7:00 a.m.

When Nora's body told her it was time for her to get up, since it was the morning of the first day of school, she opened her eyes… and immediately disregarded its request. It wasn't light yet, and there was no way she was bothering to disentangle herself from the mess of sheets and limbs that was her bed before the sun had risen.

At least, not without Ren. Ren was her security blanket: he had slept next to her every time he was allowed to, and sometimes when he wasn't, due to her fear of the dark. In fact, it had been that phobia that had made her decide to become a Huntress—she'd much rather hunt down and kill the monsters made of darkness than just run away from them all her life like so many others.

But there was nothing Nora could do about the darkness itself: she needed Ren's help to cope with that from the time the sun set to the time it rose again.

Sighing as softly as possible (knowing if she woke Ren before sunrise he'd literally kick her out of bed), Nora—who lay on her stomach next to Ren, who faced the ceiling—nestled her head comfortably into Ren's neck, tightened her arm around his chest, readjusted her legs entwined with his, and contentedly went back to sleep.

7:30 a.m.

A loud crash woke Nora again; her eyes flew open, startled. The room was light enough to see now: Jaune had fallen out of bed and sat up sheepishly as Nora smiled at him. Pyrrha, meanwhile, had evidently been up long enough to have changed clothing, and regarded Nora and Ren with something like apprehension.

"Good morning!" exclaimed Nora, beaming at Pyrrha as she stretched, and received a somewhat uncertain—but still genuine—smile in return. I'm glad I got nice teammates! Now that it was light and other people were up, Ren had no reason to complain, so Nora could be as noisy as she pleased.

Jaune waved at Nora from across the room halfheartedly, looking for something, and Nora waved back enthusiastically before bouncing off her bed (Ren made a faint noise of incoherent, half-conscious dismay) and helping Jaune search.

"Um, what are you doing?" asked Jaune, as she checked under his bed.

"Helping you look," responded Nora, frowning. "Didn't you lose something?" She straightened up, finding no sneaky lost items under the bed, and looked Jaune in the eye: he seemed unnerved.

"W-well, yeah, but you don't even know what I'm looking for… right?"

"That doesn't matter!" declared Nora. "I was just checking around for anything interesting, and I'll tell you everything. Like," she added, crawling over Jaune's bed and checking on the other side, "someone lost a suit over here!" She seized the four pieces of clothing with some difficulty and threw them over her shoulder: Jaune yelped as he tried to catch them with limited success.

"Thanks, I… guess," he muttered, and opened the door, where he gave a small exclamation of surprise as the girl standing behind it—Ruby? wondered Nora—squeaked as well.

"What are you doing here?" asked Jaune, sounding more pleased (albeit surprised) than annoyed to see her.

"Oh! Well, um, I was just going to say good morning," stammered Ruby. "That, and breakfast is served!" She bent down to pick up two full plates of waffles overflowing with butter and syrup, brandishing them with a grin: Jaune smiled and stood back, wordlessly inviting Ruby in.

Nora glanced at Pyrrha to discover with some bemusement that she wore a rather disappointed expression, and immediately resolved to cheer her up somehow. But how? I don't know what she likes yet! Nora busied herself for a few moments, sitting on Jaune's bed and staring at the ceiling to try and think of something.

"Breakfast is served in the dining hall between seven and eight-thirty," Ruby was explaining when Nora finally tuned back in, having seized on an idea at last—Jaune had evidently asked where she had gotten the waffles as he picked one up gingerly, syrup dripping from golden tips. "I just thought… since you guys helped us out so much yesterday… maybe I should get you guys some food!" She gave a small grin, which Jaune returned, and Nora dashed over to her suitcase for a moment, rummaging through it until she found the precious artifact she would give to Pyrrha.

"Ta-da!" she exclaimed, darting over to the girl with the beautiful, very-dark-pink hair—it was actually probably redder than it was pink, but Nora preferred to think of the world in rosier tones—and holding out a pale pink ribbon Nora had bought when she was younger. "It's a good luck charm," she explained to the girl, who looked up at her, startled (Jaune and Ruby's conversation had stopped as they watched the exchange). "You could wear it in your hair!"

Pyrrha blinked a little, but smiled anyway as she accepted the ribbon. "Thank you," she murmured, rearranging her hair as Jaune and Ruby started talking again. "But… why?"

"You looked down," shrugged Nora smilingly. "Pink makes everything better!" Without further ado, she charged towards the waffles (Jaune and Ruby dove out of the way) and scarfed down a couple before giving them a somewhat syrupy smile and wandering over to where Ren still slept.

"I was wondering where the fourth member of your team was," commented Ruby from across the room, squinting at the lump under the covers. "He's… still asleep?"

"Oh, Ren loves his rest," laughed Nora, sitting down next to him cross-legged on the bed and staring at his closed eyes. "Come on, Ren. It's morning! There are waffles!"

Ren mumbled something to the effect of 'leave me alone', but Nora poked Ren with a sticky finger nonetheless—and was promptly swatted off the bed. Even in a half-asleep state, Ren was still a formidable opponent, not that this stopped Nora in any way. Laughing, Nora got back to her feet and shrugged at a mystified Pyrrha. "I guess he's not gonna budge," she admitted cheerfully, skipping to the door and glancing back at the bed before she left the room (to find Ruby staring at her openmouthed). "Thanks for breakfast, Waffle Girl!" she added, giving a cheery wave, and continued skipping down the hall, ready for a nice long shower.

8:00 a.m.

Only after Nora had undressed and stepped into the warm, deliciously clean water did it occur to her that she hadn't actually brought a change of clothes for when she was done. Such an obstacle wasn't much of a problem for Nora, though—when every inch of her was scrubbed, she just wrapped a towel around herself, since no one's doors seemed to be open anyway, and wandered back to their room with her nightgown in hand.

