Argus had rather mild summers, because of how far north it was. Pyrrha always liked that about it. She was never especially fond of the heat. Argus was a beautiful city, so even if there wasn't much to do in it, the beautiful vistas more than made up for it, in her opinion. She thought the Argus Cemetery was a great place. It was wonderful for the people of Argus to have such a picturesque place to rest once and for all.

She cradled a bouquet of flowers as she and her mom entered the cemetery one day. They made it a habit to visit together whenever she happened to be back from school. First during her breaks from Sanctum, and now during her first summer break as a Beacon student. She had made the trip many times now. It was almost second nature, at this point. The two women walked through the rows of graves until they came across one with a more grandiose headstone than its neighbors.

Apollo Nikos

35 AGW - 75 AGW

Destiny may be a mighty river, but swim hard enough and even its currents will bow to your will

The last bouquet had long since died, she figured. Pyrrha placed the fresh flowers by her dad's grave. When she stood, she and her mom shared a moment of silence.

"He would be so proud, if he could see you now," her mom said, "His little girl, at Beacon! You're so close to becoming a proper huntress now, and you're doing such a good job."

"I hope you're right… I can only hope I'm living up to his name."

"Believe me, you are." Pyrrha's mom put a hand on her shoulder. "You were Sanctum's star for a reason, and it sounds like you're a great teammate to this Jaune boy, too. Is it what you expected?"

"I'm not quite sure. It reminds me a bit of what dad would say about Haven, but there's something so... different about it. My teammates are all from Mistral like us, but Vale is quite the country."

"I'm sure you have an awful lot of fans?"

"Outside of my team. I'm glad they don't really care much about my reputation."

"Apollo would be thrilled," her mom said, "that you found such good friends. I know he'd be proud of the name you've made for yourself, just like I am, but we want you to have a chance to make genuine friendships while you're still young."

"Friends… Did dad keep in touch with his friends? After they all graduated, I mean. After all, they didn't have to stay together."

"Well, they did drift apart. Life and work happened. They were still close, though. It's an odd thing, you know. The older you get and the busier you are, the less you get to see your friends, but it doesn't make your bonds any weaker."

"It doesn't?"

Pyrrha had faint memories of some old friends of her dad's that would come by to visit while he was alive. Some of them still visited, even if they stopped by more sporadically. She could only hope that was the case. Even more, she hoped that she wouldn't have to say goodbye in the first place. They didn't have to keep their team alive after they were officially licensed, but with how used to each other they'd all be, it only made sense to stick with people you know you can work with, right?

"We should be going. I still have a few errands to run." As they turned to leave, Pyrrha's mom asked, "Speaking of friends, one of yours is here in Argus, right? Have you made plans yet?"

"Yes, actually. He, um… his sisters heard about our plans, actually. He said they wanted to meet me. …And you, too."

"His sisters want to meet me?" She laughed. "Well, it wouldn't kill me to at least say hello. Just tell me what time you two had in mind, and I'll go with you if I'm not busy."

A few days passed before the time that Pyrrha and Jaune had agreed upon. She and her mom headed to a small park in the town. It was a popular meeting place. When they arrived, they saw two girls running about. One of them was wearing purple and the other was wearing a deep blue. Indigo, maybe? Pyrrha could only assume that they were playing tag. She noticed Jaune sitting on a bench, watching the two of them. She froze when she saw him. She knew that he was in Argus, of course, but seeing him there was stunning.

"Go on!" Her mother slapped her on the back to urge her forward.

"Jaune!"

Jaune looked over, and the girl in purple stopped in her tracks. The other girl bumped into her, and the two almost fell to the ground.

"Pyrrha, hey!"

"It's so nice to see you!" Pyrrha and her mom had walked over to them by the time the girls had rushed to his side.

"Same to you!" Turning to her mom he said, "You must be Pyrrha's mom. I'm Jaune Arc. It's nice to meet you. These two are my younger sisters."

"I'm Violet!" Said the girl in purple.

