So... this is my first RWBY fanfic! One of my friends from work got me into the show and now I'm slightly obsessed, and so I've started on fanfiction. I would love constructive criticism to get better (especially with some of the viewpoints) and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter One – Ren

Ren took great pride in being a rational person, considering the company he kept at school. After all, he was obviously the rational side of his partnership with Nora –just look at the way she rode that Ursa during initiation and enjoyed it. And even with his other teammates, Jaune and Pyrrha had fits of emotion that overcame the part of their brains that made sensible, rational decisions.

Therefore, Ren knew it was completely irrational to be this irritated so early in the morning. For the most part, it could have been considered a good morning for Ren. He'd had a nice uninterrupted night of sleep, all of his schoolwork had been finished, and the weather was even cooperating today. All in all, this morning had started off pretty well.

At least, until Ren had opened his eyes and started feeling the irrational and undeniable urge to rip Jaune's head from his shoulders… or at the very least, shoot him in the leg.

"So when we go to class, you should just go over there and –hey look, pancakes! They won't be as good as Ren's, but we should have pancakes! Oh hi Ruby! Are you having pancakes? If Jaune doesn't want his, I'll eat them, and Ren can make me better pancakes later!"

The babbling from his partner wasn't unexpected, even this early in the morning, and neither was her assumption that he would just make her pancakes on demand. Nora had been assuming such things –and Ren had been doing them- ever since they were kids. Honestly, Ren didn't think she'd stop until they grew old and died… if she didn't haunt him beyond the grave for pancakes.

What was unexpected, and bothered Ren, was that she wasn't sitting next to him, breaking his perfectly nice silence with her amusing chatter. If there was a time in their friendship that Nora's conversations didn't make their way back to Ren, he certainly couldn't remember it.

Perhaps that explained his irritation this morning. Nora was his best friend after all, and now she was practically hanging all over Jaune. Jaune of all people!

It wasn't as if Ren didn't like Jaune –the other boy wasn't too bad actually, even if he was a little odd and didn't understand certain boundaries. In fact, Jaune was one of the very few people that Ren considered himself close to, even if he didn't show it well.

That didn't mean he enjoyed Nora being together with Jaune. After all, Nora was his partner, and her chatter surprisingly made it easier to function in the morning. She was his unofficial alarm clock, and she was more than willing to drag him anywhere they had to be if he was a little too slow.

Ren figured that could also explain away part of why he was so annoyed. Nora hadn't woken him up this morning, and he'd almost thought he was dreaming when he heard his alarm clock beeping. After all, that was a sound he never heard, not unless Nora was at a sleepover (rare as that might be) or Nora was just too sick to get herself out of bed.

So hearing the alarm, Ren understandably got worried. He knew there was no chance she snuck out all of last night, but Nora, sick? She'd seemed just fine the night before, but if she wasn't feeling well now, Ren had to check up on her. That's what partners and friends did.

But Nora hadn't been sick, or even just sleeping in. No, if this behavior from this morning was any indication, she was just fine, stealing Jaune's pancakes and babbling across the table to Ruby and Yang.

Ren managed not to frown, pushing his food around his plate absently as he tried to pull his thoughts back together. Maybe Nora had gotten hit on the head during a spar? That would account for the odd behavior after all. Or maybe she was pulling a prank, or going through a dare or… who knew with Nora really?

But for this long? This wasn't the first time Nora acted weird, and she was still over there! It was only two seats down, but it was wrong. Ren didn't sit at the last seat of their table; Nora did. Maybe it wasn't assigned seating, but when it never changed, it might as well be.

That had to be what was throwing him off. Ren had his routine, certain things that were part of his norm, and this morning was just wrong. That had to be the reason he was so irrationally annoyed. It was just the effect of a very abnormal morning.

It had to get better by lunch… right?

()~~()~~()~~()~~()

Things were worse. Not because Nora wasn't paying attention in class, she rarely did, but because somehow she never seemed to pay attention to anything else besides Jaune.

Wasn't this morning enough of a diversion for her? Where did her limited attention span go? Even Ren had a hard time getting her to focus this much on anything for this amount of time!

He would never admit it, but his own attention wasn't on the lectures that day because of it. It was a good thing it looked like Pyrrha was paying attention, because his own notes were ridiculously short. Ren was too busy noticing how Nora, with all the skill of a bored child, managed to fold multiple paper airplanes, tossing them with unerring accuracy to hit the back of Jaune's head, giggling into her hands with each success.

