Eyo, Kariotic here with another update! It's not really much, but I hope you all enjoy it! I'm starting to get the story onto a certain track, and it might take a while to write out properly, so forgive me if the next chapters take a while. Enjoy the chapter!

"What's their problem? Was it something I said?" Roman wondered aloud as he joined Kay in the office. Blake had since vacated the room as the visitor entered the house. "It's like they'd seen a ghost!"

"No clue," Kay mumbled into his mug. "Maybe you remind them of someone."

"Weird thing to be so shocked about," Roman shrugged. "Now, to business. What did you wanna meet up about?"

"I'm gonna be straightforward," Kay began, steepling his fingers before him. "I'm going to be sending you a bunch of poem scripts to look through soon for early publishing."

"Another poetry book?" Roman asked, eyebrows raised. "At least you'd be returning to your roots."

"That means the long project's going on a break while I whip up some stuff for this one." Kay said, typing away.

"What brought this decision along?" Roman asked. He glanced in the direction of the living room. "Anything to do with those suspicious guests of yours?"

"It's a complicated situation for them," Kay answered simply. "And publishing a few short poetry collections could be good quick money. You know the college doesn't pay that much."

"Alright," Roman said, rubbing his hands together. "How are we doing this then? Chapbooks? Zines?"

"No, no," Kay shook his head. "I'll do a regular book. I have a few new ones and a couple twists on some old ones."

"If any of them are like the poem about dicks then I'm sold." Roman joked. When he saw Kay appear to mull it over and start typing again with fervor, he was taken aback. "Wait, really?"

"I mean, it worked the first time." Kay shrugged, chuckling at the memory of the infamously childish poem in his first published work. "Couldn't hurt to try it again."

Meanwhile, the other room still had a tense atmosphere. The man named Roman with green eyes and wavy red hair brought back memories of the notorious Dust thief and Cinder's accomplice from Vale. This world's Roman sounded slightly different and lacked the trademark cane, but the face and over-charismatic persona he presented himself with definitely left them off guard.

"It has to be a coincidence," Yang spoke, breaking the silence. "That's definitely not him."

"Y-yeah," Ruby agreed. Her older sister looked to her with understanding; Ruby was the last person to see the criminal alive, no doubt this was quite the shock. "T-totally."

"Who did Kay say he was again?" Jaune asked. "His friend, right?"

"That, and his editor." Blake finished for him. "So there should be no reason for us to be so hostile."

"I agree," Ozpin added. "I believe we owe him an apology. I understand what it may look like, but it isn't like all of Remnant isn't without doppelgangers."

"You definitely weren't the only red-themed girl named Ruby in Sanctum," Yang lightened the mood with a light noogie to the little reaper's head, eliciting laughter from everyone in the room. "I say we give him a chance."

"I suppose it was rather immature of us to not give him any sort of greeting." Weiss's statement seemed to resonate with the rest of them. Guilt seemed to pool in the room. "Then it's settled. We apologize and introduce ourselves to him."

As though Fate herself was listening, the office door opened to reveal Kay and Roman had finished their business. Roman had a blue folder with the words "Grey Short Proj." written on it in cursive. Both men seemed to freeze like deer in headlights upon realizing all eyes in the living room was on them. Of all people, Ruby was the one to rise and meet Roman with a hand outstretched.

"We're super sorry if we seemed mean earlier." She apologized. Her other hand messed up the hair on the back of her head as she giggled nervously. "You just look like someone we knew and we didn't know how to react. I'm Ruby!"

"Oh, no hard feelings!" Roman replied, shaking the small girl's hand with enough enthusiasm to shake Ruby around a bit. "It's nice to meet you all. You're all friends of Kay?"

"Yeah, he invited us to stay over for a while." Ruby answered, letting go of the editor's hand. "He said he felt bad if we all went to a hotel."

"Interesting vacation spot you've chosen," Roman commented. "Especially for the holidays."

"I guess you could say that," Ruby shrugged. "We're just here for the company."

"Is that so?" Roman asked before leaning in towards Ruby's ear. He whispered, "Good. He's needed some more friends." Ruby didn't know how to respond other than to give an innocent smile. Roman nodded to the rest of the group, as though giving them his approval.

"That's my time, folks." Roman said with a friendly smile to everyone before turning back to Kay. "Absolutely keep me updated on that thing, alright?"

"Definitely." Kay said, stepping forward for a handshake that Roman reciprocated with gusto. "Stay safe out there."

