A/N: Finally done my exams- which means, time for fluff! Everyone needs a non-descript holiday episode. The more I write Pyrrha and Nora's interactions, the more I realize that I'm just the combination of them and this is how I act with my friends. It's very odd.

Let me know what you think! Only one chapter left till the end of volume 1!

Laws of Attraction

Pyrrha shivered, drawing her blanket closer around her shoulders as a chilly draft entered the room. Sipping on the mug of cocoa in her hands as she drew the blanket around her drawn-in knees, she sank further into the couch in the dormitory lounge, watching Ren add a few more crepes onto Nora's plate. As the orange-haired girl eagerly covered each crepe with whipped cream and devoured them, Pyrrha asked gingerly, "Ren, Nora- aren't you two going home for the holidays?" A blur of red, black, and rose petals flew by the open door as Ruby ran off behind Yang, lugging a suitcase behind her down the hall. "Wouldn't you have to pack?"

Jaune, tucked into the other end of Pyrrha's couch, perked up at the conversation. "Yeah, guys. Even Ruby and Yang are heading home to Patch for a few days of the break- aren't you going anywhere?"

Now that classes had finished off for the first semester, students were free to go wherever they liked until the next term began. Many students were off to their hometowns to spend the winter solstice holidays with their families, leaving behind only a few in the dormitories for the break.

"We have nowhere to go," Ren said simply, pouring more batter in a circular motion upon the skillet. The slight sizzle filled the air as the next crepe cooked, Nora's keen eyes glowing with anticipation. "Besides, we could ask the same of you two."

Pyrrha froze. "What… do you mean, 'nowhere to go'?" she murmured, frowning.

Ren and Nora exchanged a wry smile before Nora turned to face the other two from the barstool she sat upon. "Ren and I lost our families when our village was attacked by Grimm," she explained gently, but her words were calm, reassuring, rather than upset or lost. "We grew up in the streets until we managed to run into some Huntsmen who took us in- they taught us to fight and let us stick around until we were old enough to go to a small combat school. We've been in boarding schools ever since!"

Pyrrha and Jaune traded wide-eyed, concerned looks. They had never spoken of their families before; this was the first time either of them had heard anything about it. "I'm… so sorry," Jaune whispered in shock.

Nora waved her hand dismissively. "Meh, don't be. After all, we're fine, aren't we?"

"That's why we swore to fight the Grimm. We may have lost our homes, but we never lost who we are," Ren assented, still facing the stove as he expertly flipped the crepe.

"You're… surprisingly calm about it," Pyrrha commented, unsure.

The other girl stood over and skipped to where Pyrrha sat, collapsing next to the girl in the corner of the couch and cuddling her cheek against Pyrrha's shoulder. Her eyes were mischievous, twinkling. "Nah. We've learned to cope. After all, we weren't alone, right?" The last part was meaningful, and Pyrrha caught her gaze drifting to Ren's back as the dark-haired boy hovered over the stove.

Suddenly, Pyrrha's face grew hot, feeling as if she was caught in the middle of an intimate moment for Nora. She knew that the other girl loved Ren, but to see the devotion in her eyes so close-up was embarrassing. It made her think of their conversations in the bathroom, of Nora's tender words…

And made her acutely aware of the other figure settled against her left side, curled up in his own blanket.

Nora broke her out of her thoughts when she said, "And here, we get free food, so why bother leaving? Anyways, how about you two? No plans of leaving over the break?"

Jaune shrugged, rolling his eyes. "I'm the only boy," he whined, burying his face in his knees. "Whenever I'm home, they make me put up all the decorations by myself, and then proceed to bully me the entire break, and then take them down again! They're slave drivers!"

"How many sisters did you have again?" Pyrrha giggled, picturing Jaune falling into snowbanks as he tried to put up multi-coloured strings of lights up around a house.

The blond groaned. "Seven. And they're all older, too, which makes it worse."

"Family is fun though!" Nora cried, reaching across Pyrrha's face to flick him on the nose with her finger. "You should cherish them."

"I do, I do!" he insisted, swatting her hand away. "I cherish them… just from a distance."

"Let him be, Nora," Ren said, walking over to where they sat and placing a plate of neatly-folded crepes in front of Pyrrha. "Here you go."

"Thanks Ren. I'll do the dishes," she smiled. He nodded with a smile of his own and wandered back to make some more for Jaune.

Jaune elbowed her lightly. "What about you, Pyrrha?" he murmured softly. Nora immediately clutched her arm a little tighter, and Pyrrha felt a mix of warmth and discomfort as she realized why they were so hesitant. They had seen her break down after her conversations with her mother- they knew something was wrong.

It was the first time anyone else had ever been allowed to know that there was something wrong in her life.

