RWBY: Batman Begins

Chapter XXI

Yang waited at the entrance to the ballroom.

She was welcoming the quests who entered the dance, dressed in her favorite white dress.

The doors opened, and she smiled with glee, jumping with joy as she saw her little sister walk in.

"Ooohh, you look beautiful!" she beamed.

But Ruby, in a red dress and high heels for the first time in her life, was not nearly as excited.

"Can we have a serious talk about how Weiss fights in these?" she said, struggling to keep her balance on the shoes she wore.

Yang grabbed Ruby's arm, and dragged her further into the dance, stepping beside Weiss and Blake.

Ruby smiled as she saw her. "I'm glad you came, Blake."

She shrugged, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. "It's still not my thing. But Torchwick is behind bars, and it looks like he'll be there for good. So I might as well take a break."

In truth, Batman truly had saved her that night. If he hadn't been there, she would have been too exhausted to fight back. Whatever Torchwick wanted with her, he would've gone through with it if Batman hadn't rescued her. So here she was, taking a break to spend time at the dance.

Her friends watched as she walked off to find something to do, and smiled with one another as they saw her doing something outside of the investigation. Granted, it wasn't as satisfying since the case was wrapping up, but it was still relieving to see.

"I told you she would come," Yang said.

"Mission accomplished," Weiss exclaimed.

"Soooo, what do we do now?" Ruby asked.

"Just have fun!" Yang said as she and Weiss walked away to do their own thing.

"Does that mean I can change out of these stupid things and into my hood now?!" Ruby shouted to Yang. But she received no answer, and sighed, staring down at her heels. "Stupid lady stilts . . ."

Ruby wasn't used to dances like this. She only ever attended these to spend time with friends. But now that hers were gone, she was left with nothing to do.

"Is that Bruce Wayne?"

Ruby was suddenly confused, and she looked to the entrance of the dance to see the young millionaire himself, Bruce Wayne, walking into the dance, with two women by his side, and a huge smile on his face.

Ruby tilted her head in curiosity. This was a far-cry from the stories Weiss had told her, and the boy she had comforted that night so many years ago.

She made her way over to him to talk.

"Excuse me?" she said.

Bruce smiled at her. "Hello, Miss . . ."

"Ruby Rose," Ruby said.

Of course Bruce knew who she was. He had approached her a few nights ago because of what she had done for him as a kid. As much as he wanted to thank her, he had an alias to stick to.

He nodded. "Miss Rose."

Ruby thought he didn't recognize her. A part of her wanted to remind him of what she did, but Weiss had told her how much his parents' death had hurt him. She wasn't going to break him out of whatever had made him so happy.

"I . . . um . . . It's nice to see you again . . . ?"

Bruce didn't like pretending he didn't remember, but he went on with his act.

"Do I know you?" he asked.

Ruby visibly sunk at that, but she shrugged. "It was a long time. You wouldn't remember."