Thunk

That was a sound that was becoming incredibly familiar to Jaune Arc. No matter how hard he tried, his training sessions with Pyrrha always seemed to end the same way. Him, pinned by the hood of his sweater to the rooftop by a long javelin. Jaune sighed heavily.

They had been doing this for the past few months. Every night after classes, Pyrrha and Jaune would come up to the rooftop and work on Jaune's fighting abilities. On the bright side, he had improved a lot, however, that really wasn't saying much. Pyrrha, for her part, was an excellent tutor, and seemed to have endless reserves of patience for the awkward blonde.

Jaune looked up and met eyes with the red head, who smiled back at him reassuringly.

"Much better Jaune!" she beamed at him. "You kept your stance properly through most of that sparring match. But remember, keep your arms up, even if you're tired. Dropping them, especially your shield, leaves you very open to attack." That's how most of her comments went, Jaune remarked. Some positive support, as per Pyrrha's caring nature, along with critical feedback. Endless things he was doing wrong.

"Right," was all Jaune said, a little flatly.

Jaune was starting to despair a little at his training. It seemed that even though he put in countless hours of training, many more than any other student, he still seemed to be so much further behind all the others. He was starting to grow frustrated with the pattern.

Pyrrha walked up to him, her supportive smile never wavering. She grabbed hold of Milos and drew the spear out of the wall, allowing Jaune to slump to the ground. She knelt down next to him and held her hand out. Jaune took it and she helped him to his feet.

"Let's try it again." She said, her voice upbeat as usual. But Jaune sighed.

He walked over to where he had dropped his sword and shield when Pyrrha had pinned him to the wall. He picked them up off the ground and readjusted them so they fit loosely in his hands. He looked at Pyrrha and she smiled reassuringly at him again. She stood straight, but her legs were slightly staggered, indicating she was ready to take her stance at a moments notice. Jaune closed his eyes and thought. He went through the mental checklist of everything he had to focus on.

Legs shoulder width apart, feet staggered.

Shield arm forward, towards the opponent.

Sword arm at the ready, loose grip, not too tight...

Eyes never leave your opponent.

Arms up, don't let them drop.

React to your opponent, don't force any movement.

The list went on, and when he felt ready and prepared, he nodded at his adversary and tutor. Her supportive smile turned serious immediately as she sauntered calmly towards her prey. She wasn't in her stance, and her arms hung loosely at her sides, but Jaune had learned that this didn't mean she was off guard. When she was a few paces away, Jaune launched himself forward, intending to bash her with his shield, but as he lunged, she sidestepped and gave him a sharp rap on the back with Milos.

"Don't overcommit." She commanded sharply as Jaune whipped around, shield up and ready, expecting a flurry of attacks. She stood a few paces away, now in full battle stance. This time she came at him, laying several blows against his shield. He allowed her to continue, until he saw an opening, Pyrrha was beating him down, hailing powerful strikes down from above, but this left her left ankle open, only slightly. Jaune took his chance and struck out with his blade towards her grieves. Seeing his attack coming, Pyrrha skipped over his swinging blade and hit his arm with the flat of her blade, causing him to over extend and lose balance slightly. Pyrrha took this opportunity to knock him over with her shield, and in one fluid motion, straddled him, pinning him to the ground. She sat on top of him for a moment, Milos hovering over Jaune's throat. Jaune looked up into her eyes, and she looked back. He looked up into her lovely emerald eyes, and looked at her delicate features. For someone so fierce, he thought, she sure is lovely. As they lay there, her scent wafted over him. She smelled like fresh juniper berries Jaune noted. He was only able to hold her gaze for a moment though, turning away quickly and blushing slightly. He was a little uncomfortable in their current position. Pyrrha chuckled heartily, and got off of him. She again leant her hand in aiding him stand. Gratefully Jaune took it. The two dusted themselves off, and Pyrrha took her stance once more.

"Uh, Pyrrha? I can't exactly keep this up." Pyrrha looked at him, confused for a moment before he showed her his scroll, which showed his team's aura levels. His only had a sliver of red left, whereas Pyrrha's was left utterly unscathed. He hadn't even touched her.

"Oh.." she said sheepishly. "I'm sorry Jaune!"

