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Nora thinks she might have fallen in love with Jaune.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly when it happened. Ren, she's been in love with Ren since he saved her as a child. He's her hero and he always will be.
Jaune? Jaune she was ready to adopt as a kid brother, because of how unprepared he was for the reality of fighting the Grimm. He had a little flash of brilliance when they fought the Deathstalker and the Nevermore with the eventual team RWBY, but she expected him to take forever to learn anything about anything.
And then Pyrrha took a shine to him, and she was going to teach him, and the two of them were going to be a great couple, and she would have Ren, and they would be a stable team, two dyads who worked well together. They brought out the best parts of each other, even if Pyrrha had to do more than her share of saving Jaune from dying or getting seriously hurt long enough for him to learn how to survive. Everyone else wondered why the most perfect student Beacon had seen wanted to hook up with someone who had legacy weapons, a Pumpkin Pete's hoodie, and couldn't use his Aura for more than taking more punishment. Nora had wondered about it, too, in Pyrrha's hearing.
"He's much stronger than he knows, but more importantly, he sees the truth about everyone," she'd said.
Nora still doesn't know what Jaune could have been, with Pyrrha as his guide and then as his partner. Something better and nobler and probably a whole lot richer than her Jaune. Possibly an ache in Nora's heart as the really hot redhead and her easy on the eyes partner were extremely sappy and romantic with each other as she struggled to get Ren to understand her feelings and her burgeoning understanding that she might also want more than Ren. It was pretty common that team members ended up at least trying relationships while they were together, even if they ended up deciding they were better as friends or teammates. (Or they decided to work as a solo Hunter.) So maybe they would have found themselves together as partners both in and out of work.
But then, well, then everything fell apart. Beacon was destroyed, Pyrrha…died, and now they're on this bonkers journey to collect the artifacts left behind by the gods so Salem doesn't destroy the world. Ruby joined them for a little while, and Nora wondered if Jaune was going to displace everything on to her, but his grief kept distance between himself and everyone. All through that journey, though, it felt like Jaune grew into his armor more. He didn't get any taller, but he looked more heroic. Less like a kid brother and more like a teammate. And they'd needed that teamwork to beat the Nucklavee. She'd laid it all out for Ren then, how much she needed him as part of her life, not just as her protector, not just as her friend, not even only as a teammate, but as a partner. And, after they'd gotten to Haven, it felt like something had shifted with Jaune, as well, like he was beginning to heal, and to trust.
And to lead. Jaune was making decisions more, with greater confidence, and each success seemed to feed in on itself. He was a lot stronger than he had been, and he knew how to use the strengths of the people around him as much as possible for success. He was blossoming into the man that Pyrrha had seen in him the entire time. How she had known this is what he would become was something Nora wished she could ask her. And then there was the scare with Weiss and it looked like Jaune might collapse into himself again, but instead. he found a way to power through. Literally. What a Semblance he'd unlocked in a moment of terror.
When it was all over, and no longer scary, and they had all collapsed into each other's arms to recover, there was a stray thought in her head about how fun it could be if Jaune could recharge Ren after he'd exhausted himself with her and go again. She tried not to let that thought come out again while they were still recovering, because she wasn't entirely sure whether the other two would be willing to go along with it at the time. She pushed it away at the time as the exhilaration that comes from surviving something that should have killed them. Again. They were doing a lot of surviving and winning. And she had Ren. Why would she want more than him?
But through the journey to Atlas, Jaune was growing on her, too. Leadership, quick thinking, strength, and then, some of his family. And the statue of Pyrrha. So much of Jaune made sense there, watching him play with his nephew and talk to his sister. And he felt so lonely there, surrounded by everyone, so Nora kept herself to comforting Jaune and loving Ren.
Now that they were in Atlas, somewhere relatively safe, she'd begun to tell Ren about her feelings for Jaune, and he was understanding. He knew about the possibility of intimacy between teammates, too, at least.
