So the chase was on, while she wasn't much of a hunter in comparison to her sisters, Ruby was one heck of a runner. The quick and nimble fox girl bolted after Miles with Astor following after her. She had her eyes on the prize and she was ready to swipe the ball from Miles.

"Get Miles," Ruby ordered the larger dog and watched as he barreled toward her new friend. She was hoping he might lightly knock him over just so Ruby could have a better shot at retaining control of the ball.

The one she was just about to steal.

Ruby sprang forward skillfully and attempted to kick the ball away from Mile's light dribble. Though with a commentary like that she couldn't help but smile at him. She really liked him and she hoped that her beating the pants off of him in Soccer didn't mess with this new found friendship.

Playing against a dog was so different than playing against a person. For one thing, there was the intimidation factor, since the dog was under Ruby's orders and that gave him an air of unpredictability that made Miles wonder what the heck was it going to do to comply with her orders. They also didn't wear any shirts to pull from. Seeing Astor barrel against him made Miles hesitate and try to avoid the canine by running around him, but then he had Ruby to deal with.

The ball was not going to stay in his feet for long, so he tried a desperate pass to his dog/teammate. A quick tap sent the ball rolling past Astor and headed towards the smaller dog's legs.

"Tinaker, catch!" Miles yelled excitedly, noticing that the play was actually working out! Tinaker sped and caught the rolling ball with his front legs and snout and then...

...just stood there.

"What are you waiting for!? RUN!" he yelled.

The dog started to run aimlessly... and left the ball behind.

Graah! This whole 'being explicit with your orders' thing was something Miles needed a little more practice with. He immediately started running back to his defense zone, without even looking if Ruby or Astor had managed to get the ball. It was a foregone conclusion that they had and now he had to block two players that were actually faster than him. Playing on Ruby's side was much easier than playing against her...

...and there it was again, that glimpse of moments that never happened. He was with her and a bunch of other people and she was wearing overalls, like some kind of mechanic.

He was desperate for her help.

This needed some talking about.

The ball had broken away from Miles and went speeding towards Tinaker. Ruby dashed after it, ready for some sort of fast chase with Miles’ faster dog when she found that she wouldn’t have to do anything at all. The smaller dog seemed to have no idea what to do, so instead he just dashed away as if he had the entire world chasing after him. Ruby stood there bewildered for a brief moment, absolutely confused about this situation before she dashed toward the ball.

Miles really needed to learn to give better orders to his dogs. If he didn’t, they might step on a mine again, and the last thing she needed was to defuse another one of the Toymaker's crazy bombs. The last one almost killed her.

Toymaker? Bombs? This…this is from my dream isn’t it? The big one. Miles was in it too, I think. He was really nice he kept visiting and he took off his shirt- WOAH! No way! No I just met him! No way I don’t have a crush on someone I just met! Even though I have gotten him out of countless jams...wait what no I haven’t! Ruby’s thoughts kept conflicting with each other as she kicked the ball haphazardly across the field. While she was keeping it under control, her eyes looked a little distant, her thoughts going back to that dream.

Ruby kicked the ball toward where the goal was, not really putting a lot of power behind it, her mind still lingering on the dream from before. Those green eyes of hers filled confusion. She looked up at Miles for just a moment and briefly saw the scouting boy. Her mechanic self saw in that alternate future, before it faded back into the Miles now.

She was going to definitely have to talk about this whole dream business with Miles. Hopefully, he wouldn’t think she was too crazy.

When Miles turned to try and block, he found Ruby coming with the ball on her feet, Astor behind her and Tinaker running around, still following his previous order. He was on his own and if she kicked just like she had before, the score would easily go 2-0.

But she didn't. Something distracted her and made her lose her focus. She kicked, but Miles managed to block with his right foot and send the ball out of bounds from their impromptu field.

He sighed in relief and managed a smile.

"Whew! I thought you'd score for sure. You looked a bit distracted there..." he said, trying not to sound too crazy with what he had to say next. "I've been a bit distracted as well. It's not like I'm using it as an excuse, it's just... I feel like I already know you."

His memory of the dream was fragmented at best. Back at Celeste's party, he remembered important bits and pieces, but others were just glimpses and flashes that made him wonder if he had dreamed them or not. Her eyes, her face and even her ears and tail seemed so familiar to him, down to her friendly disposition and he'd found back at the party that people who popped up in the dream had actual living counterparts in the real world. Was it possible that she dreamed it as well and going through the same deja vu feelings he was going through?

