Jaune wakes up early and starts on his daily routine. A quick breakfast, workout with a twenty to thirty minute run at the end, followed by a shower, and getting dressed for work. It's a cool Wednesday morning and while Jaune usually has Tuesdays and Wednesdays off he was told by Junior to come into work and get to cleaning because he had some special guests who had been at the club the night before who made a bit of a mess. Junior even told Jaune he would pay him. Jaune almost argued that Junior was doing enough without it but extra money is never a bad thing so instead the knight shoved his foot in his mouth and gladly accepted the man's offer.

Jaune wouldn't have minded even if he wasn't paid. Work was work and Junior was providing Jaune with both a place to live as well as getting him transcripts. He would work every day of the week for Junior if the man wanted. The wannabe knight has dedicated every hour he's been on the job to making sure everything was just as Junior and the twins wanted it. Jaune was eternally grateful to the man and would stay so even if he failed to get into Beacon.

Jaune had been introduced to the Malachite twins soon after he accepted Junior's agreement and was told to do whatever they asked him like it was requested from Junior himself. Ever since then Jaune has built up a fairly solid relationship with Melanie and Miltiades. He wouldn't call them best friends or even good friends but he can say they didn't mind his presence and even talked to him whenever he wasn't busy and they were around.

Jaune steps out of the shower cracking and stretching to get the lingering soreness from his workout to ease off. After he dries, Jaune gets dressed in his uniform which consists of a heavy duty black pair of trousers, a long sleeve black and red button up and red socks to help him match the color scheme of the other workers, and a pair of new black boots he bought for himself last week.

Jaune walks to work and is unsurprisingly the only employee at the club this early in the morning. Jaune walks into the smell of alcohol, and bodily fluids. Jaune immediately notices the toppled tables and a large man laying in a pool of alcohol, and if he the janitor had to guess vomit. Jaune sighs and walks over waking the slumbering man.

Before Jaune even realizes what happens he is violently thrown across the room through a bar stool, and back first against the bar, collapsing in a wheezing heap. Groaning Jaune slowly gets to his feet and staggers back to the man grabbing a broken table leg and poking the snoring giant once again. The man grunts and burps, while swatting at the table leg, before slowly getting to his feet. Now standing up Jaune realizes how massive the man truly is.

Jaune gulps and opens and closes his mouth a couple times before coughing into his hand and speaking. "Sir, I have to ask you to leave the club. It's my job to clean and make sure that the club is in proper order before it opens later. That includes you exiting the premises." Jaune tries speaking as confidently as he can but his voice comes out shaky and high pitched. The large man squints at Jaune and Jaune stares back trying his best to not look like he's about to piss himself.

Jaune asks the man again if he could please leave and the extremely large man grunts once more, grabs his head in pain and stumbles his way out of the club. Now that the giant is gone this leaves Jaune to clean up the massive mess that was left from the night before. Jaune starts by picking up everything that's broken and tossing the trash into one of several dumpsters behind the club. After completing this task, he texts Junior what is in need of repair and what the club is going to need replaced. The man doesn't answer immediately, but Jaune trusts that his boss will see the list and respond when he does.

Now just past noon after several long hours of cleaning and fixing to the best of his abilities Jaune sits in a far back booth browsing social media on his scroll while he waits on a response from Junior about how he's going to deal with this, so Jaune can either decide to leave for a while or stay and help Juniors men.

Around an hour later Jaune feels a buzz on his scroll and sees that Junior texted him that the replacement tables won't be there for a few days but if Jaune wants to see if there's any extra barstools anywhere he can check and if there isn't he should be able to get some by the time the club opens. Jaune asks if he should stay for the repairman too or if Junior wants him gone. The club owner texts back telling Jaune to do what he wants and that he already did enough making sure the club was taken care of to the best of his abilities, but if Jaune wants to stay he wont stop him.

Neo was in a really shitty mood. It honestly might just be her default state at this point. Maybe she would be less pissy though if anything would go her way even now she was stuck back in this stupid disguise. Neo didn't really hate her mint disguise but she wasn't in the best of moods.

