A/N: So this chapter is one that looks into an idea that I would love to explore in Remnant Unknown, but can't really afford to because it's not particularly relevant to the plot. At the same time, this kind of character-focused writing is what adds that extra something to the people of REMCOM, so I'm happy that TFTA offers the opportunity to publish these sort of stories in parallel with RU.

Enjoy.


Title: We All Show Love Differently

Author: SirMandokarla

"When the repast was over, Sinbad thus addressed his guests: 'My friends, I request you to have the kindness to listen to me while I relate the adventures of my second voyage'…"

Blake trailed off, looking up to see Pyrrha finally asleep. As quietly as she could, she replaced the bookmark and placed the massive hardcover down on Pyrrha's bedside table. Then she stood and started towards the door.

She was halfway there when the handle started to turn.

The next pair of steps were a blur. Blake came around the door as it opened, reached out, and covered Jaune's mouth before the man could say something stupid. Which was to say, anything.

His eyes went wide and he almost cried out into her hand, but the sound aborted into a quiet grunt of surprise. He looked at her glare, then over her shoulder - really, over her head - at the sleeping, unnaturally motionless form of Pyrrha Nikos.

Blake tilted her head, he nodded, and she took her hand from his mouth. They left the room, closing the door carefully behind them.

Jaune watched the door for a long moment after it closed. He was still wearing his armour, which meant he'd just come back from whatever assignment he'd been needed for the last couple of days. It was hard to keep track.

"She's not usually asleep so early," he whispered.

Blake rolled her eyes. "Yang was reading to her last night. It was… Yang."

Jaune nodded and gave a weak smile. Yang had, according to most of the ship, the best reading voice of the group. It was an opinion widely shared despite of the fact that Yang had only ever read to Ruby or Pyrrha in her entire life. Sleep didn't often factor into her bedtime stories.

"Thanks, Blake."

Blake suppressed a frown. It was a stupid thing to thank her for, as if she or anyone needed or wanted any acknowledgement for keeping a friend company. No matter what state that friend was in.

No. Especially given the state Pyrrha was in.

"She's… how is she?"

Blake let out a sigh. More words that just didn't matter. But…

"No change," she told him. "In physical condition or…" she trailed off.

Pyrrha had been distant since she'd been injured. She was tearing herself up for a list of things Blake couldn't begin to describe and probably only Jaune understood. The only thing she could really comprehend was that Pyrrha thought of herself as a burden. Yang, Jaune, and the others had been vocal about that, but Blake hadn't been able to speak up the same way. It wasn't that she agreed with Pyrrha. Rather, she understood.

Blake had spent weeks after waking up with her new limbs knowing she would never be the same again. The metal, her sense of touch, her Semblance, they'd all been so different. She'd woken up from her attack and found herself in yet another nightmare. The horrible thing was that, when she'd finally started to accept what had happened, this exact image was one of the things she'd repeated to herself to stave off resentment.

At least she'd been able to move, able to run, even to fight. At least she hadn't been… like Pyrrha was now.

Blake could understand the resentment that would come from that. If she, herself, had thought for even a second that death would be preferable to her metal limbs, then it didn't take much to imagine how Pyrrha might feel.

"She used to fidget," Jaune murmured. His eyes darted to the door, then back to Blake's bemused look. "In her sleep. It's what I noticed when I walked in. Sometimes it hits me, and it's not fair that I can forget like that, not when it's my fault she's-"

"Stop." Blake put two fingers in front of Jaune's mouth. Don't say that, she wanted to say. Don't think that. Don't let her know or even think you believe that. But that was an argument they'd all had with him enough. So she just said, "my turn to talk."

And he just shut down. It was a trick Blake knew. One of those last vestiges of the shy, awkward boy Jaune had been back when they met.

The things one learned, watching instead of talking all the time. Sometimes she wondered what Ren could reveal about XCOM and Beacon, if he were ever asked.

Except, now that she'd gotten Jaune to shut up and stop blaming himself out loud, she wasn't sure what to say. It was a downside of being quiet all the time. If she were more like Yang, she'd probably just talk and talk until she stumbled on the perfect thing to say.

Blake couldn't help but smile at that. Well, she could give it a shot. The taciturn bibliophile opened her mouth and just started connecting dots as fast as she could.

