Chapter Seventeen: Distance

'If you aren't busy, wanna do a video chat? :D'

Pyrrha's bedraggled face lit up with a grin at the text. I'm surprised that it even woke me up… then again, this silence is way too… quiet after two semesters of Nora's snoring.

It occurred to Pyrrha, as she slowly typed in a response, that perhaps it would be more prudent to decline the offer for another time. I should stick to my usual routine and go back to sleep, else I won't be able to wake up for my morning run. The thought slowed Pyrrha's fingers, leaving her response half-typed when she stopped altogether as her smile faded.

Then again, it IS summer break; why not live a little? The indecision melted away as her fingers resumed tapping out the message. 'That sounds grand! I'll be ready in five minutes.' I'm jetlagged anyway, Pyrrha mused with a sigh before setting down the scroll. And I suppose I should get out of my pajamas, then… where did I put Milo?

Pyrrha had seen Ruby not but a few days ago, but it felt weird to not being able to talk to her; I guess I didn't realize how much we actually spent time together. Between classes, both our teams having meals together, and studying - especially for finals - we probably spend most the day together. Although... The smile returned to Pyrrha. I suppose that's why we are best friends!

Pyrrha could hardly comprehend that her first year at Beacon Academy was over. There had been many ups and downs, but I'd like to think I came out with more ups. I have friends now, like my team… and even a best friend! A best friend that she was going to be talking to momentarily. The thought put a skip into Pyrrha's step as she went to her closet to change out of her sleepwear. Granted, I wonder why she wants to talk at one o'clock in the morning... I hope nothing is amiss.

Gently closing the door to keep the noise from waking others in the house, Pyrrha, now in comfy sweats, dug her headset out of a desk drawer before setting the scroll on said desk. Plugging in her headphones, she pulled up the messaging program and sent Ruby a quick message saying she was ready.

A handful of seconds later, the headset began to ring as Ruby called her, followed by the video starting.

"Hiya Pyrrha!" The appearance of the younger teen's smiling face made Pyrrha feel happy, even if it was just a video.

"Hello!" Pyrrha gave an energetic wave as she smiled at the webcam. "How are you doin- huh?" The video and audio feed cut out after a few seconds. Well that's odd, I wonder what happened.

A few seconds later a message popped up from Ruby. 'Stupid scroll's camera died. Need to restart it, give me a sec.' I guess she is having technical issues? Pyrrha leaned back in her chair as she waited for the call to restart. I wonder what she wants to talk about… She'll probably be curious to what I've been up to.

So far, her break had been… normal. Nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. If there was one word to describe the past few days, it would have to be "quiet". The usual semi-organized chaos that Beacon brought to her life was absent in her house, her family being of a reserved nature. It's been awhile since it's been this peaceful. No random food fights or pancake monsters or well… anything.

The first semester break had been spent at Beacon, all of her teammates opting to stay at the academy and spent their two weeks off exploring the city of Vale. This time around, her team leader had decided to spend the break with Velvet, while Ren and Nora remained on campus. Pyrrha had decided to visit her family. While it was nice to see her family, Pyrrha still missed her newfound friends. Especially Ruby.

The end of the semester had been difficult for Pyrrha, but it made her feel… better. The question that had been on her mind since she had started there had finally been answered: Jaune. I didn't even realized how stressed that was making me! Ever since, she was less stressed or, at the very least, the knot in her stomach had loosened a bit. It's all thanks to Ruby, I don-

Dah-duh, dah-duh

The sudden blaring of an incoming call filled Pyrrha's ears, giving her a small fright before accepting the call.

"Woohoo!" Ruby sighed in relief, causing Pyrrha to quirk an eyebrow. "I thought the webcam was broken!" Pyrrha giggled at the words as Ruby's image blurred as she carried it over to what Pyrrha had to assume was a bunk bed; the motion causing the screen to pixelate into a blurry mess before returning to some measurable quality. "How've you been?"

"I've been fine. Just-" Pyrrha tried to stifle a yawn. "-just been getting some practice in with some of my old instructors. I've also been fiddling with Milo, too." Pyrrha couldn't help but feel amused at the joy that entered Ruby's eyes at the mention of Milo.

