"We can USE this."
Of all the reactions Emerald expected Cinder to have, when of the former's recently changed marital status, these words were quite easily the LAST thing she'd expected.
With her mind needing a moment to comprehend this, Emerald only had one suitable response.
"Huh?"
"Think of it from a tactical standpoint. It's the perfect position for you to glean information from him." Cinder said, smiling up to Emerald, her previous surprise at this development morphing into confidence.
"But… How do we know he even HAS information?" Emerald asked with mild hesitance.
She knew the thing Cinder hated the most was criticism (or signs of independent thought in general), but even with this knowledge, she could not help questioning this line of thinking.
For once, Cinder seemed patient.
"Even if he doesn't," Cinder replied, "assuming one of Ozpin's allies finds us, we have the perfect candidate for a hostage situation, in the worst-case scenario. We will need to find a way back to Salem after all."
"But we can just take one of the boroughs or something out of here." Emerald said. "This is still Haven after all. Some people might even be willing to help us get away, if we pay them enough."
"Perhaps. Regardless, we can make the most of this situation, while it lasts." Cinder said.
"Is this even necessary though?" Emerald asked, frowning. "I'm already walking on thin ice as it is, just putting this façade up. I didn't even plan on it. How long until he starts suspecting something?"
"You managed to fool Ruby's team into trusting you." Cinder pointed out. "What's one little façade more to you?"
Emerald gazed at her, then mentally sighed.
She wasn't going to let her back out of this plan of hers, she thought.
Even if the circumstances were strange, Cinder was still recovering, so this would at least give her time, Emerald reasoned to herself.
"Alright." She said softly, nodding.
By the time that Weiss would return to the room, Jaune had already gotten up and dressed himself in the clothes he could find, after gathering them and showering, the months he'd spent traveling with his friends having numbed him to the luxury of wearing clean clothes each day.
He had walked and searched the room for a long while, and ultimately, when the door reopened and his newly married spouse reentered, he would look back to her.
"Uh… Hey Weiss." Jaune said to her.
"Hey there." She said, crossing her arms in mild discomfort at their current situation.
At least he wasn't nude anymore, Jaune thought, though this didn't extinguish the awkwardness he felt between them.
"You wouldn't have seen my Scroll around here, did you?" Jaune asked her.
"No, why?" Weiss asked.
"I can't find it." Jaune admitted, sighing.
"Oh… that could be a problem."
"You wouldn't have yours by any chance, would you?"
"No." Weiss said. "I don't know where mine is either."
This was a lie, Emerald knew this, but Jaune didn't, and she'd keep it that way.
"We're going to have to find a way back to Haven academy." Jaune told her. "I don't really know my way around this place though."
"We can always ask around for directions." Weiss replied, gently grasping her hands together.
"That could work." He nodded.
"Before that though. We… we have to talk Jaune. About… This."
She lifted her hand up, showing her wedding ring for emphasis.
"Right." He nodded, voice a bit solemn, but him not seeming surprised.
"What do we tell Ruby and the others?" Weiss asked. "Should we tell them?"
"That… depends." Jaune said. "It would make sense to, but… I don't know. I know how annoying I was, looking back, when I tried bugging you about going out with me. So, of course, it wouldn't surprise me if you didn't want this sort of thing to... be a thing."
Weiss seemed to think over his words, then nodded slowly.
"We still have to worry about whether or not I'm… carrying or not now." She pointed out to him.
"I'm sorry." Jaune said. "I didn't mean for it to go this far. I didn't mean for it to go anywhere honestly. I didn't think not remembering something would be so bad. I don't even remember meeting you last night."
"It's a mystery to me too." Weiss frowned.
(Emerald imagined it would've been a much more explosive interaction if the two weren't so drunk that they decided to marry one another in their alcohol-addled minds.)
They fell silent after this, and Jaune wondered what to do then.
"Do you mind if I ask you something else?" Weiss asked.
"Sure. Go ahead." Jaune gestured for her to do so.
"Can you tell me how you and the others have been, while I was away?" Weiss asked.
(Emerald thought back to how Ruby, Jaune, Ren and Nora were traveling seemingly alone until Qrow intervened to fight Tyrian, how Weiss didn't seem to be there until some unspecified time before the fight at Haven.
This would have to do as an excuse for information, from the little she knew about Jaune from after the Fall of Beacon.)
"Uh… we've been fine." Jaune said. "But we already told you how things have been for us, didn't we?"
Weiss blinked in mild surprise, then nodded.
"Yeah, right. I just wasn't sure what to say." Weiss said. "It's hard for me to concentrate right now."
"It's okay." Jaune shook his head. "Do you think we should go soon?"
"Maybe. But there's… something else I wanted to ask." Weiss looked to him. "I remember someone spearing me through with something. But not long after, I remember fighting like normal. You wouldn't know how I managed to do that, would you?" As though remembering something, she quickly added something for an explanation. "The memories from last night in general are really messy."
"That was… my semblance." Jaune explained to her. "I think it helped amplify your aura, so that's how you were able to recover. At least, that's what I think happened."
"I see." Weiss nodded slowly. "Let's have a go at asking around."
"Alright." Jaune began to walk out, and Weiss followed after him.
