Chapter 4 – Yang To The Rescue! (sorta)

Some time earlier in Team RWBY's Room, Blake Belladonna sat awake for three reasons, the first being in case Jaune needed any help with Pyrrha. Even though this was Yang's dumb idea, Blake still felt partially responsible.

The second reason was that her sensitive Faunus ears could hear talking, followed by crying coming from Team JNPR's room. She couldn't make out specifics of the conversation, but she could tell that Pyrrha was spilling her guts to Jaune.

The third reason was that she had finally gotten Yang, who had started to sober up rather quickly due to her higher-than-normal body heat, to brush her hair. Blake tried to focus on that instead of the noises coming from her fellow team's room, and soon succeeded. She began to purr contentedly.

After a particularly loud outburst from across the hall, Yang grinned. "All is going according to my brilliant plan, muhahaha!"

"So you did plan this." Blake wasn't that surprised; after all, she'd been living with Yang for several months now.

Yang gave her a crooked grin and shrugged. "More or less." Yang pretended to examine the fingernails on her left hand. "I figured a little bit of 'truth serum' would foster communication between P-money and Vomit-boy."

Hearing the muffled ranting and sobbing coming from across the hall, Blake had to admit that the alcohol had gotten Pyrrha talking—but whether that was a good thing or a bad thing remained to be seen.

Blake rolled her eyes but smiled. "You are such an ass."

Yang stuck out her tongue.

"Did I say you could stop brushing?"

Ten minutes later, Ruby and Weiss came in. The former quickly changed into her pajamas and climbed onto her bed, while the latter made a few snarky comments about how juvenile the "kid's movie" was. Ruby just yawned, and smiled sleepily. "Pssh, Weiss was laughing almost as much as I was. She really loved that talking dog." Yang snickered while Weiss glared daggers at her partner.

After Weiss had changed into her own pajamas, she went to her own bed and slipped under the covers. Ruby was already snoring quietly in the bed above hers. Her leader really was just a kid; she could barely stay up past midnight. After turning all but one of the lamps out, the heiress put her sleep-mask on and lay down for the night.

The peace that had enveloped the room was broken about forty-five seconds later when the three conscious members of Team RWBY heard Nora screaming something followed by from a loud thump coming across the hall. Blake stopped purring. Yang stopped brushing. Weiss sat up.

The Faunus girl was the first to speak. "Yang, go get her."

"Alrighty kids, it's time for bed—" Yang abruptly forgot whatever else she was going to say as she took in the scene in Team JNPR's room: Jaune Arc and Lie Ren were standing around looking completely lost, Nora Valkyrie was holding a pink Ursa plushie and laughing at Pyrrha Nikos, the four-time champion of the Mistral tournament, who was stuck to the minifridge like a giant, angry magnet.

Yang—who had completely forgotten that she had come over to help—joined Nora in laughing at Pyrrha, and was soon sitting on the ground howling with laughter at the whole situation.

Blake appeared out of nowhere and kicked Yang in the butt. "Get her."

Pyrrha finally stopped using her semblance and was released from the minifridge. The Amazon was fuming at this point, and a few tears had even started to well up in her eyes due to mingled anger and humiliation.

Still laughing, Yang scooped Pyrrha up and tossed her unceremoniously over her shoulder before marching back to Team RWBY's room. Blake just rolled her eyes, turned around and followed Yang. She was biting her lip to keep from laughing; she did feel sorry for Pyrrha, but getting stuck to a fridge….

Once in Team RWBY's room, Blake and Yang forcibly stripped Pyrrha to her underwear and made her put on an oversized Achieve Men t-shirt that Yang kept for spare pajamas. Weiss stared, but decided not to ask. It was late, and sometimes with Blake and Yang, it was better not to know. She could interrogate them in the morning.

Then Blake jumped up onto Yang's bed, while Yang pushed Pyrrha over to Blake's bed and lay down, roughly dragging her confused friend with her. Pyrrha was too drained and incoherent to struggle anymore, and got under the blanket with Yang without protest. Soon both girls were asleep: Yang snoring and Pyrrha drooling. Blake checked on them one more time, and then finally went to sleep herself. Weiss put earplugs in and plotted revenge on the two idiots who occupied the other side of the room. Ruby slept through the whole thing, blissfully ignorant of all the goings-on.

