The living room was quiet as Winter peered into Kay's eyes in an attempt to intimidate him. Kay, the sleep-deprived idiot he was, merely felt slightly awkward and waited for her to make her move. Kay had changed into a black tee and gray sweatpants for pajamas and also brewed extra tea for the two of them.
"Your full name and occupation, please." Winter's first question was pretty straight forward.
"Karis Grey," The man answered. "Though I much prefer to go by Kay. I am an English teacher and a writer."
"Do you have a criminal record?"
"No." Kay responded, slightly offended. "At least, none that I've been made aware of."
"Are you a user of recreational drugs?"
"Tried weed a few times," he admitted. Those rare times he did try it, he didn't know there was marijuana in the food until his friend told him afterwards. "Not really my thing. I stay away from alcohol unless it's a big social event."
"Weed?" Winter repeated with a raised eyebrow. Kay was inwardly baffled by her reaction at first, but quickly remembered where she was from.
"A plant-based drug, known officially as marijuana or cannabis, that can be smoked or ingested in foods through mixing in extracted oils." He explained to the best of his ability. Roman knew a bit more than him, being the adventurous one in the duo.
"I see." Winter nodded in understanding. "Do you have ties to this world's armed forces?"
"Yes, several." Kay's answer seemed to surprise her, but she made no attempt to interrupt him. "My mother was in the army. Little sis's in West Point right now. I used to be in the Reserves."
"Used to be?" Winter asked. She looked the man up and down for a moment for any physical injuries that would warrant the response. Her eyes met his once more as she found none.
"I suffer from BPD." Kay clarified. The answer was always an uncomfortable one for those who ask the reason why he was discharged, though Winter did her best not to let it show. There were plenty of acquaintances that suffered from mental illnesses, particularly Huntsmen and Huntresses with PTSD after difficult missions. "I was actually coming back from a therapy session when you punched me and made Roman piss his pants."
"And how are you right now?" The soft volume of the question took Kay by surprise. Winter seemed to relax slightly after his answer, as though being pushy would hurt him.
"I'm fine." Kay shrugged. He looked over at the door to his master bedroom, where Team RWBY slept. "I mean, the nine additional people living with me for an undetermined amount of time has been stressful more on my wallet than anything, but you showing up here helps me relax."
"Is that so?"
"You mentioned that Atlas should already working on a way back now that you successfully transported yourself over here." Kay said. "That means it shouldn't be long until you can all get home."
"Hm." Winter hummed as she continued to stare into Kay's eyes. Kay did his best not to crumble under her gaze. No big deal, right? Just a calm night between the two of them, staring into each other's eyes. No inner-teenager Kay, this is not the time to start anything, you stay quiet, young man!
"How many people know where you live?" What an odd question.
"Roman knows." Kay counted on his hand. "Maybe my sister, I gave her my address just in case she needed anything. And my ex. That's about it."
"Ex?" A single slender eyebrow raised, though he couldn't place why. He nodded in response. "Would there be any reason for your former partner to, say, return here angrily and demand to be let in?"
"Doubt it." Winter could hear a bit of venom that was spit out with Kay's immediate answer. He followed it up with a shrug. "I'm not gonna talk about it if you're about to ask me to elaborate."
"That's fine." She replied. "I'm not so cold that I'd be so rude to the one hosting my sister and I."
"Good." I let the silence around us hang for a bit before a thought came to mind. "You said you were told about how Roman and I were aware of your existence prior to your arrival."
"That was my next question," Winter nodded. "How does that come to be? Your technology does not show any signs of any advancement beyond Atlesian standards."
"Thanks."
"So you knowing about our existence is definitely suspicious without proper context." She finished, ignoring my quip. "Do you have any proper explanation for that?"
"That depends," Kay reached for the remote on the couch's arm. "How sleepy are you?"
"I've been leading the investigation behind my sister and her friends' disappearance with as little as minutes of sleep," Winter answered with a raised eyebrow. Kay remained nonplussed; we've all pulled all-nighters in college, nobody's impressed with people bragging about staying up late. "I can stand a long winded explanation."
"Less an explanation," he clarified as light flooded the room as the Rooster Teeth logo appeared on the television screen once more. "And more of a demonstration. Are you ready?"
Winter nodded.
"Please, proceed."
. . . . .
"Weiss."
"Yes, Ruby."
"Did Kay and Winter stay up all night watching TV?" Ruby asked her partner.
"It would seem so." Weiss sipped at a cup of tea as she looked over her sister and their host still sleeping in the living room, with Kay knocked out on the floor next to the couch.