"You too, bud." Was Roman's departing line as the front door closed with finality. Kay to the Beacon students and scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Well that must have been awkward for you guys," He said in an apologetic tone. "If he had given me a message ahead of time, I would've given you guys fair warning."

"You definitely aren't in the wrong here," Weiss replied, sighing. "I think we could have been kinder to your friend."

"Not when he looks like a former enemy." Kay reminded them. "Let alone shares his name."

"What is his full name, for curiosity's sake?" Ozpin asked.

"Roman James." Kay said. "Born and raised next door to me down in Manhattan."

"Oh, so you're childhood friends?" Ruby asked. "I wonder if he has pictures."

"Doubtful," Kay said, scoffing. "Anyway, you guys hungry?"

"Yes!" Was the collective answer, causing Kay to laugh as he got out his phone.

. . . . .

The living room smelled delicious. The sight of it, however, was definitely less than glamorous. Empty plastic containers and soda cans littered the floor as everyone except Kay lay around with full stomachs. Nora sat beside him as they made their way through their second food platter.

"It's always fun to see people's first food coma after halal," Kay looked around at the groaning children who were not prepared for the goodness that was lamb and chicken over rice with extra white sauce. "I'm actually surprised Weiss finished hers."

"I wasn't going to let it go to waste," Weiss mumbled, fighting off the post-food drowsiness.

"At least you're still conscious," Kay commended. "The same can't be said about the rest of y'all."

"Bleh," Ruby managed, raising a limp hand. All three conscious members watched as the younger girl's hand fell and hit the ground with a SLAP! as it met the wooden floor. Weiss began to laugh before letting out an impressive belch.

"Impressive," Nora nodded sagely, as the heiress's normally pale skin began to grow pink. "I've done better, but I'm proud of you for it."

"Eight outta ten," Kay added, bringing more heat to the Schnee's face. "I wouldn't accept anything less in this house."

Blake woke up on the floor next to Yang, who was still soundly asleep. Her snores weren't as bad during a nap, thankfully. A look at the wall clock told her she was only asleep for about an hour. She quietly rose to her feet to meet the source of running water, only to meet Nora at the sink, washing all of the plastic containers and metal utensils they used for lunch.

"Ren still out cold?" The hammer-wielder asked, finishing up the chore. A quick glance back at the living gave her an answer as Blake shook her head. "He always was a light eater. The food we've been having here should put some meat on his bones for once."

"Where's Kay?" Blake asked.

"Back in his office," Nora answered. "Said he had to work on some project thingy."

With that knowledge, the Faunus carefully stepped over and around her napping friends as she made her way back to the office. She was greeted by the sight of the man typing away his desk once more. He looked up upon noticing she had entered the room.

"Hey Blake," he said with a smile. "Feeling better?"

"Whatever was in the chicken platter you got me will tide me over until midnight," Blake said, still feeling her full stomach. "How're you doing?"

"Halal food has been a part of my regular diet since middle school," Kay answered, still focused on his work. "And it's still one of my favorite foods."

Noted. Blake decided to keep that for future reference. If there ever was a reason to remember it, that is. The Faunus resumed her position from earlier that day as she picked a random book from the shelves and sitting down in one of the soft seats. Before long, a comfortable silence filled the space. Only the rhythmic typing sounds from Kay filled the room.

"You never answered my question," Blake broke the peace. "About your favorite character."

"I thought I did," Kay answered. "Pretty sure I said it'd be inappropriate to say now that I know you're real people and not some fictional characters that have no real impact on my life."

"That's the second time you've deflected the question instead of answering it." Blake countered. "I thought it'd be an innocent question to ask, from one reader to another."

That last line seemed to catch Kay off guard, Blake noticed the typing slowed down to a stop and turned her gaze to check on the man, who was staring right back at her. His brown eyes weren't cold as she thought they would be at her pestering question, rather they seemed to bore into her soul. Deep in thought, maybe?

"Promise you won't be jealous?" Kay said, returning to typing away. Blake relaxed as she realized the man wasn't upset by her question.

"I guess," she shrugged. "I suppose that means it isn't me."

"Nope, sorry." Kay laughed. "In terms of character, my favorite character in Team RWBY was either Ruby or Weiss. In JNPR, it was Nora. Outside of that, for various reasons, I also liked Neo, Winter, and Ilia."

"None of the boys caught your taste?" Blake asked, eyebrow raised. She couldn't help but feel slightly offended for her and her partner, but she reminded herself that they were indeed fictional characters to him only a week ago.

"Hey, I was a teenager when the show came out." Kay shrugged as a nostalgic smile on his face. "I bet if you went digging through my closet, you'd find a bunch of merchandise and posters of those particular characters."

