Jaune was not a happy camper, in fact, he was so far from being a happy camper he wasn't even an unhappy camper. No, he was something far worse than an unhappy camper.

He was a tired camper.

He had belatedly realised that he needed to invest into a new sofa, alongside a myriad of other things he needed to do. He needed to balance the budget so that he could afford to feed himself and Khione, as well as a newly acquired Cinder. He needed to pay the taxes, rent and other such utilities like a library membership card so Khione could have access to all the books she wanted. He needed to add money to his own savings account for emergencies as well as the fund he'd set up in Khione's name for when she turned eighteen. She could use it to fund further education, a down payment for a mortgage or just spend it travelling, it was hers to spend when she came of age.

But to actually do that she needed money it in. Interest would help, but right now all she had was a pittance.

There were also the added expense of repairing his superhero costume whenever it got damaged on patrol, though all that cost was a bit of string and the occasionally prodded finger.

The Huntsman...

Jaune sighed. On top of his work at the warehouse he'd also managed to pick up a second job as a janitor for a local school. He needed the extra income now he had Cinder to feed as well, and working those two jobs day and night on top of being a single father trying to raise a well-adjusted child in a crappy neighbourhood he'd given himself the added burden of superheroing in his preciously little spare time. Khione had been the reason why. She read a lot of spare newspapers at that library of hers, and with crime at an all time high it had all she'd read about. It had made her sad, and when she was sad Jaune felt the need to turn that frown upside down.

So the Huntsman came to being. He brought Khione in on his project and she readily agreed to help him become a superhero. He had always been freakishly strong, something he'd always kept well hidden. It was an Arc thing apparently, hence why so many of his ancestors had been legendary warriors. They were strong and resilient and their names had been forged in history for it.

Jaune's alter ego had made his mark in the years since he'd started up the superhero business, which was a strange side effect he never considered. Dozens of people with powers stepped forward under the protection of spandex and masks, using their powers to help tackle the sky high crime rates until they had finally started to plummet to reasonable numbers. Jaune never really worked with them, what with them being tackled across the world, but he had been the first to step forward and take up the mantle of responsibility left forgotten by local and national governments and police forces.

It wasn't entirely with it's issues, which brought him to the biggest perplexity and headache in life.

Cinder Fall. Otherwise known as the Nefarious Nightstalker.

She, for a while, had been the bane of his existence. She was the antithesis to his thesis, the bad to his good, the malevolent to his benevolent. She used her power for personal gain, stealing and attacking and in some instances killing. She had plagued his alter ego for almost as long as he had had it, and their battles had become something of a Valean sport, with bets being made over who would come on top and whether he would finally apprehend her or she would finally kill him.

Now she took his daughter to school and helped babysit so he could work longer shifts. She also lived with him.

She also had a growing aversion to wearing clothes inside the house.

Jaune had started to patrol earlier, almost immediately after Khione went to bed, because Cinder would always stalk into the living room wearing little else but short-shorts and a tank top once Khione had had her bedtime story. They would watch television, they would talk, sometimes they would drink. In those moments when his head was fuzzy and his body warm he felt the urge to reach out to her and hold her close, to feel if she was as warm as she looked, to feel what it would be like to kiss those soft lips and-

"Bad Ja-Huntsman!" He scolded, shaking his head and slapping his face. "Focus, you're on the job."

He didn't focus, instead his mind wandered back to Cinder's smooth, long legs, her thick thighs he wouldn't mind being smo-

"Bad!" He sighed, slamming his head against a brick wall gently. "Damn heat."

And it was the heat's fault. Not for his wandering mind, though he wasn't a hundred percent sure about that. What he was a hundred percent sure about was the summer heat being the excuse for Cinder's lack of evening wear, and also the reason why he couldn't really object to that. It was getting warmer, and he wasn't exactly about to order her to dress up just because he couldn't keep it in his pants.

"Well, well, well~" Purred an all too familiar voice. "If it isn't the famous Huntsman. A shame you aren't really a man."

"Excuse me?" Jaune frowned, spinning around to see Cinder, no, the Nefarious Nightstalker, leaning against the brick wall at the end of the alleyway he'd been pacing in.

"You heard me." The Nefarious Nightstalker retorted, a languid smirk on her face that only accentuated her heart-shaped face, the curve of her lip, the-

"God's damnit." Jaune sighed, interrupting her monologue. She raised a brow curiously.

