So, first things first:

I should apologize for leaving for so long like this. College is a thing, as well as a lot of personal issues that I quite honestly don't know if I'll resolve anytime soon. And honestly, I only expect things to get busier from here.

Point is, I really want to continue writing for you guys. I enjoy writing it as much as you enjoy reading it, for those of you who've stuck around. But please don't be disappointed if I drop out on you guys again like I keep doing. I hate that I do... but I just want you guys to be aware.

For those of you who are still here with me as I try to get my shit together - I think you're hella dope. Thanks.

Beta - Maxaro. Thanks to you most of all. Your nonsensical babbles on Tumblr give me life.

I'll stop moping now. Enjoy.

The rest of the meetings at Ft. Soap went over smoothly.

With a little input from the two hunters present, the council of Vale and the delegates from Ashes Savanna finished settling their differences and began discussing ways that the past transgressions between what had been their previous incarnations could be amended. Pyrrha had been holding her breath – the two parties had every reason to despise the other – but it seemed like she had nothing to worry about, for they were tired of fighting each other and willing to work it out.

It had been a little over a month since she had begun her delegation mission at the fort, and at long last she was going home.

Pyrrha let out a yawn as she leisurely cracked every joint in her body. It seemed like an eternity since her mission had started, and, having been much more used to combat intensive missions in the past, this particular one had taken quite a toll on her.

She was exhausted, and it was only because Caraway's help (and sometimes distractions) that she had managed to keep her sanity intact. He'd taught her a few things about the world of politics, and in turn she helped him become an even better combatant. Despite the minutia of diplomacy and whatnot, Caraway had helped keep the experience interesting, if not fun, and Pyrrha thanked him graciously for that.

They had exchanged numbers, with Pyrrha giving Caraway a stern look as he grinned a little too wide. Still, he had become a good friend, one that the redhead was happy to keep in contact with.

So, with her diplomacy mission finally over, it was finally time to return to the place she called home.

And honestly... she wasn't exactly thrilled.

For better or worse, she hadn't attempted to make contact with Jaune ever since he had left that fateful morning, and it itched at her conscience to make heads or tails of just what their relationship was now.

She had to wonder what state of mind he was in at this point in time, since he hadn't exactly made an effort to contact her either.

Maybe he preferred to speak in person and discuss where they both were. Mentally. Emotionally.

Romantically…?

A whimper from Hermes shook Pyrrha out of her thoughts.

Smiling, she scratched the Atlesian Husky under his neck. "Calm down, boy. I'm as tired as you are, but we're almost home. Just hang in there a bit longer, buddy."

Home... it was strange how one word could incur so many emotions within a person. It was stranger still that "apprehension" was now one of those feelings when it had not been one before.

Sighing, Pyrrha's thoughts drifted back to her conversation with Caraway over breakfast, when he had asked her the one question that had ground the gears in her mind to a screeching halt.

"Did you ever wonder if maybe you're still trying to be friends with Jaune because… because you still want to be with him?"

The more she thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed in her mind. Was she so petty of a person that she only bothered to keep Jaune around as a reminder of what they had been and the small possibility that they could be together once more?

It was just convenience, she had told herself. They were only living together because it was convenient. She reminded herself that they were never going to be an item again and that they were fine enough as close friends.

So what about the sex that we had? Was that nothing, too?

Pyrrha cursed herself as she struggled to counter her own accusations. What was that night, then? How could that have ended well in any way whatsoever without them possibly getting back together?

She knew for sure it wasn't Jaune's fault, for sure.

So was it hers?

I wasn't thinking straight. And I was drunk, too. And... and he didn't stop me, either.

Somehow that argument seemed weak and feeble in her mind.

"Did you ever wonder if maybe you're still trying to be friends with Jaune because… because you still want to be with him?"

As she replayed those words in her mind, she realized that, as much as she ridiculed it and tried to deny it (more to herself than to Caraway), as much as she brushed it off… she couldn't bring herself to answer no to the question.

I didn't have sex with Jaune just out of drunken fooling… there must have been a part of me that desired his company, his loving… again, after all this time...

"No!" The words escaped her mouth before Pyrrha could restrain herself.

"Something the matter, Ms. Nikos?"

