"Sometimes life gets scary, but when that happens you just give the world the biggest smile you've got."

AN: Updates on all stories will be if and when. Sorry guys, Real life and Novel come first plus I'm super burned out and stressed with those. Leave a review and let me know how I'm doing!

Nora rocketed through the sky atop Magnhild. It was so much fun getting around as a huntress, gone were the days of waiting on buses with Ren out in the rain, gone were the days of sneaking onto trams and dodging conductors gone were -

Her stomach rumbled with the ferocity of an ursa as she landed on the roof a dust shop. She wasn't supposed to meet Ozpin for another hour, but she just had to get out of class today. She'd been trying to be a better student, she really truly had - after all it wouldn't be fair if they didn't qualify for the Vytal festival on account of her skipping classes. That wouldn't be fair to Ren, Jaune and Pyrrha - Especially Pyrrha.

She didn't like seriousness, it stressed her out. Anytime she felt there was pressure on her she'd panic, just double down on the goofiness and try to get everyone to lighten up. But lately Pyrrha had been an immovable object of seriousness, in fact it bordered on obsession. Ren always had some kind of scary intense focus for his training, so much so that she couldn't bear to be around him then. No matter how much it hurt, if she trained with him he'd get serious and she'd get goofy which would distract him and then one time he hurt himself because she distracted him during one his aura thingys and then she felt even worse and couldn't stomach doing the aura fighty stuff so started hitting things with a hammer and…

She mentally smacked herself. This is why she ditched in the first place! There's too much seriousness going on right now, even the Knights are trying to make her get serious. They had actually set two on her now! And the Second didn't even break in one whack from Magnhild; it was like it was trying to stress her out. Magnhild folded away neatly as ever and with crossed arms and a grumble she walked across the sun bleached roof and flopped on the edge as if exhausted, letting her legs dangle. There was a lovely view of the park from here, the cherries were even coming into blossom!

One day the cherries would rain down in the background for her wedding, where she'd be wearing white armour and have her husband give her a helmet instead of a ring! That would cover up her hair though… "Maybe Ren would know what looks good in a wedding, I should ask him." She mumbled out loud as she watched two kids fighting over a ball while their quite frankly inattentive parents read scrolls form so far away the kids probably couldn't even see them.

The redhead couldn't help but clench her fist watching the ungrateful family. She would be a much better Mom than that blonde bimbo, she would make those kids so happy and kind and gentle that they would never use words like the ones they had begun to. And Ren would never be like that drunken fool of a father! I mean he was so handsome already and wise and smart and stuff; he'd be a great Dad. The two of them knew exactly what it meant being a parent, they knew exactly how important parents were. Countless times they'd talked about how they'd be different than whoever left them in that damn orphanage.

She sighed and kicked an air conditioner thing, the machine chugging out black smoke and white dust in equal measure and winced as chunks of concrete flaked off her boot as well. Anger wouldn't change anything, as much as it wasn't in her nature she'd been flying off the handle a lot lately… She had been avoiding Ren also, not wanting to bother him from training or studying or cooking or anything. She just felt like she was a nuisance to him, especially now she wanted to talk to him about… "together together." He probably wouldn't go for it. She knew that, she always knew that. He always talked about going out and being hunters together, killing grimm together or saving the kingdoms together. Even when the other "older" kids at the orphanage called them a couple he hadn't seemed interested in that.

That shouldn't hurt her. He was Ren, always the lone wolf badass ninja going to punch grimm in the face so hard they explode! And she would be his lifelong partner in crime, the lightning goddess Nora! She tried to laugh but it came out as a sob. Pyrrha would get Jaune, even he would see that eventually and Ms Determination wouldn't settle for failure on any front after all! So she'd be left all alone, following Ren like some sad little puppy because who would ever love someone as stupid as her!

"Wow." She said through tears, her voice sounding like some caricature of her usual bellow, "What is wrong with me?" She leant against the busted AC trying desperately to clear her mind, she was Nora. Always happy, always smiles. Life of the party.

She took a deep breath and looked over to the park again, noticing a familiar mop of greying white hair heading to an area of the park she actually didn't know. "Now where are you going to my Dear Ozpin? Could it be an illicit affair with Mrs Goodwitch? Or perhaps you are off to train some secret apprentice in the art of coffee?" She narrated in an air of a nature documentary.

"Why what shall I do, spotting the rare headmaster in the wild? Well of course I study it! Thus we foll-" She prepared to leap to a closer building with Magnhild, but the minute she leapt into the air she was smacked back down in a burst of bright green light - "OW." She protested rubbing her rear end.

Standing on the rooftop ledge with his cane pressed against her forehead was none other than Professor Ozpin. "I am very disappointed in you Nora. I had expected that you might have swung by and spoken to me rather than make an attempt at following me."

"But I didn't-" Nora began-

"Because I stopped you." He interceded, "I have no doubt now that you would have followed me fully to my destination out of a mix of curiousness, boredom and lack of other options." His eyes seemed to examine her closely, "If it was a lack of lien keeping you from the arriving at the diner early, I guarantee they would be happy allowing you to wait for me to pay."

"I just-" She shrank before his piercing gaze unable to even resort to her usual goofy coping measures.

"Just were so worried that you skipped class, avoided the questions of your closest friends and decided to take up stalking as a hobby?" He sighed, almost sounding relieved. "Nora. Please don't follow people? We can talk about whatever is bothering you in-" He flipped open a pocketwatch she could swear wasn't on his person before, "in 40 minutes. I have an appointment to get to."

"Professor?" She asked as he made to step off the ledge, "I'm sorry." She ran an arm up her bicep eyes firmly fixed on the roof she hadleft a small crater in, "I'll wait at the diner." She practically whispered.

He put a finger under her chin and propped it up, "All right. Make sure to smile now, I will need cheering up after all. Nobody likes dealing with all this festival stuff after all. We'll have a talk abotu what's bothering you and I'm sure we can work something out." He flashed her a warm smile and she couldn't help but return it through teary eyes.

He wanted to hear what was wrong. He actually cared about what was bothering her and actually help? Wow, Beacon could be kind of awesome. She grinned, "Well I'll make sure the waitress brings you a PLG!" She flashed a peace sign at him before blasting towards the diner, sailing across the sky again. She felt a burst of aura behind her, probably Ozpin doing whatever he did to get around…

She felt a little lighter; though it could be the fact her stomach was so empty that it's rumbling could scare a Beowulf.