Emerald, over the course of the next hour, began to wonder if she'd somehow married the biggest trouble magnet of Beacon's former alumni.
She had formerly believed that Ruby was the most appropriate person for this role, and yet, in hindsight, she understood why this was wrong.
It was less that Ruby attracted trouble, but that trouble attracted the scythe wielder like an unseen sixth sense - at the very least, that had been the case while the 15 year old had attended there.
Jaune, on the other hand, seemed rather attracted to trouble, especially given that a night out drinking led to him being set up as a (potential) hostage, after marrying her in a drunken stupor.
She briefly thought back to Mercury, and wondered if he would find it either laughable or just ridiculous how thoroughly Jaune dug himself in.
In that moment in time, the pair sat quietly at a rather simple looking living room, some rather tall, built men and women standing about, watching the pair warily.
"I see, so you've come back."
The voice of the man speaking to them caught their attention, them looking up to him at once.
Rosario Franco was an aged man, the gentle features of his face enough to remind any less savvy person of a grandfatherly figure.
Wearing a dark suit and hat, he walked to the couch opposite of where Emerald and Jaune sat, a low coffee table sitting between them, him sitting down.
"I was starting to wonder when you'd show up." He wore a weary smile. "But you two seemed sensible enough, even when you were drunk."
The casual posture with which he sat contrasted to the stiffness of the pair sitting across from him.
"Hello," Emerald said, as respectfully as she could muster, none too gently prodding Jaune's upper leg to help him snap out of his nervous state, "sorry about coming out like this, but we needed to ask about what happened, the last time we spoke."
"Y-Yeah." Jaune nodded, clearly uneasy at being inside a room where mafia members were watching him, especially when he was sans his weapons. "Can you tell us?"
The man gave a wry smile, and Emerald braced herself to start altering Jaune's senses again.
The sensation of using her powers was always strange, but she was quickly learning that her current method of concealing the truth was that much more difficult to manage.
Maintaining illusions involved her willfully projecting an image from the intended target's perspective, something akin to magically linking her mind to their line of sight (which, for obvious reasons, gave her a splitting headache whenever she used it on too many different people).
Blocking and projecting differing sounds and minor sights wasn't too difficult for her, when she knew what to block and project, but while covering herself up as Yang, from Jaune's perspective, was something she found manageable, this steadily grew more complicated in the presence of others speaking to them.
She had to actively crane her ears out for details that could lead Jaune to suspecting anything, essentially censor out said details, and think up and replace them with details to cover her own ass, all at the same time, at a speed where Jaune wouldn't suspect anything strange.
The result was like hearing the world's most out of sync echo for her, hearing one thing while inventing another whenever necessary, making the experience that much more disorienting.
"You two came in a couple nights ago, talking about how you wanted a challenge." Rosario explained. "Your bartender friend was with you, talking about how you wanted to find something to prove yourself. Given how drunk you were at the time, we decided to turn you away... Or, at least we tried to. I had never seen a pair of kids drunk box like that before."
"Uh... Drunk box?" Jaune asked.
"You had a pretty strong right hook from what I hear. Knocked a couple guys down before they could even grab you, and even that didn't stop you. Then you talked about how you were a huntsman in training, and the pieces just fell together." Rosario mused, seeming rather bemused by Jaune's paling complexion. "After that, you said something about promises, and how you'd do anything to keep one you'd just made. As a man such as myself, that kind of conviction seemed almost admirable, if not for you knocking people out. But we relented, and set you in the ring for the night. Someone MAY have let it slip that you were drunk, and since it was just after another fight ended with us losing a lot of lien, it turned out you were our stroke of luck that night."
Jaune registered his words.
"You... Used me as a gambling pitch?"
"I wouldn't put it in those terms." He shrugged indifferently, Jaune's expression blank with shock. "You got all our money back anyways. All's well that ends well."
"So I won the fight... Then... People got mad?"
"Yup. At least, a few angry nuts were. You and your lovely wife took care of them though." He chuckled, and Jaune flushed, unsure if he felt more ashamed or embarrassed. "Then, when it was over, one thing led to another, and it was pretty obvious you were doing it all for her."
He glanced towards his companion, who seemed stiff as well.
"What did we do?" She finally asked, quiet.
