Chapter 2 – Pyrrha, Go Home. You Are Drunk.
"What time izzit?" Pyrrha asked.
Blake looked at the clock on the opposite wall. "About eleven."
Pyrrha floundered around at the foot of Blake's bed, where she was currently propped against several pillows. Eventually, she managed to swing her legs over the side of the bed. "Thanks so musch, guys. I feel a lot…" Pyrrha nearly fell off of the bed, but Blake caught her just in time. "…Better," she finished, suddenly feeling very dizzy.
"You may feel differently in the morning," Blake replied. Yang moaned in affirmation; she was nearly beyond the capacity for coherent speech at this point.
Pyrrha sat up again, more slowly this time. "Curfew's ad midnight, an Nora an Ruby an Weiss will be getting back schoon. If I dun go back now, they'll all find out and dust knows whadd'll happen then." Pyrrha swayed a little on the edge of the bed.
Blake thought for a second. Pyrrha had a point: Weiss and Ruby would go crazy if they found out about Yang's brilliant idea to get Pyrrha drunk in their room, and Nora… Blake didn't want to think about that. She was glad she had moderated Pyrrha's drinking; surprisingly, the Amazon was a total lightweight. She'd only had two drinks and was nearly unable to walk…
Suddenly, Blake remembered the nearly empty cup that she was holding. The drink she'd taken from Pyrrha. The drink that Yang mixed and Pyrrha unwittingly drank. Blake cursed inwardly, but the damage had already been done. She looked at the girl slouching unsteadily near the foot of the bed, eyes glossy and unfocused. Pyrrha Nikos was plastered.
Thinking quickly, Blake got off the bed and extended an arm to Pyrrha. "C'mon, I'll walk you back to your room. You need to get some sleep, then you can talk to Jaune." Pyrrha grabbed at her arm and staggered along with the Faunus girl to the door. Yang held her arms up and melodramatically begged "Blakey" to not leave her, but Blake ignored her. She had to focus on getting Pyrrha back to her own bed before the rest of Team RWBY found out. On their way out the door, Blake scooped up Pyrrha's gym bag.
They made their way shakily across the hall, and Blake knocked softly on Team JNPR's door. A moment later, Jaune opened it.
He froze as he took in the scene before him. His strong, beautiful, and extremely composed partner looked like she'd lost a fight with a Boarbatusk: her long red hair was no longer in its usual ponytail, her boots were nowhere to be found, and her makeup was smeared across her unnaturally rosy face. Add all that to the fact that she couldn't walk by herself at the moment—thank dust Blake had found her—and it was understandable why Jaune was on the verge of totally freaking out.
"Pyrrha! What happened to you? I was worried! You usually aren't out so late. Are you hurt? Blake why are you—"
"Jaune!" Blake snapped. "Move." Pyrrha was leaning more heavily on Blake, whose arm was starting to hurt. Pyrrha needed to lie down. Jaune stepped back quickly and opened the door wider.
Pyrrha gave him a dirty look as they entered the room. "I dun wanna talk to you righ' now," she mumbled. Jaune was about to protest when Blake flashed him a "just-shut-up" look.
Wondering what he had done this time, he said, "Do you need any help?" Blake told him to shut the door and get Pyrrha's gym bag while she guided Pyrrha to her bed.
Meanwhile, Ren was sitting over on his bed looking mildly alarmed. Anyone who knew Ren well would realize that he was, like Jaune, freaking out. It usually took an extreme situation to get any facial expression from Ren at all, and seeing Pyrrha drunk was classified as an extreme situation.
The boys helplessly watched as Pyrrha got onto her bed, kicked the covers around, and lay down with one of her pillows over her face. Blake asked if she wanted to take off her armor, but Pyrrha said that she didn't feel like it. Jaune couldn't take his eyes off of Pyrrha. He was starting to realize what had happened, and he immediately started blaming himself for failing as a team leader, and as Pyrrha's friend, and—
"Jaune!" Blake snapped her fingers in front of his face, snapping him out of his increasingly worried thoughts. "Do you have any sports drinks?"
