On a Thursday afternoon, people crowded into Haven's airfield. Bullheads flew in and the students inside returned to the school. Most of their missions had been completed at about the same time, as scheduled, and their return was organized as one big group.

With just his hearing, Clark could pinpoint which ones held who, and it sounded like Ruby and Yang would be landing fairly close to team JNPR. The two sisters' Bullhead touched down first and they exited from the large side doors along with the three members of team SSN.

Clark waved "Hey guys. Did your mission go well?"

"Hi Clark!" Ruby came down, and everyone else also gave polite hellos. "Yep, we did awesome. How about you and Qrow?"

"We didn't find what we were looking for."

"Oof, too bad," Yang said.

"Yeah, but I was more bothered by the fact that your uncle could nag so much."

"Tell me about it," Yang said. She paused for a moment to wave goodbye to team SSN, who said that they were going to go back to their dorm. "He doesn't do it often, but when he does, you're in for a ride. What happened?"

Clark answered with a sheepish grin. "We . . . might have disagreed on how often I was allowed to come back to the city during our mission."

Yang blinked before she seemed to realize. "Riiight, you have that stuff in the Mistral. So he wanted you to stay while you could flash here and back?"

"That's basically it. Qrow turned out to have his reasons, which I still don't completely agree with, but it's in the past now."

"That's good. So, did anything interesting happen with that while we were gone?" Ruby asked.

"Not really, same old same old." Clark pointed over to a Bullhead lowering a couple spots over. "By the way, JNPR is about to land. Let's go greet them."

Once they walked over, the hum of the Bullhead's engine died down and the doors opened. First out was an older man, probably their huntsman advisor, followed by Ren. Strangely enough, instead of coming over to the waiting trio, he followed the advisor to one of the school buildings after saying a few words to the rest of his team.

The advisor's expression was set and serious, so Clark wondered whether Ren was in trouble. Although his relaxed and easy posture didn't fit someone who was about to be reprimanded.

The remainder of team JNPR came down and Ruby asked "What's going on with Ren?"

Jaune looked to the side. "There was an, um, incident. He didn't follow orders, which could have ended up badly, so he's being punished for it."

"Ren did that?" Yang's surprise was mirrored by Ruby and Clark. Clark had only known the guy for a few months, but even he knew that Ren was the last person they'd expect disobedience from.

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "Our mission was to Ren's former hometown to exterminate the Grimm largely responsible for its fall. We didn't know that at the time however, so we were just as surprised when he reacted so strongly to it."

"Really? He didn't look like he just came back from something like that," Clark said. If he were to spend years away from destroyed Smallville and returned to find the monster that had done it, he would have been furious.

"Ren's been feeling a lot better after Jaune killed the thing," Nora said. "Besides, being in trouble isn't going to be a big deal. His punishment is probably just gonna be mandatory sessions with a counselor."

"Nora's right," Pyrrha said. "Despite his punishment and the nature of our mission, it seems to have been very beneficial for him."

"Hey guys!" A girl's voice called out, and a few of them turned to face her. Clark recognized her, and so did Ruby and Jaune, but everyone else met her with confused looks.

"Hi Iris," Clark said for the benefit of those who didn't know her. "I assume you also just got back from your mission?"

"You assume right," she said. "Anyway, hello everyone, I'm friends with Ruby and Jaune. I happened to land just close by and thought I'd say hi. How'd your missions go?"

"Good," Ruby said.

"My teammate got in trouble," Jaune added.

Iris' eyes widened. "Whoa, really?"

"Yeah, I can fill you in later during club. What about your mission?"

"Nothing too interesting here. Just your usual 'go to a town and kill some Grimm'. Speaking about the club, you said you had a few ideas for new activities to keep people interested. Is there a time we could meet to talk?"

"Tomorrow evening should be good," Jaune said. "I'll text you a specific time later."

"Alright, but make sure they're not like the trivia games where you and Ruby pretty much win everything," Iris chuckled and bumped elbows with him. "You guys really do know your stuff."

Jaune laughed too. "Yeah, we do, but don't worry. My ideas won't get me or Ruby any prizes. See you later."

"Yeah, goodbye," she waved. "By the way, you're all welcome to come join the Dart club if you want. Especially Clark, if you happen to change your mind."

Once Iris left, Pyrrha cleared her throat. "So, Jaune, that girl, you know her from the Dart club?"