"I'll spare you both the details." Rosario answered, shaking his head at the memory. "We were all in a pretty good mood, and your pal was talking about how he'd challenged yourself to this so he could be a better fit. It was a strange sort of thing, but you two seemed happy enough, and we didn't want to take responsibility for what you two might've ended up doing, if we left you both be. So, since you helped us get our money back, we got you hitched and gave you a dowry of some of the winnings."
"What?" The pair exclaimed in shock.
"Why would you do that?" Jaune asked.
"Where did the money go?" Emerald wondered.
"Because you both... Yeah." Rosario didn't go into specifics, but he made a gesture to them both that left a bad feeling in Jaune's gut, at least more than before. He then answered Emerald's question. "It should've been enough to cover you for a few days at any of the inns around here. Someone told the guy to give them a room, and we let you be."
The pieces connected in Jaune's mind, of how he'd woken up naked in the wrong hotel room, sleeping next to Yang, clothes scattered about the room, but his weapons gone, having no memory of what had happened the night before, and he understood all but one thing.
Why did the innkeeper have them wash dishes to help pay for the room? he thought with great confusion.
"Is that all you wanted to know?" Rosario asked.
"Did the innkeeper take our weapons away?" Jaune asked.
"I'm assuming he did, for your own safety." Rosario nodded.
"Thank you. And... One last thing."
"Yes?"
"Is there any way to divorce?" Jaune asked, and Emerald looked over to him in surprise. "You're right about the promise thing. It's my family creed not to break promises, and our marriage had the whole thing of swearing to be together, right?"
"That's right." Rosario nodded.
"I try to make good on my promises." Jaune continued. "But in this situation, neither of us were in the right mindset to make that kind of decision. Even if it's a family creed, I can't force someone to stay with me because of that. It just... Wouldn't be right." He shook his head, before looking to Emerald. "I'm sorry I let things get so out of control. If you're mad at me, I... I understand."
She gazed quietly at him, Jaune lowering his head.
"I'm not mad." Emerald finally responded, sighing. "This isn't your fault. It's mine. All of this started because I did that whole spin the bottle thing, and acted without thinking."
"I still got you into this situation though."
"Yeah, but I still said I do. We were two drunk idiots goofing around. It could be worse Jaune. No point in beating yourself up over it."
Jaune looked to her, holding her gaze, before nodding.
"Yeah... Alright. Let's just stay away from drinking. That's reasonable, right?" Jaune rubbed his head.
"Or just not get drunk at a time like that." Emerald answered dryly. "There's nothing wrong with drinking if it's a reasonable amount. This all started because we were drinking too much after all."
Jaune managed a small smile at this.
"Lesson learned."
"I can set it up for you two. If that's the attitude you have, we can set up an annulment." Rosario said, and this caused their attention to come to him once more.
"What's that?" Jaune asked.
"There are two ways to end a marriage." Rosario said. "There's divorce, and then there's annulment. With divorce, it's pretty complicated, and you'll usually have to go through a court process of some kind. And even when it's approved, you'll still get marked as "divorced" instead of "not married" in the legal files. Then there's annulment. Annulment is essentially ending the marriage, and, legally speaking, the marriage never happened. There are a lot of reasons people can get an annulled marriage, and one of them involves at least one of the people not being able to make any kind of decision. Except, in this case, BOTH of you were drunk at the time, so it evens out."
"Really?" Emerald asked, having never heard of such a thing.
"Yes. I can set it up if you want me to. Just come by tomorrow, and it'll be ready." Rosario said. "Seeing as you being married was something I was partly responsible for, it's only fair that I do this, right?"
"If you wouldn't mind." Jaune said, grateful for the help.
"Alright. I'm glad you two came. Do you need help finding your way back, after this?" Rosario rose up to his feet.
"No, we're fine." Emerald shook her head, looking to Jaune. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah. Thanks again sir." Jaune said respectfully.
"Thank you for being a good drunk fighter." Rosario replied, walking away as the people present went to take them out.
As they left the building, and walked through the neighborhood, back to the inn, most of the walk was rather quiet.
"It's still so hard to believe all this happened." Jaune said, a disbelieving smile on his face.
"Were you expecting to get married?"
"It was one of the things I WANTED to do, before I died." Jaune said. "But I didn't think it'd be with YOU of all people."
He had no idea how right he was, Emerald thought.
