We're back with chapter two of this lovely poly fic. Here, we see our favorite thief getting to know our favorite team on a more personal level.
Enjoy!
Emerald quickly fell into a routine of sparring with Team JNPR every other evening, going back to the room, and reporting what she learned from their tactics. She still wasn't sure what any of their Semblances were, however. She supposed asking was an option, but it was generally accepted that no one discussed their Semblances or abilities during that semester, as everyone hoped for an edge of surprise to assist them in the tournament.
This team was…weird. While they were skilled, there were times when they seemed to treat practice like a joke. Playful banter and borderline-flirtatious dialogue was interspersed with sword thrusts, hammer swings, spear throws, and dagger stabs. Sometimes, Emerald found herself joining in, feeling weirdly happy whenever something she said caused one or more of them to laugh. No one had ever thought she was funny before, at least not in a good way.
Cinder, unfortunately, didn't find any of this useful. "You're supposed to be gathering information, not having fun," she snapped one night. "I'm starting to wonder if you're taking any of this seriously. Are they going to be useful, or aren't they?"
"I'm not sure yet," Emerald insisted, trying to remember if there were any other battle strategies she had forgotten to mention.
"Ugh. I should have assigned Mercury to this," Cinder huffed. "No matter. I'll have him spar with the Nikos girl during class soon enough. The others are probably useless. You can stop seeing them now."
Emerald was devastated. She had let Cinder down. One job, she thought. I had one stupid job, and I couldn't even monitor a team of morons.
She spent most of the next day feeling glum and was still feeling sorry for herself in the evening when her Scroll buzzed. She picked it up to see a text from Nora.
"Hey, Em! You wanna hang out? Ren and I are in the kitchen."
Em. Most of the other students had started calling her that. She had never had a nickname before but guessed that it was a sign that she was integrating well.
Still, Emerald raised an eyebrow as she looked at the text. Hang out? She glanced at her calendar. Today wasn't one of their sparring days. Did Nora and Ren just want to spend time with her? Did they really like her enough to ask such a thing already?
She thought about saying no. She still felt nervous about spending long periods of time socializing with her would-be enemies. Keeping a mask of niceness intact wasn't easy, after all.
Still, she found herself texting "Sure." and immediately going out the door of her dorm room and down the hall.
This wasn't right. She was supposed to wait for Cinder to come back, make her report, then go to bed. What if Cinder got angry that Emerald was gone? Should I have left a note? Still, even with her worries, she didn't stop walking. If she was being totally honest with herself, she was at a low point and it felt nice that someone genuinely wanted to be around her, that there was a possibility of going through this evening without a disapproving glare or a hard palm to the face. These losers didn't know what a failure she was. They also didn't know that they would probably be trying to kill each other within the next few months. For the time being, Emerald supposed that they could have their uses.
But, why meet in the kitchen? she wondered. Her question was quickly answered when she opened the door and was greeted with a mouthwatering aroma.
Ren had a wok on the stove and was cooking some sort of meat in what smelled like soy sauce. At his side, Nora was stirring something in a bowl.
"Hey!" Nora chirped happily. "Perfect timing! You can cut the veggies."
"Uh, okay." Emerald walked over to where several vegetables were sitting next to a cutting board. Is this how regular people hang out? She picked up the knife, hesitating as she prepared to cut a red bell pepper. "Are they washed already?"
"Yep," Nora said. "Just cut them up small so Ren can mix them in with the meat."
Emerald started chopping up the pepper, unsure of what the right method was. "Um, should it be in strips, or…"
"Whatever works for you," Ren assured her. "Just as long as they fit in the wok."
"Okay." Emerald set to work, belatedly remembering to put the seeds aside. She wasn't sure what else to do. Did she make small talk while she worked? Was that what she was supposed to do?
Thankfully, Nora was like Ruby and had no trouble dominating the conversation.
"So, get this: Jaune's thinking of serenading Weiss," she said without preamble.
Emerald cringed at the very thought of that. "Why?"
"He wants to ask her to the dance," Ren said in a bored voice that just slightly hinted at the exasperation he was feeling toward his oblivious leader.
