*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

"Ugh…"

A little girl rubbed her eyes and stretched as she rose up from her bed. She could see the sun shining through the window and beaming onto her bookshelf.

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

"What is that noise?" The girl muttered to herself. Fully awake by now, she slipped out of her bed, put on her slippers, and grabbed the stuffed rabbit on her bed. Yawning a little bit, she made her way out of the room and down the stairs of her home. As she entered the kitchen, she noticed the smell of sausages. A woman a bit on the plump side with brown, close-cut hair hummed over the stove as she worked, only to turn and smile.

"Good morning, Pyrrha." The woman smiled.

Pyrrha smiled back and ran into her arms with a huge hug.

"Good morning, mother." She mumbled.

"Now how is my little sweet? Clearly filled with energy today, even before I've made breakfast! Is there anything you want this morning?"

"I'll be fine with whatever you make, mother." Pyrrha responded. "We all know your cooking is the best."

"Thank you, my dear." Pyrrha's mother smiled. "I'll be finished in a few moments, why don't you take the dishes and set them-"

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

The exact same noise from earlier appeared, and Pyrrha jumped. Her mother sighed and looked out the window, putting her hands to her hips.

"Honestly, those three. There's no need to take things this far, this early in the morning."

Pyrrha waited a little bit to see if her mother would say anything more. But instead, she turned back to the stove and got back to work. Pyrrha peeked out the window, but could not see anything.

"What is going out there, mother?"

"Training." Her mother sighed. "Coach Phillip is out there, along with your father and brother. I do not know why they have to train before breakf-"

"BROTHER'S HERE?! HE'S BACK?!"

"Pyrrha!" Her mother raised her voice. "There is no need to shout like that. But yes, Anausa is here. He is back from the tournament."

"I-I'm sorry, mom." Pyrrha looked down on the floor for a moment, clutching her stuffed rabbit. "But did he win?"

"You could ask him yourself. I'm sure he misses you too. Why don't you go on ahead and talk to him? Would actually encourage him to stop and rest for a bit."

She turned back towards the stove to flip some of the sausages, then looked back in her daughter's direction.

"And while you're at it, could you tell them breakfast will be ready in ten-"

The only thing there was her stuffed rabbit. Pyrrha's mother sighed, picked the toy up, and set it by the nearby table.

Pyrrha only took the time to take off her slippers and put on a pair of sandals before she barreled out the door. The Nikos home was respectably large, but what made it special to her was the huge backyard. Her father always said that he wanted a big place for his children to play in, and Pyrrha certainly believed that it was the Best Place in the World.

But because the yard was so large, she actually could not see her brother when she left the door. Not that it mattered. Pyrrha knew exactly where he would be. She ran towards the middle of the field, only to hear that clanging noise again.

Three people were standing there. A stout, red-headed man stood a little apart from the other two. A taller man was standing, and lying on the ground was…

"BROTHER!"

Pyrrha's brother only had time to lift his upper body off the ground before he was tackled by his sister. He slammed flat on the ground, but that did not stop from bringing his arms around her.

"Hey, Pyrrha!" He laughed, stroking her shoulder-length hair. "How are you doing?"
"How are you doing?" Pyrrha grinned back at him. "Mom told me you came back from the tournament. The big tournament. The Mistrali Regional Tournament. Did you win? Did you win?"

"I…" Anausa's grin faded a little bit, and he looked away from her and towards the other red-haired man. The other man laughed as he looked at the two of them.

"He did as well as he could." He said. "Got to the third round, eh? You may not have won, but it is a respectable showing for a tournament of that size. Right, my boy?"

"Right, father." Anausa softly said. "It is."

Pyrrha looked at Anausa's face for a bit and then just giggled and hugged him again. He hugged her back as he smiled once again. But then a shadow loomed over the two of them as Pyrrha took a better look at the third person.

He was tall and thin. While he was clearly older than Pyrrha's father given the wrinkles on his face, his brown hair and pencil mustache were perfectly trimmed. He kept his arms behind his back as he stared down at the two of them without any emotion, and a longsword dangled at his side.

"So." He finally said. "You must be Pyrrha Nikos. That boy talks quite a bit about you. You are energetic."

Without waiting for a response, he bent down so that his face was at Pyrrha's level.

