Snippet 152

Run the Jaded Jewels 2

Genre: Adventure/Humor

Pairs: Jaded (Mercury/Emerald)

Parody: RWBY/Sonic for Hire

AU-Type: Canon-eqsue AU

Tags: Fall of Beacon never happened, Cinder's plan fails, Emerald and Mercury have standards, New Life, New Struggles, Working for Roman, Neo can be rather cruel

The first night in that crummy apartment was the worst, and it reflected as they woke up. Both were dreaming of a life where they did not have to work for Roman. They both got out of bed and dragged themselves to get some breakfast. Those instant cups of cold cereal with some milk.

"Which one do you want? Pumpkin Pete's or Pop Rock's?" Mercury asked lazily.

"Pop Rock's" Emerald said taking one of them "Mercury, do you have an exit plan?"

"I considered selling the weed, but…that's not going to be a good thing if Roman controls the drug trade. We're going to be hard pressed to sell it and he'll find out…so we're stuck with it." Mercury said as Emerald groaned. "At least, we could smoke some of it."

Emerald would have called it a bad idea at least, but the stress of it seriously considered a joint or two. As they ate, a knock on the door got Emerald to drag herself to the door to see Neo prancing in.

"Ugh, what do you want?" Emerald asked only to be handed a paper bag with a costume.

Neo promptly left and Emerald looked in only to balk. Mercury took one look and was seriously considering making a run for it. But life's never fair. Mercury was just walking security, but Emerald was dressed up as a giant ice cream cone. Neo was opening her new ice cream shoppe having always wanted to. With Cinder out of the game and Vale assured no fall, Neo opened up excitedly holding a grand opening.

"I hate this costume, it's humiliating!" Emerald whined as Mercury sighed.

"It could be worse." Mercury said as a mother and child passed by.

Mercury went inside to continue work.

"Mommy, that woman is dressed up as an ice cream cone."

"A reminder to you to study hard and go to a good school so you don't end up like her."

Emerald would have let go had the mother not whirled around and kicked Emerald to the ground leaving the illusionist floundering on the ground.

"What the hell I even do to you?" Emerald said as the mother ran away. "I hope you get hit by a car!"

Emerald was stuck on the ground floundering calling for help as people apathetically passed her by. She stayed that up for nearly twenty minutes before someone finally helped her up.

"Thank you." Emerald said haggardly.

"You're welcome, but why are you dressed as a frozen treat?" Penny asked innocently.

"I'm supposed to adverstise this ice cream shoppe, but I got shoved to the ground." Emerald said a bit annoyed.

"I know what will cheer you up." Penny said going inside.

She came back with a mint ice cream for Emerald. While Emerald was not exactly in the mood for ice cream, the gesture was at least nice enough for Emerald to accept and thank Penny. Penny waved goodbye and went on her way. Emerald took a little comfort in the little things, knowing it was not going to be all bad. At least she had ice cream, the one comfort on a day that was growing more and more humid. Mercury came out to see on Emerald to find her slumped against the wall panting.

"Please tell me, we can go home." Emerald said as Mercury had a look of relief.

"We can. We were just covering for the actual employees to show up." Mercury said helping Emerald up. "We even got paid."

The moment Emerald got home, she practically yanked off the goofy ice cream costume throwing it into the apartment wall. Along with the rest of sweaty clothes, she plopped on the couch and turned the fan full blast on her naked body without a care.

"You know Emerald, there's another way to cool off. We have a shower…" Mercury said suggestively.

"No, Mercury. I'm tired, and I just want to relax. You're going to have to settle to use your hands to get yourself off." Emerald said fanning herself off. "You can do that next to me, if you want to."

"I'll save it for later..." Mercury said plopping down on the couch.

He turned the television only to see on the news, Tyrian was arrested for attempting to murder a Mistralian huntsman.

"Boring." Mercury said changing the channel.

(A/N: An inverse to The Living Dream, where while it's not a complete nightmare, it's not too pleasant. No, they have to actually work for a better ending and it's a long road. However, I'm marking this complete. The original document that's housed all 150 shorts. Clocked in at about 449 pages, so I'll start up a second document to continue. In other news, next up well be the Remnant's Four Shadows Volume 4 Trailer.)