Two Perspectives

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Beta :

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"No, Jaune, Beowolves don't scratch at trees to mark out their territory." He nodded quietly and started jotting down the correction on his worksheet and Ren sighed, smiling good naturedly. "And neither do Ursai. The question is a trick, Jaune. You're meant to fill in the lines at the bottom with notes about how they seem to know each other's territory without markings."

"How do they know they don't mark territories, then?" Jaune asked sarcastically, easing back in the library chair and scratching the back of his neck anxiously. Jaune only got a shrug in answer and grimaced for it. Glancing towards the clock high above them on the wall, he sighed, "It seems kinda dumb to me, setting up a trap on a worksheet."

"It's supposed to make sure you can think critically." Jaune gave him a little look at the implication that he couldn't, but Ren only smiled and shrugged innocently. Moving on before Jaune could say anything, "Maybe they do mark territories, but we don't know if they do. Or how they do, assuming that they, in fact, do."

"Yeah, I get it. Thanks, Ren. Appreciate your help." He sighed, scratching out his answer on the piece of paper next to his worksheet and taking notes around it. Then he set to work filling in the answer Ren had explained to him and glanced to the clock. Quietly, he murmured, "I have to get going soon or I'll miss the last Bullhead."

"Staying out on the town for the weekend again?"

"Yeah." He typically did, training and hanging out with Neo, Roman, or both if they weren't busy with their… Er, jobs. Ren's brows furrowed, though and Jaune sighed. "You don't like me spending weekends in Vale?"

"I don't like the spending weekends in the warehouse district in Vale, no." Ren answered carefully, watching him from the corner of his eye. When Jaune only grimaced and kept scratching out answers and notes from the worksheet, Ren sighed. Laying his pen on his worksheet, the man turned to him, "The girls are worried, Jaune. You spend every single weekend down there."

"So?" He shrugged, "They're my weekends. Why does it matter if I spend my spare days in Vale or here?"

"Spending them in Vale isn't the problem…"

"Look, Ren, I know all about the warehouse district's reputation." Only so much criminal nonsense could go on in a district and it not be common knowledge. And the warehouse district outstripped that by far, infamous for some of the gangs that ran in it and in adjoining districts. "I have friends in the area, that's all."

"That's such a comforting thought…"

"If you have an accusation to make, then go ahead make it." He challenged, Ren flinching and holding up his hands in mock surrender for the fire in his voice. After a moment, Jaune sighed and began stacking up his papers to leave. Irritable but still trying to keep his bridges not on fire, he went on, "I get that you're worried, but I'm not involved in anything bad. I just know some people that live there."

"Good people?"

"Yeah. They're good people." Criminals or not, they seemed like good people, at their core. And he wasn't exactly in the best position to judge them for law breaking. Closing his folder he took a breath and asked, already knowing the answer, "The, uh, the girls were worried, weren't they?"

"Not just on our team…" Team Ruby, too, then. Or at least Ruby had been worried, so Yang would have been worried as a consequence. Regardless, Ren assured him, "I'll tell them we talked and that you promised you weren't into anything overtly bad. Don't worry."

"Thanks for that." That would have them off his back, at least. And a bit happier and more comfortable besides, which was always a bonus. Standing he smiled and bobbed his head towards the clock, "I have to get going, though. And hey, at least I'm doing better at combat classes. Right?"

"You are…" Ren nodded, "And how are you managing that?"

"Well, uh… Training with my friends, I guess." Getting pummeled into the ground more like, but the result was the same. Sliding his things into the bag at the base of his chair he smiled, pulling the clothing filled pack on and shrugging it into a more comfortable resting spot. "I met 'em a while back and they offered to start teaching me how to fight better. Neo can be hard on me but she's getting me back up to speed."

"Neo?" Ren asked, leaning back and folding his arms over his chest and under a smirk. "I didn't know it was a girl you were seeing."

"Yeah…?" Ren's eyebrows rose and Jaune realized what he was implying, flushing and shaking his head sharply at the idea. He was dense, he knew, but Ren was being more than obvious enough to panic him. "N-No, it's nothing like that. Really! She- I mean, we aren't together or anything. She's just a friend of mine, helping me out so I don't get eaten by a bear or something."

"Mhm." He nodded, "And where do you sleep?"

