Shatter Proof | Chapter 5
Pairing | Roommate!Noah Sebastian x GN!Reader (no physical descriptors given)
Warnings | YEARNING, fluff, flirting, roomies bickering but it's cute, reader has a nightmare about a car crash/noah's death (HE'S FINE!!!!), hurt/comfort, noah knowing you way too well, shirtless noah is a warning all on it's own arf arf, idiots in love, not beta read
Author's Note | okay so like when will it be my turn to be loved like this!!!!! so anyways!! i didn't think anyone cared about this story but apparently i was so very wrong, and that realization is making me so damn happy ;-; thank you for supporting and let me know if you wanna be tagged!
Disclaimer | this is a work of fiction about a real person, if this bothers you please don't read/interact!
In the shitty little apartment you shared with Noah, there was a truce to be had. And apologies to be said, eventually.
Wet shoes and damp jackets were shed, and yet still, despite everything you still made sure Noah put his goddamn shoes on the 'dirty shoe mat' by the door.
He huffed, brows scrunched in annoyance and disbelief, and still he obliged, if only to keep the peace. The front door didn't slam shut when he closed it this time, just a gentle click into place and the metallic shifting of the deadbolt into place.
Noah saw the clean dining table and felt that familiar warmth he'd come to recognize as you in his chest. "Y'cleaned up?" He asked, as if the answer wasn't an obvious and resounding, yes.
"No, I actually decorated your bed with your leftovers." You were quick, despite the emotional exhaustion that settled deep in your bones.
Noah blinked at you, hoping you weren't serious, but the deadpan of your tone make him second guess it.
It was the little quirk at the corner of your mouth that made him let go of the breath he was holding captive in his lungs.
"You're evil, y'know that?" He scoffed, arms traversing over his chest as he crossed them, hip popped a bit in annoyance.
"Oh yeah, I'm the evil one." You mumbled, leaning back against the counter, arms crossed as well.
"Yeah, you are. You steal my shirt," He began to count out on his fingers your transgressions against him. "Y'stole my jacket, which needs to be washed now because it's wet, my body wash, then you put my—"
"You stole my shampoo and my conditioner!" You countered with a quickness, waggling your finger in the air as if victory was in your clutches. "All while you have that god awful 3-in-1 that smells like oil filters and spark plugs! Could have used that! But noooo, you used my stuff."
Noah stared at you and blinked again, hands still on reason number four that you were evil.
"If it's so awful, why'd you use it, huh?" He asked, softer now, digging.
That made you pause, lips parted on words that choked you as you raised a brow to search for an answer inside your head, finding none.
He took a daring step closer, brow arched as he tilted his head, wet strands of his hair sticking to the side of his neck in a way that made you swallow.
"Because mine was empty, and I had no choice. Last resort."
Noah hummed out a sound that almost resembled a laugh, eyes narrowed more on you as he considered how else he could get under your skin. "Still, that doesn't change the fact that you took my shirt."
You looked down at it and how it clung to you in a comforting way, almost like a hug, even when slouched off of your shoulder.
"Mine now."
"Uh huh."
There was a beat, drawn out and quiet for a moment and the apartment complex settled, creaked like it always did, and you and Noah stared at one another in that silence.
You were still angry with him in some ways, and he with you. But there was something lighter in the air than there used to be. Odd. Maybe it wouldn't be there in the morning, but for right now, it felt like you could both breathe.
There were more jabs perched under your tongue, ready to strike if he felt like playing, but he rolled his eyes with a sigh, admitting defeat for now. And you reveled in your weak victory.
The hour was late and both of you ended the night in your own rooms after quick rinse off's, which Noah said you should do first since you were out in the rain longer. You didn't argue with him, finding that you wanted to feel the embrace of warm water on your skin, making sure though, to save some for him as well.
You laid in bed once in clothes that you felt most comfortable in. Another stolen shirt which had ended up in your closet completely by accident. You really should get separate hampers.
