"Wow Ren! Look how many mugs he has!"
Nora opened the cabinet and started counting the endless rows of coffee mugs.
"Nora, be careful. We're guests here."
"I know that Ren, but how often do you get to snoop around a teacher's place?"
Ren sighed, but decided it wouldn't hurt to let her poke around Doctor Oobleck's coffee cabinet a bit, so long as she didn't hurt anything. There was an anxious feeling nagging at the back of his brain and Nora's chattering was winding him tighter. It had been a whirlwind since Beacon was attacked. After the evacuation,Jaune had been...lifeless and it wasn't long before Professor Port had contacted his family and he had been sent home to the many comforting arms of the Arc family.
Of course, Nora and Ren had no home to go to. Doctor Oobleck offered them his home as they figured out their next move. He 'had many important matters to attend to' and wouldn't be back for at least a couple of weeks. And with that, they were left alone again. Just Nora and Ren, like it'd been for years.
"He has a Atlas Academy mug, the traitor!"
"Nora."
She turned to him with a smile and he felt a confused mix of emotion. Not having the mental energy to deal with it, he quietly used his semblance to hide them even from himself.
"Unpack and I'll make dinner."
"Alrighty Ren. Ooooh do you think it's as messy upstairs as his desk was?"
Ren looks around the spotless kitchen. "I get the impression he isn't here often."
"Maybe he has a giant coffee mug! Or a thermos! Or a huge map of Remnant stretching across a whole wall! Or maybe a complete Grimm skeleton! Or—"
As she left the kitchen, Ren didn't bother to remind Nora that Grimm didn't leave skeletons so it was impossible for Doctor Oobleck to own one. Ren took the green apron of a hook by the door and put it on. He sighed. He missed his apron. They had lost most of their meager belongings back at Beacon. What they had now was only what they could afford with the money they'd had in their pockets.
Truly back to the way it was.
He lit the stove and opened the fridge. He grabbed the few vegetables they'd bought on the way over and starting chopping. He tossed them in a pan and, as he stirred, tried to sort out his thoughts.
With his semblance, it was often too easy to put off dealing with feelings. Cooking always gave him time to sort them out. Pyrrha, that robot girl, Ozpin, Yang, and countless others. So many victims. Anger bubbled up. Why did everything always end in blood?
He'd thought Beacon would be different. They'd made it to the city; the safest place in the continent. His and Nora's days of village hopping and constantly fearing Grimm attack had ended.
Ren searched to no avail for spices and sighed yet again. An unfamiliar home once more. The only thing that kept him from cracking was Nora. Her constant chattering and smile kept him moving. They always had.
He dished out the stir-fry onto two plates, too tired to make anything else. Then he hung up the apron and headed upstairs. Prepared to find Nora sticking her nose somewhere it didn't belong.
It was quiet. He unconsciously drew his weapons. Cautiously he crept towards the door that was ajar. Nora?
He froze and he heard her hiccup. She only ever hiccuped when she cried.
He should have known. In all her chattering and nonsense, he should have caught the desperate flow of it all. He opened the door and there she was.
She'd changed into the pink tee they'd bought and was sitting on the floor holding her shirt. Her scroll was opened to the side. Each member of team JNPR's face smiling up at them. Jaune and Pyrrha's aura levels blackened from distance or…
He stepped in and saw Nora's hands move. She had a pair of scissors and she cut a slit on each side of the heart on her shirt breaking it in two. Tears darkened the fabric and her hand shook as she hiccuped.
Ren kneels down and put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched and turned around, immediately dropping the scissors. "Oh. Ren. I didn't see you there. I-Is dinner done already?"
She quickly wiped her eyes and gave a weak smile. Ren leaned forward and took the scroll. At the sight of it again, Nora's tears overflowed and she turned sobbing on Ren's shoulder. "I-I just thought...after everything..."
Ren wrapped his arms around her and she continued, "it'd felt like…*hic*...like…a family"
Again anger. How could the universe take it all away from them again? Nora had been without a family for longer than Rin had. Jaune and Pyrrha had no idea how changed Nora had become after joining team JNPR. He'd never seen her so happy before. Genuinely happy, not just gritted happy in the face of hardship.
Nora had been enough for him. He'd buried his parents, but they lived in his memories. Nora only had memories of being alone. Two wasn't enough to form a family, Jaune and Pyrrha had filled holes Nora hadn't even known were there. To give her that for such a short time and then take it away...it infuriated Ren.
Slowly he ran his fingers through her orange hair, a tactic that had always helped her calm down. Sure enough, her sobs faded and soon she just hiccuped quietly, leaning against his chest.
She laced her fingers through his where he held her close. "I-I just don't know if I can do this again."
He looked down at her face. She was staring at the wall, her eyes dull. He put his hand on her shoulders and moved in front of her, staring into her pale blue eyes. He couldn't have her give up. He couldn't. His anger wouldn't let them slip backwards. It would only move them to action; and action was what Nora did best.
"Listen to me Nora. We are not going back to that life. We are huntsmen now. We still have friends out there we need us, and the world needs us more than ever. We have a job to do."
Her eyes widened. She sniffed, and he reached up to wipe away the last of her tears. Then she folded up the shirt, stood up, and tucked it into the dresser.
"So...what's for dinner."
Ren thought about the vegetables growing cold on the table.
"Pancakes."
Her smiles lifted and Ren demanded the universe supply some flour, eggs, and milk because nothing in the world was going to stop him from keeping that smile on Nora's face.