Cinder glared daggers at the smartly-dressed young man from the door to Emerald's apartment. "I'm being what, again?"
After yesterday had chewed, gargled, and spat her out, Cinder didn't expect to hear anything but news of her immediate termination, perhaps delivered in the form of a supersonic bullet to the skull. Perhaps if her executioner were feeling especially lenient, she'd be informed of her students' conditions, or given some time to write up a last will and testament, before justice was served.
"Temporarily evicted, Ms. Fall." He seemed almost bored about needing to repeat himself. She could have sworn he was looking at her forehead to make it look like he was making eye contact. "As part of the investigation into the recent incident at the Beacon Academy combat presentation halls involving yourself, a" —the man took a moment to look through his legal pad— " Splitbeak? Grimm, and two students who shall not be named, per standard Academy policy, any and all Academy property which may provide useful insight into this case is to be quarantined as soon as possible to prevent disruption of evidence. Of course, you are being given a stipend for room and board in the interim. And should you be cleared of suspicion, the Academy will reimburse any documented living expenses over the course of your suspension."
Cinder blinked, already mourning the loss of the hearty little mint plant which had somehow managed to do more than wilt away immediately under her watch. but she couldn't very well show concern for poor Marbrook Mint in front of a stranger, Cinder's pride was wounded enough already from the events of yesterday and the investigation related to it.
She'd never exactly seen an investigation from this side of things. She understood how they worked well enough from years of avoiding, derailing, or otherwise redirecting them, but had never much cared to find out what it was like to be investigated for something she hadn't planned to be. "So go seal off Arena 'J' then. And leave my apartment out of this."
The man sighed and pressed his legal pad to his forehead in something close to exasperation, his tone somewhere between Salem and Watts on the self-importance scale. " 'Your' apartment is lega—"
" '—Legally the property of the Academy and its partners. Leased to 'Signatory A' for as long as they are employed with the Academy and continually reside within, with no sum leaves of absence oooooaaaaaahhfff— " Emerald's droning recital was cut short by an extended yawn, after which she began a perilous journey from the bathroom, her head still covered by a mint-green bath towel. Cinder couldn't keep her eyes off of Emerald's dripping form while she groggily crossed the living room to the somewhat messy kitchen. It felt like every step she took required Cinder's observation in order to occur at all, like every lean and shuffle needed to be watched and remembered according to some inscrutable law of the universe.
The evictor apparently found shower-fresh Emerald just as enthralling as she had. When Cinder turned back to him, he was staring at the wall like wanting it hard enough would allow him to see through it. A familiar edge entered Cinder's mind at his audacity. No, not audacity. Belligerence .
It was the edge of territory .
Of her territory.
Cinder could feel her mechanical arm's internal workings 'twitching' to open the reservoirs of materials needed to flashforge a blade. She felt the long-useless habit siphoning the power of a Maiden from the tumorous growth on her soul it had once resided in. She wanted to leave this sad little boy in a pool of blood for so much as glimpsing the private life of Emerald Sustrai without permission.
Cinder settled for upping her glaring game from 'daggers' to 'blood-quenched claymores', and stepping out into the hallway.
The man gave his head a shake and returned his attention back to an unamused Cinder closing the door with a silent smoothness than ended with the only sound along the hallway a threatening 'click' of the latch closing. "Err. Yes. Exactly that. Your apartment is technically academy property, and will be searched as part of the investigation due to your… messy history with the families of the two students."
"I see," Cinder said flatly. "When are the investigator's office hours? I need to get some things together if I can't use my apartment for Evernight knows how long."
"Ah, right. Well." The man shifted uncomfortably. "Normally the subject of these investigations is either home or out of town. When you weren't present to request a delay, the head detective began the process immediately. The investigation should be done by the end of the week, if all goes well. But the notice is effective immediately. I'm here to inform you, confirm you're still in contact with at least one of your supervisory contacts, and collect any keys to the location being investigated to ensure its security from tampering during the investigative period."
Cinder thought about what he had said for a moment. She was now effectively homeless, with only really her combat dress, wallet, and whatever else she'd had on her yesterday for the next week, with no real notice. She had been granted the means to go about her life without much interruptions, so she had no legal ground to argue from. And worst of all… "Blinding you with several glass needles isn't going to miraculously speed this process up, is it?" Cinder asked as she almost seductively placed a hand on his shoulder.
Cinder could smell the exact second when her words made it through the young man's skull. She watched as a bead of sweat formed almost immediately at his hairline. "N-no. But it—" He didn't get a chance to finish whatever idiotic, bumbling response he was trying to give. Cinder shushed him with a raised finger.
She smiled sweetly at his rising fear, "I just needed a yes or no." Feeling the rush of power that came with reducing the defiant man to practically a quivering mess Cinder pulled him closer, into something she could quickly turn into a Widow's Embrace, and began whispering in his ear. "Besides, I'm sure I'm only allowed out 'on my own' because I'm not really alone. Isn't that right, Ruby?"
"Wh-... Ma'am, My name is Rhu barb . I introduced myself earlier," he said. Cinder could feel him shift in an attempt to move away from her. "Can… I'm very uncomfortable right now, can you let me go?"
