The Secrets We Keep

"Look, Jaune, I don't wanna be the bad guy here, but have you considered the idea she might be sleeping with someone else?" Nora had asked him.

"What?!" Jaune yelled, rounding on the woman. "How can you even think something like that?!"

"Obviously I want to be wrong!" his friend defended. "It's just, you know…"

"No, Nora, I don't know. I'd never think Cinder would cheat on me."

"But you are very trusting, Jaune," Nora's husband chimed in, his voice as calm as ever. "I doubt you'd suspect any woman of cheating on you, no matter who they are."

"Seriously? Not you too, Ren."

"You know we are only trying to be helpful, Jaune," the Mistralian man offered. "You're our closest friend, and by your own word you say it feels as though the spark has been missing from your marriage for the last couple of years."

"I… yes, I know what I said, but that doesn't mean… Cinder wouldn't…"

"You know her best," Nora suggested. "But that doesn't mean you know everything. We're just trying to help because we love you, Jaune."

Jaune sighed, knowing whatever his two best friends said, they did so with only the best intentions. "What do you think I should do?"

Having taken Ren and Nora's advice to skip spending the night at their house after his mission outside of Vale, Jaune Arc now stood in the entrance to the living room of his own home, petrified with shock. He hadn't known what to expect when he returned home almost a day earlier than he said he would, intending to see what his wife got up to in his absence. Nora had been fearful he'd find another man in his bedroom, but Jaune had been through dozens of different possibilities in his head and thought he'd been prepared for whatever he might find.

What he found was in fact another man. But Jaune could confidently say Cinder probably wasn't sleeping with him.

Mainly because his throat was slashed open and he was bleeding out onto a plastic sheet covering the white plush carpeting of their living room.

And across said room, standing in the other entrance, was Cinder Fall Arc, clad in a strange black outfit Jaune had never seen before and arms full of what looked like surgical instruments. Like a deer in headlights she stared back at Jaune, caught completely off guard to see him.

"J-Jaune…" she sputtered. "You're home early."

Jaune stared at his wife. At the clearly dead body on his living room floor. At the large plastic bin resting next to him. At the jugs filled with clear liquid and plastered with hazard symbols on their sides.

Finally he looked back at his wife, his face having long since drained of color. He pointed to the person in front of him.

"Cinder… who is that?"

The woman visibly swallowed, stalling a few moments as she too took turns staring at her husband and the body. Her mind was clearly racing a mile a minute as she tried to figure out how to explain herself.

"That would be Alton Merlot," she answered at last. "He is – or was – a scientist formerly from Atlas."

"Oh." There was no other way for Jaune to respond than to utter such a simple sound. In fact her response did nothing to actually help him understand what was going on. "And why is he bleeding out in our living room?"

This time Cinder steeled herself and answered more readily. "Because I killed him."

Jaune's travel bag let out a deafening thunk as it fell to the floor, his limbs no longer having the ability to hold anything properly. Much the same way his lower jaw had long ago lost the ability to remain upright.

"You weren't supposed to see this," Cinder offered.

"See what?" Jaune asked, a bit of hysteria leaking into his voice. "See the dead body? See my wife standing over said dead body? See how it looks like she's about to… do something to the fucking dead body?"

"Dispose of the body," she clarified.

"Dispose of-" Jaune cut himself off, working some life back into his body as he clamped his hands over his mouth and turned away from the scene. His mind was going haywire with what he's seen and he had no idea how to process any of it.

"Jaune, I know this looks bad," Cinder told him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her dump her things onto the love seat his parents had gotten for them when they bought the house, and then carefully step around the body to come closer to Jaune. "But I swear there is a rational explanation for all of this."

"There's a rational explanation for the fact my wife has murdered a man in our house?" he asked incredulously.

"Actually I killed him in his laboratory and drove the body here."

"That doesn't make it better!" Jaune suddenly turned and grabbed his wife by the shoulders, giving her a pleading, desperate look. "Cinder, why would you do this? What did this man do to you to deserve being, you know, murdered?!"

"He did nothing to me," Cinder answered calmly. "Rather the person who wanted him dead paid me eight hundred thousand Lien in order to do the job."

