Chapter Text
Jaune Arc slowly came back to consciousness. First there was the feeling of warm wetness from his groin downwards. Oh no, he thought, did I seriously wet my pants? Granted, Jaune considered, he would’ve had a good reason to wet his pants: falling from a great height into infinity would do that to someone. Next he felt thick sand beneath his hands, and against his face, and worse, in his hair. Slowly, Jaune tested his limbs, then decided to do something very brave: get up. It took a minute or two, but he got there, levering himself up onto hands and knees. Feeling confident at his progress, he turned over and sat down.
“Where the hell am I?”
His voice sounded loud over the soft crash of the waves, which at least explained why he was soaked from the waist down. Jaune looked around. He was on a beach with oddly colored sand—sort of a yellowish orange—and behind him was a forest of palm trees. That wasn’t the impressive part: behind the palm trees was a cliff that looked a mile or so high, and atop the cliff was the biggest tree Jaune had ever seen. It looked the size of Atlas, stretching into a pure blue sky.
And then the memories suddenly came flooding back, playing themselves out in his mind’s eye. The run towards the last remaining portal, and the look of horror on Winter Schnee’s face as she realized that he was behind her, not in front, and couldn't save him. The battle with Cinder Fall, and snippets of what was happening around them. Yang being blown off the platform first, falling into nothingness. Then Ruby and Neo Politan, kicked off by Cinder; Blake’s attempt at a last-minute save, only for Gambol Shroud’s line to be cut and both of them gone too. The look on Weiss’ face as she shoved him backwards, out of Cinder’s delayed-action fireball, the explosion, and her falling too, her ponytail fluttering behind her, to disappear into a golden flash of nothingness.
The pleading of a mortally wounded Penny Polendina for Jaune to kill her, to take her life while he still could, allowing her to transfer the Winter Maiden powers to Winter Schnee, rather than being robbed of them by Cinder. The sight of blood on his sword after he pulled it free of Penny’s chest, mixed with his tears and hers. The beatific smile on Penny’s face despite the bloody horror of her wounds, as her eyes went sightless, as if Penny had stared into eternity and liked what she saw.
Jaune felt his eyes start to fill with tears. He’d killed her. Poor Penny, only a real girl for half an hour, if that, not even time to experience hardly anything about being human, and he’d killed her. The fact that Penny had begged him to, and if he hadn’t Cinder would now be even more powerful than she was—those were logical thoughts, but Jaune couldn’t think logically right now. All he could think of was that he was a murderer, that he’d killed one of his best friends. He stared at his hands, sandy and wet, but he wondered if that was the seawater or Penny’s blood.
“Stop it,” Jaune said aloud. He fought back the tears, and wiped his face, which smeared more sand on it. “You don’t have time for this.” Jaune got to his feet and dusted off his pants and armor as best he could. He’d fallen into wherever this was, but so had Team RWBY, and right now his best chance at survival here was finding the four girls. All of them had been out of Aura when they had fallen, and they might be hurt. At least then I’d be good for something, dammit. They were going to hate him when they learned what he had done—Ruby in particular. He’d risk Ruby Rose’s wrath to help them any way he could, somehow balance the scales for killing Penny.
Jaune set off for the palm trees. He remembered his survival training at Beacon. Your first order of survival is to find water, shelter, and food, in that order, he could hear Professor Oobleck saying. As beautiful as the beach was, it was a killer in disguise: there was no shelter there, and the only water was seawater—which would kill him if he tried to drink it. The sun was already beating down on him, and he was in full armor, adapted for Atlas’ freezing climate. His Aura was still intact, but even Aura could only do so much, and it couldn’t replace the liquids he was already losing in sweat. He could only imagine how Team RWBY was doing, in their winter clothing, especially Weiss, who was probably boiling. Jaune shook off an erotic image of Weiss stripping down to her underwear, or better yet, stark naked. Gods, Jaune, he chided himself, what’s wrong with you? You were watching Weiss fighting for her life less than ten minutes ago…I think…and now you’re imagining her naked? Perv.
The beach was a lot bigger than Jaune thought, and it was a good twenty minutes before he reached the treeline, not helped by sand that seemed to be bent on sucking his boots off. He stripped off his gloves and put them in his belt, then took off Pyrrha’s sash and tied it around his head to keep the sweat out of his eyes. When he reached the treeline and got under the palm trees, the temperature noticeably cooled, and he was out of the merciless sun.