"My name is Phillip." He said. "I am that boy's coach. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Hi, Phillip." Pyrrha answered. "So you help my brother get strong! Is he really good?"

Phillip looked at Pyrrha, then at Anausa. Without answering the question, he stood back up and looked down at the two of them.

"How old are you, Pyrrha?" He finally said. "Ten? Eleven?"

"Eight, actually."

"Tall for your age then. Five years younger than your brother." Phillip nodded. "Eight was when I started training to become a Hunter."

Pyrrha's eyes widened.

"You are a Hunter!" She cried. "So that means you're a hero, right? You fight and beat the Grimm and other bad guys?"

"I was one." Phillip coolly said. "It has been a long time since I was deployed to fight those monsters. Things were different back then."

Pyrrha nodded, taking in every world Phillip said like it spelled the truth of the universe. But then her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the sword dangling at his sword.

"Is that your Hunter weapon?" She asked. "Did you fight Grimm with that?"

"This is just an ordinary sword." Phillip pulled it out. "I see no reason to use my actual Hunter weapons against your brother. Not until he improves."

Pyrrha frowned a bit at that, but then looked over at Anausa.

"Brother, where's your spear?"

Anausa gave an embarrassed grin at her puzzled expression.

"Coach knocked them away while we were sparring. They are over there."

He pointed to his right, and Pyrrha could see a long spear sticking out of the ground, along with a large shield.

"I'll go get them!" She cried out, running towards them before anyone could react. When she got there, she looked down on the weapons. The white and blue shield was almost as tall as she was, and the spear blade was almost as thin as her little finger. Without any hesitation, she picked them up and carried them to her brother, dropping them with a thud.

"Here you go!" She said.

But no one said anything, and so Pyrrha looked up. Her father and brother seemed to be staring at her with surprise. Meanwhile, Phillip seemed to be as expressionless as ever, but Pyrrha could see his eyes glinting.

"Is something wrong?" She asked. "Did I carry them wrong?"

"No." Phillip instantly answered. "Nothing is wrong."

But that didn't stop Pyrrha from looking at their strange expressions. She opened her mouth again-

"Breakfast is ready! You people can stop training for a second in your lives. Come in, eat. All of you!"

Everyone turned to see mother standing in the yard, her arms folded in front of her. Pyrrha jumped up and ran towards her, her question forgotten. Anausa then stood up and grabbed Pyrrha in her arms, plopping the laughing girl on her shoulders.

"Who wants a piggy-back ride?"

"I do! I do!"

Laughing, the two of them ran into the house, leaving Anausa's weapons on the ground. Pyrrha's father looked down at them before picking them up.

"Anausa has trouble handling their weight at times." He muttered. "But Pyrrha…"

"Indeed." Phillip answered.

Without saying anything else, the two of them headed to the kitchen.

"Your cooking is the best, mom!"

Anausa spooned the last of the eggs into his mouth before handing his plate back to his mother.

"You should always eat well when you're young." She said. "When you're my age, you always have to worry about what's healthy and what is not. So enjoy good food whenever you can."

"Hear, hear, Helena." Pyrrha's father nodded, sipping on his coffee before pouring another cup for Phillip. "And come on, Phillip. At least try some."

"I can function perfectly well without the use of stimulants." Phillip answered as he set down a glass of milk. "At any rate, thank you for the meal, Mrs. Nikos. You too, Patroclus."

"Think nothing of it!"

As breakfast went on, Pyrrha couldn't help but grin at all of the chatter. She speared a sausage with her fork, and bit down on it as she watched her father, then her mother, and then her brother and his coach. She grinned, chewed…

"BLARRRGH!"

…and spat the sausage out, coughing all the while.

"Pyrrha?" Her father suddenly stood up. "What's wrong?"

"Hot, hot, hot, hot! It's hot! It's…"

As Pyrrha guzzled down some milk, she looked to her right. Her brother was pointedly staring away from her at the opposite wall, but that did not stop her from noticing the bottle of hot sauce sitting to his right.

"Brother!" She yelled out, hitting his arms with clenched fists.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Anausa laughed. "I won't do it again, I swear on my life!"

"You've done this before! And you said those exact words then too!"

"Oh yeah, I did."

Pyrrha glared daggers at Anausa, who stood up and put the bottle back in the cabinet.

"Okay, I'm actually sorry." He said. "How about I make it up to you, Pyrrha? What do you want to do? I can get you some pastries tomorrow."

