Hello again!

I'm really happy I managed to get this one out without too much trouble. Or, like, a three month break.

I wrote this one while traveling in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Not quite sure if the clean air and mountain view had an effect on my writing, but it sure as hell upped my productivity. Go watch the sun rise over a mountain. It's amazing.

Beta: Maxaro. Give in to the Lancaster...

Enjoy!

At the crack of dawn, Pyrrha slipped out of her room with a duffel bag and made a beeline towards the gym.

It was like clockwork. Every day for the last two weeks, the redheaded huntress woke up at 5:45 in the morning, freshened up just enough to wash the crust and sleep from her eyes, and was running laps on the quarter-mile track by 6.

The lieutenant from earlier – what was her name, Ashera or something? – had taken it upon herself to take care of Hermes while Pyrrha hit the gym. Apparently, Ashera had become quite affectionate towards the Atlesian husky, and even offered to take him on her own duties as the huntress attended to hers. It took a bit of coaxing from the lieutenant, but eventually Pyrrha relented to leave Hermes in the care of another.

As she kept up her brisk jogging pace, she had to admit, the design of the track was quite aesthetically pleasing, as it hung suspended above the gym and training rooms, giving Pyrrha a nice view of any spars as she ran past them.

Admittedly enough, only half of the reason she consistently kept up her workout routine was to stay fit.

The other reason of course being the man she was getting divorced from.

Ever since the night that they had drunkenly slept together, Pyrrha had felt perturbed and distracted by the apparent vacancy of space on the bed beside her as she woke up each morning, despite having not shared a bed with Jaune since God knows how long. Exercise and training had seemed to keep the lingering memory of him away, at least for the time being, so it quickly became a habit.

After an hour of rigorous conditioning, the huntress hit the showers, exhausted and drenched with sweat. She tensed up slightly as the cold water hit her bare skin, but sighed in content as the water became just the slightest bit warmer, relaxing her muscles and washing away the grime and toxins she had accumulated. After meticulously shampooing her crimson hair, she gingerly rubbed down her sore limbs and torso with soap, basking in the pleasant aromas that converged, before letting the almost rhythmic pulse of water take over and rain down upon her shoulders. With closed eyes, she allowed herself a brief moment of serenity, her mind relinquishing hold on any rampant thoughts as the shower continued to massage her nude body.

After a minute or so, Pyrrha opened her eyes. Internally, a part of her bemoaned the fact that she couldn't stay under the shower any longer, but she also knew that she was dangerously close to being lulled to sleep by it. Exhaling deeply, she quietly turned off the shower and began to dry herself with the towel she had brought with her.

A short time later, she emerged from the gym locker room in a light blue tank top and black leggings, gym bag slung over her shoulder.

While she had half a mind to drop the bag off at her room first, her stomach growled loudly, threatening to make its presence known to every occupant at the fort. Chuckling softly as she conceded defeat, she made her way towards the cafeteria.

The smell of freshly baked pastries almost made Pyrrha drool on site, but she steeled herself to pick up some of the healthier breakfast items provided, including some fruit, eggs, and – screw it, I suppose no one's looking – a cheese Danish. A cup of orange juice completed her breakfast of champions, and she meandered among the tables looking for a place to sit.

Within a few seconds, she found what (or rather, who) she was looking for and briskly walked towards the table with her currently occupied partner. His brown hair was down today in curly locks, and his eyes remained focused on the several documents that lay beside his nearly empty plate. The man was dressed as casualyl as could possibly be, in a colorful tank top and what appeared to be swimming trunks, to which Pyrrha snickered at.

"You look like you belong on a beach," she teased, taking the seat opposite of the huntsman.

Caraway looked up at his not-so-unwelcome intruder. "And you look like you went to the gym without me. Again," he huffed in mock annoyance.

"Oh, stop complaining," Pyrrha laughed, digging hungrily into her eggs. "It's not my fault you won't wake up early. You've only got yourself to blame."

"I like my beauty sleep," Caraway stuck out his tongue.

Pyrrha snickered. "Well, you're a very pretty girl, Caraway."

