Neo was sitting with her feet on the table when Roman got home, calmly eating a large bowl of ice cream. She raised an eyebrow when she saw his appearance.
"What have I told you about eating between meals Neo?" he moaned, slumping down opposite her and banging his head down on the table. Neo lifted her legs and then replaced them onto his head. She put down her bowl and scribbled something onto one of her whiteboards.

Aw. Poor wickle Roman. Has the nasty wickle girl all beaten you up? Want Neo to kiss it better?

"It's the least you could do," he muttered, under his breath. Neo lifted her legs off the table and walked over to him. She planted a sloppy kiss on the side of his face and then dumped her bowl and spoon in the sink. Sat up and then rested his head in his hands.
"Just once Neo. Just one little victory. Is that too much to ask for?"
Neo shrugged and patted him on the head.

Poor sweet baby.

"For the love of-" Roman swiped at the board, but Neo whisked it out of his reach. With nothing to vent his anger on, Roman returned to his despondent state.
"I mean, even the White Fang aren't providing us with a chance for profit. Turns out that they were just members of Red's team all along. Well, the cat girl was. Don't know about the monkey boy…" he leaned backwards in his chair and stared at the ceiling. "We need to check the White Fang over if bribery is what they needed to get in… That was what the money was for, you see. Then you just happened to send me a message at the wrong time. Red had left by then of course…"
Neo raised an eyebrow.

Two against one? You had the advantage. But here you are, looking like something that Mercury dragged in with him on the bottom of his shoes.

Roman sat up and glared at her. "I would've had a better chance, if it weren't for this." He tossed a ball of paper to Neo. She caught it and slowly flattened it out.

Sorry sweetie. Had to borrow your dust. I'll pay you back. It's not like you'll need it anytime soon…
XXX Neo ;P

Neo's eyes grew wide and she opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. "'It's not like you'll need it anytime soon?'" said Roman, acid dripping from his voice. Neo walked over to him silently and hugged him, resting her head on top of his.
"I won anyway though…" he said, brushing the grime off his coat. "But these kids never learn. You think you have utterly crushed them, but when you regain consciousness you find that they've run off again to lick their wounds. Probably literally, in that cat girl's case." Neo let go of him and held up her board.

How about you clean yourself up and take a nap. Let Neo make everything better.

She took him by the shoulders and slowly pushed him out of the kitchen. Then, waiting till she could hear the shower running, she closed the bedroom door and slipped out into the night.

Roman slowly opened his eyes, expecting at any moment to feel a foot connect with his face. When no such impact came, he sat up and looked around. The space next to him where Neo, or at least her feet, should've been was empty with not so much as a hollow indicating that she had been there. Still half asleep, he fumbled for his scroll, before remembering the events of the previous night.
"Not another scroll smashed," he groaned, flopping back down and sandwiching his head beneath the pillow. He groaned again and sat up, knowing full well that he would have to face the day at some point. Slowly he trudged down to the kitchen, pausing only briefly to 'borrow' his third scroll from Cinder's office. Neo was waiting for him in the kitchen with two bowls of ice cream. She pushed one of them towards him, before holding up her whiteboard.

Sleep well?

"Surprisingly," replied Roman, prodding the food in his bowl. "There weren't any corgi dogs this time so…"
A look of confusion passed across Neo's face, but she chose to forget it and held up her board again.

Cinder, Emerald and Mercury are out for a week so we have the place to ourselves.

Roman shrugged and went back to prodding his breakfast/dessert. Neo cleared her throat and flipped the whiteboard over.

I'm surprised, actually, that you haven't noticed yet.

"Noticed what Neo?" complained Roman. He leaned across the table, till their noses were almost touching. Then he squinted and leaned back again.
"Oh! New haircut. I like it. It really brings out… your hair."
Neo pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation and shook her head. She un-capped her whiteboard pen.

Normally you pick up stuff like this the moment you walk into the room.

"What is that?"
Roman was pointing over her shoulder at a large pile of banknotes on the countertop behind Neo. Neo smiled, as if to say 'So you finally noticed' and got up out of her chair. She scooped up the money and dumped it ceremoniously in front of Roman. He looked at the pile and then back up at Neo a couple of times. Then he leaned backwards and crossed his arms.
"Nope," he declared. "Not buying it. This is probably is a dream. Bring on the boot-wearing dog already so I can get this thing over with."
Neo cuffed him about the head and held up her whiteboard.

Well it's nice that you dream about me, but I am happy to inform you that you are wide awake.

"The-then where did you get all this money from?" stuttered Roman. "You can't pull the orphaned child off for two consecutive days! And the whole Ruby Rose thing fell through…"

Not exactly…

Roman stared at the whiteboard. "What do you mean not exact-"
Neo placed her finger on his lips and flipped the whiteboard over.

It turns out that we didhave something against Ruby-Red-Hood. The money that she gave to her friends? She'd borrowed it off the Schnee girl. But the Schnee girl didn't know that. She also 'borrowed' some off her sister. Apparently just the mere thought of the Schnee girl and her sister knowing that she'd lent herself some of their money was enough for her to take moremoney and leave it in the designated spot.

"So you mean, if I hadn't smashed my scroll and given myself away," started Roman.
Neo nodded encouragingly.
"Then you would've known the plan was off and wouldn't have headed to Beacon and found out about… how did you find out about that by the way?"
Neo held up a finger and wrote something quickly on her whiteboard.

The kid talks to her dog. She was explaining the entiresituation to it (I mean, why?)while trying to convince it to wear galoshes.

Neo rolled her eyes and chucked the board over her shoulder, hopping into Roman's lap.
"Things did work out for us after all, Neo!" he exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her. Neo kissed him softly and then broke back and smiled.
"I love you, Ice Cream," said Roman, ruffling her hair. Neo held up her whiteboard.

I love you too…

She flipped it round to the other side.

Jerkbutt.

Roman rolled his eyes and shifted her off his lap. "Come on Neo. Let me get my coat and hat. Let's go get ice cream. My treat."
Neo clapped her hands and ran off to get her parasol from the living room. As Roman was about to step out, he looked back one last time at the ashtray on the table. "Ah ha!" he declared, clapping his hands together. "I've beaten you this time."
He started walking again, turning his head just in time to walk straight into the door frame.
Neo, with parasol, hat and coat in hand, popped back into the hallway to see what had happened. She kissed Roman on the forehead and un-capped her whiteboard pen, extracting the mini-board from her jacket.
"Neo, don't you-" started Roman, but Neo had already tucked the pen back into her pocket.

Poor sweet baby.