"Again, why?" Emerald asked. From what she had seen, Weiss seemed to be a frigid bitch. No way was someone like that compatible with someone as goofy and kindhearted as Jaune.
Wait, what did I just think?
Nora rolled her eyes. "He doesn't know when to quit. His dad taught him some stupid stuff about how all women want 'confident' guys, and if you're persistent, they'll totally fall for you."
"Ugh. Men." Emerald shook her head, then remembered who else was in the room. "Uh, present company excluded."
Ren chuckled. "I know the flaws of my gender, Emerald. I like to think I'm above things like that." He checked another pot, which held some ramen noodles that were just starting to boil.
"At least we women are totally flawless, right Em?" Nora asked, elbowing Emerald as she put her bowl on the counter.
"I wouldn't say that," Ren noted. "I've noticed that even the most confident women have trouble saying the simplest things. Case and point: Pyrrha."
"I knew it!" Emerald said as she started cutting smaller stalks from the broccoli. "She totally is in love with Jaune, isn't she?"
Nora snorted. "And she thinks it isn't obvious. I'll have to tell her that a freaking newbie from Mistral figured it out!"
"They would also make more sense together than Jaune and Weiss," Emerald pointed out. "Personality-wise."
Ren nodded. "Jaune should be with someone who boosts him up. Weiss is a good person, but she does have a tendency to put him down whenever they interact, even if he isn't asking her out."
"People just shouldn't put people down," Nora grumbled. She took what looked like a ball of dough out of another bowl and started rolling it. "Not if they're friends, and not if they're dating."
Emerald felt an uncomfortable lurch in her stomach as she thought of Cinder. "So," she said, her voice coming out a little too quickly. "What are we making?"
"Stir-fry with pork dumplings," Ren said. "I'll be adding the noodles in with the vegetables. The dumplings are made with ground pork, a bit of chopped shrimp, and some chives and garlic. We'll be mixing it with just a bit of sauce too."
"That sounds really good," Emerald said, her mouth watering a little at the thought. Ever since she was taken in by Cinder, she tried to get her hands on whatever good foods she could find. The more expensive, the better (though she rarely used her own money when going for the pricier options.) Even now, however, she had yet to taste a legit homecooked meal. "If you have any leftovers you want to get rid of, let me know."
"Leftovers?" Nora glanced over at her. "Aren't you eating with us?"
"I- oh!" Emerald's cheeks flushed. "Do…Do you want me to?"
"Of course," Ren said, looking a little shocked. "Do you think we'd ask you to help us cook if we weren't going to feed you?"
"I…" Emerald shrugged, unsure of what to say.
"Well, clearly all the hosts you've had in the past suck!" Nora declared. "We invited you down to eat with us. We just thought you'd like helping out. You seemed really bummed out today and doing stuff like cooking always helps me when I'm sad."
"Nora," Ren said with a slight warning tone. He hadn't wanted to draw attention to the fact that they had caught on to Emerald's obvious sadness that day.
Emerald stiffened. "You…noticed?" Crap! Did anyone else notice? Did Cinder notice? Did she notice other people noticing?! That last thought was purely terrifying. Would Emerald get a smack when she saw Cinder again? She didn't know if she could handle that kind of disappointment so soon after the previous night!
There was a thud. Emerald realized that the knife had slipped from her hand and fallen onto the cutting board. She felt weirdly lightheaded. Her breaths were coming shorter.
"Ren!" Nora's urgent voice cut through the haze growing in Emerald's mind.
A second later, a cool, calloused hand was on Emerald's back. At that touch, she suddenly felt her frenzied, panicked thoughts fading away. Gently, they were pushed to the back of her mind, making way for more rational, calming thoughts. Her breathing slowed and she felt a wave of what could only be described as pure peace washing over her. She looked over to see Ren standing behind her an expression of concern on his face.
"Better?" he asked.
"Yeah," she muttered, feeling embarrassment threatening to replace the calmness. Something was stopping it, however, keeping her in a state of peace and bliss. "Sorry."
"You have nothing to apologize for," Ren insisted.
"Yeah," Nora muttered sheepishly. "I shouldn't have said anything. I get panic attacks too, especially if I think people have been staring at me or thinking weirdly about me. Good thing I've got Ren."