"Not while I'm sitting next to you, I ain't."

"Would you quit with the flirting already? Sheesh." The redhead reached across the table and lightly swatted her widely grinning partner in the face.

"Ow! H-hey, I'm just being honest!" Caraway protested.

Pyrrha rolled her eyes, unable to keep from smirking. "And I told you to stop."

"Stop being honest?"

"… You know what I mean." The huntress finished devouring her eggs and washed it down with some juice. "So what's all this?" she asked, motioning towards the several papers lying askew on the table.

"Oh, these?" Caraway haphazardly sifted through the papers. "These are just some of the bills we've been working out in the meetings. C'mon… you've been paying attention at the meetings, right?"

"Yes…" Pyrrha strategically chomped on the cheese Danish in a manner that hid her reddening face. "Somewhat…"

Caraway narrowed his eyes. "Really?"

"Shush…" the redhead grumbled. "Contrary to popular belief, I've never been great at this political stuff."

"I find that a little hard to believe."

"It's true! All my life I've been trained to be a warrior and to be knowledgeable of any combat-related skills, semblances, strategies, etc. Politics were never deemed important to my education, at least until I got to Beacon. And maybe it means I'm not really the model huntress that people think I am, but politics have always been… well…" Pyrrha shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. "They've always been… Jaune's forte, and I kind of leaned on him for that."

"I… see." She heard Caraway's voice intoning cautiously as her eyes remained pasted to the Danish in her hands.

"H-hey, speaking of which, why don't you take a look at this one?" Out of the corner of her eye, Pyrrha watched as her partner slid one of the various documents across the table towards her plate.

With a raised eyebrow, she carefully read through the paper. "Is this… is this what I think it is?"

"Yup!" Caraway smirked. "A proposition to outlaw the use and manufacture of any and all devices used to control the activities of Grimm – passed just yesterday."

Despite herself, Pyrrha winced. She was a little too familiar with the subject.

The purpose behind said technology had started off benign enough, having been authorized by General Ironwood as military project. In the preliminary experiments, the Atlesian scientists had argued that this technology could be used to keep Grimm attacks at bay and even cull their numbers by turning them against each other. Although looked upon unfavorably by most others, the project continued until White Fang saboteurs managed to smuggle the prototypes out from under Atlas's nose and turn the technology loose.

Such an incident had left Pyrrha's estranged husband the sole survivor of a straight-out massacre (passingly dubbed "The Hunting Party Massacre" by the media), and although the White Fang had long since been dissolved and the Grimm-controlling technology subsequently destroyed, the redhead had taken very little comfort in watching Jaune's mental health rapidly deteriorate from the trauma.

"I guess Jaune'd be glad to hear this," Pyrrha murmured. "Although… maybe not. And, well… we're not exactly on speaking terms, either."

Caraway gave her a reassuring smile. "That kind of divorce, huh?"

"Not so much, actually," the redhead chuckled softly, despite the heavy feeling in her chest. "We've been separated since six months ago, but we only just had a falling out… the day before I left for here."

"Yikes." The huntsman cringed. "That explains why when we met you were bitchier than what people made you out to be."

"Take it easy!" Pyrrha chastised, laughing. "I know, I know, I wasn't in my right of mind that day, but to be fair, you were being pretentious."

"Was not!"

"Was too."

An ocular standoff settled between the two before a twitch of Pyrrha's lips set them both laughing.

Caraway coughed. "Hey, uh… I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds here, but can I ask why you guys were separated? I mean, you did say, after all, that you two only stopped speaking a few weeks ago… but you've been apart for six months?"

Pyrrha gave a small smile. "You're not overstepping anything."

With that, she took a deep breath.

"I'm guessing you know what happened to Jaune's troop. The... the Hunting Party Massacre. Naturally, it… took a toll on him. It's continued to wear down on him, even until now. He quit being a hunter and started teaching, but I kept going on missions, and somewhere in between we, well… we became distant. I don't think… I don't think I ever really knew how to talk to him, or rather, to comfort him after all that. I guess I just couldn't relate to what he'd been through, and us being apart all the time certainly didn't help. We started fighting more and more over the stupidest things. I don't know why we did… we were just… worlds apart."

