Pyrrha Nikos isn't a girl that can be flattered with something as insincere as a compliment from a stranger. Gift giving is most certainly appreciated, but she's not so stupid as to not realize that if someone is giving her something, they want something from her in return. No amount of money can sway her loyalties, nor material wealth, nor ceaseless fawning.

Granted, some fawning would be graciously accepted if she was just approachable enough to attract such talk, and she only received gifts from corporations that wished for the favor of a renowned warrior, but still, the point stands that wooing her isn't so much as a process as it is an impossibility.

Sufficed to say that she isn't a normal human girl who followed social conventions and stigmas.

Now, this isn't to say that she hadn't been somewhat physically attracted to Jaune Arc when she first laid eyes upon him. She might be extraordinary, but that didn't make her exempt from such basic human desires, however subdued they may be. Eyecandy was eyecandy.

And, admittedly, Pyrrha couldn't help but to mentally insert herself into his question of "Where am I supposed to find a nice, quirky girl to talk to?" even if it wasn't technically intentional. She had caught herself looking at him as he walked away, and had ruminated over what her odd lapse in self-discipline has meant. At the time, she'd shrugged it off. She saw herself as a nice and quirky girl and happened to be standing behind a boy who had requested for such a person to converse with, and she had instinctually made a connection in her head, and as far as she figured, that was all it had meant.

…Once again, at the time.

Then they had met formally in the freshman locker room, in which he had humorously and somewhat pathetically attempted to hit on both her and a girl she had just met, Weiss. When he referred to her as 'hot stuff', Pyrrha had simply disregarded the complement as a product of his bravado. Rather than flattering or offensive, she had found it endearing and funny. Watching him try so hard for the attention of a girl, any girl, had been entertaining to say the least. But, when Weiss had asked of her assistance, she had acted on instinct, and had regrettably speared Jaune to a locker with her trusty javelin.

The incident in the locker room was the most likely explanation as to why Pyrrha had helped Jaune with his fall during initiation. The action practically guaranteed her partnership with the faux knight, as she would have to make eye contact with him in order to retrieve her weapon. Even so, she didn't regret her decision to join up with someone she barely knew.

Why? Because he barely knew her. Weiss seemed nice enough – nice as anybody who had approached her that day with plans of conversation, those people being…well…just Weiss – but Jaune hadn't known her for anything but her publicist's deal with the makers of an unhealthy breakfast cereal. Jaune had made her feel like somewhat of a clear slate, and she embraced the opportunity to obtain a real friend.

And so Pyrrha went on to make one of the most rewarding decisions she would make in her entire life: she became friends with Jaune Arc. Over the course of their time at Beacon, he hadn't always been a stalwart companion to her, but that only made their bonds that much stronger. She had helped him with his problems with Cardin, the fact that her assistance was unbeknownst to him notwithstanding, and had spent months training with him to shape him from an incompetent fighter to a knight who could proudly call himself a hunter in training.

Over time, Pyrrha began to feel different towards Jaune, and her lack of experience in feelings of that nature blinded her to the truth. When Jaune had told Pyrrha of his lack of luck in his attempts at asking Weiss to the dance, something had changed inside Pyrrha. She had nothing against Weiss, and only saw her as a more than competent fighter, as well as her friend, but in that moment, she felt a twinge of jealousy from seemingly nowhere. Words began to flow from her mouth without her mind even comprehending the implications. That there were many fish in the sea, particularly.

And then Jaune had unintentionally targeted a minor insecurity of hers: she was forced to confront that fact that every boy at Beacon was too intimidated by her accomplishments to ask her to the dance. She was a teenager, after all, and the prospect of going to the dance alone seemed a bit dreary, even to her.

Even when she had gone off on him at the dance, when she had told him that she had wished she had gone to the dance with someone like him, she didn't fully understand the extent of what she was saying. It was truthful enough. She just wanted to go to the dance with someone that saw her for her…it just so happened that Jaune was the only person that hope described.

It was only after she had danced with Jaune, who wore a dress simply to fulfill a simple offhanded remark he had made, one that was intended to be to her credit and ended up being at her expense, that she realized the meaning of her choice of words and actions with him.

She had never felt so close to him. She had never been as confident in his pureness of heart and will. She had never wanted so badly for a night to never end. She had never before wanted to never leave the side of a person in her life.

It was foreign. It was exciting. It was terrifying.

...It was love.