Author's Note: The fanfic you're about to read is going to be one of my very few M-rated fanfics. And furthermore with this being said, I want to put a big warning on this to some of you: If any of you are rape-victims or have had people attempt to assault you, this may bring some triggers. But even then, I took a friend's advice and kept the graphic and descriptiveness of such scenes to a minimal and haven't gone into vast detail. This is the first chapter, and while I'm not sure how many chapters this fanfic will be, I intend to do my best to finish it along with the other ones I have planned. I just wanted to get this one out there since it's been stuck in my head for a while.)
The moon lingered high within the sky, darkly colored clouds of various shades of purple slowly parting to reveal the silver sphere and allow its lights to scatter about the busy streets. The night was nearly silent, and there seemed to be no traffic in the streets, no signs of any human presence, a perfect opportunity for crime to take place.
The cool, crisp, night wind was accompanied by footsteps slowly sounding as a few figures came into view of the closed jewelry store. And a tall male of handsome features, donned in a posh white suit and a fedora, stood before the window, gazing in with his reflection staring right back at him from the well-polished looking glass. A cane gently clenched by his hand as he held it against the concrete.
"We break in here, take what we want, then we split before the police come." The ginger announced in a very calm sounding voice.
"Boys," the smooth looking male turned his gaze towards the black-suit wearing men who had come with him, "we're breaking in. Let the heist begin."
Roman Torchwick.
He was infamous throughout Vale and was always the elusive one. A criminal with a history of different crimes, although all seeming to be on a small scale, but nevertheless earning him the title of a wanted man for how many of them he successfully pulled off.
Thievery, conning, yet, he did all of these with the most gentlemanly of words that at times, almost made some people more willing to give in to his demands. He was certainly one of the more respectful of villains, niceties seeming to follow in pursuit of his calm and collected words to those who were his victims.
But it wasn't always this way.
The things that led up to the life of crime that Roman had taken, was something that he never discussed with anyone. Even his right-hand man, or woman rather, was never told the full story of the early years that must have led up to Roman's decision to become a criminal.
There was much more to it than being a simple con-man and basking in the enjoyment of thievery and robbery. And although he did grow accustomed to the pleasures of the criminal lifestyle, such as more money than he knew what to do with, and more riches than most man or woman could ever dream of, that isn't to say that he always wanted it to be that way.
Roman stepped in through the broken window of the jewelry store and climbed in, carefully navigating around the broken shards of glass that laid strewn out among the seal and the blue-carpeted floor of the inside.
"Search for anything that seems of interest. This place is a gold-mine for fine jewelry."
The other men nodded their heads and split up while Roman walked straight ahead, continuing from the spot he was at. And he set his sights on a beautiful ruby necklace with a big chunk of ruby and a chain of dazzling gold.
Roman's eyes locked onto it as a dark smile spread his lips.
The male whirled the cane around in his hand before slapping it back onto the ground again and let it follow along with his footsteps before he was distracted by the voices of one of the men who had come with him.
"Hey, boss."
"What is it, did you find something worthwhile?"
"Not exactly...But..."
"But what?" Roman calmly replied, a single brow lowering halfway.
"...You beddah come take a look at this."
Roman was curious. So he followed the direction of the man in black until he finally stopped after walking a good few steps and found the store clerk, which was a young and pretty female with fair skin, hunched over near a potted plant. She was bare, hand scrambling for her clothes while she tried in a useless effort to hide her full and heavy breasts nearly pressed her hands away.
She was sobbing.
Roman stood before the female staring at her.
"We just found her like this." The man in black suit said.
"..." Roman approached the female who had yet to notice him.
"What happened, my dear?" He inquired in a comforting voice.
When the clerk gazed up, her eyes grew and she tried to back up further against the wall while her hands continued to try and hide her nipples from his face. Despite the obvious fact, Roman was clearly paying no heed to her body and was looking directly at her face. A true gentleman.
"S-stay back!" Her voice cracked instantly. "P-please, n—not again..."
"My dear, I'm not quite sure what you're talking about, but," Roman shook his head, "I'm not the person you're confusing me for."
