So, Cinder has a dog now."
Adam raised a single eyebrow, looking at Mercury over the top of his mug. The silver-haired teen was wearing a black jacket over a white shirt and some jeans. He'd wondered why the jacket had small flecks of white hair across it. "Did I ask for an update on your living situation?"
"You didn't not ask for it. Besides, what else are we going to talk about? Lovely weather we're having. Have you been seeing anyone? Oh, I love what you've done with your hair."
"A dog, then." Adam gave up easily. Neither of them was quite sure why they continued to meet or why they kept interacting, but it wasn't uncommon for them to meet at Jaune's at similar times, sit together and just talk.
A human criminal and a faunus supremacist walk into a bar.
There was probably a joke in there somewhere.
"Yeah. A dog. Little thing. Real ball of fluff. Husky, I think."
"You think? It's a distinctive breed."
"Yeah well, right now it's an energetic ball of white and grey fluff with two eyes and a little tongue. I'm the poor sucker who's been tasked with taking it out for potty breaks." Mercury's face lit up. "Though, you wouldn't believe how much of a girl magnet it is. I get swamped with chicks when I'm out walking him."
Adam snorted. "The dog gets swamped with women."
"I'm swamped by association. It's good enough for me. Emerald isn't a fan, more because of how it monopolises Cinder's attention than her not liking dogs. Cinder doesn't even seem to realise she's stroking it; she's just plotting evil with a fluffy pupper in her lap nibbling her fingers."
"Adorable." Adam managed to somehow say it and sound both serious and sarcastic at the same time.
"Less adorable is when Miss Goodwitch found out. She said pets aren't supposed to be on campus and you should have seen the look on Cinder's face. I thought we were breaking cover right there. If looks could kill, it would have been a bloodbath."
"I assume by the lack of panic across Remnant that she managed to find a solution."
"Cinder mentioned Team RWBY having one, then came up with some story about how she has no family other than the dog and it would have to be sent to the pound or put down if she weren't allowed to have it. And bam!" Mercury slapped the table, drawing more than a few looks across the diner. Not that he cared. "Miss Goodwitch folds like a house of cards. I'm telling you, man. That thing has a Semblance. It's a Semblance that makes girls melt."
"I can think of one woman who wouldn't," Adam mumbled. Blake had never been fond of dogs, something that Adam had taken a subtle delight in. Despite what many thoughts, faunus traits did not actually pass through faunus. Rabbit faunus did not procreate faster than normal people. Dog faunus did not have stronger noses and cat faunus should not be afraid of dogs or have anydesire for seafood beyond their normal tastes.
It was coincidence that Blake fit every stereotype. He knew, or had known, Blake's mother before he cut ties with Menagerie, and Kali had hated fish and loved dogs in equal measure.
Chuckling to himself and wondering idly why he found himself enjoying his time spent with a human in a human establishment, Adam finished his drink. "The dog is to stay, then?"
"Looks like it. I won't complain. It's a cute little thing. Not so much a fan of how Cinder glares at me when she thinks I'm watching her play with it, though. She gives me this `you saw nothing` glare that threatens me with disembowelment if I don't look away."
"Are you? Staring at her, I mean."
"Yeah but come on. It's Cinder! Cinder Fall is on her knees leaning over a little puppy and dangling a small rope toy over its head, making it snap and play with it. This is like Sienna Khan playing with human children. It just doesn't happen. You have to stop and stare."
"You would be surprised," Adam said, sipping a little more coffee. "Not that I expect Sienna does in fact do that, but we are terrorists, not monsters. Killing children is not something we exactly aspire to do, and certainly not if it can be avoided."
"That's surprisingly nice of you."
"Children should not be punished for the crimes of their parents."
"Unless they're Schnee children?"
"Even if they are Schnee," Adam countered. "We have intentionally neglected to target the young. The current heiress only became one when she attacked us first at the Vale docks. She brought it upon herself. Most of the time, we limit our actions to those in direct control. Managers, Directors or older Schnee family members who have already shown their true colours." Adam sighed and changed the subject. "Does this new member of your team have a name?"