The blankets felt a little warmer tonight, a little softer, your pillow just a little more supportive. For once your eyes fluttered closed as you just listened to the world around you. Muffled conversations through thin walls, the rattle of pipes in the wall as Noah showered, the hiss of the water. Eventually you heard the sound of Noah going to his room as his bedsprings groaned under his weight, fuckin' giant.
The headboard shifted against the wall with a dull thud as he laid back, the two of you separated once again by the drywall between you.
You rolled over with a sigh as you nuzzled your face into the pillow, hugging the one that made you feel less alone in your bed and let sleep tug you ever closer.
Noah listened as you shifted, wondering if you were comfortable, wondering where the two of you stood now. He thought about how the night had gone, about how he came home to see you ready to chase after him when you thought he'd been the one in the wreck. What could you have done for him if he had crashed his car? How would you have reacted to him being...
He shook his head hard with a gasp, eyes shutting tight to push that image out of his head. No, he didn't want to think about that.
His tattooed hands gripped his blanket a little tighter, knuckles cracking slightly with the effort as he tried to conjure a different image into his head to fall asleep to. Images flicked through like a slide show as he breathed slower and slower, until he settled on the last one that crossed his mind.
Your bare shoulder, the collar of his worn out shirt resting low enough to see your collar bone and the expanse of your throat. The whiff of his body wash lingering on your skin when you walked past him now flooding his senses. The thought alone made his Adam's apple bob in his throat, lips parted in relaxation as he breathed out a breath that shuddered just a little.
Sleep took him, too, easier than it had in months when you were in the forefront of his mind.
In the middle of the night, you sat up with a sudden gasp, heart jump started like it had been shocked back to life. Your eyes were wide as they scanned the dark of your room, only slightly illuminated by the light that slipped in through the edges of the curtain on your window.
Your heart was hammering so loud it was the only thing you could hear over your own heaving breaths. Your hand clutched at your chest, fingers digging into the worn fabric of Noah's shirt as you willed yourself to try and breathe through your nose on the inhale, out through the mouth on the exhale.
The static under your skin of numb limbs faded little by little, but the dream of twisted metal and a car horn that didn't stop its droning lingered in your mind. The sight of a bloodied face laid against a broken steering wheel, dull brown eyes, and tattooed hands that laid limp was downright horrifying. You had to get up, had to move, had to get some fucking water.
And yet instead of turning down the hall towards the kitchen, you lingered outside of Noah's door.
Your heart still hammered, your skin still crawled, and when you lifted your hand to knock you hesitated. Should you bother him if he was asleep? He struggled just as much as you when it came to resting. There was just that part of you that needed to see him, that needed to make sure it was just a fucking dream. That your stupid roommate was still there, on the other side of the wall.
Before you could truly pluck up your courage, or maybe even as you did, the door opened and pulled away from your knuckle before you could make contact.
Noah stood there on the other side of it, hair a mess, shirtless and just in his boxers.
It took a moment for his visage to register in your mind, and your eyes wandered down the expanse of skin presented to you before your eyes flicked up to meet his gaze and your own eyes widened.
"Jesus!" You sputtered out before looking away to preserve the modesty he didn't seem to care about. "Put a fuckin' shirt on!"
You'd never actually seen many of the tattoos he'd had hidden beneath his clothes before, as he was decent when he walked around the shared apartment. But in the comfort of his own room, behind a locked door? He did not bother with such things.
Noah's tired eyes raked over you, your flushed cheeks, and the way you did the same to him before you looked away. He scoffed out a dry, sleepy chuckle in a way that made the heat upon your cheeks feel like wild fire.
"Hand it over then." He said, his hand held out, palm up and long fingers beckoning for you to give him his shirt.
"Noah!" You hissed, slapping his hand away with a quickness, the flush somehow deeper, and to the point of discomfort.
He just stood there with a grin and an arched brow. Victory. He'd let you win in the kitchen, and you'd just lost miserably at his door.
