A week had passed since Jaune's seclusion, with only texts for food or another dosage making it to the group chat.

He said it was fine. Occasionally Pyrrha would sit outside the door and chat, to rend herself from himself with as much as accuracy as they could take. Slowly, the whole crew would made the trip. Ren was last, crying the whole time. Ozma even stopped by, volunteering to take the bars off the window. He said to leave them on, and to tell Pyrrha for the fourth time that she is not obligated to be a crazy cat lady.

Weiss and Winter took turns at the dusty piano, singing ballads and arias. Ozma, Tai, Glynda, Pyrrha tried their hands at poker. Tai won his fifth bag of marshmallows. Qrow and Raven cracked old jokes on the balcony. Ruby and Oscar tried not to get caught smuggling brownies. Oz let them, Ironwood finally asleep. Blake was catnapping in a weird corner. She would have a crick in her neck upon waking. Nora and Ren yelled at the television, war talks on the news.

Yang woke up late.

A gold bag was sat at the foot of her bed, clipped shut by a white bow. She sighed, leaving and returning after performing her normal routines, incense clinging on her hair as the bag made it from the floor to the desk.

A note sat on top, in overdone hand-lettering. "Drama King." A calligraphy set. "Yeah, I broke it. Sue me." A pair of music note earrings. Guitar strings. She looked over her shoulder, the old girl now having more singe marks than a few. Clothes she'd wear now and no time else.

A sun yellow maxi dress.

The same dress skimmed flip flops, gold hair loose to the wind. The laughter from below filtered through one ear and out the other. She watched the clouds drift overhead, the sun burning her alive.

"Sis." Ruby was at her back, not that she turned around. "I'm not sugar coating anything."

"You don't need to convince me of anything." She held her skyward gaze.

"You're miserable. You're not somebody who does well by themselves. You don't talk to anybody. Not even me or Dad. Or Qrow."

"I learned my lesson twice. I'll be alone. Ruby, just go."

"No. If you gave up every time you lost, then you'll never be able to move forward. And it's time you moved forward. Do you know what day it is?"

"The 17th of the month."

"It's your birthday. You literally forgot. We didn't do anything because we didn't know if you were going to come downstairs for it, never mind eat the cake. Guess who didn't." She turned, Ruby's hair was woven with roses, a book in hand. Her eyes watered. "You've said nothing since that day. And we've let it slip since we'd hope you'd bounce back. Remember we're here for you. Like we promised before since she came back. I'm here for you. But I can't leave you on this roof by yourself."

A ruckus went on downstairs, seeping up from the open balcony.

"That's fine."

Ruby swirled onto the railing, sitting and reading that same book.

A hour of sunlight came and went. Weiss slid through the door.

"Yang. I know you're going through some shit right now." She texted the group chat. A round of cheers went up. "I can just stand here with you, I can listen, I can try to walk you through it. But, best believe, I will not be leaving until you get over this."

"Get over what?"

"Blake. And the stress therein."

"Did both of you come up here to harass me?!" Ruby and Weiss looked at each other. "WELL?"

"I came up here to get you over or through your pain. I cannot watch you move from horse to hitch to harbor with that scowl-" Ruby cackled. "on your face. What's the problem?"

"I...got chewed out by the fire relic lady. I'm so used to taking care of other people that I don't take care of myself. And then, the people who I take care of end up taking care of me anyway. I'm just attached to people. First Mom, then Dad, Ruby, Blake and Adam. I'm a hypocrite. I know it's not healthy, I know I'm sick. So I tried to stand up by myself. And all it's gotten me is alone. So I came up here to think."

"Do you want my thoughts?"

"Yeah."

"At the risk of becoming a hypocrite myself, I must tell you this: relationships are a give and take thing." She wiggled the emerald bracelet.

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Will you just tell the man you'd like to get fucked silly already? You've already filled his stomach."

"Hush Ruby. We will support you Yang. You do not need to overexert and over-endear yourself for us, or anybody to earn our loyalty. Even if we said no, even if we weren't in this current situation, we would be there for you. And best believe, Adam-"

"He's done with me. I've changed. I'm a wimp now. I just hide behind him all day. That is a brick wall of a man, and now I see why. He's used to carrying dead weight."

"Spite wouldn't have you crying." Weiss offered her kerchief, she took it. "Go ask. Go talk. Go tell him what you're telling me. If I can talk to him, you can."

"I can't. I have nothing to give him that can make up for the misery-"

"You don't need to give him anything but a honest conversation." She kicked up her feet on another pillar of ice. "For the love of the gods, Yang, either mend the rip or throw it out."

