Cover art: Seshirukun

Chapter 3 - Pillow Talk

The bed squeaked like an open door left swaying in the wind as Jaune picked up the pace, desperately using the last of his energies to keep going. His lungs burned in his chest. Screw it. He didn't need to breathe. He just needed this. All he ever needed was this.

Neo lay beneath him, smiling like a queen and breathing softly. For someone without a voice, those noises she made were music to Jaune's ears. She was always the one in control, even when he hovered over her. If anything, she was more dominant in this position. Her arms and legs could wrap around him, ensnaring him like prey in a trap, dictating the flow of the pace. Whenever he felt worn out, he'd look down and become entranced by her eyes, hypnotised to keep going. His body was her instrument, and she was a damn good musician.

Jaune felt something familiar stir. He could power through his exhaustion, but there were some things he couldn't control. "Neo!" he gasped. "I think-"

Her legs squeezed tighter around him. No escape. He looked down and saw the look she was giving him. The same look that urged him to keep going, and the one that always pushed him over the edge.

He didn't resist. No man could.

Jaune gasped as he let himself go. His body moved slowly as he tried to savour the feeling. A rush, a glimmer of heaven, that faded as soon as it arrived. It was deliciously unfair and he wouldn't trade it for anything.

He looked down at Neo, breathless and drained. Her legs remained firmly locked around him. Some things didn't need to be said. She was satisfied but not finished. He kissed her deeply and slowly. He swore he heard something akin to a purr rumble from within her.

She loosened her grip moments later. He reluctantly removed himself to go to the bathroom and clean up. He binned his protection and examined his reflection in the mirror. Messy hair, body slick with sweat, a smile that wouldn't go down. It was a good look for him. He wouldn't mind seeing it again many more nights from now.

He sometimes wondered how thin the walls were. Could anyone hear them? Did he give people like Ruby and Weiss traumatised nights with the sound of his moans? If they did... too bad. With Neo being mute, someone had to be the vocal one in the relationship.

He came back and lay down next to Neo. He could've fallen asleep right then and there. Had he the energy, he would've laughed at how absurd it was. He never thought sex would tire him out so much. In his fantasies, he imagined himself going for hours. That's what the actors in all those videos seemed to do.

He felt Neo poke his cheek. She was resting on one arm, grinning at him.

He smiled. "What?"

"Your face."

"What's wrong with my face?"

"You look like when we did it the first time."

He kissed her lightly on the lips. "That's because it never gets old."

Excitement raced through him at the sight of her naked body. It was hard, but he had to remind himself he was still tired. He'd never last if they did it again immediately. He needed a distraction.

He sat himself up, using a pillow to support his back. "Now, you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, and you can even hit me if you want. But I wanna know, what was your first time like?"

"I don't remember his name." Neo signed, not bothered by the question. "He was one of those midnight escorts. That's what they like to call themselves."

"A prostitute?"

"Yeah, but not in that way. Not like some cheat hooker you see on the streets. A professional, business card and everything. One of those boys rich women hire when they're fed up with their husbands."

"Didn't realise there was a real business for that sort of thing," Jaune said. "Sounds classy."

"You disapprove?"

"Not at all. Although I do find it funny. This is probably the first time I've heard you pay for anything."

Neo shrugged. "I knew I didn't wanna give my first time to one of Torchwick's goons. It was the best option for me, someone safe with experience that I could experiment with. Once I was confident with what I wanted and enjoyed, I started branching out to other people."

"We talking normal people or fellow criminals?"

"Fellow criminals. The less civilians know your face, the better."

"You could've used your semblance to disguise yourself."

She snorted. "You must be having the most boring sex in the world if you're still able to concentrate on something else. Anyway, everyone I was with knew what the deal was. I wasn't gonna waste my time on idiots thinking they were hot shit getting lucky. They played by my rules, otherwise they were out on their ass."

It was strange being able to talk about sex so casually. Back at Beacon, Jaune would've stumbled his way through the conversation had the topic been brought up, especially by a girl. That being said, he didn't feel impressed with himself either. It just felt natural.

"And what rules were they?" he asked, twirling a finger around one of her brown locks.

"Well, the obvious one is I'm always on top. You can guess why."

"Weird," he hummed. "Could've sworn we broke that rule earlier."

"Guess we did. Oops."

"What's gonna happen to me now?"

She had a mischievous thought in her head. He could tell. "Haven't decided yet, but you'll know when I do."

Scary. He couldn't wait.

"Alright, now it's my turn to ask you a question."

"Me?" he said, feeling a bit surprised. "What's there to ask? You already know you were my first."

"Not that. This one's more fun. When you were back at Beacon, who did you wanna bang the most?"

He nearly choked. Okay, turns out there were a few questions that could catch him off guard. "Geez, I don't even know how to answer that!"

"Don't act like you've never thought about it before. Just whatever you do, don't say Ruby."

"Why, because she would've been fifteen at the time?"

"No, because she sucks."

He had to laugh. Were those two ever gonna play nice? "I don't have a choice in this, do I?"

"Nope."

Alright, lemme think."

She raised an eyebrow. "You have to think about it?"