"At her house." He blinked and Ren smirked, and Jaune groaned, hiding his face in his hands and shaking his head. "On her couch, Ren. Not in her- Ugh, stop chuckling! I'd have expected this kind of teasing from Nora, not you…"

"Oh, Nora will get you too, don't worry. I'm just getting a head start." Ren promised, shooing him away and turning back to his own assignment. "Now go on, Lover Boy. Before you miss your flight and leave your lovely lady hanging."

"I despise you…" Jaune groaned, "Just so… So much."

"Yeah, yeah." Ren waved him off, smiling teasingly all the while. "Have fun and do your homework, Jaune. Try to get it done in time to hang out with your girlfriend though, hm?"

Groaning and shaking his head at his friend's teasing, Jaune turned to leave without another word.

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"I know, I know, we're runnin' a bit behind." Roman sighed as Junior's goons loaded up the car and hauled the Dust away, now that he'd had time to catalogue the various group's hauls. While he watched them, and knowing they could hear him, he sighed loudly. "Our faces are on the front, back and sides of every newspaper, billboard and wall in Vale. Can't go out, so we have to rely on the help."

"They're making us late." The girl signed angrily, splayed out over the hood of the truck the goons were loading with her head hanging by his own, looking bored and frustrated and for all the world like a kid. Her hand in front of his face she signed on, "I don't like being late when I'm not the one deciding to be."

"I know, kid." Roman sighed, pulling a cigar free and looking at it sadly. If they weren't surrounded by Dust... Sighing, he put it away and went on, "I know. We'll be done pretty soon, hopefully, and we can get goin'."

Though that looked unlikely with how slow things were proceeding, and he sighed for it. With their names and faces everywhere that mattered, the authorities and automated systems would ping him if he left the warehouse district. Neo could travel a bit using her Semblance, of course, but that didn't help him much for more than an hour or so before her Aura would run out. Not nearly enough time for them to do their jobs without either getting caught or getting killed. And certainly not enough time to get the Dust they needed to satisfy their bitch of a boss' demand.

And that stuck them in this shitty little warehouse stinking of fish and Dust, late to their one spot of relaxation in the week. Which was just ruining Neo's mood, and pretty soon, Roman expected her to start stabbing. A great motivating tool, but…

"If you start stabbing people you can't hang out with your blonde punching bag." He pointed out simply when her eyes linger a hair too long on a particularly slow moving grunt. With a pout, the girl turned an upside down gaze on him, brows knitted down and lips pushed out to pout, and he shrugged, "Hey, I'm not burying bodies because you got bored and pouty. You see this coat? Getting goon blood out of white is not fun, kiddo, let me tell you."

He made no effort to keep his voice down, and several of the suited men and women shuffled to get their work done a bit faster as a result.

"You're a bully." Neo sighed, still pouting but unable to keep the little smirk down for seeing the goons scurry. Still, "You're a big, big bully."

"You knew I was a bully when I took you in, Neo. " He murmured in answer, smiling when she rolled her upside down eyes and laughed silently. An odd seeming, almost off-putting gesture at first, accompanied by all the shaking and smiling of a normal laugh, but dead silent. Smiling, he went on, "A big, bad wolf, but you hopped right into my car anyway. Not very bright of you."

"Nothing you would have done to me would have been worse than starving."

"I could have sold you off to a whorehouse or something you know." He pointed out, reaching up to tip his hat down to hide his eyes, his face hidden in the raised collar of his coat. Neo gave him a look caught between considering and amused and then laughed silently again and shook her head.

"Still better than starving." She pointed out as she often did when he made this point, trying to caution her about how risky her decision making could be sometimes. "And besides, you didn't. So it doesn't matter."

"Valid." And that was the end of that argument, as it always was when he tried to broach the subject. He never seemed able to push the argument the way he wanted, though. Not with that face looking at him, at least. Maybe over Scroll… "Lars! C'mere, you walking, talking stack of muscles."

"Got it, Little Boss." The huge man, dressed in a dress shirt straining to contain his swollen frame, grunted as he sauntered over. A foot taller than Roman, and with biceps the size of his head, the reason Junior kept him around was as obvious as the reason Roman had picked him out for hauling work. "What is it, Little Boss?" Neo glared and, with little more than a small nod, he corrected, "Little Bosses. Sorry, Miss Neo."