"I know it sounds a little weird. It's not like I meet people like you every day, you seem like one of a kind to me, actually..." he said, one hand behind the back of his head and slightly embarrassed. He wasn't sure if it was wise to mention he saw her in a dream, lest she didn't remember anything and thought him the strange 'stalker' type, so he preferred to test the waters and leave it vague. "But for some reason I get this idea... that you'd like fixing cars... if the world went kablooey."

The score did not meet it's mark and Ruby couldn't help but be a little disappointed in herself. She easily could have barreled in there and made the perfect goal, she could have trounced Miles. But Why didn't she? The fox girl just couldn't help but think of that dream she was having and it looked like she wasn't the only one.

"Yeah me too," Ruby agreed to Miles' observation.

The whole thing seemed disjointed and in fragments but Ruby remembered Miles. He was older, a lot more skittish but he was a lot more...hollow looking. He had seen a great deal and he knew a lot about the outside world. Ruby did as well but it seemed that Miles had been through far more than Ruby had. That said, he always seemed to smile around Ruby and just look a little brighter.

The fox girl shook her head, trying to shake these "memories" from her mind. All of this sounded so crazy to her, so illogical, and yet here Miles was, confirming all of her crazy thoughts. Maybe she wasn't so crazy after all.

"You were a scout, one of your dogs were in trouble and I got him off the mine, taking out it's creator in the process," Ruby recalled, her ears flat to her head. Everything seemed so far away and yet close at the same time, it was a perplexing set of feelings Especially considering the fact that her dream self got closer to Miles' dream self after that. "How...long did we know each other in that dream anyways? This whole thing is really strange.

The details escaped him, the same way a dream becomes fuzzier as time goes by once you're awake, but the moment some of these details were brought up, it was like digging up a chest of memories tucked away. The first couple of days after the dream, he couldn't help but remember old, toppled buildings and ruins whenever he saw their real life counterparts still standing. He saw so many wrecked streets and cars in the dream and that was the reason behind it: He was a scout and an explorer after the Apocalypse. Ruby lived... she didn't live with him, or did she? It was difficult to remember the string of events, but fragments of it were still crystal clear. Her face, older and with small grease stains here or there. Her skillful hands, dismantling or repairing things. He remembered the two of them in danger together, huddled together from enemy fire, even holding hands together and not just to help her up a ledge or anything like that.

They both had the same dream and gotten close in it... and in real life they had just met. How weird was that?

He smiled, his hand still in the back of his head and his 'slightly embarrassed' expression turning into a bit of a blush.

"Yeah, I remember fragments of scouting and stuff. I also remember... other stuff" he said, looking down and wondering if she remembered it also. "Just in case I hadn't thanked you back then and even if it actually didn't happen in real life... thank you for helping me out with Astor. He was the one who stepped on the mine" he said, pointing with his chin to the big lug standing next to her.

He raised his brown eyes to look at her green ones when she asked him how long they had known each other in the dream.

"I don't know how long" he said truthfully, trying to sort out the jumbled mess of memories. He then added "I do know how well we knew each other though, and yes, it's really strange. I mostly remember bits and pieces of things that happened in the dream but just for fact checking and making sure I'm not thinking stuff up...What do you remember about it, besides scouting and the mine thing?" he asked, hoping those bits of closeness between them were also a shared memory.

This whole thing was one huge strange trip for Ruby. We are talking about the kit that never seemed to forget anything and just remembered things for what it seemed like forever. Anything complicated, anything meaningful, this fox girl could remember. But the fact that her memory was as spotty as it was really meant something. It had to.

Ruby remembered being with Miles, she especially remembered the feelings she got with Miles. She saw his older self, battle weary and yet still somehow kept a smile on his face.

Ruby also remembered the distinct feeling of wanting to be close to him as well as other emotions that were slightly overwhelming. Her cheeks were suddenly tinged with a distinctive shade of pink and Ruby's tail curled around herself self consciously.

"I remember you thanking me multiple times," Ruby told him with a small nervous laugh, "So you are off the hook for that one."

The closeness, the heat, the feeling of being wanted in more than one way, such feelings were somewhat foreign. It wasn't like the boys were banging down the door to get to Ruby. Though, when she looked into those brown eyes, she felt a spark of something, but this time, it was her current self's feeling and not her dream self.

