A/N: All titles from Woodkid's "The Golden Age"

the fields of gold

Every day you go to the rooftop, and you fight.

Well, you fight. Pyrrha politely kicks your ass, and you did not know it was possible for anyone to do that, but that's Pyrrha for you. Always exceeding expectations.

Not- not that you have expectations for her, heck no. One thing your parents agree on, is that skill is one part talent to ninety-nine parts hard work. If that's the case (and it's looking more like it every day) then Pyrrha has to have been constantly working her butt off since she was a kid to get this good.

There are a lot of really good students in your year! (You are not one of them. You're trying, but you're just so far behind it's gonna take all your time here at Beacon to catch up at this rate.) But Pyrrha stands out so much, because she's good at everything. She's the top scorer in every class (except when Weiss is). She volunteers answers in class (even Professor Port's boring lectures) and gets all her answers right. And obviously she kicks butt at combat and tactics. Except when she kind of stinks at all the other parts of being a student, mostly the "having fun" parts.

Well, no, she doesn't stink. (Except right after a spar, but everyone smells like they just fell out of a barn after combat training. Adrenaline sweat is pretty potent, and Aura just kind of makes it easier to do more work, it doesn't mean you can get away with not trying.) She just... doesn't quite get how to deal with people, outside of being The Invincible Girl.

Like, she can deal with surprise cameramen (the paparazzi are insane and you're kinda glad you're not famous yet) and business-type people (lawyers terrify you, this is not a joke) and even hordes of screaming fans (one horde, that you know of, and apparently the trick is to politely smile and wave and disappear when they're not looking) but she has no idea what to do with Nora's ambush-hugs of love and pain, or Ren's supportive nods of camaraderie, or even just going out with friends to do something that's not more training. And you are friends, considering she agreed to keep the-whole-fake-transcript-thing secret from the actual authorities for you. Pyrrha let you take your own fall, but she's not gonna be the one to push you.

And Pyrrha is just so... so nice. And smart, and kind of stealth-sarcastic, and weirdly awkward about the most mundane things.

Like she'll offer to buy dinner for the whole team, and usually you all say yes because you didn't have much allowance saved up when you ran away from home (and apparently Ren and Nora don't have a huge amount of cash either) but as soon as Nora tries to give her a thank-you hug (of pain) she just locks up.

So you just... you try your best to be there when she needs someone to be there. You're her team leader, you have to be there for her, but it's not just that! You work with Pyrrha in class because you have to, she's your partner and your teammate and technically sort-of your subordinate and you can't afford to muck this up, but you really do want this to work.

You've never had a friend you could honestly trust with your life before, and it's frightening. You're absolutely terrified in the best way possible, like that moment you were in freefall and you were sure you were going to die and then you weren't. Pyrrha saved you, Pyrrha is still saving you, and you can't imagine a situation where she'd ever need you to save her. You don't want to, because that would mean Pyrrha was in deadly danger, and anything that could almost-kill Pyrrha would squish you. Pyrrha's definitely the knight in your partnership, but you know what? That suits you fine. You'll just have to be the brilliant strategist who comes up with a genius plan to get everyone home, instead.

...ow. You should not get distracted by dreams of glory during training time. That's a great way to reintroduce your face to the ground, again. Or the shaft of Pyrrha's weapon. ...wait, that came out wrong, didn't it?

She is smiling down at you. In the sunset, she glows like fire, like a candle in the dark.

Your hands are blistered again, your bruises have bruises, and you're sure you'll never get all that rooftop grit out of your armor.

Pyrrha pulls you up, and you smile back.

The sun sinks below the horizon.