Ruby Rose waited outside the entrance of the carnival, tapping her foot with a nervous edge.

She pulled out her scroll to check the clock again for the fifth time around, and then sighed when she realized that it hadn't even been two minutes since she arrived.

"I wonder if I came too early…" She mumbled to herself. She looked around once more, yet was unable to find the person she hoped would have shown up by now.

Maybe she should take the time to calm down and check if she looked alright.

She pulled out her scroll again to check on her reflection, using it to help tidy up her hair a bit. Then she checked her teeth on the off chance that she might have any food stuck on them, in order to prevent any embarrassing moments.

She breathed into her palm and sniffed it, nodding to herself when she found it to still be as minty fresh as ever. Cautiously, she took a quick sniff of both of her armpits and then gave a satisfactory hum as she smelt no sweat.

With that all done, she pocketed away her scroll and took a deep breath to calm her nerves.

All that was left now, was to wait patiently for him to arrive.

…

Doobee do be doo… Smack smack, pop pop. Tsktsktsktsktsktsktsktsktsktsktsktsk.

Pbhbhbhbhbhfft.

Sigh…

Absentmindedly, she began playing the beat of her favorite song by slapping her knees.

"They see you as small and helpless… Dada dadada da da… Hmhm hmhm hmmmhhmmm…"

"I'm here!"

She perked up and smiled, hearing her date finally arrive. .

She faced him as he ran up to her, the young man clutching a black fabric object in his hands as he breathed heavily out of exhaustion.

"Sorry if I'm late! I came as soon as I was available!" He wheezed, clutching his knees as he bent over, out of breath.

"It's okay! I don't think you were late at all!" Ruby reassured him, "I got here pretty early, so the fault's on me for having to wait so long."

"Right, so, uh…" He cleared his throat to regain his composure, before awkwardly smiling at her, "Ready for our… uh… date?"

Ruby shyly faced away from him. With a blushing grin, she nodded.

"Cool, cool…" He exclaimed, slowly nodding back.

They stayed silent for a moment, both of them having no idea how to proceed. The awkwardness in the air was so thick, you could throw a knife at it and it would bounce off.

Ruby took a quick glance at his hands to realize that he was holding onto a black hoodie.

With a disappointed frown, she asked, "Why did you bring your uniform with you?"

"Oh! Uh…" He gave a startled look when she pointed out the clothes in his grip, before explaining, "When I said that I came as soon as I was available, I kinda meant that literally…" He scratched his neck with a nervous chuckle as the wolf ears on his head lowered in embarrassment, "I didn't have time to properly put away my uniform since I was in such a hurry to… uh… get here on time. Aheheh…"

"Won't somebody notice you carrying that?"

"Yeah, no, definitely." He took a quick look around, before his ears visibly straightened up as he found a trashcan nearby. Quickly jogging over to it, he stuffed the hoodie and mask inside and returned to his partner's side. "There, problem solved."

Ruby smirked at her date's antics as she stated, "That's going to freak someone out if it ever gets found."

"Sucks for the guy who finds it then." The young man quipped, holding his hands behind his head and walking up to the carnival entrance. "Come on, let's go have fun."

"Alright." She nodded, walking beside him as they entered inside.

I wasn't sure how I ended up thinking this was a good idea. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not like I regret asking her out or anything. She was nice, and cute, and charming- I think it'd only be natural for me to feel this way about her eventually.

But even you have to admit, this might be the dumbest idea anyone will ever have that could easily blow up in our faces and hurt everyone involved.

Well… I mean, I guess that was sort of the appeal in it? Or something? Like, Romeo and Juliet had that forbidden romance going on with their two families hating each other, and that ended up with them- actually no, that's a terrible example.

This whole thing with us didn't even start out with romantic intentions anyway. That's probably what you're wondering most of all, isn't it? How this first started out?

Well, it wasn't exactly the smoothest of beginnings…

It was a windy day; birds were singing, sun was shining, the ocean was glistening. I was near the edge of a cliff as I ran for my dear life, away from this monstrous red demon-lady who carried around this giant scary looking scythe that was just begging to decapitate me.

"Stop running!"

Stop running? Yeah, right. Like I was gonna stop and let some Huntress catch me so that I could get sent to jail and be forced to spend the rest of my life doing Dust-mining as a community service. No thank you.

"STOP CHASING ME- EEP!" I yelled back at the little grimm reaper wannabe, but then yelped when I saw that the girl had somehow gotten closer to catching up with me.