"You know, I didn't think to ask."
Adam closed his eyes. "It needs one. Speaking its name in its formative years will help it to learn. Make sure she chooses one for it, and that she stimulates its mind with play and challenges. It is an energetic breed."
"Huh. You know a lot about dogs."
"A little. I happen to like them."
Not that Blake ever let him entertain the thought of having one. It wouldn't have been fair anyway, since he couldn't give it the loving environment it deserved. Even so, he'd made it a habit to feed the last stray he'd found, and then to find someone within the White Fang who could give it a family and a home.
Last he heard, it was doing well.
"Really? Never took you for a dog person."
"Dogs are intelligent, brave and loyal creatures. If you treat them well and respect them then they will stand by you through thick and thin, attacking Grimm ten or more times their size to protect the ones they care for." Adam put his cup down. "People – both human and faunus - could stand to learn a lot from them."
"I hear you there." Mercury raised his mug. "To people sucking."
With a snort, Adam clinked his mug against his companion's.
"Cheers."
/-/
Work gave Jaune the distraction he needed from his failure to cheer Cinder up the day before. He'd slept fitfully, waking up to wonder if he couldn't have done more, but the moment the day started and Velvet came trundling by with his little red trolley-cart filled with cakes, such thoughts had vanished entirely.
By the time Russel came around later, it was all hands on deck.
"Is it just me or are there more huntsmen than usual?" Jaune called to Russel over the crowd.
"Festival transfers!" Russel yelled back.
"What? But they've been here for weeks!"
"Yeah, but they were settling in. Looks like they've finally heard about you."
"Look! Look! Look! This is it." A short figure swept towards the counter, dragging a dark-skinned woman behind her. They were both huntresses. Jaune wasn't sure if it was just something about their distinctive style, or him somehow noticing small tells.
He hung around enough of them.
"Reese, calm down," the taller girl said.
"Hell no." The smaller girl, Reese apparently, slammed her hands down on the counter and stared directly at him. It wasn't even past him to the menu behind, or at the cakes or coffee, but directly at him. Her eyes narrowed. "Hmmm…"
"C-Can I help you…?"
"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…"
Uncertain, he looked over her head to the other. "Can I help her?"
"No one can help her," the girl's teammate said sadly. "Believe me, we've been trying for over a year." The woman extended a hand. "Arslan Altan."
"Oh. I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc." He shook her hand, noting just how powerful her grip really was. That seemed to be a cue for Reese to come back to life.
"Ahah! I knew it. You're Jaune!"
"Uh. Yes. It's what my name badge says." He paused. "And what I just said."
"And you own this place!"
"It is called `Jaune's`."
"Cool." The girl, who had the strangest hairdo he'd ever seen, not to mention two black lines across her cheek that his fingers itched to try and rub away, grinned. "You're not as cute as you look on the internet, but I'll bite. I've come for your drama and your coffee!"
"M-My what?" Jaune leaned back, away from her pointing finger. "A-And what do you mean on the internet? Why am I on the internet? And what drama?"
"Duh." Reese drew out her scroll and showed him a picture. On it, his face could be seen, along with a list of forum posts on something or other. He didn't really get a chance to read it on account of how quickly she pulled it back. "I've seen the videos."
"What videos!?"
"All the videos!"
"I think that he is unsure what you mean, Reese," Arslan said.
Reese sighed, as if he were particularly dense and wasting her time. "Café Prime. The scandal. Cute bunny-girl kick-ass waitress."
Velvet's ears straightened. "Did someone call for me?"
"No, Velvet."
"Ohmygosh there she is. I want her autograph! Do you think she'll beat me up if I try and restrain her? That's, like, a personalised autograph. Let's find out!" Reese ducked past Arslan's arm and away. "If she gets me in a sleeper hold make sure to get a selfish, Ars!"
Jaune honestly felt a little dizzy.
