Chapter Thirteen: Mirth

What does Pyrrha do for fun?

It wasn't the first time that Ruby had wondered that. Throughout the last semester, Ruby had never seen Pyrrha doing any sort of hobby, outside of school work or training. At first, Ruby had thought that Pyrrha just did something for fun when she was alone, but after seeing how Pyrrha spent her typical day, there was no point in which the taller redhead had 'free time'.

Sure, there were times when Ruby had dragged Pyrrha into playing a game or two, but it wasn't something Pyrrha set out to do herself. Weirder still was Pyrrha's reaction to the festival; how in dust's name had Pyrrha never been on a rollercoaster before?! Or any of the arcade games, for that matter...

Ruby shook her head sadly at the thought before staring back at the instructions and returning to the task at hand. Now what's the next fold?

At one point Ruby had been very proficient in making origami roses, the key word being 'had'. Ruby could only remember how to start the darn thing; getting the proper twist on the petal was another matter entirely, and it was there where she had gotten stuck. It HAS been a few years since I last made one of them, Ruby thought glumly. Ruby had decided to see if she could still make them - after all, it wouldn't hurt to try?

Ruby sighed as she tried to fold the paper only to fail miserably, twisting the whole slip of paper into a crumbled mess. How do the instructions make origami look so easy? The happy-looking and colourful instructions broke it down into ten seemingly easy steps. The problem was that Ruby was about as good at origami now as Pyrrha was at skee ball.

Trying again on an unused piece of paper, Ruby delicately started to twist the paper into the form of the flower's bulb. Once the twist was done, the tricky part came next: to fold the bottom portions of the bulb so the rose would maintain its shape. Folding the corners on the bottom into themselves, Ruby's fingers let go of one of the edges causing the half-completed rose to come undone.

"Ugh." Ruby's head plopped into her arms out of exasperation, making a soft sound from the impact in the quiet library. This didn't use to be so hard! Ruby turned her head to look at the stack of failed roses. Stupid corne-

"Are you not feeling well?" A hand gently shook Ruby's shoulder. Shifting to look at the voice, Ruby found the concerned emerald eyes of Pyrrha staring at her, worry etched into the taller girl's face.

"Hey Pyrrha." Ruby pushed her head off the table. "Just… trying to make some origami." Ruby grumbled, gesturing her hand towards the crumpled pile of failures.

"Origami...?" Her ponytail swished as her head tilted. "The paper animals?" Pyrrha inquired quizzically, to which Ruby nodded. She picked up a half-formed rose, staring intently at it. Looking back to Ruby, Pyrrha queried, "Is it a frog?"

"Pfft!" Ruby started to giggle, I'm really out of practice then. Pulling herself out of her snickering, Ruby embarrassedly admitted, "It's supposed to be a rose."

"Oh!" Pyrrha regarded the rose with a different kind of look before looking back at Ruby. "Can I try?" A pleading quality entered Pyrrha's tone.

"Sure!" Ruby gestured to an open seat at the table. After Pyrrha took sat herself down, Ruby pushed an instruction sheet towards her. "You just need to follow the instructions!"

Pyrrha looked at the instructions before grabbing an unused piece of paper and then looking back at the instructions. Slowly, far more slowly than Ruby would have done it, Pyrrha started to follow the paper, giving the twist to the bulb, forming the petals of the rose. Now was the tricky part, Ruby watched Pyrrha with curiosity, wondering how exactly the older girl would handle bending the bottom corners.

Delicately, Pyrrha got a hold on each of the four corners. Gently pulling each corner inward, the redhead gave them a small push in at the same time, stabilizing the rose's petals. Looking back at the instructions, Pyrrha carefully bent the petals so they curved, giving the hard edges of the paper a more organic feel. Glancing back and forth between the rose and the instructions, Pyrrha turned to Ruby, uncertainty clear in her eyes. "Did I do it right?" How in the… Pyrrha frowned at the lack of Ruby's response.