"My mother is… in the middle of a project right now," she said, picking each word carefully so as to not betray the turmoil forever hidden in the little black box whenever she thought of the destruction of her father's workshop. "I would only get in her way, and she'd barely be home anyways. Also, I thought- why not enjoy wandering around Beacon when it's quiet?"

Another gust of wind came in through the open window, chilling Pyrrha to the bone. She heard Ren close the window tight on his way to join them, holding Jaune's food as well as his own, murmuring, "It'll snow soon."

On her right, the smaller girl trembled in the chilly air still lingering in the room.

Pyrrha paused; she never really knew how to initiate contact, and just the thought of it made her blush. Nora knew that, too, always being the one to bring her in for a hug, reaching for her hand, giving her that physical contact that she wanted but never knew how to ask for. She had never had anyone to ask for it from, after all.

Still, she pulled Nora off her arm, lifted the edge of her blanket, and wrapped Nora around in it too, sharing the warmth.

"Well, we can celebrate here, just the four of us," she said.

Nora's round, pale blue eyes were wide as they looked up at her. "Pyrrha, what-?"

The redhead leaned down and whispered, "Sisters, right?" With a wide smile, she added, "You looked cold. I don't want you to freeze."

The orange-haired girl stared up at her for a moment before the most brilliant smile overtook her face. "Oh, Pyrrha!" she cried, curling up next to the larger girl. "Ren, give Pyrrha more food!"

"I will if you won't steal it from her," the boy replied without even looking at what the two girls were doing, too focused on enjoying his own food.

The first few days of the break passed like that, relatively peaceful as students left the dormitory one-by-one. The temperature quickly dropped, and soon everyone was wearing sweaters everywhere, bundled up as nicely as they could on their way to the dining hall or out to Vale. By the time that Ruby and Yang returned from their four-day visit to Patch, the snow finally threatened to hit the Beacon campus, and all the remaining students banded together begin the most important task of the year: decorating festively.

"I'm not getting on the ladder, you're going to knock me off!" Jaune squealed, crossing his arms as Ruby held out the string lights.

"But Jaune," she pouted, fluttering her eyelashes innocently, "I'm too short to reach the ceiling even when I'm on the ladder! You wouldn't make little ol' me jump, now would you?"

The blond rolled his eyes. "Eew, Ruby. Don't do that. I'm not doing it," he huffed, lifting his nose away from her in mock disdain.

Weiss walked on by, arms laden with the green garlands that Blake was carefully taping to the edges of the ceiling. "If you're not going to be useful, then move, Jaune," she hissed, following the dark-haired girl as she balanced atop the ladder expertly.

Jaune pouted and begrudgingly picked up the string of lights from Ruby's hands, tripping over them as he walked over to the other unused ladder. "Fine. You're all terrible."

Yang and Ruby traded wicked looks behind his back, just waiting for the blond to climb to the top of the ledge.

Pyrrha watched the display with an amused grin as she and Ren calmly hung ornaments off of the pine tree. The fresh scent from its needles wafted into her nose, combining with the heady perfume of the gingerbread cookies Ren had left on the countertop to cool earlier.

Out of the blue, Nora shook her arm, almost causing her to drop the box of shining red spherical ornaments. "Nora, what is it?" she asked quietly, meeting the girl's excited gaze with concern.

The huge grin on Nora's face was enough to assuage any concerns. The orange-haired girl simply giggled happily, eyes sparkling as her finger pointed towards the window. Following the direction of her hand, Pyrrha looked over, only to see thick, fluffy white gently falling onto the windowpane. "It's snowing, Pyrrha!" Nora cried, waving her finger excitedly. "Snowing! Can we play?"

Ruby and Yang immediately perked up from where they stood at the base of Jaune's ladder, clearly interrupted in the middle of trying to make the crying boy fall down. "Snow?!" Ruby squealed.

"That's the coolest kind of rain, right guys? Huh?" Yang offered, totally ignoring Weiss' annoyed groans.

Jaune clambered down from where he stood, running over to the window excitedly. "Hey guys, we should go out! It's already building up a bit!"

"Let's wait until it's a little deep," Blake said quietly as she taped up the last garland. "No point in walking around in mud." However, her expression contained no trace of excitement- instead, she looked bitter, the bags under her eyes a little more prominent as a shadow fell over her face.

She had never really looked the same after the battle with the White Fang on the docks.

The rest of Team RWBY cheered, so Pyrrha gave Nora a reassuring smile. "You heard them," she laughed lightly. Her eyes were still transfixed on Blake's expression of frustration, but she didn't know what to say. She wasn't supposed to know about the situation in the first place.

