Author's Note:

Hey everyone, this is the last 1 chapter arc I have in volume 1, and I only did it to give Pyrrha a test drive. Turns out that I am not very convinced that I can write her properly. Anywho, I'll just leave the rest for the end, so enjoy.

This chapter contains grumbling, sleeping, crying, and a showcase of Jaune's ability to take care of his team. Nothing major, so still keeping it at T.

"Girls! Why are you all half asleep?" Professor Oobleck asked as he zipped back and forth between Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha. "I was under the impression you had a weekend to recharge your energy. Why are you not energized?"

"We're sorry, Professor. We had an overexcited teammate to deal with last night." Pyrrha answered for the group.

"Be that how it may, I must insist you are more attentive in class. You will all compose a summary of this class, minimum one page, to be on my desk tomorrow." He said as he took another sip of coffee. "And may I recommend coffee the next time you are feeling a lack of attentiveness."

"Yes, Professor." The group answered with a grumble.

"Very well. Now, as you all know, the upcoming combat tournament will take place next week. Therefore, I will not be giving homework that must be handed in. However, I will be giving you the assignments for your own studies, as a guideline for the test coming up after the tournament." He paused once again. His coffee must have been empty because he paused with the cup half way to his mouth, which turned down in a frown. "You are dismissed."

Everyone sat in their seats as Professor Oobleck left the room. Slowly, they realized they were dismissed and started to get up. Nora was bouncing like usual and drew the stares of all the other girls. Yang was visibly mad at Nora, but too tired to actually do anything, which the rest of her team was happy about, seeing as they were too tired to stop her if she started anything.

"Nora?" Ruby mumbled as she started past the group of half asleep girls.

"What's up?" Nora answered, bouncing to a halt in front of her.

"Don't ever do that again." Yang grumbled as she tried to get up and collapsed back into her chair.

"Do what?" Nora asked, obviously less concerned for their lack of sleep than they were.

"Wake us up in the middle of the night, you dunce!" Weiss clarified in her usual way. She'd had eight cups of coffee and was in a very bad mood, even by her standards.

Nora flinched at Weiss's tone, and Pyrrha felt the need to add another comment. "Unless it involves something important for all of us."

"Like an alien attack." Blake grumbled as she managed to keep her feet and lift her bag over her shoulder.

The others took that as the queue to also get up. Weiss and Ruby stumbled and ended up with their arms linked to stay upright and Yang happened to stumble into Pyrrha who caught her before she hit the floor. Blake was the only one who seemed completely able to stand even with her lack of sleep.

"I thought you were some type of champion?" Yang asked Pyrrha as they stumbled out of the room.

"I am, but I also have Nora sleeping in the same room. Or in the case of last night, not sleeping." She replied.

"Oh…" Yang replied as the implication slowly worked its way into her brain. "She kept you up all night?"

"No, I managed to sleep for thirty five minutes while she went to get ready this morning." She responded.

Jaune came up to the group and stopped beside Yang and Pyrrha. "Why are you all so tired?"

Pyrrha shook her head and Yang noticed a small smile appear on her lips. "Why are you not?" Yang asked, surprised at his total lack of tiredness.

"He slept all last night." Pyrrha answered. "He and Ren talked for maybe five minutes that was mostly silence and then they both fell asleep while Nora decided to recount in amazing detail her evening. In fact, I think it would have been shorter if I was there."

"Oh…" Yang said. "I feel bad for you now, but I won't trade places, so don't ask."

"That's alright. She is my teammate, after all." Pyrrha answered.

"Why don't you just fall asleep next time? It works fine for me." Jaune piped up.

"Well, some people cant sleep through Nora." Pyrrha snapped.

"Sorry, I was just trying to make a joke." Jaune said dejectedly.

"It's okay, I'm not in the mood for jokes today though." Pyrrha said.

"You could always hide in our dorm next time Nora goes crazy." Yang offered. "We have a lock and everything."

"I wouldn't want to impose…" Pyrrha started, but Yang put up her hand to stop her.

"Just call our dorm an anti-Nora sanctuary." Yang said, smiling at her own joke.

"Thank you." Pyrrha answered grateful to have a backup plan next time Nora got out of hand.

"Well, I'm going back to bed." Yang said as she broke away from Pyrrha who stumbled and was caught by Jaune. Yang followed her roommates into their dorm and Blake put a piece of paper on the door before closing it.

Jaune let out a small laugh as he pointed it out to Pyrrha who'd started to turn to their dorm. On the sign was a few words written in thick black ink. We're sleeping, Nora - wait for tomorrow!

