The Sweetness
- hapsby
"I want to go with you to Ikaruga," Noel chokes out, still trying not to cry. She is still clad in the bizarre costume of her Murakumo form, and her bared stomach is stained dark red with Ragna's dried blood. "I won't get in your way..."
x
It's not that his new arm is uncomfortable by any means. Quite the opposite, really. It is merely a strange, foreign thing that he'll have to grow used to. The sickening reminder of its origins - poor, sweet, dead Nu - made this task difficult, but Ragna the Bloodedge has certainly seen and survived worse.
Noel Vermillion is sleeping. Her breath, for the first time in hours, has finally evened out with the onset of either pleasant dreams or, at the very least, peaceful emptiness. Not that Ragna has been watching Noel sleep for hours. That would just be silly.
She stirs slightly, and breathy syllables slip out of her mouth. It takes Ragna a moment to realise that, from the deep recesses of her sleep, Noel is calling for him.
Ragna rests the fingertips of his new hand against her flushed cheek. Noel, for reasons unknown to Ragna, has always been calling for him in some form or another. The blond sleepily tilts her face so that Ragna is suddenly cupping her cheek, and he's so startled that he nearly pulls away. He doesn't, however, and for a moment the Shinigami feels strangely emboldened. He lets his thumb caress her soft skin, drifting to the slight pucker of her pale lips, which he traces with a reverence that feels at once both terribly unlike him yet terribly correct.
Noel makes a soft sound and her lips part. Her tongue flickers out, just once, to brush wetly against the pad of his thumb. This time, Ragna does pull away, jolted out of his reverie by the furious pounding in his heart and the sudden heat coursing through him.
"Ragna-san," she mumbles. "Don't go."
It's not that his new arm is painful by any means. But his skin is tingling, and he swallows. "Idiot," he says, because he isn't sure what else to tell her, because a thousand million different thoughts and emotions are rushing through his brain, but Ragna's never been the sentimental type, and he has neither the time nor the capability for such a thing anyway. Honestly, he's more than a little irritated with himself for even considering addressing such... feelings for Noel Vermillion. He certainly cares about her, and that is precisely why he can't have her in his life.
"Sleep well," he whispers. She doesn't open her eyes, and eventually slips from her half-sleep back into the deep, empty slumber of someone so mentally and physically exhausted they have no choice but to escape the waking world for a little while.
Ragna rises to his feet, but stoops briefly, and nearly kisses her forehead before stopping himself and rushing out of the room. Ikaruga is waiting, yet for the first time, the Shinigami feels as though the road ahead of him is a lonely one.
For one guilty instant, he closes his mismatched eyes, and lets himself think not of Saya, or Jin, or the Blazblue, or Terumi, or the uncertain yet tragic future that lies before him. Instead, he fills his thoughts with Noel. But when he opens his eyes, the moment is over, and he leaves her behind without looking back.
"Sweet dreams, Noel."
x
And Ragna wants to tell her, 'I want you to go back to your family. You've seen enough tragedy. You've been hurt enough. I won't let you go with me.' But these words all seem foolish and better left for someone else to say, so the Shinigami tightens his frown, furrows his brow, and says, "Don't you understand by now? I don't want you around."
Though Noel remains silent, this time she does not try and stop her tears from falling.