Hello again! So, I know this was only supposed to be a one-shot. But, I couldn't help but write this. This pairing is so cute~!

Now, this story is going to be re-purposed as a series of connected one-shots. They will not be in chronological order, but they will be in the same continuity.

So, with that said, enjoy!

Edit: Since I proofread my stories myself, I don't always catch errors in them. Thankfully, merikflame caught one near the end (thanks). It should be fixed now.

Nora awoke in the middle of the night. She was covered in cold sweat, her breathing stiff and quickened. 'Nightmare…' She told herself. She sighed, turning over in her bed.

Team RWBY had been chosen to scout the deep parts of the Emerald Forest. There were reports of slightly increased Grimm activity in the area, but they weren't sent on an extermination mission. This was a scouting mission, a day and a half venture at best.

That was three days ago.

Nora knew that Ruby would be fine. First of all, she had her team with her, one of those teammates being her hyper-protective older sister. There wasn't a thing in this world that could harm the scythe wielder, not when Yang was there.

But, no matter how hard she tried, Nora could not push the thought that something bad happened from her mind. Mental images of Ruby's body, or what might be left of it, flooded her mind, making sleep nigh impossible.

But fear of Ruby's well-being wasn't the only thing that was affecting the young hammer wielder. No, Ruby's departure was under less-than-companionable circumstances.

Nora was practically dancing in the halls. In her pocket, unknown to everybody except Ren and herself, were two tickets to the Remnant Hunter's Combat League, the largest sports entertainment company in the world. However, the extra ticket was not for Ren, not that he really cared.

No, the ticket was for Ruby. Things between the two had been slightly rocky, to be blunt. They rarely spent time together, Ruby focusing more and more of her energy on training exercises, and less on Nora. At first, it was commendable.

Now it was starting to get annoying. Nora wasn't easy to make angry, but one thing you did not want to see was an angry Nora Valkyrie. Ren had the 'pleasure' of seeing a truly angry Nora once, and he sincerely wished he never saw it again.

However, tonight was to be a good night. The tickets were a surprise, something that Nora decided on only a few days before. It was a good chunk of lien, a little over half of the orange-haired girl's savings, but only about half of that was the actual ticket costs. The rest was put aside for dinner reservations at one of the best restaurants in Vale, Fleur d'Or.

Nora returned to her room with her usual flourish, plopping onto her bed with an exaggerated sigh. Pyrrha smirked. "You're in a particularly good mood." She commented, Miló in javelin form as the flame-haired girl cleaned it.

The hammer wielder said nothing, but the smile on her face spoke volumes. "So, what'd you get Ruby this time?" The spear user asked in a knowing tone.

Nora shot a faux glare at Ren, who shook his head. "She figured it out on her own." Was his answer to the unasked question.

While she didn't quite believe the answer, the orange-haired girl didn't question him any further. "That's none of your beeswax." Nora retorted playfully, getting a genuine laugh from the reserved other girl.

"If you say so." Was her response.

Nora laid onto her bed and grabbed her scroll. Finding Ruby's contact info (which wasn't hard, as it was the first saved contact in the list), Nora immediately started typing her message.

'I need to see you ASAP. I've got something for you.'

The short message was sent immediately, and Nora waited with as much patience as possible for the scythe wielder to respond.

However, several minutes went by, and Nora's scroll remained silent. She frowned, both out of impatience and annoyance. Ren noticed this and immediately became worried. "What's wrong?" He asked carefully.

Nora turned to her longtime friend, her brow furrowed. However, she quickly let her true feelings fade from view. "Nothing." She lied, not that it'd do much. She knew that Ren knew. And Ren knew she knew he knew.

However, this time even Jaune didn't buy it. "You never were a good liar, Nora." He said in a half teasing, half concerned voice. "Is something going on between you two?" He asked, his voice perhaps not as careful as it should've been.

Nora exhaled heavily. "We've been having…issues." Her voice faded with each word. Actually saying it made it seem more…severe…than it really was. "Nothing big. We just haven't hung out in a while." She added, ensuring that her teammates didn't jump to the wrong conclusions.

Pyrrha nodded slowly, taking a moment to mull over what Nora had said. "You're afraid she's avoiding you..?" She asked, her voice halfway between concern and support. Pyrrha had nothing against the leader of the team across the hall, but she was, at the end of the day, just another student at Beacon. Nora was one of Pyrrha's closest friends, and her teammate, which trumped what Ruby was.

Hearing the words made Nora scared. She had never been outright left before. Nora always knew that, if the relationship started to go south, that Ruby would at least be courteous enough to talk it over with Nora.

After a few moments of silence, Jaune spoke. "I don't think Ruby would do that, Pyrrha." He said, trying to lighten the atmosphere slightly.

