Professor Arc

Chapter 36

The weekend had never seemed so dangerous. Saturday was supposed to be a day of rest and relaxation, of going back to his teenage roots and sleeping until the crack of noon. Today Jaune was up at seven on the dot, sat at his kitchenette as he refined the flimsy strategy he'd come up with. It was risky, that was a given. More than that, if he got found out then it would mean his complete and utter ruin, there could be no recovery from this. No excuse that a single person would accept.

All or nothing... much like everything else he'd done since arriving at Beacon. One day those odds are going to kill me. Let's just hope that time isn't now. Cinder's words danced in his head, the warning of Ironwood's hand behind this duel, and the knowledge that whatever the General had in mind, Jaune couldn't afford to play into it.

But in truth all of that might not matter at all, since he might never make it to his fated match. There was something he had to handle first, a last-minute reversal on what he'd decided the night before. Necessity had forced his hand, as it often did.

Neo raised a single eyebrow in question when he walked back into their shared bedroom, particularly without a plate of food in hand. Like a lazy cat, she fully considered him a servant to her every need. But this girl's claws were much sharper than any housecat's.

"We need to talk."

Neo turned and snuggled into the warm blankets he'd left behind, signalling that their conversation was over before it had even begun. Not this time. The mattress gave way beneath his knee, one hand reaching out to grasp the girl's shoulder and turn her back over.

"I said, we need to talk." He wasn't quite on top of her, but the position, not to mention his height advantage gave him an imposing edge. Or it would have done, were this anyone else. Neo's mismatched eyes were lidded, her smile curious but not worried. Sweat beaded on his brow as her nails bit into his wrist, easily removing his hand from her shoulder.

She was listening, however.

"You knew Roman had been arrested."

Neo nodded.

"You told me you didn't know what had happened to him," he said. "You said his scroll had been destroyed."

The look she gave him seemed to be mocking, both relaying that she couldn't have told him anything and that even so, she hadn't technically lied. His scroll probably had been destroyed in whatever fight ended in his arrest. Jaune had chosen to assume Neo meant she hadn't known. And she had chosen not to make him aware of that fact.

But it was still deceit.

"You also said you didn't know what had happened in Vale." She started to smirk but he shook his head. "Don't give me any tripe about you not knowing exactly what happened. You knew what was going to happen and you kept it from me!"

The pale girl rolled her eyes, letting out a suffering sigh as she looked him dead in the eyes and nodded.

She didn't even try to hide it, and he wasn't sure why that surprised him. Of course she would lie to him, why wouldn't she? But that wasn't what caused anger to blossom within him. He had lied to so many that having it turned around on him was nothing.

"You fought Yang." A confused expression. "The blonde girl, the student – Yang. You've met her before damn it."

Neo rolled her eyes again but nodded. He knew she hadn't forgotten Yang, not after their first meeting so long ago, back when Neo had pretended to be his lover. What he wouldn't have given for the simplicity of those days, no Cinder, no Winter or General Ironwood – no Vytal Festival or terrorists running around behind the scenes.