Hey guys! New fic - I have writer's block on the other one due to a number of reasons, so I started another project that I could get through easier.

Dunno how often I'll update this one. Maybe once a week? Time will tell.

Now this is a Rosewick story, so for decency's sake I have aged down Torchwick. In my main head-cannon, he is 33 at the start of the story - way too old for a 15yo Ruby. However, In this one, he is 23 at the beginning - still breaks most known rules about dating ages, but is definitely more reasonable, especially since this story mostly takes place in Mistral after the Battle of Haven, at which point (in my head-cannon) she is 17, making Torchwick 25. Still a bit of a stretch, but not so much as a 35yo Torchwick would be. Hell, he's a criminal - what's one more taboo broken?

Personally - not the hugest fan of Rosewick. But it's a challenge - mainly because A) I'm new to romance writing, B) Rosewick is a mildly controversial ship and C)Rosewick is in my opinion a difficult ship to write. I feel this way because most portrayals of the ship (of which there are few, Rosewick has a sad lack of content) either significantly change the age of the characters or significantly change the personality of one of the characters. I, therefore, have taken the most challenging route - finding reason within the scope and possibility allowed by the show for a relationship to flourish while keeping their ages and personalities relatively intact.

Also spoilers - here Roman survives the Fall of Beacon. Obviously.

I mean, eight years is not the biggest age difference I've seen. A hero and a criminal - what could go wrong?

To Steal from the Cookie Jar

A Rosewick Story

Chapter 1 - Prologue

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The first Roman knew something was wrong was when one of his henchmen flew through the window.

It was supposed to be a fairly simple robbery – nothing new for him. A few hired men from that 'Junior' kid and a late evening and it should have gone off without a hitch.

Operative word there is 'should'.

Without a word, Roman sent some more men to deal with the problem. They were shortly sent through the window to join their colleague, followed by a red blur. The kid stopped in the street, turned back to them, and clicked off her headphones, a massive scythe stabbed into the ground behind her.

And by gods was this girl stunning.

She had the body of a fighter, and that automatically made her drop-dead gorgeous – at least compared to most women – but her clothing and that little smile sealed the deal, the black-and-red corset highlighting her otherwise non-existent curves. At first glance, her hair appeared black, but closer inspection of the thinner tips and tufts of hair where the light bled through showed the true, very deep red tone to her hair.

Redhead vs redhead. How quaint.

Still, she looked worryingly young, and unlike Junior's boys, who were still gawking, Roman was not prepared to take that risk. He schooled his features glanced over at his men.

"Okay… Get her!"

The sharp command stirred them into action, leaping forward with weapons brandished. The girl became a whirlwind of red in response, knocking the men around the street like a freaky game of pinball. Shortly, all of the men were left sprawling on the cobbles. Seems that Junior wouldn't be hearing back from them. Time to go.

"You were worth every cent. Truly, you were." He stepped through the threshold, now filled with broken glass, then dropped his cigar, crushing it under his cane. "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around…" He lifted his cane and flipped open the reticule. "I'm afraid this is where we part ways."

With a single shot, Roman was off, swinging his cane to the side and loosing the grappling hook from the handle. Within seconds, he was up above the ground, climbing up a ladder onto a nearby building. He moved quickly onto the roof, and was mostly across when the girl dropped down behind him.

"Hey!"

Roman looked back, and his mind raced until he heard the Bullhead moving behind him.

"Persistent…"

As the cute girl readied to fight him, he heard the sound of engines grow quickly closer. Suddenly, the Bullhead rose up behind him, and he leapt into the opening hatch. He spun, holding up his trump card: a fire dust gem.

"End of the line, Red."

He threw the crystal out, then shot it. The resulting explosion brought a smile to his face and a laugh to his lips. As adorably beautiful as that girl was, seeing someone so strong so easily defeated always gave him mirth. He laughed loudly but stopped when the clearing dust revealed something.

A blonde, older woman in a purple cape was standing in front of the girl, holding some kind of riding crop. Her whole style screamed teacher – and not in an entirely professional way. Hot damn.

However, Roman was surprisingly not as interested as he had been for the kid. Perhaps he liked them younger. Not quite that young, though. That was probably a bad idea.

The woman waved her wand, and several streaks of purple shot at the Bullhead, shaking the craft and throwing Roman around like a ragdoll. He desperately worked his way to the cockpit.

