Light (Jaune)

A single week had passed since Jaune had arrived at Vale. Yet, it had felt like a year. He was running on barely any sleep, having to comfort the psychopath as she had nightmares every single night. Yet, he did not voice a single complaint. He kept up with his bartender studies, three weeks left until he could legally serve drinks. He even had begun to inquire into the woman that Yang was looking for. Mainly by asking Torchwick to keep an ear out for him. He had also been forced to feed the ice cream themed girl ice cream. Big surprise there after finding her freezer full of the stuff.

Yet, none of it seemed to really matter. At the end of the day, he was still stuck in the room with Neo. The only time he got to go outside was when he was buying more burn cream for her. The almost complete isolation was beginning to wear on him, weakening his mental state. He had completely run out of things to talk about. It had also begun to show.

He had bags under his eyes, his movements had become slower and slower. He would doze off in the middle of the day. Work on getting his bartender license was beginning to fall behind. His hair was even messier than normal. Things were not looking good for the young man.

Yet, he kept pushing onwards. Dedicating himself to helping Neo, merely for the fact that she couldn't help herself. He expected no reward, even if Torchwick was paying him for this service. Yet, something kept nagging at him. Eating at him from the inside. Causing him to hesitate every now and then.

Neo, spending literally every waking moment with him, had noticed. But she was still debating with herself on whether on not she cared enough to bring it up. So Jaune simply kept pushing himself onwards. Forwards towards self-destruction with no end in sight.

Luckily, not all savors are law abiding.

"Knock knock, guess who's back!" Torchwick yelled as he haphazardly threw the door open. "Do hope I am not interrupting anything."

Jaune just stared dead-eyed at the flamboyant man, while Neo, still in the bedroom and not even visible from the front door at the moment, rolled her eyes.

"Geez. It's like someone died." Torchwick muttered to himself, yet loud enough for Neo to hear in the next room.

"Sorry, what is it you need?" Jaune asked, biting back a yawn.

"Why, just came to check up on the newlyweds! Must say, the bride is looking awfully tired." Torchwick taunted, even if it took Jaune much too long to realize that he just said that Neo wears the pants in their non-existent relationship.

Jaune watched as Torchwick opened the door to the bedroom, only to close it rather quickly as a knife was embedded into it.

"I see Neo is doing well. Any idea when she will be back up and running? I have need of my getaway car slash problem solver." Torchwick asked the young man, rubbing his hands together as he kept his eyes on the door, both to hide his worry over his partner and to watch for any more knives.

Jaune shrugged slightly. "End of the month? I mean, she will be able to walk, but I don't think she will be able to fight. Her Aura seems to be doing some limited healing, but it's slower than it should be. I don't really know enough about this stuff. I mean, I've seen what aura can do, I've been through my fair share of Grimm attacks like anyone else living outside of Vale, but it's all secondhand."

After giving a brief rundown of Neo's condition, Jaune pulled out a tube of burn cream. "If you could find some higher-grade stuff, it should be even quicker, even if only by a few days."

Before the young man could even blink, Torchwick had snatched the tube out of Jaune's hand and was inspecting it. "This stuff is already rather high grade. Hunstman level stuff. Expensive too."

Jaune shrugged again, too tired to do anything else. "Your paying."

"And my wallet feels the hole being burnt into it." Another knife went into the door, right beside Torchwick's head. "Bad analogy." He admitted. "But you do look like hell kid. Has she been keeping you up with her snoring?"

"No." Jaune sighed, putting his head against the wall, not really caring how he looked at the moment. "She has been having nightmares. Bad ones. It... It doesn't feel right to just try and sleep while she has them, you know? I've... I've been trying to help her calm down, but since I can't really wake her up, I just kinda have to talk to her until she calms down."

"Sounds harsh. Well kiddo, I guess that makes me the bearer of good news. I've got a day off, so I decided to spend it checking up on the little ice cream kid." A third knife stuck in the door. This one also near his head, but a lot lower. "Neo, be a dear and don't castrate me. I would very much enjoy starting a family one day."

Jaune blinked a few times, surprised by the very... interesting relationship between the pair. It seemed the this was an old song and dance, one that had been done many times before. The young man just kind of pointed towards Neo, then to Torwick, and mouthed the words 'Are you too like, you know, together?'

