"I just wanted to say thanks and all." Again that blonde dweeb said something that made Neo stiffen a bit. She was never used to hearing anyone say thanks, most men would rather curse her out before she silenced them. Roman never even properly thanked her in any way, closest thing being him acknowledging the pile of dead bodies she made for him. So to get a proper thank you from someone was not something she was mentally prepared for. Her mind was blank as she looked at her scroll, reading nothing.
The two had made it to the safe house and Neo went inside. It was late but not late enough to sleep. She opened the small fridge next to her bed and pulled out a snack. Munching on the chips her eyes wandered over to the door that led to the living room. She could imagine Jaune lying on the couch, brushing on his bruise and groaning as he tried to make himself comfortable. Finishing the bag she threw it to the side and got up, heading to the door. Opening it sure enough Jaune was lying on the bed, his hand massaging his left side.
She leaned over the couch and stared down at Jaune, opening his eyes as he looked at her. "Uh, hey Neo. What uh, what are we doing?" Neo took another second to look at him, she studied his face, checking each and every part. After 5 seconds she went back to her room, leaving the boy completely confused.
It was the next day and Neo was once again bored. She wasn't going to have Jaune do a training session today, rather she had him go and buy supplies for her. Really she just wanted some time alone to think about things. As she thought about her feelings she heard her scroll buzz. Picking it up she read it was from Roman. Hey Neo, need you to do another job. This time simple snatch and grab at 2PM. The guy in the picture is going to be down in south side at Adriox avenue. He has a briefcase, snatch it. Neo gave a silent sigh and she realized it might be another headache to deal with. She took out a piece of paper and wrote down another note for Jaune and headed out.
Jaune was confused out of his mind with a specific somebody. Last night Neo just stared at him for no reason and upped and left. He would be lying if he said it wasn't exciting to be stared at by such a pretty girl but the fact that he somewhat knew the girl made his mind race. What even was that? Now he was out shopping, Neo not even coming out of her room just sent him a list of stuff she needs. Well without much to do other than training he supposed that it wasn't the worst way to kill time, still Jaune hoped this wouldn't become a routine. Entering the store he went and grabbed each item on the list, soap, toothpaste, conditioner, and tampons. Usual stuff needed to keep hygiene was all that he thought. Still he guessed some guys would be uncomfortable picking up some of these items, but his sisters made that experience nothing but an afterthought.
Finishing up he then headed outside, he still didn't know what else to do but felt his stomach grumble. Guess he could eat. Walking down the road he saw the usual diner, though it felt weird seeing it without Neo accompanying him. Either way he entered to be welcomed by LaTasha.
"Hey sweet pea, what can I get you?" She said as she showed Jaune to a booth.
"Oh a ham rye and coke." LeTasha nodded as she wrote down the order and walked over to the kitchen. For once Jaune was left completely alone, with no one watching him or telling him to do something. Don't get him wrong, he liked the quiet as much as the next guy, but when you've killed your first grimm, well things change. His candle for adventuring was relit, he never thought he could do it but now he could.
LeTasha brought Jaune's sandwich and coke and walked off, filling another patron's coffee mug. Jaune sat in silence as he ate his food, scrolling through the feed on his scroll.
If Jaune was bored out of his life Neo was bored out of existence. There was nothing exciting or fun of just waiting around for some schmuck with a briefcase. Didn't help that Roman wouldn't tell her what was in it, even specified not to open it. How could you tell Neo not to open it and expect her curiosity to not be pushed? Was it dust? Secret files? Maybe even some risque pictures of a politician, either way Neo needed something to fill the boredom she felt as she waited for the so-called package. She supposed she could go back to thinking about Jaune, though anytime she tried it would lead to a headache and even more confusion. You know what? She'll just put it aside. Better to just ignore the problem than tackle it when there is no real plan.
With her mind made she was able to focus more on the sidewalk, scanning each face for the man. Looking at her scroll it read 2:03 and sure enough the man with the briefcase arrived. Neo quickly hopped off the roof she was standing on and into an alley next to the sidewalk. She waited for the man to pass by and when he did she grabbed him, pulling him into the shadows.