"I apologise for my teammate. She is… energetic." Arslan said it like a beleaguered mother might about a child of six years who hadn't stopped screaming all night. "We're relatively new to Vale and we've finished looking at all the landmarks, which means we're now just waiting for the festival to begin. My team have heard good things about this place. You come highly recommended."
"Thanks?" He rubbed his head. "Sorry, I'm still a little lost."
Arslan's smile grew. "Reese has that effect on people."
"Eek!" Velvet yelped, apparently unprepared to be glomped by an excitable green-haired girl.
Luckily for both Reese and his café, she didn't flip out and throw Reese through a table like the odd girl thought she might. Velvet and Café Prime were something of an exception to the rule. Personally, he figured she just hated them for making her speak in front of all those journalists. While Velvet had come out of her shell working here, no one enjoyed that kind of attention.
"I shall go rescue your waitress. Could we have some cake and a menu to table six?"
"Table six," Jaune said with a nod, looking over to see two men watching Reese and Velvet, one with dark hair that looked remarkably like Lie Ren, and the other a dark-skinned man with aggressively pink hair. They were certainly a noticeable bunch.
In fact, a whole lot of the people in the diner stood out. Huntsmen and huntresses always had – at least the younger ones. The adults stood out too, but it was more for the sense of eerie calm they had. The kind of feeling of safety and security you got, a sense of calmness and control they exuded that left a civilian like Jaune knowing that even if a Grimm attacked, they could dispatch it before he had to bother being worried.
The students, though?
Well, it was like they hadn't quite decided on the style they wanted – and so had just sort of stood in the middle of a fancy dress shop and detonated a bomb. Whatever clothing stuck to them in the blast, they wore, and to hell with fashion or whether it made sense.
His eyes were drawn to a girl with orange hair in buns so big they were the size of her head, with bright blue bangs, a rainbow coloured top, pink skirt and wearing – in the middle of his diner – a pair of pink roller-skates that were shitting our rainbows as she drifted from one display counter to the next looking at cakes and treats.
"Am I missing something…?"
"Probably," Russel said from beside him, working on the espresso machine. "It's the dance being over."
"How does your school dance ending equate with my diner being packed with carnival rejects?"
"Because all the transfers were too focused on the dance to wander around Vale. Think about it like this, you're here in another Kingdom for a big tournament but there's also a formal school dance in a week or two. You end up focusing on the dance first and getting ready for that, but then when it's over you've got nothing to do but wait until the tournament. So, what do you do?"
"Train?"
Russel laughed. "You're really overestimating us. Or underestimating our lessons. We train for hours every day as part of school hours. If you train after that as well, you're going to pull a muscle. This close to the tournament, that can kill your chances."
"I see. So what, they're all coming here?"
"They're exploring Vale. Landmarks, cultural things, the usual stuff you do when you go to another country. Except that they're all asking Beacon's students what there is to do in Vale. We mingle and talk between ourselves."
"And because most students in Beacon know of my place, they're all coming here."
"Yep. Probably not just to come here, but no matter if they're here to visit a museum, see a landmark or tour the closed tunnels to Mountain Glenn, they're going to want to take a break at some point. Catch a bite to eat and a drink. And what's the number one place touted for that by both the students and staff at Beacon? Right here."
And it being the lunch hour, everyone was coming for food. It made sense. Beacon had also stopped lessons before the festival. He knew that from both Russel and Velvet suddenly having a lot more flexible schedules, and because Ozpin and Oobleck had come down to celebrate with a coffee-off.
Jaune had never heard of a `coffee-off` before.
He wished to never see it again. Or Ozpin's despair at having lost to Oobleck.
"Basically, you're all bored and looking for something to do."
"Pretty much. That's the thing about being a huntsman; you get used to fighting all the time and being active. Even if it's just training, your mind is being worked so all that energy goes somewhere. We're probably the fittest and most energetic kids in the whole world, and all of a sudden we have no way of burning off all that energy."
Jaune sighed. "And I'm giving you coffee? Is that even a good idea?"
