Chapter 7: What Did We Learn?

You know, I feel that a lot of people expect stories to have some sort of lesson nowadays. You know, something to give the reader a new outlook on life? Well, that's where I step in. I'm the type of guy to tell you that the real lesson of one of my stories is never to eat free cookies. It could either be the worst or best moral ever, depending on your tastes. But, whatever, it's really up to the audience's interpretation, like the finale of Cowboy Bebop. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that I deliver more than you think, but less than you'd hope when it comes to morals. With that aside out of the way, let's just get to the story.

xxx

A tense silence was hanging in Professor Ozpin's office. He had his glasses pushed up to the bridge of his nose, and his hands were clasped around his face. Sitting opposite form in, in front of his desk, sat Ren, Nora, Yang, and Blake. Nobody moved a muscle. In fact, the only things making any noise were the completely unnecessary spinning cog decorations littered around the office.

Breaking the silence, Ozpin sighed and unclasped his hands. Then, he picked a piece of paper off of his desk and showed it to the motley group of students.

"Would one of you care to explain why I was sent this massive bill for repairs to the Vale City Aquarium?" the professor asked in a dead calm voice.

Nobody bothered to reply to him. Nora looked at the floor, and Yang rubbed her eyes. However, Ren and Blake looked like they were silently encouraging the two of them to speak up.

Noting the silence, Ozpin interrogated them some more. "Would you also like to explain why the two of you," he pointed to Yang and Nora, "were caught on security footage tearing up a large parking lot?".

Hesitantly, Yang piped up. "I, uh, sorta got beat up by Nora…" she mumbled.

"That much is clear," Ozpin noted. Yang wasn't sure if that was meant to be an insult or an observation. Either way, it made her feel like crap.

"I… eh… kinda got involved too," Nora sheepishly admitted too.

"I'm glad this was settled," Ozpin stated. "Now, the real question is, what to do with you two?".

That question hung in the air, as nobody really knew what was in store for any of them.

"Beacon Academy has the right to dispel the both of you…" mused Ozpin as he leaned forward on his desk. Nora and Yang visibly seized up hearing that. "Or, we can simply take the balance for repairs out of your student account, but that isn't enough to cover everything…" he continued. The guilty pair relaxed immediately.

"Hrrmmmm…" Ozpin hummed in deep thought.

"Professor Ozpin," Ren butted in, "Is there any way that Nora and Yang can stay at this academy?". Even if he wasn't looking at her, Ren could tell that Nora smiled at him coming to her defense. He was also sure that Yang would appreciate it too. After all, that's what friends were for.

"Well… I'm sure that Beacon Academy can afford to pay the damages, but that absolves them of responsibility… but…" the headmaster thought out loud. He leaned back into his office chair as he suddenly had an idea.

"How do you two feel about unpaid labor?".

xxx

"I hate my life…" Yang grumbled to herself.

Of course, Nora and Yang took Ozpin's offer the other day. They would be pretty stupid not to. But, when they did, they had no idea what exactly they were going to do. Now, Yang's decision was beginning to haunt her immensely.

Right now, Team Bruisers were cleaning out the utility/drainage tunnels that ran underneath Beacon Academy. You would be surprised what things could build up down there. The floor in their section was completely caked in an unholy mix of congealed Grimm blood, fetid rain water, and what Yang sincerely hoped wasn't urine. But, she was probably wrong on that last point.

Nora, however, was taking this surprisingly well. To her, this was an awesome cave adventure. Maybe she could find secret pirate treasure down here! If she did, she was planning to give it to Ren in apology for making a big mess of things.

"C'mon, Yang! Look at this weird stick I found!" Nora declared.

Yang looked at the twig that Nora proudly displayed. It was a cool stick alright. It was kind of shaped like a gun, but it was gnarled at one end. Maybe like a capital 'L', but with a rounded tip on the longer end.

"That's a weird stick, alright," Yang observed before getting back to trying to clean the floors. However, that was pretty hard when you only had a mop, push broom, and a large bucket to carry the slop in. To make matters more annoying, Nora was constantly getting distracted. She just sometimes randomly stopped cleaning to explore a hallway or spare room. But, Yang held her tongue. Otherwise, the fight they might get into could possibly destroy all of Beacon Academy.

