Nora took a deep breath as she walked into the library. She knew exactly who she was looking for, and thanks to help looking for them from Velvet, she knew where to find him. He usually studied with his team at this time. Without much difficulty, she found him sitting with his team.
"What am I even doing asking him something like this?" the rare pessimistic side of her mind told her. "We've only talked a couple times since we met. How am I even going to know he's going to say yes?" She shook that thought out of her mind, quite literally in fact. "No, he's a decent person. There's no way he'd pass up on this offer."
She marched up to his chair, tapping on his shoulder to get his attention.
"So what'd you guys get for question- huh?" Rocco said, turning around to see the hyperactive redhead of Team JNPR. "Oh, hey, Nora. What's up?"
"Can I ask you something, privately?" Nora asked.
The beserker looked back at his team, who gave him the go-ahead to see what the Valkyrie had to ask. After giving Nora a nod, she practically dragged him behind one of the nearby bookshelves before turning to face him.
"What's got you worked up?" Rocco asked the underclassman.
"Well, I was wondering, since Valentines Day's around the corner..." Nora started, a blush starting to well up in her cheeks.
Rocco put on a surprised expression. "Woah, back up. Me of all people?" he asked.
Nora raised an eyebrow, only before she put two and two together. "Oh my gosh! Sorry, I dodn't mean it like that!" Nora apologized. "But I need your help with what I have in store for my real valentine."
Now it was Rocco's turn to raise an eyebrow. "How can I help?" he asked.
"You're a musical guy, right?" she asked back.
"Well, I've written a few songs before. You trying to write one for the guy you like?" he assumed.
"Nora blushed a bit more and kicked around her foot awkwardly. "Kind of."
"Well that seems like a nice thing to do. Who's the lucky dude?" he asked.
"D-does it matter?" Nora stammered.
"Kind of so I know who I'm helping you write a song for." Rocco chuckled. "It's that Ren guy, right? Your teammate?"
Nora looked up in surprise. "How'd you know?"
Rocco smirked. "I didn't. That was a guess."
"You're not gonna tell him, are you?" Nora asked.
"Nah, I'm not that much of an asshole." Rocco answered, pulling out his Scroll and sending something to Nora's. "Look, I gotta get back to studying for this test I have in an hour. Meet me in this room tomorrow after lunch, and we'll start then."
Nora gave a relieved sigh and a smile. "Okay. See you then!" she said in a much more relaxed and characteristic attitude as she skipped out of the library to prepare for tomorrow.
Nora walked into an empty classroom after her lunch period ended to find Rocco playing around on his signature weapon/instrument, only pausing to look up to see the redhead walking in. "I was wondering when you'd show up." he smirked.
"Sorry I'm late. Are you ready to start?" she asked, taking a seat next to him and pulling out a pad of paper.
"Actually, we're waiting on a couple others first." he admitted, looking back at the door.
Nora was puzzled. Who else did he talk about this to? At first, Nora wanted to clock him in the jaw for not keeping it a secret, but that thought was put on the back burner as someone else walked in.
"Hey guys!" Jaune waved, placing his acoustic guitar on the desk.
"Jaune? W-what are you doing here?" Nora stuttered.
"Rocco asked us to meet up to write something." another voice answered, as Yang and Weiss from Team RWBY entered, the blonde holding a pair of drumsticks while the heiress carried a keyboard into the room.
"How many people did you tell this to?" Nora asked, a little frustration in her voice.
Rocco held his hands up defensively. "I just told them to bring their instruments here and nothing else." he admitted. "Also, where's the rest of your kit, Yang?"
"Back home. My dad's sending it over tomorrow." Yang answered, tapping her sticks in a simple rhythm on the desk in front of Jaune's guitar.
"Alright then." he nodded before turning back to Nora. "I figured to let you explain to everyone your plan."
Nora nodded then went over to her friends what she had in store for a Valentines Day gift Ren would never forget.
"Awww!" Yang sighed as Nora finished explaining. "That's such a cute and romantic thing to do!"
"Wow, I had no idea you liked Ren that way, Nora." Jaune said, dumbfounded.
"Once again, very attentive of you, Jaune." Weiss said sarcastically.
"So are we going to get started or what?" Rocco asked, pulling up a chair so everyone sat around in a lopsided semi-circle.