"Did you ever write fanfiction of us?" Blake asked. She felt her ears perk up with enthusiasm as Kay paused typing. "You did!"

"I forget you were the reader of the group," Kay said. "Makes sense you'd be curious about that."

"Answer the question!" Blake demanded uncharacteristically. "Did you?"

"You're kinda holding a version of it right now," Kay answered, nodding at the book in her hands. "A Safe Haven. Bit on the nose, don't you think?"

"How'd you get it published?" Blake asked. "How'd you change it from fanfiction?"

"The characters involved were already of my own creation," Kay explained. "I just eliminated any mention of Grimm and just made it a general academy for young heroes to protect the world from what I called 'Hellbeasts'."

"Interesting," Blake mused aloud, turning the front cover of the book. "How well did this receive?"

"It went well with the YA crowd," was the author's answer. "Teens and young adults love fantasy schools with superpowered teens fighting for justice. Why don't you tell me what you think? It's not often that I get someone to give me a live reaction to my work."

Blake took his request to heart, diving into the story immediately. Satisfied with the distraction, Kay went back to work. It was definitely difficult to write the amount of poems he needed for the book, but he needed to also answer emails and look over student midterm drafts at the same time. One of the messages he received was from Christie, and he mentally prepared himself for what it may hold before opening.

She needs patience, not lenience. Kay thought. She was a smart student but her brain was definitely not her friend at times, very similar to himself and his issues. Imagine his surprise when he saw an attachment with the title "MidtermDraft1" below a short message.

"Hello Mr. Grey, I hope your recovery is going well," it read, referring to his previous email to the class regarding his illness earlier that week. "Attached is my first draft for the midterm. I'm still having issue forming a solid thesis statement and would appreciate your help with it. Thank you, Christie L."

"Alright Christie," Kay took a sip of tea and cracked his knuckles before opening the attachment. "Let's see whatcha got."

. . . . .

Hours passed and multiple student drafts had come and gone with plenty of constructive criticism before Kay looked up and looked out the window. Blake was dragged out of the office long ago by Yang, who said they needed a new player in one of the games Kay had. The evening sky greeted him with a purple-ish hue as the last vestiges of the sun slipped beyond the horizon. A quick glance at the clock showed that the early nights of winter had finally arrived; it was only 5 o' clock and the moon was already out.

A slow creak of the door brought his attention back to the room as Ruby entered the office. When she saw that he noticed her, she blushed a bit but didn't pull away. She instead took a seat in one of the chairs normally occupied by Blake or Ozpin.

"Can I help you, Ruby?" Kay asked, amused. "Something you need?"

"Just wanted to hang out." Ruby shrugged, idly kicking her legs outward. "Whatcha doing?"

"Some students send me their essay drafts seeking ways to improve a potential grade," Kay explained, finishing the final notes on another student's draft. "Which reminds me, did you guys have a lot of papers to write at Beacon?"

"Oh totally," Ruby complained. "Professor Port only gave us easy short response assignments, but Oobleck always gave us long papers to do!"

"Sounds rough," Kay recalled the verbose professor. No doubt he'd expect long papers from the students. "How long were they, usually?"

"Two pages," Ruby sighed, before looking up at Kay's flat expression. "What? That's a lot to write!"

"I suppose it would be a shock to someone jumping ahead two years in material." Kay shrugged, twirling a pen between his fingers. "You normally get into Beacon around 17 years old, right?" A nod from the little reaper confirmed it, allowing Kay continue. "The show never said anything about the civilian side of education, but on this side of the screen, you normally start college around 17."

"And how long are papers in college? Ruby asked.

"Depends on your major," Kay said, nodding towards a specific frame on the wall to Ruby's left, above the keyboard. Her silver eyes followed his gesture to the diploma on the wall, with the words read: Masters of Fine Arts, with smaller text under it saying, English - Creative Writing. "Most of the papers I wrote for college were at least eight pages. Had one that was around twenty pages."

"How'd you manage that?" Ruby asked, wide-eyed.

"Played with fonts, increase the size of all periods in a document by one," Kay listed off, smiling as he remembered his less than stellar college career. "Plenty of time spent looking up synonyms of words."

"You seem like you were pretty organized." Ruby complimented. "I think I'd be pretty bad at writing all those papers.

"Organized?" Kay laughed the word. "Nah, I did almost all of those papers the night before they were due. I can't remember all the coffee and energy drinks I'd buy to help me stay up and work."