Jaune grinned. "Yeah, she's actually pretty cool. She puts in a lot of effort to make the club fun, even though there's not too much we can do since the Dart hasn't been seen since the attack on Vale."

How subtle of them. It took Clark some decent willpower to resist rolling his eyes. "Well wish her good luck from me when you next see her. I don't think the Dart is ever going to come back."

\\\\\

The day after they'd come back from missions, Jaune and Pyrrha went back on their late-night patrols in the city. Even though it was quiet the majority of the time, she enjoyed them. She and Jaune could be alone together and talk, which would have been awkward to arrange otherwise.

True, they had training and studying sessions together, but those weren't focused on conversation. In addition, much of their remaining free time was spent with the team. Obviously, she could just ask to talk to him without Ren or Nora nearby, but there was still the chance it could unintentionally convey her feelings.

"I don't just know how to dance and wear a dress. I can braid hair and even put on make-up," Jaune said. "That's what happens when one boy grows up with seven sisters."

Pyrrha laughed. "You certainly have plenty of interesting stories of them. I'm actually rather jealous."

"You shouldn't be. Maybe one or two would have been okay, but seven was way too many," Jaune shook his head, although the smile on his face indicated his true thoughts. "I still don't know how my parents did it."

"Your mother must be impressive."

"Yeah, she-

A burst of gunfire interrupted their conversation. It was a few streets over and immediately followed by yelling.

They got to their feet and rushed over. When they reached the fighting, they stopped behind one of the gangs. There appeared to be only two groups here. Sometimes there could be three or even four, but this was the most common.

"You take these guys, I'll go to the other side and start on the ones there," Jaune said.

"Okay." They hadn't had many opportunities to break up these fights, but they already had a set method. Split up to stop both groups simultaneously, then call Clark over once they were finished.

Jaune went out, and Pyrrha waited until she assumed Jaune had made it to the other side. Then, she ran out of the corner and smacked the flat of her blade against a gangster's head, knocking him unconscious. There were about a dozen of them here, she'd only need a minute or two to deal with them.

She ran up to the next one, knocking him out just as easily and moved on to the third. This one, however, managed to react. With a panicked and confused voice, he shouted "Holy crap! Here! One's here!"

She dealt with him as well, but surprisingly, the warning spread through them with little delay and they all turned their weapons on her. Leaving her no choice but to deflect their bullets with her sword. If she'd had her shield, she wouldn't have even needed to slow down.

Pyrrha leapt to the side, and the majority of the gangsters were unable to keep their aim on her as she moved. She ran to the left, leaving only a couple of them free to fire, since those in the back might hit their friends. Simple enough to handle with only a sword, even if it wasn't Miló.

Two more fell, and she was moving on to the rest before a woman cried out. "Enough! All of you out of the way! I'll take care of him, take shots when you can."

Him. They assumed Pyrrha was a man. Well, good to know that the cloak and mask were working.

A woman jumped forward, blocking Pyrrha from attacking the other gang members. She had shoulder-length brown hair and face tattoos, and in her hand she twirled around a chain with a fairly heavy-looking ball at the end.

"So you're part of the Interference, right?" The woman smirked.

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. There was something wrong, she could still hear gunshots from Jaune's end, but they weren't at all the usual confused response that a gang gave whenever they broke up a fight. She hadn't seen them shoot in this direction either, and what one of them said earlier 'one's here'.

This had been planned. They'd wanted Clark but had gotten her and Jaune instead.

"Silent treatment, huh?" The woman said. "That's okay, we're gonna get you talking soon anyway."

The woman swung the ball at her and Pyrrha hit it aside with her sword. She jumped forward to use her close-range advantage, but the criminal pulled her chain back. Forcing Pyrrha to jump to the side to avoid the weight.

Gunshots followed it. Pyrrha dodged what she could and blocked the few she couldn't. Still, she made progress towards the woman. Her chains weren't too difficult to deal with, and the next time they swept towards her, Pyrrha managed to get them wrapped around her sword. Then, with a tight grip, she pulled the weapon out of the criminal's hands.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"You asshole!" The woman shouted. Apparently, she still thought she stood a chance, because she rushed towards Pyrrha with her bare hands.

She had aura, that was confirmed with a test tap. With that knowledge, Pyrrha efficiently cut it down. Whoever this person was, she wasn't a professional huntress and didn't stand a chance against Pyrrha's years of tournament fighting.

