Chapter 13: Calm before the Storm

Do what we do best

Roman was awakened by a nudge on the arm. He snorted a bit, and then opened his eyes. Rubbing them, he saw Trifa standing in front of him.

"Oh, hello Archane." He said sleepily.

"Did you fall asleep?" She asked.

"Maybe."

"Maybe? I think that's a definitely." She pulled his hat over his head playfully.

"Hey, I wasted two seconds of my life saying "Honey, I'm home" yesterday, and you weren't even here to see it! Now I'm never going to get those two seconds back. This is all your fault."

"And you've wasted even more of your time sprawled out on the couch. Bunch up a bit."

Roman pushed his hat up. "Fine. But it's still your fault. Don't roll your eyes at me!" Trifa sat down.

"Stop whinging like a five year old and maybe I won't need to."

"A five year old? How am I acting like a five year old?"

"Oh I don't know, how about "Oh, Trifa, it's all your fault. I'm complaining about something completely irrelevant that won't affect me in any way shape or form."

"Don't mock me. Only I'm allowed to mock people. Did you just roll your eyes again?!"

"Maybe." Roman grabbed a cushion lying next to him and whacked her in the head with it.

"That'll teach you-Oof!" She had hit him with one of her own.

"Right, that's it! I'm going to teach you what happens when you mess with Roman Torchwick!" He swung another one around and she jumped up off the couch and backed away. She was laughing, which just served to anger Roman even more, as he threw one at her face, a solid hit which flattened her to the floor. She continued to laugh.

"What is so funny?!"

"You literally hit me with a cushion! And you say you don't act like a five year old?" Roman grumbled, mainly because he didn't want to answer cause he knew she was right. And he knew that she knew that. She smiled at him and sat down.

"So, uh, do you want to like, do anything?"

"I would like to do lots of things. Rob a shop. Kill any girl wearing red. Smoke a cigar. But I assume that's not what you meant."

"I meant do you want to do anything, like, fun?"

"Fun? Enlighten me on what you would like to do that would be considered fun."

"I dunno, watch a movie, play a game-"

"Play a game? What kind of game?"

"Anything really I suppose. How about… oh, I have a idea! Have you ever heard of three truths and a lie?"

"I have, yes."

"So, would you like to play it?"

Roman considered that for a second. He was a thirty five year old man, should he really be playing games, something only little kids did? Then, again, it would give him something to do to take his mind off Neo..

"Sure, let's go for it."

"Okay, do you want to go first?"

"Nah, you can go first."

"Right, okay…" She thought about it for a moment.

"I once accidentally plastered Yuma to a wall using my webs."

That could be true…

"For a short while in the White Fang, I dyed my hair black."

Edgelord Archane. That could be true too.

"I used to have a crush on Adam."

That is a lie.

"You used to have a crush on Adam is a lie, definitely."

"Wrong." Roman raised a eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm not very proud of the fact that I used to have a crush on him. That was back when I first joined."

"What was the lie then?"

"I would never dye my hair black. I'm not a black widow spider."

"Rightfully so."

"Your turn." Trifa crossed her legs.

Hmm… Three things about me… It was a surprisingly difficult task.

"I used to be in a band called Light The Torch."

"My cane is called Melodic Cugel."

"My final words to Ruby Rose were "Lie, steal, cheat, and survive!" before I was then eaten by a Grimm."

Trifa looked at him thoughtfully. I wonder if she'll get it…

"I can't imagine you being in a band, but I don't know how you would survive getting eaten by a Grimm…"

Roman simply grinned at her. He was pretty certain that she wasn't going to get it.

"So, I'm going to go with the getting eaten by a Grimm is a lie?"

"Wrong. The band one was the lie."

"How did you survive getting eaten by a Grimm?"

"Well, it's actually rather simple. My aura was still up, the Grimm was killed shortly after, so I just hopped out. Quite ironic though how I said "survive". She's so unbelievably dumb that she probably thinks I died. Having a joke with her equally stupid friends, "Oh, haha, get it, he said survive and then he died."

"Who even is Ruby Rose?"

Roman sighed. "You were on the train when we ran it into Vale, correct?"

"Yes?"

"Remember the little girl in red with the big scythe?"

"Vaguely. I remember watching as you taunted her, that's about it."

"You also fought the Ice Queen on that train, didn't you?"

"The Ice Queen? Do you mean Weiss Schnee?"

"Her official name is Weiss Schnee. Her actual name is the Ice Queen."

"Uh, okay. Well, yeah, I did. For doing nothing in her pimped out mansion except probably admire herself in a mirror, having people to cater to her every poor need, while her wretched human of a father continues to discriminate against our people, who have done nothing wrong to the SDC, yet they throw them in-"

"Woah, slow down."

She sighed. "Sorry, I just particularly despise her company." She clenched and unclenched her fist. Roman patted her on the shoulder.

"Rightfully so."