That makes two of us. Cinder thought as she realised he was telling the truth. With a quick push of her Aura, Cinder searched for anyone standing just outside her range of vision. Relieved to find there was no other witnesses she would have to silence, she did her best to smoothly release Rhubarb with a pat on the shoulder and a smile that promised extreme regret should he in any way mention her embarrassing mistake.
Or if she caught him staring at something that was hers ever again.
Wanting to put whole debacle behind her as soon as possible, Cinder reached into one of the pouches along her belt and felt for the ring of mementos that also occasionally held keys, one of which now needed to be removed from its annoying metal home.
After what felt like far too long for something so simple, Cinder finally presented the key to Rhubarb as nonchalantly as she could. "I use a scroll lock, but here. And if there's nothing else..."
"T-thank you, Miss Fall," Rhubarb said, still sweating and panicked by the whiplash conversation. "You should receive a message from the Academy pertaining to your stipend sometime today."
And without so much as another word he bolted for the elevators, leaving Cinder alone in the hallway. Not quite wanting to process learning that she wasn't allowed to go home for a week, she distracted herself by taking inventory of the chain resting in her palm.
There was the key to her classroom; an endearing plastic Ursa which Cinder had long forgotten the original story behind but that had become the closest thing she'd ever had to a pet; a finger-smoothed rock which had once read ' Fate' ; a vial of the Bonding Dust sampled from her first successful mixing experiment with the first period class; and the small black feather she'd received from Brennen last month.
That last one was her current favorite.
And as Cinder turned to re-enter Emerald's apartment, she realised something very important was wrong: the door wasn't letting her in. Until now she had no use for a key, the door would just unlock once her scroll was close enough—Emerald had added her to the whitelist some time ago. But as Cinder searched her pockets and pouches, it dawned on her that her scroll was probably still sitting on the counter next to the coffee machine where she had been standing when the doorbell rang.
I wonder if replacing a door counts as 'living expenses'? Something tells me no…
Sucking up her oh-so-battered pride, Cinder chose the path of least destruction and rang the doorbell, not entirely trusting herself to knock without punching through the door on 'accident'.
What greeted her when the door opened was an… experience. It wasn't as though Cinder was seeing Emerald for the first time. In fact it was almost exactly like every other time Emerald had opened a door for Cinder.
Her hair was mussed and frizzy from the towel, her eyes still half closed, and the towels tied around her doing no favors in the fashion department. But still, there was some aspect to this moment that was paralyzing to Cinder. Some small voice in her head was screaming at Cinder to be an idiot, or to chop off her other arm, or try to do a handstand on the wall.
Cinder wanted nothing more than to do a handstand on the wall right now.
Anything to make that Magic-Damned frown on Emerald's face go away.
"How did you even get stuck out here?"
"I…" Cinder hesitated, which really wasn't like her. Even recently, while being thrown against the nightmarish waves of normality and civilian life after her failures, Cinder couldn't remember hesitating with anyone. It wasn't that she didn't have something to say, or even too many things to say crashing out of her mouth at once. There were only two words on the tip of her tongue, but she just couldn't get them out.
'Thank you' seemed so simple a sentence until it had meaning behind it. She'd said the words before. Made the phonetic sounds to communicate with vibrations of air to another being. But Cinder couldn't remember the last time she had meant them with any sort of authenticity. And now that she had that — meaning, authenticity — she couldn't find the will to actually say the words.
Maybe it was because they meant more than just "thank you for opening this door." Maybe it was because she feared Emerald would think the words too small, or too late, to ever actually mean anything.
So, instead Cinder spun her now single-key chain around her finger and said the only other thing she could think of, "Is the coffee still hot?" which admittedly sounded a lot less prickly in her head.
Emerald rolled her eyes but ushered Cinder in all the same, letting her glimpse her faint smile. "That is part of what a coffee machine is for," she chided.
As Cinder entered the kitchen, she saw that the coffee maker, in fact, hadn't even finished making the pot yet. Her scroll was on top of it, like she'd thought.
Hurrying to grab herself a mug for the bitter brown morning potion, Cinder absent-mindedly left her keychain in front of a bowl containing what she assumed was Emerald's breakfast. Hopefully, the heartburn and caffeine would kickstart Cinder away from the uncharacteristic feelings of attachment she'd been having all morning.
Though given the news she'd just received, one order of business was particularly pressing. "Would you care to accompany me to the mall later? I need some clothes for the next week."
"Do I want to know?"
"Beacon wants to make sure the Splitback going after Jade and Reaper was an accident." Cinder shrugged as she looked up from pouring herself a mug of coffee and saw Emerald playing with the toy Ursa around the rim of her breakfast. "And my apartment is apparently a place for living and plotting revenge."
Really, who plots revenge in their primary residence? Amateurs, and idiots, Cinder scoffed mentally before opening her mouth to ask Emerald about possibly staying with her for the immediate future.
Before she could get a sound out though, Emerald held up the vial of Dust on Cinder's key chain to the light. "Hey, what kind of Dust do you keep on this? Can't say I've ever seen silver."
Silver? Cinder thought.
A/N:
Yeee, Cinder. finally starting to (hopefully) figure things out.
Well, that was... 5 weeks longer than I wanted. My b.
Thanks to Yellhead, DeTimber, and MellowYelloww for the kick-ass beta reader-ing they do.
As always, your toes are gorgeous (and you don't have toes, then I'm sure the nubs are just as beautiful) and I love feedback.