"If I'd known they let you take showers in the mor—" began Jaune, seemingly annoyed as he stacked empty waffle plates on the ground, before taking in Nora's appearance. "Uh," he finished, blinking. "I…"

Pyrrha glanced up from her book at his words and gasped audibly, much to Nora's puzzlement.

"What?" asked Nora, tilting her head confusedly. "It's not like I'm totally naked or anything. I have a towel on." She pointed helpfully to the damp piece of fabric wrapped around her, which covered her as much as towels could. "Besides, we're all naked under our clothes anyway!"

She grinned at her two conscious teammates. Pyrrha was unimpressed by her comment, but Jaune looked contemplative, as though he was seriously thinking about what it meant.

"L-let us know when you're done changing," sighed Pyrrha, avoiding eye contact as she walked across the room, dragging a protesting Jaune out with her. "And you might want to get your friend up, too!" she added as she shut the door behind them. Nora smiled, clambering onto the bed and positioning herself over Ren so that her still-wet hair would drip onto his face. If that didn't wake him up, nothing would.

But a minute or so passed and many drops fell to no avail.

Bored with her endeavors, Nora picked up her uniform and examined it carefully. Not enough pink, she decided, but she had given away one of her few pink accessories to Pyrrha. Of course she didn't regret doing so, but now, how was she going to make her outfit more her style?

A noise distracted her as she was about to put on her top, having twirled around in her skirt to her heart's content; it sounded like something choking. Turning around, shirt in hands, Nora found that Ren was sitting up… and apparently coughing as though he had inhaled something.

Rushing over to him, Nora whacked him on the back.

"Good morning!" she interjected, beaming as Ren's coughs lessened gradually. "I thought you were dead," she added, remembering how even water had not awakened her otherwise catlike friend.

"M-might as well be," gasped Ren hoarsely, trying to clear his throat and looking anywhere but at Nora. Why won't he look at me?

"What's wrong?" pressed Nora, hugging him concernedly—Ren yelped, and Nora felt his muscles freeze up. "Rigor mortis!" she exclaimed, feeling along his bare chest and arms worriedly. You're my only friend and you're really handsome and I don't want you to die! "Tetanus! What's that thing where you can't move…" she continued, releasing a shellshocked Ren and staring at the wall as though the dictionary was written there.

"…Nora," groaned Ren, leaning over with his elbows on his knees and rubbing his eyes in what seemed to be defeat (though she noticed he wasn't scowling, but rather almost smiling). "Please… put a shirt on."

Nora glanced down. "Oh. …But Ren," she persisted a moment later, kneeling in front of him (and still carrying her shirt) as he sat on their collective bed, "you're in your underwear, too, and I'm not asking you to put pants on over it, because it still covers everything. Just like this." She pointed to her chest pointedly.

Ren seemed momentarily stumped as he stared at the floor, but eventually shook his head agitatedly. "Just do it, Nora." His voice was more amused than short as he bent to pick up his suit, eyeing it with some distaste before pulling on his trousers anyway.

8:15 a.m.

"Paralysis!" shouted Nora triumphantly, after she pulled on her shoes some time later; the rest of the time they had spent getting dressed had been spent in silence as she tried to think of the word. Ren, putting his shoes on next to her, jumped slightly at her cry: Jaune opened the door a crack, sticking his head through and looking around quizzically before opening the door further to allow the rest of Team JNPR in.

"Do either of you two know when our first class is? I know what we have, but not when it starts," sighed Pyrrha, getting right to the point and glancing over each of them with an approving eye as she spoke. Nora thought for a moment before shaking her head apologetically; Ren murmured a negative next to her.

"We could just leave at the same time Team RWBY does," suggested Jaune. "They… well… they seem to have some idea what's going on." He's so shy for a team leader! Nora smiled at him to boost his confidence, but he just looked faintly alarmed at her expression and dropped his gaze.

Before Nora had time to feel disappointed, Ren put his arm around her comfortingly. Thanks, Ren. She turned her grin on him instead, and was promptly rewarded with a soft look in his pink eyes as they met her blue ones… and one of his trademark almost-smiles.

Pyrrha cleared her throat slightly and Ren retracted his arm; Jaune, meanwhile, had taken a position by the door to listen for when Team RWBY left. When he caught them all looking at him, he explained, "It'd… look bad… if I was staring at the door leading to a room full of girls. Listening is better."

Nodding in agreement, though somewhat distractedly, Pyrrha picked up her book again, studying hard. Ren, meanwhile, stared at the door with a distinctly irritated expression.

"So, what do we do now?"

"We wait," explained Pyrrha unhelpfully, from behind the covers of her book.

"We dance!" corrected Nora, looking at Ren enthusiastically. "Or we practice handstands. Or we spar a little, but then I guess the room wouldn't be in great shape after that. Or we could play tic-tac-toe, or card games—did you bring cards? I hope you brought cards. Anyway, we could draw pictures, or play Truth or Dare, or reenact our victory yesterday. Or I could sing to you… or—"

"Nora," interrupted Ren, looking at her mildly. "You could suggest things for half an hour, and it would probably be just as entertaining as actually doing any of those." He gave her another half-smile, and Nora beamed, a contented feeling bubbling up inside her as she leaned on Ren.

He was her Ren, and she was realizing it more and more as the days went. Ren with the funny name order. Ren with the pink streak in his hair. Ren who scared the dark away.

"Challenge accepted."

((And of course we know Team RWBY didn't actually know what they were doing either, so they were almost late… Bet you wish you hadn't told her to do that, Ren.

I am in fact going to continue this one! I can't promise any regular update schedule, though. It'll probably have a lot to do with the new episodes and how much freedom they allow for me to play around with Team JNPR's antics.))