The pilot was shrouded in the dark, but Roman had very good eyes. He'd know that dress and those black locks anywhere. She seemed to be mildly struggling, and Roman almost smiled to see her finding something difficult. He shook his head imperceptibly – keep focus!

"We got a huntress!"

Cinder abandoned the controls and stalked her way to the hatch, hips swinging imperceptibly. Shockingly, it was not alluring as he had expected it to be. Was he growing numb or something? Quickly, Roman took the controls.

He noticed a storm cloud rapidly forming above the craft, dark and imposing.

"The hell…?"

Suddenly, shards of sharp hail began to pummel the jet, one shooting through the window and narrowly missed his head.

"Holy-"

The controls began to tug at his hands, and he desperately tried to wrest control of the craft back from the strong winds and heavy blows the Bullhead was taking. Suddenly, the jet rolled to the side, and he adjusted its lean to mitigate the damage as lights flashed on the dash.

Suddenly, he heard Cinder shout to move, covering her yell with an explosion. He manipulated the controls to close the hatch, pulling away with speed. Soon, the Bullhead was far away from the roof. Cinder returned to the cockpit.

"Are they dead?"

"No. Unfortunately…"

Roman clicked on the autopilot and slumped in his seat. "Gods damned huntresses… can't work with 'em!"

"Quite. Luckily, I don't think they saw me, so the plan is still safe. However, I'd like to know how you attracted a huntress."

"That's the thing, I don't know! I'm robbing the place, and the kid was looking at some magazines. So she takes out my men, I almost take her out, and that blonde bitch arrives! Where did she even come from? There was nobody for miles."

"A fair point. This had better not complicate things, Roman…"

"You know, If I knew what it was you were doing, I could tell you if this complicated things."

"Ah but Roman… you knowing my plans would complicate things even more. And that's not a risk I'm willing to take." She brought a hand up and brushed his hair aside, casually bringing a small flame to the finger in front of his oft-hidden right eye. "I'm sure you understand."

"Crystal." As Cinder glided away dangerously, he noticed there had been a lot less attraction there than last time.

"Well that's ominous. Gods, I hope that's not some omen." He took back control of the Bullhead, distracting himself with the flashing lights. "I'm Roman Torchwick! I don't have time for freaky omens."

The Bullhead disappeared into the dark.

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"Gods damnit!"

Roman slammed his fist into the wall of his warehouse, gritting his teeth. It should have been an easy catch – go in with some of those White Fang animals, grab as much dust as they could carry, get out of there.

Operative word there is 'should'.

First, some cat girl showed up and tried to appeal to the Fang recruits, which obviously didn't work, and apparently, she brought some monkey kid. Still, they were hunters-in-training. Annoying, yes, but manageable. He'd almost had them, too!

Then little Red had shown up, and he had got a sudden feeling of deja-vu.

Still, he had tried to blast her to stop her from bringing the whole of Vale down upon us. Apparently that had been a mistake, as her new friend had absolutely wrecked his Bullheads, and he had barely escaped with his life.

Also a redhead. Go figure. Almost his exact shade. Green eyes too. It had been like looking into an adorable mirror.

But even all of that was not enough to make him angry. No, that had been what had happened afterwards – the thing that had him fuming and Neo giggling silently.

See, little Red had now thwarted him twice. Twice. So, of course, he had looked her up, called in some connections. The works. All to figure out who she was, how she was doing this, beating him. And what he had found had not made him happy.

I was beaten by a 15-year-old.

And, as embarrassing as that prospect was, even that was not enough to make him so angry. No, it was the other thing that got Neo giggling.

I was attracted to a 15-year-old.

Neo lifted her hands shakily to sign, trying to hold back mirthful tears.

"Look on the bright side! You didn't go for it!"

"Yes, but I considered it, and that's worse! What am I, a paedophile? Quit laughing, it ain't funny."

"Kind of is, Dad." She settled a little, and once the giggling was out of her system, began to sign again. "Plenty of fish in the sea, right?"

Roman just sighed. It had been hard to place until he had seen her again, but ever since they had first met, no woman had the same attention-grabbing nature they may have had before. It was really why he was so bothered; it was less that he was attracted to her, but that he was more attracted to her than anyone else.

"And anyway, you could wait. She's 16 next year. That's legal!"

