Pain.

Water.

And then darkness.

Oscar woke with a start, instinct telling him to swim, to move, and found himself instantly regretting movement of any kind as a deep ache wracked his entire body. He hissed, kicked out, found himself tangled in something.

"Whoa, easy there, kid," said a man's voice out of the darkness, sounding gruffer and more weary than usual. Qrow. "You're not fully healed yet."

The panic subsided at the sound of the familiar voice, and he sucked in a deep breath. It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the low light, to place the soft vibrating hum of the metal he was laying on, to understand that he was wrapped in a blanket and not drowning in crushing darkness.

The plane. He was back in the plane, in one piece, and Qrow was seated against the hull across from him, eyeing him with concern. A mop of yellow hair that could only belong to Yang was nestled against his shoulder, asleep, and against her shoulder breathing peacefully... Ruby! So she was okay. Last he'd seen her, she'd been dangling off the cliff, precariously close to a rampaging mech, and he'd been so desperate to find something, anything that could help her...

He tried gingerly to lever himself up on an elbow, and startled as a weight rolled off his shoulder with the movement. There was a soft thud as a gauntleted hand hit the metal floor, barely muffled by the blanket, and he looked up to see Jaune folded up beside him, snoring softly. Peering around the darkened cabin, Oscar spied more sleeping forms huddled against the cold metal walls. Soft blue light from the consoles in the cockpit cast just enough light to show Maria at the controls, and a dark night sky was visible through the windshield, deep purple clouds rolling lazily past. The giant mech from before was nowhere to be seen.

"We... we made it?" he croaked out, shocked at the hoarseness of his voice. His throat burned and his mouth tasted like salt... like saltwater. And he remembered, remembered the fall from the plane, the wind rushing past him. How was he even still alive?

"Just barely," said another voice, from by his feet, and he looked over at the pale visage of Weiss Schnee. "Especially you. You gave us quite the scare."

She was nestled into the corner of the cargo bay, her legs folded under a scratchy, military-issue blanket, hands folded primly on top. Truth be told, Oscar had always found her intimidating - too cold and elegant to be approachable - but now she was smiling at him warmly, with relief. It was almost sisterly.

"What.. happened?" The plane had been hit, and it had rolled, and the bay doors had been open... He had a faint memory of Maria's voice, calling his name frantically...

"You fell," said Weiss, and her face pinched with the memory. "You... you hit the ground, and then you went over the cliff... when we got you out of the water, Jaune barely had enough aura left to stabilize you..."

He remembered now, the ground rushing up at him, trying fruitlessly to brace his Aura shields. The impact had torn through them in an instant, and he'd ricocheted off the ground back into open air again. And then water, and darkness. And... a sound like the buzz of giant wings.

"Your summon," he said to Weiss, with sudden understanding. "The Lancer. You saved me?"

She scoffed politely, waving her hand as if to dismiss his thanks. "I was just the ride, really. It's Ruby and Jaune you owe your life to."

Qrow nodded in Jaune's direction. "He's been pumping every last bit of his Aura into you as fast as he could recharge it... right up until he conked out, at least." He spoke softly, clearly trying not to disturb his sleeping nieces.

Oscar looked back up at the sleeping boy beside him and felt a rush of gratitude. "And... and Ruby?" he asked, sparing a glance for the red-caped huntress, who was snuggled so firmly into her sister's side that she had practically sandwiched herself between Yang and the wall.

"She was the one that dove in and grabbed you," Weiss answered.

"Left her scythe stuck in the cliff and everything," said Qrow. "She was pretty torn up about how hurt you were."

"Don't worry, don't worry, we grabbed it before we took off," Weiss assured him with a soft laugh, as Oscar began looking around for Ruby's beloved scythe. Relief washed over him. If she'd left behind her weapon because of him, he'd never forgive himself.

"Oh!" Weiss continued, "And she resuscitated you, too. You'd swallowed a lot of water by the time she got you out."

It took a second for what she'd said to sink in. "Wait... she what?"

"The ol' kiss of life, kid. CPR," Qrow said, chuckling.

"I... she...did that?" He touched a hand to his mouth, partly to cover the deep flush that was creeping up his neck, partly to try and force himself to recall the sensation. Ruby Rose, the kindest, prettiest, most amazing girl he'd ever met, had pressed her lips to his and he hadn't even had the nerve to be conscious?

