Dec 26, 2022
saw this and immediately thought of youngblood and noise
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saw this and immediately thought of youngblood and noise
Midnight Promises
Summary: In which Youngblood makes one he can’t keep.
Author’s Note: Thanks for giving me this idea @hit-or-mish <3
...
It’s late at night when a guard knocks on Youngblood’s door, but he isn’t sleeping. He’s poring over documents and paperwork and trying to hold his eyes open long enough to finish. Of all the worst parts about being first chair, the paperwork and lack of sleep are nearly at the top. Youngblood can only think of one part he dislikes more.
The lamp lighting the pages is giving him a headache at this point, and his eyes are pulsing behind his skull. He squeezes his eyes shut and rubs at the bridge of his nose. The Bard King expects so much, all the time, and he can’t—
Youngblood breathes out a slow breath and rests his forehead in his hands. What he wouldn’t give for Noise to show up and drag him away from work. They have a way of making everything seem okay, even if just for a little while.
But that’s the worst part of being first chair. He never gets to see his best friend anymore. He’s always busy and Noise is always doing something else, since second chair isn’t exactly an easy job either. Even when Noise is doing nothing else Youngblood usually isn’t allowed to bring him along.
He thinks back to their student days, when Noise would barge into Youngblood’s room and exclaim that they’re working too much and so they’re both taking a break right now. It’s been way too long since that happened.
How long has it been since he’s seen Noise anyway? It feels like months.
A knock on his door pulls him from his thoughts, which granted, aren’t very productive right now anyway.
Still, Youngblood groans and glances down at the paperwork he was about three quarters of the way done with. He mourns the loss of the three hours of sleep he had almost been able to have, then climbs up and walks over to the door, takes a deep breath, and opens it.
“Apologies for the intrusion, Youngblood,” the guard on the other side says, looking very much like he does not want to be there.
“It’s alright,” Youngblood says, though he’s sure his exhaustion comes through in his own voice too. “What’s going on?”
He expects the guard to give him some other form of paperwork, or tell him something that’s needed of him immediately. He does not expect the guard to hesitantly say, “It’s about Noise.”
Youngblood shoves down the spark of ‘friend!’ that comes with hearing about Noise, rubs his eyes, and asks, “What about Noise?”
“He’s listed you as his emergency contact if someone needs to—”
“Wait, they’re hurt?” Youngblood exclaims, immediately lurching upright.
“Yes, that’s why I’m here—”
“Where?”
The guard sighs, seeming irritated mostly because of exhaustion, but irritated nonetheless. “Come with me.”
Youngblood grabs a jacket that he keeps near the door and his set of keys on the hook next to it, and nearly slams the door shut on his way out. He looks to the guard, who is supposed to be moving already, why isn’t he?
The guard sighs, sounding weary, and gestures with his head down the hallway, heading off past Noise’s room, in a direction Youngblood hasn’t been in before.
“Look,” the guard says as they walk. Youngblood is barely paying attention, just looking ahead of them for any kind of sign as to where they’re going.
“Hey,” the guard says firmly, and Youngblood turns.
“What? I’m a little preoccupied now,” he hisses, trying to avoid waking the people around them even as he needs to get his anger across.
“Yeah, and I’m not saying that isn’t sweet, but you need to be careful,” the guard says, crossing his arms. “There’s a reason you’re already not allowed near each other most of the time.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m just saying I’d be more careful about letting on to the Bard King that you’re this attached to each other,” the guard says, looking around as if someone is watching them. “You’re not exactly being subtle.”
“What— what are you talking about?” Youngblood asks again in bafflement.
The guard just sighs, shakes his head, and keeps walking.
Youngblood is about to ask again, but a second later the guard turns to the side and pushes open a door that spills light out into the hallway. As soon as it’s opened Noise’s voice can be heard from inside, and Youngblood immediately moves forward and in through the door.
“Noise? Noise!”
Noise is lying on a table near the back of what appears to be a medbay, with a doctor looking over him. Youngblood feels his heart rush into his throat, and moves forward as close as he can to Noise’s bed, stopping just behind the doctor.
He’s apparently close enough for Noise to see him, though, because they glance up and their face brightens. “Youngblood!” they call happily, reaching out and making grabby hands at him. “I missed you!”