XxX
Despite their intentions however, when they tried to leave, they learned that the person in charge of the hotel had lent them the room for the time being.
"I wasn't sure exactly what to do with you two." The owner explained. "You two were both drunk, and I could barely make sense of what you were saying. With all the excitement from yesterday on top of that, I just didn't feel right not giving you the extra room."
"Extra?" Jaune perked up.
"Yup. You had a room already, one of you did at least," the owner replied, him looking to Weiss, who seemed to freeze up, "but… I guess you weren't in your right minds either."
"We weren't." Weiss sighed heavily.
"Would it be a stretch to say you don't have the money to pay for both rooms?" The owner said to them, and as the two looked to each other, Jaune rubbed the back of his head.
"I'm sorry, but I…"
"That's fine." The owner said. "If that's the case, maybe you wouldn't mind working it off for a day?"
"Are you sure?" Jaune asked.
"I am. I know it probably isn't the most orthodox thing to do, but I'd rather this than either of you getting attacked by a Grimm somewhere." The man replied, smile growing a bit weary.
Jaune thought about it, then nodded.
"Thank you." Weiss said, nodding to him.
"No problem."
The sound of faucets showering water over metal sinks and stacked plates filled her ears as she entered the back, careful not to let her semblance slip.
It was as they started to wash dishes of foods in the back kitchen of the hotel that Emerald heard Jaune start to talk.
"This really reminds me of how things were back home."
"Home?" Emerald looked to him while making a show of rolling up a pair of sleeves that didn't exist.
"Yeah. I have 7 sisters, so we'd always end up fighting over who had dish duty when the time came." Jaune said, inasmuch to help pass the time as it was him reminiscing, him beginning to go about cleaning dishes.
"Hm." Emerald hummed gently as she looked down at the dishes, beginning to clean them. "It must be nice, having a home like that."
"It is." Jaune said. "Sure, the days I spent with everyone traveling here was fun too, I see everyone as kind of like my second family, but… there's no place like home."
"It really depends on your definition of "home" though." Emerald found herself saying half-mindedly.
Jaune pondered her words.
"That's true too." Jaune looked over to her, then smiled. "But you at least think of us as a second family too, right?"
Emerald fell silent, and though she kept her illusion up, she smiled bitterly up to Jaune.
"I wouldn't know the first thing about having a first family." She told him honestly. "So… Maybe. I can't say for certain."
Jaune seemed taken aback by this, before looking forward.
"We all see you as part of the family, Weiss." Jaune said to her. "Even if we haven't told you, that's how everyone feels, me included."
Emerald became pensive.
"That may be true. But I think it shouldn't always be implied." Emerald said. "Even if it might be awkward, hearing someone say they care is different than someone just acting like they do."
Jaune thought her words over, before nodding slowly.
"That's true. Maybe I should write everyone a letter." Jaune said.
"Even Qrow?" Emerald found herself asking with a glance over to him.
"Sure." Jaune said. "He DID save us when we were fighting that scorpion faunus guy. Though I'm still not sure what to make of him being able to turn into a bird."
"… Does he still carry his clothes and everything like that?" Emerald asked.
Jaune paused in thought.
"I don't know honestly." Jaune admitted. "I've never actually seen him do it. But after everything we've seen of the world these past few months, I wouldn't be surprised if he did, somehow. Though now I'm wondering where it all goes, assuming that's how it works."
"Why don't you ask him in your letter?" Emerald asked jokingly. "It'll be an educational experience."
"He used to be a teacher now that I think about it." Jaune said. "I wonder how that went."
With this line of thinking, Jaune began to wonder how Qrow went about teaching, if his semblance made it so he couldn't stay close to someone without being a living bad luck charm.
"Do you think he'd have a bunch of pillows hang from the ceiling, and part of the training is that the students need to use their auras to sense when it falls to dodge it?" Jaune wondered aloud.
"Why pillows?" Emerald asked.
"I imagined some sword hanging over the seats thing, but that would probably be too dangerous." Jaune admitted.
Emerald tried to imagine it, sitting in a classroom with a sword hanging over a her head, poised to plunge itself down at her at any second.
She vividly imagined Mercury laughing at the dismay of any hapless student who barely dodged the sword in time when it fell on them.
"Yup." She agreed to his sentiment.
They continued to converse in such things for the duration of their time washing the dishes, with Emerald only excusing herself to go to the bathroom.
Upon reaching the inside of the lavatory area, Emerald finally let her semblance rest for a few seconds.
"I don't see this lasting very long." Emerald murmured to herself as she held her head.
Hopefully he didn't suspect anything up to this point.
Looking to herself through the mirror, Emerald found herself gazing thoughtfully forward.
"He isn't obnoxiously happy like Ruby and the others were, so at least it's more bearable." Emerald mused to herself.
Across the city, Ruby suddenly sneezed.
"Bless you." Ren said as he walked with her.
"Thank you." Ruby said, the pair continually looking for their lost friend.
A/N: Have you ever wondered what Qrow's lessons as a teacher at Signal would've been like, given his semblance?
I'm just wondering how that would've gone.
Part of me wanted to add in a conversation between Mercury and Emerald near the end, but I'm still sort of iffy on that part right now.