"Um… yea, actually!" Ruby was genuinely surprised at Pyrrha's skill at folding paper. "You got it!"

The uncertainty in Pyrrha's eyes turned into mirth as her frown became a warm smile. "So what's next?" Enthusiasm tinged her voice, clearly excited about origami. "Do I make more of them or…" Pyrrha's voice halted as she waited for the next bit of instructions.

"You can add a stem next, then… um…" Ruby scratched her head; she hadn't thought much about origami beyond making roses. "I dunno? Maybe make a crane?"

Pyrrha nodded vigorously. "How does one make a stem?" Excitement rang in her voice.

Ruby dug through the piles of paper, trying to find the second sheet of the printout. With all the paper Ruby had gone through, it had gotten lost in the all the loose leaf paper on the table. Pyrrha watched wordlessly as Ruby shifted through the messy piles before producing the second page of the instructions and handing it to Pyrrha. "Here ya go!"

Reading over it, Pyrrha grabbed another piece of paper before folding it into a tube. Bending back one end of the tube to create parts that would stick out of it – thereby allowing the stem to stick into the rose - Pyrrha stopped as she looked down at the directions. "So I need to combine the two?"

"Yup!" Ruby pointed to the last picture in the instructions. "Then you get a full sized rose."

Nodding, Pyrrha turned back to her craft. Gently pushing the flaps from the stem into the folds of the paper on the underside of rose bulb, Pyrrha finished the little piece of origami. Holding out the rose – now complete with a slender stem – to Ruby, Pyrrha cocked her head. "I think I did it right… I think."

"Uh-huh." Ruby nodded gingerly picking up the rose. Even after spending a few hours toiling over this project, she hadn't been able to do it, yet Pyrrha did it on her first attempt. "Wow, you're really good at this."

"You are too kind." Pyrrha's face became the same colour as her hair, a small goofy smile forming. "So you mentioned that there were instructions for a crane?"

Ruby nodded furiously. "Yup!" Pulling out her scroll, she found a image set on the Dustnet of how to make a paper crane. Pyrrha wordlessly pulled out another piece of paper from the pile, already starting to fold the paper, her face the image of determination. Ruby watched her, becoming absorbed in Pyrrha's manipulation of the paper. Within a few minutes a paper crane had been produced, perfectly balanced on the hand of a satisfied Pyrrha

Twenty minutes later, the table was quickly being covered by the Pyrrha's paper creations. Ruby had watched, fascinated as the older redhead had gotten quicker, more confident in her movements. A paper rose tucked behind her left ear, Pyrrha was making a sloth paper figure, complete with a branch for it to hang off, and looking positively delighted doing it.

Ruby was still amazed at the fact that Pyrrha was doing so well. I don't even think mom was this fast… "You sure you've never done this before?" Ruby asked incredulously.

Pyrrha looked up from the half formed sloth and shook her head. "Sadly, no."

Watching Pyrrha return to the papercraft, the old question popped into Ruby's head. "So um… what do you do for fun?"

Finishing the sloth, Pyrrha set it down before turning to Ruby curiously. "What I do for fun?" Pyrrha parroted back. Pyrrha thought for a moment. "Training is fun. Does that count?"

"Outside of training, like…" Ruby gestured with her hands towards the origami on the table. "Do you do anything besides stuff for fighting when you were a kid?"

"Stuff not related to being a huntress?" Ruby nodded. Pyrrha's brow furrowed as she thought for a few moments. "I… played the lyre, although it's been awhile since I last picked one up."

"Ooo, I didn't know you played an instrument!" Ruby was not the most musically inclined person; she had tried the drums when she was little, but that was the extent of her musical experience. The only person Ruby knew that actually played or performed music with any level of success was her own partner, who sang on occasion. "How long have you been playing?"

"I had lessons for it when I was seven, I think? It's been a long while since I played it." Pyrrha forced a chuckle out as she scratched the back of her neck. "I haven't played since before my first tournament if I recall." An embarrassed quality entered her voice. "I'm afraid I'm no longer in practice."

