Should warn you guys, I know I said this would be the last chapter. I was wrong. Because these two really don't like my outline, which is impressive considering it was like three words and not even typed.
As always I do not own RWBY, Rooster Teeth, or frankly much of anything past my books and my knives. This work is not for, or contains the ability to, generate profit. R.I.P. Mounty Oum.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
- - -8- - -
Years of being a gym rat had broken Yang's ability to sleep in. No matter how late she stayed up, hitting the clubs or chatting with friends, she always managed to be up before dawn. It also meant she napped constantly, but overall it was worth it. Except now she was alone in Neo's apartment with nothing to do until her girlfriend woke up and little prospect of getting back to sleep for a while no matter how sore she felt after their little salsa number. It wasn't like there was much to do though. Even after she pried herself free of Neo's death grip, it took all of three minutes to look around the tiny apartment. The bedroom with bed, bookshelves, and closet; bathroom; and a little kitchen she could just barely squeeze into, without even a table to eat at. She could even find the door out; and the only window was a skylight that just showed a morning sky. The only way out that she could find was apparently Neo's transportation or some high flying, and she only could fit the two emergency shells in her dress gauntlets even if she wanted to try that.
It was a shame she didn't have her scroll, Neo made for a cute picture curled up under the blankets as she moved into Yang's vacated warm spot, Her hair having changed back at some point, returning to a more balanced proportions of pink and brown hair, and a more natural state as far as Yang was concerned. She could just stay here in the doorway; even without windows the view was quite pleasing given the current level of dress. The better option however was by far to shower, a process that only served to highlight a colorful selection of new cuts and welts. Even by her standards, Neo had a certain passion in lovemaking that made each mark more like a thrilling memory than an actual injury. Sure she could hardly walk properly, and one of her arms felt like a dead log, didn't stop her from at least entertaining the idea of what could happen when Neo woke up. Until then, it was probably a better idea to raid some cupboards for breakfast for two. Time to put those big-sis skills to use.
XOXOXOXOXOX
She did not want to get up, and that alone was a weird start to the day. For her this was a day off; which usually meant catching up on her reading, paperwork and grocery shopping for what little time she actually got to spend at her own place; but that was never the case when someone else was around. She just didn't trust people in her home. This wasn't even where she meant to bring them, she meant to use Roman's old safe house at the one restaurant she had shown Yang. But the girl was just too intoxicating for her own good.
Neo opened one dark hazel eye as the sound of water shut off, followed closely by a half-covered Yang trying to piece together clothing from scattered remains. As her prey bent over to inspect her shredded rags of a dress she gave lift to what little covering she had, a full size bathrobe of Neo's that on a larger frame was deliciously scandalous, and making her observer blink rapidly in appreciation of the view. Her eyes changing with each small movement until they settled on a vibrant pink to match her flushed, tired face as it settled into a broad smirk. Yeah, I tapped that.
This was nice; waking up relaxed, if still tired from their night together, but without the sharp alarms in her head that whined about human contact. Apparently muffled by her personal thoughts on that ass. Even Roman knew better than to visit her place for too long, yet here she was listening to Yang ruffle through her apartment without a worry, Maybe for once she could have a so-called 'happy, normal relationship'. As far as she could tell they were at least off to a good start.
Padding over to her closet, it took her a little while to find non-work clothes. Too many months of odd jobs, running around Vale, and little time all told to relax around her own place. Though she would need to check her mail; even if she set her own hours, a week off was pushing it in her market. Pulling out an old grey hoodie that dwarfed her as it hung down to her thighs and some raining shorts, she paused at the reflection in mirror and the smile it showed, not a smirk, just a smile that felt honest. She could feel the difference in minute muscle response, but to actually see it was an odd sight. Not a bad one however.
Making her way to the kitchen, her feet silent on the thick carpet flooring, she found Yang staring at some cookbook with her back to the bedroom. Giving Neo no small amount of satisfaction to see that apparently she was still in the bathrobe with her legs fully on display. Without hesitation she came up to her girl, wrapping her arms around the giantess' waist as she buried her head underneath the longs locks with a nuzzled forehead. Giving herself a second to enjoy the feeling before she traced a lazy question mark on the counter. She was hungry and right about now a cooked breakfast sounded enticing.
"Neo, tell me the truth. What is this?"
What, a bad recipe? With her head cloaked in Yang's mane she peered from underneath Yang's arm to see the book opened up on the counter. There on the page was a single lock of golden hair, cut by her blade and an exact match to her current covering, and a newspaper clipping of the breach incident from last week. She didn't even own any cookbooks. Shit…
Reaching for one of the whiteboard and marker she kept around the place, Neo started to write as fast as possible under the intense silence of her companion, harassed by the heat pouring onto her with each passing second. [It's an old gang tradition, to show you won a fight.]