"My name is Indigo. It's a pleasure," said the girl in indigo.

"Hestia Nikos," Pyrrha's mom said, "It's nice to meet you three. I hope you take good care of Pyrrha today, Jaune. And you don't have to worry about your sisters. They'll be in good hands."

"Thanks, Mrs. Nikos. I'm sure a native would be better at showing them Argus than someone like me ever could."

"Okay, girls, how about we go on a little adventure?"

Right when they were about to leave, Violet turned back and waved at Jaune and Pyrrha, saying, "Bye Jaune! Bye Pyrrha! I hope you enjoy your date!"

"What?"

"Don't mind her." Jaune rubbed the back of his neck, the faintest blush across his face. He could've sworn he saw Pyrrha blushing too, but he went out of his way to avoid eye contact. "She's 13. Been really obsessed with romance lately. Guess she's around that age."

"Oh, okay… that makes sense… So…" Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Was there anything you wanted to see in the city?"

"Not really. I was just going to leave it to you, really. I trust you so show me something cool."

"I have a place in mind, then. It'll take a little while to walk there, though."

It was a bit nerve wracking, being alone with Jaune like that. Pyrrha had worn casual clothes before, during their day trips into the city, but there was something different about it today. Her hair was down, and she was wearing a sundress. Even with Vale being further south, it didn't get hot enough for her to wear one before she came home.

"You know, my sister's lived here for a few years now." The two of them had been walking for a few minutes before Jaune spoke. "We've been around a few times, but I don't know too much about Argus. It must be pretty weird, being so close to Atlas. They have a military base here, right?"

"It's the closest point to Atlas in all of Remnant. Before the invention of airships, it was the only point of trade they had. They have a vested interest in making sure Argus stayed safe."

"I overheard my sister-in-law mentioning something about a lot of faunus leaving Atlas. I know that Mistral isn't the greatest about that, but how about Argus?"

"It's definitely not the Mistrali norm," Pyrrha said, "It wouldn't be easy to find someone here that isn't open minded. Both because of the faunus and humans visiting or moving from Atlas itself. I don't know if you've heard about it, but the SDC actually has an office here in Argus. For the same reason there's a base. Convenient for business."

"I'm sure Weiss would like to come here and visit, then. I think Sanctum is pretty close, right?"

"A few cities away. Just far enough that I could only really come home for breaks."

"It must've been wild, having to live on campus, with a reputation like yours. People probably treated you like a goddess."

"To some, I was."

"Is that why you went to Beacon? To get away from it all, I mean."

"I just thought that going to Haven would be more of the same. Maybe even a bit worse. I thought some people might be more jealous. More petty. Why did you choose Beacon, Jaune?"

"Family reasons. We live in Mistral now, but Roland, my great-great-grandfather - the one who fought in the Great War - was Valean. It only made sense to me to go to school in his homeland."

"How did your family end up here, then? You said you were from Wind Path, right? It's a long way from Vale."

"From what I've been told, at least, it was a mission from the king. Roland was an ambassador or something, and his children just stayed in Mistral. The rest is history."

"Do you like it there? I've never been."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you." Jaune shrugged. "It's a big city. Has its nice areas. Has its rough areas. Good people, bad people. You'd probably guess it from the name, but it gets so windy sometimes. This is a nice change of pace, even if Argus is sort of…"

"Boring? You aren't wrong about that."

"Oh, I know you mentioned your mom earlier, but what about your dad? My sister-in-law has to work a lot, so I get if he's busy, and all…"

Pyrrha hadn't told JNPR about her father. It was never really relevant before, while they were at Beacon. The team had done things to bond before, but none of them involved sitting around and talking about their lives before Beacon. It wasn't like she was never going to bring him up to them. The topic didn't make her uncomfortable, so there wasn't any real point in not answering.

"He was a huntsman. He was a local legend."

"Oh. I'm… sorry for your loss."