Glynda's head popped in. "Weiss, you need to come watch the news."

"Alright." She rose, her seat shattering into vapor. "Come, Yang."

"I-" The icy glare shut her up. "Fine."

So she crept back downstairs, peered over the banister at her father losing his shit at the television with Ironwood. Had lunch. Took the granola out of the oven. Watched her mother and her brother summon themselves forth from the void to burn their mouths. Had a shot of liquid courage.

"JAUNE!" Oz yelled from up the hall. "It's a washing machine!"

"IT'S A DRAGON!"

"It's a washing machine!"

"HEY!" Nora got right in Yang's face. "Are you okay?" A rib resettling hug went between them both. "There we go. FIXED."

"Not...quite yet. Thanks Nora." A trade of high beam grins later, into the back of the linked apartments, around the corner, and into the reading nook, tucked into the study.

He was there, arm over his eyes, a book falling out of his hands, the rope of hair adulterated by Ruby, thorns sticking out of the twists.

"HEY!" Nothing. "ADAM!" The arm fell, sleep still sticking to him, sitting up as a cyan eye scanned her curves, a dry swallow catching in her throat, a blush working its way down her neck.

"...Happy birthday. You look nice, but you aren't in here to show yourself off."

"Why?"

"That's a dangerous, dubious question."

"...answer both."

"It's your birthday." He sat up. "You actually have the time to indulge in your simple pursuits."

"...that's it?"

"No, but that's no longer pertinent."

"Now you're playing games."

"Checkmate happened three months ago."

"...that's more of a table flip."

"Get to the point."

"So you can get back to your music theory?"

"So you can get back to trying 'Vacation in Vacuo's' bassline."

"...you're not better at it."

"I am not."

"Adam, for the love of the gods, could you give me the time of the day?"

"1:37 p.m."

Around the corner, down the hall, towards the-

"WAIT." He stood behind her, the scarf pulled up, taking the wave of hair with it. "Don't leave."

"Why? It's been three months, and the only thing that you've managed to give me is stuff and sass!"

"Do we have to talk about this out here?" Ironwood's frame hung around the corner, to her vision but not his.

"You know what, YES." He flinched, embers jumping from her mouth. "I don't have time for your vanity. In fact, I don't have time for your bullshit. I asked you months ago, 'are you playing with me?' and you still haven't answered me. You still haven't answered my father. I must mean nothing to you besides a half-baked summer fling, because nothing has changed. I don't know if you remember back when we were on the road, when I said I wanted to know what you needed. I will hold myself to that like I said I would. But it's still you, me and your brick wall between us."

"I had figured that you would need some time to come to terms with what had happened." His voice was still uneven. "And I didn't want to rush you back into what I had feared was something I forced you into."

"If you had forced me, then I wouldn't be here trying to talk to you." He ran his hands through the tangle of waves, a grimace showing up as he cut himself on the brambles. "Are we back on our bullshit or not?"

"I didn't want to hurt you. I have. I'm sorry."

"You make no sense, you know that right? Holding me at arm's length? Sometimes, literally." He closed the gap between them. "All I have done is treat you with kindness. Are you pla-"

"I am not."

"Sure?"

"I was waiting to see if you would come back." He pushed up the sleeves on his shirt, revealing lighter patches without rhyme or reason. "I told you happiness wasn't something I guaranteed."

"What are you talking-"

"The day in the forest? I had thought that I had said it enough then. If your happiness means I'm a league away, so be it. You turned into a recluse overnight. I figured you didn't care anymore."

"Did you care before?"

"I said nothing as patient and nurse aren't even. Now we're dead and even and I was back to looking for words since you start acting sketchy after Blake. I miss you and the road and your hymns at the crack of dawn. If I cared less, I'd talk more." That incessant stare had returned. She didn't look away this time. "I knew my temper would kill me someday." He reached for her human hand, she offered it. "I didn't think it'll kill you...I thought you hated me after all. Hence, me saying nothing to get you to stay."

"...Are you...serious?" He watched her fidget, fingers wound in her hair.

"Yeah."

She buried her face in her hands, hair sparking mad. He pulled back down the sleeves, returning to his spot. She followed, sitting on his stomach, the dress riding over her hips.

"Fine. We'll consider it a break." She picked at the buttons on his shirt. "One I'm happy to be done with. Finally."

"Warranted."

"If the only time you're going to pay me mind is if I'm in a skirt, we've got problems."