"What is it?" Weiss said quizzically, and his flush deepened. He hoped to the gods no one could notice in the dim light.

"No, it's just..." he stammered though his hand, glancing nervously at the other sleeping passengers. "That would have been... kind of... a first. And I wasn't even awake for it."

Qrow swallowed a laugh, tried to turn it into a cough. It wasn't convincing.

"Oh," Weiss said, with a faint tone of embarrassment, and shot a glare at Qrow. "Well, it's not like it really counts, right? CPR is different."

She was right. What was he saying?! He was overreacting. It wasn't like she meant it as an.. an actual kiss. Ruby probably didn't even think of him that way at all. His face burned as he buried himself back in his blanket and tried to channel his meager Aura reserves towards healing the aches and bruises in his body.

But still... she'd dived into the ocean for him. That was something, right?

They landed on the coast of Solitas in the early morning hours, a plane full of bleary-eyed teenagers with barely recharged auras squinting their eyes as the sun's first rays broke over the snowy mountains. Maria had wanted to avoid any military radars on the Solitas side, so they'd landed miles outside of Atlas.

The plane was covered with foliage to avoid airborne search parties, and they gathered their supplies to set out on foot. Yang complained bitterly about the loss of her motorcycle.

"Dad's never gonna let me buy another one," she griped to anyone who would listen. Maria seemed to mourn the loss of the bike too, since it meant she had to walk with the rest of them across the snow-packed terrain. It was going to take a few days to reach the city, but it wasn't like they could just land a stolen airship right on Ironwood's front stoop.

Oscar, for the most part, spent the day of journeying trying to avoid eye contact with Ruby. He couldn't look at her without blushing, and had barely managed to stammer out a greeting when she'd woken up on the plane this morning. She'd saved his life, and he couldn't even manage to thank her properly. Pathetic.

But every time he glanced at her, he couldn't help but think of how her lips might have felt on his. Had she held him in her arms? Called his name with desperate concern? That was the one downside of Ozpin being gone, he supposed. At least when he was here, the old wizard had gently dissuaded Oscar from falling into idiotic daydreams like this.

Fortunately, he had Aura healing to focus on. Jaune stayed by his side all day, boosting his Aura, helping him direct his energy where it was most needed. The older boy was almost painfully earnest, as if still trying to make up for the incident at his sister's house. It was a welcome distraction, and by the time they stopped to make camp at the edge of an evergreen forest, the bone-deep aches had subsided into mere stiff muscles, and he felt almost normal.

Oscar was skirting the edge of the forest, collecting kindling for a campfire when Ruby approached him, stepping through the low, snowy branches, her red cape a sharp contrast against the snow.

"I, um." She was fiddling with her fingers, and he wondered why she looked as jumpy as he felt. "I wanted to talk to you."

He swallowed hard. The voices of the others, chatting as they set up camp just beyond the trees, felt miles away. "Yeah?" he tried to say, casually, as casually as one can when holding a bundle of sticks in the snow.

"To apologize. I, uh, talked to Weiss." She shuffled her feet, seemingly preoccupied with the snow caked onto the soles of her boots.

Apologize? What!? And what did Weiss have to do with anyth... Oh. Oh. The kindling clattered out of his hands, falling with a soft thump into the snow.

Ruby didn't seem to notice, eyes locked on her feet. "She told me what you said, so... sorry. About stealing your first kiss." Her eyes flicked up to meet his for the first time, and he saw the worry in her gaze.

He should have dropped dead of mortification on the spot, but she looked so genuinely, honestly upset that he almost laughed, and the words he'd been choking on all day came tumbling out.

"Why are you apologizing? I'm supposed to be thanking you! You saved my life, it's not like I'm mad about it!"

Her posture relaxed a little, her fidgety hands falling still.

"I mean, yeah, I guess I imagined my first kiss would go a little different, but hey... I'm glad to not be drowned. And... it's not like CPR actually counts. Not really." He fought the blush that threatened to bloom across his face, in spite of the cold.

She grinned sheepishly. "If it makes you feel any better, it was kinda my first, too."

...Oh. That did not make him feel better. "Sorry," he said. "That was... probably pretty crummy for you too, then."

