hikkanade:
“It’s nothing new? Do you… collapse like this regularly?” Was he perhaps terminally ill? Kanade knew by now, that he most likely wouldn’t like to reveal as much about himself, but she couldn’t help but voice the questions that came up inside her mind anyway.
“Go… where? H-hey, this is my room, s-so… I don’t really have anywhere else to go…”
Her cheeks started to flush with the following silence. Wait! Was that why he refused to stay the night when she asked him before? Thinking of it like that, sharing her room with a boy her age probably was an idea she shouldn’t have proposed at their first meeting. But this was different now! Noah needed a place to rest and she didn’t mind lending him her bed.
With a last gentle touch, Kanade adjusted the blanket around him one more time so he’d at least stay warm.
“I noticed you don’t like talking about yourself, and that’s okay. In a way, I think we’re really similar regarding that… so I don’t mind it. But please tell me if there is anything I can do to help you. I could call a doctor if you think that would be necessary. But if you just need some rest, I um… I suppose I could go do my own stuff and leave you be for a while then. You just have to talk to me, so I can know.”
“That … That isn’t necessary. I’ll be better with some rest,” he mumbles out, hoping these words will appease her. Maybe they won’t, ever; he has a terrible habit of pushing others away. Yet when Kanade finally leaves his side, Noah shrinks further into the covers, squeezing his eyes shut with a pang of guilt.
In the darkness, he contemplates his thoughts and counts his faults until a wave of drowsiness takes him unawares. When he wakes again hours later, it is with a start.
At first, Noah thinks of himself at the altar of a forgotten temple again but then feels the plush blanket at his feet and sees the girl sleeping at a desk haloed by blue light. He is not at Lanox or Elrios, for that matter. No, he is still in the bed of someone who is practically a stranger.
He needs to leave.
In swift and soundless motions, Noah gathers himself and his belongings——thankful Kanade had the mind to bring them to her room——and plans his departure. He thinks of trying for the door but fears it might wake her. And there’s no telling if Add is home or awake, too. Neither would be a preferred encounter at this hour, so he turns toward his next and only option.
As he stealthily pads toward the windows, his gaze falls upon Kanade. She’s still fast asleep, and the boy watches the slow rise and fall of her shoulders for a moment too long. He catches himself blushing at her peace and chides himself for doing so. But it also blooms an idea in his mind.
Careful not to rouse Kanade, he pulls the blanket from the bed and drapes it around her, assuring she stays warm. It’s a final ‘thank you’ before Noah retreats through the space made in a window and into the night.












