Ren wasn't sure when it started. Actually that was a lie, he knew exactly when he had become interested in his best friend (even if he hadn't known it at the time). Not to say he wasn't interested before, but as Nora would put it he wasn't interested interested.

He wasn't sure how long they had been at Beacon, but it hadn't been too long after team JNPR had formed when he noticed Nora was incurring some odd behavior from some of the other boys at the academy. Just because Ren didn't flirt very often didn't mean that he didn't know what it looked like, and Nora was being hit on. A lot.

It seemed to fly right over her head, but every time he witnessed some random guy come up and try to make a move on his best friend he felt a fiery sort of anger slowly simmer in his gut. He chalked it up to just being protective of her, they had known each other their entire lives after all.

One day in between classes he was visiting the restroom when some of Nora's frequent admirers entered and began a conversation that made his blood boil.

"Damn is that chick strong!" One of them exclaimed as he let out a laugh

"Yeah! She's crazy too! Almost like she drinks six cups of coffee before coming to class every day." His friend agreed

"But dude, just think about how wild she must be in the sack!"

"Hell yeah, I bet she'd be up for just about anything. Ha!"

"Well I have every intention of finding out. I'll make my move as soon as her bodyguard leaves her alone for two seconds."

"I thought they had a thing at first."

"Nah, she's up for grabs as far as I can tell. I figure if that Ren guy wanted to hit that he would have done it by now."

At that point Ren had heard enough. He had made it perfectly clear that Nora was off limits, and that if he caught them sniffing around her he would make sure they could never use a certain part of their anatomy again.

Nora didn't have the faintest idea of what had transpired, the next day at lunch she had just casually wondered where her new friends were. Ren bit his tongue to keep from commenting that if they were smart, far away from her.

He subconsciously found himself staying even closer to her than normal, not that she noticed. He knew she could take care of herself, but she had some misguided notion that everyone had good intentions when it wasn't the case.

But the exact moment when he KNEW he wanted Nora was the moment when he woke up in the middle of the night, cold sweat and a problem in his pants. He was 17, he'd had wet dreams before, but usually to nameless faces. Never had there been one involving his childhood friend. He laid there in bed, wide eyed and breathing heavily as he sat up and looked around to see if he had woken anyone up. Jaune didn't seem to have woken up and he could hear the faint snoring from the other side of the curtain that indicated his two female teammates were still dreaming.

He'd taken a trip to the shower and promised himself that would be the last time.

It wasn't.

He didn't have enough fingers to count how many times he had found himself bent over with his hand braced against the wall of the shower, panting and shivering faintly as an aftershock of his orgasm ran through his body. As good as that afterglow felt, the shame would replace it almost as quickly as he washed the evidence down the drain. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was his best friend, they had known each other since they were in diapers. He wasn't supposed to be thinking about how nice it would feel to kiss her, or how badly he wanted to wind his fingers through her hair and put his hands around her waist. And he most definitely wasn't supposed to be thinking about how he wanted to bend her over and do things to her that he didn't even want to think about other guys doing.

He never imagined in his wildest dreams that she would feel the same way. Until after the attack on Beacon, when they had been so close to losing one another. Ren felt his heart stop when she had pushed him aside and taken the attack meant for him, and he didn't feel it start again until he had woken up with her at his side.

The second they were alone and healed enough to move even an Ursa couldn't have stopped them. As crazy at it sounds, Ren barely remembers the first time. If he recalls correctly it was over pretty quickly, all heat and desperation, hands and lips everywhere as they tried to convey with actions what they couldn't through words. It wasn't even until afterwards, naked chest to naked chest, that they said a word to each other.

"I love you."

He can't remember which one of them said it first, perhaps they said it at the same time even. But he does remember burying his face in her shoulder and inhaling her, a scent that was purely Nora.

There were times after that, in between then and the time they reconnected with Jaune and Ruby. Those times he remembers better, they were slower and more passionate but no less steamy as the first. He couldn't imagine what they had been doing with themselves before then, it seemed the most natural thing in the world to intertwine his body with hers.

And finally, they were not only together, but together together.