113AN: Well, here we go.
I don't really have anything witty, clever, or insightful to say for once, so... uh... enjoy the chapter.
-Ikedawg43
Jaune wasn't stupid or clueless. He knew that Neo kept walking ahead of him was to tempt his eyes to roam down a little bit. Just because he knew that didn't mean he was very good at not staring at her hips. Windows are designed to be looked at, right? Maybe hip-windows were the same.
The little smirk she would give when she turned around to see Jaune very nervously look away probably should have scared Jaune more than it did. At least for now, he had something else he could try to focus on.
"What kind of kitchen do you have at your apartment?" Jaune asked, pretending to be all-of-a-sudden super interested in the can of… what were those, shrimp-flavored beans? Yeah, in the can of beans he picked up randomly.
Neo's silence after his question was something he was getting used to. What made him nervous was that he could tell she was looking at him instead of texting an answer or gesturing to him, which told Jaune he'd said something stupid.
"I'm just curious," Jaune added on. "Trying to plan out something easy that I won't burn."
That wasn't strictly true. Jaune had several older sisters and a mother who had taught him to cook, but he liked using a joke to break up any tension. He finally turned to face Neo, who considered his question for a few more moments.
Finally, she gestured with a shaky hand that the kitchen was so-so in size.
"Gee, that's a helpful answer," Jaune commented sarcastically. Neo gave him a flat look for that, but it didn't have any anger behind it. He was starting to get a feel for her sense of humor and what he could get away with, and who didn't enjoy teasing someone just a little? "Does it at least have a stove?"
Neo gave him another flat look, but eventually nodded her head yes.
"Oven?"
Same reaction.
"Oh, then we'll be fine," Jaune announced, before going back to looking over the shelves for inspiration. "I was worried that you had, like, a you-sized kitchen."
Jaune stole a glance at Neo out of the corner of his eye, and did a horrible job at hiding a grin at the utter look of indignation on Neo's face. The follow-up pout she gave him for that made him giggle too, and she gave him a couple of light punches to let him know how funny she found it. Jaune made a note to tone it down a little bit now that he'd had his fun - it wouldn't do to scare her off by being mean on only their second date - but he felt pretty confident that he and Neo were starting to relax around each other.
Well, he was at least, and given how fond Neo was of messing with him with her hips and… uh, other things, Jaune felt like evening the score couldn't hurt.
Neo glared at him with an expression he could only describe as her sizing up something, and a few moments later, she whipped out her scroll.
You'd better not have a me-sized dick.
Jaune choked on air as he read the text, and looked up at Neo awkwardly. His cheeks were already heating up a little, and Neo looked absolutely triumphant. There was no mistaking who was better at this, even if Jaune had started teasing her back.
"O-Okay, you win," Jaune surrendered, looking for an easy way to change the subject. Really, he would have changed the subject to anything so long as it wasn't something that made him uncomfortable. "So, why do you have an apartment in Vale if you're from Haven?"
Neo looked caught off-guard by the question, and watching her facial expressions play out on her face was adorable to Jaune. She was surprisingly expressive when she wasn't acting guarded, which shouldn't have surprised Jaune given how her eyes would just magically switch colors while she was eating. He still wanted to know if that was part of her Semblance.
I'm rich.
Jaune looked at Neo's explanation blankly for a few moments, before looking back up to her. "You're rich?"
She winced a little bit and typed out another text. Sorta. Family is rich.
"Huh," Jaune let out. That was kind of an odd answer, but then again, if you were rich enough to afford an extra apartment for the month or two you were in Vale, maybe that was all the explanation you had for why you bought an apartment. Jaune doubted that Weiss would have thought twice about doing so.
Wait. Weiss. Short and rich. Now Neo, also short and rich. Did… do I have a type?
Jaune turned away from Neo awkwardly, not exactly wanting to explain what he'd just figured out. "That makes sense, I guess," he let out, hoping Neo wasn't going to look too much into why he accepted her answer. Of course, he wasn't in it for the money, but it was still a funny coincidence, and he didn't want to talk about a crush on Weiss in front of Neo.
Instead, he decided to focus on the task at hand. Neo had agreed to a second date super fast after their first one, and that could only be good. She'd even agreed to let Jaune cook for her at her place, which was good because that was a lot cheaper for him than taking her out again. He felt it was a good sign that she was willing to help him out by agreeing to a much cheaper date.
They had currently been standing in the middle of the canned veggies for about ten minutes now, although they had been doing very little actual shopping. As much fun as Jaune was having, and he was enjoying this and thought Neo was too, he'd prefer to maybe hurry up and get to their actual date.
"So, uh," Jaune let out a little loudly to get Neo's attention, "do you like mac and cheese?"
How lame of a question, right? Jaune knew that, but he was really just hoping to get the ball rolling here. He kinda had no real clue what to make for Neo, and was just hoping to get her approval on this. If she said yes to mac and cheese, that gave him a good starting point.
He was shocked to turn and see Neo shrug her shoulders indifferently. "You… don't?"
Neo's face contorted as she thought about it, before she gave him an even more pronounced shrug.
"You don't… know?" Jaune asked, and to his surprise, she shook her head yes. "You don't know if you like mac and cheese?"
She nodded again, giving Jaune a bit of a suspicious look.
