A/N: Hello everyone, and welcome back! As previously mentioned, this chapter will be a small break from our regularly scheduled Arkos+JNPR. In the course of writing this story, which has developed into something far more extensive than I originally thought, I've imagined several moments I can't properly depict as WPF currently is. First and foremost, I've restricted the point of view to either Jaune or Pyrrha: I don't regret this choice, but it does mean that certain moments can't be shown properly, or sometimes at all.

However, the end of the "Bar Arc", as I've thought of it, seems like a reasonable place to place a one-shot that runs parallel to the main story. Depending on its reception, an interlude like this may make another appearance again at the end of the new arc, but that's not quite set in stone. I've some more details on the story's guts to go into, but I can leave that for the post. Thank you for reading, and please enjoy the Interlude!

Her alarm softly sounded next to her, and Blake uncoiled her arm to silence it. She listened: no noise from the other bed. She slid from her own mattress and rummaged briefly for a change of clothes, closing the door silently behind herself.

Tai was in the hall, already heading for the stairs; they exchanged a brief nod, and she continued to the bathroom. She poured a cup of water and took a brief shower, just enough to clean the sleep from her mind, and she was once again in the hall. She could faintly hear Tai at work in the kitchen, but she had to make two stops before she joined him.

Ruby's door opened easily, and she made a slow approach to her team leader. The lights strung along the wall were off, the curtains drawn tight. The younger girl was awake, but curled underneath the covers of her bed: a bad sign. Blake sat down on the edge of the bed, resting a hand on the lumpy blanket. "Ruby?"

The girl stirred, but made no response. "Tai and I are starting breakfast, Ruby: want to join us down there?" There was a brief pause, but Ruby's voice eventually emerged from the covers.

"I want to stay in." It broke her heart to hear that voice so small, so worn. She rubbed lightly, rising from her spot. THose first few weeks, Blake had no idea what to do, how to help them. She'd flailed uselessly behind Tai, inexperienced in succor, but determined in providing it. She knew now what to do when RUby was having a bad day, though.

"Alright, Ruby. I'll have your Dad bring something up, alright? Maybe we'll do something later?" The mornings were always hardest for Ruby, and Tai was better at getting a response from her. Ruby didn't make any objections, so she made her way to the exit. Come the afternoon, her young leader may be better, and it would be good for her to try and be up and about. She closed the door, then rounded the hall to where she had been staying, once again entering their shared room.

Yang's room was too plain. Tai kept flowers in a few vases, but the plain walls and dark furniture never fit the girl Blake knew. Maybe she never felt real decoration was necessary, preferring the simple beauty of the cabin's wood? Unlike her sister, Yang had not yet awoken. Blake watered the plants, set the cup by the door, and made her way to her partner's side. Ember Celica sat on the bedside, dust slowly beginning to ring the gauntlet.

"Yang?" Her partner didn't stir. "Yang, it's time to get up." She shook the bed lightly, and the blonde girl rolled offer her side, blearily looking up at her. Blake made herself watch Yang, watch her face. She would not flinch away. "Morning, partner." She greeted with quiet warmth.

"Morning." Yang replied, with less warmth than she'd like.

"We're starting breakfast. If you want, you can hit the shower and join us?" She waited an achingly long time, but Yang eventually gave her a brief nod. Relief flooded Blake, but she made sure not to show it: Yang didn't take well to "pity". She moved to the closet to collect some clothes, while Yang drew herself from bed. She turned to Yang with a small collection of clothes, ones she knew Yang preferred. "I can help out if, yo-", Yang interrupted her with a soft, steady voice.

"I can do this." She scooped the folded pile from Blake's hands, clumsily pinning them under her shortened arm. Blake hesitated a moment, but Yang's face was resolute. Not pained, merely determined. A good sign, she thought. She nodded, and held the door for her, hoping courtesy would be read as such.

Yang's face did not darken at the act, and Blake pointedly did not follow her friend to the bathroom, instead turning for the stairs. The line between pity and support was a narrow one with Yang, and Blake had measured it in its entirety, through trial and error.

