A/N: You might notice that this story sounds different now, heh. I've also removed several chapters. The reason is that I'm rewriting the story, namely because plot and descriptions sounded far too excessive. Cinder and Neo also both felt out of character to me. So, stay tuned for the revised version! It's going to sound quite different. I hope you enjoy it. :)
A/N 2: Spicecream (Cinder/Neo) is one of my very favourite pairings from RWBY, probably because it features my two favourite characters, heh. If you dislike the pairing for some reason, you are free to state your opinion, but please do so civilly. Thank you!
Disclaimer: RWBY and its characters belong solely to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Oum. Also, I take no credit whatsoever for the beautiful cover art; it was drawn by Michi Tetsugako.
Warning: This story contains sexual content, violence, and some disturbing themes. There are also mentions of PTSD flashbacks on several occasions. If you're under 18 or if such things disturb you, then this may not be the story for you.
Is that what I am to you? A "valuable asset"?
The text message illuminated the screen of Cinder's scroll, creating a stark flash of blue light in the cell-like bedroom that she and Neopolitan were currently occupying on Monstra. After rolling over and reading the text, Cinder slammed her scroll down beside her without replying.
She turned back over in her makeshift bed, which was little more than a shelf of blackened Grimm bone and her own cloak drawn over her for cover. She could feel Neo's mismatched pink and brown eyes boring into the back of her skull, even though the smaller girl had chosen to sleep on the floor.
A few seconds later, another text lit up the screen. Cinder growled softly in her throat and looked at it.
Answer me.
The dark-haired girl slowly sat up. In the shadows of the room, she could make out Neo's form on the floor a few feet away from her. Her mute partner— if Cinder could even call her that— was propped up slightly on one elbow, her scroll lying beside her with the one-sided message thread open. Her gaze was fixed on Cinder, hard and unblinking.
"I hardly thought being described as an asset would offend you," Cinder finally replied, perhaps a little too harshly, with a laugh that sounded forced. "I'm sure you've been called worse things." She looked away, the claws of her Grimm hand unconsciously clenching around the hem of her black cloak. She hated that sometimes it moved without her command.. or sometimes, that it trembled.
It was a few minutes before Neo texted back. This 'partnership' isn't seeming like a partnership to me, the message read. This isn't what I signed on for, and you know it. She gave a sharp gesture at the fleshy walls of the room that was concealed in the depths of the gargantuan whale-like Grimm.
"I gave you a choice back in Atlas."
Neo rolled her eyes and shot back a rapid-fire reply. Such generosity. Accept your terms, or be obliterated.
"You agreed to the terms as much as I did, Neo. First we get what I need, and then we get what we want." Cinder saw the smaller girl bristle, but she took her time in typing a response.
What do you need?
The question caught Cinder slightly off-guard. She'd been expecting Neo to offer one of her usual sarcastic remarks or to simply roll her eyes, turn over, and feign sleep as she'd been doing most nights since they'd collided outside the Spiders' hideout in Mistral. Cinder could probably count on one hand the number of times the girl had actually closed her eyes.
Cinder hadn't been expecting Neo to ask such a simple question. After all, wasn't the answer obvious? The Winter Maiden.. but then Cinder frowned. No, it was a loaded question.
There was only one other thing she craved almost as much as the powers of the Winter Maiden, and that was to feel Ruby Rose's pretty little neck snap under her hands. To see pure terror in those silver eyes that had caused Cinder's own eye and half of her left arm to literally disintegrate. To see the petite, spirited red-cloaked huntress implode like the supernova she was, shattered into nothing but a blind, broken shell of a person.
The bloody death of Ruby Rose was the goal that Cinder and Neo shared, and the foundation for the shaky alliance they'd formed only a week and a half ago. Cinder knew that Neo had her own reasons to cut the throat of "Little Red", even if she'd never said a word about them. She'd never needed to.
I didn't kill your boss, girl.
"I need what's going to keep us alive."
If Neo was surprised or angered by Cinder's response, she didn't show it. She closed her scroll and eased herself down into her sleeping bag on the floor, lying on her back instead of on her side as she usually did.
Cinder remained sitting upright on her bed, but the adrenaline that had been throbbing in her veins a few seconds ago was dying, leaving behind a hollow feeling. Her hands still clenched around her cloak, she glanced over at Neo again and saw that the girl's eyes were closed. Had she actually fallen asleep?
She helped get me to Atlas by disguising that Mistralian airship, Cinder thought. I don't know why I allowed her to live after that. A flurry of memories quickly reminded her why she had, largely revolving around Neo's semblance, which allowed her to create powerful illusions. Most of the time, Neo applied her semblance to herself by completely taking on the appearance of another person when the need arose. However, she could also disguise objects (this was, unfortunately, more taxing on her aura), even making them invisible if she so chose.
Cinder sighed and leaned her head back against the headboard of her bed. A headache was forming at the base of her skull. She drew a deep breath, only to recoil slightly at the familiar but somewhat unpleasant scent of the Monstra air. It was laced with a faint tinge of smoke and blood; something like burned flesh.
She smirked softly under her breath as she remembered the apartment she and Neo had (albeit very reluctantly) shared back in Atlas. That girl had insisted on burning candles every single night they were there. And of course, the candles just had to have the sickening aroma of either vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry.