"I tried...So...Hard t—t-to fight him off, b-but how do you fight someone when you don't have a semblance, or better yet, you aren't armed with a weapon? …... I...Couldn't do a thing but...Accept it in the end."
The ginger's eyes knit together while his mouth became a short, straight line.
"Just tell me what happened." He continued, his voice clearly becoming more tense, despite trying to retain that tone of soothing.
"I-I want to forget," her voice became further incoherent. "I want to forget it all! I...I wish he'd just killed me instead of...In instead of-"
Roman turned his gaze towards the other gangsters who had gathered beside him and clamped his teeth! It was all the male could do to keep from blowing a gasket at that moment.
"We're leaving." He angrily announced.
"B-but what about the heist, boss?"
"Forget_THE_HEIST!" The tone of his voice alone was enough to scare away even the Grimm themselves. "We're leaving right now."
No further arguments came against Roman.
The men nodded their heads and started to make their way towards the window again. No jewelry of any kind in tow as they left.
Roman started to walk away as well, but then he stopped and he turned around to take one final look at the large-chested blonde store-clerk who had just thrown her face into her curled up thighs and rocked back and forth in place.
He felt bad.
He felt genuinely bad.
But there was nothing he could do. And a wanted criminal calling the police or some other kind of aid for her? That was a fool's move.
Roman growled and turned followed his men and left through the window.
Once they were away from the jewelry store, they walked towards an old-fashioned car that looked rather luxurious in appearance. It was a classic limousine with purple interior on the inside, and four doors on each side. On the inside, on the steering wheel, the initials 'R.T.' seemed to be engraved in the center.
The back-door door of the old-fashioned white automobile was opened for Roman and he got inside before closing the door shut from the inside, and then his men got into the car and the driver sat down and revved the engine to life while staring straight on ahead at the midnight road.
Roman tried to remove his mind from the images of the nude blonde floating around in his mind. The look on her face. And the feelings that it filled him with.
He reached into his breast-pocket and pulled out one of his stashed away, expensive cigars. The lighter came next, and Roman lit it carefully before letting the flame vanish from the lighter. He then tucked the lighter back away into the pocket and nearly inhaled the scent of fresh tobacco to ease his mind.
It was strange. He usually never felt anything so much as resembling humanity. Of course, Roman had only delved to the dark side on a few occasions. But something like this? There was only...One time that he had ever been faced with something like this before. And that was such a very long time ago.
"And here I thought aside from my own escapades, the only thing that this world had to worry about was either murder or Cinder and her own exploits." Roman mused to himself, smoke expelling between puckered lips.
The car was filled with an exotic and heavy scent from the cigar.
"So what about miss Neo?" The driver inquired asked.
Roman's eyes flickered towards his direction, his hand moving the cigar away from his face and holding it a good few inches away from the window while the smoke continued to lift up into the air.
"She'll just have to accept the fact I couldn't get her anything this time," Roman replied. "And given Neo's background and history, she doesn't spark me as someone who would be eager to throw a tantrum over a person's inability to obtain her some riches."
The driver nodded his head. "True, boss. If it weren't for you, well. I don't want to think about where miss Neo might be right now."
"...Neo..." Roman's voice fell softer. "I remember when it was just the two of us, with the exception of the boys. ….And then Cinder came along."
Back when he didn't take orders from anyone. Back when he was the only one who gave out orders, and everyone followed them. But then Cinder came along and usurped most of the power and reign he had, and he ended up playing second fiddle to her which was a sharp piercing stab to his pride.
"It was better back then. But at least that fool Cinder is off groveling to Salem like a dog and off my back for the time being."
They drove off into the night and returned to the hide-out.
It was close to 4: AM when the retro looking white car finally pulled up to the hideout that Roman, his henchmen, and Neo had come to consider their home.
The hideout was in an old part of Vale that had been around since the creation of Beacon Academy. It had been abandoned for quite some time and was home to some of the oldest buildings in beacon as well as closed down stores and strip-centers.
Roman's hideout was located inside of an old hotel. However, he had gone to extra precautions in case law enforcement should ever grow half a brain and think to look there, and created a secret underground compartment that lied direction under the top of the stairs that led to the second story where the rooms began. No one would ever guess something was amiss about these stairs since it looked like any old stairs, but in fact, had a secret door that was fool-proof to almost any eye.