"In Vacuo, maybe. 17 here. Anyway, that's creepy. I'm not some child groomer. Hell, I kill child groomers! Also, that's an 8 year age gap either way."

"Not the largest I've seen."

"What happened to 'divide by two, add seven'? Because I tried that, and it won't work for six years."

"There are exceptions."

"And I have a feeling that this ain't one of them. Hell, why are you so supportive? You kind of beg for my attention sometimes. I can't see you encouraging something that would endanger that, so why are you?"

Neo shrugged. "You'd be cute together. Also, I'm lonely. I want a mom."

Roman's eyes widened. "A mom? Thought you'd adopt one of our 'friends' if that were the case. What about Cinder?"

"Bitch."

"The street rat?"

"Another bitch."

"Fair enough." Roman took another drag from his cigar, ignoring the dirty look from Neo as he did so. "Wait, but why Re- I mean, why Ruby? She's the enemy!"

Neo was silent for a second, before shrugging again.

"She sounds cuter than anyone else."

Roman laughed. "Well, you're not wrong. Still, I'm not comfortable courting a 15-year-old, cuteness be damned. I'll just hold on and hope I forget her. In all likely-hood, I'll never see her again, and that's probably a good thing."

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Are you fuckin' kidding me?

Roman decided to reflect on how it was that Ruby Rose was standing before him once more.

It should have been a fairly simple presentation – go out there, get the Fang recruits eating from his palms, show off the Paladin, be generally helpful.

Operative word there is 'should'.

When he had seen the cat girl and her monkey friend in the crowd however… The girl had tried to disguise herself, but it was undone by the boy's blatant ignorance of logic. He was feeling bitter after learning of the age of his 'crush' as Neo so aptly put it, so he felt it was the perfect time for some retribution. He was sure the girl's father would love to have his daughter back, if in several pieces – if she thought she was hiding her identity from 'Roman fucking Torchwick', she had another thing coming.

Then they blew the lights.

The perfect opportunity to test out his new Paladin, he had thought. When the blonde chick and her blue-haired friend showed up with a Schnee of all people, he began to worry.

He might have found Blondie hot once, but due to whatever 'little Red' had done to his head, he could do nothing but recognise her attractiveness. However, that was overshadowed by the horror he felt at her eerily familiar facial structure.

This girl was Raven Branwen's infamous daughter.

Before he could fully clock that little tid-bit, though, the Schnee had made his Paladin slip on ice, sending him sprawling off the ramp and onto the ground. He had looked up as he made to stand, and guess who?

How?!

Suddenly, the cat girl, the Schnee and Blondie dropped next to her. A wall of red, white, black and yellow.

Oh.

Wait – this is team RWBY?!

An ex-terrorist faunus princess, the rich heir to a racist corporation and the daughter of the most notorious bandit queen in the world – a worthy team for the girl who had stolen the heart of Vale's greatest thief.

Roman masked his worry with a chuckle, taking a heavy step forwards.

"Freezerburn!"

What did she – oh, team attacks. I remember those. Blondie and the Schnee (that name was becoming tedious to think) leapt forward, one producing ice and the other punching it. As a heavy mist flew up and the laser sensors turned on, Roman felt that familiar sense of deja-vu.

The lights were flashing warningly, and the machine's weapons went on autopilot to try and kill the girls. A shot flew into the mist, and out of the blast came Ruby, swinging like crazy.

"Checkmate!"

The cat girl and the Schnee (he really needed new names for them… Kitty Cat worked… Ice Queen! Ha!) went for the feet, Ice Queen stabbing one of his sensors and leaping off a glyph. Roman tried to stamp on Kitty Cat, Ice Queen summoned one of her famous glyphs to launch the black-haired girl backwards. Roman growled and fired off the missiles, but the girls did backflips over them.

Finally, he saw his chance and sent a double energy blast at the Schnee. She flew back, but sent a shot down to her accomplice, under whom a golden clockwork circle formed. It absorbed into Kitty Cat, and she sliced into the missiles with unnatural speed and ease.

"Ladybug!"

Ruby shot forward and went swinging with her cat friend, both circling each other around the Paladin at taking pot shots. Suddenly, they both came down together on the left shoulder and the left arm was sliced off.

