And here we go.
Another chapter out, not too much of a gap in between, thank goodness. Hopefully my plans to write more in the upcoming months come to fruition, as some things have cleared up. Others... not so much, but I'm in no position to complain.
Beta: Maxaro. I'm actually reading The Martian as I type. It's a stellar book, puns aside.
Nora yawned and attempted to wipe the sleep out of her eyes. Shivering a bit against the slightly cooler-than-usual morning temperature, she pulled on a light hoodie over her tank top and pajama bottoms before walking towards the door of her room.
Despite the earliness of the hour and Nora's propensity to sleep in, the smell of pancakes cooking had awoken her, and naturally she had decided to follow its scent to its origin and its dashingly attractive cook.
Sure, that last part may have been a matter of opinion, but Nora could be quite persuasive on the matter – especially so if you had legs and she had her hammer on her.
As Nora entered the kitchen area, Ren looked up and flashed her a smirk.
"Ah, the bear finally awakens after a long winter of hibernation," her boyfriend teased playfully, adopting a narrative tone. "She hasn't eaten in over three months, and now comes in search of potential meal."
"It's eight in the morning, so don't even give me that lip about waking up late. And plus Mama bear's gotta eat, and ain't nobody gonna stop me," she retorted in equal playfulness, lazily finding his lips with her own before pulling back and trudging past him. "'Potential,' my ass."
She immediately yelped as she felt a squeeze on her rear end, and the mirthful voice from behind her. "Your ass indeed has potential."
Sometimes Ren really took Nora off guard.
And that was why that shrewd, unassuming man turned her on so damn much.
"Geez…" Nora sighed, half in exasperation and half in a haze of hastily stifled urges. "You could at least wait til I've eaten before pulling that shit on me." She stretched her arms and torso, feeling each and every muscle ripple as she did so. "Did you pick the mail up this morning?"
"Not yet. It's… really cold."
"Right." Nora grinned at him, swiping up the mailbox keys. "Delicate little lotus flowers don't survive well in the cold. Leave it to the one worthy of Valhalla to brave the cold, my precious blossom!"
She heard a snort from behind her as she walked past the huntsman. "Yeah, whatever."
Opening the door of their house, she walked barefoot across the rather frigid pavement towards the mailbox in front of their minuscule yard. The jangle of the keys rattled along beside her as she reached to unlock the tiny door.
Damn… it's all junk mail today, Nora groaned internally, folding the lump of papers under her left arm. Not like she expected any different, but to Nora boring was still to be treated the way boring had always been treated.
Turning around, she caught sight of a familiar and somewhat ragged form in sweats and a light cerulean training bra heaving ever so slowly towards Nora, her red hair dripping with sweat.
Nora blinked.
"… Pyrrha…?"
The redhead waved with a mighty effort and tempered to a stop before Nora, much in the same way that molten steel tempers solid with agonizing evetuality.
"H… hey… Nora!" Bowled over with her shaking hands on her shaking knees, Pyrrha attempted to reply in between gulps of air, to little success. "What's up… with… you and… Ren…?"
Now that the redhead stood directly in front of her, Nora was able to get a better look at her best friend
Suffice to say, Pyrrha looked... awful. She seemed on the verge of dropping like a sack of potatoes, and the half-hearted grin looked more like a pained grimace. As a matter of fact, all of her looked in pain. Her body was drenched in sweat, and she shined like polished marble - well, melting polished marble, in any case.
However, it was Pyrrha's eyes that stood out the most. They were bagged and haggard, and sleep seemed to have avoided them like the plague.
Nora cleared her throat and tiredly rubbed her nose with her sleeve. "Pyr… what are… doing?"
"Ahah… heh… me? I just… been… y'know… jogging. Good for… the heart!"
She raised an eyebrow dubiously. "From… your house…?"
"Yup! Issa… issa long way, y'know?" Pyrrha laughed, which quickly turned into a wheezing fit.
"Uh…" Nora quickly ran the numbers in her head. "Pyr, you live on the other side of the city. That's an hour-long drive… so that's like forty miles? That's not some 'jog!' Goddamn, Pyrrha, when did you start running?"
"Ah… like… 5:30?"
"… You ran an hour-long drive… in two and a half hours." Nora's head began to ache at the revelation. "That's fucking insane! On top of that, that doesn't sound healthy at all! I mean, maybe I'm kinda impressed, but I'm really worried that you're gonna keel over any second now..."