When Pyrrha estimated that she'd gotten nearly all of her opponent's aura down, assuming an average amount of aura, the woman yelled. "Damn it! Where the hell's Kai! Get him over here!"

"We-we will, but they're dealing with one of the Interference too!"

The woman glared at her. "You fucker, there's more of you?"

Pyrrha blocked a kick from the woman, then swung her blade at her face. When it connected, it took the last of her aura. Allowing Pyrrha to smack her unconscious and deal with the remaining gunmen. There didn't seem to be anyone else here with aura, despite the woman's insistence for a Kai. They still shot at her in a panic, but Pyrrha dispatched them easily.

Then, she hurried over to Jaune. The sounds of combat hadn't ended, which meant that Jaune must still be dealing with someone at least on that woman's level.

She was proved right when she arrived at the other end. A few men were flat on the ground, but Jaune was having difficulty with a lean man wielding a spear. The man jumped back, allowing the men around him to fire. Jaune wasn't fast enough to evade or experienced enough to deflect them all, so he could only block them with his shield. However, the man kept leaping around, his spear transforming into two guns which he used to fire in directions his men couldn't. Jaune couldn't block them all at once.

"Damn, you must have a lot of aura," the man said. "Too bad though, that just means the pain's gonna last longer."

"Get away from him!" Pyrrha yelled. She jumped in front of the man, allowing Jaune some respite. "Take care of the others, I have him."

"Seriously? I was about to finish off your buddy there, don't-whoa!" He blocked a fierce slash. His expression changed, and he combined his weapons back into a spear.

His form was sloppy. She'd been better at handling a spear at fourteen. Understandable, he was only a criminal, and before Beacon, she'd had possibly the best pre-academy combat education available.

"I'm done!" Jaune said shortly, and once he joined her, they made quick work of the criminal as partners. He made the last hit, bashing the man with his shield to leave him passed out on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune was breathing a bit heavily.

"My aura held up. Let's call Clark over and tell him what happened."

They blew their whistles, and in a few seconds, Clark suddenly appeared in front of them. "What's the problem?"

They explained what had happened. How they'd gone in to stop what had appeared to be a gang fight. When they'd arrived, however, the men on both sides had seemed to be ready for them. Like her, Jaune had also realized that they'd instantly stopped fighting each other and focused on the two of them. There'd even been an individual with aura on each side.

Clark took in their story and looked around. "None of them are wounded, and there are a lot of bullets shot into the ground instead of the walls. Thanks for telling me about this, I'll find out more about it. Before that though, are you two okay?"

"I'm fine," Pyrrha said.

"I . . . I'm almost out of aura," Jaune said. "If anything else happens tonight, I'm going to be useless."

"Do you want a lift back to Haven then?" Clark asked.

"Yeah. It's probably better since I won't get in Pyrrha's way anymore."

"You weren't in my way," she said.

He nodded, but her words didn't seem to reach him. "Thanks for saying that. Anyway, good night, I'll see you in the morning."

He vanished, the signature of Clark's super-speed transportation. Over the next minute, the criminals in the streets followed.

For the rest of the night, Pyrrha patrolled the streets alone.

\\\\\

Pyrrha awoke to the whoomph of someone falling onto a mattress and groaning. It took her a few moments to recognize Jaune's voice and she rose up. Rubbing her eyes, she faced Jaune's bed.

"Pyrrha, you're up?" he asked, exhaustion evident in his voice.

"I am. What time is it?"

"About eleven-thirty, I think."

She nodded. Normally, she would have considered it inexcusable to wake up that late in the morning. Even during a weekend. However, the nights in Mistral had changed her mind. They were late, so late that they lasted until what was closer to early morning.

Pyrrha finally took in Jaune's pained expression as he lay in his bed. "Are you okay?" she asked. He hadn't even covered himself with his blanket, instead just collapsed on top of it.

"I'm fine," he answered. "I just trained with Clark this morning, so you know, ow. You know I'm still finding muscles that can feel sore? The human body's amazing."

"You sparred with Clark? Didn't you agree to cut back on training?"

"Yeah, but I thought I should make up for coming back to Haven early last night. I'm kinda regretting that right now, but at least I got a new personal record. One hundred and five minutes, I might catch up to you soon." He raised his head and smiled at her, although even that seemed to take effort since he promptly let it drop back.

"How much training do you plan to do for the next few days?" Pyrrha asked.