"You touched. My. Hair."
[You didn't even notice…] since you were unconscious. Because I threw you into a roof.
"Oh Yeah? What about him? Did he notice?!" Yang flipped the books pages back to the rank patch of an Atlasian Colonel that had long dried blood soaked through its fabric. She didn't need to read the headline; the man had been stabbed, from his kidney and out through his collarbone, without any of his four-man security team even able to identify the killer. The hard part had actually been retrieving the patch.
[It was a job…]
"A job? I though you were a bodyguard, not a fucking assassin!"
[I was a bodyguard; I get what contracts I…]
"So what next? Maybe you could blow up some buildings next week. I'm sure that pays well!"
[Depends, the jobs are higher risk. Plus there are the costs of production; dust prices have been going up and shops are limited in how much they can sell, so that leaves more conventional explosives….]
"What the Fuck, Neo! This isn't a joke! This is people's lives we're talking about, you can't just go around killing people for some nameless 'job'!"
I can, I do. [That's rich coming from a Beacon student who's never…]
Yang didn't give her a chance to dodge this time, grabbing and pinning Neo by her sleeves high above the cabinet counter. Growling out a response with all the intimacy of their night together, and absolutely no trace of the romance. "Never what?!"
Neo didn't talk. Anyone who had ever met her could tell you that. Torchwick, probably her oldest acquaintance, couldn't have heard more than a handful in the years she had worked for him, happy enough to just talk at her. Cinder Fall heard her say something once and ever since had made a point of not forcing her to; the woman had always been better at feigning the whole empathy lark. In the time Yang had known Neo the girl had managed to get three words out of her, but even she knew better than to just expect her to start talking through the pain. Everyone has a weakness, and nothing felt worse than the pain you can't control. Pinning her arms, forcing her to talk, was just possibly the dumbest thing this idiot could have done.
Fuck. This.
Her face shifted, losing that prized honesty for a natural smirk as her eyes blinked once, twice, switching between colors. If Yang wanted a fight she would get it.
Her legs were already clenching, repositioned around the binding arms to form a triangle choke, diminishing blood flow through the neck. Apparently there was debate in the Aurology community over whether chokes worked, something about whether they repelled forces evenly or bowed according to pressure builds; speaking from experience, Neo found they worked just fine. A little extra force maybe, and occasionally you had to break the neck, still counts.
It was only after Yang picked her head up almost seven feet into the air that she remembered the flaw here. This was going to hurt.
Yang started to throw them about in the cramped kitchen space, bashing into cabinets and walls. Enough to loosen the chokehold, not enough to free the constricted neck, yet Neo could already feel her own Aura drained dangerously low from her battered back. A thought that soon met with the wrong side of her apartment's wall as Yang hurled them both through.
XOXOX
Neo must have blacked out for a second, waking up to see Yang stand over her, face still flushed from the choke and eyes red with anger. The fact that her own face still felt intact was little comfort with her aura critically drained, her parasol out of reach, and her bare feet currently settled into the splintered wood of a warehouse shipping crate, one of thousand in the building that hid her apartment from the world. Trying to sit up only emphasized the negative assessment, driving a splinter into her foot as she winced in pain.
"Stay down and I won't hit you again. Give me your scroll, I need to call Beacon to arrest you properly."
She held up a finger in response, deprived as she was of the whiteboard, but Yang's blood was up and a fist was already being pulled back to finish her off. The worst part: Neo still wasn't entirely sure what Yang was mad about. Fucking hell this sucked.
"Wait"
Her voice was weak, raspy, pained, everything she tried to leave behind in her past lives. Some scars were just harder to lose. The sound itself was awful, a sharp contrast to her normally refined appearance and work ethic that she had developed through hundreds of contracts; yet barely audible despite the lances it sent through her trachea with each syllable. At least it worked; Yang lowered her fist and relaxed just enough to show her surprise at the noise. They were both all too used to a silent speaker.
" First" Waiting what must have been the most agonizing minute in her life for her throat to calm down, Neo picked up her foot to pull out the splinter driven into it with a pull of her teeth before she could cough out her last word. "Shoes"
"Seriously? You admit to being an assassin with your serial killer book of trophies and you're just going to sit there and whine about splinters?"
Well, books, plural. Neo's eyebrow raised, fighting back the pain that enflamed her throat like a live coal and returning a little of the scathing rebukes that she managed to reflect in her mannerisms as she stood with both feet, bleeding from fresh injuries, in the crate's remains. Picking up a 2x2 to twirl on her shoulder with all the poise she would otherwise show her absent weapon, she pulled out her scroll and typed out her message. Tossing it across the DMZ to Yang; careful to never lose sight of the seething hunter-in-training.
