Authors Note: This sort of came out of nowhere. I was in a RWBY discussion chat room made by VnixxiR on Deviantart and someone mentioned a Jaune x Pyrrha fanfic. I volunteered to do it and thus, this happened! Sorry if the quality is not as good as massages, I am still a little shaky when writing Jaune and Pyrrha interaction or just Pyrrha in general. The next chapter of massages is being edited as I type this, so hopefully that will be up soon.
Written to 'Anyone out there' by Stan SB
A prank gone wrong
Nora was not happy. She was not happy because for the first time since she and Ren had come to Beacon, Ren was not with her. He was on a solo reconnaissance mission and was not expected back until tomorrow.
He had left a week ago.
Nora had been distracted and irritable all week. Without Ren's calming influence on her she had started snapping at people when she was normally cheerful. She didn't laugh at Ruby's stupid jokes and JNPR's whole team dynamic was thrown off by her attitude. Jaune had been taking it in stride until today, when he snapped and left to blow off some steam in the training room. Pyrrha didn't blame him, she had snapped at Nora only three days after Ren left.
Pyrrha, Nora and team RWBY were sitting at the lunch table after Jaune left when suddenly Nora slammed her hands on the table and shouted "I've got it!"
"Got what?" Ruby asked tentatively.
"I'm going to prank him!" she cried out.
"Who?" Pyrrha asked, already feeling like she knew the answer.
"Jaune!"
"Okay, why are you pranking him?" Ruby whispered while crouched behind a window. Through the window they could see Jaune hacking away at many training robots on the field. He had been improving in leaps and bounds and was practically untouchable amongst the sea of metal.
"I have wanted to prank somebody recently, and I see him as the perfect candidate. I prepared for this prank a little earlier." She whispered with her tongue between her teeth. She was fiddling with a remote of sorts and connecting wires to various portions of a circuit.
"What kind of prank were you thinking of doing?" Yang whispered to her.
"I connected this button to his shield earlier, I'll activate it at random, I can't wait to see his face when his shield starts going out of control!" she said gleefully, finishing her job with the wires and peering through the window.
There was only one robot left on the field that Jaune was fighting. He was visibly tired and sweat coated his body, but he pressed on and rolled under the robots blade, before twisting and jumping to impale his sword through the robots metallic skull.
It was in this moment that Nora chose to act, and in that same moment that everything went terribly wrong.
As Jaune descended from the deactivated robot, she pressed the button. Only the robot wasn't done yet. Jaune had missed a vital part of its circuits in his stab, only piercing the left half of its head. It had just enough power and just enough thinking capacity left to throw its arm forward in a straight punch. But there was another problem, the robots power limiter had been destroyed by Jaune's stab. Instead of putting microscopic portions of power into the punch like usual it drained the rest of its battery and threw a punch with as much force as its motors could muster. Which is to say, a really, really powerful punch.
Jaune would have normally dodged the punch with ease, even when he had first arrived at beacon. But when he had first arrived at beacon he hadn't been the victim of a prank. At least not one like this.
Everyone except Nora saw it coming. Well, Nora did see it coming, but not in the same way. She had focused on accomplishing her goal and would not be deterred from that task. A small part of her brain in the back of her mind registered that this was a bad idea and too wait until Jaune had blocked or dodged the punch, but if Nora was noted for anything it was acting without thinking. And act without thinking she did.
His shield was in sheath form at his waist when it suddenly expanded as he was still falling. It struck the earth and before he could get his balance, caused him to tip straight into the punch.
Six voices cried out in shock and horror as the robot threw its super powered punch straight into Jaune's face, and they were silenced when a horrible crack echoed throughout the field as Jaune was flung to the ground, blood slowly pooling around his body.
Pyrrha was out on the field first, followed quickly by the other girls except Nora. When Jaune had taken the punch she had gone into shock, and silently fell to her knees as Jaune was crowded by the five girls. Nora was pulled aside by paramedics who always stayed on hand whenever someone was training as others raced down to Jaune's unmoving body. The paramedics were quick to act and put Jaune in a dust stasis glyph, then immediately rushed him to the medical ward of the school. Nora by this time was completely in shock, and was quick to faint against the cold marble of the room they had watched from, thinking only of how much she wished Ren was here right now.
"Nora, are you awake?"
She knew that voice, its owner was in the back of her mind but she just could not reach it.
"Nora, it's me, Ren."
Ren!
She bolted upright in the bed, and was about to tell Ren of the crazy nightmare she had where Jaune had been injured and she had been so scared when she realized that she had woken up in a hospital bed, not her usual one.
