Lei Ren dropped his fork at the same time he took a sharp inhale. He immediately realized his mistake as his sensible bite of pancake was suddenly lodged in his windpipe. It seemed inconsequential in comparison to the news he had just heard. Now with emanate death from lack of oxygen, he spoke the only logical word that came to his mind as the rest of his body tripped in overdrive to cough up the piece of pancake shifting in his windpipe to further suffocate him.

"WHAT!?"

Lei Ren was a stoic, laconic, unflappable (most of the time) kind of guy. Not that he didn't enjoy a good conversation; he just didn't surround himself with people who made him dominate conversations. He would chime in with Nora when appropriate or the times where she had to take a breath of air and he felt the need to ask pointed questions regarding how far she was willing to take their little "talks" down the rabbit-hole. When given the opportunity, the man actually could string more than just a few words together.

Now was not one of those times. However much he wanted to say, the starchy bite of pancake would not comply with the loquacious thoughts that wanted to pour out of his head in a very long and dramatic rant.

"Whoa," Nora took a seat beside him and patted his back gently with concern. The rest of the cafeteria chattered on in their usual echoed cacophony all around them, completely oblivious that his breakfast was trying to kill him. "Remember last week when you told me not to breathe and swallow at the same time? Might wanna follow your own advice."

Then Nora did something very stupid. She slapped him as hard as she could on the back. The sound reverberated sickeningly off the stony walls and everyone fell into a hushed silence for all of two seconds before the denizens of the cafeteria continued on with their lives as if nothing had happened.

The bite shifted and Ren took a gasp of air followed by the rest of the water sitting his glass.

"Well, at least you aren't blue anymore," Nora said with wide eyes still facing him. She still had her concerned face on, and Ren took another moment to compose himself.

"You're training with Cardin now? I thought you wanted to shoot him in the face." Ren turned to face her on the bench. Serious talks with Nora always ended up talking to each other eye to eye.

"Hey don't put words in my mouth!" Nora pointed a threatening finger at Ren. Ren knew she was bluffing and raised an eyebrow at her to continue as he called her bluff. "I said I wanted to break his legs with my bare hands, that's totally different."

"So what? Now you don't want to break his legs?" Ren shot back before pushing the plate of half eaten pancakes her way so she could finish them. He had only gotten them for her to eat anyways.

"Yes. No. Maybe. I'm not sure." She eyed the pancakes but didn't touch them. "We talked." Ren raised another eyebrow. "He talked," she amended, fully knowing that Ren implied that she would take over a conversation if given the opportunity. "I got to know him…and training with people outside of our teams wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea. Don't worry, this will in no way, shape or form infringe on our training together or as a team. Promise!" She swore with a solute. The bell rang and she happily skipped off with the pancakes after Ren gave the best begrudging look he could muster. He would let it go for now and Nora knew that she had momentarily won.

()()()

Ren had to admit that the best part of his day was spending it on floor in between his and Nora's beds. Here is where they studied, talked, snacked, gave each other epic foot and shoulder rubs, fixed weapons and listened to music. They lounged. They laughed. They lived in that space. Ren could think of no better way to spend the day than right by Nora's side.

Today she seemed determined to viciously attack her homework with an unusual amount of gusto.

"Ha! Finished!" she hopped up proudly putting her last piece of homework at arm's length to admire it. She placed it carefully inside her folder after doing a happy dance for a short period of time, grabbed her hammer and headed towards the door.

"Nora! Where are you going?" Ren managed to shout after her. She popped her head in the doorway and smiled brightly.

"Training! Be back later!" And Ren didn't hear from her until later that night.

His evening was unusually quiet. Arc and Nikos tended to train and then study late at the library. He had the room to himself, something he had never had the odd pleasure of in the past and tried to enjoy the solitude as best as possible. He started in on a research paper that wasn't due for another month after finishing his typical homework.

()()()

Nora came back half an hour before their usual bed time. Ren had already given up and gone to bed early in hopes of actually sleeping and feeling rested the next day, but Nora was gone and he just couldn't sleep without knowing that his best friend was okay. He made an effort to at least pretend that he was sleeping as she grabbed a quick shower. The weight on one side of his bed caused him to roll over and look at her. He knew that she knew that he was awake. He wasn't going to hide it.

"How did training go?" At least his voice sounded groggier than he thought it would. She shifted and that prompted him to move over so she could lie down next to him. She slipped him an earpiece to her headphones and he mechanically took it and placed it in his ear.

"It was okay, not much to tell. Listen." She insisted as she snuggled close. Even in the dim light he could tell her face was flush from training. His nose was plugged with the scent of her shampoo and he forced himself to close his eyes as one of Nora's new favorite songs came over the headphones.

The best part of his day was not just spending it on the floor. Every night Nora would grab her mp3 player and play them a song before bed. Every other night she would mention something about getting splitters so they could have more than just one ear piece as they listened. Ren didn't mind. Lying next to Nora and listening to music was such a habit, he wondered if he would ever be able to sleep without it. He wondered bleakly when the day would be that he would have to find out. Just for tonight, he was happy to have Nora back by his side where she belonged.