How does she manage not to get caught? Ren was forced to admit a grudging admiration for her ability to avoid getting into trouble, even though another wave of irritation hit him hard. What on earth was so important she couldn't tell him? What secret would Nora force herself to keep from Ren?

They never kept secrets from each other.

Why would she even keep a secret from Ren, after all this time? She knew he'd never judge her for anything, or tell anyone. Nora had once made him promise to help her hide dead bodies once, though thankfully, he'd never actually had to keep that promise.

So why did Jaune know this secret?

Was Nora telling Jaune her secrets now, instead of Ren?

Or what if it wasn't a secret?

Did Nora… No, that was crazy. This was Nora! This was the girl who could, and did, jump from the subject of pancakes to breaking people's legs in the span of three seconds. This was the girl who rode Grimm and sent people flying with her hammer and somehow managed not to kill them. But still…

Did Nora like Jaune? Romantically?

That was an almost sickening thought. Putting aside the fact that it was Nora liking someone like Jaune, it would still be a relationship between team leader and member. If the couple had been comprised of anyone else, it might not be a preposterous idea. But Nora didn't let go, and if something went wrong and threw off the team dynamic, it could be the end of everything.

It could be the end of Team JNPR.

Honestly, Team JNPR was the best thing that had happened for Ren in this school. He had Nora as his partner, and the other two were better teammates than he could have hoped for coming into Beacon. Ren had grown proud of his ability to have a conversation with Pyrrha that didn't have her apologizing consistently.

Even if Nora hadn't said it herself, Ren knew her enough to just know the sentiments were the same on her part. People might enjoy Nora in small doses, but very few could manage a regular exposure to the girl's boundless energy. If she had been on any other team, things would have been very different for the both of them.

They had friends now, besides each other. Good friends, not the kind that were just good as study partners and you knew were talking about you behind your back. Good friends that accepted that Ren's silence didn't mean he thought he was better than them, and realized that Nora's babbling tended to have some meaning, even if they didn't understand it all the time.

That was why Ren sincerely hoped that Nora didn't have any romantic ideas about her and Jaune. Such irrational emotions could ruin everything good that was going for them at this school.

Seeing yet another paper plane flying down towards Jaune's head, Ren miraculously kept the frown off his face, though his hand clenched into an unseen fist under the desk. Thankfully Pyrrha was paying attention to this class, because they were all going to need someone to give them a recap.

Ren managed to catch Nora's eye, and he knew she caught the message in them. What are you up to now?

The slightly guilty expression on her face was not reassuring at all as she waved a hand breezily in the air, as if trying to shake off any ideas of wrongdoing. Nothing, nothing! Nothing to see here, talk to you later, I have plane notes to make!

He was probably filling in the gaps of Nora's silent message, but looking forward and seeing Jaune's cheeks turn red did nothing to improve Ren's mood in the slightest. But he had hope. It wasn't lunch yet. Maybe things would get back to normal when more food came into the picture.

()~~()~~()~~()~~()

If it hadn't been for the small snippets of conversation Nora sent his direction, Ren would have sworn that the girl was avoiding him. There was no other word for the way she squeezed herself in-between Jaune and Pyrrha, mentioned the smallest details of Jaune's day, and plans that she and Jaune were making.

When had she and their leader started spending so much time together, much less making plans? True, the plans involved all of them, but why wouldn't she discuss them with anyone but their leader?

"Ren, did you hear? Jaune thought we could all go to the zoo on our next day off and just have fun! Can you imagine? We could see all the animals, and jump in the pens and play with them! It would be so awesome!"

"I don't think we're allowed to do that," was Ren's automatic answer, though his brain was working on other problems than zoo exhibit rules.

Jaune thought of that idea? Doubtful. The boy might be more easygoing than him, but the zoo sounded exactly like something Nora would have come up with. She liked the crowds and animals and all of the noise that came with those things.

Even if it had been their leader's idea, Ren would find himself going along with it anyway. Nora had it in her head to go to the zoo now, and sometimes Ren swore even Headmaster Ozpin couldn't stop the girl when she had an idea. So he would go –or rather, be dragged- to the zoo, Jaune would find something to enjoy there, and Pyrrha would find herself there somehow as well.

Actually, Ren couldn't say exactly what Pyrrha was doing with them half the time. Her abilities were far more advanced than many others at Beacon, but she seemed to actually enjoy spending time with Jaune who was, without a doubt, one of the worst fighters in their class.

