When the rising sun bathes my living room in a gentle orange glow the following morning, I'm already awake. Sleep hadn't come easily, and it certainly hadn't stayed. My mind is still a messy jumble of half formed thoughts, wondering what the future is going to bring now. It's not all bad, though. A deep seated satisfaction lies like a warm blossom within me, as if we've finally taken a step towards solving a problem that's been festering for months.
Which is exactly what we've done, now that I think about it.
The door to our bedroom creaks open, and my breath catches in my throat. All the memories of last night come rushing back with the force of a hurricane, sending my heart pounding. Where do we stand now? Have we made real progress, or did I just imagine everything?
Her head pokes out from around the corner, like she's feeling every bit as shy as I am. Soft silver eyes meet mine, and then she breaks out in a slow smile, completely different from the strained, forced ones I've gotten used to seeing. Even though this one is small and timid, there's a genuine spark of happiness that's just Ruby, and it shines for it. All of my worries evaporate, and suddenly I'm completely certain we're going to be fine.
I clear my throat awkwardly, but I can't keep myself from returning her smile. "Morning."
"Morning!" she chirps back, and all is well.
::-::-::
Several days later, I'm relaxing at home on one of the days I don't have a work shift scheduled when the door creaks open. A stream of hot light fills the room. It's well before the time Ruby usually comes home. My head snaps up at the sound, and I half expect the dour form of a caretaker or a lethal, intimidating peacekeeper to force itself through the gap. To my relief, a telltale scrap of red foreshadows the entrance of my… my wife before the door opens fully and she steps in.
"Welcome back. You're home early," I comment. "Did something happen?"
"Maybe I just really wanted to come back?" She hesitates, shifting from foot to foot uncertainly, before darting forward and planting a kiss on my cheek. Both of our faces light up like Christmas trees - we're both so pathetic, I mean really, a kiss on the cheek and we can't handle it - but I smile in return. "But no, you're right, something happened. Something biiiig happened."
"Something good or something bad?" There's an odd sense of foreboding creeping up the back of my neck, like an unseen insect or an unwanted gaze. Somehow, I can sense the answer before she says it.
"It's… more weird than anything else. Are you busy right now? I think I should just show you."
"Give me a hint?"
She shakes her head. "You need to see it yourself."
"Where's it at?"
"In my room at the SDC Courier Station. About twenty minutes walk from here?"
She has a room at a station? Her job must be even more demanding than I thought. "Sure, I'm free. Lead on."
::-::-::
I should have figured something was wrong.
The little signs were there: like the low rumble that washes over me like a slow wave. Brightly colored advertisements flickered over empty streets, unseen and useless. I've heard of the phrase "ghost town," but with how busy Vale normally is, I've never experienced it. Ruby glances from side to side as we travel, expression uncertain.
The rumbling intensifies as we move forward, until I can no longer ignore it. it feels like someone is shaking my bones and my ears start to hurt from the pressure.
"What's that?" I say, my voice coming out as a shout as I fight to be heard over the noise.
"I don't know," Ruby yells back, "but I think we're heading straight towards it!"
In a moment of sudden clarity, I figure out what the rumble is. Voices. Thousands of voices, from the sound of it, all yelling in incoherent rage. I almost turn back, but some primal curiosity drives me forward. Something in the human nature just can't leave well enough alone, especially not when it came to others of our kind.
We turn the corner, and the source is finally revealed. A throng of people line the sides of a wide street, the center of which is kept clear by a column of uniformed men wielding crackling batons, the telltale arcs of electric dust leaving brilliant white-blue trails in the air that are visible even in the blazing sun. Their faces are hidden by dark faceplates, and they turn only to lash out at some unfortunate bystander who strays too close. I watch in mute horror as one of them connects, and the victim drops instantly, screams of pain inaudible against the roar of the horde. It's a scene of unrestrained brutality, so contrary to the bright utopia the council usually tries to manipulate us into believing that my head spins at the sight.
The noise is senseless nonsense, nothing but an ear-shattering force of chaotic fury. I pick out a few isolated words, but they're meaningless snippets devoid of context. There's no unity here, no organization, just people screaming hate with conflicting agendas. Some of them are hurling curses at the uniformed men, others screaming what sounds suspiciously similar to "execute the filthy animals!" Everyone's taking the chance to spit their own individual venom.
"What in Oum's name…?" I murmur.
"Jaune," Ruby says with a tug on my sleeve. She points to the center of the column, and I see a small platform floating a few feet off the ground, crawling forward at the same pace as the men around it. "Is… is that…?"
