Chapter 1

My name is Jaune Arc and I've never had the best life. I've had to work my ass off since I was 6, to help pay the bills. I was always overshadowed, by any of my 7 sisters. I was never the best in school, or good at sports. I was never a hit with the ladies, or really had any friends. I never got to go to college since I could never afford it, or get a scholarship. For most of my life, I've just barely gotten by.

While all of that did suck, I always persisted onward never losing my sprit because; I thought that things would be alright. For a while that was true, I got a decent job, found a place for myself to live, and I was only 18 years old. I had to say I wasn't doing half bad for myself, and for 2 years, life was good. For the first time in my life I felt happy with myself. I had a few friends, I was successful, and in fact I was employee of the month for 13 months strait. Overall things were… going really well.

Then life decides to throw you a sucker punch and screw you over. I lost my job as a car salesman, because the company was bought out. I was kicked out of my apartment since I couldn't pay the rent. Had to move back with my parents for a bit, find a new place to live and new job.

I did find a new apartment, which I don't feel safe at. I know that at least three of the people living here are murderers. My neighbor jumped off her balcony a couple months ago. I would move out but I couldn't afford anything better. As for my Job, it's not too bad; I just work at a clothing store. It's just my boss is a total bitch! She has been treating to fire me since day one. I've come really close to losing my job, but I was able to keep my job by doing some odd jobs of my boss. Even with all of that I still kept going, thinking hard work would pay off.

Then the final punch to the face… my parents and youngest sister died in a terrorist attack from the white fang. Then I had to make a choice, either keep my job and not go to their funeral, or lose my job for going to their funeral and never get another job again, because my bitch of a boss would destroy my reputation. I chose the former. So now even my sisters don't want anything to do with me. To them I look like the biggest asshole ever for missing my parents and sister's funeral.

Now after 3 years of my life going from, bad to worse to FUCKING shit. I can firmly say to myself that there's really no point anymore. What is the point of me being alive? Who would even care if I just jumped of my balcony right now? No one, no one at all. I have no friends, my career isn't going to go anywhere, and my sisters still hate my guts for missing the funeral. Really what is the point anymore? I don't know why I keep going on anymore, maybe there's some last remnant of hope in my brain, telling me to not give up.

xXx

As I got out of my bed in the morning, getting less than an hour of sleep that night. I couldn't help but look back at the balcony one last time, before leaving my room thinking that I can still jump anytime I want.

I exited my room and locked the door behind me, as I walked by I heard the couple across the hall arguing about something. I know this guy beats his wife; I've called the authorities on him multiple times. Every time though they never do anything, and the he beats his wife even harder thinking she called the police.

I opened the door to the stair case (yup this place was so cheat it didn't even have an elevator) and began my decent down the 10 flights of stairs. As I passed every floor I knew something horrible was happening on each floor.

As I left my apartment, I was always amazed that where I lived wasn't even a horrible place, besides this terrible apartment it was a pretty nice place. When I first moved here, it was because the apartment was only a block and a half from where I work. I really wish the walk was longer, the more time I spent outside away from my job or apartment the better.

I walked into work and quickly changed into my uniform, a simple black suit with a red tie and my name tag. At least the uniform was nice, it's not like they force me to wear the clothes they sell here… or else I'd be in a dress.

"Jaune may I speak to you in my office?" I heard a quiet seductive voice that hated with a passion. I turned to see the bitch herself… my boss Cinder Fall. She had perfect black hair, and glowing amber eyes that just stare into your soul, wearing a red off shoulders, V-Neck dress that fits her, oh so perfectly. If I didn't hate her so much, I'd say she looks beautiful. I did think that the first day I worked here, but after all the crap she pulls with me I find her revolting. I saw her standing next to her office with a smirk on her face, which can only mean bad news. I quickly walked over to her as we both entered her office. She took a seat behind of her desk, and gestured me to take a seat as well.

"Do you know why I called you here?" She asked with a voice that would make most men quiver in fear.

"No" I said simply.

"I wanted to talk to you about your working habits" She said with a smile, oh fuck this is going to end with her using me, to do something for her or I lose my job.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked knowing there was no point wasting time with formalities.

"I want you to tell the Faunus girl… Velvet Scarlatina that she will be no longer is needed here" Cinder said in a seductive voice that could get most men to do what she wants, but not me… not today.

"NO" I firmly said standing up, because after 3 years of doing crap for her I'm not taking it anymore.

