#arkosweek2022

Pyrrha knew she was being silly, almost full-blown ridiculous at this point, but she had never expected her morning to go down like this.

“I’M FREE!!” Nora shouted as she bounced across the room, an apparent sugar rush in full effect. The orange-haired girl was literally blasting off the walls of the dorm. Ren had already been knocked out, an unfortunate accident with the door when Nora had announced her new state to the team. With him out it now fell to her and Jaune to wrangle the errant girl. Something that would be easier if her brain wasn’t trying to take advantage of the situation.

“Nora as your leader I would like you to calm down,” Jaune tried to reason with his teammate, as he peered over the propped-up bed the two used for cover. The light and shadows of the room perfectly capture the image of a struggling hero—

No bad Pyrrha! Pyrrha berated her subconscious as again it began to morph Jaune into some sort of fantasy. He was an actual person someone who was trying to find his destiny. The fact that he was cute, kind, and a bit of a goof—Nope she was doing it again.

“Alright Pyrrha,” Jaune started as he crouched down, his face now inches away though still craned toward the noises of Nora’s destruction, “We’re going to have to…are you alright?” he asked as he finally turned to look at his partner who was slapping her cheeks rather forcefully.

“Oh, yeah I’m good Jaune, sorry,” Pyrrha apologized, “you were saying?”

“Uh well since Nora’s officially on a power-high,” Jaune started, his statement reinforced by Nora’s shriek of excitement. “We’ve got to knock her out somehow,” he finished, as his mind tried to figure out just what Pyrrha had been doing. It was still early in the morning for the weekend, so he mostly chalked it up to her waking herself up. If he was honest with himself, he was exhausted too. He had been looking forward to a quiet morning. Nora usually spent the first morning of a weekend at the gym with Yang. Who Jaune was rapidly thinking had something to do with the current situation.

“That seems a bit…severe,” Pyrrha ventured, though she too was growing concerned at the destruction Nora was cause. Oh, what if Jaune liked it tha—NO! Pyrrha again slammed her inner thoughts down, this was not the time to be thinking about such notions. She needed to halt her focus on Jaune. Well not entirely, she just needed to get her head in the real world, not whatever fantasy she had in her dreams. He needed her help right now not her feelings.

“Yeah, I’m not looking forward to trying that either,” Jaune said as he watched Nora start to crack the walls, “but we need to do something to get her to stop before…” he trailed off. Pyrrha saw his head tilt as he suddenly thought. He just looked so cute—No bad focus Pyrrha. However, as she tried to shake her head clear, Jaune suddenly turned around. “You’re going to have to toss me.”

“Wha what? Wait WHAT!” Pyrrha’s voice went from startled to bewilderment as she processed just what Jaune had asked for.

“You’re the only one with both the aim and strength while I might just be enough to stun her for a bit…and live hopefully,” he muttered completely missing Pyrrha's dazed expression. He was too busy worrying about if his plan would work.

“But what are you—how are you?” Pyrrha continued to stammer. Oh, sure they all had thrown one another before, but in such an enclosed space with a hyped-up Nora as a target. Pyrrha wasn’t sure how it would go and was hesitant to do something that could harm both her teammates.

“I trust you Pyrrha, it will work,” Jaune responded as he noticed her worry, throwing her a smile. A smile that caused her heart to melt. Pyrrha liked when he gave that smile, both because it was nice and because he was happy to reach out. She knew there were still the shadows of his perceived faults, on what he had to do to himself to be a true man. Still, she was happy to see him take a step away from that and let his teammates help. It had started to make their team fights dangerous and— “Uh Pyrrha?” Jaune suddenly cut through her thoughts as he grew concerned over her silence.

“Ah yes, sorry,” Pyrrha scrambled as she hardened her gaze toward the bouncing Nora, her hands grasping Jaune’s shoulders. Ignoring Jaune’s audible gulp as second thoughts flooded his brain, she quickly analyzed Nora’s bounce path. It was quite an erratic pattern, but there was something, there!

“Uh Pyrrha you gooAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!” Jaune went to ask as he felt Pyrrha’s hands tighten, and in a second she executed a perfect spin throw and nailed Nora midair with him. The two slammed into the ceiling and then dropped to the floor. Jaune quickly scrambled to pin the vibrating Nora under him, as she quickly recovered from the three impacts.

“Ahhahaha! You dare challenge the Queen of the EEP!” Nora's challenge died in a shriek as Jaune pressed his fingers into her ribs. A silence fell over the room as everyone took stock of what happened.

Jaune sighed at his family’s old method of dealing with wildness appeared to be effective on Nora. However, Nora was quick to try and wriggle out of Jaune’s grip. “You think a bit of ticklahAHAHAHAH!!” she tried to threaten Jaune who just unleashed more tickle onto her, forcing laughter to drown out her words.

Pyrrha could only watch in confusion as Jaune continued to tickle Nora into exhaustion. It certainly was a unique way of dealing with a crazed Nora. Of course, her brain had again started to wander, as it tried to replace Nora with herself and turn the activity a bit steamier. With a gasp, she crouched behind the upturned bed to hide her blushing face in case Jaune saw. This was highly inappropriate, sure it was nice to imagine what she and Jaune could do—No no Pyrrha, not that, focus on something else like…Ren, Ren needed help. She quickly stood up and marched toward the prone form of Ren, doing her best to ignore Nora’s pleas toward Jaune. Instead, she focused on the unconscious form of Ren. He looked mostly alright, though a bit of a bruise on his forehead had started to form. For a brief moment, her brain superimposed Jaune in Ren’s place.

“Slap!”

Again, she whacked herself, hard this time, her focus was on Ren now. Jaune was busy handling Nora, whose laughter had reached a new crescendo at this time. Desperately shutting out Nora’s laughter, Pyrrha carefully scooped up Ren. Gently she set him down on his bed, still fighting her head as it tried to daydream about Jaune. She needed to focus, she had to make sure Ren was fine. She busied herself with her scroll, setting up a checkup for him just in case. However, as she finishes scheduling that meeting, she notes that the room has gone silent. She turned around and spots a haggard Jaune untangle himself from a thoroughly hoarse Nora.

“And next time you don’t steal Yang’s energy drink,” he stated, getting a tired thumbs up from Nora. “Ah great job Pyrrha, how’s Ren looking?” Jaune finally asked as he surveyed Pyrrha’s operation.

“He’s looking okay, might need to go to the nurse once he wakes up for a checkup,” Pyrrha stated as she turned back around to look at Ren.

“Gotcha I’ll let him know once he gets up,” Jaune remarked as he helped Nora up onto another bed. Pyrrha nodded and for the first time didn’t know just what to say next. An awkward silence descended across the room, as the two partners realized it really was just them now.

Free weekend, teammates out, sounds like the perfect opportunity, Pyrrha’s mind thought as it raced back to its latest obsession, Jaune. It wasn’t hard for her to understand why, he was adorable, driven, and kind. Not to mention even though he had been told point blank she was the famous Invincible Girl; he always seemed to make her feel like she was just a fellow person. He didn’t trust her moniker, he trusted her, Pyrrha. It made her heart warm and why shouldn’t she take this opportunity. After all, a peaceful breakfast would be a nice bonding moment. No, she thought, He might take it the wrong way. She knew he still had a soft spot about having pity taken on him. No, the best solution would be for him to make the first move, it would just be better for everyone that way.

“Soooo, you want to get some breakfast?” Jaune asked, unaware of Pyrrha’s thoughts, and mostly just trying to figure out why he felt awkward asking that question.