She laughed bitterly. "When we decided to divorce, everything suddenly went back to normal. We started talking like nothing happened, and it was easier to comfort Jaune when he was feeling depressed. We even started living together again, and I was just hopeful that everything could just be the way that it used to be. It was like there was a chance that we could be… well, friends… again.

"And then… we fell apart. Again. After we… uh… never mind." Pyrrha's flushed with shame upon the memory of that night as her partner raised an eyebrow.

"You two… still live together?"

"Well… yeah." The huntress pinched the bridge of her nose – and immediately regretted it as she felt the remnants of the cheese Danish against her face.

"Dammit..." Wiping away the cheese with a napkin with a soft grumble, she continued. "All our friends did say it was a bad idea, and now… well, I'm inclined to believe them. One of them even said that maybe in the six months that we had split and continued to live together, there was a possibility that Jaune stayed because he thought there was a chance we'd get back together."

Pyrrha sighed. "I… I honestly don't know what to think about that. I mean, were they right? Is it bad for us to continue to be friends with one another?" The redhead frowned. "I... find it hard to believe. Like, we were such good friends once we separated. Maybe they were just jealous of how close we were despite the state of our relationship. There's no reason we can't still be friends if it works out."

She grinned, a spark of determination in her eye. "I'll show them! Once I get back home, I'll talk to Jaune. I'll apologize to him for what happened, and we should be back to normal… right? No, of course we will. Jaune doesn't hold grudges. We'll be fine!"

Caraway glanced uncertainly at the zealous huntress across from him. "I understand wanting to continue to be friends with him, and hell, I've seen people with lesser character having been able to do that. But I have to ask – and I'm not trying to be accusing or anything! You said that maybe Jaune stayed friends with you for the possibility for getting back together with you. Did you ever wonder if maybe you're still trying to be friends with Jaune because… because you still want to be with him?"

"W-what?"

The question blind sighted Pyrrha completely. She'd never ever considered the possibility before and immediately wanted to dispel the assumption. The reasonable side of her, however, wondered if there was any possibility at all that this could be true.

"I… uh… I don't think so…?" She cleared her throat and tried (but failed) to regain her composure. "No… no, that's not right… we're just… exes who are still friends. Right? I mean… I don't know…"

Unable to untangle her thoughts, Pyrrha exhaled heavily, her head now in her hands.

The brown-haired huntsman reached a hand onto his partner's shoulder. "You don't have to figure everything out right now. But… well, it's something you should consider. Don't rule it out completely, no matter how much you don't want to believe it."

"R-right."

"And, at the same time, I think you should try to stay friends with your ex. Obviously, the way you talk about him, even if you don't to be together with him once more, you care deeply for him. So, I think it would be foolish for you to completely relinquish that friendship altogether."

Pyrrha nodded, a smile gracing her face once more. "Of course."

"And well, if you need a little tender-loving care, I'm always down to –"

Pyrrha lightly batted Caraway in the face, giggling. "You just had to go and ruin the moment. Didn't I tell you to stop flirting with me?"

"I wasn't flirting! Honest! Maybe."

The huntress batted her partner's face again, and they both burst into fits of laughter.

Ruby watched the clock patiently as the hands of the clock slowly moved from 4:59 to 5:00.

As if on cue, the door by the front desk opened up as Jaune and a slightly older lady emerged into view.

"And if you have any questions, Mr. Arc, feel free to call me!"

"Thank you, Mrs. Cerrillos. I guess we'll see each other at the next session!"

The two gave their farewells, and Jaune made his way with a smile on his face towards Ruby as she rose from her seat in the lobby.

"So!" Ruby chirped cheerfully. "How was your first session of therapy?"

