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Ren has always loved cooking.
And Nora has always loved food.
So it was no surprise that Ren would cook for the team constantly. The food from the fast food places around Beacon and the cafeteria food was okay to their standards, don’t get team JNPR wrong— but Goodness, Ren’s cooking was somehow ten times better than whatever they had in the cafeteria.
It first started when Nora forced Pyrrha to try Ren’s pancakes, and then Pyrrha forced Jaune to try Ren’s pancakes.
“Ren made these?”
Jaune is sitting on his bed, cross legged with a plate of fluffy, warm pancakes in his lap. Pyrrha is sitting beside him, legs elegantly dangling off the bed as she goes to plunge her fork into the delicacy.
“Yes! Oh my God, guys,” Nora grins widely, her own plate of pancakes nearly gone because of how fast she had been going through them. “You do not understand. I do not know where I would be without Ren’s cooking.”
“I see what you mean, Nora.” Jaune responds. As he goes to take another bite, he can feel his wrist get lightly yanked. He looks over to see Pyrrha with her mouth on the fork. She meets Jaune’s eyes and pulls away from his fork. Jaune stares at her with these big puppy-like eyes, almost confused. Suddenly, Jaune’s face goes red as he pulls the fork out of Pyrrha’s mouth.
“H–Hey!” He complains, looking at his fork dramatically. Nora stifles a laugh.
“Sorry!” Pyrrha apologizes. “I couldn’t help myself.”
“I like the way you think, Pyrrha!” Nora exclaimes. “I would take Jaune’s pancakes too.”
“I— Why don’t I get a say in this?”
——
“Good morning, Ren.”
Ren looks over to see Pyrrha, wearing her usual bronze cuirass and gloves. She greets him with a smile, leaning her hand against the breakfast table and yawns.
“Good morning,” Ren responds and quickly gets back to placing all of his attention on whatever was on the stove. The aroma of sweet butter filled the kitchen quickly.
“What are you cooking?”
“Pancakes.”
Pyrrha hums in response. “I see. Nora loves your pancakes.”
“Oh, I know,” The corner of Ren’s lip curves up into a small smile, though Pyrrha cannot see it. He cannot tell if he is glad she can’t see his smile. “I’m making more batches for you guys. Jaune complained about how you guys kept stealing his food.”
“Oh, please,” Pyrrha’s voice was laced with playful sarcasm. “He’s saying that just to get more pancakes.”
Ren nods, not completely convinced. “Even if that was the case, I don’t mind cooking more for you guys. I’m just glad you’re enjoying my cooking.”
“Nora really enjoys it. Seriously, it’s the only thing she talks about.” Pyrrha pipes up. This catches Ren’s attention almost immediately.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, it’s honestly kind of cute,” Pyrrha smiles, and even if Ren cannot see it, he can hear it through her gentle voice. “It’s always Look what Ren made me! And when we try to have a taste, she swats us away and tells us that it was made for her.”
“Really?” Ren turns his head to look at Pyrrha, who is still smiling. She nods gleefully.
“Her and Jaune have begun a rivalry at this point.”
“I didn’t know that.” Ren’s voice is soft, almost surprised.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, I—“ Ren opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. He turns back towards the stove, grabbing the frying pan by the handle and flawlessly flips the pancake onto the other side. It lands gracefully. He can feel Pyrrha’s eyes pierce into the back of his skull. “…yeah.”
——
“God, Ren, why are you awake?”
“Nora! Oh— I didn’t hear you come in.”
Nora is standing at the end of the kitchen, rubbing her eye and yawning loudly. She slowly approaches Ren and takes a seat in one of the chairs at the table. She leans her head down and closes her eyes for a moment, letting herself get comfortable.
“Why are you awake?” Ren’s voice wakes her up almost immediately. “You have a retest tomorrow, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Nora groans, burying her head into the table and placing her arms over her head, slightly hoping tomorrow would not come as quickly as it was going to. “I don’t like thinking about it.”
“You’re going to have to take it either way. You should get some rest so you feel much more prepared for tomorrow.”
“But if I sleep, then tomorrow is going to come faster!”
“But if you sleep,” Ren pauses and turns towards Nora, finally setting his eyes on her. She is leaned down on the table, hands clasped together with her head leaned on her arms for support. There are clear bags beneath her eyes and her hair is a slight mess, but Ren is ninety five percent sure that is just regular old Nora. “Then you’ll fail and not feel as miserable tomorrow, compared to failing and feeling miserable tomorrow.”
“Thanks for the clarification,” Nora yawns once again, stretching in her chair. “Why are you even awake?”
Ren shrugs. “I couldn’t sleep, I guess.”
Something about that statement feels wrong to Nora. She stares at the back of Ren’s head. The silence between the two is almost deafening.
“Ren?”
“Yes, Nora?”
“Are you making pancakes at three in the morning?”
Ren slices a small piece of butter. It rests on his knife and he slides it onto the batter of the pancakes in the pan. “Yeah.”
“Why? No one is going to wake up in another three or four hours.”
Ren parts his lips to speak, but he shuts them almost immediately. Lying to Nora is possibly the last thing he wants to do. He is silent for a moment, attempting to conjure up a single thought. Something that wasn’t necessarily a lie but something that Nora wouldn’t catch.
“Practicing my technique for you guys,” Ren responds, taking the wooden spoon and gently massaging the butter into the cooking batter. “Plus, Pyrrha helps out with the groceries, so the least I can do is cook for her.”
Not necessarily a lie. Ren kept his word.
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Nora leans her head against the table once again, closing her eyes. “If I fall asleep, wake me up.”
