As always:

"Talk"

'thoughts'

and the new one

"Neo's writing"

now, on with the show:

He felt pain, sharp and great pain on all of the body. Some parts more and some parts less, but still, pain. His mind was still fuzzy, not really conscious of where he was or what had happened; for all he knew, he could be in jail. The damn kid had really won this time (not that he was willing to admit that in front of anyone), at that speed even the lightest person would have been able to knock him out. Plus, the wounds of failing that block had him practically at the verge of a collapse.

As he opened his eyes, the sunlight made his vision blurry. Or maybe it was just the pain on his side, he didn't care about it. All he knew was that the image was a blurry spot of colors that cleared out as the time passed and, for all he knew he could be in jail.

The blurry image turned out to be his own bedroom. When he realized it, the green-eyed man let out a breath of relief. Not being in jail was a huge improvement to his expectations. 'Okay since I'm here, someone came to get me… Red would have turned me to the police if she had had enough time to do it'.

The ginger tried to get out of bed, but as soon as he tried to sit on it a sharp pain went from his right side to every part of his body making him cringe. 'I'll be lucky if I can move properly by the end of the week…damn red…and to make it worse I lost an entire shipment of dust…She's really not going to be happy about this…' He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn't notice when the door opened. He didn't notice the person with the food tray that approached him or the fact that someone else had stepped inside the room.

"Roman, try to sit at least. I'm not going to spoon-feed you, and I'm pretty sure Neo would make you choke if you ask her" said the owner of the club, making Roman turn his head (a little too fast), and notice that he and the small woman were on the room.

'So, it was Neo who found me… and she even called Junior… man, that means Red must have left me half dead for Neo to call him…' he tough while in pain as he straightened his position to a half-sitting one. He noticed Neo climbing on the other side of the bed as Junior left the tray over him and pulled a chair to sit at his side 'This makes me look like I'm on death bed…' he thought with a smirk on the face.

He hated Junior's soup, but it was very useful. After years of studying mixes for the bar and cooking to maintain the three of them, Junior had found a way to strengthen the regenerative properties of Aura. The only downfall of such a powerful recipe was the fact that it tasted awful, to the point that, every full-spoon you took of the damn thing was met with an intent to puke. Junior's full glare on him was the one thing that avoided him to throw the damn plate through the window, that and Neo's sight (up-close), to make sure he swallowed.

As he swallowed the last bit of soup, the man grabbed the tray and took it towards the kitchen while his other associate remained in the room. Roman was starting to feel a little nervous. They wouldn't let him get up and they wouldn't leave him alone, that surely was suspicious but sadly, he didn't remember much of his fight against the huntress, with the last impact being an exception. 'Time to figure out what the hell is happening' thought the green-eyed man as Junior walked once again through his bedroom door, this time with no tray in hand.

"Okay Roman. What the hell happened out there?" asked the man, as he brought the chair he was previously using towards him and sat so he could look at the ginger man "I was having a good night at the club when Neo texts me that you have three broken ribs, a pierced lung and a fractured arm. Took me two hours to patch you the right way and wait for your aura to start healing that damn lung." He clearly sounded irritated. 'Well, I will be pissed too if an idiot made me lose money…'. He turned his head towards the side to avoid his look but Neo was clearly more pissed off than Junior.

"I remember we were trying to steal some dust when Red and her friends came to the place, I don't know what the hell happened at the other side because, the moment I was trying to escape Red shoot towards my exit and forced me to run inside a warehouse." The green-eyed man was pissed at the fact that he had to explain what happened like he was some kid who got caught doing some prank. To make matters worse, Neo's glare was getting more pressuring at every word that left his mouth. "Then I don't remember much, except for the end, that was with Red coming at full speed to impact me" 'I think I'll leave out the part were little Red looks alluring…'

"Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me that Blondie's little sister broke you three ribs and pierced your lung?" asked the man with a complete look of disbelief. Roman just sighed at his reaction 'seriously Junior? Have you seen the weapon she carries around? Are you retarded or something of the sort?... Well you might be something of the sort… I mean… you have a thing for blondie…' he was so focused on his mental sass that he didn't notice Neo furiously tapping in her scroll while giving him a murderous look. "Why run in other direction instead of towards me? Where you trying to be alone with her?" read the screen right in front of him, as the small woman had pushed her scroll right in front of his face while glaring at him.