"You don't know if you like mac and cheese?" Jaune repeated a third time, trying to wrap his head around that fact. Like, even if she had said she didn't like it, he could forgive that. Some people were allergic to dairy or were cutting out carbs.
But to not even know?
"Have you-and I am scared to ask this-have you ever had it?"
She gave him a very plain head shake. Jaune's jaw dropped a little bit, and Neo actually blushed a little bit at the attention.
Never had it before, she texted.
"How?!"
I don't eat many home-cooked meals, she explained.
"But… but still!" Jaune let out, physically struggling to understand. Was Mistral just that weird? Were the people there depraved savages? "You never even tried it when you did cook?"
Neo shook her head no, though there seemed to be a little sheepishness there. She wouldn't look up at Jaune's eyes and instead looked over at the floor instead.
"Neo?" Jaune asked, pulling back a bit and wondering if he'd struck a nerve or something. Her reaction made Jaune feel like there was something else at play here, and he was worried that it-
I can't reach it.
Okay, not the explanation he feared, which was good. Jaune still had to read the text two more times. It still didn't make sense to him, so he looked up at Neo with a confused look on his face.
Neo pouted, refusing to point her head away from the floor, but she did glare up towards the shelves. Jaune followed her eyes and sure enough, on the side opposite the canned veggies, were the mac and cheese products.
On the top shelf of the aisle.
"You… have never had mac and cheese…" Jaune stated slowly, looking back and forth between Neo and the shelf of cheesy goodness, "...because it's on the top shelf?"
Neo glared at him for making her sound stupid, but couldn't hold it long. Her eyes trailed back to the ground, and she gave him a small, sad nod.
Jaune stood there dumbly for a few seconds. He really had no clue how to react to that, but decided that maybe he could be helpful here. "Have you ever tried asking an employee to-?"
He was going to say 'help', but Neo gave him such an intense glare that her eyes switched colors. She may not have been able to reach the mac and cheese, but she could definitely reach the cans of whoop-ass, and her glare warned him that she was not afraid to open one up if he finished that sentence.
"Why not?"
Neo's fingers angrily tapped on the screen. That's admitting defeat.
Defeat…? Jaune was confused. Was Neo… at war with being short? Maybe it was just at the world for being taller than her? If he understood her text, she couldn't ask for help because that would be giving in. Did all short girls struggle like that?
Now that he thought about it, if he was surrounded by shelves he couldn't reach, he guessed he would be angry at them too. And it would be super embarrassing to have to ask someone for help. Huh.
"You could just climb up the shelves if it was that important," he pointed out helpfully. Or, he thought it was helpful.
Neo shook her head no emphatically. That, too, was admitting defeat. I guess. Why did he have a thing for short, rich, and feisty girls?
"Okay, okay, nevermind."
Neo turned and started to walk off, sending a wave of panic through Jaune. Had he just royally messed up? "N-Neo? Where are you-?"
She held up her scroll over her shoulder to indicate she would text an explanation and Jaune cut his question short.
You take care of dinner. I'll take care of dessert.
Oh. Okay, whew. That could have been bad. Jaune just hoped that she meant that she was buying the stuff for dessert. She said it herself that she was rich, after all.
;)
A shudder went down Jaune's spine. He did not need her to add that emoji to the previous statement. It made it easier to take her words… in a different direction. He was absolutely certain that was intentional.
Jaune stared down a box of macaroni and cheese as he decided what to make for dinner. This hadn't gotten any easier, but at least Neo was getting dessert. That way, if she hated his cooking, then at least she would be happy afterward. That provided Jaune with a bit of a safety net.
An idea struck Jaune as he stared at some triple-cheese macaroni. Neo had never had mac and cheese because it was on the top shelf…
A few minutes later, Neo found Jaune as he strolled down a different aisle, tapping on his arm to get his attention. He turned around to find her carrying a small basket, and she gave Jaune a smile and waved to announce her return.
His eyes scanned the basket she carried. Ice cream. Another kind of ice cream. A third kind, jeez. She really did lean into the ice cream thing, huh. On top of that, different tubes of ice cream toppings and some whipped cream. And buried under that all, there was a bottle that looked like wine, but Jaune couldn't tell anything beyond that.
Neo stood up on her tip-toes and peered over his shopping cart's wall, making it clear she was wondering if he had a plan yet.
"I think I've got a pretty good plan for dinner," Jaune announced proudly. Neo arched an eyebrow at him expectantly. "I decided that, since you hadn't had mac and cheese because it was on the top shelf, I am going to make dinner with things only from the top shelf!"
Neo looked at him strangely for that, but he did his best not to let her dampen his enthusiasm. This was gonna work great! Jaune had been surprised by how many things he had found to use, and he didn't really need all that much for just two of them.
Neo's scroll was out the next moment. Are you mocking me?
"W-What?" Jaune stuttered. "No! No, I would never, Neo! I-" Neo gave him a disbelieving look, even going so far as to give him a head tilt. "-I was just trying to be nice! I thought you might like getting to try some new things…"
Neo's expression softened when she realized he was being honest, though she still looked a little miffed. Why, so I know what I'm missing out on?
"What? No, that's not it," Jaune defended. "I just thought it would be fun for you. As long as I'm around, you can have all the things off the high shelves that you want."
