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Jaune woke up the next morning in the bed he'd stolen from the mayor, along with his city, and rolled over. The room had already been 'cleaned up' by the handful of Minions under Gnarl's command, so aside from the decently comfortable bed, it was more or less nothing but a large, dark-wood room, with its furniture and fixings hauled away to whatever end the Head Minion had in mind. Standing, he found the bits of his armor he'd left on the floor and tugged them on while he woke up properly and, a few minutes later, stepped out into the empty, dimly lit hall and made his way to the greater hall at the front of the building.
Where he found Fiona.
Asleep in the seat he'd left her in, curled into a little ball with her arms wrapped around her head and a gentle little snore escaping from her. There were some papers laid over the arm of the chair down by her feet, and the hall was a bit of a mess from the work, but it was all fairly ordered. And quiet, with only a bit of the early morning light slipping through the windows as a few Minions came staggering sleepily through the door. He turned, raising his Gauntlet as they chittered the start of their usual 'Overlord!' greetings, and shushed them as he went to meet them.
They waited by the door for him as he came over and knelt, whispering lowly, "Get some food for us, and keep everyone out. We're having a quiet morning. Understood?"
"Yes, Master." They all rasped, bowing awkwardly in a messy banging of pot-helmets, stolen chains from whatever, and in the sweeping back of one's 'cloak' - which seemed to just be a ragged hunk of curtain it had torn off - and then they rushed off.
While they were gone, he got to work cleaning up enough of a spot on the raised dais for them to sit at. And, when that was done, knelt by the chair and reached out to gently shake her shoulder. She grumbled when he did, and tucked into a tighter ball, so he sighed and shook her shoulder even harder, grunting out a low, "Fiona."
"M'up." She mumbled, rolling over and curling back up into her ball, blinking sleepily at him kneeling in front of her and slurring. "What'cha need?"
"Breakfast." He answered as the door opened and he turned, watching the Minions return with a little collection of baked fish and bread. Fish didn't strike him as much of a 'breakfast' thing, but, well…
He'd sent Minions to get it, so he was just glad it was cooked and food.
"Food?" The sleepy Faunus blinked, uncurling just a bit and looking around eagerly as he rose and chuckled, offering her a hand.
He tugged her up and she stumbled a bit, still half-asleep, leaning against his side and yawning as he turned them both and gestured for the Minions to put the food in the middle of the spot he'd cleaned up. The breakfast itself wasn't terribly complicated. Just a little round-loaf of bread about the size of both his fists and some sliced, salted and baked, bits of square fish on a plate.
At some point, Fiona woke up enough to stand on her own and pushed off him, smoothing out her wrinkled clothes, and stammered, "I-I have to smell awful right now, s-s-sorry."
"You're fine." He waved her off, dropping into his spot while she settled, legs crossed under her, at the edge of the little platform on the other side of the food. Ripping the little round loaf in half, he grunted, "Thanks for your work, last night."
"O-Of course." She nodded, taking the bit of bread and a couple of the fish pieces to make something of a sandwich out of it and gnawing at it, staring at the floor while her ears flicked anxiously. Quietly, she added, "I-I was just, you know… Happy to help you!"
"I appreciate you." He nodded gratefully, flicking her a look as she ducked her head down and turned away, munching at her food. Chuckling, he asked, "How did everything go?"
"F-F-Fine." She answered, still avoiding his gaze but talking more surely as she got into it, "I-I g-g-got everything filed right, so you shouldn't have to worry about legal problems from the acquisitions. A-And with food from here, and stone from the quarry, the workers at all three have just about everything they need to keep everything running."
"On their own?"
"More or less." She shrugged, "We get payments from a few companies in Atlas, and subsidies, for the fish and stone. That lets us pay the workers, and if you prefer, I can just… Appoint some foremen to manage stuff at both."
"Good idea." He nodded, smiling, "Is there a problem around here you haven't already solved?"
"I-I, um…" She scrunched her head down into her shoulders and flushed a bit, stammering out, "I, uh, n-not really? I've got m-most of it solved for you. Just, y-you know… Need you to approve the ideas."
"No you don't." He shrugged, waving her off when she turned to him, brows knit together in confusion, and explained, "I trust you, Fiona. You're brilliant. So if you think it'll work, just do it. If you really want me to be informed, just send me summaries."