"Ooo, what did you add?" It never ceased to amaze Pyrrha how anything to do weapons or being a huntress caused the teen to get excited - she really does like weapons, it would seem.

"I thought you might want to see it…" Pyrrha reached over to the currently inert weapon before laying it in front of the scroll. "I changed out the firing bolt for one with a smoother action." Pyrrha didn't even ask if Ruby wanted to see it; this is Ruby, after all. Quickly stripping the weapon down to its components, Pyrrha held up the part in question. "This is the one."

Ruby's face tilted, her eyes squinting at the screen while the corners of her mouth dipped down into a frown. "I can't see it, it's too dark." Ruby stopped pouting as she backed away from the screen. "Is your room really dark, or did I accidently turn down my brightness again?" Pyrrha saw the camera shake as deft fingers fiddled with something could see her fiddling with it, most likely turning up the brightness on her device. "Stupid scroll-"

"Sorry! My lights aren't on! I thought that my scroll's screen would be bright enough, so I didn't think this would be an issue." Pyrrha reached over from her desk and flipped on a light switch. "There, can you see now?"

"Yup!" Ruby nodded as she finally got a chance to study the bolt. "Maybe I should get one too," Pyrrha swore she could see Ruby's silver eyes literally sparkling at the prospect. "Crescent Rose's bolt has been getting worn out, and I'm pretty sure she'll need a new one before break ends..." Ruby's voice trailed off as she started to focus on the screen with renewed interest. "How come your windows are dark?"

"It's the middle of the night…?"

Ruby did a double take. "It's six thirty here… I thought it was only eight thirty for you… isn't it only a two hour difference?"

"Ah." Suddenly, it made sense why Pyrrha was called at an unholy hour of the night: Ruby must have forgotten the time difference. "Not quite… closer to a seven hour difference where I am at."

"I'm sorry!" Ruby sputtered, as she made frantic hand gestures. "I-I-I didn't know that it was the middle of the night! We could, uh, talk more in the morning?" Silver eyes widened. "I didn't wake you up or anything, did I? I'm really, really sor-"

"Ruby." The teen stopped stammering as Pyrrha's voice interrupted. "It's fine." Before Ruby could even respond, Pyrrha interrupted again. "Really, it's fine!" Pyrrha's hands came up in a placating motion. "I'm still jetlagged anyway, plus," Pyrrha gave a warm smile. "I get to talk to you."

Ruby wilted under the pressure. "Alright, if you're sure…"

"I am." An awkward silence ensued as Pyrrha tried to figure out what to say. I haven't really done much besides training and seeing relatives. I guess I'm just not a very interesting person… it's not like I do anything really cool for fu- An excited smile graced Pyrrha's face as a thought occurred to her. I do have something!

Opening a drawer from the desk, Pyrrha took out material for a hobby she'd picked up at Beacon from Ruby: origami. With all the sheets on the desk and making sure that the webcam could see the sheets, Pyrrha looked back to Ruby, who was now quite curious to what she'd just pulled out.

"Remember how I really enjoyed the origami paper you lent me?" Ruby nodded, still clearly puzzled where this was going given the giddiness in Pyrrha's voice. "Well, I figured out I could do something really interesting with the concept. Especially since this..." Pyrrha picked up the sheet in front of her, the material now bending as she lightly put it on her open palm. "...is made out of metal."

The thin metal sheet glowed as Pyrrha used her semblance, carefully folding the material with her own control over polarity. After half a minute, it resembled a small bird. Glancing at the screen, Pyrrha couldn't help but chuckle at the wide-eyed expression of amazement that Ruby was giving her. It's not even the best part! Pyrrha couldn't help but feel smug as the origami bird glowed again from her semblance, this time its wings flapping while she moved it around with her power, giving it an illusion of flight, before finally hovering it over her shoulder. Ruby's reaction was priceless.

"THAT'S SO COOL!" Pyrrha's headset crackled at the volume, causing her to flinch. Not that Ruby noticed - the teen was too busy being mesmerized by the fluttering metal bird. "You could do other animals like deer or wolves or elephants or even a dinosaur! You could do a whole origami zoo! Or… or… you co-"

"Mind keeping down the racket, Rubes?" A familiar voice entered the microphone's range. "You just made Zwei g-". Pyrrha could hear the heavy steps as a mass of blonde hair with bright lilac eyes entered the camera's view. "Oh hey, how's it going, Pyrrha?"

