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Oscar had just left his last class for the day, Ruby by his side. Vale was chilly this time of year, low hanging sun and thick cloud cover doing little to warm the two. They both pulled their coats on tighter as they began to make their way towards a nearby cafe, their usual study spot.
They entered, Ruby sighing in relief at the cafe’s heat. The two stepped into line, taking a survey of the empty tables.
The blond barista behind the counter smiled up at them. “The usual for you two? It’ll be $12.” He mused.
They both nodded. Ruby chuckled a little as she rooted through her wallet for the money. She handed it over, the barista sliding it into the register with trained confidence. “That’ll be out in a moment.”
Ruby gestured to a table for two in the corner. “Wanna sit over there today?”
Oscar nodded. “Sounds good.”
The pair walked over to the table, pulling out their chairs and setting their backpacks under the table. Oscar sat down, leaning his cane against the table. He unzipped his bag and grabbed his laptop as Ruby walked back over to the counter to grab their order. Oscar booted up the computer, smiling slightly at the familiar lock screen, an illustration depicting a man with long, tied-back hair standing in front of the sun.
Ruby eventually returned, setting down two coffees, a napkin, and a cookie. She pushed one of the coffees towards Oscar. “That’s your caramel apple latte. And this,” She said, bringing her drink up to her lips. “Is my strawberry mocha.” She smiled and took a sip, instantly realizing that the drink was still scorching hot.
She sat down across from Oscar, grimacing slightly at her burned mouth.
“Burn yourself?” Oscar teased.
“I would never!” Ruby laughed, shaking her head. “So… we have that test on Thursday, right? Wanna focus on the study guide for that today?”
“Sure,” Oscar responded, clicking through the classroom’s page to try and find the study guide. He hummed for a moment. “Do you have any spare paper? Looks like we’re going to have to do a few long-form problems.”
Ruby nodded, unzipping her bag and removing a few sheets of notebook paper from a large binder. “Gas laws problems, right?” She asked as she slid half of the papers over to Oscar.
“Yeah.” Oscar sighed, pulling out a pencil. “And a bit of stoichiometry too. Starting pretty easy though: If the volume of a given gas is 4.00 liters at standard temperature and pressure, then what is the volume of the same gas if the pressure changes to 782 millimeters of mercury and the temperature changes to 25 degrees Celsius?”
They both wrote down the question, Ruby already starting to mentally piece the problem together. Oscar, on the other hand, was struggling a bit.
“It’d be 4.24 liters, right?” Oscar eventually asked, looking up at Ruby, who had finished about a minute before he had.
“Yup! Good job.” Ruby smiled.
The two continued to work through some problems on the study guide, Ruby occasionally helping Oscar with aspects he didn’t fully understand. Yet something hung over the two. Something unspoken. But Ruby couldn’t leave it alone.
“So…” She suddenly spoke up at some point. “How have you been feeling?” She asked, taking a sip of her now safe-to-drink coffee.
Oscar looked up momentarily from his computer. “I’ve been doing fine.” He replies, but there’s an uncertainty in his voice, one that Ruby notices.
Ruby looks him over, a small frown on her face. He looked tired, slight bags taking shape under his eyes.
Ruby opened her mouth to protest but was cut off. “I promise Ruby, I’m fine. We just haven’t been sleeping well recently, alright?” He chuckled lightly, shaking his head.
Secretly though, Oscar’s vision was starting to blur. He didn’t want to think about life recently.
Ruby stared back at him, she didn’t seem convinced. “I know what it’s like, Oscar. I know Ozpin meant a lot to you, he meant a lot to me too. If you need a place to crash for a bit…” She started.
Oscar was going to have to think about his life recently.
Ruby’s words became distant as memories slowly filled his mind. Images of the coffin. Images of the memorial. Images of Ozpin’s body lying there, almost peaceful in his death.
Oscar felt someone else nudge closer to the front. He couldn’t tell who exactly, but he silently prayed for it to be Ozma or Oswald or someone who could act somewhat normally out in public.
Oscar felt a familiar hand on his shoulder. He knew that in reality, it wasn’t there, just a projection of headspace onto his physical body, but he took comfort in it nonetheless.
“I’ll take it from here.” Said… someone. Oscar still couldn’t tell who, but he didn’t put up a fight. He wasn’t in a position to do so anyway.
The images of Ozpin’s funeral slowly faded away. Oscar took a deep breath, trying to refocus on what was happening in the real world.
Ruby’s eyes were wide with… shock? Fear? It was hard to tell. Oscar’s body was speaking, he could feel it. Oh gods what was he saying to make her react like that?
Oscar pushed closer to the front, trying to tune into the conversation happening before him, but some of the words still didn’t register to him.
“I’m sure you’ll find… perfectly healthy… no cause for concern…”
Ruby, meanwhile, smiled slightly. “I’m glad to hear that, but can I ask who’s fronting right now?”
So she noticed too. It was pretty obvious.
There was a small moment of silence, whoever it was in front was clearly not used to the question.
“Ozpin.” They finally responded.
OZPIN???
Oscar’s mind began to race again. When did Ozpin form??? Was this his time fronting??? Why now???
Oscar shook his head, deciding that he needed to reach out and ask these questions himself.
“Ozpin?” Oscar called hesitantly.
Their body shifted and closed its eyes. “It appears Oscar is back, though. If you’ll excuse us for a moment.”
“Take your time,” Ruby said.
“Yes, Oscar?” Ozpin replied.
“I… have a lot of questions to ask you but I wanted to say thank you, first of all.” Oscar sighed.
“There’s no need to thank me, I did what I could. And I’d be happy to answer your questions at a later time. You should get back to studying.”
“But…”
“Later,” Ozpin repeated.
Oscar wanted to keep pressing but nodded instead. “Fine. When we get home I’ll ask.”
Oscar slowly opened the body’s eyes. Ruby had started work on some of her engineering homework while the two headmates talked. She looked up, a gentle smile on her face.
“All good?” She asked.
Oscar nodded back. “Yeah, but I think he’s going to hang around for a bit.” He moved his computer’s mouse slightly, waking it from its sleep. “Ready to continue?”
Ruby moved her homework to the side, trying to figure out where they left off. “As ready as you are.”
And so Ruby and Oscar went back to studying, Ozpin occasionally chiming in to help with more difficult problems.