The 'boss' had thought of almost everything in order to protect not only himself but his affiliates as well.
An abandoned town almost no one would think to look at. A base inside the abandon town's old hotel, and hidden beneath the stairs, at that.
Roman and his men wandered down the down-traveling rustic, wooden spiraling staircase, which would have been much darker if it wasn't for the fact his men had installed a worthwhile amount of filament bulbs which provided a beautiful and awe-inspiring amount of golden glows to light the way below.
When they finally reached the bottom, they stood before a wide-stretched hallway. The hallway had a great number of doors on each side, each a room for the large number of people who lived there.
There were rooms for his henchmen, and then there was one that was much more carefully designed with obvious care and hard-work put into it that had a single letter in gold, which was 'N'. And this specific room had pictures of various different kinds of ice cream on it. And even the doorknob was fashioned into an ice-cream cone with a big round pink ball which was supposed to resemble strawberry ice cream.
Roman's room was at the end of the hallway, all the way towards the end by a very narrow window that gave just enough looking space for someone to peek out from. His room was straight across from the one adorned with the ice cream doorknob.
They opened the first door which was on the left of the long hallway.
The moment the door was pulled open by Roman, the sharply dressed ginger yawned and casually walked inside where he was greeted by a pair of heterochromatic eyes.
A painfully short woman who most probably would have mistaken for a child if it wasn't for an obvious, maturely grown bust that peeped out from the cropped white and pink suit that was worn over a black bustier, waved to him.
Roman briefly met with the gaze of the pink and chocolate-brown haired girl, but then he had torn his eyes away and exhaled a breath and taking a few steps away from her.
But the short woman followed him, a light strut when she walked.
"Sorry, Neo," he said apologetically. "I didn't bring you back any jewelry."
Despite the revelation that Roman had brought her nothing back from the heist, the woman, 'Neo', didn't exactly seem to be too bothered by the fact.
"The heist was a failure and we pulled out," Roman stated.
Neo cocked a brow with a bewildered expression. Pulling out of a heist was something quite rare.
Roman stopped walking after nearly reaching the comfortable red recliner that sat a good few inches away from the television. And he shot his gaze towards the multi-colored haired woman, locking onto her confused face.
"Someone got there before we did," Roman said. "They took everything of value."
It's been said that you can tell a person is lying by whether their eyes are steady on retaining contact with your own. However, being a criminal required knowing the trade, and having been part of this lifestyle for so long, Roman had learned how to tell a liar from an honest man, even if their eyes didn't stay steadily onto his own.
But he wasn't the only one who had learned how to do this.
Neo herself had also gained this skill.
Neo reached a tiny hand towards him and gripped him sturdily by whatever she was able to reach, in this case, it was his arm-pits since her hands didn't quite reach his shoulders due to her obvious height disadvantage. And those eyebrows came to drop towards her heterochromatic eyes.
A barely audible breath escaped Roman's lips when those eyes took upon the offensive, and those surprisingly tight hands had gripped his suit.
"..." His eyes closed, and then his head shook. "Yes...You're right. That's a lie itself."
Neo began to tap her foot while staring at him.
"We had gone there with the intention to steal some jewelry, just like I told you we had planned to do before we left in the first place," Roman sighed. "I had found this really nice gold, ruby necklace I was going to bring back for you, but then Erick called me over and said they found something."
Neo's stern expression began to lessen, but her grip remained on his armpits.
"There was a woman. It was the store clerk. And she was all slumped over, bare, reaching for her clothes. She was barely even coherent in the things she said, but she mentioned...A man."
Both of Neo's eyebrows shot upward instantly at his words.
She had a look of shock on her face, that instantly gave away that she knew what he was insinuating.
"It seems Vale has more serious matters on its hands now," Roman said. "While Cinder is off practically licking the boots of Salem for the sake of the power she's been promised, which frankly I think is a crock in itself, there's a man with rather unsavory intentions."
Neo quickly guided her eyes away from his face. Her eyes, which were overtaken by the large amount of white that left the colored part tiny in comparison, had returned to normal size and had her brows pushing heavily down onto them in a display of disgust.