The platform draws closer, until I can make out a row of thick metal bars that form a makeshift cage. The sense of foreboding is stronger than ever, a cloying and choking miasma, until finally the cage is close enough for me to see inside.
I recoil away, stomach churning with sickening nausea. Beside me, Ruby lets out a gasp.
A huddled mass of creatures fills the cage, patches of fur and other animalistic traits marking at least a few of them as faunus. Once, these had been people, vibrant individuals, but now they stare at the ground with gaunt, hollow eyes, little more than living corpses. Their clothes are shredded and gashed, revealing the unnatural sight of perfectly whole skin caked with dried blood, likely caused by aura working its healing. It's more disturbing than seeing a mass of scars would be, like a paradox in reality.
I stumble backwards, inadvertently taking the much smaller Ruby with me, my hand tight around her arm. One of the masked heads swivels towards me, and I back up even further, seeking cover around the corner. Before I can finish the retreat, I catch view of a sign above the cage. The words burn themselves into my mind.
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO DESERTERS AND COWARDS
I turn and flee, pride abandoned, the roar of the crowd twisted into mocking laughter in my head.
::-::-::
My feet pound the pavement as I run, run, run, run far away and never go back because what was that what was that what was that -
Eyes, dead eyes, staring out of sunken sockets as scraps of torn cloth flutter in an unseen wind -
Blinding arcs of crackling energy, the stench of burnt flesh, air throbbing with roars of fury -
Something warm grabs my hand, and I lash out against it instinctively, heart jumping into my throat. There's a sharp cry, and Ruby tumbles to the ground, an angry red mark across her cheek where I had hit her. I stop, horrified, then rush back, collapsing to my knees beside her.
"Ruby? I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking, I didn't mean to-"
"I'm alright, I'm alright," she cuts me off. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have startled you."
"I don't know what's wrong with me." My hands are shaking like I'm trapped in an earthquake, and my heart is pounding a thousand times a minute. "It's only, only, it was just a-"
She interrupts me with a hug, holding it until I finally quiet down, my breathing slows, and the shaking stops.
"Sorry," I finally say. "I don't know what came over me."
"Don't worry about it. That would have rattled anyone. It shook me too."
"Did it really?" I ask with a grim chuckle, more a bark of self disgust than of amusement. "Because you certainly did a better job keeping it together than I did."
"That wasn't the worst I've ever seen," she says. "Not by far."
I survived Patch goes unspoken.
I stroke her cheek absently, watching as the mark from my strike fade into unblemished skin before my eyes. "I'm sorry about hitting you."
"It was an accident."
"Even so."
"Jaune. Seriously. Don't worry about it."
I take a shuddering breath. "Right. Ok."
"Still," Ruby says, head tilted thoughtfully, "that whole… thing. I've never seen anything like it."
"It makes no sense," I agree. "The council should be doing everything it can to keep people happy. A giant scene is the last thing they would want."
"Not just that. The crowd… couldn't you feel it?"
"Feel what?" I ask, feeling just a bit stupid. "That everyone was absolutely insane?"
"Well, yeah, but not just that," Ruby trailed off, before shaking her head. "It's like what you said, that you don't know what you came over you. The fear. The anger. It wasn't normal. It felt like it was being amplified. Like something was feeding on us."
I want to say that makes no sense, that's not possible, but I hold my silence. Some of my skepticism must have shown on my face, though, because she rushes to clarify.
"I know it sounds crazy, but I've heard that even if it's rare, some of the grimm can do it. It's what makes some of the ancient ones so dangerous, they can feed in the middle of a fight."
"But there's no way there are grimm in the city. There would have been a massacre by now. Or the council would have seen them, they see everything."
"I know. It doesn't make sense, except-" her eyes widen. "Wait. We need to get to the courier station, now. The thing I wanted to show you, I think it's related."
I hesitate, the images of the cage's inhabitants flashing through my mind. "It can't wait? I'd really rather not. After all that, it's, uh, not a good time."
"I know," she says, "but you really, really need to see this. Especially now."
"Especially?"
"It'll make sense when we get there. Please? We're really close." When I hesitate even longer, she stares up at me through wide, adorable silver eyes. "Trust me?"
Ok, that is straight up unfair. "That's cheating."
She blinks innocently, which is even more unfair. "I prefer to call it using all the tools I can."
I sigh in resignation, the cumulative training from seven sisters still not enough to resist her power. "Alright, fine. You win."
