*SPOILERS AHEAD* This story is placed after the events of Volume 3.

Italics are thoughts.

"Jaune…"

That name came to him once again, reverberating throughout his world. A world free from pain, worry, and darkness. A world where he can close his eyes and let time pass without a care in the world.

"Jaune…"

The voice threatened to tear him from his sanctuary. In the distance he could hear the sound of a downpour, a heavy torrent of rain that spelled disaster, but he chose to focus only on the sound of the nearby rolling waves that had always offered him protection. The warm pressure of the sand beneath, and the power radiating from the sun above. This was the one place that no one could reach him.

"Jaune."

This time the voice came from directly above him. His eyes shot open, only to be blinded by the sunlight. He recoiled from the pain and quickly closed them again to blink the tears from his eyes. After a few moments, he allowed his eyes to open into a squint. At first, he could only see a pair of feet half buried in the sand, but the figure then stepped over him with one foot, positioning itself directly above him to block the sun.

"Jaune…"

The owner of the voice, a silhouette of a young girl, stood hovering over him, hands on her hips.

"...Pyrrha?"

He asked, his voice rusted from lack of use.

How had she found him here? This is the one place he could ever truly call his. In fact, it's impossible for her to be here at all-

A loud peal of thunder echoed throughout his world, disturbing his thoughts. He glanced away from the girl and looked back to where he once was. The storm was approaching faster. A wall of water racing towards him, puppeteered by pitch black clouds. He chose to drown out the noise, instead focusing his attention back to the girl. However, when he turned back, he saw that she was now on her hands and knees, hovering over him in a stance that can only be that of a predator. The sun, no longer being blocked by her form, poured itself directly into his eyes, nearly blinding his view of her.

"Uh...Pyrrha, what are you-"

His words faltered as her hand came up and caressed his face. He didn't dare move a muscle, or even breathe. They lay there for what seemed like an eternity, his cheek held in her palm, a young man held prisoner by an impossible visitor. All sound from his world faded away into nothing as he was now a captive of her world. A shadow began growing behind her, eventually blocking out even the sun allowing him to see into her fierce green eyes. Finally, the silence was broken by a single question:

"Jaune...do you believe in destiny?"

All of sound came exploding back at once as a particularly large wave crashed onto him, filling his lungs with water. Suddenly, there was no longer sand beneath him, but endless ocean. A dark abyss that threatened to consume him. He desperately spun around in the deep, searching for the girl, but she was nowhere to be found.

Of course she isn't here. It's not possible for her to be here. After all, this world is just-

The sound of a curtain being drawn sharply open woke him from his sleep. The sudden invasion of sunlight brought back memories of the beach, his beach.

"A dream…"

Jaune muttered to himself as he rolled over in his bed to hide his drowsy eyes from the overpowering sun. A few moments later, a strong voice called out to him.

"Jaune...if you don't hurry, we're going to miss the first flight into town."

Jaune lifted his head slightly and observed the speaker from the corner of his eye. The warrior goddess was standing on the other side of the room fiddling with her ears as she looked over at him. She was already dressed for the day, wearing a yellow blouse that resembled the sun, and a pair of deep blue jeans. She saw that he was already awake and said:

"Come on Jaune, you promised you would spend the whole day with me. That means sunrise to sunset."

A smirk danced across her lips. Pyrrha knew he wasn't a morning person, and often took advantage of this lethargic weakness of his.

" 'An Arc never goes back on his word!' or something like that...hm?"

Jaune sighed, and pushed himself into a sitting position on his bed. He always slept in nothing but a pair of shorts, but his teammates were very used to the sight of him in the morning, including Pyrrha.

"You're right. Let me take a shower and get dressed. I'll meet you by the airship in about 15 minutes."

She smiled and danced on light feet as she walked out the door into the hall, still fiddling with her ears.

After a quick shower and a fresh change of clothes, Jaune headed for the front of the school at a light jog. As he arrived at the docking pad, he noticed that he and Pyrrha were the only passengers waiting for the airship this morning. When he put the thought to his partner, she simply replied:

"Hmm, well it is early. And it's a weekend. Most of the students and teachers wouldn't need to come into town this early."

As calculated as ever.

He thought to himself.

"Guess that means we'll have the whole ship to ourselves." He muttered under his breath glancing at Pyrrha to ensure she didn't hear. A light blush on her cheeks and her widened eyes told him otherwise. Fortunately, he was saved by the sound of engines coming within earshot. The airship had finally arrived and opened it's doors to them. They boarded the vehicle and informed the pilot that they were the only ones this morning. While waiting for the ship to prepare for take-off, they heard a rumble in the distance. Looking out of the passenger windows, they could see dark clouds in the far off sky.

"Thats strange, I thought for sure that the forecast called for no rain today."

The goddess said with a look of worry showing on her face.