"I...actually don't really know where to begin." Nora admitted.
"It's kinda simple." Yang explained. "You could start by listing off some of the reasons you like Ren."
"Or when you started to fall for him." Jaune suggested.
"Or how you feel when you're around him." Weiss added.
"And when you feel like you've got enough ideas down, we can see how to add that into a lyric." Rocco finished.
Nora took a moment to think about some of the things she liked about her lifelong friend. "Well, I don't really know when I started to fall for him that way. I just know that everytime I want to tell him that I love him, I just tap his nose and say 'boop'." she explained, demonstrating on her team leader.
Rocco scratched his chin for a moment before speaking up. "Huh, I think we could actually work with that." he muttered, taking up his base and strumming something simple into it while singing along.
"I think oh woah what am I to do?
I didn't think that I would fall in love with you.
And what to do right now, I haven't got a clue,
I just bite my tongue, and when I want to say I love you I say...boop."
With that last line, he let the note fade out on its own, as he looked to the girl who began the arrangement for her approval. "Or something like that. We can work on it."
"No, acually..." Nora stopped him. "That's great! Let's see what else we can come up with!" she said with enthusiasm as they then spent the next hour coming up with the rest of the song.
The day finally arrived, and Nora couldn't be any more nervous. Her knees were buckling under the formal dress she wore to the restaurant they were going to perform. The establishment in Vale usually had music acts of all varieties play on select nights there, and by some strike of luck, the group managed to gain permission for the performance. Out on the small stage was Yang's drumkit, almost as bright yellow as her motorcycle or gauntlets, a standup acoustic bass, and a large grand piano that took up almost half the stage. She sat by the table with Pyrrha, Yang and Weiss, all in their own dresses for their 'dates'. Pyrrha had been informed of the situation, and as long as she could spend the rest of the night afterword on an actual date with Jaune, she was on board with it. Yang had decided to act as Rocco's date for the evening to add to the charade, and Weiss had roped Neptune into a similar arrangement as Pyrrha had with her team leader.
"What could be taking them?" Nora fidgeted in the booth built for eight.
"It's kind of a long flight from Beacon." Yang commented. They had been in the establishment for a couple hours, the management allowing them the table and stage as long as they needed, as well as a back room to prepare for their dates in. It wasn't much, but the girls managed to look presentable for a date in that time.
"Plus, Rocco and Jaune needed to get changed themselves." Weiss added.
"You just need to relax, Nora. I'm sure Ren is going to love what you have in store for him." Pyrrha said with a reassuring smile.
Nora gave out a deep exhale as she tried to calm her nerves. "You're right. I guess I'm just overreacting." Nora giggled nervously.
"Oh look! They're here!" Yang smiled as she waved down four guys in casual suits that walked through the front door.
"Oh Dust! They're here already? Oh man oh man I'm so not ready for this!" Nora babbled, taking a glass of water from the table and gulping it down ferociously to shut herself up before Ren got within earshot.
"Calm down, Nora. Everything's going to be fine." Weiss reassured her as she smiled as Neptune, dressed in a burgundy suit and sapphire bowtie, his trademark goggles still over his head , sat down next to her with a greeting. Rocco, in a sports jacket with a black dress shirt underneath, had cleaned up well as he sat next to blake, who wore the same dress she wore to the dance before their mission to Mountain Glenn. Pyrrha wore a cocktail dress in the same color as her dance gown as Jaune, in a suit instead of a dress, sat next to her. Ren wore an emerald green suit with a white shirt that had a stripe of pink on the collar as he took a seat next to Nora.
"Nice place you guys chose." Neptune commented as he looked around.
"I'm surprised you didn't manage to get Blake and Sun to come along." Yang said.
"They'd already left for their date by the time we finished getting ready." Ren answered. "They said they were going to see the movie adaption of one of her favorite books..."Ninjas of Love" or something like that."
"Figures." Yang chuckled as a waitress came by to get drink orders. While Neptune, Pyrrha and Ren ordered some sodas or tap water, the martial artist was surprised to find over half of the quadruple date participants hadn't ordered.
"Um, aren't any of you thirsty?" he asked Nora.
"Oh, we'll get some drinks in a bit." Weiss said to reassure him.