"Blake?" She stopped immediately, turning to Yang. She was nervous, shuffling slightly in the hall, but the resolution had not faded. "After breakfast, would you come with me on a walk? I… I want you to meet someone." Blake recalled Yang's hints not too long ago, but she still feared this moment.

"Alright, Yang." Yang nodded, more to herself, and continued her march to the bathroom.

Tai was already at work in the kitchen. Four places were made up at the table, while a variety of ingredients were set along the counter. Coffee burbled quietly in the corner, while Tai stood by the stove, mixing a bowl of unknown ingredients. Blake noted the corner cabinet was open.

"Ruby isn't feeling well, she wants to stay in bed." She moved to collect the fourth set of plates, moving them to one edge of the counter for him. "Yang's in the shower right now."

The older man hummed softly, continuing to stir. "Mind cutting up some fruit for them? I'm working on pancakes right now. I'll take Ruby her food, don't worry." She had grabbed some bananas from the bowl, and strawberries from the fridge, and began to work diligently.

"Yang wants to head out afterwards. I think… I think we're going up." She heard Tai cease his mixing, but he resumed soon enough. "I don't know if it's a good thing or not."

"For her mood? It'll be terrible. For her health? She needs it. Ruby's always been more active about it, but that doesn't mean Yang hurts less. Just you two?" She hummed an affirmative. "Probably for the best: I'll keep an eye on Ruby."

They worked in silence then, preparing a meal for the four of them. Blake said nothing when Tai poured a splash from the stout bottle into his coffee before moving it to its home in the corner cabinet. That little addition had grown less frequent this month, and he hadn't been excessive, even in the darkest hours of his daughters' return.

She had been planning on confronting him about it, when she first noticed, until she heard Tai one morning. "Never again, I have to be strong for them. Never again." That quiet mantra had made an appearance more than once that first month. If he wanted to take off the edge occasionally, should she deny him that? Blake and Ruby were not the only people mourning in this house.

Tai and she learned how to work together in trial by fire. Caring for the needs of both distraught girls as well as trying to help them cope had not been easy; Tai had taken to the task as a father would, while Blake had to be instructed. She'd been a fighter all her life, helping others after the fight had never been her task. But once she came to Patch, she needed to know what to do when Yang was having a panic attack, or how to help Ruby get to sleep, and a hundred other little things. Many an evening saw she and Tai exhausted, in conference at the kitchen table to discuss the next day's plans.

When Yang joined them in the kitchen, meals had been laid out on the table and the cleaning was nearly done. Her hair was a state, and Blake resolved Yang had grown too frustrated with it. "Morning, Dad."

Tai pulled a seat for his daughter, letting her settle in before taking his own. "Morning, honey. How are you?" Yang offered a small smile, but said nothing, turning her attention to her meal. Tai and Blake had tried to prepare meals for Yang which would be easier with her… condition, but as soon as she noticed the pattern, Yang had demanded they stop. She couldn't eat hashes and fruit her whole life, she argued, she would have to relearn eventually.

The table mat covered more than a few knife marks and dents now, but Yang was now directing that aggression towards her breakfast. She attacked the meal, and Blake checked more than once to be sure her partner's eyes had not gone red. Tai ate quickly, keeping up a stream of pleasant talk, before dropping his plate in the sink and sliding Ruby's own meal from its place on the counter. "If you girls need me, I'll be with Ruby." He called over his shoulder.

Blake tried to take up Tai's flow of pleasant nothings, but small talk was never her skill, and eventually they lapsed into silence. Patch had taught her how many important things weren't her skill. She knew Yang wouldn't hold it against her, but she still felt as if she were letting down RWBY's legacy of cheery banter.

"Can you help me with my hair, before we go? I… I wasn't having a good time with it."

"Of course, Yang." Yang's hair was her pride, her baby as much as Crescent Rose was to Ruby. Having it be anything less than perfect would be a millstone around her neck. Blake finished her meal slowly, to make sure Yang wouldn't feel pressured, before taking both plates. They made their way upstairs, Yang went to wet her hair briefly, while Blake fetched a brush from their room.