But, to Yang's slight surprise, Nora went back to mopping up the horrible brew on the floor. That stick find must have settled her natural curiosity for a little bit.

Sloop, sloop, sloop.

The mopping continued in silence. It was kind of nice, but it was weird to see Nora being so quiet. Especially for this long. Nora hadn't said some odd thing or went on a random tangent in about twenty or so minutes.

"Y-Yang?" Nora shakily asked.

"Yeah? Wassup?" Yang inquired back.

"We're friends, right? We like each other. Well, I mean not like-like, because I'm not like that, but I know you know about like-liking someone, like in a like-liking way, like, you know?" Nora asked quickly.

It took a good minute or two for Yang to wrap her mind around Nora's tongue twister. "…Yes…?" she eventually settled on.

"W-well, I kinda sorta like-like someone, but I'm not sure he like-likes me, and I really want him too, but I don't know how to tell him. How did you do it?" continued Nora.

Yang sighed. It was incredibly blatant that she was talking about Lie Ren, of course. How couldn't she? The girl was practically a Remora (or rather, ReNora), to Ren's hypothetical Shark. In fact, it baffled her that those two hadn't hooked yet. Ren must have had the patience of a saint. Either that, or he was a eunuch. But, that guess was pretty unlikely.

Placing her hand on Nora's shoulder, Yang advised, "Look, I can't really say I'm any real expert here. But, I do know that he's gotta want it too. Find out what he likes, maybe try being more suggestive around him, I don't know. Something like that. Draw him in. Ya feel me?".

"I know he likes me… but maybe not in a like-like way, but just in a like way?" Nora thought aloud.

"Hey, for all you know, maybe Ren like-likes you," offered Yang.

Nora gasped in surprise. "How did you know it was Ren?". Then, after thinking for a brief second, she squeed, "Are you a wizard?!".

Yang chuckled, "Not exactly. Just call me… observant,".

"…Can you please not tell him? I-I want him to like-like me by himself," pleaded Nora, her shoulders slumped.

"'Course, Nor-Nor. I can keep a secret," reassured Yang as she lightly ruffled Nora's hair.

But in reality, there wasn't much of a secret to keep in the first place. After all, pretty much everyone saw the extreme amounts of romantic tension (or, as Yang called it, Rension) between that pair. Hell, even Ruby saw it, and her only romantic experience began and ended with Weiss. At least Yang got a head start on that stuff from the internet at an early age. Uncle Qrow never got around to installing those child locks on their internet browser, after all.

Nora returned Yang's promise with a large Ursa hug. Normally, her hugs were strong enough to crush a car door, but Yang was tough enough to bear it. Heck, she could probably dish out the same amount of pressure.

"I knew I could trust you!" Nora cried in thanks.

"Yeah, yeah, but seriously, can you please let go? You're covered in goo," Yang said as she tried to pry the clingy girl away. Not that she didn't appreciate the hug, it was more out of the fact that she didn't want a bunch of horrible grime all over her chest. She would probably have to burn her clothes after this. Or use an absurd amount of bleach on them instead.

Nora pulled herself away at Yang's request. "Y-yeah, sorry for that…" she slightly chuckled as she scratched the back of her neck. "We're cool, right?".

"Yeah, we're cool," calmed Yang as she began to mop the floor again.

Soon enough, Nora began to follow her friend's example and got back to cleaning the floor. You know, it wasn't all that bad being forced to clean a glorified drainage pipe covered in effluvial grime. At least she was able to get some help from her best bud, her amigo, her sister from another mister.

"How would that work? Can a guy really get pregnant? Have we ever really tied? Science can try. Science is cool. Cool like Yang. Wow, Yang is cool. What a friendly friend! I wonder if she likes dolphins. Oh, maybe she would like Claude! Wait, Claude went bye-bye. Oh, now I made myself sad. Sadness. Boooooooo…" was the hammer girl's locomotive of thinking.