Pyrrha felt herself smile as she leaned against Jaune who took the cue to lead her back into their dorm.

A loud bang echoed in the dark, making Pyrrha's eyes snap open. The little light she saw was useless to see more than a blurry shape that moved swiftly past her vision before disappearing as another crash echoed in the small room.

The shape that bounced back up was shaking something off and hissing a string of curses under it's breath as Pyrrha reached for her rifle.

"Stop right there." Pyrrha commanded, her voice already rid of the sleep and her head felt much better than it had the last time she was awake.

"Pyrrha, it's me!" Jaune said as he swayed and fell down again. "Oof!"

"Jaune, what on earth are you doing?"

"Trying to get around Nora's mess. Sorry I woke you." Jaune said as he untangled himself from something and threw it at the massive pile that was Nora's bed. "How does she even have this much stuff?"

Pyrrha stifled a laugh as she turned on the lamp that sat beside her bed. "You really cant see well in the dark."

"Tell me something I don't know." Jaune grumbled as he stepped over another smaller pile of Nora's stuff. "Sometimes I wish I was part faunus so I could see."

"Where'd Nora and Ren go off to?" Pyrrha asked as she noticed Ren's empty bed. She had realized the first night when Nora had tried to sleep in her own bed that her nightmares meant a rather loud shouting match about fried chicken, which Nora had somehow won, even though she'd been half asleep at the time.

"Dunno. He said something about the library, but I don't think they'll let Nora stay, so probably the food court?" Jaune suggested as he finally made it to the dresser and pulled out a night shirt. He headed into the washroom, leaving Pyrrha with her thoughts as he changed.

Looking down, Pyrrha realized she was wearing her own nightclothes. I don't remember putting these on. Pyrrha thought as she readjusted her pillow to sit up at the headboard. She pulled a book she'd been reading toward her and started in on the current chapter. It was one of Nora's books she'd accidentally found. It looked like a history book, but really had another book inside it. This book was excellently concealed and even Nora didn't realize it was hers when she had seen Pyrrha read it.

The current chapter was full of action. A car chase was sending the protagonists around the city as the corrupt police officer was chasing them. The protagonists were a couple of huntresses and had apparently robbed a bank in one of the chapters she'd skipped. It wasn't uncommon for her to skip chapters if she was uncomfortable with the subject matter being covered, but at the same time, she loved how the characters were so comfortable in battle together - almost like they each knew what the other was thinking. She often wondered if JNPR would ever work that well together.

Jaune exited the washroom and started to wind his way slowly through the mess as carefully as possible to avoid falling down again. He saw Pyrrha's eyes skimming over line after line. There was no way she could like history that much.

"Whatcha reading?" He asked as he sat on his own bed.

Pyrrha jumped, not having noticed Jaune reenter the room. "What? Oh, it's just history." She responded hastily as she closed the book and put it back where she'd taken it from.

"There's no way you're that interested in history." Jaune prodded, his eyes never straying from Pyrrha's face. "What's Nora got in there?"

"How did you-"

"Nora has all her books' pages replaced with other books. She's always borrowing her text's from Ren and me when she needs to do an assignment." Jaune said as if it was obvious. "So what are you reading?"

"Um, this one didn't have a cover page." Pyrrha said, hoping he'd drop it so she wouldn't have to explain what it was about. She wasn't that lucky.

"Do I have to read it too?" Jaune asked her teasingly. He already knew what type of books Nora kept hidden, and was having fun watching Pyrrha flounder. He knew it was a little mean, but hey - what else was there to do?

"No!" She blurted out desperately. Then tried to cover it up. "I mean… you can read it if you want, but I don't think its really your thing…"

Jaune couldn't hold it in any longer and started laughing at how red Pyrrha's face had gotten as she tried to hide what type of book it was. Pyrrha looked at him with a confused expression as he collapsed on his bed.

"What's so funny?" she asked cautiously as he slowly stopped laughing.

"You are." He responded making her face grow even hotter. She knew she was blushing, but didn't know if it was anger or embarrassment. "I know what type of book it is, I've seen others she's hid by accident when I was in a rush and couldn't find my books. Made for an interesting afternoon to say the least."

"You knew?!" She asked incredulously. This had turned from embarrassing to mortifying really quick.

"Of course I know. But it's not that bad to be honest." Jaune replied, noticing that Pyrrha looked as if she might be collecting all her blood in her face. "I mean- it's just a story right? It's supposed to be an outlet for your fantasies, though some of those fantasies are a bit… explicit. But I don't judge, everyone has their own 'thing'."