"Alright" She said calmly. "I don't really mind losing you as an employee, but if you can't do this I'll have no choice-"

"Alright… I'll do it" I said ashamed looking towards the ground. Why did I even try to stand up for myself? I'm long past the point of being able to fight back. I saw a grin grow on her face as she stood up taking slow steps toward me. I felt her soft, warm, smooth fingers stroke my chin; she slowly lifted my head up forcing me to look into those nearly hypnotic eyes of hers.

"Good, I can always count on you" She said with a seductive smirk as her other hand went freely through my blonde hair. Oh god I wanted to cry in to corner, why do I do have to do this? I know she could easily fire someone, she's done it before, but she just relishes in seeing me suffer.

I walked out of Cinder's office, feeling absolutely horrible. I've never had to fire someone before, why does it have to be a nice girl like Velvet. I wanted to delay doing it as long as possible but, I really shouldn't. I walked behind Velvet while she was sorting some of the dresses. Oh god I feel like I'm about to vomit.

"Hello Jaune" She said Hearing me, with her rabbit ears.

"Velvet I need… to tell you something" I said holding back my urge to puke as best as I could.

"What is it?" She asked giving me a confused look. Oh god, I don't think I can do this. I looked away for a second and saw Cinder looking at me, with those flaming eyes… I can't do this… but I have to.

"Velvet… I'm sorry but you are no longer… needed here" I said almost breaking down and crying.

"W-what?" She asked shocked and tearing up.

"I'm sorry Velvet, You're fired" I said a strongly as I could.

"Why?" She asked in near tears. Oh shit what do I say? I need a reason that she's been fired, quickly think of one not too insulting.

"Due to budget cuts someone had to be let go, I'm truly sorry" I said making up the best excuse I could think of. Velvet didn't say a thing she gave me a look of udder hate before walking out of the store.

The second she left I nearly broke The pain in my chest from was overwhelming. I can't believe I did that, I fired someone for no reason other than to save my job, I'm so weak. It's is going to be so hard for her to get a job, especially since she's a Faunus. As I stood in the middle of the aisle unable to move, I heard the sound of high heels clacking that could only mean one thing.

"Good work as always Jaune" Cinder said touching my shoulder rubbing it slowly. Sending shivers down my spine. I wanted to go into the bathroom and cry, but that's what she wanted me to do. I had to stay strong, and somehow get through the rest of this day holding back the urge to cry or punch Cinder in the face. Cinder slowly walked away from me, with each clack of her heels was like a stab at my heart. The things I've done for that woman, the torture she's put me through just so I can keep this job.

After about 10 seconds of just standing unable to move, I guess someone else noticed me. Since I heard someone walk behind me.

"Jaune, what happened to Velvet?" A deceptively caring voice said.

"I had to fire her" I said trying to sound strong, not letting her see my pain. If she did she would report right back to Cinder like the good little pet she was.

"Why?" She asked already knowing the answer.

"Cinder told me to" I stated

"Jaune do… you want to talk about it?" She asked lying through her teeth. I turned around to face her and there stood a woman with, mint green hair, eyes redder than blood, wearing a simple green dress with no sleeves. Emerald Sustrai, there are many things I'd like to call her, but a suck up is probably the nicest thing. If Cinder can't get something, she'll usually send Emerald in to get it. Took me about a year and a half of working here to learn that.

"No I'm fine" I said trying to walk past her but she blocked my path.

"Jaune listen, I know things have been rough for you-" My god she is so good at acting. To most people they would think she genuinely cares about you, but I know that past that caring demeanor is nothing but a heartless bitch.

"I said I'm fine Emerald!" I quickly interrupted her, not wanting to hear anymore of her bullshit.

"Oh, well if you ever need anything just call me" She said with a fake smile, turning away from me slowly walking away. It's been 1 and a half years and she still hasn't figured out that I see right through her bullshit.

I spotted a customer walk inside, and I quickly plastered my fake forced smile, as I walked over to the customer to assist her. Uh… this is going to be a long day at work.

xXx

Hell was finally over for today, and by that I mean work. Which surprisingly, besides being forced to fire Velvet it wasn't that bad. There was really nothing for me to do other than go home and watch something on the T.V. That was probably the best thing about my apartment it had free cable. By 'free' I mean the guy who lived in there before got it illegally and… kinda just left it like that.

I entered my apartment building, and walked up the front desk. "Do I have any mail?" I asked trying to avoid eye contact with the creepy receptionist

"Name?" he asked me like I haven't done this every day for the past 3 years.

"Jaune Arc" I stated with a sigh.