"Hello, Yang." Pyrrha gave a small wave, as Ruby tilted the device so she could see the sisters better. "I've been doing well, yourself?"

"Yup! I've just been yangin' in there!" Pyrrha chuckled at Ruby, who dropped the scroll on her bed from the groan-inducing pun. "Just been catching up on sleep-"

HISSSSSS

Screeching static suddenly filled Pyrrha's ear, causing her to instinctively push the mute button. It didn't seem to be feedback, though, as both Yang and Ruby swiveled their heads towards the doorway in reaction to whatever the noise was.

Pyrrha tentatively turned the volume to a few percent above zero. She was barely able to hear Yang as she rushed out of the room. "ZWEI! Get out of Blake's stuff!"

"What… what was that?"

"Uhh... lemme go check." Ruby set down the scroll, treating Pyrrha to an excellent view of the bottom of a bunk for a few moments before the teen returned. "Zwei just got into Blake's stuff again." Ruby sadly shook her head. "I don't get why she doesn't like him, it's not like he is going to hurt anything…"

Huh? Truth be told, Pyrrha wasn't quite up to speed on what Ruby's teammates were doing over the break. "Your team is staying at your house?"

"Nope, just Blake. She stayed last break, too." Ruby looked towards what Pyrrha assumed was where the girl in question was. "Yang and I didn't want her to stay at the dorms by herself since Weiss was going back home, sooo we invited her here."

"I see, so that's what that noise was." Well, that answered that. Makes sense. Changing the subject, Pyrrha asked, "So what have you been up to?"

An excited gleam entered Ruby's eyes. "I actually got to see my friends from Signal! I didn't even realize how much I missed seeing them… we couldn't hang out for long –their semester starts today- but I did spend a day with them before their semester started!" A happy smile tugged on the corners of Ruby's mouth. "It was really fun!"

"That's good!" Pyrrha favoured her with a warm smile of her own. Dimly, Pyrrha recalled the conversation the two had several weeks ago. That's right, she was worried about not seeing them. "Do you think you'll be able to see them again before our break is over?"

Ruby enthusiastically nodded. "Yup! We made plans for next weekend." Ruby's bright expression into something more of a soft glow. "Thanks."

"For what?" I didn't do anything, did I?

"For the advice you gave me." The camera jostled as Ruby went from laying on the bed to half-reclined on the pillows. "I… uh, well I wasn't gonna do anything with my Signal friends… I didn't think we'd even see each other," the teen shyly admitted. "If it wasn't for you saying I should try, I probably wouldn't have seen them at all…"

"It was no problem." Pyrrha embarrassedly waved it off. "I'm just glad that it worked out for you, especially since you sounded rather… down about it."

Ruby beamed at her. "So how about you? Got any plans going on with your friends?"

"I'm afraid not. I wasn't planning on doing anything with my team seeing as we are in different kingdoms at the moment." Pyrrha tapped her chin in thought. "Although, we should do a team group call; it'd be nice to see my teammates before I go back."

"That's not what I meant…" Ruby's response trailed off as she gave Pyrrha an… odd expression, almost like disappointment. I didn't do anything to upset her, did I? "I'd visit you if I could, but I kinda don't have the lien for a flight out-of-kingdom…" Ruby mumbled, downcast. "Not that I wouldn't want to see you!" The younger girl's shoulders slumped. "I just kinda spent all my lien seeing my Signal friends…"

"Oh. I see." It would have been very nice to have Ruby visit her. As much as Pyrrha loved her family, being back home still felt like a form of isolation. They love me, they really do, it just doesn't feel any different being here or at Sanctum. It was like her family couldn't act like she was just 'Pyrrha' anymore, but that she was somehow better than them, similar to how her fellow students at Sanctum had. There is always a distance between us now. It might not be physical but it's there.

With her friends at Beacon, Pyrrha didn't feel that distance. They treated her as, well, as an actual person, not some idealized celebrity. Not as the Invincible Girl. It'd been a wonderful thing, not feeling a distance with Jaune, then Ren and Nora and most recently, Ruby.