Now he had to find some water, and maybe some food. To Jaune’s surprise, he very quickly did: he accidentally kicked a coconut. His boots saved him from hurting himself, but as Jaune looked around, there were several of them. He grabbed one, remembered something from a book he read once, and grabbed a rock to smash open the coconut. The coconut proved a bit more resilient than he’d thought, so Jaune sat there for a moment. “Duh,” he said, and drew Crocea Mors—what was left of it. Cinder had broken the sword, taking off half its blade. Jaune was almost relieved: at least the part of the sword that was gone was the part that had been coated in Penny’s blood. He used the hilt of Crocea Mors, and after two hits, cracked open the coconut. Jaune had never had coconut milk before, but it tasted pretty good to a thirsty man. He dug out some of the white stuff inside and ate that, which tasted pretty good as well.
Now fortified, Jaune got back up, grabbed a couple of smaller coconuts, and kept walking. He found some bright red fruit that looked and tasted like strawberries, sweet not bitter, so he filled his pockets with those as well. Food taken care of, Jaune thought with satisfaction. Now I just need to find a little water.
He found some about five minutes later, by falling headfirst into a pool.
Jaune surfaced, cursing, and nearly went under again, but he got his feet under him, and found the pool was only above five feet deep at its deepest point. Of course, now he was completely soaked. Jaune crawled out of the pool, mumbling maledictions, but then saw the pool was fed by a little waterfall. He waded back into the water, made his way to the stream, and took a drink. It tasted fresh and good. Jaune checked above him: the palm trees were still providing some cover from the sun. Food, water and shelter. I guess Professor Oobleck would give me a good grade.
Jaune took off his boots and socks, draping the latter over a branch. He cupped his hands to his mouth. “Ruby! Weiss! Blake! Yang!” Jaune yelled their names four times. There was no response, other than startling the birds that had been chirping around him. Jaune leaned against a tree and sighed. He didn’t know how big this island was, or for that matter, where the island was. He’d never heard of some Big Tree Island in geography class at Beacon—though that had been an early morning class with Professor Peach, and he’d slept through a lot of it—but there were still parts of Remnant that were unexplored. For that matter, he was assuming Team RWBY had landed in the same place he did. He hadn’t been around when the Relic of Creation had explained the whole thing to Team RWBY; all he’d gotten was a quick warning from Weiss not to fall. Well, he had, and assuming he wasn’t dead—which Jaune was pretty sure he wasn’t—there was nothing saying that he and Team RWBY hadn’t been scattered through time and space. That would be something, Jaune thought ruefully, if I’m at the place where Remnant was created and there won’t be any humans around for a long time. Or worse, I’m on the planet after the gods destroyed the place…which means I’m here alone with Salem. Jaune shuddered at that. While it would be the height of irony if he was the one who had somehow helped restart the human race on Remnant, having the Undead Queen of the Grimm as the only woman on the planet was not a fate he dreamed about.
Well, that was going to have to wait, Jaune thought. He was still soaked to the bone, dirty, sweaty, and sandy. Since the pool seemed nice and cool, he decided it couldn’t hurt to take a bath. After he’d gotten somewhat clean, he could use this as a base of operations and start searching for Team RWBY. Jaune took off his heavy armor and stretched, glad to be free of its weight, then stripped off the Pumpkin Pete hoodie. His pants and boxers went next, all draped over various branches. He took off the sash from around his head, then tossed it into the pool to wash the sweat out of it and use it as a washrag. It seemed sacrireligious to use Pyrrha’s sash like that, but he knew that she wouldn’t mind; in fact, she would insist on it, saying survival was more important than sentiment. Naked, Jaune sank into the cool water. “Ohhh, man,” he breathed. It felt good. It felt awesome. He hadn’t bathed in days, hadn’t even had time to relax; hell, Jaune thought, he hadn’t slept in probably two days. He was going to have to be careful that he didn’t nod off in the pool and drown.
For the first time in awhile, Jaune felt himself smiling.
Neo Politan wasn’t smiling. In fact, she was fairly certain she was dying.
Jaune had been lucky enough, and smart enough, to get off the beach as soon as possible, find food and water, and a place of shelter. Neo wasn’t stupid by any means, but she also hadn’t had the benefit of Beacon survival training. She had grown up on the streets of Vale, which gave her quite a bit of skill at urban survival, but not much in the way of surviving on a steaming beach in the middle of nowhere. She had taken off her gloves and tied her jacket around her waist, but that was the only articles of clothing she could really remove; her umbrella was gone, and only Torchwick’s bowler—which had somehow survived the fall into nowhere; she’d found it lying beside her when she’d woken up on the beach—was protecting her from the sun--and it was not much protection. Neo had made her way into the palm trees as well, but it had taken awhile, and she’d had the misfortune of finding some particularly dense areas of foilage. She sucked moisture off of them, which at least gave a little relief to her parched throat. Her Aura was gone, already mostly depleted by the fight with Ruby, and she had no protection from the heat.