"Does this mean I'll get my hoodies back?"

"No. Anyway, first off, you're gonna stop brick walling me. You're different with Jaune, Pyrrha and Irondad, the list goes on. What about me?"

"Does this mean you'll stop playing the batting lashes and elongated sighing game?" His thumbs pressed into her thighs. "It's what you do with me."

"Does this mean you'll stop playing the emotionless bastard game?" The scowl returned.

"We don't have time for grand gestures and boat rides and all that-"

"Not asking for that. Never did, never was. That's movie shit. Our lives aren't movies." A smile came and went on his face. "I mean, you can get the cameras all you'd like." The flip flops went flying. He reached for the curtain ties. "Let the gods watch. I've waited long enough."

Glynda closed the door, the stack of books homeless in her hands for a while longer, leaving a purple glyph to lock it shut, the smirk turning into a laugh, meeting Ironwood for a series of half assed high fives, too busy tripping out of dodge to look straight, Qrow and Raven squawking in the kitchen over the last of the sunflower seeds.

"NAILED IT!"

"I told you, Glitter- different circumstances."

Another week sailed by. Then two.

Qrow sat at the table for once, though it was really a series of tables cobbled into a buffet, everyone sitting in a ring around it, the normal fare and communal pharmacy rolling around the table, seventeen glasses of orange juice refilled, unspiked for the first time in forever.

A golden petal fell on his hand. "Hi. We're not doing anything." Blake raised a hand, turning from the declaration of war between Mistral and Atlas blaring on the news. "What is it, Blake? You've apologized to everyone and have appointed yourself errand lady. We're not leaving you out or behind. You're here."

"We cannot afford further division." Ironwood turned down the news, the search for Jacques Schnee still being televised. Winter and Weiss growled, earning a stare from Qrow. The volume went back up.

"I agree." Qrow got up for the second platter of pancakes, Glynda deciding to save him the trip halfway through. "Glitter, really?"

"I've got a problem, who made you leader?" She sat back down, the platter hovering around the table.

"Nobody?" Qrow passed it on, just for Winter to put another cake on his plate. "Nobody is leader. The table is round for a reason."

"Okay...I guess we're talking now." Raven took the bottle from Ruby.

"I do believe that it would behoove us all...to begin addressing the hellish nature of current events." Ren finished his tea. "We have been going on little more than impulses and mirages, and the next time that we can address the Master, I am going to ask him for the final time: Where does this end? The...Relics keep making cryptic statements; I am not one for secrets or lies. I want to know the truth."

"Address me." Weiss handed Ozma a overstuffed plate, the weight starting to show up in his cheeks. "Thank you, Weiss."

"Who are the gods that abandoned this world?"

"Their names are lost to time." That plate was mostly syrup in seconds. "They do what it sounds like, create and destroy, thought the powers therein are not exclusive to either."

"What are they like?" Ren passed over on more food.

"Distant."

"UNANSWERS!" Raven squawked.

"The last time I saw them was shortly after I got to what you're calling Vacuo." Weiss passed him a glass of orange juice, the pancake stuck in his throat. "...I don't know why they left. Salem holds her tongue on that."

"Um. Do you know why we look weird?" Oscar piped up, voice dropped a octave, looking closer to eighteen than sixteen, Ruby not far behind. "I'm not this old. Auntie could be Yang's older sister. Something's wrong."

"I don't. I don't know everything."

"What do you know?" Oz finished his meds. Ozma stared him down. "I'll hold my tongue."

Breakfast concluded with little fanfare.

Pyrrha sat alone on the balcony, hair done far too tight by Weiss and Winter, the door open for the cross breeze, the curtains clipped back.

'How could I have been so naive to believe that he would have been fine with a few pleasant words and a kiss goodnight. What kind of woman am I for that?'

"Pyr, I'm going to sit here with you." She turned, Yang was busy scarfing down a bag of pork floss.

"Are you sure you're not just avoiding your father?"

"...Hush." She turned to look at Adam and Tai having a one sided conversation. "He'll be fine. I have-"

"FINALLY GOTTEN THE ASHES OUT OF THE FLOORBOARDS?!" Yang swallowed wrong, as the happiest punch in the world hit her in the chest.

"Nora-WHY?" She coughed. "Moreover, what ashes?"

"Honey, you're joking!" The rib-cracking hug was worse. "Tell me, how bi-"

"Nora, I believe that she is entitled to her privacy." Pyrrha swallowed the rest of her coffee.

