A/N: Hey guys, long time no see! Sorry it took so long to update, this year is wacky and due to how busy we were with school and our other writing projects, Lea and I couldn't find as much time to write for this. The edited half of this chapter was just sitting untouched in my docs for 3 months, and today I finally decided to do something about it, so we're just flying by the seats of our pants today lol. Half of this is edited, the other half is not. It's fiiiiiiine. There's more of me talking at the bottom of this chapter, but for now, I hope you enjoy reading! I'm working on the next chapter's first draft right now, so maybe (fingers crossed) the next chapter comes out sometime later this month.

Chapter VIII: Of Slumber Parties and Poinsettias

"Considering it looks like total darkness, I'd say that's a probable inference," he quipped.

She walked around the counter, tracing the perimeter with her hand, stopping when her other outstretched limb collided with his shoulder. She steadied herself against him. "Okay, well, we're together now."

He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her closer. "Well, I suppose this gets rid of the movie option."

"Well, to quote you, I'd say that's a probable inference."

He huffed a laugh. "So, what do we do now?"

"We still have pizza, and I have drinks in the- damnit." She whined. "All of the stuff in my fridge is gonna go bad. I only have milk, veggies and soda, but still, milk is expensive."

He rubbed her back sympathetically. "My phone is in my jacket, if you want to see any updates on when this should stop."

She hummed an affirmative, releasing him and letting her hand drift to his.

Together, they walked- or rather, stumbled- back to the entryway. He fumbled through his pockets for his phone, both of them wincing as bright light flooded the doorway.

He scrolled through the newsfeed, frowning as he turned the screen to her. "Going to be at least a few hours of no power, and there's a flood advisory."

She hissed, "Yikes, I didn't realize it was this bad." Then she jolted, eyes blowing wide. "Wait, flood-? You're not driving home during a flood warning."

He lowered the brightness until it was just enough to slightly illuminate their immediate surroundings, looking at her apologetically. "I can sleep on the couch."

She waved her hand dismissively. "I have a guest room you can stay in."

"Are you sure-?"

"I don't mind; I like you well enough," she teased. "Besides, I'd feel wayyy worse kicking you out during a flood than I would with you staying the night, even if we weren't, eh, together."

He smiled. "Alright then, in that case, do you want to rent a movie on my phone and continue as normal?"

She grinned, "Sounds great."

"Great." He opened up an app on his phone and handed it to her, "You find a movie, I'll go grab the food."

Nora rolled back against the couch, wiping tears from her cheeks and gasping for breath between fits of laughter, "That was literally the stupidest movie I've ever seen."

He sat beside her, grinning despite himself. "I rather like the fact you deliberately picked the dumbest thing you could find."

"Did you not enjoy it, though?" she rasped, panting slightly.

An amused smile played at Ren's lips as he watched her but he nodded in agreement nonetheless. "That I did."

She giggled again, leaning forward to place the phone onto the coffee table and then letting herself fall backwards into him. "So what do you wanna do now?" she tipped her head back against his chest, gazing up at him with twinkling eyes.

He hummed in consideration, folding his arms across her. "Nap?"

"Your answer to everything is napping." She teased, reaching up to poke his nose.

He chuckled. "If that was true, you'd have known what I was going to say, and thus wouldn't have asked me for suggestions in the first place."

"Maybe I just like talking to you."

"Maybe?" he asked, feigning surprise. "You like talking to everyone."

"Well, maybe I like listening to you."

He shook his head, "And if that were true, you wouldn't have electrocuted yourself last week."

She stuck out her tongue. "I like wearing socks, okay?"

"Which is perfectly fine, but when someone says 'Hey Nora, don't touch the doorknob while you're wearing socks on carpet', then don't touch the doorknob while wearing socks on carpet."

"You're just jealous you don't have cool socks," She lifted one of her feet, admiring the pattern of sloths munching on neon pink donuts (which admittedly, was very hard to make out in the darkness).

He chuckled, deadpanning, "My jealousy over your novelty socks is immense. You've completely figured me out."

She grinned. "I'm totally buying you printed socks next time Pyrrha and I go to the mall."

"I wear jeans every day, you'll never see them."

"You don't wear crazy socks for other people, you wear crazy socks for yourself." She nudged him with her elbow before gasping dramatically, "I've cracked it, that's the entire reason we're a couple, you can't live without my amazing socks."

She felt his body stiffen and for a moment, wondered if he really did envy her outrageous socks, before realizing what she'd said.

Damn Yang and Pyrrha.

