Chapter One: Sadness

Pyrrha Nikos was not normally an angry person.

Yet as she cut another practice dummy in half with Milo, she could only describe what she was feeling as anger. A deep boiling pit in her stomach, it felt like a red veil was over her eyes, as she disemboweled another target.

Wrath is a better word; she thought to herself, anger is not extreme enough. Glancing at the clock, showed it was three in the morning. Not that she had any place to be; it was Saturday after all. Normally, she would have been sleeping in her team's dorm, or failing that, getting tangled into one of Nora's crazy plots. Something with her team. Still, she had been in the training room for nearly nine hours, perhaps it would be best if I were to get some sleep?

Pyrrha cut into the next row of targets. Not yet. She wasn't ready to leave yet. Or rather, she wasn't ready to be in the same room as her team leader, Jaune Arc. That feeling of anger, turned into one of sadness and hurt.

Pyrrha Nikos was honest with herself; at least she thought she was. Admittedly it was a very subjective thing, so she couldn't be sure she was completely objective in her view of internal honesty. Nevertheless she liked to think she was honest with herself. She had realized that she had a crush on team JNPR's goofball of a leader. Pyrrha could admit that she had a crush on him, possibly even since they met. It was a unique scenario, not being recognized. Sure he recognized her as the face of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow cereal, but only after cajoling by Weiss. It was still a nice feeling to be viewed as just the average person, not as some ideal persona of a champion.

Perhaps that is why she had nailed the yellow haired boy to a tree when it became apparent that he didn't know how to land. She had unlocked his aura for him in the Emerald Forest, excited that she was going to be special to him for that. Even when he flat out told her that he had lied his way in to Beacon, Pyrrha felt that she had done the best thing, by offering to train him.

If Pyrrha was still being honest with herself, she could even admit that she knew Jaune would not have easily of realized that she was… pining over him. Pyrrha thought she had made it abundantly clear; all that extra help, being oh-so-very understanding when Jaune had pushed her away and become seemingly part of Cardin's team.

That's not to say she wouldn't have done all of that to help her partner even if she didn't have a crush on him. She just thought he'd notice, eventually. Some day. Any day. Over the course of four months.

Pyrrha had thought that perhaps a little push may have helped him make an epiphany. It had taken her a week to decide whether or not to ask him out on a date, but she did.

"Say what?" the yellow headed boy stared at his partner.

Pyrrha took a deep breath; it had taken all of her courage to ask the first time, now to repeat it… "Jaune, would you like to go see a movie with me this weekend?" she asked, trying to keep her voice from cracking.

Jaune sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "I sort of have a date this weekend… I may have asked Velvet, and she said yes" Pyrrha nodded dumbly, "…maybe next weekend?"

Internally Pyrrha shattered; still, she wouldn't be one to stand in the way of her crus-…friend's happiness.

Her hope had been in vain. Sure, Jaune asked Weiss Schnee out on a date every other day, but Pyrrha knew that it would never happen; Weiss had made her feelings abundantly clear from the start towards Jaune. Pyrrha had thought, hoped, that he would grow out of it. When he stopped asking Weiss out, Pyrrha even thought that perhaps, he had noticed her.

Yet that was not the case. It seemed he had noticed Velvet instead. In fact Jaune hadn't even noticed that Pyrrha had been trying to ask him out.

Frustration is another good word, Pyrrha thought to herself, as she hurled Milo into the face of a target across the room. Four months and he hadn't noticed her. Pyrrha had come to her own epiphany after the first hour in the training room. She wasn't angry with Jaune, or even Velvet. No, she was angry with herself. She had assumed that her oblivious partner would notice her, that he would act outside of his own personality. She felt stupid.

"Pyrrha?"

For Ruby Rose, Saturday was a day she could spend entirely on customizing and caring for her sweetheart, Crescent Rose. She had woken up early to go check out the new shipment of parts that her favourite weapon shop had received. After spending ten hours in the workshop to take Crescent Rose apart and put it back together to make sure the new bolt-action worked perfectly, it was time to hit the range. Never mind that it was three in the morning, she could sleep after she got some quality time with her sweetheart. Plus the practice room should be empty!

That was not quite the case, as she opened the door to it, seeing at least one person was in it. Long red hair, bronze armour, red sash… "Pyrrha?" The long haired girl turned to face Ruby, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. It was definitely Pyrrha, but not the Pyrrha that Ruby had ever seen before.

The usual confidence in Pyrrha's eyes was gone; instead her eyes seemed almost…dead. Her mouth, usually the corners of it were in an almost permanent award winning grin, was instead twisted into a wicked looking grimace, anger evident. She looked like she wasn't in control. In short she looked as un-Pyrrha as possible.

Ruby was worried, "Are…are you okay?"

Pyrrha's shoulders slumped, "No" she said in a voice so small sounding Ruby could barely hear it. Pyrrha's mouth morphed into a sad frown, before she turned away, slowly walking over to get retrieve Milo. It hurt Ruby to see her friend like this, she did the only thing she could think to do.

Pyrrha felt small arms close around her mid-section, as well as something pressed up against her back. "Wha-"

"You-look-sad-so-I'm-giving-you-a-hug!" the warm thing pressed up against Pyrrha's back blurted out. Pyrrha sighed, before she turned to address the younger girl, Ruby maintaining the hug.

"I'm angry, not sad."

Ruby didn't stop hugging the taller redhead.

"I'm not sad, I'm..I'm.." Pyrrha heard the drip of liquid hitting the ground.

Sadness, that's what I feel.

Pyrrha wrapped her arms around the younger girl, as her vision glazed over with tears. Her legs felt weak as she slipped to the floor in Ruby's embrace.

"I'm sad."

AU: Wow, I feel like I need a hug now. Uh. Anywho, this is a story that I think needs to happen due to the lack of Milk & Cereal (Pyrrha/Ruby) out there. More chapters to come at some point! Probably within 18 hours to 2 weeks, or so. Or whenever I feel like it. Honestly, I need to get Chapter Ten of Skyros out, and this story is is on the same priority as Dilation for me, which is slightly below Skyros. These chapters will get more positive I swear, seriously! Have a good one!

Edited June 7th, 2015 by ASouthernRussian