The small thief has spent her last few days going in and out of shops looking for the best and most flashy target for her and Roman to rob. After several hours of searching Neo had found a couple spots, but nothing that really stuck out to her thus far. She was on the verge of just seeing if any of their old hits had recouped and were eyecatching enough for Roman's tastes. He didn't usually like robbing the same place twice, because as he said, "Entering a party a second time with the same outfit isn't as special."

Neo understood that to an extent but she was getting tired of looking for new places right now and just wanted to go back home and snack while watching TV, and if she couldn't do that then she at least wanted to have something to entertain her. Maybe she'll stop by Juniors and see if the twins or Junior are there and if they have any information. Strolling through Vale Neo keeps her eyes out for any people or places that catch her eye as potential targets, but being unable to find anything Neo enters the club, and lets her disguise fall.

Expecting to see Junior or at the least the twins, Neo is much more surprised when she spots a different person who she had never seen at the club before, despite him reminding her of someone she already might have known. A tall blonde boy is busy mopping the main dancefloor of the club, and dancing in silence as he moves along. Neo knows this guy from somewhere but she can't put her finger on it especially when he's mostly facing away from her. Neo hops up onto the bar and rests her feet against one of the stools as she watches the blonde, completely oblivious to the fact that someone is in here watching him.

Soon enough Neo gets to see his face and immediately remembers where she saw that head of hair. He was the one who ruined her personal heist. Who knew she'd run into him here. She also wondered how she didn't recognize him seeing as his hair was the exact same. Maybe it was his outfit? Last time he was wearing cheap armor and had a sword on his hip. Neo puts her hand on her chin and nods, satisfied with the answer she produced.

Now onto the bigger question. What was he doing here in Juniors club working as a janitor? He had a sword on him last time which made her think he was probably a huntsman in training seeing as he didn't look like he could pass for anything above 19 or 20 if she was really stretching it. If he was working here though that meant he probably wasn't training to be a huntsman. That still didn't answer her question though… What was he doing here?

The blonde had finally spotted her and did a double take. Quickly he finishes his mopping and takes the rolling bucket and mop back to the utility closet and comes over to see Neo. Once he's in arms reach Neo types a quick message.

'Long time no see.' The girl smirks at the nervous blonde who tries his best to force out a small laugh. The blonde responds with a nervous "It's only been two weeks though?" which causes Neo's grin to widen. If he's this easy to knock out of his groove then he'll be much more fun than she thought.

'What are you doing working here?' Neo's next message says.

"I owe a favor to Junior." The boy answers quickly which makes Neo even more interested.

'What kind of favor' Neo asks

"I don't think I should tell you.'

'You owe me a favor too, remember?'

"Do you want to use it on this?" The janitor asks a bit of hope in his voice

Neo shakes her head and types out another message. 'No, but I do think it would be nice of you to answer seeing as you broke something very valuable to me.' Neo tries hiding her laughter to the best of her ability which is made much harder by the immediate deluge of apologies spouted from the boy.

"...I really am sorry! Please believe me."

'I know you are sorry but you still owe me a favor and I can just find out why you're here from Junior himself.'

"Then why don't you?" The wannabe knight says with a slight edge to his voice. "Just ask him instead."

'Real easy to get you riled up it seems.' Might be easier for Neo to get her fill of entertainment for the day from the boy than she thought. 'I just want to hear it from the person who accepted the deal.'

The boy sighs and finally answers Neo's question "I wanted Junior to make some documents for me, and he asked me to work as the club janitor to pay him off." Neo isn't satisfied with the vague answer and immediately gets back to typing.

'What kind of documents?'

"Ones that can get me into Beacon." Neo's jaw drops and the boy sighs and responds to the girl's incredulous look. "I know it's stupid and crazy but I really want to be a huntsman and I dont have the type of skill to back it up, so I was hoping maybe having papers that make me look better would help."

Neo takes a moment to process what he just said. 'You're trying to break into beacon?' The blonde flinches at the blunt statement.

"It sounds really bad when you put it like that…"

Neo shakes her head thinking about how crazy this kid is. 'You at least have enough training to fit in right?'

The club janitor tenses up even more, and Neo already knows his answer is going to be stupid. "I hope so…"

'What do you mean you hope so?'

"I didn't go to any prep school but I think I know enough to get me by until I can catch up."

Neo can't help but be stunned at the level of his stupidity, even though she already guessed that his answer would be dumb. 'Do you have any real training at all?'