Except now there was a physical distance between Pyrrha and her friends. It's just a shame that Ruby can't visit me he- Something occurred to Pyrrha. I don't want to impose… but Ruby did say that she would like to visit, it might be worth giving it a shot.

"Hey, Ruby?" Pyrrha bit her lip in a moment of hesitation. "Would it be alright if I visited you instead? I could stay at a hotel somewhere nearby, that way I wouldn't be imposing on you."

Ruby's expression went from hopeless to excited to aghast in a matter of seconds. "That'd be awesome, but you don't have to stay in a hotel! We definitely have room here, um… uh…" Ruby looked around before looking back at the webcam. "Someone would have to sleep on a couch… or the floor. Buuut you could totally stay here! Blake and Yang would love to have you over, and Dad would like to meet you!" The caped girl sheepishly fiddled with her fingers. "It wouldn't cost you too much would it?"

"It'll be fine, I barely spend any lien as it is." Pyrrha smiled. It's not like I spend any on myself to begin with; my winnings never get spent on anything fun anyway. "When would it be best to visit?"

"I…" The smaller girl held up a finger before lowering it. "I don't know? How about right before the break ends? That way we can all go to Beacon together!"

"That sounds grand!"

I didn't realize it'd gotten so late.

It was an even more unholy hour of the morning when Pyrrha started to make her way back to her bed. Ruby and Pyrrha had talked for hours, setting up plans for the trip, where they would be meeting at the terminal, all the logistics of going on vacation.

Is that what this is, a vacation? It'd been so long since Pyrrha had even thought of going on one. There were always studies to do, training to be done, some kind of commercial or sponsor event to go to, and Pyrrha had slowly just forgotten how exciting it was to plan for one, let alone going on one! Even with all the events and new places she went to as the Invincible Girl, travel had lost its luster for her. After all, it's not all that interesting when you are going to a city just to help market something.

Pyrrha didn't even try and stifle her yawn as she changed into her pajamas. Now I get to actually go somewhere for fun! Pyrrha knew she had a goofy grin on her face as she lumbered towards her bed. I don't think I've been this excited to go somewhere since leaving for Beacon! Plus I get to be with my friends - my best friend.

No matter how much Pyrrha said the words "best friend" to herself, it never ceased to give her a small smile. It never ceased to make Pyrrha feel honoured that someone considered her worthy of being that, that someone actually cared about her enough and knew her well enough to say that.

That smile didn't leave her face as she pulled the blanket over her and hugged her slightly worn (but still quite fat with fluff) ursa plushie. The long night finally started to catch up to Pyrrha, her consciousness drifting off as a happy thought lazily wafted through her head;

A birthday to look forward to at last.

Editor: ASouthernRussian

AU: A NEW CHAPTER HAS EMERGED, LOOK HOW HAPPY PYRRHA IS!

This blurb will be comparatively short compared to previous ones:

First off, I'm really REALLY sorry for not getting to all of the reviews this time! There were quite a few of the long ones I didn't get to even, and I feel like the worst for not being able to get to them, so I may try and respond to them after I post this (I know its late, but it's better than never!)

This took longer than expected. Not by much, just a week. I'm really sorry it took so long! X_X I'm planning on the next chapter coming out on January 1st, I'm already at the 1,500 word marker! Although the next few weeks are going to get stupid busy for me, I'll try! (Finals week, plus working at a movie theater during Star Wars opening. Yeah. This is gonna be terrifying.)

So canon is pretty thoroughly destroying this story, which while sad, means more fuel for a Pyrrha/Ruby story after I finish this one! In a few years…sometime! Slightly related note; PROTECT NIKOS 2K15! We must protect the Pyrrha, else our children will never know the joy that is Pyrrha!

Seeing as we hit 600 followers, ASouthernRussian got paid in some nice merchandise (Weiss' figurine), and as always, a special thanks to him! Another author who helped, is Super Saiyan Cyndaquil, who provided a omake for this chapter and will probably be doing some more in the future.

Shameless promotion: I'm writing a new story called Wrath – it's a Pyrrha-centric story, "What would it take to make Pyrrha Nikos finally snap and just how far would that rage take her?" It's also my own weird little take on Arkos. Which will amuse some (most likely the people reading Acceptance) and greatly annoy others. I put out the prologue last Friday, and will be updating more frequently once Volume 3 ends.

