Wow, has this been a long time.

Life has been a balancing act as of late. But honestly that's kind of an excuse.

There's definitely still a lot of stuff I want to work on, stuff in the works, but I'm also aware that I don't have the best completion track record. So... I really want to release more works in the future, especially for you guys who've still followed me despite my inactivity, but don't hold your breath.

In any case, thanks for still sticking with me. Special thanks to the few of you who've bothered to check up on me every few weeks or so. You know who you are.

This chapter is not the chapter that everyone (including myself) has been waiting for. So I should probably stop saying that about any chapter.

Beta: Maxaro. Thanks to you most of all.

"Hey Jaune."

"Morning Rubes. Sleep well?"

"Ugh… no. Didn't you hear me barfing in the restroom just now?"

"I… guess I did. Sorry, stupid question."

"Well, that's nothing new for you, is it?"

"… I guess not -"

"Noooooo Jaune, I was just joking! Aww, Jauney… c'mon, y'know I was just kidding, right?"

"…"

"I am soooo sorry! You were just trying to be nice, and I was in a bad mood, and now I've just gone and made a mess, me and my big dumb mouth… Damn this morning sickness bullshit, I promise I didn't mean anything I said, I was just – what's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking to myself, I should trick you into thinking I'm upset more often. It sure has its entertainment value."

"… You're a dick."

Jaune chuckled to himself as he poured both him and Ruby a bowl of Pumpkin Pete's. "Only because you tolerate me."

Ruby rolled her eyes and kissed him on the cheek before taking her bowl and a warm mug of coffee to the kitchen table. "Something like that. Also because child support doesn't sound fun." She pulled out her scroll and began browsing the news section.

"How little faith do you have in me?" The blonde snorted as he joined Ruby at the table.

Without looking up from the scroll, the redhead held out her mechanized arm. "I have this much faith in you."

Jaune raised an amused eyebrow. "Rubes… you're just making a duck with your hand."

Ruby glanced up for a moment at her hand before turning to Jaune with a grin. "So I am."

"Nice to know you're still in good spirits despite morning sickness?"

The redhead's grin faltered slightly, if at all. "Worse things have happened." She went back to reading her scroll.

Jaune nodded heavily.

Without another word, he knew what she was talking about, in terms of both him and herself. And the surface, while it seemed a callous thing to do so, joking about it was really the only thing they could do, and that was fine with Jaune.

He began to eat his own cereal.

"You ever think about what happens… after?" the blond murmured after a brief silence. "Like, what we'd name the kid, or like… how the fuck we're supposed to raise him or her because frankly I have no idea how."

Ruby giggled. "We'll be fine, Jaune. There's plenty of classes and books on how to be good parents –"

"I think I'll opt for the books, thank you very much."

"– and as for the name… I don't really know, but I think we've still got plenty of time to figure it out!" The redhead paused a moment, reaching instinctively towards her small belly bump. "Really, I'm not worried about all that. What I am worried about… is if our kid's gonna get to grow up in a safer environment than we did."

"So… let's not let them be a Huntsman, then. That solves ninety-nine percent of our problems, right?"

Ruby shook her head, smiling. "Jaune… we're not going to force our kid to do what we want them to do. If they want to be a Huntsman, who are we to stop them? I mean, we were allowed to be Huntsmen, too, and if we had that right, then so does any young person. Geez, you teach Huntsmen and Huntresses. That's your literal job description."

"Well, not literally," Jaune muttered. "Literally, it says 'Professor of –'"

"I said 'literally', not 'exactly,' jackass. Point is, how bad would it be if you went up to all of your students – those kids – and just said, 'Give it up, everyone. Go home'?"

"Not too bad." The blonde shrugged. "Unlike us, they might actually be whole people."

"I will actually fight you."

"You'll literally fight me?"

Ruby punched him in the arm. Hard. "First of all, I keep fucking telling you – our crutches don't define us. You're not 'PTSD,' I'm not 'Half-Metal.' We're former Huntsmen, that's all. Second, you know damn well that we made an impact as Huntsmen, whether we lasted or not, and – I'll fucking fight you, I swear – doing something right over doing something in tenure is something I will take any day of the week."