At first Neo thought it would be a simple snatch and grab, but who would have guessed that the guy could fight. Immediately he broke free from her grip and twirled around to face her. "The hell are you doing?" He quickly reached his left pocket and pulled out a gun aiming it at Neo. In response she created a clone and dashed to the side.
A wave of bullets went flying, breaking the illusion in a second. The man looked around only to get hit on the top of the head by Neo. He yelled as he stumbled forward, twirling once again to gain sight of her. Neo knew she had to react fast and dashed towards him, bringing her parasol up and smashing it into his jaw. Stumbling even more, the man recovered quite quickly and let out another wave of bullets in Neo's general direction. Dodging them she closed the gap again and instead went with a quick combo of hits, hitting his left shoulder, groin, and left thigh in quick succession. With that the man fell to the ground.
Taking a breath she looked for the briefcase. The man didn't have it so he must have thrown it somewhere, great. She proceeded to look around for the next 5 minutes, checking each area of the alleyway. Sadly it just so happened to be inside a dumpster, wow what a great day for Neo.
It was 1:54 PM and Jaune had nothing to do. After finishing his lunch he had brought the stuff back to the safehouse only to be met with a note from Neo, Had a job, will be gone. Don't do anything stupid. He couldn't help but feel a bit insecure about the note. He was able to kill a grimm, one of the worst things to exist, yet he was still treated like a dumb child. Granted Jaune knew he was nowhere near the level of an actual hunter, but still he had to at least be above the regular person. Putting the plastic bag in Neo's room Jaune hopped onto the couch and turned on the TV. Like usual, nothing of note. A news report on White Fang, Xray and Vav cartoon, an ad for Pumpkin Peats featuring some pretty girl, nothing that could really keep Jaune entertained. Screw it, he was bored and wanted to do something. He grabbed his gear and headed out, retracing the steps to the place Neo had brought him before.
As he walked through the warehouses he finally found the right one. Knocking on the door a man looked at him.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Uh hi, I'm uh Jaune Arc. I was with a girl named Neo, you know, short, pink, white and brown."
The large man stared at Jaune before opening the door fully. "Come on in."
Once again Jaune was met with the same familiar site. Cages, a cage arena, men all around cheering and drinking.
"Oh hey, it's that kid that killed the beowolf." Jaune turned to his left to see a man holding a cup of brown liquid. He was average build and height but gave off an odd sense. "Heya kid, you did pretty good yesterday. Are you here for another match?" Jaune could only nod, not knowing what else he could even do. "Perfect, listen I got a match against a boarbatusk with your name on it." The man slapped Jaune on the back as he pulled him into the crowd.
As they got closer Jaune could see the match going on. This time it seemed to be a White Fang member, he was holding a large spear and fighting two beowolves. The wolves attacked at the same time, each one coming from the opposite angle. The White Fang member quickly dodged and thrusted his spear into the head of one of the wolves, it cried before dissolving into nothing. Not letting up he charged the wolf and did a wide slash, hitting the wolf's arms. The wolf ignored the attack and jumped at him, tacking the White Fang member to the ground. Overpowered the member tried his best to break free from the wolf as it started scratching at his face. Before it could do anything else, multiple men with ropes quickly entered the cage and pulled the beowolf off the member. They quickly got him up and walked him out of the ring.
"Alright kid, you're up. Here, have some liquid courage!" Before Jaune could even respond the man pushed the glass into his face and the liquid quickly went down his throat.
"What the hell!" Jaune backed off only to be pushed by the crowd. Next thing he knew he was in the arena with a cage being pushed into place. Inside was an angry boarbatusk, huffing and scraping its hoof on the ground. Jaune didn't have much time and quickly got into a stance. Something was wrong though, whatever the man gave him made his body feel heavy. Trying to raise his sword he knew that this was not a good situation to be in.
The cage opened and the boar burst through aiming straight for Jaune. At the last second he was able to lift his shield and parried off the boar's attack. The boar repositioned itself and got ready for another charge. Jaune raised his shield and had his sword at the ready, his best bet being to take it head on or that's what he thought. The boar charged again but went into a curl, spinning at him. Without a way to change his plan the boar crashed into him, sending him flying. He hit the wall and fell onto the ground, the crowd cheering.
