Inspired by the Rosy Friends AU on my tumblr.

Wilt and Scatter

"Aw, not you too!"

Ruby drooped in front of the latest closed store, shoulders slumped in utter defeat. Her super-secret covert plan to get Weiss some Dust to replace what she'd blown up completely by accident with a stray shot during training was falling apart in front of her. With the Dust robberies rampant all over Vale, no one was staying open late anymore, not even From Dust Till Dawn.

Falling against the wall and flipping open her scroll, she winced at the time. She'd told Yang she'd be back before ten, but that wasn't going to happen anymore. She hadn't meant to be checking the stores this late! She'd left campus as soon as she could after class and had been in Vale by five-thirty, anticipating that she would have to hunt around for the premium Dust that Weiss favored.

What she hadn't anticipated was some kind of White Fang attack destroying a bar. It was wrapping up by the time she got on the scene, but between taking care of a couple grunts before they got away, staying for questioning, and explaining herself to the police way too many times, her generous time window had evaporated.

Doing her duty as a huntress—even one just in training—wouldn't open this shop back up no matter how well she did it. She switched her scroll to landscape to check the map, which only confirmed what she feared: she'd checked every shop in the city. Her plan was utterly, completely foiled.

"Weiss should keep her spares in her locker, not in her gym bag," she told the flickering light above her. The moths fluttering around it bobbed in agreement.

She'd just have to try again tomorrow and hope that a belated apology was still acceptable. Weiss was a real stickler for that kind of thing.

Kicking her heels against the ground as she walked, Ruby wondered if the police report had made it to Ozpin yet. She shuddered at the thought of another talking-to from Professor Goodwitch. She began going over what she'd say in her defense for stepping into a dangerous situation as an academy student: her aura had been at full strength, she'd kept collateral to a minimum, and there were only a couple of guys with super basic rifles that she'd known at a glance hadn't been modified to shoot Dust rounds. Really, the only ones in any danger at that point had been the police responding to the scene who didn't have aura.

"I was just doing my duty," Ruby finished to her imaginary Goodwitch, who was entirely unimpressed.

Flinching at the mere thought of the severe, "Young lady" that would lead into the inevitable rebuttal of every single one of her points, Ruby nearly missed the person collapsing in the alleyway to her left. She froze, right hand twitching towards Crescent Rose, but the man didn't rise from his position against the wall. He must've been standing and the motion of him sliding down caught her eye.

A glance up and down the street showed no one else around save for a car that was already turning at the far end of the street. This was a shopping street, too, so all of the buildings were dark and vacant at this hour.

"Uh, hello?" Ruby called. "Are you okay?"

Nothing. She looked around again and then took a few cautious steps closer.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

Still no response, so she pressed her lips together and closed the remaining distance. He'd sat down a few feet from a stack of old crates left by a clothing store's side entrance. A sheathed sword rested on the ground next to him. He had one hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, the other resting out of sight. His eyes were squeezed shut.

She stopped a couple feet away—more than enough room to get out of reach if she needed to—and nudged his extended foot with hers. "Hello, do you need help?"

His eyes snapped open, met hers, and then he was tensing like he was going to attack—

Only to hunch over with a groan, both palms pressed into his eyes.

"You really don't look good," she said hesitantly. "Do you want me to call for help? You should probably get checked out."

"No," the man groaned. He removed one hand and gestured for her to put away her scroll. "It's temporary."

The mere act of speaking seemed to take all of his focus. After a beat, he dragged in a shuddering breath and squinted up at her. Without a hand covering his face, the wound over his left eye caught her attention instantly.

"Temporary?" she squeaked. "You need to go to a hospital!"

He winced at her cry, started to shake his head, and winced again. "It's just a scar."

"O-oh, it looked—I thought—it's pretty dark back here, um. never mind."

Even when she looked at it more closely, it still looked more like a new wound than an old one. The deep shadows weren't helping. Although, if she stared long enough, it almost looked like there were letters in it—

"You've seen that I'm fine," he said, intact eye pulling her attention away from the other. "If you don't need anything else, leave."