Neo also wondered if she was being hunted. Team RWBY had fallen into this place as well, and every one of them had a good reason to want her dead. And there was no Cinder to take some of their wrath away from her.
Cinder. Neo gritted her teeth. She’d known the Fall Maiden would betray her at some point; in fact, Neo had fully intended to strike first when she got the chance. There hadn’t been one: either Cinder was in a place like Salem’s whale, where killing her would’ve been suicide, or there had been other obstacles. There was also the fact that Neo, having seen what Cinder was capable of, was entirely sure she could kill the Fall Maiden. In any case, Ruby Rose had taken priority—but as soon as Cinder had sensed the opportunity to tie up a loose end, she’d kicked Neo into space.
Neo wasn’t sure who she was more angry at: herself or Cinder. I should’ve taken that damn Relic thing and hauled ass, she thought morosely. That’s what Roman would’ve done. Could’ve sold it to someone, gotten a pile of lien, and found someplace in Vale far the hell away from Salem and Cinder and all those other weirdos. She wouldn’t make that same mistake twice, Neo told herself. Assuming she lived through this, she was going to find somewhere nice and quiet, where she could commit larceny, grand theft, and occasional murder of anyone who got in her way, in peace. Killing Ruby was still a priority, but it did seem that there was a line to kill the little bitch, and the people at the head of that line was an immortal sorceress and an insanely powerful Fall Maiden.
Of course, Neo thought, wiping her brow and getting her sweat-soaked hair out of her eyes, if she didn’t find some more water and food in a hurry, the whole question would be academic.
“Ruby! Weiss! Blake! Yang!”
Neo instantly froze at the sound of the voice and dropped into a crouch. There was a knife hidden in the waistband of her pants, and she drew it, the thin, curved blade springing into place. It wouldn’t be much against any of Team RWBY’s weapons, but it was better than nothing. Dammit, she thought: her white and pink outfit stood out like a prostitute at a Schnee family gathering in the green of the grove. She heard the voice a few more times, and recognized it. It’s that Jaune asshole! Great, he must’ve fell too. Maybe he killed Cinder before he did…though I’m in real trouble if that robot chick fell down here too.
There was no answering yell, and Neo realized that Jaune was alone. She nodded to herself. That would make it a lot easier. She could ambush him and cut his throat before he had a chance to fight back or yell for help, and it would cut down on the odds some. He might even have food or water. Or she could get him to tell her where the hell they were, and then kill him. Neo figured that Jaune didn’t know sign language, but her Scroll had somehow survived as well, stuffed in the back pocket of her pants, and she could communicate that way. It was how she’d usually talked to Cinder, when the Fall Maiden wasn’t communicating with sullen silences or screaming fits.
Neo deduced where Jaune’s voice was coming from. Normally, she would sneak up on him by using her Semblance to look like someone else, but with her Aura gone, her Semblance wasn’t going to work well—if at all. No, she would have to do this the old fashioned way, like she had as a street urchin, approaching a target by stealth, and slicing open their pocket, or their throat, whichever was easier.
She crept forward, stopping every minute to listen. It took her ten minutes, but eventually she found the pool—not by falling into it, but through a hedge of broad, leafy plants. Carefully, she pulled one aside. Her mouth watered at the sight of the splashing waterfall, and she saw Jaune lying back in the pool, a smile on his face, his eyes closed. The water looked very cool and inviting.
Then Jaune suddenly sat up, his eyes opening. Neo crouched lower, slowly letting the leaf go back into place. He didn’t look at her, however. Instead he stretched again, and started to get out of the pool. “Man, I almost fell asleep in there!” he laughed. “Better get dressed and start looking for Team RWBY.” Neo’s mouth was now watering for a different reason: Jaune was exposed from the knees up.
Neo Politan didn’t know Jaune Arc well; they had only met a few times at Beacon when she had infiltrated the school, and then fleetingly. They had fought each other at Atlas however, when she had first stolen the Relic of Knowledge, and Neo was only mildly impressed: the boy had become a man, true, and was no longer barely skilled with his broadsword, but knew what he was doing. Still, Neo had not given him much thought; he hadn't been much of a threat, really.