"Tonight, maybe something light with Ren if I'm feeling better. I think I'll be good by tomorrow though, so I'll have another marathon session with Clark then. I'll try to fit another one in during the week, and in the meantime I'll still do the normal sessions with you and me. Maybe I'll add some with Nora too."

"No, Jaune, please. Wait at least wait a week until you do that with Clark again. That's too much if you're also going to training with me and your teammates."

"But-

"I'm concerned Jaune, and you promised. Didn't you say an Arc keeps his word?"

He grumbled and said a few words to himself too softly for her to hear. "Fine, I'll wait."

"Thank you."

\\\\\

Hours later, Pyrrha knocked on the side of Clark's door. He always kept it open, so she could see that he was typing on his tablet at his desk.

He turned around and faced her. "Hey, Pyrrha."

"Hello Clark, can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure." He put his tablet aside. "What is it?"

She sat down on the bed and spoke. "Jaune, I'm worried about him."

"Is something wrong?"

"I think so, but it'll take some time to go into detail. To start off, I'm concerned about his self-esteem."

Clark frowned. "You think he doesn't value himself?"

"Not enough at least. I wasn't certain until recently, and it got worse last night. When Jaune struggled against that gang member."

"Actually, I don't think that guy was a gang member," Clark said, then he shook his head. "Sorry, that's not important right now. You were saying?"

"Well, surely you remember how he was when we called you. He thought he was in my way, and for a while now, he's been overexerting himself in training."

"Yeah, I think I see what you mean. Jaune did push himself a lot in our spar earlier."

Pyrrha nodded. "Exactly. Seeing him lying on his bed exhausted is part of what prompted me to talk to you. He's been training a good deal more frequently, not just with you, but me, Ren, and Nora."

"Shouldn't he be?" Clark said. "No offense, but it's not hard to figure out that his training pre-Beacon isn't up to your guys' level."

"That's true. I don't have an issue with him being dedicated to training, but I believe the sheer amount he's doing is unhealthy. Not just for his physical health, he's working himself to the bone because he doesn't think he's good enough. For example, during our mission, he said his own regimen was lacking compared to yours. Which would clearly be impossible for any of us to match."

"Oh." Clark paused. "So you think I might be making it worse?"

"I actually hadn't considered that, but yes," Pyrrha said. Once she saw Clark's apologetic expression, she hastened to add "It's not the main reason though, and not at all your fault. You have to understand, you're so much stronger than us that it can be discouraging from time to time even for me. I'm satisfied with my improvement, but I imagine Jaune would feel much worse."

"I should have realized . . ." Clark focused elsewhere for a moment or two before fixing his eyes back to her. "So what do you think we should do? Have you talked to him about this?"

"I've tried to reassure him and convince him that he doesn't need to train so much, especially after our advisor scolded him during that incident with Ren, but he hasn't changed his behavior. I'm honestly at a loss on how to help him." Pyrrha said, her hands tightened into fists. Admitting it was more difficult than she'd imagined.

"Hey, cheer up. At the very least, he has a partner who cares this much about him," Clark said with a grin. His face became serious. "Have you talked to anyone else about this?"

"No, you're the first."

He seemed puzzled by that. "Huh, okay. I'm not sure why I'd be your first choice, but I'll try my best to help."

Pyrrha chuckled. She supposed his confusion made sense, but it just struck her as funny. She hadn't made a conscious decision to come to him because he would be the best person to talk to, even though he probably was. He'd just been the first person to come to mind.

Clark was mature for his age and he was already a few years older than them. Had he taken on a sort of older brother role in their minds? The thought seemed especially fitting regarding Ruby. While it wasn't at all like when he'd first introduced himself as the Dart, she still clearly looked up to him.

"I'll make sure to talk to him about this, and don't worry, I won't tell him you're the one who told me about it," he said. "I guess we could come up with a training regimen for him that's healthy but still rigorous enough that he'd be okay with it. We should probably tell the others too, get them to watch out for him as well."

"Yes, yes thank you." She smiled. They were simple methods, but without Clark's support, there was a good chance Jaune wouldn't agree to them.

Pyrrha recalled something. She hadn't planned on discussing it with Clark, but she supposed it was actually related to their conversation. "Jaune also seemed to be cheered up by the mention of the Dart club. Spending more time with them might convince him to form a better opinion of himself."

Clark made a face. "Right. That."

