Well, Isn't This Something?

Well Isn't This Something?
(A Final Fantasy XIII-2 Story)
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Summary: Noel and Serah begin to change and grown, and they learn how wonderful that can be.
Pairings: NoelxSerah, one-sided NoelxYeul, YeulxCaius, SerahxSnow
Words: 14,339
Rating: T
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Noel told the best stories. Most could barely dip the tips of their tongues in the silver pools of storytelling, but Noel was different. He was one of the few that could lap up the water of the art and let it stain his tongue, wet his mouth, and sweeten his voice. Noel bathed in that pool too, for his actions were nothing short of a man with talent. His bones were bleached, and his skin was saturated with that gift of storytelling. Poets envied his words, and singers lusted for his voice.

Yeul first discovered Noel's gift when she found him one night, alone, singing softly to himself. Yeul couldn't fathom why he hadn't told her about his talent; why he had to hide his secret passion from her, of all people.

She knew how he felt. She was no blind fool. She knew why he kept some distance and why he never said a word about his feelings. It was Caius. Noel respected Caius' happiness more than his own. Noel was selfless enough to be that way. He never wanted to cause problems, perhaps out of selflessness or respect or care or maybe fear of being left all alone again. It could have been all of those things. Noel was kind to everyone, but he shared a special kindness to Yeul in secret ways that maybe Caius didn't pick up on.

They were best friends, Yeul and Noel. Their relationship was safeguarded from ruination because of Noel's respectful ways.

So she was surprised to find that Noel didn't share his talent with her. When she found Noel, he was singing a low ballad. It was melancholy in a way, made more so by Noel's honeyed and low voice and sent her whole body reverberating, like her veins were the strings of a harp, and Noel's voice was to be the hands that plucked them.

Yeul hid behind a tree, partly because she didn't want to intrude, but partly also because she wanted to steal this precious little interlude and keep it for herself, not even sharing it with Noel himself. When the song had come to its end, Noel smiled and looked up at the half-eaten, eternal moon that was sliced and bled forever, staining it's white self an orangey color. "What did you think, Yeul? Any good?" Noel's voice rang out into the perpetual night.

Yeul jumped from being caught, and shyly slid out into the open. "It was nice," she said in the quiet way she always did.

Noel nodded, but did not look at her. So, she spoke again. "Why did you not tell me you could do that?"

"What? Sing?" He sounded amused at her blue-rose amazement. "I've always done that. I tell stories too. I did it all the time for my younger brothers and sisters. I was the oldest, so I helped out as much as I could with them. Sometimes, I was a brother, a best friend, a father, a mother, and an entertainer when I needed to be." As he speaks, he keeps his steel-wall composure, but Yeul can see that it pains him greatly to speak of his family, of his past. He feels as if he let everyone down. Yeul also sees that it makes him strong.

"You have never let me down, Noel." She states in her Yeul-like way that can make opinions facts and lies truths.

He bows his head lightly, in defeat. A sad smile plays on his lips. "Are you sure?" He asks because he knows she knows, and even that feels like he's letting her down. He feels like he's being weak.

"I am." And that's that.

A pause in the conversation commences, but only briefly. "Why," Noel starts, "were you out here Yeul? It's too dangerous to be walking alone. Where's Caius?"

"I was looking for you. I wanted to give you something. Caius had to take care of something. He left me with you because you are more than capable of protecting me." She lets her hand rummage absently in her bag made of behemoth leather as she speaks. "He said he will be back in short order."

"Are you worried?"

"No." Yeul finally pulls something silver out of her bag. "He is Caius. Here." She extends the hand that's holding the object out to Noel. "It's a  silver locket." The locket had a strong chain, and was lighter than it looked. It had a clockwork engraving on the lid. Noel took it from her lily-pale hands gently.

"Thank you, Yeul, but why...?" He put it on, and found its weight to be comforting.

"It is empty," she states, ignoring his question, "but I have something to put in it." Her hands snake up to open the thing, and she fumbles with it for a second before popping it open. Yeul presses the silver metal against her lips and closes it quickly.

Noel has no words for this, and he simply stands there dumbfounded. "Yeul," was the most he could manage.