"Yeah, I have to think about it. Stuff like this wasn't always on my mind. Well, not often anyway."

"Sure." She signed it slowly to stretch out the word. If she had a voice, it would be full of sarcasm.

"To be clear, this conversation never leaves this room."

Neo winked. "I won't say a thing."

"Funny." Jaune went quiet as he concentrated. The faces of all the girls he knew rolled through his mind like symbols on a slot machine. It was gonna be weird talking about them in terms of sex appeal. Weird and kinda wrong. Oh well. It was only a game, right? Just a bit of fun.

God, now he really hoped no one could hear him.

"Well, we can eliminate Nora for obvious reasons," Jaune began. "She and Ren were made for each other. There was no point in thinking about her that way."

"Didn't you say you had a thing for the Schnee back then?"

Jaune groaned. "Oh god yeah. That was a cringey time. I thought I was in love with her. A girl I just met who wanted nothing to do with me. Like I said, cringe."

"Then there's your answer."

Jaune scratched his head. "I dunno. I wanted to be her boyfriend so bad, yeah. But I was so focused on that, having sex with her never really occurred to me. It was like a plan: become her boyfriend first, worry about the other stuff later. And since I was always stuck on step one, I forgot about everything else."

"Romantic."

Jaune scoffed. "I dunno about that. I think I just lack imagination. Plus, I can't really picture her having sex with anyone. I think she'd be like, 'that's so shameless!' or something like that." He laughed again. "She'd definitely kill me if she heard me now."

"What about your partner?"

Jaune felt his heart grow heavy for a moment. "Pyrrha," he murmured. "I... tried not to look at her that way. We were partners and best friends. I didn't wanna ruin that by asking her out. If she said no, it would just make things awkward for us and it'd be my fault. Though I guess in hindsight, I should've taken the risk."

Neo winced. "Sorry. Touchy subject."

Jaune shrugged. "Don't worry about it. She wouldn't want me to dwell on the past anyway. Let's move on."

"Fine. What about Yin?"

"You mean Yang."

"Yeah, whatever, her."

Yang should have been another obvious pick. She was a popular one amongst the boys at Beacon. Funny, badass, drop-dead gorgeous. And yet…

"Yang… the hair kinda gets in the way. All my family is blonde, so it would be like doing it with one of my sisters. I'm open to a lot of things, but I'm NOT into that."

Neo made a giggling motion. "Are you sure nothing can leave this room?"

"Positive."

"Just think of the reactions. They'd be great."

"I know what I said. And before you bring up Blake, she always spooked me a little. She spoke almost as little as you, and she was always reading the weirdest books. I think she'd sooner put a curse on me than sleep with me."

Neo rolled her eyes. "I don't believe it. You're seriously telling me there wasn't anyone you wanted to screw? What kind of backwards teenage boy were you? You're just lying at this point."

Jaune chuckled. She made a fair point. He wasn't gonna pretend to be a pure-minded saint with no dirty thoughts in his head whatsoever. His sisters once thought that growing up with lots of girls would turn him into the perfect gentleman. One accidental internet search quickly dashed that dream.

That said, he avoided having such thoughts about his friends. The more you got to know someone, the harder it was to think about them in such a perverted way. That only left people outside of his friendship group. But did anyone come to mind?

Actually, now that he thought about it...

"Alright, alright, if you must know I guess there was one," he said. "There was a girl called Velvet. A rabbit faunus. She was a second year, so she was already out of my league. She was a bit like Ruby - cute, but could still kick your ass if you crossed her. But she was more mature about it given how, you know, she was older. To top it off, her accent was awesome. I don't know where she's from, but it made her sound cute and sexy at the same time. I remember thinking, 'oh yeah, I'm totally into that.'"

"So, you're into bunny girls then?" Neo grinned. "Interesting."

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Don't word it like that. I just gave plenty of other reasons why I had the hots for her. Her having big bunny ears was just a bonus. So yeah. if I had to choose, I guess it'd be her."

"You know what they say about rabbit faunus, right?"

"I feel like that's gonna be racist, so I'll stop you there." He wrapped his arms around her. "Anyway, who cares about that now? You know you're the only one of my mind."

A lazy finger trailed its way up past his abs and along his chest "Maybe I just wanted to know how many girls I stole you from."

"Uh, this is me we're talking about. I didn't exactly have a conga line of girls waiting for me."

"Fine. I like easy wins anyway."

Holding her like this, feeling her soft body against his. She knew exactly the effect she had on him. His excitement, what was once repressed and controlled, rose through him again. She moved so that she was on top where she belonged. He lay there in silence, admiring the sight before him. How could he choose anyone else over her?

He was helpless against her kisses, the way she slowly rubbed against him. She was driving him crazy. He felt himself brush against something tempting but dangerous. His last bit of common sense gave him clarity.

"W-Wait," he hissed. "We shouldn't yet. I'm not wearing-"

"No need," she signed with a grin. "I've been on the pill for a week now."

His heart skipped a beat. "Really? Then why were we..."

"Because I wanted to see this reaction."

She slid him in. His eyes widened. Oh, he reacted alright.