"Should we wake them?" Yang popped in with a bowl of cereal in hand. Jaune, Nora, and Ren were sat with their own bowls in the kitchen. Blake and Oscar were already situated in their usual perches in Kay's office. Weiss shook her head.
"They both probably need it." Weiss answered as she finished her tea. Being the first one awake, she noticed that Kay had apparently shown Winter all of the animated series that told their story. Perhaps she asked how he and Roman knew about them? Weiss sighed. It was Sunday, and if she remembered correctly, Kay had nothing scheduled for today.
"I was going to ask if we could watch another movie today." Yang complained. "I guess we can ask about it later."
"Psst!" Someone's calling hiss caused caused the three girls to turn, only to see Oscar beckoning to them from the office. "Get over here!"
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang entered Kay's office to find that Blake was sitting behind the desk with Oscar standing over her shoulder. The farm boy beckoned them to come closer again, which the trio did.
"What is this?" Ruby asked. Her eyes were glued to the laptop screen as she tried to absorb the information on it.
"Some version of the CCT's Dustnet forum, it looks like." Weiss answered. Blake nodded.
"Kay mentioned that if I ever needed to know something immediately that he couldn't answer, Ozpin or I could use his computer." The Faunus said, scrolling down a page showing images of familiar looking people.
"Is this forum about… us?" Yang asked. A particular image caught her eye and she took the mouse in her control.
"Hey!"
"There we go!" Yang ignored Blake's protests and scrolled back up to a very well drawn image of her in a dynamic action pose. A fiery vignette surrounding the scene of her punching towards the screen. "That's freaking cool!"
"There's one of me!" Ruby shoved her older aside and scrolled down to the next post, which showed a drawing of a silhouette of her and a looming Crescent Rose in front of the Remnant moon. The little reaper squealed at the sight. "That's. So. AWESOME! They got my baby's design down to a tee!"
"Vanity doesn't fit you very well, Ruby." Weiss tutted.
"There's one of you here too, Weiss."
"Show me." The heiress's attention was on the screen as Ruby scrolled down to reveal Weiss in a Dust casting stance: one hand wielding Myternaster and a small ball of fire focused in front of her other hand. "Impressive."
"Impressive?" Ruby repeated. "That's gotta be the best thing she's ever seen!"
"It isn't that difficult to impress me, Ruby," Weiss ignored the sideways look Yang gave her. "I can always appreciate well-made artwork."
"Let's keep scrolling." Yang suggested.
"Or," Blake elongated the word for dramatic effect as she clicked onto another tab she had opened prior. It had a blue header bar and plenty of text below it. "We could check out the stories people made about us."
"Stories?" Weiss asked.
"Fanfiction," Blake clarified. "Fake stories written for fun, based on existing works. Like the show we apparently came from. Kay already told me about the ones he used to write."
"Oooh, sounds scandalous." Yang leaned in as she looked through the numerous titles under their show's category.
"That looks like an interesting story." Ruby pointed at one specific story, and thus began their journey down the rabbit hole of RWBY fanfiction.
. . . . .
Kay left the group of four girls huddled together on the floor, visibly shaken by whatever they had seen on his laptop. Oh, he had found them, alright. He and Winter woke up right before noon and heard quite the commotion coming from the office. Ren, Nora, and Jaune were working on lunch in the kitchen in the meantime, as they remained well away from the shenanigans of Team RWBY.
The two adults were in the car on the way to the same Old Navy Kay had brought the kids to earlier that week. The ride itself was a quiet affair as Kay let Winter observe the passing landscape as the others have.
"So," Kay broke the silence. He glanced over as Winter's attention shifted to him. "I never got to hear your thoughts on what I showed you last night."
"I admit, it is… a lot to process." Winter answered. We watched the entire RWBY series to completion in one night. "That I, along with everyone else I know, exist only as fictional characters for your entertainment."
"If you put it that way, you make it sound like I'm at fault." Kay said.
"I don't mean to, but the situation is bizarre nonetheless." Winter continued. "I'm not… real to the people in your reality."
"And yet, you're here." Kay noted aloud. "And you're very real."
"I'm not about to have a philosophical conversation about my existence right now, Karis." Winter deadpanned.
"Please just call me Kay." The driver pleaded as he pulled into the strip mall parking lot. "I haven't had anyone call me my proper name in years."
"Then I hope you simply call me Winter." She replied in kind.
"I don't think I would have called you anything else, honestly." Kay parked and turned off the car. He nodded to let her know they could exit. "Not like I'm gonna call you Miss Schnee."