"That's fine," he answered, and chuckled nervously. "Maybe we could go back to the room now, I've got that project to finish up for professor Port." Jaune suggested.

The two of them strolled down the staircase in a comfortable silence, Jaune thinking about his most recent training session. Two things stuck out to him. First was that, for the first time for months, Jaune hadn't ended the session pinned to the wall. Second was the awkward way Pyrrha had pinned him. He doubted she even registered the event, to her it was probably just another victory, but Jaune couldn't deny the shot of adrenaline that had shot through him at the close contact, and how her features looked so delicate and perfectly shaped. No matter how closely he looked, he couldn't find a single flaw with the spartan warrior. He glanced over at her, walking confidently next to him, and took a moment to gaze at her perfect features once more. Seemingly sensing his gaze, Pyrrha looked back at him and smiled. Jaune's mind blanked at his lovely team mate's stunning smile, and his foot caught on the flat floor. He tripped and fell down.

"Gahh!"

"Jaune!" Pyrrha exclaimed, then started laughing at her team leader's clumsiness. "Oh Jaune, do look where you're going."

"Uh... yeah, right." was all Jaune could manage, too embarrassed and flustered to respond properly.

After that, the two quickly made their way back to the dorm. When they opened the door, they were met by a sight Jaune was not anticipating.

"Nora, please," called an exasperated Ren, "stop it." The red haired, pink loving, overly energetic Nora was busy bouncing between all four beds, which were in the corners of the relatively large room.

"Wheeeeeeeee! Come on Ren! It's fun." Ren looked helplessly at the two new arrivals, and Jaune sighed.

"Nora, please, can we have our beds back?" Jaune asked her. At his voice, Nora stopped and looked at him, her smile disappearing.

"No bouncing?" She asked

"no bouncing." Ren and Jaune confirmed in unison.

"Alright!" She said happily, making one final bounce to her own bed, where she did a back flip onto her back. She lay there and fell asleep within seconds, as the three other members of team JNPR stared in slight shock. Jaune was quickly learning to expect the unexpected when sharing a room with Nora. However, he was too exhausted to properly care about what he had just witnessed. He grabbed his blue onesie and went into the washroom and had a quick shower, scrubbing out the sweat he had worked up. He finished up and came out of the washroom and flopped straight onto his bed. He was exhausted from his hard training session with Pyrrha.

"What about your project, Jaune?" Pyrrha inquired, and was answered by a heavy groan. Jaune got out of bed, which had gotten very comfortable very fast, and lumbered over to the table that the team shared.

"You're not done that yet?" Ren asked, genuinely surprised.

"Of course I'm done," Jaune answered defiantly, "I just haven't put it on paper yet. Or thought up what I'm going to write." Pyrrha giggled. She had finished the project within a few hours of its assignment three days ago.

"Would you like some help?" She asked.

"Thanks Pyrrha, but I wouldn't want you to stay up late for me."

"I don't mind," she replied genuinely. Jaune looked up at her, and she smiled down at him.

"You're a life saver." He answered. She sat down next to him.

"So what's a Nevermore again?" Pyrrha laughed. "Is it those big scorpion thingies?"

"Nope," Pyrrha managed to squeak out between bursts of laughter.

"The wolf things...? Oh I'm failing this project aren't I?"

"Come on Jaune, let's open the books." Pyrrha said, laughter still bubbling in her voice.

With Pyrrha's help, it only took Jaune a few hours to finish the project, he was amazed at how she seemed to know each piece of relevant information that Jaune started to leaf through the books for.

It was just past midnight when the two tired team mates finally put the finishing touches on Jaune's project. He leafed through it quickly, noticing that it was probably the best school project he had ever made. This was due in part to Pyrrha's aid, but also came from Jaune not wanting to disappoint her. He worked harder on that project than any paper or homework he had ever done before. Pyrrha stood up and stretched, her thin nightwear showing off her powerful and shapely body. Jaune averted his gaze, and stood with her.

"Pyrrha..." he began. She turned to face her team leader, eyes kind and the hint of a smile playing across her soft lips. "Thanks. A lot."