"It looks like a long way out, and we'll be flying away from it. We should have plenty of time before it reaches us."

She smiled at his reassuring words, but as the ship began closing its passenger doors, Pyrrha asked:

"Come to think of it Jaune, don't you still have issues with flying?"

On the flight over, Jaune nearly hurled a total of 12 times, but was proud to say that he did not live up to his nickname "Vomit Boy" today. However, it was mostly Pyrrha being there that caused Jaune to rally so many times.

After taking some time for Jaune to recover, they took off into town visiting the various shops that Pyrrha had planned for that day. Anything from weapon stores, to candy shops, nothing was off limits for today it seemed. While leaving the 3rd bookstore they had visited that morning, Jaune bumped into someone, knocking their bags out of their hands.

"Oh, I'm so sorry about that, I didn't see you there!"

He gathered up her things and they exchanged the usual pleasantries of an accident such as this. After the stranger went on her way, he reviewed the streets once again.

It's a lot busier now than it was this morning.

"I guess everyone's awake now, huh?"

Pyrrha commented, mirroring his thoughts. As he continued to watch the pedestrians wander by, he spied that one stranger held a conveniently sized sandwich. Perhaps it had been due to missing breakfast that morning, or the fact that it was lunch time now, but he suddenly felt incredibly hungry and exhausted.

"Hey Pyrrha…"

She replied before he could finish his thought.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's get something to eat."

They walked a short ways down the street to a small sandwich shop that not many knew about. After retrieving their food from the counter, they both sat in the back corner of the shop, away from any other customers. While they were eating, Jaune noticed that Pyrrha was fiddling with her ears every now and then.

She was doing that this morning too.

He struggled to look closer without alerting his partner and finally noticed what she was playing with. Attached to each of her ears, were accessories of a simple design: a small chain with a golden orb hanging down. Jaune took another bite of his sandwich as he observed her. Normally, this wouldn't be that strange of a discovery. Girls wear earrings. He may not be the brightest, but he did grow up with seven sisters. However…

Pyrrha never wears earrings.

In fact, she usually hates accessories. The only accessory Jaune had seen her wear often was her headdress during combat.

Or is that actually useful in combat? I always thought it was just for style-

"Hey Jaune."

Snapping out of his inner thoughts, his eyes came back into focus on his partner. He gave her a questioning look.

"You've been staring at me for the past five minutes. Everything alright?"

Moments before Jaune became the most flustered he'd ever been in his life, he caught a glance of a quick smirk on Pyrrha's lips. Realizing she'd backed him into a corner on purpose, he quickly fired back with one of his classic lines.

"Well I noticed that you're wearing earrings today, and I just couldn't help but stare at the beautiful girl in front of me."

Quite proud of himself, Jaune crossed his arms and closed his eyes in confidence.

How's that Pyrrha? Jaune Arc always gets the last word…

After a few seconds of silence, Jaune opened one of his eyes to spy his partner across the table. Pyrrha hadn't moved an inch, and was staring at him with a blank expression. After a few more seconds, her face turned incredibly red, and she looked back down at her food.

"Oh…"

She said as she moved her food around aimlessly.

That's not how that usually goes…

Jaune thought to himself as he gazed at her. He noticed that she was still red from the tip of her chin to the tops of her ears. He recalled Pyrrha's words from one of their training bouts.

"Don't let up. When you have the advantage, press your opponent harder!"

Not recognizing that he was definitely mis-using this advice, Jaune pressed the attack.

"Not to mention that outfit you're wearing. I don't think I remember the last time I've seen you in normal clothes."

Suddenly, a glint shone in her eye as she looked up at him, smiling as only a predator could.

Oh shi-

"And what about you lover boy? Do you own anything other than black?"

"Huh?"

Jaune looked down to examine his outfit. Indeed, he was wearing a rather dark pallet of colors on this bright day: dark jeans with a long sleeve black button down shirt accompanied by a black tie. He must have quickly grabbed whatever he could find this morning as he was running behind. But…

I don't even remember owning a black tie...

Pyrrha chuckled to herself across the table, glad to have reversed the situation.

"Don't worry, we can head to a clothes store after this and pick out some more...colorful shirts."

As they left the shop, Jaune insisted that he pay for the meal, half due to guilt of what he'd try to do to her…

And the other half…

"It's really not necessary Jaune."

Broken from his thoughts, he looked over at Pyrrha. Smiling, he said:

"I insist."

After paying, they left the shop and made their way to, what he presumed was a clothing store. After a few hours of shopping through several different clothing stores, they ended up empty handed.

"I thought you were going to pick out some more colorful shirts for me?

Jaune said with a chuckle. They were currently walking down a small back road in town. Usually, Jaune wouldn't have traversed this path, but Pyrrha insisted on taking the lead.

