Alright, this is the first fanfic I wrote in years. I don't know if I'll be continuing or not, depends if I have the motivation and have time to work on it. The second chapter is already finished, just needs final editing and I won't post it until I start working on chapter 3. Anyways, anything RWBY related is owned by RoosterTeeth, the only thing that's mine are the OCs.

In the backroom workshop of a weapons store in Vale a young man was putting the finishing touches on a hunting rifle for a client that wanted a tune up after it had been hanging on a wall for Oum knows how long. Since he had his headphones on he didn't know his boss/father was in the room until he grabbed his shoulder and yelled.

"Fantastic work as always!" Beamed his heavyset father as he patted his shoulder.

"It was nothing, just cleaned out the thick layers of dust and lubed it. There was nothing mechanically wrong with it."

"All the same…..by the way your girlfriend is here." He replied with a grin.

The young man turned slightly red as he knew who he meant. There was a girl around his age that visited the shop frequently mostly to ogle the products, buy magazines and purchase ammo. His father figured out he had a crush on her and liked to tease him about it when the only interactions he had with her is just seeing her. He only knew her as "Ruby" since his father said her name once or twice.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He got up to put the finished rifle in the completed work section and fixed it with a tag of the customer's info.

"Don't bullshit me son. I've seen the way you look at her like a puppy." He said crossing his arms.

Finished with the tag he turned to his father. "I'm not a puppy dad."

His father went to the door to go back in the store. "Come on, just come say hi at least. She doesn't bite….unless she's into that kind of thing, in fact your mothe-"

"Ok, I'll go!" Just to spare him from hearing a lewd story about his parents even if meeting Ruby did make him nervous.

They both entered the store behind the counter. He saw Ruby browsing the latest weapon magazines wearing headphones and her usual red/black goth lolita dress. His father began checking the register to make sure it was functional and no one messed with it in his absence. The young man mostly fiddled with one of the pistols from the glass display to calm himself down.

He was lost in thought when his father jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow causing him to look up to see Ruby holding out her sniper-scythe.

"I need the barrel changed out and all the springs replaced. Oh! While you're at it refinish everything, the red is starting to wear off." She said before handing Crescent Rose to his father.

"Sure thing little miss. Anything else for you?" His father asked before handing the weapon to the young man.

Slapping a magazine on the counter and pointing to the ammo displays. "Just this newest Guns&Dust and some ammo."

"Alright, I'll ring you up. My son here will have your weapon ready by this time tomorrow."

"You be careful with my baby! I put all my love into him." Ruby said seriously while pointing a finger at him.

He chuckled nervously at Ruby's implied threat towards him.

"Don't worry, Crescent Rose is in good hands, I taught him everything he knows." His father defended him.

Ruby squinted her eyes slightly at the young man. "What is your name? Just in case I have to hunt you down if you screw up."

He gulped at Ruby's statement while his father sniggered behind him. "Nathan Carter." He nervously offered his hand in a shake which Ruby accepted.

"Ruby Rose." She had a surprisingly strong grip.

"It'll be in tip-top shape when you're back." Said his father stepping in to save his son again from the Red Reaper.

"Oookay." She said going towards the door with her shopping bag loaded with sniper rifle ammunition and reading material. "And remember Nathan, if my pride and joy is hurt you're burnt cookies." Ruby stated going out the door not looking back at Nathan's response.

"You'll be fine Nate, she won't kill you…..probably. She said something similar the first time she let me work on her weapon."

Nathan looked over Ruby's "baby" in its storage mode before finding a switch that would unfold it. Quickly the weapon shifted into its scythe configuration.

"How does someone so small wield something like this!" Nathan said doing a practice swing.

"No idea kid, I haven't seen her fight."

He brought Crescent Rose into the workshop and began the process of disassembly. Nathan worked slowly and carefully as if any slight jarring will make the parts explode which would result in his later demise by Ruby. Completing that he retrieved a box filled with various springs and began swapping out the old ones for new. The old springs he will keep until Ruby picks up Crescent Rose, after which he'll scrap them to be reused later. Springs installed Nathan moved on to changing barrels, he looked down the bore of Ruby's old barrel and noted that most of the rifling has been worn away, a tribute to how many rounds she put through it.

Nathan spent several hours lathing down a new barrel blank to fit Crescent Rose before boring it through to her preferred caliber. After reassembly and function checks for fit and finish he went to the small indoor test fire range to insure proper operation.

Setting the weapon up in its sniper mode he rested it on a sandbag before loading 3 rounds into the magazine it came with and chambered a round. Aiming down the scope Nathan wasn't prepared for the recoil.

"Shit!" Nathan was glad he has aura or that might've dislocated his shoulder, it did push him back several paces. He quickly finished off the last 2 rounds and went back to his work bench.

He disassembled it again to begin refinishing the exterior and he decided to do the internals for good measure. After a couple hours the workshop smelled heavily of coating fumes, Nathan would be high or dead if not for his face mask.