"Something wrong?" She asked, not an inch of sincerity in the words that were spoken like velvet.

"No, just hot." Jaune sighed, gesturing at her vaguely. "Continue your monologue."

"I wasn't monologing." The Nefarious Nightstalker frowned. "I was scolding. You're running away from home, from Khione. Why?"

"I'm not." Jaune said flatly, though he felt his hands curl up into fists at the insinuation as his anger rose inside him. "Don't you dare suggest such a thing, and don't say her name whilst we're in costume."

"You're right about that, loathe as I am to admit it." The Nefarious Nightstalker allowed, features softening for a moment before regaining the sharp frown. "It doesn't change the fact you are trying to get out of the house more often. Why? Crime is down, even for criminals the weather is too hot to do anything but sit around and melt. Why put on the spandex just to get more hot and sweaty?"

Jaune said nothing, but he blinked when she moved. It wasn't fast, like an attack, but slow and self-assured. She strode towards him with a confidence he'd never had and could not fathom, hips swaying slightly but in a hypnotic way that enraptured him for a few moments before she came to a stop in front of him. Broken from his reverie, he looked up to see Cinder smirking up at him, her golden eyes gleaming in a way that he imagined a cat would whenever it caught a canary.

"Unless you're not getting out of the house to fight crime, or to get hot and sweaty." She leaned forward, hands snaking up and lowering his head so that she could whisper into his ear. "It's because you're hot and bothered."

Jaune could barely control the coiled beast curled up in his gut that wanted him to lean forward and capture her lips in a searing kiss. Instead he swallowed audibly and shook his head weakly.

"Just wanna get out and about ya know." He lied weakly, pathetically so. Her lips curled up even further.

"That is what I mean by not being much of Hunts-man." Cinder sighed emphatically. "I suppose I will just have to find someone who is."

Jealousy roared its vicious head as she made to turn away from him. Without thinking he grabbed her hips and spun her back around into his chest, holding her tightly and staring down into her shocked, wide and always beautiful eyes.

"You have no idea the things you do to me." Jaune admitted hoarsely, before realising he was acting in a way he swore never to behave like and letting her go. "And you know nothing about me, so stop toying with me."

"How can I when you're so fun to play with?" Cinder retorted, and his response was a scoff, fuelled by the anger he felt at himself and the anger he felt towards her for seeing this as just another one of her games.

Stuff like this was serious. He had to be burned by fire to find that out too little too late.

"Do what you want, I'm not your boyfriend." Jaune bit out, stomping away. "Just find somewhere else to do. I will not have Khione witness a parading door of men or women roaming through our house, and you sure as hell aren't doing it on my bed."

"How dare you!" Cinder hissed. "I'm not some two-bit whore!"

Jaune bit back a remark he knew he'd regret as he felt a rush of guilt, but not enough to make him apologise. Yet. He was still angry, hot and bothered, and hoping against hope he found some punk trying to do the wrong thing at the wrong time so he could vent some frustration.

"You're not." He conceded. "But my point stands. Not at home."

He left her there to find some two-bit gangster to beat up. Instead he interrupted her attempting to rob a bank not far from where they argued.

They both managed to vent their frustration out, but not in the way they wanted.

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Cinder grimaced as she struggled to peel off her catsuit, the damn thing stuck to her by sweat and blood. Her skirmish with Jaune at the Western City Bank had quickly turned into a battle the sorts neither had had since they had stumbled across one another out of suit so long ago. It seemed almost like a decade ago since they had met for the first time as just Cinder and just Jaune, without their alter egos, though in reality it was less than three or so months. It was fast moving, but then again Khione had declared Cinder to be her mother on their very first meeting.

The thought of her little Snowflake distracted her from her pain for a few moments before the full force of her bruised body came slamming back into her. She'd gotten soft over the past few months, and the pain she felt know was something she was almost unused to. Jaune, the Huntsman, very rarely used his full strength against her, but when he did it hurt more than being hit by a freight train, something Cinder had experienced once earlier in her career as a result of their more tense fights.

And all because he was too much of a goody two-shoes to just give in to what they both clearly felt and screw her seven ways to Sunday!

Just her luck to fall in love with a 'good' guy, one of the few she...she...