The dorky smile she gives me makes it almost worth it. Almost.
::-::-::
The courier station is an unassuming silver-white cube of a building tucked into a side street off the beaten path. It looks nothing like the gleaming towers of state of the art technology that I usually associate with the SDC. Ruby flings the door upon and strides through, and I follow, albeit much more reluctantly.
The interior is consistent with the outside. Some spartan furniture and spindly plants are the only decoration, and even though there's almost nothing in it the room feels crowded, like the walls are slowly closing in to crush you. A couple of narrow hallways spider off into the beginnings of a labyrinth. Ruby leads me down one of them, then another, until I've lost myself in the impossibly long twists and turns.
"How is this place so big?" In terms of size, the first room had been closer to my expectations. I don't even know how this network can fit in the building.
"We're underground, I think. I'm not really sure."
Finally, we emerge into a spacious dome. Tinted glass forms a soaring cover above us, allowing sunlight to filter through but making it impossible for outsiders to see inside. I look down to see the floor is scuffed and scarred with dark blast marks, and upon closer inspection both the floor and curved walls bear scratches both long and short.
"Welcome to SDC training center Delta," a voice behind me reports cheerily, and I jump in surprise. "It looks all normal right now, but we can configure it into a hundred different potential combat environments at the press of a button. Or at least that's what the contractor claims."
I turn to come face to face with a tall, blue haired young man, probably about my age. He's unusually good looking; a muscled physique, brilliant blue eyes, and an easy smile form a package that looks unnervingly familiar to some of the lead actors I've seen in the dramas my sisters used to watch.
I'm not sure why, but I dislike him immediately.
"Oh, Neptune!" Ruby greets. "You were here?"
He grins at her. "You bet. Boss told me to make sure the old man's people don't get their mitts on you, and you know I live to serve." He turns towards me, one eyebrow quirked. "This your boyfriend?"
"Husband, actually," I respond coolly. There's an unspoken warning in my words. She's mine. Ruby stares at me, eyes wide with surprise, but I'm pretty sure she's fighting back a smile.
If he notices, he gives no sign of it. "Oh? So you must be Jaune. I take it you two got over your, uh, disagreements?"
And how does he know about that?
Ruby, at this moment, conveniently dodges my questioning glare.
"Well, good for you two," he continues. "I'm Neptune, as you probably heard. I'm Ruby's support, basically. When she's off on her missions."
"So it's your job to make sure she doesn't get hurt?" I ask. If my voice is a little more threatening than I originally intended, oh well.
He winces, one hand coming up to scratch the back of his head. "Oh boy. Um, yeah, that's part of it."
"Don't blame Neptune for what happened the other day," Ruby pipes up. "It's not his fault. I didn't listen to him."
"Yeeeeah," Neptune agrees, "that kind of happens. Like, a lot."
A flash of irritation courses through me. I'm not sure why, because it's not hard to imagine that he's telling the truth. I wonder why Neptune rubs me the wrong way. It definitely doesn't have anything to do that he works so closely with Ruby, though. I mean, she has to work with somebody, right? And it just happens to be this guy.
So no, I'm not jealous. Or feeling protective. At all.
"Anyways, why are you here?" Neptune continues, oblivious to my thoughts. "Boss wouldn't tell me. Just threatened me with dire consequences if I didn't show up."
"I thought I should show Jaune the… you know. That."
His head tilts with curiosity. "What, you mean your weapons from Beacon?"
A pause.
A longer one.
Wait.
What.
Neptune looks at my dumbfounded expression, then to where Ruby is doing her best to shrink into herself. "Oh. Oops."
"That," Ruby whimpers, "was not how I wanted to tell him. In fact, that's probably the most not-wanted you can get."
"I," Neptune stammers, "am a complete idiot. Let's just pretend I said nothing, ok? Good? Great. Fantastic, even."
"Too late," Ruby groans. I still haven't responded. Weapons from Beacon echoes on an endless loop, like a broken record in my head.
"Jaune?" Ruby asks timidly. "Are you mad?"
Am I? "I'm not sure."
"Well, if you are, don't be," Neptune cuts in. "We just got the package earlier today. She ran home to tell you as soon as she knew."
I shake my head to refocus. "Can I see them? The weapons. It's kind of hard to believe they just… showed up."
"Sure." Neptune strolls off into a back room with a casual wave. "They're in Ruby's equipment locker. I'll grab them for you. Give you two some time to talk it out or whatever."
