It was supposed to be a one-shot, but whatever.

Bonus Chapter: Figured Out

Yang's eyes cracked open as she lay in bed. As per usual these days, it didn't take her mind long to wander and think about how strange things had become for her. She was dating who would likely be a wanted criminal if people actually knew she existed.

She still had those moments when she questioned herself. How could it possibly be a good idea? Was it not doomed to come crashing down in the worst possible way?

Those thoughts never lasted any longer than it took her to pull Neo close to her. If the action woke her girlfriend up, she wasn't bothered by it.

In the end, Yang had decided that Neo sneaking into their dorm room would just have to suffice as a short term strategy. Yang was hardly shy, but even so it had been a little weird to share a bed with her on literally the same day they'd gotten together.

She'd gotten over that pretty quickly as well. There was nothing like sleeping in the same bed to help you get used to a person in a hurry. It certainly helped that she got to wake up to a cute girl every day.

No, she didn't feel awkward about it anymore, she just felt happy. They'd reached the point where neither felt any reservations about their closeness. Yang knew it was almost artificial in a way. They were still a brand new couple and they had a ways to go. They still had so much to learn about each other.

For now, though, it was still nice. She squeezed the girl ever tighter, earning a startled cough out of her and an elbow to the ribs. Oops.

"Sorry," Yang whispered and Neo glanced over her shoulder, looking a mixture groggy and offended. She must not have been too upset, because she just shut her eyes and nestled closer to her.

"So what's next, you think?" Yang asked after a few more minutes passed. Neo squirmed and wriggled until she was laying on her back and could look at Yang. "I mean, the school year is gonna end soon. Already more than half over. Sneaking into a dorm room is one thing, but..."

Honestly, Yang was totally on board with letting Neo live with her at this point, but she just didn't want to lie to her dad about who she was. What if her dad wasn't cool with her? What if he went nuclear and forcibly tore them apart? She was pretty sure Neo could escape in such a situation, but wouldn't that be it? Best case scenario, Neo ran away and they were done for. Worst case, her veteran huntsman father actually managed to catch Neo and Yang doubted she could stop him.

Neo groped around until she found her scroll and began typing away as she always did when she had to get more than a simple concept across.

I can't stay with you?

"Of course you can!" Yang insisted as firmly as she could without alerting the whole room to their conversation. "I... want you to, but I'm worried. We're keeping you a secret here, but we can't do it forever."

I know.

Yang looked at Neo and the unflinching expression she held.

"I mean, if my dad doesn't want you around, that's... gonna be a problem. It'll ruin everything."

I don't care. It's not up to him, is it?

"Well, no, but what if he doesn't just leave it up to us either?"

We figure it out.

"Just like that, huh? Sounds... risky?"

I prefer exciting.

"Not sure that's the word I'd use." Yang still wasn't convinced. Just because part of her still expected an inevitable crashing and burning of their relationship didn't mean she wasn't terrified of that moment, and she certainly didn't want to hurry it along.

Neo began writing another response, but then seemed to hesitate and delete it. She began writing again, every now and then pausing to look at Yang. Each glance seemed more fervent and fleeting than the last.

"So, uhh, y-you writing a novel or what?" Yang laughed. "Kinda makin' me nervous here. You aren't breaking up with me, right? Ripping off the bandage isn't quite the fix I was looking f-" Neo silenced her with a kiss, and then bit her lip before pressing the send button on her scroll... and vanishing.

Yang blinked in surprise as her scroll trilled that it had received a message. She hated it when Neo did that, but there was nothing left to do but read the message Neo had left her.

You were right about me. On the train. None of that was my idea, but at the end of the day I let Roman make the call. It was the first time I really thought about my future, because it was the first time I was ever worried I might not have one. Roman said it was happening no matter what, and he wanted to be on the winning side. Doing stuff so crazy, I wasn't sure we'd be around to even see who won, but I figured we had to stick together no matter what.

It's not like I cared what we were doing. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a good person. The plan was never to wipe out the whole city, we knew the grimm would be stopped eventually so I never wasted time worrying about it. Roman taught me to survive, to look out for myself first. I'm not sure I'll ever stop thinking that way.

You stopped me, though. Helping you kept me from becoming an even worse person. You gave me a chance. I'm still not good, and maybe this message just made that more obvious, but I hope you still will. Meeting you was my one opportunity to pull away from all that.

I know what you just said, so I'm sorry if this is goodbye.

Yang was bewildered. It was all in writing, but Neo had never expressed so much all at once before. She reread it a few times.

I'm not a good person.

Yang bit her lip. It was true, wasn't it? She'd admitted that she didn't care what she had been helping them do. Yang could see it in her actions, too. Neo was selfish. Even the act of turning away from it all was just her selfishly chasing what she wanted.