Pyrrha, however, didn't seem to buy it. "A person is rarely as deep as they let on." She retorted, but with no malice. "Do you want one of us to talk to her?" Pyrrha offered.

Nora immediately shook her head. "No, I don't want her to get the wrong idea if this really is nothing." She spoke, her voice deflated.

A few moments later, Nora's scroll buzzed. Moving with purpose, Nora slid the device open and saw a message from Ruby.

'Met me in the quad.'

Nora perked up. "I take it that was Ruby?" Ren asked rhetorically. Nora stood up, making a great effort to relax.

"I'll have to get changed, so I'll be back soon." And with that, Nora headed out of her room and towards the quad.

However, the enthusiasm that she had faded when she saw Ruby, or rather RWBY, gathered in the quad, in full combat gear.

Nora took a deep breath to calm herself. However, Ruby's face let Nora know her own face wasn't exactly a happy one.

Ruby approached, taking very ginger steps. "I'm gonna guess you're not happy…" Ruby started sheepishly.

Nora refrained from snapping, instead taking a moment to compose herself. "What gave it away?" She hissed, an uncharacteristic noise from the normally peppy girl.

Ruby took a step back. "Look, if there's something wrong you can tell me." The mostly redhead said, concern in her voice.

If looks could kill, then Nora could likely kill most of the Grimm in the Emerald Forest. "Yeah, there's something wrong, alright." Nora half-shouted, anger starting to seep into her voice. "For one, what the hell are you doing?"

Ruby, for her credit, didn't back down. "There's some unusual activity in the Emerald Forest." She informed, her voice firm despite her initial sheepishness. "We're going to investigate it."

Nora knew exactly what Ruby was talking about. Normally, it wouldn't be something to get angry over. At least, not angry at Ruby over. However, this was a volunteer only mission. Which only meant one thing.

The orange-haired girl frowned. "This is the fifth time you've volunteered for a mission in the past month!" She snapped, her voice much louder than anything up to that point.

This time, however, Ruby frowned. "And you know I volunteer for every mission!" She shot back. "You know that I'm going to take every opportunity to get better!"

Nora laughed bitterly. "And every time, you conveniently forget to tell me!" The hammer wielder yelled, enunciating "Me, your own goddamn girlfriend!"

Ruby felt a slight pang of guilt. However, it was buried underneath betrayal. "You don't trust me?" While there was pain in Ruby's voice, betrayal was the dominant tone.

Nora immediately regretted her choice of words, unable to answer. This only helped to further Ruby's now growing anger. "You think I'm cheating on you!?" Ruby half-shrieked.

There was a brief instant where the logical part of Nora's brain told her to try to apologize to Ruby. However, the instant passed, and in its place the heat of the moment took over. "Well, you definitely aren't making it hard to assume as much!" She shot back, her face flushed with anger.

It was clear that Ruby was restraining herself. From what, Nora wasn't sure. She had never seen Ruby angry before, just as Ruby had never seen her angry.

A few moments of silence past. "And here I thought we'd finally be able to spend some time together." Nora mused bitterly.

Ruby gave her an odd look. "What are you talking about?"

Nora pulled out one of the two tickets and held it in Ruby's face. "This, you idiot!" She scolded, anger causing her to shake. "I had an entire night planned for just the two of us." This was added with a hint of remorse.

Ruby immediately softened her expression. "You didn't say anything…" She trailed, her voice suddenly broken. It sounded as if she was ready to cry.

Nora sighed. "It was supposed to be a surprise." She said evenly, replacing the ticket in her pocket. "But I guess that doesn't matter anymore." The words came out with a calm hostility as Nora turned her back to the scythe wielder.

Ruby reached out for Nora's shoulder, but the other girl pulled away. "You've got a mission to complete." She informed bitterly.

Nora left Ruby standing in the quad, unable to turn around. Her emotions were flaring, making her vision blurry. She returned to her dorm, but her teammates did not great her in the usual way. Ren stood up, worry evident on his face, but Nora ignored him.

She approached Pyrrha and tossed the tickets at her. Pyrrha gave Nora a quizzical look, examining the tickets. "You wanted to go." Nora stated, her voice low and wavering. "Have fun."

With that, Nora left her teammates in stunned silence.

Nora recalled only bits and pieces of the rest of that night. She remembered heading to the gym to beat the crap out of a punching bag, which only resulted in three broken fingers. But the physical pain took her mind off the emotional pain she was feeling.

The next day, she didn't say much, which was concerning because there was rarely a moment that she was quiet. Ren had always joked that Nora said more in one day than anyone else would say in a week. But there just wasn't anything to say.

She was still angry with Ruby that night. She planned to have a long talk with Ruby once the young girl returned the next morning.