"BITCH PLEASE!" Yang hid in her scarf, a smile peeking through the thin material. "I WANT DETAAAILS!"

"Guys!" Ruby swirled in, taking a wailing Pyrrha with her. "Jaune!"

He was sitting at the bar, hair wet from the shower, the fried meat at his wrist still steaming hot. Nobody said anything to him, though Weiss cut his wine with sparkling grape juice. It was another half hour before he spoke.

"I'm sor-"

"You have nothing to be sorry for." Blake, of all people, spoke up. "We're so sorry for letting you go so long without help."

"I'm still sorry. I don't want to dwell on it any longer than necessary. I want-" Jaune's fork fell. Everyone took a step back. Pyrrha found herself behind Qrow. "...She's annoying. I'm alright."

The house relaxed. Nora got her hug in. Ren came over. "Jaune, do you want to know the interim?"

"...I have bits and pieces, the ones that matter. As long as you're still my-" Ren hugged him, Nora busy working the snarl of hair through a comb. "Thank you."

Ozma leant against the bar. "Are you alright to continue?"

"Yes, but first, I need to talk to someone." He nodded, turning to Weiss screeching at the television.

'We should be out there." He finished the overcooked ribs. "Saving Remnant. And here's what we're doing: getting fat, depressed, crazy- no that's you. Gods. Wait, they don't pay you any mind any more, don't call upon them. I'm tired. Ruby was right. Heroics should be left to-'

"Jaune, still here?" Ironwood yelled over the ruckus.

"Yeah, I'll let you know when that changes."

He went sneaking through the back of the house. 'She was right and still is right. Who the fuck is Jaune Arc besides the people he associates with- huh?'

Oz was leaning over the balcony.

"Hello Jaune, what do you need?" 'I slap bird?' "Jaune, I do not like how you're looking at me."

"Oh, sorry. Good morning."

He slipped past him and up the stairs, to their room, the king size bed left for her since he vacated the premises. And she was there, hair let down and trailing the floor as she sat at the vanity, one of the few not to knife it down to manageable lengths once a mirror was a stable fixture. He reached for her, the other hand wrapped around the door frame in case he changed his mind.

"Jaune, I know your cologne very, very well. You can't really sneak around me if you tried." She turned to look at him, eyes fixed on his. "Are you coming in or not?" He slid in, closing the door behind him.

"Pyr, I understand if you no longer want to continue with this. I'm crazy, and I don't know when I'm going to snap again."

"I didn't say no, Jaune." His train of thought burst into flames. "I was expecting fanfares and ro- okay, not roses, they'll end up in Ruby's hair. Something. Y'know." It exploded. "A restaurant - Okay, we can't go to a restaurant, I mean..." She huffed, the metal comb stuck in her hair. "I'm frustrated with my expectations in life and it was wrong for me to inflict it on you. I'm so- I apologize. Had I known that you were under so much stress, I would have said yes and dragged you up here and loved you until daybreak." The tines were bent under the strain, she righted them, stabbing at the tangle. "I'm not mad or angry. I just want to be there for you. And not just myself. I'm not...good enough for you." She turned to face him, the russet dress clinging as is its wont.

"We're one for one at this rate." Her eyes threatened to roll onto the carpet.

"Jaune, I'm not laughing or joking here. We're...we seem to just keep growing apart."

"I get more wild, and you get more crazy. Win-win. I still want to be there for you, as you were for me. As you are for me."

"The world is at stake."

"My world is sitting in a chair, struggling to comb four and a half feet of hair. Can I help?" She teared up, handing him the knotted section. "The world has been at stake since Beacon, if everything I do revolves around that, then the flashbacks and the nightmares win. It did. So I choose to love you now, if you'll have me."

He got out that stubborn knot, ran her olive oil through her locks and braided them up and out of the way, without a single complaint, looping the broadest braid around her shoulder. "I love you with your pancake sandwiches, the way you laugh after the joke stops being funny, and after you fell up the stairs at three in the morning because Moussaka." She bit back laughter.

"Weiss shows me the cost of fancy all of the time. I don't want that. When this is over, I want that cottage in the ass-end of nowhere, more kids than sense, and you and I growing old under a peach tree." He handed her the circlet. She took it, staring at the burnished bronze.

"Thank you." She pulled the shirt over her reddened face. "Gods save me." She clipped on the necklace without a word.

"Even though this'll make...oh gods, barely a year I've known you, do you feel rushed-" She kissed him.

"We've got nothing but time."

The building swayed.