"Uh...yeah. We were together as a couple, I think Emmy actually approved," Ruby confessed after a long moment of silence. Well now that was out in the open...where did they go from here?

"Emmy approved? Well, that's... great, I guess... Could you refresh my memory and tell me who Emmy is?"

This was probably the first time in his life he had ever had a conversation like this. He had been the boyfriend of someone he just met. It had its benefits, though, since he knew from the get go he wasn't going to get friend zoned and older Miles probably knew what he was doing much better than younger Miles did.

Right?

You couldn't blame older Miles for his good taste though. Both versions, young and old, were suckers for green eyes and Ruby's were downright mesmerizing. She was smart, judging by her choice of reading material, liked his thralls, liked soccer, was competitive and friendly and he could easily see himself falling for her. Any conversations they had in the dream however, were vague recollections he could barely remember, so that needed some refreshing. What was her favorite color or what made her laugh or cry... he no longer had a clue. They had to "re-meet" again.

Well, today was a good start.

The boy smirked and bounced the ball on the floor. "We could take a break and talk about this if you want, because there's a lot of stuff I don't remember and would like to, or... we could continue playing, and ask each other questions in game, as an added challenge" he suggested, bouncing the ball again and wondering if that was a good idea. He was already having trouble playing against her speed and now he was going to have to think and answer questions while going after the ball?

He decided to leave it up to her.

" One of My big sisters, in that timeline she was even grumpier than she is in this one. She was the leader of the place she and I were staying at. The protector, the Alpha wolf if you will," Ruby explained, hoping her little speech would illuminate why it was amazing her sister approved of him.

Though, she was pretty sure Emmy threatened him at least once.

With a giant sword.

Sigh.

Ruby really did have to help her sister work on her "don't try to murder people" skills. Besides if she remembered right, she was pretty happy with Miles. Her older self seemed to know a lot more about this whole thing than she did. Not only that but older Ruby seemed to have a lot more...vixen moments than Ruby did.

Sure, Ruby had dated people before but it never really got that far,farthest was Jamal but there wasn't really anything there for her. Everything seemed different with this possible realtionship with Miles. He seemed nice, funny and it was sort of nice being treated like someones equal rather than a little kid.

"Maybe we should talk more," Ruby answered, fox ears twitching a little bit. "I doubt either of us will be able to concentrate on the game if talk more about our future selves. Or our present selves because I honestly wanna learn more about the guy my older self was seriously att-"

Ruby's face lit up in a brilliant shade of red, tail thrashing about wildly. Her older self seemed to have a lot more... Vixen thoughts than Ruby did. Said thoughts were very distracting for the teenaged fox girl who had a hard enough time with hormones as it was.

"I mean, hey Miles what do you like to read, I like to read everything really but mainly manuals!" Ruby quickly changed the subject. Her voice a little higher now than it was before.

He totally wouldn't notice the fact that she was a bit nervous now! Or at least that's what Ruby hoped.

Oh.

That Emmy.

Yes, he didn't remember either the name or the face that much, but he now remembered the sword and how she didn't threaten to cut his neck at all, but... another body part instead. She was kind of uptight and badass, mostly because she was very protective of the people under her care and specially Ruby, but apart from that, he only had fragmented memories of her. Hopefully he wouldn't end up with fragmented bones once he had to meet her again, since they were younger this time and who knows if she'd just change her mind to the teenagers hanging out together.

Sometimes when Ruby spoke or moved in a certain way, that feeling of deja vu kicked in and he'd suddenly remember something they had said or done in the dream. When she twitched her ears a bit, he couldn't help feeling he had liked seeing her do that. That was so very unique of her and she'd twitch them like crazy whenever he touched the tips very lightly. It always made her laugh when he tickled her like that and it was an easy way to get her in a good mood.

She proposed talking over playing and Miles agreed with the rationale behind it. That way they wouldn't get too distracted and she could learn about the guy she was seriously att.

Att? Att....what? Attacking? Attending? Attila? ooOOOoooooOOOhh! Attracted!

Miles tried to suppress his smile as best he could but it was so difficult, her blush not helping in the least and... there it was again! He distinctly remembered that tail thrashing! Oh, they had joked a few times on how having a tail was a disadvantage because Miles could tell how she was feeling by the way she moved it, without even looking at her face. He even combed it once. These things just kept popping up!

