Chapter Two: The Wandering Mistral
January 31, 1890
The following week saw an unusual amount of zeal in Ren's activities. Both Pyrrha and Coco noticed that his usually thorough cleaning routines were done with a level of passion and fastidiousness that was seldom seen in the man. But then again, the usually calm man was unusually driven to succeed at keeping a clean house. Pyrrha had chalked it up to him setting the standard he'd deemed acceptable for the family she was to marry into, and Coco was quick to agree with that assessment.
Ren himself had realised that their observation held true in part, but his real reason was to make Nora feel wanted and involved in life – outside the confines of Neptune's shop and the rigours of her bounty hunting. Finally, Ren was polishing the lounge room floor at half past twelve, half an hour before Nora was due to arrive. As he worked, he began to reflect on the crazy Irish lass and what she was to him.
Despite the fact her personality and background could not be more different from mine, Ren observed thoughtfully, I sense a kindred spirit of intrigue and adventure within her. After all, we both ventured forth from our childhood homes with plans in our heads, then lived lives that twisted and turned to places beyond our dreams, and we now find ourselves at the centre of a shrinking world where anything can happen. As Ren stood up to dust his pants off, Coco entered the town house with the shopping done.
"Hello, ma chére. I've got the ingredients you needed for Nora's visit. Shall I do you the favour of making the salmon salad before I meet Fox for lunch?"
Ren was quick to respond.
"I'll be alright with the cooking, Coco. I've already finished touching up the lounge and watercloset on this floor, and the dining table won't take any time at all to spruce up."
Coco was astonished at his unusually firm tone, and realised that a certain part of the butler's subconscious was being suppressed. Her smile took on the faintest hint of a smirk as she acquiesced to his refusal and placed the bags within his arms.
"Very well. No doubt Nora will enjoy kneeling on a polished floor more than the next woman!"
Ren's face flushed purple with embarrassment as she closed the door with a full smirk plastered on her face, and he strode firmly towards the kitchen to sort out Coco's purchases while preparing to make his guest's lunch.
The stove that Ren worked with was, like the other powered items within the household, equipped with Dust technology. However, where it differed was in which variety of Dust got used. The smaller appliances within the Nikos household – namely the hairdryers, lights, toaster and kettle – were all powered by a single verdant Dust generator, in tandem with whatever crimson Dust components they required. The ice-box, meanwhile, relied solely on a pair of compressed azure Dust generators, which were so efficient they only needed refilling once a year.
However, the stove worked principally with golden Dust, along with the simple application of matches and a slight boost from the crimson variety. As any learned person knew, golden Dust could manipulate the air around it, and it therefore was used to harness and force air through the oven's vents into a storage tank. From this tank, tubes snaked upward to each of the hotplates and the oven chamber.
From there, the hotplates worked rather like a Bunsen burner in a chemistry laboratory. A hotplate would only turn on when the dial was turned ninety degrees clockwise with a lit match over it; and if one wanted to decrease the heat, turning the dial further clockwise strangled the air flow to the hotplate. And as for the oven, a lone crimson Dust filament along the back was used to heat the air in a convection current, making it a more efficient oven than the wood-burning variety. However, the oven could be configured to run on wood – a feature used to market the product to poorer houses, and as a redundancy in case a richer house's Dust ran out.
As Ren set to work frying the freshly-picked salmon from Limehouse, he began to picture what else the diminutive Irish lass might like in addition to the normal dish. I mean, he reflected as he checked the fish's underside, you can't do much with the lettuce, and vinegar dressing's in the same boat. I could decorate the cucumbers a bit, but there's got to be something else I can do to make the dish even better.
As the fish was flipped over, Ren had a brainwave. Fried basmati rice could work! I'm pretty sure Pyrrha's still got some in the pantry from two nights ago. As for serving it, I won't mix it in with the salad. Instead, I'll place it as a base on which the salad can be served.
The butler checked the underside of the salmon, then turned the heat onto a low setting to finish off the fish while he hunted in the pantry for the fried rice.
"There you are!", he crowed calmly, reaching to the top shelf with a stretch as he retrieved enough rice for Nora and himself.
Taking the fish off the hotplate, he filled a pot with water from the sink and put it on to boil while he expertly diced the fish. Placing the fish between two plates to preserve the heat, the butler then proceeded to work on slicing the lettuce and readying the vinegar dressing. The minute he finished, the water came to the boil. Ren gently placed a strainer atop the pot, then placed the rice into that with the appropriate lid.
"That won't take too long," he muttered absently. "Let's get the cucumbers decorated."
He did that by dragging a fork along four sides of a whole cucumber before slicing it up, as he'd seen Coco do whenever Chief Inspector Arc came for lunch.
The rice had just about finished when there was a knock at the door.
"Coming!", Ren called out.
He turned off the stove and walked out to meet his guest.
"Miss Valkyrie, how good of you to come," he started.
"Thanks for inviting me, Ren," she sung in response, curtsying in her hunting outfit.
"The salad's just about finished, so you know," Ren intoned as he led his guest towards the dining room. "I merely need to dish it up first, so feel free to take a seat."