"Um… it's not really my thing either… I mean, I don't read those parts…" She answered shyly.

"Well, that's fine too. Like I said, I don't judge by what you read. Look at me, I like X-Ray and Vav." He stated matter of factly as he stared at the ceiling above his bed. He lay on his bed perfectly still, for a moment, waiting for Pyrrha's next statement.

"Oh…" Was all she could think to say. She was less embarrassed to know that Jaune didn't think of her as some weird pervert for reading Nora's books, but at the same time, she wondered what he was thinking about as he looked at the ceiling.

"Are you going to stay up?" He asked, finally turning his head to look at Pyrrha.

"I'm kind of tired to be honest." She responded, more than a little grateful that he'd dropped the subject and given her an out. "Is it okay if I turn off the light?"

"You read my mind." He said as a small grin worked its way onto his face. Pyrrha looked away, feeling her slowly fading blush surge back to the surface. She reached over to the lamp and switched it off before settling back into bed.

This school just might kill me yet.

Jaune was just ahead of her as they rounded the corner. Their prey was almost caught. It's not like they needed luck in the streets that were so familiar to Pyrrha. She didn't follow Jaune and instead took a different route to box their target in.

She jumped a low fence and used a flag pole that was mounted in cement to swing around the corner. She was just in time and hit the man's face with her knee as she landed on him and rolled off.

"Jaune!" She called as Jaune leaped over her and stabbed his sword into the ground right where the man's throat was a mere second before. The man was already up, pulling small star-shaped blades out of his coat and throwing them at Jaune and Pyrrha. Jaune used his shield to stop them, and the man used their temporary blindness to use a dust crystal to make a smoke screen to escape.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled as she ran up to the smoke, using her rifle's heat scope to follow the man's movements. She saw him turn a corner and disappear.

"On fifth!" She said as she leaped up to the low building beside her and used it to launch herself onto the roof of the building across the street.

"On it!" Jaune said as he tore down an alley.

Pyrrha ran over the roof and jumped to the next roof as she looked down to the street where she saw Jaune emerge and give chase to the man. He ducked back into the back alleys. Pyrrha was almost on top of him.

She jumped and landed, cutting him off. "End of the line!" She said as she transformed her rifle into a spear. "This is the last chance you have. Surrender!"

Jaune rushed into the other side of the alley, and settled into his battle stance. The criminal turned halfway towards Jaune and Pyrrha raised her spear so she could throw it if he tried anything.

Jake saw he was out of options, so he raised his hands above his head. "Okay, then. I surrender."

Jaune reached to his belt with his shield arm and Pyrrha saw what was happening far too late. Jake swung both arms down and out of his sleeves flew more of the star blades. Pyrrha barely got her shield up to keep them from biting into her vital organs. The other stars missed, except for one that skimmed the outside of her leg, making a deep cut as it went.

But her grunt of pain was easily overpowered by Jaune's scream. She lowered her shield to see the man stepping past Jaune who was clutching his stomach as his tattered white shirt turned slowly red.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha yelled as she raced to his side and Jake rushed away down the alley. Pyrrha gave chase, leaving Jaune because that is what her training told her to do - even though her heart was telling her to stay at his side. As she gained on the criminal, she screamed and planted her foot to throw her spear.

He spun with a strange looking star in his hand - it was carved out of a red dust crystal. Pyrrha unleashed her spear, aiming for his head and he threw the blade. It spun through the air, missing the spear by millimeters as the spear continued on it's path. The criminal's dead body smashed into the ground from the spear's momentum as his blade barely missed Pyrrha. She turned her head to see Jaune standing behind her. The blade was firmly embedded in Jaune's gut.

"Pyrrha…" Jaune groaned apologetically before he smashed into her with his shield sending her flying away from him.

As Pyrrha flew, she was able to see Jaune kneel behind his shield and watch her as he coughed blood out of his mouth. He smiled at her for a split second before he exploded in a cloud of black smoke.

Pyrrha landed hard. She coughed, desperately trying to regain her breath as she turned to the settling debris where Jaune had stood. She approached the debris. The smoke started to clear and a gruesome scene came into view. Blood coated the ground like dirt. Small bits of oddly shaped, dark red rock covered the area. Jaune's shield stood with its bottom embedded in the concrete. Behind it, there was nothing but more red that coated the alley walls and ground.

"No!" Pyrrha gasped, despair freezing her. The smoke was almost completely gone and the dying light of the setting sun cast the alley in a dark shadow. On one side of Pyrrha, her spear stuck out from the criminal's head at a right angle. On the other side, Jaune's shield smoked as it stood like a small monument surrounded by rubble.