"We promised to be open with each other about our feelings, Nora," Ren said. "We made that promise for Jaune, so that he wouldn't carry his burdens by himself."
"I know," Nora said. "I don't know what he thinks about this. I don't know if he wants to know this."
"Why do you think Jaune doesn't want to know that you love him?" Ren said.
"I…sometimes I think that if I tell him, Pyrrha will come back and ask why I'm stealing her boyfriend."
Ren took Nora's hands in his. "You're more concerned about Pyrrha's jealousy than you are mine?" he asked.
"Are you? Jealous?" Nora said.
"No," Ren said, kissing her on the forehead. "I've been waiting for something like this." He laughed at Nora's confusion. "We have been together for a very long time, Nora. You were never going to be happy with only one person to spend all your energy on."
Nora huffed. Ren was right, but he didn't have to be so smug about it.
"Do you think he'll…compare?" Nora said. "I'm not Pyrrha. I can't be her, or what she represented to him."
"It would be easier to do this with Pyrrha here. She'd be happy to help you burn off energy," Ren said.
"Really." Nora said, disbelief saturating her tone. Ren's expression remained carefully schooled.
"I don't—I don't want to hurt him," Nora said. "If he's not ready, then I can wait." She smiled at Ren. "So don't go telling him anything."
Ren shrugged. "Hello, Jaune," he said, drawing Nora's attention to the fact that at some point in their conversation, Jaune had joined them, respectfully waiting for a break in the conversation before announcing his presence.
Nora sprang from the bed, fists balled and ready. "How long have you been listening?" she accused.
"Long enough," he replied, his hands spread peacefully. "It's probably not how you wanted to tell me, but I'm glad to know."
A few moments of silence passed between all of them. "Well?" Nora snapped, tears brimming at her eyes.
Jaune closed the distance between them and wrapped Nora in a hug. "I'm so glad. I worried that I was doing something wrong."
"What?"
"Your emotions are easy to read," Ren said. "It's refreshing."
Nora removed an arm from Jaune and punched Ren in the shoulder hard enough to unbalance him.
"I'm never going to be Pyrrha, you know that, right?" she said, looking up at Jaune.
"I know," he said. "I don't want you to be her. I want you to be Nora, full of pancakes and spite, giving two fingers and six grenades to the Grimm, so loving and energetic that you need more than one person to hold it all."
"Well, then," Nora said, her melancholy evaporated (masked, Ren noticed), "can't disappoint my fans." She pulled Jaune in for a kiss, then wrapped Ren in her other arm and kissed him as well.
"Nora." Ren said chidingly.
"Okay," she replied, annoyed. "I'm terrified that this isn't going to work out, and I'm going to destroy our team by doing this."
"We've already been through a lot," Jaune said. "And…I could use the additional support. Seeing Saphron and her wife and the memorial gave me a lot of feelings."
"You know we'll be here to support you, for whatever you need, right, Jaune?" Ren said.
"I know," Jaune said, "I'm not very good at asking for help, though."
"You're on the perfect team," Ren said. "You and Nora can practice with each other."
Nora laughed and punched Ren lightly on the shoulder. They both knew it was light because Ren was only unbalanced again instead of being moved a few feet.
"I'm worried about…I'm worried that one of these times, I'm not going to be able to keep everyone alive. I couldn't with Pyrrha. I almost couldn't with Weiss, or Ruby, or…" Jaune put his hands on his face. "I'm still not sure I'm cut out to be a leader."
"We're still here because of your leadership," Ren added. "I trust you."
"Hey," Nora said, pulling away Jaune's hands. "You've gotten us this far. I'm sticking with you. I believe in you."
"Even if I'm the comic relief and someone else is the hero?"
"Even then," she said. "You're very good at being the comic relief."
"Nora." Ren said. "Not the best idea."
Nora laughed and kissed them both again. "Good talk, both of you," she said, choosing to change the subject. "How about some pancakes?"