"Why? What's wrong with marrying me?" She asked, keeping with her Yang mask. "Wasn't marrying a looker something you wanted?"
"There's more to it than looks for me." Jaune said. "I used to try pretending I was sauve, but my ideal relationship would've had a lot more buildup than getting drunk and getting married."
"Alright, that's fair. But what IS your ideal person, anyway?" Emerald asked him.
This gave Jaune pause, him looking pensive.
"I never really thought about it before. I don't know. Have you?"
Emerald looked down in thought, humming.
"If I had to say, it'd probably be... Someone who knows where they're going in life. Someone very driven, who doesn't let their emotions get in the way of what they need to do. And also treats me well."
"That seems like a good kind of partner." Jaune smiled. "I'm sure you'll find someone like that someday."
Emerald thought it over.
"I... did. But... She changed." Emerald answered.
"Who?" Jaune asked, interest piqued.
Emerald blinked, then rubbed her head.
"I'd... Rather not talk about it." Emerald told him.
"Oh... Okay."
Understanding, he didn't pry further.
The rest of the walk was silent, and Emerald thought back to how things had been in the beginning, when she'd first met Cinder.
Life as a homeless person, in essence, had always been rough.
For the vast majority of her life, Emerald always found herself looking for food and water to survive, then looking for a place to sleep where she wasn't completely alone.
Before she had her semblance to aid her, that made up most of her life, in a seemingly endless, monotonous cycle of hunger pangs, suffering through sicknesses, finding places to stay cool during the hot summers, finding sources of warmth during winters, and, quite often, the harassment such a label gave her.
The best solace she could find had been in the books, but these were a momentary reprieve at best, a moment to envision the lives of other people who suffered through trials and left, usually after doing some vague goal of some kind.
When Cinder had approached her, offering a life where her basic needs could be provided for her, it had felt like it had been too good to be true at first.
She was unsure of what to make of her feelings for the future Fall Maiden, but, above all, she had been grateful, happy, for a short time, about their travels.
Things felt perfect to her, and she wouldn't change it for anything.
She had been resistant to Cinder's choice to bring Mercury along, but Cinder's brief brandishing of anger at being questioned served as a precedent for things to come.
In those days, Emerald had felt closest to Cinder, and the woman's support made her start to forget the pain she suffered through, the distance she wanted to place around herself ever since her semblance first activated.
If things had gone on as they had, Emerald would have been content to simply live as she did for the rest of her life.
It likely would've become monotonous, in itself.
But it would've been something she wouldn't mind, if Cinder was with her.
Everything that started happening, after Cinder took Mercury in, was something she grew to dislike however.
It began slowly, a gradual decline that began with Cinder taking half of the Fall Maiden's powers.
Before that, Cinder was always calm and collected, never losing that calmness even in the face of hurting others, or hurting Emerald when she angered her somehow.
But now, at this point, whenever Emerald looked at Cinder, she saw the woman who'd given her everything less and less, and saw someone else, someone she just couldn't recognize.
Thinking on it, Emerald's immediate thought process was to blame the Grimm grafted into her for the change.
But then, another thought gnawed at the back of her head, her having a hard time ignoring, and later, refuting it the more time passed.
What if it wasn't the Grimm inside her? What if Cinder, at her core, had always been the way she was then, and the past several months had only served to have her bring it out more and more?
This final thought lingered in her head for several moments, and only turned elsewhere when Emerald looked up to find they had returned to the inn.
"Are you alright Yang?" Jaune asked.
"Y-Yeah," she put on a grin, "just... Thinking."
Jaune looked to her for a moment.
"Do you need some time alone?" He asked.
"If you wouldn't mind." She sighed. "You can head up to the room. I'll grab our stuff and ask about the money."
"Are you sure?"
"I am."
Jaune looked at the door, but didn't go in immediately.
"If you ever want to talk, I'm willing to listen." He finally said, before going inside.
Emerald sighed behind him as he went, "Alright."
She held her semblance's hold on Jaune until he reached their room and entered it.
She ran a hand down her face tiredly, then walked into the inn.
Emerald walked to Cinder's room, mental exhaustion clear on her face as she used the card for it, opening the door and stepping inside.
"Cinder... I don't think I can do this anymore." She groaned as she entered, collapsing onto the ground after closing it, holding her weary head. "I don't know how long it'll be, before I slip up."
