Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Ren and Nora
“Pancakes!” Nora screamed, the smell of buttery, syrupy, freshly-made goodness wafting up to her bedroom and pulling her downstairs to the kitchen. “Yay!”
Her best friend, Lie Ren, looked up from the small griddle he was making pancakes on and gave her a smile.
“It’s morning! It’s morning, it’s morning, IT’S MORNING!” Nora sang. She pulled Ren into a hug from behind, making him panic and almost drop a pancake. “So, what’s on the schedule for protecting Shion village today?” she asked, grinning widely. She jumped onto their small kitchen table, arms flailing wildly. “Fending off Grimm? Fighting bandits? Saving the world?”
Ren placed a plate of pancakes near her and she plopped down at a seat dig in, making sure to apply plenty of syrup and not bothering to use utensils.
“On today’s schedule? Probably farming,”
Nora made a face. Ren liked his vegetable garden, it was a good source of stress relief, especially since he actually liked to eat the vegetables (Nora did not), but she wanted more. She knew that Ren wanted more too, even if he was better at hiding it.
“Come on, Ren! Last time, the Huntsmen didn’t get that mad at us for intervening.”
Ren sighed. “They threatened to send us to the capital in chains,”
“I’d like to see them try…”
“Nora...” Ren sighed.
“I’ll break their legs if they try. They’ll never get me alive!”
“These Huntsmen are supposed to protect the village, you know,” Ren pointed out.
Nora crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, they’re not doing a very good job of it. We would be great Huntsmen… far better than them.”
Ren sighed as he poured more pancake batter onto the griddle. He knew that Nora wanted to be a Huntress more than anything. A part of him shared in that wish, but it wasn’t meant to be. He and Nora were Sixes, farmers in a village outside of Mistral. They were in charge of growing food for their village and for the rest of the Kingdom. It wasn’t as exciting as being a Huntsman, but it was his place now, and he had come to accept it.
“I think I could beat them in a fight,”
Ren shook his head.
“I’m serious! I’m good with a shovel. I can bring it all the way up, and then SMASH it down on their heads,” Nora used hand gestures for emphasis, though Ren wasn’t looking, “and then, when their aura is broken, I’ll break their legs !”
“Nora, eat your pancakes,” Ren set down another plate in front of her, and Nora tore into it with her teeth.
“Mm! My goshne sumfhi fua fue fa,” Nora announced, her mouth full. Ren raised an eyebrow at her. She swallowed. “I got you something by the way, for your birthday!”
Ren was shellshocked. “Nora, you shouldn’t have,” he said, “really, we’re short on money, and--”
“No, no, no, it didn’t cost anything! I made it! Let me go get it,” she dashed upstairs, and before Ren could begin to wonder what surprise awaited him, she was back, rocking on her feet and holding something behind her back. “Close your eyes!” she yelled.
“Nora--”
“I said CLOSE THEM!”
Ren quickly closed his eyes, and Nora pulled out the gift, throwing it over his head and tying it around his waist.
“Can I open my eyes now?” Ren asked.
“Not yet!” Nora shouted, darting to the table to grab her scroll. “Okay,”
When Ren opened his eyes, she snapped a picture of him and giggled. Dazed, he looked down. He was wearing a bright pink apron with the letters ‘Please Do Nothing to the Cook’. He looked back at Nora, smiling softly.
“I knew you’d love it. You always get me the most thoughtful gifts, and last year I procrastinated and panicked and gave you a rock,”
“I like that rock, it’s still on my bedside table,” Ren countered.
“But this year I thought ahead, because this year is special,” Nora’s face shone. “This year, you get to sign up for the draft,”
Ren smiled. He had submitted his name for the draft this morning, before Nora had even woken up. If he was drafted, it would be a dream come true. He would automatically become a Three, a Huntsman. His parents had been Threes, before they were killed in Oniyuri village and Ren had joined the orphaned Nora as they ventured to a neighboring village. Since that day, he would have given anything to be a Huntsman. Well, almost anything… Although he supposed that was another benefit of becoming a Huntsman: if he married Nora, she would move up to a Three too, and they would be able to fight Grimm together. Of course, that was if he married Nora. It wasn’t that he wasn’t sure that he was going to ask, he just wasn’t sure if she would say yes. They had never talked about it. Ren doubted that she even thought of him in that way.
“Did you submit your name? Did you? Did you? Did you?”