When Yang first asked her to help with her hair, Blake was terrified. Even Ruby had but sparse permission to help with her sister's hair, it was something precious to Yang. Yang put her life in others' hands before her hair. But Blake could not balk, not anymore, so she dutifully took up the task. She'd worried Yang would be one of those "one hundred brushes" types, with a byzantine list of requirements before her hair could be thought of as "done".

Instead, it was a binary state: finished, or not. Blake had since determined this much freedom merely left her in a different kind of fear.

She worked diligently, stroking the mass of blonde locks, quietly apologizing when she hit harder resistance.

"We're heading a ways from the house, but it's not a hard walk. For us, at least."

"I'll make sure to skip out on heels, then." The quip drew a small smile from Yang.

"Love to see Weiss try and make the trek." She shook a bit at the thought.

"Well, she did complete Initiation in heels. She fights with a lot of ice dust, too."

"Can't imagine what the balance training was like."

Now it was Blake's turn to laugh. "Maybe we can get her to put Ruby through it, when we meet back up? She looked like a stiff breeze would knock her over at the Dance."

Yang let out a long breath: "Oh, where did I go wrong with that girl? I thought I raised her right?"

The hair care had to take a small break as the two of them lost control of their laughter. It felt good, hearing Yang laugh like that.

The hair progressed slowly, the damp blonde scraggles eventually transforming into the grand mane they were used to, but Yang had Blake split it into two tails, something she couldn't recall her ever doing. "It's a special occasion, don't sweat it."

The hike Yang led her on was not a challenging one, as her partner had indicated. They travelled down a footworn path, enjoying the morning. Blake had seen precious little of Patch; bound to her team and unable to truly wander, she had not realized how peaceful the hilly woods could be. The heat of the last days of summer had yet to arrive, so the cool wood was a relief: salt hung faintly in the air, even for her sensitive nose. Their winding path, closer to a deer trail then a walkway, took them higher and higher, finally breaking through the tree line.

The field before them ended in a cliff, the lip of a great bowl encompassing the island's interior. Yang hesitated at the start of the field, and Blake paused beside her as well. Blake could make out something by the edge, but she couldn't make it out at this distance. The sight of that drop unnerved her, though. It wouldn't be far enough, logically she knew that, but she couldn't stop herself from stepping closer to Yang. Her friend drew strength from the proximity, though, and began her slow walk.

Closing the distance, Blake finally recognized two carved stones - two markers – jutting from the grass. Yang approached the one with a carven rose, sitting down in front of it, feet grazing the lip. Blake wavered behind her, but Yang's gentle patting of the grass eventually brought her to heel.

"Hi, Mom." Yang's voice cracked on the latter word, and she swiped at her eyes. She tilted her head to the other stone, still fresh to its home: "Hi, Uncle Qrow.

"I know I haven't been out here in a while, but I wanted to talk to you, Mom.

"I'm a huntress now, or a student. On a team with Ruby: my partner, Blake, is here." Yang waved a hand back to her, but Blake couldn't bring herself to talk. She didn't think she was supposed to, either.

"I was really good, one of the best in my class; I think you'd have been proud of me. I could give anyone a run for their money, and we were really helping Vale, ya know? Felt like I was on top of the world.

"I got cocky. Got stupid." Yang started to reach for her missing arm, but Blake took hold of her hand, refusing to let Yang do that to herself. She felt her friend squeeze.

"Blake and Dad help, and they do so much," Yang looked back to her, tears in her eyes, before returning to her discussion with a rose, "but – but I'm so scared. I'm scared all the time. It feels like I'm drowning in it, like I'm trying to swim from the bottom of a pool of tar. I'm scared I'm going to wake up, and I'll be back at Beacon, with him standing over me. I'm scared I won't wake up, that this isn't some terrible nightmare." Blake moved closer, wrapping an arm around Yang, who leaned into the embrace.