Cinder looked over to her from her place on the bed, and Emerald looked up to find her covered only by a towel, the raven-haired woman pausing in drying her hair with another one to look to her.
Emerald's eyes widened, before looking away for the sake of Cinder's modesty, rising back up to her feet, Cinder herself giving her a strange sort of look to her.
"Sorry, I'll let you get dressed." Emerald said, turning around to face the door.
"Emerald."
Emerald paused, registering the strange sound of Cinder's voice, looking back to her as a gut feeling told the illusionist something was off.
"Do you need help?" Emerald asked her uncertainly, watching as Cinder too rose to her feet, her human hand holding her towel over her body as she began breathing strangely.
For Cinder's part, the sight of Emerald looked so different than before.
She looked so much more... mesmerizing than was normal, something about the girl drawing her in.
Cinder's heart began to race, pulsing with an unpleasant sensation that ran along her body, encompassing her entire being as her breathing hitched, grip on the towels covering her body loosening as they fell on the floor.
Hands hanging by her sides, Cinder took a lumbering, barefoot step forward.
Something in Emerald's expression changed, and the unpleasant sensation filling her spiked greatly, her eyes beginning to glow, Grimm hand twitching.
A voice called out to her, and she realized it was Emerald, but her voice felt distant, far-off.
The unpleasant feeling curdling inside of her only grew stronger with each passing second, and Cinder's mind grew more detached as it eroded at her psyche, overriding her sense of self.
Emerald found herself pressing her back against the door, identifying the familiar gut feeling she'd had then.
"Cinder- Cinder, it's me." She told her, trying to reason with her, but it seemed her words fell on deaf ears.
Golden eyes glowing with a potent, feral gaze, they narrowed into a glare as Cinder kept moving forward.
Emerald's forearm touched against the doorknob, her eyes widening as she briefly thought of whether she'd be able to open the door and leave or not, whether it would be enough time to run out the room.
As she thought these things however, Cinder's eyes darted to her hand, and Emerald's blood ran cold as she realized Cinder knew what she was thinking to do.
Even before she could act, the erratically twitching Grimm hand whipped up, shooting forward and ramming its palm over Emerald's mouth, Emerald's head hitting against the door with a loud thud, the demonic hand's spindly black fingers gently wrapping around and gripping her skull.
Then, with a horrid feeling, it started draining her aura from her face, Emerald giving a muffled yell of pain as Cinder walked the last few steps to reach her.
Fearfully, she reached up to the hand grabbing her face, trying to pull it off, but it didn't give, Cinder approaching her, her human hand clasping Emerald's forearm, gripping with inhuman strength, and as fire laced her palms, burning into Emerald's flesh, Emerald's muffled yells turned into pained screams.
Cinder wore a deranged smile, the feel of Emerald's life force draining away easing the horrid sensation filling her, the smell of Emerald's burning flesh filling her with a new sensation: Hunger.
Her glowing eyes trailed along Emerald's body, her exposed skin, and stopped upon finding her neck, the Fall Maiden lining her teeth with her aura, the idea of biting down into this helpless girl's neck seeming wonderful, until the girl's struggles caught her attention, giving her pause.
In the back of her mind, something clicked.
'That wouldn't do,' it said.
'That would end it too quickly.'
Cinder released her wrist, finding satisfaction in the girl's attempts at grasping at her Grimm hand to get it off, Emerald's freed hand reaching back towards her guns, but them being impossible to pull out between her being forced against the wall and her rapidly depleting aura disorienting her worse and worse.
Cinder reached up, hand glowing with her fires, and the girl's eyes widened as she realized Cinder began to slowly and deliberately reach towards her neck, savoring every second to when her life would end.
Emerald reached her hand up, grasping at Cinder's human wrist, her rapidly weakening strength making this an exercise in futility, but her survival instincts dictating her to try out of desperation.
Cinder stared up at her with savage delight, her deliberately not retching her hand away from hers to prolong it further, her watching the girl's steadily less lucid eyes, unconsciousness undoubtedly threatening to overtake her.
With the last dregs of her strength, the girl looked down at her, with the same look as a cornered animal chased by a predator, looking fearfully into her soon-to-be killer's eyes for even the smallest hint of mercy.
The sight was enough to make Cinder freeze.
Then, with abrupt movement, she released Emerald's mouth, stumbling back as though stung, Emerald collapsing onto the floor with her aura almost fully drained.