"I'll stop chasing you if you stop running!" She argued, looking no worse for wear despite the both of us running so far.

"BUT IF I STOP RUNNING, YOU'LL WEDGE THAT GIANT THING BETWEEN MY NECK!"

"What?! No I won't!" She furrowed her eyebrows as if feeling indignation at the mention of such a thing.

"YES YOU WILL! I'VE SEEN THAT THING CUT THROUGH SOLID BONE!"

"That was, like, one Grimm!"

"A GIANT ALPHA BEOWOLF GRIMM!"

"What's your point?!" She had the audacity to sound confused.

"MY POINT IS, IF THAT THING COULD EASILY SLICE THROUGH IT'S HEAD LIKE IT WAS BUTTER, I DON'T WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT IT'LL DO TO ME!"

"But I'm not going to actually hurt you though! I just want you to stop running!"

"WHY DON'T YOU STOP RUNNING?!"

"Because I want you to stop running first!"

"I'LL STOP IF YOU STOP!"

"How do I know you won't just keep running the moment I stop?!"

"I'M INCREDIBLY TRUSTWORTHY!" Not exactly my most convincing lie, but maybe there was a chance she would fall for it?

"I don't believe you!" Curses, she saw through my deception. "You're going to get tired eventually! Why not make it easy on yourself and stop now while you still can?!"

"I HAPPENED TO BE MY HIGH SCHOOL'S TRACK TEAM CHAMPION FOR TWO YEARS IN A ROW, SO YOU CAN SUCK IT BECAUSE I CAN RUN FOREVER!" I gloated, knowing that I would eventually outlast her in stamina and get away a free man!

"Oh brother, this is taking too long…" I heard her mutter behind me, before suddenly seeing a large collection of red rose petals pass in front of me.

"Wait, what-"

It didn't register that she somehow teleported ahead of me, right up until the point where I saw her scythe embed itself right in my path.

Well. That's not fair.

"HOLY CRAP-" In my startled terror, I tried to stop myself and plant my feet down in an attempt to do a one-eighty turnaround.

But, due to the laws of motion of how fast speedy things can't suddenly stop without internally blowing up, I ended up tripping over my feet instead and tumbled directly at her.

"Whoa, wait- stop!" She shouted at me.

I ended up not being able to stop at all, hitting her scythe and getting flung over it as I kept tumbling and tumbling and tumbling-

It was then that I was made aware of how dangerous it was to run near cliffs.

"Watch out!"

That was all I managed to hear her say before feeling the ground disappear before me, sending me into this weird sensation of flight.

Unbeknownst to me, the girl grabbed her scythe and immediately ran after me.

Jumping off the cliff, she quickly grabbed my foot to stop me from falling and stabbed her scythe right into the dirt of the cliff itself in order to slow her descent to a halt.

I, meanwhile, groaned from nausea and dizziness from the trip. The blood rushing up to my head somewhat mitigated the effects, if only ever so slightly.

Regaining my bearings, I looked around to see where I was now. I was somewhat confused from seeing the ocean while looking up to the sky. It was supposed to be the other way around, wasn't it?

"Ugh… What just happened?" I grunted to myself. Looking down, I saw the red hood girl underneath me as she held onto one of my boots, while using her other hand to balance on top of her scythe that was stuck to the ground.

Actually, something about this seemed very wrong to me...

"Don't panic. We're currently dangling off the side of a cliff." She replied calmly enough.

Huh, dangling off the side of a cliff.

…

Oh.

"OH MY GOD WE'RE DANGLING OFF OF A CLIFF" I screamed, full on panic-mode.

She huffed, "At least you stopped running."

While her sense of humor may still have been intact, mine had died the moment I realized the severity of the mess I found myself in.

In some desperate act of stupidity, I decided it would be a good idea to thrash around and scream as she continued to struggle, holding onto me by my boot. "PULLMEUPPULLMEUPPULLMEUP-"

"Hey- HEY! Stop kicking! You're getting to pull us both down if you keep swinging our weight around!"

Seeing logic and reason in her words, I stopped struggling against her and tried to stop panicking. "Okay! Okay okayokayokayokay- Okay, I'm calm! I'm calm! I'm calm. Calm." Taking deep breathes, I felt my heartbeat slow down just a tiny bit enough for me to regain my sanity.