"Anyway, despite everything I just said, she could fight awfully well. It probably didn't help that my emotions at seeing her were at a all time high…"

"I sincerely hope that one day, the Schnee Dust Company comes crashing down." Roman said.

"That's one of the main things that Adam promised we were going to do. Destroy them, go to war on Atlas." She hung her head low, and stared at her open palms. "I can't believe that I once thought we could defeat the Atlas Military."

"I've been sought after by them a fair share of times, and it's been some of the closet times I've came to being captured. They do not mess around."

"I know that firsthand. We tried to raid a Atlas military base once, and got shot down. I was one of the few who made it out alive. It wasn't pretty. Lot's of Faunus lost there lives that day…"

Roman looked out the window, unsure of what to say. It was rather busy for this time of day.

"Now with Adam at the helm, more lives will probably be lost." Roman turned his gaze to her. She sounded on the verge of breaking down and crying. He needed to change the subject and fast.

"Uh, how about we play another game?" She seemed only to happy to oblige.

"Got any good ones?" Roman thought for a second. There was one he had, but he wasn't sure it was the best idea…

Ah, to hell with it. What's the worst that could happen?

"Truth or dare."

Trifa stood up. "Alright then. I'll ask you first. Truth or dare?"

No way am I doing truth. Knowing her, she'll probably ask a very private question. "Dare."

"Okay… Ah, I've got one. Attempt to dance for thirty seconds." Trifa was mainly doing this because she needed a good laugh after recalling that military base raid. But what she got was quite different.

Roman didn't even protest, he stood up, took his hat off, and then flicked it back onto to his head. He took up a pose, and stayed like that for a second. Then he started to dance.

Trifa was expecting him to flop all around the place hilariously, but it was very, very, different. Roman could actually dance. And he could dance very well.

The body motions were so expertly choreographed, and performed so fluently well, that it was a wonder he hadn't ditched the criminal life a long time ago, and taken up dancing as his career. It was the most beautiful thing Trifa had ever witnessed.

Is he… He was moonwalking. Simply magnificent. How he had learned to do that was a question that would probably never be answered, and didn't need to be answered. What a sight to behold.

He finished with spinning around in a circle, throwing his hat up and catching it on his head. Trifa was so amazed she forgot to clap.

"Thank you, thank you." He bowed.

"Where did you learn to-"

"That is a secret." He grinned at her. "Now, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Okay then." He sat back down and began to think. Trifa watched him, and then began to feel really worried as the biggest smile began to come over his face.

"Now this, this is a good one." He looked at her. "Would you kiss me, right here, right now?"

"W-What?"

"You heard me."

"Um, no, no I wouldn't! No offence!"

"Are you sure?"

"Y-Yes!"

"I sense some hesitation with that answer."

"Roman, please stop! I wouldn't kiss you right here, right now, okay?"

"Sure your sure?"

"Yes!"

"I don't believe you. I am far too good looking for you to not kiss me."

"Roman, I'm begging you, stop!"

"After all, I do have-"

"Stop!"

He leaned back, with a disappointed expression on his face. "Calm yourself. I was joking, I didn't actually expect you to." Trifa crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Right, your turn." She said. "Truth or dare?"

"I think I'll go with a truth this time."

A truth huh? Time to make him feel really uncomfortable.

She thought for a moment, but no ideas sprung to mind. Nothing that would make him feel really uncomfortable. Then, all of a sudden, she had one. This was going to be good.

"What lie have you told that would hurt someone close to you if they knew?"

Roman sighed. "On different terms, I wouldn't tell you. But considering that Neo is now dead, I might as well tell you. But just to give you a bit of context, I met Neo when I was working for a criminal mastermind. His name was Randy. She and her parents were both working for him. But one day, the military found us and they stormed our base. I managed to get myself and her out of there alive, but I told her that her parents were shot and killed by them. That was a lie. I know there still out there somewhere, because not too long after when I was out and about, I saw them. She obviously wasn't with me at the time, but I didn't tell her that I had saw them. I knew that if I did, she would want to go after them. But at that time, we couldn't afford that. So I lied to her. It's probably the only lie I have ever regretted telling."

He looked at her. "So there you go. Biggest lie I've ever told."

"Woah… Roman-"

"I would really rather not talk about it ,okay?"

"Alright then." She was still curious, but she would respect his wishes.

"Thanks. So, truth or dare?"

Do I really want to go with truth again? After that last question, not really. But a dare could be ten times worse. Truth was probably the safer option.

Here we go again. "Truth."

"Did you ever kiss anyone in the White Fang?"

"ROMAN!"

Do what we do best

Roman Torchwick, prying into your romantic life since the dawn of time itself.

Bit more of a relaxed chapter this time around. Figured it would be best after all the crazy Neo stuff last chapter.

But read the chapter title again, and you could probably figure out what is going to happen next. I shall say nothing more.

Thanks for reading and have a good day!