"Eh. Probably not."
Great. He was catering to a bunch of over-eager teenagers with control issues and the means – and weapons – to level a city block. And to make matters worse, he was caffeinating them. Considering they solved just about every problem with violence, being trained to fight Grimm after all, he was surprised the diner hadn't turned into a brawl.
Then again, it might have had something to do with Miss Goodwitch sat in the corner in a rather nice casual blouse and skirt combo that made her look almost ten years younger. Jaune knew he wasn't the only person to notice, since every straight and unattached male student from Beacon was sneaking glances in her direction.
"You're busy today," Glynda said as he approached with a mug of tea.
"I understand I have you to thank for that."
She smiled ruefully. "My apologies. Even teachers need a little time off, however."
"It's no problem." Jaune put her mug down and then another, black. "Are you waiting on someone?"
"I'm spending the day with an old friend."
"A date?"
Glynda coughed into one hand. "That is hardly an appropriate question for a young man to ask a woman."
"I'm not hearing a no."
She glared at him, but there was an undeniable hint of pink to her cheeks. "I may not be able to give you detention, but I can still make your life difficult, Mr Arc."
He laughed. "Warning taken. Would you like some cake while you wait?"
"That won't be necessary. James should be here soon." Glynda paused and then winced, realising she had given it away. "I'll thank you not to tell Ozpin. He would be… irritating about this. Those two are such good friends and yet they can be incredibly childish around one another."
"My lips are sealed."
"Thank you. In return, I'll tell you that things should calm down once we send our students on their upcoming missions."
"Missions?"
"Mr Thrush hasn't warned you? It's a curriculum requirement that teams be sent on one mission per year, growing each year. A single recon mission in year one, two in year two and so on. We call them missions, but they're more like field studies. Teams are sent, accompanied by a teacher or professional huntsman, to locations in need of aid. Either clearing out Grimm, rebuilding or patrolling routes between towns and villages. It's to gain experience of what their work might be like after graduation while still having a safety net to rely on."
"Work experience, then."
"Yes. That's an accurate enough metaphor."
"Is it dangerous?"
"Inevitably, but we have not lost anyone in six years and do not intend to start now. There's always some level of danger in being a huntsman, but we pick the tasks carefully and ensure they are accompanied by exceptional individuals. First year teams especially." Glynda smiled his way. "Do not worry for your friends. Mr Thrush is a first year and will be sent with a member of staff or particularly strong huntsman, while Miss Scarlatina has done this multiple times before and is quite experienced."
That was good. He hadn't realised life at Beacon could be so dangerous, but that was naïve. They were training to become huntsmen, to fight and risk their lives against the Grimm. Of course the teachers would want to give them real life experience of that.
"Guess I'll be a little less busy if everyone is off on these missions at once. Maybe I should take a week off."
"That wouldn't be a bad idea." Glynda's head perked up as the bell on the door rang. "Ah. Here he is."
"I'm sorry I'm late," Ironwood said, moving forward with a tired expression but a genuinely happy smile. He looked out of place in casual fatigues, though it was still smart-casual at best. Jaune wasn't sure the General could manage going with anything less. "You haven't been waiting long have you?"
"Only two or three minutes."
"Huh." Jaune's mouth opened before he could stop himself. "You've been here half an hour at lea-"
Glynda glared bloody murder at him through her red cheeks.
Ironwood looked flattered. His grin grew even wider. "Really? Glynda, you needn't have."
"Yes. Well." Glynda fiddled with her mug, unwilling to look Ironwood in the eye but more than happy to threaten Jaune with death with her gaze alone. "I suppose that I did. How time flies."
Thank you, Mr Arc, her glower seemed to say. I will make you pay for this later.
Oops.
"I'll leave you to your date."
Glynda's glare intensified. A fork hovered up off the table and pointed itself at his eyes.
Double oops.
"I-I'll leave you to it. Whatever you're doing. Have fun!"