Then, as if fate wanted to tease me a bit, my Grimm mask was loose enough to conveniently fall at that moment. I silently watched as it descended into the abyss of the ocean, and gulped nervously when I couldn't even hear it splash.

Gonna hazard a guess and say that this wasn't an ideal situation for me.

"Just, please don't let go of me!" I begged the girl after seeing a preview of what might be my own fateful demise.

"I'm not gonna let you go, alright? Trust me." The girl reassured me in a clear and leveled manner.

While I felt it strange for her to try to save my life at risk of her own, whether or not I trusted her at this point was kinda moot considering I didn't have a choice in the matter. My life was in her hands, and all I could do was hope to dear god that this girl didn't suddenly go crazy and yell "psyche!"

"O-okay… I don't know why you're doing this, but I'm going to trust you."

"Okay. Good. Glad to know that." She smiled.

…

…

…

After a moment or so of awkward tensions, where I was still dangling off by my leg and her blinking occasionally as she held on to both me and her scythe, I decided to ask the big and obvious question.

"So, how do we get back up to land?"

"I…" She paused nervously, "am still working on that."

"WHAT?! What do you mean you're still working on that?! Can't you just lift us up?!"

"Well, both of my hands are sort of occupied at the moment." She nodded towards the hand that was holding onto my leg, "I didn't really plan ahead when I jumped in to save you. So if you have any suggestions or ideas, I'd be all up for it."

"Great. Just dandy." I groaned, wondering what I did to deserve this.

"Hm… If only I could get ahold of my Scroll. Then I'd be able to call for help." I heard her mutter to herself in thought.

Scroll…

Scroll! That's it!

"I just remembered, I still have my Scroll with me!" I gleefully exclaimed.

You'd think something as obvious as this would be the first thing to think of, but I guess going through a stressful situation as dangling off a cliff will do that to you.

She sighed in relief and asked, "Great! Do you know anyone that you can call for help?"

I carefully pulled my Scroll out of my hoodie's pocket and activated it, "Not really. I think the most appropriate thing for me to do right now is to call for the police to come save us."

"Really? You'd do that?" She asked, "Aren't you worried that they'll arrest you under suspicion of being a member of the White Fang?"

"Well obviously, that's going to be the case." I rolled my eyes, "But it's either this, or death via slam-jamming into the water. Besides, even if we do find some other way to get out of this mess, I'd still end up in jail anyway. You caught me, and I wouldn't be able to outrun you because of your magic teleport skill thing."

"That is a fair point…" She conceded.

Dialing for the police, the Scroll rung for a bit before I heard someone pick up, "Vale Police Department, what's your emergency?"

"Oh thank god! You have to come help us out! A girl and I are currently dangling off a-"

My whole body shifted down before suddenly stopping, causing me to bounce and drop my Scroll.

"Nonononono-" I desperately fumbled around into catching the Scroll, an effort proven to be an empty fruit basket as it ended up out of my reach anyway and flew down into the ocean. "NO!"

I looked up to the girl above me and asked, "What did you do?! I just dropped my Scroll into the water now because of that-"

The dirt of the cliff began to crumble a bit and land in my mouth as I was talking, causing me to cough and hack in surprise. A second later, I bounced up as we began to shift downwards again.

With a fearful look, she explained, "Okay- so, please don't start panicking again buuut… I think my scythe is starting to slip."

...

Wiping some dirt out of my eyes, I said, "I was hoping you would tell me that was an earthquake instead…"

She blanched with confusion, before shouting, "B- Wha- In this situation, how does an earthquake seem like a better scenario than us slipping off?!"

"I don't know! Maybe the thought that Mother Nature is going to be the cause of my death is somehow more comforting to me instead of my own god damn weight-" Realizing I was going off on a tangent, I shifted back our focus to the problem, "WHATEVER, can't you just stab it back into the cliff again and make it firmer?!"

"Are you crazy?! I can't just pull it out and then stab it back in again!"

"Why not?!"

"Because that's not-" she began to shout, before pausing in thought. Then she muttered, "Actually, it is physically possible if I do it fast enough. That's not a bad ide-"

And then we were falling.

With a scream, the girl lost her grip on both her scythe and my foot as we began to plummeted to our doom.

The first thing that I thought to do besides making sure I was screaming at the lowest possible pitch, to ensure I died while still sounding as masculine as possible, was to flap my arms like a bird in a desperate attempt to fly.

Despite all known laws of aviation, I think it was actually starting to help slow my descent somewhat. The girl fell past me while she was flailing around in terror, with her scythe spinning through the air just behind.

