Astelle Week 2023

Emptiness

Noelle is lying on her bed.

She's trying to sleep, trying to will both her body and mind to simply just shut off and let her rest but she doesn't appear she can manage it.

She can't fall into the comforting arms of sleep with these thoughts weighing on her mind.

She's exhausted, she wants to drift off but she just can't.

She's spent the last several hours lying in bed and just staring up at the darkness of her ceiling.

She's tired, her mind is tired, her body is tired, but she can't rest no matter how much she wills it.

Noelle's palms cover her eyes and she lets out a frustrated wail.

And then she's gotten out of bed before she's even realized it.

Mindlessly she paces around her room, the hands rubbing at her eyes and growling through her teeth in frustration.

There's no point sitting her stewing all night, Noelle decides.

She might as well go and check on him.

He's the cause of her inner turmoil anyways.

As silently as she can manage, Noelle pulls her bedroom door open, peeking out like a worried mouse as though she expects someone to be standing guard to try and corral her back inside.

Upon finding no one waiting for her she slips into the hallway, bare feet echoing against the cool stone floor as she weaves her way through the maze that is the Black Bulls base.

Eventually she manages to find Asta's door.

It's not far from Captain Yami's and Finral's and she had expected as much, after all if something went wrong in the middle of the night the two wanted to be close by.

Shaking her head Noelle reaches for the doorknob before hesitating.

She feels rather silly.

Like a frightened child seeking the attention of her parents after a nightmare.

But what else is she to do?

Simply lie in her room with the false promise of sleep and let her thoughts contort into something awful?

No, this is the better option.

She pushes the door open.

Inside Asta is asleep on his bed.

He looks no better than the last time she had seen him.

Pale and weak, chest rattling with each breath he tasks and marred with bandages and gauze.

Leave it to Asta to get himself hurt on a mission again.

This time had been worse than the others.

A sharp spell of shadow had impaled the boy, cutting into his lung and leaving him gasping for breath.

Noelle had been with him when he got hit.

She had held him and tried to slow his bleeding, had listened to his wheezing breaths and the sound of him choking on his own blood.

And she held him when his breathing stopped.

She closes her eyes against the memories.

Asta had never been so hurt that he'd stopped breathing before and when Noelle realized what had been happening it felt as though time had stopped.

She couldn't hear the sound of the ongoing battle that had been raging all around her, she couldn't hear much of anything beyond a ringing in her ears.

At that moment she had thought that Asta was gone and never coming back.