Neo scrutinized Jaune with a suspicious look for a lot longer than Jaune was comfortable, but he didn't crack.
Fine, she gave in via text. This shit had better be really good then.
Home sweet home.
It had been a few weeks since Neo had been to her apartment. The familiar scent of the place wafted through her nostrils, bringing a feeling of nostalgia and comfort to the young woman. Stepping inside before Jaune, she scanned around the room and saw-
A complete mess!
Heterochromatic eyes widened. This place was a dump!
Neo had never been one to be a very tidy person. Why did she need to be when she never had guests over? She didn't have friends. Roman rarely visited for coffee or brunch. It was just Neo and her bountiful, illicit possessions that littered the place. Emphasis on both bountiful and illicit.
"I'm surprised, this place is pretty big for just one person," Jaune commented behind her.
She spun around to see him eyeing the place. Luckily none of the lights were on just yet, and at this time of year the sun had already begun to dip below the horizon. Darkness was her ally here and now, and she could only hope he hadn't seen too much already.
Neo may have been a criminal, but she refused to let anyone, even this dopey boy, think she was a pig.
She grabbed hold of his arms, which were busy right now clutching the bags of groceries they had purchased, and began to quickly lead him through the living room and into the kitchen.
"Whoa, Neo," he said suddenly as she dragged him along. "What's up?"
She didn't stop. With one arm linked around his own, she ushered him into what was undoubtedly the cleanest room in her apartment. After all, Neo wasn't one to do much home cooking. Her countertops and stove were pristine and spotless.
Turning on the light, she saw how Jaune set the bags down and glanced around, sizing up the place as to get an idea what he was working with. He would be the only one cooking, after all. Even if Neo did know something about the finer culinary arts - ice cream - he was still the one who was preparing the meal for her. It wouldn't do to have her own cooking on a date.
"Okay, okay," Jaune nodded. He opened up a few cabinets and drawers one by one, finding cooking utensils, pots, and other items that Neo didn't even remember purchasing. Probably because she'd stolen them. "I think I know what I'm working with here. Shouldn't be too much of a problem to make what I had in mind."
Neo nodded, giving him a thumbs-up before turning. She was stopped before she could exit the room.
"By the way, any allergies I should be aware of?" he asked. Neo turned to view the boy who rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I suppose I should have asked that while we were at the store. Whoops."
Neo's lips twisted in thought, and her eyes migrated to the ceiling briefly as she considered the question. She wasn't certain she'd ever been asked that before. In the end, her gaze returned to the boy and she shook her head no.
"Okay, great," he smiled. "So you wanna see how a master chef makes a delicious meal on a twenty lien budget?"
Honestly? No. But even if she had wanted to see that, there was work to be done. A living room and dining room that were in dire need of attention.
The girl whipped out her scroll and began typing away furiously on the keyboard. In no time at all her answer was delivered to Jaune.
It's been a while since I've been here, she messaged him. Let me get it ready for dinner.
Jaune read the message on his scroll and looked back up at her. Another soft smile played on his lips, which Neo returned in order to keep him from getting suspicious. "Sounds good. I'll be here if you need me."
Of course, where else would you be? she thought to herself.
"But if you'd like I can help you clean up," he said, taking a step forward. Neo's eyes widened, and she set her scroll aside before putting her hands up. Just in time to catch Jaune's broad chest running into them.
She was forced back a step at the impact. He's like a fucking train!
Luckily the boy got the hint and he stopped on contact. "Neo?" he questioned.
She didn't exactly want to tell him that he had to stay in the kitchen while she cleaned up all of the incriminating evidence in her apartment. Instead, her eyes darted around the room, catching a glimpse of the bags of food resting on the counter.
Her eyes met his once more, and Neo pointed down at her stomach before rubbing circles on it with her palm.
"Oh, I guess you must be pretty hungry," Jaune surmised. He cracked a smile as he looked down at her.
Neo nodded vigorously. It was nice that he was able to pick up on her intent, even if it was a lie. Well, not entirely a lie. She was hungry, but right now she just needed the boy to stay put and cook like a good little house husband.
He chuckled, that earnest smile beaming down on her once more. Gods, he really was just too genuine for his own good. He would have made any other girl he had matched with incredibly happy had they gotten to him first, with how great of a pamperer he was turning out to be.
Too bad for them she'd gotten her hands on him before they had.
"Alright, I'll leave the cleaning to you then. I guess we make a pretty good team, don't we? Efficiency at its finest."
Neo nodded once more, giving him her best forced smile before turning once more and hurrying from the room. After a look back to see that he wasn't following after her, Neo turned on the living room light to illuminate what had once been where she spent most of her free time before coming to Beacon.
The first thing that caught her sight was the tall, messy stack of lien notes on the table, probably gleaned from some sort of robbery that she and Roman had committed at some point. Judging by the colors of the notes, it was worth several thousand lien. More than enough to make Jaune question its presence there. While she had said she was rich, not even rich people kept scattered piles of money lying around their home. And honestly, what had she been thinking just leaving it out anyway?
That didn't matter right now. The only question was where to put it all...
Her eyes lit up with an idea, and Neo marched back into the kitchen with a plan. Ignoring the surprised look Jaune gave her, she grabbed one of the bags of groceries from the counter and picked it up.