She deflated slightly, the rare aggressive spark subsiding. "But… that's a tangent that we can talk about another time. What I meant wasn't about what our kid may or may not do in the future. I was talking about what's right here, in our own backyard. Like… is Vale gonna be safe enough to raise a child in?"

The blonde blinked. "How do you mean?"

"Well..." Ruby sighed. "Criminal activity isn't really unfamiliar to Vale, after all. We've had missions in other kingdoms; I'd say the crime - specifically White Fang - was particularly active here."

Jaune frowned. "That was... I mean, it wasn't exactly ages ago, but it's definitely a hell of a lot better than when we were still hunting. I mean, people raise their kids here all the time now that all the -" he shuddered violently "- the Fang-induced Grimm attacks are over! I mean, Vale's practically leaps and bounds better than what it used to be, with the White Fang and all that bullshit out of the picture, and as far as I know those guys from the Ashes Savannah have legitimately been helping make Vale a better place for humans and faunus alike."

Ruby remained tentatively silent for a moment, clicking her fingers against her scroll before sliding it across the table towards the blonde. "I... saw this just now in the news. You might wanna watch it."

Jaune looked curiously at her before silently watching the holographic news video that popped up from the scroll. Within seconds, his face rapidly lost color as he listened to reporter Lisa Lavender deliver the top headline.

"Early this morning, a suicide bomber set off an explosion at the site of one of the recent diplomacy meetings between the humans and faunus… the bomber has been identified by security footage as ex-White Fang and radical terrorist Shiro Kiba, whose final words before dying were, 'The treaty shall fall, peace is a lie!' At this moment, five people have been recorded injured, with two in critical condition, but thankfully no other deaths have been reported aside from Kiba…"

The blonde's fist slowly clenched and unclenched in a rhythm, turning white at the knuckles.

"Shit, maybe I shouldn't have let you watch that…" Ruby quickly moved to snatch the scroll away. "Sorry, Jaune."

"It's fine… It's just that…" The blonde breathed in and out unevenly as his racing heart rate gradually receded back to normal. "Pyrrha was at one of those meetings. At least one, as far as I know."

He could see the redhead tense up out of the corner of his eye, and he felt her hand clasp around his.

"You… you think she might have been there? I mean, while it… y'know…"

Jaune smiled in spite of himself. "I don't think so. But even if she was… she could handle herself, I'm pretty sure. Probably wouldn't have happened, the bomb thing, not if she was there. It's gonna be a lot of trouble for her though, seeing as how this is going to set off tensions out the wazoo."

"I'll bet," Ruby exhaled deeply. "I would've been happy to never hear from the White Fang ever again."

"Yeah… goddammit." Jaune grit his teeth, hand shaking. "I lost… good people for this peace, and these fuckers just can't let it happen. Why…? What's the damn point? There's gonna be a shitton of Grimm they have to worry about breaching the city now, especially since the damn media decided to broadcast the whole fucking thing…"

"Hey, um, question." Ruby grew tentative again. "The, uh… no dreams lately?"

"Uh... huh?" The blonde's face went bank. "That's… a change of subject. What brought that on?"

Ruby smirked sheepishly. "I noticed you shake when you talked about the you-know-what… or, uh, the controlled Grimm attacks…"

"Just now?" Jaune sighed. "I honestly didn't notice. I mean, I definitely still see it clear as day, when I think about. Like I did. And yeah, it… it hurts. A lot, still. It should, y'know? But…"

The blonde hesitated momentarily, then pulled her into a hug. She blinked in surprise as his arms drew her close.

"Jaune?"

He chuckled weakly. "Y'know what? I think I can say that I haven't been having the dreams lately, thankfully enough. Half of me thinks it's the therapy at work… but the other half thinks it could be you."

Ruby reddened slightly and, after a moment's pause, she placed her human hand against his chest. "How do you figure that?"

"Well… ever since we started sleeping in the same bed… having you next to me when I sleep, I don't feel like I'm… alone? Afraid? I feel… like… like…" Jaune's voice trickled into a timid murmur. "Like I have someone who'll protect me. Not the manliest thing, I know, but... I dunno."

Jaune had always been someone who tried (and failed) to mask his insecurity with humor, nonchalance, and, when they were still at their days in Beacon, a pathetically disingenuous machismo.

And, having seen him at his worst before, Ruby knew that his true, raw self was all the more fragile and pained.