Watching the scythe passing by gave me an extremely dumb idea that I decided to follow through with. Frog stroking my way through the air, I did my best to fling myself after the girl's scythe and grab it in my hands.

After successfully hugging it in my arms, I did what any sane person would do and proceed to divebomb downwards in order to catch up with the girl before we both splattered against the water.

Holding her scythe with one hand, I reached out to her with the other, "QUICK, HOLD ON TO ME!"

Without any arguments, she latched onto my arm and clenched tightly.

Then, I copied the move that she did earlier to save my life and swung the scythe's blade into the cliff without much thought.

The blade struck and wedge itself inside the dirt just as planned, as our fall came to a sudden halt just a few dozen feet above the water. With gravity still pulling us down though, I could feel the strain of the girl's weight combined with mine as I struggled to hold us up.

"AAGH-" I groaned under the stress.

HOW DID SHE MAKE THIS LOOK SO EASY?!

"Wow, you actually did it!" She laughed in disbelief at the fact that we both somehow survived, only to frown when she saw my face turning red. "You alright?"

"Never trained… upper body strength… so much regret…" I managed to squeeze out through gritted teeth.

"Oh!" She hurriedly started climbing up my arm, which made the strain even worse and hurt like hell, before finally wrapping an arm around my shoulder and grabbed on to her scythe. Now sharing our weight, she asked "There. Feel better?"

Sighing slightly in relief of the alleviated weight, I whined, "I think I might have dislocated my shoulder…"

"Sorry…" She gave an apologetic smile. If smiles could help, I would've felt much better. But it didn't. It didn't help at all.

"Whatever…" I groaned from the sore strain once more before focusing my attention to the situation. "Okay... We somehow lived through that nightmare. I don't feel like running anymore, so you got any ideas to get us out of here?"

"Hm…" She furrowed her eyebrows in thought before lighting up with an idea, "I still have my Scroll! I can call for help!"

She began to use her free hand to rummage around her belt, searching around for a bit and finally pulling out her scroll.

"Ahah! Got it!" She cheered.

Right as she was in the middle of activating it though, she managed to somehow fumble with it before it slipped out of her hand and dropped down into the ocean along with my Scroll.

"Ack! No!" She helplessly reached out for it, only to realize that it was already too far away. "Ugh! Butterfingers!"

I could only stare at the ocean below with a deadpanned expression, "So that's it then. We're stuck here forever until we die. How neat."

"Not necessarily…" She closed her eyes for a bit, before looking at me and asked, "Do you get easily motion sick?"

"Motion sick?" I repeated incredulously, "Lady, I just fell off a cliff and almost died free falling about two-thirds of the way down in order to save both of our butts. If I didn't get motion sick from that, I never will."

"Okay, good. Just wondering." She vaguely stated, removing a magazine from her scythe and dropping into the ocean. Then she carefully pulled out another one from her utility belt, this one with a black cross insignia on it, and inserted it into her weapon to load up the chamber.

"Uh… How is reloading your scythe thingy going to help us get out of here?"

"Just a little something I brewed up at home. Ever seen Black Dust used in action?"

"Black Dust?" I asked, "You mean, like, the stuff they use to fuel up the Bullheads?"

She smirked, "The proper term for it is Gravity Dust."

Gravit- Oh.

Oh god damn it.

"I can already tell this is going to suck…" I sighed.

"Don't worry! I've done this plenty of times before, and I've only messed up twice!" She cheerfully exclaimed.

If that was suppose to fill me with confidence over the idea of flying back up via explosive bullets, it didn't. But it's not like I even had any other option, so screw it.

"Okay, get behind my back and wrap your arms around me. This is going to be a bumpy ride!" She told me in a tone that sounded almost too excited for my tastes.

My god, she was crazy, wasn't she?

Hesitantly doing as she told me to, I let her take command of her scythe as I got into position and wrapped myself around her waist as best I could with my injured arm.

I was startled a bit when she suddenly went stiff and squeaked quietly. "What? Something wrong?" I asked her.

"Uh- um… Arms above my shoulders please?" She stuttered.

I raised an eyebrow at her randomly specific request, "Does it really matter where I put my arms around you?"

"Yes!" She squeaked again, clearly uncomfortable with something.

Deciding not to argue, I did as she asked and repositioned my arms around her shoulders instead.