The redhead jumped as one of the airship's flight attendants once again appeared seemingly out of thin air.

"Ah, n-no, I'm sorry. I just… I woke up from a nightmare just now."

She wanted to slap herself for how stupid and unconvincing the excuse sounded as it fell out of her mouth.

The flight attendant, as personably fake as she had probably been trained to be, smiled accommodatingly and nodded.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Nikos. Can I get you something to help calm your nerves?" she asked politely.

Pyrrha shook her head emphatically. "I-I'll be fine. I just need a moment. B-but thanks."

With a bow, the flight attendant smiled again. "Well, just let me know if you need anything, Ms. Nikos. We aim to please!" And just as quickly as before, she disappeared to whatever negative space she had come from.

Pyrrha watched blankly as the flight attendant disappeared from view, her thoughts attempting to rearrange in whatever working order they had previously been in.

Alright, Pyrrha, relax. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

For the moment, she just wanted to apologize to him. To return to the way things used to be.

She wanted to fix it all, more than anything else.

And then, perhaps after all was said and done, they could decide where to go from there.

"... Hmmm?"

Feeling a slight brushing at her feet, Pyrrha looked down to see Hermes quietly nestled himself around his owner softly dozing off to the white noise of the airship.

She smiled. For now, while her responsibility still loomed in a near yet distant future, she allowed herself to enjoy what small comfort she draw from the little things.

Outside her window, day quickly turned to night, and the haphazard patterns of Vale's night lights finally came into view, unbeknownst to airship's preoccupied passenger.

"... Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"You're shaking, hun."

No one could really blame him.

Because currently, Jaune was in a pickle.

And that pickle involved being stared down by a red-eyed Yang.

Jaune gulped audibly.

Beside him, Ruby squeezed his hand and laid her chin on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Jaune. She won't hurt you. Not while I'm around, anyway."

"Oh good!" Yang cracked her neck and smiled darkly. "Because I really, really need to have a one-on-one parent-teacher conference with Professor Vomit over here."

Ruby groaned in the crook of Jaune's neck. "You're not my mother, Yang…"

Jaune noted that under rather different circumstances, he would have found Ruby's groaning upon his neck somewhat arousing.

He blinked hard and immediately snuffed out the inappropriately timed thought.

From the kitchen, Blake came in with a fresh pot of tea and several small mugs. "As situationally ironic as the wording is, she's right, Yang. They're both adults, and while this comes as a surprise to all of us, if they're happy about their recent development, then leave them be. You don't have to go and antagonize Jaune like that." She proceeded to pour out tea for each of them.

Yang glared at the other blonde for a second longer, then heaved a sigh as she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they had changed back from red to the usual lilac. "I know. I'm just trying to process everything right now."

"You process things in anger…? That's not smart, is it?" Jaune chuckled uneasily, before releasing an exclamation as Ruby proceeded to give him a warning punch in the shoulder with her metal fist.

The blonde huntress shot him a withering glance. "What you did isn't exactly smart either, dipshit."

Jaune looked away, coughing. "Sorry."

"Well, it's beside the point!" Ruby interjected cheerfully. "Look, Jaune and I are happy, and I want you guys to be happy for us, too! Like, no fighting, please. We've decided that, yeah, it's kind of unexpected, but we're going to go through with it, because we're ready to move on to that part of our lives."

"Well, I for one am thrilled for you two," Blake smiled, clasping her hands together in politely restrained excitement. "As short of a time that you two have been together, I'm glad that you have found what you needed in each other to move forward in life, and if this brings you happiness as well, then who am I to stop you two from being the happiest you could be?"

"I swear, you only get this excited when you talk about your romance novels," Yang rolled her eyes. "Is this what this is to you? Another lovey-dovey romance book?"

"Yang." Blake's voice held a hint of a warning. "These are our friends and family. I can successfully remove fantasy from the real world, thank you very much. You, however, seem to be having trouble separating your preferred notion of your little sister and the mature woman sitting in front of you."

"Guys…" Ruby began. "Please stop…"

"Yeah, please. She's not that mature," added Jaune.

"You're not helping," Ruby growled, glaring at the blond beside her.