She tried to salvage her misstep as best she could (manuals? Really!?) and the boy felt tempted to just hug her in a friendly way, to let her know it was okay but he didn't know if it was too soon or not. Better pretend he didn't notice and just follow her lead. Maybe invite her to have a bite or something to drink?

"I like to read Sci fi and maybe some fantasy, though not manuals, unless they're from videogames" he answered truthfully. "How about movies? Your your favorite movie? And how about we take this inside over a nice cup of cocoa or coffee and a muffin?"

Judging by that brief look of realization on his face, Ruby knew that he must of remembered her sister. Emerald was always sort of a hard person to forget so she wasn’t exactly surprised that he might have vaguely remembered her big sister’s antics when he started dating her in that odd timeline.

Poor Miles, he was not the only male that Emerald threatened and he certainly wouldn’t be the last. Ruby knew if there was one thing someone didn’t do, it was possibly hurt her and since her big sisters love life wasn’t exactly the cleanest she knew Emerald would be extra harsh on whoever tried to woo her baby sister. Sometimes, Ruby really wished Emerald could see how strange she could act when she got all protective.

Luckily, Miles didn’t address the fox girl’s misstep, leaving that up in the air for future reference it seemed. Her older self really did like Miles and if those memories she just received were any indication the feeling was mutual. Miles had always made her laugh when she was sad and was able to pull her out of funks she got into more often than not.

They seemed to fight in battle together fairly well too and it looked like they protected each other, whenever possible. Problem was, Ruby’s memories were so fragmented about this whole thing, it was hard to sort out. The feelings and thoughts were the only things that seemed to be in order while the memories just looked like a jumbled mess.

Something that wasn’t a jumbled mess was the question that was asked, one that was easily answered.

“Ha Ha, yeah I’m sort of a dork about manuals. I have to read them for when I do my projects anyways so I just got in the habit of reading as many as I could find,”Ruby confessed sheepishly, ears flattening a little in embarrassment. “Oh, that’s easy Wall-E is my favorite movie! I know it’s a kids film technically but I really do enjoy it. Fox and the Hound is a close second for sort of obvious reasons. I wouldn’t mind that at all, let’s go inside. Besides, I think that chicken dinner Emerald made me the other night is still in there, so if you want to eat something we can have that. Or whatever you want is fine too.”

Ruby’s ears perked up immediately when she thought about eating that tasty chicken again. Foxes were sort of notorious for stealing chickens and Ruby Lupin was no exception. Some of those chicken dinners were probably one of the only things preventing local chicken owners from finding missing chickens in the yard.

Wall-E? Well, of course, it was almost obvious. A cute movie and the main protagonists were robots, so how could she not like it? Then again, Transformers also had robots. And explosions! And girls! And violence! And more explosions! Woooo YEAAAH!... So maybe that's why it wasn't her favorite.

Miles had cousins who loved movies and during visits to them, he had been exposed to a lot of stuff, but his tastes were still standard, although his favorite movie had changed over the years.

"Hey, my mother and a lot of adults like Wall-E, so even if it's a kid's movie, it has something for everyone. When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the Incredibles and I even dressed up as Dash on Halloween and ran around at super speed and mom and dad didn't mind that much" he said, remembering his old days fondly. "Little did I know it was just a ploy from my parents to get me tired and in bed early."

"I still think 'How to train your dragon' is my favorite. I mean... what's not to like about having your own pet dragon?" he asked, as he petted Tinaker, whom he had mentally commanded to stop running and come back. He also gave Astor a command to come follow them inside. "Though 'Avatar' is close, even if my dad says it's a remake of 'Pocahontas'."

As they walked towards the kitchen, Miles realized he didn't remember sharing any of these things in the dream. Either he had forgotten it or they had never talked about it. Maybe in the future no one talked about their hobbies in the past, it was probably too painful when every single thing you liked to do in a civilized world had gone up in smoke.

She was up for chicken and Miles just rubbed his hands and smiled when she mentioned sharing. "I'm game!" he said, as he tried to come up with another question and see what other memories they could shake up from their future or dig out from their past. "Favorite... color? Nah, too easy... Blue for me. How about favorite song?"

Avatar huh? That seemed like the sort of movie that he would like and How to Train Your Dragon was another one that Miles would like. The kinda goofy underdog getting to figure things out and get the girl in the end, that sorta seemed like his style more than the beefed up Avatar.

