Overcast

Pyrrha pressed her cheek against the cold window, its warmth causing the clear glass to gradually cloud. The soft 'plip's of the raindrops striking the window punctuated the otherwise featureless silence.

This sort of weather prevented any sort of weekend training and Pyrrha had already finished all of her readings for class. Sure, grimm killed people and everything, but at least they were interesting. All Saturdays offered was the slow death, Pyrrha thought as she slid her cheek down the window. The loud squeak this produced was followed with a clump as her head—and her inexplicably-bright red natural hair—finally fell back onto her pillow.

Checking her scroll Pyrrha found that she had no texts. It was just typical of Nora, Ren, and fearless leader to go running off without her while she slept in. It wasn't her fault that she stayed up late on Friday to finish her homework—that she actually finished her homework. Flopping her head back onto her pillow Pyrrha closed her eyes out of sheer boredom.

Being 'The Invincible Girl' was great commercial PR, but when it came to friends it was a barrier more than anything. An invisible, intangible distance separating her from every single one of her classmates—look don't touch. Further complicating matters, Pyrrha wasn't the type of person to go out and make friends, meet and greet; any of that stuff. That made time with her team even more precious, as they were the only ones who accepted her as just a plain friend. She really did treasure every moment spent hanging out, going on missions, or even just talking, with them.

However, of late Pyrrha hadn't seen them much. Jaune was too wrapped up in his studies and Nora and Ren too wrapped up in each other. For her melancholy gathered like a storm—thick and shrouding, yet immovable.

Just as particularly venomous thoughts began to brew in her mind the door crept open. Jaune stepped in, grey hoodie-clad and inundated with rainwater.

"Oh, hey Pyrrha. Thought you were still sleeping," Jaune said, kicking off his shoes.

"No, I'm up," Pyrrha rejoined lazily, tilting her head to face Jaune. She was equally casually dressed—just yoga shorts and a t-shirt—but her demeanor and wild scarlet hair gave her a much more disheveled appearance.

"Well, you didn't miss much. We went out for breakfast and decided to shop around, but before long I just felt like a third wheel…," Jaune explained, sitting down at the nearby desk.

Pyrrha was all too familiar with Nora and Ren's—mostly Nora's—sickeningly sweet displays of affection. She was happy for them, of course, but after a certain point they're just showing off.

"I can imagine."

And it was really damn irritating.

"First Ren got Nora out of the rain, and then they started holding hands and staring lovingly into eachothers eyes. I decided to leave when Nora picked Ren up bridal style," Jaune said, pulling out his laptop.

Pyrrha just gave him an understanding nod, ending the conversation as Jaune turned back around toward his schoolwork.

"So what're you working on, history?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah. I'm on theories of faunus evolution right now," Jaune answered, pulling up the pdf.

Pyrrha paused for a moment.

"Hey, why don't I just tell you about the reading?"

Jaune turned around in his chair, not too eager to delve into the dense textbook, "Really? I don't want to trouble you…"

"Really. C'mon, I'll skip the redundant stuff," Pyrrha said, patting a spot at the foot of her bed. In truth she had anything but his educational goals in mind. Pyrrha just wanted to eke any social interaction she could out of him.

"Well alright," Jaune obliged, sitting down cross-legged, facing Pyrrha on her bed.

Sure it was a bit selfish, but she could allow herself this much selfishness, right?

"So first is bestial regression—the traditional belief. It holds that evolution took two different trajectories from animals. One, from animals to humans, with the more intellectual traits being selected for. Two, from animals to grimm, with strength and predation-based traits being favored," Pyrrha explained.

"That's what that newscaster was caught talking about, right? Lisa Lavender?" Jaune asked.

"Yes, bestial regression places faunus somewhere between humans and animals, asserting that they're less evolved. It's fallen out of favor scientifically, but many people still believe in it despite that," Pyrrha said. "You won't make any friends talking about it, as it's generally taboo in public life—often used as racist slang. However, some figures like Lavender use issues like bestial regression to bolster their viewer base with traditionals."

"Yeah, I don't think Velvet would appreciate that at all," Jaune said, thinking.

"Yeah, that's probably a bad idea," Pyrrha said, unconsciously tilting her head. She was honestly a bit surprised by Jaune's naivety. Still, this was nice...

The regular 'plip's on the window grew louder signaling the rain's intensification. The grey sky cast a pale light into the room, painting Pyrrha and Jaune in dull scarlet and gold.

"Next is geographic speciation," Pyrrha continued, her hands mimicking her words. "It's pretty simple; it holds that a common ancestor of humans and faunus was isolated into two separate populations by continental drift. The beings that evolved into faunus were left on Drake, to the northwest, and the direct ancestor of humans were left on the continent housing Vacuo and Vale."

"And when Drake had severe volcanic activity two million years ago the faunus migrated to the other continents," Jaune said.

"Right. On the test just remember to write that the faunus population traveled through the area now known as Vacuo before going to the other parts of the world," Pyrrha corrected breathlessly.

