A/N: Starting a new year, new term, and building a new schedule is always tough- but the next chapter is finally here! I'm so exhausted and sleep deprived. Ugh. Well, as always, please let me know what you think, everyone! I'd love to hear from more of you :) It's always nice reading reviews/PMs during a busy term.

Laws of Attraction

Professor Oobleck was a strange man, to say the least. Pyrrha couldn't help but feel exhausted just watching the tall, lanky figure zip around the classroom, constantly sipping espresso shots and shuddering from the caffeine overdose. From behind his large, round glasses, she could see his eyes darting at every student eerily as he spoke, words running past her ears before she could even comprehend them. His unkempt appearance and odd hairstyle only added to his eccentricities, making her head spin as he ran around her to talk to individual students.

As the penultimate class for the first week of the school year, the tension in the air was high. Although all of the lectures previous had been nothing but theory, history, and relentless quizzes upon the Huntsman Code of Conduct, these last two lectures were to be dedicated to what all the students had come to Beacon for- weapons and combat training.

"Alright, settle down, students! Settle down!" the professor called, drinking his umpteenth espresso shot of the afternoon, jumping around the classroom while the students got settled. "Today's class is about your weapons! Weapon classes! Weapon ranges! Utilities, strategies, more! Now, I'm going to need everyone to keep quiet! Sit down! Have a seat, everyone!" Every word out of his mouth was louder and faster than the last, disorienting more than a few of the students.

Pyrrha gingerly took her seat between Jaune and Nora, rearranging her red sash to make it more comfortable. As they were all heading straight to the amphitheatre afterwards, they were already dressed in their combat gear, ready to go. She pulled out her notebook and pen, adjusted her circlet, and placed Miló and Akoúo upon the long desk, alongside Jaune's sword and shield and Nora's hammer.

Professor Oobleck continued, "I hope you have all been seated in your teams! Make sure all your weapons are where I can see them, and be ready- I shall call out some of you to demonstrate your skills!"

A low murmur of, "I'm happy to help, if I can cream some of these losers," came from the back. Immediately uneasy, Pyrrha swivelled in her seat, only to see Cardin Winchester and Russel Thrush snickering in the back row of the lecture hall with their team.

She groaned. Not if I show you how to use your weapon, first, she thought darkly. The only blip upon her otherwise peaceful first few days at Beacon had been none other than Team CRDL, the four boys she had first scene during the opening ceremony. True to form, they had done nothing but cause trouble and be disrespectful to the other students, both freshmen and seniors alike. It was so frustrating for her- why in the world would students privileged enough to attend Beacon Academy display such poor attitudes? Even Weiss had mellowed out after the first day, apparently having come to terms with Ruby's leadership.

She clenched her fist, but turned back to the front- no matter how uncomfortable they made her, there was no point acknowledging them. Letting out a sigh, she crossed her legs, waiting for the lesson to begin.

However, a touch on her arm caught her attention. Startled, she turned to look at Nora, worry creasing the normally bubbly girl's brow. "Are you okay, Pyrrha?" she asked, uncharacteristically timid.

A part of Pyrrha melted at her concern. After the phone call with her mother the first day, JNPR had found her doing their readings for the next day's lectures in bed. She had smiled and played it off, but all three of them had known that something bad had happened.

And yet, none of them had brought it up. Even Jaune, who normally never hesitated to dive deeper into a conversation, had realized that her smile had been fake, her heart wounded.

Instead of asking for details, Ren had brought her pancakes in bed, and Nora, tea. Jaune had given her a little smile, a warm hug, and had lovingly called her a nerd for studying while taking away the dishes. All of which had occurred without her ever needing to utter a word.

It had been the kindest thing anyone had ever done for her.

Pyrrha awkwardly reached up, grabbing Nora's hand which still rested upon her arm. Squeezing it comfortingly, she said, "I'm fine, Nora. Thanks."

The smile returned to Nora's face, eyes creasing happily at the corners as she chirped, "Of course!" And then, the girl turned to face Ren and continued babbling excitedly as if nothing had ever happened.

Pyrrha watched the two, a wry grin growing. How did I end up with these people? I don't deserve them.

"If everyone is ready," Professor Oobleck announced, grabbing her attention once more, "then let us begin!"

And with that, the lecture began, the professor jumping into a long history on the intricacies of weapons management and classification. Everyone only seemed vaguely interested, tired from the grueling first week- only Ruby showed any enthusiasm, her silvery eyes shining with joy as she looked at the presented weapons intently.

Professor Oobleck noticed her excitement, clearly. "Miss Rose!" he barked suddenly. "Come down here with your weapon!"

"Yessir!" she squealed, grabbing her compacted scythe and skipping down to the front.

The professor tapped the smooth, gleaming red metal. "We are now moving on to wide-range weapons. Explain to the class what this is, and how you use it."

