Who: Ren and Nora When: Late May Where: Their Place What: Ren has Dreams, Nora’s there to comfort him Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
Jaune and Pyrrha had warned Ren that the dreams took a dark turn, but he hadn’t been expecting how terrible things would get. Over the last couple of weeks, he had dreamed of the lighthearted beginning of the Vytal festival, to Yang apparently attacking another student unprovoked, to Pyrrha accidentally killing Penny, and then to the Grimm attack and the eventual loss of Pyrrha. That had all been a lot to take in, but he could take comfort in the fact that Yang and Pyrrha, at least, were, for the most part, okay in this world.
What he wasn’t expecting was to dream of how he lost his parents. It seemed strange to dream of being a teenager to suddenly dreaming of being a child. But that wasn’t what bothered him. What bothered him was watching the house collapse on his mother as she assured him everything would be okay, to dream of his father sacrificing himself to give Ren a chance to run away. And while he also dreamed of meeting Nora, it was a small comfort amongst so much horror.
When he woke, pretty close to noon, he woke feeling like he had lost his parents all over again. The pain of it was fresh and sharp. He sat up on his tatami mat, pulled his knees to his chest, and buried his head between them.
Nora was in the kitchen. Not exactly the best combination, Nora and kitchens, mostly because the girl was a human garbage disposal. She could eat anything and everything, and did so on a regular basis. Now that they actually had a little money from jobs and the like, they could actually afford food. And that meant there were Eggo Waffles in the freezer. Y’know, for those mornings that Ren needed time off from cooking.
She was watching the toaster carefully, willing it to cook faster so she could surprise Ren with a hot breakfast, when she heard him stir in the other room. Unaware that he was upset because her eyes were still on the toaster, she called out to him. “Breakfast in like, thirty seconds! I hope you’re like that girl on Stranger Things because I made Eggos.” Then she turned to look into the living room area, and frowned. Something was seriously wrong. Her face and tone were worried. “Ren?”
Ren knew that Nora was speaking to him, but it wasn’t until she said his name that he lifted his head from his knees and looked up at her. He forced himself to think over what she had just said, and then climbed to his feet. “I’m not very hungry,” he said after a moment. He couldn’t even think of eating right now.
“Ren…” Her demeanor changed in an instant as she moved across the living room to where he was sitting. She knelt beside him, close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating from him. “What is it? Are you all right? What can I do?” She brought a hand to rest on his arm. If only she could wrap her arms around him and comfort the horrible feeling out of him.
“Nothing,” Ren said, a little more sharply than he intended. Because there was nothing that Nora could do. She couldn’t take the dream out of his head, and she couldn’t bring his parents back, neither here nor there. But, even just having her there, her hand on his arm, it was bringing him back to the present, making things feel a little better than they had before. He took a breath to calm himself. “Have you ever dreamed of Kuroyuri?”
Nora shook her head. She was a little panicked. Ren was the rock of their relationship friendship, and when he wasn’t doing well, she wasn’t doing well. If only she could make everything better. The name was familiar, she thought, but she couldn’t quite place it. “What’s Kuroyuri?”
Obviously Nora hadn’t dreamed of Kuroyuri, since if she had, she wouldn’t have forgotten it. “It’s a town. The place where I grew up, and the place where we met for the first time in the dreams.” But it wasn’t a happy statement. He was not proud of his first interaction with Nora, which involved him running away when he realized that she was being bullied, and his second interaction was after both his parents had died. “It was attacked by Grimm,” he added.
“I don’t even remember how we met in the Dreams,” Nora said, quietly. “Just that we’ve been together forever.” Not together together. That part went unsaid. It didn’t seem important when Ren was obviously hurting. Nora shifted closer. “What happened?”
“The Grimm came,” Ren said again, and took a breath to calm himself. He had to get ahold of himself. He shouldn’t be this shaken up over a couple of dreams. “My mother and my father and I, we were going to run. Mom,” he could see her face, more clear now in his mind than it had been in years, “Mom told me it was going to be okay, and then the house came down around us. When I woke up, Father was carrying me. But the Grimm found us, so he told me to run and stayed behind to hold it off. But… he wasn’t a Hunter,” he said. He was among the men in the village that were closest to Hunters, but from what Ren knew now, his father likely wouldn’t be able to take anything on much longer than a Beowulf by himself. He certainly didn’t stand a chance against the Nuckelavee. “I unlocked my Semblance and found you, so we were able to hide until it was all over. But…” But he hadn’t seen his parents in so long.
“Oh, God,” Nora’s eyes were wet as she watched him talking about his Dream. But she didn’t turn away, didn’t wipe them. She didn’t move. She stayed close, still, her hand still on his arm, her body leaning in toward his. The concern on her brow, the gentle press of her lips together… was focused on Ren (pretty much always) as he explained. “But.” She added, encouraging him. “But?”
“I never expected to see them again,” Ren said after a moment. “I had forgotten their voices.” Even seeing them in the flesh was different than looking at the one, worn photograph he had of them.
Nora’s heart started to thunder in her chest at the sound of his voice. She didn’t know what to do. Her eyes filled with tears, and she did her best to blink them away. She’d never known her own family--not that she could remember--but Ren knew his. Ren had been very close with his. And that loss was so painful. Even to an outsider. She didn’t say anything, though, taking her turn to be quiet, and lifted both of her hands to wrap her arms around his. She hugged in close.
Ren returned the hug, burying his face into Nora’s shoulder. He breathed in her scent, drawing comfort from her embrace. He didn’t cry; he hadn’t cried since he was a child. But even still, he remained like that for a long time.