She looked up at him and tried to speak, but choked up before she could get the words out. Ren however, was able to answer her unsaid question.
"He is being operated on by the doctors right now."
"But…?" she asked, trepidation filling her heart.
"They say his chances aren't good, his neck was not completely broken, but it was severely damaged by the robot.
"Ren, I-I didn't… I didn't think that this wo-"she was cut off by Pyrrha before she could finish her sentence.
"Of course you didn't think" Pyrrha's voice was deathly quiet and soaked with malice. "You never think Nora. And look what happens!" she finished in a shout, her aura blazing around her like fire.
"Pyrrha, please, she's disorientated and she-" Ren tried to say.
"No! Don't give me that!" Pyrrha snapped furiously. "You always act without thinking; you never consider what is happening around you and what the consequences of your actions might be! And look where it left us! A dying leader on the operating table and, and…" she could not finish her statement; she had been shocked into silence.
Nora was crying.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this…" she began to sob. "This wasn't supposed to happen!" she wailed, clutching at Ren like a child.
Pyrrha anger dissipated and she collapsed into the chair next to Nora's bed, mentally and physically exhausted by the events that had occurred over the last several hours.
They remained that way for nearly thirty minutes, and when Nora's sobs finally began to die down the door slammed open and the doctor rushed through.
They all looked to him, the seed of fear that had been growing in all of their hearts being swept away by his beaming face.
"Good news!" he cried out. "The boy will make a full recovery!"
Nora burst into tears again.
"I'm so glad!" she sobbed onto Ren's shoulder.
"Can we see him?" Pyrrha asked the man urgently.
"I'm afraid not, he needs some time to recover. The dust we used has healed the injury but he needs rest. She nodded and grudgingly agreed to stay out of his room for the time being.
Finally, after an entire day of waiting, Pyrrha was allowed in, having been told by the doctor that Jaune had finally awoken.
She cautiously entered the room, making as little noise as possible so as to not disturb the young boy lying in the bed before her. He was deathly pale, but breathing fine and showed no signs of discomfort.
She sat down on a guest chair and gently whispered "Jaune…?"
He twitched, then gradually came back from the realm of unconsciousness, blinking the tiredness out of his eyes.
"Pyrrha…?" he mumbled softly, clearing his eyes and looking over to her.
Unable to stop herself she pulled Jaune into a tight hug, only to pull back when he yelped.
"I'm sorry! Its just…"
He placed his hand on hers gently. "Just what?"
"I thought I had lost you, we all did. There were things I wanted to tell you, things I wish I had said before all this."
"Me too" he said softly. "I was in and out before they put me under for the operation. I barely heard them say I might not make it. Pyrrha?"
"Yes Jaune?"
"There is something I have been meaning to tell you, something I have never been able to get around to saying. When I thought I was going to die I promised to myself I would say this if I did make it. Pyrrha, I lo-"
Before he could finish that sentence she placed her hand over his mouth.
"Don't say it because you are scared of not being able too. Say it because you truly and dearly want too. Don't become fearful because of an experience like this, you might say something without truly meaning it. If you want to tell me something important, do it because you want to. Not because you were afraid you wouldn't be able too."
She pulled back, or at least, she tried to. Jaune caught her wrist before she went out of his reach.
"But I do mean it" he said with as much sincerity in his voice that he could muster.
She froze.
All of her career as a celebrity she had hundreds of boys come to her and tell her of how much they loved her and wanted to devote themselves to her. She quickly learned that most of them were acting on instincts, not genuine affection for who she was. None of them had known her; they saw her on cereal boxes and at tournaments. They didn't know who she truly was. Yet Jaune knew her, he trained with her, ate with her, slept in the same room as her, sat in classes with her, Jaune spent most of his time with her. If there was someone who truly knew her, it would be Jaune. So, could it be possible? Could he truly mean those words he hadn't been able to say?
"I admired you. You were everything I was not. Graceful in a fight, strong, you were smart and had incredible training with your aura. And yet, when you learned of how weak I was you chose to seek me out and partner with me. You stuck with me even when I was being conceited and prideful. You never gave up on me, no matter how tough it got."
"I love you Pyrrha. I truly, honestly love you."
And with that she could stop herself no longer. She whirled around as fast as possible and pulled him close, pressing her lips against his and kissing him with all the passion she could muster. She poured out all the feelings she had been burying and he returned them with equal fervor.
To both of their displeasure, she pulled away, only to whisper a quiet "I love you too Jaune" to him, before pulling him back and kissing him again.
Sure the days had been stressful, and sure Jaune would never truly be the same after his brush with death. But neither of them cared, they would work past those issues the same way they worked through missions.
Together.