'One day…'

That was the mantra Pyrrha Nikos kept repeating to herself whenever the topic of her unrequited feelings for Jaune Arc came to her mind. Or whenever Nora mentioned them in the dorm room whenever Jaune wasn't there.

'One day…'

It was pretty funny to her, to be honest. Not in the 'ha-ha' kind of funny, but in a strange funny way at how she never thought she would find true friends (which WAS one of the reasons she enrolled in Beacon), much less fall in love with someone.

Though the fact that certain someone was one of the rare few who didn't fawn over did made her a bit biased for Jaune. It was merely a small foundation that her admiration for him was built upon, no matter how utterly nonsensical it seemed.

Pyrrha chuckled as she found the entire reason behind her initial interest in Jaune kind of absurd. Who else can say that ignorance was what sparked the desire to partner with someone?

But she knew, deep down, that she didn't have anyone else to blame but herself for that – nobody forced her to rigorously train and become a tournament champion. Fame and money were a good boon when she started out, but they soon became minor things once she was financially secure. Her ultimate goal was acknowledgment of oneself.

A destiny she set in stone for herself.

She believed that she was ready for any consequences that came by following her destiny, but the truth was that one of the consequences, which was the denial of a primal need – the need for true companionship, was getting to her…badly.

The general public would either fawn over her, showering her in shallow praises and mindlessly adoring her, like a pet would adore its owner, or they would loathe her because of jealousy and the need to pull everyone else around them in their own personal misery. The former hurt much more than the latter, because Pyrrha knew that to those people she was nothing more than a symbol of whatever virtue they thought off.

As the public is concerned, symbols don't have human things like needs, desires or even dreams.

More than a few times Pyrrha thought to cause some sort of scandal, leave a dumpster fire behind to remember and curse them all for their expectations of her. She thought of doing so, but never did – for one, she simply wasn't that kind of person.

The second is that she loves competitive fighting too much to simply give up on it for spite.

While Pyrrha did like winning, the fight itself in a combat tournament was a wash of thrill and ecstasy.

But that feeling didn't last – it was akin to a drug and like with any drugs, once the addiction sets in, each hit becomes less and less of an euphoria until inevitably she feet absolutely nothing from it.

The only two things that made her consistently happy was making her mother smile whenever she'd win a tournament and, nowadays, simply being with the rest of the JNPR members.

And now came the question of Jaune Arc.

Pyrrha already knew that Jaune would never consider asking her out because he feels like she is completely out of his league. Small consolation is that at least he did think about her like that in the first place, at least.

Now that she thinks about it, that does speak volumes about Weiss and Jaune's continuous attempts to court her.

A mean thought on the expense of the heiress but did make her chuckle. Still, if that's the case, then she had to make the first move…

"One day…" she sighed.

"One day what?"

Pyrrha quickly turned behind her and saw Jaune approaching her. She cleared her throat and went with the most appropriate response she could think of now.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Just…talking to myself!"

He looked like he bought it. Good!

"Never mind that, how are you Jaune? Found a date yet?" she asked

"Well…no, no luck with that for me. I'd guess that you'd have lot of people offering to be your date."

Pyrrha sighed at that and responded:

"It's not like that, Jaune. It's…"

For many years she has bottled up all the frustration and anxiety that followed throughout her career as a tournament fighter.

And tonight, she made the decision to break the mental dam and let it all out.

"They want a date with my fame, my success, and not me. All they care is what I am, not who I am…and that, that…"

"Bugged you a lot, huh? To be honest with you…" Jaune scratched the back of his head, "I…I kinda knew who you were from the start. Before the initiation, I mean."

The statement surprised Pyrrha, unpleasantly so. But more than that, she wanted to know…

"Why-Why did you say you didn't know of me back then?" 'Why did you lie' went unspoken, but its meaning didn't.

"It's just that…you didn't look comfortable when Weiss approached you like she did and how everyone reacted. Your face basically said that you didn't want that kind of attention, so…so I thought to just, you know, approach both of you and take the pressure off."

Pyrrha was silent. Never would she think she'd ever hear something like that.

"Well, to be honest, the other reason was, at the time, I did want Weiss on my team. Kinda selfish, I know."

She sobbed. Tears ran down her cheeks and kept coming no matter how much she tried to wipe them.