Lastly, I have three omakes for you all today, sizeable ones too!

As per usual, thanks for leaving reviews, (even if I've been too busy to respond to them, I'm REALLY SORRY! X_X) they mean a lot, especially considering how supportive everyone was!

Thank you for reading and have a great day! :D

Omake I:

"Where is he?!"

It took Pyrrha a moment to place who owned that muffled voice, as the door to team JNPR's room burst open from what must have been a very, VERY strong kick; Coco Adel.

"JAUNE ARC WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?!

"I..uh… w-w-what?" Pyrrha felt as confused as Jaune looked as the rest of team CFVY came in through the breach, sans Velvet. Fox looked angry, though it was hard for Pyrrha to tell with him. Yatsuhashi on the other hand looked downright terrifying, the tall upper-class student glaring at Jaune so hard that Pyrrha was almost certain her partner would combust. Coco herself, was an entirely different creature; she wasn't threatening, no, the air around her felt almost bloodthirsty. Jaune picked up on it, as he started to back away. "I…didn't do anythi-"

"Don't you DARE try talking your way out of this!" Coco strode towards Jaune –the teen being pushed up against the wall in his attempt to feel the approaching team leader. Coco finally stopped a few feet away before pulling something out of her bag, a rather large bullet, and thrusting in front of Jaune's face. "You see this?! Think you can outsmart one of these?!"

"Leave him alone!" With a speed that would possibly even put Ruby to shame, Velvet dashed in between her boyfriend and team leader, a defiant look on her face, taking a protective stance, her arms held out. "I said we figured it out! We're still together!"

Coco's sunglasses lowered as she glared into his eyes. "You make her cry again and we'll see how smart you are." Now content with the fact that Jaune was shaking in her hoody, Coco gave him a second glance. "What happened to your face?"

"T-t-t-that was Pyrrha." All eyes turned to Pyrrha, causing her to feel more then a small amount of discomfort at the fact that she'd slapped her partner silly. "S-s-she kep-p-pt me from doing something stupid."

Coco raised an eyebrow, a small smile quirking her lips, while Yatsuhashi stopped his glaring to give her a thumbs up. Even Fox seemed less angry, not that Pyrrha could tell much, his mouth barely changing it's shape. "Good work Nikos." With that, the assembly of upper classmen –sans Velvet- filed out, past Pyrrha, leaving a very scared Jaune and a curious Pyrrha.

"Why did Coco slap my butt?"

Omake II:

When Ruby heard a knock on the door at the wee hours of the morning, the person she found at it, was quite literally the last person she would have expected. Okay, not the laaaast, Spruce Willis isn't here… but close!

It was a rather exasperated Ren.

The fact it was Ren was in itself, necessarily unexpected, especially given that team JNPR and team RWBY lived across the hall from each other. No, it was the fact that Ren looked agitated; in all the time Ruby had known him, through the countless antics of Nora and Yang, not once had Ren's calm ever been broken. I should probably say something. Before Ruby could even get a word off, Ren spoke.

"What. Have. You. Done!?"

"Buh-wha?" I have no idea what he is even talking about!

Wordlessly he led Ruby across the hall to the team JNPR room.

Ruby… was not expecting the sight that greeted her; the dorm room, normally was quite nice and neat… tidy even –despite Nora residing in it. Now, however, it looked like someone had just covered it entirely with paper. It took Ruby to realize that the paper was in the form animals, like origami. Origami that was currently being created by a very happy looking Pyrrha, with Nora peering over her shoulder while wearing a crown of paper sloths.

Ruby took one look at the glee on Pyrrha's face, the utter delight at having made all of these paper animals for no reason other than she could, because it was fun, before looking back at Ren's bloodshot eyes.

"I regret nothing!"

Omake III – Guest author: Super Saiyan Cyndaquil:

Studying sucked.

Jaune grumbled internally to himself as he practiced balancing a pencil between the top of his lip and nose. School life was about so much more than passing a stupid test about some lame war people started because of ignorant racism.

