"And then I was all like, 'POW,' and, 'WHAM," and, 'BAZOW,' and it was AWESOME!"

"Yes, Nora."

"And then– and then I was all, 'BABABOO,' and then everyone started clapping!"

"Yes, Nora."

"And finally– this is the best part– I threw my hammer in the air and caught it and did a SICK spin move!"

"Yes, Nora, I was there for that, too."

"You didn't have to be! I don't know why you've been to all of my shows! Unless you want some of Ms. Valkyrie~"

"Because, Nora, the one time I didn't, you ended up destroying half the stage instead of just part of it. You're lucky your boss knows someone able to repair it, otherwise you'd still be in the negative." Ren smiled. "Plus, it is nice to see you so happy."

"Are you sure it's not because you get to see half of the Beacon girls almost naked?"

"Nora, you know I don't go to any other Wonderland performances. Not even I would be able to look our classmates in the eyes without making it obvious I saw them there."

"But there was that one time Yang was before me!"

"Yes. Serving drinks. She may have been in a miniskirt, but I've seen her dress far more scandalous at school. And she understood that I was there to look after you."

"You're telling me you DIDN'T check out her butt? I saw her bending all over the place when she was taking orders! It was like, super hot."

"Yes, Yang is an attractive woman, but I did not go to Wonderland to ogle her."

"Ugh, you're so boring some–"

"Besides, she presents me with plenty of opportunities outside of the club." Ren broke character for a moment to look smug. "Was that what you wanted to hear?"

Nora looked at Ren in a rare silence. This was one of the first times where she couldn't tell if he was joking. She didn't care for that. When she recovered, she said, "Oh, so I guess you're lying when you say you come to my shows to look after me? Maybe you're just looking at me? Hmmmmmmmmmm?" She continued her prod until she trailed off.

Ren stopped Nora from walking into traffic. She'd predictably lost her situational awareness on their way home from Nora's latest strip show at Club Wonderland. Now, she was overexcited (even more so than usual) and walking through downtown Vale while reminiscing about her performance, which had finished less than an hour ago. Walking home served the dual purpose of calming the ginger down, and letting her and Ren enjoy the night life of the city.

"Again, as I've made clear in the past, I am there to ensure that you get paid, and that you keep most of the money you're earning. Mr. Queen has talked about making me some sort of accountant because of it, though I believe that to be a joke."

"Lame! Lame lame lame!" Nora cried, walking backwards through the crosswalk so as to stare at Ren. "You're the one person I know who goes to a strip club and instead of watching hot babes, learns to FILE TAXES! Ughhh."

"I could learn how to be a... what's the term, mixologist?"

"Like remixing my songs so they're super fast and cool and awesome!?'

"No, like mixing drinks. A bartender." Ren gently persuaded Nora to the side, letting a few bikers pass. They kept walking, eventually approaching a lonely stretch of road with minimal lights. "I'd like to find something with–"

"Bright pink colors and loaded with sugar!?"

"Natural ingredients and full of vitamins and vegetables."

"A Bloody Mary? Does that count? The drinks you make for training taste AWFUL! So maybe you learning to make me a giant tub of martinis would be SWEET!"

"You know, a Bloody Mary might count, actually..."

"Who's that named for again?" Nora said, lazily swinging off a light pole. "Does that count for color naming? I'm hungry now, though I don't want any celery."

"I'm not sure. One may say that Mary can refer to red simply because of the association to blood and the drink. Though, it may be a pre-war holdover, as I'm not sure how long the drink has been referred to as such. Maybe it can be like red earth, as it is phonetically similar to Mars?"

"Boringgg. I wasn't expecting this to be a school night! It's the weekend!" Nora's arms hung down as she hunched over, giving the image of a brightly colored zombie, though not craving anything to do with brains. "I just did a sick dance in front of a bunch of people! Books don't teach that!"

Ren smiled once more, muscle memory tapping Nora's shoulder to stop her from running into a fence. "One can say there are textbooks that teach dances, though I imagine you'd be hard-pressed to find one that outlines a routine anything like yours."

"Oh, so I'm special now, aren't I?"

Ren closed his eyes and dodged a tree branch. "Yes, Nora, you are special. You fight monsters as a career, but you moonlight as an exotic dancer on the weekends."

"Do you always have to gloss over it like that? Bluh bluh exotic dancer bluh! Ren, I work at a strip club. So does the other female member of our team, and so does an absolute absurd amount of other Beacon girls, one of our teachers, and about a bajillion other girls from other schools! Half the people you know work there!"

"I'm aware. I just feel that, 'stripper,' carries a negative or perverted connotation."

"Says the lovebird who stares at Yang all day."

"Yang is a lovely woman, but I see her as a friend, nothing more. Now, hold on a moment..."