"Any time Jaune." She replied. The two moved off to their respective beds, Jaune switching off the desk light on his way past. As he got into bed he found it hard to sleep. He kept thinking about the day. His slight victory in not being pinned by his hoodie to a wall, and his accomplishment on the school project. Two points of pride, both all thanks to Pyrrha. She had done a lot for him, and before his fatigue over took him, he resolved to make it up to her somehow.

Blake stared down at the envelope in her hand, the wolf head with a claw mark through it in the top right. She had gotten back to the dorm at about 2:00 in the morning, and found it waiting on the edge of her door. Not good, she thought to herself She stood outside the dorm for some time staring at it, not daring to open it. Tomorrow, I'll leave it till tomorrow. The following day was friday. Blake decided that she would wait until the end of classes, when the weekend started, to deal with this. Even so, as she slipped into bed, Blake couldn't help but feel uneasy.

Blake's day was not going well. It started off normally, Ruby waking her team up in the morning at about 7:00. Normally, that wouldn't be an issue for Blake, she used to rise much earlier when she was associated with the white fang, but that particular day she had only gone to bed a few hours earlier. She had stayed up late doing Port's stupid project on profiling each of the major species of Grimm. Some of the exemplary examples had been pinned up on the wall behind him from previous years. Blake observed that this meant that Port handed out the same project every year, and this somehow didn't surprise her. Anyways, this meant that she woke up with only a few hours' sleep, which she did not appreciate. Not to mention that Ruby had already had all the milk that morning, and when Blake checked their mini fridge for some tuna or salmon, she found it empty. No milk, no fish. She went to the cafeteria and had to content herself with a breakfast of toasted bread with butter and some oatmeal. Then, she had to listen to one of Oobleck's non-stop talks for an hour. She normally enjoyed Oobleck's class, the energetic teacher keeping her interested; however, by the time she got there, the only seat left was just in front of Cardin. She had to put up with Cardin mocking the faunus whenever Oobleck brought them up. After the incident in Foreverfall, he had calmed down for a bit, but he now seemed angrier than ever. She only managed to keep her cool thanks to Yang next to her who put a comforting hand on Blake's arm. Then lunch came, and apparently someone really didn't want Blake to appease her feline desires, as it might have been the only day where there was no fish served at lunch. Then she handed in her project to Port, who proceeded to lecture the entire class about his obviously exaggerated exploits for the next way too long. On their way out of the class, Blake saw Cardin throw Velvet into a wall by her ears. Blake's hand twitched to her back, about to draw her blade, but she was stopped again by Yang.

"Just let it slide, he's not worth it. You'll get in too much trouble." So as she sat down in the battle arena for Goodwitch's class, Blake determined that she was not having a good day.

And then there was the letter...

They had finally found her.

She felt like breaking something. The only thing she was hoping for today was to be paired with someone who was poorly skilled so she could beat the living tar out of them. Or Cardin, she could definitely go for cutting that insufferable bully over and over. She listened eagerly as the first pair was announced. Ruby and Cardin. Damn.

The massive leader of CRDL towered over Ruby, but the shorter scythe wielder looked unfazed. Cardin charged forward and swung his hefty mace, but found that Ruby wasn't there anymore. Ruby had used her incredible speed to launch herself behind Cardin, and proceeded to hit him with her scythe, hard. The match proceeded in a similar fashion, Ruby only being hit once. That dropped her aura significantly, but Blake's team leader didn't make that mistake twice. It didn't take long for the lights to flash on again as Cardin lay on the ground, grunting in pain.

"A classic example of speed against strength, students." Goodwitch began. "Remember, where many of you strive for strength, you forget speed and agility. Take this match as a lesson, then. Understand your strengths and weaknesses, and train not to improve your strengths, but to guard against your weaknesses." At this she glared pointedly at Cardin, who had only gotten strong during his time at beacon, hardly working on speed. "Remember students, the tournament is in only a few weeks. Focus hard for the next few weeks, and you may make it further than anticipated."

Blake was itching to do something. She scribbled a quick message on a piece of paper "After our matches, lets skip out and blow off some steam.", then flicked it at her partner, Yang. Yang opened it and looked back at Blake. Yang nodded and winked at her partner, indicating her acceptance. Blake normally would never skip out on class, but she just couldn't bear to sit still anymore. She looked up as the next pair was announced. Blake and Pyrrha.

