought of him in that context made her cringe.

"Do you, now," he said, evidently distracted. How long did it take for him to get bored?

Ruby tensed, watching him idle in her apartment. She wanted him to walk out of the door so she could lie down like she was so badly tempted to do. But he stood there with a finger between his teeth, shifting weight between opposing sides of his body. "Do you need something?" she finally asked.

He took a moment before he raised his eyes from the floor. "No, I was just thinking about how you told me you wanted to get closer to Cinder's operation. How were you planning on doing that?"

Ruby shrugged her shoulders. "I was thinking that maybe I would just ride along for the most part. I don't think I actually need to meet Cinder—I just need to keep track of where that is, and that doesn't even become common knowledge."

"So you don't know how, you just want me to figure it out for you?" Roman asked.

"Hey, in my defense, only time I ever considered breaking the law was when the government fell apart. You're much better than I am at evading fully functional law enforcement." The tone in her voice bordered on accusatory, but Roman appeared unaffected. She didn't think he was paying attention.

"Are you going to go out for clothes right now? I'm not really busy today, so I can help you figure that out."

Ruby shook her head, daydreaming of putting it back down on her pillow, feeling her neck stretch when it swayed with the pull of gravity. She had to force her eyelids to stay open with sheer willpower.

Roman watched her as she struggled for a moment before reaching up for the collar of his jacket, pulling it away from his shoulders. When the sleeves slid off his arms, he threw it onto the edge of her bed.

"Please do me a favor and don't catch a cold. I don't have time to be sick," Roman said. He turned on his heel and walked out of the door.

Once Roman was out of sight, Ruby fell back against the bed, stretching her arms so far that it forced a yawn out of her chest. First thing she intended to do was to buy a heater for her lousy apartment.


Hey guys! More updates, and I am so worn out holy crap. Soooooo I'll keep this short and update later. Is there an angel of sleep I can pray to?

Rosewick267: Thank you! I hope your semester goes well, too. On the bright side, I probably won't update frequently enough to interfere with your homework. I hope you are successful :)

neverfadehaz: thank me when I actually follow through lmao but also bless your soul

ilysm bbs

-Mima