Ice Cream And Umbrellas

Trust Cinder to make his life difficult.

Roman hadn't known what to do when Cinder dumped a kid on him. She wasn't much to look at really: scrawny and short, with mismatched hair and eyes. Hell, she hadn't said a word since Cinder had dropped her off. He wasn't even sure if she could. Yeah, that would be just his luck.

But at least the kid didn't get in the way, and she could be pretty damn quiet when she wanted to be. Before he knew it, he was taking her along on all of his jobs since it was easier than leaving her behind, and the kid managed to keep up no matter what kind of heist he pulled. Sure, she hadn't actually done anything yet, but at least she hadn't gotten in the way, which was more than most of his henchmen could say.

Besides, it was kind of nice having someone around who didn't mind listening when he talked. Cinder had a lot of things going for her, but she'd never been one to stop by for a chat. The kid listened to everything he said with a small smile on her lips as her mismatched eyes bled slowly from one colour to another.

One day, though, the kid proved that she was more than just a tag along. Cinder always had been good at spotting talent. Roman got careless and ended up surrounded by cops. It was about to get messy when the kid put one of the cops through a wall with her bare hands before grabbing him and teleporting the two of them to safety.

Well, well, well, maybe Cinder did know what she was doing, and maybe the kid wasn't a punishment, so much as a reward.

But he couldn't keep calling her 'kid', not after that. She needed a name.

"How about Neopolitan?" Roman asked, lips curling. "Kind of like the ice cream, you know, with your eyes and your hair."

Neopolitan – or Neo, as he'd already mentally abbreviated her name to – did not know. In fact, from the puzzled frown on her face, he got the sinking feeling that she'd never had ice cream before, never mind Neapolitan ice cream.

Well, that was just criminal. A kid who'd never tasted ice cream? He'd have to fix that.

So naturally, he took her to the store around the corner, and the pair of them stole as much Neapolitan ice cream as they could carry, which was a lot.

Neo loved it, and from that day onward, their fridge was kept full of the stuff. It didn't matter where they were. She had to have her ice cream. It was a small price to pay, he figured, for having someone as useful as her around.

Now that he knew what she could do, Roman decided to up the tempo. He took her on harder jobs, the kind he could only pull off with her help. It went well, maybe too well. It was only on the way back from one particularly tough job that he noticed her cradling one hand awkwardly.

He sighed. They'd had to fight their way through a small army of cops. She must have hurt her hand punching one of them in the face. She needed something, a weapon like his cane to help her out. But what could she use? She was still a kid, so a cane wasn't an option. It would look way too suspicious.

Then again… he glanced out the window.

It was raining outside.

The next day, he stole her an umbrella.

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I do not own RWBY. I'm not making any money off of this either.

Ever since she first appeared, I've been wondering how Neo ended up following Roman. This little drabble was my attempt at a backstory.

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.