Sighing in relief, she went back to her normal-ish excited behavior and happily asked me, "Okay, ready?"

"About as ready as the next g-"

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG

"-AAAAAAAAAHHH!"

With a rather theatrical three point pose at the end, the girl was able to land the both of us back on solid ground looking no worse for wear.

Correction, she landed on the ground and looked no worse for wear. I was pale white and collapsed on the ground breathing heavily from shock, with a dislocated arm limply doing its own thing.

Seeing my disconcerted state, she kneeled beside me with concern, "You alright? I didn't go too fast for you, did I?"

With a moan filled with agony, I exhausted all of my breath into one final weak scream that could barely register as a noise any man would make. "Honestly?" I rasped, "I don't even care anymore. I'm just glad that we both managed to come out of this alive. That's pretty much all that matters now."

She began laughing and sat right beside me, "Yeah… now that the adrenaline is starting to wear off, I'm feeling pretty beat."

Oh, she was the one feeling beat, was she?

I playfully scoffed, "Excuse me? Who was the one who had to save both of our butts from falling to our deaths and ended up getting an injured shoulder because he never bothered doing a proper pull-up session since grade-school?"

She hummed curiously as she tilted her head. "Yeah… thanks again for that. But… why did you do that anyway?"

I glanced at her, "Do what?"

"You could have stolen my scythe away from me while we were falling and used it to only save yourself. Heck, you could have dropped me at anytime while we were holding onto to each other. Easily get rid of the Huntress after your tail and everyone would be none the wiser about it."

"Don't give me any ideas now." I half chuckled, half wheezed.

"My point is, you had the option to let someone who was hunting you down fall to their death and earn a chance to get away scot-free. Instead, you actually chose to save my life as you were risking your own. Why?"

I raised an eyebrow at her question, not knowing how to answer considering I hadn't even put that much thought for why I wanted to save her, despite her Huntress occupation and my White Fang allegiance.

That reminded me, actually…

Sitting up, I began to question her for myself, "Speaking of which, the same thing could be asked for you! You, a human girl, saw me, a Faunus who was a member of the White Fang, roll off a cliff to my death... and the first thing you think to do is to jump in after me? Like, seriously?"

"Is there something wrong with that? What does me being a human girl have to do with why I saved you?"

"Well… I don't know? I just sort of expected you to consider it a wasteful effort trying to save one measly grunt of the White Fang. Why bother if you're not gonna get anything good out of it?"

"Well that's a depressing way to look at it," She muttered disapprovingly, before speaking up, "I didn't save you because I thought that I'd get something good out of it, I saved you because it was the right thing to do! I'm a Huntress, it's my job to protect people and maintain peace!"

"And when you say people, that includes people like me?"

"Yes! I don't make exceptions or divide certain people, I believe everyone is worth saving!" She shouted.

I looked at her, feeling a bit surprised after hearing her say that. Not in the fact that she said it, but the way it felt like she firmly believed it without any sense of doubt. Maybe it was just my own personal history with Humans being dicks in general, but I never thought I would meet a human girl that would be so...

"If you thought that I was the type that would only save you for my own personal gain, then why did you bother to save me when I was in trouble? That's the part I don't get." She pointed at me with an accusing stare.

Hm… You know, that was a pretty good question. Why did I bother to help her, when moments ago, she was trying to hunt me down like a dog in a forest?

Maybe…?

I hummed in thought, before deciding to go with, "Guess I'm just the type of guy that doesn't sit well with the thought of killing someone, even if they are a human. Letting anyone die on purpose just feels… inhuman? For lack of a better word?"

"Even if it means you might die trying to save them?" She raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

I shrugged. "Same as you then."

She silently studied me, her eyes wandering around as if to capture my entire face.

I instinctively reached up to position my mask, only to remember that I dropped it back when we were still dangling off the cliff. Without anything to protect my identity, you'd think I would have reacted more worriedly. But something told me that it didn't really matter anymore. Not like a mask was going to save me once I got arrested anyway.

So we just sat there and inquisitively stared at each other, neither one of us knowing exactly what to do. Meeting each other was an unlucky coincidence, but with everything that just happened between us, I was starting to see this girl in a new light. Maybe she might not be as bad as I assumed she would be?

That was when she loosened up her expression and gave me a small smile, asking matter of factly, "You're not a bad person, are you?"

Having no clue how to respond to that, I could only shrug again, "I'd like to think that I'm not."

Then she chuckled to herself, "I guess you're not then."