"Uhh, yeah."
"Then go get one for Pyrrha." Jaune went to Team JNPR's minifridge and grabbed a bottle of grape sports drink, and handed it to Blake. She set it on Pyrrha's nightstand, and asked if Pyrrha needed anything else. After hearing a muffled "no" from under the pillow, Blake walked towards the door, beckoning for Jaune to follow.
Once they were out in the hall, Jaune shut the door quietly, and turned to the weary-looking Faunus girl. "Blake, what in Remnant is going on?" he nearly shouted.
"Keep it down! We're in the hall, and people are trying to sleep," said Blake, fervently wishing that she could be one of those people.
"Tell me what happened to Pyrrha!" Jaune whispered as loudly as it was possible to whisper.
Blake's patience was wearing very thin. "Shut up and I'll tell you!" she growled at him, but managed to keep her voice down. She took a deep breath and began. "Yang saw Pyrrha at the gym, and thought she looked a little down. To cheer her up, Yang brought Pyrrha to our room and convinced her to have a few drinks." Jaune's eyes were as wide as saucers. "I didn't drink anything so I could keep an eye on Yang. You know how she can get carried away…" Both Blake and Jaune grimaced as they remembered the most recent time that Yang had gotten "carried away." No one ever wanted to play "Truth or Dare" with Yang again.
"Anyway," said Blake, trying to repress that memory, "Pyrrha had two drinks that I mixed for her, and I made sure they had a reasonable, low amount of alcohol in them, unlike the ones Yang made for herself. However, Pyrrha accidentally drank some of the spiked punch that Yang mixed, and so now she's drunk."
Jaune blinked. "So… Pyrrha… is drunk?"
Blake sighed. "Yes, Jaune. Pyrrha is drunk." She was so done with this night.
Jaune stared into space for a moment, trying to process the fact that Pyrrha—his loyal partner and the girl he cared most about in the entire world—was lying in their room, drunk and looking like a total mess. It just wasn't like her. Unless…
His hands shot out and grabbed Blake's shoulders, startling the Faunus. "What did you two do to her? Why was she crying? I swear, if you two hurt or humiliated her in any way, I will—"
Blake pushed him away, but she had to admit that she was touched by the boy's concern for his partner. Jaune really did care about Pyrrha, even if Pyrrha didn't realize it. "We just talked! That's it! Calm down, Jaune." The boy was breathing heavily at this point.
Jaune took a deep breath, held it, and then blew it out. "But… she was crying, right?" he asked hesitantly. "Why?"
Unwilling to betray her friend's trust, Blake proceeded carefully. "You can talk to her about that in the morning. Right now, she needs to rest."
Jaune looked at her questioningly, and Blake realized that he probably had no idea what to do. "Just try to keep the room quiet, and don't disturb her if you can help it. Make sure she drinks that sports drink because she's going to be dehydrated. Also," Blake paused, hating to be the one to explain these things, "you might want to keep a wastebasket nearby in case she gets sick later." Jaune looked like he was going to be sick himself. "Even if she isn't hungover, she's probably going to feel like crap tomorrow morning." Jaune hung his head, and nodded once.
"Am I correct in assuming that Pyrrha has never drunk alcohol before?"
Jaune looked up. "I don't think she has… Pyrrha seems pretty straight-edge."
Blake was getting kind of worried now, but hid it for Jaune's sake. She didn't actually know that much about alcohol, except that it affected each person differently, and there was no telling how much of it Pyrrha had drunk tonight thanks to Yang's stupid concoction.
"Well…" she began carefully, "since Pyrrha hasn't been drunk before, it's probably best to watch her. If she falls asleep that's one thing, but if she passes out or collapses, come get me immediately." Jaune was looking more and more freaked out by the second.