She sincerely cherished that, being one of the few people who knew this side of Jaune, despite how he tried to hide it. Leaning into him, she laughed softly, gently. "And here we are with me in your arms. How am I supposed to protect you from here?"

"I dunno, it was stupid. Forget about it."

Ruby pouted. "It's not stupid. You're never stupid. Not around me, I promise. I mean, have you seen half the shit I do?"

"Ha… yeah." Jaune sighed. "We used to be leaders."

"And now we're both decommissioned. How ironic is that?"

"About as ironic as your arm."

"… That was so bad, Jaune. I'm not my sister."

The corners of the blonde's mouth twitched upward ever so slightly. "I know. It's not as fun telling puns to people who like them as to people who hate 'em."

Ruby punched him in the shoulder. "I hate 'em. I hate you."

The half-smile grew. "No you don't."

She grinned back. "I don't."

Reaching up, she began to kiss him, and from the scroll, Lisa Lavender continued her report.

"The meetings have been postponed for the time being, but some question whether or not another meeting may even take place. Some of the politicians express concern over safety and whether meeting again may provoke another attack, while others have explicitly placed suspicion on the true motives of the Ashes Savannah, believing that they may have been responsible for this morning's attacks…"

"… This is bullshit," Pyrrha growled. "Just when things were looking up, too… and furthermore, now the whole city knows about it. Why did they even take us off the case?"

"They probably thought the same things we did." Caraway sighed beside her. "That everything was going well enough."

"Well, it's not anymore. No doubt all that attention is going to attract more Grimm to the city than we'd like." Pyrrha rubbed her temples with the flat of her palms in frustration. "Those idiots need people out there who can deal with all this nonsense."

"So… I'm guessing that's why you're here, then?" The surfer-haired huntsman gestured casually towards the Valean Hunters' HQ in which they were currently standing in.

The redhead raised an eyebrow. "You're one to talk. You're here too, aren't you? Although I wouldn't put it past you to have deducted that I would've been here because of the news and stalked me accordingly."

Caraway flinched visibly. "And here I was thinking we were tight."

Pyrrha blinked in confusion before her shoulders slouched in a deflated manner. "I'm… sorry. I shouldn't have… I guess I wish I could keep as clear-minded as you with news like this coming in."

"Ah… well, don't worry about it." The huntsman flashed her a grin, but it was mostly for show. The sting from Pyrrha's previous comment was apparent in Caraway's face, and she could tell.

The two hunters settled into a deep, uncomfortable silence. In the midst of squirming and shifting her weight from foot to foot, Pyrrha racked her brain desperately for something to say.

Finally, she willed her mouth to move. "Did you know during my first year at Beacon the headmaster asked me to become the Fall Maiden?"

Caraway's head turned slowly towards her, a look of disbelief plastered across his face. "... What."

"It's... true." Pyrrha smirked coyly. "It was during the Vytal Festival. I remember them showing me the previous Fall Maiden – or, at least, what was left of her, anyway – and Ozpin asked me if I'd be willing to take her place as the best-fit candidate for the spot. He was afraid that an ominous danger was coming our way and I was urged to decide as soon as I could.

"Needless to say… I didn't take the news very well. I was in between a rock and a hard place – between my sense of destiny and the idea that I would have to leave my old life behind for this one. And, as you can imagine… I almost lost it. The pressure was too much for me. I had no idea what to do, and if it weren't for Jaune, I might have just… I don't know what I would've done, but it wouldn't have helped anyone." She exhaled deeply. "Jaune helped me simplify things when I made mountains out of anthills. I was out of my mind completely."

"I wouldn't have blamed you," assured Caraway. "That's a huge fucking burden for anyone to hold, much less a first year."

"Maybe." Pyrrha chuckled. "Luckily, the danger passed pretty soon afterward, and the council had more time to deliberate who better to take the mantle of Fall Maiden than me. But Jaune was my rock through that whole period. Funny, I don't think he'd ever see it that way, but all this time that he had me help him become the hunter he wanted to be, he unknowingly shaped me into the person I am now."

"Sounds like he meant a lot to you. Or…" The huntsman blinked. "Geez, if that wasn't the most 'no shit' statement in the world…"

The redhead elbowed him in the side, giggling. "I was married to him, after all." Her smile faded slowly. "You know, I used to be a huge believer in destiny. Like, we were all born to walk some certain path set out for us by the heavens. And, when it happened, I even thought I was destined to be in love and married to Jaune forever. But then… Jaune lost his whole squadron, and we split. So… now I'm not so sure."