"Something I learned after leaving the White Fang is that sometimes you have to take what you can get and leave it at that," she said, drawing on the worry and hopelessness Jaune must be feeling. "Pyrrha's progressing as best she can. Until she's better, she's got all of XCOM, RWBY, and JNPR working in some way to help her. She might not be ready to admit it to herself, but she's got an entire ship full of people who care about her… Full of family."

Blake actually smiled. "You're like Yang," she said. "Now that Pyrrha can't escape, you'll smother her with affection. Whatever she's feeling right now, whatever she's thinking, she can't possibly feel alone. Not deep down."

Jaune's look of worry resurged somewhere in there, and it took Blake a half a second to realize what she'd said wrong. When she did, she threw an angry, silent curse Yang's way. How could that girl always say the right thing like it was easy and Blake was stuck blundering into implying that Jaune's girlfriend was trapped with him?

At the same time, she started to sympathize with Ruby and Jaune as she scrambled for something to say that might dig her out of the hole she'd just dug for herself.

"Greece," she blurted, and Jaune looked at her with the same look she'd probably be giving herself if she could. Her mouth opened, forming around silent words for a second, then she bulled forward. "You spent the entire time right by her side, and -" don't mention the seasickness "- she was happier than you've ever seen her, wasn't she?"

It was a guess. An informed guess, given her own life experience and the stories Pyrrha would tell, but…

Jaune's expression went through a series of emotions that were only half positive, and settled on a discomfited look.

Blake swore at herself, remembering the story about Pyrrha and Jaune dancing together.

This was the equivalent of a conversation in the Grimmlands. Or a minefield, if she wanted to use Earth vernacular.

Both of them stood there, in silence, for long seconds. Jaune looked about to say something, but in the agonized, conflicted way he got when that something was supposed to be a secret.

Please, Blake thought, somebody save me. Anybody.

Her ears perked up at the sound of somebody coming up the corridor.

Then that person turned the corner.

Anybody but her!

Ruby Rose, leader of team RWBY, raised her hand in greeting.

Jaune saw Blake's widening eyes and turned, one finger already to his lips. Together, both he and Blake hissed a quiet, united "shh!"

Ruby's greeting died in her throat, but she pressed her lips together, glanced at the closed door, and nodded fervently.

Knowing Ruby's inability to stay quiet, Blake hurried over to her with Jaune in tow.

Jaune was the one who glanced down and asked, in a tone just above a whisper, "what's that you've got in your hand?"

Ruby's eyes went wide and she grinned, bringing up a contraption of some kind in her hands.

Blake didn't pay attention to the rectangular metal… no, her brain was still stuck on "contraption"... because she cared less about it than the sigh of relief she was holding in.

And then Ruby squealed happily. Blake winced.

"This," the Captain said proudly, "is a Real Page-Turner."

Blake tilted her head. "You… capitalized the name?" That was almost a talent.

Jaune glanced at her, then asked the other question Blake had been thinking.

"Isn't that name a little… Yang?"

Ruby's smile dropped and she fidgeted with the- Blake was calling it Contraption for the foreseeable future. "Yeah," she grumbled. "Yang found out I was building it, so she named it and now I can't think of another name for it."

Well, anything had to be better than Real Page-Turner, like…

Blake came up blank, then glanced at Jaune to find him wearing an expression that probably matched hers. She sighed.

"What's it for?" Jaune asked.

Ruby held the book up over her head demonstratively. "You just put the book in like this and it'll hold your page for you, and if you move this, then it'll turn the page. You can even turn back if you need to, but you have to twist this over here to get it to go the other way… I don't know if Pyrrha can do that, but I tried to make it really simple so she can do it all with her Semblance, maybe."

Ruby trailed off, looking uncertain, until Jaune stepped forward and pulled her into a hug. Ruby's arms came down so she was awkwardly hugging Jaune back, but for all that it looked uncomfortable, she seemed happy.

"So… you think she'll like it?"

Jaune laughed. "Well, it'll be better than the terrible puppet show Beagle had the troops put on." Then, in a whisper, he said, "thank you, Ruby."

He stepped back, smiling slightly.

Blake also stepped back, meaning to fade into the shadows and leave the pair to talk about whatever they wanted. Probably how to wrap up the gift and present it to Pyrrha.

Then Yang stepped around the corner. The blonde looked at Blake, then at Jaune and Ruby, and slowed to a stop as they all three put their fingers to their lips with a shushing motion.