Youngblood swallows, and reaches weakly forward until Noise grabs onto his hand. “Noise, what— what happened?”
“He says he was attacked by a monster,” the doctor says, and Youngblood glances over at her. “He’s not in great shape, so he’s on painkillers. He might be a little… out of it.”
“Youngblood, come cuddle me!” Noise calls, making more grabby hands.
“What— what do you mean he was attacked by a monster?” Youngblood asks. “What mission was he on?”
“Actually, that part’s rather confusing,” the doctor says, turning to face Youngblood and pushing her glasses up her nose. “They weren’t on a dangerous mission, they were apparently just supposed to be dropping off some supplies. And they’ve been too in pain or too out of it to explain what really happened.”
“But,” Youngblood shakes his head, “That doesn’t make any sense.”
The doctor shrugs helplessly and turns back to start looking at Noise again.
Noise, for their part, continues to reach for Youngblood and whine about wanting cuddles, to the point that Youngblood steps forward slightly further and lets Noise grab onto his hand and cuddle it to their chest.
Youngblood blows a slow breath out of his mouth and turns, rubbing his forehead and trying to think of anything that could have happened.
His gaze lands on the guard from before, who has a knowing look on his face. Youngblood looks at him for a moment, and takes in the grave expression. The guard seems to take that as a question, because he nods. And despite not having asked a question, Youngblood understands the answer.
“Youngblood,” Noise whines, drawing Youngblood’s attention back to him.
Youngblood swallows. “Hi Noise.”
Noise beams back at him. “Come here,” they say, making grabby hands again. “I miss you. I never see you anymore and it makes me sad, Youngblood. You’re making me sad and I don’t like it.”
Youngblood takes a shaky breath. “Sorry, Noise,” he says. “I— give me a minute, okay?”
“Nooo,” Noise cries, but Youngblood pulls his hand away and walks over to the guard.
“Are you saying—” Youngblood starts.
“Shh,” the guard hisses. “Don’t say it out loud. All I’m saying is you should be more careful.”
“I—” Youngblood squeezes his eyes shut and takes a deep breath. He has too much to think about and he’s not in the greatest situation to do it, not while Noise is hurt behind him and yelling out that Youngblood should get back there and cuddle them.
Finally, Youngblood looks back at the guard. “I appreciate that,” he says. “But I’m okay. We’re okay. I can protect Noise if he needs it, and I’m sure he can do the same for me. And I’ll never let anything else hurt him.”
The guard looks at Youngblood in silence for a moment, then sighs. “Okay,” he says. “Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.”
With that, he turns and leaves.
Youngblood watches him go for a moment, then turns around to head back towards Noise. The doctor turns to face him as he does.
“They’ll be okay,” she says. “They just need to rest. They’ll probably need to be looked after for a couple of days, if you know someone who can do that.”
“He can stay with me,” Youngblood says quietly. “And… thank you.”
The doctor smiles a little and turns to head back towards the other side of the room.
Youngblood turns to look down at Noise, who’s blinking up at him like they’re amazed by what they’re seeing, and clearly still very out of it.
“Hey,” Youngblood says, smiling weakly. “How you holdin’ up?”
“Not as good as I would be with cuddles,” Noise says, like it’s a fact of life.
Youngblood laughs a little. “Okay,” he says, and pulls the cover back, being mindful of Noise’s bandaged stomach would. He wraps his arms gently around Noise, who makes a happy little sound and rests their head under Youngblood’s chin.
“Ow, Noise, your horns,” Youngblood says with a wince.
“I love you too,” Noise says happily, which means nothing because he’s high on painkillers and Youngblood can’t take one more thing right now.
So instead, he shifts so Noise’s horns aren’t poking him so much and pulls the blankets back over them both. Noise gives a happy little sigh and closes their eyes, falling asleep almost immediately against Youngblood’s chest.
Youngblood presses his forehead against Noise’s and takes a shaky breath.
“It’s going to be alright,” he murmurs, quietly so as not to wake Noise. “I’ll take care of you, and you’re going to be okay. I’ll make sure of it.” He leans forward one more time and gently kisses Noise on the first horn he reaches.