"Sorry!" Jaune gave her a weak smile. "I'm not great under pressure…"

Across the room, Yang winced at Blake's scathing retort, but said nothing, instead choosing to stare at the floor.

In the midst of the tense silence, the door rang.

"Ah, they're here!" Blake almost jumped up from her seat next to Yang, and rushed to open the door.

Jaune blinked. "Who's here…?"

As soon as he finished his question, the door swung open, and a flash of pink blurred across the room towards Jaune.

"JAUUUNNNEEEEYYYY!"

"UMPH! Nora – urk!" Jaune barely had time to react as the orange-haired girl swiftly wrapped her arms around his neck, crushing his windpipe. Next to them, Ruby scooted away from the two, giggling.

"OHMYGOD JAUNEY I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU AND RUBES! SO SO SOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!"

"Ow… my neck…" managed Jaune, before twisting enough to open up his air passageway. "Thanks, Nora… but how did you know?"

"Blake told us over the phone." Ren entered a short second afterward, closing the door behind him and taking off his shoes. "Once we heard the news, we rushed over here as fast as we could."

Nora finally let go of Jaune. "It was imperative that we come and celebrate with our fearless leader!"

Jaune chuckled. "Nora, I'm not your leader anymore, y'know."

"Perhaps not," hummed Ren. "But you'll always be our teammate."

The blonde chuckled wearily and gave his two old friends a genuine smile. "You guys… thank you so much."

"Yeah, seriously," Ruby piped from Jaune's side, clasping his hand with her own human hand once more. "It means a lot for you guys to take time out of your busy days to come congratulate us."

"Oh, it was nothing," smile Ren. "Promise."

There was suddenly another frantic knocking at the door, and everyone glanced at it in surprise.

"… I think I might know who that is," Ruby intoned in realization as Blake opened the door once more.

From the doorway, a very dour-looking Weiss stomped angrily on the doormat and, without even a moment's hesitation, made a beeline towards Jaune.

"Oh, not again…" the blonde groaned.

The heiress planted herself directly in front of Jaune, looming inches over his face, the familiar scowl ever present as usual.

Jaune gulped. "Um… hi?"

"How dare you, Jaune Arc?" she spit, with pure venom.

"I-I-I-I'm sorry, Weiss, I –"

The heiress pulled him up by the collar threateningly, and Jaune shrunk back, bracing himself for the worst.

And then something completely unexpected happened.

Weiss grinned.

"How dare you start celebrating without me?" she chuckled and lightly rapped her knuckles on his forehead. "Congrats, you lunkhead."

"Weiss!" Ruby immediately crushed the heiress in a full-body hug once she realized the danger had passed. "You came!"

"Oof! Ruby!" Weiss huffed, before surrendering to laughter. "Of course I came, you dolt. What kind of friend would I be if I missed such an occasion?"

Jaune blinked. "So… you're not mad at me?"

Weiss smirked at him. "Why would I be? Ruby told me all about it, and as long as you make her happy, I have no qualms with it."

Yang snorted from the corner of the room, which only Jaune seemed to hear amidst the excitement.

"Weiss, I can't believe you came down here from freaking Atlas to do this!"

"You're only going to make me repeat myself, Ruby. What kind of friend would I be if I missed such an occasion?"

As the girls sans Yang gathered near the kitchen to catch up, Ren grinned and elbowed his still dazed teammate before gestured towards Ruby. "I told you so."

Jaune looked up at the dark-haired boy from his seat. "I guess… I guess you did. How are you so… perceptive?"

"A lot of listening and learning from what the world has to give you," Ren chuckled and leaned in closer. "And a little bit of winging it."

"And just like that, the illusion is shattered," Jaune shook his head, laughing.

Ren returned the laugh, putting a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Hey, winging it isn't without its benefits. After all, I highly doubt that you planned on confessing your love to Ruby."

Jaune only stared at his friend in half wonder, half mirth. "You are so damn wise."

"You give me too much credit, my friend," Ren smirked. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and impulsively make out with my girlfriend."

"Man, you're just full of surprises, huh?"

As Ren left to join the others, Jaune almost felt the room grow colder as he turned to look at the one remaining occupant in it.

"So," Yang murmured. "I guess we get our one-on-one after all."

Jaune sighed. "Yang, I –"

"Shut up."