"Hmm, well I changed my mind. What you're wearing now is appropriate."

Appropriate? I guess it's a compliment.

Occasionally, Pyrrha's archaic speech made it difficult to understand what she was trying to say, but Jaune had been making strides in deciphering her words. Thinking back on today, it feels like she had been trying her best to speak as normal as possible as they went through all of the shops.

We definitely visited a lot of places today.

Not counting the sandwich shop, they had probably visited over 15 different stores today. Yet, Jaune couldn't help but notice that both he and Pyrrha were empty handed.

"Hey Pyrrha, I thought you needed a bunch of stuff for today. But you haven't bought anything…"

Pyrrha turned around a corner and dropped out of his sight for a moment. As he rounded the corner to catch up, he came into view of a beautiful park complete with lush grass, beautiful trees with pink leaves falling slowly over a small lake. Pyrrha was making her way towards a bench that overlooked a portion of untouched grass. Jaune stepped forward to follow her, but stopped when he noticed as sign posted nearby that read:

Schnee Family Reservation

As he was about to walk past it towards Pyrrha, a low rumble thundered above him, reminding him of the storm that was approaching. He quickly walked over to the bench that she sat upon and leaned over it to speak with her.

"Hey, I'm not sure we should be here. That sign said that it's the property of Weiss' family. Pyrrha didn't look up, but instead stared out over to the falling sun as she responded.

"It shouldn't be a problem. We won't be here long."

Jaune hesitated, then sat down on the bench next to her, all the while keeping an eye on the sky above. A few moments went by before he spoke again, this time turning his head to face her.

"Well? Why didn't you buy anything today?"

A long silence ensued, during which she refused to look at him, deciding instead to focus entirely on the sun as it sank lower in the sky. Her breathing slowed to a fraction of what it was, so slow that it made her appear as but a statue, eternally resting on this bench in a hidden paradise. Finally, she breathed deeply and glanced over at Jaune before standing at walking slightly ahead, onto the lush, green grass. She spoke to him, all while watching the sunset.

"I won't really need anything…"

Spinning around, she reached out her hand, inviting him to walk over to her.

"I've got you after all."

Fighting back the nerves, and ignoring the sound of thunder that threatened to drown out this moment, Jaune stood from the bench and walked over to his partner. Taking her hand, he noticed that her hands were shaking erratically.

"Not much time now."

She whispered. She let go of his hand, and instead grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him into a kiss so energetic it could only be called desperate. The warmth of her lips allowed Jaune to escape the worry of the storm and the questions about today. Instead, he simply pulled her closer as she clung to his body in desperate fervor. Their lips eventually parted and he could hear her raspy breaths as she struggled to get air. He refused to let her go as she leaned her head on his chest. Jaune wishes with all his might that they could stay here like this forever in this hidden piece of the world, away from pain, worry, and darkness; but the thunder directly above told him a different story. Pyrrha leaned back from his chest and rested her forehead on his, gazing into his eyes. The final light of the setting sun reaching across millions of miles only to break across her fiery red hair. The shadow of it's fading light drew across her face, blocking out most of her features apart from her glowing green eyes.

"Jaune…"

The familiar voice whispered his name, bringing up memories of the past year he had known her, of the first time she had chosen him to be her partner. Of all the times she saved him, trained him, loved him. He stared into her emerald eyes unblinking, not wanting to miss a single second.

"Jaune...do you believe in destiny?"

The eternal question he will be asked is prompted before him again. He desperately answered, saying what he should have told her so long ago.

"No...no Pyrrha, I don't. Every choice we make decides the course of our lives. I don't believe our destiny is some goal that we are unknowingly heading for-"

"Jaune…"

"-I believe that we can change everything with our own decisions. I believe that we can make our own destiny."

Tears were streaming down his face as he completed his penance. He gripped her tighter, desperately holding on to her body as the last moment of light faded away, giving the park away only to the darkness of the storm. Then she was gone.

His arms now empty, they fell to their sides, hanging uselessly as he stood in the park, surrounded by hundreds of students. His black tie flowing uncontrollably in the turbulent winds, he stood gazing at the open grave in front of him. A picture of the warrior goddess was placed lightly among an arrangement of flowers. The small sounds of weeping could be heard from behind him, nearly drowned out by the raging winds. He stood within his own swirling vortex of emotions, desperately trying to retreat to his own world, for the safety of his own sanity; but instead, he could only stand in silence as the first drops of rain fell. He stood there long after the procession ended, long after the grave had been closed and the stone decorated. He stood there throughout the storm begging that she could not tell the difference between the drops of rain and his own tears.

And it seems that it is the smallest moments, the smallest decisions that decide the outcomes of wars; the outcomes of relationships; the outcomes of tragedy. It is in these moments that humans truly exist and it is in these times that we can truly shatter our existence.