As soon as he's gone, Ruby's shoulders slump, and she stares at her feet rather than look at me. "I knew it. You're mad, aren't you?"
"No, don't worry, I'm not." Why is she so quick to assume I'm angry? Have I really made that bad of an impression on her? "Thanks, actually. For coming to get me so quickly."
"We're a team, right?" Ruby says with a small smile. "Of course I'll get you."
Neptune picks that moment to return, staggering back into the training room under the weight of a metal case. He half lowers, half drops it onto the floor with a resounding thud. "Oof. What do you guys train with over there? Boulders?"
"Yup. And sticks," Ruby quips with a cheeky grin.
"The highest quality sticks," I add on. "But the boulders are only so-so. Budget cuts hurt."
Neptune snorts in disbelief. "Please. Beacon, budget cuts? Maybe when pigs fly. Non-grimm pigs." He leans down, fiddling with a series of locks along the rim. "Manual locks, can you believe it? Somebody really wanted to make sure this thing stayed shut."
"If this thing has the highly illegal weapons you say it has, I can't really blame them." The first series of tumblers fall into place. "Wait, how do you know the code?"
"Ruby knew them."
Ruby sighs. "The numbers are my birthday. And Yang's. Crazy, right?"
That raises a ton more questions to ask, but before I can, the last lock disengages with a click, and Neptune steps back. "Alright. See for yourself."
I lift the case lid slowly. Ruby peers inside with all the enthusiasm of a child, even though she's already seen the contents. Only an instant later, and a gleaming crimson scythe has seemingly teleported into her eager hands, causing Neptune to leap back with a startled yelp.
"My baby," Ruby coos. "It's been so long. Did you miss me? Of course you missed me. Who's a good girl?"
Crescent Rose, predictably, does not respond.
I reach into the case and pull out its other occupants. They're simple, solid, and unremarkable, especially when compared to something as flashy as Ruby's weapon, but they're warm and comfortable in my hands, a pair of hefty, familiar weights.
A sword and shield. Crocea Mors.
I stare at them wordlessly, overcome by a rush of emotion. Neptune strolls over, looks at the gleaming metal in my hands, and lets out an appreciative whistle.
"Simple, but beautiful. I like it."
"I never thought I'd hold either of these again," I say in a daze. "This is real, right? I'm not dreaming?"
"Yes, it is, and no, you're not. Either that or we're all dreaming the same dream and that's just weird. No offense, but you don't look like the kind of guy I would want to share dreams with."
"I have no idea how to respond to that."
"Then don't. You weren't meant to." Neptune fires back with a cheeky grin. "By the way, you had a way, way calmer reaction than Ruby did."
"I heard that!" Ruby protests. "But you're not wrong." She pulls something out of the case and pushes it into my hand. It's coarse and dry against my skin. "If you think it's weird now, wait until you read this."
I look at the folded square in my palm. "It's a piece of paper."
She rolls her eyes. "You're supposed to unfold it first."
I unfold it. "It's, uh, still a piece of paper."
"Jaaaaauuuuune," Ruby complains, and I can't help but laugh.
"Alright, alright, sorry." The unfolded paper contains a short note, but as I read it, my humor evaporates. Sprawling letters are written in jumbled disarray with dark ink, and there are smears and spiraling drips like somebody rushed through the process.
Hope you don't need these, but I'd rather you have them and not need them than wish you had them. Better remember your training. I'll pick them up in two months. You should be safe by then.
You know this as much as I do, but don't let the caretakers find out. I went through a lot of trouble to pull this off and I'd rather not see it go to waste.
Good luck. Stay safe.
"Couldn't they have left a signature?" I ask once I finish reading.
"Dude." Neptune shakes his head in disbelief. "You finish reading a note from a top secret, illegal shipment of some of the best weapons in the world and the only thing you want is a signature?"
"Wouldn't you feel a lot better about a gifted death sentence if you knew who it came from?"
"Fair point."
I read the note again, before letting loose a heavy sigh. "You were right, Ruby. This is really big."
"And it helps everything else make sense," she says.
"What do you mean?"
"Out of the blue, someone smuggles us our weapons from Beacon, and the very same day, there's a huge riot? After years of calm? Can't you see? There has to be something going on, something that's going to totally change Vale, and we're right in the middle of it!"
I want to say it could be a coincidence, but I have to admit, the chances of either happening are one in a billion, normally. Both at the same time? She's right, something is probably going on. Some event we know nothing about.