“I promise.”
Shirts Are Stupid
Summary: Someone apparently neglected to mention to the tailor that Noise has horns.
Author’s Note: Thanks to @remus-of-reston for the idea for this one!
...
Out of all of the reasons to be late to a dinner, Youngblood is pretty sure this has got to be up there with the most stupid.
“What did you do?”
“I was just trying to put it on!” Noise exclaims, voice muffled from inside the shirt. “I don’t think the people they sent the order out to realized that I have horns!”
“Oh for fucks sake,” Youngblood groans, trying to poke around the shirt to find where anything is. “Where even are your horns?”
“In the sleeve,” Noise says, turning in a way that is not helpful in the slightest.
“Stop, okay don’t— stop moving!”
“What do you want me to do then?”
“Nothing! Just stand still and—”
The loud rip is easily heard by both of them, and they both freeze.
“Where is it?” Noise asks.
“I don’t know, just—”
“Do you have any idea how much this shirt cost?”
“Do you have any idea?”
“No, but it was probably a lot!”
“Okay well don’t make it worse! Just— just hold still!”
Youngblood moves around Noise’s other side and looks for the tear, and unfortunately finds one of his horns poking through the back of the shirt in a way they are definitely not going to be able to fix in time.
“Fuck.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t move.”
Youngblood moves forward and pulls the shirt forward from the horn, then pulls it up, being mindful of the other horn as he gets the shirt off.
“Okay,” Youngblood says, very intentionally looking away from Noise’s back, which has never been displeasing to look at, but they don’t have time to get distracted right now. “You’re going to have to get another shirt, Noise.”
Noise scoffs, and walks over to take the shirt from Youngblood’s hands to look at the damage, which now unfortunately means Youngblood is looking at their bare chest, which isn’t exactly less distracting.
Noise groans and tosses the shirt aside. “Great. They go through all the trouble of ordering everyone new shirts for this stupid dinner, and no one takes horns into account.”
“Sorry Noise,” Youngblood says, looking very intentionally towards the dresser. “You’re just going to have to get one of your nicer shirts.”
“Yeah, alright,” Noise sighs.
The next second, however, they both move for the dresser at the same time and end up nearly walking into each other.
Noise blinks at Youngblood a couple times, and the obvious tension of the moment seems to process for them too, because they start smiling up at him. “Like what you see then?”
“We’re late,” Youngblood says, reaching into Noise’s drawer and pulling out a shirt that he shoves against Noise’s chest.
Noise grins. “We can be a little later, if you want.”
“That’s a bad idea.”
“Sorry, I can’t hear you,” Noise says, leaning closer.
“Noise—”
“Your pretty face is distracting me.”
“You’re an asshole,” Youngblood says.
“Aw, but you love me.”
Instead of responding, Youngblood grabs Noise by the waist and hoists them up into a kiss.
Injuries and Idiocy
Summary: Noise is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Besides, it's just a little stomach wound. It's not that bad.
...
Well, Noise isn’t going to say that was very fun.
The monster had been big, and there had been several times Noise wasn’t sure they were all going to make it. They don’t even manage to kill it in the end, just knock it unconscious and run for their lives.
But they do all make it away, and minus a nasty stomach wound Noise is going to have to deal with pretty quickly, they do so without being hurt.
As soon as they’re sure they’re safe, all three of them take a minute to breathe.
Roman is the first to laugh. “Let’s do that again.”
“No,” Youngblood says in exasperation, at the same time Noise groans “No,” and clutches his stomach.
“Noise?” Roman asks, seeming to notice that. “Wait, are you hurt?”
“It got me in the stomach a little bit,” Noise admits, waving Roman off. “I’ll be okay. I’d just like to get to a place I can treat it.”
“Are you sure?” Youngblood asks, looking concerned at them.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Noise says, hoping how badly he wants to get going so he can treat himself doesn’t come across. “Really I just want to find a place to rest.”
“Well we can both agree on that,” Roman says, as he stands up and stretches. “I have no idea where the closest town is, do either of you have any ideas?”
“There’s one a couple hours that way,” Noise says, pointing in the direction of the sunset. They can already imagine how exhausted they’ll be after having to walk all the way there and then treat a bad stomach wound before they can sleep, but there’s not much they can do about it.