He obliged quickly.

The huntress sighed. "Because I know, you'd only start apologizing for things that…" She shifted uneasily. "… aren't necessarily your fault."

Yang paused, sipping her tea to wet her throat.

"I've decided… that I'm going to be happy for you and Rubes. I've seen everyone else react the way that they have towards your announcement. And I'm the only one who got all mad and pissy. And I mean... I think I have a right to be. After all, Ruby is my little sister, and I want to make sure she's always happy."

She shuddered tiredly, and Jaune could see her eyes beginning to water. "But even when she lost her arm and got all fucked up… I wasn't there. I... I fucked up, Jaune. I let work get in the way of family. You, on the other hand… you were there for her. And you helped her so damn much… so much more than I did."

Jaune coughed. "Yang, I'm at fault, too. I was too busy feeling sorry for myself after Pyrrha and I separated –"

"Look, I don't blame you. You had a lot going on, I know. But you still came and helped Rubes regardless. And that's what matters to me. I mean…" Yang glanced at her sister, who was happily chatting with everyone else in the next room. "I think this is legitimately the happiest I've seen her in a really, really long time. And I think the same goes for you. You two… deserve people like each other. And I'm willing to overlook this one little oversight as long as you never do anything to hurt my baby sister."

Yang looked back at him, the red glint twinkling in her eye. "Understand?"

For once, with Yang glaring him down as she did… Jaune didn't feel afraid. After all, he had nothing to fear if all he did was as Yang said. And with as much he cared for Ruby, it wasn't going to be hard.

He laughed. "Wouldn't dream of it."

Yang smiled, letting out a breath. After a moment, she stood up. "Come here."

"Uh… okay?" Jaune stood up and hesitantly walked over to where Yang was standing, bracing himself for whatever she had planned for him.

She chuckled. "Don't be such a pussy." With that, Yang closed the gap between them and wrapped the other blonde in a warm embrace.

Slightly surprised at first, Jaune eventually returned the hug in earnest. They stood there for some time.

"I think... I'm gonna feel better if you're around to take care of my sister," Yang murmured as they remained embraced.

Jaune chuckled. "She doesn't need care, per se. She's a strong woman, Yang. You gotta give her that."

"Ha." They separated from each other. "That's why I'm glad that you'll be there for her. Because you respect her."

"I'd be foolish not to. She's much stronger than I could ever be. In more ways than one."

Yang nodded, then frowned, looking suddenly uncomfortable. "That... still leaves us with one problem."

The other blonde's brow furrowed in worry. "What do you mean?"

"You know." Yang crossed her arms. "I think everyone else knows it, too, but I doubt they wanna bring it up and kill the mood. In any case... there's still only seven of us here."

"… Oh."

Suddenly Jaune didn't feel quite so relieved anymore.

"This is important, Jaune," Yang began. "I know right now the last thing you might wanna do is talk to her, and I can understand why after what she did to you. That shit is not cool."

"I know, I know," Jaune sighed heavily. "That doesn't make me feel any better about it."

Yang offered him a weak, but sincere smile. "Jaune… eventually she's gonna come calling if you don't, and it's not something you can hide from her." She placed a hand on the perturbed blonde's shoulder and squeezed.

"You're gonna have to tell Pyrrha about all of this."

"Jaune, I'm home!"

With the lights flipped on, Pyrrha tiredly stripped out of her shoes and socks, setting her bags down by the front door before making her way down the front hallway, with Hermes padding along behind her.

"Jaune? C'mon, Jaune. I know you might still be angry at me, but we need to talk."

She stood by his side of the house, crossing her arms impatiently.

Or at least it seemed impatient to her. From an outside perspective, she seemed more antsy than impatient.

"… Jaune? This isn't funny anymore."

Still no response.

Throwing her hands in the air and hissing in frustration, Pyrrha attempted to stalk towards the closed door at the end of the hallway.

However, the husky had rushed in front of her, blocking off the path and whimpering.

"Ughh… what is it now, Hermes?" Pyrrha growled in irritation. "You're not going to stop me from getting to that door. I need to talk to him, and no amount of whining is going to change my mind."

