18 Accommodating the guest

After a lot of shouting and confusion, things have finally returned to silence and tranquility inside the apartment and I gained a bit of time to think of the next step.

I was currently sitting alone on the living room and recalling the series of events that led me to this moment.

After my sister had almost made everyone in the vicinity deaf with her scream, I immediately started to explain myself and try to convince her that what I had brought to our home is a fully fledged although very dirty and malnourished child and not a Goblin.

As soon as she calmed down for a bit I proposed to her to give the poor girl a bath so we could all sit down and talk about what happened.

And my sister although very reluctant fulfilled my request and took the girl to the bathroom so we could get rid of all the dirt and the stench that surrounded her.

And that has brought me to the current situation where I'm standing in the living room and waiting for the two of them to come so we can clear things up and I can start to put my plan into action.

Calling it a plan was honestly a stretch, as I haven't really accounted for meeting one of the show's cast this early on and as such didn't have much time to come up with a good plan for such occasion.

But there is something that I know for sure and that's that letting such a great opportunity to get her into my side before she meets Roman go to waste would be a huge mistake, so no matter what compromise I have to make in order to have her live with us and foster a good impression, it will be worth it in the end.

But I also don't plan to force her into fighting in any capacity, if she doesn't wish to be trained than I'm more than happy to allow her to pursue something else. Having her as an ally would be great but just keeping her away from the enemie's grasp could already be considered a win.

So I await for a few minutes until I can hear the two of them coming towards the room and quickly turn towards them.

My sister Saphron has an haggard appearance that made her look like she just got a few years older after giving the bath. Judging by the way she is staring at me it is obvious that I won't be able to get away from here without giving a damn good explanation.

But the most drastic changes can be easily attributed to Neo, although she is still malnourished and with a body language that radiated discomfort and wariness, almost everything else has completely changed. Her skin that was covered with dust and grime is now clean and smooth showing its original pale color, her hair that was so dirty that its original color could barely be distinguished is now much better and her dual color scheme of pink and brown that mirror her eyes with the addition of a few white stripes along the pink side could be easily seen and her clothes that before could only been described as rags were now changed as she is wearing my spare clothes wich are slightly oversized on her despite she being older thanks to her thinner body.

Seeing this, I can definitely say that her appearance has become much better than what it was before, she was still a very long way from being able to be described as pretty when compared to other girls her age but now at least whoever saw her wouldn't immediately feel revulsion just by looking at her.

The two of them then made their way towards the sofas with my sister sitting opposite to me while Neo has chosen to sit closer to me.

What ensues is an awkward silence as no one knows what to say to start the conversation and the girl is completely incapable of speaking even if she wanted to.

But I decide to just bite the bullet and start it anyway "You did a good job washing her, I almost couldn't recognize her after her apparence became more clean." It was obvious that I was trying to avoid the subject but I needed to gain more time until my sister calmed down in order to have a productive conversation.

"Good job? Good job!? A good job would be bathing a girl that wasn't doing everything in her power to escape from me, considering that I also was forced to use very strong cleaning products to be able to get rid of the dirt that was clinging to her and had to be stared at like I was going to do something bad to her during the whole process, I would say that I did a excellent job." The scowl that she had while saying this words was enough to show how much she resented me for just throwing her into that situation.

In the whole I remained silent and let her vent all her frustration, if I tried to aproach the subject right now then our conversation would devolve into an argument, so it was more prudent to just keep avoiding the subject until we could have a calm and civil conversation.

"How was your day sis? Anything interesting happened?"

"It was a wonderful day little brother, my grades got out and showed that I aced my tests and I even got to hang out with Terra in the afternoon. It was a shame that this wonderful day have to be interrupted thanks to a sudden reckless decision of this brother of mine."

"You seem hungry, anything that you would like to have cooked for dinner?"

"Alright, let's stop beating around the bush and finally address the Goliath in the room! Why did you bring this girl to our apartment? Don't get me wrong, I am glad that you are finally making some friends your age, but I would like to be informed of your plans beforehand." Having finally had enough, she snaps and brings the conversation back into its main point.

Hearing her, I just sigh and start retelling tonight's events while altering a few events such as the confrontation with the drunk men and the part of the city that it happened on in order to not cause my sister any distress.

"...and then I noticed that it was already kinda late, so I offered her to sleep in one of the spare rooms of the apartment for the night." I finished retelling the story and prepared myself for whatever my sister would no doubt throw at me.

After I finished explaining, there was a brief moment of silence before my sister started to speak.

"So, you're telling me that this girl that you just brought is a homeless girl that you just happened to pass by while returning home and decided to help by giving some food and then you invited her to our home without questioning for a single moment if this was a prudent choice." She said while looking at me dead in the eyes.

"Y-Yeah? I mean, is it wrong to help someone in need? Grandpa always told stories of heroes that help those in need, so helping a girl that was starving on the streets is definitely the right choice. Grandpa would agree with me." As a response I used a very straightforward and innocent argument for my motives.

Upon hearing the mention of grandpa, Saphron gaze visibly softens and instead she sighs and speaks in a much softer tone:

"Really Jaune? I always thought that you were a responsible child so I never restrained or inquired about what you were doing. But you must understand that I'm not pleased with you bringing kids to our house like they are pets that you can just adopt without much repercussion."

She then turns to the girl beside me and starts to try to start some conversation, "Umm, Hello? Sorry for startling you earlier, let's try to do things properly this time. Can you tell me your name?" Obviously her attempts at communication were in vain as the girl only shifted uncomfortably in her seat and turned towards me.