Regardless, she kept on her work.

xxx

Ren was sitting outside on a bench. In his left hand was a gift. And, in his mind, he had a mission. He felt that it was his responsibility to cheer Nora up whenever she was feeling down in the dumps. So, he did the one thing he knew that Nora appreciated: him buying her things.

In the distance, he saw his objective. Nora walked out of the access tunnel, covered in something thoroughly unpleasant. He was thankful that he couldn't smell her from here. But, he knew that this feeling was short lived. He would have to get closer to Nora to deliver his gift. As he stood up and walked over to Nora, he saw Yang come out after her. Well, she wasn't his target. Better get her out of the equation swiftly.

"Hey, Yang. Mind if I talk to Nora a bit?" he asked the blonde as he walked up to Team Bruiser.

"Yeah, sure. She's your partner," Yang conceded as she shrugged. Then, turning on her heel, she strode around the corner and disappeared. Good, now Ren was free to give his gift without anyone seeing it. He had a reputation as a straight-man to keep, after all.

Turning to Nora, he stiffly said, "Hey, uh, I know the last few days were, ah, rough for you. Here you go,". With that, he held out the small cardboard box to Nora.

Curious, she took the box. Good things usually came in boxes. Well, except for severed body parts. But, that stuff came from serial killers. But, Ren wasn't a serial killer. He was a killer of Grimm!

Nora let out a high pitched squeal as she pulled the gift out of its package. It was a dolphin plushie! "OhmygodIloveit!" she squeed.

Then, she pretty much tackled Ren to the ground with a hug. Luckily he was anticipating that, and braced himself for an impact. At this point in their relationship, he was fully expecting to get killed by a misguided Nora trying to express how much she cared for him. Well, at least it was a WAY better death that getting ripped apart and devoured by a creature of Grimm. At least that way, he died by Nora's side instead.

"Nora, please get off me," Ren ordered through his teeth. To be honest, he was getting a slight erection because of the fact that A) Nora was on top of him, and B) he had a good view down her shirt. Damn these hormones! All that meditation and mental fortitude really meant nothing in the end.

"Hmmm…" Nora happily hummed from his chest. Nora wanted to melt into Ren right then and there. She just loved him so much in this moment… GAH! It was hard to explain! She just loved him so, so much!

(Un)fortunately for Nora and Ren, respectively, someone decided to break up the moment that they were sharing.

"I knew it! Woooo! Go get 'em, Ren!" Yang cheered as she leaned against the wall. Apparently, she hid around the corner, being the nosy romantic that she was.

Nora rolled off of Ren and stood up. She tried to hide her furious blushing, but it was obvious she was really liking being on top of Ren. "Y-Yang! I-I-I gah, ermm, aww geez!" she stuttered in embarrassment. So this was what it was lie to being caught in a compromising position. She didn't like that feeling all too much.

Ren brushed off the dirt and dried flakes of grime off of his shirt as he also stood up. "Yang, I can assure you, I wasn't eloping with Nora. All I did was give her a gift, and she expressed her appreciation accordingly," he calmly explained. He had a really had a good poker face.

"Yeah, sure. You totally proposed, right?" Yang teased.

"Wait, I'm MARRIED now!? Oh, Ren! When's the ceremony?!" Nora excitedly asked.

Sighing, Ren guided Nora to turn around as the two of them began to walk away. "No, we're not getting married today,". Then, over his shoulder, he called out to Yang, "Please, don't misinterpret what you saw,".

Yang could only laugh at what she saw as Team Sloth walked away. She could see that Nora was playing around with the stuffed dolphin in her hands, and Ren kept on holding his hand on Nora's back.

Then, chuckling to herself as she walked away, Yang came to an odd conclusion: blowing up an aquarium's parking lot really brought people together, after all. What an odd, yet somehow sane conclusion.

She would have to file this victory in her head. Go aquarium parking lots!

xxx

Okay, maybe I wasn't exactly accurate with the whole moral rant up above. There was certainly something to learn here… if only for extremely specific situations. Hey, at least it's something, I guess. It's better than nothing. So, now that we've gotten confusing morals, violence against animals (and people), and weird humor out of this story, please be sure to leave me a review on what you thought about this story! Preferably with a message or review! And thus, this is The Draigg, swimming to warmer, better waters!