Volume 1

Chapter 28

Contest

Part 4


"That was a pretty good move there at the end, Lee."

A slight sigh, as Lee shifted his gaze from the window back to his miniscule partner, currently seated in his lap, with her feet propped on the armrest of her own seat to Lee's left. Where she was currently supposed to be sitting… Not that Lee ever expected her to actually use the seat, when she was presented with such a perfect excuse to sit on him instead. The duo were currently on the monorail system, which would take them back to the section of the city in which they lived. It was, perhaps, a slightly inconvenient way to travel (at least to Lee, who had grown up in a suburban area, with his own personal automobile), but after about nine months on Remnant, he was well aware of the necessity of mass public transit in the overcrowded cities of Remnant. Still, the presence of his shor- fun sized companion made the trip bearable. Even if she was currently staring at him in a way that let him know that she wanted answers.

Not that Lee was going to give in that easily. "It was, wasn't it?" Lee opined with a shameless grin; humility was overrated. "Thanks for noticing. That girl never stood a chance, eh?"

Deadpan quickly gave way to bemusement, and with good reason; just that morning, Lee had been extremely uncomfortable with receiving praise. Yet, here he was, seemingly lapping it up without shame. It was clearly a front, and they both knew it… But, Lee felt like he could live for the way the corners of Neo's mouth turned up into a little smirk, her eyes sharpening in preparation to engage in a battle of wits. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. You came…oh, I'd say about this close to losing by ring out." Neo retorted, holding her fingers close together in front of Lee's face for emphasis. "Had your hook shot been off by even a single degree…"

The moment was brief, but it took all of the will power Lee possessed to resist the urge to pout and complain about the fact she zeroed in on the one embarrassing moment during the match. Instead, with the same faux-cockiness, Lee simply replied: "But it wasn't."

"True, true, you managed to save yourself from an ignoble defeat… But how does it feel to know that face plant will likely be viewed for generations to come as an example of centrifugal force?"

It truly was a tragedy that Lee had just expended all his will power on the previous remark; this time, he couldn't help but deflate. "At least it proves that my weapons do their job…" He grumbled, eliciting a victorious chuckle from Neo.

"True, true," Neo admitted, gracious in her victory, before continuing on. "Seriously though, that sequence at the end. It was pulled off way too well for you not to have rehearsed it, and I would have seen it at some point if you had. So am I right in thinking that was a move she once used?"

Lee's lips curled into a grimace, eyes slightly downcast as he nodded, confirming her theory. "Yeah. She… Ehehe… used it on me…" Lee murmured, the scar on his face twinging as he recalled the memory once again.

A soft hand placed itself on his cheek, thumb gently tracing the line that the wound had made across his cheekbone and eyebrow. "Amazing that she didn't take half your head off with that one…" Neo murmured in return.

"Or that I didn't kill Talon…" Lee responded, the gloom in his voice clearly showing which prospect he was more bothered by. Which caused Neo's other hand to cup his other cheek, giving her the ability to firmly hold his head in place while glared sternly up at him.

"Mope all you want about what we do, Lee, but remember this: you. Are. A. Chupping. Badass! Maybe it's your Semblance giving you the edge. Or maybe it's just natural talent. Either way, you are way too smart and way too quick to end up accidentally killing someone without meaning to. Or do you not remember our fight from a couple months back? The one where you had me pinned to the wall? Do you have any idea how statistically high the odds were that one of us should have skewered the other in that situation?"

"Of course I do!" Lee retorted, outraged at the thought that Neo might not believe him to be aware of just how close they had come to accidentally killing each other.

"Then you're also aware that the reason we beat the statistics is that between the two of us, we. Are. Awesome! We were both ballsy enough to attempt it, and quick enough to succeed, without actually skewering each other. And you showed the same thing today against Talon! You, the teenaged newbie, defeated the tournament veteran, and broke her visor while doing so! You might not have expected that to happen, but the fact that you managed to avoid skewering her while doing so just proves your reflexes were enough to make up for it! You're awesome, Lee, so quit moping about the unfair advantage you've been given by absorbing Summer Rose and just accept it! Learn to control it if you must, but don't let it get you down when things like that happen! I don't like seeing you get upset like that…"

By the end of Neo's pep talk, Lee had to admit that he was feeling just a little less sorry for himself. Though there was a part of him leftover from his old life that would have preferred to remain horrified at the path his new life had gone down, the fact of the matter was the same as it had been months ago: he could either adapt to his new life, and accept what came with it, or he could succumb to despair, and be defeated. He might not necessarily enjoy the… collateral damage that his new life tended to leave in its wake, but now that he was thinking clearly enough to realize it was either acceptance or despair… Well. He wasn't about to give up; he wasn't about that. Instead, he would have to continue to hone his skills, so that he could become capable of preventing said collateral damage. Which brought him to his next point:

"And why is that?" Lee asked, a warm, genuine smile on his face. While the actual, physical collateral damage of his actions thus far might have been the main source of his melancholia, he was well aware of the other, more emotional damage he'd left in his wake… Or, perhaps he was merely in danger of causing emotional damage. He was unclear when exactly things between himself and his pint sized best friend had reached this point, but he was reasonably certain that it was no longer purely platonic…

