Ruby ducked, varely dodging the punch which held so much force it cracked the wall behind her.

She managed multiple punch on her assailant before landing a devastating kick. The man staggered back, crashing against bags of thrash lined up behind him.

The Red Rose readjusted her cape.

"I am the night!" She exclaimed triumphantly. " I am the hero Vale needs, but not the one she deserves."

The Red Rose protured a giant mecha shifting scythe from behind her cloak and pointed upwards. The blade of the scythe then short upwards connected to her only by a chain. The head of scythe dug itself onto a rooftop over and started pulling her up like a grappling hook.

The Red Rose was about leave and continue dark vigil but stop due to the sudden appearance of a spectator. The man that haunted her dreams stepped into view for the corner of alley in which she fought the criminal. There he stood in that cute bunny rabbit hoodie. He looked amused.

"I'm dreaming aren't I?" She said.

"Good call." he said, before strolling right out of eyesight and seemingly disappearing.

"...Ruby! RUBY!" Nora shouted.

"Gah! What?!" Ruby asks still bleary from sleep.

"We're here." Nora called out from the front seat.

"We're… where?" Ruby asked as rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

" At the party your sister's throwing." Roman said from next to her.

"Ugh… Can we not?" Ruby moaned.

Ren, their ever-patient driver, unbuckled himself from and stepped out of the car. Soon after Nora and Roman did the same.

"Come on we gotta lock the car." Nora said.

"Oh, right" Ruby says as she finally exits the car but not without her fair share of sulking.

"There's some old friends here I'm dying to meet." Nora said as she Ren and Roman go inside.

Ruby sipped at the bitter fluid in the Styrofoam cup. The after taste made her cringe, and she could feel burn slightly as she downed it. How anyone enjoyed this was beyond her, yet she was determined to finish at least this cup. She trudge through the sea of people, Bumping shoulders and stepping on heels. Making hers way to the stair at the top which yang leaned on the rail taking to Nora.

"Finally found you! You guys ditched me!" Ruby said.

"We just left you to mope." Nora said, clearly not guilty at all.

"You know I'm not good with parties, whose house is this anyways?"

"Don't worry your pretty little head about that ruby. Go mingle." Yang said.

"You know a friends of mine always said 'strangers are just friends you haven't met yet'" Nora says.

"That sounds like how you get molested." Ruby deadpanned.

"Not the point, go make new friends. Who knows? Maybe you can meet a guy… and move out of my couch." Yang said.

" Dear sister are you implying you want me to move out?"

"What I'm implying is that you should aspire to more the just a pull out in the living room." Yang chastised.

"Fine, I'll buy a bed…" Ruby trailed off. From her vantage point at the top of the stairs she surveys the home. Just who is she supposed to talk to anyways? Until her eyes fell on a vaguely familiar mop blonde hair. One she has seen in her dreams. Below her stood her dreamboat, drink in hand, and leaning on wall across the room. He was absentmindedly chatting with a girl.

"Who is that?!" Ruby demands.

"Who is who?" Nora asks.

"Ruby, when don't see with your eyes." Says Yang before being grabbed by ruby and forced in a direction.

"There, see? That blonde!"

"where?" Said Nora.

"Oh, he's talking to Ruby North"

"That's other Ruby?!" Ruby asks. "She used to be fat in high school."

"Uh, yeah she bettered herself Ruby, something you could learn to do." Yang said.

"Lemme see!" Nora practically pushes the sisters off of the railing and settles in their spot. After visibly scanning the crowd she visibly relaxes. "She looks great, good for her."

"Forget, about other Ruby who IS he?!"

"Oh that's Jaune the friend I was telling you about."

"Jaune…" Ruby said almost as if testing how the name fell from her lips. It was uncommon to say the least. But dare she say she liked it? "You know him?"

"We went to high school together."

"Then why don't I know him?" Ruby asks.

"Uh, scatterbrain, I moved here for college… you, know where we met." Nora said.

"So he's from New York? The name Jaune Arc sounds french." Yang said.

