"Hey, Oscar!" I wake to the knocking at the door, Qrow's voice coming in. "Get up, we're meeting in the living room. Think you will want to join in."

"Thanks Qrow." I hear his footsteps walking away from the door. I was still lying in bed, with pajamas. 

'Hurry it up, Oscar.'

"Ozpin, please. It's morning, and I'm pretty exhausted from yesterday's training." I say as I changed into my clothes.

'Oscar, you're a morning person, you're used to this.'

"That's because I was a farmer. Now, I can sleep in and that there's no crops to tend to."

I hear him sigh, 'Just hurry. We need to know what they're going to talk about.'

"They won't start without us, Ozpin." I open the bedroom door, seeing everyone sitting down with donuts in their hands, all different types. 

'You can never be sure.'

"Hey..." I say as I take a seat across from Ruby.

"Someone decided to sleep in." She says, giggling. I look at the box of donuts, taking a chocolate covered with rainbow sprinkles.

"Yesterday's training was a bit harsh..."

"Don't look at me, your combat skills were terrible. I needed to step in." Yang calls out.

"Yang, that's a bit going overboard, isn't it?" Blake puts her book down.

"No way, if they needed training, she'll give them training." Sun jumps into the conversation.

"Sun!"

"What? What did I do?" 

"Everything." Weiss rolls her eyes.

"Weiss!" 

The feeling of Ozpin taking control again happened, I felt his powerful voice rise from inside. "Enough." 

Everyone fell silent. "So, Ozpin decided to come out now. Heh, knew you couldn't stand children bickering like that." Qrow starts to drink from his flask.

"Qrow, put that drink down. We have young huntsmen here." I felt Ozpin say. 

"Hey, whatever." He follows what Ozpin said. "Now, let's get on with the meeting. Since we have the teams-"

"Pyrrha's not here." Jaune says. His eyes were full of passion.

'Pyrrha?' I ask.

'Pyrrha Nikos. She was part of his team. Passed away at the Fall of Beacon Academy.'

'Did he have feelings for her?'

'If he's passionate about thinking of her, then yes. Pyrrha also was reluctant to become our Fall Maiden, but did it to save others. I could tell that she had feelings towards him, but Jaune being Jaune, he never saw. He probably found out until the end.'

"I'm sorry that she's not here, but let us carry on in her name. She would ask for you to not grieve for her." Ozpin says.

"Jaune, it's okay." Ruby rubs the back of him. Her voice lowers just a bit. "Pyrrha was my friend, I'm still grieving for her. But there's no way we're gonna forget her. I feel like she's with us, giving us strength to carry on."

"Thanks, Ruby."

"Can I carry on?"

"Sorry, Uncle Qrow!"

"Thanks. Now, like I was trying to say, most of us are here. Now, we need to get ready to leave to Atlas. Borders are still closed, so we need to sneak our way there."

"Sneak?" Weiss asks. "It's going to be difficult to get into Atlas."

"Then how did you get here if you came from Atlas?" Yang asks.

"I... sneaked out."

"Then it should be no problem." Blake says

"Yes, it's going to be. They will monitor ships coming in and out."

"Like I said, no problem."

"Blake, what kind of idea do you have?" Nora asks. "Weiss says that it's going to be impossible, what are you thinking about? Hijacking a ship?"

"I have a ship that's willingly to lend me hand. Maybe a ride to Atlas if I ask."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Sun says. "Blake took down a sea monster and the ship's captain is in debt to her."

"A sea monster? Cool!" Ruby's voice went high before squealing. 

"Ruby, it's just a Grimm." Yang says. "But knowing your childish personality, I can't hold you down."

"C-childish?! I drink milk for your information, Yang."

"Milk can't help you grow, or be more mature. It happens over time, Ruby."

"W-what?! But it helps me..."

"Heh, oh Ruby..."

"So, yeah. We can take a cruise into Atlas." Blake says, leaning forward.

"Okay, so, we know how to get inside Atlas. Now what?" Ruby asks. 

"Weiss can get us inside the Schnee home, perhaps we can introduce us to them and ask them for help." Nora says, looking towards her. 

"Nora's right, if we show that we're friends of Weiss, Professor Ironwood can actually listen to us-" Ren was suddenly cut off by Weiss.

"My family's not willing to have you in the house."

"Weiss..." Ruby says quietly.

"I ran away, they don't know that I left of my own free will. I'm no longer the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, Whitley is."

"Ran away?" I wanted to say, but I forgot that Ozpin was in charge of me.

"Are you serious? Ran away? You sound like me, just a bit." 

"I know, it was cowardly, but still. I was trapped in my room all day and night. I had to leave."