"…the job?" Jaune squeaked.

Cinder sighed, looking sad. "Jaune, dearest, you should know I don't actually work as a realtor, and instead I'm… an assassin."

"An assassin?" Jaune repeated. Cinder nodded. "As in, like, a hit man? As in the kind of thing where you kill people for money?"

"Yes."

That was about the time Jaune fainted.

"There we go; everything's going to be okay, sweetie."

"Wuuuh?" was all Jaune could reply with as he came to once more. After quickly blinking the fuzziness away from his eyes, Jaune saw he'd been moved to the kitchen. He was now seated in a chair with Cinder standing over him, and she was carefully dabbing a damp cloth to his forehead for whatever good it did.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"Just a few minutes. Understandable, given you just saw a dead body."

"Oh gods that wasn't an awful nightmare," Jaune moaned pitifully, rubbing a hand over his face. At once all the same questions started popping up again and Jaune could already feel a migraine forming in his skull.

"Drink?" Cinder asked, presenting a glass with a shot of whiskey poured in. Jaune sighed and took the tumbler, quickly downing it. The thought that Cinder might have done something to it briefly crossed his mind, but Jaune figured if his wife really wanted to dispose of him she would have already done so.

Gods, he never imagined he would have such a thought about his wife. He's only been home less than half an hour and Jaune was beginning to realize there was probably a lot about Cinder Fall he didn't know.

Rather than immediately start in on the questions, Jaune instead carefully picked himself up and Cinder wisely gave him space as he headed over to their liquor cabinet. He pulled out the bottle of whiskey and a second glass for her, proceeding to pour out a generous amount of alcohol for them both. Cinder accepted her glass but only took a sip while he once more downed his entire drink.

Feeling fortified with enough liquid courage, Jaune turned to his wife and said, "Explanations. Reasons. Timelines. Now."

Cinder's eyes narrowed, unimpressed with how crude he was being, but chose to be amicable for now. "For starters, I had already been an assassin for years before we met. This isn't some violent impulse or a reaction to anything you might have done."

"Because that makes me feel loads better," Jaune snarked. He began to pour himself another glass and ignored the way Cinder glared at him for it.

"There are… certain events in my past that I chose to leave out when we first started dating. Things that wouldn't fall in line with the image of a woman who's much more morally upstanding."

"Because you wouldn't want to mar that with the image of a stone cold killer, right?"

"You are not making this any easier, you know!" Cinder accused irately.

"How can I?!" Jaune yelled, tossing his hands to the air and spilling a bit of alcohol. "I just learned my wife, the woman I love, has apparently been murdering people behind my back the entire time I've known her! I've seen you cry when someone gets hurt in shitty made for TV movies, and now that I know you can take a life without a second thought I don't know what to think."

"I am not some emotionless psychopath, Jaune," she defended. When Jaune huffed and made to take another drink she snatched the glass out of his hand with speed he'd never seen her possess before. The glass shattered against the wall where she tossed it, and Cinder stared up at him, her golden eyes burning.

Jaune was cowed into silence by the action, and satisfied she had his attention Cinder went on, her words deathly quiet. "I wasn't born with a gun in my hand, Jaune. I used to be a normal little girl, just like how everyone else starts out. But when my father died my step mother took everything he had and kicked me to the curb. I had to do whatever I could to survive on my own for years, and if that meant having to end the lives of others I didn't hesitate."

"Your father…" Jaune's eyes widened as cruel realization dawned on him. "But the lovely man who gave you away at our wedding?"

Cinder cast her gaze away shamefully. "An actor I hired. I thought if your family saw I was an orphan it would lead to a few too many uncomfortable questions. My father died when I was twelve."

"You've been doing this since you were twelve?" he gobbed. The anger and feelings of betrayal were still there, but they were quickly being encompassed by guilt and sympathy as Cinder revealed more of herself to him. He softly took a hold of her shoulders to pull her closer. "Cinder… why didn't you tell me any of this? I love you, and you have to know I wouldn't have thought any less of you."