Ren kept his hand on Emerald for a moment longer, long enough for the embarrassment to fade in the face of knowing that Nora also suffered the same thing, then drew back. "Do you want to talk about whatever happened?"
Emerald shook her head, feeling her cheeks warming yet again as she went back to cutting up some eggplant. "I just got into a fight with Cinder." Why the hell did I say that?!
Ren's eyes flashed. "Is everything okay with your team?"
Emerald almost laughed. If you only knew, you sweet, innocent soul… "Everything's fine. It was my fault. I messed up on something we were working on, so she yelled. She didn't do anything wrong."
For some reason, her words only made Ren and Nora look even more concerned.
Thankfully, they didn't say anything else on the matter as they continued preparing the meal. Emerald finished cutting the veggies and handed them to Ren, who put them in the wok along with the noodles before adding more sauce and swirling the entire concoction skillfully. Nora, meanwhile, taught her how to make the dumplings.
"You need to put enough filling in, but not too much," she explained. "If you put in too much, it'll leak out and the dumpling won't close." She put a small amount of the ground pork mixture into a small circle of dough she had rolled out, then carefully closed it with her hands. "Like that."
Emerald messed up on the first one, which ended up having filling coming out of one corner. She mentally berated herself for the obvious waste of food, but Ren and Nora didn't seem troubled. They just undid the dumpling and mixed the filling back in, encouraging her to try again.
Once the dumplings were formed, they were put into the big pot to boil. Ren took the wok off the heat and transferred it to the table, where a heat-proof bowl was waiting.
Emerald noticed that three places had been set. "Aren't Jaune and Pyrrha having any?"
"They're having one of their special, private training sessions," Nora explained.
"And, they're not a couple how?" Emerald asked.
Nora snickered. "I know, right?"
Once the dumplings were drained, the three sat at the table and divided up the food, setting some aside for Pyrrha and Jaune to eat later. Emerald took a dumpling, dipped it in some oyster sauce, and popped the whole thing into her mouth.
It was delicious. It was juicy with a slight hint of sweetness from the shrimp and a bit of crunch from the chives. The stir-fry was just as good, the noodles being firm and smoky in flavor, the chicken still totally moist, and the vegetables nice and crispy.
"So, Em," Nora said after eating her sixth dumpling. "You got a date for the dance?"
"I'm probably just gonna go with Mercury," Emerald said, shrugging her shoulders. And what a joy that will be… "I'm not really into that awkward 'ask random people you think are hot and get inevitably rejected' thing."
"Ooh, do you have someone you think is hot?" Nora asked, leaning over with a glint in her eye.
"Uh…" Emerald firmly pushed an image of Cinder away. "Not really." She quickly ate some noodles and chicken. "At least you guys have it easy, since you're already a thing."
Nora blinked, then let out a quick, too-loud laugh. "Us? Nah. We're just friends. Been together for years. But not, um, together-together. You know what I mean?"
Emerald glanced at Ren, who was staring fixedly at his plate, then back at Nora, whose face was bright red. "Uh huh." She didn't even bother hiding the doubt in her voice.
The three ate and chatted for another hour before cleaning up their dishes. Emerald was surprised to see that it was almost eleven.
"I'd better go to bed," she said. "My team has an early class tomorrow. Thanks for the food."
"No problem!" Nora insisted, giving Emerald a quick hug around the middle. "See you at our next sparring session."
Emerald barely suppressed a yelp of surprise at the sudden contact. "W-Wouldn't miss it," she stammered as Nora stepped back.
Ren didn't hug her, but his smile was friendly enough to count as a hug. "Until next time."
It wasn't until Emerald returned to her dorm room that she realized two things. One: She hadn't cancelled her sparring sessions with Team JNPR. Cinder had said that they were unnecessary now, and Emerald would likely be given something else to do in the near future. Why had she said she'd keep sparring with them? Two: She didn't feel exhausted from hanging out with them this time. Normally, she was so focused on keeping her friendly, cheerful mask on in order to avoid suspicion. This time, however, she hadn't been wearing a mask. She had just…talked?
They didn't even look down on me for having that mini freakout, she thought, remembering that moment when Ren had touched her back, calming her instantly.