“This morning,” Ren admitted.
“NICE!” Nora gave him a forceful high-five that flung him against the wall. She winced. So much for doing nothing to the cook… “I’m so jealous,” Nora pined as Ren stood up, rubbing his back and flipping the pancakes. “Why can’t girls join the draft?”
“Because that’s the law,” Ren said simply.
Nora crossed her arms and stomped her feet, and Ren’s heart hurt at her pout. “Well, then, the law is stupid .”
Ren didn’t reply to that. He scooped more pancakes onto Nora’s plate and she dove into them hungrily. Ren smiled. No matter how many vegetables they grew and sold, it seemed they never had enough money for ingredients to curb Nora’s pancake addiction. Ren kept making pancakes anyway though, because they made Nora happy, and Ren loved to see Nora happy.
Their day of work was hard. Ren presumed it would’ve been rather peaceful: planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting, if Nora hadn’t been running around screaming as she killed pests with her shovel. Then again, without her, it would’ve been rather boring. It was summer in Mistral, and the hot sun beat down on both of them as Ren collected the vegetables and Nora chased after pests. They were too poor to afford pesticides, so Nora acted as the aphids’ worst nightmare. She was okay with it. It gave her something to do, as she certainly didn’t have the patience for Ren’s job.
“How am I supposed to manage a garden if he gets drafted?” Nora thought to herself as she stomped on snails, and, not for the first time, she found herself wishing that she had been born a Three. Being a Huntress sounded exhilarating. Being a farmer… sounded like dirt and bugs and vegetables. Nora hated vegetables. The only good thing about being a Six (and the only reason she had yet run off into the wilderness to join a tribe of bandits) was Lie Ren.
Nora stared at him as he worked, taking a break from crushing fire ants to admire his toned arms, his long, black hair, his perfect face… They had been there for each other since they were kids, and had always been friends, but recently, Nora had started to see him in a different light. She had always known that she wanted them to be together for as long as possible, but now she was starting to think that she wanted them to be together together. She hadn’t talked to Ren about this though, of course. She doubted he even saw her in that way.
Nora was still gazing at Ren as the horde of lancers drew near, and, it wasn’t until Ren heard the noise, turned, and shouted “NORA!” that she thought to look up.
Grinning, Nora picked up her shovel, running towards the house and kicking off of the wall to fly up and hit two of the lancers. Ren pulled out his knife, a weapon inherited from his father that he had refused to hand over when he became a Six. He raced toward Nora, who was swatting at the remaining two lancers. She glanced at him, then lowered her shovel. Ren jumped on top of it, and she launched him into the air, where he slashed the other two lancers with his knife. They dissolved, their ashes falling to the ground.
He landed beside Nora and she winked at him. “See? Told you we’d make great Huntsmen!”
***
That night, once Nora was all snuggly in “Boop” shirt and lightning bolt pajama shorts, she and Ren settled into their beds for movie night.
“I think we should watch Return of the Wyvren: Episode Five, ” Nora announced, grinning.
Ren winced. “Nora, that movie always gives you nightmares.”
“That is not true!” Nora protested.
“It is,”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“You talk in your sleep,” Ren reminded.
Nora fumed. It was true that she did talk in her sleep, and she filled in the gaps in the morning when she recounted all of her dreams to Ren, but still. “It’s a good movie…” she grumbled.
Ren shook his head and turned on the Capital Report instead.
The thick glasses and spiked green hair of Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck and the bushy gray mustache and eyebrows of Peter Port greeted them.
“Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to this week’s episode of the Capital Report,” Oobleck announced.
Nora stuck out her tongue at him, and Ren rolled his eyes, smiling.
“We’ve got some very important news to cover today including a series of dust robberies and recent White Fang activity in Vale,” Oobleck continued.
“I will steal the remote and change the channel,” Nora threatened. She hated news. It was so boring…
“It’s important to know what’s going on in the kingdom of Remnant,” Ren countered.
Nora glowered at him.
“Yes indeed, Barty,” nodded Port, “but first, we’ve got a very special announcement--”
Out of nowhere, Nora lunged at Ren, growling, teeth bared, nails sharp. He held the remote high above his head as she crawled on top of him, clawing at it viciously.
“This year, Remnant’s crown Prince: Jaune Arc, will be participating in the Selection,” Port’s eyebrows raised, “where two girls from each caste will be selected and sent to the palace to compete for--”
His words were interrupted by a Wyvren’s scream as Nora changed the channel.
