A/N: The serious misunderstandings begin. Ah, if only characters could say what they meant. Enjoy.
Pyrrha wakes up at six, the same way she always does. She's used to getting ready in the dark so she doesn't wake her team up, then going for a long run and watching the world come alive. She's not used to Nora being awake, sitting next to Pyrrha's bed, unless she had too much coffee and didn't sleep.
"Pyrrha!" Nora whispers. Nora hypothetically understands how to whisper, but doesn't really get the "quiet" part of it, and Jaune groans and shoves his head under his pillow.
"I'm awake," Pyrrha says cautiously. "What is it?"
Nora drags Pyrrha down to the floor, then whispers into her face,
"I saw Weiss last night."
"Um, that's nice," Pyrrha offers, now more than a little confused. She knows the best way to get anything sensible out of Nora is not to depend on Nora to say anything sensible, but when that fails letting her talk sometimes means she gets to the point.
"Yeah, Blake told me to spy on them, so I was spying on them, and I'm not sure why she wanted me to spy on them since nothing interesting happened. I mean, she kissed Yang, but that's it."
Jaune sits bolt upright and collapses onto the floor.
"Say that last bit again," he says.
"Did you not hear me? She kissed Yang," Nora repeats, and Pyrrha sighs as Jaune starts bombarding her with questions.
Nora is a very kind person, and a fiercely loyal one. She knows about Pyrrha, specifically Pyrrha's feelings, and she's pretty much the only person Pyrrha talks to about feelings. I mean, sure, she says anyone with eyes would know Pyrrha's madly in love with Jaune, but Pyrrha's sure that's an exaggeration. Nora also tends to opt for the craziest tactics in any given situation, so this is honestly reasonable by her standards. The specifics of the lie could be improved a little, but trying to convince Jaune that Weiss is gay? A stroke of genius.
"You're sure?" Jaune asks for the third time, and Nora nods.
"Anyway, when's breakfast?"
Nora's being a little needlessly harsh. Jaune is clearly trying to pretend this information hasn't affected him, but he's slumped over staring at his hands, so he's upset. Pyrrha sits down next to him.
"Well, Jaune, it doesn't necessarily mean you don't have a chance," she offers. "She could be – bi, or something."
Wow, nice job, Pyrrha. Way to ruin Nora's careful setup.
She just can't bear to see a teammate unhappy, that's all. She appreciates Nora's effort, but she has to be (mostly) honest.
Jaune doesn't seem any happier.
"I know," he mumbles. "But maybe she isn't, and maybe that's why she's been rejecting me this whole time, and …"
He doesn't finish the sentence, and Pyrrha wraps an arm around him, careful to keep the smile off of her face.
"Excuse me, I think you have more important things to do than this, namely making me food," Nora insists.
"Food is forthcoming," Pyrrha says, sending her twinkliest smile, the one she usually saves for the cameras, straight at Nora. "I'll make you some pancakes."
"You never make me pancakes," Nora says, and Pyrrha shrugs.
"Never too late to start," she says, giving Nora an exaggerated wink now that her back is turned to Jaune. "It's the least I can do."
…
People think Ruby's just some nerd who can't deal with people. That's partly true, but Ruby knows more about people than she lets on, since she's spent years watching them and observing. Mostly for tactical reasons, but it comes in handy for managing her team too.
Right now, Blake's been gone pretty much all morning, in the library. They don't have a test coming up or anything, and she said she'd head down to Vale with Ruby to pick up her weapons magazines, then suddenly changed her mind and hurried off. She's been quieter than usual too, and she sat next to Ruby this morning instead of next to Yang. Clearly, something happened.
Yang is hungover, which means she doesn't talk to people until noon. It's before noon, and Yang just approached Ruby to talk to her, so something bad is happening with her too. Weiss is the only one who seems unaffected.
"Look, Ruby –" Yang sighs overdramatically – " you know I don't usually ask you for advice."
"So something really bad happened?" Ruby asks, automatically filling in the blanks. "Is it a tactics thing? Is the whole team now a laughingstock and we're going to be shunned? What's going on?"
"Nothing that bad," Yang says. "Just, uh, last night I was drunk. Maybe more drunk than I should have been, and I made a decision that I shouldn't have, and I, uh, kissed someone."
"Who?" Ruby asks immediately.
"Look, I'm not going to say who it is, but I'm worried that it's going to screw things up because we're teammates and I don't know how it's going to affect the team."
Of course it was Blake. It has to be Blake. Why else would she be hiding in the library?
"Well, what were your intentions?" Ruby asks.
"Intentions? Really? You're not my grandma. 'What are your intentions in marrying my child?'" Yang does her old lady voice, and Ruby refuses to be distracted.
"Answer my question," she says.
Yang shrugs.
"I was just having fun. We're friends, but that's it. It's really platonic, but I don't know if she has feelings for me and misinterpreted things," Yang says, twisting a strand of hair around her finger like she does when she's thinking hard.
"Pretty sure she thinks it's a little more than platonic," Ruby says before she can stop herself, then mentally kicks herself. She's making assumptions, of course, but it makes sense. She's seen the way Blake looks at Yang.
"Shit," Yang mutters. "I should – clear that up, I guess. Thanks for the help."
Ruby's not sure if she was actually all that helpful or just made things much worse, but a good team leader solves conflicts, and that's what she's busy doing. Sure, it won't be fun for Blake, but it's better than leaving the issue out of sight until it blows up.