Thank you for checking out this story. It's something I wanted to get out of my head before I could forget it.

There was a nice misty smell of gasoline in the air, while a young man walked home. The City of Vale had a scent to it. It was potent on some while it wasn't on others. He could always smell it as he walked home.

It was the usual routine to avoid human contact and to just get home. In the young man's hands, were four bags of groceries. In could be considered the typical stuff, milk, potato chips, a couple of soda bottles, apples and chocolate powder for the milk.

The bags wrinkled along his palms on the journey. The young man looked around to see several street venders out and about. Their metal or wooden stands to display their food and wares. Most smiled, they lie through their teeth to butter up the customers. The young man didn't care much for it. The only vender he trusted was Old Man Howitzer. The man loved to keep his eyes closed most the time and didn't speak that much. He owned a small dust shop, a noodle stand, and a delivery business. At his age, Howitzer must have had some serious knowledge under his belt. The young man respected him for it.

It wasn't that he hated people; he just didn't interact with them very well. It usually turned to a lopsided conversation, or he would embarrass himself in some way. There wasn't much point in trying anymore.

On his walk home, he noticed a large video billboard. It plastered the images of the 'news'. Several criminals were running around town. The Grimm are a growing issue. And what people should have to buy for their relatives to contribute to capitalism that the kingdoms encouraged. The new NEW item that one must have otherwise you're stupid. It was the usual fear mongering and the commercialism that made Vale work the way it did. The young man didn't pay much attention to it.

"Hey mister." A voice called out.

The young man looked around and noticed a kid walk up to him. She looked about 9 years old. Her face was completely round with a button nose. She tilted her head to the left to amplify her cuteness factor. 'Like I'm buying that routine,' the young man thought.

"Mister, can you please spare some food?" She questioned as she reached her hand out. The young man looked at it. Her hand had several cuts and a bruise near the thumb. Several dark smudge marks were at her fingertips. There wasn't any way for the young man to say no.

He took a deep breath, kneeled down and set his bag on the concrete so he could reach inside it. He took out a small yellow apple to see the little girl run off with the bag. It was full of crackers, chips and a candy bar. The young man watched her run across the street. With every step he heard her pant. The girl didn't bother to look back while the young man put the apple on the ground. It shone in the light. He picked up the bags he had left and continued the walk to his house.

With every step he grumbled to himself. This often happened because the young man couldn't say no to people. It was common for him, to be taken advantage of in moments of kindness. The young man stared at the sidewalk for the rest of his journey home.

Vale was a well-developed city. The job market was always expanding. After people asked about work, they went on the waiting list to see if there was a small chance of a job. The young man heard about it all the time. Not a day went by that someone wouldn't complain about the walls. It wasn't a big deal to him, because he worked full time at an ice cream store… as a cashier. The job wasn't horrible, after all, it provided him with enough income to sustain his lifestyle.

The people were generally nice in the city. When people looked at him, he just gave them a smile and didn't say a word. Then he'd continue with what he was doing.

After 20 minutes of walking, the young man reached his house. It was just a regular house with an old paint job. The young man could only assume it was some kind of blue that had faded to grey. Along the sidewalk, the young man checked his mail box. Nothing. The young man proceeded to the second floor. The crooked path to his porch had several weeds spouting out of the cracks. He usually cleaned it after every other week or so but it was low on his list of priorities.

The house itself was a two floor home. One floor on ground level, along with a basement. His home had gone through several renovations in the last couple of months. He walked to the front door; he put his hand on the knob and twisted it…

He pushed the door open. "You left the front door unlocked again."

"So what, Jaune?" A woman's voice called back. "It's not like no one else is coming by. Oh yeah before I forget, you're out of milk."

Jaune Arc rolled his eyes. He entered the house. It had a small entrance with three doorways to span into different parts of the house. The bags rustled on his walk to the kitchen. Everything in the kitchen was brand new. The oven, refrigerator, and microwave had a silver square shape to it. The floor was retiled into white hexagons. The table was something out of a furniture store display. It was lovely kitchen, but none of it actually belonged to him. He placed the grocery bags on the table.

"Wow, you're on top of things this time. What's the occasion?" The woman's voice said around the corner.

"You just caught me on a decent day." Jaune replied as he opened the bags.

"Hmm?" The woman stuck her head around the corner.

"Good evening." Jaune said. He opened a cabinet to put in three can foods. It was just black beans.

"Evening." The woman walked away from the corner to look over Jaune's shoulder. She was in her mid-twenties, slim, ashen-black hair and bright amber eyes. She wore a V-neck mid dress that had a golden lines that intertwined at the sleeves and drifted along the neck region and met at the center of the neck line. She had fair pale skin that her hair drew in contrast too but in a good fashion. At her neck, she wore a black choker necklace. She blinked at him as he walked past her.

On the table, Jaune had apple soda and other assorted foods.

"How did your day go?" He asked when he opened the refrigerator door.

"Stopped an assassination of some important political figure." She responded, "You?" She uncapped a soda and began to drink.

"There was a guy who wanted a snow cone when we only do ice cream." Jaune shrugged. After a minute, he finished putting the food away.

"Sounds exciting." The woman replied in a cold tone before she took another sip of her soda. Her name was Cinder Fall. She was an agent that worked in the Valean Government. Well trained most forms of combat and looked good while doing it.