Pyrrha smiled sheepishly, her heaving breathing still not slowing down. "Well… y'know… I like running."
Nora groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. All these years later, still the same stubborn, prideful Pyrrha. Based on their personalities alone, it was almost ridiculous how many times Nora had found herself scolding her best friend throughout their friendship as opposed to the other way around.
"I'm pretty sure I know what's up. You're coming in and having breakfast with Ren and me, and we're going to talk. I swear, with how stubborn you are, you probably didn't even eat anything before you ran."
"But I… I gotta… run back…" The redhead attempted to swivel around and almost buckled under her own weight.
Nora grabbed her arm. "There's no way in hell I'm letting you do that. You're gonna have breakfast with us or God so help me I will break your legs and make sure you never run again."
Pyrrha felt her stomach convulse violently
"I think… I'm going to puke."
Nora and Ren gave a collective sigh from the kitchen table as they watched their friend moan from her sprawled position on the floor. Whatever strength had allowed her to stand upright and walk through the door had promptly departed in the middle of the living room, and now Pyrrha was left clutching her angry stomach in one hand and a wastebasket in the other as the world spun around her.
She had actually wretched a couple of times already as she laid there, but true to Nora's suspicions, Pyrrha had nothing in her stomach to actually vomit, and the smell of food from the kitchen made her feel even sicker instead of hungry.
Shaking her head, Nora finished up the rest of her pancakes before heading over to the redhead's unmoving form and massaging her back gently.
"You're that fucked up over Jaune, huh," she murmured softly, and it came out more as a statement than a question.
Pyrrha rolled over gingerly to face her best friend. "Ahaha… why… would you say… that?"
From his spot in the kitchen, Ren poured himself a cup of steaming hot tea. "You're not denying it."
Pyrrha closed her eyes. The spinning of the room had gotten to be too much for her. "I guess... I'm not."
"I have to say… we weren't really expecting you to be this strung up on Jaune moving on," Ren murmured sympathetically. "We thought you'd be the one to move on first. "
The redhead felt her face go red with guilt. "Well, excuse me for... having human tendencies, too."
"Like sleeping with him and then saying it was a mistake?" Nora sighed softly. "Y'know, I can't say that I blame the guy. I mean, don't get me wrong, what he did wasn't exactly the most well thought-out of plans either, him and Rubes hitting it off and all, but what you did to him was… kinda messed up."
"God, I know!" Pyrrha groaned, giving Nora a hurt look. "You think that I haven't... been thinking that same thing... for the last week since I got - oh God." She felt the acidic bile suddenly rise up her throat, and she made every determined effort to quell the urge to vomit.
Eventually, the terrible nausea passed, and Pyrrha hesitantly continued. "Besides... I was planning on apologizing…"
"The month after you got back from Fort Soap?" interjected Ren. "Month's a long time, Pyrrha."
"Yes," Pyrrha hissed softly. "That should've been... plenty of time for him to cool down."
"It was plenty of time for him to try to find some other way to find solace," Ren sighed. "But, we're not going to rag on you. After all, we made some assumptions that we shouldn't have, so who are we to talk?"
"That's true," Nora nodded thoughtfully. "I'm sorry if we came off a little mean. But that's only 'cuz you went dark on us all for a month, y'know. So, please, talk to us. We're always here to listen."
Pyrrha grimaced. "I… I don't know. It still feels like you two are picking sides."
Nora and Ren shared a glance.
"We won't. I promise," replied Nora.
"Agreed," added Ren. "And by the way, these pancakes aren't getting any warmer. Do you feel any better?"
Pyrrha took in a deep breath. Most of the nausea seemed to have subsided by now, and she nodded slowly.
"A little."
Ren smiled. "Wonderful. Please, come take a seat by the table and talk with us."
The redhead looked between both Nora and Ren before sitting up with an effort. "… Alright."
In all the time Nora and Ren had known her, Pyrrha had been a delicate eater, following pretty much every bullet point of meal etiquette in written history.
And it wasn't as if she had completely abandoned all properness as she chowed down on pancakes this time around. However, Pyrrha attacked the pancakes as if she hadn't eaten in days, and despite her fatigued state, she still exhibited none of the sloppiness associated with eating at such a speed.
"Talk about depression eating," Nora muttered under her breath, to which Ren moved to rap his knuckles briskly against the ginger's cranium.
