That Morning, Jaune witnessed something he had long thought impossible; Nora woke up on time, without the fanfare and noise of a human firework. When seconds passed in silence, Jaune looked over to see her stumbling into the bathroom, yawning and stretching. He looked to Pyrrha, and they exchanged a mute conversation of shrugs and glances. Ren sorted through his books, looking unperturbed. As their resident expert on the subject of Nora, Jaune took this to mean that this was normal enough. Even if it wasn't normal at all.
Their walk to breakfast was similarly toned down. Where she would normally spin and bounce around, or into, everything in the hall, Nora skipped along with a smile. The quietness was so shocking that no one talked at all until they arrived.
They took their seats, leaving packs behind as stakes to their territory, and Ren started to follow them as they went to the food line. Nora put a gentle hand on his chest and sat him back down. The two shared a strange smile and Ren nodded, making himself comfortable.
"Nora?" Jaune asked, as they stood in line. "Is everything… I mean, nothing's up?"
Pyrrha blinked, mouthing his stupid choice of words back to him. Nora responded, "The ceiling is."
For some reason Jaune looked up to verify that yes, Beacon did have a ceiling. Just like yesterday, and everyday before that. He slapped his forehead. "Not like that."
Acting the part of a good partner, Pyrrha came to his rescue. "Is there anything you want to tell us about?"
"Nope!" Nora chirped. Then she furrowed her brow, thinking, while the two trays she had taken were piled high with pancakes and syrup. "Oh, wait! It's my birthday."
Then, like nothing had happened, she returned to Ren bearing breakfast for them both.
Later that day, between classes, when Pyrrha and Jaune could find time apart from the other half of JNPR, they had a serious talk about this.
"I was expecting her to bring explosives," Jaune said. "Set up a whole display. Maybe blow up the school."
Pyrrha laughed. "I know what you mean. This is… not like her."
"Should we get her something? What does Nora like, though, besides pancakes and hitting stuff?"
"Ren?" Pyrrha asked.
Jaune imagined trying to wrap Ren up like a gift, in ribbons and paper, and handing him to Nora. That might be something she'd enjoy, actually, but, "I don't think Ren would look good in ribbons."
Pyrrha considered him in a half titled way, opening and closing her mouth.
"We could get her a punching bag or something." Jaune continued, disregarding Pyrrha's confusion. "Or a lifetimes supply of pancake batter. Hey, do you still have Pumpkin Pete's cereal? Bet she'd like that."
"No," Pyrrha said. "I left the extras at home." Then, cautiously, she asked, "You're not putting Ren in ribbons, right?"
"No, no," Jaune said. That plan sounded too complicated anyways. They'd need so much paper, and a place to wrap him up, and dragging a giftwrapped person through the halls would be embarrassing.
"I don't know much about Nora, honestly," Pyrrha admitted. "I have no idea what she'd want."
"Me neither. With how much she talks, you'd think one of us would have picked up on something."
Jaune was beginning to realize just how little he actually knew about their excitable hammer wielder. She liked sweet things, and was prone to ridiculous outbursts, and didn't understand how to sit still. Sometimes Jaune had to wonder if she was all there, in the head, with the way she talked. For whatever reason Nora's first solution to any problem tended to be violent. Beyond those things, which most of the school had picked up on soon after initiation, Jaune knew nothing.
At lunch, Jaune did the only sensible thing left to him. While Nora was off getting a second helping, being quiet like she had most of the day, he turned to Ren.
"So, today's Nora's birthday," he said. Beside him, Pyrrha paused, fork midair, to listen.
Ren nodded.
"And I was wondering what to get her. Since it's her birthday. We're friends, and teammates, and all that, so… gifts."
Pyrrha sighed something that sounded exasperated and endeared.
"She'll like almost anything," Ren told them.
"What are you getting her?" Pyrrha asked.
Ren shifted, glancing away, and Jaune marveled that the stoic boy looked flustered. "A rather long time ago, she told me that the best gift she could get was seeing me happy. She took this to mean she spends a day being calm." He shrugged. "I guess my gift is smiling all day."
Jaune felt he had uncovered something private, like a skeleton in the closet only it was good. A puppy in the closet? Whatever it was, it made him just as awkward as Ren looked, and Pyrrha was close behind. Nora returned with another monstrously filled plate to a table of shuffling mutes. She frowned down at them until Ren showed her a smile, and she was quiet cheer again.