"Yup Jaune-Jaune would tell you that too, but flunked out basic french." Nora giggle. " He looks good next to Ruby North, he really pulled himself together he used to be such a dork in high school. Kinda like you Ruby."

"Good for them" says Yang.

"Maybe I should go say hello." Ruby say with a slightly miffed expression.

"I don't know Ruby, It looks like she saw him first." Nora said. Some losing interest in Ruby's shenanigans. Yang was already talking to some other people on their left.

"What? Nooo, I'm not going there to mess it up for her. I'm gonna go tell Other Ruby she looks great." Ruby said, theatrically balking at the accusation.

With that ruby went off, navigating her decent through the dozen or so butts of the people sitting in the stairs. Once again Ruby stops to admire just how many people her sister packed into the small two story house. There had to be at least thirty people on the stairs alone and they were all in the way.

By the time she reached he was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey Ruby it's been so long! You never come by the shop anymore." She heard from her left.

"Hi other Ruby, did you see where the guy you were talking went?"

"Jaune Arc? I think he was leaving. He said parties aren't really his thing…" Other Ruby looked bummed about something. "But anyways, enough about that how have you been?"

"Yeah, sure. Talk to you later…" Ruby didn't spare one look back as she moved past the other girl.

She trudged her way past all the people in and around the entrance. A feat that took far more than time than one would think in such a small house. Ruby took stock of the front lawn and saw

A lone blond figure making his way through the heavy snow on foot. He was barely visible through the snow and wind. By time Ruby even thought of calling out to him he turned a corner and was out sigh. Fearing that the quirky boy would once again disappear if she wasn't looking at him ruby took off after him.

She was once more navigating the cold, mean streets of Toronto Canada except this time she wasn't absentmindedly meandering through its snow covered streets, she was compulsively following a man she's never spoken to.

Ruby turn corner after corner at a brisk pace. She was following what she hoped were Jaune's footprint in the snow though as she followed them to a more crowded intersection she could easily confused his with a random pedestrian's. Her seeming desperation surprised even her.

Her sweat turned cold on her skin and the her breath condensed in front of her. Finally she reached a just as it started to rain. This was where his trail ran cold, simply among one of the path the prints just stop.

"Uhm hi Red." He heard his voice again.

She turned to see him bathed in the starlight, or rather beneath the light of a light post as he occupied a park bench. He was sitting there hotdog in hand looking rather worriedly at her. Ruby actually begun to panic, in all the time she spent compulsively following this an she never talked to she hadn't once thought about what she would say to him.

"Are you okay? you must be freezing! Where's you Jacket?" He asked but the words didn't quite register with Ruby.

"Uhm… coffee?" a shivering Ruby asked. 'What am I doing I don't even like coffee.'

Then something strange happened. Ruby lost balance like the floor had disappeared beneath her feet. She briefly wondered if it was the cold, or her passing out as she was falling into a black expanse populated scarcely by what seemed like star. It was over almost as soon as it began, he back hitting something soft and springy that notably wasn't the cold snow. In fact the it wasnt cold anymore instead she was on a couch of what seemed like a quaint apartment, a nearby window which overlooked a street Ruby's know all her life, far from the park. Did she black out from the cold? Was that even possible?

Ruby was pulled from her musings, when a thick, warm blanket was thrown over her lying form. Instinctively drove her wrap it around herself.

"Feeling better?" His voice again.

"Y-yeah…" Ruby said.

"I'm Jaune by the way." He said.

"Ruby Rose.. uhh… where are we?"

"My apartment, it was the only place I could take you." Jaune called as he was currently digging into his pantry. His apartment was a small studio apartment meaning he was still visible to Ruby.

"How did we get here so fast?!"

"What do you mean? We took this subspace highway that ends up here. I use it for work, super convenient."

"O-ok." Ruby had no idea what to make it of it. 'Just play it cool' she told herself. "Coffee?" 'again with the coffee?! You don't even like coffee!' that voice in her head said.

"Well, I don't have coffee… but how about hot cocoa?" Jaune said turning to her with a smile.

"Perfect."

And scene! Look guys! This story isn't dead! yet...