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"Hey Jaune!"

I turned to look behind me as I was closing the door to my dorm to find Ruby standing behind me. She was walking through the halls in her usual red hood, though instead of her uniform or her combat outfit, she wore a far more casual skirt and hoodie combo under her signature cloak.

"Hey yourself." I gave her a small wave while I tugged at the door to make sure it was locked. When it didn't budge, I turned to face my fellow leader fully. She seemed, well, I wanted to say off, but uncomfortable might be more apt. Her shoulders were tense and her hands were bunched up in the hem of her cloak as she stood there, hopping from foot to foot.

"How's it hanging? Going? Uh… What I mean is… Uh areyouokay?Becauseyou'vebeenactingreallyweirdtheselastcoupleofdaysandIwasn'tsurewhattodobutthenYangsaidthatIshouldjustaskyoubutIdon't-"

I cut the girl off by putting a hand on her shoulder, my lips curling up into a small smile. It was nice to know that she cared. "Ruby! I'm fine, really. I had a rough couple of days, but I'm okay now."

That, at least, seemed to reassure her some. Her shoulders dropped back into a far more relaxed state and she let go of her cloak. Her silver eyes were wide, almost sparkling in the hall's light as she glanced up at me.

"Really?"

"Really."

"That's great!"

"Yeah."

"Yeah…" Ruby trailed off for a moment, but then she perked back up. "I'm going in to play some games, you want in?"

I took a look down at my scroll and winced. It sounded like good fun, and after the last couple of days, I could use every bit of fun that came my way. But I couldn't.

"Can't. Sorry. My team and I were going to get some training in." She didn't look half as dejected at the refusal, though that was probably because she now had something even better than games to talk about. Fighting.

"Ooh! Practicing for the festival?"

"Yeah, we figured that it might be a good idea to get some extra practice in before it all goes down. Don't really know how we're going to do that, but some sparring can't hurt."

Ruby nodded along, but then she suddenly perked up again, almost hopping up and down. "Maybe we can spar sometime?"

"That's… actually a pretty good idea. Fighting someone as fast as you has got to be good practice." It was true. There weren't many people who could keep up with Ruby, especially when she used her semblance, so fighting someone like her would give me some insight into fighting other quick opponents.

"Not just you and me, silly. I meant our teams." She said, slapping me on the arm as she did so. And the more I thought about it, the more I came to like the idea. Sure, team VLYR knowing our tricks might be a pain if we had to fight them in the tourney, but we'd know their tricks just as well, so it was a bit of a moot point. More important than that, though, was that both of our teams would already have some practice fighting as a full team against another team of students.

Maybe the later years got to do things like that during combat class, but that was not something that the first years ever did, so it would be a leg up on our year mates at the very least.

"That's brilliant!" It really was, despite it being so simple, I doubted that any of the other first years would be doing something like that. While there were some teams who were friends, none of them were as close as VLYR and BASN, mostly sticking to their own teams. So, them suddenly deciding to work together on something they were also competing over probably wouldn't be happening.

Ruby giggled happily, accepting my praise with more grace than I was used to from my usually awkward friend.

"Of course it's brilliant, I thought of it."

I pulled her hood over her eyes with a face-splitting grin which only grew when she straightened it out hurriedly.

"Hey!"

I couldn't help myself. Ruby had really come out of her shell, around her own team and mine at the very least. It felt good to see that she had grown comfortable enough around us to joke and play around like this without worrying about annoying or alienating us somehow.

My train of thought was interrupted by the beeping of my scroll.

Blake: Are you on your way?

The smile on my face became a little more forced as my mind went back to our argument the night before. We hadn't had a chance to talk about it yet. Blake had been gone by the time I woke up from my nap, having apparently gone down to Vale to pick something up.

I… I wasn't sure how to feel. On the one hand, I felt like I'd finally said my piece. Like we'd finally aired out some of the issues that had been simmering under the surface. On the other, I had lashed out at her because I'd wanted to be angry, because I'd wanted a fight. As justified as my anger may or may not have been, I shouldn't have acted like that.

Jaune: OMW now

I looked back up to see Ruby studying me carefully, her previous indignance nowhere to be found.

"I've got to go. We'll see about that training session later, yeah?"

"Sure. See you later!"

I waved at her as I made my way down to the training room that we'd reserved for the night.

BREAK

Pyrrha POV

The box in my hands felt heavy as I walked through the school's halls. This wasn't weird, right? I was still his friend, his partner even. There was nothing weird about this.

You keep telling yourself that.

The familiar, biting voice echoed through my head and I paused for a moment. Then, I started walking again, putting one foot in front of the other, feet perfectly spaced at shoulder width and strides just short enough that I was ready to push off in any direction at a moment's notice.

Jerkily, I shook my head at the almost mechanical habit, but despite suddenly being aware of it, I couldn't quite stop.

"-wanted to apologize. And I wanted you to have this." I stopped walking as the voice drifted over to me from the training room. It was Blake. The door was open, and I could just about make out the box she had handed over to Jaune, who took it gingerly.

"I… Thank you." He said, grasping the box more firmly. "I wanted to say sorry too. I… I think we needed to have that talk, no matter what, but I shouldn't have lashed out like that. I was… I was angry and hurt and I shouldn't have said it like that."

"It's… okay. You were right anyways. I didn't mean to make you feel like that." Blake said, her face twisting as if she'd bitten into a lemon for a moment. It took me by surprise for a moment. Blake was headstrong. If she said the sun was out during a solar eclipse, she was liable to argue that it was out, but that we just couldn't see it at the moment. So for her to blatantly admit she'd done something wrong was more than a little surprising.