"I don't know what you mean with the last question, Neo. And I hope that it's not what I think you are trying to imply" warned the man with a low voice. "As for why I went towards the warehouse, it was because of the rest of the pests being there. I tried getting Red away so we could take some part of the cargo once she was unconscious, which ended up as a failure, I think." The fiery glare of the woman turned to an apologetic expression and she decided to face away from him at his words.

"Neo. Are you telling me that you couldn't take anything? Not even a little speck of dust from a warehouse that had enough dust to power an entire Atlesian battalion?" asked the man as he stood up (ignoring all of Junior's advices and attempts to put him back in the bed). The woman avoided his gaze at the question which made him groan.

"For all that I know, that damn woman will try to murder me now…" mumbled Roman as he took out a cigar while Junior facepalmed at his action. "So, now I have to calm down that woman and hope that she will understand what happened" continued the man as he took out his clothes, his side was still in pain, but it wasn't the moment to think on that. The man only stopped when he noticed a certain piece of clothing, and he remembered that everyone that ever brought him home while unconscious had to leave that piece of clothing on his nightstand.

When they saw Roman going through his clothes and look periodically towards the night stand, the small woman typed something on her scroll as the older man walked outside the room towards the main door mumbling something about idiots smoking and black lungs. After writing the message, Neo walked towards Roman and handed him her scroll "If you are looking for your handkerchief, you didn't have it when I found you, the White Fang couldn't find it at the warehouse either."

"Great… see if I left it somewhere around here. I'll go talk to that woman and convince her that we are still useful" ordered the ginger as he picked up his cane and hat and walked out of his house and towards the warehouse where he was supposed to bring the dust he collected.

After the door closed behind Roman, Neo let out a sigh. 'And how am I supposed to find in here something that you lost at the warehouse…'thought the woman as she threw herself on the bed 'Besides… I'm pretty sure that the damn kid took the stupid scarf anyways…' she rambled mentally.

At the time Roman arrived at the warehouse, his 'employers' were already there, and they looked pissed. The damn black-haired brat made him signs that he was about to get hanged, while the green haired bitch used her semblance to show him an illusion of his dead body burning. The man shrugged at the image before he walked inside the small room where he planned on what to do.

Inside the room was his actual employer, the woman was sitting at the table with her face towards the board with numbers (which represented the amounts of dust they needed and the amount they had, aside from the numbers of personnel and equipment), Roman knew that she was aware of his presence but still preferred to clear his throat to announce his arrival.

"Roman… dear Roman… do you know why I hired you to help us in this enterprise?" asked the woman as she ignited a flame in her right hand. "I came to you because you were the best prospect for this kind of job" continued the woman as she turned around to face him "So Roman… How is that the best criminal in all of Vale couldn't bring not a single speck of dust from a warehouse that was overflowing with it?"

"Look darling, this is all a delicate procedure… I normally can take out cops and huntsmen that come after me. But if I recall, YOU told me that I shouldn't kill anyone because that would throw the city on alert and that would ruin your plans. Besides, I can get that dust back from the stupid warehouse, it's child's play" replied the man as he turned away from the table to smoke.

She walked behind him and passed a hand over his shoulders towards his chest, while the other one was right in front of his face "You better get that dust Roman, or you pretty little family" said the woman as she snapped her fingers and created a flame, right in front of his face "will burn."

Hello there

Inked Lotus here, with a new chapter (for the first time o.O).

So, this one is part one of the aftermath I'll try to write part two but I make no promises about when I'll publish it. College is getting challenging.

Special Thanks to Dragoness of the Moon for the review and guest: Rosewick4ever. Also, thanks to everyone who follows now the story and those who marked it as a favorite.

well, see you next time.