"Oh, did you change your-"
And promptly dumped its contents on the counter, leaving an empty bag in her hands.
"Or not."
Without sparing him a glance she hurried back out to the living room and to the lien pile. Grabbing handfuls of the plastic cards, she tossed them without care into the bag. All that mattered was that they were out of sight. The bag could be chunked in the closet for all she cared.
Okay. That was done. Next came...
The empty boxes from Amazing-dot-com. Criminal she may have been, but there were some things you could only order online. And Amazing was the number one site in online purchases in all of Remnant. And technically speaking, since she was using stolen lien to buy the stuff, it still counted as free.
Looking around at the scattered boxes, Neo realized just how bad her online shopping addiction was. It wasn't her fault! She needed stuff to fill up such a large apartment! As for the mess itself... well, it was just so hard and inconvenient to bring all her recycling out to properly dispose of it. It wasn't like she could just go out back and put it in the alley trash can like normal people. As a result...
That was a lot of boxes. They needed to be dealt with. And what better way to deal with her problems than the razor-sharp blade of Hush?
Grabbing her parasol, a sharp scrape of the blade along the sheath revealed the long, thin blade of her weapon. With a gleam in her eye and a grin on her face which Hush always elicited from her, she began to swiftly and delicately carve through the many shipping boxes she had received from Amazing, and began flattening them for quick disposal in another room.
Slice! Stab! Cut! Slice! Stab! Cut!
What a glorious feeling it was. It had been far too long since Hush had seen any action.
Action cut all too short by the interruption from her guest.
"Hey, Neo," the familiar voice of Jaune sounded from the kitchen. She looked up just in time to see him emerge.
Thinking quickly, and not wanting to see her gleefully cutting and stabbing cardboard boxes, Neo used her Semblance to disguise the curve-handled blade of Hush into the first thing she could think of.
He paused, his vision focused entirely on her and her... weapon. "Is that a... candy cane?"
Neo rushed forward to fill his vision with her body instead of what was behind her. Thank god he can't ever pass up a chance to look at my hips. She nodded furiously to his question.
Jaune frowned, but otherwise nodded before holding up his hand. He was holding a scroll. Her scroll! "I didn't mean to snoop, but you left your scroll in the kitchen and you just got a text. It's from your Uncle Nomar."
Her eyes widened once more, and she was thankful she had thought to disguise Roman's name on her scroll for the purpose of her undercover mission. She snatched the device from his hand quickly before unlocking the scroll and reading the message from him.
"He said something about the mission, so I'm guessing he meant the Vytal Tournament, right?" Jaune asked.
Sure enough, Roman was messaging her for an update on the whole infiltrate Beacon operation. It was good that Jaune came up with a cover story for her all on his own. All she had to do was agree with him.
Neo nodded once more, the smug expression on her face combined with the finger-gun gesture aimed at Jaune intended to feed his ego in being correct.
"Aw, well that's nice of him. But you should let him know the tournament isn't for another couple of weeks."
She gave the boy another thumbs-up, and hurriedly put Hush behind her back while using the other hand to guide Jaune back into the kitchen. It wouldn't do to accidentally stab her date while attempting to get him back to preparing their food.
"Wow, you really must be hungry," he laughed. "Okay, okay, I get the hint. I'll get it done as soon as possible!"
When he turned back to regard her, Neo smiled up at him sweetly. Then after he had turned away from her once more, the smile fell immediately and she rushed back out to the living room.
A couple more minutes of box-murdering had cleared up that mess, and Neo took hold of the pile of cardboard that stood almost half her height in her arms. With a grunt of effort, she lifted and carried them toward the one room Jaune wouldn't be seeing tonight: her bedroom. As much as she liked to tease the boy, he would need to earn the privilege of experiencing that kind of fun with her. And even with all of the pampering that Neo was already enjoying, it would take something truly remarkable for that to happen.
Besides, the doofus hadn't even tried to give her a goodnight kiss after a nice date. There was no chance he was going to push her for anything tonight.
With a silent huff, Neo stepped back out into the living room once more. Incriminating piles of lien? Gone. Mountain of shipping boxes from online retailers? Dealt with. What was left...
Loose stuffing caught her eye, which confused Neo until she found the source. One of the couch pillows had been mangled by Hush, with numerous gashes and stabs. Oh, yeah. Whenever Neo played that stupid game on her scroll, she always came up against one of those stupid whales who paid for boosts. Because Neo wasn't capable of tracking each of them down and taking it out on them directly, her poor couch pillow suffered her wrath instead.
Neo thought about chunking the pillow, but decided she would probably need its services soon anyway. She went ahead and flipped it over so that the good side was all that could be seen.
The sight of something dark lay underneath the coffee table. A closer glance revealed... black lace panties. Among other loose articles of clothing. Why would Neo have stripped in the living room of all places? How had those even-?
Oh, right. When you lived alone, it was just fun to do whatever you wanted, wherever you wanted. And if that meant you wanted to get dressed while standing in the living room watching TV, you did it. Because you could. Neo missed that freedom, and silently growled very nasty words directed at Cinder.