"You still think about him a lot?"

"I do. I really do. I guess I took a lot of it for granted. What's that really cliché phrase that everyone and their mother keeps telling you? 'You don't know what you have until it's gone'? Yeah. Something like that."

Pyrrha laughed bitterly. "And you know what else? I bet he doesn't think of me. And it's not like I even blame him. He's got Ruby now, and they're about to become a family. I bet things are finally starting to look up for him, and I'm just a distant memory. Why dwell on the past when you're so happy with the future?"

Caraway looked at her for a while before answering softly. "That's a lie. If he's anything like the person you say he is, he thinks about you."

"Yeah right. He seemed so happy the last time I saw him take Ruby out on a dinner date, and ever since I haven't heard a word from him."

"He might be giving you space? I don't know, that's how breakups work, so divorce can't be that much different."

"I doubt it." Pyrrha sighed, shaking her head. "I don't even mean it like I hold a grudge or anything. If anything, I know that I should be happy for him, and a part of me truthfully is. But... it doesn't hurt any less."

Suddenly she clapped her hands, almost enthusiastically. "But on that note, in order to not get myself so caught up in my own self-pity, I've decided to try out dating."

The redhead watched her partner do a double-take. "You – you have?"

"Yes!" She grinned. "Mind you, the first one I went on didn't go so well, and I almost decided to call it quits. But... I figured it's not like I'll get better by doing nothing, so I tried downloading one of those new dating apps and, lo and behold, I found a match! So basically I have a date tonight."

Pyrrha seemed to have imagined it, but for a split second, it looked as if the glint in Caraway's eyes had snuffed out and she swore she saw his face fall briefly – before it swiftly changed into a look of concern. "Are you sure that's smart?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well… I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. You're kinda famous."

"… Oh." Pyrrha's shoulders slumped slightly. "I suppose you're not wrong. Should I... not go through with it?"

"I mean, technically you could ditch him and, I don't know, hang out with me instead?"

The silence was palpable.

"… That was a joke. But I dunno!" Caraway lifted his hands up in concession. "Maybe you're right. Maybe the date could work out? If you really want to give it a shot, don't let me discourage you. And, I guess, if things go really, really badly… at least you get a good story out of it?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "I was already having third thoughts to begin with."

"You had second thoughts?"

"No, I skipped from one to three, as one logically does."

"… Huh?"

"… That was a joke..."

"… Oh. Geez, I thought my jokes were bad." The brown-haired huntsman snickered and scratched the back of his head. "How about this: you can give me a play-by-play of the whole date and I can help you out if you need it?"

Pyrrha chuckled, punching Caraway playfully in the shoulder. "Sure. I'll take all the help I can get."

"Operation 'Get Pyrrha Laid' is a go!" Caraway returned the jab. "You've still got my number?"

"Yes, but… Operation 'Get Pyrrha Laid?' Really?"

Caraway shrugged, grinning widely. "That's ultimately the end goal, isn't it?"

Thankfully for Pyrrha, she wouldn't have to answer that question.

Ithir appeared from around the corner. "Ms. Nikos and Mr. Du Lac? Your briefing is ready. If you'd please follow…"

The redhead turned towards her partner, who offered a nod and a grin in response. She smiled back, and they both turned to follow Ithir into his office.

As they walked, however, Pyrrha couldn't help but mull over the brief, hurt look that her partner's face betrayed, wondering if it had actually been real or if her mind had been playing tricks on her.

so… hows the date going

Well enough I guess XD I mean he knows me but he isn't making a big fuss about it. That's all you can hope for right?

oh sweetie… u really have NEVER been on a date before have u

Shut it, you

if a tree talks in the middle of a forest and no 1 is around to here it is it still talking

Well it most definitely is still "here"

shit *hear… u kno what i mean

Pyrrha stifled a giggle at the text and proceeded to assess her evening thus far.

She was sitting in a nice, not-too-fancy restaurant, dressed in a polka-dot sundress and a jean jacket, which meant that, at the very least, she had made it to the restaurant without casualties.