She almost felt bad for chastising the Atlesian husky. Almost

The redhead stepped over her dog and strode to the door, Hermes whimpering even louder after her, as if begging her not to open the door.

With every step she took, she could feel her throat suddenly closing up tighter and tighter until she was face to face with the door.

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

The feeling of suffocation was almost unbearable now.

It's now or never, Pyrrha. You owe it to him. You owe it to yourself.

With a deep breath, Pyrrha opened the door and turned on the lights.

"Jaune, we need to…"

Her sentence trailed off as an eerie sight greeted her, one that she could not have prepared for.

Aside from a threadbare, sheetless bed and rather dusty table, the room was completely empty. There was barely any proof that Jaune had been here in the first place. It was scary how impersonal it looked, with no color or decorative items to brighten up the room.

To Pyrrha, it looked like a hospice room, waiting for whichever poor soul to die in it next.

She did the only thing her body would allow her to do.

Pyrrha panicked.

Unable to bear the sight of the room, she bolted towards her side of the house. Once in her room, she shut the door swiftly behind herself and Hermes, who had chased after her. Her hands fumbled in her pockets until she found her scroll.

She immediately dialed Jaune's number.

It only took a few rings, but each ring felt like an eternity, and her heart kept threatening to jump out of her chest.

When he finally picked up, she was practically screaming.

"YOURROOMWHYISITEMPTYIDONTUNDERSTA-"

"Pyrrha!? Pyr-PYRRHA, CALM DOWN. Shhh… breathe in, breathe out… breathe in, breathe out…"

The redhead followed the rhythm of Jaune's voice, calming down at the sound of it. "I-I-I'm sorry… I just saw your empty room… and I panicked… it looked so weird… like you had died or something… and I know you had depression, so I thought... I thought… oh God…"

"Pyrrha… it's okay. I'm still alive. I promise. I mean, this call would be significantly harder if I wasn't, y'know."

She chuckled in spite of herself and sat down upon her bed. "I know… I know you're trying to make me feel better… but don't joke about that… please."

"Sorry, Pyr… anyway, I'm sorry you had to come home to that… I should have called you and said something-"

"No, Jaune, I'm sorry," Pyrrha blurted out. "I-I… what I did was wrong, and… the fact that it happened… I'm ashamed of myself, Jaune. But I want to fix it. I really do… I truly regret it… and I want to be back to the way we were… before, I mean."

There was a long pause on the other end. Hermes proceeded to pounce onto the bed and lay next to Pyrrha, nuzzling his snout in her lap.

"… before? Like, when we were… together?"

Once more, the gears ground to a halt.

Together? Do I want that? Could we be together again?

"… um. Crowd control to Major Pyrrha…?"

"Huh? Oh, yes… I mean NO! I mean… not no, but I what I meant was when we were okay living with each other! Even if it was… a strange arrangement."

A part of her screamed as she said this, but she ignored it.

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

"You know… back when we were… friends."

A pause. "Back when we were… friends…?"

"Yes…" Pyrrha sighed, feeling like she was lifting a weight off her chest at long last.

It felt... amazing.

She smiled tiredly to herself as she scratched Hermes' head. "It's too… bizarre without you here. I… miss it. I miss y-" She stopped herself. "… Where are you?"

Pyrrha heard him sigh through the scroll.

"Pyrrha… I have something I need to tell you."

She blinked, confused as to why he didn't directly answer the question.

"Um… okay. Then tell me."

A sigh. "When you were gone… I started to hang out with Ruby. And… well, long story short, she's expecting… a child. She's expecting a child."

Something in what Jaune said didn't register in Pyrrha's brain.

"A child? Ruby's pregnant? Oh, that's wonderful! I had no idea she was even seeing someone! He must be a wonderful man if Ruby took a liking to him enough to bear children with him! Oh, my… that's so wonderful… we have to go congratulate them at some point –"

"Pyrrha!"

"Y-yes?"

"It's mine. The child is mine."

I'm bad at keeping secrets.

In case you guys missed it, that was the sound of me dropping a big fucking bomb on yo asses. Sorry not sorry.

What to expect next? Pyrrha comes to terms with how she actually feels about Jaune.

Thanks again for sticking with me. Hopefully it won't be too long a wait before the next chapter comes out.

Until next time!