"Ow! Ren!"
Pyrrha glanced up at the squabbling couple and giggled softly. "Some things never change."
Ren and Nora paused their lover's spat for a moment before chuckling along with Pyrrha.
It was the first time all morning that she'd given even a hint of a real smile.
"Well, y'know," Nora chirped. "Someone's always gotta be the comic relief!"
"I refuse to be labeled as such," muttered Ren, sipping his tea.
Nora slapped his back cheerily, causing the huntsman to expel some of the tea from his mouth in a startled fashion.
"Nah, you're the straight man in our Pinky-and-the-Brain routine!"
Ren grumbled as he wiped mouth. "Firstly, I doubt either Pinky or the Brain were trope straight men, and second, the idea that we're a comedy routine scares me."
Pyrrha was just content to watch the couple riff back and forth as she continued to eat.
Eventually, when the pancakes were finished and their appetites were whet, the delicate subject of Pyrrha and Jaune's relationship came up once more.
The redhead stared at her hands as her thumbs twiddled, then sighed.
"It's just… I just… I mean, you guys weren't wrong in thinking I might move on first," the redhead managed. "I thought so, too. At least… at least up until the point when Jaune told me he and Ruby…" She trailed off.
"That's what a divorce is, Pyrrha," Ren smiled sadly. "Eventually, someone's going to have to move on. You, him. Someone has to make that move, and it surprised us too when it was Jaune who did. Talking to him gave me the impression that he was... less than inclined to move on."
"So you see why I thought he wasn't going to move so fast?" Pyrrha attempted to meet her friends' eyes.
"Well…" Nora pulled the neck of her shirt sheepishly. "There was the thing."
The redhead remained silent for a while, and her eyes shifted away once more.
"There's… just no way around it, is there?" she murmured, voice growing hoarse with emotion. "I did a terrible, terrible thing, and I would do anything to take it all back. But… I can't. Because I'm a damned fool."
The couple remained silent. They weren't going to lie to their friend.
Pyrrha continued. "I… I literally have no idea what to do. Every chance that I had to mend our relationship... I… I… fucked up." She flinched at her own utterance of the expletive. "And… now he's about to start a damn family. How do you… how do I even… start to fix… anything? He's moving on… and I'm just… stuck…"
"Well… you just gotta move on, then!" Nora offered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Pyrrha's reaction towards Nora's simple answer was nothing short of surprise. "I-I'm sorry?"
"Sounds pretty straightforward to me," Nora smiled gently. "Where you are now is pretty much exactly where Jaune was when he was stuck in your little not-together-together limbo. And he pretty much moved on! So you can, too!"
The redhead balked. "But... but that's not what I want to do at all! I want to fix things with Jaune, not just to pretend we were never friends and start dating other people again!"
"While a bit callous, I have to agree with Nora, honestly," Ren replied gently. "I think you have a bit of soul-searching to do, and it's not something you can do by just making up with Jaune. This is something you need to do for you. If you don't want to be in a rut, then you have to force yourself to get out of it. And I know, neither I nor Nora have had to deal with anything like what you're going through, so we can't give you a step-by-step process on how to get back to good, but life requires self-growth, and this is no different." He poured out a cup of tea and passed it to his former teammate.
Pyrrha accepted the drink gingerly and took a cautioned sip, eyes glued to the golden liquid in the cup. "I… don't even know how to date other people. Jaune was the only person I was ever with. I don't… know how to be with anyone else." Her voice grew quiet, as if she was speaking more to herself than she was to her friends. "Do I even want to move on…?"
Ren let slip a hollow laugh, and Nora elbowed him for it.
"Umph!" Ren coughed, before regaining his composure. "Sorry. It's just that Jaune responded the same way when he came to me for advice a while ago."
Nora rolled her eyes. "Pffft. You tricked him into going to a painting class with you and became Confucius. Don't make stuff up."
"Pot calling the kettle black?" Ren retorted calmly.
The ginger grumbled but kept her mouth shut.
Pyrrha chuckled softly in spite of herself.
Ren cleared his throat. "In any case… we won't tell you what you already know, because you're obviously beating yourself up over it. So… just know that we'll be here if you need help or advice."
"Yup!" Nora added. "In fact, if you'd like, maybe we can set you up on a few blind dates, just so you can test the waters?"