Torchwick, for his part, was not surprised in the slightest. But he did notably move away from the door before answering. The criminal stood beside Jaune, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "Dear god no." He mumbled, taking a cigar out of one of his pockets, lighting it, and taking a long drag before continuing.

"Neo and I have a long history over a short period of time. I'm only a few years older than you kiddos, but it's enough for me to feel like we could never truly understand each other. Neo on the other hand." Torchwick noticeable paused, trying to pick his words carefully. "Her feelings on that subject are complicated. Part of the reason why I hired you, instead of some random shmuck doctor. Your closer to her age, you can understand her better than I can."

"You can get lost in this profession easily. Before, well, the burning, I was planning on demanding Neo take a few months off. She is becoming too unstable. Too aggressive. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen developments, that is no longer an option. We all will be working overtime. But I care for the midget, I really do. We are partners and, dare I say it, friends." Actual worry crept into Roman's voice, and the normally flamboyant man seemed to deflate a little.

"But that's where you come in." Torchwick's attention returned to Jaune, staring him right into the eyes, the smoke from the cigar going directly up his nose. "See, a kid like you, one that is over caring, dedicated to helping people to the point that you look like a living breathing zombie and all that goody hero stuff is what she needs to keep her sane."

"But do remember one thing," Torchwick said as he let go of Jaune, but before the boy could even so much as move a muscle, the criminal had him by his shirt, pulling his face down so he was forced to look the criminal in the eyes. "She belongs to me. You will do nothing outside of what I permit. You will not try and stop her if I tell her to do something. If I tell her to kill your mother, she will. If you try to stop her, she will kill you. Because that's what I want her to do."

Jaune blinked rather stupidly as he was pushed back, landing on the couch. "Now, off you go to play, sleep, or whatever it is you kids do these days. Today, I shall benevolently look after Neo and all her needs" Torchwick smiled, yet gave nothing away. It could have been the caring smile of a father, or the lecherous one of a pedophile, Jaune simply couldn't tell. He had a feeling that's exactly what Torchwick wanted.

Dark (Neo)

Neo watched as Roman entered her room. She couldn't hear what was said to Jaune, but she caught a glimpse of his face as the door was opened. It was pale white, fear clear from his body language. Once the door was closed, the mute girl simply raised a single eyebrow at the criminal.

"What?" Said criminal asked, feigning innocence.

Neo's eyes narrowed slightly, giving a glare to Roman.

"I didn't do anything!" Roman raised his hands in defense.

Neo's glared harder at him.

"Alright! I may have threatened him slightly! But I didn't touch a hair on his pretty blond head. Your boy-toy is unharmed." Roman promised. He took the cigar out of his mouth and stared at it for a moment. "Besides, we have bigger problems than him."

Suddenly, Roman tore open the cigar, tobacco going everywhere. But inside was a single piece of paper. A picture really. "We have work to do."

Neo meanwhile glanced at the mess Roman made, the towards the picture, then towards herself.

"I'll clean it up later." Roman waved a hand dismissively. "As for why the picture was hidden in my cigar, the cops have been on my ass the past week. I'm not sure if you have been watching the news, but in the last few days, the gang and I have stolen enough dust to blow up an entire city block. Lotta our guys getting caught too. If they found me with this picture, well, Cindy would not be very happy."

Roman walked up to Neo's side, crouching down next to her and showing her the picture. "Don't worry about your injuries. I don't need you to fight. Perry can handle the killing, I just need you to get him out. It's gonna get hot, fast."

Neo raised a single eyebrow at the effeminate thief.

"I'll be creating a distraction. Apparently, the SCD are buying up a whole lot of land just outside of Vale. Seems they found a new dust mine. Until they head out, they are storing a lot of materials and machinery in a warehouse. I'm going to hit it and sell everything we get. Gonna need the money to get our boys out of jail. Can't sell the dust or Cindy would burn me alive. It looked like it hurt when she did it to you."

Neo went back to glaring at the thief. She seemed to do that a lot. Swapping between glaring, eye-rolling, and trying to state the obvious.

"Well, we have until tonight anyway. With the blond gone out, we shouldn't have to worry about anyone getting in the way."

Originally, I was going to write about twice as much in this chapter, but it was a hard week at work so you get a normal sized chapter instead. But this time with a lot more Jaune instead of Neo. Plus Roman! Who doesn't love Roman?