Jaune, it seemed, agreed with my assessment judging by the almost confused expression on his face. The blonde didn't look a gift horse in the mouth though, and glanced down at the box in his hands, changing the subject.

"So, what's in here?"

"I overheard you and Weiss talking last night. So, I got you these." Blake pointed towards the box just as Jaune pulled out a pair of white gloves. They were nice, nothing extravagant, but sturdy and good looking. The gloves of a huntsman.

Suddenly, the box in my hands felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

A lump formed in my throat as Jaune smiled, the jubilant look on his face tugging at something in my chest. When he leaned forwards to hug Blake, that tugging ripped it out completely, only leaving a sore hurt.

I closed my eyes as I leaned against the wall for a moment, taking a deep breath. I thought I'd gotten over it. I knew I didn't have a chance, not while he and Blake were dating. And yet, it still hurt.

Yeah right. You were never cut out for this. You should know that by now.

Derision dripped from the voice that echoed through my head. I clenched my eyes shut as hard as I could, hoping to block it out.

"Thanks Blake, this… this means a lot."

They were quiet for a moment, a moment I sorely needed to try and get my breathing back under control. I knocked the back of my head into the wall lightly a couple of times, the tapping not helping me take my mind off it one bit.

"Hey Jaune?" Blake's voice drifted into my ears, no matter how hard I tried to tune it out.

"Yeah?"
"Would you go to the ball with me?"

He laughed, a sound that usually filled me with joy that rang hollow now.

"I'd love to."

That hollow feeling spread, numbing me in a hauntingly familiar way. I pushed myself off the wall, my steps light and perfect as I walked past the kissing couple and into the changing rooms.

"Hello Pyrrha. What do you have there?"

Weiss, who was just adjusting the strap holding Myrtenaster to her side on one of the benches asked, nodding to my hands. I blinked, looked down at it and realised absently that I was still holding the box.

"Oh, nothing. Just a package from home." The lie came out fast and smooth, just like the PR teams had taught.

"I see. Well, don't take too long changing, we really should be getting started." Weiss said, standing and leaving the changing room, only pausing to close the door behind her.

For a moment, I stood there, frozen. Then, I walked to one of the bins in the corner, opened the box and upturned it in there. A pair of pristine leather gloves fell into the garbage with a soft thud.

I took another deep breath before turning again. Weiss was right, we should get started on training. It was better that way. It was all I was good for.

You're no good at that either.

I ignored it.

I donned my combat gear in record time, left the changing room and made my way into the training room proper. There, Jaune and Blake were still stood close together while Weiss was almost frozen on the other end of the room.

"You've been together how long?" Weiss asked from between gritted teeth.

"A couple of months now." Jaune said in reply, smiling lightly as he'd suddenly discovered another way to annoy the white-haired girl.

"A couple of months… And no one thought to tell me?"

"Well, we kind of thought everyone knew…" Jaune trailed off as he saw the imminent eruption of Mt. Schnee.

"Obviously not!" Then Weiss turned to Blake, who was as silent as usual. "And you! Him? Really?" Weiss asked, pointing to the blond in question.

"Hey!" Jaune protested, though he calmed as Blake patted him on the shoulder.

Just then, Weiss turned and saw that I was standing there as well. "Did you know about this?"

I felt a pang ring in my chest, but I smothered it under a blanket of cold focus. "I did."

"Was I the only one who didn't know about this?!"

"I think so." Jaune said, his lips quirked up into a small smirk as he watched Weiss' face explode into a violent shade of red.

"Screw you!"

"Sorry Weiss, I'm spoken for."

The growl that left Weiss was positively demonic, but I ignored it. Instead, I took a step forward. "Shall we get started?"

"Let's." I nodded at Blake as she agreed.

BREAK

I lay on my back, breaths leaving me in sharp, short pants. I spared a look for my aura bar, but I already knew what I would find there. It was virtually empty.

The first fights had gone by very quickly. In lieu of having VLYR to spar against, we'd opted to fight in pairs to train for the two versus two portion of the festival. As strong as Blake and Weiss were, though, they hadn't lasted more than a scant minute or so against Pyrrha and I.

After that, well, Pyrrha and I had decided to spar to kill the time.

The fight hadn't been quick, but it had been one-sided.

Physically, I was stronger, and I had more aura than her, the difference in speed was negligible as well. Last time we had sparred, that had been enough to make the fights competitive at least. Now, well, she had completely dismantled me on skill alone.

Her movements had been economical, almost robotic in their perfection as she danced around my strikes and struck back with ruthless efficiency. She hadn't even used her semblance.

This wasn't the Pyrrha Nikos I was used to. This was the Invincible Girl others talked about in hushed whispers.


Wow, what an end. This thing with Pyrrha is the last we're going to see of her crush. A completely different issue has arisen. I got the idea while watching The Bear (great show btw). It also gives me an opportunity to give her a bit more personality and backstory than we got in canon, as well as a reason for her freakish strength other than 'she's talented'.

Anyways, sorry for how long these updates were taking. Life was a bit crazy and I ran out of backlog. I'm going to go into a weekly schedule, expect a chapter every week on Tuesday. I'm also building up a backlog again so I can be more consistent again.

If you guys want to talk about the story and get direct responses from me, or just chat in general, you can join this Discord
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Let me know what you think, and have a good one!