Blake heard a muffled thump from her room, and walked back to her own door. "I've got to go check on Yang." Jaune started to stammer something, but Blake said, "Jaune, I'm sure Pyrrha will be fine. And if anything happens, come and get me. Now get in there: your partner needs you." Blake disappeared into her room, leaving the bewildered leader of Team JNPR no choice but to do the same.
Jaune opened the door quietly to see that Ren had moved to Nora's bed in order to watch Pyrrha. The Amazon still had a pillow over her face, and was currently kicking her covers around as though she couldn't decide whether she was hot or cold.
Ren carefully made his way over to Jaune. "She's drunk, isn't she?" Jaune looked at the ground and nodded. "She's never been drunk before, right?" Another nod. "What do we do now?"
Jaune looked up at Ren, who still looked mildly alarmed. He knew he had to step up and be the leader his team deserved right now—even if he was faking it. "We need to make sure she stays hydrated, keep the room quiet, and watch her to make sure she doesn't black out. If anything looks serious, I'll go get Blake."
Ren nodded. "About the room being quiet… Nora's going to be back any time now."
Jaune resisted the urge to facepalm. "Ren, your job will be to distract Nora and keep her as quiet as you can. I'll watch Pyrrha." Ren nodded again, went back to his bed, and braced himself for the oncoming pink storm that would be Nora's return.
Meanwhile, Jaune sat down on Nora's bed. Pyrrha still fidgeted around on her own bed, pillow still covering her face. "Pyrrha?" Jaune called softly.
"What?" came Pyrrha's muffled reply.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" Jaune eyed her armor. She wasn't wearing her greaves (they were in her gym bag with her boots) but she still had her gauntlets, her metal collar, and her breastplate on. "Uh… you look kind of uncomfortable there."
Pyrrha continued moving around, finally taking the pillow off of her face. "Nothing getsh past you, doesh it?" Jaune winced. Pyrrha had never been sarcastic to him before.
Noticing that her smeared makeup was getting all over the sheets and pillowcases, he went to the bathroom for a minute and returned with a warm washcloth. She watched him impassively, and said nothing. Jaune sat back down and offered her the washcloth. "Umm… your makeup's all over. I brought this if you wanted to wipe it off…?"
Silently, Pyrrha took the washcloth and carefully wiped off her face. She felt a little better after that, and mumbled "Thanks" as she handed it back to Jaune. She then stared glumly at the ceiling.
Jaune was feeling a little bolder at this point, so he opened the sports drink that was on the nightstand and handed it to Pyrrha. "Here. Blake said that you should drink this because alcohol makes you really dehydrated." Pyrrha obliged, but continued to give Jaune the cold shoulder. After drinking several swallows, Pyrrha put the drink back on the nightstand.
Not knowing what else to do, Jaune simply sat on Nora's bed and watched her. Pyrrha stared at the ceiling, trying to ignore him, but eventually Jaune's vigil irritated her so much that she broke her silence. "Jaune, quit shtaring at me. Iss making me uncomforble."
"Oh, sorry," said Jaune, somehow managing to look embarrassed and worried at the same time. After clearing a space for himself amidst a dozen pink and purple stuffed animals, he lay down on Nora's bed and joined Pyrrha in staring at the ceiling for the next twenty minutes.
Eventually, curiosity overwhelmed Pyrrha and she turned slightly in her partner's direction. "Why are you laying on Nora's bed?" she asked tiredly. Pyrrha had stopped slurring her speech by this point, but still sounded hoarse.
Jaune was too nervous to meet her gaze right now, so he kept staring at the ceiling as he answered. "Blake said that Yang got you drunk, and I want to make sure that the alcohol doesn't have any dangerous effects on you." Pyrrha considered this, then drank some more of the sports drink. "If anything ever happened to you, Pyrrha, I'd never forgive myself." Her expression softened a little, but Jaune didn't notice because he was still staring at the ceiling.
"I'm sorry, Pyrrha," he whispered. "I've been a bad leader, a bad partner, and a bad friend. You deserve a lot better than me."
That was the moment that Pyrrha Nikos snapped.