Pain was the first thing to register in Nora's mind when she awoke on New Year's Day. An ache that filled her head and crept down through her body. She feared it would hurt to move, but lying still was hardly better. She felt her heartbeat pounding in her brain like a drum.

There has to be a way to stop that, she thought blurrily.

Wait. No. That'd kill me.

She groaned quietly in frustration, sending another sharp pain through her head. Maybe death wasn't such a bad thing...

She reached up with one hand to rub her eyes and was surprised at how sore her muscles were. What did I do last night, she wondered.

She froze, a sudden panic gripping her.

Oh my God, what did I do last night?

She wracked her brain, trying to force the memories to return.

There was a party. Of course there was, it was New Year's Eve. All the dorm rooms on the floor were opened and students milled around inside or spilled out into the hallway. The tall blue haired kid was at his laptop, blasting music down the hall. RWBY had a karaoke machine in their room. Someone pressed a glass into her hand...

Nora groaned again. Appletini. And vodka, and bourbon, and plenty of good old fashioned beer. Small wonder her mouth was as dry as a Vacuo desert and the Vale All-Star Marching Band was beating a path through her brain.

Memories became more disjointed after that. Ruby begging Weiss to sing a duet with her. Pyrrha singing horribly off key and everyone cheering anyway. Sun and Blake standing in a corner giggling to each other. Ren playing some dancing video game and blowing everyone away. Yang getting into a fight with some pink haired girl.

And losing.

Badly.

She was dancing with Jaune, she was dancing was dancing with Pyrrha, she was dancing with both of them, she was watching them dance together. Ren was there with her. He was with her a lot, but he was just a vague shadow on her memory.

They left the hall and crowded onto the roof. The countdown started, everyone shouting along. Fireworks lit up the night sky from every direction. She felt lips press against hers and she melted.

For the first time Nora becomes aware of her nakedness and feels panic wash over her again. She opened her eyes and squinted, her eyes vainly trying to adjust to the painful glare of the sun beating in through the window. Through blurry vision she recognized her dorm room and felt some slight relief. As bad as it was, at least she wouldn't have to make the walk of shame. Beside her she noticed a lump under the blankets and she sighed. Time to find out who her mistake was.

She pulled back the blanket and recoiled as if finding a snake lying next to her.

Oh no.

No no no no no.

Ren lay there, breathing quietly, an almost serene look on his face, as untroubled in slumber as he was awake. Nora clamped her hand over her mouth, afraid to make a sound, trying to remember anything else from the previous night but remembering nothing past the kiss.

It wasn't supposed to be like this, she thought. She couldn't remember him kissing her. She couldn't remember their first night together. It was supposed to be special and romantic and instead it was a drunken fling in a locked room at a party that she couldn't even remember.

She leapt out of the bed as if getting away from him could undo the events of the past night and, remembering her nakedness quickly started searching for her clothes and found them strewn haphazardly around the room. She found her panties and pulled them on and hoped she hadn't embarrassed herself too badly the night before.

On the other hand...

She picked her bra off the lamp and held it, looking back at Ren lying in his bed, still obliviously asleep. Nora let her eyes trace down his bare shoulders and back. On the other hand he did sleep with her, she thought. He chose to. It wasn't perfect, but he still chose her.

Except he'd been drinking too, right?

Nora sighed and shrugged into her bra. He definitely had been, everybody was drinking. Even Ruby was sneaking sips from Jaune's cup when her sister wasn't looking. Nora grabbed her pink bathrobe from the closet and slipped it on. She stood quietly watching Ren sleep for a long moment with a sad smile on her face. She felt tears start to well up in her eyes and clamped down hard, forcing them away. Just a dunk accident then.

She leaned over and brushed aside a strand of hair and kissed his forehead gently. For a moment he stirred and Nora thought he would awaken, but he stilled and returned to sleep quickly if ever he had left it. Nora turned and quietly crept from the room, closing the door behind her.

She found Pyrrha and Jaune in the hallway, asleep and sitting, leaning against each other and the wall. Jaune stirred at the sound of the door and looked up at Nora with a blurry stare and slowly broke out into his usual handsome smile. "Hey," he whispered quietly, taking care not to wake his still slumbering partner.

"Did we lock you out?" she whispered back.

"Eh, it's fine. You were..." Jaune flushed and looked away from Nora, embarrassed.

Nora felt her face warm. "So you know...?"

Jaune blushed even harder. "Well, I don't know, but it's either that or he was moving furniture and you were really, really happy with the results." He gave a halfhearted chuckle he clearly wasn't feeling.

Nora groaned. She shouldn't have to do a walk of shame from her own room. "Can you not mention it to anybody?"

Jaune's embarrassed expression quickly vanished and he looked at Nora seriously. "Of course."

"Especially Ren."

Jaune knitted his eyebrows in confusion, but at Nora's pleading look just nodded.

"Thank you," Nora whispered sincerely as she turned and headed to the bathroom.

It was just a drunk accident.

But maybe Ren wouldn't have to live with it too.

Ren awoke sore and stiff from the night's exertions. The room was dimly lit, the sun not quite having risen above the horizon, but he could still make out the girl lying beside her. He felt like a coward for taking so long to tell her how he felt or how much she meant to him. Ren reached out and stroked her hair and kissed her forehead softly before turning over to fall asleep again, promising to make it up to her in the morning.