Jaune absently kicked his feet as he sat perched atop his ship's stern bulward, eyes distantly cast to the soon-to-set sun. Clouds pinked across the horizon, their fat, hazy bodies keeping Jaune's eyesight intact.
Whatever commotion was happening around the docks, he was busy. Too busy to notice. Too busy to yank his eyes off the sea, his brain occupied by constant, nagging terror.
He had been counting the days since he'd dropped Ruby off in Vale. They'd be his last. He'd have to face Tai eventually, assuming the man didn't find him first.
Taiyang Xiao Long was a good man, generous and kind. He was also a Huntsman of substantial repute, so when he learns what happened to Ruby…
Jaune wasn't an idiot, and Ruby wasn't subtle— a name like Rupert the Red was just laughable— so when he'd heard the news about her and the Schnee heiress, his heart instantly desiccated. He was a dead man walking, and Tai would soon come a-reaping.
He'd been happy to give Yang a ride when she was going to bring Ruby back, but now he'd been the ferryman for both of Tai's daughters, and now they were just… gone. He couldn't hide in Vale forever; his crew would burn their coin before Tai forgot— which would be never.
So, he looked out to sea, gently rocking with its tides, wondering if it'd be better to let it take him instead. At least his soul could rest with the waves, among the depths, sleeping with the current's lullaby. The great watery fingers would forever cradle his being, preserving him from the Shepherd's flock. Being a sheep seemed boring anyways.
His ship suddenly rocked out of tempo with the waves, making him slip as if the Shepherd herself were ruefully fulfilling his wish. He thrust his hands back and down to catch the wall upon which he'd been sitting.
His fingers caught sea-slick wood, and slipped. Jaune fell to the depths.
A gauntleted hand clasped around his wrist, grip strong enough to make his bones whine and draw a cry from his lips. He looked up to his rough-handed savior.
It was a lady— well, a Knight, but they certainly looked like a lady. Hair set in a bright red updo, a long-faded scar across their face, their features were… perfect. Unsettlingly perfect. He'd never seen anyone so beautiful, and he honestly didn't believe one such person could exist on Remnant.
"You're Captain Arc, yes?" The Knight asked, lips separating to bestow a smile that shouldn't be so beautiful.
Jaune sputtered, though it was less from being flustered than it was the sheer painin his arm as the Knight yanked him back onto deck. He clutched the abused limb and hissed, silently cursing the Shepherd under his breath.
When he'd reassembled himself, he breathed deep and faced the Knight, discovering the entourage they'd brought in tow. He recognized Penny— she'd stowed away on more than a few trips (which he was pretty sure she'd taken just to stalk Ruby), and he only vaguely recognized that the other person with them was a Binder; he'd never seen a fay in person, but the second-hand descriptions he'd caught over the years seemed pretty apt.
The Knight who'd saved him was considerably taller than the rest. Their plate armor was positively resplendent, coating every inch in articulated, interlocking plates from the neck to the feet. It was easily the most advanced work of armorsmithing he'd ever seen, and he estimated that it was worth enough to trade for his entire ship.
Jaune extended his uninjured hand to clasp palms with the beautiful Knight. "Y-yes, I'm, uh… yeah. Just Jaune, though, Captain Arc is my father."
The Knight giggled, and their eyes— which he was starting to think were not the same color— twinkled with a hint of mischief. An arm swung around from their side, armored hand clasping Jaune's hard enough to make him yelp. "Knight Captain Nikos. Captain-to-Captain, though, you may call me Pyrrha."
Jaune froze, his arm locked in the air even as Pyrrha pulled away. "Knight Captain… The Knight Captain?"
Pyrrha grinned. Being a god, it felt good to be worshiped. "The very same, Jaune."
Jaune simply could not lift his jaw from the floor, especially as the Knight Captain herself let his lowly name pass her lips. He'd heard so many tales about her: her lightning strike career through the Knights Imperiale, blasting straight to Captaincy in fewer than three years, then making an absolute mockery of the Granite school, the Flint school, and the Limestone school in spectacular fashion. News of such exploits rarely slipped past the Knights' purview, but her grandeur had caught everyear and her name infected gossip for months when that happened
But Jaune knew even more than the average person; he loved tales of Knights, and he eagerly lapped at each reference to Pyrrha. He knew she'd almost single-handedly repelled the second siege of Mistral, crowning the Reconquista by stringing up the last Mistran leaders from their own city's walls. He knew that she'd survived the Ængvaldr Chasm, the only human in history to do so. He also knew she'd slain a dragon.
Jaune fought with every fiber of his being not to prostrate himself before Pyrrha. He had to maintain some level of self-respect, after all, and he doubted his crew would let him off easy for bowing to what they saw as just a woman. Instead, he simply pushed his nerves down with a hefty gulp. "W-well, Cap—"
The Knight Captain smirked. "Pyrrha."
"Er, right, uh…" Jaune sheepishly rubbed his neck, extremely uncomfortable with the idea of addressing his hero so informally. "Did you need something from me?"
Pyrrha leaned towards him, her eyes perfectly locked to his like a gyroscoping chicken. "You presume that I need something from you?"
"N-no!" Jaune scrambled back, hands raised. "Of course not! Just, you… well—"
Pyrrha didn't straighten, she just walked right back into his personal space, her lips pulling into a wide, hungry grin. "I don't need anything from you, Jaune, but I do want something, and I assure you: what I want is much more important than any… base need."
Jaune gulped. Whatever that could mean, it sounded vaguely threatening, but the slight purr in her voice made him blush. "Well… okay?"