But Sunday came and went, and RWBY was still in the Emerald Forest. Everyone was talking about it. RWBY was the top class at Beacon, on par with some second and third year teams in regards to combat proficiency. This was a mission that shouldn't have taken more than a day.

And now they had been gone for two full days.

Nora's anger immediately became worry, further exacerbated by her last talk with Ruby. Nora didn't want that to be the last things she said to Ruby. If it was, if Ruby didn't return, then the guilt would probably kill the hammer wielder.

Tuesday was a blur. The only thing Nora could recall clearly was the messages she sent Ruby every hour. Each one featured copious use of words like 'I'm sorry,' 'I messed up,' and 'Forgive me.' But there was never a reply.

When night came around, Nora could barely function. She collapsed onto her bed, sleep immediately washing over her.

Ruby ran. From what, she didn't know. But she wasn't going to stop to find out.

Trees whizzed by, branches doing little to hinder the scythe wielder's sprint. A loud, low roar hit her ears, and she willed herself to move faster.

In a burst of rose petals, Ruby jumped effortlessly over a river, landing on the other side clumsily. She fell onto her face, rolling into a nearby tree.

She stood up, but she barely made it to her feet before a Beowolf charged from the trees. Ruby dodged to the right, immediately drawing Crescent Rose and decapitating the lone Grimm.

But, Grimm rarely travel alone, and just as soon as the first was dead, five more took its place. Ruby wasn't in any shape to be fighting a pack of Beowolves alone, but she had no choice.

The first Beowolf lunged. Ruby pointed Crescent Rose at the ground and fired, using the recoil to launch herself into the air.

Another of the Grimm anticipated this and jumped at her, striking at her and sending her flying, her weapon falling harmlessly to the ground. Ruby hit the ground hard, rolling several times, a pained scream leaving her lips.

The young girl tried to make it to her feet, but a Beowolf charged her. It bit down on her shoulder, the fangs easily breaking skin and spilling blood. Yet another scream left her lips, a scream of absolute horror.

Another Beowolf charged, this one grabbing her thigh. Another grabbed her other shoulder. And all Ruby could do was scream as the Grimm pulled her apart.

Nora awoke with a jolt, tears on her face. That had been, by far, the most visceral, and realistic, nightmare that Nora had ever had. It did little to give her hope. If anything, it just made things worse.

The hammer wielder couldn't help but sniffle, looking up at the ceiling above her bed. There was no way that Ruby was coming back.

And then she heard a faint buzzing.

Nora looked around the room for the source of the sound. But she didn't see anything that could've made the noise.

Then Nora felt a vibration on her side. A vibration that could've only come from one things.

With anxious haste, Nora fished the small device out of her pocket. She opened it, the faint light filling the dark room, making the girl squint. When her eyes finally adjusted, though, her heart skipped several beats.

'Meet me in the quad.'

Nora never ran faster, several emotions driving her on. But, paramount in her mind was relief. But she had to see for herself. She needed to see with her own eyes.

The chill in the air did little to halt the short girl's sprint. Indeed, it was only when she made it to the quad that she finally stopped. She very nearly broke down.

There, combat skirt slightly tattered and covered in minor scrapes and scratches, stood Ruby, a warm smile on her face.

The hammer wielder threw herself into Ruby's arms, causing the slightly taller girl to stagger. Every emotion that Nora had felt over the last two days spilled out.

"Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again." Nora sobbed, emphasizing each word with a soft blow to Ruby's chest. The younger girl simply stroked Nora's hair soothingly, taking whatever punishment the shorter girl dished out.

"I'm sorry for making you worry." Ruby whispered, holding Nora as close as possible.

The two remained like this, in each other's embrace, for several moments, before Nora could finally speak. "What happened?"

Ruby smiled. "Nothing big, we just got cut off." She said simply. "A few Grimm tried to fight us, but all they really got was our scrolls." Ruby pulled out what remained of her scroll. When Ruby opened it, it fell in two, one half falling haphazardly to the ground. "Had to borrow Prof. Ozpin's..." She added.

Nora chuckled for the first time since Ruby left. She then swallowed thickly, their last encounter forefront in her mind. "Ruby, I'm sorry…"

Ruby cut her off, putting a finger over her lips. "Don't." She said simply. "I should be the one apologizing." The scythe wielder leaned over and kissed Nora on the forehead. "I should've told you about the mission. You had every right to get mad at me." Ruby smiled again. "I'm sorry, Nora. Can you forgive me?"

Nora didn't answer verbally. Instead she simply pulled Ruby down and kissed her deeply. All of the fear, the regret, and the sorrow she had felt in the last two days was displayed in the kiss. It was full of passion, of longing, and love.

The two only pulled apart when their lungs couldn't take any more. Nora caught her breath before she finally answered Ruby's question. "You never have to ask forgiveness."