Ruby did a quick calculation in her head. So the last time she played it was five years ago? Ruby studied Pyrrha as she returned to the origami sloth. She must have done something fun at Sanctum, right? "What'd ya do when you were at Sanctum? Other than train?"

"I didn't have much time outside of training for activities, I'm afraid." Pyrrha gave a noncommittal shrug. "Especially after the first tournament."

"Oh." Ruby didn't know how to respond to that, I mean, how do you respond to that? Not having hobbies would be bad! Thankfully for Ruby, Pyrrha kept talking.

"What did you do before Beacon?" Pyrrha paused for a moment before continuing, curiosity in her voice. "I think you went to Signal Academy, right?"

"Yup! I went there for two years before… here," Ruby awkwardly finished. "I got moved ahead two years, which meant I got to be with my sister, buuuuuut… I didn't get to have any of my friends come with me."

Ruby couldn't help but frown. True, she had made new friends, like her teammates Weiss and Blake as well as all of team JNPR, but it didn't change the fact that the friends – albeit few in number - she knew for years were no longer with her. In fact, she'd only see them as lower classmen in a year if any of them decided to attend Beacon academy after they graduated Signal.

"Surely you still talk to them?" A concerned Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah, we send letters to each other." The frown turned into a smile. "I even got to see them during winter break!" Uncertainty crossed Ruby's face as she looked down at the table, her voice becoming quieter. "Although I don't know if I'll be able to see them during summer break much; Signal and Beacon's summer breaks don't line up well..."

Pyrrha placed a comforting hand on Ruby's arm, causing her to look up at Pyrrha. "You'll find a way; your friends must miss you too." The warmth in her tone dissipated some of the uncertainty on Ruby's face. "Signal Academy is near where your family's house is, no?" Ruby nodded. "You could always just take a day trip there, then."

"You're right… I'm pretty sure they would let me stay overnight too." Pyrrha gave her a smile before going back to working on the origami. A thought occurred to Ruby. "How'd you deal with it, Pyrrha?"

"Hm?" Pyrrha cocked her head. "Deal with what?"

"Y'know…" Ruby didn't think she was being unclear, maybe she just misheard me? "Not being with your friends from Sanctum anymore?"

Pyrrha was quiet for a few moments. Maybe I shouldn't have asked that? Ruby started to fret, she probably misses her friends a lot… "Most of them went to Haven Academy, a few went to Atlas or Vacuo, but none of them ended up here." Pyrrha's voice was tinged with sadness. "Regrettably, I haven't been able to talk to any of them since graduation." Pyrrha gave a small shrug before giving Ruby a small smile. "I made new friends, like you and Jaune and our teams."

Ruby was a little taken aback by the answer. It almost sounds like she didn't mind not talking to her old friends anymore. "Well, don't you miss hanging out with your friends from Sanctum? You guys must have done a ton of fun crazy things, right?"

"When we were first years, we did." The older redhead slowly shook her head as she kept folding paper. "Not so much after my first tournament, though. It just became harder and harder for us to make time to hang out." A bright smile graced Pyrrha's mouth. "It's why I'm glad I get to hang out with people like you."

"Oh." It was a nice compliment, but there was something deeply unsettling about it. "Well, I like hanging out with you, too!" Pyrrha gave Ruby another smile before returning to the origami.

Did Pyrrha not have any friends for the past three years? Even as socially awkward as Ruby was, she had at least made some friends at Signal during her two years. Those were friends she cherished, that made school far more bearable. The thought of not having friends, of not having people who wanted to hang out with you was just… bizarre.

It wasn't just bizarre, it was sad. Is that why she always trains? Looking back at it, Ruby had been wondering why she didn't have any hobbies… yet it would seem that perhaps she didn't have any hobbies was because she had no one to share them with.