The next morning, Pyrrha Nikos awoke with a jerk. The aforementioned jerk was Yang, who opened her eyes, yawned, and said, "Good morning, sexy."

Pyrrha looked around wildly, realizing that she was not in her room, she was not in her own clothes, and she was lying in a bed next to Yang, practically in the blonde's arms. Sheer terror gripped her heart.

Noticing that Pyrrha was about to have a stroke, Yang spoke up. "Calm down, P-money; it was a joke. You're still innocent." Yang put a finger to her chin and pretended to think. "Well, probably."

Blake's head peered down at them from the top bunk. "Don't listen to her, Pyrrha." Yang laughed. "There was some… commotion in your room last night. I figured it would be easier if you just slept over here. You two are on my bed in case one of you fell off." Pyrrha still looked extremely nervous. "And Yang did not molest you," Blake added before glaring at her partner. This was not the time to tease Pyrrha; the poor girl had enough problems right now. Thankfully, Yang took the hint and kept her big mouth shut for the time being.

Blake climbed off of the bed and headed for the door. "I'll go get you a change of clothes."

Pyrrha rubbed her face; her throat was so dry! In addition to that, her skin was dry, her hair was greasy, and her makeup was smeared on her arm and—ugh—Yang's pajamas. She just felt… dirty. And since she hadn't had a shower since her training dummy-destroying workout last night, Pyrrha needed one now. Badly. While trying to roll out of the bed, she brushed her right arm against the bedpost and winced. When did she get bruised there? Pyrrha looked at the sore spot and found two arc-shaped bruises. They almost looked like… teeth marks. Her eyes widened in horror as she remembered everything that had happened the previous night. Everything. Pyrrha bolted straight up and hit her head on the bottom of Yang's bunk.

"Whoa, P-money, are you okay?" said Yang, carefully sitting up herself.

Pyrrha just ran toward Team RWBY's bathroom. "I'm going to take a shower," she rasped.

Pyrrha soaped up her body for the third time that morning, trying (and failing) to get rid of the dirty feeling she had. She rinsed off and just let the hot water run over her head for a few minutes. She'd broken the law, she'd lost control of her emotions, she'd made a fool of herself… and, to add insult to injury, she'd woken up in Yang's arms. How could she ever look any of her teammates in the eye again? She was so stupid! And Yang… Pyrrha was just thinking of places that she could hide the blonde's body when Blake knocked on the door and came in.

"I got you a change of clothes." A mumbled "thanks" followed by a long silence was the only reply Blake got for her effort. Sighing, the Faunus went into the steamy bathroom. "Pyrrha?" Silence. "You've got to come out of the shower sometime. Yang is stinking up the room and Weiss will be pissed if she doesn't take a shower soon." The water shut off, but Pyrrha didn't move.

Blake had a fairly good idea of why her friend didn't want to leave the bathroom. "Listen, Pyrrha: they're not mad at you. Well, except maybe Nora." Pyrrha cringed. "But judging from Jaune's reaction, they're far more worried about you. He looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep at all."

Pyrrha considered this for a minute before reaching out from behind the shower curtain and grabbing a towel. Blake smiled, shut the door, and went back to preventing Yang from joining Pyrrha in the shower because she was "taking too long."

Meanwhile, in Team JNPR's room, Jaune sat on his bed and waited nervously. Blake had come over to retrieve a clean set of clothes for Pyrrha, who—thank dust—was doing all right. Jaune had not slept well; though he knew that Blake would watch out for her, Yang was still over there. He'd have to have a word with her later… even though he doubted it would do any good.

Pyrrha would be back soon, and he had no idea what to do then.

His other two teammates were cuddling over on Ren's bed… or at least Nora was cuddling Ren. And if the small smile on his face was any indication, Ren was thoroughly enjoying it. The quiet boy's offer to serve as a substitute for Ursee for the night was incredibly well-received by his rambunctious best friend. If anything, Jaune thought it was a little too well-received. Then there was the implication that he had cooties while Ren did not…

Jaune felt a twinge of jealousy as he looked at them. It must be nice to have someone to snuggle with. Before Jaune could follow that trail of thought any further, he heard a very soft knock. He scrambled off of his bed and opened the door.