"Keep the locket closed. You will have my kiss, part of me, with you always." This was the most of herself Yeul could offer him. "Only open it if," she stops, unsure of how she wants to continue. She doesn't want to give him up, but she loves Caius, and always will, so this must be said, "if you are done with me. Until you no longer want me," she blushes, and that is very un-Yeul.

Noel wonders if he's fallne into a dream. He's lost count after all of them. They are a cruel parade of false hopes and weaknesses. Half of him wishes they would stop, but the other half wants her, and it will take what it can get, even if it's only lies. "I'll keep it safe."

"I do not doubt that, Noel." She breathes. "Now then, I have given you a gift, and as custom dictates, you are to give me one in return."

"I," Noel says, "I have nothing to give, Yeul. You know that I would if I did," he trails.

"Tell me stories." Yeul wants to hear stories from Noel forever. She knows she'd only have to ask, and he would comply. In some ways, he is wrapped around her finger. "And sing me your songs. I want to hear them, please." She smiles.

"As you wish." Noel thinks for a moment. "Do you have any requests?"

"What is your favorite?"

"Ah, that would be..."

Yeul watches and listens better than anyone ever had. She soaked up his words like they were precious life, like they were the ambrosia of the goddess. She watched his mouth move gracefully, in a bardic dance that kept her enchanted.

Despite her eternal devotion to Caius, despite her absolute faithfulness to Caius, she let herself wonder just how that poets' talent tasted in his mouth.

It was something she would always wonder and never know because she will never stop wanting only Caius, and Noel will find another.

~*~

Serah was a princess with bones made of glass. Snow was her hero that left her in ignorance and dreams, as if she were fated to sleep there and wait for him to plant his kiss and wake her up.

It worries the Serah of the present to think back on how the Serah of 003AF was. She would have just waited there for Snow until the end of days. She would have been patient and faithful, waiting for her hero who thought he was still in love with her when he wasn't. Serah could tell because he had taken a path that led him miles away from her, and she had grown. She's not stupid. She can tell, and it's not like it even breaks her heart because she stopped being in love with him, and just loved him like someone very important to her.

When she thinks about Snow's arms around her, holding her like he used to, she finds that the  images in her mind just slip and crumble away. It's like she's looking at their past selves through a shattered mirror's shards. It's an abstract idea anymore, her and Snow together. It's even more obscure to think of them married. This is strange to Serah because, a few years ago, all she would have wanted was to be with him and her sister. It is strange to dissect herself anymore, but it is also a relief because she doesn't feel so much like a burden or a weak princess anymore. She's not letting the world pass her by.

She feels like she could stand back to back with Lightning or Noel surrounded by monsters and be able to take them all out.

She owes a lot of that change to Noel, the boy who would never leave her behind or lonely. Noel was the reason she was able to leave. He believed her about Lighting. He was taking her to Lightning. He was her protector, but she also protected him. He took her on an adventure. An adventure that was a magical, intricate, growing experience. She was his tour guide, in a sense. She would explain things that he didn't understand. She would keep him centered too, when she knew the world was crushing him, and he would just keep silent. She would help him hold up that collapsing roof. Noel wasn't her hero, and Serah wasn't his princess, but they were partners, and that meant so much more.

She had a hero. Snow would always be her hero, but not her lover.

Noel is...something. Serah hasn't decided just what that something is yet.

~*~

Noel, Serah, and Mog had decided it was time for a nice rest in a room with a bed and a shower, so they stayed in Serendipity for a day and rented a room. The rooms were elegant, clearly designed for customers with expensive tastes and the funds to back it up. Fortunately, Noel and Serah were able to rent a room and have still have gill to spare. Tomorrow, they would head back to see Hope and give him the crystal he was looking for, but for now, the night belonged to themselves.

Noel stood at the balcony of the room, behind closed, glass doors away from Serah. He really didn't want her to see his weakness. Serah, Noel figured, was still in the shower, so he had some time to make a decision.

Noel let his thumb ghost the silver locket, feeling every hollow indent of it's ornate carvings. He remembers when Yeul first gave it to him. He remembers how light its weight originally felt, and how heavy it's become to carry now.