Cinder stared, wide-eyed, at the sight of Emerald on the ground, her taking the consequences of her actions in, the viscious, horribly burned parts of Emerald's arm, and the utterly drained state the girl had been put into.
Cinder looked down to her Grimm arm slowly, before looking back to Emerald once more.
Her expression seemed almost lost, as though the sight before her confused her greatly.
"... Emerald... Did I hurt you again?" She asked.
Emerald didn't answer, expression pained as she tried to get into a proper sitting position.
"Yes." She said, almost inaudible, rising to her feet unsteadily.
Cinder looked to her Grimm hand.
"I don't understand what's going on." Cinder said, but her voice showed no signs of apology, only frustrated confusion. "Do you have negative feeling about me? Is it your fault I'm acting like this?"
"... MY fault?" She asked, tone growing cold, the unpleasant feeling in Cinder returning. "Your first thought, after nearly killing me... is asking if it's MY FAULT?"
"Is it?" Cinder asked.
"I'm sorry," Emerald said, tone scornful and sarcastic, "I guess if I hadn't been stuck with a blonde dumbass all day, so YOU could get off on his suffering, I wouldn't be FEELING tired and exhausted, would I?"
In the next instant, Cinder whipped her Grimm hand up, and Emerald reached behind herself, gripping the hilt of her gun before whipping it out, slicing at the woman's hand as Cinder gave a pained sound as it was cut by her blade.
Fueled by her anger and outrage, Emerald ran forward, hands grasping Cinder's shoulders and using her weight to tackle her onto the bed while she was distracted.
"Listen to me!" She yelled down at the woman. "This! Isn't! YOU! Look at yourself, look what these Grimm implants are DOING to you!"
Cinder reached up, forcibly flipping them over as she pinned Emerald down, golden eyes flaring with fiery light.
"Be QUIET!" She snarled. "Who gave you the right to talk?!"
Emerald struggled under her, but Cinder gripped her arms with inhuman strength, forcing them against the bed.
"Don't forget that I can kill you at any time. Are you in THAT much of a hurry to die? Huh?!"
Emerald glared up at her, with something Cinder thought was defiance, the Maiden gritting her teeth.
"Do you even see what this is doing to you Cinder?" She asked, quietly, expression softening into something Cinder had never seen in her eyes before.
Pity.
Anger flooded her, and raised her hand up, flames bursting from her palm in a handheld inferno.
Emerald stared up at her, eyes narrowing, before she breathed a sigh, closing her eyes, quietly waiting for her to finish it.
When the heat of her flames dissipated however, and her weight on her eased, Emerald reopening her eyes.
Cinder stared down at her, golden eyes curdling in restrained anger.
"Why?" The woman on top of her asked.
"Why what?" Emerald asked.
"Why do you keep trying?" Cinder asked. "You're afraid of me. You hate me. Why are you still here?"
Emerald breathed a sigh, noting the disappointment she felt.
In that moment, she felt calm, calmer than she had ever felt before, even looking up at Cinder's expression, filled with a wrath fueled by confusion.
Suddenly uncaring of the consequence, she answered.
"Because I love you."
Cinder furrowed her brows at this reason.
"You... love me?" She asked, tone skeptical.
Emerald stared at her, then closed her eyes tiredly.
Choice 1: "... I do."
Choice 2: "... I did. But not anymore."
A/N: Hello. If you're wondering about the thing up there, it isn't for a voting thing.
When I started writing this story, I wrote it with the intention of making multiple endings.
This is my way of incorporating that: Choice 1 will be input in the next chapter, and Choice 2 will be the chapter afterwards.
One will lead to one of the endings, while the other will continue the story from there.
(I also wonder how many Drunken Marriage fics actually bring up the subject of annulling the marriage, on the grounds that the premise hinges on the parties being drunk at the time.
The supposed goal of most of Drunk Marriage fics is writing an accidental marriage scenario where someone's Jaune ship of interest is written out.
The whole "wedding vow has a promise, and Arcs can't break promises" thing felt a bit weird to put in here, but here it is... According to this take on Jaune's set of standards, basically saying that je doesn't want to force it if he can help it.)
Now, as for the OC: Rosario is based somewhat off of crime family bosses. And that's about it. Yeah.
Enjoy!