Now she wished she had. Jaune was no longer the skinny teenager of Beacon: over a year of near constant fighting with a heavy sword had put on the muscles, and he had become lean, rather than skinny, with a well-defined physique, from his chest to his thighs. He was no Cardin Winchester or Hazel Rainart, but Neo had never really liked big, muscular men: her beloved Roman Torchwick was actually a bit on the skinny side, and Roman never did any physical labor that he didn’t have to. There was something about Jaune that reminded Neo of Roman, in a good way. It might have been the hairstyle, though Jaune was blonde to Roman’s red, or just the way he moved, getting out of the pool. Neo swallowed involuntarily as her eyes wandered downwards. Jaune was not exactly big down there, but then again, Neo thought, Roman hadn’t been either—it was what he could do with what he had that had driven her insensate more than once.
Neo felt her mouth now desperately dry, but to her surprise, another part of her was increasingly not dry at all.
Jaune got one foot out of the pool, hesitated, then shrugged. It wouldn’t hurt anyone if he stayed in the pool just a few minutes longer. He laughed at himself for being lazy, but descended back into the pool, back up to his shoulders. He was pretty sure none of Team RWBY would begrudge him a little bit longer.
Then the leaves rustled in front of him, and to Jaune’s stunned surprise, Neo Politan stepped out. He abruptly remembered that she had fallen as well—or rather been kicked, by Cinder. Before that point however, she had been enthusiastically helping the Fall Maiden try to kill him and everyone else—in fact, it had been Neo’s attempted murder of Yang that had started the battle. Shit! Jaune thought. He was naked, with a broken sword; it was close enough to grab, but Jaune was under no illusions that he was Neo’s match in a fight, even if she didn’t have her umbrella and was low on Aura. Jaune reached for the sword all the same, determined that he was going to go down swinging, if nothing else.
“Mm!” Neo waved her hands. Jaune’s fingers stopped on the hilt of Crocea Mors. Neo looked down at him, trying to convey with her eyes what she couldn’t say, that she didn’t want to fight. Jaune paused, and Neo let the thin blade fall into the ground around the pool. Then she hung the bowler on a branch.
What the hell is she doing? Jaune thought, unsure if he should attack anyway. Neo reached up, put her fingers underneath her suspenders, and pulled them down. The straps went slack, and then she reached up and unbuttoned the abbreviated blouse. Jaune’s eyes widened. She’s…she’s going to…what the…
Neo stopped at the last button, with her bust straining at the blouse. Her lips parted in a predatory smile, and her hands went down to her hips. Her white pants were stained with sand, blood and green sap, but they still fit like a second skin. She locked eyes with Jaune, as if daring him to do something, or even just to look away. Part of him wanted to, again remembering that this woman had tried to kill him, but another part of him told the logical part to shut up and enjoy the show.
And a show it was. Neo pulled off her shoes with her heels, then shimmied out of her pants slowly, peeling them down. They puddled at her heels, and Neo stepped out of them. Either her underwear had gone with them, or the assassin didn't bother wearing any. Then she finished removing the blouse, letting that fall away, and just like that, Neo Politan was naked in front of him. Her hands ran the length of her body, from her proportionate breasts to her narrow thighs, and the thin line of curls between them, inviting Jaune to look all he wanted. His hands had fallen helplessly into the pool, nowhere near the sword now. Neo smiled, then slowly and carefully stepped into the pool. The water rose up over her flawless legs, up to lap at the bottom of her breasts. “Mmm,” she sighed happily, at the coolness of the water. She dunked her head below the water, then surfaced almost next to him, her pink and brown hair plastered to her back.
“What are you doing here?” Jaune said in wonderment, then remembered that Neo couldn’t talk. She didn’t have to: she rolled over like an otter, coming up nearly nose to nose with him, her knees between his beneath the shimmering water. Her mismatched eyes met his, and there was no doubt what she wanted. You need to run, Jaune’s remaining logical brain cells shouted, she’s a psycho assassin and she’s going to kill you you fool and gods, she’s beautiful…
The kiss seemed to take a long time, as Neo leaned forward, enough that Jaune saw that her lips looked chapped and parched, and they were actually trembling. There was one last moment of panic as her hands reached up behind his head, a perfect position to snap his neck, but then her lips were against his. His eyes fluttered closed, but so did hers. Her tongue reached into his mouth, seeking moisture. His hands came up around her back, and Jaune was surprised at just how small Neo was. Then she pressed her breasts into his chest, and he forgot about her diminuitive height. She clearly made up for it in other areas.