"Ah…" Jaune inhaled. "It's exhausting, to be honest. But y'know… I realized that I had a lot more stuff to talk about then I thought I would. I mean, I went in there thinking I'd have to dig deep for stuff to talk about, but with Mrs. Cerrillos' help, it all just came spilling out! And man… I was not prepared to do that much crying… but, I do feel a hell of a lot better. So, y'know… thanks for making me do this."

Ruby beamed. "Hey, you were willing to put effort into it. Give yourself a little bit of credit."

"I wouldn't have done this if you hadn't dragged me here."

The pair exited the therapist's office and made their way downtown. It was a sunny yet cool Saturday, perfect for an excursion around town. After picking up some drinks from the local coffee shop, Jaune and Ruby strolled through town in a random direction, enjoying the light breeze and simply content to amble aimlessly without destination.

"Did Oobleck ever get back to you on that Beacon job offer?" Ruby asked, handling the hot coffee with her unfeeling mechanical arm.

Jaune grinned. "As a matter of fact, Bart gave me a call back yesterday."

"I see we're on a first name basis, eh?"

"I… yeah, I guess so. Rolls off the tongue surprisingly well. And now I have an excuse to forget about calling him 'Doctor.'" Shrugging, Jaune continued. "Anyway, he said the spot's open, but it's a spot that a lot of other people vying for as well, so they're bringing me in for an interview next week. I mean, I still get the advantage with the references and past experience with the profs there, but I guess I can't be too cocky."

"Still, that's really exciting!" Ruby smiled brightly at him. "The chance to be back where it all began? What I'd give for all that nostalgia! Seriously, I really am happy for you, even if it's not a for-sure thing."

Jaune chuckled. "If you're so keen on the idea, why don't you apply for the job?"

"It… well…" Ruby sighed. "I think going back would hurt for me. At least this soon, anyway. It's all the stuff I aspired to be… and all the stuff that I can't be anymore. But still, Jaune, if you snag this job, it'll be the most exciting thing since nano-refolding weapon technology!"

She grinned and grabbed the blonde's hand. "I couldn't be happier for you, Jaune. Really."

Jaune's face reddened slightly at the touch before he gave Ruby a warm smile. "Thanks Rubes. So… what about you, then? Is that weapons mechanic job something you're happy doing?"

Ruby shrugged. "It's something to do. I mean, it's not fancy, but I enjoy doing it enough. I mean, hey, I get to tinker with weapons parts all day, so it's not too bad. Oh, and I get paid!" She laughed hollowly. "Although… I still kinda wish I was doing something more… fulfilling."

"Baby steps, Rubes. You'll find your way before you know it." Jaune winked. "Hey, it's a step in the right direction, right?"

Ruby winked back. "I daresay you're taking that first step with me, too."

"Fair enough."

Giggling, they walked hand in hand for a ways, pointing out old familiar spots as well as newer additions to the city. Since the ten years when they had first become familiar with the city of Vale, it had remained more or less the same, with the exception of the occasional remodeling and retouching. The modern, tech-savvy aesthetic of Vale was as sleek as ever, and the addition of new shops, restaurants, and even the rapidly evolving technologies served only to amplify the city's beauty. Tourists flocked in on the regular, economy boomed inside and outside the city, and the Vytal Festival (which would actually be starting up within the week) was an even bigger event than when Jaune and Ruby had first attended, almost tripling in attendees.

"The shop will be open Monday through Wednesday, but I'll get the rest of the week off. We should go check out the festival this year," mused Ruby.

"For sure. I haven't been since Beacon."

"I went the year after we graduated."

"Oh really? Who'd you go with?"

"I… went by myself."

Jaune laughed. "Aw, that sucks. I'm sorry none of us were around to go with you."

"It's alright," Ruby smiled. "It was actually not that bad of an experience going alone. There's some nice freedom involved with not having to worry about other people while you're enjoying everything. It's just that... well, it was then that I realized we had become adults. We'd all be busy all the time, especially with the responsibility of hunters, and it would be hard to coordinate our free time with each other from then on. So this… being able to go to the festival again, even if it's just you and me… it's something special."

Jaune nodded, absorbing her words. "I never really thought of it like that. I guess I kinda just took everything for granted for a while there."