The redhead wondered where or from whom she had inherited her uncharacteristic gallows humor from.

She did note that the much more casual nature of the restaurant was a hell of a lot less suffocating on her and her nerves, which was a nice change of pace. It also gave her the chance to dress more unassuming, which was good.

Her scroll lit up again:

food good?

If it was bad, what would you do about it?

u misunderstand. im asking to see if i should eat there sometime. if yo foods bad it aint my problem

You're a dick

"Can I ask who you're texting?"

Pyrrha looked up from Caraway's texts. The man across from her was a fairly attractive man, dark hair in a quiff and dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans. Not particularly remarkable in appearances, but they matched with similar interests and, upon meeting, Pyrrha found the enthusiasm in the man to be quite charming indeed, if not slightly overbearing. Sure, he seemed quite familiar with who she was, but with that much positive energy she was willing to overlook it.

For now, at least.

The huntress placed the scroll in her pocket. "A friend. He's decided that he wants to help me have a successful date in his own, strange way."

The man grinned widely. "That is, litrally, the best friend that anyone could have!"

"Right." Pyrrha smiled back hesitantly. "So, um, Rhys Draeger, right? You're an auditor for Vale? What exactly do you do?"

"Well, I am so happy that you asked!" Rhys clasped his hands together. "I help the city solve all their budgeting problems so that they can get the proper funding for whatever it is that needs funding, and boy oh boy, sometimes it's not quite the most exhilarating job, but I know that my role is so important to the city functioning that just the sheer impact of my role is litrally enough drive for me to push on and make sure that this city is funded to the point of proper functionality!"

Pyrrha blinked. "W-wow. You seem like you really love your job."

"There is, litrally, no better word than 'love' to describe how I see my job. Although I have to imagine that being famous is litrally miles above all what I do!"

Tensely, Pyrrha nodded. "It's… not all that it's cut out to be…"

Rhys gave her a bright smile in return. "Ah, well, it must be a lot of pressure, yes?"

"Yes… yes it is!" Pyrrha smiled back, a little more warmly this time.

Conversation continued easily enough, and Pyrrha was somewhat thankful that she didn't have to say too much. The man could sure talk, more than enough for the both of them. Eventually Rhys excused himself to the bathroom to wash his hands before the food came out.

Pyrrha pulled out her scroll: Guy is… a bit odd. Very talkative, maybe, but very nice!

does he look like a bitch

Lol be nice

pfft im an angel. so whats so odd about this guy

He's really positive. REALLY positive. Ball of energy. Kind of much to take in all at once. Also he keeps saying 'literally' funny. I don't think he knows there's an 'e' in it

… so hes gay?

You think he'd match with me on a dating app if he was gay, you dummy?

hey hey some people use them to find friends. dont ask me why cuz i have no idea

Aren't you supposed to be helping me here?

'help' is a strange word. what do u think it means

Such a dick

u mean suck a dick?

That too. Oh he's back now. Talk later

kk dont die!

"That was, quite litrally, the best meal I've ever had!" exclaimed Rhys as they walked up the stairs to his apartment.

Pyrrha was beginning to think this was a bad idea. Rhys had asked her if she had wanted to accompany him up to his quarters after dinner, and the redhead, having been lonely and forcing her own impulsiveness, had agreed to the offer. She wasn't oblivious to what unspoken propositions might entail, and initially she hadn't really cared, even thinking back to the title that Caraway had teasingly given her "dating campaign." Worst case scenario, she could just leave.

Now, given the time and prolonged company with the auditor, Pyrrha wished she had been wiser and said no.

But that ship had sailed. Rhys, while definitely more animated than Pyrrha was comfortable with, had been exceedingly nice and accommodating, and the redhead figured it would've been shitty if she backed out now. So, hesitantly, she followed.

Still... maybe now would be as good a time to back out as any. Lying about interest was probably be a less considerate alternative.

The redhead couldn't help but think back to the whole Fall Maiden incident all that time ago. Decision-making, she decided, was definitely not her strong suit.

"How was your meal, my dear?" The auditor's voice stirred her from her reverie.

"Oh… it was great!" Pyrrha wore a strained smile.

The meal wasn't any more than mediocre, if Pyrrha was being truthful to herself. But she had other things on her mind. Specifically…

"Hey, I... I don't really think I should –"

"And here we are!" A loud beep from the door before them as Rhys opened it with his scroll. "Welcome to my humble abode! Isn't it just lovely?"