"Sure thing, my friend!", the Irishwoman replied heartily, taking a seat facing away from the kitchen. Ren placed the rice down on the plates first, then laid down the lettuce leaves as though they were the petals of a flower. Next, Ren placed the decorated cucumbers in the centre of the plates, then sprinkled the diced salmon over the top of it. Lastly, he readied the dressing in a separate jug, and took it and the two plates out to the table.
After spreading her desired amount of dressing, Nora took a moment to appreciate Ren's creativity. Even though no-one can get the "rusticness" of my mother's recipe right, she noted, Ren's done the opposite and made it look like a Savoy dish. The rice is a nice touch too. She eagerly tore into the salad, surprising her host slightly with her absurdly high enthusiasm. However, Ren took Nora's greedy consumption of the salad as a sign of the huntress liking what she'd been served with, and opted instead to take his time eating the salad.
Once the huntress was finished eating her meal, she decided to start conversation.
"So Ren, you remember those cads we fought off outside Neptune's shop?"
Ren paused with his fork halfway towards the plate.
"I do. Whatever happened to them?"
Nora's eyes widened and speech quickened as the raconteur within her took over.
"Well, I gave Neptune the descriptions of the two that evaded capture, and it turns out he'd encountered them shortly after he came here in 1880. He and his father were operating a cruise liner off the coast of Calais and got attacked by a small pirate vessel that those two fiends commanded. Scarlet David and Sage Ayana, they were called. Anyway, Neptune's father beat the stuffing out of them and sent them packing, but Neptune developed a fear of water as a result of that attack. In any case, the name of the ship was the Sea King."
"And let me guess," Ren replied, "these pirates sought to attack Neptune's shop because of the name?"
Nora beamed and nodded.
"Indeed. When I came back and gave Neptune the description of his would-be assailants, he told me all about that story and identified them. I then decided to go and check if they had bounties on their heads, and they sure did. 500 pounds for the both of them to be stopped."
Ren's eyebrows shot up in surprise; that amount would be enough for a huntress's needs for at least half a year, if not more.
"So, did you manage to apprehend them?"
"Yes and no. I stopped them and pinched their treasures, but they were bailed out before I could apprehend them. Some raggedy, slight woman in a rowing boat came from behind and rescued them, and I couldn't chase them down because I only had a canoe."
At this, Ren looked perplexed.
"What about the ship you fought them on? How come you didn't use that to chase them down?"
Nora's expression shifted again, this time to guilt.
"The Wandering Mistral, as it was called, was sinking courtesy of a stray blast from Magnhild. I only had the time to recover the stolen items they had on board and get to safety."
Much to Nora's surprise, Ren cocked his head back and laughed.
"Of course you blew the ship up; that mission you and Pyrrha did in Inverness last November ended the same way."
Nora pouted testily, which made Ren guffaw even harder.
"Except the thieves in Inverness got caught, and I got paid in full that time as a result."
Ren stopped his laughter instantly.
"If you don't mind me asking, Nora; how much did you get?"
Ren watched Nora's face fall into gloom, which had never happened since he'd met her.
"Since I did half the job, I earned half the reward."
Of course, the Irish lass left out the fact that she'd refused the other half out of principle, despite her benefactors offering to pay the full charge. Consequently, Ren's expression became quite sympathetic at that point.
"My apologies, Nora. I've been in that position before too, so I know how that felt."
"How so?", the Irish lass curiously replied.
"When I worked as a bouncer, I'd always get my pay docked when a bar brawl spiralled out of control."
Now, it was Nora's turn to stare wide-eyed at him.
"Really?! Well, I've got to ask, what was working for the Grimm like?"
In spite of Ren's initial assessment of the woman, Nora proved to be as attentive as she was verbose. As Ren calmly recalled how rewarding and beneficial it was with Arthur Watts at the helm, Nora stayed completely focussed on his words, whilst stifling her chatty nature by stuffing her mouth as gracefully as she could manage under her enraptured state of mind. "That's awesome!" was Nora's only reply, before realising that her next shift with Neptune was about to start. As she hastily ran for the door, Nora said a quick, yet fond farewell to her host.
"I'll ring you soon, Rennie! Thanks for the food, and I'd love to hear more about you when I see you again!"
As soon as Nora closed the door behind her and waltzed off into the misty afternoon, Ren found himself contemplating what had just transpired. Nora talked too much for most people to find appealing, her bizarre demeanour would do nothing to endear her, and her happy-go-lucky nature clashed with Ren's disciplined stoicism. Given the differences between them, he shouldn't be interested in this woman. Not biblically, at any rate.
And yet … he found himself drawn to Nora Valkyrie like a moth to flame.
A/N: Took me long enough.
Anyway, it'll be a while before I post the next chapter, but I'm determined to finish this either before or when Goodbellas finishes (which should be at the end of the year).
This is because I've started planning out the next work for the Belladonna Lilies AU (working title: "A Song of Weiss and Fire"). It will start with Team RWBY heading off to investigate the Autumn Maiden, picking up directly after the main fic's epilogue.