Pyrrha almost said yes to the idea, but then stopped as she put a finger to her lips. After a moment, she nodded.

"I don't want any gifts." She said. "I just want to spend today with you."

"O-oh." Anausa put a hand behind his face. "Well, I'm kind of busy today. Coach and I are going to practice after breakfast and for most of the day, so it's hard to make time for you…"

"W-what?" Pyrrha stared up at him, green eyes shimmering in disappointment.

"Well, maybe…how about you can come watch me train? Maybe you can do some running, or see what I do when I train for those tournaments. Would that be okay? I mean, as long as Coach does not have a problem with it." He quickly looked over at him.

Phillip just looked at Anausa for a long time, then over at Pyrrha. His eyes then flitted over to Pyrrha's father, who just shrugged.

"I have no objections." He finally said.

"Well, there it is." Anausa laughed nervously. "So how about it, Pyrrha? Would you like to watch me train?"

The little girl nodded before she jumped up and hugged Anausa. Anausa hugged her back, and Pyrrha's mom laughed as she watched the two of them.

Pyrrha really didn't know what training entailed.

Oh, she knew what exercise was. Exercise was important to keep your body fit, everyone knew that. But there was running a few laps at school, and then there was this.

The minute breakfast was over, Philip took Anausa back outside. He then gave her brother his spear and shield back and told him to thrust the weapon. Again, and again, and again. And almost every single time, he would tell him how he got it wrong.

"Too slow."

"You are leaving your right side open."

"Harder."

"Harder."

"Harder."

Philip never yelled. In fact, he never even raised his voice. But that just made each one of his cold remarks even harsher.

After that, they ran. Pyrrha tried to keep up with them at first, but her legs were just too small to keep stride with them. But in the distance, she could see her brother run like his life depended on it. While he struggled, Phillip jogged alongside him without breathing hard.

After running, it was pushups, sit-ups, and all sorts of exercises which she didn't recognize. And while Anausa kept it up with nary a complaint, Philip never seemed to be satisfied.

Eventually, at long last, Philip said they would take a short break. Anausa collapsed onto his knees, and Pyrrha ran up to him with a bottle of water.

"Thanks." He said as he eagerly drank. "I'm really sorry about this, Pyrrha. You must be bored watching me do all of this."

"No, not at all." Pyrrha shook her head. "In fact, it's really cool. You have to work really hard to get to where you are, right? It's really awesome to see you trying so much."

"Well, I still have a long ways to go to be the best." Anausa smiled and ruffled her hair, just in the way she liked it. "But I know as long as I work hard enough, everything will turn out alright."

He drank again, and Pyrrha just watched him. Pyrrha looked out at the grassy field they were sitting on before she turned to him.

"Hey, brother."

"Hm?" Anausa said as he set it down.

"I was just wondering. Do you think I can exercise and train with you?"

Anausa frowned at that.

"Why?"

Pyrrha shrugged.

"It seems fun, and you look cool doing it. So I want to be cool, too."

"Well, it is a lot of work." Anausa said. "Sometimes, there are days where I wonder why I work so hard and only get through with toughness. And it is not like Coach can teach you and me the exact same things at the same time."

"I see." Pyrrha looked down at the ground. "I guess that is true."

"Hey, I didn't say you could not train!" Anausa laughed. "But maybe I can work with you. Teach you some basics. And then if you like that, we will see what happens next. Coach always says you have to start with the small things first, you know."

"You'd be willing to teach me?"

"Of course, Pyrrha. Of course. Do you want to?"

"Absolutely!" Pyrrha cried out. "So when can we start?"

"Definitely not now, because the boy's break was up two minutes ago."

Philip stood over the two of them, his expression as blank as ever.

"Time for you to get up and stop lollygagging, boy. Get running."

"Well, sir…" Anausa hesitated. "Can I run carrying my sister?"

Phillip stared at Anausa before finally shrugging.

"The extra weight will be good for you."

Anausa bent down and put his arms behind him, and Pyrrha clambered on. And with that, he began running. He was hot. He was sweaty. He smelled.

But as he ran carrying Pyrrha, she was perfectly happy like this.

...

...

OOC: If anyone cares, I guess I'm back. This will run about 15 chapters. Chapters 2 and 3 are already written, but I'll give it a few days until I actually post it.