Schedule? What schedule? But seriously I hate school right now :(
On the bright side, this is a continuation to the last chapter, and there will be one more chapter to end this miniature arc.
Nora hated this. Hated feeling like this.
She was storming out into the woods, ignoring the obvious danger of grimm attacking her while she was like this. She had to get away though, away from the batch of snakes she had just released into their little group.
It wasn't a problem until they had joined up with Ruby, and even then, it hadn't started immediately. It was small things; a flash of something dark and storming every time Ruby caught her eye, a pinprick of bitterness when she heard Ruby talking, a smudge of resentment every time she woke up expecting Pyrrha to be with them and finding Ruby instead.
Ruby didn't deserve this. It was wrong. Nora was wrong. That didn't change anything though.
She tried, she tried to logic away the feelings. Reason away the bitterness because Pyrrha wasn't here but Ruby was and, and, and just-
Nora stopped, slamming her fist once, twice into the nearest tree. Not like that helped her either. She knew by now that reasoning emotions away is a useless effort.
"Nora."
Well, speak of the devil, and he'll appear.
"Ren." Nora shot back, flinching at her scathing tone. She kept her back turned to him though, her fist coming down to clench her skirt.
"Nora, what's wrong? You can tell me." Nora could hear and feel him inch closer, but he respected her boundaries, hovering just on the edge of her personal bubble.
"Everything's wrong! Nothing makes sense anymore." More tears were streaming down her face now, thick and wet. "Why can't Pyrrha just be with us?"
"Instead of Ruby?" Ren asked quietly, as if he was waiting for her to break. Nora felt pretty close to shattering anyways.
"Of course not! Who do you think I am?" Nora fell to her knees, her hands tearing out chunks of grass within their reach.
"You're only 18. You're a huntress in training. You're a kind person, but you're hurting. All of us are." Ren sat beside her, just out of reach.
"Pyrrha and I used to talk a lot, you know. About boys, school, training. Anything really. She would always end up talking about Jaune though." A shaky smile made its way across her face at the thought, only for it to crumble when the weight of reality came crashing down once more. "All- all she did was talk about how much better he was getting, or something funny that he did, or how endearing he was, or how sweet he was. It was always about him- and she never even got to-"
Nora broke down, burying her head in her knees, sobs wracking her body. Ren took this as permission to reach across the careful boundaries he had made to put a comforting hand in between her shoulder blades, rubbing soothing circles through the fabric of her shirt.
"Pyrrha was- words can't really describe her- but she was incredible." Ren breathed in deep, searching for what to say next. "She didn- she didn't deserve it, she could never deserve anything like that. But, but even- she wouldn't want us to blame the innocent."
"I know." Nora whispered through the tears. "I know but…"
"I can understand your resentment though." Ren muttered. "I held a grudge against huntsmen after- after Kuroyuri. I was mad about what happened, and took it out on whatever I could."
"I never noticed." Nora admitted quietly.
"I've always been good at keeping a straight face." Ren teased gently. "But after a time, I finally realized that the huntsmen weren't responsible for the grimm. The huntsmen didn't destroy our home. That thing did."
The vehemence scorching Ren's tongue was a surprise to Nora, although it had been years since either of them had talked about their past, so she was probably more surprised because it had been so long more than anything.
"I'm trying." Nora blurted out. "I'm trying to not be angry. But I can't, no matter how hard I try."
"You're a kind person." Ren said without hesitation. "Talking with one another about Pyrrha might help resolve this. After an apology."
Nora sniffled, her eyes spent. "I know. I just- she's going to hate me after what I said to her."
"This is Ruby, as far as we know she can't hate anyone, not really." Ren reminded her. "Besides, letting this lie will only hurt us more, even if it isn't a subject I want to talk about."
"Give me a minute." Nora asked, unwrapping her arms from around her knees to try and get the blood flowing to her legs again.
"Sure. As long as you do go and apologize." Ren assured her, leaning back on his hands.
"Duh." Nora giggles, hiding her disappointment of losing contact with Ren.
"I suppose this is what Jaune's mom meant by 'you kids can't keep running from your feelings,' isn't it?"
"Yeah." Nora sighs. "I guess."
In better news, well maybe worse depending on how much you like angst, but I have two major chapters planned out for later that I feel like talking about :D Tiny spoilers ahead so don't read if you don't want any.
The first is the one where Nora finally has to come to terms with her feelings for Ren. This will probably be set around the events of the volume 4 finale, so it won't be for a while. I can build up to it though ;)
The second is a chapter cataloging Pyrrha's life through her eyes. I love doing character studies, and I realized that I never did anything for Pyrrha and I'm just like "How did I miss that?"