Just great.

Blake sighed as she made her strutted up to the arena platform. She leapt gracefully onto the elevated platform as Pyrrha mirrored her action on the opposite side of the stage. Blake evaluated the situation as she took her stance opposite the red head. She knew Pyrrha excelled in close combat, which made Blake lean towards using Gambol Shroud in its whip form. However, she also knew that if Pyrrha got off a shot with Milos in javelin form, she was toast. That gave her an idea.

"Commence," came the clear, sharp tone of Goodwitch, indicating the match beginning. The two girls stood opposite one another, Pyrrha with her shield raised, waiting for Blake to make a move. Blake obliged, whipping Gambol Shroud forward at Pyrrha, intentionally leaving her body fully exposed. Pyrrha took the opportunity, easily knocking away the whip with her shield and launching Milos towards Blake. Blake, for her part had dodged to the side, leaving a shadow image of herself behind. She glanced at it as only a fraction of a second after initiating the attack, Milos hit the shadow image directly between the eyes. Mental note, do not let Pyrrha get that javelin back.

Blake twisted around, whipping Gambol Shroud around towards Pyrrha's legs, but to no avail. Pyrrha easily jump rolled over the swinging weapon and charged Blake. Blake retracted Gambol shroud into its sword form and drew her scabbard. When the spartan warrior closed the distance between the two, Blake swung out with her sword. Pyrrha blocked and Blake swung with her scabbard, but Pyrrha merely sidestepped. With nothing but a shield, Pyrrha held Blake at bay, each one of Blake's swings meeting a shield or thin air. Even with the help of her shadow images, Blake couldn't lay a finger on the red headed celebrity.

She had to go on the defensive, slowly backing up, growing ever closer to the edge of the arena. When they were only a few paces from the end, Blake saw Pyrrha's eyes flicker to the side. What was that? Too late, Blake realized what Pyrrha was after. As Blake's eyes flicked to Milos embedded in the wall, Pyrrha knocked the faunus to the side with her shield and lunged towards her weapon. As Blake stood again, at the ready, Pyrrha was back in her full battle stance, with that damn javelin back in her hand. Blake quickly looked down to check her aura level. Not much of it was gone, but Blake didn't know how much longer she could keep the spartan from hitting her. What was worse was that Pyrrha looked as though she hadn't broken a sweat, and she hadn't even used her polarity yet.

Blake steeled herself, knowing the match was futile. She abandoned all tact and rushed the spartan, who was fully ready to accept her charge. Blake fired Gambol shroud towards Pyrrha as she rushed, the whip shooting out to strike at the red head. Again, Pyrrha knocked the attack aside easily with her shield, which left a slight gap in front of her chest. Blake lunged, weaponless, and moved inside the spartan's guard. She succeeded, but was quickly met with a number of sharp hits from Milos as she fired off a series of punches and knees into Pyrrha. Blake felt her aura finally giving after she got a dozen or so punches in, and at that point Pyrrha got her shield between them and pushed Blake away. Without a reprieve of any kind, Pyrrha threw her shield at Blake, who had dodged to the side.

Straight into Milos. The red head had picked up on the shadow image patterns and had thrown both her shield and her javelin, one at the shadow, and one at Blake. Blake was hurled backwards by the impact. Knocked to the ground, Blake hissed in pain. She tried to stand, however, her side collapsed where it had been struck by Milos. The lights flicked on, flooding the arena with bright white. Pyrrha walked over and offered Blake a hand, but she was in no mood for sympathy right now. She swatted away the kindly offered hand and struggled to her knees. Finally Blake stood, and looked up at Pyrrha, who looked down worriedly at her.

"I'm sorry, Blake. Are you alri-"

"I'm disappointed Blake," Goodwitch's voice cut Pyrrha's concerned question off, "Never, ever, give up on a match. Do everything you can to find a way to win. Even though you got blows off on Pyrrha," something no other student has done Blake commented silently, "You did so knowing that it was leaving you vulnerable and leading to inevitable defeat."

