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Weiss POV

When Pyrrha walked into the library, I mentally readied a tirade the likes of which I would have never dared speak to the champion. But that all died away when I took a closer look.

"Are you okay?"

Clearly, she wasn't. Her eyes were red and puffy, what little mascara she wore was smudged, as if it had run down her face but had then been wiped up in a hurry, and the usual polite smile was absent from my teammate's face. And yet, I still had to ask. In lieu of an answer, she just shook her head.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I had never been the best at consoling others, but for my teammates, I would certainly give it my best shot. And a Schnee never fails.

"I… I just got some bad news."

"Oh." I wasn't quite sure what to make of that. "What happened?"

Pyrrha looked away from me as she dropped into a chair.

"I should have seen it coming, seen the signs." The girl sounded so… defeated. "I think I already knew, deep inside, but I… I just didn't want to believe it." A little laugh escaped the redhead, it didn't sound very funny. "I must sound so silly."

My brow drew down. She had been holding out hope, it was something I was intimately familiar with. Something I had done, still did, with my family. It had hurt every time, and yet, I couldn't help myself. I couldn't find it within myself to think that it was all over. I wasn't sure what Pyrrha's situation was exactly, and she clearly didn't want me to know, but I wouldn't call her silly for having hope.

"I don't think you sound silly."

"You don't?"

Pyrrha looked back at me for the first time since sitting down.

"I don't. You held out hope. That's far braver than just giving up. And if it hurts, that just means that it was important, something worth having hope for."

I hunched over slightly, a pang ringing through my belly as I thought of the family photos I still looked at fondly every so often. The situations probably weren't all that similar, but I couldn't help but draw parallels.

"Yeah…"

I grabbed my essay and went to sit closer to the redhead. She took her own papers out and we got to work. A silent agreement hung in the air, the conversation was over and it was time for a distraction, no matter how boring. So, we worked for a while, occasionally talking in quiet tones to ask a quick question or to ask to pass something over.

"Hey Weiss?" Pyrrha said as we finished our essays, and I dared a glance over at the girl. She was still slumped, her usual perfect posture nowhere to be found.

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

Jaune POV

When I woke up, I felt amazing. All my aches and ails had vanished, as they always did, and waking up to the sight of Blake lying in my arms certainly didn't hurt.

For a while, I just stayed there. But eventually, even the sight of her mumbling softly in her sleep or the smell of her shampoo couldn't keep me entertained. I'd never been very good at doing nothing. So, I extricated myself carefully, tucking the girl in behind me before I headed off.

A glance at my scroll told me that it was already seven, so I had around five hours before I needed to meet up with Pyrrha for our patrol. With long strides, I made my way to the locker room to grab my weapon. The walk from the locker room to the Emerald Forest wasn't a long one, but it was one that I'd grown to enjoy.

Back when I'd first began going out into the forest, I hadn't wanted to use my Rocket Locker because I was afraid of being found out and getting in trouble. Then, after Port found me in the forest and approved it, I could have started using it, but the walk had become something of a ritual by then. And besides, it wasn't like the walk was long enough to be a real inconvenience to my time.

Not even ten minutes later, I was standing on the cliff to the forest. Judging by the sounds of gunfire in the distance, I wasn't the only one training here today, and judging by rate of fire, it could only be one person.

Well, it was time to avoid that side of the forest for today. Last time I had encountered the crazy girl who thought sticking a minigun in a handbag was a good idea, she had shot me. Granted, she had been firing at the group of Grimm I'd been sneaking up on and she hadn't seen me. She had also apologized, but I wasn't keen on repeating the incident.

Besides, staying in her team's side of the forest meant that I'd have less Grimm to kill. Say what you will about them, but team CFVY was strong.

Jaune Arc

Level: 51

HP: 100/100

AP: 480/480

Vigor: 10

Mind: 24

Endurance: 17

Strength: 30

Dexterity: 18

Intelligence: 11

Dust: 22387

But then again, so was I. I couldn't keep the grin off my face as I looked at my attribute page. Sure, I had only levelled up twice since we'd began hunting for the Paladin, mostly because I hadn't thought to come and train during the day for the first couple of days, but also because the dust requirements had shot through the roof after hitting level 50.

The cost to level up from 50 to 51 had been over thirty thousand Dust. Thirty. Thousand.

And yet, I couldn't help but smile.

Ursa Major

Level 39

Chitin Shield activated on instinct, blocking the paw that came at my head. It stopped dead. Crocea Mors swept out, severing the limb in a single blow, shearing through the thin bone plating on the beast's shoulder with ease. Before it could recover, the edge of my shield smashed into its faceplate, cracking the mask and taking a huge chunk out of its health bar.

It didn't even get the chance to retaliate before Crocea Mors buried itself in its throat, turning it to dust.