"Are you?-" "She's not very talkative" I confirmed in order to answer my sister's doubts. "For the whole time since we've met, she only communicated with me via nods and shaking her head. She was able to confirm that she's mute so there's not much point in trying to interrogate her."

My sister hearing this holds her forehead and then turns back to me "So, you know next to nothing about her, great." She says with a voice dripping with sarcasm, "Do you at least know her name so we can call her something else?" In response I shake my head and turn back to the girl.

"Are you literate?" I ask her.

"...?" She looks confused as she doesn't seem to know what I meant by it.

"Can you read and write?" I simplify my speech so it's easier for someone her age to understand.

"..." At this, she nods her head eagerly showing a hint of pride.

After gaining confirmation of it, I fetch a notebook and a pen and put them in the table in front of her.

"Write your name in this notebook so we can know how to refer you as."

Neo listens to my request and takes the pen and notebook so she can start writing, but as son as the pen touches the notebook she freezes and starts to think deeply for a while.

As I watch her, it's clear that she is facing a dilemma and it's not very keen on being called by her former name.

'From what I know of her past, her relationship with her family wasn't the best and her name probably brings bad memories so it's understandable that she doesn't want to be called by her original name.'

So I just reach out to her and speak in a way to try and comfort her "It's okay, just share what you are comfortable with, no one is demanding anything from you."

Hearing my words she adopts a much more relieved posture and quickly starts writing in the notebook.

{My name is Neopolitan, but you can just call me Neo}

I am relived when she changes her name to the same one she adopts in the series since otherwise I would constantly confuse it and I may someday slip up.

"Pleasure to meet you Neo, My name is Saphron and I'm Jaune's older sister, it's look like to me that you're about 7 to 8 years old, am I correct?"

After hearing this, Neo momentarily shows an annoyed expression and stares Saphron with hostility before she once again starts writing on the next page of the notebook.

{I'm 10 years old}

"Really?" Saphron then starts staring between the two of us while trying to wrap her head around the fact that Neo is 4 years older than me. Her malnutrition and harsh life in the streets combined with her natural short genes has made her significantly smaller than other girls her age and when she is near someone that is much taller than average like me the 4 year age difference is hard to notice.

"Moving on, how long is she going to stay here?" Saphron went back to questioning me.

"For the foreseeable future, unless Neo herself decides to leave that is." I immediately respond while afterwards subtly sending a signal to Neo to put into action what we planned beforehand.

"Jaune, this is serious! Do you think that I'll just accept you bringing someone home without prior notice just... because... you...Urgh" Her voice becomes gradually lower and weaker as Neo executes the plan flawlessly and sends Saphron her best 'hurt puppy' and causes significant damage to her conscience. She may try to look strict and firm but after years living together I already discovered her weakness, whenever one of the younger sisters makes a pitiful look she immediatly melts and here is no different.

But this is far from enough to convince her, so she once again musters up courage and throws another argument in the hopes to dissuade me. "We can't keep her in our house little brother, but we could tomorrow bring her to an orphanage and leave her there, you will still be able to go visit your new friend fairly often and she may be able to find a family willing to adopt her.

As she hears this, Neo firmly grasps the hinge of my clothes and starts to tremble slightly, showing her obvious disapproval of the idea, I too wouldn't give up on someone willing to give me food and shelter free of charge in favor of complete strangers that may or may not treat her well. But she shouldn't worry, I've never lost a single argument against any of my sisters.

"Sis, I may be young but I know enough about the world to be able to tell that this won't work. Discrimination and prejudice are a thing and there's a very high chance that she'll be bullied and mistreated there thanks to her exotic hair and eye coloration much like the faunus has to endure due to their animal appendages and even if this doesn't happen it's not guaranteed that she won't end up in a abusive household. Would you be able to forgive yourself if she ends up more miserable than she already is?" Using logic and cold hard facts, I put the final nail in the coffin and completely do away with all her previous rejection.

After silently thinking for a bit she takes a long breath and finally replies. "Fine, she can stay but we'll have to tell our parents about what's going on."

"Nope, you will do nothing of the sort, at least not yet." I immediately interrupt her.

"Jaune, I promised to our parents that I would report anything that happens to you and you know that I can't go back on my word."

"You promised to report on me, there's no need to inform them of anything related to someone else. And if you want a motivation then I'll use one of the favors that you owe me and just as they said: 'an Arc never goes back on his word' So you can't go back on it."

"When did my cute little brother became such a scammer? Did you seriously seriously kept track of everytime time you did us a favor just for this?" She lamented while internally cursing herself for having made so many promises in the past thinking he would forget.

"I have it all written and kept safe, I've transcribed each of your and the rest of my sisters promises Word. For. Word."

At this Saphron slumps on the sofa and concedes complete defeat, she got completely outplayed by her little brother and this has given a huge blow to her pride as the oldest sister.

Summoning the last of her strength, Saphron then asks one last important question that remained unanswered.

"What about her expenses?" It's all she managed to say.

"Don't worry, I got this covered." I've obviously already thought about this question but I've already had found a solution for any financial problem some time ago.

I just pick up my Scroll and tap it a few times before handing it over to her. As she looks in it, she suddenly freezes and her body starts to tremble as her previous defeated apparence vanishes and instead she starts to look like a bomb ready to explode.

"Jaune, what in Oum's name is this!!!"

Suffice it to say, the explanations weren't over just yet.