"I-I'm not that…" She looked away, ears flattened against the sides of her head, and muttered, "Flatterer."
"Not even a little bit, Fi. Not even a little, tiny bit." He snorted, giving her a meaningful look when she turned to peer up at him. Bowing his head a bit, he waved around them at the town and everything it had now come to represent. "You've got everything about this place solved and, more or less, up and running. I wouldn't have been able to manage that, not this fast or this well. Then there's your work in the Library, which I definitely couldn't do, and… I just don't think I'd be able to handle all of this without you here, helping me."
"You're…" Her face turned bright red and she tucked her knees up, into her chest, so she could hide her face behind them and whine. "You can't just say stuff like that, Overlord…"
"Jaune, to you." She turned her head to peer out from behind her knee and her curly hair and he smirked, ignoring the pangs of anxiety giving out his name put on him and adding, "When we're alone, you can use my name. Just, uh, don't spread it around, okay? Even to your team."
"Why…?"
"I trust you." He paid her a nod, "Will you trust me?"
"I…" She sat up straighter, face hard like he'd asked her for something deep, dark and demanding. Something important. Which, now he considered it, he was. He was asking her to keep a secret from everyone, including her team. But, after a second to consider it, she nodded and said, "Alright. If… If that's what you want, then I'll keep it to myself. J-Jaune."
"I appreciate it." He smiled, turning back to his food and chuckling, "Kinda nice… Hearing my own name, after so long."
"Why do you keep it a secret?"
"It's… Complicated." He sighed, not sure she was ready for the whole 'I died' part of everything. Instead, he said, "Just… Let's just say that I have some skeletons in my closet that I'd like left there."
"What kind of skeletons?"
"Nothing bad." He chuckled, chewing on a bit of fish and then going on, "I haven't killed someone or anything like that. I just… Have personal reasons for keeping my name under wraps, for now. I'm sorry if it bothers you, but-"
"It's fine, Jaune." She cut him off, chuckling when he turned to her and raised an eyebrow. Smiling, she explained, "You saved my life, showed me books I thought I'd never get to see, and saved so many others, too. And then stepped up! Helped even more. You came all the way out here just because I asked you to."
"I mean… Yeah?" He chuckled, shrugging as he turned back to his food. "You're important to me. Why wouldn't I come out here if you asked?"
"I… Am?"
"Of course." He flicked her a look, raising a confused eyebrow. "Isn't that obvious? You're as close to my right hand as you can get."
"I-I see…" She murmured, pursing her lips and flushing a bit before she said. "You trust me enough to do like I say, right?"
"Yeah." He nodded, smiling. "I might have questions if you ask me to hug a Beowolf, or step on a mine, but… I trust you."
"Then… C-Close your eyes." He gave her a confused look and she pouted and said, "Just do it."
"Okay…" A heartbeat passed after he closed his eyes and he felt something small on his chest, and then something warm and soft pressed against his lips. An eternally long second passed before he realised what it was and his heart sped up-
Before Fiona withdrew from the kiss and scurried away, tossing over her shoulder, "I-I'm going to get a shower, talk to you later!"
He watched her vanish through the door leading up to the upper floors, where he had slept, and blinked slowly as he raised a hand to press a finger to his lips. Standing, he smiled widely and turned to look out over the hall. Until he spotted a handful of Minions peering in through the door, chittering and snickering to each other, and frowned.
"Oi!" He bellowed, "Find something productive to do or I'll make you plow snow, you gits!"
Laughing, they slammed the door and left him in the quiet to sigh and turned to look back at the door, wondering aloud, "What even was that, really?"
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While his army of Minions marched home under Gnarl's - aggravated - command, he and Fiona took her ship, cruising lazily along the coastline in a comfortable silence. Or, for her, apparently. She was smiling all the way, humming to herself and bobbing back and forth happily in her seat. All while Jaune sat there, watching her through his mask, confused. Why had she kissed him and run off like that, just to act just fine here and now? Did it mean something, or was it just a way of saying thanks? He'd read that sort of thing a few times in the books, but…
He was smart enough not to just trust those old stories now, after what he'd been through so far.
