Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.

CHAPTER 2

Ruby awoke with a start. A sharp whistle pierced the dawn sky, and looking around, she found Clayton, walking into the camp they'd set along the road, was the offender who'd roused her. Pyrrha waved at him from her seat under a tree, the last lookout shift finally over. "Come get brekkie." Clayton said, slinging a dead snake from over his shoulder. Ruby was mystified. Everyone had been adjusting to Anima's wilds more or less at the same pace, but Clayton seemed to fit right in. He had no issue getting up before the sun and finding food for everyone, like he'd done it his whole life, and just looked comfortable on the frontier. Nora shot out of her sleeping bag with a yelp the second Clayton dropped the legless lizard. "What, you don't like snakes?" Clayton asked.

"Nope nope nope! That is a nope rope. And I will be nowhere near it." Nora said, as she went and hid behind Pyrrha.

"It's not venomous." Clayton reasoned with a shrug.

They'd walked for the better half of a day. Seeing smoke on the horizon in the direction of the next village they intended to stop at, Team RNNJRS sped up their pace. When they saw the edge of the village proper, Pyrrha nearly broke down into tears. It smelled of ash and decay. Though long since gone out, the fires left their mark on what remained of the village, and what few bodies remained on the ground were the minority of the dead. The team spread out in twos, looking for survivors. Clayton and Ruby probed the left side of the village, where the worst of the fire damage seemed to be. There was clearly a building that had been standing at some point, but it had collapsed inwards. Clayton had to hold his nose. There was a small mound of bodies left in the remains of the building, likely stacked up there after the place had been burned down… Underneath the fresher corpses, the charred husks of everyone that had been locked in the building remained.

Clayton turned away from the scene and threw up. Ruby, slightly more resilient to the sight, turned away still. The Crimson Couple walked back to find their friends gathered around a dead huntsman. Looking to their left, they saw the airship they'd intended to ride to Mistral in, still smoldering from the raid. "Bandits." Jaune said.

"Should we… Bury the dead?" Pyrrha asked. Clayton looked up at the vultures circling the town.

"Birds gotta eat too." He said quietly, before Ren walked off.

"That's… Cold." Nora said.

"Circle of life." Ruby said with a mirthless chuckle.

Walking off after their teammate, Jaune and Clayton noticed a print left in the dirt on the village edge. "What the fuck?" Clayton asked. None of them had ever seen such a track before. "These bandits come in on a draft horse?" Clayton asked Pyrrha as she caught up with the group.

Team RNNJRS had put as much distance between them and Shione as they could before sundown, and made camp hastily. Jaune had offered to take the first lookout shift. His two hour chunk of time after sundown was taken up mostly by dark thoughts. He'd visited Shione in his childhood all the time, and now the place was gone.

Checking his watch, Jaune saw it was time for the next two hour shift. Quietly as he could, he shook Pyrrha awake. "Oh, My shift already?" Pyrrha asked in a yawn.

"Yeah, Pyrrha." Jaune said with a half smile, one that quickly faded. The moment was cute, well more specifically Pyrrha was cute. She slept in just her pants and her tank top and the way it loosely hung off her shoulders without her vest on was actually kinda adorable to Jaune… That and hot… Like really hot… Pyrrha had no clue how much cleavage she was showing. Thankfully she didn't stretch anywhere near as much as she would need to for a nip slip, and just as well, Jaune actually wanted to get some sleep… Man if Pyrrha had worn a half tank top to sleep at Beacon instead of those silk 40's style pajamas, Jaune would have been an insomniac.

"Jaune, you look upset by something." Pyrrha said, as she crawled out of her sleeping bag. Jaune sighed… They were having a talk… No that was fine, if there was anyone who he could bitch to about his problems without coming off as a wuss it was her.

"I… I used to visit Shione all the time as a kid." Jaune said, sitting down next to Pyrrha. "We used to go camping, see the old FRR battle field over the hill… Pyrrha, I… Contrary to popular belief I had friends before Beacon. Not many, but a few, and one of them lived in Shione… I didn't see them in the streets today, but I have to assume the worst… That place used to be like a second home to me, and now it's nothing but ash…" Jaune said.

Pyrrha was nearly at a loss for words. "I'm… Sorry to hear that." Her apology, while sincere, had been heard so many times by the blond, it almost failed to register.

"I'm just… Tired of losing people… Beacon fell, and we watched some of our classmates die, and now this… It just… Makes me worry…" Jaune said, looking up at the shattered moon.

"Worry? About what?" Pyrrha asked, looking at her leader with curiosity. Jaune sighed.

"About… About you guys… Ren and Nora were orphans before Beacon, and it fell. Clayton and Ruby have both lost people before and I don't think they handled the fall very well, and… And if it wasn't for them I would have lost you… The only person who ever believed in me." Jaune said. Pyrrha covered her mouth.

"Where is he going with this?" She thought, only for Jaune to turn to her, and look at the small slit mark scar on her abdomen.

"And even then, you still got hurt." Jaune said, gently brushing up against the mark with his hand. Pyrrha grabbed Jaune's hand with her own, and the two looked into each other's eyes. This was it, this was the moment Pyrrha had been waiting for. "And I can't forgive myself for letting that happen to you…" Just four more words, that's all Pyrrha needed to hear. "Because… Well… You know…" Jaune started trailing off.

"Close enough to a confession." Pyrrha thought, before taking Jaune's cheek in her free hand. "Shut up and kiss me already." Pyrrha said, before she leaned in, and planted a firm kiss on Jaune's lips, one that she'd intended to only last for three seconds, which soon turned to 10, then 20.

Finally the spontaneous silent make out session was broken up by a voice to their left. "You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape." Both Pyrrha and Jaune froze and then instantly broke apart, looking at Clayton, who was propped up on an elbow looking at them. "No no, don't mind me, whatever moment you were having, I'll pretend I wasn't awake to see… Oh, and by the way… Congrats you two." Clayton said, rolling back over to get some shut eye.

Author's note.

More cute Arkos. :) I tried to elaborate more on that comment Jaune made in the series about always visiting Shione, and played that right into the budding relationship between him and Pyrrha. And yes that was an Ironman 2 reference at the end there.