"I totally get that. When Weiss managed to get us all together – or most of us, at least – for the food drive event… that was the first time I'd talked to anyone in weeks, other than Weiss, of course. She was bitching me out for not wanting to go; you should've seen how worried she was, it would've been hilarious if I hadn't been a miserable fuck. And I'm glad she dragged me out – I got to see everyone again, doing something really great for the community. I mean, what could be more fun or fulfilling? I loved it… and I... I loved being able to see you again after so long. I missed talking with you, y'know."

She looked up at Jaune, who remained oddly silent, staring at his feet.

Ruby giggled. "Good to know you missed me too, you dummy. Anyway, it's kinda funny how these things work out, huh? Meeting again at an event I wasn't even sure I was going to, and now we're living together in the same house. It really is almost like Beacon again… and maybe because of that, I feel better than I have in a while. I mean, I was okay on my own after the accident and all, but living without people in my life was… different. Empty, I guess. And then along came you! Even with all the shit you had to go through, you were willing to come and keep me company and put up with my own burdens. I mean, I'm sure you don't need any of my baggage on top of yours, but you still… I'm sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I? I'm totally rambling… but really, truly, thanks for putting up with me. It really means a lot to – mmph!"

Any of the several hundred thoughts that floated around in Ruby's head were immediately silenced as she felt Jaune's lips press up against her own. Her brain frantically tried to process the current situation, but the mental sparks effectively short-circuited any and all thought processes.

A few seconds more of mind-numbing sparks passed before Jaune released her. Ruby gasped, half in oxygen deprivation, half in wordless surprise, with her eyes wide and her jaw hanging open.

Jaune chuckled at the sight. "I should be the one thanking you for putting up with me. I know I can be a stubborn mule sometimes, but somehow you've always been there to set me straight. If you'll have me, I'd love to be the one who keeps you company." His eyes went shifted back to his shoes as he blushed deeply.

Ruby had managed to piece back enough parts of her brain at this point to process a few cognitive thoughts, which came out in stutters. "A-are you sure? I-I mean, the thing between you and Pyrrha… I thought that was still fresh… I thought you might wanna talk to her first… I don't wanna force you into anything you're not ready for… have I been too forward…?"

The blonde grasped her firmly by the shoulders, offering a warm smile. "It's okay, Rubes. I'm asking this of my own accord. Pyrrha has no hold on me, and I've no desire to go back to that relationship. I know now that it's a cycle that'll continue to wear and tear at what I have left with Pyrrha. I have to move on, if not just for me, than for both me and her. More importantly… I like you. No, that's wrong… I love you. I love the person that you are and the person that you make me want to be. I loved you as a friend and now as something… well, more. And… and I should've done this a long time ago. Get back in contact with you, I mean. I didn't mean to leave you by yourself, yet, like the fool I am, I –"

"Stop." Ruby's voice tried to remain firm, but she couldn't deny the slight tremble in her voice. "No more dwelling on the past. If you want to go forward… with me… then I will always be by your side. I would love nothing more than to be by your side." Any restraint from smiling was shattered completely, and the redhead wrapped her arms tightly around Jaune, as if afraid of losing him at any instant. "But only if you're okay with it."

Jaune hugged her back just as tightly, kissing the top of her head. "I want to be with you more than anything. Does that answer your question?'

She tried to pout at his light teasing, but the smile refused to be swept from her face. "Yes… yes, it does."

If hearts could soar, than surely theirs were comets visiting distant galaxies.

This wasn't quite the doozy chapter I promised, I think. Oh well. It's certainly next - the inevitable is inescapable. And I just realized how redundant that sounds.

Are any of ya'll going to RTX this year? Please, if you see me on the floor, feel free to say hi. I'm spending the rest of this week (and what little of next week) to try and scrap together a genderbent Neo cosplay. Aside from that, I'll be dressed as an Asian hipster. Maybe I'll wear a nametag to make things easier.

So yeah, I'll probably be busy for the next few weeks. We'll see how the writing goes.

Reviews are always welcome!

See ya on the next one!