Ren nodded. "I know it must be hard to move on from this, but in our line of work, that's the name of the game – relationships are no different. People make mistakes, and however devastating that lesson may turn out to be, we learn from them and become better people because of it. The only reason you should rue yourself because of a mistake like that is if you don't learn from it. And I know you're not that kind of person."
Pyrrha glanced up from her drink, eyes wrought with poorly hidden emotion as she looked between both Ren and Nora, then nodded, although her expression remained sorrowfully unconvinced. "Right… of course."
Nora, taking note of this, gave a sympathetic grin. "Jaune's our friend, and while we do all we can to help him figure his shit out, you're our friend, too, and we're gonna be here for you because that's what friends are for!"
The redhead turned to her, stifling another heavy sigh… before allowing herself a faint, if not hesitant, smile. "Thank you, Nora, Ren. I… I really have no idea how to handle this… but I am glad that you two are here for me. As you've always been."
Nora nodded happily, before standing up from her seat. "Now let's get you a taxi home!"
Pyrrha laughed nervously. "Um… I think I'll just walk –"
"HELL NO! Are you crazy!?" In a flash, Nora's face was inches from Pyrrha's, causing the latter to utter a short yelp in surprise. "If you think we're gonna let you walk all that way home, you've got another thing comin'! Now just wait patiently like a good little dolly and I promise I won't cave your knees in, m'kay?"
All this was delivered while her face twisted into a hauntingly unpleasant smile, and Pyrrha gulped at the all-too familiar sight.
Indeed, some things never change.
"Right," Pyrrha laughed, a bit forceful. "Of course."
As the taxi sped away from the Valkyrie/Ren household, Nora sauntered back to her seat by Ren at the kitchen table before slumping in the chair.
"That girl… she's in a bad way, ain't she?" Nora murmured wistfully.
"Mmm." Ren only hummed in response.
The ginger glared at her boyfriend and rolled her eyes. "Really, dude?"
"Sorry," Ren smiled mirthlessly. "It's just… I'd never tell them, of course, but those two give me a headache sometimes with how… shall we say, difficult they are. Both of them are fairly hardheaded, and, well, they seem to love ignoring other people's advice for them. They're like teenagers in a rebellious phase."
Nora sighed, then smiled teasingly. "Lookey at you, Renny-Ren. You sound like an old fart trying to teach a bunch of kids how to behave in class. But... this is our old teammates we're talking about here. Ease up on them. They need help, Ren, not scolding, y'know."
Ren looked at Nora meaningfully, then wrapped his adjacent arm around her. "You're right. I'm sorry. I should treat them more like friends then nuisances. God knows they've always been around for us." He sighed. "Sometimes, you're a lot wiser on these matters than I am."
"Oh... shucks, you!" Nora grinned happily and reached a hand up to clasp the one on her shoulder before sobering up a bit. "It must be rough to be in her shoes, though. I think there was a part of her that really hoped to fix their relationship, maybe to when they used to be together-together. But… she doesn't have that chance anymore…"
"Indeed," Ren agreed. "She still loves him deeply, but not just in a platonic way… although maybe she hadn't even realized that herself."
Nora shook her head. "Nope, I think she came around to it. Recently, by the looks of it. And, if I'm being perfectly honest, the way she talks about Jaune moving on with his life with Ruby and all… I can't help but feel like she's a little bit… jealous of him."
"Hmmm… you may be on to something," Ren frowned. "I guess as part of the idea that she'd be the first to move on in that relationship."
"So… like it was a big ol' competition or something?" Nora shook her head, brow furrowed. "No. I just can't see it like that. Pyrrha might be a bit… off, recently, but… I don't think I could ever see her as petty."
Ren remained silent for a moment before nodding. "I hope you're right."
Nora placed her head in the crook of her partner's shoulder. "Me too…"
Ruby sighed and leaned back in her chair to stretch her arms.
A yawn escaped her mouth as she looked back at the project she'd been working on from home. The beginnings of a new mechanical arm lay assembled on the table in front of her, with various other parts scattered around it.
She sighed happily. It wasn't exactly a perfect execution of such a complex build, seeing as it was her first time dabbling in such, but it was progress nonetheless. Progress was good.
Picking up the nearby Philips screwdriver, she continued to tinker around with the components of the arm for a while until the sound of a door unlocking came to her attention.