About two thirds of the way there, he finally sighed and spoke up quietly, "Fiona…"
"Yeah?" She asked, half-turning her head, "What's up?"
"I…" He grimaced and shook his head, "What was that, this morning?"
"U-U-Um, it's called a k-k-kiss…?" She stammered, flushing a bit and flicking him a look when he grunted unamusedly and cocked his head. Scrunching down a bit in her seat, and making him feel a bit bad for ruining her good mood, she explained, "I-I just… From what you were s-saying, a-and, you know, the nice breakfast, I thought you were, uh, interested. In, um, me, and… A-And I was, and Robyn keeps telling me to just go with that stuff i-instead of overthinking everything like I do, and… And now I feel like I misunderstood that entire thing…"
"That isn't why I said all of that…" He sighed, then flinched when he saw her shrink down a bit more and rushed to add. "That doesn't mean I'm not- I just, that wasn't what I meant. I-I don't want you to think I was just being nice to… Get something."
"But I did misread it…"
"A bit, yeah."
"Of course." She sighed, "Good job, Fiona…"
For a while, they rode in a much less comfortable silence, now, while Jaune kicked himself for screwing up. But, after a while, he started to think about what he wanted. What to do about the situation. Fiona was absolutely adorable, and fun to be around. So he didn't mind, but…
"You need to talk to Gnarl."
"Gnarl…?"
"He knows more about Overlords than I do." Jaune explained, generally shrugging at all the rules he and Gnarl had been following so far - if he was going to even think about doing this, he'd do it right. And she deserved to know whatever she was getting into. "I'm… Not the first Overlord. And the Tower is more than just stone."
"I mean, I guessed that." She murmured, still a bit dejected but letting that natural curiosity of hers carry her through anyways. "The Minions, you know?"
"Yeah…"
"I'm guessing there's more, though?"
"There is." He nodded, leaning forward in his seat and holding up his armored hand to show the gem to her. "My Gauntlet is part of being an Overlord. It connects me to the Heart, which… I still don't know much about, since I can't read my books. But that lets me command the Minions, and the door, like you saw, and… Other things."
"Like… Technology?"
"Magic." Jaune corrected her, wincing when she spun to him, eyes widening a bit at the word - and its implications. "I don't know much about it, because of the book problem, and Gnarl being a forgetful, lazy ass."
"Okay…" She hummed, turning back to her piloting and frowning. "Why are you telling me all this?"
"Because the connection goes both ways." He grunted, curling the Gauntlet into a fist and sitting back in his seat. "Gnarl's sort of… Implied that, here and there. And according to him, most Overlord aren't, uh… Monogamous. So, if the Heart is going to change me to be more and more like an Overlord…."
"You might… Oh." She flushed, pursed her lips and asked, "And you want me to know that b-b-because?"
"Because if you talk to him, and you can… Work with that." He grimaced at the phrasing, but how else could he put it, really? Without watering down the truth, he wasn't sure how. Regardless, he went on, "Then… We could have dinner tonight? I'll… Go catch a deer, and see what veggies we have on hand, and-"
"Yes." Fiona cut him off, flushing when he turned to her and stammering, "I-I, uh, I mean… I'll talk to Gnarl and, uh, see you at dinner? A-Around seven?"
"Sure, uh, that sounds… Nice."
"Okay then." Fiona turned, smiling, "I'll talk to Gnarl as soon as he gets back, Jaune."
Smiling, he nodded and eased back in his seat, a bit more… Comfortable, now that everything was settled. And, as Fiona's mood improved and she got back to her little bouncing and humming, he smiled a bit more. Even if he was… Well, a bit anxious about an actual date.
Ignoring it, though, he said, "I'll bring the meat if you'll bring the Thyme?"
"That is such a desperate reach for a pun…"
"Yeah, but you're grinning." He snorted, making the young woman finally properly laugh.
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Nysk :
Ye. That's the line I'm trying to walk with him. A 'good conqueror', as hard as that is to always justify.
Lea Rosenwulf :
You can kinda see them gesturing at Lien, too, and how they can get this all up and running more or less. So you're not wrong, lol.
8-Bit Thief :
Basically, yeah. But hey, he made out- Up, I mean he made up for it!