Pyrrha, hair still wet from the shower, stood there meekly. She didn't dare meet her partner's eyes, choosing to focus on the ground instead. Jaune motioned for her to come in, warning her quietly that Nora and Ren were still asleep.

But Pyrrha didn't come in. "Um… Jaune?" She looked up at him worriedly. "Can… can we go to the common room for a minute?"

"O-of course." Jaune fell into step behind Pyrrha as they made their way down the hall to the common room.

Once they had arrived, Pyrrha gave the room a quick once-over to make sure they were alone. Satisfied that they were, she hunched her shoulders slightly and clutched her left arm with her right hand nervously. Finally she made eye contact with Jaune, but he could tell she was struggling to maintain it. "So… I wanted to apologize for last night. I was pretty harsh with you. I won't blame the alcohol, or even Yang for making me drink it; I'll take responsibility for what I said. And I know I can't take any of it back, so I just…" Pyrrha stopped and took a deep breath, willing herself to keep it together, "I just wanted to ask for your forgiveness." She looked back down at her shoes.

Jaune listened silently, watching her face get redder by the second. When her rant was over, Jaune considered how best to respond. "Pyrrha?" His partner looked up at him. "Of course I forgive you, but I… uh… y-you don't need to apologize." Jaune shifted his weight to his other foot uncomfortably. "You… you weren't as harsh as you think you were. You made me realize that I haven't been thinking about you, and… I'll do better; I promise. So I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?"

Pyrrha's mouth formed a tiny smile, and she punched Jaune lightly on the arm. She was shocked when Jaune pulled her into a hug. "I'm so glad you're my partner," he murmured.

Pyrrha closed her eyes to hold back a few tears that threatened to escape. "Me too," she said into his shoulder.

After a few moments, they separated awkwardly and started walking back to their room.

"Hey, Pyrrha?" said Jaune as they reached their doorway. "Do you want to catch up on some training tonight?"

The Amazon smirked. "Sure. Just remember that you're the one who asked when you're taking painkillers tonight." Jaune chuckled nervously. He knew that he deserved whatever hellish exercises Pyrrha had planned for him.

Pyrrha slouched a little bit. "I am so tired. Before I do anything else, I'm going to take a nap."

"I think I'll join you," said Jaune. Pyrrha stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him.

Jaune backpedaled as he realized what he'd said. "I mean, I will also take a nap. In my own bed. Because the nap idea sounds like a good one… " He trailed off, sighing as he failed in his efforts to be smooth once again.

When he turned away towards the door, Pyrrha smiled gently. That was the goofy, awkward, kind Jaune that she loved.

Both Jaune and Pyrrha were feeling slightly disappointed—and very tired—when Jaune opened the door to Team JNPR's room, where they observed Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren napping in the same bed. How ironic.

Back in Team RWBY's room, both Yang and Blake were pressed against the door, listening. Yang was using a red plastic cup to her ear in order to hear better, and Blake twitched her cat ears as they heard Pyrrha and Jaune make plans for evening training. When they heard the awkward exchange about naps, Yang leaned back, looking smug. "Well, well. My master plan worked and the kids are alright. One day they'll thank me."

Blake stared back at her impassively. "I'm sure they'll say something nice at your graveside, since they are going to murder you first." Blake couldn't keep her poker face for long and started quivering with suppressed laughter. Yang joined in, but having far less restraint than her quiet partner, dashed over to Blake's bed, slammed her face into a pillow, and started laughing.

Unfortunately, Yang was still loud enough to wake Weiss, who sat up suddenly. The look on her face made it clear that she was pretty pissed off about having her beauty sleep disturbed. "What are you two idiots doing?" she huffed.

"Scratch that; maybe Weiss will kill you first," Blake deadpanned.

Yang looked at Blake and mimed zipping her lip and throwing away the key. Even though Yang's sign didn't totally make sense, Blake got the message and said nothing.