“Alright,” Youngblood says, sounding just as exhausted by the idea. He pushes himself off of the tree he’s leaning against and pulls his bag over his shoulder. “Well, we’re not gaining light.”
“Yeah, we probably should get going,” Roman says, picking up his own bag. “I don’t want to be out here too long after dark, especially when that thing wakes up again.”
Noise looks down at his own bag, braces himself, and picks it up. Immediately the wound in his stomach protests. He tells it to shut up.
They’re all still pretty exhausted, so it’s slower going as they start towards the town. Noise is trying very hard not to focus on their stomach, but it’s not very happy with them. It wants to rest and get cleaned and wrapped in tight bandages, and all Noise can offer is putting a weak amount of pressure on it with their hand as they walk.
He isn’t sure if he can make it all the way to the town. Unfortunately, he also isn’t sure what other options he has.
Roman and Youngblood seem to mostly recover before long, and start talking and joking up in front of Noise, but he’s finding it increasingly difficult to focus on anything the two of them are saying.
This makes it a bit of a problem when Roman turns around with a grin and says “Am I right, Noise?”
Youngblood turns around with a look of exasperation, meaning Roman was probably making fun of him.
Noise blinks. “What?”
Youngblood’s look of exasperation turns very quickly into concern. “Noise, what’s wrong,” he says, stepping forward.
“Nothing, I’m fine,” Noise says, trying to blink off the fuzziness that is suddenly invading the world around them.
“Noise?” Roman says, stepping forward too and sounding very worried.
“I—” Noise says.
“Noise, your stomach,” Roman says, sounding scared all of a sudden, and Noise looks down to see a patch of red growing underneath his hand.
“Oh,” Noise says, taking their hand off and finding it bright red.
Noise looks up at Youngblood and Roman, who are both staring at them in horror.
“I think I need to sit down for a minute,” Noise says. And then he starts tipping forward.
“Noise!” someone screams, and the last thing Noise feels before blacking out is a pair of arms catching them.
…
Noise wakes up on a soft surface to hushed voices and the overwhelming desire to go back to sleep.
Unfortunately, before he can do that the pain in his stomach returns full force and he groans, curling into a ball.
“Noise?” comes a familiar voice, and a second later someone is brushing their bangs back on their forehead.
Noise forces his eye open to see Youngblood hovering over him, showing a surprising amount of obvious worry. They seem to be inside, as Noise can see a ceiling behind Youngblood, and the thing he’s laying on feels like a bed.
“Wh’ happen’d?” Noise mumbles, trying to move.
“Hey, no no, don’t sit up,” comes another familiar voice, and Noise looks over to their right to see Roman sitting on their other side. “You’re hurt, Noise.”
Noise blinks a couple times. “What, you mean the monster?” he asks.
“Yes, the monster,” Youngblood snaps, crossing his arms. He still looks more worried than angry, though. “What were you thinking, you idiot? Why didn’t you tell us you were hurt that badly?”
Noise gives him a confused look. “Wasn’t that bad.”
“Wasn’t that— Noise, you collapsed.”
Noise rolls their eye. “I’ve been through worse than that,” they say, and then they yawn. “Mm, I’m sleepy. I’m gonna go back to bed.”
“Wait, Noise—”
…
Noise feels a little more lucid when he wakes up the second time, though unfortunately that means the pain is worse. He starts to curl around his stomach again, only to this time be met with resistance.
Noise blinks their eye open to see Youngblood laying on the bed next to them. As Noise moves, however, Youngblood shifts too, and suddenly Noise finds himself looking right into Youngblood’s open eyes from less than a foot away.
“You feeling better?” Youngblood asks.
Noise thinks back, trying to locate the memory of what happened.
Oh fuck, he really did pass out in front of them didn’t he? How embarrassing.
They look away slightly as their cheeks heat up, and nod.
“Good,” Youngblood says. He sits up and glares down at Noise, who shrinks back.
“Now maybe you can tell me what the hell you were thinking.”
Noise winces. “Where’s Roman?”
“Out getting food. You don’t get a good cop. What the fuck was that, Noise?”