"The there's no mail for you" He said. Just like always I have no mail. I haven't gotten any for like 1 to 2 years but I still check every day… just in case.

"Thank you" I said taking long strides towards the stairwell. Every day I go up and down this whole thing, it was a pretty good workout. If I wasn't scared to leave my room at night, I might go up and down the stairs a couple times for a decent exercise.

As I passed every floor I remembered, all the horrible things that have happened on each floor that has happened since I moved in here. 1st floor, someone died from stab wound, 2nd floor 14 year olds, selling illegal drugs. 3rd floor prostration, 4th floor murderer. 5th 6th and 7th floor is completely full of a gang. 8th and 9th floor, people committed suicide.

Finally the 10th floor, my floor like every other floor it was just a small box with 4 doors, 2 on each side leading to a room. Let's see on the left side you have a psycho, and right next to it is the abusive relationship. On the right side of the floor you had my room and a room no lived in.

Well until today, I saw a girl who looked about 19-20 years old with some boxes at her feet, trying to enter the once empty room. I guess I have a new neighbor… great.

The girl was extremely short, maybe about 5 feet 2 or 3. She had Black hair with a tint of red. She wore a black blouse, with a skirt that had red trimmings, and strangest of all she had a full red cloak. I mean who wears a cloak?

I love my new neighbor already; she looks like such a punk. I can't wait for all the carp she's going to do to make my days even worse than they already- wait a second Jaune. Don't judge a book by its cover, sure she may look like a goth-punk hybrid, but that doesn't mean she's a bad person.

It doesn't really matter anyway; I most likely won't see her that much. I walked to my room and pulled out my keys. I stuck the keys into the lock on my door, and before I unlocked it, I noticed my new neighbor was having trouble opening the door. I heard her huff with anger, as she continuously kept putting the key into the lock turning it and attempting to open the door. I let out a small sigh; I should probably help her out.

"Hey… need some help?" I asked to my neighbor, I must have scared her because she jumped after hearing my voice.

"N-no… no I got this" she said nervously as she once again tried to open the door and failed again.

"Here let me have a try" I offered, as she shoved her shoulder body into the door, again failing to open the door. It must have hurt, because she let out a cry of pain. She quickly turned and looked at me with her silver eyes.

"Fine… you can have a try" She said handing me the key. I put the key into the lock and before I turned it I pulled out my wallet, grabbing a note of Lien. When the girl saw me doing this, she gave a confused look.

"You got to sometimes use something to move the lock on the door because it will get stuck" I explained

"Oh… thanks for the advice" She said with glee. It took me a few seconds, but I was able to get the door open. The Girl gave me a quick smile before she picked up the boxes at her side quickly placing them into her room.

"Is that all you brought, for moving in?" I asked

"Nope, I got… a few more boxes full of stuff" She stated. As much as would hate carrying all that crap up those stairs, I should at least make the offer to help.

"Do you need any help?"

"Nope, I got this" She stated confidently. Well if she doesn't want any hel- "But if you want, you can lend a hand" She said shrugging her shoulders. Oh great, now I can't say no.

"Alright" I said with no emotion as we both walked towards the stairwell. We walked down the whole apartment without saying a word to each other, hell I don't even think we even made eye contact once. When we got to the ground floor, I opened the door for her and she gave me a quick smile. I followed her to a pile of boxes which I only assumed were hers, and oh god how did she expect to do this herself? These's boxes are all huge, and I don't want to sound mean but I don't see with those tiny arms being able to carry all of these up stairs.

She quickly picked up the 2 smaller boxes, which were still not that small. I walked over to the remaining box which was huge! I plated my feet reaching to the sides of the box and struggled to pick it up; this thing must be like 60-70 pounds. I noticed the girl staring at me, looking very nervous.

"Hey uhhh…" She said having a quick giggle. "Sorry I forgot to ask you your name"

"Oh it's Jaune, Jaune Arc" I said finally getting this box of the ground with a firm grip.

"You think you can take that one alone?" She asked with concern

"Yup, I'll be fine" I said sounding pretty cocky

"Ok be very, very, careful with it" She said sternly

"Why?" I asked

"There are just some extremely important things in there" She said

"Ok" I said understanding while following her to the door. "Hey what's your name?" I asked curiously

"Ruby, Ruby Rose" She said opening the door for me.

I took my sweet time with every step going up the stairs with this extremely heavy box. I told Ruby to go in front of me, just in case I fell over. Every couple of steps, I saw Ruby look back at me nervously. While I was having a hard time carrying this thing I can do it, I mean we're already on the 5th floor.