"Jaune… no… NOOO!" She screamed to the alley and it's two dead combatants.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune called as he pinned her flailing arms to her side and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. It would have been romantic, but he was scared by some of the things she'd been screaming. She'd screamed about people dying and other mostly unintelligible, but still terrifying things. "Pyrrha! Wake up!"

He was face to face with her and her eyes snapped open, they were full of the fear of her dream and she was obviously still in panic mode.

"Pyrrha, everything's alright. Nothing's going to hurt you." He said as he started to rub her back through the thin night shirt he'd told Nora to put on her earlier. "Shhh. It's okay."

The fear slowly left her eyes as a spark of recognition entered. "Jaune!" She gasped and suddenly she was hugging him as though her life depended on it.

Jaune kept rubbing her back as he felt his rib cage enter the danger zone. After a moment he felt her start to cry. He stayed silent, knowing that she had to let it out. He continued to rub her back in circles as they stayed wrapped in each others arms on her bed. Pyrrha had her face buried in Jaune's chest as she shook with the last of her sobs. Jaune had his chin resting gently on top of her head.

"Jaune?" She asked hoarsely as she coughed to rid her throat of tears.

"It's okay. I'm here." He replied quietly into the air above her head.

"Thank god." Is all she replied before she pulled away from him enough so that they were no more than an inch from each others faces. Jaune stopped rubbing her back and stopped holding her arms so she wouldn't feel trapped.

She looked into his eyes for what seemed like hours. Jaune watched as emotions played through them, one after the other. In the beginning, there was disbelief followed by understanding, and then they increased in the speed they changed at and they all seemed to blur together.

She reached behind his head and guided it forward. Their lips met gently and Jaune tasted the remaining salt that hadn't been rubbed off on his shirt, on her lips.

They broke apart and Pyrrha pulled in a long and shaky breath. Just as it looked like she was going to say something, she froze. Her eyes staring into his.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jaune asked softly, not knowing what to do. First she was kissing him out of nowhere and then she was staring at him as if he'd done something wrong. Girls are crazy.

"Everyone was dead. I couldn't help anyone!" She exclaimed before another round of tears flooded her eyes and she buried her face into his shirt again. "Ruby, Blake, Ren, everyone! Even you!"

It took Jaune a moment to find the right words to reassure his teammate that everything would be okay. "I can't lie and say that nothing will happen in the future, but that's why we're here at Beacon. So we can learn to work as a team, so that we're ready if or when we are needed. It might not be a big comfort, but I have a feeling that we're going to be okay as long as we work hard, and work together."

Pyrrha listened to his speech and seemed to digest it slowly. "Jaune?" She started, pausing as she fidgeted with the hem of her top.

"Yeah?" He answered hesitantly, he was about ready to return to his own bed, seeing as she'd calmed down now.

"Can you stay with me?" She asked, knowing this was being more than a little forward. "I mean, I had a horrible nightmare, and I don't want to fall asleep again and have another one. I just cant do it."

"Sure." He said simply as he settled into the bed beside her. He was nervous but Pyrrha didn't seem to mind, so he resolved he would stay until she told him to leave or she fell asleep. After all, Ren and Nora shared because of Nora's nightmares.

She surprised him by wrapping her arms around him and pulling him close so they were pressed tightly together. They were so close that they could kiss again if either one moved closer, but neither did.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked after he felt her relax a little.

"I guess…" She hesitated as she readjusted her head on his shoulder. "I just don't want anything like that to happen…"

"Well, I'm not dead. See?" He wiggled a little in her arms to emphasize the point. She felt herself blush and was thankful it was too dark for him to see. "And I promise I'll work hard so we all stay this way."

"Yes. You're right." Pyrrha sighed contentedly. She was so happy that he didn't run back to his own bed as soon as she'd calmed down, that she pulled him tighter. His body was ridiculously warm and she felt like ice. She would have burrowed into him if it was possible to do so without hurting him. "Thank you Jaune… for everything."

He watched as she closed her eyes and her breathing slowed. "Goodnight, Pyrrha."

End Note:

My poll has 7 votes, with 1 more for plot than lemon. Vote if you haven't to ensure the chapter of your choice gets uploaded because I am also doing a seperate poll among friends that will be added to the online poll when I want the result, so it can still go either way.

Also, the release of this chapter marks the 50% mark in terms of plot arc count. That means there will be only 3 more arcs this volume, but since this is only chapter 5, the remaining arcs are exponentially larger than any I've released so far.

Look forward to next Wednesday!