Wherein Little Red never goes to Grandma's place at all. She simply never encounters the Big Bad Wolf.

Ruby Rose is fifteen years old when she sees her favorite shop broken into one morning.

It'd always been her favorite little spot there - not only did she enjoy the catalogs and newspapers that were swapped out daily for customers to look at, but the old man who manned the story was always kind to her and she found herself thinking of him as a friend. It was mainly a simple dust shop and thus she had no use for the actual buying-and-selling portion of the place, but the old man never seemed to mind her going there after school or after a long day of training to simply browse what he had available for reading.

One morning, however, she found that Signal Academy had closed for the day as a Teacher's Appreciation day or something. She hadn't really been paying that much attention to why, simply excited at having the day off and already thinking of how to convince her uncle Qrow to spend the whole day training with their scythes by breakfast.

Her older sister Yang had patted her on the head a few times and laughed at her antics, but her father crushed her hopes by telling her that Qrow had important business to be attending to elsewhere.

"Super secret missions," he'd said in a hushed whisper and an exaggerated wink that made Ruby grin.

Crushed by this revelation but still wanting to have a nice day with the time she had, she went about Vale at a steady, relaxed pace, simply getting to know the place better. Today was Yang's last day before heading to Beacon Academy - a feat that had garnered shouts of excitement and enough bone-crushing hugs to last a lifetime when she'd told Ruby and their father about it. Even now, Ruby smiled at the memory. Her sister was going to be a wonderful Huntress, she was sure!

Looking out across Vale, a slim but strong arm patting the cool metal of Crescent Rose attached to the back of her belt, she looked firm and resolute.

So will I.

Night falls quickly upon the Kingdom, and Ruby mopes about a few local shops as the last rays of daylight disappear. It seemed that time went by so much quicker on days off than when attending school, she mused miserably.

She spots the lights of a certain shop open for business and she smiles. She begins walking toward the small dust shop, and she can already see the old man inside smiling at her with closed eyes and a wrinkly hand waving hello.

Her scroll rings with an incoming call. She pauses, nearly jumping out of her skin at the sudden sound in the mostly quiet night, before realizing what it was. She grumbles out a jumble of words as she hurriedly answers it.

"Hello-" She begins before being immediately cut off.

"Ruby, sweetheart, thank God you're okay," her father, Taiyang, says in a hurried tone and a sigh of relief.

"Dad? Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"You need to come home, Ruby. There's something going on, a White Fang attack on the city, it's not safe out there right now. Promise me you'll come home - I know you're tough, but.."

Ruby frowns. What could be going on that has her father worrying about her like this?

"Dad, I can handle myself-"

He interrupts her again. " Promise me, Ruby. Come home." There's a hint of desperation in his voice, and she finds her heart beating just a bit faster. It must be something serious to have him worked up so much, and her immediate need to assert herself as a strong young lady and tell him she'll be fine on her own is squashed with doubt. She finally sighs and concedes.

"Alright. I'm coming home. Explain what's going on, though!" She turns around, still speaking with her father on the phone. She finds herself immediately face-planting into another person, and she drops her scroll in the process.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Oh gosh, I'm-" she begins in a rush. She finds herself interrupted for the third time in one night, and she's quickly getting annoyed by it.

"Watch where you're goin', little red," a smooth but gruff voice barks out at her. She looks up from picking up her scroll to see a man with orange hair swept over one eye, a bowler hat atop his head, and a cigar hanging from his lips. She frowns, but he simply uses his cane to move her aside and continues walking forward. She shakes her head and begins walking home, but a deep doubt in her heart stops her where she stands.

She turns around and glances at the man in the bowler hat again. She feels… wrong. She watches him walk towards the little dust shop with a small posse of men in black and red outfits following him, and she can't help but feel something is wrong.

But her father's words ring in her head again, and she turns and heads home.

She was sure it'd be fine.