Slipping back into the crowd, Jaune stopped at table RWBY – who were squashed up and sharing with Pyrrha – to take their orders, and to listen to Ruby excitedly try to tell him something that he absolutely did not hear over the noise.
He nodded anyway and said "good job" which seemed to please her.
Hopefully, he hadn't signed his soul away.
He passed by a small table at the side wall where Adam and Mercury were chatting away, taking their mugs and writing down what they wanted in replacement, accepting the lien as Adam offered to pay for what was `his round`, and then moved on to hand it to Velvet as she walked by, slipping past and intentionally nudging Reese's hand away from Velvet's rear at the same time with his knee, slapping a plate of cakes and a menu down on the table at the same time.
"No harassing my staff."
"Reese," Arslan said with a put-upon groan. "If you don't stop, I'm snapping your board in two."
"What? Nooo! I'll be good. Gooder."
Jaune rolled his eyes and finally reached the sanctity of his counter. A space which no other could step behind, and finally finding a spot where he could stop, stretch his muscles and take a deep and well-earned breath.
And then the clock on the wall hit one, and the nearby offices finished for lunch.
"Oh shit!" Russel yelled as the door opened and suited men and women poured in.
/-/
"Is it over?" Jaune asked, slumped across the counter. "Is it finally over?"
"Y-Yeah." Russel was laid on his back on a table, legs dangling over the edge and face staring up toward the ceiling. "It's done. Door is locked." He groaned. "My feet are killing me."
"Try wearing heels," Velvet hissed, sat barefoot at another table, said shoes on the floor beside her. "You're lucky you get to wear flats."
"Why don't you? There's no dress code."
Her head rose and she looked to Jaune inquisitively.
He shrugged back. "I never said you had to wear heels. I just assumed you wanted to since you kept coming in them. You can wear whatever you like as long as it's smart."
Velvet's forehead hit the table. "Ughhhhhh. I hate my life. I hate Coco!"
"Well, things will get easier once you all go on your missions," Jaune said, making them look up. "Thanks for telling me about those by the way. Didn't think I needed to know you'd be off for a week or more?"
"What?" Realisation was slow to dawn on a tired Russel. "Oh! Shit, I totally forgot. Whoops."
"It's fine." Jaune waved a hand. "Just let me know once you have the dates for it and I'll sort it out. I think we could all use some time off before the Vytal festival really starts. You two should get back to Beacon before it gets much later."
Velvet held her hands out towards Russel. "Carry me."
"Hell no."
"Ugh. Meanie."
"You think I can carry you across Vale? You're too heavy."
"And this is why you're still single…"
"Hey!"
Jaune ignored the two as they argued. Or bantered, he supposed. He watched them leave and made to lock the door behind them, only to pause as he noticed a suited figure approaching. He thought it was Sterling for a moment and made to lock the door and leave, but he realised a few seconds later that it was his solicitor. Or the SDC's. Unlocking the door, Jaune stepped out to meet him.
"We're actually closed for the day if you're wanting coffee. Or is this about my case."
"It is." The man raised his briefcase. "I'll only need a moment of your time."
/-/
Roman kicked his feet up onto the table as Jaune finished telling the tale. He'd have normally swept them off before Roman could mark the furniture, but he wasn't in the mood. He didn't even complain when Roman lit a cigar and puffed smoke out into the diner. The extractor units were used to dealing with copious amounts of steam, so the smoke wasn't going to set the alarms off.
"Huh. I thought you'd be happier," Roman eventually said. "You've won."
"They've agreed to settle," Jaune corrected. "And yes, I thought I'd be happier too. It's just… I don't know." He slumped down and leaned back, ignoring Neo as she raised the leftover cakes. "It feels like an anti-climax. All this stuff, all the drama, the threats and even me being attacked and beaten up by their thugs. And what, it ends with them saying sorry and paying me a bunch of money and then life goes back to normal?"
"That's life for you."
"It sucks. Where's the justice?"