"Oh," she said. She, too, took a glance at the closed door to Pyrrha's room. "I thought you'd be- I mean- I guess Pyrrha's asleep, then?"

Blake nodded.

"So how far did you get? Did Ruby get to give Pyrrha the real page-turner?"

Blake frowned, and Yang grinned. With a roll of her eyes, Blake said, "I just finished Sinbad's first-"

Voices started sounding from down the hall.

No, just one voice, but echoing loudly.

The four of them exchanged a series of glances, then hurried to the corner to look down the hall towards the noise. Then, as a group, they started running. Quietly.

By the time they reached Nora and Ren, Nora's volume was starting to ring off the walls. Ruby reached the pair first, but it was Yang who was brave enough to tackle Nora to the ground with a shockingly loud, "sshhh!" as they rolled.

Leaving the plate of pancakes Nora had been holding in mid-air for a seeming eternity.

Blake dove forward with all the power her metal limbs could muster and broke the plate's fall - but not the pancakes. The food, even syrup-free, still compressed as the plate's motion stopped, then started to spring upwards and-

A fork shot into the pile, pinning the topmost pancakes to the ones below and saving the entire pile from disaster. And, by extension, saving team them all from Nora's wrath.

Blake looked up from the floor and gave Ren a weak smile. "Thanks," she managed.

He nodded and stooped to pick up the plate, then Ruby helped her up.

Jaune, however, was staring daggers at the pancakes. As Yang and Nora got to their feet, squabbling loudly, the Lieutenant snapped, "Master Sergeant Valkyrie!"

Nora gave a loose sort of salute and locked eyes with Jaune. Nora looked stunned, and Blake couldn't blame her. It wasn't often they saw Jaune angry.

"What are you doing making so much noise in the hall near Pyrrha's room? She's sleeping!" The blond knight closed his eyes tight and let out a long, long breath. Then he opened them again and, in a quiet voice, said, "Nora, you know how you are with pancakes. What if they'd fallen? The Avenger can't handle that kind of thing, and even if it could, Pyrrha can't."

Nora actually looked lost for words, and hurt.

Ren was the one who spoke first. "It's my fault, Lieutenant," he said, and visibly steeled himself against what was left of Jaune's glare. "Nora convinced me to make some and bring them to Pyrrha."

"I just thought pancakes always cheer me up, so why not…" Nora trailed off as Jaune looked back at her, and she finished, "we're just not back very often, and I wanted to see her…"

Jaune's gaze finally softened completely and Blake found herself letting out a held breath and stepping away from Yang, whom she'd unconsciously gravitated to.

The anger of a gentle man, she thought, remembering a story she'd read about things wise men feared. The fact that Jaune believed he didn't care enough for and hadn't done enough for Pyrrha was something only he could think. Nobody else had ever questioned how much he cared about any of them.

"You were going to bring her pancakes?" Jaune asked. He sounded like himself again.

Nora nodded hopefully.

Jaune smiled. "She's asleep right now," he said gently. "Maybe you could give her the pancakes in the morning?"

"No!" Nora crossed her arms in front of her in an X. "Morning's in four hours and Pyrrha might not wake up for nine! You can't expect her to eat nine-hour-old pancakes!"

Blake snorted. "You probably don't even know what nine-hour-old pancakes look like."

Nora nodded, wide-eyed. "Exactly! We can't take that risk! We'll just have to get up early and make more pancakes for her!"

Ren nodded without his usual sigh of exasperation.

Blake looked around. Everybody was there, at least those who could be. As the mood calmed and everybody started talking together, it was the peaceful sort of gathering she really wished Pyrrha wasn't missing because of sleep. Even so, it wasn't Blake's thing. So the faunus stepped back and, again, started to leave the group to their socializing.

Yang grabbed her by the shoulders before she could make good her escape.

"Hey, guys, I've got an idea," said the ebullient blonde, "let's get back to the bunks, Nora can finish up the pancakes, Ruby can tell us all about her invention, then we can wake up bright and early to go see Pyrrha together. What do you say?"

Blake smiled and, though she didn't cheer with the rest, she nodded along with Ren. Once, just to show they agreed and approved.

Then the group dragged the bibliophile away to socialize for some intolerable amount of time.

Back in her room, well within earshot of everything her friends had said since closing her door, Pyrrha slept. For the first time in a long time, it was a peaceful sleep, both quiet and restful, and if she didn't dream happy dreams, at least, for one night, her nightmares stayed away.