And then there's the mystery of the sender. No, a coincidence is impossible.
"Not only that," I add on, "but whoever sent these to you knows you well enough that they would use your birthday for the code. And that you would guess it."
At that, Ruby says something that drops my heart into my stomach like a lead weight.
"I know! Isn't it exciting? We're going to be heroes, Jaune!" Ruby squeals, eyes shining. "This is the start to our adventure!"
You see–
This is the problem.
For me, this situation is a crisis to be handled. A puzzle to unravel. Our weapons are nothing but a ticking time bomb, and once they're discovered, both of us are completely screwed, no questions asked. Treachery, treason, rebellion, no matter what we're sentenced with, we're dead.
But for Ruby?
It's a dream come true.
"Ruby–" I begin, then cut myself off. I've done enough damage with my thoughtlessness already. I know how important this is to her, so I'm going to handle it carefully and gently. I am going to calmly explain why we have to keep this hidden, and how completely screwed we will be when the caretakers find out.
… Later. I'll do it later.
Luckily, there's still a very pressing question to answer right now.
I turn to Neptune, my expression carefully controlled. He must read through me, however, because his back straightens just a little bit and his gaze suddenly grows sharper.
"I hate to ask this, but how do we know we can trust you?"
Ruby glances at me uncertainty. Neptune doesn't waver in the slightest. He leans forward, eyes boring into mine.
"Other than the fact that I've been watching your wife's back for months?"
I mirror him, refusing to be intimidated. "When she was an SDC courier, yes. Not as the recipient of illegally smuggled Beacon weaponry. And I'm willing to bet your superiors would love to know about this."
"He's trustworthy, Jaune," Ruby reassures me. "At least, I trust him."
"I am," Neptune agrees. "But you're wise to doubt. Still, there's a couple of important factors you're missing. Shall I outline them for you?"
"I'm all ears."
"Good." He rattles through a list, checking off imaginary boxes with his fingers with every point. "Firstly, I'm not like most SDC employees. I'm an independent specialist, not part of corporate, so I don't have any superiors for you to worry about. Weiss hired me directly, and she's smart enough to know she can't trust most of the staff. As long as she's on your side, so am I, so please stay on her good side because I'm starting to like you two. Well, you specifically. I always liked Ruby."
SDC politics is starting to sound more and more unpleasant. Is Weiss her own faction or something? No wonder she seems to have family problems. "That's good to know. Anything else?"
For a brief moment, I swear Neptune's trademark grin takes on a dangerous glint. "There's a very obvious reason to trust me. If I wanted to report you, you'd be screwed already."
There's a drawn out, tense silence as the two of us exchange stares and I mull over what Neptune's said.
He's the first one to break the silence. "Anything else?" He echoes my previous words.
I respond in an instant. "You're not as laid back as you pretend, are you?"
He chuckles at that. "And you're a lot smarter than you pretend, aren't you? I think we'll get along."
Ruby, who has been tracking our back and forth with wide eyes, finally collapses to the floor with an exasperated groan. "You guys have had the weirdest first meeting I've ever seen. Are all boys like this?"
"Only the smart ones," Neptune quips.
"Can't you guys just be like, hi, nice to meet you, wanna be friends? It'd be so much easier."
"What's the fun in that?"
"Sorry, Ruby," I laugh sheepishly.
"Ahh, whatever. You guys do what you want." She nuzzles the gleaming crimson metal cradled in her arms. "I have the most beautiful girl in the world to keep me company."
"You do realize that's a weapon you're cuddling, right?" Neptune asks. I lean forward with a choked warning, hand outstretched.
"Yes, and?"
"And that it doesn't have the capacity for affection?"
I wince. The glare Ruby fires at Neptune could shatter ice.
"You get to get away with saying that once."
To his credit, Neptune realizes the danger he's in immediately. "Righto. Once and never again. Understood."
I step in between them. Ruby sits up and tries to peer around me to glare at Neptune. "Alright guys, sorry to change the topic, but we need to figure out what to do next."
Neptune gives me a befuddled stare, as if I'd grown a mutant appendage. "Dude, come on. I just called you smart."
I wait for him to continue, narrow eyed in irritation.
"You have rudimentary training that could really use improvement. You just received state of the art weapons, and you're in a state of the art training facility, with friends who have the political clout to give you some breathing room. What do you think your next step should be?"
I know what he's suggesting. I suspected it was coming the moment I saw our old weapons.
My thoughts?
