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I knocked on the door to our room. No one had seen Pyrrha all day, and it was getting concerning. Especially since it was the cafeteria’s monthly Gyro Day, and she usually never missed that. All she said to any of us three was “You guys go ahead” when we were all heading out. “Pyrrha?” I called. “You in there?”
It took me all of eight seconds to get a response. “Come in.”
With that out of the way, I opened the door. Pyrrha was sitting on her bed, looking at something on her Scroll. She hadn’t even changed out of her pajamas.
“Did I miss Gyro Day?” she asked, flatly. She’d barely looked up at me since I opened the door.
“Well, I have it on good authority that they’ll be doing it again for dinner.” I stepped a little closer to her. “Actually… it’s because Rosemary noticed you weren’t there for lunch.”
Pyrrha sighed, swiping at her Scroll a few more times. “Don’t want to disappoint my favorite cook. Guess I’ll be down for dinner, then.”
“Pyrrha… you haven’t missed a day of classes since you enrolled.” I sat down next to Pyrrha, trying to get her to talk. “What’s going on?”
She blinked a couple times, and showed me the image on her Scroll. It was of her, though she looked much younger. She was smiling happily, next to the man taking the picture. His hair was brown, but his eyes were the same emerald green as Pyrrha’s. I had no doubt he was her father.
I smiled a little at this touching photo. “Feeling homesick?”
She looked down. “Not… exactly.” I wasn’t going to pry, but I didn’t end the conversation either. If she wanted to talk… she’d talk.
“My father was… a very good man. He painted, for the most part, but his art and my mother’s catering job were enough to support us.” Pyrrha turned off the Scroll, setting it aside. “Though he… wasn’t always around. Always going off into the world to find inspiration. One day, when I was eight, he went off to Solitas… to paint the Skydance, like he always wanted to.” She let out a soft, single laugh. “Mom said he’d talk for years about seeing those lights firsthand.
“And then… we both got word that the ship he’d taken was…” She rubbed her eyes, and it wasn’t hard to see her hand was a little wetter. “Was attacked by Grimm… It was ten years ago today…”
Everything made a lot more sense now. I was almost sorry I’d bothered her at all, but she’d never said a word of it to any of us.
“That day, I… swore to myself that I’d stop as many stories like mine from happening as I could. That was the day I swore I’d become a Huntress. But…” Something was happening to Pyrrha that I’d only then realized I’d never seen before. She was getting choked up. “But with the tournaments and sponsorships and stuff, I… sometimes I feel like I’ve lost sight of my…”
She brought both her palms up to her face, and started… crying. Right in front of me. I had this strange feeling of being so close to her, and yet so far. Close because, well, crying in front of your friend is a very intimate act. Far because I had no idea if there was anything I could do for her.
So I, in my infinite and idiotic wisdom, did the one thing that made sense to me. I put my hands on her shoulders and hugged her. I didn’t know if this was really what she needed. But it was the only thing that made sense to do when your friend is hurting, right?
Well, apparently, I wasn’t completely off-base. Because before I knew it, her hands were around my back and her face was buried in my chest. Which was a good thing, because from how hot my own face was, I was probably blushing. And still, I had one on the back of her head and another between her shoulder blades.
After what must have been at least fifteen minutes of this, her breathing was under enough control to speak to me. “I never told anyone about this before now…” She pulled away a little, just enough for us to come face to face. “I haven’t even cried in front of anyone but my mother in ten years…”
I brought my hand up to her cheek, thumbing the tears away. It was such a natural thing to do, I barely even knew it. “I’m… glad you did, in a way.”
“So am I.” Pyrrha looked at me, with those big green eyes. This close to her face, it was like I could see into her soul. But I ostensibly couldn’t read her mind, because what she did next caught me completely off-guard.
She kissed me.
And before I could even register that, I was wrapped up in another hug, her head nestled on my shoulder. “I trust you, Lie.”
I smiled, wrapping my arms around her one more time. “I trust you too.”