With the most innocent grin possible, Ruby announced, "I present to you all… Crescent Rose!" And with that, she pressed a trigger, and the metal gears began to shift and morph the object into the large scythe Pyrrha had seen during initiation.

"Hmm, yes, I see," Professor Oobleck said. "Yes, good. Handmade?"

"Yup! Made this beauty all by myself," she grinned proudly, running a hand down the top of the curved blade.

The professor took another sip of his espresso, hopped around the girl, and suddenly burst into a heated discussion on the implementation of artillery fire in nearly all Huntsmen weapons over the last ten years, to which Ruby responded in kind. Pyrrha sighed as she watched the two excitable figures at the front slowly forget the rest of the class as the launched into one topic after another, far too quickly for the rest of the class to follow. While they spoke to each other near the podium, the rest of the students began showing off their weapons to their own teams.

"Well, I guess we can't say it's a surprise?" Nora giggled, shrugging. She lithely pulled herself to sit on top of her desk so Ren could take her seat. Jaune pulled his chair back, and quickly the four had rearranged themselves in their row so they could sit in a small circle.

"I guess we should explain our weapons," Pyrrha murmured, pulling her own weapons upon her lap. "This is Miló," she said, raising the compacted weapon. With a gentle flick of the wrist, she extended it into a blade. The fluorescent lighting of the lecture hall reflected upon the clean, shining red-gold blade.

"Ooh, neat," Nora murmured, eyes sparkling.

Pyrrha blushed. "It can also be a javelin, or a rifle."

"Classic, and tactically covers a range of combat styles," Ren commented lightly. "It suits you."

Her blush deepened, but she didn't respond, instead compressing her blade and extending her shield. "And this is Akoúo."

"Did you make those yourself, like Ruby?" Jaune asked, eyes wide with awe.

Pyrhha winced, her heart sinking in her chest. Without a word, she took a moment to run her fingers over the smooth surface of her shield, tracing the curved wave pattern which encircled the rim. She didn't like thinking back to when she had made these two, didn't like talking about it. Those memories were hers- hers alone.

Finally, she said, "I, um… yeah. I did. They've been with me a long, long time."

Nora's smile faded a little as she traded another apprehensive look with Ren, and immediately, guilt filled Pyrrha's heart. She didn't want them to worry- they had already bothered about her so much in the past few days. Pasting a cheery smile upon her face, she said, "Well, what about you, Ren?"

Ren gently angled his wrists downwards, the hilts of his twin blades falling into his awaiting hands. "This is StormFlower," he said, showing off the all-green weapons. The long blades curved around his knuckles and past his wrists, but then quickly flipped forward horizontally when he pressed a small trigger. "Our mentor helped me make them."

"Yup!" Nora chirped, extending her hammer.

Jaune yelped, "Hey wait!" as the mallet end whizzed past him, just an inch from destroying his nose.

The orange-haired girl called playfully, "Sorry Jaune! This is Magnhild!"

Jaune chuckled weakly, eyes still transfixed in fear upon the projectile barrel which still face him. "Yeah, Nora, I'm pretty sure we've all gotten to know your hammer pretty well. Now, um… could you please point the grenade launcher away from my face? I've seen this thing explode a lot."

"Oh Jaune, don't be so serious!" Nora chided. "I didn't make you fly too far with it!"

"The fact that it happened more than once during initiation still makes me sad," he pouted, but he didn't protest longer. Instead, he pulled out his own set of weapons, awkwardly setting them upon his lap. "Well… These together are called Crocea Mors."

"A sword and shield as well, right?" Pyrrha murmured, watching the blond undo the clasps upon his weapons.

"Yup," he said, but his ears were red, eyes downcast. "But, they're, ah… there's no gun component like yours, Pyrrha."

"Is it just a longsword?" Nora asked, confused. "That's not super useful."

"Nora," Ren warned, raising a brow. Turning to Jaune, he said, "It suits our team, don't worry. We're clearly more close-quarters fighters."

Jaune raised his face, but his skepticism was evident. "You don't say?" His voice was dry, disbelieving. "It's an antique heirloom, okay? My great-great grandfather used it." He idly ran a finger across the golden and blue hilt and guard. "It was cool in the Great War, I guess. Not so useful now."

Although this was normally her time to interrupt with a cheery comment to raise his spirits, the redhead was in no place to help Jaune's ego. Now, Pyrrha stayed quiet, her thoughts still dark and focused upon her own weapons. How long had it been since she had truly thought about their origins? How long had it been since she had remembered exactly how they had come to be, how much work she had put into them?

…or how many tears had been cried upon that metal?

Her focus was pulled back to the group as she heard the words, "I don't know what it really means…" pass Jaune's lips. "Sorry," she murmured, eyes back upon the group, fake smile tired but present. "What are we talking about?"