She just about jumped in the rush to explain herself. "I mean, we're dating, so I guess we're a couple, but if- if you don't want to say that yet that's totally fine! Either way is fine. Fine with me. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine-ity fine by m-"

Ren let out a sigh of relief, relaxing back into the couch, his head rolling back to look at the ceiling before tilting to face her, a look of sincerity on his face that she hadn't been expecting. "Thank God you said it first; Jaune's been hounding me for the last week because I haven't called you my girlfriend yet."

Nora froze in her semi-pointless assurances, heaving a sigh as well and leaning back against the cushions. "Same." She lifted her head, smiling sheepishly. "So, we're together?"

He raised an eyebrow.

She shrugged, "Y'know. Together-together. Officially."

He blanched. "I- uh, yeah. I think? Probably."

"All good relationships start with probably." She simpered.

He scowled, "I've told you before I'm not very articulate."

"Coulda fooled me with that grammar. 'Articulate'." she repeated, stretching out the word. She yawned. "But yeah, sure, Ren no do words good."

He huffed a laugh. "So that was anticlimactic."

"Should we have done it more like that Hallmark movie?" she flashed him a scandalized expression. "I just can't believe you cheated on me before the big Christmas party, Bradley! I already told everyone I'd be bringing a date. Now who am I going to have a romantic montage with while we pretend it's December but really it's just July in Canada?"

He laughed properly at that, covering his mouth almost shyly before sitting up and trying to look just as outraged. "I don't know, Jessica, go find a handsome lumberjack with a cute son you'll befriend because the lumberjack's wife died two years ago, and for reasons never explained, he now hates Christmas."

"I'll ask him to the party to be my fake boyfriend, and for reasons also never explained, my mom is dead and Christmas was her favorite holiday," she stifled a giggle, sitting directly in front of him, "So now I'm going to have a sad discussion with my dad and resolve all of that trauma within ten minutes while the hot lumberjack realizes he was in love with me the whole time and brings me poinsettias!"

Ren chuckled, trying to ignore the butterflies forming as a result of how close their faces suddenly were, "That would certainly have made for a more interesting story than 'probably'."

"Well…" Nora pulled back a bit, drawing her knees to her chest and grinning, "If we've been together-together for a while, then it's like Sims. We have a bunch of new interaction options."

"I've never played a Sims game, so you may have to fill me in on the specific options." He smiled sheepishly.

"Well…" she turned to him, face heating even more with each word, "Usually the first couple of things that pop up after two sims get together are like… Compliment appearance, ask on date, offer rose… first kiss…"

He smiled, leaning a little closer, "Are you… flirting using The Sims?"

She winced, "When you put it like that it sounds stupid."

"I thought it was dorky and endearing." He mumbled. They were leaning in, his brain was screaming at him, and this was happening.

She giggled softly, "Watch out, I'll seduce you with Skyrim trivia next."

"So um…" He laughed lightly.

"We doing this?" she asked hesitantly.

"If you want to."

"I want to."

"I would like to as well."

"Cool."

And then their eyes closed and the seven seconds between their lips tentatively meeting and her practically crashing into him passed like a blur, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and he tangled a hand in her hair, the world spinning around them.

She pulled away for air, and his mouth pulled into a dazed smile as they looked at each other for a moment, brains still processing.

"So…" she breathed, "How's that pineapple pizza tasting?"

"I simultaneously love and hate you."

"Enemies with benefits?" she suggested.

He chuckled, "That sounds like another shitty Hallmark movie."

"I'd watch it."

"I'd watch it with you." He let his hands drift from her neck to her waist, "Today was eventful."

She draped her arms over his shoulders, "Yang and Pyrrha are gonna yell at me."

"Well, if you didn't want to make out on your couch, you shouldn't have wooed me with your dumb Hallmark movies and Sims knowledge."

"Oh, trust me, I have more than enough hyperfixations to beguile you several times over."

A/N: and that wraps up Chapter 8! Once again, thank you for reading and I really hope you enjoyed it! As always, thank you again to Lea for being the very bestest editor friend ever, and another thanks to everyone who's reviewed and said nice stuff! This AU really is my baby and it's nice to see people like it. Also, if you're signed in when you leave reviews, I ALWAYS message you a thank you and a response to whatever you said, I don't know if this is the messages failing to send, but nobody's responded and that's fine by me, but I'm just worried my messages didn't go through. So if you've reviewed before while signed into your account but haven't seen a message from me, please PM me so I can thank you!