Moving to stand up, she dusted off her clothes and stretched her arms out. Sighing in relief, she began to wordlessly walk away, much to my confusion.

Before she could leave, I yelled out to her, "Hey! Red lady, where you going? Aren't I being arrested under suspicion of being a member of the White Fang?"

She looked back and told me, "Just forget about it! Consider it a thanks for choosing to do what you felt was right!"

"But are you sure you're allowed to do this? I mean, isn't this sort of against the law or something?"

"Probably... but you know what?" She explained as she flipped her hood up and walked away, "It just doesn't feel like the right thing to do at the moment."

Huh. Well, that was pleasantly unexpected.

When she was finally gone, it was only now that I realized that I hadn't even found out her name. Which was a shame, because I think I was starting to warm up to her. She was pretty okay for a human.

Maybe there might be hope for them yet in the future.

"Sooo… that was pretty…um..." The wolf Faunus started off awkwardly enough.

"Yeah…" Ruby agreed wholeheartedly.

"I mean… it was sort of… um…" He scratched the back of his neck, unsure how to use his words.

"Yep…" Ruby nodded back in understanding.

With the Carnival ending after the show was over, the both of them walked out of there with only one consensus in their minds.

This was a terrible first date.

The boy began to rant his heart out about the event, "Like, the whole thing was such a-"

Ruby interrupted with an indignant, "Right?! None of it was even remotely funny! They even had the gall to-"

"Oh my god, I know!" He grunted as he facepalmed, "Then when they introduced the clowns! God, were they such-"

"I feel so bad for those poor elephants! And they did that in front of kids!"

"What were they thinking when they called out the acrobatic team?! Someone in the audience could have died from that stunt!"

"And the whole time, the announcer was just sitting there and making those insensitive jokes at their expense!"

It was needless to say that neither of them had a good time.

"I am never going to another one of their carnivals ever again." He proclaimed.

"Agreed." She nodded firmly.

And then there was silence.

This was a terrible first date.

Ruby didn't exactly expect her first date with a boy to be anything magical. If anything, she sort of knew it might end up being a mess. But that was only because she thought she would somehow screw things up with her own introverted tendencies.

She wasn't sure if today would be considered better or worse than what she hoped.

"Hey, uh…"

Ruby perked up and glanced at her date as he sheepishly scratched his head.

"I was hoping that today would have ended up on a high note instead of what we got. Sorry for making you go through all of that…"

"It's not your fault." She reassured with a sad smile, "You couldn't have known how bad it was going to be."

"Yeah, well… I pretty much chose this over a movie date because I thought going to the movie theater as a first date would be unimaginative and generic. So, serves me right for trying something daring, am I right?" He chuckled embarrassingly.

"I don't mind going to the movies though."

"Oh." He said simply, "Well. Sucks for me then."

Ruby giggled a bit, before an idea popped up in her head. With an excited gleam, she spoke up, "Listen, we've got plenty of time left before the day ends. We can still turn this around to end on a more positive note."

"Oh yeah? How do you think we'll manage that?"

Grinning, Ruby ran ahead of him as she turned around with her arms up to cheer, "Let's go back to the ice cream parlor!"

The boy blinked in surprise, before asking, "Really? Are you sure? I mean, we already go there every Sunday to hang out."

"Yeah, because we always have the most fun over there! Who cares if it's the same place where we always meet up?" She declared.

The Faunus mulled over it for a bit before he conceded, "Hm, alright. I see your point. Not like we have any other better ideas anyway, so why not?"

Yeah. Besides, this would make a much better end to the date. Just him and Ruby, hanging out for fun like they usually did. So what if it wasn't as romantic as they were hoping for? There was nothing wrong with that. In the end, they would still be spending the day together. That was all that mattered to her.

"Tank for me. Tank for me! Their healer is getting away!"

"My ult's not off it's cooldown yet! I can't taunt them!"

"Okay nevermind, she got back behind their tower. Let's just run back to bottom- Wait, watch out that guy has a stun!"

The two young souls clicked and tapped away at their game as they mindlessly devoured their minty chocolate flavored snacks. So focused on their game, neither had noticed that the sun outside had already gone down to make room for the broken moon to rise for the night.

Ruby haphazardly gulped down her mint milkshake, not caring how it spilled a bit over her clothes. "Ooh! Keep pushing, the entire enemy team's distracted at mid!"

As they continued to play, a middle-aged man in the background walked past them and turned around the "open" sign on the front doors.