"You say that with such certainty," Cinder said with a slight laugh, the sound hollow. "You're a Huntsman, Jaune. You've spent your whole life working to be a paragon of virtue. Even if you aren't an agent of law enforcement, you're still inherently a force of good. And… I was always too afraid when you found out it would be your first instinct to turn me over to the authorities."

"If you were so afraid then why did you stay with me for so long even though you knew what I was? Through all my awkward attempts at courtship, to the hazing my sisters put you through to make sure you were Arc family material, to the moment I asked you to marry me?"

"Because I still loved it all," she sobbed. Cinder buried her face in his chest, and Jaune didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her. "There's so much good in you and so much bad in me, Jaune. But when you look at me and I see all that love you have… it makes me forget some of the bad I have. And when I'm around you I don't hate the person I am and things I've done. I can just focus on loving you, and that makes it all okay."

Jaune buried his face into her hair, rocking the both of them gently as she got it all out. Despite the shocking nature of the revelation he's learned tonight, this still wasn't entirely new to him. Cinder's always had a tough time lowering her walls, even around him, and this wasn't the first time he's held her when the walls had fallen away completely and only a scared woman was left behind.

"I think… on some level, I always kinda knew about this," Jaune eventually said. Cinder went rigid in his arms but he was quick to reassure her. "Not the murdering for hire, I mean, that's still definitely new information. But this second life you have, to some extent I've always known it was something you weren't proud of and kept away from me for a reason. Hell, it's part of the reason I got so worried and came home early."

"I'm sorry," she whispered into his chest.

"It's also part of the reason why I love you so much." Cinder drew her head back in surprise, eyes watery as she stared up at her husband. Calmly Jaune said, "That second life, whatever it was, I knew it was a part of you. But I also knew it was never something you devoted yourself to. Because when you're with me, I know I'm seeing everything. You trust me enough to be the real you around me, scars and all, and it makes me so happy to know you place all that faith in me."

He leaned down, securing her lips with his own, and Cinder melted into his touch. With that kiss he tried to tell her everything his words couldn't.

After a time they pulled back, only far enough that they could still rest their foreheads against one another, sharing what they felt in each other's embrace.

"I love you, Cinder Fall. Nothing's going to change that."

Cinder shuddered, barely able to contain the happiness she felt. "I love you, Jaune Arc. I don't deserve someone who makes me as happy as you do."

"Well you're stuck with me," he said with a smirk. "So you're just gonna have to deal with it."

His wife laughed again, this time the sound much more alive and wobbly with emotions. He was glad to hear it.

This thing he'd walked in on, it was not something that could be adequately fixed with a single conversation. Rather it was probably something they'd have to work through together for quite some time.

But they'd be together, and Jaune felt certain his wife knew he was more than happy to be there with her.

"Believe it or not I was actually winding down," Cinder said after a while.

"Hmm?"

"The job, I mean. I was a lot more active in the underworld before we met. But when things started to get serious between us I realized I didn't want to stay in that life any longer than I had to. So I've been taking fewer contracts over the years and pooling the money into an account the Vale government won't find any legal troubles with."

"That's actually kind of relieving to hear," Jaune said. "But how would you have maintained the façade of us having a dual income after you were done with that life? Do you really rake in that much money for assassin work?"

Cinder sighed and pulled back a little to look him in the eye again. "Leave only two people left on Remnant and someone will want someone dead. There's always work for an assassin, and because of the dangerous line of work we can negotiate rather high contracts."

"You make it sound so mundane," he said with a laugh.

"Maybe," Cinder replied, the corners of her lips quirking upward. "Though to answer your question, part of my plan was to terminate my time as a "realtor." I'd make up a story about being harassed or something, I agree to settle out of court with the company, a lump sum of cash, you get the picture."

"Quite the picture indeed," Jaune marveled. He hugged his wife closer. "And once that chapter of your life is closed, I want you to know I'll be here too, to help you figure out what to do next."

"Yeah…" Cinder glanced down, turning uncharacteristically bashful. Jaune cocked his head, confused by the reaction.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, I just… sort of already had certain things in mind for the future."

"Like what?"