Ruby always had someone to share hobbies with; she always had Yang or her small group of friends at Signal or even more recently her team. Yang was always willing to play a round or two of Soul Caliber with her, her uncle was always happy indulge Ruby's fascination in weapons. Even at Signal, Ruby's small social group would hang out at least every couple of weeks, usually talking about the newest gizmo to put on their weapons. Since Ruby had come to Beacon Academy, she could always discuss books with Blake or talk about movies with Weiss.

The concept of not having any of those social connections - any of those people to share interests in - was a sad prospect. But Pyrrha has her team, right? Yeah she has Jaune! Except that wasn't the case anymore; Jaune is dating Velvet and I know he is pretty busy, we haven't hung out in ages after all…

But Pyrrha has Nora and Ren… who are kind of their own thing, aren't they? Ruby almost never saw those two separated, something that led more than a few people to make their own conclusions of the two, regardless of what Nora said.

Does that mean I'm the only person Pyrrha hangs out wi-

Snort, Guffaw!

Peals of laughter shook Ruby out of her internal musings, causing her to turn towards the source. The movement of her head knocked off an origami sloth - Pyrrha must have placed it on her head while she was so deep in though. It was a sound she had never heard coming from Pyrrha before, outright laughter. Not just a giggle or a small laugh, but a continuous stream of it, Pyrrha trying to keep the volume of it down by putting a hand in front of her mouth, but that didn't change it; Ruby could clearly see the mirth in her emerald eyes.

What really got Ruby, what really made her just stop and stare was the mirth in Pyrrha's emerald eyes. It wasn't something Ruby got to see often with Pyrrha. Ruby had seen Pyrrha express a range of emotions before, but mirth she had seldom seen.

In fact, this was the first time Ruby had even seen Pyrrha look so joyful, so free, so… beautiful. This was the Pyrrha that Ruby could see again and again. A small smile tugged at the corners of Ruby's mouth at a new thought.

I'll do whatever it takes to keep her smiling like that.

Editor: ASouthernRussian

AU: It would seem Ruby is growing to be quite fond of Pyrrha.

What had been originally a fluff chapter became a very serious one before becoming a slightly lighter one. Remnants of the most serious draft are still in there if you squint hard enough. I'd also like to thank Nokdu, who drew art several months ago of Pyrrha and Ruby doing origami… honestly the basis of the original chapter concept.

I'm going to apologize in advance for this next bit, its quite long but I really do want to know what you guys and gals think if that's cool?

Now for the serious talk about the near future. I'm going to try and do a chapter twice a month, but you have to understand that when I use the word try, I seriously mean it. I don't know how many of you know this but the process that takes to put out a chapter is quite arduous. Involving numerous drafts spent back and forth between me and my editor, who I will be the first to say has probably better things to do with his time (as well as his own projects… such as Feel the Burn /shameless plug).

That was a bit of a side track but there is something quite serious I want to pose to you guys and girls; with Acceptance my goal is to make a very comprehensive Milk and Cereal story. I want to write Pyrrha/Ruby fluff.

Why do I bring this up here? It'd directly influence THIS story. Either I could start another drabble collection or I could try and integrate every fluff idea I have of Pyrrha and Ruby into this story. You could probably notice this by the fact that scale of the story has boomed from 7 chapters to something closer to 50 now. Would you guys rather get your fluff in a separate story or just wait to have it all in this?

Along those lines another thing has popped up; there are bits and pieces of this story that I want to add on or elaborate. Really just some Omakes/Snippets. I could do a separate chapter of them or I could start to include them at the end of every chapter… what do you think?

My goal for this summer was to get Acceptance to chapter thirteen by the end of August. Mission success!

Finally this is a question about the next couple of chapters. Honestly they are something I'm dreading, they are completely necessary to the plot but I'm wondering how to break them up. Would you rather have a massive chapter come sometime, probably in September, or a series of three shortish chapters? I'd try posting one every ten days.

To the Anon reviewer known as GB: FLUFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. That is all :P

As always, thank you for reading, and the extremely kind words you dudes and dudettes leave in reviews. Seriously, thank you guys! :D

Have a great day!