Blondie leapt onto the Paladin's back and began to punch holes into the metal. Roman was knocked around in the cabin but put the Paladin in reverse. It walked backwards through two columns before leaving Blondie embedded in the third. Roman turned the Paladin around and punched her with the remaining arm, sending her flying through the column.

The blonde got up slowly, glowing white. Roman, sensing victory, threw a punch down, but she caught it in her own hand.

Well this won't end well.

She took a devastating swing and obliterated the arm completely. Roman kicked her to the side in a panic, and she flew towards her team.

"Bumblebee!"

Kitty Cat threw her weapon out on a ribbon and Blondie caught it, swinging the momentum of her flight round to bear on the robot. Roman narrowly missed her punch, stepping to the side to avoid her.

"Ice Flower!"

Roman was suddenly hit by a blast that formed large icicles on the Paladin. Ruby kept shooting, the ice enveloping the entire robot. Blondie comes round using Kitty Cat's weapon and, unable to dodge, Roman and his Paladin were sent flying, shattered by the force.

Now evicted from his safe cabin, Roman stood, dazed. He covered his emotions again by brushing his suit down.

"Just got this thing cleaned…"

He looked up to see a shot from Blondie's gauntlets flying towards him, but before he could react, Neo dropped in front of him, catching the bullet on her umbrella. She settled the weapon on her shoulder as Roman looked over at team RWBY.

"Ladies, Ice Queen…"

"Hey!"

"Always a pleasure. Neo, if you would…"

Neo curtsied with a bow, scanning the team, her eyes lingering on Ruby. Yang charged forward with fists raised.

The world shattered, and they were back in the Bullhead. After they flew away and the door closed, Roman slumped.

Neo looked at him and raised her hands.

"So that was Ruby? She is cute. Can we keep her?"

Roman sighed. So much for never seeing her again. Now it was back to trying to forget her.

What a team! No wonder they kept showing up.

Next time, he would be prepared.

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Roman was not surprised.

It should have been a fairly simple job – corral the Fang, get the train ready for its deployment.

Operative word there is fairly obvious by now.

When Ruby Rose showed up, he was unsurprised, though he made a good show of it. To be honest, the interrogation was mostly for show – though a part of him did enjoy dishing out revenge for the turmoil that Ruby had unknowingly inflicted upon him. If she became jaded or something (though he doubted it) then gave up, that would be helpful. If she turned to his side? Even better!

Wait, was he even considering being with her now? He shook his head – that was impossible. Also, he may be a criminal, but he wasn't a monster – he'd at least wait till she's legal! Still, even as he mocked her poor hand-to-hand, part of him wanted to help teach her. Luckily, the rest of him was busy choking that part to death.

The arrival of her friends was annoying, but not unexpected – he managed to get the train going as fast as possible and sent Neo off to stop Branwen's kid.

Blondie was strong. Too strong for him. Not too strong for Neo.

The White Fang did a poor job of shaking them. He wasn't particularly racist, but very few people will fault you for calling ordinary terrorists animals. It's just these ones actually were part animal. It was fun to play into it to rile them up, but right now, he felt justified; seeing how they fumbled to fight and fell off the side was just depressing.

However, his attempts to split the team up were evidently successful, as a lone Belladonna stood before him now.

"Hello kitty cat. You miss me? You know, we really gotta stop meeting like this. People are gonna talk…"

The girl charged forward, and Roman struck her, only for her body to explode, propelling him into the air. She jumped up and knocked him down, landing on her feet.

Roman fired at her, but she dodged and leapt over, feinting a second time. Roman blocked a flurry of attacks in quick succession and tried to strike overhead, but she jumped back, trapping his cane in an ice clone. He tried to remove it, but she sent a shockwave down the train car, destroying the ice cone and sending him sprawling. When he tried to get up, the girl stepped on his chest and pointed a blade at his throat.

Roman chuckled nervously, wondering how to stop her. Quickly, he comes to a conclusion.

"Why are we even fighting? I saw you at the rally, we're on the same side and you know it."

She pressed her sword into his throat, and he grunted in mild pain.

"Oh, still feisty. Soooo, what are we gonna do now? You think a little bow on top is gonna make people forget who you were? What you've done?"

The girl gritted her teeth. The train car door behind her suddenly opened and the Schnee girl was thrown through, followed by the White Fang Lieutenant who's name Roman couldn't remember. He held his chainsaw up menacingly. Roman smiled internally.