The small fox girl couldn't help but wonder if he was projecting a wee bit for that one but she didn't mention anything of the sort. Only because in all honestly, she liked the sort of cute, quirky guys rather than some of the meat heads she had seen in the past. After all she was a little nerd and nerds tended to like to stick with their own. While the two walked Ruby had to ponder what Miles asked, her tail swishing back and forth with honest to goodness thought.

“Red for me and oh favorite song,” Ruby pondered a little “Well, there are a lot of good ones but, hmm at the moment it has to be “You are the Moon” by Hush Sound. It's a very beautiful song and while I usually like songs a little faster, this song seems to be an exception.”

The song actually meant quite a lot to Ruby because she felt like she could connect with the song in ways that not many people would expect. The normally cheerful fox didn't really seem like she would think about the matters brought up in the song but that's where they would be wrong.

None the less, once the duo reached the kitchen, Ruby scuttled over to the fridge and removed the large Tupperware from it. It was filled with various chunks of chicken torn up. At one point there was a lot more chicken in that Tupperware but at the moment it was only about half full. The fox girl heaped the chicken on two separate plates and smiled at Miles.

“What about you, What is your favorite song or songs?” Ruby inquired as she slid both plates in the microwave.

She had good taste, in music AND in food. Miles didn't need to know her from a future dream to realize she wasn't a vegetarian and he was glad for it.

'You are the moon' was indeed slow, much slower and calmer than his favorite, the sort you'd listen to on a quiet night with a full moon overhead. The moon can't see her own beauty, nor her own light in the darkness. The piano was quite soothing and enough to mellow anyone out.

"My favorite is Break, from Three Days Grace. It's a bit louder than yours and kinda goes in the other direction" he said, pointing away and thinking back when he had started listening to it and liking it so much. It had been shortly after joining the school, from some of the older students. Maybe the fact that he had ran away from his parents, into a place that accepted him as he was, had something to do with it. He broke away from everybody and everything into a higher place. The song was also a little rebellious, but at his age, that was par for the course.

"I also like some slow ones, for when I'm in the mood. Have you ever heard 'Tangled up in you'? It's just a dude and his guitar at first, but it's quite good."

And a love song as well. Was he starting to show a sentimental side? It's not like he had a macho one full of bravado, but still.

The microwave went 'DING!' and Miles clasped his hands together in anticipation. The chicken did look good. He opened a drawer and found cutlery for them to eat with, and as he pulled them out, he tried to come up with another question but the smell was a little distracting.

"Okay, now you ask me anything you want to know, big or small. I'm an open book" he offered, as he pushed a fork, a knife and a napkin Ruby's way.

"I actually really like the song 'One-X' by Three Days Grace. I know Emerald likes the song 'Lost In You' a lot, which is kinda weird for her." Ruby Commented, her own enjoyment of the band showing

So Miles had a "rocking" taste in music, that was completely fine. After all, Ruby liked a variety of music and Three Days Grace was a band she liked to listen to on occasion. While the "heavier" Songs were more of Emerald's style that didn't mean Ruby didn't like them. She just had sensitive ears and sometimes all that hard stuff could wear on those over sized, twitchy things after a while.

"No I actually haven't heard of that one," Ruby replied sheepishly, her voice soft. "Maybe we could listen to it together some time?"

Okay so, Miles might have just been propisitioned for a future date, but considering the duo's hisory it wasn't that surprsing. Though, Ruby being the one to ask first was and her nerves showed a little bit, judging by that twitching tail of hers.

That and the fact she almost leap out of her skin when the microwaved dinged.

The fox girl grabbed the warmed up poultry from the microwaved and served it up on the plates.It was a lemon pepper chicken and the way it was seasoned probably enveloped the entire room with the smell of spices. Whoever cooked it had some talent, that was for sure, either that or a lot of luck.

Ruby almost immediately began eating, when she was asked to inquire some things about Miles. Poor thing had to take a minute to pause because as soon as she politely gave miles his food she started scarfing down her food. Chicken was one of her greatest weaknesses when it came to food and considering the fact she forgot to eat her snacks today she was starving.

"Well, whats your favorite food? What are your parent's like? What is your favorite book? I can ask you a million questions if you want me to!" Ruby exclaimed, a gleeful grin on her face.