He looked over at the two lovebirds and rolled his eyes, before jokingly asked them, "So, you kids gonna be here all night? I need to know beforehand or else I might accidently lock you inside the shop."

"Sorry, Mr. Cambridge! We're almost done with this match!" Ruby replied without taking her eyes off the screen.

"We'll get out of your hair soon, boss!" Her date reassured him with a quick wave of his hand, before he went back to mashing on the keyboard. "Enemy warrior TPing back! Ready up your silence!"

"Got it!"

The man rolled his eyes with a warm, "Kids these days…"

After that, he began cleaning up tables and sanitizing seats as the duo shouted commands at each other.

"I got his attention! Rush him, Ruby!"

"Silenced, slice and dice combo, aaaaaaaand- Kill secured!"

"Okay, keep pushing bottom!"

What kind of newfangled game required them to shout at each other so much? It wasn't like they were playing a competitive sport or anything. Or maybe they were?

Peeking over one of their shoulders, he could see them control two oversized medieval knights as they led a group of tiny soldiers forward into battle. Despite the both of them clicking the mouse around like crazy, they didn't seem to be doing anything other than move their characters back and forth in the line of soldiers.

Scratching his head in defeat, he accepted the fact that he was too out of touch to "get" anything the new generation were into these days.

So instead of figuring out anymore about their game, he decided to ask them a question about their date as he was cleaning. "Weren't you two supposed to be on a date at the circus or something?"

"Yeah, but the date was a bust." The Faunus boy casually replied.

Ruby then spoke, "The carnival ended up being too weird and upsetting for us to enjoy. We ended up deciding to come back here to end our date instead."

"Out of all the places to continue your date, you chose the one place where you two hang out frequently enough already? Aren't you guys bored with this place yet?"

"Mm-mm." The young lad mumbled.

"Nope." Ruby popped for emphasis.

The aging parlor shop owner hummed to himself before shrugging away their strange antics, summing it up as, "Youthful stubbornness or something."

"The entire enemy team is TPing back!" Ruby shouted with panic.

"Keep attacking the core, I'll hold them off!"

The two younglings began mashing the keyboard buttons furiously for a few more seconds, before they finally cheered in unison at the sound of the announcer declaring their victory.

"Mantle's Dust Core has fallen. Atlesian Knights win!"

"Haha! Yes!"

"We did it! We reached B-rank!"

Getting out of their seats, they high-fived each other and jumped for joy in each other's arms like a pair of overly excited teenage girls at a boy-band pop concert.

While Cambridge Mint was not the type of man to spoil the innocent fun between two young hearts in love, it was late and he really needed to close up shop.

So he cleared his throat rather loudly in order to get their attention, now that they were apparently done with their game. "AHEM!"

The two stopped cheering and turned their attentions towards him in confusion.

"Think you two can take this celebration outside? It's closing time." He pointed towards the exit.

With embarassed mutterings of apologies, "Sorry boss." "Thanks again for the service, Mr. Cambridge." the two kids stepped outside as he finished up his cleaning.

Ruby walked up to a lamppost as she stretched her arms up, giving a sigh in satisfaction. "That was a good match. I haven't fought so hard in a game in months!"

Her date went to stand right next to her as he chuckled, "Definitely more hectic than I anticipated."

The two of them began to look up at the night sky and stared into the shattered moon, admiring the sight for what it was worth.

Secretly behind the window of the shop, Mint peeked through the blinds of his window in order to check up on the two and see what they were going to do.

The wolf Faunus's ears flickered a bit as he rubbed the back of his neck out of awkward tension, "Hey, Ruby?"

"Yeah?" She glanced at him curiously.

"Sorry again for the crummy start of our first date. If only I did a little bit of research or even picked something else, maybe we would have ended up having a better time…"

"Are you seriously still hung over about that?" She frowned, "I already said that it wasn't your fault. You had no idea what was going to happen!"

He sighed depressingly, "I know, but… I just wanted this date to be better somehow. I wanted this to be, like, a memorable thing for us to share, you know? Something to look back on in the future and to laugh about. But I couldn't make it live up to expectation…"

"Hey," she turned to face him, "I want you to look at me."

The boy looked up at her, staring into her silver eyes. Eyes filled with a sense of warmth and determination.

"Answer me honestly." She began, "Did you have a fun time with me today?"

"Well…" He quirked an eyebrow at the question, "Yeah, of course."