Let's see. Skirt. Blouse. Stockings? Oh, right. That little black ensemble she had tried on. The one that went with her black pigtails and green eyes look Neo had experimented with as a cover. She liked that one. She'd probably give it a go sometime at the tournament. Or... maybe she'd give it a dry run on Jaune to see how he reacted to it.
Scooping up the first bundle of clothes, Neo rushed back to her bedroom and threw them unceremoniously on the floor. Coming back out, she scanned the floor to see that only the pair of panties remained. Picking them up, she stretched them out in her hands to get a memory of just what they looked like. They were little and cute, just like her. Black flower patterns made of lace adorned the tiny thing, and Neo remembered just why she had chosen them for her 'Mint' outfit in the first-
"Uh... Neo?"
A set of brown and pink eyes glanced up, just in time to see Jaune standing in the doorway between the living room and kitchen. His eyes, much like hers had just been, were locked on the panties.
"Um, sorry," he said, taking a step back. "I can wait."
Neo's body trembled in equal parts embarrassment and anger. It was out of pure instinct and reaction that she pulled out...
A giant candy cane, pointing it menacingly at Jaune. Its red stripes probably matched her cheeks, and definitely matched Jaune's.
"I'll just... find it on my own," the boy said, stepping back inside the kitchen.
Angry eyes regarded the disguised weapon she had just silently challenged Jaune with before lowering it. Yeah, that must have looked great. With panties in one hand and a giant novelty candy cane in another, she must have looked like a total weirdo to the boy. Mortified, Neo wondered just what it was that Jaune thought that massive candy cane was used for, given that he'd seen it and her lace panties together...
Maybe she should flip over the stabbing pillow again and give it a good few shanks with Hush. If nothing else, just to vent her embarrassment.
Neo sighed, balling up the underwear in her fist before trudging to her room with her head hung low. She only hoped that dinner would be delicious enough to justify this bullshit she had just endured. If Jaune so much as breathed a word about what he'd just seen, Neo was prepared to go scorched-earth with her teasing.
Neo hadn't dared enter the kitchen after the humiliation of Jaune catching her admiring her own underwear. Normally, it might have been weird to feel locked out of her own kitchen, but considering it was a rarity that she stepped foot in the room as it was, it wasn't really anything new.
Instead, she just cleared off the dining room table and made it fit to eat off. At least there weren't any piles of lien or undergarments laying on it. All it needed was a quick wipe down to clear it of dust and it was good to go. She couldn't even remember the last time she had eaten off the table, always opting to dine on carryout or delivery cuisine on her couch while watching TV. As any civilized person does. Especially any civilized person with disposable funds that made buying takeout daily pretty easy.
The sound of heavy, somewhat clumsy footsteps alerted her to her date's presence, and Jaune emerged from the kitchen balancing a pair of large bowls, one in each hand. He looked like a server at a restaurant, and a part of her hoped that his untrained hands would lose their grips on the oversized bowls and send their dinners crashing down to the floor. Because honestly? It would be funny.
"Sorry for the wait," he smiled apologetically. "A lot of your utensils were just kinda dusty so I had to wash them first before using them. I guess 'cause you don't spend much time at home now that you're at Beacon, right?"
Yeah… that's exactly the reason, her mind lied. She almost felt insulted at how Jaune believed her kitchen was abandoned and dusty because she wasn't native to Vale. Neo was capable of such better and more clever lies, and yet she didn't even need to come up with anything. He just… trusted her.
She shrugged noncommittally, not meeting his eye as he approached the table with the bowls. When he set them down, she eyed the contents of her own suspiciously.
"It's a big salad," he proclaimed proudly. Neo could obviously see that, and it didn't help her already dubious opinion of his 'home-cooked meal.' "Now, I know what you might be thinking, 'what's so special about salad?'"
Maybe the boy wasn't as clueless as he looked. She peered up at him, nodding slowly to indicate both her agreement and willing him to continue with what was obviously going to be an explanation behind the choice.
"But, this is a special salad," he continued. "Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cheese, croutons, grilled chicken strips. Aaaand. Top shelf dressing."
She gave him a flat, unimpressed look. Neo could reach most of those items at the supermarket, and he had proclaimed he was going to make her a dinner she couldn't have reached on her own.
"Hey, at least the dressing is from the top shelf," Jaune defended a little sheepishly. He'd done a remarkably good job at understand what she'd been getting at. "Turns out, it's a lot harder to make a full meal that way than I thought."
Neo rolled her eyes, but was too hungry to delay dinner just to antagonize him over that. She gave the salad another look over. There was indeed chicken littered throughout the dish. At least the boy had the sense not to serve entirely rabbit food on their date. Then again, it may have been a little bit fitting from the boy who wore a hoodie with a cartoon rabbit face on it.
"Ooh, I do have one more top-shelf item, though! I'll be right back," he said quickly, before turning and walking back over to the kitchen.
Neo grabbed her fork and poked the salad experimentally, like it might come alive and attack her if provoked. Sadly, it was just salad. Perhaps this was her punishment for draining the teenage boy's funds during their first date.
When Jaune emerged from the kitchen again, he carried with him a large bowl along with two small plates underneath it. Even from a few feet away, Neo could see hot steam rising from the bowl. The faint smell of cheese tingled in her nose.
