Drabbles and Whatnot

Noel Kreiss X Kurai: Sleeping Beauty

It's not strange for Kurai to sleep during daylight hours (we both actually converted to a nocturnal style of living). But when she's been sleeping for nearly 24 hours without waking up at all, it starts to worry me. Especially since she's been fighting off depression for the past year-and-a-half. When she found out that Hope had turned completely apathetic and he blatantly told her he didn't feel any kind of attachment to her, she left the Ark and started to turn into a black cloud wandering the streets of Luxerion.

Rumors started floating around. All stating that Valhalla's Messenger had returned. This drove the Children of Etro crazy. Word eventually reached me and I managed to find her half dead in an alleyway, her pitch black cloak had visible blood stains and was covered in a fine layer of dirt. Without being seen, I carried her back to my place and she hasn't left since.

She's gotten so much better since I first found her, but she still has these little depression spells where she'll just sit around for a week and eat virtually nothing. Yesterday she asked if she should give up. I didn't know if she meant give up on Hope or on life so I just told her I didn't know. She fell asleep soon after, and here we are: curled up in bed like we have been all day long.

I sighed and stared at the clock on the wall. Another two hours ticked by. She's still asleep. Sigh. A soft groan escaped her lips. I looked over at her and studied her face. She looked like she hadn't slept in months.

Without realizing it, I had started to stroke her cheek. She pressed closer to my side and loosely grabed my shirt in her fist. For a little while longer I continued to study her features. Then I noticed her face was closer than it was a second ago. So I threw my cares out the window. Hope, if you can see us from your fortress, I hope you realize what you've done.

I brushed her hair out of her face and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. Like Sleeping Beauty, her eyes opened and she looked up at me and touched the spot where my lips touched her skin.

"..." She just stared in silence, wondering if she was imagining the closeness of our faces.

"You've been asleep for almost 24 hours," I said softly.

"... I have?" She frowned in contemplation.

"Mhmm."

"Oh..." She looked away.

"It's ok, Kurai," I chuckled. "So long as you're feeling better than you were yesterday." She shrugged and settled deeper into the mattress. "Still thinking about Hope?" I tucked the blankets around her shoulder. She nodded.

"But I don't want to," she whispered. "I want to move on already..."

"I know you do," I murmured comfortingly and held her close.

"Why can't i just move on?" She whimpered.

"Because you still love him," I whispered.

"But I don't want to! I'm tired of being in pain!" I stroked her hair and let her cry if she needed to. She didn't, by the way.

"... Noel?"

"Hm?"

She looked up at me. "Why did you kiss me on the cheek?"

"... I'm not sure. I just felt like I should so I did."

"Oh. Ok." She averted her eyes away from mine.

"I'm sorry," I ran my fingers through her hair. "I probably shouldn't have."

She shook her head. "It's fine..."

"Ok... You can go back to sleep if you want."

"I'm good. I thought it'd be so much easier to be Auroura from Sleeping Beauty, but it's not..." I pulled her closer and tucked her head under my chin.

I almost lost her for good... And that made me realize something. Kurai isn't 14, she's 17. And Yeul hasn't crossed my mind for over a year now. Caius can have her. I've got my Sleeping Beauty.

-

Follow up to Goodbye. This one was written first, though. Still not happy with LR and I don't think that'll change.~ :D I hope Noel isn't too terribly OOC, and if he is just correct me and I'll fix it. Comments and criticism is appreciated.~

Noel and all FF ideas belong to Square Enix and Sleeping Beauty I think belongs to Disney .-.