The worried glint, albeit more hidden this time, was still visible on Ren and Nora's faces, but they said nothing.

"Semblances and stuff," Jaune offered glumly. "Apparently Ren and Nora knew about them too!"

"Doesn't everyone know about Auras, Jaune?" Nora asked pointedly. "It's like… kind of the basics."

Jaune's pout only became more prominent. "Well, I didn't," he mumbled under his breath.

Looking around, Pyrrha quickly took in the other teams. Everyone else seemed so excited, so enthusiastic… and then, there was their team. Somehow, it was like a little raincloud had come to hang over their heads- the mood was so dull in their little circle, with Ren looking lost for words and Jaune beating himself up over his inexperience. Even Nora's normally bright atmosphere was nowhere to be seen, leaving the bubbly girl quiet and subdued.

Oh god. This is my fault, isn't this? I should fix this. Taking a deep breath, she let herself relax, closing her eyes for a moment to think.

Gently, Pyrrha laid a hand upon Jaune's shoulder. "That's why we're here, Jaune. To learn." She kept her voice calm and level, banishing the dark thoughts that had consumed her momentarily to the back of her mind. "And you're going to learn here, too, just like we all are. We're a team now."

Jaune paused, but finally responded, "But what about my Aura? I can't use it like you."

"But you'll learn," she insisted. "What did I tell you about your Aura, Jaune?"

The blond smiled weakly, a softness returning to his eyes. "I have a lot of it."

"That's right," she affirmed. "You'll learn. Give it time."

Jaune smiled, and with that, it was like the little rainclouds hovering over Team JNPR had finally disappeared.

"Did you hear that?" a snide voice interrupted their warm moment suddenly. "Little… Jaune, was it? Jaune, here, doesn't seem to even know what an Aura is."

Pyrrha swivelled in her seat, only to find herself face-to-face with the one bane of her classes himself, Cardin Winchester. The tall boy smirked at the disdainful expression she felt herself show him, then turned towards Jaune, who seemed significantly less confident.

"So, Jaune, is that true?" he pressed, leaning over the table. With his large stature, although he was standing a level below them in the rising audience seating, he was still easily able to get close to Jaune's terrified face. "You don't know the simplest things, do ya? What, did you bribe your way to get in here, then?"

On instinct, Pyrrha flicked her wrist and pressed the trigger on Miló, extending the blade into its javelin form. Before anyone could blink, she thrust the blade forward, halting it between Cardin and Jaune's noses so each of them were staring at the red blade.

Startled, Cardin pulled back. "What the hell was that, huh?"

"Do you have a problem with us?" Pyrrha muttered coldly, all the annoyance that had been built up inside her over the last week finally bursting free. "Why are you being so rude? Our conversation isn't your business."

Cardin narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth, lowering his stance slightly. "You raised a weapon against me, did you?" he spat.

Before he could say anything else, however, one of his teammates- Dove- caught Cardin's arm. "Dude, that's Pyrrha Nikos, remember?" he muttered fervently.

After a moment, Cardin straightened up, his snide grin back on his face, all traces of anger gone. "Is that so?" Turning his attention back to Jaune, he murmured, "So, Jauney-boy, you've got the 'pride of Sanctum' protecting you, huh? That's a pretty lame thing of you to do. Can't fight your own battles?"

Jaune's face immediately flushed a deep red, but he couldn't get a word out before Cardin raised a gauntlet-covered hand, cockiness oozing from every pore. "I can't blame you, Jaune. You picked a good, good partner. But maybe… if you're good enough to lead the Pyrrha Nikos, maybe you'd be a fun guy to hang out with."

Immediately, a chill went up Pyrrha's spine. "Back off," she commanded, straightening her shoulders, Miló still extended horizontally in front of the larger boy. "I suggest you go to the practice hall, Cardin."

But Cardin was already gone, walking out of the lecture hall door before she could finished speaking.

Jaune stood, staggering just a little. Immediately, Pyrrha collapsed her weapon and grabbed Jaune, helping him stand straight. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

But to her surprise, Jaune shrugged off her help. "I'm fine, Pyrrha," he mumbled. "You didn't have to do that." And without a second look to the other three, Jaune staggered towards the door, Crocea Mors clutched awkwardly in his hands.

Confused, the redhead turned to look at her other teammates, but no one could form a response. Cardin had clearly been trying to pick a fight- why, they didn't know. However, Pyrrha's thoughts weren't on Cardin, but on someone else.

Jaune… didn't thank me this time. Her entire body felt cold, numb, as she packed up her weapons, nodded stiffly towards Professor Oobleck as she teetered out of the room, and walked towards the practice hall. He always thanks me when I help him. I helped him, right? I wanted to help him. I'm his friend… right?

But the look of hurt in his eyes told her otherwise. Maybe she was wrong- maybe she was overthinking it. She just didn't know, and that fact terrified her.