"REEEN!" she exclaimed with utmost joy and glee. Colliding with his slender, masculine form, the redhead giggled, "I'm done! I am dooone for the day!"
Unhindered by her assault, Lie Ren continued on with his rendering. "Congratulations," he offered in his iconic, lowly tone. "I still have rigging to do."
"Why can't you just mo-cap everything?" the extrovert asked as she pulled up a chair and sat down by his side, perfectly content to watch him drag and drop small computer bits into the bigger, more complicated computer bits all contained within the really big computer that held all of the bits.
Such was her understanding of third dimensional modeling. She always wondered how he could remain so dedicated to a task that seemed so boring.
"Because that's not how this works, Nora," he sighed as he continued to click, drag, type, and not blink. "That's not how any of this works."
His imaginary disdain cut deep into the heart of the girl who wanted more. "Oh," she trailed off. "I don't mean to bother you," she apologized as she pushed her seat away and struggled to stand. Lie Ren had been her greatest friend, closest companion, and unattainable partner. How could she even think of impeding his greatness?
Ren quickly looked up to see his friend move to her bed. He couldn't sense aura, for he was no faunus; but he could tell that her mood had been defeated. "Nora, wait."
She paused, one knee on her bed and one hand reaching for her headphones.
"I think," he began as he powered down his scroll, "that I could use a break in my work."
Nora was left with a sense of uncertainty.
Motioning towards the chair she just left, Ren asks, "Won't you sit with me, Nora?"
There could never have been a moment where she considered otherwise. Except for that time a few seconds ago when she did. But that didn't count, he wanted HER to leave HIM. Because it was on his terms, not her terms. Totally didn't count.
Taking a sip of his unpronounceable coffee drink, Ren asked, "How was your day, Nora?"
"Well," she quickly began, "I got up, got you up, brushed my teeth, brushed your teeth, did my homework, tried to do your homework, got kicked out of the boxing club for assaulting all of the packaging staff, got kicked out of the fencing club for stabbing all of the people trying to build fences, got kicked out of the archery club for, well… you don't want to know."
Chuckling, the young man set his drink down and decided, "I think I had a productive day too. You made sure I was up thirty minutes before the sun, had only the healthiest breakfast of pancakes, and I never once considered murdering you."
Pouting, she countered, "Glynda would NEVER murder me! She just acts like it now and then!"
"Not in public," he observed as he crossed his legs. "Nora, would you like to tell me something?"
"As long as it isn't about an ancient civilization that doesn't even exist in our realm," she warned.
"I'll keep that in mind," he acknowledged with a smirk. "Question: what do I mean to you, Nora?"
"Everything!" she instantly blurted out, before realizing her laps in vigilance and quickly justifying, "Erm- Everything we know and have… experienced was done together! If I hadn't had you in my life for so long, I wouldn't have gotten here where I am today."
But Ren wasn't buying it. "I see." Maintaining his good nature, he asks, "Why don't you tell me what I mean to YOU, Nora?"
It was at this point that Nora began to feel the conversational walls close in on her. Heart racing, her fingers began to intertwine with each other in a desperate attempt to alleviate the building stress. "Wh- what? Why would you even ask such a silly question?" she laughed more in panic than humor.
"Because I'm your friend, and I don't want to see you pine away, Nora." Sighing, Ren grew more solemn. "Maybe you could tell me when it started?"
And in a flash her stress was gone, obliterated by the realization that she had finally been outed. Taking in a much-needed breath, Nora revealed, "I started liking you when you started teaching me about aura."
Ren blinked at the unexpected answer. "That far back?" he wondered aloud.
Scoffing, Nora reminded, "We're not even in our twenties, Ren. It was only nine years ago."
"Still, it's an unexpected time," he explained. "You and I were merely children. Granted, growing up in the slums wasn't easy for us, but still."
Frowning, Nora stated, "It's only a slum if the people are slums."
"And that's precisely why we left Vacuo, why we came here and started over," Ren reminded her.
Shaking her head, Nora corrected, "That's why YOU left, Ren. I left because I didn't want to have to keep going home to my family without YOU in my life."
Grimacing, Ren stated, "Nora, you left because you wanted to leave the abuse behind."
"Don't tell me what I WANTED!" she reprimanded, slamming her fist on Ren's desk and shocking him into silence. The porcelain mug easily fell victim to the kinetic energy and was consumed by gravity, spilling its hot contents all over the floor.
Nora rarely displayed outbursts, and she quickly collected herself. Ren breathed a sigh of relief, as he knew the woman's strength. He'd been on both ends of it, after all.
"Could you tell me what you want now?" Ren cautiously asked. He was fully aware that incredibly thin ice lay under them, but should he not move he would undoubtedly sink them both..