The chill in his voice had her stepping back on reflex, but concern drowned that out when another wave of whatever was affecting him hit. He tensed again, one hand back up to press into his eye and the other wrapped around his stomach.

She bit her lip and chanced another look at the mouth of the alley. No one else had stopped and this guy looked like he was on the fast track to passing out right where he was.

Grimm didn't often get inside Vale's heavily patrolled city limits, but the lack of a wall meant that it did occasionally happen. No one who could avoid it slept outside.

Oh! There was probably a shelter nearby! She perked up at the thought and pulled out her scroll again while he tucked something into his coat. It was just a flash of white that she caught—his own scroll? Maybe it was dead.

Switching her search from Dust shops to shelters took barely a second, but it was long enough for him to realize she wasn't leaving.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I can't just leave you here alone when you're in pain like this. Even if you say you're fine, you shouldn't sleep outside. There's a shelter a couple of blocks that way." She pointed. "I'll help you walk there."

He stared, uncomprehending.

"There's a chance—a small one, I know, but still—that there are Grimm around, and plus there are a lot of robberies happening lately and things really aren't safe for anyone stuck outside at night. I saw your sword, but you don't really look like you're able to stand on your own right now, so fighting probably isn't an option either…" she trailed off awkwardly. Was she imposing? She didn't want to impose but she also didn't want to leave someone alone when they clearly needed help.

He went to respond only to freeze and then roll over, one hand holding himself up while he retched.

Panicked, Ruby zoomed to his side. "Did you get hit in the head? I should really call—"

"No," he growled, only to cough and gag and succumb to another wave of nausea. Spitting out lingering bile, he eyed her through strands of hair falling out of their spiky styling. "It's just a migraine, I'm fine."

"Oh." She gave him a little more space but stayed close as he pulled himself to his feet with the wall as support. "Um, your sword."

He paused, rocking dangerously before steadying, and sucked in a breath. She'd never seen someone so daunted by the idea of bending down to pick something up before.

Still, he ignored her silent hope that he'd ask for help, braced himself, and reached for the sheath.

His center of balance was off. Ruby darted forward, ducked under his outstretched right arm, wrapped that arm around her shoulders, and widened her stance all in the instant he began to fall.

Momentum abruptly arrested, he stared at the petals her brief semblance usage had left drifting on the breeze.

"Roses?" he mumbled.

"It's just my semblance. Don't worry, they'll go away eventually."

At the sound of her voice so close, he went rigid. When that shock turned to realization that she was now holding him up, he tried to pull away.

"Wait, wait!" Ruby cried, and he hissed in pain at the volume. She lowered her voice but it was no less urgent. "Really, it's no problem for me to help. See?"

She used the toe of her boot to rock the sheath, flip it onto her boot, and then kick it up to her free hand. She then passed it off to him.

The moment he had the weapon in his hand, he seemed to relax. After another pause that dragged out long enough for Ruby to get twitchy, he sighed and leaned his weight on her once more, resigned to her help.

"We'll be there soon," she promised.

It was awkward to act as a crutch for him. Not because of his arm slung over her shoulder or the simple fact that he was a stranger—Ruby was more than comfortable providing help to people she didn't know—but because he was just so tall. He had to hunch and she had to stand as tall as she could just for the arrangement to work. They had to look ridiculous, but there was no one around to see.

Once they shuffled onto the street and began passing through pools of light cast by the streetlights, Ruby tried to get a better look at him without the deep shadows of the alley making his features nearly inscrutable.

In the lamplight, he really didn't look that old. Maybe a few years older than Yang? She could only see the right side of his face from this angle, but some bands of scar tissue stretched across the bridge of his nose. Seeing the edges of it now, she felt a bit silly for thinking it had been an open wound before.