"Yeah, I'm not th-that thirsty my self." Nora lied, almost losing her composure as she noticed the manager walking up to the microphone on stage.
"Good evening, folks, and a Happy Valentines Day to all you lovers out there!" A man with a curly mustache and a nametag that read "Geoff" stepped up to the stage. "We wanted to thank you for choosing 'Le Geoff's' for your dining and entertainment pleasure tonight."
"Entertainment pleasure?" Ren asked himself as he suddenly noticed he, Pyrrha and Neptune were the only ones at the table now.
"So before we let the house band take over, we have some special guests from Beacon Academy that would like to perform a song for us first." the manager said, stepping out of the way as Weiss stepped around him to sit on the stool in front of the piano. "So without further ado, here they are!"
With that said, he passed the microphone to Nora, who had a blush on her face that made her almost as red as Pyrrha's dress. She looked behind her, finding her friends had taken their places, Jaune and Rocco making some final tuning adjustments on their bass and electric guitar. She gave Weiss a nod and took a deep breath as Weiss began to play.
"Never knew a time when you weren't by my side,
The one thing I could always count on...
Always there for me, you've been my family,
Even when all other hope was gone...
But for a while, things have seemed so different,
Like it's the same but still brand new...
I can't believe it...
When did I start to fall...for...you?"
"Fall for me?" Ren thought as the music became more upbeat "Is Nora singing about me?" he thought. He always had his suspicions that his childhood friend and current teammate had an innocent crush on him, but full out infatuation was something he hadn't expected. However, she was doing it in a fashion he probably wouldn't have expected, and certainly didn't. It had a catchy upbeat feel that evenbrought some of the patrons of the restaurant to their feet to dance along to it. Even Neptune and Pyrrha were bobbing their heads and tapping their feet rhythmically along with the song.
The more the song progressed, the more of Nora's nervousness melted away. She started getting more into the music, dancing a bit on stage, and even flashing a wink at Ren during the chorus. Everyone else felt it too, Yang putting a little showmanship into some tricks with her drumsticks between each strike of a drum or cymbal, and Jaune coming up with a nice solo towards the end of the song. By the end of it all, the entire restaurant was on their feet applauding. Nora felt her heart leap when she saw Ren with a genuine smile on his face clapping his hands and staring right at her. A hand on her shoulder brought her attention to Yang motioning for her to go to him while they broke down their instruments so the house band could have the stage for the rest of the night. She smiled and ran off stage, maneuvering her way through tables and other patrons praising her singing as she made her way to their table.
"That was amazing Nora!" Neptune commented.
"You guys did an excellent job!" Pyrrha added.
"Thanks, guys!" Nora said, blushing as she turned to Ren, who gave her a smile with his arms folded. She excused herself and walked up to him. "So...what did you think?"
Ren said nothing, and brought a hand up to her face, lightly tapping her nose. "Boop." he said quietly.
Nora's eyes welled up with tears of happiness as she planted a big kiss on Ren's lips and wrapped her arms around him in an embrace that could've cracked a lesser man's spine in half. Their friends smiled on happily at the sight as Yang leaned on Rocco's shoulder as an armrest. "Sucks that Ruby couldn't be here to see it.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask. What did Ruby have planned for today?" Rocco asked.
"Oh, you know. She has her own special guy to spend the day with." Yang smiled.
"Ooh, who's a good boy? You are! Yes, you are!" Ruby said in a baby voice as she scratched Zwei's belly as he lay on top of her bed. He was loving it, and trying to crane his neck up to lick his owner's hand. "Man, I can't believe everyone went on some stupid dates instead of spending some time with us huh?" she smiled, taking a dog biscuit and feeding it to her pet. "Eh, we're probably not missing much anyway."
And while I'm at it, I forgot to get this thing out yesterday during Valentines Day! Either way, I hope it did justice to you ReNora fans out there. I wasn't sure if I could get away with putting the whole song into this, since the guidelines prohibit using songs in works if they're not in the public domain. Since this is just fan made and all for purposes that don't intend copyright infringement at all, I hope you this doesn't end up getting me sued, but that's just probably me being paranoid XD.
The real song, "Boop" was composed by Jeff Williams and features his daughter, Casey Lee Williams, and all credits for this song go to Rooster Teeth.
Once again, I hope you guys liked it, and will see you again next time!