She didn't love him. No, she didn't. Why should she? He could cook good meals, but so could a chef. He loved his daughter, but so did most parents. He was genuine and honest and kind but who wasn't, except for monsters like her of course? He was aesthetically pleasing and easy on the eyes but so was a bodybuilder or even an average Joe. There was nothing special about him, apart from his superpowers, and it wasn't as if he was capable of treating her kindly despite being her nemesis and-she didn't love him!

She lusted for him. That was it. It had been too long since she had allowed herself to let loose and now that she was relaxing thanks to Khione's every thingness and Jaune's kindness she was allowing herself to lower the iron tight boundaries she had set up around herself to protect her from being emotionally compromised.

"Fat lot of good that had worked." She grumbled, before letting out a grunt of pain as her catsuit brushed against grazed skin on her back. Jaune had tossed her through a concrete wall and sent her skidding into a concrete road, not a good thing for her when her protection was a thin layer of albeit flexible and bulletproof costume.

He probably had a wife or a girlfriend somewhere. No, that wasn't right. If that was the case he would've made sure there were strict boundaries between them so he wouldn't stray from his partner, that was just the sort of person he was. She frowned when she thought back to their first meeting at the mall, at the dinner they'd shared and the way he seemed to shut down and grow distant when Khione had thought parents hit each other, at the hatred in the little girl's normally sweet, kind voice when she said she was glad her mother wasn't around and that Jaune seemed to have taken the brunt of her mother's anger, only fighting back whenever Khione herself was hurt.

She was coming on too strong. She realised belatedly. She'd utterly forgotten the fact his own daughter had practically, literally, said out loud his former partner had abused him and her approach had been to rile him up and try to make him snap so he'd give in to the tension between them.

She might as well have took a dog person to a cat café or vice versa. Her attempts to get close to him had pushed him away, all because she had forgotten about the key, no, critical piece of information she'd learned about the first time they met properly.

It wasn't often she truly felt like the monster she was, but it seemed like she had a special ability to be especially monstrous to Jaune, someone she would readily concede did not deserve such a thing even without her attraction towards him for his looks, and only his looks.

A gentle knock at the door made her jump and blink. Had she woken Khione returning from her patrol?

"Who is it?" She asked cautiously. It didn't sound like Khione's rappity-tap knock, and she would be in a dire position if it was the police considering she was half-dressed.

"It's me." Jaune's voice replied, and she immediately stiffened. "Can I come in? I...We need to talk."

"One second." She squeaked, before collecting herself with a cough. "One moment please."

She hobbled around her, technically his, room, grabbing strewn clothes and tossing them under the bed or into shadowy corners where he wouldn't see them in the lamp-lit room. She adjusted her suit, not wanting to put it back on entirely due to the pain that would be caused by it brushing against her bruised, grazed skin, and she headed over to the door before opening it slightly.

"I'm not decent." She warned. "Come in at your own mercy."

She headed back over to the bed as confidently as she could, trying to hide the nervousness she felt at letting the man into her, his, room. He entered silently before closing the door, but not shutting it entirely, before he followed her and sat on her, technically his, bed.

"I'm sorry." He said immediately, and she realised his eyes were fixated on her back, which was mottled with dark bruises and where large patches of her skin had been shredded. "I have some cream to sooth pain and disinfectant. I picked it up on my way back because I thought...I knew I pushed too hard tonight. Let me help. Please?"

Cinder nodded wordlessly, any words caught in her throat, and she heard him rustle in his pockets before pulling out two tubs.

"Pain relief or disinfectant?" He offered, and she chose the disinfectant first. "This may hurt a little."

That was an understatement and they both knew, but the pain of being tossed into cars and through concrete was something much more worse than the stinging pain of the disinfectant he applied to her wounds. She had a much higher pain tolerance than the average human, but her superpower was her ability to create and manipulate fire, not for having an insanely high pain threshold and resilience or endurance to said pain. Jaune was quick with his work at least and he tried to be gentle, which she could at least appreciate despite the lack of success.

"Now for the better part." Jaune whispered, and she stiffened at the realisation she had her exposed back to him. "Have I told you about Khione's mother yet?"

"No-hah!" Cinder gasped as something cold brushed against the skin of her back, followed by something firm and warm. He brushed his cream covered hands over the expanse of her pale skin with a gentleness and a hint of reverence she was utterly unused to, and she found herself relaxing as the pain relief did it's job and as his hands massaged over her muscles.