The living room was neatly arranged, with white furniture upon white shag carpet and a long hallway to the left. Abstract paintings were strewn upon the red walls, and every appliance and otherwise maintained a sharp, steely edge in design, like a kitchen full of nothing but knives. It was a fancy enough apartment – truly, one that looked like the success of its owner. Pyrrha remembered learning a lot about colors and symbolism from Ren; he would have described the room as "predatory."

The bad feeling in her stomach began to knot even more, especially now that Rhys had seemingly ignored anything she was about to say.

Her scroll made a muffled buzzing from inside her purse, and it took every fiber of discipline for her not to pull it out.

"Just… lovely… listen, Rhys, I think –"

"Wonderful! Here, let me go show you my room! I swear it will litrally be the most amazing thing you have ever seen!"

Her scroll buzzed again.

The auditor grabbed Pyrrha's arm before she could protest and dragged her down the hallway towards what she presumed was his bedroom.

Her stomach knotted even tighter.

She desperately wished Caraway was here. He would know what to do.

"Ta-da!" Rhys open the door at the end of the hall and practically pushed Pyrrha inside. "Well? What do you think?"

Pyrrha looked.

She wished she hadn't.

"… This… is this…" Her voice was barely louder than a quivering whisper. "This is all… me…?"

Before her was a room plastered in posters, some of the smaller ones covering the bigger ones. Figurines and stuffed dolls lined every nook and cranny, barely leaving space to navigate. Memorabilia, props, and even a mural tapestry of a bedspread – this looked like the bedroom of some hopelessly obsessed teenage fanboy.

Which would have been disturbing enough, if not for the fact that every single item in that room was also official merchandise of the famed huntress Pyrrha Nikos.

Horror and repulsion twisted her stomach tighter still.

Everywhere she looked, she saw herself staring back.

If she still hadn't had a reason to leave before... she now had every reason.

"I…" The huntress began to back out of the room. "I can't do this. This is… bizarre. This... Rhys, I'm not comfortable with this!"

"What?" The enthusiasm drained from the auditor's face. "You don't like it?"

"No... no, I don't."

The face, that once pleasant face, began to twist and contort, rage seeping through the pores, and in that instant Pyrrha knew it had been a façade the whole time. "Why wouldn't you like it? This is litrally my shrine to you. Can't you see how much I respect you, how much I adore you?"

"No." Pyrrha distanced herself from the man further. "This isn't respect. This is fanaticism."

"Why does that make a difference? I love you and you should accept that!" The voice grew angrier, and despite how much it vexed her, Pyrrha decided, for once, to stand her ground.

"You don't think of me as a human being. I'm just an object to you, something to own."

"And now you're judging me because I am human? Because I want to show you how much I love you!? We're both successful people - we're perfect for each other!"

"It's apparent in the way you've treated me all of tonight. You seemed nice at first, but you don't talk to me like I'm another person. You talk to me like I'm your plaything -"

"W-well shut up! You think you know literally everything, because you're Pyrrha-fucking -Nikos! You know what you are? You're an attention whore who literally can't see walking fucking gold if it shat in front of her!"

Gone were the niceties that Rhys had shown her at dinner. In their place stood a stark raving-mad lunatic, an entitled screaming manchild, throwing a stomping tantrum for not getting what he pleased.

"I literally make money for this city, they need me, and what do you do?" The wild caricature of a man spat and stepped forward towards the huntress. "You are literally some savage animal idiot who only know how to fight! You see how much that's 'helped' this goddamn city? You're just like all those savage animals of the White Fang who just want to see this world burn. All that violence, the bombing, all that shit? If it weren't for that, you'd have literally no job, and then maybe us with actual jobs could accomplish something for fucking once!"

On the other hand, Pyrrha noted that he had started pronouncing "literally" correctly. Damn gallows humor.

"You're not going to get a second date by disrespecting girls," the redhead admonished. "Or even a first. No one deserves to be verbally abused like –"

"YOU DON'T GET TO TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!" Rhys shrieked at her, flapping his arms rapidly as if to gain flight. "I make more fucking money than you make, TWICE OVER because I got an actual job instead of playing hero! If I wrapped my dick in money and you knew any better, you would literally SUCK IT! 'Oh, look at me, I'm gonna save people and gain their adoration because I'm a fucking hero, and then I'm going treat all of my fans like LITERAL DOG SHIT!' You should know greatness when you see it, because I'm fucking better than you and all your fakeness, and you should kiss my fucking feet, YOU FUCKING CUNT!"