"I'm so tired of being scared…", she sobbed. "What am I supposed to do?"

Blake didn't know. All she knew was that she needed to be here, with her friends, for her friends. That she couldn't run away, never again. She had to be strong for them.

…

Blake stepped out the bathroom, hearing the distant beginnings of breakfast under Tai's careful ministrations, and made her way to Ruby's room. Her team leader was up, the curtains flung wide to provide Ruby with enough light as she wrote. Her head popped up at the sound of her door: Ruby's face was still paler than it used to be, eyes still more worn, but she was recovering. "Mornin, Blake."

"Good morning, Ruby. I'm done with the shower, and heading down for breakfast."

"I'll be down in a little while, then." She bent back to her task, making sure her hand was as close to calligraphy as she could manage. Ruby had taken to writing letters to Weiss, the past month or so, and she seemed to take solace in the act. Weiss had not responded to them, and Blake doubted they ever reached their fourth teammate, but Ruby wrote regardless. With a well-controlled smile, Blake headed to check on Yang.

Sunflowers festooned the room, now, brightening the space to levels Blake thought fit Yang far more. The blonde in question was still asleep, and Blake was content to let her snooze as she changed the water in the pots. Yang's gauntlet sat on the bedside table, polished metal gleaming in the early morning light. Blake finally approached the bed: "Yang? Yang, time to wake up." Her partner stirred, sitting up like a zombie. "Tai and I are making breakfast, Ruby is showering. How are you feeling?"

Yang dragged a hand across her face, briefly wiping at her eyes. "I'll be down…" she said tiredly. She was responsive early, a good sign. Blake nodded in support, then set about gathering some clothes for Yang; not because Yang needed the help, of course, but because Yang would likely just dress in sweats again.

Tai was chopping away at some fruit, a few eggs lying beside him, and the coffee on the brew. The corner cabinet was open, yet Tai was alert and cheery. Both Ruby and Yang joined them at the table that morning; still a rare occurrence, but growing more frequent. Yang kept her cool, while Ruby made some conversation. She even smiled a few times, real ones at that. Blake felt a smile creep across her own face, doing her best to suppress her and Tai's surprise at the sisters' good moods.

"Yang, Ruby, can you come to Patchwork with me after lunch? I need to pick a few things up." Yang agreed absentmindedly, but Ruby looked curious. Blake kept eating her omelette, though, refusing to provide specifics.

Blake continued to deflect and distract, eyes frequently checking her scroll, until it was finally time. With rushed good wishes from Tai, she bustled her teammates out towards town.

Blake probably shared more of her own past in the twenty-minute walk to town than she had in eight months at Beacon. A brave, necessary sacrifice to keep the Rose-Xiao Long sisters off-guard.

"- Well, I certainly wasn't going to move to Menagerie, not with my family there."

"You have family in Menag-" Ruby stopped, noticing where Blake had led them during their 'interrogation' of her. "Blake, why are we in the airport?"

"Most likely to pick us up?" Ruby and Yang spun to the familiar voice, while Blake matched the other's smug grin.

"PYRRHA!" The girls cheered, launching themselves at Team JNPR.

Team RWBY wasn't alright, not by a long shot.

But they were getting better.

Post: So, V5 is almost upon us! With the return of RWBY imminent, I figured I should let y'all know I will continue to write WPF during the season. This story takes place within the time skip of the V3 finale (beginning of fall into winter), so V5 probably won't interfere with what's happened. What comes next is something I'm not entirely sure of, however.

There are a handful of moments I've had bouncing in my skull, yes, but for the most part I let the story carry me along as I write it. With the new volume approaching, however, we'll soon have access to more events in RWBY. As previously mentioned, I'm planning on closing the story without entering V4, but if V5 is cooperative, that will likely change. In the event that I do continue the story, I will not make a sequel fic you will also have to follow, but instead just continue this one. Obviously, this part of WPF is fairly far down the line, but I figured I would put this out now, so y'all are aware. A full rewrite of V4, obviously, comes with some issues, so it likely will feature a story hiatus of some length.