"You would think law enforcement would be more competent in criminal activity. Isn't that supposed to be their job? Catch the wicked, bring them to justice, then lock them away." But then his lips parted into a smirk. "Of course, those clowns still haven't found us."
Roman gave a gesture of dismissal towards the men in black suits with his hand and then walked towards the television where his recliner was seated a little ways away from Neo's personal pink and chocolate colored recliner.
"It's been a few weeks since we've really done anything truly enjoyable," Roman pointed his finger at the short woman. "I think I owe you an ice cream. Especially after coming back empty handed."
Neo's response was walking towards him and wrapping her arms around him. And because of her short stature and Roman's obvious tall height, her head stopped just a few inches below his chest.
Her big, multi-colored eyes stared up at him, lips upturning.
"Sprinkles again, right?" He gave a half wink.
Neo responded with a quick nod, which was followed by her smile taking on an almost childish and innocent appearance.
"I think we still have a few Popsicle in the fridge. But I know your favorite."
Neo released him after the brief embrace. Then she pointed to his recliner before walking to her own much smaller one and sitting down on it while she turned her eyes towards the idle television screen.
Roman seated himself in his chair and placed his arms on the comfortable leather arm-rests while grabbing the lever on the chair and popping up the footrest. He rested his foot on the footrest, however, stretched down to remove his boots and his matching black dress socks underneath. Then came the white suit which he placed on the nightstand next to his crimson chair. His hat, however, remained on his head.
Slowly peeling off the black gloves from his hands and placing them on top of his white suit, each glove neatly folded up and neatly lined up against each other, Roman reached for the wooden and plastic remote control and then aimed it at the vintage TV which was wooden on the edges, with a metallic looking center and a knob on the side for tuning it.
He hit the power button and heard a pleasing 'click' the moment he hit the button, and then the screen turned on.
"What do you say we flip through these channels and see what's on?" Roman flickered his eyes towards her direction.
Neo pressed herself back against the chair while the television program came on.
The program that came on was an old silent movie that had been restored by the beautiful and captivating wonders of Technicolor. Something which was considered as ancient as the vintage items that adorned the hideout. And more precisely, Roman's beloved room.
Roman cocked his head gently to the side of the head-rest of the recliner and lowered his arm back down onto the armrest after placing the remote back on the desk.
There was a saying there was no sleep for the wicked.
And given that both Roman and Neo had become rather adjusted to functioning on minimal amounts of sleep, it seemed the saying rang true.
This had become nearly a nightly ritual for the two.
An hour or two-hour long movie, then it was time for bed.
Sleep for a few hours, then wake up again, enjoy breakfast and some time relaxing, then criminal activity.
Although Roman's favorite time for crime was at night when the risks were lower.
"I've seen this one before," a finger tapped on the armrest. "But I don't think you were here when I watched it the first time."
Neo turned her neck to look at him. Then she shook her head.
Roman grinned. "It's a really good one, Neo. It's about this guy who robs a bank. But this masked superhero who's been watching the whole time goes after him after the police fail to catch him in a mob."
Roman then sighed and shook his head.
"I remember when I was little I wanted to be a superhero...I always looked up to them and thought they were just so intriguing. But then...Well, some things change..."
Neo turned her gaze back to him again.
"Some things are acceptable," his lips briefly pursed. "Some things aren't."
The two enjoyed the movie until the film had ended. There were no credits to be displayed at the end, and if it wasn't for the fact Roman had an immense amount of knowledge on stars of the golden age, probably no one in the whole hideout would have even known who the 'players' were in
the movie.
Roman pulled the lever back on the recliner and rose from the chair.
"Well, I suppose we may as well get some sleep now."
Neo nodded her head while rising from her own seat.
"Well," Roman reached for his white suit and his black gloves, before turning to face Neo again. "It's been a good enough day, I suppose. With the exception of that...Unpalatable trash on the loose."
Roman approached the female and slapped his hands onto her shoulders.
"I hope you have the sweetest of dreams, Neo. May they be sweeter than your ice cream."
Neo's hand came to wave to him. But almost instantly after that, her head bumped into his body and she threw both arms around in a tight hug. One that lessened in intensity after a few moments.
"You rest up, all right?" Roman returned the embrace to the other.