"I'm sorry, Weiss. I thought you were someone cold, but now I see that it's your family that's truly horrible."

"Blake, thanks, but I know that I needed to come back and face them again. With you all by my side, I can stand up against them. I'm glad that I have friends like you."

"Ms. Schnee, I know how much pain your family is giving you, but now's not the time to solve those problems. We need to get inside Atlas, we figured that out and how to get inside. We need to get close to your family, and you're the only connection we have to them. When we are close to the Schnee family, we can certainly reach Ironwood."

"Sorry, Professor Ozpin."

"There's no need to apologize."

"I'm thinking we go straight to the Schnee household. Get in by force." Qrow slams his flask onto the table. 

"Force is not the best answer. If Jacques Schnee doesn't allow us to be near him, then yes, we use force. We only use that as a backup plan." Ozpin says.

"Tch, whatever. I gave my thoughts, what else did you expect?"

"Alright then, when can we leave? That's the next biggest step we need to take. Ms. Belladonna, please, when can you reach this captain?"

"I can contact him now."

"Good. When you get into contact with him, see if we can get him to be near the shore in the next few days. It cannot be next week or more, must be less than that. Salem is coming after us, and we cannot be staying in the same place."

"I'll try and convince him if he cannot make it in a few days."

"Thank you, Ms. Belladonna. I cannot stay in control right now, so Oscar will return. I will speak to you all by him."

They all nod. Once again, I felt being pulled towards the light. When I came back, everyone was staring at me. "Is there something wrong?" I ask. Ruby tries to hide her smile, but I can see through that.

"N-nothing..." I hear her snickering behind her hand, her eyes glowing of light.

"Ruby, what's going on?" I ask.

"Nothing, I'm telling the truth."

"Alright then."

"Since we know where and how we're going, we need when. And we don't know that until Blake contacts this captain. I suggest that we end this meeting for now. Perhaps training for now."

'Oscar, tell Qrow that I agree with him.'

"Professor Ozpin agrees with you, Qrow."

"See, even Oz agrees with me. Now, let's work on our weakness."

Everyone mutter their own response and we went outside. Blake went to the side to call on her scroll and we all grabbed our weapons. I was paired up with Ruby and we started to train. 

"Hyah!" She aims her punches towards me, but I moved aside and gave her my punch. When she reacted, she cowered and tucked her head in, falling down on her butt. "Ow..."

"Ruby, are you alright?" I went towards her, lending my hand out.

"Yeah, just caught off guard, that's it." She takes my hand and I pull her to her feet. 

"At least you're fine now." I smile as she smiled.

'Oscar, are you serious right now? You're in the middle of training and you're thinking about her? Concentrate!'

'Are you trying to distract me? She's pretty attractive.'

'I can see why you're attracted to her, but that doesn't mean for you to focus on her only!'

"Oscar?" 

"Huh?" I didn't realize that she had her hand on my shoulder. "Sorry, Ozpin-"

"I understand, no need to repeat that. Should we continue to train?"

I nod, "Yes, we should."

We continued to train until lunch hour. Every bite from the noodles they all made, was tasty. I kept look at Ruby, her cheerful smile and personality... it was adorable. I know I'm 1 year younger than her, but I just wish that I was a part of her personal life. I'm no use to her, just a vessel for Ozpin.

'Oscar, can I give you advice?'

'For what? Thought you said you didn't want me to be with Ruby.'

'I didn't mean it, I just hated the way you looked at her. Are you going to take my advice or not?'

'I'll take it, Ozpin.'

'Good. Now, when handling with girls, you should know that you should show your personality. Learn about them, personally. Never break promises. If you do, they will never forget your choices.'

'Anything else? I'm not that great-'

'Nobody is naturally great at those skills. They improve, but some can have those natural skills, but they don't use it for good.'

'Thank you, Ozpin.'

'Yeah yeah, don't thank me until you gain Ruby's trust and love. Perhaps you can stop with the daydreaming now. And now you can actually stop gazing and thinking about ways to be with her.'

'I appreciate the advice.'

'I would also advise you to start now. Talk to Ruby.'

Listening to his advice, I follow Ruby to the back of the house. I see her walk over to the bushes of red roses. I see her kneel down to smell the flowers. I walk close to her, trying not to disturb her. She suddenly looks up to me, "Oscar? Do you need something?"

"No... not really." I kneel down next to her, seeing a rose in her hand, still connected to the stem. "You really must love roses."

"It's part of my name, but most of all, I love roses because of their delicacy. They can be prickly, but with care, they won't hurt you. Red's my favorite color... and I don't know how to explain it. Roses... I don't know why I love them, it's... natural. What about you? Do you have a favorite flower?"