"So what do you think of me?" Nora went into serious mode. (Seemingly?) unbeknownst to Ren, the ginger was head over heels in love with him, but never had the courage to do anything about it. Throw herself into a giant scorpion? Yep. Fight a dozen Beowolves? Yeppers. Fight a terrifying nightmare horse man with stretchy arms? Oddly specific, but she'd do it in a heartbeat. Admitting her feelings for the friend she'd had since she was a child? Impossible. What she had just said had admittedly slipped out, but this was a golden opportunity to gauge Ren's feelings for her.

Nora waited patiently (for once) for Ren's answer to her slip, but heard nothing. Turning, she was half-relieved, half-devastated to see Ren behind her about twenty feet, ordering ice cream at a stall. Breathing a forlorn sigh, she graciously accepted/finished her three scoops in an instant. She had finally accidentally asked a very loaded question, but Ren hadn't heard. Life was just unfair. But she had also gotten ice cream, so she guessed it worked out.

Regardless of her internal struggle, Nora was still beyond interested at Ren's opinions of her. What if he was just as interested in her as she was to him!? What if he hated being around her!? What if he liked boys!?

Wait, no, those last two are stupid. Stoic as he is, Ren showed how much he loved being around her, plus she'd caught him peeking at a girl's skirt mishap at least twice when he thought she wasn't looking. He was stoic, but not unbreakable.

Still, Ren might be telling the truth about only going to her strip shows to make sure she didn't destroy everything. What if he didn't find her attractive!? What if she was too ugly!? What if– no, those are all stupid. Plus, there was a perfect way to actually check!

Nora remembered that the route she and Ren always took back home had a– there it is! Nora ran over to the park off the path they were taking, startling her friend and breaking his normally calm demeanor.

"Nora!"

"Wait!? I'm boreddd!"

"It's late. It's not the time to be playing in a park." Ren watched as Nora ignored him and continued on to climb up a brightly colored play structure. The late night sky dimmed the hues and saw no children beneath the moon. It was just darkness, Ren, and Nora.

"Bah, who says I'm playing!? I just want to have fun!"

"Nora, those usually refer to the same thing."

"Nah, I just haven't gotten all the dance outta me yet! And now I'm hyped up on chocolate!" Nora ascended to the top of the play structure, marching around while Ren looked up at her.

"I got you strawberry, raspberry, and sherbet because you like the colors. There was no chocolate in your ice cream."

"Details, details. I can say what I want when I'm queen of the castle!"

"It's late, we should be getting home."

"Nah, I think I'm gonna do another show. Imma be a Wonder-Flower!"

"I don't think that Mr. Queen has ever referred to you as such. The term used is a, 'Beacon Beauty,' though that's honestly not very indicative, considering the amount of non Beacon students he puts under the moniker. Rather short-sighted, honestly."

"WONDER-FLOWER!" Nora repeated, looking to the skies with a dramatic point.

"Also, this is a terrible idea. Do you really want to dance out here, in public?"

"Imma do a sexy strip tease just for you! Like, nobody else is out here, so it doesn't matter! Plus, so what if someone shows up? I can just charge them!"

"I don't think..." Ren trailed off. He knew this was a losing battle, as Nora had clearly decided that this was what Nora was going to do. Nothing short of a team of hunters would stop her from her goals, especially if she was this into it. "Very well. Continue." Ren found a nearby bench and sat down. "I'll stop you if I feel it's necessary."

Nora was about to explode. She was going to be able to do a (sorta) private strip show just for Ren! She'd finally be able to at least see a little of his interest! If he was at all attracted to her in a together-together kind of way, then he'd have to show it somehow! She'd finally have her answer!

Despite having done the same thing only a little while ago, Nora realized she had decided to strip down in front of Ren. The only difference between now and then was a lack of the rest of an audience. Ren was even in the audience of the last one! Now, she felt like she was making a mistake; shame overtook her for a moment, but her desire to see Ren's interest won out.

"Well! The queen of the castle has decided to put on a performance for her adoring fans!"

Ren clapped, slowly but genuinely.

"That's a good sign, right? Yep, that's a good sign!"

Realizing that a play structure was significantly different than a stage, Nora masked her fumbling by dancing towards a pole designed to slide down. Unlike most of her performances, she actually made an extra effort to do the sort of sexy dance that girls like Yang did; she always followed her own beat and ended up doing a sort of pop influence dance as opposed to a striptease, but this was different. Also unlike her normal performances, she was in a sundress; she got tired of putting on all of her gear after every performance, but Ren refused to let her out of the club until she was presentable, and something she could just pull over was the best compromise. Both her new dance and her classier-than-normal clothes actually mixed rather well, at least as she started with a seductive walk.

"OMG OMG OMG HE'S LOOKING!" Nora grabbed the top of the slide pole and took a second to mark out; Ren didn't usually pay too much attention to her performance in favor of handling her paperwork, but now, he was sitting and staring intently. She decided to reward him with a coy wink, extra flirty like other girls did up on stage. "I think I saw him wink back!" Nora thought, despite the fact that it was pretty dark out. She could clearly see Ren's pale skin, though, so the more she showed, the better!