Not to say he wasn't getting better… He was. Even in this horrible mood, Ren could admit that Jaune was nowhere near as… well, pathetic was really the only word that seemed to be a proper description.

Meanwhile, Ren's thoughts were interrupted yet again by the arrival of Team RWBY and Nora's squeal of delight. He might have said nothing –it wouldn't have been much of a different anyway- except for the apple that went flying across the table at Yang.

"Don't start another food fight," Ren warned, glancing over at Nora with raised eyebrows.

"Me? You're the one who threw the pie!" Nora lied easily to pass the blame as she had done then, catching the apple as it came back in her direction. "Besides that food fight was awesome! Don't you think so Jaune?"

"Uh…" The mentioned boy blinked, looking as if he hadn't been paying attention to Nora this whole time, scratching at his head. "Yes?"

"See Ren? I'm not the only one who thought it was totally awesome!" Nora seemed to triumphant to want to tell her otherwise, and Ren wasn't going to. Food fights weren't his idea of 'awesome' but he had gone along with it nonetheless, so he couldn't say they were childish or ridiculous. That would have made him a hypocrite.

Besides, Ren had to admit, he was incredibly impressed with Nora's ability to send people flying with her watermelon hammer.

"You think it was awesome? I was getting bread crumbs out of my hair for a week!" Yang's complaint was met with pleased giggles on Nora's part, and a devilish grin on her sister's.

"Yes, but we totally won that food fight!" Ruby crowed, throwing her fist in the air triumphantly.

Nora's denials were brief, because at the end of the day, there was always something much more interesting to talk about five seconds later. "That was a fluke, and we'll prove it with another food fight anytime! Anytime and anyplace! Oh, but then we'd miss out on dessert stuff, and I want pie today! Not as much as I want pancakes –Ren- but pie is good! Ooh, we should have a sleepover and have pie!"

"All of us?" Ren piped in, raising his eyebrows again. There were lines, and if he had to have Team RWBY squeezing into their dorm room…

"No silly!" Nora reached over Pyrrha to poke Ren's cheek with a laugh. "All us girls! Then you boys go do your thing! Like… go train more, like manly men!"

Amused by Nora's… antics, that was the word, Ren merely shook his head at her. At least she was talking to him now, and not about Jaune and the things he wasn't to do. It was just them, even if Pyrrha was in-between them, and Nora making a not-so-subtle mention of Ren's activities. If he wasn't reading, or on one of Nora's adventures, he was training.

His appetite returning along with some of his good humor, Ren took a bite of his sandwich, absently keeping track of the conversation. He knew that Nora would bring most of this up later, and he would prefer not to have her repeat any of it back, accompanied with a playful scolding to pay more attention to her.

"So Pyrrha, I have to steal Jaune tonight, so he might be a little late to training tonight!" Nora's voice was clearest, as it normally was when Ren wasn't fully invested in conversations around him. "But don't worry, I'll have him back to you in one piece! I won't break anything! Most likely!"

Ren noted, as he nearly choked on his food, that Pyrrha looked more worried than was absolutely necessary about that statement. Nora was rough, Ren knew that, but not so rough that Jaune would be too badly injured by whatever they were planning. In fact, Pyrrha looked more worried after Nora insisted there was no chance that Jaune would be injured… almost as if she didn't want Nora alone with Jaune.

Ren understood that sentiment. He wasn't too fond of that idea either.

Was it so wrong to want Nora to keep things as they were? Meaning, Nora shouldn't be so obsessed with Jaune, and get back to paying attention to Ren.

Ren kept his face blank, but he pushed his sandwich away slightly. Of course he didn't mean Nora should only pay attention to him; that was a ridiculous thought. It was just that they were best friends, and partners, and her spending so much time with Jaune was strange.

This line of thought wasn't helping. This foul mood was only getting worse, and every time Ren thought about why, he was more and more tempted to hurt Jaune.

Why was he so upset about it anyway? He didn't know anything for sure, except that Nora was spending more time focused on Jaune instead of Ren. It was odd, especially of years of being her main focus, but it didn't mean it was necessarily a bad thing.

It was a good thing that Nora was growing and expanding her friendships… right?

Resisting the urge to groan, Ren abandoned his lunch, pulling out a book that was nothing more than meaningless words. Instead of seeing the ink of the paper, the already too-long day was flashing on the pages, starting from the moment he woke up and saw Nora playing with Jaune's hair.

No, this wasn't going to be a very good day at all.

So, I hope you all enjoyed this, and hang around for the rest! Please leave a review to let me know what you think!