Decorating the lounge and their respective bedrooms was an easy task to complete, and by the time the snow had built up on the school grounds, they were all decked out in warm clothes and waiting anxiously to go play. The moment Ren gave her permission, Nora was bolting out of the door, scarf haphazardly flying behind her as she dove into the nearest snowbank. Jaune immediately followed her with an excited holler, sputtering as he tried to get the snow out of his eyes. Pyrrha hung back with Ren, taking a seat gingerly on the steps leading up to the dormitory's front door, smiling fondly at her teammates playing. After a few moments, however, even Ren leapt forward to participate in their impromptu snowball fight.

To her surprise, Weiss joined her. "Is this seat taken, Pyrrha?" the pale girl said stiffly, dusting snow off the bench.

Pyrrha shook her head. "By all means," she motioned for the girl to take the seat.

Weiss sighed, shaking her head. "Honestly, what in the world are they thinking?!" she muttered angrily. "It's freezing out, everyone is going to get sick, they're going to spread it to me- it's going to be a nightmare!"

The redhead chuckled at her frustration. Although her words were harsh, Pyrrha could see the warmth in Weiss' gaze as the white-haired girl looked on at her team rolling around in the snow. "You're from Atlas originally, right, Weiss? You must feel totally at home in the snow!" Pyrrha offered after a moment, smiling kindly at the pale girl.

Instead of smiling back, however, Weiss simply bristled and turned her nose up at the redhead. "Don't remind me," she huffed. "I don't exactly want to deal with Atlas right now." And with that, she stomped off to join Yang, leaving a confused Pyrrha to stare at her slight back.

"Don't mind her," a cheery voice quipped. The redhead turned to see Ruby plopping herself down where Weiss had just been seated, giving her no time to think about what had just happened. "She's okay."

"Did I say something I shouldn't have?" Pyrrha asked, unease growing as she watched the heiress join Yang's side of the battle. "I didn't mean to upset her."

Ruby bumped her shoulder into Pyrrha's, shaking her head with a rueful smile. "Our lovely little princess doesn't like talking about home, that's all."

"Really?"

The smaller girl shrugged. "She won't say why." Holding her hand up to shield her mouth, she mock-whispered, "I call it daddy issues."

Pyrrha couldn't help but wince, biting her own tongue to keep her agreement from spilling out. Composing herself, she murmured, "Fair enough."

A shadow fell over Ruby's face, instantly setting Pyrrha on edge. Yet, the girl simply stared at her lap, watching as the snow slowly settled on her stockings. When she didn't say anything, the redhead ventured carefully, "Hey, Ruby, is everything alright?"

After a moment, Ruby whispered, "I normally spend time during the holidays with my friends from Signal. This just feels weird." And it was then that Pyrrha realized just how small, how frail, Ruby really was. Was this really the same girl who fearlessly led Team RWBY? Was this the same girl who decapitated a giant Nevermore the first day they met?

But she was still just a fifteen-year-old girl, one who hadn't been emotionally ready for the change in people at Beacon.

Placing her hand on Ruby's back, Pyrrha murmured, "You're doing really well here, Ruby. I know that it must be hard to be away from your old friends, but… you've got us, don't you?"

The girl looked up at Pyrrha with wide, shining silver eyes. "Thanks, Pyrrha," she murmured, her cheeks flushing a little from her words. Coming back to life suddenly, she asked, "So, have you started thinking about your solstice gifts?"

"Gifts?"

Ruby rolled her eyes, rubbing her red nose proudly. "Gifts for the winter solstice! C'mon, you've gotta give your team something!"

It had long been a tradition across Remnant to give close friends and family gifts for good luck and well wishes at the turn of the new solar cycle in the winter months. From her mother, Pyrrha was used to finding money in her bank account, nothing more- without friends in Sanctum, however, she hadn't ever needed to pick up gifts for anyone.

I guess I need to think about what I could give them, she thought, glancing at Jaune and Ren as they hid behind a fence from Weiss' icy snowballs. She could see Jaune's mouth moving rapidly, Ren giving him his full attention as the blond presumably shared his plan to take down the other RWBY girls. "I'm, um, still working on it," she admitted at last, mentally scrolling through a list of potential gifts for her friends. Nothing she came up with seemed to work.

Before Ruby could interrogate her further about the gifts that she hadn't thought of yet, Nora came over and slung her arms around Pyrrha's shoulders. "This one's mine," Nora pouted, hissing playfully at Ruby. "Back off, Ruby."

Ruby just laughed brightly, standing up and stretching. Dusting off her knees from where the snow had built up on her lap, the girl replied, "Don't worry, Nora. I'm going- gotta help Blake not get pummelled by Yang!" Before she left Nora and Pyrrha alone on the stoop, however, she paused, taking a moment to smile softly at the two girls. "You're right. My teammates are my friends- but you guys are, too. Without you all, this place wouldn't have been like home, the way it is now. Thanks for that."

And with that, she was off, leaving Pyrrha's face so flushed with warmth that she suddenly couldn't feel winter's chill anymore.