Nora bounced off the pole and swung back onto the play structure, doing a nice twirl around in an uncharacteristic moment of finesse. Now pleased with herself for mimicking normal striptease behavior, Nora remembered, "THUNDER THIGHS!" and wrapped her legs around the pole, her dress complicating it slightly; were it not for her loud, luscious legs, she may not have been able to maintain her grip.

Using the sliding grip from her dress, the ginger slid down the pole while twirling, one arm outstretched while the other gripped the shaft. Nora was amazed by her own capability to both do a proper pole dance maneuver, and the fact that she could do it on a children's play structure. "I wonder if the guy who made this expected this sort of thing. If not, HEHEHEHEHEHE IMMA DO IT ANYWAY!"

Lightly touching the ground, Nora made an effort to push her butt out as she raised herself from the tanbark. Both accomplishing standing and flipping up her dress a bit, she quickly looked around for more of the structure to use. This whole thing was off the cuff, so she'd been flying by the seat of her dress. The pole was obvious, but she'd have to think fast and be creative; luckily, "I'M THE BEST AT BOTH OF THOSE THINGS!"

Looking to Ren and finding his quiet validation everything she needed, Nora bounced her shapely hips towards a series of separated platforms acting as staggered stairs from one side of the play structure to the other. Playfully, she hopped from one step to the next, giving a sexy pose each with each step. On the final step, she gave a quick flash of her panties; though she had started her Wonderland performances with what amounted to a sports bra and shorts, she'd gradually leveled up into more naughty nightwear, with lots of lace. The ones she had on now had bright pink flowers lining the hems, not unlike Ren's lotus symbol. Nora had planned that one. Stripper or not, her... heart belonged to one and one alone.

Now getting into the sexy mood as opposed to her usual bouncy performance, Nora hopped up the last step to the play structure and played with the bars lining the walls, playfully posing and flashing. Deciding to end her performance lest annoy her only audience member, she swung around the structure and found the slides.

"Oh, this is gonna be GREAT!"

Stopping at the top of the slides, Nora lowered her body, shaking her hips in a flirtatious way and mimicking the more normal girls of Wonderland. Her seduction dance complete, she ducked under the slide's top, and stood at the peak of it. As she pushed forward and began descending, she pulled her dress over her head, letting it saunter off into the darkness as she slid down.

"Aaand BOOM!" Nora smirked as she expertly hopped off the bottom of the slide onto the ground in front of Ren. "Totally nailed it!" For her last maneuver, she reached up, caught her falling dress, and dropped it delicately onto her audience's lap. Modeling her sexy and very telling underwear, she posed for her heartthrob. The night air stung her mostly bare skin, the wind cutting into everything not hidden by her bra and panties. Had she not been burning with arousal and hope, she... probably wouldn't have cared either way. "Like wind is gonna stop me!"

Ren clapped, breaking Nora's heart. It wasn't any different that when he clapped for anything else, meaning that she was just another performance and there was nothing there.

Still holding on to her last hopes, Nora looked Ren in the infuriatingly calm eyes and asked, "Sooooo, what did you think?" She beamed, hoping to earned extra points.

Holding out Nora's dress to her, Ren explained, "You were incredible. It was spontaneous and creative." Nora grabbed her dress, not happy with the nominal tone. "However, I don't think it was your best. I don't know why, but you looked forced; you weren't you."

Nora was dumbstruck. Dramatically flailing her arms, she blurted out, "Well, what the heck does that mean!?"

Ren shied away, looking off to the side. "Well, if I'm speaking frankly, you didn't look normal. Usually, when you're on stage– or doing anything, really– you always look happy and cheerful. The look on your face here made me think you were distracted. You also seemed to go out of your way to dance like the other girls; you shine the brightest when you do as you please, but you looked like you were trying to be someone you're not."

Nora was still dumbstruck as she pulled over her dress, hiding away her lotus panties. "So you DIDN'T like all my sexy moves!? I was trying really hard!"

"My point exactly. You don't have to try to be beautiful the way you do. You are your best when you are who you are."



"DID HE JUST CALL ME BEAUTIFUL!?" Nora was set to explode. No matter how much she wanted to press the issue further, she couldn't do anything to follow up on Ren's compliment. She wanted to ask him what he meant and if that meant he was attracted to her in a together-together kind of way, but no words came out. She was just sort of stammering.

"Oh, I forgot to eat my ice cream because I was so wrapped up in your performance." Ren looked to his ice cream cone, untouched but for one lick. "Well, I'd say you deserve it for that. Here." He handed Nora his ice cream.

Nora snatched the ice cream out of Ren's hand, suddenly dying from a lack of sweets. She noticed it was sherbet flavor, orange and pink. That was one of her favorite favors, mostly because it was pink and orange, but it was also one of Ren's least favorites, mostly because... "Wait, Ren doesn't even LIKE ice cream!" Nora came to a stunning conclusion.

"I think he does like me!"