Her.

Yang began typing her own response.

Get your ass back here now.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when Neo materialized once more right in front of her, her face scarlet. Apparently she'd never left.

"Stop giving me that look. This isn't goodbye!" She didn't feel like stringing Neo along. Besides, she didn't trust Neo not to pull another disappearing act before she could get her point across if she minced words. "Yeah, maybe you were kinda horrible in the past and maybe you're still a little morally compromised, but I don't wanna think about what you'd be without me. I stopped you once and I'll do it again and next thing you know you'll be on the road to sainthood."

Neo just buried her face beneath her palm.

Yeah right. She typed out.

"True, that'd be boring anyway."

Neo set her scroll aside and motioned something out with her hands.

"Still don't understand that." Yang frowned and Neo puffed her cheeks out, looking away. She took a breath and motioned again, but with much simpler gestures. She pointed to herself, placed her hand over her heart, and then poked her finger against Yang's chest.

Yang figured that one out quickly enough.

"O-oh..." She swallowed hard as Neo grabbed her scroll again.

By the way, you need to hurry up and learn sign language. My fingers got tired typing all that.

Yang just chuckled, glad for the break in the mood. Further, she was glad Neo wasn't holding her sudden declaration over Yang. She wasn't ready to respond to that, but hoped she would be before too long.

"Obviously I'm working on it, but isn't it still all hands either way?" Yang teased her. Neo just pouted at the jab, but seemed happy at Yang's insistence that she would "obviously" be learning her language.

"You're right, though. We'll figure it out. I mean, you sorta derailed an entire evil plot, literally, just to get with me. That's gotta earn a few points from my dad. You even put your old partner in jail, so we got proof you're legit," Yang said. "So short version is I got your back. I'll just tell Ruby to turn on the waterworks if he tries to break us up. He'll never be able to resist."

Yang had been hoping for a kiss, a hug, or even just another adorable blush from the girl as a reward, but instead she just looked away and pursed her lips.

"Neo? What? What's with that look?" Yang raised an eyebrow.

It was at that moment that Neo experienced the most bullshit timing to ever befall her.

"What the hell?! He escaped?!" Blake's appalled cry came from the bunk below them.

"What? Who?" Weiss asked her.

"Roman! I just read on the news that he escaped his cell! He's gone!" Blake exclaimed. "Ugh, this is not what I wanted to wake up to today!"

Neo was already sweating.

"Neo..." Yang said in a low growl. "What did you do?!" Neo just shook her head rapidly. "Neo. What did you do?" Just silent staring, but Yang grabbed her wrist before she could pull another disappearing act. "What. Did. You. Do?"

Neo just burrowed into Yang's chest as if it would allow her to hide from the consequences of her actions.

"Seriously?" Yang let out a long sigh. "You couldn't have at least talked to me first?"

Yang's scroll trilled again. I'm sorry.

"Promise me it has nothing to do with the evil plan?"

He was my partner. I couldn't live with that hanging over me. I told him to just go far away.

"Yeah, I get it..." Yang patted her on the head. When Neo had admitted it, Yang had immediately thought back to her big message, the part where she'd said they'd had to stick together. Apparently there had been a limit to how much she could give up all at once. She couldn't really fault her for it. Hopefully Roman just took the opportunity and disappeared rather than causing them more trouble. "So are you telling them you did it or am I?"

Neo's head shot up and stared at her agape, looking betrayed.

"Look, I'll back you up, but I'm not lying to them."

But Blake will yell at me and Weiss will make loud noises.

"Good point." Yang sighed. "I should get ear plugs first."

You're a horrible person.

"I know. It's why I'm perfect for you, right?" Yang winked. Neo let her body go slack, accepting her defeat. She made a weak gesture with her hand that Yang assumed meant "fine," but then tapped her lips. "I suppose that's a fair trade."

Yang rolled over and planted a kiss on Neo. She held it until she could feel Neo begin to squirm and get lost in it. She pulled away to a look of protest and then took a deep breath and called out, "So Neo's the one who let him out!"

"OH, WHAT THE FU-"

The end!

I had always wanted a cute little scene that included Yang finding out that Neo let Roman escape. And yes, that was Neo in disguise as Mercury in the bonus scene in case the "silent" smirk didn't give that away.

She figured if she was gonna break the law one more time, she might as well implicate one of the other bad guys in the process.

Anyway, Neo and Yang, or "Baked Alaska" is one of my favorite ships, not because I necessarily believe they'd be a good couple canonically, though I don't see why they couldn't be if the effort was made, but because I just like both characters so much. Why not just mash them together?

See you around!