Letting the parts sit for the coatings to adhere to them longer he checked his scroll for the time: 0341! "Fuck…"

Nathan earned a nap so slept on the cot he kept in the shop for long nights, he was so exhausted he didn't even dream. The next thing that happened was his father kicking his cot in the morning. "Pulled an all-nighter huh, that girl has you whipped already?"

"Too early….what time is?"

His dad checked the watch on his wrist: "Little after 7, you still have time to finish up. But take a shower first and change your clothes."

"Yeah yeah." He said getting up and going upstairs to his room to do just that.

On his way back down he saw his mother cleaning the kitchen before she goes to work at a nearby small huntsmen school. She was the reason he has aura along with some rudimentary combat training though hasn't really put it to much use but it does come in handy once in a while…like shooting Crescent Rose for instance.

"Hey Nate, I left you some scrambled eggs before I head out."

"Thanks mom."

"I heard from your father you didn't leave the shop last night, he said you were working on something for that Ruby girl."

Nathan reddened slightly. "Yeah, she wanted her weapon fixed up."

"She was star of the news a couple days ago, Ruby helped foil a dust robbery by that Torchwick fellow."

"Is that so, maybe that's why she wanted the refit."

"Be sure to try to get her scroll number."

"What!?" Stammered Nathan.

"Oh, your father told me you were sweet on her. Hope things work out for ya." His mother says as she leaves for work.

"Oumdamnit Mom." He grumbled as he grabbed his plate of eggs and wolfed them down before going back to the shop to finish his work.

Nathan waved hi to his father as he entered the shop and went to the back to put Crescent Rose back together. The coatings were long dry so he didn't have to worry about messing that up at least. Fully assembled he checked function briefly and put it into storage mode.

"Alright now to wait." Nathan got to work on other clients' weapons for the next several hours when his father stepped in.

"She's here for pickup."

Nathan started to get nervous again. "Yeah? Coming." He said grabbing Crescent Rose and moving to the main shop room.

Ruby was at the counter rocking back and forth on her heels fidgeting until she saw Nathan with her weapon. "Oh? Its done! Gimme gimme!"

Nathan handed Crescent Rose to its master who began giving it a onceover before shifting its modes. Ruby's eyes widened. "He looks as new as the day I made him!"

"Should, Nate was up until this morning working on it." Said his dad.

"He stayed up all night?"

"Heh, burnt cookies remember?" Nathan said as he scratched the back of his head.

"Forget that, how'd you do the barrel?"

"Since yours is non-standard I had to fabricate one myself. Good thing you wanted a new one, your old barrel was almost a smoothbore."

"I know right!?" Said Ruby as her and Nathan devolved into gun talk for 30 minutes.

"I wish I can talk weapons with my team like I can with you, guns are awesome."

"You're on a team? Aren't you too young for the academies?" Asked his father.

"Yep, but I got in early cause I fought off that Torchwick guy a couple days ago and Professor Ozpin asked if I wanted to come to Beacon and I said yes."

"What's your team like?" Nathan asked.

"I'm the leader and we're called team RWBY, that leads to a lot of confusion." She said with a giggle. "My older sister Yang is there and her partner is a quiet girl named Blake and my partner is a kinda mean girl from Atlas named Weiss, I'm sure we'll be besties though."

"And I take it your teammates aren't all that interested in talking shop?" Nathan said.

"Nah, Yang is mostly just interested in boys, Weiss is all about Dust and studying and Blake likes to read her naughty books."

"So I guess you get bored sometimes on your off time?"

"Yeah….oh! We can trade numbers! That way I can talk weapons with someone that talks back." Said Ruby holding up her scroll.

They exchanged numbers and put in the associated contact information until Ruby's scroll buzzed from a text. She quickly checked to see who was bugging her.

"It's Weiss, says the girls are done shopping and ready to go back."

"Welp it was nice meeting you Ruby." Said Nathan still surprised he got her number at all.

"You too! I'll probably pester you when you're free." She said with a smile before leaving.

His dad punched him in the arm. "That was smooth you dog."

"I didn't do anything, she did."

"Oh, so you like the bossy types." He said with a wink.

"Whatever Dad, I have some more work to finish but can I bump off early?"

"Sure, you did work hard for your sweetheart last night after all."

His statement gave Nathan lewd thoughts involving Ruby. He ignored it and went back to work.

After finishing several weapons he looked at the time: 1939. He put up the tools and went to his room after eating a snack. Nathan just did some internet surfing and listening to music until his phone buzzed.

The text was from Ruby: "I'm borrrrred "

Nathan chuckled, "Team mates not talking?"

"They're asleep already and I just finished my last book."

"Beacon has a library right?"

"Yeah but it's mostly non-fiction. I like adventure and fantasy stories ^_^"

"Guess you'll have to go into Vale, I know a couple stores if you need directions."

"Wanna go day after tomorrow? I'm free that afternoon."

Nathan started to think it was a date but brushed it off, just helping her get some books.

"Sure, I need to pick up some stuff anyway."

":D Yea, I'll meet you by your place and we can go to one of the stores you know about."

"Alright, it's a date."

Gripes? bitches? complaints? Let me know.