"You realise you're asking a renowned criminal that, right?" Roman grinned, but when his joke didn't get the laugh he expected, he pulled his feet back down and became more serious. "Justice is a tricky word, kid. It doesn't exist like you think it does. What is justice really? What does it mean?"
"It means things are fair…"
"Yeah? So, what happens if someone kills your best friend? Is it fair if they get sent to prison for the rest of their life? Does that fix the pain? What if they're killed as well? Does that make it fair? Do either of those things really help the victim or his family?"
"No, but this is different. No one's died."
"It's all the same at the end of the day, though. The law was broken, someone suffered and now the legal system has to step in to figure out what `justice` really is. Except they don't, because people settle. It happens all the time. I think more cases, civil at least, settle out of court."
The solicitor had said as much when explaining it to him. The figure was seventy-five per cent settling out of court, which felt wrong. If the legal system wasn't going to step in to protect people, and if forgiveness could be bought outside of it, then what was the point?
Worse, his solicitor had all but instructed him to accept it. Or strongly suggested that he should, and that going to court wouldn't net him much better or really help anyone.
"It just doesn't feel like enough…"
"Really? They're paying you half a million."
"Not the money, Roman," Jaune growled. "They could have killed me! They stole my father's sword. They threatened me. They made my life hell."
"They, huh? `They` is a tough term for this. Did Café Prime make your life hell, or was it just the one guy? Your boy as good as said the guy is going to be fired. You don't survive a scandal like this. Café Prime will cut him loose to save face."
"They as good as said that. If I agree to this, Sterling will be fired. But if I don't agree, he stays. How does that even make sense!?"
"Because if you refuse to accept the settlement, they have to fight it in court," Roman explained. "And because if that happens, they'll not want to fire him because it's as good as an admission of guilt."
"The very fact they want to settle is the admission!"
"Yes, but this is just how shit works. It's business. The innocent party doesn't always win and big business gets away with a lot. Trust me, it works the same way with the Government." Roman sneered. "Just look at Mountain Glenn if you want an example of that. The little people suffer, and the law focuses on keeping society stable, not necessarily happy."
Jaune sagged.
"I know you're not going to like my advice, kid, but I'd accept this settlement. Get it over and done with."
"And let Café Prime get away with it?"
Roman shrugged.
Jaune sighed.
He wasn't sure what he'd expected from all this, but it was something more than what he had. Something more than a couple of forms, a signature and then a bunch of cash being tossed in his bank balance. He'd expected Café Prime to be crushed, to give up, admit their guilt and walk away in defeat.
That, apparently, was naïve. His solicitor had warned him what would really happen. Café Prime would hold onto their innocence and pressure him further. They would go to court. They would probably lose. He would win. Café Prime would then claim bias and appeal to a higher court. They would go to court again. He would probably win. Again.
Café Prime would appeal higher, proclaiming their innocence the whole way.
Over and over, again and again, they'd drag him through court battle after court battle until there was nowhere left to go, and even after they lost at the end, they'd release some press release about how they don't accept the findings but will obey them because they were a law-abiding company.
Café Prime wasn't a person. It was a brand.
The `Brand` would never admit its guilt even if he held a gun to the head of every person who worked there. The Brand would outlive everyone, himself included, and as such had to keep itself squeaky clean.
Settling here, they could claim that all the shit that happened was the work of Alexander Sterling, which, to be fair, it might have been. He didn't – couldn't – know for sure. Either way, they'd sweep all the blame onto him, fire him, then move on with a new family-friendly Director, maybe even a new CEO, and everyone would be forced to forgive them. After all, wasn't it ridiculous to hold a grudge towards someone who hadn't even done anything?
Café Prime would get away Scott-free whatever he did. The only thing he got to decide was how much time and money he wasted on letting them do so, and how much stress he wanted to put himself through.
It sucked.
It totally sucked.
"I don't have a choice, do I? This… It doesn't feel like the victory I wanted."
"Victory rarely does," Roman said sagely. "I should know. I used to be a huntsman back in the day. Lost most of my team to Mountain Glenn." His eyes hardened. "No. I lost all of my team to Mountain Glenn. Back when the Council sealed the tunnels. Do you know what `justice` was for them?"