"You're neither an Atlesian soldier nor an employee of the SDC." She added. "You have no reason to. I appreciate the informality at times."
Winter copied Kay's movements and walked behind him into the Old Navy before taking the lead towards the women's department of the large clothing store. Kay easily helped pick up a few simple shirts and sweaters for the cold season. He let Winter choose the bottoms and underwear she would need for the undetermined future. It wasn't long until the backseats of Kay's car held several bags of women's clothing and undergarments.
"Kay," Winter's voice brought the man's attention away from his phone. "Do you have any female care products in your home?"
"Female care products?" The wording confused Kay at first before a realization came to mind. "Oh shit. I have six women living in my home without pads or tampons."
"You're lucky none of them are synced up, Kay." Winter pointed out the obvious.
"Let's pop into the Walgreens then." Kay's stomach growled loudly. Winter didn't appear to seem embarrassed when hers echoed the sentiment. "Then get some lunch before we leave."
"What about for those at home?" Winter asked.
"I always leave some cash and a pizza delivery number for them if I think I'm going to be out late." Kay answered. "They'll be fine."
"I see."
After dropping off the clothes and other supplies into the car, Winter and Kay made their way to a small restaurant. It took a moment for Kay to push in the door; even Winter admitted it was rather heavy upon her successful attempt of getting them inside. The lunch rush had evidently happened, as it was rather busy and noisy. A waiter that looked to be in his late teens greeted them and sat them with menus.
"Have you been here before?" Winter asked as she glanced through the menu. Her blue eyes quickly analyzed section before staying on a certain area for a bit.
"Not for a long while." Kay answered. "I only ever suggest this place when I'm with someone. Usually Roman in his free time."
"How long have you been writing?" Winter asked. "I understand you have quite a few works published. Weiss and Blake told me."
"Of course those two told you." Kay rolled my eyes. "They're often in my office while I work, reading through my library."
"From what I also heard," Winter leaned in with an amused look. "You also used our story, RWBY, to make one of your own."
"I made sure to alter it well enough to be considered rather original." The writer assured. "The characters were always mine, I just had to change the setting and other minor aspects. Why, planning on suing me?"
"No, I was just thinking how stories like that don't exist in Remnant." Winter said, before turning to a young woman who approached them.
"A-ah hello and welcome to Il Casa Roma," the familiar voice caused Kay to look up from the menu immediately and see Christie. "Can I take your order?"
"Oh hello, Christie." Kay greeted. The young waitress seemed to relax a bit upon realizing who she was waiting on.
"Hi, Mr. Grey." The student reciprocated with a shy smile as she held up her notepad. "What'll you be having?"
The two adults ordered and allowed Christie to take their menus; they ordered two different pasta entrees and water. Christie quickly jotted down the order and departed with another shy smile. Winter noticed as Kay watched the young girl continue her rounds.
"You know this girl?" Winter followed his gaze as the waitress nervously handed orders over to at the kitchen window.
"One of my students." Kay answered. "She seems to be doing well."
"Do you happen to make close connections with your students?" Winter asked with an eyebrow raised. Another server placed two glasses of water on their table as Kay told her about the younger girl's struggles in class. More idle conversation and safe questions passed over the table until their entrees arrived. The lunch continued silently until they left the restaurant. At the door upon exit, Kay turned back to say something to Winter when - BAM!
Whoever was entering the restaurant must have accidentally pushed the door while struggling to get in like Kay and Winter did. Winter could hear as Christie gasped and made her way to the scene to help her get Kay to his feet. There was much to be concerned about, seeing as he had just recovered from getting punched in the face the evening prior.
"Oh, I'm so sor-!" The young redheaded woman that caused the damage stopped in her tracks at the sight of Kay struggling to rise. Her bright green eyes' gaze went from the man to off to the side. "Oh, hey Kay."
"Ow," Kay greeted back with a less than subtle glare. "Hey, Leah."
Winter could help stepping back as an awkward atmosphere settled upon the small scene. She had forgotten the waitress had arrived as well, as she was surprised when Christie whimpered beside her.
"O-oh no."
Heyo, Kariotic here!
Sorry for the delay on the updates, as well as the short chapter, the story had to take a backseat while real life decided to hit me with a few choice jabs. I've been working on it bit by bit, don't worry. I'm still having fun writing TiPL.
Comments? Suggestions? Anything else? Feel free to leave some words in the reviews!
Thanks for reading as always. See y'all next update!