However Ren and Nora's birthday thing worked, Jaune didn't know if he could copy it, or even if that was allowed. That was their thing, started well before they knew him. Trying to mess with it would be intruding in the worst way.
So when classes ended, Jaune was extra slow in his walk back to the room. He had no gift to give, no idea what to get despite Ren's assurances Nora liked anything, and felt horrible about it.
Along the way, Ruby jogged by, and Jaune nabbed her cape in a moment of panicked inspiration. Unfortunately for them both, Ruby was fast and Jaune had too good a grip. Ruby's sudden stop made her squawk, Jaune was yanked forward as she fell backwards. They wound up on the floor, a tangle of red cape and books.
"Hey!" Ruby scolded, before seeing Jaune. "Oh. Hey!"
"Sorry. I just really, really needed some advice."
Ruby looked at him, then up and down the hall. "Is this about Cardin again? Blake said she's considering having a talk with him, anyways."
"No, not him, it's Nora. Today's her birthday and I have no idea what to get her, and-"
"No one told me it's her birthday!" Ruby yelped, losing track of Jaune's dire predicament.
"Don't worry, no one told me either." Back on topic, "I just can't think of a good gift for her. It's Nora! What does Nora want?"
"Something explosive?"
"Ruby, please don't. I like my room the way it is."
Ruby pouted. "What about a bigger hammer? Not to replace hers, but I think she'd like it just to swing around sometimes."
"Why do all your ideas involve weaponry that will break stuff? What do you get Yang for her birthday?"
"Shells and a free tune up for her weapon, and a box of sweets and hair products."
Before Jaune could question her further, Ruby darted away, probably to make her present and indirectly damage everything in Nora's sight. As an unspoken rule, Nora was not to be given dangerous items. It wasn't out of any mistrust of the girl. Everyone was just aware that she had too much energy, and the same regard for destruction as a storm. Getting her anything weapon-like was not what Jaune wanted to do.
That left him with a few short hours before Nora's birthday was over to find a gift. Which was far too little time to go to Vale, buy something, and come back. Whatever he got, it had to come from Beacon. Beacon had a library, a cafeteria, and a sparring room. That was it as far as non-classroom rooms went. They had obviously never considered gift giving a very essential part of team building. That, or they expected people to not fail at it as badly as Jaune was doing.
Short of hand delivering food to Nora, a feat she was entirely capable of herself, Jaune had nothing. What was he supposed to do, really? He hadn't known until today, there had been no time to prepare. At least he could have made a cake, or something, Nora liked cake. The only hint he had was what she and Ren did, and he still didn't think smiling all day would be quite the same thing as that.
And here came Nora, walking right towards a still floored Jaune. He hadn't bothered to stand yet, too distracted, just sitting on the floor like a dunce. Jaune fell onto his back, staring at the tiled ceiling on a cold floor. Might as well get the disappointment over with now.
When Nora got to him, she stood over him for a second before flopping down too. Jaune couldn't bring himself to look at her, so she waved in his face. "Hello Jaune! Taking a break?"
Sighing, Jaune glanced at her. Nora was twitching, smile stretched too wide, her fingers tapping a nonsense rhythm against the floor. She looked like she had drank five too many cups of coffee, or a couple pounds of sugar. Watching her, Jaune was struck by a sudden idea. "You want to spar?"
"Yes!" They were on their feet in a flash, Nora dragging Jaune along faster than he could stumble behind. "Do you know how hard it is to stand still when you don't have trees to climb or Grimm to hit? Very!"
They barreled through the sparring room door, and had anyone been there Jaune was sure that Nora's manic energy would have scared them off. Magnild was in her hands while Jaune was fumbling with his sword. She bounced on her toes, twirling it, and Jaune realized this was possibly the most insane thing he'd ever done.
Fighting Nora was far away from what he had experienced with Ren and Pyrrha. There was no bow, no formalities. As soon as Crocea Mors was in his hand, Jaune was backing away from a charging Nora, hammer swinging so fast it sounded like thunder.
Jaune raised his shield to block and the force of it blew his arm aside. He ducked under the next sweep, poked his sword out like he was trying to fend off a rabbit with a carrot. Crocea went flying when Nora blocked it, spinning her hammer in a clock hand motion. With only a shield against Magnhild, Jaune started to backpedal towards his sword.