"It was. Did you get the food I place on the table for this afternoon?" Jaune opened his phone to see he had no messages. It was nothing groundbreaking every time he checked.

"I did. You know I don't like fast food."

"It was the best I could do in such short notice. That's why I had to go grocery shopping." It wasn't that Jaune wanted to talk of excuses. Dust knows how often he tried to in the past.

"Fine then. I will be here for twelve hours at a time." Cinder pointed out before she left the kitchen. "When will dinner be ready?"

"About an hour. You can play my XStation 5 while you wait. I also rented some movies a couple of days ago." He called out.

"Fine, but I'm going to take a nap." Cinder replied. "Wake me up when it's ready."

"Sure."

Jaune rubbed his eyes. He opened another cabinet to get some pots and pans out. Cinder Fall was in his home was because it was claimed by the Valean Government. Four months earlier, Jaune unknowingly helped an agent escape a serious danger. When it was all over, Jaune had only three choices; disappear to the other side of Remnant, be killed by the government, or become an employee. Jaune couldn't offer any kind of significant service to them, so his home had been turned into a Safe House. Whenever an official agent needed somewhere to stay in the city of Vale, they came and invaded Jaune's house.

As an employee, Jaune had to see to their needs as well as he could. His home was given many utilities so carry out his new job. His payment for taking care of each agent was 2.50 lien an hour.

Jaune walked to the radio at the kitchen counter and turned it on.

"There has been a loss of rations on the Emerald Forest front as soldiers from Atlas continue to liberate the region of White Fang rebels. The death toll is expected to be at 239."

Jaune stared at a pot and waited for the water.

"Meanwhile in Vale, General Ironwood has made his presence known to the public of mentioning the growing efforts of the Atlasian Military to end the current conflict swiftly."

The water started to boil and Jaune walked to the counter to open a small box of pasta ties. He poured the box in and gently stirred the ties in the water.

"In other news, the Mistralan superstar Pyrrha Nikos has taken first place in the world renowned Hunter's Tournament for the third year in a row. He took part in a prolonged match with second lead contender Ruby Rose. The two fought each other for an amazing eight minutes. It was a close call but Ms. Nikos won out by seven points. Isn't that just amazing?"

Jaune looked back to the stove; it was warm enough for him to work on the next meal.

"Several frantic news crews sought out the World Prodigy for an exclusive recorded interview."

Jaune pulled a small piece of dough from the fridge and began to roll it out.

"Miss Nikos." The reporter was obviously a woman. Jaune paid little attention as the reporter repeated Pyrrha's accomplishments. He added some carrots, tomatoes, and pasta sauce to the dough.

"Thank you madam." Pyrrha replied. Just by her tone, one could guess that the champion smiled for them.

"At 23 years old you're already considered to be one of the Best Huntresses of your generation. Along with that there has been overwhelming support for you ever since you first took the title of World Champion. How do you feel?"

"Fantastic, I'm just so amazed at what I was able to accomplish within my lifetime."

The interview continued for several minutes more of the same redundant questions of Pyrrha being the winner and avoided several harsh questions that would make her seem like a bad person. Jaune hovered over the stove as he listened.

"Is there any message you want to send to anyone special?" The reporter laughed.

"Why yes. Thank you for all of your support of me since the beginning, you've been there for me during the bad times and made even better good times. Just with you, I feel like I can accomplish even more. This message goes out to my boyfriend, Spencer Trost. I love you." Jaune winced.

"Isn't that precio-" Jaune's index finger slid away from the radio. For the next thirty minutes, he cooked in silence.

When he finished, Jaune walked to the guest bedroom. He opened the door and saw an empty bed, neatly made. On the floor there were two bags that were usually carried by Jaune's most common guest. He walked to his own room and brushed the door aside. In the center of the room he saw Cinder hugging a pillow as if it were a small animal.

"Cinder." He called.

"Cinder." He said again, louder this time.

"CINDER!" He shouted.

Before Jaune could take a step back, the black abyss of a gun pointed directly at the center of his chest. All Jaune could hear was the sound of his heartbeat over everything else. Cinder stared at him with tired eyes.

"You stupid asshole!"

"… Din…ner's… ready…" The blonde boy stammered.

"Ugh. Why didn't you say so?" Cinder yawned which caused her to lower her gun. It was a Five-Seven pistol. Jaune wasn't too fond of the thought that he could've had a few extra holes in him.

"Fine. I'll be out in a few minutes." She rubbed her eye with her wrist. Her hand was still holding the gun.

"No rush." Jaune's heart rate had slowed down. He walked out of the room.

'This sucks!' He thought. From the last few weeks of this new job, Jaune had a variety of people come by his home. Usually they were the quiet types that didn't ask much, while other times several agents like Cinder Fall would come and lay claim on his life. Every one of them found some way to annoy Jaune to no end. Cinder's favorite thing to do was claim Jaune's room and bed during her visits.

"Ugh." He groaned to himself as he walked down the main hallway.

'This is my life now.' Jaune thought as he walked into his kitchen to get the plates ready.

Well this is just the introduction to the story. I don't have an update schedule but I'll work on this story along with my other ones. So when you finish reading this, please voice your thoughts in a review. Thanks again for reading and have an excellent day.

Also, special thanks to Teekay Staples for editing this chapter. I enjoy working with you.