It was true, but Blake wasn't about to admit that. She nodded to Goodwitch, accepting her chastising. Blake stalked back to her seat and sat down next to Yang, but even her always optimistic partner was looking at her worriedly. Before Yang could open her mouth however, she was called up to the stage to fight Jaune. Blake was silently grateful for the interruption. She didn't feel like a talk with her partner. Yang would ask what was bothering her, and Blake didn't want to bring the letter up. She just wanted a distraction. That's what she needed right now. Yang's match finished quickly, and when she returned to her seat, Blake took her by the hand and led her out of class. Weiss and Ruby had planned to go to the library after class, so Blake figured she could kill a fair amount of time being, err, distracted, by Yang.

Pyrrha watched worriedly as Blake returned to her chair. Though they weren't the closest, the faunus and her had become friends over the course of the year, and the way she had just fought had been very telling. Pyrrha had fought her before, well kind of, with breadsticks. But even then, the dark haired faunus had fought in a very calm and collected manner. The way she had just fought was violent, emotional, and it troubled Pyrrha to see her friend so obviously troubled.

Pyrrha was distracted as Jaune was called to the stage though, and Pyrrha quickly turned her attention to the arena. Jaune had been improving a lot, but Pyrrha knew he was not even close to a match for the gauntleted, bright haired Yang. She was excited to watch though, hoping to see Jaune apply some of the techniques she had been teaching him.

The first minute or so of the match went reasonably well, the blondes circling each other for a moment before Yang dived in. Jaune actually managed to block a few punches, which made Pyrrha feel a little warm inside, a spark of pride flaring inside her as she watched her ever-improving leader. Jaune, however, didn't last long until Yang broke his guard, and once she got the first punch in, it didn't take her long to beat Jaune's aura down to a sliver of a red line. The match ended quickly thereafter, but Pyrrha still smiled as Jaune returned to his seat between her and Ren. His shoulders were slumped, so she supportively put her hand on his shoulder. He stiffened at her touch, and his cheeks turned slightly rosy. Pyrrha laughed in her head, her leader was certainly cute, though a little, okay very, awkward. She removed her hand and Jaune turned to face her, smiling. She smiled back.

"That was much better Jaune!" Pyrhha whispered excitedly as to not disrupt the class, "Yang is one of the best fighters in the class, you did well to keep your guard as long as you did." She could tell he was not quite convinced, but he looked more contented as he turned to watch the rest of the day's matches. The class passed quickly for Pyrrha afterwards, she had noticed Blake sneak out with Yang after Jaune's match, and figured if anyone could cheer Blake up, it was Yang. Goodwitch even let everyone go five minutes early.

"Take an early weekend, class. And rest up. Remember, training is useless without proper rest. With the tournament coming up, those of you who choose to compete can ill afford to wear yourselves out." Everyone started to stand, excitedly jabbering with their friends. "Jaune Arc, please come see me in my office." Goodwitch called as everyone started to file out the doors. Jaune looked to Pyrrha nervously.

"I'll wait for you outside," the redhead said. "I'm sure everything's fine." Jaune skulked off, looking a little terrified. Pyrrha walked out of the classroom and waited by one of the pillars just outside of the arena. She was a little worried though. Despite Jaune's improvements, he was still at the bottom of the class in combat. His marks had risen since his additional readings started, but in combat, she was still doubtful he could beat more than a handful of students at Beacon.

"Looks like Jauney boy's in trouble." said a voice from the side. Pyrrha didn't like that voice very much. Well, she didn't mind the voice, it was the fact that it came out Cardin Winchester's mouth that she didn't like.

"What do you want, Cardin?" Pyrrrha replied coldly.

"Well, ever since that time in Forever Fall, Jaune and I have been cool." Cardin actually seemed genuine to Pyrrha about this. "He saved me. Now we have an issue though. I still don't like you." He growled. Pyrrha wasn't surprised.

"The feeling is perfectly mutual." she assured him.

"Weeell, normally I would ignore you and leave it at that. But I see the way you look at Jaune. And I can't think of any better way to get back at you for all the times you've tried to embarrass me-"

"You brought those all on yourself."

"But to stop you from seeing him." Cardin's face had twisted from a scowl to a sadistic grin.