"The last major one is the niche populations theory. It's about… umm, it's about how the common ancestor evolved differently within the same territory. Ahhhhhhh…," Pyrrha paused for a moment. "Forests. Niche populations holds that the faunus specialized to live in forests, meanwhile humans…," Pyrrha trailer off again.

"It's okay if you don't know it," Jaune said.

"No, that's not it," Pyrrha said, waving her hand in dismissal. "I'm just kinda tired I suppose…"

"Huh," Jaune said, thinking. "Whhyyyy don't we go for lunch? You haven't eaten yet, right?"

"No, but it's pouring outside, we'll be soaked," Pyrrha said with a hint of condescension.

"I'll race ya!" Jaune said with a grim, bouncing up off of her bed to his feet.

After running out of the room Jaune noticed that a significant part of his team was not in attendance. Turning on his heel, he leaned back through the door, "C'mon! Between your semblance and my… shield we won't get a drop on us."

Rolling her eyes Pyrrha rose, pulling on a black pair of sweatpants and making for her shoes. "Well alright; you are going to get soaked, though."

The partners sprinted of the dorms at full tilt. They ran as fast as they were able through the deserted, rain-drenched campus. The rain bounced up off of the stone pathway as they sprinted by. At the same time the cold droplets bit into their skin as they impacted, causing any bare flesh to go numb.

"For once I want to be Ruby!" Pyrrha shouted over the rain, her semblance not doing much to deflect the droplets.

"You're telling me!" Jaune shouted back, laughing. His shield kept him dry from the shoulders up, but the rest of his body was rapidly dampening.

The pair kept up their speed, laughing and breathing out hot clouds. As they neared the cafeteria building the layer of warmth their dorm room had provided was all but dissipated.

They burst into the cafeteria laughing and spraying droplets everywhere. Jaune's hoodie and jeans were soaked straight through and Pyrrha's were faring little better. They were both flushed, panting hard, their warm breath painting the air white.

Pyrrha looked over to see the cafeteria deserted with the counter shuttered. "Aha-ahaha, you idiot, they're already closed!" she managed between bouts of giddy laughter.

"Ahaha-ho, really? That sucks!" Jaune chuckled out, his hands rested on his knees. His breath came shakily as he shivered, his skin numb from the cold and the wet.

Pyrrha's amusement developed into a booming laugh along with Jaune's and for a moment she forgot her melancholy.

A moment.

But like a fish leaping from the water, briefly escaping the bonds of gravity, for her, the fall had to come. And so it did. She stiffened, stifling her laugh, and crossed her arms to ward off the cold. She went back to being who she was; a leader, a role model, but not a close friend, never a friend. Pyrrha was never the outgoing type, she could never bring herself to put herself in a vulnerable social position. This was who she was. This was fine.

Jaune rose, his breath somewhat steadier, and stepped toward Pyrrha.

Pyrrha felt a tinge of guilt for giving Jaune a hard time, considering that she had taken him away from his studies. She was compelled to say, "Jaune, you do—"

Pyrrha watched in shock as Jaune reached up to brush a dripping maroon lock of hair behind her ear, resting his hand on her shoulder. She froze like there was a tiny deathstalker perched on her forehead. Pyrrha felt Jaune's hot breath against her neck and flushed a bright scarlet. He didn't say anything, but simply smiled kindly at her.

Pyrrha would have been totally paralyzed, but she didn't want to think—didn't want to rationalize anymore.

She just grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to her, capturing his scalding breath. His lips were soft upon her own chapped lips as he rejoined, embracing her. Pyrrha hungrily devoured Jaune, practically wringing the water from his hoodie as she clutched it. She had wanted this for so long. She reached up to grab fistfulls of his tawny hair as he clutched at her back.

They finally parted, gasping for air, and Pyrrha lightly punched him on the arm.

"Took you long enough," she said panting.

A breathless Jaune gave her a shrug that said "What're ya gonna do?"

Pyrrha just wrapped her defined arms around Jaune and pulled him close. Catching her breath, she nuzzled into the crook of his neck. Jaune followed suit, wrapping his own strong arms around Pyrrha. For a while the only noise was the periodic dripping water from her soaking hair and the panting breaths from the two of them. The water made shocking, ice-cold impacts against their skin, chilling its flushed surface a pale white. Eventually, their cloudy-breathed embrace began to rewarm their chilled-numb skin. Jaune's breath was once again hot on her ear.

"Thanks," Pyrrha whispered.

"Any time," Jaune whispered back.

Outside a lone ray of sunlight broke through the overcast sky.

Author's Note: Fun fact; the original title was 'Pyrrha's Sad or Some Shit,' but I had to part with it due to tonal differences.

As always, I'd love to hear what you think of all dis nonsense.

And I do apologize, my other unfinished stories are still to come (soonventually). It's just the obvious stuff; college, shit's cray, and I had to write this out as it was more in tune with my current emotions. MY EMOTIONS! Anyways =P