"But I thought you don't drink coffee?" Ruby looked pointedly at the mug in the man's hands.

"Sometimes the need for procrastinating overrides even the worst lactose intolerance." Kay answered with a sage nod. "And I still buy cheese and milkshakes sometimes."

"Even when it makes you sick?" Ruby asked.

"Ruby, if there was a really effective weapon against Grimm that had a lot of kickback, would you avoid using it?" Kay countered.

"That's like asking me to avoid Crescent Rose," Ruby answered. "I see what you mean, but that's a little dramatic if you ask me."

"Different strokes." Kay let the rest of the phrase hang in the air, Ruby understood without the other half. The little reaper perked up a bit as she remembered something Blake shared while they played another round of UNO.

"Is it true that I'm one of your favorite characters in the show?" Ruby asked, a small spark of excitement shone in her eyes. A high pitched squeal squeaked through her toothy grin.

"Yeah," Kay answered plainly, his attention returning to his work. "You and Weiss, among others."

"Oh, cool," Ruby replied fixing her hair, trying her best to seem nonchalant about this discussion. She was failing. "So uh, what about me made you one of my favorites?"

"Well," Kay began, before harshly mashing the backspace key a few times and restarting his next point on the student's draft. It was not a good one. "You and I are both young siblings, I related to that. I also felt pretty outta my depth when it came to college, or in your case, Beacon. I related to the struggle both you and Weiss had."

"Why are Neo and Winter also your favorites?" Ruby asked. She couldn't help but notice that Kay's typing slowed to a halt as he thought of an answer. "One of them tried to kill us and the other… well, not that I have anything against Weiss's sister but she isn't very interesting to me."

"Aesthetic." Was the response the man said after a while. A surprised cry from one of the girls in the living room caught their attention, though Ruby recovered quickly. She recognized it as Weiss's shrill voice. What did she find? Ruby shook her head to refocus on her current mission.

"S-so Kay," Ruby managed, her tone much more uncertain than before. "Um… oh! Roman talked about some holidays coming up. Which holidays are those?"

"Oh, right!" Ruby's question seemed to bring Kay back from the distraction. "Do you guys still celebrate Christmas and New Year on Remnant?"

"Christmas, not so much." Ruby remembered learning about the archaic holiday in Signal's civilian history studies classes. "But New Years is still very much a thing."

"Cool," Kay said. "Well, my family used to celebrate Christmas when I still lived with them. Ever since I moved out here I've just sent out gift cards to any of my old friends that I still talk to."

"That's… nice." Ruby replied politely. It really sounded rather sad. She could remember what Roman had told her earlier that day about Kay needing more friends.

"It's really not," Kay grumbled. "But I'm honestly pretty happy with the peaceful little life I've got here. Nothing to really drag me back home."

"Peaceful?" Ruby giggled. "There wasn't anything really peaceful about us coming here." Kay had to laugh at that. She glanced back at the office door as more noisy ruckus made itself known from the living room.

"I wonder what's going on out there," Kay asked no one in particular. He began to stand up and looked to Ruby. "You have any idea?"

"N-no!" Ruby stammered suspiciously. "None at all! So how about the uh…" She was never good at lying or stalling for time. "The weather?"

"The weather." Kay repeated, deadpan. Ruby did her best to disguise her uncertainty with a furious nod that did nothing for her case. "Right, I'm gonna go check out that noise."

"No wait, Kay don't!" Ruby rose quickly, too quickly in fact and stumbled a bit as Kay made his way to the door and opened it to find the rest of Team RWBY and JNR rummaging through a box in the living room. Oscar was looking at a familiar statuette before his gaze traced outward and met Kay's eyes. The little reaper sighed and face-palmed. "Drat."

"Oh hey guys," Kay said, causing all of them to freeze with whatever item they were interacting with. Weiss was playing with the Zwei plushie, holding as though it were the actual dog. Blake was inspecting an old figurine of herself. Nora was playing around with the figures of Jaune and Ren while Jaune looked up from the various posters they'd laid out on the floor. "Uh, whatcha doin'?

"Nothing," Nora was the only one to make an attempt at defending themselves, not that it helped them. Blake looked the most guilty, with her ears drooping as she lowered her figurine. Next to her, Yang appeared to be reading from the book the Faunus had borrowed earlier. "Absolutely nothing."

Oscar approached Kay from beside him with an amused expression as he held up a figure of Weiss and Ruby battling a Beowolf. "I gotta say man, this is kinda weird."

"Yeah," Jaune said, still looking at the various pieces artwork portraying Winter and Neo. "Tell me about it."