If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams is something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death.
-Monty Oum.
It had been about a year since he had said goodbye to Nora, but today, he at long last, would be able to see his beloved partner again.
He knew it.
Ren leaned over to retrieve a pair of socks from his dresser, his gaze falling on a picture of himself with a smiling ginger girl clinging to his back like a sloth on a tree. He smiled fondly as the memory of that picture came back to light. She had always loved calling him the pancake tree, and herself the sloth queen. Of course those little piggyback rides always ended in him tipping over and being absolutely smothered with love and sappiness, and in some (well, most, he mused) cases, stacks upon stacks of pancakes.
He pulled his left sock on, then his right, albeit with a little difficulty; he had crippled his knee sometime back after a long and protracted battle with several dozen Grimm, and his hands nowadays were a little jittery with excitement.
Because after all, who wouldn't be excited to see the person they loved the absolute most in the world again?
Struggling to his feet, Ren hobbled over to his closet, sliding the door open and pulling out a white pair of pants and a familiar worn tailcoat. Over the years, he had modified it, sewn it up and fixed it when the time came for it, seen it splashed with blood and oil and syrup and tea, watched it fade slowly with the winds of time, but still, it was the same tailcoat with that shade of green Nora found so, in her words, groovy.
Stepping over to the bathroom whilst shrugging on his coat, he took a look around the uncharacteristically Spartan room, with Stormflower set neatly on a shelf, and his teapot chugging away gaily in a corner.
Good lord, did she hate the tea.
She did always think it was made with "fish food" or whatever, despite his constant reassurances that there was no algae or other "questionable" ingredients somewhere in the mix.
Besides, it was only his energy shakes that had the algal extract in it.
Crossing into the bathroom, Ren finished smoothing out his sleeves and buttoning up the jacket, looking up at the mirror and straightening his hair. But as usual, he failed, as it went all over the place in its customary garbled mess. Which, incidentally, he preferred. Brushing aside the bangs on his left, he ran his fingers through his hair a little, bringing more of the dyed pink streak out towards the surface.
After all this time since they parted, between now and last she dyed it for him, it hadn't faded; rather, the pink stood out even more, brighter, as if sensing what lay ahead.
Come to think of it, as of late, everything seemed a lot shinier, happier, a little more vibrant.
Satisfied with his appearance, Ren leaned down to pick up a cup and filled it up, bringing it out of the bathroom with him, past Stormflower, past the picture, past the bubbling teapot, over to the single lotus flower in its pot on the windowsill, where he left it with a generous helping of water. Smiling at the little plant, he brushed a fleck off one of the petals, then turned it slightly so the leaves could soak up a little more sunlight.
That was it. He was ready to go.
Taking one look around the bedroom again, the old man stepped away from the window, turned towards his bed, and slowly eased himself onto it, folding his arms over his chest and slowly closing his eyes.
The next time he opened them, Nora Valkyrie stood leaning over him with an ecstatic grin, holding out her arms to help him up and welcome him home.
Here, the Boop Troupe finally made it home together. After all that happens, their chemistry, and everything, it's not unreasonable to think that Renora'll have a happy ending.
Thanks, Monty.
i-Pie