"It's no big," she said, quickly. "Like you said, it doesn't really count, right?"

"Yeah," he said, trying to sound natural, like he spent lots of time talking about kissing with girls he had huge, stupid crushes on. "I mean, you deserve a better first kiss than that."

It wasn't until she blinked in surprise at him, mouth open with a little 'O' of shock, that he realized how damned corny that had sounded. Good gods, what had possessed him to let that jump out of his mouth?

Quickly, he bent down to start picking up the wood he'd dropped, trying to hide the embarrassment that was creeping across his cheeks, hoping that Ruby would be merciful and leave him to wallow in his shame in peace.

It wasn't like he was wrong, though... a first kiss was supposed to be special, right? She deserved a perfect kiss, a really romantic one, and hey, why the hell hadn't she been kissed yet? What kind of idiots had gone to that school of hers? Couldn't they see how pretty she was, how incredible?

A pair of black boots still hovered in the edge of his vision, one toe worrying at the snow. "Well, we could always... try again..." Her voice was barely a whisper and he paused, hand halfway to a twig.

"What?" He glanced up at her, watched her worry her bottom lip with her teeth.

"...'Cuz it would be like a technicality, and we'd still be each others' firsts, but it would actually count, y'know?" she blurted out, and even in the falling twilight, he could see the bright spots of color growing in her cheeks.

Was he actually hearing her correctly, or was it wishful thinking on his part? "You mean... kiss for real? You and me?" he stammered, the twigs scattered around his feet now forgotten. He stood back up, slowly.

"Only if... I mean, if you don't want to, that's fine..." She was wringing her hands now, looking back over her shoulder nervously towards the campsite beyond the trees. "F-forget I said anything." She started to turn, to walk away.

"But I do!" The words fell out in a jumble, louder than he'd intended. She stopped, looked at him with amazement. "W-want to, that is..." he managed to choke out, before his throat seemed to close up from the sheer gall of what he'd just said. His chest felt tight, whether from panic or joy or both, he couldn't tell.

"Oh," she said quietly, and turned pink. "Okay."

It wasn't until she gave another furtive glance over her shoulder and stepped closer that he realized she meant now.

For a moment, he felt frozen as she moved into him, her hands coming up to cup his face. The panic and joy were churning inside him and he couldn't breathe, couldn't look away even as her eyes moved to his lips and drifted closed. He didn't know where to put his hands, he had no idea what he was doing.

But when her lips brushed his, everything seemed to melt. Her kiss was soft, and sweet, startlingly warm against the cold winter air, and he remembered that he'd wanted this to be nice for her, that she deserved to be kissed well.

His hands settled lightly on her waist, tugged her in tighter, and he kissed her back with determination, trying to ignore how wobbly his knees seemed to have gotten suddenly.

When she finally pulled away, he didn't want to open his eyes, didn't want to break the magic of the moment.

"There," she said breathlessly. "Better?"

"Yeah," he agreed. Maybe if he kept his eyes closed, she'd kiss him again.

The crunch of approaching feet made him snap them open though, and he and Ruby leapt apart with a gasp just as Nora Valkyrie shoved her way between two close-leaning pines.

"Are you guys done yet?"

He tried to arrange his face into a natural expression, the expression of a boy who had definitely not just been kissing someone, but Nora was too busy brushing snow off her jacket to notice either of their flushed faces.

"D-done?" Ruby squeaked, sounding, in his opinion, every bit like a girl who'd definitely just been kissing someone.

Nora pointed in exasperation at the forgotten branches on the ground. "Collecting firewood. We're freezing. I'm in a skirt."

Right. The firewood. He bent hurriedly to scoop up the fallen wood. "Sorry, Ruby and I were just..."

"Talking," Ruby finished quickly, gathering up an armful herself. He caught her eye as she stooped beside him, and she gave him a tight-lipped smile, eyes wide with panic.

"Well, you can talk over there, around a nice, roaring fire," said Nora, waving them forward, blessedly oblivious to what she'd just interrupted.

He fell into step beside Ruby as Nora led them back to camp. "It was nice, though," he said quietly. "The... talking."

She glanced sidelong at him, cheeks still pink. "Yeah. Maybe we can talk again, sometime."

She smiled, and the joy burned like a fire in his chest, and the night didn't feel quite so cold anymore.