"It was years ago. Don't worry about it." After thinking for a moment, Pyrrha went on. "He's the reason I wanted to become a huntress. I never really cared, when he was alive. I respected his work, but I couldn't ever imagine myself doing the same. Then I found out that he was gone. Something changed that day. If my dad couldn't be around to protect people anymore, then I'd have to take his place."

"You're doing a great job, then. At least in my opinion. I'm sure you're going to become a great huntress."

"Jaune." Pyrrha stopped walking. Jaune turned to her when he realized that she had fallen behind. "Do you believe in destiny?"

"Do I… what?" He scratched his head. "I don't really know. I've never thought about something like that before."

"My dad did. I do, too. I picked it up from him. Some people believe that destiny, or fate, are things that are set in stone. That everything we do is for the sake of fulfilling some grand design. He was different. He believed that we were the designers; that our destinies were something that we could mold ourselves. He thought it was his destiny to be a hero. I didn't know what mine was for the longest time. Now, though, I think that my destiny is the same as his. To make the lives of Remnant's people brighter however I can."

"Huh. I guess I'm the same, then. I've always wanted to be a hero, like Roland. If we both want to be heroes, then it's almost like our destinies are…"

"Intertwined?"

Jaune sheepishly nodded. Because of Violet, he had heard plenty of cheesy romantic lines from shows or books. He had heard about intertwined destinies more than a handful of times.

"If that means you'll be at my side, then I'm glad to hear it. I think it'll be important to have good allies. I'm sorry for holding us up, let's keep going."

Pyrrha could've sworn that she and Jaune were walking a bit closer to each other, when they started again. She wasn't sure if she had gotten closer to him, him to her, or if she was just imagining it. She was a bit worried that they might brush up against each other at some point. Pyrrha noticed a few people looking their way. If they were walking with someone, some of them whispered something. A few people waved to them, but they were often small and meek, like they were embarrassed to draw attention to themselves. Eventually, they found themselves in front of the local library. Before Jaune could go for the door, it opened and a pair of people walked out.

"Oh, Pyrrha, hey!" One of them said, "Nice to see you again! Sucks that I missed you today."

"Sorry! I wasn't exactly expecting to drop by the library today, so my timing is a bit off."

"Well." Their companion looked at Jaune and nodded in acknowledgement. "We'll leave you to it. Hopefully we'll get to see you before you head back to Beacon."

Jaune held the door open for Pyrrha. As she walked in and those two walked away, he heard one of them whisper, "I didn't know Pyrrha had a boyfriend! I shouldn't be surprised, but I still am, somehow."

Jaune closed the door to the library behind him a bit harder than he would've liked.

"I'm sorry about them."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure people with reputations like yours have to deal with it all the time. I'm sorry. If I wasn't here, they wouldn't have misunderstood." He cleared his throat and looked around the library. He certainly was a library. "This is where you wanted to bring me to?"

"It is. There's something I wanted to show you. Follow me."

Pyrrha led Jaune to the back of the library. It was quiet and serene, just as he expected a library to be. The sounds of footsteps and pages turning were some of the only noises in the entire building. Pyrrha motioned for Jaune to sit at a table while she went to find a book.

First Violet called it a date, then he went and said their destinies were intertwined, and then people Pyrrha knew called him her boyfriend. Jaune felt terribly awkward, but thinking about how Pyrrha must've felt just hurt. He was too lost in thought to see Pyrrha approaching the table. The thud of the books she dropped on the table brought him back to reality, though.

"Whoa…" He murmured.

"This…" Pyrrha took a seat and held up one of the books, proudly displaying the title. "Is The Gallant and the Grimm. It's a roleplaying game some old friends at Sanctum introduced me to. I played it a bit with them, back in the day."

"I don't know if I've heard of this," he said, taking another one of the books. "A roleplaying game? I've only heard of the video game genre."

"They were based on games like this. It's just what it sounds like. You create a character, and someone controlling the game guides you through adventures as you roleplay. It's like writing a story with your friends."