+ 11283 Dust

I quickly took a look at my attribute page, and my grin only grew wider when I realised that I had enough Dust for another level. I placed the point into Mind, to put it at an even 25. I shivered as strength coursed through my veins that hadn't been there before. My eyes closed on autopilot, but I still heard the rustling leaves behind me.

I turned, fast as lightning, my shield snapping out and shattering the Beowolf's skull on impact.

+ 1253 Dust

I went on like that for hours. Slaughtering any Grimm I came across throughout the forest. I didn't find enough for another level, but I wasn't too far off. It had been a good haul today. But when the clock struck ten, my alarm sounded with a chirp, and I knew that I'd have to go back. Pyrrha would be waiting for me to go on patrol.

The walk back to Beacon was quiet, uneventful, and I made it back to the room in no time. There, all three of my teammates were sat on their own beds. Blake was reading a book, The Man With Two Souls, it was one of her all-time favourites, and a book she had probably read a hundred times by now.

Weiss was typing something out on her scroll, maybe a letter to her sister? And Pyrrha, well, she was sitting on her bed, Miló and Akoúo lying next to her.

"Ready to go?" I asked.

"Yes."

I frowned. Something was off. Maybe it was something in the way she said it, the tone, or something else. My eyes panned up to her face. At first glance, everything seemed normal, she was smiling, her lips quirked into the polite smile I had started to associate with the champion. But it didn't reach her eyes. It looked like the kind of smile you gave when you were being forced to take class photos. The kind where your mouth is the right shape, but you are so unenthusiastic that the rest of your face just doesn't come along.

It didn't suit her.

Before I could say anything, though, Pyrrha had already stood and made her way through the open door. Throwing a glance back at Weiss and Blake, neither of them said anything either, so I hurried after the redhead with a quick shout of "See you!"

"Pyrrha, wait up!"

The girl was walking slightly ahead of me. I caught up to her, walking quickly and I bumped her shoulder with my own. She turned and smiled at me. It was strained.

"What's wrong?"

She looked away from me, her lips drawing down.

"Nothing."

My brow drew down. It didn't sound like nothing.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Just some bad news."

The patrol was a quiet one. Unlike the time I usually spent with my partner, there was no laughter to be had, no talk of home and no getting to know each other any further. Instead, we catalogued a record number of sectors during the night, working non-stop from city block to city block with a single-minded focus.

By the time we got back to Beacon, it felt like something was gnawing on my insides.

'Cause I'm looking at you through the glass

Don't know how much time has passed

Oh God, it feels like forever

But no one ever tells you that forever feels like home

Sitting all alone inside your head

How do you feel?

That is the question

But I forget you don't expect an easy answer…

I trailed off, my fingers tunelessly strumming the rest of the song, but my mind turned back to my partner. She'd said that she had gotten some bad new. Had something happened to her family? It might explain why she didn't want to talk about it.

'There must be something I can do, though.'

"Your singing is really bad, you know that right?"

I looked up, right into the crystalline eyes of my white-haired teammate. She was stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame, already dressed in her uniform. I just put the guitar to the side and stuck my tongue out at her.

"Is it time for class already?"

"Not quite, we need to talk."

I frowned at her, that didn't sound ominous at all.

"What's up?"

"It's Pyrrha."

My brow lifted, but my lips remained downturned. Just thinking of how the redhead was feeling was enough to put my mood down.

"So, you've noticed it too." She said, walking further into the room.

"Well, yeah. I just don't know what to do about it."

Weiss' hands smoothed down her skirt as she thought for a moment before responding.

"There's not much we can do."

"There's always something."

I wouldn't pretend to know or understand what Pyrrha was going through at the moment, but there must be something that could make her feel better. Something that could make her smile again. A real smile this time.

"We could try and make sure she has a good time, take her mind off it?"

The suggestion wasn't a horrible one, as far as I was concerned, and I could see Weiss mulling it over as well.

"It can't hurt." She said, nodding at me. "What do you think would work?"

The fact that it was hard for me, her partner, to think of something that Pyrrha might like only made the ugly feeling that gnawed at my gut more pronounced. Did I really know so little about my own partner? I thought harder.

A spar? No, she seemed happy, but it wasn't the sparring itself that seemed to make her smile. A game night? She'd enjoyed it, but again, the video games themselves hadn't seemed like they were the focus for her. Honestly, Pyrrha almost always seemed to be smiling, even if it was only a small one.

And then it clicked. Every time she had laughed, really laughed, with tears in her eyes and her hands on her belly were the times when we'd been together, among friends. The spars, the game nights or even just the dinners with team VLYR where we were all sitting, talking and laughing.

Being among friends was the thing that made Pyrrha happy, and it made sense. For a girl who'd had so much trouble making real friends, spending time with them would be something she would cherish beyond the activities themselves.

"I have a plan."

Oh dear, Jaune has a plan.

Let me know what you guys think. And thanks for the feedback on the experiment last chapter, I've been trying some new stuff to really improve the quality, but a lot of it is trial and error here.

Anyways, have a good one!

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