Looking down at his feet the boy shakes his head. Neo shouldn't be surprised at how dumb he is based on his breaking into beacon statements, but he still managed to shock her. 'Even if you manage a miracle and fool them enough to get into the school they'll catch you as soon as you have to do anything combat oriented.'

"I know it's a long shot, but I have to try. I didn't travel all the way to Vale just to give up before I could even get started." Jaune raises his voice slightly at the girl

'Are you paying for lessons or anything at least?' He shakes his head again. 'You might be the stupidest person I have ever had the misfortune of coming across.' But he still owes her a favor, and Junior hasn't kicked him out yet so he must be useful to some extent.

She just has to figure out what she wants. He wants to be a huntsman, but he definitely has other skills, and if he doesn't then she can mold him into whatever she wants. Maybe Neo could use this to get something out of him without even having to cash in her favor at all? That would be perfect. Neo just has to get him to agree, and she already has the perfect idea about how to get it done.

They had been sitting in silence for a few minutes now. Neo types away at her scroll before shoving the device in his face. 'You said you don't have training right?'

"Yeah?" The boy replies slowly, wondering what the ice-cream themed girl is scheming up.

'If you are willing to owe me another favor I could train you.'

His eyes widen. "You can fight?"

Neo's eye twitches and she has to calm herself down before writing another message. 'Yes I can fight. You want your spine turned into a pretzel as an example?' The boy grumbles something about how his spine has taken enough damage today. Neo brushes off the comment despite her interest. 'If you accept, I expect you to be on time or I will leave, and you'll just owe me two favors and have gotten nothing out of it.'

"Why are you doing this? I don't even know your name and now you're offering to help me?"

'Because favors are worth a lot in the industry where I work, and you'll also be helping me in this situation. Unless you don't want any help. If thats the case I can just leave and come back later to see Junior and the twins like i originally planned.'

"NO NO NO NO!" The boy says frantically "I do want your help. I'm sorry!"

'Are you sure.'

"Yes I'm sure! I promise I won't question you again."

'Good now whats your name blondie.'

"Jaune Arc It's sh-" Jaune cuts himself off before he says something.

'Alright John Im going to need your scroll number.'

"It's not John, it's Jaune. Spelle E."

'Like jaundice?'

"Yeah I guess?" Neo laughs silently about how ironic it is that he works at a glorified bar with a name so similar. "Did I say something funny?"

'No I just thought of something amusing' 'now what is your scroll number'

Jaune tells Neo his scroll number looking over her shoulder to make sure she gets it right, and is happy to see that she actually put his name in correctly. Jaune sees his name go down in a list of contacts right above Juniors number. Jaune is slightly surprised that she has Junior's number before remembering that she originally came here to see him and the twins. Neo is more than slightly annoyed at Jaune looking over her shoulder and at her scroll and grabs him by the hair before slamming his head into the bar causing the boy to cry out, and fall to the ground.

"What the hell was that for?!" Jaune shouts holding his head in his hands

Neo types out a message, her face locked into a scowl. 'It was your first lesson that you get to learn' Jaune holds his head as he reads the message and asks what kind of lesson was that. 'One about learning to mind your own fucking business'

"I'm sorry. I was just curious." The knight apologizes and gets back to his feet.

'I dont care.' 'Do not do it again' The blonde nods his head and Neo pushes her scroll back into his face. 'It seems like our business is done for now.' 'You will be on time' Neo gets off of the counter and starts to walk to the doors using her semblance to reapply her Mint look when Jaune calls out to her. Neo lazily turns around and raises an eyebrow asking him what he wants.

"You didn't tell me when or where to meet up." the blonde says and Neo raises up 6 fingers flipping him off in the process. Jaune does a pretty good job at ignoring the gesture and asks her what day. Neo sighs silently and pulls out her scroll and starts typing. A small buzz emanates from Jaune's pocket and he pulls out his scroll and sees an unknown number and the words 'next friday' and '6pm do NOT be late'

When Jaune looks up he sees that Neo is already gone and immediately walks to the utility closet to grab a spray bottle and rag to clean off the bar and stool where Neo rested and slammed his head. He can't help but feel excited though. He's getting genuine training from someone who seems to have actual experience with fighting…

Neo was bored out of her mind already. She just left the club and she's already missing the kid, and his crazy talk. She had to leave though before he managed to piss her off enough to have his first "training" session in the middle of the club. She was honestly half tempted before,. but she needs to get him to actually believe he was getting something out of it when she kicks his ass.

