Ch33: You guessed it

(Saturday, Y+1, M+4, D+25)

'"I'm hungry. Do you know anywhere good to eat around here?"' Neo asks.

"I know a place. Small, nice staff and great food. I used to go there a lot before I left for Beacon." I say, leading the way.

'"What's that symbol on your coat mean?"'

"You mean the flags? The ones on my shoulders?" She nods. "They're the flag of my home country. They usually use that placement on the uniforms of military personnel. I figured that I might as well do that too. Help remind me where I came from."

'"Do you miss it?"'

"Sorta. I don't have any memories to it, or any emotional connections. I just know that it's where I'm from."

'"Would you go back?"'

"If I could travel freely. That is, without the whole amnesia BS happening every time."

'"Really? You wouldn't want to leave? Go back home?"'

"Back home is here. This place, Patch, has been home for as long as I can remember. And why would I want to leave? All of my friends and family, albeit adoptive family, are here. Plus, this place is quite fun." I say, as we arrive at the restaurant. We walk in and get seated at a small table next to a rather large window.

'"I can see why you like this place. It's calm. I haven't been somewhere this peaceful in a while."'

"It's nice to hear that. Honestly, when I first met you I was expecting some sort of slasher-meets-serial-killer-meets-psychopath. I mean, why else would Junior have sent someone he barely knew or trusted to some random house with some random package and the warning not to tell anyone?" I say, "But honestly, you've turned out to be quite an interesting person to spend the day with. Especially if the other option is my sister who looked quite ready to rip me limb from limb."

'"Gee, thanks."'

Before I can reply the waiter, a rather tough-looking guy by the name of Slate, comes up to take our orders.

"Hey Kurt, nice seeing you back here, how're the sisters?" He asks.
"They're alright. Yang's kinda angry with me." I say. "You see, a friend of mine got quite drunk and decided to send some pictures that were taken out of context. Yang saw them and well… she punched clean through a solid metal door." I elaborate. "I'm doing quite well, thanks for asking." I smirk.

"Never a dull moment with you Kurt. Now, what'll you two be having?"

I get a steak and Neo gets some sort of pasta dish. The waiter leaves and our conversation continues.

'"What were those vehicles in your garage?"'

"I made them… Sort of. The red one I took the framework from a truck and added armor, a better engine, and some other surprises. The other one, the big one, I built from the ground up, with the occasional piece of old construction equipment used for the turret and the treads. Unfortunately, after the first time I used it, during The Breach, the main cannon kinda… failed. Catastrophically. As in the breach exploded and sprayed fragments across the turret. Suffice to say that I shouldn't be building any gun with a caliber measured in inches." I say, with a bit of an embarrassed chuckle near the end.

'"Oh. That sounds cool. Why'd you make the big one anyway?"'

"I wanted to make a tank."

'"Tank? You mean like the storage device?"'

"I guess I'll explain later. After we eat." I say as Slate delivers our food. We quickly begin to eat, discussing various things; movies (mostly Sarge 2: Sarge Harder), books (Neo has, at some point, read Ninjas of Love. No… just, no) , the Grimm (Ursa cavalry anyone?), the finer points of unarmed combat (and countering said finer points with a rifle's buttstock and bayonet), whether or not replacing the entirety of the Lower Vale Council (effectively the American Senate and the British Parliament smashed together into an unholy union) with inanimate objects would make the government run more efficiently (we decided it would), and the history of Earth.

"And then we managed to screw it up." I say, managing to sum up most of history in five words.

Neo giggles a bit.

"But hey, it honestly could have been much, much worse." I say, before the waiter delivers the bill. "I've got it." I say, pulling my wallet from within my greatcoat and shelling out the required amount of Lien, with a tip for the waiter.

"Thanks Kurt. You and your girlfriend have a nice day now. Remember to stop back sometime." Slate says as we leave.

Neo and I both blush a bit at that as we leave, but we don't correct him.

''I'm tired." Neo says with a bit of an evil grin.

I chuckle a bit as she climbs onto my back, her legs around my midsection and her arms over my shoulders and once again uses me as a form of transport.

'"You're not complaining."'

"Is that disappointment I'm hearing?" I reply.

'"Maybe."'

"Well maybe it's because you don't smell like booze this time." *sniff* "You smell kinda sweet… kinda like ice cream actually."

'"Aww. Thanks."'

"Well you do. It's actually quite fitting."

She just nuzzles into my shoulder. '"You're nice."'

"Well I don't see any big reason not to be. You were a merc, you did what you did for the pay."