Slowing her breaths, Nora swallowed before answering, "I want to be more than friends with you, Ren. I want to come home after a difficult day and give you a back massage. I want you to run me a hot bath when we're dirty. I want to pay for your coffee refills while you're busy working. I want to share a foxhole with you when we're hunting Grimm. I want to save you from death; I want you to save ME from death. I want to go to bed at nights with you wrapped around me, and I around you. To whisper sweet junk to one another, to slap you on the butt, for you to slap ME on the butt!"
Taking in a few moments to balance her thoughts, she finished, "I want to be your world just as much as you are mine."
The two fell into silence once again. Having said her piece, Nora placed her hands in her lap, refusing to look her friend in the eye. Out of shame or regret, she couldn't quite tell.
"...Nora," Ren began. "Thank you for telling me the truth."
She looked up to find him with a complexion of relaxation and gratitude. Perhaps it hadn't been a mistake.
Regret slowly took over, however. "But I don't want that."
Gritting her teeth, she held her tongue, silently asking for him to finish his say.
"I appreciate that you think so highly of me, and I am truly grateful for what we have, for how you and I kept each other up when our families tired to keep us down. But I simply have no interest in you like that," he regretfully but honestly confessed.
"This isn't what you wanted to hear," he acknowledged with sorrow. "But it's what needed to be said."
Suppressing the boil within her heart, Nora managed to hold her discipline. She wasn't a child, she hadn't been for a long time. Ren had helped her rise above petty wants before, and she had to accept reality for what it was. Just because she had a hammer didn't mean that all her problems were nails.
"Thank you, Ren," Nora finally said after the pause. "You're right, like you always are."
"Please don't be distraught," he begged. "Nora, I couldn't live with myself if I drove you into any state of-"
"Yep, yep, I get it," she interrupted, raising a hand and ordering his silence. "I'm not going to cry over a rejection, Ren. This isn't anime."
Glancing back at his scroll, Ren debated, "Uuum."
"I'm not going to pretend I'm not hurt," Nora firmly stated, drawing his attention again. "I'm human, Ren. This sucks for me right now, but I'm going to get over this and move on."
A small smile made its way onto Ren's stoic face. "I'd appreciate that," he thanked.
"Now I'll tell you what's going to happen," she revealed as she jumped up. "You're going to take that scroll somewhere else and finish your work. I'll clean up the mess I made and get my emotions sorted out."
Ren clumsily accepted his scroll as she thrust it into his grasp.
"When dinnertime comes around, I expect you to be there at my side, and we WON'T pretend that this never happened; but we will remain good friends. Do I make myself clear?"
Grinning, he acknowledged with a bow, "Crystal, your majesty."
Laughing, she picked him up and carried him out of their dorm. "Oh, don't give me lip!" Setting him down in the hallway. "Now get outta here before I set my hammer on you," she ordered before shutting the door in his face.
A muffled "Whatever you say, your majesty." followed as Nora moved back to Ren's desk.
A simple, wooden structure with equally simple chairs did not resist pure, black coffee stains easily. Taking the fallen cup into her grasp, Nora found it to be in one piece, save for a few chips. A few dozen tissues took up most of the mess, and Nora gladly deposited it all into the trashcan.
All that remained was the conversation she had received from her friend.
Sitting down on her bed, Nora stared at the clock. Ten past four. Falling back onto her mattress, Nora contemplated her actions. She had rarely lied to anyone, and NEVER to Ren. Perhaps, it hadn't all been lies, merely… exaggerations? No one could blame her for sparing him the truth.
Now the tears could come as they wished, but Nora insisted that they do so quietly. It wouldn't be very nice to make everyone on the floor listen to her bawling. Reaching into her shirt, she removed a small heart locket and clicked open its contents.
He always looked good to her, with his single strand of pink hair in that neverending, lush forest of black. With that stoic expression as a child but a gentle smile as a young adult. Memories of slum life and abusive families flooded her mind, and Nora Valkyrie fondly recalled the moments when the two children would meet and share the treasures that they had discovered.
She fondly remembered the day that she had shown him a magazine of combat robes, and how he had so quickly began to drool at the sight. She remembered the day he had made her a small hammer out of thrown away plastics and some stolen tape.
She remembered his confessions of an undesired home life, and how he understood hers. And she remembered the day that he had brought her a research paper on the hunter's life, and its growing demand in the distant city of Vale.
Curling up into a ball, Nora clutched the locket of her friend in one hand and smeared her tears with the other, snuffling and snorting. Digging her head into her pillow, she cursed to herself, "Confound it, Ren." and proceeded to weep.