Neo didn't actually plan on training the blonde at all; she just wanted a punching bag for those stressful days, as well as having something new to play with. It helped that he irritated her enough to not have any real regrets over it. If he got something out of it good for him, maybe he would learn enough to be useful. While Neo did get kicks out of hurting and scaring people she didn't actually enjoy hurting with no real purpose. She just wasn't the friendliest to those who did earn her negative attention.

She should probably get back to work though then she can see if Roman has any warehouses she could use, and if not then she could just find one or "ask" a different contact. She did have a free cleaning service in Jaune so even if it went to plan C and she needed to use one of the old trashed buildings she would have the means to clean it.

Neo walks down the streets for the rest of the day only half paying attention to the buildings around her.

Jaune finishes his work for the day, which after Neo left primarily consisted of cleaning the bar stools, the bar, and then wiping down the bottles and shelves so nothing had any dust. Unfortunately for the aspiring huntsman, as soon as he's about to exit the bar two people walk right in, and Jaune almost crashes into Melanie and Miltiades Malachite.

Jaune curses in his head, his head still throbbing a bit from when Neo slammed him against the bar. Kissing any semblance of a peaceful time goodbye he greets the twins. "Hello ladies."

"Ahhh if it isn't our third favorite janitor." Miltia responds.

Jaune laughs "Third? Who's second?"

"Whoever comes after you." Melanie says smirking at the current janitor.

"You guys think I'm doing that bad of a job?" Jaune says his face falling a bit to the amusement of the twins.

Miltia and Melanie nod simultaneously and Jaune asks what he's doing wrong or what he needs to be doing better. The twins look at eachother and Jaune knows he's not going to like whatever they have to say.

"The club is more than taken care of, you don't have to worry about that." Melanie says allowing Jaune to let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. "We do have two complaints though…"

'Oh no. Here it comes.' Jaune thinks "What would those be?"

Miltiades responds to his question "Our apartments need to be cleaned and you haven't come over once to help out since you've been here. The old janitor would come by once a week and take care of everything, but you…"

"... Haven't even offered to do anything. Fairly thoughtless of you if I do say so myself." Melanie finishes. Jaune couldn't help but wonder how the twins were able to be so in sync but two of his sisters were the same way. Maybe he'd ask them how they did it whenever he saw them again.

"Helloooo… Are you listening?" Melanie says in a dramatic voice. Jaune snaps out of his internal tangent

"Sorry I got lost in thought." Jaune apologizes "What were you two saying?"

"We were talking about how rude you are and how you should feel awful for not helping us with our apartments." Miltia teases Jaune. The teasing aspect goes right over Jaune's head.

"Oh yeah that. I guess I can do that for you once a week. Just tell me when, and I'll be there." Jaune says plastering on the most genuine looking smile he can.

"Tomorrow night will do." Melanie says quickly, trying not to ruin the free cleaning service they got from the distracted blonde.

"I will be there. Is there any specific time, and where do you two live?"

"Top floor of the apartment building at the corner." They say in unison

"Alright, top floor. Now what corner?" Jaune asks not feeling entirely informed

"Take a right when you exit the club, walk down the street until you get to the corner. We live on the top floor as we said before. Don't worry about getting in, just tell the man at the desk that we hired you and he'll let you right on up. Don't worry about the doors either, we can remotely unlock them once we see that it's you."

"Alright. Is there anything that you want done in a specific way?"

"As long as it's clean when I get back." Miltia says indifferently shrugging her shoulders. Melanie on the other hand begins to list her demands.

"I want the towels rolled up instead of folded, and would like one on the bathroom counter waiting. Make sure to clean the windows, and water the flowers I have. I also have several air fresheners that I would like turned on right when you leave, so I don't have to deal with any cleaning product smells." Jaune nods at Melanie's requests and sends himself a text listing off what Melanie wants specifically.

"Anything else you need done in a certain way?" Jaune asks, looking up from his scroll.