They retired to their rooms.
Roman's room was comprised of many old, vintage things that he had collected over the years. Classic-era things being quite a tickler of his fancy.
Though the Scroll was a remarkable breakthrough in technology, Roman had a jet-black candlestick phone with a white dial, seated on top of a fashionably tarnished purple nightstand which stood on two little stumpy legs, composed of three drawers, with the one at the top being the smallest and widest.
The nightstand located right next to his bed.
His bed was an old Gothic canopy bed but lacked the curtains.
It was black with tiny little cross designs traveling down the top, and tomb-like designs on the foot-board and headboard. The blankets which made up the bed were made of pure silk, and were a deep purple, giving an almost sensual feel to the bed.
The walls were created using old rustic wood to give it that authentic feel.
Various photographs and poster-prints adorned the rustic walls of Roman's room; each of a classic movie star from the golden era of film-making before 'talkies' had come into being. Featuring names that at one time were huge, but now were mostly forgotten.
There were a number of other antique items that made up Roman's room. He was quite the collector after all.
Despite all the vintage items that he had, the one item that Roman had that he valued over all, even if its value wasn't worth nearly as much, was a photo that had been taken the very first day Neo was introduced to the hide-out.
Placing the suit on the desk where his tan, CRT computer monitor, and keyboard were, Roman, lifted the black undershirt over his shoulders and then over his neck, folding it over the executive rolling chair and then removed the rest of his clothes for the night. He pressed aside the purple silk blankets and sheets and then crawled into the bed, pressing the pillow over his face.
Then there was Neo's room.
Her room wasn't something that anyone would expect a tiny little woman who hung out with gangsters, to have.
Her walls were washed in pink of varying shades, but most bordered among the colors of a light pink. Images of unicorns and fairies making up a long wallpaper that traveled from wall to wall, with even a few mermaids overlooking the sea on body-sized rocks.
Rainbows flew across the top of the walls, just below where the ceiling began, only further giving the impression that a unicorn had just magically wandered into her bedroom one day and vomited all over her room.
Happy little clouds with pink and blue skies made up the floor which had the tiniest rug, that was so small, it almost looked like a child's playmat. And this rug was of an ocean being swam in by a group of mermaids and water fairies.
But it wouldn't be Neo's room without one thing: Ice cream.
And where she lacked ice cream in the wallpaper, it was more than made-up for in terms of merchandise.
The sheets of her bed were ice cream print: Bowls of ice cream with shimmering eyes, an anime-esque blush, and an overly happy smile. Something that was straight out of a child's bedroom. And the pillows were large, chocolate ice cream sandwiches.
The lamp on her hot-pink nightstand was an ice cream cone shadowed one, with a metal stand stabbed into the bottom of the cone. And the actual orange ice cream part at the top of the cone being the part where the light illuminated from.
Toys, toys and more toys were perfectly lined up in a tidy manner against the walls. While the other toys she didn't have enough room for without risking messiness, were stored away in a long, wide, pink and white chest at the foot of her bed with images of balloons and rainbows.
Ice cream flavored candy was stashed away in her cotton-candy print dresser, hidden behind a pile of clothes that Neo rarely changed into, since she heavily favored a look that at least somewhat emulated that of the boss.
She had a library of books, and her collection was only a few books short of being as vast and overwhelming as Roman's own. And while it was true some of them were children's books she had grown up with in the 'criminal' family, some were books specifically aimed for the older crowds.
For all the sunshine and rainbows that Neo's room had when it came to pictures and posters, she had none. Instead, the space on her walls were taken by various photographs that were taken over the years of her and Roman. And the series of pictures were large enough in number to cover a good portion of her walls since some of them had started from when she was still below the age of teenagehood.
Neo undressed from her more fancy attire, slipping into a pair of pink pajamas with pictures of ice cream with angel wings on them. Then she placed her pink house-shoes by the edge of the bed, then moved the sheets back and crawled inside, getting all snug underneath them before pulling them over herself to protect herself from the cold air that was blowing in from her small, open window.
Roman's men headed to their own rooms. And everyone fell asleep. Tomorrow would be another typical day. Although, not even Roman himself, knew what was next on the list for the next robbery.