"Is there something wrong with the club?" she asked, curious about what could make him give that sort of reaction.

"No, except, well . . ." He met her gaze. "You know what it's like to have fan clubs. Don't you think it would be weird if Ruby and Jaune joined one about you?"

Pyrrha considered it. "It would depend on the reason. We're already friends, so I doubt they'd be as . . . let's say enthusiastic as some fans can get. If they joined one out of respect and appreciation for me, as they are for you, I agree that it would still be a bit strange. Ultimately though, I'd be flattered."

"Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I'll have to accept it eventually."

"Yes, however, regarding the club." Pyrrha pressed her knees together and readied herself. After a slight intake of breath, she spoke "That girl we met the other day, Iris, the president of the club, do you know a lot about her?"

Clark shook his head. "No, that was actually my second time meeting her. She seems nice enough though."

"I-I see. I wanted to ask, don't you think she and Jaune seem rather close?"

"They seem like good friends, is that what you mean?"

Pyrrha looked down. "Maybe I'm troubling myself over nothing, but I've been trying to break through to him, to help him since our mission began, and nothing I've done has worked. Then, suddenly she comes along and cheers him up with a few words. It's-it's-"

"It's frustrating when the person you love seems happier with someone else."

Her eyes shot open, meeting Clark's steady gaze. Her first instinct was to deny it, but there was no point. He and the others already knew how she felt about Jaune, and just now, she might as well have outright said that Iris bothered her.

Still, Pyrrha was at a loss for words at the candid statement. Clark sighed. "Pyrrha, do you remember what I said that night on the boat?"

"Yes," she said. It would have been difficult not to recall that strange conversation in the middle of the night.

"Then you should realize that this is exactly what I warned you about," Clark said. "You can't expect to be able to wait forever until you can tell him how you feel. Are you planning to tell him sometime soon? Or maybe you've decided that you're satisfied being friends. What is it?"

"I don't know. Neither," she answered in a feeble voice.

"Really?"

She nodded.

"Well then, sure, that's completely fine. Just bumble along and come complaining to me when some other girl shows up and takes Jaune's attention." Clark shook his head. "I can't believe this. Is confessing scary? Yes, I'm not going to downplay that. Still, my own love life is full of mistakes I've made because I was scared. It's your choice if you want to do the same, but I don't need to hear about them."

"I-I'm sorry." Pyrrha didn't know how else to respond to his harsh tone.

He just turned away, and they sat in heavy silence. After a few silent seconds, Clark closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. With a tired voice, he said "No, no, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said all that. My own romance disasters don't make it right for me to rant at you."

She was relieved by his sincere apology and responded in kind. "I suppose . . . even if you were more severe than I would have preferred, you did have a point. I've had over a year to tell Jaune how I feel, how can I complain if another girl seems to be close with him?"

"There's nothing wrong with feeling that way. Besides, there's probably more to this than you liking him. Jaune's also your friend, and someone else seemed to brighten his day more with a few words than you had when trying for days. That's completely understandable, and I shouldn't have jumped the gun and focused just on you liking him." Clark winced, turning away in shame. "Again, really sorry about that."

Pyrrha smiled. "I accept your apology. Thank you as well for offering to help with both of those issues."

"You're welcome, and hey, I still have plenty of love advice if you want it. Don't expect too much though, it's mostly a long list of what not to do."

"Hmm," Pyrrha tapped her chin with her finger as if deeply contemplating the offer. "It would be foolish not to take that offer. Can you offer some wisdom for me now?"

"Sure-" Clark suddenly stopped speaking. Then, he tilted his head slightly and focused his eyes on the door. "Hold on, Yang's about to come up."

Pyrrha blinked. "Didn't you say that you usually tune out our conversations around the dorm? Are you also looking through the walls right now?"

"No, I'm just using my hearing right now. I don't listen to most stuff around the dorm, but I can tell when someone's coming up to my room. And I can recognize you guys by your footsteps."

Soon, Yang got close enough that Pyrrha could hear her as well. The footsteps out the door were followed by a knock.

Yang showed up around the corner. "Hey Clark-oh, Pyrrha, you're here too."

"I'm sorry, are you here to talk to Clark? I can leave if you want."

"No, it's cool. I was gonna look for you too, so this is actually convenient."

"What do you need us for?" Clark asked.

Yang sat down beside Pyrrha. "Alright, there's a super important day coming up and I want your help in getting ready for it."