"Not that I can think of right now. I'll tell you if I want anything done a different way from how you did it, and then you can work from there."

"Alright. I know you said you don't care as long as it's clean, but is there anything you want done specifically now that Melanie told me her requirements?"

Miltiades shrugs. "Just clean how you usually would, and we can work from there."

Jaune nods, and types again telling himself that Miltiades just wants her apartment cleaned. Jaune realizes he forgot to ask an important question. "Do you have any specific way you want me to wash your clothes and fold them? I know my sisters are picky about how their clothes are washed, and folded."

"Sisters?" The twins ask, completely ignoring the question the janitor had asked them. Their interest in the conversation increases tenfold as they loom over him.

"Yeah… Sisters? Is there something I'm missing?"

"Yes there is. Why weren't we made aware of this already?" Miltia asks in an accusatory tone.

Jaune shrinks under the faux glares the sisters are giving him. "I-I guess it didn't come up." Jaune stutters.

"Not good enough for an excuse."

"I'm sorry I didn't realize you two would be so interested in my family life, so I didn't bring it up."

"We are very interested." Melanie says.

"O-okay. Well I grew up in one of the larger settlements outside of Vale. I have seven sisters-"

"SEVEN?!" Jaune sighs. He was used to this response but why did it feel like everyone screamed out their reactions. It felt a bit too dramatic as a response.

"Yeah… Seven. I don't really see why it's a big deal, a lot of people have big families right?" Jaune says "Three of them are older than me and four are younger. If you want to add my sister in law then I have eight sisters."

"Your mom and dad must really love each other."

"I hear that a lot more than you'd probably guess." Jaune yawns, putting his hand over his mouth "But to answer your question, yes they do love each other."

"Do you have any brothers?" Melanie asks

"preferably older and better looking"

Jaune sighs. He really wishes they'd stop asking questions, but they are just as in charge of him as Junior is and he'd rather not get on their bad side. "No, I don't have any brothers, I'm the only boy outside of my father."

"Shame."

"Indeed sister. Here I was thinking there was hope for something good to come out of the arrangement with the idiot."

"Hey!" Jaune shouts indignantly, before mumbling about how he's cleaning their apartments for free.

"Did you hear something?" Melanie asks

"I don't think so." Miltia says

"I guess you don't need me here anymore then." Jaune says having played this game with his sisters many times before, and finally seeing his chance to finally get out of work and leave. "Have a good night you two." Jaune smiles and walks out the door trying to leave as quickly as possible without getting dragged back by the twins.

Miltiades sighs and turns to her sister with a slight pout "He's no fun when he doesn't react."

"I think we went too far. The simpler the joke the more flustered he gets. If you get too complicated he doesn't understand the joke and just gets confused."

"He really is an idiot…"

"He walked into the club trying to find someone to help him break into one of the most prestigious, and well guarded places on the planet."

"Ever since we decided to help him he hasn't done anything but come to work and go back to his apartment."

"He needs to learn how to have fun."

"That, he does sister."

Jaune walks home without any problems, the evening air feeling nice on his skin. He has to go back to work tomorrow and then clean the twins' place but he's too happy right now to care. He's getting training from someone with actual fighting experience. Jaune knew Neo might not be the most morally just person but Jaune wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Jaune grabs his keys and enters his apartment grabbing a bottle of water he left in the fridge, and a slice of leftover pizza before plopping down on the old slightly torn up couch. Junior had asked around for Jaune if anyone had any old couches or beds that they needed to get rid of. Jaune was lucky enough to get a twin mattress and a couch for him to sleep on. Thankfully the apartment Junior was renting to Jaune had appliances so he just had to pay rent and bills.

Jaune turns on the TV that came with the apartment and watches the news with Lisa Lavender. Jaune listens to her talk about a recent break in and shoot out and he falls asleep before he even realizes and wakes up the next morning feeling like someone just hit him in the back with a sledgehammer and then tried ringing his head like a bell. He probably should have expected this seeing how the day before went but he doesn't have anything to help with the headache, and back pain except the ice in the freezer.

Walking over, Jaune grabs a plastic bag from a drawer and dumps a handful of ice into the bag before laying back down on the couch. Turning his head towards the TV Jaune watches the news and feels his scroll buzzing in his pocket. The knight takes it out and sees two missed calls from the twins and one from Junior. Jaune immediately calls Junior back, and his boss asks him where he was because the cameras hadn't picked him up coming to work.