Why couldn't people just get along? If everyone did, maybe he wouldn't have to be studying for this test and could instead focus on the things that actually mattered. Like fighting Grimm. Or actually getting a date for once.

"You dolt! How could you possibly think that answer is even remotely acceptable?" He glanced briefly at Weiss and Ruby, the former of which was furiously scribbling at the latter's paper. At least Ruby seemed to be having as much fun with this studying as he did.

And Weiss was actually trying to help her out. It wasn't like his own partner wouldn't help him if he asked. But he felt bad always having to rely on her. Wasn't enough that she was training him in combat? He didn't need to take more of her time away.

He considered for a brief moment asking Weiss and Ruby if he could join them. Weiss seemed to know what she was talking about, if that rant she was giving her partner about the war was any indication. The thing was… he had just recently stopped trying to make passes at Weiss and asking her out.

So even if that wasn't his intent, she would probably take it that way. Maybe after more time had passed and that wound healed he could try and just be normal friends with her? Until then though, it was probably better to just leave well enough alone. Besides… Ruby looked to be having even less fun than he was, so for the sake of his sanity he should probably pass on Ice Queen's demonic reign of tutoring.

Jaune turned back to the perpetually blank piece of paper in front of him. "Oops." The sudden movement caused the pencil he had been balancing to fly off his face and clatter onto the floor before rolling an irritating distance away.

Of course. It couldn't have stopped close enough for him to just bend over and pick it up. It had to roll way over there, forcing him to get out of his chair to get it. Why didn't he bring more than one pencil?

With an irritated sigh he slouched off his feet and began to amble over to the fallen object which had rolled all the way up to one of the many bookshelves. Just as he bent over to pick it up, another hand came out from the corner of his eye before grabbing it for him.

He pulled back, eyes darting for the owner of the hand that was now holding his pencil out to him. To his complete surprise, Velvet Scarlatina stood before him, rabbit ears twitching occasionally as she gave him a soft smile.

"Here you are…" She spoke barely above a whisper, but the sound of her voice finally got his body moving again.

"Ah, thank you." He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head with one hand while reaching for the pencil with the other. He didn't know why, but for whatever reason he half-expected her to yank it just out of reach before he could grab it. Instead he took it from her without resistance.

Velvet inclined her head slightly and turned to walk away. Just like that, their brief interaction almost came to an end. "W-wait!" Yet for reasons beyond his own comprehension, Jaune called out to her after she got no more than a couple steps.

She looked back at him curiously, the books in her arms pressing up against her chest as she waited for him to explain why he called out to her. Problem was… he didn't even exactly know himself. He and Velvet didn't exactly know one another.

"Saturday… do you uhh… wanna go see a movie with me or something? Maybe get something to eat?" What the Hell was he doing? Idiot, idiot. Why was it always his first instinct to just ask the girl out? Whatever, she would reject him quick and it would just be done.

Velvet titled her head and one eye quirked oddly as she looked at him like he was some kind of puzzle to be solved. "...Are you asking me on a date?"

"Umm...yeah?" Too late to take it back now. "Just you know, as a way to say thanks. For picking up my pencil." He held it up lamely for emphasis, but even doing that just made him want to die out of embarrassment. Did he really just say that?

He wasn't sure exactly how he expected Velvet to reject him, but her giggling at him was certainly within his expectations. He must have looked like the lamest guy on the face of Remnant right now. "Sure, okay."

"..."

"...Wait, what?"

That was the most unusual rejection he had ever received. In fact, it didn't sound like a rejection at all. But more like a…

"I'd like to go on a date with you, Saturday." Velvet averted her eyes bashfully. "Truthfully… I've been slightly interested in getting to know you ever since you stood up to Cardin. So… my answer is okay."

"Ah... uhh… alright then. Saturday." He nodded to himself several times, still not entirely sure he understood what just happened.

"Saturday." She repeated with a small smile.

"Great. It's a date. I think?" Was he always this redundant? Better walk away before she changed her mind. "I'll pick you up… to be decided. I'll get back with you. In class. Yeah."

Once again she giggled and gave a small nod. "Okay. I look forward to it. Bye, Jaune." With a small wave, she turned back around and this time he only watched silently as she walked away.

Yeah, screw studying for that test.

He had a date to plan for!