“It was just a scratch,” Noise grumbles, looking away.
“You collapsed.”
Noise winces again. “Sorry.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? Noise, we were worried sick. What if you’d died, moron?”
Noise scoffs. “I’m not going to die from a little monster scratch. I’ve been through worse than that alone.”
There’s a long pause, to the point that eventually Noise looks over again to find Youngblood rubbing at the bridge of his nose.
“…What?” he asks hesitantly.
“Okay,” Youngblood says, turning to face Noise again. “I’m not going to lie and say I don’t get that. I was on my own for a long time too. But here’s the thing. Then I met Roman. And after that, if I got hurt, I let him help. And I helped him if he got hurt. That’s the kind of thing you do when you’re traveling with other people, Noise.”
Noise scowls. “I don’t need your help.”
“Needing help isn’t a bad thing, idiot. I know you know that. We helped each other all the time when we were at the Bard College together.”
“Yeah, and then you left,” Noise snaps. “And no one believed I could do a single damn thing by myself. I had to prove them wrong, obviously!”
“Says who? They’re assholes. Why do you care about their good opinion?”
Noise glares down at the blanket stretched over the both of them. “Well obviously I didn’t have yours anymore.”
There’s a moment of silence, and then Youngblood sighs. “Idiot.”
He reaches over and pulls Noise to his side, and Noise glares over at the wall but doesn’t pull away.
“Do you really care that much about what I think about you?” Youngblood murmurs.
Noise rolls his eye. “No, of course not. You’re just the only person who ever believed in me, why would that be important to me?”
There’s another moment of quiet, and then Youngblood reaches over and gently moves Noise’s face to look at him again.
“I still believe in you, idiot,” he says.
Noise looks down.
“Hey, I mean it. You’re perfectly capable, and there’s no one else I’d rather have my back in a fight. But you don’t have to be capable of everything to be strong. You definitely don’t have to be capable of walking hours to a town and not speaking up when you’re badly injured. I don’t want you to be capable of that. It scares me when you try to be.”
Noise doesn’t say anything. After a moment, they lean forward into Youngblood’s chest, and Youngblood wraps his arms around them.
“I just,” Noise mumbles. “I just wanted to be respected. None of them ever treated me like I mattered.”
“They’re pricks and I’ll kill them all,” Youngblood says, tightening his grip.
Noise laughs wetly. “Please don’t kill anyone.”
“I won’t really.”
“Yes you would.”
“Okay yes I would, but only if you asked.”
Noise presses his head further against Youngblood’s chest. After a minute, Youngblood kisses the top of one of his horns.
“Noise?” Youngblood whispers after a second.
“Yeah?” Noise whispers back.
“Don’t do that again please?”
“…okay.”
Youngblood gives a relieved sigh and squeezes them a little tighter, which is when Noise realizes how bad they actually scared him.
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs.
“It’s okay.”
Another second passes, and Noise almost doesn’t want to breathe. This moment feels fragile, like the slightest thing would shatter it.
So, of course, the next second the door bangs open, and Youngblood and Noise both cry out in surprise and scramble apart.
“I’ve come back with bread!” Roman proclaims loudly.
Youngblood sighs. “Of course you have bread.”
“Well, yeah, it’s my favorite— Noise!” Roman calls happily, dropping the bread on the other bed across the room and rushing over. “You’re awake! Are you okay? You’re not going to do that again, are you?”
“No, I’m not,” Noise says with a small smile. “I’ve been too firmly scolded.”
“Good,” Roman says, leaning forward and wrapping his arms tightly around Noise. Noise melts a little in his grasp. Roman gives amazing hugs. It’s the arms, most definitely.
“In that case,” Roman says, pulling back too soon but with a warm smile still on his face. “We shall feast on Burgundy Red’s!”
“You’re never going to get tired of that place, are you?” Youngblood mumbles as Roman moves over to grab them.
“Of course not! How could you even suggest such a thing?”
Youngblood sighs, and Noise laughs a little, settling into the warm feeling that’s overtaken the room.
They’ll blame it on the oven-fresh bread.
thinking about firey melody as tessa virtue and scott moir’s moulin rouge performance from the 2018 olympics again,,,
i did a thing
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