Perking at the noise, Ruby grinned. "Hey Jaune! Welcome home!" she called out.
The door closed, and the blonde's scruffy-haired head poked into the dining room, where Ruby sat. "Hey Rubes." He waved at her with a smile and walked over towards the table, where Ruby's work-in-progress lay, placing his briefcase on the floor with a soft thump. "You've been busy, huh?"
Ruby stood up from her seat and gave Jaune a light kiss on the cheek. "Yup! Y'know, at first I kinda figured it'd be useful to know how to make these in the future, seeing as I'll be practically living with them, and I figured I could learn how to make different kinds for different purposes… but then I remembered about my job at the weapons mechanic and about how awesome it is when these little huntsmen and huntresses in-training come out of my shop smiling about their new weapons..."
She paused a moment in thought before gesturing at the mechanical arm on the table. "So I thought maybe I could expand a bit and see if maybe I could start making mechanical prosthetics, too! I figured if I start learning how to make these, I might be able to convince the boss to let make me introduce these as a product at the shop and offer repair services for them as well. Not only should there be a sizable clientele for that kinda thing, but, y'know… I could eventually help out a bunch of huntsmen who've become… well, like me." Ruby ended her little spiel with a smile, not one with regret or sadness, but a genuinely pleased smile.
Jaune blinked, wide-eyed.
Ruby frowned. "Hey, you okay? Don't go daydreaming on me now."
"Oh." Jaune shook his head, chuckling. "Sorry. I forget how passionate you can be about these kinds of things."
The redhead puffed her cheeks. "Flattery will get you nowhere," she grumbled in a teasing tone.
"I'm serious!" The blonde reached for Ruby's human hand with both of his own and firmly grasped it. "Not like I should be surprised, actually. I mean, it's just like you… maybe you can't be a huntress anymore, but fate be damned if you can't find a way to keep on helping people like you always, albeit maybe in some different ways. I guess nothing can keep you down for the count in the long run, huh?"
Ruby, staring at her hand in his, smiled coyly. "Oh, you… you're so damn gooey. Our kid is gonna hate us, y'know that?"
Jaune scoffed, pretending to be offended. "Me? Gooey!? P-shaw, I say! And our kid is not gonna hate me, of all people, because I'll be the cool parent."
"Please," Ruby laughed. "You weren't even the cool kid in school."
"Ooof... Geez, Rubes, that's kinda harsh!" Jaune groaned.
The redhead grinned. "You started it."
"Nuh-uh."
"Yeah-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"Okay, okay! Y'know what?" Jaune waved his arms in surrender. "How about we call it a truce?"
He stuck a hand out.
Ruby's eyes narrowed at the hand.
Being sisters with Yang, she knew how this went.
It was definitely a trick.
But then again… this was Jaune, the most genuine person ever. He'd never hurt a fly over a grudge. Or anyone else if he could help it, of course.
But… it could be a trick.
Going against her gut feeling, she stuck her own hand out. "Truce."
Jaune grabbed it.
... And swiftly pulled Ruby towards him before giving her a noogie.
Ruby wrenched away, jaw agape, but before she could retaliate, the blonde had ran out of the kitchen and into the living room, a twinkle in his eye and the biggest shit-eating grin across his face as he disappeared from sight.
"You…" Ruby gasped and shook her head, unable to stop the grin from forming on her own face. "So that's how it's gonna be, huh, Arc? Hell, if you think that you can outrun me, you sure have another thing comin', boy!"
With a newly sparked fire in her eyes, she gave chase, laughing mirthfully.
Parenthood could wait.
Story progression, not much else. Felt kinda meh, writing this one. Of course, that could have to do with it being written in segments on an eighteen-hour red-eye flight...
There's a pretty good chance that the next piece of writing I release will be something different entirely, not this fic. Quite a bit of new content coming, including something I've been meaning to start for almost a year now, so keep an eye out for that.
... Serious question, does anyone want me to actually finish Ten Little Hunters? I mean, there's no passion of work left in it for me, but I also feel bad leaving it incomplete, and there's a lot of prizes there I need to keep with, too. Those I'll certainly get to, but it still feels wrong to just leave the fic as it is (outcomes are all figured out, btw. I just didn't finish filling in the actual story parts yet). If there's still an interest in that finishing up, please let me know via here, Tumblr, reddit, etc, and I'll take it out of the archives and see what I can do.
In any case, until next time.