He had his eyes shut and his focus wholly dedicated to staying upright and breathing through the agony crawling around his brain. Feeling a bit like she was stealing these looks, she turned her own eyes back to the sidewalk.

"One more block," she told him. He didn't respond.

By the time they came to an inelegant stop by the shelter's doors, Ruby's legs and left shoulder were aching from taking his weight for so long. She peered through the darkened glass, stomach sinking.

"The map didn't mention this place had a curfew." She started to walk closer. "I'll knock—"

He made no effort to let her move. Despite his condition, he was heavy enough that Ruby couldn't just force him without putting some aura into it.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"Street," he mumbled.

"What?"

"What street?"

"Um, we're on thirty-second street. Close to the one that takes you back to the pier."

He digested that for a moment, brows furrowed from the effort of thinking through the pain. "My…home…is nearby. To the north."

"Oh, why didn't you say so? We'll go there!"

He made a quiet, reflexive noise of protest when she yanked him down the street, and she hastily apologized. Taking it slow, they shuffled in the direction he had indicated.

"How far?" Ruby prodded after another block. He really wasn't looking good; his eyes were always closed and more and more of his weight fell on her with each step. To her, he looked like he'd be better off curling into a ball in a dark room than trekking through Vale in the middle of the night.

"Not far." He squinted up at a sign on the next corner. "We'll turn right there."

She obligingly guided them right at the corner. Focused on not tripping over her own feet or his, she failed to see the two faunus coming from the other direction until she ran smack into them.

"Whoa!"

A hand fastened around her wrist, saving her from the fall. She stared up into the wide eyes of a panda faunus in a black hoodie and with a standard rifle slung over his back.

"Th-thanks," she stammered, face hot from embarrassment. She really should've seen them coming or at least been able to react in time. Just because the streets were mostly empty didn't mean they were completely empty!

The faunus's eyes narrowed at her, then glanced to his right, where his female partner—easily half a foot taller than Ruby—was pulling the man up to act as his new support. There was a certain level of familiarity in the way she looked at him, handled him, and looked at him. She was worried.

Ruby bit her lip. "Sorry for running into you. He, um, needs to get home."

Their gazes went to the man, who nodded once. "She was helping."

Smiling because she didn't know what else to do in the face of their surprise, Ruby tried to keep her gaze from staying on the strangers' weapons. "Do you know each other?"

"We're his friends," the woman confirmed.

"We, ah, we all went out together but he told us to leave early. We've been out looking for him ever since he didn't get back from the…party."

They definitely knew the guy; if he was aware enough to respond to their curious looks, then he would have signaled if he didn't know these two.

Ruby surreptitiously rocked from foot to foot, now realizing that she didn't even know the man's name. "Well, if you all know each other, I guess you don't need me anymore…?"

The man opened his eyes enough to find her and nod. "Thank you. You…didn't have to help."

Ruby straightened. "No need to thank me! It's what any huntress should do."

The strangers' eyes all widened.

"Huntress?" the woman whispered.

"Anyway," the panda faunus said quickly, "thanks for helping him out. We've been pretty worried but you can leave him to us now. We'll get him home."

"Okay, take care!"

He gave her a thin smile and turned away.

"Stay safe, huntress," the woman said after a thoughtful beat. "These are dangerous times."

Ruby patted Crescent Rose, though the woman couldn't really see it with Ruby's dress and cape in the way. "Thanks, but I'll be fine. Have a good night!"

As the woman walked away, Ruby got her first look at the design on the back of the man's black coat: a red rose splashed over a white crest. She took a half-step forward, about to call after him that she liked his coat, only to remember how many times she'd already made him wince by talking too loudly.

"I'll tell him if I see him again," she told the nearby streetlight, which flickered in what she fancied to be agreement.

Her scroll buzzed. Flicking it open, she froze at the sight of Yang's name and picture.

"Oh, she's going to be so mad."

This might get future installments, but if anything gets added before Hollow People is finished, I'll be as surprised as you.

Please review.