Chapter Text
Nora was shocked awake in the middle of the night. Her eyes flung open and she sat up in bed, worriedly glancing around the room to see exactly why she’d been woken up so suddenly. But there was nothing. It was dark, there were no storms, her lovers were peacefully asleep beside her, and yet… She felt somewhere deep in her soul that something was really, really wrong. The Huntress could’ve easily chalked it up to paranoia and tried to go back to bed, but with Oscar just down the hall, completely alone in his own bed she knew that she wouldn’t be able to do that without double checking on him first.
Carefully, as to not wake her partners, she crawled out of bed, gently opened and closed her bedroom door without making a sound, and crept down the hall to Oscar’s bedroom. The door was opened just a crack, and upon looking inside she was glad that she’d decided to check in on him.
The young teen was sitting on the wooden seat that Jaune had built for him beneath the window sill. He was pressed up against the cold glass watching the snowfall, obviously wide awake as he was muttering to himself, or maybe even Ozpin. But what really got her was the tears glistening on his cheeks, and how he had huddled himself into a tiny little ball, clutching a glow-in-the-dark ball he’d won from a claw machine during one of his outings with Ruby.
It was all the signs of a nightmare. They were scarily common for him, and there was just about nothing Nora hated more in this world than the fact he was forced to suffer from them. Occasionally, they’d get so bad that he wouldn’t sleep for days, and they’d have to force medicine down his throat just to get him to go to sleep. She really hoped that they weren’t about to go through another cycle of that, it was hard on everyone’s mental health during those times.
She rapped her fingers on the door twice, as a warning, and he whipped his head around in surprise to look at her. His eyes were owlishly wide at first, but she gave him a soft, gentle smile.
“Oscar?” she whispered, taking the first step through the doorway.
His face instantly scrunched up in that moment, cheeks turning bright red and tears spilling out of his eyes and down his chin for what looked to be the second time that night.
He sobbed out her name, broken and terrified, and it took mere moments for her to be at his side, holding him in a way that had her completely wrapped around his body as if to protect him from a threat that was surrounding them and not within him. Reassured, he quickly wrapped his arms around her.
“It’s okay,” she murmured, tucked against her side and her fingers combing through his hair, “I’m here, I’ve got you.”
Nora hated that Oscar was trapped with the nightmares of countless other people, but she had vowed long ago to be there to protect him however she could. So, she was there to soothe the terror that seemed to constantly reside in his soul.
“N-Nora-” he gasped out, clutching her tight and crying to her shoulder, “I’m sorry, I-I’m so sorry-”
“Shhh, no, shhhh. Don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault. I’m here, Oscar, okay? Not going anywhere.”
Oscar let out another sob, pressing closer to her, if that was even possible at this point, “I-I-”
“Just breathe, Oscar,” she soothed, “Shhhh, just breathe…”
She wasn’t sure how long they sat there like that, her holding him tight and close, him sobbing and crying against her. As time went on and the snow fell heavier and heavier, he slowly but surely calmed down. His breathing evened out and all that was left of his traumatised state was the tear tracks staining his cheeks and some sniffles.
“How about we get you back into bed?” Nora offered, already moving to stand up with him in her arms so that she could tuck him in. He nodded minutely, sniffing a bit and hurting her heart all over again.
“I-I’m sorry…” he whispered, voice raw and broken.
Nora shook her head disappointedly, “Don’t apologize. There’s no need to. I’m here because I want to be.”
She easily lifted him up and took him the short distance from the window to his bed, the covers were messily tossed around and the pillows were sprawled across the bed at all kinds of angles. Nora couldn’t help but give a tiny huff of amusement at the sight, it reminded her of how Jaune’s bed looked at Beacon, back before they all got together and moved the beds to fit their group better.
With one arm wrapped around his waist holding him steady, she adjusted the pillows to be more comfortable and laid Oscar down in the bed, the young teen already starting to doze off. Nora smiled fondly and brushed his long hair out of his face, then climbed into the bed and pulled the multitude of blankets over the both of them.
“You don’t have to stay…” he murmured dreamily, snuggling close to her once more.
She hummed, “Yeah, but I want to.”
He was quiet for a long moment, and just as she thought he had fallen asleep, he whispered something she wasn’t even sure she had heard properly.
“Thanks, Ma…”
Nora’s heart skipped a beat, an excited and loving grin plastered itself across her face, and she just held him tight, held him close. Did he truly just say that? Was it her imagination? Had he really thought of her as a mother figure for even just a moment?
She thought her heart might leap out of her chest from sheer joy. It was incredible, and she would believe that was what she had heard for the rest of her life, whether it was correct or not, because the thought of Oscar seeing her the same way she saw him made her way too happy to think otherwise.
Nora couldn’t wait to tell her lovers.