"So what's it gonna be, Blake?"

There it was – the name-drop. Adam had been quite insistent the past few weeks, so Roman would have to be stupid to not pick it up. That had helped his research immensely; research he had been doing because he wanted to be prepared, not because he had wanted to see Ruby again.

Definitely not.

It appeared that he had miscalculated, though, because the last thing he saw was a shoe descending onto his face.

Shit.

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Escaping prison had been easy. It should have been easier to take over the ship and screw with the Atlas tech.

What was that about operative words?

However, with Neo on his side, the fight had been far easier than he had expected. Ruby was hanging on for dear life, easily beaten by Neo. He knew he should kill her and get back inside before the ship crashed or the Grimm got them, but a part of him wanted Ruby still. Wanted to appeal, to convince her.

It wouldn't hurt to try, right?

"I may be a gambling man, but even I know there are some bets you just don't take."

Neo dragged her blade against the craft, holding Ruby at sword point.

"Like it or not, the people that hired me are going to change the world! You can't stop 'em, I can't stop 'em!"

Ruby struggled aimlessly, kicking the odd Nevermore that came her way.

"You know the old saying. 'If you can't beat 'em-"

Ruby suddenly lurched towards Neo, opening her parasol. With a fearful gasp, Neo flew off into the Grimm infested skies.

"Neo!"

"I don't care what you say!" Ruby stood up, readying herself. "We will stop them and I will stop you! BET ON THAT!"

She charged forward, but Roman was ready. Roman caught her projectile with the hook handle of his cane and hurled it back, sending her sprawling. He smacked her with his cane, firing a shot into her stomach.

"You got spirit, Red. But this is the real world!"

Roman knocked her back with his cane again, fury overriding sense. Neo had wanted to spare her – not that she could have known – and she had died for it. How dare she hurt his friend, his partner, nay, his daughter?!

"The real world is cold!"

Roman landed another cosh on her legs. His feelings didn't matter anymore. Neo was hurt. Ruby had to die.

"The real world doesn't care about spirit!"

He prepared a downward strike, but Ruby caught his knee with a kick, sending him off balance.

"You wanna be a hero!? Then play the part and die like every other huntsman in history!"

He knocked Ruby onto the metal surface, smashing her repeatedly with his cane. He didn't care how long it would take; she was dead. He would make sure of that.

"As for me? I'll do what I do best: lie, steal, cheat and SURVIVE!"

It was like fate had heard him, as when he reared back for a final swing, he saw a bony jaw envelop him. In his moment of shock, a stray thought came to him.

Oh yeah. The Grimm. Forgot they were here.

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Many hours later, it the collapsed city of Vale, an abandoned, crashed airship burned quietly. Next to it, an Alpha Griffon lay dead, dissolving slowly. Despite the lack of life in the area surrounding it, the grimm's stomach wriggled conspicuously. If anyone was left alive nearby, they would think the Griffon was somehow returning to life.

Suddenly, a small knife burst through the creature's side, sliding across it's furry hide. From the new slit burst a red body, covered in smoking grimm-flesh and soaked with blood not entirely his own.

He pushed his sodden hair back to reveal two sparking emerald eyes, greedily drinking in the new stimulus. He gasped before diving back in, returning seconds later with a cane and a broken phone. The thing would have been useless anyway – anyone who he could have called would have changed numbers by now to avoid detection.

Gods, what a way to discover your semblance!

Roman Torchwick rested for a second, before his eyes travelled up to his own head.

Wait a sec…

"Where's my hat?"

And there we go ladies and gentlemen - the scene is set. See you in Mistral!

Oh and yes, I have made Neo Roman's adopted daughter in this fic. I could see it going either way (henchman or daughter, young or old) but here, her being his 'daughter' serves the plot far better than a powerful henchman, a partner in crime or even a lover. The show leaves this largely ambiguous up til where I'm at (Volume 6) so if this is disproven later on, I don't care. I like this head-cannon - it sets things up nicely. Also, yes - Neo is Rosewick trash. I find that idea really funny.

So yeah - prepare for the time-skip.

NEXT TIME:

Roman arrives in Mistral in search of Neo, but he finds something quite different waiting for him.

What will it be? Will he survive? Will he ever find his hat?

Find out next time. Adios!