An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
This week’s theme is non-evak-centric fics. Today’s post is by Sarah. If you like this fic, please consider leaving it a comment/kudos!
tonight is the night we might fall together - boos / @peterbenjaminparker (Noora/Eva; 5k words)
She doesn’t mean to, but Eva falls asleep with her arms wrapped around Noora’s waist. She’s breathing softly and is so close to Noora that it almost seems suffocating, but less like someone’s squeezing Noora’s heart in order to break it and more like someone’s just trying to hug it hard enough to help her remember what it’s like to be loved.
Excellent Noora voice that manages to convey all of her complexities, both her strength and her vulnerabilities, in a deft, not heavy-handed way
Beautiful, well-paced writing style; realizations and character development unfold quietly, but naturally
Includes one of my favorite Noora/Isak interactions I’ve read in fandom; poignant but heartwarming at once
Noora/Eva relationship is incredibly well done! The payoff is ridiculously sweet and wonderful
Which, it turns out, Noora does love her. This is something she realizes in the middle of the night when Eva is snoring softly next to her and Noora looks at her face and thinks, oh. In that moment, this realization is easy. This realization is as easy as remembering to breathe.
In the morning, it’s harder to swallow. They make breakfast together, with Noora in Eva’s borrowed clothes. She makes small talk with Eva’s mom, teaches Eva how to make a croque de monsieur, and it’s hard, because this all seems like something a girlfriend would do. As if Noora needed more reminding that she obviously does not play that role in Eva’s life.
In the end, though, it’s more important for Noora to be by her side than for her not to be, so she stays. She stays, and it hurts in a different way than anything has ever felt before, but she’s lost a lot of things in her life and she won’t lose this.