“I’m probably not going to do that.” Ren picks up the frying pan by the handle and slides the last pancake on the plate sitting on the counter next to the oven. There stood a small tower of fluffy pancakes on a plate. Ren cuts up another piece of butter and slides it on the tower. It begins to melt against the warm pancakes. He grabs the plate with one hand and a fork in the other hand and walks up to Nora, placing it down on the table next to her.
“You can’t sleep on an empty stomach.” Ren says, voice groggy as he sits down next to her and pushes the plate of pancakes towards her. Nora raises her head, staring at the food with big, doe eyes. She looks at Ren, almost confused.
Ren suppresses a laugh at Nora’s half asleep reaction. He grabs the maple syrup sitting at the end of the dinner table and hands it to Nora. Nora takes it and immediately unscrews the lid.
“Not too much, Nora. You shouldn’t have too much sugar before bed.”
Nora gives him a death stare, though Ren can always tell it's playful.
“You’re no fun.” Nora says and returns to pouring her maple syrup over her pancakes. She’s careful to not pour too much, only letting little bits of syrup flow over the pancakes.
Nora proceeds to eat the entire thing in one sitting and Ren just watches. Granted, he didn’t make many (and he wasn’t really planning on Nora to wake up at this time). It seemed like Nora enjoyed the food– And Ren knows Nora would tell him if something was off about his food.
“Is this a new recipe?” Nora asks, placing the fork in her mouth with a joyful grin on her face.
Ren smiles politely. “I’m glad you noticed.”
“It’s fluffier!”
“Chew before you speak.” He says it as if he has said it a million times already, which isn’t very far from the truth.
“Sorry!”
Nora swallows the entire thing in her mouth. Ren is surprised at how she doesn’t choke right on the spot.
“Goodness, Ren! You’ve really outdone yourself with these. You’ve put more care into them.” Nora mumbles that last part, pushing the plate away from her. Ren folds his hands together, staring at her. He feels a sense of pride, just looking at Nora with that goofy smile on her face.
“Thank you.”
Silence suddenly falls between the two. Nora is struggling to stay awake— she’s obviously tired. The bags under her eyes say otherwise, and she is going to flunk that retest if she doesn’t get any sleep now. They should probably get going.
But Ren likes what he has going on now. What‘s happening between him and Nora and the other teams. It’s a nice cycle, soon to be interrupted once they graduate from Beacon, and seeing team RWBY will dwindle.
Ren doesn’t want to move from the chair.
“You okay?”
He looks up and realizes; Nora has placed her hand on Ren’s. Her hand is warm and soft— slightly smaller than Ren’s. She always had big hands. Ren stares at the hand on his, then back at Nora with an uneasy look on his face.
“Why would you think anything is wrong?” Ren asks. He doesn’t move away from Nora.
“You have that look on your face. There’s always something going on behind those eyes.”
“I—I’m just tired, Nora,” Ren stammers. That probably made him look even more suspicious. “We should get going.”
“Not until you tell me what’s wrong,” Nora is adamant on staying seated. “Are you okay?”
If Ren has learnt anything from the past decade of living with Nora, it’s that he cannot keep a secret from her. She’ll find out sooner or later.
“I’m just trying to perfect the pancake recipe and show it to you guys before we graduate and possibly have to go our separate ways after Beacon,” Ren shrugs, covering his face in embarrassment with his free hand. “I apologize, that sounds foolish—“
“It doesn’t!” Nora interrupts almost immediately. She frowns at Ren and lets out a soft sigh. “We’re a team. We’re going to stick together no matter what. And plus, you can’t get rid of me after everything we’ve been through.”
“I—I guess,” Ren says. He sounds unsure. “It’s just— So many teams split up after graduation. Either they don’t want to be huntsmen and huntresses, or they just… don’t get along. I’m scared that’s going to happen to us.”
“Ren, those are what-ifs. Don’t stress too much about it. I get it, I think about the future a lot more than I would want to, but I’ve realized that if I think too much about the future, I don’t live in the present.”
How are you supposed to move forward if you’re still stuck in the past?
Ren shrugs and looks away awkwardly. A tinge of guilt pierces his heart. He can feel Nora’s eyes on him.
“I know, I know. I think the tired thoughts are catching up to me,” Ren lets out an awkward laugh, scratching the back of his neck. He pulls his hand away from Nora’s soft grasp and brings it back to his side. The warmth that leaves his skin is almost sickening.
“Is that why you were cooking this late?” Nora asks, her voice laced with amusement.
“I did want to try a new recipe,” Ren explains, also catching on. “But cooking also keeps my mind occupied.”
“Ren,” Nora looks at Ren. His chest feels fuzzy. It's a warm feeling. He tenses up without even realizing it, and Nora notices. He awkwardly looks away, clasping his hands together beneath the table. “We’re here if you want to talk, okay?”
Ren finally musters up the courage to look at her. He meets her eyes, and she’s smiling. For the first time during this night, Ren can feel himself relax in the stiff chair. He unclaspes his hands and looks down at the table, almost embarrassed.
“Yeah, I know,” Ren mumbles nervously. “Thanks, Nora.”
Nora pushes herself out of her chair and approaches Ren. He looks up at her, confused.
“What are you–”
He is quickly interrupted by a tight hug. Nora is leaning down with her arms wrapped around his shoulders and she is squeezing him tightly.
“...Doing.” Ren finishes his sentence.
Nora’s presence is overwhelmingly warm. Ren brings his hands up hesitantly. He doesn’t think, and now he’s hugging Nora a little tighter than usual.
“You okay?”
Ren’s throat aches. He just hums in response. He has a small voice in the back of his head that tells him that if he speaks, he might cry.
Nora just squeezes tighter.