Wait timeout no no no no bad idea bad idea.
"Can we really train here?" Ruby asks, voice shaky with excitement.
"Sure. What else is it supposed to be used for?"
"I don't think it's a good idea."
At my words, two heads swivel toward me, one shocked, the other exasperated.
"I just gave you some great reasons why you should train," Neptune bites out. "So what are your objections."
"First off, there is absolutely no reason for us to train."
"Something's coming, Jaune," Ruby counters. "Something big. We have to be ready."
"Ready for what? We don't even know if this 'something' exists, and if it does, what it is. Training is a huge risk to take for a reason like that." Right, tactful. I told myself to be tactful. Now is the time to deliver. I try to make my voice as gentle as I can. "Ruby, fighting isn't our job. It was never our job."
Judging from the rebellious tilt of her chin, she's not going to back down yet.
"You could train your kids if you were strong yourself," Neptune says. "Or who knows, knowing how to fight can always come in handy."
"And you don't think the fact that two breeders know enough about fighting to train their kids wouldn't raise any suspicion?"
"Alright, fair enough. But what do you have to lose? You have time, you have the means to do it. Why not go for it?"
Why not–
Is this guy serious?
"You keep saying we have nothing to lose," I grind out, "but do you have any idea what you're talking about, what you're asking us to risk? Our lives are on the line, and if we're caught, a quick death is the best we can hope for. Even that's a long shot. Did you not see what just got paraded past us outside?"
Images of broken, hollow, people–turned–corpses puncture my mind with every word. I can tell Ruby remembers too, because her expression flickers, even if it's almost imperceptible.
"The difference here is you have people to protect you. People with power," Neptune points out.
"You can't guarantee that," I fire back. "If they suspect anything at all, there's going to be a squad of peacekeepers on your doorstep before you can do anything. Can you protect us from that?"
Neptune shrugs. "Frankly, yes. You underestimate the Schnee family's influence."
I shake my head, barely stopping myself from rolling my eyes at the same time. "And you overestimate how much control Weiss has over that influence. For the level of risk training brings, we need certainty. Not just theory."
"Do you really expect certainty in this life?" Neptune scoffs.
"No. No I don't. And that's exactly why this is a bad idea."
"I really think we should do it, Jaune," Ruby speaks up. "If something big actually is going to happen, we have to be prepared."
"Not you too," I cry out. "Alright look, you're probably right, all of these events are probably connected. But if 'something big' actually is coming, it will be the huntsmen and huntresses' job to handle it. Not ours."
"But–"
"No," I interrupt. I regret it almost immediately, but my frustration with the two of them drives me onward. Why are they completely blind to the risk we would be putting ourselves in for no good reason? "We are not doing this. It's a bad, bad idea. End of story. Once Weiss figures out who put us in all this danger, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. Until then, we sit tight."
"And if we don't?" Neptune asks, a dangerous, challenging glint in his eye. "What are you going to do, report us?"
"Don't force me, Neptune," I snap, my patience at its absolute limit. "Please don't force me."
"The choice is yours, man," Neptune snaps back with equal fire. "Nothing is forcing you. You can choose to report, or you can not. Don't try to pin this on me."
I step forward, fists clenched at my sides. "And if you don't try to go behind The Council's back, there's no need for a choice. I am not going to sit here and watch you drag my wife to her death. Get yourself killed if you want, but leave her out of it."
"Don't use me an excuse Jaune," Ruby hisses. "Not to justify your opinion, and especially not if you're going to threaten us."
'Us.' The fact that she's clearly siding with Neptune over me stings a lot. Still, I manage to give an even reply.
"I promised to take care of you, to take our marriage seriously. I'm delivering on that promise."
"This wasn't how I wanted you to do it," she replies. Her voice is deceptively steady, but I see the hurt and frustration roiling in her eyes. A twinge of guilt tugs at me, but I ruthlessly suppress it, even after she turns away and I catch a faint whisper of something that sounds like "I shouldn't have told you."
This is for our good. I'm keeping us safe.
Both of us.
A/N:
Ohai guys… it's, uh, been a while. But better late than never, right?
Thanks so much for your patience. I lost interest, motivation, and confidence in my writing for a while, but I'm back!
Extra thanks to those of you who have faithfully stuck around, left reviews, or messaged me. I'm a little rusty, but hopefully this chapter satisfies.
Leave reviews and tell me what you think! As one of my favorite authors has said, reviews are my fuel, I am an environmentally unfriendly battle tank. Putt putt.