Jaune swallowed. "What?"
"A plaque, a speech, a lowered flag and a minute of silence. My whole fucking team dead, my friends killed, and I was supposed to be content with that? Don't make me laugh. Not to mention those responsible got away with making a `tough decision`. Tough?" Roman laughed bitterly. "I'll tell you what was tough, Jaune. Tough was fighting in those tunnels against an endless wave of Grimm. Tough was walking past the dead bodies of civilians and children who didn't make it or hearing the screams and pleas of those sealed on the other sides of the rocks, followed by their dying screams as the Grimm finally caught up." Roman stabbed the cigar at him. "That was tough, even without knowing my best friends were buried under it."
Neo swept behind Roman and draped her hands over his shoulders, linking them on his chest. The contact seemed to calm him down for he closed his eyes, drew a deep breath and leaned back.
"I – I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like my pain was worse…"
"You didn't, and that's not what I'm tryin' to say." An old accent shone through as Roman ground his cigar down into an ash tray. "Point is, I eventually exposed the bastard behind it. It's part of why I became a criminal, because I lost respect for the law and saw this as the only way to show the world the truth. I stalked him, cased his home and eventually found evidence that he ordered the tunnels closed early when they knew they had more time."
"What? W-Why?"
"Politics. Security." Roman shrugged. "Better safe than sorry. Or at least that's what they thought. People dying is just a statistic, and maybe even a good one when you have an overpopulation crisis. Either way, the Government knew and covered for him, lying to the people and saying they held off until the last second. I exposed that and leaked the information to the media."
"Did he go to jail?"
"Eventually. After a shitshow of court cases. I watched every one of them. Watched as the Government defended him, then abandoned him when public opinion shifted, as he claimed he was a war hero, as someone just doing their job, and then as a victim of circumstance in a terrible job with too much pressure, just a poor guy doing the best he could in a crisis." Roman laughed. "He tried everything, not that it worked. I made sure of that. He went to prison for twenty years."
Roman's smile fell.
"He hung himself in his cell two weeks later."
"Oh…" Jaune wasn't sure what to say.
"And you know, I thought I'd enjoy that more than I did. I thought I'd be happy, or at least justified. Thought it would wash away all the pain." He shook his head. "It never did. Victory was bittersweet at best. My friends were still dead, Vale was still a shithole and I was a wanted criminal. Sure, I fought on and found my justice, for a definition of the word, but it didn't satisfy me. It didn't fix anything or make me feel better. It just wasted years of my life and killed a man who was at the end of the day probably following the orders of some other asshole."
Roman drew another cigar with shaking hands and had to light it three times to get it going. His tension slipped away when he took a long puff, showing what relief Roman had eventually found for his troubles. "Let that be a lesson for you, kiddo. We're always taught that we should fight until the bitter end, but that's just what it is. A bitter end. If you really want to be happy, move on. Move on, forget about it and spend time with your girlfriend. But Miltia some flowers, get drunk and then have kinky sex on Junior's bar." Roman grinned. "I promise that'll be more fulfilling than any empty apology you might have been dreaming of."
Jaune sighed.
What was he supposed to say to that? What was he supposed to think? Roman was right, but then he'd known that from the start, hadn't he? There was just a part of him that wanted more. That wanted Café Prime to suffer as he had.
Did that make him a bad person? Probably not. He just wanted revenge.
Him.
A barista.
It sounded so stupid put into context. What was a little stress and a hospital visit compared to what Roman had been through, or Cinder, or any other person? He still had both his parents unlike Yang and Ruby. He had a father who loved him unlike Weiss, and he wasn't persecuted like Blake. He didn't have team drama like Russel had or any of the other problems everyone else around him did.
And right here, in a briefcase, he had a way to end the nonsense once and for all.
"I'll sign it. Thanks for the advice, Roman."
"Heh. No problem, kid. No problem."