"I know you said you never had mac and cheese before," he said, placing one of the small plates down in front of her. He began scooping some out onto her plate. "So I hope you like it. I picked the extra cheesy one from the best brand in the store. It's gonna knock your socks off!"
She was tempted to send some sort of teasing text message about him wishing to see her clothing stripped off her, but another glance at the salad gave her a better idea. It was still pristine in its preparation, not yet mixed so that the dressing on top wasn't mixed into the rest of it.
Grabbing hold of her scroll and hiding a smirk, she shot him a message pertaining to their dinner. So are you going to toss my salad tonight?
Half a second later Jaune's scroll buzzed and he read the message eagerly. Blue eyes looked up to meet her own.
"Oh. Sure," he said innocently. "I didn't even think to… uh..."
He trailed off as he caught Neo wiggling her eyebrows playfully at him. A devious smirk played on her lips for him to see now, all but forcing him to get the meaning of her double entendre.
Those eyes of his widened. "W-Wait, no! I didn't mean it like that! I thought you meant the actual salad!"
Her thumbs went to work again, necessity forcing her to become a speedy texter. Of course I meant the salad. What did you think I meant?
"I-I…"
You're a dirty boy with dirty thoughts, she sent teasingly.
Jaune's face paled as he read the message, not catching on quite yet. This was totally payback for making her a salad. "Neo, I swear I didn't mean that! I have never once thought about that sort of thing with you!"
Oh, this was too much. Teasing the boy was a gloriously entertaining thing. She hadn't been expecting dinner and a show tonight, but sometimes you just had to make your own entertainment. Luckily with this boy, it was both easy and fun.
I get it. You don't think I'm pretty enough to think about like that. I'm too short, aren't I?
The boy was practically hyperventilating now. She had stuck him between a rock and a hard place with her teasing, and she could see legitimate panic in his eyes. He could either admit that he found her attractive and had perverted thoughts about her, or blatantly lie and say that he didn't think she was beautiful.
That deer in the headlights look in his eyes made Neo silently chortle, and poor Jaune was too petrified to even notice her amusement. After long seconds of letting his anxiety linger, she decided to throw him a bone.
;)
He stared down at his scroll for a few moments before looking up. He was met with a shit-eating grin that told him the whole story.
"Oh my gods, Neo," he breathed, more relieved than upset. "You-you're kidding, right?"
She nodded deliberately, grinning a toothy smile that might have bordered on evil.
"Oh thank gods. You… you really had me going there for a minute."
She knew that. It's why it was so much fun.
"So, for the record. Did you want me to actually… mix your actual food salad up for you?"
She shook her head no. She may have been short but she wasn't a child. She was capable of eating her own food.
"Gotcha. Well then, I hope it's good. It may not be the fanciest meal ever, but I think you'll enjoy it."
Neo hoped so too. She hadn't had any sort of home cooking since she was a small child. It would be interesting to see what her date could come up with on a twenty lien budget.
The main course may have been the salad, but the curiosity of the macaroni and cheese was tempting both her nostrils and her taste buds. Her fork went there first instead, scooping up a heap of the cheesy noodles and sliding them into her mouth.
Part of Neo wanted to not like the mac and cheese, purely on principle. It would be a little embarrassing if it turned out that it wasn't bad, because then it meant she'd let being a little vertically challenged rob her of the experience.
That part of Neo shut the hell up as an explosion of cheesy goodness covered her tongue. Eyes bulged with shock at the taste of a mere boxed food. She slowly and cautiously began to chew, which only released more cheese from inside the macaroni. Neo was going into cheese overload.
"Good?" her date asked from across the table, filled with hope that his dinner was received well.
Neo glanced up to see Jaune looking at her with a smile on his face. She hadn't realized at the time, but he had probably been watching her the whole time to gauge her reaction.
She nodded in confirmation, filling her fork with noodles again before quickly devouring them. Instead of stabbing a few noodles with the fork, she used the thing more like a shovel to load as many onto one scoop as was physically possible.
"Your eyes changed colors like at the restaurant," he commented, watching her with a genuine smile that might have made Neo blush were she not focused so fully on her mac and cheese. "I think I'm starting to figure out that means you like something."
Yeah, sure, something like that. Intense emotions could trigger an involuntary shift if they overwhelmed her. In Jaune's experience, both instances had been with food, so naturally he thought it was food-related.
Jaune stabbed a forkful of rabbit food as he spoke. "Well, I'm glad you like it. It sucks that this is the first time you've been able to have it, but better late than never I sup-"
Jaune cut himself off as the sound of shattering glass behind him made him flinch. He turned around, looking for the source of the noise, not realizing that Neo had made a small ball with her Semblance under the table and then tossed it behind Jaune subtly. Honestly, she hadn't even intended to, but her instincts had taken over. She wanted something badly, and deep down her first instinct was to distract anyone looking and then steal it.
When Jaune looked back up, everything that had even a trace of mac and cheese on it was sitting in front of Neo. That included the large bowl of the whole mac and cheese batch, and even Jaune's own plate.
It wasn't until Jaune looked back at Neo that she realized she'd just stolen his food. That was a pretty low move to pull on someone, even by her standards. If anything, he should have been rewarded for all his work to give Neo the mac and cheese in the first place.