What else could I have expected from a girl named Neopolitan?
The ghost scent of the candles lingered in the heavy air as Cinder finally turned over in bed, closing her lone eye but vowing not to actually fall asleep.
Cinder had no idea what time it was when she opened her eye. Time was difficult to distinguish in the bowels of the massive Grimm, and unfortunately her room wasn't equipped with any kind of clock. She couldn't rely on Neo, either, as the girl had an annoying tendency to sleep late in the mornings— when she actually slept, that was.
Cinder brushed aside her cloak and stood up, stepping over Neo's slumbering form on the floor and heading for the door that led to the bathroom. Well.. it was a tiny, cramped cubicle, more than an actual room. It contained only a toilet, a shower stall so narrow that Cinder was convinced it had been made to only hold half a person, and a large mirror nailed to the fleshy wall. She'd never understood how Salem had been able to create a floating Grimm with a built-in plumbing system, but she was grateful for the oddity nonetheless.
Cinder shut the door behind her with a soft thump and stripped off her clothes. They still carried the faint reek of Atlesian smog; a scent she hated. She rolled the garments up in a tight ball and tossed them on the floor before climbing into the shower.
A deep sigh escaped her when the warm water flowed over her body, drenching her black hair and streaming down her back. She felt the crippling tension from the day slowly dissolve alongside the dirt and dried sweat that clung to her skin.
The dull ache in her Grimm arm was always present, but over time, she'd learned to ignore it. She was careful not to get it under the water, as it throbbed horribly if it was exposed to natural elements. She used her right hand to gingerly lather the skeletal limb with soap. It was still painful, but she gritted her teeth to get through it. She'd been through far worse, after all.
After awhile, Cinder stopped washing her body and leaned against the wall of the shower, breathing in a deep sigh. How long had it been since she'd felt so warm? She was almost.. sleepy, actually.
She'd almost fallen asleep standing up when the hot water in the shower ran out, and she was suddenly assaulted by a flood of bitter cold. Her body jolted instinctively and she gasped, every muscle and nerve dragging her back to the abyss of frigid water under the Vault of the Spring Maiden. She was sinking again, drowning, frozen.
Powerless..
"NO!"
Cinder lashed out with her Grimm arm, not even feeling the pain as the glass wall of the shower exploded under the force. Sparkling shards flew everywhere.
Her entire body was tense and shaking. The vivid flashback of her near-death experience was burned into her mind, but she was drawing out of it now as she stared at the glass littered across the floor. Her aura had sheltered her from any serious injuries, but a few shards of glass had cut her bare legs in several places, leaving warm trails of blood behind.
Cinder didn't hear the running footsteps at first. She jumped when she realized that the bathroom door had swung open and that Neo was standing there, surveying the shambles of the room. Her mismatched eyes widened in confusion and she slipped into rapid-fire sign language out of habit.
Cinder had picked up a few signs over the last week, but she didn't really need them to understand Neo's reaction. "I'm fine," she muttered through gritted teeth.
Neo glared at her. It was very clear that she wasn't. People who were fine didn't usually stand completely naked in front of others and not even realize it, with broken glass all over the floor and bloody cuts on their body.
"Stop staring like an idiot and get me something to put on." As snappish as Cinder sounded, her words sounded hollow, shaky. She hated it. She turned away, but then looked back a few seconds later, flushing deeper when she saw Neo still standing there in the doorway. "Did you even hear me? Leave," she growled, her still-throbbing Grimm hand clenching into a fist at her side.
Finally, Neo disappeared. Cinder heard some faint shuffling sounds coming from the adjoining bedroom before a few articles of clothing came flying through the door. She gritted her teeth and stepped gingerly out of the shower to avoid stabbing her foot with glass. She muttered a few curses under her breath as she tugged on the fresh clothes— or, what was as close to fresh clothes as she had; a rather faded black dress with long sleeves and a high collar that came up around her neck.
Footsteps startled her again and she glanced up quickly. She stared at Neo, who was now holding what looked to be a tiny bottle of some kind of cream and some rolls of fabric.
"I thought I told you to leave."
Neo ignored her, avoiding the glass on the floor with dainty steps and crouching down on her knees beside Cinder. She placed a drop of the cream on the underside of each bandage— four in total— and then reached for Cinder's right arm.
The maiden jerked her human limb roughly out of her partner's grasp. "Just what do you think you're doing?" she demanded in a hiss.
Neo rolled her eyes, gesturing between the bandages and the cuts on Cinder's skin.
"My aura will heal them, and in the meantime, I'm perfectly capable of bandaging my own—"
Cinder felt Neo shove the sleeve of her dress up quicker than a thought, baring her forearm, and a bandage was stubbornly placed over the wound there. In less than a few seconds, Neo had also covered up the cuts on Cinder's legs.
The dark-haired woman was fuming. She also fully expected Neo to flash her that infuriating trademark smile of hers, just to mock her injury and her shame, but the girl wasn't even looking at her. She stood and walked out of the bathroom, almost as if nothing had ever happened.
Cinder wished she hadn't given Neo a choice in the alleyway at Mistral. The girl was nothing but a headache, constantly flaunting her orders and antagonizing her, apparently for no other reason than her own amusement.
Cinder's head ached. For some reason she couldn't explain, her chest did as well.