"She says it's fine and not to worry about it." He translated for the girl, Lars having not learned sign for the reasons many didn't. A lack of time, need or interest. Moving on, Roman asked, "Status report?"

"It'll be about an hour before we've got all the Dust canisters de-labeled and put into unmarked crates, Lil Bosses." The man reported, gesturing at the men across the small, fish-scented warehouse to a cluster of half a dozen thugs carefully moving the racks of volatile Dust into crates more easily moved around the city. Without looking back to them he rumbled, "Another crew in and we could cut that in half, but bringin' in more people would bring in more attention."

"Yeah, yeah, don't gotta tell me twice, Tiny." Roman knew the game all too well. Most of these people had come in dressed as factory workers, and a factory shift ran for ten hours. They'd been at it for three, so another shift would make no sense. Chewing the inside of a cheek he waved the man away, "Back to it, then. No sense in waitin' around with your thumb in your ass. Imagine someone just standing around while all this work is waiting to be done."

"Yeah." The big man rumbled, sounding amused and affronted in equal, bored measure. "Imagine that."

"Can we call in more hands?" Neo knew the answer, judging from her hopeless little face, but it still pained him to have to shake his head. He murmured an apology and she waved him off, grabbing him by the neck to give him a peck on the cheek. With it as proof she assured him, "It's fine. I'm just useless at all this and bored."

"And you wanna go play with your shiny new toy." Roman added, chuckled when the hand on the back of his neck squeezed. His aura meant that it was little more than a play threat, and he laughed while she pouted. "Hey now, no murdering your meal ticket. Bad form, Neo, bad form."

He didn't need to understand Sign to know that her next hand sign meant, "Fuck you."

"Nah, that'd be weird. You're like my kid- Ah, cunt!" His hat in her hands and hand receding from having pinched him, she smirked and flipped up onto the hood, turning the movement into a little spin so she could sit with her legs crossed and put his hat on. Rolling his eyes he fished out a fistful of Lien cards and held them out for her, "Here. Gimme my hat back and go play with your boy toy."

She took the cards slowly in one hand and signed with the other, "But we aren't done yet."

"I'm supervising and you're just sitting there doing nothing but aggravating me and thinking about stabbing my loyal workers." Again, those nearest to them shuffled away anxiously, earning a vicious little grin from the woman.As she handed over his hat, he went on more seriously, "So go have some fun, kiddo. But watch the blonde, I won't be there to keep an eye on him myself."

"What am I watching for?" She signed, sliding the Lien into her bra and hopping off the truck.

"He's a good guy, Neo." Roman answered simply, knowing Neo would understand what he meant. If a good guy found out just how bad they were, things wouldn't be good for them. And since he knew Neo wouldn't let her new toy go now she had some interest in him, watching him was the better answer. "I won't be there, and I know you get distracted easily, but… Keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't try anything funny."

"Something funny?" She made a motion of putting her finger through a hole made by her other hand and signed, "Kind of funny or the calling police kind of funny?"

"Yes." And god help him if he made a pass at Neo while Roman wasn't there. Stab happy as she was, she was still his little murder loli of a faux-daughter. She only raised an eyebrow to ask if he really thought she'd let either of those happen and he chuckled, turning back to keep watching them work. "Go on now, and have fun. Plenty of Lien there so y'all should be able to do whatever you want to. Have fun, and lemme know how your date goes."

"It's not a date…" He laughed and she pouted, but wandered off regardless.

A murder midget with a sadistic streak a mile wide she might have been but gods was she innocent in a hadnful of ways. Hopefully the blonde wouldn't pick sides in any of the coming troubles. Or rather, hopefully he didn't pick a side that hurt Neo's feelings.

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As always, hope you enjoyed my Irregular Update. Length is random on these due to their nature, yada yada, they won't become Regular Update stories like The Way or anything unless a Supporter asks me to do so. You know the drill. Also, there is a troll in my reviews. Ignore 'em, report 'em, do as you like. Have a good day though!

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Zenith Tempest :

I am mainly writing this for fun and to relax, like A soldier, Not a Hero. As such, beyond the immediate plot, I have no real hooks or plans. I am always open to suggestions and ideas if you have 'em.

Dr Killinger :

It's not a one-shot. It's an Irregular story, though. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it.

Mister Cuddlesworth :

It will continue, just irregularly unless it gets picked up by a Supporter.