Prompt from Antonio Beltran: "Miss Valkyrie, I am afraid that due to the nature of your ranged effects, your liability insurance premiums will be...substantial."

I had some fun with this one. Renora reminds me of my fiance and I, so this was sweet for me to write.


The warm, doughy smell of frying batter rouses her from her sleep. Waking up is no gentle endeavor for Nora. Where most others would wake slowly, she wakes with an explosion of energy, bursting up from the mattress and hurling the dark blue comforter to the hardwood floor. Blue eyes wide with inexplicable hunger, she leaps from the ledge of the mattress and lands thunderously on the floor with enough force to shake the building.

The warm, doughy smell of frying batter rouses her from her sleep. Waking up is no gentle endeavor for Nora. Where most others would wake slowly, she wakes with an explosion of energy, bursting up from the mattress and hurling the dark blue comforter to the hardwood floor. Blue eyes wide with inexplicable hunger, she leaps from the ledge of the mattress and lands thunderously on the floor with enough force to shake the building.

A single thought breathes through her mind as she rushes out of the bedroom.

Pancakes.

Rushing across the living room, Nora flies into one of the spinning bar stools around the kitchen island, turning around a full circle with the force of her entrance.

Across from her is Ren, whose pink eyes gleam when he glances at her from the corner of his eyes, amusement playing across his face in the form of a little smirk. He has his long, dark hair pulled back into a loose pony tail, a single pink wisp of hair resting against the frame of his face. He stands before the stove top, saucepan in hand as a blob of white batter begins to bubble.

"Good morning!" she greets cheerfully, loud and exuberant as ever.

"Hey," he replies, the amusement still twinkling in his eyes as he parts from the stove to move towards her. She reaches out to him, touching his forearm as he leans to press a warm, chaste kiss to her cheek. Pleasant butterflies flutter in her stomach and her cheeks flush at the touch. Even in a pink apron and his typical tee-shirt and track pants pyjama combo, he's the most handsome man she's ever laid eyes on. Her husband pulls back to gaze into her eyes a moment before he turns back to his cooking, commenting, "Three years married and you still blush."

"Are you complaining?" she playfully jabs, watching as Ren takes a spatula to the frying cake. He flips it with expert precision. She thumbs at the ring on her left hand absently, twisting the golden band about her finger. "It's not my fault that you know how to make a girl feel special."

Ren looks at her over his toned shoulder, setting the saucepan down to let the other side of his cake cook. "No, no complaints from me."

Opening the oven, Ren plucks out a plate topped with bacon and two pancakes he'd been keeping warm inside. He turns the oven off before moving back to the island, setting the plate in front of her.

"Good," Nora replies, her stomach rumbling audibly. "Do you have syrup?"

As if on queue, Ren produces the maple syrup before her. But when she tries to take it from him, he snatches it just out of reach. Hurt, Nora gazes up at him as though he'd injured her. He holds his ground, pink gaze firmly meeting the fiercest of puppy-dog expressions.

"Why though?" she finally whines.

"We're going on a mission tonight," Ren reminds her, his eyebrows rising. "And you haven't called your insurance agent yet."

"It's fine."

"They left you three messages!" the man states, shaking his head. "We can't go on missions not knowing if you're covered."

Heaving herself forward mightily, Nora makes a swipe for the maple syrup. Ren dances away with the maple syrup, his reflexes honed from years of Noradom.

"Call them," he orders, pointing the syrup's sticky cap at her. "Sort it out. And then you can have all the syrup you want."

Pouting despondently, Nora utters a defeated, "Fine."

She turns around on the bar stool, shooting a betrayed look over her shoulder as she slumps towards the bedroom in search of her scroll. She walks into the darkness of their bedroom, sauntering to the little blue light flashing on her nightstand. She plucks it from the surface and falls into the bed, flipping herself onto her back as she swipes across the device's surface. She peruses through her contacts, finds her insurance – promptly wonders why she added them to her contacts, knowing that Ren would see when they called – and dials their number.

When she'd agreed to go to Beacon Academy to become a huntress, Nora had not anticipated having to get insurance to protect against any damage she could do with her weapon. Setting it up was simple – she had to give a full description of her weapon along with its mechanics and details of her grenades, they told her she had to pay money, and it was done. She'd only ever made one claim with it over the five years of having the insurance, but otherwise it sat forgotten and she was happy to let it continue on being forgotten.

If only Ren and the broker agreed.

"Hello, this is Vale Farm, how can I help you?" the broker on the other side, a man who's voice she's only heard twice in her life, chimes in her ear.

"Hi, this is Nora Valkyrie, I got a call from you before?"

"Do you know your insurance policy number?"

"Uh… Hold on." Nora lifts the scroll from her ear and swipes towards her mail app, flicking through dozens of starred letters until she finds her last insurance invoice from last month. She reads off the number.

"Okay," the broker murmurs, and she can hear light tapping on the other end as he types the number out. After a moment, he exclaims, "Ah, yes! Nora. I've been trying to reach you for a while. I called you three times this week."

Nora winces at that.

"Yeah…sorry," she lamely responds. She pops her lips to fill the second of awkward silence.

"Anyway," the broker picks up the conversation again, and she's grateful for the change. "Nora, I was calling before to inform you that your premiums will be raising."

Nora balked. "What, why?!"

Clearing his throat, the broker replies, "Miss Valkyrie, I am afraid that due to the nature of your ranged effects, your liability insurance premiums will be substantial. The explosives are simply too damaging even with your no-fault insurance."

"What?!" Nora cries, sitting up suddenly. "I only had that one claim, though!"

"You levelled a city block with your grenade launcher," the broker deadpans.

"It's not my fault that they built a city where I was fighting a Grimm."

"Unfortunately, if you wish to continue being insured by Vale Farm, you'll have to accept the increase of your premiums."

Groaning, Nora rubs at the tension in her brow as she questions, "How much did they increase by?"

"Your premiums before were 156 lien, and starting this coming month they will be 427 lien a month."

Nora pales, her jaw dropping in shock.

After an hour of shouting into the receiver, Nora ends the call and, in her fury, whips the scroll across the room. It lodges into the dry wall like a shuriken, which she would normally gawk at, but she storms out of the bedroom towards the kitchen. Ren watches her come out, a knowing look in his eyes as he puts the syrup next to her plate of food – the pancakes having quadrupled in number.

She falls onto the bar stool and mutters, "We might need to find a new company to get insurance through."

"That high?" he asks, cradling his chin in his palm as she uncaps the syrup and douses her pancakes in the sugary brown liquid.

"I almost had a heart attack when he told me what the new premium was," she grumbled, cutting into a piece of cake with the side of her fork. "Stupid insurance."

She pops the bite into her mouth, but the sweet taste of the syrup and the warmth of the pancake doing nothing to soothe her sour mood. As she chews, Ren leans across the island and surprises her with a soft kiss to the corner of her lips, his arm snaking around her waist as he slides into the spot next to hers.

"We'll figure it out," he tells her, his voice soft and comforting.

Nora smiles up at him, murmuring, "There you go again. Making a girl feel special."