Nora beat him to it, by blasting the ground and launching herself towards it. She threw him the sword, eager to continue, and when Jaune was armed she blasted herself back to him. In all his life, Jaune had never seen anything as terrifying as a high speed Nora missile, grinning and preparing to flatten him. He fell flat on his stomach and Nora flew by, squeaking at her miss.
When she hit the wall, leaving a crater, Jaune figured the match over. That looked like it hurt. But Nora was up before he finished sheathing Crocea, shaking plaster out of her hair. Apparently deciding not to learn from this, Nora launched herself again. This time Magnhild was stabbed into the floor, carving a path towards Jaune. He rolled away, then jumped back when Nora flew right back, hammer cracking the hard stone beneath their feet.
It was completely unfair how fast Nora could move when she was abusing the grenade part of Magnhild. Jaune spent more time running away from her high speed attacks han he did standing still. Nora was giggling the whole time, launching herself with a happy "Whee!" and missing with an exaggerated "Aww."
After twenty minutes of playing cat and mouse, no one had scored a point. Because of Nora's style, she couldn't quite aim her swings, and Jaune couldn't get close enough to touch her. That changed when Nora misjudged her next flight, colliding with a horrified Jaune and sending them both across the room.
When the dust cleared, Jaune was beneath Nora, dazed but somehow still holding his sword. Figuring he might as well, Jaune tapped her back with its blunt side.
"Oh," Nora said. "You win." For a moment her face was calm, taking long breaths. Then she snorted and began cackling, burying her head into Jaune's breastplate. Jaune just stared upwards, panting and feeling the burn in his legs.
Nora pushed herself up, wandering over to retrieve Magnhild. "That was fun! We should totally do it again sometime." After a pause, she added, "When they've fixed everything."
"Fixed?" Jaune asked, craning his neck to look. The sparring room was dented and beaten, looking as though it had survived an earthquake by the skin of its teeth. Nora was rubbing at one of many scorch marks, unable to clean the soot away. "We are in so much trouble."
"It'll be fine! We're Hunters, we're supposed to do stuff like this."
Jaune thought to argue the point. Hunters weren't supposed to break the towns they protected. Sort of defeated the point. A dry, very loud cough brought his attention to the door.
Glynda stood, arms crossed, crop tapping against her elbow, examining the destruction. She arched a brow at both students.
"We'll… just be leaving," Jaune croaked. His throat had parched at the sight of her. He grabbed Nora and pulled her out, offering a sheepish smile to Glynda as they passed. Once outside, he said, "We should run before she gets any ideas."
Run they did, shouldering through other students, sweaty and disheveled, and Nora would not stop giggling. At their door Jaune yanked it open and collapsed onto their strangely comfortable floor. Sprawled out as much as he could, Jaune waited for adrenaline and exhaustion to run their course. Nora teetered, then fell face first onto the floor.
"Um," Jaune said. Nora mumbled and waved her hand, which probably meant she was fine. She scooted over to him, and a blind hand patted at his face.
"Thanks," she said, voice muffled by the floor. "I was going to explode if I kept that up."
"I've been meaning to ask, why do you do the whole stay-quiet-so-Ren-smiles thing on your birthday? Most people would do whatever they want on their birthday."
Snorting, Nora told him, "You should see what Ren does for his birthday."
"That doesn't answer my question," Jaune said, but Nora pinched his nose shut and he gave up.
Pyrrha and Ren found them like that much later, two tired and half asleep lumps on the ground. "Happy birthday, Nora," Pyrrha said, slowly, like she didn't want to startle anyone. "I got you a gift."
That got Nora up, and she was ripping a massive teddy bear out of wrapping, squeezing it with a child's smile.
"Nice gift," Jaune said. Pyrrha offered her hand and pulled him to his feet.
"What'd you get her?"
"Probably detention for both of us." Jaune felt his mouth quirk despite the admission, waving off Pyrrha asking for an explanation. He'd tell her later.
"Group hug!" Nora shouted, Ren already wrapped in her arms next to the newly named Captain Fuzz Major, reaching for her other teammates. For now it was still Nora's birthday, and whether she wanted to spend it quietly or as loud as possible, Jaune was happy to go along with it.