Cinder closed her eyes with a groan, her fingers scrunching the fabric of his shirt. "Certain… family things."

"Oh."

…

"…oh."

They hadn't really talked all that much about starting a family, despite agreements that they both eventually wanted one. He and Cinder had met shortly after he graduated Beacon, and with how vigorous the life of a Huntsman could be he hadn't also wanted to juggle that with raising a family. Cinder told him she hadn't been ready to raise a family, giving him vague reasons about her own childhood not leaving a good impression with her.

Knowing what he knew now, Cinder's explanations made all the more sense.

The thought of having a child was a scary one. But so was the prospect of a dead man leaking blood in his living room, and Jaune found he'd quickly been mollified to it, so really what was a child compared to that?

"Are you sure you want to try?" Jaune asked quietly.

Not trusting her own words, Cinder merely nodded.

"Okay. Then can I ask you something?"

"What's that?"

"It's just… I was wondering about the outfit you're wearing." Jaune trailed his hands down her waist and hips, getting a feel for the firm but still somehow soft pitch black outfit, the action of which caused Cinder to suppress a shudder.

"Ah, right, this." She took a step back in order to give Jaune a better view. The ensemble had been forced to the back of Jaune's mind, what with all of the other things taking a bit more precedence, but now that things were calm between he and his wife Jaune could step back and appreciate the outfit better.

Well, he did more than appreciate it. The first thing anyone Jaune has ever known said to him was that his wife was a solid 10/10. The second thing they said was a demand to know how he actually managed to snag her.

With Cinder's hourglass figure and flawless porcelain skin she could make any outfit work. And when she was wearing a skin tight cat suit capable of putting even more emphasis on her best qualities?

It was enough to make even the chastest of men go wild. And Jaune was far from a chaste man.

"I need something that lets me move easily and keeps me hidden in the shadows," Cinder explained, an embarrassed blush on her cheeks. "I know it's a little risqué, but it's not like the people I wear it for really have the time to appreciate it."

"Oh, I wasn't concerned about how you wear it out on the job," Jaune replied, layering on a healthy dose of mock betrayal into his voice. "I was just wondering why you've never worn it for me."

Cinder quirked a single eyebrow at her husband.

It was well over an hour later when the pair collapsed upon their bed, naked bodies spent and covered in various fluids best left to the reader's imagination.

Cinder stared up at the ceiling, chest heaving, and ran a hand through her hair. "That was… wow."

"That was even better than when we first started dating," Jaune said between labored breaths.

"I never thought to try that with another Aura user."

"It was intense. Though we should probably think about fortifying the house before we have another night like this." Left unsaid was how they were actually laying at an odd angle, as both legs on the left side of their bed had snapped off during their… activities.

Having caught her breath, Cinder rolled over and snuggled into her husband's side, smiling like a loon. "I'll go shopping for a new bed frame tomorrow. The least I can do after the trouble I caused tonight."

Jaune huffed a laugh and pulled her close. He always loved the feeling of Cinder curled up against him. It felt like having a piece of himself that'd been missing most of his life was finally back in place.

"Speaking of trouble, I guess we should probably do something about the dead guy downstairs, right? I mean he's been laying there for hours now."

"We?" Cinder propped herself up on one elbow to give him a curious look. "No offense, but you haven't gotten used to the situation yet, have you?"

"Oh no, I still find the whole thing horrifying on a level I can't even comprehend." Jaune laughed again and Cinder rolled her eyes. "What, you didn't expect me to sleep with you and then immediately call the cops, right?"

"You wouldn't be the first."

Jaune stared at his wife blankly.

Cinder sighed. "There is… a lot I haven't told you about me."

"I can imagine." Jaune leaned in to give Cinder a quick but meaningful kiss. "But I still love you, and I'm not going anywhere. Whether you like it or not, and whether I like it not, your problems are my problems. And I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Charmer," she chided, returning the kiss.

Then a weird thought crossed Jaune's mind. "What exactly were you planning to do with the guy, by the way?"

"Yeah…" Cinder's lopsided grin and bashful tone set his stomach on edge. "Jaune, dearest, you've seen Breaking Bad, right?"

"…oh gods."