"Oh, crap. I'm so, so sorry Pyrrha. I…I just wanted to come clean. Sorry if I…"

"Stop. Stop apologizing…" she murmured, cutting Jaune off, "Don't apologize for something you didn't do."

"Uh, what?" asked Jaune, surprised at her response. What was even more surprising was the hug that his teammate gave him.

"You…You were the first one to ever say loud and clear how I truly felt." She starred right at him, "Thank you…so much…"

"Ah, well…" Jaune stuttered awkwardly, "I didn't do much, now did I? But…you're welcome."

His smile always made her feel good.

"Also, Pyrrha…I, uh, I know."

She blinked a couple of times in confusion, which quickly shifted into panic as her mind raced to the only conclusion to what her team leader meant by those words.

"Wh-What…what do you know?" She stuttered, failing to feign ignorance.

"I know that…that you like me. Like, uh, like-like me."

The blonde man couldn't unnoticed how red her cheeks became upon uttering those words. She looked down on the ground, her thumbs fidgeting behind her back. She couldn't help but slightly rock left and right – understandable since she never believed that he would be the first one to make a move.

"You…noticed."

"Not…really. Not me, at least."

Her eyebrow was raised, her questioning look starring at Jaune as she expected an explanation.

"When I, uh, tried to ask Weiss for a dance, again, she went on a…well, she went on a tirade about how dumb I am for not noticing that you, well, like me and, uh, used every synonym for the word 'stupid' for me."

Jaune scratched the back his head and chuckled.

"To be honest, I did deserve them all."

He knew that whatever chances he had with Pyrrha were now completely and utterly rui-

'Huh?'

His train of thought was interrupted by a sudden hug. His teammate wrapped her hands around his neck, just like in all those romance movies he was forced to watch whenever his sisters got their hands on the TV.

Funny how age makes certain things look not so yucky as before.

"It doesn't matter."

Pyrrha backed away, but still held Jaune. He noticed how her face was standing very, very close to his.

"What it matters is that you…you finally know."

Now, if he clearly remembered how these kinds of scenes usually end, Jaune would expect the most important part to happen now, the part where they both…kiss.

But that never happened. Instead, a mischievous smirk suddenly formed on her lips, and Jaune didn't know what it could possibly mean.

"Do you remember our bet, Jaune?"

"Oh, yeah…yeah!" The 'bet' dress was still in his locker, tightly secured after one of CRDL members tried to play a prank on him.

"I didn't forget - an Arc always keeps his promise after all! So, yeah, I'll be going now- "

"I'll call it off."

"…Okay?"

Jaune's mind stopped dead in its track, awaiting Pyrrha's next words:

"On one condition." Pyrrha slowly approached him, almost in a sensual way as she grabbed his hand.

"Uh, sure! Yeah! Whatever you want, Pyr-"

"Shut up and dance with me." She whispered the words to him with a smile.

And since an Arc always keeps his promise, Jaune enthusiastically nodded as Pyrrha dragged him back to the dance floor.

Back at the ballroom, the slow music that the local band played so far was suddenly swapped for a crunchy guitar riff and a steady dance beat. One could say it was perfect for dancing, and almost all the attendees agreed to that.

Both Jaune and Pyrrha took the center of the floor that was somehow conveniently vacant and had enough space for them to dance.

Pyrrha was surprised at how good of a dancer Jaune was, even better than her. That was only, however, the icing on the cake that was the moment she was experiencing now.

Neither of them dared to look back and just kept their eyes locked on each other.

So they danced, and some of the other guests at the party cheered on them because they looked great.

On the other side, both Nora and Ren were drinking punch until they noticed their team members getting back and rocking it on the dance floor. And rock they did.

When the song ended up in a bombastic finish, she saw how Jaune and Pyrrha had their arms around each others' shoulders.

And then the kiss happened. Initiated by both of them.

"Oh my…RENNY, RENNY! THEY DID IT!"

Even Lie Ren, in all his wisdom, couldn't have foreseen something like this happening any time soon.

"THEY FINALLY DID IT RENNY! IT HAPPENED!"

Nora became a jumping jack of joy. She was so happy that she pecked Ren on the lips.

They only realized what happened a few seconds after – blushes all over their faces. Some would say it was a spur of the moment, some would say that it's the result of bottled-up emotion throughout the years they've spent together.

But that's a story for another time.