Pyrrha was woken up by an elbow to the face, not the most pleasant of ways to be woken up.

As much as Pyrrha may have disliked the method of being awoken she saw why it had happened almost immediately: Ruby was shaking, covered in cold sweat, rolling back and forth in the bed. All in all, signs of having a nightmare. Then Ruby started muttering. "Pyrrha… Don't go…"

"Ruby." Pyrrha gently shook her girlfriend. It made sense to wake her up; after all that meant less time her smaller half was being tormented by whatever dream she was having. "Ruby, please wake up."

Ruby calmed down, the fidgeting going away as her eyes blearily opened. "Huh?" As her eyes focused on Pyrrha the sleepiness in them left as tears stared to form. "P-Pyrrha… you-u-u're..."

"Shhh" Pyrrha pulled Ruby into her lap, the younger girl clutching her tightly, her head nestled in the crook of Pyrrha's neck. "I'm here."

Pyrrha didn't move, just sat there, listening to the sound of Ruby's erratic breathing begin to steady. When her girlfriend finally stopped trembling, Pyrrha posed a question. "Nightmare?"

Ruby just nodded into the crook of Pyrrha's neck, content with being silent.

Pyrrha frowned. Ruby had nightmares on occasion, so did everyone – even herself. That was just how life went. That didn't mean she was going to worry any less about Ruby. Yet she didn't want to push it any further than it already was – Pyrrha didn't want to open whatever the nightmare had done to Ruby if she could get away with it.

Minutes passed before Ruby finally spoke.

"I…I dreamed t-t-that yo-o-ou were…were… that you were de-e-ead."

A fresh bout of tears started to flow as Ruby's breathing lost its stability. Pyrrha reflexively hugged Ruby tighter into the embrace at the sight. For her own part, Ruby held onto her with a strength that would have made Yang quite proud – although I hope I don't crack a rib, ow.

"Ruby, I'm fine." Pyrrha pulled back. It tugged on her heart to see her girlfriend, her personal little rose crying. "Nothing happened."

"I w-w-was really worried when y-y-you didn't call." Ruby sniffled, her lip wobbling, clearly putting up a heroic effort to not start crying again. "I kinda still am."

"I'm not going anywhere Ruby, I promise." Taking the opportunity to pull Ruby back to her via hug, Pyrrha listened to Ruby's erratic breathing. When it finally calmed down she spoke. "Do you want to try and go back to sleep?" Ruby numbly nodded, letting Pyrrha pulled her back down to the bed. It wasn't long, as Pyrrha worriedly listened to her girlfriend's breathing, until Ruby fell asleep.

Despite worrying for her smaller half, Pyrrha soon found herself almost being lulled into sleep by Ruby's rhythmic breathing. Almost.

Ruby nudged her softly, bringing the girl back from the edge of unconsciousness. "Pyrrha?"

"Hm?"

"I can't sleep." Ruby groaned.

"I could get you some warm milk, that helps, right?"

Pyrrha saw Ruby shake her head – or rather felt it the mass of hair under chin shaking. "I don't think it'll help." Pyrrha frowned, I don't like not being able to do anything for my rose. I can protect her, but I can't protect her from nightmares.

"Can I… um… be the big spoon tonight?"

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow as Ruby continued. "That way I know you aren't gone 'cause I'm holding you n'stuff." The sheets rustled as Ruby turned around to face her. "Please?" Even in the low light of the darkened room, Pyrrha could clearly see the large silver eyes carrying a pleading quality. It made the choice, well, not much of a choice.

Wordlessly, Pyrrha rolled over, as she felt arms reach around her mid-riff before clasping around her. Taking one of them into her own hands, she intertwined her fingers' with Ruby's as she waited. Waited until Ruby's breathing had become stable, until the soft snores of her girlfriend could be heard.

I'll be the little spoon for Ruby any night if it means my rose can sleep.

AU: Poor Ruby was still shaken up. She was really scared for Pyrrha.

I'm feeling iffy on this chapter… was it good? Bad? Just kinda meh?

So while I was in the dark corner of finally getting around to Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood and studying (I have a paper I still need to write this weekend and 17 hours of work at job, wheee), APPEARENTLY STUFF STARTED TO HAPPEN, YAY SEASON THREE?

I normally try and get this out every Friday and Dilation out during the weekend, but pardon me this week, I'll get both out next week, hopefully!

As for Acceptance, currently I'm up to about 2.7k words for it. It is looking to be about 4,000 words long, possibly 4,500 words. Progress will speed up when I don't have a massive amount of work!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Omake:

"So what was going last night?"

Pyrrha regarded Yang, setting down her morning tea as Ruby started to chug a glass of milk down. "Ruby had a bad nightmare."

"So you're saying there wasn't any er… elicit activities going on?" Pyrrha shook her head quickly causing Yang to give a sigh of relief. "Thank the deity, the way your bed was creaking last night, I thought you two were doing the nasty all last night."

It was in that moment that Pyrrha was grateful she had set down her tea as she gave an involuntary snort at the comment. Ruby on the other hand was not so fortunate; milk spewed straight out. Less fortunate was the person sitting across from Ruby; Yang.

"My hair!"