"She was a good person once." Jaune told her quietly. "She wanted to change the world for the better, but she always wanted to focus on her home first. She joined the military, after that she helped out with her father's business."

"Those bullies." Cinder gasped out. "T-They targeted her for l-looking like a Schnee. Is Khione-?"

"Let me talk for now." Jaune interrupted softly, pausing his massage for a moment. Cinder let out a soft whimper before his hands returned, armed with more cream, and she found herself melting under his touch. "Things...weren't perfect. She changed after a while. She saw too much, sacrificed too much and when she asked for promotions she was always turned down because the military feared her father's influence. It made her bitter and after a while she forgot about her goals to make the world a better place. Khione...I hoped things would get better after she was born. She was happier than she was in a long time whilst pregnant, but after Khione was born she got worse again. I don't know if it was post-partem depression but...she loathed Khione. She hated that I would defend, that I would love her, and eventually she tried...tried killing..."

His words drifted off as his voice choked up, and Cinder found herself stiff and tense once again. Not even her step mother had gone that far, not even close.

"I stopped her. She's in jail now." Jaune continued after collecting himself, though Cinder found it harder to melt under his resumed massage after being told what she had been. "Her father, Khione's grandfather, the scandal of it all was too much. We were told to move elsewhere after I divorced Khione's mother, which was fair. What wasn't was how he cut off Khione from half her family. My family is too big and too burdened financially to help us out often, hence why I took that second job you scolded me for. I know it takes me away from Khione more often, and I know she misses me but I can't change that magically. I'm not made of money and I don't ask rent of you because you help out in other ways. Do you know why?"

"No." Cinder breathed out, feeling a wave of shame at the grief she had given him when he announced his second job and told Khione she would see less of him. In her anger she hadn't thought of the reasons why, nor the role she played in them.

"Because your are her mother." Jaune told her gently, resuming his calming massage. "You love her more than the woman who birthed her. You made her smile and laugh and feel loved in a way that W-she didn't. You've known her for such a short time yet it's clear as the god damn day you've been good to her, good for her. She smiles more easily, and I can tell she likes having someone close to her. I try my best to be a good dad, but she still needs a mom. You are that Cinder, for her, and you do a damn good job of it. That's why I don't ask you for rent, because you do a hell of a lot more than I can ever hope to repay to you. But..."

He trailed off with a sigh, and Cinder let that allow her to breathe again, the genuine honesty in his words stunning her and affecting her in a way she didn't know possible. Khione had often called her mom, but this wasn't a child looking up to her to replace a hole left by a monster. This was the father of that child who loved her unconditionally. For all the good ways his words had affected her she also knew to brace herself, knowing that she wasn't going to like what was said next.

"I don't have time for a relationship." Jaune admitted. "Work, Khione, being a superhero- there just isn't any room for a relationship on top of that. I don't do one night stands or friends with benefits either, so whatever is going on between us...it's not going to work. Not yet. I'm...I'm not ready for that yet."

"I know." Cinder whispered, hearing the pain in his voice. "I don't...I won't force you into anything you don't want or are ready for. But...I...This wouldn't just be a one night stand or friends with benefits. You know that right?"

Jaune was silent for a moment, before she heard him shuffle behind her and his hands fell away. She turned, blinking when she realised just how close he was and noticing the smouldering look in his eyes.

"I do now." He said quietly, voice as smooth as silk as he leaned forward. She bite back a gasp in surprise and blinked when he kissed her cheek softly. "Not now, but in a few months who knows what will happen? I didn't expect my arch-nemesis to be my daughter's adoptive mom or actually could be a good person beneath that murderous visage of yours."

She let out the breath she'd been holding but found herself unable to say anything.

"I've applied all the cream, let me know if you need anything else." Jaune smiled, standing up and taking the empty tubs with him as he headed to the door. "Goodnight Cinder."

She said nothing as she listened to his feet plodding away through the halls, and even then she couldn't bring herself to say anything until she heard the door to the living room click shut.

"You." She whispered hoarsely. "I need you and I don't know why."

She stripped off the rest of the costume and winced as her grazed back brushed against the sheets of her bed. Eventually she gave up and rolled onto her side, but even then she couldn't find sleep.