“Wait, no! Change it back!” Ren protested, trying to grab the remote back from her.
“You really want to see what Prince Jaune Arc has to say?” Nora teased, flipping her hair and using a lofty voice when saying the Prince’s name. She snickered.
Ren took advantage of her distraction to grab the remote and switch it back to the Report.
“Hey!”
“Yes, that’s right, Peter,” Oobleck announced. Nora growled, bouncing onto Ren once again. “It’s a real power-to-the-people maneuver! All who are invited to the palace will automatically become Threes, as it is too hard to go back to a lower-caste life after living with royalty,”
Nora froze mid-claw-for-the-remote, and she and Ren both stared at the television with wide eyes.
“But one lucky girl will be selected by Prince Jaune to live out the rest of her days as Princess of Remnant,”
“It really is quite romantic,” Port said, dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief.
“Yes. Ladies between the age of sixteen and twenty, if you are interested, you can find the form online. Fill it out, submit it to your local government office, and your application will be reviewed by Prince Arc in the upcoming weeks.”
“Who knows?” Port raised an eyebrow. “By this time next year, you, watching citizen, could be a Princess.”
Oobleck nodded and grinned. “In other news, a series of dust robberies have occurred across the province of Vale. These robberies are suspected to be linked to notorious criminal--”
Ren turned off the television, staring at Nora, his mouth agape. She looked back at him with equal shock. “Automatic Three?”
“You have to apply,” Ren insisted.
Nora looked into his deep, magenta eyes. “I don’t know,” she shook her head. “I want to be a Huntress, but I don’t want to compete for some Prince I don’t even love.”
Ren stared at her intently. “This is just like the draft, Nora. I don’t want to fight in the war against Vacuo, but I will if there’s a possibility that I could become a Huntsman for it. This is the girl version of the draft. You can do this.”
Nora bit her lip. There was one fundamental difference between this and the draft. If Ren got drafted and became a Three, they could get married, and she would be a Three also. If she got selected and became a Three, however, Ren would stay a Six, and their marriage would be unthinkable. Girls could marry up a caste, not boys.
“Do you think it’s worth the risk?” she asked.
“Yes,” Ren said firmly, “Nora, you’ve always wanted to be a Huntress. You talk about it all the time. I see you with that shovel fighting those lancers every day. You’re great.”
“But what if I become a Three, and you stay a Six? What then? If that happens, we probably wouldn’t ever see each other again, and even if we did, we wouldn’t be… you know?” Nora protested.
Ren fought the urge to look away. He couldn’t let Nora know that the thought of never seeing her again hurt him, because if it did, she might not send in the application. And if she didn’t send in the application, she could be giving up her only chance of becoming a Huntress. “No matter what happens to me, if you become a Three, I would be happy for you. As a friend, I’ll always be happy for you.”
Nora’s eyes glistened. She felt like punching him. Ren was so stupid and thickheaded sometimes. “As a friend , I’ll always be happy for you…” Somehow, with those words, he had rejected a relationship with her without her even being able to suggest it in the first place. Grumbling, she stole the remote and turned on the Wyvren movie, stomping over to her bed and crossing her arms as she lay down.
“Please fill out the application, Nora,” Ren pleaded.
Nora turned up the volume so that the Wyvren’s screams filled their tiny house.
“Just give it a chance,” Ren continued louder. “If Prince Jaune rejects your application, then you don’t have to worry. We can live out the rest of our lives as Sixes, unless I’m drafted. Then… then we’ll deal with that. If Prince Jaune accepts it, it’s an incredible opportunity, and you should take it. Just fill it out. Don’t let this haunt you for the rest of your life.”
For a few minutes, Ren was afraid his words had gone unheard, drowned out by the Wyvren on the television or perhaps by Nora’s rage itself (which, if he was being honest, was far scarier than any Wyvren). Then, Nora huffed. “Fine. I’ll fill it out. But only so you’ll stop talking about it. It’s not like Prince Jaune is going to select me anyway.”
Ren smiled sadly as she watched Return of the Wyvren , clapping with excitement and grinning maniacally and occasionally shouting “BREAK HIS LEGS!” or “HIT HIM WITH THE HAMMER!”
“Of course he’ll select you,” Ren thought. “You’re beautiful.”