"Jaune stop" Ruby said out of the blue

"What?" I asked

"Just stay here, I'm going to put these boxes in my room and I'll come back and help you carry that one" She said

"Ruby I'll be fine, let's go" I said.

"Jaune your face is redder than my hair, and I see your legs shaking. Stop before you get hurt" She said with a caring smile. This is really weird, it's been so long since anyone cared about my safety, hell I didn't even care!

"Alright, just don't take too long" I said sighing

"Don't worry I'll be back before you know it" She said quickly walking up the next flight of stairs. I let out a sigh of relief, before putting the incredibly heavy box down carefully. I felt so relived to not be carrying that thing.

I waited patiently for Ruby to return, making sure if anyone did walk by I didn't make eye contact with them. I stood in the middle of the stairwell using the box help me stand. I'm really glad Ruby made me stop if I kept going I would have dropped this on my and possibly have gotten really hurt.

"What are you doing here?" I heard a voice say behind me. I turned to face this person and saw a male Faunus with cat ears and a Bear face tattooed onto his face.

"Just waiting for someone to help me with" I said gesturing towards the box

"Well get of this floor right now" The Faunus said. Oh crap this guy is part of that gang that's on the 5th 6th and 7th floor. Those guys really hate it when they find someone on their floors, unless you're just walking by. I was about to answer when I heard someone walking down the flight of stairs above me, please let it be Ruby. I turned my head to see who it was coming down the stairs, and thank god that it was Ruby.

"You ready?" She asked with a chipper smile. I looked back at the Faunus quickly and he was checking Ruby out! We got to move fast.

"Yup, let's go" I said quickly grabbing the bottom of the box, as Ruby quickly did the same. We both lifted the box with all are strength, and just having Ruby help, made carrying this a thousand times easier.

"You want to go, first or should I" She asked sounding like she was struggling. I thought for a quick moment, while it would be easier for her, if I went first, I really don't want her to get crushed if we drop the box.

"You go first" I said. As we began are slowly ascending the stairs. While carrying this thing wasn't easy I was just glad to be away from that creepy Faunus guy. Not only for my safety, but I didn't want him doing anything to Ruby. I mean she looks like she's in her first year of College, I don't want creepy guy in a gang try to… take advantage of her.

We were able to get the box up all the rest of the way up without too much trouble. We put the box down right in front of her room, as I once again opened the door for her. We quickly pushed the heavy box into her room. I looked at Ruby and, boy oh boy, she looked tired. She definitely wasn't the strongest person around. Even with us both carrying it she almost dropped in a few times, thankfully she never did or else my face would have been crushed.

I do have to say that was quite a workout, my arms were really sore. I was about to walk to my room but, Ruby started to laugh and I stopped dead in my tracks staring at her very confused.

"What's so funny?" I asked

"Nothing, it's just a bad pun my sister told me, the last time I saw her" Ruby said holding her side wincing in pain. I once again was about to go to my room but a thought crossed my mind.

"Hey how come you're living here?" I asked. Ruby looked back at me as she was about to enter her room giving me a confused look.

"What do you mean?" She asked

"I mean… why aren't you living at on campus?" I asked, with Ruby once again bursting laughter. I saw her again grab her side, wincing in pain.

"Uh… it hurts to laugh" She said with a massive grin on her face.

"Ok, what was so funny" I asked, completely confused.

"It's just that… I graduated from College about 2 months ago" She stated

"Oh"

"Don't worry about it, lots of people say I look younger than I am" She said nonchalantly

"I do have to agree with them, you honestly look 19" I said

"Well I'm 21, so don't treat me like a kid" She said jokingly pointing at my face.

"I wasn't going to… until you told me not to" I said

"Ok fine, but if you ever treat me a like a child, I'll bring out something VERY special to make sure you never talk again" Ruby said completely serious

"What?" I asked a little scared. Oh god I really hope she's joking.

"Yup I got, some really… dangerous-" She suddenly burst into a fit of laughter

"What?" I asked a little frightened. Ruby was still laughing and I was so close to just hiding in my room.

"I'm sorry, your face was priceless" She said sounding like she might burst into another fit of laughter.

"What?" I asked again confused and scared

"I'm just joking Jaune… I wouldn't hurt you" She said with a sincere smile

"Oh" I mumbled in relief

"Well I got to unpack, see you tomorrow Jaune!" She said waving goodbye entering her room and smartly locking her door instantly. I quickly did the same, as I thought on what I should have to eat. What do I have to eat…? Mac and Cheese like every other night.