"That sounds pretty cool, actually." Jaune started flipping through the book he held. It was filled with text and images detailing stats of monsters. Some of them were Grimm, and others were things he had only heard of in fairy tales or seen on tv shows. "There's just so much…"

"Yeah! The game's been around for a long time! I haven't played it since my first year at Sanctum. The more popular I got, the more my friends started to avoid me… I guess they got intimidated, or something… I've been wanting to play it again ever since."

"We can play it when we get back to Beacon, then. We can get Ren and Nora in on it, too. I don't know how Nora'd feel about a game that sounds like it's basically just talking, but even if it's in her imagination, she'd probably like the idea of doing extreme things and hitting monsters with a hammer."

"You'd do that?"

"Well, you like the game, right? Of course I'd do it, if it means you get to play it again. I can message the group when I'm back at my sister's place, to see what the other two have to say."

"I'd really like that. Then I have to start looking for campaigns we could play…! And I'll need to help you make characters… Before anything else, I'm going to have to buy my own G&G books…"

The two of them sat and talked a bit longer, looking through the books that Pyrrha had brought. After a while, Jaune helped Pyrrha bring the books back where she found them. With the books returned, they started making their way back to the park. The two of them sat on the same bench that Jaune had been on when Pyrrha and Hestia first arrived. Pyrrha was sure that they were touching, then. If Jaune noticed, he didn't seem to mind. It made a small part of Pyrrha happy to know that he didn't move away from her. The two didn't say much, but the silence was calming and peaceful.

"Ja-!"

Pyrrha could've sworn she'd heard the voice before, but it was cut off so abruptly that she couldn't figure out whose it was. It was surprising, but it didn't disturb the moment of quiet that the two were sharing.

"You two look like you're enjoying yourselves." Pyrrha squealed and Jaune leapt off of the bench when Hestia leaned in behind the two of them. "I'm sorry to interrupt such a tender moment. The girls and I had fun, Jaune. Your sisters are very lively!"

"Y-yeah… I think that's sort of an understatement. Especially for someone like Violet."

"Guilty as charged!" She exclaimed.

"Did you two have fun?" Jaune asked.

"It was actually really enjoyable," Indigo said, "I wasn't expecting Argus to have as much as it did."

"I hope we'll be able to meet again at some point," Hestia said, "and I hope your trip back to Wind Path is painless."

"Thanks, Hestia!" Violet said. "Nice meeting you, Pyrrha. Let's hang out next time, okay?"

"Of course! I'm looking forward to getting a chance to know you and the rest of the Arcs," she said.

Jaune and his sisters left the park, Violet and Indigo waving until they were almost out of sight. When they were, Pyrrha turned to her mom to see a devilish little grin on her face.

"The two of you were awfully close there," she said, "and you want to meet the rest of the family, eh? Looking for their blessing, Pyrrha?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, mom!"

"No need to be embarrassed. Whoever you decide you want to be with, I'm rooting for you all the way. And seven sisters? Jaune's definitely an upstanding family man. I'm sure he'd treat you right."

"You…" Pyrrha started twiddling her thumbs. "You're sure?"

"As sure as your hair's the color of fire, I am! You don't have a family that large who doesn't hate you without being a good guy at heart. So…" Hestia crossed her arms. "What was it about him?"

"Excuse me?"

"Something about the guy must've caught your eye. Other than just his looks."

"I can't quite put it into words… He's… driven and hardworking, but still gentle and caring. I can tell he really wants to become a huntsman, and is willing to put in the work to make that dream a reality. I think the fact that he didn't know who I was was part of it, too. So many people at Sanctum put me on a pedestal. For him, though, I was just another girl."

"We should head home and get started on dinner." Hestia started walking out of the park, and Pyrrha followed after her. "As much as I'm sure you'd like to go on and on about him, I'm sure you'd like it even more to get a chance to talk to him once you're settled in your room, right?"

"I think that's enough, mom. We can just spend the night together, like we usually do."

"Okay," Hestia said with a laugh, "but if I see you looking at your Scroll, don't say I didn't warn you when I start making kissy faces!"