She was living rent free in his home, which was why he needed to get another job. She could pay for rent and much more if he asked, but she knew he'd refuse if she offered out of that strange obligation and debt he felt towards her. As her golden eyes stared out at the darkness of her bedroom she thought and plotted and thought some more.

Jaune needed help financially, and whether he wanted it or not he was going to get it.

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Jaune sighed as he shoved the bucket and mop inside the janitor's closest. His shift had finally come to a close and his back certainly felt it. It had been in pain for a while now, what with him working so much these days and sleeping fitfully on his potato for a sofa. He wandered down the almost empty halls until he heard murmurings from the staff room, where he knew a group of teachers had stayed behind to mark exams. He hurried over in curiosity and peeked inside to see the school's teachers huddled around a television with the news playing loudly from it.

"The Nefarious Nightstalker has attacked the Vale Central Bank and taken at least two dozen passer-by's and workers hostage. The police had cordoned off the area and are preparing for a siege with the notorious-"

Jaune quickly dove back out of the staff room and headed to his locker where he grabbed his bag. He raced from the building, unzipping the bag and pulling out his domino mask made by Khione herself.

"At least you waited until my shift ended." Jaune grumbled under his breath. "Why do you have to be like this Cinder?"

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"I-I don't-"

"You will give me the money in that vault or you will watch as I burn every hostage in this bank into nothing more than ash and after that I will kill you slower than I killed them." The Nefarious Nightstalker barked. "Open the vault now!"

"Enough!" Boomed a familiar voice. Cinder did not know whether to smile or grimace when she turned to see Jaune in his Huntsman get-up, standing imperiously at the entrance to the bank. "There is no need for this Nightstalker. Stand down."

"Or what Huntsman?" Cinder taunted, seeing his eyes glint with challenge. "You haven't caught me yet."

"There's a first time for everything." Jaune quipped, face softening visibly. "Please don't do this."

"I need to do this." Cinder sighed. "You wouldn't understand."

"Then let-whoa!"

Jaune dove under the fire bolt she lazily shot at him, shooting her a dirty look. She shrugged but masterfully hid back a wince.

"Enough talk. Life would be less fun without toying with you, so I'll only incapacitate you."

"Good luck with that." Jaune snapped, running forward with a glint in his beautifully blue eyes. "You wanna dance? Let's boogie."

Cinder held back a smile as he came at her with a punch. She danced out of the way and unleashed a wave of flame that he absorbed with ease, the only sign of his pain being a wince. His clothing smouldered and he used himself as a shield for the banker she had been interrogating before his arrival. Her flames had been intentionally lessened so as to cause him less harm, but when his fist smashed against her she reminded herself she did not need to hold back against him. Despite the clear reservations and disappointment in her in his eyes she could tell he felt similarly. It was hard to let loose when everyone around you was made of glass in comparison to yourself, which made their fights all the more stimulating.

She didn't need to hold back. He didn't need to hold back. So they didn't.

The hostages escaped easily whilst the Huntsman distracted the Nefarious Nightstalker, and in actuality that wasn't far off. Cinder could hardly give a damn about them when she was too busy having fun with her brawl with Jaune.

Yes, his punches hurt. Yes, he flung her around the room like a ragdoll. Yes, she burned him with the heat of a volcano's heart and yes, she kicked and punched and gave as good as she took but by whatever deity, if any, that looked over Remnant they enjoyed themselves.

"Had...Had your fun?" The Huntsman panted tiredly, and Cinder raised a brow. If Jaune thought that acting tired would get her to lower her guard so early in a fight he had another thing coming.

"Not quite." She grinned, conjuring fire into her the palm of her hands as she prepared her signature move. "Have you?"

She didn't hear his reply, if he did reply, over the roaring flames she sent towards him. The perfect marble floor was scorched and he was sent flying across the room as he usually did. Well, usually if they fought indoors. If it was a car park he would have been thrown to the other end of it, though instead he slammed into the wall opposite her and thudded against the ground.

She couldn't help but wince, but she knew he could take it. She'd delivered far worse before and that had been with the intention of actually hurting him.

So she stood and waited. Then waited some more. Then before she could wait even more she lowered her guard.

"Jaune?"

He didn't answer.

"Jaune!"

A/N: Next update 15/06/2023