But it begged the question, how had he known you were about to knock?
He heard you wake up.
He heard the gasp and sudden shifting through the thin walls, and it shook him awake. He heard the familiar, panicked padding of your feet against the floor and knew how many steps it took for you to get to the kitchen for your three am water. And knew that you had barely made it one step out of your room before you paused.
"Just... forget it." You mumbled, looking down at the dull wood floor beneath you. "Sorry, go back to sleep." A quick pivot was your only escape from him and all of the exposed skin and ink before you. However, the warmth of his fingers curling gently around your elbow made you pause half facing away from him, your free hand already reaching for your doorknob.
"Hey. Look at me."
His voice was a gentle command, something solid like a foundation to stand on. Stable, unmoving.
It took every bone in your body to do what he asked, to move your head and tip it back to look up at him when he towered over you. It made your throat run dry in an instant to have those dark eyes on you, peering into you like you were an open book he was dying to read.
There was almost a comforting silence when your eyes met his, it was warm in the light of his gaze... at first. Then it felt like it was burning you alive with the heat that came with it, like being to close to an open flame that you couldn't pull away from. His hand didn't let your elbow go either, not yet.
You couldn't find the words when he looked at you like that, your mouth parted dumbly as you tried to formulate a single thought. Even so much as licked your dry lips to attempt to reset yourself, to no avail.
Your breaths felt manual, your chest rising and falling with an actual effort that freaked you out almost much as the nightmare had.
He didn't push, didn't pry, instead he waited for you. He allowed you the space to speak first. A soft brush from his thumb along the knobs of your elbow made goosebumps create a wake across your skin from shoulders to thighs and the sensation made you shiver, a soft gasp leaving you that you thought was imperceptible, but he heard it, and felt it in how your body reacted to him.
"I had a... nightmare." You finally spoke, voice shaky at best like a newborn foal. "You were— the car and the... the sirens. There was so much blood." The crack of your voice, the undeniable shake of it felt like a single pane window in a tornado.
Noah understood without need for any more explanation. It was the same fear that drove you to leave the house to chase him down. It simply manifested while you slept, and gave you the grisly details as your mind processed what could have happened.
Slowly hid hand shifted from your elbow to your wrist, fingertips trailing so slowly but with purpose as he lifted your hand to his chest and pressed it over his heart.
You felt the jumping of his pulse, strong and steady behind his ribs, beneath tattooed skin. Idly, your thumb swept along the ink and felt the raised lines where it scarred, and in that moment you felt a skip, or a harder thud beneath your hand. Just a single beat that seemed out of place.
The sear of your hand against his chest was enough for Noah to bite back a gasp. He wasn't sure what he was thinking when he made you touch his chest, but he simultaneously regretted it... and wanted it more than ever to remain.
"See? M'right here."
You blinked up at him, searching his face for a moment before you allowed your eyes to look down at how he held your hand against his chest, his fingers half laced with yours.
"I'm not goin' anywhere." His voice soft and almost airy in your ears, filled with the rasp of sleep that slipped away.
Slowly, you allowed your gaze to skim along his collar bones, the curve of his shoulders and the solid lean muscle of his biceps. Your fingers just barely ghosted against the edge of a heavy silver chain that hung around his neck, the metal cold against your warm fingertips. The rise and fall of his chest steady, certain.
Noah was not above stealing another look at you, hair tousled from sleep, cheeks dark with heat, legs bare from only wearing his shirt. He was not immune to the temptation of skin against his, and feeling your hand rest against his chest made him dizzy, intoxicated him even.
"Can you promise me something?" Somehow, you'd found a way to breathe out the words without thinking.
"Anything."
"Don't ever leave angry again. Promise me, Noah."
It was Noah's turn for his throat to dry out as his words died on his tongue. Your gaze met his once again and he felt like the floor fell out from beneath him and he was in free fall. It took him a moment to find the words, but he nodded first.
"I promise." He breathed.
"And I'm sorry."
"Me too."
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