Wait a minute… She found herself walking faster, hurrying to get to her room, suddenly very eager to see Cinder. When she opened the door, she saw that her teammates were asleep.
I'll have to tell her in the morning. After all, she had just found out that at least one member of Team JNPR had a very useful and unique Semblance, one that Cinder would certainly be happy to know about.
That was enough to lift her spirits even further as she lay down and had her first peaceful sleep in days.
…
When Ren and Nora returned to their room, they saw that Jaune and Pyrrha were back from training and already fast asleep. While Nora put the leftover food in the mini fridge, Ren went to check on his teammates.
Jaune's face looked wholly peaceful. The slight aroma of melon-scented shampoo and dryer sheets from his fluffy pajamas made Ren smile. Lately, Ren found himself wondering, privately, what it would be like to cuddle with his leader, being totally engulfed in warmth and softness and the smell of melons and fresh laundry.
He pulled the covers over Jaune's shoulders, letting his fingers briefly touch soft blond hair before moving on to Pyrrha's bed.
Pyrrha, as always, looked like she was having a mildly-stressful dream. Her brows were creased, and she was gripping her blankets tightly. Carefully, Ren placed a hand on her brow, allowing his Semblance to activate. He sensed her stress, agitation, and a hint of self-loathing that always made him want to weep. Then, it was replaced with calmness. Pyrrha's face relaxed, and a shadow of a smile appeared. Ren felt his heart stutter at the sight.
He wasn't afraid of the feelings he had for his teammates. He wasn't new to them, after all. He had been feeling them for years, ever since he first realized that he was in love with Nora.
As he lay down next to her in her bed, tucking them both in in an act that was basically routine at this point, he thought back to what Emerald had said about them. Nora reacting as she had wasn't anything new. Still, it was frustrating.
Ren knew that Nora felt just as strongly for him as he did for her. He felt it every time he calmed her down. That love for him was an every-present emotion, one she regularly tried to suppress.
He wanted to tell her how he felt, that she had nothing to worry about, but he didn't want to move too quickly. What if Nora's fear was of starting a relationship? What if she wasn't ready? Ren didn't want to force her into anything. When the time came, she would be the one to decide where their relationship went. Ren had made peace with that a long time ago.
"Ren?" Nora piped up, snuggling gladly against her best friend's familiar form.
Ren stroked her hair gently. "Yes, Nora?"
"I think Emerald definitely needs us."
"I agree." Ren closed his eyes, frowning as he remembered just how quick Emerald had been to place blame on herself when she mentioned her fight with Cinder. What kind of fight was it? Do they have fights often? He knew he hadn't been mistaken when he had seen Cinder grab Emerald that one time. Even though he couldn't directly read emotions without physical contact, it was pretty easy to tell certain things by sight. "It seems like she doesn't have much of a support system. I wonder if any of her teammates even know she has panic attacks."
"Not sure," Nora sighed. "I mean, she seems to be good friends with Mercury."
"True," Ren allowed. "I don't have any issues with Mercury. As for their fourth teammate…" He thought for a moment. "Have we even met their fourth teammate?"
Nora shook her head. "Don't think so."
"Interesting." Ren sighed as his head sank into the pillow. "Well, let's just focus on being Emerald's friend and finding out what we can."
"Okay," Nora said. "I just…I don't want to let anyone get hurt. I mean, we didn't do anything to help Jaune or Velvet when they were being bullied, and I still feel horrible about that."
"We won't make the same mistake." Ren thought back to his father's words, back on that fateful day he had first seen Nora. "I'll make sure of it."
In the end, Ren decided to use his Semblance to put them both to sleep faster. It was late, and they both had a long day ahead of them.
I really enjoy typing domestic scenes like cooking. They're just so chill and can lend to many conversations. I'm writing a lot of personal headcanons into this, such as Emerald being more likely to have panic attacks due to Cinder. Considering how unstable she became after Cinder's death in Volume 5, it seems to make sense.
There are still two more commission slots open for anyone who's interested. PM me for details.
If you like what you see and want to show extra support while earning sweet rewards, my P/atreon is Solora Goldsun.
Peace out!