He dwells on what's been inside it for so, so long, staying perfectly preserved and undisturbed.

He wonders if he's got the strength to finally let go.

Noel's blue eyes are a brilliant shade of azure as he looks upon the silvery reminder. He bites his lip. If he opens this, then it's truly done. She'll be completely gone. His Yeul would forever be a memory on the old, old wind, kissing his face goodbye like a thousand butterflies.

"Noel?" Serah's voice calls from inside.

"Just a second." He calls back. In a whisper, he says, to nobody and everybody, "One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and here we," the locket opens with a click, "go." He closes his eyes for one moment, and the past flows through his mind. He imagines holding Yeul once more, his Yeul, with her pink hair, blue eyes, and—

—that's not Yeul.

That's Serah. Suddenly, he can't picture himself with Yeul anymore. She just turns into Serah. Smiling, positive, kind Serah.

Noel thinks about hurling the locket, his weakness, his wasted time, off the balcony, but he waits. He'll wait until he sees Caius again because Caius is the one who should be holding onto this.

Noel decides it would feel better to throw it at Caius.

When he comes back in the room, Serah's there playing with Mog. Noel walks in so abruptly that he scares Mog and startles Serah. "Serah," he starts, and sit at the edge of the cream-sickle colored bed with its white sheets and orange blankets, "do you," as he searches for the right words to say, she blushes, letting every girlish fantasy pop up in her mind, "want to hear a story?" He settles on saying that because he's suddenly missed being able to tell them.

Noel doesn't notice that Serah's let go of something herself. She wasn't wearing her necklace.

Serah giggles. It's so strange to hear that from him, but it's lovely, too. It's a new side. "Sure. I'd love to."

And it was the best story she ever heard. Noel has a way to make words bend to his will in beautiful armies, but more importantly, Noel was finally opening up. These stories he told her weren't fairy tales or fiction, they were his past. Finally, he trusted Serah enough to open up about his past.

~*~

When Serah gets up in the morning, it's before Noel and Mog. She finds herself in Noel's embrace which is the most foreign and wonderful thing ever. She loves the way he holds her like he'll never let go. It's not a tight embrace, but a strong one. It's one full of warmth and longing and trust. She doesn't stir much that morning, but she moves to kiss his lips and watch him wake up.

Apologies spilled from his poet's mouth like water from a faucet, and his lapis lazuli eyes brightened in shock. He made to get up, but she pulled him back. "Don't be sorry. And don't go yet."

She wants the warmth back. She wants the tickle of his breath on her skin again. She wants to memorize every slope of his body, the exact position of every cut and scar and bruise on him.

She wants all this because she's been teased now. She feels like she just sat down at a luscious banquet, and someone's trying to take it away. Serah's far too starving to let it get away.

Unless, it really doesn't want to stay.

"You want me to...?" The question he asks hangs in the air, unfinished.

"To stay. If you want." He promised he'd never abandon her, never leave her. He promised.

He shifts back down to her and wraps his arms around her once more. "Like this?"

"Yeah. Just like that." She kisses him.

That kiss is better than the ones given to him by Yeul in dreams countless times. He loves how she kisses him like he is the greatest thing in the world. Like he really does deserve it.

Eventually, Serah will get Noel to see his own self-worth.

When she backs off, he looks right at her. She has cherry-dyed cheeks and carnation-colored lips, swollen from kissing.

And he laughs. Gently, like it's a relief to finally feel something other than longing, than hopeless devotion to someone who wouldn't look their way.

He's not replacing Yeul with Serah. Not at all. She's his relief. She's beautiful and kind and lovely. Most of all, she's someone he's grown with. He's been able to trust her. He's become more open, and it's because of her. He wants her because she is Serah.

He kisses her once more before getting up. They really do have to go. He smiles an apology, and they head back to the Historia Crux.

~*~   

They've both grown by being together. Serah's become stronger and more self-reliant. Noel's been able to let go and to be more trusting.  

That's one of the beauties of growth and change.. Growth and change allow people to push past their weakness, hurt, pain, delusions, and walls. It helps people heal, become stronger, learn, accept, understand, forgive and find something even more wonderful—

—just like they have now.