You Have One Missed Message

4mation

Jaune was folding his pyjama pants when Nora body-slammed him into the bed. Not entirely unusual. Significantly more unusual was her bawling and sobbing without Ren insisting that she couldn't have any more pancakes.

"You can't leave me, Jaune! How will I ever practice shield-boosted jumping without you? I'll be forever tied to the earth! Held captive by the ground! Flightless!"

Ah. Hugs. Not impromptu reverse suplexes. With Nora, the difference was only in intent.

Jaune wriggled his arms enough to release Nora's vice-grip on his ribcage. After a squeezed breath, he managed to wheeze a response.

"Nora, it's just for a week. I'll be back in time for the tournament before you know it. Just, you know, I want to make sure I can let my family know that I'm going to be on inter-kingdom television. I'm pretty sure they still don't entirely believe that I'm the leader of a Huntsman team, so, you know, it'll be good to let them know they can see Team JNPR in action." When Nora refused to release him, Jaune sighed. "Look, on the off chance that I break my leg or something, I want to at least let my family see me as a competent Huntsman-in-training before my career ends with me bedridden."

"But what will Ren and I do all alone? Stuck at Beacon, with everyone going home to see their families… It'll be awful! And lonely!"

Jaune squirmed, trying to see if Nora's latest wave of exaggerated anguish had lessened her grip.

Nope.

"Won't, uh, Blake still be here? You could, you know, maybe spar?"

Instead of being comforted, Nora seemed to only crunch Jaune even tighter.

"You know that Blake won't do anything besides read. She never does one-on-one sparring. And I can't spar with Ren all the time because then he's too tired to cook, and I can only bench Magnhild so many times before that gets boring too."

"Uh, well, you could, uh," Jaune wriggled in place and was about to give up all hope of ever having freedom of arm movement ever again when he noticed Pyrrha and Ren walking down the hall. "You could always ask Pyrrha for advice!"

Pyrrha started in the doorway at the sound of her name, and had barely turned to look when a pink-and-orange bolt shot across the room at her.

"Pyrrha it's awful everyone's leaving me and Ren and I'll have nothing to do except watch Blake read books and my brain's turning into oatmeal please help!"

Pyrrha sidestepped out the way, sending Nora crashing straight into long-suffering Ren. As Ren was pinned to the floor by 5 foot 1 of wailing dramatic, the look he shot Jaune was one of utter betrayal.

"Sorry Ren, but this one's your speciality!" Jaune said, pushing Pyrrha behind him so he could slam the door closed, leaving Ren to sort out Nora.

Beneath the grumbling and bawling from outside, Jaune heard Pyrrha timidly call "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry too much about them, Pyrrha," Jaune said as he turned back to his bed to finish packing. "They'll squabble for a bit, then Nora will get sad, and Ren will offer food, and they'll be back to normal in no time. Heck, they might even be able to see us off at the airships without Nora crying again."

"So, you finished packing?" Jaune asked as he pushed a particularly stubborn sock into the corner of his suitcase. When he didn't get an answer, he turned around, confused. "Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha was looking remarkably like a deer in the headlights, eyes darting back and forth between Jaune and the door. Jaune cocked his head to one side.

"You okay there, Pyrrha?"

Startled, her eyes snapped back to him and her cheeks flushed a soft pink.

"Oh, sorry, Jaune. I was just… distracted. Because we're alone in the room. Uh, packing, that is. We're alone in the room, packing our bags."

Jaune tilted his head to the other side. "Yes…?"

Pyrrha shook her head, the glow of her cheeks fading away like embers. "It's just, it's odd. To be going home, after all the craziness of Beacon. I was just thinking about how odd it would be to return home, and see all the normalcy of our old lives."

Jaune chuckled as he held his Beacon uniform contemplatively. "Yeah, it is kind of weird, isn't it? When I left, my family were more worried how I'd feel about being rejected than they were about any dangers. Now, though? Now when I get back, I can tell them all about how my team was there when Vale was attacked. I even managed to beat an Ursa all by myself. It'll be like I'm a real Huntsman."

Pyrrha smiled and walked over to him. She put a warm hand on Jaune's shoulder. "I'm sure they'll be proud of you. And when we graduate, they'll be there in the crowd, seeing you, the leader of Team JNPR."

Jaune smiled at that. For a brief, happy moment, he imagined it. With Pyrrha on one side, Nora and Ren on the other. Crocea Mors would be freshly polished, and his armour would shine in the spotlight. Team RWBY would be graduating too. He'd get to meet the families of his best friends. And he'd be able to introduce Pyrrha Nikos, world-renowned fighter and face of Pumpkin Pete, to his family. His partner.

It was more than he'd ever imagined.

Ducking his head, Jaune nodded. "Yeah. Let's make it happen. I mean, I've still got a lot of work to do, but we can make it happen."

Pyrrha smiled cheekily at that. "Well, I'm glad you're very enthusiastic. Because I've got something special for you."

"Huh?" Jaune looked at Pyrrha quizzically. "What is it? Oh, was it like, the three-month anniversary of JNPR? Crap, I didn't get anything for you! Or Nora or Ren!"

Pyrrha covered her mouth with the back of her hand as she giggled. She giggled very prettily, Jaune realised. Not Nora's booming laughs, or Yang's devious cackle, or Weiss's eye-rolling huff of amusement. It was just another one of those things that made Pyrrha Pyrrha.

"No, silly. It's nothing like that. Here, give me your scroll."

"Ohhhhh kay." Jaune had to fumble about the mess of clothes on his bed before he found it. "Here we go. What do you need it for?"

"Just a little something I made last night," Pyrrha replied as she pulled out her own scroll. She transferred a file to Jaune's scroll with their direct interface, downloading it directly to Jaune's scroll. "And there. All done."

"Why are you being so mysterious?" Jaune asked as Pyrrha gave him back his scroll. He checked what she'd installed onto it. "A video?"

Pyrrha nodded. "I was thinking last night. Over this break, we won't be able to train together, and you don't like training by yourself. But the only way to keep getting better is to do it regularly. So I made a small instructional video for you. Just a few exercises that you should keep doing. They're directly on your scroll's hard drive, so even if you're off somewhere camping with your family, you can watch them even if you don't get good CCT coverage. I want you to practice it every night, okay? Just like we do at Beacon."

"Wow," Jaune looked at his scroll with new enthusiasm. "Training videos? For me?"

Pyrrha giggled again. "Of course, Jaune. We're partners. It's our job to make sure that we're the best we can be. I'll be spending my evenings going over some of the team attacks you made."

"Oh yeah," Jaune realised with a start. "About those, I came up with some new ones. I'll have to send them to you and Nora and Ren's scrolls. I've been thinking of some names as well."

Pyrrha patted Jaune's arm in chaste reminder. "Well, just don't forget to send them, ok?"

"What kind of leader would I be if I didn't?" Jaune asked, bumping Pyrrha with his shoulder. She smiled and bumped him back. For once, he didn't go tumbling to the floor. He did, however, have to embarrassingly pinwheel his arms before Pyrrha could grab him with a startled "I'm sorry!"