"Not really... perhaps you can help me find me the perfect match."

"Really? Well, we're gonna go through a whole lot of flowers to find a perfect one." She smiles.

"Thanks, Ruby. But you didn't have to. I could've found something I would've-"

"Nope, you asked for it, you get it." She cuts the stem of the rose with her blade. She grabs my hand and places the rose gently in my hand. "Take it."

"But, don't you want it?"

Ruby shakes her head, "There's a lot of other roses to pick from, you can keep that."

"You surprise me, in a good way, Ruby. But, I'll keep the rose."

"Heh, I'm always like that..."

"Surprising others? You're very unexpected."

"Yep. Well, a lot of people get worried about me whenever I go very unexpected. Just, don't get worried whenever I do become like that."

"Don't worry, I won't. Thanks for the heads up."

"You've been thankful for a lot of things. Why is that?"

"Huh? I dunno..."

"You know, I have known you for a couple of days, I don't know a lot about you..."

"Same here, Ruby. I don't know a thing about you... all I know is what Ozpin tells me."

"Eh? He tells you who we are?" Confusion filled her eyes.

"Just... basic things." I leaned forward, hunching over my hands. 

"What does he say about me?"

I look to her, "He said how you're a strong fighter. How you will never stop fighting for what you think is right. Being that hero in fairy tales, that's what he described you."

"From Professor Ozpin, that sounds so nice... what about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"What's so special about you? What made Ozpin chose you?"

"He said... how I wanted to do things, but I couldn't do anything. I wanted to try and become a huntsman, but things back at home... I couldn't leave my aunt alone."

"Do you regret it? Leaving your home and your family members?"

"A little... but being here, it's something to remember."

"Why? Is it because of you becoming a huntsman?"

"Yeah... it's pretty weird, I never had any kind of training until now."

"Ah, I see. But don't worry, you'll get used to it."

"Ruby."

"Yeah?"

I sigh, I can hear Ozpin chuckling softly, but fading into echoes. "Thanks for everything. I mean it." 

"Anything to help you fit in. Yeah, we may be crazy, but that's just us. We all have a side that we just release our stress; what's your crazy side?"

"I don't know... I've been a serious guy for a long time... what's your crazy side?"

"Heh... cookies... mostly, it's me going crazy over weapons."

"So, you're more like a weapon expert?"

"Uh huh. My scythe was from my design and created by my own hands."

"Really? Wow, talk about a creative design and crafty hands. You're talented in that." 

"Thanks. I would've helped with designing and creating your weapon, but you have Ozpin's cane."

"I know, I would've loved to have a weapon like yours."

"You would've loved to?"

"Yeah, of course."

"At least you appreciate my craft. I don't think that you would have talent in designing or creating something."

"Yeah, I'm kinda... how do I put it? Not creative."

"It's not a natural skill, I used to love drawings, especially seeing Uncle Qrow's weapon. Whenever he came over to my house in Patch, I always wanted to carry his weapon. It's the scythe that inspired Crescent Rose."

"Wow, I never knew that your uncle gave so much inspiration. You're lucky to have an uncle like that."

"Yeah... I don't know who I'll be if I never had him as my uncle."

"Ruby!" We both turn to the house, hearing Qrow's voice.

"I think he's calling you."

"I know that, Oscar. I guess I'll see you later."

"Yeah, see you later." I watch her go back into the house; sighing as I watched her go.

'Did you have fun, Oscar?'

'I enjoyed knowing her. I didn't know about her deep connection to Qrow. And her favorite-'

'Oscar, I know. I heard as well.'

'Sorry, I got carried away.'

'I could tell. My advice worked, didn't it?'

'Thanks again.'

'Oscar, enough with that. I just wanted you to stop thinking about her.'

'Well, it seemed to work. I don't know if I should be worried or glad that you're here. You're... scaring me just a bit.'

'I don't know what to say to that, but our souls are one. Now, it's going to be weird.'

'Weird? In what way?'

'I was her former professor, so... yeah... nothing more to add.'

'I'm sorry if it's making you feel uncomfortable, but I guess it's part of life... I'm just attracted to her... I don't know why... but I just am.'

'I can understand why you like her, but you couldn't get to her level, if you understand what I mean.'

'No, I don't.'

He sighs, 'Do I really need to give you love lessons, along with training? I know I'm a professor, but this is taking a whole different turn.'

'Just give me more advice, I'll promise you that I won't fail her or anyone else.'

'Alright, but the deal is that I'll give you advice, nothing else. Correct?'

'Yes.'

'Deal.'