Looking at the crowd he could see the man who forced him to drink, he was putting money down onto a table while talking with others. Did he set him up? He didn't have time to think though, the boar repositioned itself again and readied another charge. The drink Jaune took was doing something, now not only was his body heavy but his vision was blurry.
It took him a second to raise his shield again but he was ready for the charge. Nothing could come to mind as he tried to figure out how to deal with the boarbatusk. The boar huffed and charged again. Jaune jumped to the left at the last second, letting the boar smash into the wall. Bingo he thought, until the boar shook off the blow and jumped at Jaune. He told his body to move but it didn't go through, the boarbatusk's horn hit Jaune, the pain was sharp. On the ground Jaune grabbed his chest, trying to recover. Looking up he saw the boar readying another charge. At this point his vision was completely blurry, only able to make out shapes. His heart was pounding, his head was rushing, everything in Jaune's body was overworking trying to figure out how to get out of this situation but nonetheless nothing came too. Jaune could only accept the boars attack and hope that someone stops it before it kills him. Closing his eyes he readied for more pain…
But it didn't come. Opening them he could see a blurry figure looking at him. "Who… Who?" Jaune couldn't even bring the right words as his vision went to black.
Neo couldn't help but have a bad feeling as she looked at the plastic bag. Jaune was nowhere to be seen and his gear was missing. She didn't care if Jaune was going out to eat or something but the fact that his gear was gone worried her. She could only think of one reason why Jaune would take his gear, the arena.
She headed to the warehouse at a quick pace. Something was off, he wasn't responding to her messages. She got to the warehouse door and was greeted by the bouncer.
"Oh hey Neo, you're guy is fighting right now." She pushed past him and saw the scene. Jaune was lying on the floor as a boarbatusk was about to charge at him. Her eyes widened as she dashed towards the arena. Quickly she pulled out her blade from her parasol and jumped over the wall, stabbing the boar right in its head. The crowd went from cheering to silence as they watched Neo walk over to Jaune.
"Who… Who?" Was all he could say. She could smell it, asthia drugs. Something similar to roofies, they were often used as a way of poisoning. There were only a few people who even used it. Scanning, she saw the familiar face. The man's face was blank and when their eyes met he realized the situation. He jumped up only to feel Neo's parasol hitting the back of his head.
As he woke up he saw Jaune lying in front of him, with Neo giving him something.
"Uh hey Neo, weird seeing you. Mind telling me why you hit me?" Neo got up and looked at him with a cold gaze. He knew what trouble he was in, all he could do was try and lessen the pain. "Listen Neo, I didn't do anything. He asked for a fight and I hooked him up, how could I know he was gonna get done so easily by a boarbatusk." She remained silent as she showed him what she was feeding Jaune. It was asthia recovery medicine. "What? You thought I poisoned him? Come on, give me some cre-" He was cut off as Neo's blade stabbed the wall behind him. Fear creeped up on him as he saw his reflection on the thin blade. "Ok so I did give him a drink, but I didn't think it would do anything I swear!" There was no point for bargaining and he knew it, but might as well try. Neo sighed and pulled the blade back, only to bring it down at his head.
Jaune's eyes opened and his head was once again in striking pain. What happened? Where am I? Looking around his second question was answered, he was back in the safe house. To his left he saw Neo looking at her scroll. Looking up, the two stared at each other for a second. It was then that his scroll buzzed with a message.
You were drugged by a guy named Aldrin. He's a snake who bet against you winning. I was able to save you just in time. I gave you medicine but you'll be out for the rest of the day, rest and get better. Well at least that answered the first question.
Once Jaune finished processing everything he looked up at Neo and simply said, "Thanks." Neo blankly stared at him before getting up and walking to her room. As Jaune watched her he could have swore she had a smile on her face.
A/N: So I don't know why but I just suddenly wanted to try writing again. It's been years since I last wrote anything so I'm very rusty. Wouldn't be surprised if I broke a hundred grammar rules. Well whatever. Don't exactly expect chapters to be a norm, this isn't a one and done thing but I don't feel committed to update this constantly. I guess just expect a chapter every once in a while