She did have a tendency to babble...
Nora had been talking for a long time: babbling about her latest dream and some strange sequence of events that convinced her there was some sort of strange human-sized pod in a hidden vault under the school. Her friends and teammates started out being patient with her, just letting her carry on for a good few minutes and waiting for Ren to step in. Yet Nora had managed to chat for almost a solid half hour and the others started searching their lunch table for any sign of Nora's partner, only to realize... their group of eight had been whittled to seven, and none of them knew when it happened.
It wasn't so unusual to forget Ren's presence; to assume he was around at all times, but quietly off on his own, waiting for the moment when he had to intercede and pull on Nora's leash. Nora herself routinely wandered off to play with Ruby and Yang, so seeing her apart from Ren wasn't uncommon... but usually he'd arrive at some point to extract Nora and bring her back down to Remnant from her latest wild scheme. If Ren had left for whatever purpose, he seemed... absent. And his absence made the weight of Nora's presence all the greater.
She did love to talk. And without her counterweight, the rest of her friends felt their own energy being whittled down. She was endearing and enthusiastic... and exhausting, and Ren had always been the buffer who sacrificed his energy to temper her. Without him...
Ruby and Yang were the most likely to go along with Nora's story, so they volunteered to remain and endure her unusual, unfounded conspiracy theory regarding Atlesian technology designed to suck the souls of young women... leaving Blake and Weiss to try and locate their missing colleague and hopefully refute Nora's rampant speculation with logic and poise, before it was too late.
Blake had spent the occasional Sunday afternoon sharing tea with Ren and Fox Alistair and was their best inroad to understanding his patterns of behavior. Blake doubted very much that Lie Ren would simply leave without bothering to tell his friends anything -it was much too out of character for him to be impolite- she considered it likely he'd sent a text to Pyrrha or Jaune announcing his intention, and Jaune eventually corroborated this once Weiss dislodged him from being caught up with Nora's increasingly elaborate belief in some sort of alliance between Ozpin and General Ironwood from Atlas to fight some other, unseen evil...
Ren's text to Jaune stated he had gone to the guest dorm and would return as soon as he could. Innocuous, surely... but why would Ren go to the guest dorm?
He was of Mistrali descent, like Pyrrha. Maybe he knew someone visiting for the festival? It was as good a starting place as any, and only searching through the visitors from Haven would at least narrow their search.
Blake and Weiss headed from the dining hall, trusting in their friends to endure Nora's endless spiel a while longer. Her tendency to babble was already pushing them to the brink...
Blake took point ahead of Weiss, resolving to move quickly in perusing, while Weiss would move methodically with quiet, polite inquiries of any guests she came across. But with so many closed doors, they could scour the entire floor of the guest dorm and still miss out on-
Blake paused when she saw a familiar shade of green in the hall. She instinctively moved to conceal herself around a corner, hunkering down out of sight... a needless action to hide from a friend, but her muscle memory got the better of her...
She could've simply revealed herself: she could've just walked around the corner and greeted her friend, but she hadn't yet established the reason he'd come here. And her curiosity -like her instincts- compelled her to stay hidden, peering around the wood and plaster to see what had brought Ren so far from Nora's anchor.
He was talking to someone -talking much more animatedly than he ever did in their group- while he stood outside of a guest dorm. Blake could see a hand pressed on the white wooden door frame: she couldn't get a read on much save for fair skin and red nails... a thin black sleeve of a school uniform. Probably a girl, though that alone told Blake nothing.
She could simply walk over and collect her friend. That too would reward her curiosity when she saw who stood across the door from him...
Blake steeled herself to do just that. She was still quite unused to simply walking up to strangers, but she could be... cordial in leading Ren away, and discreet in inquiring about his purpose here. Curiosity could be sated from up close as well as from afar...
She rose to full height and prepared to turn the corner... when Blake saw that same fair-skinned, red-nail-polished hand reach past the door frame to press a palm against Ren's cheek. Then Blake hit the brakes in a hurry, though she did not tear her eyes away: if anything, she was much more interested in who this was now.
She could make out a bit more: a slender arm, a few strands of rich black hair. Ren smiled, reaching his own hand up to clasp over the back of the one pressed to his cheek, returning this gentle, intimate touch with his appreciation... with some affection of his own, more affection than Ren ever allowed himself in public.
He said something in which the word "friends" was clearly distinguishable. Blake tried to attune to the sound, her ears standing straight up as she focused only on him and this stranger who seemed to know him so well.
"...I have to get back to them," Ren explained. "I've already been gone so long."
"Too soon..." whined the girl on the other side of the door.
Soft. Alluring. A subtle mixture of confidence and sincere longing. Blake knew the tone. She'd used it before.
It was a bitter taste in her mouth now. But she'd last used such a tone when talking to Adam. And when she'd used it, it had been every bit as sincere... because when she used it, she'd been in love with him.
"I'll call you tonight after dinner," Ren promised her. "If you'd like to hear from me again, of course..."
"Don't make me wait too long," the brunette on the other side of the door requested. "I'll..."
Blake knew that pause too. The moment when confidence was interrupted by uncertainty, by struggling to find the right word that made intentions clear without putting one's paramour on the spot to quickly adopt a position. She was trying to find some way of saying she wanted to see Ren again without seeming... clingy.
How long had this been going on...?
"I'll be thinking of you," she finally decided. "See you soon, Lie."
Did anyone call him that? Even Nora didn't call him by his given name.
Then, at last, Blake saw her. She leaned through the doorframe to find Ren's opposite cheek, to leave a gentle kiss on soft skin.
When she doubted her words, actions spoke louder...
From the opposite angle, Blake could see enough of her face, though one of her eyes was obscured by her bangs. Long black hair... amber eyes -the one she could see- and some Mistrali features too: softer, and subtler like Pyrrha's rather than fierce and sharpened like Ren's. Blake had to admit the girl would probably get a boy's attention.
The brunette's face had a subtle redness. Had she ever done this to him before? Or had this been a sudden, unexpected outpouring of emotion?
Blake didn't have time to collect her thoughts. The Mistrali brunette drew away from Ren and disappeared back into her room. Ren bid her goodbye and headed away.
Blake could catch up with him and remind him that Nora was in need of her minder. She could've carried on the mission she'd intended to.
But there was something far more interesting guiding her now.
And curiosity, it seemed, outweighed the mission... Blake peered at the room number.
Who was this woman who stole Ren's time? And who was Lie Ren, to have so swiftly -and so silently- stolen her heart?
Weiss had been asking after their friend. Blake swiftly moved to regroup with her and compare notes.
Perhaps this woman from across the sea had a name...
And perhaps Lie Ren was not always in thrall to Nora Valkyrie after all...