Finally, the Knight Captain straightened back up, only to give Jaune a smile as she laced her armored fingers into his hair. "Good boy, now take me to Patch."
Mesmerized by the gentle rubbing of his scalp, it took him a long moment to process what she was demanding. "P— Patch? I can't go—"
The hand in his hair gripped tight, ripping his head up and bearing his throat like some contest of dominance. As if to simply confirm the analogy, Pyrrha hovered over his neck, her smile a sharp promise. "You're taking me to Patch, Jaune. If you don't, I'll paint this boat with your blood."
"Ship," Jaune automatically corrected, his eyes widening as he realized the grave he'd just dug himself. "S-sorry!"
Pyrrha's eyebrows shot high. She leaned away from the boy, her smirk cracking until her shoulders started to shake. Her hands flew up to cover her face, roughly yanking him forward as she caught a tangle of his hair in her gauntlet. Foreseeing the inevitable, Penny lunged forward to hold the other woman back, but a singular noise sent her reeling.
Pyrrha let out a long snort, followed by a raucous cackle.
Jaune watched her wrack herself with vicious mirth, her spine contorting as if her body simply couldn't laugh hard enough on its own. She kicked her feet and pounded her fists in the air, the outline of her form blurring with each tremble of laughter.
The Knight Captain took a shambling, shaking step towards her fellow captain, her arms held tight around her heaving stomach until she was upon him, at which point she gripped the boy close and smashed him into her chestplate.
Penny watched her… embrace Jaune, which must've really hurt with the armor, but he didn't make any attempt at protest. Though, that could've been because he knew she'd kill him.
"Take me to the seas, Jaune," Pyrrha purred. She leaned in close, too close— he could feel her lips brushing against the shell of his ear. "Show me the tranquil tides and crashing waves. Show me the deepest blues and the brightest whites. Show me the shallows and the depths. I want to see."
Jaune became scarlet. "O-okay," was all he could possibly manage past the clench of his jaw.
"Good boy." Pyrrha's chuckle scrambled birds through his ribcage, and the nip at his cartilage came from teeth that weren't sharp before, drawing tiny beads of blood along the edge of his ear.
Pyrrha separated with a light push to Jaune's chest, but it was still strong enough to send his rear to the deck. It took him a long time to recover from what had just happened— the Knight Captain was either trying to fuck him or kill him. His face was still red by the time he'd scrambled to the helm.
Jaune puffed his chest, trying to muster some semblance of command in his voice. "Ser Nikos, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for my crew to return. The Arc may look humble, but she still needs more hands than we few can provide. It should be another week or two before my crew runs out of money, at which point they'll be scrambling here posthaste."
Pyrrha raised an eyebrow, then cast her unimpressed look around the ship. "This isn't the largest cog I've crewed. We will suffice."
Jaune snorted, daring to take an airy tone with the Knight Captain herself. He couldn't help it— The Arc deserved all the credit he could give it. "She's no cog, ser, my Arc is a caravel, and she requires a… finer touch than could be given by our quartet."
"Come to think of it," Pyrrha mused over Jaune's sentence as if she couldn't even hear his words, "I think it was a hulk…" she tapped her chin,"The Reconquista! That's when it was. Boarded, captured, and sailed it to port myself."
"I was in the Reconquista…" Penny pitifully mumbled, only audible to the fay.
Jaune's voice fell right back down to sniveling reverence. "You… how did you convince the crew to—"
"I didn't," Pyrrha dismissively flipped her wrist, "I sailed it myself."
Jaune stared at the Knight Captain, his jaw an extra anchor. "That's not… that… you can't…"
"Push us to sea and I'll show you, boy," Pyrrha promised, her voice so sultry that even Penny blushed.
Jaune's back stiffened, his shoulders hiking rigidly as he set his jaw once more. Pyrrha followed his movement like a hawk, her hungry gaze impaling the boy as he marched from the helm, creaked over to the port side, and began untying their moorings. Penny moved to help him, but the Knight Captain's growl put her in her place.
When the ship was finally free, Jaune turned to her, expectant but still painfully awkward. "Well?"
Pyrrha sighed, her mismatched eyes slowly fluttering shut. The ship gently rocked, marginally shifting the deck as the waves pushed its unfettered hull, making the Knight Captain sway ever-so-slightly. She raised her arms, her hands splaying wide.
Her gauntlets blasted off her fingers, the metal hands opening to catch the riggings of the ship, which she manipulated with the ease of an experienced crewmate. Rings— black iron bands, at least two from each finger— joined their flight, looping ropes through their forms to offer Pyrrha a myriad of puppet strings to pull.
Expecting her to have her hands extended to her metallic symphony, Jaune gasped when he saw her sprint to the starboard side, throw her arms overboard, and smoothly lift the ship's dual anchors by hand.
Dumping the metal hunks unceremoniously onto the deck (and not giving a second glance to how many boards she just cracked), Pyrrha shot her arms back out, her control of the rigging finally bearing fruit as the sails unfurled, catching the wind almost immediately.
Jaune jumped, so distracted by the display that he wasn't even at the helm, and launched himself to the wheel. He threw it aside with a grunt, roughly steering the ship around just before the bow could strike the docks. "Crook and cane, lady! Are you trying to kill us!"
"Hardly!" Pyrrha cackled, turning her mad grin to the captain. "If I wanted that, I wouldn't have gotten in your boat!"
Jaune gulped. Instinctively, he released a single, terrified whisper. "Ship."
A/N: finally arkos :D its gonna be so wholesome and sweet, pyrrha *definitely* sees him as a whole person and not as a pet or anything! also this is the last interlude chapter, so we're getting back to the meat soon! thanks for reading :))