Dead silence.

At this point, Pyrrha had planted herself outside the hellish room, arms wrapped tightly around herself and eyes staring pointedly at the floor. She tried her best to quell the trembling of her body, and her throat constricted, torn between laughing and crying.

Instead of doing either, she opened her mouth to speak.

"… Are you done?" she asked quietly. "Because I'm leaving."

She turned on the heel of her foot.

And she walked briskly out of the apartment, the cacophony of obscenities continuing to loom behind her.

"Pyrrha?"

The huntress sighed shakily, scroll against her ear. "Hey, Caraway."

"Geez, I was wondering what happened. You ignored my texts for the last hour, I was getting worried for a bit there. Where are you right now?"

"I'm… in my garage. Sitting in my car."

"… You sound rough. You doing okay?"

"I'm… doing…" Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in...

"… Pyrrha. Talk to me, please. You're scaring me."

His voice, so earnest, so concerned for her. It brought her lashing emotions to a tipping point, and the floodgates could not hold back her tears any longer.

"… I-I'm not fine, Caraway. The date… it all ended badly… T-there were red flags everywhere… I didn't… I c-couldn't… dust, I feel s-so violated…"

"Vio- oh my God. What did he do to you?"

She managed a hoarse, mirthless laugh in between sniffs."D-don't worry, he didn't touch me, but he… he was obsessed with me… and then he started saying all these awful things when I tried to leave… I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to go back with him… Caraway, why do I do all these stupid things? First I lose Jaune… and now this…"

"You went back with - nevermind, that's not important. Listen, hun, we all do stupid things when we're stressed out. None of us are infallible, we all do stupid things. I was kind of stupid when I first met you, right? I mean, that's not anywhere close to this… but you get my point, right? Look, this wasn't your fault. Please believe that, because it's the truth."

"I… I don't know…"

"Pyrrha, the dude sounded like a creep. You couldn't have known that, and what could you do then, even? People don't just become better unless they know they're bad. You just had really shitty luck tonight, that's all. Alright?"

"... I… yeah... y-you're probably right." She hugged herself a little more tightly. "I'm just… I'm not thinking straight…"

"It's okay. You're allowed that after creepy shit like that."

"Right." She smiled, wiping away tears. "I'll… I think I'll be alright. Given... time."

"Good, good, that's good. Oh, and Pyrrha?"

"… Yes?"

"For what it's worth… I'm glad you're safe. I really am."

Her smile grew a bit wider. "T-thanks… I'm sorry, this is really late. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"It's no problem at all." She could almost hear him smiling back. "I'm here if you need me."

They both hung up, and the exhaustion of tear-shedding washed over Pyrrha as she practically chucked her scroll into the passenger's seat. Leaning her chair back, the huntress simply laid there and closed her drying eyes, trying to forget how horrific her whole day had been and instead just trying to remember how to breathe.

A notification of a missed call lit up on her scroll, probably having occurred during her talk with Caraway.

She glanced at it tiredly.

It was simultaneously the person she most and least wanted to talk to:

Missed Call from Jaune Arc

Ugh... I've known people like Rhys in life. His initial, much saner disposition is a play on Chris Traeger from Parks & Rec. But unfortunately enough, the coolest people turn out to harbor the ugliest personalities. But enough of my soapbox.

Interesting to note this is the meatiest chapter I've ever written - 6,000+ words. Goodness me.

I'm putting up a poll on my main page to see if I should revive a few old fics, specifically TLH and Tales from the Infinite Playlist. If you're interested in either fic, go ahead and take the poll and maybe I could be convinced to bring back old favorites!

Also... this is a bit more unrelated, but I started a podcast with a couple friends on all forms of entertainment. We're called The Casual Enthusiasts and we're on iTunes, if you wanna check it out, or search "casual enthusiasts podcast" on Google. Shameless plug, oops.

I love reading your reviews and comments so, please continue to leave them!

Love ya'll. Until next time (hopefully soon)!