[At least there's no glass this time. You however just toe-kicked a cinderblock wall.] Splinters were one matter, but both of them could tell just by looking that at least one Yang's toes were pointing in the wrong direction. Not that it was easy to differentiate that from the blood and dirt that had so quickly accumulated. The girl needed to learn some day to stop muscling through all her pain. It was good in theory, but that didn't help when you needed to actually identify injuries before they became worse.
"I'm fine."
[You won't be walking tomorrow at this rate, just go grab something and put them on before you make it worse.]
"Why do you care?"
Seriously, this girl was plain dense some times. [Why wouldn't I?]
Yang tossed the scroll back, her glaring red-eyes ever present even as that spark of recognition flashed through them. Even if she was here on a matter of morals and principle, her opponent was simply jaded to her own violent lifestyle. Beingtackled through a wall wasn't a reason to change their relationship and what they had here. "You're messed up. I threw you through a wall after you tried to fucking choke me to death."
Catching the scroll on its return, Neo started to type as she made her way over the broken wood and packing hay. Her feet noiseless and carefully poised to maneuver the jagged obstacles scattered between them on the cold concrete floor. Standing beneath her towering shadow of a girlfriend, she took a deep breath of the warm air that emanated out from Yang's burning aura and let its heat tingle on her lips. It was like one of those soppy poems tacked onto otherwise decent stories. Love is: A hot-ass, half naked, blond giantess, covered in scars of love and battle, ready to bash her face in at the first sign of aggression.
It was a shame though; the foot difference in height made her options limited for this next part. With one step she moved to Yang's clenched right fist, clutching the arm tight across her chest as her foot swung out. The pendulum motion hooking their right ankles together as she pulled Yang's leg out from under her as Neo leaned into her trapped appendage and forced Yang to the ground.
Catching her back with a proffered knee as she controlled the descent, Neo looked down at her prize with their faces now only inches apart. The key to any martial defense however is the follow up, denying the chance for a recovery, as she cleared the distance between them even as Yang fought to free her trapped arm. Instead she let her hunger speak for her. Tearing through fiery lips as their tongues embraced what morals could not, and lips threw blows their bodies could not. Both could feel the desperation of this moment. Even as Neo pulled back for a desperate breath of air, Yang's strong arms pulled her back in for more answers, just as the other must seconds later in response to the boxer temporary freedom. Talking didn't work as well when one didn't know how to fix the problem and the other lacked the empathy to know where they went wrong. But as the flames of anger died down and the cold of the warehouse floor bled through, the only solid answer they had already there typed out on the scroll and ready for the inevitable.
[I'm just me. I fight, love, kill according to my rules, not according to your image of me. I still care about you though. You don't have to leave.] She wanted to look strong, to keep her smile and poise, yet that failed as soon as she saw the red eyes turn lilac and grow sprigs of teardrops. Not at all like the girl she knew and frankly, kind of scary in that respect. [Please stop, I don't know what to do with a crying human.]
"Grow a goddamn heart for starters. And lend me your sleeve, I don't want to get your good robe dirt." Seeing as said robe was covered in grey dust, that remained questionable even as she scrunched up her sleeve to wipe up the offending salt water. "You know you could always come back with me, we can find you work that's, you know legal and stuff. My dad would probably let you teach at Signal, you're definitely good enough."
[That's not how this ends. One thing though, this was not a mistake.]
"Yeah, but this still sucks. I wasn't planning to break up with my girlfriend after a week."
[You know, as long as they don't revoke my card I can still visit.]
"I don't think my team will be happy with any 'hanky-panky'."
[Shit, I'd be happy with a sparring partner.]
"That I think we can work with."
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
So to Cloy552, this is where I use the hair. I actually forgot about it for a good three chapters and hopefully put it to good use here. Thanks for the reminder though.
Yeah, I know this feels like a bit of a cliffhanger and yes I am breaking up the ship. I said I would try to avoid complete AU, and so far Volume 3 has made this my best choice. Next chapter will try to clear up the outcome of this little fiasco and leave it open ended enough in case things change. Hopefully so considering my favorite character has so little screen time.
I also feel like I should defend a point here for Neo's sake. Speaking from experience, making a long-term condition flare up is in fact more mind-boggling painful and attitude changing than a punch to the head or kick to the balls. Honestly, if anyone did it to my bad shoulder, I would probably be the one sending them through a wall (though not cinderblock, more like drywall or sheet wood). And empathy also goes straight out the window.
As a side note, I am thinking of doing another work after this and some opinions would be nice. It would probably be more one-shotty, but I would probably try to keep it at least similar in characterization to D.R.
