Pancakes (A Renora Fanfiction)

Nora: Journey

"Come on, come on, come on!"

Ruby was swaying on the balls of her feet impatiently at the door, while the rest of them gathered the rest of their things at a considerably slower speed.

Nora reached for her bag on the couch, and a stab of pain shot through her before she reached it. She winced against her will, drawing back her hand to cradle the wound.

"Nora." Ren was at her side, the only one who noticed her expression, his voice low. He picked up her bag and helped her strap it onto her back before she could protest. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It's just...not completely healed yet." She smiled as his hand covered hers at her side, and the pain faded as he did. "Let's go."

He nodded, his hand drifting down to hers in comfort as the two of them joined Ruby, who was very impatient by now, at the door.

"Weiss, come on! Nothing needs to be that perfectly folded!" Yang's voice rose up from their room at the end of the hall, followed by Weiss's also raised voice.

"Well, excuse me if I want my suitcase to actually close, Yang!"

Nora laughed as Ruby went running down the hall to stop an incoming argument, leaving Blake the only teammate standing by the door, shaking her head in exasperation.

A small laugh came from Jaune as well as soon as the three of them emerged from the hallway, Ruby smiling sheepishly at her teammates' antics.

Yang was grinning, and Weiss's arms were folded across her chest defiantly. "Can we please go now? Before someone else has a problem with organization?"

Blake nodded. "I suppose I'm lucky I had almost nothing to pack."

Ren smiled, his hand leaving Nora's to open the door for everyone. "I'm impressed Yang couldn't close her bag."

"Yeah, what do you even have in there?"

Yang scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Um... I may have agreed to carry the food, and there's a lot of food."

Ruby sighed. "That's better than what I thought. Let's just go already!"

They all filtered out the door, and Ren's hand returned to Nora's almost immediately. She blushed, overwhelmed by the sweet gesture.

His grip tightened, like he was protecting her and didn't want to let her go, and her smile was permanently etched onto her face as they left.

She caught Ruby's eye, and the younger girl was beaming from ear to ear when she saw their hands joined.

Weiss looked nervous, but her teammates started conversation after conversation to keep her distracted from their destination.

Jaune kept glancing around, like he expected something to jump them at any moment, and Nora pulled Ren back to walk next to him.

"Hey Jaune!"

Their leader looked around once more and turned to them with an unconvincing smile on his face. "Hey, Nora. How're you feeling?"

"Better!" She paused, hooking her arm through his before continuing. "You look a little jumpy, what's wrong?"

He sighed, relaxing a little at her touch. "I just... I don't want Salem to come after us on the road again."

"There's a reason we started travelling earlier, Jaune. She shouldn't even know we're leaving Mistral yet." Nora glanced around herself to reinforce what she said, and smiled up at him when she found nothing.

"I guess so. I don't want anyone else getting hurt." He glanced down at her side, and she winced.

"Jaune, I'm sorry. I'm okay now, nothing's going to happen to me." Ren's grip on her hand tightened, confirming her statement almost immediately.

"We'll make sure of that."

She smiled as Jaune let out a sigh. "Okay."

Qrow and Oscar were talking in low voices at the back of the group, and seeing everyone together again overwhelmed Nora with happiness.

They walked along for a while without interruption, almost a whole day before the Grimm found them. The moment they reached a crossroads, Beowolves leapt out of the forest at them, sensing the fear and weakness coming from some of them no doubt.

Nora slid backwards, out of the first one's way by a hair, and Ren quickly disposed of it before it could strike again.

Weiss stepped in front of Nora, eyes closed and a look of absolute concentration on her face. Her sword pierced the ground and a glyph appeared at their feet, spinning around the sword.

After a moment, a sword appeared and sliced through the remaining Grimm that charged them.

Weiss took a deep breath, glancing back at Nora with a smile on her face. "Everyone okay?"

Jaune sheathed his sword with a sigh, looking around before nodding for everyone. "I think so."

They continued onward as the Grimm disintegrated behind them, and Nora shifted her weight to favor her side as she walked.

Ren pressed closer to her side almost like a reflex, preventing her from shifting too much weight back to her injured side. "Are you all right?"

She smiled, nodding energetically to confirm that. "Yep! I heal fast, you know that."

His hand slipped into hers. "Good."

They walked until nightfall, when Ruby suggested they camp out in a clearing because her feet hurt and Atlas was a ways away, much to the amusement of everyone else.

Jaune volunteered for first watch, along with Oscar, who looked excited just to be traveling with them. Ren set up Nora's sleeping bag along with his own, like he always had done without her asking, and everyone went to sleep.

I'm back! Yay c: I have been crazy amounts of busy so I haven't been on really in forever! Sorry about that, but I have a lot of sudden free time so I'll be writing more, I promise! See you Bookworms in the next chapter!