Jaune had been hard for awhile; just seeing Neo stripping was enough. It was strictly a physical response, but now that she was in his arms, her breath hot against his lips, her arms trembling against his shoulders, rational thought left. Beacon didn’t matter, Atlas didn’t matter, Neo being possibly psychotic and definitely on the wrong side didn’t matter: he wanted her. And by her physical signs—namely the lips pressed against his, and the hard pebbles of her nipples below the water, against his chest—she most assuredly wanted him.
Jaune’s hands drifted below the water to grip her small rear, and Neo misinterpreted that signal in a wonderful way. She rose up, and then in a single move, impaled herself on him. Both of them gasped at the suddenness of it, and for a moment, Jaune was actually afraid he’d hurt her. Then she smiled at him, nodded, and moved up and down to test the fit, as it were. Satisfied, she began to ride him, at first slowly.
Neo was no virgin: she and Roman had carried on a torrid affair for years before the ill-fated alliance with Cinder. Jaune was, despite rumors that he and Ruby had slept together on the road to Haven, or others that claimed he and Weiss were lovers. Had either situation persisted longer, either one or both of those might have happened, but now this was happening, and Jaune’s head was swimming. It simply had to be a dream: he’d fallen asleep in the pool, and he was dreaming about making love to Neo. It was simply too absurd otherwise.
Neo was an experienced lover, but for her part, it had been a very long time: her last time with anyone had been a quick, fumbling affair with Roman after she had liberated him from his cell aboard Ironwood’s aerial battleship, pressed against a cold steel wall while he took her from behind. There had been no one since; she had wanted no one since. Neo found herself going faster and faster, not stretching the affair out like she usually did with Roman, or he did with her. Her hands were locked behind Jaune’s head, and she threw her own back with complete abandon, gasping in utter pleasure. Jaune held on as best he could, his hands alternately slipping against her flanks or her bottom; somehow, it was slippery in general, but they managed.
One thing Jaune knew they were not going to manage was to last—at least he wasn’t. Neo was liquid fire inside: she was gripping him, and Jaune was now thrusting away as hard as he could, all thought of hurting her gone. He gritted his teeth. “I’m not…going…” he struggled out, but Neo only leaned forward and smothered him with more kisses. “I…I’m going…” There was no stopping now, and from the little noises Neo was making at the back of her throat, she wasn’t planning on quitting either. “Oh, gods—“ Jaune gave one last thrust, then buried himself in her and let loose.
“Aaahhh!” Neo moaned, torn between ecstasy and disappointment; she wanted it to last longer, but Jaune’s release sent her over the edge, and she leaned against him, shuddering, gasping into his throat. They held each other, shaking, until finally it stopped. She put her head against his chest, her chin just in the water, and sighed. He wasn't Roman, the hands that held her were sword-calloused, and the sparse hairs on the chest were blond, not red...but Jaune would do, she thought. It had been so long.
The glade was silent for several minutes, except for their breathing. Jaune pulled out and leaned back. “Holy crap,” he breathed. “I’m…damn.” He was no longer a virgin, but if Jinn herself had told him he would have lost that status with Neo Politan, he would’ve kicked the Relic off the side of Atlas.
Now that the haze of lust had cleared, Neo also was coming to the realization that she had just had wild sex with one of Ruby Rose’s best friends. She wondered what Roman would have thought about it, then smiled when she heard her dead lover’s laugh in her mind. I’m not mad, Neo! she heard him chuckle. Always keep them guessing. Besides, you can use the kid. In more ways than one, of course. I’m gone, my ice cream girl, and you deserve to be happy. Even with a sappy moron like this Jaune guy, even for just a few minutes. “Mmm,” she hummed contentedly.
“What just happened?” Jaune whispered, still stunned. Neo pulled back from his embrace to tread water, and signed. When Jaune just helplessly shook his head, she swam back to her clothes and got her Scroll out. Walking in the shallows back to him—Jaune thought her breasts bounced rather nicely in and out of the water, and couldn’t believe he was stirring again this soon—Neo chinned herself on the side of the pool and quickly typed. There was no signal out here, but she could still use the chat function to talk to Jaune. When she was done, she held up the Scroll. WE JUST HAD SEX, she had typed.
“I got that,” Jaune snapped. “But why?” He slowly moved away from her, a little closer to the sword. “You’re one of Cinder’s bunch, and you tried to kill us!”