Jaune apologizes and tells Junior that he overslept and that he was trying to not hurt his back or his head anymore after his incident with waking up the drunk man yesterday. Junior grumbles and tells Jaune that this one is free because he came in on his day off but to not do it again. Jaune asks Junior if this is why Melanie and Miltiades called him but Junior tells Jaune he has little control over them and if they called him it must have been for different reasons.

Jaune tries remembering if the twins wanted him to do something today but can't recall for now. He asks Junior if he might know what the twins might be calling him about but gets a short laugh and a "who knows, I'd definitely try calling them back though."

Jaune thanks Junior for letting him off easily for missing work today. Junior tells Jaune not to do it again or else their agreement will be over. Jaune apologizes to Junior and tells him he'll make up for it. Junior grunts and tells Jaune reiterates his statement before telling him to have a nice rest of his night and hanging up.

Jaune stares at his scroll for a solid 5 minutes looking at the contacts of Miltia and Melanie. Debating between who would rip into and tease him less. Jaune can't decide and closes his eyes and taps on the screen. Jaune listens to the scroll ring for all of three seconds before someone picks up,

"Mike's Pizza, the best pizza in Vale. What can I do ya for?" a familiar but also much more masculine voice calls out through the speakers. Jaune opens his eyes looking down at his scroll and then at his fridge debating on if maybe this was a sign from the gods, but quickly shakes off the thought. He might almost be out of pizza but he also has more important business to get to right now.

"Sorry sir I hit the wrong number, I will probably be calling back later though."

"Oh alright Jaune, have a nice night and try not to call after 10."

"Got it. You have a nice night too." Jaune says politely before hanging up once again and pressing the contacts of Melanie and Miltia at the same time hoping whichever one answers is less irritated with him than the other. The scroll calls Miltia and Jaune waits until he hears her prerecorded message and then calls Melanie to which the same thing happens. Jaune realizes that they're at the club working and just texts them instead, asking them what they called him about.

Jaune tosses his scroll onto the ground in front of him with a soft thump, and puts the makeshift ice pack back on his head. After half an hour of doing nothing Jaune gets off of the couch and grabs his scroll checking for any new messages from the twins. Seeing none he instead checks the time and sees that it's just past 9 he should probably order that pizza right now if he wanted it.

Jaune orders the pizza and waits another half hour for his pizza to arrive to which he promptly pays and thanks the delivery boy for before shutting the door and setting the pizza on the counter. Usually he would workout on Thursdays but he slept a whole entire day and didn't feel like going to the gym especially with how sore his back is.

Instead he's going to finish his last two slices in the old box of pizza and then eat however much pizza from the new box will fill him. Jaune sits down with the pizza, and starts to zone out mentally with the TV whispering in the background.

Jaune's honestly thinking of getting a part time job to help keep him busy seeing as he only works at Juniors for around 3 to 4 hours a day cleaning unless he's doing an extra deep clean. Having an extra job would give him some more money, and he was sure if he asked Junior he would give him a good recommendation. He'll deal with that next week though when Junior was hopefully in a better mood with him, and he still has his first session with Neo next friday and has to clean the twins' apartments…

Jaune swears and picks up his scroll seeing he got a few angry texts from the twins telling him he knows why they called him. Jaune immediately texts the sisters back with his best excuse. 'im sorry i forgot about the apartments i slept through the whole day and thought it started next thursday.'

Jaune sets down his scroll hoping his excuse works. If it didn't his ass was toast.

Author's Notes: Been a while aint it…

I'm gonna be honest while I have been busy, I've also been extremely lazy having finished everything but the final drafts of the chapters I put out. I apologize sincerely.

No, Jaune's main outfit won't be changing although I will have him wear his work pants while training with Neo, due to the fact that they're very good quality. I want to keep his regular outfit because it keeps him visually as just the normal guy in over his head.

Jaune and Neo's training will be a fairly large focus of the first part of the story but I want to deal a bit more with building even a slightly friendly relationship between the two first and foremost.

As always I thank you for reading. Please leave a review. I like reading them, whether positive or negative, and seeing how you guys feel about the story.

:D