"That won't happen, Cardin, so go away and leave me be. Or I could always just break your legs." Pyrrha stepped forward, dropping halfway into her stance.

"Oh, I don't think you'll be doing that. You see, I ran into some information that Jauney boy had some less that legitimate transcript, and I just can't imagine what Goodwitch would do if she found out. Or dust forbid that Ozpin found out..." Pyrrha looked at him, shocked. That must be how Cardin had gotten Jaune to do his bidding for so long until he had dropped it after Forever Fall. "So here's the deal. You're not going to talk to Jauney boy anymore. You won't train with him, eat with him, nothing. Because if you do, he won't be at Beacon for your next breakfast together." At that Cardin and his lackeys turned and started walking away. Cardin looked back over his shoulder. "Oh, and if I so much as suspect that you talked to him about this, he's done."

Pyrrha sat there for a moment, conflicted. For one thing, she wanted to break his legs, really badly. But she knew that if she did anything to anger Cardin, it could well lead to Jaune being expelled. She could face the consequences to herself, but she couldn't bring herself to do that to Jaune. She knew how much being a hunter meant to him, and Beacon was the only way that would happen. She couldn't even risk doing that to him. Pyrrha stood shellshocked, as Cardin walked away.

"Mr. Arc, though you have an incredible transcript, you fail to perform well in any of your classes." Goodwitch looked at Jaune sternly. He felt like a pit was opening up inside his stomach. "I've talked with your other professors, and they all concur that you have potential," At this, Jaune's hope rose a little, "But you fail time and again to execute. Can you explain yourself, Mr. Arc?" The fully fledged huntress glared at him.

"I-I... N-no, ma'am." Goodwitch stared at him and gave a little harumph. Jaune lowered his gaze. He could hardly tell the truth about his transcript.

"Then you leave me no choice but to put you on probation."

"Probation?"

"Yes, Mr. Arc. Beacon can't bother dealing with hunters in training who show no promise. You would only be putting yourself and your team mates in danger. As such, you have until the end of the year to prove yourself. You will make it into the fourth round of the tournament, or you will not be returning to Beacon at the end of the summer. Is that clearly understood, Mr. Arc?" Jaune figured that it wasn't an actual question.

"Yes ma'am."

"Dismissed."

Jaune got to his feet a little shakily. He walked through the battle arena towards the exit. He reached it, pushed open the door, and saw Pyrrha standing there, waiting. He was relieved. He knew if he was going to have any chance, he would need to work extra hard, and he knew he could count on the redhead to help him. With her, he thought he might have a shot. He could come back to Beacon next year.

He took a double take when she looked at him with a tear streak down her cheek.

"Pyrrha? What's wrong?" Jaune immediately asked. He had never seen the spartan cry, but the sight broke his heart a little. "Pyrrha?" He asked again when she didn't answer.

"I'm sorry Jaune," she said. "But I-I have to go. I won't be able to train tonight with you either." Jaune stopped in his tracks, he wanted to comfort her, but when he went to put his hand on her shoulder, she planted her hand on his chest. "Please Jaune, just go back to the dorm." She looked away as she said this, but there was no waver in her voice.

"Pyrrha, what's wrong? I don't underst-"

"Just go!" she said forcefully, then started to strut away. Jaune stared as his partner walked away from him. What had felt like a pit before now felt like a full blown hit from Nora's hammer. He walked back to the dorm, a sense of inevitable doom falling over him. Had he done something to her? When she came back to the dorm, Jaune tried to talk to her, but she cut him off.

"Jaune don't. I just want space for a while. Please, leave me be." Her eyes looked a little puffy, and Jaune thought maybe she had been crying. He wanted to do something for her so badly, but she wouldn't even let him get a word in edgewise. He went to bed that night feeling terrible. Not only was his time at Beacon being cut to only a few weeks, the person he had come to care most about didn't seem to want anything to do with him anymore. That cut him deeper than any blade ever could.

So there it is, the first chapter. Any comments, suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Future chapters will be shorter, I just wanted to get the main arcs going before moving on to other chapters. I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of my story. If all goes well there should be regular updates for the rest of summer, slowing down a bit as school starts up again. Thanks for taking the time to read :)