That didn't mean she wanted to give it back, though. Neo gave Jaune a guilty smile, and somewhat nervously waited to see what he would say.
"Oh, hey, you… really like it, huh?" the boy commented uneasily. She nodded eagerly. "That's… awesome."
Neo knew how she must have looked right now. A gluttonous, unrefined slob who was scarfing down macaroni and cheese like a dog who had been given a bowl of canned food.
Yet she didn't care, and neither it seemed did Jaune, which was another point in the boy's favor. But all that mattered now was the macaroni. Her veins were filled with gooey, processed cheese instead of blood. For nearly twenty years she had been deprived of this taste sensation. She needed to make up for lost time.
Tonight she dined on the food of the gods. Delivered to her by a boy who was tall enough to provide it for her, domestic enough to cook it, and sweet enough to just be happy that she was happy.
Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.
Being a Huntress had many additional perks. Okay, so Neo wasn't technically a Huntress, but she was, like, the criminal equivalent of it. Plus she was going to Beacon for the moment. Either way, Neo's very active lifestyle lent itself to burning a lot of calories and developing a huge appetite. She had displayed that appetite on their first date.
Yet Neo was stuffed on mac and cheese now, and regretted nothing. It was the greatest meal of her life.
You mean you people have been eating this stuff for years? she texted Jaune as she stacked both of her plates into the now-empty bowl that had once contained two boxes-worth of macaroni and cheese.
"Yup," Jaune answered, smiling at her. Either he was smiling because she was euphoric from her dinner, or he was smiling because he'd done a good job with dinner. She didn't see any reason to be upset about it either way. "It's pretty good, huh?"
It's fucking amazing, Neo responded, which made Jaune chuckle.
She leaned back in her chair, more full from a meal than she'd been in a while. As she leaned her head back, a wave of post-food tiredness hit her. With how full she was, she had the urge to curl up under a blanket and go into a food coma.
"Well, I hoped you saved room for dessert," Jaune announced, pushing himself up from his seat and taking their used dishes into the kitchen.
Oh shit. Neo'd forgotten that she'd bought ice cream. Honestly, right now, she didn't think that she did have room for dessert. That may have been the first time Neo ever would have considered turning down ice cream.
She could still eat some. She just needed to get up and walk around. You know, prepare herself for even more delicious food. Honestly, this hadn't been a bad way to spend a night at all.
Neo's eyes spied the couch, and it looked extremely comfortable right now, what with the beginning of a food coma coming on and all. She could have Jaune bring them both some ice cream to the couch while she found some movie to watch.
Neo hesitated. Did she really want to invite him to watch a movie and 'chill' now? If she'd been interested in just hooking up, well, they never would have made it to a second date. Since they had, well, anything that happened now would be a lot more intimate than just a hook-up. As much as Neo enjoyed teasing Jaune, he hadn't earned that.
A satisfied rumble of her stomach reminded her that he'd sure as hell earned something, though. If he wanted to actually watch a movie together? Neo could go for that. If he pressed her for more, he'd get nothing.
Neo knew he wouldn't, though. This was Jaune she was talking about. She doubted he would even make a move to put his arm around her without prompting. Neo would be, as she craved so much, in control the whole time.
Make us both a bowl. I'll find a movie to watch, she texted him, plopping down on the couch.
Jaune arrived a minute or two later, just as Neo had scrolled through her cable channels and found some generic Spruce Willis movie rerun to put on. Action movies were much more her speed than, say, rom-coms.
"I noticed that the ice cream scoops weren't as dusty as all the other utensils," Jaune commented cryptically as he handed Neo a bowl of ice cream topped with some whipped cream. "I take it that someone eats a lot of ice cream, am I right?"
Neo rolled her eyes at the accusation, catching Jaune's good-natured smile and realizing he was just teasing her. She accepted the bowl of ice cream and gave him a nod. There was no reason to try denying that.
Jaune sat down next to Neo, leaving a couple inches between them. Given Mr. Shy, she'd half-expected him to sit on the opposite end as her. She wouldn't have minded if he'd sat right up next to her, but she also appreciated the respect he treated her with. It made her feel important.
Neo tried her hardest to eat the ice cream, but only made it maybe a quarter of the way through before she had to admit that there was no way she was finishing it. Mac and cheese had dealt Neo her biggest defeat in years, it seemed.
There would have to be a rematch between her and the cheesy goodness. Maybe Jaune could facilitate that.
Looking up from her ice cream at the boy, she began to get an idea. There was a much more fun use for her ice cream at the moment. Neo had bought the same type of ice cream as she'd had as part of her dessert on their first date, and that reminded her of how she'd messed with Jaune then.
And since Jaune had finished his ice cream already, surely he would want some of hers, no?
Neo scooted a little closer to Jaune, leaving about an inch between the two of them, and gently nudged him with her elbow to get his attention. When Jaune looked down, Neo held out a scoop of ice cream on her spoon for him just like on their first date.
His eyes met hers hesitantly. "Are you sure?"
Given her normal obsession with ice cream, it was to fair question if she really wanted to give any of hers up, so Neo nodded to reassure him. Jaune eyed the spoon again, blushing a little bit, before giving in and accepting the offering.