Their unspoken agreement only annoyed Weiss further. "I demand to know what happened last night!" Weiss said, keeping her volume low so as not to disturb Ruby above her. "Your side of the room smells, the scent of alcohol is wafting about the room, and—oh, I almost forgot—there was the part where you two literally carried Pyrrha over, stripped her half-naked, and made her sleep in Blake's bed with Yang!"

Yang was grinning like a Cheshire cat while Blake had resumed her semi-poker face, but neither girl answered Weiss.

Some rustling was heard from the bunk above Weiss's. "Could you guys keep it down? It's Sunday morning." Near the end of her rant, Weiss had gotten considerably louder and woken Ruby. "And what's all this about Pyrrha being half-naked in our room? And—ewww—Yang, why does your side stink more than normal?"

Yang put on her best "condescending big sister" look, and said, "I'll tell you when you're older."

"Yaaaaaaang…" Ruby whined as Yang headed for the shower, Blake started stripping the sheets off of Yang's and her bed, and Weiss got out a large aerosol can of air freshener.

Pyrrha was a bit surprised at her teammates' sleeping arrangement, having been carried off before Ren and Nora went to bed.

"Haha!" Nora yelled as she suddenly popped up from under the covers. "I bet you thought we were asleep!"

"I was asleep," Ren grumbled.

As Nora's face took on an unusually serious look, a red-faced Pyrrha hurriedly started her apology. "Nora, I'm so sorry for falling asleep on your bed last night. And for what happened to Ursee. I promise I'll wash him today." Nora continued to stare at her silently. "And your sheets." She looked to her own bed then. "And my sheets." She was trying very hard not to die of embarrassment.

Nora's usual sunny smile returned. Ren sat up and whispered something to her. "Oh yeah! Pyrrha, I'm sorry for biting you." Ren elbowed her, and she squeaked. "And making fun of you when you got stuck to the fridge." She paused. "Even though it was hilarious."

"Nora…" Ren growled.

Nora looked remorseful for exactly 0.3 seconds before jumping off the bed and bouncing over to stand in front of Pyrrha. She clasped her hands behind her back, and leaned toward Pyrrha, who found the smile on Nora's face very unnerving. "You know what we've gotta do now?" Nora said mischievously. Pyrrha shook her head slowly.

Nora held out her arms to the extremely flustered Amazon. "Hug it out, bitch!" she screamed, before tackling Pyrrha in a crushing hug that she had no choice but to return.

"Nora! Language!" said Ren sharply. Of course, he was completely ignored by his bubbly friend, who was still occupied with glomping Pyrrha within an inch of her life.

Pyrrha hugged the shorter girl back and laughed softly. She knew all was forgiven.

Jaune smiled at the girls, glad to see that Nora had forgiven Pyrrha so readily and that his partner had accepted her forgiveness. Pyrrha had a tendency to beat herself up about her mistakes, no matter how small.

He took the opportunity to raise a hand and call for an impromptu team meeting. He cleared his throat before beginning. "As leader of Team JNPR, I hereby forbid any of its members from underage drinking ever again. Also, I would like to add that under no circumstances is anyone to drink in Yang's presence. Ever."

Pyrrha and Ren hastily murmured their agreement while Nora snapped to attention, struck a dramatic salute and yelled, "Aye aye, cap'n!"

Ren and Nora decided to go into town to get some brunch, while Jaune and Pyrrha climbed into their respective beds and settled down to take a much-needed rest.

Within minutes, Pyrrha drifted off to sleep while thinking up ways to make Yang pay for their "girls' night out."

Author's note: I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Also, in response to a question I had, this particular story is complete. I left it a little open-ended in case I ever decide to write a sequel. (I have no current plans to, but it might be… interesting if JNPR decides to get revenge on Yang.)

Also also, I know I didn't exactly get the timing right of how quickly alcohol affects / wears off of the consumer, but I do not have extensive personal experience with alcohol. I had stretch the facts a little bit to fit the story. (Like, I don't think Pyrrha's rant to Jaune would have had the same effect if she was slurring the whole thing.) Pyrrha wasn't even technically drunk, just pretty tipsy.

Disclaimer: Underage drinking is not okay. Especially if Yang is there.