Ruby woke up to the distinct pressure of her lungs being crushed.

Okay maybe not crushing, but it's really hard to breathe!

A pair of arms were tightly wrapped around her, hugging her against her tall girlfriend. It was something that happened a lot, especially when Ruby was the little spoon. In fact, Ruby had come to expect this from her girlfriend. After all, Pyrrha did quite immensely like being the big spoon when they slept.

What wasn't normal was how tightly the redhead was squeezing her, nor the fact that she was trembling. Not even what Pyrrha was mumbling into Ruby's hair, the taller girl's face pressed into it, "Don't leave… Ruby…"

That gave Ruby all the reasons she needed to justify waking up Pyrrha, plus I need to breathe! "Pyrrha, wake up." Ruby jostled around in the embrace, trying to quietly wake up the older girl and not wake up the others in team JNPR's room. "Pyrrha, wake uuuup!"

Crack!

In her attempt to wake up her girlfriend, Ruby's elbow knocked onto Pyrrha's face, crimson liquid leaking from her nose after a few moments. On the bright side, Pyrrha was now indeed awake as she stared around at her surroundings in a daze.

"Are you okay?! I-I-I didn't mean to hit you, I'm really really sorry!" Ruby was frantic as Pyrrha finally let go of her, unfocused eyes staring around the room before finally settling on her.

Pyrrha tentatively touched the blood flowing to her lip, her nose glowing for a moment, marking the tell-tale signs of aura being used. "I'm fine now, I think." The tall girl gave Ruby a quizzical, worried look. "Wh-what happened?"

"Uhhh… I was kinda trying to wake you up, and I really REALLY didn't mean to hurt you, I'm re-"

"I'm okay, Ruby." Even in the dim lighting of the room, Ruby could see Pyrrha give a weak smile. Yet it seemed off, like Pyrrha was really forcing it. "No harm done, see?" The smile faded into a frown. "Was something wrong? I wasn't holding you too tight, was I?"

"Sorta-kinda, but that's not why I was waking you up!" Ruby shook her head. "You were shaking an-"

"I'm sorry!" The reaction was immediate, Pyrrha looking mortified as she quickly cut off Ruby. "Y-you can be the big spoon tonight." Before promptly turning around, facing the wall.

Ruby's brow furrowed. Pyrrha never acts like that. It felt like she had just gotten a very cold shoulder. Pyrrha never gave anyone a cold shoulder, Ruby had learned that a long time ago. no matter whoever they are, Pyrrha never closed up like that.

Did I do something wrong? I haven't missed any important dates n'stuff… In fact, Ruby had been on top of her game in that regard. So what's spooking Pyrrha?

As minutes passed, Ruby decided she might as well ask instead of worrying about it all night. "Pyrrha, are you still awake?" A small nod from the tall teen was the only response. "Um, did I do something wrong? I'm really really sorry if I did-"

"No, no, no, it's not you!" Pyrrha turned around in an instant to reassure… only for the opposite to occur when Ruby saw the tears welled up in her emerald eyes. "It's…" The tall redhead's voice trailed off as she saw the worry etched into Ruby's face. "…It was just a nightmare…" Her voice sounding child-like.

"You usually don't get them, Pyrrha." In fact, her girlfriend was probably the soundest sleeper Ruby knew, outside of, perhaps, Yang. "D-do you want to talk about it?"

Pyrrha gave a sad little sigh. "Not particularly, but if I don't, it's going to make you worry even more, isn't it?"

"Sorry, but, um, it was enough to make you, um," Ruby gestured to the drying tears, "I'm kinda worried is all."

"I would be too if our situations were reversed." Pyrrha moved from laying on her side to laying on her back, one hand laying palm up on her forehead. "It was… just a stupid nightmare. They happen."

"You were shaking and trembling and mumbling my name…" Ruby was not going to let her girlfriend play it off as a normal occurrence. "I know you don't want me to worry, but it's kinda too late for that, so spill it." Adding a soft jab at Pyrrha's bare midriff.

Pyrrha stared up at the ceiling under Ruby's silver eyed gaze. "…Have you ever had it where you can't find anyone in a dream? Like there is no one. Not just no one, but it's just empty, like a white canvas with no colours."

"No, I haven't… was that what your nightmare was?" Ruby asked softly after a minute or two.

"Something akin to it, yes. I couldn't find Ren or Nora or Jaune or…" The emerald eyes locking onto Ruby's own silver ones made it abundantly clear who Pyrrha was talking about.

Ruby softly went from leaning over her girlfriend to laying on her chest, arms gently wrapped around her. "I'm right here, Pyrrha. I promise I'm not going anywhere."

A quick kiss from Pyrrha followed by strong, muscled arms pulling Ruby tight against her girlfriend was the immediate answer. "I know. You're right here. It was just a stupid nightmare."

Ruby felt Pyrrha give out another soft sigh. "I'm really sorry for waking you up and worr-"

"It's okay, Pyrrha. You're always there for me when I have one." Ruby pushed herself up until she was nose to nose with Pyrrha. "I did mean it, I promise I'm not going anywhere!"

A genuine smile tugged at Pyrrha's lips. "I love you."

"I love you too."

AU: Hey look, a nightmare chapter where Ruby isn't the one with the nightmares!

Not gonna lie, I sort of phoned this one in. I had a mostly completed chapter sitting in my Spoon Equality folder that I basically just had to do the last 400 words of.

I know why it was sitting in my folder too – basically somewhere someone mentioned that in Ruby-ships, there is always a nightmare chapter where it's the other half of the ship comforting Ruby and never the other way around. Which is why I started to write this. However, at the time, I had done a Ruby nightmare chapter only a few weeks prior and I wanted to make it so the two chapters didn't seem so close together, hence why I waited on it. (The last time it said it was edited was in mid-January)

So the quality from writing nearly a quarter of a year later may be all over the place, which is why I had Martuna Major do some edits. A quick thanks to him! :P

BUT I DIGRESS

Last time, I asked what people wanted to see more of in this story. I got roughly three main answers;

1. More of the same fluff

2. Pyrrha/Ruby interacting with other ships/characters

3. Pyrrha/Ruby doing some far more intimate stuff and/or smut.

I'm not going into the land of smuts, but I will make an effort to do more intimate stuff outside of kissing… which I do a lot, I know. As for other ships interacting… well, I'd like to not do other ships, else I'd start to have to develop them and I'd get really off topic. I just know how I work. But I can do other characters! Any particular preference for other characters to interact with Pyrrha/Ruby?

Chapter 65 of Dilation should be out tomorrow, I'm nearly done with it at current! If not, early in the week!

Thank you for reading and I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D