'"And because it was fun."'

"Well now you get to be a huntress in training. There's more work but you don't have to worry about the authorities."

'"And there's you."'

"What about me?" I ask with a chuckle, people look at us weird as I walk down the street. I admit, I would probably think I were crazy if I saw me on the street right now. But I don't care.

'"You're nice to me. it's been a long time since someone was actually nice to me."'

"So what'd you think of the restaurant?"

'"I can see why you like it. The waiter's nice."'

"Yeah, Slate's a nice guy. He looks tough but he's a teddy bear at heart. I wouldn't want to piss him off, though."

'"Are you dating anyone Kurt?"'

"Not yet."

'"Slate seemed to think you were."'

"Are you trying to go somewhere with this?" I ask with a smirk, knowing full well where she was trying to go.

'"Have you ever thought about it?"'

"Not until recently."

'"So who's the lucky girl?"'

"Someone who's very close to me."

'"Emotionally?"' She rests her head on my shoulder. '"Or-"'

"Both." I say, turning my head to look her straight in the eyes, her face almost touching mine.

'"Hey there. You're cute."'

"You too." She stares right back. "Ya know, you'r- mmpph. Hmmm."

'"You talk too much."'

"And you seem to have found a way to fix that." I say, after a few seconds of stunned silence, once she breaks the kiss.

'"It seems I have. You're not used to this sort of thing, are you?"'

"What gave that away?" I ask rhetorically, before taking a peek at my watch and turning towards home. "It's getting late. We'll be going back to Beacon tomorrow. Hopefully my sister will have cooled down enough. Hopefully she'll have stopped seeing red." I say, with a light chuckle.

'"Really, Kurt."'

"Hey, I'm happy. It's kinda a new experience for me, this whole relationship thing. It's a wonderful thing. I'm just getting used to it."

'"Just don't make too many puns."'

"Yeah, I'll try. Hang on, we're going home."

*bamf*

"Hey Dad, Qrow! We're baaaaccckkk!" I say, opening the door and walking into the family room. "The hell?" I ask, seeing Qrow on the ground massaging his shoulder next to a shattered coffee table, my father standing over him victoriously sipping a beer.

"Your uncle challenged me to an arm-wrestling match." He smiles widely. "I won."

"And you broke the coffee table how?" I ask.

"It's a long story. Why do you look so happy all of a sudden?"

I just smirk and point over my shoulder to Neo. "I just got a girlfriend."

"You sure do move fast Kurt. "

"You're taking this a lot better than I expected."

"Kurt, I've long since given up trying to figure out why you do what you do, all I've figured out is that you do what you want and you don't let anyone force you into doing something else. I respect that." He says, tearing up a bit.

"Thanks Dad." I respond.

"I am also incredibly drunk."

"Nice try dad. I'm not smelling much booze on you. Qrow, on the other hand… I can smell why he challenged you." I say as Qrow continues to massage his aching shoulder, using his Aura to heal it faster.

"Night Dad."

"Night Kurt. try not to make too much noise."

"I don't think we're that far along Dad." I chuckle a bit, carrying Neo to my room. "I'm a fighter, not a lover." I call over my shoulder to him. I enter my room and Neo gets down. I stretch and hear my spine pop a few times. "Ahhhhh. That's better. The bathroom's down the hall. Second door on your right." I tell Neo, taking off my greatcoat and stacking my armored plates in a duffel bag. She stays behind, staring. "You're not getting a show, if that's what you wanted." I smirk, giving Neo a cheeky smile.

She just smiles back and walks off to the bathroom. I close the door and change into my pajamas, a dark blue shirt and black gym shorts. Soon after Neo returns from the bathroom and I leave to quickly shower and brush my teeth. A few minutes later, I re enter the room, seeing Neo sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting.

"Lonely?" I smirk, walking over to my nightstand and plugging in my scroll to a recharger. I select a playlist and press play. Music starts to play from the device. A whistling tune echoes.

'"Why are you playing music?"'

"I find it helps me sleep. It's calming." I say, as the whistling is replaced by the sounds of metal.

'"You find this calming?"' She asks, as a deep voice starts to sing.

"Yes. I have no idea why I find this kind of thing calming, but I do." *Crosses grow on Anzio, where no soldier sleeps and Hell's six feet deep.* "This is from a band back song is called To Hell and Back. The band's called Sabaton." I say, climbing into bed. Neo climbs in soon after and makes herself comfortable, using me as a pillow and dropping off into a deep sleep. I smirk and fall asleep to the sounds of metal.