Neo frowned, then went back to typing. She held up the Scroll again. CINDER BETRAYED ME. TRUCE?
“Not if you’re going to try and kill me, or Ruby, or the others the first chance you get!”
Another frown, and a smoldering look that had nothing to do with sex. More typing, angry now. LISTEN, DIPSHIT, she wrote, WE HAVE NO IDEA WHERE WE ARE, IF WE’RE EVEN STILL ALIVE. IF I WANTED TO KILL YOU, I WOULD’VE DONE IT. I FUCKED YOU INSTEAD. WE GOOD?
“Well…” Jaune was at a loss. He had no idea how to argue with her, especially since only one of them could talk, they were both naked, and he’d just had sex with her. Jaune was not the most outgoing man on Remnant, but even Sun Wukong would’ve found the situation awkward. “Okay, listen.” Neo gave him a single nod. “Truce until we figure out what’s going on. When—if we find Team RWBY, you don’t try to kill them. I’ll try to talk them out of killing you. You don’t start anything, we don’t either. Until we get out of here.” Another nod. “And if you try to betray us, you’re going to regret it. Understand?” Jaune tried to sound tough, and knew it hadn’t worked: he wasn’t exactly a stone-cold killer. Neo was.
Neo put out a hand. Jaune leaned across and took it. She smiled at him. She rose out of the water, and stretched out on the grass. Jaune gulped at the sight. With one hand, Neo typed on her Scroll; the other ran up the inner part of her thighs. WANT TO GO AGAIN? Neo wrote.
Once more, Jaune hesitated. There was no way in Salem’s purple hell that he was going to trust her. She was a thief and an assassin, possibly crazy. She would betray them as soon as she found an opportunity. The only thing that might keep her from his throat, or Team RWBY’s, was that now she wanted Cinder Fall dead even more. It was hardly what Yang would call a heel-face turn, whatever that meant: Neo was not going to suddenly join the side of good and right just because she’d made love to Jaune Arc. He wasn’t that good, he knew. She was probably just as twisted and evil as Cinder herself.
Jaune got out of the water and positioned himself between her legs, drawing her to him. “Oh, the hell with it,” he said, and Neo’s mouth opened in a silent laugh.
After another session in the grass—Jaune had lasted a little longer this time, and for someone who was mute, Neo had gotten quite loud with her groans and moans—they relaxed for a little while longer, shared some food, and gotten dressed. Jaune wondered why Neo insisted on pulling a tube of lipstick from one of her other pockets and touching up her lips.
“We’re going to find Team RWBY,” Jaune told her. “We stand a better chance at getting to that giant tree up there with all of us.” Neo rolled her eyes; she would much prefer just sticking with Jaune for now. He might have been a virgin an hour ago, but he was a fast learner. Still, it was clear that he was adamant about finding his friends, and Neo didn’t want to be alone anymore.
They began to walk through the jungle, Neo taking the lead, knowing that Jaune was not about to let her behind him. Her small size was a benefit now, as she could duck below or shimmy through tight spaces. Jaune found himself admiring Neo’s rear end through the tight jeans, and shook himself to stop. He was so intent on that that he nearly ran her down when she stopped. “What is it?”
Neo pointed. It was another brook, but this one was muddy, with runoff from the cliffs above. “So?” Jaune said. “It’s not that deep.” Neo pointedly looked down at her shoes. They were far from clean, but they also only went up to just above her ankles. If she walked through that, her shoes would be filled with mud—assuming that the sticky mud didn’t simply pull them off her feet entirely. “Okay, okay, I get it. What do you want to do?” Neo held out her arms, and Jaune sighed. “You’re kidding.” She shook her head. “Fine, whatever.”
Neo jumped into his arms, putting her arms around his neck, and Jaune, with another sigh, carried her across the muddy brook—and the equally muddy far bank. His boots were now liberally coated with light brown, putrid-smelling mud, but they were across. Neo grinned at him, took the bowler off her head, and leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek. The action nearly caused her to slip out of his arms, forcing Jaune to get a double handful of her derriere. Neo gave a little squeak, but she was still smiling at him, clearly not minding in the least.
And naturally, Team RWBY took that moment to walk out of the woods. “J-Jaune?” Weiss stammered.
“It’s not what it looks like!” Jaune screamed, especially when Ruby pulled Crescent Rose off her shoulder and leveled it at them.
Neo only smirked wider, and ran a hand down Jaune's jawline, winking at Ruby.