"And so did I." She smiled at him with a glowing expression, "That should be all that matters in the end. I really don't care how this date started out. Sure, it wasn't how we imagined it to be, but later on we were able to flip it around and turn it into an experience that only people like us can fully appreciate."

"Ruby…"

"Because that's the thing!" Ruby continued, "Even if all of our dates ended up being complete disasters in the future, I'd still be having fun and laughing about it because I would be together with you! As long as we're still together, I'll be-"

Ruby stopped her train of thought and suddenly felt all of her confidence sapped away as she realized what she was about to admit out loud. She squirmed in place for a bit, looking down from him as she blushed.

She wasn't ready to admit her feelings yet, it felt too soon to go about it like this… weren't they just acting like friends a moment ago? Aren't first dates supposed to be things where you get to know your date better and then slowly start having deeper feelings for them?

But she already knew him. She knew everything about him, just like he knew everything about her. When it really came down to it, both of their first date together had already taken place unofficially a few weeks ago when they first started hanging out. As friends. But then as time went by, their friendship really nurtured and evolved to become something else, didn't it? It was the only reason why she would agree to him asking her out in the first place…

Because she…

"I'm happy when we're together like this. I like you." She finished.

She began to poke her fingers together like the shy and socially awkward girl that she was, hoping she hadn't accidently scared him off with her confession.

Ruby looked up, checking to see if he was still there in front of her. To her relief, he was. His cheeks were blushing brighter than lights on a fire truck.

"I… Um… Er… That is to say… Uh…" He stammered, his wolf ears standing straight up in embarrassment, or maybe excitement.

In spite of it all, Ruby began to laugh when she saw his reaction. It made her feel a lot more comfortable, knowing that she wasn't the only one feeling so awkward and embarrassed from all of this.

After a while, he began laughing as well, albeit nervously and with confusion.

Finally settling down, their conversation transitioned back to their awkward silences again.

…

He took a deep breath, and stood up straight as he stared face to face with her, "I'm glad I met you, Ruby. I always felt lucky how we managed to meet each other again after that day."

"Yeah." She nodded in agreement, "I feel the same way. Despite all odds, we ended up getting along pretty well, didn't we?"

"Could you imagine if I wasn't working my shift on that day?"

"Or if I decided to pick something other than ice cream for a snack break?"

None of this would have ever happened…

It was a depressing thought, for sure. To think, there was a possible chance neither of them would have met the other for more than once in their lives.

But it was a thought that they'd never have to worry about. They did meet again. They did get along. They did become friends.

They will become more.

"I like you too." He finally confessed.

Ruby had to suppress the urge to pull her hood over her head to hide herself. She was getting too excited over this.

"I'm glad."

...

"I was wondering… Um…" the boy mumbled, "Even though our first date was… kinda weak at the start… you wanna do this again sometimes? Doing dates, I mean. Like, officially."

"Officially?" She tilted her head.

"You know… boyfriend and girlfriend…" Feeling unsatisfied with himself, he cleared his throat and started over again, this time with more confidence and less wavering in his voice. "Ruby… I'd like to go steady with you. Please be mine?"

Ruby fell silent at the request, not expecting him to be as forward as he was. Once the shock wore off though, she could feel the giddiness inside of her rising up and almost threatening to take control. Her face heated up, her breath drew short, everything felt like a rush to her as adrenaline pumped in her veins.

Knowing that she would start freaking out soon and not wanting to do so in front of him, she decided to be quick about it before the situation got out of hand.

So without much thought, she zipped right in front of him and pecked him on the cheek, red rose petals bursting out from her as she did so.

"I'll see you again next week…"

And that was all she could say before she flashed away in order to hide herself from embarrassment, only leaving behind her signature calling card of a bajillion rose petals scattered around him.

Using her semblance, she ran all the way back to her Beacon dormitory room in an instant, unable to wipe her small grin away no matter how hard she tried..

Meanwhile, standing in the middle of the sidewalk with eyes as wide as saucers and grinning like a complete idiot, was the boy. So transcended was he in his blissful moment, he steadily rubbed his fingers to feel where she kissed him.

Without uttering another word, he walked slowly through Vale's moonlight and pumped his fist up to the sky in silent victory.

Behind the scenes, Cambridge Mint; owner of the ice cream parlor, who was watching all of this as it transpired, chuckled warmly as he shook his head.

"Ah, young love. The rules may have changed, but the end result is still the same."