Neo, hands still on Lee's face, flushed prettily… And wasn't that an indicative thought? To her credit though, she maintained her composure, and rather than yank her hands away and attempt to avoid the question, Neo calmly lowered her hands to her lap, and maintained her gaze, albeit with an embarrassed expression. "I didn't even mean to say that out loud… C'mon, are you really going to make me say it? You know as well as I do that it's pointless right now…"

Lee's own smile became just a little bit pained at that; as was par for the course when the two would hold a serious discussion, he couldn't exactly refute her words. And it was his own damn fault, no point in trying to deny it. He might not have been able to point to a clear point in time where he could say that his flirtation with Neo had stopped being purely a joke, but he could not deny that it had been before his fling with Emerald started. He wasn't about to say he regretted that fling; regardless of the current mess, he cared about both girls. But he could not deny that his current relationship with Emerald had been born mostly from circumstance and convenience. Had they not gone through the chain of coincidences that had led to them exploring a physical relationship together, and allowed things to progress naturally instead… Or, perhaps, had another chain of incidents occurred simultaneously between himself and Neo… Well. Lee was honest enough with himself to know that it wouldn't have been much of a choice, and that all parties involved would likely be a fair deal happier with the situation. He certainly could have given Neo the kiss she deserved for talking him out of his gloom so easily. Instead, he was forced to make do with claiming one of the dropped hands with his own, gently entwining his fingers with her smaller ones.

"That might have been true before, but I think a certain little ray of sunshine has helped me to see the light." A small part of Lee wanted to cringe for saying something so cliche, but the rest of him brutally forced that thought down; he and Neo could and likely would share a good laugh about that later. For now, though, he was too busy trying to communicate that he knew just how messed up he'd made the situation, a task far too important to deflect with humor. "I've come to realize that, assuming I'm still here in 10 years, it isn't Emerald that I envision beside me…"

At that, Neo's mouth opened, and her eyes cycled through their colors just as fast as her face was cycling through emotions. However, Lee cut her off before she could do or say anything further. "I know, I know, I haven't given you much reason to believe that; quite the opposite, in fact. And I respect you too much to start making promises before I've taken care of the problem. I don't deserve it, but all I ask is that you let me start to prove it."

Indecision; he could see it warring in Neo's eyes. Elation, that he had finally admitted to what they had been dancing around for… weeks, by now, if not months. Quickly accompanied by trepidation as to whether he was being sincere about everything he had just said; the morning's incident, for example, might have led to this. Consideration, as she began to worry her lower lip; if Lee knew his best friend as well as he thought he did, she was thinking back to how carefully he had taken care of her while they had both been wounded, and how far he had gone to make her happy. Finally, he could see acceptance win out, and the smile returned, this time looking both pleased and comfortable.

"It's not like I'm going anywhere, Lee. Just don't make me wait 10 years to do this again."

"Of course I wo- wait, wha-mmmph!" In hindsight, it should have been obvious what Neo was about to do. In the moment, however, Lee was caught off guard. One moment, Neo was smiling warmly up at him. The next, a pair of small, soft lips were pressed up against his own. Pink and brown fireworks went off behind his eyelids as he relaxed into the touch and tenderly returned the kiss; despite the relative difference in their sizes, there was a sense of rightness to it that would not allow Lee to pull away, as much as the noble, rational part of him might have wished to. Thus, it went on for an endless moment, Lee thinking about nothing but kissing the girl in his lap, who he was relatively certain he had grown to love more than life itself, even if he could not allow himself to say it quite yet. Instead, once they separated, he was forced to content himself with a wide grin and a murmured "Woah…"

"Like I said, don't keep me waiting." The ice cream themed girl replied in a smug tone of voice that was entirely at odds with her red face, before leaning sideways into his chest, effectively hiding her face from him.


Now, I realize that might seem like it was relatively unimportant compared to everything else that was going on at that point; what does it matter if Neo and I finally got together, compared to me qualifying for the MRCT and the revelation that I could consciously access some of Summer's memories? To someone like old Ironwood, probably a fat load of nothing… But anyone who has met the both of us should understand that where one of us goes, the other is right there beside them. That's why Neo's role in this timeline is so different from the one you were likely expecting to see. Yes, we were still on the wrong side for the Fall of Beacon… You have to understand though: neither of us wanted that! We… I…

I'm getting worked up again… sorry. Like I said, gotta keep it chronological. Shit… okay. Just… give me a second… Alright. So, Neo and I are now a thing, or at least about to be, and I've just qualified for the MRCT. Let's see, what's next… Oh, duh. The tournament itself. I placed well in it, but, of course, that wasn't the only thing important to have occurred during that time...


I'm back! I don't know why it took me so long to get over my writer's block on this chapter, but I finally did it! I wasn't originally going to have them get together this early... In fact, they weren't going to get together until Dance Dance Infiltration! But, that would have been an awkwardly long time to have that much unresolved sexual/romantic tension, to say nothing of the added Emerald variable, so after a whole year and a freaking half (probably closer to 2 or 3 if you consider how long it took to get the previous updates out), I figured it would be better to just resolve that now and simply keep moving forward. I won't promise any sort of regular update schedule since I seem to be terrible at keeping to those, but I can promise that I won't keep you all waiting another year and a half for the next chapter. So, please, read and review! Tell me what I'm doing right, and tell me what I'm doing wrong, so I can keep it all in mind as I continue to write. I am *very* uncomfortable with writing romance, so feedback on that in particular would be highly appreciated :)