A Man of Honor.

Chapter 22: Surprises.

"A fish with his mouth closed never gets caught." ~ Carlo Gambino.

With my apartment having been blown to smithereens, and my one and only means of contact with Ozpin gone with it I did the only thing I really could do. I carried on with my business.

Believe me I considered running. But if Lil Miss could find out who and where my family was then I knew that tucking my tail between my legs and disappearing would quite possibly be disastrous. What's more I couldn't leave Cardin and the rest of my crew behind to face those potential consequences.

I moved in with the twins like they had offered. Sure enough they kept their word and had me pay my rent in home cooked meals. Almost the minute I arrived they asked me to start cooking them something in their meagerly stocked kitchen. Melanie teased me by saying that I could be paying my way with favors. They were more than happy to pay for whatever groceries or utensils I needed so in a way I was also eating for free. I was certainly grateful that I had memorized all of mom's family recipes.

A couple of days after I had been blasted out of my second story window I was allowed to return and collect whatever hadn't been destroyed in the fire. Hana's youngest son Kohi accompanied me since he was hoping to collect some things that hadn't been destroyed in the blast and accompanying blaze. Mostly I helped him collect Hana's belongings since her apartment wasn't as badly damaged as mine. But even then there wasn't a lot that made it out that could be scavenged.

I lost everything I valued in the blast. My suits mainly, I had several that were at the dry cleaners so I wasn't left without anything to wear. My Pumpkin Pete hoodie had also been a casualty of the fire, I hadn't worn it in forever but some nostalgic part of myself couldn't help but lament the loss. It might have been a cheap simple hoodie with a cartoon bunny on it, but I felt like I lost something more.

My safe on the other hand had survived the blast. I had made sure that when I bought a safe to keep all my cash in that it was tough and resistant to heat. So thankfully I hadn't taken a serious financial blow. I did give Hana's son a nice stack of bills to help her out and ordered some flowers to be sent to her. Some of the jewelry had also survived as well, but that was mostly it. Almost everything else in that apartment was cheap and disposable to begin with, it wasn't like I had any actual intention of making that place a home.

But I still felt a little bad losing it all the same. It was a cramped little shithole sure but I had come to appreciate it. And I certainly liked having Hana as a landlady.

I made sure her son knew that Hana could contact me if she ever needed something.

With my cash recovered I ordered a fresh batch of suits from Marcello who had readied those gloves for me to fit properly over my severed finger. I told him that I hadn't gotten to talk to anyone yet about getting him some dust but I swore again that I would get to it the moment the opportunity presented itself.

But even with everything happening I had work to do. Particularly in regards to getting ready for that dust heist on the docks. Apparently Roman was planning on using some bullheads in the operation but he didn't have the proper equipment for lifting the shipping containers which meant that he needed to "borrow" some specialty equipment. Which brought me to one of Bruce's union warehouses.

"Mr. White," I greeted him with a handshake as I exited my car along the docks. The smell of the ocean was thick in the air and the breeze coming off of the sea was chilling despite the fact that summer was practically here.

"Mr. Arc," he said, shaking my hand and leading me down the line of union warehouses. I watched as various faunus members worked around us hauling crates or operating forklifts. All of them spotted Mr. White and gave him a polite nod or wave. "Roman told me to expect you to come by," he said to me as we walked together. "I already have those winches ready for you."