Huh. That hadn't been nearly as entertaining of a reaction as she had hoped for. Had she really broken Jaune of his shyness that easily? If so, Neo was going to be a little disappointed.
She decided to step her game up. She elbowed Jaune again, and he looked down to find her scooping out another scoop for him. Jaune caught on quickly, it seemed, and his eyes followed her spoon.
Right up until she went and smeared the ice cream on her cheek.
Jaune's eyes went wide, and Neo smirked proudly. There was the reaction she was looking for. He looked to her for reassurance, probably doubting that he was reading the situation correctly. Neo gave him a sweet, reassuring smile to let him know he wasn't doing anything she wasn't allowing him to, and then to make her instructions unmistakeable, she tilted her head to point her ice cream-stained cheek towards him.
"N-Neo?"
She didn't answer, continuing to wait expectantly with her cheek facing him.
Jaune's face grew redder by the second, and it took several before Jaune worked up the courage to lean in towards her. Neo summoned a lot of self-control to not giggle at Jaune, knowing that would probably shatter whatever courage he did muster up.
Jaune's tongue was much warmer than the ice cream on her face, even though it did not stick around for any longer than it had to. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, though, and she was sure Jaune would agree. That is, if he was capable of saying anything at the moment. The boy stared back ahead at the TV screen, his face a deep shade of red and his shoulders hunched over out of embarrassment.
Neo grinned madly. He was too bashful for his own good sometimes. She knew that he wouldn't be so embarrassed if he hadn't enjoyed it, too.
For good measure, she leaned over against his arm, feeling him tense up even further for a few moments. The poor boy was too shy to even look down at her, and Neo found the whole thing hysterically funny.
If he was so easy to tease with that, how far could she push it?
She could almost feel Jaune's dread when she elbowed him again. His face was still pretty red, and she gave him a genuine smile to try to calm him down. When Neo offered him another scoop of ice cream without smearing it anywhere to show him everything was normal between them still, he relaxed visibly and accepted it.
The fool.
She let him calm down a little more before elbowing him one last time. Jaune looked over to her with most of the color in his cheeks gone, to see her take another scoop of ice cream.
And smear it on her chest, right at the top of her cleavage.
She could almost hear Jaune's brain stop functioning. By the time it had rebooted, his face had gone fully red.
"Hah… hah… Neo, you're…" Jaune sputtered, which only entertained Neo further. Not to mention stroked her ego a little as well. "...you're such a kidder, Neo. R-Right?"
Neo could see the panic on Jaune's face, and his question was an obvious plea. Neo made a show of looking left and right with her eyes suspiciously, before making eye contact again and giving him a wink. She knew he wouldn't dare take her up on this offer, which was exactly why she did it.
That panic on Jaune's face exploded. In his current state, he did the only thing he could think of.
"Y-Yeah, you're such a kidder," he sputtered out again, wrapping his arm around Neo's shoulders and pulling her into his side tightly, then staring forward at the TV, pretending with all his will that nothing had happened. Notably, this prevented him from being able to lean down to the ice cream. After a few moments of wiggling, Neo found that Jaune was holding her so firmly that she really couldn't move at all.
She should have been ticked by that, but Neo was laughing too hard to be upset. She had pushed him too far, so she probably deserved this anyways. Neo did take a finger and wipe off the ice cream from her chest before it started to melt, licking it off her finger idly. There wasn't any reason to let it go to waste, after all.
Oh well. She'd found Jaune's limit, at least for now. If her punishment was to watch a movie with his arm around her, she could live with that. Maybe that was just the push Jaune needed to make a move. It would be interesting to see what the boy's idea of a move was. If it wasn't to her liking her could stop it dead in its tracks. Emphasis on the dead part if he ever got too handsy with her. No, Neo was the one in control. She would dictate how far he would be allowed to go. All of this up until now was simple teasing for her own amusement. He, like any other man, would have to earn the right to even dream about tasting anything below her cheek.
She wasn't used to being this physically close to another person. The survivalist instinct inside her had to be squashed down, and the urge to escape the hands of another needed repressing. She had to remind herself over and over again that she was in no danger. This was Jaune. Probably the least threatening person to her on Remnant.
It may have been the mac and cheese talking, but Neo was really comfortable. Jaune was pretty warm, and she trusted him enough to let herself relax, despite having some of the control of the situation taken when he hugged her to his side. Maybe this was his first move. The classic one of putting an arm around your girlfriend's shoulders while watching a movie together. He hadn't even done the whole yawning trick though. However, she could chalk that one up to the move being done out of sheer panic rather than being planned.
Despite him being comparable to a gigantic stuffed animal, she was the person being held like one. She did have the height for it, after all. She would allow it this once. Besides, her eyelids were heavy, which was definitely the mac and cheese's fault.
Neo rested her head up against Jaune's chest. She could just close her eyes for a few moments and let the tiredness pass. The sounds of the movie playing on her TV would keep her awake while she recharged her batteries for just a minute.
She was asleep almost instantly.
AN: Writing Neo bringing Jaune to her apartment was tons of fun. It was a bit of a challenge to think about what kind of stuff Neo might have lying around, what could be funny, what might add a little more spice or charm to her character, and what could fit into a typical romantic comedy type situation. In the end I found her threatening him with a gigantic novelty candy cane too amusing.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
-Mallobaude
